Students with disabilities have been included in state accountability systems for more than a decade; however, only in the past few years have alternate assessments of alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) become stable enough to allow examination of these students' achievement growth. Using data from Oregon's AA-AAS in Reading during the…

Since 1992, the UK Government has published so-called "school league tables" summarising the average General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) "attainment" and "progress" made by pupils in each state-funded secondary school in England. While the headline measure of school attainment has remained the percentage…

Across the country, state legislatures are turning to evidence-based policymaking to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and effectively. One example is family support and coaching. In response to research confirming that the early years of childhood affect learning, behavior, and health for a lifetime, many states have invested in…

This study examined math growth trajectories by disability category, gender, race, and socioeconomic status using a nationally representative sample of students ages 7 to 17. The students represented 11 federal disability categories. Compared with the national norming sample, students in all 11 disability categories had lower math achievement…

The NCLB (No Child Left Behind Act) specifies that states must develop AYP (adequate yearly progress) statewide measurable objectives for improved achievement by all students, including economically disadvantaged students, students from minority races, students with disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency. By the 2013-2014…

The purpose of the study was to investigate how grading in primary school affected students' achievement measured by grades in 7th, 8th and 9th Grade and educational attainment in upper secondary school (12th Grade), and how the effect varied as a function of students' cognitive ability, gender and socio-economic status. The data derived from the…

The Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) is a multi-source assessment of distributed instructional leadership. As part of the validation of CALL, researchers examined differences between teacher and leader ratings in assessing distributed leadership practices. The authors utilized a t-test for equality of means for the…

Schools and districts across the United States have adopted response to intervention (RTI) as a means for both identifying and intervening with students at risk for low achievement. The validity of RTI rests largely upon teachers making appropriate instructional decisions based on students' responses to a given practice. This study was designed to…

In higher education in the state of Arkansas, two courses are considered to be gateway courses to obtaining a college degree--College Algebra and English Composition I. While students may obtain Certificates of Proficiency and Technical Certificates without taking these courses, few, if any, can earn an Associate's or Bachelor's degree without…

In conjunction with the Denver Plan instituted in 2005, Denver Public Schools (DPS) has embarked upon a consistent strategy of opening new schools in an effort to improve overall academic performance. DPS has pursued this strategy under several different paths: an annual request for proposals from charter school applicants; allowing current…

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) targeted substantial School Improvement Grants (SIGs) to the nation's "persistently lowest achieving" public schools (i.e., up to $2 million per school annually over 3 years) but required schools accepting these awards to implement a federally prescribed school-reform model.…

We find an individual's rank within their reference group has effects on later objective outcomes. To evaluate the impact of local rank, we use a large administrative dataset tracking over two million students in England from primary through to secondary school. Academic rank within primary school has sizable, robust and significant effects on…