This study identifies students' academic trajectories in the middle grades relative to a set of college readiness benchmarks. We apply math and reading college readiness benchmarks to rich longitudinal data for more than 360,000 students across the nation. Student-level and school-level demographic characteristics significantly predict academic…

While the role of early maternal parenting practices in the development of executive functions (EFs) has received considerable attention in the literature, little is known about how specific parenting behaviours may be related to EFs within different racial groups. Therefore, the present study examines the joint impact of specific maternal…

Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest partnered with the Arkansas Department of Education to examine Arkansas's middle school and high school indicators of postsecondary readiness and success, building on an earlier study of these indicators (Hester et al., 2021). Academic indicators include attaining proficiency on state academic…

College students' intercultural competence (ICC) has become a focus of many higher education institutions. Yet, more work can be done to explore what variables play a role in this complex and multifaceted process. The current study investigated the association between the outcomes (i.e., cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal domains of ICC),…

This study investigated the predictiveness of preferred learning styles (competitive and cooperative) and classroom climate (teacher support and disciplinary climate) on learning strategy use in mathematics. The student survey part of the Programme for International Student Assessment 2003 comprising of 4633 US observations was used in a weighted…

In February of 2013, the College Board announced it would undertake a redesign of the SAT® in order to develop an assessment that better reflects the work that students will do in college, focusing on the core knowledge and skills that evidence has shown to be critical in preparation for college and career. The redesigned test will be introduced…

Previous research on calculator use in standardized assessments of quantitative ability focused on the effect of calculator availability on item difficulty and on whether test developers can predict these effects. With the introduction of an on-screen calculator on the Quantitative Reasoning measure of the "GRE"® revised General Test, it…

With the increase of students applying to pharmacy programs, it is imperative that admissions committees choose appropriate measures to analyze student readiness. The purpose of this research was to identify significant factors that predict the academic performance, defined as grade point average (GPA) at the end of the first professional year, of…

In the current article, we contrast 2 analytical approaches to estimate the relation of parenting to executive function development in a sample of 1,292 children assessed longitudinally between the ages of 36 and 60 months of age. Children were administered a newly developed and validated battery of 6 executive function tasks tapping inhibitory…

This case study analyzes how and why student engagement differs across 581 classes in one diverse high school. Factor analyses of surveys with 1,132 students suggest three types of engaging teaching practices--connective instruction, academic rigor, and lively teaching. Multilevel regression analyses reveal that connective instruction predicts…

This study examined the career, social, and academic self-appraisals and educational aspirations of first-year college students of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds. Participants included 72 first-year students of Black, Asian, and White ethnicities. Career self-appraisals were significantly different for Black and Asian students when compared to…

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious, widespread problem that negatively affects women's lives, including their economic status. The current study explored whether the financial harm associated with IPV begins as early as adolescence. With longitudinal data from a sample of 498 women currently or formerly receiving welfare, we used latent…

Researchers investigating school-level approaches for bullying prevention are beginning to discuss and target school climate as a construct that (a) may predict prevalence and (b) be an avenue for school-wide intervention efforts (i.e., increasing positive school climate). Although promising, research has not fully examined and established the…

This research study explored the critical nature of the connection between student achievement and superintendent leadership. A great deal of scholarship has addressed either student achievement or leadership and previous evidence has suggested the impact of both parental education and racioethnicity on student achievement, but few studies have…

Given associations between critical consciousness and positive developmental outcomes, and given racial, socioeconomic, and generational disparities in political participation, this article examined contextual antecedents of critical consciousness (composed of sociopolitical control and social action) and its consequences for 665 marginalized…