Research studies show that students' grades are more predictive than test scores of their future academic success, including high school and post-secondary outcomes. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) recognizes the importance of grades through its longstanding "Bs or Better" campaign. Yet within CPS, boys' grades are consistently lower than…

Five groups rank state charter school environments according to their laws, regulations, funding, and other characteristics, but none rank states by charter student performances on a national test. We rank states by demographically adjusted math and reading performances of charter students in 4th and 8th grade for the period 2009 to 2019 on the…

Education is seen as a resource at a global level but is currently considered to be in crisis in many parts of the world. This constitutes a significant drawback in terms of humanity's prosperity and well-being since education is the key not only to an educated workforce but also to humane, collaborative, and caring societies. Even within this dim…

In line with international trends, the new Norwegian curricula for education have a stronger focus on life mastery, democracy and sustainability compared with previous requirements. Students are to develop competence that promotes health and responsible decision-making. The current study presents a programme implemented in lower secondary school…

Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. Great City School districts that have embraced the challenge of educating America's urban children have recognized the value of benchmarking their performance and growth against the progress of others.…

Learners need to possess scientific literacy in order to be able to analyze and explain scientific concepts and solve daily life problems. The current study aimed to analyze the potential of the Socio-Science Spirituality learning model to improve the scientific literacy of students at the junior high school level. The sample of this research…

International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) have become an important part of the Swedish evaluation system. It is therefore of crucial importance to validate national measures of Swedish students' achievement with their ILSA test scores. Here, we offer results from such a validation study based on Swedish students' test scores in IEA's Trends in…

Stagnation or promise? The third and final installment of "Quality Counts 2019" offers evidence for both in an annual summing up of the nation's K-12 system. The Education Week Research Center analyzed dozens of factors ranging from the academic to the socioeconomic in coming up with its all-inclusive state rankings and A-F grades. The…

Elementary and secondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is the foundation for students' entry into postsecondary STEM majors as well as a wide variety of STEM occupations. Proficiency in STEM fields is vital to economic growth and international competitiveness and important for all citizens in an increasingly…

Students with and without learning disabilities often struggle to learn a foreign language (FL). Teachers could benefit from a measure designed to screen and identify students at risk for FL learning difficulties. In this study, we examined the reliability and validity of scores from four curriculum-based measures (CBM) as potential indicators of…

Every two years, the Washington State Board of Education (SBE) reports on the health of Washington's educational system. Established in 2013 by the Washington State Legislature, the Indicators of Educational System Health create a common framework upon which to evaluate the overall health of the educational system. The Board has two important…

This study sought to answer the following questions: (1) Is it feasible to develop Academic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and collect data on them across member urban school districts? (2) Are comparisons between districts on academic performance measures valid and reliable? (3) Do districts collect and maintain requested KPI data in a way…

The Washington State Board of Education (SBE), with assistance from other state education agencies, reports on the statewide indicators of educational system health established in the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 28A.150.550 and recommends evidence-based reforms to improve the status of the indicators. The legislation was meant to help the…

A successful freshman year of high school lays the foundation for the path to college: ninth-grade grades are powerful indicators of high school graduation, college access, and college degree attainment. However, the transition from eighth to ninth grade is a time when students' academic performance often declines. This report explores how Chicago…

This brief examined the patterns of reading achievement using statewide data from all students (Grades 3-10) in multiple years to examine gaps based on student, school, and district characteristics. Results indicate reading achievement varied most between students within schools and that students' prior achievement was the strongest predictor of…