For the past 20 years Massachusetts has used a high-stakes, test-based accountability system for the state's public schools. The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) are standardized tests administered in Grades 3-10 which account for the majority of district and school accountability measures, and the Grade 10 tests serve as an…

Over the past half-century, billions of dollars have been spent across the nation on efforts to transform low-performing public schools -- most of them urban, most of them low-income, and most of them disproportionately enrolled with students of color -- into models of success. It hasn't worked. The failure of attempts to remedy the state of urban…

This mixed methods study examines perspectives on failure in the classroom by elementary teachers new to teaching engineering. The study participants included 254 teachers in third, fourth, and fifth grade who responded to survey questions about failure, as well as a subset of 38 of those teachers who participated in interviews about failure. The…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the implementation and impacts of the Building Assets, Reducing Risks (BARR) model in its first year of implementation in 66 schools across the U.S. and to document scale-up progress during the Investing in Innovation (i3) grant period (2017-2021). The impact evaluation included 21,529 9th grade students…

This mixed-methods study examines how teachers who have taught one or two units of the Engineering is Elementary (EiE) curriculum for two years reported on: students' responses to design failure; the ways in which they, the teachers, supported these students and used fail words (e.g. fail, failure); and the teachers' broad perspectives and…

We examine whether barely failing one or more state-mandated high school exit examinations in Massachusetts affects the probability that students enroll in college. We extend the exit examination literature in two ways. First, we explore longer term effects of failing these tests. We find that barely failing an exit examination, for students on…

Used wisely, academic technology empowers students to take responsibility for their own learning. "In Leonardo's Laptop," Ben Shneiderman provides teachers with a powerful framework, "Collect-Relate-Create-Donate" (CRCD), for designing student-centered learning opportunities using computers. Shneiderman developed his model by…

A feasible instructional method for reducing failure in first-year algebra is the double-dose approach pioneered by Douglas MacIver. Two studies conducted in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and in Norfolk, Virginia, reveal the educational benefits of providing second math periods for ninth-grade algebra students. (MLH)

The turnaround recommendations and framework in "The Turnaround Challenge" grew out of both new research and synthesis of extensive existing research, as carried out by Mass Insight Education & Research Institute and its partners since September 2005. If the main report is the tip of the proverbial iceberg, this supplement represents…

A questionnaire survey of a statewide sample of 469 Massachusetts teachers found that role conflict was significantly related to two aspects of teacher burnout, those of emotional exhaustion and negative attitudes toward students, and that role ambiguity was significantly connected to a third aspect, that of feelings of lack of personal…

A two-year study was undertaken in Massachusetts to evaluate the impact of vocational education on released ex-offenders. In the first year, evaluation procedures and interview instruments were developed, a survey of inmates was conducted, and the data collected was analyzed and summarized in a report. Since the second year of the study was not…

A decline in student performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, the Achievement Tests, the American College Test, and the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test has been observed nationally since the mid 1960's and evidence indicates that very similar trends have occurred in Massachusetts. Score declines have occurred in public, private, and…

Communication between students and teachers is a basic requirement for learning to take place in a classroom. Like words and phrases, behaviors carry specific meanings which may vary across cultures. When teachers are not aware of cultural differences, when they assume that a behavior has a particular meaning while students assume it has another,…