Boys struggle academically and behaviorally more than girls and are more likely to have difficulty with social skills. It seems likely that boys and girls do not perceive social skills in the same light. Past research has not investigated this or its relationship to academic and behavioral performance. Using data from a cohort of 9th-grade…

We test the effect of performance-based incentives on educational achievement in a low-performing school district using a randomized field experiment. High school freshmen were provided monthly financial incentives for meeting an achievement standard based on multiple measures of performance including attendance, behavior, grades and standardized…

In 2010, Evanston Township High School in suburban Chicago, Illinois, dramatically changed its freshman year for incoming students. The school detracked freshman English, history, and biology courses for the vast majority of students, thus removing barriers for historically under-represented student groups and providing greater access and…

This study investigated the effects of reflective writing on student writing self-efficacy and on the quality of the final research-based essay. Subjects were 110 students enrolled in a freshman 101 Honors English class in a public high school in northern Illinois. Students in the control and experimental groups wrote two essays requiring the…

World language educators are constantly tasked with evaluating appropriate and beneficial assessments for their students. This study investigated how first-year students in a Midwestern United States high school perceived three different alternative assessments in the world language classroom: Dynamic Assessment, Task-based Assessment, and…

The consequences of failing core academic courses during the first year of high school are dire. More students fail courses in ninth grade than in any other grade, and a disproportionate number of these students subsequently drop out (Herlihy, 2007). As shown in Chicago and elsewhere, academic performance in core courses during the first year of…

The purpose of this research is to study the long-run impacts (i.e. on educational attainment) of a freshman math intervention called "double-dose algebra". The intervention was conducted in 2003 and 2004 within the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), a large, poor urban school district. In response to low passing rates in 9th grade algebra,…

The consequences of failing core academic courses during the first year of high school are dire. In the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), only about one-fifth of off-track freshmen--students who fail more than one semester of a core academic course and/or fail to earn enough credits to be promoted to 10th grade--graduate high school, compared with…

Algebra is considered a key gatekeeper for higher-level mathematics course-taking in high school and for college enrollment (Adelman, 2006; Gamoran & Hannigan, 2000). Yet, algebra pass rates are consistently low in many places (Higgins, 2008; Ham & Walker, 1999; Helfand, 2006), including Chicago Public Schools (CPS). This is of particular…

Since its founding in 1990, the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) has been viewed as making significant contributions to school reform, both through the findings and implications of specific research studies and more broadly by improving the capacity of the district to use data, build effective strategies, and evaluate progress. In this…

In Illinois school districts, a service-learning mentoring program is being used to increase student retention and achievement by providing student-led social support for high school freshmen, as well as opportunities for student development, civic engagement and academic success. The National Dropout Prevention center/Network (NDPC/N) recommends…

For big urban districts, it can be slippery work to catch and hold students who are falling off track at a point that derails too many graduations: the transition from 8th to 9th grade. This article reports that the Chicago school district is putting a suite of new data reports into the hands of those who teach and counsel its 30,000 freshmen this…

Few decisions by a school district are more controversial than the decision to close a school. School staff, students and their families, and even the local community all bear a substantial burden once the decision is made to close a school. Since 2001, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has closed 44 schools for reasons of poor academic performance or…

In this report, the authors look at the freshman year course performance of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students who receive special education services and ask whether grades, course failures, absences, and on-track status are useful for identifying students who are at risk of dropping out. They also examine how academic behaviors, such as…

This booklet is addressed to parents and guardians of incoming high school students, discussing what many researchers consider the most important year of high school, perhaps the most important year of school so far. Freshman year will set the stage for whether a student graduates and whether he or she will be ready for college. Citing years of…