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…

Large urban school districts are increasingly offering their students options that break the link between residential location and school attendance. Individual decisions are likely to aggregate in different ways across communities, leaving students in some neighborhoods with more varied educational experiences. In this paper, I explore these…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study is to determine the impact a freshman mentoring program will have on student achievement, student discipline and student attendance within a large suburban high school. There does not seem to be much previous research on this topic in particular, therefore much of the research focused on the transition…

This study examines the transformative experiences of a group of academic coaches who participated in the Target New Transitions (TNT) program during the 2014-2015 academic year. The TNT program trains undergraduate students, through professional development workshops and reflective exercises, to serve as year-round academic coaches for first-year…

In an era of expansive school choice, families and students make many comparisons when they consider schools. Policies encourage families to seek out options where average test scores are high or where value-added indicators are strong. When students choose schools with high-performing peers, they often may be at a lower place in the achievement…