This review critiques the highly-praised and influential 2001 study, "Getting Tough? The Impact of High School Graduation Exams," which concluded that "minimum competency," or high school "graduation exams," had no effect on student achievement. The review compares the test classifications of "Getting…

This study tests the predictive associations between externalizing behaviors and internalizing symptoms and examines the mediating roles of social competence, parent-child conflicts, and academic achievement. Using youth-, parent-, and teacher-reported longitudinal data on a sample of 523 boys and 460 girls from late childhood to early…

This 5-year longitudinal randomized study focused on the effects of a dropout prevention program implemented at two urban high schools. The program incorporated the characteristics of personalization found in previous research to have some positive effects, and typical of the type of programs implemented in many high schools nationwide. The…

School effectiveness indices (SEIs) based on residuals from regressing test performance in reading and mathematics onto prior-year test performance and a socioeconomic status measure (percentage eligible for a subsidized lunch program) were obtained for two consecutive years for 431 South Carolina elementary schools. The analysis involved school…

The long-term effects of state compensatory education (SCE) and Chapter 1 programs on the development of basic skills and academic achievement of Sacramento (California) were studied for a sample of over 6,000 SCE and Chapter 1 students in grades 2 through 5. Follow-up and retroactive approaches were used to ascertain the degree to which thinking…

Describes a follow-up study that examined results of adopting the Teaching and Learning with Computers approach in a small rural school district. Use of the Jostens Learning Corporation integrated curriculum is explained, and evaluations of Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills results that show changes in scale scores and comparisons with national…

A longitudinal approach is demonstrated that allows assessment of: the means by which a student's level and rate of learning in a given subject area compare with the level and rate of learning of other students, and each student's relative strengths and weaknesses across subject areas. The approach involves an individual growth model to estimate…

New Mexico school districts participated in the 1980-81 Statewide Testing Program at grades 5, 8, and 11, to measure achievement in basic skills using the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills. Longitudinal comparisons by years (1979, 1980, and 1981) and grade level, and item analyses assessing students' performance in meeting instructional…

Each spring the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) battery is administered to students throughout New Mexico as part of the State Department of Education mandated assessment program. This report contains information regarding 1987 test results for Albuquerque Public School (APS) students in grades 3, 5, and 8 on the CTBS, a standardized,…

The 1979-80 South Carolina Statewide Testing Program assessed the achievement of students in public school grades 3, 6, and 11. Results were used to facilitate the decision-making process of educators at the state, district, and school levels. The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) were used to measure achievement in the basic skill areas…

Test scores for fall and spring administrations for two consecutive years for Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I students in the Tucson Unified School District are presented and compared. The students were given out-of-level tests: the 138 seventh-grade students and 106 eighth-grade students were given Level 2 of the…

School effectiveness indices based on regressing achievement test scores onto earlier scores and a socioeconomic status measure were obtained for South Carolina students in grades one to four. Results were unstable across grades, and grade-to-grade correlations were more significant for mathematics achievement than for reading. (Author/GDC)

Three schools in the same district were compared on the basis of achievement and attitude tests given in the third grade in 1974, and again in the third and fifth grades in 1976. Only descriptive statistics were used, since samples were known not to be random. The three schools were identified as a model of individualized instruction, a school…

In March of 1984, the Kentucky General Assembly revised and approved a senate bill that made kindergarten mandatory beginning with the 1985-86 school year. This paper reviews several national and state research studies which help demonstrate reasons why early education would be beneficial to a student population. Particularly discussed are the…

In Summer Learning and the Effects of Schooling, Barabara Heyns found that schooling has a marked impact on achievement. This conclusion is based on analyses that show school-year achievement gains are greater than summer gains, summer being considered a temporary absence of schooling. Heyns' data came from a household survey and…