The gaps in achievement and attainment between races have remained stable in recent decades while the gaps between classes have grown. Researchers consistently conclude that these gaps form mostly before school and during the summer as the result of a vast array of out-of-school influences, but policy has primarily aimed to change what happens…

Three cohorts of third-grade students (N = 813) were evaluated on achievement, cognitive abilities, and behavioral attention according to contrasting research traditions in defining math learning disability (LD) status: low achievement versus extremely low achievement and IQ-achievement discrepant versus strictly low-achieving LD. We use methods…

Chicago has been in the forefront of the country in its use of 9th-grade indicators of dropout. Catalyzed by the development of the freshman on-track indicator and research around it, Chicago school administrators, central office personnel, and external partners have developed a number of mechanisms using 9th-grade indicators to stimulate school…

This general achievement trends profile includes information that the Center on Education Policy (CEP) and the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) obtained from states from fall 2008 through April 2009. Included herein are: (1) Bullet points summarizing key findings about achievement trends in that state at three performance…

Through the nineteen-forties, fifties, and up to the mid-sixties, achievement test scores steadily increased. Since then, many test scores drop. The reported test score declines are more dramatic in recent years and most evident for higher grades. They are specially pronounced in verbal tests, but hold for nearly all tested areas. Specially:…

Evaluation findings on the Education Consolidation Improvement Act Chapter 1 and Chapter 1 Migrant Programs of the Austin (Texas) Independent School District (AISD) are reported. Included in the text of the report are: program descriptions; reading component descriptions; program impact on student achievement, Texas Educational Assessment of…

Three local norm methods for deriving Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I normal curve equivalent (NCE) gains are compared to each other and to the usual Model A1 which uses national norms. The 1977-78 Title I evaluation data for Chicago students ages 9-13 were used to estimate gains. Reading and total math scores from the 1971 Iowa Tests…

This study examined the performance of one hundred thirty-one fifth graders on timed versus untimed mathematics tests. Measures of math fluency and calculation were administered. Low achieving students performed poorly on both calculation and math fluency. Normally achieving children performed within the average range on both calculation and math…

The authors investigated the relationship between student mobility and student performance and behavior. The authors used criterion-referenced test (CRT) and norm-referenced test (NRT) data indexes from the 1998-1999 school year. Results showed that as the mobility of students increased within the school year, their test performance on the CRT and…

IN PREVIOUS STUDIES, A NUMBER OF PERSONALITY VARIABLES, INCLUDING ADJUSTMENT, MOTIVE-TO-ACHIEVE, MOTIVE-TO-AFFILIATE, ACCEPTANCE OF SELF AND OTHERS, AND ACCEPTANCE OF ADULT VALUES HAVE BEEN STUDIED TO DETERMINE THEIR RELATIONSHIPS TO SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT. INTERRELATIONSHIPS AMONG THESE VARIABLES WERE EXAMINED IN THIS STUDY. THE CALIFORNIA TEST OF…

The interaction of reading and computational abilities in solving mathematics word problems was investigated with the responses of about 20,000 fourth graders and 20,000 eighth graders to items from the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. Item responses exhibited different types of interaction, a finding with implications for item-response theory…

Considerable research has been conducted on the effect of anxiety on academic achievement. The most consistent finding is that high anxiety is associated with low performance, particularly at the elementary school level. To explain this situation, some researchers have hypothesized that anxiety debilitates students' attention span or time-on-task…

To determine the concurrent validity of a standardized test and its usefulness to educators, reading ratings from the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills were compared to teacher ratings and independently administered placement test ratings. Two hundred one primary children, the majority of whom read one or more years below grade level, took the ITBS by a…

This year the Center on Education Policy (CEP) analyzed data on the achievement of different groups of students in two distinct ways. First, it looked at grade 4 test results to determine whether the performance of various groups improved at three achievement levels--basic and above, proficient and above, and advanced. Second, it looked at gaps…

One approach to identifying effective schools defines effectiveness in terms of student achievement in reading, mathematics, and language usage. Exceptional school achievement is indicated by performance above or below the level expected if students were merely to maintain their previous rate of growth. Regression analysis is used to compute…