Placement policies are intended to match students with appropriate courses in order to improve student success, but how do you evaluate these policies? In this article, we evaluate four placement policies at Towson University by considering three categories of outcomes: long-term outcomes such as graduation and retention rates, short-term or…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders who display disruptive behaviors in general education settings are increasingly being educated in alternative education settings. Alternative education settings can vary widely, but they typically have smaller classroom sizes and educational staff who are trained to teach students who were not…

This literature review, aligned to National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ) Clinical Practice Framework, explores various components of clinical practice and how they affect a range of outcomes, including aspiring teachers' feelings of preparedness, their entry into teaching, their retention in the classroom, and perhaps most importantly,…

Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Boston is attempting a turnaround and has been for decades. In 2016, after having been designated a Level 4 school by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), a stamp that branded it "underperforming," school officials created a plan they began…

How should colleges determine whether students are placed into developmental or college-level courses? Each year, colleges place millions of students into developmental math and English courses upon enrollment. To do so, colleges most often use a high-stakes placement test, which numerous research studies have shown to be highly inaccurate in…

This report documents the results to date of reforms underway from Ohio Strong Start to Finish, one of the six systems that make up the first phase of the Strong Start to Finish initiative, an initiative of Education Commission of the States. Through Ohio Strong Start to Finish, the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE), along with the Ohio…

The Advanced Placement (AP) program was created to enhance the experience of gifted students as they transition from high school to college. "AP: A Critical Examination of the Advanced Placement Program," edited by Philip M. Sadler, Gerhard Sonnert, Robert Tai, and Kirstin Klopfenstein (2010, Harvard Education Press), questions the…

The Advanced Placement® Human Geography (AP HG) course has shown tremendous growth since 2001, the first year students took the end-of-course exam. Slightly more than 3,000 students took the exam that year; the number exceeded 163,000 in 2015 (Lanegran and Zeigler 2016) and is expected to grow further still. The College Board describes the course…

This report documents the results to date of reforms underway from Strong Start Arkansas, one of the six systems that make up the first phase of the Strong Start to Finish initiative, an initiative of Education Commission of the States. Building on previous initiatives, Strong Start Arkansas (SSARK) was created as a partnership between the…

This report documents the results to date of reforms underway from The City University of New York (CUNY)--Strong Start to Finish (SSTF), one of the six systems that make up the first phase of the Strong Start to Finish initiative, an initiative of Education Commission of the States. CUNY colleges currently provide a range of options for…

In the United States, educator preparation is regulated at the state level. Accordingly, each state education system, and even individual districts, responded uniquely to the COVID-19 pandemic. Western Governors University (WGU) compiled a list of each state regulators' response to COVID, many of which included relaxation of student teaching…

This report documents the results to date of reforms underway from the State University of New York (SUNY) Strong Start to Finish, one of the six systems that make up the first phase of the Strong Start to Finish initiative, an initiative of Education Commission of the States. SUNY is using its Strong Start to Finish resources to support…

This report documents the results to date of reforms underway from the University System of Georgia (USG)--Strong Start to Finish, one of the six systems that make up the first phase of the Strong Start to Finish initiative, an initiative of Education Commission of the States. In March 2019, USG officially launched the Momentum Approach, which…

This report documents the results to date of reforms underway from California Community Colleges (CCC)--Strong Start to Finish, one of the six systems that make up the first phase of the Strong Start to Finish initiative, an initiative of Education Commission of the States. Beginning in May 2019, CCC-Strong Start to Finish was created as a…

College affordability is weighing heavily this year on the minds of students, parents, faculty, and the U.S. electorate. Intent on saving money on college tuition as well as impressing college admissions committees, high-achieving students frequently start college-level work early through Advanced Placement courses. However, these courses do not…