Four-day school weeks have proliferated across the United States in recent years, reaching over 650 public school districts in 24 states as of 2019, but little is known about their implementation and there is no consensus on their effects on students. This study uses district-level panel data from Oklahoma and a difference-in-differences research…

The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to test Goddard et al.'s (2004) theory of collective efficacy by relating collective efficacy of both certified and noncertified staff to Missouri public high school students' ACT Scores. Additionally, it could be beneficial for future educational leaders to gain insight into collective…

This article offers a critique of the validity argument put forward by Camara, Mattern, Croft, and Vispoel (2019) regarding the use of college-admissions tests in high school assessment systems. We challenge their argument in two main ways. First, we illustrate why their argument fails to address broader issues related to consequences of using…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among collective efficacy factors, as measured by the Illinois 5Essentials Survey, and college readiness scores, as reported by American College Testing (ACT), for high schools in the state of Illinois. The 5Essentials have been considered crucial to school success and therefore used to…

Each year, ACT releases data on the most recent class of high school graduates. In addition to providing an objective and standardized measurement of readiness used in college admissions decisions, the data provided by the ACT® test can be used to inform states, districts, schools, teachers, parents, and students themselves about students'…

This research report presents the results of a study designed by SREB's Research and Accountability team to identify and unpack sources of inequity in K-12 public education. The study examined results from student surveys administered in 2018 to over 7,800 students in 15 states across the United States. Grounded in SREB's research-based Key…

The 2016 Michigan Public High School Context and Performance Report Card is the third edition in a series of analyses designed to measure high school performance. The first report was published in 2012 (ED541512) and was followed by a 2014 analysis (ED560065). This report is a school-level assessment of academic performance based on a four-year…

One outcome of the implementation of No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and its call for better accountability in public schools across the nation has been the use of student assessment data in measuring schools' effectiveness. In general, inferences about schools' effectiveness depend on the type of statistical model used to link student assessment…

The Texas Education Agency's (TEA's) 2019 Annual Report focuses on areas of achievement based on the Agency's Strategic Priorities: (1) Recruit, Support, and Retain Teachers and Principals; (2) Build a Foundation of Reading and Math; (3) Connect High School to Career and College; and (4) Improve Low Performing Schools. A key highlight of TEA's…

By 2030, most jobs will require some training beyond high school (a four-year degree, a two-year associate degree, or some type of industry credential). Too few Texas students are currently obtaining the necessary postsecondary credentials. In response to this challenge, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board established the 60x30TX Plan in…

This report provides a new resource for understanding the state of urban public schools in the U.S. Geared specifically toward city leaders who want to evaluate how well traditional district and charter schools are serving all their city's children and how their schools compare to those in other cities, the report measures outcomes for all public…

The Oregon Statewide Report Card is an annual publication required by law (ORS 329.115), which reports on the state of public schools and their progress towards the goals of the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century. The purpose of the Oregon Report Card is to monitor trends among school districts and Oregon's progress toward achieving the…

Over the past decade, national initiatives have shifted States' attention to the challenge of turning around low-performing schools. The lack of consistent, dramatic improvements in the lowest-performing schools reflects the severity of the school turnaround challenge, but also suggests the need to continuously evaluate and refine turnaround…

For 24 consecutive years, the Public Policy Forum has compiled and analyzed data from southeastern Wisconsin's public school districts in order to better inform policymakers and the public about the effectiveness of the region's K-12 education system. This analysis of the 2009-10 academic year, like many of the previous reports, indicates cause…

Research has focused on four groups of factors and the achievement gap: (1) student characteristics (high school GPA, attendance patterns, courses taken in high school, participation in extra-curricular activities, etc.); (2) family characteristics (family structure, in home, parents' level of education, mobility, etc.); (3) school-based…