Previous scholarship has provided a broad overview of demographic trends in secondary school music enrolment across the United States. However, there exists a gap in the literature in how students with disabilities are represented in school music, and the demographics of students enrolled in experiences outside of band, orchestra, and choir.…

This study examines the role of secondary teacher candidates as student partners in research into undergraduate students' historical cognition while contextualizing documents. It highlights the unique role of teacher candidates as near-peer interviewers and change agents within higher education and secondary curricula. Through using decoding the…

Federal requirements stipulate that states and local education agencies annually calculate and report an Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate, disaggregated by student group. The ACGR includes all students who graduate from high school in four years with a regular high school diploma, plus all students with the most significant cognitive disabilities…

Racial, ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity continues to increase in classrooms. Many call for a more diverse curriculum, but curricular diversity brings its own challenges to both teachers and students. These three vignettes are drawn from my ethnographic data at Atlantic High School in Brooklyn, New York, where I worked for ten years as…

Many social studies teachers are nervous about the coming of Common Core State Standards. With so much emphasis placed on literacy, social studies teachers fear they will see content slashed to leave time for meeting English's non-fiction standards. Already reeling from a lack of attention from the benchmarks put in place by No Child Left Behind,…

An important problem for high school art teachers is deciding what belongs in the art curriculum. What works of art, media, or ideas will inspire their students to more fully develop their own artistic potential and critically engage with contemporary art and culture? What artifacts of art, visual culture, or material culture should be included…

In the last decade, there have been significant increases in the New York City high school graduation rates. Nevertheless, far too many students are graduating high school without the knowledge and skills they will need for college and career, and far too many continue to require remediation once they arrive at college. A central priority of the…

The authors, pioneers in detracking and in shrinking achievement gaps, pose a question: Is it possible to have all students in a large high school successfully complete a challenging curriculum that gives them practice in the habits and skills necessary for success in college? The answer, they say, "is a resounding yes." This article…

The goal of Carnegie "Challenge" papers is to lift up ideas and issues in a way that elevates them to the nation's agenda. This paper is a "Challenge" paper, and serves as a call to realize the full power of the Common Core by redesigning and reshaping schools to support teachers and maximize key resources, rather than…

This report provides a summary of states currently administering end-of-course (EOC) assessments. The number of EOC assessments administered by states, the subjects most likely to have an associated EOC exam, and the purpose of EOC exams (for example, percentage of the final course grade and/or graduation requirement) are reviewed. State policies…

In recent years, some states in the United States have enacted policies that grant some higher education benefits--primarily in-state resident tuition eligibility--to certain undocumented students. While in existence since 2001, little is known of the role of high school institutional agents in implementing such policies. This study describes the…

In this article, the author talks about innovative high school curricula that engage students through the study of visual art in conjunction with critical study of history and social movements. Just as historians place a premium on locating and interpreting events in time, the visual arts are centered on getting an idea across in a visual form,…

This article examines how three culturally relevant teachers in New York City public schools challenged the concepts of race and racism which low-income adolescents of color brought to the study of history and contemporary society. Framed by concepts of culturally relevant teaching and racial literacy, the study illustrated how the teachers used…

This article, grounded in the belief that art is a way of understanding, describes when faculty asked young people of various ages to draw themselves as writers. Several examples of students' work are coupled with a discussion and a rationale for integrating drawing into the assessment process. Asking students to draw, write, and talk about their…

Why do girls perform so well academically yet lose ground as professional women? This diminishing number of women up the leadership hierarchy is often referred to as the "leaky pipeline," and attributed to many factors: external ones such as work environments not conducive to work/life balance, and internal ones such as women's own…