Literacy is increasingly essential for Americans' health, economic well-being, civic engagement, access to higher education, and social participation. Rapid growth in technology and globalization have increased demand for both universal literacy and higher levels of literacy than in the recent past. Yet national and international assessments…

Paul Jablon's "The Synergy of Inquiry" (2014) is well-timed. The 2014 deadline set by No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2002) for universal student proficiency has come and gone, and according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, "proficiency rates last year were below 50 percent for nearly every racial and ethnic group, in…

This report uses NAEP background data to track time and learning since the mid-1990s in three areas: student absenteeism; classroom instructional time in mathematics, reading, music and the visual arts; and homework time expected by teachers. Key report findings are: (1) Students with higher rates of "monthly absenteeism" score…

"High Schools That Work" (HSTW) is the oldest and largest of Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB's) several school improvement initiatives (which also include "Middle Schools That Work"). The central purpose of HSTW is to engage students so fully in their learning that they stay in school and complete a rigorous, relevant…

A set of 10 attitudinal items from the 1985 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was administered to 131 fifth graders who had taken the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to determine the relationship between reading achievement and attitudes. Complete, appropriate data were available for 114 students. Teachers' responses to selected NAEP…

In 1990, President Bush and the nation's governors adopted the six National Education Goals as part of a campaign to increase educational performance at all levels. Goal 3 states that, by the year 2000, American students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competence in challenging subject matter, including English, mathematics,…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Report on Mathematics Achievement released on June 6, 1991 confronts educators' professional knowledge regarding mathematics education. In many instances it confirms much of what research has already described, and what many have feared, regarding mathematics education. This analysis provided…