This paper describes 27 National Science Foundation supported grant projects that have innovations designed to improve teaching and learning in introductory statistics courses. The characteristics of these projects are compared with the six recommendations given in the "Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE)…

The troubled student-loan market is a hot topic among legislators, policy makers, and the public. Two recurring issues are how to ensure that enough funds are available to students and how to ensure that lenders are fully repaid. Yet despite all the talk about loans, little has been proposed to help college students and their families with the…

For the last several years ago, Arkansas has served incarcerated juveniles in facilities of 485 beds through fourteen juvenile detention centers located in rural as well as urban areas throughout the state. Six years ago a web-based educational program was piloted in one of the juvenile detention centers in northwest Arkansas. The program was…

This article reports on the results of a study undertaken by the U.S. Department of Education on the impact of the Reading First program, which offer little insight into which parts of the program are worth saving and which need revamping. The study found that the $6 billion spent on the program has helped students with basic decoding but not with…

The current literature indicates a need for quality studies on how best to close the achievement gap between elementary English language learners (ELLs) and their English speaking peers. The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed methods research study was to determine the relationship between standards-based differentiated instructional…

A critical state-level indicator of progress in public education is student achievement annual performance and change over time. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) has been very active in tracking and reporting on student achievement results and using state assessment scores and other data to analyze achievement trends. A central…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of a Response to Intervention framework had a positive impact on student reading achievement in urban elementary schools. This was a causal-comparative study that examined the reading performance of a sample of kindergarten through grade three students who experienced the Response to…

The critical role of accountability on schools has intensified the need to understand the impact of intervention strategies and best practices on literacy. Of particular concern is the underachievement of boys and identifying the learning differences between boys and girls. Examined in this quantitative study were the strategies and practices…

The purpose of the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) program is to improve the quality of early learning and development and close the achievement gap for children with high needs. The RTT-ELC grant competition focuses on improving early learning and development for young children by supporting States' efforts to increase the…

In 1965, appalled by the racial disparity with respect to access to higher education, the federal government implemented the Higher Education Act. After more than 40 years of programmatic intervention, gaps persist. As such, this study analyzes two of the three original HEA programs--Upward Bound and Talent Search--focusing on race/ethnicity and…

The "2013 State Preschool Yearbook" is the newest edition of our annual report profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States. This latest "Yearbook" presents data on state-funded prekindergarten during the 2012-2013 school year as well as documenting a decade of progress since the first…

Involving two or more academic subjects, interdisciplinary studies aim to blend together broad perspectives, knowledge, skills, and epistemology in an educational setting. By focusing on topics or questions too broad for a single discipline to cover, these studies strive to draw connections between seemingly different fields. Cases on…

In classrooms around the country, AP (Advanced Placement) teachers are preparing students for tomorrow by teaching them how to think and learn today. AP students learn to construct solid arguments, test theories, and see many sides of an issue--the kind of thinking that solves tough problems both in and outside the classroom, in college and…

K12 Inc. enrolls more public school students than any other private education management organization in the U.S. Much has been written about K12 Inc. (referred to in this report simply as "K12") by financial analysts and investigative journalists because it is a large, publicly traded company and is the dominant player in the operation…

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP, is a federally-funded system of grants that focuses on preparing low-income students to enter and succeed in postsecondary educational programs. GEAR UP grants extend across 6 school years and require that funded districts begin providing grant services to students no…