Background: The overall goal of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 is to close, by the end of the 2013-2014 academic year, "the achievement gap between high- and low- performing students, especially the achievement gap between minority and non-minority students and, between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers"…

Drawing on recent psychological and neurological research on how individual differences might interact with learning a particular language, the study examines how psycholinguistic research and theory can help in assigning military personnel to language training and to a given language. Using the Defense Language Institute's Defense Language…

There is a serious overpopulation of special needs youth in Ohio's juvenile justice system. This study raises policy questions relating to gaining a deeper understanding of the reasons why there is an overpopulation of children with disabilities in youth correctional facilities and what can be done to reduce the need for future incarcerations.…

This document reviews the experiences of College Bound, a joint four-year Boston Public Schools/Boston College enrichment and support program for multicultural, urban, public high school students. The program was designed to supplement the regular high school curriculum and was intended to refine basic skills, stimulate critical thinking and…

The intent of this project was to improve test and programming scores of 9th through 12th grade students enrolled in the Practical Computer Skills: Logo course in a north central Florida high school. An implementation program that demonstrated teacher-designed graphical computer language Logo programs, utilized multimedia techniques, and used…

A 1996-97 national survey of elementary and secondary schools investigated current patterns and shifts in foreign language enrollment, languages and programs offered, teaching methodologies, teacher qualifications and training, and reactions to national reform issues. An introductory section of the survey report offers background information on…

This volume chronicles the progress of the administration, executive branch agencies, and Congress in ending discrimination and advancing civil rights. The study has 21 chapters in 2 parts. Part one includes: (1) "Rights at Risk"; and (2) "Recommendations of the Commission." Part two includes a series of working papers prepared…

This report describes West Virginia's Basic Skills/Computer Education (BS/CE) program and connects its features to gains in student test scores that are practically and statistically significant. The program consists of three components: (1) software that focuses on the state's basic skills goals in reading, language arts, and mathematics; (2)…

The National Assessment Program--Civics and Citizenship assessment measures the civic knowledge and understanding and the citizenship participation skills and civic values of Year 6 and Year 10 students in schools across Australia. It reports on student achievement using proficiency levels on a common civics and citizenship assessment scale, and…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has increased the role of assessment in K-12 education. Designed to ensure that all students meet high academic standards, the law currently requires states receiving Title I funds to test all children annually in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and report student performance disaggregated by poverty,…

The College Board formed a research consortium with four-year colleges and universities to build a national higher education database with the primary goal of validating the SAT®, which is used in college admission and consists of three sections: critical reading (SAT-CR), mathematics (SAT-M) and writing (SAT-W). This report builds on a body of…

In 2003-04, 11 Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) high schools moved from a traditional student schedule of six full-year courses to a block schedule of four courses each semester (4x4). Implementation went fairly smoothly, with 90% of teachers trained prior to the change. Academic course opportunities and course enrollment numbers increased…

This research study developed a value-added instructional improvement analysis model. North Carolina state testing results were used in regression and residual analyses of student achievement. This analysis allowed for identification of the "most effective" and "least effective" biology teachers in Wake County Public Schools…

This study investigated the effects of one rural high school's science course placement practices on Latino/a student success in science, as measured by performance in a required science course and enrollment in subsequent science courses. The high school involved in this study has experienced a rapid increase in language minority students and…

The African American-white achievement gap exists even among the youngest children; African American students arrive at kindergarten considerably behind their white peers in measurable cognitive skills. Although the gap has narrowed somewhat over the past several decades, the average African American still scores below 75 percent of white students…