Electric potential is one of the most challenging concepts taught in high school physics classes due to the abstract nature of the concept. When taught, electric potential is often taught using a poorly triangulated set of instructional analogies, each possessing different strengths and limitations. Within this paper we share our learning from a…

This study explored practices that lead an alternative education program (AE) to improve student performance and progress toward graduation and transition. Eight former and current AE students were interviewed about their reasons for leaving regular schools and their perspectives regarding AE placements. The findings favor the implication of…

Access to general education settings for students with disabilities varies greatly among and within states across the United States and worldwide. The variability in placement and lack of access to general education for students with disabilities, particularly students with extensive support needs, are reasons to identify factors associated with…

We examined how ACT® Aspire® (from grades 8 to 10), PreACT® (from grade 10), and ACT® test scores (from grades 10 and 11) relate to students' chances of scoring a 3 or higher as well as 4 or higher on selected Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Data for the study was available for 49,220 students from 318 high schools who had taken at least one AP…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page sheets on a variety of subjects. The topics for this report on College and Career Readiness of English learners include: (1) Percentage Distribution of High School Students Participating in the SAT or ACT Exams by English Learner…

The Virginia Department of Education's Virtual Virginia (VVA) program delivers more than 90 supplemental online courses to more than 10,000 middle and high school students each year. The department partnered with Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia to examine the relationship between students' participation in a subset of 31 VVA…

This research brief summarizes the performance of Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) students participating in the Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) Program. Cambridge courses and assessments were offered at 15 MDCPS high schools in 2019-2020. Over 13,100 assessments were completed by M-DCPS students in 31…

In the American Education system, high school plays an important role. High school education in the country is impacted by several factors such as peer pressure, parental influence and personal characteristics. There are discrepancies in achievements between Black and White students across the United States. Therefore, this paper will aim at…

Teachers and students are being held to higher expectations due to national educational policies. Because of large class sizes, teachers at the case study site have elevated workloads to prepare students for International Baccalaureate (IB) exams. The study aimed to better understand how teachers create feedback for student success. The feedback…

This study used longitudinal special education record data from a large urban southwestern U.S. school district to review classroom placements of students in Grades 5 to 9 educated in traditional public schools (N = 21,314). Results indicated that half of the students were educated primarily in general education classrooms (n = 10,658), 9% of…

Families are active agents in school systems and apply different strategies of educational advantage to help their children succeed at school. These strategies are planned and enacted by families with their children in mind, but they are always a response to the broader education system design. This article explores how through their strategies…

Education and training of Quantity Surveyors (QSs) has been a topical subject amongst academics, the industry, and professional institutions, often leading to a discussion about education versus training, in which case, the industry sometimes argues that QSs are often ill-prepared for work. The current study investigated strategies for improving…

When the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to do in-person, on campus testing, we were forced to create a new system to screen International Teaching Assistants (ITA) for Temple university. We used this opportunity to address many of the concerns and problems that we had identified with the previous test, and created a new test that could be…

Diagnostic tests for placing students into appropriate courses are commonly used in higher education math and science departments. We found no physics education research examining the validity of such exams, how well they are placing students into appropriate courses, and what guidance these exams can give for better focusing instruction. In this…

Teaching and reading literature are commonly viewed as contributing to the cultivation of empathy. This article presents critical and pedagogical approaches to test this view and suggests a distinction between low-level, simple empathy inspired by the reading and teaching of "The Tortilla Curtain" and a more complex, self-critical…