In the spring of 2015, Illinois students will take new state assessments that, like the new Illinois Learning Standards, challenge them to think deeply, write often and defend their reasoning--all skills they will need in the world. The Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) covers math and English Language Arts…

This 2013 Indiana College Readiness Report provides statistics for the state of Indiana on the following: (1) High School Graduates Enrolling in College; (2) High School Graduate Enrollment by College Type; (3) Indiana Public College Students Needing Remediation; (4) Indiana Public College Remediation by Subject; (5) Indiana Public College…

For nearly 20 years, the Public School Forum of North Carolina has been publishing its annual forecast of the ten issues most likely to impact K-12 schools across the state. They offer an overview of the issues and a set of principles they hope will guide consideration of the issue by all federal, state, and local leaders who understand that…

The College and Career Readiness Expansion project was a five-year, federally funded effort to implement early college strategies in comprehensive high schools. This report presents the results from a quasi-experimental impact study of the project and a mixed methods examination of its implementation. Results showed that the program increased the…

This report calls upon Michigan's state leaders to quickly develop and implement solution-based approaches to both support the long-term recovery of student learning, as well as address the longstanding inequities and underperformance that have plagued Michigan's education system for decades. Building upon last year's recommendations, which called…

The State of Higher Education for Black Californians is the first in the Campaign for College Opportunity's series of reports on the current state of college access and completion for California's Black; Latinx; and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders. The state of higher education reports also discuss the implications of…

At a time when more high schools are looking to their graduates' college-remediation rates as a clue to how well they prepare students for college and careers, new research findings suggest a significant portion of students who test into remedial classes don't actually need them. Separate studies from Teachers College, Columbia University, and the…

A general problem is that testing a homeschooled child for learning disabilities (LD) is not required in the state of Texas and therefore dependent on the homeschooling parent's recognition and desire to test. A qualitative exploratory method was used to determine the perceptions of parent/teachers on their struggling high school students'…

The Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Class of 2013 consistently outperformed graduates across Maryland and the nation on all sections of the ACT, according to the ACT, Inc. annual report released Wednesday, August 21, 2013. In 2013, 29 percent of MCPS graduates took the ACT exam. According to the ACT, Inc. report, ACT participation among…

As states adopt and implement bold education reforms intended to dramatically increase a student's likelihood of graduating from high school prepared for college and career, there is a strong sense among many states that reporting the right data to the right people at the right time, and reporting it well, is an essential path toward meeting their…

The early college high school program at San Diego City College is a partnership of the college, San Diego Unified School District, and several state and national organizations. The partnership has successfully implemented a variety of college-readiness and college-connected strategies, including an early college school, to better prepare students…

Despite the introduction of pre-college programs to offer support to under-represented students in the 1950's and 60's (Jager-Hyman, 2004), the achievement gap between white students and students who belong to under-represented student populations has not shrunk significantly. Today, there are more students belonging to under-represented…

As of the 2012-2013 school year, over 20 states have formally moved to the Common Core State Standards being used as the learning expectations for all students across the state, and the remainder will be doing so in the 2014-2015 school year. This document highlights state initiatives that are supporting Common Core implementation in the following…

As required by Public Act 93-1036, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) drafted its first Comprehensive Strategic Plan in 2005. The plan focused on three primary goal areas: enhancing literacy, improving educator quality for all children and expanding data-driven management, and school support practices. Agency staff members revisit the…

An estimated 99% of the U.S. population understands that "teaching and learning 21st century skills are very important to the country's future economy", while 80% of those surveyed understand that "the things students need to learn in school today are different than they were 20 years ago". This study also showed that 88% of of…