Surveying 15 states and 39,837 students, this study examined the extent to which students who took an alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards in the 2010--2011 school year had access to regular education settings and the extent to which that access correlated with expressive communication, use of an augmentative or…

Background/Context: Two key uses of international assessments of achievement have been (a) comparing country performances for identifying the countries with the best education systems and (2) generating insights about effective policy and practice strategies that are associated with higher learning outcomes. Do country rankings really reflect the…

Parenting has come to play a pivotal role in breaking intergenerational disadvantage and increasing children's life chances and social mobility through practices such as parental support with their learning and education. Using a UK representative sample from the Millennium Cohort Study, the present study examined the unique and cumulative…

This NFER report has been produced for the Education Endowment Foundation and its evaluation of a speaking and listening intervention combining two programmes: the Vocabulary Enrichment Intervention Programme (VEIP) and the narrative Intervention Programme (NIP). The intervention was used with pupils who needed extra support to improve their…

This 2015 Brown Center Report (BCR) represents the fourteenth edition of the series since the first issue was published in 2000. It includes three studies. Like all previous BCRs, the studies explore independent topics but share two characteristics: they are empirical and based on the best evidence available. The studies in this edition are on the…

This report examines dual language program implementation in three Texas public school districts similar to Austin Independent School District. The school districts are compared in terms of demographic composition, program implementation, and English language learner (ELL) students' academic performance in 2014 on the state's academic test, STAAR.

The main confirmatory research question guiding the design of the impact evaluation is: "What is the impact of Success for All (SFA) on elementary school students' reading achievement, compared to students in non-SFA schools?" An answer to this question will determine the assessment of whether SFA is successful at turning around low-performing…

During a period when the school-age language-minority population grew, from 8.8 million in 1999 to 10.8 million in 2007 (U.S. Department of Education 2010, indicator 5), the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) tracked the educational experiences of a nationally representative sample of children who were in…

Science assessments require students to read and comprehend questions and to solve mathematical problems. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the following variables can be used to predict science achievement: English language arts achievement, mathematics achievement, socioeconomic status (SES), limited English proficiency (LEP)…

This study seeks to deconstruct the process by which home-school relationships develop. This study suggests these relationships develop as the result of "crossings" between home and school where crossings lead to foundational interactions that establish these relationships. Using data from the U.S. Department of Education's Early…

One public school district developed a full-day kindergarten program for at-risk students, including those who are limited English-proficient (LEP), as a strategy to close the achievement gap. Not all LEP students in this district attended the full-day program due to limited space. The district administrators were looking for research-based…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships that may exist among mean scores on the math and reading portions of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) of eighth grade gifted students of different gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Significant changes have been made to Georgia's gifted identification procedures over the last…

The No Child Left Behind Act (2001) increased the federal presence in the test-based accountability movement with its goal of all children meeting standard by 2014. To measure progress toward this goal, each state created a series of intermediate goals. Schools or districts that attained the goal for a given year in 9 different subgroups made…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a Direct Instruction summer reading intervention program designed to minimize summer reading regression. The summer intervention program targeted the lowest quartile of readers in grades kindergarten through third grade from a suburban school district over a three-week period before…

The Common Core State Standards, adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia, promise to raise achievement in English and mathematics through rigorous standards that promote deeper learning. But while most policymakers, researchers, and educators have embraced these higher standards, some question the fairness of raising the academic bar on…