The importance of a smooth transition from eighth grade to ninth grade is critical as this transition can have a lasting impact on a student's success or failures beyond high school. Studies in this body of research suggest that ninth grade students lead the list of high school grade students when it comes to tardiness, the number of discipline…

The goal of academic resilience research is to identify factors and processes which lead to academic success among groups of students generally found to be at-risk, including those of African American and Latina/o descent. The present study investigated a possible risk factor (perceptions of discrimination), a possible protective factor (emotional…

This phenomenological case study explored the perceptions and experiences of mentors who work for a community-based mentoring program that was created to provide at-risk minority students with male role models. Most studies from the past 20 years have assessed mainly the academic, social, and emotional outcomes of mentoring among at-risk minority…

During the 2008-2009 academic school year, nearly a million (956,914) students were reported by school districts as being homeless, a 41% increase over just a 2-year period year. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of national legislative efforts to address the education of children who are homeless, with a particular…

This study was designed to experimentally examine how supplemental vocabulary instruction provided in either whole-group or small-group settings influences low-income preschoolers' word knowledge and conceptualdevelopment. Using a within-subject design, 108 preschool children from 12 Head Start classrooms participated in an 8-week intervention,…

This article describes the development of early warning indicators for high school and beyond in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) by the Value-Added Research Center (VARC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working in conjunction with staff from the Division of Research and Evaluation at MPS. Our work in MPS builds on prior early warning…

For students with disabilities who are at risk of leaving high school without graduating, virtual schools have become a popular alternative to traditional schools. One promising approach to increasing graduation rates is to design learning environments that serve students with disabilities through the 5 Cs framework designed to increase school…

Recently in Ontario, Canada, the College Math Project brought to light startling data on the achievement of students in Ontario's College of Applied Arts and Technology System related to their performance in first-year mathematics courses: one-third of the students had failed their first-year mathematics course or were at risk of not completing…

Transition into the ninth grade has long been a critical juncture for students as they make the move to a larger environment with less personal support and a more rigorous academic challenge. In an effort to help make the move from middle-to-high-school transition as smooth as possible, school districts are using Ninth Grade Academies, or…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Course Credits on the Quick: Controversial Online Recovery Programs Speed the Path to Graduation (Andrew Brownstein); (2) Collaborating to Make Schools More Inclusive…

Given the negative outcomes associated with problem behavior and the heightened risk for children with disabilities to display problematic behavior, the current study implemented hierarchical linear modeling to explore the growth trajectories of problem behavior in a nationally representative sample of preschool children with disabilities. Results…

Educational leaders continue to be challenged in terms of accountability measures for increased student achievement, as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). In particular, schools must show adequate yearly progress (AYP) reaching 100% proficiency levels for all students in the areas of English language arts and mathematics by…

Many high school seniors are either not graduating on time or not graduating at all. A computer-based course recovery program could help many struggling districts in this area of need. This study employed a non-experimental quantitative approach to address possible relationships between computer-based instruction and learning outcomes. The sample…

Latinos are the second largest student population enrolled in higher education and the majority are concentrated in a small number of institutions--Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). Given the concentrated enrollment of Latinos at HSIs and the opportunity to increase Latinos' educational achievement, reviewing the link between capacity…

Many students across the Nation struggle with emotional and behavioral problems that may lead them to act out in ways that school administrators and teachers might not understand or be prepared to respond to effectively. In today's era of highstakes testing, zero-tolerance discipline measures, and shrinking school and district budgets, there is an…