Goal: Educators believe that parents can help their children learn to read. But what evidence supports this belief? And if parent involvement does matter, what kinds of parent involvement are most efficient? The goal of this report was to review the scientific literature on parent involvement in the acquisition of reading from kindergarten to…

Colleges and state higher education agencies too often lack accurate information about the socioeconomic status (SES) of their students. This paper describes the methodology that Community College Research Center (CCRC) researchers used to estimate the SES of individual students in the Washington State community and technical college system using…

This report examines school district size and organization in South Carolina and their impact on student achievement and fiscal efficiency. A brief overview discusses the history of school district organization since the Civil War, the current distribution of districts across size categories in South Carolina and the nation, variations in school…

This paper describes the achievement patterns of a sample of 1,492 multiracial high school students and examines how their achievement fits into existing theoretical models that explain monoracial differences in achievement. These theoretical models include status attainment, parenting style, oppositional culture, and educational attitudes. The…

This paper considers the effect of high stakes promotion tests on early high school dropout patterns. Analysis of data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey of 1988, a nationally representative survey of 8th grade students in the United States, indicates that the presence of an 8th grade promotion test requirement is strongly…

A study examined determinants of wages and productivity in Mexico from 1993 and 1999 using two national surveys. In 1993, 7,619 employees from 575 firms were interviewed. In 1999, 6,259 employees from 722 firms were interviewed. Findings indicate that wage premiums and productivity increased with years of schooling, but workers had higher benefits…

This report represents the findings and recommendations of the "Resolving the Digital Divide: Information, Access, and Opportunity" conference, the first in a series of conferences designed to provide feedback to the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) on issues of the digital divide. Conference panelists were a…

While child care is one of the fastest growing occupations in the country, most employment in this field is precarious and low-wage. Investing in Low-Wage Workers profiles the Day Care Justice Co-op, a group of largely Latina and African American women living and working in some of Rhode Island's poorest communities. Determined to improve family…

Large socioeconomic and ethnic disparities exist in college admissions. This paper demonstrates that by systematically accounting for the effect of socioeconomic circumstance on pre-college achievement, colleges can substantially reduce these disparities. A conceptual model distinguishes students' realized achievement from their underlying ability…

Children's academic achievement has been shown to be influenced by many family factors, including family structure, socioeconomic status, and parenting styles. This study investigated the relationships among family structure, socioeconomic status, authoritative parenting, and children's academic achievement in a sample of 181 eighth graders in 2…

This paper seeks to make sense of the new diversity in the United States, with a focus on immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean. Some key facts and figures about contemporary immigrants are presented, looking at their patterns of settlement and comparing their distinctive social and economic characteristics to major U.S. racial-ethnic…

The purpose of this study was to provide an analysis and evaluation of composite variables in the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) and School and Staffing Survey (SASS) in a way that provides guidance to the staff of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the more effective use of survey resources. The study…

Economic theory suggests that when the reduction in earnings from dropping out of school is minimal, dropout rates will be high. As earnings loss for dropouts grows, however, the dropout rate should decrease. This chapter examines whether these predicted effects actually occur by looking at changes in dropout rates in Kentucky in the 1970s and…

This report presents detailed information about the student assessment results of the Colorado Student Assessment Program. Included among the data is information on student achievement by gender, ethnicity or race, disability, and accommodation categories. In addition, achievement data are presented for each school district and for schools…

This report offers data on 1999 high school dropout rates and includes time series data on high school dropout and completion rates for 1972-99. Besides extending time series data from earlier years, it examines characteristics of 1999 high school dropouts and high school completers. It begins by investigating event and status dropout rates: types…