Standardized testing is an external control mechanism for K-12 public schools. Principals, nested between internal and external influences, must manage the tension created by testing's roles as both an internal improvement tool and as an external control mechanism. Five competing narratives, each shaped by author academic background, significantly…

The social and economic inequities in America's K-12 education system are well known, what with a rapidly expanding system of expensive private schools and the striking contrasts between urban and suburban public schools. America's higher education system, on the other hand, is generally regarded as far more equitable, given that each of the fifty…

All students are expected to participate in accountability systems and multiple options exist for students with disabilities, including taking the general large-scale assessment with and without accommodations and taking an alternate assessment. Using a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2), the researcher…

Background: There is some evidence that vocabulary intervention is effective for children, although further research is needed to confirm the impact of intervention within contexts of social disadvantage. Very little is known about the effectiveness of interventions to increase adolescent knowledge of cross-curriculum words. Aims: To evaluate the…

Kelly Gallagher writes that "wide swaths of students are not developing their writing skills--skills we know to be foundational to their literate lives." In this article, he explains how school districts can go about developing students' writing skills in all content-area classrooms. He highlights five reasons why students should write…

Background: A fundamental aim of standardized educational assessment is to achieve reliable discrimination between students differing in the knowledge, skills and abilities assessed. However, questions of the purity with which these tests index students' genuine abilities have arisen. Specifically, literacy and numeracy assessments may also engage…

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills are very valuable for economic growth. However, the number of young people pursuing STEM learning trajectories in the United Kingdom was lower than the predicted demand during the last decade. Several STEM enrichment and enhancement activities were thus funded by the government,…

This article explores past and current education testing frameworks as a pretext for constructing a policy platform with the efficacy to transform systems and structures that hinder opportunities and resist equitable practices. The rise of accountability in education public policy has brought about intended and unintended outcomes. As prescribed,…

This paper discusses the National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) performance of Years Five, Seven and Nine students in standardised tests prior and post the implementation of a mobile learning initiative in a Western Australian school for boys. The school sees the use of ICT as important in enhancing its potential to deliver…

Employing an existing database of African American and biracial children entering metropolitan Detroit schools, we examined children of caregivers with and without reported stressful police contact. As anticipated, young children of caregivers with recent stressful police contact appear to suffer cognitive performance decrements on a nonverbal…

Now more than ever public education and multicultural education face daunting challenges. From federal efforts to privatize public education through vouchers, school take-overs, and charters, to the manner in which high-stakes testing has marginalized multicultural education in the curriculum and pedagogy of our nation's schools, and to the…

The purpose of this non-experimental, causal-comparative study was to examine the impact of a blended learning format on the academic achievement of at-risk 9-12 grade students in a rural Northeast Georgia school system. After obtaining IRB approval and district curriculum director and superintendent approval, data was obtained for evaluation.…

Research has found high repetition rates for students in Algebra I, with one study finding a repetition rate of 44 percent for students in a large urban high school district. Less is known about how math performance and Algebra I course repetition rates vary among students with different levels of English proficiency. This report examines Algebra…

Students who take advanced courses in high school are more likely to enroll and persist in college. This report describes patterns in advanced coursetaking among three groups of students in Washington state: Spanish-speaking students, other language minority students whose primary or home language is not Spanish, and English-only speakers. This…

Building a culture of success in schools has been a goal in Texas public schools since standardized tests were developed in 1979. Many schools have begun instilling grit in the classrooms in hopes of increasing student achievement and teaching students how to push themselves through difficult tasks. The primary purpose of the study was to assess…