Developing assessments within a program can create more useful measures of our students' language. This includes rating scales used in performance assessments such as writing or speaking tests. This article describes the process of development, use, and revision of a writing placement scale by teachers in an intensive English language program. To…

School reformers are often searching for a program that will have a positive and far-reaching effect on a school campus. Researchers and writers have described the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB DP) as a largely positive influence on a school campus, providing a rigorous and standards-based curriculum to IB DP students. However,…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine differences between boys and girls in their performance on STEM related AP exams. Specifically, gender differences were examined for the following STEM related AP exams: Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Physics B, Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, Physics C: Mechanics, Chemistry, and Computer Science…

Foreclosures have well-documented adverse consequences for families living in or owning properties undergoing foreclosure and on surrounding neighborhoods, but they may also have other costs. This policy brief summarizes our research on the impact of mortgage foreclosures on academic performance among Boston public school students. The data show…

Across the country, school districts are struggling to improve student performance on flat or declining budgets. Many districts are understandably cautious about implementing large changes, such as redesigning the step-and-lane system that has existed for decades. New evaluation systems must be implemented and vetted before they are linked to…

In this session presented at the Middle States Regional Forum (February 2013), experts working with national data presented trends in higher education from a forward-looking perspective. Senior researchers from the College Board provided trends using SAT, AP, and Net Price Calculator data. The research director of the National Student…

The purpose of the study was to examine the circumstances and practices that led to OCR and DOJ investigations in seven selected school districts, and to determine the emerging themes from the details of the settlement agreements between the school districts and the United States. The themes developed through this study were aimed at providing a…

This study investigated vocational rehabilitation (VR) outcomes among people with criminal histories with mental impairments who were served in a state-federal VR agency during fiscal year 2010 as extracted from the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) 911 national database. Using hierarchical logistic analysis, this study examined…

This study investigates the issue of mobility-related teacher turnover in Turkey through both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative findings derived from descriptive and correlational analyses of countrywide teacher-assignment and transfer data indicate that a high rate of mobility-related turnover is observed in the…

This article investigates the use of teacher value-added estimates to assess the distribution of effective teaching across students of varying socioeconomic disadvantage in the presence of classroom composition effects. We examine, via simulations, how accurately commonly used teacher value-added estimators recover the rank correlation between…

Clinical educators play an important role in the development of clinical skills during health care undergraduates' practice placements. The supportiveness of the learning environment and the attitude of the clinical educator towards student development are considered to be important factors that impact upon practice placement experience, although…

This study examined the educational environment placement and educational outcomes of students identified as having an emotional disturbance (ED). The sample was drawn from special education enrollment data for students aged 6-21 years in the 50 states and Washington, DC in 2010. Additional economic and demographic state-level variables were…

In two studies (ns = 312 and 1,149) with 9- to 12-grade students in pre-International Baccalaureate (IB) and IB Diploma programs, we evaluated the reliability, factor structure, measurement invariance, and criterion-related validity of the scores from the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R). Reliabilities of the five SAAS-R subscale…

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is widely considered instrumental in equipping new graduates with the required employability skills to function effectively in the work environment. Evaluation of WIL programs in enhancing skill development remains predominantly outcomes-focused with little attention to the process of what, how and from whom students…

The University of North Texas's Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science began admitting students to its 2-year early college entrance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program in the fall of 1988. This program provided accelerated entry for top students in Texas in the areas of mathematics and science. Approximately 200…