Local control of schooling has been considered a defining feature of the American school system; however, in the past several decades of public schooling has also increasingly been subject to the influence of extralocal institutional mandates that encourage curricular and organizational standardization. We conducted a content analysis of 480…

A correlational research design was used to examine the influence of superintendent tenure on student achievement in rural Appalachian Kentucky school districts. Superintendent tenure was compared to aggregated student achievement scores for 2011 and to changes in students' learning outcomes over the course of the superintendents' tenure. The…

Much has been written about gifted students with learning disabilities, but there have been few large-scale empirical investigations, and the concept has proven controversial. The authors reviewed the available empirical literature on these students, focusing on (a) the criteria by which the students were identified and (b) the students'…

International tests of achievement narrowly measure specific academic subjects, but have larger educational policy implications. These tests come to summarize national education systems and are used in national and international discourse. However, students with disabilities are being entirely excluded from participation in the discourse of…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program Modified Academic Achievement Standards (TCAP MAAS) achievement test scores for special education students who receive their instruction in the resource classroom or in an inclusion classroom. The study involved third, fourth, and…

Informational texts, such as those found in science education, have historically been reserved for secondary students. With the increased emphasis on elementary students' academic accountability, these high impact instructional strategies must also be utilized to support subject matter comprehension for younger students. This causal-comparative…

This report supplements Jerrim (2012) where John Jerrim investigated the link between family background and children's reading tests across a series of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Previous studies for the Sutton Trust (Smithers 2012) have suggested that policy and provision for the highly able in…

Relatively recent federal education initiatives, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB; 2001), have focused on school accountability for student achievement including achievement of traditionally at-risk populations, such as students in special education, students from low-income or high poverty areas, and students who speak English as a new second…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) initiated this special study in an effort to link the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scale to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) scale so that states could compare the performance of their students with that of students in other countries. The…

Based on a review of previous research, the paper describes the distinctive characteristics of rural areas and communities and the factors typically associated with shaping students' learning experience in rural contexts. Data from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 and the Teaching and Learning International…

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date. Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning…

This report includes findings regarding demographic characteristics and academic outcomes of DELTA students; highlights emerging topics from the student, teacher, and staff surveys; and provides recommendations for future program implementation.

Background: Influence of external factors in general, and socioeconomic background factors in particular, on traditional reading performance has been extensively researched and debated. While traditional reading is well investigated in this respect, there is a lack of studies on equity aspects related to digital reading achievement, in spite of…

Research predicting academic achievement from early academic, attention, and socioemotional skills has largely focused on elementary school outcomes and rarely included peer assessments of social competence. We examined associations between these early child characteristics and academic outcomes into young adulthood using the Fast Track normative…

Professional development for teachers has been a substantial issue in contemporary educational research and policy. Yet, opportunities for professional development activities have been very limited in Turkey. In this study, we examined Turkish teachers' involvement in professional development activities by comparing their participation with the…