For student achievement, the diffusion and adoption of information technology (IT) infrastructure enabled by special funding was posited to have a positive impact on student achievement. Four urban school districts provided the context for this study to assess the impact of IT adoption on standardized test scores.

The purpose of this study was to assess if there was a relationship between sixth, seventh, and eighth grade student's level of mastery of basic math facts and their mathematical scaled score from a standardized test, whether computer assisted instruction (CAI) software improved seventh grade students' ability to master their basic math…

With increased pressures on school districts to enhance student achievement, administrators are implementing professional learning communities (PLCs) as one method to improve student performance (DuFour & Eaker, 1998, Hord, 1997, Thompson, Gregg, & Niska, 2004). Educators working within a PLC experience a shared ideology, supportive…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact block scheduling has on (a) student academic achievement, discipline, and attendance, and (b) administrator, teacher, and student perceptions. The study compared 2005-2010 data from a high school utilizing the A/B block schedule and a high school under a traditional schedule, in one suburban…

My dissertation investigates the effects of education policy on academic achievement. I focus on state and federal policies that seek to influence how teachers and school administrators educate their students, and I evaluate those policies' effects on academic achievement. Chapter 1 examines the effects of a compositional shift in a school's…

In recent years, governors, chief state school officers, business leaders, and college faculty have grown increasingly concerned that American students are not adequately prepared either for college or for the workforce. Governors and chief state school officers understood that the changing economy and persistent achievement gaps required a…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were a significant difference in math and reading academic achievement scores between eighth-grade students attending year-round calendar schools and eighth-grade students attending traditional calendar schools based on the TCAP. In addition, this study investigated math and reading achievement…

This report presents the results from an evaluation of the fourth year of the Memphis Striving Readers Project (MSRP) conducted by Research for Better Schools (RBS). MSRP, funded for five years by the United States Department of Education, comprises two interventions aimed at improving adolescent literacy and the quality of literacy instruction…

In this longitudinal study of one region in the state of Texas, there was an examination of district leadership and the sustaining of high student achievement for their districts. The results of this study suggest that sustained improvement of student achievement is very difficult. The districts that had sustained improvement had stable district…

We conducted a pilot study to see how the GED Mathematics Test could be administered on computer with embedded accessibility tools. We examined test scores and test-taker experience. Nineteen GED test centers across five states and 216 randomly assigned GED Tests candidates participated in the project. GED candidates completed two GED mathematics…

This longitudinal study modeled growth rates, from ages 4.5 to 11, in English and Spanish oral language and word reading skills among 173 Spanish-speaking children from low-income households. Individual growth modeling was employed using scores from standardized measures of word reading, expressive vocabulary, and verbal short-term language…

This study investigated the sustained effects of Reading Recovery on the reading achievement of native Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELL) who received the one-to-one intervention while in the first grade. All native Spanish-speaking ELL students who received the Reading Recovery intervention during the three academic years from the…

How well students perform on standardized tests can affect their educational paths and the rest of their lives. In addition, students' performances on state assessments will affect their schools due to the No Child Left Behind Act. For English language learners (ELLs), the success on tests may be diminished due to their inability to completely…

Turning around chronically low-performing schools requires a multifaceted school-wide, systematic effort that includes strong leadership and data-based decision making. School-wide efforts to turn-around low-performing schools should address the academic, social, and behavioral needs of all students. One evidence-based, systematic school-wide…

One way to improve struggling schools' access to effective teachers is to use selective transfer incentives. Such incentives offer bonuses for the highest-performing teachers to move into schools serving the most disadvantaged students. In this report, we provide evidence from a randomized experiment that tested whether such a policy intervention…