We examined whether students were accurate in predicting their test performance in both low-stakes and high-stakes testing contexts. The sample comprised U.S. high school students enrolled in an advanced placement (AP) statistics course during the 2017-2018 academic year (N = 209; M[subscript age] = 16.6 years). We found that even two months…

Although Advanced Placement (AP) courses are intended to promote rigorous, college-level instruction for high school students, AP tests have been criticized for privileging breadth over depth. In response to both this criticism and to the 2002 National Research Council (NRC) report on STEM education, AP Biology, Chemistry, and Physics curricula…

For many students, the first--and sometimes only--chance to look through a microscope is in high school biology class, where they observe plant and animal cells up close. Even in college, few students use a microscope for a subject other than biology. Thus, it can be a surprise to learn that microscopes are a primary tool used to understand the…

Smoothing techniques are designed to improve the accuracy of equating functions. The main purpose of this study is to compare seven model selection strategies for choosing the smoothing parameter (C) for polynomial loglinear presmoothing and one procedure for model selection in cubic spline postsmoothing for mixed-format pseudo tests under the…

States often use summative assessments as a measure to determine students' readiness for college and career tracks. Some states administer the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) or Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments to measure high school student performance on college and…

The century-old College Entrance Examination Board (College Board) sponsors, develops, and administers standardized testing programs, most famously the "SAT suite of tests," which includes the SAT college admission test and the "pre-SAT," or PSAT, and the more than thirty Advanced- Placement (AP) courses and exams that…

This study linked ninth-grade student background data and school-reported high school transcript data from the national High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) to student item responses on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment to examine the relationships between high school coursework and…

Idaho's dual credit programs, with a unique state funding model under Advanced Opportunities, have seen substantial growth in student usage in recent years. WICHE analyzed six key topics related to the state's dual credit model: (1) Fiscal impact of using Advanced Opportunities funds for dual credit students specifically; (2) Number of credits…

This study employed hierarchical piecewise growth modeling and two interrupted time series models to examine the effect of introducing an Advanced Placement (AP) school accountability incentive on AP access in Pennsylvania. Specifically, we examined whether adoption of an advanced course access accountability indicator was associated with an…

This study focuses on education at primary and secondary level in Northern Ireland and questions whether it meets the needs of gifted students. Gifted students from Mensa were questioned about their experiences in school, and the majority of students stated that they did not have sufficient challenge in school, or any type of differentiation in…

The Career-related Programme (CP) is an innovative education programme by the International Baccalaureate (IB). Designed to promote college and career readiness equally in the last two years of high school, the CP combines rigorous university preparatory coursework with targeted career-related studies. This study examines the patterns of higher…

The recognition of the DP (diploma programme) for university admission is crucial for the development of International Baccalaureate (IB) schools and the expansion of the IB network worldwide. In an era of higher education (HE) massification, accompanied by high failure and dropout rates, intense debates on access to HE are taking place in many…

Educators in the visual arts and other disciplines have long been advocates for portfolio development and assessment strategies that showcase advanced high school students' highest levels of achievement as well as their longitudinal growth in authentic ways. At the time of this research study, Advanced Placement (AP) art teachers in three…

At a four-year public comprehensive university in 2017, a mandated attempt to implement a corequisite model for Basic Writing education challenged assumptions about the types of students enrolled in the existing program. Students, who by institutional placement measures (ACT scores) would be placed in First-Year Writing, were voluntarily enrolling…

This article presents a new measure of curricular intensity that is objective, parsimonious, clearly defined, replicable, and comparable over time for use by researchers interested in examining trends, causes, and outcomes of high school course taking. After proposing a reduced-form version of Adelman's curricular intensity index comprised of…