One of the State Board of Education's (SBE) strategic plan goals is to advocate for an effective, accountable governance structure for public education in Washington. The development of this goal comes from Board members' experiences over the last five years to understand and address the complexity of Washington's education system and their role…

Thirteen percent of the 2008-2009 senior class in one southeastern state did not pass the science portion of the state's high school graduation test. Another 5% failed to pass the math portion of the graduation test, leaving these students unable to obtain a high school diploma. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative research study was…

Over the previous two years, Innosight Institute has published a series of case studies about the fast-growing field of online learning in K-12 education. One aim of this effort was to identify policies that had either positive or negative ramifications for students. This policy brief, sponsored by the Joyce Foundation, summarizes some of that…

Online education has grown in popularity as a choice option over the past decade. A variety of studies exist on methodologies for content delivery and on the impacts of online education for specific communities. However, few works have considered the utility of online educational choices in comparison to physical schools. Using an expected utility…

The importance of first language (L1) and second language (L2) test takers' experience with large-scale literacy testing has been well documented in educational research. Our study focused on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT), a cross-curricular literacy test that is one of the graduation requirements for Ontario high school…

Disaggregating the data across four school variables--size, locale, racial/ethnic minority population, and population eligible for free or reduced-price lunch--this study examines the extent to which Oregon grade 9-12 students enrolled in high school math courses during 2006/07 and 2007/08 would not have been on track to graduate had the new…

This report contains the findings of the Oregon Applied Academics research and development project which spanned three academic years from 2010 through 2013. The overall purpose of the project was to develop and implement a technical math course that would meet graduation requirements and improve student performance. The State of Oregon has been…

This article discusses how a university-school district partnership improves the quality of teacher candidates and the knowledge and skills of high school graduates. Several years ago, the author was having lunch with Lynne Clark, the dean of professional studies at Western Connecticut State University, when Clark complained that too many recent…

The majority of research on general education assessment in recent years has focused primarily on predominately white institutions. Very little is known about general education assessment at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUS). Using descriptive analysis, this exploratory study examines the state of general education assessment at…

According to Florida Law, students must pass the Grade 10 FCAT, among other academic requirements, in order to receive a standard high school diploma. Specifically, students must achieve a "passing" score of 300 or above on both the FCAT SSS Reading and the FCAT SSS Mathematics tests. Technically, students can retake the FCAT as many…

This one-year study explores the possibility of integrating critical pedagogy into undergraduate English writing classes in Taiwan. The participants were the students in 2 first-year writing classes taught by the researcher. For these classes, I reinvented Freire's (2000) pedagogy of the oppressed, which emphasizes problem-posing, dialogue, and…

This article is about the changes in educational reform that have adversely affected teachers and their principals. With the new evaluation system, teachers and school leaders will be evaluated partially on student success. Other educational reforms include the discontinuing of New York State Regents Exams in January and in August. A…

A recent study by the Higher Education Research Institute noted that virtually all faculty report that developing students' ability to think critically is a very important or essential goal of undergraduate education, as is promoting students' ability to write effectively. But even if faculty concur that students should develop critical thinking…

As of 2008, approximately 40% of eighth grade students in the United States enroll in Algebra I (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2008). Although research has shown that students have more opportunities to take advanced mathematics courses by taking eighth grade Algebra I, in the United States, approximately only one-third to one-half…

The purpose of this study was to discover what teaching strategies were utilized by Special Day Class (SDC) teachers to prepare their 9-12 grade students to pass a course in Algebra 1 and the mathematics section of the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). This study used a mixed methodology involving a quantitative survey and qualitative…