With the advent of No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools are being held accountable for measurable increases in student academic achievement as evidenced by performance on standardized tests. This movement has significant implications for the professional development of teachers who are ultimately responsible for ensuring that their…

Engaging students requires giving them a say in what they learn and how they will learn it. However, in strictly disciplined, rule-bound schools with test-driven curricula, this cannot happen. Edison Schools, Inc., a for-profit Education Management Organization (EMO), and Confluence Academy, an Edison-run school located in one of the most…

In an ideal world, curricula would be designed in response to the developmental needs of learners, but this may not be the reality of the current situation. States have a variety of standards, and teachers are increasingly being held accountable for student performance on tests that are intended to align with these standards. As a result, student…

GED [General Educational Development] Tests offer many young adults who have left school a second chance to gain a credential, yet many educators have concerns about policies for very young test-takers and how they perform on the GED Tests. The GED Testing Service sets the absolute minimum age for taking the GED Tests at 16 years of age. However,…

During the past 25 years, the country witnessed a dramatic transformation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Actions by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), Congress, and the National Assessment Governing Board fundamentally changed NAEP's role in federal educational policy and the nation's schools. Developed in the 1960s…

With passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1990, autism was recognized as a distinct special education category. Subsequently, there has been a steady increase in the number of students qualified in the schools to receive special education services under this category. There are a number of questions as to the types of…

The purpose of this report is to provide descriptive data regarding the test scores of Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) students in grades 4, 8 and 10 in reading, math and science, as reported to the School Choice Demonstration Project 2007-2008. The tables, graphs, and histograms presented in this report provide a snapshot of these…

Although the number of urban Catholic schools has declined in recent years, Nativity model middle schools, first developed by the Jesuits over 35 years ago, have appeared throughout the nation to address the need for effective alternative education for urban children placed at risk. The present study compares the effectiveness of two types of…

The literature on school absences has focused predominantly on the reasons for student truancy, or it has assessed only aggregate student absences in their effect on achievement. However, this study brings forth a new issue: the relationship between types of absences--excused versus unexcused--and school performance. With a quantitative model of…

This paper was written in response to a paper by Jerry Phillips and his daughter, Charlie. Their paper, entitled "Mandated Testing: Lived Situations," was presented at the 1992 Annual Meeting of the American Reading Forum, and in it Jerry and Charlie recount the creation and development of a remedial reader, Charlie. One unique aspect of…

Noting that assessment plays a prominent role in all levels of the American educational system, this report characterizes the realities of reading assessment and its historical evolution. The report then characterizes possible approaches to shaping the future of reading assessment--resistance, complacency, and reform. The report considers the…

In an effort to spend time resources more wisely, many schools have turned to block scheduling, in which classes are taught in longer periods. The school year is adjusted by dividing it into 30-; 45-; 60-; or 90-day periods. This paper presents findings of a study that investigated the effects of block scheduling on seventh-grade mathematics…

Tennessee has adopted a model of educational accountability called the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS). The model attempts to measure district, school, and teacher effects on student academic gains, rather than emphasizing achievement scores at a single time, using data generated by a standardized test, the Tennessee Comprehensive…

This paper examines political influences on assessment programs and their effects on local school systems. Specifically, it describes North Carolina's political climate and examines the impact of political influences on educational assessment in the state. The political climate in North Carolina has produced a plethora of state-mandated tests,…

In 1990, Milwaukee (Wisconsin) became the site of the first publicly funded school-choice program providing low-income parents with vouchers that could be used to send their children to secular, private schools. An evaluation of Milwaukee's school-choice experiment was conducted by a team of researchers, headed by John Witte at the University of…