Hot Topics in Education
As an extension of our research advocacy, each month NCEA gathers and shares the latest research and data from across the country on issues affecting K-12 students on the path to college and career readiness (CCR). To examine Hot Topics resources organized by NCEA focus area, use navigation keys provided to the right on this page.
August 2009 Archive
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released this report July 14 analyzing black-white achievement gaps at both the national and state level and how those gaps have changed over time, using NAEP scores as a common yardstick. Black students have made important gains in several Southern states over two decades, while in some Northern states, black achievement has improved more slowly than white achievement, or has even declined. As a result, the nation’s widest black-white gaps are in Northern and Midwestern states like Connecticut, Illinois, Nebraska and Wisconsin. Read More…
This report presents selected findings from the school district data file of the 2007-08 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a nationally representative sample survey of public, private, and Bureau of Indian Education-funded (BIE) K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The public school sample was designed so that national-, regional-, and state-level elementary, secondary, and combined public school estimates can be made. Public schools include both traditional public and public charter schools. The School District data file includes responses from school districts to the School District Questionnaire along with the "district items" taken from the Public School Questionnaire (With District Items) completed by the subset of public schools that were not associated with traditional school districts. These schools include state-run schools, traditional public schools in single-school districts, and independent charter schools. Read More…
Communities of Color: A Critical Perspective in the Common Standards Movement
The Campaign for High School Equity released this issue brief on July 24 to provide recommendations for the development of high academic standards that meets the unique needs of all students, including students of color and low-income students. Low expectations and unchallenging standards that fail to measure student achievement put American students at a disadvantage. Most important, low academic standards fail to equip students of color with the tools they will need to be successful in college, work and life. Read More…
Drivers of Choice: Parents, Transportation, and School Choice
A new study by the Center on Reinventing Public Education finds that many low-income parents would choose to send their children to a better school outside their neighborhood if not for transportation problems. These parents are significantly less satisfied with their current school than are parents for whom transportation was not a barrier. It includes other interesting survey findings. Read More…
The Center for American Progress released this policy memo July 28 outlining five strategies for developing targeted online high school, college and workplace skill certification courses to help boost U.S. competitiveness. Read More…
Effects of Teacher Professional Development on Gains in Student Achievement
This report from the Council of Chief State School Officers compiles a meta-analysis of completed studies on the effects of professional development for K-12 teachers of science and mathematics. Specifically, the report addresses two questions important to education leaders: 1) What are the effects of professional development on improving teacher knowledge and skills and on student achievement? and 2) What program characteristics explain the degree of effectiveness, and are the findings consistent with research on effective professional development, e.g., content focus, duration, coherence, active learning, and collective participation of teachers? Read More…
Graduating America: Meeting the Challenge of Low Graduation Rate High Schools
Jobs for the Future issued this new report on July 28 with a focus on the 17 states that account for 70% of the low graduation rate high schools. To attack the dropout problem, leaders in policy and practice require a framework for deciding which strategies to apply where, and how each level of government should participate. The report provides new analytic tools for examining the characteristics of schools, districts, and states that make certain approaches more likely to succeed. Read More…
High-Achieving Students in the Era of No Child Left Behind
This report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute compiles the results of the first two studies of a multifaceted research investigation into the state of high-achieving students in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era. The first part is an analysis of NAEP data on achievement trends for high-achieving students since the early 1990s and 2000. The second part reports on teachers’ own views of how schools are serving high-achieving pupils in the NCLB era. The pattern—big gains for low achievers and lesser ones for high achievers—is associated with the introduction of accountability systems in general, not just NCLB. Read More…
How Information Technology Can Enable 21st Century Schools
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation released this paper on July 16 to examine why the existing school reform movement has stalled, how information technology (including computers, software and communications) can enable the emergence of fundamentally new kinds of schools, particularly middle and high schools, and what the states and the federal government can do to drive the alignment of these new ways of educating future generations.characteristics explain the degree of effectiveness, and are the findings consistent with research on effective professional development, e.g., content focus, duration, coherence, active learning, and collective participation of teachers? Read More…
Implementing Graduation Counts: State Progress to Date, 2009
The National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices issued this update on states’ progress to upgrade data systems that can report their graduation rate using the common NGA formula. The report finds that most states are on track to publicly report their high school graduation rates using a common formula by 2011. Read More…
Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Toward Excellence and Equity
This National Research Council report concludes that early-childhood education needs to place more emphasis on math instruction and prepare adults to cover that material more effectively. The report reiterates a point commonly made by early-childhood advocates: that mathematics is often neglected in prekindergarten settings, in contrast to the heavy focus placed on literacy. That neglect stems in part from instructors’ lack of comfort with math, as well as parents’ fear of that subject, the authors say. Christopher Cross co-edits the report and chaired the study committee. The full report is available to read online for free – hard copy requires payment. Read More…
National Education Standards: Getting Beneath the Surface
This paper was authored by Paul Barton for the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the basis of a briefing held in Washington, D.C., on July 24. The report raises good questions that still need answers, but it looks at the history, choices, risks, and possibilities that are involved in coming to a decision about establishing national standards. The report offers a number of approaches that might be considered for increasing commonality in what is taught and presents examples that are being tried across the nation and could provide a basis for new efforts. Read More…
Neighborhoods and the Black-White Mobility Gap
The Pew Charitable Trust issued this report about the impact poverty has on academic achievement. The report finds that the neighborhood poverty experienced by middle-income African-American students contributes to an increased risk of downward mobility. It concludes that the impact of poverty alone accounts for a greater portion of the black-white achievement gap than the combined impact of such characteristics as parental education, family structure, and occupation. Read More…
Preparing Students for College and Career: California Multiple Pathways
On July 6, the Alliance for Excellent Education released a new issue brief on an innovative high school reform strategy in California that combines rigorous college preparation with workplace exposure in an effort to improve student engagement, academic achievement, and success after high school. The strategy is characterized by a college-prep curriculum, a technical core organized around an industry theme, additional help for students, and workplace learning opportunities. Read More…
Preparing the Workers of Today for the Jobs of Tomorrow
This report from President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors presents a projection of potential developments in the U.S. labor market over the next five to ten years and discusses the preparations necessary to develop the 21st century workforce. The report discusses the skills that will likely be most relevant in growing occupations, the value and limitations of our current post-high school education and training systems, and the characteristics of a more effective education and training structure. The report suggests that jobs requiring only an associate degree or skills certificate are projected to grow slightly faster than those requiring at least a bachelor’s degree in the coming decade. Read More…
State Test Score Trends Through 2007-08, Part 2: Is There a Plateau Effect in Test Scores?
Complimenting a report (Part 1) released last month, the Center on Education Policy released a second report that examines the so-called “plateau effect,” a theory in which test scores rise in the early years of a test-based accountability system and then level off. Their analysis draws from a database of reading and math test results from all 50 states going back as far as 1999. The study offers evidence that while this "plateau effect" does appear in some states, it is not pervasive across the nation. Read More…
Structuring Out-of-School Time to Improve Academic Achievement
The U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse issued this “practice guide” on July 21. The guide includes five recommendations that are intended to help district and school administrators, out-of-school program providers, and educators design out-of-school time programs that will increase learning for students. The guide also describes the research supporting each recommendation, how to carry out each recommendation, and how to address roadblocks that might arise in implementing them. Read More…
Taking the Pulse of Bioscience Education in America: A State-by-State Analysis
This report was prepared by Battelle in cooperation with Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and the Biotechnology Institute and released at a July 14 meeting at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The report covers middle and high school bioscience education in all 50 states. The findings demonstrate a wide disparity across measures of student achievement in overall science and biosciences, and an uneven record among states in incorporating the biosciences in state science standards, supporting higher level bioscience courses, and ensuring well-qualified science and bioscience teachers. Read More…
The Great Graduation-Rate Debate
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute released this primer to promote a clearer understanding of the graduation-rate debate by distilling the policy developments and controversy surrounding the measurement of rates over the last decade. The publication covers the main variables that differentiate graduation rates, how they’re calculated, where the information comes from, the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act on this debate, and the unresolved questions. Read More…
The Schools Teachers Leave: Teacher Mobility in Chicago Public Schools
This report by the Consortium on Chicago School Research reveals that about 100 Chicago schools suffer from chronically high rates of teacher turnover, losing a quarter or more of their teaching staff every year, and many of these schools serve predominantly low-income African American children. Workforce conditions such as principal leadership, teacher collaboration, and student safety all influence stability. In elementary schools, teachers' perceptions of parents as partners in students' education are strongly tied to stability; in high schools, teachers tend to leave schools with the highest rates of student misbehavior. Read More…
What the Federal Government Can Do to Improve High School Performance
The Center on Education Policy commissioned this paper for its project on “Rethinking the Federal Role in Education” series. It was compiled by Russell W. Rumberger from the University of California, Santa Barbara. It examines past large scale efforts to improve high schools, including federal initiatives, and makes recommendations for the role that the federal government could play in improving high schools. Read More…
Whole-School Reform: Transforming the Nation’s Low-Performing High Schools
This policy brief was released by the Alliance for Excellent Education. This brief describes whole-school reform, how it has been supported by federal policy in the past, what lessons have been learned from those policies, and recommendations for how federal policy can encourage and support whole-school reform in more schools facing significant challenges. Read More…