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.
September 2009 Archive
2009 ACT College Readiness Report
On August 19, ACT released the results of its 2009 class of students taking the assessment, showing a record number of students taking the exam, a broadening pool of test takers, and an increase in the percentage of graduates meeting college-ready benchmarks in all four subjects — English, math, reading, and science. ACT’s college readiness benchmark scores are directly linked to college standards, which define the knowledge and skills students need to succeed in college-entry courses based on empirical evidence. The report shows that a majority of high school graduates still lack some of the academic skills they need to succeed in credit-bearing college coursework. Read More…
Achieving a Wealth of Riches: Delivering on the Promise of Data to Transform Teaching and Learning
Another policy brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education explains that not enough teachers have access to training, support, and the structures needed to use data effectively. The brief suggests roles that schools, districts, and states should play in making every classroom data driven and outlines specific federal actions that can positively support teachers’ use of data to improve student achievement. Read More…
The Council of Chief State School Officers released this study that extends prior research and finds disparities between poor, at-risk children and more advantaged children as early as 9 months of age. Low income and low maternal education are the factors most strongly associated with poorer cognitive, social-emotional, and health outcomes. The disparities are more profound for children with more risk factors. Read More…
Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning
This is a meta-analysis and review of online learning studies that was conducted by SRI International for the U.S. Department of Education. The report examines the comparative research for online versus traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Some of the comparative studies were performed in K–12 settings, but most were done in colleges and adult continuing-education programs of various kinds, from medical training to the military. The conclusion is that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. Read More…
Funding and Policy Frameworks for Online Learning
The International Association for K–12 Online Learning issued this report calling for a better policy and funding framework to make sure students are getting the best instruction possible. As online learning continues to gain momentum across the country, education experts are warning that policies surrounding this popular learning option are shaky at best. Read More…
International Lessons about National Standards
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute released this report based on a public forum held earlier this year in Washington, D.C. It examines how other countries navigate these goals, what their systems look like, how they got there, and what the U.S. can learn from them. The analysis examines national standards and testing in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, and South Korea. Read More…
Key State Education Policies on PK–12 Education
The Council of Chief State School Officers recently released this publication. It compiles data from 50 states about the current status and trends in policies that define teaching and learning in elementary and secondary schools. The Council collected, updated, and reviewed state information in this report during late 2008 and early 2009. The areas reported are: time and attendance policies, high school graduation, curriculum and standards for learning, teacher preparation and licensure, and student assessment. Read More…
National Profile on Alternate Assessments Based on Alternate Achievement Standards
The Institute of Education Science's (IES) National Center for Special Education Research released this report from the National Study on Alternate Assessments. This report summarizes national-level findings from the document analysis and data verification activities for the 2006–2007 school year across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Read More…
On Accountability: The Education Equality Project Position Paper Series
The Education Equality Project (EEP), successor organization to the “Ed in 08” and “Strong American Schools” projects, released this second in a series of position papers outlining specific policy recommendations aimed at eliminating the racial and ethnic achievement gap in the nation’s public education system (the first paper discussed teacher quality). The paper’s focus is on data-driven accountability. In their recommendations, the new organization supports college and career ready standards and the 10 essential elements promoted by the Data Quality Campaign. Read More…
Performance Management in Portfolio School Districts
This new report, from the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education, provides ideas for “portfolio” school districts that are trying to manage schools for performance. Based on studies of other government agencies and businesses that have shifted from inputs- to performance-based accountability. Portfolio districts see themselves operating some schools in the traditional way, hiring independent groups to run other schools, and holding all schools accountable under the same performance standards. Read More…
Raising Rigor, Getting Results: Lessons Learned from AP Expansion
The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices released this report detailing the results of its Advanced Placement Expansion Project. The project is a large-scale initiative launched in 2005 to "redesign the American high school" in 51 pilot high schools in rural and urban school districts serving minority and low-income students. As the study points out, Advanced Placement (AP) "is the nation's oldest example of a rigorous, common curriculum." Through the NGA program, the number of minority and low-income students taking AP courses more than doubled, and scores of 3 or more (out of 5) accelerated from year to year at a rate higher than the national average. These results were achieved, according to the report, by giving the six participating states a framework for thinking about program and policy changes through three strategies: expanding access to AP courses; building teacher and student capacity; and creating incentives for schools and students. Read More…
This new policy brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education provides recommendations for moving toward a strengthened federal role in preparing students for college and career. The brief makes several recommendations for how policymakers can improve upon NCLB as they begin the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The primary theme is that NCLB incentives need to be reversed — since they currently are too lax where they should be firm and too rigid where they need to be more flexible. Read More…
SAT National and State Reports
On August 25, The College Board released results, both nationwide and by state, of students who took the SAT college entrance exam in 2009. Read More…
State Profiles on Alternate Assessments Based on Alternate Achievement Standards
The Institute of Education Science's (IES) National Center for Special Education Research released this report from the National Study on Alternate Assessments. This report describes individual state approaches to designing and administering alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards, key features of individual state alternate assessments, and student participation and performance data for each state for the 2006–2007 school year. Read More…
The Qualifications and Classroom Performance of Teachers Moving to Charter Schools
The Urban Institute issued this paper, which shows that both high-quality and low-quality teachers migrate to charter schools. The study, based on the migration patterns of all North Carolina public school teachers from 1997 to 2007, found that large numbers of inexperienced and uncertified teachers moved to charter schools. Among certified teachers changing schools, the on-paper qualifications of charter movers were better or no different than the qualifications of teachers moving to comparable mainstream schools. Although teachers moving to charter schools appeared more effective in math and reading instruction than teachers moving to mainstream schools, teachers who moved to charter schools were less effective than non-mobile teachers. Read More…
On August 28, the Association for Career and Technical Education produced this summary of discussions, recommendations, and next steps from its June 2009 National Leadership Forum held in Washington, D.C. One of the key objectives of the event was to explore strategies for boosting the success of career and technical education students in both secondary and postsecondary education, and then find ways to take those strategies to scale through both programmatic and policy initiatives. ACT helped sponsor the event, and workforce division President Martin Scaglione was a panelist. Read More…
The Regional Educational Laboratory at WestEd released this report. Response to intervention (RTI) can be both a system for providing early interventions to struggling students and a special education diagnostic tool for evaluating and identifying students with specific learning disabilities. Contributing to the limited literature on state-level approaches, this report describes how nine states define and support RTI at the state level. Read More…
Toward the Structural Transformation of Schools: Innovations in Staffing
Learning Point Associates produced this paper that calls for states to lead the structural transformation of schooling, beginning with revolutionizing how they think about, prepare, license, deploy, and support educators. This analysis advocates for differentiated staffing and cites research, examples, and case studies. Read More…
This special supplement to The Condition of Education 2009 was issued by the National Center for Education Statistics. It looks at information gathered from recent international studies in which U.S. students have participated: the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). It examines the performance of U.S. students in reading, mathematics, and science compared with the performance of their peers in other countries that participated in PIRLS, PISA, and TIMSS. It identifies which of these countries have outperformed the United States, in terms of students' average scores and the percentage of students reaching internationally benchmarked performance levels, and which countries have done so consistently. Read More…