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.
Closing Gaps ArchiveMany students are on academic paths that, if continued, will not lead to college and career readiness at high school graduation. Academic preparation gaps exist for these students because what they are learning in K-12 may not accurately prepare them for college or skilled careers. These resources contain information on the relationship between early academic preparation and later student success, on identifying and monitoring students’ academic preparation gaps, and on the success of schools and school systems in closing these gaps.
Chasing the College Acceptance Letter: Is It Harder to Get into College?
This report from the Center for Public Education finds that if students are well prepared in high school by earning the right credentials, they will get into a good college. That means students should earn decent grades, take college-preparatory courses, and perform well on their college entrance exams. A higher GPA isn’t the key to improving students’ chances. Better college entrance exam scores and, more importantly, more rigorous courses, will. The credentials earned by students from low-income families lag behind students from higher-income backgrounds. If high schools significantly improve the college preparedness of minority and low-income students, the college-going gap that still exists between students based on family characteristics could shrink. Read More…
Gauging the Gaps: A Deeper Look at Student Achievement
The Education Trust released this new report that reveals the pitfalls of measuring achievement gaps just one way. It lists four measures to more accurately assess gaps: simple gap narrowing, progress for all, gap size, and group comparisons across jurisdictions. For instance, comparing the performance of the same group of students across jurisdictions can reveal striking differences in performance. The report suggests that Florida stands near the top of all states -- along with Delaware, Massachusetts and Texas -- in making the most progress in closing the achievement gap among races. Read More…
Progress and Gaps in College Preparation Policy
This brief paper from the Education Commission of the States, by Michael Kirst of Stanford University, suggests that action beyond agenda setting and policy discussions has been shallow and limited in aligning secondary and postsecondary education. The paper looks at four state policy levers that were developed by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education in 2005 and assesses the progress of each among the states. Read More…
This report from the Center on Education Policy examines testing data from all 50 states to determine if achievement gaps between subgroups of students are narrowing. The report also looks at the achievement trends of subgroups of students at the elementary school level. It finds that student achievement gaps for minority and low-income students have narrowed across all grade levels and subjects in 74 percent of all trend lines between 2002 and 2008. Despite this progress, achievement gaps continue to be a challenge. The report describes overall achievement trends and gap trends among African American, Latino, and Native American students and their white and Asian counterparts, and between low-income students and those who are not low income. Read More…
The Evaluation of Enhanced Academic Instruction in After-School Programs
This report from MDRC presents two-year implementation and impact findings on two supplemental academic instruction approaches developed for after-school settings—one for math and one for reading. It addresses whether one-year impacts are different in the second year of program operations and whether students benefit from being offered two years of enhanced after-school academic instruction. Read More…
This policy brief from the Education and the Public Interest Center under the University of Colorado at Boulder’s school of education examines the benefits of moving toward heterogeneous grouping of students. Unlike the Fordham study above, this brief finds that "detracking" classes can benefit higher-achieving students. For many years, education researchers have documented the negative effects of curricular stratification -- the practice of grouping students into different classes by perceived ability. This brief argues that the primary research focus is shifting toward implementing reforms -- moving toward heterogeneous grouping. Learning from schools that have abolished curricular stratification and promoted outstanding student achievement, this brief highlights lessons and offers recommendations for changing policy and practice. Read More…
This report from the Consortium on Chicago School Research and the National High School Center indicates that freshman year course performance—more than background characteristics such as race, gender, socioeconomic status or prior achievement—predicts which students with disabilities are most at risk for dropping out of high school. The report found that absences, course failures, course credits and GPA can all be used to accurately predict whether ninth-graders with disabilities will graduate from high school. Read More…
This detailed study from the National Bureau of Economic Research identifies the bulk of the decline on the change in the types of institutions students are attending. The study suggests that the shift of a greater proportion of first-time college students to community colleges and non-flagship publics, as well as the declining per-student resources of those institutions, have driven down completion rates. Higher education officials often attribute the last few decades' decline in the college completion rate on high schools, arguing that students are inadequately prepared as freshmen. Read More…