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.
Goals and Standards ArchiveThese resources highlight the need for learning goals to include more rigorous content standards, which accurately describe what students should learn in specific grades and subjects. As well as the performance standards that indicate whether students are learning enough to be on track to graduate from high school ready for college and skilled careers.
College- and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
The Education Sector released this policy brief on how to measure whether a student is college- and career-ready. Policy Analyst Chad Aldeman argues that the best way to measure whether students are prepared for college or a career is by looking at what actually happens when students arrive at their intended destination. The report suggests ways states can use existing data systems to create richer, more multi-dimensional measures of high school success. Read More…
Common Data Standards Project - Statement of Purpose
The Council of Chief State School Officers and the State Higher Education Executive Officers jointly issued this statement outlining their effort to collaborate with their members, the U.S. Department of Education, and national educational entities toward the development of model data standards for K-12 and postsecondary education. The goal of this collaborative effort is to leverage and create model data standards that will attract widespread, voluntary adoption and ultimately enhance policy-making and student achievement. Initially, the project will focus on data related to the transition from high school to postsecondary education. Read More…
Common Standards: The Time is Now
This issue brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education says that the state-led common standards movement, which will raise expectations for all students no matter where they live, is sorely needed. The brief notes that states vary widely in the expectations to which they hold their students--a situation that is especially harmful to low-income and minority students. It outlines the need for common standards that are rigorous, clear, and focused and suggests ways that common standards will help lay the foundation for a stronger education system that will prepare all students for college and careers. Read More…
Defining a 21st Century Education
This report from the Center for Public Education, authored by Craig Jerald, describes the corporate, economic, political, cultural and demographic trends that have put U.S. students at a disadvantage, and explains how teachers can adapt what they already teach, the content knowledge and literary and math skills that everyone needs, to help students think critically, collaborate with others, solve new problems and adapt to change. It was released a few months ago, but continues to have impact on this topic. Read More…
Focusing on the Essentials for College and Career Readiness
This policy brief highlights findings of the ACT National Curriculum Survey 2009 that are particularly relevant to current education policy efforts. Key findings of the survey are highlighted, followed by the implications of these findings for education policy and practice. The final section of the policy brief presents action steps suggested by the findings and implications. The ACT National Curriculum Survey, conducted every 3 to 5 years, collects data about what entering college students should know and be able to do to be ready for college-level coursework. Read More…
Mapping State Proficiency Standards onto NAEP Scales: 2005–2007
The National Center for Education Statistics released this report looking at the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) as a common yardstick to compare the rigor of state proficiency standards. The study shows the range of difference in state proficiency standards in reading and mathematics and whether states have changed the rigor of their standards. Academic standards became less rigorous from 2005 to 2007 in a majority of states. Read More…
Math in American High Schools: The Delusion of Rigor
This brief paper from the American Enterprise Institute looks at trends in high school math that show the disconnect between the rigor of the math education that high schools claim to be delivering and the quality of the math education that students are actually receiving as measured by assessment data. Read More…
Mind the (Other) Gap: The Growing Excellence Gap in K-12 Education
The Center for Evaluation and Education Policy takes a look at excellence gaps for top students. Academic gaps between girls and boys, between white students and disadvantaged minority students, between poor students and their better-off peers, and between English-language learners and their English-speaking counterparts have only widened, stagnated, or declined by a hair since the late 1990s. Read More…
Public School Graduates and Dropouts From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2006–07
The National Center for Education Statistics provides this first-look report on the number of high school graduates, the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR), and dropout data for grades 9 through 19 for public schools in the 2006–2007 school year. It estimates that 73.9 percent of students received a diploma. These statistics are calculated using three years of student enrollment data to estimate percent of students receiving a regular diploma within four years. AFGR is not as accurate as an on-time graduation rate calculated from actual data about a specific group of students collected over four years, or the calculation that will be required under new regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Education in October 2008. It does allow for comparisons across states and over time. Read More…
Public School Graduates and Dropouts From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2006–07
The National Center for Education Statistics released this report on high school graduation rates, reinforcing other studies that show the seriousness of the nation’s dropout crisis. The nation’s graduation rate averaged 73.9 percent. In state-by-state rankings, Nevada’s overall graduation rate was at the bottom of the scale (52%) and Vermont was at the top (88.6%). Read More…
Quality Counts 2010: Fresh Course, Swift Current
This annual report by Education Week and Editorial Projects in Education Research Center is a comprehensive assessment of the state of American education, evaluating the nation, all 50 states, and the District of Columbia across six areas of policy and performance. The special theme of this year's edition examines the national debate over common academic standards. Through a combination of journalism and analysis, the report investigates the challenges that current initiatives pose for administrators, educators, and state and local officials. Read More…
Stars By Which To Navigate: Scanning National and International Education Standards in 2009
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute released this report as an interim analysis, from a panel of experts, of the content and rigor underlying the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) of the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers. Using the same criteria, the same experts also reviewed the reading/writing and mathematics frameworks of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP); the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS); and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Read More…
Staying in School Arts Education and New York City High School Graduation Rates
The Center for Arts Education looked at the relationship between school-based arts education and high school graduation rates in New York City public schools. The findings suggest that the arts play a key role in keeping students in high school and graduating on time. Analyzing data from more than 200 New York City schools over a two-year period, this report shows that schools in the top third in graduation rates offered their students the most access to arts education and the most resources that support arts education. Schools in the bottom third consistently offered the least access and fewest resources. This pattern held true for nine key indicators that convey a school’s commitment to arts education. Read More…
STEM Coursetaking Among High School Graduates, 1990 – 2005
This Research Brief from MPR Associates uses data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) High School Transcript Study (HSTS) to examine student course taking in STEM subjects during high school. It compares STEM course taking among the 2005 HSTS cohort, the most recent data currently available, with that of the 1990 and 2000 HSTS cohorts. The study suggests positive gains have been made in STEM subjects that are considered important to U.S. competitiveness. In 2005, students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics earned more credits in STEM subjects than their counterparts in 1990. Read More…
The Condition of College Readiness 2009
This new ACT annual research publication takes a close look at the college readiness of the 2009 graduating students who took the ACT. This report provides a series of graphical pictures highlighting the college readiness of the ACT-tested students. It seeks to answer the question of how college ready are the ACT-tested high school graduates? It contains analysis of: student access and preparation; student academic performance; student college readiness; student educational/career aspirations and state economic development; and the policies and practices to increase college readiness. Read More…
The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics 2009
The results of the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress in mathematics for fourth and eighth grades were released on October 14 and showed that mathematics scores were up since 2007 at grade 8, but unchanged at grade 4. The upward trend for eighth-graders continued with a 2-point increase from 2007 to 2009. Read More…
The National High School Center released a new report to guide educators in collecting and analyzing valuable student achievement data that can help them determine if and how high school interventions for underprepared students are working to effectively prepare them for college and careers. Authored by our own Chrys Dougherty at the National Center for Educational Achievement, (NCEA is a partner in the National High School Center), the report discusses research on the relationship between students' academic preparation gaps in eighth grade and their likelihood of achieving college- and career-readiness by the end of high school. It also explores the datasets that state and local education agencies can create as a way to evaluate the benefits of interventions for students at varying achievement levels, and provides direction for high schools and districts once they obtain student data. Read More…