Kindergarten through 12th grade school administrators and educators are tasked with the challenge of ensuring every student is consistently attending school. Balfanz and Byrnes (2012) and Henderson et al. (2014) stated that either students cannot attend school because of multiple factors, students will not attend, or students do not attend because…

Educators at all levels care deeply about helping students succeed academically, graduate on time, and emerge from school well prepared for college and careers. Today's emphasis on holding schools accountable for failure--while necessary--is at best a means to an end. Findings from local and statewide accountability systems can help state…

While the adjusted cohort graduation rate of students in the United States has reached 80 percent during the 2011-12 school year (Stetser & Stillwell, 2014), in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) only 57% of its students graduate from high school in four years, which is typical of large urban school districts (Swanson, 2009). Moreover,…

This fourth annual update on America's high school dropout crisis shows that for the first time the nation is on track to meet the goal of a 90 percent high school graduation rate by the Class of 2020--if the pace of improvement from 2006 to 2010 is sustained over the next 10 years. The greatest gains have occurred for the students of color and…

In 2010, the authors shared a Civic Marshall Plan to create a Grad Nation. Through that first report and subsequent update, they saw hopeful signs of progress in boosting high school graduation rates in communities across the country. This 2012 report shows that high school graduation rates continue to improve nationally and across many states and…

This 2012 report shows that high school graduation rates continue to improve nationally and across many states and school districts, with 12 states accounting for the majority of new graduates over the last decade. Tennessee and New York continue to lead the nation with double-digit gains in high school graduation rates over the same period. The…

This fifth annual update on America's high school dropout crisis shows that, for the first time in history, the nation has crossed the 80 percent high school graduation rate threshold and remains on pace, for the second year in a row, to meet the goal of a 90 percent high school graduation rate by the Class of 2020. This report highlights key…

This report examines the postsecondary majors and teaching certifications of middle grades teachers in public schools in selected subject areas by using data from the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a sample survey of elementary and secondary schools in the United States that collects data on American public and private…

The mathematics achievement levels of U.S. students fall far behind those of other developed nations; within the United States itself, the students who are falling behind come predominantly from high-poverty and high-minority areas. This article reports on a series of analyses that followed 4 cohorts of students from 3 such schools through the 5th…

This article considers the practical, conceptual, and empirical foundations of an early identification and intervention system for middle-grades schools to combat student disengagement and increase graduation rates in our nation's cities. Many students in urban schools become disengaged at the start of the middle grades, which greatly reduces the…

This article reports on the first 4 years of an effort to develop comprehensive and sustainable mathematics education reforms in high poverty middle schools. In four related analyses, we examine the levels of implementation achieved and impact of the reforms on various measures of achievement in the first 3 schools to implement the Talent…

Two developers of the Talent Development Middle School model discuss 10 lessons from implementing, refining, and evaluating this model in 5 high-poverty middle schools in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and describe obstacles encountered and breakthroughs experienced in developing the knowledge base, materials, and infrastructure of the model. (SLD)

In Talent Development Middle Schools, students needing extra help in mathematics participate in the Computer- and Team-Assisted Mathematics Acceleration (CATAMA) course. CATAMA is an innovative combination of computer-assisted instruction and structured cooperative learning that students receive in addition to their regular math course for about…

The Talent Development Model of Middle School Reform includes a "Student Team Literature" (STL) program that relies on: (1) curricular materials designed to assist students to study great literature; (2) recommended instructional practices, peer assistance processes, and assessments; and (3) staff development, mentoring, and advising to…

Two studies evaluated the Computer- and Team-Assisted Mathematics Acceleration course (CATAMA) in Talent Development Middle Schools. The first study compared growth in math achievement for 96 seventh-graders (48 of whom participated in CATAMA and 48 of whom did not); the second study gathered data from interviews with, and observations of, CATAMA…