Education Commission of the States (ECS) reviewed legislation in the 50 states to see how state leaders are responding to concerns about concussions in youth sports. This report reviews state responses to concussion concerns, and provides examples of provisions put in place by California, Connecticut, and Texas. Three emerging innovations are…

In the U.S., only 38 of every 100 ninth graders enroll in college; of these 38, only 18 complete bachelors' degrees within six years. Asynchronous learning networks (ALN)--asynchronous, highly interactive, instructor-led, resource-rich, cohort-based learning--can yield high success rates. Growing demand for online education and the expectation…

While the majority of U.S students are children of color, only 20% of teachers are people of color. What's more, 40% of the nation's public schools do not have a single teacher of color on record. Research shows that all students, regardless of race or ethnicity, benefit socially, emotionally, and academically from a diverse teacher workforce.…

Over the last decade the 21st Century Community Learning Center program (21st CCLC) funded by the U.S. Department of Education has served over 100,000 Texas students annually in after-school centers. Approximately 779 local Texas 21st CCLC programs served students from over 800 schools during the 2012-13, and/or 2013-14 academic years. Statewide…

The National Math + Science Initiative (NMSI) is a nonprofit organization committed to improving educational outcomes that traces its roots back to the early 1990s. NMSI's College Readiness Program (CRP) is a long-standing program with the goal of promoting STEM education in high schools to improve students' preparation for college. The three-year…

This report contends that programs teaching teenagers to "just say no" to sex before marriage are threatening adolescent health by censoring basic information about how to prevent HIV/AIDS. The report focuses on federally funded "abstinence-only-until-marriage" programs in Texas, where advertising campaigns convey the message…

In December 2012, the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation (TG) released a report outlining an unexpected set of conclusions. Citing data from the U.S. Department of Education's Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) study, the report found that, among students who earned bachelor's degrees during the 2007-2008 academic year (AY) and borrowed…

This Statistics in Brief describes the undergraduate experiences of students who immigrated to the United States or who had at least one immigrant parent (second-generation Americans). The analysis compares these two groups with all undergraduates (excluding foreign students) and with third-or higher generation American undergraduates whose…

The purpose of this study was to examine trends in special education referrals brought about by Response to Intervention (RTI) and to explore how those trends compared with the self-reported data of special education directors and evaluation staff. The significant points reflected in the literature to support this research include legislative…

Except for Mexico, there are now more Latino-origin people in the U.S. than there are people in Spain, Argentina, Colombia, or any other Spanish-speaking country. In fact, the nation is experiencing the greatest demographic transformation in the last 100 years of its history. As former schoolteachers of immigrant children in Texas and California,…

The primary purpose of this mixed-methods study was two-fold: first, to assess diabetes knowledge, attitudes, disease management and self efficacy among a sample of Mexican American (MA) and Mexican-Native (MN) adults living in North Texas; and second, to determine factors which promote or deter diabetes prevention and management using…

The University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT-Dallas) was conceived 10 years ago as a public institution along tried-and-true lines--a comprehensive metropolitan university meant to serve a diverse student population and to improve the economic outlook of a part of the city that prosperity has left behind. But that was before management consultants…

The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) has stated that "the overall achievement goal for American students is performance that qualifies at the Proficient level or higher" (Loomis & Bourke, 2001, p. 2). The Institute for Educational Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education went even further, "The Proficient level…

The "Connected Mathematics Project" ("CMP)" is a problem-centered mathematics curriculum designed for all students in grades 6-8. Each grade level of the curriculum is a full-year program and covers numbers, algebra, geometry/measurement, probability, and statistics. The program seeks to make connections within mathematics,…

Texas's Project RIO (Re-Integration of Offenders), which was developed in cooperation with the National Institute of Justice, National Institute of Corrections, and U.S. Department of Education's Office of Correctional Education, began in 1985 as a two-city pilot program to place parolees in jobs. Project RIO has since expanded steadily and now…