Background: In recent years, Asian Americans have been consistently described as a model minority. The high levels of educational achievement and educational attainment are the main determinants for identifying Asian Americans as a model minority. Nonetheless, only a few studies have examined empirically the accomplishments of Asian Americans, and…

More than one-fifth of the nation's public school students are Latino. By 2025, the share of Latino children is projected to increase to nearly 3 in 10 school-age children (Fry & Passel, 2009). The fast-growing Latino student population will shape the nation's future, so it is critical that these students are well-prepared for college,…

This article presents a study of ethnic Differential Item Functioning (DIF) for 4th-, 7th-, and 10th-grade reading items on a state criterion-referenced achievement test. The tests, administered 1997 to 2001, were composed of multiple-choice and constructed-response items. Item performance by focal groups (i.e., students from Asian/Pacific Island,…

Last year, Hispanic and African American high school graduates met ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks in English, reading, mathematics, and science at substantially lower rates than did Asian and White graduates. For example, the rate of White graduates who were college ready in English (77%) was twice that of their African American peers (35%).…

A main goal of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is to close gaps in test scores between different groups of students while raising achievement for all groups. Of particular concern are the persistent achievement gaps between African American, Latino, and Native American students and their white and Asian counterparts, and between students from…

Achieve3000®, a web-based differentiated reading program based on the Lexile® Framework and designed to improve student reading ability and comprehension of increasingly complex texts, was made available to approximately 100,000 secondary students across 98 HISD schools during the 2017-2018 academic year. The present evaluation, using a select…

"Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups" examines the educational progress and challenges of students in the United States by race/ethnicity. This report shows that over time, the numbers of students of each race/ethnicity who have completed high school and continued their education in college have increased.…

Prior research has demonstrated gaps in the academic success of college student subgroups defined by race/ethnicity, income, and gender. We studied trends over time in the success of students in these subgroups in particular first-year college courses: English Composition I, College Algebra, social science courses, and Biology. The study is based…

Two schools in Michigan received ARRA SIG (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act School Improvement Grants) funds to enable them to implement their improvement efforts. This paper describes the outcomes of these two ARRA SIG recipient schools: (1) Phoenix Elementary-Middle School; and (2) Arthur Hill High School. The experiences of these…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in South Dakota for 2010. South Dakota's demographic profile is such that, with the exception of Native American students, there are fewer than 500 students in the racial/ethnic subgroups at the various grade levels, and therefore these groups are too small to count for this…

The District's demographics are such that achievement trends could only be determined for African American, male and female, and low income subgroups. In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Washington, DC students showed gains in both reading and math at the basic, proficient, and advanced levels…

From helping to achieve economic well-being to constructing a sense of self, literacy plays a central role in how people interact with each other and with the world around them (Phelps, 2005). The importance of being literate has only increased over the decades and stands to become even more important in the future. Fifty years ago, an abundance…

This year the Center on Education Policy (CEP) analyzed data on the achievement of different groups of students in two distinct ways. First, it looked at grade 4 test results to determine whether the performance of various groups improved at three achievement levels--basic and above, proficient and above, and advanced. Second, it looked at gaps…

The persistent and significant achievement gap between black and Latino students and their white and Asian counterparts at Evanston (Illinois) Township High School (ETHS) has existed for as long as anyone can remember. Stories real and apocryphal abound about the institutional barriers that have denied fairness and opportunity for minority…

Georgia has made some changes in its testing program in recent years. As a result, trend data were only available for reading in grades 4 and 8 from 2006 through 2009, and only at the proficient and advanced levels. In math, data were only available for the high school level from 2004 through 2009. Achievement data for low income students were…