High-stakes testing is one of the most controversial issues in American education. Advocates contend that these tests encourage students to work harder, provide teachers with a stronger understanding of students' strengths and weaknesses, and allow educators to target failing schools for extra help. Critics claim that they narrow and distort the…

The retention of racial minority students lies at the core of diversity efforts instituted by colleges and universities across the nation. Withstanding the changing racial demographics of the U.S. and the need to have qualified racial minority professionals serving diverse communities retention and matriculation heighten in importance. With the…

Background/Context: Even though not fully realized, in legislation and theory, the requirements of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act and the No Child Left Behind Act have created pressure to address the historical inequity in educational opportunity, achievement, and outcomes, as well as disparities in achievement between…

Based on state and federal statistics, minority students are not being over identified for Special Education, the students in Special Education have a lower dropout rate than the students in general education, and students in Special Education show growth towards closing their learning gap. There are three controversial issues concerning Special…

The 2013 edition of the "Annual Condition of Education Report" provides a rich tapestry of information about Iowa's education system. The data presented in the report examines longitudinal trends about Iowa's students, teachers, and schools from many perspectives. Information such as demographic characteristics, assessment results,…

Research points to many factors that contribute to the achievement gap between white and minority students however; one important issue that is often overlooked is the academic language status of the student. Knowing that lack of familiarity and proficiency in academic English severely limits an individual's chances at academic success…

Undergraduate populations at colleges and universities have become increasingly diverse in recent years, and one of the greatest shifts has been the steadily increasing numbers of first generation college students (FGCS), students whose parents did not attend college. Studies of FGCS have concluded that retention is less likely for FGCS than…

This document is one of eight reports prepared to support the development of a new learning system, a development effort that is the first step in a major initiative undertaken by the Stupski Foundation. The Foundation endeavors to improve the life options of all students, especially underserved urban youth of color, whom we refer to as "Our…

Advancement Via Individualized Determination (AVID) provides middle-achieving, underachieving and socio-economically disadvantaged students in grades 4-12 with success strategies, and rigorous coursework that prepares them for high school graduation and college acceptance. Based on a series of interviews with Latina students who had participated…

The concept of cultural competency, its application, and impact on K-12 learning have not received much attention in the literature. Teachers need to understand the connection between culture and pedagogy when teaching minority and underrepresented students. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine whether the skill sets in…

In 2005, the governors of all 50 states made an unprecedented commitment to voluntarily implement a common, more reliable formula for calculating their state's high school graduation rate by signing the Graduation Counts Compact of the National Governors Association (NGA). Five years later, progress is steady. Twenty-six states say they have…

What does the literature say about effective transition between the high school and post-secondary education? A disturbing number of students leave college without completing their degree or earning the credential they sought. This problem, which is especially acute for poor, minority and rural students, results in a colossal waste of talent,…

In 1999, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began an innovative scholarship program that provides full financial support to low-income minority students across the United States. The Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program has already awarded more than 10,000 scholarships to exceptional students, with the ultimate goal of funding at least…

This dissertation investigates how the intersections of race, class, and gender operate in the everyday teaching and professional norms of middle-class White women teachers--particularly in schools such as the one in this study, where a majority of middle-class, White women teachers serve predominantly low-income, racially and ethnically diverse…

In an era of reductionist approaches to teaching and assessment, this dissertation returns to the fundamental question: "What is the value of writing, particularly poetry writing, in our society today?" The poet's central task, to abstract reality through symbols, requires profound cognitive and emotional work (Vendler, 2004; Steele,…