AERA Research Archive
AERA Research Archive
 
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    Research Finds that High School GPAs Are Stronger Predictors of College Graduation than ACT Scores
Students’ high school grade point averages are five times stronger than their ACT scores at predicting college graduation, according to a new study published in Educational Researcher. Read more
 
       
    Text-based “Nudges” to High School Seniors from School Counselors Boost Financial Aid Filing, College Enrollment
High school seniors who receive texted reminders—or “nudges”—from their school counselors are more likely to complete the college financial aid application process and to enroll in college directly after graduating than their peers who are not nudged, according to a new study published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Read more
       
    Study Finds Relationship between Racial Discipline Disparities 
and Academic Achievement Gaps in U.S. Schools
An increase in either the discipline gap or the academic achievement gap between black and white students in the United States predicts a jump in the other, according to a new study published in AERA Open. Read more
       
  shutterstock_487412065 (1)636644083251519834   Aligning English Language Proficiency Standards With Content Standards
A new study published in Educational Researcher highlights key issues in aligning English language proficiency standards with the academically rigorous and language-intensive disciplinary practices of content standards. Read more
       
   

School Spending Cuts Triggered by Great Recession Linked to Sizable Learning Losses for Students in Hardest Hit Areas
Substantial school spending cuts triggered by the Great Recession were associated with sizable losses in academic achievement for students living in counties most affected by the economic downturn, according to a new study published in AERA Open. Read more
       
    Rookie Mistakes: The Interplay of Teacher Experience and Racial Representation
An article published in Educational Researcher found that while the expectations gap between non-black and black teachers regarding black students’ academic potential persists regardless of experience, the gap is much larger among first year teachers. Read more  
       
    Study: School District Secessions in the South Have Deepened Racial Segregation between School Systems
Since 2000, school district secessions in the South have increasingly sorted white and black students, and white and Hispanic students, into separate school systems, weakening the potential to improve school integration, according to a new study published in AERA Open. Read more
       
    Worsening School Segregation for Latino Children?
Latino children are likely to enter elementary schools this year with fewer white peers than a generation ago, judging by data reported in a new study published in Educational Researcher. Read more
       
    Are All Head Start Classrooms Created Equal? Variation in Classroom Quality Within Head Start Centers and Implications for Accountability Systems
A new study published in the American Educational Research Journal found that the high-stakes accountability policies used to monitor the quality of Head Start preschool centers may miss important variation in classroom quality within centers, which could lead to incorrect representations of center quality and inaccurate decisions about which programs need to re-compete for their funding. Read more
       
    Study Snapshot: Vanished Classmates: The Effects of Local Immigration Enforcement on School Enrollment
A new study published in the American Educational Research Journal found partnerships between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local police departments designed to enforce immigration laws reduced the number of Hispanic students in U.S. public schools in adopting counties by 10 percent after two years. Read more
       
    Study Snapshot: Missed Exams and Lost Opportunities: Who Could Gain from Expanded College Admission Testing? A recent AERA Open study found that universal college admission testing in the state of Virginia could increase the number of high school graduates with test scores competitive for admission at universities in the state by as much as 40 percent—and at the most selective institutions, nearly 20 percent—with larger increases for low-income students. Read more
       
    The Relationship Between Advanced Placement Mathematics Courses and Students’ STEM Career Interest
A new study released in Educational Researcher found that enrolling students in Advanced Placement (AP) mathematics courses may not cause an increase in interest in studying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics. Read more
       
    As Genetic Data Expand, Researchers Urge Caution in How Predictors of Learning and Education Outcomes Are Used
In a review published online in AERA Open, researchers from Stanford University and the University of Cambridge warn that—as the predictive power of genes tied to learning and educational outcomes increases and access to genetic data expands—researchers, educators, and policymakers must be cautious in how they use such data, interpret related findings, and, in the not-too-distant future, apply genetics-informed student interventions. Read more
       
    Study Finds Link between Voter Preference for Trump and Bullying in Middle Schools
A new study published in Educational Researcher found that bullying rates among middle school students in the spring of 2017 were 18 percent higher in localities where voters had favored Donald Trump than in those that had supported Hillary Clinton. Read more
       
    Can Guaranteed Admissions Help Reduce College Undermatching?
A new study published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis found that low-income, highly qualified students are more likely to choose selective universities that match their academic profiles when they know their admission is guaranteed through state automatic admissions policies. Read more
       
    Want to Address School Discipline Disparities? Don’t Ignore Racial and Cultural Differences in the Classroom
A study published online in Review of Educational Research found that discipline disparities may be explained more by the behavior of adults—teachers and principals in schools—than by student misbehavior. Read more
       
    Does More Education Stem Political Violence?
A study in Review of Educational Research found that increasing education levels in the population at all levels of the education system—primary, secondary, and postsecondary—reduces most forms of armed conflict and fosters peace. Read more
       
    Study Finds Elementary School Student Support Leads to Lower High School Dropout
A study published online in AERA Open found that elementary-school students who participated in a comprehensive support intervention in the Boston public school district had about half the odds of dropping out of high school as students not in the intervention Read more 
       
    New Study Examines "Strategic Retention" of Teachers by Effective Principals
A study published online in the American Educational Research Journal found that highly rated principals succeed at keeping high-performing teachers while moving out low performers. 
Read more from American Educational Research Journal
       
   

Advanced Placement: The Dual Challenge of Equal Access and Effectiveness
A new literature review summarizes existing research on whether the AP program has achieved its dual goals of equal access and effectiveness.
Read more from Review of Educational Research
       
    Does Attendance in Private Schools Predict Student Outcomes at Age 15? Evidence from a Longitudinal Study
A longitudinal study examined the extent to which enrollment in private schools between kindergarten and ninth grade was related to students’ academic, social, psychological, and attainment outcomes at ag 15.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
 

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   Hidden Progress of Multilingual Students on NAEP
New research challenges the perception that multilingual students in the United States consistently perform poorly, have shown little academic progress, and are being failed by schools.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
 

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   The Relationship Between Test Item Format and Gender Achievement Gaps on Math and ELA Tests in Fourth and Eighth Grade
In this study, the authors investigate the test item format and its relationship to gender achievement gaps on math and ELA tests in fourth and eighth grade.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    Linking the Timing of Career and Technical Education Coursetaking With High School Dropout and College-Going Behavior
In this study, the authors investigate the impact of CTE courses on high school dropout and on-time graduation.
Read more from American Educational Research Journal
       
    The Costs and Consequences of Excess Credit Hours Policies
In this study, the authors investigate state-adopted excess credit hour policies on student completion and median debt outcomes.
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    Linking Getting to School With Going to School
In this study, the author investigates whether the way in which students get to school might influence if they go to school
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    Changes in Income-based Gaps in Parent Activities with Young Children from 1988-2012
In this study, the authors investigate whether the socioeconomic gap in parenting has increased over time. 
Read more from AERA Open
       
    A Research Synthesis of the Associations Between Socioeconomic Background, Inequality, School Climate, and Academic Achievement
In this study, the authors find that supportive school and classroom climates can positively influence the academic outcomes of students, thus potentially reducing academic achievement gaps between students and schools of different socioeconomic status backgrounds.
Read more from Review of Educational Research
       
    ELL_AP_500   Do Top Dogs Rule in Middle School? Evidence on Bullying, Safety, and Belonging
In this study, the authors find that grade span affects academic achievement, but only speculates about the mechanisms.
Read more from American Educational Research Journal
       
    Recent Trends in Income, Racial, and Ethnic School Readiness Gaps at Kindergarten Entry
In this study, the authors find that readiness gaps narrowed modestly from 1998-2010, particularly between high- and low-income students and between white and Hispanic students.
Read more from AERA Open
       
    Socioeconomic Gaps in Early Childhood Experiences, 1998 to 2010
In this study, the authors compare early life experiences of kindergarteners in 1998 and 2010. 
Read more from AERA Open
       
    The Politics of Achievement Gaps: U.S. Public Opinion on Race-Based and Wealth-Based Differences in Test Scores
In this study, the authors find that Americans are more concerned about—and more supportive of proposals to close—wealth-based achievement gaps than Black-White gaps.
Read more from the Educational Researcher
       
    Should Students Assessed as Needing Remedial Mathematics Take College-Level Quantitative Courses Instead? A Randomized Controlled Trial
In this study, the authors investigate how policies allowing students to take college-level instead of remedial quantitative courses can increase student success.
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    Evaluating Teacher Preparation Using Graduates' Observational Ratings
In this study, the authors investigate the potential for using observational ratings of program completers to evaluate teacher education programs.
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    Inequalities in Parental Spending on Young Children: 1972-2010
In this study, the author found that spending on child care and learning enrichment goods for children younger than 6 has grown significantly among the wealthiest U.S. households since the 1970s, while it has stagnated for all other income groups.
Read more from AERA Open
       
    A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Interventions Aimed to Prevent or Reduce Violence in Teen Dating Relationships
In this study, the authors provide a quantitative synthesis of empirical evaluations of school-based programs implemented in middle and high schools that sought to prevent or reduce incidents of dating violence.
Read more from Review of Education Research
       
    Science Achievement Gaps Begin Very Early, Persist, and Are Largely Explained by Modifiable Factors
In this study, the authors examined the age of onset, over-time dynamics, and mechanisms underlying science achievement gaps in U.S. elementary and middle schools.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    Public Pre-K and Test-Taking for the NYC Gifted and Talented Programs: Forging a Path to Equity
In this study, the authors used proprietary data made available to them by the NYC Department of Education, and showed that substantial disparities exist in the rates of gifted-and-talented admission test taking, the first step in the process of accessing these more challenging educational opportunities.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    Discretion and Disproportionality: Explaining the Underrepresentation of High-Achieving Students of Color in Gifted Programs
In this study, the authors found that when black students are taught by a black classroom teacher, the racial gap in gifted assignment largely disappears.
Read more from AERA Open
       
    Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?
In a new study published in AERA Open, the authors compared kindergarten and first grade classrooms between 1998 and 2010. They found that over a 12-year period, kindergarten classes have become increasingly like first grade.
Read more from AERA Open
       
    Does College Teach Critical Thinking? A Meta-Analysis
In this study, the authors analyzed 71 research reports published over the past 48 years, to determine how successful four-year colleges are at teaching students critical thinking.
Read more from Review of Educational Research.
       
    The Role of Schooling in Perpetuating Educational Inequality: An International Perspective
In this paper, student-level indicators of opportunity to learn (OTL) included in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment are used to explore the joint relationship of OTL and socioeconomic status (SES) to student mathematics literacy.
Read more from Educational Researcher.
       
    Study Finds Causal Connection between Genotypes Related to Educational Attainment and Years of Education Achieved
A first-of-its-kind, nationally representative study of siblings finds that, within families, an adolescent with a higher “polygenic score”—which summarizes previously identified genome-wide associations for educational attainment—than her or his sibling tended to go on to complete more years of schooling. 
Read more from AERA Open.
       
    Minorities Are Disproportionately Underrepresented in Special Education: Longitudinal Evidence Across Five Disability Conditions
Researchers investigated whether minority children attending U.S. elementary and middle schools are disproportionately represented in special education.
Read more from Educational Researcher.
       
    Measurement Matters: Assessing Personal Qualities Other Than Cognitive Ability for Educational Purposes
This article systematically reviews what is known empirically about the association between executive function and student achievement in both reading and math and critically assesses the evidence for a causal association between the two. 
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
 
  The Potential for School-Based Interventions That Target Executive Function to Improve Academic Achievement: A Review
Despite growing enthusiasm about the potential of school-based executive function interventions to significantly increase student achievement, a federally funded meta-analysis finds no conclusive evidence that developing students’ executive function skills leads to better academic performance. 
Read more from Review of Educational Research
       
    Impact of North Carolina’s Early Childhood Initiatives on Special Education Placements in Third Grade
This study examines the community-wide effects of investments in two early childhood initiatives in North Carolina (Smart Start and More at Four) on the likelihood of a student being placed into special education. 
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    Evaluating the Impacts of "New" Performance Funding in Higher Education
In 2007, Washington adopted the Student Achievement Initiative, a statewide performance accountability system designed to improve retention rates and degree productivity among community colleges. 
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    Patterns and Trends in Grade Retention Rates in the United States, 1995–2010
Although grade retention may be consequential for a number of important educational and socioeconomic outcomes, we know surprisingly little about the actual rate at which students are made to repeat grades.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    Labor Market Returns to Sub-Baccalaureate Credentials: How Much Does a Community College Degree or Certificate Pay?
Short-term certificate programs at community colleges offer limited labor-market returns, on average, in most fields of study. 
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
 
The findings expose the way in which ELLs’ chances for rigorous academic preparation are systematically reduced and point to the importance of providing ELLs with high-level academic curriculum while also supplying linguistic scaffolding that makes such learning possible.		   ‘‘I’m Not Going to Be, Like, for the AP’’: English Language Learners’ Limited Access to Advanced College-Preparatory Courses in High School
Findings expose the way in which ELLs’ chances for rigorous academic preparation are systematically reduced and point to the importance of providing ELLs with high-level academic curriculum while also supplying linguistic scaffolding that makes such learning possible.
Read more from American Educational Research Journal
       
  Latino EL students enrolled in two-language programs are reclassified at a slower pace in elementary school but have higher overall reclassification, English proficiency, and academic threshold passage by the end of high school.   Reclassification Patterns Among Latino English Learner Students in Bilingual, Dual Immersion, and English Immersion Classrooms
Latino EL students enrolled in two-language programs are reclassified at a slower pace in elementary school but have higher overall reclassification, English proficiency, and academic threshold passage by the end of high school. 
Read more from American Educational Research Journal
       
    Facts Are More Important Than Novelty: Replication in the Education Sciences
Although replicating important findings is essential for helping education research improve its usefulness to policymakers and practitioners, less than one percent of the articles published in the top education research journals are replication studies.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    College Selectivity and Degree Completion
Using multi-level models and propensity score matching methods to reduce selection bias, selectivity, measured by a college’s average SAT score, was found not to have an independent effect on graduation.
Read more from American Educational Research Journal
       
  course graduation requirements   Intended and Unintended Effects of State-Mandated High School Science and Mathematics Course Graduation Requirements on Educational Attainment
Raising state-mandated math and science course graduation requirements may increase high school dropout rates without a meaningful effect on college enrollment or degree attainment.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
  Which Instructional Practices Most Help First-Grade Students With and Without Mathematics Difficulties?   Which Instructional Practices Most Help First-Grade Students With and Without Mathematics Difficulties?
First-grade teachers in the United States may need to change their instructional practices if they are to raise the mathematics achievement of students with mathematics difficulties.
Read more in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    The Test-Optional Movement at America’s Selective Liberal Arts Colleges: A Boon for Equity or Something Else?
The test-optional movement in the United States emerged largely in response to criticism of standardized admissions tests as inadequate and potentially biased measures of postsecondary promise.
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    Estimating the Effects of No Child Left Behind on Teachers and Their Work Environment
The conventional wisdom that No Child Left Behind has eroded teacher job satisfaction and commitment is off the mark, according to new research. 
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    Inaccurate Estimation of Disparities Due to Mischievous Responders: Several Suggestions to Assess Conclusions
New data analysis procedures may help minimize the impact of "mischievous responders," according to research published in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of AERA.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    Instructional Alignment as a Measure of Teaching Quality
Researchers found weak to nonexistent relationships between state-administered value-added model measures of teacher performance and the content or quality of teachers’ instruction.
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    The Community College Route to the Bachelor’s Degree
Students who begin their postsecondary education at a community college and successfully transfer to a four-year college have BA graduation rates equal to similar students who begin at four-year colleges, according to this article.
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    Promoting Human Capital Development: A Typology of International Scholarship Programs in Higher Education
This article sheds light on the availability and characteristics of international scholarship programs that are sponsored by national and federal governments worldwide and that are intended to promote student mobility.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    Efficacy of the Responsive Classroom Approach: Results From a 3-Year, Longitudinal Randomized Controlled Trial
Classroom programs designed to improve elementary school students’ social and emotional skills can also increase reading and math achievement, even if academic improvement is not a direct goal of the skills building.
Read more from American Educational Research Journal
       
    New Evidence on Teacher Labor Supply
Recent evidence on the large variance in teacher effectiveness has spurred interest in teacher labor markets. 
Read more from American Educational Research Journal
       
    Conceptual and Methodological Problems in Research on College Undermatch
This article identifies three problematic assumptions in research on undermatching, a popular explanation for the phenomenon of students in the lowest income quartile constituting less than 4% of enrollment at the nation's most selective colleges.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    True for Your School? How Changing Reputations Alter Demand for Selective U.S. Colleges
Rankings published annually by the Princeton Review and U.S. News and World Report and their effects on the number of applications colleges receive are examined.
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    Learning to Think Critically: A Visual Art Experiment
This article examines whether exposure to the arts has an effect on the ability of students to engage in critical thinking.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    Diversity ≠ Inclusion: Promoting Integration in Higher Education
Marta Tienda argues that enrollment of a diverse student body is but a pragmatic first step toward the broader social goal of inclusion and ask whether motives for campus diversification are aligned with pedagogic goals.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    Professional Development Research: Consensus, Crossroads, and Challenges
Commentaries regarding appropriate methods for researching professional development have been a frequent topic in recent issues of Educational Researcher as well as other venues.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    Organized Interests and the Common Core
Among the notable aspects of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is the diverse array of interest groups supporting them.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    The Past and Likely Future of an Educational Form: A Textbook Case
At a time when it is seen as increasingly “obsolete,” this article analyzes the textbook as an evolving pedagogical form,as a changing medium comprised of smaller media components. 
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
    State Bans on Affirmative Action Have Spillover Effect on Adjacent States
In the first empirically driven snapshot of affirmative action at the national level, researchers discover that state bans on affirmative action in college admission have a spillover effect on neighboring states without highly selective colleges.
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    The Effects of Student Coaching - An Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Advising
"College graduation rates often lag behind college attendance rates. One theory as to why students do not complete college is that they lack key information about how to be successful or fail to act on the information that they have."
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
 
    Dramatic, Unexpected Shift in Faculty Retirement Behavior
"Sixty percent of faculty no longer subject to mandatory retirement are expected to remain employed beyond age 70 and 15 percent will retire at age 80 or over," far higher rates than projected by the National Research Council two decades ago.
Read more from Educational Researcher
       
 
 		   Summer Reading Programs Make a Difference, Especially for Low-Income Students
"Children who participated in [summer reading programs at school or at home] enjoyed significant improvement on multiple reading outcomes," with "significantly larger benefits for children from low-income backgrounds."
Read more from Review of Educational Research
       
    School-based "College Coaches" Show Promise at Closing Enrollment Gaps for Underserved Students
Students at coach schools were significantly more likely to attend less selective 4-year colleges [than 2-year colleges], which have much higher graduation rates than 2-year colleges, and they were more likely to enroll in college."
Read more from Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
       
    Grade Inflation: Fact or Fiction?
"Contrary to much of the existing literature, we find virtually no support for the existence of grade inflation in secondary or postsecondary education."
Read more from Educational Researcher