Keep up-to-date with the latest education studies with these recently released reports.
Dropout Prevention Services and Programs in Public School Districts: 2010–11. National Center for Education Statistics. (September 2011). This recent study looked at 1,200 different school districts' dropout prevention programs. The school districts shared their plans and data on what they were doing to combat dropout rates, such as early graduation options, tutoring, and self-paced courses. The study also found that districts that offered career and technical training had lower dropout rates among their at-risk students.
Making Afterschool Programs Better. National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. (2011). This study examined the effect of after-school programs on the rapidly rising number of students enrolled in them. Around 8.4 million students are in some sort of after-school programs, and the research concludes that these programs are beneficial to academic performance and social skills. The study found that the students in these programs generally performed better on standardized tests.
Neighborhood Effects in Temporal Perspective: The Impact of Long-Term Exposure to Concentrated Disadvantage on High School Graduation. American Sociological Review. (September 2011). After studying the influence of life in disadvantaged neighborhoods and its effects on high school graduation rate, the authors found that it is much more severe than previously reported. They conclude that growing up in the most disadvantaged areas reduces the chances of graduation to 76 percent for black students and 87 percent for nonblack students.
STEM Learning in Afterschool: An Analysis of Impact and Outcomes. Afterschool Alliance. (September 2011). This study makes the case that students need to be ready for the "STEM literate workforce," and good after-school STEM-focused programs can help them develop these skills. The research notes that students spend less than 20 percent of their waking hours in school, so access to quality after-school programs is important. This is especially true in the cases of nonwhite blacks and Hispanics who overwhelmingly participate in such programs.
State Test Score Trends Through 2008–9, Part 5: Progress Lags in High Schools, Especially for Advanced Achievers. Center for Education Policy. (October 2011). Data from 40 states and the District of Columbia revealed that English and math test scores rose between 2002 and 2008 in most states. However, scores did not increase in high school as much as in 4th and 8th grades. Research also shows that there are widening achievement gaps between different racial groups in high schools.
When the Best Is Mediocre. Education Next. (Winter 2012). This study debunks the theory that wealthy neighborhoods produce world-class schools. Although many elite school districts may excel, especially when compared to districts serving poorer neighborhoods, the results are mediocre when compared to many international peers. The authors created the Global Report Card that shows the average performance of several U.S. districts compared to average schools internationally.
