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• Public school pre-K students were promoted on-time to first grade at higher rates. • Pre-K attendees experienced less school mobility from kindergarten to first grade. • ELL students who attended public school pre-K were more likely to exit ELL status. • Sorting into kindergarten classrooms partially accounted for the pre-K advantage. • Pre-K benefits were largest for those who stayed in the same school for kindergarten. This study explores the short-run effects of state-funded, public school-based pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs on the early educational outcomes of students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Using data on all kindergarten students enrolled in the public schools in years 2006 and 2007, we examine differences in outcomes from pre-K to the early grades – promotion to first grade, school mobility, and exit from English language learner (ELL) status – for students who were enrolled in public school pre-K in the previous year as compared to students who entered the public school system at kindergarten. We find that children who participated in a public school pre-K program had higher rates of promotion to the first grade and higher rates of school stability between kindergarten and first grade. ELL children who enrolled in public school pre-K also had higher exit rates from ELL status by first grade compared to students who entered at kindergarten. Analyses explore the role of kindergarten schools and classrooms as well as school stability between pre-K and kindergarten as possible mediators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effect of same-race/same-nativity networks on the annual earnings and employment of college students using data from multiple cohorts of students entering a large public college system merged with state unemployment insurance records. We identify network effects from small changes in same-race/same-nativity shares across cohorts within college-majors. White native-born, Black native-born, and Black immigrant students who belong to cohorts with larger shares of same group peers experience higher earnings and employment in the 10 years after college entry. Benefits to Black immigrants are particularly large: a 1 standard deviation increase in the share of peers who are Black immigrants results in an approximate 2 percent increase in annual earnings. Among Hispanic immigrants, the effects of same-group peers on earnings and educational attainment are negative in the years immediately after college entry, while the effects on employment are large and positive. Hispanic native-born students do not receive earnings gains from a larger potential network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University administrators often strive for racial, socioeconomic, and geographic diversity in their student populations. Today, administrators face a new demographic challenge as women increasingly outnumber men in applications, enrollments, and graduation rates. This article discusses the causes and potential consequences of the growing gender imbalance and the legality of admissions policies that attempt to restore balance by giving preference to males. Using multiple analytic approaches, we test whether a public institution with increasing female enrollments responded by giving preferences in admissions to males. We conclude with insights for administrators and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The female advantage in college enrollment and completion has generated concern among university officials and sparked debate about gender-conscious college admissions. There are a number of explanations for this increasing gender imbalance on college campuses. This paper focuses on the role played by admissions policies that base decisions solely on applicants’ high school grades. Given that females earn higher grades than males, such policies can contribute to growing female shares in admissions. To exemplify this trend, I use publicly-available data from Texas to show that the Texas Top 10% plan, which guarantees public university admission to students who graduate in the top decile of their high school class, led to an increase in the female share of accepted students. The increase was particularly large among black students, where the female share of admitted students was already highest among the major racial/ethnic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The academic performance of foreign-born youth in the United States is well studied, yet little is known about whether and how foreign-born students influence their classmates. In this article, I develop a set of expectations regarding the potential consequences of immigrant integration across schools, with a distinction between the effects of sharing schools with immigrants who are designated as English language learners (ELL) and those who are not. I then use administrative data on multiple cohorts of Florida public high school students to estimate the effect of immigrant shares on immigrant and native-born students' academic performance. The identification strategy pays careful attention to the selection problem by estimating the effect of foreign-born peers from deviations in the share foreign-born across cohorts of students attending the same school in different years. The assumption underlying this approach is that students choose schools based on the composition of the entire school, not on the composition of each entering cohort. The results of the analysis, which hold under several robustness checks, indicate that foreign-born peers (both those who are ELL and those who are non-ELL) have no effect on their high school classmates' academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents evidence of nonrandom gender sorting across K-12 schools in the United States. The sorting exists among coed schools and at all grade levels, and it is highest in the secondary school grades. We observe some gender sorting across school sectors and types: for instance, males are slightly underrepresented in private schools and charter schools and are substantially overrepresented in irregular public schools, a large share of which educates students with special needs and juvenile justice involvement. Gender sorting within sectors and types is also quite prevalent and appears to be highest within the private schools (where single-sex schools are more common) and irregular public schools. We find that gender sorting is higher in counties that have higher shares of enrollment in private and nonregular public schools. This sorting occurs even though parents have similar stated preferences for school attributes for their sons and daughters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effect of the human capital characteristics of co-ethnic immigrant communities on foreign-born students' math achievement. We use data on New York City public school foreign-born students from 39 countries merged with census data on the characteristics of the immigrant household heads in the city from each nation of origin and estimate regressions of student achievement on co-ethnic immigrant community characteristics, controlling for student and school attributes. We find that the income and size of the co-ethnic immigrant community has no effect on immigrant student achievement, while the percent of college graduates may have a small positive effect. In addition, children in highly English proficient immigrant communities test slightly lower than children from less proficient communities. The results suggest that there may be some protective factors associated with immigrant community members' education levels and use of native languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1975, the Puerto Rican community successfully sued the New York City Department of Education, mandating the city to provide bilingual education to its Spanish-speaking English learner (EL) students. The settlement, known as the 'Aspira Consent Decree,' has been amended over time to include EL students of all language groups and now requires public schools that have at least 15 students of the same language group in two contiguous grades to offer bilingual education. Yet observational studies of bilingual education classrooms in the city document that Spanish-speaking EL students may be the only language group that receives native-language instruction, while students from other language groups who are enrolled in bilingual education primarily receive English instruction. I use this difference in treatment dosage to estimate the effect of bilingual education on the time that it takes students to learn English. Students who enroll in bilingual education classrooms learn English less quickly, but the effect of bilingual education is the same for Spanish-speaking and other students, implying that negative selection mechanisms are at work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers new directions in measuring racial isolation in schools. The most widely used measurement approach is to examine the mean on the distribution of school percentage non-White across non-White students (the isolation rate) or the percentage of non-White students in schools with large shares of non-Whites (e.g., 90% or more) at a single point in time. Using data on NewYork City public school students, I discuss the complexity that is revealed when school officials and researchers consider the following three dimensions of racial isolation: between classrooms, over time, and among non-White students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data on young English learners (EL) who enroll in the New York City public school system, I examine how long it takes students to become minimally proficient in English and how the time to proficiency differs for students by their age of school entry. Specifically, I follow four recent entry cohorts of ELs ages 5¿10 and use discrete-time survival analysis to model the rate at which different age groups acquire proficiency. I find that approximately half of the students become proficient within three years after school entry and that younger students learn more quickly than older students. Age of entry differences are robust to controls for observed differences between age of entry groups in their economic and demographic characteristics, their disabilities, and the schools they attend. The results lend support to the theory that older students face developmental barriers to learning new languages quickly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Using the literature on achievement differences as a framework and motivation, along with data on New York City students, we examine nativity differences in students’ rates of attendance, school mobility, school system exit, and special education participation. The results indicate that, holding demographic and school characteristics constant, foreign-born have higher attendance rates and lower rates of participation in special education than native-born. Among first graders, immigrants are also more likely to transfer schools and exit the school system between years than native-born, yet the patterns are different among older students. We also identify large variation according to birth region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foster children face numerous obstacles to academic achievement compared to their non-foster peers. In addition to having low educational attainment, they may also suffer from high rates of school mobility and experience long delays when transferring schools. Sources of these transfers and delays include numerous residential movements and a lack of coordination between child welfare and school professionals. Potential solutions currently being explored include reduced residential mobility, better communication between child welfare and school professionals on the frontline, and integrated child welfare and educational databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaps in service coordination between child welfare and other child-serving agencies are well documented. This article examines the gap between the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and discusses a program, Project Confirm, designed to reduce the problems associated with this gap. Project Confirm aims to improve cooperation between juvenile justice and child welfare agencies to prevent the unnecessary detention of arrested foster children in secure facilities. The program's design is outlined, and implementation statistics and government partner perceptions of the program in its first year of operations are provided. The article also identifies future challenges to implementation and discusses the broader implications of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors use a rich data set on New York City public elementary schools to explore how changes in immigrant representation have played out at the school level, providing a set of stylistic facts about the magnitude and nature of demographic changes in urban schools. They find that while the city experienced an overall increase in its immigrant representation over the 5 years studied, its elementary schools did not. Although the average school experienced little change during this period, a significant minority of schools saw sizable shifts. The change does not mirror the White flight and 'tipping' associated with desegregation but rather suggests a tendency to stabilize, with declines in immigrant enrollments concentrated in schools with larger immigrant populations at the outset. The authors also find that changes in the immigrant shares influence the composition of the school's students, and that overall school demographic changes do not mirror grade-level changes within schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the conceptualization, design, development, validation, and testing of a summative instrument that measures high school students' ability to analyze and evaluate data, construct scientific explanations, and formulate scientific arguments in biology and chemistry disciplinary contexts. Data from 1,405 students were analyzed to evaluate the properties of the instrument. Student measurement separation reliability was 0.71 with items showing satisfactory fit to the Partial Credit Model. The use of the Evidence-Centered Design framework during the design and development process provided a strong foundation for the validity argument. Additional evidence for validation were also gathered. The strengths of the instrument lie in its relatively brief time for administration and a unique approach that integrates science practice and disciplinary knowledge, while simultaneously seeking to decouple their measurement. This research models how to design assessments that align to the National Research Council's framework and informs the design of Next Generation Science Standards-aligned assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]