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Jobs that pay livable wages increasingly call for educational attainment beyond a high school diploma, but many of these jobs do not need a bachelor's degree. By earning industry certifications in high school, students may be better prepared for life after graduation. In 2007, Florida enacted the Career and Professional Education (CAPE) Act, through which schools receive support to give students the opportunity to earn industry certifications while in high school. Once the state enacted this policy, the number of students earning certifications increased dramatically. Using data from the Florida Department of Education's Education Data Warehouse, we compared college enrollment and degree attainment for certification earners to non-earners. Then, we compared outcomes for earners within each career cluster (such as Architecture & Construction) to the combined results for earners in all other career clusters. Relative to non-earners, certification earners had higher rates of immediate enrollment at 2-year colleges, and higher rates of earning an associate degree. Among certification earners, few career clusters had positive associations with postsecondary outcomes relative to other career clusters.

Examining repeated classroom encounters over time provides a comprehensive picture of activities. Studies of instructional practices in classrooms have traditionally relied on two methods: classroom observations, which are expensive, and surveys, which are limited in scope and accuracy. Teacher logs provide a "real-time" method for collecting data on classroom practices by giving teachers a tool to document and reflect about specific lessons and the impact they may have had on their students. Logs can collect data for review by teachers, their colleagues, administrators, and researchers. These self-reported data, collected online repeatedly over a specified period of time, present a series of snapshots that capture ongoing classroom practices and lesson strategies. In this article, we describe the use of teacher logs to understand classroom practices by highlighting the kinds of activities teachers emphasized and their perceptions of effectiveness. In a National Science Foundation-funded evaluation of a high school reform program, we used online teacher logs to understand the education delivery in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in redesigned North Carolina high schools. We find that teacher logs are an appropriate, efficient, and useful tool for documenting practice. Teachers can use log data to reflect on practice, determine areas of strength and challenge, and set goals for personal improvement. Administrators can use logs to support teachers in examining practice and setting goals.

In many countries, novice teachers, or those with fewer than four years of experience, have a higher turnover rate than do more experienced teachers. Using teacher employment data, we examine whether schools in an American whole-school reform model are better able to retain novice teachers. Using survey data, we investigate whether novice teachers in a particular school reform model are more satisfied with school leadership than their peers in traditional high schools. In this reform model, early college high schools, high schools are located on college campuses and students have the opportunity to earn an associate's degree or two years of credit in the state university system. This model emphasizes a shared mission and shared leadership. We find that early colleges had a higher turnover rate than their neighbor schools, and a higher percentage of early college teachers were novices. However, these novice teachers were not more likely to leave than novice teachers in traditional schools were. Early college novice teachers received more personalized support and were more satisfied with school leadership than their peers in traditional high schools. Under certain conditions, schools can have higher retention rates for novice teachers.

Educators understand that the current assessment-based standards are not going away anytime soon. Performance based assessments (PBAs) are an effective way of determining the level of student learning that has occurred in a lesson. While some multiple-choice tests tend to only assess the memorization of factual knowledge, PBAs focus on higher-level cognitive abilities that integrate and demonstrate an understanding of multiple subjects (Baker, 1997). Educational psychologists are proponents of PBAs, citing that students learn better in a situation referred to as "constructive cognition," where students actively construct new knowledge. (Mayer, 1996). This article discusses the use of performance-based assessments in a pilot study conducted in four science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) high schools in North Carolina.

Using a nationally representative longitudinal data-set, we examine the influence of precollege access programs on high school achievement, college preparation, postsecondary enrollment, and postsecondary persistence. Results do not show much difference in the level of academic preparation between participants and non-participants. However, precollege access program participants were more likely to learn about college opportunities by seeking information about college, applying to college, and receiving financial aid than similar non-participants were. However, although participants and similar non-participants enrolled in college and persisted for 1 year at about the same rates, fewer participants persisted in college for 2 years.

This performance assessment pilot study was a major research component of the overall National Science Foundation funded Redesigned High Schools for Transformed STEM Learning Project. Secondary Earth/Environmental Science students' abilities to translate cognitive knowledge into demonstrable performance-based proficiencies were specifically examined. Proficiencies assessed included evaluation, prediction, analysis, synthesis, and reasoning in the contexts of soil and water, clouds and weather, acid rain, and astronomy-based performance tasks. This manuscript presents research protocols, implementation process, and collective determination of proficiency rates among Project student participants. Results of the pilot study indicated that approximately 48 percent of student participants demonstrated performance-based proficiency of knowledge. Implications on evidence-based iterations of school models, state mandated assessment practices, and classroom factors in support of performance-based proficiencies are discussed.

Self-report data from 2,088 sixth-grade students in 11 middle schools in North Carolina were combined with administrative data on their eighth-grade end-of-the-year achievement scores in math and reading to examine the influence of students' perceived parental school behavior expectations on their academic performance. Through use of multilevel modeling and control for the influence of students' demographics, trouble avoidance, and perceived support from adults and peers, we found that students' perceptions of their parents' expectations of their school behavior had a small but positive and statistically significant influence on their math and reading scores approximately 3 years later. Implications for the implementation of evidence-based interventions in schools are discussed.

Teens may leave school because of academic failure, disciplinary problems, or employment opportunities. In this article, the authors test whether the reasons dropouts leave school differ by grade level and age. We compare dropout rates and reasons across grade levels and ages for all high school students, ethnic groups, and gender groups. Across all students, ninth graders have the highest dropout rate: This pattern persists for Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans, and for male students. Dropout reasons vary by age, grade, ethnicity, and gender as well. Ninth graders and students aged 16 and younger are more likely than advanced and older students to leave school for disciplinary reasons. Older male students are more likely than younger males to leave school for employment. The significant variation in dropout rates and reasons by grade level and age indicates that multiple dropout processes may influence teens to leave school. (Contains 6 tables and 6 notes.)