Academic Success
Number of unique resources found: 60
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Description: The US Army has partnered with the Ad Council to develop a public service advertising campaign to demonstrate the importance of staying in school and obtaining a high school diploma. The site provides links to resources for mentoring programs, homework help, studying for college exams, applying for financial aid, and cultural and community groups for support and information about issues affecting youth. This site is available in English and Spanish.
Description: A database providing information about colleges and universities.
Description: FastWeb
FastWeb, the Internet's leading scholarship search service, helps students make the decisions that shape their lives: choosing a college, paying for college and finding jobs during and after college.
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
Description: A collection of federally supported education resources.
Graduation Rates:Real Kids, Real Numbers
Author: Swanson, Christopher
Description: This article attempts to provide some practical insight into the No Child Left Behind Act and its implications for graduation rates and to highlight some issues of particular relevance to school administrators.
Description: Average mathematics scale scores have been increasing since 1990, and were the highest ever in 2005, at 279 (out of a score of 500) for eighth graders and 238 for fourth graders. (See Figure 1) In addition, for fourth graders, the black-white race gap in test scores was the smallest since the assessments began.
Parent and Home Involvement in Schools
Description: In general, research findings over the past 30 years have consistently shown home involvement in schooling has a positive impact on youngster’s attitudes, aspirations, and achievement. The tasks ahead include expanding the focus beyond thinking only in terms of parents and expanding the range of ways in which schools connect with those in the home. In particular, more intensive efforts must focus on those in the home who have the greatest influence on a student’s well being and with whom it has proven difficult to connect. New approaches must be developed and evaluated to clarify how best to involve such hard-to-reach individuals.
Reaching Out to Diverse Populations: What Can Schools Do to Foster Family-School Connections?
Author: Ferguson, Chris
Description: Most educators acknowledge that parent involvement is a critical factor in academic success, but many have been frustrated by a lack of participation among parents of different backgrounds. However, research has shown that no matter what their ethnic, cultural, or economic background, parents are interested in seeing their child succeed, though they often aren't sure how to help. A September 2005 strategy guide from the National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools aims to help bridge the school-family gap with suggestions on how to foster communication, create an inviting atmosphere for families, and use different cultural values to a school's advantage by building on them to connect with families.
Description: During the past decade (2002-2011), average scale scores in reading proficiency for white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic students rose significantly at both fourth and eighth grades. Among twelfth-graders, only white and Asian/Pacific Islander students showed significant gains between 2002 and 2009.
Ready for Life: Yes, That Means College
Description: Much has been written lately that asks the question "are young people across this country ready for college?" The Forum for Youth Investment, Connect for Kids, Voices for America's Children and many state Kids Count organizations have developed this series for state advocates to share the vision, messages and state policies being proposed to improve the college readiness of youth.
Description: Founded in 1958, Scholarship AmericaSM, then Citizens' Scholarship Foundation of America, has distributed more than $911.5 million dollars to nearly 850,000 students. Scholarship America is the nationÂ’s largest private sector scholarship and educational support organization. Its mission is to expand access to educational opportunities by involving and assisting communities, corporations, foundations, organizations and individuals in the support of students and in the encouragement of educational achievement.
Description: SchoolsMovingUp helps schools and districts address the immense challenge of raising student achievement in low-performing schools. In an interactive Web format, SchoolsMovingUp offers practitioners knowledge and expertise they need to make sound decisions and take tangible action in their school reform efforts. It provides high-quality resources, proven services, and powerful tools that education professionals can use in their work with low-performing schools nationwide. Resources include profiles of schools from across the country that have improved student achievement, easily implemented or replicated school and district tips to assist in school improvement efforts, and articles, books, and abstracts offering practical ideas and models for school improvement. Frequent online events bring experts to the Web to share lessons learned, new ideas, and related resources.
Description: Everything you ever wanted to know about finding financial aid -- you can even apply on-line for grants or loans on this U.S. Department of Education site.
Description: This is the Web site of the U.S. Department of Education. It includes a variety of information about educational best practices and news. It has sections for parents and educators containing many resources to improve the education of children.
Description: Youthhood.org (also known as The Youthhood) is a free, dynamic Web-based curriculum and tool to help youth set goals and plan for the future.
Although the site addresses youth directly, it is intended to be used in classrooms, community programs, or any other settings where adults work with youth. The Youthhood includes information, interactive activities, and a wealth of other tools to help youth connect their future goals to their academic learning.
– Evaluation –
Author: Scott, Dawn (4 more by this author)
Description: Literature review, bibliographies, links, resources and measures relating to youth decision making.
Author: Polk, Roselyn (8 more by this author)
Description: Literature review, bibliographies, and measures relating to youth problem solving.
Raising Minority Academic Achievement: A Compendium of Education Programs and Practices
Author: James, Donna; Steve Estes; Sonia Jurich
Description: A new American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) report, supported by the William T. Grant Foundation, details a two-year effort to find, summarize and analyze evaluations of school and youth programs that show gains for minority youth across a broad range of academic achievement indicators. Raising Minority Academic Achievement: A Compendium of Education Programs and Practices provides an accessible resource for policymakers and practitioners interested in promoting the academic success of racial and ethnic minorities from early childhood through advanced postsecondary study.
- More about "Raising Minority Academic Achievement: A Compendium of Education Programs and Practices"
Description: This study synthesizes data from 40 out-of-school time social interventions and programs.
– General Information –
Emotional Intelligence . . . What Is It? 
Author: Recker, Nancy (5 more by this author)
Description: This is a fact sheet on emotional intelligence. This publication discusses how it is a learned characteristic.
Fact Sheet on Latino Youth: Education
Author: Brindis, C. (6 more by this author); LT Valderrama; MA Biggs; AK Driscoll
Description: This fact sheet provides information and statistics regarding Latino youth education. Education is a primary route to rewarding employment and economic security. It is particularly significant for the future prospects of children who are ethnic minorities, born into disadvantaged economic circumstances and/or dealing with language barriers. Although Latinos have made some progress in their educational achievements, families, schools and policy makers must continue to focus on increasing and improving educational opportunities for this growing segment of the US population.
Description: The National High School Center, based at the American Institutes for Research, provides the latest research,user-friendly tools and products, and high-quality technical assistance on high school improvement issues.
Parental perceptions of urban schools
Description: “The report shares parent and family perceptions of seven major themes: parental involvement; expectations for success; safety; trust, respect, and ethos of caring; bullying; community welfare; and the importance of race.”
Staying Involved: Approaches to Helping Our Middle School and High School Students Learn
Author: Grabarek, Krzysztof
Description: Parents can play a central role in helping their adolescent children grow into independent learners. By helping children learn the vital skill of learning, parents can support their childrenÂ’s success not only in secondary school, but also as they move on to work and higher education.
Understanding High School Graduation Rates
Description: Nationally, and for each state, Understanding High School Graduation Rates illustrates the discrepancies in graduation rates reported by government and independent sources, examines why this is important, and describes three core policy areas that are fundamental to calculating, reporting, and improving accurate graduation rates.
Description: This document provides facts and statistics about television watching among youth. The percentage of youth watching only one hour or less of television per day during the week increased between 1991 and 2001. Estimates increased from 20 to 27 percent among eighth graders; from 29 to 36 percent among tenth graders; and from 38 to 44 percent among twelfth graders.
Year-round learning: Linking school, after school and summer learning to support student success
Description: This research brief examines the efforts of initiatives that are approaching learning time in new ways and bringing community resources together to provide year-round learning environments.
Youth Who Feel Unsafe at School
Description: This document provides facts and statistics about youth who feel unsafe at school.
– Other Resources –
Projections of Education Statistics to 2021
Description: The National Center for Education Statistics has released the Projections of Education Statistics to 2021. The publication includes statistics on enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures in elementary and secondary schools for the past 14 years and projections to 2021.
– Professional Development –
Author: Redd, Zakia (1 more by this author); Ayelish M. McGarvey; Jennifer Brooks
Description: This paper reviews the research regarding the factors in adolescents’ lives that predict their
educational adjustment, achievement and attainment.
Author: Scott, Dawn (4 more by this author)
Description: Literature review, bibliographies, links, resources and measures relating to youth decision making.
Educating America's Youth: What Makes a Difference
Author: Redd, Zakia (1 more by this author); Ayelish M. McGarvey; Jennifer Brooks
Description: In an effort to understand what makes a difference in educating America's youth, Child Trends reviewed more than 300 research studies on educational adjustment (how youth adapt in school), educational achievement (how well youth do in school), and educational attainment (how far youth go in school). This brief summarizes key findings from that larger review.
Explorations in Learning & Instruction: The Theory Into Practice Database
Author: Kearsley, Greg (1 more by this author)
Description: TIP is a tool intended to make learning and instructional theory more accessible to educators. The database contains brief summaries of 50 major theories of learning and instruction. These theories can also be accessed by learning domains and concepts.
National Center for Education Statistics
Description: This is your direct link to over 9,000 Colleges and Universities in the U.S. If you are thinking of a large university, a small liberal arts college, a specialized college, a community college, a career or technical college or trade school, you can find them here.
Pathway to Latina/o Student Success: Programs and Practices that Make a Difference
Author: Cox, Ron (1 more by this author)
Description: Since Latina/os are the fastest growing minority group in the U.S., and Latina/o youth drop out at higher rates than do youth from other ethnic groups, there is a high probability that these depressing statistics will only get worse if nothing is done to curb this trend. Currently, Latina/os represent approximately 20% of the K-12 population. However, some estimates suggest that by the year 2050 Latina/o youth will represent 50% of the U.S. K-12 population. Dropout has enormous implications for the U.S. at every level. It reduces U.S. ability to be competitive in the Global market, increases the costs of social services, reduces tax revenues, extends the cycle of poverty to future generations, and increases human suffering.
Positive Youth Development and Academic Success
Author: Weiss, Heather (5 more by this author); Susan Philliber, Sam Piha
Description: Academic success is strongly linked to the positive outcomes we value for young people. In addition to having more employment opportunities and prospects of higher salaries (National Center for Education Statistics, 2001; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1999), academically successful young people have been found to delay participation in sexual activity (Schvaneveldt, Miller, & Berry, 2001), have higher self-esteem (Filozof, Albertin, & Jones, 1998), have lower levels of depression and anxiety (Cicchetti & Toth, 1998; Liem, Dillon, & Gore, 2001), and have less likelihood of abusing alcohol and other substances (Bryant, Schulenberg, O’Malley, Bachman, & Johnston, 2003; Kasen, Cohen, & Brook, 1998; Hallfors et al., 2002; Schulenberg et al., 1994). Recent research has shown that participation in youth development programs and activities contributes to the promotion of positive academic outcomes for young people. This participation includes involvement in youth development programming occurring in after-school programs and community-based organizations (Hall, Yohalem, Tolan, & Wilson, 2003; McLauglin, 2001), extracurricular activities (Eccles & Barber, 1999), and service-learning programs (Billig, 2000).
– Programming Resource –
15 Effective Strategies for Increasing Graduation Rates
Description: The National Dropout Prevention Center has identified 15 effective strategies that have the most positive impact on the dropout rate. These strategies have been implemented successfully at all education levels and environments throughout the nation.
A Developmental Perspective for High School Practitioners on College and Workplace Readiness
Description: "This brief identifies gaps in current high school curricula; suggests how high schools can modify curricula to help students attain the skills they need; and highlights practices that are particularly effective for students facing specific challenges."
America's Youth at 18: School Enrollment and Employment Transitions Between Ages 17 and 18
Description: This report presents findings regarding adolescent school enrollment and employment. These findings are from the first seven annual rounds of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, which is sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.
Description: More students fail ninth grade than any other grade, and students who do move on to tenth grade but do poorly may be at greater risk for not graduating. Based in the premise that helping students with the transition to high school may reduce these problems, the National High School Center has released a new tool kit containing research and policy briefs, as well as other materials to guide schools and districts. These resources discuss the problems associated with this important transition and share best practices from various schools, districts, and states.
Goal Setting and Aspiration Building (University of Nevada Cooperative Extension)
Description: A fact sheet about youth goal setting and aspiration building.
Description: Games and activities for high school students in the areas of reading, science, literature, and test preparation.
Author: NMSU Learning Games Lab, (1 more by this author)
Description: Math Snacks are short animations and mini-games designed to present mathematics in a very different way. In fact, we hope these snacks don't look like traditional math at all. Math Snacks give students, especially those who don't particularly like math, another way to look at math concepts. While Math Snacks are designed for middle school, they address content and have been used by students in grade 3 – 8. Math Snacks include learner guides kids can use and teacher guides to transfer a conceptual understanding to math problem solving. Teacher guides and printed transcripts of each animation are also available. Using Math Snacks on mobile devices, like the iPad, helps kids take the learning on the go. iPads and iPods are also great classroom tools, when you can't take the entire class to a computer lab.
Description: Games and activities for middle school students in the areas of reading, writing, math, science, and outdoors.
Promising Partnership Practices
Description: Each year, school, district, organization, and state members of NNPS share their success stories in Promising Partnership Practices. The 2005 Collection features 86 practices of school, family, and community partnerships that support students from preschool through high school to achieve academic success and lifelong well-being.
Raising Minority Academic Achievement: A Compendium of Education Programs and Practices
Author: James, Donna; Steve Estes; Sonia Jurich
Description: A new American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) report, supported by the William T. Grant Foundation, details a two-year effort to find, summarize and analyze evaluations of school and youth programs that show gains for minority youth across a broad range of academic achievement indicators. Raising Minority Academic Achievement: A Compendium of Education Programs and Practices provides an accessible resource for policymakers and practitioners interested in promoting the academic success of racial and ethnic minorities from early childhood through advanced postsecondary study.
- More about "Raising Minority Academic Achievement: A Compendium of Education Programs and Practices"
Teen Pregnancy and High School Dropout: What Communities Can Do to Address These Issues
Description: This report the clear link between teen pregnancy and dropping out of school and highlights what a number of communities across the United States are doing to directly confront these issues.
- More about "Teen Pregnancy and High School Dropout: What Communities Can Do to Address These Issues"
Author: Anderson, Kim (2 more by this author)
Description: A fact sheet discussing youth mentoring younger children and cross-age teaching.
Ten Ways to Promote Educational Achievement and Attainment Beyond the Classroom
Author: Boccanfuso, Christopher; Camille Whitney, B.A.; Kristin A. Moore, Ph.D.
Description: This Child Trends brief identifies 10 actionable goals involving non-school factors that can affect educational outcomes.
Whose Kids? Our Kids!: Teens and School Success
Author: Huser, Mary (8 more by this author); Stephen Small; Karen Hintz; Donna Doll-Yogerst
Description: A fact sheet for parents that discusses the importance of parent involvement in their childrenÂ’s schools and activities.
Working with Teachers to Support Children's Learning
Author: Silliman, Benjamin (6 more by this author)
Description: This resource offers ideas to help parents and family members work cooperatively with teachers and activity leaders to support childrenÂ’s learning.
– Research –
A Developmental Perspective on College and Workplace Readiness
Description: “This report provides a developmental perspective on what competencies young people need to be ready for college, the workplace, and the transition to adulthood.”
A Developmental Perspective on College and Workplace Readiness
Description: "This report provides a developmental perspective on what competencies young people need to be ready for college, the workplace, and the transition to adulthood.”
Author: Redd, Zakia (1 more by this author); Ayelish M. McGarvey; Jennifer Brooks
Description: This paper reviews the research regarding the factors in adolescents’ lives that predict their
educational adjustment, achievement and attainment.
Choosing Schools, Building Communities? The Effect of Schools of Choice on Parental Involvement
Description: School choice is a hot issue that's come into the spotlight because of the No Child Left Behind Act. More and more evidence is showing that schools of choice have higher levels of parent involvement, but it hasn't been clear whether this is due to how the schools are managed, or because parents who take the action to select a school are more involved to begin with. Now a study from the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Columbia University's Teachers College seeks to determine whether school choice can really be an engine for creating stronger parent communities.
College and Workplace Readiness Criteria Omit Key Competencies for Healthy Development Among Youth
Description: "report...finds that there are many opportunities for high schools to widen the road to success by focusing on the competencies necessary for the development of the whole young person. The report cross-walks research on college readiness, workplace readiness, and youth development, identifying areas of consensus as well as gaps. It also focuses on successful strategies for groups of students that face greater challenges in preparing for college, the workplace, and the transition to adulthood."
Diversity: School, Family, and Community Connections
Description: This review of the research is the third in a series of reports to help local school, community, and family leaders obtain useful research-based information about key educational issues. This synthesis focuses specifically on three categories: race or ethnicity, culture (including language), and socioeconomic status. The report also explores barriers to involvement for minority and low-income families, strategies that have been used to address those barriers, and recommendations that local educational leaders can adapt to address their specific needs.
Educating America's Youth: What Makes a Difference
Author: Redd, Zakia (1 more by this author); Ayelish M. McGarvey; Jennifer Brooks
Description: In an effort to understand what makes a difference in educating America's youth, Child Trends reviewed more than 300 research studies on educational adjustment (how youth adapt in school), educational achievement (how well youth do in school), and educational attainment (how far youth go in school). This brief summarizes key findings from that larger review.
Explorations in Learning & Instruction: The Theory Into Practice Database
Author: Kearsley, Greg (1 more by this author)
Description: TIP is a tool intended to make learning and instructional theory more accessible to educators. The database contains brief summaries of 50 major theories of learning and instruction. These theories can also be accessed by learning domains and concepts.
Make It Personal: How Pregnancy Planning and Prevention Help Students Complete College
Description: This report, published by the American Association of Community Colleges, describes its project in partnership with The National Campaign in which six colleges created content and materials to address pregnancy planning, prevention, and healthy relationships through courses and on-campus, peer-to-peer service learning. The report provides evaluation results, replication tips, resources, and lessons learned from the colleges, along with compelling reasons and new data for why other colleges should offer this information to improve retention and help students achieve their educational goals.
Parent and community involvement in a college/career-ready culture
Description: This paper reviews the literature on parent and community involvement.
Description: These are the 2006-2007 findings on parent and family involvement in education.
Poverty and Potential: Out of School Factors and School Success
Author: Berliner, David
Description: This brief details six out-of-school factors common among the poor that significantly affect the health and learning opportunities of children, and accordingly limit what schools can accomplish on their own.
The Educational Experience of Young Men of Color: Capturing the Student Voice
Description: In September 2010, the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center and the Business Innovation Factory (BIF) began to look at the higher education experiences of young men of color. As a component of the College Board’s The Educational Crisis Facing Young Men of Color Initiative, the experiences of 92 African American, Asian American/ Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino and Native American students from 39 institutions across the country were explored to learn how they get ready, get in and get through college. The ambitious goal of the College Completion Agenda — a national goal to increase the number of 25- to 34-year-olds who hold an associate degree or higher to 55 percent by the year 2025 — makes this a critical time to understand what factors affect these young men, a group who struggles more than any other in the nation to persist and achieve successful college outcomes.
Two-Generation Strategies and Involving Immigrant Parents in Children's Education
Author: Crosnoe, Robert
Description: "Intervening in the parent generation can improve current and future prospects in the child generation. Such two-generation strategies target either parents’ life circumstances or parenting behaviors. Because many immigrants do not have the English capabilities, inside knowledge about schools, or social standing, engaging them more fully in the educational process in the home, school, and community could bring academic returns for children. This paper describes two-generation approaches to the education of young children from immigrant families that center on parental involvement in education. It focuses on Latin American and Asian immigrants, who make up the bulk of the immigrant population."