Education - Student Demographics

Education - Educational Attainment

In the United States, education is often presented as a way out of poverty to a better life. Many observers believe education is the key to narrowing the economic gap between the races. Unfortunately, minority students are generally more likely than their white counterparts to drop out of school. In the late nineteenth century about two-thirds of white school-age youth attended school, while only …

Education - National Assessment Of Educational Progress

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a series of reading, writing, and mathematics tests given to fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students. The National Institute of Education, under a grant to the Educational Testing Service, funds NAEP. Student performance is measured on a scale from 0 to 500, and the results are reported according to three achievement levels—basi…

Education - Risk Factors In Education

The U.S. Department of Education's National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS) studied a set of students throughout their education. The goal of the study was to identify early student, school, and parental experiences that promote student learning. NELS asked, "Under what circumstances do our children flourish and succeed?" In addition to many academic measures, NELS…

Education - Dropping Out

When students drop out or fail to complete high school, both the individual and society suffer. Dropping out of school often results in limited occupational and economic opportunities for the individual. For society, it may result in increased costs of government assistance programs to the individuals and their families, costly public training programs, and higher crime rates. In 2000, according t…

Education - Minorities And College

Students wishing to enter most colleges and universities in the United States must take the SAT (formerly the Scholastic Aptitude Test) or the ACT Assessment (formerly the American College Test). These are standardized tests intended to measure verbal and mathematical ability to determine readiness for college-level work. More students take the SAT than the ACT. Performance on the SAT is measured …

Education - Desegregation

On May 17, 1954, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (347 US 483), the U.S. Supreme Court declared that separate schools for African-American children were inherently unequal and that the schools had to be desegregated. Nearly fifty years later, more and more school districts are questioning whether the federal courts need to continue supervising desegregation. Despite regulations and…

Education - No Child Left Behind

In January 2002 President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind act (NCLB; PL 107-110), which was intended to improve America's public school system and provide educational choice, especially for minority families. The law mandated that all public-school students be proficient in reading and math by 2014, with progress measured by the administration of annual standardized tests. In …