Jacob Hartog

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Associated IES Content

report Descriptive Study

Characteristics and Performance of High School Equivalency Exam Takers in New Jersey

Since 2014 the New Jersey Department of Education has offered three high school equivalency (HSE) exams for nongraduates seeking credentials: the GED, the High School Equivalency Test (HiSET), and the Test Assessing Secondary Completion (TASC). This study used data on exam takers who had been grade 8 students in a New Jersey public school between 2008/09 and 2013/14 and who had attempted at least one HSE exam in New Jersey between March 2014 and December 2018. It analyzed how the characterist...
Aug 23, 2021
Publication number:
REL 2021 107
Blog

Balancing Act: Shortening State Assessments Without Sacrificing Reliability

Reducing the time teachers spend administering assessments can alleviate the stress of testing on students and educators and reduce lost instructional time, an especially high priority following school closures during the pandemic. Testing time increased significantly in the past decade after adoption of Common Core-based assessments. Education leaders must weigh the benefits of assessment, such as better information for targeted support and improvement for schools, educators, and students, a...
Date published:
Jul 22, 2021
report Descriptive Study

The Reliability of Shorter Assessments in New Jersey for Group-Level Inferences

Education policymakers must balance the reliability of assessments to measure academic knowledge and skills with the burdens that assessments place upon students, teachers, and schools. In 2019, New Jersey began using the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments (NJSLA), shorter assessments based on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). Regional Educational Laboratory researchers examined the reliability of test results for the NJSLA by comparing results ...
Jul 20, 2021
resource Training Material

Considerations for Reopening Pennsylvania Schools

The Pennsylvania Department of Education created a guidance document that outlines options for fall 2020 school openings while addressing COVID-19 infection risk, educational impact, and community concerns, with attention to equity throughout. The REL provided analytic support that includes the modeling of COVID-19 infection spread under different approaches to opening and operating schools; gathering perspectives of key community stakeholders; and incorporating available evidence on the like...
Jun 01, 2020
Blog

Teacher Shortages: How REL Mid-Atlantic Helps Fill the Gaps

Across the mid-Atlantic region and throughout the United States, school districts cannot hire enough teachers to fill all open positions. In the 2017-2018 school year, 48 states reported teacher shortages in math, 46 in special education, and 43 in science. Teacher shortages in bilingual and English as a Second Language education affected 31 states. At the same time, fewer aspiring educators are enrolling in teacher preparation programs, and the imperative to increase the diversity of the tea...
Date published:
Nov 15, 2018
Blog

Creating Effective School Report Card Websites: Content, Design, and Process

School report card websites help parents to understand how their schools are doing or, in some districts, to choose a school. School report cards also support accountability when used to disseminate information about school performance. How report cards are developed can make or break their success in both goals. REL Mid-Atlantic explored this process through an in-person workshop attended by parents, educators, nonprofit staff, and state policymakers from Washington, DC, Maryland, an...
Date published:
Sep 04, 2018
resource Training Material

Implementing Online School Report Cards: Research-Based Best Practices Workshop

This REL Mid-Atlantic workshop will consolidate and disseminate evidence on best practices for communicating school performance data to parents, taxpayers, educators, and other stakeholders through online school report cards. This workshop will focus on three themes: (1) content, (2) design, and (3) process. Content refers to potential domains to include--academic performance, socio-emotional learning, school climate, curricular offerings, extracurricular offerings, student body description, ...
Jun 15, 2018