Research & Publications
Welcome to BERC
Predicting High School Outcomes in the Baltimore City Public Schools
The Senior Urban Education Research Fellowship Series By: Martha Abele Mac Iver & Matthew Messel Summer 2012 Large urban public school districts play a significant role in the American education system. The largest 67 urban school systems in the country—comprising...
Baltimore Education Research Consortium: A Consideration of Past, Present, and Future
By: Faith Connolly, Stephen B. Plank and Tracy Rone A Consideration of Past, Present, and Future is an overview of the history and development of the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC). As a part of this overview, we describe challenges and dilemmas...
Early Elementary Performance and Attendance in Baltimore City Schools’ Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten
By: Faith Connolly and Linda S. Olson Early Elementary Performance and Attendance in Baltimore City Schools’ Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten looks at attendance in the early grades of elementary school. In particular, we focus on Pre-Kindergarten (PreK) and...
A Descriptive Look at College Enrollment and Degree Completion of Baltimore City Graduates
by: Rachel E. Durham and Erik Westlund A Descriptive Look at College Enrollment and Degree Completion of Baltimore City Graduates is a descriptive report that paints a picture of Baltimore City Schools’ current activities on college access, enrollment, and completion....
Pressures of the Season: A Descriptive Look at Classroom Quality in Second and Third Grade Classrooms
By: Stephen B. Plank and Barbara Condliffe Pressures of the Season: A Descriptive Look at Classroom Quality in Second and Third Grade Classrooms reports the findings from 347 observations conducted in 23 second and third grade classrooms over two years to paint a...
Destination Graduation: Sixth Grade Early Warning Indicators for Baltimore City Schools: Their Prevalence and Impact
Destination Graduation: Sixth Grade Early Warning Indicators for Baltimore City Schools: Their Prevalence and Impact examines the 2000-01 cohort of sixth grade students from Baltimore City Schools to determine whether there were indicators that predicted eventual...
Gradual Disengagement: A Portrait of the 2008‐09 Dropouts in the Baltimore City Schools
Gradual Disengagement: A Portrait of the 2008-09 Dropouts in the Baltimore City Schools examined eight years of student-level data to paint a collective portrait of the process of disengagement that leads to student dropout. The study found that the majority of...
Keeping On Track in Ninth Grade and Beyond: Baltimore’s Ninth Graders in 2007-08
To address the factors related to high school success, BERC announces the release of the report,"Keeping On Track in Ninth Grade and Beyond: Baltimore’s Ninth Graders in 2007-08." Focusing on a recent Baltimore City ninth grade cohort, the report examines the...
The Challenge of On-Time Arrival: The Seven-Year Flight Paths of Baltimore’s Sixth Graders of 1999-2000
By: Martha Abele Mac Iver, Stephen B. Plank, Rachel E. Durham, Elizabeth Farley-Ripple Published: May 13, 2008 “The Challenge of On-Time Arrival: The Seven-Year Flight Paths of Baltimore’s Sixth Graders of 1999-2000” a study that retrospectively followed a cohort of...