Background: Britain is rich in longitudinal population cohort studies that posit valuable data resources for social science. However, education researchers currently underutilize these resources. Aims: The current paper (1) outlines the power and benefits of secondary data analyses for educational science and (2) provides a practical guide for…

Educational outcomes are mostly studied in the short term (i.e. during the same phase of schooling). This paper focuses on the longitudinal monitoring of the mathematical knowledge of the same generation of pupils. At the school level, this can be performed by teachers, and at the state level by relevant institutions or experts in the field.…

In this paper we compare two approaches to measuring the average rate at which students learn in a given school or district. One type of measure--longitudinal growth measures--relies on student-level longitudinal data. A second type--cohort growth measures--relies only on repeated aggregated, cross-sectional data. Because student-level data is…

California's K-12 funding and instructional policies for English learners (ELs) have changed significantly over the past 2 decades. The major policy shifts held the potential to change student learning outcome patterns for ELs. As a first step in identifying the potential impacts of these policy shifts, this report describes changes over time in…

California's K-12 funding and instructional policies for English learners (ELs) have changed significantly over the past 2 decades, including new requirements for instructional materials specific to ELs statewide and a new school funding system that funds ELs at a higher rate. These major policy shifts held the potential to change student learning…

Whereas most existing research has examined the prevalence of current English learners (ELs) in special education, we propose and test the use of the ever-EL framework, which holds the subgroup of EL students stable by following all students who enter school classified as ELs. Drawing on two administrative data sets, discrete-time hazard analyses…

This paper explores families' investment in skills development through education in a high-inequality, low-education quality country such as Mexico, comparing it to a lower-inequality, higher-quality education country such as the United States. The paper uses a series of Household Income and Expenditure Surveys for both countries spanning around…

The aim of this research was to examine kindergarten to 12th grade teachers' (N = 257) perceptions of school kindness. Teachers were asked to define kindness, provide examples of kindness they had done and received, identify key agents of kindness, and rate the quality of kind acts within their schools. Findings indicate that teachers define and…

Teachers with proper training in knowledge transfer to different students, in the creation of suitable learning conditions, the motivation of students for active cooperation and peer learning, in the formation of classroom community, as well as independent and responsible personalities, can provide quality education. Teacher's classroom management…

This study asks how Finnish 6-year-olds who stay at home before school start compare in educational outcomes with children who attend public day care. Earlier studies have shown that participation in public day care can enhance school performance especially among disadvantaged children. In Finland, the child home care allowance scheme supports the…

Background: Increasingly, pupils on the autism spectrum are educated in inclusive mainstream classrooms. However, they often experience social isolation and bullying, and raising the awareness of autism in peers has been suggested as a remedy. Methods: In order to assess autism awareness in peers, autism-related questions were included in two…

In this study, it was examined whether the WISC-R test scores of gifted children differ according to their area of special ability or not. The sample group of the study was selected from 5 different cities and was comprised of a total of 237 gifted children with 48,9% girls (n = 116) and 51,1% boys (n = 121). The class level of the children varies…

Accountability seems forever engrained into the K-12 environment, as has been the expectation of delivering quality education to school aged children and adolescents. Yet, repeated failure of this expectation has focused the public's and policy maker's attention on the limitations of major accountability systems. This paper explores applications…

It was aimed in this study to reveal the general tendency of studies in the field of education by examining the papers in the high-impact A-class SSCI journals, to which qualified papers are accepted from all around the world, in terms of their dependent-independent variables, sample or study groups, research designs, data collection instruments,…

Professional identity surfaces repeatedly as an important underlying factor in teacher development. A sequential explanatory mixed methods design was used to investigate identity development in terms of teachers' expected and feared possible selves. Teachers (n = 120) representing three career groups (prospect, new, and experienced) participated.…