The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) offers students a wide variety of real-world opportunities to develop skills and talent critical for students to gain the essential professional and personal skills that lead to success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. One of the key avenues available…

"University of Chicago School Mathematics Project" ("UCSMP") is a core mathematics curriculum that emphasizes problem solving, real-world applications, and the use of technology. The curriculum is based on a student-centered approach with a focus on active learning that incorporates reading and uses a flexible lesson…

This research examined the effectiveness of a design-based, continuous professional development (CPD) programme intended to promote teachers' self-confidence and teaching reflection skills. The CPD was associated with teacher implementation of theoretically devised, motivational, context-based, inquiry teaching modules, based on a justified…

The majority of research on the link between video games and aggression has focused on the violent content in games. In contrast, recent experimental research suggests that it is video game competition, not violence, that has the greatest effect on aggression in the short-term. However, no researchers have examined the long-term relationship…

Lay conceptions of energy often conflict with scientific knowledge, hinder science learning and scientific literacy, and provide a basis for ungrounded beliefs. In a sample of Finnish upper secondary school students, energy was attributed with features of living and animate beings and thought of as a mental property. These ontologically confused…

The Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI) is a statewide program designed to assess the college readiness of high school students in 11th grade, and for those assessed as not college-ready, to provide instruction in the 12th grade that will lead to their college success. The assessment used is the Postsecondary Education…

Since 1990, high school students in Washington have had the choice of earning college credit through the Running Start program. Running start is a dual enrollment and dual credit program that allows eleventh and twelfth grade high school students to take college courses at any of Washington's 34 community and technical colleges, Central Washington…

Students from low-income families consistently trail behind their peers in retention and degree attainment. Research on college student experiences suggests that low-income students experience "cultural mismatch" at college--they feel that their backgrounds are at odds with the middle-class values dominant on campus (Armstrong &…

In 2015, Fong, Finkelstein, Jaeger, Diaz, and Broek reported the findings from an independent evaluation of the Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC). The evaluation found positive and statistically significant effects of the ERWC on student achievement. Due to some concerns that the previously reported results in Fong et al. (2015) did not…

Kentucky is using dual enrollment as one strategy to improve access to postsecondary education for its high school students, particularly after passage of Kentucky Senate Bill 1 in 2009, which focused on improving college and career readiness. The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia undertook a descriptive study of participation in…

Problem Statement: Learning-teaching activities bring along the need to determine whether they achieve their goals. Thus, multiple choice tests addressing the same set of questions to all are frequently used. However, this traditional assessment and evaluation form contrasts with modern education, where individual learning characteristics are…

We present a new system for automated scoring of graph construction items that address complex science concepts, feature qualitative prompts, and support a range of possible solutions. This system utilizes analysis of spatial features (e.g., slope of a line) to evaluate potential student ideas represented within graphs. Student ideas are then…

Thermal cameras offer real-time visual access to otherwise invisible thermal phenomena, which are conceptually demanding for learners during traditional teaching. We present three studies of students' conduction of laboratory activities that employ thermal cameras to teach challenging thermal concepts in grades 4, 7 and 10-12. Visualization of…

Traditionally, the domain of higher education, the 'flipped classroom' is gaining in popularity in secondary school settings. In the flipped classroom, digital technologies are used to shift direct instruction from the classroom to the home, providing students with increased autonomy over their learning. While advocates of the approach believe it…

Assessing fidelity of implementation is becoming increasingly important in education research, in particular as a tool for understanding variations in treatment effectiveness. Fidelity of implementation is defined as "the determination of how well an intervention is implemented in comparison with the original program design during an efficacy…