The advantages and disadvantages of ability grouping for student achievement are strongly contested, with studies presenting different results. However, much of this research has focused on class-level or subject-level ability grouping. Relatively less research has focused on school-level ability grouping. More importantly, the role of teacher…

This study investigated the application of item response theory (IRT) to expand the range of ability estimates for gifted (hereinafter referred to as high-achieving) students' performance on an above-level test. Using a sample of fourth- to sixth-grade high-achieving students (N = 1,893), we conducted a study to compare estimates from two…

Using LatCrit and QuantCrit, we examined the effect of school climate, ethnic identity, and self-esteem on GPA in a sample of 300 Latinx high school students. We found significant positive correlations between climate and GPA as well as self-esteem and GPA. Moreover, using structural equation modeling, we found self-esteem mediated the…

Gaming the system, a behavior in which learners exploit a system's properties to make progress while avoiding learning, has frequently been shown to be associated with lower learning. However, when we applied a previously validated gaming detector across conditions in experiments with an algebra tutor, the detected gaming was not associated with…

According to attributional theory, when the application of effort leads to success we praise the achievement. Effort and ability, however, are seen as compensatory and thus, paradoxically, being praised can lead to attributions of low ability. Our study investigates whether praise, not for academic performance, but for social classroom behavior,…

The certainty of response index (CRI) measures respondents' confidence level when answering an item. In conjunction with the answers to the items, previous studies have used descriptive statistics and arbitrary thresholds to identify student knowledge profiles with the CRIs. Whereas this approach overlooked the measurement error of the observed…

Typical approaches to assessing students' understanding of the engineering design process (EDP) include performance assessments that are time-consuming to score. It is also possible to use multiple-choice (MC) items to assess the EDP, but researchers and practitioners often view the diagnostic value of this assessment format as limited. However,…

Background: Students often show unfavourable attribution: they attribute poor school performance to stable factors such as lack of ability and good school performance to variable factors such as effort. However, attribution can be influenced by individualized digital re-attributional feedback leading to positive motivational effects and higher…

The primary aim of the research is to examine the attitudes and behaviors of teachers toward educational researches. The research was carried out using mixed methods and an explanatory sequential design. The quantitative study group for the research consists of teachers working in public or public schools affiliated with the Istanbul Provincial…

We used the Stanford education data archive (SEDA) data to examine the heterogeneity among urban school districts in the United States. The SEDA 2.1 includes data sets on students' mathematics (Math) and English language arts (ELA) achievement from 2008 to 2014 at the district level. Growth mixture modeling was used to uncover the underlying…

The authors investigated a combined social and emotional learning and mindfulness-based intervention as delivered by school counselors to students in classrooms and their teachers using consultation practices. The study used a cluster-randomized design at the classroom level, with an ethnically diverse sample of 109 middle school students divided…

This small-scale field experiment tests whether an adapted values-affirmation intervention enhances youths' academic achievement and mitigates social identity threat while simultaneously raising capacity to promote social change via the development of "critical consciousness" (CC). CC is the critical analysis of inequitable social…

This research investigates high-achieving, rural middle-school students' academic attributions and self-efficacy. The study sample (n = 77) included middle-school students attending schools in rural districts in a predominately rural, Midwestern state in the United States (U.S.). There was high participation in the Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL)…

The disproportionate disciplinary actions imposed on African American male students in the public school system deny them educational instruction time and increased the risk for juvenile delinquency. The purpose of this qualitative interpretive descriptive study was to examine the implementation of discipline practice employed with African…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a beginning jazz improvisation learning environment for middle school instrumentalists, including whether one of two instructional sequences of harmonic form improvisation tasks better supported four outcomes: achievement, self-assessment, self-efficacy, and motivation. Over 12…