This study examined relations between student engagement and drug use using data obtained from the statewide biennial California Healthy Kids Survey. Latent variable modeling with confirmatory factor analysis indicated four conceptually distinct and psychometrically sound factors capturing academic motivation, school connectedness, caring…

A growing body of research has indicated the importance of motivation and engagement in predicting academic achievement, particularly among Latino/a adolescents. The present study examined the role of cognitive and emotional engagement in a sample of Latino/a and European American junior high school students. Results indicated that while grades…

Value-added (VA) models measure teacher contributions to student learning and are increasingly employed in educational reform efforts. Using data from 35 seventh-grade teachers and 2,026 students across seven schools, we employ VA methods to measure teacher contributions to students' motivational orientations (mastery and performance achievement…

Motivation is a fundamental educational challenge for adolescents in the United States, and particularly for immigrant youth. The motivation to achieve, especially in mathematics, declines during adolescence. Most of what is known about motivation is based on studies of predominately middle-class White students; yet the influx of immigrants over…

In the rapidly changing globalized world, school librarians cannot prepare today's students for every possible outcome, but they can give them the skills that will make them adaptable in 21st-century learning and work settings. The mission for school library programs is to ensure that students are effective users of ideas and information by being…

Given the importance of student engagement for healthy outcomes, research needs to investigate whether school-based assets promote student engagement beyond individual and family influences. Unfortunately, such research has been limited by a lack of valid instrumentation. After examining the psychometrics of the California Healthy Kids Survey…

This book contains a compilation of papers presented at the International Conference on Education and New Developments (END 2017), organized by the World Institute for Advanced Research and Science (W.I.A.R.S.). Education, in our contemporary world, is a right since we are born. Every experience has a formative effect on the constitution of the…

This study examines the relationships between student literacy performance and discussion-based approaches to the development of understanding in 64 middle and high school English classrooms. A series of hierarchical linear models indicated that discussion-based approaches were significantly related to spring performance, controlling for fall…