Tests of statistical significance often play a decisive role in establishing the empirical warrant of evidence-based research in education. The results from pattern-based assessment items, as introduced in this paper, are categorical and multimodal and do not immediately support the use of measures of central tendency as typically related to…

Bui, Craig, and Imberman assessed the impact of gifted and talented programs on student achievement using regression discontinuity and random assignment to gifted magnet schools. In both analyses, they found minimal impact of the gifted and talented programs on student achievement. This commentary addresses two concerns associated with the study.…

The education of physicists requires annual progress in mathematics through grades K-12, continuing on to high school physics, undergraduate instruction, and often many years of postgraduate study. The traditional domain of physics education research is the study of pedagogical techniques for a single lesson or a single course, but the physics and…

This article explores links between student experiences with technology-rich mathematics instruction and the ISTE Standards for Students. Research methods applied constructivist grounded theory to analyze data from student interviews against the ISTE Standards for Students to identify which elements of the design of this learning environment…

Policymakers and professional educators attempt to be good stewards of public funds while simultaneously raising expectations for student outcomes that reflect academic excellence in the public school system. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficiency of Texas public school districts and the factors influencing the inefficiency of…

The Common Guidelines for Education Research and Development were created as a joint effort between the Institute of Education Science and the National Science Foundation in an effort to streamline education research and contribute to an accumulation of knowledge that will lead to improved student outcomes. One type of research that emerged in the…

Little is known empirically about intraclass correlations (ICCs) for multisite cluster randomized trial (MSCRT) designs, particularly in science education. In this study, ICCs suitable for science achievement studies using a three-level (students in schools in districts) MSCRT design that block on district are estimated and examined. Estimates of…

The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed-methods study was to closely examine the leadership practices utilized by K-12 urban school superintendents to influence and increase the academic achievement of Hispanic students. The research consisted of a quantitative study approach where 30 superintendents completed a 47-question…

In this mixed methods research study, the researcher investigated the difference between additive and subtractive bilingual education programs and student achievement. The researcher examined types of bilingual education and special language programs currently utilized in school districts located within the Education Service Center Region Two…

A special tabulation of individual student scores from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test allowed a ranking of Texas schools according to test score changes ("value added"). The rankings varied greatly by student subpopulation. That is, the vast majority of schools are much more effective with some kinds of students than…

The capacity of the field to conduct power analyses for group randomized trials (GRTs) of educational interventions has improved over the past decade (Authors, 2009). However, a power analysis depends on estimates of design parameters. Hence it is critical to build the empirical base of design parameters for GRTs across a variety of outcomes and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a 2-year professional development model in math and science on the self-efficacy of the teacher and its effects on teacher practice and student outcomes. Further, this study sought to incorporate the instructional use of Inquiry-Based Learning methods of Problem-Based Learning, Japanese…

A long-standing question in educational research and policy discussion turns on whether technology-based instruction can improve academic performance. Finding a convincing answer to this question is important because school systems across the country have invested and continue to invest very large sums on new instructional hardware and software.…

The following report gives the statistical findings of the 2009-2010 Watson-Glaser test. Data is pre-existing and was given to the Evaluator by email from the Director, Center for Legal Pedagogy. Statistical analyses were run using SPSS 17 to address the following questions: 1. What are the statistical descriptors of the Watson-Glaser results of…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to describe the perceptions of African American students pertaining to their engagement in Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition course and Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition examination. A purposive sampling design was employed to select 12 participants from one urban…