In this article we present the results of an investigation into semiotic aspects of an introductory differential equations class from two countries. In order to perform a comparative analysis, students in the USA and Tunisia were given common questions on their midterm exams that examined analytical and graphical competencies. Our results indicate…

Globalisation and policy transfer in education make it incumbent upon decision makers to prioritise among competing policy options, select policy initiatives that are appropriate for their national contexts, and understand how system-specific factors moderate the relationship between those policies and student outcomes. This study used qualitative…

"U.S. Performance on the 2015 TIMSS Advanced Mathematics and Physics Assessments: A Closer Look" expands upon the results described in NCES' [National Center for Education Statistics'] initial "Highlights" report on TIMSS Advanced. This new report provides in-depth analyses that (1) examine the demographics, school…

Does an online, multimedia case study influence students' performance, motivation, and perceptions of science in collegiate level biology classes, and if so, how? One hundred and eight students in 5 classes from 4 campuses in the United States and Puerto Rico participated in data collection (performance tests, surveys and focus group interviews).…

To help explain the differences in students' performance on internationally administered science assessments, cross-national, video-based observational studies have been advocated, but none have yet been conducted at the elementary level for science. The USA and Germany are two countries with large formal education systems whose students…

This study compared PISA 2009 student reading literacy scores with principal perceptions across three countries with varying levels of student performance: Korea, Mexico, and the United States. Seventy-five countries participated in PISA 2009, which measured 15-year-old children's reading achievement and principal perceptions. The study explored…

The purpose of this study was to examine the technical (psychometric) adequacy of office discipline referrals (ODRs) as a behavioral assessment tool for individual student, data-based decision making within a problem-solving model. Participants were 990,908 students in 2,509 elementary schools. Students were grouped into ODR cut points of 0-1,…

Based on a major international teacher education research project--the Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century Study (MT21)--this book investigates the pre-service preparation of middle school mathematics teachers in the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Bulgaria, and Mexico. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and…

Background: Readability tests are indicators that measure how easy a document can be read and understood. Simple, but very often ignored, readability statistics cannot only provide information about the level of difficulty of the readability of particular documents but also can increase an evaluator's credibility. Purpose: The purpose of this…

The purpose of this study was to determine how elementary school administrators in a large U.S. state perceived the overall effects of testing on education in general and, more specifically, on their instructional leadership responsibilities. We surveyed 325 Florida principals and assistant principals, many of whom viewed the testing program…

Interest in single-sex classes continues to grow in the United States, but there has been little research at the elementary level in this country or elsewhere to help guide educators' decision-making about the overall value of single-sex classes in public schools and the specific value of single-sex classes in public schools for increasing boy's…

The study defines international students and identifies their needs and the factors influencing their transition to higher education institutions in the U.S. Even though international students' transition has been well researched, specific attention has not been focused on differences in how they adjust themselves to new environments depending on…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether two vocabulary measures were appropriate for the evaluation of African American children and children whose mothers have low education levels, regardless of gender. Method: Data were collected for 210 high-risk, preschool children from a southeastern state in the United States on the…

This report describes findings from the second year of the most comprehensive, intensive, and carefully constructed study to date of trends in student achievement in all 50 states since 2002, the year the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was enacted. Last year, the Center on Education Policy (CEP), an independent nonprofit organization, began this…

The feasibility of training selected abilities so as to facilitate transfer among tasks requiring these abilities and therefore reduce training time and increase personnel flexibility was investigated by the Office of Naval Research. Sixty undergraduate college students participated in a study of from one to five days duration. Experimental…