Using national longitudinal data of students during their 9th and 11th grades, we address popular concerns over screen time activities distracting students' academic pursuits. We examine gender differences in the types of screen time use, expecting the skill-based activity of video gaming to be more common among boys and the socially oriented…

Social and emotional skills, such as Sustaining Effort and Maintaining Composure, are related to many positive outcomes, including academic performance and life satisfaction, and are often taught through social and emotional learning (SEL) programs. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between these skills and ACT® test…

A positive school climate is important for students' social and emotional wellness and ability to learn. For example, students with positive relationships with their teachers and who feel safe at school tend to show higher academic performance (Korpershoek et al., 2020). The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship of school…

This report leverages state educational agency data to explore the association between Alabama Science in Motion (ASIM) implementation and student outcomes. We conducted this study in Alabama to evaluate the potential of teacher implementation of ASIM lab activities to improve high school level student achievement in science. This study follows a…

Logical reasoning as part of critical thinking is becoming more and more important to prepare students for their future life in society, work, and study. This article presents the results of a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test control group design focusing on the effective use of formalisations to support logical reasoning. The…

In the context of an analytical geometry, this study considers the mathematical understanding and activity of seven students analyzed simultaneously through two knowledge frameworks: (1) the Van Hiele levels (Van Hiele, 1986, 1999) and register and domain knowledge (Hibert, 1988); and (2) three action frameworks: the SOLO taxonomy (Biggs, 1999;…

This mixed-methods benchmark study examined Saudi Arabian (SA) Eastern Province secondary students' understandings of the nature of science (NOS) in the Islamic context. To that end, two instruments, the Scientific Epistemological Views (SEVs) and an open-ended questionnaire about science and scientists were employed. Convenience sampling yielded…

This study estimates the causal impact of 8th grade English learner (EL) reclassification on high school English language arts (ELA) standardized test scores, SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) reading, and on-track to graduate status. I apply a regression discontinuity design to rich administrative data from a large district in California. The…

Task value has a considerable effect on one's interest, motivation, and strategies in learning. Additionally, the social contexts in which a learner studies, such as subject specialization and gender, may potentially influence how successfully one learns. The purpose of this quantitative study is to examine the relationship between task value and…

In March of 2020, in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state of Illinois mandated the transition to remote instruction for all schools. Although schools had the option to resume in-person instruction during the 2020-21 school year (SY21), the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) acknowledged that in-person instruction may not…

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 was marked by a transition to remote learning in Illinois schools and nationwide. The following school year, schools and families faced difficult decisions about how and when to return to in-person learning. School leaders, parents and caregivers, and students considered how to balance…

For over two years, schools, teachers, students, and families across Illinois have worked to adapt instruction and learning under the ever-changing conditions wrought by COVID-19. This report, the third and final in the Learning During the Pandemic in Illinois series, investigates how much time students spent learning in-person and/or remotely…

The article presents the results of an exploratory study of the use of T.E.R.A., an automated tool measuring text complexity and readability based on the assessment of five text complexity parameters: narrativity, syntactic simplicity, word concreteness, referential cohesion and deep cohesion. Aimed at finding ways to utilize T.E.R.A. for…

Research has revealed students with a learning disability or disabilities continue to have low achievement scores on state assessments aligned with state standards. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a correlation exists between the implementation of Common Core State Reading Standards (CCSRS) and student achievement scores on…

Previous research identified a strong correlation between mathematics and science performance albeit for small samples of students. Even though there was a high correlation between mathematics and science performance, researchers examining students' STEM achievement investigated mathematics and science achievement separately. The present study…