Across all sciences, the quality of measurements is important. Survey measurements are only appropriate for use when researchers have validity evidence within their particular context. Yet, this step is frequently skipped or is not reported in educational research. This article briefly reviews the aspects of validity that researchers should…

Mobile technologies, specifically smartphones, offer social scientists a potentially powerful approach to examine the social world. They enable researchers to collect information that was previously unobservable or difficult to measure, expanding the realm of empirical investigation. For research that concerns resource-poor and hard-to-reach…

There are usually limited user evaluation of resources on a recommender system, which caused an extremely sparse user rating matrix, and this greatly reduce the accuracy of personalized recommendation, especially for new users or new items. This paper presents a recommendation method based on rating prediction using causal association rules.…

This paper examines how international, large-scale skills assessments (ILSAs) engage with the broader societies they seek to serve and improve. It looks particularly at the discursive work that is done by different interest groups and the media through which the findings become part of public conversations and are translated into usable form in…

Objective: This article reviewed the different surveillance systems used to monitor the extent of reported child maltreatment in North America. Methods: Key measurement and definitional differences between the surveillance systems are detailed and their potential impact on the measurement of the rate of victimization. The infrastructure…

Background: Schools are an ideal setting in which to involve children in research. Yet for investigators wishing to work in these settings, there are few method papers providing insights into working efficiently in this setting. Objective: The aim of this paper is to describe the five strategies used to increase response rates, data quality and…

Researchers and statistics educators consistently suggest that students will learn statistics more effectively by conducting projects through which they actively engage in a broad spectrum of tasks integral to statistical inquiry, in the authentic context of a real-world application. In keeping with these findings, we share an implementation of…

This substantially revised text provides a comprehensive, highly accessible, and student friendly introduction to the principles, concepts, and methods currently used in educational research. This text provides a balanced combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and enables students to master skills in reading, understanding,…

Educational researchers and policy makers have come to rely on data from sample surveys. However, survey research on educational issues poses some special challenges. In many respects, the survey methodology issues in educational research are the same as those throughout the social and behavioral sciences. These issues concern obtaining the best…

Performance measurement can be a difficult political as well as technical challenge for educational institutions at all levels. Performance-based budgeting can raise the stakes still higher by linking resource allocation to a public "report card." The 23-campus system of the California State University (CSU) accepted each of these…

Many institutions develop institutional goals, but few continue to the next step--assessing the extent to which the institution has achieved its goals. Some methods for assessing progress toward achieving goals are described.(MLW)

The analysis of questionnaire data involves a sequence of planned activities beginning with questionnaire development and concluding with a report of the results of the study. Most questionnaires require the use of numerical codes to facilitate computer processing of results and to select appropriate statistical procedures for summarizing the…