The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) holds public schools accountable for the academic achievement of student subgroups that are larger than the state minimum-subgroup-size threshold. In 2004, California added students with disabilities to the NCLB subgroup categories. Using a regression discontinuity design, this study compared the academic…

While international comparisons such as those provided by PISA may be meaningful in terms of overall judgements about the performance of educational systems, caution is needed in terms of more fine-grained judgements. In particular it is argued that the results of PISA to draw conclusions about the quality of instruction in different systems is…

This three-year comparative study investigated the impact of the Reading First (RF) Program on student performance as measured by statewide-mandated English Language Arts (ELA) assessment programs. A matching procedure was used where 3 RF schools and 3 non-RF schools from two rural school districts in north Louisiana were matched. The ELA test…

We confronted 151, 5th and 6th elementary grade pupils with a quantitative problem in a mathematics or religion class, to examine the influence of the context on pupils' understanding and solution of such problems inside and outside the mathematics class. Pupils were first asked to solve a problem about fair sharing either during a mathematics or…

Enthusiasm for problem-based learning (PBL) is widespread, yet there exists little rigorous experimental evidence of its effectiveness, especially in K-12 populations. Reported here is a highly controlled experimental study of PBL in a middle school population. Between- and within-subject comparisons are made of students learning the same material…

Research Findings: The current study examined achievement motivation orientation in preschool-age children from low- and middle-income families. Participants were 126 children who were attending an urban Head Start site or a private preschool. Children's motivation orientation was assessed as being performance oriented or mastery oriented using a…

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the incidence of school infrastructure and resources and its impact on the academic performance of primary education students in Latin America. A 4-level multilevel model was applied to the data of the Second Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (SERCE) conducted by UNESCO, which researched…

Teaching in a classroom configured with computers has been heralded as an aid to learning. Students receive the benefits of working with large data sets and real-world problems. However, with the advent of network and wireless connections, students can now use the computer for alternating tasks, such as emailing, web browsing, and social…

The purpose of this study was to examine how participation in an inquiry-based science program impacts kindergarten students' science learning and motivation. The study was implemented as part of a larger, federally funded research project, the Scientific Literacy Project or SLP (Mantzicopoulos, Patrick, & Samarapungavan, 2005). The study…

The Rapid Review program at the University of Southern Indiana (USI) was designed to decrease the number of semesters under-prepared students spend completing the developmental mathematics sequence without sacrificing their ability to be successful in subsequent math courses. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare first-time, full-time…

In this article, after describing one approach for teaching critical thinking (CT) that was in place at Baker University from 1990 to 2008, the author describes their experience assessing CT using three standardized exams and shows why the choice of a standardized CT test can be problematic and the results misleading. These results can be…

This paper contains results of an empirical study that tested the efficacy and acceptability of two templates designed to fully involve students in proper and fair peer-assessments of their group project work (GPW) by providing concrete evidence of independent progressive documentation of their peers' contributions to the work-process and…

I analyse low and high achieving children's competences regarding pattern and structure at the beginning of formal schooling comparatively. The aim is to evaluate the range of school starters' early structure sense. The results suggest overall high pre-instructional competences which, however, differ strongly between the mathematical high and low…

Social scientists usually are more interested in consumers' dichotomous choice, such as purchase a product or not, adopt a technology or not, etc. However, up to date, there is nearly no model can help us solve the problem of multi-network effects comparison with a dichotomous dependent variable. Furthermore, the study of multi-network…

This study examined the average effects of schools' third through fifth grade gifted programming policy in mathematics and reading on overall school achievement, on gifted students' achievement and academic attitudes and on nongifted students' achievement and academic attitudes. Data and results represent a broad, national look at school…