Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of different dimensions of instructional leadership on student learning in Hong Kong secondary schools, whose broader institutional contexts are critically characterized by high accountability policy environments. Design/methodology/approach: This study utilizes standardized test scores…

Persistent school segregation means not only that children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds attend different schools but also that their schools are unequal in performance. This study documents the extent of disparities nationally in school performance between schools attended by whites and Asians compared with those attended by blacks,…

University classes in marketing are often large and therefore require teams of teachers to cover all of the necessary activities. A major problem with teaching teams is the inconsistency that results from myriad individuals offering subjective opinions (Preston 1997). This innovation uses the latest moderation techniques along with Audience…

Standardized testing for higher education has been much in the news in the US over the last few years. In the wake of the Spellings Commission, the clear intent of the Department of Education's (USDOE) position in negotiated rulemaking in 2007 was to mandate its use in accreditation. Standardized testing is also a central feature of the Voluntary…

This report examines how performance standards in reading and math on PLAN[R], the organization's college and career readiness assessment for 10th graders, compare to performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide assessment of 15-year-old students' academic achievement. The results show that the performance…

This paper presents findings from the first national randomized study of the impacts of charter schools on student achievement, which included 36 charter middle schools across 15 states. The paper compares students who applied and were admitted to these schools through randomized admissions lotteries with students who applied and were not…

To the extent that Americans look abroad for lessons about education, they primarily concern themselves with wealthy nations that perform well on international tests like the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In this paper, the author argues that Americans…

Actively engaging students in lecture has been shown to increase learning gains. To create time for active learning without displacing content we used two strategies for introducing material before class in a large introductory biology course. Four to five slides from 2007/8 were removed from each of three lectures in 2009 and the information…

Observed differences between Associate and Bachelor students are often justified by citing the comparative poorer performance of 2-year students that continue into 4-year programs. This research offers a different approach by investigating introductory-level management courses taught as a combined class at a regional campus of a state university.…

In this study, the authors examined the college-ready graduate rates of all students (n = 1,099 high schools) in the State of Texas for the 2006-2007 school year. Data were analyzed for students' scores in reading, in math, and in both subject areas combined. Approximately one-third of all students were determined to be college-ready in both…

The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the effects of activity-based and traditional instructions on students' conceptual development of certain probability concepts. The study was conducted using a pretest-posttest control group design with 80 seventh graders. A developed "Conceptual Development Test" comprising 12…

The aim of this study is to argue for alternative assessment methods (i.e. concept map) considering the changes in demography in higher education. In the case of school of dentistry, for example, there is an urgent call for a catalyst for new assessment methods in dental education in view of the drive to comprehensively assess professional…

Web-based homework (WBH) systems are being utilized in many college mathematics classrooms. Do these systems have an effect on student outcomes when compared to traditional paper-and-pencil homework (PPH)? This study compares student outcomes in multiple sections of a required mathematics course. The sections differed only in the homework delivery…

The aims of this study were to examine the factor structure of the attitudinal questionnaire items from Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 and to investigate low- and high-performing students' mathematics self-concept in East Asian societies and in the USA. The participants were 24,119 eighth-graders, 4856 from…

It is established that the socio-economic status (SES) of individual students is strongly associated with academic achievement but less is known about this relationship when both student and school socio-economic status are considered. To examine these associations at a finer grain, with the intent of informing educational funding policy, we…