Background: COVID-19-disrupted schools, including shifts to virtual learning which may have impacted academic progress. This study assessed characteristics associated with changes in academic grades (before and during the pandemic) for different learning modalities for US students ages 13-19. Methods: Students (N = 2152) completed a web survey on…

Georgia adopted science standards encouraging teachers to use inquiry-based instruction in science instruction in 2016 to improve science exam scores. The problem was a lack of improvement in science exam scores in middle school and high school students in a small rural school district in South Georgia since inquiry-based standards have been put…

The Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) has instigated domestic policy debate aimed at improving education systems' quality and efficiency. Its high performers are often described as knowledge-based legitimation tools that have become reference societies. This article analyses if and the extent to which PISA affects the choice of…

Background: When students are given a choice of when to take an exam in engineering and computing courses, it has been previously observed that average exam scores generally decline over the exam period. This trend may have implications both for the design of interventions to improve student learning and for data analysis to detect collaborative…

In October 2023, the California Department of Education released test scores for all students in Grades 3-8 and 11 for the 2022-23 school year. These results represent an opportunity to analyze whether and to what extent student learning has rebounded after the dramatic declines in scores resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and related school…

Lecture capture is a technology where live lectures are recorded in a digital format and made available to students to view at their convenience. The use of this technology in higher education has steadily increased despite mixed results as to whether it is beneficial to student achievement. The current study utilized a two-group…

The aim of this research was to determine the standard that was effectively applied to General Certificates of Secondary Education (GCSE) and A levels in June 2020 by the decision to accept the maximum of the centre-assessed grade and the calculated grade. The data for this analysis came from the results tables for GCSEs and A levels in 2019 and…

This quantitative study explored how well the "Big Ideas Math (BIM)" curriculum helped third-grade students in Title I schools within the Polston School District (pseudonym) improve their math skills and high-stakes testing scores. Thirteen elementary schools were selected based on factors such as diversity, poverty rates, and academic…

The Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT, is a standardized test administered by the College Board. In response to declining SAT scores over the past four years, the administration of a high school district in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois implemented an SAT intervention program. The purpose of this study was to determine whether this intervention…

In Florida, civic illiteracy among middle and high school students is a pressing concern despite state initiatives to increase civic competence (Florida House of Representatives, 2019; FLDOE, 2023b; Florida Department of State, 2023). Recent scores on state civics and social studies standardized assessments reveal a disheartening fact--an average…

The rapid decline in Australian students' performance on the "National Assessment Program--Literacy and Numeracy" (NAPLAN) writing test is an issue of national concern. This paper presents the first investigation into patterns of achievement and progress on the NAPLAN writing test across the tested year levels (3, 5, 7 and 9) between…

The Right to Education Act in 2009 guaranteed access to free primary education for all children in India ages 6-14. This paper investigates whether national trends in educational data changed around the time of this law using household surveys and administrative data. We document four trends: (1) School-going increases after the passage of RTE,…

Nearly two dozen states now administer online exams to deliver testing to K-12 students. These tests have real consequences: their results feed into accountability systems, which have been used for more than a decade to hold schools and districts accountable for their students' learning. We examine the rollout of computer-based testing in…

ACT requested assistance from the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (Center for Assessment) to investigate declines of scores for states administering the ACT to its 11th grade students in 2018. This request emerged from conversations among state leaders, the Center for Assessment, and ACT in trying to understand the…

How do natural disasters affect academic performance? Despite numerous studies having been conducted after the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the academic impacts of this tragic event have rarely been explored. Applying the OLS estimation on the microdata collected through a questionnaire survey among 189 secondary school students of two secondary schools…