Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Item Response Predictors Of Disengagement On The Pisa, Juste M. Mehou

Masters Theses, 2020-current

International assessments, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), are instrumental in understanding educational progress, assessing teaching effectiveness, and ensuring institutional accountability (OECD, 2023). Central to the validity of these assessments is the assumption that students will exert sufficient effort and perform to the best of their abilities (AERA, APA, & NCME, 2014). This assumption is essential to ensure that scores accurately reflect students' true abilities (Wise & Kong, 2005). However, there is a documented concern that students often exhibit low effort in low-stakes tests, such as the PISA, where individual results have no direct consequences (Wise & …

Moments, Movements, And Manifestation: Disrupting Neoliberal Ideologies Through Documentation In Collaborative Arts Partnerships, Geralyn Schroeder Yu, Juana Reyes, Teju Adesida, Noé Cuéllar, Mark Diaz, Brandon Phouybanhdyt

Education Department Faculty Articles

For over three decades, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) has challenged neoliberal approaches and classroom hierarchies through arts integration inquiry practices involving students, teachers, and teaching artists. The authors emphasize a two-year study of CoLab, a CAPE initiative that fosters new public-school partnerships. Using narrative inquiry, the researchers highlight the documentation practices described by CoLab teaching artists as they collaborate with teachers and students. The research results reveal how documentation in collaborative arts integration serves as a process of meaning-making, characterized by moments, movements, and manifestations that spread and grow, much like ripples in water after a stone’s disruption.

Moments, Movements, And Manifestation Disrupting Neoliberal Ideologies Through Documentation In Collaborative Arts Partnerships, Geralyn Schroeder Yu, Juana M. Reyes, Teju Adesida, Noé Cuéllar, Mark Diaz, Brandon Phouybanhdyt

Education Department Faculty Articles

For over three decades, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) has challenged neoliberal approaches and classroom hierarchies through arts integration inquiry practices involving students, teachers, and teaching artists. The authors emphasize a two-year study of CoLab, a CAPE initiative that fosters new public-school partnerships. Using narrative inquiry, the researchers highlight the documentation practices described by CoLab teaching artists as they collaborate with teachers and students. The research results reveal how documentation in collaborative arts integration serves as a process of meaning-making, characterized by moments, movements, and manifestations that spread and grow, much like ripples in water after a stone’s disruption.

A Case Study Of Ungrading On Student Learning In Higher Education, Brooke M. Creviston

Honors Thesis

This qualitative case study investigates the impact of ungrading in higher education at University A (pseudonym). The participants included seven students and three professors actively involved in ungraded courses. Positive outcomes are reported by both students and professors. Student participants felt that ungrading offered them more ownership in learning and less fear of making mistakes because they could apply feedback to improve their work rather than simply receiving numeric scores. The interviewed professors shared that ungrading allowed them to hold meaningful conversations with their students and helped them develop intrinsic motivation with academic material. Overall, in comparison to traditionally graded …

Storytelling: A Natural Mnemonic, Hailey Stephens

Honors Theses

The present study explored the effectiveness of storytelling as a teaching method in enhancing memory performance for educational material compared to traditional lecture-based instruction. Memory plays a crucial role in learning, and effective teaching strategies should facilitate information encoding, retention, and retrieval. Storytelling, an ancient yet often overlooked pedagogical tool, has been shown to engage students emotionally and cognitively, making presented content more memorable. In the present study, participants were randomly assigned to either a storytelling-based instruction group or a traditional lecture group. Both groups received instruction on the ASSURE Model and were tested immediately after the lesson and again …

"I Gotta Lock-In": Metacognition Strategies In A High School Biology Classroom, Darby Ice

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Metacognition is an emerging focus in education and has been shown to enhance student learning outcomes and self-efficacy. This study aimed to investigate both student and teacher perceptions of implementing metacognitive strategies in a high school biology classroom, as well as the impact on students’ self-regulated learning. The researcher collected data through classroom observations, student surveys, teacher interviews, and analysis of student test scores. Using the constant comparative method, qualitative data revealed secondary codes of problem- solving strategies, study methods, perceptions of content mastery, impact of classroom environment, and evidence of metacognition. Quantitative data showed a statistically significant increase in …

Sustainability Leadership In Schools: A Success Case Method, Sohail M. Sukhera, Christopher R. Gordon, William L. Sterrett

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

Environmental unpredictability has become a crisis for the 21st century. In response, organizations from the local to international level are addressing the issues by creating, supporting, and promoting initiatives. Schools and school leaders play an important role in this work. An example of a multi-scaled initiative is the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS) which recognizes local academic institutions, upon state recommendation, that have implemented three pillars of sustainability: (a) reduce environmental impacts and costs; (b) improve the health and wellness of schools, students, and staff; and (c) provide effective environmental and sustainability education. This evaluation analyzed ED-GRS …

Professional Alliance For Learning And Support (Pals): A Pilot Career Development Educational Program For Administrative Support Personnel In Healthcare Research, Ebonie R. Hatfield, Humberto Shaw, David P. Farris, Ronald Abraham, Dzifa Duose, Chad M. Middleton, Veronica Garza, Celia Garcia-Prieto, Ignacio I. Wistuba, Rama Soundararajan

Advances in Cancer Education and Quality Improvement

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly transformed the healthcare research landscape, staging unprecedented challenges for administrative research-support personnel. While career programs and retention benefits have emerged to support frontline healthcare workers facing health concerns, burnout and employee-turnover, many “classified”/administrative support staff in research departments who experience similar challenges remain without adequate structured support. This lack of structure has impacted job satisfaction, career-progression and talent retention within this crucial sector.

Recognizing the critical importance of addressing this training gap for the benefit of the broader research enterprise, the Interdisciplinary Translational Education and Research Training (ITERT) Core at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center …

Call For Manuscripts, Michele J. Koomen, Thomastine Sarchet-Maher, Jessica Williams

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Call For Manuscripts, Michele J. Koomen, Thomastine Sarchet-Maher, Jessica Williams

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

From The Editors, Michele J. Koomen, Thomastine Sarchet-Maher, Jessica Williams

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

JSESD remains a venue for the dissemination of research and practice related to the education of students with disabilities in the science classroom and laboratory since 1998. Volumes #1 through 11 were published in a print format. Starting with Volume #12, the journal has been published online and Open Access. Having JSESD in the Open Access format maximizes access for readers and authors and allows the journal to remain economically sustainable.

Copyright, Michele J. Koomen, Thomastine Sarchet-Maher, Jessica Williams

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of The Relationship Between School Counselors' Use Of Time, Student Perceptions Of School Counselors, And Students' College, Career, And Life Readiness In Indiana Schools, Kelly H. Dunn

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School counselors play a vital role in supporting students' academic, career, social, and emotional development. Research shows that when school counselors dedicate more time to direct interactions with students, outcomes improve in areas such as graduation rates, disciplinary incidents, grade retention, and postsecondary enrollment (Carey et al., 2012; Chaney, 2023). However, many counselors face barriers to direct engagement due to non-counseling tasks, which limit their ability to provide the personalized support that students value. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model (ASCA, 2019b), a widely adopted framework for organizing school counseling programs, recommends that no more than 20% of …

Elementary Writing Intervention Implementation Status, Thomas John Petré Wills

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite decades of focus, U.S. students' writing abilities remain below grade-level expectations, highlighting persistent gaps in instructional support and systemic challenges within public education. Barriers include limited instructional time, inadequate teacher preparation in evidence-based writing practices, insufficient resources, and a lack of structured interventions for struggling writers (Applebee & Langer, 2011; National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2012). This study employed survey methodology to examine how teacher self-efficacy, classroom supports, and systems-level factors such as response to intervention (RTI) practices influence the implementation of evidence-based writing instruction in grades two through four. A national sample of elementary school teachers completed …

Re-Analysis Of The Anthropogenic Effect Of The Covid-19 Global Lockdown On Night-Time Lunar Surface Temperatures, W. Schonberg, S. Haque

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A study by Durga Prasad and Ambily observed an anomalous decrease in the lunar surface temperatures during the period April–May 2020, which they then attributed to the anthropogenic effects of the COVID-19 global lockdown effect. We have re-examined their data and while the anomalous decrease in the lunar surface temperature during April–May 2020 appears in our analysis as well, so does another significant dip in early 2018. Furthermore, the decline to the minimum observed during April–May 2020 is seen to begin in 2019, that is, quite some time before the COVID-19 event that led to the global lockdown and the …

Aligning Education And Industry: Analyzing Public School Curriculums' Influence On Skilled Trade Preparedness In Texas, Lee Bryan Whitten Iii

Theses & Dissertations

Existing literature on education and industry pipeline underscores the rising call for addressing the alignment of the two sectors to achieve relevant career pathways for students. These efforts were demonstrated when Congress enacted the Perkins Act in 1984, emphasizing career and education alignment by strengthening CTE programs in public schools. This study quantitatively determined the students’ skilled trade preparedness by analyzing the relationship between the student's College and Career Readiness Standard (CCRS) skills and those of students who pursued CTE courses and their counterparts. Three student categories composed of STEM, STEM-related, and non-CTE concentrates who graduated in May 2023 from …

Using A Process Evaluation In Extension Programming: Takeaways For Teams, Cristina Connolly, Jeantyl Norze, Stacey F. Stearns

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Health fields use process evaluations to measure how closely an intervention aligns with its intended delivery. Despite their potential for improving Cooperative Extension programming and impacts, process evaluations are not widely used outside the medical sciences. We adapted the process evaluation framework for Extension use. The components assess project components such as content, dose delivered, dose received, and reach, as well as moderating factors such as quality of delivery, participant responsiveness, complexity, facilitation strategy, recruitment, and context. The modified process evaluation framework was used to assess an Extension project in the Northeast region of the U.S. Extension teams in the …

An Exploratory Study Of Instructional Practices Inventory And School Culture Survey, Morgan Wilhoit

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much research has allowed for in-depth analyses of student engagement, a growing issue in education, without uncovering a solution. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between school culture and student engagement, a connection not yet studied, by using two valid and reliable instruments, the School Culture Survey and Instructional Practices Inventory among Indiana Principal Leadership Institute elementary schools. Data were gathered quantitatively, as well as qualitatively, to determine that there is no statistically significant relationship between culture and engagement. While the schools varied in culture results and qualitative observations, the engagement levels remained the same, regardless …

Assessing Student Satisfaction Using Courses Generated By Artificial Intelligence, Althaf Hussain Kallamadugu

All Theses

This research explores the effectiveness of using Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated voice-over presentations as an alternative to traditional human-narrated lectures in online education. The study focuses on students preparing for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 107 exam for Commercial small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUASs). By comparing AI-generated lectures with human-narrated content, the research aims to assess the impact of AI on student satisfaction, engagement, and performance. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining quantitative analysis of exam scores and survey data with qualitative insights from student interviews. The methodology includes the creation of AI-generated voice-over presentations, survey distribution to both control …

Fostering Educator Well-Being To Manage Job-Related Teacher Stress, Jennifer L. Ringelheim

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

The job-related expectations for effective classroom instruction expanded beyond teaching academics after the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased job-related teacher stress (Weisling, 2023). Using a convergent mixed-methods design, the researcher of this Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice (ISDiP) identified a problem of practice as the demands of teaching post-COVID-19 on teacher well-being. In Phase 1 of this ISDiP, the researcher conducted end-user consultations, reviewed existing data, completed a root cause analysis, and reviewed scholarly literature to develop a working theory of improvement to manage teacher stress with self-care and regulation strategies. Phase 2 of this ISDiP aimed to understand to what …