Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Assessment Of Children As Confident And Involved Learners In Early Childhood Education And Care: Literature Review, Dan Cloney, Jen Jackson, Pru Mitchell

Early Childhood Education

This literature review is one of a series of reviews to support Victorian early childhood professionals to assess children’s learning and development in relation to the five Learning and Development Outcomes in the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF). This literature review documents the research that underpins and defines learning for children from birth to eight years, and outlines children’s trajectory as confident and involved learners. The resource aims to equip early childhood professionals with the knowledge to identify and assess children’s progress towards the VEYLDF Outcome: 'Children are confident and involved learners'.

Communicating Computational Concepts And Practices Within High School Students’ Portfolios Of Making Electronic Textiles, Debora Lui, Justice T. Walker, Sheri Hanna, Yasmin B. Kafai, Deborah A. Fields, Gayithri Jayathirtha

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Portfolios have recently gained traction within computer science education as a way to assess students’ computational thinking and practices. Whereas traditional assessments such as exams tend to capture learning within artificial settings at a single point in time, portfolios provide more authentic opportunities to document a trajectory of students’ learning and practices in everyday contexts. Furthermore, because communication itself has been defined as an important computational thinking practice, portfolios give students a place to practice this skill in the classroom. In this study, we report on the implementation of a digital portfolio with a class of 21 high school students …

Teacher Perception Toward Students With Certain Disabilities In The General Education Setting, Tara Lynn Broussard-Harshaw

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

Teacher expectation for student success in the classroom is an effect size that can be used as an indicator of student success. Students with disabilities such as Autism, emotional disturbance, specific learning disabilities or other health impairments are often viewed as being unable to be as successful in a general education classroom than their peers. There were 11 participants in this study. Participants were from the northwest corridor of the state. Participants were public school general education teachers. They varied in range from Kindergarten through grade 12. This study reinforces the need for general education teachers to have a better …

The Effects Of "Capturing Kids' Hearts" And Building Student-Teacher Relationships In An Arkansas Suburban Elementary School Setting, Karla Lee Ann Neathery

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the Capturing Kids’ Hearts professional development process as it relates to student-teacher relationships. This study sought to determine teachers’ perceptions regarding student-teacher relationships. The study was to ascertain the effect of the Capturing Kids’ Hearts professional development process on: (a) student attendance, (b) student achievement, and (c) student discipline. This qualitative study used the results of surveys, discipline, attendance, and student achievement data to address two suburban elementary schools’ problem of students not reaching their highest academic and social potential due to the absence of establishing relationships at schools. …

Do Virtual Schools Meet Students' And Families' Expectations? An Investigation Of A Fully-Online High School In Arkansas, Christopher L. Davis

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

High school has evolved significantly over the last several decades. What was once a choice between public school and private school is now a decision that includes homeschools, magnet schools, charter schools, and virtual schools, to name a few. This was a mixed-methods case study that investigated students’ and families’ satisfaction with their decision to attend high school virtually. The study examined a fully online virtual high school in the state of Arkansas to answer the following research questions: 1. What factors best predict students’ interest in enrolling in a fully online virtual school in Arkansas? 2. Is there a …

Understanding The Overall Experience Of The School Improvement Specialist In The State Of Arkansas, Russel Anthony Jones

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

The purpose of this study was to understand the overall experience of the school improvement specialist position in schools within the state of Arkansas that were labeled in need of improvement. In the study, there were seven participants who represented a variety of schools including homogeneous, a low graduation rate, culturally diverse, an alternative learning environment, an elementary school, a school that received a C letter grade, and a school that received an A letter grade. The data were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews which allowed the researcher to identify any thematic trends that arose. The major findings were the …

Examining The Relationship Between One-To-One Technology And Student Achievement, Joseph Kellie Mcclung

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of one-to-one technology use on students and faculty compared to traditional use of technology. The researcher employed a quantitative study that utilized a quasi-experimental design to investigate the technology effect using survey instruments. Participants included in this study were from schools located in Northwest Arkansas. There were approximately 2,640 students across seven middle schools as well as 63 staff members in the same schools. The results of this study found that while the I3 schools did perform better than their counterparts, the differences were not statistically significant. However, the faculty …

Predictive Ability Of Act Aspire For Act At Star City High School, Jason Williamson

Theses and Dissertations from 2019

Arkansas adopted the ACT ASPIRE as their summative assessment in 2015. ACT ASPIRE claimed their assessment results could accurately predict the composite scores on the ACT. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between students’ scores on the ACT ASPIRE and the ACT for students in the Star City School District, as well as determining if the ACT ASPIRE accurately predicted eleventh grade students’ scores on the ACT. The findings revealed a significant relationship between ACT ASPIRE (ninth/tenth) grade scores and ACT scores. There was a significant difference between ninth grade mean scores and tenth grade mean …

Building Sustainability Through Organisational Arrangements, Deirdre Goggin

Conference Papers

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) has existed in Cork Institute of Technology(CIT) since 1999 as part of its central services to all learners for access, transfer and progression. The sustainability of RPL within CIT is as a result of strategic decisions made as to its importance and the multi-faceted approach which has been adopted and embedded by CIT to ensure that validation is implemented, used and valued. This presentation will outline the policy, systems and processes CIT has adopted to meet the needs of all stakeholders including learners, staff, institution and industry. It will focus on the strategy and policy …

Is Collegiate Political Correctness Fake News? Relationships Between Grades And Ideology, Matthew Woessner, Robert Maranto, Amanda Thompson

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

While considerable quantitative research demonstrates ideological liberalism among American professors, only qualitative work examines whether this affects undergraduate education. Using the HERI dataset surveying students in their first and fourth years in college (n=7,207), we use OLS regressions to test whether students’ political beliefs are associated with reported college grades and perceived collegiate experiences. We find that while standardized test scores are the best predictors of grade point average, ideology also has impacts. Even with controls for SES, demographics, and SAT scores, liberal students report higher college grades and closer relationships with faculty. Nevertheless, conservative students consistently show higher levels …

Advances In Global Education And Research: Volume 3, Waynne B. James, Cihan Cobanoglu

University of South Florida (USF) - M3 Publishing

This is the third volume of the Advances in Global Education and Research Book Series. This volume has the following parts:

• Part 1: Adult Education
• Part 2: Curriculum and Instruction Development
• Part 3: Education in Other Specialties
• Part 4: Educational Technology
• Part 5: Global Competence
• Part 6: Higher Education and Educational Leadership
• Part 7: Human Resource Development
• Part 8: Inclusive Education
• Part 9: International Education
• Part 10: Pre K-12
• Part 11: Research Methods in Education

ISBN: 978-1-7321275-4-8

Rewriting Honors 300: Teaching For Teaching Assistants, Nina Schenk

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of this project is to rewrite the curriculum of Honors 300: Teaching Honors for Honors Students. After conducting research via survey and reading and analyzing works by Gonzales, Dallimore, and other university and pedagogy websites, meeting with organizations on campus, and getting feedback from other Honors TAs, the goal of my final project is to rewrite the Honors 300 curriculum and syllabus; this includes a restructuring of the TA selection and pairing process, a series of suggestions on training and orientation, and the recommendation for renaming the Teaching Assistants. I developed the following by consulting literature on pedagogy, …

Health Science Pathways Pipeline Analysis Project, Education Systems Center

Reports, Analyses, and other Publications

No abstract provided.

A Quantitative Study Examining Project Lead The Way Gateway Program Outcomes In A Suburban School District, Patrick Joseph Bellinger

Dissertations

Within the confines of this study, the Researcher investigated Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Gateway program outcomes at a Midwest suburban school district. The study examined specific academic achievement outcomes and attitudes regarding STEAM courses and STEAM careers among students who completed at least one semester in a middle school PLTW Gateway program. The Researcher attempted to determine if there was a difference in student attitudes related to STEAM between students who enrolled in a PLTW Gateway course and students who never enrolled in PLTW Gateway, as determined in an online survey. The Researcher also attempted to determine if there …

A Quantitative Case Study On School Climate, Student Behavior, Student Achievement, And Classroom Facility Factors In An Urban Midwest High School, Shamonda Owens

Dissertations

This research was a quantitative case study on the possible relationship between school climate, student behavior, student achievement, and classroom facility factors in an urban Midwest high school. Specific variables included lighting, wall color, classroom temperature, school climate, student behavior, and student academic achievement. The researcher collected the following data: student behavior, number of out of school suspensions (OSS) students received in 2014 through 2017, End of Course data, 2014-2017, in the areas of Biology, American Government, English I, and English II. To measure school climate, the researcher used the district’s annual climate survey. School climate survey data measured student …

Alternative Education Program Best Practices: A Comparative Analysis Of Three Mid-Missouri High School Alternative Education Programs, Elizabeth Christine Nelson

Dissertations

School districts in the state of Missouri are required to provide an education to all students, including those on suspension, and many other states have similar requirements. The number of alternative programs has grown over the last 50 years, and most districts provide some type of alternative program for at-risk students. With few state regulations for evaluation of these programs, researchers in alternative education recommended districts perform internal evaluations to ensure program quality. The research identified six research-based best practices domains critical to the success of an alternative program. The six domains were curriculum, assessment, engagement, instruction, leadership, and structures. …

Inside The Black Box: Stakeholder Perceptions On The Value Of Arts Field Trips, Angela Watson

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

This descriptive, qualitative study, an extension of an experimental primary study, documents stakeholders’ experiences and perceptions of attending multiple field trips where urban elementary students in fourth and fifth grades were randomly assigned to receive three arts field trips including an art museum, a live theater performance, and a symphony concert. Evidence of declining K-12 attendance to educational cultural or arts field trips has been mounting for decades. Further, minority students in struggling schools and their teachers report attending fewer field trip experiences, as well as limited access to arts experiences in their schools. The full impact of this declining …

Tidying And Analysis Of The 2014 Texas English Ii End-Of-Course Exam, David Churchman, Abigail Morton Garland

SMU Data Science Review

The state of Texas requires all public high school students to take End of Course (EOC) exams. The results of these exams are made nominally public, but in a shape and format that precludes ready analysis. To the extent possible, principles of tidy data will be applied to clean and analyze the publicly released data file for the 2014 English II EOC exam, providing insights into the EOC program and a case for better public data from the Texas Education Administration (TEA).

Curriculum Analysis: Hardin Middle School Math, Michael Zitzer

Educational Specialist Scholarly Papers

The City of St. Charles School District, particularly Hardin Middle School (HMS), has routinely been outperformed by its St. Charles County counterparts in math. Consequently, it is necessary to evaluate curriculum development, implementation, and resources to begin to determine the causal factors of low performance. If HMS’ curriculum is not effectively facilitating high quality instruction, it could be a leading factor in their low performance. To determine whether HMS’ curriculum is impacting student achievement the research will conduct an analysis of both the written and implemented (textbook) curriculum. The analysis will be designed to determine whether the district’s current curriculum …

Failure To Launch?: Advancing The Case For Financial Literacy Interventions In Postsecondary Education, Cathleen Snyder

Dissertations, 2014-2019

For college undergraduates, the thought of managing money is often new, exciting, and terrifying in the same breath. Some students have learned well from their parental and prior academic influences, and yet others may be overwhelmed by a lack of those same resources. As postsecondary institutions endeavor to level the proverbial playing field, helping college graduates launch into meaningful, financially independent lives, it begs additional consideration on the intervention methods that might be most impactful.

This study examined a for-credit, curriculum-based intervention specific to personal finance topics. It attempted to answer several key questions: How knowledgeable are students relative to …

The Credentialed Workforce: Examining Success Rates Across Short-Term Noncredit Training Programs Aligned With Industry Credentials, Rochelle Fisher

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

A new grant program implemented to provide subsidized training costs for students enrolling in short-term noncredit programs aligned with high-demand industry credentials leading to middle-skill jobs was implemented in July 2016. The grant program follows a pay-for-performance model where students are given a two-thirds discount on tuition but required to pay back an additional one-third if they do not successfully complete their short-term noncredit training. An exploratory study was conducted to provide training program completion and credential attainment rates for the overall program and by student demographic groups (age, race, and gender). Results showed little variation among training program completion …

Test Emotions, Value, And Self-Efficacy: A Longitudinal Model Predicting Examinee Effort And Performance On A Low-Stakes Test, Paulius Satkus

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The validity of scores from low-stakes tests may be compromised by examinee motivation. Expectancy-Value theory (EV) has been used to frame the antecedents of examinee motivation in low-stakes testing contexts. According to EV theory, the perceived value of the test and the expectancy to succeed on the test directly affect examinee effort, which then affects test performance. Cross-sectional research studies in low-stakes testing contexts offer some support of EV theory. Control-Value theory (CV) serves as another theory to understand motivation toward a task. CV theory encompasses the constructs of expectancy and value from EV theory, but incorporates test emotions as …

Development Of A School Boredom Proneness Scale For Children, Taylor Carrington

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

One common phrase heard from students is, “I’m bored.” However, there is no real understanding of what this actually means. In this study, elementary-age students were asked to respond to a newly developed School Boredom Proneness Scale (SBPS) including questions relating to a five-factor model of boredom. Students were also asked to rate how often they become bored at school and how bored they seem compared to classmates. In addition to student responses, parents and teachers were asked to rate how bored they thought the student was, and teachers were additionally asked to rate students’ level of work completion. The …

An Initial Development Of A Hardiness Scale For Elementary School Students, Stephen Ferrara

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

There are limited studies that have investigated levels of hardiness in children. There is even less information on finding hardiness scales that have been normed on children in elementary school. The purpose of this study was to test the validity and reliability of the Hardiness Scale for Children (HSC), which assesses the three subscales of hardiness: Challenge, Control, and Commitment. 121 elementary school students (2^nd-5^th grade) were selected to complete the HSC. Their parents were also asked to complete a three-item scale to measure their child’s hardiness. The results indicated that older children tended to give themselves …

Discrimination In The Application, Abraham Casas '21, Maia Peregrino '21, Brenna Christoffel '21, Zach Eness '21

Student Leadership Exchange (SLX)

Prospective students across Illinois work excessively towards the achievement of getting accepted to the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. Though the selection process of applicants is meant to be fair and only admit the most qualified students, it has been found that this process has its flaws. While GPA and SAT scores are factored into these decisions, additional factors such as geographic, gender, and ethnic criteria are involved. Measures such as Affirmative Action are put into place to ensure each student has a fair opportunity to education. However, one result of IMSA’s attempt to comply with its statutory requirement to …

Refugee Livelihood: Understanding The Vocational Training Experiences Of Foreign Refugee Women Living In Malawi, Mary Patricia Davis

Theses & Dissertations

With Africa holding 26% of the world’s refugees, it is critical to understand the educational opportunities that are accessible for refugees, especially in the context of African women who are historically excluded as the primary target for education (UNHCR, 2018a).Despite the policies and institutional commitment to education for the refugee population, there is little evidence to ensure quality, or access to education, at the regional or local levels. For women and young girls in displacement, access to education is particularly limited to the secondary level (UNHCR, 2011a).In response to the need for quality education for refugee women, Malawi’s vocational training …

Designing An Integrated Education And Training Program For English Language Learners At A Community-Based Literacy Organization, Courtney J. Lord

MA TESOL Collection

Since the passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) in 2014, adult education programs across the country began to plan and implement integrated education and training (IET) programs. IET programs combine adult basic education or ESL instruction with workforce preparation activities and training to not only help participants improve their basic skills or English language proficiency, but also help them advance in their educational or career paths. This model has been particularly challenging for community-based literacy organizations (CBLOs) to adopt, as IETs require additional funding streams, collaborative partnerships, and significant support services. In addition, literature regarding how to …

Fundamental Attribution Error: Perspectives Of Principal, Teacher, And Parent Influence On Student Growth, Sonja Rayner

Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine principals’, teachers’, and parents’ attributions of their own and the other groups’ relative influence on student academic outcomes measured by standardized tests. The secondary purpose was to determine whether and how fundamental attribution error and self-serving bias predicts or explains the responses of each group. Descriptive analyses were conducted to compare responses from these three constituent groups. Additionally, repeated measures MANOVA was conducted in order to explain the effect the moderator variable, school performance level, had on the strength of the relationship between the independent (school rating and group) and dependent …

Early Career Teacher Development Program: Evaluation Final Report, Katherine L. Dix, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Toby Carslake

Professional learning for teachers and school leaders

This is the final report summarising the evaluation of the South Australian Department for Education’s Early Career Teacher Development (ECTD) Program, conducted by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). This report presents the results and findings of a process and impact evaluation, and the recommendations for program improvement that have emerged. The Early Career Teacher Development (ECTD) program aims to support the induction and professional development of early career teachers (ECTs) by accelerating their progression from provisional to full teacher registration in their first two years. The program has been developed by the South Australian Department for Education, to …

Developing An Explicit Instruction Special Education Teacher Observation Rubric, Evelyn S. Johnson, Yuzhu Zheng, Angela R. Crawford, Laura A. Moylan

Early and Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this study, we developed an Explicit Instruction special education teacher observation rubric that details the elements of explicit instruction, and tested its psychometric properties using many-faceted Rasch measurement (MFRM). Video observations of classroom instruction from 30 special education teachers across three states were collected. External raters (n = 15) were trained to observe and evaluate instruction using the rubric, and assigned scores of ‘implemented’, ‘partially implemented’ or ‘not implemented’ for each of the items. Analyses showed that the item, teacher, lesson and rater facets achieved high psychometric quality for the instrument. Implications for research and practice are discussed.