There exist passionate debates about the best way to teach children to read. Since the Bush administration, school districts receiving federal funds have been required to have research evidence justifying their methods of teaching reading, and in recent years the need for evidence-based practices have intensified with the "Science of…

This paper aims to identify and compare key factors influencing US States' or an OECD country's decision to employ student test scores or test score value-added (VAM) in evaluating teacher effectiveness. Analysis using multiple linear probability model and logistic regression frameworks indicates that the use of VAM/student test scores was…

Over the last 20 years, many methods have been proposed to use process data (e.g., response time) to detect changes in engagement during the test-taking process. However, many of these methods were developed and evaluated in highly similar testing contexts: 30 or more single-select multiple-choice items presented in a linear, fixed sequence in…

We document the characteristics of children and young adults identified in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics as having a learning disability and study whether legislative changes in diagnosis criteria have had a noticeable effect determining who receives a diagnosis. We further document that children and young adults identified as a having a…

Background/Context: Regression discontinuity (RD) designs are used for policy and program evaluation where subjects' eligibility into a program or policy is determined by whether an assignment variable (i.e., running variable) exceeds a pre-defined cutoff. Under a standard RD design with a continuous assignment variable, the average treatment…

It is so easy to criticize the SAT that most observers overlook the weaknesses of its architect, the College Board. This author contents that, until the latter is replaced, however, the former will never be fixed. The College Board has every incentive to create a complex, stressful, expensive college admissions system. Because it is accountable to…

The author's community, which includes parents of the 62,000 students who attend schools in Volusia County, Florida, has been baffled over the conflicting nature of Florida's school grading system of A, B, C, D, F based on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, and the federal system of pass or fail. While many of the 80 schools in her…

When tests consist of multiple-choice and constructed-response items, researchers are confronted with the question of which item response theory (IRT) model combination will appropriately represent the data collected from these mixed-format tests. This simulation study examined the performance of six model selection criteria, including the…

The "Annual Joint Report of Pre-Kindergarten through Higher Education in Tennessee" complies with the requirements established in T.C.A. § 49-1-302(a)(10). State law directs the State Board of Education (SBE) and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) to provide an annual report to the Governor, the General Assembly, all public…

The "Annual Joint Report on Pre-Kindergarten through Higher Education in Tennessee" complies with the requirements established in T.C.A. § 49-1-302(a)(10). State law directs the State Board of Education (SBE) and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) to provide an annual report to the Governor, the General Assembly, all public…

This monograph has grown out of a series of discussions and a six-month period of reading and reflecting on the literature which were initiated by Fritz Mosher's suggestions to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to examine the "standards" question. Conversations with Mosher himself and the staff of NAEP have been most…

This year's joint report highlights the progress made in education since the special session of the 106th General Assembly (2010), which included passage of the First to the Top and Complete College Tennessee Acts. Both Acts provide a framework for collaboration between all state systems of education, addressing the overarching need to produce a…

The "Annual Joint Report of Pre-Kindergarten through Higher Education in Tennessee" complies with the requirements established in T.C.A. §49-1-302(a)(10). State law directs the State Board of Education (SBE) and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) to provide an annual report to the Governor and General Assembly, all public…

Assuming that quality science education plays a role in economic growth within a country, it becomes important to understand how education policy might influence science education teaching and learning. This integrative research review draws on Cooper's methodology (Cooper, 1982; Cooper & Hedges, 2009) to synthesize empirical findings on the…

The trends and findings from a descriptive analysis of 25 years of research studies examining the effectiveness of technology to support the compositional writing of students with learning and academic disabilities are presented. A corpus of 85 applied research studies of writing technology effectiveness was identified from among 249 items in the…