The purpose of this study was to identify the beliefs of preservice mathematics teachers with regards to the nature of mathematics, the learning of mathematics, and student achievement in mathematics. Past research indicates that teacher beliefs affect the way they teach as well as influence the students they instruct (Schoenfeld 1992; Thompson…

Since there is limited research on the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model in educational contexts, the current cross-national comparison study aimed to investigate how non-cognitive factors, specifically, the TPB model components, affect students' math outcomes in USA and their peers in three other countries, Germany,…

Examining the testing processes, as well as the scores, is needed for a complete understanding of validity and fairness of computer-based assessments. Examinees' rapid-guessing and insufficient familiarity with computers have been found to be major issues that weaken the validity arguments of scores. This study has three goals: (a) improving…

This study explored the relationships among high school students' reading comprehension achievement, three latent constructs (reading comprehension strategy use, reading comprehension strategy instruction, reading attitudes), and five control variables (gender, minority status, socio-economic status [SES], class time, class size). The purpose of…

Nonlinear multilevel latent variable modeling has been suggested as an alternative to traditional hierarchical linear modeling to more properly handle measurement error and sampling error issues in contextual effects modeling. However, a nonlinear multilevel latent variable model requires significant computational effort because the estimation…

On assessments such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999) and Program for International Assessment (PISA) ("PISA 2006 Science Competencies for Tomorrow's World", 2007) students in the United States have not been performing as well in mathematics as students in other countries. In…

There is considerable debate about the relative importance of family versus school factors in producing academic and nonacademic student outcomes, and whether and how their impacts vary across different student groups. In addition to critically reviewing and synthesizing earlier work, this study extends the literature by (a) using the ECLS-K, a…