This Statistics in Brief investigates some factors that may contribute to achievement gaps in the summer after kindergarten, including differences in children's experiences, such as participation in summer care arrangements, programs, and activities. Specifically, the brief describes students' summer nonparental care arrangements, program…

The goal of this study was to determine if laptop use in lecture negatively impacts learning outcomes of surrounding students taking notes on paper. Two sections of a large introductory biology course (greater than 400 students/section) were zoned into a laptop-permitted and a laptop-free area. Two sections in which laptop users could sit anywhere…

Tablet PCs have been increasingly used in undergraduate courses to create recorded lectures that are close copies of the live lectures. Research has shown that students are largely positive about the availability of tablet PC recorded lectures. However, there is some concern that the availability of such faithful recordings may encourage students…

This instructional paper is intended to provide an alternative approach to developing lecture materials, including handouts and PowerPoint slides, successfully developed over several years. The principal objective is to aid in the bridging of traditional "chalk and talk" lecture approaches with more active learning techniques, especially in more…

Students and faculty were surveyed about their perceptions of faculty members providing a replica of instructor lecture notes to students, and the subsequent impact that practice might have on student attendance and student learning. Each group was also surveyed about particular preferences in information delivery in the classroom. Results…

This article features Pennsylvania's Montgomery County Community College (MCCC), the nation's number 1 technologically advanced community college, and describes the college's secrets and strategies to success. Although technology underpins much of what MCCC does, the college does not receive the honor--from the Center for Digital Education and…

The advent of internet-based delivery of basic medical science lectures may unintentionally lead to decreased classroom attendance and participation, thereby creating a distance learning paradigm. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that classroom attendance/participation may be positively correlated with performance on a written examination…

Using data to track and manage student enrollment is steadily becoming a standard practice on both two-year and four-year campuses. Data mining enables colleges to create predictive models for identifying behaviors that put students at risk for dropping out, flag students who engage in these behaviors, and help identify practices that work in…

Classes of 100 students or more are not uncommon in higher education. With such large enrollments, it can be difficult for instructors to integrate active learning components to the traditional lecture format typically adopted in such large classes. To help address this problem, Johnny El-Rady discusses his use of an electronic classroom voting…

Gender differences have attracted attention in today's educational research and practice. Very few studies, however, explore the gender differences in the use of technology in higher education. The authors conducted a study on technology adoption at a large Canadian university. One of its purposes was to inform our understanding of how gender…

The 2012 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 48th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

The 2011 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 47th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…