Student surveys are widely used to evaluate university teaching and increasingly adopted at the K-12 level, although there remains considerable debate about what they measure. Much disagreement focuses on the well-documented correlation between student grades and their evaluations of instructors. Using individual-level data from 19,000 evaluations…

This study explores the conditions under which polarization and depolarization occur with respect to public opinion on education issues. I analyze experimental and nonexperimental survey data to gauge the effects of informational and experiential stimuli on education policy preferences. I focus on heterogeneous effects by political party…

Survey research frequently involves the collection of data from multiple informants. Results, however, are usually analyzed by informant group, potentially ignoring important relationships across groups. When the same construct(s) are measured, integrative data analysis (IDA) allows pooling of data from multiple sources into one data set to…

This study builds on a 2019 Fordham Institute report that examined the relationship between charter school enrollment share--the share of students in a community who enroll in a charter school--and the average achievement of all the students in that community, including those in traditional public schools. Like its predecessor, this report seeks…

Background: This paper considers a new policy and statistical framework for evaluating K-12 schools and policies that aligns with diversity, equity, and inclusion values. The new approach broadens the standard approach to accountability and evaluation by combining features of evaluation and multi-level growth models with approaches used in systems…

Background: Local governments increasingly rely on sales taxes to raise revenue, often justifying the need for a local sales tax increase with a specific programmatic goal, such as better education or transportation. In Washington State, the legislature explained that a local sales tax increase was necessary to support criminal justice because…

The OECD's PISA exercise has by now been widely critiqued. Whilst we agree with most concerns, we begin with the assumption that PISA will remain an enduring and powerful feature of the global educational landscape. Even if the PISA test itself were discontinued, a similar large-scale quantitative assessment exercise would soon arise to take its…

Describing the variation in test scores between and within school districts is critical for: (1) for policy-related and descriptive work that investigates the sorting of students among districts and the differential effectiveness of those districts; and (2) for methodological work planning future experiments or interventions. Intraclass…

This study examines whether principals' movements and school achievement are associated with their salaries. Predictors of principal salaries were examined using three years of panel data. Results from a fixed-effects regression analysis suggest that principals who moved to school leadership positions in other districts leveraged higher salaries…

The aim of the paper is to contribute to the critical study of digital data use in education, through examination of the processes surrounding school inspection judgements. The interaction between pupil performance data and other (embodied, enacted) sources of inspection judgement is scrutinised and discussed with a focus on the interaction…

A key component of online and blended learning content, open educational resources, (OER) are heralded in a global movement toward high-quality, affordable, accessible, and personalized education. However, stakeholders have expressed concern about scaling OER use due to a lack of means to ensure a fit between learner, resource, and task. Usage…

This paper provides an account of the topological and its description of contemporary culture and use as a research methodology, a topological lens, generally, and in education research specifically. Some commentary is proffered on the relationships between the topological and the topographical, between relations and locations. A critical account…

The purpose of this document is to recommend practices that will help education agencies collect, report, and use attendance data to improve student and school outcomes. This publication substantively revises and expands the information included in "Every School Day Counts: The Forum Guide to Collecting and Using Attendance Data,"…

The aim of this study is to show the perception of trust in the manager of teachers working at public primary schools, secondary schools and high schools, and their perception of organizational justice, and reveal whether there is a correlation between the perception of trust in the manager and the perception of organizational justice. The study…

"Closing the achievement gap" (i.e. reducing differences in performance across racial and ethnic groups) has been the rallying cry and holy grail for reform efforts in American education for some time. In addition to influences associated with school and teacher factors, researchers have now turned their attention to characteristics in…