This study uses information about in-game strategy use, identified through cluster analysis of actions in an educational video game, to make data-driven modifications to the game in order to reduce construct-irrelevant behavior. The examination of student strategies identified through cluster analysis indicated that (a) it was common for students…

The authors outline the application of latent class analysis (LCA) to classroom observational instruments. LCA offers diagnostic information about teachers' instructional strengths and weaknesses, along with estimates of measurement error for individual teachers, while remaining relatively straightforward to implement and interpret. It is…

The confluence of No Child Left Behind and the National Reading Panel report on the five essential components of reading instruction forged a path for struggling adolescent readers that supports a narrow curriculum designed to address gaps in constrained skills. Adolescents from a large school district in the state of Tennessee who failed state…

The assessment cycle of "evidence-centered design" (ECD) provides a framework for treating an educational video game or simulation as an assessment. One of the main steps in the assessment cycle of ECD is the identification of the key features of student performance. While this process is relatively simple for multiple choice tests, when…

There is disagreement among researchers as to whether creativity is a unidimensional or multidimensional trait. Much of the debate centers around the most widely used measure of creativity, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). This study used data from 1,000 kindergartners (ages 5-7), 1,000 third graders (ages 7-11) and 1,000 sixth…