This study examined the development of noncognitive skills in a sample of 4,769 Hispanic/Latino students as they went through middle school and the first year of high school using ACT Engage 6-9, an assessment designed to predict student outcomes by measuring students' behaviors and psychosocial attributes. The scales of Academic Discipline,…

California and many other states require students to pass an exit examination as a high school graduation requirement. Coupled with the exit examination requirement is school accountability to the state and the federal government. Despite academic interventions, many students continue to fail the exit examination resulting in not earning a…

Student academic achievement in junior high mathematics is an ongoing mission for educational leaders. To achieve that undertaking, teacher effectiveness plays an important role. The purpose of this study was to examine the combined effects of teacher effectiveness on student achievement. The study was conducted in a suburban school district in…

It is a common knowledge that student achievement is a product of multiple individual and environmental factors. The literature developed various models to organize and explain the relationship between some of these variables and student learning which translates into student achievement. Yet, no comprehensive model is able to capture all possible…

The purpose of this study was to address the utility of curriculum-based measurements of written expression (CBM-W) for predicting writing growth longitudinally and address the extent to which CBM-W relate to other academic and behavior measures. CBM-W has been shown to be an appropriate and useful method for assessing and monitoring writing skill…

Educational experts have criticized status models of school accountability, as required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), describing them as ineffectual in measuring achievement because their one-time assessment of student knowledge ignores student growth. Research on student achievement has instead identified growth models as superior…

The purpose of this study was to extend the research on textbook effectiveness to a situated investigation of a single large urban school district in which middle schools were given a choice in selecting from three textbooks for mathematics instruction: a reform textbook, a commercially produced textbook developed in response to mathematics…

This scale-up study investigated the impact of a teacher technology tool (Curriculum Customization Service, CCS), curriculum, and online resources on earth science teachers' attitudes, beliefs, and practices and on students' achievement and engagement with science learning. Participants included 73 teachers and over 2,000 ninth-grade students…

This mixed methods study was designed to compare the effect of using an inquiry teaching methodology and a more traditional teaching methodology on the learning gains of students who were taught a five-week conceptual change unit on density. Seventh graders (N = 479) were assigned to five teachers who taught the same unit on density using either a…

This dissertation investigates and problematizes emergent bilingual students' achievement gaps in an existing corpus of middle-school science assessment data. I first characterize achievement gaps across national data, state data, and the corpus of approximately 27,000 students as an analytic backdrop. I then sample a subset of the 6th grade…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between student mathematics performance of 4th, 8th, and 11th grade students in Nebraska and the mode of test administration, online and paper-pencil. Schools were allowed to select the mode of test administration for their school with some exceptions for students needing…

While outstanding teachers are any school system's most important investment, assessing the quality of instructional practice has proven to be an ongoing challenge for the profession. Despite assertions that effective teachers are the single most important school-related factor responsible for increased learning, no teacher's employment is…

This study examined the multilevel factors that influence mathematics and English performance on the Primary Leaving Examinations (PLEs) among primary seven pupils (i.e., equivalent to the United States [U.S.] 7th graders) in Uganda. Existing student state test data from the Wakiso District were obtained. In addition, a newly created Teacher…

Digital games are widely popular and interest has increased for their use in education. Digital games are thought to be powerful instructional tools because they promote active learning and feedback, provide meaningful contexts to situate knowledge, create engagement and intrinsic motivation, and have the ability individualize instruction.…

Using emergent motivation theory, this study analyzes the relationships between high school students' perceptions of their reading skills, task challenge, and personal control over assigned reading activities and their reading engagement (i.e., interest, enjoyment, and concentration) during science instruction. The study also examines how…