The purpose of this quantitative study was to provide school district leaders and policymakers information of the impact grade configuration had on academic performance using math and ELA ILEARN scores over a three-year period. The study included data from 585 schools that were classified into four groups: Elementary Setting, Intermediate Setting,…

In today's information age, developing data science competencies has become vital to fostering responsible citizenry. However, the actual techniques learners need to become proficient in are still somewhat "in-construction", as the relatively new field of data science is constantly expanding to meet new data-related demands. Data science…

The importance of family background in determining a student's academic achievement has long been acknowledged by researchers. Nonetheless, the effect of schooling on this relationship has also been widely investigated. Some studies have shown that family background plays a far stronger role while the effect of schooling is minimal; others have…

Purpose: Data literacy -- the ability to read, analyze, interpret, evaluate and argue with data and data visualizations -- is an essential competency in social studies. This study aims to examine the degree to which US state standards require teachers to teach data literacy in social studies, addressing the questions: to what extent are US social…

In this paper, we present a dataset consisting of data generated from 22 previously and currently running randomized controlled experiments inside the ASSISTments online learning platform. This dataset provides data mining opportunities for researchers to analyze ASSISTments data in a convenient format across multiple experiments at the same time.…

This case study evaluated the impact of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics initiatives in improving educational outcomes in the United Kingdom. Using secondary data in the form of official datasets approved by the national pupil database, Year 7 cohort was longitudinally followed from the beginning of Key Stage 3 till the end of Key…

The increasing use of educational technologies in classrooms is producing vast amounts of process data that capture rich information about learning as it unfolds. The field of educational data mining has made great progress in using log data to build models that improve instruction and advance the science of learning. Thus far, however, the…

Educational data mining can miss or misidentify key findings about student learning without a transparent process of analyzing the data. This paper describes the first steps in the process of using low-level logging data to understand how middle school students used Alice, an initial programming environment. We describe the steps that were…

Motivating middle school students to learn can be challenging. One proven method for doing so is through an integrated curriculum. Educational philosophers and curriculum theorists have long noted the benefits of an integrated curriculum, which recognizes that the subject areas within the curriculum are connected to one another and to the real…

The purpose of this investigation is to describe an implementation of a modeling task using mock data from an ancient archeological find. Students discover the relationship between the height of a person and his or her stride length. Qualitative data from student discussions document thinking and reasoning.

For schools to be effective learning organization, their teachers and leaders need to continuously evaluate what is working and what is not. Some recent research shows that such reflection might be particularly important in the middle grades--a crucial time to identify and intervene with students at risk of later academic failure. To make the best…

Professional development within many school districts has become more closely linked to school or district achievement goals, daily practice and student assessment data. Both empirical research and experiential-based writing in the field have suggested that data-driven job-embedded professional development supports teacher learning and improved…

Data literacy is recognized as a critically important skill in today's society, but thinking with and about data is often ignored in K-12 curricula. The Thinking With Data (TWD) project advocates that data literacy is a skill that should be addressed in an interdisciplinary manner. This article provides an overview of the TWD curriculum for middle…

The TALPS study aims to build on the existing research base to develop promising methodologies to identify chronically low-performing and turnaround schools, as well as to identify promising strategies for turning around chronically low-performing schools. By looking specifically at schools identified as turnaround, in comparison to nonturnaround…

Massachusetts is heralded nationally for being the first in the nation to enact a state policy to redesign and expand the learning day for all students to advance academic achievement, broaden enrichment opportunities, and improve instruction. The Expanded Learning Time (ELT) Initiative has gained momentum over the past several years due to the…