This paper reports the findings of the second year of a four-year empirical research project. Its aim is to modify 'step-by-step' instructions for practical activities in a way that may enable the development of experimental design skills among junior high school learners. Each school year pupils spend six lessons doing practical activities using…

Background/Context: Observational studies often employ regression discontinuity (RD) designs and multiple control-group designs to explore the causal quantities of interest. RD designs assess policy and program effectiveness by assigning subjects to treatment based on whether they exceed a pre-defined cutoff. RD designs are classified into two…

Background/Context: Some observational studies involve multiple layers of treatment selection, specifically in the context of the extended time accommodation (ETA) for English language learners (ELLs). In ETA settings, the first selection occurs due to the eligibility rule, where students whose ELL English proficiency is below a certain threshold…

In paired experiments, participants are grouped into pairs with similar characteristics, and one observation from each pair is randomly assigned to treatment. The resulting treatment and control groups should be well-balanced; however, there may still be small chance imbalances. Building on work for completely randomized experiments, we propose a…

Schools must accurately implement effective interventions targeting deficits and/or learning challenges for secondary school-aged students with disabilities to fulfill their responsibility of preparing students for life after high school. School psychologists supporting this mission may be frustrated by the limited research conducted with…

Treatment acceptability is an aspect of social validity that refers to participants' beliefs and perceptions about the intervention, such as the helpfulness of the strategies or the interventions' efficacy to improve performance. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of treatment acceptability measures administered during…

These are the appendices for the report "Study of College Transition Messaging in GEAR UP: Impacts on Enrolling and Staying in College." Five appendices are included in the document: (1) Additional Details about College Transition Messaging; (2) Additional Information about How the Study Was Designed and Implemented; (3) Supplemental…

Methods of causal inference are not widely used by education researchers, even though they can be extremely useful tools for eliminating selection bias and confounding factors in empirical studies. For example, researchers have established that taking additional math classes in high school is strongly correlated with success in college and higher…

Peer-mediated interventions (PMIs) have been shown to be effective for increasing adaptive social and academic behaviours of children and youth. Although PMI efficacy is generally well supported, there have been relatively few published intervention studies that focus on elementary, middle and high school students with emotional and behavioural…

We present the results of a study of local education agency (LEA)-based interventions to improve the reading outcomes of struggling readers in sixth grade. The sample included 1,076 intervention students and 3,644 comparison students. Regression discontinuity was used to evaluate intervention impact. The study contributes to the field by…

Upward Bound (UB) was one of the original federal "Great Society" programs of the 1960s and remains, fifty years later, the single largest college access program in the country. Recently, Congress has reduced funding and considered eliminating the program because of federal budget pressures and because the first analysis of the only…

Professional development programs are based on different theories of how students learn and different theories of how teachers learn. Reviewers often sort programs according to design features such as program duration, intensity, or the use of specific techniques such as coaches or online lessons, but these categories do not illuminate the…

One approach to reducing persistent racial/ethnic achievement gaps is to tackle their social-psychological dimensions, including the negative consequences of stereotype threat and other identity threats in school. Initial research suggested that a particularly promising approach is brief self-affirmation writing exercises for 7th grade students;…

The present study evaluates the effectiveness of Check & Connect (C&C) in a randomly assigned sample of students who were all receiving Communities in Schools (CIS) services. The research questions for the study include: Are there differences in attendance, academics, and behavior for CIS students who also receive C&C compared to…

Background: Since 1984, Students Taking a Right Stand (STARS) Nashville has implemented Student Assistance Programs (SAPs) in the middle Tennessee area, to include 14 counties and 16 school districts. STARS Nashville serves K-12 with a focus in middle and high schools. Methods: The current study reviewed studies that utilized quasi-experimental…