Informed by two theoretical models of homework effects, we extended a model of homework on mathematics achievement in a large sample of Chinese eighth graders. Our model incorporated six clusters of homework variables -- student background factors, homework characteristics, teacher variables, parent variables, student motivation, and homework…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the 3-year trajectory of students' interest in learning physical activity (PA) knowledge during middle school and the effects of gender and prior knowledge on the trajectory. Methods: Using a repeated-measures design, a cohort of 447 sixth-grade students' interest in learning PA knowledge was…

Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) has become an increasingly popular multilevel method of analyzing data among nested datasets, in particular, the effect of specialized academic programming within schools. The purpose of this methodological study is to demonstrate the use of HLM to determine the effectiveness of STEM programming in an Ohio middle…

Although flow theory is one way of measuring the quality of a student's experience in a music ensemble, the majority of flow research utilizes samples of high school or collegiate level musicians thus causing us to generalize findings to young adolescent (middle school) populations. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods design, the purpose of…

Student motivation predicts academic achievement, engagement, and related academic behaviors. Yet in spite of the importance of motivation for academic success, few studies have examined the school and national-level contextual characteristics associated with motivation. The present study uses hierarchical linear modeling to analyze a large…

This study examined the effect of similar vs. dissimilar proficiency distributions on uniform DIF detection on a statewide eighth grade mathematics assessment. Results from the similar- and dissimilar-ability reference groups with an SWD focal group were compared for four models: logistic regression, hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM),…

Social schemas can influence the perception and recollection of others' behavior and may create biases in the reporting of social events. This study investigated young adolescents' (N = 317) gender-, ethnicity-, and popularity-based social schemas of overtly and relationally aggressive behavior. Results indicated that participants associated overt…

Purpose: Individual differences in vocabulary development may affect academic or social opportunities. It has been proposed that individual differences in word reading could affect the rate of vocabulary growth, mediated by the amount of reading experience, a process referred to as a "Matthew effect" (Stanovich, 1986). Method: In the…

This study examined how student reports of bullying were related to different dimensions of school climate, at both the school and the student levels, using a contextual effects model in a two-level multilevel modeling framework. Participants included 48,874 secondary students (grades 8 to 12; 24,244 girls) from 76 schools in Western Canada.…

The purpose of this study is to examine students' perceptions of instructional practices in the classroom, and to further investigate the relationships among instructional practices, motivational beliefs and science achievement. Hierarchical linear modelling was utilised to examine the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2007…

Advances in multilevel modeling techniques now make it possible to investigate the psychometric properties of instruments using clustered data. Factor models that overlook the clustering effect can lead to underestimated standard errors, incorrect parameter estimates, and model fit indices. In addition, factor structures may differ depending on…

This paper identifies the amount of variance in mathematics achievement in high- and low-achieving schools that can be explained by school-level factors, while controlling for student-level factors. The data were obtained from 2679 Iranian eighth graders who participated in the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Of the…

Student reports are a common approach to characterizing how students experience their classrooms. We used a recently developed method--multilevel confirmatory factor analysis--to determine whether commonly employed measures of achievement goal structure constructs (mastery and performance) typically verified at the student level can be verified at…

This article reports an original investigation into school performance measures and the multilevel nature of pupil achievement data in the Chilean school system using a sample of 177,461 students, nested within 7146 classrooms, 2283 secondary schools and 313 municipalities. The data-set comprised Year 10 students' 2006 SIMCE test's results in two…

Taiwanese students are featured as having high academic achievement but low motivational beliefs according to the serial results of the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Moreover, given that the role of context has become more important in the development of academic motivation theory, this study aimed to examine the relationship…