The role and impact of diversity in higher education has permeated conversations about student access and achievement for many years. Language articulated by various courts suggests that higher education policies should reflect a broad conceptualisation of diversity beyond that of the magnitude and proportion of race and ethnicity, yet…

This article presents a content analysis of the 2013 School Leadership Program (SLP) grants. SLP projects provide a unique opportunity for participants in the field to explore innovative leadership preparation and development and their impact on program participants, schools, school districts, and students. The article begins with an overview of…

Engagement is one of the most widely misused and overgeneralized constructs found in the educational, learning, instructional, and psychological sciences. The articles in this special issue represent a wide range of traditions and highlight several key conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and analytical issues related to defining and measuring…

Colleges and universities increasingly voice a concern for, and dedicate institutional attention to ethnic "diversity" within their student population, a trend that aligns with broader concerns about social (in-)equity in US Elementary and Secondary schools. Current operational definition of diversity focuses on demographic variety of…

This article provides information for Extension professionals on the correct analysis of Likert data. The analyses of Likert-type and Likert scale data require unique data analysis procedures, and as a result, misuses and/or mistakes often occur. This article discusses the differences between Likert-type and Likert scale data and provides…

This article sets out to explore a shift in the sources of evidence-of-learning in the era of networked computing. One of the key features of recent developments has been popularly characterized as "big data". We begin by examining, in general terms, the frame of reference of contemporary debates on machine intelligence and the role of…

The purpose of this study was to use data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2) to (a) conceptually identify and empirically establish student, family, and school constructs; (b) explore the degree to which the constructs can be measured equivalently across disability groups; and (c) examine latent differences (means,…

Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) play a central role in modern academia. They are used for tenure, promotion, teaching improvement and other important decisions. One would think that the data collected from a SET would be analysed correctly, but such is typically not the case, as can be seen in this study later. Therefore we propose a…

Purpose: The main aim of this paper is to develop guidelines on the critical issues to consider in research design in an action research (AR) environment for SME network capability development. Design/methodology/approach: The issues in research design for AR studies are developed from the authors' experience in running learning sets but, in…

Purpose: This paper proposes a benefit of the doubt (BoD) approach to construct and analyse teacher effectiveness scores (i.e. SET scores). Design/methodology/approach: The BoD approach is related to data envelopment analysis (DEA), a linear programming tool for evaluating the relative efficiency performance of a set of similar units (e.g. firms,…

We estimated the invariance of educational achievement (EA) and learning attitudes (LA) measures across nations. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to estimate the invariance of educational achievement and learning attitudes across 55 nations (Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA] 2006 data, N = 354,203). The…

This article is an outgrowth of the evaluation and assessment process in a large interdisciplinary studies (IDS) program at West Virginia University. We argue for the importance of collecting and assessing quantitative and qualitative data concerning learning outcomes, student satisfaction, career choice and development, and graduate education…

How many students repeat a grade each year? How do retention rates vary across states and over time? Despite extensive research on the predictors and consequences of grade retention, there is no systematic way to quantify state-level retention rates; even national estimates rely on imperfect proxy measures. We present a conceptually simple…

Governmental and accrediting entities are demanding increased accountability and efficiency from colleges and universities. This chapter discusses strategies for developing institutional data sets that create a "culture of evidence." (Contains 5 figures.)

Discusses the process of conducting a summative evaluation, characteristics of evaluators, and choice of assessment techniques. (SK)