Most researchers and policymakers rely on the share of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals when describing student socioeconomic background in schools. But shares of students receiving free and reduced-price meals, and other measures related to the distribution of school meals, vary by state and across time because of changes in…

Proactive preliminary minimum sample size determination can be useful for the early planning stages of a latent variable modeling study to set a realistic scope, long before the model and population are finalized. This study examined existing methods and proposed a new method for proactive preliminary minimum sample size determination.

School value-added models are increasingly used to measure schools' contributions to student success. At the same time, policymakers and researchers agree that schools should support students' socialemotional learning (SEL) as well as academic development. Yet, the evidence regarding whether schools can influence SEL and whether statistical growth…

This is the final report of the National Evaluation of Student Support Services (SSS). SSS is one of eight federally funded grant programs that are administered as part of the Federal TRIO Programs within the U.S. Department of Education (ED). The SSS program, in particular, focuses on students while they are enrolled in college. In general, SSS…

In this paper we consider the challenges involved in evaluating teacher preparation programs when controlling for school contextual bias. Including school fixed effects in the achievement models used to estimate preparation program effects controls for school environment by relying on differences among student outcomes within the same schools to…

The purpose of this study was to examine the alignment of the easyCBM[R] mathematics benchmark and progress monitoring measures to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics "Curriculum Focal Points" (NCTM, 2006). Based on Webb's alignment model (1997, 2002), we collected expert judgments on individual math items across a sampling of forms…

This report summarizes research findings and implementation practices for teacher and principal value-added models (VAMs), as a first step in the Team Pennsylvania Foundation's (Team PA) pilot project to inform the development of a full, statewide model evaluation system. We have selected 21 studies that represent key issues and findings in the…

School principals have complex jobs. To better understand the work lives of principals, this study uses observational time-use data for all high school principals in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This paper examines the relationship between the time principals spent on different types of activities and school outcomes including student…

Explores whether flexible nonlinear models (including neural networks and genetic algorithms) can reveal otherwise unexpected patterns of relationship in typical school-productivity data. Applying three types of algorithms alongside regression modeling to school-level data in 183 elementary schools proves the hypothesis and reveals new directions…

This handbook explains how to do Rasch measurement. The emphasis is on practice, but theoretical explanations are also provided. The Forward contains an introduction to the topic of Rasch measurement. Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 7 use a small problem to illustrate the application of Rasch measurement in detail, and methodological issues are considered…

Fit statistics provide a direct measure of assessment accuracy by analyzing the fit of measurement models to an individual's (or group's) response pattern. Students that lose interest during the assessment, for example, will miss exercises that are within their abilities. Such students will respond correctly to some more difficult items and…

Corrects for potential bias and inconsistency in the estimated coefficient on market competition (among schools) by constructing a system of equations with endogenous expressions of student achievement and market competition. Policy makers seeking to improve student achievement should encourage market competition among schools. (Contains 13…

This paper considers, from a theoretical point of view, two measurement approaches used in measuring success and failure in skills tests in physical education. The first, "fixed length" (FL) testing, entails counting the number of successful performances in a fixed number of trials. The second, "trials-to-criterion" (TTC)…

The psychometric research done by G. Rasch between 1951 and 1959, which is explained and illustrated in this book, takes psychometrics from being purely descriptive to being a science of objective measurement. Individual centered statistics require models in which each individual is characterized separately and from which, given adequate data,…

This book shows the advantages of Rasch measurement (G. Rasch) for school district testing programs. The results of Rasch methods are contrasted with conventional statistics for assessing student responses to basic skills testing. Chapter 1 shows how the Rasch probability-based method produces measures that are more useful for students, parents,…