The central roles of science in the field of remedial and special education are to (a) identify basic laws of nature and (b) apply those laws in the design of practices that achieve socially valued outcomes. The scientific process is designed to allow demonstration of specific (typically positive) outcomes, and to assist in the attribution of…

This report examined three potential indicators of college enrollment school and district staff might use to identify and support students at risk of not attending college: (1) Chicago: Designed to predict high school graduation; based on earning six course credits--the minimum to advance to the next grade in HISD--and having at most one semester…

Comparative international assessments of academic achievement consistently indicate that US students trail behind many peers, particularly those from east Asia, in math and science. Traditional efforts to explain this finding have focused on identifying characteristics that might differentiate the United States from top-performing countries.…

This manuscript provides an overview of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), as part of a series of papers covering topics relevant to consumers of educational research. HLM is tremendously flexible, allowing researchers to specify relations across multiple "levels" of the educational system (e.g., students, classrooms, schools, etc.).…

The Division of Academics, Researchers and Teachers in Psychology (DARTP) hosted a symposium at the British Psychological Society's Annual Conference 2018, at which the concepts of transition and adaptability were explored within the context of higher and pre-tertiary education and in academic organisational contexts. The talks and discussions…

This brief examines strategies for leveraging State longitudinal data systems (SLDS) to promote college and career readiness (CCR) goals. The examples provided are based on current state efforts to use their state longitudinal data systems to achieve their CCR vision and goals. The following information outlines the basic purpose and elements of…

The importance of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) professions to America's ability to advance its quality of life have long been a matter of discussion on a national level. The rewards of study in these areas are as evident to those who teach it, as they are, often, difficult for students to appreciate. This article…

In Australia and many other countries, the provision of the healthiest possible start in life for all children has been a priority for government. Evidence to support the importance of the early years for future development has accumulated over the past two decades [1]. Patterns of childhood development predict health, wellbeing, learning and…

This document was produced by the authors based on their research for the report "School Completion: What We Learn from Different Measures of Family Background," and is an added resource for further information. This study relies on two main sources to analyse how Year 12 completion is related to disadvantage: the Longitudinal Surveys of…

The past few years has seen the rapid growth of data mining approaches for the analysis of data obtained from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The objectives of this study are to develop approaches to predict the scores a student may achieve on a given grade-related assessment based on information, considered as prior performance or prior…

U.S. high school graduation rates have risen steadily for the past decade, hitting an all-time high of 82 percent in 2013-14 (Rich, 2015). Yet there's a dark cloud behind this silver lining. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education (2015), only 59 percent of students who enter four-year colleges complete their…

Declining college admission test scores during the 1970s raised concerns that America's primary schools were inadequately preparing students for college or the workforce. Rock's (1985) analysis of SAT scores indicated that seniors in 1980 scoring at the 50th percentile for vocabulary would have placed at the 41st percentile in 1972. Mathematics…

Facing substantial financial pressure, many districts close schools in order to preserve solvency and improve student outcomes. Using a new longitudinal data set on all non-Cook County Illinois schools, we examine the determinants of high school closure decisions from 1986 through 2006. Our dataset combines information from a wide variety of…

Identity fusion is a relatively unexplored form of alignment with groups that entails a visceral feeling of oneness with the group. This feeling is associated with unusually porous, highly permeable borders between the personal and social self. These porous borders encourage people to channel their personal agency into group behavior, raising the…

Learning Analytics (LA) has been identified as one of the top technology trends in higher education today (Johnson et al., 2013). LA is based on the idea that datasets generated through normal administrative, teaching, or learning activities--such as registrar data or interactions with learning management systems--can be analyzed to enhance…