Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore mindfulness and self-compassion teachings and practices embedded in a leadership course and their outcome on stress regulation of doctoral-level students. Design/methodology/approach: Eight valid and reliable pre-and post-assessment inventories were administered prior to the first week of class and…

Artificial neural networks (NN) can help researchers estimate propensity scores for quasi-experimental estimation of treatment effects because they can automatically detect complex interactions involving many covariates. However, NN is difficult to implement due to the complexity of choosing an algorithm for various treatment levels and monitoring…

The shortage of STEM workers, particularly in computer science, is compounded by the underrepresentation of women and certain minoritized racial/ethnic groups in these fields. Efforts to address worker shortages and broaden participation include improving traditional STEM education pathways and creating alternative pathways. While persistence has…

Over sixty years following Brown vs. Board of Education, racial and socioeconomic segregation and lack of equal access to educational opportunities persist. Across the country, voluntary desegregation busing programs aim to ameliorate these imbalances and disparities. A longstanding Massachusetts program, METCO, buses K-12 students of color from…

Background: The current study aimed to investigate the associations between cognitive abilities, grit, and academic achievement in high school STEM studies. The study utilized a natural sample of excelling STEM students (N = 814) who underwent a selection process to join elite undergraduate STEM programs. Through this selection process, the…

Classroom teaching is a demanding and arduous profession, requiring teachers to have a suitable personality to succeed and persevere. However, academic institutions usually determine acceptance based solely on cognitive test scores, despite research indicating the added value of personality measures. This study presents the MESILA personality…

This study is the first statewide analysis of the effectiveness of the Texas Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) program. Introduced in 2019, TIA is the most significant and unprecedented teacher merit-pay system in the U.S. Leveraging the Synthetic Control Method (SCM), we construct a counterfactual scenario to assess the causal impact of TIA on…

Persistence represents a crucial trait in learning. A lack of persistence prevents learners from fully mastering their current skills and makes it difficult for them to acquire new skills. It further hinders the administration of effective interventions by learning systems. Although most studies have focused on identifying non-persistence and…

Most states responded to the onset of the pandemic by temporarily granting teachers Emergency licenses. These licenses allowed teachers to work in classrooms without passing the typical licensure exams. Since then, several states have extended their use of Emergency licenses, raising questions about how these policies impact the composition of the…

Passing the introductory calculus sequence is critical to undergraduate students' retention in STEM programs. This study examines the relations between three interrelated processes found to influence mathematics learning and achievement: spatial skills, spatial anxiety, and math anxiety. Additionally, it examines the role of gender on these…

This quantitative study of one doctoral department at a regional, state-supported university located in the Southeastern United States used descriptive, parametric, and non-parametric methods to determine the relationships between gender and each of the academic or graduation factors. Graduation rates were analyzed for doctoral students admitted…

In 2016, the GED® introduced college readiness benchmarks designed to identify testers who are academically prepared for credit-bearing college coursework. The benchmarks are promoted as awarding college credits or exempting "college-ready" GED® graduates from remedial coursework. I show descriptive evidence that those identified as…

This study investigated the relationship between primary school students' mathematics motivation and problem-solving skills in mathematics. A total of 429 students were selected through convenience sampling, using a relational survey model. Data were collected using the Mathematics Problem-solving Achievement Test and the Mathematics Course…

Improving teacher selection is an important strategy for strengthening the quality of the teacher workforce. As districts adopt commercial teacher screening tools, evidence is needed to understand these tools' predictive validity. We examine the relationship between Frontline Education's TeacherFit instrument and newly hired teachers' outcomes. We…

We identify systematic differences in ninth-grade teachers' effects on students' course grades in their class (ninth-grade grade value-add), their persistent effects on students' grades in the same subject of the next grade (tenth-grade grade value-add, representing effectiveness at academic preparation), and mismatch between the grades they give…