This study examines the effect of choosing versus receiving feedback on the learning performance of n = 98 post-secondary students from California on a digital poster design task. The study employs a yoked experimental design where college students are randomly assigned to play a choice-based assessment game, Posterlet, in one of two conditions,…

The study adopted an ex-post facto research design. Randomization sampling technique was used to select 346 undergraduate distance learners and the learners were grouped into four, High and Low Goal setter learners and High and Low Decision-making skills learners. The instruments for data collection were Undergraduate Academic Goal Setting Scale…

The purpose of the School Improvement Model (SIM) Project is to investigate the links between systematically developed teacher performance evaluation, administrator performance evaluation, staff development interventions, and the quality of education as measured by student achievement results. Following the 4th year of the 5-year study,…

This paper discusses different perspectives associated with the use of multiple measures in educational assessment and explores some of the technical considerations for selecting and combining multiple measures. The paper concludes with an example of the use of multiple measures with regard to the recent No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002.…

An alternative method of identifying effective schools, based on the concept of effective schools as statistically atypical, was tested. This paper investigates the issue of consistency of the identification of what is termed "exceptional" schools. The following tests were administered to all first through fourth graders in 431 schools…

The complex task of identifying the characteristics of effective teachers involves analysis of many variables: those dealing with teacher characteristics, those that are context-based, and those that are process-related. Much diversity exists in all three areas among effective teachers, a phenomenon which confounds the problem of precise…

In 1988, Congress mandated a national longitudinal evaluation of the effects of the Title I program on students' academic achievement and classroom behavior. This paper presents an overview of the study design, analysis methods, and impact results for student achievement. The analysis used four types of designs to assess the impact of Title I: (1)…

Because public schools do not randomly assign students and teachers across schools (a methodological utopia), multilevel evaluation methods which account for student and school contextual and practice variables in their natural settings provide the most rigorous means for showing empirically what is actually happening in school classrooms.…

Since the measurement of school achievement involves the administration of achievement tests to various grades on various subjects, both grade level and subject matter contribute to within-school achievement variations. To determine whether achievement test scores vary most among different fields within a grade level, or within fields among…

While most practitioners and researchers support the recent policy direction for increased parent involvement in their children's education, little consensus exists about what constitutes effective parent involvement. A major source of this confusion is the lack of scientific rigor in the research upon which practice and policy is based. This…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether learner-generated or experimenter-provided adjunct practice questions are superior for facilitating recall of lower-order and higher-order textual information. The subjects for this experiment were 74 sixth grade students from three classes, randomly assigned to lower-order and higher-order…

Staff members at the Iowa Department of Education are involved in a 3-year initiative (1998-2001) to strengthen school improvement efforts at the local school, district, and intermediate service agency levels. Papers presented at a symposium of the American Educational Research Association annual meeting describe the multiple purposes and design…

A pretest posttest experimental group design was used to study the effects that computer assisted instruction (CAI) has on urban school, tenth grade students' achievement in global studies. Students were selected and assigned to one of two groups using random selection and assignment techniques. A pretest confirmed the equivalence of the two…

The twofold purpose of this study was to examine the impact of student teachers on pupil achievement and to investigate whether or not cooperating teachers and college supervisors were able to discriminate between those variables that correlated with pupil attainment. Fourteen classrooms of learners who had two different student teachers during…

A summary of a Research Design Conference held by the California Commission for Teacher Preparation and Licensing to discuss planned research on teaching and potential designs for such research is presented. The first section is an overview of the need for research on teaching, a brief statement of the needs of the Commission for Teacher…