Higher education institutes experience lower success rates in online learning environments compared to traditional learning. Students' engagement within the learning management system (LMS) is one of the main factors affecting students' academic performance and retention. This quantitative correlational-predictive study examined if, and to what…

Noncognitive constructs such as self-efficacy, social awareness, and academic engagement are widely acknowledged as critical components of human capital, but systematic data collection on such skills in school systems is complicated by conceptual ambiguities, measurement challenges and resource constraints. This study addresses this issue by…

The purpose of this study is to understand how well the national SAT Validity Study results (Westrick et al., 2019), which is based on the entering class of 2017, generalize to other cohorts of students and how well the SAT predicts longer term outcomes beyond first-year grade point average (FYGPA) and second-year retention. Results show that the…

This multiple manuscript dissertation offers a cohesive set of research studies curated to address three topics related to how high-quality instructional practice (HQIP) is defined, measured and ultimately connected to student engagement and achievement. Grounded in Benson's (1998) framework of construct validation, this line of inquiry outlines:…

Background: Online exams have become a more common form of assessment at universities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, cheating behaviour in online exams is widespread and threatens exam validity as well as student learning and well-being. Objective: To better understand the role of university students' needs, conceptions and reasons…

Modest correlations between teacher-assigned grades and external assessments of academic achievement (r = 0.40-0.60) have led many educational stakeholders to deem grades subjective and unreliable. However, theoretical and methodological challenges, such as construct misalignment, data unavailability and sample unrepresentativeness, limit the…

Higher education institutions face heightened accountability for student success. As such, higher education relies heavily on big data to predict student outcomes. This process is problematic because predictive models are developed on historical data, are deficit based, and are focused on student factors, neglecting institutional factors. The…

This study examines teachers' justifications for their student sorting decisions in two Israeli secondary schools. Combining descriptive statistics and micro-ethnographic discourse analysis of 281 audio-recorded discussions, the study offers a new perspective on tracking's multiple social and organizational functions: providing students' needs,…

Learning analytics researchers have been diligently integrating trace data to study Self-Regulated Learning (SRL). Compared to traditionally used survey data, trace data, such as log or clickstream data designed and interpreted to understand a certain SRL construct, are considered to be more effective in capturing dynamic SRL as fine-grained…

The purpose of this National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Achievement Levels Validity Argument Report is to synthesize evidence currently available to address the validity of the interpretations and uses of the NAEP Achievement Levels. Validity is the extent to which theory and evidence supports or refutes proposed and enacted test…

Introduction: We report predictive validity of the newly defined Student Risk Screening Scale -- Internalizing and Externalizing (SRSS-IE 9, with 9 items) when used for the first time by middle and high school teachers from 43 schools. Methods: The sample included 11,773 middle school-aged students representing four geographic regions, and 7,244…

Administrative data are increasingly being used to study inequalities in education. Yet a well-known difficulty with such resources is the limited information they hold. A commonly used proxy for children coming from a low-income background is their eligibility for free school meals, yet this is likely to be of little use in measuring academic…

Organization, time management, and planning (OTMP) skills are behavioral manifestations of executive functioning linked to academic outcomes. Interventions to improve OTMP skills have shown favorable outcomes. The Children's Organizational Skills Scale parent and teacher forms (COSS-P, COSS-T) are widely used for assessing OTMP skills, but there…

Organization, time management, and planning (OTMP) skills are behavioral manifestations of executive functioning linked to academic outcomes. Interventions to improve OTMP skills have shown favorable outcomes. The Children's Organizational Skills Scale parent and teacher forms (COSS-P, COSS-T) are widely used for assessing OTMP skills, but there…

Prior Theory: Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the ability to manage emotions and social interactions adaptively to succeed in school, at work, in relationships, and in communities (Jones & Doolittle, 2017). The most cited SEL theory is the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) 5 model, which focuses on promoting…