The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between technology and engineering instruction and technology and engineering literacy in grades K-8. The factors identified and used for the purpose of this study were gender, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and important modes of technology and engineering instruction. These factors…

Historically, strong teacher unions have been successful at gaining benefits and security for their members, but they have been put on the defensive by recent proposals for education reform. Charter schools are one such reform that could threaten unions, but there is wide variety in the content of state charter school laws. Using state-level data…

The relationship between reading and empathy was explored. Controlling for GPA and gender, reading variables were hypothesized as related to empathy; the relationship was expected to differ for males and females. For the complete sample, affective components were related to GPA but not reading. Perspective taking was related to reading…

The assessment of learning in large online courses requires tools that are valid, reliable, easy to administer, and can be automatically scored. We have evaluated an online assessment and learning tool called Knowledge Assembly, or Knowla. Knowla measures a student's knowledge in a particular subject by having the student assemble a set of…

The Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2011) outlines core disciplinary ideas, scientific practices and cross-cutting ideas as dimensions on which to base science education. This study outlines the use of core ecological ideas and two scientific practices as a way to examine the cognitive complexity of released large-scale assessment items…

It is generally expected that funds invested in public instruction will strengthen pupil achievement. Similarly, it is expected that enrollments of young children in preschool education should lead to higher achievement. In a trend analysis, we examined three variables as predictors of grade 8 achievement in 2007: (1) state expenditures per…

The purpose of this study was to assess the relative contribution of teacher and tutor ratings of inattentive behavior in two different instructional settings in predicting students' performance on fraction concepts and whole-number calculations. Classroom teachers rated each student's attentive behavior in a whole-class setting and tutors rated…