In today's data-driven and data-informed educational landscape, leaders face increasing pressure to make decisions and present results based on what appear to be comprehensive statistical analyses. However, the ethical implications of these responsibilities can be complex, particularly when statistical results carry the potential to be…

Group design research studies can provide evidence to draw conclusions about "what works," "for whom," and "under what conditions" in special education. The quality indicators introduced by Gersten and colleagues (2005) have contributed to increased rigor in group design research, which has provided substantial…

The development in information science has enabled an explosive growth of data, which attracts more and more researchers to engage in the field of big data analytics. Noticeably, in many real-world applications, large amounts of data are imbalanced data since the events of interests occur infrequently. Classification of imbalanced data is an…

The practice of statistics is the focus of the world in which professional statisticians live. To understand meaningfully what this practice is about, students need to engage in it themselves. Acknowledging the limitations of a genuine classroom setting, this study attempted to expose four classes of year 5 students (n?=?91) to an authentic…

Background: In Ohio, levy campaigns are a burdensome task for district administrators and stakeholders alike. To date, there is little research on the districts' role in crafting school budget referenda campaigns. Purpose: This study asked three research questions: How did the macropolitical contexts shape stakeholders' decision making in terms of…

For accreditation and programmatic decision making, education school administrators use inter-rater reliability analyses to judge credibility of student-teacher assessments. Although weak levels of agreement between university-appointed supervisors and cooperating teachers are usually interpreted to indicate that the process is not being…

This qualitative study examined instructors' and students' perceptions of social relationship in distance learning. Interview and observational data were collected and analyzed to generate theories. Convenient sampling was used. Factors influencing a sense of distance were analyzed. Findings revealed greater difficulty establishing a social…

The purpose of this mixed methods phenomenological study was to explore the data-driven instructional decisions that elementary teachers make in literacy. Educators have moved towards a culture of being data-driven, and have declared data use in schools to be significant to school improvement and accountability (Marsh, Pane, & Hamilton, 2006).…

Putting data-driven decision making into practice requires the use of consistent and reliable data that are easily accessible. The systematic collection and maintenance of accurate information is an important component in developing policy and evaluating outcomes. Since 1982, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been collecting…

Superintendents and school boards should get the most accurate information they can when making policy decisions--and that means data, not anecdotes and impressions. This article discusses factors to consider in conducting a survey. A good survey starts with the basics: Ask the right questions of a good sampling of the defined population; take…

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if a policy-capturing methodology (JAN) which has been successfully utilized in military and educational research could be adapted for use as a procedure in identifying pornographic material. (Author)

Bayesian statistical methodology and its possible uses in the behavioral sciences are discussed in relation to the solution of problems in both the use and teaching of fundamental statistical methods, including confidence intervals, significance tests, and sampling. The Bayesian model explains these statistical methods and offers a consistent…

Too few researchers understand what statistical significance testing does and does not do, and consequently their results are misinterpreted. This Digest explains the concept of statistical significance testing and discusses the meaning of probabilities, the concept of statistical significance, arguments against significance testing,…

To continue to be an effective local educational leader in curricular change, fiscal policy making, and, above all, in planning for education, the school administrator must have a continuous flow of usable information on public opinion. The purpose of this book is to provide the administrator with practical methods for systematically monitoring…