Various areas of educational research are interested in the transitions between different states--or events--in sequential data, with the goal of understanding the significance of these transitions; one notable example is affect dynamics, which aims to identify important transitions between affective states. Unfortunately, several works have…

Despite the rising popularity of big data, there is speculation that evaluators have been slow adopters of these new statistical approaches. Several possible reasons have been offered for why this is the case: ethical concerns, institutional capacity, and evaluator capacity and values. In this method note, we address one of these barriers and aim…

The examinee-selected-item (ESI) design, in which examinees are required to respond to a fixed number of items in a given set of items (e.g., choose one item to respond from a pair of items), always yields incomplete data (i.e., only the selected items are answered and the others have missing data) that are likely nonignorable. Therefore, using…

To date, evaluation research and policy analysis have focused mainly on average program impacts and paid little systematic attention to their variation. Recently, the growing number of multi-site randomized trials that are being planned and conducted make it increasingly feasible to study "cross-site" variation in impacts. Important…

This study aimed at investigating the extent to which secondary schools mathematics teachers practice to assessment models in their mathematics teaching and learning. Definitely, the study aimed at answering the following questions: (1) To what extent do secondary schools mathematics teachers practice each of the assessment models in their…

Focus groups have an established history in applied research and evaluation. The fundamental methods of the focus group technique have been well discussed, as have their potential advantages. Less guidance tends to be provided regarding the analysis of data resulting from focus groups or how to organize and defend conclusions drawn from the…

In the modern world, higher education is transitioning from enrollment mode to recruitment mode. This shift paved the way for institutional research and policy making from historical data perspective. More and more universities in the U.S. are implementing and using enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, which collect vast amounts of data.…

The Comparing Options in Secondary Mathematics: Investigating Curriculum (COSMIC) project is a longitudinal study of student learning from two types of mathematics curricula: integrated and subject-specific. Previous large-scale research studies such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) indicate that numerous variables are…

Student test-taking motivation in low-stakes assessment testing is examined in terms of both its relationship to test performance and the implications of low student effort for test validity. A theoretical model of test-taking motivation is presented, with a synthesis of previous research indicating that low student motivation is associated with a…

Examined the utility of general growth mixture modeling (GGMM) for evaluating early childhood education programs. Initially, growth mixture modeling procedures identified two growth patterns among Head Start children. However, GGMM procedures found that children with at least 2 years program participation did not have faster achievement growth…

This report presents a systematic review of the literacy services of the Vancouver Public Library (British Columbia), both to determine if those activities met the needs and expectations of local adult learners and to see if those activities compared favorably with general standards and with other libraries' literacy services. Data was collected…

This document contains 11 papers on researching service learning through a multidisciplinary lens. The following papers are included: "Introduction" (Shelley H. Billig, Andrew Furco); "Stretching to Meet the Challenge: Improving the Quality of Research to Improve the Quality of Service-Learning" (Janet Eyler);…