This article reviews the origins and use of the terms quasi-experiment and natural experiment. It demonstrates how the terms conflate whether variation in the independent variable of interest falls short of random with whether researchers find, rather than intervene to create, that variation. Using the lens of assignment--the process driving…

Dimensional comparison theory (DCT; Möller & Marsh 2013:Psychological Review, 120(3), 544-560), first formulated 10 years ago, describes individuals' internal comparison processes applied between different areas of their lives. Dimensional comparisons explain the seemingly counterintuitive phenomenon that students' verbal and mathematical…

In this Methods Showcase Article, we illustrate mixed-effects modeling with a multinomial dependent variable as a means of explaining complexities in language. We model data on future-time reference in second language Spanish, which consists of a nominal dependent variable that has three levels, measured over 73 participants. We offer step-by-step…

The prevalence of collaborative learning in online virtual environments is on the rise. It is vital to investigate the effect of emotional interaction on the learning engagement of students. The university students who participated in 16 h of online collaborative learning responded to an anonymous survey. The instruments included Collaborative…

Early warning systems (EWS) using analytical tools that have been trained against prior years' data, can reliably predict dropout risk in individual students so that educators may intervene early to help avert this from happening. Risk profiles for dropouts aren't always useful since students often do not conform to the profiles. Researchers with…

To address the seven guiding questions posed for authors of articles in this special issue, we begin by discussing the development (in the late 1970s-early 1980s) of Eccles' expectancy-value theory of achievement choice (EEVT), a theory developed to explain the cultural phenomenon of why girls were less likely to participate in STEM courses and…

In the past decade, moderated mediation analysis has been extensively and increasingly employed in social and behavioral sciences. With its widespread use, it is particularly important to ensure the moderated mediation analysis will not bring spurious results. Spurious effects have been studied in both mediation and moderation analysis, but this…

Collected Biannually since 1968, the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) represents the U.S. Department of Education's most substantial effort to understand data related to students' educational opportunities throughout K-12 schooling, particularly for historically marginalized student populations. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department…

Talent identification and development systems (TIDS) adopt a deterministic perspective (i.e. athletes' future state/performances can be predicted by observations of their initial state/performance), which encourages early identification and specialisation in sport. In this framework, the main aim of sport systems is to enhance predictability and…

Sample size and statistical power are important factors to consider when planning a research synthesis. Power analysis methods have been developed for fixed effect or random effects models, but until recently these methods were limited to simple data structures with a single, independent effect per study. Recent work has provided power…

Education and income are strong predictors of health and longevity. In the last 20 years many efforts have been made to understand if these relationships are causal and what the possible role of policy should be as a result. The evidence from various studies is ambiguous: the effects of education and income policies on health are heterogeneous and…

The growing use of analytics has increased the demand for more highly data literate graduates. Awareness of ambiguity in data has been suggested as a new data literacy skill. Here, we describe a student-centered semester-long project that can be used to teach this skill in an introductory analytics or database course. The project requires students…

How do we know what we know about creativity? This article argues for the importance of specification in defining different aspects of creativity (e.g., creative potential vs. creative behavior) and how they are measured (self-reported vs. externally judged, length of assessment) when making conclusions about creativity-relevant traits and…

Attitudes toward people with disabilities greatly influence the lives of people with disabilities, especially during childhood. Negative attitudes toward children with disabilities are considered a barrier to the social participation of children with impairment in academics, organized sports, and social events. However, positive attitudes will…

This introductory article describes how constructed response scoring is carried out, particularly the rater monitoring processes and illustrates three potential designs for conducting rater monitoring in an operational scoring project. The introduction also presents a framework for interpreting research conducted by those who study the constructed…