Program evaluations that lack experimental design often fail to produce evidence of impact because there is no available control group. Theory-based evaluations can generate evidence of a program's causal effects if evaluators collect evidence along the theorized causal chain and identify possible competing causes. However, few methods are…

Teacher Professional Education (known as PPG) is an Indonesian government programme to produce professional teachers who can implement Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in learning so that students in Indonesia can be expected to have high HOTS. However, in reality, students' HOTS in Indonesia are still low, raising questions about the…

This paper addresses two major and potentially conflicting movements: the importance of diversity as both a conceptual and political issue and the rise of the evidence-based practice movement in education. This tension is particularly important when evaluating and reporting universal interventions because of their intended applicability across…

This report presents the "Annual Report Card on California Teacher Preparation Programs for the Academic Year 2014-2015" as required by Title II of the Higher Education Act. In 2008, the law was reauthorized and changes were made to the Title II data collection and reporting requirements. The 2008-09 reporting year was the pilot year in…

Given limited funding for school-based science education, non-school-based programs have been developed at colleges and universities to increase the number of students entering science- and health-related careers and address critical workforce needs. However, few evaluations of such programs have been conducted. We report the design and methods of…

Background: In 2004, a firework factory in a residential area of a large Danish city exploded. The children at the local school were screened for symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 16 months and 3½ years after the incident. A large proportion of the children still suffered from a substantial number of symptoms 3½ years after the…

Objective: There is ongoing debate regarding the impact of youth behavior problems on placement change in child welfare compared to the impact of placement change on behavior problems. Existing studies provide support for both perspectives. The purpose of this study was to prospectively examine the relations of behavior problems and placement…

A large-scale paper-and-pencil assessment of the attainment targets of environmental studies with a focus on the subject area nature was held in primary education in Flanders (Belgium). The tests on different subfields of nature, i.e. the human body, healthcare, organisms, ecosystems, environmental care and non-living nature, were administered to…

Teachers tasked with developing moral character in future physicians face an array of pedagogic challenges, among them identifying tools to measure progress in instilling the requisite skill set. One validated instrument for assessing moral judgment is the Defining Issues Test (DIT-2). Based on the work of Lawrence Kohlberg, the test's main…

The current study examined peer victimization trajectories for 1528 children from third to fifth grade and the association of those trajectories to children's positive and negative affect. On average, victimization was low to moderate and remained stable (self-report) or increased (peer-reports). In addition, five distinct trajectories were…

Three main purposes provided the foundation for this study. The first purpose was to investigate academic achievement through analyses of data obtained through formal and informal assessments among kindergarten through eighth grade students who participated in a Head Start program, center-based care program, or home-based care prior to school…

Most studies focus on the effects of charter attendance on short-term student achievement (test scores), using either data sets that follow students over time or random assignment via school admission lotteries to control for differences between students in charter and traditional public schools. Beyond measuring achievement effects, however,…

Building on the promise of interactive, multimedia education, this evaluation study examines an alcohol abuse prevention program, AlcoholEdu, delivered through an interactive Web-based format for the purpose of reducing the harm associated with student alcohol abuse. The study uses a clustered, randomly assigned post-test only evaluation design…

The field of adult literacy is complex. This complexity poses many challenges for literacy programs. This paper addresses the challenges of collaboration, diversity, attendance, assessment and professional development as they apply to adult literacy programs. Recommendations for increasing the success of literacy programs are provided.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of DISCOVER, a performance-based assessment in identifying gifted Lebanese students. The sample consisted of 248 students (121 boys, 127 girls) from grades 3-5 at two private schools in Beirut, Lebanon. Results showed evidence for DISCOVER's concurrent validity with the Raven Standard…