We estimate school-choice preferences revealed by the rank-ordered lists submitted by more than 22,000 applicants to a citywide lottery for more than 200 traditional and charter public schools in Washington, D.C. The results confirm previously reported findings that commuting distance, school demographics, and academic indicators play important…

Racial segregation remains a persistent problem in U.S. schools. In this article, we examine how social psychological factors--in particular, individuals' perceptions of schools with varying demographic characteristics--may contribute to the ongoing structural problem of school segregation. We investigate the effects of school racial composition…

Digital skills are increasingly important for labour market outcomes and social participation. Do they also matter for academic performance? This paper investigates the effects of digital literacy on educational outcomes by merging data from the Italian National Assessment in secondary schools with an original data-set on performance tests of…

Purpose: The objective of the study was to determine the level and determinants of demand for extension services among small-scale maize farmers in Kenya. Design/methodology/approach: Based on an exploratory research design, primary data were collected from a sample of 352 households through face-to-face interviews. Focus group discussions were…

Purpose: As part of the institutional reforms and agricultural restructuring in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this paper provides an assessment of the performance of the agricultural extension system as well as factors explaining it. Method: This paper involves key informants' interviews and surveys of 107 extension organizations and 162…

Recognizing that standardized instructional treatments may not be equally effective across contexts, a growing number of scholars are arguing that the strategy of adopting packaged programs and striving to implement them faithfully is neither realistic nor desirable. An alternative view is that scaling up educational treatments requires balancing…

To evaluate evidence for motor impairment specificity in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Children completed performance-based assessment of motor functioning (Movement Assessment Battery for Children: MABC-2). Logistic regression models were used to predict group membership. In the models…

We examine whether barely failing one or more state-mandated high school exit examinations in Massachusetts affects the probability that students enroll in college. We extend the exit examination literature in two ways. First, we explore longer term effects of failing these tests. We find that barely failing an exit examination, for students on…

A key issue in fostering transition to postsecondary education for students with disabilities is documentation verifying the nature of the disability and supporting the need for services and reasonable accommodations. Documentation guidelines assist postsecondary disability service providers in making decisions about eligibility and reasonable…

Class size reduction has been viewed as one school mechanism that can improve student achievement. Nonetheless, the literature has reported mixed findings about class size effects. We used 4th- and 8th-grade data from TIMSS 2003 and 2007 to examine the association between class size and mathematics achievement in public schools in Cyprus. We…

Background: Quitlines offer evidence-based, multisession coaching support for smoking cessation in the 50 U.S. states, Canada, and several other countries. Smokers who enroll in quitline services have, "ipso facto," shown readiness to attempt to quit, but noncompletion of coaching services appears widespread and has not been widely investigated.…

Certain scientific conclusions are controversial, in that they are rejected by a substantial proportion of nonscientists despite an overwhelming scientific consensus. Science educators are motivated to help students understand the evidence behind the scientific consensus on these matters and to move students' views into alignment with those held…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine the motivations and benefits for pursuing or not pursuing the PHR and SPHR. Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of 1,862 participants, the study used multinomial logistic and hierarchical linear regression to test six hypotheses. Findings: Participants pursuing SPHR were more likely to report…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the four sources of self-efficacy in music performance and examine responses from the Music Performance Self-Efficacy Scale (MPSES). Participants (N = 290) were middle and high school music students from 10 schools in two regions of the United States. Questions included the following: (1) How much…

Research Findings: This study assessed public perceptions of child care and its providers in a Canadian province where government funding for child care includes subsidies and a voluntary accreditation process. In 2007-2008, 1,443 randomly selected adults in Alberta, Canada, completed a telephone survey. Individuals were eligible to participate if…