Starting in 2012-13, researchers have worked in partnership with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) to study implementation of Chicago's new teacher evaluation system: Recognizing Educators Advancing Chicago's Students (REACH). This paper presents findings as well as experiences from the collaboration with CPS and…

One method to investigate classroom quality is for a person to observe what is happening in the classroom. However, this method raises practical and technical concerns such as how many observations to collect, when to collect these observations and who should collect these observations. The purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence to…

Problem Statement: Reliability, which refers to the degree to which measurement results are free from measurement errors, as well as its estimation, is an important issue in psychometrics. Several methods for estimating reliability have been suggested by various theories in the field of psychometrics. One of these theories is the generalizability…

Problem Statement: Much theoretical interest and attention has been given to the cognitive strategies that individuals use in achievement related domains. Defensive-pessimism is a functional strategy in a demanding academic setting for those who easily become anxious. However, this is a new concept for Turkish researchers and there is currently no…

The validity of the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) was examined in a national sample of 863 Norwegian schoolchildren in grades 1-7 (aged 6-13). The original factor structure of the STRS was tested by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The CFA results did not support the original three-factor structure of the STRS. Subsequent CFA of the…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the supportive effects of conceptual change texts documented in science education (1) can also be demonstrated in the domain of social cognition and (2) are moderated by the structure of the text and the learner's central executive capacity. In two experiments, participants were presented…

This research aimed to develop and validate a psychometrically sound and convenient measure of the professional identity questionnaire (PIQ) and to determine the level of professional identity among faculty members employed by higher education institutions in Jordan. The PIQ was administered to a sample of 551 faculty members employed by three…

Previous research indicates that the primary reason college students use Facebook is for relationship maintenance. The present study sought to determine the relationship between Facebook maintenance and general maintenance efforts in college student romantic relationships, as well as the impacts of such behaviors on the relationship. Survey data…

Some consultees resist implementing, or implementing with integrity, effective academic or behavioral interventions that their consultants believe are needed to resolve specific student problems. In order to address consultee resistance, it is recommended that consultants complete functional assessments to determine the underlying reasons for the…

This study focused on evaluating the temporal stability of self-reported and teacher-reported perceptions of students' social and emotional skills and assets. We used a test-retest reliability procedure over repeated administrations of the child, adolescent, and teacher versions of the "Social-Emotional Assets and Resilience Scales".…

Measuring school and classroom environments has become central in a nation-wide effort to develop comprehensive programs that measure teacher quality and teacher effectiveness. Formulating successful programs necessitates accurate and reliable methods for measuring these environmental variables. This paper uses a generalizability theory framework…

The importance of subscores in educational and psychological assessments is undeniable. Subscores yield diagnostic information that can be used for determining how each examinee's abilities/skills vary over different content domains. One of the most common criticisms about reporting and using subscores is insufficient reliability of subscores.…

In fiscal year 2011, the federal government provided $607 billion in grants to state and local governments. Those funds accounted for 17 percent of federal outlays, 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and a quarter of spending by state and local governments that year. Over the past 30 years, those "intergovernmental" grants--financial…

Teachers want to succeed, but they typically lack the conditions for success. Teachers generally work in isolation. They're on their own to adjust practice to better serve students. What guidance they get often is plagued by vague teaching standards, overly numerous and often trivial learning objectives, and testing systems that measure only some…

This study investigates measures for second language (L2) writing development. A T-unit, which has been found the most satisfactory unit of analysis for measuring L2 development in English, is extended to measure L2 Chinese writing development through a cross-sectional design in this study. Data were collected from three L2 Chinese learner groups…