This article addresses the debate on pre-evaluative choices of impact depictions and the forms of responses between applicants and funders. By adopting a reflexive perspective on the social impact of social sciences, this article explores researchers' vocabularies in the research proposals and mid-term reports of consortiums during the Strategic…

To understand examinee motivation, researchers have used expectancy-value theory, which posits that examinee's perceived value of the test and self-efficacy in the test domain impact test-taking effort. Conclusions from studies designed to examine these relations may be premature given methodological issues, most notably, use of cross-sectional…

This open access book discusses challenges in school improvement research and different methodological approaches that have the potential to foster school improvement research. Research on school improvement and accountability analysis places high demands on a study's design and method. The potential of combining the depth of case studies with the…

The field of comparative and international education has followed methodological trends in social science research since the merging of the "twin" field after World War II. With increase in the use of mixed methods research about three decades ago, comparative and international education journals and scholars have worked rigorously to be…

State databases offer researchers the opportunity to conduct research using data collected by states. These databases contain financial, demographic, and accountability data. Accessing and acquiring data from these repositories, though, can offer challenges to scholars interested in conducting research. This brief describes the type of data…

As the prevalence of conflict and fragility continue to rise around the world, research is increasingly heralded as a solution. However, current ethical guidelines for working in areas suffering from institutional and social fragility, insecurity or violent conflict have been heavily critiqued as highly abstract; focussed only on data collection;…

The Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center has begun a research project, Families of Color Advocacy, to learn about parents/caregivers of color's advocacy efforts and experiences to ensure their deaf or hard of hearing children's educational needs are met. The undertaking of this research project is based on key principles so that…

Funded grant projects all involve some form of evaluation, and Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grants are no exception. Program evaluation serves as a critical component not only for evaluating if a project has met its intended and desired outcomes, but the evaluation process is also a central feature of the grant application itself.…

Research ethics guidelines grew out of several infamous episodes where research subjects were exploited. There is significant international synchronization of guidelines. However, indigenous groups in New Zealand, Canada and Australia have criticized these guidelines as being inadequate for research involving indigenous people and have developed…

The promise of science is that its methods cause others to believe its results. This foundation is served by trust, accuracy, and transparency. Unfortunately, current research practices in psychology are known to often produce inaccurate, irreproducible, and imprecise results. "Toward a More Perfect Psychology" introduces a plethora of…

Internationally, the political appetite for educational measurement capable of capturing a metric of value for money and effectiveness has momentum. While most would agree with the need to assess costs relevant to quality to help support better governmental policy decisions about public spending, poorly understood measurement comes with unintended…

Purpose: The purpose of this supplement article is to provide a resource of pertinent information concerning implementation science for immediate research application in communication sciences and disorders. Method: Key terminology related to implementation science is reviewed. Practical suggestions for the application of implementation science…

In this study, we examined the relationship between teachers' attitudes towards professional development and school performance in the state accountability system using the 2013 Kentucky Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) survey data and the 2013 school accountability profile data from the Kentucky Department of Education. We were…

As accountability measures continue to increase within education, public school systems have integrated standards-based evaluation systems to formally assess professional practices among educators. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent in which the communication process between evaluators and teachers impacts teacher performance…

In evaluation and applied social research, focus groups may be used to gather different kinds of evidence (e.g., opinion, tacit knowledge). In this article, we argue that making focus group design choices explicitly in relation to the type of evidence required would enhance the empirical value and rigor associated with focus group utilization. We…