The purpose of this study was to understand if a STEM camp (Gear Up 4 STEM) offered during school breaks could improve science outcomes and engagement of elementary school students. This study followed two cohorts of students in Knox County Schools (grades 3, 4, and 5) over one school year and assessed their performance on the state administered…

Because standardized tests in science are not given to PreK-3 students in Ohio, this report examined the longitudinal effects of learning from a teacher who had participated in the NURTURES professional development program. Specifically, it looked at the effects on students' mathematics and reading learning in grades 2-5 and science learning in…

The few studies conducted to date on the affective dimension of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) have predominantly focused on the relationship between motivation and language attainment, which points to a need for further investigation. To this end, this cross-sectional study aims at researching the degree of correlation between…

The fact that Turkey's achievement in large-scale international examinations is not at the expected level is associated with such factors as students, teachers, schools, curricula and assessment approaches. The literature links student-related causes mainly to their lack of higher-order thinking skills; and teacher-related causes to incompetency…

The National Math + Science Initiative (NMSI) is a nonprofit organization committed to improving educational outcomes that traces its roots back to the early 1990s. NMSI's College Readiness Program (CRP) is a long-standing program with the goal of promoting STEM education in high schools to improve students' preparation for college. The three-year…

This dissertation explores the post-hoc programmatic outcomes and experiences of participants in a large scale, grant-funded professional development (PD) program. This PD was an immersive, two-year induction program designed to improve state testing scores in science, and support early career science educators as they transitioned into the…

This paper describes the development and intended uses of the Early Grades Mathematics Assessment (EGMA), which measures essential early mathematical knowledge and skills that are foundational to more sophisticated mathematical abilities, predictive of later achievement, and teachable. Administering the EGMA can provide policy makers,…

Assessments of U.S. students typically reveal stronger performance in science than mathematics yet their science performance remains uninspiring at best. Whether the metric considered is an international benchmark from TIMSS or PISA or the nation's NAEP report card, the mediocre portrait of U.S. science achievement has remained virtually unchanged…

Studies of test dimensionality indicate that many large-scale science assessments measure multiple dimensions. These findings have reinforced the perspective that science achievement is an inherently dynamic process and that there is benefit in reporting subscores in science. A limitation with some of these studies is that they fail to indicate…

The Exploring Florida Science project goals were: (1) increasing content knowledge of secondary science teachers, specifically in topics that are important to the future of the state, and (2) providing secondary science students with digital media for use in project-based learning. A team of instructional designers, educators, scientists, web…

This study focuses on how the treatment effects of a teacher professional development initiative in science differed by school capacity. In other words, the authors are primarily concerned with treatment effect heterogeneity. As such, this paper complements ongoing evaluation of the average treatment effects of the initiative over time. The…

The "Evaluation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress: Study Reports" describes the special studies that comprised the design of the evaluation. In the Final Report, the authors presented a practical discussion of the evaluation studies to its primary, intended audience, namely policymakers. On this accompanying CD, readers…

The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy of three different approaches to professional development in Earth science education: preparing teachers to "adopt" expert-"design" curricula; preparing teachers to use a principled approach to design curricula; and preparing teachers to use a principled approach to "adapt" curricula. The claims…

Twenty-nine percent of students enrolled in Austin Independent School District were English language learners in 2009-2010. The majority of them (62%) continued to make progress in English proficiency, and their state academic test (TAKS) performance continued to improve over the years.

Argues that test score rankings provide little information about educational quality because countries differ substantially in factors such as student selectivity, curriculum emphasis, and the proportion of low-income students in the test-taking population. (DDR)