This Equity Tool, intended to support when critically reading a research study/report, provides a brief introduction to key concepts and issues involved in using largescale research, calling attention to high profile controversies, and providing explicit linkages to desegregation areas (race, sex, nationality, religion). The first part (Table 1)…

Many of the numbers used to assess students are statistical in nature. The theoretical context underlying the production of a typical number or statistic used in student assessment is presented. The author urges readers to recognize objective data as subjective information and to carefully consider the numbers that often determine admission,…

In institutional research, modern data mining approaches are seldom considered to address predictive analytics problems. The goal of this paper is to highlight the advantages of tree-based machine learning algorithms over classic (logistic) regression methods for data-informed decision making in higher education problems, and stress the success of…

Predictive studies have been widely undertaken in the field of education to provide strategic information about the extensive set of processes related to teaching and learning, as well as about what variables predict certain educational outcomes, such as academic achievement or dropout. As in any other area, there is a set of standard techniques…

This case study draws on my quantitative study of college entrance exam preparation (also known as "test prep") to illustrate how a researcher goes about setting up a quantitative project using existing datasets. I describe how I decided between two different datasets, a decision which required attention to how the research question was…

Participatory sensing is a data collection method in which communities of people collect and share data to investigate large-scale processes. These data have many features often associated with the big data paradigm: they are rich and multivariate, include non-numeric data, and are collected as determined by an algorithm rather than by traditional…

The retail industry is undergoing a significant transformation. Factors such as technological advancement and evolving consumer demands have forced companies to rethink their traditional approaches to retail. Retailers have since embraced data-driven strategies with real-time implementation to stay relevant in this complex, ever-changing industry.…

In this paper, I share the results of a study of teachers' ideas about student decision-making at entry into a professional development program to integrate engineering into their instruction. The framework for the Engineering Design Process (EDP) was based on a Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) model. The EDP embedded within the CBL model suggests…

Learning technologies are now commonplace in education, and generate large volumes of educational data. Scholars have argued that analytics can and should be employed to optimize learning and learning environments. This article explores what is really meant by "analytics", describes the current best-known examples of institutional…

Purpose: New teacher effectiveness measures have the potential to influence how principals hire teachers as they provide new and richer information about candidates to a traditionally information-poor process. This article examines how the hiring process is changing as a result of teacher evaluation reforms. Research Methods: Data come from…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how Robbins ES has sustained high academic performance over almost 20 years despite several changes in principals. Design/methodology/approach: The paper analyzed longitudinal data based on: state-level academic and demographic data; two earlier studies of the school; and recent interviews with…

This article analyses the rise of software systems in education governance, focusing on digital methods in the collection, calculation and circulation of educational data. It examines how software-mediated methods intervene in the ways educational institutions and actors are seen, known and acted upon through an analysis of the methodological…

Introduction: The analysis of detailed interaction records is fundamental to development of user-centred systems. Researchers seeking such data must recruit volunteers willing to allow tracking of their interactions. This study examines privacy and trust attitudes in the intent to volunteer for research requiring installation of tracking software.…

Language education has a rich history of research and scholarship focusing on the effectiveness of learning activities and the impact these have on student behaviour and outcomes. One of the basic assumptions in foreign language pedagogy and CALL in particular is that learners want to be able to communicate effectively with native speakers of…

Data mining is concerned with detecting patterns of data in raw datasets, which are then used to unearth knowledge that might not have been discovered using conventional querying or statistical methods. This discovered knowledge has been used to empower decision makers in countless applications spanning across many multi-disciplinary areas…