The last 20 years has seen an uptick in research on missing data problems, and most software applications now implement one or more sophisticated missing data handling routines (e.g., multiple imputation or maximum likelihood estimation). Despite their superior statistical properties (e.g., less stringent assumptions, greater accuracy and power),…

We present three strategies to replace the null hypothesis statistical significance testing approach in psychological research: (1) visual representation of cognitive processes and predictions, (2) visual representation of data distributions and choice of the appropriate distribution for analysis, and (3) model comparison. The three strategies…

Purpose: Although leadership evidence highlights the importance of cooperative principal-teacher relationships, research has not looked thoroughly at the content behind principal-teacher interactions. The purpose of this paper is to use self-determination theory and organizational conversation to develop principal support for student psychological…

Relationships among self-construal, self-efficacy, and group behaviors during a group problem-solving task with friends and acquaintances were hypothesized. The sample comprised 126 students in Grades 8-11, from 5 randomly selected government high schools, organized into 42 groups. Data collection involved self-reports and observations.…

In this article, multiple-baseline across participants designs were used to evaluate the impact of a precision teaching (PT) program, within a Tier 2 Response to Intervention framework, targeting fluency in foundational reading skills with at risk kindergarten readers. Thirteen multiple-baseline design experiments that included participation from…

What causes the literacy gap and can schools compensate for it? The authors investigated 3 drivers of the gap: preliteracy knowledge, schooling, and the summer vacation. Longitudinal literacy data over 5 time points were collected on 126 five-year-olds attending higher or lower socioeconomic status (SES) schools during their first 15 months of…

Purpose: Department heads play a pivotal role in the functioning of departments in secondary schools. However, quantitative research about the role of departmental leadership for the development of professional learning communities (PLCs) in subject departments in secondary schools remains scarce. As PLCs are seen as promising contexts for…

We examined the role of six psychosocial factors (PSFs) in explaining gender gaps in English Composition (n = 8,633) and College Algebra (n = 2,261) using data of first-year female (55%) and male students from 42 colleges. Using a multilevel model and controlling for prior achievement, we found that PSFs mediated between 3% and 41% of the gender…

This randomized controlled study investigated the efficacy of a Tier 1 intervention--schema-based instruction--designed to help students with and without mathematics difficulties (MD) develop proportional reasoning. Twenty seventh-grade teachers/classrooms were randomly assigned to a treatment condition (schema-based instruction) or control…

Purpose: This study examined normative change in children's levels of social competence and parent-child interactions (PCIs) from kindergarten through second grade as well as relations between levels of PCI and children's social development. Methods: Multiple waves of data were collected from parents and teachers of 379 children ranging in age…

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between student self-concept and achievement in science in Taiwan based on the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) model using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 and 2007 databases. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the effects of the…

This study used administrative data from Wisconsin Virtual School to identify patterns of student engagement in online courses (defined as the amount of time students were logged in to their course each week and how this varied over time). The study also examined whether the patterns were associated with course outcomes (defined as the percentage…

I discuss three common practices that obfuscate or invalidate the statistical analysis of randomized controlled interventions in applied linguistics. These are (a) checking whether randomization produced groups that are balanced on a number of possibly relevant covariates, (b) using repeated measures ANOVA to analyze pretest-posttest designs, and…

Analyzing data that possess some form of nesting is often challenging for applied researchers or district staff who are involved in or in charge of conducting data analyses. This report provides a description of the challenges for analyzing nested data and provides a primer of how multilevel regression modeling may be used to resolve these…

Using data from the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), we explored nine aspects of science engagement (science self-efficacy, science self-concept, enjoyment of science, general interest in learning science, instrumental motivation for science, future-oriented science motivation, general value of science, personal value of…