Four-day school weeks have proliferated across the United States in recent years, reaching over 650 public school districts in 24 states as of 2019, but little is known about their implementation and there is no consensus on their effects on students. This study uses district-level panel data from Oklahoma and a difference-in-differences research…

Four-day school weeks have proliferated across the United States in recent years, reaching over 650 public school districts in 24 states as of 2019, but little is known about their implementation and there is no consensus on their effects on students. This study uses district level panel data from Oklahoma and a difference-in-differences research…

In recent years, schools and large-scale assessment developers across the United States have been providing English learners with language supports when they take tests to reduce construct-irrelevant variance, or errors in test scores due to factors that are extraneous to the construct being assessed (Thorndike et al., 1991). Some of these…

The Official ACT® Self-Paced Course, Powered by Kaplan® is a test preparation solution in partnership between Kaplan and ACT. In April of 2022, the authors surveyed users of the self-paced course who took the ACT test between August 2020 and February 2022 to better understand: (1) ways the solution helped them when they took the ACT; (2) what…

This high rate of test-day absenteeism is concerning. The ACT test is an important step in the college-going process, with over 1,500 colleges across the US either requiring, recommending, or considering test scores as a criterion for admission decisions. Fee waivers are intended to remove the financial burden of taking the test, thus potentially…

Four-day school weeks have proliferated across the United States in recent years, reaching over 650 public school districts in 24 states as of 2019, but little is known about the effects of the four-day school week on high school students. This study uses district-level panel data from Oklahoma and a difference-in-differences research design to…

This dissertation studies different social factors that affect students' cognitive, non-cognitive skills, and behaviors. The first chapter provides evidence on the immediate effects of exposure to violent crimes on academic performance and externalizing behaviors among high school students. I find that exposure to violent crimes decreases PSAT,…

Arkansas has identified college and career readiness indicators for schools that can be used to monitor students' performance and to improve their postsecondary readiness and success. Using two cohorts of grade 6 students, this study examined the extent to which Arkansas's middle school and high school indicators of postsecondary readiness predict…

This Study Snapshot highlights findings from a larger study on Arkansas's middle school and high school indicators of postsecondary readiness and success outcomes. The Arkansas Department of Education identified college and career readiness indicators in their Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan. Using two statewide cohorts of grade 6 students…

The "Identifying Indicators That Predict Postsecondary Readiness and Success in Arkansas" study examined the extent to which Arkansas's middle school and high school indicators of postsecondary readiness predict a student's postsecondary readiness outcome and success outcomes. The study estimated the accuracy and strength of the middle…

Educators are constantly searching for methods to enhance student engagement. This study capitalizes on the endowment effect to increase student engagement. The endowment effect is a concept from behavioural economics that suggests individuals' value something that they possess more than a similar item that is not possessed. To test the endowment…

Analysis of programming process data has become popular in computing education research and educational data mining in the last decade. This type of data is quantitative, often of high temporal resolution, and it can be collected non-intrusively while the student is in a natural setting. Many levels of granularity can be obtained, such as…

In the context of college admissions, the current study examined whether differential prediction of first-year grade point average (FYGPA) by gender could be explained by an omitted variable problem--namely, academic discipline, or the amount of effort a student puts into schoolwork and the degree to which a student sees him/herself as hardworking…

This Study Snapshot highlights key findings from a study on the associations between high school students' self-reported social-emotional competencies and students' high school and college academic and behavioral outcomes in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). In May 2019 grade 11 and 12 students in public high schools in the…

Students exhibit a variety of test-related behaviors before and during the American College Testing (ACT®) test. Previous ACT research has identified associations between test-related behavior and ACT test performance. For example, test preparation has been shown to be associated with modest ACT Composite score gains on the second ACT testing…