This exploratory study investigated the behaviors and content of onscreen calculator usage by a nationally representative sample of eighth-grade students who responded to items from the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress mathematics assessment. Meaningful features were generated from the process data to infer whether students…

Process Analysis is an emerging approach to discover meaningful knowledge from temporal educational data. The study presented in this paper shows how we used Process Analysis methods on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test data for modeling and predicting student test-taking behavior. Our process-oriented data exploration…

In high-stakes, large-scale, standardized tests with certain time limits, examinees are likely to engage in either one of the three types of behavior (e.g., van der Linden & Guo, 2008; Wang & Xu, 2015): solution behavior, rapid guessing behavior, and cheating behavior. Oftentimes examinees do not always solve all items due to various…

A broader understanding of the importance of student behaviors and school climate as drivers of academic performance and the wider acceptance that schools have a role in nurturing the "whole child" have increased attention to indicators that go beyond traditional metrics focused on proficiency in math and reading. The 2015 passage of the…

In this commentary the authors open with the assertion that contemporary education policy, whatever else it may or may not have accomplished, has narrowed the school curriculum by holding schools accountable primarily for their student scores in math and reading. They pursue this argument by pointing out that in surveys, the American public,…

Background: Large-scale survey assessments have been used for decades to monitor what students know and can do. Such assessments aim at providing group-level scores for various populations, with little or no consequence to individual students for their test performance. Students' test-taking behaviors in survey assessments, particularly the level…

Research has focused predominantly on how teachers affect students' achievement on standardized tests despite evidence that a broad range of attitudes and behaviors are equally important to their long-term success. We find that upper-elementary teachers have large effects on self-reported measures of students' self-efficacy in math, and happiness…

The expectation that schools resuscitate civic virtues and create a vibrant civic and public sphere competes with a more powerful contemporary demand on schools, namely, that they generate equal opportunity and mobility, especially for poor and minority youth. This equal opportunity is framed solely in the context of grades on standardized tests.…

Based on eighth-grade writing assessment data from the 1998 (N = 20,586) and 2007 (N = 139,900) National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), this study examines the relationships among students' writing attitudes, learning-related behaviors, and gender in relation to writing performance. Overall, the effects of attitudes were slightly…

The purpose of this study was to assess the relative contribution of teacher and tutor ratings of inattentive behavior in two different instructional settings in predicting students' performance on fraction concepts and whole-number calculations. Classroom teachers rated each student's attentive behavior in a whole-class setting and tutors rated…

The purpose of this study was to assess the relative contribution of teacher and tutor ratings of inattentive behavior in two different instructional settings in predicting students' performance on fraction concepts and whole-number calculations. Classroom teachers rated each student's attentive behavior in a whole-class setting and tutors rated…

Middle school students from military families face unique challenges, especially when their parents are deployed. Among the challenges they experience are frequent relocations; issues that affect academic achievement; uncertainty; and changes in roles, responsibilities, and relationships at home. Reunification involves issues of the returning…

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), just over 70 percent of students nationally arrive in high school with reading skills that are below "proficient"--defined as demonstrating competency over challenging subject matter. Of these students, nearly half do not exhibit even partial mastery of the knowledge…

The Annual Condition of Education Report provides a wide range of state-level data, including shifts in student populations and demographics, teacher salaries and characteristics, student achievement results, and school financial information. The report provides important metrics to the education community about the status of the education system.…

Discusses the dismal results of the 1986 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) appraisal of American high school students' knowledge about history and literature. Explores connections between cultural literacy and students' family background, homework, and television viewing habits. Recommends more and better history and literature…