Schools and school districts use social media for a variety of reasons, but alongside the benefits of schools' social media use come potential risks to students' privacy. Using a novel dataset of around 18 million Facebook posts by schools and districts in the United States, we explore the extent to which personally identifiable information of…

This study employed a qualitative research design to investigate the utilization of soft pedagogical documents among twelve mathematics teachers in five purposively sampled public secondary schools. Data was collected through interviews and analyzed thematically. The study, rooted in social constructivism theory, discovered a mixed pattern in the…

This paper describes the Berlin "Abitur" examination in the twentieth century and its written documentation in files. By the late nineteenth century, the "Abitur" examination was fully established in Prussia and with it a graduation certificate that was obligatory for university entrance. Thus, the "Abitur"…

Educational data mining has allowed for large improvements in educational outcomes and understanding of educational processes. However, there remains a constant tension between educational data mining advances and protecting student privacy while using educational datasets. Publicly available datasets have facilitated numerous research projects…

The purpose of this study was to explore high school course-taking sequences and their relationship to college enrollment. Specifically, we implemented sequence analysis to discover common course-taking trajectories in math, science, and English language arts using high school transcript data from a recent nationally representative survey. Through…

The purpose of this study was to explore high school course-taking sequences and their relationship to college enrollment. Specifically, we implemented sequence analysis to discover common course-taking trajectories in math, science, and English language arts using high school transcript data from a recent nationally representative survey. Through…

The EdSurvey package helps users download, explore variables in, extract data from, and run analyses on large-scale assessment data. The analysis functions in EdSurvey account for the use of plausible values for test scores, survey sampling weights, and their associated variance estimator. We describe the capabilities of the package in the context…

Personalization for academic and social-emotional learning (PASL) is a systemic approach to high school reform that works to strengthen and bridge preexisting academic and social-emotional systems within schools and classrooms. Analyzing student administrative records from 12 schools in a large Florida urban district, we found that, on average,…

The research inquiry asked the question, what methods do athletic coaches employ to improve academic performance and skills of their high school student athletes? The research method chosen for this investigation, influenced by the teachings of Dewey and Freire, is constructivist grounded theory. This research method used intensive interviews with…

Learning analytics have the potential to improve teaching and learning in K-12 education, but as student data is increasingly being collected and transferred for the purpose of analysis, it is important to take measures that will protect student privacy. A common approach to achieve this goal is the de-identification of the data, meaning the…

Research on data use and school Early Warning Systems (EWS) notes a central practice of researchers and practitioners is to search for patterns in student data to predict outcomes so schools can support success when students experience challenges. Yet, the domain lacks a means to visualize the rich longitudinal data that schools collect. Here, we…

Many students use financial aid to pay for their collegiate education, specifically gift aid and student loans. While gift aid is free, it has not kept up with increasing college costs, which has led to borrowing student loans. Students believe borrowing loans are an investment in their employment goals (Baker et al., 2017; Dwyer et al., 2012;…

This study examined the roles and tasks of school heads in promoting quality education in community secondary schools in Tanzania. Specifically, it assessed the contribution of school principals' administrative roles and tasks, as well as their supervision of classroom pedagogical practices. The study adopted a qualitative approach, utilizing a…

This dissertation contains three chapters, each investigating a question in American economic history. The first chapter is co-authored with Ran Abramitzky, Santiago Perez, and Joseph Price. In this work, we conduct a large-scale digitization of historical college registers, encompassing 2.7 million students at 65 elite US universities. We use…

Debates about grade retention weigh the academic benefits of remediation against its social and psychological costs. Louisiana adopted a retention policy aimed at capturing these benefits while mitigating the harm. It used test score thresholds to distinguish between retention in grade 8, promotion to grade 9, and a grade "8.5" where…