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…

This report considers the use of a focus group as a data collection tool in early childhood research. The report outlines one researcher's experience, analyzing the difficulties of gaining meaningful data during focused group discussions, considering in some depth the impacts of careful management on the validity of the findings, providing…

This case study provides an overview of a conversation analysis study that examines how the management of talk is accomplished by a chairperson in a teachers' meeting. The case describes each of the various steps of the conversation analysis study from deciding on an initial research focus to collecting, transcribing, and analyzing the data. It…

In this case, I share my process of analyzing data in a multiple case study. The study looked at the interconnections between contexts, leadership, and educational equity to better understand how superintendents lead systems that offer equitable educational experiences for all students. Data included 16 one-on-one interviews with four…

The growth in the availability of longitudinal data--data collected over time on the same individuals--as part of program evaluations has opened up exciting possibilities for evaluators to ask more nuanced questions about how individuals' outcomes change over time. However, in order to leverage longitudinal data to glean these important insights,…

The emerging large datasets have made efficient data processing a much more difficult task for the traditional methodologies. Invariably, datasets continue to increase rapidly in size with time. The purpose of this research is to give an overview of some of the tools and techniques that can be utilized to manage and analyze large datasets. We…

Despite substantial federal, state, and local investments in improving early care and education (ECE), we know little about whether ECE program quality has improved over time. The lack of data tracking the quality of publicly funded ECE programs at scale creates a substantial evidence gap for policymakers attempting to weigh the returns on, and…

In 2019, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 5082 (SB 5082), which directed the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to establish a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Committee to build upon the work of the previous Social Emotional Learning Indicators (SELI) Workgroup. The purpose of the SEL Committee is to promote and expand SEL…

This report presents conceptual frameworks for inclusive learning, good practices in learning cities and recommendations for the future. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on life in cities, as well as exposing and exacerbating almost all forms of inequality. Access to high-calibre, resilient infrastructure, reliable basic services…

We study the effect of exposure to immigrants on the educational outcomes of US-born students, using a unique dataset combining population-level birth and school records from Florida. This research question is complicated by substantial school selection of US-born students, especially among White and comparatively affluent students, in response to…

Students' instructional needs are identified, and proper interventions and instructional placement are put in place to maximize student-learning potential, but there is a gap in literature regarding the impact of classroom factors on student achievement of English learner (EL) students in diverse elementary schools (Heritage, Walqui, &…

Educators by definition are now required to utilize a variety of student data to shape the decisions they make and design the lessons they teach. As accountability standards become more stringent and as teachers face increasingly diverse student populations within their classrooms, they often struggle to adequately meet the needs of all learners.…

This research aims at determining educational values in families by describing the priority of the values selected in the educational value, the role of parents, and the socialization of values that were used by parents in educational values. This research is a case study with a qualitative approach. The subjects of the research were selected…

This study aims to present high school students' perception of "English" through the impressions and images and the effect of these perceptions on their motivation in learning English. This qualitative study is based on the data about students' metaphors and the focus group interview to determine their effect on the students' motivation.…

The use of an effective supervision mechanism is crucial between a student and supervisor. The essential knowledge shared and transferred between these two parties must be observed and understood very well in order to ensure that students are produced at good level of quality for future professional knowledge workers. The aim of this study was to…