The American demographic is constantly changing from the prominently white, Anglo-Saxon population to a diverse, multicultural, multilingual dynamic. According to the United States Census Bureau, the non-Hispanic white population is projected to shrink over the coming decades, from 199 million people in 2020 to 179 million people in 2060 -- even…

Executive functions (EF) are important cognitive processing skills required for planning, reasoning, problem solving and self-monitoring. It is vital to various aspects of human development from behavioral, social-emotional to academic. There is an increasing interest in identifying and developing cognitive skills training interventions. Results…

In the three essays which compose this dissertation, I use econometric tools to examine the relationships between various measures of school context and teachers' practice. I first study how a literacy curriculum intervention affects elementary teachers' advice seeking networks and how these advice seeking relationships moderate the impact of…

Flipped instruction has garnered significant interest in higher education for its potential to enhance student motivation and self-regulated learning. This quasi-experimental study examined the impact of flipped teaching on motivation and self-directed learning attributes among 106 entrepreneurship students at universities in Taiwan. Students…

Automated writing evaluation (AWE) software is an increasingly popular tool for English second language learners. However, research on the accuracy of such software has been both scarce and largely limited in its scope. As such, this article broadens the field of research on AWE accuracy by using a mixed design to holistically evaluate the…

The unprecedented growth of Spanish-English dual language learners (DLLs) in new destination states (e.g., Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina, Tennessee) calls for better understanding of the relation between their bilingual vocabulary skills and English reading achievement. The current study focused on school-age Spanish-English DLLs (N = 60) in…

To estimate the long-term effects of the Reading Recovery® intervention, a regression discontinuity design (RD) was implemented in a randomly selected sample of Reading Recovery schools during each year of the federally-funded i3 Scale-Up external evaluation (2011-2015) and also in one additional cohort during the 2016-17 school year. Long-term…

Students who are not proficient in math are more likely to face negative long-term effects. In addition to adults with a lack of math skills facing a range of potential economic and mental health issues, the nation is also negatively impacted by a society of individuals who cannot contribute to the technological infrastructure. Project-based…

The study aims to examine student emotions and behavior in a Gamified Learning Environment (GLE) in detail. In the study, in order to reveal the behavior (dynamics) and feelings (emotions) that emerge within the framework of the mechanics applied in the GLE process, it is within the scope of the main objectives of the study to determine how…

We investigated the ecological validity of performance measures from a computer-based assessment tool that utilises scripted video vignettes. The intended purpose of this tool is to assess the maintenance and repair skills of automotive technician apprentices, complementing traditional hands-on assessment formats from the German journeymen's…

This study utilized a partially nested randomized control design to investigate the impact of Fusion, a first-grade math intervention. Blocking on classrooms, students were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions: a Fusion two-student group, a Fusion five student group, or a no-treatment control group. Two primary research questions were…

Given the importance of early literacy to long-term student success, by 2021, 41 states and the District of Columbia adopted early literacy policies to improve student literacy by the end of third grade. We use an event-study approach to examine the impact of these policies on high- and low-stakes test scores. Our results suggest that adopting an…

We evaluate the effects of the 2020 student debt moratorium that paused payments for student loan borrowers. Using administrative credit panel data, we show that the payment pause led to a sharp drop in student loan payments and delinquencies for borrowers subject to the debt moratorium, as well as an increase in credit scores. We find a large…

There is growing concern that some nonprofit public service providers may be nonprofit in name but not in fact. We consider this concern in the context of nonprofit charter schools, which sometimes subcontract their daily operations to for-profit management organizations. We use unique data from Ohio to study how nonprofit charter schools'…

Universal screening to predict students' risk for reading problems is a foundational component of the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support framework and is required by law in many US states. School or district administrators are tasked with selecting screening assessments that are both technically adequate and feasible given the resources of their…