As we have noticed from our own classroom experiences, children often find it difficult to identify the adequate operations learned in mathematics class when they are solving mechanical-operators problems in Technology class. We wanted to design a project that exploits the idea of a hands-on relationship between mathematics and technology to teach…

Within each state there is a patchwork of residential educational programs that are affiliated with youth shelters, detention centers, hospitals, mental health facilities, and other settings. In Iowa, the local school district, an area education agency (AEA), the Department of Human Services, and others provide educational services. Heartland…

Guidelines to screen and select common items for vertical scaling have been adopted from equating. Differences between vertical scaling and equating suggest that these guidelines may not apply to vertical scaling in the same way that they apply to equating. For example, in equating the examinee groups are assumed to be randomly equivalent, but in…

Students with disabilities are frequently granted accommodations for high-stakes standardized tests to provide them an opportunity to demonstrate their academic knowledge without interference from their disability. One type of possible accommodation, test response format, concerns whether students respond in multiple-choice or constructed-response…

We use visualization to find patterns in educational data. We represent student scores from high-stakes exams as flow vectors in fluids, define two types of streamlines and trajectories, and show that differences between streamlines and trajectories are due to regression to the mean. This issue is significant because it determines how quickly…

The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent a relationship existed between student achievement and how teachers and principals assess leadership effectiveness in 29 Alabama schools. This study also investigated the extent to which teacher and principal tenure were related to their perceptions of leadership and to student achievement.…

The purpose of this causal comparative study was to examine effect of the K-8 grade span configuration on the academic achievement of 8th-grade students in the State of Georgia, and to determine the viability of the K-8 grade configuration as a strategy for improving the academic achievement of students at the middle grade levels. This study…

The reading and mathematics measures of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have been, and continue to be, reported on scales that appear to have the properties of "cross-grade" scales: Reported scores are higher for 8th-grade students than for 4th-grade students, and higher for 12th-grade students than for 8th-grade students.…

The current financial state of our nation, in combination with the pressure to meet state accountability testing and a global call for better prepared twenty first century learners, has produced a situation where all levels of government have to make difficult decisions regarding expenditures. In order to ensure that education receives appropriate…

Content balancing is one of the most important components in the computerized adaptive testing (CAT) especially in the K to 12 large scale tests that complex constraint structure is required to cover a broad spectrum of content. The purpose of this study is to compare the weighted penalty model (WPM) and the weighted deviation method (WDM) under…

The detrimental consequences of mathematics anxiety have repeatedly been evidenced empirically, yet little is known of its influence on secondary school students in Asia. This study thus examined its origins and impact on 294 secondary students in Singapore through interviews and surveys. Results revealed an average anxiety level of 44% and a…

Introduction: This study investigated differential item functioning (DIF) of test items on Pennsylvania's Alternate System of Assessment (PASA) for students with visual impairments and severe cognitive disabilities and what the reasons for the differences may be. Methods: The Wilcoxon signed ranks test was used to analyze differences in the scores…

This study validated the four mathematics tests of the Spanish version of the Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III) Achievement (ACH) battery for use in the first six grades of school in Spain. Developmental effects and gender differences were also examined. Participants were a normal population sample of 424 (216 boys) children aged 6 to 13 years.…

The purpose of this study was to extend the research on the "Tests of Early Numeracy Curriculum-Based Measurement" (TEN-CBM) tools by examining concurrent and predictive relations from kindergarten through third grade. Using a longitudinal sample of 535 students, this study included logistic regression, latent cluster, and latent…

We examined how rater language background affects the scoring of short-answer, open-ended test items in the assessment of English language learners (ELLs). Four native English and four native Spanish-speaking certified bilingual teachers scored 107 responses of fourth- and fifth-grade Spanish-speaking ELLs to mathematics items administered in…