In 2006 in England an innovative suite of science qualifications for 14-16-year-olds called Twenty-First Century Science (21CS) was introduced. These qualifications have a strong focus on developing scientific literacy in all students whilst simultaneously providing preparation for the study of post-compulsory science for a smaller proportion of…

Many studies have shown the positive impact of serious educational games (SEGs) on learning outcomes. However, there still exists insufficient research that delves into the impact of immersive experience in the process of gaming on SEG-based science learning. The dual purpose of this study was to further explore this impact. One purpose was to…

This article describes the design of a misconception diagnostic test about fire-related phenomena. It proposes a new test format in which a certainty-measuring tier has been integrated into each of the true/false response choices. This format is argued to be easier for teachers to use than the increasingly popular three-tier format. First, we…

This document is from a presentation at the 2015 annual conference of the Science Teachers Association of Texas (STAT). The two sessions (each listed as feature sessions at the state conference) examined classroom strategies the presenter used in his chemistry classes to maximize Texas end-of-course chemistry test scores for his special population…

In August 2010, the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) received a grant of more than $25 million from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) program for a five-year study to validate its Leadership Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) model in three very diverse regions of the United States: rural North…

In this study, the link between mathematics achievement, curriculum, teaching methods and resources used in the classrooms is investigated at an international level, allowing for country-specific factors potentially affecting educational achievement. More specifically, the aim of this research was twofold: on the one hand to investigate the…

The report brief describes district-level ACT test results for AISD students in the 2014-2015 school year. The supplemental report (published separately) provides campus-level summaries. [For the supplemental report, see ED626797.]

Technologies have acquired strategic importance and have been defined as unprecedented educational tools. In this study, we analysed the use that 1,488 Spanish adolescents made of five tools (i.e. search engines, wikis, blogs, podcasts and instant messaging), and the impact that use of these tools had on their academic performance in science,…

States' efforts to incorporate technology and engineering into K-12 science instruction appear to be bearing fruit: More than five years after states began adopting K-12 science standards that feature technology and engineering, eighth graders have notched higher scores on a national assessment of those subjects. This Policy Brief presents…

In 2013, the Arizona State University (ASU) Preparatory Academy (ASU Prep) was awarded an Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant through the U.S. Department of Education. The district applied with an ambitious grant designed to innovate programming for a total of six schools: two elementary (one Kindergarten through grade 5; one Kindergarten through…

According to Section 29.123 of the Texas Education Code, the "Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented Students" (G/T) forms the basis of program accountability for state-mandated services for G/T students. In the Houston Independent School District, G/T students were served through one of two program designs: Board-approved…

When inquiry-based learning is designed for a collaborative context, the interactions that arise in the learning environment can become fairly complex. While the learning effectiveness of such learning environments has been reported in the literature, there have been fewer studies on the students' learning processes. To address this, the article…

Charter schools are a relatively new phenomenon in American education. Since the first charter school opened in Minnesota in 1991, they have expanded to 42 states and represent 6.2% of all public schools in the country. This growth has been attributed to a number of factors, chief among them evidence that charter schools can improve performance…

High-potential students from underresourced rural schools face barriers that reduce options for academic advancement, which widens the excellence gap between them and their more affluent, but similar ability peers. The goal of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an expanded above-level testing model to identify high-potential rural…

Given the abundance of literature describing the strong relationship between inquiry-based teaching and student achievement, more should be known about the factors impacting science teachers' classroom inquiry implementation. This study utilises the theory of planned behaviour to propose and validate a causal model of inquiry-based teaching…