This dissertation examines performance-based funding policies in higher education. Performance-based funding policies allocate state funding via student outcomes instead of by student enrollments. The first paper in this dissertation provides an in-depth analysis of Ohio's performance-based funding policy for two-year institutions. Then, the…

Brennan noted that users of test scores often want (indeed, demand) that subscores be reported, along with total test scores, for diagnostic purposes. Haberman suggested a method based on classical test theory (CTT) to determine if subscores have added value over the total score. One way to interpret the method is that a subscore has added value…

Recent research on advanced theory of mind (ToM) has questioned the extent to which existing ToM measures capture a single construct, particularly for groups understudied in developmental research. The present study examined the factor structure of one of the most commonly used advanced ToM measures, the Strange Stories task, in samples of low-…

There has been much debate in assessment research about the inclusion of Global English accents in high-stakes listening tests. This study explored test-takers' attitudes toward the inclusion of different English accents in the Duolingo English Test (DET) 2021 test version and their associations with listening test scores. One hundred sixty…

The District has received the fiscal year 2024 (FY24) high school graduates' college matriculation data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). The Department of Research, Evaluation, & Assessment (DREA) has performed a preliminary analysis of college enrollment for students who graduated from the District between FY20 and FY24,…

Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is important throughout the lifespan. The objective was to investigate the transcultural diagnostic validity of the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) in a clinical sample of 451 adults with Intellectual Developmental Disorder (IDD) with and without ASD in Germany, the U.S.A. and Great Britain.…

A significant gap exists between the graduation rate of students with disabilities and their nondisabled. The purpose of this quantitative correlation study was to determine the relationship self-determination had on college and career readiness using ACT scores of students with high incident disabilities. This study was guided by the following…

We determined that significant differences existed between assessment scores of at-risk children taught by assistant teachers with different levels of education using standardized assessments (Teaching Strategies GOLD [TSG] and Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening [PALS]). A 1-way MANOVA indicated that assistant teachers' level of education…

Undergraduate biology laboratories emphasize hands-on skills. Typically, descriptions of manual techniques are delivered via written instruction. Custom-produced prelab instructional videos, which augment prelab instruction, have come into wider use in recent years. However, institutional and economic barriers can interfere with video production…

Poor mental health of university students is becoming a serious issue in many countries. Malaysia -- a leading country for Asia-Pacific education -- is one of them. Despite the government's effort to raise awareness, Malaysian students' mental health remains challenging, exacerbated by the students' negative attitudes towards mental health (mental…

The conferment of tenure at a United States university provides substantial job security to its recipients. Tenure is designed to allow a professor the ability to explore new and risky research questions without fear of losing their position due to lack of publications. At the same time, this policy creates an incentive system with an ambiguous…

Testing as an assessment technique has been widely used at all levels of education--from primary to higher school. The main purpose of the paper is to evaluate the effect of context-based testing in teaching and learning of analytical chemistry in a Russian university. The paper formulates the objectives of context-based testing, discusses its…

A challenge of large-scale oral communication assessments is to feasibly assess a broad construct that includes interactional competence. One possible approach in addressing this challenge is to use a spoken dialog system (SDS), with the computer acting as a peer to elicit a ratable speech sample. With this aim, an SDS was built and four trained…

The present study examined the effects of a classroom intervention on students' metacognitive monitoring of retrieval practice performance feedback and metacognitive control of future study decisions. A true experimental design was used to randomly assign 103 undergraduate students from an education course to trained (n = 49) and control (n = 54)…

In the journal article "Did DI do it? The impact of a programme designed to improve literacy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in remote schools," Guenther and Osborne (2020) compare schoolwide NAPLAN reading scale scores for 25 Very Remote Indigenous schools implementing Direct Instruction through the Flexible Literacy…