Understanding and addressing the literacy needs of middle school students is critical in ensuring their academic success. This quantitative study examines the literacy growth among middle school students participating in Tier II Response to Intervention and Instruction (RTI[superscript 2]) programs over the 2023-2024 academic year. It investigates…

We examine how incentives for test prep varied between math and English language arts (ELA) on U.S. state accountability exams. We collected data on exam structure for grade 3 to 8 tests in six states that are the setting for most U.S. research in literatures where accountability matters. We show that math exams typically measured ability more…

There is a lot of interest in providing detailed reports to schools indicating which skills pupils have mastered and which still need development -- and, more broadly, the knowledge, skills and understanding that pupils have acquired and not yet acquired. Cognitive diagnostic assessment is an approach designed to provide this kind of insight.…

This article and its Online Supplemental Material describe the development of the California School Wellness Index (CSWI), a tool to aid mental health research and practice in schools, specifically for wellness screening and monitoring. The CSWI is a 0-40 composite index derived from responses to the Brief Multidimensional Student Life…

This study presents a new instrument for assessing reflective thinking, self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning (SRL) among Universitas Terbuka postgraduate students registered in an online Research Methods course. The study validates the instrument's dependability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.918) and builds a strong factor structure by means of…

Background: Individuals with intellectual disabilities are as vulnerable to depression as their typically developing peers. This study aimed to verify the reliability and validity of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) in individuals with intellectual disabilities and determine whether the scale is appropriate for…

The benefits of peer evaluation of teaching effectiveness and quality in higher education are well documented. While instruments exist for the review and evaluation of entire online courses, there is no standardized single-lesson, peer evaluation instrument available for online instruction. This pilot study focused on the validation of a peer…

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid, reliable, and brief measure of active learning in college classrooms that is cheap and easy to complete and yields results that faculty can easily use to inform their development as instructors. Initial construct and face validity was achieved by modifying existing instruments and creating a draft…

Introduction: Gender stereotypes in schools influence how students perceive their academic and vocational abilities. Teachers play a crucial role in the transfer and transformation of these stereotypes. Teacher training must address these biases to promote equitable education. This research aims to design and validate a scale to identify how…

International large-scale assessments provide cross-national data on students' cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics. A critical methodological issue that often arises in comparing data from cross-national studies is ensuring measurement invariance, indicating that the construct under investigation is the same across the compared groups.…

Academic procrastination, the tendency to delay academic tasks without reasonable justification, has significant implications for students' academic performance and overall well-being. To measure this construct, numerous scales have been developed, among which the Academic Procrastination Scale (APS) has shown promise in assessing academic…

This research study holds practical significance for educators, school administrators, and mental health professionals. The study utilized structural equation modeling on two samples of elementary school students in grades three to five to create and validate condensed versions of the Social-Emotional Health Survey-Primary and the Me and My School…

This academic article provides the essential steps for designing an effective English questionnaire in social science research, with a focus on ensuring clarity, cultural sensitivity and ethical integrity. Developed from key insights from related studies, it outlines potential practice in questionnaire design, item development and the importance…

There is considerable research regarding measures of early reading but much less in early writing. Nevertheless, writing is a critical skill for success in school and early difficulties in writing are likely to persist without intervention. A necessary step toward identifying those students who need additional support is the use of screening…

Global trends suggest that teaching writing focuses on a skills-based approach to preparing children for high-stakes standardised tests. In the early years, teachers are grappling with finding a better balance between preparing children for such tests and satisfying their sense of pedagogic responsibility to teach them to become joyful, creative…