Providing feedback on draft essays is an accepted means of enacting a social-constructivist approach to assessment, aligning with current views on the value of formative feedback and assessment for learning (AFL). However, the use of this process as a means of improving not only content but also students' academic writing skills has not been…

With the rapid advances in computer technology during recent years, researchers have demonstrated the pivotal influences of computer-assisted diagnostic systems on student learning performance improvement. This research aims to develop a Diagnostic and Remedial Learning System (DRLS) for an algebra course in a Thai lower secondary school context…

As policymakers contemplate expanding preschool opportunities for low-income children, one possibility is to fund 2, rather than 1 year of Head Start for children at ages 3 and 4. Another option is to offer 1 year of Head Start followed by 1 year of pre-K. We ask which of these options is more effective. We use data from the Oklahoma pre-K study…

States and districts have launched unprecedented efforts in recent years to build new feedback and evaluation systems that support teacher growth and development. These systems depend on trustworthy information about teaching effectiveness--information that recognizes the complexity of teaching and is trusted by both teachers and administrators.…

The "e-rater"® automated essay scoring system is used operationally in the scoring of the argument and issue tasks that form the Analytical Writing measure of the "GRE"® General Test. For each of these tasks, this study explored the value added of reporting 4 trait scores for each of these 2 tasks over the total e-rater score.…

This article proposes that sampling design effects have potentially huge unrecognized impacts on the results reported by large-scale district and state assessments in the United States. When design effects are unrecognized and unaccounted for they lead to underestimating the sampling error in item and test statistics. Underestimating the sampling…

Our study adds to prior work on Indiana's Twenty-first Century Scholars(TFCS) program by focusing on whether participating in--rather than completing--the program affects the likelihood of students going to college and where they initially enrolled. We first employ binary and multinomial logistic regression to obtain estimates of the impact of the…

As policy-makers contemplate expanding preschool opportunities for low-income children, one possibility is to fund two, rather than one year of Head Start for children at ages 3 and 4. Another option is to offer one year of Head Start followed by one year of pre-k. We ask which of these options is more effective. We use data from the Oklahoma…

The scoring instrument described in this article is based on a deconstruction of the seven sections of an American Psychological Association (APA)-style empirical research report into a set of learning outcomes divided into content-, expression-, and format-related categories. A double-weighting scheme used to score the report yields a final grade…

Using a propensity score matching method, and regression modeling based on the 2002 Education Longitudinal Study, this study found a significant Catholic school, mathematics achievement effect among those 12th graders who were least likely to attend Catholic school. This result is evident within districts after we used the School District…

The web tables in this report provide original and revised estimates of statistics previously published in 2007-08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08): Student Financial Aid Estimates for 2007-08 (NCES 2009-166). The revised estimates were generated using revised weights that were updated in August 2013. NPSAS:08 data were…

Niigata University has started to develop the Niigata University Bachelor Assessment System (NBAS). The objective is to have groups of teachers belonging to educational programs discuss whether visualized learning outcomes are comprehensible. Discussions based on teachers' subjective judgments showed in general that visualized learning outcomes…

District costs for teachers' health insurance are, on average, higher then employer costs for private-sector professionals. How much of this is attributable to collective bargaining? This article examines the question using data from the National Compensation Survey (NCS) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the state of Wisconsin. In…

Seventeen social educator students were taught to analyze their work activity by means of a Vygotsky-inspired method, drawing on Engeström's notion of an activity system. The method aimed at increasing the consciousness of the students of the structure of work activity system. The participants wrote two accounts of their field-work practice…

Purpose: Entrepreneurship education particularly requires student engagement because of the complexity of the entrepreneurship process. The purpose of this paper is to describe how an established measure of engagement can be used to identify relevant teaching methods that could be used to engage any group of entrepreneurship students.…