Proposed "free college" policies vary widely in design. The simplest set tuition to zero for everyone. More targeted approaches limit free tuition to those who demonstrate need through an application process. We experimentally test the effects of these two models on the schooling decisions of low-income students. An unconditional free…

Recent policy proposals call for significant new investments in early care and education (ECE). These policies are designed to reduce the burden of child care costs, support parental employment, and foster child development by increasing access to high-quality care, especially for children in lower-income families. In this paper, we propose and…

This fourth book in the Marzano Academies series focuses on secondary school leadership for competency-based education. The beauty of the framework, however, is that any leader seeking guidance on innovative, equitable, and effective practices can use this book as a blueprint for positive change. This is your blueprint for how you, as a secondary…

This technical report provides an overview of the datasets and methodology used in the main report, "Investigating the Potential Use of Long-Term School and College Destination Measures. Final Report" (see ED619071). The purpose of the main report is to investigate the potential for using Department for Education's (DfE's) Longitudinal…

This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of existing insolvency predictive models employed for non-profit Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and test a proposed predictive model utilizing statistical and ratio analysis by comparing HEIs in operations with those that closed from 2017 to 2020. The researcher incorporated a non-experimental,…

This book arose from commissioned research by the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) on the alignment and effectiveness of 'A Framework for Formation for Mission in Catholic Education' (NCEC, 2017). It articulates contemporary best practice, and traces the experience of the Catholic Church in pursuing formation as integral to mission.…

Learning is a complex, subjective process. An important perspective on learning is that anyone, regardless of their level of education, can participate in learning about science and contribute to their community. The public increasingly looks towards online resources to find answers to challenges, so it is necessary that people become empowered to…

When school districts do not have established policies to guide training, practice and professional development for all co-teaching staff, inconsistencies and inequities may arise for the student populations most directly impacted by the lack of those policies, including both general and special education students. In order to best serve the…

Teaching is globally recognized as one of the most stressful professions. Teachers are known to struggle with varying degrees of job stress (McCarthy et al., 2010; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2017). A performance gap analysis at the organization within this dissertation in practice--a Caribbean junior high school--revealed that the teaching staff was…

Research and data show that developmental education has been a stumbling block for the majority of community college students in pursuing their higher education degree. Students can spend several semesters to complete developmental math requirements in order to take a first college-level credit-bearing math course for their degree. Many colleges…

Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis refers to procedures that evaluate whether an item's characteristic differs for different groups of persons after controlling for overall differences in performance. DIF is routinely evaluated as a screening step to ensure items behavior the same across groups. Currently, the majority DIF studies focus…

The learning sciences inherently involve interdisciplinary research with an overarching objective of advancing theories of learning and to inform the design and implementation of effective instructional methods and learning technologies. In these endeavors, learning sciences encompass diverse constructs, measures, processes, and outcomes…

This dissertation aimed to advance the field of biology education in several ways. First, we aimed to demonstrate if, and to what extent, student-generated conceptual models can be used on summative assessments to accurately assess student understanding of gene expression. Next, we described patterns of changes students make to conceptual models…

Categorical data become increasingly ubiquitous in the modern big data era. In this dissertation, we propose novel statistical learning and inference methods for large-scale categorical data, focusing on latent variable models and their applications to psychometrics. In psychometric assessments, the subjects' underlying aptitude often cannot be…

This dissertation study explored meaningful experiences contributing to students' identity, capacity, and efficacy development as culturally relevant leaders. In Chapter One, I detailed the importance and relevance of this topic in the field of higher education. Then, I reviewed the literature on college student leadership development; defined…