Learning does not end at 3 p.m. or in June, and neither should data-driven support for students. Communities across the country are recognizing out-of-school time (OST) programs as key partners to provide students not only important enrichment and academic services but also targeted supports and expanded learning opportunities. This policy brief…

Many students have difficulty performing well in Calculus 1. Since Calculus 1 is often the first math course that people take in college, these difficulties can set a precedent of failure for these students. Using tools from data mining and interviews with Precalculus and Calculus 1 students, this work seeks to identify the different types of…

As communicated via a November 2017 memo (see ED610130), the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE), in collaboration with their implementation vendor Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), has been working to finalize the design, development, and testing of a Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS). Through its Vertical Reporting processes, the SLDS will…

This study is part of a research programme investigating the dynamics and impacts of learning engagement in a challenge-based digital learning environment. Learning engagement is a multidimensional concept which includes an individual's ability to behaviourally, cognitively, emotionally, and motivationally engage in an on-going learning process.…

This study examined how Chief Information Officers (CIOs), also known as Information Technology leaders, understand the use of technology as a strategy for reducing academic costs in small, private, liberal arts colleges in New England. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight CIOs throughout small, private, liberal arts colleges in…

In 2018, state boards of education discussed and adopted policies to increase accountability for student data protection and to increase transparency of schoolwide data through data dashboards. This analysis highlights policy changes in state data protection requirements, test administration and security, records retention, and confidentiality…

Low- and middle-income countries have made significant progress getting children into school, but student learning and achievement are often dreadfully low (Berry, Barnett, & Hinton, 2015; Pritchett, 2013). Approximately 250 million children across the world are not acquiring basic reading and math skills, even though about half have spent at…

High-quality data is essential when looking at student-level data, including data specifically focused on students with disabilities. For state education agencies (SEAs), it is critical to have a solid foundation for how data is collected and stored to achieve high-quality data. The process of integrating the Individuals with Disabilities…

Gross Domestic Product of any country often influence economic decisions by policy makers, market participants and econometricians on policy recommendations, evaluation and forecasting. However these decisions are often based on preliminary data announcements by statistical agencies. It is therefore important to ensure that the preliminary GDP…

In this article, we suggest that using R, a statistical software environment, is advantageous for quantitative researchers in applied linguistics. We first provide a brief overview of the reasons why R is popular among researchers in other fields and why we recommend its use for analyses in applied linguistics. In order to illustrate these…

As we near the close of another academic year, we highlight departments in the United States that consistently award more physics bachelor's degrees than other similar departments. We categorize departments by the highest physics degree they award. Typically, departments that award a doctorate have more faculty members and more students; thus, one…

As in international schooling contexts, talk about data-driven practice has become ubiquitous in schooling dialogues in the USA, and with the pending reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (the main driver of increased data use in American schools), educators in the USA should expect even greater calls for formalized data use. Yet, the…

Qualitative research is a broad term encompassing many methods. Critiques of the field of qualitative research argue that while individual studies provide rich descriptions and insights, the absence of connections drawn between studies limits their usefulness. In response, qualitative meta-synthesis serves as a design to interpret and synthesise…

Over the years, a number of institutions have systematically deployed new technologies to support learning and teaching. Lately, institutions have begun to explore new forms of data in order to understand and effectively address its systemic challenges, and help support effective decision-making. This paper describes the dynamic changes in the…

Among the approaches that have been used to balance the demand for services with the agency's service resources is to limit the number of visits available to clients. Such limits have been introduced, however, without any empirical basis for estimating the impact of a limit on the overall demand for services or the proportion of clients. The…