In this study, the researchers examined principal behaviors related with change in school climate. That is, the manner in which principals managed change within their schools and the impact of these change behaviors on the school climate was investigated. Through use of the Leadership Profile (Johnson, 2003) and the Organizational Health Inventory…

The Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) program at the University of Minnesota has drawn from the best practices of Supplemental Instruction, Peer-Led Team Learning, Structured Learning Assistance, the Emerging Scholars Program, and other successful postsecondary peer cooperative learning models to establish guiding principles for structuring learning…

In the wake of globalization, higher education institutions almost inevitably have adopted and implemented internationalization policies as their primary strategy for responding to the challenges and opportunities brought about by globalization. This study concerns the comparison of the motivations, program strategies, and organization strategies…

The "MTP-Math/Science" curricula specifically target the teaching and learning of children at risk of early school failure, a population for whom achievement gaps in mathematics and science are visible even in Pre-K years. "MTP-Math" is based on Focal Areas defined by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the spring 2008 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) results from a community college located in Southeast Texas to determine what relationship student engagement had to student persistence and academic performance and if that relationship differed by race, ethnicity, or academic program.…

A primary gateway to a career in engineering is the attainment of the bachelor of science degree in engineering. In contrast, a common barrier to becoming an engineer is failure to attain the degree. Those variables that are related to college graduation are often in place prior to college admission. The purpose of this study was to examine the…

The objective of this study was to evaluate grade 9-12 students' motivation while engaged in two different engineering design projects: marble-sorter and bridge designs. The motivation components measured in this study were focused on students' intrinsic (IGO) and extrinsic (EGO) goal orientations, task value (TV), self-efficacy for learning and…

In an effort to continuously monitor the validity of the SAT for predicting first-year college grades, the College Board has continued its multi-year effort to recruit four-year colleges and universities (henceforth, "institutions") to provide data on the cohorts of first-time, first-year students entering in the fall semester beginning…

As the growth of online programs continues to rapidly accelerate, concern over retention is increasing. Models for understanding student persistence in the face-to-face environment are well established, however, the many of the variables in these constructs are not present in the online environment or they manifest in significantly different ways.…

This paper strives to provide an insight into the multifaceted relationships that young people have, examining the social, cultural and institutional discourses, which shape their lives. We set out to discuss, from an empirical poststructuralist perspective, the way in which Irish adolescents write about the reality of their lives and privilege…

This study examined the longitudinal relationship of early elementary predictors to adolescent depression 7 years later. The sample consisted of 938 students who have been part of a larger longitudinal study that started in 1993. Data collected from parents, teachers, and youth self-reports on early risk factors when students were in 1st and 2nd…

While literature suggests that college students may be less reluctant to seek help in online rather than traditional courses, little is known about how online instructors give help in ways that lead to increased student help seeking and academic success. In this study, we used theories and research on learning assistance and scaffolding, teacher…

The main goal of this study was to assess how sensitive unidimensional parameter estimates derived from BILOG were when the unidimensionality assumption was violated and the underlying ability distribution was not multivariate normal. A multidimensional three-parameter logistic distribution that was a straightforward generalization of the…

A method of estimating Rasch-model difficulty calibrations from judges' ratings of item difficulty is described. The ability of judges to estimate item difficulty was assessed by correlating estimated and empirical calibrations on each of four examinations offered by the American Association of State Social Work Boards. Thirteen members of the…

Issues and problems in assessment research are explored, with suggestions to help establish an acceptable correlation between student assessment scores and final grades. Topics include assessing instructor grading variation, instructor grade point average (GPA), success rates, and lack of linearity in grade scales. Solutions to these problems are…