Background/Context: How do we account for the persistence of below-average math test score performance among California Hispanics who are fluent in English, as well as Spanish-dominant English learners? Recent studies have attributed the problem to an overly rigid focus on "what works" in curriculum and fluency in English to the…

In this descriptive, mixed methods study, the researcher investigated the influence of teacher preparation programs' field experiences on teacher candidates' sense of teaching efficacy. Tschannen-Morgan & Woolfolk-Hoy's (2001) Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale questionnaire was sent to 221 teacher candidates enrolled in one of…

This report compares the circumstances and characteristics of Black immigrant mothers in Palm Beach County, Florida, to those of Latina immigrant and Black native-born mothers, focusing on those living in distressed areas. The study also compares the early developmental outcomes of their children. When controlling for parental and child…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the home literacy environment of a nationally representative sample of preschoolers with disabilities and their subsequent receptive vocabulary and reading comprehension skills using data from the Pre-Elementary Education Longitudinal Study. Results from linear regressions indicated…

The purpose of this study was to document the relationship between two commonly-used indicators of reading proficiency (i.e., Oral Reading Fluency [ORF] and Retell Fluency [RTF]) and two reading outcome tests in the state of Montana. Third and fourth grade students were assessed over 1 school year (2005-2006). Each student was assessed at three…

This study focused on the potential for building 25 high-school students' word knowledge by using a mobile learning device and gaming app. Using a game as an instructional tool is a portable way for students to engage with content. The amount of vocabulary mastered after using the app on the mobile device was examined in relation to a pre-test and…

What impact does the academic library have on student persistence? This study explores the relationship between traditional library input and output measures of staff, collections, use, and services with fall-to-fall retention and six-year graduation rates at Association of Research Libraries member libraries. When controlling for race/ethnicity…

State sector education policy in England aims to deliver raised standards of attainment and equality of educational opportunity by offering fair access to schools for all pupils from any background. During the lifetime of the previous Labour government (May 1997 to April 2010) a key policy tool used to tackle entrenched low levels of academic…

Using detailed individual-level data from public universities in the state of Ohio, I estimate the effect of various institutional expenditures on the probability of graduating from college. Using a competing risks regression framework, I find differential impacts of expenditure categories across student characteristics. I estimate that student…

Although U.S. rates of college enrollment among 18-24 year olds have reached historic highs, rates of degree completion have not kept pace. This is especially evident at community colleges, where a disproportionate number of students from groups who, historically, have had low college-completion rates enroll. One way community colleges are…

This population-based study investigated the unique and cumulative relations between risks that are monitored by public surveillance systems and academic and behavioral outcomes for an entire cohort of third graders in a large, urban public school system. Using integrated, administrative records from child welfare, public health, housing, and…

This report examines theoretical and empirical issues related to the statistical power of impact estimates under clustered regression discontinuity (RD) designs. The theory is grounded in the causal inference and HLM modeling literature, and the empirical work focuses on commonly-used designs in education research to test intervention effects on…

When conducting an exploratory factor analysis, the decision regarding the number of factors to retain following factor extraction is one that the researcher should consider very carefully, as the decision can have a dramatic effect on results. Although there are numerous strategies that can and should be utilized when making this decision,…

This study reports on the prevalence and correlates of perceived discrimination among a national sample of Latinos in the United States. Understanding the prevalence and correlates of discrimination can help us better address disparities in the health care system. The authors define perceived discrimination as self-reported everyday experiences of…

We describe a large-scale regression study that examines the influence of lexical (word frequency, lexical neighborhood) and sublexical (feedforward and feedback consistency) variables on spelling accuracy among first, second, and third- to fifth-graders. The wordset analyzed contained 3430 French words. Predictors in the stepwise regression…