Bayesian inference for structural equation models (SEMs) is increasingly popular in social and psychological sciences owing to its flexibility to adapt to more complex models and the ability to include prior information if available. However, there are two major hurdles in using the traditional Bayesian SEM in practice: (1) the information nested…

In many psychological and educational applications, it is imperative to obtain valid and reliable score estimates of multilevel processes. For example, in order to assess the quality and characteristics of high impact learning processes, one must compute accurate scores representative of student- and classroom-level constructs. Currently, there…

With a growing consensus that students require more than purely academic support, schools across the country have increasingly adopted the community school model, a comprehensive approach to education focused on holistic student development. In these schools, centrally located site coordinators leverage partnerships with local organizations to…

This qualitative meta-synthesis studied what makes first-generation college students stronger for success in the United States. The study adopted Tinto (1975) as the theoretical framework in the synthesis of research findings from seventeen peer-reviewed empirical qualitative studies. The research is centered around three research questions: (1)…

Students in an upper-level physical chemistry course utilized an open-sourced statistical software package to construct models fitted to experimental pressure-volume data. In the first part of the experiment, students familiarize themselves with model fitting. In the second part of the experiment, students determine which truncated version of the…

While countless studies have collected data on the effectiveness of various problem-solving models, few have attempted to identify which components of the training process are helpful to participants. Two teacher teams consisting of seven participants were trained in an adapted version of the Team-initiated Problem Solving (TIPS) model, observed…

Assessing student achievement over multiple years is complicated by students' annual matriculation through different classrooms. The process of matriculation, or annual classroom change, threatens the validity of statistical inferences because it violates the independence of observations necessary in a regression context. The current study…

Teacher turnover continues to be a significant problem in the United States. Teacher turnover is expensive because it costs money to continue recruiting, hiring, and training new teachers to replace those leaving (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017). Most important though, teacher turnover hurts student achievement and success (Sorensen…

The lack of achievement in public schools has been a concern globally and has negatively affected the growth of communities and the economy. School principals have a central role in implementing effective instructional practices and creating a positive teaching and learning environment that fosters student achievement. The problem addressed was a…

Higher education faculty who teach online can face numerous challenges in providing optimal experiences for their students. Besides their potentially limited instructional design expertise and understanding of how to optimize technology to support learning, faculty may have difficulties in finding ways to make themselves be perceived as real…

Reading comprehension--understanding, interpreting, and evaluating written texts--is a highly complex construct that involves ''the process of simultaneously constructing and extracting meaning through interaction and engagement with print'' (Snow, 2002, p. 413) and requires "the most intricate workings of the human mind" (Huey, 1968, p.…

Cluster memberships associated with the mediation effect are often changed due to the temporal distance between the cause-and-effect variables in longitudinal data. Nevertheless, current practices in multilevel mediation analysis mostly assume a purely hierarchical data structure. A Monte Carlo simulation study is conducted to examine the…

This experimental study explores how source use features impact raters' judgment of argumentation in a second language (L2) integrated writing test. One hundred four experienced and novice raters were recruited to complete a rating task that simulated the scoring assignment of a local English Placement Test (EPT). Sixty written responses were…

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the mediating role of digital game addiction in the relationship between school belonging and psychological resilience of adolescents in middle school. Considering school belonging together with digital game addiction may help to better understand the risk and protective factors of psychological…

This paper aims to advocate for a balanced approach to model fit evaluation in structural equation modeling (SEM). The ongoing debate surrounding chi-square test statistics and fit indices has been characterized by ambiguity and controversy. Despite the acknowledged limitations of relying solely on the chi-square test, its careful application can…