In September 2015, when the College Board released its average SAT scores for the 2015 graduating class, two details stood out for many educators: (1) the record participation and diversity numbers (close to 1.7 million students took the test, with 50 percent being students of color); and (2) the test's lower average scores compared with previous…

This paper addresses the issue of parental employment and hours of work and their impact on children's educational outcomes at the age of 16. I contribute to existing research by applying more accurate measures of parental time spent outside the household--using direct measures of hours spent at work and commuting, and by examining the independent…

Good teachers are essential for high-quality educational systems. However, little is known about teachers' skill formation during college. By combining two standardized tests for Colombian students, one taken at the end of senior year in high school and the other when students are near graduation from college, we test the extent to which students…

The Multicultural Counseling and Psychotherapy Test (MCPT), a measure of multicultural counseling competence (MCC), was validated in 2 phases. In Phase 1, the authors administered 451 test items derived from multicultural guidelines in counseling and psychology to 32 multicultural experts and 30 nonexperts. In Phase 2, the authors administered the…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in the writing assessment scores for each of the four traits--development, focus and organization, language, and conventions--as measured by the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) of students who had a formal keyboarding course compared to those who did not. A…

This protocol guided the review of research that informed the recommendations contained in the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making, published in September 2009. The research review involved the following steps: (1) The research staff searched the professional…

Students with a specific learning disability (SLD) have unique learning needs that must be met. Thus, it is imperative for teachers to incorporate flexible instructional materials, techniques, and strategies for academic progress to take place. One way teachers can be flexible is by allowing students with disabilities to take standardized (i.e.…

The basic aspects of emotional comprehension seem to be acquired around the age of 5. However, it is not clear whether children's emotion knowledge is based on facial expression, organized in scripts, or determined by sociocultural context. This study aims to shed some light on these subjects by assessing knowledge of basic emotions in 4- and…

The use of electronic response pads or "clickers" is a popular way to engage students and create an active-learning environment, especially within large chemistry courses. We examined students' perceptions of how the clicker affected their learning, participation, and engagement in the classroom, as well as their overall experience…

Recent theoretical conceptualizations of student engagement have raised questions about how to measure student engagement and how engagement varies not only across schools, but also within school and within classrooms. The authors build on existing research on student behavioral engagement and extend this research to emphasize a continuum of…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the developmental writing patterns of English as a foreign language (EFL) students across different score levels through a TOEFL Junior® writing task. The sample of this study comprised 2,016 young adolescent EFL students, ranging from 10 to 15 years old, who took the TOEFL Junior test. We performed a…

Bloom's taxonomy for the classification of the objectives in cognitive domain was developed in mid 1950s and this taxonomy was revised by a group with Anderson and Krathwohl by making some changes and revisions. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the objectives of 8th grade English curriculum and TEOG exam questions (national assessment…

Prior research suggests that males outperform females, on average, on multiple-choice items compared to their relative performance on constructed-response items. This paper characterizes the extent to which gender achievement gaps on state accountability tests across the United States are associated with those tests' item formats. Using roughly 8…

The author examines discourses of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and World Englishes (WEs) in the commercials for 2 standardized English tests: the International English Language Testing System for study abroad in English-dominant countries and the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program for Canadian permanent residency and…

This article reports on a study that investigated the problem of hope for the future and literacy achievement in a sample of impoverished South African primary school children. Data was collected through a quantitative survey that was administered to 160 learners from four classes of grades 5 to 7 at a school in Soweto township, Johannesburg,…