This study investigates the influence of Explicit Instruction (EI) on the mathematics achievement of students attending Belmont Middle School (BMS). There is an urgent need for schools to evaluate the instructional strategies they have been adopting to identify whether they have any significant impact on students' mathematics performance. With the…

Under test-based accountability, side-effects--including practices to inflate test results, often seen as cheating--are usually associated to so-called high-stakes policies. However, the influence of different types of stakes in the generation of this type of practices has been overlooked in education research. Based on a survey experiment, our…

Project based learning (PBL), a well-known pedagogical approach, is becoming more widely recognized for creating and sustaining student engagement and motivation in 21st-century learning while improving academic achievement. Teachers support this hands-on, collaborative approach and see it as beneficial for students of all learning modalities, but…

This study is the first statewide analysis of the effectiveness of the Texas Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) program. Introduced in 2019, TIA is the most significant and unprecedented teacher merit-pay system in the U.S. Leveraging the Synthetic Control Method (SCM), we construct a counterfactual scenario to assess the causal impact of TIA on…

The purpose of educational assessments is to provide an academic check-up and to give educators and parents meaningful information on what students know and can do, and how well they are progressing toward college and career readiness. Assessments strive to show how well students perform on clearly defined standards and skills that are being…

Institutions of higher learning are are returning to test-required admissions policies after finding that standardized tests help them better assess the academic preparedness of all applicants. This brief presents evidence that: (1) The objective standard set by standardized tests makes the college admissions process fairer for students; (2) ACT…

Despite a call for evidence-based practice in school psychology, limited research on the topic of evidence-based assessment exists. To begin to address this gap in the research, a modified version of Jenson-Doss and Hawley's (2010) Attitudes Toward Standardized Assessment (ASA) scale was administered to 371 U.S. school psychologists. Examination…

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) was one of many universities that adopted a test-optional admissions policy for the Fall 2021 incoming cohort. However, unlike many institutions that went to test-optional admissions out of necessity, the decision made by IUPUI faculty and administration was thoroughly considered, data…

The expansion of student opportunity through the flexible spending of Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) builds in direct accountability to the parents who choose and hold the power of the purse. Families can select different schools and service providers if they are dissatisfied with how their student is faring. But ESAs can also be designed…

Improving teaching effectiveness is a key goal in higher education. The ARCS motivational model (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction) has become widely adopted in educational environments. This systematic review examines 24 studies from 2015 to 2024, sourced from ProQuest, Web of Science, and Scopus, selected from an initial pool of 948…

Cyber charter schools may increase access to a range of educational offerings, but they substantially underperform traditional public schools on measured academic performance, as demonstrated in a range of studies with distinct samples and methods. Artificial testing conditions offer a possible explanation. In contrast to face-to-face students,…

Through this retrospective interview study, we explored the ways in which coaches described how their daily work with teachers was impacted by a pervasive culture of pressure surrounding standardized assessment and achievement in one school district. Ultimately, we identified five ways in which coaches' work with teachers was impacted as a result…

Teacher data use is often centered around standardized testing. Such data use that is commonly centered on standardized tests and used during professional development does not necessarily transform teacher practice toward equity and fails to change teacher conceptualizations of students while also perpetuating inequitable practices. Conversely,…

As highlighted in the literature, one of the main difficulties in mathematics is the management of different semiotic representations. This difficulty occurs in verticals throughout schooling and is often an obstacle to the proper learning process of mathematics. The present study aims to investigate the different facets of these difficulties with…

The single greatest authority on student learning is the student doing the learning--but the right structures must be in place for students' voices to be clearly heard and truly valued. Conventional formative and summative assessment are most often conducted through one-size-fits-all quizzes and tests that yield narrow, predetermined categories of…