This report is the ACT annual report on the progress of U.S. high school graduates relative to college readiness. This year's report shows that 59% of students in the 2015 U.S. graduating class took the ACT® test, up from 57% last year and 49% in 2011. The increased number of test takers over the past several years enhances the breadth and depth…

The central idea of differential item functioning (DIF) is to examine differences between two groups at the item level while controlling for overall proficiency. This approach is useful for examining hypotheses at a finer-grain level than are permitted by a total test score. The methodology proposed in this paper is also aimed at estimating…

The children's gambling task (CGT [Kerr, A., & Zelazo, P. D. (2004). Development of "Hot" executive function: The children's gambling task. "Brain and Cognition," 55, 148-157]) involves integrating information about losses and gains to maximize winnings when selecting cards from two decks. Both cognitive complexity and control (CCC) theory and…

According to cognitive complexity and control (CCC) theory complexity depends on number of levels of a hierarchy of rules. According to relational complexity (RC) theory complexity is a function of the number of related variables in the task, and the most difficult tasks are those in which there is a constraint on decomposition into simpler…

Although biomedical knowledge is believed to be of little value in diagnosis of routine clinical cases, studies of clinical reasoning have found that physicians revert to use of basic biomedical knowledge when faced with challenging clinical problems. The current paper presents two experiments that empirically examine the role of biomedical…

In Spring 2007, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation awarded funds to the Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) to undertake an analysis of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in Philadelphia, and to make recommendations on how CTE and other forms of career-connected education could better align with high-wage/high-demand jobs in the regional…

This study explored the effects of prior knowledge (high vs. low; HPK and LPK) and concept-map structure (hierarchical vs. network; HS and NS) on disorientation, cognitive load, and learning from non-linear documents on "the infection process of a retrograde virus (HIV)". Participants in the study were 24 adults. Overall subjective ratings of…

Social studies education is a field in which those involved--teachers and students--encounter what can be called "difficult knowledge". Difficult knowledge is a theoretical construct suggesting that when an individual encounters representations of social and historical trauma in a learning situation there exists a host of emotional and pedagogical…

Unknown is the extent to which restrictions imposed on Latino students' first language undermines their ability to learn and how these limitations impact their attrition rate. The purpose of this study was to describe Latino students' lived experiences of acquiring English as a second language in the academic context. Five Latino students…

This research investigated the impact of automated cognitive assistants, specifically, the Personalized Assistant that Learns (PAL), on situational awareness, efficiency and effectiveness of decision making in the brigade combat team. PAL was recently commissioned by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to enhance decision making with…

To date, there is minimal research focused on the experiences of parents labeled with intellectual disability (ID). Much of the research focuses on early intervention programs and practices to support parents with ID as they raise children from birth to age three. As children age and enter into school there are increasing challenges for navigating…

In this study, the author examined the relationship of probability misconceptions to algebra, geometry, and rational number misconceptions and investigated the potential of probability instruction as an intervention to address misconceptions in all 4 content areas. Through a review of literature, 5 fundamental concepts were identified that, if…

Most experts in the testing community have presumed that the $350 million promised by the U.S. Department of Education to support common assessments would promote those that made greater use of open-ended items capable of measuring higher-order critical-thinking skills. But as measurement experts consider the multitude of possibilities for an…

There are two threads linking effective lectures and effective technology use. The first is consideration of what students bring to the table in terms of goals, interests, and prior knowledge. The second is the deliberate management of the opportunities for students to engage with content in order to focus their investment of mental effort on key…

In this study the authors investigate whether a whole-class educational blog could facilitate culturally relevant instruction and authentic intellectual work in U.S. history. Qualitative data were collected and analyzed that included student comments posted to an educational blog, classroom observations, and follow-up interviews. Based on the…