ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Coherent Power Analysis in Multi-Level Studies Using Design Parameters from Surveys
Author: Rhoads, Christopher
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Statistical Analysis,Correlation,Effect Size,Surveys,Hierarchical Linear Modeling,Randomized Controlled Trials,Multivariate Analysis

Current practice for conducting power analyses in hierarchical trials using survey based ICC and effect size estimates may be misestimating power because ICCs are not being adjusted to account for treatment effect heterogeneity. Results presented in Table 1 show that the necessary adjustments can be quite large or quite small. Furthermore, power estimates without adjusting the ICC could be either too large or too small, depending on the covariance of school specific treatment effects with control group school means. The paper illustrates the need for the field to obtain better empirical evidence about likely values of this parameter in order to conduct accurate power analyses. One table is appended.
Measuring Language Acquisition of Students in a Dual-Immersion Program versus Their Mainstream Classroom Peers: The First Two Years of a Dual Immersion Program
Author: Stephan, Sara
Date: 2012-11-00
Type: Dissertations/Theses - Masters Theses
Subjects: Immersion Programs,Bilingual Education Programs,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Native Speakers,Literacy,Spanish,Elementary School Students,Emergent Literacy,Reading Fluency,Reading Tests,Scores,Phonological Awareness,Educational History,Kindergarten,School Schedules,Statistical Analysis,Mainstreaming,Comparative Analysis

Will participation in a Dual-Immersion program increase students English language literacy compared to their mainstream classroom peers? Literacy scores on the DIBELS and WIDA Access were assessed over two years for 144 students to see if English Language Learners (ELL) are having more success in English literacy acquisition than their mainstream classroom ELL peers and English natives in the Dual-Immersion program compared to their mainstream classroom peers. During the two years students in the Dual-Immersion program were taught half of their day in Spanish and half in English. Their mainstream classroom peers were taught completely in English. For the class of 2021 there is no pretreatment difference for any groups except for Dual ELL compared to Dual English natives, for PSF p = 0.020 and WUF p = 0.000. For the class of 2022 there was no pretreatment difference between any groups except for Dual ELL compared to Dual English natives, Dual ELL students were behind their native English speaking peers on every assessment on the DIBELS. For both the class of 2021 and 2022 there were no consistent significant differences between classes except for Dual ELL compared to Dual English natives. For the class of 2021 on post treatment assessment there was still significant difference in PSF p = 0.027 and WUF p = 0.002. For the class of 2022 pretreatment assessment showed significant difference on every assessment piece of DIBELS; in post treatment assessment there was still significant difference in ISF p = 0.004, LNF p=0.026, PSF p = 0.044, WUF p = 0.001 and ORF p = 0.024. Based on the results the Dual Immersion program is showing successful because there are not significant differences across grade levels. It is however, not decreasing the gap between ELL and English natives within the Dual Immersion program.
Structure Building Predicts Grades in College Psychology and Biology
Author: Arnold, Kathleen M.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Undergraduate Students,Introductory Courses,Psychology,Biology,Predictor Variables,Grades (Scholastic),Academic Achievement,At Risk Students,Knowledge Representation,Individual Differences,Cognitive Processes,Success,Grade Point Average,College Entrance Examinations,Scores,Knowledge Level,Measures (Individuals),Standardized Tests,Aptitude Tests,Prior Learning,Regression (Statistics)

Knowing what skills underlie college success can allow students, teachers, and universities to identify and to help at-risk students. One skill that may underlie success across a variety of subject areas is structure building, the ability to create mental representations of narratives (Gernsbacher, Varner, &amp; Faust, 1990). We tested if individual differences in structure-building ability predicted success in two college classes: introductory to psychology and introductory biology. In both cases, structure building predicted success. This effect was robust, with structure building explaining variance in course grades even after accounting for high school GPA and SAT scores (in the psychology course) or a measure of domain knowledge (in the biology course). The results support the claim that structure building is an important individual difference, one that is associated with learning in different domains. [This article was published in &quot;Applied Cognitive Psychology,&quot; v30 n3 p454-459 May-Jun 2016.]
High-Dimensional Explanatory Random Item Effects Models for Rater-Mediated Assessments
Author: Kelcey, Ben
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Test Items,Models,Evaluators,Longitudinal Studies,Elementary School Students,Learner Engagement,Measurement,Error of Measurement,Goodness of Fit,Scores,Interrater Reliability

Valid and reliable measurement of unobserved latent variables is essential to understanding and improving education. A common and persistent approach to assessing latent constructs in education is the use of rater inferential judgment. The purpose of this study is to develop high-dimensional explanatory random item effects models designed for rater-mediated assessments. The models are built to address three specific issues. First, an important limitation of the use of cross-classified random item effects models in rater-mediated assessments is that the number of latent dimensions increases quickly with the number of items and facets. Second, an important limitation of previous work is that it has not considered the potential for interactions among facets and between facets and items. Third, although previous research has examined the presence of noninvariance in rater-mediated assessments, it has not examined the extent to which characteristics of each facet systematically explain variability in measurement. To illustrate the proposed method, the authors applied it to a longitudinal study of students' academic engagement in elementary school. Two cohorts of students were rated about up to three times per year for three years across grades kindergarten to second or third to fifth. Across the study there were about 6,000 students measured about 17,000 times. Preliminary analyses indicated the model that best balanced parsimony with fit based on the information criteria was the model that included random effects for items, time points, students, raters, students-by-raters, items-by-raters, and items-by-students. Two tables are appended.
Home Environment Quality Mediates the Effects of an Early Intervention on Children's Social-Emotional Development in Rural Pakistan
Author: Finch, Jenna E.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Early Intervention,Family Environment,Social Development,Emotional Development,Rural Areas,Young Children,Age Differences,Followup Studies,Program Effectiveness,Poverty,Community Programs,Randomized Controlled Trials,Health Promotion,Nutrition Instruction,Child Health,Stimulation,Observation,Behavior Problems,Child Behavior,Questionnaires,Screening Tests,Mothers,Educational Attainment,Statistical Analysis,Likert Scales

Over 200 million children under the age of 5 are not fulfilling their developmental potential due to poverty, poor health, and lack of cognitive stimulation. Experiences in early childhood have long term-effects on brain development and thus the cognitive and social-emotional skills that promote children's school success. Further, early childhood development is linked longitudinally to children's educational outcomes in low- and middle-income (LAMI) contexts. The present study seeks to explore the impacts of an early responsive stimulation intervention on children's behavior problems and social skills at age four in rural Pakistan. The authors further examined whether home environment quality mediated the effects of the intervention on children's behavior problems and social skills. The study included 1302 children and their primary caregivers who were enrolled in the Pakistan Early Child Development Scale-Up (PEDS) Trial and followed up at age four. The current study is a four-year-old follow-up of the PEDS trial, a 2x2 factorial intervention with responsive stimulation and enhanced nutrition interventions. Comprehensive child and maternal assessments were conducted during a three-hour home visit. This study demonstrates the value of an early responsive stimulation intervention on children's social-emotional skills in LAMI contexts. Further, it extends previous literature by highlighting the importance of home environment quality in mediation associations between the intervention and children's development. Two tables and a figure are appended.
Persistence and Attainment among Postsecondary Subbaccalaureate Students. Data Point. NCES 2016-083
Author: Roberts, Ashley
Date: 2016-07-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Academic Persistence,Student Surveys,Two Year College Students,Educational Attainment,Majors (Students),Longitudinal Studies,Postsecondary Education,College Students,Comparative Analysis,Occupations,Bachelors Degrees,Associate Degrees,Statistical Analysis

This Data Point examines the persistence and attainment of students who enrolled in postsecondary education for the first time in 2003-04, focusing on subbaccalaureate students (those seeking a certificate or associate's degree) and, among subbaccalaureate students, those who pursue occupational education. Their progress was tracked over 6 years. The BPS students examined here were initially surveyed in 2003-04 (at the end of their first academic year) then re-surveyed in 2005-06 and in 2008-09. The final BPS:04/09 dataset contains information on nearly 16,700 students. It was found that: (1) Subbaccalaureate students have a lower rate of persistence and attainment than baccalaureate students; and (2) Students seeking a subbaccalaureate credential in an occupational field of study have a persistence and attainment rate that is not measurably different from that of subbaccalaureate students in other fields of study.
Linking Counselor Activities and Students' College Readiness: How They Matter for Disadvantaged Students
Author: Fitzpatrick, Daniel
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: School Counselors,High School Students,College Readiness,Disadvantaged Youth,Counseling Services,School Counseling,High Schools,Longitudinal Studies,Multivariate Analysis,National Surveys,Regression (Statistics)

Students' college readiness has important links with their access to and success in postsecondary education. College readiness measures appear to be malleable based on high school counselors' work. Unfortunately, the research-to-date provides only minimal guidance for what high school counselors should actually do in order to help their students. Discussions of college readiness often merge college eligibility and college knowledge. College eligibility refers to basic skills, academic skills, and content knowledge, including students having taken courses and earned grades that earn them entry into a typical 4-year college. College knowledge refers to awareness of the steps (e.g. taking the SAT/ACT, applying to colleges, seeking financial aid) between aspiring to attend college and actually doing so. Counselors can mediate both factors, and this paper uses the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS) data to illuminate how. In this paper, researchers investigate how four &quot;specific&quot; advising activities impact two &quot;specific&quot; demonstrations of college readiness for all students and for disadvantaged students. Tables are appended.
Career and Technical Education Coursetaking and Postsecondary Enrollment and Attainment: High School Classes of 1992 and 2004. Data Point. NCES 2016-109
Author: Hudson, Lisa
Date: 2016-07-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Vocational Education,High School Graduates,Public Schools,Enrollment,Educational Attainment,Postsecondary Education,Credits,Cohort Analysis,Longitudinal Studies,National Surveys

This Data Point examines public high school graduates' postsecondary enrollment and attainment (at any type of postsecondary institution, at any level), for the class of 1992 as of 2000, and for the class of 2004 as of 2012. This Data Point uses data from two nationally representative studies of public and private high school students: the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), which began with a sample of over 24,000 eighth-grade students, and the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), which began with a sample of over 15,000 tenthgrade students, and their associated High School Transcript Studies. The Data Point reports data from these studies' public high school graduates. Causal inferences should not be made from these correlational data. It was found that: (1) Enrollment rates were higher in the more recent cohort, particularly among graduates who earned more CTE credits; and (2) Attainment rates were lower in the more recent cohort than in the earlier cohort.
Is There a Link between Classmates with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Other Students' Absences
Author: Gottfried, Michael
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Special Education,Behavior Problems,Emotional Disturbances,Correlation,Kindergarten,Attendance Patterns,Peer Influence,Classroom Environment,Teacher Certification,Teacher Competencies,Individual Characteristics,Predictor Variables,Children,Surveys,Longitudinal Studies

As special education inclusion policies become more widespread, classroom compositions are changing in ways that affect all students. The present study fills a critical gap in the literature by documenting the extent to which having a classmate with an emotional disturbance (ED) is linked to kindergarteners' absences. Because having a classmate with an ED is associated with total absences and with chronic absenteeism, it could be the case that those students whose absences are most associated with the presence of a classmate with an ED are those who were already on the margin of being classified as chronically absent. Thus, policymakers might be concerned that those students who had many absences to begin with may be tipped into the category of chronic absenteeism by the addition of a peer with an ED to their classrooms. The results of this study illustrate an association between reduced student absences and having a teacher who is certified in special education. Teachers who have attained a special education certification, however, have studied fundamental behavioral analytics protocols. These can be applied in the classroom to reinforce positive target behaviors by the student with an ED, assist with stimulus control, and maintain established behavioral repertoires so that the general classroom environment is more conducive to teaching and learning for all students. Tables are appended.
Guided versus Independent Play: Which Better Sustains Attention among Infants and Toddlers?
Author: Gardner-Neblett, Nicole
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Attention,Play,Infants,Toddlers,Participation,Child Care,Age Differences,Preschool Teachers,Eye Movements,Observation,Comparative Analysis,Social Behavior,Music,Books,Sensory Experience,Early Intervention,Teacher Role

Rapid development of sustained attention occurs during infancy and toddlerhood, as neurological maturation allows children to increasingly attend to objects and events in the environment (Ruff &amp; Rothbart, 1996). Play experiences during this period can serve as a context during which children's ability to attend can provide an opportunity for learning and development. There is, however limited empirical evidence for how independent play and play guided by an adult may be differentially associated with children's sustained attention. The current study investigates how sustained attention among infants and toddlers differs during play activities guided by a teacher versus activities children engage on their own in the setting of a child care classroom. The investigation was guided by two research questions: (1) To what extent are guided play activities that teachers and children engage in together associated with greater levels of children's sustained attention compared to independent play activities in which children explore activities on their own; and (2) To what extent are there differences by children's age in the association between the type of activity and children's attention? The current study contributes to the understanding of how guide play and independent play activities are associated with sustained attention among infants and toddlers in a child care setting. While children can benefit from independent exploration, they may also benefit from engaging in one-on-one activities with a teacher, a possibility that may be most feasible in settings with low adult-child ratios. Tables and figures are appended.
Increasing Parental Involvement to Promote Dropout Prevention. Lessons from an RCT in Italian Lower Secondary Schools
Author: Argentin, Gianluca
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Parent Participation,Dropout Prevention,Secondary School Students,Prevention,At Risk Students,Well Being,Randomized Controlled Trials,Questionnaires,Psychological Evaluation,Self Esteem,Student Needs,Intervention,Program Effectiveness,Teacher Student Relationship,Student Satisfaction

It is well-known that socio-economic background matters in determining student performance. Systematic reviews confirm that a key role in shaping this association is played by parental involvement. Not surprisingly, successful interventions in education frequently have parental engagement as a key ingredient of their protocol, and the attention paid to this factor is increasing among policymakers and evaluators. Italy is a country displaying a high level of dropping out of school, and preventing it is a central purpose for their educational system. At the same time, Italy is a country with strong family ties. This study assesses the impact of Family Group Conferences (FGC) as a preventive tool in the school setting. Researchers wondered whether FGC could be successfully used with at-risk students, to increase their parents' involvement, and to improve their well-being in school. In order to answer these questions, researchers designed and implemented a randomized controlled trial (RCT). The RCT was developed in Garbagnatese, a social district in Lombardy (Northern Italy) constituted by 7 (small to medium) cities in the province of Milan. In 2013, the intervention was offered to 17 lower secondary schools operating in the Garbagnatese district: 15 accepted the invitation. Schools were asked to anonymously refer to the central staff of the project--about 450 students (out of a population of about 4,000 individuals), 6th or 7th graders, experiencing school problems, who might benefit from a FGC. The schools provided 262 students. Before the referral and randomization processed, researchers administered a questionnaire to the student population enrolled in the 15 schools. The questionnaire contains a large set of psychological scales measuring students' self-confidence, their well-being in school, and their feeling of being supported. The same questionnaire was administered two times after the intervention, in order to have short-term and medium-term impacts. Data was collected about randomized students directly from schools, using administrative datasets. At the end of the first year, the intervention showed to be effective on four outcomes: parental involvement (as perceived by students); relations with teachers; self-efficacy about learning; and satisfaction about school experience.
Learning Profiles: The Learning Crisis Is Not (Mostly) about Enrollment
Author: Sandefur, Justin
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Primary Education,Reading Skills,Mathematics Skills,Developing Nations,Profiles,Cognitive Style,Achievement Gap,Comparative Education,Student Surveys,Reading Tests,Mathematics Tests,Student Evaluation,Regression (Statistics),Scores,Hypothesis Testing,Data Analysis,Dropouts,Grade Repetition,Progress Monitoring

The differential patterns of grade progression have direct implications for the calculation of learning profiles. Researchers measure learning in primary school using survey data on reading and math skills of a nationally representative, population-based sample of children in India, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Research demonstrates that learning levels among primary and secondary students in much of the developing world are extremely low and lag far behind the rich world, constituting what is referred to as a &quot;learning crisis&quot;. Beyond demonstrating the learning crisis, this study seeks to estimate how much children learn--measured by reading and mathematics tests--as they progress through primary school. The main methodological challenge is that while the ASER and Uwezo surveys test children at all relevant ages and grade levels, they do not track the same children over time. Researchers are left to infer a longitudinal learning trajectory from cross-sectional data. Results from conducting some simple regressions of scores on grade level to determine how learning changes as children progress through school suggests similar or more rapid learning in East Africa than South Asia. However, the authors hypothesize that this finding may be biased by non-random dropout and grade repetition. This paper explores this hypothesis and discusses strategies for creating learning profiles with cross-sectional data. Tables are appended.