ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Pay-Offs from Expanding Summer Credit Recovery in Algebra
Author: Allensworth, Elaine
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Algebra,Repetition,Required Courses,Secondary School Mathematics,Grade 9,Academic Failure,Mathematics Instruction,High School Students,Summer Programs,Program Effectiveness,Urban Schools,Intervention,Grades (Scholastic),Low Income Groups,At Risk Students,Minority Group Students

The consequences of failing core academic courses during the first year are dire. In Chicago, over a quarter of students fail at least one semester of algebra in their ninth grade year, and only 13% of students who fail both semesters of Algebra I in ninth grade graduate in 4 years. Offering credit recovery options is one strategy to deal with high failure rates. The primary goal of credit recovery programs is to give students an opportunity to retake classes that they failed in an effort to get them back on track and keep them in school (Watson &amp; Gemin, 2008). It makes theoretical sense to try to get students to recover their algebra credits early, in the summer after ninth grade--before they take geometry or Algebra II and chemistry, and to put them back on track towards graduation. But there is little evidence about the extent to which expanding credit recovery leads to substantive improvements in student progression and outcomes. Using a population of all first-time ninth grade students who entered regular neighborhood high schools in Chicago between 2008-2012, this study examines the benefits of offering expanded credit recovery options for ninth grade algebra, relative to business as usual (i.e., the summer programming schools would offer in the absence of efforts to expand credit recovery). Some CPS high schools in the study received funding to implement at least two Algebra I credit recovery courses during the summer sessions of 2011 and 2012--at least one online and one face-to-face section. Fifteen schools participated in 2011; in total they offered 18 pairs of sections (36 total). Thirteen schools participated in 2012; in total they offered 20 pairs of sections (40 total). Preliminary findings suggest that participation in this study did significantly expand access to credit recovery options. It sets the stage for the analyses of the effects of expanding credit recovery on school- and student-level outcomes that will be reported in full in this paper along with additional forthcoming results of the study. All analyses will be completed by January 2013. Three figures and two tables are appended.
Half of One, 6/12 of Another: Understanding Relative Item Difficulties in a Fractions Assessment under Development
Author: Williams, Laura K.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Mathematics Instruction,Mathematical Concepts,Elementary School Students,Concept Formation,At Risk Students,Technology Uses in Education,Educational Technology,Grade 5,Grade 6,Comparative Analysis,Test Items,Diagnostic Tests,Statistical Analysis

A strong understanding of fractions is vital to later success in mathematics. However, research has consistently shown that fractions are one of the most difficult mathematical concepts for elementary school students to master. To attempt to remedy this deficit, the authors began a project called Helping At-risk students Learn Fractions (HALF) in June of 2010. The purpose of the HALF project was to develop a technology-based learning environment that uses interactive visual representation to help students' gain conceptual understanding of fractions. The school sites whose students participated in the diagnostic assessment item pilot testing include nine different schools that represent a broad range of possible school settings in order to allow for more generalizable results. As in the selection of school sites, the authors attempted to collect data from as broad of a range of fifth- and sixth-grade students as possible; no students were systematically excluded. Of the six t tests performed, four showed a significant difference between the groups. The most striking result was the comparison between items that presented a fraction that was greater than one as an improper fraction and those presented as mixed numbers (t(27) = 7.902, p &lt; 0.001). These findings are useful in multiple ways, for example: (1) in working to improve fractions pedagogy, they allow for making general recommendations to teachers regarding the order in which to present material; and (2) knowing that items using triangles are more challenging for students, a teacher could introduce a new topic using circle and square models and move on to triangles when the students are ready to challenge their understanding. Since instruction does not take place in a vacuum; regardless of how and in what order the theory states students should learn fractions, it is valuable to both good pedagogy and good research to understand how they actually do learn fractions. Tables and figures are appended.
How Generalizable Is Your Experiment? An Index for Comparing Samples and Populations
Author: Tipton, Elizabeth
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Experiments,Research Methodology,Middle Schools,Secondary School Mathematics,Computer Assisted Instruction,Randomized Controlled Trials,Test Construction,Generalization,Sampling,Inferences,Indexes,Grade 7

Recent research on the design of social experiments has highlighted the effects of different design choices on research findings. Since experiments rarely collect their samples using random selection, in order to address these external validity problems and design choices, recent research has focused on two areas. The first area is on methods for adjusting experimental treatment effect estimates for known population characteristics. A second research area has been on how to select a sample (non-randomly) to improve generalizations to a well-defined inference population. The goal of this paper is to develop a measure that summarizes differences in the propensity score distributions in the experimental sample and population. The author includes an example, a middle school mathematics program SimCalc. SimCalc is a computer based program that teaches linearity, proportionality, and rates of change. The cluster randomized trial of this program was conducted on 73 schools in Texas. The primary purpose of this paper was to develop an index that can be used to evaluate how generalizable an experimental sample is for a particular inference population. This index is based entirely on pre-treatment variables, enabling the index both to be calculated and recalculated throughout recruitment but before an experiment has commenced (as a sampling tool) and to be calculated after an experiment has been completed for many different inference populations and outcomes. Figures are appended.
Methods for Analyzing Data from a Randomized Control Trial with a Nationally Representative Sample
Author: Bell, Stephen H.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Evaluation Methods,Data Analysis,Randomized Controlled Trials,Sampling,Early Childhood Education,Preschool Children,School Readiness,Program Effectiveness,Program Evaluation,Grade 3,Research Design,Disadvantaged Youth,Statistical Analysis,Psychometrics,Robustness (Statistics)

Access to Head Start has been shown to improve children's preschool experiences and school readiness on selected factors through the end of 1st grade. Two more years of follow-up, through the end of 3rd grade, can now be examined to determine whether these effects continue into the middle elementary grades. The statistical design and impact analysis methodology for the Head Start Impact Study (HSIS) has been lauded as exemplary for a large scale social experiment, and analytic strategies continue to evolve through three rounds of analysis covering six years of sample follow-up. Based on a randomized admission lottery in hundreds of local sites, the HSIS provides a platform for measuring Head Start's impacts--both short term and long term--on a nationally representative sample of participants without selection bias, providing internally and externally valid impact estimates for the overall Head Start participant population and for subsets of participants of particular policy interest. The HSIS includes a nationally representative sample of 4,667 three- and four-year-old children in 383 centers nationwide. The evaluation has followed sample children through the end of 3rd grade, with rich data available across many outcomes over multiple years. The foundation of random assignment both empowers and challenges methodological development when seeking to measure program effectiveness without bias and with balanced interpretation as to the strength of the statistical data and measurement tools used. Throughout its 12-year course, the HSIS has sought to capitalize on its experimental design, larger representative sample, and vast rich data elements.
Improving Teacher Practice: Experimental Evidence on Individualized Teacher Coaching
Author: Kraft, Matthew A.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teacher Competencies,Coaching (Performance),Faculty Development,Teacher Improvement,Classroom Techniques,Teaching Methods,Program Implementation,Fidelity,Electronic Mail,Diaries,Content Analysis,Teacher Effectiveness,Principals,Administrator Surveys,Student Surveys,Regression (Statistics)

For over a century, school systems in the U.S. have attempted to improve instructional quality by investing in the education and training of their teachers. Today, over 90% of teachers report participating in some form of professional development (PD). Practitioners have responded to critiques of PD by re-envisioning it in the form of individualized and sustained teacher coaching programs that provide tailored feedback to teachers about their classroom practices. In this paper, the authors evaluate the effect of a time-intensive, individualized coaching program MATCH Teacher Coaching (MTC) that focuses on improving teachers' classroom management and instructional practices, both of which are cited as important mechanisms behind improvements in student outcomes. In May of 2011, the authors recruited 59 teachers, working in Recovery School District charter schools across New Orleans, to participate in a randomized trial of the year-long coaching program. Study findings reported that that MTC was implemented with a high degree of fidelity and had a profound effect on teachers' instructional practices compared to control teachers who had access to standard professional development opportunities. Teachers' emails and coaches' logs were analyzed to assess the content and methods used during coaching sessions. Results indicate that teachers who received coaching are more effective than those who participated in the standard PD activities provided by their schools. Building the necessary evidentiary base and shifting longstanding norms about PD practices will take time, but the evidence-to-date suggests doing so will be a valuable investment. Tables and figures are appended.
Measurement of Classroom Teaching Quality with Item Response Theory
Author: Kelcey, Ben
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Measures (Individuals),Observation,Teacher Evaluation,Academic Achievement,Correlation,Item Response Theory,Generalizability Theory,Test Theory,Mathematics Instruction,Instructional Effectiveness,Statistical Analysis,Regression (Statistics),Reliability,Scores

Recent policy has charged schools and districts with maintaining highly qualified teachers and differentiating among teachers in terms of their effectiveness (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). This emphasis has driven the development and implementation of teacher quality measures which are increasingly being used to evaluate teachers with important consequences. One increasingly common component of these evaluations is the direct observation of teachers in their classrooms. Classroom observations have been long viewed as a promising way to evaluate and develop teachers because they anchor assessments in specific and observable criteria. In this proposal, the authors investigated the robustness of classroom observation scores to three measurement approaches: classical test theory (CTT), generalizability theory (GT), and item response theory (IRT). They investigated the extent to which choices among these approaches lead to indeterminacies in conclusions regarding teaching quality, the precision with which the authors can index this quality, and the relation of this quality to student achievement. They then provide insights delineating the reasons for the discrepancies among methods and explore the extent to which the observed differences are indicative of true differences among teachers in their teaching quality. This study takes place within the larger Developing Measures of Effective Mathematics Teaching study which focused on developing identifying practices and characteristics that distinguish between more and less effective teachers. The sample includes 250 teachers from 40 schools and 4 districts. Overall the results suggest that construct-irrelevant variance is sizeable in classroom observations and that treatment of this variance had significant implications for the resulting scores. Tables and figures are appended.
Middle-Grade Students' Misconceptions about the Graphical Representation of Simple Fractions: An Assessment from the Eliciting Mathematical Misconceptions Project (EM[superscript 2])
Author: Clements, Peggy
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Tests/Questionnaires
Subjects: Middle School Students,Misconceptions,Mathematical Concepts,Secondary School Mathematics,School Districts,Evaluation Methods,Mathematics Tests,Diagnostic Tests,Grade 5

Rational number concepts underpin many topics in advanced mathematics and understanding these concepts is a prerequisite for students' success in high-school level courses. Students with rational number misconceptions that are not diagnosed and remediated in the middle grades are likely to encounter difficulty in high-school mathematics courses. The goal of the Eliciting Mathematical Concepts (EM[superscript 2]) project is to develop diagnostic assessments that target rational number misconceptions that research indicates are common among middle-grades students. EM[superscript 2] is working with multiple school districts in New England to administer the assessments in classroom settings. There are two representing &quot;fractions assessments.&quot; This abstract provides a brief overview of the (EM[superscript 2]) project. Tables and figures are appended.
Operationally Comparable Effect Sizes for Quantifying Changes in Behavior, with Application to Meta-Analysis of Single-Case Studies
Author: Pustejovsky, James E.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Case Studies,Behavior Change,Meta Analysis,Observation,Intervention,Special Education,School Psychology,Models,Effect Size,Incidence,Behavior Patterns,Statistical Analysis,Measurement Techniques,Social Work,Outcomes of Treatment

Single-case designs (SCDs) are a class of research methods for evaluating intervention effects by taking repeated measurements of an outcome over time on a single case, both before and after the deliberate introduction of a treatment. SCDs are used heavily in fields such as special education, school psychology, social work, and applied behavior analysis. Several different operational procedures are commonly used to record direct observations of human behavior, ranging from continuous duration recording to interval recording methods. This methodological research will describe a model for behavioral observation data that allows definition of an intuitively interpretable, operationally comparable effect size, the prevalence odds ratio (POR). After defining the POR, the author describes basic estimators based on data from several different recording methods. The model described in this abstract provides a basis for defining an operationally comparable effect size, the prevalence odds ratio, that allows comparisons and meta-analytic summaries of treatment effects measured using different behavioral observation recording procedures. Tables and figures are appended.
Creative Drama Course in College of Education: A Study of Content Analysis
Author: Dikici, Ayhan
Date: 2008-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Drama,Elementary Education,Preservice Teacher Education,Evaluation Methods,Preservice Teachers,Pretests Posttests,Letters (Correspondence),Content Analysis,Correlation,Teaching Methods,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis,Coding

Drama at primary teaching course is given as a compulsory course to students enrolling department of the primary teaching in college of education in Turkey. In drama, assessment is problematic as the content of the lesson often deviates from the plan because of spontaneous input from the students and on-the-spot changes in direction by the instructors. This paper presents an assessment model for the creative drama at education. The research was carried out with 213 teacher candidates enrolling drama at primary teaching course. One group pre-test and post-test models were formed in the research. The candidates were required to write letters to one of their friends on the creative drama in the first week of the program. The program lasted 14 weeks and at the end of it candidates were required to write letters as the post-tests. By analyzing the letters with content analysis method, main themes and sub-themes were formed. The increase between pre-test and post-test frequencies in the way of using themes in the letters were found. The correlation among main themes was investigated. It was seen that the students using concepts correctly in written letters as the post-tests.
Modeling Longitudinal Data with Generalized Additive Models: Applications to Single-Case Designs
Author: Sullivan, Kristynn J.
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Models,Longitudinal Studies,Data,Research Design,Statistical Analysis,Correlation,Regression (Statistics)

Single case designs (SCDs) are short time series that assess intervention effects by measuring units repeatedly over time both in the presence and absence of treatment. For a variety of reasons, interest in the statistical analysis and meta-analysis of these designs has been growing in recent years. This paper proposes modeling SCD data with Generalized Additive Models (GAMs), a semi-parametric method from which it is possible to estimate the functional form of trend directly from the data, arguably capturing the true functional form better than ordinary least squares regression methods in which the researcher must decide which functional form to impose on the data. Generalized Additive Models provide a flexible way to model SCD data, allowing the data to inform the researcher both as to whether significant trend or trend treatment interaction exists, as well as which of those terms need nonlinear representations and which can remain linear. Tables and figures are appended.
Linking Implementation Fidelity to Impacts in an RCT
Author: Unlu, Fatih
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Fidelity,Program Implementation,Randomized Controlled Trials,Research Problems,Program Evaluation,Literacy,Program Effectiveness,Elementary School Curriculum,Kindergarten,Public Schools,Urban Schools,Young Children,Methods,Verbal Ability,Intelligence Tests,Vocabulary,Reading Tests,Mastery Tests

In experimental studies, researchers are often interested in secondary research questions that explore important aspects of main findings, such as whether or not program effects vary according to the level of fidelity in which the program has been implemented; or according to the dosage received by individuals participated in the program. In this evaluation, stakeholders questioned whether higher fidelity of implementation was related to greater impact of the intervention on student outcomes. This paper addresses this question and compares the methodology and results of three approaches for linking implementation fidelity to impacts. Exhibits are appended.
Leveraging Rigorous Local Evaluations to Understand Contradictory Findings
Author: Boulay, Beth
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Program Evaluation,Evaluation Methods,Research,Evaluators,Research Methodology,Grants,Social Problems,Federal Aid,Intervention,Group Discussion,Hypothesis Testing

Contradictory findings from &quot;well-implemented&quot; rigorous evaluations invite researchers to identify the differences that might explain the contradictions, helping to generate testable hypotheses for new research. This panel will examine efforts to ensure that the large number of local evaluations being conducted as part of four federally-funded grant programs generate rigorous findings that can inform understanding of contradictory findings. The panel will focus on the&quot; Investing in Innovation Program&quot; (i3) and &quot;Striving Readers Program&quot; (both funded by the Department of Education), the &quot;Workforce Innovation Fund &quot;(Department of Labor), and the &quot;Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program&quot; (Department of Health and Human Services). These programs have clearly made it a priority to protect the federal investment in rigorous, local evaluations; they have each put contracts in place with nationally recognized research firms to provide technical assistance to support the local evaluators as they conduct rigorous research. The populations, participants, and subjects also come from a range of contexts, given the breadth of the evaluations. The findings from the panel report include: (1) variety across the evaluations, giving rise to interesting contradictions that provide opportunities for learning; and (2) discussions that will generate conclusions about how the panel should think about grouping evaluations together to identify contradictions, the possible types of hypotheses generated to explain these contradictions, and what data the panel might want to be able to test those hypotheses down the road.
Group Investigation Teaching Technique in Turkish Primary Science Courses
Author: Aksoy, Gokhan
Date: 2013-05-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Science Instruction,Grade 7,Elementary School Science,Experimental Groups,Control Groups,Light,Scientific Concepts,Achievement Tests,Pretests Posttests,Cooperative Learning,Multiple Choice Tests

This study examined the effectiveness of group investigation teaching technique in teaching &quot;Light&quot; unit 7th grade primary science education level. This study was carried out in two different classes in the Primary school during the 2011-2012 academic year in Erzurum, Turkey. One of the classes was the Experimental Group (group investigation teaching technique applied) and the other was the Control Group (traditional teaching methods applied). Students in the Experimental Group were divided into 6 groups and each group concluded 4 members since &quot;Light&quot; unit formed 4 subtopics. The subtopics names are a) absorption of light, b) refraction of light, c) lenses and d) prism of light. The main instrument for obtaining data was the Light Achievement Test (LAT), which was applied to groups both pre-test and post-test. The data obtained indicated that the students in the Experimental Group were more successful than students in the Control Group.