ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Case in Point: Adaptive Courseware as a Tool to Master Complex Concepts--A Case Study of Adaptive Learning Technology in Business and the Social Sciences
Author: Achieving the Dream, Inc.
Date: 2021-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Courseware,Introductory Courses,Community Colleges,Computer Uses in Education,Curriculum Design,Instructional Effectiveness,Technology Integration,Business Administration Education,Social Sciences,Economics Education,Psychology,Fundamental Concepts,Concept Teaching,Flipped Classroom,Experiential Learning

Achieving the Dream (ATD) is one of 12 higher education and digital learning organizations that make up the Every Learner Everywhere (Every Learner) Network, whose mission is to help higher education institutions improve and ensure more equitable student outcomes through advances in digital learning, particularly among poverty-impacted, racially minoritized, and first-generation students. Every Learner partners are addressing high failure rates in foundational courses through the provision of scalable, high-quality support to colleges and universities seeking to implement adaptive courseware on their campuses. As part of its ongoing effort to help community colleges develop effective teaching and learning practices, ATD is working with seven community colleges in Florida, Ohio, and Texas on this initiative, providing coaching and direct support to the colleges, fostering collaboration within and among the participating institutions, and serving as a liaison to the Every Learner network. The experiences and lessons learned at three ATD Network colleges in Florida, Ohio, and Texas that took part in the Every Learner initiative and focused on improving student outcomes in gateway business and social science courses are highlighted in this case study. It is part of a series of studies conducted by ATD examining how adaptive courseware is implemented at those institutions as well as how courseware is used in particular disciplines to better serve students. Case studies are based on a series of interviews with college leaders, faculty, instructional designers, developers, technology specialists and students who were enrolled in classes using the courseware.
Community-Driven Strategic Planning: How Northern Kentucky University Leveraged Student-Centered Design to Build an Inclusive Strategic Planning Process
Author: Achieving the Dream, Inc.
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Strategic Planning,State Universities,College Administration,School Community Relationship,Inclusion,Student Participation,College Students,Educational Innovation,COVID-19,Pandemics

Located in the suburbs of northern Kentucky, just minutes away from Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky University (NKU) serves over 15,000 students from across the state and beyond. In 2018, while celebrating its 50-year anniversary and closing out its current 6-year strategic plan, the college welcomed a new president with a bold vision. Feeling a sense of urgency to improve the student experience and increase outcomes, President Ashish Vaidya challenged the college to reframe its thinking about who the institution serves and how they design programs, services, and learning experiences to meet their students where they are. President Vaidya delegated the development of the framework to a team of 12 administrators, faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students, and community members. The team was tasked with creating a framework with clear goals for deliverables. After 8 months of work and focusing on becoming a &quot;student ready&quot; institution, the team's 3-year strategic framework, known as the &quot;Success by Design&quot; Framework, was approved by NKU's board of regents. Reflecting on the first phase of Success by Design, NKU leadership found that their approach had shown the campus community that they could collaborate and innovate across departments, roles, and with student and community partners as equals.
Making Learning Personally Meaningful: A New Framework for Relevance Research
Author: Priniski, Stacy J.
Date: 2018-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Relevance (Education),Models,Student Interests,Expectation,Self Determination,Learning Motivation,Learning Theories,Individualized Instruction,Student Centered Learning,Learning Strategies,Intervention,Affordances,Identification,Educational Attainment,Self Concept,Culturally Relevant Education

Personal relevance goes by many names in the motivation literature, stemming from a number of theoretical frameworks. Currently these lines of research are being conducted in parallel with little synthesis across them, perhaps because there is no unifying definition of the relevance construct within which this research can be situated. In this paper we propose a new framework to synthesize existing research on relevance and provide a common platform for researchers to communicate and collaborate. In light of this new framework we review the role of relevance in three prominent theories in the motivation literature: the four-phase model of interest development, expectancy-value theory, and self-determination theory. We then explore eight relevance constructs commonly used in the literature and the educational interventions that derive from them. Finally, we offer a synthesis of these constructs and suggest some directions for future research. [This article was published in &quot;Journal of Experimental Education&quot; (EJ1161037).]
A Practical Guide for Analyzing Large-Scale Assessment Data Using Mplus: A Case Demonstration Using the Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies Data
Author: Yamashita, Takashi
Date: 2020-12-16
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Learning Analytics,Computer Software,Syntax,Adults,Competence,Structural Equation Models,Sampling,Prediction,Learning Motivation

Background: Several statistical applications including Mplus, STATA, and R are available to conduct analyses such as structural equation modeling and multi-level modeling using large-scale assessment data that employ complex sampling and assessment designs and that provide associated information such as sampling weights, replicate weights, and plausible values to facilitate these analyses. However, to date, little guidance is available for applied researchers in Education. In order to promote the use of large-scale assessment data in education and expand the scope of analytic capabilities among applied researchers, this study provides step-by-step guidance, and practical examples of syntax and data analysis using Mplus. Methods: Concise overview and key unique aspects of large-scale assessment data from the 2012/2014 Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) are described. Using commonly-used statistical software including SAS and R, a simple macro program and syntax are developed to streamline the data preparation process. Then, two examples of structural equation models are demonstrated using Mplus. Results: With the practical guidance and resources provided in this study, education researchers can efficiently prepare and analyze large-scale assessment data such as PIAAC and similar dataset using Mplus. Some methodological limitations are also highlighted. Conclusions: This study summarized the key aspects of large-scale assessment data from PIAAC, and provided practical guidance and tools including a macro program and syntax to conduct advanced statistical analysis in Mplus. The suggested data preparation and analytic approaches can be immediately applicable with existing large-scale assessment data, although further refinement could be carried out in future research. [This paper was published in &quot;Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics&quot; (EJ1300359).]
Student Financial Wellness Survey: Fall 2020 Semester Results. National Aggregate Report
Author: Webster, Jeff
Date: 2021-12-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Student Surveys,Wellness,Money Management,Undergraduate Students,COVID-19,Pandemics,Online Surveys,Paying for College,Debt (Financial),Credit (Finance),Financial Support,Decision Making,Financial Needs,Student Loan Programs,Student Financial Aid,Student Costs,Loan Repayment,State Universities,Private Colleges,Two Year Colleges,Housing,Hunger,Homeless People

As the COVID-19 pandemic is proving, maintaining student financial wellness is key to keeping students enrolled. The Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) was open from October 2020 to November 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated economic crisis were prominent concerns for students as they navigated a mostly remote learning experience for a fall semester unlike any before. Respondents seemed eager to share their experiences, resulting in the highest response rate for the SFWS to date--9.7 percent. Trellis collected information about the entire population surveyed--i.e., gender, age, enrollment intensity--and used it to weigh the results, reflecting the total populations of the participating institutions. There may be lingering response biases based on characteristics uncaptured in the study, some of which may be meaningful when interpreting the results. Sixty-two institutions participated in the survey--46 two-year institutions, 12 public four-years, and 4 private four-years. While the SFWS is not nationally representative, the participating institutions represent a wide range of institutions from 13 different states. In partnership with participating institutions, web-based survey invitations were sent to 394,240 undergraduate students, of whom 37,936 responded. A detailed description of survey characteristics, comparison groups, tests for representativeness, methodology, and other research notes can be found in the appendices. [For the 2019 report, see ED610029.]
Dividing Lines: Racially Unequal School Boundaries in US Public School Systems. Research Report
Author: Monarrez, Tomas
Date: 2021-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: School Segregation,Urban Schools,Public Schools,Zoning,Attendance,Housing,Equal Education,School Districts,School Choice,Educational Policy,Elementary Secondary Education

Segregation on the basis of race or ethnicity is one of the most enduring and pervasive inequities in US public education. School segregation is determined not only by residential sorting and families' preferences but by local policy choices such as the drawing of school attendance boundaries. This report examines the role of individual school attendance boundaries in perpetuating racial and ethnic segregation in urban school systems. Our findings show that in many cases, small changes to the attendance boundaries of neighboring schools could make a big difference for school integration. We analyze census and school attendance boundary map data, evaluating the boundary lines dividing attendance rights between every pair of neighboring public schools in US metropolitan areas. We find more than 2,000 pairs of neighboring public schools that are racially unequal, both in residential demographics and school enrollment. We also find that inequality between these schools--many of which are within the jurisdiction of the same school district--exists not only in terms of racial and ethnic demographics but with regard to school staffing, educational program offerings, student discipline rates, and mean student achievement on standardized exams. Unequal school attendance zones perpetuate racial and ethnic segregation and amplify inequality between students of color and their white peers. Furthermore, many unequal school boundaries are linked to the New Deal's Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) redlining maps, a notorious instance of explicit and consequential racist federal policy. Averaging across our list of racially unequal school boundaries, we find that the side with more Black or Hispanic residents is more likely to have a HOLC grade rated &quot;hazardous&quot; than the side with fewer Black or Hispanic residents, which is more likely to be rated &quot;best&quot; or &quot;desirable.&quot; This evidence suggests that many of the racially unequal school boundaries in our data are direct vestiges of our cities' historic roots of explicit racism, not just an artifact of recent individual household choices. Persistent school segregation is the legacy of racist housing policy and the product of intentional decisions by the local governments that determine school attendance zones. Racially unequal school boundaries are highly inefficient preservations of old, problematic policy, and for many of these unequal boundaries, redrawing the line would remedy much of the inequality between schools. Policymakers invested in improving integration can use our novel approach to identifying unequal boundaries to create sustainable solutions to racial and ethnic inequality in public education. [This report was funded by the Charles Koch Institute.]
Improved Mathematics Outcomes Using Active Implementation: Kentucky&apos;s Effective and Durable Change
Author: Jackson, Kathleen Ryan
Date: 2021-12-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Mathematics Education,Outcomes of Education,School Districts,Educational Improvement,Evidence Based Practice,Educational Innovation,Program Design,Mathematics Instruction,Teaching Methods,Program Evaluation,Students with Disabilities,African American Students,Middle School Students,Mathematics Achievement,Individualized Education Programs,Improvement Programs,Program Effectiveness

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the districts that received ongoing training and coaching to use the Active Implementation Frameworks improved mathematics outcomes. The Active Implementation Frameworks represent five essential approaches for effective implementation of any evidence-based program or practice. One of the frameworks is a clearly defined and operationalized usable innovation, or any evidence-based practice that is easily measured for adherence to the program design. The subject of Kentucky's usable innovation is mathematics and use of the 8 mathematical teaching practices developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 2014). The evaluation focused on priority populations, specifically students with disabilities and Black students, and compared their outcomes to a carefully matched district that did not receive the same level of support.
The Impact of Peer Learning Approach of Teaching in a Photosynthesis Class
Author: Essiam, Charles
Date: 2020-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Peer Teaching,Scientific Concepts,Concept Formation,Botany,Science Instruction,Secondary School Science,High School Students,Instructional Effectiveness

Teachers are confronted with many challenges in the science classroom. One of these challenges is finding a reliable learning approach to improve students' performance. This study used peer learning approach of teaching to help students learn and understand concepts in a photosynthesis class. The participants of the study were 40 science students at Shama Senior High School in the Western Region of Ghana. These students were put into mixed ability groups and taught for 10 consecutive weeks. Pre-intervention test, post-intervention test, and questionnaire were the main instruments used to collect data from the students. Descriptive statistics of the data collected shows an immense improvement in students' performance after the implementation of the intervention. The strategy used improved students' learning of photosynthesis in the classroom as well as their performance in the post-intervention test. Based on the findings of this study, it can be said that peer learning approach of teaching has a positive impact on the performance of students in the classroom
Beyond Talk: Contributions of Quantity and Quality of Communication to Language Success across Socioeconomic Strata
Author: Masek, Lillian R.
Date: 2020-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Socioeconomic Status,Social Differences,Child Language,Language Acquisition,Language Skills,Child Development,Child Care,Toddlers,Infants,Vocabulary Development,Caregiver Child Relationship,Low Income Groups,Prediction,Mothers,Parent Child Relationship,Language Fluency,Parenting Styles,Video Technology,Longitudinal Studies,Computational Linguistics,Family Income,Measures (Individuals),Receptive Language,Expressive Language

Infants from low-socioeconomic status (SES) households hear a projected 30 million fewer words than their higher-SES peers. In a recent study, Hirsh-Pasek et al. (Psychological Science, 2015; 26: 1071) found that in a low-income sample, fluency and connectedness in exchanges between caregivers and toddlers predicted child language a year later over and above quantity of talk (Hirsh-Pasek et al., &quot;Psychological Science,&quot; 2015; 26: 1071). Here, we expand upon this study by examining &quot;fluency and connectedness&quot; in two higher-SES samples. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we sampled 20 toddlers who had low, average, and high language outcomes at 36 months from each of 2 groups based on income-to-needs ratio (INR; middle and high) and applied new coding to the mother-toddler interaction at 24 months. In the high-INR group, the quality of mother-toddler interaction at 24 months accounted for more variability in language outcomes a year later than did quantity of talk, quality of talk, or sensitive parenting. These results could not be accounted for by child language ability at 24 months. These effects were not found in the middle-INR sample. Our findings suggest that when the quality of interaction, &quot;fluency and connectedness,&quot; predicts language outcomes, it is a robust relation, but it may not be universal.
Inside the STEM Pipeline: Changes in Students&apos; Biomedical Career Plans across the College Years
Author: Rosenzweig, Emily Q.
Date: 2021-04-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: STEM Education,College Students,Biomedicine,Career Choice,Career Planning,Gender Differences,Persistence,Majors (Students),College Graduates,Racial Differences,Ethnicity,Change,Undergraduate Study,Graduate Study,Goal Orientation

Researchers often invoke the metaphor of a pipeline when studying participation in careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), focusing on the important issue of students who &quot;leak&quot; from the pipeline, but largely ignoring students who persist in STEM. Using interview, survey, and institutional data over 6 years, we examined the experiences of 921 students who persisted in biomedical fields through college graduation and planned to pursue biomedical careers. Despite remaining in the biomedical pipeline, almost half of these students changed their career plans, which was almost twice the number of students who abandoned biomedical career paths altogether. Women changed plans more often and were more likely than men to change to a career requiring fewer years of post-graduate education. Results highlight the importance of studying within-pipeline patterns rather than focusing only on why students leave STEM fields.
Washback or Backwash? Revisiting the Status Quo of Washback and Test Impact in EFL Contexts
Author: Salmani Nodoushan, Mohammad Ali
Date: 2021-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Testing Problems,Language Tests,Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Teaching Methods,Learning Processes,Policy Formation,Testing,High Stakes Tests,Standardized Tests

It has been argued in the literature on (language) testing that any act of testing/assessment can impact: (1) educators' curriculum design; (2) teachers' teaching practices; and (3) students' learning behaviors. This quality of any given testing situation or act of assessment has been called washback, or backwash if you will. Washback falls into the two categories of positive or negative--that is, beneficial or harmful. After an overview of the existing scholarly knowledge on washback, this paper argues that washback is not necessarily a test quality. Drawing on the notion of test method facets, the paper lends support to claims that see washback as a main function of teaching, learning, and policy-making situations or conditions rather than a quality of any given test. The paper also argues that the concepts of facet design and analysis including formal research designs, structural hypothesis testing, and measurement are inevitable and inescapable in any comprehensive model of washback. A possible borderline between backwash and washback is also proposed.
A Qualitative Case Study of the Evolution of Community College Faculty during a Rapid Transition from Direct to eLearning Instruction during a Pandemic
Author: Applewhite, Charlotte M.
Date: 2021-06-00
Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Subjects: Community Colleges,College Faculty,Educational Change,COVID-19,Pandemics,Direct Instruction,Conventional Instruction,Web Based Instruction,Electronic Learning,Teacher Attitudes,Integrated Learning Systems,School Closing,Resistance to Change,Readiness,Faculty Development,Technology Integration

The problem addressed was post-secondary faculty's continued resistance to learning and using eLearning technology to its maximum capacity to achieve learning outcomes in concert with the often-biased samples in research on the change process and faculty perceptions of their transition from direct instruction to eLearning. Most research on faculty perceptions of transitioning from direct instruction to eLearning solely includes faculty who voluntarily transitioned and were not forced; thus, the sample is often biased about faculty opinions and perceptions regarding their experience. The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive single-case study was to explore community college faculty experiences with transition from direct to eLearning instruction and uses of a learning management system in the context of the rapid change process before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty-seven community college faculty employed full-time during the 2019-2020 school year participated in the study. All were forced to transition to a full eLearning model due to the national emergency declaration and school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, surveys, and secondary documents. Lewin's (1951) change theory served as the theoretical framework. Thematic analysis revealed participants represented their lived experiences through the following themes evolving states of readiness, emotionally charged, and a time of personal growth. The faculty reported that (a) administrative and institutional guidelines and (b) asynchronous and synchronous accessibility and usability tools acted as both driving and restraining forces during their forced unfreezing. The participants' varying levels of readiness for eLearning impacted their change experience. Limitations were that only one community college was sampled, and only full-time faculty were sampled. Key recommendations for practice include the exploration and re-evaluation of professional development offerings, more resources and strategies to fast-track transformative initiatives, and integration of modern technological advancements. Future research should focus on conducting a mixed-methods study to explore Community College Faculty (CCF) needs during change and technology that may result in a strategic plan for future rapid institutional change to increase readiness for instructional delivery changes that stem from outside forces.