ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Patterns of Achievement Gaps among School Districts: New Data, New Measures, New Insights
Author: Reardon, Sean F.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Achievement Gap,School Districts,Racial Differences,White Students,African American Students,Hispanic American Students,Socioeconomic Status,Demography,National Competency Tests,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Scores,Effect Size,Statistical Analysis

There are nearly 14,000 school districts in the United States. Of these districts, there is very little information about the size of academic achievement gaps between whites and blacks and white and Hispanic students. This study was interested in district-level achievement patterns across the almost 14,000 school districts in the country because districts differ dramatically in their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, and because districts have considerable influence over instructional and organizational practices that may affect academic achievement gaps: including teacher hiring, evaluation, and placement decisions, professional development opportunities, student assignment and desegregation efforts, the allocation of resources among schools, and the type and availability of specialized instructional programs. The US Department of Education has provided a unique data set that contains the counts of students scoring in each of their state's proficiency categories. Study results found considerable variation in the level of white-Hispanic and white-black achievement gaps across districts in the United States. In the following months, additional explanation for this variation is expected by including a number of district-level control variables. Tables and figures are appended.
Personal Qualities and Academic Experiences: Predictors of Academic Success. Research Summary. RS-02
Author: College Entrance Examination Board
Date: 1997-10-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Success,Predictor Variables,Educational Experience,Individual Characteristics,College Admission,Admission Criteria,College Entrance Examinations

A study of the relationship of preadmission characteristics of students was conducted across nine colleges with over 25,000 applicants and 4,800 admitted students. Among the findings are: ratings by college staff were influential in admission decisions, but students so identified were not likely to achieve higher grades or persist into sophomore year at a rate higher than would be predicted by high school grades and test scores; at the most selective institutions, various personal qualities played an important role in selection, whereas colleges rejecting fewer applicants relied less on these qualities; and minority status, college affiliation (e.g., alumni), and ratings by admission staff were more highly related to admission decisions than other sources of data on personal qualities.
Pacesetter® Research and Evaluation Findings. Research Summary. RS-06
Author: Kobrin, Jennifer
Date: 2001-10-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Program Evaluation,Educational Research,High Schools,Secondary School Curriculum,English Curriculum,Secondary School Mathematics,Professional Development,Program Effectiveness,Quasiexperimental Design,Mixed Methods Research,Pretests Posttests,College Entrance Examinations,National Competency Tests,Achievement Tests,Teacher Surveys,Student Surveys,High School Students,Secondary School Teachers

SpringBoard is a program in Mathematics and English Language Arts for students in grades 6 through 12. The College Board first began work on developing rigorous instructional content and assessments in the early 1990s through a program called Pacesetter. While the original focus of Pacesetter was 4th year high school courses, Pacesetter users encouraged the College Board to develop instructional frameworks for grades 6 through 12. This enhanced and expanded program is now known as SpringBoard. This report summarizes formal, in-depth evaluations from 1997 through 2001.
Predictive Validity of SAT® I: Reasoning Test for Test-Takers with Learning Disabilities and Extended Time Accommodations. Research Report No. 2002-5. ETS RR-02-11
Author: Cahalan, Cara
Date: 2002-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: College Entrance Examinations,Predictive Validity,Learning Disabilities,Testing Accommodations,Grade Point Average,Correlation,Gender Differences,College Freshmen

The predictive validity of the SAT I: Reasoning Test was examined for students who took the test with an extended time accommodation for a learning disability. The sample included college students with learning disabilities who took the SAT I between 1995 and 1998 with extended time accommodations. First year grade point average (FGPA) was used as a measure of student performance. Although positive, the adjusted correlation between FGPA and SAT scores was lower for test-takers with a learning disability than has been shown in prior research on test-takers without disabilities. Two appendixes are included: (1) Examples of SAT Accommodations; and (2) Guidelines for Documentation.
Preparing for the SAT® I: Reasoning Test--An Update. College Board Report No. 98-5
Author: Powers, Donald E.
Date: 1998-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: College Entrance Examinations,Test Preparation,Use Studies,Incidence,Cognitive Tests,Educational Resources,Program Descriptions,Program Costs,Time Factors (Learning),Student Surveys,Secondary School Students,School Surveys,Student Participation,Questionnaires,Program Effectiveness,Test Coaching

To document the extent of special test preparation for the SAT I: Reasoning Test, a stratified random sample of some 6,700 students who registered to take the SAT in 1995-96 was surveyed. A smaller companion survey sought information about special preparation programs from a stratified random sample of secondary schools whose students take the SAT. The objectives were to: determine the availability, and incidence of use, of a variety of programs and resources designed to prepare students to take the SAT; describe some of the salient features of these resources; and estimate the amount of time (and money) that students spend on preparing for the test. Though the surveys differed slightly from similar surveys conducted in 1986-87, they were designed generally to enable comparison with the results of the earlier surveys. The student survey found that prospective SAT takers participate, to varying degrees, in a variety of preparation activities, and on average, students spend approximately 11 hours preparing for the SAT. The results of the school survey revealed that a slight majority (52 percent) of all secondary schools now offer programs to prepare students for the SAT, about the same proportion (49 percent) as in 1986-87. Two appendices are included: (1) Student Questionnaire; and (2) School Questionnaire.
Relationships between PSAT/NMSQT® Scores and Academic Achievement in High School. Research Report No. 2006-6
Author: Milewski, Glenn B.
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: High School Students,College Entrance Examinations,Scores,Academic Achievement,Correlation,Verbal Tests,Mathematics Tests,Writing Tests,Advanced Placement Programs,Grade Point Average,Grades (Scholastic),Student Participation,Secondary School Mathematics,English Curriculum

This study investigated relationships between scores on the verbal, mathematics, and writing sections of the PSAT/NMSQT and the following indicators of academic achievement in high school: years of study, participation in specific math and English language arts courses, high school grade point average, academic intensity, and participation and performance in AP courses. The results showed that there are moderate to strong relationships between indicators of academic achievement and PSAT/NMSQT scores. Two appendices are included: (1) Mean Verbal, Mathematics, Writing, and Composite PSAT/NMSQT® Scores by Intended College Major; and (2) Number and Percent of Test-Takers by Years of Study Within an Academic Area.
Performance-Based Scholarships: Replication at Six Sites Using Randomized Controlled Trials
Author: Mayer, Alexander
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Randomized Controlled Trials,Low Income Groups,Scholarships,Performance Factors,Postsecondary Education,Colleges,Program Evaluation,Academic Achievement,Outcomes of Education,Program Effectiveness,Academic Persistence,Student Characteristics,Intervention,College Credits

Performance-based scholarships were developed to help tackle some of the financial obstacles facing students in the postsecondary education system. In general, these scholarships aim to help reduce the financial burdens of low-income college students, and are structured to help incentivize good academic progress. Performance-based scholarships were evaluated in six states across the U.S. with eight educational institutions and one state-level intermediary. The postsecondary institutions involved were all community colleges or non-selective four-year colleges, all of whose populations contain predominantly low-income students. The studies each use a random assignment research design, the &quot;gold standard&quot; in program evaluation. The study results reported performance-based scholarships are a promising way to tie additional financial aid to academic benchmarks and improve outcomes for low-income students. These studies showed that performance-based scholarship programs can be replicated in diverse contexts across the United States and that they work for different types of students in these settings: the scholarships generally have positive impacts on students' academic performance. Together these trials produce highly reliable estimates of the impacts of performance-based scholarships. Tables are appended.
Reading Outcomes of Success for All: Early Results from the MDRC Investing in Innovation Evaluation
Author: Slavin, Robert E.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Reading Achievement,Reading Programs,Reading Instruction,Educational Innovation,Program Evaluation,Program Effectiveness,Educational Change,Technology Uses in Education,Educational Technology,Faculty Development,Technical Assistance,Models,Educational Policy,Public Policy,Program Implementation,School Districts,Principals,Administrator Surveys,Teacher Surveys,Control Groups,Experimental Groups,Comparative Analysis,Reading Comprehension,Elementary School Teachers,Elementary School Students,Kindergarten,Grade 1,Grade 2,Grade 3,Grade 5,Grants,Hierarchical Linear Modeling

&quot;Success for All&quot; (SFA) is one of the best known and thoroughly evaluated school reform models. Further evaluation of the initiative is especially important for two reasons. First, the program model has continued to evolve over time, with a greater emphasis placed on the use of engaging technology in the classroom and on the deployment of school district personnel trained by SFAF to provide professional development services and technical assistance to schools along with SFAF coaches. Second, many school reading programs have also modified their practices since earlier SFA evaluations were conducted. MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization, is conducting the evaluation of the i3 scale-up. The data reported here come from the first of a series of three reports from that evaluation. That report examines the implementation and effects on student learning of SFA during the 2011-2012 school year, the first year that the program was put in place. The evaluation employs an experimental design, in which 37 schools in five school districts participating in the scale-up effort were assigned at random to a program group and a control group. The study results reported instructional logs and principal and teacher surveys point to key ways in which reading instruction in SFA schools and control schools differed. Reading lessons in SFA schools were more likely than those in control schools to emphasize comprehension. Teachers in SFA schools were also more likely to emphasize aspects of instruction that are hallmarks of the SFA program: grouping and regrouping of students for reading from first grade on by ability level and across grades, and, from kindergarten on, regular use of cooperative learning techniques and close adherence to a highly scripted curriculum. &quot;Success for All&quot; is maintaining its effectiveness. Tables and figures are appended.
Critical Incidents in Sustaining School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
Author: Andreou, Theresa E.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Positive Behavior Supports,Sustainability,Qualitative Research,Critical Incidents Method,Content Analysis,Reliability,Validity,Interrater Reliability,Feedback (Response),Program Implementation,Classroom Techniques,Positive Reinforcement,Teamwork,Administrator Role,Communities of Practice,Data,Teacher Participation,Expertise,Faculty Mobility,Conflict,Semi Structured Interviews,Foreign Countries

The purpose of this exploratory study was to identify, categorize, and describe practitioners' perspectives regarding factors that help and hinder sustainability of Tier I (universal) systems within School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS). Seventeen participants involved in sustaining Tier I SWPBIS over several years within a school district were interviewed and asked what events affected its long-term implementation through a qualitative approach called Critical Incident Technique. Two hundred and twenty-seven critical incidents were recorded and sorted into emergent unitary clusters based on content analysis. These categories then underwent rigorous reliability and validity checks, including expert analysis, inter-rater agreement, and participant feedback. This process yielded 13 categories that represent the participants' experience of sustainability: Continuous Teaching, Positive Reinforcement, SWPBIS Team Effectiveness, Staff Ownership, School Administrator Involvement, Adaptation, Community of Practice, Use of Data, Involving New Personnel, Access to External Expertise, Maintaining Priority, Staff Turnover, and Conflict of Personal Beliefs/Mistaken Beliefs. [This paper was published in &quot;Journal of Special Education&quot; v49 n3 p157-167 2015.]
Observer Use of Standardized Observation Protocols in Consequential Observation Systems
Author: Bell, Courtney A.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Observation,Research Methodology,Reliability,Scoring,Training,Interaction,Social Cognition,Administrator Role,Administrator Education,Competence,Certification,Protocol Analysis,Interviews,Video Technology,Mixed Methods Research

Evidence from a handful of large-scale studies suggests that although observers can be trained to score reliably using observation protocols, there are concerns related to initial training and calibration activities designed to keep observers scoring accurately over time (e.g., Bell, et al, 2012; BMGF, 2012). Studies offer little insight into how educational practitioners understand and score observation protocols. This lack of clarity on the factors that facilitate and constrain educators' learning and use of observation systems makes it difficult to implement training and quality control processes at scale. In order to effectively train administrators at scale, it is critical to understand how administrators learn to complete two major tasks--learning to create accurate scores and learning to have conversations around those scores that support instructional improvement. This study takes the perspective that scoring observations of classroom interactions is a complex socio-cognitive process that must be understood in order to improve observer training, and ultimately, score quality. This study suggests administrators have a great deal of knowledge they bring to bear on the observation process. They also bring a commitment to improving instruction to their observation work. In other words, they are not blank slates as they go through observer training. That said, certification data suggest observers have much to learn about how to accurately score lessons according to the protocol. It is unclear whether the knowledge and commitments observers bring is supportive of high quality scores or the improvement of instruction. Future studies should investigate whether the way in which principals use observation protocols results in better, more useful observation scores. Tables are appended.
Grade Level Effects of the Incredible Years Teacher Training Program on Emotion Regulation and Attention
Author: Murray, Desiree W.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Instructional Program Divisions,Faculty Development,Emotional Response,Attention,Interpersonal Competence,Intervention,Behavior Problems,At Risk Students,Emotional Problems,Program Effectiveness,Classroom Environment,Emotional Development,Reading Achievement,Elementary School Students,Rural Schools,Teacher Competencies,Workshops,Inservice Teacher Education,Randomized Controlled Trials,Observation,Rating Scales

Professional development for teachers has historically been fairly didactic in nature (Garet et al., 2001; Rose &amp; Church, 1998), which is believed to limit effectiveness and translation to teacher practice change (Fixsen, Naoom, Blase, Friedman, &amp; Wallace, 2005). One well-established program with a more active, collaborative training approach is the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management Program (IYT). Although positive effects on young children's social-emotional competence have been demonstrated for this program when implemented in combination with other Incredible Years programs (Webster-Stratton, Reid, &amp; Hammond, 2001; 2004; Webster-Stratton, Reid, &amp; Stoolmiller, 2008), the program has not been evaluated as an independent intervention or with regard to academic outcomes for early elementary students. As with many teacher-directed universal interventions for behavior problems or social-emotional development, there may be differential effects for students with different risk levels (Bierman et al, 2010). In addition, it is possible that social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions may have varying impact based upon students' developmental levels. Typically, it is believed that such interventions may be more effective for younger students, although there may be other contextual factors that affect outcomes. Thus, moderator analyses can be informative in understanding intervention effects. Overall, this study demonstrates modest effects of a relatively low-cost universal teacher training intervention on classroom climate, student social-emotional outcomes, and reading achievement. It contributes to the efficacy literature for the Incredible Years teacher program, which is supported for use with at-risk children in early childhood settings in combination with other interventions, by showing independent intervention effects in a large, normative sample of early elementary students attending rural schools. It is also the first study of this program to identify specific effects on an academic test, supporting the link between SEL programs and achievement. Tables and figures are appended.
Synthesizing Results from Replication Studies Using Robust Variance Estimation: Corrections When the Number of Studies Is Small
Author: Tipton, Elizabeth
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Replication (Evaluation),Robustness (Statistics),Meta Analysis,Regression (Statistics),Effect Size,Sample Size,Probability,Error of Measurement,Error Correction,Simulation

Replication studies allow for making comparisons and generalizations regarding the effectiveness of an intervention across different populations, versions of a treatment, settings and contexts, and outcomes. One method for making these comparisons across many replication studies is through the use of meta-analysis. A recent innovation in meta-analysis is the introduction of a robust variance estimator (RVE) that allows for the inclusion of multiple, correlated effect sizes in a meta-analysis. While the RVE estimator is unbiased in large-samples, its small sample properties are often not ideal. This paper investigates possible approaches to adjusting the RVE estimator when the number of studies is small (less than 40), which is common in the both meta-analyses and replication studies in education. Results indicate that, even with m = 40 studies, the probability of a Type I error for the standard RVE estimator can be much larger than a = 0.05. For this reason the author argues that it is best if the corrections provided within the study are implemented in all RVE analyses, even those of moderate to large sizes. Tables and figures are appended.
Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height: A Cautionary Tale
Author: Bitler, Marianne P.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: High Stakes Tests,Value Added Models,Teacher Influence,Teacher Effectiveness,Bias,Validity,Longitudinal Studies,Surveys,Children,Public Schools,Grade 4,Grade 5,Language Arts,Body Height,Elementary School Students,Reading Instruction,Mathematics Instruction,Reading Achievement,Mathematics Achievement,Correlation,Student Characteristics,Age Differences,Racial Differences,Ethnic Groups,Gender Differences,Interaction,Databases

The growing availability of data linking students to classroom teachers has made it possible to estimate the contribution teachers make to student achievement. While there is a growing consensus that teacher quality is important and current evaluation systems are inadequate, many have expressed concerns over the use of value-added measures (VAMs) in high-stakes personnel decisions. We conduct a new test of the validity of teacher value-added models. We apply traditionally estimated VAM models to an outcome that teachers cannot plausibly have a causal effect on: student height. Any estimated &quot;effect&quot; of teachers on height should raise questions about the extent to which VAMs cleanly distinguish between effective and ineffective teachers. We also examine two potential interpretations for effects of teachers on height. The first is that these effects reflect bias, sorting to teachers on the basis of unobserved factors related to height (that may or may not be related to achievement). The second is that these effects reflect measurement error or other forms of random &quot;noise.&quot; Both have implications for the use of VAMs in practice. The findings raise important questions about the extent to which VAMs cleanly distinguish between effective and ineffective teachers. This is especially important when personnel and compensation decisions are tied to individual VAM estimates.