International surveys are increasingly being used to understand nonacademic outcomes like math and science motivation, and to inform education policy changes within countries. Such instruments assume that the measure works consistently across countries, ethnicities, and languages--that is, they assume measurement invariance. While studies have…

Many institutions around the world use the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to assess test-takers' proficiency in English, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where a given Band score (or its equivalent) is required for direct entry to majors taught in English. However, despite the test's importance and despite being one…

Utilizing the Programme for International Student Assessment 2012 Shanghai dataset (N=5,177), this study examined the relationship between school disciplinary climate aggregated from mathematics classrooms and student mathematics learning outcomes, including mathematics achievement and intrinsic and instrumental motivation to learn mathematics,…

The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of US schools associated with two measures of scientific literacy (content knowledge and "procedural and epistemic" knowledge) using the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data. Because outcomes are nested within students, and students within schools, a…

This study used the data from the 2015 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to examine the relationship between perceived teacher unfairness and science achievement with a three-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) as the analytic approach. Data of 188,104 students from 4895 schools in 52 countries and economies were used…

Research on predictors of achievement in science is often targeted on more traditional content-based assessments and single student characteristics. At the same time, the development of skills in the field of scientific inquiry constitutes a focal point of interest for science education. Against this background, the purpose of this study was to…

The purpose of this analysis is to describe the variation in students' reports of engagement in science across science teaching and learning activities. In addition, this study examines student and school characteristics that may be associated with students' levels of engagement in science. Data are drawn from the Programme for International…

Background/Context: Ensuring a safe learning environment for every student at school is a major responsibility of educators, school administrators, and policy makers in our society. Students' fear associated with school violence affects their school attendance, learning motivation, and academic achievement. Although predictors of adults' fear of…

This report explores the factors and conditions that could help more students succeed at school despite challenging socio-economic backgrounds. It does this by studying resilient students and what sets them apart from their less successful peers. Understanding how educational systems can support disadvantaged students and help them "beat the…

One of the ultimate goals of policy makers is to enable citizens to take advantage of a globalised world economy. This is leading them to focus on the improvement of education policies, ensuring the quality of service provision, a more equitable distribution of learning opportunities and stronger incentives for greater efficiency in schooling.…