Longitudinal administrative data generated by public education systems in the United States have become increasingly available and have tremendous potential to inform policy research. While it is tempting to take the accuracy of administrative data for granted, there are reasons why researchers should approach these data with a degree of caution.…

This paper offers a critical review of a report published in March by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan titled "Improving Oversight of Michigan Charter Schools and Their Authorizers." The report argues that charter schools and charter school authorizers need more oversight. Making the case for this position might include…

There is growing interest in creating learning analytics feedback interfaces that support students directly. While dashboards and other visualizations are proliferating, the evidence is that many fail to provide meaningful insights that help students reflect productively. The contribution of this article is qualitative and quantitative evidence…

Test tampering, especially on tests for educational accountability, is an unfortunate reality, necessitating that the state (or its testing vendor) perform data forensic analyses, such as erasure analyses, to look for signs of possible malfeasance. Few statistical approaches exist for detecting fraudulent erasures, and those that do largely do not…

Leadership is a highly complex activity, as leaders respond to increasing diversity and external accountability. Additionally, there is increased recognition that leadership is deeply contextual, sensitive to macro-politics of systems and micro-politics of individual schools. In Ontario, Canada, the school improvement effort is focused on raising…

Conducting labs isn't a new way to teach physics, but labs have become increasingly prevalent with the rise of inquiry. Physics students collect mostly quantitative data, often represented by graphs or tables. Interpreting this data can be a challenge for students, especially when it comes to experimental error. To address this issue, this article…

The present study proposes and examines the multidimensional vector (MDV) model framework as a modeling schema for choice response times. MDV extends the Thurstonian model, as well as signal detection theory, to classification tasks by taking into account the influence of response properties on stimulus discrimination. It is capable of accounting…

One Hundred and Twelve Latino students from Philadelphia participated in this study, which examined the development of deductive reasoning across adolescence, and the relation of reasoning to test anxiety and standardized test scores. As predicted, 11th and ninth graders demonstrated significantly more advanced reasoning than seventh graders.…

The federal government spends about $10 billion each year to provide meals to over 30 million students through the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. However, a 2007 study estimated that of this amount, $860 million (8.6 percent) in school year 2005-2006 was paid improperly because of errors in the number of meals counted and claimed…

In this policy brief, the author explores the problems with attainment measures when it comes to evaluating performance at the school level, and explores the best uses of value-added measures. These value-added measures, the author writes, are useful for sorting out-of-school influences from school influences or from teacher performance, giving…

Almost 20 years ago, the author wrote--and then privately published--the two "Lake Woebegone" reports, named after Garrison Keillor's mythical Minnesota town where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." The first "Lake Woebegone" report documented that all 50 states were testing above the…

Prosecutorial misconduct involves the intentional use of illegal or improper methods for attaining convictions against defendants in criminal trials. Previous research documented extensive errors in the prosecution of severe crimes. A theory formulated to explain this phenomenon proposes that in serious cases, increased pressure to convict…