The ultimate goal of physics education research (PER) is to develop a theoretical framework to understand and improve the learning process. In this journey of discovery, assessment serves as our headlamp and alpenstock. It sometimes detects signals in student mental structures, and sometimes presents the difference between expert understanding and…

Interventions that aim to promote social competence, reduce problem behavior, and improve school climate are common at all levels of schooling. This whole-school focus, coupled with researchers' concerns about contamination or spillover effects in evaluations that randomly assign classrooms or students to conditions, as well as advances in…

Three methods that can be used subsequent to a regression analysis to determine the relative effectiveness of schools are Dyer's Performance Indices, Scheffe's hyperbolic confidence bands, and Gafarian's linear confidence bands. These methods were applied to data from 54 hypothetical schools randomly generated from a multivariate normal…

Focuses on the fact that an educational treatment typically involves an intervention in a growth process. By modelling this process, expected growth for various treatment groups under control conditions may be estimated. Actual growth can be compared with projected growth to estimate the value-added by the program. A simple model is developed. (RC)

The Technology Enhanced Elementary and Middle School Science II project (TEEMSS), funded by the National Science Foundation, produced 15 inquiry-based instructional science units for teaching in grades 3-8. Each unit uses computers and probeware to support students' investigations of real-world phenomena using probes (e.g., for temperature or…

Two questions are investigated here: What should the unit of analysis be in investigations of educational effects and on what basis should the units be chosen Under what conditions can relationships among measurements on individuals be estimated from the relationships among measurements on aggregates of individuals? Models using standard analysis…

The regression-discontinuity approach to evaluating educational programs is reviewed, and regression-discontinuity post-program mean differences under various conditions are discussed. The regression-discontinuity design is used to determine whether post-program differences exist between an experimental program and a control group. The difference…

The equivalency of achievement results obtained under Title I evaluation models A1 and C1 was examined. Data were reading comprehension and arithmetic scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, administered to fourth, sixth, and eighth grade students in St. Louis, Missouri. The St. Louis Public Schools had traditionally used Model A1, a…

This study was concerned with the optimum allocation of public resources in education, and involved a comparison between vocational-technical education and an alternative curriculum for non-college attending students. Major steps in the study were: (1) identification of costs and benefits, (2) collection of representative data, (3) determination…

This volume of the 30th annual proceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education conference presents: plenary panel papers; research forum papers; short oral communication papers; and poster presentation papers from the meeting. Information relating to discussion groups and working sessions is also provided.…