The purpose of this study was to examine the potential for using propensity score-based matching methods to estimate teacher contributions to student learning. Value-added models are increasingly used in teacher accountability systems in the United States in spite of ongoing qualms about the validity of teacher quality estimates resulting from…

In this essay, I explore how cognitive science could illuminate the concept of beauty. Two results from the extensive literature on aesthetics guide my discussion. As the term "beauty" is overextended in general usage, I choose as my starting point the notion of "perfect form." Aesthetic theorists are in reasonable agreement about the criteria for…

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential for using propensity score-based matching methods to estimate teacher contributions to student learning. Value-added models are increasingly used in teacher accountability systems in the United States in spite of ongoing qualms about the validity of teacher quality estimates resulting from…

Person-fit assessment may help the researcher to obtain additional information regarding the answering behavior of persons. Although several researchers examined person fit, there is a lack of research on person-fit assessment for mixed-format tests. In this article, the lz statistic and the ?2 statistic, both of which have been used for tests…

We use data from workers in the largest public-sector occupation in the United States -- teaching -- to examine the effect of pension enhancements on employee retention. Specifically, we study a 1999 enhancement to the benefit formula for public school teachers in St. Louis that resulted in an immediate and dramatic increase in their incentives to…

In Maori medium schools, research that investigates children's mathematical computation with number and connections they might make to mathematical ideas in other strands is limited. This paper seeks to share ideas elicited in a task-based observation and interview with one child about the number ideas she utilises to solve a problem requiring…

The statistical output of interest to most elementary statistics students is the p-value, outputted in computer programs like SPSS, Minitab and SAS. Statistical decisions are sometimes made using these values without understanding the meaning or how these values are calculated. Most elementary statistics textbooks calculates p-values for z-tests…

The unexpectedness of the birthday problem has long been used by teachers of statistics in discussing basic probability calculation. An activity is described that engages students in understanding probability and sampling using the popular Facebook social networking site. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)

The purpose of this study is to study the performance of different methods (inverse probability weighting and estimation of informative bounds) to control for differential attrition by comparing the results of different methods using two datasets: an original dataset from Portland Public Schools (PPS) subject to high rates of differential…

Tossing a fair coin 1000 times can have an unexpected result. In the activities presented here, players keep track of the accumulated total for heads and tails after each toss, noting which player is in the lead or whether the players are tied. The winner is the player who was in the lead for the higher number of turns over the course of the game.…

In a previous gaze-contingent boundary experiment, Angele and Rayner (2013) found that readers are likely to skip a word that appears to be the definite article "the" even when syntactic constraints do not allow for articles to occur in that position. In the present study, we investigated whether the word frequency of the preview of a…

Many view mathematics as a rich and wonderfully elaborate game. In turn, games can be used to illustrate mathematical ideas. Fibber's Dice, an adaptation of the game Liar's Dice, is a fast-paced game that rewards gutsy moves and favors the underdog. It also brings to life concepts arising in the study of probability. In particular, Fibber's Dice…

Educational attainment sits at the core of research on social stratification in the United States. An extensive literature details the inequalities in access to levels of education, the socioeconomic rewards conferred upon those reaching higher levels of schooling, and the prospects for social mobility among those able to attain a college degree.…

We investigate factors influencing student sign-ups for Washington State's College Bound Scholarship (CBS) program. We find a substantial share of eligible middle school students fail to sign the CBS, forgoing college financial aid. Student characteristics associated with signing the scholarship parallel characteristics of low-income students who…

Novel management strategies for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) propose providing interventions before diagnosis. We performed a cost-effectiveness analysis comparing the costs and dependency-free life years (DFLYs) generated by pre-diagnosis intensive Early Start Denver Model (ESDM-I); pre-diagnosis parent-delivered ESDM (ESDM-PD); and the Ontario…