The research reported in this article builds on work commenced eight years ago with reviewing the literature and models of successful school leadership for improved student outcomes. When the findings of this review were combined with the results from case studies of successful schools it resulted in a preliminary model of successful school…

The present study, pertaining to a national information literacy training program for both farmers and rural communities in Taiwan, explores factors that affect learners' perception of learning information and communication technology (ICT). It further analyzes effects of individual characteristics and varied training designs on learners'…

This paper explores the relative importance of social factors and health measures in predicting educational achievement in early and late adolescence using population-based administrative data. The sample was made up of 41,943 children born in Manitoba, Canada between 1982 and 1989 and remaining in the province until age 18. Multilevel modeling…

Following the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004), states were required to develop a State Performance Plan (SPP; U.S. Department of Education, 2011) addressing 20 accountability indicators for students with disabilities, ages 3 to 21. First and arguably foremost among these is Indicator 1, the ''percent…

Problem Statement: Motivation plays an important role in explaining students' academic achievement. In an effort to explain students' purposes for learning and the reasons they engage in a learning activity, different achievement goal models (dichotomous, trichotomous, and 2x2) have been proposed over time. The present study aimed to extend…

Given the negative outcomes associated with suspension, scholars and practitioners are concerned with discipline disparities. This study explored patterns and predictors of suspension in a sample of 2,750 students with disabilities in 39 schools in a Midwestern district. Hierarchical generalized linear modeling demonstrated that disability type,…

Are international undergraduates struggling academically, and are their struggles due to weaknesses in English as a second language? The present study showed that 1) at most 10% of these students in three cohorts (ranging in size from N = 322 to N = 695) at an American west coast public university struggled (quarterly grade point averages below C)…

The current teacher workforce is younger, less experienced, more likely to turnover, and more diverse in preparation experiences than the workforce of two decades ago. Research shows that inexperienced teachers are less effective, but we know little about the effectiveness of teachers with different types of preparation. In this study, we classify…

Applied linguists have identified three components of second language (L2) performance: complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) to measure L2 development. Many studies researching CAF found trade-off effects (in which a higher performance in one component corresponds to lower performance in another) during tasks, often in online oral language…

The purpose of this study was to identify instructor behaviors that lead to positive student outcomes in online courses. The study investigated the relationship between 12 predictive variables and three measures of student success (assignment grade, course grade, and student retention) in online courses. Archived online courses at a rural…

Principal instructional leadership has been found to support improved instruction. However, the methods through which principal leadership influences classroom instruction are less clear. This study investigates how principals' leadership may predict the expectations that mathematics teachers perceive for classroom practice. Results from a…

This study analyzes nationally-representative quantitative data from the first (2002) and second (2004) waves of the Educational Longitudinal Study to examine the relationship between Latina/o secondary school students' degree of English-language proficiency (ELP), mathematics course-taking measures, and 12th grade mathematics achievement.…

Marital quality is an important factor for understanding the relationship between marriage and health. Low-quality relationships may not have the same health benefits as high-quality relationships. To understand the association between marital quality and health, we examined associations between two indicators of marital quality (marital support…

This is an application of contemporary multilevel regression modeling to the prediction of academic performances of 1st-year college students. At a first level of analysis, the data come from N greater than 16,000 students who were college freshman in 1994-1995 and who were also participants in high-level college athletics. At a second level of…

This report outlines a 2-year investigation into how secondary science teachers used professional development (PD) to build scientific classroom discourse communities (SCDCs). Observation data, teacher, student, and school demographic information were used to build a hierarchical linear model. The length of time that teachers received PD was the…