This study examined the strength and direction of the relationship between 2009 NJ ASK 3 Language Arts and Mathematics scores and district social and demographic data (i.e., lone-parent household, level of parental education, and household income levels) found in the extant literature to influence student achievement on high-stakes standardized…

Child abuse is underreported for children with socioeconomic inequalities. The impact of geographic location combined with sociocultural characteristics on teachers' reports of child abuse remains unclear. A national survey of 572 kindergarten teachers from 79 schools in Taiwan used hierarchical linear modeling to investigate the contribution of…

This article aims to investigate variations in science achievement for secondary school students across the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assessments and to examine the relations of several student- and school-level factors with achievement. The data were obtained from 5,577, 5,314, and 4,466 Malaysian eighth…

This study examined the relationship between academic preparation and post-secondary educational outcomes. To uncover the factors that influence secondary-level school course-taking patterns and outcomes, multi-level modelling was conducted using data from a nationally representative sample of US secondary-level school students from the Education…

This paper reports on secondary analysis of TIMSS 2003 data with the aim of explaining the difference in science achievement of Korean and South African learners. The question asked by this research, i.e. which factors at various educational levels influence science achievement in Korea and South Africa respectively, is addressed from the…

In this study, students' understanding of chemical changes was investigated in relation to four individual differences, related to logical thinking, field dependence/independence, convergence and divergence thinking. The study took place in Greece with the participation of students (n = 374) from three grades (8th, 10th and 12th grades) of…

Developmental education has been cited as one of the most difficult issues facing community colleges. Despite the controversy and changes to educational policy regarding developmental education, there is a notable dearth of rigorous research measuring the causal effect of remediation on community college student outcomes. The present study uses…

In Belize, the percentage of untrained teachers (i.e. teachers with the equivalent of a high school education or less) is one of the highest in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. In response to growing student cohorts, the increased demand for more classroom teachers has led to significant decrease in the proportion of trained teachers…

We describe the application of Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM) in a cluster-randomised study to examine learning algebraic concepts and procedures in an innovative, technology-rich environment in the US. HLM is applied to measure the impact of such treatment on learning and on contextual variables. We provide a detailed description of such…

A growing body of research indicates that transformational leadership affects teachers' commitment to their school. The present study aims to investigate the processes explaining this effect at the organisational level. Using a sample of 660 teachers within 50 primary French-speaking Belgian schools, the authors test a model hypothesising that the…

The present observational study used hierarchical linear modeling to examine predictors of children's social and self-regulatory outcomes in first-grade classrooms. Specifically, goals were the following: (1) to explore relations between emotionally supportive teacher-child interactions and children's social behaviors (aggression with peers,…

Climate change science is a challenging topic for student learning. This quantitative study examined the effectiveness of a geospatial curriculum approach to promote climate change science understandings in an urban school district with eighth-grade students and investigated whether teacher- and student-level factors accounted for students'…

Prior research has shown that there is a correlation between teacher characteristics (e.g., pedagogical knowledge, teacher preparation/certification) and student achievement. Current political contexts call for the utilization of student achievement data to measure the effectiveness of our education systems. A solid research base of how teacher…

The growing attention given to intercollegiate athletics in recent years amid ongoing controversies highlights the importance of closely examining the implementation and impact of sports policy on college campuses. In an attempt to improve the academic performance and retention of student-athletes, the Academic Progress Rate (APR) was implemented…

This study examined the historical performance of students at Michigan State University in 12 life sciences courses over 13 yr to find variables impacting student success. Hierarchical linear modeling predicted 25.0-62.8% of the variance in students' grades in the courses analyzed. The primary predictor of a student's course grade was his or her…