In studies of educational achievement, students' self-reported number of books in the family home is a frequently used proxy for social, cultural, and economic background. Absent hard evidence about what this variable captures or how well, its use has been motivated by strong associations with student outcomes. I show that these associations rest…

Survey research in education is a popular quantitative research design and is used to determine opinions, attitudes, behavior, habits, and perceptions on a wide variety of topics. While many people are familiar with survey methods, it is often used in a 'quick and dirty' way to get information. This case aims to describe some of the challenges of…

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and regression discontinuity (RD) studies both provide estimates of causal effects. A major difference between the two is that RD only estimates local average treatment effects (LATE) near the cutoff point of the forcing variable. This has been cited as a drawback to RD designs (Cook & Wong, 2008).…

America's public schools have faced challenges in educating students, particularly those identified as at risk. According to the No Child Left Behind Act, nearly 70% of 4th grade students are unable to perform on a basic level on national reading tests. The research problem in this study addressed the significance of guided reading instruction,…

This study compares three variations in how researchers construct middle childhood social networks: (1) with "friendships" or "affiliations" as a relational tie; (2) with children providing "self reports" of relationships, or in addition, "multi-informant reports" of relationships in which they are not involved; and (3) whether network computation…

Educational distribution tables were constructed which indicate that, generally, schools and school districts that scored in the upper (or middle, or lower) third of a ranking of Michigan districts on composite achievement also ran high (or middle, or low) on other assessment measures. The same type of relationship was generally found between…

In research with children, there is a common problem which could reduce the reliability of a questionnaire for some children but not others: verbal comprehension. (Authors)

To assess whether gains in vocabulary and comprehension would result from the use of the cloze procedure as a teaching technique, 222 students in 12 fourth-grade classrooms were randomly assigned to one of four groups: a control group and groups that were taught with cloze deletion patterns involving deletion of every tenth word, deletion of…

Factors contributing to American students' declining scores on the TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) between grades 4 and 8 include textbook size and U.S. educators' traditional views of middle-school years. Bad data probably invalidate claims about the grade 8 to 12 decline. International reading scores favor Americans.…

This qualitative study investigated the following questions: (1) How quickly can first graders master basic e-mailing skills? (2) Does communicating through the Internet and e-mail provide motivation or incentive for children to read or write? (3) Will children write with specific conventions due to having an identifiable audience to whom they are…

Statewide assessment data available from two school years, two grade levels, and five sources (achievement tests; student, principal, and teacher questionnaires; and principal interviews), were aggregated to more closely investigate the relationship between student/school characteristics and student achievement. To organize this large number of…

Interracial/interethic choice patterns of 398 third and fourth grade children are measured utilizing various methods, including both projectively-based and reality-based paradigms. Attempts are made to establish the equivalence or nonequivalence of the different methodologies used to assess interracial choice patterns. Results indicate that all…

Having low literacy skills could impact everything from reading a newspaper and balancing a checkbook to wise consumer decisions and job advancement. This study estimates adult literacy measures for Cuyahoga County, Ohio and its municipalities. It is also important to have a sense of how many children are at risk for developing literacy problems…