The use of video recordings as a data source in qualitative research presents challenges when it comes to selecting time scales. Here, we discuss the implications of selecting time scales with regard to the interpretations and conclusions of a classroom event. The analysis draws on data from the PISA+ project, a large-scale video study of six…

Social media is a central component in the lives of many young people, and provides innovative potential to conduct research among this population. Ethical issues around online research have been subject to much debate, yet young people have seldom been consulted to provide a youth perspective and voice. Eight (8) focus groups involving 48 Grade 9…

Unlike in elementary schools, high school teacher effects may be confounded with unobserved track-level treatments (such as the AVID program) that are correlated with individual teachers. I present a strategy that exploits detailed course-taking information to credibly estimate the effects of 9th grade Algebra and English teachers on test scores.…

Describes a reader response study indicating (1) a high degree of agreement on reader beliefs and text events and (2) that students who empathized with a particular character identified the story conflict as pertaining to that character. Suggests specific reader-based and text-based factors that produce convergence and divergence in reader…

To probe beyond declarative knowledge about real numbers in secondary school, the authors interviewed students in Grades 9, 10 and 12. The main question seems to be whether the length of a decimal expansion is "indefinite" or "infinite." It blurs the mental representation of rational numbers as well. (Contains 3 footnotes.) [For complete…

Volume 2, the second of eight publications developed by the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) as part of the "Texas School Dropout Survey Project," focuses on the issue of the computation of a dropout rate. Three important factors which influence the mathematical computation of a dropout rate are identified: time…

Examines methodological problems that metaphorical nonequivalence poses for cross-cultural survey research. Data from 1,105 urban ninth graders (including 105 Laotian Hmong) in St. Paul (Minnesota) illustrate problems of the translation of psychological instruments and the difficulties of administering a single instrument to culturally different…

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…