The purpose of this study is to develop a nonparametric DIF method that (a) compares focal groups directly to the composite group that will be used to develop the reported test score scale, and (b) allows practitioners to explore for DIF related to focal groups stemming from multicategorical variables that constitute a small proportion of the…

This study sought to determine whether there was correlation between a superintendent's use of a transformational leadership and levels of collective teacher efficacy. Four research questions were answered in this study: Is there a statistically significant correlation between collective teacher efficacy and school district superintendents'…

School accountability systems increasingly hold schools to account for their performances using value-added models purporting to measure the effects of schools on student learning. The most common approach is to fit a linear regression of student current achievement on student prior achievement, where the school effects are the school means of the…

Effect direction (evidence to indicate improvement, deterioration, or no change in an outcome) can be used as a standardized metric which enables the synthesis of diverse effect measures in systematic reviews. The effect direction (ED) plot was developed to support the synthesis and visualization of effect direction data. Methods for the ED plot…

Tests of statistical significance often play a decisive role in establishing the empirical warrant of evidence-based research in education. The results from pattern-based assessment items, as introduced in this paper, are categorical and multimodal and do not immediately support the use of measures of central tendency as typically related to…

The need to understand how prospective students decide which higher education institution to attend is becoming of paramount importance as the policy context for higher education moves towards market-based systems in many countries. This paper provides a novel methodology by which student preferences between institutions can be assessed, using the…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which was established under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002. It is an important part of IES's strategy to use rigorous and relevant research, evaluation, and statistics to improve the nation's education system.…

Introduction: The use of averaged topic-level scores can result in the loss of valuable data and can cause misinterpretation of the effectiveness of system performance. This study aims to use the scores of each document to evaluate document retrieval systems in a pairwise system evaluation. Method: The chosen evaluation metrics are document-level…

Large-scale randomized studies provide the best means of evaluating practical, replicable approaches to improving educational outcomes. This article discusses the advantages, problems, and pitfalls of these evaluations, focusing on alternative methods of randomization, recruitment, ensuring high-quality implementation, dealing with attrition, and…

This paper illustrates the use of a quality assessment tool for regression analysis. It is designed for non-specialist "consumers" of evidence, such as policy makers. The tool provides a series of questions such consumers of evidence can ask to interrogate regression analysis, and is illustrated with reference to a recent study published…

This study aims at finding out the effect of peer assessment on the evaluation process of students. The hypothesis underlying this study is that assessment is an integral part of the learning process, which should play an important role in the educational model. The current study will emphasize the importance of using peer assessment as a tool to…

The present study aimed to detect the level of faculty members' attitudes at public universities towards the performance appraisal process and its relationship with some variables (gender, college, scientific rank, university, teaching experience, and age). The study sample consisted of (320) faculty members of both sexes in three public…

When choosing instructional methods, instructional designers trade-off or sacrifice an outcome, such as effectiveness, efficiency, or appeal. In instructional planning theory, this is referred to as values about priorities. When "values about priorities" are combined with "conditions about content," we expect that a different…

This study aimed at identifying the constraints to the application of self-assessment of the academic programmes at Al-Balqa Applied University (BAU) from the point of view of faculty members. The sample of the study consisted of (75) faculty members, who had experience in quality works and the self-assessment report, and the participants of the…

Despite recent emphasis on the use of randomized control trials (RCTs) for evaluating education interventions, in most areas of education research, observational methods remain the dominant approach for assessing program effects. Over the last three decades, the within-study comparison (WSC) design has emerged as a method for evaluating the…