This thesis examined middle school students' current understanding of variability using a constructed response item assessment question. Variability is an essential concept in the teaching and learning of statistics. However, many students have difficulty with the concept of variability especially when constructing boxplots. Using a framework…

The Leaders' Evaluation and Analysis Development (LEAD) Tool provides the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) with a data set to measure the level of teacher effectiveness at every school site. The LEAD Tool data variables also provide teacher, principal, and schools with data that may have a relationship with a school's overall academic…

Higher education administrators lack strong understanding about using course evaluation data to make judgments and decisions. Using archival student course evaluation data from a pharmacy school, we examined (a) course evaluation instrument reliability and validity; (b) bivariate relationships between eight course rating items and the overall…

The Educational Policy Institute released a new report today about the ability of state and national databases to meet the policy needs related to higher education affordability. Written by EPI Senior Research Associate Lee Holcombe, the report finds that although states are establishing ambitious higher education participation and success targets…

In this brief, the authors examine the level of access to school counselors, and how this access is mediated by district demographic and location characteristics. Using a large nationally representative data source compiled from the 2013-2104 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), the 2014 Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE), and 2007…

This Memorandum is issued in response to the February 22, 2013, Office of Science and Technology (OSTP) Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, "Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research." Through this Memorandum, OSTP directed all agencies with greater than $100 million in research…

Analysis of student-level data to inform policy and promote student success is a core function of executive higher education agencies. Postsecondary data systems have expanded their collection of data elements for use by policymakers, institutional staff, and the general public. State coordinating and governing boards use these data systems for…

In this dissertation, I create a navigable path between the learning sciences, accounting information systems (AIS), and analytics education. After considering the context of AIS and accounting analytics education, I present a learning sciences design framework, apply the design principles, and study their implementation and success in an…

The need for data-informed decisions is not limited to national policy, state systems, or senior leadership of postsecondary institutions. Decisions that impact the achievement of higher education missions are also made by students, faculty, frontline staff, and program administrators--all of who deserve data and information to support their…

We propose a novel tensor factorization approach, Feedback-Driven Tensor Factorization (FDTF), for modeling student learning process and predicting student performance. This approach decomposes a tensor that is built upon students' attempt sequence, while considering the quizzes students select to work with as its feedback. FDTF does not require…

The North Carolina K-3 Formative Assessment Process: Kindergarten Entry Assessment (NC K-3 FAP: KEA) is the initial step in the development of a comprehensive formative assessment process for young children from kindergarten entry through the end of third grade. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gather teacher and administrator feedback…

This research project case discusses the methodology and research tools used in an action research study that was designed to support students' intrapersonal intelligence as defined by Howard Gardner (1993) in both the dimensions of self-knowledge and the cognitive capacities of executive function (Moran & Gardner, 2007). This involved…

The following case study describes a research project that used survey data from the National Survey of Student Engagement to examine the relationship between student engagement in higher education and institutional rank as reported by "U.S. News," "Forbes," and "Washington Monthly." The research article was presented…

U.S. college students are a distinct population facing major challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, students were already experiencing substantial mental health concerns, putting both their health and academic success in jeopardy. College students now face increasing housing and food insecurity, financial hardships, a lack…

With the emergence of interventions shown to reduce school discipline disparities, it is important to explore what variables influence educators to implement these approaches. In-depth interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 21 educators asked to describe their experiences implementing an equity-focused Positive Behavioral…