Although evaluators often use an interrupted time series (ITS) design to test hypotheses about program effects, there are few empirical tests of the design's validity. We take a randomized experiment on an educational topic and compare its effects to those from a comparative ITS (CITS) design that uses the same treatment group as the experiment…

In this paper I use a general philosophy of science perspective in looking at the problem of justifying action research. First I try to clarify the concept of justification, by contrasting it with the concept of validity, which seems to be used almost as a synonym in some parts of the literature. I discuss the need for taking a stand in relation…

Research Findings: The current study investigated the predictive utility of teacher-rated, observed, and directly assessed behavioral self-regulation skills to academic achievement in preschoolers. Specifically, this study compared how a teacher report (the Child Behavior Rating Scale), an observer report (the Observed Child Engagement Scale), and…

Background: Applying Benson's program of validation (Benson, 1998) we provide evidence supporting the validity of a projective instrument that assesses the autonomous motivation of students with impaired cognitive abilities. Method: Eighty-eight grade 7-9 students diagnosed with cognitive impairment participated in this study. Participants'…

Geographic literacy could be defined as the competence of turning understanding and comprehension of geographical knowledge into a skill because literacy consists of solving problems, reasoning, critical and creative thinking processes. Today, in order to impart literacy skills to individuals, teachers should first have these skills. It is…

Individuals are socialized by embracing material and spiritual cultural characteristics that a society possesses. This process is put into practice with socialization factors such as family, peers, school and media. Interaction and communication in social life have started to carry socialization factors to different levels with contribution by…

Root cause analysis is a powerful method schools use to analyze data to solve problems; it aims to identify and correct the root causes of problems or events, rather than simply addressing their symptoms. In this webinar, veteran practitioner, Roni Silverstein, talked about the value of this process and practical ways to use it in your school or…

Amongst important and under-researched questions are how introductory lessons can be designed for teaching initial proofs to junior high school students, and how such lessons enrich students' understanding of proofs. With a view to improving the learning situation in the classroom, in this paper we report on the various functions of introductory…

The purpose of this study is to analyze the complex argumentative structure in undergraduate mathematics classroom conversations during problem solving by taking into consideration students' and teacher' utterances in the classroom using field-independent Toulmin's theory of argumentation. Analyzing students' and teacher' utterances in the class…

This case study investigates the effectiveness of a lecture in advanced mathematics. We video recorded a lecture delivered by an experienced professor. Using video recall, we then interviewed the professor to determine the content he intended to convey and we analyzed his lecture to see if and how this content was conveyed. We also interviewed six…

Context: In the past two years, states have implemented sweeping reforms to their teacher evaluation systems in response to Race to the Top legislation and, more recently, NCLB waivers. With these new systems, policymakers hope to make teacher evaluation both more rigorous and more grounded in specific job performance domains such as teaching…

Interest in the role that parenting assumes in child obesity has increased the need for valid and reliable screening tools that are specific for populations targeted by programming efforts. While low-income families comprise a large audience for Cooperative Extension obesity prevention programs, valid and reliable self-administered parenting…

This study examined the predictive validity and classification accuracy of individual- and group-administered screening measures relative to student performance on a year-end state reading assessment in two states. A sample of 321 students was assessed in the areas of word-level and text fluency, as well as reading comprehension in the fall of…

This study examined the predictive validity and classification accuracy of individual and group-administered screening measures relative to student performance on a year-end state reading assessment in two states. A sample of 321 students were assessed in the areas of word-level and text fluency, as well as reading comprehension in the fall of…

This qualitative multiple case study examined superintendent turnover in four small rural school districts that were unable to retain their district leaders long-term. Due to the exploratory nature of the study, narrative data from participants were examined using constant comparative analysis to determine major emergent themes within and across…