Over the years, the expectations of public safety dispatchers have expanded considerably to include responsibilities that go beyond the traditional role of a dispatcher. People often associate the role of a dispatcher as being the first point of contact for someone experiencing an emergency and needing assistance. This study sought to assess the…

Educational research is ubiquitous; however, agreement on best practices is not. Although parents, teachers, students, and communities have a vested interest in students' success, varying practices of what is taught, how it is taught, and to whom it is taught are still debated. This study expands upon work done by Dr. Scott Wurdinger and Dr. Ron…

Neuroplasticity, defined as the brain's "potential" to change in response to its environment, has been extensively studied at the cellular and molecular levels. Work in animal models suggests that stimulation to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) enhances plasticity, and that myelination constrains plasticity. Little is known, however,…

This case study aims to shed light on the methodological aspects of using a qualitative survey as the main data collection instrument to study prospective teachers' meaning-making process while learning about research methods and conducting their own projects. Particular attention is paid to the design and administration challenges of the…

Federal education legislation continues to emphasize the role of assessment in elementary and secondary schools. Perhaps most prominently, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA; P.L. 114-95), requires the use of test-based educational accountability systems in states and specifies the…

Why do students give incorrect answers in PISA? What are the reasons for giving incorrect answers? Do all incorrect answers reflect only the lack of competence or might even a competent child make a mistake? The aim of this article is to contribute to a better understanding of these issues. In the current investigation, we selected six students…

The psychometric properties of a new multidimensional measure of test anxiety, the Test Anxiety Measure for College Students (TAM-C), based on theory and current research were examined in a sample of 312 Canadian college students online. The TAM-C consists of a Facilitating Anxiety scale and five test anxiety (Cognitive Interference, Physiological…

Approximately, 283 sixth-grade students completed four randomly generated Math Curriculum-Based Measures (M-CBMs) from interventioncentral.org twice during a fall semester. These M-CBMs measured foundational skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We found that using mean fluency or accuracy scores from four M-CBMs produced…

Academic achievement is very important in any educational setting, as it indicates the level of students' competence in respect of the academic content. This is obviously defined in terms of performance which represents the most understandable and regularly accepted pointer of performance in educational contexts (Ladipo & Gbotosho, 2015).…

Standardized achievement testing of children began in the United States in the 1960s. Since then, the data produced from such tests has been extrapolated to measure schools, teachers, and principals. Today, testing and its corollaries consume much of the time and energy of teachers and students. Miriam Cohen's (2006/1980) "First Grade Takes a…

In this study, it is aimed to investigate the impact of different missing data handling methods on the detection of Differential Item Functioning methods (Mantel Haenszel and Standardization methods based on Classical Test Theory and Likelihood Ratio Test method based on Item Response Theory). In this regard, on the data acquired from 1046…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a risk prediction model for detecting middle ear pathology in 6- to 9-month-old infants using wideband absorbance measures. Method: Two hundred forty-nine infants aged 23-39 weeks (Mdn = 28 weeks) participated in the study. Distortion product otoacoustic emissions and high-frequency tympanometry were…

Neurological soft signs (NSSs), minor neurological abnormalities, have been implicated as risk factors for poor cognitive performance in small-scale studies. Here we investigate the associations between NSSs and multiple domains of cognitive performance in a large, population-based cohort and evaluate sex differences in these associations. We…

Fitness education is becoming an integrated component for many physical education programs. As such, many physical educators conduct health-related fitness tests on a regular basis. Some states even mandate certain types of physical fitness tests to be administered and reported annually or by semester. Yet, inappropriate practices have been…

This article provides an illustrative description of the pre-post difference index (PPDI), a simple, nontechnical yet robust tool for examining the instructional sensitivity of assessment items. Extension educators often design pretest-posttest instruments to assess the impact of their curricula on participants' knowledge and understanding of the…