In this article, the beta-binomial model for count data is proposed and demonstrated in terms of its application in the context of oral reading fluency (ORF) assessment, where the number of words read correctly (WRC) is of interest. Existing studies adopted the binomial model for count data in similar assessment scenarios. The beta-binomial model,…

Facilitating anxiety in second language (L2) learning research has not been thoroughly discussed for both methodological and conceptual reasons. This trend is also evident in the field of L2 reading, where reading anxiety has been viewed as a negative force. This study takes the initial step to explore the nature of facilitating anxiety in L2…

The success of the Republic of Estonia in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was a surprise both nationally and internationally and has led to several important questions. What are the reasons for these results? Which historical developments and recent decisions have allowed a small and not particularly rich country to build…

We administer a survey to study students' preferences for relative performance feedback in an introductory economics class. To do so, we elicit students' willingness to pay for/avoid learning their rank on a midterm exam. Our results show that 10% of students are willing to pay to avoid learning their rank. We also find that female students are…

Teacher rating scales (TRS) are often used to make service eligibility decisions for exceptional learners. Although TRS are regularly used to identify student exceptionalism either as part of an informal nomination process or through behavioral rating scales, there is little research documenting the between-teacher variance in teacher ratings or…

This case study explored how a teacher, Ms. Walter, and her students experienced a unit of study on market structures in an Advanced Placement (AP) Microeconomics course. We employed qualitative research methods, drawing on the work of Nuthall and Alton-Lee, to connect students' experiences of classroom instruction to their reasoning on an…

Influencing major education policies in the US such as school vouchers and charter schools, market theory assumes that organizational autonomy, parental choice, and competition between schools improve the quality of education. However, whether those policies can influence the instructional core of schools is not well understood. Comparing private…

Randomized experiments involving education interventions are typically implemented as cluster randomized trials, with schools serving as clusters. To design such a study, it is critical to understand the degree to which learning outcomes vary between versus within clusters (schools), specifically the intraclass correlation coefficient. It is also…

Bilingual children's total vocabulary in each of their languages is often smaller than that of monolinguals. In their seminal study, Bialystok et al. (2010. 'Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual children.' "Bilingualism: Language and Cognition" 13 (4): 525-531) divided children's vocabulary into 'home' and…

Reviews of social comparison processes in school contexts have concluded that individual differences in propensity to compare with others are likely to be important in the classroom, but that there is a paucity of evidence testing this key proposition. To address this gap, we developed and validated a new measure of propensity to engage in…

Adaptive learning supports online instruction by offering feedback to students using machine learning. In a funded study, adaptive learning was used in a flipped STEM course at three universities for pre-class preparation. We conducted a comparative analysis with and without adaptive learning. The assessments were a final exam and concept…

Background and Context: Cultural and social influences from peers, family, and media shape young people's views on technology careers. This study examines Danish students' perceptions and discourses of IT professionals and technology occupations. Objective: Unlike earlier studies focusing on science or STEM as a monolith, this study specifically…

This study examined changes in student well-being and its relationship with academic performance, in light of concerns about rising inequalities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It utilized PISA student surveys and reading and math assessments from 2018 and 2022 (N = 33,147) among 15-year-old adolescents from Finland, Sweden, and Iceland. Adopting…

A well-designed accountability policy has four essential elements: (1) it's grounded in the belief that all students can learn and succeed; (2) it measures the academic progress of all students by campus and district over time; (3) it highlights gaps between different groups of students; and (4) it provides support and assigns consequences to…

This two-year study examined the impact of Spalding's The Writing Road to Reading literacy program on student achievement across grades K-5 in 14 Arizona schools. Using a quasi-experimental matched design, researchers compared 687 students from three Spalding schools with 1228 students from eleven comparison schools using Fundations. Data from…