We report the findings of an empirical study that investigated whether the source of data--firsthand or secondhand data gained from lab work experiments--has an influence on students' learning outcomes. Results indicate that students' choice of a correct or incorrect hypothesis for a pendulum lab experiment on the influence of the mass of the bob…

This multiple case study examines the extent and ways in which leaders and administrators in Florida College System (FCS) institutions engage in distributed leadership through data sharing with frontline staff. Based on focus groups and individual interviews with administrators, faculty, and staff (659 participants) from 21 state colleges, we…

The Science of Learning and Readiness (SoLaR) project seeks to demonstrate to Defense and other Government stakeholders the "art of the possible" for high-quality distributed learning and to create a practical guide for how to infuse such qualities into the broader Department of Defense (DoD) distributed learning ecosystem. This report…

States' commitments to tackling long standing inequities have been stifled by missing data, long delays, insufficient data-analysis tools, and the excessive reporting burden placed on states and institutions. If states hope to achieve their completion and equity goals, they need access to data that does not leave them guessing--so they can…

School closures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic have left educators and families with the responsibility of rapidly learning how to support students while they are at home. This fundamental shift in the way most students receive instruction makes it critical for educators and families to be able to use data to meet students where they are and…

Effectively estimating student enrollment and recruiting students is critical to the success of any university. However, despite having an abundance of data and researchers at the forefront of data science, traditional universities are not fully leveraging machine learning and data mining approaches to improve their enrollment management…

Entering into a new decade with an even more diversified college student population will not only require more assessment models involving students but also deeper professional development of institutional representatives key to student learning. Reflecting upon the conversations over the last three years around culturally responsive assessment…

In March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic and attending shift to remote schooling initiated a dramatic impact on student learning, an impact that state and district leaders feel a sense of urgency to understand and address. These leaders are accustomed using state and district test data to shed light on student achievement and growth. But without…

To help provide context to MAP® Growth™ normative percentiles, this document includes multiple College and Career Readiness (CCR) benchmarks, including those from ACT®, SAT®, and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced). The comparative data in the tables presented in this report can be used as data points for instructional…

As the education and workforce development community looks more and more to CTE to help ensure students are both college and career ready, understanding and using CTE data and research becomes increasingly important. This is the first in a series of six practitioner training modules developed as part of the Career & Technical Education (CTE)…

This qualitative, plausibility probe case study was conducted to determine if adjunct faculty teaching in humanities courses use effective teaching and learning styles in tertiary classrooms. The researcher specifically sought to find rich data on formative assessments and the teaching and learning theory andragogy. To ascertain this data the…

This study examines what aspiring principal candidates in one university-based preparation program learned as a result of developing and implementing a school improvement plan. A case study approach was used to examine 53 aspiring principals' reports of what they learned from implementing school improvement plans. Findings revealed three…

The Student Participation Observation Tool (SPOT) is a web-based classroom observation protocol developed for higher education STEM courses and based on research on evidence-based practices. The low-inference and objective nature of the SPOT and visual outputs make it an optimal tool for teaching professional development. The SPOT allows novice…

This research summary provides the key findings and interpretive summary--chapters 3 and 4--from the full report, "Reaching for Improvement: Teacher Evaluation and its Role in Instructional Improvement." The full report contains additional details on the context, methodology, and findings of this study. This document has minor…

Although the number of students in higher education institutions (HEIs) has increased over the past two decades, it is far from assured that all students will gain an academic degree. To that end, institutional analytics (IA) can offer insights to support strategic planning with the aim of reducing dropout and therefore of minimizing its negative…