This study took place in the online 3D virtual world Second Life[R], a recreational environment designed for world-building and socializing, and intended for individuals 18 years old and older. It described learning from the perspective of Second Life[R] Residents and focused on their world-building activities. As a virtual ethnographer, my avatar…

This manual provides guidance and documentation for users of the eighth-grade data of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). It begins with an overview of the ECLS-K study. Subsequent chapters provide details on the instruments and measures used, the sample design, weighting procedures, response rates, data…

The report examines the initiatives of state education agencies in the Northeast and Islands Region to support data-driven decisionmaking in districts and schools and describes the service providers hired to support this work. Four components of data-driven decisionmaking initiatives are identified: (1) Centralized data system/warehouse; (2) Tools…

This paper describes the analysis of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program's January 2008 Learning Network Conference (LNC). This study focuses on the methodologies used by the MSP community to generate evidence and seeks to understand topics of interest to the 320 LNC participants. The data set for this…

The British Columbia (BC) post-secondary system is a geographically dispersed network of colleges, institutes, university colleges, and universities. The success of such a diverse system depends on students' ability to move easily through the system, accessing the institutions, programs of study, and courses that they need and, where appropriate,…

This report examines career/technical education (CTE) coursetaking of 2005 public high school graduates using a recently revised taxonomy and new indicators of participation to present a more contemporary and detailed picture of CTE coursetaking than is provided by previously-used indicators. To understand how students use the CTE curriculum, this…

This unique, hands-on reference for school administrators offers guidelines for effective student engagement as well as reproducible action tools that will enable you to: (1) Identify and share "The Big Eight Student Engagement Strategies" with your teachers; (2) Promote teacher growth and provide support for new and/or struggling teachers; (3)…

In the past three years, Board of Governors' (BOG) staff, working in cooperation with university representatives, have continued to improve the data collection and reporting capabilities for the State University System. Simultaneously, Board staff have worked to lessen the reporting burden on the universities by reducing the number of data…

The monitoring and support of university freshmen is considered very important at many educational institutions. In this paper we describe the results of the educational data mining case study aimed at predicting the Electrical Engineering (EE) students drop out after the first semester of their studies or even before they enter the study program…

When attempting to determine if an intervention has a causal impact, the "gold standard" of program evaluation is the randomized controlled trial (RCT). In education studies random assignment is rarely feasible at the student level, making RCTs harder to conduct. School-level assignment is more common but this often requires considerable resources…

Employment of a data-acquisition system for data collection and calculations makes experiments with antennas more convenient and less time consuming. The determined directional patterns of the dipole antennas of different lengths are in reasonable agreement with theory. The enhancement of the signal by using a reflector is demonstrated, and a…

Today, many school districts are turning to business intelligence tools to retrieve, organize, and share knowledge for faster analysis and more effective, guided decision making. Business intelligence (BI) tools are the technologies and applications that gather and report information to help an organization's leaders make better decisions. BI…

The purpose of this study was to explore preservice science teachers' use of an interactive display system (IDS), consisting of a computer, digital projector, interactive white board, and Internet connection, to support science teaching and learning. Participants included 9 preservice biology teachers enrolled in a master of teaching program…

This article is about the students' investigation about the relationship between the diameter of the view tubes (x) of constant lengths and the viewable vertical distance (y) on the wall while keeping the perpendicular distance from the eyeball to the wall constant. The students collected data and used and represented it in tabular and graphical…

Communities That Care (CTC) is a prevention system designed to reduce adolescent substance use and delinquency through the selection of effective preventive interventions tailored to a community's specific profile of risk and protection. A community-randomized trial of CTC, the Community Youth Development Study, is currently being conducted in 24…