Thirty-two students enrolled in one of four sixth-grade classrooms across two elementary schools participated in this study. Students receiving supplemental and intensive instruction in math and those with math-related disabilities were participants. A treatment and control, pre/postexperimental design was used to examine the effect of preteaching…

Using an empirically-based simulation study, we show that typically used methods of choosing an item calibration sample have significant impacts on achievement bias and system rankings. We examine whether recent PISA accommodations, especially for lower performing participants, can mitigate some of this bias. Our findings indicate that standard…

Multiple imputation (MI), a two-stage process whereby missing data are imputed multiple times and the resulting estimates of the parameter(s) of interest are combined across the completed datasets, is becoming increasingly popular for handling missing data. However, MI can result in biased inference if not carried out appropriately or if the…

It is common to assume that worker productivity is normally distributed, but this assumption is rarely if ever tested. We estimate the distribution of worker productivity where individual productivity is measured with error, using the productivity of elementary school teachers as an example. Proposals to improve teacher productivity often focus on…

Inequalities do not end once students enter higher education. Yet, the majority of papers on the effectiveness of higher education aid examine its impact on college enrolment. In this paper, we provide evidence on the causal impact of means-tested but otherwise unconditional financial aid on the outcomes of students who have already enrolled in…

On March 22, 2016, the New Jersey Department of Education ("the Department") published a broadcast memo sharing secure district access to 2014-15 median Student Growth Percentile (mSGP) data for all qualifying teachers. These data describe student growth from the last school year, and comprise 10% of qualifying teachers' 2014-15…

This paper explores young children's drawings (6 years old) in early number and addition activities in Malaysia. Observation, informal interviews and analysis of drawings revealed two types of drawing, and gave insight into the transitional process required for children to utilise drawings in problem solving. We argue the importance of valuing and…

This study explored the potential of a rich assessment task to reveal students' multiplicative thinking in respect to a hypothetical learning trajectory. Thirty pairs of students in grades 5 and 6 attempted the task. Twenty-two pairs applied multiplicative structure to find the number of items in arrays. However counting and computational errors…

High School graduation rates are key indicators of accountability for high schools and school districts in Oregon. Beginning with the 2008-09 school year, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) implemented the cohort method of calculating graduation rates. The cohort method identifies the year the student entered high school for the first time…

A $1 plastic helicopter toy (called a Wacky Whirler) can be used to demonstrate lift. Students can make basic measurements of the toy, use reasonable assumptions and, with the lift formula, estimate the lift, and verify that it is sufficient to overcome the toy's weight. (Contains 1 figure.)

Large-scale experiments that involve nested structures may assign treatment conditions either to subgroups such as classrooms or to individuals such as students within subgroups. Key aspects of the design of such experiments include knowledge of the variance structure in higher levels and the sample sizes necessary to reach sufficient power to…

We begin by distinguishing computationalism from a number of other theses that are sometimes conflated with it. We also distinguish between several important kinds of computation: computation in a generic sense, digital computation, and analog computation. Then, we defend a weak version of computationalism--neural processes are computations in the…

Trading cards for various sports and a range of other subjects such as architecture, animals, hobbies, and war have been in existence since the late nineteenth century and still enjoy great popularity. Two of the most prominent examples are baseball cards in the U.S. and football cards in Europe. Three strategies for collecting European football…

Despite their importance in public discourse, numbers in the range of 1 million to 1 trillion are notoriously difficult to understand. We examine magnitude estimation by adult Americans when placing large numbers on a number line and when qualitatively evaluating descriptions of imaginary geopolitical scenarios. Prior theoretical conceptions…

This article considers potential problems that can arise in estimating a unidimensional item response theory (IRT) model when some test items are multidimensional (i.e., show a complex factorial structure). More specifically, this study examines (1) the consequences of model misfit on IRT item parameter estimates due to unintended minor item-level…