The ACT College Readiness Benchmarks are the ACT scores associated with a 50% chance of earning a B or higher grade in selected first-year credit-bearing courses at a typical postsecondary institution. The Benchmarks were established by linking ACT test scores with grades in first-year college courses from the same subject area. Benchmarks were…

This study offers insight into students' use and desire to use mobile devices for educational purposes. I examined college students' mobile device usage on the basis of demographic factors including sex, age, ethnicity, class standing, mode of delivery, and socioeconomic status. This study also investigated factors that affect students' likelihood…

The purpose of this work was to examine the effect of classroom teachers who earn certification as a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards on mathematics and reading achievement and behavioral outcomes (attendance and discipline referrals) for students in Grades 4 and 5. Two studies were…

We investigate whether the career opportunities afforded to aspiring principals have become more equitable over time. Controlling for a wide variety of individual and contextual characteristics, we employ discrete-time hazard modeling to predict the probabilities of teachers at the various intersections of race and sex entering the principalship.…

The grouping problem is critical in collaborative learning (CL) because of the complexity and difficulty in adequate grouping, based on various grouping criteria and numerous learners. Previous studies have paid attention to certain research questions, and the consideration for a number of learner characteristics has arisen. Such a multi-objective…

A central question in working memory research concerns the degree to which information in working memory is accessible to other cognitive processes (e.g., decision-making). Theories assuming that the focus of attention can only store a single object at a time require the focus to orient to a target representation before further processing can…

We present a logistic function of a monotonic polynomial with a lower asymptote, allowing additional flexibility beyond the three-parameter logistic model. We develop a maximum marginal likelihood-based approach to estimate the item parameters. The new item response model is demonstrated on math assessment data from a state, and a computationally…

By focusing on a particular alteration of the comparative likelihood task, this study contributes to research on teachers' understanding of probability. Our novel task presented prospective teachers with multinomial, contextualized sequences and asked them to identify which was least likely. Results demonstrate that determinants of…

This research uses the nationally representative Beginning Postsecondary Study: 2003-2009 to investigate the relative significance in upward transfer of individual and institutional factors for different groups of students, considering their state policy contexts of variable support for improved articulation and transfer between 2-year and…

First- to second-year retention rates are one metric reported by colleges and universities to convey institutional success to a variety of external constituents. But how much of a retention rate is institutional inputs, and how much can be understood by examining student inputs? The authors utilize multi-year, multi-institutional data to examine…

This article provides tools and rationale for instructors in math and science to make their assessment and curriculum materials (more) readable for students. The tools discussed (MSWord, LexTutor, Coh-Metrix TEA) are readily available linguistic analysis applications that are grounded in current linguistic theory, but present output that can…

We report an experiment designed to provide a qualitative contrast between knowledge-limited versions of mixed-state and variable-resources (VR) models of visual change detection. The key data pattern is that observers often respond "same" on big-change trials, while simultaneously being able to discriminate between same and small-change…

This article describes various courses designed to incorporate mathematical proofs into courses for non-math and non-science majors. These courses, nicknamed "math beauty" courses, are designed to discuss one topic in-depth rather than to introduce many topics at a superficial level. A variety of courses, each requiring students to…

When randomized experiments are infeasible, quasi-experimental designs can be exploited to evaluate causal treatment effects. The strongest quasi-experimental designs for causal inference are regression discontinuity designs, instrumental variable designs, matching and propensity score designs, and comparative interrupted time series designs. This…

Two visual-world eye-tracking experiments investigated the role of prediction in the processing of repair disfluencies (e.g., "The chef reached for some salt uh I mean some ketchup ..."). Experiment 1 showed that listeners were more likely to fixate a critical distractor item (e.g., "pepper") during the processing of repair…