In this paper we investigate the impact of a statewide program aimed at better aligning K-12 to higher education and improving college readiness. We replicate an earlier study focused on the effects of this program at one campus by employing detailed administrative data on the census of California students that enroll at all twenty-three campuses…

Do nudge interventions that have generated positive impacts at a local level maintain efficacy when scaled state or nationwide? What specific mechanisms explain the positive impacts of promising smaller-scale nudges? We investigate, through two randomized controlled trials, the impact of a national and state-level campaign to encourage students to…

Executive function (EF) has been linked to many important aspects of child and adolescent functioning, such as academic achievement, self-regulated learning, social-emotional development, physical well-being, and behavioral problems. Planning and organization, two key executive functions, are found to be the most important predictors of school…

Background: Over the past decade, there has been a shift in science, technology, engineering and math education, especially in engineering, towards a competency-based pedagogy. Competency-based learning (CBL) is an outcome-based, student-centered form of instruction where students progress to more advanced work upon mastering the necessary…

Purpose: To determine methods of student learning assessment and clinical training in rehabilitation counseling programs. With many shifts occurring in postsecondary education and in rehabilitation counseling, it is critical to understand these current practices. Method: The authors used an Internet-based survey design to solicit program…

Explicit timing is an empirically validated intervention to increase problem completion rates by exposing individuals to a stopwatch and explicitly telling them of the time limit for the assignment. Though explicit timing has proven to be effective for groups of students, some students may not respond well to explicit timing based on factors such…

This paper reports on a longitudinal mixed methods evaluation study on the acquisition and development of mathematical pedagogical content knowledge (MPCK) of future teachers at several German universities. The study is a German supplementary study to the international comparative TEDS-M 2008 study. Besides the pedagogical content knowledge that…

A growing number of schools have begun experimenting with giving students cash rewards to improve academic performance. This practice has come to be known as "cash-for-grades." In this article, I examine some of the philosophical and ethical questions involved with cash-for-grades programmes, rather than focusing on whether such…

Louisiana's relatively new Compass teacher observation and evaluation system is used to evaluate teacher quality or effectiveness in P-12 public schools. Secondary school administrators in one district were interviewed about their perceptions of the system and, especially, an iteration of the Danielson rubric used for teacher evaluation. Findings…

In this article, the author talks about establishing a book club comprising international students and scholars and other members of the community interested in improving their English language skills. This book club, free to participants (although sponsored by the English Language Institute of the author's university), ran for ten weeks each over…

Traditional e-Learning environments are based on static contents considering that all learners are similar, so they are not able to respond to each learner's needs. These systems are less adaptive and once a system that supports a particular strategy has been designed and implemented, it is less likely to change according to student's interactions…

In this study researchers examined the effectiveness of one of the largest teacher education programs located within the largest research-intensive universities within the US. They did this using a value-added model as per current federal educational policy imperatives to assess the measurable effects of teacher education programs on their teacher…

This Directions paper, written by two former Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Leaders, (West and Jenkins) and a PAL Tutor (Hill), will support any geographer considering a PAL role. It reflects their experiences of participating in a PAL scheme at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, United Kingdom, and research conducted with…

Background: This study evaluated a package of Active Support (AS), which included standard training with additional video informed reflective practice. Materials & Methods: The training package was implemented as part of a service improvement initiative in four residential intellectual disability homes, using a concurrent multiple baseline…

The societal demand for inspiring and engaging science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students and preparing our workforce for the emerging creative economy has necessitated developing students' self-efficacy and understanding of engineering design processes from as early as elementary school levels. Hands-on engineering design…