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Is there an achievement gap for online reading ability based on income inequality that is separate from the achievement gap in traditional, offline reading? This possibility was examined between students in two pseudonymous school districts: West Town (economically advantaged) and East Town (economically challenged; N = 256). Performance-based assessments were used within a simulation of the Internet developed as part of a larger project. Seventh graders completed two online research and comprehension assessments, which evaluated four skill areas (locate, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate) and two knowledge domains in science. Students also completed an assessment of prior domain knowledge and a short Internet use questionnaire. Standardized state reading and writing test scores served as measures of offline literacy skills. Results indicated that there was a significant achievement gap favoring West Town students in offline reading scores, offline writing scores, and online research and comprehension scores. A significant gap persisted for online research and comprehension after we conditioned on pretest differences in offline reading, offline writing, and prior knowledge scores. The results of the questionnaire indicated that West Town students had greater access to the Internet at home and were required to use the Internet more in school. These results suggest that a separate and independent achievement gap existed for online reading, based on income inequality. Current estimates of this gap, which rely solely on measures of offline reading, may underrepresent the true nature of the U. S. reading achievement gap in an online age. Policy implications are explored.

Objective This study examined cross‐national variations in marriage and motherhood penalties between Western and East Asian countries. Background Little is known about how and to what extent motherhood affects women's labor market outcomes in East Asia compared to Western welfare countries. We examine employment, wage, and labor income with regard to the motherhood penalty. Method We selected the five countries of Finland, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States and applied probit and Heckman selection models using Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Wave IX and Korean Labor and Income Panel Survey data. Results Variations between Western countries and East Asian welfare states are highlighted. Married mothers with children in East Asian countries are greatly disadvantaged in employment compared to those in Western countries. Having a child is associated with lower labor income and wages by 2.9% to 4.5% across the countries, but we do not find a significant association in Germany and Korea. Conclusion Women experience various dimensions of motherhood penalties across countries. East Asian women are more likely to face both marriage and motherhood penalties than others. Implication Marriage and motherhood in East Asian countries should be understood differently from those in Western contexts. Marriage and motherhood are life events that are associated with women's employment decisions and work opportunities in East Asian countries.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act compelled states to design school accountability systems based on annual student assessments. The effect of this federal legislation on the distribution of student achievement is a highly controversial but centrally important question. This study presents evidence on whether NCLB has influenced student achievement based on an analysis of state-level panel data on student test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The impact of NCLB is identified using a comparative interrupted time series analysis that relies on comparisons of the test-score changes across states that already had school accountability policies in place prior to NCLB and those that did not. Our results indicate that NCLB generated statistically significant increases in the average math performance of fourth graders (effect size = 0.23 by 2007) as well as improvements at the lower and top percentiles. There is also evidence of improvements in eighth-grade math achievement, particularly among traditionally low-achieving groups and at the lower percentiles. However, we find no evidence that NCLB increased fourth-grade reading achievement.

In this study, eight airborne laser scanning (ALS)-based single tree detection methods are benchmarked and investigated. The methods were applied to a unique dataset originating from different regions of the Alpine Space covering different study areas, forest types, and structures. This is the first benchmark ever performed for different forests within the Alps. The evaluation of the detection results was carried out in a reproducible way by automatically matching them to precise in situ forest inventory data using a restricted nearest neighbor detection approach. Quantitative statistical parameters such as percentages of correctly matched trees and omission and commission errors are presented. The proposed automated matching procedure presented herein shows an overall accuracy of 97%. Method based analysis, investigations per forest type, and an overall benchmark performance are presented. The best matching rate was obtained for single-layered coniferous forests. Dominated trees were challenging for all methods. The overall performance shows a matching rate of 47%, which is comparable to results of other benchmarks performed in the past. The study provides new insight regarding the potential and limits of tree detection with ALS and underlines some key aspects regarding the choice of method when performing single tree detection for the various forest types encountered in alpine regions.

Background: Partial credit scoring, introduced with the Next Generation NCLEX (NGN), aims to better measure clinical judgment and knowledge. This project evaluated the impact of partial credit scoring on unit exam performance for students repeating a third-semester prelicensure nursing course asking: Is partial credit scoring a helping hand, or a crutch? Method: A retrospective, comparative design was used to analyze unit exam scores of repeating students across two semesters: Fall 2024 using traditional scoring and Spring 2025 using NGN-aligned partial credit models. Paired samples t-tests were used for analysis. Results: Statistically significant score improvements were found across all four unit exams (p < .05). However, repeating students' averages did not consistently exceed the overall cohort average. Conclusion: Partial credit scoring improved student exam performance measurement without evidence of grade inflation. Findings suggest this scoring method supports more accurate assessment, making it a pedagogically sound option for nursing education programs.

Instructional labs are widely seen as a unique, albeit expensive, way to teach scientific content. We measured the effectiveness of introductory lab courses at achieving this educational goal across nine different lab courses at three very different institutions. These institutions and courses encompassed a broad range of student populations and instructional styles. The nine courses studied had two key things in common: the labs aimed to reinforce the content presented in lectures, and the labs were optional. By comparing the performance of students who did and did not take the labs (with careful normalization for selection effects), we found universally and precisely no added value to learning course content from taking the labs as measured by course exam performance. This work should motivate institutions and departments to reexamine the goals and conduct of their lab courses, given their resource-intensive nature.We show why these results make sense when looking at the comparative mental processes of students involved in research and instructional labs, and offer alternative goals and instructional approaches that would make lab courses more educationally valuable.

Persistent school segregation means not only that children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds attend different schools but also that their schools are unequal in performance. This study documents the extent of disparities nationally in school performance between schools attended by whites and Asians compared with those attended by blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans. It further examines the geography of school inequality in two ways. First, it analyzes the segregation of students between different types of school profiles based on racial composition, poverty, and metropolitan location. Second, it estimates the independent effects of these and other school and school district characteristics on school performance, identifying which aspects of school segregation are the most important sources of disadvantage. A focus on schools at the bottom of the distribution, as in No Schools Left Behind, would not ameliorate wide disparities between groups that are found across the whole spectrum of school performance.