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This article describes conceptual advances of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) working group guidance to evaluate the certainty of evidence (confidence in evidence, quality of evidence) from network meta-analysis (NMA). Application of the original GRADE guidance, published in 2014, in a number of NMAs has resulted in advances that strengthen its conceptual basis and make the process more efficient. This guidance will be useful for systematic review authors who aim to assess the certainty of all pairwise comparisons from an NMA and who are familiar with the basic concepts of NMA and the traditional GRADE approach for pairwise meta-analysis. Two principles of the original GRADE NMA guidance are that we need to rate the certainty of the evidence for each pairwise comparison within a network separately and that in doing so we need to consider both the direct and indirect evidence. We present, discuss, and illustrate four conceptual advances: (1) consideration of imprecision is not necessary when rating the direct and indirect estimates to inform the rating of NMA estimates, (2) there is no need to rate the indirect evidence when the certainty of the direct evidence is high and the contribution of the direct evidence to the network estimate is at least as great as that of the indirect evidence, (3) we should not trust a statistical test of global incoherence of the network to assess incoherence at the pairwise comparison level, and (4) in the presence of incoherence between direct and indirect evidence, the certainty of the evidence of each estimate can help decide which estimate to believe. •The application of the Grading of Recommendations Assessments, Development, and Evaluation approach to a number of network meta-analyses in the 3 years since the original guidance publication has led to advances that have strengthened the conceptual basis.•We present, discuss, and illustrate four conceptual advances. These are based on two principles: we need to rate the certainty of the evidence of each pairwise comparison within a network separately and that we need to consider both the direct and indirect evidence contributing to each network estimate.•Although maximizing the efficiency of the process is desirable, as illustrated in the conceptual advances, use of these strategies requires careful judgment.

The vast majority of high school students aspire to some kind of postsecondary education, yet far too many of them enter college without the basic content knowledge, skills, or habits of mind they need to succeed. Andrea Venezia and Laura Jaeger look at the state of college readiness among high school students, the effectiveness of programs in place to help them transition to college, and efforts to improve those transitions. Students are unprepared for postsecondary coursework for many reasons, the authors write, including differences between what high schools teach and what colleges expect, as well as large disparities between the instruction offered by high schools with high concentrations of students in poverty and that offered by high schools with more advantaged students. The authors also note the importance of noncurricular variables, such as peer influences, parental expectations, and conditions that encourage academic study. Interventions to improve college readiness offer a variety of services, from academic preparation and information about college and financial aid, to psychosocial and behavioral supports, to the development of habits of mind including organizational skills, anticipation, persistence, and resiliency. The authors also discuss more systemic programs, such as Middle College High Schools, and review efforts to allow high school students to take college classes (known as dual enrollment). Evaluations of the effectiveness of these efforts are limited, but the authors report that studies of precollege support programs generally show small impacts, while the more systemic programs show mixed results. Dual-enrollment programs show promise, but the evaluation designs may overstate the results. The Common Core State Standards, a voluntary set of goals and expectations in English and math adopted by most states, offer the potential to improve college and career readiness, the authors write. But that potential will be realized, they add, only if the standards are supplemented with the necessary professional development to enable educators to help all students meet academic college readiness standards, a focus on developing strong noncognitive knowledge and skills for all students, and the information and supports to help students prepare and select the most appropriate postsecondary institution.

This article uses the mass migration wave to Israel in the 1990s to examine the impact of immigrant concentration during elementary school on the long-term academic outcomes of native students in high school. The results suggest that the overall presence of immigrants in a grade had an adverse effect on the chances of passing the high school matriculation exam, which is necessary to attend college. This result is robust to a variety of alternative specifications. We also perform a 'placebo' analysis which shows that the high school outcomes of natives are affected only by the immigrant concentration in their own 5th grade class.

Peer tutoring is an instructional strategy that involves students helping each other learn content through repetition of key concepts. This meta-analysis examined effects of peer tutoring across 26 single-case research experiments for 938 students in Grades 1-12. The TauU effect size for 195 phase contrasts was 0.75 with a confidence interval of CI 95 = 0.71 to 0.78, indicating that moderate to large academic benefits can be attributed to peer tutoring. Five potential moderators of these effects were examined: dosage, grade level, reward, disability status, and content area. This is the first peer tutoring meta-analysis in nearly 30 years to examine outcomes for elementary and secondary students, and extends previous peer tutoring meta-analyses by examining disability as a potential moderator. Findings suggest that peer tutoring is an effective intervention regardless of dosage, grade level, or disability status. Among students with disabilities, those with emotional and behavioral disorders benefitted most. Implications are discussed.

This study investigated sixth-grade students’ development of multidisciplinary models involving the integration of mathematics, science, and statistics, together with shared STEM practices. Mathematics and science featured a reciprocal relationship within the real-world context of tsunami inundation. Experimenting with water tubs comprising “landmasses” and “shore slopes” of varying angles, students explored how varying the slope of the shoreline affects the inundation distance. Given that organising and structuring data are essential to the creation of models as systems of representation, students’ modelling revealed a basic understanding of key statistical concepts and processes, including variation and covariation, and an ability to identify trends both within and across data sets. Students were able to apply their learning in recommending ways of minimising the impact of a real-world tsunami, demonstrating how such an investigation can facilitate understanding of natural phenomena. The overall findings indicate how elementary-grade students can successfully engage in independent multidisciplinary modelling within integrated STEM investigations and develop important conceptual understandings in the process.

East Asian students have consistently performed well in mathematics compared to their international peers. Though many researchers have attempted to explore the factors that underpin their success, most studies have focused only on a limited set of variables. Mathematics achievement, however, is a complex phenomenon, determined by multiple factors, and best understood when different variables across levels of analysis are taken into account. Guided by the socio-ecological theory, the present study attempts to understand the relative importance of individual, microsystem, and mesosystem factors in predicting mathematics achievement. We used the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 data provided by 21,340 eighth-grade East Asian students (Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Singapore), 1242 mathematics teachers, and 802 principals. Machine learning (i.e., random forest regression) was used to analyze the data. Results identified 11 key variables that best predicted East Asian students’ mathematics achievement. Among these, students’ confidence in mathematics, socioeconomic status, and school emphasis on academic success were the top three. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

In recent years, a wave of science of reading (SOR) reforms have swept across the nation. Although advocates argue that these are based on science-based research, SOR remains a contested and ambiguous notion. In this essay, Elena Aydarova uses an anthropology of policy approach to analyze advocacy efforts that promoted SOR reforms and legislative deliberations in Tennessee. Drawing on Barthes's theory of mythology, this analysis sheds light on the semiotic chains that link SOR with tradition, knowledge-building curricula, and the scaling down of social safety nets. This deciphering of SOR mythologies underscores how the focus on \"science\" distorts the intentions of these myths to naturalize socioeconomic inequality and depoliticize social conditions of precarity. This study problematizes the claims made by SOR advocates and sheds light on the ways these reforms are likely to reproduce, rather than disrupt, inequities and injustices.

Recent decades have seen rapid growth of national participation in international tests as well as expanded national assessment testing. This article addresses the relationship between these forms of testing and educational developments: educational enrollments, women’s participation in schooling, repetition rates, student centrism in the curriculum, and the breadth of the curriculum. From a critical perspective, the obsession with international and national assessment testing might be linked to lower enrollments, higher repetition rates, and a narrowing of curricula. We use panel regression models with country fixed effects to examine these relationships. Our findings do not support these dire predictions. We offer an alternative interpretation that situates the global testing regime within a broader world educational culture that favors both a technocratic approach to assessing learning and such progressive educational outcomes as expanded access and broader curricula. En las últimas décadas se ha observado un rápido crecimiento de la participación nacional en pruebas internacionales, así como también una ampliación de las pruebas de evaluación a nivel nacional. Este artículo trata sobre la relación entre estas formas de pruebas y los acontecimientos educativos: las inscripciones educativas, la participación femenina en la enseñanza, los índices de repetición, el centrismo estudiantil en el plan de estudios y la amplitud del plan de estudios. Desde una perspectiva crítica, la obsesión con las pruebas de evaluación internacionales y nacionales podría estar vinculada con una disminución en las inscripciones, un aumento de los índices de repetición y un estrechamiento de los planes de estudio. Para analizar estas relaciones usamos modelos de regresión para los datos de panel con efectos fijos por país. Nuestros hallazgos no apoyan estas alarmantes predicciones. Ofrecemos una interpretación alternativa que sitúa el régimen de pruebas global dentro de una cultura educativa mundial más amplia, que favorece tanto el enfoque tecnocrático para evaluar el aprendizaje y dichos resultados educativos progresivos como un mayor acceso y planes de estudio más amplios. Au cours des dernières décennies, on a assisté à une croissance rapide de la participation nationale aux tests internationaux ainsi qu’à l’expansion des tests d’évaluation nationaux. Cet article traite de la relation entre ces formes d’évaluation et l’évolution de l’éducation, c’est-à-dire les inscriptions scolaires, la participation des femmes à la scolarité, les taux de redoublement, le centrage des élèves dans le programme et la portée du programme. D’un point de vue critique, l’obsession pour les tests d’évaluation internationaux et nationaux pourrait être liée à une baisse des inscriptions, à des taux de redoublement plus élevés et à un rétrécissement des programmes. Nous utilisons des modèles de régression par panel avec des effets par pays pour examiner ces relations. Nos résultats n’appuient pas ces prédictions désastreuses. Nous offrons une interprétation alternative situant le régime mondial de tests dans une culture éducative mondiale plus large qui favorise à la fois une approche technocratique de l’évaluation de l’apprentissage et des résultats éducatifs progressifs comme un accès élargi et des programmes plus vastes. 近几十年来，各国参加国际考试的人数迅速增加，国家评估考试也有所扩大。本文探讨了这些形式的考试与教育发展之 间的关系，如教育入学率、女性参与学校教育、留级率、课程中的学生中心主义以及课程的广度。从批评的角度来看，对国际和国家评估考试的痴迷可能与入学率降低、留级率升高和课程缩减有关。我们使用具有国家固定效应的面板回归模型来检验这些关系。我们的研究结果不支持这些可怕的预测。 我们提供了另一种解释，将全球考试制度置于更广泛的世界教育文化中，这种文化既有利于以技术官僚的方式评估学习，也有利于扩大入学机会和扩大课程范围等进步的教育成果。 شهدت العقود الأخيرة نموًا هائلاً في المشاركة المحلية في الاختبارات الدولية وكذلك توسع نطاق اختبارات التقييم المحلية. يتناول هذا المقال العلاقة ما بين أشكال تلك الاختبارات والتطور التعليمي: المشاركات التعليمية، ومشاركة المرأة في التعليم، ومعدلات التكرار، وتمركز الطلاب في المنهج وعرض المناهج. من منظور نقدي، قد يرتبط الهوس باختبارات التقييم الدولية والمحلية بمعدلات الالتحاق الأقل، ومعدلات التكرار العالية وضيق المناهج. ونستعين هنا بنماذج انحدار البيانات الطولي في ظل آثار معينة خاصة بالبلد وذلك للتحقيق في تلك العلاقات. إلا أن نتائجنا لا تدعم تلك التوقعات الحثيثة. نقدم هنا تفسيرًا بديلاً يضع نظام الاختبار العالمي في إطار الثقافة التعليمية العالمية الأشمل والتي تحابي المدخل التكنوقراطي على تقييم التعليم وينتج عن ذلك التعليم التقدمي دخول واسع ومناهج أوسع في نطاقها. За последние десятилетия у государств резко возрос интерес как к участию в международных рейтингах, так и к развитию собственных. В статье рассматривается взаимосвязь между ними и показателями развития образования: динамикой поступающих, количеством женщин в системе образования, числом второгодников, учетом предпочтений студентов в учебном плане и его содержанием. С точки зрения критиков одержимость этими рейтингами может приводить к недонабору студентов, избытку второгодников и сокращению учебных дисциплин. Авторы использовали регрессионный анализ панельных данных с разбивкой по странам, чтобы отследить взаимосвязь и не обнаружили подтверждений этим устрашающим прогнозам. Авторы предлагают посмотреть на проблему под другим углом, при котором глобальные системы рейтингов на более широкой арене международного образования будут способствовать как более технологичному подходу к оценке качества образования, так и к более удобной системе образования (доступность информации, разнообразие учебных дисциплин).

Libraries may serve as a way to bridge educational equity gaps through informal learning programs. This is especially true in the United States where inequality is a growing concern at local, state, and federal levels. While the informal learning literature within the United States highlights innovative practitioner reflections and design cases, few articles have attempted to synthesize empirical trends that outline cognitive and affective learning outcomes. To address this gap, this systematic review explored empirical studies of K-12 informal learning programs within United States libraries. The findings suggest a focus on initiatives within public libraries and STEM learning, especially in urban settings. That said, many studies presented qualitative data and reported on affective learning outcomes, which leads to questions as to the extent of learning gains and replicability. Implications for practice are discussed.

Recent research on what students know about complex systems shows that they typically have challenges in understanding particular system ideas such as nonlinearity, complex causality, and decentralized control. Yet this research has yet to adopt a systematic approach to learning about complex systems in an ordered way in line with the Next Generation Science Standards’ call for learning pathways that guide teaching and learning along a developmental continuum. In this paper, we propose that learning progressions research can provide a conceptual framework for identifying a learning pathway to complex systems understanding competence. As a first step in developing a progression, we articulate a sequence of complex systems ideas, from the least to most difficult, by analyzing students’ written responses using an item response theory model. Results show that the easiest ideas to comprehend are those that relate to levels or scales within systems and the interconnected nature of systems. The most difficult ideas to grasp are those related to the decentralized organization of the system and the unpredictable or nondeterministic nature of effects. We discuss implications for this research in terms of developing curricular content that can guide learning experiences in grades 8–12 science education.