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result(s) for
"National Competency Tests"
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Teacher and Teaching Effects on Students' Attitudes and Behaviors
2017
Research has focused predominantly on how teachers affect students' achievement on standardized tests despite evidence that a broad range of attitudes and behaviors are equally important to their long-term success. We find that upper-elementary teachers have large effects on self-reported measures of students 'self-efficacy in math, and happiness and behavior in class. Students' attitudes and behaviors are predicted by teaching practices most proximal to these measures, including teachers' emotional support and classroom organization. However, teachers who are effective at improving test scores often are not equally effective at improving students'attitudes and behaviors. These findings lend empirical evidence to well-established theory on the multidimensional nature of teaching and the need to identify strategies for improving the full range of teachers 'skills.
Journal Article
Gender Achievement Gaps in U.S. School Districts
by
Kalogrides, Demetra
,
Fahle, Erin M.
,
Podolsky, Anne
in
Academic achievement gaps
,
Accountability
,
Achievement Gap
2019
We estimate male-female test score gaps in math and English language arts (ELA) for nearly 10,000 U.S. school districts using state accountability data from third- through eighth-grade students in the 2008-2009 through 2015-2016 school years. We find that the average U.S. school district has no gender achievement gap in math, but there is a gap of roughly 0.23 standard deviations in ELA that favors girls. Both math and ELA gaps vary among school districts; some districts have more male-favoring gaps and some more female-favoring gaps. Math gaps tend to favor males more in socioeconomically advantaged school districts and in districts with larger gender disparities in adult income, education, and occupations; however, we do not find strong associations in ELA.
Journal Article
Can Generative AI and ChatGPT Outperform Humans on Cognitive-Demanding Problem-Solving Tasks in Science?
by
Ma, Wenchao
,
Zhai, Xiaoming
,
Nyaaba, Matthew
in
Artificial intelligence
,
Assessments
,
Basic Skills
2025
This study aimed to examine an assumption regarding whether generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools can overcome the cognitive intensity that humans suffer when solving problems. We examine the performance of ChatGPT and GPT-4 on NAEP science assessments and compare their performance to students by cognitive demands of the items. Fifty-four 2019 NAEP science assessment tasks were coded by content experts using a two-dimensional cognitive load framework, including task cognitive complexity and dimensionality. ChatGPT and GPT-4 answered the questions individually and were scored using the scoring keys provided by NAEP. The analysis of the available data for this study was based on the average student ability scores for students who answered each item correctly and the percentage of students who responded to individual items. The results showed that both ChatGPT and GPT-4 consistently outperformed most students who answered each individual item in the NAEP science assessments. As the cognitive demand for NAEP science assessments increases, statistically higher average student ability scores are required to correctly address the questions. This pattern was observed for Grades 4, 8, and 12 students respectively. However, ChatGPT and GPT-4 were not statistically sensitive to the increase of cognitive demands of the tasks, except for Grade 4. As the first study focusing on comparing cutting-edge GAI and K-12 students in problem-solving in science, this finding implies the need for changes to educational objectives to prepare students with competence to work with GAI tools such as ChatGPT and GPT-4 in the future. Education ought to emphasize the cultivation of advanced cognitive skills rather than depending solely on tasks that demand cognitive intensity. This approach would foster critical thinking, analytical skills, and the application of knowledge in novel contexts among students. Furthermore, the findings suggest that researchers should innovate assessment practices by moving away from cognitive intensity tasks toward creativity and analytical skills to more efficiently avoid the negative effects of GAI on testing.
Journal Article
Digital Versus Paper Reading Processes and Links to Comprehension for Middle School Students
by
Reynolds, Dan
,
Salas, Jorge
,
Goodwin, Amanda P.
in
Behavior Patterns
,
Correlation
,
Early Adolescents
2020
This study explores digital and paper reading processes and outcomes for 371 fifth to eighth graders completing a reading task similar to standardized testing. Results showed students highlighted and annotated more when reading the paper versus digital text. Also, reading on paper versus digitally was slightly supportive of reading comprehension for the longer section of text. For behaviors, digital highlighting and looking back at the paper text were supportive of reading comprehension, whereas paper highlighting was negatively related, likely because paper highlighting tended to occur often outside of important areas of the text. Paper and digital annotating, online dictionary use, and digital look-back did not link to comprehension, when controlling for other covariates. Links to theory, research, and practice are discussed.
Journal Article
Writing Characteristics of Students With Learning Disabilities and Typically Achieving Peers
by
Collins, Alyson A.
,
Graham, Steve
,
Rigby-Wills, Hope
in
Academic achievement
,
Achievement Gains
,
Basic Skills
2017
There is a general consensus that writing is a challenging task for students with learning disabilities (LD). To identify more precisely the extent and depth of the challenges that these students experience with writing, the authors conducted a meta-analysis comparing the writing performance of students with LD to their typically achieving peers. From 53 studies that yielded 138 effect sizes, the authors calculated average weighted effect sizes, showing that students with LD obtained lower scores than their peers on the following writing outcomes: writing quality (–1.06); organization (–1.04); vocabulary (–0.89); sentence fluency (–0.81); conventions of spelling, grammar, and handwriting (–1.14); genre elements (–0.82); output (–0.87); and motivation (–0.42). Implications for research and practice are provided based on these findings.
Journal Article
Tackling \Our Worst Subject\ Requires New Approaches-and Better Data
2024
Infrequent national testing in history and civics, limited state results hamper progress Chester Finn, president emeritus of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a frequent Education Next contributor, likes to recount a story firom his time working as a senior official at the U.S. Department of Education under education secretary William Bennett. The approach \"foregrounds the major Suprème Court decisions that have shaped the everyday lives of students across the nation\"-decisions concerning student speech, corporal punishment, religious expression, and more. lts adoption, he argues, would frame students as \"active participants in shaping our constitutional order\" while also providing a jumping-off point to explore \"more-abstract concepts that undergird civic knowledge.\" Since Secretary Bennett opined on Chicago's national standing, our ability to compare student achievement in math and reading across states and school districts has been transformed.
Journal Article
English Language Proficiency and Early School Attainment Among Children Learning English as an Additional Language
by
Gooch, Debbie
,
Norbury, Courtenay F.
,
Whiteside, Katie E.
in
Academic Achievement
,
Attainment
,
Behavior Problems
2017
Children learning English as an additional language (EAL) often experience lower academic attainment than monolingual peers. In this study, teachers provided ratings of English language proficiency and social, emotional, and behavioral functioning for 782 children with EAL and 6,485 monolingual children in reception year (ages 4-5). Academic attainment was assessed in reception and Year 2 (ages 6-7). Relative to monolingual peers with comparable English language proficiency, children with EAL displayed fewer social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties in reception, were equally likely to meet curriculum targets in reception, and were more likely to meet targets in Year 2. Academic attainment and social, emotional, and behavioral functioning in children with EAL are associated with English language proficiency at school entry.
Journal Article
The impact of no Child Left Behind on student achievement
2011
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.
Journal Article
Impact of a Large-Scale Science Intervention Focused on English Language Learners
by
Llosa, Lorena
,
Lee, Okhee
,
Van Booven, Christopher D.
in
Achievement Gains
,
Comparative Testing
,
Control Groups
2016
The authors evaluated the effects of P-SELL, a science curricular and professional development intervention for fifth-grade students with a focus on English language learners (ELLs). Using a randomized controlled trial design with 33 treatment and 33 control schools across three school districts in one state, we found significant and meaningfully sized intervention effects on a researcher-developed science assessment and the state science assessment. Subgroup analyses revealed that the P-SELL intervention had a positive and significant effect for each language proficiency group (ELLs, recently reclassified ELLs, former ELLs, and non-ELLs) on the researcher-developed assessment. The intervention also had a positive effect for former ELLs and non-ELLs on the state science assessment, but for ELLs and recently reclassified ELLs, the effect was not statistically significant.
Journal Article
Hidden Progress of Multilingual Students on NAEP
by
Kieffer, Michael J.
,
Thompson, Karen D.
in
Academic achievement
,
Achievement Gap
,
Bilingual Students
2018
Using National Assessment of Educational Progress data from 2003 to 2015, this brief describes changes in the reading and mathematics performance of multilingual students—defined as students who report a primary home language or languages other than English. Although all students' scores improved, multilingual students' scores improved two to three times more than monolingual students' scores in both subjects in Grades 4 and 8. There was little evidence that these trends were explained by cohort changes in racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, or regional composition. These promising trends are obscured when researchers and policymakers focus only on scores for students currently classified as English learners.
Journal Article