Colleges and universities are being pressed to seek innovative ways to measure student learning outcomes and identify the conditions that lead to their development. Understanding how students group according to a multidimensional set of learning outcomes provides information on the extent to which institutions are meeting goals. This study…

Medicare home health care provides critical skilled nursing and therapy services to patients in their homes, generally after a period in an inpatient facility or nursing home. Disparities in access to, or outcomes of, home health care can result in patient deterioration and increased cost to the Medicare program if patient care needs intensify.…

This multilevel study examined the relationships between moral climate factors and prosocial as well as antisocial behaviors inside and outside the school (school misconduct, delinquent behavior, and vandalism). The moral climate factors were punishment-and victim-based moral orientation, relationships among students, and teacher-student…

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the treatment effects of a relationship skills and family strengthening intervention for n = 726 high-risk, disadvantaged new parents. Method: Hierarchical linear modeling and regression models were used to assess intervention treatment effects. These findings were subsequently verified…

Objectives: This study examined the effects of Check & Connect (C&C) on the attendance, behavior, and academic outcomes of at-risk youth in a field-based effectiveness trial. Method: A multisite randomized block design was used, wherein 260 primarily Hispanic (89%) and economically disadvantaged (74%) students were randomized to treatment…

The aim of the current study was to examine mean-group differences on behavior rating scales and variables that may predict such differences. Sixty-five teachers completed the Clinical Assessment of Behavior-Teacher Form (CAB-T) for a sample of 982 students. Four outcome variables from the CAB-T were assessed. Hierarchical linear modeling was used…

In the social sciences, latent traits often have a hierarchical structure, and data can be sampled from multiple levels. Both hierarchical latent traits and multilevel data can occur simultaneously. In this study, we developed a general class of item response theory models to accommodate both hierarchical latent traits and multilevel data. The…

Despite the growing popularity of dual-credit courses as a college readiness strategy, numerous reviews of the literature have noted a number of important limitations of the research on the effects of dual-credit on student postsecondary outcomes. This study addressed these gaps in the literature by estimating the impact of dual-credit courses on…

This paper investigates engagement (E), alignment (A), and rigor (R) as vital signs of high-quality teacher instruction as measured by the EAR Classroom Visit Protocol, designed by the Institute for Research and Reform in Education (IRRE). Findings indicated that both school leaders and outside raters could learn to score the protocol with…

This paper investigates the extent to which rights-based education is utilised in textbooks from conflict-affected countries. Drawing on a unique dataset of 528 secondary social science textbooks from 71 countries from 1966 to 2008, we analyse factors that predict a rights discourse in texts. We find that textbooks from conflict-affected nations…

The present study examined the extent to which preschool classroom supports--relational support (RS) and instructional support (IS)--are associated with children's language development and whether these associations vary as a function of children's language ability. The language skills of 360 children within 95 classrooms were assessed…

This study investigated the effects of intrinsic motivation, perceived competence, classroom engagement and extrinsic motivation on reading development among youth. Using a nationally representative sample of students in the US, the researchers followed students longitudinally from fifth to eighth grade. Reading achievement was measured using…

Following a model on the cyclical nature of teacher ("trait") self-efficacy and context-, task- and situation-specific ("state") "mastery experiences" (TSSME), we investigated the variability and effects of lesson characteristics (e.g. lesson sequence), student group characteristics (e.g. proportion of students…

Research on diversity in higher education has evolved to consider the nature of interracial contact and campus climate as well as the factors that may foster meaningful interactions. While some studies have explored predictors of cross-racial interaction (CRI) and interracial friendship (IRF), it remains unclear whether and how the same precollege…

This paper investigates the relationship between educational achievement and the motivation to learn. We used the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) that contains representative samples from 55 nations. A strong negative correlation between educational achievement and motivation toward science learning emerged at the…