Momentary time sampling, partial-interval recording, and event coding are observational coding methods commonly used to examine the social and challenging behaviors of children at risk for or with developmental delays or disabilities. Yet there is limited research comparing the accuracy of and relationship between these three coding methods. By…

As state tests of student achievement are used for an increasingly wide array of high- and low-stakes purposes, evaluating their instructional sensitivity is essential. This article uses data from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Project to examine the instructional sensitivity of 4 states' mathematics and English…

This study was designed to explore the relationship between teacher practices and levels of student engagement in secondary agricultural education programs. Most researchers have agreed that student engagement at the secondary level may be measured through three constructs: cognitive engagement, behavioral engagement, and emotional engagement. The…

Despite policy efforts to encourage multiple measures of performance in newly developing teacher evaluation systems, practical constraints often result in evaluations based predominantly on formal classroom observations. Yet there is limited knowledge of how these observational measures relate to student achievement. This article leverages the…

Higher levels of civic and community engagement in higher education are positively associated with students' academic performance and they also build upon citizenship skills such as informed voting. Yet, while these are worthy and important outcomes of higher education, students from disadvantaged backgrounds can have more difficulty navigating…

Care Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRISs) have advanced and matured, a number of states and localities have undertaken evaluations to validate the systems. Such efforts stem from the desire to ensure that the system is designed and operating in the ways envisioned when the system was established. Given that a central component in a QRIS…

One way to support the social engagement of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is by identifying features of natural environments that increase the likelihood of social interaction. This descriptive study was an examination of the (a) social engagement of 68 preschoolers with ASD in classrooms, (b) ecological features of classrooms that…

Teachers should possess a set of professional commitments, which includes active participation in professional development that leads to student learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between professional development engagement and career satisfaction. This study used a quantitative descriptive correlational research…

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe factors that are related to agricultural educator career retention and to explore the relationships between work engagement, work-life balance, occupational commitment, and personal and career factors as related to the decision to remain in the teaching profession. The target population for…

Recent years have seen the convergence of two major policy streams in U.S. K-12 education: standards/accountability and teacher quality reforms. Work in these areas has led to the creation of multiple measures of teacher quality, including measures of their instructional alignment to standards/assessments, observational and student survey measures…

This study explores whether teacher performance trajectory over time differs by school-poverty settings. Focusing on elementary school mathematics teachers in North Carolina and Florida, we find no systematic relationship between school student poverty rates and teacher performance trajectories. In both high- (=60% free/reduced-price lunch [FRPL])…

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between special education confidence, knowledge, and selected demographics of agricultural education student teachers in the American Association of Agricultural Education southern region. A significant, low, positive association existed between total confidence and knowledge of providing…

The combination of difficult economic times and increased accountability has led policymakers to call for evidence that students taught by National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)-certified teachers make greater achievement gains than those taught by non-NBPTS-certified teachers. Overall, studies show mixed results regarding the…