This study examined, using data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2, the impact of constructs associated with self-determination (i.e., autonomy, self-realization, and psychological empowerment, measured while youth were in secondary school) on postschool (a) employment and payment/benefits, (b) education, (c) independent living, and…

Success in mathematics contributes to children's future career and lifelong financial security. There have been reports that dual-language education conveys academic advantages in mathematics achievement, although there is debate. This study aimed to investigate whether dual-language education benefits children's mathematics achievement and…

This investigation considered the short-term benefits of early childhood education participation at age 3 for 1,213 children from low-income families living in a large and linguistically diverse county. Although no benefits emerged for executive functioning, children who participated in formal early childhood programs at the age of 3 entered pre-K…

In "Endrew F. v Douglas County School District RE-1," the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the requirement that schools provide special education services designed to confer education benefit that is more than de minimus. "Endrew" offers an opportunity for the special education community to consider whether students with learning…

Children across the United States are increasingly learning academic content through two-way dual-language education (http://www.cal.org/twi/). This education model provides instruction through two languages in classrooms comprised of approximately equal numbers of native and non-native English speakers. For both language groups, this educational…

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort of 1998 (n = 15,070), this study used propensity scores to examine the short- and long-term academic and psychosocial benefits of preschool education for a diverse sample of middle-class children. Compared with children who attended informal care at age 4, preschool…

Using nationally representative data from the Family and Child Experiences Survey 2009 Cohort (n = 2,842), this study examined the implications of 3- and 4-year-old's absences from Head Start for their early academic learning. The findings from this study revealed that children who missed more days of school, and especially those who were…

Individuals with better spatial thinking have increased interest and greater achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (Wai, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2009). This relationship means that STEM education may benefit from leveraging spatial thinking, but measures of spatial thinking as they relate to specific…

As research continues to show the benefits of high-quality early childhood education, it is important to ensure that measures are available to assess the full impacts of these programs for student outcomes. Many achievement measures and observational measures exist, but there is a need for measures of children's experiences at the preschool level.…

Existing research finds minimal gains from attending elite US secondary schools. This paper estimates the causal effect of attending a selective public boarding school, an institutional model increasingly used by states to serve academically gifted students. Regression discontinuity estimates using multiple admissions thresholds show math score…

Substantial research has documented that Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) programs have important benefits for the school readiness of young children, especially those from low-income backgrounds. Recent studies in this arena have taken advantage of the Regression Discontinuity (RD) design to evaluate the impacts of Pre-K, due to ethical and pragmatic…

Early Colleges (ECs) provide high school students access to college coursework with the goal of increasing postsecondary opportunities for traditionally underrepresented students. We examine the impact of ECs on postsecondary attainment, calculate the resulting monetary benefits, and then estimate the per-student costs of ECs compared to…

As more educators integrate their curricula with online learning, it is easier to crowdsource content from them. Crowdsourced tutoring has been proven to reliably increase students' next problem correctness. In this work, we confirmed the findings of a previous study in this area, with stronger confidence margins than previously, and revealed that…

The economic evaluation of educational policies and programs employing the ingredients method for cost, cost-effectiveness, or benefit-cost analysis is no exception to the critique that economic models require an untenable number of assumptions. Educational economists must make assumptions due to two sources of uncertainty: model uncertainty, as…

Reverse transfer associate degrees are credentials retroactively awarded to current bachelor's degree seekers, combining four-year credits with credits previously earned at a community college. Using administrative data from Tennessee, we use a difference-in-difference design to compare students before and after receipt of a reverse transfer…