We investigate two research questions using a recent statewide transition from paper to computer-based testing: first, the extent to which test mode effects found in prior studies can be eliminated in large-scale administration; and second, the degree to which online and paper assessments offer different information about underlying student…

Scholars and practitioners have called for personalized and widely accessible professional development (PD) for teachers. Yet, a long-standing tension between customizing support and increasing access to such support has hindered the scale-up of high-quality PD for individual teachers. This study addresses this challenge by developing a…

Prior studies identified effective, but mainly non-digital, homework aids. This research involved 18 middle school students in a lo-fi prototyping study to integrate traditional homework support tools with intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), leveraging rich log data for personalized learning. Feature investigations in standardized diaries, goal…

Teacher learning in asynchronous online professional development (PD) is often assessed through self-reported instruments, despite uncertainties regarding teachers' ability to accurately self-assess their learning gains in such settings. This study compared middle school mathematics teachers' self-perceived and observed learning gains in content…

Automated Essay Scoring (AES) is a well-studied problem in Natural Language Processing applied in education. Solutions vary from handcrafted linguistic features to large Transformer-based models, implying a significant effort in feature extraction and model implementation. We introduce a novel Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) pipeline…

This study explores how kindergarten students from a multilingual sample (n=131) representing 23 different languages differ in response to intervention, based on their skill in mathematics and domain general cognitive skills. Analyses for this study indicate significant correlations between initial math skill, phonological memory, working memory,…

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) can help students learn successfully, yet little work has explored the role of caregivers in shaping that success. Past interventions to support caregivers in supporting their child's homework have been largely disjunct from educational technology. The paper presents prototyping design research with nine middle…

Background: Few "intervention agnostic" strategies have been developed that can be applied to the broad array of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in schools. This paper describes two studies that reflect the initial iterative redesign phases of an effective leadership-focused implementation strategy--Leadership and Organizational Change…

Research consistently shows that among young children, poor social skills and problem behaviors can lead to poor relationships with teachers and peers (Boivin et al., 1995), higher risk of academic failure (Buhs et al., 2006), and higher school dropout (Gilliam, 2005). Moreover, prekindergarten (PreK) and kindergarten (K) teachers report feeling…

Students who experience teacher caring and high expectations (i.e., warm demand) are typically more engaged and successful at school. Yet, relative to White students, students of color tend to report lower levels of school social belonging and more distant relationships with their White teachers. Leveraging data from 179 6th-9th grade Measures of…

Multisite trials that randomize individuals (e.g., students) within sites (e.g., schools) or clusters (e.g., teachers/classrooms) within sites (e.g., schools) are commonly used for program evaluation because they provide opportunities to learn about treatment effects as well as their heterogeneity across sites and subgroups (defined by moderating…

The purpose of this study was to understand if a STEM camp (Gear Up 4 STEM) offered during school breaks could improve science outcomes and engagement of elementary school students. This study followed two cohorts of students in Knox County Schools (grades 3, 4, and 5) over one school year and assessed their performance on the state administered…

Background: Schools are responsible for promoting LGBTQ+ students' academic success, yet many LGBTQ+ students contend with unsupportive learning environments. Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs)--clubs that affirm students' sexual orientation and gender diversity--could promote academic engagement and protect against disaffection. Aims: We aimed to…

By framing the phenomenon of resilience around adverse, harmful experiences and drawing a direct relation to positive outcomes, society desensitizes Black Women to the scale of the adversities they face and ignores the magnitude of psychological stress they have had to endure as a means of survival. The praise and reinforcement associated with…

How gender diversity is exhibited varies: some individuals feel similar to the other gender; others experience little similarity to either gender, and some feel similar to both genders. For children, do these variations relate to differing relationships with peers? The goal was to assess whether a community sample of children (884, Mage = 9.04, SD…