Strategic responses to school accountability measures: It's all in the timing

The adoption of state accountability testing in the 1990s coincided with the movement of some school start dates from September into August. Using data from Wisconsin, this paper connects these phenomena, showing that some low-scoring districts advanced their school start dates to allow their students more time to prepare for exams. I use a 2001 Wisconsin state law that restricted districts to start dates after September 1st to identify the effects of this extra time on student achievement. Extra classroom days are associated with small increases in Math scores for 4th graders, but not average reading or language scores. Extra classroom time may also have increased third grade reading scores for students in the upper portion of the ability distribution.     

Implicit intelligence beliefs of computer science students: Exploring change across the semester

This study investigated introductory computer science (CS1) students’ implicit beliefs of intelligence. Referencing Dweck and Leggett’s (1988) framework for implicit beliefs of intelligence, we examined how (1) students’ implicit beliefs changed over the course of a semester, (2) these changes differed as a function of course enrollment and students’ motivated self-regulated engagement profile, and (3) implicit beliefs predicted student learning based on standardized course grades and performance on a computational thinking knowledge test. For all students, there were significant increases in entity beliefs and significant decreases in incremental beliefs across the semester. However, examination of effect sizes suggests that significant findings for change across time were driven by changes in specific subpopulations of students. Moreover, results showed that students endorsed incremental belief more strongly than entity belief at both the beginning and end of the semester. Furthermore, the magnitude of changes differed based on students’ motivated self-regulated engagement profiles. Additionally, students’ achievement outcomes were weakly predicted by their implicit beliefs of intelligence. Finally, results showed that the relationship between changes in implicit intelligence beliefs and student achievement varied across different CS1 courses. Theoretical implications for implicit intelligence beliefs and recommendations for STEM educators are discussed.     

Discrepant performance on multiple‐choice and short answer assessments and the relation of performance to general scholastic aptitude

We conducted correlational and performance discrepancy analyses on exam and achievement data taken from students in three psychology courses. Across courses, the same findings emerged. First, only a small fraction of students consistently performed more strongly on one type of assessment (e.g., multiple‐choice) than on another (e.g., short answer). Second, students’ multiple‐choice performance, above and beyond their short answer performance, accounted for variation in students’ standing on achievement measures unrelated to psychology (including high school class standing, American College Test score, and college grade point average). In contrast, students’ short answer performance, above and beyond their multiple‐choice performance, did not account for variation in students’ standing on those achievement measures. Our findings support the continued use of multiple‐choice items to assess student learning.     

Interactive Influences of Perceived Social Contexts on the Reading Achievement of Urban Middle Schoolers with Learning Disabilities

This study examined the effects of social influences in the lives of an ethnically diverse sample of fifth through eighth grade students with and without learning disabilities (LD) using survey data and academic achievement scores collected in 19 Chicago public schools from 1993–1997. Similarities and differences in student perceptions of school, family, and peer group contexts were examined. In addition, longitudinal data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to identify contextual influences on changes in student reading achievement over time. Comparisons of student responses confirm and extend existing findings in the literature concerning the perceptions of students with LD of their social environments. In particular, having a learning disability was associated with consistent, mostly negative, effects on social relations across the contexts of students’ lives, regardless of gender, race, grade, and socioeconomic status. In addition, student perceptions of their friendship groups were found to have small, but significant, effects on their growth in reading achievement over the course of middle school. While students with and without LD had somewhat different views of their social contexts, the processes working within these environments appeared to affect their reading achievement in similar ways. The results suggest that careful attention should be paid to the social contexts of students’ lives when planning academic interventions.     

Change in Student Perceptions of Course and Instructor Following Curriculum Change

Ongoing curriculum change in higher education is essential to enhance student learning and better prepare them for the job‐market. However, research shows that faculty are reluctant to implement such changes because students generally react adversely thereby negating any potential benefits, and moreover, sanction faculty through lower evaluations and future enrollment. Yet, understanding of the effect of curriculum changes on students’ course and instructor perceptions is limited. In this article we attempt to fill this gap. Drawing on two empirical findings—students’ motivation to attend college becoming increasingly extrinsic since the 1960s and their inability to recognize, ex ante, the value‐added by a curriculum change—and the norm life‐cycle theory, we argue that any effort‐increasing or grade‐threatening change is viewed as non‐normative and will lead to an adverse student reaction. However, this adverse reaction will dissipate over time once a critical mass of students is convinced of the merits of the new curriculum. We find support for our hypotheses by analyzing change in student perceptions following curriculum changes at a U.S. University. In addition, we also find that once the adverse reaction dissipates, students’ perceptions of the new curriculum become more positive than the old curriculum, only to be reversed once the revised curriculum is accepted as the new norm.     

Changes in student effort and grade expectation in the course of a term

Students were surveyed and asked to self-evaluate their performance and time-on-task in six engineering courses (eight sections). Surveys were conducted four times over the course of a 10-week quarter. Students with the highest grade point averages (GPAs) (2.88 mean; 4.00 mode) indicated ‘no change’ while students with lower GPAs (2.67 mean; 1.83 mode) indicated a ‘negative change’ in grade expectations by the end of the quarter, indicating that better performing students are better self-evaluators. Students reduced time-on-task 2–4 hours/week, especially early in the quarter. Students who changed their time-on-task during each survey had a GPA mode of 4.00, indicating that ‘master’ students readily adapt to course demands. This study shows that most students over-predict their grades and their level of commitment to a course and lose confidence in their abilities as the term progresses. It is suggested that instructors obtain student grade predictions and use them to provide timely and appropriate feedback.     

In my own time: tuition fees,class time and student effort in non-formal (or continuing) education

We develop and empirically test a model which examines the impact of changes in class time and tuition fees on student effort in the form of private study. The data come from the European Union’s Adult Education Survey, conducted over the period 2005–2008. We find, in line with theoretical predictions, that the time students devote to private study increases with tuition fees but decreases with class time, other things being equal.     

Heterogeneity of student perceptions of the classroom climate: a latent profile approach

Student perceptions are a pivotal point of measurement for understanding why classroom learning environments are effective. Yet there is some evidence that student perceptions cannot be reliably aggregated at the classroom level and, instead, could represent idiosyncratic experiences of students. The present study examines whether heterogeneity in student perceptions of the classroom climate has implications for student achievement. We use data from 1428 seventh grade students in 75 mathematics classrooms from the Michigan Study of Adolescent and Life Transitions. Three dimensions of student perceptions of the classroom were measured: emotional support, autonomy support and performance focus. To obtain a measure of heterogeneity, we first reduced the data using latent profile analysis to describe profiles of students’ perceptions of the classroom. Next, we quantified the heterogeneity of student perceptions within classrooms using Simpson’s D. Classroom-level heterogeneity (Simpson’s D) of students’ perceptions was negatively associated with students’ mathematics achievement, even after controlling for individual- and classroom-level previous achievement, student’s prior perceptions and other variables. Findings suggest that measures of heterogeneity in student perceptions might be important for understanding classroom- and teacher-level effects on student outcomes.     

Show and tell: Student and instructor perceptions of screencast assessment

This study addresses students’ and instructors’ perceptions of screencast assessment and compares this feedback method to traditional paper or digital text-based comments. Screencast assessment allows for asynchronous audio and visual commenting on student papers using screencast software. A pilot study using surveys of 39 students enrolled in lower-level composition classes and surveys of five composition instructors have indicated that screencast assessment promotes detailed and effective feedback on student writing. This feedback method reveals instructor's thought process while grading, and this transparency fosters student–teacher communication about writing. Screencast assessment changes the detail and types of comments, fostering an increased use of macro-level comments over micro-level concerns. The method does not necessarily save time grading but allows for feedback in the same amount of time. Because of the suggestion that students and instructors value screencast assessment, this study warrants a larger scale project in order to investigate the student preference for this feedback and whether the method leads to improvement in student performance.     

The impact of diversity,prior academic achievement and goal orientation on learning performance in group capstone projects

ABSTRACT

Capstone projects are common in undergraduate programmes, providing students with a culminating educational experience designed to draw on the knowledge and skills accumulated over the course of their studies. While there are many benefits to capstone projects, they are not without challenges. In particular, when these projects are conducted in groups, forming groups to optimise the learning outcomes and managing group dynamics can be challenging. In this article, we report on the analysis of data collected from 346 undergraduate business students who completed capstone projects at a Hong Kong university. Measures included students’ learning goal (mastery and performance), satisfaction with their supervisor and group diversity in relation to gender, prior academic achievement, self-report nationality and programme of study. Analysis of this data in conjunction with student grades for the project was conducted to inform improvements in design and delivery of the capstone subject to improve students’ learning outcomes. The results showed that for groups consisting of three students, group diversity in respect to prior academic achievement as measured by grade point average (GPA) is positively related to the grade achieved in the capstone project. However, diversity in respect to the nationalities in the group was related to poorer performance. Furthermore, the more teacher-focused the group supervisor’s approach was, the worse the grade achieved for the project. The results suggest that groups made up of students of different nationalities tend to have lower grades compared to homogeneous groups. In contrast, having a group with a mix of GPAs can result in higher grades on the project. While these findings have informed our understanding of group performance on capstone projects, work is needed to fully understand what underlies the diversity effects identified which will be explored with future cohorts.     

Classroom effect on primary school students’ self-concept in literacy and mathematics

According to the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLP) model, high individual academic performance in a particular subject is related to high self-concept in that subject, whereas high average classroom performance has a negative effect on self-concept. In the present study, data from Finnish primary school students in grade 3 (504 students), grade 4 (487 students), and grade 6 (365 students) are used to examine whether the assumptions of the BFLP effect model hold already in primary school. Furthermore, we examined gender differences in BFLP effect. The results showed that as expected students’ high performance in literacy and in mathematics was related to high self-concept in the same subject. Support for the negative classroom effect was small and it depended on the school subject and student’s gender. That is, a high average classroom performance already in grade 3 had a negative but small effect on boys’ self-concept in mathematics. In literacy and among girls, only little support was found for the negative classroom effect.

     

Once good teaching,always good teaching? The differential stability of student perceptions of teaching quality

In many countries, students are asked about their perceptions of teaching in order to make decisions about the further development of teaching practices on the basis of this feedback. The stability of this measurement of teaching quality is a prerequisite for the ability to generalize the results to other teaching situations. The present study aims to expand the extant empirical body of knowledge on the effects of situational factors on the stability of students’ perceptions of teaching quality. Therefore, we investigate whether the degree of stability is moderated by three situational factors: time between assessments, subjects taught by teachers, and students’ grade levels. To this end, we analyzed data from a web-based student feedback system. The study involved 497 teachers, each of whom conducted two student surveys. We examined the differential stability of student perceptions of 16 teaching constructs that were operationalized as latent correlations between aggregated student perceptions of the same teacher’s teaching. Testing metric invariance indicated that student ratings provided measures of teaching constructs that were invariant across time, subjects, and grade levels. Stability was moderated to some extent by grade level but not by subjects taught nor time spacing between surveys. The results provide evidence of the extent to which situational factors may affect the stability of student perceptions of teaching constructs. The generalizability of the students’ feedback results to other teaching situations is discussed.     

The relationship between trainees’ evaluation of teaching and trainee performance among Norwegian executive students

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between students’ reactions to teaching and their consequent performance as measured by course grades. Reactions to teaching were reported by 189 adult part‐time students enrolled in postgraduate studies over two consecutive academic semesters across six different study programs in a large Norwegian training institution. These students’ reactions to teaching were then assessed in relation to their consequent performance, in terms of their individual final course exam grades. The results showed that students’ reactions to teaching were unrelated to their consequent course performance. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.     

Public expenditures,educational outcomes and grade inflation: Theory and evidence from a policy intervention in the Netherlands

This article argues that resource expansion can fail to improve actual student performance because it might cause educators to soften grading standards (i.e., induce grade inflation). Our theoretical model shows that, depending on schools’ and students’ reactions to resource changes, the overall effect of resources on education outcomes is ambiguous. Schools, however, have an incentive to adjust their grading structure following resource shifts, such that grade inflation is likely to accompany resource-driven policies. Exploiting a quasi-experimental policy intervention in the Netherlands, we find that additional resources may indeed induce grade inflation, particularly when the resource increase is limited.     

Student time choices and success

Internationally, first-year student experience surveys suggest that modern students are investing increasingly less time in their study at university, raising concerns about the impact this may have on their success. This paper describes a case study exploring student workload at a New Zealand university interested in understanding how student time allocation decisions are being made during actual weeks of study rather than hypothetical ‘typical’ weeks. The results show that the sampled students allocated time in line with university expectations. Time allocation on course work was significantly affected by assessment deadlines and by student achievement striving. Student grade point average was strongly correlated with time spent, and strongly influenced by students’ beliefs regarding their motivation and self-efficacy. Universities are encouraged to explore mechanisms that support students being better informed about the implications of their choices, actively influencing their sense of priorities and expectations regarding the effort needed to be successful in their studies.     

Student agency at the crux: Mitigating disengagement in middle and high school

Considerable evidence indicates that students’ academic motivation and engagement generally decline as they move through middle school and on to high school. This study applied social cognitive theory to explore how self-efficacy and perceived control—two main factors of personal agency—may play a role in mitigating this decline in engagement and further contribute to academic performance. We used dual change score modeling to examine the dynamic structure of personal agency and disengagement during grades 8–10 for a large sample of students from the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. In that model, we analyzed how those variables predicted grade point average and attendance for students at the end of 10th grade. Students did not necessarily become more disengaged as a result of lower perceptions of control, rather they became more disengaged without the resilience factor of self-efficacy. The actual influence of disengagement on attendance and academic performance appears to be far weaker than the role of personal agency factors. Our results indicate that when student’s self-efficacy drops, disengagement in school increases during the years transitioning to high school. Increased disengagement weakens perceived control and change in both the control and self-efficacy dimensions of personal agency drive academic performance. Schools should prioritize the development of personal agency in each student during the middle school to high school transition years.     

Compressing instruction time into fewer years of schooling and the impact on student performance

Is it possible to compress instruction time into fewer school years without lowering education levels? A fundamental reform in Germany reduced the length of academic track schooling by one year, while increasing instruction hours in the remaining school years to provide students with a very similar core curriculum and the same overall instruction time. Using aggregated administrative data on the full population of students, we find that the reform increases grade repetition rates and lowers final grade point averages, without affecting graduation rates. The results suggest adverse reform effects on student performance, but the economic significance of the effects appears moderate.     

An Examination of College Students' Problem‐Solving Self‐Efficacy,Academic Self‐Efficacy,Motivation, Test Performance,and Expected Grade in Introductory‐Level Economics Courses

This study investigated whether self‐efficacy influenced students’ educational outcomes in introductory‐level economics courses. First, this study investigated the correlations between problem‐solving self‐efficacy, academic self‐efficacy, and motivation. Second, this study investigated whether problem‐solving and academic self‐efficacy served as predictors of students’ motivation, test performance, and expected grade. Correlational analyses suggest that problem‐solving and academic self‐efficacy are correlated with student motivation. Results show that problem‐solving self‐efficacy was a predictor of student motivation and test performance. Academic self‐efficacy and problem‐solving self‐efficacy were also predictors of their expected grade. Implications and future directions for economics education are also discussed.     

Adolescent students’ grit: Do parents’ grit and educational expectations matter?

Despite the widespread enthusiasm towards grit, little attention has been paid to how stable grit remains over time and what contextual factors can predict longitudinal changes in grit. The present study investigated adolescent students’ grit and its change over one year. We employed nationally representative longitudinal data from a sample of Korean adolescent students (N = 2,590) and their parents (N = 2,590). Specifically, we evaluated the temporal stability of student grit, parent grit and educational expectations as determinants of student grit, and the relative importance of student grit in predicting academic achievement compared to academic self-concept. Results of autoregressive cross-lagged modeling revealed that grit was fairly stable over one year. In addition, parents’ grit and educational expectations for students’ educational attainment emerged as significant predictors of longitudinal changes in students’ grit. Finally, when students’ academic self-concept was controlled, students’ grit was not predictive of their academic achievement. Implications and areas of future research are presented and discussed.