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Introduction
I am a retired program director for Education Research at the National Science Foundation.
My greatest interests are in synthesizing research studies on student achievement. My most in-depth experience is with the large-scale international comparative studies of achievement since I was a funder and a manager of those studies beginning in 1981. I recently was a co-editor of two handbooks, one on research methods and one on international comparative studies. I continue to study after-school.
Publications
Publications (28)
This paper summarizes the trends in research about student experiences in out-of-school time (OST) in countries of Europe. The analysis is based on a review of the content of research papers published between 1999 and 2019 in about 36 European countries. OST is recognized as an important aspect of students’ educational experiences that deserves inc...
This essay explores what is known and what needs yet to be learned about the educational activities administered outside of formal schooling across countries. Different nations have accommodated the educational needs of students in unique ways that contribute to diversities of activities, making them context- and culture specific. Increasing number...
Recent years have brought a major shift in the field of international comparative education with the rise of quantitative assessments of student achievement. Within these studies, outside-school-time (OST) as a supplement and complement to schooling has been included. However, OST is difficult to define and measure; and challenges multiply when com...
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) by the OECD measures student study time during formal school periods and during periods of out-of-school-time (OST). The purpose of these items is to account for differences in country to country achievement levels. However, analyses of the impact of additional study time on student achievemen...
Following 25 years of no declines in mathematics scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), those scores declined in 2015 for Grades 4 and 8. In this paper, the NAEP 2013–2015 decline in Grade 4 mathematics is examined. A brief policy review is first given for the purpose of understanding the implications of the decline relat...
An early investment in education is likely to give more returns to society than a late investment (Heckman, Stixrud, & Urzua, 2006). One of the most comprehensive and articulated approaches comes from cross-disciplinary research from economics to developmental psychology and neurobiology. Those studies reveal that a series of common principles coul...
Comparisons of US student achievement to other countries, conducted since the 1960s, have received extensive media coverage in the USA. Policy studies have cited these comparisons as evidence that the quality of US educational performance in mathematics and science requires federal intervention. Policy makers have been particularly concerned
that t...
Comparisons of US student achievement to other countries, conducted since the 1960s, have received extensive media coverage in the USA. Policy studies have cited these comparisons as evidence that the quality of US educational performance in mathematics and science requires federal intervention. Policy makers have been particularly concerned that t...
The international comparative studies in 1959 were conducted by International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) researchers who recognized that differences in student achievement measures in mathematics across countries could be caused by differences in curricula. The measurements of opportunity to learn (OTL) grew fro...
Elementary and secondary students spend more hours outside of class than in formal school and thus have more time for interaction with everyday science. However, evidence from a large international survey, Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) (OECD 2012), found a negative relationship between number of hours attending after-school sci...
This exploratory analysis of student attendance at science museums finds that student achievement in science and mathematics is somewhat higher for those students who visited science museums frequently during the school year or summer. The strength of the association with cognitive achievement is sufficiently noteworthy to encourage further analysi...
This paper addresses the 2013 AERA conference theme of “Research, Policy and Praxis” by discussing how research studies and statistical results in testing cognitive and affective measurements of student learning of science are interpreted by educational practitioners. The comments in this paper reflect interests that grew from my relationship with...
How can knowledge about human behavior be accumulated effectively? How does the funding agency best assure that scientific research is effectively organized? This paper was stimulated by a meeting of nine researchers who received small grants from NSF to conduct empirical analysis of individuals affected by the hurricane disasters (Katrina and Rita...
Projects on science and mathematics education research supported by the National Science Foundation (US government) rarely employ a single method of study. Studies of educational practices that use experimental design are very rare. The most common research method is the case study method and the second most common is some form of experimental desi...
The contributors to this volume have sought to make large-scale (usually national) assessments more useful to the daily classroom practices of elementary and secondary school teachers. They ask whether it is possible to modify the existing testing instruments in ways that could provide information that teachers could use to inform their instruction...
International comparative studies of student achievement that have been conducted since 1965 have influenced education policy and research issues in the United States. This article reviews the contribution of recent international studies to an understanding of the role of content in curriculum and thus the way in which schools have an impact on stu...
It is often alleged that one of the reasons women earn less than men is because of their intermittent labor force behavior during their prime working years. This analysis of wage or salary income in 1966 for a national sample of men and women 30-44 years old attempts to estimate that part of the difference between the incomes of men and women which...
Acknowledgments his report was drafted from comments,written or submitted by the chairs of working groups. Larry Suter organized the conference and edited the final version of the report. Joy Frechtling of Westat was instrumental in arranging for the workshop,and preparing a first draft from,the submitted materials. Brian Kleiner of Westat drafted...
Questions
Question (1)
I am interested in collecting and evaluating various models for measuring student engagement or interest in STEM. You seem to have a slightly different model from Eccles previous models. True? I would like to see the instruments.
Projects
Projects (8)
The goals of this special issue are to summarize the research on STEM workforce dwevelopment, and more importantly, to go beyond the current "shortage" debate to identify critical policy issues in preparing individuals for STEM careers that are personally satisfying and meeting the needs of industry and the public sector. A common theme is that broader skill sets will be required that span STEM and non-STEM fields. However, political and other expedient considerations continue to shape workforce policies.
