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With the rapid growth of online learning and the increased attention paid to student attrition in online programs, much research has been aimed at studying the effectiveness of online education to improve students' online learning experience and student retention. Utilizing the online learning literature as a multi-faceted theoretical framework, the study developed and employed a new survey instrument. The Self-Directed Online Learning Scale (SDOLS) was used to examine graduate student perceptions of effectiveness of online learning environments as demonstrated by their ability to take charge of their own learning, and to identify key factors in instructional design for effective improvements. The study applied the Rasch rating scale model to evaluate and validate SDOLS through a psychometric lens to establish the reliability and validity of SDOLS. Results from Rasch analysis addressed two research questions. First, evidence was found to generally support the new instrument as being psychometrically sound but three problematic items were also identified as grounds for future improvement of SDOLS. Second, the study assessed the importance of various factors as measured by the SDOLS items in contributing to students' ability to self-manage their own online learning. Finally, the new instrument is expected to contribute to the work of various stakeholders in online education and can serve to improve students' online learning experience and effectiveness, increase online retention rates, and reduce online dropouts.

This paper employed the Rasch rating scale model to examine the measurement properties of a newly developed scale measuring parents' awareness and perspectives on school choice. A conceptual framework and an item matrix were utilized to incorporate theoretical considerations relevant to the items for the scale. A pilot study collected responses from 119 Kentucky parents with children enrolled in K-12 schools. Results from Rasch analysis found that the two subscales in the survey demonstrated good reliability and individual item fit and yielding an instrument suitable for future use. The resultant instrument has the response categories collapsed from 4 to 3 Likert-type points. This paper can serve as a guide to researchers using survey design for perceptions about school choice and help lend greater rigor to broader school choice survey research and instrument development.

While the national discourse about the call for increased effort to help strengthen retention and graduation rates among minority college students seems to be losing its vigor, concerned citizens continue to find other means to sustain the momentum. Similarly, the office for institutional diversity at a public southeastern university established a minority male student success initiative in 2010 to help improve the educational experience of its members. The evaluators' objectives for this transactional, formative, and qualitative evaluation were to understand this initiative from the different vantage points of its stakeholders, and to determine if they were satisfied thus far with its trajectory. The evaluators found that while some stakeholders held similar perspectives, others differed in their views on the initiative's goal(s). The majority, however, expressed satisfaction with the initiative's direction at the time of the evaluation.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a psychometric validation of a course evaluation instrument, known as a student evaluation of teaching (SET), implemented in a Montessori high school. The authors demonstrate to the Montessori community how to rigorously examine the measurement and assessment quality of instruments used within Montessori schools. The Montessori high school community needs an SET that has been rigorously examined for measurement issues. The examined SET was developed by a Montessori high school, and the sample data were collected from Montessori high school students. Using a Rasch partial credit model, the results of the analysis identified several measurement issues, including multidimensionality, misfit items, and inappropriate item difficulty levels. A revised version of the SET underwent the same analysis procedure, and the results indicated that measurement issues persisted. The authors suggest several ways to improve the overall measurement quality of the instrument while keeping the Montessori foundation. Additional validation studies with a revised version of the SET will be needed before the instrument can be endorsed for full implementation in a Montessori setting.

"To publish or parent?" should never be the question. The disjunctive conjunction "or" indicates that propositions of being a mother and professor cannot coexist. Despite the change over time in women's receipt of PhDs and academia's gender profile, society continues to perpetuate gendered norms of productivity and the mythical notion of work-life balance--both of which endlessly complicate the conceptualization and operationalization of the female academic's success. Amplifying the voices of other mother scholars' oral histories and weaving them with reflections of personal journeys, this study posits a reflective checklist that prompts female academics to make choices, give priority and engage in both worlds to the best of their ability with their own concepts and measures of success. Women cannot give in to this concept of two separate worlds, which splinters the self. We are not mothers and scholars, we are MotherScholars. It is important for women in academia to claim our entire personhood, professional and parent, if we are to seek freedom from feeling "torn" between these spheres. [Note: The publication year (2021) shown via the URL is incorrect. The correct year is 2020.]

Institutions of learning face significant calls for accountability, leading to an increased interest in measuring faculty performance. The purpose of this research is to describe and analyze the process of faculty evaluation in a college of education at a southeastern university. The process is outlined with attention given to the reliability, validity, and utility through documenting strengths and weaknesses. Included is a detailed review of the instruments utilized in the process. Suggestions for improvements and modifications are central to the outcomes, including plans for aligning the process with relevant research. The degree to which the faculty review process is deemed credible, professional, and relevant may serve as an indicator of the link between theory and practice. Potential ramifications of a weak or bias system, as faculty promotion and tenure are intertwined with this process, are of utmost importance. Legal issues, including challenges, rise to the forefront. This topic is of importance to students, faculty, and administrators, as all involved and impacted by the review process, either directly or indirectly. The applicability of this work beyond the example institution is also addressed.

This paper evaluates Interactive Television (ITV) Engineering courses, Statics and Dynamics, from the perspective of host-site students. The study took place at the University of Kentucky during the Spring 2004 semester utilizing survey methods to identify factors that are influential in determining students' satisfaction with a particular course. Although the literature is divided between host-site and remote-site students' satisfaction, this research focuses purely on the host-site perspective. Given the study's focus on host-site students, as well as undergraduate engineers, it is relevant to the growing literature on distance education. Results suggest that ITV course satisfaction depends largely on the nature of the course and course content, the instructor, accessibility of information, and technical equipment consistency. (Contains 4 notes.)

This study utilized data from the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment Hong Kong sample to investigate the factors that impact the science achievement of 15-year-old students. A multilevel model was used to examine the factors from both student and school perspectives. At the student level, the results indicated that male students, students from high socioeconomic status (SES) families, students with higher motivation and higher self-efficacy, and students whose parents highly value science are more likely to demonstrate achievement in science. At the school level, the results showed school science achievement differences can be explained by school enrolment size, school SES composition, and instruction time per week. Contrary to the negative influence of school size that was reported in previous studies, our findings suggested a positive relationship between school enrolment size and science achievement. This finding leads to an international discussion of school size. (Contains 7 tables.)

This study explored the paradigmatic differences in perceptions of community college faculty employed at select Virginia and West Virginia community colleges collected via a web-based survey. The study is framed within the faculty self-classification along the "hard" and "social/behavior" science paradigm continuum. Given the paradigmatic continuum, faculty perceptions' of student outcomes were examined. Faculty respondents consistently reported the importance of intellectual growth; however, differences in relative importance of outcomes tied to emotional, cultural, and social growth exist. The potential implications of these perceptions on student experiences and outcomes are considered. (Contains 5 tables.)

Kentucky Electronics Education Project (KEEP) uses microelectronics to connect real world content to K-12 science education. KEEP trains teachers in a series of circuit building activities through summer workshops and in-service professional development. Teachers are expected to implement components of their training into their curriculum, and then participating students are asked to evaluate their experience. Here, survey responses of 61 Midwest high school students, who completed a circuit building activity in the classroom setting, are analyzed using a Rasch rating scale model. Insights are provided regarding the inquiry based, hands-on engineering activity, while introducing a tool for program evaluation. Results characterize students' perceptions regarding difficulty of the project and potential misunderstandings. Suggestions for project enhancement, based on empirical evidence and practical experience, are described.

The reliability and validity of course evaluations in higher education is often assumed. The typical Likert-type surveys utilized when students' evaluate the course and instructor often overlook measurement issues, or deal with them in an ineffective manner. Given the importance that is placed on higher education course evaluations, with results impacting such events as merit raises and promotion, the proper construction and use of evaluation tools is a critical issue. In an effort to assure "honesty" in student responses, many institutions include items written positively and negatively, which are intended to measure the same construct. Using 537 course evaluations for a mathematics faculty member at a Midwest college, an item analysis is conducted with attention given to means and standard deviations, frequency counts, nonparametric correlations and tests of significant differences between questions that should, in theory, produce a similar measure or exactly opposite. A contention is made that the way the item is asked does matter, at least in some instances, and it should not be assumed that an item written in the positive and negative should directly correlate. The survey research community and institutions utilizing similar rating scale instruments will benefit from the results of this study, as well as the education community in general. (Contains 5 tables and 2 figures.)

To overcome barriers faced by rural educators, a research team at the University of Kentucky has combined a model of distance learning with a hands-on, inquiry approach to the instruction of middle school-level physical science. The project, entitled "Newton's Universe," measures teachers' and students' outcomes through surveys, assessments, and classroom observations. Preliminary results indicate progress in improving teacher efficacy in teaching inquiry-based temperature and heat concepts as well as increased teacher conceptual understanding of topics covered in the course. The study offers guidance to other distance education programs, and the results inform policy regarding the efficacy and sustainability of distance learning modules. Findings will be used to expand dissemination efforts. (Contains 3 tables.)

This inquiry is directed at understanding the factors related to recruitment and retention of urban secondary teachers. Data were collected via selected response questionnaires from 815 public high school teachers in a large Midwest city. The findings provide implications for urban centers in the U.S. educational system from the classroom teacher's perspective, by identifying the qualities associated with the best teachers and recognizing the incentives and characteristics connected with career satisfaction and successful recruiting techniques. Motivating factors for these teachers are intrinsic more than extrinsic.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the once marginalized conversation of academia's gendered imbalance of opportunity, discussion of its impact on graduate student mothers has remained absent. Resilience has been cited as key to overcoming in the pandemic era with little discussion of how its conceptualization continues to marginalize females in the academy. Our phenomenological study explores graduate student mothers' conceptualizations of balance, failure, success, and resilience using a family resilience framework which acknowledges the multiple identities to which they may avow and contexts in which they may operate. Employing an ecological conceptual framework, we engaged nine graduate student mothers and their children in focus groups and analyzed data using a constructivist grounded theory approach. Our research found that many graduate student mothers' definitions of success led them to delay qualifying exams and comps during the pandemic. Our exploration of the ecology of our participants' resilience during quarantine begins the generation of a new graduate student mother resilience theory in which the ability to overcome adversity is rooted in celebration, gratitude, collaborative problem-solving, connection, and flexibility. We recommend continued development of this new theory and provide insight into the supports higher education can offer to address the leaky academic pipeline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this literature review is to identify and address major themes in the distance education literature, particularly as they relate to interactive television (ITV) and student satisfaction. Major themes include satisfaction based on site-type, previous research biases, faculty-student interaction, characteristics of satisfied learners, qualitative differences in satisfaction, satisfaction with regards to traditional versus ITV courses, attitudinal changes and time progression. In addition to summarizing this literature, this review intends to expose critical gaps and offer suggestions for future research.

Increasing students' involvement on campus is one of the best practices to increase college student retention. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, this study investigated the relationships between first-to-second fall retention and student involvement indicators. Logistic regression analysis was employed to explore the relationships. The sample included 6,283 first-time, first-year undergraduate students who were enrolled in public or not-for-profit private four-year postsecondary institutions across the country in the fall of 2004. Results show that student-advisor interaction, student-faculty interaction, extracurricular activities participation, and library utilization were positively associated with first-to-second fall retention. Recommendations for future research and implications for practitioners are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research indicates mixed findings regarding the consistency of adjudicators' ratings at large ensemble festivals, yet the results of these festivals have strong impacts on the perceived success of instrumental music programs and the perceived effectiveness of their directors. In this study, Rasch modeling was used to investigate the potential influence of adjudicators on performance ratings at a live large ensemble festival. Evaluation forms from a junior high school concert band festival adjudicated by a panel of three expert judges were analyzed using the Many-Facets Rasch Model. Analyses revealed several trends. First, the use of assigning "half points" between adjacent response options on the 5-point rating scale resulted in redundancy and measurement noise. Second, adjudicators provided relatively similar ratings for conceptually distinct criteria, which could be evidence of a halo effect. Third, although all judges demonstrated relatively lenient ratings overall, one judge provided more severe ratings as compared to peers. Finally, an exploratory interaction analysis among the facets of judges and bands indicated the presence of rater-mediated bias. Implications for music researchers and ensemble adjudicators are discussed in the context of ensemble performance evaluations, and a measurement framework that can be applied to other aspects of music performance evaluations is introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For academic conferences, when proposals are submit they are often judged using a rating scale on identified criterion by reviewers who have a shared interest and expertise in the area under consideration. Given the multiple and varied reviewers, an analysis of psychometric properties like rater severity and consistency are important. However, many of the problems that plague the conference proposal selection process are the same issues that plague survey research: rater bias/severity, misuse of rating scale, and the use of raw scores as measures. We propose the use of the many-facet Rasch measurement model (MFRM) to combat these shortcomings and improve the quality of the conference proposal selection process. A set of American Educational Research Association (AERA) Special Interest Group (SIG) proposals is used as an example. The results identify proposals that were accepted based on calculating the mean of summed raw scores, but when MFRM is applied to adjust forjudge severity the rank order of the proposals is substantially altered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satisfied patients are more likely to be compliant, have better outcomes, and are more likely to return to the same provider or institution for future care. The Satisfaction with a Continuum of Care survey (SCC) was designed to improve patient care using measures of patient satisfaction and facilitate a cultural shift from a "silos-ofcare" to a "continuum-of-care" mentality by fostering inter-departmental communication as patients moved between environments of care at a Midwestern rehabilitation hospital. This study provides a Rasch measurement framework for investigating issues related to survey reliability and validity. The results indicate that although certain aspects of the survey seem to function in a psychometrically sound manner, the questions are too easy to endorse and provide little information to help improve patient care. Suggestions for future revisions to this survey instrument are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of what constitutes good educational research has received much attention in recent years. To offer an empirical framework, a web-based survey was administered to faculty and graduate students in the College of Education at a southeastern university to obtain their perceptions about characteristics related to high-quality educational research. Results suggest that survey items connected to ethics and theory were relatively easy to endorse, while items connected to methodology illustrated variation in perception. The study provides a foundation for dialogue regarding the quality of educational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kentucky Electronics Education Project (KEEP) uses microelectronics to develop standards-based maths, science and technology curricula. KEEP provides training and support for teachers to build electronic circuits in their classrooms. This study examines over 200 student evaluations collected during Spring 2003 and 2004 of KEEP implementations. Rasch analysis and descriptive statistics indicate high student satisfaction with KEEP activities and a desire to learn more about the themes of the project. The goal of the project is to develop a K-16 learning environment, where students, teachers, university faculty and higher education students are engaged in curriculum development and enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]