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This study examined the influences of teacher support and school environment on 10th graders’ mathematics achievements, controlling for socioeconomic status, gender, and mathematics self-efficacy, and the differential influences of these factors for White and Black students in the USA. A sample of 8,682 White and 2,020 Black students who participated in the Educational Longitudinal Study were selected for the study. The results showed that Black students lagged behind their White peers on mathematics achievement, had lower socioeconomic status, and perceived the school environment as more negative. Hierarchical Linear Modeling analysis showed that the achievement gap between Black and White students was lower when students perceived a higher level of negative behavior in school.

Research has shown that academic momentum is a key factor in degree completion for students attending 4-year institutions. The characteristics of 2-year students (also called community college students) often lead them to engage in behaviors contrary to the theory of academic momentum, and these behaviors theoretically reduce their likelihood of attaining a degree. Community college students often delay entry into college, attend part time, earn fewer credits within their first year, and have lower freshman grade point averages. This study investigated the effects of academic momentum on degree attainment for students who attended only a 2-year college and for students who transferred to a 4-year college. Data were obtained from a large, nationally representative longitudinal data set. The academic momentum predictor variables (credits earned and grade point average within the first year of college, and the number of months between exiting high school and entering college) were significant predictors for both 2-year and transfer students.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of sport participation on locus of control and academic performance among eighth-grade students. In the analysis, particular attention was place...

This study investigated the predictive effects of science self-efficacy, value in learning science, science attitudes, gender, and race on science achievement, among United States middle school stu...

Although the relationship between parental and teachers’ roles and exclusionary discipline practices (EDP) seems intuitive, the link has rarely been supported in school disciplinary literature. This current study tested whether delinquency prevention programs can be directly effective in reducing adolescent delinquency, considering the medium of student’s trust in teachers and parental contact with school. In detail, this study attempted to answer two questions: ‘Do current delinquency prevention programs decrease EDP?’ and ‘Do student–teacher trust and parental contact with school mediate the effectiveness of prevention programs on suspensions?’ Using the techniques of propensity score matching and structural equation modeling, we found that student trust in teachers is a relevant and valid construct and statistically significant mediator on suspensions. The authors suggested some considerations to use student trust in teachers and parental contact with school more effectively as policy tools in ...

This paper explores whether high-school sports are functional and accessible activities to keep students from school disciplinary behaviors. For this purpose, we included students racial and linguistic status, socioeconomic status, sex, and prior academic performance with the school’s proportion of free-lunch recipients and minorities, to understand how sport participation affects students of diverse groups. Additionally, the study implemented a multilevel mediation modeling to the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) data and assessed student dropouts with sequential mediators of sport participation, school misbehavior, and suspension. The findings of the study largely revealed that White students participated in sports more than Black, Hispanic, and Asian. Likewise, students who speak English as the primary language and male students participated in sports more than their counterparts. White sport participants displayed fewer incidents of suspension than White non-sport participants. Black, Hispanic, and White sport participants had lower dropout incidents than their non-sport-participating counterparts.

The main goal of this paper was to examine middle school students’ game engagement and its effect on math performance. For the game, we developed [Math App], an educational video game intended to support students’ understanding of fractions. Using [Math App] in a quasi-experimental research setting, we collected data on game engagement, game features, the perception of game learning ability, gender, and the amount of gameplay, and math performance. Our structural equation modeling analysis revealed that game engagement was categorized into two subdomains of behavioral and emotional/cognitive engagement. We also found that students’ game engagements were associated with student’s perception of gaming ability and in turn, it displayed a significant path with game features.

Survival analysis is an advanced statistical method to investigate the occurrence and the timing of an important event such as school access, dropout, and graduation in a longitudinal framework. Th...

The purpose of the study was to examine whether the effects of interscholastic sport participation on academic performance and school engagement vary by race and linguistic status of high school students. High school participants ( n = 16,200) were selected from the Education Longitudinal Study: 2002, a nationally representative database. Results of a structural equation model showed that Asian, black, and Hispanic students’ interscholastic sport participation had a positive effect on grade point average, while the effect was not significant for white students. However, white students’ interscholastic sport participation was likely to have a positive, indirect effect on grade point average through their engagement in school. The results showed no linguistic status variation in the effects of interscholastic sport participation on school engagement and grade point average. The findings suggest that supporting high school students in school-sponsored extracurricular sport programs should be continued, highlighting the important role of schools in shaping the proper educational environment for sport participation.

This study examined the dropout trajectories of racial and linguistic minority students and explored the effects of students' contextual factors on their high school dropout risks. Our motivation was to identify the dropout patterns of Black, Hispanic, and Hispanic English language learner (ELL) students, who have comparatively high dropout rates, and to suggest ways to promote high school completion. We employed a survival analysis using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The results showed that the 3 minority groups displayed significantly higher dropout risks than the White group. The overall pattern of dropout risks increased over time, with the dropout rates of the Black students high in the 1st and 2nd years of high school and the highest dropout rates for Hispanic ELL students in their senior year. A gender difference was found among the students, with male students having higher dropout risks than female students. It was also found tha...

The goal of the study was to provide empirical findings on the effects of different types of parents’ school involvement (PSI) on their children's mathematics performance. For PSI, we explored parent participation in parent–teacher conferences, voluntary parental involvement in school activities, parent informal contact with school or teachers, and parental phone contact with school or teachers. In addition, we paid focused attention to families of linguistic and racial minority groups who may have different dynamics of PSI for children's schooling and academic achievement. We conducted comprehensive descriptive statistics and multilevel longitudinal modelling using a nationally representative database, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K), to establish study conclusions with high validity and generalizability. The results showed that four different types of PSI had differential effects for different linguistic and racial groups. The study findings have practical suggestions and implications fo...

In an effort to maximizing success in mathematics, our research team implemented an educational video game in fifth grade mathematics classrooms in five schools in the Eastern US. The educational game was developed by our multi-disciplinary research team to achieve a hypothetical learning trajectory of mathematical thinking of 5th grade students. In this study, we examined overall engagement and three sub-domains of engagement as outcome variables after ten sessions of treatment with fifth grade students. The results showed that both male and female the video game group had slight increases in all engagement levels while students, particularly male, in the paper-and-pencil drill group displayed large decreases in all engagement levels. Implications of the study are 1) more fine-grained evidence of engagement in three sub-domains after implementing an educational video game, and 2) a consideration of gender differences in engagement levels in mathematics in the adoption of a video games.

To promote the academic success of middle school students, the authors examined the effects of computer uses on mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics performance of students, paying focused attention to immigrant students. They analysed the effects of computer use for schoolwork and gaming of middle school students applying a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) USA. The results showed that when students frequently used computer for schoolwork, they revealed high mathematics self-efficacy, which in turn led to high mathematics performance. On the other hand, the students that used computer for gaming frequently indicated low mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics performance. The authors' study results highlight the importance of guiding students to use computers properly, which is directly and indirectly associated with students' self-efficacy and performance in mathematics.

This case study uses the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework to describe how teachers from two contiguous school districts in southwest Virginia implemented The CandyFactory, an iPad-specific learning game that focuses on pre-algebraic concepts, particularly fraction knowledge. As a result of this implementation, significant changes in practice and instruction took place for these teachers and their students. The goal of this paper is to exemplify the most salient changes that took place, using the TPACK framework and seven knowledge areas. Through a series of focus group interviews with nine teachers and an interview with a program administrator from three middle schools in two districts, findings of this study illustrate how the main and interconnected types of knowledge of the TPACK framework could be used to evaluate the affordances and constraints of a learning game implementation and how it affected the content and pedagogical styles of teachers in the classroom. Using an interpretative research methodology, complemented by quantitative pre-/post-assessments of fraction achievement, data from these interviews were collected and analyzed, using a coding system to identify patterns and themes regarding best practices for instructional alignment as well as shifts in instruction, assessment, and pedagogical styles. As part of the special issue, the case study includes a series of recommendations and implications that could be relevant to similar school districts, including those in the Asia Pacific region, that are considering the adoption of game-based learning and implementing these types of mathematical learning games in classrooms to enhance engagement and performance.

This study examined the effects of a learning game, [The Math App] on the mathematics proficiency of middle school students. For the study, researchers recruited 306 students, Grades 6–8, from two schools in rural southwest Virginia. Over a nine-week period, [The Math App] was deployed as an intervention for investigation. Students were assigned to game intervention treatment, and paper-and-pencil control conditions. For the game intervention condition, students learned fractions concepts by playing [The Math App]. In the analysis, students’ mathematical proficiency levels prior to the intervention were taken into account. Results indicate that students in the game intervention group showed higher mathematics proficiency than those in the paper-and-pencil group. Particularly, the significantly higher performances of intervention groups were noted among 7th graders and inclusion groups. The empirically derived results of the reported study could contribute to the field of educational video game research, w...

Background Baby boomers’ position in the caregiving context is shifting from caregiver to care recipient as the population ages. While the unique characteristics of baby boomer caregivers are well established in caregiving literature, there is limited information about the next caregiving group after the baby boomers. In this study, the sociodemographic and caregiving-related characteristics of the two generations are compared and specific factors contributing to caregiver burden between baby boomer and post baby boomer caregivers are identified. Methods This cross-sectional and correlational study used secondary analysis of data from the National Alliance for Caregiving and the American Association of Retired Persons. A structured online survey was conducted in 2014 with randomly selected samples (n = 1069) in the United States focusing on sociodemographics, caregiving-related characteristics, and burden of care. Descriptive statistics, multivariate linear regression analyses, and Steiger’s Z-test were used to identify group differences in multivariate factors related to caregiver burden in two generational groups. Results Baby boomers and post baby boomers experienced caregiver burden to a similar degree. Caregiving-related factors are more likely to increase burden of care than sociodemographics in both groups. Caregiving without choice and spending longer hours on caregiving tasks were common factors that increased the burden in both generational groups (all p values