Joe McIntyre

Seasonal Dynamics of Academic Achievement Inequality by Socioeconomic Status and Race/Ethnicity Updating and Extending Past Research With New National Data

Early studies examining seasonal variation in academic achievement inequality generally concluded that socioeconomic test score gaps grew more over the summer than the school year, suggesting schools served as “equalizers.” In this study, we analyze seasonal trends in socioeconomic status (SES) and racial/ethnic test score gaps using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 (ECLS-K:2011), which includes more school-year and summer rounds than previous national studies. We further examine how inequality dynamics are influenced by the operationalization of inequality. Findings are consistent with a story in which schools initially accelerate relatively lower-achieving groups’ learning more so than higher-achieving groups; however, this school-year equalizing is not consistently maintained and sometimes reverses. When operationalizing inequality as changes in relative position, the reversal of school-year equalizing is more pronounced.

Due dates in MOOCs: does stricter mean better?

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) employ a variety of components to engage students in learning (eg. videos, forums, quizzes). Some components are graded, which means that they play a key role in a students final grade and certificate attainment. It is not yet clear how the due date structure of graded components affects student outcomes including academic performance and alternative modes of learning of students. Using data from HarvardX and MITx, Harvards and MITs divisions for online learning, we study the structure of due dates on graded components for 10 completed MOOCs. We find that stricter due dates are associated with higher certificate attainment rates but fewer students who join late being able to earn a certificate. Our findings motivate further studies of how the use of graded components and deadlines affects academic and alternative learning of MOOC students, and can help inform the design of online courses.

Assessing Parent Perceptions of School Fit: The Development and Measurement Qualities of a Survey Scale

Students whose school environment fits their developmental needs also typically experience academic success and increased motivation. Most investigations of school fit, which focus on teachers’ and students’ perceptions, have found a general decline in fit across the transition from elementary to middle school. However, little research has examined the school-child fit from the parent perspective. In this article, we first detail the development process behind a new survey measure of parent perceptions of school fit. Second, using three online panel-based samples of parents from across the country (n1 = 323, n2 = 188, n3 = 1,033), we evaluate the scales measurement properties and conduct exploratory analyses examining grade-level and income-based differences on reported school fit. Finally, in line with previous research, we find that parents of middle school children perceived statistically significantly worse fit than parents of elementary school children. Among parents of high school students, we found that, on average, high-income parents perceive statistically significantly better fit than low-income parents.