Boruch, Robert
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Publication The Appearance of Statistical Ideas in Prose, Poetry, and Drama: A Dictionary of Quotations, Aphorisms, Apothegms, Excerpts and Epigrams(2018-02-01) Boruch, RobertIt is not always easy to understand ideas that are statistical or probabilistic in character. It is even less easy to explain those ideas well. The quotations in this collection were assembled partly to understand how to understand, at least insofar as words (rather than statistical models) permit, and how writers think and explain. One of the motives here is also to assure that readers know from where the quotations come. Anybody nowadays can do a Google search and get what is alleged to a quote by someone famous. But the Googler might never know from where the thing came. Here, the intent is to assure that the right sources, properly cited, and the page numbers etc. are identified. The final motive is amusement. If these quotations amuse and entice others’ interest, that would be lovely.Publication Ambient Positional Instability Among Illinois Teachers, AY 2007-2012: A Briefing(2016-09-01) Chao, Jessica; Park, Ji Eun; Boruch, RobertThis briefing concerns two measures of Ambient Positional Instability (API) among teachers in the state of Illinois: cohort retention and churn. The teacher population includes full time public school teachers in the base year of AY2007-2008 and who were followed longitudinally through AY2011-2012. The state, district, and school level cohort retention for elementary, middle and high school teachers over the five years are provided here, as are the cohort retention rates in the five largest school districts in Illinois. Population churn rates, which include both leavers and newcomers to the Illinois system, are reported within the state over the years covered. A rationale for the work is that high instability and regional differences in the instability rates can have serious implications for designing school level interventions, especially for those designed to be implemented over the course of multiple years, and for controlled trials on such interventions. Challenges and techniques used to mitigate problems encountered using publicly available datasets are also discussed.Publication In Search of Terra Firma: Administrative Records on Teachers’ Positional Instability across Subjects, Grades, and Schools and the Implications for Deploying Randomized Controlled Trials(2016-01-01) Boruch, Robert; Merlino, F. Joseph; Bowdon, Jill; Baker, John; Chao, Jessica; Park, Ji Eun; Frisone, Michael; Ye, Tianpeng; Porter, Andrew C; Hooks, TomPublication Teacher Churn in Missouri’s Five Biggest Cities, 2005-2014: A Briefing(2014-09-12) Bowdon, Jill; Boruch, RobertThis policy brief: (1) contrasts the proportion of math and science teachers who leave STEM fields within one year, three years, five years, and ten years with the proportion of English or Social Studies teachers who turnover during these intervals (2) examines stability of the year-to-year turnover from STEM fields (3) describes how teachers who leave math or science teaching assignments move into other STEM assignments, to non-STEM assignments, or leave the public schools of Missouri entirely, and (4) describes the rates at which teachers who are still teaching in STEM fields remain in the same school and district, shift to a different school in the same district, and shift to a different school and district. 5) contrasts the instability of STEM teachers in the five largest cities of Missouri with the instability of STEM teachers in the rest of the state.Publication Predictors of National Differences in Mathematics and Science Achievement: Data From TIMSS for Eighth Grade Students(2002-02-01) Boe, Erling E; May, Henry; Boruch, Robert; Barkanic, GemaThere is widespread belief that national economic productivity is related to student performance in mathematics and science. With the advent in the 1960s of international surveys of student achievement in math and science, cross-national comparisons have become possible and nations have aspired to become "world class" in this respect. A major national policy issue in the U.S. and elsewhere is to identify and implement actions to attain and maintain a high level of student achievement in math and science in international comparisons. The math and science project reported here was designed to capitalize on the potential for cross-national research with the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). TIMSS demonstrated that there are wide differences among nations in average student knowledge of math and science at several grade levels. Accordingly, a major research problem is to explain the sources of these national differences; that is, to identify the national-level variables that are the strongest predictors of national differences in average achievement scores. This problem was investigated to generate new research-based knowledge relevant to policy making about math and science education.Publication Student Task Persistence in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study: A Major Source of Achievement Differences at the National, Classroom, and Student Levels(2002-12-01) Boe, Erling E; Boruch, Robert; May, HenrySince the release of results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1996, scholars have recognized that the central importance of TIMSS lies in its contribution to a better understanding of factors that are responsible for cross-national differences in average student achievement. Among many such factors may be differences in student ability and motivation to perform the task of completing the TIMSS achievement tests in math and science. In fact, national differences in math and science achievement scores may be determined more by differences in student test-taking ability and motivation than by . differences in student knowledge of math and science content. This possibility is explored in the research reported here.Publication Ambient Positional Instability Among Core Subject Arkansas Public School Teachers: Interim Report(2016-08-10) Frisone, Michael; Hooks, Tom; Ye, Tianpeng; Boruch, RobertAmbient positional instability (API) here refers to any type of shift teachers may experience in their assigned position, including changes in school, grade, or subject assignment. API is a factor which has major research design and educational implications. Research designs which do not consider the instability of teaching positions may fail to obtain representative samples due to attrition. Controlled experiments must be designed to account for these potential shifts in teacher positions. Some evidence suggests a notable correlation between teacher turnover and poorer academic achievement among students. Finally, districts, organizations, and DOEs that create teacher training programs will have less impact if teachers leave their positions after training. Despite the importance of teacher positional stability, little research has been conducted to determine the prevalence of ambient positional instability in schools and to determine if there are any differing patterns of ambient positional instability across states and school districts. This study on which this report is based was funded through the National Science Foundation. Through the assistance of the Arkansas Department of Education, public records of all public school teachers and staff were acquired from the 2010-2011 to the 2014-2015 school years. This report presents results of analyses of Arkansas API and its six largest districts.Publication Are There Metrics for MOOCS From Social Media?(2015-12-01) Ruby, Alan; Perna, Laura W; Boruch, Robert; Wang, NicoleSince "the year of the MOOC" in 2012, the effectiveness of massive open online course (MOOCs) has been widely debated. Some argue that MOOCs are not an effective mode of instructional delivery because of low completion rates. In the interest of developing alternative indicators of performance this study draws from recent efforts to measure engagement in social media, as well as from research on indicators of student engagement in traditional college courses. Using data from 16 Coursera MOOCs offered by the University of Pennsylvania we calculate standardized access rates for lectures and assessments. While these indicators have clear limitations as measures of educational progress they offer a different, more nuanced understanding of the level and nature of users' engagement with a MOOC. This paper shows that a very small share of uers takes up available opportunities to access course content but notes that the standardized access rates compare favorably with those for social media sites and with response rates to large-scale direct mail marketing programs. For MOOC providers and platform managers, indicators like the ones developed in this study may be a useful first step in monitoring the extent to which different types and combinations of activities may be providing better opportunities for learning.Publication The Ecological Fallacy in Comparative and International Education Research: Discovering More From TIMSS Through Multilevel Modeling(2003-03-01) Boe, Erling E; May, Henry; Boruch, RobertThe ecological fallacy is the assumption that empirical relationships observed at the group level generalize to individuals within the groups, and vice versa, without empirical evidence supporting this assumption. When international data are analyzed, relationships can be uncovered not only at the student or school-levels, but also at the national-level. And the factors that explain differences between nations do not necessarily provide any information about the relationships between schools or students within those nations, or vice versa. Using data from TIMSS, several examples illustrating this point are presented, and the implications for comparative education research are discussed.Publication Ambient Positional Instability in New Jersey Public Schools: 1996-1997 to 2011-2012(2016-03-26) Ye, Tianpeng; Frisone, Michael; Hooks, Tom; Boruch, Robert