Education Research Report

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Progress Report on State Data Systems

The 2009 Annual Progress Report on State Data Systems is a Data Quality Campaign
publication that reports on states’ progress in building the 10 Essential Elements in their statewide longitudinal data systems. States are making progress; however, many states lack critical Elements essential for addressing college and career readiness and the impact that teachers have on student achievement (Elements 5, 6 and 7).

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Teacher Quality – Reading and Writing

Publications Emerging From Research Funded through the National Center for Education Research as of September 30, 2009

This document contains a list of publications (as of September 30, 2009) that have resulted from the more than 400 research grants funded through IES/NCER since 2002.

The publications, intended for both the scientific community as well the general public, are on topics spanning from basic translational research to the evaluation of state education policies. The list will be updated regularly to include new articles as they are published, so please check our website periodically for updated material.

The document would be a lot more valuable with abstracts and links included

For example, here is one section of the report, with abstracts and/or links to full text added for several articles:

Teacher Quality – Reading and Writing

FY 2003

Institution: Haskins Laboratories
Principal Investigator: Susan Brady
Project Title: Mastering Reading Instruction: A Professional Development Project for First Grade Teachers
Grant: R305M030099
Brady, S., Gillis, M., Smith, T., Lavalette, M., Liss-Bronstein, L., Lowe, E., North, W., Russo, E., and Wilder, T.D. (2009). First Grade Teachers' Knowledge of Phonological Awareness and Code Concepts: Examining Gains From an Intensive Form of Professional Development. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 22(4): 425-455.

The study examined the efficacy of an intensive form of professional development (PD) for building the knowledge of first-grade teachers in the areas of phonological awareness and phonics. The PD featured frequent in-class support from highly knowledgeable mentors for one school year, in addition to an introductory two-day summer institute and monthly workshops. Pre- and post-assessment of participants on a Teacher Knowledge Survey (TKS) indicated weak knowledge of phonological awareness and phonics concepts prior to PD and large, significant gains in each area by year-end. In addition, to investigate factors potentially associated with teachers’ responses to training, a Teacher Attitude Survey (TAS) was administered before and after the PD. The TAS measured teachers’ attitudes regarding PD, external and internal motivation to participate, intentions to actively engage in learning and implementing new instructional methods, sense of self-efficacy as reading instructors, and premises about reading instruction (e.g., about whole language). Attitudes on a subset of these factors, teachers’ initial knowledge scores on the TKS, and years of teaching experience (estimated by age) accounted for significant portions of the variance in performance on the TKS after training.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/jw768g75314484u5/fulltext.pdf

Institution: Instructional Research Group
Principal Investigator: Gersten, Russell
Project Title: Teacher Quality Study: An Investigation of the Impact of Teacher Study Groups as a Means to Enhance the Quality of Reading Instruction for First Graders in High Poverty Schools in Two States
Grant: R305M030052

Dimino, J., and Taylor, M.J. (in press). Learning How to Improve Vocabulary Instruction through Teacher Study Groups. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.
Gersten, R., Dimino, J., and Jayanthi, M. (2007). Towards the Development of a Nuanced Classroom Observational System for Studying Comprehension and Vocabulary Instruction. In B. Taylor and J. Ysseldyke (Eds.), Educational Interventions for Struggling Readers (pp. 381-425). New York: Teachers College Press.

http://www.sree.org/conferences/2009/pages/abstracts/052_development.doc

Institution: University of Michigan
Principal Investigator: Joanne Carlisle
Project Title: Identifying Key Components of Effective Professional Development in Reading for First-Grade Teachers and Their Students
Grant: R305M030090

Carlisle, J.F., Cortina, K.S., and Katz, L.A. (in press). First-Grade Teachers Response to Three Models of Professional Development in Reading. Reading and Writing Quarterly.

FY 2004

Institution: Florida State University
Principal Investigator: Douglas Harris
Project Title: Assessing Teacher Effectiveness: How Can We Predict Who Will Be a High Quality Teacher?
Grant: R305M040121

Harris, D., and Rutledge, S. (forthcoming).Models and Predictors of Teacher Effectiveness: A Review of the Evidence With Lessons From (and For) Other Occupations. Teachers College Record.
Rutledge, S., and Harris, D. (2008). Certify, Blink, Hire: An Examination of the Process and Tools of Teacher Selection. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 7(3): 237-263.
While much has been written about the process of employee selection in other occupations, there has been little discussion on the process and tools of teacher selection and why it occurs as it does. To understand this question, we conduct an extensive literature review in which we compare teacher hiring with hiring in other occupations. We also present findings from a study of school principals and district administrators in a midsized Florida school district. Our results suggest that the screening and selection process in teaching is not much different from occupations that have similar levels of job complexity. A theory emerges from the review and analysis that explains the process and reliance on certain tools in teacher hiring. The theory focuses especially on the costs of various tools and processes, the types and quality of information that come from them, and the distinctive features of teaching as an occupation and schools as organizations.
Harris, D. (2008). The Policy Uses and Policy Validity of Value-Added and Other Teacher Quality Measures. In D.H. Gitomer (Ed.), Measurement Issues and the Assessment of Teacher Quality. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
http://www.teacherqualityresearch.org/policy.pdf

Harris, D., and Sass, T. (2007). Teacher Training, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement. National Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER). Working Paper #3. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

http://www.caldercenter.org/PDF/1001059_Teacher_Training.pdf

Institution: Purdue University
Principal Investigator: Douglas Powell
Project Title: Professional Development in Early Reading (Classroom Links to Early Literacy)
Grant: R305M040167

Diamond, K.E., Gerde, H.K., and Powell, D.R. (2008). Development in Early Literacy Skills During the Pre-Kindergarten Year in Head Start: Relations Between Growth in Children’s Writing and Understanding of Letters. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23: 467-478.
Powell, D.R., Diamond, K.E., Bojczyk, K.E., and Gerde, H.K. (2008). Head Start Teachers’ Perspectives on Early Literacy. Journal of Literacy Research, 40: 422-460.
Gerde, H.K., and Powell, D.R. (in press). Teacher Education, Book-Reading Practices, and Children’s Language Growth Across One Year of Head Start. Early Education and Development.

Institution: RAND
Principal Investigator: Richard Buddin
Project Title: Teacher Licensure Tests and Student Achievement
Grant: R305M040186

Buddin, R., and Zamaro, G. Teacher Quality, Teacher Licensure Tests, and Student Achievement (WR-555-IES). Santa Monica, CA: RAND Education Working Paper.
Le, Vi-Nhuan, and Buddin, R. (2005). Examining the Validity Evidence for California Teacher Licensure Exams (WR 334-EDU). Santa Monica, CA: RAND Education.

FY 2005

Institution: Florida State University
Principal Investigator: Alysia Roehrig
Project Title: Identifying the Conditions Under Which Large Scale Professional Development Policy Initiatives Are Related to Teacher Knowledge, Instructional Practices, and Student Reading Outcomes
Grant: R305M050122
Roehrig, A.D., Turner, J.E., Grove, C.M., Schneider, N., and Liu, Z. (in press). Degree of Alignment Between Beginning Teachers' Practices and Beliefs About Effective Classroom Practices. The Teacher Educator .
Roehrig, A.D., Duggar, S.W., Moats, L., Glover, M., and Mincey, B. (2008). When Teachers Work to Use Progress Monitoring Data to Inform Literacy Instruction: Identifying Potential Supports and Challenges. Remedial and Special Educatio, 29: 364-382.
Roehrig, A.D., Bohnb, C.M., Turner, J.E., and Pressley, M. (2008). Mentoring Beginning Primary Teachers for Exemplary Teaching Practices. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24: 684-702.

http://www.fcrr.org/science/pdf/Roehrig/Roehrig_Mentoring.pdf

Institution: University of Michigan
Principal Investigator: Joanne Carlisle
Project Title: Assesssment of Pedagogical Knowledge of Teachers of Reading
Grant: R305M050087

Carlisle, J.F., Cortina, K.S., and Katz, L.A. (in press). First-Grade Teachers’ Response to Three Models of Professional Development in Reading. Reading and Writing Quarterly.

Institution: University of Texas, San Antonio
Principal Investigator: Misty Sailors
Project Title: Teaching Teachers to Teach Critical Reading Strategies (CREST).through an Intensive Professional Development
Grant: R305M050021
Sailors, M. (2007). Supporting Teachers Through an Intensive Professional Development Model. In Supporting Student Success. Corpus Christi, TX: CEDER Yearbook.
Sailors, M. (in press). Improving Comprehension Instruction through Quality Professional Development. In S.E. Israel and G.G. Duffy (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Reading Comprehension. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

FY 2008

Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research
Principal Investigator: Jesse Rothstein
Project Title: Value-Added Models and the Measurement of Teacher Quality: Tracking or Causal Effects?
Grant: R305A080560

Rothstein, Jesse (2008). Teacher Quality in Educational Production: Tracking, Decay, and Student Achievement. National Bureau of Economic Reasearch Working Paper 14442.

http://www.princeton.edu/~jrothst/workingpapers/rothstein_VAM.pdf

Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Principal Investigators: Linda Kucan and Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar
Project Title: The Iterative Design of Modules to Support Reading Comprehension Instruction
Grant: R305A080005

Kucan, L., Palincsar, A.S., Khasnabis, D., and Chang, C. (in press). The Video Viewing Task: a Source of Information for Assessing and Addressing Teacher Understanding of Text-Based Discussion. Teaching and Teacher Education.

Teacher Quality – Mathematics and Science

Friday, November 20, 2009

High School Survey of Student Engagement

A nationwide survey of high school students finds that nearly 90 percent expect to earn their diploma and go to college, but many report a lack of interest and effort in the classroom that may dampen those hopes.

"Engaging the Voices of Students: A Report on the 2007 & 2008 High School Survey of Student Engagement" presents the latest numbers from the annual survey conducted by the Indiana University Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP). The survey asked more than 134,000 high school students about their thoughts, beliefs and perceptions in 2007 and 2008. The 2007 survey covered 104 schools in 30 states, and 119 schools in 27 states participated in the 2008 High School Survey of Student Engagement (HSSSE).

In both the 2007 and 2008 surveys, 91.4 percent of respondents expected to graduate from high school. Just 1.2 percent didn't expect to earn a diploma. When asked why they go to school, 74 percent of respondents in each year said "Because I want to get a degree and go to college." Despite those expectations, according to the U.S. Department of Education, one in four public high school students did not graduate on time (four years after entering ninth grade) in the latest reporting period.

"The aspirations are not a problem," said Ethan Yazzie-Mintz, HSSSE project director. "They continue to expect at higher and higher levels to graduate and go on to college."

Student appreciation of the importance of high school also doesn't match the reality of the work they do. In each year, between 70 percent and 80 percent rate "doing written homework" and "reading and studying for class" as somewhat or very important or "a top priority." However, in each year more than 80 percent of students said they spent an hour or less on these tasks each day. More than 40 percent said they spent an hour or less on these tasks each week. Fewer than half of the respondents (48 percent) said they gave maximum effort in "most" or "all" of their classes.

"So we have to look at what's causing this gap between the time they actually spend and the priority they feel," Yazzie-Mintz said. "Some of this might connect to how interesting and how connected the importance of the material is to the class."

In findings quite consistent with the last HSSSE report (for 2006 data), many students report boredom with their classes and more than half have skipped school. Two out of three (67 percent in each year) say they are bored at least every day in class. Approximately one out of six say they're bored in every class. Just over half (51 percent in each survey year) said they've skipped school "once or twice" or "many times."

"These results should not to be taken to say that teachers need to be entertainers," Yazzie-Mintz said. "But there's got to be some way to connect this content and this material to where the students are and what their interests are. We are seeing from some of the open responses that they will take on challenges even in a content area where they're not good if it's being communicated and connected to them well."

Other key findings in the 2007 and 2008 HSSSE data include:

• The three most-cited reasons for students who have considered dropping out are all school-related factors. "I didn't like the school" was the answer for 53 percent of students who have considered dropping out in 2007, 51 percent in 2008. "I didn't see the value in the work I was being asked to do" was the response of 44 percent in 2007, 45 percent in 2008. In 2007, 41 percent responded with "I didn't like the teachers,"while 40 percent had the same response in 2008.
•
• Fewer than half of the respondents (45 percent in 2007, 46 percent in 2008) said they are challenged academically in most or all of their classes.
• Two out of three students (66 percent in each year) believe that "most" or "all" of their teachers want them to do the best work they can do. Eighty-one percent of students in each year agreed or strongly agreed that they feel supported by teachers; they reported the same percentage when asked if they feel supported by other students.
• Among instructional methods, those involving work and learning with peers rated most highly.
• In each survey year, just 48 percent of respondents said they gave their maximum effort in "most" or "all" of their classes.
•
Yazzie-Mintz said follow-up research should focus on what he termed the "engagement gap," which he said mirrored the educational achievement gap in many ways. "Girls report higher levels of engagement than boys; students in the honors tracks reported the highest levels of engagement while students in special education reported the lowest levels of engagement; by race and ethnicity, white and Asian students reported higher levels of engagement than students of other races," he said.

Another big finding from the study is that students need to feel an important part of their school and that teachers can make a big difference in that feeling, Yazzie-Mintz said. "We hear over and over from students that they do want more supportive teachers," he said. "They want teachers who believe in them," noting several student responses on open-ended questions.

"One student said a good, engaging teacher makes all the difference. Another student said 'I always wished at least one teacher would see a skill in me that seemed extraordinary, or help to encourage its growth.' So there's a lot of feeling that teachers can make a lot of difference in the experience and the achievement of students."

The entire report is available at http://ceep.indiana.edu/hssse/pdf/HSSSE_2009_Report.pdf.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Saving America's High Schools

Ambitious Reform Efforts Evaluated in New Book on America's High Schools

Eighteen education policy experts put the past decade's surge in high-school reform efforts to the test in "Saving America's High Schools" from the Urban Institute Press. Led by coeditors Becky Smerdon and Kathryn Borman, the team of authors size up national reform trends and draw on at least five years of research in Baltimore, New York City, Chicago, Ohio, and North Carolina.

Their analyses come none too soon. The last decade has seen a proliferation of high school redesign efforts - more than $1 billion from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alone has funded improvement projects in more than 2,000 schools - but research on the effectiveness of the reforms has been scarce. "Even where the research does exist," Smerdon and Borman write, "it comes nowhere near giving sufficient guidance to schools and policymakers about how to improve secondary schools to the extent society and the economy are now demanding." "Saving America's High Schools" helps fill that research gap for leaders dedicated to reinvigorating secondary education.

The numbers the researchers cite are sobering. "High schools are not working for a substantial number of the 14 million adolescents they are charged with educating," Smerdon and Borman point out. "At best, one in four public high school students does not graduate in four years. More alarmingly, high school graduation is only a '50-50 proposition' for low-income and minority students."

Reducing high school size became a common objective for educators and policymakers in the 1990s and 2000s, but Smerdon, Borman, and their colleagues find that getting positive results for students requires more complex changes. A school's small size, the authors saw, can be beneficial, but does not improve student performance directly. Instead, a small school is a pathway to personalizing instructional methods and relationships, building students' sense of responsibility, keeping students accountable, and permitting greater collaboration among educators.

For school systems seeking transformation, and for the Gates Foundation (which funds many of the projects), academic rigor is a key to successful school reform. "Saving America's High Schools" finds that student engagement, motivation, and attendance in several redesigned schools improved, but that student achievement has been mixed. In Baltimore's redesigned schools - where, among other changes, leaders reduced school sizes, increased staff accountability for student achievement, and raised standards for student performance in core subjects - most students have not passed English and algebra assessment exams and two-thirds have not graduated from high school, despite some rises in student achievement.

Sarah Edith Jones, Monica Martinez, and Cindy Cai report that teaching approaches did not change after similar reforms in Ohio and student outcomes did not improve. Academic performance did not improve in Chicago post-reform either, though graduation rates rose in some small schools, write Joseph E. Kahne, Susan E. Sporte, Marisa de la Torre, and John Q. Easton. Eileen Foley and Elizabeth Reisner's study identified a bright spot in New York City's revamped schools: a 78-percent graduation rate for the class of 2005, compared with just 61 percent in comparison-group schools.

Smerdon, Borman, and Jane Hannaway underscore the importance of research-tested instructional practices, writing that significant student learning gains require improved curricula and highly effective teachers. At the same time, these experts put weak academic achievements in newly overhauled schools into context, pointing out that keeping low-performing students from dropping out may reduce schools' average test scores.

"Saving America's High Schools" recounts the successes and challenges in improving various high schools. "Without the push to put forward the lessons learned from these efforts, many rural and urban high schools will continue to cling to notions of the 'comprehensive' high school as the best option," Smerdon and Borman observe. "Clearly, it is not, and efforts such as those described in this volume must continue as we seek to create schools for all students."

Kathryn Borman is a professor of anthropology and is affiliated with the Alliance for Applied Research in Education and Anthropology at the University of South Florida. Becky Smerdon is a founder and managing director of Quill Research Associates, LLC. Contributors to "Saving America's High Schools" are Cindy Cai, Jennifer Cohen, Geoff Coltrane, Marisa de la Torre, John Q. Easton, Eileen Foley, Joseph Garcia, Jane Hannaway, Sarah Edith Jones, Joseph E. Kahne, Monica Martinez, Barbara Means, Karen Mitchell, Elizabeth Reisner, Todd Silberman, Mengli Song, Susan E. Sporte, and Charles Storey.

Read Chapter 1.

Hidden Risks Of Modular Classrooms

Portable classrooms may be too noisy and unhealthy.

From Inside Science News Service:

Every school day, more than 5 million students in the United States attend lessons held in modular classrooms. With new carpeting and paint, metal roofs and noisy ventilation systems, they can be a health hazard and make it harder for students to learn.

Modular classrooms often start out as temporary fixtures on school grounds before becoming a permanent part of campus.

A study of all the modular classrooms in California found some common problems in these types of buildings. They are usually newer than the rest of the school's buildings, they tend to have new paint and carpet, which may release toxic fumes for a few years.

Because they are designed to be temporary, modular classrooms tend to develop structural problems such as water leaks or cracks faster than permanent school buildings and are more likely to be outfitted with pressed-wood furniture or vinyl walls which put out unhealthy fumes.

Scientists studying movable classrooms in California looked at dust from the floors and particles in the air inside the classrooms. The dust showed traces of pesticides, arsenic and mold, while the air contained formaldehyde fumes, heavy metals and higher than normal concentrations of pollen and carbon dioxide.

Full article:
http://www.insidescience.org/current_affairs/hidden_risks_of_modular_classrooms

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

GAO report nn improving academic performance

Student Achievement: Schools Use Multiple Strategies to Help Students Meet Academic Standards, Especially Schools with Higher Proportions of Low-Income and Minority Students

The federal government has invested billions of dollars to improve student academic performance, and many schools, teachers, and researchers are trying to determine the most effective instructional practices with which to accomplish this. The Conference Report for the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008 directed GAO to study strategies used to prepare students to meet state academic achievement standards.

To do this, GAO answered: (1) What types of instructional practices are schools and teachers most frequently using to help students achieve state academic standards, and do those instructional practices differ by school characteristics? (2) What is known about how standards-based accountability systems have affected instructional practices? (3) What is known about instructional practices that are effective in improving student achievement?

GAO analyzed data from a 2006-2007 national survey of principals and 2005-2006 survey of teachers in three states, conducted a literature review of the impact of standards-based accountability systems on instructional practices and of practices that are effective in improving student achievement, and interviewed experts.

Nationwide, most principals focused on multiple strategies to help students meet academic standards, such as using student data to inform instruction and increasing professional development for teachers, according to our analysis of data from a U.S. Department of Education survey.

Many of these strategies were used more often at high-poverty schools--those where 75 percent or more of the students were eligible for the free and reduced-price lunch program--and high-minority schools--those where 75 percent or more of students were identified as part of a minority population, than at lower poverty and minority schools. Likewise, math teachers in California, Georgia, and Pennsylvania increased their use of certain instructional practices in response to their state tests, such as focusing more on topics emphasized on assessments and searching for more effective teaching methods, and teachers at high-poverty and high-minority schools were more likely than teachers at lower-poverty schools and lower-minority schools to have made these changes, according to GAO's analysis of survey data collected by the RAND Corporation. Some researchers suggested that differences exist in the use of these practices because schools with lower poverty or lower minority student populations might generally be meeting accountability requirements and therefore would need to try these strategies less frequently.

Research shows that standards-based accountability systems can influence instructional practices in both positive and negative ways. For example, some research notes that using a standards-based curriculum that is aligned with corresponding instructional guidelines can facilitate the development of higher order thinking skills in students.

But, in some cases, teacher practices did not always reflect the principles of standards-based instruction, and the difficulties in aligning practice with standards were attributed, in part, to current accountability requirements. Other research noted that assessments can be powerful tools for improving the learning process and evaluating student achievement, but assessments can also have some unintended negative consequences on instruction, including narrowing the curriculum to only material that is tested.

Many experts stated that methodological issues constrain knowing more definitively the specific instructional practices that improve student learning and achievement. Nevertheless, some studies and experts pointed to instructional practices that are considered to be effective in raising student achievement, such as differentiated instruction. Professional development for teachers was also highlighted as important for giving teachers the skills and knowledge necessary to implement effective teaching practices.