More Experienced Teacher = Better Student Achievement and Motivation in Middle School

This study uses rich longitudinally matched administrative data on students and teachers in North Carolina to examine the patterns of differential effectiveness by teachers’ years of experience. The paper contributes to the literature by focusing on middle school teachers and by extending the analysis to student outcomes beyond test scores.

The study finds large returns to experience for middle school teachers in the form both of higher test scores and improvements in student behavior, with the clearest behavioral effects emerging for reductions in student absenteeism. Moreover these returns extend well beyond the first few years of teaching.

Extracurricular Participation, “At-Risk” Status, and the High School Dropout Decision

This study estimates the effect of extracurricular participation on the high school dropout decision with a particular focus on at-risk students. Using a sample of tenth grade students from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, the study jointly estimates the dropout and participation decisions (including extracurricular offerings per student), and eligibility requirements as instruments for extracurricular participation.

Local average treatment effect estimates range from 14 to 20 percentage points, indicating that participants are significantly less likely to drop out of high school than they would have been if unable to participate, with similar estimates for both at-risk and not-at-risk students.

These findings are relevant to policy makers and administrators seeking to increase high school graduation rates and improve educational outcomes.

Are Student Absences Worth the Worry in U.S. Primary Schools?

Student absences are a potentially important, yet understudied, input in the educational process. Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative survey and rich administrative records from North Carolina, this study investigates the relationship between student absences and academic performance.

Generally, student absences are associated with modest but statistically significant decreases in academic achievement. The harmful effects of absences are approximately linear, and are two to three times larger among fourth and fifth graders in North Carolina than among kindergarten and first-grade students in the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. In both datasets, absences similarly reduce achievement in urban, rural, and suburban schools.

The harm associated with student absences is greater among both low-income students and English language learners, particularly for reading achievement. Unexcused absences are twice as harmful as excused absences.

Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Teacher encouragement has greatest influence on less advantaged children

Schoolchildren who receive words of encouragement from a teacher are significantly more likely to continue their education beyond the age of 16 than those who do not, a new study suggests.

The influence of teacher encouragement appears to be much greater on students whose own parents never progressed past compulsory education -- an important indicator of a less advantaged background.

For students from these backgrounds, encouragement increased entry into post-16 education from just over half to around two-thirds.

The research also found that encouragement from a teacher has the greatest influence on those students most likely to be on the margin for university attendance.

The University of Cambridge study used 'big data' techniques to look at the long-term impact of student-teacher rapport, and is the first to analyse the role it plays in university access.

The findings, published in the journal Research in Higher Education, show that further education and social mobility policymaking might benefit from increased focus on the "relational aspects" of interactions between teachers and students.

"Teachers are often relegated to course deliverers and classroom managers in the policy discussions around further education. However, it's clear that teachers have more forms of influencing inequality than is currently appreciated," said study author Dr Ben Alcott from Cambridge's Faculty of Education.

"When people speak of a positive school experience, they frequently cite a personal relationship with a teacher, and the encouragement they were given. Our research helps quantify that impact and show its significance, particularly for addressing social mobility.

"The importance of that teacher-student connection can get lost in the midst of exam statistics or heat of political debate."

Some 4,300 adolescents in England were tracked from the age of thirteen onwards, completing a detailed questionnaire every year for the next seven years. During their last year of compulsory education, the students were asked whether a teacher had encouraged them to stay on in full-time education.

Dr Alcott used mathematical modelling to "match" and compare students with similar attainment, experience and life histories -- helping control for the effects these differences had. This makes it possible for the influence of teacher encouragement alone to be measured.

"This approach brings us plausibly close to reading the long-term effect of encouragement from teachers with the data we currently have available," Alcott said.

He found that, on average across all backgrounds and abilities, rates of entry into post-16 education were eight percentage points higher in students that reported receiving encouragement (74%) over those that said they did not (66%).

Based on previous examination scores (the UK's SATs), teacher encouragement made the most difference for students with average academic achievement -- those often on the verge of going either way when it comes to further education.

For Year 11 (or 10th grade) students in the middle third of results rankings, encouragement was linked to a 10 percentage-point increase in the likelihood of university entry, yet had no observable impact on students in the upper and lower thirds.

The effect of teacher encouragement on students varied considerably depending on background -- with the greatest difference seen for students with lower levels of parental education.

For students with parents who lacked any formal qualification, post-16 education enrolment increased 12 percentage points amongst those who received teacher encouragement (64%) compared with those who didn't (52%).

This effect appeared to last into higher education, with that initial encouragement increasing the likelihood of university entry by 10 percentage points -- one-fifth higher than students from similar backgrounds who did not report being encouraged.

Students whose parents had some qualifications, but none past compulsory education, saw encouragement from teachers boost post-16 education by 13 percentage points (67% compared to 54%) and university entry by seven percentage points.

For those with parents who held university degrees, however, teacher encouragement mattered much less: increasing continued education by just six percentage points and making no difference at all to university attendance.

However, Alcott found that students from more advantaged backgrounds were likelier to report being encouraged by a teacher to stay in education.

For example, 22% of students receiving encouragement had a parent with a university degree, compared to 15% of those who did not. Similarly, students who do not report encouragement are a third more likely to have an unemployed parent (12% versus 9%).

Alcott, who formerly taught in a London academy school himself, says: "These results suggest that teachers themselves and the relationships they develop with students are real engines for social mobility.

"Many teachers take the initiative to encourage students in the hope they will progress in education long after they have left the classroom. It's important that teachers know the effect their efforts have, and the children likely to benefit most."

Impacts of school choice on segregation

Diversity in schools is important for students' experiences and outcomes in schools and beyond, reducing prejudices and ensuring the likelihood of living and working in integrated environments as adults. Penn State researchers are exploring how school choice is affecting racial composition and segregation in Pennsylvania schools.

According to lead researcher Erica Frankenberg, associate professor of education and Population Research Institute associate at Penn State, this is one of the first studies to explore how charter schools could be affecting the racial composition of public schools.

"It is critical to assess how student movement from charter schools affects school segregation during this time of persisting neighborhood segregation, and to see what choices students and parents make when or if more integrative options exist," said Frankenberg.

Using student data from Pennsylvania, the researchers focused on approximately 8,000 students transferring from public schools to charter schools in ten metropolitan areas where there was more than one potential brick-and-mortar charter school option, to see how access to more racially diverse schools affected school choice.

"Although other studies have used individual data to examine charter school racial composition and segregation," Frankenberg explained, "this project considered student enrollment decisions when presented with schools of differing racial composition,"

They also assessed the racial composition of charter schools that students enrolled in and compared them to the racial composition of public schools from which the students transferred. "We found that black and Latino students tended to move into charter schools that were more racially isolated than the public schools they left," said Frankenberg.

The researchers found that factors such as distance to the chosen school was a factor but was not the determining factor of school choice. In fact, they found that the average distance to a chosen charter school was at least twice as far as the nearest charter school for black and Latino students, regardless of their age group.

While Frankenberg and her team weren't surprised by this discovery, as previous research points to higher segregation in charter schools than traditional public schools, especially among black students, they were surprised by other findings.

"We found that white students in Philadelphia metropolitan areas more often transferred to charter schools that had a higher percentage of white students, while white students in non-Philadelphia metropolitan areas moved to slightly more diverse charter schools than the public schools they left," said Frankenberg.

The findings raise critical questions regarding educational equity, and the effects of educational reform and school-choice policy on fostering racially diverse schools. It is important, said Frankenberg, because research confirms the importance of attending diverse schools for students of all racial groups.

"Minority students in more diverse school settings have higher short-term and long-term academic outcomes than those who attend racially isolated minority schools," she said. "Meanwhile, benefits to white students as well as students of color include reduced prejudice and a higher likelihood of living and working in diverse environments as adults."

This research illuminates the rapidly growing number of students transferring to charters in Pennsylvania who are making choices that are more segregative. "In the future, I would like to research the factors that influence school choice, as well as the impacts of other types of school choice, such as cyber schools, on traditional public school racial composition, and look at other states to see how they differ from Pennsylvania."

Characteristics and Experiences of Special Education Students in High School

Secondary school youth who receive special education services feel positive about school, but are more likely than their peers to struggle academically, be suspended, and lag behind in taking key steps towards postsecondary education and jobs. Among youth with an Individualized Education Program (IEP), those with autism, deaf-blindness, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, and orthopedic impairments are most at-risk for not transitioning successfully beyond high school.

The Institute of Education Sciences released a report today (March 28) from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (NLTS 2012), the third in the NLTS series commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education over several decades. The multi-volume report from the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), entitled Preparing for Life after High School: The Characteristics and Experiences of Youth in Special Education, presents updated information on secondary school youth with disabilities across the country. Volume 1 compares youth with an IEP to their non-IEP peers, and Volume 2 compares youth across disability groups. The study is being conducted as part of the congressionally-mandated National Assessment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004) and the report volumes are intended to inform discussions regarding this important legislation and efforts to address reauthorization of this important legislation.

NLTS 2012 includes a nationally representative set of nearly 13,000 youth with and without an IEP who were ages 13-21 when selected for the study. Among youth with an IEP are students who represent each of the disability categories recognized by IDEA 2004, and among youth without an IEP are students with a plan developed under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Both youth and their parent/guardian were surveyed in 2012-2013.

Key findings from the multi-volume report suggest:

•    Youth with an IEP, particularly those with intellectual disability and emotional disturbance, are more likely than their peers to be socioeconomically disadvantaged. Youth with an IEP are 12 percentage points more likely to live in low-income households and are less likely to have parents who are employed or have a college education. Among disability groups, youth with intellectual disability and youth with emotional disturbance are more socioeconomically disadvantaged and more likely to attend a lower-performing school than youth with an IEP overall. In contrast, youth with autism and youth with speech or language impairments are less socioeconomically disadvantaged and less likely to attend a lower-performing school than youth with an IEP overall.

•    The vast majority of youth with and without an IEP feel positive about school, but those with an IEP experience bullying and are suspended at higher rates. Like their peers, more than 80 percent of youth in special education report that they are happy with school and with school staff. However, not only do youth with an IEP more commonly experience some types of bullying (e.g., being teased or called names) but, according to parent reports, they are more than twice as likely to be suspended or expelled from school. Among the disability groups, youth with emotional disturbance are most likely to report being teased and are suspended, expelled, and arrested at more than twice the rates of youth with an IEP on average.

•    Youth with an IEP are more likely than other youth to struggle academically, yet less likely to receive some forms of school-based support. Half of all youth with an IEP report they have trouble with their classes, about 15 percentage points more than reported by their peers.

Report Promotes Reforms to Teacher Education Programs but Ignores Past Research and Present Context

A recent Bellwether Education Partners’ report begins with the reasonable assumption that in order to improve teacher quality, the field must first improve teacher preparation program design. It then asserts that teacher-education programs are “blindly swinging from one popular reform to the next” and that decades of input- and outcome-based research has failed to improve teacher education.

This report, A New Agenda: Research to Build a Better Teacher Preparation Program, was reviewed by a group of scholars and practitioners who are members of Project TEER (Teacher Education and Education Reform). The team was led by Marilyn Cochran-Smith, the Hawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools at Boston College, along with Stephani Burton, Molly Cummings Carney, Juan Gabriel Sánchez, and Andrew F. Miller.

The review is published by the Think Twice Think Tank Review Project at the National Education Policy Center, housed at University of Colorado Boulder’s School of Education.

The report calls for a “rational” and “rigorous” research agenda for teacher education. Regrettably, the reviewers note, the report’s depiction of past research includes mischaracterizations and also omits a wide swath of relevant literature about teacher education.

The report also recommends “rapid cycle evaluations,” but it does not adequately explain what these evaluations would entail or how they would work to improve teacher preparation program design. Nor does it offer a research foundation for this approach.

The New Agenda report also fails to recognize the socio-political context of teacher education, wherein programs are often left scrambling to meet competing accountability expectations. It leaves practical questions unanswered, muddies the waters about promising research avenues, and ignores important bodies of literature in teacher education.

Ultimately, the reviewers conclude, the recommendations A New Agenda offers, though not necessarily bad, are overly general and offer little useful evidence-based guidance to either policymakers or institutions.

Success for All Shows Positive Effects in Alphabetics for Early Readers

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) has reviewed the latest research on Success for All® (SFA®) and its effects on students in grades K-4. The results are summarized in an intervention report released by the Institute of Education Sciences today (March 28).

SFA® is a whole-school reform model for students in grades pre-K–8 and includes a literacy program that emphasizes phonics for beginning readers and comprehension for all students. Teachers provide reading instruction to students grouped by reading ability for 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week. In addition, certified teachers or paraprofessionals provide daily tutoring to students who have difficulty reading at the same level as their classmates.

This report in the WWC’s Literacy topic area, includes the research examined in a 2009 SFA® report and reviews of 111 additional studies. Based on this research, the WWC found SFA® to have positive effects on alphabetics, potentially positive effects on reading fluency, and mixed effects on comprehension and general reading achievement for beginning readers.

The Literacy topic area has more reviews on programs and methods that aim to improve literacy.

Extended School Days: More reading instruction, student success

Under state law, Florida’s 300 lowest performing elementary schools in reading are required to extend the school day by one hour. A new Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast study looks at the characteristics of the schools that implemented this law and how they used the required extra hour.
Since the 2012-13 school year, Florida law has required the 100 lowest performing elementary schools in reading to extend the school day by one hour to provide supplemental reading instruction.

In 2014, the law was broadened to include the 300 elementary schools with the lowest reading performance. A previous study of the state’s first two cohorts of 100 lowest performing schools found that observed growth in school reading performance after one to two years of implementing the extended school day policy did not exceed what would have been expected because of natural variation.

The new study follows up on that report by describing the 300 lowest performing schools and analyzing how they implemented the extended school day policy. This study provides preliminary evidence that schools provided more reading instruction, more staff, and more professional development and complied with the extended school day policy. Interviewees attributed student success to changes that accompanied the additional hour such as curricular and pedagogical changes.

U.S. Children's Nonparental Care Arrangements

About 60 percent of children, ages 0-5 and not yet in kindergarten, participate in nonparental care arrangements, according to a new report released today (March 28). The report also indicates that parents paid more for child care arrangements in 2012 than they did in 2001, even after adjusting for inflation.

The National Center for Education Statistics released The Years Before School: Children's Nonparental Care Arrangements From 2001 to 2012. This Statistics in Brief examines the nonparental care arrangements of children in the United States, from birth through age 5, who are not yet enrolled in kindergarten. The report describes children's relative, nonrelative, and center-based care arrangements and provides a discussion of overall trends regarding children's participation in types of nonparental care arrangements, the number of hours that children spend in their nonparental care arrangements each week, and the average out-of-pocket hourly expenses that households bear when caring for their young children.

Key findings include:

• Children's overall participation in nonparental care arrangements (60 percent) was statistically unchanged from 2001 to 2012;
• From 2001 to 2012, the percentage of children who participated only in relative care increased from 14 to 16 percent. Meanwhile, 12 percent of children participated in more than one type of care arrangement in 2012 (an increase from 10 percent in 2001);
• From 2001 to 2012, the number of hours that children spent per week in their primary care arrangement declined by 3 hours for relative care, 2 hours for nonrelative care, and 2 hours for center-based care; and
• After adjusting for inflation, out-of-pocket hourly expenses for care were higher in 2012 than they were in 2001 for children in relative ($4.18 vs. $2.66), nonrelative ($5.28 vs. $4.23), and center-based ($6.70 vs. $4.23) care arrangements in 2012 dollars.

The data for this report come from the Early Childhood Program Participation (ECPP) survey of the 2001, 2005, and 2012 National Home Education Survey.

Food insecurity in early childhood linked to young children's skills in kindergarten

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In the United States, estimates show that a substantial number of children under age 5 live in households that are food insecure. That means that they do not have food, or they lack sufficient quantity or quality of food to fuel a healthy and active lifestyle. A new study has found that children who experience food insecurity in early childhood are more likely to start kindergarten less ready to learn than their peers from homes that are food secure.

The findings come from researchers at Georgetown University and the University of Virginia. They are published in the journal Child Development.

"Timing of food insecurity matters," notes Anna Johnson, assistant professor of psychology at Georgetown University, who led the research. "In our study, food insecurity in infancy and toddlerhood predicted lower cognitive and social-emotional skills in kindergarten, skills that can predict later success in academics and life." Food insecurity during the preschool years was less consistently related to performance in kindergarten, Johnston adds, but when it was, associations were also negative.

In addition to finding that the timing of food insecurity matters, the study found that the number of times (or episodes) a child experienced food insecurity also makes a difference. Researchers considered three episodes -- one when children were 9 months old, one when they were about 2 years old, and one when children were about 4 years old. "Having more episodes of food insecurity in early childhood -- that is, having three episodes of food insecurity versus one or two -- was linked with poorer outcomes in kindergarten across all areas of development," explains Johnson.

The study looked at how food insecurity across the first five years of life affects cognitive and social-emotional skills and behaviors as children start kindergarten. It used nationally representative data (from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort), focusing on the 3,700 low-income households in the sample for whom there were data on food insecurity, as well as children's outcomes. 

Researchers investigated ties between the timing and intensity of food insecurity in early childhood and children's reading, math, and social-emotional scores in kindergarten. They interviewed parents and assessed children when they were 9 months old, and again when they were 2, 4, and 5 years old, looking at the children's reading and math skills when they started kindergarten, as well as their levels of hyperactivity, conduct problems, and approaches to learning.

This study addresses a gap in understanding associations between food insecurity in early childhood and skills at kindergarten entry. The authors caution that the estimates are noncausal, that is, they cannot rule out the possibility that an unobserved factor caused both increased food insecurity and decreased kindergarten skills, for instance.

"Nevertheless, these findings are worrisome," suggests Anna Markowitz, postdoctoral research associate in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, the study's coauthor. "Increasing the generosity of food assistance programs and ensuring that they reach children whose families are food insecure or at risk for food insecurity in the earliest years -- when children are 2 or younger -- could boost the early school success of these vulnerable children."

Asian-American students have strong academic support -- but is it too much?

Despite having the strongest academic support from parents, teachers, and friends, second-generation Asian American adolescents benefit much less from these supports than others, finds a study by NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

The findings, published in the Asian American Journal of Psychology, suggest that support may be experienced as pressure and that stereotyping Asian Americans as high achievers can be problematic.

"The tension produced from immigrant parents' high expectations and their children's efforts to fulfill these expectations might exacerbate the academic pressures experienced by second-generation Asian Americans," said Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, assistant professor of international education at NYU Steinhardt and author of the study.

Support from parents, friends, and teachers is a vital resource for adolescents when they form their own academic expectations. High academic expectations and support from others are linked with students having higher expectations for themselves and other important academic outcomes, such as getting good grades or going to college.

However, academic social support and its benefits are not necessarily uniform across students of different racial and generational backgrounds. In the case of Asian American youth, scholars have described two theories that may shape the academic expectations of Asian Americans: the Immigrant Bargain and the Model Minority Stereotype. The Immigrant Bargain explains how immigrant children, who are aware of their parents' sacrifices, feel obligated to be successful in order to justify the hardships experienced by their parents. The Model Minority Stereotype constructs Asian American identity around high academic achievement.

In this study, Cherng and his co-author, NYU Steinhardt doctoral student Jia-Lin Liu, sought to understand whether academic social support from parents, friends, and teachers actually helps Asian American students or compounds the pressure that the youth experience.

The researchers used data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, a nationally representative dataset of 15,360 high school students. They looked at information reported by the students, students' parents, and teachers during the students' sophomore year, including whether parents and teachers expected students to go to college. This information was linked to academic expectations reported by students in their senior year of high school - specifically, whether they anticipated completing a college degree. The researchers also looked at demographics, such as race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and immigration status (first-generation, second-generation, and third-generation and beyond).

They found that academic social support was an important ingredient in the formation of college-going expectations and that second-generation Asian Americans had the strongest social support. However, the influence of parents, friends, and teachers was not uniform: second-generation Asian Americans benefited less - or sometimes not at all - from academic social support despite having parents and teachers with the highest expectations and friends who were the most academically oriented.

For example, second-generation Asian Americans who had the highest level of support actually had lower probabilities of going to college, at 74 percent, compared to their peers with lower levels of support, at 83 percent. In contrast, third-generation Whites who had the highest level of support had 3 percent higher probabilities of expecting to go to college than did their peers with less support.

In addition to second-generation Asian Americans, parents of all generations of Latino students, third-generation Black students, and second-generation White students had significantly higher academic expectations compared to parents of third-generation White students.

Teacher's academic expectations also varied on students based on students' backgrounds. Both first- and second-generation Asian Americans and White students had teachers with higher expectations compared to third-generation White students. Teachers had significantly lower expectations towards Latino and Black students from all generations.

"Although sometimes thought of as a 'positive stereotype,' the Model Minority Stereotype not only can place pressure on Asian American youth to excel, but does not fully reflect the history and achievement of Asian Americans," Cherng said. "Teachers and policymakers who believe that all Asian Americans excel can overlook the educational needs of those who need assistance."

Given the negative influence the Model Minority Stereotype can have on Asian American youth, the authors conclude that more efforts should be taken to recognize and address this issue. For example, teachers can facilitate productive dialogue about Asian American stereotypes with students and families.

High schools lacking 'best practices' for athletic emergencies

A survey of Oregon high school athletic directors on their school's preparedness for a catastrophic injury or health event found that only 11 percent of those responding had implemented three primary "best-practice" recommendations for treating their student-athletes.

Multiple national sports safety organizations have defined institutional best practices, including having a plan in place for when emergencies occur and ensuring the training and accessibility to the proper equipment for those who respond.

Results of the research have been published in Sports Health, a collaborative publication of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, the National Athletic Trainers' Association and the Sports Physical Therapy Section.

"We launched the survey to gauge how prepared schools are to respond to athletic-related emergencies," said Samuel Johnson, an athletic training and kinesiology specialist at Oregon State University and lead author on the study. "We also wanted to know if having an athletic trainer -- a health care professional with expertise in sports medicine -- available at the school was associated with better preparedness."

The researchers asked whether schools had venue-specific emergency action plans, had access to an automated external defibrillator (AED) for early defibrillation in the event of an emergency, and whether they required first responders -- specifically coaches -- to be trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and proper use of an AED.

The OSU-led study found that 29 percent of schools responding to the survey had implemented two of the three best-practice recommendations; 32 percent had implemented one recommendation; and 27 percent had not implemented any of them. The survey received 108 responses, or about 37 percent of all Oregon high schools.

"There is definitely room for improvement in planning for medical emergencies," he said. "We are doing some things well in the state, and there are things we need to do better. For example, having an AED available on campus is a great first step, but we need to make sure it is readily available at athletic events and that people are trained to use it."

Only half of the schools in the study had an athletic trainer available, yet Johnson said having one was associated with better preparedness.

"Athletic trainers are specifically trained to prevent and respond to emergencies," Johnson noted. "We found that having an athletic trainer on staff was associated with better preparedness, particularly as it relates to emergency plans and having AEDs on hand. However, having a trainer was not associated with whether schools required coaches to have training in CPR or with a defibrillator."

Johnson pointed out that while athletic trainers likely are not in a position to mandate that coaches having training, they can take charge in making sure plans are in place and potentially life-saving equipment is available when needed.

"We understand several of the challenges associated with implementing some of the recommendations," Johnson said. "Buying AEDs, paying for coach training, or hiring an athletic trainer can be expensive. Budgets are tight and catastrophic medical situations are rare. But they do happen, and they have a devastating impact on the athlete, family and friends."

The researchers are planning to explore the challenges schools face in implementing best practices. The Oregon School Activities' Association, which governs high school sports in the state, has been proactive in promoting sports safety, Johnson said.

"I am always impressed by how well the different groups in the state come together to make sports safer," said Johnson, who along with several of the study's co-authors are members of the OSAA's Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. "The OSAA has been a driving force in getting coaches, athletic directors, athletic trainers, physicians and other stakeholders talking about these issues and making changes to improve safety.

"For example, starting this year there is a requirement that schools have an emergency action plan for athletics. These collaborative efforts don't happen in every state, though they probably should."

Johnson, who is in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at OSU, is taking the message outside of Oregon. He will address a worldwide audience of sports medicine professionals on preparedness at the International Olympic Committee's World Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport later this year.

Report Mistakenly Suggests Easy Path for Improving Teacher Quality Through Higher Admissions Standards

A recent report from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) advocates for a higher bar for entry into teacher preparation programs. The NCTQ report suggests, based on a review of GPA and SAT/ACT requirements at 221 institutions in 25 states, that boosting entry requirements would significantly improve teacher quality in the U.S. It argues that this higher bar should be set by states, by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), and by the higher-education institutions themselves.

However, the report’s foundational claims are poorly supported, making its recommendations highly problematic.

The report, Within Our Grasp: Achieving Higher Admissions Standards in Teacher Prep, was reviewed by a group of scholars and practitioners who are members of Project TEER (Teacher Education and Education Reform). The team was led by Marilyn Cochran-Smith, the Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools at Boston College, along with Megina Baker, Wen-Chia Chang, M. Beatriz Fernández, & Elizabeth Stringer Keefe.

The review is published by the Think Twice Think Tank Review Project at the National Education Policy Center, housed at University of Colorado Boulder’s School of Education.

The reviewers explain that the report does not provide the needed supports for its assertions or recommendations. It makes multiple unsupported and unfounded claims about the impact on teacher diversity of raising admissions requirements for teacher candidates, about public perceptions of teaching and teacher education, and about attracting more academically able teacher candidates.

Each claim is based on one or two cherry-picked citations while ignoring the substantial body of research that either provides conflicting evidence or shows that the issues are much more complex and nuanced than the report suggests. Ultimately, the reviewers conclude, the report offers little guidance for policymakers or institutions.

The Certification and Experience of U.S. Public School Teachers

At least 90 percent of the nation’s public school students were taught by state certified teachers in 2011-12 (school year), 2013, and 2015, according to a new report. It also reports, at least 75 percent of students had a teacher with more than five years of experience in 2011–12 and 2015. However, these percentages varied based on the characteristics of the school, such as its location, the demographics of the students, and among jurisdictions.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in the Institute of Education Sciences, released the new report which describes the certification status and experiences of U.S. public school teachers and their variations among student subgroups. This data snapshot includes the percentage of U.S. public school students who are taught by teachers with state certification, with more than five years of experience, and with a postsecondary degree in the subject in which they teach.

Examples of variations in the percentage presented in the report for both grades 4 and 8 include:

•    The percentage of students who had a mathematics teacher with state certification was lower for students in schools located in cities than for students in suburban schools. The percentage was also lower for students in schools with high minority enrollment than for students in schools with lower minority enrollment;

•    The percentages of students who had a mathematics teacher with state certification were lower for students eligible for the National School Lunch Program than for noneligible students and lower for Black students than for White students; and

•    The percentage of students who had a mathematics teacher with state certification ranged from 59 percent to 100 percent across jurisdictions.

This report used two datasets: The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). SASS provides a comprehensive picture as it includes teachers of K–12 students in all subjects. Approximately 47,600 teachers from 9,800 public schools were sampled for the SASS conducted in 2011-12 school year. NAEP provides a picture specific to grades 4 and 8 and is directly related to teachers of two key subjects: reading and mathematics. Approximately 21,000 grade 4 teachers from about 7,000 public schools and about 13,000 grade 8 teachers from about 6,000 public schools participated in 2015 NAEP assessments of reading and mathematics.

Perceptions of District Efficiency May Vary Depending on Which Measures Are Used in Expenditure-to-Performance Ratios

Districts across the county are seeking ways to increase efficiency by maintaining, if not improving, educational outcomes using fewer resources. This report from explores expenditure-to-performance ratios (for example, a ratio of per pupil expenditures to student academic performance) as a proxy measure of district efficiency.

The report shows how conclusions about districts’ use of resources may differ depending on the measures used to calculate expenditure-to-performance ratios. Using example data from a state education department, the study created six expenditure-to-performance ratios and found that districts’ ranking among the top 25 districts in the state varied according to the expenditure and performance measures used to calculate each ratio. Almost half the 98 districts appeared in the top 25 districts under at least one of the six ratios. The 8 districts appearing in the top 25 under all six ratios did not vary systematically from the others in locale, number of students enrolled, or student poverty status.

The study suggests that policymakers investigating district efficiency should carefully consider what expenditure and performance measures are most relevant to their questions of interest.

Imagining dialogue can boost critical thinking

Examining an issue as a debate or dialogue between two sides helps people apply deeper, more sophisticated reasoning, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

"Envisioning opposing views leads to a more comprehensive examination of the issue," says psychology researcher Julia Zavala (Teachers College, Columbia University), first author on the study. "Moreover, it impacts how people understand knowledge--constructing opposing views leads them to regard knowledge less as fact and more as information that can be scrutinized in a framework of alternatives and evidence."

Students--and many adults--often have difficulty when it comes to persuasive or expository writing, failing to consider challenges to their own perspective. Previous research has shown that peer-to-peer discussion can help students overcome these limitations, but opportunities for these kinds of discussions are not always available. Zavala and study co-author Deanna Kuhn (also at Teachers College, Columbia University) wondered whether students may be able to reap the benefits of this kind of dialogue in a solo writing assignment.

Zavala and Kuhn asked 60 undergraduates to participate in a one-hour writing activity. Some participants were randomly assigned to construct a dialogue between TV commentators discussing two mayoral candidates. They received a list of notable problems that the city was facing and a list of actions proposed by each candidate to solve these problems. Other participants received the same information about the city and the candidates but were asked to write a persuasive essay highlighting the merits of each candidate instead. Then, participants in both groups were asked to write a script for a two-minute TV spot, promoting their preferred candidate.

Examining the students' writing samples, Zavala and Kuhn found that participants who had constructed a dialogue included more discrete ideas in their writing than did participants who wrote an essay. Compared with the essays, the dialogues also included more statements that directly compared the two candidates and more statements that connected the city's problems to the candidates' proposed actions.

In the subsequent TV script, students who had written a dialogue made more references to city problems and to proposed actions, they made more statements that linked a problem with an action, they made more comparisons between the candidates, and they made more statements that were critical of the candidates' positions, compared with students who had written an essay.

Students in the dialogue group were also less likely to make claims in their TV script that lacked supporting evidence. Only 20% of students in the dialogue group made one or more unsubstantiated claims, compared with 60% of the students in the essay group.

"These results support our hypothesis that the dialogic task would lead to deeper, more comprehensive processing of the two positions and hence a richer representation of each and the differences between them," says Kuhn.  Constructing a dialogue thus helped to expand and sharpen students' thinking, Zavala and Kuhn argue.

Results from a separate task indicated that participants in the dialogue group also showed a more sophisticated understanding of knowledge. While some of the participants in the essay group seemed to approach knowledge from an absolutist perspective - interpreting knowledge as a body of certain facts that exists apart from human judgment - none of the students in the dialogue group did so.

"The dialogue task, which took no more than an hour to complete, appeared to have a strong effect on students' epistemological understanding," Zavala explains.

"Everything possible should be done to encourage and support genuine discourse on critical issues, but our findings suggest that the virtual form of interaction we examined may be a productive substitute, at a time when positions on an issue far too often lack the deep analysis to support them," Kuhn concludes.

Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI): no impact on proficiency in fractions for grade 4 students

An evaluation of Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI)professional development program for teachers found that it had no impact on proficiency in fractions among grade 4 students.

Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast, in collaboration with the Improving Mathematics Instruction Research Alliance, conducted a randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of the Developing Mathematical Ideas (DMI) professional development program on grade 4 students' and teachers' understanding of fractions. DMI is designed to help teachers think through major mathematical ideas and examine and reflect on how their students develop and understand the ideas. Teachers examine vignettes of classroom teaching and examples of student work. Teachers also work on fractions problems designed to promote their own understanding of fractions concepts.

The study was conducted in 84 schools in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina during the 2014-15 school year. DMI did not have an impact on student proficiency in fractions. The impact of DMI on teachers' knowledge of fractions was inconclusive; teachers who participated in DMI performed slightly better than teachers who did not participate, but the result was not statistically significant.

When combined with previous studies that have found similar results, these findings raise concerns about the effectiveness of math professional development in bringing about changes in student learning. However, several issues arising from this study may provide guidance for policy and practice and for future research. For example, teachers may need more time than was available in the study. Also, additional support may be needed beyond participating in the professional development in order to learn, understand, and internalize the fractions content and then be able to transfer it into their teaching.

Positive Impacts of Retired Educators to Support New Teachers

A new study finds that using retired educators to mentor and support new teachers can be a cost effective strategy to improve math achievement.

Regional Educational Laboratory Central worked with Aurora Public Schools in Colorado to conduct a randomized controlled trial study in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years during implementation of the district's innovative Retired Mentors for New Teachers Program. The program pairs recently retired master district educators with probationary teachers in high-need elementary schools. The retired educators provide the teachers with weekly support over two years that includes tailored in-class observations, coaching, and mentoring.

Key findings from the study include:

Students of probationary teachers collaborating with retired mentors demonstrated a significant improvement in math achievement after a single year of the intervention. The increase was equivalent to one month of added instruction time in a typical nine-month school year;
At an annual local cost of approximately $171 per student, the program's positive impact on student math achievement produces a return on investment that may pay back the annual cost of the program more than 15 times over through increased student earnings over time;
The program's effects on reading achievement and on teacher retention and evaluation ratings were not significant.

Computer Science Learning: Closing the Gap Black Students

Computer science (CS) education is critical in preparing students for the future. CS education not only gives students the skills they need across career fields, but it also fosters critical thinking, creativity, and innovation. This summary highlights the state of CS education during 2015–16 for Black students* in 7th–12th grade, a group less likely to take the AP Computer Science Exam and with a lower pass rate on it compared to other racial groups.1 

Findings 

Many Black students are interested in CS, but lack opportunities to learn CS at their schools and use computers less at home. Nonetheless, Black students have higher confidence that they can learn CS and are more likely to see people like them “doing CS” in the media compared to White and Hispanic students. Our study found that many Black students:

Learning CS

• Have lower access to CS classes at school. Black students are less likely to have CS classes at their schools compared to White and Hispanic students (47% vs. 58% of White and 59% of Hispanic students). Across racial/ethnic groups, 80% of students who learned CS did so in a class at school, which demonstrates that CS classes have the greatest potential to benefit all groups equally.
  
• Learn CS outside the classroom at higher rates. 38% who learned CS did so in a group or program outside of school (vs. 17% of White and 21% of Hispanic students).
  Access and Exposure to CS and Technology
  • Have lower computer usage, but high mobile usage. While only 58% of Black students use a computer at home at least most days (vs. 68% of White and 50% of Hispanic students), over 81% of Black students use a cellphone or tablet daily (vs. 74% of White and 72% of Hispanic students).
  • Have some CS role models in the media. Black students are more likely to say they often see people “doing CS” in TV shows and movies, and of those who do, 26% say they see someone like themselves (vs. 16% of White and 13% of Hispanic students). 
  
  Interest and Confidence in CS
  

• Show high interest in CS. About 88% of Black students say they are interested in learning CS in the future (vs. 80% of White and 84% of Hispanic students), and 88% say they are likely to have a job requiring CS (vs. 84% of White and 87% of Hispanic students).
  
• Report higher confidence to learn CS. 68% of Black students say they are “very confident” they could learn CS (vs. 56% of White and 51% of Hispanic students).
  
• Have parents who are enthusiastic about CS. 92% of Black parents whose children haven’t learned CS want their children to learn it (vs. 84% of White and 92% of Hispanic students).
  Recommendations
  • Broaden exposure. Increase computer and CS class access for Black students.
  • Go mobile. Offer mobile-friendly learning opportunities that put CS education in the hands of
  Black students.
  • Leverage interest. Advocate for schools to provide CS coursework that taps into Black
  students’ and their parents’ high interest in CS.
   

English spelling: more orderly and self-organizing than previously thought

A new study of English spelling practices demonstrates that the way we spell words is much more orderly and self-organizing than previously thought. The study "Self-organization in the spelling of English suffixes: The emergence of culture out of anarchy," by Kristian Berg (University of Oldenburg) and Mark Aronoff (Stony Brook University) was published in the March, 2017 issue of the scholarly journal Language. A pre-print version of the article may be found at: http://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/Berg_Aronoff.pdf .

Their research examines previously unnoticed systematic aspects of English spelling and explains how the system emerged. One suffix that the authors report on is -ous, found in words like nervous and hazardous, which turns nouns like nerve and hazard into adjectives. They discovered that the final letter sequence ous may serve as a flag, informing readers that a word must be an adjective. The sound of this suffix is a short vowel (linguists call it schwa) followed by s: ?s. The authors found that any written English word that ends in the three letter ous is an adjective and conversely that a word that that ends in the sound ?s but is not an adjective is never spelled with ous: service, genius, menace. They also have found similar patterns for other adjective suffixes, including the -ic of allergic, the -al of final, and the -y of funny.

For each of these affixes, the authors analyzed a large sample of written English documents dating back close to a thousand years. For every word that follows each of the regular pattern nowadays (e.g., hazardous, allergic, final, and funny), the linguists looked at every instance in their sample, keeping track of how it was spelled. They found a number of spellings for each suffix over time (e.g., ose, ows, is, owse, ys, es, ouse, us, and ous for modern ous). For every suffix, though, one spelling eventually won out and each suffix followed the sort of pattern that is known from biological competition between species.

This is a striking example of self-organization: No one is or was in charge of English spelling. As opposed to countries like Italy and France and Israel, where national academies oversee the written language, no English-speaking country has a language academy. And yet, somehow, the written language slowly but gradually evolved a system of marking word categories in cases like nervous - despite the fact that this system was never purposely designed. What is apparently a nuisance - we can spell one word ending in more than one way - is actually the trade-off for the grammatical 'flag' that says (in case of -ous), 'This word is an adjective'.

As a follow-up to this research, the authors are now testing their findings experimentally on fluent readers of English. Do they use the regularities that we found when they read? Furthermore, can these be used to help children and adults to learn to read more quickly and more fluently?

How well does high school grade point average predict college performance?

This report examines how well high school GPA and college entrance exams predict college grades for particular subgroups of students who enrolled directly in college math and English in the University of Alaska system over a four-year period. The report builds on a previous Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest study and examines whether high school GPA is less predictive for certain groups of students, such as students who come from different parts of the state or recent high school graduates versus older students.

This study used regression analysis to assess the extent to which high school GPA and test scores predict college grades. Regressions were estimated separately for English and math course grades and within each subject area for students who took the SAT, students who took the ACT, and students who took ACCUPLACER.

 Overall, high school GPA surpassed test scores in explaining variance in college course grades regardless of where students were from in Alaska. High school GPA explained 9–18 percentage of variance in course grades for urban students, while test scores explained 1–5 percentage of variance. Similarly, high school GPA explained 7–21 percentage of variance in course grades for rural students, while test scores explain 0–3 percentage of variance in course grades. High school GPA was also more predictive of college course performance for students who directly entered college from high school compared to those who delayed entry.

These findings provide evidence of the predictive power of high school GPA in explaining the readiness of college students for college English and math across different groups of students. Secondary and postsecondary stakeholders can use these findings to engage in conversations regarding whether and how to use high school grade point average as part of the placement process.

Earning College Credits in High School: Options, Participation, and Outcomes

To increase students’ postsecondary attainment, many states are promoting accelerated college credit (ACC) options in high school such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and dual-credit courses.

This study describes the various ACC options available to Oregon students and the characteristics of the students who enroll in them. Using information from college websites and dual-credit coordinators—along with data from state agency and community college databases in Oregon—the study explores which students participate in ACC and examines participation by gender, racial/ethnic group, and eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch.

Findings show that Oregon has a variety of ACC options available at public institutions, but cost, eligibility requirements, and geographic coverage of these options vary greatly across institutions. In addition, Oregon has higher rates of community college dual-credit participation than the national average and Oregon students taking dual-credit courses through a community college typically enroll and earn credit in multiple courses.

While most students earn credit after enrolling in a community college dual-credit course, students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch pass those courses at lower rates than students who are not eligible. Also, community college dual-credit participants are more likely to be White, female, high achievers, and not eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Males of all racial and ethnic groups participate in community college dual credit at lower rates than females; in each racial or ethnic group, the gender gap in participation is similar.

Characteristics and postsecondary pathways of students who participate in acceleration programs

Minnesota high school students have the opportunity to take advanced courses that simultaneously earn high school and college credit, yet little is known about what types of students are participating and succeeding in these programs, or their college pathways after high school.

This study examined participation in the various acceleration programs available to Minnesota high school students, including Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate coursework, postsecondary enrollment options, concurrent enrollment, and other/unknown programs. Student- and school-level data on the 2011 cohort of Minnesota high school graduates (N = 59,499) were obtained from the Minnesota Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System.

The study team used descriptive statistics to examine differences in (a) rates of participation and credit awarded at the college level between student demographic and academic subgroups, and high school size and locale; and (b) college enrollment patterns and early college success between participants and nonparticipants. The study team also used hierarchical linear modeling to examine the association between acceleration program participation and college enrollment, achievement, and persistence while controlling for other student- and school-level characteristics.

Almost half of the 2011 cohort of Minnesota high school graduates participated in at least one acceleration program during high school, and half of participants were awarded dual credit by the Minnesota colleges in which they enrolled. Participation and dual credit award rates varied by acceleration program and student subgroups; economically disadvantaged students, racial/ethnic minorities, and academically lower achieving students did not participate in acceleration programs and were not awarded credit at a rate equivalent to their peers.

The majority of Minnesota colleges where acceleration program participants enrolled and were awarded credit were selective and very selective four-year colleges. Students who participated in acceleration programs had higher rates of college enrollment, readiness, and persistence than nonparticipants, and this difference was statistically significant after controlling for student gender, race/ethnicity, ACT/SAT scores, economic status, and high school size and locale, regardless of whether credit was awarded at the college level.

Half of all high school graduates participated in acceleration programs, however participation was disproportionately white, economically advantaged, and academically high achieving. While more rigorous research is needed to examine the effectiveness of participation in these programs, the results of this study point to a relationship between acceleration program participation and positive early college outcomes, regardless of the number of credits awarded by colleges.

This study raise several considerations for educators and policymakers, including expanding acceleration program opportunities for economically disadvantaged students, racial/ethnic minorities, and lower achieving students; a deeper understanding of programs falling into the other/unknown category of acceleration programs; and examining policies related to the award of dual credit at the college level.

Green Dot in Kentucky high schools decreased not only sexual violence perpetration, but related forms of violence including sexual harassment, stalking and dating violence

University of Kentucky researchers have observed a significant reduction in sexual violence perpetration and victimization among Kentucky high school students, according to a recently published study on the "Green Dot" bystander intervention program..

Led by Ann Coker and Heather Bush in UK's Center for Research on Violence Against Women (CRVAW), the study is the largest and longest randomized controlled trial of bystander intervention programs focusing on sexual violence prevention in high schools. Published this week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the study reveals the implementation of Green Dot in Kentucky high schools decreased not only sexual violence perpetration, but related forms of violence including sexual harassment, stalking and dating violence.

"This research is great news for parents, schools, young adults and adolescents across Kentucky and the USA," said Coker, who is the Verizon Wireless Endowed Chair in CRVAW and professor in the UK College of Medicine. "We found that sexual violence can be prevented -- this violence is not inevitable. Adolescents and young adults can learn how to identify risky situations and safely intervene to prevent violence."

Sexual violence continues to be a serious problem for Kentucky teens. One in seven high school students in Kentucky experience physical dating violence, and one in 11 have had unwanted sex because they were physically forced, or too intoxicated to give consent. Bystander training programs like Green Dot teach individuals how to recognize situations or behaviors that may become violent, and intervene to reduce the likelihood of violence.

Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the study followed 26 Kentucky high schools over the past five years. Half of the schools were assigned to receive the Green Dot intervention, with the others serving as the study's control group. Interventions were conducted by trained rape crisis educators. The Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs (KASAP) served as a community partner in the trial and covered the cost of Green Dot training for at least one staff at each regional center across Kentucky. By utilizing these existing resources, the schools encountered no additional costs to implement the program.

"The total cost of the program, over the study period for all intervention schools, was $1.55 million, which was largely personnel costs," said Heather Bush, Kate Spade & Co. Foundation Endowed Professor in CRVAW and associate professor of biostatistics in the UK College of Public Health. "Because KASAP educators were ideally positioned to add prevention education to their therapeutic skill set, schools did not incur any additional costs to implement Green Dot. Given the partnership with KASAP, we estimate the cost of providing Green Dot to new schools at $25,000 per school."

The interventions were implemented in two phases. In Phase 1, rape crisis educators delivered Green Dot speeches to all students in the intervention schools. In Phase 2, educators implemented intensive bystander training. This training was conducted in smaller groups by high school students perceived as leaders by their peers (about 12-15 percent of the student body). Because Green Dot involves intensive training for a small number of students, ongoing costs were relatively low and were less impacted by school size, according to Joshua Bush, leading author of the cost analysis study and visiting professor of accounting at Eastern Kentucky University.

"When you have a larger initial investment but low cost of student participation, sharing the investment across multiple schools is particularly cost-effective," Joshua Bush said. "The KASAP partnership provided the relationships and personnel for such a statewide implementation. School administrators can benefit from this strategic partnership because violence prevention training is not required in secondary schools, and is not part of a typical budget."

Each spring from 2010 to 2014, students at each school completed anonymous surveys to measure the frequency of violence they personally experienced, termed "victimization," as well as the frequency of violence they personally inflicted, termed "perpetration." All students, in both intervention and control schools, received hotline numbers and website information. Rape crisis staff were also available at each school to talk with any students who needed assistance.

A total of 89,707 surveys were completed over the five-year period and researchers compared survey-reported data before program implementation with rates from 2010-2014. Regarding sexual violence victimization, rates were 12 to 13 percent lower in the intervention versus control schools in years three and four, respectively. This translates to 120 fewer sexually violent events in year three, and 88 fewer in year four, indicating that sufficient time is required to see the ultimate effect of the training on violent behaviors.

"In this study we sought to change the culture that supports violence in high schools, and making these changes requires time," said Coker. "Fortunately, we had five years to implement and evaluate these changes and we definitely needed all five years. We saw reductions in violence acceptance and increases in bystander actions in the second and third years of the study, but we did not see significant and consistent reductions in sexual violence and other forms of violence until the fourth and fifth years of the study when Green Dot training was fully implemented."

Green Dot, designed by former UK faculty member Dorothy Edwards, has been in use at the university since 2008. It teaches students how to identify situations that could lead to an act of violence (represented on incident maps by a red dot) and shows them how to intervene safely and effectively. A "green dot" represents "any behavior, choice, word or attitude that promotes safety for all our citizens and communicates utter intolerance for violence."

"The State Prevention Team, convened by KASAP, selected the Green Dot program for this trial because the program engages all students across the school quickly with motivational presentations," said Eileen Recktenwald, executive director of KASAP. "The second training phase targets the natural leaders or trendsetters amongst the students. Their behaviors (engaged bystander actions to reduce violence risk) will be noticed and emulated by other students. Training this small yet influential group results in an efficient use of training resources and extends the intervention reach across a school or community."

UK President Eli Capilouto praised the study and the Green Dot program for making both college campuses and high schools safer.

"As educators, we have an obligation to provide our students with a safe place to live and learn," Capilouto said. "The Green Dot program was ahead of the curve when it was established at the University of Kentucky. Today, it is an effective bystander intervention training tool on college campuses across the country, and the results of the Center for Research on Violence Against Women's study illustrates its effectiveness in high schools. Providing this important training earlier supports all our efforts to make high schools and college campuses safer for all people."

Measuring student progress and teachers’ assessment of student knowledge in a competency-based education system

Competency-based education is a system where students must demonstrate mastery of course content to be promoted to the next class or grade, with students allowed to take as much or as little time necessary to achieve a comprehensive understanding of course content, rather than spend a prerequisite number of hours in a class. Students are placed into a class based on their current level of understanding rather than their traditional, age-based grade.

This report describes how long students took to complete a competency-based class when they were in a class that was below, at, or above their traditional grade level. The report also examines the relationship between teachers’ judgments of student competency and student performance on a state achievement test.

The study found that the majority of students took four academic quarters to complete a class. On average, students who were below grade level took less time to complete their classes than students who were in a class that corresponded to their traditional grade level. Teacher ratings of student competency had a small but positive association with student academic achievement and predicted the state academic proficiency levels of 40 percent of mathematics students and 59 percent of literacy students.

Voucher programs don’t improve education and have important downsides

In a new report, Stanford professor and EPI research associate Martin Carnoy finds that voucher programs that promote private schooling have not delivered on promised improvements in educational outcomes. Rather, they tend to divert effort away from investments in public education that have been shown to improve educational attainments.

Carnoy reviews evaluations of voucher programs in cities including Milwaukee, Dayton, and Washington D.C. and states including Indiana, Louisiana, and Florida to show that vouchers do not significantly improve student achievement.

In Milwaukee, which has been a total “choice” district for 20 years, students can select among traditional public schools, public magnet schools, and charter schools. However, only one in four students attends his or her neighborhood school. With one of the highest number of school choice participants in the country, Milwaukee’s African American students rank second to last for eighth grade math scores and last for reading scores.

“If we want to give parents a real ‘choice’ of quality schools, we should invest in neighborhood public schools with a menu of proven policies,” said Carnoy. “All of these yield much higher returns than the minor gains that have been estimated for voucher students.”

Carnoy recommends investing in early childhood education, after-school and summer programs, and implementing high standards in math, reading, and science curricula in order to improve student achievement.

Differentiated learning options in online and blended learning

This report presents a summary of empirical studies of K–12 online and blended instructional approaches that offer differentiated learning options. In these approaches, instruction is provided in whole or in part online. The report includes studies that examine student achievement outcomes and summarizes the methodology, measures, and findings used in the studies of these instructional approaches.

Of the 162 studies that were reviewed, 17 met all inclusion criteria and are summarized in this report. The majority of the studies examined blended instructional approaches, while all approaches provided some means to differentiate the content, difficulty level, and/or pacing of the online content.

Among the blended instructional approaches, 45 percent were designed to support differentiation of the in-class component of instruction. The majority of studies examining these approaches compared student performance on common standardized achievement measures between students receiving the instructional approach and those in comparison classrooms or schools.

Among the most rigorous studies, statistically significant positive effects were found for four blended instructional approaches.

Formative assessment and elementary school student academic achievement

Formative assessment is a process that engages teachers and students in gathering and using information about what students are learning. This comprehensive and systematic review identifies 22 rigorous studies of the effectiveness of formative assessment interventions among elementary students.

Results of the study indicate that, overall, formative assessment has a positive effect on student achievement. On average, across the studies, students who participated in formative assessment performed better on measures of academic achievement than those who did not.

Formative assessment interventions in mathematics had larger effects, on average, than formative assessment interventions in reading or writing. Both student-directed formative assessment and formative assessment directed by other agents, such as a teacher or a computer program, appear to be effective for mathematics. Other-directed formative assessment interventions appear to be more effective for reading than student-directed formative assessment interventions.

The relative effectiveness of two approaches to early literacy intervention in grades K–2

This study examined whether using a stand-alone intervention outside the core curriculum leads to better outcomes than using the embedded curriculum for small group intervention in grades K–2.

Fifty-five schools located across Florida were randomly assigned to stand-alone or embedded interventions delivered daily throughout the school year for 45 minutes in small groups of four or five students. Students below the 30th percentile in reading-related skills and/or vocabulary were eligible for intervention. One-third of participating students were English language learners.

Both interventions were implemented with high fidelity. The stand-alone intervention significantly improved grade 2 spelling. However, impacts on other student outcomes were comparable. On average, students showed improvement in reading and language skills in both interventions. The two interventions had relatively similar impacts on reading and language outcomes among English learners and non-English learners, with the exception of some reading outcomes in kindergarten.

Where Children Grow Up Affects How Much They'll Earn

On average, a child who moved from downtown Chicago to the city's western suburbs at birth would earn almost 30 percent more than one who grew up downtown.

Parents move their families for job opportunities, bigger houses, and better schools. Those who believe that where their children are raised will affect their future earnings are right. That's what Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren find in The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility II: County-Level Estimates (NBER Working Paper No. 23002).

Using data on the variation in the age of children when families move, the researchers estimate how growing up in each of 3,000 U.S. counties affects a child's earnings at age 26. For instance, they find that children who moved from Manhattan to Queens at younger ages have higher earnings. After ruling out other potential explanations such as residential sorting, they argue that this suggests Queens has a positive impact on future earnings. They find that, for children whose parents are at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution, each additional year of childhood spent in a county that is one standard deviation (SD) "better" than the average county increases mean annual earnings at age 26 by 0.5 percent, or $135.   If a child lives in a one-SD-better county for 20 years, they predict annual income would be, on average, 10 percent higher at age 26. Likewise, children at the 75th percentile of the parental income distribution would see an increase of 0.3 percent of their mean earnings, or $130, for each additional year spent in a one-SD-better county.

The findings allow the researchers to identify the best and worst areas to grow up for children from low-income families. Among the 100 largest counties, the western suburbs of Chicago (DuPage County) rank as the best place for upward mobility — income at age 26 is 0.8 percent higher per year of childhood relative to an average county. Expanding this result over 20 years, the average income of children from DuPage County is 16 percent higher than the average over all locations. Growing up in downtown Chicago (Cook County), meanwhile, decreases earnings by 0.6 percent per year relative to an average county, or 13 percent over 20 years. Thus, a child who moved from downtown Chicago to the western suburbs at birth would have almost 30 percent higher average earnings.

The study documents the characteristics of places that exhibit the greatest upward mobility of children from low-income families. These are counties with less racial segregation, less income inequality, and higher quality schools. Counties with better schools and higher levels of social capital improve outcomes. Differences in the places where blacks and whites are raised could explain about 20 percent of the black-white earnings gap. Place effects matter more for boys than for girls, especially in the areas with the lowest rates of upward mobility, such as Baltimore and Detroit.

The researchers note that the counties that are associated with greater upward mobility and higher income are often more expensive to live in, especially in large, segregated commuting zones. However, there are also some "opportunity bargains" — places that improve outcomes with less expensive rental costs. For example, Hudson County, New Jersey, increases earnings by 0.24 percent per year for low-income families relative to Queens, despite similar rents.

— Morgan Foy

School Lunch Quality and Academic Performance

Improving the nutritional content of public school meals is a topic of intense policy interest. A main motivation is the health of school children, and, in particular, the rising childhood obesity rate. Medical and nutrition literature has long argued that a healthy diet can have a second important impact: improved cognitive function.

This paper tests whether offering healthier lunches affects student achievement as measured by test scores. Our sample includes all California (CA) public schools over a five-year period.

The authors estimate difference-in-difference style regressions using variation that takes advantage of frequent lunch vendor contract turnover. Students at schools that contract with a healthy school lunch vendor score higher on CA state achievement tests, with larger test score increases for students who are eligible for reduced price or free school lunches.

The authors do not find any evidence that healthier school lunches lead to a decrease in obesity rates.

Does Universal Preschool Hit the Target? Program Access and Preschool Impacts

Despite substantial interest in preschool as a means of narrowing the achievement gap, little is known about how particular program attributes might influence the achievement gains of disadvantaged preschoolers. This paper uses survey data on a recent cohort to explore the mediating influence of one key program attribute - whether disadvantage itself is a criterion for preschool admission.

Taking advantage of age-eligibility rules to construct an instrument for attendance, the author finds that universal state-funded prekindergarten (pre-K) programs generate substantial positive effects on the reading scores of low-income 4 year olds. State pre-K programs targeted toward disadvantaged children do not. Differences in other pre-K program requirements and population demographics cannot explain the larger positive impacts of universal programs. The alternatives to universal and targeted state pre-K programs also do not significantly differ.

Together, these findings suggest that universal preschools offer a relatively high-quality learning experience for low-income children not reflected in typical quality metrics.

Graduation outcomes of students who entered in grade 5 or 6 as English learner students

This companion to a previous REL Northeast & Islands report on reclassification of English learner students in New York City public schools analyzed high school graduation rates of youth who entered school in grades 5 or 6 in the 2003-04 school year as English learner students.

The study found that approximately 64 percent of students in these cohorts graduated from high school on time (within four years of entering grade 9), and an additional 15 percent graduated within six years of entering grade 9. Graduation rates differed based on students’ time to reclassification: 55 percent of long-term English learner students (those who were not reclassified within six years) graduated on time, compared with 76 percent of short-term English learner students (reclassified in less than six years).

Students earned a variety of diploma types, including the standard Regents diploma (41 percent), the less rigorous Local diploma (19 percent), and the more rigorous Advanced Regents diploma (19 percent).

Algebra I course repetition rates vary among English learner students

This study examines the variation in performance and course repetition among different English proficiency status student subgroups. Using data from one high school district in California and five of its seven feeder elementary school districts, the authors found that long-term English learner students who were never reclassified to English proficient have the highest rates of repeating algebra I at 67.5 percent, followed by long-term English learner students reclassified to English proficient after grade 6 at 58.6 percent, those who were never designated as English learner students at 44.2 percent, and finally English learner students reclassified before grade 7 at 30.2 percent.

Among students who repeat algebra I, this study found that English learner students reclassified before grade 7 tended to perform the best, with 52.0 percent of these students earning an average grade of C or better when repeating. Higher proportions of these students also completed algebra II or higher with an average grade of C or better, at 20.4 percent. In comparison, long-term English learner students never reclassified and those reclassified to English proficient after grade 6 had the lowest rates of earning an average grade of C or better when repeating algebra I, and they had the lowest proportion of students to complete algebra II or higher with an average grade of C or better by grade 12. A similar ranking pattern was also observed among students who never repeated algebra I.

These findings show that long-term English learner students and those reclassified to English proficient after grade 6 tend to struggle with algebra I in comparison to other students, and that English learner students reclassified before grade 7 tend to perform the best—even compared with students who were never classified as English learner students. Additional resources may need to be directed toward long-term English learner students and those reclassified after grade 6. Such resources can include differentiated support based on student needs before students enroll in the course as well as while they are enrolled in the course.