Relationship Between Early Mathematics Knowledge and High School Achievement

Although previous research has established the association between early-grade mathematics knowledge and later mathematics achievement, few studies have measured mathematical skills prior to school entry, and few have investigated the predictive power of early gains in mathematics ability. 

This paper relates mathematical skills measured at 54 months to adolescent mathematics achievement using multisite longitudinal data. 

The researchers find that preschool mathematics ability predicts mathematics achievement through age 15, even after accounting for early reading, cognitive skills, and family and child characteristics. 

Moreover, they find that growth in mathematical ability between age 54 months and first grade is an even stronger predictor of adolescent mathematics achievement. These results demonstrate the importance of prekindergarten mathematics knowledge and early math learning for later achievement.

Classroom intervention helps shy kids learn

A program that helps teachers modify their interactions with students based on an individual's temperament helps shy children to become more engaged in their class work, and in turn, improves their math and critical thinking skills.

Led by NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, the study offers an evidence-based intervention to help shy children, who are often at risk for poor academic achievement. The findings appear in the School Psychology Review.

Shy children are described as anxious, fearful, socially withdrawn, and isolated. In the classroom, they are less likely to seek attention from teachers and to be engaged with their peers. As a result, research shows that they may have difficulty in school, and teachers may perceive them as being lower in academic skills and intelligence than their more outgoing classmates.

"The needs of shy kids are important but often overlooked because they're sitting quietly, while children with behavioral problems get more attention from teachers," says Sandee McClowry, a professor in NYU Steinhardt's Department of Applied Psychology and the study's senior author. "It is important to get shy children engaged without overwhelming them."

Shyness is one of four temperaments identified in INSIGHTS into Children's Temperament, an intervention designed to help teachers and parents match environmental demands with an individual's personality. The program provides a framework for appreciating and supporting differences in the personalities of children, rather that trying to change them. Participants in the program learn to recognize four temperaments: shy, social and eager to try, industrious, and high maintenance.

In the current study, the researchers evaluated whether INSIGHTS supports the academic development – specifically critical thinking, math and language skills – of children in urban, low-income schools. Nearly 350 children and their parents across 22 elementary schools were followed during kindergarten and across the transition into first grade. Half of the schools participating were randomized to INSIGHTS, while the other half, which served as the control group, participated in a supplemental after-school reading program.

"Kindergarten and first grade are big shifts for children, regardless of temperament. For example, teacher-student ratios are higher and classes are more structured. For shy kids, this transition is a particular challenge," McClowry says.

The researchers were especially interested in what happens after summer break, as studies have shown that high-risk children's skills decline over the summer while they are out of school. By providing children with extra support in the last part of kindergarten, the researchers hoped to sustain the students' skills over the summer.

Over 10 weeks, teachers and parents in the INSIGHTS program learned how to recognize differences in children and support them in ways that are specific to their individual temperaments. During the same time period, children participated in INSIGHTS classroom activities, using puppets, flashcards, workbooks, and videotapes to help them solve daily dilemmas – for instance, having a substitute teacher or a play date at an unfamiliar house – and understand how individuals differ.

While all children enrolled in INSIGHTS showed improvements in academic skills, the effects were substantially greater for shy children. Shy children who participated in INSIGHTS had significant growth in critical thinking skills and stability in math skills over the transition from kindergarten to first grade, compared to their shy peers in the control group who declined in both areas.

The researchers observed no gains in language arts skills among shy kids from the INSIGHTS intervention compared to the control group, perhaps due to the benefits the children in the control group gained from the supplemental reading program.

"Our study supports creating an environment that makes shy children feel safe and respected in order to support their development," said Erin O'Connor, an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at NYU Steinhardt and the study's lead author. "We need to reframe our understanding of these children, because for the most part, shy children are not just going to 'come out of their shell.'"

Students' reporting of weapons at school: Factors that influence decision to 'tell'

In a new study, University of Texas at Dallas criminology researchers have found that certain factors affect students' willingness to report weapons at school.

"A big part of adolescent development is figuring out your identity, and that does not always mean talking to grown-ups about what is going on," said Dr. Nadine Connell, assistant professor of criminology in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. "We can't stop students from using weapons if we don't know about the weapons that are actually out there."

The study, published online in Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, used data from anonymous online surveys administered to students in grades 9-12 at 10 schools in a northeastern U.S. state between 2008 and 2011.

Connell, lead author of the study, said the researchers aimed to determine whether reporting behaviors differ by weapon, which factors affect a student's willingness to report weapons at school, and to whom students are most likely to report it.

"Understudied are the ways schools can create positive climates for students to come forward and report various risky behaviors -- the utmost concern of which are weapons on campus," said doctoral criminology student Nina Barbieri MS'12, the second author on the study. "We need to know what we can do to make students feel safe at school, as research has found if students do not feel physically or emotionally safe at school, they can become detached and their academic success at risk."

According to the study, 76 percent of students said they would report a knife to a school official, while 88 percent said they would report a gun.

Across both genders, high academic achievement was associated with willingness to report knowledge about guns and knives. A stronger school attachment increased willingness to report a knife.

Approximately 34 percent of students reported seeing or knowing about a weapon in school in the prior three months.

For both genders, previously seeing a weapon on campus decreased the likelihood of reporting a knife. Among males, prior knowledge of a weapon at school was associated with reduced willingness to tell someone about a knife.

Knowledge of school security also played a part in intent to report weapons. Male and female students who knew about at least two security measures were more likely to report guns and knives. Connell said this finding surprised researchers because they didn't know if students paid attention to security measures.

Connell said that the precautions -- such as identification badges, locker checks, locked doors and visitor sign-in sheets -- were not cost-prohibitive.

"We theorize that the students who knew about the security measures feel safer because they feel like the adults are doing something to keep them safe," she said. "We don't often think about prevention efforts as a joint effort between school administrators and students, but research like this shows students' voices matter. They are the first line of defense to something like the prevention and intervention of weapons."

Most students said they would tell all available authority figures about a gun or knife on campus. Principals and counselors were least likely to be told. Students said they would report weapons mostly to parents and family members.

A small subgroup of students would not tell anyone.

It's encouraging that many students are talking to their parents, Connell said, but families need a tool to do something with the information, such as a tip line or email address provided by the school.

"We really hope the study is encouraging in that most kids feel that schools are safe, and most kids are going to report something this serious," Connell said. "It's easy to think about the kids who won't, but it's important to support the kids who do."

In a follow-up study, the researchers plan to examine the relationship between weapons and drugs at school and students' willingness to report drugs.

The Impact of NCLB Accountability Sanctions on School Performance:Evidence from North Carolina

Comparisons of schools that barely meet or miss criteria for adequate
y early progress (AYP) reveal that some sanctions built into the No
Child Left Behind accountability regime exert positive impacts on 
students.  Estimates indicate that the strongest positive effects
 associate with the ultimate sanction:  leadership and management
 changes associated with school restructuring.  

This study finds suggestive 
incentive effects in schools first entering the NCLB sanction regime,
 but no significant effects of intermediate sanctions.  Further
 analysis shows that gains in sanctioned schools are concentrated
among low-performing students, with the exception of gains from
restructuring which are pervasive.  

The study finds no evidence that schools
achieve gains among low-performing students by depriving
high-performing students of resources.

Talking to, reading to infants benefits their cognitive development

This study uses a nationally representative sample of 9-month-old infants and their families from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study to investigate if reading to infants is associated with higher scores on contemporaneous indicators of cognitive development independently of other language-based interactions between parent and infant, such as showing them pictures or talking to them. 

Reading to infants had an independent positive effect on scores for both the problem-solving and communication subscales of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), while the positive effect of showing pictures was independent only for communication scores. 

The effects of both of these activities were, however, less substantial than the positive effect observed for the more informal activity of frequently talking to the infant while doing other things; and this was observed for both communication and problem-solving. 

The analyses were robust to adjustment for several other factors including maternal education, gestational age, non-parental care, breastfeeding, attachment and presence of siblings. 

The findings highlight the potential of reading and talking to infants, not just for language and literacy development but also for other aspects of cognitive development.

Smart teens rub off on teammates

A new study of high school activities bears this message for incoming high school students: Play what the smart kids play.

Joining an extra-curricular team or club with members that get good grades can double a high school student’s odds of going to college. 

And Brigham Young University sociologist and study co-author Lance Erickson knows how to sell the study to teens.

“Tell your parents, whatever they ground you from, it shouldn’t be from practice or a club activity,” said Erickson. “If they ground you from a school club, you are more likely to end up living at their house because you won’t be going to college.”

Erickson spent four years constructing a dataset and statistical model that could answer critics’ arguments. The sample includes 90,000 high school students and up to 10 of their friends. Since friends often join a team or club together, the model subtracts out the positive influence of friends who are also teammates. That isolates the impact of teammates who aren’t otherwise in a student’s social circle.

To the surprise of the researchers, the type of team or club didn’t really matter. It simply came down to being around high-achieving peers (as measured by GPA). So in one school that might be the swim team or the orchestra, while at another school it’s the computer science club or cross country.

“Typically you think the benefits of participating come from the type of club or the intensity of the skills you learned there,” said Ben Gibbs, the lead study author. “I think we’re the first to show that who you are hanging out with in those activities really matters.”

The study is forthcoming in Social Science Research, which posted an accepted version of the report. As noted in the study, simply participating in any extracurricular activity increased a student’s chances of college enrollment regardless of that team’s average GPA. In addition, the odds of college enrollment double for a student if they join a group with an average GPA that is 1 point higher – i.e. one with a 3.6 GPA rather than a team with a 2.6 GPA.

The role of teammates is an added piece of a puzzle that co-author Mikaela Dufur started in 2007. That’s when she published research showing that playing high school sports increased women’s chances ofgetting a college degree.

She notes that providing extra-curricular activities can be especially critical in schools that serve low-income students. And the earlier the start, the better.

“I would encourage middle schools and junior high schools to devote resources to those kinds of things so that as they transition to high school, they are prepared to join a team,” Dufur said.