Reading programs focused on changing daily teaching practices do more to improve children's reading skills than programs focused on textbooks and technology, according to a comprehensive research review by the Johns Hopkins University School of Education's Center for Research and Reform in Education. Simply using books with a stronger emphasis on phonics was not enough to improve reading.
Lead researcher Robert Slavin, director of the Center for Research and Reform in Education, and his colleagues looked at 62 previously released experimental studies evaluating the effectiveness of beginning reading programs used in kindergarten and first grade. The researchers' review covered the effectiveness of textbooks, technology and professional development when used on their own as well as the effectiveness of combining textbooks with professional development. They found that the most successful programs focused on changing daily teaching practices, such as the use of cooperative learning methods in which children work together in groups. Programs that combined a focus on phonics and innovative teaching practices worked best.
"With national assessments showing reading proficiency in fourth grade under 18 percent for minority students, educators are struggling to boost beginning reading skills or risk continuing a trend of low achievement in later years," Slavin said. "In the current political climate of accountability, school leaders need to ensure they are using programs that work. That's where reviews such as this come in."
Their most surprising finding relates to the debate as to whether adding phonics to traditional reading instruction is the way to cure reading problems, an approach strongly emphasized in the Bush Administration's Reading First program. While Slavin and his colleagues noted the importance of phonics in beginning reading instruction, they also concluded that simply adding phonics is not enough to bring about widespread improvement in children's reading.
"Phonics instruction is necessary but insufficient," Slavin said. "What matters is changing how teachers teach, how they group students, how they motivate children, and how they assess children. Programs that consistently make a difference are ones that engage children in active lessons in which they interact with other children, constantly practice their new skills with the teacher and their classmates, and receive fast-paced, exciting lessons."
The full report is available at http://www.bestevidence.org/word/begin_read_Feb_09_2009.pdf
- After-School Programs in Public Elementary Schools
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This study provides a national profile of various types of formal after-school programs physically located at public elementary schools in 2008. These programs included stand-alone programs that focus primarily on a single type of service (e.g., only day care) and broad-based programs that provide a combination of services such as academic enrichment and cultural activities.
This report focuses on four broad types of after-school programs: (1) fee-based stand-alone day care programs for which parents paid fees; (2) stand-alone academic instruction/tutoring programs that focus exclusively on academic instruction or tutoring, including Supplemental Educational Services in schools that did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress; (3) the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLCs) administered through the federally funded 21st CCLC Program to provide academic enrichment opportunities; and (4) other types of formal stand-alone or broad-based after-school programs.
Fifty-six percent of public elementary schools reported that one or more after-school programs were physically located at the school in 2008. Forty-six percent of public elementary schools reported a fee-based stand-alone day care program; 43 percent reported one or more stand-alone academic instruction/tutoring programs; 10 percent reported a 21st CCLC, and 16 percent reported other types of after-school programs. Together, the various types of after-school programs accounted for an estimated 4 million enrollments. These include duplicated enrollments because students could be enrolled in more than one program. The proportion of public elementary schools reporting that their students attended after-school programs at another location ranged from 46 percent for fee-based stand-alone day care to 3 percent for 21st CCLCs.
Complete report:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009043.pdf
Discrimination and Achievement: Impact of Exemptions to Florida’s Promotion Policy
When researchers at the University of Arkansas studied Florida’s test-based promotion policy, they found evidence of discrimination in how schools grant exemptions. Further, they found that students who were held back a grade outperformed those who received an exemption, “indicating that on average exemptions have not been granted to those individuals who would benefit from promotion,” the researchers wrote.
Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters examined data for Florida third-graders from the years 2001 to 2004 to evaluate whether exemptions to the retention policy were applied consistently and to measure the impact of being exempted on reading performance in later grades. The results of their research are published in the February issue of Economics of Education Review in an article titled “The Effects of Exemptions to Florida’s Test-based Promotion Policy: Who is Retained? Who Benefits Academically?”
“The irony is that there appears to be discrimination in how Florida schools grant exemptions to the promotion policy, but the students who suffered from that discrimination benefited academically,” Greene said.
The researchers found that African American and Hispanic students with the same background, skills and income status as white students were less likely to receive an exemption from the retention policy. When compared to white students, African Americans were 4 percent more likely to be retained and Hispanic students 9 percent more likely.
When researchers compared the fifth grade reading test scores for students who had been retained in the third grade and those who had been granted an exemption, they found that those students who had received an exemption had significantly lower reading test scores than the students who had been held back.
“The results suggest that students who were exempted from the policy probably did not have the skills necessary to achieve in later grades,” the researchers concluded. “That is, students who received an exemption seem to hit a brick wall and make very small test score gains in the more difficult fifth grade. Further research is necessary to evaluate whether these exempted students continue to struggle and fall further behind their peers in later, even more difficult grades.”
While supporting an exemption provision, Greene advocates more accurately identifying students who will benefit from exemption.
“So far, exemptions are being applied in a discriminatory way that is not effective,” Greene said.
The research results suggested another question to Greene:
“We need to ask questions about why we organize schools by age rather than by skills or other methods. This is a question that needs to be explored.”
Adolescents Involved with Music Do Better in School
Columbus, OH—February 10, 2009—A new study in the journal Social Science Quarterly reveals that music participation, defined as music lessons taken in or out of school and parents attending concerts with their children, has a positive effect on reading and mathematic achievement in early childhood and adolescence. Additionally, socioeconomic status and ethnicity affect music participation.
Darby E. Southgate, MA, and Vincent Roscigno, Ph.D., of The Ohio State University reviewed two nationally representative data sources to analyze patterns of music involvement and possible effects on math and reading performance for both elementary and high school students.
Music is positively associated with academic achievement, especially during the high school years.
However, not all adolescents participate in music equally, and certain groups are disadvantaged in access to music education. Families with high socioeconomic status participate more in music than do families with lower socioeconomic status. In addition to social class as a predictor of music participation, ethnicity is also a factor. Asians and Whites are more likely to participate in music than are Hispanics. While young Black children attended concerts with their parents, they were less likely to take music lessons.
“This topic becomes an issue of equity at both the family and school levels,” the authors conclude. “This has major policy implications for federal, state, and local agencies, as well as knowledge that can help families allocate resources that are most beneficial to children.”
New Study Identifies Classroom Gains in Philadelphia Schools Operated by For-Profit Companies
Philadelphia schools managed by for-profit companies outperform district-managed schools in math, and for-profits fare better in both reading and math when compared to schools under nonprofit management, according to research by Paul E. Peterson and Matthew M. Chingos of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
The Peterson-Chingos study, published in the peer-reviewed research section of the forthcoming issue of Education Next (Spring 2009), confirms that the effect of for-profit management of schools is positive relative to district schools, with math impacts being statistically significant. Over the last six years, students learned each year an average of 25 percent of a standard deviation more in math -- roughly 60 percent of a year’s worth of learning -- than they would have had the school been under district management. In reading, the estimated average annual impact of for-profit management is a positive 10 percent of a standard deviation -- approximately 36 percent of a year’s worth of reading. Only the math differences are statistically significant, however.
The researchers found the difference between the effects of for-profit and nonprofit management even more stark. In math, students in for-profits gained between 70 percent and greater than a year’s worth of learning more each year than in schools under nonprofit management. In reading, students learned approximately two-thirds of a year more in a for-profit than a nonprofit. Both math and reading impacts were statistically significant.
Peterson and Chingos used state and nationally normed test-score data as well as demographic and school enrollment information supplied by the Philadelphia school district for students enrolled in grades 2 to 8 from 2001 through 2008 to compare the performance of the for-profit, nonprofit and traditional schools.
“Year after year, students learned substantially more in reading and math if they attended a school under for-profit rather than one under nonprofit management,” Peterson and Chingos explain.
As part of a district-wide reform effort in 2002, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission (SRC) arranged for the for-profit management company Edison Schools to take over management of 20 of the city’s low-performing schools and the for-profit Victory Schools to take over management of five. Sixteen of the low-performing schools were to be managed by nonprofit entities -- the University of Pennsylvania (3 schools), Temple University (5 schools), Foundations (5 schools), and Universal, a community development corporation (3 schools).
In 2008, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission (SRC) terminated the contracts of five schools under for-profit management (four from Edison Schools and one from Victory Schools) for failing to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirement of No Child Left Behind. Only one school was removed from nonprofit management ( Temple). The six schools were returned to district control.
Peterson and Chingos examined whether the SRC’s decision to terminate the contracts for the five schools under for-profit management had a strong educational basis in the district’s own test-score database.
The Harvard Kennedy School researchers found that the five for-profits had strongly positive impacts in math in all years (as compared to district schools), while the nonprofits had decidedly negative ones, leading to very large, statistically significant differences between the two groups of schools. In reading, the nonprofits fared slightly better than the for-profits but in no year were the differences statistically significant. Peterson and Chingos conclude that the large differences in math clearly offset the statistically insignificant differences in reading.
“If math and reading are given equal weight in evaluating a school, these results provide no support for the district’s decision to terminate the for-profit management contracts,” Peterson and Chingos explain.
Read the full study:Impact of For-Profit and Nonprofit Management on Student Achievement: The Philadelphia Intervention, 2002-2008:
http://media.hoover.org/documents/ednext_20092_64_unabridged.pdf
NEW HIGHER EDUCATION DATA SHOWS THOUSANDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES HEAD TO COLLEGE UNPREPARED
One in three Pennsylvania high school graduates who enrolls in a state-owned university or community college cannot pass a first-year college math or English course, and the failure of our high schools to prepare those students costs taxpayers more than $26 million annually, according to research presented today to the State Board of Education.
The research presented to the State Board of Education examined course enrollment trends at the state’s 14 community colleges and the 14 institutions in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The data, provided by PASSHE and the community colleges, shows that during the 2007-08 school year alone:
• 20,394 of the 62,002 recent Pennsylvania high school graduates who enrolled in state system institutions or community colleges required one or more remedial courses in core academic subjects so they could catch up to their college-level peers.
• Those students enrolled in a total 37,312 of these “remedial” courses at the college level.
• The students requiring these additional courses came from 529 local education entities, including school districts, charter schools and vocational/technical schools.
• The cost of those courses totaled nearly $26.4 million – an average of about $1,300 per student.
• While student themselves incurred about $12.6 million of these additional coursework costs, the remainder of the costs were paid by taxpayers at the local and state levels.
Full report:
http://www.pdenewsroom.state.pa.us/newsroom/lib/newsroom/Remediation_Report.pdf
MBA Student Competition to Address Performance of Washington, D.C. School District
Ten teams from top business schools around the country will set their sights on improving the public school system in the nation's capitol in the third annual Education Leadership Case Competition at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business on Feb. 20-21.
Organized by UC Berkeley MBA students in the Haas Education Leadership Club, the competition challenges MBA and graduate students to solve key public education problems. Past case competitions have focused on revitalizing the Oakland (Calif.) Unified School District's budget process in 2007 and post-Hurricane Katrina restructuring efforts in the New Orleans Public Schools system in 2008.
This year's competition looks at the District of Columbia Public Schools system and the nationally recognized work of Michelle Rhee, the district's chancellor since 2007. Until recently, the system had some of the nation's worst academic performance. Rhee has implemented sweeping reforms that are being closely watched by education reformers.
Ten teams of four students each from leading U.S. business schools will review various aspects of the school district's reform efforts and propose solutions. The case was developed by a team of Berkeley MBA students, who interviewed more than 15 Washington, D.C. stakeholders, including Rhee, the school district's deputy chancellor, the teachers' union president, community activists and parent-related groups.
Participating teams will receive the case a few days before the competition and will present recommendations to a panel of judges that includes a professor at the Haas School, District of Columbia Public Schools representatives, and leaders in Washington, D.C. non-profit education. The winning team will receive $5,000 - $3,000 in cash and $2,000 to be donated to a cause of team members' choice.
"The goal of this year's case competition is to help District of Columbia schools unify around Chancellor Rhee's vision for academic excellence," said second-year UC Berkeley MBA student Samir Bolar, who helped compose the case. "The district continues to ride the wave of momentum from Rhee's appointment, and district officials believe this competition is an excellent opportunity to highlight their aggressive reform efforts and effect even greater change in D.C. schools.
The competition also serves to engage the talents of graduate students in educational issues. This year's teams come from Columbia Business School, Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, New York University's Stern School of Business, Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Yale University's School of Management, Harvard Business School, and UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
The four-member teams are primarily composed of MBA students, but some include students in public policy, education or dual-degree programs.
Team presentations will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21 in the Wells Fargo Room at the Haas School of Business on the UC Berkeley campus. A map is online at www.berkeley.edu/map. The closing ceremony and the two finalists' presentations, which are open to the community, will begin at 5 p.m.
For more information, see http://groups.haas.berkeley.edu/education/ELCC
Project Uses Cell Phones as Computers in the Classroom
Educational software for cell phones, a suite of tools developed at the University of Michigan, is being used to turn smart phones into personal computers for students in two Texas classrooms.
Their Mobile Learning Environment includes programs that let students map concepts, animate their drawings, surf relevant parts of the Internet and integrate their lessons and assignments. It also includes mini versions of Microsoft Word and Excel. It is currently licensed through Soloway's company GoKnow! to 40,000 users around the world for larger palm-sized computers. Cell phones change the game, though.
The software developers are Elliot Soloway, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the School of Information, and the School of Education, and Cathleen Norris, a regents professor at the University of North Texas.
"This is the beginning of the future," Soloway said. "The future is mobile devices that are connected. They're going to be the new paper and pencil."
Cell phones can be powerful computers, Soloway says. They can do just about everything laptops can do for a fraction of the price. And many students are bringing them to school anyway.
Matt Cook, a fifth-grade teacher from Keller, Texas who started the pilot project, says the popularity of cell phones got him thinking about how to harness their power for teaching. About half of the students in his class had phones before the project started.
Cook was looking for an answer when he met Soloway at an education technology conference last year. He got Verizon Wireless involved to donate phone service. HTC Corp. is donating smart phones. Celio Corp. is donating screens for the phones. Microsoft is providing training.
The project equips 53 students in two fifth-grade classes at Trinity Meadows Intermediate School with a smart phone of their own to use around-the-clock for the rest of the school year. Students can't text message or make calls with them. But they can use the cameras, mp3 players, calendars, calculators and educational software. Cook handed out the phones in late January.
"The phones will be seamlessly integrated into my lessons," Cook said. "I think that right off the bat, this will add a level of student engagement. They'll be more interested in the lessons because we're talking in the students' language. Any time you can do that, you're a lot more likely to be heard."
He explained how the devices will change his lesson on physical and chemical weathering. He will take the students outside with sidewalk chalk and let them decorate the concrete. Normally, they would then go outside every day to watch the chalk fade over time. Now, students will take a photos of the sidewalk every day and use the Sketchy animation program to create a video of the fading process.
Soloway says this type of hands-on, reinforced learning is only possible when each student has his or her own device.
"People ask why every child needs a computer and why can't students just share," Soloway said. "Well, do you share pencils?"
The school district is examining several aspects of student learning with these devices. They'll determine whether listening to recordings of texts enhances at-risk students' reading comprehension. They are studying students' technological savvy before and after the project. The teachers involved will also teach responsible and appropriate use of these phones. Cook and school officials hope to expand the project next year.
For more information on Soloway, visit: http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/public/experts/ExpDisplay.php?ExpID=861
Cell-phone-based, hand-held computers for education at Keller Intermediate School District: http://www.kellerisd.net/kellerisd/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=600&Itemid=921
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