Only 57 percent of Mexican-American students graduate from high school, and 11 percent receive college degrees, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In a new study, a University of Missouri researcher found that perceived educational barriers significantly predicted Mexican-American students' educational aspirations more than the influences of gender, generation level and parents' education level. Identifying what students perceive they need may assist school professionals and counselors in helping students develop skills and confidence needed to achieve their goals.
"By better understanding the perceived barriers toward education, professionals may be able to determine the best way to help Mexican-American students climb the academic ladder," said Lisa Flores, associate professor of educational, school and counseling psychology in the MU College of Education. "Career counselors should examine Mexican-American high school students' beliefs concerning what resources they need and help them develop effective strategies to deal with barriers students encounter or expect to encounter in their educational pursuits."
Flores and co-author Lizette Ojeda, doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at MU, analyzed factors related to educational aspirations of 186 Mexican-American high school students, including gender, generation level, parents' education and perceived barriers. She found that perceived barriers were the most influential factor in the students' ability to reach their educational goals. Flores also found that Hispanic students with a longer family history in the United States have greater educational aspirations than students with a more recent immigration history. Neither parents' educational level nor gender influenced students' educational desires.
"School counselors should help students identify strengths to increase self-confidence and match students with a mentor for academic support," Flores said. "School personnel need to be aware of the possible influence of culturally related outputs, like generation level, along with contextual factors, like parents' education, when helping Mexican-American students realize their educational goals."
Flores was recently awarded the Distinguished Professional Early Career Award from the National Latina/o Psychology Association. Her study, "The Influence of Gender, Generation Level, Parents' Education Level, and Perceived Barriers on the Educational Aspirations of Mexican-American High School Students" was published recently in The Career Development Quarterly.
Meeting the Challenge: Promising Practices for Reducing the Dropout Rate in Massachusetts Schools and Districts
One in five Massachusetts students does not graduate from high school in four years. At a time when a high school diploma is essential to ensuring future success, such large numbers of students struggling to earn a diploma is cause for concern. Yet, there are Massachusetts schools and districts making progress; a review of district data over the past four years revealed that several districts and schools throughout the Commonwealth are steadily reducing their dropout rates. The Rennie Center's latest policy brief, Meeting the Challenge: Promising Practices for Reducing the Dropout Rate in Massachusetts Schools and Districts analyzes practices and policies within these schools and districts to help inform the work of educators and policymakers and to address the question: "In schools that are reducing their dropout rates, what is working?"
The Rennie Center's research is based on interviews with district leaders and principals from 11 high schools in 9 Massachusetts districts that have reduced their student dropout rates over the past four years. Through these interviews, several themes emerged. Nearly all of these districts and schools: 1) used data to identify students at-risk of dropping out (including early indicators of potential dropouts and high school attendance); 2) offered targeted interventions such as personalizing the learning environment and supporting the transition to ninth grade; 3) connected high school to college and careers; 4) provided alternatives to traditional high school; and 5) formed collaborations and partnerships to bring in additional resources for students at-risk of dropping out.
Considerations Based On Findings
• The Importance of Leadership - All of the schools studied in this policy brief had leaders who initiated and sustained a focus on students at-risk of dropping out. These leaders placed a high value on struggling students and emphasized the needs of these students with their entire faculty so that adults in the school felt a sense of ownership for the outcomes of these students.
•
• No Silver Bullets - Students at-risk of dropping out have varied needs and the schools studied in this brief provided a correspondingly diverse set of interventions and supports to address students' behavioral/emotional and academic needs.
•
• Persistent Effort Over Time - It is important to note that for the schools that participated in this study, there have been no quick fixes. The success of these schools' efforts has been dependent on a sustained focus on the needs of these learners and a steadfast commitment of resources over time.
•
• More Than Academics - Rather than focusing exclusively on providing academic supports for students at-risk of dropping out, the schools studied in this brief combined academic support with initiatives to foster students' increased engagement in school.
•
• Follow-Up with Dropouts - Most of the schools did not follow up with students once they had dropped out - either to find out why they had dropped out, or to encourage them to return to some course of study that would lead to a diploma. This is an area that warrants future attention.
•
The policy brief was the subject of discussion at a public event on February 12, 2009. For more information about the dropout crisis in Massachusetts, visit: www.projectdropout.org.
Full report:
http://www.renniecenter.org/research_docs/0902-DropoutBrief-final.pdf
After-School Programs in Public Elementary Schools
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.
Full report:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009043.pdf
Mini-Digest of Education Statistics, 2008
This publication is a pocket-sized compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from kindergarten through graduate school. The statistical highlights are excerpts from the Digest of Education of Statistics, 2008.
Full report:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009021.pdf
School IT Survey Reveals Key Findings, Adds New Insights
IT Staffing Still Tops List of Needs; Infrastructure Issues Emerge
.Key findings from a survey of more than 600 school district leaders and IT conducted in November and December of 2008, are similar to the previous year, indicating that IT funding and staffing remain the top issues for IT professionals. A newly emerging challenge, however, is the rapidly expanding demand for school bandwidth, due to the rise in use of video applications such as video streaming, YouTube, and TeacherTube.
“For a second year, the survey confirms that IT professionals in education do not have enough staff to integrate technology into classroom instruction or implement new technologies—factors which have been identified as critical for student success,” said Lee Prevost, president and co-founder of SchoolDude.com. “It is very concerning that 69 percent of respondents feel their staffing levels do not allow them to effectively support the needs of their districts or schools.”
Balancing Priorities and Wearing Multiple Hats
The most significant challenge looming over school IT professionals is balancing staff time between proactive and reactive responsibilities. Fifty-five percent of all respondents said more than half their workload is reactive, and one in five said at least 75 percent of their workload is reactive instead of proactive. Crucial training and classroom IT integration are often sacrificed when aging or faulty equipment needs to be fixed or teachers and administrators are struggling with software questions. This leaves too little time for planning new projects and helping educators integrate technology to teach 21st century skills.
In another key survey finding, 68 percent of respondents said the number of technology devices in their schools had increased over last year, and 66 percent said IT staffing hasn’t kept pace with those changes. Supporting that sentiment, only 31 percent of respondents reported having enough IT staff to meet overall needs. The most common solution for IT professionals is to fill several roles simultaneously, a condition especially true in smaller school districts.
Software as a Service (SaaS) Eases the Burden
To boost team efficiency, nearly half of respondents said they have implemented Software as a Service (SaaS), in which a service provider hosts applications and delivers them to users over the Internet. Seventy-two percent of those who have moved to SaaS cite its ease of deployment as a key benefit, and 65 percent like SaaS applications because they require less technical support. However, fears over data security have exploded in the last year, with 72 percent of those who have tried SaaS saying they have concerns about losing control over their data, up from 40 percent last year.
Advances Occur, Though Key Challenges Remain
While survey results indicate the need for significant increases in funding, IT personnel, and infrastructure investments, school IT departments are making progress integrating technology as an effective educational and communications tool. Respondents reported creative approaches to meeting their personnel shortages and workload demands. Several use co-op arrangements with nearby districts to share workloads and expertise. Others have identified tech-savvy teachers who are willing to devote some of their time to IT. Some recruit community-based IT experts to volunteer service in local schools.
When it comes to district communications, 37 percent of respondents said their districts have a faculty intranet, and another 27 percent are working toward this goal; 38 percent offer secure remote network access, and another 40 percent soon will; and 45 percent have implemented student, parent and teacher web portals, while another 39 percent soon will.
For an overview of the survey results, read the eSchool News Special Report on School IT Support at http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/special-reports. To download the full survey report, go to http://www.schooldude.com/survey
New Study Concludes AutoSkill’s Intervention Solutions Close Achievement Gap, Improve State Test Scores
Texas Title I Students on Track for Academic Success After Training With Academy of READING and Academy of MATH
Recent research conducted at Spring Independent School District (ISD) in Houston revealed that Academy of READING® and the Academy of MATH® from AutoSkill were successful in closing the achievement gap and improving state assessment scores.
Conducted by Dr. Marcie Penner-Wilger, AutoSkill’s chief scientist, in partnership with Spring ISD, the study concluded that Title I, at-risk, economically disadvantaged and students of all ethnicities who used the Academy of READING and the Academy of MATH saw significantly higher scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS™) and larger gains in their Lexile® reading and Quantile® math scores, compared with students who didn’t use the intervention solutions.
Spring ISD serves more than 33,000 students from a wide variety of backgrounds and skill levels, including many who speak English as a second language. For the 2007-2008 school year, the district turned to AutoSkill for its Tier 2 Response to Intervention (RtI) solution.
“Our district is committed to ensuring that every student is on track to meet and exceed learning goals,” said, Bob Thompson, Executive Director for Secondary School Improvement, Spring ISD. “This research supports what our teachers told us throughout last school year – our struggling students who are using the Academy of READING and the Academy of MATH are seeing significant learning gains and improving their scores on the TAKS.”
In the study, 2176 Spring ISD students in second through ninth grade from 26 schools used either the Academy of READING or the Academy of MATH during the 2007-2008 academic year. TAKS data were obtained for 580 students in third to eighth grade. After less than an average of 14 hours using the Academy of READING, students showed gains on the TAKS of an average of 104 scale-score points higher than students who hadn’t used the intervention. Lexile scores for the students using the Academy of READING improved by an average of 105 points more than non-users.
Students who used the Academy of MATH for an average of only 16 hours had TAKS gains of an average of 73 scale-score points higher than non-users. Their Quantile scores increased an average of 38 points higher than their peers who didn’t use the intervention.
Overall, the percentage of students who met the TAKS reading standard increased by 16 percent, while students meeting the TAKS math standard increased by 17 percent.
Complete study:
http://www.autoskill.com/pdf/ES_Spring_TX.pdf
You have read this article with the title March ERR #3. You can bookmark this page URL http://universosportinguista.blogspot.com/2009/03/march-err-3.html. Thanks!
No comment for "March ERR #3"
Post a Comment