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Eric.ed.gov – When Does Preschool Matter?

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: We have many reasons to invest in preschool programs, including persistent gaps in school readiness between children from poorer and wealthier families, large increases in maternal employment over the past several decades, and the rapid brain development that preschool-age children experience. But what do we know about preschool education’s effectiveness? In this article, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Christina Weiland, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn report strong evidence that preschool boosts children’s language, literacy, and math skills in the short term; it may also reduce problem behaviors such as aggression. Over the elementary school years, however, test scores of children who were exposed to preschool tend to converge with the scores of children who were not. Many factors may explain this convergence. For example, kindergarten or first-grade teachers may focus on helping… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Kindergarten Impacts of the Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts Program: A Statewide Evaluation

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts (PA PKC) is a state-funded prekindergarten program for 3- and 4- year-old children to help them gain school readiness skills. The goal of PA PKC is to help reduce educational disparities by providing high quality prekindergarten for children who lack opportunities or reside in environments that place them at risk of school failure. This Impact Study examined the effects of participation in PA PKC on children’s early academic, social, and executive function skills in kindergarten. In particular, the study focused on whether there were differences in performance for children with 1 or 2 years of enrollment in PA PKC compared to children with no early childhood education (ECE) experience in the 2 years prior to kindergarten. Two primary research questions (1 and 2) guided… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Using Learning Centers to Improve the Language and Academic Skills of Preschool Children

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: A mixed-methods research design was employed to investigate the impact of use of learning centers to support language and academic skills of children aged 61-72 months. The sample of quantitative data of the study consisted of 70 children (35 in the experimental group and 35 in the control group). In the quantitative dimension of the study, data were collected using the “Kaufman Survey of Early Academic and Language Skills,” “Progress in Maths 6 Test,” and the “Control List for the Evaluation of the Print Awareness of Pre-School Children” scales. In the qualitative dimension of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teachers of the experimental group through the “Teacher Interview Form” developed by the researchers. During the implementation period, learning centers were established and organized in… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – English Language Anxiety and Its Effect on Students’ Mathematics Achievement

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Difficulties faced in learning a specific mathematical vocabulary are amplified through incomplete English knowledge among students who English Language Learners (ELLs). Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the relationship between English language anxiety and the mathematical achievement of EFL/ESL students who are using EMI. Mixed research method was employed to identify and understand this relationship between language anxiety and mathematics achievement in the math classroom. To collect quantitative data, a questionnaire was distributed to the students to measure their level of English language anxiety and mathematics achievement using their grades in their mathematics classes. The association between English language anxiety levels and ESL/EFL achievement in Mathematics was investigated through Pearson’s correlation test. The results showed medium levels English language anxiety among the EFL/ESL students with a… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Effects of Participation in the North Carolina Pre-Kindergarten Program at the End of Kindergarten: 2015-2016 Statewide Evaluation

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The purpose of the 2015-2016 NC Pre-Kindergarten (NC Pre-K) Evaluation study was to examine the long-term effects of participation in NC Pre-K at the end of kindergarten. Two groups of children were compared–those who attended NC Pre-K (treatment) and those who had not attended NC Pre-K (comparison). Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to select a matched sample of children with similar characteristics across the two groups. This study found significant treatment effects for participation in the NC Pre-K Program on children’s outcomes at the end of kindergarten in the areas of math skills and executive function. Although effect sizes were in the small range, there were effects across all aspects of math. There were significant differences for calculation skills and the math composite, and marginally significant… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – How Much Does the Pre-K CLASS Relate to Children’s Readiness for School Skills? Early Childhood Literature Scan Brief

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: One widely used tool that captures the process quality of preschool classrooms, including interactions between teachers and children, is the Classroom Assessment Scoring System-Preschool (Pre-K CLASS; Pianta et al. 2008). The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded Mathematica to conduct a literature scan to search for recent studies analyzing how well widely used classroom quality measures–including the Pre-K CLASS–perform (see box at the end of the brief for more details about methods). This brief focuses on what is known about how the Pre-K CLASS relates to children’s outcomes in general, and whether its relationships with outcomes differs for key subgroups of children. The authors include outcomes that reveal a child’s readiness for school, categorized as language; literacy; math; and social-emotional, executive function, and physical skills (coordination of… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Broken Gears: The Value Added of Higher Education on Teachers’ Academic Achievement. Policy Research Working Paper 7168

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Good teachers are essential for high-quality educational systems. However, little is known about teachers’ skills formation during college. By combining two standardized tests for Colombian students, one taken at the end of senior year in high school and the other when students are near graduation from college, this paper documents the extent to which education majors relatively improve or deteriorate their skills in quantitative reasoning, native language, and foreign language, in comparison to students in other programs. Teachers’ skills vis-à-vis those in other majors deteriorate in quantitative reasoning and foreign language, although they deteriorate less for those in math-oriented and foreign language oriented programs. For native language, there is no evidence of robust differences in relative learning mobility. An appendix contains Figure A1 and Tables A1 and… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Homework: Voices from EFL Teachers and Learners

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Previous studies have mainly focused on homework in courses such as math and physics with little attention to homework in EFL (English as a foreign language) classes. The main purpose of the study reported in this paper was to give a voice to both EFL teachers and learners with regard to English homework. To this end, 8 EFL teachers and 19 EFL learners took part in a semi-structured interview first. Then, based on their responses to the interview questions and a comprehensive review of the literature, a questionnaire was developed and validated to investigate EFL learners’ and teachers’ perspectives on different aspects of English homework. The questionnaire was finally completed by 283 EFL learners and 46 English teachers from two famous English institutions in Iran. Results revealed… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Use of Authentic Assessment to Report Accountability Data on Young Children’s Language, Literacy and Pre-Math Competency

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This validity study examined the validity of Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System, 2nd Edition (AEPS®), a curriculum-based, authentic assessment for infants and young children. The primary purposes were to: a) examine whether the AEPS® is a concurrently valid tool for measuring young children’s language, literacy and pre-math skills for accountability purpose and b) explore teachers’ perceptions on using authentic assessment and standardized tests. This was accomplished through implementing both quantitative and qualitative methods. Findings from the study indicated (a) the AEPS® is a concurrently valid (b) there were both advantages and disadvantages of using authentic assessment such as the AEPS® and using standardized tests based on teachers’ perceptions, however, the practical issues of using the authentic measure can be addressed by providing in-depth trainings to teachers and… Continue Reading