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Eric.ed.gov – The Evaluation of Enhanced Academic Instruction in After-School Programs: Final Report. NCEE 2009-4077

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The primary purpose of this study is to determine whether providing structured academic instruction in reading or math to students in grades two to five during their afterschool hours–instead of the less formal academic supports offered in regular after-school programs– improves their academic performance in the subject. This is the second and final report from the Evaluation of Enhanced Academic Instruction in After-School Programs–a two-year demonstration and random assignment evaluation of structured approaches to teaching math and reading in after-school settings. This report includes two parallel impact studies, a math program study (“Mathletics” developed by Harcourt School Publishers) and a reading program study (“Adventure Island” developed by the Success for All Foundation) in which students attending an afterschool program are assigned by lottery to either receive the… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Measuring Student Success from a Developmental Mathematics Course at an Elite Public Institution

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper asks whether placement recommendations for a developmental math course at an elite public institution impact students’ future academic performance, course-taking, and college outcomes. Researchers use these specific outcomes to measure whether developmental courses help students develop the skills necessary to succeed in college, inspire them to take different courses, and help them graduate or persist in college. The study examines the ways in which instructor characteristics can drive these outcomes, and whether instruction at this university in a program for low-achieving students and particularly underprepared low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented minority students achieves its goal of reducing achievement gaps. This informs specific course and instructor policies to help underprepared students in their first semesters in college. The research setting is an elite public institution with a… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The OECD, PISA and the Impacts on Educational Policy

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Large-scale assessment regularly takes place in most jurisdictions across Canada, a fact not lost on the Fraser Institute and other right wing think tanks such as AIMS (Atlantic Institute for Market Studies) which use the test results as the primary basis for compiling school rankings at both the elementary and secondary level (see Gutstein, 2010). The frequency of external testing at different levels (provincial/territorial, national, international)–coupled with the high visibility accorded by the mainstream media to the results, usually in the form of league tables, and the imperatives of short term political mandates–have all contributed to a focus on improving one’s position within the list of rankings, as well as to a narrow focus on the tested subjects–math, science, reading. In this era of accountability-by-numbers, the elevated… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Instructional Interactions of Kindergarten Mathematics Classrooms: Validating a Direct Observation Instrument

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In this paper, the authors report research focused directly on the validation of the Coding of Academic Teacher-Student interactions (CATS) direct observation instrument. They use classroom information gathered by the CATS instrument to better understand the potential mediating variables hypothesized to influence student achievement. Their study’s purpose is to gather the kinds of validity evidences that match the proposed interpretations and uses of the CATS instrument (Kane, 2008; Messick, 1995). Therefore, they first explore the content aspect of construct validity by collecting information about the content relevance and representativeness of the observation instrument (Messick, 1995). Second, concerned about the consistency of the observation data collected across a number of independent observers, they measure inter-observer agreement. Finally, they focus on the criterion-predictive aspect of construct validity and investigate… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Using a Scientific Process for Curriculum Development and Formative Evaluation: Project FUSION

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Given the vital importance of using a scientific approach for curriculum development, the authors employed a design experiment methodology (Brown, 1992; Shavelson et al., 2003) to develop and evaluate, FUSION, a first grade mathematics intervention intended for students with or at-risk for mathematics disabilities. FUSION, funded through IES (Baker, Clarke, & Fien, 2008), targets students’ understanding of whole number concepts and skills and is being designed as a Tier 2 intervention for schools that use a multi-tiered service delivery model, such as Response to Intervention (RtI). In developing this intervention, the authors have drawn extensively from the converging knowledge base of effective math instruction (Gersten et al., 2009; National Math Advisory Panel, [NMAP] 2008) and the critical content areas of first grade mathematics recognized by national bodies… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Relationship of Teacher Quality and Student Achievement in Elementary Schools from the New York City

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The present study sought to examine the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement in public elementary schools in a community district school of the New York City. It has 23 elementary schools, more than 7,600 students and around 350 teachers. For this study, participants consist of a sample of 117 full-time teachers who were working in third, fourth and fifth grade during the 2006-2007 school year. By recognizing the link between quality teaching and student achievement, this study addressed the broad question: “What is the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement?” Methodologically, data collection was based on a standardized questionnaire developed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The survey used here was adapted by the researcher to explore three specific teacher quality characteristics:… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Content Analysis of the Studies in Turkey on the Ability of Critical Thinking

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Critical thinking, along with other skills, is included as a basic skill in the constructive education program that has been in use in Turkey since 2005. Therefore, a large increase has been observed in studies on critical thinking skills since 2005. In this frame, the present study was conducted in order to systematically examine research papers on critical thinking skills in terms of several variables published between the years 2005 and 2014 in national journals which are indexed by SSCI and the ULAKBIM social sciences database. In this context, a total of 93 articles from 29 different journals were analyzed using the NVivo 10, SPSS 18, and Microsoft Excel programs and performing content analysis which is widely used in qualitative studies. According to the findings, a large… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – How and Why Do Teacher Credentials Matter for Student Achievement? Working Paper 2. Revised

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Education researchers and policymakers agree that teachers differ in terms of quality and that quality matters for student achievement. Despite prodigious amounts of research, however, debate still persists about the causal relationship between specific teacher credentials and student achievement. In this paper, we use a rich administrative data set from North Carolina to explore a range of questions related to the relationship between teacher characteristics and credentials on the one hand and student achievement on the other. Though the basic questions underlying this research are not new–and, indeed, have been explored in many papers over the years within the rubric of the “education production function”–the availability of data on all teachers and students in North Carolina over a ten-year period allows us to explore them in more… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – “Informed Self-Placement” at American River College: A Case Study. National Center Report Number #07-2

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: “Informed math self-placement,” a program implemented at American River College in Sacramento, California, to determine students’ readiness for college-level math, has been in place for three years. This case study describes the development and implementation of math self-placement at American River. Math self-placement consists of a Web-based testing and information site that allows students, or potential students, to gauge their level of math proficiency prior to talking with a counselor or enrolling in classes. Math faculty members and administrators are hopeful that self-placement, as an alternative to traditional placement, will provide students with concrete knowledge and experience about math standards, since self-placement includes actual self-assessment instruments (tests), developed and approved by the college’s math faculty. American River’s experience in math self-placement is noteworthy in its potential to… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – A Preliminary Case Study of SCALE Activities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: Factors Influencing Change Initiatives in STEM Undergraduate Education, Teacher Training, and Partnerships with K-12 Districts. WCER Working Paper No. 2007-2

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This report on the SCALE Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Case Studies line of work provides preliminary findings about SCALE activities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). This study focuses on the structural and behavioral dynamics influencing the implementation of the four core SCALE strategies for effecting change in IHEs: (1) reform undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses; (2) promote collaboration between STEM and education departments regarding pre-service teacher education; (3) promote collaboration between IHEs and K-12 districts regarding in-service professional development; and (4) improve institutional policies and practices at the IHE level that support faculty engaged in pre- and in-service activities. Preliminary findings indicate that SCALE is making progress in each of these areas. Through the Math Masters and Immersion Unit professional development programs… Continue Reading