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Eric.ed.gov – Strategies for Promoting Gatekeeper Course Success among Students Needing Remediation: Research Report for the Virginia Community College System

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The Virginia Community College System (VCCS) is engaged in a strategic planning process to improve performance beyond the goals in “Dateline 2009,” the system’s current vision and plan. A key objective is to encourage colleges to improve retention and academic success for students, particularly the substantial numbers who arrive unprepared for college-level work. Specifically, the VCCS seeks to improve the rates at which underprepared students complete developmental coursework and advance to take and pass college courses, particularly the initial college-level, or “gatekeeper,” math and English offerings. The VCCS asked the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teachers College, Columbia University, to conduct analyses to inform its efforts to improve student outcomes. In response, CCRC designed a study to address the following question: What student characteristics, course-taking patterns,… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Effects of a Peer Tutoring Program on Math Fact Recall and Generalization.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study used a multiple-baseline-across-subjects design to assess the effectiveness of a peer tutoring intervention for fluency in basic math facts. Specifically, this study assessed the rate of recall of multiplication facts throughout the intervention period and determined whether the progress was matched by improvement in actual classwork. In addition, maintenance of gains in fluency and classwork were assessed. The students targeted were fourth- and fifth-graders (n=8) selected from a combined classroom in an Appalachian elementary school. Children with mild disabilities were included in this classroom. Teacher recommendations along with a multiplication facts probe were used to select tutors and tutees. Baseline data were collected from tutees before intervention occurred. Tutors were trained by the experimenter (3 sessions), then were assigned a tutee. Peer tutoring sessions occurred… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Assessment of the Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative: Year 2 Report

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative is a statewide policy that mandates college placement testing of 11th-graders who meet high school graduation criteria but are unlikely to meet college readiness criteria. Students who score below college-ready on the Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT) are required to take math and English/language arts college readiness and success courses in 12th grade. This report discusses qualitative feedback from students, teachers, district administrators, and college faculty and staff from the 2013/14 school year. It examines how educators perceive the effectiveness of the initiative and barriers to implementation, what the grade 12 courses look like in practice, how K-12 and postsecondary institutions collaborate around the initiative, what types of promising practices Florida’s state colleges use to prepare students for college and… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – “Learning To Do Math the Drafting Way.” Field Test Copy.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This booklet was developed for industrial arts students who demonstrate a need for additional instruction in mathematics, with the focus on the content needed for drafting. The eight topics included are: how to read a ruler, reading a one-fourth inch scale, multiplication of whole numbers, how to find square footage from an architectural floor plan, two plastic triangles used as drafting tools, centering a drafting isometric problem, a quick way to figure radius settings when using the drafting compass, and using fractions and decimals in the drafting class. Each topic lists teacher materials (concepts, instructions, and related activities) and provides several worksheets for students. To identify students who need additional help, a Basic Skills Checklist is provided for the teacher, and a Basic Skills Verification Form is… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Future Foundations: Evaluation Report and Executive Summary

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This report documents the results of an evaluation of the Future Foundations Society CIC (Future Foundations) academic summer school which took place in August 2013. The Future Foundations summer school programme is a literacy and numeracy catch-up intervention which provided extra schooling in the summer holidays. Pupils attending the four-week programme followed a specially designed curriculum involving regular literacy and numeracy lessons taught by trained primary and secondary school teachers. The programme took place in the summer of 2013 across three sites in London and the South East: Brighton, Enfield, and Islington. It was targeted at pupils in Years 5 and 6 who were eligible for free school meals (FSM) and at pupils who had not achieved Level 4 in English or maths at the end of… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Predicting Transition to Postsecondary Programs of GED® Earners in a College Setting

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This applied dissertation was designed to identify the characteristics of students enrolled in a GED® preparation program who transitioned to postsecondary programs at the same institution after passing the GED® test. The characteristics studied included age; gender; ethnicity; prematriculation scores in reading, language, and math in the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE); and hours spent preparing for the GED® test in an open-entry, open-exit remedial laboratory environment. Through the use of binary logistic regressions to answer the research questions, a prediction model was constructed. The variables that are able to predict an increased likelihood of transition to postsecondary programs were being between the ages of 16 and 24 at the time of enrollment in the GED® program and having an ethnicity category of Asian, White/Caucasian, Hispanic,… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Algebra for All: The Effect of Algebra Coursework and Classroom Peer Academic Composition on Low-Achieving Students

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Algebra is often considered as a gateway for later achievement. A recent report by the Mathematics Advisory Panel (2008) underscores the importance of improving algebra learning in secondary school. Today, a growing number of states and districts require algebra for all students in ninth grade or earlier. Chicago is at the forefront of this movement. Many low-achieving students took remedial math before 1997 and the algebra-for-all policy immersed these students in academic coursework for the first time. Moreover, these low-achieving students experienced a rise in the ability levels of their classroom peers. However, this study suggests that simply requiring algebra is insufficient to improve their outcomes, even though students may benefit from having higher achieving peers in their classrooms. Overall, taking Algebra, instead of remedial math, would… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Evaluating the Impact of Remedial Education in Florida Community Colleges: A Quasi-Experimental Regression Discontinuity Design. NCPR Brief

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The conceptual foundation for remedial education is straightforward: students are tested to determine whether they meet a given level of academic proficiency for college-level classes. For those who do not meet this level, deficiencies in skills are addressed through some form of supplementary instruction, most often remedial courses. The study summarized in this Brief employs a quasi-experimental design to examine remedial enrollment and outcomes of community college students throughout the state of Florida. Results of the study suggest that as a means for addressing the needs of under-prepared students, remediation has both benefits and drawbacks. After controlling for noncompliance and endogenous sorting around the placement test cutoff score, students on the margin of requiring math remediation were slightly more likely to persist to their second year. Similarly,… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – American Higher Education: Journalistic and Policy Perspectives from “National CrossTalk”

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In the first decade of the 21st century, the nation, the states, and colleges and universities began to grapple with the challenges of globalization, changing demography, the implications of the digital era, and of a less expansive public sector. Although not a transformative period for higher education, the decade saw significant innovations in teaching and learning, intense policy ferment, and debates over the future of colleges and universities and their roles and responsibilities in American society. Parts one and two of this book describe several of the most interesting and significant developments in higher education, and in public policy, reported by leading journalists in the field of higher education. In part three, observers of American higher education comment on critical issues facing colleges and universities, the states… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Instruction Quality or Working Condition? The Effects of Part-Time Faculty on Student Academic Outcomes in Community College Introductory Courses

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: More than half of community college courses are taught by part-time faculty. Drawing on data from six community colleges, this study estimates the effects of part-time faculty versus full-time faculty on students’ current and subsequent course outcomes in developmental and gateway courses, using course fixed effects and propensity score matching to minimize bias arising from student self-sorting across and within courses. We find that part-time faculty have negative effects on student subsequent enrollments. These negative effects are driven by results in math courses. We also find that course schedules could explain substantial proportions of the estimated negative effects, while faculty individual characteristics could not. Survey results on faculty professional experiences suggest that part-time faculty had less institutional knowledge regarding both academic and nonacademic services. We infer that… Continue Reading