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Eric.ed.gov – Comprehensive Private School Model for Low-Income Urban Children in Mexico. Policy Research Working Paper 8669

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In low-income countries, private schools are perceived as superior alternatives to the public sector, often improving achievement at a fraction of the cost. It is unclear whether private schools are as effective in middle-income countries where the public sector has relatively more resources. To address this gap, this paper takes advantage of lottery-based admissions in first grade for a Mexico City private school that targets and subsidizes attendance for low-income children. Over three years, selected students via lottery scored 0.21 standard deviation higher than those not selected in literacy tests, corresponding to a normalized gain of one-half of a grade level every two years. Lottery winners also statistically outperformed those not selected in math, but the gains were more modest. Relative to the control group, parents of… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Changing Mindsets: Evaluation Report and Executive Summary

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The Changing Mindsets project sought to improve academic attainment by supporting pupils to develop a growth mindset: the belief that intelligence is not a fixed characteristic and can be increased through effort. Previous research (Good et al., 2003; Blackwell et al., 2007) has suggested that holding this belief enables pupils to work harder and achieve better results. The project consisted of two separate interventions: (1) an intervention that taught pupils directly about the malleability of intelligence through six workshops, which were delivered by undergraduates from the University of Portsmouth, and four further sessions delivered by two local organisations: the Education Business Partnership, and Pompey Study Centre (now called Portsmouth in the Community); and (2) a professional development course that trained teachers on approaches to developing and reinforcing… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Relating Teacher Candidate Performance to Their Students’ Subject Specific Academic Achievement Using TWS Methodology

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Teacher education preparation programs are under pressure from the public to provide evidence that their programs and teacher candidates are improving student achievement. However, the connections between teacher education preparation programs, teacher candidates’ evaluation, and student achievement are often hard to disentangle from other educationally relevant effects. Teacher candidates were formally assessed by their university supervisor during their student teaching semester. Using Western Oregon University’s teacher work sample methodology, we were able to assess the achievement of the teacher candidate’s students. Results showed that students of teacher candidates’ showed 52% gains in knowledge of learning goals. Additionally, improvement in teacher candidate’s teaching ability as measured on an observation instrument was associated with higher gains by their students on the learning goals. Lastly, teacher candidates assessing their students’… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Philosophy for Children: Evaluation Report and Executive Summary

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Philosophy for Children (P4C) is an approach to teaching in which students participate in group dialogues focused on philosophical issues. Dialogues are prompted by a stimulus (for example, a story or a video) and are based around a concept such as ‘truth,’ ‘fairness’ or ‘bullying.’ The aim of P4C is to help children become more willing and able to ask questions, construct arguments, and engage in reasoned discussion. The primary goal of this evaluation was to assess whether a year of P4C instruction for pupils in Years 4 and 5 would lead to higher academic attainment in terms of maths, reading, and writing. The project also assessed whether P4C instruction had an impact on Cognitive Abilities Test results. The evaluation ran from January to December 2013. Teachers… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – How Non-Linearity and Grade-Level Differences Complicate the Validation of Observation Protocols

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Teacher evaluation is currently a major policy issue at all levels of the K-12 system driven in large part by current US Department of Education requirements. The main objective of this study is to explore the patterns of relationship between observational scores and value-added measures of teacher performance in math classrooms and the variation in these relationships across grade levels. While the MET analyses used a single composite score consisting of a simple average of the eight component scores of the protocol, in our work we treated each component separately since each measures a separately definable aspect of classroom practice. Specifically, across all the components, the authors pose the following questions: (1) Do the relationships between observation scores of math teachers and their value-added scores tend to… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – District Action Plan 2003-2008: Improving Academic Achievement in Reading, Math and Language Arts

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The results of the SAT 9 tests administered to Guam students in grades 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, and 11 have consistently indicated below average academic performance in the subjects of reading, math and language arts over the past decade of testing. To ensure that students attain the necessary skills and knowledge in reading, math, and language arts, the Student Focus Committee has constructed a district action plan designed to address problems by focusing on measurable objectives to raise student performance. These objectives, discussed in detail in the plan, are grouped into the following categories: (1) standards and assessment; (2) personnel quality and accountability; (3) federal, state, and local programs; (4) home-school connection; (5) Education Indicator System; and (6) system-wide needs/changes. Appended are the following: (1)… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Hallé SHINE on Manchester: Evaluation Report and Executive Summary

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The “Hallé SHINE on Manchester” (HSoM) programme is a Saturday school educational programme designed to increase the reading and maths attainment, as well as engagement with school, of underachieving and disadvantaged pupils at Key Stage 2. Developed in collaboration between the SHINE Trust and Hallé Orchestra, the intervention provides additional school-based literacy and numeracy lessons, based on musical themes, as well as visits to Hallé rehearsals, performances and other theme-based activities. Twenty-five Saturday sessions, each lasting five hours, were planned for the intervention over the course of an academic year, delivered by qualified teachers, teaching assistants, peer mentors, and professional musicians. The evaluation consisted of two randomised controlled trials (RCTs)–a pilot trial and a main trial–and a process evaluation conducted with primary schools in the Manchester area… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Exploring the Foundations of the Future STEM Workforce: K-12 Indicators of Postsecondary STEM Success. REL 2016-122

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The number of jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) is growing rapidly and is expected to increase by approximately 1 million in the United States between 2012 and 2022 (Vilorio, 2014). People of many racial/ethnic minorities, however, including Hispanic people, are underrepresented among recipients of STEM degrees and among employees in STEM fields (Beede et al., 2011). Regional Educational Laboratory Southwest conducted this review of the research literature to identify malleable factors that can be measured in K-12 settings and that predict students’ postsecondary STEM success (defined as enrolling in, persisting in, and completing a postsecondary STEM major or degree), particularly for Hispanic students. Identifying these predictive malleable factors can help policymakers and district and school administrators develop and implement interventions that increase the percentage… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – (Dis)empowerment: The Implementation of Corrective Mathematics in Philadelphia Empowerment Schools

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The need to improve math education around the country has been well documented, especially in urban school systems like Philadelphia. In Spring 2010, only 56.6% of students in Philadelphia Public schools scored proficient or advanced on the Pennsylvania State Standardized Assessment (PSSA). In Philadelphia Empowerment Schools, the 107 lowest performing schools in the Philadelphia School District, only 45.8% of students scored proficient or advanced (PSSA preliminary results). Yet, across these schools, there is wide variation. While over 80% of students in some Empowerment schools scored proficient or advanced in math, in other schools less than 20% of the student population reached math proficiency. In October 2009, former Philadelphia Public School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman implemented the Science Research Associates (SRA) Corrective Mathematics and Corrective Reading curriculum in all… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Giving a Little Help to Girls? Evidence on Grade Discrimination and Its Effect on Students’ Achievement. CEP Discussion Paper No. 1341

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper tests if gender-discrimination in grading affects pupils’ achievements and course choices. I use a unique dataset containing grades given by teachers, scores obtained anonymously by pupils at different ages, and their course choice during high school. Based on double-differences, the identification of the gender bias in grades suggests that girls benefit from a substantive positive discrimination in math but not in French. This bias is not explained by girls’ better behavior and only marginally by their lower initial achievement. I then use the heterogeneity in teachers’ discriminatory behavior to show that classes in which teachers present a high degree of discrimination in favor of girls are also classes in which girls tend to progress significantly more than boys, during the school year but also during… Continue Reading