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Eric.ed.gov – Educators’ Perceptions of Mathematically Gifted Students and a Socially Supportive Learning Environment–A Case Study of a Finnish Upper Secondary School

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This article explores five educators’ conceptions of the characteristics of mathematically gifted students and a social learning environment that supports their development in a school for mathematically gifted adolescents in Finland. We conducted this qualitative study through semi-structured interviews and participant observations in a Finnish upper secondary school with a special mathematics program. The research shows that gifted students and their educators form a tight community, the social learning environment of which supports shared motivation, healthy perfectionism, and practicing social skills. The results deepen the understanding of gifted education in the Finnish context and the significance of educators’ shared understanding of social activities as a basis for successful gifted education. Link til kilde

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Eric.ed.gov – An Exploratory Analysis of Features of New Orleans Charter Schools Associated with Student Achievement Growth. REL 2018-287

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the number of charter schools in New Orleans has rapidly expanded. During the 2012/13 school year–the period covered by this study–of the 85 public schools in New Orleans, 75 were chartered, enrolling more than 84 percent of all public school students in the city in 92 different school campuses. This study explored organizational, operational, and instructional features of New Orleans charter schools serving grades 3-8 that are potential indicators of student achievement growth in English language arts (ELA), math, and science. The organizational characteristic of kindergarten provided as an entry grade was associated with higher levels of [value-added measures] VAM on the ELA test. The operational characteristic of an extended school year also was associated with higher levels of ELA VAM.… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Learning That Lasts: Unpacking Variation in Teachers’ Effects on Students’ Long-Term Knowledge. Working Paper 104

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Measures of teachers’ “value added” to student achievement play an increasingly central role in k-12 teacher policy and practice, in part because they have been shown to predict teachers’ long-term impacts on students’ life outcomes. However, little research has examined variation in the long-term effects of teachers with similar value-added performance. In this study, we investigate variation in the persistence of teachers’ value-added effects on student achievement in New York City. We separate persistent effects into general effects that improve both the subject taught (math or English language arts (ELA)) and the other area of measured achievement and subject-specific effects which improve only the subject taught. Two findings emerge. First, a teacher’s value-added to ELA achievement has substantial crossover effects on long-term math performance. That is, having… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Performance and Preparation: Alignment between Student Achievement, Teacher Ratings, and Parent Perceptions in Urban Middle-Grades Mathematics Classrooms

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The middle grades are a critical transition period in students’ mathematics trajectories, as students move from arithmetic to the more complex and abstract concepts of algebra. Teachers’ and parents’ judgments of students’ math abilities in these years are important to instructional planning and decision making for teachers, and can advise parents and students on future course placement. This study specifically examined teacher and parent judgments of students’ performance and preparedness for the next grade level in 5th and 6th grades mathematics. Results demonstrate that teacher and parent perceptions of students’ abilities are not calibrated to national norms, but to local contexts. Our findings are similar to other work suggesting that high poverty school contexts may provide teachers and parents a false comparative context for judging how well… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Retention, Attrition, and Mobility among Teachers and Administrators in West Virginia. REL 2016-161

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Members of the West Virginia School Leadership Research Alliance partnered with Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia to study the average retention, attrition, and mobility rates among teachers and administrators in the West Virginia public school system. There is increasing evidence nationwide that low teacher and administrator retention rates adversely affect student academic outcomes, particularly in reading and math, which are reform priorities in many states (Béteille, Kalogrides, & Loeb, 2012; Branch, Hanushek, & Rivkin, 2012; Kane & Staiger, 2008; Ronfeldt, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2013). West Virginia policymakers and educators have thus expressed interest in increasing teacher and administrator retention rates to improve student achievement. This report provides descriptive information about retention, attrition, and mobility among teachers and administrators that can be used to inform policy and program… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Everyday Arts for Special Education Impact Evaluation. District 75, New York City Department of Education

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the Everyday Arts for Special Education (EASE) program on elementary special education students’ academic achievement (reading and math) and social-emotional learning. EASE was a 5-year program providing professional development and instruction in the arts in 10 New York City special education schools. The program served 300 teachers and 5,334 special education students over the 5 years. Through the program, special education teachers learned arts-based strategies to integrate into their instruction. The program included: (1) professional development workshops, (2) collaborative classroom modeling by teaching artists, (3) on-site professional development, (4) classroom instruction by special education teachers and visiting teaching artists. Impact was investigated through a quasi-experimental design, using the New York State Alternative Assessment (NYSAA) and the… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – How Do Teachers from Alternative Pathways Contribute to the Teaching Workforce in Urban Areas? Evidence from Kansas City. Working Paper No. 243-0920

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: We examine how teachers from two alternative preparation programs–Teach for America (TFA) and Kansas City Teacher Residency (KCTR)–contribute to the teacher labor market in and around Kansas City, Missouri. We show that TFA and KCTR teachers are more likely than other teachers to work in charter schools, and more broadly, in schools with high concentrations of low-income, low-performing, and underrepresented minority (Black and Hispanic) students. TFA and KCTR teachers are themselves more racial/ethnically diverse than the larger local-area teaching workforce, but only KCTR teachers are more diverse than teachers in the same districts in which they work. In math in grades 4-8 we find sizeable, positive impacts of TFA and KCTR teachers on test-score growth relative to non-program teachers. We also estimate positive impacts on test-score growth… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Teacher Turnover in Maine: Analysis of Staffing Patterns from 2005-06 to 2016-17

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: There have long been anecdotal reports that some Maine districts have difficulty filling vacancies and retaining teachers. This is a common lament for schools in rural areas, and for schools across the state in hiring teachers for certain subject areas-namely math, science, special education, and foreign languages. Current policy initiatives in Maine such as the push for proficiency-based high school diplomas are raising the stakes for schools to employ high-quality teachers in all content areas. There is a concern that schools facing persistent teacher shortages may struggle to provide a comprehensive educational program, resulting in inequitable learning opportunities for their students. To further investigate the empirical evidence behind these anecdotal reports, the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs commissioned this study of the Maine Education… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Accuracy of the Teacher Insight Online Perceiver Tool in Determining the Effectiveness of High Rated and Low Rated Math and Science New Hire Teachers following One Year and Three Years of Single School District Employment

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The combined goals of recruiting and retaining effective teachers are often difficult to realize due to fluctuating student enrollments and class-size targets, teaching-load norms or requirements, and budgetary and resource constraints. While schools and districts market and recruit bright new teachers to the field, they too, struggle to maintain enticing career development standards that would retain the most effective teachers in the district. With the high turnover in schools, student achievement suffers. Teacher attrition has grown by 50% over the past fifteen years. The national teacher turnover rate has risen to 16.8%. In urban schools, it is over 20% and, in some schools and districts, the teacher dropout rate is actually higher than the student dropout rate. School districts fall into a chronic cycle of hiring and… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Preschool Contexts and Teacher Interactions: Relations with School Readiness

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The majority of early education programs promote children’s learning through a mix of experiences in child- and teacher-managed contexts. The current study examined time spent in child- and teacher-managed contexts and the nature of children’s experiences with teachers in these contexts as they relate to children’s skill development. Participants were preschool children (N = 283, M age = 52 months, 48% girls, 70% Mexican or Mexican American) from families of a lower socioeconomic status. Observations captured children’s time in child- and teacher-managed contexts and experiences with teachers in each context. School readiness was assessed directly and through teacher reports. Research Findings: Time spent in teacher-managed contexts was positively related to children’s academic and social skill development. Experiences in child-managed context predicted vocabulary, math, and social skills when… Continue Reading