First-Grade Classroom Behavior: Its Short- and Long-Term Consequences for School Performance

Effects of children's classroom behavior on school performance over a 4-year period are examined for a large, representative panel of beginning first graders. Scales developed from homeroom teachers' ratings of children in the spring of their first, second, and fourth years of school are used to predict spring marks in reading and math and spring scores on verbal and quantitative subtests from the CAT battery. The teachers' ratings cluster in three domains: Interest-Participation (I-P), Cooperation-Compliance (C-C), and Attention Span–Restlessness (A-R). The I-P and A-R ratings, but not C-C ratings, affect test score gains in first grade and marks in all 3 years. Behavior ratings from Year I also affect Year 2 and Year 4 performance, with indications that effects are understated over single-year periods. The importance of assessing classroom behavior in a longitudinal framework that allows for lagged and cumulative effects is discussed.     

Literacy Growth in the Academic Year Versus Summer From Preschool Through Second Grade: Differential Effects of Schooling Across Four Skills

Differences in literacy growth over the summer versus the school year were examined to isolate how schooling affects children's literacy development from preschool through second grade across four literacy skills. Children (n = 383) were tested individually twice each year for up to 4 years on measures of phonological awareness, decoding, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. Growth curve analyses indicated that schooling effects were greatest for decoding skills and reading comprehension, were medium in size for phonological awareness, and were less evident for vocabulary. Except for vocabulary, relatively small amounts of growth were observed for preschoolers, followed by a period of rapid growth for kindergarteners and first graders, which slowed again for second graders. Findings demonstrate the differential effect of schooling on four separate literacy skills during the crucial school transition period.     

The effects of verbal reinforcement and contingency management in increasing and stabilizing responses in reading behaviours: A report

Verbal reinforcement and contingency management Was used to increase the response rate correct in a class group of twenty‐nine boys in year 7 of schooling. The response rate increased by six times over a period of thirty school days, on data using daily measurements. On the Gap achievement test, the mean reading age prior to the study was 8.0 years. After the thirty day period of instruction it was 10.0 years.     

Understanding emancipatory forms of educational leadership through schooling justice work: an action research study into second chance schooling development

Concerned about the phenomena of early school leaving in our region, we are two teachers who initiated and developed a new school from the ‘ground up’ to re-engage young people disenfranchised with schooling back into formalised learning. Using critical action research methodology over a three and a half year developmental period, this endeavour involved us in exercising particular dimensions of leadership to engineer a sustainable second chance school. Twelve years after its development, the school continues with enrolments of over 100 senior secondary students in recent years. The schooling justice work we pursued during the developmental period drew us into ‘emancipatory’ leadership work that called us to be; (1) teacher activists embracing social entrepreneurial strategies imbued with (2) relational sensibilities, and (3) architects of socially just school design informed by (4) critical praxis within a university led professional learning community. The ‘second chance school’ has re-engaged over 1000 students back into formalised learning since its inception and has offered pathways into post-school tertiary study, apprenticeships and training for the majority of these students.     

青少年变声期合唱训练探析

青少年变声期常给合唱训练带来一些困惑，因此有人主张禁声或认为不能歌唱，其实，这是一种消极的没有科学依据的做法。我们就此初步探索出一套行之有效的训练的方法，使孩子们能在美妙的歌声中愉快地渡过变声期，以利于广大青少年健康发育成长。     

The development of students’ achievement emotions after transition to secondary school: a multilevel growth curve modelling approach

This empirical study focuses on students’ development of positive and negative achievement emotions during the first year and the beginning of the second year of secondary school. Using multilevel growth curve modelling, the development of the achievement emotions enjoyment, pride, anxiety, hopelessness and boredom during class in general was investigated. Data from 584 students (taken at three different time points during the first year and the beginning of the second year of secondary school in Germany) was analysed by controlling for gender and the type of school. The results confirm the main assumption: positive achievement emotions decline, whereas negative achievement emotions increase after transition to secondary school. The assumption regarding the effects of type of school was also confirmed: students entering a higher track school (German Gymnasium) experience more positive achievement emotions than students in middle track schools (German Realschule) do. However, the decline in these achievement emotions in higher track schools is comparatively worse than for students in middle track schools. The results are discussed with regard to students’ further studies, as well as the wider educational implications.

     

Kindergarten retention and transition classrooms: Their relationship to achievement

This study examined the relationship between extra-year programs and later school achievement. Ninety-five children were identified as being either retained in kindergarten, placed in a transition classroom, recommended for an extra-year program but went into first grade, or as being in a control group of children who went from kindergarten to first grade without reservation. Results indicated that children retained in kindergarten performed significantly lower on a standardized achievement test than did children in the other three groups. Despite an extra year of schooling, children placed in transition classrooms did not differ significantly in their performance from children who were recommended for an extra year but went onto first grade and children in the control group.     

Expanding schooling opportunities for 4-year-olds

We use a novel quasi-experimental strategy to estimate the effect of expanding early schooling enrollment possibilities on early achievement. It exploits two features of the school system in The Netherlands. The first is rolling admissions; children are allowed to start school immediately after their 4th birthday instead of at the beginning of the school year. The second is that children having their birthday before, during and after the summer holiday are placed in the same class. These features generate sufficient exogenous variation in children’s enrollment opportunities to identify its effects on test scores. Making available one additional month of time in school increases language scores of disadvantaged pupils by 6 percent of a standard deviation and their math scores by 5 percent of a standard deviation. For non-disadvantaged pupils we find no effect.     

Impact of external examinations (Matura) on school lessons

In the first part, the paper considers the impacts of external examination on learning and school lessons. Numerous researches and analyses have shown that students from specialized high schools retain incomplete, shallow and often completely incorrect ideas about some natural and social phenomena. They do not know how to connect the knowledge that they have gained. The reason for the low applicability of knowledge and lack of retention is mainly due to the domination of shallow and reproductive studying, which is even encouraged by the external Matura. Multiple‐choice questions and tasks of low taxonomic level, which can be objectively measured or graded, predominate in the external examination. The results, in the second part of the paper, indicate that the knowledge gained in high schools is narrowing throughout the years of schooling. This means that, with the approach of the final examination, exact summaries of learned material, definitions and information are demanded from students more often at the end than at the beginning of high school. Students' comprehension, linking their knowledge to other subjects and topics, critical thinking and applying the knowledge to other examples is demanded more often at the beginning of schooling (in the first year) than in the fourth year of high school (just before the Matura). Also, the democratization of the grading process decreases throughout the schooling. Students are debating with the teachers about form, methods and content of grading examinations more frequently in the first year than in the fourth year of their schooling.     

The Relationship Between School Composition, School Process and Mathematics Achievement in Secondary Education in Argentina

Using data from the 1998 High School National Census from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Argentina, the present study examines relationships between school composition, some characteristics of schooling (such as institutional culture and climate), and students’ achievement in Mathematics in the last year of high school. The study applies multilevel linear modeling on the levels of student, school and state. It finds a close relationship between achievement in Mathematics and the variables of school composition and schooling processes. It shows that when both variables act together, the effect of all other variables significantly decreases. The variables of schooling processes, however, even when diminished in influence, nonetheless notably continue to affect students’ achievements. The study also identifes a reference model for future studies evaluating other institutional factors of learning.     

The Relationship Between School Composition,School Process and Mathematics Achievement in Secondary Education in Argentina

Using data from the 1998 High School National Census from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Argentina, the present study examines relationships between school composition, some characteristics of schooling (such as institutional culture and climate), and students’ achievement in Mathematics in the last year of high school. The study applies multilevel linear modeling on the levels of student, school and state. It finds a close relationship between achievement in Mathematics and the variables of school composition and schooling processes. It shows that when both variables act together, the effect of all other variables significantly decreases. The variables of schooling processes, however, even when diminished in influence, nonetheless notably continue to affect students’ achievements. The study also identifes a reference model for future studies evaluating other institutional factors of learning.     

Academic risk factors and deficits of learned hopelessness: a longitudinal study of Hong Kong secondary school students

The aim of the present study is to explore a causal model of academic achievement and learning‐related personal variables by testing the nature of relationships between learned hopelessness, its risk factors and hopelessness deficits as proposed in major theories in this area. The model investigates affective–motivational characteristics of students such as prior academic failures, academic attributional style, self‐efficacy, thoughts about intelligence, school values, learned hopelessness, self‐esteem, learning strategy effectiveness and academic achievement, and the relationships among them. A sample of 741 Hong Kong secondary students completed a series of scales over a school year. As expected, prior achievement was the best predictor of subsequent achievement. The next best predictors were perceived learning difficulties and learned hopelessness. This in turn leads to disengagement from schooling and students taking on most responsibility for their failing. Recommendations for teachers and schools to ameliorate these beliefs may redress the move towards hopelessness.     

A One-Month Experiment in Teaching Context Aids in Fifth Grade

Abstract

Thirty pairs of first- and second-grade children were matched on; (a) race, (b) sex, (e) socio-economic level, (d) type of classroom assignment, (e) age, (f) mental ability, and (g) reading achievement. Each pair consisted of a once-retained first grader and a never-retained second grader. The children were white, low socio-economic slow learners from urban areas. Metropolitan Achievement Test scores for 1062, 1062, and 1064 were used as a measure of the reading and arithmetic achievement gain of the two groups over the two-year period of the study.

The test for matched pairs, using the data on the 20 matched pairs, showed both the reading and arithmetic achievement gain of the promoted group to be significantly greater than that of the non promoted group during the first year of the study. An analysis of variance, using the data on the 24 matched pairs whose achievement scores were available the second year of the study, showed both the reading and arithmetic achievement gain of the promoted group to be significantly greater than that of the non promoted group over the two-year period of the study. It was concluded that nonpromotion was not an aid to achievement.     

AN URBAN MIDDLE SCHOOL CASE STUDY OF MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT

What does it take to change a school’s mathematics achievement profile from low to one that is proficient and advanced? Is this transformed achievement profile sustainable? Such is the story presented here, in this three-phase case study of a K-8 urban charter school’s mathematics program. The first phase discusses the school’s mathematics program as it existed in 2006. The second phase discusses the contents and interventions implemented which transformed the student achievement scores over a period of 3 years (2006–2009) from low achieving to proficient and advanced. The third phase is a follow-up mixed-methods investigation that was conducted to determine whether the achievement was sustainable and how the program changed. The interventions designed and implemented over the initial 3-year period are discussed, as are the findings of the follow-up study. This is discussed with reference to impacting change in student achievement and its relative significance for future work.     

Extending pre‐school experience as preventive intervention: Relationships with later reading achievement

This study investigated the predictive validity of decisions made by a pre‐school teacher concerning the cognitive and social maturity of her pupils to enter formal schooling, based on their performance on the Neale Scales of Early Childhood Development.Thirty‐five children selected from the rolls of a Melbourne pre‐school which had maintained records over a ten‐year period were followed up in primary school and their reading ability assessed. Findings showed that subjects who had undertaken an additional pre‐school year following advice based on their Neale Scales’ performance were reading significantly better than those who had displayed similar developmental anomalies but who bad not been exposed to further pre‐school experience; moreover, the former were reading as well as or better than children selected on the basis of their pre‐school profiles as being ready for school.     

Authoritative parenting, psychosocial maturity, and academic success among adolescents

The over-time relation between 3 aspects of authoritative parenting--acceptance, psychological autonomy, and behavioral control--and school achievement was examined in a sample of 120 10-16-year-olds in order to test the hypothesis that authoritative parenting facilitates, rather than simply accompanies, school success. In addition, the mediating role of youngsters' psychosocial maturity was studied. Results indicate that (1) authoritative parenting facilitates adolescents' academic success, (2) each component of authoritativeness studied makes an independent contribution to achievement, and (3) the positive impact of authoritative parenting on achievement is mediated at least in part through the effects of authoritativeness on the development of a healthy sense of autonomy and, more specifically, a healthy psychological orientation toward work. Adolescents who describe their parents as treating them warmly, democratically, and firmly are more likely than their peers to develop positive attitudes toward, and beliefs about, their achievement, and as a consequence, they are more likely to do better in school.     

Accounting for repetition and dropout in contemporaneous cross-section learning profiles: Evidence from Rwanda

How much do children learn in a year of school? Longitudinal data that tracks children over time is scarce in developing countries, and so recent studies estimate learning profiles by comparing the ability of people with different amounts of schooling, at a single point in time. Such estimates of the effect of schooling on learning may be biased upwards by not controlling for repetition and dropout. In this paper I estimate contemporaneous cross-section learning profiles for Rwanda, using data from a nationally representative survey of 3053 children aged six to eighteen. I show how adjusting this learning profile for the total number of years enrolled in school (accounting for repetition and dropout), using detailed schooling histories, reduces the average amount learnt per year by over 60 percent. The learning profile for Rwanda is not just too flat, but flatter than previous estimates suggest.     

Validation of Objectives

ABSTRACT

The influence that students with special educational needs may exert on the schooling outcomes of their siblings without special educational needs has been given minimal attention in published research. Hence, the authors bring forth a unique contribution by evaluating the within-family effects of being a child without special educational needs in a family with a sibling with special educational needs. To do so, the authors utilized quasi-experimental methods on a sample of siblings in the Philadelphia School District over 6 years of observations. Because individual student data can be linked to home address information as well as classroom, school, grade, and year identifiers, the authors identified children in the same household over time and subsequently employs multilevel fixed effects models to evaluate achievement and nonachievement schooling outcomes. The results indicate that having a sibling with special educational needs is positively related to standardized achievement compared with those children whose siblings do not have special educational needs. This supports a positive spillover hypothesis. On the other hand, nonsignificance permeates the effects on nonachievement schooling results, including attendance, truancy, tardiness, and behavior.     

The contribution of schooling to learning gains of pupils in Years 1 to 6

By means of a regression-discontinuity approach with multiple cut-off points, the effects of age and schooling on learning gains in English primary schools are estimated. The analyses relate to over 3,500 pupils in 20, predominantly independently funded, schools and focus on 4 different learning outcomes. In order to take into account delayed and accelerated school careers, an intention-to-treat analysis was applied. The findings reveal substantial effects of schooling, which in line with previous studies in English primary education account for about 40% of the total learning gains. The year-to-year gains show a declining trend as the school career progresses. The analyses produce evidence for both decreasing effects of schooling on achievement and a weakening age?achievement relationship in the higher years of primary education.     

The effects of preliteracy knowledge,schooling, and summer vacation on literacy acquisition

What causes the literacy gap and can schools compensate for it? The authors investigated 3 drivers of the gap: preliteracy knowledge, schooling, and the summer vacation. Longitudinal literacy data over 5 time points were collected on 126 five-year-olds attending higher or lower socioeconomic status (SES) schools during their first 15 months of school. There were several noteworthy findings: (a) gaps in preliteracy knowledge at school entry favor higher SES schools, (b) preliteracy knowledge predicted later progress over and above SES and gender, (c) during the school year there was a widening of the gap between higher SES schools and lower SES schools in reading and spelling skills, and (d) children attending lower SES schools exhibited losses during summer whereas children attending higher SES schools nearly always gained. Contrary to previous studies, the present results indicated that when there are concentrations of children from higher and lower SES in schools located in the children's respective SES areas, the achievement gap widens.