Predictive validity evidence for an assessment program based on the Work Sampling System in mathematics and language and literacy

This study examined the predictive nature of teacher ratings of student performance on the mathematical thinking and language and literacy domains of a state mandated curriculum-embedded performance assessment for children in first grade to student achievement on a criterion-referenced test in third grade in mathematics and English language arts, using a multilevel modeling approach. The sample included 1,281 elementary school children nested within 132 classrooms in an urban school district in South Carolina. Results showed positive associations between first grade teacher ratings and students’ third grade achievement. However, first grade teacher ratings were not found to uniquely contribute to the proportion of explained variance in third grade performance on a high-stakes statewide assessment, over and above student demographic variables.     

The prevalence,development and domain specificity of elementary school students’ achievement goal profiles

This study’s aim was to examine the prevalence, development and domain specificity of fifth- and sixth-grade elementary school students’ achievement goal profiles. Achievement goals were measured for language and mathematics among 722 pupils at three points in time. These data were analysed through latent profile analysis and latent transition analysis. Results indicated that three similar goal profiles could be discerned at all measurement waves for both language and mathematics. Profiles were labelled ‘multiple goals’, ‘approach oriented’ and ‘moderate/indifferent’. In both mathematics and language, around 80% of the participants remained stable in their goal profiles across measurements. Students who transitioned between goal profiles mostly moved from less to more favourable profiles. Profile membership and transitions between profiles were found to be relatively domain general with 60% overlap between domains. The high level of stability over time and across domains suggests that students’ goal profiles represent relatively stable personal dispositions.     

Comparison of motivational latent profiles using the PALS and AGQ-R

Given inconsistencies in the extant literature, achievement goal theory and research remain at an important crossroads, with ongoing questions about the conceptualization of achievement goals, measurement of achievement goals, and inferences made regarding achievement goal related findings. Using latent profile analysis, we explored how achievement goals vary across measures (PALS; Midgley et al., 2000 and AGQ-R; Elliot & Murayama, 2008) and domain (math vs. language arts) across a sample of primarily African American middle and high school students in the South. Main findings showed that the PALS and AGQ-R distinguish different profile goal-patterns, and that this is true across both the math and language arts domains. Not surprisingly, generally, students adopting more adaptive goal profiles (e.g., mastery or multiple) reported higher endorsement of cognitive engagement and social and academic future selves. Current findings support previous research observing disparate AGQ-R and PALS outcomes, adding evidence with domain-specific latent profiles. Given differences in profile patterns, findings suggest the instruments may be differentially tapping into goal perceptions.     

Prevalence,stability, and functionality of achievement goal profiles in mathematics from third to seventh grade

This study examined the longitudinal trajectories of achievement goal profiles in mathematics from third to seventh grade in a sample of 302 German students. Latent profile analyses were conducted separately for each school year and revealed three subgroups of students with distinct goal profiles labeled high multiple goals, moderate multiple goals, and primarily mastery-oriented. Only about one third of the students held the same goal profile across all school years. The amount of students pursuing moderate multiple goals increased over time, which supplements previous findings and theorizing about an ongoing differentiation of achievement goals during early adolescence. There were remarkably few differences in educational outcomes (interest, effort, achievement) between students from distinct goal profile groups. However, high multiple goal students showed the lowest test scores in sixth and seventh grade. Moreover, if students showed low performance during one school year, they were more likely to adopt a high multiple goals profile in the following year. Results are discussed in relation to individual cognitive developments, changes in school environments, and special characteristics of educational systems.     

Powerful Learning Environments: The Critical Link Between School and Classroom Cultures

Schools serving large populations of students placed at risk have been the focus of reform for over a decade, with the assumption that school reform leads to classroom reform, resulting in improved student achievement. Student achievement data at the school level are typically used to judge the effectiveness of the reform. This practice assumes uniformity of implementation within the school. This study of classrooms within 4 Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) schools operationalizes the ASP principles, values, and concepts of powerful learning at the classroom level. Together, they form what is called a powerful learning environment (PLE). In addition, the study examines the extent to which PLE is implemented similarly in different classrooms and different schools, and analyzes the relation between degree of implementation and differences in student achievement. Data collection involved structured observations in 40 classrooms during English and language arts or mathematics instruction. Analysis of data indicates that more variation in implementation of PLE occurred within schools than between schools. The study also finds a correlation between degree of implementation and higher student achievement.     

Changes in children's self-competence and values: gender and domain differences across grades one through twelve

This study extended previous research on changes in children's self-beliefs by documenting domain-specific growth trajectories for 761 children across grades 1 through 12 in a longitudinal study of perceptions of self-competence and task values. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to (1) describe changes in beliefs across childhood and adolescence within the domains of mathematics, language arts, and sports; (2) examine the impact of changes in competence beliefs on changes in values over time in the same domains; and (3) describe gender differences in mean levels and trajectories of change in competence beliefs and values. The most striking finding across all domains was that self-perceptions of competence and subjective task values declined as children got older, although the extent and rate of decline varied across domains. For example, in language arts, competence beliefs declined rapidly during the elementary school years, but then leveled off or increased to some extent; whereas the decline in self-competence beliefs in sports accelerated during the high school years. Significant gender differences in beliefs were found in most domains; however, the gender differences in developmental trajectories appeared to be domain specific rather than global. Importantly, the gender differences between boys and girls did not systematically increase with age, as predicted by some socialization perspectives. Adding competence beliefs as an explanatory variable to the model for task values revealed that changes in competence beliefs accounted for much of the age-related decline in task values. In addition, competence beliefs accounted for most of the gender differences in task values for language arts and sports.     

Kompetent und beliebt?

Peer popularity is a relevant aspect of well-being and academic success. Amongst other impact factors self-concept and academic achievement are predictive for peer popularity. The present study focuses on the correlation of students’ grades, competencies and self-concepts in mathematics and reading to perceived peer popularity. Against the background of gender stereotypes with respect to the domains mathematics and reading, we hypothesized differential relationships with boys’ and girls’ perceived popularity. In a sample from the National Educational Panel Study of grade five students (N = 4427) from lower (Hauptschule), middle (Realschule) and highest (Gymnasium) track schools, we conducted a multiple group comparison. The results showed similar relationships for both girls and boys in all three school forms. There was a correlation of students’ grades in mathematics and of their verbal self-evaluation with their perceived peer popularity. However, grades in language arts (i.?e. German), domain-specific competencies and mathematical self-concept were not related to perceived popularity. Results suggest that high verbal self-concept is positively associated with high self-assurance in social situations and in communication situations and that mathematics is regarded as more difficult and cognitively challenging compared to language arts.     

A Constructive Program in Silent Reading

ABSTRACT

The authors examined whether self-concept, self-efficacy, and self-esteem show differential predictive utility for academic achievement across age groups and domains. More specifically, the relationships of 3 self-constructs with achievement were examined in mathematics for elementary school students and mathematics and language arts for middle school students in Korea. Task value and test anxiety were hypothesized to mediate these relationships. Consistent with previous reports, domain-specific self-constructs such as self-efficacy and self-concept were better predictors of task value and achievement than was general self-esteem. Task value and test anxiety significantly mediated only the relationships of self-efficacy assessed by the Bandura-type scale to achievement. These domain-specific relationships tended to be stronger for middle school than elementary school students and in mathematics than language arts.     

Chinese Primary School Mathematics Teachers’ Assessment Profiles: Findings from a Large-Scale Questionnaire Survey

This study investigated Chinese primary school mathematics teachers’ views on assessment in an effort to determine their assessment profiles. A large-scale questionnaire survey with 1101 teachers from 12 Chinese provinces and regions was carried out. The teachers reported to use assessment on a daily or weekly basis for different purposes. They recognized the importance of assessing different types of skills and knowledge and considered assessment useful for improving teaching and learning. To determine teachers’ assessment profiles, we used several latent variable modeling techniques. With exploratory factor analyses, we identified eight factors in the teachers’ responses: general instructional decision-making assessment purposes [1], specific instructional decision-making assessment purposes [2], assessment methods [3], diversity of assessment problem format [4], importance of assessing skills and knowledge [5], importance of assessing extra-curricular skills [6], Perceived usefulness [7], and acceptance of assessment [8]. When these factors were used to interpret the results of a latent class analysis, three distinct assessment profiles could be distinguished. One fifth of the teachers were in the Enthusiastic assessors profile. These teachers not only reported to use assessment frequently [3, 4] and purposefully [1, 2], but also highly endorsed its importance [5, 6] and usefulness [7, 8]. Around half of the teachers were in the Mainstream assessors profile; these teachers scored close to the mean on all factors. The remaining teachers held the relatively negative views on assessment and were therefore in the Unenthusiastic assessors profile. This profile characterization sheds light on Chinese primary school mathematics teachers’ assessment culture.     

Student background factors influencing student achievement in Serbia

This paper describes student‐level findings of the first large‐scale comprehensive school effectiveness study of the primary education in Serbia. Twenty‐five student‐level variables were examined in a three‐level HLM model using a study sample of almost 5000 students, over 250 classrooms and over 100 schools. Differences between the students were in large part responsible for differences in achievement scores in mathematics and Serbian language. Parental education, Roma minority status, developmental or family problems, gender, student motivation, parental involvement in student work and homework were some of the factors associated with student achievement. Serbian policy‐makers are alerted to possible actions in order to improve mathematics and Serbian language achievement.     

Vorzug Ganztagsschule? Zusammenhänge mit der Kompetenzentwicklung im Bereich Lesen und Mathematik

Politicians and scientists are pinning their hopes on the expansion of the provision of all-day school, assuming that these programs provide particularly favorable conditions for supporting students’ cognitive skills. Against this background, this paper examines whether and under what conditions participation in all-day schooling is connected with the development of competencies in the domains of reading and mathematics. Using data from Starting Cohort 3 of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), our research considers different forms of all-day schools, the usage of extracurricular learning activities, as well as student ratings of the attractiveness of extracurricular activities. Furthermore, selective access to different school types and usage of extracurricular activities is carefully controlled for. The results show a positive association between student-rated attractiveness of extracurricular activities and competence development. Neither the organization of schooling nor participation in learning activities show significant independent main effects on competence development from grade five to seven.     

Student,home, and school socio-demographic factors: links to school,home, and community arts participation

This study explored the role of student (e.g., age, language background, gender), home (e.g., parent/caregiver education), and school (e.g., school type, size) socio-demographic factors in students’ school (e.g., in-school arts tuition, arts engagement), home (e.g., parent/caregiver–child arts interaction), and community (e.g., arts attendance, arts tuition) arts participation. The sample comprised 1172 elementary and secondary school students from 15 schools. Findings revealed that student and home socio-demographic factors were the most salient in predicting arts participation across school, home, and community contexts. Age, gender, and prior achievement were the key student socio-demographic factors, while parent/caregiver education and occupation were also associated with students’ arts participation. Implications for practice and intervention pertinent to young people’s arts participation are discussed.     

Teaching writing to middle school students: a national survey

A random sample of language arts, social studies, and science middle school teachers from the United States were surveyed about their preparation to teach writing, beliefs about responsibilities for teaching writing, use of evidence-based writing practices, assessment of writing, use of technology, and adaptations for struggling writers. The findings from this survey raised concerns about the quality of middle school writing instruction. Many teachers believed their preservice and inservice preparation to teach writing was inadequate. Middle school students spend little time writing or being taught how to write. While most teachers used a variety of evidenced-based writing practices and made adaptations for struggling writers, such methods were applied infrequently. Most teachers did not appear to use assessment data to shape how they taught writing, and computers played a relatively minor role in middle school writing instruction. Even though teachers generally agreed that writing was a collective responsibility, language arts teachers placed a greater emphasis on writing instruction than social studies and science teachers.     

Evidence for a positive relation between interest and achievement: Examining between-person and within-person variation in five domains

We examined the incremental effect of academic interest on achievement beyond general cognitive ability and students’ background characteristics in five domains (math, German, biology, chemistry, and physics). We analyzed a nationally representative German dataset of 39,192 ninth-grade students and found a unique effect of interest over and above the other predictors across the five domains, both for class grades and standardized test scores. The effect was present between persons (in a given domain, students with higher interest showed higher achievement) and within persons (the same student showed a higher achievement in domains she/he was more interested in). The effects were stronger for grades than test scores and stronger in math than in other domains. The results emphasize the positive relation between interest and academic achievement in different domains. Furthermore, they expand the literature by emphasizing the role of the achievement measure and the domain as moderators of the interest–achievement relation and by showing that interest can predict both inter- and intraindividual variation in achievement.     

Globalised student achievement? A longitudinal and cross-country analysis of convergence in mathematics performance

ABSTRACT

With the aid of longitudinal country-level data from five IEA TIMSS assessments (1995–2011), the current study addresses the issue of the globalisation of curricula and achievement. To explore the hypothesis of global convergence, we study performance in four subdomains of mathematics. Using regression with fixed effects for countries, we consider whether the variation of subdomain scores decreases globally over time. Additionally, we explore qualitative differences in performance profiles using latent class analysis. Our results provide little evidence for a global harmonisation of student achievement. Rather, for regions with a similar language and culture, we observe similar strengths and weaknesses in mathematics content areas. Furthermore, these patterns remain stable over time. Directions for future research include the exploration of global trends in aspects of attained curricula for other subjects, and the use of information on school achievement.     

The Domain-Specificity of Elementary School Teachers’ Judgment Accuracy

Teachers’ diagnostic competence for accurately judging students’ achievement is essential for instructional practice and professional decisions. To promote their judgment accuracy, it is important to know if this is a general or domain-specific skill. We investigated teachers’ judgment accuracy in German language (one subdomain: reading) and mathematics (two subdomains: geometry; stochastics) and examined differences across domains (i.e., German and mathematics) and across subdomains (reading; geometry; stochastics). We examined the judgment accuracy of 59 German elementary school teachers who teach both German and mathematics, judging the achievement of 1227 students in the three subdomains. We conducted multilevel analyses with a subsample of 39 teachers and 787 students and calculated different accuracy components (i.e., rank, level, and differentiation) to examine the comparability of our results. In line with prior research, findings revealed that teachers’ judgments were fairly accurate. However, there were significant differences between teachers’ average judgment accuracy in different subdomains (between-person comparisons) and no or only a weak relation between individual teachers’ judgment accuracy in different subdomains (within-person comparisons). Findings support the notion that teachers’ judgment accuracy of student achievement is domain-specific with respect to the investigated subdomains. Practical implications for the promotion of teacher judgment accuracy are discussed.     

Student gender stereotypes: contrasting the perceived maleness and femaleness of mathematics and language

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the gender stereotypes endorsed by elementary and high school students regarding mathematics and language. We developed a questionnaire allowing students to rate mathematics and language as either male or female domains and administered it to a sample of 984 elementary and high school French‐speaking Canadian students (Grades 6, 8, and 10). Results showed that, with the exception of Grade 6 boys, students did not believe that mathematics was a male domain, or even conceived of mathematics as a predominantly female domain, suggesting that the traditional stereotype favouring boys in mathematics might have changed over the past few years. Moreover, language was clearly viewed as a female domain. Overall, our findings suggest that boys seem to be in need of encouragement in school, especially regarding language, where the advantage given to girls is particularly salient.     

Co-ordination Within Schools,Commitment of Teachers and Students and Student Achievement

This research study investigates co-ordination strategies within schools, their relationships to both teacher and student commitment to school, and the relationship between student commitment and student achievement in Switzerland. Two different kinds of co-ordination strategies, structural and cultural, can be distinguished. Structural co-ordination strategies have to do with formal, lasting arrangements that allow an organisation to operate. These include roles, rules, procedures, and authority relations. Cultural co-ordination strategies are related to the nature of communications and the consensus on organisational goals in the school. Cultural mechanisms shape what teachers want to do. Drawn from TIMSS, the sample for the present analyses included principals, teachers and students in 178 classes at the lower secondary level in three Swiss cantons: Bale-Country, Berne and Zurich. Multiple regression analyses carried out with different indicators of teacher and student commitment to school showed that school coordination strategies can make a difference, although the effects were rather small. A further analysis that included student commitment indicators as predictors of mathematics achievement suggests that the affective/social and the cognitive domains are relatively independent at class level.     

Ecological, psychological, and cognitive components of reading difficulties: testing the component model of reading in fourth graders across 38 countries

The authors tested the component model of reading (CMR) among 186,725 fourth grade students from 38 countries (45 regions) on five continents by analyzing the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study data using measures of ecological (country, family, school, teacher), psychological, and cognitive components. More than 91% of the differences in student difficulty occurred at the country (61%) and classroom (30%) levels (ecological), with less than 9% at the student level (cognitive and psychological). All three components were negatively associated with reading difficulties: cognitive (student's early literacy skills), ecological (family characteristics [socioeconomic status, number of books at home, and attitudes about reading], school characteristics [school climate and resources]), and psychological (students' attitudes about reading, reading self-concept, and being a girl). These results extend the CMR by demonstrating the importance of multiple levels of factors for reading deficits across diverse cultures.