Exploring the impacts of school reforms on underrepresented urban students’ college persistence

This longitudinal quantitative study investigates how participation in the Comprehensive College Readiness Access and Success Program (CCRASP) affects underrepresented urban students’ college persistence. Results revealed that CCRASP participation was associated with higher percentages of students enrolling in both 2- and 4-year colleges as sophomore students. As school leaders and policy makers seek to make all urban students college and career ready, these findings further solidify current urgencies to re-visit K–12 student academic and counselling services. It also provides school leaders and educators with practical information and reform ideas to improve underprivileged students’ persistence and success.     

A Comparison of Two Methods of Learning

ABSTRACT

This is an impact evaluation of the Technical Support to Failing Schools Program, a Chilean compensatory program that provided 4-year in-school technical assistance to low-performing schools to improve students’ academic achievement. The author implemented a quasi-experimental design by using difference-in-differences estimation combined with propensity scores matching procedures to estimate treatment effects. The main findings were the following: (a) the program had positive effects on fourth-grade students’ achievement in both language and mathematics; (b) program effect size was 0.23 standard deviations, and not sensitive to control for covariates; (c) there were larger effects for students in the middle part of the students’ test-score distribution; (d) after the intervention had ceased, the program impact declined rapidly; and (e) the program reduced grade retention by 1.5 percentage points.     

Mask-making as identity project in a high school English class: a case study

This study reports on the composing process of one student, Peta (a pseudonym), as he reflects on a significant composition he produced during a unit on identity in a 12th‐grade English class in a U. S. high school. The unit was the first thematic exploration of the year for the students and was designed to help them think about themselves as readers, writers, and individuals. The teacher's goal was to have students' engagements with literary and artistic texts serve as vehicles for developing better understandings of themselves. The study demonstrates how students' engagement with more ‘traditional’ artefacts is essentially an example of multimodality and evidences why teachers and researchers should see such work as part of the long tradition of creativity within English. It also demonstrates how such an apparently ‘traditional’ artistic approach in fact covers the same territory as that of the digital revolution, that is that multimodal ‘tools’ engage all the cultural resources of students from their domestic, community and school settings, in contrast with much typical school activity that is perceived as pointless and tedious.     

Organized Non-Activity: A Proposed Solution to Some Common Classroom Problems

The authors recommend practical techniques and resources for teaching at-risk secondary students, who are often nontraditional learners. The article describes tactual and kinesthetic instructional resources that research has shown are effective for typically performing and at-risk students who do not learn conventionally.     

Learning in an Honors Program

Abstract. This article describes a program of demanding courses offered in an academic community to nontraditional and at-risk, first- and second-year students at a research university. The delivery of instruction uses multiple pedagogies, including collaborative learning and labs where students work together under the guidance of undergraduate assistants. A research study showed that students in the program perform better than traditional students in equivalent courses. In addition, this study provides strong evidence that when students of the program take the same subsequent classes offered to the general university population, their success rates match or exceed those of their traditional classmates.     

Reaching Graduate Students at Risk for Suicidal Behavior Through the Interactive Screening Program

Suicidal behavior is a significant concern among graduate students. Because many suicidal graduate students do not access mental health services, programs to connect them to resources are essential. This article describes the Interactive Screening Program (ISP), an anonymous, Web-based tool for screening and engaging at-risk graduate school students. We include qualitative responses from participating graduate students providing information on their symptoms or circumstances, desire for treatment, and gratitude for services. Concluding remarks highlight ISP's benefits for graduate students and ways to implement this protocol for other graduate student populations.     

Examination of the gender–student engagement relationship at one university

Research examining the relationship between gender and student engagement at the post secondary level has provided mixed results. The current study explores two possible reasons for lack of clarity regarding this relationship: improper parameter estimation resulting from a lack of multi‐level analyses and inconsistent conceptions/measures of ‘student engagement’. Data from the 2006 administration of the National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE) at a southeastern university were analysed. Results indicated that the relationship between gender and engagement is related to engagement type as well as an institution level factor (gender composition). Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

多元智能理论对培养大学生自信心的启示

高校目前的学生评价机制和教学体制一定程度上打击了大学生的成功感和自信心,阻碍了其成长成才。多元智能理论认为智能是多元的,是可以挖掘的,高校应该构建多元化评价体系,充分发挥学生主动性,让学生体验成功以激发其自信心。