Learning to compose digitally: the effect of prior computer use and keyboard activity on NAEP writing

Writing is critical for college and career readiness, yet secondary students in America are not good writers (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). Unfortunately, researchers know relatively little about secondary students’ writing skills, and even less about their digital writing. In this study, we explored prior computer use, keyboard activity during writing, and their relations to writing achievement using the 8th grade 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress writing assessment, the first national computer-based writing assessment for U.S. secondary students. We found that prior computer use predicted students’ writing skills directly (0.08) and indirectly (e.g., keypresses, 0.14) via keyboard activity during the test. We found differential effects for certain groups including current English learners and disadvantaged students. We also found a small positive interaction effect of prior use and keypresses on writing. That is, the benefits of prior computer use for school writing and the value of students’ additional keypresses on writing achievement were amplified when both were present.

     

Multiple Predictors of Asian American Children's School Achievement

Research Findings: A structural equation model (SEM) and multiple indicators and multiple causes (MIMIC) model were used to test family factors, parent psychological well-being, parent–child home activity, and parent school involvement in relation to children's school achievement. Data for this study were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten (ECLS-K), conducted by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The sample for this study was 1,100 Asian American kindergartners and their parents. Practice or Policy: The results of this study are as follows: (a) Family factors, especially parental education levels and family income, were significantly associated with Asian American students' school achievement; (b) parent–child home activity was significantly related to students' school achievement but in a negative direction; (c) parental school involvement was not found to be significant in predicting students' school achievement; (d) parental psychological well-being was significantly associated with both parent–child home activity and students' school achievement; (e) family income was significantly associated with parental psychological well-being, parental school involvement, and children's school achievement; and (f) family structure was not significantly associated with school achievement.     

Forecasting performance of grey prediction for education expenditure and school enrollment

GM(1,1) and GM(1,1) rolling models derived from grey system theory were estimated using time-series data from projection studies by National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). An out-of-sample forecasting competition between the two grey prediction models and exponential smoothing used by NCES was conducted for education expenditure and school enrollment under the assumption that grey prediction was as promising as NCES's forecasting technique in dealing with univariate time-series data while some other determinants of the variables under examination were excluded. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to verify that the GM(1,1), and GM(1,1) rolling models would provide forecasts that were at least as accurate as the NCES's approach to extrapolating education expenditure and school enrollment. The findings revealed that the forecasting efficiency of GM(1,1) rolling model was superior to exponential smoothing and GM(1,1) model. The results can offer valuable insights and provide a basis for further research in model building for short-term estimation on educational statistics.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Data from NCES indicate that it is two to three times more expensive to educate a student at a public four-year college than at a community college. These figures exaggerate the difference between the two when you calculate the costs of the first two years of education for students working on a bachelor's degree. Using modified Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data from the recently released Delta Project, this study shows that the cost per full-time equivalent (FTE) and the public subsidy per FTE are lower at public master's level colleges than at the community college. Trend data from 1987–2005 are examined along with appropriate cautions for interpreting the results.     

Traditions of practice in U.S. preservice teacher education programs

This paper extends work reported previously Liston and Zeichner's (1991) Teacher Education and the Social Conditions of Schooling by discussing how a conceptual framework describing four traditions of practice in U.S. teacher education can be used to understand the approaches to teacher education in individual teacher education programs. It is argued that all preservice teacher education programs in the U.S. represent particular patterns of resonance with all four of the traditions of practice and that no teacher education program can be understood in relation to only one tradition. The conceptions of teaching expertise embedded in the elementary teacher education program at the University of Wisconsin - Madison are discussed to illustrate how the traditions of practice can illuminate the commitments of teacher educators within particular institutions.     

Promoting a Culture of Bullying: Understanding the Role of School Climate and School Sector

Bullying has received increased attention from academics, scholars, and the media over the past decade and a half. The effects of bullying can be devastating and long lasting for victims and bullies alike. Recent prevention efforts and research has focused on the school environment as a whole. As such, two areas of interest that could affect bullying are the roles of school climate and school sector. School sector is important to examine as private schools make up 25% of all schools in the United States and approximately 80% of private school students attended faith-based institutions (Broughman &; Swaim, 2013 Broughman, S. P., &; Swaim, N. L. (2013). Characteristics of private schools in the United States: Results from the 2011-12 private school universe survey (NCES 2013-316). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics. [Google Scholar]). This study utilized the School Crime Supplement to understand how school climate and school sector affect students’ experiences of bullying victimization. Using chi square analysis, propensity score analysis, and multiple regression models (of the total sample, public school sample, and private school sample), as well as Z-score coefficients, findings suggest that a positive school climate predicted less reporting of bullying incidents and that private school students in particular reported a more positive school climate and less bullying.     

Capturing the Complexity of Alternative Schools: Narratives of Latino Males in an Overlooked Educational Space

 This study discusses the needs and challenges associated with Latino males’ treatment in public schools. The primary concern is how nationally, only one in two Latino males graduate from U.S. high schools (Schott Foundation for Public Education in Black Lives Matter: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males, http://blackboysreport.org/, 2015). However, a growing body of research has emerged, heightening Latino males’ social and academic needs in traditional K-12 educational settings. In this paper, we highlight the need to focus on alternative school settings through the narratives of four Latino males enrolled in two alternative public schools. Our findings describe the nuances in alternative schooling experience for Latino males. It explores the school context's differences to (re)engage youth back into school and the various factors that shape their future aspirations. We discuss implications for research and practice to improve alternative schools' conditions to better serve Latino males in this overlooked sector in the educational pipeline.

     

CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES' DIVERSITY COMPETENCE: RIGOROUS AND SYSTEMATIC ASSESSMENT OF CANDIDATES' EFFICACY TO TEACH DIVERSE STUDENT POPULATIONS

The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES, 2010) continues to report substantial underachievement of diverse student populations in the nation's schools. After decades of focus on diversity and multicultural education, with integrating field and clinical practice, candidates continue to graduate without adequate knowledge, skills and dispositions to teach diverse students. The National Council of Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) requires teacher education programs to engage in assessment practices that examine candidates' competence to teach diverse students and to inform the unit. In this article the authors discuss the need to triangulate the results of performance-based assessment and to systematically examine the growth of candidates' competence to teach every student. They propose a rigorous and systematic unit (i.e., teacher education program unit) assessment practice, using reliable and valid instruments to measure candidates' efficacy to teach diverse students, which will provide effective data for teacher education programs to become proactive to improve programs.     

Professional Development: A Tool for Improving Teaching and Learning

The Teacher Education and Professional Development Goal of the National Education Goals (20 U.S.C. § 4) states: By the year 2000, the Nation's teaching force will have access to programs for the continued improvement of their professional skills and the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to instruct and prepare all American students for the next century.     

“The Equitable Powers of the Judge”: The Conflict Between No Child Left Behind and Court-Ordered Desegregation in Richmond County,Georgia

This article consists of a case study and policy analysis of a conflict between two federal mandates that arose during the initial implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 in a southern school system, Richmond County, Georgia. The first part of the article documents the conflict, drawing on primary source documents and interviews with the school superintendent and school board attorney. A U.S. District court judge ruled that the 1972 court order that had mandated county-wide school desegregation was in conflict with No Child Left Behind's public school transfer policy and granted the county a one-year delay so that the school system could study the policy's likely effects. The U.S. Department of Education's response to the judge's ruling instigated a situation that led to a federal-local political disagreement, whose origins and resolution are described. In the article's second section, the author places these events into broader historical perspective, arguing that they reveal how federal policy in elementary and secondary education has shifted during the intervening decades since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act's enactment in 1965. The case highlights the changing federal-district relationship, the equitable implementation of the No Child Left Behind public school choice provision, and the nature of federal authority in education policy, and how it is currently being exercised by the Bush administration.     

In Remembrance of Dr. Ann Nevin: From Early Teacher Consultation Practices to Full Inclusion

This article reviews aspects of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that support collaborative decision making in planning for individual student needs. The U.S. Office of Special Education Programs(OSEP) has funded several areas to provide a framework for collaboration. Findings from the Beacons Projects and other OSEP-supported projects are discussed within the context of IDEA's focus on collaboration.     

Books in brief

Raising Our Sights: Improving U.S. Achievement in Mathematics and Science John O'Neil for the ASCD Panel on U.S. Achievement in Mathematics and Science Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) 1991 40 pp. $6.50

Ready to Learn: Early Childhood Education and the Public Schools National School Boards Association (NSBA) 1990 48 pp.

Developing and Supporting Teachers for Science Education in the Middle Years The National Center for improving Science Education 1990 86 pp.     

The rights to educational self-determination under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

ABSTRACT

The United States Senate's unwillingness to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) notwithstanding, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) contains significant safeguards protecting the rights of students with disabilities, acknowledging their participation rights in decisions about their futures. In the first of just two examples, as students ‘age out’ of special education, they participate in developing individualised transition plans guiding their movements to post-school activities. Second, the IDEA transfers parental access rights to students, granting them sole control over their educational records on turning 18 unless they are adjudicated incompetent under state law.

Against this background, this paper opens by considering the U.S. Senate's reluctance to ratify the CRC. The paper next reviews the history of rights in the U.S. before examining how the IDEA affords students with disabilities considerable opportunities to participate in planning their futures both through transition planning and taking control over their educational records. The article ends by reflecting on how the IDEA comports with the CRC in protecting the rights of students with disabilities to self-determination.     

Building support for language and early literacy in preschool classrooms through in-service professional development: Effects of the Literacy Environment Enrichment Program (LEEP)

There is a substantial and persistent gap in achievement between children from different backgrounds [National Center for Education Statistics. (2002). Children's reading and mathematics achievement in kindergarten and first grade. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office] that can be traced to the preschool years [Snow, C. E., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Research Council, National Academy Press], highlighting the importance of ensuring that preschools that serve low-income populations provide strong support for children's language and early literacy development. The current project sought to improve program quality in Head Start classrooms throughout New England with the Literacy Environment Enrichment Program (LEEP), an in-service intervention that was delivered in the form of a credit-bearing course. The impact of LEEP was studied using a wait-list comparison group strategy to determine whether intervention group teachers (n = 30) showed more fall–spring growth in measures of classroom support for literacy than did comparison group teachers (n = 40). Multiple hierarchical regression analyses that controlled for background measures and fall scores on classroom measures revealed moderate to large positive effects on all measures of classrooms support for language and early literacy with the exception of writing, for which only a small effect was found.     

美国国家教育统计中心与高等教育数据运行机制的探索

美国国家教育统计中心在描述和评价美国教育状况,辅助联邦各级政府及社会各界进行决策的过程发挥了不可替代的作用。文章对美国国家教育统计中心的产生和发展的历史背景、组织架构、运行模式以及其在高等教育领域中的应用进行简要介绍,在详细分析其运行机制的基础上,提出对我国高等教育信息数据库建设和管理的建议。     

国际中小学教师队伍指标建设的新趋势

本文分析了中小学教师队伍指标建设的国际背景,进而对国际组织OECD、UN-ESCO和美国教育部所建构的教师指标及其发展变化进行了对比,提出了建构我国中小学教师队伍指标的几点建议。     

Consonance and dissonance in a study abroad program as a catalyst for professional development of pre-service teachers

This research examines the experiences of elementary and early childhood pre-service teachers from the U.S. engaged in a month long study abroad internship program in England. Using data from participants written journals, we use a hermeneutic approach to interrogate their evolving sense of professional development and their understanding of cultural differences in the internship in England. Informed by a theoretical framework of consonance and dissonance (Cochran-Smith, M. (1991). Reinventing student teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 42(2), 104–118), the emerging themes were related to the school context, the teacher's role, the learners, the buildings, and the community. Implications are for planning and facilitation of pre-service teachers study abroad experiences are discussed.     

EDUCATIONAL GOALS OF AUTOMOTIVE MECHANICS STUDENTS ATTENDING POSTSECONDARY VOCATIONAL INSTITUTES IN GEORGIA

The importance of vocational education has long been recognized in meeting society's need for trained workers. Since the early 1960s there has been a gradual shift in emphasis of federal vocational education priorities from specific programs (e.g., agriculture) to special populations, such as minorities, women, disadvantaged or handicapped individuals, and individuals with limited English‐speaking proficiency (Ohanneson, 1982). The Vocational Education Act Amendments of 1976 reinforced this emphasis by requiring that follow‐up information be collected, not just by the vocational discipline but by special population groups as well (U.S. 94th Congress, 1976). Subsequent vocational education legislation places emphasis on providing vocational education to all individuals who can benefit from such training (U.S. 98th Congress, 1984; U.S. 101st Congress, 1990).     

A comparison of conventional linear regression methods and neural networks for forecasting educational spending

This study presents an application of neural network methods for forecasting per pupil expenditures in public elementary and secondary schools in the United States. Using annual historical data from 1959 through 1990, forecasts were prepared for the period from 1991 through 1995. Forecasting models included the multivariate regression model developed by the National Center for Education Statistics for their annual Projections of Education Statistics Series, and three neural architectures: (1) recurrent backpropagation; (2) Generalized Regression; and (3) Group Method of Data Handling. Forecasts were compared for accuracy against actual values for educational spending for the period. Regarding prediction accuracy, neural network results ranged from comparable to superior with respect to the NCES model. Contrary to expectations, the most successful neural network procedure yielded its results with an even simpler linear form than the NCES model. The findings suggest the potential value of neural algorithms for strengthening econometric models as well as producing accurate forecasts. [JEL C45, C53, I21]