Scaling and Sustaining Effective Early Childhood Programs Through School–Family–University Collaboration

We describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of a comprehensive preschool to third grade prevention program for the goals of sustaining services at a large scale. The Midwest Child–Parent Center (CPC) Expansion is a multilevel collaborative school reform model designed to improve school achievement and parental involvement from ages 3 to 9. By increasing the dosage, coordination, and comprehensiveness of services, the program is expected to enhance the transition to school and promote more enduring effects on well‐being in multiple domains. We review and evaluate evidence from two longitudinal studies (Midwest CPC, 2012 to present; Chicago Longitudinal Study, 1983 to present) and four implementation examples of how the guiding principles of shared ownership, committed resources, and progress monitoring for improvement can promote effectiveness. The implementation system of partners and further expansion using “Pay for Success” financing shows the feasibility of scaling the program while continuing to improve effectiveness.     

Literacy Assessment and Student Diversity: An Australian case study

This article describes the reported practices in literacy assessment, recording, and reporting in 12 Australian schools characterised by populations of diverse learners. The findings indicate the problems and challenges teachers face in providing socially just and inclusive literacy assessment in heterogeneous classrooms. We make a number of suggestions related to enhancing assessment, recording, and reporting at the classroom level and argue for systemic support for teachers.     

The Effects of Enrolling in Oversubscribed Prekindergarten Programs Through Third Grade

This study leverages naturally occurring lotteries for oversubscribed Boston Public Schools prekindergarten program sites between 2007 and 2011, for 3,182 children (M = 4.5 years old) to estimate the impacts of winning a first choice lottery and enrolling in Boston prekindergarten versus losing a first choice lottery and not enrolling on children’s enrollment and persistence in district schools, grade retention, special education placement, and third-grade test scores. There are large effects on enrollment and persistence, but no effects on other examined outcomes for this subsample. Importantly, children who competed for oversubscribed seats were not representative of all appliers and almost all control-group children attended center-based preschool. Findings contribute to the larger evidence base and raise important considerations for future prekindergarten lottery-based studies.     

Science notebooks as interactional spaces in a multilingual classroom: Not just ideas on paper

Past studies have explored the role of student science notebooks in supporting students' developing science understandings. Yet scant research has investigated science notebook use with students who are learning science in a language they are working to master. To explore how student science notebook use is co-constructed in interaction among students and teachers, this study examined plurilingual students' interactions with open-ended science notebooks during an inquiry science unit on condensation and evaporation. Grounded in theoretical views of the notebook as a semiotic social space, multimodal interaction analysis facilitated examination of the ways students drew upon the space afforded by the notebook as they constructed explanations of their understandings. Cross-group comparison of three focal groups led to multiple assertions regarding the use of science notebooks with plurilingual students. First, the notebook supported student-determined paths of resemiotization as students employed multiple communicative resources to express science understandings. Second, notebooks provided spaces for students to draw upon diverse language resources and as a bridge in time across multiple inquiry sessions. Third, representations in notebooks were leveraged by both students and teachers to access and deepen conceptual conversations. Lastly, students' interactions over time revealed multiple epistemological orientations in students' use of the notebook space. These findings point to the benefits of open-ended science notebooks use with plurilingual students, and a consideration of the ways they are used in interaction in science instruction.     

寻觅德国的牛津

达勒姆(Dahlem)不仅仅是一个传奇.在德国,几乎没有其他地方像柏林的这片土地那样,在科学史各个丰富的方面--包括令人质疑的方面--表现出如此强烈的活力.在马普学会历史档案馆馆长亨宁(Eckart Henning)的陪同下巡游他的“领地“,就如同在历史的时光中漫步,著名学者的创新精神始终伴随着我们的游程.……     

Diversity at Work: Do Men and Women Differ in their Organizational Citizenship Behavior?

ABSTRACT : In this paper, we use social role theory to develop hypotheses predicting differences in the organizational citizenship behavior of males and females at work. Results, based on questionnaire responses of 257 restaurant workers and their supervisors, demonstrate that females in our service-worker sample engaged in more altruism, loyalty, and obedience than males, but that males and females did not differ in their advocacy participation. Results also demonstrate that organizational tenure moderated the relationship between sex and two forms of citizenship behavior: altruism and advocacy participation. We discuss the implications of our findings and conclude with suggestions for future research.     

Ecological Study of Graduation Rates and GPA in a Library Credit Course

The purpose of this ecological study was to examine the impact of a library credit course on graduation rates and GPA using pre-existing records. Over 20?years of aggregate institutional data were analyzed to evaluate the course's impact on first-time-full-time, white, and black students. Results were mixed: students who took the course were less likely to graduate than their peers who did not take the course but enjoyed slightly higher GPAs at graduation. It was discovered that students taking the course are not representative of the overall student body and struggle academically. Implications for revisions to the library credit course are discussed.     

Mathe mit der Matte – Verkörperlichtes Training basisnumerischer Kompetenzen

Basic numerical representations are seen as the building block for the successful development of more complex numerical and arithmetic competencies. Extending previous studies focusing on improving basic numerical representations by means of embodied training schemes, the current study focused on an embodied training of children’s place-value understanding. In this vein, 49 secondgraders were trained on solving a number line estimation task by stepping on different fields of a dance mat allowing for separate estimations of tens and units with more effort needed to step on the tens. In a partially randomized cross-over design, two control conditions were used to controll for training effects caused exclusively by the numerical content trained or the use of the dance mat. Interestingly, results revealed specific training effects after both the embodied and the control conditions. However, training effects were significantly more pronounced after the embodied training, thereby providing further evidence for the benefit of an embodied training of the place-value structure of the Arabic number system.