Characteristics of School Districts That Participate in Rigorous National Educational Evaluations

Given increasing interest in evidence-based policy, there is growing attention to how well the results from rigorous program evaluations may inform policy decisions. However, little attention has been paid to documenting the characteristics of schools or districts that participate in rigorous educational evaluations, and how they compare to potential target populations for the interventions that were evaluated. Utilizing a list of the actual districts that participated in 11 large-scale rigorous educational evaluations, we compare those districts to several different target populations of districts that could potentially be affected by policy decisions regarding the interventions under study. We find that school districts that participated in the 11 rigorous educational evaluations differ from the interventions' target populations in several ways, including size, student performance on state assessments, and location (urban/rural). These findings raise questions about whether, as currently implemented, the results from rigorous impact studies in education are likely to generalize to the larger set of school districts—and thus schools and students—of potential interest to policymakers, and how we can improve our study designs to retain strong internal validity while also enhancing external validity.     

Equality of opportunity for work experience? Computing students at two UK universities “play the game”

A recent UK Government commissioned study found concerning levels of unemployment among computing students from disadvantaged, black and minority ethnic backgrounds. The study highlighted that work experience was a factor in increased levels of graduate employment. As such, it is vital that students have equal access to such work experience. This study considers the availability of work experience to 140 computing students at two city centre UK universities. Data analysis considered socioeconomic background and ethnicity to determine if these influenced attitudes to work experience. While students’ socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicity had little influence on their interest in work experience, patterns of success in gaining work experience reflected worrying graduate (un)employment patterns, with those from disadvantaged, black or minority ethnic backgrounds less able to secure work experience. These findings have serious implications for university and government policies promoting work experience and highlight the need for national interventions.     

Grotesque Encounters with Adolescence: Reading Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding

This paper takes the grotesque as a model of subjectivity that offers compelling inroads to understanding adolescence. Bakhtin notes that the grotesque ‘seeks to grasp in its imagery the very act of becoming and growth, the eternal, incomplete, unfinished nature of being’. I argue that Carson McCullers' novel, The Member of the Wedding (1946 McCullers, C. 1946/1987. Collected Stories of Carson McCullers, Boston: Houghton Mifflin.  [Google Scholar]), is largely about this ‘act of becoming’ in its heightened form, at the time of early adolescence, and I explore the ways in which puberty estranges 12‐year‐old Frankie Adam from her old body and her old self, resulting in encounters with the uncanny.     

Equity Traps Redux: Inequitable Access to Foreign Language Courses for African American High School Students

Although much of the current educational research literature on achievement gaps has focused on core curricular areas in public schools, few have focused on racially identifiable gaps in non-core areas such as high school foreign languages. These achievement, and thus advancement, gaps often result in the under-representation of students of color in higher level foreign language classes. This can have long-range negative consequences for students, such as lacking the foreign language credits needed for admission into major universities. Thus, in this qualitative study, we researched the perceptions of teachers, counselors, and school leaders at a racially diverse urban high school in central Texas concerning the enrollment, achievement, and advancement of African American students in high school foreign language courses. The results indicate that equity traps—deficit views, racial erasure, and paralogical beliefs and behaviors—advanced over a decade ago (McKenzie &; Scheurich, 2004 McKenzie, K. B., &; Scheurich, J. J. (2004). Equity traps: A useful construct for preparing principals to lead schools that are successful with racially diverse students. Educational Administration Quarterly, 40(5), 601–632.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) are continuing and even thriving among teachers, counselors, and school leaders in public schools. These equity traps contribute to the foreign language achievement gap, resulting in diminished educational opportunities for African American students. Moreover, we propose that an additional equity trap is at play—organizational constraints—which are the structural obstacles that serve to abet and perpetuate the negative beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and assumptions exposed in the original equity traps. We conclude this article with recommendations for policy makers and practitioners and offer direction for future research.     

Concurrent validity of the Slosson full‐range intelligence test: Comparison with the Wechsler intelligence scale for children–third edition and the Woodcock Johnson tests of achievement–revised

This study examined the concurrent validity of the Slosson Full‐Range Intelligence Test (S‐FRIT) by comparing S‐FRIT scores to the scores of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Third Edition (WISC‐III) and the Woodcock‐Johnson Tests of Achievement–Revised (WJ‐R). Data from 123 elementary students' screening and psychological testing results were examined. Results revealed that the S‐FRIT scores were more related to overall intelligence, verbal, and math abilities than nonverbal intelligence, reading, or written language abilities. Further, it was found that 89% of the participants' S‐FRIT Full‐Range IQ scores fell within one standard deviation of their WISC‐III FSIQ scores, with an average discrepancy of 7.6 points. Discrepancies between S‐FRIT and WISC‐III scores were also examined by educational diagnostic categories and ability levels. Limitations and suggestions for future research are provided. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Intergenerational exchange: undergraduate researchers’ learning and listening enhanced through older adults’ entertainment preferences

The purpose of this qualitative study was to provide an intergenerational exchange as undergraduate students taking an introductory Psychology of Aging course, interviewed and watched films with older adult participants (N = 13) residing in an assisted living community. The undergraduate researchers (N = 10) conducted and transcribed interviews, wrote about their perceptions of interviews and film viewing with older adults, and their instructor interviewed assisted living staff (N = 2) creating an assessment of participants, researchers, and staff. Researchers listened and learned from older adult’s words, thereby improving researchers’ understanding that older adults preferred in-person discussions over film viewing. Researchers learned from older adults’ words, as they began to understand that sexual content in today’s films may reduce entertainment viewing for youth and older adults. Older adults described television remotes and phones with frustration and researchers felt angst for their frustration. Findings suggested understanding and meaning for participants and researchers in this service learning intergenerational exchange generated through undergraduate research.     

Choice of operation in verbal arithmetic problems: the effects of number size,problem structure and context

12-and 13-year-olds were tested with two types of tasks to test their understanding of applications of the multiplication and division of positive numbers: (i) writing down calculations required to solve verbal problems, and (ii) making up stories to fit given calculations. Selected pupils were interviewed to investigate further the thinking processes involved. The results indicate (a) the pervasive nature of certain numerical misconceptions, (b) the effects of structural differences among the items; particularly whether multiplication can be conceived as repeated addition or not, and whether division has the structure of partition, quotition or rate, (c) specific effects of context attributable to such aspects as relative familiarity, and (d) various interactions between these three sets of factors.With the collaboration of Joanna Rigg and Malcolm Swan.     

Learning Disability and Career Entry into the Sciences: A Critical Analysis of Attitudinal Factors

The present study examined the perceptions of 140 parents and 323 teachers regarding career entry into science and engineering for students with learning disabilities. Parents' and teachers' perceptions were assessed on the following eight variables: (a) facility access, (b) expense of accommodations, (c) role models, (d) teacher understanding of students' academic needs, (e) length of learning time, (f) student aptitude and educational preparation, (g) career guidance, and (h) employer attitudes. Results revealed that parents, significantly more than teachers, feel that teachers do not make the necessary effort to accommodate students with learning disabilities and that employers in the science and engineering fields are reluctant to hire persons with learning disabilities. Implications of the results for rehabilitation counselors working with learning disabled students interested in science and engineering are offered.