Profiles of reading performance after exiting Tier 2 intervention

A fundamental assumption of multi-tiered systems of support is the bidirectional movement of students between tiers. In comparison to research on when to intensify instruction, less attention has been paid to the validity of decisions to exit students from supplemental supports. We used data from 554 third-grade students who met the criteria to be exited from a Tier 2 reading fluency intervention to answer two research questions. First, we used latent profile analysis to evaluate whether distinct profiles of student responding would emerge based upon initial skill level and intervention duration. Second, we evaluated whether the proportion of students who passed the end-of-year benchmark differed between profiles. Results favored a three-profile solution with a Below Average Start/Average Response; Average Start/Average Response; and an Above Average Start/Fast Response. The pooled mean proportion of students who did not achieve proficiency on the end-of-year benchmark assessment equaled 0.45, 0.33, and 0.13 across the three profiles, respectively. A series of χ² tests indicated the between-profile differences were statistically significant (p < .05). The results of this study suggest that there may be distinct profiles amongst students who show positive response and exit Tier 2 reading fluency interventions.     

Teachers' Knowledge of Literacy Concepts,Classroom Practices,and Student Reading Growth

We examined the relations of teacher knowledge (n = 42 first-grade teachers), explicit decoding instruction provided, and students' (n = 437) word-reading gains. Results revealed an interaction between teacher knowledge and observed decoding instruction: For students of more knowledgeable teachers, more time in explicit instruction predicted stronger word-reading gains. For students of less knowledgeable teachers, more time in explicit instruction was associated with weaker skill gains. Findings highlight the importance of teachers' specialized body of knowledge about reading as it informs effective instruction.     

THE BUREAUS AND THE DENOMINATIONS

Diversity and special interest have historically been the great builders of American Jewish communal life. Jewish hospitals, Jewish childcare services, Jewish schools in this country were all created by private “ideologues” — religious, Zionistic, or other — which special passions alone empowered them to create meaningful, workable institutions. Federations were formed to supply the infrastructure necessary to perpetuate these institutions: to systematize and coordinate the grant diversity of communal fund-raising efforts spanning the nation.     

Law and Regulation

THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF LAW by M. Ethan Katsh (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989—$38.00, ISBN 0-19-504590-4)

COPYRIGHT LAW: A PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE and 1989 SUPPLEMENT by Harry G. Henn (Practising Law Institute, 810 Seventh Ave, New York, NY 10019—$85.00 for both, ISBN not provided)

USING COPYRIGHTED VIDEOCASSETTES IN CLASSROOMS, LIBRARIES, AND TRAINING CENTERS by Jerome K. Miller (1988,2nd ed.—$19.95, ISBN 0-914143-14-X)

A COPYRIGHT PRIMER FOR EDUCATIONAL AND INDUSTRIAL MEDIA PRODUCERS by Esther Sinofsky (1988—$29.95, ISBN 0-914143-12-3)

VIDEO COPYRIGHT PERMISSIONS: A GUIDE TO SECURING PERMISSION TO RETAIN, PERFORM, AND TRANSMIT TELEVISION PROGRAMS VIDEOTAPED OFF THE AIR by Jerome K. Miller and others (1989—price not given, ISBN 0-914143-13-1)

PRIVATE RIGHTS, PUBLIC WRONGS: THE COMPUTER AND PERSONAL PRIVACY by Michael Rogers Rubin (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1988—$32.50, ISBN 0-89391-518-1)

SUBJECTS IN PHOTOGRAPHS, FILM AND TELEVISION edited by Larry Gross, John Stuart Katz, and Jay Ruby (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988—$29.95, ISBN 0- 19-505433-4)

COMPENSATING CREATORS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: COLLECTIVES THAT COLLECT by Stanley M. Besen and Sheila Nataraj Kirby (Rand Corporation, 1700 Main St., PO Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90406—price not given, paper, ISBN 0-8330-0967-2)     

Large‐scale science education intervention research we can use

This article develops an argument that the type of intervention research most useful for improving science teaching and learning and leading to scalable interventions includes both research to develop and gather evidence of the efficacy of innovations and a different kind of research, design‐based implementation research (DBIR). DBIR in education focuses on what is required to bring interventions and knowledge about learning to all students, wherever they might engage in science learning. This research focuses on implementation, both in the development and initial testing of interventions and in the scaling up process. In contrast to traditional intervention research that focuses principally on one level of educational systems, DBIR designs and tests interventions that cross levels and settings of learning, with the aim of investigating and improving the effective implementation of interventions. The article concludes by outlining four areas of DBIR that may improve the likelihood that new standards for science education will achieve their intended purpose of establishing an effective, equitable, and coherent system of opportunities for science learning in the United States. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 281–304, 2012     

Hierarchy as a theme in the US college, 1880–1920

How did the undergraduate college rapidly position itself as the gateway to middle-class US employment between 1880 and 1920? This article attempts to explain one part of that process. Drawing on Weberian organisational theory, transnational intellectual history and case studies of three institutions, it identifies hierarchy as a defining aspect of both modern society and the modern workplace – one that must be comprehended and mastered by the successful ‘white collar’ worker. The author describes the turn-of-the-century transformation of the US college in the context of its increasingly hierarchical nature, as opposed to traditional explanations that focus on human capital production or the incorporation of the German research university model. Hierarchical structures in the hidden and extra-curriculum of the US college helped establish it as the pre-eminent testing ground for aspiring bureaucratic workers.     

Dynamics of Scientific Engagement in a Blended Online Learning Environment

Research in Science Education - We investigate in-service teachers’ scientific engagement in a blended online science inquiry course. We analyze a shift from teachers following instructions...     

Beyond workforce preparation: contested visions of ‘twenty-first century’ education reform

ABSTRACT

Contrary to educational policy and research assumptions about an immanent ‘twenty-first century’ future, this article uses the concept of ‘sociotechnical imaginaries’ to trace how nonprofit actors in California invented and materialized distinctive visions of educational progress. Drawing on interview and ethnographic fieldnote data, I illustrate two contrasting sociotechnical visions: A Silicon Valley vision that aimed to reduce inequalities in test-based outcomes by disseminating ‘achievement technologies’; and an Oakland vision that aspired to address systemic environmental, economic and educational inequities using ‘civic technologies’. The diversity of these futures, and the distinctive kinds of digital technologies that co-produced these visions, trouble assumptions about ‘technology’ as an unquestioned good and problematize constructions of the ‘twenty-first century’ as an ostensibly shared, democratic future. I conclude by encouraging educational researchers to clarify a politics of the ‘twenty-first century’ and explore how ‘bounded imaginaries’, like those evident in the Oakland case, offer a potentially fruitful basis for reframing global education technology policies.