Evaluating the Influence of an Urban High School Reform Effort on College Readiness and Access Outcomes: A Quasiexperimental Cohort Study

It is widely accepted that postsecondary education has become a necessity for US youth. College access, however, has been found not to be equal for all. As a result, federally funded college-readiness programs, such as Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), have been established to increase the numbers of economically disadvantaged students with access to college. This quasiexperimental case study compared academic and nonacademic college-readiness indicators between cohorts of GEAR UP students and nonparticipants in 1 urban high school. Overall, cohorts of GEAR UP students outperformed their non-GEAR UP peers on all measures (grade-point average, attendance rate, behavior, graduation rate, and college enrollment) despite a dramatic demographic shift that led to greater proportions of educationally disadvantaged students in the GEAR UP cohorts.     

Choice of Reading Comprehension Test Influences the Outcomes of Genetic Analyses

Vowel representations are particularly difficult for children to learn because most vowel phonemes can be spelled in several different ways. Children in Grades 1, 2, and 3 spelled nonwords with an ambiguous vowel and reported their spelling strategies. Analysis of the children's spellings and strategy reports revealed a shift in relying solely on phonological information to considering orthographic information for making vowel letter choices. Implications for vowel spelling development are discussed.     

Assessment of Early Developing Phonological Awareness Skills: A Comparison of the Preschool Individual Growth and Development Indicators and the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening–PreK

Research Findings: Assessing the development of early literacy skills is necessary in order to identify children with delays, provide appropriate intervention, and monitor progress. The purpose of the current study was to compare the data obtained from 2 curriculum-based assessments of phonological awareness skills in a sample of low-income, urban preschoolers. Participants included 227 children from Head Start and other community-based preschool classrooms located in a midwestern city. The Preschool Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) and the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening–PreK (PALS-PreK) were administered in the fall and spring of the year. Results suggested that the PALS-PreK was more advantageous than the IGDIs in terms of providing meaningful data for this group of children. The IGDIs appeared to be more appropriate for developmentally advanced preschoolers in this population. Practice or Policy: There remains a critical need for assessments of emergent literacy that are appropriate for diverse groups of preschool children and can feasibly be used for monitoring development.     

Consultation With Professional Peers: A National Survey of the Practices of School Psychologists

There is an increasing need for education professionals to keep abreast of new research and developments in their fields. The peer support group, which is characterized by the sharing of expertise and knowledge, the provision of mutual support, and joint problem solving among professional colleagues, has been advanced as promising means of promoting professional growth and development. This article reports the results of an exploratory national survey of school psychologists' involvement in peer support groups (PSGs) that was undertaken to identify the potential contributions of such activities to improving professional practice. Nearly 64% of the respondents indicated involvement in a PSG at some point in their careers, with almost 50% currently participating in one. Several benefits were attributed to group membership, and it was suggested that further research efforts are needed to clarify the essential components that contribute to group effectiveness.     

Centrality of enactive experiences,framing, and motivation to student teachers’ emerging professional identity

Professional identity has emerged as a common theme in teacher development research, and the student-teaching practicum is often identified as foundational to identity development. In the context of the student-teaching practicum, interactions with cooperating teachers and pupils are believed to comprise the press for professional identity development, though theory-based explanations are often neglected in the literature, and findings are not always consistent. To address this issue, we used grounded theory to articulate a model explaining the relations among three constructs important to the process of identity development of student teachers (n = 14). Our findings are organized around a model that highlights the phenomenon of “negotiating who I am as a teacher,” which helps us describe differences between student teachers who changed identity vs. those that did not, and psychological and contextual reasons for renegotiation of identity. Discussion focuses on comparisons with previous models and possible implications for teacher education.     

Goal orientation towards teaching (GOTT) scale

Goal orientation theory has been widely investigated and found to affect many motivation and behavior variables in relation to student learning and work performance. However, unlike the motivational construct of self-efficacy, researchers have yet to investigate whether this theory can be applied to the field of teaching and contribute to the explanation for trends in instructional behavior and motives. The purpose of the present study was to develop an instrument to begin the exploration of teachers’ goal orientation towards teaching. From a three-phase research design consisting of scale development, score validation, and convergent/discriminant validation, results provided support for the development of, and validity of scores on, a Goal Orientation towards Teaching (GOTT) Scale. Although further validation is needed, future researchers and practitioners can use the GOTT scale to investigate how teachers’ goal orientation towards teaching can impact student learning, teaching effectiveness, pedagogical learning, and even professional morale.