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.     

SERVING AND LEARNING ATA UNIVERSITY LABORATORY SCHOOL: STUDENTS FROM BIRTH THOUGH ADULTHOOD BENEFIT WHEN SERVICE LEARNING IS INTEGRATED INTO THE PRESERVICE CURRICULUM

Service‐Learning (S‐L) pedagogy is attracting increased attention in teacher education. This article describes the implementation of S‐L in the preservice early childhood curriculum, which placed students in a birth‐5 years setting. It identifies a continuum of learning to care, which begins in infancy, as caring capacities emerge, through to adulthood, when preservice teachers learn from experienced mentors how caring characterizes their interactions with learners of all ages. Students’ journals indicate they believe S‐L experiences contribute to their personal, academic and professional development. Carefully implemented S‐L experiences validate students’ caring interactions, give them first‐hand experiences with young children during which they can apply theoretical constructs, provide experiences which help them clarify their own career goals, and make them feel better prepared to manage instructional and classroom management dimensions of working with young children.     

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.     

The School Improvement Specialist Field Guide

Where is your journey on the path to improvement taking you? Sometimes we need a new perspective to see the path more clearly. This book will help the reader focus on life's experiences that develop skills and promote improvement that will lead to future successes. Many resources are within reach in The School Improvement Specialist Field Guide, and the stories and experiences of others are rich in example and can help to parallel your own journey and professional improvement. The School Improvement Specialist Field Guide (2013; ISBN 978‐1‐4522‐4089‐3) is published by Corwin Press. $39.99. For a 15% discount, use code D13194 when you order a copy at http://www.corwin.com/books/Book238079?siteId=corwin‐press&subject=C00&qsupld=false&q=page&fs=1 .