Reading comprehension interventions for middle school students with learning disabilities: a synthesis of 30 years of research

The authors conducted a synthesis of studies of reading comprehension interventions for middle school students (Grades 6-8) identified with a learning disability. They identified 12 studies between 1979 and 2009 with treatment and comparison designs and 2 single-participant studies. Findings from the studies indicate large effect sizes for researcher-developed comprehension measures. Few studies (n = 4) reported standardized measures of reading comprehension, which indicated medium effect sizes. The majority of study treatments (n = 13) utilized strategy instruction related to main idea or summarization.     

Differential effects of three professional development models on teacher knowledge and student achievement in elementary science

To identify links among professional development, teacher knowledge, practice, and student achievement, researchers have called for study designs that allow causal inferences and that examine relationships among features of interventions and multiple outcomes. In a randomized experiment implemented in six states with over 270 elementary teachers and 7,000 students, this project compared three related but systematically varied teacher interventions—Teaching Cases, Looking at Student Work, and Metacognitive Analysis—along with no‐treatment controls. The three courses contained identical science content components, but differed in the ways they incorporated analysis of learner thinking and of teaching, making it possible to measure effects of these features on teacher and student outcomes. Interventions were delivered by staff developers trained to lead the teacher courses in their regions. Each course improved teachers' and students' scores on selected‐response science tests well beyond those of controls, and effects were maintained a year later. Student achievement also improved significantly for English language learners in both the study year and follow‐up, and treatment effects did not differ based on sex or race/ethnicity. However, only Teaching Cases and Looking at Student Work courses improved the accuracy and completeness of students' written justifications of test answers in the follow‐up, and only Teaching Cases had sustained effects on teachers' written justifications. Thus, the content component in common across the three courses had powerful effects on teachers' and students' ability to choose correct test answers, but their ability to explain why answers were correct only improved when the professional development incorporated analysis of student conceptual understandings and implications for instruction; metacognitive analysis of teachers' own learning did not improve student justifications either year. Findings suggest investing in professional development that integrates content learning with analysis of student learning and teaching rather than advanced content or teacher metacognition alone. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 333–362, 2012     

Parents' role in the academic motivation of students with gifts and talents

Parents play a key role in developing their children's academic motivation, and parents of children with gifts and talents also may face additional parenting challenges that are less commonly faced by parents of average‐ability learners whose needs are more readily met in the school setting. School psychologists may be charged with addressing these issues, despite having little or no training on the needs of families of high‐ability learners. We use the lens provided by the self‐determination theory of motivation to consider how social–environmental climates created by parents can promote or impede the academic motivation of students with gifts and talents. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Serious social media: On the use of social media for improving students' adjustment to college

A considerable body of research indicates that social support plays an integral role in determining students' successful adjustment to college. Unlike previous research that has evaluated face-to-face support interventions that occur during students' first semester at college, the current study reports on a student-centered social media site designed to enhance students' perceptions of social support prior to their arrival on campus. Results indicated that site usage increased students' perceptions that they would have a diverse social support network during their first semester at college, even when controlling for other potent predictors. The importance of social support perceptions for college adjustment is detailed and the ramifications of the social media intervention are discussed.     

Word Reading Fluency: Role of Genome‐Wide Single‐Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Developmental Stability and Correlations With Print Exposure

The genetic effects on individual differences in reading development were examined using genome‐wide complex trait analysis (GCTA) in a twin sample. In unrelated individuals (one twin per pair, n = 2,942), the GCTA‐based heritability of reading fluency was ~20%–29% at ages 7 and 12. GCTA bivariate results showed that the phenotypic stability of reading fluency from 7 to 12 years (r = 0.69) is largely driven by genetic stability (genetic r = 0.69). Genetic effects on print exposure at age 12 were moderate (~26%) and correlated with those influencing reading fluency at 12 (genetic r = 0.89), indicative of a gene–environment correlation. These findings were largely consistent with quantitative genetic twin analyses that used both twins in each pair (n = 1,066–1,409).     

Letter knowledge in parent–child conversations

Learning about letters is an important component of emergent literacy. We explored the possibility that parent speech provides information about letters, and also that children’s speech reflects their own letter knowledge. By studying conversations transcribed in CHILDES (MacWhinney, 2000) between parents and children aged one to five, we found that alphabetic order influenced use of individual letters and letter sequences. The frequency of letters in children’s books influenced parent utterances throughout the age range studied, but children’s utterances only after age two. Conversations emphasized some literacy-relevant features of letters, such as their shapes and association with words, but not letters’ sounds. Describing these patterns and how they change over the preschool years offers important insight into the home literacy environment.     

Reexamining the Link Between Cultivation Factors and Viewer Involvement: Investigating Viewing Amount as a Catalyst for the Transportation Process

In an effort to expand on prior cultivation research involving narrative processing (Bilandzic &; Busselle, 2008 Bilandzic , H. , &; Busselle , R. W. ( 2008 ). Transportation and transportability in the cultivation of genre-consistent attitudes and estimates . Journal of Communication , 58 ( 3 ), 508 – 529 . doi: 10.1111/j.1460–2466.2008.00397.x [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), this study examined the interrelationships between viewing amount and the transportation process. Results showed that transportation mediated the relationship between genre-specific television viewing and perceived realism, while overall television viewing directly predicted reduced counterarguing. In addition, structural equation modeling was employed to test a combined cultivation-transportation model leading to changes in viewer excessive drinking perceptions. Findings indicated that genre-specific television viewing indirectly influenced beliefs through increased transportation. Conversely, a significant, direct path was found between overall viewing and excessive drinking beliefs, supporting the original cultivation perspective.     

An analysis of management and economics journals at the University of Lethbridge: Beyond usage data

This article investigates the importance of journal titles in the area of Management and Economics at the University of Lethbridge in southern Alberta, Canada. Not wanting to rely solely on usage data, the author undertook a citation analysis to see which journals were most frequently published in by the university's authors. The results showed that usage data does not tell the whole story when it comes to a journal's importance to an institution. The analysis also illuminated publishers providing journals which were most frequently used.     

A Collective Impact Approach To The Reading Achievement Gap

Abstract

This essay profiles The Big Lift, a multi-agency initiative to improve third-grade reading proficiency in San Mateo County, California. The Big Lift is an example of collective impact, in which organizations from different sectors unite around a common agenda to solve a social challenge. This kind of initiative goes beyond collaboration, requiring its own infrastructure, dedicated staff, ongoing communication and shared measurements of success. Library participation is critical to the success of community and literacy-focused collective impact projects like The Big Lift.