UnSATisfactory: or How the Reading SATs May Mask the Level of Achievement of Young Early Readers

SATs, particularly in Key Stage 1 have always been perhaps the most controversial aspect of the recent curriculum reforms. In this article, Rhona Stainthorp reports her research into the validity and usefulness of the KS1 SATs. Her results make rather worrying reading, suggesting that the reading SATs are very crude measures of children’s reading abilities. As Stainthorp argues, from their results, we actually have no idea how well some children are doing at reading.     

Does secondary school size make a difference?: A systematic review

There is a vast body of literature on school size but comparatively few high quality empirical studies comparing outcomes in schools of different sizes. This systematic review synthesizes the results of the published research from 31 studies on the effects of secondary school size from OECD countries since 1990. Overall the directions and patterns of effect vary for different outcomes. For pupil attainment measured by exam results, and for attendance, larger schools appear to do better up to some optimal school size but estimates of this point or range are insufficiently precise to be useful. The implications of different school sizes on student behaviours are equivocal, but teachers and pupils at smaller schools are more likely to have a positive perception of their ‘school environment’. Costs per pupil appear to decrease as school size increases. The results of the review suggest that there is little empirical evidence to justify policies that aim to ‘change’ or mandate particular school sizes. However, given the evidence that there do appear to be optimal sizes for some outcomes, stakeholders should be made aware that dramatic changes in a school's size may change the characteristics of a school's learning environment.     

BOOK REVIEWS

COMMUNITY IN CRISIS: THE ELIMINATION OF SEGREGATION FROM A PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. By James H. Tipton.
THE MEANING OF THE GLORIOUS KORAN. Translated by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall.
PUBLIC EDUCATION UNDER CRITICISM.M. Hill. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1954. 414 pages. $6.35. Edited by W. Winfield Scott and Clyde
INQUIRY INTO INQUIRIES: ESSAYS IN SOCIAL THEORY. By Arthur F. Bentley.
POWER OF WORDS. By Stuart Chase in collaboration with Marian T. Chase.
GREAT HUMAN ISSUES OF OUR TJMES. By Harold Benjamin, Kenneth Cooper, Willard Gosh, Clifton L. Hall, Claude Chadwick, James L. Hymes, Jr., Henry H.Hill and William Van Til.
PUBLIC EDUCATION AND ITS CRITICS. New York: The Mac-millan Company, 1954. 170 pp. $2.50. (Kappa Delta Phi Lecture.) By V. T. Thayer.     

Dilemmas of Teaching Inquiry in Elementary Science Methods

Because various definitions of inquiry exist in the science education literature and in classroom practice, elementary science methods students and instructors face dilemmas during the study of inquiry. Using field notes, instructor anecdotal notes, student products, and course artifacts, science methods course instructors created fictional journal entries to represent the experiences of both the instructors and students during instruction on inquiry. Identified dilemmas were varying definitions of inquiry, the struggle to provide sufficient inquiry-based science-learning experiences, perceived time constraints, determining how much course time should be slated for science instruction versus pedagogy instruction, instructors' and students' lack of inquiry-based learning experiences, grade versus trust issues, and students' science phobia. Instructors' attempts at dealing with these dilemmas included using analogies, increased field-experience time, modeling, and detailed rubrics.     

What we know and do not know about supervision in school psychology: A systematic mapping and review of the literature between 2000 and 2017

Supervision is a distinct competency area in professional psychology with a burgeoning research base. Yet it remains unclear to what extent the broad supervision research base generalizes specifically to supervision of psychological services in schools for both preservice trainees and credentialed school psychologists. The purposes of this study were to map and review current evidence regarding supervision in school psychology; consider the evidence in the context of the broader psychology supervision literature; and reflect on next steps for training, practice, and research of supervision in school psychology. A systematic review across school psychology journals and psychological supervision journals found only 37 peer refereed articles (21 empirical and 16 conceptual) published on the topic of supervision in school psychology since the year 2000. The topical coverage of these articles is summarized, including its contributions and limitations. Implications are drawn for future research of supervision in school psychology.     

School Processes That Can Drive Scaling-Up of an Innovation or Contribute to Its Abandonment

This five-year study focused on school processes that promoted the scaling-up of a high school academic literacy framework, Reading Apprenticeship, developed by WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI). Implementing an innovative strategy for scaling-up involving school-based cross-disciplinary teacher teams, SLI brought the framework to 274 schools across five states. Our study was guided by research literature that viewed scale-up as increasing local ownership and depth of commitment. Our goal was to measure SLI's success in terms of the numbers of students, teachers, and schools reached, and to evaluate the success of SLI's innovation through metrics that would be indicative of the program taking hold in schools, and ultimately, its scalability.

We developed a longitudinal data set based on teacher and principal surveys, participant records, and school demographics that allowed us to measure implementation over time and to identify program and school characteristics that predicted the increase or decrease in participation. We found early indications of uptake and enthusiasm for Reading Apprenticeship, but greater variation in responses across schools by the third year. Using regression analysis, we found that initial teacher participation in team meetings and schoolwide commitment predicted “scaling-in” within a school. We hypothesized that a process, consistent with SLI's use of cross-disciplinary teacher teams, led to increased and sustained program participation. This study contributes to the field of scale-up research through identifying intermediate teacher outcomes that predict scaling-in and that were not as prevalent in an RCT conducted in parallel, illustrating the weakness of large-scale RCTs as an appropriate context for measuring impact of an innovation that is being scaled up.