Student and Teacher Outcomes of The Superkids Quasi-Experimental Study

In this article, we report kindergarten student and teacher outcomes from a quasi-experimental evaluation of The Superkids, a systematic, phonics-based, comprehensive K-2 reading program. We recruited 23 kindergarten teachers to implement The Superkids program from a diverse, yet predominantly ethnic minority, group of classrooms from across the United States. We then employed a precise computerized matching methodology to derive a statistically equivalent comparison group of 20 control teachers who implemented their standard “business as usual” core literacy program. Multilevel analyses of classroom-level effects of The Superkids revealed achievement advantages of more than 1/10 of a standard deviation, d = 0.11, to 1/4 of a standard deviation, d = 0.25, for the treatment group on the 5 subtests from the Stanford Achievement Test, 10th edition (SAT-10). Four measures of teachers’ self-reported satisfaction with the core reading program used in their classrooms also revealed statistically significant advantages for Superkids of nearly three-quarters of a standard deviation, d = 0.72, to nearly 1½ standard deviation units, d = 1.49.     

Convergent cognition

In an attempt to address shortcomings revealed in international assessments and lamented in legislation, many schools are reducing or eliminating elective courses, applying the rationale that replacing “non-essential” subjects with core subjects, such as mathematics and language arts, will better position students in the global market. However, there is evidence that systematically pairing a core subject with another, complementary subject, may lead to greater overall learning in both subjects. In this paper, we analyze two subject area pairs—first and second language, and computer programming and mathematics—to demonstrate in what ways two subjects might complement each other. We then analyze the relationships between these pairs to better understand the principles and conditions that encourage what we call convergent cognition, the synergistic effect that occurs when a learner studies two complementary subjects.     

La enseñanza de contenidos específicos en matemáticas

¿Matemáticas para todos o matemáticas de élite? ¿Lenguaje matemático o matemática aplicada? En la base de las últimas reformas educativas de todo el mundo no dejan de estar presentes dilemas, reales unas veces, ficticios otras, que tienen mucho que ver con los supuestos políticos—ideológicos—que sustenten los diseñadores de esa reforma respecto al papel de la educación y a los que no se sustrae la enseñanza de las matemáticas…     

From City Technology Colleges to Sponsored Grant-maintained Schools

During the 18 years of Conservative government in Britain, only two attempts were made to stimulate the 'supply side' of the quasi-market of schools. These were the introduction of City Technology Colleges and sponsored grant-maintained schools. This paper draws comparisons between the two initiatives. It is shown that, while the CTCs were largely a 'top down' policy, and the sponsored grant-maintained schools might be seen as the result of 'grass roots' pressure group activity, there were many similarities between the two programmes. In practice, both initiatives stalled at just 15 schools, but it is argued that their significance is far greater than their numerical strength would indicate. Both can be seen as examples of increased privatisation and selection, and it is shown that what may develop from them is a greatly changed education system.     

Graduate identity and employability

This paper develops the concept of graduate identity as a way of deepening the understanding of graduate employability. It does this through presenting research in which over 100 employers in East Anglia were asked to record their perceptions of graduates in respect of their employability. The findings suggest a composite and complex graduate identity, depending on employer size and sector. There is no one fixed identity for graduates. Nevertheless, certain themes emerged that seriously put into question the traditional model of graduate employability comprising skills, competencies and attributes. What emerges is a four‐stranded concept of identity that comprises value, intellect, social engagement and performance. Thus, when assessing the potential of graduates, performance is not the only criteria that employers take into account. Moreover, the four elements of identity are by no means independent of each other but are expected to interpenetrate producing a composite identity, with different employers emphasising different facets of this identity.

• Everybody talks about transferable skills and nobody knows what it means. That baffles me. What's a transferable skill—they've never transferred anything. … They don't know how to do it. (E‐Learning SME, Director)
• What is different about a graduate? Young ideas, freshness, the way they live their lives— a whole lifestyle that brings enthusiasm of youth—[it] brings freshness to the organisation and can create a different dynamic. (Energy Sector, Manager)

     

In search of consolidation of short-term memory in nonhuman animals

Wixted (Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 235 – 269, 2004) has argued that forgetting is due to consolidation failure. Previous research with humans and nonhuman animals has reported evidence for consolidation in intermediate or long-term memory (LTM). The present study examines whether consolidation occurs in short-term memory in pigeons. Delayed matching-to-sample accuracy was reduced when retroactive interference (an extraneous task in Experiment 1 or houselight illumination in Experiment 2) was interpolated in the retention interval. Accuracy was not greater, however, when interference occurred at the end of the retention interval, as compared with when it occurred at the beginning. That is, there was no evidence for consolidation in short-term memory for pigeons. We did find, however, the beginning–end effect originally reported by Roberts and Grant (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 4, 219–236, 1978) and the recovery from forgetting reported by White and Brown (Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 96, 177–189, 2011). The results are discussed in relation to temporal distinctiveness theory as an alternative to consolidation.     

A Panic about School Choice

It is now widely recognised that Britain's comprehensive system was never truly comprehensive. Families with sufficient financial capital were always able to ensure the entry of their children to particularly prestigious ‘comprehensive’ schools by purchasing a home within the appropriate catchment areas. According to government rhetoric, recent legislation established a market of schools, removed catchment areas and gave parents greater choice of school. This case‐study examines the workings of the local quasi‐market of schools within a prosperous town (Sutton Coldfield, England) which is part of the larger metropolitan area of the West Midlands. Because of a change in the age of entry to secondary education, Sutton Coldfield was first plunged into the market in 1992. This case‐study shows that the new situation initially caused confusion and anger. Some Sutton Coldfield residents were denied places for their children within the town and were instead offered places for their children in Birmingham working‐class estate schools. The article describes the formation and activities of a local pressure group which opposed these changes, and reports the results of a small‐scale study of a sample of parents’ choice‐making processes in 1993. It is shown that access to financial and cultural capital had become more, rather than less, important in the process of allocating children to secondary schools.