Achievement Outcomes Among High School Graduates in College and Career Readiness Programs of Study

This study investigated the relationships between completing the high school portion of a college- and career-preparatory program of study and high school achievement outcomes in a large urban district in the West. Programs of study are secondary-to-postsecondary educational programs mandated by the federal legislation (Perkins IV) governing career and technical education (CTE) in the United States. At graduation, 49.5% of students in the sample who began a program of study had completed their programs. Using multiple regression models, we compared graduates who completed a program of study (hereafter POS completers) to graduates who completed a number of CTE courses in a specific occupational area (CTE concentrators), and to graduates who may have taken a CTE course or two during high school but were neither POS completers nor CTE concentrators (All Others). POS completers were more likely to (a) have a higher overall GPA, (b) have a higher CTE GPA, and (c) earn more STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) credits than All Other students. Compared with CTE concentrators, POS completers were more likely to (a) have a higher overall GPA and (b) earn more STEM credits. Qualitative data describe contextual elements of programs of study as offered in West District that could explain these results. Study results suggest that districts should consider implementing career-themed programs such as programs of study that enhance their existing college- and career-readiness initiatives. We also call for further study of the postsecondary and labor market outcomes associated with programs of study in order to generate a clearer picture of their potential to increase academic and technical achievement and promote successful student transitions to higher education and the workplace.     

Investigating Parent and Professional Perspectives Concerning Special Education Services for Preschool Latino Children

Population changes in the US have created new challenges for service providers responsible for screening, determining eligibility, and providing appropriate educational services to young English Language Learners (ELLs). Six focus groups (two each) with administrators, teachers, and parents were conducted in two different locations to investigate the referral, diagnostic evaluation, and placement of prekindergarten Latino children who are ELLs and their families. The purpose of this study was to: (a) identify effective practices that differentiate between cultural/linguistic differences and learning differences; (b) identify the gaps in the current special education services; and (c) make recommendations to reduce the disproportionate representation of young ELL children based on these data. The results revealed a number of factors contributing to the disproportionality of young ELL children in special services such as: inconsistent screening and evaluation methods; insufficient numbers of bilingual professionals and trained interpreters; communication barriers and contradictory procedures that undermine meaningful partnerships with parents of ELLs; the need for professional development on the purposes and administration procedures of screening and evaluation tools; and a need for policy and regulation changes pertaining to ELL children such as the timing of screenings and evaluations.     

GOING BACK TO SCHOOL: PARTICIPATION MOTIVES AND EXPERIENCES OF OLDER ADULTS IN AN UNDERGRADUATE CLASSROOM

The purpose of this article is to expand knowledge concerning participation motives and difficulties faced by older adults returning to intergenerational college classrooms. This study examined reasons elders returned to college, reasons they stopped attending, difficulties they faced, positive aspects of returning to school, campus integration, and variations in these experiences by gender, employment status, educational attainment, and degree‐seeking behavior. The source of the data was a survey of students over the age of 60 from a small state college. Gender and employment status proved to be important sources of difference in respondents’ participation motives as well as their experiences in the classroom. Suggestions for administrators of these programs and for future research are explored.     

Partnering for Improvement: Improvement Communities and Their Role in Scale Up

There is increasing interest in researcher–practitioner partnerships, particularly those that take the form of a networked improvement community. In this paper, we describe the partnership between the National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools and the Fort Worth Independent School District to build student ownership and responsibility. By outlining the organizational structures established to enact the partnership and roles of our various partners, we provide an in-depth look at how one researcher–practitioner partnership operates. We begin by describing the concept of an improvement community as one type of partnership, identify several types of improvement communities currently operating in educational systems, and define the key features of improvement communities. Then, we outline the specific improvement communities that are central to the Center's work, highlighting how these structures help us enact our partnership. We end with our reflections about how the partnership created new roles for both researchers and practitioners as well as the challenges and opportunities that accompanied those new roles.     

Preparing Students for College and Career in the United States: the Effects of Career-Themed Programs of Study on High School Performance

In the United States, education policy calls for every student to graduate from high school prepared for college and a career. National legislation has mandated programs of study (POS), which offer aligned course sequences spanning secondary and postsecondary education, blending standards-based academic and career and technical education (CTE) content and often including work-based learning opportunities. This study examined the effects of these career-themed POS on high school achievement outcomes in the United States. We used structural equations and an instrumental variable approach to test the effects of POS enrollment and participation in CTE course sequences on GPA and graduation. Results indicated that POS enrollment improved students’ probability of graduation by 11.3 % and that each additional CTE credit earned in POS increased their probability of graduation by 4 %. There were non-significant effects for high school GPA. These findings suggest that POS benefited students in terms of retention at no cost to their achievement.     

Reflections of parents and students with severe learning difficulties on their special schooling and the transition to post-school provision

The majority of school-leavers over two years from two special schools were individually interviewed (n=34), as were their parents (n=37). Both groups expressed broad satisfaction with the schooling. The parents were split on the merits of mainstream education. Those in favour tended to stress the social benefits whereas those against felt that only special schools could meet their child's particular needs.     

A teaching–learning sequence on a socio-scientific issue: analysis and evaluation of its implementation in the classroom*

This study examines the effectiveness of a teaching–learning sequence (TLS) to improve the understanding of the influences and interactions between a technology (mining) and society. The aim of the study is also to show the possibility of both teaching and assessing the most innovative issues and aspects of scientific competence and their impact on the understanding of the nature of science. The methodology used a quasi-experimental, pre–post-test design with a control group, with pre–post-test differences as the empirical indicators of improved understanding. Improvements were modest, as the empirical differences (pre–post and experimental–control group) were not large, but the experimental group scored more highly than the control group. The areas that showed improvement were identified. The paper includes the TLS itself and the standardized assessment tools that are functional and transferable to other researchers and teachers.     

Promoting academic satisfaction and performance: Building academic resilience through coping strategies

The aim of this article is twofold: (a) to validate the psychometric properties of the Academic Resilience Scale (AR‐S) in a Spanish university context; and (b) to test a model where different coping strategies are antecedents of AR, and where academic satisfaction and performance are its consequences. The studies were conducted with 185 (study 1) and 780 (study 2) students. In study 1, the construct validity, reliability, and convergent and divergent validity of the AR‐S were analyzed. The hypothesized model (study 2) was tested using structural equation modeling. The results confirmed the good psychometric properties of the AR‐S in the Spanish context, providing evidence of its validity. Furthermore, the distinctive role of different coping strategies in resilience was confirmed, as well as the relationship between resilience and academic satisfaction. No direct relationship between resilience and performance was found, highlighting the full mediation of satisfaction.