A Study of Cluster Grouping

The increasing size of most universities in the United States at times has led to efforts to counteract largeness by creating many small units within the larger one. The following study reports on a pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of a grouping pattern in which freshman students had their class schedules arranged in such a way as to have at least three sections (courses) in common with others in their respective group.     

The Case for a Middle School College Readiness Index: Rejoinder to Lazowski,Barron, Kosovich,and Hulleman and Mattern,Allen, and Camara

This rejoinder provides a reply to comments on a middle school college readiness index, which was devised to generate earlier and more nuanced readiness diagnoses to K‐12 students. Issues of reliability and validity (including construct underrepresentation and construct‐irrelevant variance) are discussed in detail. In addition, comments from Lazowski et al. and Mattern et al. provide a useful summary of areas where more college readiness research is needed. This rejoinder elaborates on those essential next steps, including deploying readiness indicators in school settings. Advances in the measurement of noncognitive skills will require more validity research using more contemporary data from authentic school settings. Still, the middle school college readiness index is a promising proof of concept, demonstrating the utility of diverse, early measures to support targeted, timely interventions.     

Fostering Self‐Regulation of Students with Learning Disabilities: Insights from 30 Years of Reading Comprehension Intervention Research

Thirty years of intervention research on the effects of reading comprehension strategies for students with learning disabilities was reviewed in this quantitative synthesis. Specifically, researchers targeted studies that contained self‐regulated learning components. A systematic search yielded 18 studies from nine research journals that met specified inclusion criteria. Studies were evaluated for methodological quality and to identify types of instructional and self‐regulation components within interventions. Large effect sizes were found immediately after instruction and after a time delay, suggesting that instruction in reading comprehension strategies that contain self‐regulation components may have a long lasting impact on student performance. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Immune disorders and dyslexia

The Geschwind-Behan-Galaburda hypothesis of cerebral lateralization postulates an association between immune disorders and learning disabilities. So far, the empirical evidence for such a relationship has been ambiguous. The present study is an attempt to investigate the hypothesis in a population where all the individuals were affected by immune disorders. Thus, 29 students in a special school for asthmatic children (total number of students in the school: 32) were investigated. A number of reading tests with special focus on word decoding were administered. The parents filled in a detailed questionnaire on the prevalence of reading difficulties and immune disorders among the other family members. The proportion of students with reading problems — especially phonological problems — was much higher than would be expected in a normal population. Among the family members we also found an elevated incidence of both reading problems and immune disorders. A cautious interpreptation of these findings leads to tentative and partial support of the Geschwind-Behan-Galaburda hypothesis.     

The Role of Alternative Theories and Anomalous Evidence in Children’s Scientific Belief Revision

Children’s naive theories include misconceptions which can interfere with science learning. This research examined the effect of pairing anomalies with alternative theories, and their order of presentation, on children’s belief revision. Children believe that heavy objects sink and light ones float. In a pre-, mid-, and post-test design, 5-year-olds (N = 96) were assigned to one of two conditions, where they were either exposed to an alternative theory about buoyancy and then observed anomalies (Explanation-First), or the reverse (Anomalies-First). At mid-test, children were more likely to revise their beliefs after exposure to an alternative theory than anomalies alone. At post-test, children revised their naïve belief when they had access to an alternative theory before the anomalous evidence than in the opposite order.     

Exploring the Associations Between Delayed School Entry and Achievement in Primary and Secondary School

This research investigated whether delayed school entry was associated with higher achievement in national tests of reading and numeracy in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9 (n = 2,823). Delayed entry was related to advantages in reading (0.14 SD) and numeracy (0.08 SD) at Grade 3, although little variance was explained (1%–2%). This slight advantage persisted for both domains in Grades 5 and 7, albeit with smaller effects. In Grade 9 there was no association between delayed entry and either reading or numeracy. Exploratory analyses with subsamples in each grade (n = 424–667) revealed no associations between delayed entry and achievement after controlling for inattention and hyperactivity, and negative associations between inattention and achievement in all grades in both domains (−0.33, −0.49 SD).     

Why School Choice Reforms in Denmark Fail: the blocking power of the teacher union

This article investigates why school choice is exercised to a limited degree by parents despite major government initiatives to enhance diversity, competition and choice in the Danish education system. Denmark has had 20 years of centre‐right governments, promoting choice reforms perhaps even more vigorously than the other Nordic countries, yet school choice is seldom used – only 12% of parents choose a public school that differs from the one that is allocated to them. The literature on school choice in Denmark argues that this is primarily due to a general lack of parental interest because of the relatively high similarity across schools. In this article, we argue that the main reason is to be found in the politics of vested interests, namely municipalities’ persistent use of pupil assignment schemes supported by powerful teacher union branches at the local level.     

Career readiness: An analysis of text complexity for occupational reading materials

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the broader college and career readiness agenda encourage educators, researchers, and other stakeholders to focus on preparing students for life after high school. A key emphasis is literacy, as the ability to read and comprehend written language is critical to success in college and careers. Understanding the level of reading comprehension needed for college and careers has important instructional implications. This study examined text complexity levels of various career texts using the Reading Maturity Metric and compared them to expectations in the CCSS. Text samples were selected for jobs from the five job zones in the Occupational Information Network database. Text complexity demands for all careers were generally in the CCSS range of college and career readiness and increased as job zone and required preparation increased. Results could provide specific career-related targets to make the CCSS reading requirements more relevant for students.