Achievement and Growth on English Language Proficiency and Content Assessments for English Learners in Elementary Grades

English language proficiency (ELP) assessment scores are used by states to make high-stakes decisions related to linguistic support in instruction and assessment for English learner (EL) students and for EL student reclassification. Changes to both academic content standards and ELP academic standards within the last decade have resulted in increased academic rigor and language demands. In this study, we explored the association between EL student performance over time on content (English language arts and mathematics) and ELP assessments, generally finding evidence of positive associations. Modeling the simultaneous association between changes over time in both content and ELP assessment performance contributes empirical evidence about the role of language in ELA and mathematics development and provides contextual information to serve as validity evidence for score inferences for EL students.     

3D printing as an educational technology: theoretical perspectives,learning outcomes,and recommendations for practice

Education and Information Technologies - 3D printing is an emerging educational technology that is said to prepare learners for a more technologically designed world. In this review, 3D printing...     

‘Standing back’ or ‘stepping up’? Exploring climate change education policy influence in England

This paper explores the nature of climate change education-related policy influence in England at a time when public consciousness about the need to accelerate climate change action was heightened, and as the 2018 climate strikes gathered momentum around the world. Informed by Foucault's concept of ‘governmentalities’, and using data generated through 24 exploratory interviews and reflexive thematic analysis, we examine the extent to which influential individuals were advocating for policy change. We discuss the nature of policy influence with particular reference to the ‘stances’ that individuals adopted relative to climate change education policy influence and noting a common tendency exhibited amongst participants which was a tendency towards ‘deference’. Coupling our insights with theorisations of dissent, we consider how ‘infra-political dissent’ could support key individuals to ‘step up’ and influence for more effective policy relative to climate change education, and to other areas of education or environment policy.     

Family Medicine editors collaborate towards antiracist publishing

• Editors of 10 North American Family Medicine journals simultaneously published a Joint Call for Action to address systemic racism and encourage diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility/antiracism (DEIA) initiatives in medicine and medical publishing in January 2021.
• The efforts of the journals since publication of the joint editorial are summarized and include working to diversify editorial teams, editorial boards and authors; enhanced content about DEIA topics; mentoring of authors who are underrepresented in medicine (URM); and presenting content related to DEIA in Family Medicine publishing at national meetings.
• Editors had a follow up meeting in November 2022 to continue working toward a common goal of reducing racism and increasing DEIA initiatives in Family Medicine publications.

     

Screen media exposure and young children's vocabulary learning and development: A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis synthesizes research on media use in early childhood (0–6 years), word-learning, and vocabulary size. Multi-level analyses included 266 effect sizes from 63 studies (N_total = 11,413) published between 1988–2022. Among samples with information about race/ethnicity (51%) and sex/gender (73%), most were majority White/Non-Hispanic and between 40%–60% female. Analyses revealed a small overall positive relation between screen media exposure and vocabulary (r = .23). Experimental studies yielded a small-to-medium effect (r = .30), with stronger effects for e-books than TV/video or games/apps, and non-significant effects for video chat. In correlational studies, there was no overall association between vocabulary size and naturalistic media exposure (r = .07), with the exception of naturalistic exposure to educational media (r = .17).