A Three-State Study of English Learner Progress

In this three-state study, the authors estimate the magnitudes of achievement gaps between English learner (EL) students and their non-EL peers, while avoiding typical caveats in cross-sectional studies. The authors further compare the observed achievement gaps across three distinct dimensions (content areas, grades, and states) and report patterns of EL–non-EL achievement gaps within and across states. The study findings suggest that linguistic barriers and long-term EL designation may contribute to the observed achievement gaps. The findings further suggest that the differences in the stringency of state reclassification criteria may influence the reported size of the EL and non-EL achievement gaps between states.     

Testing Measurement Invariance Across Groups in Longitudinal Data: Multigroup Second-Order Latent Growth Model

In latent growth modeling, measurement invariance across groups has received little attention. Considering that a group difference is commonly of interest in social science, a Monte Carlo study explored the performance of multigroup second-order latent growth modeling (MSLGM) in testing measurement invariance. True positive and false positive rates in detecting noninvariance across groups in addition to bias estimates of major MSLGM parameters were investigated. Simulation results support the suitability of MSLGM for measurement invariance testing when either forward or iterative likelihood ratio procedure is applied.     

A Cross-Linguistic Investigation of English Language Learners' Reading Comprehension in English and Spanish

This study investigated the associations of oral language and reading skills with a sample of 282 Spanish-speaking English language learners across 3 years of elementary school. In the 3rd grade, the English and Spanish decoding measures formed two distinct but highly related factors, and the English and Spanish oral language measures formed two factors that showed a small positive correlation between them. The decoding and oral language factors were used to predict the sample's English and Spanish reading comprehension in the 6th grade. The decoding and oral language factors were both significant predictors of reading comprehension in both languages. The within-language effects were larger than the cross-language effects and the cross-language effects were not significant after accounting for the within-language effects.     

Retell as an Indicator of Reading Comprehension

The purpose of this narrative synthesis is to determine the reliability and validity of retell protocols for assessing reading comprehension of students in grades K–12. Fifty-four studies were systematically coded for data related to the administration protocol, scoring procedures, and technical adequacy of the retell component. Retell was moderately correlated with standardized measures of reading comprehension and, with older students, had a lower correlation with decoding and fluency. Literal information was retold more frequently than inferential, and students with learning disabilities or reading difficulties needed more supports to demonstrate adequate recall. Great variability was shown in the prompting procedures, but scoring methods were more consistent across studies. The influences of genre, background knowledge, and organizational features were often specific to particular content, texts, or students. Overall, retell has not yet demonstrated adequacy as a progress monitoring instrument.     

Exploring the Underlying Factor Structure of the Parent Reading Belief Inventory (PRBI): Some Caveats

Although mainstream preschool programs have been in existence since the 1970s, little is known about the ways in which typical children attempt to understand what it means for a peer to have a disability. In this study, 4-year-old children without disabilities who were enrolled in a mainstream preschool class explained their peers' disabilities by referring to concepts of immaturity, accident, or adaptive equipment to account for the behavioral differences that they observed. The implications of these cognitions for children's developing attitudes and behaviors toward peers with disabilities are discussed.     

Impact of a Statewide Collaborative on Strengthening Families Through Early Care and Education

Research Findings: Research suggests that early care and education programs are most effective when they include strong components of family involvement. The Center for the Study of Social Policy recommended that early care and education programs build family-centered practices to strengthen families and reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect. This article summarizes a statewide effort to implement this strategy, called Strengthening Families through Early Care and Education. We analyzed program self-assessments submitted by 186 early care and education programs. Analyses revealed that Head Start programs had better support systems in place for families than did “mainstream” (non–Head Start, non-accredited) early care and education programs. Results also showed that a small amount of state and local funding provided enough incentive for programs to improve their family-strengthening practices. Commitment and collaboration at the state level led to a sustainable impact by infusing “strengthening families” concepts into the early care and education field statewide.     

Design and implementation of volitional control support in mathematics courses

We designed support for volitional control with four stages for goal initiation (“Want it”), goal formation (“Plan for it”), action control (“Do it”), and emotion control (“Finish it”) based on theories and models of volition. We implemented the support in mathematics courses offered at a community college. We examined the effects of volitional control support on students’ motivation (i.e., intrinsic value, self-efficacy), emotions (enjoyment, pride, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, and boredom), effort regulation, and achievement. We found significant effects of the volitional control support on intrinsic value, enjoyment, anger, anxiety, and boredom. Findings are discussed to improve the design and development of the volitional control support. Limitations and implications of the study are presented as well.     

Improving teachers’ assessment literacy through professional development

This study examined the effects of professional development on teachers’ assessment literacy between two groups of teachers: (1) teachers who were involved in ongoing and sustained professional development in designing authentic classroom assessment and rubrics; and (2) teachers who were given only short-term, one-shot professional development workshops in authentic assessment. The participating teachers taught Year 4 and 5 English, science, and mathematics. The findings showed that the assessment literacy of teachers who were involved in ongoing, sustained professional development had increased significantly during the second year of study. These teachers had also gained a better understanding of authentic assessment.     

Diversified professionalism of physical education teachers in the Asian context of Hong Kong

This study investigates the socialization and professional experiences of primary school physical education teachers (PSPETs) in the Asian context of Hong Kong. A qualitative research design is adopted. The researcher used semi-structured interviews, supplemented by documentary sources (diaries) for conducting data collection. Eleven PSPETs participated in this study. Data were analysed through open axial and selective coding. The concepts of organizational sensitivity, sources of satisfaction, dealing with influential persons or critical incidents, status of the profession, educational reform as a trend, and versatile roles are revealed in the theory of ‘Diversified Professionalism’. The substantive theory thus contributes to an increased appreciation of the PSPETs’ work and to the literature on physical education teachers’ professionalization and professionalism.     

Super-twisting observer-based sliding mode control with fuzzy variable gains and its applications to fully-actuated hexarotors

In this paper, we consider the super-twisting observer-based sliding mode control algorithm with fuzzy variable gains (STOSMC) for the fully-actuated hexarotor. Our hexarotor has full actuation due to six titled propellers that allows to control position and orientation (attitude) simultaneously, and resolves the singularity problem of the rotational matrix by using the quaternion modeling framework. We show that the proposed STOSMC for the hexarotor guarantees finite-time convergence of the estimation error and asymptotic stability of the hexarotor. In simulations, we demonstrate the nonsingularity and fully-actuated control performance of the hexarotor by considering extreme position and attitude control scenarios. Moreover, the simulation results show that the hexarotor achieves the fast and precise tracking performance to the desired position and the desired attitude and the chattering phenomenon is reduced compared with the fixed-gains observer-based super-twisting sliding mode control due to the fuzzy mechanism.