The impact of early reading interventions delivered by classroom assistants on attainment at the end of Year 2

Previous research has shown that training teaching assistants to deliver early phonic reading interventions can have measurable effects at immediate post‐test. This study explored whether the effects of interventions delivered by classroom assistants (CAs) were still evident at the end of the first phase of schooling, 16 months after the early intervention finished. Children were divided into ‘treatment responder’ and ‘treatment non‐responder’ groups based upon post‐test decoding skills. The treatment responder group was significantly more likely to achieve average results in nationally administered tests (end of Key Stage 1 tests) and teacher ratings of attainment than the treatment non‐responders. Treatment responders were indistinguishable from national averages on the mathematics test, writing test and reading task performance, but differed on reading comprehension test and on teacher‐assessed attainment. Gains in reading delivered following early phonic reading interventions delivered by CAs are maintained for many children. Non‐responders and treatment responders with only modest decoding skill may require additional support to achieve national targets in literacy.     

Good Chinese Girls and the Model Minority: Race,Education, and Community in Girl in Translation and Front Desk

Children's Literature in Education - The girl protagonists in Jean Kwok’s Girl in Translation and Kelly Yang’s Front Desk embody and reinterpret the notion of guai (loosely...     

Models of influence on mathematics instructional coaches

In our study, we examine the factors influencing the implementation of a mathematics coaching initiative at four high schools including the assets an instructional coach brings to the position and the challenges unique to each school. In our case study we include data collected in individual interviews with instructional coaches, focus groups with Algebra I teams, and coaching logs. Four models of coaching behavior emerged from the data collected in the study: coach as facilitator, coach as mediator, coach as dictator, and coach as victim. No role was associated exclusively with any particular instructional coach. However, which role the coach assumed hinged on one or more factors: the coach’s leadership style, the context in which the coach served, and the dynamics of the situation.     

Portfolios, Accountability, and an Interpretive Approach to Validity

How can the results of classroom-based portfolio assessment be communicated outside the classroom? How might a portfolio-based assessment system be designed and implemented? How can we evaluate the merits of portfolio-based assessments?     

SCAN: A method of community collaboration

Recent research has highlighted the complexity of the battered child syndrome. Clinical experience suggests that treatment of troubled families is a long-term process, draining financial resources of agencies and emotional resources of professionals. The need to provide support and case consultation to professionals working in the area of child abuse and neglect evolved in the establishment, in 1968, of the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN) Program at Children's Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This program provides an effective method of intervention through identification, consultation, referral and follow-up of at-risk families. Weekly meetings offer multi-disciplinary case coordination, treatment recommendations, and a channel of communication for representatives of community agencies. This paper traces the history and present status of the SCAN Program, as well as the role of SCAN as a force for change of community attitudes.     

Interaction and the Development of Communication in the Under Twos: Issues for practitioners working with young children in groups

This article considers the role of adult-child interaction in the communication development of children under two. It specifically investigates the situation of a family with twins, where it may be more difficult to undertake sustained, supportive interactions with two children at the same time. The study identifies strategies used by the family to support the children's language development and suggests that these could be used in care settings where early years practitioners may be working with under twos in small group contexts.     

The Effect of Cooperative Groups on Regular Class Spelling Achievement of Special Needs Learners

This study examined the utility of cooperative groups as a technology for mainstreaming academically deficit students in a regular fourth grade classroom. Twenty‐seven students (mean age 8.6 years), including five targeted special needs learners, took a weekly spelling test of 20 words chosen from the fourth grade reader. A return to baseline research design indicated that cooperative groups promoted higher academic mastery among those with special needs and regular education learners when compared with two types of individualistic techniques. Results support the use of cooperative groups as a technique for academic as well as social mainstreaming in the regular classroom.     

Young Children Understand That Looking Leads to Knowing (So Long as They Are Looking into a Single Barrel)

3 experiments were conducted to investigate the claim made by Wimmer, Hogrefe, and Perner that 3-4-year-old children do not understand that people gain knowledge about something by looking at it. The first experiment involved a simple forced-choice procedure in which children had to judge which of 2 assistants knew what was inside a box when one of the assistants had looked inside and the other had lifted it up. In this experiment, the children did realize that the assistant who had looked in the box knew its contents. The second experiment followed the Wimmer et al. procedure, but with a simpler question form. The children were just asked to state whether someone knew what was in the box. Again, the children were able to work out that a person who had looked in a box knew what was inside it. In the third experiment, a direct comparison was made between the simpler question and the more complex, double-barreled question asked by Wimmer et al. The children found the more complex question considerably harder. The results of these experiments suggest that, in contrast to the claims made by Wimmer et al., 3- and 4-year-old children do understand that looking leads to knowing, and that their difficulty in the Wimmer et al. study was mainly with the form of the question that they were asked.