Statistical Techniques Employed in AERJ and JCP Articles from 1988 to 1997: A Methodological Review

The authors of the present methodological review investigated the patterns of statistical usage and reporting practices in 756 articles published in the American Educational Research Journal (AERJ) and in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP) over a 10-year period. First, some findings from other similar reviews are summarized. Second, the authors present a framework for characterizing selected research practices that emphasizes, in part, elements of the recent report of the American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Statistical Inference (Wilkinson & APA Task Force on Statistical Inference, 1999). Third, characterizations of 10 years of analytic practices in 2 journals are presented and evaluated within that framework. The article concludes with a discussion of the changes that may be necessary to improve the statistical state of affairs in behavioral research.     

Inequalities in educational opportunities in France: educational expansion,democratization or shifting barriers?

This paper is concerned with inequalities in educational opportunities in France and presents data collected from cohorts born between 1919 and 1973, a period characterized by educational expansion. Data from large-scale representative French surveys were compiled in such a way as to make accurate historical and international comparisons possible. The paper argues that there has been a shift in social inequalities, from entry into collège (lower secondary school) to entry into lycée (upper secondary school leading to the baccalauréat). Finally, policy implications have been drawn from international comparisons of data on the reduction of social inequality.     

Investigating English reading comprehension growth in adolescent language minority learners: some insights from the simple view

The development of reading skills in language minority (LM) learners, particularly during the middle school years, remains unclear despite the increasing need for educators to serve this rapidly growing population. In this study, the English reading comprehension growth of middle school LM learners was investigated using a longitudinal design and the simple view of reading as a theoretical framework. Students were assessed at four time points between fifth and seventh grades on standardized measures of listening comprehension, word reading, and reading comprehension. Individual growth modeling revealed that both listening comprehension and word reading assessed in fifth grade predicted the elevation of students’ developmental trajectories in reading comprehension. However, neither skill predicted students’ growth in reading comprehension, and there was no significant variation across children in growth rates, indicating that students in seventh grade remained on a trajectory established in fifth grade. The implications of the slowing rate of reading comprehension development during the middle school years are discussed.     

The role of derivational morphology in the reading comprehension of Spanish-speaking English language learners

This study examined the relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in English among Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) followed from fourth through fifth grade. Students’ ability to decompose derived words while reading was assessed using an experimental task. Multiple regression analyses were used to investigate the contribution of performance on this task to reading comprehension above and beyond word reading skills, phonological awareness, and breadth of vocabulary knowledge. The relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension was found to strengthen between fourth and fifth grade, and in fifth grade, morphological awareness was found to be a significant predictor of reading comprehension. The findings were robust across two measures of reading comprehension and two methods of scoring the experimental task of morphological awareness, and thus support the inclusion of derivational morphology in a model of the English reading comprehension of Spanish-speaking ELLs.

Relationship of Trait Anxiety,Peer Presence,Task Difficulty,and Skill Acquisition of Sixth-Grade Boys

Abstract

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) trait anxiety questionnaire was administered to all sixth-grade boys at one school (N = 181). Based on results of the questionnaire, 40 high-anxious and 40 low-anxious subjects were identified for participation in the study. Stratified random assignments of these subjects in a counterbalanced manner resulted in the creation of eight experimental groups. The effects of an audience and task difficulty on learning and performance were considered in the experimental design. Two social conditions—learning in the presence of a single spectator or alone—and two conditions of task difficulty on the pursuit rotor—hard and easy—were employed. Each subject was tested on one day, under one condition of task difficulty, and under one social condition. Data were treated with a three-factor multivariate analysis of variance. Dependent variables were three STAIC anxiety scale scores used to evaluate within-task feelings of anxiety and three mean performance scores for each of three blocks of pursuit rotor trials. The results of the analyses indicated that significant main effects due to social situation were not apparent until the last block of trials, when subjects in the spectator condition did better. State anxiety scores for those who performed alone were significantly higher than for those who performed with a spectator present over all blocks of trials.

Although low-anxious subjects' overall mean performance scores were higher than high-anxious subjects' on the hard task, they were not significantly different from each other until the last block of trials. The overall mean performance scores for both groups for the easy task proved significantly higher for the low-anxious group. Though the results partially support the hypothesis that a spectator increases the learner's drive and facilitates performance, the majority of the results favor the theoretical hypotheses that a spectator reduces drive and serves to console or reassure the learner.     

Before and after third grade: Longitudinal evidence for the shifting role of socioeconomic status in reading growth

Using longitudinal data on a nationally representative U.S. cohort, this study investigated the relationship between socioeconomic status and students?? reading growth between kindergarten and eighth grade. Piecewise latent growth modeling was used to describe nonlinear growth trajectories in reading during three developmental periods: kindergarten through first grade, first grade through third grade, and third grade through eighth grade. Results indicated that lower child SES was associated with faster rates of reading growth in the primary grades, but with slower rates of growth after third grade. Higher school concentration of students from low-SES backgrounds was also associated with slower rates of growth between third and eighth grade. Findings support increased attention from researchers and educators to reading achievement gaps after third grade.     

Evaluating the role of polysemous word knowledge in reading comprehension among bilingual adolescents

This study reports on the development of an assessment to measure bilingual adolescents’ knowledge of polysemous vocabulary and explores the contribution of polysemous word knowledge to reading comprehension among those students. Spanish–English bilingual students in seventh grade (n = 107) completed a battery of standardized reading and language measures along with a researcher-designed measure of their knowledge of the academic senses of words that also have casual, everyday meanings. Item-response theory analyses and correlational analyses provided validity evidence for the assessment. Regression analyses indicated that students’ knowledge of academic senses of polysemous words predicted their reading comprehension, even after controlling for their knowledge of the casual sense of the same words, vocabulary breadth, and decoding skills. Findings suggest that comprehension of grade-level texts is uniquely predicted by the ability to recognize the meanings of familiar words when they appear in academic contexts.