Author Archives for Jack States
January 31, 2019 1:50 pm
Published by Jack States
Digest of Education Statistics 2017. The most recent high school graduation rate data were just released for the 2016-17 school year. The following graph shows consistent improvement in this critical student and school performance metric. Student graduation increased by 12 percentage points during the fifteen years from 2002 and 2017. While there is still much work to be done to identify and implement graduation standards that translate into meaningful and life long benefits, this type of consistent performance improvement should be acknowledged.
•AFGR: The Average Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) was used by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) from 2002 through 2013.
•ACGR: The Four-Year Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR) was established by DOE in 2008, establishing a uniform and more accurate measure for calculating the rate at which students graduated from high school.
Both models co-existed for threes years and had comparable graduate rate data during that time.
A second area of the report disaggregates graduation rate data by students from different ethnic backgrounds. There remains an unacceptable graduation rate gap between White and Black students, and White and Hispanic students. The resulting graduation rate for Black students (77.8%) and Hispanic students (80.0%) are failures of the system. While progress will always be too slow in this area, the data do show steady progress in closing the gap over the last six years. The graduation gap between White and Black students decreased by 6.2 percentage points (from 17% in 2010-11 to 10.8% in 2016-17). The graduation gap between White and Hispanic students decreased by 4.4 percentage points (from 13% in 2010-11 to 8.6% in 2016-17).
A third area of disaggregated data was that of graduation rates by individual states. The variation between states continues to be extreme with the top ten states averaging a 89.7% graduation rate and the bottom ten states averaging 77.4%.
Improving graduation rates continue to be a clear focus of the education system, and while there is a long way to go, it is one of the few areas where progress is being made.
Citation: Snyder, T.D., de Brey, C., and Dillow, S.A. (2019). Digest of Education Statistics 2017 (NCES 2018-070). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC.
Link: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED592104.pdf
January 28, 2019 9:41 am
Published by Jack States
High-Quality Education Research.
A recent article published in Best Evidence in Brief examines the issues of quantity and quality of education research. Robert Slavin highlights the progress made over the past 30 years in delivering the evidence that education practitioners need to make informed decisions. His conclusions are based on three studies: Effective Programs for Struggling Readers: A Best-Evidence Synthesis; A Synthesis of Quantitative Research on Reading Programs for Secondary Students; and Effective Programs in Elementary Mathematics: A Best-Evidence Synthesis. The research found that the number of rigorous randomized or quasi-experimental studies in elementary reading for struggling readers, secondary reading, and elementary math rose significantly over the past 20 years. Despite the important gains, the trend may be going in the wrong direction. Given the importance of research in developing an effective evidence-based culture in education, educators need to diligently support the production of the types of research (including replication studies) essential to building a robust evidence base.
Citations:
Slavin, R. (2019). Replication. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://robertslavinsblog.wordpress.com/2019/01/24/replication/
Baye, A., Inns, A., Lake, C., & Slavin, R. E. (2018). A synthesis of quantitative research on reading programs for secondary students. Reading Research Quarterly.
Inns, A., Lake, C., Pellegrini, M., & Slavin, R. (2018). Effective programs for struggling readers: A best-evidence synthesis.Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, Washington, DC.
Pellegrini, M., Inns, A., & Slavin, R. (2018). Effective programs in elementary mathematics: A best-evidence synthesis.Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, Washington, DC.
Link: For copies of the papers presented at the annual meeting, please contact sdavis@SuccessForAll.org, and for the Baye article, go to https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rrq.229
January 24, 2019 10:07 am
Published by Jack States
Revisiting the Effect of Teaching of Learning Strategies on Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis of the Findings: This study examines the impact of the teaching of learning strategies on student academic achievement. Learning strategies are behaviors and processes taught to learners, including cognitive strategies such as memory setting and retrieval, and executive cognitive processes. Learning strategies are also known as study, academic, or research skills. Five categories of learning strategies were assessed: rehearsal, elaboration, organizational, comprehension, and affective. The findings reveal that academic achievement of students can be improved by teaching of learning strategies in the classroom. The researchers found a medium effect size, results consistent with the findings of Donker et al., (2014) and Hattie, Biggs, and Purdie (1996).
Citation: Bas, G., & Beyhan, O. (2018). Revisiting the Effect of Teaching of Learning Strategies on Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis of the Findings. International Journal of Research in Education and Science, 5(1), 70-87.
Link: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1198049.pdf
January 22, 2019 11:38 am
Published by Jack States
When Evidence-based Literacy Programs Fail. This study examines the implementation of Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) for struggling readers that had been proven to work in early grades. Disappointingly, the results showed after an average of 19 weeks of instruction the intervention had no impact on students’ reading comprehension and a negative impact on their mastery of ELA/literacy standards. The LLI impact on Smarter Balanced ELA/literacy scores was roughly equivalent to students losing more than five months of learning, based on the typical annual growth of students in grades 6-8. When the results were deconstructed, it was found that the failure to overcome obstacles to effective implementation played a significant role in the failure of the program to produce the anticipated results. The findings highlight the importance of considering context and implementation, in addition to evidence of effectiveness, when choosing an intervention program. Not only do schools need to adopt programs supported by evidence, but equally educators need to implement them consistently and effectively if students are to truly benefit from an intervention.
Citation: Gonzalez, N. (2018). When evidence-based literacy programs fail. Phi Delta Kappan, 100(4), 54–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/0031721718815675
Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0031721718815675#articleCitationDownloadContainer
January 22, 2019 11:33 am
Published by Jack States
Barriers to Implementing Classroom Management and Behavior Support Plans: An Exploratory Investigation. Ample evidence supports effective classroom management’s place in maximizing student achievement. Unfortunately, sustained implementation of classroom management strategies too often fail. This study examines obstacles encountered by 33 educators along with suggested interventions to overcome impediments to effective delivery of classroom management interventions or behavior support plans. Having the right classroom management plan isn’t enough if you can’t deliver the strategies to the students in the classroom.
Citation: Collier‐Meek, M. A., Sanetti, L. M., & Boyle, A. M. (2019). Barriers to implementing classroom management and behavior support plans: An exploratory investigation. Psychology in the Schools, 56(1), 5-17.
Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/pits.22127
December 21, 2018 9:42 am
Published by Jack States
“Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2018”. Dropping out of high school has significant negative impacts on students. Statistically, they will have lower earnings than high school graduates, are more likely to be unemployed, have poorer health, and have a higher rate of incarceration. This report provides a detailed analysis of long-term dropout and completion trends and student characteristics of high school dropouts and completers. The first measure examined was the “event dropout rate” which is the percent of students who drop out in grades 10-12 without a high school diploma or alternative credential. The event dropout rate for SY 2015-16 was 4.8%, which translated into 532,000 students.
The 40 year trend show an alarming lack of progress. While 2015-16 was lower than in 1976 (5.8%), it reflects a worsening over the last ten years (increasing from 3.8% to 4.8%). Of all of the student demographic data, the clearest impact was that of family income. Students from the lowest income families had a 7.2% dropout rate compared to 3.9% for highest income families. The “adjusted cohort graduation rate” for 2015-16 was 84% which showed steady improvement over the past five years. The main problem is the significant differences in graduate rates across race, economic status, states, and disabilities. For example, graduation rates for white students ranged from 76% in New Mexico to 94% in New Jersey; black students from 57% in Nevada to 88% in West Virginia; Hispanic students from 65% in Minnesota to 89 % in Vermont.
Citation:
McFarland, J., Cui, J., Rathbun, A., and Holmes, J. (2018). Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2018 (NCES 2019-117). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved December 14, 2018 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch.
Link: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019117.pdf
December 18, 2018 11:07 am
Published by Jack States
Teacher-student Relationships. Research shows skills commonly referred to as soft skills (personal competencies) have a powerful impact on teacher effectiveness. Mastery results in beneficial teacher-student relationships. Evidence finds teachers who create a positive relationship have a substantial effect on student learning; they also have fewer discipline problems, office referrals, and related conduct issues. Even more importantly, these skills can be taught in pre-service and in-service training.
Citation: States, J., Detrich, R. & Keyworth, R. (2018). Teacher-student Relationships Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. Retrieved from https://www.winginstitute.org/soft-skills-teacher-student-relationships
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/soft-skills-teacher-student-relationships
December 12, 2018 10:23 am
Published by Jack States
Do students benefit from longer school days? Regression discontinuity evidence from Florida’s additional hour of literacy instruction: This research examines the impact of longer school days on student achievement. The amount of time available for instruction has a role to play in student learning. Insufficient instruction would appear to have an effect on learning, but the current knowledge-base on this topics is insufficient. This study attempts to fill in gaps in the evidence-base on this topic. The results indicate significant positive effects of additional literacy instruction on student reading achievement. Although this study finds positive outcomes for additional reading instruction, it is important to note that for achieving maximum results it is important to pair evidence-based reading instruction practices with the additional instruction time in order to achieve maximum results.
Citation:Figlio, D., Holden, K. L., & Ozek, U. (2018). Do students benefit from longer school days? Regression discontinuity evidence from Florida’s additional hour of literacy instruction. Economics of Education Review, 67, 171-183.
Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775718303662
December 6, 2018 11:03 am
Published by Jack States
The Learning Styles Educational Neuromyth: Lack of Agreement Between Teachers’ Judgments, Self-Assessment, and Students’ Intelligence. The issue of learning styles (LS) have been overwhelmingly embraced by teachers and the public for over forty years. International surveys of teachers have shown more than 90% believe that grouping students into categories, like auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learners, or concrete versus abstract learners will enhance student achievement. This study examined the hypothesis that teachers’ and students’ assessment of preferred LS correspond. The study found no relationship between pupils’ self-assessment and teachers’ assessment. Teachers’ and students’ answers didn’t match up. The study suggests that teachers cannot assess the LS of their students accurately. This is important because if teachers cannot accurately identify which style is preferred, they cannot assign the appropriate curriculum to each student. For a thorough summary on research on this topic the article by Daniel Willingham, “Does Tailoring Instruction to Learning Styles Help Student Learn?” offers arguments for and against LS. At this time the preponderance of evidence finds learning styles to have no basis in fact, despite the very strong and persistent preference teachers and the public have for the concept.
Citation:Papadatou-Pastou, M., Gritzali, M., & Barrable, A. (2018). The Learning Styles Educational Neuromyth: Lack of Agreement Between Teachers’ Judgments, Self-Assessment, and Students’ Intelligence. Front. Educ. 3:105. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2018.00105
Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2018.00105/full
December 5, 2018 10:14 am
Published by Jack States
Accountability policies and teacher decision making: Barriers to the use of data to improve practice. Underlying many accountability policies is the assumption that standardized test data and other common sources of data will be used to make decisions that will result in changes to instructional practices. This study examines longitudinal from nine high schools nominated as leading practitioners of Continuous Improvement (CI) practices. The researchers compared continuous improvement best practices to teachers actual use of data in making decisions. The study found teachers to be receptive, but also found that significant obstacles were interfering with the effective use of data that resulted in changes in instruction. The analysis showed cultural values and practices inconsistent with accountability policies and continuous improvement practices impede implementation. The researchers identify barriers to use of testing and other data that help to account for the less than successful results. Given the current understanding of the importance on implementation science in the effective application of any new practice, these findings are not a surprise. As our colleague, Ronnie Detrich, is quoted as saying, “Implementation is where great ideas go to die”.
Citation: Ingram, D., Louis, K. S., & Schroeder, R. G. (2004). Accountability policies and teacher decision making: Barriers to the use of data to improve practice. Teachers College Record, 106(6), 1258-1287.
Link: Accountability policies and teacher decision making: Barriers to the use of data to improve practice
