Do Charter Middle Schools Improve Students’ College Outcomes? This study examines the impact of Charter schools on college enrollment. The National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) used college enrollment and completion data for students who (more than a decade ago) entered lotteries to be admitted to 31 charter middle schools across the United States. College outcomes were compared for 1,723 randomly selected “lottery winners” and 1,150 randomly selected “lottery losers”. The results show that admission to a charter middle school did not affect college outcomes. Additionally, the study finds no consistent relationship between the impact a charter middle school achievement and the school’s impact on college outcomes
Citation: Place, K., & Gleason, P. Do Charter Middle Schools Improve Students’ College Outcomes? (Study Highlights) (No. 61bd53574633412b9136328cb4e143ef). Mathematica Policy Research.
Performance feedback is a practice used to improve performance. Principals give feedback to teachers to clarify expectations and to provide information for increasing administrative, instructional, behavior management, and personal competency skills. More than seven meta-analyses conducted since 1980 support feedback as one of the most powerful tools for improving performance. To deliver useful feedback, principals need current and accurate information on student performance and a teacher’s instructional skills. Research finds that principals depend on unreliable sources of data such as “walk-throughs,” brief informal observations that provide snapshots of classroom activities but are not designed for performance improvement. Principals should replace traditional walk-throughs with more effective feedback practices, such as coaching, that are better suited to improving specific teaching skills. For the best results, feedback must meet these four conditions: (1) It is objective, reliable, measurable, and specific; (2) it provides information about what was done well, what needs improvement, and how to improve; (3) it is delivered frequently and immediately following performance; and (4) it is about performance rather than personal characteristics.
Proceed With Caution: Using Web-Based Resources for Instructing Students With and at Risk for EBD. This article examines issues relating to the use of websites popular with educators. Today educators often rely on social media platforms such as Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers for information for solving problems encountered in the classroom. These sites can offer teachers helpful information, but also come with potential risks that educators need to consider when utilizing such resources. This article offers guidelines for maximizing the usefulness of such sites and for avoiding many of the pitfall educators may face. The authors suggest educators first identify and learn the critical elements of effective practices from trustworthy sources and then use sites such as Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers to facilitate implementation.
Citation: Beahm, L. A., Cook, B. G., & Cook, L. (2019). Proceed With Caution: Using Web-Based Resources for Instructing Students With and at Risk for EBD. Beyond Behavior, 28(1), 13-20.
The Effect of Teaching “Learning Strategies” on Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis Study: Two recent studies have been published in Turkey on the topic of teaching learning strategies. Both studies are meta-analyses that examine the effect of learning strategies on student academic achievement. Learning strategies are methods for teaching students how to learn, how to remember, and how to think. Learning strategies involve some simple study skills such as underlying the main idea in a text or complex thinking processes such employing analogies or using analysis to relate prior knowledge to new information. Learning strategies have been classified as rehearsal strategies, elaboration strategies, organizational strategies, comprehension monitoring strategies, and affective strategies.
Both meta-analyses find teaching learning strategies has a significant positive effect size on student achievement. These studies support research on this topic conducted by Hattie, Biggs, and Purdie (1996) and Donker et al. (2014) that revealed an overall medium effect size on student achievement for teaching learning strategies. Both studies find that teaching learning strategies is effective at all levels of education and is most effective in the early grades. The Bas study reveals there was no significant difference between effect sizes in terms of SES or with regard to setting (rural or urban). The Yildirim study concludes that teaching learning strategies can be incorporated into the normal curricula or taught independently. Learning strategies that were found to be effective include; repetition, sense-making, integrated strategies, organizing, and monitoring comprehension.
Citation:
Study 1: Bas, G., & Beyhan, Ö. (2019). 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.
Study 2: YILDIRIM, I., CIRAK-KURT, S., & SEN, S. (2019). The Effect of Teaching” Learning Strategies” on Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis Study. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research (EJER), (79).
The Effect of Team-Based Learning on Content Knowledge: A Meta-Analysis: As educators struggle with finding interventions that make a difference, focus increasingly shifts to pedagogy and how teachers deliver instruction. This meta-analysis examines the impact of team-based learning strategies on achievement and student engagement. The study finds that team-based strategies were found to have a positive impact on grades, test performance, and engagement. This research specifically looked at Team-Based Learning (TBL), a collaborative learning teaching strategy designed around small-group learning. Students are organized into teams of 5-7 students that work together throughout the class. The program is designed around preparation (reading prior to class), in-class readiness assurance testing, and application exercises. The overall mean effect size of 0.55 indicates a moderate positive effect of TBL on content knowledge when compared to non-TBL comparison groups.
Citation: Swanson, E., McCulley, L. V., Osman, D. J., Scammacca Lewis, N., & Solis, M. (2017). The effect of team-based learning on content knowledge: A meta-analysis. Active Learning in Higher Education, 1469787417731201.
Increasing Teachers’ Use of Behavior-Specific Praise with the Teacher vs. Student Game. Research has long supported the importance of teacher behavior specific praise in the classroom. This study examines the impact of a Teacher Versus Student Game, a program that is based upon The Good Behavior Game (GBG). GBG has been in use since 1967 and is an evidence-based behavioral classroom management strategy that helps children learn how to work together to create a positive learning environment. Pressure for teachers to show academic results is hindered by challenging student conduct. Maintaining control of student behavior is a critical factor in teacher’s ability to effectively deliver instruction that results in increased student academic outcomes. Using group contingencies found in the Teacher Versus Student Game provides teachers another program designed to accomplish this important goal. This paper found that the game increased teachers rates of praise; however, the teachers gradually decreased their use of BSP over time.
Two additional papers on practices to increase teacher praise are identified under citations.
Gage, N. A., MacSuga-Gage, A. S., & Crews, E. (2017). Increasing teachers’ use of behavior-specific praise using a multitiered system for professional development. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 19(4), 239-251.
White, K. (2018). Increasing Teachers’ Use of Behavior Specific Praise Via a Smart Watch.
STEM Performance and Supply: Assessing the Evidence for Education. Policy. Concerns that the United States is not training a sufficient number of students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) has been of ongoing concern for policy makers for decades. This study examines the evidence and concludes that U.S. education system is producing ample supplies of students to respond to STEM labor market demand.
Bachelor’s degree graduates: rate of growth from 1970 base year (Source: Digest of Education Statistics, 2015 NCES . (calculations by authors)
Citation:Salzman, H., & Benderly, B. L. (2019). STEM Performance and Supply: Assessing the Evidence for Education Policy. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 28(1), 9-25.
Meta-Analysis of Criterion Validity for Curriculum-Based Measurement in Written Language. A shout out to one of the Wing Institute’s past student grant recipients, John Romig. A recent study in which he was the lead author, looks at valid measures of student progress as critical tools in effective and efficient progress monitoring. One of the most frequently adopted instruments is curriculum-based measures. Curriculum-based measures (CBM) have been used to assess student progress in reading, arithmetic, spelling, and writing. For CBM to be widely embraced these tools should meet standards for reliability and validity. This study examines the technical adequacy of curriculum-based measures for written language, one of the critical skills required for student success in school. The study concludes two scoring procedures, correct word sequences and correct minus incorrect sequences met criterion validity with commercially developed and state or locally developed criterion assessments.
Citation: Romig, J. E., Therrien, W. J., & Lloyd, J. W. (2017). Meta-analysis of criterion validity for curriculum-based measurement in written language. The Journal of Special Education, 51(2), 72-82.
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.
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.
