Early Indicators

This paper describes two models for understanding dropping out as a developmental process that may begin in the earliest grades.

The first year of high school is a critical transition period for students. Those who succeed in
their first year are more likely to continue to do well in the following years and eventually
graduate.

Research on dropping out has shown that the decision to persist in or leave school is affected by multiple contextual factors interacting in a cumulative way over the life course of a student. Often overlooked in this discussion is one most directly related to graduation: student course performance. This report looks at student performance in freshman coursework, how it is related to eventual graduation and how personal and school factors contribute to success of failure in freshman-year courses

This study identified four predictative indicators of student performance in 6th grade predicts 60% of the students who will not graduate from high school.

This study examined students who were first time 9th graders in the 2000-01 school year and follows them through to high school and post-secondary outcomes. The 9th grade suspension data finds that black students, students who are economically disadvantaged, and special education students are disproportionately suspended, both in the frequency of suspensions and the duration of days lost. Disciplinary incidents were found to be interrelated with other of indicators of student disengagement from school, such as course failures and absenteeism

The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) has been gaining popularity as a comprehensive treatment model for children ages 12 to 60 months with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This article evaluates the research on the ESDM through an analysis of study design and purpose; child participants; setting, intervention agents, and context; density and duration; and overall research rigor to assist professionals with knowledge translation and decisions round adoption of the practices.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an early intervention strategy, First Step to Success, involving (a) teacher-directed and (b) a combination of teacher- and parent-directed strategies on the behaviors of elementary school children at risk for antisocial behavior. 

explore going beyond defining learning disability as a discrepancy between achievement and ability, to a broader view of learning disability based on dynamic assessment—failure to respond over time to validated intervention protocols—and consideration of multiple developmental domains, not just a single index influencing expected level of achievement 

This paper examines New York City elementary school teachers’ decisions to stay in the same school, transfer to another school in the district, transfer to another district, or leave teaching in New York state during the first five years of their careers.

By estimating the effect of teacher attributes using a value-added model, the analyses in this paper predict that observable qualifications of teachers resulted in average improved achievement for students in the poorest decile of schools of .03 standard deviations.

This study developed a multi-metod approach to identifying students in middle school that would have academic difficulty in high school.

This paper discusses the search for a “magic metric” in education: an index/number that would be generally accepted as the most efficient descriptor of school’s performance in a district.

This report provides a practical “management guide,” for an evidence-based key indicator data decision system for school districts and schools.

This paper summarizes the results of a retrospective review of generalization in the context of social skills research with preschool children.

This clinically wise and pragmatic book presents a systematic approach for treating any form of childhood anxiety using proven exposure-based techniques.

The purpose of this study was to critically examine the positive approaches to behavioral intervention research and young children demonstrating challenging behavior. The results indicate an increasing trend of research using positive behavioral interventions with young children who demonstrate challenging behaviors. Most of the research has been conducted with children with disabilities between 3 and 6 years old.

The author makes the argument that curriculum based measurement meets the psychometric requirements of being reliaable and valid as well as providing useful information to teachers.

A recent study, attempts to answer this question by examining the effects of two North Carolina early-childhood programs on students’ educational outcomes in elementary school. These findings indicate that North Carolina’s investment in early childhood programs is associated with improved educational outcomes. Importantly, these effects don’t appear to fade during the elementary grades

This study examines seven nationally representative studies on school dropout and their findings on why students dropout of school. 

This study evaluated the reliability and validity of DIBELS-M as a meaure to predict students at risk for reading failure.

Studies of the persistence of social stratification rely heavily on students’ experience in secondary schools. In this study, outcomes for a randomly selected panel of Baltimore children, followed from age 6 to age 22, demonstrate that first graders’ social contexts and personal resources explain educational attainment levels in early adulthood about as well as do similar resources measured in adolescence.

This investigation examines the aspect of the structural and regulatory environment of schools to identify features that are associated with higher levels of engagement among eighth-grade students at risk.

Leading experts present evidence-based procedures for supporting positive behaviors and reducing problem behaviors with children and adults in diverse contexts. Chapters delve into applications in education, autism treatment, addictions, behavioral pediatrics, and other areas. 

This systematic review synthesizes the findings from 30 studies thatcompared the performance of students at schools using single‐trackyear‐round calendars to the performance of students at schools usinga traditional calendar.

This paper reviews research on the classification of students with learning disability (LD). It first examines the evolution of LD definitions and the evidence for three components of LD classification: discrepancy, heterogeneity, and exclusion.

This report reviews the technical adequacy of measures of math performance for the purposes of identifying at risk learners.

Use of early detection and ongoing assessment of response as a basis for more focused intervention is described. Primary and secondary prevention issues also are discussed in relation to this approach.

This study examined individual growth curves were used to test whether the development of children with reading disabilities is best characterized by models of developmental lag or developmental deficit.

This paper summarize basic research on response effort and explore the role of effort in diverse applied areas including deceleration of aberrant behavior, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oral habits, health care appointment keeping, littering, indexes of functional disability, and problem-solving.

CASL's general goal is to identify instructional practices that accelerate the learning of K-3 children with disabilities. A specific goal is to identify and understand the nature of nonresponsiveness to generally effective instruction. 

To implement RTI for prevention and identification, schools must make decisions about six components that constitute the process. The authors recommendation is that schools employ three tiers, with only one tier separating general and special education.

This paper reviews several measures that serve as early identification measures for students at risk for math difficulties.

Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills is a measure of reading skills.  This paper reviews the psychometric properties of the various measures included in DIBELS.

This paper reviews the use of DIBELS and curriculum-based measurement as methods for the early identification of students at risk for reading difficulties.

Response to intervention is defined and described along with methods and procedures for quantifying whether or not a student shows an adequate or inadequate response to an evidence-based intervention implemented with integrity. 

This paper provides direct evidence about the impacts of school job matching on productivity and student achievement.

The authors study the effects of various types of education and training on the ability of teachers to promote student achievement.

This work establishes a scientifically substantiated link between children's early family experience and their later intellectual growth—a link that exists regardless of a child's race.

2 1/2 years of observing 42 families for an hour each month to learn about what typically went on in homes with 1- and 2-year-old children learning to talk. The data from this study showed that ordinary families differ immensely in the amount of experience with language and interaction they regularly provide their children and that differences in children’s experience are strongly linked to children’s language accomplishments at age 3. The goal of this longitudinal study was to discover what was happening in children’s early experience that could account for the intractable difference in rates of vocabulary growth we saw among 4-year-olds.

Children's behavior problems pose challenges to families, schools, and society. The research literature argues that early detection/intervention is the most powerful course of action in ameliorating these problems in children at risk of emotional/behavioral disorders.

This evaluation used Messick's construct validity as a conceptual framework for an empirical study assessing the validity of use, utility, and impact of office discipline referral (ODR) measures for data-based decision making about student behavior in schools. 

Some of the specific reasons for the success or failure of retention in the area of reading were examined via an in-depth study of a small number of both at-risk retained students and comparably low skilled promoted children

This study used Dynamic Inicators of Early Basic Literacy Skills and the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders to identify students at risk for reading or behavioral difficulties.  These students were followed through 4th grade to see how well they responded to three different reading instruction. practices.

Managing Classroom Behavior summarizes principles of good instruction, the acting-out cycle, and how to work with students, other teachers, and parents.

This paper reviews issues surrounding the use of discrepancy in identifying learning disability

This paper reviews measures of student performance that serve as early indicators of student academic difficulty.

This report, produced by the National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research, outlines steps that schools can take to identify at-risk students and provide the necessary support systems and relevant interventions to assist students in obtaining a high school diploma.

This paper reviews school engagement as a predictor of later academic difficulty.

This study examines the relationship between two dominant measures of teacher quality, teacher qualification and teacher effectiveness (measured by value-added modeling), in terms of their influence on students’ short-term academic growth and long-term educational success (measured by bachelor’s degree attainment).

Students who are at risk of dropping out of school can be identified retrospectively as early as third grade on the basis of attendance patterns, academic performance, and behavior. Check & Connect is a model designed to promote student engagement, support regular attendance, and improve the likelihood of school completion.

Using a randomized control trial in 11 Chinese primary schools, we studied the effects of pay-for-grades programs on academic cheating. We randomly assigned 82 classrooms into treatment or control conditions, and used a statistical algorithm to determine the occurrence of cheating. 

This book provides effective techniques for pinpointing the causes of challenging behaviors, identifying alternate approached, and adapting instructional routines. 

This study demonstrates, for the first time, that providing all 20% of the nation’s three- and four-year-old children who live in poverty with a high-quality ECD program would have a substantial payoff for governments and taxpayers in the future.

The study investigates the correlation and predictive value of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) against the Michigan Educational Assessment Program's (MEAP) fourth grade reading assessment.

This study provides descriptive data on the rates of office discipline referrals and beginning reading skills for students in grades K—3 for one school district that is implementing a three-tier prevention model for both reading and behavior support. 

This report addresses three central sets of questions: (1) How many students in grades 6 through 12 drop out of Philadelphia's public schools in a single year? What are the key characteristics of these students, including their age, grade, race/ethnicity, gender, type of school attended, and neighborhood of residence?; (2) What percentage of 9th graders graduates within four years, five years, or six years of starting high school? What has been the trend in these cohort graduation rates over the past 5 years? What are the trends in cohort graduation rates for males and females and for students of different racial/ethnic backgrounds?; and (3) Which student characteristics, knowable or potentially knowable by school personnel and agency staff, can identify students as being at high risk of dropping out of high school?

Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2011 ofers a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of indicators that relect a consensus among professionals on how to measure the current state of education internationally.

This study evaulated curriculum-based measures of oral reading as early predicors of overall reading achievement.

In this research-based book, Roderick examines two critical factors impacting graduation or dropping out. They are school transition to middle school and from there to high school and, secondly, grade retention.

In an experimental assessment of a choral responding procedure for increasing children's response to teacher commands, decreased levels of off-task behavior, as well as increased levels of correct responding, resulted from the procedures for three handicapped preschool children during large group instruction.

This study examined the effects of a self-evaluation treatment package on the independent work skills of preschool children with disabilities. 

The authors conducted descriptive and experimental analyses of aberrant behavior in school settings with 2 children with autism, using teachers as assessors. Experimental functional analyses carried out by the investigators were followed by training teachers to conduct a descriptive analysis and a classroom experimental analysis. 

This study evaluated an alternative method of identifying early reading difficulty. L. S. Fuchs and D. Fuchs (1998) proposed that academic problems could be indexed by a dual discrepancy on level and slope of performance, relative to classmates, on curriculum-based measurement tasks. 

Effective ongoing assessment, referred to in the education literature as formative assessment or progress monitoring, is indispensable in promoting teacher and student success. Feedback through formative assessment is ranked at or near the top of practices known to significantly raise student achievement. For decades, formative assessment has been found to be effective in clinical settings and, more important, in typical classroom settings. Formative assessment produces substantial results at a cost significantly below that of other popular school reform initiatives such as smaller class size, charter schools, accountability, and school vouchers. It also serves as a practical diagnostic tool available to all teachers. A core component of formal and informal assessment procedures, formative assessment allows teachers to quickly determine if individual students are progressing at acceptable rates and provides insight into where and how to modify and adapt lessons, with the goal of making sure that students do not fall behind.

This article reviews the efficacy of curriculum-based measurement as a methodology for enhancing student achievement in reading and math.  Variables that contribute to the benefit of curriculum-based measurement are discussed.

This article layout two sets of findings: (1) what we know about the kind of instruction that weak readers need in kindergarten through second grade to prevent them from ever entering the downward spiral, and (2) what we know about the effectiveness of interventions that make use of this knowledge.

The goal of this study was to develop a brief assessment that could be conducted in the natural setting to identify naturally occurring, high-frequency subsequent events that may serve as maintaining consequences for disruptive behavior using the entire class as the unit of analysis. Procedures were conducted in two early childhood classrooms during regularly scheduled classroom activities.

The authors argue against the use of psychometric assessment as the primary or sole vehicle for diagnosing specific reading disability and delivered some suggestions.

This research looked at test score gaps for a range of populations: between boys and girls; between black, white, and Hispanic children; between the children and the mother’s education; between children in poor and nonpoor families; and the gaps between high-poverty and low-poverty schools. They wanted to know whether gaps grow faster during summer or the school year. They were unable to answer this question as the results were inconclusive. Although, von Hippel and Hamrock did find the total gap in performance from kindergarten to eighth grade, is substantially smaller than the gap that exists at the time children enter school. The conclusion is that gaps happen mostly in the first five years of life. study suggests students who are behind peers at the time they enter kindergarten should receive early remedial instruction as the most efficacious way to improve overall performance.

A major goal of this article (and of our much larger book) is to communicate and adapt this knowledge base for effective use by educators in coping with the rising tide of antisocial students populating today's schools.

This article provides a description of the First Step to Success early intervention program for preventing development of antisocial behavior patterns among young, at-risk children. 

This research monograph offers early childhood educators a foundational resource of information needed to develop inclusion practices.

Two studies were conducted to examine the extent to which the category "learning disabilities" (LD) meets the major criterion for classification systems, specifically that the category demonstrates at least one universal and one specificfcharacteristic.