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November 28, 2018
Evaluating the Relationships Between Poverty and School Performance
One of the most critical issues facing K-12 education is the impact that poverty has on school performance. This study first examines school performance using traditional metrics for school poverty levels (percent of student body that qualify for free and reduced lunch: FRL) and school performance (school achievement based on the aggregate test scores of its student body). The results support prior research documenting the negative relationship between the level of poverty in a school and student achievement (the higher the poverty the lower the achievement). However, when replacing the student achievement metric with a student growth metric, the relationship is significantly different.
This NWEA study argues that, while it is important to measure and report a school’s student achievement, it is often a function of the demographics of a school’s population rather than a school’s effectiveness at teaching. Student growth tracks the learning of students regardless of their poverty level and is a more useful tool for comparing individual school performance. Sixty percent of schools with high poverty student populations had above average student growth. And a larger percentage of high poverty schools demonstrated substantial growth than schools from wealthy communities. The dramatic negative relationship between poverty and student achievement was much less evident when looking at student growth, and much more nuanced.
The implications of the study are profound. First, it highlights the need for school performance measures to include student growth in addition to school achievement. Both are critical measures. More importantly, it raises the question: If students make comparable progress during the school year regardless of their poverty level, what accounts for the significant differences in test scores. One study tracked the performance of students by poverty level and their performance on tests administered at the beginning and end of each school year. The data showed a clear pattern. Students of all socio economic groups made comparable progress during the school year. The biggest, and compounding gaps, occurred during the summer months suggesting that poverty’s largest impact occurs outside of school.
Citation:Alexander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R., & Olson, L. S. (2001). Schools, achievement, and inequality: A seasonal perspective. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 23, 171–191.
Link: https://www.nwea.org/content/uploads/2018/10/Evaluating-the-Relationships-Between-Poverty-and-School-Performance.pdf
November 14, 2018
Research Review: The effects of mindfulness‐based interventions on cognition and mental health in children and adolescents – a meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials
The purpose of this meta-analysis is to examine the impact of mindfulness training on students. Mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) are an increasingly popular way designed to improve the behavioral, cognitive and mental health outcomes of children. Given its popularity, it is important to examine randomized controlled trials (RCT) on mindfulness. The researchers found a positive 0.19 effect size. Outcome of Mindfulness for Executive Functioning, Attention, Depression, Anxiety/Stress and Negative Behaviors, identified effect sizes (Cohen’s d), ranging from .16 to .30.
Citation:Dunning, D. L., Griffiths, K., Kuyken, W., Crane, C., Foulkes, L., Parker, J., & Dalgleish, T. (2018). Research Review: The effects of mindfulness‐based interventions on cognition and mental health in children and adolescents–a meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jcpp.12980
November 14, 2018
Tutor Trust: Affordable Primary Tuition: Evaluation report and executive summary November 2018
The purpose of this study is the examination of low-cost interventions to improve the performance of disadvantaged students. The intervention was designed to improve the performance of students by providing small-group tutoring sessions. The selected students who participated in tutoring received 12 hours of additional instruction for 12 weeks. The students were tutored in groups of three by trained university students and recent graduates. Students in the control schools continued with normal teaching. The research found that children who received tutoring progressed more in math compared to children in control schools (effect size = +0.19). Students eligible for free reduced school meals benefited even more with an 0.25 effect size.
Citation:Torgerson, C. J., Bell, K., Coleman, E., Elliott, L., Fairhurst, C., Gascoine, L., Hewitt, C. E., & Torgerson, D. J. (2018). Tutor Trust: Affordable Primary Tuition. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).
Link: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Projects/Evaluation_Reports/Tutor_Trust.pdf
November 14, 2018
Do Published Studies Yield larger Effect Sizes than Unpublished Studies in Education and Special Education? A Meta-Review
The purpose of this study is to estimate the extent to which publication bias is present in education and special education journals. Meta-analyses are increasingly used as the basis for making educational decisions. Research suggests that publication bias continues to exist in meta-analyses that are published. The data reveal that 58% of meta-analyses did not test for possible publication bias. This paper shows that published studies were associated with significantly larger effect sizes than unpublished studies (d=0.64). The authors suggest that meta-analyses report effect sizes of published and unpublished separately in order to address issues of publication bias.
Citation:Chow, J. C., & Ekholm, E. (2018). Do Published Studies Yield Larger Effect Sizes than Unpublished Studies in Education and Special Education? A Meta-review.
Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-018-9437-7
October 31, 2018
Teacher Coaching Overview
Research provides convincing evidence that teachers wield great influence over student outcomes. Our knowledge base tells us that how teachers teach is instrumental to their success. To leverage this fact, pre-service and in-service programs must use pedagogical techniques offering the greatest likelihood that teachers will master and apply these critical competencies on the job. Research shows that coaching is the most efficacious way to accomplish this goal. By far, coaching outperforms didactic instruction, the most commonly used technique. Coaching is essential to mastering complex skill sets required of every teacher. It improves treatment integrity of practices taught and, unlike other methods, makes more likely that the practices will actually be used in the classroom. Coaches instruct trainees in standards, demonstrate skills, and observe the application of these skills in real-world classroom settings. Coaches provide feedback to trainees, and, based on observation, instruct the trainees in how to improve their performance. Given the disappointing track record of current in-service programs, coaching offer schools a viable alternative for improving services.
Citation:Cleaver, S., Detrich, R. & States, J. (2018). Overview of Teacher Evaluation. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/teacher-evaluation-teacher-coaching.
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/teacher-evaluation-teacher-coaching
October 29, 2018
Grade Inflation in High Schools (2005–2016)
Student grades have been one of the longest standing tools for measuring student performance and there is an inherent assumption by educators and parents that they are accurate reflections of how well their children are doing. This study examines that assumption, asking the question: how well do student grades correlate with test scores, school demographics, student performance on college entrance exams, and the historical difficulty for getting A’s (is it easier or harder to get A’s). The study found that students who scored higher on end-of-course (EOC) examinations also had higher grades. However having high grades did not correlate with doing well on the examination. For example only 21% of “A” students and 3% of “B” students passed the highest standard on the EOC exam. Over one third of students receiving B’s failed to score proficient on the exam. The overall conclusions were: (1) having good grades is no guarantee that a student has learned the expected knowledge from a course, (2) in the case of math (the curriculum area studied), end of course scores are much more predictive of ACT scores than course grades, and (3) grade point averages (GPA’s) have grown steadily from 2005 to 2016, and that the most significant growth has been in more affluent schools.
Citation: Gershenson, S. (2018). Grade Inflation in High Schools (2005–2016).
Link: http://edex.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/publication/pdfs/(2018.09.19)%20Grade%20Inflation%20in%20High%20Schools%20(2005-2016).pdf
October 29, 2018
The teacher pay penalty has hit a new high: Trends in the teacher wage and compensation gaps through 2017
Given that evidence clearly shows teachers as having the single greatest school-based impact on student learning, it becomes crucial that schools recruit and retain high quality teachers. A key component to this involves teacher wage and benefit packages. This study concludes that teacher compensation is falling further and further behind that of comparable career opportunities each year. One metric that can be used to study this issue over time is “relative teacher pay”—teacher pay compared with that of other career opportunities for potential and current teachers. This is referred to as the “teacher wage penalty” which calculates wage gaps as a percentage of difference. The study concludes: The teacher pay penalty has been steadily worsening over the last two decades, increasing from a -1.8% wage gap in 1994 to a wage gap of -18.7% in 2017. While weekly wages for comparable jobs increased from $ 1,339 to $ 1,476 over this period of time, teacher weekly wages actually decreased $ 27 from $ 1,164 to $ 1,137. This gap varies significantly between the genders (-15.6% for women and -26.8% for men), across states (from a .3.1% for Wyoming to -36.4% Arizona). The study also downplays the impact of the recent recession on this trend, highlighting the impact of state government decisions on reducing education funding.
Citation: Allegretto, S.& Mishel, L. (2018). The teacher pay penalty has hit a new high: Trends in the teacher wage and compensation gaps through 2017. Washington DC: Economic Policy Institute.
Web Address: https://www.epi.org/files/pdf/153196.pdf
https://www.epi.org/publication/teacher-pay-gap-2018/
October 29, 2018
11 Million Days Lost: Race, Discipline, and Safety at U.S. Public Schools: Part I
Research tells us that student engagement is one of the most important components of a classroom strategy to facilitate student learning, as is effective teaching, a systematic instruction pedagogy, and evidence-based curriculum. Yet none of these interventions matter if a student is not in school. There are an increasing number of studies examining student absenteeism and its negative impact on student achievement. This descriptive summary is one of the first reviews to examine the number of days of “lost instruction” resulting from student suspensions. The study examines the total number of days lost nationwide, disparities among different student subgroups, and differences across individual states. Read more Overall, students lost a total of 11,360,004 days of instruction as a result of school suspensions. In order to facilitate comparisons of student subgroups with different enrollment numbers, the study uses a metric of “days of lost instruction per 100 students enrolled”. The resulting analysis documents significant disparity between subgroups. Black students lost 66 days of instruction (for every 100 students) compared to 14 for White students (the national average was 23 lost days). Students with disabilities lost 44 days of instruction, twice the 20 lost days of those without disabilities. Individual states had radically different performance in this area, with North Carolina averaging 51 days lost instruction per 100 enrollment annually and Utah 5 days. When examined by subgroup data, some states have extremely large instructional day loss. Black students lost over 100 days of lost instruction per 100 enrolled in Ohio, Michigan, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia. The impact of loss of instruction due to suspensions has a lifelong impact on students, including: lower graduation rates (Rumberger and Losen, 2017), increased involvement in the juvenile justice system (Mowicki, 2018), and arrests as adults Rosenbaum (2018)
Citations: Russell W. Rumberger and Daniel J.Losen, The Hidden Cost of California’s Harsh School Discipline, The Civil Rights Project at UCLA, (2017) Retrieved from http://www.schooldisciplinedata.org/ccrr/docs/CostofSuspensionReportFinal.pdf
Janet Rosenbaum (2018). Educational and Criminal Justice Outcomes 12 Years After School Suspension. Youth & Society.
Jacqueline M. Mowicki, Discipline Disparities for Black Students, Boys and Students with Disabilities, GAO (March 2018). http://www.gao.gov/assets/700/690828.pdf
Links: https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/final_11-million-days_ucla_aclu.pdf
October 26, 2018
Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read?
This report and podcast examines the scientific basis for how to teach reading to children. This investigation reveals how children learn to read, emphasizing the five critical components of reading instruction. Unfortunately, most teacher preparation programs ignore the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail. This American Public Media documentary assesses the current knowledge base behind sound reading practices, the positive impact of effective reading practices can have on student reading performance, and the challenges faced in implementing these practices in the face of opposition from practitioners of whole language and proponents of balanced reading instruction.
Citation:Hanford, E, (2018). Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read? American Public Media (APM). https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read
Link: https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read
October 22, 2018
Teacher Soft Skills Overview
A teacher’s success is predicated on effective mastery of two requisite skill categories: technical competencies and personal competencies (soft skills). Technical skills are the specific skills and factual knowledge intrinsic to a specific job. Technical competencies elemental to teaching include instruction, assessment, and classroom management. Personal competencies, on the other hand, are skills broadly applicable to almost all professions; they create the foundation that enables a person to effectively use technical skills. Personal competencies basic to teaching include high expectations, love of learning, active listening, ability to adapt to novel situations, empathy, cultural sensitivity, positive regard for students, and good time management. Personal competency research shows large effect sizes, ranging from 0.72 to 0.87, for effective teacher-student relations that increase student academic performance and improve classroom climate. Unfortunately, teacher preparation and on-the-job staff development neglect this important training. To remedy the situation, more research is required to better define the field of personal competencies, and expanded training, including coaching, must be adopted during pre-service and induction.
Citation: States, J., Detrich, R. & Keyworth, R. (2018). Overview of Teacher Soft Skills.Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/teacher-compentencies-soft-skills.
Links: https://www.winginstitute.org/teacher-compentencies-soft-skills
