Predicting Success, Preventing Failure: An Investigation of the California High School Exit Exam

Examines early indicators that identify fourth-grade students in San Diego who are at risk of failing the California High School Exit Exam, discusses implications for when and how to intervene to address those factors, and makes policy recommendations

School Budgets and Student Achievement in California: The Principal's Perspective

Presents the results of workshops conducted with 45 elementary, middle, and high school principals from California public schools. Documents the variety of resource allocation strategies used by principals to maximize student academic performance

Diplomas for Learning, not Seat Time: The Impacts of New York Regents Examinations

[Excerpt] New York State has been administering curriculum-based Regents Examinations to high school students ever since June 1878. As Sherman Tinkelman, Assistant Commissioner for Examinations and Scholarships described in a 1966 report: The Regents examinations are closely related to the curriculum in New York State. They are, as you can see, inseparably intertwined. One supports and reinforces the other.... These instruments presuppose and define standards.... They are a strong supervisory and instructional tool-- and deliberately so. They are effective in stimulating good teaching and good learning practices (Tinkelman, 1966 p. 12)

From Gatekeeping to Engagement: A Multicontextual, Mixed Method Study of Student Academic Engagement in Introductory STEM Courses.

The lack of academic engagement in introductory science courses is considered by some to be a primary reason why students switch out of science majors. This study employed a sequential, explanatory mixed methods approach to provide a richer understanding of the relationship between student engagement and introductory science instruction. Quantitative survey data were drawn from 2,873 students within 73 introductory science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses across 15 colleges and universities, and qualitative data were collected from 41 student focus groups at eight of these institutions. The findings indicate that students tended to be more engaged in courses where the instructor consistently signaled an openness to student questions and recognizes her/his role in helping students succeed. Likewise, students who reported feeling comfortable asking questions in class, seeking out tutoring, attending supplemental instruction sessions, and collaborating with other students in the course were also more likely to be engaged. Instructional implications for improving students' levels of academic engagement are discussed

The New York State Reform Strategy: Raising the Bar Above Minimum Competency

[Excerpt] Educational reformers and most of the American public believe that teachers ask too little of their pupils. African-American and Hispanic parents, in particular, criticize the low expectations and goals that teachers and school administrators often set for their children. These low expectations, they believe, result in watered down curricula and a tolerance of mediocre teaching and inappropriate student behavior. The result is that the prophecy of low achievement becomes self-fulfilling. The problem of low expectations is not limited to minority students or lower income communities. It’s endemic. High school subjects are taught at vastly different levels. Research has shown that learning gains are substantially larger when students take more demanding courses. Controlling for teacher qualifications and student ability and socio-economic status does not significantly reduce the positive effects of course rigor on test score gains (Kulik 1984, Monk 1994, Bishop 1996). Why then do students not flock to more demanding courses? First, these courses are considerably more work and grades tend to be lower. Secondly, the rigor of these courses is not well signaled to parents, neighbors, employers and colleges, so the rewards for the extra work are small for most students. Admissions staff of selective colleges learn how to read the transcripts of high schools they recruit from and they evaluate grades in the light of course demands. However, most colleges have, historically, not factored the rigor of high school courses into their admissions decisions. Employers hardly ever consider the rigor of high school courses when they make hiring decisions. Consequently, the bulk of students who do not aspire to attend a selective college quite rationally avoid rigorous courses and demanding teachers

Template-driven teacher modelling approach : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Information Science at Massey University, Palmerston North

This thesis describes the Template-driven Teacher Modeling Approach, the initial implementation of the template server and the formative evaluation on the prototype. The initiative of Template-driven teacher modeling is to integrate the template server and intelligent teacher models in Web-based education systems for course authoring. There are a number of key components in the proposed system: user interface, template server and content repository. The Template-Driven Teacher Modeling (TDTM) architecture supports the course authoring by providing higher degree of control over the generation of presentation. The collection of accumulated templates in the template repository for a teacher or a group of teachers are selected as the inputs for the inference mechanism in teacher's model to calculate the best representation of the teaching strategy, and then predict teacher intention when he or she interacts with the system. Moreover, the presentation templates are kept to support the re-use of the on-line content at the level of individual screens with the help of Template Server

Using community volunteers to help struggling readers in kindergarten

It can be difficult to help struggling kindergarten students learn pre-reading skills with limited resources. Trained community volunteers can make an impact on student literacy learning while forming positive relationships with students as they deliver a prescribed curriculum. This project explores the value of Professional Learning Communities (PLC), school and district support, the use of collaboration time, intervention, pre-reading essential standards, community support and PLC self-assessment. A handbook designed to assist in organizing effective interventions for the teacher or tutor is presented. This manual includes the role of professional learning communities in literacy tutoring; in developing essential standards, assessments and interventions. Next, the handbook addresses training volunteers about school procedures and curriculum. Followed by a toolkit for volunteers to use. Finally, the handbook focuses on methods for monitoring tutors and student progress. This research-based project is easy to use in any kindergarten reading intervention program

Reading Together USA: The Benefits of Cross-age Tutoring for the Tutor

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes and perceptions of students who participated as tutors in the Reading Together USA program. The subjects were selected as struggling reader in fifth grade to participate in the Reading Together USA program. They were trained as tutors and learned the specific program in order to teach second graders. The tutoring occurs in three stages, which are spaced out over the year. Each stage becomes a little more involved and forces more independence from the tutee. The tutors benefited in many ways through their participation in Reading Together USA. They became more responsible students who learned the importance of being a dependable role model. They were able to point out many of the areas of reading where they had progressed including fluency, comprehension and others. Most importantly, their self esteem increased. They were more confident as learners and readers

An examination of preservice teachers’ initial attempts to use instructional scaffolding

In today’s diverse schools, meeting individual literacy needs of students is one of the most challenging aspects of teaching. Instructional scaffolding is a powerful tool that many literacy teachers use to meet the challenge. While the term denotes a wide array of strategies, most teachers use scaffolding in some form or another in their classrooms. Many consider it to be one of the most effective instructional procedures available (Cazden, 1992; Graves, Graves, & Braaten, 1996)