ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Changes in the Precision of a Study from Planning Phase to Implementation Phase: Evidence from the First Wave of Group Randomized Trials Launched by the Institute of Education Sciences
Author: Spybrook, Jessaca
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Evaluation Criteria,Sampling,Research Design,Planning,Program Evaluation,Program Implementation,Educational Research,Researchers,Interviews,Data Collection,Financial Support,Sample Size,Evaluation Research

The purpose of this study is to extend the work of Spybrook and Raudenbush (2009) and examine how the research designs and sample sizes changed from the planning phase to the implementation phase in the first wave of studies funded by IES. The authors examine the impact of the changes in terms of the changes in the precision of the study from the planning phase to the implementation phase. They explore trends in the changes that occurred in order to inform the planning and implementation of future studies. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)
Effects of Cooperative Writing with Embedded Multimedia: A Randomized Experiment
Author: Madden, Nancy A.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Video Technology,Control Groups,Writing (Composition),Cooperative Learning,Effect Size,Grade 4,Grade 3,Process Approach (Writing),Teaching Methods,Collaborative Writing,Writing Instruction,Multimedia Instruction,Group Activities,Pretests Posttests,Poverty,Educational Technology,Program Effectiveness,Experimental Groups

The present study represented an effort to improve on the outcomes of the Puma (2006) study by creating a writing process program that provided students with compelling video models of effective writing practices in small writing teams. In this method, called Writing Wings with Media (WWM), students worked in 4-member, heterogeneous writing groups to help one another plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish compositions, as in the earlier Writing Wings program. However, in WWM, students were shown a series of humorous, professionally designed puppet skits in which a four-member writing team learns to use writing process elements in a variety of genres. The idea was to communicate directly to the students themselves (as well as to teachers) a vision of how to work in writing teams, in hopes that this would help teachers implement the program with greater fidelity and build enthusiasm and strategic insights among students. The theory of action for the embedded multimedia aspect of Writing Wings with Media focused on the problem of transfer from workshop to classroom (see Joyce, Calhoun, &amp; Hopkins, 1999; Joyce &amp; Showers, 2002). The idea was that instead of teaching teachers to use writing process methods and then hope that they could communicate them to children, the videos would go directly to teachers and students at the same time, demonstrating key behaviors and ideas for effective writing. The study took place in 22 high-poverty schools located in 11 states (Florida, Hawaii, Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, Mississippi, New Mexico, Washington, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Oregon). The findings of this randomized evaluation of Writing Wings with Media indicate small positive effects on ratings of students' compositions at posttest, controlling for pretest measures. The magnitude of the gains in effect sizes are modest, ranging from +0.07 to +0.18, but it is interesting to note that the mean gain from third to fourth grade in the control group was only +0.13 for Style, +0.22 for Ideas and Organization, and +0.29 for Mechanics. From a practical perspective, the findings of the study of Writing Wings with Media suggest that schools can improve writing outcomes for children in the upper-elementary grades using a writing process approach that emphasizes cooperative learning and adds regular video demonstrations of the writing process as played out in various genres. (Contains 1 table.)
Dropout Prevention and Intervention Programs: Effects on School Completion and Dropout among School-Aged Children and Youth
Author: Wilson, Sandra Jo
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Learner Engagement,School Restructuring,Intervention,Dropouts,Academic Achievement,At Risk Students,Graduation,Outcomes of Education,Elementary School Students,Secondary School Students,Child Care,Attendance Patterns,Student Participation,Student Behavior,Comparative Analysis,Program Effectiveness,Student Characteristics,Age Differences,Racial Differences,Gender Differences,Meta Analysis,College Preparation,Financial Support,Mentors,Service Learning,Skill Development

The objective of this systematic review is to summarize the available evidence on the effects of prevention and intervention programs aimed at primary and secondary students for increasing school completion or reducing school dropout. Program effects on the closely related outcomes of school attendance (absences, truancy) will also be examined. Moreover, when accompanying dropout or attendance outcomes, effects on student engagement, academic performance, and school conduct are also included. The primary focus of the analyses presented here will be the comparative effectiveness of different programs and program approaches in an effort to identify those that have the largest and most reliable effects on the respective school participation outcomes, especially with regard to differences associated with treatment modality, implementation quality, and program location or setting. In addition, evidence of differential effects for students with different characteristics will be explored, e.g., in relation to age or grade, gender, race/ethnicity, and risk factors. The results of the regression analyses on the studies coded thus far find that unpublished research and higher quality methods produce significantly smaller treatment differences. Ethnic mix and grade level were not significantly associated with differential effects for treatment. Key program characteristics associated with less dropout among treated students included implementation quality, shorter duration programs, and community-based programs. When controlling for other influences on outcome (e.g., implementation), all program types produced positive results, though the mentoring and "other" programs fell short of significance. Attendance monitoring and incentives, child care, community service, and school restructuring programs produced best results. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)
Argumentation as a Path to the Thinking Development of Young Adolescents
Author: Kuhn, Deanna
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Persuasive Discourse,Essays,Critical Thinking,Writing Skills,Thinking Skills,Cognitive Development,Skill Development,Middle School Students,Transcripts (Written Records),Computer Mediated Communication,Urban Schools,Intervention,Longitudinal Studies,Computer Assisted Instruction

Argument has been referred to as the umbrella under which all reasoning lies--"the more general human process of which more specific forms of reasoning are a part". In this paper, the authors present an evidence that argumentive reasoning skills can be assessed and developed in facilitative settings. They focus on middle school as an optimal period to undertake this effort, and they follow Graff (2003), and before him the sociocultural tradition of Vygotsky (1973) and others, in taking the everyday social practice of argumentation as a starting point and pathway for development of individual argumentive skill (Kuhn, 1991). The authors focus here on individual essays because they are arguably the most powerful outcome measures--of transfer of skill from the social to the individual plane--and also because they are the measures of most familiarity and direct interest to educators. Although persuasive writing has long been a curricula concern, the distinction between thinking skills and writing skills is often blurred. Their concern is the thinking skills that underlie writing. At its most minimal level, thinking well about a complex issue can be regarded as requiring the identification and weighing of positive and negative attributes of contrasting positions on the issue, drawing on relevant evidence to inform the judgments involved. Most students' persuasive essays, assessments have shown, fall well short of this standard (NAEP, 2008), with most confined to arguments citing positive attributes of the favored position. A distant second in frequency is exposition of negative attributes of an opposing position. If some combination of both appears, an argument can be classified as reflecting a dual perspective, since the arguer must shift at least once from positive to negative attributes and from the perspective of the favored position to that of the opposing position. This characteristic is also significant in reflecting counterfactual reasoning, since it requires assuming a stance contrary to one's own and reasoning about its implications. Two further possibilities exist as attributes of elementary arguments--exposition of negative attributes of the favored position and/or positive attributes of the opposing position. Either requires the arguer to exhibit what we call an integrative perspective. In contrast to the dual perspective, where all arguments lead to the same conclusion, the set of arguments voiced in this case lead in disparate directions and hence require an integrative weighing in order for a conclusion to be reached. These were applied in a coding system for the essays that constitute their data set. (Contains 6 tables and 1 figure.)
Supports for High School Success: An Evaluation of the Texas Ninth Grade Transition and Intervention Grant Program
Author: Hallberg, Kelly
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Student Needs,Intervention,Transitional Programs,Academic Achievement,At Risk Students,Program Effectiveness,Grade 9,Program Evaluation,Grants,State Legislation,Summer Programs,Mathematics Achievement,Reading Achievement,Attendance,Comparative Analysis,Quasiexperimental Design

To provide greater support for students as they transition to ninth grade, the Texas Legislature funded the Texas Ninth Grade Transition and Intervention (TNGTI) grant program. TNGTI grantees implemented a variety of supports to at-risk students transitioning to ninth grade, including a summer transition program, an early warning data system, and research-based interventions targeted to meet student needs. The study examined the effectiveness of the supports schools provide under the TNGTI grant program. Specifically, the study compared the performance of students who participated in the TNGTI summer transition program to similar students who did not participate using a propensity score stratification approach. Students' ninth grade attendance and performance on math and reading Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skill (TAKS) assessments were the outcomes of interest. In addition, the authors examined the theory that the TNGTI program would improve student academic performance by increasing their ninth grade attendance by examining whether ninth grade attendance was a mediator for academic achievement.
Public School Graduates and Dropouts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2008-09. First Look. NCES 2011-312
Author: Stillwell, Robert
Date: 2011-05-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: High Schools,Public Schools,Elementary Secondary Education,Graduation Rate,Dropout Rate,Dropouts,Graduation,High School Graduates,State Departments of Education,Enrollment,Surveys,School Districts,Comparative Analysis,Secondary Education

This report presents the number of high school graduates, the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR), and the dropout data for grades 9-12 for public schools in school year 2008-09. State Education Agencies report these counts of graduates, dropouts, and enrollments to the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD) nonfiscal survey of public elementary/secondary education as part of the Cooperative Education Statistics System established in section 157 of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, part C and the U. S. Department of Education's ED&quot;Facts&quot; data collection system. Although data from seven sequential school years are presented in tables 3 and 7, only comparisons between the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years are presented in the text. Selected findings include: (1) Across the United States, the 50 states and the District of Columbia reported that a total of 3,039,015 public school students received a high school diploma in 2008-09, resulting in a calculated Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) of 75.5 percent (table 1); (2) Across all reporting states and the District of Columbia, the AFGR was highest for Asian/Pacific Islander students (91.8 percent) (table 2); (3) A comparison of data from 2008-09 to data from the prior school year, 2007-08, shows a percentage point or greater increase in the AFGR for 22 states and the District of Columbia (table 3); (4) Across the United States, the 50 states and the District of Columbia reported 607,789 dropouts from high school (grades 9-12), resulting in a calculated overall event dropout rate of 4.1 percent in 2008-09 (table 4); (5) Across all reporting states and the District of Columbia, the calculated dropout rates increased as grade level increased (table 5); (6) Across all 49 states and the District of Columbia that were able to report high school dropouts by race/ethnicity, the calculated dropout rate was the lowest for Asian/Pacific Islander st at 2.4 percent and White students at 2.7 percent (table 6); (7) Comparisons between high school dropout rates in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years showed an increase of a percentage point or more in two states and the District of Columbia. A decrease by the same margin or greater was found in three states (table 7); and (8) Across the 45 states and the District of Columbia that were able to report high school dropouts by gender, the dropout rate was higher for males than for females at 3.6 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively (table 8). Methodology and Technical Notes are appended. (Contains 8 tables and 8 footnotes.)
The Effect of Cooperative Learning on Inter Ethnic Relations in Schools
Author: Curry, Philip
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Cooperative Learning,Teaching Methods,Literature Reviews,Meta Analysis,Peer Relationship,Elementary School Students,Secondary School Students,Teamwork,Racial Relations,Student Diversity,Classroom Environment

The aim of this study is to synthesize all existing empirical evidence on the effects of Cooperative Learning on inter-ethnic relations in school settings. The review is: (1) Systematic including published and unpublished research; (2) Up-to-date; (3) Inclusive of all school going age groups (4 to 18 years of age); and (4) Inclusive of only school based, valid cooperative learning strategies.
Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment and Staff Counts from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2009-10. First Look. NCES 2011-347
Author: Chen, Chen-Su
Date: 2011-05-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Secondary Schools,Public Schools,Full Time Equivalency,Elementary Secondary Education,Nongraded Instructional Grouping,School Districts,State Departments of Education,Enrollment,Surveys,Teacher Student Ratio,Statistical Analysis,Group Dynamics,Ethnicity,Racial Differences,Elementary Education,Secondary Education,Administrators,Teachers,Students,School Administration,Pupil Personnel Services

This report presents findings on the numbers of public school students and staff in the United States and other jurisdictions in school year 2009-10, using data from the State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education of the Common Core of Data (CCD) survey system. The CCD is an annual collection of data that are reported by state education agencies (SEAs) to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) through the U.S. Department of Education's ED&quot;Facts&quot; data collection system. Selected findings include: (1) Public elementary and secondary schools had 49.4 million students in membership in school year 2009-10 (table 1); (2) Summing across grades, there were 34.5 million students enrolled in prekindergarten through grade 8 and ungraded classes; there were 14.9 million students enrolled in grades 9-12 in the 2009-10 school year (derived from table 1); (3) When examining students for whom race/ethnicity was reported in the 2009-10 school year, 54 percent were White; 22 percent were Hispanic; 17 percent were Black; 5 percent were Asian/Pacific Islander; and 1 percent were American Indian/Alaska Native (table 2); (4) In school year 2009-10, public elementary and secondary schools and local education agencies employed a total of 6.4 million full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff (table 3); (5) Of the FTE staff in the 2009-10 school year, 51 percent were teachers; 15 percent were instructional aides, instructional coordinators and supervisors, guidance counselors/directors, or librarians; and 24 percent were student and other support staff. School or district administrators comprised 4 percent of staff, and administrative support staff comprised the remaining 7 percent (derived from table 3); (6) The student/teacher ratio in public schools in school year 2009-10 was 15.4 (i.e., there were about 15 students for every FTE teacher employed) (table 4). The ratio ranged from a high of 22.9 in Utah to a low of 10.6 in Vermont. The elementary student/teacher ratio was 19.1, while the secondary student/teacher ratio was 12.1; and (7) The category of other instructional and student support includes instructional aides, instructional coordinators and supervisors, librarians, library support, and student support services staff. In the 2009-10 school year, there were about 42.2 students for every instructional and student support staff member (table 4). Appendices include: (1) Methodology and Technical Notes; and (2) Common Core of Data Glossary. (Contains 4 tables and 4 footnotes.)
A Resource Aid Packet on School Engagement, Disengagement, Learning Supports, & School Climate
Author: University of California, Los Angeles, Center for Mental Health in Schools
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Learner Engagement,Achievement Gap,Academic Achievement,Learning Motivation,Motivation Techniques,Student Motivation,Intervention,Organizational Climate,Educational Resources,Psychological Characteristics,Educational Strategies,Educational Improvement,Educational Practices

Most policy makers and administrators know that by itself good instruction delivered by highly qualified teachers is not enough to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed at school. Schools continue to suffer from high dropout rates of students and staff, an achievement gap that resists closure, a high incidence of schools designated as low performing, and the tendency for achievement  test score averages to plateau after a few years of gains. Simply stated, prevailing policy and practice have not effectively dealt with these matters. In particular, student engagement and disengagement are poorly addressed in most efforts to improve schools and schooling. Current practices often work against enhancing engagement and result in many students disconnecting from classroom instruction. This special issue discusses (1) school engagement, re-engagement, and learning supports (2) intrinsic motivation basics, (3) motivation as a key concern of any intervention, (4) the need to go beyond reinforcement theory, (5) the problem of over-relying on extrinsics, (6) psychological reactance and re-engagement, and (7) school climate as an emergent quality.
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Indicated Interventions to Increase School Attendance
Author: Maynard, Brandy R.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Intervention,Student Attitudes,Attendance Patterns,Attendance,Meta Analysis,Literature Reviews,Educational Practices,Educational Policy,Learning Modalities,Elementary Secondary Education,Program Effectiveness,Program Evaluation,Student Behavior,Functional Behavioral Assessment,Behavior Modification

The main objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine the effects of intervention programs on school attendance behaviors of elementary and secondary school students to inform policy and practice. The specific questions guiding this study were: (1) Do indicated programs with a goal of increasing student attendance affect school attendance behaviors of elementary and secondary students?; (2) Are there differences in the effects of school-based, clinic/community-based, and court-based programs?; and (3) Are different modalities (i.e. individual, family, group, multi-modal) of interventions more effective than others in increasing student attendance? Appended are: (1) Studies Included in the Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis; (2) Excluded Studies; (3) Included Studies; and (4) Summary of Included Single Group Pre-Post Test Design Studies. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.)
Teacher Classroom Management Practices: Effects on Disruptive or Aggressive Student Behavior
Author: Oliver, Regina M.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Classroom Techniques,Student Behavior,Behavior Problems,Aggression,Behavior Modification,Program Effectiveness,Literature Reviews,Meta Analysis,Effect Size,Foreign Countries

Despite the large research base grounded in behavioral theory for strategies to increase appropriate behavior and prevent or decrease inappropriate behavior in the classroom, a systematic review of multi-component universal classroom management research is necessary to establish the effects of teachers' universal classroom management approaches. This review examines the effects of teachers' universal classroom management practices in reducing disruptive, aggressive, and inappropriate behaviors. The specific research questions addressed are: Do teacher's universal classroom management practices reduce problem behavior in classrooms with students in kindergarten through grade 12? What components make up the most effective and efficient classroom management programs? These questions were addressed through a systematic review of the classroom management literature and a meta-analysis to calculate the magnitude of the effects of classroom management on disruptive or aggressive student behavior. In addition, limitations found in this body of research will be highlighted. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)
How to Sustain Students' Motivation in a Learning Environment
Author: Mart, Cagri Tugrul
Date: 2011-05-03
Type: Opinion Papers
Subjects: Student Motivation,Classroom Techniques,Classroom Environment,Teacher Role,Teaching Methods,Student Participation,Assignments,Relevance (Education),Student Empowerment,Student Role,Cooperative Learning,Self Efficacy,Feedback (Response)

Motivation, one of the leading problems in education, is an ongoing issue for teachers. Motivation is important because it highly contributes to achievement. Teachers have to be certain that their students are being motivated in order to develop a positive outcome. This article suggests some strategies to sustain students' classroom motivation.