ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
The Experimental Effects of the Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention (STARI) on a Scenarios-Based Reading Comprehension Assessment
Author: Kim, James
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Intervention,Reading Programs,Program Effectiveness,Reading Comprehension,Reading Tests,Middle School Students,Adolescents,Reading Instruction,Direct Instruction,Urban Schools,Rural Schools,Suburban Schools,Vignettes,Least Squares Statistics,Randomized Controlled Trials

Nearly one-quarter of U.S. eighth graders score below basic on national assessments of reading (NCES, 2013) and are poorly equipped for the reading demands of secondary school. Struggling adolescent readers cannot summarize a simple passage, use context to determine word meanings, and have difficulties making text-based inferences. In addition, poor fluency limits many struggling readers' ability to process text efficiently, compromising basic and inferential comprehension (Cantrell et al., 2013; Flynn et al., 2012). This study presents intention-to-treat impacts from a randomized clinical trial of the Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention (STARI) on a scenarios-based assessment of reading comprehension. STARI is a multicomponent reading intervention for struggling middle school readers and is implemented as a year-long supplemental reading program for middle school students who score below proficient on state literacy assessments. Building from a multiple-component view of reading development, STARI incorporates strands on decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, and provides multiple supports for struggling adolescent readers. For example, teachers provide explicit instruction on strategies for decoding multisyllabic words, focused on identifying more complex letter combinations, syllable patterns, and morphological units such as base words and affixes. Instructional activities that target these skills have shown success in improving older struggling readers' word recognition and fluency (Edmonds et al., 2009). In previous work, positive intention-to-treat effects on multiple domains of reading, including word reading, morphological awareness, and efficiency of basic reading were found. This study extends prior work by examining effects on a Global, Integrated Scenario-Based Assessment (GISA) that is designed to assess a broader conception of reading ability (Sabatini et al., 2014). This impact analysis extends prior work by showing that a multi-component Tier-2 intervention for struggling adolescent readers can improve a range of reading outcomes as well as a global, integrated scenario-based assessment of reading.
The Benefits of Being a Big Fish: The Relationship between Incoming Rank and Student Outcomes
Author: Allensworth, Elaine M.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: High School Students,Grade 9,High School Freshmen,Academic Achievement,Class Rank,Outcomes of Education,Ability Grouping,School Choice,Public Schools,Cohort Analysis,Achievement Tests,Standardized Tests,Grades (Scholastic),Scores

In an era of expansive school choice, families and students make many comparisons when they consider schools. Policies encourage families to seek out options where average test scores are high or where value-added indicators are strong. When students choose schools with high-performing peers, they often may be at a lower place in the achievement distribution in their cohort than if they had attended their neighborhood school. The purpose of this study is to understand how a student's place in the achievement distribution of incoming ninth graders affects his/her outcomes. If high schools assign students to classes or tracks based on prior test scores, then students might have very different high school experiences based on their own achievement but also the achievement level of their ninth-grade peers. In this study, the authors specifically answer the following questions: (1) What is the relationship between a student's place in the achievement distribution of his/her high school cohort of ninth graders (i.e., incoming class rank) and high school and college academic outcomes? (2) Does the effect of incoming class rank vary for different types of students? At schools with varying levels of performance? This study uses data on four cohorts of students enrolling as first-time ninth graders in Chicago public high schools from fall 2008 to fall 2011, totaling 72,613 students. The sample is limited to students who attended CPS in eighth grade and enrolled in CPS for ninth grade. The authors use administrative data from CPS, a survey measure of student self-reports of study habits in middle school, and college-going information from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). Student data are linked across administrative data sets and years using a unique student-level identifier. Being at the top of the class appears to have benefits in terms of test score gains and slightly higher grades, as well as a higher likelihood of enrolling in and persisting in college. There were small negative attendance and high school graduation effects. Two tables are appended.
Power Calculations for Moderators in Multi-Site Cluster Randomized Trials
Author: Spybrook, Jessaca
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Statistical Analysis,Computation,Randomized Controlled Trials,Cluster Grouping,Sample Size,Outcomes of Treatment

Cluster randomized trials (CRTs), or studies in which intact groups of individuals are randomly assigned to a condition, are becoming more common in evaluation studies of educational programs. A specific type of CRT in which clusters are randomly assigned to treatment within blocks or sites, known as multisite cluster randomized trials (MSCRTs), are the most frequent in the literature. The primary question that often guides the design of MSCRTs is whether or not the program works. Hence the MSCRT is designed with the goal of being powered to detect the main effect of treatment. The purpose of this paper is to extend power calculations to moderator effects in MSCRTs. This paper extends the power calculations for MSCRTs beyond the main effect of treatment to allow researchers to also consider the power for moderator effects in the design phase of the study. A table is appended.
Preliminary Impacts of North Carolina's Rural Innovative Schools Project
Author: Naumenko, Oksana
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Rural Schools,Educational Innovation,Dual Enrollment,High Schools,Colleges,Program Effectiveness,College Preparation,Enrollment,College Credits,Graduation Rate,Attendance,Dropout Rate,Advanced Placement Programs,Quasiexperimental Design,Hierarchical Linear Modeling,High School Students

Funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant, the Rural Innovative Schools (RIS) Project is the first widespread effort to scale up the early college model by implementing it in comprehensive high schools. This paper will present preliminary findings from the evaluation of this project. The impact study uses a quasi-experimental design to assess the impact of the RIS Project on a core set of student outcomes. The treatment schools were matched to schools that were equivalent on a core set of baseline characteristics. The specific outcomes examined in this study include: (1) Percent of students who have enrolled in at least 1 College-Credit Bearing- Course by the end of 11th grade; (2) Average number of college-credit bearing courses students have taken and passed by the end of 12th grade; (3) Cohort graduation rate; (4) Attendance; (5) Dropout rate; (6) College preparatory course-taking; and (7) College preparatory course-taking and success. The results from this study will show the extent to which implementation of early college strategies in comprehensive high schools can have the same impact as the stand-alone early college model. Tables and figures are appended.
The Launch of the Philadelphia Education Research Consortium: Lessons Learned from the First Year of Implementation
Author: Shaw, Kate
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Educational Research,Consortia,Urban Education,Public Schools,Charter Schools,Research Projects,Research Universities,Blended Learning,Partnerships in Education

The Philadelphia Education Research Consortium (PERC) was launched in July 2014 as an innovative place-based consortium of educational research partners from multiple sectors. Its primary objective is to provide research and analyses on some of the city's most pressing education issues. As such, PERC's research agenda is driven by both traditional public and charter schools within the City of Philadelphia, and is executed through research partners at Research for Action, an independent educational research organization, and the city's three major research universities (Temple University, Drexel University, and the University of Pennsylvania). This paper details the process by which PERC selected and executed its first research project: an in-depth analysis of how best to apply the emerging concept of Blended Learning to Philadelphia school contexts. The guiding research question for this paper is the following: How does an urban educational research consortium fill existing gaps in district/charter capacity for conducting applied research by establishing working relationships with practitioners and drawing on the deep pool of research talent that already exists in the area? To address this question, the paper details the structure of PERC, as well as the specific process by which researchers approached the blended learning research project. It also identifies a set of indicators that can be used to gauge the degree to which PERC has established strong, trusting relationships leading to a high level of utility and relevance. The hope is that an exploration of PERC's innovative research consortium model in the first year of its implementation can be instructive for similar endeavors in urban settings.
Preschool Attendance: How Researchers and Practitioners Are Working Together to Understand and Address Absenteeism among Our Youngest Students
Author: Ehrlich, Stacy B.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Preschool Children,Urban Schools,Attendance,Attendance Patterns,Truancy,School Holding Power,Prevention,Intervention,Incidence,Social Development,Emotional Development,Child Development,Outcomes of Education,Data Analysis,Regression (Statistics),Elementary School Students,Emergent Literacy,Reading Fluency,Reading Tests,School Readiness,Cognitive Tests,Cognitive Ability

Consistent school attendance is a key foundation of student learning. While missing one or two school days each year is not likely to have serious consequences, chronic absenteeism (missing 10% or more of enrolled school days) can seriously undermine the learning process (Allensworth &amp; Easton, 2007). Given national efforts to increase the enrollment of at-risk children into high quality early education programs, understanding whether enrollment alone is sufficient for preparing students for kindergarten or whether regular attendance also matters is an important issue with direct policy implications. This research study focused on 4-year-old children served by school-based preschool programs in a large, urban district between 2008-09 and 2011-12. The findings showed that chronic absenteeism was common among preschool students. The students who miss the most school are those who enter with the weakest skills and end up even further behind at the end of the year. Schools' abilities to organize themselves in ways that support preschool attendance may be key to preventing later attendance and learning struggles. For example, a weekly e-blasts to preschool teachers could provide reminders about the value of good preschool attendance and tips for how to keep an emphasis on good or improved attendance. Tables and figures are appended.
The Small, Stand-Alone Early College: Impact on High School Outcomes
Author: Glennie, Elizabeth
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Longitudinal Studies,Outcomes of Education,Program Effectiveness,Educational Attainment,High Schools,College Preparation,Regression (Statistics),Dual Enrollment,Control Groups,Experimental Groups,Racial Differences,Ethnic Groups,Gender Differences,Socioeconomic Status,Disabilities,Academically Gifted,Grade Repetition,College Credits,Graduation Rate,High School Graduates

North Carolina's Early College model is the subject of an IES-funded eleven-year longitudinal experimental study that utilized a lottery process to assign early college applicants to either treatment or control groups. This paper presents findings related to high school outcomes. The primary goal of the early college model is to increase the number of students who graduate from high school and who continue on to and succeed in college. The specific research questions addressed in this paper include the following: (1) What is the impact of the early college model on the percentage of students successfully completing a college preparatory course of study in high school? (2) What is the impact of the early college model on the number of college credits earned while in high school? (3) What is the impact of the early college model on students' graduation from high school? (4) How does the impact vary for specific sub-groups including those who are low-income, first in their family to go to college, members of underrepresented minority groups, and those who entered high school below grade level? Results from this study show that the Early College High School model is having positive impacts on students' college preparatory course-taking, their attainment of college credits, and their graduation from high school. Tables and figures are appended. [For the related article: &quot;The Small, Stand-Alone Early College: Impact on Postsecondary Outcomes,&quot; see ED567041.]
The Small, Stand-Alone Early College: Impact on Postsecondary Outcomes
Author: Unlu, Fatih
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Longitudinal Studies,Outcomes of Education,College Attendance,Enrollment Trends,Program Effectiveness,Postsecondary Education,Educational Attainment,High Schools,College Preparation,Access to Education,Community Colleges,College School Cooperation,Regression (Statistics),Dual Enrollment,Control Groups,Experimental Groups,Racial Differences,Ethnic Groups,Gender Differences,Socioeconomic Status,Disabilities,Academically Gifted,Grade Repetition

This paper presents results from the longitudinal experimental study conducted on North Carolina's early college model described in an earlier paper. The primary purpose of this paper is to present the impact of the early college model on outcomes related to postsecondary enrollment. The specific research questions driving this study include: (1) What is the impact of the early college model on students' enrollment in postsecondary education? (2) What is the impact on students' attainment of postsecondary credentials? One of the main ways the early college model accomplished its goal was by enrolling high school students into college classes as early as ninth grade. By the time students were in their junior or senior years of high school, they were taking mostly college classes with other college students. The early college also provided explicit instruction in college readiness skills and provided extensive supports to students. The study results showed early college is increasing students' access to postsecondary education, driven primarily by their experience in high school. The increase in enrollment is primarily in the area of two-year colleges because most of the early colleges are located on community college campuses. This increase in two-year enrollment is not happening at the expense of four-year enrollment, given that there is a slight increase in that arena as well. Tables and figures are appended. [For the related article: &quot;The Small, Stand-Alone Early College: Impact on High School Outcomes,&quot; see ED567039.]
Test Format and the Variation of Gender Achievement Gaps within the United States
Author: Reardon, Sean
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Test Format,Gender Differences,Achievement Gap,Standardized Tests,Grade 4,Grade 8,Achievement Tests,National Competency Tests,Test Items,Multiple Choice Tests

Prior research demonstrates the existence of gender achievement gaps and the variation in the magnitude of these gaps across states. This paper characterizes the extent to which the variation of gender achievement gaps on standardized tests across the United States can be explained by differing state accountability test formats. A comprehensive analysis of the interplay between state standardized test formats and differences in gender achievement on those tests is important for informing policies and practices that aim for greater equity in education. This study performs both a state-level and district-level analysis, using student test score results in grades 4 and 8 in 2009 from three different tests: (1) state accountability tests (using data from all 50 states and roughly 9,400 school districts); (2) the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment administered by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) (using data from roughly 3,700 school districts); and (3) NAEP tests administered (all 50 states). State accountability tests vary in item format among states; the NWEA and NAEP tests have a common item structure across states. For the state-level analyses, the population of study is the set of 48 U.S. states in the 2008-09 school year. For the district-level analyses, the population of study is the set of districts in both the NWEA and EdFacts data, which is approximately 700 districts. In order to understand the effects of test item format on gendered achievement, researchers leverage the variation in the item format across three assessments to model how within-state gender achievement gaps vary with differences in test item format, specifically the proportion of multiple-choice, short constructed-response, and extended-response questions. States vary substantially in the proportion of multiple-choice items on their tests in mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) (ranging from 50-100% multiple-choice). Findings reveal that boys do better on multiple-choice tests than girls of the same academic skill. Specifically, estimates imply that gender gaps are, on average 0.22 standard deviations (SD) greater (favoring boys more) on multiple-choice tests than on constructed response item tests. These results appear to be driven primarily by gender-by-item format interactions affecting performance on ELA tests: in ELA, gender gaps on multiple-choice tests are roughly 0.30 to 0.40 SD larger (favoring girls less and boys more) than on constructed-response tests. On mathematics tests, the difference in performance is roughly 0.10 SD smaller, but still favoring girls less and boys more on multiple-choice tests than on constructed-response tests. These patterns are consistent regardless of whether NAEP or NWEA tests are used as the audit test. A table and figures are appended.
Power Consideration for Three-Level Growth Models
Author: Li, Wei
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Growth Models,Statistical Analysis,Change,Outcomes of Treatment,Randomized Controlled Trials

The purpose of this study is extend previous methods by Raudenbush and Liu (2001) and Spybrook et al. (2011), and provide methods for power analysis of tests of treatment effects in studies of polynomial change with two levels of nesting (e.g., students and schools) where the treatment is either at the third level (e.g., school intervention) or at the second level (e.g., student intervention). In particular, the authors provide methods for power analysis for block randomized designs (BRD) where the treatment is at the second level (e.g., student intervention) and the third level units (e.g., schools) serve as blocks. Please note that methods for power analysis for cluster randomized designs (CRD), where for instance schools are randomly assigned in a treatment and a control group, is omitted in this proposal because of words limits. Figures are appended.
State Policies for Intervening in Chronically Low-Performing Schools: A 50-State Policy Scan
Author: Klute, Mary
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: State Policy,Educational Policy,School Effectiveness,Policy Analysis,Intervention,Qualitative Research,Educational Legislation,State Legislation,State Regulation,Educational Improvement,Educational Change,School Closing,Incentives,School Administration,Elementary Secondary Education

This study seeks to answer the question: &quot;What policies are in place in each of the 50 states related to state intervention with chronically low-performing schools?&quot; To address this question, the study provides a summary of policies in place related to state interventions with chronically low-performing schools that can inform education leaders, particularly those in states where policies are changing, as they make decisions about how to support school improvement in their lowest-performing schools. The study focused on all 50 states. Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Central conducted a systematic search of states' laws, regulations, and other publicly available documents. Qualitative data analysis methods were used to identify common themes in the data. The systematic search for legislation proceeded in three steps: (1) Researchers searched the Westlaw database of laws and regulations for each of the 50 states using 12 keyword combinations; (2) Researchers scanned the section titles for each state's statutes and regulations to ensure that all relevant sections were included; and (3) When reading laws and regulations, researchers made note of other legislation that was referenced. If not already located through the previous search steps, these laws and regulations were located and reviewed. This search retrieved 1,370 sections of state laws and regulations. All laws and regulations were imported into MAXQDA qualitative analysis software. To supplement the information contained in laws and regulations, REL Central researchers obtained approved requests for Elementary and Secondary Act (ESEA) flexibility for 43 states from the U.S. Department of Education website (http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/esea-flexibility/index.html). The study authors examined and coded legislation and ESEA flexibility requests and prepared a summary of policies for each state. The summaries included detailed information from these sources for each category of interventions. Six broad categories of policies related to intervening in chronically low-performing schools were identified through the coding process: (1) development or monitoring of school improvement plans; (2) changes in staffing; (3) closing a school; (4) financial incentives or interventions; (5) reforms to the day-to-day operation of the school; and (6) changes related to the entity governing or operating the school. A table is appended.