Category: Educational Administration and Leadership

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Achievement Educational Administration and Leadership Primary School Education Secondary School Education

One-to-one technology and student outcomes

An evaluation published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis evaluates the impact of the Digital Conversion Initiative on student outcomes for one school district in North Carolina.

The initiative provided laptop computers to every student from the fourth grade upwards, while also providing teachers with training on how to best use the technology in their lesson plans.

Marie Hull and Katherine Duch used administrative school data from 2005 to 2013 to determine the program’s impact on math and reading achievement for students in grades 4 to 8, as well as the impact of the program on student behavior. They compared the district’s data from before and after implementation, as well as data from neighboring school districts without one-to-one programs to determine the short-and medium-term effects.

Their results suggest there is potential for one-to-one laptop programs to help improve student outcomes. They found that:

  • Math scores for students improved by 0.11 standard deviations in the short term and 0.13 standard deviations in the medium term.
  • No significant change in reading scores in the short term, and mixed evidence of improvement in the medium term.
  • Time spent on homework stayed constant.
  • Students spent more of their homework time using a computer.

The authors concluded that one-to-one computing was a promising way to improve student outcomes, while the desired changes might take a few years to appear. Their research highlighted the need to follow outcomes into the medium and long term.

 

Source: Hull, M., & Duch, K. (2018). One-to-one technology and student outcomes: Evidence from Mooresville’s Digital Conversion Initiative. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Advanced online publication. doi:10.3102/0162373718799969… Read the rest

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Achievement Educational Administration and Leadership Secondary School Education

Test anxiety and performance in high-stake testing

A study published in Contemporary Educational Psychology suggested that the relationship between test anxiety and performance in high-stakes tests is positive, but the relationship varies for students with different achievement levels.

Yao-Ting Sung and colleagues at the National Taiwan University used data from 1,931 Taiwanese ninth grader from 37 schools. The Basic Competence Test (BCTEST) was used to benchmark their achievement. The BCTEST is a high-stakes test for Taiwan junior-high school students, determining to which high schools with different levels of prestige and tuition fees they will be admitted. Subjects in the test included Mandarin, English, Mathematics, Social studies, Science and Writing. Test anxiety was measured by the examination stress scale.

The findings include:

  • The overall relationship between text-anxiety and learning achievement in the high-stakes testing was positive (r =+0.18).
  • Lower levels of test-anxiety were found among the high-achievement and low-achievement students while higher levels of test-anxiety were found among the moderate-achievement students.
  • For the group of students with higher achievements, the relationship between text-anxiety and learning achievement in the high-stakes testing was found to be negative (r = -0.16), while for the group of students with lower achievement, a positive relationship was found (r= +0.22).

The authors suggested that the motivation to perform well may override the negative impacts of test anxiety in high-stakes tests. However, for moderate-achievement students, their high test-anxiety may be due to the uncertainty they face about which kinds of schools they will be admitted to and to their not knowing how to study more effectively. Schools could relieve their uncertainty-anxiety by helping them to choose suitable schools and to explore their career aptitude and interests.

Source: Sung, Y.-T., Chao, T.-Y., & Tseng, F.-L. (2016). Reexamining the relationship between test anxiety and learning achievement: An individual-differences perspective. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 46, 241–252. … Read the rest

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Achievement Educational Administration and Leadership Primary School Education Secondary School Education

Do children who are born prematurely struggle more at school?

A study published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood looks at whether children who are born prematurely (at 23–36 weeks) are more likely to struggle in school compared to their full-term peers.

David Odd and colleagues used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) (a longitudinal population-based cohort study that enrolled pregnant women in 1991 and 1992) to examine how the educational progress of children who are born prematurely varies from their peers throughout school, and to what extent they catch up over time.

The study found that:

  • On average, premature children had lower test scores at Key Stage 1 (5–7 years), and continued to perform below their peers throughout school
  • However, there was some evidence of catching up between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 (age 7 to 11 years), particularly among children with the lowest scores.
  • Between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4 (14-16 years) premature children progressed at a similar rate as their peers.

There was little evidence that closing the gap between KS1 and KS2 was explained by special education support. The authors point out that educating premature children in their correct school year for their expected birth date may be a cost-effective way of supporting them, and also highlight the importance of early schooling and environment for these children.

 

Source: Odd, D., Evans, D., & Emond, A. M. (2018). Prediction of school outcome after preterm birth: a cohort study. Archives of Disease in Childhood, Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-315441… Read the rest

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Educational Administration and Leadership Kindergarten Primary School Education Secondary School Education Social and Motivational Outcomes

Are the youngest in class more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD?

Findings from a study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry suggest that children who are the youngest in their classroom are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than their older classmates.

Martin Whitely and colleagues conducted a systematic review of 22 studies that examined the relationship between a child’s age relative to their classmates and their chances of being diagnosed with, or medicated for, ADHD. The findings showed that:

  • Seventeen studies (with a total of more than 14 million children) found that it was more common for the youngest children in a school year to be diagnosed as ADHD than their older classmates.
  • This effect was found for both countries that have a high diagnosis rate, like the USA, Canada and Iceland, and countries where diagnosis is less common, like Finland and Sweden.

The researchers suggest that some teachers may be mistaking normal age-related immaturity of the youngest children in their class for ADHD, and that these findings highlight the importance of being aware of the impact of relative age and give the youngest children in class the extra time they may need to mature.

 

Source: Whitely, M., Raven, M., Timimi, S., Jureidini, J., Phillimore, J., Leo, J., … & Landman, P. (2018). Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder late birthdate effect common in both high and low prescribing international jurisdictions: systematic review. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Advance online publication. doi :10.1111/jcpp.12991… Read the rest

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Achievement Educational Administration and Leadership Primary School Education Secondary School Education

Examining computer access for students across the U.S.

A new report from the National Center for Education Statistics examines students’ access to computers at home and in school, and students’ use of computers for classroom learning at grades 4, 8, and 12. Associations between students’ computer access and use and student performance on the 2015 NAEP mathematics and reading assessments are also examined.

NAEP is given to a representative sample of students across the country, and results are reported for groups of students with similar characteristics. As part of the 2015 NAEP assessments, students answered a survey question about their access to computers at home, and teachers answered a survey question about the availability of computers for them and their students in school. Students and teachers also answered questions about their use of computers for classroom learning and instruction.

Key findings from the report included:

  • Computer access is divided along socioeconomic lines. Smaller percentages of lower income students reported having computer access at home in comparison to middle-to-higher income students.
  • Lower- and higher-performing students differ in how often they use computers for practicing and building academic skills in the classroom. For example, compared to higher-performing fourth-grade students, larger percentages of lower-performing students had teachers who reported that they never or hardly ever used computers in class to practice and review mathematics topics or to extend their mathematics learning with enrichment activities.
  • Computer use once or twice a week increased by as much as 5 percentage points in mathematics classes and 6 percentage points in reading classes between 2013 and 2015.

The report helped the public to understand how use of computers are related to academic performance. However, the survey did not include students’ use of other digital devices, such as tablets and smartphones in 2015.

 

Source (Open Access): The Nation’s Report Card (2018.) 2015 survey questionnaires results – Students’ computer access and use. Retrieved from https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/sq_computer/.
… Read the rest

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Educational Administration and Leadership Primary School Education Secondary School Education

Surprise rewards for good attendance had a surprising consequence

A working paper by Carly Robinson and colleagues, published by the Harvard Kennedy School, reports on an experiment to measure the impact of attendance rewards on students.

The trial included 15,629 sixth through twelfth grade students from 14 school districts in California. All the students had previously had perfect attendance in at least one month in the fall. The students were randomly allocated to one of three groups:

  • “Prospective Award” students received a letter telling them they would receive a certificate if they achieved perfect attendance in February (the following month).
  • “Retrospective Award” students received a letter and certificate telling them they had earned an award for perfect attendance during one month in the fall term.
  • Control students received no communication.

The researchers collected data on the students’ attendance in the following month (February). They found that:

  • There was no impact of offering the prospective reward on subsequent attendance.
  • Offering the retrospective award resulted in students attending less school in February. Absences among this group increased by 8% (an average of 0.06 days per student).

The researchers suggest that the retrospective awards may have sent unintended signals to the students, telling them that they were performing better than the descriptive social norm of their peers, and exceeding the institutional expectations for the awarded behavior.

 

Source (Open Access): Robinson, C.D., Gallus, J., Lee, M.G. & Rogers, T. (2018). The demotivating effect (and unintended Message) of retrospective Awards – HKS faculty research working paper series RWP18-020. Retrieved from https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/getFile.aspx?Id=1681… Read the rest