This brief examines the efforts of schools participating in the Barr Foundation’s Engage New England Initiative to improve the instructional systems for students who are off track to graduate high school.
Education & learning publications
Early Childhood Integrated Data Analytic Self-Assessment Rubric
The ECIDS toolkit has seven components (e.g. Purpose and Vision, Planning and Management, Stakeholder Engagement, etc.) and is useful as a self-assessment tool and roadmap for improving ECIDS. ECDataWorks and partner states propose developing an ECIDS data analytic self-assessment tool for states that focuses on the process of translating ECIDS data to information to action. This process typically involves the design, development, and implementation of analytic tools. Designing, developing, and implementing analytic tools is challenging for several reasons
Dropout prevention in the time of COVID-19
Students on the path toward dropping out of high school often exhibit signals that they are at risk well before they stop engaging in school. As school closures due to COVID-19 separate students from structured routines and educational supports, the number of disengaged students may continue to grow. Educators should be aware of and look for signs of disengagement and act to maximize engagement and supports for at-risk students during COVID-19 closures.
Racial Differences in Special Education Identification and Placement: Evidence Across Three States
In this article, Todd Grindal, Laura Schifter, Gabriel Schwartz, and Thomas Hehir examine race/ethnicity differences in students’ special education identification and subsequent placement in segregated educational settings. Using individual-level data on the full population of K–12 public school students in three states, the authors find that racial and ethnic disparities in identification persist within income categories and are stronger for those disabilities that are typically identified in a school setting, such as learning disabilities or emotional disabilities, than those more often identified by a health-care provider, such as blindness or deafness. Also, Black and Hispanic students with disabilities were more likely to be placed in a substantially separate setting, compared to white students, regardless of income status. These results suggest that low-income status is insufficient to explain observed inequalities in the rate at which students of color are identified for special education and placed in substantially separate settings. A better understanding of the ways income status and race contribute to students’ interactions with the special education system are critical for building a more equitable and just K–12 education system.
How Measuring Your Preschool Child Outcomes Data Quality Can Lead to Data Use for Better Results
In this workshop presented at the 2020 National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) Conference, national early childhood technical assistance providers discuss strategies and tools for states to measure and improve the quality of their preschool special education child outcomes data. The presentation highlights the considerations for equity when certain groups of data are of disproportionately low quality. Presenters also discuss considerations during data disruptions as a result of events like the COVID-19 pandemic.
When adaptive learning is effective learning: comparison of an adaptive learning system to teacher-led instruction
Adaptive learning systems personalize instruction to students’ individual learning needs and abilities. Such systems have shown positive impacts on learning. Many schools in the United States have adopted adaptive learning systems, and the rate of adoption in China is accelerating, reaching almost 2 million unique users for one product alone in the past 3 years.
What foundational skills matter for Algebra I success?
Algebra I is considered a gateway course for advanced math. Consequently, there has been a trend toward enrolling students in Algebra I earlier in the middle grades in order to increase opportunities for students to take more advanced math courses in high school. The challenge for educators lies in determining which students are ready to take Algebra I in middle school and which students need more time to develop foundational knowledge and skills before taking Algebra I. To inform strategies that address this challenge, educators from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education partnered with Regional Educational Laboratory Central to investigate the specific foundational knowledge and skills that are associated with achievement in Algebra I. This study examined whether student knowledge in five domains of math assessed in grade 7 was associated with Algebra I achievement. The study found that students’ scores in all five of the grade 7 domains were related to Algebra I achievement, but their performance in the expressions, equations, and inequalities domain was most strongly related. The number sense and operations domain was more strongly associated with Algebra I achievement for English learner students than it was for students without this designation. No clear differences in these associations were found between students who were receiving special education services and those who were not.
Strengthening the Clinical Orientation of Teacher Preparation Programs
This paper describes five levers CSU campus-district partnerships used to make clinically oriented reforms to teacher preparation as part of the New Generation of Educators Initiative (NGEI): 1) identifying prioritized skills; 2) selecting or creating a rubric to assess candidate proficiency with prioritized skills; 3) integrating and expanding opportunities to practice prioritized skills; 4) reconceptualizing clinical roles, selection, and support; and, 5) defining and implementing processes to provide feedback on prioritized skills. This paper is one of a four-part series sharing lessons learned from NGEI, a multiyear effort to improve teacher preparation at 11 California State Universities teacher preparation programs (TPPs) in partnership with local public-school districts.
Strengthening the Data Use and Continuous Improvement Capacity of Teacher Preparation Programs
This paper describes four levers that helped university-district partnerships participating in the New Generation of Educators Initiative (NGEI) use data and continuous improvement practices to execute teacher preparation reforms: 1) developing data sources that can inform improvement efforts; 2) delineating clear roles to support continuous improvement; 3) building an infrastructure for efficient data entry and analysis; and 4) establishing a culture of improvement through routines for data review and use. This paper is one of a four-part series sharing lessons learned from NGEI, a multiyear effort to improve teacher preparation at 11 California State Universities teacher preparation programs (TPPs) in partnership with local public-school districts.
Measuring Chinese Middle School Students’ Motivation Using the Reduced Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (RIMMS): A Validation Study in the Adaptive Learning Setting
Valid measures of student motivation can inform the design of learning environments to engage students and maximize learning gains. This study validates a measure of student motivation, the Reduced Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (RIMMS), with a sample of Chinese middle school students using an adaptive learning system in math.
Measuring Chinese middle school students’ motivation using the Reduced Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (RIMMS): A validation study in the adaptive learning setting
Valid measures of student motivation can inform the design of learning environments to engage students and maximize learning gains. This study validates a measure of student motivation, the Reduced Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (RIMMS), with a sample of Chinese middle school students using an adaptive learning system in math. Participants were 429 students from 21 provinces in China. Their ages ranged from 14 to 17 years old, and most were in 9th grade. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) validated the RIMMS in this context by demonstrating that RIMMS responses retained the intended four-factor structure: attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. To illustrate the utility of measuring student motivation, this study identifies factors of motivation that are strongest for specific student subgroups. Students who expected to attend elite high schools rated the adaptive learning system higher on all four RIMMS motivation factors compared to students who did not expect to attend elite high schools. Lower parental education levels were associated with higher ratings on three RIMMS factors. This study contributes to the field’s understanding of student motivation in adaptive learning settings.
Effect of accessing supports on higher education persistence of students with disabilities
SRI Authors: Lynn Newman, Harold Javitz Abstract This study examined the effect of accessing supports available to the general student body and disability-related supports on college perseverance for students with disabilities. This secondary analysis of a nationally representative longitudinal dataset included a sample of approximately 2,330 college students with disabilities who had been identified as […]
The NGEI Approach to Improving Teacher Preparation in the CSU Through a System of Supports
This paper describes three levers that helped the funder, the S.D., Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, execute the New Generation of Educators Initiative (NGEI): 1) balancing grant requirements with flexibility and responsive support; 2) customizing technical assistance support to meet partnership needs; and 3) embedding opportunities for cross-networked learning and collaboration. This paper is one of a four-part series sharing lessons learned from NGEI, a multiyear effort to improve teacher preparation at 11 California State Universities teacher preparation programs (TPPs) in partnership with local public-school districts.
Building Strong Partnerships to Improve Clinically Oriented Teacher Preparation
This paper describes four levers university teacher preparation programs (TPPs) and districts participating in the New Generation of Educators Initiative (NGEI) used to create strong partnerships: 1) creating and operationalizing a shared vision; 2) identifying key roles; 3) ensuring space and time to collaborate; and, 4) sharing data to identify needs and monitor progress. This paper is one of a four-part series sharing lessons learned from NGEI, a multiyear effort to improve teacher preparation at 11 California State University TPPs in partnership with local public-school districts.
From the static to the dynamic: Teachers’ varying use of digital technology to support conceptual learning in a curricular activity system
Dynamic representational technologies (DRTs), influenced by the seminal work of James Kaput and colleagues, have been in use in mathematics classrooms for decades. In this paper, we analyze 24 classrooms in the United States where teachers support students’ conceptual learning with technologies that support explorations of dynamic connections both within and across mathematical representations. These DRTs, built in alignment with Kaput’s principles, form part of a curricular activity system that embeds a central pedagogical routine. Yet despite the use of common DRTs, lessons, and professional development, classroom teaching practices varied widely. We characterize and analyze levels of technology use, which vary from using the technology as a static resource to taking advantage of dynamism to support students’ emerging explanations of mathematical concepts. There are important implications for further research into classroom use of DRTs and, more broadly, for curriculum developers and teacher educators.
