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• Opportunity to Learn and English Learner Achievement: Is Increased Content Exposure Beneficial?

  1/1/08 - Aguirre-Munoz, Zenaida, Boscardin, Christy Kim

  This investigation examined the impact of opportunity to learn content and skills targeted by a writing assessment on the achievement of English learners (ELs), including the potential for differential impact of increased exposure to literary analysis and writing instruction. Results revealed several factors contributing to students' writing performance. Student-level and teacher-level variables were found to significantly contribute to writing performance. Although exposure to writing and...

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  Parental incarceration and child well-being in fragile families

  1/5/09 - Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing,

  This brief summarizes the results of an extensive analysis examining the risks faced by urban children whose parents have been incarcerated. The findings are not meant to suggest a causal relationship between incarceration and child wellbeing. Rather, the analyses identify the extent to which the children of incarcerated parents are at greater risk for material hardship, family instability, or developmental challenges.

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  Parental Incarceration, Child Homelessness, and the Invisible Consequences of Mass Imprisonment

  1/9/09 - Christopher Wildeman

  "Although the share of the homeless population composed of African Americans and children has grown since at least the early 1980s, the causes of these changes remain poorly understood. This article implicates mass imprisonment in at least the second of these shifts by considering the effects of parental incarceration on child homelessness using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. These are the only data that simultaneously represent a contemporary cohort of the urban...

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  Paving the path to urban school principalship

  1/5/09 - Coggshall, J., Stewart, J., Bhatt, M

  This brief focuses on what it takes to attract talented and experienced individuals to the principalship. It describes what inspires some people to start on this path, what gives them pause, and what deters others entirely. Using the research literature and results from four focus groups of aspiring principals in three major cities, this brief describes the steps along the pathway to the principalship as well as the characteristics of the individuals taking the journey. Based on these...

• Perceptions of "Acting Black" Among African American Teens: Implications of Racial Dramaturgy for Academic and Social Achievement

  1/1/04 - Peterson-Lewis, Sonja, Bratton, Lisa M.

  Content analysis of 56 African American high school students' descriptions of the meaning of "acting Black" revealed five underlying content dimensions: (1) academic/scholastic, (2) aesthetic/stylistic, (3) behavioral, (4) dispositional, and (5) impressionistic. With the exception of the qualities in the aesthetic/stylistic category, the respondents attributed primarily negative qualities to "acting Black." Although Black youths' perspectives on "acting White" has been a topic of great...

• Powerful Pedagogy: Learning Communities at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

  1/1/08 - Shapiro, Nancy S.

  A recent deluge of national studies and reports warns the United States that our future hangs in the balance because our educational system is failing our society. These studies cite projections that American competitiveness is at risk because we have failed to address a growing demographic inevitability—that the segment of the population that is growing the fastest is comprised of those students who are most at risk in our educational system. An expanding body of research (including the...

• Preschool Antecedents of Mathematics Achievement of Latinos: The Influence of Family Resources, Early Literacy Experiences, and Preschool Attendance

  1/1/07 - Lopez, Edward M., Gallimore, Ronald, Garnier, Helen

  Seventy-three Latino middle school students participated in a longitudinal study of the preschool antecedents of their mathematics achievement. Path analysis indicated that family resources (parents' educational level, occupation, and income) predicted home literacy activities, which predicted combined early Spanish literacy and English language proficiencies at kindergarten entry, which predicted elementary mathematics achievement, which in turn predicted middle school mathematics...

• Preschool antecedents of mathematics achievement of Latinos: The influence of family resources, early literacy experiences, and preschool attendance

  1/1/07 - Lopez, Edward M., Gallimore, Ronald, Garnier, Helen, Reese, Leslie

  Seventy-three Latino middle school students participated in a longitudinal study of the preschool antecedents of their mathematics achievement. Path analysis indicated that family resources (parents' educational level, occupation, and income) predicted home literacy activities, which predicted combined early Spanish literacy and English language proficiencies at kindergarten entry, which predicted elementary mathematics achievement, which in turn predicted middle school mathematics...

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  Preventing challenging behavior in young children: Effective practices

  1/3/09 - Alter, P., Conroy, M.

  The single best way to address challenging behaviors in young children today is to take steps to make sure that they never occur. While there is no universal panacea for preventing challenging behaviors, there are several broad-based early intervention strategies that researchers suggest to prevent challenging behaviors.

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  Processes and challenges in identifying learning disabilities among students who are English language learners in three New York State districts

  1/1/10 - Maria Teresa Sánchez, Caroline Parker, Bercem Akbayln, Anna McTigue

  "To help districts accurately identify students who are English language learners and also have learning disabilities, this study examines practices and challenges in the processes applied in three New York State districts in identifying learning disabilities among students who are English language learners. Using interviews with district and school personnel and documents from state and district web sites, the study finds both similarities and differences in practices, with more differences...

• Pushing Past the Achievement Gap: An Essay on the Language of Deficit

  1/1/07 - Ladson-Billings, Gloria

  Part of a special issue celebrating the 75th anniversary of The Journal of Negro Education. There has been an intense focus on the achievement gap that exists between African American, Latino, and other students of color and their white counterparts, but this discourse keeps everyone locked in the deficit paradigm. The current concern with an achievement gap is substantive and semantic, does not take into account the other gaps that plague the lives of poor children of color, and suggests...

• Racial Disparities and Discrimination in Education: What Do We know, How Do We Know It, and What Do We Need to Know?

  1/1/03 - Farkas, George

  This paper reviews what we have learned about racial discrepancies in education, with particular attention to those that might be attributable to discrimination. Empirical studies have found that, on average, African American, Latino, and American Indian children arrive at kindergarten or first grade with lower levels of oral language, prereading, and premathematics skills, as well as lesser general knowledge, than that possessed by White and Asian American children. African American...

• Racial Disparities and Discrimination in Education: What Do We Know, How Do We Know It, and What Do We Need to Know?

  1/1/03 - Farkas, George

  This paper reviews what we have learned about racial discrepancies in education, with particular attention to those that might be attributable to discrimination. Empirical studies have found that, on average, African American, Latino, and American Indian children arrive at kindergarten or first grade with lower levels of oral language, prereading, and premathematics skills, as well as lesser general knowledge, than that possessed by White and Asian American children. African American...

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  Recruiting New Teachers to Urban School Districts: What Incentives Will Work?

  9/25/09 - Anthony T. Milanowski, Hope Longwell-Grice, Felicia Saffold, Janice Jones, Kristen Schomisch, Allan Odden

  Many urban districts in the United States have difficulty attracting and retaining quality teachers, yet they are often the most in need of them. In response, U.S. states and districts are experimenting with financial incentives to attract and retain high-quality teachers in high-need, low-achieving, or hard-to-staff urban schools. However, relatively little is known about how effective financial incentives are for recruiting new teachers to high-need urban schools. This research explores...

• Recursive Processes in Self-Affirmation: Intervening to Close the Minority Achievement Gap

  1/1/09 - Cohen, Geoffrey L., Garcia, Julio, Purdie-Vaughns, Valerie, Apfel, Nancy, Brzustoski, Patricia

  A 2-year follow-up of a randomized field experiment previously reported in Science is presented. A subtle intervention to lessen minority students' psychological threat related to being negatively stereotyped in school was tested in an experiment conducted three times with three independent cohorts (N = 133, 149, and 134). The intervention, a series of brief but structured writing assignments focusing students on a self-affirming value, reduced the racial achievement gap. Over 2 years, the...

• Recursive processes in self-affirmation: Intervening to close the minority achievement gap

  1/1/09 - Cohen, Geoffrey L., Garcia, Julio, Purdie-Vaughns, Valerie, Apfel, Nancy, Brzustoski, Patricia

  A 2-year follow-up of a randomized field experiment previously reported in Science is presented. A subtle intervention to lesson minority students' psychological threat related to being negatively stereotyped in school was tested in an experiment conducted three times with three independent cohorts (N=133, 149, and 134). The intervention, a series of brief but structured writing assignments focusing students on self-affirming value, reduced the racial achievement gap. Over 2 years, the grade...