As more attention is placed on designing digital educational games to align with schools' academic aims (e.g., Common Core), questions arise regarding how professional development (PD) may support teachers' using games for instruction and how such integration might impact students' achievement. This study seeks to (a) understand how teachers use PD resources (e.g., technology personnel and game‐use workshops) for integration; (b) determine how teachers integrate games into their instruction; and (c) examine how those teaching practices are associated with student achievement. This mixed method study used survey and interview responses from elementary school teachers (
Math achievement in U.S. high schools is a consistent predictor of educational attainment. While emphasis on raising math achievement continues, school-level interventions often come at the expense of other subjects. Arts courses are particularly at risk of being cut, especially in schools serving lower socioeconomic status youth. Evidence suggests, however, that arts coursework is beneficial to many educational outcomes. We use data on 20,590 adolescents from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to answer two research questions: (1) Does student accumulation of fine arts courses across different topic areas relate positively to math test scores in high school? (2) Does school SES differentiate this potential association? Results indicate that youth attending higher-SES schools take more art courses and taking music courses is related to higher math test scores. However, this benefit only seems to only apply to more socially advantaged student bodies. Results reveal a site of additional educational advantage for already privileged youth.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 1652279
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10371892
- Publisher / Repository:
- SAGE Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Sociological Perspectives
- Volume:
- 66
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0731-1214
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 226-245
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
more » « less
Abstract n = 863) with access to PD resources for implementing a math game intervention and standardized math‐test scores from their second‐ through sixth‐grade students (n = 10,715). Findings showed few teachers sought PD assistance for integration, but many desired such support. Some reported using integrative practices (i.e., referencing game and using game‐generated progress reports) to identify struggling students, whereas several found integration challenging. Teachers' reordering of game objectives to align with lessons and viewing of game‐based PD videos were associated with increased student math achievement in our OLS‐analysis. However, this result was no longer statistically significant within a school fixed‐effects model, suggesting school differences may influence how strongly teachers' practices are associated with student achievement. -
more » « less
Racial and ethnic differences in educational outcomes significantly narrowed during the 1970s and 1980s when K–12 public schools were desegregated. However, when schools resegregated starting roughly in the late 1980s, racial gaps in outcomes widened again. Because of literacy’s pivotal role in learning, the authors investigate if segregation contributes to racial gaps in K–12 reading performance. Drawing upon structural vulnerability and cumulative advantage/disadvantage theories to frame this study, the authors conduct multilevel metaregression analyses of 131 effect sizes from 30 primary studies to investigate if school composition effects contribute to racial gaps in K–12 reading outcomes and if any effects vary in magnitude or direction for students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds or grade levels. The metaregression analyses control for the primary studies’ regression model characteristics and research designs. The results indicate a small, negative, statistically significant relationship between the percentage of a school’s disadvantaged minority enrollment and the mean reading achievement of the students who attend it. The negative association is stronger when segregation is measured by percentage Black and is stronger for high school students. These two findings suggest that the disadvantages of segregated education cumulate as more structurally vulnerable students transition from elementary to secondary school. Additional results suggest that a school’s racial composition effect is not the same as its socioeconomic status composition effect. The two organizational characteristics have distinct, albeit interrelated, influences on reading scores. Together the findings suggest that racially and ethnically segregated schooling both reflects and helps reproduce racial/ethnic inequality in literacy outcomes.
-
Since the emergence of middle schools as distinct educational settings in the 1960s, proponents of the model have advocated for structures and approaches that best meet the particular developmental needs of young adolescents. Middle school researchers have developed frameworks of best practices for schools that have been widely, if not uniformly, adopted. However, there is a paucity of large-scale quantitative research on the efficacy of such best practices. In this study we used state-level administrative data from Texas to estimate the school-level contribution to standardized test scores in math and language arts, along with absenteeism. We then regressed these value-added quantities on indicators of middle school structures, along with research-supported predictors of school efficacy. Results showed that schools with fewer classes in the school day and higher quality teachers performed better, among other indicators. Findings from models using the campus contribution to absenteeism were similar. These results indicate that while elements of the middle school model may help transform individual schools, the equitable distribution of resources and the undoing of de facto segregation are vital to the success of all young adolescents.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)In recent years, it has increasingly been recognized that spatial visualization skills are important in supporting student success in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education and retention of these students in STEM careers. Many first year college engineering programs and high schools with pre-engineering curriculum have incorporated spatial visualization training into their courses. However, there is no reason why spatial visualization training could not occur at a much younger age, like elementary school. Often at the high school and college level, the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Rotations (PSVT:R), which is recognized as a gold standard assessment tool, is used to measure students’ spatial skills learning gains. The PSVT:R is a 20 minute timed test consisting of 30 three-dimensional rotations problems. While the PSVT:R test has been well validated, there are benefits to developing alternative methods of assessing spatial visualization skills suitable for elementary school grades. Researchers at XXX developed an assembly pre- and post- test based upon a timed Lego™ exercise. Students are timed to see how long it would take them to build small Lego shapes using only a picture of the final assembly, but no instructions. The test was implemented at the beginning and then at the end of the quarter/semester. The beauty of this assessment is that it lends itself well to K-12 students. The 20 minute, timed PSVT:R test is too challenging for elementary aged children and is not engaging. In order to validate the new instrument, the Lego™ Assembly test was implemented in a pilot study in 2 college freshman engineering courses using students who could do both the PSVT:R and the Lego Assembly™ assessments. At the beginning of the class all students took the PSVT:R test, and half the students performed a Lego™ assembly of one shape and the other half did the assembly test with another shape. During the class the students completed spatial visualization training which taught them how to sketch orthographic and isometric assignments using a mobile sketching app. At the end of the class the PSVT:R test was repeated for all students. The Lego Assembly™ test was also completed, but the students switched which shape they were building. This approach allowed us to normalize the difficulty of the assembly tasks based upon the average time it took to build the shapes in the pre-test. The Lego Assembly™ test was first implemented in winter and spring of 2018. The data showed a correlation of the R-Squared of 0.11 between the assembly times and the PSVT:R scores in pre-test and 0.14 in post-test. However, analysis of the assembly times indicated that the difficulty of the 2 Lego shapes were significantly different, which could skew the normalization of the assembly times. Accordingly, the test was repeated in winter and spring 2019 with Lego shapes of similar difficulty. This paper describes the results of the assembly tess in all 4 classes, and its suitability for a spatial visualization assessment for elementary school age students.more » « less
-
more » « less
Abstract Despite recent efforts to support learners from traditionally minoritized backgrounds in mathematics, inequities in math achievement and participation still exist, particularly for women and people of color. Additionally, much of how math is taught in schools aligns with a particular epistemology that comes from western mathematicians and philosophers. While a strong link between weaving and mathematics has been established, fewer studies explore the possibilities of this link for supporting youth’s pluralistic engagement with mathematics in educational settings. Thus, we ask: In a making-focused intervention designed to expose youth to the mathematical practices inherent in weaving, how do student-created artifacts showcase learning? In this paper, four cases demonstrate how middle-school youth learning to weave and learning through weaving experimented or leveled up their planned or implemented designs. Their learning processes showcase engagement with mathematics that mirrors that of more experienced weavers. Making visible the mathematical engagement that youth undertake through weaving may be a step toward building frameworks and classroom activities through making that work to combat these disciplinary issues.
