Computer Science Trends and Trade-offs in California High Schools

2021 ◽  
pp. 0013161X2110548
Author(s):  
Paul Bruno ◽  
Colleen M. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
English Language ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
School Level ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Staff Level

Purpose: We aim to better understand the curricular, staffing, and achievement trade-offs entailed by expansions of high-school computer science (CS) for students, schools, and school leaders. Methods: We use descriptive, correlational, and quasi-experimental methods to analyze statewide longitudinal course-, school-, and staff-level data from California, where CS course taking has expanded rapidly. Findings: We find that these rapid CS course expansions have not come at the expense of CS teachers’ observable qualifications (namely certification, education, or experience). Within-school course taking patterns over time suggest that CS enrollment growth has come at the expense of social studies, English/language arts (ELA), and arts courses, as well as from other miscellaneous electives. However, we find no evidence that increased enrollment of students in CS courses at a school has a significant effect on students’ math or ELA test scores. Implications: Flexible authorization requirements for CS teachers appear to have allowed school leaders to staff new CS courses with teachers whose observable qualifications are strong, though we do not observe teachers’ CS teaching skill. Increasing CS participation is unlikely to noticeably improve school-level student test scores, but administrators also do not need to be overly concerned that test scores will suffer. However, school leaders and policymakers should think carefully about what courses new CS courses will replace and whether such replacements are worthwhile.

scholarly journals Sanitation and Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anjali Adukia
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Gender Disparities ◽  
School Level ◽  
Substantial Variation ◽  
Indian School ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Sanitation Infrastructure ◽  
School Sanitation ◽  
Academic Test

I explore whether the absence of school sanitation infrastructure impedes educational attainment, particularly among pubescent-age girls, using a national Indian school latrine construction initiative and administrative school-level data. School latrine construction substantially increases enrollment of pubescent-age girls, though predominately when providing sex-specific latrines. Privacy and safety appear to matter sufficiently for pubescent-age girls that only sex-specific latrines reduce gender disparities. Any latrine substantially benefits younger girls and boys, who may be particularly vulnerable to sickness from uncontained waste. Academic test scores did not increase following latrine construction, however. Estimated increases in enrollment are similar across the substantial variation in Indian district characteristics. (JEL H75, H76, I21, I25, J16, O15, O53)

How to Make Additional Time Matter: Integrating Individualized Tutorials into an Extended Day

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Kraft
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
Public High School ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
School Day ◽  
Tenth Grade ◽  
Extended Day ◽  
Quasi Experimental

Evidence on the effect of extending the school day is decidedly mixed because of the stark differences in how schools use additional time. In this paper, I focus narrowly on the effect of additional time used for individualized tutorials. In 2005, MATCH Charter Public High School integrated two hours of tutorials throughout an extended day. The unanticipated implementation of this initiative and the school's admissions lottery allow me to use two complementary quasi-experimental methods to estimate program effects. I find that providing students with daily tutorials that are integrated into the school day and taught by full-time, recent college graduates increased achievement on tenth-grade English language arts exams by 0.15–0.25 standard deviations per year. I find no average effect in mathematics beyond the large gains students were already achieving, although quantile regression estimates suggest the tutorials raised the lowest end of the achievement distribution in mathematics.

scholarly journals Fissures in standards formulation: The role of neoconservative and neoliberal discourses in justifying standards development in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Caughlan ◽  
Richard Beach
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
English Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
School Level ◽  
Content Standards ◽  
High School Level ◽  
Writing Standards ◽  
Standards Development

An analysis of English/language arts standards development in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the late 1990s and early 2000s shows a process of compromise between neoliberal and neoconservative factions involved in promoting and writing standards, with the voices of educators conspicuously absent. Interpretive and critical discourse analyses of versions of English/language arts standards at the high school level and of public documents related to standards promotion reveal initial conflicts between neoconservative and neoliberal discourses, which over time were integrated in final standards documents. The content standards finally released for use in guiding curriculum in each state were bland and incoherent documents that reflected neither a deep knowledge of the field nor an acknowledgement of what is likely to engage young learners. The study suggests the need for looking more critically at standards as political documents, and a greater consideration of educators' expertise in the process of their future development and revision.

scholarly journals Using Hierarchical Linear Modelling to Examine Factors Predicting English Language Students’ Reading Achievement

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Karen Fung ◽  
Samira ElAtia
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Model Identification ◽  
Reading Performance ◽  
School Level ◽  
Reading Scores ◽  
Hierarchical Linear Modelling ◽  
Linear Modelling ◽  
Full Picture ◽  
Using Data

Using Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM), this study aimed to identify factors such as ESL/ELL/EAL status that would predict students’ reading performance in an English language arts exam taken across Canada. Using data from the 2007 administration of the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP) along with the accompanying surveys for students and the schools, a two-level (student level and school level) HLM model was analyzed for predictive relationships. Results showed that, at the student level, predictors such as students’ participation in class discussions, language spoken at home, parents’ encouragement to read at a young age, and the number of individual projects requiring students to work outside of class contributed significantly to the students’ reading scores. However, none of the school-level predictors were found to be significant. All the significant predictors contributed to only 12% of the variability in this HLM model. Identification of more signi cant variables is needed in order to have a full picture of students’ reading competence and achievement. S’appuyant sur la modélisation linéaire hiérarchique (MLH), ce e étude porte sur l’identi cation des facteurs, comme le statut ALS/ELL/ALA, qui prédiraient les acquis en lecture d’élèves lors d’un examen d’anglais administré partout au Canada. Les auteures ont employé des données du Programme pancanadien d’évaluation (PPCE), y compris les sondages connexes pour les élèves et les écoles, a n d’analyser les liens prédictifs d’un modèle HLM à deux niveaux (élève et école). Les résultats indiquent que les prédicteurs tels la participation des élèves aux dis- cussions en classe, la langue parlée à la maison, la mesure dans laquelle les parents encouragent leurs enfants à lire dès un jeune âge et le nombre de projets individuels exigeant du travail à l’extérieur de la salle de classe, contribuaient de façon significative aux résultats des élèves en lecture. Toutefois, aucun des prédicteurs au niveau de l’école ne s’est révélé comme étant significatif. Dans leur ensemble, les prédicteurs significatifs n’ont contribué qu’à 12% de la variabilité du modèle MLH. A n d’arriver à une vue globale du rendement et de la compétence en lecture des élèves, il faudra identifier plus de variables signi catifs. 

scholarly journals Who Are America’s Teachers of the Year?

AERA Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 233285842110255
Author(s):  
Christopher Redding ◽  
Ted Myers
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Education ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Level ◽  
High School Level ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Teachers Of The Year ◽  
Teacher Recognition

The Teacher of the Year (TOY) program is the longest-standing teacher recognition program in the United States. The purpose of this study is to describe the characteristics of state and national TOY awardees and the schools in which they teach. To accomplish this aim, we develop a new data set including the characteristics of all TOY awardees and their schools from 1988 to 2019. Using descriptive and regression analysis, we find that TOY awardees are most likely to teach at the high school level, while the most common subjects taught were elementary education, English language arts, natural sciences, and, for National TOY awardees, social studies. They also have a greater probability of being selected from schools with a smaller fraction of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and higher student enrollments. We discuss how these differences may impede the TOY program’s efforts to amplify teachers’ voice in education policymaking.

scholarly journals Does School Integration Generate Peer Effects? Evidence from Boston's Metco Program

2004 ◽  
Vol 94 (5) ◽  
pp. 1613-1634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua D Angrist ◽  
Kevin Lang
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Variables ◽  
Peer Effects ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Third Graders ◽  
School Level ◽  
Micro Data ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Least Squares Estimates

The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (Metco) is a desegregation program that sends students from Boston schools to more affluent suburbs. Metco increases the number of blacks and reduces test scores in receiving districts. School-level data for Massachusetts and micro data from a large district show no impact of Metco on the scores of white non-Metco students. But the micro estimates show some evidence of an effect on minority third graders, especially girls. Instrumental variables estimates for third graders are imprecise but generally in line with ordinary least squares estimates. Given the localized nature of these results, we conclude that peer effects from Metco are modest and short lived.

scholarly journals CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS IN TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Kissová
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
School Level ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
English Textbooks ◽  
Teaching Pronunciation

The objective of the work is the application of contrastive approach in teaching English to analyse the pros and cons of the contrastive method in teaching foreign language pronunciation to young learners compared to non-contrastive (monolingual) method used at our Slovak primary schools. This article determines the dominant influence of the learner’s mother tongue/native language (L1) in the process of learning/teaching pronunciation foreign/second  language (L2) and by using contrastive approach tries to enhance positive transfer from the L1 and the reduction of possible negative transfer from L1 to L2 using appropriate teaching techniques and effective tools. The study will be carried out on English language non-native teachers working at a public and private Slovak primary school to find out their needs in the field of teaching pronunciation (questionnaires) and will be focused on quasi-experimental pupils’ group trained separately with and without contrastive approach before recording them and analysing the results. The experimental group will be trained in cognitive contrastive approach concerning segmental, suprasegmental and prosodic phonetics systems comparing Slovak and English languages sound systems. The control group will be trained by using imitative-intuitive ways with the same texts in reading and free speaking topics as the first group. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques will be used in the study and the triangulation of research methods will be finished by contend analyses of mainly used English textbooks which are mail regular sources for learning/teaching pronunciation. The most important will be the practical output for teachers and pupils in creating specially designed pronunciation concerned materials for meeting specific needs of our Slovak primary school level determining the influence and interference of Slovak mother tongue in learning/teaching pronunciation.

scholarly journals Using School-Level Data to Investigate the Impact of a One-to-One Mathematics Teaching Resource in English Primary Schools

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 740
Author(s):  
Chris Rolph
Keyword(s):  
Primary Schools ◽  
School Level ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
One To One ◽  
The Cost ◽  
National Tests ◽  
The Impact

This research investigates the potential for a one-to-one coaching tool used by adults other than teachers to be able to deliver greater mathematics progress for primary school children without adding significantly to school costs. Plus 1 and Power of 2 (+1 and Po2) are workbooks designed to be used by adults other than teachers working on a one-to-one basis with children to develop numeracy skills. This quantitative study seeks to examine the impact of +1 and Po2 by considering performance data aggregated at the school level. The attainment of children at 1071 English schools which use the +1 and Po2 products was compared with that of peers in other schools using a quasi-experimental research design based on England’s national performance measures. Statistical analysis suggests that schools using +1 and Po2 show higher levels of mathematics attainment than those who may have used other resources. Furthermore, there is an important finding that assessment attendance is higher, and disapplication from the curriculum lower, in schools using +1 and Po2. This indicates that use of this one-to-one intervention improves access to national tests for children and represents an opportunity for school leaders to maximise the cost effectiveness of existing non-teaching staff or volunteers.

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