Isabel Sawhill and Jon Baron published an editorial in Education Week calling for a new approach to the venerable Head Start program, one founded on evidence about effectiveness. They argue that in the wake of the discouraging Head Start Impact Study reported by US Department of Health & Human Services, it’s time to bring research into the nation’s play pre-schools.
A new approach is needed. One that has been suggested—defunding these programs—would amount to giving up the fight against major social problems such as educational failure and poverty that damage millions of American lives. A far better alternative is to use rigorous evidence about “what works” to evolve Head Start and other federal efforts into truly effective programs over time, and to use sophisticated models to trace their longer-term effects on children’s life prospects.
Continue reading ‘Evidence-based education in Head Start?’
Those readers from the UK are almost surely familiar with the “Rose Report,” but readers in other parts of the world may not know about it. Identifying and Teaching Children and Young People with Dyslexia and Literacy Difficulties: An independent report from Sir Jim Rose to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families was published in June 2009 and is available for free.
Overall, this the Rose Report presents a clear, sensible, and valuable understanding of reading problems and dyslexia, including many valuable recommendations for instruction. It is not perfect, to be sure. For example, there is a strong endorsement of Reading Recovery, which I find unwarrented given its record and costs. Still, a well-informed reader will find much to like in this document.
Continue reading ‘Read the Rose Report on reading’
According to a report from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), a study examining the benefits of providing pre-kindergarten programs in New Mexico (US) revealed that there were significant and important benefits for children. Jason Hustedt and colleagues found that there were significant improvements in children’s language, literacy, and math competence associated with attending pre-k programs.
[Their] results show that New Mexico PreK produces consistent benefits for children who
participated in PreK, compared to those who did not, across all three years of the study. Positive impacts of PreK were found in each of three content areas important to early academic success – language, literacy, and math. Findings in literacy and mathematics were statistically significant in analyses for each school year of New Mexico PreK. Findings specific to our measure of early language were statistically significant for the first two years of the study, and using a combined, multi‐year data set.
I had to wonder what curriculum the New Mexico pre-k programs followed. It appears that about half of the sites do not report the curriculum they use. However, one uses Bank Street, nine use High Scope, and the remaining 60-some use Creative Curriculum. Imagine what kind of effects these pre-k programs could achieve if they used more effective curricula!
Hustedt, J. T., Barnett, W. S., Jung, K., & Goetze, L. D. (2009). The New Mexico preK evaluation: Results from the initial four years of a new state preschool initiative. New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research.
The report is available for free. See the Website for the New Mexico PreK program.
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Zig Engelmann, progenitor of Direct Instruction (DI), has posted a video of a talk he gave earlier this month. The presentation is an explication of the underlying principles of DI, “Theory of Direct Instruction.”
In the presentation (video below the jump), Mr. Engelmann shows some of his chops from his undergraduate degree in philosophy. He starts with philosophers’ fundamental arguments and shows how those correspond (or don’t) with learning and teaching concepts. For example, as he works through John Stuart Mills’ five methods of induction from A System of Logic, he makes clear how each would apply to teaching. I suspect that this particular sequence will show many people why DI instruction (the examples used in the scripts, not the teaching behavior) is structured the way it is.
Continue reading ‘Engelmann explains’
In Child Development Jo Ann Farver and colleagues reported that young children who speak Spanish can learn English early literacy skills better when they receive instruction in English. That finding’s not particularly surprising, but there’s more: There’s a comparison of English-only and “transitional” methods. Children who received instruction in English-only or Spanish with transition to English (both using the Literacy Express Preschool Curriculum) had higher pre-literacy outcomes than peers who had been randomly assigned to receive the High/Scope Curriculum.
Continue reading ‘English intervention improves Spanish-speakers’ early literacy outcomes’
The US What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) announced the availability of three additional intervention reports. In none of the three cases was there sufficient evidence to permit the WWC to draw conclusions about the benefits of the practices.
Breakthrough to Literacy is a curriculum for students in preschool through third grade that introduces them to a book-a-week throughout the year. The book serves as a focal point for classroom activities with whole group and small group instruction. The curriculum also offers independent learning activities, including computer-based instruction, that allow students to progress at their own pace. Read the WWC’s Breakthrough to Literacy intervention report at http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/early_ed/btl/.
Mathematics in Context is a middle school mathematics curriculum for grades 5 through 8. The curriculum teaches students to explore the relationships among different domains of mathematics (such as algebra and geometry) and to develop strategies for reasoning through problems, encouraging students to collaborate on problem solving. The WWC’s Mathematics in Context intervention report is available at http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/middle_math/math_context/.
The New Century High Schools Initiative is a program designed to improve large, underperforming high schools by transforming them into small schools with links to community organizations. The schools choose a curriculum that has a theme or career focus, such as engineering, health science, or theater. Each school partners with a community organization that can participate in curriculum development, school management, after-school activities, or other operational aspects of the school. To read the WWC’s intervention report on the New Century High Schools Initiative go to http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/dropout/new_century/.
The What Works Clearinghouse released new reports this week. Here are the topics, the foci, and links to the reports.
The first one sort of mystifies me. The WWC used as evidence of effectiveness of RR a study that essentially showed the basic RR method was less effective.
The What Works Clearinghouse has released additional reviews of reports summarizing the research on various interventions.
What Works Clearinghouse Releases 10 New Reports: Beginning Reading, Early Childhood Education, Character Education, English Language Learning, and Elementary School Mathematics
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, announces 10 new intervention reports highlighting available research on Beginning Reading, Early Childhood Education, Character Education, English Language Learning, and Elementary School Mathematics. New WWC Reports include:
Beginning Reading:
More information about the Beginning Reading review is available at http://whatworks.ed.gov/Topic.asp?tid=01&ReturnPage=default.asp.
Early Childhood Education:
More information about the Early Childhood review is available at http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Topic.asp?tid=13&ReturnPage=default.asp.
Character Education:
More information about the Character Education review is available at http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Topic.asp?tid=12&ReturnPage=default.asp.
English Language Learning:
More information regarding the English Language Learning review is available at http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Topic.asp?tid=10&ReturnPage=default.asp.
Elementary School Mathematics:
More information regarding the Elementary School Mathematics review is available at http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/Topic.asp?tid=04&ReturnPage=default.asp.
The WWC is releasing an ongoing series of reports over the next few months covering these topics, as well as releasing reports for Dropout Prevention and Middle School Mathematics. Approximately 30 additional reports will be released by the end of the year. Weekly updates will be sent to the WWC subscribers notifying them of the latest available findings.
See earlier posts on Teach Effectively! regarding reports from the W-W-C.
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