The importance of middle school for college readiness

New research by ACT shows "the level of academic achievement that students attain by eighth grade has a larger impact on their college and career readiness by the time they graduate from high school than anything that happens academically in high school." The lack of college readiness, as assessed by ACT's three-stage assessment, is "alarming":

• Only 20% of tested high school grads were ready for entry-level college courses in the four areas of biology, social science, English composition and college algebra
• 25% of tested students were not prepared for entry-level college courses in any of the four subject areas.
• Less than 20% of tested eighth graders were on target to be college-ready by the time they graduate.

"This report also reveals that students’ academic readiness for college and career can be improved when students develop behaviors in the upper elementary grades and in middle school that are known to contribute to successful academic performance."

Expanded Learning Time for ELL's

Several schools are restructuring and expanding the school day for ELL's to help them catch up to their schoolmates. By kindergarten, ELL's are 5,000-7,000 vocabulary words behind and by high school that deficit may be as high as 50,000 words. A pilot program in Massachusetts has extended the school year by 300 hours as they move from bilingual education to English immersion. The full report is available here: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/12/ell_report.html

"Content first" teaching improves understanding of science concepts

As you may or may not know, the What Works Clearinghouse has a rigorous set of criteria for quantitative studies to meet their "evidence standards." Apparently this study did, and the results may offer a useful approach for teaching science concepts.

"...a review of the article "Teaching Science as a Language: A Content-First Approach to Science Teaching". This study examined whether teaching scientific concepts using everyday language before introducing scientific terminology improves the understanding of these concepts."

U.S. Students improve in math but not science on the TIMMS

This report from the National Center for Education Statistics within the Institute of Education Sciences summarizes the performance of U.S. fourth- and eighth-grade students on the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), comparing their scores with their peers internationally as well as documenting changes in mathematics and science achievement since 1995. The report also describes additional details about trends in the achievement of students within the United States, by sex, racial/ethnic background, and the poverty level of the schools they attend....
TIMSS has been administered four times: in 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. The United States participated in all four administrations. In 2007, 36 countries participated at grade four, while 48 participated at grade eight.

Mathematics

Results show that the 2007 average mathematics scores of both U.S. fourth- and eighth-grade students were higher than the TIMSS scale average. At grade four, the average U.S. mathematics score was higher than those in 23 of the 35 other countries, lower than those in 8 countries (all 8 were in Asia or Europe), and not measurably different from those in 4 countries. At grade eight, the average U.S. mathematics score was higher than those in 37 of the 47 other countries, lower than those in 5 countries (all located in Asia), and not measurably different from those in 5 countries.

Comparing average scores from the first administration of TIMSS in 1995 to the most recent results from 2007 showed that both U.S. fourth- and eighth-graders improved in mathematics.

Science

In science, the average scores of both U.S. fourth- and eighth-graders were higher than the TIMSS scale average. At grade four, the average U.S. science score was higher than those in 25 of the 35 other countries, lower than those in 4 countries (all of them in Asia), and not measurably different from those in 6 countries. At eighth grade, the average U.S. science score was higher than the average scores in 35 of the 47 other countries, lower than those in 9 countries (all located in Asia or Europe), and not measurably different from those in 3 countries.

Unlike in mathematics, the average science scores for both U.S. fourth- and eighth-grade students were not measurably different in 2007 compared to the first TIMSS results collected in 1995.

Models of Information Inquiry

I just ran across this rich web site that brings together information on multiple models of teaching and learning inquiry and research skills for all ages. Created by the School of Library and Information Science at IUPUI (Indiana Univ. Purdue Univ @ Indiana) there are bibliographies of additional reading on almost every "model" page. Potentially a great resource for K-12 educators. Includes the Big 6 and Super 3, I-Search, Pathways to Knowledge, WebQuest, InfoZone, Kuhlthau's Information Seeking Process (one of my favorites), and more.

Peer discussion increases comprehension

This study reported in the Jan. 2, 2009 issue of Science by Smith et al at the University of Colorado, may offer ideas and hope for promoting student learning in lectures. Here's the abstract:
"When students answer an in-class conceptual question individually using clickers, discuss it with their neighbors, and then revote on the same question, the percentage of correct answers typically increases. This outcome could result from gains in understanding during discussion, or simply from peer influence of knowledgeable students on their neighbors. To distinguish between these alternatives in an undergraduate genetics course, we followed the above exercise with a second, similar (isomorphic) question on the same concept that students answered individually. Our results indicate that peer discussion enhances understanding, even when none of the students in a discussion group originally knows the correct answer."
(M.K.Smith, W.B. Wood, W.K. Adams, C. Wieman, J.K. Knight, N. Guild, T.T. Su. Why peer discussion improves student performance on in-class concept questions. Science 2 January 2009:Vol. 323. no. 5910, pp. 122 - 124)
If you have trouble with the link, you can go through the Journals tab on the Libraries homepage to get to our electronic subscription to Science.

The Trouble with Impact Factors

More and more we're being asked to rank journals...and rank our scholarship based on where it's published. One of the most widely used metrics to rank journals is the "impact factor," created by Eugene Garfield in the middle of the 20th century. "Mr. Garfield, though, now compares his brainchild to nuclear energy: a force that can help society but can unleash mayhem when it is misused." There are many flaws with using impact factors to rank journals and those problems magnify when attempting to use them to evaluate individuals. There is a good article in the Chronicle of Higher Education from Oct. 14, 2005 by Richard Monastersky, where he notes"... relying on impact factors to evaluate a person is statistically dimwitted, say critics of its spreading influence. The measurement is just an average of all the papers in a journal over a year; it doesn't apply to any single paper, let alone to any author." I encourage you to read the whole article before you fasten onto this approach for ranking anything. ("The number that's devouring science.")