Critical Task Resources - EEC 3404 - Relations Across Family, School, and Community

Suggested search terms: race, ethnicity, language, poverty, culture, special needs, student learning, academic achievement, academic success, socioeconomic status, reading instruction, elementary education, early childhood, reading comprehension

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Empirical Study of Patterns in Disciplinary Exclusions of Students with Learning Disabilities by Grade, Ethnicity, Race, and Gender in a Response to Intervention Framework. The primary goal of this paper is to present data on discipline outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with Learning Disabilities (LD). Previous research has indicated that students whose ethnic identity is Latino or Hispanic and students who are from African American and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) backgrounds, as well as English Language Learners (ELLs) with limited English proficiency (LEP), tend to be over-identified as having LD and tend to experience disproportionately high disciplinary exclusions compared to students whose ethnic identity is non-Hispanic and whose racial identity is Asian or White. The purpose of our paper is to examine data from all districts in a northwestern state of the United States reflecting disciplinary incidents leading to exclusion of students from the classroom. We focused our analyses on the following research questions: (a) Are types of behavioral violations leading to exclusions different for students identified with LD compared to students identified with LD and LEP and students without disabilities? (b) Do disciplinary exclusions of students identified with LD vary across grade level, race/ethnicity, or gender? (c) Does the number of days students identified with LD miss because of disciplinary exclusion vary across grade level, race/ethnicity, or gender? We interpret the outcomes of our analyses in the context of a response to intervention approach to behavioral support delivery.
Expanded Learning Opportunities: Helping Latino Students Achieve Success As states, districts, and schools work to improve academic rigor so that all students graduate prepared for college and careers, it has become clear that more learning time and building additional capacity within the public education system are essential. These issues have particular implications for Latino students, especially English language learners (ELLs). Hispanic children face multiple barriers to educational success, including high levels of poverty, low levels of parental education, and disparate rates of preschool and prekindergarten participation.
Family Educational Involvement And Child Achievement In Early Elementary School For American-Born And Immigrant Families. As the foreign-born population in the United States grows, the achievement of immigrant children is a pressing concern. We examined family educational involvement in early elementary school as a potential source of support for the academic success of children in immigrant families. Using a nationally representative sample, we examined rates of educational involvement at first and third grade, as well as associations between involvement and math and reading achievement at these times. With regard to rates, the domain of greatest difference between U.S.-born White parents and both U.S.-born and immigrant parents of color (Asian, Black, and Latino) was for school-based involvement. In addition, several variations in the associations between involvement and child achievement were evident across immigrant and race/ethnicity groups, with children in U.S.-born White, Black, and Asian families as well as children in Latino immigrant families most consistently demonstrating positive associations between family educational involvement and achievement.
Growing Income Inequality Threatens American Education Describes the origins and nature of growing income inequality, and some of its consequences for American children. It documents the increased family income inequality that's occurred over the past 40 years and shows that the increased income disparity has been more than matched by an expanding gap between the amounts of money that low- and high-income parents spend on enrichment activities for their children. It also shows that the growth in income inequality has been accompanied by increasing gaps in academic achievement.
How Does Poverty Influence Learning? Article from Edutopia.org
Reading Achievement for Students with Autism and Students with Learning Disability: A Comprehensive Examination of Five Key Areas of Reading Students with ASD present as unique learners with individual characteristics which may impact their reading performance, particularly related to word reading and comprehension. While a relatively new area of research in reading, students with ASD demonstrate a pattern of below average performance on standardized measures of reading achievement, with comprehension identified as a salient area of deficit. Research remains limited in this area, however, particularly with regard to assessment of the five key areas of reading (phonological awareness, word reading/ decoding, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension). The current study provides an in-depth look at the five key areas of reading for 28 elementary-school students with a confirmed ASD and compares the reading performance of these students with a comparison group of 30 students with SLD who would be expected to show the reverse pattern of performance on reading measures (e.g., deficits in decoding and strengths in comprehension). Additionally, a mixed-methods approach is used in the exploratory examination of student reading behaviors related to comprehension. Findings indicate patterns of strengths and weaknesses for both groups of students across the five key areas, with both groups falling well below expected population norms and benchmarks in phonological awareness, decoding, fluency, and passage comprehension. In contrast, students from both groups excelled on a measure of supported comprehension. Students with ASD performed at higher levels than peers with SLD on measures of word reading and fluency, but not on measures of phonological awareness or decoding. Conversely, students with SLD performed at higher levels than peers with ASD on a measure of listening comprehension, but not on measures of vocabulary, supported comprehension, or passage comprehension. Exploratory investigation revealed that teachers perceived that students with SLD use reading behaviors at a higher rate and with a higher level of proficiency to promote comprehension than peers with ASD. Further, student interviews demonstrated that students who were low comprehenders used fewer and more passive strategies than students who were high comprehenders, regardless of ASD or SLD group membership. Implications for practice and future research are noted.
The Impact of Learning Time on Academic Achievement As schools aim to raise student academic achievement levels and districts wrangle with decreased funding, it is essential to understand the relationship between learning time and academic achievement. Using regression analysis and a data set drawn from California's elementary school sites, we find a statistically significant and positive relationship between the number of instructional minutes in an academic year and school-site standardized test scores. Fifteen more minutes of school a day at a school site (or about an additional week of classes over an academic year) relates to an increase in average overall academic achievement of about 1%, and about a 1.5% increase in average achievement for disadvantaged students. This same increase in learning time yields the much larger 37% gain in the average growth of socioeconomically disadvantage achievement from the previous academic year. Placing this impact in the context of other influences found important to academic achievement, similar increases in achievement only occur with an increase of fully credentialed teachers by nearly 7 percentage points. These findings offer guidance regarding the use of extended learning time to increase academic performance. Moreover, they suggest caution in reducing instructional time as the default approach to managing fiscal challenges.
Collaborative Strategic Reading for Students With Learning Disabilities in Upper Elementary Classrooms. Sixty fourth- and fifth-grade general education teachers were randomly assigned to teach Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR; Klingner, Vaughn, Boardman, & Swanson, 2012), a set of reading comprehension strategies, or to a business-as-usual comparison group. Results demonstrate that students with learning disabilities (LD) who received CSR instruction in their general education classrooms—approximately 2 times each week over a 14-week period—made significantly greater gains in reading comprehension than students with LD in comparison classrooms (g = .52). Teachers in CSR classrooms were also more likely to provide feedback to students and to use collaborative grouping structures.

EEC 3404 - Relations Across Family, School, and Community: Critical Task Resources

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