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Career Academies: Long-Term Impacts on Labor Market Outcomes, Educational Attainment, and Transitions to Adulthood
Kemple, J.J. and Willner, C.J. (2008). Career Academies: Long-Term Impacts on Labor Market Outcomes, Educational Attainment, and Transitions to Adulthood. New York: MDRC.
Career Academies have become a widely used high school reform initiative that aims to keep students engaged in school and prepare them for successful transitions to postsecondary education and employment. Typically serving between 150 and 200 students from grades 9 or 10 through grade 12, Career Academies combine academic and technical curricula around a career theme, and establish partnerships with local employers to provide work-based learning opportunities.
Since 1993, MDRC has been conducting a uniquely rigorous evaluation of the Career Academy approach in a diverse group of nine high schools across the United States. Located in medium- and large-sized school districts, the schools confront many of the educational challenges found in low-income urban settings. This report describes how Career Academies influenced students' labor market prospects and postsecondary educational attainment in the eight years following their expected graduation. The results are based on the experiences of more than 1,400 young people, approximately 85 percent of whom are Hispanic or African-American.
Teaching Reading Well: A Synthesis of the International Reading Association's Research on Teacher Preparation for Reading Instruction
International Reading Association. (2007). Reading Well: A Synthesis of the International Reading Association's Research on Teacher Preparation for Reading Instruction. Newark, DE: Author.
This report synthesizes the findings of research efforts focused on identifying essential qualities of effective teacher preparation programs for reading instruction. It finds that good teacher prep programs provide students with excellent instructional content; faculty and teaching; apprenticeships, field experiences, and practica; diversity; candidate and program assessment; and governance, resources, and vision.
3.6 Minutes Per Day: The Scarcity of Informational Texts in First Grade
Duke, N.K. (2000). 3.6 minutes per day: The scarcity of informational texts in first grade. Reading Research Quarterly, 35, 202-224.
Abstract:
Although scholars have called for greater attention to informational texts in the early grades for some time, there have been few data available about the degree to which informational texts are actually included in early grade classrooms, and in what ways. This study provides basic, descriptive information about informational text experiences offered to children in 20 first-grade classrooms selected from very low- and very high-SES school districts. Each classroom was visited for four full days over the course of a school year. On each visit, data were collected about the types of texts on classroom walls and other surfaces, in the classroom library, and in classroom written language activities.
Results show a scarcity of informational texts in these classroom print environments and activities – there were relatively few informational texts included in classroom libraries, little informational text on classroom walls and other surfaces, and a mean of only 3.6 minutes per day spent with informational texts during classroom written language activities. This scarcity was particularly acute for children in the low-SES school districts, where informational texts comprised a much smaller proportion of already-smaller classroom libraries, where informational texts were even less likely to be found on classroom walls and other surfaces, and where the mean time per day spent with informational texts was 1.9 minutes, with half the low-SES classrooms spending no time at all with informational texts during any of the four days each was observed. Strategies for increasing attention to informational texts in the early grades are presented.
A Cognitive Strategies Approach to Reading and Writing Instruction for English Language Learners in Secondary School
Copyright 2007 by the National Council of Teachers of English. Used with permission. Olson, C.B. and Land, R. (2007). A Cognitive Strategies Approach to Reading and Writing Instruction for English Language Learners in Secondary School. Research in the Teaching of English, 41(3), http://www.ncte.org/pubs/journals/rte/articles/126617.htm.
Cognitive strategies, such as predicting, summarizing, and reflecting-strategies used by experienced readers and writers, are vital to the development of academic literacy, but these strategies are too rarely taught explicitly, especially to English Language Learners (ELLs). This study reports the results of a California Writing Project study in which 55 teachers implemented a cognitive-strategies approach to reading and writing instruction for their ELL secondary students over an eight-year period and includes a detailed description of a teacher's cognitive strategies "tool kit."
A Description of Foundation Skills Interventions for Struggling Middle-Grade Readers in Four Urban Northeast and Islands Region School Districts
Zorfass, J., & Urbano, C. (2008). A description of foundation skills interventions for struggling middle-grade readers in four urban Northeast and Islands Region school districts (Issues & Answers Report, REL 2008-No. 042). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs.
This study, conducted during the 2006-07 academic year, describes how four mid-size urban school districts in the Northeast and Islands Region—Worcester, Massachusetts; Nashua, New Hampshire; Yonkers, New York; and Providence, Rhode Island, conducted foundation skills assessments and provided foundation skills programs to struggling middle-grade readers.
The study identifies six factors that, according to the district representatives interviewed, can promote or hinder program implementation:
- Building on the federal Reading First initiative by expanding selected aspects of the program to upper elementary and middle grades,
- Using Response-to-Intervention and three-tier reading models,
- Fostering collaboration among relevant departments and programs,
- Recruiting highly qualified teachers in relevant areas,
- Solving problems of time and scheduling, and
- Ensuring that programs are carried out as designed.
A Schema-Theoretic View of Basic Processes in Reading
Anderson, R.C., & Pearson, P.D. (1984). A schema-theoretic view of basic processes in reading. In P.D. Pearson (Ed.), Handbook of Reading Research (pp.255-291). New York: Longman.
A Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population at Mid-Decade
Pew Hispanic Center. (2006). A Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population at Mid-Decade. Pew Hispanic Center: Washington, DC.
This is a collection of 32 tables that examine various demographic categories of foreign-born individuals in the United States as of 2005. Some of the charts have comparisons to year 2000 data.
A Synthesis of Research on Effective Interventions for Building Reading Fluency with Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities
Chard, D., Vaughn, S., & Tyler, B. J. (2002). A synthesis of research on effective interventions for building reading fluency with elementary students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 36, 386-406.
Academic Literacy Instruction for Adolescents
Torgesen, J. K., Houston, D. D., Rissman, L. M., Decker, S. M., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J. Francis, D. J, Rivera, M. O., Lesaux, N. (2007). Academic literacy instruction for adolescents: A guidance document from the Center on Instruction. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Created by the Center on Instruction to assist literacy specialists in their work, this report makes research-based recommendations for improving academic literacy instruction in 1) content areas, 2) for English language learners, and 3) in classes with struggling readers. The report also includes advice and comments from eight literacy experts.
Adolescent Literacy Resources: Linking Research and Practice
Meltzer, J., Cook Smith, N. and Clark, H. Adolescent Literacy Resources: Linking Research and Practice. Retrieved Oct. 22, 2007, from http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/adlit/alr_lrp.pdf.
This book from the Education Alliance at Brown University reviews relevant research from the past 20 years and describes the implications for instruction, curriculum, school structure, professional development, and assessment.
