This blog focuses on my scholarship in my five research projects: learning assistance and equity programs, student peer study group programs, learning technologies, Universal Design for Learning, and history simulations. And occasional observations about life.
How ‘Undermatching’ Shapes Students’ College Experience
“Undermatching,” the phenomenon in which students enroll at less-selective colleges than their academic qualifications suggest they could have attended, is a hot topic in higher-education research. Among the topics studies have examined so far: how common undermatching is, its effect on graduation rates, and a low-cost way to change where high-achieving, low-income students apply to and enroll in college.
A paper scheduled to be presented on Friday at the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting considers undermatching from a different angle: how it shapes high-achieving students’ experience in their first year of college. Using data from the National Survey of Student Engagement, the paper compares the self-reported engagement, satisfaction, and gains in knowledge, skills, and personal development for high-achieving, undermatched students and their peers attending “match” institutions.
The undermatched students reported a less-challenging academic environment, lower satisfaction, and fewer gains. Those findings, the paper says, may explain why students who undermatch are less likely to graduate, as other research has found. But some experiences of undermatched students were more positive than those of their peers at more-selective colleges. The undermatched students reported having more interactions with professors and higher engagement in active and collaborative learning styles.
The paper, “Selectivity and the College Experience: How Undermatching Shapes the College Experience Among High-Achieving Students,” is by Kevin J. Fosnacht, a research analyst at the National Survey of Student Engagement.
D-Day As It Happens-BBC Documentary (Part 3 of 3)
D-Day As It Happens-BBC Documentary (Part 2 of 3)
This is part one of the two-part documentary. Go to their website for complete information, http://dday7.channel4.com/
D-Day As It Happens -- BBC Documentary (Part 1 of 3)
Most of the time the entries through my blog focus on academic issues related to academic access to college. I also have another part of me that focuses on history. As a formally-trained historian, I am curious about many things. A particular interest is World War Two. Sometimes people think that it was inevitable that the Allies would win and the Axis power would be defeated. A careful examination of history reveals the precarious nature of victory in World War Two. It is filled with turning points. If enough of those turning points had favored the Axis powers, history would have been different. If the U.S. aircraft carriers had been docked in Pearl Habour on the morning of December 7, 1941, the U.S. might have had to sue for peace. If the Germans had succeeded with developing the atomic bomb first, they could have been the ones to end the war in their favor. Another turning point was the invasion on June 6, 1944 which is called D-Day. The British have created a remarkable television program to celebrate the anniversay of the victory on D-Day.
D-Day: As It Happens was a real time 24-hour history event. Broadcast across TV, online and social media, we told the story of this pivotal event in a new way. You can still track the progress of seven people who were there on the day – each a real participant in the 1944 invasion. Check out the website for much more information about the seven people profiled and the larger scope of the battle, http://dday7.channel4.com/
New, unpublished research was used to gather film, photographs, radio reports and other records of D-Day, work out when and where each was shot, and assemble them on a 24-hour timeline. All the words in quotation marks have been taken from interviews with our D-Day 7 or accounts written by them – we simply converted them into the present tense, or shortened them to fit. Over the 24-hours, you could watch two programmes on Channel 4, follow all the action as it happened on the website, and follow the D-Day 7 on Twitter.
Free Interstate College Access Evaluation Project Teleconference
The College and Career Readiness Evaluation Consortium
Please join the free teleconference on Thursday, March 20th, 2014 at 10:00 am (Central) To register, subscribe to our group mailings here. You will receive an invitation for the event that includes the telephone number (not toll free) and your unique registration code. If you would like to receive automatic calendar invites to our group calls, please email us at CollegeAccessAffinityGroup@ed.gov with the address where you would like to receive the notifications.
NOTE: Due to the high volume of calls please dial in 10 minutes prior to the scheduled call time to ensure that you are on the line by 10:00 am (Central).
Join us to learn about an interstate college access evaluation project that is using multi-state data to effectively enhance our work. This effort grew out of project directors wanting to conduct a self-evaluation of the GEAR UP program nationally, partnerships with the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships, ACT, Inc., and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center that have proven invaluable to the project, and a desire to conduct the first large-scale longitudinal GEAR UP evaluation. The first deliverable that the Consortium has accomplished is common definitions for services in GEAR UP/college access programs. Ultimately, this research and evaluation will strengthen the GEAR UP project, as well as inform college access programming in local education agencies outside of GEAR UP—all while working to meet the President’s 2020 goal.
Please cut and paste the link below into your browser to down load the power point presentation for this Affinity Group Call. There you will also find updated information on news and events within the US Department of Education, White House, and much more. http://www2.ed.gov/news/av/audio/college-access/index.html
Study Links Responsive Teaching to Academic Gains
<Click on this link for the original article from EdWeek online.>
A social-emotional teaching approach that focuses on improving teacher effectiveness leads to student achievement gains, according to a study released today. The research-based Responsive Classroom approach emphasizes fostering student autonomy and developing the foundational social and emotional skills that they'll need as they continue into higher learning. It does so by raising teachers' abilities to promote academic engagement, create a positive community, and effectively manage the classroom.
The random-assignment study, conducted by researchers at the University of Virginia and published in the March 2014 American Educational Research Journal, followed 2,094 students and 350 teachers in 24 Virginia schools for three years, from 3rd to 5th grades. Compared with students in the control classrooms, students whose teachers fully implemented the Responsive Classroom program saw significant gains on their reading and math tests, regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds. The association with achievement was especially strong for students who were initially low achievers.
It also positively impacted the classroom environment as a whole, which led to improved classroom organization and emotional support for students and, in mathematics, the Responsive Classroom approach led to increased depth and higher level discussions of the materials. A key detail of this approach is its holistic approach. The Responsive Classroom provides teachers with practices for teaching their students social and emotional skills such as cooperation, assertiveness, and empathy—traits that lend themselves to higher-level learning—in conjunction with their academic lessons.
Principal support was found to be important to teachers' full use of the approach. Teachers were more likely to use the approach if their principals were encouraging and if they received coaching while implementing their new practices. The Responsive Classroom approach was developed by the Northeast Foundation for Children, an educational nonprofit that looks to bring together academic and social learning. This study builds upon the researchers' earlier results, presented in 2012 and reported on by Education Week here, which also indicated student gains in statewide mathematics and reading assessments.
Tools to Help with Program Evaluation
Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific at McREL has recently released a set of tools for educators to use in designing and evaluating programs. These tools help educators frame discussions around using data, create logic models, and measure outcomes of programs.
Education Logic Model Tool: Logic models are an invaluable tool for education program planning, collaboration, and monitoring. They visually represent a program’s structure, process, and goals and help practitioners and evaluators better understand a program’s mechanics and structure and chart a course toward improved policy and practice. The Education Logic Model Tool guides you through a series of questions and providing opportunities to enter your program resources, activities, outputs, and outcomes. The end result is a printable logic model that functions as a map for you and your team, visually connecting your intended activities with your intended outcomes. For more information, please see the IES guides Logic Models: A Tool for Designing and Monitoring Program Evaluations and stay tuned for more information about a forthcoming guide, Logic Models: A Tool for Effective Program Planning.
Program Outcomes, Measures, and Targets Tool: Track your progress toward meeting program goals with this tool. It guides users through the process of naming indicators, measures, and targets for your program’s short-, mid-, and long-term outcomes. This information is then displayed in a color-coded interactive dashboard to illustrate progress that’s on-track, behind, or exceeding the specified target.
Interested in finding out more about program monitoring and its connection to effective leadership? Download the IES guide Understanding Program Monitoring: The Relationships Among Outcomes, Indicators, Measures, and Targets and stay tuned for more information about a forthcoming guide, Program Monitoring: The Role of Leadership in Planning, Assessment, and Communications
Guide and Webinar: Join REL Pacific on Wednesday, March 12 for a webinar on“Facilitating Data-Informed Conversations: 5 Steps Forward." This live, interactive webinar, designed for educators, administrators, and researchers, will feature an overview of REL Pacific's Five steps for structuring data-informed conversations and action in education guide. Learn about the five key steps in using data for informed decisionmaking and strategic action: setting the stage, examining the data, understanding the findings, developing an action plan, and monitoring progress and measuring success. Using guiding questions, suggested activities, and activity forms, the guide provides education data teams with a framework and the tools and vocabulary needed to support informed conversations around data.