Early school success seems to depend largely on children entering school ready to learn, and many policy initiatives have highlighted the importance of preparing children for school entry. A new study finds that children’s environment plays a major role in their readiness for school, suggesting that intervention could help boost readiness in at-risk youngsters. The study, conducted by researchers at Laval University, the University of Montreal, and the University of Quebec at Montreal, appears in the November/December 2007 issue of the journal Child Development. It is one of the first studies to consider both environmental and genetic influences on children’s readiness for school. The researchers examined 420 pairs of 5-year-old twins, assessing the children on four measures of school readiness that included identifying colors and shapes; answering questions about spatial position (such as above, below, left, right), relative size (such as smaller, bigger), and order (such as first, middle, last); identifying numbers and counting; and identifying letters and writing. Two years later, the children’s teachers were asked to rate the school achievement of 237 pairs of the twins. Environmental factors shared by twins in the same family–such as family resources and income, parents’ behavior with respect to learning, and the twins’ child care experiences–were responsible for much of the individual difference in the children’s school readiness skills, according to the study. The influence of the environmental factors was seen over and above the influence of genetic factors. These shared factors influenced school readiness in both general and specific ways, that is, they were found to be significant for each component of school readiness, as well for the core abilities underlying overall school readiness. Genetic factors played a significant role in the children’s core abilities underlying the four components of school readiness, but the environment shared by twins of the same family remained the most important factor overall. Both genetic and environmental factors were found to influence the association between children’s school readiness and later school achievement. “Our results have important implications for preventive interventions,” said Michel Boivin, Canada Research Chair in Child Social Development and professor of psychology at Laval University in Quebec City and one of the study’s authors. “They should be seen as a further incentive for continued implementation and evaluation of preventive intervention programs aimed at improving the level of school readiness in children from at-risk families.”

Society for Research in Child Development

By William G. Bowen, Matthew M. Chingos and Michael S. McPherson (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2009), 390 pp, £19.99 (hbk), ISBN 978‐0‐6911‐3748‐3 Reviewed by David Palfreyman, Bursar and...

Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities

Making Social Science Matter. Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it Can Succeed Again

Examines an urban district that had to close schools as a result of shrinking enrollment and made student achievement a factor in decision making.

Closing Schools in a Shrinking District Do Student Outcomes Depend on Which Schools are Closed

Closing schools in a shrinking district: Do student outcomes depend on which schools are closed?

Although closure is an increasingly common response to the problems of chronically underperforming urban schools, few studies have examined the effect of closure on displaced students. The authors ...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/40963085.pdf

Tracing Transitions: The Effect of High School Closure on Displaced Students.

In educational research and policy circles, college and career readiness is generating great interest. States are adopting various policy initiatives, such as rigorous curricular requirements, to increase students’ preparedness for life after high school. Implicit in many of these initiatives is the idea that college readiness and career readiness are essentially the same thing. This assumption has persisted, largely untested. Our paper explores this assumption in greater depth. Using two national datasets and an instrumental variables approach to mitigate selection bias, we evaluated the effects of completing Algebra II in high school on subsequent college and career outcomes (i.e., persistence and graduation as well as wages and career advancement). Results suggest Algebra II matters more for college outcomes than career outcomes and more for students completing Algebra II in the early 1990s than in the mid-2000s. Study limitations are discussed along with directions for future research, such as evaluating the opportunity cost associated with taking Algebra II for students seeking careers upon high school completion.

Preparing Students for College and Careers: The Causal Role of Algebra II

Although college readiness is a centerpiece of major educational initiatives such as the Common Core State Standards, few systems have been implemented to track children's progress toward this goal. Instead, college-readiness information is typically conveyed late in a student's high-school career, and tends to focus solely on academic accomplishments—grades and admissions test scores. Late-stage feedback can be problematic for students who need to correct course, so the purpose of this research is to develop a system for communicating more comprehensive college-readiness diagnoses earlier in a child's K-12 career. This article introduces college-readiness indicators for middle-school students, drawing on the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS), a nationally representative longitudinal survey of educational inputs, contexts, and outcomes. A diversity of middle-school variables was synthesized into six factors: achievement, behavior, motivation, social engagement, family circumstances, and school characteristics. Middle-school factors explain 69% of the variance in college readiness, and results suggest a variety of factors beyond academic achievement—most notably motivation and behavior—contribute substantially to preparedness for postsecondary study. The article concludes with limitations and future directions, including the development of college-readiness categories to support straightforward communication of middle-school indicators to parents, teachers, and students.

Performance, Perseverance, and the Full Picture of College Readiness.

Author(s): Espinosa, Lorelle L; Gaertner, Matthew N; Orfield, Gary | Abstract: Headlines surrounding the consideration of race and ethnicity in college admissions are often incomplete and ill-informed, promoting polarization and deflecting attention from practices that promote racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity in higher education. As colleges and universities seek to educate an increas- ingly diverse American citizenry and achieve the associated educational aims, it is imperative that post- secondary leaders, policymakers, researchers, and members of the media better understand the work and challenges facing institutions in this current legal climate.This report attempts to broaden that understanding and further much-needed dialogue on how institutions can best respond to a shifting policy and legal landscape at a time when access to postsecondary education has never been more vital and our American citizenry never so diverse. We examine contemporary admis- sions practices at four-year colleges and universities across a wide range of selectivity in the context of recent legal challenges to race-conscious admissions, including the pending U.S. Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.

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Race, Class, and College Access: Achieving Diversity in a Shifting Legal Landscape

/pdf/measuring-mastery-best-practices-for-assessment-in-2oavxb5f4d.pdf

Matthew Gaertner

Papers

Tracing Transitions: The Effect of High School Closure on Displaced Students.

Preparing Students for College and Careers: The Causal Role of Algebra II

Performance, Perseverance, and the Full Picture of College Readiness.

Race, Class, and College Access: Achieving Diversity in a Shifting Legal Landscape

Measuring Mastery: Best Practices for Assessment in Competency-Based Education. AEI Series on Competency-Based Higher Education.