Academic achievement

About: Academic achievement is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 69460 publications have been published within this topic receiving 2227289 citations. The topic is also known as: academic performance & educational achievement.

Class and Schools - Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap

Abstract: CLASS AND SCHOOLS - USING SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND EDUCATIONAL REFORM TO CLOSE THE BLACK-WHITE ACHIEVEMENT GAP RICHARD ROTHSTEIN ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE, WASHINGTON, DC 2004 PAPERBACK: $18.98 * 1-932066-09-8 The theme of Class and Schools centers on closing the achievement gap between Black and White students. The author discusses various governmental reforms such as economic, social and medical changes, that must be implemented before the achievement gap will ever truly be bridged. The organization of the book is set up to initially explain the achievement gap between Black and White students and how social class has a great impact on the difference in scores. The order of the chapters is logical. Defining the achievement gap, social class differences in raising children, and cultural differences between Black and White students are discussed. By the fifth chapter, the author begins illustrating what reforms need to take place to close the achievement gap. The clear organization of the chapters helped to give background information and facts. Each chapter is broken down into topics that are all linked by a single heading; this connected ideas seamlessly. The preface is written by a renowned economist, which gives credibility to statements the author made in the book. The introduction gives useful background facts on the desegregation of public schools. The author uses bar graphs effectively to visually represent information. Especially practical is the endnotes section because everything is referenced and numbered. The amount of facts and history contained in the endnotes alone helps to clearly state the author's point of view. There is an Appendix titled "What employers say about graduates" that is insightful and magnifies the current problem of what is not being tested on standardized tests. The book consists of five chapters. Chapter One highlights historical background of the achievement gap, misunderstandings about the concept, genetic factors, social class, health care, cultural and even housing differences that affect student performance. Rhetorical questions help to analyze whether cultural background or society explain discrepancies in academic achievement. The most startling facts from this chapter are statistics about the size of the vocabulary of the middle-class kindergartener being raised in a home with college educated parents, compared to the vocabulary of the Black kindergartener from the home of non-degreed parents. The middle-class child begins school with a vocabulary equivalent to that of the lower-class Black adult. Chapter Two explains how some schools "beat the demographic odds" when it comes to student achievement gaps, and within the chapter examples of the schools are given. There is a particularly interesting discussion by Dr. William Sanders about what he refers to as the "Tennessee value-added assessment system." This system separates the influence of teachers on the achievement gap from the child's family background, health and academic potential. This is a new twist for public school educators because only some of the blame could be placed on teachers for low achievement, according to the method of Dr. Sanders. Even more interesting is that the results of Dr. Sander's study only work for teachers who teach math and not reading. It is important to note that literacy is a much more difficult concept to measure on any test. There is also mention that "no excuses" schools are not really what they seem to be. For example, in one school in New York City, children who were labeled "low income" actually lived with parents who were on graduate stipends from Harvard. The income level was low, but the familial education and literacy did not accurately reflect at-risk students. Incorrectly holding schools accountable for closing the achievement gap is the main crux of Chapter Three. …

Predicting Children's Competence in the Early School Years: A Meta-Analytic Review:

Abstract: School readiness screenings are prevalent throughout the United States. Although readiness encompasses a multitude of components, readiness assessments generally focus on measuring and predicting children's pre-academic skills and behaviors and are often the basis for placement and programming decisions. However, no quantitative estimates of effect sizes exist for the relations between preschool or kindergarten academic/cognitive and social/behavioral assessments and early school outcomes. This review presents the results of a meta-analysis of cross-time relations of academic/cognitive and social/behavioral assessments from preschool to second grade. Results from 70 longitudinal studies that reported correlations between academic/cognitive and social/behavioral measures administered in preschool or kindergarten and similar measures administered in first and second grade were included in the analysis. Academic/cognitive assessments predicting similar outcomes showed moderate effect sizes across both time s...

What Type of Support Do They Need? Investigating Student Adjustment as Related to Emotional, Informational, Appraisal, and Instrumental Support.

Abstract: Despite the availability of conceptual frameworks for examining types of social support, the majority of studies in the literature measure global social support and do not examine specific types of support. Thus, the present study asked: (a) What types of support (e.g., emotional, informational, appraisal, and instrumental) do students most often perceive from each of the sources of support (e.g., parents, teachers, classmates, and close friends)? and (b) Are certain types of social support more related to students’ social, behavioral, and academic outcomes? Preliminary analyses were also conducted to investigate the psychometric properties of the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS; Malecki, Demaray, & Elliott, 2000) and gender differences in perceptions of types of support. Participants included 263 students in Grades 5 through 8 and data were collected using the CASSS, the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham & Elliott, 1990), and the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1998). Results found that although early adolescent boys and girls perceive similar levels of all types of support from their parents and teachers, girls perceive more support of most types from classmates and friends. Furthermore, emotional and informational support were the most highly reported type of support from parents, informational support was most highly reported from teachers, and emotional and instrumental support scores were reported highest from classmates and close friends. Supportive behaviors from parents contributed to students’ personal adjustment. Emotional support perceived from teachers was a significant and sole individual predictor of students’ social skills and academic competence. Finally, supportive behaviors from teachers also predicted students’ school maladjustment.

Race-related socialization, motivation, and academic achievement: a study of black youths in three-generation families.

Abstract: This study focuses on race-related socialization in order to extend past research, which demonstrated that a sense of personal control over the environment is critical to effective performance of black youth in educational settings. In contrast to underclass views, both a sense of personal efficacy and academic performance were enhanced by proactive orientations toward racial barriers transmitted by parents to children. Sixty-eight percent of black youth in a national three-generation family sample reported that their parents transmitted some message to them about theri racial status. With only slight gender differences, parents emphasized either the importance of ethnic pride, self-development, racial barrier awareness, or egalitarianism. The intergenerational transmission of self-development orientations was associated with a greater sense of personal efficacy. In contrast, those whose parents emphasized racial barrier awareness received higher school grades, even when the effect of persoanal efficacy was controlled. The overall pattern of results suggests that the manner in which black parents orient their children toward blocked opportunities is a significant element in their motivation, achievement, and prospects for upward mobility.

The Stratification of High School Learning Opportunities.

Abstract: This paper suggests that students' opportunities to learn may be stratified both between and within schools: Schools serving a more affluent and able clientele may offer more rigorous and enriched programs of study, and students in college-preparatory curricular programs may have greater access to advanced courses within schools. This notion is tested with a longitudinal, nationally representative sample of public school students from the High School and Beyond data base. The results show few between-school effects of school composition and offerings but important within-school influences of curriculum tracking and coursetaking. In most cases, the difference in achievement between tracks exceeds the difference in achievement between students and dropouts, suggesting that cognitive skill development is affected more by where one is in school than by whether or not one is in school.