Can State Accountability Systems Drive Improvements in School Performance for Children of Color and Children from Low-Income Homes?

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward J. Fuller ◽  
Joseph F. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
School Performance ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Children Of Color ◽  
Accountability Systems ◽  
State Accountability

scholarly journals The Effects of Choice on Reading Engagement and Comprehension for Second- and Third-Grade Students: An Action Research Report

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-38
Author(s):  
Julie Fraumeni-Mcbride
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Action Research ◽  
School Performance ◽  
Low Income ◽  
High Income ◽  
Reading Engagement ◽  
Third Grade ◽  
Research Report ◽  
School Students ◽  
Third Grade Students

Poor literacy rates contribute to low school performance for children across America. In particular, low-income schools continue to struggle with declining literacy rates. Issues with literacy are often attributed to lack of reading comprehension. This study tested the effects of choice on reading comprehension in second- and third-grade students at a high-income school and a low-income school. Students were observed while reading silently and aloud to see if either method affected reading comprehension. Data were collected from 32 students before, during, and after reading to determine whether students’ comprehension levels were higher when given opportunities to choose their own books or when they read assigned books. Trials were performed while students read silently and then aloud. Results indicated that students had higher comprehension levels both when they could choose their own books and when they read silently.

Making Sense of Disability: Low-Income, Puerto Rican Parents' Theories of the Problem

1992 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Harry
Keyword(s):  
Puerto Rican ◽  
School Performance ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Learning Disabled ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Family Identity ◽  
English Only ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Impact

This article reports findings from an ethnographic study of the views of 12 low-income Puerto Rican parents whose children were classified as learning disabled or mildly mentally retarded. Different cultural meanings of disability and normalcy led parents to reject the notion of disability and focus on the impact of family identity, language confusion, and detrimental educational practices on children's school performance. Parents' views were in line with current arguments against labeling and English-only instruction.

Head Start: Making a Popular Program Work

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 440-441
Author(s):  
DOUGLAS J. BESHAROV ◽  
TERRY W. HARTLE
Keyword(s):  
Head Start ◽  
School Performance ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Annual Cost ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Disadvantaged Children ◽  
Low Income Children ◽  
Poor Children

Head Start, the federal government's preschool program for low-income children, is one of the nation's most popular domestic initiatives. In 1980, President Carter praised it as "a program that works." President Reagan included Head Start in the "safety net" and has presided over a substantial funding increase. Head Start began in 1965 as a 6-week summer experiment in using child development services to improve the future prospects of disadvantaged children. It quickly became a full year program. Now, 20 years old, it serves about 450,000 children, at an annual cost of more than $1 billion. The program's popularity is based on the widespread impression that it lifts poor children out of poverty by improving their learning ability and school performance.

scholarly journals Toward a Framework for Public Accountability in Education Reform

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (7) ◽  
pp. 503-511
Author(s):  
Ethan Hutt ◽  
Morgan S. Polikoff
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
School Performance ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Court Case ◽  
Public Accountability ◽  
Accountability Systems ◽  
Modern Education ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Accountability In Education ◽  
Democratic Engagement

Public accountability through information disclosure is a pillar of modern education reform efforts. Despite the ubiquity of this approach, we argue that public accountability in education is undertheorized and often predictably unlikely to achieve its intended policy goals. Drawing on examples from an equity-oriented court case in California and the literatures on democratic engagement and parent use of school performance data, we propose a framework for thinking about the design of public accountability systems in education. The framework could provide guidance for policymakers considering new efforts at improving schools through the production and dissemination of educational data.

School Board Sensemaking of Federal and State Accountability Policies

2020 ◽  
pp. 089590482092581
Author(s):  
Daniella Hall Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Board Members ◽  
Assessment Data ◽  
Accountability Systems ◽  
Local Implementation ◽  
State Accountability ◽  
Use Of Assessment ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act

This qualitative case study examines how board members make sense of federal accountability policies and how their sensemaking shapes their use of assessment data as a policy instrument. Deviating from previous work on practitioner sensemaking, the participants’ interpretations of assessments did not align with their ensuing use of the data. Furthermore, board members’ use of assessment data diverged from both federal and state messaging, illustrating board members’ synthesis and adaptation of external messaging into a locally driven narrative. As the nation has shifted to state accountability systems under Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the findings provide insights to policymakers and practitioners to support local implementation.

Understanding the gender gap in school performance among low-income children

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Kingdon ◽  
Lisa A. Serbin ◽  
Dale M. Stack
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
School Performance ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Attention Problems ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Family Characteristics ◽  
Growth Curve Analysis ◽  
Academic Trajectories

Internationally, girls outperform boys in overall school performance. The gender gap is particularly large among those in at-risk groups, such as children from families at economic disadvantage. This study modeled the academic trajectories of a low-income sample of boys and girls from the Concordia Longitudinal Risk Project across the full course of schooling. Results from a multiple-group latent growth curve analysis revealed that children from this low-income sample demonstrated a significant decreasing trajectory of academic performance over time, which intensified after the transition from elementary to secondary schooling. A gender gap in academic performance emerged after the children transitioned to secondary school, with girls outperforming boys. Boys continued to experience greater academic decline than did girls across the secondary school years, and individual and family characteristics assessed in early elementary school predicted these academic trajectories. At school entry, boys showed higher levels of attention problems than did girls, which in turn predicted boys’ poorer school performance. However, boys with stronger reading skills and greater maternal school involvement during the early years of schooling were protected against declining academic performance across the secondary school years. Implications for prevention programs are discussed.

scholarly journals Association between School Performance and Anemia in Adolescents in Mexico

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1466
Author(s):  
Alejandro Mosiño ◽  
Karen P. Villagómez-Estrada ◽  
Alberto Prieto-Patrón
Keyword(s):  
School Performance ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
School Achievement ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Nutrition Survey ◽  
Health And Nutrition ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Prevalence Of Anemia

In school age children and adolescents, anemia might cause lower cognitive function and attention span, which in turn could diminish human capital accumulation. As children born in low-income households are more likely to be anemic, this may prevent many individuals from overcoming the intergenerational poverty traps. In this paper, we used data from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey 2012 and focused on a sample of adolescents between 12 and 19 years of age to study the relationship between attending school without delay—our proxy for school performance—and anemia. We found a statistically significant association between the two variables. If this relationship is causal, the economic burden linked to the loss of school years could well exceed the costs associated with programs aimed at reducing the prevalence of anemia in vulnerable populations. Our results provide additional support to the existing literature on anemia as a significant barrier to school achievement.

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