Working With Marginalized Populations

This Eleanor Clarke Slagle lecture describes the author’s work with marginalized populations, including homeless adults with mental illness, premature aging conditions, and poor literacy; women who became homeless as a result of domestic violence; children in impoverished, urban school systems reading below grade level; and adults with severe and chronic mental illness that impeded their ability to secure employment, housing, and independent community living. The author illustrates how and why occupational therapy practitioners should become part of the primary care team that evaluates the impact of multiple disorders on marginalized populations’ daily life activities, provides services to optimize community participation, and provides environmental modifications to enhance safety and function.

Urban Teenagers Talk about Leisure Reading

In urban school districts in the United States, it is not unusual for 80 percent of the eighth-graders to read below grade level. Schools are tackling low literacy levels by initiating literacy programs, many of which contain a focus on building the habit of leisure reading. While research has shown a connection between success in school and the amount of leisure reading students do, little is known about the leisure reading habits of urban teenagers. This paper reports the results of a three-part study investigating the leisure reading behaviors of urban teenagers and suggests strategies to support their literacy development.

The Stigma of ADHD: Teacher Ratings of Labeled Students

Despite the increasing prevalence of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), little sociological research has focused on effects of diagnosis in schools. This study, which is grounded in the modified labeling approach, relies on three waves of Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K:2011) data to determine if teachers evaluate the academic performance of ADHD students as less promising than non-diagnosed peers. Results indicate that teachers are more likely to rate ADHD students as performing below grade level and are less likely to acknowledge these students as performing above grade level—regardless of demonstrated ability on subject-specific tests. The latter finding is, in part, a function of real and/or perceived behaviors in the classroom that inform teachers’ grade-level performance ratings. We argue that diagnosis may be a double-edged sword for children and their families, as it can provide access to special resources in the school but may activate teachers’ negative stereotypes about diagnosed students.

Read Like Me: An Intervention for Struggling Readers

The current study reports on a reading intervention method titled Read Like Me. The intervention utilizes a stacked approach of research-based methods, including reading aloud, assisted reading, and repeated reading. The student involved was a second-grade boy reading below grade level who was identified as dyslexic and diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder. Using a single-case experimental design, the intervention was monitored in four phases, including a baseline, intervention coupled with regular schooling, intervention only, and a return to baseline. The results indicated that the intervention combined with regular schooling improved his reading expression and rate and also his decoding skills, word knowledge, and reading comprehension. In conclusion, the authors offer Read Like Me as one more intervention that may be a viable option for teachers in their effort to support developing readers.

Student growth measures: What we’ve been missing

The move toward assessments that measure student growth, rather than just proficiency, has been perceived as an improvement in state accountability systems. However, Michael Watson explains that, for many students, these measures present an incomplete picture. Because they are based on grade-level assessments, any growth achieved by students who are above or below grade level is lost. He recommends the use of adaptive assessments that incorporate material from multiple grade levels.

The Relationship Between Reading Achievement and Attitudes Toward Print and Digital Texts in Adolescent Readers

This study examined the relationship between adolescents’ reading attitudes and comprehension to better understand the interplay between affective and cognitive factors for students with varying reading abilities. A comprehension proficiency assessment and the Survey of Adolescent Reading Attitudes were administered to 202 ninth graders. Findings indicated moderate correlations between reading achievement and recreational print reading attitudes. Small correlations were found between both academic print and digital text attitudes and reading achievement. No correlations were found between recreational digital text attitudes and achievement, although students demonstrated the most positive attitudes toward recreational digital texts. Students who read on or above grade level demonstrated better attitudes toward recreational print, academic print, and academic digital texts than students who read below grade level. Implications for instruction and future research are discussed, including the need for further exploration of the association between reading achievement and incorporating pleasure reading into the English curriculum. Additionally, given the positive attitudes displayed by both on/above grade-level readers and below grade-level readers toward recreational digital texts, implications of the social nature of reading instruction are discussed.

A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies of Mathematics Difficulty

Some students may be diagnosed with a learning disability in mathematics or dyscalculia, whereas other students may demonstrate below-grade-level mathematics performance without a disability diagnosis. In the literature, researchers often identify students in both groups as experiencing math difficulty. To understand the performance of students with math difficulty, we examined 35 studies that reported longitudinal results of mathematics achievement (i.e., mathematics performance measured across at least a 12-month span). Our primary goal was to conduct a systematic review of these studies and to understand whether the growth of students with math difficulty was comparable or stagnant when compared with that of students without math difficulty. We also analyzed whether identification of math difficulty was predictive of mathematics achievement in later grades and whether a diagnosis of math difficulty was stable across grade levels. Results indicate that students with math difficulty demonstrate growth on mathematics measures, but this growth still leads to lower performance than that of students without math difficulty. Identification of math difficulty is strongly related to math performance in subsequent grades, and this diagnosis is often stable. Collectively, this literature indicates that students with math difficulty continue to struggle with mathematics in later grades.

The Effectiveness of Repeated Reading on Increasing the Reading Fluency of Struggling Readers

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of repeated reading intervention for increasing the reading fluency of an elementary student reading below grade level. Measures compared the fluency of a first grade student reading below grade level after participating in a repeated training for six weeks. Assessments to determine fluency prior to and after training were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the repeated reading intervention on the fluency scores of the student.Results of this study, based on pre and post-assessment data, indicated that repeated readings are an effective practice for increasing the reading fluency of struggling readers. The student showed significant improvement with her reading fluency. In addition, she showed gains on her running record and oral reading fluency scores.

Hold Back To Move Forward? Early Grade Retention And Student Misbehavior

Test-based accountability has become the new norm in public education over the last decade. In many states and school districts nationwide, student performance on standardized tests plays an important role in high-stakes decisions, such as grade retention. This study examines the effects of grade retention on student misbehavior in Florida, which requires students with reading skills below grade level to be retained in the third grade. The regression discontinuity estimates suggest that grade retention increases the likelihood of disciplinary incidents and suspensions in the short run, yet these effects dissipate over time. The findings also suggest that these short-term adverse effects are concentrated among economically disadvantaged and male students.