Achievement in education

President Obama’s 2014 “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative responds to the continuing educational disparities that the No Child Left Behind Act was intended to have addressed. The preoccupation with standardized testing and accountability over the past decade has revealed evidence of disparities in achievement between Black male students and their White counterparts. Critical Race Theorists have framed these persistent disparities as evidence of the opportunity gap and have advocated culturally responsive pedagogy that would facilitate students’ academic success.

This study attempted the answer to two primary questions: (a) Are strategic thinking skills possessed by college students prior to university matriculation related to their academic success in college, and (b) How does the predictive accuracy afforded by these skills compare to that from high school grade point average or standardized test scores?

The purpose of the current outcome study was to investigate the difference in grade 9 completion rate and student engagement between grade 9 students in the treatment group who received the Student Success Sills (SSS) classroom program (Brigman & Webb, 2010) and grade 9 students in the comparison group who did not receive the SSS classroom program. The sample consisted of grade 9 students enrolled in Intensive Reading classes, a required course for all high school students in the state of Florida who are below reading proficiency. School A served as the treatment group (n=98) and School B served as the comparison group (n=99). Certified school counselors in the treatment group implemented five, 45 minute SSS lessons and three booster lessons after being trained in the manualized use of the program and other related study procedures. A quasi-experimental pretest posttest research design was employed to
examine the impact of the SSS classroom program on grade 9 completion rate and student engagement. The unit of analysis was individual grade 9 students. Grade 9 completion rate was measured by academic credits. Student engagement was measured by attendance rate and the Student Engagement in School Success Skills (SESSS) instrument.

This study focused on evaluating the impact of a school counselor-led program,
Ready for Success (RFS), on the academic achievement of third grade students. The
research questions that were investigated in the study were: (a) Does participation in the Ready for Success Program, a counselor-led classroom intervention, increase reading scores among 3rd grade African American, Hispanic, and White students as measured by the FCAT third grade reading test? and (b) Does participation in the Ready for Success Program, a counselor-led classroom intervention, increase reading scores among third grade African American, Hispanic, and White students as measured by the SSSDT reading test? The significance of the study lies in its focus on the need for more outcome research linking school counselor-led interventions to student achievement. The importance of counselor-led research based interventions in positively affecting student achievement addresses a national mandate delineated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which calls for evidence-based interventions in education. The population for this study included male and female, third grade, general
education students from diverse backgrounds, from one large school district located in
south Florida, herein referred to as Pineapple State School District. A standardized
objective statewide assessment instrument, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and the school district generated standardized test, Sunshine State Standards Diagnostics Test (SSSDT), were used to measure academic achievement. Analysis of the results in this study was done using an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with Pretest scores on the SSSDT 3rd grade reading (2010-2011) as covariates on the dependent variables to account for differences at pretest.

This qualitative case study examined how middle school science teachers
conducted collaborative inquiry and reflection about students’ conceptual understanding,
and how individual teachers in the middle school science group acted and made
reflections in response to their collaborative inquiry. It also examined external influences
that affected the teachers’ ability to engage in collaborative inquiry. Observational,
written, and interview data were collected from observations of teachers’ face-to-face
meetings and reflections, individual interviews, a focus group interview, and online
reflections. The results of this study revealed that collaborative inquiry is a form of
professional development that includes answering curricular questions through
observation, communication, action, and reflection. This approach was developed and
implemented by middle school science teachers. The premise of an inquiry is based on a
need with students. Middle school science teachers came to consensus about actions to affect students’ conceptual understanding, took action as stated, and shared their
reflections of the actions taken with consideration to current and upcoming school
activities. Activities involved teachers brainstorming and sharing with one another,
talking about how the variables were merged into their curriculum, and how they
impacted students’ conceptual understanding. Teachers valued talking with one another
about science content and pedagogy, but did find the inquiry portion of the approach to
require more development. The greatest challenge to conducting collaborative inquiry
and reflection was embedding teacher inquiry within a prescribed inquiry that was
already being conducted by the Sundown School District. Collaborative inquiry should be
structured so that it meets the needs of teachers in order to attend to the needs of students.
A conducive atmosphere for collaborative inquiry and reflection is one in which
administrators make the process mandatory and facilitate the process by removing an
existing inquiry.

This study examined factors that relate to the persistence of first-generation
undergraduate students in a 4-year public university in the Southeastern United States.
Results were analyzed from a 2011 two-part survey: CARES-I (College Assessment of
Readiness for Entering Students-Intent) and CARES-A (College Assessment of
Readiness for Entering Students-Actual/Achieved. Semistructured interviews were
conducted with first-generation undergraduate persisters, administrators, and professors.
There was no statistically significant difference in persistence between
continuing-generation and first-generation students. None of the factors, with the
exception of performance goals on CARES A, were found to relate to persistence.
Significant positive correlations were found between persistence and residential status, a
learning strategies course, gender, high school GPA, and first semester in college GPA.
The learning communities program was not found to significantly relate to persistence.
The CARES surveys were found to be weak for predicting persistence. There was no significant interaction between any of the factors, persistence, and first-generation and
continuing-generation, except for performance goals on CARES I and self-efficacy on
CARES A. Findings from the interviews indicated that self-efficacy was highly important to
graduation. The students had clear academic and professional, learning, monetary, and
social outcome expectations. Student performance goals varied in amount of time, use of
learning strategies, and organizational tools. Of the organizational variables, academic
and social integration positively impacted persistence. However, the participants wished
to have had higher grades as freshmen, found the STEM courses tough, had no informal
interaction with administrators or professors, and did not use office hours enough.
Students spoke positively of institutional programs, clubs, services, and organizations
such as Supplemental Instruction (SI), the Math Lab, and Writing Center. Administrators
and professors expressed a need for more information and responsiveness to persistence
factors. Persistence was not impeded by family, friends, or work, whereas financial issues
were prevalent. Although demographic variables did not negatively impact persistence,
exo and macrosystem factors beyond the doors of the university emerged.
Recommendations and options are provided for further research and for the university to
improve persistence.

This study was designed to investigate friend influence on academic
achievement and task avoidance during middle childhood in a sample of 794
participants in 397 stable same-sex friendship dyads (205 girl dyads and 192 boy dyads)
from four municipalities in Finland: two in Central Finland, one in Western Finland,
and one in Eastern Finland. Longitudinal data were collected during the spring of 3rd
grade and 4th grade and reports were available from both members of each friendship
dyad. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; Kenny, Kashy & Cook, 2006)
was used with a single sample of participants to estimate friend influence on academic
achievement and task avoidance between two types of friendship dyads: (1) dyads that
were distinguishable as a function of relative math achievement and relative peer
acceptance and (2) dyads that were indistinguishable as a function of relative math
achievement and relative peer acceptance. The results demonstrate that when friends are distinguished by math achievement the high achiever influences the low achiever’s math achievement, but not the reverse. When friends are distinguishable by peer acceptance the high accepted partner influences the low accepted partner’s math achievement, but not the reverse. When friends are indistinguishable on the basis of math achievement and peer
acceptance there is mutual influence on math achievement. There was no evidence of
friend influence on task avoidance. There was no evidence of friend influence from an
individual’s own task avoidance predicting changes in friend math achievement, except
among dyads that could not be distinguished on the basis of math achievement. Math
achievement predicted within-individual changes in task avoidance for all friendship
dyads, except those that could not be distinguished by relative math achievement.
The findings suggest that friends influence math achievement during middle
childhood. Furthermore, when friends are distinguished, relative math achievement and
peer acceptance determines who is influencing whom within a friendship dyad. The use
of the APIM for distinguishable and indistinguishable dyads on a single sample of
participants illustrates that it is not sufficient to ignore differentiating features between
friends, or to discard friendships that are more similar. Implications for teaching
strategies and classroom interventions are discussed.

The focus of this study is to add to the outcome research on effective school
counseling interventions and to specifically evaluate the effectiveness of the Student
Success Skills (SSS) small group intervention with students identified as having drop out
potential in the 9th grade. This study analyzed two years of pre-existing, non-identifiable
student data (N = 167) collected by school counselors at one high school in South
Florida. An Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to determine differences in
academic grades, standardized test scores, and absences between the students who did
participate in the SSS small group intervention when compared to those students who did
not participate. Statistically significant differences were found between groups in all
three dropout potential factors (GPA, test scores, and absences) supporting the use of SSS
small group school counseling intervention with students at risk for dropping out. Effect
size estimates were reported for each of the measures.

Florida has been a leader in the K-20 educational reform in an effort to ensure the seamless transition into postsecondary education for all students, but specifically improving preparation for, and access to, higher education for populations traditionally marginalized and underrepresented in higher education. The purpose of this study was to examine the demographic composition of students participating in dual enrollment programs in Florida, and the relationship between dual enrollment participation and postsecondary success, as measured by student persistence and degree attainment, moderated by race, gender, and Pell status. Alexander Astin's (1993) I-E-O student involvement theory was chosen as the theoretical lens with which to guide the design and analysis of the study. A quantitative analysis of archived student records retrieved from the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at a large urban state college in Florida was used in this study. ... The analysis revealed that students who were dual enrolled were more likely to persist in college and more likely to earn a degree than their non-dual enrolled peers.

Mathematics can be a difficult topic both to teach and to learn. Word problems specifically can be difficult for students with disabilities because they have to conceptualize what the problem is asking for, and they must perform the correct operation accurately. Current trends in mathematics instruction stem from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles and Standards for School Mathematics that call for an inquiry learning model (NCTM, 2000). Unfortunately, this model may not be sufficient to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Researchers are currently looking at what elements will assist students with disabilities to learn mathematics both conceptually and procedurally. Explicit direct instruction, modeling, guided and independent practice, and providing advanced organizers have been found to help students with disabilities to be successful. Results indicated that students with mild disabilities were able to use the strategy independently to accurately solve the training word problems using division or multiplication. Also, students were able to generalize both the strategy use as well as the word problem accuracy to the measurement of area problems. Additionally, two of the three students continued to use the strategy appropriately to accurately solve word problems in the 6-week follow-up phase. Suggestions for future studies are provided as well as educational implications.