Donna DiPrima Bickel

Trusting Teachers’ Judgments: A Validity Study of a Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessment in Kindergarten to Grade 3

Teacher judgments of student learning are a key element in performance assessment. This study examines aspects of the validity of teacher judgments that are based on the Work Sampling System (WSS), a curriculum-embedded, performance assessment for preschool (age 3) to Grade 5. The purpose of the study is to determine if teacher judgments about student learning in kindergarten to third grade are trustworthy if they are informed by a curriculum-embedded performance assessment. A cross-sectional sample composed of 345 K-3 students enrolled in 17 classrooms in an urban school system was studied. Analyses included correlations between WSS and an individually administered psychoeducational battery, four-step hierarchical regressions to examine the variance in students’ spring outcome scores, and receiver-operating-characteristics (ROC) curves to compare the accuracy of WSS in categorizing students in terms of the outcome. Results demonstrate that WSS correlates well with a standardized, individually administered psychoeducational battery; that it is a reliable predictor of achievement ratings in K-3; and that the data obtained from WSS have significant utility for discriminating accurately between children who are at risk (e.g., Title I) and those who are not at risk. Further discussion concerns the role of teacher judgment in assessing student learning and achievement.

Leadership for Literacy Coaching: The Principal's Role in Launching a New Coaching Program.

Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between principal leadership and variation in teachers’ participation in a new literacy coaching program: Content-Focused Coaching® (CFC). Research design: Twenty-nine schools were randomly assigned to participate in the CFC program or to serve as a comparison. Interviews were conducted with elementary school principals and coaches, and teachers completed surveys describing their experiences with their new coach. Correlation analyses investigated the relationship between the categories of principal support and the frequency of teachers’ participation in individual coaching activities. Principals’ actions and beliefs were also compared across schools, with teachers’ relatively high and low participation in coaching, to identify patterns in principal leadership. Findings: Principal leadership was significantly associated with the frequency with which teachers conferred with their new CFC coach and were observed by their new coach as teaching reading comprehension lessons. Principal behaviors associated with teachers’ increased engagement with coaches included actively participating in the CFC program and publicly endorsing the coach as a source of literacy expertise to teachers. Principal beliefs regarding a literacy coach’s role and responsibilities were associated with the frequency with which teachers opened their classrooms to the new coaches. Implications: This study provides insight into the features of principal leadership that may support coaches in engaging with teachers and gaining access to their classrooms. Observing teachers’ lessons is a critical dimension of effective coaching and a difficult task for coaches to accomplish. Learning how principals can positively contribute to this process could help schools and districts make more effective use of their literacy coaching resources.

Chronological age at entrance to first grade: Effects on elementary school success

The effects of childrens ages at entrance to first grade upon success in elementary school was examined in a cohort of urban children who entered first grade in 1983. A set of demographic, social, and early experience variables was used as covariates in the analysis. Older children did slightly, but significantly better academically in first grade, primarily because of better performance in mathematics. There was no relationship between age of entrance and a measure of conduct in the first grade. Four years later, no effect of age at entrance to first grade upon academic performance or upon placement inside or outside the mainstream of regular education was found. Age at entrance was a far less powerful predictor than the socioeconomic variables in our covariate set.

A RANDOMIZED TRIAL OF INDIVIDUAL TUTORING FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN WITH READING AND BEHAVIOR DIFFICULTIES

Children in Grades K-5, selected for reading and behavior problems, received individual tutoring in a program which aimed to detail a hierarchy of reading skills, locate the point on the hierarchy at which each child should work, and provide enthusiastic social reinforcement for successes. Children were randomly assigned to higher or lower frequency tutoring (one 45-min. session every 1.6 days vs every 8.3 days). The higher frequency group progressed significantly faster in reading than the lower frequency group. Both groups progressed much faster during the time of the intervention than they had before tutoring. Before tutoring, both groups had progressed at about 0.5 grade per year; during tutoring, the higher frequency group progressed at 1.5 grade per year and the lower frequency group at 1.1 grade per year. The subsets of children with verbal ability scores one or two standard deviations below the population mean, as assessed on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, still progressed at average rates of 1.2 grade per year during tutoring. The amount of work students accomplished on a sounding and blending drill predicted reading progress. The intervention cost an average of

Creating a System of Accountability: The Impact of Instructional Assessment on Elementary Children's Achievement Test Scores.

1,156 per student per year.