Helen Garnier

The Process of Dropping Out of High School: A 19-Year Perspective

In this study, nested latent-variable causal models were contrasted to compare the direct and indirect relationships of distal family and child and proximal adolescent factors to dropping out of high school. The sample included 194 Euro-American conventional and nonconventional families in a 19-year longitudinal study. The findings showed that dropping out of high school is a multiply-determined process, with early influences beginning in childhood, that involves family as well as child and adolescent factors. Early family nonconventionality with higher commitment to lifestyle values was associated with a lower probability of dropping out; cumulative family stress, lower high school achievement and motivation, lower sixth-grade school performance, and adolescent drug use were associated with a higher probability of dropping out. Family lifestyles and values are related to children’s developmental pathways through childhood exposure to drug use, child ability prior to school entry, and early school performance. Nonconventional lifestyles with a higher commitment to lifestyle values may offer long-term protection for children from school failure.

Mathematics Teaching in the United States Today (and Tomorrow): Results From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study:

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999 Video Study examined eighth-grade mathematics teaching in the United States and six higher-achieving countries. A range of teaching systems were found across higher-achieving countries that balanced attention to challenging content, procedural skill, and conceptual understanding in different ways. The United States displayed a unique system of teaching, not because of any particular feature but because of a constellation of features that reinforced attention to lower-level mathematics skills. The authors argue that these results are relevant for policy (mathematics) debates in the United States because they provide a current account of what actually is happening inside U.S. classrooms and because they demonstrate that current debates often pose overly simple choices. The authors suggest ways to learn from examining teaching systems that are not alien to U.S. teachers but that balance a skill emphasis with attention to challenging mathematics and conceptual development.

An 18-Year Model of Family and Peer Effects on Adolescent Drug Use and Delinquency

The interrelationship of family and peer experiences in predicting adolescent problem behaviors was examined in an 18-year longitudinal sample of adolescents (N = 198) from conventional and nonconventional families. Positive associations among early childhood predictors and adolescent problem behaviors were consistent with problem behavior theory. The most powerful predictors of teen drug use and delinquent behaviors were similar behaviors by peers. Peer behaviors, however, were in turn predicted by earlier family-related variables and the quality of peer relationships in childhood. This study provides supporting evidence that strong peer effects in adolescence reflect even earlier processes in childhood and highlight the importance of linkages from early childhood experiences in family and peer contexts to the development of problem behaviors in adolescence. Implications for prevention and intervention programs are discussed.

Measuring Instructional Quality in Accountability Systems: Classroom Assignments and Student Achievement

This article reports the technical quality of a measure describing the quality of classroom assignments piloted in the Los Angeles Unified School Districts proposed new accountability system. For this study, 181 teachers were sampled from 35 schools selected at random. Participating teachers submitted three language arts assignments with samples of student work (N = 50). Results indicated a fair level of agreement among the raters who scored the assignments and a high level of internal consistency within each dimension of assignment quality. Results presented a mixed picture with regard to the stability of the ratings at the different levels of schooling and the number of assignments needed to yield a consistent estimate of quality. However, secondary students who received higher quality assignments produced higher quality written work and scored higher as a group on the reading and language portions of the Stanford Achievement Test, 9th edition (Stanford 9) adjusted for student background and prior achievement.

Implementing Literacy Coaching The Role of School Social Resources

This study investigates the influence of a school’s pre-existing social resources on the implementation of a comprehensive literacy-coaching program (Content-Focused Coaching [CFC]). Elementary schools were randomly assigned to receive a CFC-trained coach (n = 15 schools) or to continue with the literacy coaching resources that are standard for the district (n = 14 schools). Ninety-six fourth- and fifth-grade teachers participated in the study (n = 63 CFC and n = 33 comparison). Survey results indicate that teachers in the CFC schools participated more frequently in the coaching activities that emphasized planning and reflecting on instruction, enacting instruction, and building knowledge of the theories underlying effective reading comprehension instruction compared to teachers in the comparison schools. After 1 year, teachers strongly believed that CFC coaching helped improve their instructional practice. Principal leadership was the key resource supporting implementation of the program positively predicting greater teacher participation in coaching activities and perceived usefulness of these activities along with coaches’ training in the CFC program and less experienced teachers. Unexpectedly, a school’s pre-existing culture of teacher collaboration negatively predicted teachers’ coaching experiences. CFC coach interviews contribute to understanding the interactions of social resources within schools that facilitated or hindered program implementation. Implications for the design and implementation of effective instructional coaching policies in districts are discussed.

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.

Values and the Family: Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Problem Behaviors.

The influence of family values on adolescent problem behaviors is explored in an 18-year study of 199 families. Factor analyses revealed two value dimensions: traditional/achievement and humanistic/egalitarian. Problem behavior was indicated by drug use, delinquency, dropout, and sexual behavior. Maternal values predicted similar adolescent values. Traditional values generally protected adolescents against problem behaviors. Humanistic/egalitarian values protected against delinquency but increased drug use risk. Maternal countercultural identity protected adolescents against hard drug use.

Nonconventional Family Life-Styles and School Achievement: A 12-Year Longitudinal Study

The life-styles of countercultural, nonconventional families have potential risks as well as benefits for children’s school achievement. The effects on children’s school achievement of nonconventional family organization, parents’ values and commitment to their family life-style, and family stability were examined in a 12-year longitudinal study of 146 nonconventional families and a comparison group of 43 stable, two-parent conventional families. In spite of considerable instability and other potential risk conditions in nonconventional families’ lives (single parent or unmarried couple status, frequent change, stigma, low incomes, and others), most of their children do as well or better in school than a comparison group of conventional families. These effects were still present after adjusting for child WISC-R, gender, and family SES. Those children doing best in school come from families who have a stronger commitment to their nonconventional family life-style while those doing less well have families with a lower commitment. Children in single parent families had grades similar to those of children in two-parent families. Family stability—regardless of the form of the family (single parent or couple)— also was associated with higher grades. Strong commitment to meaningful values regarding the importance of one’s family life-style can protect children against some of the risks that were a part of many countercultural family’s lives.

The Effect of Content-Focused Coaching on the Quality of Classroom Text Discussions.

This study examines the effect of a comprehensive literacy-coaching program focused on enacting a discussion-based approach to reading comprehension instruction (content-focused coaching [CFC]) on the quality of classroom text discussions over 2 years. The study used a cluster-randomized trial in which schools were assigned to either CFC or standard practice in the district for literacy coaching. Observers rated classroom text discussions significantly higher in CFC schools. Teachers in the CFC schools participated more frequently in coaching activities that emphasized planning and reflecting on instruction, enacting lessons in their classrooms, building knowledge of the theory underlying effective pedagogy, and differentiating instruction than did the teachers in the comparison condition. Qualitative analyses of coach interviews identified substantive differences in the professional development support available to coaches, scope of coaches’ job responsibilities, and focus of coaching resources in the CFC schools and comparison schools.

Parents’ Goals for Adolescents Diagnosed with Developmental Delays in Early Childhood

Parents’ developmental goals for their children were investigated in a 12-year study of middle-class European American families of children diagnosed with an early developmental delay of unknown etiology. The relation of parents’ developmental goals for children at child age 13 and child characteristics at ages 3, 7, and 11 were examined. Results showed that parents’ developmental goals at adolescence were associated with a range of child characteristics. Early child characteristics also were stronger predictors of parents’ goals at adolescence than parents’ goals for children at earlier ages. These findings indicated that parents adjust their goals over time in response to children’s functioning and abilities. Findings from this study could contribute to early intervention efforts by helping practitioners anticipate parents’ goals for their adolescent children based on children’s functioning at earlier ages.