John Nunnery

Cooperative Learning in the Secondary Mathematics Classroom

Abstract The effects of cooperative learning on student achievement and attitudes in a secondary mathematics classroom were investigated. In this quasi-experimental design, 2 precalculus courses were compared. Students in 1 class studied the material in cooperative learning groups; students in the 2nd class studied the material independently. Three chapter tests were used to measure student achievement, and a questionnaire was administered to the treatment group members after the study was completed to assess their attitudes toward the cooperative learning procedure. The results obtained from a repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance (with pretest scores as the covariate) showed a significant Group × Time interaction. Students in the cooperative learning group had increasingly higher test scores than students in the comparison group and significantly outscored the comparison group on the 3rd chapter test. Survey results revealed primarily favorable responses toward the cooperative learning pro...

A Randomized Experimental Evaluation of the Impact of Accelerated Reader/Reading Renaissance Implementation on Reading Achievement in Grades 3 to 6.

Components of the School Renaissance® program, including Accelerated Reader and Reading Renaissance, have been implemented in more than 65,000 schools in the United States. Despite the programs popularity, there have been no published, well-controlled evaluations of its effectiveness. This randomized field experiment was designed to gauge program impacts on the reading achievement of 978 urban students in Grades 3 to 6. Schools and teachers within schools volunteered to participate in the study, with the foreknowledge that teachers would be randomly assigned to either implement School Renaissance or serve as controls. A 3-level hierarchical linear model was used to estimate the impact of the program on student reading growth trajectories on the STAR Reading test. Students in School Renaissance classrooms exhibited significantly higher growth rates than those in control classrooms, with effect size estimates ranging from +0.07 to +0.34 across grades. Quality of program implementation did not predict student achievement growth but was correlated with a reduction in the negative effect of learning disability status.

Using School Reform Models to Improve Reading Achievement: A Longitudinal Study of Direct Instruction and Success for All in an Urban District.

This research examined the effectiveness in an urban school district of 2 of the most widely used Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) programs-Direct Instruction (DI), implemented in 9 district elementary schools, and Success for All (SFA), implemented in 2 elementary schools. In examining impacts on student achievement and school change outcomes (e.g., teacher buy-in, school climate), a mixed-method research design was employed, encompassing both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Student achievement results on the reading sections of the Ohio Proficiency Test and the Stanford Achievement Test showed that both DI and SFA schools performed comparably to other district schools after statistically adjusting for school and student variables. Qualitative measures indicated generally positive support for both models by teachers, principals, and parents. However, in the case of DI, findings indicated weaknesses in implementation due largely to uncertainties involving school versus district roles and inadequate training. Results are discussed with regard to the influences of contextual and implementation variables on judging CSR model effectiveness in general and for specific schools and districts.

Teacher Quality and Troops to Teachers: A National Study With Implications for Principals

A 2005 national study surveyed 2,103 Troops to Teachers (T3) program completers and their school administrators using 21 research-based instructional practices and four effective classroom management strategies associated with increased student achievement to determine whether T3s were more effective in the classroom than traditionally prepared teachers with comparable years of teaching experience. Sixty-one percent returned completed surveys. Principals overwhelmingly (more than 90%) reported that T3s are more effective in classroom instruction and classroom management/student discipline—and have a more positive impact on student achievement—than traditionally prepared teachers. Moreover, T3s teach in high-poverty schools, teach high-demand subjects (special education, math, science), plan to remain in teaching, and increase the teaching pools diversity.

The Effects of Troops to Teachers on Student Achievement: One State’s Study

This study examined approximately 6,500 Florida students’ reading and mathematics performance when taught by a sample of teachers who obtained their teaching credentials through the Troops to Teachers program. Results indicated that students served by Troops teachers performed about equally well in reading and achieved a small but statistically significant advantage in mathematics when compared with all teachers but achieved substantially and statistically significantly higher in both reading and mathematics when compared with teachers matched by subject and teaching experience.

The effects of the sing, spell, read and write program on reading achievement of beginning readers

Abstract “Sing, Spell, Read, and Write” (SSRW) was designed for teaching reading, writing, spelling, and speaking in kindergarten through Grade 3. Throughout the program there is a strong phonics orientation. Given the growth of SSRW in schools across the United States, the present study was designed to evaluate its effectiveness in a large metropolitan school district. Eight randomly selected SSRW schools were divided into three strata (high, middle, and low) on the basis of socioeconomic status and were individually matched at the school and class level with nine comparison schools on the basis of socioeconomic status, racial makeup, and standardized achievement scores. Analysis of reading, writing, and spelling scores indicated that SSRW was somewhat more effective than the traditional (basal) curriculum for teaching word attack and letter‐word identification, especially for students in low‐stratum schools. For more complex language skills, such as writing and oral reading comprehension, SSRW was not m...

Examining the Effects of Residence and Gender on College Student Adjustment in Iran: Implications for Psychotherapists

This study examined the effects of on-campus residence, in comparison with commuter status, on academic performance, vocational commitment, self-efficacy, and perceptions of the college environment among female and male Iranian students at Shiraz University, Iran. The study sought to extend previous work investigating the effects of college residence on adjustment by testing these effects with a national population that has received relatively little attention in the extant counseling literature. Nearly all previously published studies exploring these phenomena have focused exclusively on college students in the United States. We found that residential living had positive effects on student adjustment and academic performance and that these effects were mediated by gender. Implications of these findings for the college psychotherapy and student development knowledge base, college and university psychotherapists working with international students and American students of Middle Eastern and Northern African descent in the United States, and college counseling professionals working in Middle Eastern and North African nations, as well as critical limitations of the study, are discussed.

Whole School Designs for Enhancing Student Achievement

Progress in creating more effective educational reforms and progress in creating quality research on school reforms both have been slow in coming. Yet we know much more today about both the specific requirements and the processes needed to create more effective-bearing reforms. This article examines those two areas by proceeding through four stages. In the first stage, we note large-scale studies of school improvement efforts that have been conducted in the United States during the last century. Second, we examine reviews of research on specific whole-school reform efforts. This is followed by a set of conclusions that can be drawn from these sets of studies, including a discussion of calls for fidelity to reform design contrasted with highly reliable co-construction. A final section discusses implications for practice and future research.