Laura T. Overman

Comprehensive School Reform and Achievement: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis reviews research on the achievement effects of comprehensive school reform (CSR) and summarizes the specific effects of 29 widely implemented models. There are limitations on the overall quantity and quality of the research base, but the overall effects of CSR appear promising. The combined quantity, quality, and statistical significance of evidence from three models, in particular, set them apart. Whether evaluations are conducted by developers or by third-party evaluators and whether evaluators use one-group pre-post designs or control groups are important factors for understanding differences in CSR effects. Schools that implemented CSR models for 5 years or more showed particularly strong effects, and the benefits were consistent across schools of varying poverty levels. A long-term commitment to research-proven educational reform is needed to establish a strong marketplace of scientifically based CSR models.

Academic Resilience in Mathematics among Poor and Minority Students

Based on national data from the Prospects study, we identified the individual characteristics that distinguished academically successful, or resilient, elementary school students from minority and low-socioeconomic-status (SES) backgrounds from their less successful, or nonresilient, counterparts. We also formulated and tested 4 models of the risk factors and resilience-promoting features of schools: (a) effective schools; (b) peer group composition; (c) school resources; and (d) the supportive school community model. Our results suggested that minority students from low-SES backgrounds were exposed to greater risks and fewer resilience-promoting conditions than otherwise similar low-SES White students. Results, though, generally supported the applicability of uniform individual- and school-level models of academic resiliency to all low-SES students, regardless of their race. Greater engagement in academic activities, an internal locus of control, efficaciousness in math, a more positive outlook toward school, and more positive self-esteem were characteristic of all low-SES students who achieved resilient mathematics outcomes. The most powerful school characteristics for promoting resiliency were represented by the supportive school community model, which, unlike the other school models, included elements that actively shielded children from adversity.

Comprehensive School Reform in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Contexts: Implementation and Outcomes from a Four-Year Study.

This article presents findings from a 4-year study of 13 culturally and linguistically diverse elementary schools implementing comprehensive school reform (CSR) models. The study focused on: (a) the actions at the state and district levels that facilitated or inhibited reform implementation; (b) the adaptability of the various reforms in multicultural, multilingual contexts; and (c) the student achievement outcomes associated with reform, for schools as a whole and for language minority students in particular. Some schools implemented reforms and bilingual education programs in mutually supportive ways; others had difficulty adapting reforms to suit the needs of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students. Reforms generally helped educators meet goals for multicultural education, but in some cases, educators’ beliefs about student ability, race, and language served as constraints to reform. Students from CSR schools had achievement outcomes that were generally equivalent to those for students from matched comparison schools. Under some circumstances, though, LEP students and their English-speaking peers from CSR schools outperformed their comparison school counterparts.

Families, Schools, and Summer Learning

In this study we used spring‐to‐fall reading achievement data to measure summer gains and losses for a sample of over 300 early elementary school students from high‐poverty schools. We combined evidence from a randomized experiment of an academically intensive community‐based summer school program with parent telephone survey data regarding the characteristics of the family and the nature of the children’s summer activities. Our results suggested that parental expectations, learning activities in the home, and parental effort more generally did not explain much variation in summer achievement. Parental effort to promote regular attendance in summer school, though, did avert summer learning losses. Thus, we suggest that current theories of how family resources can promote summer learning be expanded to include parents’ use of summer school and other community‐based institutions that support their children’s healthy development.

A Randomized Field Trial of the Fast ForWord Language Computer-Based Training Program

This article describes an independent assessment of the Fast ForWord Language computer-based training program developed by Scientific Learning Corporation. Previous laboratory research involving children with language-based learning impairments showed strong effects on their abilities to recognize brief and fast sequences of nonspeech and speech stimuli, but generalization of these effects beyond clinical settings and student populations and to broader literacy measures remains unclear. Implementing a randomized field trial in eight urban schools, we generated impact estimates from separate intent-to-treat and treatment-on-the-treated analyses of the literacy outcomes of second- and seventh-grade students who were more generally at risk for poor reading and language outcomes. There were some problems of implementation in the field setting, and the Fast ForWord Language program did not, in general, help students in these eight schools improve their language and reading comprehension test scores.