Luke McCune

What’s the Matter with Kansas?: The Development and Confirmation of the Evolutionary Attitudes and Literacy Survey (EALS)

The present survey was designed to assess predominant regional belief systems and the roles these beliefs play in science understanding and attitudes, and curricular effectiveness in colleges and universities. To this end, we created a wide variety of theory-driven subscales (lower order factors) reflecting, for example, exposure to evolutionary material, young earth creationist beliefs, moral and social objections, political ideology, endorsement of intelligent design fallacies, knowledge (and distrust) of the scientific enterprise, and attitudes of evolutionary theory’s relevance in several domains (e.g., sciences and humanities). We also included potentially important demographic variables (e.g., rural upbringing, family size). Finally, we assessed openness to experience, a key facet of personality. Hierarchical Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis showed the 16 constructs to have a theoretically meaningful and quantitatively coherent higher order factor structure. In this large Kansas sample of university students, creationist reasoning and conservative orientation (political and religious) were negatively associated with exposure to evolutionary theory, knowledge about it, and positive attitudes toward its relevance. At the same time, exposure to the theory was positively associated with knowledge and positive attitudes. Importantly, though most Kansas-specific demographic variables (e.g., rural origins) were largely unrelated to outcomes of interest in this university-based sample, the personality factor openness to experience appears to be highly relevant for several higher order factors (e.g., exposure, knowledge and relevance, and creationist reasoning). We close with implications for educators and the next steps in survey development.

Efficacy of a Supplemental Phonemic Awareness Curriculum to Instruct Preschoolers With Delays in Early Literacy Development

Purpose Children who do not develop early literacy skills, especially phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge, prior to kindergarten are at risk for reading difficulties. We investigated a supplemental curriculum with children demonstrating delays in these skills. Method A cluster randomized design with 104 preschool-age children in 39 classrooms was used to determine the efficacy of a supplemental PA curriculum, PAth to Literacy. The curriculum consists of 36 daily scripted 10-min lessons with interactive games designed to teach PA and alphabet skills. A vocabulary intervention (Story Friends), which also uses a small-group format, served as the comparison condition. Results Multilevel modeling indicated that children in the experimental condition demonstrated significantly greater gains on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) First Sound Fluency (Dynamic Measurement Group, 2006) and Word Parts Fluency (Kaminski & Powell-Smith, 2011) measures. Educational relevance was evident: 82% of the children in the experimental condition met the kindergarten benchmark for First Sound Fluency compared with 34% of the children in the comparison condition. Teachers reported overall satisfaction with the lessons. Conclusions Results indicated that the vast majority of children demonstrating early literacy delays in preschool may benefit from a supplemental PA curriculum that has the potential to prevent reading difficulties as children transition to kindergarten.

Embedded Instruction Improves Vocabulary Learning During Automated Storybook Reading Among High-Risk Preschoolers.

PURPOSE We investigated a small-group intervention designed to teach vocabulary and comprehension skills to preschoolers who were at risk for language and reading disabilities. These language skills are important and reliable predictors of later academic achievement. METHOD Preschoolers heard prerecorded stories 3 times per week over the course of a school year. A cluster randomized design was used to evaluate the effects of hearing storybooks with and without embedded vocabulary and comprehension lessons. A total of 32 classrooms were randomly assigned to experimental and comparison conditions. Approximately 6 children per classroom demonstrating low vocabulary knowledge, totaling 195 children, were enrolled. RESULTS Preschoolers in the comparison condition did not learn novel, challenging vocabulary words to which they were exposed in story contexts, whereas preschoolers receiving embedded lessons demonstrated significant learning gains, although vocabulary learning diminished over the course of the school year. Modest gains in comprehension skills did not differ between the two groups. CONCLUSION The Story Friends curriculum appears to be highly feasible for delivery in early childhood educational settings and effective at teaching challenging vocabulary to high-risk preschoolers.

Teacher-student relationship quality and academic achievement in elementary school: A longitudinal examination of gender differences☆

Multiple group longitudinal cross-lagged panel models were implemented to understand the directional influences between teacher-student closeness and conflict and measured math and reading achievement across elementary grades and gender groups using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development longitudinal sample (N=1133). Specifically, after testing multiple group longitudinal measurement invariance to ensure consistent measurement across genders and time, and tests of equivalence of the latent parameters, we were interested in whether longitudinal changes in teacher-rated closeness and conflict explained longitudinal changes in achievement, and vice versa, and whether those longitudinal influences varied by gender. Latent teacher-student closeness decreased for both genders over time (Cohens d=-0.15 to -0.32), but latent conflict increased for males (Cohens d=0.16). There was also increased heterogeneity in teacher-student relationship quality for males relative to females. Math and reading achievement had medium reciprocal effects (β=0.12 to 0.23), and previous math achievement had small to medium effects on subsequent teacher-student closeness (β=0.08 to 0.11) and conflict (β=-0.07 to -0.09). Teacher-student conflict and closeness did not influence subsequent levels of math or reading achievement once previous levels were controlled. Further, these influences were consistent across gender groups despite latent differences in teacher-student closeness and conflict with teachers reporting closer relationships with female students and more conflictual relationships with male students.

Long-Term Impact of a Cell Phone–Enhanced Parenting Intervention:

Home visiting programs support positive parenting in populations at-risk of child maltreatment, but their impact is often limited by poor retention and engagement. The current study assessed whether a cellular phone–supported version (PCI-C) of the Parent-Child Interactions (PCI) intervention improved long-term parenting practices, maternal depression, and children’s aggression. Low-income mothers (n = 371) of preschool-aged children were assigned to one of the three groups: PCI-C, PCI, and a wait-list control (WLC) group. Parenting improved in both intervention groups between baseline and 12-month follow-up compared to the WLC. Children in the PCI-C group were rated to be more cooperative and less aggressive than children in the WLC. The results offer evidence of the long-term effectiveness of PCI and the additional benefits of cellular phone supports for promoting intervention retention and improving children’s behavior.

A Curriculum-Based Measure of Language Comprehension for Preschoolers: Reliability and Validity of the Assessment of Story Comprehension.

Despite research demonstrating the importance of language comprehension to later reading abilities, curriculum-based measures to assess language comprehension abilities in preschoolers remain lacking. The Assessment of Story Comprehension (ASC) features brief, child-relevant stories and a series of literal and inferential questions with a focus on causal and predictive inference skills surrounding the main story grammar components and a novel vocabulary word. Following an overview of the iterative development process and pilot studies, this article presents preliminary evidence of the fidelity of administration, reliability of scoring, alternate form reliability, and validity of the ASC. In all, 237 preschoolers, ages 3 to 5 years old, participated in this study. Fidelity of administration and scoring reliability averaged over 90%. Concurrent validity with two established language measures revealed correlations ranging from .67 to .81. Test–retest reliability and internal consistency also indicated high levels of reliability for this new tool; however, alternate form reliability results suggest further work is needed. Preliminary results indicate that the ASC holds promise as a viable curriculum-based measure that early childhood educators can use for monitoring preschoolers’ progress in language comprehension.

The questions verbal children with autism spectrum disorder encounter in the inclusive preschool classroom

This study investigated questions adults asked to children with autism spectrum disorder in inclusive pre-kindergarten classrooms, and whether child (e.g. autism severity) and setting (i.e. adult-to-child ratio) characteristics were related to questions asked during center-time. Videos of verbal children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 42) were coded based on the following question categories adapted from the work of Massey et al.: management, low cognitive challenging, or cognitively challenging. Results indicated that management questions (mean = 19.97, standard deviation = 12.71) were asked more than less cognitively challenging questions (mean = 14.22, standard deviation = 8.98) and less cognitively challenging questions were asked more than cognitively challenging questions (mean = 10.00, standard deviation = 6.9). Children with higher language levels had a greater likelihood of receiving cognitively challenging questions (odds ratio = 1.025; p = 0.007). Cognitively challenging questions had a greater likelihood of being asked in classrooms with more adults relative to children (odds ratio = 1.176; p = 0.037). The findings present a first step in identifying the questions directed at preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder in inclusive classrooms.

Conflict, Closeness, and Academic Skills: A Longitudinal Examination of the Teacher–Student Relationship

Abstract The longitudinal relations between teacher–student relationship quality (TSRQ) and student achievement were examined to determine the directional associations between the quality of teacher-rated closeness and conflict with students, and measured math and reading achievement in a large, multisite sample of U.S. youth at first, third, and fifth grade. A longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis model of panel data was employed. After testing longitudinal factorial invariance across time, we tested heterogeneity in the factor variances and differences in the latent means. Math and reading achievement had longitudinal reciprocal relations. Math achievement explained small differences in subsequent teacher-rated closeness after controlling for previous levels of math achievement and teacher-rated closeness. Teacher-rated conflict served as a small but significant predictor of subsequent math achievement across measured time points but previous teacher-rated closeness did not explain subsequent reading or math achievement at any time point. Teacher-rated conflict was relatively stable across grades, whereas teacher-rated closeness varied from first to third grade. Reading and math achievement were highly stable predictors of future achievement. The findings suggested that in a lower-risk sample, measures of TSRQ and achievement may serve as predictors or outcomes and directionality of effects should not be assumed in advance.