Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Nov 3, 2020
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs are schoolbased preventive interventions that aim to imp... more Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs are schoolbased preventive interventions that aim to improve children's social-emotional skills and behavioral development (Jones & Doolittle, 2017). Meta-analytic research has shown that SEL programs tend to achieve these aims in the short term
Background: A wide and rich body of literature has identified the family as the key context influ... more Background: A wide and rich body of literature has identified the family as the key context influencing children's development (Fan & Chen, 2001; Jeynes, 2005; Kreppner & Lerner, 2013). In response, school districts and policymakers have sought to engage parents in children's learning, particularly lowincome families (Booth & Dunn, 2013). Meta-analyses conclude that efforts to engage low-income parents do improve students' academic achievement (Jeynes, 2012; Jeynes, 2014). Such research has prompted developers of some school-based preventive interventions to integrate programming components targeted at students' parents. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs are one such type of school-based preventive intervention. SEL programs aim to improve children's social-emotional competencies (behavioral regulation, attentional skills, problem-solving, social skills), in order to support their academic development. Typically implemented in school settings, SEL programs explicitly target teacher and student individual-level skill development and the quality of classroom contexts (e.g., Brown et al., 2010; Rivers et al., 2013). Some interventions also use a comprehensive prevention approach that engages parents in services (e.g., Kumpfer et al., 2002). Such models theorize that parents can be effective in enhancing social-emotional skill development at home if they are exposed to the content that their children learn at school. Yet, given few quantitative studies on parent program take-up rates, little is known about the factors that are predictive of parents' participation in SEL programs (Wilson, 2012). Moreover, although ecological theory suggests that two-generation service models should enhance the efficacy of SEL interventions (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998), there is little empirical research testing this hypothesis. Given that parent programs can be resource intensive, it is critical to determine whether they do in fact enhance the benefits of SEL programs for students. Knowledge of parent program efficacy can inform future SEL intervention development, implementation, and scale-up in urban elementary schools.
Research Findings: This study investigated how mean classroom-level shyness scores moderated the ... more Research Findings: This study investigated how mean classroom-level shyness scores moderated the impacts of INSIGHTS into Children's Temperament on instructional support and students' math and reading skills in kindergarten and 1st-grade classrooms. INSIGHTS is a temperament-based socialemotional learning intervention with teacher, parent, and classroom programs. A total of 22 low-income urban elementary schools, 90 teachers, and 435 children were included in the study. Schools were randomly assigned to INSIGHTS or an attention-control condition. Multilevel modeling demonstrated larger impacts of INSIGHTS on instructional support in 1st-grade classrooms with greater mean classroom-level shyness scores. A further set of multilevel analyses showed larger impacts of INSIGHTS on math skills for students in classrooms with greater mean classroom-level shyness scores. Practice or Policy: Results suggest the importance of considering temperament at the classroom level when deciding how to allocate limited resources to the implementation of temperament-based intervention and/ or social-emotional learning programs. Moreover, providing professional development supports to teachers of shy students-who are at risk for poorer instruction and academic skills-should be considered by policymakers and practitioners. Low-income children arrive at kindergarten less school ready than their more affluent peers (Duncan & Magnuson, 2013; Kalil, Ziol-Guest, Ryan, & Markowitz, 2016). A number of classroom-based interventions have been developed for schools primarily serving low-income students in order to help close these early school readiness and academic achievement gaps (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Social-emotional learning (SEL) programs are one such type of intervention that aim to improve teacher practices and children's development of social-emotional skills with the ultimate goal of improving students' academic outcomes (Jones & Bouffard, 2012). Although SEL programs have demonstrated the ability to enhance teacher practices (e.g., J. L. Brown, Jones, LaRusso, & Aber, 2010; Reyes, Brackett, Rivers, White, & Salovey, 2012) and children's behaviors, social-emotional skills, and academic competencies (Durlak et al., 2011), they are typically designed as primary prevention programs and delivered to all students within a targeted setting fairly uniformly (Bierman et al., 2010; Durlak et al., 2011; Greenberg et al., 2003). One group of students-children with a shy temperament-are rarely explicitly considered in the development of classroom-based SEL programs in low-income schools yet are known to be at heightened risk for poor academic skills in early and middle childhood (Elias & Haynes, 2008; Evans, 2010; Kalutskaya, Archbell, Moritz Rudasill, & Coplan, 2015). Indeed, shy children are more likely to be disengaged in early childhood classroom activities and are less likely to receive attention from teachers (Rudasill & Rimm-Kaufman, 2009).
Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2016
Background / Context: Grade retention, the practice of requiring a student who has underperformed... more Background / Context: Grade retention, the practice of requiring a student who has underperformed academically to remain at that same grade level the following year (Jackson, 1975), is a controversial and common educational practice. Retention has been characterized as a detrimental intervention in early empirical studies (see meta-analyses: Holmes, 1989; Jimerson, 2001); however, recent studies emphasizing study design and the construction of appropriate comparison groups (e.g.,
This study explores the personal, professional, and contextual conditions faced by early childhoo... more This study explores the personal, professional, and contextual conditions faced by early childhood education (ECE) teachers in under‐resourced settings and how these relate to teacher responsiveness to professional development (PD): namely, teacher attrition (a sign of PD failure when occurring shortly after PD), take‐up of offered PD, adherence to PD training/materials, and quality of implementation. We use data from six disadvantaged districts in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana and PD focused on implementation of a national, play‐based curriculum. Descriptive statistics indicate that ECE teachers (n = 302) face a multitude of barriers to high quality teaching across the bioecological model. Multilevel mixed effects models find that teachers with low job satisfaction are more likely to leave the school within the academic year. Teachers with moderate to severe depression are less likely to attend PD trainings. Senior teachers and those with poverty risks are less likely to adhere...
Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2015
Background: Given established links between social-emotional skills and academic achievement, the... more Background: Given established links between social-emotional skills and academic achievement, there is growing support for implementing universal social/behavioral interventions in early schooling (Jones & Bouffard, 2012). Advocates have been particularly interested in implementing such programming in lowincome urban schools where students are likely to start school with lower levels of social-emotional and academic skills than their more affluent peers (Jones & Bouffard, 2012; Raver, 2002). Yet, there is inconsistent evidence that such programs improve students' academic achievement over and above typical educational practice (SRCDC, 2010). One possible constraint to understanding mixed evidence about intervention efficacy is the limited information on how program effects differ across school settings. It could be that universal social/behavioral programs are highly effective in some types of schools and less so in others, thus confounding overall understanding of intervention efficacy. Moreover, although some work has considered how demographic characteristicslike school povertydifferentiate social/behavioral program impacts on student outcomes, fewer studies have examined the moderating role of the school-level social processes (e.g., social norms, relationships) within which interventions are typically embedded. School climate reflects the norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures of the school (NSCC, 2007; Thapa et al., 2013), and is a useful construct for understanding social processes at the school-level. A prevention research perspective suggests that schools with the poorest climates have the most to gain from school-based interventions that explicitly target social interactions (e.g., Cicchetti & Aber, 1998; Van Lier et al., 2004). Contrasting work argues that social/behavioral programs will be most effective for improving student outcomes in settings where extant norms already support positive academic and social-behavioral development (Aber et al., 1998; Hughes et al., 2005). Purpose of Study: The current study considers these alternating views by examining whether key theorydriven domains of school climateleadership, accountability, and safety/respect (see Nathanson et al., 2013) moderate impacts of one social/behavioral intervention-INSIGHTSon low-income urban kindergarten and first grade students' math and reading achievement, sustained attention, and disruptive behaviors. A randomized trial using intent-to-treat analyses identified empirical support for benefits of INSIGHTS on these four student outcomes (see O'Connor et al., 2014). It is unclear, however, whether students in different schools benefited similarly. Learning more about variation in INSIGHTS' impacts across schools can inform targeting of social/behavioral programs, and allocation of funds towards the types of schools and students that may benefit most from such intervention. Setting: This study took place in 22 low-income urban public elementary schools. All classrooms were regular education, with an average of 16.57 students (SD = 3.54). Schools had an average attendance rate of 86.26% (SD = .19) and an average size of 465 students (SD = 158.46). Schools also had high percentages of students who were racial/ethnic minorities (Black, M = .77, SD = .13; Hispanic, M = .40, SD = .27) and eligible for free or reduced lunch (M = .80, SD = .16).
This study evaluates the effect of attending a U.S. public middle or junior high school as compar... more This study evaluates the effect of attending a U.S. public middle or junior high school as compared with a K-8 school on eighth graders’ academic and psychosocial outcomes. In a national sample, we conducted propensity score weighted regression analysis. Initial findings indicated that for eighth-grade students, attending a middle or junior high school negatively affected teacher- and self-reported reading/writing competence. After applying population weights, only reading self-concept remained negatively affected by middle school enrollment. Exploratory analysis revealed the negative effects of attending a middle grade school may be present only for the students who enter kindergarten not at risk as measured by socioeconomic status (SES) or academic performance. Taken together, results suggest that negative impacts of middle grade schooling may be limited to teacher- and self-reported reading/writing competence, more pronounced in middle versus junior high school, and more salient ...
Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Nov 3, 2020
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs are schoolbased preventive interventions that aim to imp... more Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs are schoolbased preventive interventions that aim to improve children's social-emotional skills and behavioral development (Jones & Doolittle, 2017). Meta-analytic research has shown that SEL programs tend to achieve these aims in the short term
Background: A wide and rich body of literature has identified the family as the key context influ... more Background: A wide and rich body of literature has identified the family as the key context influencing children's development (Fan & Chen, 2001; Jeynes, 2005; Kreppner & Lerner, 2013). In response, school districts and policymakers have sought to engage parents in children's learning, particularly lowincome families (Booth & Dunn, 2013). Meta-analyses conclude that efforts to engage low-income parents do improve students' academic achievement (Jeynes, 2012; Jeynes, 2014). Such research has prompted developers of some school-based preventive interventions to integrate programming components targeted at students' parents. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs are one such type of school-based preventive intervention. SEL programs aim to improve children's social-emotional competencies (behavioral regulation, attentional skills, problem-solving, social skills), in order to support their academic development. Typically implemented in school settings, SEL programs explicitly target teacher and student individual-level skill development and the quality of classroom contexts (e.g., Brown et al., 2010; Rivers et al., 2013). Some interventions also use a comprehensive prevention approach that engages parents in services (e.g., Kumpfer et al., 2002). Such models theorize that parents can be effective in enhancing social-emotional skill development at home if they are exposed to the content that their children learn at school. Yet, given few quantitative studies on parent program take-up rates, little is known about the factors that are predictive of parents' participation in SEL programs (Wilson, 2012). Moreover, although ecological theory suggests that two-generation service models should enhance the efficacy of SEL interventions (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998), there is little empirical research testing this hypothesis. Given that parent programs can be resource intensive, it is critical to determine whether they do in fact enhance the benefits of SEL programs for students. Knowledge of parent program efficacy can inform future SEL intervention development, implementation, and scale-up in urban elementary schools.
Research Findings: This study investigated how mean classroom-level shyness scores moderated the ... more Research Findings: This study investigated how mean classroom-level shyness scores moderated the impacts of INSIGHTS into Children's Temperament on instructional support and students' math and reading skills in kindergarten and 1st-grade classrooms. INSIGHTS is a temperament-based socialemotional learning intervention with teacher, parent, and classroom programs. A total of 22 low-income urban elementary schools, 90 teachers, and 435 children were included in the study. Schools were randomly assigned to INSIGHTS or an attention-control condition. Multilevel modeling demonstrated larger impacts of INSIGHTS on instructional support in 1st-grade classrooms with greater mean classroom-level shyness scores. A further set of multilevel analyses showed larger impacts of INSIGHTS on math skills for students in classrooms with greater mean classroom-level shyness scores. Practice or Policy: Results suggest the importance of considering temperament at the classroom level when deciding how to allocate limited resources to the implementation of temperament-based intervention and/ or social-emotional learning programs. Moreover, providing professional development supports to teachers of shy students-who are at risk for poorer instruction and academic skills-should be considered by policymakers and practitioners. Low-income children arrive at kindergarten less school ready than their more affluent peers (Duncan & Magnuson, 2013; Kalil, Ziol-Guest, Ryan, & Markowitz, 2016). A number of classroom-based interventions have been developed for schools primarily serving low-income students in order to help close these early school readiness and academic achievement gaps (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Social-emotional learning (SEL) programs are one such type of intervention that aim to improve teacher practices and children's development of social-emotional skills with the ultimate goal of improving students' academic outcomes (Jones & Bouffard, 2012). Although SEL programs have demonstrated the ability to enhance teacher practices (e.g., J. L. Brown, Jones, LaRusso, & Aber, 2010; Reyes, Brackett, Rivers, White, & Salovey, 2012) and children's behaviors, social-emotional skills, and academic competencies (Durlak et al., 2011), they are typically designed as primary prevention programs and delivered to all students within a targeted setting fairly uniformly (Bierman et al., 2010; Durlak et al., 2011; Greenberg et al., 2003). One group of students-children with a shy temperament-are rarely explicitly considered in the development of classroom-based SEL programs in low-income schools yet are known to be at heightened risk for poor academic skills in early and middle childhood (Elias & Haynes, 2008; Evans, 2010; Kalutskaya, Archbell, Moritz Rudasill, & Coplan, 2015). Indeed, shy children are more likely to be disengaged in early childhood classroom activities and are less likely to receive attention from teachers (Rudasill & Rimm-Kaufman, 2009).
Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2016
Background / Context: Grade retention, the practice of requiring a student who has underperformed... more Background / Context: Grade retention, the practice of requiring a student who has underperformed academically to remain at that same grade level the following year (Jackson, 1975), is a controversial and common educational practice. Retention has been characterized as a detrimental intervention in early empirical studies (see meta-analyses: Holmes, 1989; Jimerson, 2001); however, recent studies emphasizing study design and the construction of appropriate comparison groups (e.g.,
This study explores the personal, professional, and contextual conditions faced by early childhoo... more This study explores the personal, professional, and contextual conditions faced by early childhood education (ECE) teachers in under‐resourced settings and how these relate to teacher responsiveness to professional development (PD): namely, teacher attrition (a sign of PD failure when occurring shortly after PD), take‐up of offered PD, adherence to PD training/materials, and quality of implementation. We use data from six disadvantaged districts in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana and PD focused on implementation of a national, play‐based curriculum. Descriptive statistics indicate that ECE teachers (n = 302) face a multitude of barriers to high quality teaching across the bioecological model. Multilevel mixed effects models find that teachers with low job satisfaction are more likely to leave the school within the academic year. Teachers with moderate to severe depression are less likely to attend PD trainings. Senior teachers and those with poverty risks are less likely to adhere...
Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2015
Background: Given established links between social-emotional skills and academic achievement, the... more Background: Given established links between social-emotional skills and academic achievement, there is growing support for implementing universal social/behavioral interventions in early schooling (Jones & Bouffard, 2012). Advocates have been particularly interested in implementing such programming in lowincome urban schools where students are likely to start school with lower levels of social-emotional and academic skills than their more affluent peers (Jones & Bouffard, 2012; Raver, 2002). Yet, there is inconsistent evidence that such programs improve students' academic achievement over and above typical educational practice (SRCDC, 2010). One possible constraint to understanding mixed evidence about intervention efficacy is the limited information on how program effects differ across school settings. It could be that universal social/behavioral programs are highly effective in some types of schools and less so in others, thus confounding overall understanding of intervention efficacy. Moreover, although some work has considered how demographic characteristicslike school povertydifferentiate social/behavioral program impacts on student outcomes, fewer studies have examined the moderating role of the school-level social processes (e.g., social norms, relationships) within which interventions are typically embedded. School climate reflects the norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures of the school (NSCC, 2007; Thapa et al., 2013), and is a useful construct for understanding social processes at the school-level. A prevention research perspective suggests that schools with the poorest climates have the most to gain from school-based interventions that explicitly target social interactions (e.g., Cicchetti & Aber, 1998; Van Lier et al., 2004). Contrasting work argues that social/behavioral programs will be most effective for improving student outcomes in settings where extant norms already support positive academic and social-behavioral development (Aber et al., 1998; Hughes et al., 2005). Purpose of Study: The current study considers these alternating views by examining whether key theorydriven domains of school climateleadership, accountability, and safety/respect (see Nathanson et al., 2013) moderate impacts of one social/behavioral intervention-INSIGHTSon low-income urban kindergarten and first grade students' math and reading achievement, sustained attention, and disruptive behaviors. A randomized trial using intent-to-treat analyses identified empirical support for benefits of INSIGHTS on these four student outcomes (see O'Connor et al., 2014). It is unclear, however, whether students in different schools benefited similarly. Learning more about variation in INSIGHTS' impacts across schools can inform targeting of social/behavioral programs, and allocation of funds towards the types of schools and students that may benefit most from such intervention. Setting: This study took place in 22 low-income urban public elementary schools. All classrooms were regular education, with an average of 16.57 students (SD = 3.54). Schools had an average attendance rate of 86.26% (SD = .19) and an average size of 465 students (SD = 158.46). Schools also had high percentages of students who were racial/ethnic minorities (Black, M = .77, SD = .13; Hispanic, M = .40, SD = .27) and eligible for free or reduced lunch (M = .80, SD = .16).
This study evaluates the effect of attending a U.S. public middle or junior high school as compar... more This study evaluates the effect of attending a U.S. public middle or junior high school as compared with a K-8 school on eighth graders’ academic and psychosocial outcomes. In a national sample, we conducted propensity score weighted regression analysis. Initial findings indicated that for eighth-grade students, attending a middle or junior high school negatively affected teacher- and self-reported reading/writing competence. After applying population weights, only reading self-concept remained negatively affected by middle school enrollment. Exploratory analysis revealed the negative effects of attending a middle grade school may be present only for the students who enter kindergarten not at risk as measured by socioeconomic status (SES) or academic performance. Taken together, results suggest that negative impacts of middle grade schooling may be limited to teacher- and self-reported reading/writing competence, more pronounced in middle versus junior high school, and more salient ...
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