English Language Arts and Science: A Shift Toward Student Success

This chapter will include information on how to integrate instruction across English language arts (ELA), math, and science curriculums or seventh grade. The chapter will illustrate how to integrate standards from these three areas and formulate a culminating unit project. This is the core identifying characteristic for Innovation Academy, a STEM school located in Blountville, Tennessee. This chapter will elaborate on how the teachers at Innovation Academy collaborate, communicate, and plan in order to integrate curriculum and execute the culminating unit project. In addition, this chapter will illustrate designing a plan for formative lessons in the individual ELA, math, and science classrooms to prepare students for the culminating unit project.

O'Neill, Cognition, and the Common Core Standards

The education of girls and women in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has long been thought of as very crucial for national development. This study investigated whether gender differences might occur in scores attained by Nigerian students on standard subject matter examinations for English Language, Mathematics and Biology in year 2 of Junior Secondary School and Year 2 of Senior Secondary School. Purposive sampling was used to select seven secondary schools in South-South Nigeria. Of the seven schools, four were private and three were public government secondary schools. Scores for 570 students, who were all the students who took the examinations during the 2003-2014 year formed the data for this study. To assess if gender differences exist in students’ examination performances, mean examination scores and standard deviations for males and females were calculated separately within each of the three content areas, as well as means and standard deviations for each gender by school level (Junior Secondary School or Senior Secondary School ) within the content areas. Female students performed significantly higher than male students in English Language. At the junior level, female Mathematics scores are only marginally significantly better; while at the senior level, male scores are somewhat (but not significantly) better than female scores. At the junior secondary level female scores in Biology were significantly higher but at the senior secondary school level, the difference was not statistically significant Based on these findings, recommendations were made to ensure the performance of both sexes.

This study develops a model for essay scoring and article relevancy. Essay scoring is a costly process when we consider the time spent by an evaluator. It may lead to inequalities of the effort by various evaluators to apply the same evaluation criteria. Bibliometric research uses the evaluation criteria to find relevancy of articles instead. Researchers mostly face relevancy issues while searching articles. Therefore, they classify the articles manually. However, manual classification is burdensome due to time needed for evaluation. The proposed model performs automatic essay evaluation using multi-text features and ensemble machine learning. The proposed method is implemented in two data sets: a Kaggle short answer data set for essay scoring that includes four ranges of disciplines (Science, Biology, English, and English language Arts), and a bibliometric data set having IoT (Internet of Things) and non-IoT classes. The efficacy of the model is measured against the Tandalla and AutoP approach using Cohen’s kappa. The model achieves kappa values of 0.80 and 0.83 for the first and second data sets, respectively. Kappa values show that the proposed model has better performance than those of earlier approaches.

The disengagement that leads to school dropout may start as early as middle school, but may be interrupted by motivational interventions. One approach is to promote the relevance of content through explanations and demonstrations of the value of this content to students’ futures. CareerStart is an intervention that provides teachers prepackaged lessons for middle school math, English language arts, science, and social studies, which connects content in these courses to jobs and careers. In this study, we use data from a randomized control trial to report on the impact of CareerStart and career relevant lessons on preventing later drop-out. Event history analysis shows that CareerStart reduced the hazard of drop-out by 23%, and that at the school level, 10 CareerStart lessons was associated with a reduction of 1%. Students who did not change schools experienced the greatest benefit. We discuss implications for practice and research and suggest next steps.

Purpose This paper aims to apply ecological models of agency to understand factors influencing how an eighth grade English language arts (ELA) teacher enacted agency in four moments in the classroom. It focuses on how his language in relation to his instructional choices reflected messaging to his students regarding the learning he intended from his ELA instruction. Design/methodology/approach The paper applies an existing framework (Biesta et al., 2015, 2017), adding Bakhtin (1981) understandings of language, to classroom discourse supplemented by teacher interviews and other data sources. In looking across these data sources, the paper traces the influence of past factors (i.e. the teacher’s personal and professional history) and future orientations (i.e. goals established in standards and the teacher’s goals for his students) on present instructional decisions. The teacher’s language in the classroom becomes a primary focus for this study, as it reveals the ways in which he drew on specific resources in the messages in his instruction. Findings In each moment, the teacher’s language could be shown to have motivation in a variety of factors. While influenced by external factors such as the common core standards and standardized assessments, the teacher often enacted agency out of his personal beliefs about making learning personally meaningful for students as grounded in his personal and professional history. Exceptions to this pattern, especially regarding preparing students for writing tests on state assessments, less frequently relied on the language of finding meaning in the learning. Originality/value This paper builds on studies of ELA teacher agency through the development of methodology related to an ecological model of agency and Bakhtinian concepts of language focused on the discourse of the classroom. It contributes to understanding the factors at study in an ELA teacher’s instructional agency, which can help teachers and researchers further develop frameworks for describing and assessing the practice of agency in the profession.

PurposeEarly career teachers (ECTs) of Color are key in making change, resisting racism and pushing back against white supremacy in K-12 education, specifically in English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. Through a narrative telling inquiry (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000) of Nora, an Asian American ELA ECT in the Midwest, and by drawing on Fisher’s (2011) Critical Integral Pedagogy of Fearlessness, this study aims to recognize the narrative power within teaching praxis as Nora stories herself toward becoming a critical pedagogue.Design/methodology/approachUsing narrative inquiry methodology and methods (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000), the authors simultaneously considered the commonplace tenets of narrative inquiry – temporality, sociality and place – of the intertwined relationships of the participants and observers. The field texts included in the corpus of data include myriad tellings of Nora’s experiences in her initial years of teaching ELA. Data were analyzed in stages of parsing out narrative blocks and structures.FindingsThe findings indicate that Nora, as an ECT, went through recursive cycles of fear as conceptualized by Fisher (2011) – bravery, courageousness and being fear-less – of working toward radical love (Hooks, 2000) within her ELA instruction. The authors argue that Nora confronted her personal and professional fears as she strove to become a critical pedagogue in her ELA classroom.Originality/valueCurrent scholarship portrays ECTs as lacking agency in their development and/or effectiveness in the classroom and little is said about Asian American ELA ECTs and critical instruction. The authors present Nora’s counter-narrative to make visible what is right with ELA ECTs, specifically teachers of Color, as they transform their fear into courage to fight for educational equity.

Over a 4-year period, a large urban California school district developed and implemented a blended inquiry science and English Language Development (ELD) program in an effort to provide their English language learners opportunities to develop proficiency in English through participation in inquiry-based science. The resulting, “science/ELD blended program,” utilized a combined science/ELD lesson plan to structure and guide teachers’ efforts to use science as the context for language development. In this paper we describe the development and outcomes of this program. A sample that included 3 school principals, 60 teachers, and over 2000 students in Kindergarten through 5th grade provides windows into the effectiveness of the program. Implementation of this program resulted in enhanced status for science, increases in students’ English oral language use, and changes in teachers’ understanding of their own teaching practice. Additionally, participating students’ English and science achievement, compared to a similar group of students who were using the district’s established English language development curriculum, demonstrates modest, but statistically significant improvement. Results from this study suggest that restricting instructional minutes for science to provide additional time for ELD and English language arts may be unnecessary. Rather, allowing consistent time for science instruction that incorporates ELD instruction along with inquiry science experiences may provide the authentic and purposeful context students need to develop new language without restricting access to science content.

The theory of action upon which high‐stakes accountability policies are based calls for systemic reforms in educational systems that will emerge by pairing incentives for improvement with extensive and targeted technical assistance (TA) to build the capacity of low‐performing schools and districts. To this end, a little discussed and often overlooked aspect of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated that, in addition to sanctions, states were required to provide TA to build the capacity of struggling schools and Local Education Agencies (LEAs, or districts) to help them improve student achievement. Although every state in the country provides some form of TA to its lowest performing districts, we know little about the content of these programs or about their efficacy in improving student performance. In this paper, we use both quantitative and qualitative analyses to explore the actions taken by TA providers in one state—California—and examine whether the TA and support tied to California's NCLB sanctions succeeds in improving student achievement. Like many other states, California requires that districts labeled as persistently failing under NCLB (in Program Improvement year 3, PI3) work with external experts to help them build the capacity to make reforms that will improve student achievement. California's lowest performing PI3 districts are given substantial amounts of funding and are required to contract with state‐approved District Assistance and Intervention Teams (DAITs), whereas the remaining PI3 districts receive less funding and are asked to access less intensive TA from non‐DAIT providers. We use a five‐year panel difference‐in‐difference design to estimate the impacts of DAITs on student performance on the math and English language arts (ELA) standardized tests relative to non‐DAIT TA during the two years of the program intervention. We find that students in districts with DAITs perform significantly better on math California Standards Tests (CSTs) averaged over both treatment years and in each of the first and second years. We do not find evidence that students in districts with DAITs perform higher on ELA CSTs over the combined two years of treatment, although we find suggestive evidence that ELA performance increases in the second year of treatment relative to students in districts with non‐DAIT TA. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions that explore the association between specific activities fostered by DAITs and changes in districts’ gains in achievement over the two years of treatment show that DAIT districts that report increasing their focus on using data to guide instruction, shifting district culture to generate and maintain high expectations of students and staff, and increasing within‐district accountability for student performance, have higher math achievement gains over the course of the DAIT treatment. In addition, DAIT districts that increase their focus on ELA instruction and shift district culture to one of high expectations have higher ELA achievement gains than do DAIT districts that do not have a similar focus. © 2012 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

ABSTRACTThe authors used structural equation modeling to map the relationships between student race–ethnicity via the mediating variable physical activity on English language arts (ELA) and mathematics achievement among 964 fourth- and fifth-grade students. The students attended a New York City Metropolitan area school district and completed the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children, which measured weekly average activity levels. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the use of this instrument. Physical activity had a significant, substantive effect on both ELA and mathematics achievement for students, but was most pronounced among White students on ELA and among Black students on mathematics. Hispanic ethnicity had significant direct and indirect negative associations with ELA and mathematics achievement via their decreased physical activity levels relative to White and Black students. These findings help confirm the important link between physical activity and academic achievement and the need to foster more healthy physical activities for students of all races and ethnicities.

We used longitudinal data on high school students in Washington State to assess the relationships between English Language Arts (ELA) teacher qualifications and the high school and postsecondary outcomes of their students, and whether these relationships differed for students with and without disabilities. We found that students assigned to 10th-grade ELA teachers with higher value added had better test scores, were more likely to graduate on-time, and were more likely to attend and graduate from a 4-year college than observably similar students assigned to 10th-grade ELA teachers with lower value added. We also found that many of these relationships varied for students with and without disabilities, as 10th-grade ELA teacher value added was more positively predictive of on-time graduation and 4-year college attendance for students without disabilities, but more positively predictive of 2-year college attendance and employment within 2 years of graduation for students with disabilities.

The Flipped Mastery Model (Bergmann & Sams, 2012) makes English language arts (ELA) content accessible to students, no matter the learning environment (individual vs. community). At our urban charter high school, students are often times faced with the academic challenges connected to living in high poverty homes. Having more than one dispenser of information has proven to be an effective solution to the educational barriers that occur as a result of a student having poor attendance that may eventually lead to academic failures. Skills students acquire from having consistent and transparent access to ELA content often leads to an increased amount of academic successes, directly through the practice and use of Google Applications for Education, and more specifically, Google Classroom. Supporting ELA content area learning through the features of Google Classroom allows students to become an important member of virtual learning communities that can be academically supportive and, likewise, can provide opportunities for students to master related College and Career Readiness Standards specific to ELA.

Higher well-being correlates positively with multiple psychological and social outcomes, including workplace success and better academic outcomes for students. Poetry and meditation, independently, have been demonstrated in prior studies to increase well-being in a variety of contexts, including physical and mental health challenges. To our knowledge, this is the only published cross-cultural study that merged contemplative practices and poetry within the well-being paradigm, particularly among general, non-clinical adolescent populations. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the use of meditation and mantric poetry in a cross-cultural, educational context. The materials included <em>The Jewels of Happiness:</em><em> </em><em>Inspiration and Wisdom to Guide your Life-Journey</em> paperback and audiobook—a collection of poetry and prose to enhance positive emotions. A content analysis was conducted with post-secondary student essays and secondary students’ comments, subsequent to an experience of meditation and mantric poetry in their respective academic settings. Post-secondary students (n = 34) were enrolled in an English as a Second Language (ESL) course in Japan, and secondary students (n = 30) were enrolled in an English Language Arts (ELA) class in the United States. The most commonly occurring themes that emerged across the two cohorts were <em>inner peace, happiness, life-changing experience, </em>and<em> overcoming a challenge.</em>

This Campbell systematic review examines the impact of Teach For America (TFA) on learning outcomes. Four studies were included in the review.Studies had to be a quantitative evaluation of the effects of TFA on K–12 student academic outcomes. Studies also had to use a research design which: 1. allowed valid causal inferences about TFA's effects, 2. targeted participants K–12 students taught by TFA corps members or TFA alumni in the USA, 3. compared TFA corps members to novice teachers, or compared TFA alumni with veteran teachers, and 4. reported at least one academic student outcome in math, ELA, or science domains.A total of 919 citations were retrieved on TFA, of which 24 studies were eligible for review. However, when the research design and study quality along with types of TFA corps members and non‐TFA teachers compared were reviewed, the evidence base for estimating the effects of TFA on student academic outcomes was reduced to just four studies.There is no significant effect on reading from teaching by TFA corps members in their first or second year of teaching elementary‐grade students (PreK – grade 5) compared to non‐TFA teachers who are also in their first or second year of teaching elementary‐grade students. There is a small positive effect for early elementary‐grade students (PreK to grade 2) in reading but not in math.However, given the small evidence base, these findings should be treated with caution.Plain language summaryThere are too few well‐designed studies to know the effects of Teach For America on Math, English Language Arts, and Science outcomes of K–12 students in the USATeach For America (TFA) is an alternate route teacher preparation program that aims to address the decades‐long shortage of effective teachers in many rural and urban public schools for kindergarten through 12th grade (K–12), that serve the highest proportions of high‐poverty students across the USA. This review finds that there are very few studies – just four – which reliably measure the effects of TFA on learning outcomes, so that no firm conclusions may be drawn.What is this review about?This systematic review evaluated the impact of TFA prepared teachers (corps members) relative to novice teachers and alumni relative to veteran teachers on K‐12 student outcomes in math, English Language Arts (ELA), and science.What is the aim of this review?This Campbell systematic review examines the impact of Teach For America on learning outcomes. Four studies were included in the review.What are the main findings of this review?Studies had to be a quantitative evaluation of the effects of TFA on K‐12 student academic outcomes. Studies also had to use a research design which: 1. allowed valid causal inferences about TFA's effects, 2. targeted participants K–12 students taught by TFA corps members or TFA alumni in the USA, 3. compared TFA corps members to novice teachers, or compared TFA alumni with veteran teachers, and 4. reported at least one academic student outcome in math, ELA, or science domains.A total of 919 citations were retrieved on TFA, of which 24 studies were eligible for review. However, when the research design and study quality along with types of TFA corps members and non‐TFA teachers compared were reviewed, the evidence base for estimating the effects of TFA on student academic outcomes was reduced to just four studies.There is no significant effect on reading from teaching by TFA corps members in their first or second year of teaching elementary‐grade students (PreK – grade 5) compared to non‐TFA teachers who are also in their first or second year of teaching elementary‐grade students. There is a small positive effect for early elementary‐grade students (PreK to grade 2) in reading but not in math.However, given the small evidence base, these findings should be treated with caution.What do the findings of this review mean?TFA is the most evaluated program of its kind. Multiple quasi‐experimental and experimental studies have been conducted on its effectiveness in improving student outcomes. However, this systematic review found that only a small number of these studies (1) met the evidence review standards and (2) compared the same type of TFA corps members and non‐TFA teachers. So it is not possible to draw firm policy conclusions.Future research can contribute to this evidence base by designing, implementing, and reporting experiments and quasi‐experiments to meet objective extant evidence standards and by comparing the same types of TFA and non‐TFA teachers so that effect sizes can be included in a future systematic review and meta‐analysis.How up‐to‐date is this review?The review authors searched for studies published up to January 2015. This Campbell systematic review was published in June 2018.

Although research illustrates the benefits of biliteracy, most bilingual students will not have access to a bilingual education program in which they receive official instruction in all their languages. However, the English language arts can become a space where any teacher can support students’ biliteracy through purposeful curricular, instructional, and family engagement choices. This case study of two early childhood educators illustrates specific actions teachers took in their language arts instruction to support home language literacy development, along with English, even with languages they did not speak. Specifically, results illustrate that three key general ideas allowed them to support students’ biliteracy: gathering information about the students and their languages, incorporating the home languages into their classroom, and most notably, developing strong family partnerships for caregivers to play an active role in home language literacy instruction. In this article, we share their specific actions that other ELA educators can take and the response from two students from low-incidence languages: an Arabic-heritage speaker and a newcomer Russian speaker from Ukraine. This study illustrates humanizing, rather than standardizing, language arts instruction that disrupts monolingual norms in order to provide bilingual students (from emergent bilinguals to heritage speakers) a more equitable education.