With federal gender equity mandates in place, some may assume that schools are now havens were children are protected from discrimination based on failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity. Yet, research suggests that the school literacy curriculum serves as a site that privileges gender performances consistent with the binary gender order. This pattern has been observed such that school literacy practices reproduce the binary gender order through text, talk, and disciplining of the body. Informed by post structural feminist perspectives on discourse, power, and performativity, this qualitative case study employed feminist methodology to explore how power flowed through performances of gender within the context of one second grade literacy classroom. Data sources included participant observation field notes, informal student and teacher interviews, video and audio recordings, and the collection of literacy related objects/documents. Results of the analysis suggest that there were two distinct literacy spaces within the classroom: the teacher-controlled official literacy space and the student-governed unofficial literacy space. Within the official literacy space, particular teaching moves made at the intersection of gender and literacy could later be linked to particular students’ gender performances. In the unofficial literacy space of the classroom, some students’ gender performances diverged greatly from those they performed in the official literacy space thus making visible how power operates within embodied acts. Lastly, in looking across the two distinct literacy spaces of the classroom, it was revealed how the flow of power through performances of gender and thus, the discursive practices that hold existing gendered structures in place, were more visible in unofficial literacy spaces than in official literacy spaces. Therefore, results of the analysis suggest that looking to unofficial literacy spaces will provide invaluable guidance when reconceptualizing how official literacy spaces might better support gender equity within the early elementary literacy classroom.

No description available.

No description available.

This study investigated the effects of two computerized reading programs, Headsprout and Lexia, on the early reading skills of Kindergarten students. The Kindergarteners included typically developing students, as well as students at-risk for reading problems, behavior problems, and both reading and behavior problems. Risk status was determined through the use of the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (SSBD) and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). A treatment comparison design was used, whereby 42 students in one school received computerized supplemental reading instruction via the Headsprout program, while 44 students in another school served as the comparison group and used the computerized reading program, Lexia. Both schools used the computerized programs as supplements to the Scott Foresman reading curriculum. Data were collected on early literacy skill development using the DIBELS and the Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE). The social validity of the Headsprout program was assessed through a survey administered to the teachers. Overall, the group receiving the Headsprout intervention outperformed the group receiving the Lexia intervention on all dependent measures, and statistical significance was found for two of the outcome measures. Limitations of the study, implications for educators, and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

This study was designed to evaluate: (a) teachers' behavior when they are confronted with potential cases of child abuse and (b) the information teachers require to make accurate decisions regarding the reporting of suspected child abuse. Teachers were presented with three vignettes describing cases of varying levels of suspected maltreatment, and different amounts of additional information. They were then asked to indicate how likely they would be to report the case to Child Protective Services (CPS). It was expected that reporting behavior would increase as available information increased. The results generally did not support this hypothesis. No significant impact on reporting behavior was found when teachers were presented with either the symptom list or the legal interpretation; however, there was a trend toward an interaction with the level of abusive indications in the case. These results are discussed in the context of the need for further training.

Proficiency in mathematics is necessary for both in-class achievement and future career success. Researchers have pinpointed several variables which contribute to success in mathematics, including cognitive factors, such as mathematics fluency and strategy use, and social factors, including academic self-concept. These factors have also been linked to gender differences in mathematics performance, a topic that has garnered intense interest from both academic and non-academic audiences. The present study was designed to assess the relationship between social and cognitive variables and mathematics achievement before and after a computer-based mathematics intervention, and also to determine the most effective way to improve competence in mathematics in early elementary school children. Second grade students completed a battery of tasks designed to assess their actual mathematics competence and their perceptions of competence prior to the onset of an intensive intervention. Students were randomly assigned to one of four intervention conditions: three experimental mathematics conditions and one control reading condition. At the conclusion of the intervention, students completed alternate versions of the pre-test tasks. Gender differences were found on many pre-test variables and these differences were in line with common gender stereotypes. The intervention, however, did not have a significant impact on the existence of gender differences. Students in all three of the mathematics intervention conditions showed gains in certain tasks, though students in the combined fluency and strategy groups appear to have benefited the most from the intervention.

The focus of my dissertation deals with ways that early identification and preventative measures can reduce the high number of African American students who do not fare well in school. The goal of this study was to explore ways to enhance the cognitive and social development of low ability African American kindergartners. It was an attempt to investigate how certain strategies and practices can reduce the rate of failure in the upper primary grades. The proposed investigation involved five case study participants with four cross case study participants. The research design also involved the use of qualitative and quantitative paradigms in the form of participant observations, survey interviews and student assessments. An individualized curriculum was developed for each case subject during this investigation, that was designed to address their academic and social needs. Varied methods of instruction such as one to one instruction, heterogeneous grouping, whole language and integrated learning were used during this investigation. Parent involvement strategies were also developed during this investigation to facilitate information and to disseminate materials as part of a home based learning program (which supplements the subject's individualized curriculum). Parent surveys and regular home-school collaborations have occurred as part of this procedure.

Three computer-aided tutoring procedures were devised to teach multicolumn addition according to the standard school algorithm, one procedure to each of three groups of 2nd-grade children. The key differences between groups were the demands placed on short term memory and the amount of conceptual understanding the procedures attempted to teach. Each child solved a sequence of two-digit problems on a computer screen by touching each digit with a light pen in the correct sequence. The control group did not receive on-screen number-fact assistance. One treatment ("assisted") group did receive on-screen number-fact assistance, testing the hypothesis that the algorithm is learned more effectively when learned first as a sequence of procedural steps alone, without subjects' need to recall number-facts. A second treatment ("simulation") group received the same on-screen assistance along with an additional display of simulated blocks which, like concrete manipulative materials, represented symbol manipulations. The simulation group tested a second hypothesis that a concurrent display of the meaning of procedural steps contributes to even more effective algorithmic learning. T-tests (one-tailed, 5% level) applied pair-wise to pretest/posttest difference scores indicated support for the first hypothesis but not for the second, an indication that 2nd-grade children learn the addition algorithm more effectively if demand on short term memory is temporarily lifted. A descriptive framework called "superposition of frames" is proposed to account for anomalies in findings and for the rich diversity of errors generally manifested by children in multidigit addition. Drawing on current concepts in cognitive psychology and mathematics education, this description suggests that children's mathematical knowledge is fragmented into isolated, unstable, and sometimes entrenched frames of knowledge. When a child finds appropriate correspondences between frames and initiates a superposition of frames, the child's procedural and conceptual knowledge, previously in disarray, may then become integrated. Implications for elementary mathematics instruction are discussed.

Despite the fact that principals have faced exceptional challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, and play a critical role in school building and district success, particularly in times of crisis, their voices are not being heard and their needs are not being met by district-level leadership. While the literature on the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on education is growing, it still tends to focus on pedagogy or the challenges for students, teachers, parents, and even central/district administrators, as opposed to studies that explore the plight of school-based administrators through data elicited from the viewpoint of school principals directly. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to describe the lived experiences of grade K to 8 New York City public school principals leading during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, within-case and cross-case analysis of combined data from in-depth individual interviews and one focus group discussion with diverse New York City public school principals (n=5), resulted in the identification of five themes evident across all cases, with each theme representing predominant patterns within principals’ self-described lived experiences of leading during the pandemic – Response to District Policy and Governance, Community, Processing Own Trauma, Resonance of George Floyd, and Concepts of Leadership and Leadership Success. Furthermore, interpretation of these findings through the lens of the study’s conceptual framework illuminated the extent to which the experience of leading during the COVID-19 pandemic is grounded in established theories of crisis management, trauma, and culturally relevant leadership.

No description available.