At-risk Middle School Students Research Articles

P77 Integrating Technology with Direct Nutrition Education to Engage and Improve Retention Rates and Outcomes in Older Youth

Objective To understand the best ways to engage older youth in improving their nutrition and physical activity outcomes and increasing overall retention in nutrition education programs. Use of Theory or Research Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned Behavior. Target Audience Middle and high school youth. Program Description The hands-on Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) series is effective for engaging elementary-aged youth. However, this approach is not as effective when working with at-risk middle and high school students. To determine the best strategy for engaging older youth, Maryland EFNEP integrated innovative techniques into their youth lessons. Lessons were adapted from Drexel University's “APPetite for Health” by integrating medium-level technology, as well as cooking and physical activities. The digital resources included YouTube videos, computer-based activities, online surveys and polls, guided Google searches, and digital games. To determine which strategy the youth preferred the most, three lessons with medium-level technology and two lessons without technology (posters and food models only) were implemented. Evaluation Methods The youth completed a pre/post Qualtrics survey to assess if they preferred lessons integrated with technology or without technology and to determine if the technology positively affected their dietary behaviors. EFNEP's youth pre/post surveys were also administered to assess the students’ changes in nutrition and physical activity practices. Results The data showed that the middle and high school students enjoyed the medium-level technology the most (41%), especially the YouTube videos (38%). The physical activities and cooking activities remained popular with these students. Behavioral outcomes showed an improvement in: breakfast consumption on most days of the week (10% increase) and fruit and vegetable consumption, especially as a snack (20% increase). Youth also improved their diet quality (96%) and physical activity practices (65%). Conclusions A blended approach, using technology and hands-on activities, was the best strategy to engage older youth in nutrition programming. They enjoyed YouTube videos the most to learn about nutrition-related messages. Funding USDA EFNEP.

Measuring Teachers’ Perceptions of Student Behavior Using the Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders in Middle School Students

Universal screening serves to identify students at risk for emotional and behavioral difficulties while their behavior is still amenable to treatment. However, there are few universal screeners available for middle school students who may be at heightened risk for developing emotional and behavioral difficulties due to major academic and social challenges. The Systematic Screening for Behavior Disorders (SSBD), often considered the gold standard for behavior screeners, was recently validated for use in middle schools. However, there is little research on the reliability and validity of the SSBD for screening middle school students and the differences among teachers of different academic subjects. The purpose of this study was to extend the previous research validating the SSBD assessing its technical adequacy and sensitivity in middle school students among teachers of different academic subjects. Results indicated that the SSBD provided reliable and valid evidence for identifying at-risk middle school students. This study provided evidence that the SSBD identified internalizing and externalizing students with a similar degree of accuracy.

Interdisciplinary Summer Institute Offering STEAM Activities for At-Risk Middle School Students

Interdisciplinary Summer Institute Offering STEAM Activities for At-Risk Middle School Students

Effects of the Self-Regulation Empowerment Program (SREP) on middle school students' strategic skills, self-efficacy, and mathematics achievement

The current study examined the effectiveness of an applied self-regulated learning intervention (Self-Regulation Empowerment Program (SREP)) relative to an existing, school-based remedial mathematics intervention for improving the motivation, strategic skills, and mathematics achievement of academically at-risk middle school students. Although significant group differences in student self-regulated learning (SRL) were not observed when using self-report questionnaires, medium to large and statistically significant group differences were observed across several contextualized, situation-specific measures of strategic and regulatory thinking. The SREP group also exhibited a statistically significant and more positive trend in achievement scores over two years in middle school relative to the comparison condition. Finally, SREP students and coaches reported SREP to be a socially-valid intervention, in terms of acceptability and importance. The importance of this study and critical areas for future research are highlighted and discussed.

Mentoring at-risk middle school students to reduce communication apprehension

Research has demonstrated the efficacy of mentoring at-risk students in a number of fields from physical education to math and science. While separate research has found that many at-risk students lack effective communication skills, little research has explored the potential of communication mentoring in improving at-risk students’ communication efficacy. In our study, we examined the effectiveness of communication majors in a senior capstone course mentoring at-risk middle school students. Mentors were assigned a protégé and were required to design a curriculum targeting specific communication apprehension concerns identified in each student and implement the curriculum over a 10-week period. Analysis of self-reported communication apprehension scores showed at-risk students prior to mentoring reported higher than average levels of communication apprehension. After mentoring, they reported statistically significantly lower levels of communication apprehension. The implications for mentoring, at-risk students, and improved middle school communication education are considered.

Alternative school student perceptions about forgiveness

ABSTRACTThe investigative setting for this study was an alternative educational program that serves at-risk middle and secondary school students. The study evaluated students' conceptual understandings of forgiveness, their exercise of forgiveness in the face of perceived school-related transgressions, as well as the relationship between the two variables and student mental health and well-being. Overall, the students' cognitive grasp of forgiveness was found to be less sophisticated than was demonstrated by a similar sample of adults, indicating that the students, as a group of externalizing youth, struggled to use forgiveness to resolve relational conflicts. Specific factors that may foster forgiveness in habitually aggressive youth are presented along with recommendations for interventions.

The Use of Structural Behavioral Assessment to Develop Interventions for Secondary Students Exhibiting Challenging Behaviors

Structural behavioral assessment (SBA) involves a series of heuristic approaches similar to those used with functional behavioral assessment (FBA). It involves assessing contextual variables that precede the occurrence of a behavior. These variables have also been termed antecedents, setting events, or establishing operations. Once these variables have been assessed, contextually based manipulations are developed and implemented, and interventions are developed from the results to reduce or prevent challenging behaviors from occurring. A major advantage of structural assessment is that teachers may find interventions based on the results easy to implement and relevant to the classroom. However, most of the research on SBA has been conducted with younger children with autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disabilities, and those with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD). Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to extend the research by training a general education teacher to use SBA to develop interventions for secondary students displaying challenging behaviors who are at risk in general education classrooms. An alternating treatments design was used with four at-risk middle school students. Results indicated that a brief SBA can easily be conducted in general education classrooms, and interventions developed from manipulations can not only decrease (a) verbal outbursts (e.g., talking out of turn, arguing, laughing at inappropriate times); (b) inappropriate contact with others (e.g., touching, pushing, hitting, kicking, braiding hair); (c) taking other’s belongings; (d) being out of the student’s assigned seat without permission; and (e) passing notes but also increase writing and eyes on materials or eyes on the teacher during a language arts class. Implications for practice and future research are described.

A Study on the Level of Behavioral and Emotional Problems of LD at-risk Middle School Students and the Influence of School Environment Variables

A Study on the Level of Behavioral and Emotional Problems of LD at-risk Middle School Students and the Influence of School Environment Variables

Addressing mental health stigma among young adolescents: evaluation of a youth-led approach.

Stigma around mental illness puts adolescents at risk for not seeking help for themselves or helping peers dealing with mental distress. This program evaluation looks at a youth-led mental health awareness promotion campaign, in which high school students led educational workshops for at-risk middle school students in an after-school program. Pre- and posttests were used to measure knowledge about mental illness as well as social distance; a total of 57 pre- and posttests were analyzed. Analyses revealed statistically significant changes in both the Knowledge and Social Distance scales. The results suggest that salutary results can be realized as a result of very brief intervention with youths around the topic of mental health awareness.

“All Stars” for at-risk middle school students in an afterschool setting: a pilot program

Introduction: The evidenced-based program, All Stars, usually conducted in the in-school setting and taught by classroom teachers; was implemented in an afterschool setting for at-risk middle school students by local university student volunteers. The classroom-based program was moved to the after-school setting in this study in order to target the most at-risk students, and university student volunteers served as instructors to decrease program costs.Methods: Middle school students enrolled in an afterschool program for the most academically and socially at-risk participated in an evidence-based substance abuse prevention program and study as a part of their overall afterschool curriculum. The Pre-Post Post All Stars Student Survey was used as the data collection instrument and included 45 demographic, behavior, and core mediator Likert-scale questions. A series of paired samples t-tests were used to assess pre-post differences in the following: Commitment to Avoid Risky Behaviors, Normative Beliefs, and Lifestyle Incongruence.Results: At the conclusion of the program, participants’ lifestyle incongruence about substance abuse improved significantly, their commitment to avoid risky behaviors improved, but their normative beliefs decreased.Discussion/conclusion: For those youth at high-risk, providing the program in the afterschool setting and using non-classroom teachers as instructors does seem to have potential for successful program delivery.

Expect Respect Support Groups

Expect Respect support groups, a selective prevention strategy, are designed to prevent and reduce dating violence among at-risk middle and high school students. This preliminary, uncontrolled evaluation examined changes in healthy relationship skills and emotionally and physically abusive behaviors in participants' peer and dating relationships. Self-reports (N = 144) showed significant increases in healthy relationship skills from baseline to program completion, whereas levels of victimization and perpetration remained unchanged. A subgroup of students who reported baseline levels of victimization and perpetration with means at least one standard deviation above the group mean reported significantly less victimization and perpetration at program completion.

Self-Monitoring Interventions for At-Risk Middle School Students: The Importance of considering Function

Self-monitoring is a popular, efficient, and effective intervention that is associated with improved academic and social behavior for students across age and ability levels. To date, this is the first study to directly compare the outcomes of self-monitoring functionally relevant and nonrelevant replacement behaviors. Specifically, we used an experimental single-subject reversal design, with counterbalanced condition order, to document the relationship between types of self-monitoring (functionally relevant vs. nonrelevant) and off-task behavior for 2 at-risk middle school students. Across both participants, levels of off-task behavior were lower when a functionally relevant intervention was implemented than when a functionally nonrelevant intervention was implemented. Implications and limitations are discussed.

From Information to Experience: Place-Based Augmented Reality Games as a Model for Learning in a Globally Networked Society

Background/Context New information technologies make information available just-in-time and on demand and are reshaping how we interact with information, but schools remain in a print-based culture, and a growing number of students are disaffiliating from traditional school. New methods of instruction are needed that are suited to the digital age. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of this study is to explore how curricula that are designed to capitalize on the affordances of mobile media might be employed in schools. Population/Participants/Subjects The study took place during a 2-week unit in a poor urban school district with roughly 50 at-risk middle school students. The partnering teacher adapted the model curriculum, which involved students investigating a rash of illnesses originating from a popular local beach. This qualitative case study, derived from field notes, videotapes, interviews, and document analyses, describes the practices that emerged and the strengths and limitations of the curriculum. From a classroom management perspective, the narrative elements of the unit enabled teachers to create a dramatically different classroom culture, one that was built around students performing as scientists. Students’ performance was heavily dependent on the kinds of inscriptions that they made to organize data, suggesting the importance of designers developing tools to scaffold learning, but also suggesting trade-offs in having students struggle to organize information versus doing it for them. Most noteworthy to teachers was how the technology-enhanced curriculum enacted students’ identities as problem solvers and knowledge builders rather than as compliant consumers of information, reinforcing for them the schism between what is expected of students in school and how they interact outside of school. Teachers and students lamented the lack of opportunities to actually participate in community issues beyond the classroom, suggesting that the future of such curricula may reside in building community-school-home partnerships.

Writing Marathons Help Build Middle School Students’ College Aspirations and Strengthen Their Literacy Skills

Young adolescents’ low scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) force the question of whether these students will be ready for college in four years. Our efforts to build a college-going culture emphasize strengthening students’ writing skills by using preservice teachers to lead writing marathons for at-risk middle school students on university visits. Structured interviews, surveys, and written reflections reveal that what students write about changes with age, their motivation to write varies, and their college aspirations and perceptions become more positive after completing several annual writing marathons on a college campus. The writing marathon structure makes the college visit truly meaningful to students, and it provides a compelling incentive to write by supporting characteristics of middle school students, as defined by the National Middle School Association (National Middle School Association [NMSA] 2003). The marathon model focuses on four key elements: setting, timing, small groups, and writers’ level of commitment.

Preservice Teachers Are Creating a College Culture for At-Risk Middle School Students

This mid-point report from a seven-year study about building a college culture investigates how a multifaceted approach including mentoring, technology, campus visits, parent involvement, and tutoring impacts at-risk middle school students’ college aspirations and eventual success gaining college acceptance. Based on NAEP report data, many young adolescents may not be adequately prepared for postsecondary education and workforce success. This longitudinal study follows a student cohort (n = 50) starting in their sixth grade year, uses a quasi-experimental design including three comparison groups, and collects data from surveys, interviews, written reflective statements, and student academic measures to evaluate efforts and outcomes of building a college culture. Midpoint findings suggest that experiencing college life through campus visits and vicariously through mentoring experiences with preservice teachers may be linked to improvements in at-risk middle school students’ perceptions of college. Digital story-writing projects and on-campus writing marathons helped these students gain insight on their academic and career futures. Different strategies have been implemented to increase parental participation in building a college culture. Because many of these students need higher grades, the project shifts emphasis during year three to academic tutoring by preservice teachers as the students enter eighth grade.

The Impact of 1:1 Laptop Use on Middle School Math and Science Standardized Test Scores

ABSTRACT Researchers and evaluators have been attempting to document the impact of ubiquitous or 1:1 computing on students, teachers, schools, and communities. However, the most recent reviews of research on 1:1 computing initiatives reflect a dearth of rigorous studies and emphasize the need for well-designed, scientifically based research to measure the impact of 1:1 learning on student achievement. This study investigates the effect of 1:1 laptop to student ratios on math and science achievement in at-risk middle school students. The researchers used a pretest-posttest control-group design. The findings are based on between-groups analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) of longitudinal data comparing standardized achievement test scores. The researchers compared the test scores of students randomly assigned to 1:1 laptop classrooms with the test scores of students in classrooms without 1:1 laptops in the same middle school. Students were exposed to the treatment for two years and the authors used the students as the unit of analysis. Pre-existing achievement scores for each student were included as a covariate to statistically equate groups previous to analysis. Results showed significant post-intervention program effects for science achievement. Furthermore, there was a gender effect in science achievement, with boys significantly outperforming girls in the same 1:1 laptop classroom. In contrast, no significant program effects for math achievement were obtained. The results suggest that 1:1 laptop instruction can increase student achievement under certain conditions. This study has implications for policymakers, instructional designers, and educators who are currently implementing a 1:1 laptop program or considering such an implementation. The authors suggest the need for further research to help determine the efficacy of 1:1 laptop instruction and the implementation conditions necessary for increased student achievement in this context.

Mango Street and Malnourished Readers: Politics and Realities in an “At-Risk” Middle School

This article presents results of a literature-response study conducted with at-risk middle school students of Latino, African American, and Caucasian backgrounds. The study was guided by an assumption of students' ability to read and coherently assimilate elements of The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros (1984). Although centered in research and theory related to literary reading and aesthetics, the power of the work is based in a political belief that students in “at-risk” schools need literacy experiences that ennoble their backgrounds and abilities. Methods through which students aesthetically engaged the novel are described, and suggestions for practitioners are offered.

Helping Behaviorally At-Risk Middle School Students With the No Bad Actions Program: Winning With the N.B.A.

Middle-school boys at risk for behavior problems participated in a program designed to teach positive skills and provide incentives for academic achievement and following school rules. The program was administered via an intramural basketball program, in which the program components were taught by a male teacher who served as the coach. Participation depended on maintaining appropriate levels of academic achievement and adhering to school rules. Students who failed to meet the criteria for continuing participation were suspended from the program and received tutoring and counseling instead, until they met the criteria for resuming participation. Compared to a control group of similar students, participants displayed a large reduction in disciplinary sanctions, and large to moderate gains in academic achievement in all subjects but 1. Both the participants and their teachers perceived significant improvement in the participants' behavior across a wide range of student characteristics.

Self-monitoring and at-risk middle school students. Academic performance improves, maintains, and generalizes.

Using a multiple baseline design across six academic settings, we found that teaching 4 at-risk middle school students to self-monitor markedly improved their academic performance as measured by their grades and related academic behaviors. Furthermore, these improvements generalized to settings where self-monitoring was never introduced, and they maintained the following school year. In this charter middle school setting, self-monitoring proved to be an extremely effective intervention. These findings suggest that it would be equally effective in a variety of settings.

Teacher behavior, student interest and affective learning: putting theory to practice

Students of Project Adapt (PA), an instructional program for at-risk middle school students in Brooklyn NY, have displayed startling improvement on cognitive outcome measures. Teacher given grades and standardized tests illuminate the progress students have made since entering the program. The current investigation attempts to analyze PA on students' affective responses in a pre/post-test experimental design. Upon entering PA, students completed measures of interest, affect, and their previous teachers' behavior (pre). These ratings were then compared to end of year ratings on the same instruments (post). Results indicate students' perceive PA teachers utilizing different behaviors than their previous teachers. Additionally, student affect and interest increased significantly. Results of this study have implications for both instructional researchers and educational practitioners.