California High School Research Articles

Promising Practice of Technology Integration in Math and Science Instruction: A Case of California Charter High School

This study was conducted to examine the promising practice of using technology in teaching math and science in a charter high school in California. The research employed an in-depth qualitative case study method. The main participants were principals, lead teachers, teachers, and support staff. Interviews, observations, and archival documents were the main data collection tools. The study found that the practice of using technology in teaching by the school, Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART), has lead to positive educational outcomes. These include increased student achievement in standardized test scores, increased motivation, growth in mean GPA, less behavior problems from students, and improved school attendance by students. Implications for policy and practice were discussed.

Participation in the Decision to Become Vaccinated Against Human Papillomavirus by California High School Girls and the Predictors of Vaccine Status

Background State and national policymakers are actively debating the merits of legally mandating the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Methods This was a cross-sectional pilot study designed to identify factors associated with HPV vaccination in 170 high school girls and the decision making by girls about vaccination. Results Overall, 48.4% participated in the vaccination decision making and 37.8% were vaccinated, but there were significant vaccine-related knowledge gaps. Girls often lacked basic knowledge necessary to make vaccine decisions. Vaccination was significantly associated with older age, vaccine information sources, and higher vaccine-related knowledge, but not with estimates of risk of HPV-related diseases, religion, or frequency of health care visits. Conclusions This paper describes the first study to have identified factors associated with HPV vaccination among California high school girls and to have documented that a high percentage are participating in the vaccination decision making. These findings have implications for adolescent health education and nursing practice and provide new information relevant to the current public policy debates about mandatory vaccination.

To What Extent Have High Schools in California Been Able to Implement State-Mandated Nutrition Standards?

To determine extent and factors associated with implementation of California's school nutrition standards 1 year after standards became active. Information on competitive foods and beverages available in schools was collected from a representative sample of 56 public high schools in California. Adherence to nutrition standards was calculated for each item and summarized for each school by venue. The association between schools' sociodemographic characteristics and adherence to standards was determined by multivariate analysis. The majority of schools were adhering to the required beverage standards. None of the schools selling competitive foods were 100% adherent to the food standards. Adherence to both standards tended to be highest in food service venues. In univariate analyses, percent nonwhite enrollment, population density, percent free/reduced-price (FRP) meal eligibility, and school size were significantly correlated with the beverage adherence rate. Percent nonwhite enrollment and population density remained significant in the multivariate regression model. Percent nonwhite enrollment and percent FRP meal eligibility were significantly correlated with the food adherence rate in univariate analysis, but neither remained significant in the multiple regression model. California high schools are making progress toward implementation of the state nutrition standards. Beverage standards appear easier to achieve than nutrient-based food standards. Additional support is needed to provide schools with resources to implement and monitor these policies. Simpler standards and/or a reduction in the foods and beverages sold could better enable schools to achieve and monitor adherence.

Bridges to Success in High School for Migrant Youth

Background/Context Among the children of immigrants, one of the populations placed at greatest risk of not finishing high school are the children of migrant farmworkers. Although it is difficult to track graduation rates for migrant students because of their mobility, the U.S. Department of Education estimates that only half of all migrant children finish high school. These children face many of the same obstacles as children of immigrants whose families must cope with severe economic hardships, but they also must deal with additional challenges associated with their families’ migratory lifestyles and living situations. Purpose This article offers some background on the barriers that migrant youth face in school; describes the services provided to these young people by the federally funded Migrant Education Program, focusing on the authors’ research on the role of migrant education resource teachers; and discusses the implications of study findings and related research for improving educational opportunities for low-income children of immigrants. Research Design Findings are drawn from 4 years of ethnographic research in one Northern California high school, where 80% of the Mexican-descent migrant students in the Class of 2002 completed 12th grade, and from a set of comparative interviews carried out with migrant education resource teachers in four additional high schools. The analysis centers on the nature of the relationships that develop between migrant students and migrant teachers, including the teachers’ multiple roles as mentors, counselors, advocates, and role models, and on the kinds of support provided to students that help them navigate successfully through high school. Conclusions/Recommendations Study findings suggest that the migrant students’ school persistence and academic success were due at least in part to the supplemental services they received from the Migrant Education Program and, in particular, to the support provided to them by the migrant resource teachers. A key to the teachers’ effectiveness was the holistic nature of their relationships with students and their ability to connect students with the resources and networks needed for school success. In addition, the migrant teachers’ own identities as academically successful Mexican Americans, many of them the children of migrant farmworkers, increased their ability to serve as role models and to help students build bridges between their multiple worlds. Findings support many of those reported in the literature on successful college outreach programs. Unlike these programs, the Migrant Education Program is not selective; it serves all eligible students. Sometimes you're a teacher, sometimes you're a counselor, sometimes you're a social worker, sometimes you're a health consultant. It's so rewarding and the beauty of this job. — Migrant education resource teacher They are like the symbol that you can do it, too. When I see them, I think: “They did it. Why can't I do it?” — Migrant student

When Is a Student an English Learner? An Ethnographic Account of When Students and Educators Invoke the Institutional Identity “English Language Learner”

This article complicates the articulation of the achievement gap between native English speakers and English learners (ELs) as a problem rooted in English language proficiency. I challenge the institutional and popular imagination that 5.1 million ELs in the United States are “limited in English proficiency” and whose performance in school can be attributed to limited English proficiency. This argument is drawn from eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in a northern California High School where students identified as ELs were not a homogeneous-ability group with similar language needs. Yet there were occasions when educators echoed the concerns of education reformers and policy analysts by glossing the diversity of their EL population. In “explain failure events” the limited English proficiency of ELs was invoked to explain the academic failure of students and the school’s status as an underperforming school. I argue that the continued invocation and gloss of the diversity of ELs participates in the perpetuation of an ideology that ELs are a homogenous student population with similar educational needs. At best, the explanations offered by educators are partial descriptions of the situation of academic failure. I offer alternative explanations of academic failure by exploring the policy and cultural-ideological context of schooling.

A Strengths-Based Approach to Promoting Prosocial Behavior among African American and Latino Students

This article presents an overview of a strengths-based school discipline initiative that was developed in response to the high suspension and expulsion rates of African American and Latino male students at a racially diverse, urban high school in California. A school task force made up of adult and youth stakeholders devised a series of interventions that included student-led efforts to improve discipline policies and procedures. The initiative builds on the Strengths-Based School Counseling framework explicated by Galassi and Akos (2007), which stimulates and promotes personal accountability, leadership, resiliency, self-management, and social competence in students as opposed to merely reducing student deficits.

A Strengths-Based Approach to Promoting Prosocial Behavior Among African American and Latino Students

This article presents an overview of a strengths-based school discipline initiative that was developed in response to the high suspension and expulsion rates of African American and Latino male students at a racially diverse, urban high school in California. A school task force made up of adult and youth stakeholders devised a series of interventions that included student-led efforts to improve discipline policies and procedures. The initiative builds on the Strengths- Based School Counseling framework explicated by Galassi and Akos (2007), which stimulates and promotes personal accountability, leadership, resiliency, self-management, and social competence in students as opposed to merely reducing student deficits.

Unlicensed driving among California high school seniors

The driving behaviors and characteristics of unlicensed teenage drivers have been little explored. For this study of behaviors of unlicensed California teen drivers, 2,144 high school seniors at 13 school sites in California completed a written survey. Unlicensed driving was ascertained by combining survey questions about licensing and driving. Data were analyzed to examine characteristics of unlicensed drivers compared with licensed drivers, and to examine risk behaviors among the unlicensed drivers. A total of 12.4 percent (n = 265) of students reported driving a motor vehicle without a driver’s license or permit, while two-thirds of surveyed students had either a license or a permit, and the remainder did not drive. Unlicensed drivers were primarily male (56 percent) and Latino (67 percent); unlicensed drivers were more likely than others to attend a school with a lower-income population. Licensed and unlicensed drivers reported similar rates of driving after alcohol or other drug use. Licensed drivers were more likely than unlicensed drivers to report having been in a crash, but this difference was no longer significant after adjustment for risk behaviors. Unlicensed driving was fairly common in this sample, but did not appear to represent an excess risk relative to licensed drivers.

Assessment and Academic Identity: Using Embedded Assessment as an Instrument for Academic Socialization in Science Education

Overview This research explores using a teaching approach that attempts to balance test preparation with creating “teachable moments” for students. This approach involves the use of a sequence of assessments to introduce topics through formative assessment in order to identify students’ understanding, and beginning instruction based on an evaluation of students’ knowledge and alternative conceptions. In an attempt to balance classroom instruction and large-scale test preparation, this science teacher attempted to use a teachable moment assessment approach as a teaching tool. Setting The study was conducted at a Northern California high school whose student population (N = 350) was 55% African American, 40% Hispanic, 2% Pacific Islander, 1% Asian, 1% Filipino and White, and 1% nonreporting. The ethnographic study was conducted with 1 teacher working with a classroom of 25 students in their first high school biology class. Method Over the course of 6 weeks of instruction, we documented the teacher's use of teachable moment assessments to promote students’ use of discourse in relation to the teacher's use of this approach to teaching. We videotaped each session over the course of 6 weeks and collected their classroom journals in an effort to conduct post hoc domain analysis of students’ discourse practices. Findings The findings suggest that using assessments as a pedagogical tool provided the teacher with an opportunity to isolate students’ learning in three areas: (1) students’ conceptual understanding, (2) their analysis skills, and (3) their use of science discourse. These results were consistent with the theoretical intent of developing students’ identity across conceptual, analytical, and discursive lines. These findings are indicative of the fact that sound classroom instruction and preparation for testing are not mutually exclusive. Future research must explore ways to promote synergistic relationships between teachable moment instruction and test preparation.

Unraveling the Myths of Accountability: A Case Study of the California High School Exit Exam

Believing that accountability could be a vehicle for change, the California Department of Education (CDE) requires all high school students to pass the Calfornia High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) in order to graduate. In doing so, California joins many others states in mandating a high school exit exam as a current or future requirement for graduation. In this essay, the authors will argue that this testing approach to school change is based on myths about the role of assessment, the information testing can provide and the impact high stakes testing has on urban schools. Although California is the focus of this analysis, these issues are salient across the county. Testing as a solution to poor student achievement is based on faulty assumptions. It is these assumptions this piece seeks to address.

Recent Trends in Preparing Ethnic Minorities for Careers in Mathematics and Science

This study compares trends in participation and performance on mathematics and science Advanced Placement exams for student ethnic subgroups in California high schools over a 6-year period. Results indicate that although growth in participation and performance is evident for all subgroups, the rates of increase differ across groups. As minority participation improves more slowly than the participation of other ethnic subgroups, there will be a continued lack of minorities in mathematics and science careers.

Changing of the Guard: How Different School Leaders Change Organizational Routines

While providing stability and uniformity, organizational routines can foster continuous change. Using Feldman's (2000) performative model of routinized action theory, coupled with leadership succession research, we examined how three successive administrations in a California high school revised a student attendance (tardy-monitoring) routine over 7 years. Although the changes made by the different leaders did not translate into large shifts in action and behaviors, each administration altered the way that tardies were monitored, thus demonstrating routines’ continuous and dynamic nature. Administrators also shifted resources to accommodate changes. Given our findings, we draw implications to help new leaders better understand change in daily school routines.

Saccadic tracking skills of poor readers in high school

Background Oculomotor control has been implicated as a factor when reading is poor, but few studies exist for adolescents. Methods The saccadic eye movement efficiency of 684 ninth grade students, identified as poor readers in 5 California high schools, was quantified using the Developmental Eye Movement test. Frequency distributions were produced from scores on vertical and horizontal components, and gender and test-retest factors were considered during analysis. Results Vertical times were within 1 standard deviation of normal for eighth grade. However, horizontal (saccadic) times were typical of grade 3, and the average number of errors on the horizontal test was typical of grade 2. Boys and girls performed similarly. Results of retests showed slightly improved horizontal times and fewer errors, but the grade level equivalents remained dramatically low. Overall, fewer than 10% of students scored above the 50th percentile for eighth grade. Conclusion The results indicate that poor readers in high school may be at high risk for poor saccadic tracking skill.

Creating Mathematical Futures through an Equitable Teaching Approach: The Case of Railside School

Background/Context School tracking practices have been documented repeatedly as having negative effects on students’ identity development and attainment, particularly for those students placed in lower tracks. Despite this documentation, tracking persists as a normative practice in American high schools, perhaps in part because we have few models of how departments and teachers can successfully organize instruction in heterogeneous, high school mathematics classes. This paper offers one such model through a qualitative and quantitative analysis. Focus of Study In an effort to better the field's understanding of equitable and successful teaching, we conducted a longitudinal study of three high schools. At one school, Railside, students demonstrated greater gains in achievement than students at the other two schools and higher overall achievement on a number of measures. Furthermore, achievement gaps among various ethnic groups at Railside that were present on incoming assessments disappeared in nearly all cases by the end of the second year. This paper provides an analysis of Railside's success and identifies factors that contributed to this success. Participants Participants included approximately 700 students as they progressed through three California high schools. Railside was an urban high school with an ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse student body. Greendale was situated in a coastal community with a more homogeneous, primarily White student body. Hilltop was a rural high school with primarily White and Latino/a students. Research Design This longitudinal, multiple case study employed mixed methods. Three schools were chosen to offer a range of curricular programs and varied student populations. Student achievement and attitudinal data were evaluated using statistical techniques, whereas teacher and student practices were documented using qualitative analytic techniques such as coding. Findings/Results One of the findings of the study was the success of Railside school, where the mathematics department taught heterogeneous classes using a reform-oriented approach. Compared with the other two schools in the study, Railside students learned more, enjoyed mathematics more and progressed to higher mathematics levels. This paper presents large-scale evidence of these important achievements and provides detailed analyses of the ways that the Railside teachers brought them about, with a focus on the teaching and learning interactions within the classrooms.

Blood circulation laboratory investigations with video are less investigative than instructional blood circulation laboratories with live organisms

Live organisms versus digital video of the organisms were used to challenge students' naive ideas and misconceptions about blood, the heart, and circulatory patterns. Three faculty members taught 259 grade 10 biology students in a California high school with students from diverse ethnolinguistic groups who were divided into 5 classes using microscopes (128 students) and 5 classes using digital video (131 students) to compare blood transport among invertebrates, fish, and humans. The "What Is Happening in this Class?" (WIHIC) questionnaire was used for assessment of microscope and video groups to detect students' perception of their learning environment following these teaching interventions. The use of microscopes had a clear effect on the perception of the investigative aspects of the learning environment that was not detected with the video treatment. Findings suggest that video should not replace investigations with live organisms.

Passenger distractions among adolescent drivers

Problem Adolescents who drive with peers are known to have a higher risk of crashes. While passengers may distract drivers, little is known about the circumstances of these distractions among teen drivers. Method This study used survey data on driving among 2,144 California high school seniors to examine distractions caused by passengers. Results Overall, 38.4% of youths who drove reported having been distracted by a passenger. Distractions were more commonly reported among girls and students attending moderate- to high-income schools. Talking or yelling was the most commonly reported type of distraction. About 7.5% of distractions reported were deliberate, such as hitting or tickling the driver or attempting to use the vehicle's controls. Driving after alcohol use and having had a crash as a driver were both significant predictors of reporting passenger-related distraction. Conclusion Adolescents often experience distractions related to passengers, and in some cases these distractions are intentional. Impact on industry These results provide information about teenage drivers who are distracted by passenger behaviors. In some cases, passengers attempted to use vehicle controls; however, it seems unlikely that this behavior is common enough to warrant redesign of controls to make them less accessible to passengers.

When Remedial Means What It Says: How Teachers Use Data to Reform Instructional Interventions

As technology becomes increasingly integrated into K-12 education, the use of data is growing in volume and complexity, resulting in a paradox of information overload for educators. While administrators and teachers have access to more data than ever before, they are only just beginning to understand the impact of data on program improvement. In a case study of one high-performing California high school, teacher leaders analyzed multiple sources of data related to the school's program placement practices, specifically those related to a reading intervention program. Results indicate that low performing students can benefit from specific instruction tailored to their needs in courses that are not classified as "college preparatory." This study poses implications for administrators and instructional leaders who use data to inform their placement practices, ability grouping, and instructional interventions.

Relationships Among Measures as Empirical Evidence of Validity: Incorporating Multiple Indicators of Achievement and School Context

In this article we examine empirical evidence on the criterion, predictive, transfer, and fairness aspects of validity of a large-scale language arts performance assessment, referred to as the Performance Assignment (PA). We use multilevel models to avoid biased inferences that might result from the naturally nested data. Specifically, we examine the relationships of the assessment with the Stanford Achievement Test, 9th Edition and the California High School Exit Examination. The results indicate that the measures are related, that students demonstrate a degree of transfer, and that the language arts PA is relatively more fair than comparison assessments. The results are robust to various model specifications and demonstrate that benefits do not accrue to all students equally.

Visual skills of poor readers in high school

Background Prior findings suggest that poor readers tend to have poor visual skills, but few reports give full frequency distributions of skill variables, and little data are available for adolescents. Methods Visual skills and visual acuity were measured in 461 students (average age 15.4 years) in 4 California high schools within the same school district. Participating students had been identified by their schools as poor readers. Standard optometric tests and published criteria for “adequate” or “weak” visual skills were used. Results In this sample, 80% of the students were found to be inadequate or weak in 1 or more of the following visual skills: binocular fusion ranges at near, accommodative facility, and convergence near point. More students were deficient in binocular fusion range than in either accommodative function or near point of convergence. In contrast, only 17% had deficient visual acuity—20/40 or worse in 1 eye—the standard model of deficiency for school vision screenings. Conclusion The results support and extend previous studies showing that large numbers of poor readers in high school may be at high risk for visual skills dysfunction.

Do Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youth Need Antitobacco Education?

Little research has focused on tobacco use among deaf and hard of hearing youth. Findings are reported from a first-ever tobacco-related survey, completed by 226 California middle and high school students using either a written questionnaire or the Interactive Video Questionnaire, an interactive multimedia computer video technology. Rates for current smoking (3.1%), ever smoking (45.1%), and multiple types of tobacco use (10.6%) were found to be lower than among high school students generally; mainstreamed students were likelier to have ever tried smoking than their deaf school peers (57.8% vs. 31.8%). No statistically significant associations were found between ever smoking and race/ethnicity, gender, school performance, or prelingual vs. postlingual deafening; a quarter of the sample experienced occasional peer pressure to use tobacco products. Tobacco use covariates, exposure to cigarette marketing and antismoking programming, and tobacco education needs of deaf and hard of hearing youth are discussed.