High School Context Research Articles

Developing Maritime Thematic Expressions on English Reading Materials Used In Indonesia: Junior High School Context

Indonesia is a maritime country with the largest islands in the world covering more than seventeen thousands islands. This wealth should be wisely explored for all their advantages. Also, all parties should take responsibility to inherit values embedded in the wealth. This study is a Research and Development focusing at developing English worksheet materials in the theme of Maritime Thematic Expressions. Specifically, it aimed at identifying initial contents of the English worksheet, describing the development of worksheet materials and justifying contents of worksheet materials in facilitating the students’ needs in reading English materials. The flow of this R&D refers to Sugiono’s model that includes analyzing data, collecting data, designing materials, validating material, revising the material, piloting products, revising the material, piloting materials, revising the material and material development. The development of this material adjusted to the needs of syllabus and national strategic issues in maritime that were coined with students of Junior High School Terbuka Pekanbaru. The worsksheet development has been revised and validated by some experts of curriculum and linguistics. This material has also been piloted by the English teacher to determine of the students’ ability in comprehending the materials. Based on the results of this development, it can be concluded that the materials development were relevant with the standard competence and basic competence in syllabus of the students’ reading skill in Junior High School Terbuka Pekanbaru.

Making Sense of College Readiness in a Low-Performing Urban High School: Perspectives of High-Achieving First Generation Youth

Policy efforts to enhance postsecondary access and completion often emphasize the construct of college readiness (CR). While most research has focused on defining and measuring CR, less has examined the perspectives of first generation students and the urban high school contexts in which many prepare for college. This study utilizes data from an ethnography of college preparation in a low-performing urban high school. Drawing on sensemaking theory, I explore how high-achieving college-bound seniors make sense of CR and what factors shape their sensemaking. Findings offer insight into how CR discourses manifest at the local level to shape opportunity for urban youth.

TASK-BASED VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION AT A VIETNAMESE HIGH SCHOOL: STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS

Task-based vocabulary instruction has been increasingly popular in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) at tertiary institutions in Asia, includingVietnam. However, this type of instruction at high schools is mainly focused on traditional way and, this approach is widely held to prevent students from having opportunities to learn, communicate, and interact with other peers in English. This paper therefore reports on students’ perceptions of task-based vocabulary instruction within a high school context. Data through tests and questionnaire were administered to two groups of seventy tenth graders at a high school in a Mekong Delta region. The findings indicate that students in the experimental group outperformed those in the control group, suggesting that task-based vocabulary instruction was useful to tenth graders using the new textbook. The findings also reveal participants’ perceived need for the inclusion of task-based vocabulary in their learning process. Implications for language teaching and administration are also presented. Article visualizations:

Systematic Development of a Dutch School-Based Sexual Prejudice Reduction Program: an Intervention Mapping Approach

Experiences of sexual prejudice threaten the quality of life and psychological well-being of sexual minority youth. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of how we developed a theory- and evidence-based sexual prejudice reduction program suitable for the Dutch high school context, guided by the intervention mapping approach (IM). In line with IM, six steps were followed: an initial needs assessment in which empirical, theoretical, and new data were gathered to acquire a thorough understanding of the problem (step 1); the formulation of program objectives for both students and teachers (step 2); the selection of theory-based methods and applications (step 3); program development (step 4); the provision of an adoption and implementation plan (step 5); and the development of an evaluation plan (step 6). In conclusion, developing a sexual prejudice reduction program for schools is a challenging but feasible process. IM is an effective tool for the systematic (theory- and evidence-driven) development of such a program.

A Test in the High School Context of Berdahl's Status Theory of Sex-Based Harassment.

This study, carried out in the high school context, is the first direct test of Berdahl's status theory of sex-based harassment. The theory covers not just male harassment of females, but female harassment of males and same-sex harassment. Participants were 771 males and 679 females, from Years 8 to 10, in five co-educational lower socioeconomic status (SES) Australian city schools, participating in a wider study of peer victimization. They indicated on a 5-point scale (from never to almost every day) how frequently they had experienced each of six sex-based harassment behaviors over the previous year, from same-sex and from opposite-sex peers, and responded to a question about sense of safety at school. Nonparametric analyses supported five of seven hypotheses derived from the theory: boys harassed others most often, girls were harassed most often, boy-to-girl harassment was the most frequent, girls harassed girls more than they did boys, and girl-to-boy harassment was the least frequent. However, contrary to the theory, boys' same-sex harassment was no more frequent than that between girls, and girl-to-girl harassment was just as threatening to victims' sense of safety as boy-to-boy harassment. The study largely supports Berdahl's theory. The unexpected results can be understood in terms of the intimate nature of adolescent girls' groups in high schools and their centrality for identity formation. In this context, girls are highly motivated to defend their status in terms of stereotypically feminine standards regarding appearance, sexual activity, and access to high-status boys. The theory implies that structural changes to reduce the salience of sex differences and sex stereotyping will be crucial to efforts to address sex-based harassment.

Labor Market Returns for Graduates of Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Latinos have become the largest minority group in American postsecondary education, a majority of whom attend two- or four-year Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). However, little is known about labor market outcomes as result of attending these institutions. Using a unique student-level administrative database in Texas, and accounting for college selectivity, we examine whether attending an HSI influences labor market outcomes ten years after high school graduation for Latino students in Texas. We find no difference in the earnings of Hispanic graduates from HSIs and non-HSIs. This analysis represents one of the first to examine the labor market outcomes for Latino students in this sector of education accounting for critical factors that include a student’s high school and community context.

The Racial College Completion Gap: Evidence From Texas

ABSTRACTThis analysis focuses on the college completion gap between underrepresented minority students and White students, or the Hispanic -White and Black -White racial college completion gaps, given the unprecedented demographic growth of these populations in the United States as well as the nation's public K -12 schools and postsecondary institutions. Using a variance decomposition method, we find that precollege characteristics (a combination of individual and high school context factors) contribute upward of 61% of the total variance for both Hispanic and Black students as compared with their White student counterparts. That is, more than half of the completion gap is explained by precollege characteristics. Postsecondary factors explained approximately 35% of the total variance. Additional analyses accounting for attending Hispanic-Serving Institution or an Historically Black College or University are also provided. The data suggest that college completion and accountability analyses should be approached from beyond a postsecondary perspective.

Improving Admission of Low-SES Students at Selective Colleges

Low-socioeconomic status (SES) students are underrepresented at selective colleges, but the role that admissions offices play is poorly understood. Because admissions offices often have inconsistent information on high school contexts, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine whether providing detailed information on high school contexts increases the likelihood that admissions officers ( n = 311) would recommend admitting low-SES applicants. Admissions officers in the detailed-information condition were 13 to 14 percentage points (i.e., 26%–28%) more likely to recommend admitting a low-SES applicant from an underserved high school than those in the limited-information condition, although the limited-information condition provided significant details about family SES and high school context. These findings were consistent regardless of the selectivity of the college, admissions office practices, and participant demographics.

Spaces for learning: development and validation of the School Physical and Campus Environment Survey

The study of learning environments involves describing educational contexts and identifying empirical relationships among subject matter (curriculum), teaching practices and other environmental variables. In recent years, this has become a growing field of academic inquiry within elementary, secondary and post-secondary research. Investigations of this relationship between the environment and learning encompasses science education, environmental psychology, campus ecology and architecture, as well as inter- or multi-disciplinary fields of study such as environmental or place-based forms of education. Learning environment studies attempt to acknowledge and account for factors in both the physical and social realm, as well as describing how these socio-environmental conditions can influence the process and experience of learning. Our project at the Chilliwack Secondary School (CSS) aimed to further the study and investigation of student perceptions of both informal and formal learning environments within a high-school context. This study describes, refines and validates a new instrument for the measurement of perceptions of the physical environment at school. It also describes other qualitative methods that corroborate the selection of physical factors included in the survey. Together, these data provide rich descriptions of the factors in the learning environment at the CSS and describe the interaction of these factors in supporting learning.

Principals’ perceptions of public schools’ professional development changes during NCLB

This study investigated public school principals’ reports of professional development implementation at the school level while working in different state- and local-level contexts (state accountability level, geographic locations, socioeconomic status, demographics, and grade levels). I attempted to measure principals’ reported changes in levels of teacher involvement and alignment of professional development with standards, student learning outcomes, school goals, resources, and district goals during No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Using two-level, Hierarchical Generalized Linear Proportional Odds modeling (HGLM-PO), and three pooled waves of a national sample from the Schools and Staffing Survey (National Center for Education Statistics, 2000, 2004, 2007), I implemented a quantitative, repeated cross-sectional, self-report, extant secondary survey analysis design. Principals reported a decrease in teachers’ planning and presentation of professional development during NCLB implementation across all settings, indicating a potential reduction in teachers’ participation in the professional development process. Principals who worked in urban, elementary, low-SES, and high minority school contexts were more likely to report teachers’ participation in the planning and presentation of professional development, but were also more likely to report an increase in the direction and alignment of professional development with school and district goals, standards, student achievement outcomes, and resources. There is evidence that a school community’s location, socioeconomic status, and school demographics plays a role in how schools may interpret accountability environments and implement teachers’ professional development. In all settings, school leaders need to purposefully focus on and retain collaborative professional development practices with teachers in the context of continued accountability pressures.

Embracing the unknown in community arts zone visual arts

ABSTRACTTelling stories through photographs is certainly not a new or novel concept; however, thinking about image-making as a way of unknowing what we currently know is quite different from traditional approaches to photography. Built on an existing conceptual framework, writings on unknowing, we apply unknowing as a guiding method and heuristic to understand what a group of young people are trying to say and reimagine through the act of image-making. Research reported in this article from the Community Arts Zone visual arts project features a series of photograph projects across high school contexts where students created a Cindy Sherman-style conceptual photograph with an artist statement. The researchers engaged in a process of unknowing to interpret the photographs where they read through the visuals and engaged with modes in play and with observational fieldnotes about participants to draw out implications for such work for literacy teaching and learning.

Predictive Validity of a Student Self-Report Screener of Behavioral and Emotional Risk in an Urban High School

.Increasingly, schools are implementing school-based screening for risk of behavioral and emotional problems; hence, foundational evidence supporting the predictive validity of screening instruments is important to assess. This study examined the predictive validity of the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2 Behavioral and Emotional Screening System Student Form (BESS Student) in the authentic context of an urban high school that conducted universal screening over 3 years. Multivariate regression, sensitivity, specificity, and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were used to examine the BESS Student scores' prediction of internalizing symptoms. BESS Student scores were able to explain a significant proportion of the variance in internalizing symptoms concurrently, but predictive validity estimates decreased over time. Significant gender differences were present; BESS Student scores were better able to predict internalizing symptoms for females. Implications for research and practice involving screening for behavioral and emotional problems are discussed.

Lessons in Transgression: #BlackGirlsMatter and the Feminist Classroom

Abstract This coauthored article examines the ways in which teaching Black feminism in both high school and undergraduate contexts can inspire Black feminist activism in young Black women and girls. Using the work of bell hooks as a foundation for designing and implementing feminist pedagogies and practices, the authors trace the trajectory of two young women of color in their classrooms who, as a result of reading hooks, employ a range of literacies—including blogging, public speaking, and campus activism—to participate in movement building within intersectional feminism in general, and #BlackLivesMatter and #SayHerName in particular. The article ultimately demonstrates the importance of women of color feminisms both in and outside of the classroom, as content and as practice, to promote critical self awareness and burgeoning political consciousness. The transformative impact of intersectional feminist pedagogies on girls and women of color, with an emphasis on Black feminism, is at the heart of this essay—as are practical approaches to the work of bell hooks’s texts for contemporary students.

Development and Validation of the Learning Progression-Based Assessment of Modern Genetics in a High School Context

We describe the development, validation, and use of the Learning Progression-Based Assessment of Modern Genetics (LPA-MG) in a high school biology context. Items were constructed based on a current learning progression framework for genetics (Shea & Duncan, 2013; Todd & Kenyon, 2015). The 34-item instrument, which was tied to 12 constructs within the genetics learning progression, was administered to 65 high school students at three time points (pre, middle, and post) across a 23-week period of instruction. The LPA-MG, its 12 constructs, and 34 items demonstrated high reliability and construct validity with respect to the Rasch model and indicated by satisfactory fit. Furthermore, it demonstrated utility in providing both quantitative and qualitative information about how students moved along each construct. Using a repeated measures ANOVA design, we found that students made gains across the 23 weeks that were both large and significant at the 95% confidence level. Students also moved along each construct in qualitatively meaningful ways during the 23 weeks of instruction.

Cultural capital and habitus in context: the importance of high school college-going culture

While an extensive body of research has examined the role of cultural capital in reproducing social class inequality in educational outcomes, the role of habitus and school context has received less attention in quantitative studies. We attend to this gap in the literature by considering the relationship between cultural capital, habitus, and the transition into higher education across high schools with low and high college-going cultures in the United States. Findings indicate that the relationship between cultural capital and transition into higher education is context specific and manifested only in schools with a high college-going culture. In addition, students from less advantaged family backgrounds benefit more from cultural capital than their more advantaged counterparts, but this is the case primarily in schools with a high college-going culture. Habitus, however, is related to the transition into higher education regardless of the high school context and benefits all students equally.

How convenient!? Adolescents’ vistas on food competences in a convenience context

Purpose Adolescents are at a stage in their life course in which they increasingly become choosers, buyers and preparers of food. Hence, they develop and employ required competences. Current food-related competences of adolescents are shaped in an environment with an abundance of convenience foods. Simultaneously food education has been limited in many western countries. The purpose of this paper is to scrutinize how young practitioners engage with the notion of convenience in a context with a strong presence of convenience foods. Design/methodology/approach Empirical data for this paper have been collected in a Dutch high school context following a participatory approach in focus group discussions. Data have been gathered from different food-related exercises within a classroom context. Findings The findings indicate that adolescents’ food competences and meanings are heavily shaped by the abundant presence of convenience foods. Adolescents perceive a nuanced picture of a skilful consumer that incorporates convenience foods in ways that minimize time efforts, preserves some preparatory tasks for fun cooking and has knowledge about health effects of fatty and salty foods. Originality/value The investigation takes a novel look on convenience food consumption from a practice perspective scrutinizing competences through the lens of adolescent practitioners. The authors make a plea for tapping into the potential of research on children and adolescents as novice performers of practices to understand how practices are shaped and changed and how practices recruit new practitioners.

MEASURING EFFECT OF CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT FOR COMPUTING EDUCATION IN AFRICAN CONTEXT

A relevant research area in computing education is to explore aspects that motivate and promote learning in culturally responsive learning environments. This research contributes towards understanding how indigenous knowledge can be used to create a meaningful learning environment for learning object-oriented programming. The aim of research is to explore the effect of a culturally responsive learning environment for computing education in Ghana high school context. This research comprised teaching interventions that emphasized cultural significance and stimulation of Oware game as metaphors and related analogies to teach object oriented programming. The results indicated that a culturally responsive environment had a positive effect on high school students’ conceptual understanding of object-oriented programming concepts and attitudinal change to computing education. Key words: computer attitude, computer achievement, object-oriented concepts, Oware game, indigenous knowledge, integrationist approach.

Classroom-based L2 vocabulary learning and comprehension: Replications of Lesaux, Kieffer, Faller & Kelley (2010)

The field of language teaching and learning is in dire need of replications of vocabulary and comprehension research with diverse populations of learners. We propose for replication one large-scale vocabulary intervention carried out successfully in a middle-school with monolingual and multilingual students. This study was carried out several years ago, was published in theReading Research Quarterly, and has been generously cited since then. The findings and the instruments from this study have been leveraged in subsequent extension studies by the same group of researchers, but have not been replicated in different contexts. We offer multiple reasons and methods of replicating this study in high school and adult contexts in which there is a serious need for learners to comprehend technical or academic materials using deep, nuanced foundations of vocabulary.

Implementation of SWPBIS in high school: Why is it different?

ABSTRACTSchoolwide Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (SWPBIS) is a framework for establishing a schoolwide positive social culture with a continuum of behavior supports and an effective learning environment for all students. This framework was initially implemented in elementary and middle schools and more recently in high schools. Coaches for high schools implementing SWPBIS often comment on how implementation looks different in high schools and takes longer. This article explores how the high school context (i.e., size of school and organizational culture, developmental age of students) impacts the foundational systems of the SWPBIS framework (i.e., leadership system, communication system, data system) and how coaches and others can take this into consideration when supporting high schools in implementation.

The Impact of Inclusive Education on Learners with Disabilities in High Schools of Harare, Zimbabwe

The problem of low inclusive education is essential to research as it highlights the importance of equal opportunity to all students regardless of mental or physical ability. The study was conducted within a Zimbabwean high school context. The purpose of the study was to conduct an empirical investigation into the impact of inclusive education and therefore establish the extent to which it has benefited students with disabilities in four high schools in the Harare province. Furthermore, study’s intention was to therefore propose a theoretical framework that could be used to address low success in inclusive education. The methodology was qualitative in nature and interviews were used to collect research data. Quota sampling was adopted in selection of suitable respondents. It was observed that a lack of financial and human resources, as well as effective policies had contributed to the low impact of inclusive education in high schools in Harare, Zimbabwe. In conclusion the results also revealed that inclusive education in high schools in Harare had not made much of an impact due to negative perceptions and attitudes of the people that are pivotal to its success.