Low Achievement Levels Research Articles

Stereotypes of achievement striving among early adolescents

We conducted two studies to examine the influence of achievement-related cultural stereotypes among early adolescents. In Study 1 male and female African–American junior high school students (N = 62) read hypothetical descriptions of students who displayed high or low levels of achievement striving and school engagement. Their task was to select one photograph that they believed matched each hypothetical description from a set of photos of unknown junior high school students of diverse ethnicities and both genders. We replicated our procedures in Study 2 with a more ethnically diverse sample of African–American, Latino, and Anglo junior high school students (N = 197). Results indicated that all adolescents most frequently selected photos of ethnic minority males for scenarios of academic disengagement, consistent with cultural stereotypes of these young men. Photos of females across all ethnicities were selected most frequently for scenarios of achievement strivings. Findings are discussed in terms of the need for greater support for minority males in school settings and the potential impact of school programs on the attitudes and behaviors of students.

Educational Implications of the Values Held by Australian Aboriginal Students

Fogarty and White (1994) found that Australian Aboriginal university students tend to be more collectively minded than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. Using the Values Survey developed by Schwartz (1992), the present study set out to replicate this finding and to determine whether observed value differences can help to explain the low achievement levels of Aboriginal students in a university setting. The differences noted by Fogarty and White (1994) were replicated in the present study where data gathered from a sample of Aboriginal students ( N = 202) over a six-year period indicated that they score more highly on the collectivist scales of Conformity, Tradition, and Security than a non-Aboriginal student cohort ( N = 194). Across the combined samples, however, scores on values were not strong predictors of academic success, with only Tradition ( r = −.28, p < .01) and Conformity ( r = −.28, p < .01) showing appreciable relations with a measure of academic performance. When Race was partialled out of these correlations, Achievement ( r = .16, p < .01) and Conformity ( r = −.15, p < .01) were the only variables to demonstrate any relationship with performance. These findings suggest that there are factors other than value systems that have a much greater impact on the problems experienced by Australian Aborigines in higher educational settings.

Head Start Children: School Mobility and Achievement in the Early Grades

The relationship of 2 school mobility indices (school changes and parental perceptions of mobility effects) to 2nd-grade academic achievement was examined. The sample comprised 90 children who had attended Head Start and had made the transition to public school. Data also were obtained from the children's mothers. School mobility was defined as the number of school transfers over 3 years (kindergarten to Grade 2). Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that frequent school changes in the primary grades were related to lower achievement levels even after controlling for the child's sex and the effects of achievement prior to the school moves.

Snares and silver bullets: disentangling the construct of formative assessment

This article explores the nature of formative assessment in a primary (elementary) language learning context. The research is situated in nine inner-city schools where an Early Years Intervention Project is being implemented to address problems of low levels of achievement in English, with specific reference to the language support of learners for whom English is an Additional Language.1 School-based assessment data are presented and analysed in relation to the construct of formative assessment. It is argued that the distinctions between formative and summative assessment are not as straightforward as sometimes portrayed and that the interplay between reliability and validity for purposes of class-based assessment is highly complex.

‘Invest in your children's education the way you invest in your goats’: systemic educational intervention in a traditional bedouin community – from theory into practice

Effective plans for educational change in a heterogeneous and culturally diverse society are still debatable. This study describes the author's experience, success and pitfalls, in applying a systemic and holistic intervention plan to the education system of a large Bedouin village in northern Israel. The village was included in the Ministry of Education project because of its pupils' low achievement level and high dropout rate. The villagers differed from the intervention group–in ethnic origin, culture, religion (Moslems) and worldview. The Project's intervention model established a dynamic continuous dialogue between the academic world, local teachers, parents and formal community leaders, by delegating responsibilities, creating a specific curricula constructed for a the Bedouin population to be couched in intelligible language and concepts. The article highlights the village's micro/macro-politics, and the ethical issues the Project team encountered regarding the conflict between the modern, democratic, western society aims for progress and equality versus the traditional forces striving to preserve the traditions of a community in the throes of an acute culture conflict.

Are associations between parental divorce and children's adjustment genetically mediated? An adoption study.

The hypothesis that the association between parental divorce and children's adjustment is mediated by genetic factors was examined in the Colorado Adoption Project, a prospective longitudinal study of 398 adoptive and biological families. In biological families, children who experienced their parents' separation by the age of 12 years exhibited higher rates of behavioral problems and substance use, and lower levels of achievement and social adjustment, compared with children whose parents' marriages remained intact. Similarly, adopted children who experienced their (adoptive) parents' divorces exhibited elevated levels of behavioral problems and substance use compared with adoptees whose parents did not separate, but there were no differences on achievement and social competence. The findings for psychopathology are consistent with an environmentally mediated explanation for the association between parent divorce and children's adjustment; in contrast, the findings for achievement and social adjustment are consistent with a genetically mediated explanation involving passive genotype-environment correlation.

For the Rich It's Richer: Print Experiences and Environments Offered to Children in Very Low- and Very High-Socioeconomic Status First-Grade Classrooms

This study investigates whether there are differences in the print environments and experiences offered to children in 20 first-grade classrooms chosen from very low- and very high-socioeconomic status (SES) districts. Each classroom was visited for 4 full days over the course of a school year. On each visit, information was recorded about the classroom library, classroom environmental print, and any activity during the school day that involved print in any way. Data indicate that there are substantial differences between the low- and high-SES classrooms in all major areas examined, including the amount, type, and uses of print. Literacy can be added to the list of domains for which meaningful differences in instruction have been observed in schools serving different socioeconomic groups. Literacy is another domain through which schools may contribute to lower levels of achievement among low-SES children and may begin to do so quite early in the schooling process.

Adolescent childbearing in Bangladesh

In recent decades, adolescent childbearing has emerged as an issue of increasing concern throughout the developing and the developed world (Jones, 1997; Shaikh, 1997; Islam and Mahmud, 1996). There is a growing awareness that early childbearing is a health risk for both the mother and the child. Also, it usually terminates a girl’s educational career, threatening her future economic prospects, earning capacity and overall well-being (United Nations, 1995). Thus, adolescent childbearing has significant ramifications at the personal, societal and global levels. At the personal level, childbearing at an early age can shape and alter the entire future life of an adolescent girl. From the perspective of societies and governments, adolescent pregnancy and childbearing have a strong and unwelcome association with low levels of educational achievement for young women, which in turn may have a negative impact on their position in and potential contribution to society. Usually, in both developed and developing countries, the rates of population growth are more rapid when women have their first child before they are in their twenties (Senderowitz and Paxman, 1985; Mazur, 1997). The period of adolescence encompasses the transition from childhood to adulthood during the second decade of life. It is one of the most crucial periods in an individual’s life, because during adolescence many key social, economic, biological and demographic events occur that set the stage for adult life.

Youth Functional Status and Academic Achievement in Collaborative Mental Health and Education Programs:Two California Care Systems

This article describes the educational and functional status of youth served in joint education and mental health programs nested within two counties implementing the California System of Care Model for youth with severe emotional disturbance. The goals of the study were to (a) describe the demographic, educational, and clinical characteristics of youth served in education/mental health programs; (b) understand the relationship between functional status and academic achievement of these youth; and (c) compare these youth with matched peers involved in the broader system of care. Children and adolescents in the education/mental health programs were primarily Anglo-American boys with low academic achievement and high levels of functional impairment. Functional status and academic achievement were not related. Youth served in the specialized programs were more functionally impaired than youth served in the broader care system. This study provides evidence that youth served in education/mental health programs have the types of multisystem needs that may warrant multiagency collaboration and services.

Analyser pour améliorer. Nouvelles recherches sur les défis de l'éducation de base au Sénégal

The paper summarizes important results of four new empirical studies on learning/achievement levels of children and adults in formal and informal basic-education-settings in Senegal. The first two studies are representative analyses of formal (public and private) primary education, focussing on French language and basic math in grade 4 and 6, the third analyzes the learning results in national language proficiency and basic math of a representative sample of mainly (female) adult participants of alphabetization courses and youngsters attending experimental national-language-schools. The fourth study ... is the only one using the same analytical instruments .. . to explicitly compare achievement levels and background variables of learners in formal and non-formal (traditional and modern) basic education settings. The authors ... argue that the performance level of ( modern) non-formal educational settings (islamic schools, alphabetization courses) fares surprisingly well in comparison to formal (French-language) education. French as the only language of instruction ... seems to be mainly responsible for the low achievement levels of the majority of pupils in formal primary education. (DIPF/orig.)

The effect of track position on absenteeism

Absenteeism is one of the major problems facing America's schools. Absenteeism disrupts the learning environment, is related to lower levels of achievement, and is associated with problems of crime and delinquency. While previous research has identified many of the determinants of absenteeism, the role of a student's position in the tracking structure within a school has not been explored. The purpose of this paper is to explore this relationship. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression results reveal that students who are in the lower tracks within the tracking structure in a school are more likely to be absent than other students and that Black and female students in low tracks are more adversely affected by the low-track environment that non-Black and male students. These results suggest that track position must be taken into consideration when dealing with the problem of absenteeism.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Literacy

This special issue concerns one of the most challenging areas in the education of children who are deaf and hard of hearing: the development and improvement of literacy (reading and writing) skills. Much of what we know about the reading and writing achievement levels of these students has been obtained through the use of norm-referenced or criterion-referenced tests. Data from such studies indicate that most deaf and hard-ofhearing students do not read or write as well as their hearing counterparts upon graduation from high school. Many 18to 19-year-old deaf and hard-ofhearing students are performing no better than the average 9or 10-year-old hearing students. With respect to reading, there seems to be an annual growth rate of only 0.3 grade level per year with a leveling off or plateau occurring at the thirdor fourth-grade level. If poor readers are invariably poor writers, then it is not surprising that the findings of research on the written language productions of students who are deaf and hard of hearing also reveal low levels of achievement. These students cannot benefit much from the reciprocal relationships between reading and writing. That is, typically, students can increase their reading skills through writing activities and can improve their writing skills through reading activities. If deaf (or hearing) students have not developed an internal representation of English, they will receive only limited ben-

The Nature and Support of Adolescent Mothers' Life Aspirations

The Nature and Support of Adolescent Mothers' Life Aspirations* Phame M. Camarena,** Kris Minor, Theresa Melmer, and Cheryl Ferrie Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 58 young mothers from a rural region of upper midwest to examine how mothers construct life aspirations in face of new parent roles. The majority of participants reported that parenting demands had resulted in an adjustment of expectations rather than a dramatic change in either level or nature of aspirations. Although all of mothers reported some support for pursuing life goals, this support was generally weak and inconsistent. Access to resources and firm encouragement to pursue aspirations now characterized participants with most resilient stories of adjustment. Although negative consequences of early parenting have been well documented, societal image of teenage parents has become too stereotyped and fails to recognize diversity of adolescent parents' experiences (Chase-Lansdale, Brooks-Gunn, & Paikoff, 1992). One of these stereotypes is belief that early parenting dooms young mothers to a life of unfulfilled dreams and aspirations. The consistent link between adolescent pregnancy and relatively low levels of educational and employment achievement certainly does lend some support to this belief (e.g., Barbour, Richardson, & Bubenzer, 1993; Hayes, 1987). These connections, however, are not necessarily causal in nature since many of factors that predict adolescent childbirth are linked to educational and employment aspirations prior to pregnancy (Melhuish & Phoenix, 198788; Upchurch, 1993). The resultant picture of adolescent mothers' aspirations is, therefore, somewhat difficult to disentangle. What is clear, however, is that life aspirations are an important component of adolescent mothers` adjustment. As suggested by Blinn (1990), aspirations for family. education, and work become highly salient to adolescent mothers as they are to reevaluate their visions of future. Both long and short term choices that most adolescents face now take on a new sense of urgency for adolescent parent as priorities shift to account for future of new child (White & Cummings, 1995). The Significance of Aspirations The importance of aspirations and for adjustment during adolescence generally are manifest conceptually in two different ways. First, they provide a yardstick or standard to help adolescents weigh degree to which different choices will help or hinder their chances of achieving desired goals. Second, as a motivational force they influence degree to which effort is expended on tasks that make achievement of aspirations and possible. For adolescent mothers forced to confront new parenting demands, a clear set of aspirations and may provide an important protection as a guide through difficult choices and serve as a buffer against discouragements and stressors they experience. Evidence for this power of aspirations as a protective factor for populations. generally, and adolescent mothers, specifically, is found in both Kauai and Baltimore longitudinal studies. The Kauai study (Werner & Smith, 1992) was designed to examine factors that protected an at risk sample of individuals born in Hawaii in 1955 from prenatal development into young adulthood. Although Werner and Smith describe a number of different factors that distinguished adolescents and young adults who had overcome their earlier high status, they concluded that greatest differences could be found in goals they had set for their adult lives and their sense of personal competence and determination (pp. 69-70). These same factors were highlighted as being central parts of the paths that led to improvement for adolescent mothers in this sample (p. 95). In a similar vein, Baltimore study followed a sample of primarily African American urban adolescent mothers from birth of child to young adulthood to trace developmental paths of both mother and child (Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Morgan, 1987; Furstenberg, Brooks-Gunn, & Chase-Lansdale, 1989). …

Accountability and Student Learning

Holding teachers accountable for other people's (students) behavior is inappropriate policy that results in ineffective teaching, diminished enthusiasm for learning, and lower levels of achievement. There are both legal and psychological reasons for this. Making teachers responsible for students' behavior absolves students of responsibility for their own actions and develops an externalized locus of control in students that leads to teacher control and student dependence. Because every person is accountable for his or her own behavior but not for what other people do, teachers must be held accountable for what they do as teachers but not for what their students do as learners. Students are responsible for their own learning.

Nutrition, anaemia, geohelminth infection and school achievement in rural Jamaican primary school children.

To determine whether nutritional status, anaemia and geohelminth infections were related to school achievement and attendance in Jamaican children. A cross-sectional study using a randomly selected sample. Eight hundred children aged 9-13 y randomly selected from those enrolled in grade 5 in 16 primary schools in rural Jamaica. The mean height-for-age of the children was -0.37 z-score +/- 1.0 s.d. with 4.9% having heights-for-age < -2 s.d. of the NCHS references. Anaemia (Hb < 11 g/dl) was present in 14.7% of the children, 38.3% were infected with Trichuris trichiura and 19.4% with Ascaris lumbricoides. Achievement levels on the Wide Range Achievement Test were low, with children performing at grade 3 level. In multilevel analyses, controlling for socioeconomic status, children with Trichuris infections had lower achievement levels than uninfected children in spelling, reading and arithmetic (P < 0.05). Children with Ascaris infections had lower scores in spelling and reading (P < 0.05) Height-for-age (P < 0.01) was positively associated with performance in arithmetic. Ascaris infection (P < 0.001) and anaemia (P < 0.01) predicted poorer school attendance. Despite mild levels, undernutrition and geohelminth infections were associated with achievement, suggesting that efforts to increase school achievement levels in developing countries should include strategies to improve the health and nutritional status of children.

Instructional Design in Mathematics for Students with Learning Disabilities

The low achievement level of students with learning disabilities has multiple causes. One is the mismatch between the students' learning characteristics and the design of instructional materials and practices. Design principles better suited to the characteristics of students with learning disabilities are described and illustrated for five areas: (a) big ideas; (b) conspicuous strategies; (c) efficient use of time; (d) clear, explicit instruction on strategies; and (e) appropriate practice and review. Wider application of these design principles, in instructional material and in actual teaching, could contribute to far higher achievement levels in mathematics for students with learning disabilities.

Overcoming Obstacles: Academic Achievement as a Response to Racism and Discrimination

Previous studies have suggested that in response to occupational and educational discrimination based on race, many African American students have mentally withdrawn from the schooling process, as indicated by low levels of achievement and high levels of school dropout. By contrast, the present study's analysis of interview data collected from 28 African American urban eighthgraders indicates that some African American students with a high awareness of racial discrimination respond to this discrimination in ways that are conducive rather than detrimental to academic success. For these students, positive racial socialization was a primary factor influencing and promoting academic success. Implications for future research on the academic performance of African American students are discussed. INTRODUCTION Several authors have examined the relationship between racial and economic inequality and individual mobility. Among these, Ogbu (1978, 1988, 1991) has arguably had the greatest impact on the way educators today view the relationship between racial inequality, educational attainment, and academic achievement, especially among African American students. Chief among Ogbu's contentions is the argument that, as a response to racial discrimination and limitations on their educational and occupational opportunity, African Americans have failed to develop a strong academic orientation. In an attempt to explain differential achievement levels among minorities in the United States, Ogbu (1991) identifies immigration status as a key factor determining minorities' academic attitudes, efforts and levels of success. Using the terms and involuntary to describe the minority status of African Americans, he contends that the historical legacies of racism and discrimination, especially as they relate to educational and employment opportunities, have had a decidedly negative influence on the school performance of African Americans. Ogbu's (1988) argument rests on the supposition that African Americans have adapted to discriminatory educational and employment policies and practices by disengaging from the schooling process. He maintains that African Americans have come to characterize striving for academic success as culturally subtractive (p. 177). As Ogbu posits in a 1978 article: As caste-like minorities, [African Americans] have had access mainly to inferior education; they have experienced the job ceiling and other caste barriers that prevent them from maximizing their efforts in school in terms of future social and economic rewards; they have, generally speaking, responded to these barriers with mental withdrawal failing to persevere in their schoolwork. (p. 237) In an extension of Ogbu's earlier work, For&am and Ogbu (1986) advance two additional factors influencing the academic achievement of African American adolescents: an oppositional collective or social identity and an oppositional cultural frame of reference. Accordingly, they assert that: Subordinate minorities like black Americans develop a sense of collective identity or sense of peoplehood in opposition to the social identity of white Americans because of the way white Americans treat them in economic, political, social, and psychological domains, including white exclusion of these groups from true assimilation .Along with the formation of an oppositional social identity, subordinate minorities also develop an oppositional cultural frame of reference which includes devices for protecting their identity and for maintaining boundaries between them and white Americans. (p. 181) Fordham and Ogbu further contend that oppositional identity and oppositional cultural frame of reference enter into the schooling equation for African American adolescents through these students' perceptions and interpretations of schooling as learning the white American cultural frame of reference which they have come to assume to have adverse effects on their own cultural and identity integrity (p. …

A Question of Fun: Adolescent Engagement in Dance Education

Ever since the publication of A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), educational literature and the popular press have been filled with concern over low achievement levels among students in this country. One of the more recent responses has been the development of rigorous national standards, including standards in all the arts (National Standards for Arts Education, 1994). At the same time, there is recognition that far too many students are not motivated to meet even existing standards. The September 1995 issue of Educational Leadership, a publication whose themes reflect issues of current significance to public school administrators, was devoted to strengthening student engagement. Editor Ron Brandt opened the issue with a description that is familiar to almost anyone who walks into a typical high school class in any community:Some [students] see no connection whatever between their priorities and what teachers expect of them, so they refuse lessons and even refuse to try. Others realize they must play the game, but go through the motions with minimal attachment to what they are supposedly learning. Teachers, thwarted by resistance or passivity, complain that students are unmotivated, and either search valiantly for novel approaches or resign themselves to routines they no longer expect to be productive. (1995, 7)Certainly this dismal picture does not apply to young children, who arrive so eager to learn in kindergarten. It is reasonable to ask what happens to children, especially as they move through adolescence, to leave so many so unmotivated and disengaged.

Growing Up Malay in Singapore

AbstractThis article discusses the specific articulations of Malay identity for Malay secondary school students in one housing estate in Singapore. It focuses on the tensions and cultural processes in national identity formation as they affect Malay students. This discussion is facilitated through the juxtaposition of the concepts of Malay and non-Malay identity in Singapore. The article also deals with the issue of lower levels of achievement by Malay students. Schools in Singapore provide a myriad combination of choices for many students that result in interpretations and reinterpretations of identity based on situations that vary in place, participation and purpose. Being Malay in Singapore is a complex process that requires a negotiation of identity in the context of competing and sometimes conflicting models which change according to the situation. The choices presented to Malay school students reflect the same choices available in broader society; however, the school provides a common venue for those identity forms to interact. Being a Malay in Singapore is a compromise. The instances of this compromise are articulated on a continuum that runs from the hegemony of an overarching Malay ethnicity to the dissolution of this Malayness into a hybrid cultural identity. Lower performance may be an adaptive response for Malays in Singapore. The real issue may be that for many Malays, co-operation in the system of schooling means an acknowledgment of social inferiority.

A clinical and academic outcome study of children attending a day treatment program.

To assess the behavioural and academic improvement of children who attended a day treatment program during a defined period of time. Forty-six children admitted consecutively to the project were assessed on admission and discharge using behavioural and academic measures. They also had intelligence and language assessments. The subjects attended the program for one academic year, on the average. The large majority presented with disruptive behaviour disorders and low academic achievement levels. There was a significant improvement reported by the parents in externalizing (P < 0.001) and internalizing (P < 0.05) behaviour. The subjects also gained one academic year, but their levels continued to be low in terms of percentiles. Measures of academic improvement showed significant associations with cognitive measures only (subscales of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised [WISC-R] and Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Revised [CELF-R]). A day treatment and school program is an effective modality for treatment and remediation of children with severe psychiatric disorders. The academic underachievement may be resistant to remediation within the limited period of attendance in such a program.