Urban Middle School Students Research Articles

Achievement and Climate Outcomes for the Knowledge is Power Program in an Inner-City Middle School

This study was designed to examine the effects of a whole school reform, the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), specifically designed to raise academic achievement of at-risk urban middle school students by establishing an extended school day and year, a rigorous curriculum, after-school access to teachers, and increased family-school connections. In our mixed-methods design, qualitative (interview and observation) and quantitative (survey and achievement test) measures are employed to determine first-year program implementation and student outcomes for the KIPP:DIAMOND (Daring Individual Achievers Making Outstanding New Dreams) Academy (KIPP:DA), an inner-city school in a large, high-poverty urban district. For the achievement analyses, 49 KIPP:DA students were individually matched to highly comparable control students of the same ethnicity, socioeconmic status, gender, and ability, who attended different district schools in the same neighborhood. Statistically significant and educationally meaningful advantages for KIPP:DA students were found on 4 out of 6 standardized tests. The achievement results are interpreted in relation to the key program elements, the positive school climate established, and the quality of the 1st-year implementation.

Problematic Situations in the Lives of Urban African American Middle School Students: A Qualitative Study

Qualitative methods were used to identify problem situations encountered by adolescents in urban middle schools serving a predominantly African American student population. Interviews focusing on identifying problem situations and the context in which they occur were conducted with 60 adolescents including students and peer mediators at middle schools and adolescents at community centers. Interviews were also conducted with 50 adults, including parents of middle school students, community center staff, and middle school staff including bus drivers, cafeteria workers, teachers, security guards, and school administrators. Qualitative analysis and coding of interview transcripts identified 39 themes representing a diverse array of problem situations, many of which occurred across multiple contexts including peers, school, family, and neighborhood domains.

Science Camp as a Transformative Experience for Students, Parents, and Teachers in the Urban Setting

This paper reports on creative partnerships to create learning communities to benefit students, parents, and teachers in the urban setting. Science Camp is a university day camp offering problem‐based science exploration for urban middle school students and an introduction to college life. For parents it is an opportunity to learn about college opportunities for their children and to gather information about funding sources. For middle school science teachers and preservice teachers it is a learning laboratory for conducting problem‐based learning in the urban setting. The findings describe the effects of the learning communities on the transformation of students, parents, preservice teachers, and in‐service teachers.

The Effects of Classwide Peer Tutoring on the Reading Achievement of Urban Middle School Students

This study investigated the effects of Classwide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) on the reading skills of urban middle-school students using novels as the curriculum. Teacher-led instruction was compared with CWPT and CWPT plus a loery contingency for appropriate on-task and tutoring behaviors. Three sixth- grade general education reading classes under the direction of one teacher participated. Data were collected on all students from weekly wrien tests of vocabulary and comprehension. Additional oral reading rate and academic engagement data were collected from three "low-achieving" target students. Overall, results demonstrated improved performance on weekly tests under CWPT conditions compared with teacher-led instruction. CWPT plus loery resulted in further increases. Data also revealed differences in the types of academic responses made during teacher-led instruction and CWPT and increases in oral reading rates for two target students. These findings suggest that CWPT, particularly CWPT plus loery, can improve the reading skills of urban middle school students.

The Effects of Comprehensive School Reform Models in Reading for Urban Middle School Students With Disabilities

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has mandated sweeping accountability in public education. Low-performing urban schools find themselves in the crossfire of political and educational divergence. Comprehensive school reform (CSR) models predate NCLB, but the impact of their implementation has been even more pronounced since the passage of NCLB. With adequate yearly progress as the national measure of school achievement, the lowest performing students in the lowest performing schools have turned out to be the most critical group to support. We compared the effects of two CSR models ( Success for All and Direct Instruction) in reading for urban middle school students with disabilities who were performing 2 or more years below grade level in reading. The results indicated that students with disabilities showed little or no reading skill gain from either comprehensive school reform model and remained markedly behind. Improving the skills of the lowest performing students in a timely manner appears to continue to be education's greatest challenge.

School Trips: Effects of Urban Form and Distance on Travel Mode

For over 50 years the U.S. has been shifting away from small, neighborhood schools to larger schools in lower density areas. Rates of children walking and biking to school have declined significantly over this period. This study examines the relationship between urban form, distance, and middle school students walking and biking to and from four schools in Oregon. Five primary results emerge: (1) urban form helps predict travel mode to and from school; (2) middle school students walk further than planners expect; (3) many students use a different mode when they travel to school and when they leave school; (4) urban form measures that predict walking behavior differ from those that predict biking behavior; and (5) urban form is only one factor in students' transportation decisions.

East of the River: Crossing Borders through Poetry in Middle Schools

Urban middle school students gain a passion for reading and writing poetry through weekly workshops started by teacher Nancy Schwalb. Specific teaching activities and students’ poems provide evidence of the power of a vision supported by creative thinking, community resources, and dedicated teachers.

Are Success Learning Experiences and Self-Efficacy Beliefs Associated With Occupational Interests and Aspirations of At-Risk Urban Youth?

To help increase access to educational and occupational options for a growing yet underrepresented population of low-income, culturally diverse, urban middle school students, we need to increase our understanding of important factors in their career development. The results of this study supported some applications of Krumboltz’s social learning theory to at-risk urban youth and found (a) a significant and positive association between participants’ success learning experiences and their expressed occupational interests, and (b) a positive association between their career self-efficacy beliefs and inventoried occupational interests. However, no association was found between participants’ success learning experiences and their highest or most ideal occupational aspirations. Further research with methods and measures that are reliable and validated with this population is needed to replicate the results of this study. In turn, career counselors might use this understanding to better design effective interventions for at-risk diverse urban youth.

Fruit, Vegetable and Fat Consumption in African-American Urban Middle School Students

Fruit, Vegetable and Fat Consumption in African-American Urban Middle School Students

Modeling Civic Engagement: A Student Conversation with Jonathan Kozol

Jonathan Kozol's visit to Portland, Oregon, in April 2005 included a dialogue with 55 urban middle and high school students about inequities in American schools. Students left this conversation with a stronger sense of the systemic impediments to equal education. They also felt that their voice had been heard on a topic of national import. This essay suggests that Kozol provided students with a model of patient civic engagement and that teachers who use Kozol's work should build on this framework.

Peer victimization in early adolescence: Association between physical and relational victimization and drug use, aggression, and delinquent behaviors among urban middle school students

This study examined associations between two forms of peer victimization, physical and relational, and externalizing behaviors including drug use, aggression, and delinquent behaviors among a sample of 276 predominantly African American eighth graders attending middle school in an urban public school system. Regression analyses indicated that physical victimization was significantly related to cigarette and alcohol use but not to advanced alcohol and marijuana use; relational victimization contributed uniquely to all categories of drug use after controlling for physical victimization. Physical victimization was also significantly related to physical and relational aggression and delinquent behaviors, and relational victimization made a unique contribution in the concurrent prediction of these behaviors. Physical victimization was more strongly related to both categories of alcohol use, aggression, and to delinquent behaviors among boys than among girls. In contrast, relational victimization was more strongly related to physical aggression and marijuana use among girls than among boys, but more strongly related to relational aggression among boys than among girls. These findings provide information about the generalizability of prior research and have important implications for intervention efforts.

Sex differences in overt aggression and delinquency among urban minority middle school students

Given the recent debate over whether differential pathways to overt aggression and delinquency exist between boys and girls, this study examined sex differences in overt aggressive and delinquent acts along with potential differences in precursors (anger, self-control, family disruption) to antisocial behaviors among a sample of urban minority adolescents ( N = 1559). Using a longitudinal design with data from 6th to 7th grade, results showed that girls had greater increases in rates of aggression relative to boys. Delinquency increased over time for both boys and girls, with boys consistently engaging in more delinquency. Girls and boys did not differ on the level of risk factors experienced except for a greater increase in anger over time for girls relative to boys. Across sex, anger and self-control predicted increases in both overt aggression and delinquency; family disruption also predicted increases in delinquency. Implications for subsequent studies on developmental process and preventive interventions are discussed.

Adolescents Who Witness Community Violence: Can Parent Support and Prosocial Cognitions Protect Them From Committing Violence?

This longitudinal study investigated the effects of witnessing violence on committing violence among diverse urban middle school students (11-15 years old) over a 1-year period (N = 1,599). It examined parent support and prosocial cognitions as moderators that might interact with one another in buffering adolescents from the effects of witnessing violence. The study also explored gender and ethnicity differences across these protective processes. According to the results, both average and high levels of parent support may offer male adolescents who witness violence protection against committing subsequent acts of violence. Adolescent females who witness violence appear to be uniquely protected from committing acts of violence if they have highly prosocial cognitions. Applications to resilience and competency models are discussed.

A Comparison of Two Direct Instruction Reading Programs for Urban Middle School Students

This study investigated the differential effects of two direct instruction (DI) reading programs, one with overt decoding strategies and one with more covert decoding strategies, on the reading achievement of struggling seventh graders in an urban middle school. The students participating in this study (N = 55) were 2 to 4 years behind in reading achievement according to standardized pretests. Results indicate that after a 6-week reading intervention, all students, regardless of overt or covert DI programs, made significant gains in reading, with the only differential effect demonstrated in the area of reading rate. These findings are significant considering that the participants were struggling readers. Implications for increasing the performance of struggling middle school readers are discussed.

The association of community violence exposure with middle-school achievement: A prospective study

This study investigated the long-term effects of exposure to community violence on academic achievement and feelings of safety in school among a large sample of urban middle-school students ( N = 759). It also considered the role of depressive symptoms and aggression as mediators of the effects, and the role of parent support in buffering adolescents from these effects of violence exposure. Different patterns of effects were found for exposure to violence as witnesses or as victims. Witnessing was associated with lower levels of academic achievement over time, and these longitudinal effects were not mediated by depressive symptoms or aggression, nor were they buffered by parent support. Victimization was not related to lower levels of academic achievement and was associated with feeling less safe in school over time only for boys who reported low levels of parent support. Intervention and policy implications highlight the importance of an ecological approach in intervening to boost the academic performance of urban children placed at risk.

Education and Advocacy: Improving Teaching and Learning Through Student Participatory Action Research

Youth PAR has demonstrated success with marginalized urban high school and middle school students, in after school settings. To be successful, however, the approach must address significant gaps in literacy, science and math skills resulting from inadequate schooling and institutionalized educational and other structural disparities. One way to address this and at the same time to achieve the dual goals of scaling up the approach and transforming urban educational instructional practices, is to engage middle and high school teachers in a partnership that introduces Youth PAR in their classrooms. This article describes the process of integrating PAR into school curriculum using data from a pilot project introduced in four urban Connecticut middle schools. As a case example, it illustrates the approach, highlights some of the lessons learned and addresses some of the challenges faced in introducing the approach in middle school settings.

A teacher's use of digital video with urban middle school students: Expanding definitions of representational literacy

The role of educational technology as media is rapidly expanding. When placed directly into the hands of students, digital video, in particular, has the potential to transform schooling. In this case study, members of the Naptown Prodigy, an after school club, produced music videos and iMovies of streetball performances. The club's advisor, an urban middle school English teacher, participated in the PT3 Vanguard program, a university—public school staff development collaboration. The teacher's access to technology through the Vanguard program enabled her students to use digital video as both a construction and expression medium. This project provides a unique and promising example of the ways in which teachers can use digital video to foster representational literacy among inner‐city youth.

The Relationships Between Performance Record And Sleep Status of Urban Middle School Students

目的 探讨城市中学生睡眠状况与学习成绩的关系,及优差生之间睡眠状况有无差异.方法采取分层、整群抽样法,抽出合肥市四所中学1069名在校中学生,用自编问卷及与DSM-Ⅳ配套的焦虑诊断量表,对学生及班主任老师进行调查.再抽出成绩优差学生421人,从中抽出几项(包括:性别、成绩优差、受教育程度、入睡及睡眠困难、睡眠习惯改变),并进行统计分析.结果在研究组中,入睡及睡眠困难发生率为27.8%、睡眠习惯改变为30.7% ,优差生之间无差异(P值分别为0.384和0.688);而初中与高中组比较,高中生睡眠习惯改变多(P=0.043),入睡及睡眠困难无差异(P=0.778);男女生睡眠状况无差异(P>0.05).结论城市中学生存在睡眠障碍,差生发生率稍高于优生,高中生睡眠习惯改变较多,男女生睡眠状况无差别。

Urban middle‐school students' attitudes toward a defined science

AbstractRecent studies have shown that urban students and students of color have exceptionally negative attitudes toward school science and their futures in that field as compared with white students and nonurban students. In this paper we summarize research findings on students' attitudes toward science. We note that most of the studies of students' attitudes toward science that have been conducted so far have measured students' attitudes against the backdrop of a “generalized science.” Thus, we develop a detailed argument for why science needs to be more clearly defined in attitude instruments. We report on our development of this instrument as well as our initial findings. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 88:197–222, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/sce.10110

64. Prevalence of adolescent scoliosis in a korean urban middle and high school students

64. Prevalence of adolescent scoliosis in a korean urban middle and high school students