The Council of the Great City Schools is the only national organization exclusively representing the needs of urban public schools. Founded in 1956 and incorporated in 1961, the Council is located in Washington, DC, where it works to... more
The Council of the Great City Schools is the only national organization exclusively representing the needs of urban public schools. Founded in 1956 and incorporated in 1961, the Council is located in Washington, DC, where it works to promote urban education through legislation, research, media relations, instruction, management, technology, and other special projects.
24 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/OCTOBER 2010 difficulty, and the most frequent words are most important to student learning. Students appear to learn words in a relatively consistent sequence as they progress through the grades, and they... more
24 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/OCTOBER 2010 difficulty, and the most frequent words are most important to student learning. Students appear to learn words in a relatively consistent sequence as they progress through the grades, and they generally learn high-frequency words first (Biemiller, 2003, 2005; Zeno, Ivens, Millard, & Duvvuri, 1995). A number of word lists and tools can help teacher teams identify highfrequency words for instruction. For example, WordCount (www. word count. org/main. php), an online tool ...
This study evaluates efficacy of the Word Generation (WG) to improve adolescents' (11-14 years old) self-reported civic engagement (N = 5,798) in the context of a randomized trial that was conducted in several American middle schools in a... more
This study evaluates efficacy of the Word Generation (WG) to improve adolescents' (11-14 years old) self-reported civic engagement (N = 5,798) in the context of a randomized trial that was conducted in several American middle schools in a West Coast metropolitan area. WG is a cross-content curriculum that instructs students to analyze weekly controversial issues on politics and science. In addition to measuring their voting interest, participants completed survey items on how often they help their community. Results provide support for the primary research question- participation in the WG program has a significant impact on students' self-reported civic engagement, but not for voting interest. These results suggest that classroom debates on controversial issues are crucial to enabling youth to envision themselves as active and informed citizens.
This longitudinal quasi-experimental study examines the effects of Word Generation, a middle-school vocabulary intervention, on the learning, maintenance, and consolidation of academic vocabulary for students from English-speaking homes,... more
This longitudinal quasi-experimental study examines the effects of Word Generation, a middle-school vocabulary intervention, on the learning, maintenance, and consolidation of academic vocabulary for students from English-speaking homes, proficient English speakers from language-minority homes, and limited English-proficiency students. Using individual growth modeling, we found that students receiving Word Generation improved more on target word knowledge during the instructional period than students in comparison schools did, on average. We found an interaction between instruction and home-language status such that English-proficient students from language-minority homes improved more than English-proficient students from English-speaking homes. Limited English-proficiency students, however, did not realize gains equivalent to those of more proficient students from language-minority homes during the instructional period. We administered follow-up assessments in the fall after the instructional period ended and in the spring of the following year to determine how well students maintained and consolidated target academic words. Students in the intervention group maintained their relative improvements at both follow-up assessments.
Classroom discussion, despite its association with good academic outcomes, is exceedingly rare in U.S. schools. The Word Generation intervention involves the provision of texts and activities to be implemented across content area class,... more
Classroom discussion, despite its association with good academic outcomes, is exceedingly rare in U.S. schools. The Word Generation intervention involves the provision of texts and activities to be implemented across content area class, organized around engaging and discussable dilemmas. The pro- gram was evaluated with 1,554 middle grade students in 28 schools randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. There were large effects on classroom discussion quality across all content areas, especially in math and science (Cohen’s d = 0.38-1.13). The program also produced significant, though small, effects on taught vocabulary (effect size = .25, p < .01) but no effects on a standardized assessment of general vocabulary. Quality of classroom discussion mediated 14% of the treatment effect on vocabulary outcomes.
When students enter middle school, they encounter increasingly difficult text-book and instructional materials. Students appear to learn words in a relatively consistent sequence as they progress through the grades, and they generally... more
When students enter middle school, they encounter increasingly difficult text-book and instructional materials. Students appear to learn words in a relatively consistent sequence as they progress through the grades, and they generally learn high-frequency words first (Biemiller, 2003, 2005; Zeno, Ivens, Millard, & Duvvuri, 1995). A number of word lists and tools can help teacher teams identify highfrequency words for instruction. For example, WordCount (www. word count. org/main.
We tested whether urban middle-school students from mostly low-income homes had improved academic vocabulary when they participated in a freely available vocabulary program, Word Generation (WG). To understand how this program may support... more
We tested whether urban middle-school students from mostly low-income homes had improved academic vocabulary when they participated in a freely available vocabulary program, Word Generation (WG). To understand how this program may support students at risk for long-term reading difficulty, we examined treatment interactions with baseline achievement on a state standardized test and also differential effects for students with (n = 398) and without (n = 1,395) individualized education plans (IEPs). Students in this unmatched quasi-experiment (5 WG and 4 comparison schools) completed pre- and postvocabulary assessments during the intervention year. We also retested student vocabulary knowledge after summer vacation and the following spring on 11 target words to construct a longitudinally consistent scaled score across 4 waves of data. Growth models show that students experienced summer setback. Although there were no average underlying differences in growth or differences in summer setback for students by baseline achievement, better readers improved more from program participation. IEP status did not predict differential benefits of program participation, and students with IEPs maintained gains associated with participation in WG; however, participation in the program did not change underlying growth trajectories favoring students who did not have IEPs.
Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one’s discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions... more
Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one’s discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, Word Generation is a cross-content literacy program that supports teachers in the four main content areas –English language arts, social studies, science, and math— to embed learning of controversial issues through classroom discussions, subject-specific lessons, and writing. Middle school students (N = 5,870) from highly diverse backgrounds participated in a randomized study of the intervention that was conducted in twelve middle schools located in an urban school district. We analyzed survey data based on students’ self-reported ratings on their communicative self-efficacy, as indicated by confidence to participate in discussions of fifteen different controversial issues related to politics, society, and science. Paired sample t-tests indicate that treatment students reported higher communicative self-efficacy than control students on a set of topics immediately covered prior to testing, but not for the set of topics covered in the previous year. This study informs curriculum developers, policy makers, and educators to consider the importance of incorporating discussions of controversial issues within a framework of subject-specific instructions.
Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one’s discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions... more
Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one’s discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, Word Generation is a cross-content literacy program that supports teachers in the four main content areas –English language arts, social studies, science, and math— to embed learning of controversial issues through classroom discussions, subject-specific lessons, and writing. Middle school students (N = 5,870) from highly diverse backgrounds participated in a randomized study of the intervention that was conducted in twelve middle schools located in an urban school district. We analyzed survey data based on students’ self-reported ratings on their communicative self-efficacy, as indicated by confidence to participate in discussions of fifteen different controversial issues related to politics, society, and science. Paired sample t-tests indicate that treatment students reported higher communicative self-efficacy than control students on a set of topics immediately covered prior to testing, but not for the set of topics covered in the previous year. This study informs curriculum developers, policy makers, and educators to consider the importance of incorporating discussions of controversial issues within a framework of subject-specific instructions.
The Council of the Great City Schools is the only national organization exclusively representing the needs of urban public schools. Founded in 1956 and incorporated in 1961, the Council is located in Washington, DC, where it works to... more
The Council of the Great City Schools is the only national organization exclusively representing the needs of urban public schools. Founded in 1956 and incorporated in 1961, the Council is located in Washington, DC, where it works to promote urban education through legislation, research, media relations, instruction, management, technology, and other special projects.
Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one’s discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions... more
Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one’s discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, Word Generation is a cross-content literacy program that supports teachers in the four main content areas –English language arts, social studies, science, and math— to embed learning of controversial issues through classroom discussions, subject-specific lessons, and writing. Middle school students (N = 5,870) from highly diverse backgrounds participated in a randomized study of the intervention that was conducted in twelve middle schools located in an urban school district. We analyzed survey data based on students’ self-reported ratings on their communicative self-efficacy, as indicated by confidence to participate in discussions of fifteen different controversial issues related to politics, society, and science. Paired sample t-tests indicate that treatment students reported higher communicative self-efficacy than control students on a set of topics immediately covered prior to testing, but not for the set of topics covered in the previous year. This study informs curriculum developers, policy makers, and educators to consider the importance of incorporating discussions of controversial issues within a framework of subject-specific instructions.
The Word Generation program (www. wordgeneration. org) is a freely available vocabulary intervention developed the Strategic Educational Research Partnership. Word Generation is a 24-week-long sequence of topics of current interest, each... more
The Word Generation program (www. wordgeneration. org) is a freely available vocabulary intervention developed the Strategic Educational Research Partnership. Word Generation is a 24-week-long sequence of topics of current interest, each associated with five allpurpose academic words, and prescribed activities related to math, science, and social studies.
24 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/OCTOBER 2010 difficulty, and the most frequent words are most important to student learning. Students appear to learn words in a relatively consistent sequence as they progress through the grades, and they... more
24 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/OCTOBER 2010 difficulty, and the most frequent words are most important to student learning. Students appear to learn words in a relatively consistent sequence as they progress through the grades, and they generally learn high-frequency words first (Biemiller, 2003, 2005; Zeno, Ivens, Millard, & Duvvuri, 1995). A number of word lists and tools can help teacher teams identify highfrequency words for instruction. For example, WordCount (www. word count. org/main. php), an online tool ...
