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WCER TodayJuly 2012 IN THIS ISSUE Feature Story: Using Research to Narrow Achievement Gaps International Initiatives: Teaching the Art of Forgiveness in War-Torn Places Research Notes:
Feature StoryUsing Research to Narrow Achievement Gaps African-American, Latino, and other students of color have much poorer odds of succeeding in public schools than do their White counterparts. But those odds can be improved. The school district of Arlington, Virginia collected and used research data to target solutions for reducing the achievement gaps that exist for students of color. In the recent book Gaining on the Gap: Changing Hearts, Minds, and Practice in the Arlington Public Schools, former Arlington superintendent Rob Smith and colleagues describe how they increased academic achievement and narrowed gaps. The book discusses the challenges (educational, social, and political) Arlington faced and the steps the district took to meet those challenges. MSAN was formed in 1999 as district superintendents realized they could address the challenges presented by racial achievement gaps more effectively by working together. As was the case with Arlington Public Schools, MSAN districts were already recognized for overall academic excellence, connections to major research universities, a historical commitment to racial integration, and strong parent and community support. International InitiativesTeaching the Art of Forgiveness in War-Torn Places Many of us recall the civil conflict that raged in Northern Ireland during the 1970s through the 1990s. Belfast residents suffered from paramilitary action and violence that led to many deaths. The survivors still bear the burden of memories, pain, and depression. It’s difficult to imagine being able to forgive someone for the destruction and killing that occurred during ‘The Troubles.’ But forgiveness is what Bob Enright and colleagues have been teaching for decades, and in Nothern Ireland for the past 10 years. A professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, Enright says that children in contentious regions of the world reduce in anger and depression as a result of one-hour-per week classroom instruction on forgiveness as led by the classroom teacher. Read the full article here. Research NotesIn the current issue of BOSS Magazine, Gloria Ladson-Billings discusses the need to “grab this generation” of students. The organization of most schools is toxic to Black and Latino students, she says, and she notes the lack of male students serving as class valedictorians or salutatorians. BOSS Magazine aims to target, empower, and cater to African American and minority youth and to produce new positive role models and make them attainable. More... Wisconsin Statewide Value-Added Project School districts participating in the Wisconsin Statewide Value-Added project receive value-added estimates based on results from the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam for their district and their schools compared to the state average. The 43 participating districts share their experiences with rolling out value-added through a Statewide Value-Added Advisory group made up of district leaders, representatives from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) 2. The collaborative uses the Wisconsin Value-Added Online Reporting System to view and compare value-added information specific to their district. VARC staff continue to develop the reporting tool that allows schools to see their value-added data at the grade and school level, over several years, and to compare that with other schools in the district, CESA, or statewide. VARC staff continue to make the data more accessible to districts wanting to do their own analysis or training. More.... Bullying is a serious health concern for middle school students. Students who experience peer bullying suffer psychologically, socially, physically, and educationally. In a newly funded project Amy Bellmore is identifying peer group factors that can be targeted to lessen the consequences of daily peer victimization. The study asks two specific questions: 1) do social environments predict sixth-grade students’ coping responses? and 2) how do coping strategies and social environments interact to predict well being in the face of daily peer victimization experiences? Belmore’s work examines 3 urban communities; the goal is to find promising new directions for cost-effective peer victimization interventions that are relevant for helping a broad spectrum of U.S. youth. More... Digital Video Analysis Software Updated Transana 2.50 is now available, offering new features. Transana is software for professional researchers who want to analyze digital video or audio data. Transana lets you analyze and manage data in sophisticated ways. Transcribe it, identify analytically interesting clips, assign keywords to clips, arrange and rearrange clips, create complex collections of interrelated clips, explore relationships between applied keywords, and share your analysis with colleagues. The result is a new way to focus on your data, and a new way to manage large collections of video and audio files and clips. More... WCER Today reaches more than 2000 subscribers monthly. Part of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the 44-year-old Wisconsin Center for Education Research receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and private foundations. http://www.wcer.wisc.edu Contact the editor: pbaker@wisc.edu
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