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The traditional textbook is a familiar and useful tool that has served well for centuries.  Here, we discuss OpenIntro Statistics, a new textbook that seeks to retain the long-standing points of excellence among traditional textbooks, while overcoming what is potentially the most important traditional limitation: exclusivity.  OpenIntro Statistics is a completely open-source textbook, which can be downloaded for free and edited by anybody.  Its content meets the highest established standards, and is is written, edited, and reviewed by faculty from leading universities.  In this paper, we provide support for the assertion that OpenIntro Statistics retains as many of the advantages of a traditional textbook as possible, while empowering the largest possible audience to owna nd edit introductory content in statistics.  We also discuss how the open-source textbook model differs from other technologically enabled alternatives to the traditional textbook, and consider trends in the textbook over the coming years.

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The cells of Voronoi diagrams generated by epicentral locations of Southern California earthquakes are inspected. The tapered Pareto distribution is shown to fit quite well to the distribution of cell areas and perimeters. This same distribution, which has been used to model the distribution of seismic moments, is also a close approximation to the empirical distributions of times and distances between successive earthquakes for the same catalog of Southern California events. Verification is performed using a variety of different windows and sub-sampling procedures in order to confirm that the results are not an artifact of the particular parameters of the selected earthquake catalog.

The old four-unit Statistics 10 was restructured such that it is now a five-unit GE approved course in the Foundations of Scientific Inquiry area, both in the Life Sciences and Physical Sciences subgroup.The major goals of the restructured course are to: Maximize the role of students as active learners. Introduce statistics as a "science of data". Create an interactive environment. Place the major emphasis on upper level thinking and problem solving.Blended instruction, the use of technology and regular methods of teaching, was implemented to reach the above goals:A software called Moodle is adapted that makes it possible for the students to take on-line quizzes and provide the students and the instructors with information regarding correct answers and summary statistics. Students take weekly on line quizzes prior to attending section. In section, they are placed in groups (based on quartiles) to discuss the problems that the majority got wrong. The groups stay intact for the whole quarter. They take the quiz for the second time after group discussion. They do a weekly lab. They have two hours of lecture with the instructor (instead of three) and two hours with the teaching assistant (instead of one).

The Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards require students to understand and produce academic language that appears in informational text. Vocabulary is a critical domain of academic language, but English language learners (ELLs) come to the English Language Arts classroom with more limited English vocabulary than their English-proficient peers. This study compared 2 methods of vocabulary instruction: extended vocabulary instruction and embedded vocabulary instruction. Teachers implemented both approaches in the context of interactive shared reading, in which teachers and students read and discussed informational text. A total of 30 teachers in 18 schools and 509 third- and fourth-grade Spanish-speaking ELLs in a large, high-poverty district in the southwestern United States participated. Findings indicate that although extended instruction was the more effective approach, embedded instruction also helped ELLs acquire general academic and domain-specific vocabulary--an important finding, given that embedded instruction requires considerably less instructional time.

Despite a long-standing awareness of academic language as a pedagogically relevant research area, the construct of academic-language proficiency, understood as a more comprehensive set of skills than just academic vocabulary, has remained vaguely specified. In this study, we explore a more inclusive operationalization of an academic-language proficiency construct, core academic-language skills (CALS). "CALS" refers to a constellation of high-utility language skills hypothesized to support reading comprehension across school content areas. Using the Core Academic Language Skills Instrument (CALS-I), a theoretically grounded and psychometrically robust innovative tool, we first examined the variability in students' CALS by grade, English-proficiency designation, and socioeconomic status (SES). Then, we examined the contribution of CALS to reading comprehension using academic vocabulary knowledge, word reading fluency, and sociodemographic factors as covariates. A linguistically and socioeconomically diverse cross-sectional sample of 218 students (grades 4-6) participated in four assessments: the CALS-I, a standardized reading comprehension assessment (Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test), an academic vocabulary test (Vocabulary Association Test), and a word reading fluency test (Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency). General linear model analysis of variance revealed that CALS differed significantly by grade, English-proficiency designation, and SES, with students in higher grades, English-proficient students, and those from higher SES backgrounds displaying higher scores, on average. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses identified CALS as an independent predictor of reading comprehension, even after controlling for academic vocabulary knowledge, word reading fluency, and sociodemographic factors. By specifying a set of language skills associated with reading comprehension, this study advances our understanding of school-relevant language skills, making them more visible for researchers and educators.

This study explores the role that socioeconomic status (SES), home and school language and literacy practices, and oral vocabulary play in the development of English reading skills in Latino English language learners (ELLs) and how these factors contribute differentially to English reading outcomes for children of different ages and in different settings: 292 Spanish-speaking kindergarteners in mostly English instruction, 85 Spanish-speaking third graders in bilingual instruction, and 70 Spanish-speaking fifth graders in both English and bilingual settings. Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression. Findings indicate that for each sample, English oral vocabulary is a significant predictor of English reading accuracy and comprehension once SES and home and school language and literacy factors have been considered. Beyond oral vocabulary, however, there is considerable variability across samples in the home and school language and literacy variables that are predictive of English reading outcomes. The study points to the importance of looking closely at the texture of children's lives in coming to an understanding of second-language literacy development.

This three-year longitudinal study investigated the role of language of instruction in moderating the relationships between initial levels of English oral language proficiency and Spanish reading comprehension and growth in English reading comprehension. The study followed Spanish-speaking English language learners in English-only literacy instruction, an early-exit bilingual program, or a late-exit bilingual program, from third through fifth grade. Students in all groups experienced significant growth in English reading comprehension. For the English-only group, initial levels of Spanish reading comprehension were not related to growth in English reading comprehension. However, for students in the two bilingually instructed groups, those who began with stronger Spanish reading comprehension skills grew faster in English reading comprehension than students without initial strong Spanish reading comprehension skills.