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Reviewed: The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation. Bloom, Harold.

• Fraction difficulties limit students' educational and vocational opportunities. • There is a critical need to develop fraction interventions tailored to at-risk learners. • The effectiveness of a 6th grade fraction sense intervention grounded in principles from the science of learning was examined. • The fraction sense intervention (FSI) group outperformed the control group on measures assessment fraction knowledge. A solid understanding of fractions is the cornerstone for acquiring proficiency with rational numbers and paves the way for learning advanced mathematical concepts such as algebra. Fraction difficulties limit not only students' educational and vocational opportunities but also their ability to solve everyday problems. Students who exit sixth grade with inadequate understanding of fractions may experience far-reaching repercussions that lead to lifelong avoidance of mathematics. This article presents the results of a randomized controlled trial focusing on the first two cohorts of a larger efficacy investigation aimed at building fraction sense in students with mathematics difficulties. Teachers implemented an evidence-informed fraction sense intervention (FSI) within their sixth-grade intervention classrooms. The lessons draw from research in cognitive science as well as mathematics education research. Employing random assignment at the classroom level, multilevel modeling revealed a significant effect of the intervention on posttest fractions scores after controlling for pretest fractions scores, working memory, vocabulary, proportional reasoning, and classroom attentive behavior. Students in the FSI group outperformed their counterparts in the control group, with noteworthy effect sizes on most fraction measures. Challenges associated with carrying out school-based intervention research are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of principal leadership and peer teacher influence on teachers' instructional practice and student learning. Using teacher survey and student achievement data from a mid-sized urban southeastern school district in the United States in 2006-2007, the study employs multilevel structural equation modeling to examine the structural relationships between student learning and theorized dimensions of principal leadership, teacher peer influence, and change in teachers' instructional practice. The findings confirm previous empirical work and provide new contributions to research on the chain of hypothesized relationships between leadership practice and student learning. Both principal leadership and teacher peer influence were significantly associated with teachers' instructional practices and English language arts (ELA) student learning. A major contribution of this research is the strong and significant indirect relationships which mediate education leadership and student learning. The results indicate the importance of principals work for student learning because of their indirect influence on teachers' practices through the fostering of collaboration and communication around instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides information about the prevalence, living conditions, and demographic characteristics of housing instability among students in the state of Delaware. Data were obtained from the Delaware Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) for the 2011–2017 academic years and included 23,819 youth respondents in grades 6–12. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were conducted to characterize student demographics. Results show that 3.6% (about one out of 30) of Delaware students, grades 6–12, experience housing instability, and this rate was consistent across urban and rural areas. Findings also reveal that males and students of color were more likely to experience housing instability. Results obtained are utilized to understand the prevalence of housing instability and to inform schools, communities, and policy makers of ways to support and strengthen services and programming for students' academic needs and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The past decade has seen considerable debate about how to best evaluate the efficacy of educational improvement initiatives, and members of the educational leadership research community have entered the debate with great energy. Throughout this debate, the use of randomized experiments has been a particularly contentious subject. This study examines the potential benefits, limitations, and challenges involved in using experiments to evaluate professional development for principals. Approach: We present a case study of an experimental evaluation of a professional development program for principals. The case study is grounded in key themes in recent debates about the use of experiments in educational research, scholarship on challenges in conducting experiments, and experimental studies involving principals. Setting and Sample: The case study was conducted in an urban school district with 48 principals. Implications for Research: The experimental component of the study allowed us to form a trustworthy summary inference about whether or not a professional development program had an overall effect on principals. However, the experiment did not illuminate why or how the program failed to influence principal practice. Using descriptions of the intended curriculum for principals, professional development attendance records, and interview data, we developed an understanding of why the program failed to achieve its intended goals. Based on our experiences, we support continued advocacy of research designs that bring rich evidence to bear about causal mechanisms, implementation conditions, potential measures of delivery of and adherence to treatment protocols, and measures of participants’ exposure to treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores whether students from low-income families and racial/ethnic minority groups have the opportunity to benefit in what is arguably the most rigorous type of credit-based transition program: the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). The analyses first describe national longitudinal trends in characteristics of schools offering the IBDP and the characteristics of students within schools who enroll. The analyses draw on data from the International Baccalaureate database, which include individual-level data on more than 400,000 IBDP students from 1995 through 2009, as well as data from the Common Core of Data from the National Center for Education Statistics. The article also draws on data collected from a survey of IBDPs in Florida to document variations in the opportunity to benefit from available IBDPs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Because research has shown that principals' practices can significantly impact teaching and learning in their schools through multiple avenues, it is critical to understand the validity of tools that measure principal practice. While the field has relied heavily on self-report surveys, little is known about their validity. This study compares survey measures of principal leadership practice with comparable daily log measures. We construct a multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) matrix showing intercorrelations among 4 dimensions of principal leadership captured with the 2 instruments. Correlations were evaluated against criteria used for MTMM analyses. Considerable evidence attested to the principal survey's validity, with correlations between log and survey measures of all 4 dimensions exceeding .50. Results suggest that surveys may be better at measuring principals' management of the school building and instructional leadership than measuring more irregular activities like planning and personal professional development. We discuss steps for improving the validity of principal surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED) is a multirater assessment of principals' learning-centered leadership. The instrument was developed based on the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. In this article, we report on the validity and reliability evidence for the VAL-ED accumulated in a national field trial. Using data from more than 270 schools across a wide range of settings, we found that the instrument was reliable for measuring principals' learning-centered leadership. Furthermore, there was mostly positive evidence that the VAL-ED distinguished among subscales of principal performance. In conjunction with findings from the VAL-ED development phase, these results support the conclusion that the VAL-ED can be used by K-12 schools to assess learning-centered leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has consistently shown that principal leadership matters for successful schools. Evaluating principals on the behaviors shown to improve student learning should be an important leverage point for raising leadership quality. Yet principals are often evaluated with the use of instruments with no theoretical background and little, if any, documented psychometric properties. To address this need, a team of researchers in principal leadership, assessment development, and psychometrics developed the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED). The purpose here is to report on iterative development work where the instrument was tested and revised across several cycles. Future work to investigate the instrument's psychometric properties is identified. After an extensive item writing and instrument development phase, the authors embarked on a series of studies designed to guide improvements to the instrument. These studies include a sorting study, two rounds of cognitive interviews, a bias review, and two rounds of small-scale pilot tests. Results and implications from each study are discussed.The iterative development process helped improve the clarity of instructions and items while building a growing collection of preliminary validity and reliability evidence. At the end of the development process, the VAL-ED represents a promising instrument for assessing principal instructional leadership. The VAL-ED also represents a tool for possible use by principal leadership researchers in measuring the effectiveness of school principals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bringing effective, research-based literacy interventions into the classroom is challenging, especially given the cultural and linguistic diversity of today's classrooms. We examined the promise of Assessment-to-Instruction (A2i) technology redesigned to be used at scale to support teachers' implementation of the individualized student instruction (ISI) intervention from kindergarten through third grade. In seven randomized controlled trials, A2i and ISI have demonstrated efficacy. However, the research version of A2i was not scalable. In order to bring A2i to scale in schools serving linguistically diverse students, we carried out the current study across two phases. This study represents both an exploration of what it takes to bring an educational intervention to scale (Phase 1) and a quasi-experiment on the literacy outcomes of learners whose teachers used the technology (Phase 2). We integrated assessments of vocabulary, word decoding, and reading comprehension; revised the A2i algorithms to account for the constellation of skills English learners (ELs) bring to the classroom; updated the user interfaces and added new graphic features; and improved bandwidth and stability of the technology. Findings were mixed, including several non-significant results, a marginally significant intent-to-treat effect on word reading in kindergarten and first grade for English monolingual students and ELs, and one significant interaction effect, which suggested ELs and students with less developed reading skills in second and third grade benefitted most from the intervention. With some caution, we conclude that A2i demonstrates potential to be used at scale and promise of effectiveness for improving code-focused skills for diverse learners.

Disparities in healthy food access and consumption are a major public health concern. This study reports the findings from a two-year randomized control trial conducted at 77 farmers' markets (FMs) in 13 states and the District of Columbia that sought to understand the impact of fruit and vegetable (FV) incentive vouchers, randomly issued at varied incentive levels to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, for use at FMs. Measures included FV and overall household food purchasing; FV consumption; food insecurity; health status; market expenditure; and demographics. A repeated-measures mixed-effects analysis and the Complier Average Causal Effect (CACE) were used to examine outcomes. Despite 82% reporting food insecurity in the prior year, the findings showed that financial incentives at FMs had statistically significant, positive effects on FV consumption; market expenditures increased with added incentives. SNAP recipients receiving an incentive of USD 0.40 for every USD 1.00 in SNAP spent an average of USD 19.03 per transaction, while those receiving USD 2 for every USD 1 (2:1) spent an average of USD 36.28 per transaction. The data showed that the incentive program at the highest level (2:1) maximally increased SNAP FM expenditure and FV consumption, increasing the latter by 0.31 daily cups among those who used their incentive (CACE model).

In order to address the pervasive trend of underconsumption of fruits and vegetables among children, we examined the hypothesis that children would be more likely to select fruits (apple slices, bananas, and oranges) and vegetables (baby carrots) when paired with animal cartoon image than when available without the character image. Tested in a randomized experiment using counterbalancing, products were arranged on two tables at two separate family fun nights held at a local zoo. Animal character produce parings were manipulated by placing one of two animals (tamarin or iguana) next to two of the four fruit or vegetable selections at each table, and by changing when available without the image. In total, 755 produce selections were made. Significantly more products paired with a character were selected (62.38%) than the same products, not paired (37.62%), χ 2 = 46.32, df = 1, p < .001. The odds ratio of the treatment versus control was 1.66 (i.e., 471/284), indicating that children were 66% more likely to select a snack when paired with an animal cartoon. Study findings highlight the positive impact of animal cartoons on children's fruit and vegetable snack selections, and results suggest the potential for using animal cartoons to encourage fruit and vegetable selection for children.

Background: Diet and physical activity are important factors in the etiology, prevention, and treatment of chronic diseases such as obesity and its associated comorbidities. Accurate measures of diet and activity are critical in understanding how these lifestyle and behavioral factors covary to affect health status., Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between body mass index (BMI) z score and self-report measures of diet and activity, the Youth/Adolescent Questionnaire (YAQ) and the Youth/Adolescent Activity Questionnaire (YAAQ), respectively., Design: Participants were 1092 students in grades 4 through 6 from 10 schools in a US city in the middle Atlantic region with >or=50% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Students were assessed at baseline and again after 2 y. The relation between self-reported energy intake (YAQ) and activity (physical and sedentary) (YAAQ) and BMI z score was explored from both a cross-sectional and longitudinal perspective., Results: The YAQ (energy intake) and YAAQ (physical and sedentary activity) did not relate to BMI z score in the expected directions from either a cross-sectional or longitudinal perspective., Conclusion: In this large, racially diverse sample, the YAQ and the YAAQ were not significantly associated with BMI z score or changes in BMI z score.