Search

This article presents a correlational study between lexical density and school progression in texts written by school age children and adolescents, monolingual speakers of European Portuguese. The measure used to assess lexical density is the ratio of lexical words to the total number of words (global density), as proposed by Ure (1971). This measure is complemented by the ratio of specific word classes (name, verb, adjective and adverb) to the total number of words. Using IMS Open Corpus Workbench tool, this measures was extracted from a quasi-longitudinal corpus consisting of 244 texts of narrative (n = 122) and argumentative (n = 122) register, written by students in the 5th (n = 26), the 7th (n = 46) and 10th (n = 50) year of the Portuguese basic schooling system. The results show that there are no correlations between global lexical density and school progression in both registers. Regarding specific lexical density, it was found that, in one hand, there is a positive correlation between nominal density and progression and, on the other hand, there is a negative correlation between verbal density and progression. This work aims to contribute to a more detailed understanding of the lexical development of children and adolescents written language across school progression.

Improvements in life expectancy have increased interactions between grandchildren and grandparents. This paper examines how grandparent’s co-residence shapes grandchildren’s educational progression by grandchildren’s family structure. Based on a life course perspective approach, I use three waves of novel panel data from the Mexican Family Life Survey, and ask whether grandparent’s co-residence influence grandchildren’s educational transitions, depending upon grandchildren’s family structure, and whether grandparents’ education influence grandchildren’s educational transitions. This study suggests that grandparents’ co-residence does not have a linear effect on the process of educational attainment, given that its effect maybe positive, negative, of null depending on family structure and the specific roles grandparents assume. It also shows that in countries like Mexico, where the education of older cohorts is fairly low, grandparent’s education is not associated with grandchildren’s school progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of ethnicity, gender, urban-rural residence, and socioeconomic status on children's progress through school. It also investigates other correlates of progress through school within the categories of ethnicity, gender, urban-rural residence, and socioeconomic status. The study finds ethnic and income gaps in progress through school. In particular, the results show that Hausa-Fulani children and poor children are less likely on average to progress through school than Yoruba children and non-poor children. The preceding results have numerous policy implications. To address the lack of progress through school that arises from late entry, policies must implement early childhood nutrition and food programs. To reduce lack of progress through school among poor children, policy makers must focus on poverty eradication, learning enhancement, and remedial education programs. To address the problem of lack of progress through school among Hausa-Fulani children, it is vital for policies to establish mobile schools, visiting female teachers, and separate school facilities, especially for Hausa-Fulani girls. Results also indicate that work interferes with children's progress through school; particularly among poor children, rural children, and Hausa-Fulani children. To address this problem, policies need to implement educational stipends that are given to the households in which these children belong on the condition that they are released from work-related distractions during school time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timely progression through school is an important measure for school performance, completion and the onset of other life transitions for adolescents. This study examines the risk factors for grade repetition and establishes the extent to which age-for-grade heterogeneity contributes to subsequent grade repetition at early and later stages of school. Using data from a demographic surveillance site in Karonga district, northern Malawi, a cohort of 8174 respondents (ages 5–24 years) in primary school was followed in 2010 and subsequent grade repetition observed in 2011. Grade repetition was more common among those at early (grades 1–3) and later (grades 7–8) stages of school, with little variation by sex. Being under-age or over-age in school has different implications on schooling outcomes, depending on the stage of schooling. After adjusting for other risk factors, boys and girls who were under-age at early stages were at least twice as likely to repeat a grade as those at the official age-for-grade (girls: adjusted OR 2.06 p < 0.01; boys: adjusted OR 2.37 p < 0.01); while those over-age at early stages were about 30% less likely to repeat (girls: adjusted OR 0.65 p < 0.01; boys: adjusted OR 0.72 p < 0.01). Being under/over-age at later grades (4–8) was not associated with subsequent repetition but being over-age was associated with dropout. Other risk factors identified that were associated with repetition included both family-level factors (living away from their mother, having young children in the household, lower paternal education) and school-level factors (higher student-teacher ratio, proportion of female teachers and schools without access to water). Reducing direct and indirect costs of schooling for households; and improving school quality and resources at early stages of school may enable timely progression at early stages for greater retention at later stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este artigo faz uma revisão de estudos publicados sobre ciclos e progressão escolar no país, tomando por base levantamento das publicações acadêmicas sobre o tema, que abrangeu o período de 1980 ao primeiro semestre de 2002, bem como trabalhos mais recentes. A partir dos focos identificados na revisão preliminar do material, realizada no referido levantamento, o texto procura destacar: conclusões provenientes do resgate histórico das experiências de introdução dos ciclos nas redes escolares; dados sobre a abrangência e configuração atual das escolas organizadas em ciclos no país; dimensões enfatizadas, omitidas ou pouco exploradas em ensaios ou em pesquisas sobre os ciclos, tais como a sua fundamentação, implementação e apreciação dos resultados; fontes bibliográficas para o estudo das experiências específicas. Especial atenção é dada aos artigos referentes às reformas promovidas em municípios de capitais que introduziram a organização do ensino em ciclos em contextos inovadores, como São Paulo, Belo Horizonte e Porto Alegre. À guisa de conclusão, as autoras consideram que, embora na literatura examinada haja elementos preciosos para a compreensão do atual estágio em que se encontram as questões pertinentes aos ciclos, as políticas em curso demandam mais investigações que abarquem as dimensões de formulação, implementação e impacto, sendo oportunas não apenas as análises de cunho descritivo e analítico, como também os estudos de caráter propositivo.This article is a review of published studies about school cycles and school progression in this country, based on a survey of academic publications on this issue covering the period from 1980 to the first half of 2002, as well as more recent material. From the focal points identified during the preliminary review of the material carried out in the above-mentioned survey the text attempts to highlight: conclusions drawn from the historical recovery of the experiences of introducing cycles in schools; data on the coverage and current configuration of schools organized in cycles in Brazil; dimensions emphasized, omitted or little explored in essays and research on school cycles; bibliographical sources for the study of specific experiences. Special attention is given to recent articles that refer to the reforms carried out in state capital cities, which have introduced the cycle organization within innovative contexts, such as those conducted in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre. As a conclusion, the authors consider that, although the literature examined does contain valuable elements to the comprehension of the current stage in which the issues related to school cycles find themselves, the ongoing policies demand further investigation covering the dimensions of formulation, implementation and impact; timely studies are not just those of a descriptive or analytical nature, but also those submitting proposals.

This article presents a correlational study between lexical diversity and school progression in texts written by school age children and adolescents, monolingual speakers of European Portuguese. The measure used to assess lexical diversity is D (RICHARDS; MALVERN, 1997), a mathematical correction of the TTR measure (TEMPLIN, 1957), which is based on the ratio of different words (types) to the total number of words (tokens). Using CLAN (MACWHINNEY, 2000) and IMS Open Corpus Workbench (EVERT; HARDIE, 2011) tools, this measure was applied to a quasi-longitudinal corpus consisting of 244 texts of narrative (n = 122) and argumentative (n = 122) register, written by students in the fifth (n = 26), the seventh (n = 46) and tenth (n = 50) year of the Portuguese basic schooling system. The results show that there are positive correlations between lexical diversity and school progression in both registers, although not linear from the fifth to the tenth year. To support the discussion, two examples of vocabulary variation are presented. This work aims to contribute to a more detailed understanding of the lexical development of children and adolescents written language across school progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Using data from Birth to Twenty, a cohort of South African urban children, the current paper investigates the relationships between residential and school mobility and a set of educational outcomes. The findings provide some evidence of a positive association between changes in residence and numeracy and literacy scores, and school mobility was found to be associated with grade repetition, however, no relationship was observed between changes in school and competency in numeracy and literacy. The South African study provides a counter example to trends observed in higher-income countries, while highlighting that associations are likely to be context specific. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Primary enrolment rates are very high in Peru, but so are the failure and drop-out rates. Thus an understanding of the nature of child schooling should consider school progression from primary to secondary and higher levels, taking account of the conditional sequence with the previous level and self-selection into the next higher level of schooling. Using a unique correlated sequential probit model with unobserved heterogeneity the present paper does so and obtains richer results, argued to be better than the standard static estimates. It is shown that the same set of individual/parental/household characteristics may affect different levels of schooling differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]