Search

STEM graduate education is vitally important in producing the talent needed to fuel our economy and provide solutions for the challenges we face in emerging diseases and climate change. Yet recent research indicates that women and students who identify as members of minority groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM face extraordinary challenges in their graduate careers. This commentary describes ways in which chemistry graduate education could become more supportive and inclusive through changes by graduate students, faculty, departments, funding agencies, and professional organizations. As a result the scientific workforce could utilize the full range of available talent and become more productive.

Graduate training is a key element in producing a scientific workforce that reflects the nation's diversity. This paper examines data from a 2013 American Chemical Society (ACS) survey of 2,544 chemistry masters and doctoral students and reveals barriers to reaching this goal. Multivariate statistical analyses indicate that women reported significantly less supportive relationships with advisors. Women were less likely to plan to finish their degrees, and for PhD students, the discrepancy was larger for students at the start of their graduate program. Women were also less likely to pursue the next level of training, and the gender difference related to postdoctoral plans was greater for those who identified with a racial-ethnic group traditionally underrepresented in chemistry (underrepresented minority, URM). URM students who were beyond the first year of their graduate program reported significantly less supportive relationships with peers. They were also less likely to have funding sufficient to meet their needs and more often used personal resources including loans. Despite these difficulties, URM students were more likely to definitely plan to finish their degrees, and men who identified as URM were more likely to plan to pursue postdoctoral work. Independent of gender and identification as URMs, students in more highly ranked schools reported less advisor support. Extensive open-ended comments indicated that large proportions of the students desired more attention and meaningful feedback from advisors and changes within their programs to promote support for students and advisor accountability. Suggestions for future research are given, and a companion commentary discusses needed directions for change.

This article examined the extent to which administrative decisions that affected the implementation fidelity of Direct Instruction programs were related to student achievement. Data from three studies showed that administrative decisions that disregarded recommended protocols regarding teacher training, teacher preparation, and student schedules were related to lower levels of teacher fidelity, student progress at mastery, and student achievement. Most results were statistically significant and had large associated effect sizes. Implications for practice and policy are discussed.

Data from two different sites were used to examine how exposure to a highly academic curriculum is related to growth in beginning literacy and early reading skills from kindergarten through the end of third grade. In one site students in one school used the Direct Instruction (DI) program, "Reading Mastery (RM)", from kindergarten through grade 3, while students in a nearby school with similar demographic characteristics and entry skills had "Open Court". In the other site, comparisons were made between one cohort that had a whole language kindergarten experience and began the "RM" program in first grade with two other cohorts who had "RM" throughout their K-3 career. In both sites, students exposed to RM had significantly greater growth in Nonsense Word Fluency scores from mid-kindergarten through the end of first grade. In addition, in both sites Oral Reading Fluency scores at the middle of first grade exhibited strong differences in favor of the "RM" students. For students in the Pacific Northwest site these differences persisted with very little change through the end of third grade. However, for those in the Midwestern site, where all cohorts had "RM" in grades 1-3, the differences gradually declined, although differences remained in favor of the "RM" group at the end of third grade. (Contains 5 tables and 4 figures.)

The representation of women among recipients of chemistry Ph.D. degrees has increased in recent years, but their representation among the faculty in academic departments is still below what would be expected given the proportion of degrees received. Articles published in the "Journal of Chemical Education" in 2010 documented a hostile gender-related climate in academic chemistry and the way in which COACh had helped women deal with this hostile environment. This paper replicates and extends the 2010 analyses. Findings from surveys of over 400 women indicate that the negative gender-related climate within chemistry changed very little from 2006 to 2016. Women who had participated in COACh continued to report that they often used skills learned in COACh workshops and that these skills helped them in their careers. Discussion of the findings emphasizes the extent to which commitment and actions by administrators and the profession as a whole are needed to promote the full inclusion of women within the field.

Quantitative mixed models were used to examine literature published from 1966 through 2016 on the effectiveness of Direct Instruction. Analyses were based on 328 studies involving 413 study designs and almost 4,000 effects. Results are reported for the total set and subareas regarding reading, math, language, spelling, and multiple or other academic subjects; ability measures; affective outcomes; teacher and parent views; and single-subject designs. All of the estimated effects were positive and all were statistically significant except results from metaregressions involving affective outcomes. Characteristics of the publications, methodology, and sample were not systematically related to effect estimates. Effects showed little decline during maintenance, and effects for academic subjects were greater when students had more exposure to the programs. Estimated effects were educationally significant, moderate to large when using the traditional psychological benchmarks, and similar in magnitude to effect sizes that reflect performance gaps between more and less advantaged students.

Most evaluators have embraced the goal of evidence-based practice (EBP). Yet, many have criticized EBP review systems that prioritize randomized control trials and use various criteria to limit the studies examined. They suggest this could produce policy recommendations based on small, unrepresentative segments of the literature and recommend a more traditional, inclusive approach. This article reports two empirical studies assessing this criticism, focusing on the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). An examination of outcomes of 252 WWC reports on literacy interventions found that 6% or fewer of the available studies were selected for review. Half of all intervention reports were based on only one study of a program. Data from 131 studies of a reading curriculum were used to compare conclusions using WWC procedures and more inclusive procedures. Effect estimates from the inclusive approach were more precise and closer to those of other reviews. Implications are discussed.

In this article, the authors describe a concerted, long-term effort by academic women chemists to provide mentoring and training for their colleagues to survive and change the negative climate of their profession and to develop successful careers in spite of these barriers. Data came from records kept by the group, observations of their activities, and extensive reflections of key participants. Concepts from the social science literature regarding successful organizations are applied to the analysis. Important elements identified are strong and consistent leadership, use of social networks to maintain a diverse and committed membership, using data to develop and change programs, and an organizational culture that supports norms promoting deliberative task orientations and a supportive socioemotional climate.

The Climate Masters at Home program was modeled after Extension "master" classes with the aim of increasing individuals' energy and resource saving behaviors. This article explores the impact of the program on participants' behavior, attitudes, and knowledge over several years of implementation. Data sources include survey results from participants and control groups, as well as utility data for a subset of participants. The research shows participants making significant changes across a variety of behaviors, integrating climate change into their decision making process, and cutting their electricity use by 12 to 14%.

The author appreciates the opportunity to reply to Professor Eppley's comment on her paper that was recently published in the "Journal of Research in Rural Education" (Stockard, 2011b). Eppley's paper contains numerous statements that misrepresent both the content of the author's original paper and the social science literature as well as a number of provocative philosophical comments. In this article, the author addresses each of these areas.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of two implementation variables (source of technical support and time of implementation) to first grade reading achievement across three naturally-occurring conditions over a six-year time span. Two of the conditions involved implementation of Direct Instruction (DI) curriculum programs, one with technical support from a purveyor associated with the curriculum's developer and the other with a group not associated with the developer. The third condition involved implementation of another highly rated reading curriculum program: "Open Court." Increases in the vocabulary and comprehension achievement scores of students across all three conditions were statistically significant. Increases in students' scores were significantly greater in the DI implementation conditions relative to the "Open Court" condition. Increases in students' scores were significantly larger in the DI implementation condition with technical support from the purveyor associated with the curriculum developer relative to the group not associated with the curriculum developer. Differences in achievement across the implementation conditions were both statistically significant and educationally meaningful. (Contains 3 figures and 7 footnotes.)

Reviews of research on rural education suggest that identifying ways to help rural schools improve teachers' pedagogical skills should be a high priority. This article addresses this issue by examining changes in reading skills through the primary grades of students in three rural, Midwestern districts that occurred after the implementation of a highly structured and explicit reading curriculum (Reading Mastery) with implementation-associated support and guidance. Using a cohort control group design, reading skills of students who had the curriculum from the beginning of kindergarten (full exposure cohorts) were compared with those of students who began the curriculum in later years. By the middle of kindergarten, those in the full exposure cohorts had significantly higher DIBELS scores than students in the other cohorts and scores that were equal to or higher than a national sample. Differences remained strong and significant through grade 3, and effect sizes generally surpassed usual standards of educational significance. Data were available on scores on state reading examinations for fourth graders in one of the districts, and similar results were found. The findings illustrate how rural districts in a sparsely populated state can support teachers' pedagogical development and how this support can translate into higher student achievement. (Contains 8 tables.)

For the field of chemistry to play a leading role in the science and technology sector of the U.S. economy it must recruit and retain the best and brightest talent from all segments of our society. Currently in the United States there is a significant disparity in the recruitment and retention of women relative to their male counterparts, particularly at advanced-degree levels. For the past eight years the Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists (COACh) has been offering professional development workshops on negotiation and communication skills for women faculty in the chemical sciences. The workshops are a combination of professional-skills training, experiential learning, role-playing, and group problem solving. To date, over 400 women chemistry faculty have attended these workshops held prior to national professional meetings for chemists. This article examines the participants' perceptions of the impact of the workshops on their careers. The results show that the overwhelming majority of the women report that the skills learned at the COACh workshops have enhanced their career progress in important and long-lasting ways. (Contains 6 tables and 2 notes.)

The statistical picture of the gender composition of chemistry as reported in national data indicates that women are underrepresented in academe in comparison to their representation in the field as a whole. This article presents data on the perceptions and views of a broad cross-section of women in academic chemistry departments and provides some clues as to why this underrepresentation may occur. In general, the data support literature that has posited a work climate that is problematic and less than welcoming for women. The results indicate that a large proportion of the women surveyed report that they receive little professional support through mentoring, that they perceive that there are strong differences in the resources and privileges awarded to men and women faculty, and that gender-related issues affect their department's ability to recruit and hire or to promote women's career progress after they are hired. Finally, the chemistry women in this study were significantly less likely than those in a national sample of academics to report being satisfied with their jobs and were significantly less likely than those in the national sample to agree that women and minorities are treated fairly.

Previous research has documented a substantial decline of standardized test scores of children from low-income backgrounds, relative to more advantaged peers, in later elementary grades, the so-called "fourth-grade slump." This article examines changes in reading achievement from first to fifth grade for students in a large urban school system with a high proportion of students from economically deprived backgrounds. Students received first-grade reading instruction from Direct Instruction (DI), Open Court, or a mixture of reading curricula. Results indicate that students in schools using DI had significantly greater gains in both reading vocabulary and comprehension than students in the two other settings and that their average levels of achievement in fifth grade were above the national norms, thus countering the fourth-grade slump. (Contains 8 tables and 8 footnotes.)

A large body of literature documents the central importance of fidelity of program implementation in creating an internally valid research design and considering such fidelity in judgments of research quality. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) provides web-based summary ratings of educational innovations and is the only rating group that is officially sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Yet, correspondence with the organization indicates that it disregards information regarding implementation fidelity in its summary ratings, relying on "replicated findings" and suggesting that any fidelity issues that "may have arisen are averaged." This paper demonstrates the fallacy in this logic. Simulations show that the policy minimizes the positive impact of highly effective programs and the negative impact of highly ineffective programs. Implications are discussed. (Contains 3 tables and 7 footnotes.)

Thirty-seven students from a suburban community in the southern United States were randomly assigned to receive 30 minutes of additional instruction each day in their usual language arts curriculum or 30 minutes of instruction with the Direct Instruction program, "Funnix Beginning Reading". Instruction for the "Funnix" group was provided by high school aged tutors, trained and supervised by an experienced teacher. Pretesting before instruction began indicated no significant differences between the two groups in letter naming fluency or initial sound fluency. However, by winter and spring the students in the "Funnix" group had significantly higher scores on numerous measures of beginning literacy. These results occurred with simple comparison of means, comparisons of scores to established bench- marks, and multivariate analyses that controlled for initial levels of skill and minority status. The results also appeared when a reduced sample that individually matched children on their pretest scores was used. (Contains 4 tables.)

This paper examines changes in the average mathematics achievement of students in the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) from 1998 to 2003, comparing students in schools that implemented Direct Instruction with students in other schools. First-grade students who received Direct Instruction had significantly higher levels of achievement on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) subtests of mathematics computations and mathematics concepts and applications. Differences were greater when measures of schools' sociodemographic context were controlled and as Direct Instruction became fully implemented and incorporated within the schools. Among students who began first grade in the BCPSS and remained in the same schools five years later as fifth graders, those who had received Direct Instruction as first graders had significantly higher scores on the measure of mathematics concepts and applications than students in the other schools. (Contains 5 tables.)

We employ newly developed methods to disentangle age, period and cohort effects on non-marital fertility ratios from 1972 through 2002 for black and white women ages 20-44 in the United States. We focus on three cohort factors: family structure, school enrollment and the sex ratio. For both blacks and whites, cohorts with less traditional family structures have higher NFRs. Other results differ by race. The impact of school enrollment on NFRs is significantly negative for whites, but significantly positive for blacks. The impact of sex ratio is significantly negative for blacks, but insignificant for whites. If black women and white women had cohort characteristics typical of the other group, age-specific NFRs for black women would decline markedly, while those for whites would increase markedly. (Contains 6 tables and 11 notes.)

In this article, the authors clarify and provide additional tests of the key elements of their age-period-cohort analysis of non-marital birth rates in this March 2009 issue of "Social Forces." Where Steve Martin, in his commentary, has suggested specific alternative specifications or interpretations of their findings, the authors have re-estimated and performed explicit tests of the alternatives. Martin suggests two explanations for the cohort patterns found in the authors' data: (1) different trends in the relationships of age-groups to NFRs; and (2) differences in the proportion unmarried for age-groups in different periods. The authors enter variables representing both of these postulated relationships into their models and find that they do not significantly alter the coefficients associated with the cohort characteristics that they reported in their original paper. Thus, at least taking these possible explanations into consideration, the authors find that the cohort effects remain strong in their data. Martin claims that the coefficients for the cohort characteristics that the authors report are improbably large--the authors find no evidence of that in their reading of the results. Martin finds the pattern of residuals within cohorts to be "weird" given the authors' model. In fact, the pattern of the residuals is supportive of cohort effects. Finally, the authors find cohort effects for age-period-specific NFRs when they analyze only cohorts with complete data, examining cohorts born in the years 1933-1937 and 1958-1962. According to Martin, such an analysis should not be subject to the biases that form the core of his critique. The authors have demonstrated the robustness of their results and strengthened the case for their interpretations. The points Martin raises and the authors' responses should help to clarify the nature of cohort effects and the authors' interpretation of them. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure and 4 notes.)

A longstanding debate focuses on whether suicide and homicide rates walk hand in hand or whether they are reciprocally related. Much of the research on this issue investigates whether suicide or homicide predominates in certain geographic areas or whether they trend together over time. We theorize that the degree of social integration and social regulation associated with birth cohorts is negatively related to both of these forms of lethal violence. We develop a common explanation for shifts in the age distributions of homicide and suicide in the United States from 1930 to 2000. In this context, suicide rates and homicide rates walk hand in hand and their parallel movements are associated with two variables linked to social integration and regulation.

Data from two panel studies, the 1993 to 1995 nationwide Schools and Staffing Survey and the Teacher Follow-Up Survey, as well as a 1998-1999 survey of teachers in one western state are used to examine the influence of variables related to demographic characteristics, work assignment, effectiveness, social support, and school management on the satisfaction and retention decisions of 1st-year public school teachers. Minor differences appear between the results for the statewide and national samples, but both sets of results indicate that the most important influences on satisfaction involve variables related to social support and school management, and that the most important influence on retention decisions is job satisfaction. Implications for future research and for practitioners are discussed, including the central role of effective and supportive school management in promoting the satisfaction and retention of 1st-year teachers.