Can Early Warning Systems improve attendance for low-SES students?

By Nathan Storey, Johns Hopkins University

During and following the COVID-19 pandemic, chronic absenteeism increased dramatically across the United States, with the largest increase by low-income students. One of the most common approaches schools implement to identify, monitor, and address student absenteeism is the Early Warning System (EWS), intended to provide schools with data about student attendance patterns in time to intervene and address absenteeism. Because existing research has been mixed on the impact of the low-cost program, Canbolat recently examined student attendance and demographic data from 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 to determine the impact of the program on student absenteeism, and if it varied by socio-economic status (SES), given the structural barriers low-SES students face to attend school.

The study focused on a single large urban southeast school district (n=80,000 students, 51% free- and reduced-lunch) where EWS was used for monitoring and intervention guidance as part of a district-wide multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). The study used a sharp regression discontinuity design (RD) with cutoffs based on EWS procedures. Students were identified as at-risk when they had more than a 4% absence rate, while students were identified as off-track when they reached 10% absence.

The author found no significant overall impact of EWS on student attendance for either at-risk or off-track students. However, the impact did differ by SES level for off-track students who were socioeconomically advantaged, reducing the absence rate by 1-2 percentage points (a meaningful difference). This discrepancy suggests that the EWS may not adequately address the structural barriers faced by socioeconomically disadvantaged students, such as the need for increased parental involvement and community support. Alternatively, it may indicate that the EWS is ineffective when dealing with a large number of moderately or chronically absent students.  The author suggests several policy and practical improvements to enhance the effectiveness of the EWS. These include forging partnerships with community organizations and implementing targeted communications to dispel common parental misconceptions about attendance.

How does SES influence reading performance?

By Winnie Tam, Centre for University and School Partnership, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Jiahui Li and colleagues at Shaanxi Normal University in China and The University of Texas at Austin explored the correlation between socioeconomic status (SES) and reading ability. They proposed that SES indirectly affects reading ability through two linguistic skills, namely, phonological awareness (PA) and vocabulary knowledge (VK). Toexamine this proposed mediation role, they employed meta-analytic structural equation modeling in a meta-analysis based on 385 studies involving  participants aged 2 to 17 years.

Results revealed that SES had significant direct effect on linguistics skills and reading outcomes: SES influenced students’ reading both directly and through its impact on phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge. Age, SES, and writing system were identified as moderating variables. Specifically:

• The effect of vocabulary knowledge on reading accuracy and reading comprehension increased with age.
• Phonological awareness had a stronger effect on reading accuracy in alphabetic languages (e.g., English) compared to logographic languages (i.e., Chinese).
• Similarly, the influence of verbal knowledge on reading comprehension was stronger in alphabet languages than in the logographic language.

A meta-analysis of the effects of cultural capital on students’ reading performance

By José L. Arco-Tirado, Faculty of Education, University of Granada (Spain)

A recent meta-analysis, published in the International Journal of Educational Research, examined the effects of cultural capital on student reading performance.  Applying six inclusion criteria—namely, type of cultural capital, school level, data source, publication type, publication year, and region—the meta-analysis aimed to assess the effects of various cultural capitals: “overall cultural capital,” “embodied cultural capital” (encompassing family wealth and expectations), “objectified cultural capital” (pertaining to ownership opportunities), and “institutionalized cultural capital” (linked to opportunities for education and subsequent employment).

The authors identified 37 studies, yielding an overall significant effect of cultural capital on reading performance (ES = +0.25).  Each type of cultural capital yielded similar results, with institutional (+0.23) and embodied (+0.24) cultural capitals exhibiting significantly higher effects compared to objectified cultural capital (+0.18). Regarding  school level, primary (+0.23) and secondary (+0.23) students showed  significantly higher effects than kindergarten students (+0.17). For the publication year, the post hoc test showed that the r+ of studies published in 1981–2000 (+0.31) and 2001–2010 (+0.23) were significantly higher than those published in 2011–2020 (+0.19). The r+ of samples from Europe (+0.21), North America (+0.20), South America (+0.33), and mixed regions (+0.26) were significantly higher than those from Asia (+0.09). Additionally, it was found that mother’s education (+0.24) had a greater influence than father’s (+0.17). Furthermore, a post hoc analysis revealed that studies published in 1981–2000 (+0.31) and 2001–2010 (+0.23) had significantly higher effects than those published in 2011–2020 (+0.19). Additionally, samples from Europe (+0.21), North America (+0.20), South America (+0.33), and mixed regions (+0.26) exhibited significantly higher effects compared to those from Asia (+0.09). Furthermore, it was observed that mother’s education (+0.24) had a greater influence on reading performance than father’s education (+0.17).

These findings offer  a nuanced understanding of the relationship between cultural capital and reading performance.

Does participating in extracurricular activities promote academic performance of youth in China?

By Winnie Tam, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Previous studies have demonstrated that participation in structured extracurricular activities (EA) promotes educational outcomes in a western context. A new research study published in the Journal of Youth Studies investigated the mechanism of the impact of participating in structured EA on educational outcomes of youth in China. The authors examined whether family SES predicted students’ participation in EA which in turn related to academic performance. In addition, they explored whether participating in EA may promote supportive social networks, which contribute to learning outcomes.

Two-wave data of about 8,000 7th grade students from the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) were collected. A baseline survey was conducted in 2014 and a follow-up survey was taken in 2015. Students reported whether they joined any extracurricular activities (e.g., sports, chess, painting) after school at baseline. Academic achievement was assessed by total scores on Chinese reading, Mathematics, and English reading.  Using students’ reported survey items, indicators for teacher praise, peer support academically, and family SES were generated. Analyses were conducted by controlling student background characteristics:

●           High SES students were more likely to participate in extracurricular activities than low SES children.

●           More academically-oriented peers were positively related to higher total test scores one year later.

●           More praise from teachers was positively associated with higher academic results.

The study used propensity score matching to form a sample by pairing students from the treatment group (EA participants) to students from the control group (non-EA participants). Using the matched sample, where the student background characteristics between the two groups were similar, the results of comparison indicated:

●           Academic test scores were not significantly different between the two groups.

●           Teacher praise received and academically-oriented friends ratings displayed no difference between the two groups.

Authors claim that unlike in a western context, extracurricular participation does not contribute directly or indirectly to eighth grade students’ academic performance in China, which is characterized by a high-stakes testing system. Participating in EA may help children to establish supportive social networks in the future but does not promote immediate academic performance.