New systematic translational review on improving young children’s reading skills

A new systematic translational review (STR) from the BCTR Research Synthesis Project examined whether there are brief, low-cost, home-based parenting interventions that improve pre-reading skills for children ages 2–5. The review of existing research on this subject found that there is an at-home method that has demonstrable positive effects on young children's reading skills: dialogic reading. For more information on the review process and findings, see the full STR, Parenting Interventions to Improve Pre-literacy Reading Skills for Children Ages 2–5.

STRs are the result of a new research synthesis protocol designed to include practitioner input in the review process while maintaining the structure of a systematic review and speed of a rapid review. The method was developed by Research Synthesis Project director Mary Maley to improve the accessibility and use of research evidence by community practitioners and policy makers. Review topics focus on applied practice questions which require a synopsis of evidence to use in order to strengthen program implementation. More about the STR process can be found here.

Previously pr0duced STRs:

• Community Engagement in Practice
• Parent Education for Teen Pregnancy Prevention
• Psycho-Social Evaluation Measures for 8-12 year-olds in Nutrition Education Programs

Talks at Twelve: Stephen Hamilton and Mara Jacobs, Thursday, February 12, 2015

Translational Research Goes to School: Action Research at High Tech High
Stephen Hamilton and Mara Jacobs, Human Development, Cornell University

Thursday, February 12, 2015
12:00-1:00PM
Beebe Hall, 2nd floor conference room

This talk is open to all. Lunch will be served. Metered parking is available in the Plantations lot across the road from Beebe Hall.

In this talk Stephen Hamilton will introduce High Tech High and the Graduate School of Education, describe research that has been done and is currently underway, and invite discussion of possible future translational research. Mara Jacobs will share her experiences as a graduate of High Tech High (HTH) and her efforts to integrate the HTH philosophy into other educational settings.

High Tech High is a charter school organization with 12 schools, elementary through high school, in San Diego County, California. Students are admitted by lottery, stratified by zip code to represent the populations of County districts. Nearly all graduate from high school and about 90% have graduated or are still enrolled in college six years later. The HTH Graduate School of Education confers master’s degrees on teachers and principals, who conduct action research on their practice, and disseminate HTH practices and principles locally, nationally, and internationally, promoting practice-based research and creating opportunities for research on dissemination.

Stephen Hamilton is Professor of Human Development and Associate Director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. He has been a high school teacher and Cornell’s Associate Provost for Outreach. He edited a special issue of Applied Developmental Science now in press that includes his essay on “Translational Research and Youth Development” and an article on “Social Inventions to Improve the Transition to Adulthood” (Mary Agnes Hamilton, first author). After retiring from Cornell in June 2015, he will become President of the High Tech High Graduate School of Education.

Mara Jacobs (HD ’17) is a 2013 graduate of High Tech High and currently a sophomore in Human Development with a minor in Education. As part of her Senior Project at High Tech High International, Mara traveled throughout Canada to help integrate the High Tech High philosophy into private schools in the Ontario Province. Currently she is working on developing an inclusive hands-on learning school in Haiti. Partnering with the High Tech High system, the curriculum group is responsible for teacher training, school organizational structure, and curriculum development. Mara is involved with rugby, theater, and education at Cornell.

Talks at Twelve: Matthew Hall

Latino Children and White Out-Migration from New Gateway School Districts
Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Matthew Hall
Policy Analysis & Management, Cornell University

Talks at Twelve: Ravhee Bholah, Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Promoting Sexual Health Including HIV and AIDS Education in School-based Programs though Community Partnerships
Ravee Bholah, School of Science and Mathematics, Mauritius Institute of Education

Tuesday, December 16, 2014
12:00PM-1:00PM
Beebe Hall, 2nd floor conference room

This talk is open to all. Lunch will be served. Metered parking is available in the Plantations lot across the road from Beebe Hall.

In his talk, Ravhee Bholah will discuss findings related to policy and community partnerships that support sexual health education programs at selected New York State schools. He will share insights on institutional capacities that exist within schools to support these programs. Challenges experienced by schools and officials in the coordination and implementation of such programs, and models used in the training of educators on sexual health will be also addressed.

Ravhee Bholah, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the School of Science and Mathematics at the Mauritius Institute of Education in Mauritius. He has been coordinator of (1) sexuality education and (2) education for sustainable development (ESD) at this institute and has leading roles in curriculum development on sexual health, HIV prevention, and ESD including climate change education in the Republic of Mauritius. Ravhee is currently a visiting Fulbright Scholar in the BCTR.

4-H program supports youth with learning disabilities

Nigel Gannon, 4-H's State Healthy Living Program Specialist, recently co-presented Teaching Public Speaking Skills to Dyslexic Learners at the 41st Annual Everyone Reading Conference at New York University. The session described a successful and replicable model for schools to use in preparing students for formal and informal public speaking challenges. His co-presenters were John Simms, Reconstructive Language Teacher, and Kathleen N. Rose, Reconstructive Language Department Chair, of The Gow School. Kathy is a former 4-H volunteer, which led her to reach out to Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) -Erie County to develop a partnership. The Gow School in South Wales, NY serves students with dyslexia and learning disabilities. Gannon connected with Simms and Rose through Erie County's 4-H Public Presentations program, which is under the stewardship of Angela Northern and Teraisa Buratto.

Angela Northern, Regional 4-H Research Specialist in Erie County, wrote the Public Presentation program as a six-lesson series to provide guidance to staff at the Gow School in supporting students to systematically develop a public presentation. The series uses existing 4-H resources to build skills in developing and presenting illustrated talks and demonstrations. The expertise of Gow staff in the area of dyslexia and other language disorders allows them to support their students in using 4-H resources to develop their skills and then to participate in the county-level 4-H Public Presentation events without additional modifications. All students from Gow give a county-level public presentation in the winter. When the top 15% of county 4-H presenters are invited to the Western District Public Presentation event in the spring, there have always been representatives from the school who have qualified. The NYS 4-H Public Presentation event resumed in 2013, and Gow School students once again were represented among those who qualified. This year the state event will be held on Saturday, May 17th, in Morrison Hall on the Cornell campus. If you are interested in participating as an evaluator, please contact Nigel Gannon directly. Using this model, and with campus resources and partners in The Disabilities Institute, NYS 4-H is preparing an initiative focused on supporting county educators in their work with behaviorally and/or intellectually challenged students.

Nigel Gannon is the Healthy Living Program Specialist for New York State 4-H Youth Development. Nigel joined the 4-H State Office team in June 2012. In this position, and in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension educators and volunteers, Nigel is promoting a holistic view of health that supports healthy eating, active living, thriving in adolescence, and social-emotional wellness. Nigel has twenty years of experience in education and youth development as an educator, advisor/mentor, and researcher. He earned his doctorate in Sociology from the University of Chicago with a focus on adolescent mental health, secondary education, and urban sociology. He remains a kid at heart.

Summer learning loss: Do kids miss out?

"For most kids, summer vacation has begun. This typically means more time spent at the park, swimming pool or beach, and often in front of the TV as well. It also means less time engaged in educational pursuits like reading, math and problem solving.

"Many teachers say that our school schedule of long summer vacations leads to a “summer slump,” where students forget some of what they learned over the previous school year. But what does the evidence say about summer learning loss?"

Read the rest of the post on the Evidence-Based Living blog:

Summer learning loss: Do kids miss out?

The state of preschool

"Preschool is important to children’s development – the evidence on that is clear. But since preschool is not required and often not offered by local school systems, not all families have access to quality preschool programs.

The National Institute for Early Education Research publishes a report every year that details data on state-funded preschools across the country. This year’s report found that the 2011-2012 school year 'was the worst in a decade for progress in access to high-quality pre-K' in America –"

Read the rest of the post on the BCTR's Evidence-Based Living Blog:

The state of preschool

Schaff to administer NASA education program in NY state

Nancy Schaff (NY 4-H STEM Program Specialist) has received a subcontract with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, MA. This is a sub-award to a NASA Education & Public Outreach grant for a program called "Here, There, and Everywhere"(HTE). According the the HTE web site:

Here, There, and Everywhere (HTE) consists of a series of exhibitions, posters, and supporting hands-on activities that utilize analogies in the teaching of science, engineering, and technology (STEM) to provide multi-generational and family-friendly content in both English and Spanish to small community centers, libraries, under-resourced small science centers. The purpose of the program is to connect cross-cutting science content (in Earth and planetary sciences and astrophysics) with everyday phenomena, helping to demonstrate the universality of physical laws and the connection between our everyday world and the universe as a whole to non-experts. The program utilizes multimodal content delivery (physical exhibits and handouts, interpretive stations, facilitated activities for educators as well as online materials) hosted by public science locations.

Schaff will be piloting the HTE dissemination of posters and hands-on activities in informal 4-H educational settings in New York state. She will coordinate a NASA Here, There, and Everywhere booth in the Youth Building at at the NY State Fair with 4-H teen leaders teaching hands-on activities to the fair-going public. Schaff will train others to use the HTE materials in a variety of settings and will collect data about the results of implementation.

Recent work from the Cornell Youth in Society project

The BCTR's Cornell Youth in Society carries out research and outreach to understand and enhance community supports and opportunities for young people making the transition to adulthood in the United States and around the world. Below are some updates on this project's work.

Mentoring youth at work

Mary Agnes Hamilton and Steve Hamilton trained staff from 24 neighborhood organizations in Chicago about mentoring in April 2013. The organizations are operating summer youth employment opportunities for 16-24-year-olds in low-income neighborhoods with high levels of violence. The organizations will employ adult mentors to enable the youth to take full advantage of the work experience. Mary Agnes and Steve drew on training materials they had developed under contract with the U.S. Department of Labor to produce a training notebook and educate the staff who will in turn train and supervise the mentors.

Training emphasized that designating an adult as a mentor does not make that adult a mentor in the eyes of a youth. Mentoring relationships develop over time as youth and adults share interests, engage in activities, and learn to trust one another. The training also identified six “functional roles” that mentors perform: supporter, advisor, role model, challenger, connector, and compass. All mentors do not perform all of the roles; many youth have more than one mentor. The connector role entails connecting a youth with another adult who may become a mentor.

Steve and Mary Agnes will return to Chicago for a second round of training in July.

Multiple pathways through education to careers

Pathways to Prosperity is the January 2011 report from the Harvard Graduate School of Education advocating the creation of multiple paths through education to productive careers, including, but not limited to, four-year college. Steve Hamilton and Mary Agnes Hamilton attended the March 2013 Harvard conference on the topic, Creating Pathways to Prosperity; Steve, who contributed to the report and to planning the conference, led a panel on “Strategies for Increasing Work-based Learning.” The workshop examined some of the most promising approaches for providing students with meaningful work-based learning in high school and beyond; it took a careful look at evidence of the effectiveness of work-based learning; participants also discussed strategies for expanding the availability of work-based learning, including ways to get more employers to participate.

In response to the Pathways to Prosperity report, the New York State Department of Education has proposed that students be allowed to substitute a career and technical education examination for one of the currently-required Regents examinations. Steve Hamilton has gathered a group of experts to identify high-quality examinations that will be recommended to the Board of Regents for this purpose.

Hamilton to lead Career and Technical Education project for NY State Dept. of Education

Steve Hamilton will direct a project for the New York State Education Department that will identify tests of high school students' achievement in Career and Technical Education that are sufficiently rigorous to be used in place of a required Regents' examination. The goal is to recognize the academic content in demanding Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs and provide a pathway to college and careers for students whose learning style is hands-on and career-directed. The project will commence with the first meeting of the expert advisory panel before the holidays. They will reconvene in the New Year and a blue-ribbon panel will forward recommendations to the Board of Regents in the spring.

Hamilton was quoted in an October 21, 2012 New York Times article on the use of Career and Technical Education programs in New York City high schools.