Inequality from the first day of school: The influence of teachers' academic intensity and sense of responsibility on the learning growth gap
Open Access
- Author:
- Youn, Min-jong
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Theory and Policy
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 25, 2012
- Committee Members:
- Mindy L Kornhaber, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Suet Ling Pong, Committee Member
Katerina Bodovski, Committee Member
John Philip Christman, Committee Member
Liang Zhang, Committee Member - Keywords:
- school readiness
academic intensity
sense of responsibility
learning growth gap - Abstract:
- The aim of this study is to investigate whether teachers’ academic intensity and sense of responsibility for learning can moderate the growth of the gap in students’ learning that is engendered by different levels of school readiness at the start of school. The data for this study comes from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K) released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Much of the related literature on school readiness has highlighted the lasting impact of early school readiness on later achievement and what factors constitute the definition of school readiness. Interestingly, many policy attempts at helping students with low school readiness have focused on interventions before school, such as building pre-literacy skills, whereas a lack of attention has been devoted to how the school itself may benefit those students who enter school at a disadvantage. Thus, this study aims to merge two important but seldom integrated inquiries: the impact of school readiness on children’s learning growth trajectory and the role of teachers’ academic support and responsibility in students’ learning progress. Findings from this study suggest that children who enter school with low readiness (measured through math, reading, and approaches to learning scores) demonstrate consistently lower learning gains throughout their elementary school years. In addition, although teachers’ academic intensity and sense of responsibility for learning increased the overall learning gain, only the responsibility of teachers appeared to moderate the math learning growth trajectory given different levels of school readiness at school entry. In addition, the benefit of school readiness for children with low readiness was cumulative across the elementary school years. Another noteworthy finding from this study is that while teachers appeared to have a lower sense of academic responsibility toward students with low readiness, these students did not in fact experience less academic intensity with their teachers. Based on these results the present study suggests a need for continuous support during the schooling years, as well as before the start of school, to compensate for a lower skill level at school entry. Revealing the impact of teachers’ academic intensity and responsibility for learning on those children with low school readiness could help to identify practices and attitudes that will benefit students who are behind at the entry of school. These findings will aid in developing policies and interventions targeted at improving learning in the early school years and thus enhance educational opportunities for socially and economically disadvantaged students. Indeed, this study emphasizes the importance of teachers’ academic intensity and sense of responsibility for learning to enhance learning gains during the elementary school years for disadvantaged children and suggests that the school reform effort should be devoted to changing the school as a community.