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This paper describes the findings of a pilot study that used robotics and game design to develop middle school students' computational thinking strategies. One hundred and twenty-four students engaged in LEGO® EV3 robotics and created games using Scalable Game Design software. The results of the study revealed students' prepost self-efficacy scores on the construct of computer use declined significantly, while the constructs of videogaming and computer gaming remained unchanged. When these constructs were analyzed by type of learning environment, self-efficacy on videogaming increased significantly in the combined robotics/gaming environment compared with the gaming-only context. Student attitudes toward STEM, however, did not change significantly as a result of the study. Finally, children's computational thinking (CT) strategies varied by method of instruction as students who participated in holistic game development (i.e., Project First) had higher CT ratings. This study contributes to the STEM education literature on the use of robotics and game design to influence self-efficacy in technology and CT, while informing the research team about the adaptations needed to ensure project fidelity during the remaining years of the study.

This article presents the results of the 2nd-year evaluation of an after-school program designed for an extended school day program serving African American middle school students in the city of Baltimore, Maryland (ACCESS-West). This study describes the effects of schoolwide reform especially as it relates to single-gender schools, educating African American males, and extending the school day. The ACCESS-West program goals included improving academic achievement, improving student attitude toward school, decreasing chronic truancy and absenteeism, and increasing parental engagement and involvement. Second-year results reveal that three of the four goals were met but that the interplay between schoolwide reform and implementing the extended-day program had mixed effects on the program. Staffing and administrational changes and high percentages of special needs students adversely affected the program and results. Dedication, commitment, and implementation positively contributed to the outcomes of the 2nd-year results. The results contribute to the growing body of literature and research that continues to investigate the effects of single-gender schools on minority males. The results suggest that the schools need a number of years to establish their areas of staffing, administration, curriculum, and student enrollment before the results they can expect positive results. These results also suggest that providing African American males with an extended-day program that is flexible, yet structured, can provide positive results academically, behaviorally, and with the challenges of parental engagement and involvement.

This study was to extrapolate potential roles of augmented reality goggles as a clinical support tool assisting in the reduction of preventable causes of death on the battlefield. Our pilot study was designed to improve medic performance in accurately placing a large bore catheter to release tension pneumothorax (prehospital setting) while using augmented reality goggles. Thirty-four preclinical medical students recruited from Morehouse School of Medicine performed needle decompressions on human cadaver models after hearing a brief training lecture on tension pneumothorax management. Clinical vignettes identifying cadavers as having life-threatening tension pneumothoraces as a consequence of improvised explosive device attacks were used. Study group (n = 13) performed needle decompression using augmented reality goggles whereas the control group (n = 21) relied solely on memory from the lecture. The two groups were compared according to their ability to accurately complete the steps required to decompress a tension pneumothorax. The medical students using augmented reality goggle support were able to treat the tension pneumothorax on the human cadaver models more accurately than the students relying on their memory (p < 0.008). Although the augmented reality group required more time to complete the needle decompression intervention (p = 0.0684), this did not reach statistical significance.

Before schools and districts invest their scarce resources in the products that educational researchers have developed, teachers, administrators, and community members need to become informed consumers of educational research. This article strives to bridge the gap between researchers and practitioners by exploring how to become an informed consumer of educational research. (Contains 9 notes.)

Schools in the United States serve a large and increasing number of Spanish-speaking students who are making the transition to English language literacy. This study examines one aspect of the transition to English literacy, namely, how Spanish-speaking students spell English words. Samples of 38 students who speak Spanish at home (Spanish-speaking group) and 34 students who speak English at home (English-speaking group) listened to a list of 40 common English words dictated to them by the teacher and wrote down each word one at a time. Spanish-speaking students produced more errors that were consistent with the correct application of Spanish phonological and orthographical rules (i. e., predicted errors) than did English-speaking students, and the groups generally did not differ in their production of other kinds of spelling errors (i. e., nonpredicted errors). Theoretical and practical implications for bilingual education are discussed.

Recent release of \"Prospects,\" a national evaluation of Chapter 1/Title I ($7.2 billion federal program for disadvantaged elementary-school students), has questioned effectiveness of entire program. However, 1994 Title I reauthorization allows high-poverty schools to turn their dollars into markedly better achievement by adopting replicable schoolwide reform models (such as Success For All and Roots and Wings) described and evaluated in this article. (44 references) (MLH)

EDUCATORS and policy makers show increasing interest in programs for after-school hours. This is for three primary reasons: Attendance in after-school programs can provide supervision during a time when many children might be exposed to or engage in more antisocial and destructive behaviors. These programs can also provide enriching experiences that broaden children's perspective and improve their socialization. A more recent emphasis is that these programs can perhaps help improve academic achievement of students not accomplishing as much as they need to in regular school hours.

A high school diploma is the minimum qualification for full participation in the U.S. economy. A worker without one can find work in only the most menial of occupations. The factory jobs that once allowed workers to make good incomes without a high school degree are diminishing, and the educational requirements for jobs in general are increasing. High school dropouts are seriously at risk. For example, they are four times more likely than high school graduates to be on welfare; in 1996, 27% of dropouts, but only 6% of high school graduates who did not attend college, were on welfare (Educational Testing Service [ETS], 1996; National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], 1996). Unemployment for workers over age 19 years is twice as high for dropouts than for graduates (NCES, 1995; Rumberger, 1987; Stern, Paik, Caterall, & Nakata, 1989).

Education has always been the means by which children of immigrants to the United States enter the economic mainstream of our society. As a nation of immigrants, we have always taken pride in the idea (if not the reality) that our schools should give children from all cultures and backgrounds a fair chance to succeed in school and thereby in society.

This article distinguishes among the several types of programs that provide academic, social, cultural, recreational, and other enrichment opportunities to children and youth during the non-school hours. It focuses on four academic programs that have demonstrated measurable evidence of effectiveness and achievement gains, particularly for African American students, illuminating some of the specific factors that have made the programs successful. Evidence of an academic focus, strong research designs and evaluation procedures to determine program effectiveness, wide replicability, and effectiveness with African American children and youth are the criteria for selection of these programs.