The Effects of a Counselor-Led, Faith-Based, School-Family-Community Partnership on Student Achievement in a High-Poverty Urban Elementary School

Growing up poor but doing well: Contextual factors that predict academic success

This paper combines data on family, school, neighborhood, and city contexts with survey data from the Year 9 (n = 2,193) and Year 15 (n = 2, 236) Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to study children in America's inner-cities who are "beating the odds". We identify children as beating the odds if they were born to families of low socio-economic status but scored above the state average in reading, vocabulary and math at age 9, and were academically on-track by age 15. We also examine if the influences of these contexts are developmentally nuanced. We find that living in two parent households where harsh parenting methods are absent (family context) and living in neighborhoods where two parent families predominate (neighborhood context) are protective factors that help children beat the odds. We also find that city-wide contexts of higher levels of religiosity and fewer single parent households contribute to children beating the odds, however, these macro predictors are weaker when compared with family/neighborhood contexts. We find that these contextual effects are indeed developmentally nuanced. We conclude with a discussion of some interventions and policies that could help increase the number of at-risk children who beat the odds.

A Knowledge-Based System for Children’s Music Teaching Strategies Based on the Inheritance of Local Music Culture in Southern Jiangsu

In order to analyze the feasibility of integrating Sunan music into children’s music teaching through research, a knowledge-based system for children’s music teaching strategies based on case-based reasoning is proposed. The system can collect sufficient data and information, the exact orientation of piano learning, and the exact choice of teaching modes by questionnaires. Research data show that the vast majority of children like music teaching, and they like 76% more than they do not like, and more parents who express an indifferent attitude to music are 84% more than those who feel important. This experimental study shows that most teachers hold a positive attitude toward the development and use of folk music education resources in kindergartens, and parents do not have enough knowledge about folk music. The infiltration of excellent local culture in children’s music activities can improve students’ cultural literacy, let the new generation understand the tradition and the classics, and let children understand the local culture of southern Jiangsu and inherit the excellent culture of the Chinese nation through the understanding, feeling, and understanding of the local culture of southern Jiangsu. This is the new idea of local cultural heritage in southern Jiangsu and also the responsibility of kindergarten education.

The Effect of School Psychologists and Social Workers on School Achievement and Failure: A National Multilevel Study in Chile

School achievement and failure have become growing political and social concerns due to the negative consequences of school failure for individuals and society. The inclusive educational movement, which calls for equal access, permanence, participation, and promotion of all students worldwide, poses many challenges for schools and school systems. As a public policy strategy, some countries have provided additional funds for incorporating non-teaching professionals such as school psychologists and social workers in regular K-12 schools. However, there is lack of research on the effects of these psychosocial professionals on student outcomes. This national multilevel study explored the effect of psychologists (n = 8,469) and social workers (n = 3,524) on indicators of eighth-grade (n = 147,531) and 10th-grade (n = 106,347) students' academic achievement and dropout in Chile. A multilevel secondary analysis was performed using national records of non-teaching professionals working as school staff members, achievement scores on the national SIMCE test, and dropout rates based on official records. Results showed that after controlling for individual and school variables known to affect achievement and dropout, schools with psychologists and social workers working as staff members had lower short- and long-term dropout rates. The presence and higher number of school psychologists per school was positively associated with higher math achievement, with a reduced effect in low-SES schools. Lower-SES schools with more social workers had higher math scores. These results support policies that increase funding for school psychologists and social workers, since their incorporation partly explains better school achievement and less school failure when controlling for individual and school characteristics, but emphasize the need to further explore the mechanisms through which school achievement and failure are developed with the support of psychologists and social workers in schools. We discuss the need to regulate the type of prevention and intervention strategies from a whole-school, evidence-based approach, as well as to incorporate psychosocial training modules and comprehensive guidelines as part of professional training programs and as certified requisites for working in schools.