Reducing achievement gaps in academic writing

Reducing achievement gaps in academic writing


A study published in the Journal of Educational Psychology reports on two years of findings from a randomized controlled trial of the Pathway Project, an intervention designed to reduce achievement gaps in academic writing for students who are Latino or English Learners (ELs).
 
Ninety-five teachers from 16 secondary schools in the Anaheim Union High School District - a large, diverse, low-socioeconomic status, urban district with over 33,000 students (60% Latino and 66% EL) - were randomly assigned to the treatment (Pathway) or control condition. Teachers in the Pathway group took part in a 46-hour professional development program where they were trained to help improve students' interpretative reading and text-based analytical writing using a cognitive strategies approach.          
                                                                                
Findings from the study show promising results in both years of the intervention that appear to close the achievement gap in writing outcomes for Latino students and ELs in grades 7 to 12. In the first year of the trial, Pathway students gained 0.99 points more for an on-demand academic writing assessment than control students, which was highly statistically significant. Significant effects were attained for all grade levels except 12th grade. The second year also showed a large positive, significant effect of the intervention on the full sample. Pre- and posttest scores for the academic writing assessment showed an effect size of 0.48 in the first year and 0.60 in the second year.
Program effects were positive and significant for all the language groups, with the very largest occurring for ELs. This suggests that the Pathway Project may be particularly beneficial for students still in the process of learning English. In addition, students in the Pathway group had higher odds than students in the control group of passing the California Higher School Exit Exam in both years.  

Johns Hopkins University 

Research in Brief

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