Differential effects of a systematic vocabulary intervention on adolescent language minority students with varying levels of English proficiency

Abstract:

There is a strong interest in the educational outcome of language minority students in the United States, but the majority of research on these students’ educational attainments has focused on one subgroup: those language minority students with limited English proficiency. Much less is known about language minority students who are classified as fully English proficient, either initially (at school entry) or after some period of bilingual or English-as-a-second-language (ESL) education at school. Language minority students qualify as fully English proficient based on test scores, but may still show somewhat different patterns of skills and weaknesses to those of English-only (EO) classmates in mainstream classrooms. This paper examines different performance profiles of students within the language minority population and investigates whether they respond similarly or differently to an academic vocabulary intervention, Word Generation. 

Source:
The International Journal of Bilingualism, U.C. Irvine [via eScholarship Repository]

Download pdf publication: Differential effects of a systematic vocabulary intervention on adolescent language minority students with varying levels of English proficiency

National Institute of Justice: The Pathways to Desistance Study

Description:

How serious adolescent offenders reduce or stop their criminal offending is critical information for the juvenile justice system to have as it attempts to redirect adolescent offenders while ensuring public safety. The Pathways to Desistance Study is a multi-site, collaborative research project that followed 1,354 serious juvenile offenders from adolescence to young adulthood. The investigation sought to:

• identify initial patterns of how serious adolescent offenders stop their antisocial activity
• describe the role that social context and developmental changes play in promoting these positive changes
• compare how well sanctions and interventions promote these changes

The larger goals of the study were to improve decision making by court and social service personnel and to clarify debates about alternative policies for serious adolescent offenders.

Source: National Institute of Justice (U.S.)
Download final pdf report: The Pathways to Desistance