Welcome to the Helios Education Resource & Publications center! Throughout this section of our Web site you will find valuable information and links to resources related to education within our three impact areas of Early Childhood Education, the Transition Years (Grades 5 -12) and Postsecondary Scholarships as well as the two states we serve, Arizona and Florida.

Ready for Success: Creating Collaborative and Thoughtful Transitions into Kindergarten
Christine Patton and Justina Wang of the Harvard Family Research Project

This brief highlights promising practices in six states— New Jersey, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia, and California— where local- and state-level leadership is helping to make the transition into kindergarten a positive experience. The brief concludes with a set of recommendations for policymakers to help support these innovative practices at the local, state, and federal levels.

A Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Different Types of Parental Involvement Programs for Urban Students
William Jeynes of California State University

This meta-analysis of 51 studies examines the relationship between various kinds of parental involvement programs and the academic achievement of K-12 students. The analysis supports the notion that school-based parental involvement programs have a positive relationship with the academic achievement of youth, but that further research is needed to examine why some types of programs have a stronger relationship to educational achievement than others.

The Effects of Student Coaching in College: An Evaluation of a Randomized Experiment in Student Mentoring
Eric P. Bettinger and Rachel Baker of Stanford University School of Education

This study presents findings from a rigorous evaluation of InsideTrack, a service that provided individualized coaching to students over two semesters in a range of postsecondary institutions. The coach assisted students in developing a clear vision of their goals, to guide them in connecting their daily activities to their long term goals, and to support them in building skills. The study found that students assigned to receive InsideTrack were significantly more likely than students in the control group to remain enrolled at their institutions. The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) determined that the a subset of the study meets their WWC evidence standards without reservations. WWC single study review can be found here.

Dropped? Latino Education and Arizona's Economic Future
New data and projections point to a future fiscal and economic crisis for Arizona unless the state’s Latino educational attainment gap is addressed in a concerted and sustained manner, according to a report released by Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

Some key findings of the report note:

• In 1980, Latinos made up 16 percent of Arizona’s total population. Today, that number is 30 percent, as the state and nation continues to move toward a "majority-minority" populace.
• Latinos largely are Arizona’s work force of the future with the state already home to more Latinos under age 18 than Whites.
• Nearly 100 percent of Latino children under age five in Arizona are U.S. citizens, contrary to political rhetoric related to immigration.
• With the trend for lower average incomes and fewer jobs for low-skilled labors, Arizona’s unemployment and poverty rates can be expected to worsen with a greater demand on state services and less revenue to pay for them.
• Projections show by 2030 the combined average income for Latinos and Whites in Arizona could drop to $32,423 (in 2010 dollars), down from its $39,667 comparable combined average, if income and education trends continue.

The report, with Senior Policy Analyst Bill Hart and Senior Policy Analyst C.J. Eisenbarth Hager as its principal authors, emphasizes the point that all of Arizona’s education must greatly improve in order for Arizona to compete in the new economy.

Certificates Gateway to Gainful Employment and College Degrees by Georgetown University, Center on Education and the Workforce
This recent report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce finds certificates to be a cost-effective means of enhancing postsecondary educational attainment as well as gainful employment. Counting only certificates with “clear and demonstrable economic value,” the United States would “move from 15th to 10th in postsecondary completions” among OECD countries for 25- to 34-year-olds. In making this case, the report investigates several aspects of certificates:

• The earnings of certificate holders by field of study, sex, race/ethnicity, and program length.
• The demographic characteristics of certificate holders: sex, race/ethnicity, age, educational attainment, academic preparation/skill, family income, and parents' education.
• The institutions that most commonly award certificates—such as community colleges and for-profit institutions—and the states where certificates are most prevalent and provide the highest earnings returns.

Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers, The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance Chaired by Steve Graham of ASU
The What Works Clearinghouse produced a new educator’s practice guide targeted to teachers, literacy coaches, and other educators who want to improve the writing of their elementary students. The guide reviews four recommendations for improving elementary students' writing:

• Provide daily time for students to write
• Teach students to use the writing process for a variety of purposes
• Teach students to become fluent with handwriting, spelling, sentence construction, typing, and word processing
• Create an engaged community of writers

For each recommendation, the guide provides both a review of the evidence supporting the recommendation and examples of successful implementation.

National Indian Education Study: The Education Experiences of American Indian and Alaska Native Students at Grades 4 and 8, U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics
The National Indian Education Study (NIES), as part of the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), provides information on the academic performance of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students in reading and mathematics. Over 5,000 AI/AN fourth-graders and 4,000 AI/AN eighth graders participated in the 2011 NAEP assessments nationwide. The overall results document a persistent achievement gap between AI/AN students and their non-AI/AN peers. The report presents additional performance results, including updated data on the achievement gap and trends, broken out by race and ethnicity, gender, and family income. It also includes descriptive information about the schools attended by AI/AN students.

Note: The resources provided are for information only and may not reflect the official perspective of Helios Education Foundation.