Unpacking the Relationship between Elementary School Teachers' Ratings of Student Attention and Student Reading Scores

• Published in: School social work journal Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 63 - 89
• Main Authors: Eisensmith, Sarah R., Kainz, Kirsten L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago Illinois Association of School Social Workers 01.05.2019; David Follmer Group; The Follmer Group, Inc
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Achievement Gap; Achievement tests; African American Students; Attention; Behavior; Black students; Child & adolescent psychiatry; Children & youth; Classrooms; Correlation; Curricula; Education policy; Elementary School Students; Elementary School Teachers; Elementary schools; Ethnicity; Gender Differences; Grade 2; Hispanic American Students; Hispanic students; Longitudinal Studies; Minority students; Performance Gaps; Preschool education; Psychology; Race; Ratings & rankings; Reading; Reading Achievement; Reading Instruction; Reading Performance; School environment; School Social Workers; Scores; Segregation; Social workers; Student teacher relationship; Success; Surveys; Teacher Student Relationship; Teachers; White Students; Work ethic; New York; United States > US
• ISSN: 0161-5653

Background: Student attention is a stable predictor of academic performance, with lower levels of attention associated with poorer grades. Claims about students' attention may better reflect social processes than student deficits. School social workers may be especially situated to address the interaction of child and classroom factors impeding student performance. This article seeks to assess the relation between teachers' ratings of children's attention and children's reading scores at the end of second grade, above and beyond known covariates of reading performance, and to explore whether the magnitude of this relationship differs according to child characteristics. Method: The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort of 2011 public access data file was used for analyses. Potential differences in students' second grade spring reading scores were explored by means of multiple regression using survey commands. Interaction terms were included to determine whether the strength of the relation between teacher ratings of student attention and children's reading scores varied across racial and gender groups. Results: As teacher ratings of students' attention increased, so did children's reading scores. A significant interaction term indicated that the relation between teacher ratings of students' attention and children's reading scores differed across racial groups. Conclusions and Implications: Ratings of attention matter for all students in terms of second grade reading performance, but more so for black and Hispanic students. School social workers can leverage their roles to contextualize teacher ratings of student attention and propose and implement interventions that improve student success.