Sandra Wilson - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Sandra Wilson
Society For Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2012
American journal of preventive medicine, Jan 26, 2015
High school completion (HSC) is an established predictor of long-term morbidity and mortality. U.... more High school completion (HSC) is an established predictor of long-term morbidity and mortality. U.S. rates of HSC are substantially lower among students from low-income families and most racial/ethnic minority populations than students from high-income families and the non-Hispanic white population. This systematic review assesses the effectiveness of programs to increase HSC and the potential of these programs to improve lifelong health among at-risk students. A search located a meta-analysis (search period 1985-2010/2011) on the effects of programs to increase HSC or General Educational Development (GED) diploma receipt; the meta-analysis was concordant with Community Guide definitions and methodologic standards. Programs were assessed separately for the general student population (152 studies) and students who were parents or pregnant (15 studies). A search for studies published between 2010 and August 2012 located ten more recent studies, which were assessed for consistency with ...
Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 2013
This article reports the findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of sc... more This article reports the findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of school dropout prevention programs for pregnant and parenting teens. The meta-analysis synthesized 119 effect sizes from 15 different studies measuring differences in school enrollment and completion outcomes for pregnant and parenting adolescents participating in dropout prevention programs relative to a comparison group. The study used random-effects, inverse-varianceweighted meta-analyses with robust variance estimates to synthesize odds ratios for school dropout outcomes. It used mixed-effects meta-regression models to examine the effects of program, methodological, and participant characteristics on program effects. The results indicate that drop out programs are effective in reducing school dropout rates and increasing school enrollment rates among teen mothers. Studies using randomized and matched-research designs produced smaller effect sizes than nonrandomized or nonmatched designs and program effects were consistent across different program types and participant samples. However, higher levels of implementation quality were associated with larger effects. In general, the results indicate that most school-and community-based programs are effective in decreasing school dropout rates for pregnant or parenting adolescents. Cost-effectiveness of programs, fit of services with local needs, and provider capacity are factors that should be considered when implementing the programs.
Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 2013
Dropping out of secondary school is associated with numerous detrimental consequences, including ... more Dropping out of secondary school is associated with numerous detrimental consequences, including low wages, unemployment, incarceration, and poverty. Fortunately, many school-and community-based prevention and intervention programs are available for the general population and at-risk students. The objective of this systematic review was to summarize the available evidence on the effects of prevention and intervention programs for increasing school completion or reducing school dropout among primary and secondary students. Overall, dropout programs (152 studies; 317 independent samples) were effective in reducing school dropout (or increasing school completion). The random effects weighted mean odds ratio for the general programs was 1.72. Using the average dropout rate for control groups of 21.1%, the mean odds ratio of 1.72 translates into a dropout rate of 13% for intervention groups. Moderator analyses indicated that study methods were associated with effect size magnitude. Effect sizes were therefore adjusted for methodological characteristics to examine the effects of different program types net of the influence of method. Effects were generally consistent across different types of programs and for different types of participant samples. Overall, results indicated that most school-and community-based programs were effective in decreasing school dropout. However, higher implementation quality tended to be associated with larger effects. Given the minimal variation in effects across program types, the review shows that-regardless of type-dropout prevention and intervention programs are likely to be effective if they are well implemented and appropriate for the local environment.
Campbell Systematic Reviews, 2007
The Campbell Collaboration (C2) was founded on the principle that systematic reviews on the effec... more The Campbell Collaboration (C2) was founded on the principle that systematic reviews on the effects of interventions will inform and help improve policy and services. C2 offers editorial and methodological support to review authors throughout the process of producing a systematic review. A number of C2's editors, librarians, methodologists and external peerreviewers contribute.
Research on Social Work Practice, 2003
Objective: A meta-analysis was undertaken to synthesize research results about the effectiveness ... more Objective: A meta-analysis was undertaken to synthesize research results about the effectiveness of mainstream service programs for minority juvenile delinquents relative to White delinquents. The analysis addresses the question of whether mainstream interventions that are not culturally tailored for minority youth have positive outcomes on their subsequent antisocial behavior, academic performance, peer relations, behavior problems, and other outcomes. In addition, outcomes were compared with those for White samples receiving the same interventions to identify any differences in the responsiveness of minority and majority youth. Method: 305 studies were selected from a large meta-analytic database in which the participant samples were either predominantly (60% or more) minority or White youth. Effect sizes and more than 150 study descriptors were coded from these studies and analyzed using standard meta-analytic techniques. Results: The results showed positive overall intervention ...
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 2013
Meta-analysis was used to synthesize research on the effects of outpatient treatment on substance... more Meta-analysis was used to synthesize research on the effects of outpatient treatment on substance use outcomes for adolescents with substance use disorders. An extensive literature search located 45 eligible experimental or quasi-experimental studies reporting 73 treatment-comparison group pairs, with many of the comparison groups also receiving some treatment. The first analysis examined 250 effect sizes for the substance use outcomes of adolescents receiving different types of treatment relative to the respective comparison groups. As a category, family therapy programs were found to be more effective than their comparison conditions, whereas no treatment programs were less effective. However, not all treatment types were compared with each other in the available research, making it difficult to assess the comparative effectiveness of the different treatments. To provide a more differentiated picture of the relative improvement in substance use outcomes for different treatments, a second analysis examined 311 pre-post effect sizes measuring changes in substance use for adolescents in the separate treatment and comparison arms of the studies. The adolescents in almost all types of treatment showed reductions in substance use. The greatest improvements were found for family therapy and mixed and group counseling. Longer treatment duration was associated with smaller improvements, but other treatment characteristics and participant characteristics had little relationship to the pre-post changes in substance use. Based on these findings family therapy is the treatment with the strongest evidence of comparative effectiveness, although most types of treatment appear to be beneficial in helping adolescents reduce their substance use. Keywords adolescent substance use; comparative treatment effects; meta-analysis; treatment effectiveness Recent estimates from the Treatment Episode Data Set indicate that approximately 11% of the 1.8 million substance abuse treatment admissions in 2007 were for adolescents under age 20, the majority of whom presented with marijuana/hashish as the primary substance abused (SAMHSA, 2009). With such large numbers of adolescents in substance abuse treatment, it is important to know whether such treatments are effective and, if they are not all equally effective, which are most effective. The study reported here uses meta-analysis to investigate the findings of experimental and quasi-experimental studies that compare different outpatient substance abuse treatments for adolescents with control conditions or
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2003
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2007
Education Sciences
Educators rely on professional development to improve instruction. Research suggests that instruc... more Educators rely on professional development to improve instruction. Research suggests that instructional coaching which utilizes specific coaching practices, such as classroom observation followed by debriefing and goal setting, and integrated strategies such as co-teaching, bring about significant change in instructional practices. The goal of this study was to gauge whether or not the use of a web-based data collection and coaching tool led to changes in focal classroom practices and whether or not improving those practices was, in turn, related to students’ academic and self-regulation gains across the prekindergarten year. To examine the implementation and impact of the coaching app, researchers conducted a cluster-randomized trial, comparing the classroom practices of teachers receiving business-as-usual coaching to those being coached with the app. Classroom observation data showed no significant differences in teachers’ practices across the school year, and student achievement...
Many cognitive self-regulation (CSR) measures are related to the academic achievement of prekinde... more Many cognitive self-regulation (CSR) measures are related to the academic achievement of prekindergarten children and are thus of potential interest for school readiness screening and as outcome variables in intervention research aimed at improving those skills in order to facilitate learning. The objective of this study was to identify learning-related CSR measures especially suitable for such purposes by comparing the performance of promising candidates on criteria designed to assess their educational relevance for pre-K settings. A diverse set of 12 easily administered measures was selected from among those represented in research on attention, effortful control, and executive function, and applied to a large
sample of pre-K children. Those measures were then compared on their ability to predict achievement and achievement gain, responsiveness to developmental change, and concurrence with teacher ratings of
CSR-related classroom behavior. Four measures performed well on all those criteria: Peg Tapping, Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders, the Kansas Reflection-Impulsivity Scale for Preschoolers, and Copy Design. Two others, Dimensional Change Card Sort and Backwards Digit Span, performed well on most of the criteria. Cross-validation with a new sample of children confirmed the initial evaluation of these
measures and provided estimates of test–retest reliability.
Society For Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2012
American journal of preventive medicine, Jan 26, 2015
High school completion (HSC) is an established predictor of long-term morbidity and mortality. U.... more High school completion (HSC) is an established predictor of long-term morbidity and mortality. U.S. rates of HSC are substantially lower among students from low-income families and most racial/ethnic minority populations than students from high-income families and the non-Hispanic white population. This systematic review assesses the effectiveness of programs to increase HSC and the potential of these programs to improve lifelong health among at-risk students. A search located a meta-analysis (search period 1985-2010/2011) on the effects of programs to increase HSC or General Educational Development (GED) diploma receipt; the meta-analysis was concordant with Community Guide definitions and methodologic standards. Programs were assessed separately for the general student population (152 studies) and students who were parents or pregnant (15 studies). A search for studies published between 2010 and August 2012 located ten more recent studies, which were assessed for consistency with ...
Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 2013
This article reports the findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of sc... more This article reports the findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of school dropout prevention programs for pregnant and parenting teens. The meta-analysis synthesized 119 effect sizes from 15 different studies measuring differences in school enrollment and completion outcomes for pregnant and parenting adolescents participating in dropout prevention programs relative to a comparison group. The study used random-effects, inverse-varianceweighted meta-analyses with robust variance estimates to synthesize odds ratios for school dropout outcomes. It used mixed-effects meta-regression models to examine the effects of program, methodological, and participant characteristics on program effects. The results indicate that drop out programs are effective in reducing school dropout rates and increasing school enrollment rates among teen mothers. Studies using randomized and matched-research designs produced smaller effect sizes than nonrandomized or nonmatched designs and program effects were consistent across different program types and participant samples. However, higher levels of implementation quality were associated with larger effects. In general, the results indicate that most school-and community-based programs are effective in decreasing school dropout rates for pregnant or parenting adolescents. Cost-effectiveness of programs, fit of services with local needs, and provider capacity are factors that should be considered when implementing the programs.
Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 2013
Dropping out of secondary school is associated with numerous detrimental consequences, including ... more Dropping out of secondary school is associated with numerous detrimental consequences, including low wages, unemployment, incarceration, and poverty. Fortunately, many school-and community-based prevention and intervention programs are available for the general population and at-risk students. The objective of this systematic review was to summarize the available evidence on the effects of prevention and intervention programs for increasing school completion or reducing school dropout among primary and secondary students. Overall, dropout programs (152 studies; 317 independent samples) were effective in reducing school dropout (or increasing school completion). The random effects weighted mean odds ratio for the general programs was 1.72. Using the average dropout rate for control groups of 21.1%, the mean odds ratio of 1.72 translates into a dropout rate of 13% for intervention groups. Moderator analyses indicated that study methods were associated with effect size magnitude. Effect sizes were therefore adjusted for methodological characteristics to examine the effects of different program types net of the influence of method. Effects were generally consistent across different types of programs and for different types of participant samples. Overall, results indicated that most school-and community-based programs were effective in decreasing school dropout. However, higher implementation quality tended to be associated with larger effects. Given the minimal variation in effects across program types, the review shows that-regardless of type-dropout prevention and intervention programs are likely to be effective if they are well implemented and appropriate for the local environment.
Campbell Systematic Reviews, 2007
The Campbell Collaboration (C2) was founded on the principle that systematic reviews on the effec... more The Campbell Collaboration (C2) was founded on the principle that systematic reviews on the effects of interventions will inform and help improve policy and services. C2 offers editorial and methodological support to review authors throughout the process of producing a systematic review. A number of C2's editors, librarians, methodologists and external peerreviewers contribute.
Research on Social Work Practice, 2003
Objective: A meta-analysis was undertaken to synthesize research results about the effectiveness ... more Objective: A meta-analysis was undertaken to synthesize research results about the effectiveness of mainstream service programs for minority juvenile delinquents relative to White delinquents. The analysis addresses the question of whether mainstream interventions that are not culturally tailored for minority youth have positive outcomes on their subsequent antisocial behavior, academic performance, peer relations, behavior problems, and other outcomes. In addition, outcomes were compared with those for White samples receiving the same interventions to identify any differences in the responsiveness of minority and majority youth. Method: 305 studies were selected from a large meta-analytic database in which the participant samples were either predominantly (60% or more) minority or White youth. Effect sizes and more than 150 study descriptors were coded from these studies and analyzed using standard meta-analytic techniques. Results: The results showed positive overall intervention ...
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 2013
Meta-analysis was used to synthesize research on the effects of outpatient treatment on substance... more Meta-analysis was used to synthesize research on the effects of outpatient treatment on substance use outcomes for adolescents with substance use disorders. An extensive literature search located 45 eligible experimental or quasi-experimental studies reporting 73 treatment-comparison group pairs, with many of the comparison groups also receiving some treatment. The first analysis examined 250 effect sizes for the substance use outcomes of adolescents receiving different types of treatment relative to the respective comparison groups. As a category, family therapy programs were found to be more effective than their comparison conditions, whereas no treatment programs were less effective. However, not all treatment types were compared with each other in the available research, making it difficult to assess the comparative effectiveness of the different treatments. To provide a more differentiated picture of the relative improvement in substance use outcomes for different treatments, a second analysis examined 311 pre-post effect sizes measuring changes in substance use for adolescents in the separate treatment and comparison arms of the studies. The adolescents in almost all types of treatment showed reductions in substance use. The greatest improvements were found for family therapy and mixed and group counseling. Longer treatment duration was associated with smaller improvements, but other treatment characteristics and participant characteristics had little relationship to the pre-post changes in substance use. Based on these findings family therapy is the treatment with the strongest evidence of comparative effectiveness, although most types of treatment appear to be beneficial in helping adolescents reduce their substance use. Keywords adolescent substance use; comparative treatment effects; meta-analysis; treatment effectiveness Recent estimates from the Treatment Episode Data Set indicate that approximately 11% of the 1.8 million substance abuse treatment admissions in 2007 were for adolescents under age 20, the majority of whom presented with marijuana/hashish as the primary substance abused (SAMHSA, 2009). With such large numbers of adolescents in substance abuse treatment, it is important to know whether such treatments are effective and, if they are not all equally effective, which are most effective. The study reported here uses meta-analysis to investigate the findings of experimental and quasi-experimental studies that compare different outpatient substance abuse treatments for adolescents with control conditions or
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2003
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2007
Education Sciences
Educators rely on professional development to improve instruction. Research suggests that instruc... more Educators rely on professional development to improve instruction. Research suggests that instructional coaching which utilizes specific coaching practices, such as classroom observation followed by debriefing and goal setting, and integrated strategies such as co-teaching, bring about significant change in instructional practices. The goal of this study was to gauge whether or not the use of a web-based data collection and coaching tool led to changes in focal classroom practices and whether or not improving those practices was, in turn, related to students’ academic and self-regulation gains across the prekindergarten year. To examine the implementation and impact of the coaching app, researchers conducted a cluster-randomized trial, comparing the classroom practices of teachers receiving business-as-usual coaching to those being coached with the app. Classroom observation data showed no significant differences in teachers’ practices across the school year, and student achievement...
Many cognitive self-regulation (CSR) measures are related to the academic achievement of prekinde... more Many cognitive self-regulation (CSR) measures are related to the academic achievement of prekindergarten children and are thus of potential interest for school readiness screening and as outcome variables in intervention research aimed at improving those skills in order to facilitate learning. The objective of this study was to identify learning-related CSR measures especially suitable for such purposes by comparing the performance of promising candidates on criteria designed to assess their educational relevance for pre-K settings. A diverse set of 12 easily administered measures was selected from among those represented in research on attention, effortful control, and executive function, and applied to a large
sample of pre-K children. Those measures were then compared on their ability to predict achievement and achievement gain, responsiveness to developmental change, and concurrence with teacher ratings of
CSR-related classroom behavior. Four measures performed well on all those criteria: Peg Tapping, Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders, the Kansas Reflection-Impulsivity Scale for Preschoolers, and Copy Design. Two others, Dimensional Change Card Sort and Backwards Digit Span, performed well on most of the criteria. Cross-validation with a new sample of children confirmed the initial evaluation of these
measures and provided estimates of test–retest reliability.