Reading and Study Behaviors of Fourth-Grade Hispanics: Can Teachers Assess Risk?

Abstract

In this study, teachers assessed content reading and study behaviors of 57fourth-grade Mexican American children attending a low-income urban school in south Texas. Questionnaire items were significantly correlated with traditional at-risk indicators such as grade point average (GPA), age, and standardized achievement. Teachers' assessments of students'work habits, such as the student's completion of homework and class assignments and the student's ability to get organized and understand directions, were important indicators of students 'success in school as measured by GPA and achievement. This research indicates that the identification of good study practices can be critical in targeting at-risk students and that classroom teachers are an essential component in the assessment of these behaviors. The study concludes by recommending teachers' input in making the decision about who is at risk. Further, the results would suggest that teachers give appropriate attention to the critical assessment and teaching of content reading and study behaviors early in the elementary grades.

Developing a Bicultural Model for Academic Achievement

“…This data represents a reasonable substitute for standardized achievement measures such as grades or Wechsler Scales, which have generally been unavailable to researchers. Previous research with Latino fourth graders has confirmed that teachers' behavioral observations are, in fact, predictive of academic achievement (Frontera & Horowitz, 1995).…”

Syntactic Skills of Spanish-Speaking Children With Low School Achievement

“…In contrast, there is evidence that teachers can be quite accurate in their judgement of low achievement for both English monolingual students (Salvensen & Undheim, 1994) and Hispanic children learning English as a second language (Frontera & Horowitz, 1995). Teachers' ratings of language abilities also correlate with children's language test scores (Records & Tomblin, 1993) and may significantly predict children's academic success (Frontera & Horowitz, 1995).…”

Hispanic Students’ Reading Situations and Problems

“…Johnson (1996) examined a reading-recovery program and found that (a) participators had higher writing-vocabulary scores, (b) both treatment and control groups had equal achievement in dictation, (c) male and female participants did equally well, and (d) different ethnic groups did equally well. In a lowincome school with primarily Hispanic students, Frontera and Horowitz (1995) found that teacher input was critical in the identification of at-risk students for predicting student success based on students' content-reading abilities and work habits. The levels of English-language proficiency appeared to influence the acquisition of other subject knowledge of Hispanic English-language learners (Torres & Zeidler, 2002).…”