bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Attracting Principals to the Superintendency
Authors: Howley Aimee , Pendarvis Edwina , Gibbs Thomas
Published: March 2015

Responding to a perceived shortage of school superintendents in Ohio as well as elsewhere in the nation, this study examined the conditions of the job that make it attractive or unattractive as a career move for principals. The researchers surveyed a random sample of Ohio principals, receiving usable responses from 508 of these administrators. Analysis of the data revealed that principals perceived the ability to make a difference and the extrinsic motivators (e.g., salary and benefits) associated with the superintendency as conditions salient to the decision to pursue such a job. Furthermore, they viewed the difficulties associated with the superintendency as extremely important. Among these difficulties, the most troubling were: (1) increased burden of responsibility for local, state, and federal mandates; (2) need to be accountable for outcomes that are beyond an educator’s control; (3) low levels of board support, and (4) excessive pressure to perform. The researchers also explored the personal and contextual characteristics that predisposed principals to see certain conditions of the superintendency as particularly attractive or particularly troublesome. Only two such characteristics, however, proved to be predictive: (1) principals with fewer years of teaching experience were more likely than their more experienced counterparts to rate the difficulty of the job as important to the decision to pursue a position as superintendent, and (2) principals who held cosmopolitan commitments were more likely than those who did not hold such commitments to view the salary and benefits associated with the superintendency as important. Findings from the study provided some guidance to those policy makers who are looking for ways to make the superintendency more attractive as a career move for principals. In particular, the study suggested that policy makers should work to design incentives that address school leaders’ interest in making a difference at the district level. At the same time, they should focus on efforts to reduce the burdens that external mandates contribute to the already burdensome job of school superintendent.
Overview of Private Education Development in Modern China
Authors: Xu Zeyu
Published: March 2015

It is not surprising that private education is gaining importance in China given the overall context of huge national efforts toward building up a “socialist market economy.” However, the fast growth rate in both the quantities and the qualities of profitable private schools in a socialist society is beyond what people usually expect. This paper looked into the modern history of private education in China and found that such a huge resurgence of private education is rooted in the heritage of private education in the Chinese society. Private schools were the precursor of modern Chinese education. They played an important role in the country for most of the time. When the government policy became more flexible and household income increased substantially, such a heritage revived and becomes a stimulating factor in the education sector.
K-12 Voucher Programs and Education Policy
Authors: Laitsch Dan
Published: March 2015

Since the 1983 report, A Nation at Risk, the performance of public schools has been increasingly scrutinized, and a variety of reforms designed to increase student achievement enacted. Among the reforms discussed, much attention has focused on increasing choice and competition in education. While the effectiveness of market oriented reforms have been widely debated, little research has been completed that examines policy maker attitudes toward market reform of education. This study used a researcher designed survey to examine policy maker attitudes toward education and education reform in general, as well as the issue of vouchers more specifically. Findings suggest that policy makers generally accept the market arguments used by voucher supporters, but are also sympathetic to equity concerns and funding issues raised by voucher opponents. Additionally, while more policy makers responding to this survey supported some type of voucher program than opposed vouchers, when viewed in the broader context of reform options, vouchers did not rate highly.
Failing Georgia—The Case Against the Ban on Social Promotion
Authors: Livingston Donald R. , Livingston Sharon M.
Published: March 2015

Our analysis begins with an examination of the state of Georgia's rationale for the decision regarding social promotion that was based on the perceived views that teachers have on the issue. Research suggests, however, that teachers hold contradictory opinions concerning the use of standardized tests for high stakes decisions, such as promotion, and are not aware of the consequences most children suffer when they fail a grade. Following a discussion that challenges the claims of success in Chicago, Baltimore, and Texas, we explore the viability of choosing litigation as a strategy to stop the use of high stakes tests given the adverse impact they have on protected minorities. From a study of the thirty-nine poorest counties in rural Georgia, the relationships between poverty, race and the Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test Results suggest that these tests do have an enormously disparate impact on impoverished African American children. Because chances for educational attainment will be severely limited by this test, most African American children will be discouraged from achieving a high school diploma. As a way to put a face on the data, a case study of a young girl who would probably fail her grade in school if the law was enforced is presented followed by recommendations that argue for changes in education policy and teaching. Rather than mandate a ban on social promotion, the state of Georgia should pursue improvement of socio-economic conditions, education policy and pedagogy.
Reactions to Bolon's "Significance of Test-based Ratings for Metropolitan Boston Schools"
Authors: Michelson Stephan
Published: March 2015

Several concerns are raised abut the procedures used and conclusions drawn in Craig Bolon's article "Significance of Test-based Ratings for Metropolitan Boston Schools" published in this journal as Number 42 of Volume 9.
Confusing the Messenger with the Message: A Response to Bolon
Authors: Willson Victor L. , Kellow Thomas
Published: March 2015

The conclusions by Bolon (2001) based on the relationship between per capita income and school mean grade 10 mathematics scores in Massachusetts and on instability in year-to-year mean school scores are criticized by us. Our concerns focus on the uninterpretable covariation of economic condition with test performance and the limitations in interpreting cross-time variability. We agree with Bolon's conclusions but consider the methodology employed inadequate to support them. We suggest alternative requirements and discuss our own previous efforts in this area.
High-Stakes Testing and the History of Graduation
Authors: Dorn Sherman
Published: March 2015

An historical perspective on high-stakes testing suggests that tests required for high school graduation will have mixed results for the putative value of high school diplomas: (1) graduation requirements are likely to have indirect as well as direct effects on the likelihood of graduating; (2) the proliferation of different exit documents may dilute efforts to improve the education of all students; and (3) graduation requirements remain unlikely to disentangle the general cultural confusion in the U.S. about the purpose of secondary education and a high school diploma, especially confusion about whether the educational, exchange, or other value of a diploma is most important.
Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program for New Teachers
Authors: Fowler R. Clarke
Published: March 2015

This article examines the Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program for New Teachers, a nationally prominent program that has recruited and prepared $20,000 bonus recipients to teach after seven weeks' training at the Massachusetts Institute for New Teachers (MINT). Although state officials have trumpeted this initiative as a national model that other states are copying, they announced in November 2002 that they were radically changing it. The changes included halting the state's national recruitment efforts and replacing the seven-week, fast-track training program designed by the New Teacher Project with year-long programs to be designed by three of the state's education schools. Even though the state spent more than $50,000 recruiting individuals from states outside the Northeast over the first four program years, it garnered just seven bonus recipients from the non-Northeast states its recruiters visited, only four of whom were still teaching in Fall 2002. The state did, however, generate a substantial number of applicants in each program year (ranging from 783 to nearly 950), most of whom came from Massachusetts or nearby states. Contrary to state officials' claims, though, it appears that many of these individuals had substantial prior educational experience. Although officials stated that all bonus teachers would go to 13 designated high-need urban districts, the state has never met this commitment, sending fewer bonus teachers to these districts in each of the first three years of the program. The state has lost a high percentage of its bonus teachers to attrition particularly in state-designated, high-need districts. These attrition rates are substantially higher than comparable national rates. Although the state has portrayed the Bonus and MINT programs, combined, as highly successful, officials exaggerated many of the purported positive outcomes. On the positive side, independent survey data (Churchill et al., 2002) indicated that principals rated MINT graduates' performance favorably, when compared to traditionally-trained teachers. It is not clear, though, whether such ratings varied either by a) the extent of the teacher's prior educational experience or b) the nature of the teacher's placement (urban vs. suburban). The Bonus Program has produced relatively few urban teachers, relatively few minority teachers, and low rates of teacher retention, even though this effort was modeled after Teach for America and critical parts of it were designed and often managed by the New Teacher Project'two organizations that the Bush administration has praised for their ability to design and run programs of this type. Policy makers are urged to resist calls to embrace rapid certification, an approach that has produced, in Massachusetts, low numbers of urban teachers and high numbers of exiting teachers, all at a cost of more than four million dollars.
Teaching Children to Read : The Fragile Link Between Science & Federal Education Policy
Authors: Camilli Gregory , Vargas Sadako , Yurecko Michele
Published: March 2015

Teaching Children to Read (TCR) has stirred much controversy among reading experts regarding the efficacy of phonics instruction. This report, which was conducted by the National Reading Panel (NRP), has also played an important role in subsequent federal policy regarding reading instruction. Using meta-analysis, the NRP found that systematic phonics instruction was more effective than alternatives in teaching children to read. In the present study, the findings and procedures leading to TCR were examined. We concluded that the methodology and procedures in TCR were not adequate for synthesizing the research literature on phonics instruction. Moreover, we estimated a smaller though still substantial effect (d = .24) for systematic phonics, but we also found an effect for systematic language activities (d = .29) and tutoring (d = .40). Systematic phonics instruction when combined with language activities and individual tutoring may triple the effect of phonics alone. As federal policies are formulated around early literacy curricula and instruction, these findings indicate that phonics, as one aspect of the complex reading process, should not be over-emphasized.
Reforms, Research and Variability:A Reply to Lois Weiner
Authors: Resnick Lauren B.
Published: March 2015

Lois Weiner (2003) argues that the research reports from High Performance Learning Communities (HPLC) were biased because of the close working relationships between the researchers and the leaders of the Community School District Two (CSD2) reform. Contrary to any claims otherwise, this relationship was quite open and acknowledged. The intent of the HPLC investigation was always to link scholars and practitioners in a new form of research and development in which scholars became problem-solving partners with practitioners. There are important issues about how to profitably conduct such “problem-solving” research. These issues are worth substantial attention from the communities of researchers and practitioners as collaborative research/practice partnerships proliferate. Serious studies of such partnerships are needed, going well beyond the anecdotal attacks offered by Weiner in her article.
Comments on Weiner, Resnick and Scientific Debate
Authors: Goodman Jonathan
Published: March 2015

Lois Weiner (2003) and Lauren Resnick (2003) have advanced substantially different views of the success of the reforms undertaken by Community School District Two (CSD2) in New York city. Weiner's position vis a vis District Two has probably conferred a greater measure of objectivity to her views. Criticisms of scholarly work, even when sharply worded, are neither personal nor unscientific; indeed they are quite common in all the sciences.
Performance Standards': Utility for Different Uses of Assessments
Authors: Linn Robert L.
Published: March 2015

Performance standards are arguably one of the most controversial topics in educational measurement. There are uses of assessments such as licensure and certification where performance standards are essential. There are many other uses, however, where performance standards have been mandated or become the preferred method of reporting assessment results where the standards are not essential to the use. Distinctions between essential and nonessential uses of performance standards are discussed. It is argued that the insistence on reporting in terms of performance standards in situations where they are not essential has been more harmful than helpful. Variability in the definitions of proficient academic achievement by states for purposes of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is discussed and it is argued that the variability is so great that characterizing achievement is meaningless. Illustrations of the great uncertainty in standards are provided.
Baselines for Assessment of Choice Programs
Authors: Hill Paul T. , Guin Kacey
Published: March 2015

Critics of choice argue that it will allow alert and aggressive parents to get the best of everything for their children, leaving poor and minority children concentrated in the worst schools. (Note 1) But choice is not the only mechanism whereby this occurs. Alert and aggressive parents work the bureaucracy to get the best for their children. Thus, choice programs should be compared against the real performance of the current public education system, not its idealized aspirations.
The Public Accounts and the Education Sector in Portugal: assumption of the legal economy, efficiency and effectiveness
Authors: Marques de Almeida Prof. Doutor J. J. , De Costa Marques Mestre Maria da Conceição
Published: March 2015

The National Accounting Plan for the Education Sector (POC - Education) is a Sector Plan for education, which follows on from the approval of the Journal of Public Accounts (OPAP), Decree-Law No. 232/97 of 3 September, the model it is based. With the approval of the POC - Education will create conditions for integrating the accounting, inventory and cost accounting in a modern public as an instrument to support decision-makers and other users of information, to remedy the deficiencies of accounting information previously experienced. As aspects inovadoresdeste plan for the sector, we highlight the cost accounting and the consolidation of accounts. The cost accounting is a mandatory system as an important management tool for analysis and cost control to education, but also the income and results of operations. With the consolidation of accounts is intended to establish a political and management culture group at the same time seeking to facilitate the comparability in time and space, and is also a factor of transparency of public information. Not expected fiscal consolidation, applying the rules only to the consolidation of financial assets.
Teachers Voices Interpreting Standards
Authors: Rigsby Leo C. , DeMulder Elizabeth K.
Published: March 2015

The State of Virginia has adopted state-mandated testing that aims to raise the standards of performance for children in our schools in a manner that assigns accountability to schools and to teachers. In this paper we argue that the conditions under which the standards were created and the testing implemented undermine the professionalism of teachers. We believe this result has the further consequence of compromising the critical thinking and learning processes of children. We argue this has happened because teachers’ views and experiences have driven neither the setting of standards nor the assessment of their achievement. We use data from essays by teachers in an innovative masters program to compare teachers’ experiences involving the Virginia Standards of Learning with ideal standards for professional development adopted by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. We argue that there are serious negative consequences of the failure to include dialogue with K-12 teachers in setting standards and especially in the creation of assessments to measure performances relative to the standards. We believe the most successful, honest, and morally defensible processes must be built on the experience and wisdom of classroom teachers.
Basic Education in Cambodia: The Impact of UNESCO onPolicies in the 1990s
Authors: Dy Sideth S. , Ninomiya Akira
Published: March 2015

Efforts to enhance opportunities for Basic Education have been growing within many developing nations after the1990 World Conference on Education For All (WCEFA) in Jomtien, Thailand. In the face of political turmoil, financial constraint and social insecurity, Cambodia with the encouragement and assistance of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), took measures to increase educational opportunities for all her citizens through Basic Education strategic plans and pledged to eradicate illiteracy by the year 2000. This article examines the  joint efforts during the 1990s of this organization as a key assistance and support UN agency for educational policy and strategy formulations, and the Cambodian government as a national agency for educational initiatives and implementation. UNESCO’s inputs for policy implementation are also detailed to evaluate the overall impact of the organization during the last decade. Analyses are based primarily on interviews with some key government policymakers, fieldwork observation and interviews with school-aged children, several speeches of top government officials, and existing related official education statistics and indicators in Cambodia.
Increasing Equity and Increasing School Performance ''Conflicting or Compatible Goals?:Addressing the Issues in
Authors: Powers Jeanne M.
Published: March 2015

This work addresses some of the arguments regarding equity in public education versus school performance at issue in the case of Williams v. State of California. The plaintiff’s expert witnesses have argued that the state is responsible to reduce the inequities in California’s public educational system. In contrast, the state’s witnesses argue that some of the plaintiff’s proposals have limited educational effects at the cost of reducing local autonomy. In this paper, I use four years of data from California’s Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA) to evaluate these claims.
Policy issues for Australia's education systems: Evidence from international and Australian research
Authors: Marks Gary N. , McMillan Julie , Ainley John
Published: March 2015

Our purpose here is to discuss education policy issues in the context of empirical evidence. We note that many commonly held beliefs about Australian education such as, the relative performance and participation levels of Australian students; the importance of socioeconomic background on educational outcomes both relative to other countries and changes over-time; gender differences in mathematics and science; and the labour market situation of early school leavers; are not supported by empirical research. Such findings have implications for government policies. We also question current policy directions toward increasing Year 12 participation, expanding both secondary and post-secondary vocational education and reducing class sizes. It is hoped that the discussion will provide stimulus to evidence-based debates about Australian education.
Gender-segregated Education in Saudi Arabia: Its Impact on Social Norms the Saudi Labor Market
Authors: Baki Roula
Published: March 2015

This article examines the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's gender-segregated higher education system and how it is used to transmit the Kingdom's traditional societal expectations to the employment sector. With Saudi Arabia's current need for economic change, the education system is retarding instead of accelerating reform. A background consisting of Saudi Arabian history, governing laws, religious beliefs and women's roles is examined. I then discuss the education system's preservation goal by considering segregation, women's mobility, videoconferencing courses, and the roles of professors. I attempt to explain how the current education system fails to prepare its students for the global economy: by limiting women's access to the labor market, and by not preparing men for the realities of the global market and therefore creating the need for migrant workers. In conclusion, conserving culture is significant, but for economic change to occur, the extent of cultural conservatism and its effect on the education system need to be re-evaluated.
Reasonable Decisions in Portfolio Assessment: Evaluating Complex Evidence of Teaching
Authors: Schutz Aaron , Moss Pamela A.
Published: March 2015

A central dilemma of portfolio assessment is that as the richness of the data available to readers increases, so do the challenges involved in ensuring acceptable reliability among readers. Drawing on empirical and theoretical work in discourse analysis, ethnomethodology, and other fields, we argue that this dilemma results, in part, from the fact that readers cannot avoid forming the data of a portfolio into a pattern—a coherent "story" or "stories"—in order to evaluate it. Our article presents case studies of readers independently evaluating the same portfolios. We show that even readers who hold a shared vision of effective teaching and who cite much the same evidence can, nonetheless, develop significantly different "stories." Our analysis illustrates that some portfolios are more ambiguous than others and are thus more likely to result in such divergent readings. We argue that more fine grained understandings of portfolio ambiguities and disagreements between readers over "stories" can help us respond to the challenges posed by the rich data of portfolio assessments.
Quality and Equity in Basic Education Brasileira: The Evidence SAEB-2001
Authors: Soares José Francisco
Published: March 2015

This work uses data from SAEB?National System for Evaluation of Basic Education?to describe the cognitive achievement of 4th, 8th and 11th grade Brazilian basic education students. The achievement is measured on a scale that is the same for all grade levels. The test items are chosen to cover a synthesis of the curriculum frameworks of all Brazilian states. The achievement level of the great majority of the students does not meet the officially recommended levels. Also, there are large differences of achievement among students of different regions of the country, of different races, and of different socioeconomic status. The data, therefore, show the existence of large problems of quality and equity in Brazilian basic education. The students, their teachers, and the school principal provide, through their answers to contextual questionnaires, information on potential explanatory factors for the achievement levels. Using these data, it is possible, using adequate statistical methodology, to correlate the student achievement with the student and school factors. Several factors, under the control of school and public policies, are reported as having potential for improving the quality of education. The very few factors that affect the equity of the system act in the direction of increasing the inequalities among students of different races and of different socioeconomic backgrounds. The article concludes showing that the quality problem should be faced together with the equity problem, and for that, this latter dimension should be given a more prominent role in school improvement projects.
Group and Interaction Effects with "No Child Left Behind": Gender and Reading in a Poor, Appalachian District
Authors: Bickel Robert , Maynard A. Stan
Published: March 2015

Critics of “No Child Left Behind” judge that it oversimplifies the influence of social context and the place of socially ascribed traits, such as social class, race, and gender, in determining achievement. We hold that this is especially likely to be true with regard to gender-related group effects and gender-implicated interaction effects. We make our concerns concrete in a multilevel, repeated measures analysis of reading achievement in a poor, rural school district located in the southern coalfields of Appalachian West Virginia. Our results suggest that as the percentage of students who are male increases, school mean scores in reading achievement decline for three reasons: individual males do less well than females; the greater the percentage of males, the lower the scores for all students; added to that, the greater the percentage of males, the lower the scores for males specifically. Given the accountability measures and sanctions proposed by “No Child Left Behind,” having a large percentage of males in a school could be disastrous. We conclude that gender effects in reading achievement are complex, easily overlooked, and have no obvious remedy. As such, they lend credence to the view that “No Child Left Behind” oversimplifies the social context of schooling and underestimates the importance of social ascription.
Chronic Teacher Turnover in Urban Elementary Schools
Authors: Guin Kacey
Published: March 2015

This study examines the characteristics of elementary schools that experience chronic teacher turnover and the impacts of turnover on a school’s working climate and ability to effectively function. Based on evidence from staff climate surveys and case studies, it is clear that high turnover schools face significant organizational challenges. Schools with high teacher turnover rates have difficulty planning and implementing a coherent curriculum and sustaining positive working relationships among teachers. The reality of these organizational challenges is particularly alarming, given that high turnover schools are more likely to serve low-income and minority students. The negative relationship between teacher turnover and school functioning, and the fact that turbulent schools are disproportionately likely to serve lowincome and minority students have important implications for both district and school-level policies. Specifically:
Teacher turnover rates are one indicator of school health, which school districts should consider when focusing on school improvements. Districts need to begin by developing the means to identify individual schools that experience high levels of teacher turnover. Current district policies in implementing professional development for teachers in low-performing schools are inefficient when teachers do not remain in the schools in which they are trained. In order for low-performing schools to improve, districts need to consider providing incentive programs so that high quality teachers apply for, and remain in, these schools. Future research is needed to address the causal link between turnover, organizational functioning and student outcomes. Additionally, there is a need for research examining district policies that may facilitate teacher turnover within a district, including how districts place and transfer teachers, as well as how teachers’ salaries are budgeted.
Democratic education across school types: Evidence for the U.S. from NHES99
Authors: Belfield Clive R.
Published: March 2015

This article reports on the differences in democratic education across school types, using the US National Household Education Survey (NHES) of 1999. We replicate the estimation approach of Campbell (1998) and find a strongly positive effect from attendance at Catholic school or private independent schools on community service participation, civic skills, civic confidence, political knowledge and political tolerance. The results are reasonably robust to alternative specifications. We consider the implications of these results for policy.
Privatization Public Policy: A Look At The Experience of managing schools from San Luis
Authors: Feldfeber Myriam , Jaimovich Analía , Saforcada Fernanda
Published: March 2015

The educational reform that took place in Argentina during the ´90s should be analyzed in the context of a broader reform process implemented in the whole of Latin America during that period, aimed at reforming the State and introducing deregulation, decentralization and privatization policies. During this process, the role that the Sate traditionally held in education is redefined, and the responsibility of guaranteeing the right to education is transferred form the State to the families and the schools. These transformations redefine the public character of public education, introduce new meanings in the debates and views about when something should be considered public or not in the field of education and foster the creation of a non- state public space which could be placed between the State and the market. This paper aims at analyzing the project “Escuelas 2001” which seeks to implement charter schools in San Luis, Argentina. The analysis is based on a two-fold approach: on the one hand, it takes into consideration the logic underlying the design and implementation of this policy; on the other hand, it focuses on the actors’ views about education, the State and public institutions.
Identifying Teacher, School and District Characteristics Associated with Elementary Teachers' Use of Technology:A Multilevel Perspective
Authors: O'Dwyer Laura M. , Russell Michael , Bebell Damian J.
Published: March 2015

Over the past decade, investment in technology for schools has increased at a dramatic rate. Although policy makers are eager to understand the ways in which technology use in schools is affecting student learning, we believe that a critical preliminary step toward assessing the impacts of technology on teaching and learning requires the examination of the varied uses of technology in schools as well as the contexts that are likely to affect the use of technology in the classroom as a teaching and learning tool. Previous research examining technology use has focused on teacher characteristics and has neglected to explore the potentially alterable, organizational characteristics that may be affecting the adoption and use of technology in the classroom. In light of this argument and using survey data collected from 1490 elementary classroom teachers in 96 schools in 22 Massachusetts districts, this research examines how technology is being used by elementary school teachers, and examines the school and district organizational characteristics that are associated with increased use of technology as a teaching and learning tool. In addition to examining technology-use as a multi-faceted construct, using multilevel regression techniques this study provides evidence that schools’ organizational characteristics are associated with teachers’ use of technology in the classroom. Organizational characteristics such as districts’ and schools’ leadership practices and emphasis on technology, the type and amount of technology-related professional development available to teachers, as well as the amount of technology-related restrictive policies in place were found to be associated with the four measures of teachers’ use of technology examined in this study. Individual teacher characteristics such as constructivist beliefs, higher confidence using technology and positive beliefs about the efficacy of technology were each found to be associated with increased use of technology in the classroom.
Age & Achievement
Authors: Grissom James B.
Published: March 2015

There is continuing controversy about the optimal or appropriate age at which children should start school. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between age and achievement. It is an attempt to evaluate the hypothesis that older students fare better academically than their younger classmates. Findings indicate that on average for students in elementary school there is positive linear relationship between age and achievement for age normal peers. Even though there is positive linear relationship, the difference in average test scores between the oldest and youngest students is not great and by the time students reach 10th grade the positive linear relationship has disappeared. For overage students there is on average a negative linear relationship between age and achievement at all grade levels. That is, the negative relationship between age and achievement remains constant over time. These results argue against modifying entrance age policies, delaying school entry, implementing transitional kindergarten or first grade programs or retaining students to improve educational achievement. Policies and practices that make students older than their classmates inversely affect their educational achievement.
Latin America: Education, Knowledge and Competitiveness
Authors: Andere Eduardo M.
Published: March 2015

This article attempts to demonstrate that Latin America faces a somber future in its external trade and external investment because it doesn?t support education and knowledge production and distribution as key strategies in a highly competitive global world. This article will contend that Latin America is not ready for global and international competition, and that the strategy of opening the national economies and their deregulation were not enough to create a model of sustainable development.
Making research matter more
Authors: Levin Ben
Published: March 2015

Interest in strengthening the impact and value of education research has been growing around the world. Here I outline a view of the nature of “impact” and point to instances where research has had a positive impact in education, but always within a larger social and political framework. A three element “model” of research impact is developed and used as the basis to assess current situations and to suggest steps that could be taken to support a fuller contribution to education and learning from research.
The support gap: New teachers' early experiences in high-income and low-income schools
Authors: Johnson Susan Moore , Kardos Susan M. , Kauffman David , Liu Edward , Donaldson Morgaen L.
Published: March 2015

In this article, the authors consider three sources of support for new teachers—hiring practices, relationships with colleagues, and curriculum—all found in earlier research to influence new teachers’ satisfaction with their work, their sense of success with students, and their eventual retention in their job. They find that a "support gap" exists: new teachers in low-income schools are less likely than their counterparts in high-income schools to experience timely and information-rich hiring, to benefit from mentoring and support by experienced colleagues, and to have a curriculum that is complete and aligned with state standards, yet flexible for use in the classroom. Such patterns of difference between high-income and lowincome schools warrant careful consideration because they reveal broad patterns of inequity, which can have severe consequences for low-income students. Survey data for this study were collected from random samples of teachers in five states. One survey, focusing on hiring practices and teachers’ relationships with colleagues, was administered to 374 first-year and secondyear teachers in Florida, Massachusetts, and Michigan. A second survey, focusing on curriculum, was administered to 295 second-year elementary school teachers in Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Washington. The inequitable patterns of support for teachers reported here have important implications for the work of state policymakers, school district administrators, and principals. The authors describe these and offer recommendations for policy and practice in the conclusion.
There is another way: The faculty-developed Idaho Comprehensive Literacy Assessment for K-8 pre-service teachers
Authors: Squires David , Canney George F. , Trevisan Michael S.
Published: March 2015

In this era of external teacher testing with the intent of ensuring the competence of the teaching force, as well as holding students and institutions accountable for results, the Idaho Comprehensive Literacy Assessment (ICLA) stands in sharp contrast. It represents an alternative to external testing of preservice teachers, testing procured from an outside agency unconnected to preservice programs, since it has been developed and is managed by literacy faculty from Idaho’s major institutions of higher learning. This paper provides a brief history of major events in the field of literacy including teacher testing initiatives and policies, which led to the creation of the ICLA. A description of the ICLA assessment and its construction is provided, along with a report of initial performance. Implications and policy consequences of this approach are explored.
The Advanced Placement Expansion of the 1990s:How Did Traditionally Underserved Students Fare?
Authors: Klopfenstein Kristin
Published: March 2015

The College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) Program, which allows students to take college-level courses while in high school, enjoyed tremendous growth in the 1990s. Despite overall growth, small rural schools and high poverty schools continue to offer relatively few AP courses, and black, Hispanic, and low income students remain grossly underrepresented in AP classes. During the 1990s, AP incentive programs primarily subsidized test fees for low income students, but this provided no incentive for low income and rural schools to expand their AP course offerings and did nothing to strengthen the weak academic preparation of low income, black and Hispanic students. Recent federal funding changes provide a step in the right direction by supporting a comprehensive approach to increasing the AP access and participation of traditionally underserved students.
Factors affecting the impact of professional development programs on teachers' knowledge, practice, student outcomes & efficacy.
Authors: Ingvarson Lawrence , Meiers Marion , Beavis Adrian
Published: March 2015

This report examines effects of structural and process features of professional development programs on teachers' knowledge, practice and efficacy. It is based on four recent (2002-2003) studies undertaken through the Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme, designed to enhance teacher quality. The total data set for the survey study includes 3,250 teachers who had participated in eighty individual professional development1 activities within these studies. Teachers were surveyed at least three months after participating in an activity, which provided them with the opportunity to gauge the impact of programs on their practice. To investigate factors affecting impact, a theoretical model was developed based on recent research into the characteristics of effective professional development and tested using blockwise regression analysis. The model included contextual factors (e.g., school support), structural features of programs (e.g. ,length), process features (e.g., emphasis on content; active learning; examination of student work; feedback; follow-up), a mediating variable (level of professional community generated), and four outcome measures (knowledge; practice; student learning and efficacy). Consistent significant direct effects were found across the four studies for the impact of content focus, active learning, and follow-up on knowledge and professional community. Feedback was rarely incorporated into program design. Impact on efficacy was strongly related to the perceived impact of activities on teachers' practice and student learning outcomes.
World School Life Versus Habitus: The breeding ground of an Educational Backward Mexico Migrant
Authors: Yurén Teresa , De la Cruz Miriam , Cruz Alfonso , Araújo-Oliveray S. Stella , Estrada Marcos J.
Published: March 2015

In this article, three topics are interrelated: school desertion, poverty and migration. The situation in Mexico with respect to desertion and the relationship between this and several factors associated with poverty is presented. It is argued that scholastic desertion has an expanding effect which depends on the concurrence of two factors: disenchantment with schools and the "habitus" people adopt in cases of extreme poverty to assure their survival. In regard to the first of these factors, the normal course of schooling (the methods and the programs that are preferred in school) is critically analyzed and other indications that scholastic education is changing are examined. In regard to the second of these factors, the case of migrant Mexicans who go to the United States is examined. The results of a survey in Mexican junior high schools are reported and exploratory interviews were conducted with migrating Mexicans. The conclusions of other research carried out in Mexico dealing with scholastic desertion are also reconsidered.
The impact of degree field on the earnings of male and female college graduates
Authors: Freeman Catherine E. , Snyder Thomas D. , Connolly Brooke
Published: March 2015

Since the gender demographics across majors have dramatically changed over the last few decades, a re-examination of the relationship between gender, undergraduate major selection, and compensation levels once in the workforce is important. This article will focus on how the salaries of college graduates have changed over the last decade. The analyses will explore the extent to which undergraduate major selection contributes to any male-female salary gap. A comparison of regression models for 1993 and 2001 describes the extent to which the selection of major remains a significant factor among those individuals who have entered the workforce.
Texas charter school legislation and the evolution of open-enrollment charter schools.
Authors: Ausbrooks Carrie Y. Barron , Barrett Edith J. , Daniel Theresa
Published: March 2015

This article chronicles the evolution of legislation for Texas open-enrollment charter schools to their implementation by demonstrating how these schools have (or have not) used their freedom from state-mandated requirements to develop innovative learning environments as well as to bring innovative curricula into the classroom. The investigative focus was on an analysis of Texas open-enrollment charter school legislation, from 1995 (74th legislative session) to the 77th legislative session in 2001, and the characteristics of the state's 159 open-enrollment charter schools that were in operation during the 2001-2002 academic year. The authors found that charter school legislation has changed in response to concerns of all involved, and focuses on the need for balance between choice, innovation, and public accountability. Although charter schools are free from most state regulations, legislators were clearly interested in ensuring that this freedom does not impede charter schools' ability to provide a quality education to all students who attend them. The currently operating open-enrollment charter schools in Texas are more racially and economically segregated than other public schools in the state, and charter schools that targeted students most at risk for dropping out of school (and returning students who had previously dropped out) differ from other schools in their stated teaching methods. Teacher turnover remains significantly greater than that for other public schools in the state. However, it does not appear to be specifically associated with schools that target disadvantaged students or minority students. The schools' mission statements suggest that innovative school environments are a factor in school design. Texas is poised to continue along the public education choice model. Charter school legislation provides a framework upon which charter schools may build to meet the educational needs of the students who choose to attend them, including the freedom to be creative in meeting students' unique needs. Questions remain about how and why charter schools exist and the contributions they make to the overall public school system, including whether charters are making a difference in what and how much children are learning.
Savings education: Learning the value of self-control.
Authors: Hutton Patricia A. , Holmes James M.
Published: March 2015

This article proposes a funded school-based allowance and savings program targeted at economically disadvantaged students with poor educational outcomes to help poor children develop less present-biased time preference patterns so as to increase student effort and skills acquisition, avoid the pitfalls that pave the path of adolescence and move from poverty to middle class status as adults. Time orientation is associated with low educational investments, poor educational outcomes, out-of wedlock and teenage childbirth, criminality, and poverty, and nothing better characterizes the role of time preferences in distinguishing socioeconomic classes than attitudes and behavior with respect to money income. In poverty, money income is to be spent whereas in the middle class and the wealthy, money is to be managed and invested and children are taught the value of self-control and delayed gratification through the accumulation, savings and investment of regular allowances. We propose a model program parameterized in a way that children, given complete freedom of choice, should develop more future oriented preferences resulting in greater effort and skills acquisition in school, and the habits of conduct necessary for productive work life. Program cost, which cannot exceed program design, can be reasonably anticipated and is directly related to the benefit - the more that a child saves, the higher the cost, but the more likely that the child has acquired a future time orientation. We present evidence that even if the estimated maximum disbursements occurred and only a minimal percent of participating students changed their lives, the estimated benefits should outweigh disbursement costs.