bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The University of a Thousand and One Nights
Authors: Porter Luis
Published: March 2015

This article uses the title of the famous book Arabian Nights which in Spanish (Las mil y una noches) has a time connotation, similar to "for ever and a day" in English. In Spanish, "thousand" is a way to mean "infinite"; if you add one to infinite then you have numberless nights. The article departs from a hypothetical question an academic asks him/herself in his way to the educational institution where he-she works: What is my university? What makes me change from enthusiasm to deception, from pain to happiness? The answers give place to a personal dialogue, which brings the awareness that education overflows from the windows and doors of the classroom, to reach those distant places that Juvenal defined as "ultra Auroram et Gangem" (beyond the rising sun and the Ganges), and that Latin Americans could translate to "beyond the Trópico and the Amazonas." In short, to reach the consciousness that our educational work comprehends a larger territory than the one constrained to the limited geography of a site or an institution. In this broad realm, there are diverse attributes we have to create or recreate: hope, opportunity, imagination, and therefore be able to exercise our capacity to relate, to refer, to reflect. In doing so, we organize, devise, transfer, building our narrative, our capability to plot in each journey a new plan. Every plan is a necessary new story, as those of Sherezade, needed to keep acting day by day, using the word as the only thread that gives meaning to our condition as educators, to our academic being.
Components of the New Intellectual Field: Education and Pedagogy in Venezuela (1994-2000)
Authors: Arellano Duque Antonio
Published: March 2015

This investigation is inscribed in the field of school reform and proposes to use the concept of Intellectual Field of Education and Pedagogy as a meaningful approach to study educational and pedagogical changes happening in Venezuela during the years 1994- 2000. This study reconstructs thematic universes through content analysis of key documents and discourses about education to identify the relevant paradigms and general tendencies in educational development.
A Forced March for Failing Schools: Lessons from the New York City Chancellor's District.
Authors: Phenix Deinya , Siegel Dorothy , Zaltsman Ariel , Fruchter Norm
Published: March 2015

In the mid-nineties, the New York City Schools Chancellor created a citywide improvement zone to take over a significant proportion of the city's lowest performing schools whose local community school districts had failed to improve them. This "Chancellor's District" defined centralized management, rather than local control, as the critical variable necessary to initiate, enforce and ensure the implementation of school improvement. This large-scale intervention involved both a governance change and a set of capacity-building interventions presumably unavailable under local sub-district control. Our study retrospectively examined the origins, structure and components of the Chancellor's District, and analyzed the characteristics and outcomes of the elementary schools mandated to receive these interventions. Our longitudinal analysis compared Chancellor's District schools to New York City's other state-identified low performing schools, based on a school-level panel of performance, demographic, human resource, and expenditure data collected from district Annual School Report Cards and School Based Expenditure Reports from 1998-99 through 2001-02. The results suggest that the Chancellor's District intervention improved these schools' instructional capacity and academic outcomes, both relative to where these schools would have been and relative to comparable schools.
Limiting the Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Testing.
Authors: Yeh Stuart S.
Published: March 2015

Interviews with 61 teachers and administrators in four Minnesota school districts suggest that, in their judgment, Minnesota's state-mandated tests were well-aligned with curricular priorities and teachers' instructional goals, emphasizing critical thinking as well as competencies needed to pass the Basic Standards exit exam, and avoiding the type of recall item that would require drill and memorization. This result, i n combination with a survey showing that 85 percent of Minnesota teachers support the exit exam, suggests that Minnesota has been unusually successful in designing a high stakes testing system that has garnered teacher support. The success of Minnesota's model suggests that unintended narrowing of the curriculum due to high stakes testing may be avoided if pressure on teachers to narrow the curriculum is reduced through well-designed, well-aligned exams.
Education Policy Reform and Professional Identities: The Case of Secondary Education in Spain
Authors: Bolívar Antonio , Gallego María Jesús , León María José , Pérez Purificación
Published: March 2015

The article analyses the effects of the large scale educational reform policies on teachers' professional identities, based on a review of the literature and data from a study we carried out. Professional identity crisis is placed within the broader framework of the modernity crisis. The story of this crisis (influences and causes) includes a description of the education reform of the 1990"s (LOGSE, Ley de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo), the role played by teacher training in aggravating the problem, and the reasons secondary teachers have resisted educational change. In this framework, the different types of identity adopted by teachers faced with this change are studied, and the results of a qualitative study through the voices of the teachers are described. Finally, two exit plans are presented: a political use of nostalgia, employed by the conservative government to gain the support of a large number of teachers; and the exploration of new avenues for the reconstruction of professional identities. The idea is to re-examine alternative arguments about what schools should be in the "second modern society."
Achievement gaps and correlates of early mathematics achievement: Evidence from the ECLS K—first grade sample. Vol. 13 No. 46
Authors: Chatterji Madhabi
Published: March 2015

In light of the NCLB Act of 2001, this study estimated mathematics achievement gaps in different subgroups of kindergartners and first graders, and identified child- and school-level correlates and moderators of early mathematics achievement. A subset of 2300 students nested in 182 schools from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study K-First Grade data set was analyzed with hierarchical linear models. Relative to school mean estimates at the end of kindergarten, significant mathematics achievement gaps were found in Hispanics, African Americans and high poverty students. At the end of Grade 1, mathematics gaps were significant in African American, high poverty, and female subgroups, but not in Hispanics. School-level correlates of Grade 1 Mathematics achievement were class size (with a small negative main effect), at-home reading time by parents (with a large positive main effect) and school size (with a small positive main effect). Cross-level interactions in Grade 1 indicated that schools with larger class and school sizes had a negative effect on African American children's math scores; schools giving more instructional time to reading and math had a positive effect on high poverty students' scores, and schools with higher elementary teacher certification rates had a positive effect on boys' mathematics achievement.
State-level high school completion rates: Concepts, measures, and trends.
Authors: Warren John Robert
Published: March 2015

Since the mid 1970s the national rate at which incoming 9th graders have completed high school has fallen slowly but steadily; this is also true in 41 states. In 2002, about three in every four students who might have completed high school actually did so; in some states this figure is substantially lower. In this paper I review state-level measures of high school completion rates and describe and validate a new measure that reports these rates for 1975 through 2002. Existing measures based on the Current Population Survey are conceptually imperfect and statistically unreliable. Measures based on Common Core Data (CCD) dropout information are unavailable for many states and have different conceptual weaknesses. Existing measures based on CCD enrollment and completion data are systematically biased by migration, changes in cohort size, and/or grade retention. The new CCD-based measure described here is considerably less biased, performs differently in empirical analyses, and gives a different picture of the dropout situation across states and over time.
The School and Cultural Diversity: Notes on Multicultural Education in Portugal
Authors: Almeida José Carlos Pina
Published: March 2015

Multiculturalism, as a political project, has captured much attention in recent decades. Multicultural education, in particular, has been often viewed as the ideal way to facilitate interaction between cultures and to achieve more effective equality of opportunities and, therefore, a fairer society. But it has also been involved in much controversy. We start this article by reviewing some of the debates around the multicultural paradigm. We will then turn our attention to the Portuguese case. In particular we will explore the way the view of the Portuguese history and culture as a humanist, universalist and non-racist one, has influenced the way the education system deals with the growing cultural diversity in the Portuguese society.
Successive Student Cohorts and Longitudinal Growth Models: An Investigation of Elementary School Mathematics Performance
Authors: Zvoch Keith , Stevens Joseph J.
Published: March 2015

Mathematics achievement data from three longitudinally matched student cohorts were analyzed with multilevel growth models to investigate the viability of using status and growth-based indices of student achievement to examine the multi-year performance of schools. Elementary schools in a large southwestern school district were evaluated in terms of the mean achievement status and growth of students across cohorts as well as changes in the achievement status and growth of students between student cohorts. Results indicated that the cross and between-cohort performance of schools differed depending on whether the mean achievement status or growth of students was considered. Results also indicated that the cross-cohort indicators of school performance were more reliably estimated than their between-cohort counterparts. Further examination of the performance indices revealed that cross-cohort achievement status estimates were closely related to student demographics while between-cohort estimates were associated with cohort enrollment size and cohort initial performance status. Of the four school performance indices studied, only student growth in achievement (averaged across cohorts) provided a relatively reliable and unbiased indication of school performance. Implications for the No Child Left Behind school accountability framework are discussed.
A look at the other devices in the Foreign Language Training: Isomorphisms of Language Policy and the Mediation
Authors: Yurén Teresa , Saenger Cony
Published: March 2015

"The look of the other in the devices of foreign languages formation. Isomorphisms of linguistic policy and mediation". The case of the bachelor degrees for French teachers in Mexico is analyzed in order to show how the ways of looking at the other and be looked by the other can impact the mediation types and the treatment of the cultural distances, which in turn rebounds in the appropriation of the foreign language, the configuration of the professional ethos and the acquisition of competences for self-formation. Qualitative data were obtained by means of interviews, observations and collection of documents and the work was done by combining structural analysis, representation analysis, analysis of identity, genealogy and political discourse analysis. As epistemological focus, the reconstruction of the formation device was adopted, highlighting the ethical-political dimension. After analyzing the representations of the teachers on their task and their activity as mediators, as well as their social and cultural identifications, five mediation types and four treatment forms of alterity were identified: the plotted alterity, the confiscated alterity, the aculturing opening and the polyvalent opening. It was found that these forms of looking at the other are also present in the field of educational and cultural cooperation between the countries involved, as well as in the strategies and policies of use and dissemination of the language deployed in the history of said countries. The conclusion is that only a non-confiscating look with polyvalent opening can contribute to the appropriation of the target language, the conformation of an autonomous professional ethos and the acquisition of dispositions for self-formation.
Curriculum as praxis: Ensuring quality technical education in Singapore for the 21st century.
Authors: Yek Tiew Ming , Penney Dawn
Published: March 2015

Singapore, a small island city-state, has achieved notable economic advancement within 40 years since independence. It is fast becoming a global city and a knowledge society. In education and training, the Singapore system has evolved from its British roots. Macro performance indicators of participation rate, literacy rate and mean years of schooling, show that the current education system can be regarded as highly successful. The contributions of general education as well as technical education and training to the overall success of the nation are often cited. Technical education and training, which is globally perceived as having a lower status than "academic" curricula, has largely overcome its "image" problem in Singapore. Singaporeans have seemingly embraced technical education and training as an accessible, attractive mode of education, which therefore enjoys a high participation rate. The success and quality of technical education and training were affirmed when its main provider, the Institute of Technical Education, became the first educational institution in Singapore to win the Singapore Quality Award in October 2005. This paper provides a review of the contemporary education system and curriculum in Singapore with a focus on technical education and training vis-à-vis a vision of education and training in and for postmodern knowledge societies. Suggestions are made on how the technical education and training sector in Singapore can further develop and thrive in the 21st century, while continuing to be accessible and of high quality.
Innovation As school life: A Case Analysis of Andalusia Using a "Concerns-Based Adoption Model"
Authors: Gijón Puerta José
Published: March 2015

The development of an educational norm (Charter of Students’ Rights and Obligations) in secondary schools in Andalusia is analyzed from the point of view of teachers and educators. To complement the analysis of the documents that regulate secondary schools in the region, a questionnaire with 41 questions was administered to 184 teachers in 24 Andalusian schools. The results, calculated using the CBAM (Concerns-Based Adoption Model), LoU (Level of Use) scale, were then subjected to a descriptive statistical study using measures of central tendency and variability.
The Black-White achievement gap: Do state policies matter?
Authors: Braun Henry I. , Wang Aubrey , Jenkins Frank , Weinbaum Elliot
Published: March 2015

A longstanding issue in American education is the gap in academic achievement between majority and minority students. The goal of this study is to accumulate and evaluate evidence on the relationship between state education policies and changes in the Black-White achievement gap, while addressing some of the methodological issues that have led to differences in interpretations of earlier findings. To that end, we consider the experiences of ten states that together enroll more than forty percent of the nation's Black students. We estimate the trajectories of Black student and White student achievement on the NAEP 8th grade mathematics assessment over the period 1992 to 2000, and examine the achievement gap at three levels of aggregation: the state as a whole, groups of schools (strata) within a state defined by the SES level of the student population, and within schools within a stratum within a state. From 1992 to 2000, at every level of aggregation, mean achievement rose for both Black students and White students. However, for most states the achievement gaps were large and changed very little at every level of aggregation. The gaps are pervasive, profound and persistent. There is substantial heterogeneity among states in the types of policies they pursued, as well as the coherence and consistency of those policies during the period 1988-1998. We find that states' overall policy rankings (based on our review of the data) correlate moderately with their record in improving Black student achievement but are somewhat less useful in predicting their record with respect to reducing the achievement gaps. States' rankings on commitment to teacher quality correlate almost as well as did the overall policy ranking. Thus, state reform efforts are a blunt tool, but a tool nonetheless. Our findings are consistent with the following recommendations: states' reform efforts should be built on broad-based support and buffered as much as possible from changes in budgets and politics; states should employ the full set of policy levers at their disposal; and policies should directly support local reform efforts with proven effectiveness in addressing the experiences of students of different races attending the same schools.
Teacher community in elementary charter schools.
Authors: Cannata Marisa
Published: March 2015

The organizational context of charter schools may facilitate the formation of a strong teacher community. In particular, a focused school mission and increased control over teacher hiring may lead to stronger teacher professional communities. This paper uses the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey to compare the level of teacher community in charter public and traditional public schools. It also estimates the effect of various charter policy variables and domains of school autonomy on teacher community. Charter school teachers report higher levels of teacher community than traditional public school teachers do, although this effect is less than one-tenth of a standard deviation and is dwarfed by the effect of a supportive principal, teacher decision-making influence, and school size. Charter public schools authorized by universities showed lower levels of teacher community than those authorized by local school districts. Teachers in charter schools that have flexibility over tenure requirements and the school budget report higher levels of teacher community. This study reveals that charter schools do facilitate the formation of strong teacher communities, although the effect is small. The analysis also suggests that the institutional origin of the charter school and specific areas of policy flexibility may influence teacher community.
Do the Policies and Practices of Teacher Education Serve to Improve Education? A Response Based on the Analysis of the Social Construction of Teaching
Authors: Romero Morante Jesús , Luis Gómez Alberto
Published: March 2015

Few people would deny that initial and continuing teacher education are crucial factors in the improvement of education. Nevertheless, one must adopt a certain reservation before offering categorical and knee-jerk responses to the question which heads this article. This is not only a result of the ambiguity of the available evidence, so much the worse if one were to succumb to the temptation of establishing monocausal relationships, but also due to the very complexity of a question whose explicit and implicit terms (?improvement? and its conditions, the ?object? and the ?subject? of the same, the approach to professional preparation, etc.) are all debatable. Moreover, there needs to be some caution in examining the belief that it is feasible to determine empirically the body of knowledge, skills and commitments which would be required by teachers in order to guarantee ?effective? and successful teaching. Given the socio-political nature of institutionalised education, whatever teacher education project must be open to supra-empirical consideration and, for this reason, should be expected to defend itself in accord with general principles. However, these principles or values are proposed; they are not discovered. It follows, therefore, that one inevitably enters into the world of ?discourse?, which tries to persuade by means of arguments and not through the proposal of predictions. On the other hand, in no way does this mean that the problem is reduced to a mere doctrinal choice. The arguments presented neither can nor ought to be divorced from the best knowledge available to us. Precisely for this reason, the authors seek to make a modest contribution to this debate, drawing attention to a body of research which focuses on how professional practice is ?constituted? de facto. It is a body of research too often passed over within this field, despite the fact that it seems fundamental to us in weighing up the possibilities and limitations of teacher education. Its consideration will give us cause to rethink some of the immediate challenges, and to revise (in the light of our findings) the reforms presently being imposed in an effort to redefine professionalism in teaching.
Teacher Teams in Compulsory Secondary Education: Possibilities and Uncertainties
Authors: González González Mª Teresa
Published: March 2015

This paper is about the constitution of teacher teams in the Educación Secundaria, something proposed in the Ley Orgánica de Educación (LOE, 2006). First, a discussion of the disadvantages of organizing high schools by academic departments is presented, namely, the tendency of teachers to communicate mainly with those colleagues working in the same curricular area, the difficulties involved in the development of curricular projects that translate into globally coherent school experiences meaningful and relevant for the students, and the repercussions of such structures on the caring and support for students. Against this background, it is suggested that one of the alternatives to counteract the effects of departmentalization entails the creation of teacher teams. The new possibilities of coordination offered by teams are then commented, as they are seen as appropriate instruments to articulate the work and reflection of their members on cross curricular issues. Finally, some uncertainties and complexities of this new structure are discussed, namely, the possibility of it being applied only at a formal level, the difficulties involved in the coexistence of teams and departments, or the risk of overlooking the ”instituto” as a globally oriented educational institution.
Financing Secondary Education in Kenya: Cost Reduction and Financing Options
Authors: Ngware Moses W. , Onsomu Eldah N. , Muthaka David I.
Published: March 2015

The paper examines the financing status of secondary education in Kenya and explores possible cost reduction and financing options in the long term. Educational needs for secondary education in Kenya are on the increase since the introduction of Free Primary Education in 2003. Financing of secondary education continues to be a challenge to the government, parents and communities at large. Identifying sustainable financing options that maximize on cost-effectiveness in resource utilization is therefore critical. The study utilized secondary data obtained from education trend statistics, the 2003 Kenya school census, and the Teachers Service Commission. The education simulation and financial projection tool provided the basis for projecting both growth in secondary enrollments, resource needs, and financial implications of various policy options. Some of the insights from the study show that expenditure on secondary education as a proportion of GDP and the total education public budget averaged 1.6% and 22%, respectively. Public financing is predominantly recurrent, while non-recurrent expenditures are estimated at 6%. High-income quintiles benefit more from public provision and financing of secondary education compared to the low-income quintiles. Feasible financing options would therefore include increasing secondary education revenue and fiscal allocation on non-salary expenditures. Cost reduction measures should target the expansion of quality day schools, efficiency utilization of teachers, and streamlined procurements. The paper provides research findings and makes objective projections with a view to informing researchers, education managers and policy makers.
Digital equity in education: A Multilevel examination of differences in and relationships between computer access, computer use and state-level technology policies.
Authors: Becker Jonathan D.
Published: March 2015

Using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) state assessment and a survey of state-level technology policies, this study examined digital equity in education as a multilevel organizational phenomenon with data from 70,382 students in 3,479 schools and 40 states. Students in rural schools or schools with higher percentages of African American students were likely to have less access to computers. With respect to computer use, girls and students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch were more likely to use computers more frequently when computers are available in the classroom. With respect to relationships between computer access and computer use, having computers available in a lab increases the likelihood of higher levels of computer use. The results suggested that no more than 5% of the variance in computer access can be attributed to state factors, and less than 1% of the variance in computer use was between states. The findings suggested that where student technology standards are integrated into subject-area standards, computer use was likely lower than in other states. In states where pre-service teachers must meet technology-related requirements to receive their teaching credential and states where funds earmarked for technology are distributed as competitive grants, computer use was likely to be higher.
Achieving testing for English Language Learners, ready or not?.
Authors: Tsang Sau-Lim , Katz Anne , Stack Jim
Published: March 2015

School reform efforts across the US have focused on creating systems in which all students are expected to achieve to high standards. To ensure that students reach those standards and to document what students know and can do, schools collect assessment information on students' academic achievement. More information is needed, however, to find out when such assessments are appropriate for English learners and can provide meaningful information about what such learners know and can do. We describe and discuss a study that addresses the question of when it is appropriate to administer content area tests in English to English learners. Drawing on the student database of San Francisco Unified School District, we examined the effect of language demands on the SAT/9 mathematics scores of Chinese-speaking and Spanish-speaking students. Our results showed that while the English language demands of the problem solving subscale affect all students, they have a larger effect on English learners' performance, thus rendering the tests inaccurate in measuring English learners' subject matter achievement. Our results also showed that this effect gradually decreases as students become more proficient in English, taking five to six years for students to reach parity with national norms. These results have important implications for the design of school accountability systems and policies with high-stakes consequences for English learners such as high-school graduation requirements based on standardized tests.
Networks of Production and Dissemination of Information on Education in Latin America and the Caribbean: Their Usefulness for Decision Makers
Authors: Téllez Francisco
Published: March 2015

This article presents the results of a study that explored the formal and informal information networks operating in Latin America and the Caribbean, and estimated their utility for educational policymaking processes. To achieve this goal the following procedures were undertaken: first, a search for information networks in the region was conducted; second, an analysis matrix for information networks intended to reveal their main characteristics (origin, members, information resources provided, types of information offered and topics for which information is provided, among others) was made; and third, interviews to key informants about the utility of these networks to design educational policies in the region were conducted. The main conclusions of the study were: a) most of the information related to educational policy that circulates through information networks in Latin America and the Caribbean is not useful for policymaking processes; b) the networks that offer analytic abstracts of research and policy experiences, and propose policy solutions for policy problems in a non-technical language increase the possibility of information use by policymakers; c) informal networks, where consultants, advisors, or colleagues communicate orally to policymakers relevant information about the characteristics of successful policy initiatives in specific contexts, seem to have more impact than formal networks on policy development; and d) the utility of information networks for educational policy decisions is related to their ability to communicate, in a clear and straightforward way, the main results of policy researches and experiences.
Media, youth, and education: modes of constructing the “other” in culture
Authors: Bueno Fischer Rosa Maria
Published: March 2015

The aim of this paper is to discuss a research project conducted between 2002-2005 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The focus was exploring how a group of 90 students perceived media?s discourse ? especially television ? about ?youth.? Through the analysis of the discourse of both media and students, the research team selected a main theme for inquiry: the construction of the ?other? in the mass media and the perception of differences among these groups in relationship to social, economic, generational, racial, ethnic, and physical appearance dynamics. This research uses Foucaltian categories of analysis, specifically the concepts of normality, abnormality, and modes of subjectivity, and Hannah Arendt conceptualization about public and private spheres ? which allows for discussion of the multiple performances and images operating through media mechanisms. This work also uses other concepts like difference and alterity, follwoing Carlos Skliar studies.
Does high-stakes testing increase cultural capital among low-income and racial minority students?
Authors: Hong Won-Pyo , Youngs Peter
Published: March 2015

This article draws on research from Texas and Chicago to examine whether high-stakes testing enables low-income and racial minority students to acquire cultural capital. While students' performance on state or district tests rose after the implementation of high-stakes testing and accountability policies in Texas and Chicago in the 1990s, several studies indicate that these policies seemed to have had deleterious effects on curriculum, instruction, the percentage of students excluded from the tests, and student dropout rates. As a result, the policies seemed to have had mixed effects on students' opportunities to acquire embodied and institutionalized cultural capital. These findings are consistent with the work of Shepard (2000), Darling-Hammond (2004a), and others who have written of the likely negative repercussions of high-stakes testing and accountability policies.
Schools’ Strategic Responses to Competition in Segregated Urban Areas: Patterns in School Locations in Metropolitan Detroit
Authors: Gulosino Charisse Atibagos , Lubienski Christopher
Published: March 2015

School choice is intended to generate competition between schools largely to leverage new and better educational opportunities for disadvantaged students.  Yet we know very little about how competition impacts whole populations of schools, or different types of schools, in distributing different educational options across segregated social landscapes.  This analysis maps new educational options for families, as different types of charter schools respond to market competition within a highly competitive and segregated environment – examining school and organizational strategies in “positioning” themselves within metropolitan Detroit in order to measure the overall impact of these strategies on alternatives for disadvantaged students.  Dynamic mapping illuminates the kinds of charter schools that have opened, relocated, and closed relative to socioeconomic and demographic distributions in neighborhoods, providing a comprehensive picture of supply-side responses to competition since the emergence of choice policies.  We offer a brief outline of the policy context, considering the primary equity impetus for choice, and the policy implications as they are expected to reverberate through the organizational behavior of schools.  Then we present a more complex theoretical framework for understanding likely strategic responses from organizations in competitive education markets.  In doing this, we draw on theories from the literatures on industrial organizations and locational theories as they apply to what we are calling “local education markets.”  We then describe the geo-spatial analyses, providing graphic maps to represent the patterns evident in this case.  The concluding discussion offers a brief overview of the equity implications for employing the profit motive to expand educational access.
Ways to live history. Or philosophy, culture, and architecture in the origins of the museum Altes in Berlín
Authors: Lemos Fabiano
Published: March 2015

From the beginnings of what we now know as our modernity, man has been surprised with his own finitude. The 18th and 19th  century bourgeois needed to formulate complex ways of preserving the past and of linking with it. In the philosophes’ circle, time concept starts to double itself in the idea of origin, that, for them, had become opaque. We just need to think of the broad-range process of structuring museums and restructuring natural history collections in cities such as Paris and Berlin, around the turn to the 19th century, so that we can be convinced that the surprise with that origin that one cannot recognize anymore, that becomes object of popular and scientific interest, leads each and all of the decisions in this process. Museum is just one of the institutions in which man, through a complex series of idealizations of space, show himself the spectacle of a lost time and, thus, of a culture whose educational thrive can only be understood by associating to these institutions. Our task is to investigate – and the case study of the grounding of the Altes Museum in Berlin, between 1822 and 1830, will perform this concretely – which educational policy made the emergence of this new ideological model possible, and , on the opposite way, which conceptual elaborations confirmed or legitimated the new pragmatic topography of time in modernity within the institution that had as aim, precisely, articulate and administrate past and memory.
Grading Standards in Education Departments at Universities
Authors: Koedel Cory
Published: March 2015

Students who take classes in education departments at universities receive significantly higher grades than students who take classes in other academic departments. The higher grades awarded by education departments cannot be explained by differences in student quality or by structural differences across departments (i.e., differences in class sizes). The remaining explanation is that the higher grades are the result of lower grading standards. This paper formally documents the grading-standards problem in education departments using administrative grade data from the 2007-2008 academic year. Because a large fraction of the teachers in K-12 schools receive training in education departments, I briefly discuss several possible consequences of the low grading standards for teacher quality in K-12 schools.
Pursuing Equity in and Through Teacher Education Program Admissions
Authors: Childs Ruth , Broad Kathryn , Gallagher-Mackay Kelly , Sher Yael , Escayg Kerry-Ann , McGrath Christopher
Published: March 2015

This case study investigated equity in teacher education admissions. Through document analysis and structured interviews with ten past or current members of the admissions committee in a large initial teacher education program in Ontario, we developed an understanding of equity in teacher education admissions as encompassing two foci: equity in admissions—that is, equity of access for applicants to the program—and equity through admissions—that is, equity of educational opportunity and outcomes for the children in the schools where the teachers trained by the programs will eventually teach. Our analysis illustrates the importance of recognizing both foci and the tensions between them
School Choice Participation Rates: Which Districts are Pressured?
Authors: Ni Yongmei , Arsen David
Published: March 2015

School choice policies are intended to provide students in poorly performing schools the option of transferring to a better school. The associated loss of funding to new competitors is expected, in turn, to benefit students who remain in their assigned schools by spurring improved performance among the educators in them. The prospects for such systemic improvement are greatest if in fact student transfers and the market signals they provide are determined by school effectiveness rather than the social and racial characteristics of a district’s students. To test this proposition, we employ a series of fixed effects regressions to analyze the relative influence of school effectiveness versus student demographic composition on participation rates in Michigan’s charter school and inter-district choice policies. Our results indicate that school effectiveness has no systematic influence on participation rates for either choice policy, while the loss of students to choice options increases significantly in districts serving high concentrations of low-income students. Therefore, Michigan’s school choice policies create financial pressures not on schools that are performing most poorly but rather on those that face the most difficult educational challenges.
Impact of Performance Funding on Retention and Graduation Rates
Authors: Sanford Thomas , Hunter James M
Published: March 2015

As the architect of the oldest and most stable performance funding program, Tennessee provides a unique opportunity to analyze the impact of changes in performance funding policies on changes in institutional retention and six-year graduation rates over time. Utilizing spline linear mixed models, this study examines the impact of changes in Tennessee’s performance funding policies on retention and six-year graduation rates at public four-year institutions from 1995-2009. The results show tying retention and graduation rates to performance funding was unrelated to changes in the performance measures over the fifteen year period examined. Additionally, the doubling of the monetary incentive associated with the retention and six-year graduation rate measures in 2005 was not associated with increases in retention rates. These results suggest that at their current funding levels, states’ adoption of performance funding programs, such as the one in Tennessee, may be insufficient to incentivize changes in institutional behavior as desired by state leaders.
¿Han funcionado las reformas educativas en América Latina? Un estudio de los casos de Argentina, Brasil y Chile.
Authors: Perez Centeno Cristian G , Leal Mariana
Published: March 2015

A casi diez años del cierre político del ciclo neoliberal que enmarcó las reformas educativas en América Latina de los años ’90, este trabajo evalúa su éxito en tres países latinoamericanos –Argentina, Brasil y Chile-. El análisis se apoya en el planteo teórico-conceptual desarrollado por Martin Carnoy en su texto “¿Están funcionando las reformas educativas en Latinoamérica? Nuevas perspectivas” y en otros derivados de aquél, como modelo alternativo a los análisis clásicos de las reformas educativas y de evaluación la calidad de sus sistemas educativos. Metodológicamente, se utilizarán diversos indicadores, ponderados por Carnoy para la consideración del éxito de las reformas latinoamericanas: (a) la expansión del acceso al sistema, (b) el desempeño de los sectores más desfavorecidos y (c) el mejoramiento de factores asociados a logros educativos. Los datos se centran, principalmente, en el nivel de educación secundaria, el nivel en donde se presenta la mayor dificultad. La cobertura del nivel primario es prácticamente total y disminuye, rápidamente, cuando se considera el nivel medio. Analíticamente, el estudio compara el impacto de las reformas en los países mencionados, y entre la propuesta de análisis de Carnoy y los modelos tradicionales de evaluación de reformas. Finalmente, interroga acerca de la verdadera capacidad de mejoramiento que los procesos de reforma han tenido para la población de esos países -especialmente para Argentina- no sólo en términos educativos sino también respecto de su democratización y, en función de la temática de la Conferencia: la disminución de la vulnerabilidad, injusticia e inequidad social.
Exploratory Study about Health and Job Stress Determinants for Teaching and Research Staff in Universities in Spain
Authors: Saura Maria Jose , Simo Pep , Enache Mihaela , Fernandez Vicenc
Published: March 2015

The legal changes in the hiring profiles of universities in Spain implied significant changes in the processes of employment, stabilization and promotion of their academic staff. The aim of this research is to identify the antecedents of health and job stress of this staff, which traditionally experimented low levels of these indicators. The empirical research was based on an exploratory study that combined quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative (cognitive interviews) data gathered from 26 cases representing three different academic positions: teaching assistants, post-dissertation teaching assistants and tenured PhD lecturers. This paper proposes a health and job stress model with five dynamics: justice, permanence commitment, time, and demands and resources related with the teaching and research staff assessment process. The findings indicate that the last two dynamics (demands and resources) are mediated by the insecurity construct. This model allows comparing the classical models of job stress with the new scenario of the Spanish universities and represents a first step for the development of more efficient human resource practices in universities.﻿
Empowered Or Beleaguered? Principals’ Accountability Under New York City’s Diverse Provider Regime
Authors: Shipps Dorothy
Published: March 2015

By 2008, New York City’s school governing regime contained two market-creation policies. Each reshaped principal incentives. One closed large high schools, replacing them with four-to-eight small schools. Another replaced uniform district-provided services with eleven School Support Organizations (SSOs). Both aimed to empower principals with new discretion. This interview study of a small, stratified random sample of high school principals uses mixed methods to analyze 241 incidents detailing their reactions. Guiding questions include whether principals experienced the policies as empowering. Findings show that two thirds of the principals felt beleaguered rather than empowered; incentives appeared insufficient to provide them with unambiguous direction and confidence in their own decisions. The study concludes by considering what additional resources might be needed to expand the one third who felt empowered into a majority. ﻿
Políticas de Educación Superior en América Latina en el Siglo XXI: ¿Inclusión o Calidad?
Authors: Chiroleu Adriana
Published: March 2015

Este trabajo se propone analizar la conformación de las agendas de gobierno en materia de educación superior y las políticas generadas en Argentina, Brasil y Venezuela marcando sus contrastes y similitudes y las líneas de renovación o continuidad que se presentan con relación a las políticas de los’90. Paradójicamente, a pesar de los nuevos tiempos políticos que vive la región, la opción parece continuar anclada en la antinomia entre inclusión y calidad, términos que son privilegiados alternativamente sin que opere una fusión virtuosa que permita superar este falso antagonismo.
Professional Learning Activities in Context: A Statewide Survey of Middle School Mathematics Teachers
Authors: Akiba Motoko
Published: March 2015

Based on a statewide survey of professional learning activities among 577 middle school mathematics teachers in Missouri, this study examined two questions: 1) What professional learning activities do middle school math teachers participate in and how much time do they spend in these activities?, and 2) How are teacher qualifications and contextual characteristics associated with the amount of their professional learning activities? The study examined seven types of formal and informal professional learning activities: 1) professional development programs, 2) teacher collaboration, 3) university courses, 4) professional conferences, 5) mentoring/coaching, 6) informal communications, and 7) individual learning activities. The study found that middle school mathematics teachers spend the greatest amount of time involved in teacher collaboration, professional development programs, and individual learning activities. In addition, mathematics teachers in high-poverty and ethnically diverse districts tend to spend more time in formal learning activities such as professional development programs, teacher collaboration, and mentoring/coaching than do mathematics teachers in wealthier and less diverse districts. To promote a greater level of teachers’ participation in shared learning activities, it is important for district and school administrators to offer professional learning activities that meet mathematics teachers’ learning needs for understanding students’ mathematical knowledge and thinking.
Analyzing the Anglo-American Hegemony in the Times Higher Education Rankings
Authors: Kaba Amadu Jacky
Published: March 2015

This study analyzes the 2009 Times Higher Education-QS top 200 universities in the world.  Based on this analysis the study claims that the THS reflects the phenomenon of Anglo-American hegemony. The United States with 54 universities and the United Kingdom with 29 dominated the THS. In addition, six out of every ten universities on the top 200 list were located in countries that were at one time partly or fully colonized by the United Kingdom. This study identifies a number of factors that contributed to a country having at least one university ranked on the list: Age of an institution, endowment of an institution, the size of a nation’s population, gross domestic products (GDP) and GDP per capita, level of international trade (exports/imports), colonial heritage and language.
Recruiting Expert Teachers into High-Needs Schools: Leadership, Money, and Colleagues
Authors: Amrein-Beardsley Audrey
Published: March 2015

Teacher quality experts are urging policymakers to identify and target expert teachers and entice them to teach in high-needs schools. To understand what this might take, expert teachers in Arizona were surveyed to understand their job-related preferences to inform future recruitment policies. Findings should inform others about the important factors educational policymakers might consider when thinking about recruiting expert teachers into high-needs schools. These factors include the quality of the principal; salary, bonuses, and benefits; and the degree to which expert teachers can work in multiple roles to enhance student learning.