bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Scylla and Charybdis: Navigating the Waters of Academic Freedom at Fisk University During Charles S. Johnson's Administration (1946–1956)
Authors: Gasman Marybeth
Published: June 2007

A prominent sociologist and race relations activist, Charles S. Johnson dedicated his life to the advancement of Blacks. His presidency at Fisk University, a historically Black college, was the culmination of his career. During the latter part of his administration, he faced a dilemma involving an outspoken professor named Lee Lorch, who, in 1954, was accused of being a communist. Johnson and the Board of Trustees dismissed Lorch because he refused to answer a congressional committee's questions about his previous political affiliations. In 1959, the American Association of University Professors found the late President Johnson guilty of violating the principles of academic freedom. This article explores the ways in which academic freedom, civil liberties, and civil rights clashed in the Lee Lorch case. Furthermore, it examines the ways in which the setting of a historically Black college alters traditional assumptions about the application of these principles.
Social Support and Achievement for Young Adolescents in Chicago: The Role of School Academic Press
Authors: Lee Valerie E. , Smith Julia B.
Published: June 2007

This study explores whether the social support that young adolescents may draw on for their academic activities is related to how much they learn in mathematics and reading over the course of a year. Data came from 1997survey reports collected by the Consortium for Chicago School Research from 30,000 sixth and eighth graders in 304 Chicago public elementary schools about the support these students receive from their teachers, their parents, their peers, and their neighborhoods and from annual standardized tests conducted by the Chicago Public Schools. Using hierarchical linear modeling methods, we found that, on average, social support is positively but modestly related to learning. However, both learning and the relationship between social support and learning are contingent on the academic press of the school students attend. Findings are discussed within the context of school reform policies focusing on increasing social support.
The Effects of Small Classes on Academic Achievement: The Results of the Tennessee Class Size Experiment
Authors: Nye Barbara , Hedges Larry V. , Konstantopoulos Spyros
Published: June 2007

The effects of class size on academic achievement have been studied for decades. Although the results of small scale randomized experiments and large-scale econometric studies point to positive effects of small classes, some scholar have seen the evidence as ambiguous. This paper reports analyses of a 4-year, large-scale randomized experiment on the effects of class size, project STAR in Tennessee. Although implementation was not perfect, these analyses suggest that shortcomings in implementation probably led to underestimates of the effects of class size. The analyses reported here suggest class size effects that are large enough to be important for educational policy and that are quite consistent across schools. Thus, small classes appear to benefit all kinds of students in all kinds of schools.
Literacy and the Identity Development of Latina/o Students
Authors: Jiménez Robert T.
Published: June 2007

This research sought to better understand how literacy and identity interacted in the development of Latina/o students in four bilingual classrooms. The year-long project involved approximately 85 students and their 4 teachers. Data were obtained through classroom observations, dialogue between the teachers and the researcher, student interviews that included think-aloud procedures, cognitive strategy instruction, and various means of recording student response to the instruction. The results indicated that students' bilingual language and literacy knowledge and their understanding of identity had noticeable influences on each other. The ways that students constructed their biliterate identities were traced and theoretical implications were explored. How these students thought about English, the roles that English and Spanish literacy played in their lives, and the importance of language and literacy to maintaining and fostering interpersonal relationships were some of the prevailing and identifiable trends within the data.
Teacher Turnover and Teacher Shortages: An Organizational Analysis
Authors: Ingersoll Richard M.
Published: June 2007

Contemporary educational theory holds that one of the pivotal causes of inadequate school performance is the inability of schools to adequately staff classrooms with qualified teachers. This theory also holds that these school staffing problems are primarily due to shortages of teachers, which, in turn, are primarily due to recent increases in teacher retirements and student enrollments. This analysis investigates the possibility that there are other factors—those tied to the organizational characteristics and conditions of schools—that are driving teacher turnover and, in turn, school staffing problems. The data utilized in this investigation are from the Schools and Staffing Survey and its supplement, the Teacher Followup Survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The results of the analysis indicate that school staffing problems are not primarily due to teacher shortages, in the technical sense of an insufficient supply of qualified teachers. Rather, the data indicate that school staffing problems are primarily due to excess demand resulting from a "revolving door"—where large numbers of qualified teachers depart their jobs for reasons other than retirement. Moreover, the data show that the amount of turnover accounted for by retirement is relatively minor when compared to that associated with other factors, such as teacher job dissatisfaction and teachers pursuing other jobs. The article concludes that popular education initiatives, such as teacher recruitment programs, will not solve the staffing problems of such schools if they do not also address the organizational sources of low teacher retention.
Choosing Tracks:“Freedom of Choice” in Detracking Schools
Authors: Yonezawa Susan , Wells Amy Stuart , Serna Irene
Published: June 2007

In this article, we discuss how and why educators’ attempts at detracking by providing students and parents with greater “freedom of choice” in track placement often result in little movement of low-and middle-track students into high-track classes. Using data from six racially mixed high schools undergoing detracking reform, the authors contend that these schools’ low- and middle-track students, most of whom were African American and Latino, resisted entering high-track classes because the relationship between their places in the tracking hierarchy and their evolving identities and ideologies shaped the way such options were presented to and perceived by them. The authors conclude that the hidden institutional barriers within schools, the students’ tracked aspirations, and the desire of students to learn in “places of respect” thwarted reformers’ efforts to detrack through the mechanism of choice.
Race, Poverty, and the Student Curriculum: Implications for Standards Policy
Authors: Alexander Nicola A.
Published: June 2007

The purpose of this article is to examine the links between the minority and poverty status of public secondary schools and course-taking patterns within those schools. This analysis looks at the 1984 Regents Action Plan in New York State to explore the role of standards-based policies in altering the connections between schooling context and curriculums. The findings show that, on average, schools increased student participation in traditional and advanced courses in the six years immediately following the plan, in comparison with the four years preceding it. It is significant to note that in the ten-year period studied (1980–1990) the links between course-taking patterns and the minority and poverty status of schools persisted in big city school districts but were somewhat weaker for schools in the rest of New York State. However, school size plays an increasingly important role for schools in all locations. The magnitude of the associations between size and course-taking patterns increased in the years after standards-based reform, suggesting that standards are not a cure-all for the ills of high schools.
Using Sociotransformative Constructivism to Teach for Understanding in Diverse Classrooms: A Beginning Teacher’s Journey
Authors: Rodriguez Alberto J , Berryman Chad
Published: June 2007

This is an article within an article. It reports the results of a study with high school students, teachers, and a preservice teacher; and it uses those results in further investigating the preservice teacher’s views 1 year after his participation in the study, a year during which he taught in his own classroom. Using sociotransformative constructivism as the theoretical framework, the article presents insights into the issues and difficulties that can be encountered by Anglo-European beginning teachers who are committed to teaching for understanding in predominantly Latino/a and impoverished school settings. Findings from this study suggest that an article-within-an-article format can be used as a tool for further professional development and as a research tool for strengthening the validity of research claims
Reconstructing Equality on New Political Ground: The Politics of Representation in the Charter School Debate at the University of California, San Diego
Authors: Rosen Lisa , Mehan Hugh
Published: June 2007

Attacks on the legitimacy of affirmative action pose new challenges for public universities committed to creating a diverse student population without considering race or ethnicity as factors in admissions. On the basis of a case study of the controversy surrounding the building of a charter school at the University of California, San Diego, in response to the elimination of affirmative action in University of California admissions, the authors describe the meaning-making process by which that campus established new procedures for promoting educational equality and constructed new meanings to justify those policies and to resolve conflicts about their legitimacy. The charter school was created after a contentious public debate, in which the concept for the school and tacit definitions of equality, of social responsibility, and of the university itself became objects of contestation. The analysis reveals (a) the constitutive social processes by which particular meanings of equality and social responsibility are constructed and institutionalized, and (b) the role of higher education policy in reconstituting meanings of equality in the wake of affirmative action’s political retreat.
Effect of Paced and Unpaced Practice on Skill Application and Retention: How Much Is Enough?
Authors: Péladeau Normand , Forget Jacques , Gagné Françoys
Published: June 2007

This study examined the relative benefits of mastery learning, overlearning, and fluency-building instructions for academic performance and long-term retention. College students enrolled in introductory quantitative methods classes (n = 168) were asked to practice every week with a computerized flash-card program until they attained various mastery criteria. The results confirmed that practicing until mastery improved individual exam scores, group success rates, and long-term retention. Moreover, overlearning provided additional benefits, especially in long-term retention. However, fluency-building instructions did not further increase academic achievement or long-term retention. Despite the alleged detrimental effects of drill and practice on motivation, a positive relationship was found between amount of practice and attitudes toward the course, the subject matter, and practice activities.
The Effects of Developmentally Appropriate Practices on Academic Outcomes Among Former Head Start Students and Classmates, Grades 1–3
Authors: Van Horn M. Lee , Ramey Sharon L.
Published: June 2007

The educational ideology of Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) in childhood education is influential, despite remarkably little empirical study. This article relates DAP to changes in achievement and receptive language among former Head Start children and classmates in Grades 1–3 (including between 1,564 and 4,764 children in 869 to 1,537 classrooms). The authors applied multilevel growth curve modeling techniques to estimate overall DAP effects and to examine possible interactions with sex, ethnicity, grade, and poverty. The results were consistent across years, with only a few significant effects of DAP, some positive and others negative. Collectively, the results indicate that DAP as observed in classrooms accounts for little or no variation in children’s academic performance. The article details the methodological and theoretical implications for future inquiry.
Patterns of Diagnosed Mathematical Content and Process Skills in TIMSS-R Across a Sample of 20 Countries
Authors: Tatsuoka Kikumi K. , Corter James E. , Tatsuoka Curtis
Published: June 2007

This study used a diagnostic testing approach to compare the mathematics achievement of eighth-grade students across a sample of 20 countries, analyzing data from the Third International Math and Science Study–Revised (TIMSS-R, 1999). Using the rule-space method, student mastery was measured on 23 specific content knowledge and processing subskills (“attributes”) underlying students’ item scores, using 23 attributes previously defined and validated. Mean mastery levels for each attribute were compared for the 20 selected countries. Clear differences among the countries were found in patterns of subskill achievement. U.S. students were strong in some content and quantitative reading skills, but weak in others, notably geometry. Interestingly, success in geometry was found to be highly associated with logical reasoning and other important mathematical thinking skills across the sampled countries.
Can Teacher Education Make a Difference?
Authors: Brouwer Niels , Korthagen Fred
Published: June 2007

Occupational socialization in schools is a known factor counteracting attempts at educating innovative teachers. In this study, findings are reported from a longitudinal study conducted among 357 students, 128 cooperating teachers, and 31 university supervisors from 24 graduate teacher education programs. Quantitative survey data as well as in-depth qualitative data were collected over a period of 4.5 years. Development of teaching competence was followed from candidates’ enrollment until their third year as in-service teachers. Occupational socialization in schools was demonstrated to have a considerable influence on the development of graduates’ in-service competence. However, evidence was also produced for an impact of specific characteristics of the teacher education programs studied involving the integration of practical experience and theoretical study. Implications of these findings for the design of teacher education programs and the conduct of teacher education research are discussed.
Tracking and High School English Learners: Limiting Opportunity to Learn
Authors: Callahan Rebecca M.
Published: June 2007

Programs and policies related to the education of English learners are often based on the belief that fluency in English is the primary, if not sole, requirement for academic success. While English is in fact necessary for academic success in U.S. schools, so is a strong base in content-area academics. This study investigated the effects of track placement and English proficiency on secondary English learners’ academic achievement while taking students’ previous schooling and length of time enrolled in U.S. schools into account. In the case of a variety of outcomes, track placement was a better predictor of achievement than proficiency in English. Results indicate that track placement is a better predictor of English learners’ academic performance than proficiency in English, highlighting the importance of quality instruction for English learners.
Effects of Resources, Inequality, and Privilege Bias on Achievement: Country, School, and Student Level Analyses
Authors: Chiu Ming Ming , Khoo Lawrence
Published: June 2007

This study examined how resources, distribution inequality, and biases toward privileged students affected academic performance. Fifteen-year-olds from 41 countries completed a questionnaire and tests in mathematics, reading, and science. Multilevel regression analyses showed that students scored higher in all subjects when they had more resources in their country, family, or school. Students in countries with higher inequality, clustering of privileged students, or unequal distribution of certified teachers typically had lower scores. Distribution inequality favored privileged students, in that schools with more privileged students typically had more resources. Overall, students scored lower when parent job status had a larger effect on student performance (privileged student bias) in a school or country. These results suggest that equal opportunity is linked to higher overall student achievement.
Motivation and Performance Differences in Students’ Domain-Specific Epistemological Belief Profiles
Authors: Buehl Michelle M , Alexander Patricia A
Published: June 2007

Cluster analysis and analysis of variance procedures were used to identify students’ domain-specific epistemological belief profiles and to examine differences in students’ beliefs, motivation, and task performance. Four hundred eighty-two undergraduates completed measures regarding their beliefs about knowledge, competency beliefs, and achievement values relative to history and mathematics and participated in domain learning tasks. Cluster analysis was used to identify epistemological belief profile groups within the domains of history and mathematics. Students with more sophisticated belief profiles had higher levels of motivation and task performance. Although the configuration of profiles differed across domains, cross-domain analyses suggested a tendency for students to be relatively consistent in the sophistication of their beliefs across domains. These findings provide evidence of the dual nature of epistemological beliefs.
Classroom Interpreting and Visual Information Processing in Mainstream Education for Deaf Students: Live or Memorex®?
Authors: Marschark Marc , Pelz Jeff B , Convertino Carol , Sapere Patricia , Arndt Mary Ellen , Seewagen Rosemarie
Published: June 2007

This study examined visual information processing and learning in classrooms including both deaf and hearing students. Of particular interest were the effects on deaf students’ learning of live (three-dimensional) versus video-recorded (two-dimensional) sign language interpreting and the visual attention strategies of more and less experienced deaf signers exposed to simultaneous, multiple sources of visual information. Results from three experiments consistently indicated no differences in learning between three-dimensional and two-dimensional presentations among hearing or deaf students. Analyses of students’ allocation of visual attention and the influence of various demographic and experimental variables suggested considerable flexibility in deaf students’ receptive communication skills. Nevertheless, the findings also revealed a robust advantage in learning in favor of hearing students
Urban High School Students' Academic Communities and Their Effects on Mathematics Success
Authors: Walker Erica N.
Published: June 2007

This article reports findings from a study exploring the roles of peer influences in cultivating urban high school students' academic success in mathematics. While the literature describing family/school influences on the academic achievement of students of color is compelling, much of it suggests that urban students' peer groups do not support academic achievement. This study of high school students sought to link their academic behaviors to a historical tradition of intellectual networks within their communities. The ways in which students' peer groups, families, and school communities fostered their mathematics success are discussed with the aim of helping researchers and educators gain a more complete vision of urban students' achievement.
Improving the Writing, Knowledge, and Motivation of Struggling Young Writers: Effects of Self-Regulated Strategy Development With and Without Peer Support
Authors: Harris Karen R. , Graham Steve , Mason Linda H.
Published: June 2007

Writing development involves changes that occur in children’s strategic behavior, knowledge, and motivation. The authors examined the effectiveness of self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), a strategy instructional model designed to promote development in each of these areas. Instruction focused on planning and writing stories and persuasive essays. The addition of a peer support component to SRSD instruction aimed at facilitating maintenance and generalization effects was also examined. SRSD had a positive impact on the writing performance and knowledge of struggling second-grade writers attending urban schools serving a high percentage of low-income families. In comparison with children in the Writers’ Workshop condition, SRSD-instructed students were more knowledgeable about writing and evidenced stronger performance in the two instructed genres (story and persuasive writing) as well as two uninstructed genres (personal narrative and informative writing). Moreover, the peer support component augmented SRSD instruction by enhancing specific aspects of students’ performance in both the instructed and uninstructed genres.
Academic Optimism of Schools: A Force for Student Achievement
Authors: Hoy Wayne K. , Tarter C. John , Hoy Anita Woolfolk
Published: June 2007

Researchers have been challenged to go beyond socioeconomic status in the search for school-level characteristics that make a difference in student achievement. The purpose of the present study was to identify a new construct, academic optimism, and then use it to explain student achievement while controlling for socioeconomic status, previous achievement, and urbanicity. The study focused on a diverse sample of 96 high schools. A random sample of teachers from each school provided data on the school’s academic optimism, and student achievement scores and demographic characteristics were obtained from the state department of education. A confirmatory factor analysis and hypothesis tests were conducted simultaneously via structural equation modeling. As predicted, academic optimism made a significant contribution to student achievement after controlling for demographic variables and previous achievement. The findings support the critical nature of academic optimism.
Would Harry and Hermione Have Done Better in Single-Sex Classes? A Review of Single-Sex Teaching in Coeducational Secondary Schools in the United Kingdom
Authors: Younger Michael Robert , Warrington Molly
Published: June 2007

The gender agenda in many North American, Western European, and Australasian countries has undergone a “boy turn” in the past decade amid growing concerns about boys’ apparent “underachievement” relative to girls. One aspect of this turn has been the resurrection of interest in single-sex classes in coeducational public state schools. This article reviews these developments from an international perspective, particularly focusing on the experiences of a number of United Kingdom secondary schools involved in the 4-year Raising Boys’ Achievement Project. The article suggests that, while single-sex classes have the potential to raise the achievement levels of both boys and girls and to have a positive impact on the atmosphere and ethos for learning, these gains will be achieved only if the initiative is developed within gender-relational contexts rather than situated within recuperative masculinity policies.
How Special Education Preschool Graduates Finish: Status at 19 Years of Age
Authors: Jenkins Joseph R. , Dale Philip S. , Mills Paulette E. , Cole Kevin N. , Pious Constance , Ronk Joan
Published: June 2007

This article reports the academic and special education status of 129 graduates of special education preschools at 19 years of age. Participants had been randomly assigned to either direct instruction or mediated learning preschool classrooms. At age 19, their achievement was approximately one standard deviation below average. Consistent with results at earlier follow-up points, program main effects were not significant; however, the Aptitude × Treatment interactions (ATIs) documented at earlier ages were absent. Sample differences among follow-up groups may account for the changed ATI findings. A combination of preschool child characteristics and early achievement accounted for 78% of final achievement variance. Male participants had higher achievement than female participants but were disproportionately placed in special education. Special education placement and disability classifications fluctuated over the course of schooling.
The Future of Educational Research
Authors: FARLEY FRANK H.
Published: June 2007

An examination and projection of developments in educational research in the 1980s and beyond is provided by a panel of past-Presidents of the American Educational Research Association. The panel was asked to focus on the probable nature of educational research in the 1980s and beyond, to outline their own perspectives on where educational research is going, or ought to be going, during this time. Historical comments were not, of course, ruled out, nor comments on current strengths and weaknesses, and trends. 1 This article will be presented in two parts.
Computers As Tools of the Intellect
Authors: OLSON DAVID R.
Published: June 2007

The structure of language and meaning in speaking, writing, and computing is compared. The "bias" of both writing and computing is toward a radical explicitness that tends to minimize or eliminate altogether the role of interpretation–the construction of a personal, subjective meaning. The cognitive implications of teaching children to cope with this explicitness of writing and computing are considered.
Learning from Experience: History and Teacher Education
Authors: WARREN DONALD
Published: June 2007

The inseparable histories of teaching, teachers, and teacher education point to social and institutional pressures on the development of teacher preparation in the United States over the past two centuries. Within this enlarged tradition, the forms and directions of teacher preparation appear in sharper focus. The persistence of basic patterns of influence and policy suggests that the reform of teacher education requires both programmatic changes and improvements in the conditions of professional practice.
The Rescue From Relativism: Two Failed Attempts and an Alternative Strategy
Authors: DONMOYER ROBERT
Published: June 2007

Widespread acceptance of the notion of relativism has been prompted by post-positivist philosophers’ discussions of the role that paradigms play in empirical inquiry and their claims that empirical evidence is inadequate for settling paradigm disputes. Problems with relativism, in turn, have encouraged certain epistemologists and methodologists to resurrect aspects of local positivism. In this article, the author critiques attempts to resurrect aspects of positivism and argues that the work of certain post-positivist philosophers of science–in particular, Toulmin’s discussions of the role that purpose plays in rational decisionmaking–provides a more adequate response to the problems associated with relativism.
Policy Strategies, Teacher Salary Incentive, and Student Achievement: An Explanatory Model
Authors: TURNER RICHARD , CAMILLI GREGORY , KROC RICHARD , HOOVER JOHN
Published: June 2007

As economies of scale increase, school districts, by means of policy strategy, trade class size against salary incentive for teachers. This idea is developed and related to district-level achievement through an explanatory, structural equation model. The model is tested on data on student achievement in 102 Colorado school districts. The results show that the model is moderately successful for explaining reading achievement in grades 5, 6, 11, and 12. However, factors not yet included in the model are believed to have strong effects.
Some Principles of Postpositivistic Philosophy of Science
Authors: Garrison James W.
Published: June 2007

In recent years there has been a great deal of methodological debate among educational researchers, theoreticians, and practitioners concerning issues such as relativism raised by the so-called “new,” “Kuhnian” or “postpositivistic” philosophy of science. The intensity of this debate notwithstanding, the fundamental principles and their relations that comprise the postpositivistic view have not always been carefully spelled out. Some of the principles discussed will include (a) the problem of confirmation, (b) the underdetermination of theory by logic, (c) the underdetermination of theory by experience, (d) the Quine-Duhem thesis, (e) the theory-ladenness of experience, and (f) the incommensurability of theories. No attempt will be made to evaluate these principles. However, those who are prepared to accept all of these will be hard pressed to avoid the dangers of relativism. I will argue that these dangers, if they exist, may be lessened if not eliminated by practicing the pragmatic virtues of epistemological conservatism and good sense.
A Spectre is Haunting American Scholars: The Spectre of “Professionism”
Authors: Metzger Walter P.
Published: June 2007

This essay in the Educational Researcher , by Walter Metzger, is a critical appraisal of recent scholarship on professionalism in our society. It deserves a wide reading m the educational research community because professionalism is an animating theme in the current wave of reform whose implications are complex, controversial, and ill understood. An appreciation of shifts in scholarship on professionalism supplies insight on current policy issues and will improve the debate underway on the proper nature and direction of reform.
Why Triangulate?
Authors: Mathison Sandra
Published: June 2007

This article discusses triangulation as a strategy for increasing the validity of evaluation and research findings. Typically, through triangulating we expect various data sources and methods to lead to a singular proposition about the phenomenon being studied. That this is not the case is obvious to most researchers and evaluators. Given that this expectation is unrealistic, an alternative perspective of triangulation is presented. This alternative perspective takes into account that triangulation results in convergent, inconsistent, and contradictory evidence that must be rendered sensible by the researcher or evaluator.
The Evaluator/Researcher as Person vs. the Person as Evaluator/Researcher
Authors: Smith John K.
Published: June 2007

This paper outlines two views of what it means to be a person and then discusses the relationship of these views to the issues of relativism and research methods. The contention is that relativism is an inevitable consequence of our interpretive or significance-making mode of being in the world. This is so for our daily lives and, because methodology is insufficient to allow us to transcend this mode of being, equally so for our professional lives. It is argued that what does not overly concern us at the former level, should likewise not concern us at the latter level.
Silence and Policy Talk
Authors: Tyack David , Hansot Elisabeth
Published: June 2007

Three puzzles arise in looking at the history of public education through the lens of gender. Why did some major shifts in gender practices, like the emergence of coeducation in the early 19th century, take place with only minor controversy and in relative silence? Conversely, why did certain kinds of vehement policy talk—for example about the way hard study ruined girls' health or about the way women teachers “feminized” boys—affect practice so little? And finally, how did reforms that, on their face, had little to do with gender actually alter the two sexes' educational opportunities? This essay focuses on the complexities of silent institutional change and stability, the reasons why conscious gender policies often left checquered results, and the implications of this history for gender policy and practice today.
Candy Selling and Math Learning
Authors: Saxe Geoffrey B.
Published: June 2007

An overview of accumulating research on children's out-of-school mathematics raises critical questions about how children come to form mathematical understandings in their out-of-school activities and about the interplay between informal and school mathematics learning. The author investigates these questions in an illustrative multimethod study on Brazilian child candy sellers. Findings show that sellers with little or no schooling develop in their practice a complex mathematics that contrasts sharply with school mathematics. Further, analyses reveal an interplay between what they learn in selling candy and what they learn at school: Sellers in school use their street mathematics to work school mathematics problems, and schooled sellers use some limited aspects of their school, mathematics to solve problems in their practice.
Against the Quantitative-Qualitative Incompatibility Thesis or Dogmas Die Hard
Authors: Howe Kenneth R.
Published: June 2007

Over approximately the last 20 years, the use of qualitative methods in educational research has evolved from being scoffed at to being viewed as useful for provisional exploration, to being accepted as a valuable alternative approach in its own right, to being embraced as capable of thoroughgoing integration with quantitative methods. Progress has been halting, and it is not surprising that certain thinkers are now balking at the latest stage of development. The chief worry is that the capitulation to "what works" ignores the incompatibility of the competing positivistic and interpretivist epistemological paradigms that purportedly undergird quantitative and qualitative methods, respectively. Appealing to a pragmatic philosophical perspective, this paper argues that no incompatibility between quantitative and qualitative methods exists at either the level of practice or that of epistemology and that there are thus no good reasons for educational researchers to fear forging ahead with "what works."
The Heuristic Value of Regarding Classroom Instruction as an Aesthetic Medium
Authors: Kagan Dona M
Published: June 2007

If one defines classroom instruction as an aesthetic medium, a lesson can be evaluated alternatively as a kinetic performance, a message, and a work of art. Viewed as a kinetic performance, a lesson might be evaluated in terms of the cognitive activities of an evaluator. Research in athletics suggests that process tracing and memorial tasks could be used to uncover schemas that experienced evaluators unconsciously invoke to help interpret incoming information. As a symbolic medium of communication, classroom instruction follows certain grammatical rules of structure that students must negotiate to learn from lessons. Studies of the film/TV medium illustrate how unfamiliarity with grammatical rules can impair the extraction of information. Analogous studies might be designed to examine the ability of low-achieving students to decode the structures found within classroom lessons. Finally, as a work of art, a lesson contains spatial and temporal patterns that might be judged in terms of symmetry, balance, and parsimony. I place these and other suggested avenues of inquiry in the context of existing research in the fields of teacher evaluation and instructional supervision.
Strategy Diversity and Cognitive Assessment
Authors: Siegler Robert S.
Published: June 2007

Is the time ripe to develop technologically based versions of cognitive psychological methods and to apply them to problems of educational assessment? In this article, I point to dangers of using one common cognitive psychological method, chronometric analysis, for purposes of educational assessment. I also argue, though, that progress is being made toward developing more accurate diagnostic techniques, and that this progress promises to allow more revealing assessments than are possible with traditional psychometric instruments. Both the problems with chronometric methods and the promise of new approaches are illustrated with examples from recent research.
Stories of Experience and Narrative Inquiry
Authors: Connelly F. Michael , Clandinin D. Jean
Published: June 2007

Although narrative inquiry has a long intellectual history both in and out of education, it is increasingly used in studies of educational experience. One theory in educational research holds that humans are storytelling organisms who, individually and socially, lead storied lives. Thus, the study of narrative is the study of the ways humans experience the world. This general concept is refined into the view that education and educational research is the construction and reconstruction of personal and social stories; learners, teachers, and researchers are storytellers and characters in their own and other's stories. In this paper we briefly survey forms of narrative inquiry in educational studies and outline certain criteria, methods, and writing forms, which we describe in terms of beginning the story, living the story, and selecting stories to construct and reconstruct narrative plots. Certain risks, dangers, and abuses possible in narrative studies are discussed. We conclude by describing a two-part research agenda for curriculum and teacher studies flowing from stories of experience and narrative inquiry.
Mentoring Relations: A Definition to Advance Research and Practice
Authors: Healy Charles C. , Welchert Alice J.
Published: June 2007

Many educators have investigated the promise of mentoring as a vehicle of career development, yet no widely accepted definition of mentoring has been articulated. Without such definitional consensus, efforts to develop a knowledge base relevant to mentorships in education have been haphazard. To advance a knowledge base for future research, a definition of mentoring is offered that is grounded in contextual-developmental theory and consistent with the findings of past investigators. Corollaries of the contextual-developmental perspective raise issues that action research may profitably address to facilitate mentoring relationships. The proposed definition offers immediate benefits to mentors, protégés, and their sponsors as it highlights critical elements of the mentoring process.
Activities as Instructional Tools: A Framework for Analysis and Evaluation
Authors: BROPHY JERE , ALLEMAN JANET
Published: June 2007

Issues relating to the design, selection, and evaluation of learning activities have been relatively neglected in educational research and scholarship. This article identifies some fundamental questions in need of scholarly attention, reviews recent research findings, and then offers a conceptual analysis and a list of principles that might be used as a tool for designing, selecting, or assessing activities.
Complex, Performance-Based Assessment: Expectations and Validation Criteria
Authors: LINN ROBERT L. , BAKER EVA L. , DUNBAR STEPHEN B.
Published: June 2007

In recent years there has been an increasing emphasis on assessment results, as well as increasing concern about the nature of the most widely used forms of student assessment and uses that are made of the results. These conflicting forces have helped create a burgeoning interest in alternative forms of assessments, particularly complex, performance-based assessments. It is argued that there is a need to rethink the criteria by which the quality of educational assessments are judged, and a set of criteria that are sensitive to some of the expectations for performance-based assessments is proposed.
The Evaluation of Bilingual Education
Authors: Cziko Gary A.
Published: June 2007

The author discusses topics related to the evaluation of bilingual education programs. He surveys the results of seven major bilingual education evaluations and presents their diverse findings. He argues that such research cannot answer the question of whether bilingual education necessarily or even probably works. To demonstrate the potentials and possibilities for bilingual education, he describes a "bilingual immersion" program in which both language-majority and language-minority students learn each others’ language while continuing to develop their own.
In Defense of Positivist Research Paradigms
Authors: Schrag Francis
Published: June 2007

Although positivism means different things to different people, it is not difficult to identify research paradigms that would be clearly identified as positivist by friends and foes of positivism alike. I briefly describe one such paradigm and identify its principal features. I argue that even outspoken critics of positivist research–such as Elliot Eisner, Frederick Erickson, Henry Giroux, and Thomas Popkewitz–are logically committed to propositions that can be tested only by means of positivist research paradigms.
Toward a White Discourse on White Racism
Authors: Scheurich James Joseph
Published: June 2007

Few would disagree that racism continues to be a serious social problem. More problematic for many White academics is the judgment that the academy itself is racist. In this essay I argue that the judgment that the academy is racist is frequently misunderstood by us White academicians because our socially learned investment in individualism eclipses our awareness of our racial positionality. I conclude with suggestions on how we White academicians could, with less divisiveness, begin to address White racism within the academy.
The Interplay of Evidence and Consequences in the Validation of Performance Assessments
Authors: Messick Samuel
Published: June 2007

Authentic and direct assessments of performances and products are examined in the light of contrasting functions and purposes having implications for validation, especially with respect to the need for specialized validity criteria tailored for performance assessment. These include contrasts between performances and products, between assessment of performance per se and performance assessment of competence or other constructs, between structured and unstructured problems and response modes, and between breadth and depth of domain coverage. These distinctions are elaborated in the context of an overarching contrast between task-driven and construct-driven performance assessment. Rhetoric touting performance assessments because they eschew decomposed skills and decontextualized tasks is viewed as misguided, in that component skills and abstract problems have a legitimate place in pedagogy. Hence, the essence of authentic assessment must be sought elsewhere, that is, in the quest for complete construct representation. With this background, the concepts of “authenticity” and “directness” of performance assessment are treated as tantamount to promissory validity claims that they offset, respectively, the two major threats to construct validity, namely, construct underrepresentation and construct-irrelevant variance. With respect to validation, the salient role of both positive and negative consequences is underscored as well as the need, as in all assessment, for evidence of construct validity.
An Exchange: Part I: Does Money Matter? A Meta-Analysis of Studies of the Effects of Differential School Inputs on Student Outcomes
Authors: Hedges Larry V. , Laine Richard D. , Greenwald Rob
Published: June 2007

Research on educational production functions attempts to model the relation between resource inputs and school outcomes such as educational achievement. Over the last decade a series of influential reviews of this literature have suggested that there is no systematic relation between resource inputs and school outcomes when controlling for student characteristics such as socioeconomic status. The inference procedure used in these reviews, vote counting, is known to be problematic. This study is a reanalysis of data from these earlier reviews, using more sophisticated synthesis methods. It shows systematic positive relations between resource inputs and school outcomes. Moreover, analyses of the magnitude of these relations suggest that the median relation (regression coefficient) is large enough to be of practical importance.While this reanalysis suggests that previous data do not support the conclusions that Hanushek and others derived from it, limitations of their data set warrant caution in using it for policy formation.
Freeing Ourselves From Objectivity: Managing Subjectivity or Turning Toward a Participatory Mode of Consciousness?
Authors: Heshusius Lous
Published: June 2007

The call by educational researchers for the methodological management of the self is placed within a discussion on modes of consciousness. The management of both subjectivity and objectivity are seen as sharing the same alienated mode of consciousness that believes in the possibility of a regulated distance between self and other. Drawing from interdisciplinary writings, I explore a participatory mode of consciousness, which involves a somatic, nonverbal quality of attention that necessitates letting go of the focus on self. The recognition of kinship and therefore of ethics is at the core of a participatory mode of consciousness. I further note relations to educational research and questions to be raised if a participatory mode of consciousness is to be fostered.
Losing Local Control
Authors: Walberg Herbert J. , Walberg Herbert J.
Published: June 2007

During the past half century, three pronounced trends in state policy have occurred: Districts and schools have dramatically risen in enrollments; states have steadily raised their share of revenues for public schools; and local shares have declined. Yet organization theory and evidence suggest that these trends would make public education less efficient. This hypothesis is tested in 38 states that voluntarily cooperated in administering the National Assessment of Educational Progress mathematics examination to random within-state samples of eighth-grade students. Both correlations and regressions (controlling for per-student expenditures and student demographics) show that achievement is inversely related to both size indexes and state funding share. Achievement is inversely but insignificantly related to per-student funding.
Content as Context: The Role of School Subjects in Secondary School Teaching
Authors: Grossman Pamela L. , Stodolsky Susan S
Published: June 2007

In this article we argue that understanding subject-matter differences among high school teachers is crucial for the analysis and reform of secondary schools. An emerging line of research suggests that high school teachers belong to distinctive subject subcultures; these subcultures are characterized by differing beliefs, norms, and practices. We report findings from surveys and interviews with high school teachers that illustrate salient aspects of subject subcultures. Shared beliefs about the possibilities and constraints posed by different school subjects may complicate efforts to restructure high schools or redesign curriculum.