bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Is Teaching for Social Justice a “Liberal Bias”?
Authors: Applebaum Barbara
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

A charge heard repeatedly, especially in contemporary media by neo-conservatives such as David Horowitz and George Will, maintains that there is a “liberal bias” in North American academe. The primary grievance is that students in higher education are being indoctrinated into a left-wing ideology that discriminates against conservatives and that some professors are using their classrooms as a political podium at the expense of intellectual diversity.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The purpose of this project is to analytically assess the charge of “liberal bias” as it is specifically leveled at those who make social justice education a requirement of higher education, and especially teacher education.

Research Design

Using conceptual analysis, this project highlights two aspects of the charge: the charge of “bias” and the charge of “ideology/imposition.” It is argued that the charge of bias is grounded in an assumption about teacher neutrality. The concept of teacher neutrality is examined and shown to be primarily concerned with evenhandedness. It is concluded that under conditions of systemic injustice, social justice education is evenhanded. The charge of ideology/imposition is then explored, and it is argued that the underlying concern revolves around the development of critical reflection. Four different readings of “ideology” are delineated. It is argued that social justice education, although ideological in some sense, does not in principle involve imposition because it promotes rather than arrests criticality. The type of criticality that social justice education promotes is then elucidated.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Making social justice education a requirement of higher education is both evenhanded and, although a type of ideology, it promotes rather than impedes criticality. Educational researchers are exhorted to be less concerned about bias and ideology in regard to social justice education and to turn their attention to how privileged students can be educated without recentering their privilege in ways that sacrifice the education of the marginalized. How can education recognize and repair not just the harm done by others but the harm that occurs under the name of education?1
Immigration, Language, and Education: How Does Language Policy Structure Opportunity?
Authors: Gándara Patricia , Rumberger Russell W.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

According to U.S. Census figures, 11 million elementary and secondary students of immigrant families were enrolled in the public schools in October 2005, representing 20% of all students, and this figure is expected to grow in the coming years. Most of these students enter school as English learners (ELs), and most ELs have exceptionally low performance on measures of academic achievement and attainment.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This article examines how language policy in the United States has shaped educational opportunities and outcomes for the nation's immigrant students. First, we examine the role of federal policy in shaping these students’ educational opportunities, showing how the changing political landscape in Washington has resulted in inconsistencies in funding and direction for states attempting to serve EL students. Then we focus on how two states with high concentrations of ELs— California and Texas—have responded to the needs of ELs, including the provision of bilingual education, the training and support of properly prepared teachers, and the assessments used to gauge their educational performance.

Research Design

The article uses secondary data sources. It draws on secondary data analysis to examine the growth of the immigrant and linguistic minority populations and their educational achievement; it draws on both historical analysis and secondary data analysis to review shifting federal policies; and it draws on demographic, achievement, and reclassification data in analyzing the education of ELs in California and Texas.

Findings/Results

We found that the changing political landscape in Washington has resulted in inconsistencies in funding and direction for states attempting to serve EL students. We also found that California and Texas appear to have different success rates with their EL students, with Texas reclassifying its ELs to fluent English status at higher rates and outperforming California with respect to National Assessment of Educational Progress scores for this same population.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The article concludes with the major recommendation that the federal government would do well to spearhead and fund a research agenda that addresses the truly important, and unanswered, questions around the education of ELs so that greater guidance can be given to the states in determining how to raise achievement and enhance the psychosocial development of these students.
Interests and Representation: Ethnic Advocacy on California School Boards
Authors: Fraga Luis Ricardo , Elis Roy
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Researchers have found that school districts with greater representation of Latinos and African Americans on their school boards tend to also have higher percentages of Latino and African American administrators and teachers. This increased presence of coethnics in the educational bureaucracy was then found to predict more favorable educational outcomes for these students.

Purpose

We determine if these relationships hold for Latinos in California, which has the largest Latino population in the United States and where Latino students make up just under half of all students enrolled in public schools.

Research Design

Using an original data set of all California school districts in the 2004–2005 school year, we tested these relationships for Latinos in California using multiple regression.

Conclusion

Contrary to previous research, we found that Latino representation on California school boards was not greater in systems of single-member district election. We did, however, find that the greater presence of Latinos on school boards did increase the likelihood that Latinos would be hired as administrators, but only in Latino-majority districts. After appropriate controls, districts with more Latino administrators also tended to have more Latino teachers. Last, and again contrary to previous research, we found no systematic impact of having more Latino teachers and administrators on enhancing student outcomes for either all Latino students or for English language learners.
School-Age Children in Immigrant Families: Challenges and Opportunities for America's Schools
Authors: Hernandez Donald J. , Denton Nancy A. , Macartney Suzanne
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

By the year 2030, when the baby boom generation born between 1946 and 1964 will be in the retirement ages, 72% of the elderly will be non-Hispanic Whites, compared with 56% for working-age adults, and 50% for children. As the predominantly White baby boomers reach retirement, they will increasingly depend for economic support on the productive activities and civic participation of working-age adults who are members of racial and ethnic minorities and, in many cases, children of immigrants. To prepare these young people for lives as productive workers and engaged citizens, we need to pay more attention to creating conditions that will foster their educational success. The profound shift taking place in the composition of the school-age population has implications for schools.

Purpose/Objective/Research Questions/Focus of Study

This article presents a demographic overview of school-age children in immigrant families and compares them with their peers in native-born families. After tracing the shift in the national origins of children of immigrants that has taken place over the past century, we consider the new challenges and opportunities presented to the education system by the socioeconomic, cultural, and religious diversity of this new and growing population of students and by their presence in a growing number of suburban and rural, as well as urban, communities.

Population/Participants/Subjects

This research uses data from Census 2000 to study children in immigrant families who have at least one foreign-born parent compared with children in native-born families who were born in the United States to U.S.-born parents.

Research Design

This research is a secondary analysis of data from Census 2000.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Immigration is transforming the demography of America. In less than three decades, a majority of children are likely to belong to race-ethnic minorities who are Hispanic, Black, Asian, or another non-White race, mainly because of immigration and births to immigrants and their descendants. The educational success achieved by immigrant groups, and their subsequent economic productivity, is important not only to the groups themselves but also to the broad American population because these groups will compose an increasingly important segment of the U.S. labor force during the next few decades; this labor force will be supporting the predominantly White baby boom generation throughout their retirement years. As we increasingly become a nation of minorities, with no single race-ethnic group in the majority, the educational success of all children, especially the rapidly growing population of children in immigrant families, merits increasing attention from teachers, school administrators, and public officials.
The Role of Advocacy in Shaping Immigrant Education: A California Case Study
Authors: Olsen Laurie
Published: November 2021

Background Context

Throughout United States history, immigrant education has been shaped and defined by political struggles over immigration, language rights, national security, and educational equity and access. Bilingual education has become the contemporary battleground for these struggles. In 1996, in California, a struggle ensued between supporters of bilingual education and the English Only movement, culminating in a public ballot initiative, Proposition 227, designed to end bilingual education.

Purpose/Focus

This article explores the ways in which advocacy groups engage in efforts to protect immigrant students’ access to, and inclusion in, schools, and how that engagement is shaped and seeks to impact on prevailing policies and ideologies.

Design

This qualitative case study is based on historical records from the Proposition 227 campaigns, analysis of media coverage, and interviews, and was written as a reflective piece by a social scientist who was active in the campaigns.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The battle over Proposition 227 was just one episode in a historically broader and deeper societal struggle between fundamentally different perspectives about the role of public schools in a diverse society. Although the explicit conflicts between English Only and bilingual education forces in California before, during, and after Proposition 227 were focused on English learner program design—the language to be used for instruction, materials, and credentialing—this was and is an ideological struggle. Advocates for bilingual education were unprepared for fighting this battle in the public arena of a ballot initiative. In the course of the Proposition 227 campaign, advocates drew lessons that informed a revised strategy: to shift the basic paradigm within which immigrant education is framed beyond the framework of civil rights and a compensatory program to redefine immigration schooling in an affirmative, additive 21st-century global vision. This has resulted in a renewed advocacy movement, illustrating the role that advocacy organizations play in adapting and reshaping the dialogues and policies over immigrant education.
The Significance of Relationships: Academic Engagement and Achievement among Newcomer Immigrant Youth
Authors: SuÁrez-Orozco Carola , Pimentel Allyson , Martin Margary
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Newcomer immigrant students are entering schools in the United States in unprecedented numbers. As they enter new school contexts, they face a number of challenges in their adjustment. Previous literature suggested that relationships in school play a particularly crucial role in promoting socially competent behavior in the classroom and in fostering academic engagement and school performance.

Purpose

The aim of this study was to examine the role of school-based relationships in engagement and achievement in a population of newcomer immigrant students.

Research Design

The Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Study (LISA) used a mixed-methods approach, combining longitudinal, interdisciplinary, qualitative, and quantitative approaches to document adaptation patterns of 407 recently arrived immigrant youth from Central America, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico over the course of five years. Based on data from the last year of the study, we examine how the role of relationships mediates newcomers’ challenges with academic engagement and performance. We identify factors that account for patterns of academic engagement and achievement, including country of origin, gender, maternal education, English language proficiency, and school-based relationships.

Findings

Multiple regression analyses suggest that supportive school-based relationships strongly contribute to both the academic engagement and the school performance of the participants. Qualitative interview data and case studies serve to elucidate the relational processes inside and outside school that influence different academic outcomes.
Designing Transparent Teacher Evaluation: The Role of Oversight Panels for Professional Accountability
Authors: Goldstein Jennifer
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Peer Assistance and Review (PAR), or peer review as it has historically been called, has existed in a handful of school districts since the early 1980s. In 1999, California became the first state to pass PAR legislation; at that time, a major district had not implemented the policy in over a decade.

Setting

This is an in-depth study of one urban district in California, given the pseudonym Rosemont, as it implemented PAR following California's legislation.

Program

With PAR, designated “PAR coaches”—teachers identified for excellence and released from teaching duties full-time for 2–3 years—provide mentoring to teachers new to the district or the profession, intervention for identified veteran teachers experiencing difficulty, and the formal personnel evaluations of both groups. These PAR coaches are not school based but rather report to an oversight panel composed of teachers and administrators from across the district.

Research Questions

A companion study previously found that the rate of dismissals increased dramatically after the implementation of PAR in Rosemont. This study examines one aspect of Rosemont's PAR program, its oversight panel. The study examines three questions that in turn address the design, process, and outcomes of PAR and the PAR panel in Rosemont: (1) How did the PAR panel work? (2) How, if at all, did the presence of an oversight panel affect the teacher evaluation process? (3) How, if at all, did the presence of an oversight panel affect personnel outcomes?

Participants

The study involved all PAR coaches (10) and all members of the PAR panel (9) for the first year of program implementation.

Research Design

The study employed an embedded single-case design in Rosemont over 1 1/2 years.

Data Collection and Analysis

The study relied on observations (311 hours of meetings) and semistructured interviews (39). I used QSR NVivo data management. I coded observation scripts and interview transcripts were coded to a schema developed from the progressive coding patterns that I observed, and analyzed them in response to the research questions.

Findings

The Rosemont data demonstrate that the PAR panel both supported the coaches to do their jobs and held them accountable. The community of educators created by PAR and the PAR panel appears to have proved a more rigorous, evidence-based check on classroom teaching performance. I also present data demonstrating the shortcomings of the PAR panel structure in the face of enduring norms against accountability in education.

Conclusions

Significant shifts in organizational structure occurred to support the PAR coaches in their role as evaluators. Making the typically solitary practice of teacher evaluation transparent to colleagues fundamentally altered the nature of educational accountability.
The Role of Intermediary Organizations in Sustaining Student Voice Initiatives
Authors: Mitra Dana L.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The sustainability of change efforts continues to be an important and challenging question in educational research.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

By examining 13 programs aimed at increasing student voice in school reform, this article examines conditions that enable and constrain the sustainability of this challenging form of educational change.

Population/Participants/Subjects

The 13 high schools in this study all received grant funding from a local foundation in the San Francisco Bay Area to work on building a student voice initiative in their school. All the grant recipients and their schools in the sample were situated within an urban environment, either within an inner city or a bedroom community in the Bay Area that possessed urban characteristics of the region. These characteristics include an ethnically diverse population comprising students of Asian, Latin, African, and European descent, insufficiently funded public schools, and high concentrations of poverty.

Intervention/Program/Practice

When placed into practice, student voice initiatives provide youth with opportunities to participate in school decision-making that will shape their lives and the lives of their peers. Student voice can range from the most basic level of youth sharing their opinions of problems and potential solutions, to allowing young people to collaborate with adults to address the problems in their schools, to youth taking the lead on seeking change.

Research Design

This study consists of a multiple case study designed for the purpose of explanation building.

Data Collection and Analysis

Semistructured telephone interviews served as the primary data source for this article. Observations, documents, and external evaluations served as validity checks and sources of triangulation for this study.

Findings/Results

The data indicate that the persistence of a student-voice effort after the initial influx of funds and support disappeared requires support from an intermediary organization (IO)—an organization located outside the auspices of school walls. IOs can help with fostering a clear and long-term vision, providing a more stable source of leadership, identifying ongoing financial and collaborative resources, and building a network for knowledge generation and sharing.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Although they are a part of many reform initiatives, partnerships with IOs are usually considered to be short-term relationships during the implementation phase of an initiative. This research instead suggests that IOs might be better suited as long-term partners in many change efforts. An awareness of the important roles that IOs can play in the long-term work toward change could help researchers, practitioners, and policy makers think more intentionally about how to plan for stabilizing such partnerships as an avenue toward sustaining reform initiatives.
Relation of Instruction and Poverty to Mathematics Achievement Gains during Kindergarten
Authors: Georges Annie
Published: November 2021

Background

Policy discussion to change the nature of teaching practices overshadows how social and economic inequalities contribute to unequal education outcomes. Research on how teaching practices contribute to the variance in test scores on a broad scale or on whether the relation of instruction to test scores is moderated by social and economic inequalities among students is thin. This is the focus of this article.

Purpose

Two questions are addressed. The first question has to do with the relation of instruction and poverty at the individual and classroom levels to mathematics scores. The second question has to do with whether the relation between instruction and mathematics scores is moderated by poverty among students. This article examines test scores in five mathematics subtests.

Research Design

The sample consists of 13,054 students in 822 public and private kindergarten programs from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort data. The statistical model accounts for the unobserved heterogeneity among students who are taught by the same teacher using a fixed effect model of students nested in the same classrooms.

Results

The portion of the variance attributable to actions occurring in the classroom (between-classroom variance) ranges from 15% to 25%, depending on the subtest examined. Of this estimated variance, instruction explains 4%; the concentration of poverty in the classroom explains about 20%; and teacher characteristics (education, professional development, experience) explain about 2%. For the first question, the results show that activities with worksheets, building students’ analytic and reasoning abilities, and activities in collaborative groups are significantly associated with mathematics scores. Worksheets are not very effective in improving scores in the addition and subtraction subtest, whereas building students’ analytic and reasoning abilities does improve scores in that subtest. The adverse effects of poverty on test scores are larger than the positive effects associated with instruction. For the second question, the results show that analytic and reasoning activities are significantly related to the test scores of students in high-poverty classrooms, but this is not the case with students in low-poverty classrooms. The findings suggest that students in poverty would benefit to be in classrooms that emphasize problem-solving and reasoning skills with greater frequency.

Conclusions

The relation of instruction to test scores is generally modest when compared with poverty, suggesting that minimizing the social inequities that contribute to the adverse effects of poverty will play a greater role in closing the poverty score gaps in mathematics in elementary grades.
Negotiating the Global and National: Immigrant and Dominant-Culture Adolescents’ Vocabularies of Citizenship in a Transnational World
Authors: Myers John P. , Zaman Husam A.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The current national debate over the purposes of civic education is largely tied to outdated notions of citizenship that overlook its changing nature under globalization. Civic education is based on a legalistic understanding of citizenship that emphasizes patriotism and the structures and functions of government. This study examined adolescents’ civic beliefs and affiliations, drawing on theories of transnational and global citizenship.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The purpose was to examine diverse adolescents’ vocabularies of citizenship, a concept that captures the tensions in their civic beliefs and affiliations. Their vocabularies were explored in terms of two topics at the intersection of national and global affiliations: universal human rights and global citizenship. The central question asked was: How do adolescents from immigrant backgrounds understand the tensions between national and global civic affiliations, and do they differ from dominant-culture adolescents’ understandings?

Setting

The research setting was the Pennsylvania Governor's School for International Studies, a 5-week summer program for high school students that emphasizes current scholarship and skills in international affairs, cultural studies, and foreign language.

Research Design

A mixed-method case study design was employed to collect detailed and rich data on the students’ beliefs about citizenship.

Findings/Results

The findings showed that the students from immigrant backgrounds favored universal positions and were the only students to call attention to national economic inequalities. In contrast, a majority of the dominant-culture students gave a more central role to national affiliations. However, over half of the students switched between universal and nationally oriented positions for the issues of global citizenship and human rights. It is argued that these switches represent a strong indication of the tensions in civic affiliations in light of globalization.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The findings presented here suggest that the question of either national- or global-oriented civic education makes little sense. This research suggests that differentiated forms of civic education are needed if all youth will have access to full citizenship and the range of civic affiliations needed in the world. Two approaches for reconceptualizing civic education are proposed: Civic education curricula should focus on the intersection of national with global issues and affiliations, and civic education should address, in addition to civic attitudes, skills, and knowledge, a conscious effort to help adolescents build flexible and multiple civic identities.
Only those who See Take off Their Shoes: Seeing the Classroom as a Spiritual Space
Authors: Schoonmaker Frances
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Spirituality refers to a way of being that includes the capacity of humans to see beyond themselves, to become more than they are, to see mystery and wonder in the world around them, and to experience private and collective moments of awe, wonder, and transcendence. Though there is growing interest in spirituality and education, there is little evidence that it is intentionally included in most public school classrooms.

Purpose and Focus

The author's personal experiences as a classroom teacher, adult early recollections of spiritual experience, and children's responses to literature with spiritual themes are used to illustrate three points: (1) Although practice of spiritual discipline may help teachers to be more sensitive to spiritual experiences, it does not necessarily follow that they know what to do with them in the classroom. (2) Early recollections of spiritual experiences and reflection on what these mean for classroom practice may be a way of helping teachers learn how to identify and support spirituality in the classroom. (3) Teachers need to recognize that children's spirituality is part of their being in the world, and honoring it in the classroom requires providing opportunities for its expression within the ordinary events of classroom life.

Research Design

The article is an essay, juxtaposing literature on children's spirituality with the author's personal experiences as a classroom teacher and researcher to make an argument for classrooms as spiritual spaces.

Conclusions

The possibilities inherent in discovering and coming to know—possibilities that are hopeful and open us up to the “more-than-ness” of being human—are often closed off in the day-to-day press of classroom life because teachers are not prepared to consider them, and they are not considered part of the curriculum. The author concludes that educators need to learn how to see the spirituality inherent in the everyday acts of learning, in coming to know, and in being in the classroom and to make space for the unseen. Further research is needed to articulate both theory and practice related to children's spirituality in the classroom.
And Worldlessness, Alas, is Always a Kind of Barbarism: Hannah Arendt and the Challenge of Educating in Worldless Times
Authors: Mackler Stephanie
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

In 1958, Hannah Arendt wrote “The Crisis in Education,” arguing that schools should not be used for political purposes and should instead introduce children to what she calls “the world.” The world, for Arendt, comprises the artifacts, ideas, values, and interactions that connect people together. In that same year, she published The Human Condition, a damning analysis of the problem of what she calls “world alienation” in the modern era. By this, she means that we experience a radical sense of disconnection and alienation from the physical and social world we share with others. The tension between these two pieces is provocative, because one advocates giving children a world, while the other suggests that there is no longer a world to give.

Purpose/Objective

This article begins from the aforementioned point of tension to consider what Arendt might have said about education in 2008, particularly in light of the discussion of world alienation in The Human Condition and Arendt's later work on thinking in The Life of the Mind. Although Arendt's analysis of worldlessness is multifaceted, this article focuses on one specific aspect of her argument: the way our very approaches to thinking— including the way we conduct scholarly inquiry—contribute to the loss of the world.

Research Design

This work is philosophical in nature, focusing on several of Hannah Arendt's published works.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Drawing on Arendt's work on thinking, the author argues that the best response to worldlessness is a specific type of thinking. The article concludes by suggesting that educational researchers and practitioners consider the ways in which education is currently implicated in the problem of world alienation, as well as the ways that we can start thinking differently in response. “The future man, whom the scientists tell us they will produce in no more than a hundred years, seems to be possessed by a rebellion against human existence as it has been given a free gift from nowhere (secularly speaking), which he wishes to exchange, as it were, for something he has made himself.”1
School Job Placement: Can it Avoid Reproducing Social Inequalities?
Authors: Redline Julie , Rosenbaum James E.
Published: November 2021

Background

Labor market entry is difficult for two-year college graduates. Job search literature focuses on personal connections, but disadvantaged students often lack useful contacts. Moreover, employers often don't recognize and value two-year college credentials as much as bachelor's degrees. Teacher contacts could help, but studies find that they can be biased against low achievers and minorities. Institutional school placement programs, which have the potential to reduce inequalities and help disadvantaged students in job search, have rarely been studied in the United States.

Research Question

How does schoolwide institutional job placement operate in a private two-year college with a highly developed program, and is it successful and equitable?

Research Design

This study uses a mixed-methods approach, including a qualitative case study and quantitative analysis of a single college's administrative records.

Findings

We find that this college created institutional job links that are different from other programs studied in the United States. It equitably serves most students and is unrelated to achievement or race. Although it does not improve students’ postcollege earnings, it does improve the skill relevance of participants’ postcollege jobs, which is a potentially important indicator of long-term success. Black and Hispanic students who use the program have earnings advantages over Whites, but this is not true for those who find jobs on their own.

Conclusions

Job placement can and does occur in two-year colleges in the United States. When programs are institutional rather than based on personal teacher contacts, they can serve students equitably and potentially reduce preexisting social inequalities. Colleges can effectively do job matching between the labor market and their students’ qualifications. In so doing, they can provide useful recommendations to employers and place students in skill-relevant jobs.
How Do School Peers Influence Student Educational Outcomes? Theory and Evidence from Economics and Other Social Sciences
Authors: Harris Douglas N.
Published: November 2021

Background

Interest among social scientists in peer influences has grown with recent reseg-regation of the nation's schools and court decisions that limit the ability of school districts to consider race in school assignment decisions. If having more advantaged peers is beneficial, then these trends may reduce educational equity. Previous studies have outlined individual or groups of theories about how peers influence one another, but these theories have rarely been subjected to empirical tests.

Focus of Study

This study provides a description of a wide range of peer influence theories from psychologists, sociologists, and economists. A taxonomy is developed that distinguishes theories based primarily on whether students are hypothesized to change each other's beliefs and values (direct influences) versus more indirect influences, such as the allocation of teachers and school resources. Whether empirical evidence, including important new advancements by economists, informs the validity of the various theories is then considered. Although far from definitive, the study highlights the importance of carrying out empirical analysis that tests specific theories.

Research Design

Quantitative researchers are increasingly aware of the great difficulty of determining whether correlations between individual and group outcomes reflect a causal effect of peers. The review of empirical evidence focuses on experimental and quasi-experimental studies, which most plausibly reflect causal influences. These studies focus on student achievement as the outcome of interest.

Conclusions

The evidence is not completely consistent with any single theory, though it is more supportive of some over others. A new hybrid theory—group-based contagion—is proposed that is more consistent with the evidence.
After Seattle: Social Science Research and Narrowly Tailored School Desegregation Plans
Authors: Armor David J. , O'Neill Stephanie Duck
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

In most judicial and social science debates about school desegregation, it is usually assumed that educational and social benefits, if significant, help establish a compelling purpose for school desegregation plans. Less thought has been given to whether the degree of benefits should factor into whether a plan is narrowly tailored according to Supreme Court standards. Hence, many were surprised when Justice Kennedy argued in the Seattle case that school desegregation meets the compelling purpose requirement but that desegregation plans that classified and assigned all students on the basis of race violated the narrow tailoring requirement.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of the Study

The essay offers a social science rationale for Justice Kennedy's views about narrow tailoring issues and suggests several approaches to desegregation plans that may meet narrow tailoring requirements in the future.

Setting

For illustrative purposes, the study uses student achievement data from Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, between 2001 and 2006. The data were obtained from the North Carolina Education Research Data Center at Duke University.

Population/Participants/Subjects

From a larger North Carolina data set, a cohort was drawn consisting of about 4,050 Black students from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district who began third grade in 2000–2001 and completed the eighth grade in 2005–2006.

Research Design

This essay is primarily an analytic essay with a brief quantitative analysis of student achievement data.

Data Collection and Analysis

The quantitative analysis of achievement data utilized longitudinal methods, tracking socioeconomic-status-adjusted achievement trends for Black students over time.

Findings/Results

A modest relationship between school desegregation and Black student achievement (0.2 standard deviations over 5 years) masks a substantial overlap in test scores for individual students in desegregated versus segregated schools. That is, many Black students in segregated schools score higher than the typical desegregated Black student, and vice versa.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Using evidence from within social science, the authors find that the current design of most mandatory desegregation plans does not fit within the current Court's (especially Justice Kennedy's) view of narrowly tailored plans. However, there are several ways in which school boards and other policy makers can promote school desegregation: considering race when drawing attendance zones, building new schools, closing schools, and locating magnet schools in strategic areas. Further, magnet schools might meet narrow tailoring requirements if race is only one of several factors considered during the application and administration process.
Learning Apart, Living Apart: How the Racial and Ethnic Segregation of Schools and Colleges Perpetuates Residential Segregation
Authors: Goldsmith Pat Rubio
Published: November 2021

Background

Despite a powerful civil rights movement and legislation barring discrimination in housing markets, residential neighborhoods remain racially segregated.

Purpose

This study examines the extent to which neighborhoods’ racial composition is inherited across generations and the extent to which high schools’ and colleges’ racial composition mediates this relationship. To understand the underlying social processes responsible for racial segregation, I use the spatial assimilation model, the place stratification model, and perpetuation theory.

Population

Data for this project are from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), and the U.S. Census.

Research Design

A longitudinal design tracks the racial composition of the schools, colleges, and neighborhoods from adolescence through age 26.

Findings

Holding constant the percent white in teenagers’ neighborhoods, socioeconomic status, and other variables, the percent white that students experience in high school and college has a lasting influence, affecting the percent white in young adult neighborhoods and explaining 31% of intergenerational continuity of neighborhood racial composition.

Conclusions

The analyses suggest that racial segregation in high schools and colleges reinforces racial segregation in neighborhoods.
Internationalizing Higher Education: The Development of Practice and Policy in South Africa
Authors: Dolby Nadine
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Internationalization has moved from the periphery to the core of many universities’ policies, mission statements, and strategic plans. In contrast to earlier paradigms of internationalization, the current period is significantly shaped by the global dominance of capitalism, the rise of the audit and accountability culture, and states’ retreat from funding of public services and goods, including higher education.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine how the practice and policy of internationalization evolved in the specific context of a South African university from 1996 to 2006.

Setting

The research took place in the International Academic Programmes Office (IAPO) at the University of Cape Town in 2006.

Research Design

This research is an instrumental case study of IAPO at the University of Cape Town in 2006.

Data Collection and Analysis

The analysis presented in this article is based on three major sources of data. First, I examined documents produced by IAPO from 1996 (the founding of the office) to 2006, including reports, strategic plans, operational plans, goals and objectives, financial reports, all publicity material, and the draft of the internationalization plan. Second, I analyzed documents produced by the University of Cape Town during this same time period, including mission statements, annual reports, documents related to the transformation process, and the university's 2006 policy on internationalization. Third, I interviewed all key personnel (9 individuals) in IAPO in March 2006.

Conclusions/Recommendations

I identify three areas that are the focus of the major concerns and tensions regarding internationalization in the first 10 years of the office: study abroad, international full-degree students, and relationships with Africa and the rest of the world. I argue that the lack of a formal institutional policy on internationalization allowed for considerable individual and organizational agency in these areas. While the adoption of a formal policy in 2006 may hinder and channel internationalization policy, IAPO's practices have transformed the everyday life of the University of Cape Town, though some of the outcomes have been unanticipated.
The Negative Consequences of Becoming a Good Reader: Identity Theory as a Lens for Understanding Struggling Readers, Teachers, and Reading Instruction
Authors: Hall Leigh A.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The majority of middle school students in U.S. schools are struggling readers and lack the reading abilities needed to successfully comprehend texts, complete reading-related assignments, and learn subject matter content. Researchers have suggested that struggling readers’ comprehension abilities can be improved if their subject-matter teachers provide them with appropriate skill and strategy instruction, as well as regular opportunities to read and discuss texts. However, struggling readers may choose not to apply the reading skills they have been taught and may approach reading tasks in ways that they know prevent them from learning content and that marginalize their abilities to grow as readers.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The multiple case study presented here was intended to explore how middle school struggling readers and their content-area teachers made decisions about how to work with classroom reading tasks and each other over a period of one academic year. A case study approach allowed for the actions that took place to be closely documented. Theories of identity, including models of identity, identity capital, and discursive identity, framed the analysis for this study and were used to interpret the research questions. The research questions were: (1) How do middle school teachers interact with struggling readers in relation to the reading task demands of their classrooms? (2) How do middle school struggling readers interact with the reading task demands of their content-area classrooms?

Setting

This study took place in one sixth-grade social studies classroom, one seventh-grade mathematics classroom, and one eighth-grade science classroom.

Population/Participants/Subjects

The participants were: (a) Sarah and Mrs. O'Reilly in sixth grade, (b) Nicole and Mrs. Harding in seventh grade, and (c) Alisa and Mrs. Baker in eighth grade.

Research Design

This was a descriptive year-long multiple case study. Data sources included biweekly observations, questionnaires, interviews, and graded class work.

Findings

Teachers’ interactions with struggling readers were based on (a) their models of identity for what it meant to become a good reader and (b) the discursive identities they created for their students based on their models of identity. Students’ interactions with classroom reading tasks were based on (a) how they identified themselves as readers and (b) their goal to prevent their peers, teachers, or family members from constructing a discursive identity of them as poor readers.
The Prevalence of Developmental Instruction in Public and Catholic Schools
Authors: Kelly Sean
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Prior research has investigated differences in course-taking patterns and achievement growth in public and Catholic schools, but the nature of instruction in Catholic schools is currently understudied. One important dimension of instruction that impacts student engagement is the prevalence of developmental or student-centered instruction.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The overall goal of the present study was to investigate whether student and teacher reports of developmental instruction differ in public and Catholic schools. In addition, is a teacher's approach to instruction shaped by the social context of the school, as measured by the teacher's perception of her students? Finally, can differences in the social context of schools explain reported differences in the prevalence of developmental instruction in public and Catholic schools?

Population, Participants/Subjects

Data for this analysis came from the Chicago School Study, a large longitudinal study of public and Catholic schools in the Chicago area.

Research Design

The prevalence of developmental instruction in public and Catholic schools was analyzed using three student-reported measures of developmental instruction and one teacher-reported measure. Multilevel regression models were used to investigate the relationship between four potential predictors of developmental instruction—teachers’ perceptions of challenging instruction, teachers’ expectations of students’ future educational attainment, teachers’ knowledge of their students’ cultural backgrounds, and principals’ endorsement of developmental instruction—and teacher reports of developmental instruction.

Conclusions

Catholic school teachers and students were less likely to report the use of developmental instruction than public school teachers and students. This finding was particularly striking given Catholic school teachers’ high expectations for their students’ future educational attainments, a factor that was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting developmental methods in the classroom.