bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Racial Differences in Teacher Perception of Student Ability
Authors: Minor Elizabeth Covay
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Past research has examined many factors that contribute to the black– white achievement gap. While researchers have shown that teacher perceptions of students’ academic ability is an important contributing factor to the gap, little research has explored the extent to which teacher perceptions of students’ academic ability are sustained over time or the extent to which teacher ratings of students’ social and behavioral skills are related to their perceptions of academic ability. The current study focuses on whether teacher perceptions of students’ academic ability and social and behavioral skills differ by student race and the extent to which ratings at the beginning of the school year explain racial differences in perceptions of academic ability at the end of the year.

Purpose

There are two research questions addressed in this study: (1) To what extent do kindergarten teachers rate black and white students’ academic ability and social and behavioral skills differently? And (2) to what extent do test scores, fall teacher perceptions of students’ academic ability, and social and behavioral skills explain racial differences in teacher evaluations of students’ academic ability in the spring of kindergarten

Population

This study uses the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort of 1998–1999 (ECLS-K) kindergarten fall and spring data. The analytic sample used in this study includes students who were in both kindergarten waves with the same teacher and who were identified as black (2,494) or white (9,891) as reported by their parents

Research Design

This is a quasi-experimental study that uses two data points from kindergarten (fall and spring). Mean differences are used to answer the first research question, and teacher fixed-effects models are used to address the second research question.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This study finds that teachers perceived black students to have lower academic ability in fall and spring of kindergarten compared to white students as well as lower levels of social and behavioral skills. Teachers’ fall perceptions have lasting implications for how teachers perceive their students in the spring, and this appears to have more negative consequences for black students. Teacher reports of social and behavioral skills are more important for teacher perceptions of student ability for black students than for white students. In other words, behaving well for black students has a larger influence on teacher perceptions of students’ academic ability than it does for white students.
Formative Assessment for the Common Core Literacy Standards
Authors: Calfee Robert , Wilson Kathleen M. , Flannery Brian , Kapinus Barbara
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

As implementation of the Common Core Literacy Standards moves ahead, teachers, students, and schools are discovering that the standards demand a great deal of them in order to achieve the vision of college, career, and citizenship in the global–digital world outlined in the standards. To accomplish the goals and high expectations set forth in the Literacy Standards, teachers confront fundamental changes in their curricular, instructional, and assessment practices.

Purpose/Objective

This article presents a working model of the formative assessment process that we think will be essential for effective implementation of the standards. Assessment for learning rather than testing of achievement is presented as a way of guiding teachers and students through the progressions needed to college and career-readiness. The paper is organized around four points: (a) the distinctive features of the model, (b) the match between the model and the vision of the standards, (c) a description of the inquiry process that serves as the “engine” for the model, and (d) an account of the Herman–Heritage cycle-time/grain-size concept that supports ongoing management of formative assessment. The model is designed to be embedded in the project-based activities called for in the standards as students conduct short- and long-term research across the disciplines.

Research Design

This article presents the results of a careful and comprehensive reading of the Common Core Literacy Standards. A focused review of the literature on formative assessment serves as the foundation for the working model presented here.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The conceptual ideas and practical tools discussed in this article point to the need for substantial and sustained professional development, both preservice and inservice, to support the fundamental changes entailed by the standards. To foster the deep understandings called for by the standards, teachers will require an equally deep understanding of formative assessment as a process in which inquiry is embedded in instruction to monitor learning, provide feedback, and shape students learning as it is taking place.
Engaging the Disengaged: How One School Re-Engages Students in Learning
Authors: Easton Lois Brown , Condon Dan , Soguero Michael
Published: November 2021

Engagement can prevent struggling students from dropping out, and re-engagement in learning can help struggling students who have dropped out return to school and graduate. This chapter presents a case study about a struggling student who dropped out and then came to Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, became engaged in her learning, and graduated. The authors provide policy and practice recommendations as well as a discussion of factors that affect engagement.
Fostering Positive Youth Development through Work-Based Learning: The Cristo Rey Model
Authors: Bempechat Janine , Kenny Maureen E. , Blustein David L. , Seltzer Joanne R.
Published: November 2021

This chapter presents findings of a three-year longitudinal study of academic motivation and school engagement among low-income high school students enrolled in a corporate work–study program. Our findings demonstrate ways in which the workplace functioned for students as a conduit of emotional resources, offering instrumental support from caring and competent adults, knowledge about the connection between work and school, and an opportunity to occupy the essential adult role of worker.
Space–Time Configurations of Youth-Voice Driven Science Practices: Insights into Local and Global Mobilities
Authors: Rahm Jrène
Published: November 2021

The chapter explores the space–time configuration of youth-voice driven science practices outside of school that are part of an emergent field of study known as informal science education (ISE). Education is an emergent phenomenon grounded in a relational geography of youths’ complex space–time configurations. A focus on youths’ mobilities offers new insights into the manner youth contribute to their own learning and becoming.
Imagined Futures in the Present: Minding Learning Opportunities
Authors: Vadeboncoeur Jennifer A. , Murray Dale
Published: November 2021

Each of the previous chapters in this volume breathes life into the first three interrelated principles noted in the introductory chapter. The fourth principle in this volume, attending to possible futures in the present, requires that we, as educators and educational researchers, pay attention to the experiences of children and youth, that we learn from them and with them, and that we mind their present learning opportunities wide awake to the ways in which these are likely to bear on future opportunities.
Cross-Country Generalizability of the Role of Metacognitive Knowledge in Students’ Strategy Use and Reading Competence
Authors: Artelt Cordula , Schneider Wolfgang
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Because metacognitive knowledge includes knowledge about adequate learning strategies, and because an effective use of learning strategies is associated with higher levels of performance, substantial relationships can be assumed between metacognitive knowledge, strategic behavior, and performance. However, such a pattern of results is rarely found in the research literature. In part, this may be due to inadequate indicators of strategy use.

Purpose of study

Prior research showed that high scores on self-reported strategy use were only mirrored in high levels of performance when students had sufficient metacognitive knowledge. To test the cross-country generalizability of the relationship between metacognitive knowledge, strategy use, and reading competence, we analyzed data from the PISA 2009-study, in which similar measures of metacognitive knowledge as well as of students’ strategy use were used.

Research Design

The study uses a cross-sectional correlational design. It draws on representative samples of fifteen-year-old students from 34 OECD countries taking part in the PISA 2009 study. The relations between students’ reading competence scores, their metacognitive knowledge as well as their self-reported use of learning strategies were analyzed. We used correlations, mediation, as well as moderator regression analyses to predict students’ reading competence.

Findings/Results

Results showed consistently moderate to high correlations between metacognitive knowledge and reading competence. There were also lower, but still significant, relationships between strategy use and both reading competence and metacognitive knowledge. Testing a “mediator model” with strategy use as a mediator resulted in small but significant effects of strategy use as mediator. Assuming that metacognitive knowledge might be a necessary precondition for effective strategy use, the study tested whether it served as a moderator. Results confirmed this moderator effect for many but not all countries. However, across all countries, there was a consistently high effect of metacognitive knowledge on reading competence, independent of the level of self-reported use of strategies.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The results are very similar across countries. Taken together, the findings suggest that metacognitive knowledge as measured by a test tapping declarative, conditional and relational strategy knowledge is an important predictor of students’ reading competence, and contributes significantly to our understanding of what helps students to become better readers. Metacognitive knowledge captures the prerequisite of adaptive strategic processing of texts. Increasing students’ knowledge in this domain is a promising approach when it comes to fostering self-regulated reading.
The Relationship between Item Context Characteristics and Student Performance: The Case of the 2006 and 2009 PISA Science Items
Authors: Ruiz-Primo Maria Araceli , Li Min
Published: November 2021

Background

A long-standing premise in test design is that contextualizing test items makes them concrete, less demanding, and more conducive to determining whether students can apply or transfer their knowledge.

Purpose

We assert that despite decades of study and experience, much remains to be learned about how to construct effective and fair test items with contexts. Too little is known about how item contexts can be appropriately constructed and used, and even less about the relationship between context characteristics and student performance. The exploratory study presented in this paper seeks to contribute to knowledge about test design and construction by focusing on this gap.

Research Design

We address two key questions: (a) What are the characteristics of contexts used in the PISA science items? and (b) What are the relationships between different context characteristics and student performance? We propose a profiling approach to capture information about six context dimensions: type of context, context role, complexity, resources, level of abstraction, and connectivity. To test the approach empirically we sampled a total of 52 science items from PISA 2006 and 2009. We describe the context characteristics of the items at two levels (named layers): general (testlet context) and specific (item context).

Conclusion

We provide empirical evidence about the relationships of these characteristics with student performance as measured by the international percentage of correct responses. We found that the dimension of context resources (e.g., pictures, drawings, photographs) for general contexts and level of abstractness for specific contexts are associated with student performance.
Adolescents’ Interpretations of the Role of Emotion in High School
Authors: Horner Christy Galletta , Wallace Tanner Lebaron , Bundick Matthew J.
Published: November 2021

Background

To persistently engage in academic tasks and efficiently process cognitively demanding material in school, successful learners must employ various self-regulatory systems—including the regulation of emotional experiences and expressions—in response to social and task-specific demands. Furthermore, emotional information helps students derive meaning from and assign causal attributions to events such as academic and social experiences, which influence motivation for action. Thus, it is important to understand the interplay between learners’ emotions and the school environment.

Research Questions

Two research questions were addressed: (1) What patterns of emotional expression/suppression and emotion coaching opportunities did youth perceive in their relationships with school-based adults? and (2) What social processes do youth attribute to patterns of emotional expression or suppression?

Participants

Youth from urban high schools (N = 72) in California, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh participated in the study.

Research Design

Facilitators used a semiflexible protocol to prompt youth in 10 focus groups to discuss identity and relational development.

Data Collection and Analysis

Focus group sessions were recorded, and NVivo9 software was used to iteratively code and analyze verbatim transcripts.

Findings

Analyses revealed a strong pattern of emotional suppression in the context of relationships with educators paired with high valuation of opportunities for emotional expression. Sustained emotional suppression was commonly attributed to social expectations in schools. We discuss these results in the context of emotion socialization and school culture to suggest implications for research and practice.
Compensating, Mediating, and Moderating Effects of School Climate on Academic Achievement Gaps in Israel
Authors: Berkowitz Ruth , Glickman Hagit , Benbenishty Rami , Ben-Artzi Elisheva , Raz Tal , Lipshtat Nurit , Astor Ron Avi
Published: November 2021

Background

It is widely agreed among educational researchers and practitioners that schools with positive climates can effectively mitigate the influence of students’ and schools’ socioeconomic status (SES) on academic achievement. Nevertheless, the exact mechanisms by which this occurs are unclear.

Objective

This study aimed to fill that gap, examining student perceptions of school climate, student academic achievement, and student and school SES in Israel to develop a reliable and comprehensive assessment of the role of school climate in the relationship between student and school SES and achievement. Specifically, the study tested whether school climate has an additive contribution to academics beyond students’ and schools’ SES (compensation model), whether the school's SES influences its social climate, which in turn influences academic achievement (mediation model); or whether the relationship between SES and academics changes across schools with different climates (moderation model).

Research Design

Secondary analysis of a large-scale, nationally representative sample of fifth- and eighth-grade Hebrew-speaking students in public schools in Israel (N = 53,946).

Data Analysis

Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to examine models with variables both on the student and the school levels. Linear regressions were used to examine student level and school level only models.

Results

School climate had an additive compensation contribution to academic achievements, both on the student and the school levels. School climate moderated the relationship between students’ SES and academic achievements. However, findings did not support the hypothesis that school climate mediated the relationship between SES background and academic achievement, both at the student and school levels.

Conclusions

School climate plays an important role in accounting for achievements, beyond students’ and schools’ SES. Results highlight the need to improve school climate, especially in schools serving communities of low SES, to enhance social mobility and equality of opportunity.
We Teach who We Are: Creativity in the Lives and Practices of Accomplished Teachers
Authors: Henriksen Danah , Mishra Punya
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

There is a strong sense in education that creativity should be nurtured in classroom settings, yet there is little understanding of how effective and creative teachers function. Existing research has recognized that successful/creative people in any discipline use creative avocations to enhance their professional thinking. Root-Bernstein demonstrated a strong connection between the professional and personal-life creativity of highly accomplished scientists, which has been applied to other disciplines. Until now, however, this phenomenon has not been applied to exemplary teachers. This study focuses on a broader picture of how exceptional teachers use creativity in the classroom.

Purpose/Objective

This study documents the ways in which successful, award-winning teachers function creatively in their classrooms. It investigates their beliefs about creativity in teaching—what “creativity” means, and how skilled teachers instantiate it in classroom practices. Finally, this research examined the teachers’ personal creativity (in terms of creative pursuits, hobbies, and habits of mind) and the practical ways this translates into teaching.

Research Design

A qualitative research design was used for in-depth interviews with highly accomplished teachers. Detailed interview data was gathered from eight recent National Teacher of the Year award winners/finalists, to investigate creative classroom practices and beliefs about creativity among exceptional teachers across varied teaching contexts. Qualitative coding of phenomenological research described important themes arising from the creative practices and beliefs of the participant teachers.

Findings

Findings reveal how excellent teachers actively cultivate a creative mindset. Results show how excellent teachers are highly creative in their personal and professional lives, and that they actively transfer creative tendencies from their outside avocations/interests into their teaching practices. This study describes common themes in creative teaching, including intellectual risk taking, real-world learning approaches, and cross-disciplinary teaching practices.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Current U.S. educational policy, with its emphasis on high-stakes testing and scripted, “teacher-proof” curricula, have impeded creativity in teaching and learning. Based on the findings of this study, suggestions for curricula include the incorporation of teachers’ unique personal creative interests in lessons, along with infusion of the arts and music across varied disciplinary content. Teacher education programs and professional development courses should include a focus on both real-world, cross-disciplinary lesson planning, while administrators and policymakers should support opportunities for teachers to take creative and/or intellectual risks in their work.
Is Education Possible Today?
Authors: Hansen David T.
Published: November 2021

Background/ Context

This article was presented as the Weinberg Lecture at Teachers College, Columbia University, on September 26, 2013. On that occasion the author was formally inducted as the John L. and Sue Ann Weinberg Professor in the Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education at Teachers College. In attendance were Sue Ann Weinberg (Ed.D., Teachers College, 1997), President Susan Fuhrman, Provost Thomas James, faculty and students of the College, and guests.

Purpose/ Objective

The purpose of the lecture was to pose the question whether education is possible today. The author begins by contrasting two prevalent responses to the question: (1) that it is obviously possible since we can see all around us teachers and students working in classrooms, and (2) that it is obviously not possible because the educational system has been subverted to serve the ends of a global economic order. The author argues that while there is evidence to support both responses, they dismiss, in effect, the question of education's possibility and thus undermine its authentic enactment. The article describes an approach to keeping the question open and in public view.

Research Design

The article is a philosophical essay that examines contrasting views of education and the values they foreground.

Conclusions/ Recommendations

The author encourages fellow educators to accept the invitation philosophy holds out to them. This invitation is to cross the threshold into a reflective consciousness that our educational actions always mirror underlying values and commitments, which in turn have political ramifications with regards to how we constitute our institutions and practices. Moreover, the invitation to philosophy embodies a gift: in propelling us to examine values and presumptions, it helps make possible education itself, understood as the holistic cultivation of the human being in company with other human beings. The question of education is the one question we need to keep open in order to ensure the continuation of education itself.
Perceptions and Resilience in Underrepresented Students’ Pathways to College
Authors: Perez-Felkner Lara
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Schools have attempted to address stratification in black and Latino students’ access to higher education through extensive reform initiatives, including those focused on social supports. A crucial focus has been missing from these efforts, essential to improving the effectiveness of support mechanisms and understanding why they have been insufficient: how students experience these reforms.

Purpose

How can the social context of schools keep underrepresented minority students on track to transition to college? This study investigates how students experience the social contexts of their schools in relation to their college ambitions, and the particular attributes of schools’ social contexts that might positively affect their transition to four-year colleges.

Research Design

Using a mixed-methods case study design, this three-year study examined students’ educational pathways in a Chicago charter high school. Data collection methods included ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and a longitudinal survey. Supplemental secondary data sources were utilized to contextualize the case study.

Analysis

Interview transcripts and field notes were transcribed and coded to examine variation in students’ experience of their social context and their college transition plans. To contextualize these findings, the author utilized descriptive, associative, and logistic regression techniques to analyze quantitative data from the case study survey and corresponding city and national datasets.

Findings

The school's organization facilitated academic, social, and college preparatory support through structured relationships. Notwithstanding, there was notable within-school variation in students’ transitions to college. Students in this urban charter school often experienced multiple obstacles that interfered with the college ambitions they generally shared with their families and school peers. School regard is a mechanism identified in this study as central to students’ transition success. Students’ perceptions of their teachers’ and their peers’ regard for their capacity for educational success was associated with their persistence through the transition to college in the face of academic, socioeconomic, and other challenges.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This study demonstrates the effort and engagement under-represented students expend in the effort to become college-ready, and the risk for burnout as a result of both academic and nonacademic hardships during their high school years. School regard may mitigate these effects. Mere expectations for college appear insufficient in the current access-for-all climate. Rather, it is important that students perceive value and esteem for their potential from school faculty and peers, sustaining their ambitions through the obstacles they encounter in high school and expect in college.
Love and Growth: On One Aspect of James Baldwin's Significance for Education
Authors: Frank Jeff
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Although James Baldwin's work is beginning to receive attention by political and social theorists, his work does not currently influence educational conversations. I believe this is unfortunate, and the goal of this article is to make the case that Baldwin's work has a great deal to teach educators, especially teacher educators.

Research Design

Reading through all of Baldwin's nonfiction, I draw out interconnected themes that run across his work, and which I found most interesting as I thought about my work as a teacher educator. These themes are: innocence, fear, and love. For each theme, I draw on different aspects of Baldwin's published nonfiction, attempting to create a conversation between aspects of Baldwin's work and issues of importance to teacher educators.

Conclusions/Recommendations

I conclude by making the case that Baldwin's work deserves a wider hearing, especially his thinking on love. I develop the concept of “tenacious understanding” to highlight the types of teaching that teacher educators will need to engage in if they are to realize Baldwin's prophetic call that I resound in this article.
The Impact of School-Based Financial Incentives on Teachers’ Strategic Moves: A Descriptive Analysis
Authors: Fulbeck Eleanor S. , Richards Meredith P.
Published: November 2021

Background

Prior research has found that teacher dissatisfaction with low salaries is one reason for teacher turnover. Accordingly, policy makers have championed financial incentives as a way of increasing teachers’ job satisfaction and making the teaching profession and specific schools more attractive to current and potential teachers. Despite the enthusiasm for such incentive policies, empirical evidence of their effects on teacher mobility is mixed.

Purpose

In this study, we contribute to the extant literature on teacher financial incentives by shifting focus from the probability of teacher turnover to investigate how incentives, particularly school-based incentives, structure teachers’ patterns of mobility within districts. We explore the effects of financial incentives on teacher mobility patterns in the context of Denver's Professional Compensation System for Teachers (“ProComp”), one of the most prominent alternative teacher compensation reforms in the nation.

Setting

Denver Public Schools, Denver, Colorado.

Population

Denver Public Schools classroom teachers employed in the district any time during 2006–2010, who were eligible to participate in the financial incentive program (regardless of whether they did), and who made at least one voluntary within-district move during the study period (n = 989).

Program

Since 2006, Denver's ProComp program has offered teachers a variety of school-based and individual financial incentives. Specifically, in addition to incentives offered to teachers for their individual accomplishments, ProComp provides incentives of over $2,400 each for teachers that teach in top performing schools, high growth schools, and hard-to-serve schools. Because ProComp offers substantial incentives to teachers on the basis of school characteristics, it holds the potential to incentivize “strategic moves” to schools with more school-based incentives.

Research Design

The study employs a descriptive statistical research design.

Data Collection and Analysis

We use Denver Public Schools administrative data from 2005–2006 to 2009–2010 to estimate a series of conditional logit models predicting teachers’ moves as a function of their ProComp participation and the value of school-based incentives at the schools they leave and the schools they could potentially transfer to.

Findings

Our findings suggest ProComp participants tend to make more strategic moves to high value schools than their non-ProComp peers. However, these moves tend to be to schools that have high performance and growth in achievement, rather than to schools that receive incentives for serving low-income populations.

Conclusions

Results suggest that school-based ProComp incentives do influence strategic moves, albeit in ways not necessarily consistent with the program's intent, calling into question the ability of ProComp to attract teachers to low-income schools under its current structure.
English Language Learners’ Pathways to Four-Year Colleges
Authors: Kanno Yasuko , Cromley Jennifer G.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing segment of the K–12 student population in the United States, yet they encounter substantial problems entering higher education. The gap between ELLs and non-ELLs is particularly acute for four-year college access. Research has been largely silent on ELLs’ college advancement, and we know little about what inhibits ELLs’ college access.

Purpose

To examine the process of ELLs’ college planning in order to determine which stages of college planning present difficulties to ELLs and why. College planning is conceptualized as consisting of five milestones: (a) aspiring to college, (b) acquiring college qualifications, (c) graduating from high school, (d) applying to college, and (e) enrolling in college.

Research Design

Secondary data analysis of the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. Only students who participated in all of the first three waves (2002, 2004, and 2006) of data collection were included (N = 12,450). Students were divided into three language background groups: (a) ELLs, (b) English-proficient linguistic minority students (EPs), and (c) native speakers of English (NSs). We first compared the college-access patterns of the three language groups. We then mapped out each group's pathways through the milestones. Finally, we conducted multigroup analyses to examine whether and to what extent a different set of predictors shape the groups’ college pathways.

Findings/Results

It is the early stages of college planning (aspirations and college qualifications stages) that are particularly challenging to ELLs, such that the majority of ELLs never reach the later milestone of applying to a four-year college. Predictors known to matter significantly for the general population's college access are not all significant for ELLs.

Conclusions/Recommendations

In order to enable more ELLs to reach four-year colleges, we should make a targeted effort to support them in the early stages of college planning. Racial/ ethnic minority ELLs are particularly vulnerable and need more support. We also need to invest more effort into identifying the factors and conditions that specifically influence ELLs’ college planning.
Combining Youth Organizing and Youth Participatory Action Research to Strengthen Student Voice in Education Reform
Authors: Dolan Tom , Christens Brian D. , Lin Cynthia
Published: November 2021

Community organizing processes seek to address community issues of mutual concern through cycles of relationship development, research, action, and evaluation led by people directly affected by the issues at stake. This chapter examines a community organizing effort in San Bernardino, California, that has built power to address issues in schools and the broader community. This organizing effort, which has involved leadership by hundreds of youth, has achieved numerous changes in programs and policies that have increased educational, recreational, and employment opportunities for young people. In this chapter, we examine the youth organizers’ deepening use of (a) organizing research and (b) youth participatory action research (YPAR). We compare these two types of research in a community organizing context and highlight the ways that each type of research has contributed to successes in collective action.
How Positioning Shapes Opportunities for Student Agency in Schools
Authors: York Adam , Kirshner Ben
Published: November 2021

This chapter shows how student positioning by adults shapes opportunities for students to develop collective systemic agency. Collective systemic agency refers to the capacity to organize others, participate in discussions, develop a systemic analysis, and take action in complex institutions, such as schools. This repertoire can be cultivated by encouraging students to ask critical questions about their educational experiences and to uncover evidence about how policy affects people. In observing this process taking place in schools, we notice that the ways adults positioned students, in part through talk, greatly impacted learning opportunities. To warrant our claims, we draw on data from Critical Civic Inquiry (CCI), a university–school partnership in which teachers guide students through an action research cycle. Our analysis looks at the ways in which school and classroom level positioning of students impacts student experiences and openings for action. Both focal classrooms make space for civic learning, but the chances to express agency are limited in some cases. We argue that these learning opportunities are strengthened when education professionals look beyond curricular experiences and attend to how students are positioned through discourse in the broader context of the school.
Foundations and the Development of the U.S. Charter School Policy-Planning Network: Implications for Democratic Schooling and Civil Rights
Authors: Scott Janelle
Published: November 2021

This chapter uses the policy-planning network concept to explain why charter school reform has become a prominent reform strategy, especially in urban districts serving primarily poor children of color. It then identifies components of the emerging charter school policy-planning network. Informed by social network and document analysis drawn from foundation financial reports, examinations of boards of directors and advisors, reviews of works cited in advocacy and research reports, speeches, and media reports, the chapter finds that the charter school policy-planning network is made up of at least eight interrelated institutional forms. Specifically, this network is characterized by: (1) local charter schools; (2) charter school management organizations; (3) charter school real estate development corporations; (4) charter school and school choice advocacy organizations; (5) alternative teacher and leadership preparation programs; (6) choice-sympathetic policy makers; (7) independent research units (think tanks, university-affiliated groups, and research corporations); and (8) foundations and venture philanthropies. The chapter discusses the implications of this network for democratic participation in urban schooling.
Expanding Instructional Horizons: A Case Study of Teacher Team-Outside Expert Partnerships
Authors: Ermeling Bradley A. , Yarbo Jessica
Published: November 2021

Background

Despite increasing popularity and mounting evidence for teacher collaboration as a lever for school improvement, reported changes in teaching associated with collaboration are often subtle and incremental, rarely involving substantial shifts in instructional practice called for by advocates of deeper learning and next-generation standards. One reason more expansive teaching changes remain elusive is that existing “horizons of observation” constrain possibilities teacher teams consider and solutions they develop while collaborating to improve teaching and learning.

Purpose

This case study of two secondary school teacher teams explored the potential of collaborative partnerships with outside content experts (OCEs) for infusing new resources and perspectives that move beyond persistent images of classroom instruction.

Setting

The study context was the Learning Studios model from the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF), in which interdisciplinary teacher teams partnered with local scientists and researchers to develop and implement yearlong project investigations with students.

Research Design

The study used a qualitative case study design, including live observations and narrative transcription of team planning and design sessions, interviews, focus groups, and analysis of web-based interactions to develop rich narrative descriptions of the two partnership cases during the 2014–2015 academic year. We also compared and analyzed prominent patterns of OCE facilitative action across the two cases.

Findings

Coding and analyses revealed several pivotal episodes of partnership interactions with clear evidence of OCE influence on teacher instructional plans. Cross-case analyses point to three OCE facilitative actions that preceded these effects—adapting expertise to local needs, following up between meetings, and judiciously applying pressure.

Conclusions

The pivotal episodes we captured provide some initial evidence to support previous researchers’ hypotheses that extended collaborative engagements can facilitate teacher learning in ways not readily achieved through traditional partnership models. The joint productive activity and depth of interaction observed in these cases opened up several opportunities to infuse knowledge and insights seldom documented in other teacher—expert studies involving loosely structured programs or short-lived externships. The two cases also provide initial evidence that outside experts can help to expand the horizons of possibilities teachers consider during instructional planning. Although these examples are instructive, we do not believe the reported effects are of sufficient magnitude or duration to be labeled “transformative shifts in practice.” We also cannot say whether these initial changes in instructional plans translated into changes in classroom teaching or improvements in student learning. These remain important questions for future research.
Erasing Deficits
Authors: Toldson Ivory A. , Johns David J.
Published: November 2021

In this epilogue to the special issue, two White House officials and policy experts describe how negative narratives surrounding Black men and the misuse of data can manifest as barriers to high quality learning environments or workforce development opportunities.
Examining Organizational Practices that Predict Persistence among High-Achieving Black Males in High School
Authors: Anderson Kenneth Alonzo
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This article summarizes an increasing trend of antideficit Black male research in mathematics and highlights opportunities to add to the research. A review of the literature shows that antideficit researchers often examine relationships between individual traits and persistence of high-achieving Black males in mathematics. However, opportunities for additional antideficit research include examining relationships between organizational decisions and persistence of high-achieving Black males.

Research Question

Which organizational practices predict persistence among Black males in 11th grade who have demonstrated high mathematics potential in ninth grade.

Population

Data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) were used in this study to identify a national sample of high-achieving Black males. Publicly-available data from the base year (2009–2010) and the first follow-up year (2011–2012) were used in this study to examine Black male persistence in high achievement categories from ninth to 11th grades. The sample was limited to public school Black males with mathematics achievement scores in the top two national quintiles. More than 31,000 students (weighted estimates) met the study's requirements and were included in this study.

Research Design

Using optimal resource theory (Anderson, 2015), logistic and multiple regression was used to examine the relationships between school-based practices in ninth grade and student outcomes in 11th grade.

Findings/Results

Of the Black males who demonstrated high potential in ninth grade and matriculated to pre-calculus in 11th grade, 61% earned mathematics scores in the top 20%, nationally. Contrarily, only 18% of the Black males who demonstrated high potential in ninth grade, but did not matriculate to pre-calculus in 11th grade earned mathematics scores in the top 20%, nationally. Additionally, of the extracurricular activities that were examined, findings show that partnerships with community colleges and universities, science and mathematics guest speakers, and science/math-related field trips were related to increased mathematics efficacy after two years. Teacher sorting practices and professional development activities that were examined in this study were not reliably predictive of student outcomes.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This study uses national data to demonstrate that some common organizational practices are more beneficial to high-achieving Black males than others. In particular, this study highlights the importance of developing course progress monitoring and support plans to increase the likelihood of persistence—future high achievement and beliefs about ability—for Black males who have demonstrated high potential in ninth grade. Opportunities for future research are also discussed.
The Politics of Paternalism: Adult and Youth Perspectives on Youth Voice in Public Policy
Authors: Conner Jerusha O. , Ober C. Nathan , Brown Amanda S.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Over the last two decades, youth involvement in policy advocacy has increased sharply, through youth councils, organizing coalitions, and new media forums. Currently 12 states and 140 American cities have youth councils or commissions established to advise policymakers on the impact of their legislation on youth. Despite their growing presence, we know little about what these councils do, how they are viewed, or how, if at all, they influence policy-making processes.

Purpose

This study explores manifestations of adultism during the first 4 years of the Ballou City Youth Commission (BCYC) from the perspectives of 22 youth members and adult allies.

Research Design

Though primarily interview-based, this study also draws on field notes collected during a BCYC meeting and a BCYC community forum and organizational artifacts to explore the nature and dynamics of adultism as they played out in BCYC.

Data Collection and Analysis

In-depth, individual interviews were conducted with 11 current and former youth commissioners and 11 adults who represented the target audience for BCYC's work or who partnered with the commission on various initiatives. The theoretical framework of adultism guided the analysis, which included open and axial coding, memo writing, and the construction of matrices and charts to track emergent patterns.

Findings/Results

Using a critical theory lens, we find that adultism has played a prominent role in limiting BCYC from achieving the goals laid out in its charter. We identify a “roller coaster of adultism” that illustrates how weak initial structures coupled with deeply entrenched views of youths’ limited capacity adversely impacted the functioning of BCYC and propelled a cycle of externalized and internalized adultism.

Conclusions

The study adds to the scant literature on youth voice in public policy, raises six clear implications for policy and practice, and extends theory by illustrating the complex ways in which external and internalized forms of adultism interact with and reinforce each other.
What Keeps Chinese Students Motivated in Doing Math Homework? An Empirical Investigation
Authors: Yang Fuyi , Xu Jianzhong , Tan Heping , Liang Ningjian
Published: November 2021

Background

As many students face the enduring challenge of maintaining their motivation to complete homework assignments, there is a critical need to pay close attention to homework motivation management (i.e., students’ efforts to sustain or enhance their motivation in order to complete homework assignments that might be boring or difficult). Yet, in spite of research showing that homework motivation has a powerful influence on homework performance and academic achievement, there have been few attempts to systematically investigate models of factors that influence homework motivation management.

Purpose

The current investigation examines empirical models of motivation management for Chinese students in the context of math homework, with models informed by key motivation theories, including self-regulation of motivation, expectancy-value, and volitional control.

Research Design

The study reported here used cross sectional survey data.

Participants

The participants were 1,799 high school students from 46 classes in China.

Results

Results from multilevel analyses indicated that, at the class level, motivation management was positively associated with homework interest, but was negatively associated with teacher feedback. At the student level, motivation management was positively related to managing emotion, managing time, students’ interest in homework, cognitive reappraisal, expectancy belief, and time on sports. Meanwhile, motivation management was negatively associated with value belief and time on TV.

Conclusion

The current investigation found that some results were in line with key motivation theories and related findings with U.S. students (e.g., managing time, and homework interest at the student level). In addition, it suggests that other results may be influenced by cultural and societal differences (e.g., gender, value belief, and teacher feedback). Consequently, it would be informative to pursue this line of research in cross-cultural settings. With respect to promoting student motivation in the homework process, it would be beneficial to pay more close attention to the role of homework interest, expectancy belief, and student initiatives (e.g., managing time, managing emotion, and cognitive reappraisal).
Human Motivation in the Digital Commons: Reflections on Robbie McClintock's Conception of Formative Justice
Authors: De Marzio Darryl , Ignaffo Timothy
Published: November 2021

Background & Purpose

According to McClintock, persons and groups exercise formative justice as a strategy of selecting the behaviors, powers, and potentials that ought to receive educational attention to achieve their maximization. We argue that the question of what motivates individuals and collectives to utilize certain capacities to realize specific goals becomes paramount to the issue of formative justice. Drawing on distinguished work in experimental psychology and network theory, we explore the relationship between human motivation and the utilization of commons-based digital resources in education. We argue that the insights gained in the course of integrating commons-based digital resources into educational practice can also further advance our critical understanding of Robbie McClintock's conception of formative justice. In particular, we focus on the twin notions of value and human motivation in both formative justice and digital culture. Formative justice and digital culture share an emphasis on the pursuit of goals for intrinsic purposes rather than as a means toward extrinsic rewards such as monetary compensation. This shared approach to value theory makes formative justice an increasingly important contribution to 21st-century educational theory.

Research Design

We analyze Robbie McClintock's conception of formative justice, as well as work in experimental psychology and network theory, in order to give substance to the theory of human motivation implied in his account.

Conclusions/Recommendations

We conclude by suggesting that formative justice as an educational paradigm is best served by an emergent curriculum that responds to the evolving interests of students in connection with the teacher's knowledge base and interests.