bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“Everybody Grieves, but Still Nobody Sees”: Toward a Praxis of Recognition for Latina/o Students in U.S. Schools
Authors: Rodriguez Louie F.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The academic success and failure of low-income youth, and Black and Latina/o youth in particular, has received significant attention in the educational literature, particularly in relation to school dropout. Over the last decade, several studies have demonstrated that student–teacher relationships, committed teachers, and notions of caring are critical to the success of Latina/o youth. However, high-poverty urban schools are graduating fewer than half of their students, in comparison with about 70% at the national level. There remains a scant body of research, policy, and conceptual frameworks to help address the crisis, popularly deemed the “dropout crisis,” particularly among Latinas/os, the youngest, fastest growing, and lowest educated group in the United States.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

In what ways can and should researchers, practitioners, and policy makers recognize the existence of Latina/o youth? The purpose of the article, contextualized in the theoretical and empirical literature, is to problematize the concept of recognition, particularly for Latina/o youth, and introduce a conceptual framework to understand, examine, and help rectify the crisis facing this population.

Research Design

In this conceptual paper, I argue that key stakeholders must recognize the existence of the Latina/o youth by acknowledging their human existence through legitimizing the unequal conditions and struggles they face in school. Educators much engage youth in curricular and pedagogical experiences that seek to raise students’ consciousness through critical thinking and dialogue. This article is focused on the human and interpersonal actions and processes that are necessary to facilitate agency and change among students. Theoretical origins informing recognition are discussed, followed by a contextualized analysis of recognition within the present-day conditions of U.S. schools, particularly for Latina/o youth. I then propose five pedagogies of recognition: relational recognition, curricular recognition, pedagogical recognition, contextualizing recognition, and transformative recognition. Each form of recognition is situated in the relevant literature.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This article argues that the proposed pedagogies of recognition need to be enacted to foster the intellectual, academic, and political development of youth, particularly Latina/o youth. Recognition can help educators and scholars understand how the social, political, and economic conditions impact Latina/o youth and helps educators reframe the conceptual bases of their work by challenging them to interrogate the (in)effectiveness of institutional and classroom-level practices. The ultimate goal is to help educators and researchers reconstruct and redefine the purpose of education for Latina/o youth in U.S. schools.
Middle- and Upper-Middle-Class Parent Action for Urban Public Schools: Promise or Paradox?
Authors: Posey Linn
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Recent trends suggest that middle-class parents may be a growing constituency in urban public schools and districts. Within the burgeoning literature on the middle class in urban public schools, most scholars have focused on parents’ goals and orientations and/or the consequences of parental involvement in classroom and school settings. This article broadens the literature's scope through a focus on middle- and upper-middle-class parents’ “out-of-school,” neighborhood-based engagement. Examining the place-based organizing of a middle- and upper-middle-class neighborhood parents’ group, this article highlights the significant influence that parents’ work outside classrooms and PTA meetings can have on a local school.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The study examines the ways in which middle- and upper-middle-class parent group investments in urban public schooling may mitigate and/or exacerbate existing patterns of inequality in public education. Specifically, the research focuses on the efforts of a predominantly White neighborhood parent group in a Northern California city to increase neighborhood support for and enrollment in their predominantly African American, Title I local public school.

Research Design

An ethnographic case study research design was utilized, with data obtained from the following sources: participant observation in school and neighborhood meetings and events; semi-structured interviews with parents, teachers, staff, and community members; a prospective parent survey; and school and neighborhood parent group artifacts.

Findings/Results

The data reveal that neighborhood parent group members catalyzed community support for their local public school, attracting other middle- and upper-middle-class parents. The community support that the members engendered, however, ultimately threatened the diversity that many desired in a school for their child and contributed to patterns of inequality in district enrollment linked to race, class, and residence.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The research findings suggest that middle- and upper-middle-class parents are in many instances key actors in processes of school and neighborhood change. The efforts of middle- and upper-middle-class parents to invest in urban public schools, regardless of their intentions, may ultimately exacerbate race and class inequalities in public education. The study findings highlight the need for future educational research to examine the role that middle-class parent groups play in urban school reform and the equity implications of their actions.
The Social Perspective Taking Process: Strategies and Sources of Evidence in Taking Another's Perspective
Authors: Gehlbach Hunter , Brinkworth Maureen E.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Research indicates that social perspective taking—the capacity to discern the thoughts and feelings of others—plays a role in many important outcomes in schools. Despite the potential benefits for students and educators, little is known about social perspective taking (SPT) as a process.

Purpose/Research Question

If educational researchers are ultimately to design interventions to help improve the perspective-taking capacities of those in schools, they need to fully understand the underlying process, that is, how social perspective taking actually happens. Particularly important is the need to understand what strategies individuals use and what sources of evidence they draw from when they take the perspective of others.

Participants

To investigate this question, a sample of 18 adults from an array of different professions (who were nominated as adept perspective takers) and 13 high school students (who were nominated as struggling with social perspective taking) participated in the study.

Research Design

Participants completed in-depth interviews and a “think-aloud” protocol as part of this mixed-method exploratory study. The interviews and think-alouds were coded for the type of social perspective taking that strategy participants employed and for the sources of evidence they relied on, respectively.

Findings

Results indicated that participants relied on 12 different types of SPT strategies and drew from seven different sources of evidence when discerning others’ thoughts and feelings.

Conclusions/Recommendations

These findings provide foundational knowledge that lays groundwork for ultimately developing approaches to teach social perspective taking. At a practical level, these findings provide options for students and educators to experiment with as they attempt to take the perspective of one another.
Supporting Dialogically Organized Instruction in an English Teacher Preparation Program: A Video-Based, Web 2.0-Mediated Response and Revision Pedagogy
Authors: Juzwik Mary M. , Sherry Michael B. , Caughlan Samantha , Heintz Anne , Borsheim-Black Carlin
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This paper theorizes and describes a program-wide pedagogical design for teacher preparation that addresses central problems related to supporting beginning teacher candidates in designing engaging classroom interactions in and across diverse contexts.

Focus of Study

In particular, we aimed to support the development of dialogically-organized classroom interactions over time through a pedagogy informed by Multiliteracies. Our pedagogy involved a Web 2.0-mediated process of Video-Based Response and Revision (VBRR), developed and implemented over two years with secondary English teacher candidates at Michigan State University engaged in fifth-year internships in local secondary schools.

Project Design

Four times over the course of their year-long internships, teacher candidates recorded video of their teaching, posted clips and other related materials to an online social network, commented on each others’ practices, and reflected on how they might implement the feedback they received from their peers and instructors. In addition, they created an end-of-year “digital reflection” drawing on all of these materials.

Conclusions/ Recommendations

Based upon analysis of teacher candidates’ moves within the structure of the pedagogical design, we present pedagogical and programmatic considerations for teacher educators interested in designing learning environments that make beginning teacher practices visible in networked spaces, that invite collaborative responses to those practices, and that create opportunities for transformed practices.
“Give a Brotha a Break!”: The Experiences and Dilemmas of Middle-Class African American Male Students in White Suburban Schools
Authors: Gordon Beverly M.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Today, in the era of the first African American president, approximately one third of all African Americans live in suburban communities, and their children are attending suburban schools. Although most research on the education of African American students, particularly males, focuses on their plight in urban schooling, what occurs in suburban schools is also in need of examination.

Purpose/Focus of Study

This research focused on the lived experiences of 4 middle-class African American male students attending affluent White suburban schools. Through vignettes focusing on their various experiences and recollections, this study provides a preliminary snapshot, part of a larger study, of the schooling environments in the life stories of middle-class Black suburban youth.

Research Design

Qualitative methodology was used to explore the life histories of the 4 African American males. Each student participated in a tape-recorded interview to examine what it meant to grow up in White upper-middle-class suburban communities and to matriculate within suburban district schools from elementary through high school.

Findings/Results

The salient themes that emerged from the rich, interactive conversations and dialoguing address issues related to disillusionment and resilience; the presence or absence of racism; academic pressures; social bonding and identity development in racialized social and academic settings; and the gatekeeping role of athletics.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Suburban education may not be the panacea that African American families had hoped. The socioeconomic status of African American families who live in affluent White suburban communities may not be enough to mitigate against the situated “otherness” that Black students—in this case, males—experienced in affluent White suburban schools. More research is needed to understand the positionality of Black male students in suburban schools; relationships between suburban Black adolescent males and females; school life beyond athletics; the role of the family and community in combating racism and otherness; and how student agency can be a force for change.
Reassessing the Achievement Gap: An Intergenerational Comparison of African American Student Achievement before and after Compensatory Education and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Authors: Span Christopher M. , Rivers Ishwanzya D.
Published: November 2021

Using data from the Digest of Educational Statistics, this article argues that an intergenerational comparison is a more productive, progressive method to interpret data used to gauge the achievement gap. It applies this method by comparing the academic achievement scores and educational outcomes of African Americans over a nearly 70-year period, 1940-2008, and uses the metrics’ National Assessment of Educational Progress average reading scores in fourth and eighth grade and high school and college completion-most often applied in assessing the achievement gap. It argues that since the inception of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965), and the compensatory education programs that have grown out this act, African Americans have made some of the greatest strides in improving their educational performance and outcomes in virtually every measureable category used to assess the achievement gap. The intergenerational comparisons offered serve as a counterassessment to the traditional modes of analysis that compare the achievement scores and educational outcomes of white to minority students.
Separate and Not Equal: The Implementation of Structured English Immersion in Arizona's Classrooms
Authors: Lillie Karen E. , Markos Amy , Arias M. Beatriz , Wiley Terrence G.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Over the last ten years, a convergence of laws and decrees has impacted the development and implementation of Arizona's current program for English language learners (ELLs): the four-hour Structured English Immersion (SEI) model. Arizona's new model, while being touted by some as the most effective program for ELLs (Clark, 2009), is raising concerns with researchers and educators involved with the education of ELLs. A recent Auditor General's report (Davenport, 2011) indicates that instructional programs for ELLs have lacked uniformity and that the impact of the SEI model on ELLs’ language development and academic achievement is unknown. Therefore, although it has been over a decade since the Flores Consent Order, we must continue to examine the evidence regarding implementation of the SEI model in order to determine if the instruction offered to ELLs is comparable in amount, scope, and quality to that provided to English-proficient students.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This paper utilizes the trajectory of these language policies as a lens for examining how ideas stemming from the Flores Consent Order and the English-Only voter initiative (Proposition 203), and continuing through to the legislative response of the court order (House Bill 2064) are evidenced in Arizona's SEI classrooms.

Research Design

The purpose of this qualitative study is to document and describe the characteristics of the four-hour SEI policy in practice. Over a seven-week period during the spring semester of the 2009/2010 school year, researchers utilized ethnographic observation methods, interviews, and a collection of artifacts to document the implementation of the SEI model and instruction of ELLs. Using a constant comparison analysis, findings were re-examined to show how this restrictive language policy has impacted and shaped the SEI model in practice today.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Arizona's current four-hour model, as implemented in K-12 SEI classrooms, hinders policy intentions: ELLs do not have access to quality instruction, or a curriculum that is comparable in amount, scope, and quality to that of non-ELLs. Furthermore, deficiencies in funding abound, limiting ELLs’ opportunities for the compensatory education needed to help them catch up academically. The authors contend that a re-examination of the SEI policy is warranted if the state is to fully realize the intentions of the Flores Consent Order and equal educational opportunity for ELLs.
Classroom Culture, Mathematics Culture, and the Failures of Reform: The Need for a Collective View of Culture
Authors: Gill Michele G. , Boote David
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Despite the tremendous amount of effort devoted by many mathematics educators to promote, defend, and implement reform-based mathematics education, procedural mathematics, which locates mathematical correctness in the procedures learned from textbooks and teachers, persists. Many researchers have identified school and classroom culture as the source of the problem; however, the exact meaning of school culture and its influence on teachers’ practices remains unclear. What is needed is a clearer understanding of classroom culture and how it influences practice.

Purpose

The purpose of our study was to examine how the aspects of a culture reinforce each other (and how they resist aspects alien to the cultural system) to understand the sui generis nature of culture. We use five aspects or indicators of culture—language usage, standard practices, tools and equipment usage, ongoing concerns and values, and recurring problems—to describe how they work together to create a culture.

Population/Participants/Subjects

The primary participant in this study was an eighth-grade mathematics teacher renowned for being a good teacher whose teaching conformed to the intentions of the reform-oriented National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards, with a particular emphasis on problem solving.

Research Design

An ethnographic case study was conducted.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Although Ms. Bryans appropriated some of the rhetoric and practices of reform mathematics, her goals and assessment methods and most of her instructional methods were inconsistent. The analysis of the case shows that three conceptions of culture—individual, interactive, and collective—lead to quite different understandings of the problem. This case suggests the importance of differentiating each of these three conceptions of culture and discusses their implications for educational reform policies and professional development efforts.
The Role of Single-Sex Education in the Academic Engagement of College-Bound Women: A Multilevel Analysis
Authors: Sax Linda J. , Riggers Tiffani A. , Eagan M. Kevin
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

As opportunities for public and private single-sex education have expanded, the debate surrounding this issue has become more heated. Recent reviews of research on single-sex education have concluded that the evidence is mixed, due in large part to the difficulty of attributing differences between single-sex and coeducational students specifically to the single-sex nature of their experience, as opposed to other differences between single-sex and coeducational schools and their attendees. This study comes at a time of renewed national interest in the value and appropriateness of single-sex education, especially as changes to Title IX have expanded the opportunities to establish single-sex classes and activities, and contributes new data with a focus exclusively on the academic engagement of female students from single-sex and coeducational high schools.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study addresses whether levels of academic engagement differ between single-sex and coeducational settings.

Research Design

The study uses self-reported survey data and multilevel modeling to address secondary school-level effects in a national sample of women entering college.

Findings/Results

The analyses suggest that attendance at a single-sex high school remains a significant predictor of academic engagement even after controlling for the confounding role of student background characteristics, school-level features, and peer contexts within each school. Specifically, women attending all-girls high schools report higher levels of academic engagement across numerous fronts: studying individually or in groups, interacting with teachers, tutoring other students, and getting involved in student organizations. However, these results may also be attributed to other features that differentiate single-sex from coeducational schools, such as smaller enrollments and racial/ethnic diversity of the schools in this study.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Although the results of this study support the claims that all-female environments provide a unique opportunity for young women to thrive, these results should be interpreted with some caution. Because of the limitations of the study, it is difficult to make definitive inferences about the relationship between single-sex education and academic engagement, and we cannot assert with confidence that school gender alone is responsible for higher academic engagement. The study points the way for future research that further distinguishes the role of individual and school-level attributes and ideally examines this issue using longitudinal data. Finally, given the current expansion of single-sex education in the public schools, future research ought to employ these methodological advances in studies on single-sex public education and should consider the consequences of single-sex settings for both female and male students.
Why Izzie Didn't Go to College: Choosing Work over College as Latina Feminism
Authors: Harklau Linda
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Explanations for the relatively low numbers of Latinas pursuing higher education have tended to focus on socialization into traditional gender roles. However, recent scholarship has challenged this view, suggesting that gender roles—partic-ularly among recent immigrants—are mutable and subject to constant renegotiation.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This article suggests that forgoing college, far from representing a retreat into traditional women's roles, might in some cases represent emergent feminism and a means for Latina immigrants to contest and reshape those roles.

Setting

A new Latino diaspora community in the rural southeastern United States.

Research Design

Longitudinal qualitative case study of an adolescent immigrant Latina.

Findings/Results

Both risk factors and facilitative factors previously identified by research as contributing to Latino/a college enrollment were found to be present in the case study student's background. The article argues, however, that some gender-specific factors often used to explain Latina school-leaving and low academic ambitions, such as close association with teenage mothers and responsibilities for household chores and child care, served instead as deterrents for this Latina adolescent from taking traditional gender roles. On the other hand, the article argues that the association between higher education and increased independence and a break from traditional gender roles that is often assumed for American-born women did not hold for a working-class Latina. Rather, her wage-earning represented a better position from which to challenge traditional gender roles within her family.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This case study confirms the heterogeneity and diversity to be found in the individual schooling paths of Latino/a immigrant youth, and thus the value of close examination of the protracted and as yet little understood process through which Latinas/os make the decision to pursue or forgo higher education over the course of high school. The article lends support to arguments in recent scholarship suggesting the mutability of gender roles in immigrant communities. It suggests that new attention be paid in research and college recruitment programs to growing evidence of gender-specific factors at work in Latino/a immigrant students’ academic achievement and college-going decisions.
Lessons for Mathematics Education from the Practices of African American Mathematics Teachers
Authors: Cobb Paul , Jackson Kara
Published: November 2021

In this commentary, we discuss the lessons we learned from case studies of two African American mathematics teachers, thereby endorsing the claim made by the contributors to this special issue that the insights they gained are not restricted to mathematics teaching in non-selective urban schools but can also inform the field more generally. We then focus on differences in the two teachers’ goals for students’ mathematical learning and clarify that they were consequential and constrained the types of purposes that the teachers could convey to their students for engaging in mathematical activity. We go on to argue that high expectations for all students’ learning are not by themselves sufficient for their development of mathematical proficiency and discuss the importance of supporting teachers’ development of specific instructional practices that enable their students to meet those expectations. Finally, we suggest that it is critical to situate the ways in which teachers draw on their cultural resources with respect to the school and district settings in which they work and in which they refine and elaborate their instructional practices.
Race, Poverty and SAT Scores: Modeling the Influences of Family Income on Black and White High School Students’ SAT Performance
Authors: Dixon-RomÁN Ezekiel J. , Everson Howard T. , Mcardle John J.
Published: November 2021

Background

Educational policy makers and test critics often assert that standardized test scores are strongly influenced by factors beyond individual differences in academic achievement such as family income and wealth. Unfortunately, few empirical studies consider the simultaneous and related influences of family income, parental education, and high school achievement on college admissions test scores.

Focus Of Study

This research was animated by the nagging question of the association of family income with SAT performance. For example, is the relationship between family income and SAT performance non-linear? Does the relationship differ markedly by race? More importantly, how strong are the effects of poverty on SAT performance?

Research Design

This study is a secondary analysis of a large national sample of Black and White college-bound high school students who took the SAT in 2003 (N = 781,437).

Data Collection and Analysis

Employing data from the College Board's Student Descriptive Questionnaire, this study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to estimate the effects of family income on SAT scores for Black and White examinees accounting for the simultaneous effects of parental education and high school achievement.

Findings/Results

Results suggest the effects of family income on SAT scores, though relatively modest in contrasts to high school achievement, are substantial, non-linear, and nearly twice as large for Black students. Moreover, the unstandardized direct effect of high school achievement on SAT performance is not enough to address the substantial effects of poverty for Black students.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The findings are discussed with respect to social inequality and educational opportunity in college admissions.
City Lines, County Lines, Color Lines: The Relationship between School and Housing Segregation in Four Southern Metro Areas
Authors: Siegel-Hawley Genevieve
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

At the close of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the intersection of race, geography and opportunity is increasingly referred to as spatial racism. School quality and resources, municipal services, employment opportunities, accessibility of transportation, exposure to pollution, and tax rates all vary dramatically across a network of invisible boundary lines that carve up U.S. metro areas into racially and socioeconomically distinctive spaces.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This analysis explores how district boundary lines and school desegregation policy have impacted metropolitan school and housing integration levels over the past two decades.

Setting

The study focuses specifically on the South, where the most comprehensive desegregation strategies were pursued. Based on varying experiences with city-suburban school district mergers, four metros—Richmond, Virginia; Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, North Carolina; Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky; and Chattanooga-Hamilton County, Tennessee— were identified for study between the years 1990 and 2010. This time period encompassed a rising trend of unitary status for school districts, the serious resegregation of students, and growing demographic complexity across the country.

Research Design

This is a quantitative analysis of school and housing segregation trends that relies upon Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps to depict spatial patterns of isolation. School enrollment and segregation trends are derived from the National Center for Educational Statistics’ Common Core of Data. Housing patterns describing the distribution and segregation of persons by race and poverty status are explored using block group-level information from the U.S. Census Bureau's decennial census. Segregation is measured using the Index of Dissimilarity (D).

Findings/Results

Efforts to overcome the divisive nature of district boundary lines, in conjunction with comprehensive school desegregation policy, were related to unambiguous progress in combating both school and housing segregation. This central finding suggests that, in some ways, school policy can become housing policy.

Conclusions/Recommendations

How we provide equal educational opportunity to an increasingly diverse population of students is one of the principal concerns facing the country today. As a nation, however, we are currently allowing a labyrinthine system of school-district boundary lines to dictate the geographic distribution of learning opportunities. This study provides concrete examples of metros implementing a more regional approach to educational equity. It recommends that other metro area consider taking similar steps to subvert the segregating power of school-district boundaries.
What Keeps Teachers in and What Drives Them Out: How Urban Public, Urban Catholic, and Jewish Day Schools Affect Beginning Teachers’ Careers
Authors: Tamir Eran
Published: November 2021

Background

Teacher quality plays a key role in student learning outcomes. Yet, data suggest that elite college graduates who enter teaching are less likely to stay in schools serving low-income and minority students compared to other teachers. Thus, many educators and policy makers agree that in order to equalize the playing field, recruitment, preparation, and retention of high quality teachers should become a high priority.

Objective/Focus

This paper focuses on how beginning teachers’ passion, commitments, and knowledge to teach in urban public, Catholic, and Jewish schools interact with specific school conditions to shape their career choices. The study's longitudinal dimension underscores the gradual shift that teachers make away from their preparation programs, highlighting how their professional growth becomes intimately associated with the conditions in their schools.

Population/Setting

This longitudinal study included 30 randomly selected beginning teachers who graduated from three mission-driven teacher education programs located at elite colleges: UTEP at the University of Chicago, ACE at the University of Notre Dame, and DeLeT at Brandeis University.

Research Design

We employed a comparative, longitudinal case-based study of 30 teachers from three programs. Teachers were interviewed during their second and fourth year in teaching.

Findings

This study demonstrates the ways in which professional cultures in schools may positively or negatively affect teachers in different school contexts. It illustrates the considerable impact school leaders have on the lives and career commitments of teachers. Finally, it confirms the positive impact that preparing teachers to teach in context (Context Specific Teacher Education) may have on teachers’ career commitments.

Conclusions

In order to support teachers’ initial commitments to their schools and students, schools need to take a proactive approach. We emphasize the primary role of school conditions and argue that teacher preparation takes a back seat after several years in terms of its impact on teacher career choices. The findings still suggest that preparation can have some effect on teachers’ preparedness to 1. teach in culturally diverse environments and/or 2. adapt to challenging demands in hard-to-staff schools. We believe that over the years, preparation and school conditions get tightly interwoven with each other. Yet, the comparative design of this research enables us to point out that when teachers were not adequately prepared to teach in particular schools they were more likely to move from their schools in search for more hospitable conditions.
Finding the Balance Between Process and Product through Perceptual Lesson Planning
Authors: Uhrmacher P. Bruce , Conrad Bradley M. , Moroye Christy M.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Lesson planning is one of the most common activities required of teachers; however, since the late 1970s and early 1980s, it has not been a major focus of study, either conceptually or empirically. Although there are recent articles on the topic, much of the current work is specific to examining a particular teaching method or subject area. This essay not only examines the lesson planning process, a neglected area of study, but also puts forward a perceptual or arts-based approach to lesson planning that has not been attended to since Elliot Eisner's essays on objectives.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The purposes of this conceptual paper are is to provide theoretical grounding for perceptual lesson planning; to analytically examine the two current, dominant approaches to creating lesson plans; and to put forward ideas that undergird a fresh approach to creating and analyzing lesson planning.

Research Design

This study consists of a major literature review and a related conceptual argument. We also present qualitative data (a lesson plan with attendant interview material) and preliminary findings from an ongoing study.

Analytic Framework

We use an original analytic framework to discuss the two dominant approaches to lesson planning, the behaviorist and constructivist modes, and to compare them to the perceptual mode. Our analytical categories consist of the following: intentions, process, product, and outcomes. By intentions we mean the aims, goals, or objectives of the lesson plan. The process refers to how the lesson plan is created and what that experience is like for the teacher. Product refers to the actual lessons that result from the planning. Outcomes refer to both the anticipated results of the lesson as well as the general kinds of student outcomes desired in the mode of lesson planning.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Perceptual lesson planning may be characterized as engaging teachers’ and students senses and creativity; as an artistic endeavor that is joyful in and of itself; as consisting of various stylized products; and leading toward meaningful learning for students and teachers in an environment open to elements of surprise and innovation. Lesson planning may be functional and meaningful to teachers and subsequently their students. Lesson planning could be something teachers enjoy, learn from, and appreciate. Thus, we note that focusing on the process of lesson planning is an important part of education that warrants much more attention.
The Chimera of Validity
Authors: Baker Eva L.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Education policy over the past 40 years has focused on the importance of accountability in school improvement. Although much of the scholarly discourse around testing and assessment is technical and statistical, understanding of validity by a non-specialist audience is essential as long as test results drive our educational system and accountability.

Purpose

To portray the roles and functions of testing in U.S. educational contexts and the challenges faced in upholding validity principles in practice.

Research Design

This historical and analytical piece explores the evolution of the concept of validity, its treatment in scholarly discourse, along with challenges faced in practice, and projects future possibilities for educational assessments and their validity.

Conclusions

The challenge is to imagine a fantasy (like a chimera) where technology, globalization, changes in demography, societal expectations, and individual preferences could impact new forms of tests without losing evidence of their technical quality, including validity. A brief argument is made to consider the learning of skills rather than an exclusive focus on content as the core business of assessment.
The Will to Quantify: The “Bottom Line” in the Market Model of Education Reform
Authors: Casey Leo M.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

There is a deep and yawning chasm between the world of tests and testing practices as they ought to be and the actual tests and testing practices now imposed on American students, educators, and schools. That chasm of theory and practice is a function of the dominant paradigm of educational reform, with its theory of action that schools must be remade in the image and likeness of a corporation.

Purpose

To explore the role, development, and implications of assessment use in the market model of education reform.

Research Design

Analysis of the recent publication of the value-added measurements found in the Teacher Data Reports of the New York City Department of Education.

Conclusions

Since standardized tests provide data for a “bottom line,” they have been widely embraced in some circles as a basis for making “high stakes” decisions that hold individuals and schools accountable. In the market model of education reform, questions about the validity and reliability of the tests and of their use for “high stakes” decisions are dismissed as efforts to avoid accountability.
Complexities Involved in Mentoring toward a High-Leverage Practice in the Induction Years
Authors: Stanulis Randi N. , Brondyk Susan K.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

For years mentoring has been promoted as an essential element of effective induction programs. Since research reports of the impact of mentoring have been uneven, it is critical to closely examine the complex aspects that could affect the ways teachers enact ideas into the practice of mentoring. This study is about mentor teacher learning that supports beginning teacher development. This research examines two teachers as they learned to mentor toward a targeted practice of helping novices lead discussions.

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to understand features of complexity that could influence how two induction mentors in the same district, and who participated in the same university-based professional development enacted the ideas and practices in different ways. The mentoring professional development targeted the high-leverage practice of helping beginning teachers learn to lead classroom discussions. Specifically, we examine features of the activity settings that influenced how two mentors enacted their work. We explore the question, why are two mentor teachers, who are experiencing the same professional development and scaffolded learning opportunities, enacting their practice differently?

Research Design

In this longitudinal descriptive case study, data from two mentors’ work with beginning teachers collected over a two-year period, revealed variations in the ways that these mentors talked about and used new ideas. Activity theory provided a lens to examine mentor cases to see how individual and contextual factors related to identity and authority intersected and influenced mentors’ learning and the implementation of a new practice. Key features of activity settings used to analyze data are that they have histories, are goal-oriented, and involve culturally shared language and tools linked to issues of identity and authority.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Understanding ways in which two mentors implemented a new practice in their school context revealed complexities in learning to mentor in ways that may shift the way we think about preparing mentors. We suggest that identity and authority influenced role enactment. Two issues emerge from these cases that have implications for professional development providers, educators and researchers: (a) mentor learning and growing authority in promoting reform-based practices, and (b) preparing mentors for a more powerful role in enacting reform-oriented practices in schools.
Participatory Action Research and City Youth: Methodological Insights from the Council of Youth Research
Authors: Bautista Mark A. , Bertrand Melanie , Morrell Ernest , Scorza D'Artagnan , Matthews Corey
Published: November 2021

Background

The research community has long documented educational disparities along race lines. Countless studies have shown that urban African American and Latino students are systematically denied educational resources in comparison to their white counterparts, resulting in persistent achievement disparities. Though this research is thorough in many regards, it consistently lacks the voices of the Latino and African American students themselves. This omission not only silences those most affected by educational inequalities, it also denies the research community valuable insights.

Purpose

This article discusses an analysis of a youth participatory action research (YPAR) program, the Council of Youth Research, in which urban youth of color research educational conditions. We address the following research questions: 1. How do the Council youth appropriate traditional tools of research? How do they adapt and transform these tools to serve their purposes? 2. What methodological insights can adult educational researchers draw from the study of an intervention project that seeks to center the voice and perspectives of youth? 3. How does YPAR as it is practiced by Council youth challenge what is considered as legitimate and transformative research?

Research Design

To address our research questions, we conducted ethnographic research on the Council during the summer of 2010 and the 2010-2011 school year.

Findings

We demonstrate how the students in the Council appropriated traditional research methods for critical uses and employed creative approaches to conveying research findings. We focus on the students’ use of participant observation, database analysis, and interviews, and describe the multimodal avenues through which the students conveyed findings.

Conclusion

Our study points to alternatives to traditional research that take advantage of urban students’ positionality and insights. We argue that the perspective of youth of color, especially in working-class, urban areas, is integral to our understanding of problems in urban schools as well as approaches to transforming inequitable learning conditions and structures. Until we make the power of research accessible to young people and other marginalized communities, educational research will be limited in its scope and impact.
Regulation of Motivation: Students’ Motivation Management in Online Collaborative Groupwork
Authors: Xu Jianzhong , Du Jianxia
Published: November 2021

Background

Online learning is becoming a global phenomenon and has a steadily growing influence on how learning is delivered at universities worldwide. Motivation of students, however, has become one of the most serious problems in one important aspect of online learning—online collaborative groupwork or online group homework. It is surprising to note that few empirical studies have focused on how to enhance and sustain student motivation to work together in online learning environments.

Purpose

The propose of the present study is to propose and test empirical models of variables posited to predict students’ motivation management in online groupwork, with the models informed by (a) research and theorizing on regulation of motivation and (b) findings from online groupwork that alluded to a number of factors that may influence motivation management in online learning environments.

Research Design

The study reported here used cross-sectional survey data.

Participants

The participants were 150 graduate students from 46 online groups in the southeastern United States.

Results

Results from the multilevel analyses revealed that most of the variance in group-work motivation management occurred at the student level, with online groupwork interest as the only significant predictor at the group level. At the student level, the variation in groupwork motivation management was positively related to student initiative, including arranging the environment, managing study time, and help seeking. In addition, group-work motivation management was positively related to feedback from the instructor and peers.

Conclusion

As most of the variance in online groupwork motivation management occurred at the student level rather than at the group level, online groupwork motivation management was largely a function of individual student characteristics and experiences. The present study further suggests that feedback and student initiative (arranging the environment, managing study time, and help seeking) play an important role in online group-work motivation management. Consequently, it would be beneficial to promote feedback among the instructor and group members in the online groupwork process. In addition, it would be beneficial to encourage students to take more initiative in online groupwork settings to better manage their motivation.
The Influence of Co-Enrollment on the Success of Traditional-Age Community College Students
Authors: Crisp Gloria
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Student utilization of complex enrollment patterns has been identified as a significant recent development in higher education. Nearly a dozen different multi-institutional attendance patterns have been identified, including co-enrollment. Co-enrollment is simultaneous enrollment at two or more colleges or universities during the course of a given term or semester. Although research exists to understand the factors promoting persistence and degree completion for community college students, work does not properly account for co-enrollment or other forms of multi-institutional attendance.

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to measure the impact of co-enrollment on success outcomes among a national sample of traditional age community college students. The following research questions are addressed: (a) In what ways are the characteristics of traditional aged community college students who co-enroll similar or different from students who do not co-enroll? (b) Does co-enrollment significantly increase or decrease the odds that a student will earn a degree and/or persist through the sixth year of college?

Subjects

The sample was drawn from participants in the second follow-up of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS: 04/09). The pre-matched sample was limited to the 4,920 students who began their postsecondary education at a two-year institution and were traditional in terms of age. The matched sample included a sub-sample of 700 co-enrollees and 700 matched students.

Research Design

The study utilized a non-experimental quantitative design.

Data Collection and Analysis

Propensity score matching techniques were used on observational data as a means of reducing observed selection bias. After the sample was shown to be balanced on observed covariates, logistic regression analyses were used to measures the influence of co-enrollment on the success of community college students.

Results

Results demonstrate that, even after controlling for observable selection bias and variables previously shown to influence success outcomes for community college students, co-enrolling at more than one institution during a given semester significantly increases the odds that community college students will succeed.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Co-enrollment may promote access to four-year institutions for community college students desiring to transfer and earn a four-year degree. State and federal policy makers and institutional leaders need to be aware that non-linear attendance is a legitimate way for students to experience and be successful in college. Descriptive work is needed to understand how and at what point students are attending multiple institutions.