bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
School Diversity, School District Fragmentation and Metropolitan Policy
Authors: Holme Jennifer J. , Finnigan Kara S.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Over the past several decades, the structure of school segregation has changed significantly. In the past, students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds tended to be separated into different buildings within school districts; increasingly, however, students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds are likely to be separated into entirely separate districts (Clotfelter, 2004). This growing problem of between-district segregation poses a unique set of challenges for districts and policymakers seeking to advance integration, as districts have administrative authority only over policies that cover their own boundaries. The changing configuration of school segregation, therefore, requires a better understanding of, and more creative solutions aimed at, this policy problem.

Focus of Study

This article explores the dilemmas created by between-district segregation and school district fragmentation in terms of efforts to diversify schools. In our analysis, we examine four predominant approaches that have been used in city governance reform to address the problems of municipal fragmentation: annexation, consolidation, mobility programs, and metropolitan governance reform. Within each section, we examine the potential of each of these approaches as a solution to the problems associated with school district fragmentation.

Data Collection and Analysis

We first review existing research to examine what is known empirically about between-district segregation, and the role of school district fragmentation as a contributing factor. We then review literature about policy efforts to address problems caused by fragmentation in noneducational domains.

Conclusions

Each of the policy efforts discussed in this article offer insights as to potential policy directions to improve integration and address the costs of fragmentation. We conclude by considering the types of structures that could serve as potential vehicles for school districts to address the problems of fragmentation, and by discussing how regional cooperation between school districts can incentivized.
School Resegregation in the Mississippi of the West: Community Counternarratives on the Return to Neighborhood Schools in Las Vegas, 1968–1994
Authors: Horsford Sonya D. , Sampson Carrie , Forletta Felicia
Published: November 2021

Background

School desegregation and resegregation in the Mountain West remain understudied despite the substantial impact the region's growth and demographic change have had on racial balance and diversity in schools. Home to the largest school district in the Mountain West and fifth largest school district in the country, Las Vegas's unprecedented rise in students identified as Latino, Asian, and immigrant English-language learners living in poverty, coupled with its legacy of racial segregation, reflect trends and conditions critical to national conversations around racial diversity and school resegregation in the post-Civil Rights Era.

Purpose

This article describes the events surrounding the Kelly v. Mason (1968) case, which led to Las Vegas's mandatory school desegregation plan and the African American community's request in 1992 to abandon the mandatory busing plan for a return to neighborhood schools. Its secondary aim is to disrupt a tradition of advocacy for school integration absent the voices, experiences, and, in many cases, forewarnings of Black community stakeholders who questioned whether school desegregation via forced busing would actually result in equal education and genuine racial integration.

Research Design and Methods

The present analysis employs a qualitative research design, historical case study methods, and critical race theory's call to context and counter-narratives to tell the story of school desegregation and resegregation in Las Vegas between 1968 and 1994.

Conclusions

The article concludes with implications and future directions for school desegregation research and policy, particularly given the under-examined nature of school resegregation in the Mountain West.
Segregation or “Thinking Black”?: Community Activism and the Development of Black-Focused Schools in Toronto and London, 1968–2008
Authors: Johnson Lauri
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

On January 29, 2008 the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) approved a city-wide Africentric elementary school under their Alternative School policy, sparking a contentious debate. Calls for Black-focused schools also arose in 2008 in London in response to the disengagement of African Caribbean youth. The historical record indicates, however, that community campaigns for Black educational programs stretch back over 40 years in both cities.

Focus of the Study

This paper analyzes the development of Black-focused education in Toronto and London from 1968 to 2008 through the responses of Black parents and community activists to the historic underachievement of African Caribbean students (particularly males) in the public schools of both cities. Black-focused education is situated within the larger social, political, and national contexts and the critical incidents that fueled the development of race equality policy. The article explores how the “politics of place” influenced the trajectory of Black-focused education in each city.

Research Methodology

Two parallel historical case studies were conducted using primary source material from community-based archives, secondary sources on the history of African Caribbean immigration and the development of Black community organizations, and oral history interviews with 10 Black education activists in Toronto and 7 activists in London.

Conclusions

This comparative study conceptualizes this transnational phenomena as “resistance to racism” and examines how Black-focused curriculum and ideology was adapted to local conditions in Canada and Britain. Parents and community activists aimed to develop the citizenship rights of African Caribbean students, establish a diasporic sensibility, and promote the right of children of African descent to a quality education wherever they may reside.
Seven Legitimate Apprehensions About Evaluating Teacher Education Programs and Seven “Beyond Excuses” Imperatives
Authors: Amrein-Beardsley Audrey , Barnett Joshua H. , Ganesh Tirupalavanam G.
Published: November 2021

Background

Via the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), stronger accountability proponents are now knocking on the doors of the colleges of education that prepare teachers and, many argue, prepare teachers ineffectively. This is raising questions about how effective and necessary teacher education programs indeed are. While research continues to evidence that teachers have a large impact on student achievement, the examination of teacher education programs is a rational backward mapping of understanding how teachers impact students. Nonetheless, whether and how evaluations of teacher education programs should be conducted is yet another hotly debated issue in the profession.

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to describe how one of the largest teacher education programs in the nation has taken a lead position toward evaluating itself, and has begun to take responsibility for its impact on the public school system. This research also presents the process of establishing a self-evaluation initiative across the state of Arizona and provides a roadmap for how other colleges and universities might begin a similar process.

Setting and Participants

This work focuses on the Teacher Preparation Research and Evaluation Project (T-PREP) that spawned via the collaborative efforts among the deans and representative faculty from Arizona State University (ASU), Northern Arizona University (NAU), and the University of Arizona (UofA). The colleges of education located within each respective university are the colleges that train the vast majority of educators in the state of Arizona. Participants also included other key stakeholders in the state of Arizona, including the deans and representative faculty from the aforementioned colleges of education, leaders representing the Arizona Department of Education (ADE), and other key leaders and constituents involved in the state's education system (e.g., the state's union and school board leaders and representatives).

Research Design

This serves as a case study example of how others might conduct such self-examinations at the collaborative and the institutional level, as well as more local levels.

Conclusions

This work resulted in a set of seven “beyond excuses” imperatives that participants involved in the T-PREP consortium developed and participants at the local level carried forward. The seven key imperatives are important for other colleges of education to consider as they too embark on pathways toward examining their teacher education programs and using evaluation results in both formative and summative ways.
Social Studies Teacher Education in the Early Twentieth Century: A Historical Inquiry into the Relationship Between Teacher Preparation and Curriculum Reform
Authors: Jacobs Benjamin M.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The field of social studies education is hardly lacking in historical investigation. The historiography includes sweeping chronicles of longtime struggles over the curriculum as well as case studies of momentous eras, events, policies, trends, and people, with emphases on aims, subject matter, method, and much more. Curiously, scant attention has been paid to the history of social studies teacher education. This study fills a gap in the literature by considering what effect, if any, teacher education in the social studies has had on the development of the field over time. Specifically, the study focuses on history/social studies teacher education in the decades immediately preceding and following the National Education Association's landmark report, The Social Studies in Secondary Education, which commonly is credited with establishing social studies as a school subject.

Purpose

A basic premise underlying this study is that stability and change in social studies curriculum and instruction may be someway related to stability and change in social studies teacher education. Because the enterprise of social studies teacher education exists in large part for the sake of supporting the enterprise of social studies in the schools, changes in social studies in the schools may well affect the preparation of teachers to teach the subject, and changes in social studies teacher preparation may well affect the teaching of the subject in schools. This study interrogates how teacher education programs contributed and/or responded (or not) to the emergence of social studies as a school subject in the early part of the twentieth century.

Research Design

This document-based historical study looks back nearly a century to the origins of the social studies field and considers the interrelationship between social studies as it was envisioned in the schools and social studies as it was configured in teacher education programs. The study is based on published monographs, reports, and articles on the status of history (pre-1916) and social studies (post-1916) teacher preparation programs that largely have been overlooked by social studies historians to date.

Findings/Conclusions

The story that emerges reinforces some longstanding assumptions about the development of the field: For example, there was little agreement among subject matter and education specialists regarding what constituted the social studies curriculum, so there was little agreement on what social studies teachers and students needed to know. But, it also suggests that disarray in the social studies field may have been as much a function of disorder in the realm of teacher education as it was of conflict among curriculum-makers about the nature of social studies in the schools.
The Influence of Developmentally Appropriate Practice on Children's Cognitive Development: A Qualitative Metasynthesis
Authors: Brown Christopher P. , Lan Yi-Chin
Published: November 2021

Background

As policymakers and advocates across the United States look to early childhood educators to improve children's cognitive development so they enter elementary school ready to learn, debates have emerged over what types of practices these educators should be engaged in to achieve this goal. Historically, the field of early childhood education has advocated for teachers to employ developmentally appropriate practices to ready young children for school success. Yet, empirically, the quantitative studies that have examined the impact of these practices on children's cognitive development have produced mixed results. Absent from these debates are qualitative research studies exploring this topic.

Purpose of Study

To address this issue, this article presents findings from a qualitative metasynthesis that studied whether teachers and/or administrators were engaging in developmentally appropriate practices, and if so, how such practices might influence children's cognitive development.

Research Design

This qualitative metasynthesis used a template analysis to code 12 peer-reviewed qualitative studies that were based on original research, took place in the United States, and involved practicing teachers and administrators who worked in early childhood settings (birth through Grade 3).

Findings

The findings appear to demonstrate a positive influence of teachers’ developmentally appropriate practices on children's cognitive development and a negative influence from practices that contrast with this construct. These findings also reveal the need to continue to refine the conception of these practices as well as additional research that examines the influence of such practices on children's development.

Conclusion

It appears that developmentally appropriate practices can positively influence children's cognitive development. Still, it is uncertain as to what these benefits mean in terms of student outcomes, which has become a fundamental issue for publicly funded early education programs. This metasynthesis points to the need for further research that uses a range of measures to examine the influence of developmentally appropriate practices on children rather than teachers. Such work should pay attention to children's cognitive development as well as attend to children's cultural backgrounds. By doing so, it could help inform the fields of early and elementary school education about the impact of developmentally appropriate practices on children's development so that educators across both contexts can provide instructional practices that ready young children for school success.
What Are the Implications of Aesthetics for Moral Development and Education?
Authors: Carr David
Published: November 2021

“Aesthetics” is often taken to be the study of art, but it has come to mean a variety of rather different things in contemporary educational theory and practice, such as: (i) sensory education; (ii) appreciation of beauty; (iii) education in appreciation of the arts. The danger of running these different senses together is explored and the main argument of this chapter is that the moral significance of the aesthetic dimension of works of art lies in its direct engagement with the affective or emotional aspects of moral development.
Reverence and Teaching: The Forgotten Virtue
Authors: Garrison Jim , Rud A. G.
Published: November 2021

The purpose of this chapter is to understand the spiritual dimensions of teaching by elucidating the cardinal and forgotten virtue of reverence. Reverence has a power beyond a typical understanding of it as something religious. Reverence involves a sense of wonder and awe for something or someone that meets at least one of the following conditions: (1) something we cannot control; (2) something we cannot create; (3) something we cannot fully understand; (4) something transcendent, even supernatural The chapter shows reverence in a wider context that does not diminish its spiritual connotations, but rather shows its importance and relevance to teaching in today's classrooms.
Virtual Virtu: The Moral State and the Online Re-Formation of the School and Society
Authors: Laspina James Andrew
Published: November 2021

The chapter examines John Dewey's concepts of society and the public in the context of digital technology and its potential to transform society and the moral ethos of the public school. I argue that Dewey's theory of society and the public, though articulated for an industrial age, are, like his moral vision of social democracy and public education, still of perennial importance as a ethical lens to frame and critique the emerging network society and publics.

“Don't Be Evil.” Google founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin (2004)

In a recent book on schooling in the present era, Tony Wagner describes American society transformed by the global economy, a world students must prepare to enter.

The needs of our society have changed dramatically…. The days of well-paid unskilled or semiskilled work are over in this country, due to the forces of global competition. As we know any job that can be routinized is being either automated or off-shored. Increasingly, the only decent jobs that remain in this country will go to those who know how to continuously improve products or services or create entirely new ones—the knowledge workers of the twenty-first century. (Wagner, 2008, p. 256)
Supporting Teachers in Schools to Improve Their Instructional Practice
Authors: Borko Hilda , Klingner Janette
Published: November 2021

To meet the growing demand for teacher learning opportunities, the educational community must create scalable professional development models and study their effectiveness. In this chapter, we argue that design-based implementation research (DBIR) is ideally suited to these efforts, and we use two research projects in which we are currently involved as illustrative cases: CSR Colorado and Implementing the Problem-Solving Cycle (iPSC). The core of CSR Colorado is Collaborative Strategic Reading, an instructional approach designed to enhance reading comprehension in content classes. The focus of iPSC is the Problem-Solving Cycle, a mathematics professional development (PD) program designed to help teachers improve their instruction through closely examining mathematics problems, student thinking, and pedagogical practices. Each project works with a school district to bring a PD model to scale, and both projects are studying the structures and resources needed to build the district's capacity to sustain the model beyond the duration of the research. The chapter describes each project and discusses the successes and challenges we experienced as we collaborated with the districts and schools to carry them out. By highlighting two very different projects we show how, through different means, it is possible to achieve the same ultimate end of a scaled-up program for improving instructional practices.
Towards an Evidence Framework for Design-Based Implementation Research
Authors: Means Barbara , Harris Christopher J.
Published: November 2021

Educational interventions typically are complex combinations of human actions, organizational supports, and instructional resources that play out differently in different contexts and with different kinds of students. The complexity and variability of outcomes undermines the notion that interventions either “work” or “don't work.” Under the design-based implementation research (DBIR) model, the implementation of an intervention in particular settings is itself an object of research and a critical part of understanding how to scale an intervention without diluting its effectiveness. In this chapter, we compare the approach to evidence implicit in the defining features of DBIR to the prevailing evidence standards for educational research promoted by national policy. Our aim is to provide a frame for knowledge building within DBIR that draws from the strengths of both design-based research methods and research designs that permit causal inference about program impacts. Moreover, we endeavor to show how DBIR challenges current thinking about what counts as credible research. We conclude by considering the ways in which DBIR is a departure from much educational research in terms of what it means to conduct research that is useful and usable in education settings.
The SERP Approach to Problem-Solving Research, Development, and Implementation
Authors: Donovan M. Suzanne , Snow Catherine , Daro Phil
Published: November 2021

Education researchers are increasingly working in practice-based partnerships in order to direct their research efforts toward important problems of practice. We argue for the creation of an infrastructure to support routine and sustained interaction among researchers, practitioners, and designers in order to make partnership efforts more efficient and effective over time. We describe SERP's efforts to initiate such an infrastructure through the creation and operation of “field sites”—long-term research, development, and implementation partnerships with school districts. We describe principles for field site operation and for product design that are emerging through our “learning by doing” approach. And we argue that the field site partnerships have produced work that is fundamentally different in character and content because of the SERP rules of engagement. SERP work is also more coherent because of its interdisciplinary character, and the sophistication of the partnership's work grows over time as related lines of work become integrated and as those engaged in sustained collaboration learn from each other.
Exploring the Intended and Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Teacher Evaluation on Schools, Teachers, and Students
Authors: Lavigne Alyson Leah
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The stakes are getting higher for teachers daily as more and more states adopt hiring, firing, and tenure-granting policies based on teacher evaluations. Even more concerning is the limited discussion about whether or not high-stakes teacher evaluation can meet the intended outcome of improved student achievement, and at what cost. These high-stakes decisions are based on the rationale that firing ineffective teachers (as primarily measured by observation data and value-added scores) will improve student achievement. This premise is challenged by various variables and assumptions (e.g., reliability, validity, percentage fired, and turnover) that, if not met, could result in a number of possible unintended consequences.

Focus of Study

This paper examines the history of high-stakes teacher evaluation and the ways in which teacher evaluation data are being used in today's schools to make human capital decisions. The intended consequences and unintended consequences are explored in great detail.

Research Design

This paper is an analytic essay.

Conclusions/Recommendations

There is no evidence that high-stakes teacher evaluation can produce a more effective teacher workforce and improve student achievement. Even if basic requirements and assumptions are met (e.g., highly reliable and valid measures, retention of effective teachers, and highly effective hires), gains in student achievement may be short lived, insignificant, or practically meaningless. The possible unintended consequences could result in worse, rather than better, student achievement outcomes and increase the gap in opportunity to learn for students attending the most and least affluent schools.
State and Local Efforts to Investigate the Validity and Reliability of Scores from Teacher Evaluation Systems
Authors: Herlihy Corinne , Karger Ezra , Pollard Cynthia , Hill Heather C. , Kraft Matthew A. , Williams Megan , Howard Sarah
Published: November 2021

Context

In the past two years, states have implemented sweeping reforms to their teacher evaluation systems in response to Race to the Top legislation and, more recently, NCLB waivers. With these new systems, policymakers hope to make teacher evaluation both more rigorous and more grounded in specific job performance domains such as teaching quality and contributions to student outcomes. Attaching high stakes to teacher scores has prompted an increased focus on the reliability and validity of these scores. Teachers unions have expressed strong concerns about the reliability and validity of using student achievement data to evaluate teachers and the potential for subjective ratings by classroom observers to be biased. The legislation enacted by many states also requires scores derived from teacher observations and the overall systems of teacher evaluation to be valid and reliable.

Focus of the Study

In this paper, we explore how state education officials and their district and local partners plan to implement and evaluate their teacher evaluation systems, focusing in particular on states’ efforts to investigate the reliability and validity of scores emerging from the observational component of these systems.

Research Design

Through document analysis and interviews with state education officials, we explore several issues that arise in observational systems, including the overall generalizability of teacher scores; the training, certification, and reliability of observers; and specifications regarding the sampling and number of lessons observed per teacher.

Findings

Respondents’ reports suggest that states are attending to the reliability and validity of scores, but inconsistently; in only a few states does there appear to be a coherent strategy regarding reliability and validity in place.

Conclusions

There remain a variety of system design and implementation decisions that states can optimize to increase the reliability and validity of their teacher evaluation scores. While a state may engage in auditing scores, for instance, it may miss the gains to reliability and validity that would accrue from periodic rater retraining and recertification, a stiff program of rater monitoring, and the use of multiple raters per teacher. Most troublesome are decisions about which and how many lessons to sample, which are either mandated legislatively, result from practical concerns or negotiations between stakeholders, or, at best case, rest on broad research not directly related to the state context. This suggests that states should more actively investigate the number of lessons and lesson sampling designs required to yield high-quality scores.
Districts’ Efforts for Data Use and Computer Data Systems: The Role of Sensemaking in System Use and Implementation
Authors: Cho Vincent , Wayman Jeffrey C.
Published: November 2021

Background

Increasingly, teachers and other educators are expected to leverage data in making educational decisions. Effective data use is difficult, if not impossible, without computer data systems. Nonetheless, these systems may be underused or even rejected by teachers. One potential explanation for such troubles may relate to how teachers have made sense of such technologies in practice. Recognizing the interpretive flexibility of computer data systems provides an avenue into exploring these issues.

Objective

This study aims to explore the factors affecting teachers’ use of computer data systems. Drawing upon the notion of interpretive flexibility, it highlights the influence of sensemaking processes on the use and implementation of computer data systems.

Research Design

This comparative case study draws upon interview and observational data gathered in three school districts. Matrices were used to compare understandings about data use and about computer data systems within each district by job role (i.e., central office member, campus administrator, and teacher), as well as across districts.

Results

Our findings challenge commonplace assumptions about technologies and their “effects” on teacher work. For example, access to a system or its functions did not determine changes of practice. Paradoxically, we even found that teachers could reject or ignore functions of which they were personally in favor. Although computer data systems can support changes of practice, we found that agency for change rested in people, not in the technologies themselves. Indeed, teachers’ sensemaking about “data” and “data use” shaped whether and how systems were used in practice. Although central offices could be important to sensemak-ing, this role was often underplayed.

Conclusion

We provide recommendations regarding how researchers, school, and district leaders might better conceptualize data and data systems. These recommendations include recognizing implementation as an extended period of social adjustment. Further, we emphasize that it is the unique duty of school and district leaders to share their visions regarding data use, as well as to engage in dialogue with their communities about the natures of schooling and data use.
The Influence of Tardy Classmates on Students’ Socio-Emotional Outcomes
Authors: Gottfried Michael A.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Researchers, policymakers, and practitioners undoubtedly concur that missing school deteriorates student outcomes. And yet, in evaluating the deleterious effects of missing in-school time, empirical research has almost exclusively focused on absences, and the scant amount of empirical literature on tardiness has focused on academic achievement. Hence, this study contributes novel insight in two capacities: focusing on the effects of tardy classmates and focusing on socio-emotional outcomes.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of peer-level tardiness on individual-level socio-emotional outcomes utilizing nationally representative, longitudinal data.

Population/Participants/Subjects

The data are sourced from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K), which is a nationally representative sample of students, teachers, and schools. Information was first collected from kindergartners (as well as parents, teachers, and school administrators) from U.S. kindergarten programs in the 1998–1999 school year. This study utilizes data collected at spring of kindergarten, first grade, and third grade. Across all three waves of data, there were a total of N=21,765 student observations.

Research Design

This study combines secondary data analyses and quasi-experimental methods. There are five dependent socio-emotional variables utilized throughout this study, delineated into problem behaviors and social skills. Problem behaviors include two scales: (a) externalizing problem behaviors and (b) internalizing problem behaviors. Social skills include three scales: (a) level of self-control, (b) approaches to learning, and (c) interpersonal skills. This study begins with a baseline, linear regression model. To address issues pertaining to omitted variable bias, this study employs multilevel fixed effects modeling.

Findings

The coefficients on classroom tardies indicated statistically significant relationships between having a higher daily average number of classmate tardies and socio-emotional development. Students whose classmates are, on average, tardy more frequently have higher frequencies of problem behaviors and lower levels of social skills. The effects remain significant even after accounting for multiple omitted variable biases.

Conclusions/Recommendations

In addition to the previously well-established negative effects of missing school via absences, tardiness also diminishes student outcomes. Hence, the findings in this study—which brought to the surface new ways by which classmates’ actions can influence other students’ outcomes—would support the continuation of those school practices that successfully reduce multiple channels of missing school. Particularly high rates of peer tardies in addition to high rates of peer absences have both now been established in the research literature as detrimental to individual and classmate outcomes.
True Grit: Trait-Level Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals Predicts Effectiveness and Retention among Novice Teachers
Authors: Robertson-Kraft Claire , Duckworth Angela Lee
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Surprisingly little progress has been made in linking teacher effectiveness and retention to factors observable at the time of hire. The rigors of teaching, particularly in low-income school districts, suggest the importance of personal qualities that have so far been difficult to measure objectively.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

In this study, we examine the predictive validity of personal qualities not typically collected by school districts during the hiring process. Specifically, we use a psychological framework to explore how biographical data on grit, a disposition toward perseverance and passion for long-term goals, explains variance in novice teachers’ effectiveness and retention.

Research Design

In two prospective, longitudinal samples of novice teachers assigned to schools in low-income districts (N = 154 and N = 307, respectively), raters blind to outcomes followed a 7-point rubric to rate grit from information on college activities and work experience extracted from teachers’ résumés. We used independent-samples, t-tests, and binary logistic regression models to predict teacher effectiveness and retention from these grit ratings as well as from other information (e.g., SAT scores, college GPA, and interview ratings of leadership potential) available at the time of hire.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Grittier teachers outperformed their less gritty colleagues and were less likely to leave their classrooms midyear. Notably, no other variables in our analysis predicted either effectiveness or retention. These findings contribute to a better understanding of what leads some novice teachers to outperform others and remain committed to the profession. In addition to informing policy decisions surrounding teacher recruitment and development, this investigation highlights the potential of a psychological framework to explain why some individuals are more successful than others in meeting the rigorous demands of teaching.
‘A Highly Selected Strain of Guinea Pigs’: The Westinghouse Science Talent Search and Educational Meritocracy, 1942–1958
Authors: Terzian Sevan G. , Rury John L.
Published: November 2021

Overview

This article examines the Westinghouse Science Talent Search over the first sixteen years of its operation. A national contest involving thousands of high school seniors annually, it reflected a growing national concern with developing scientific manpower in the midst of global conflict, the Cold War, and a growing military–industrial complex.

Background/Context

While there have been recent studies on the historical development of science education, particularly in the mid-twentieth century and immediate postwar era, little attention has been devoted to such extracurricular activities as science fairs and academic contests. This study addresses this gap by examining a prominent national talent search competition, while assessing its place in the development of a meritocratic ethos in science.

Focus of Study

The study describes the genesis of the Science Talent Search, its approach to identifying winners, and the inequitable impact of this approach. Although the competition's organizers emphasized its meritocratic quality, our analysis demonstrates that the selection process that it employed systematically discriminated against certain groups of students.

Research Design

The study was conducted by historical research in primary and secondary sources, particularly those associated with the Science Talent Search in the first two decades of its existence. Statistical data also were compiled from Science Talent Search records and combined with data from the U.S. Office of Education and the Census Bureau to conduct an analysis of factors contributing to success in the contest.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Most Science Talent Search winners over the period in question were White males from large urban schools with greater financial resources. Women and African American students were underrepresented, as were students from rural areas and schools with relatively few resources. Ultimately, this national competition reflected social and cultural forces that shaped the science professions in a crucial period of their growth, and may have represented a lost opportunity to make scientific training more truly meritocratic at a formative time in its development.
“There is Space, and There are Limits”: The Challenge of Teaching Controversial Topics in an Illiberal Democracy
Authors: Ho Li-Ching , Alviar-Martin Theresa , Leviste Enrique N. P.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Research indicates that across democratic societies, teachers face numerous intellectual and emotional challenges when handling controversial topics in the classroom. Less attention, however, has been paid to how teachers’ willingness to teach controversial topics intersects with political and other societal factors in different sociopolitical milieu and, in particular, in an authoritarian–democratic and culturally diverse state like Singapore.

Focus of Study

This study focused on constraints to the teaching of controversial topics relating to diversity and the manner in which teachers navigated their personal beliefs amidst the evolving contours of public and official discourses in Singapore. By attending to the intersections of teachers’ beliefs, state policies, and other sociopolitical factors, we aimed to inform scholarship on the teaching of controversial topics and illuminate states’ powers to demarcate the discursive spaces of teachers.

Research Design

The study adhered to the qualitative case study design. We collected data from interviews that featured various elicitation tasks to describe 35 social studies teachers’ perceptions and practice of controversial issues discussions relating to topics of diversity. Additionally, we drew on policy and curricular documents to portray the evolving contours of public discourse in Singapore.

Findings/Results

The findings highlight how the participants, influenced largely by state policies, differentiated between topics that were controversial-appropriate and controversial-taboo. In spite of the numerous legal constraints limiting the nature of public discussion of race and politics, the majority of the teachers regarded these topics as controversial-appropriate. There was, conversely, a consensus among the participants that topics related to sexual orientation were controversial-taboo even though there were no similar laws constraining public discussion of this issue.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This study challenges conventional assumptions about the impact of state-imposed constraints and controls on the teaching of controversial topics in schools. Under some circumstances, state controls and constraints can result in teachers having more freedom to discuss controversial topics because of the clearly demarcated political and social boundaries. However, if the state's position is ambiguous, this may result in a Kafkaesque situation in which teachers become even more conservative in their curriculum decision making due to a heightened sense of uncertainty and insecurity. Ultimately, the study brings to light the nuanced ways that state control and censorship influence the spaces and limits of issues-centered discussion, and underlines the need for research that attends to various social forces that frame the teaching of controversial topics in different democratic settings.
Limits of Generalizing in Education Research: Why Criteria for Research Generalization Should Include Population Heterogeneity and Uses of Knowledge Claims
Authors: Ercikan Kadriye , Roth Wolff-Michael
Published: November 2021

Context

Generalization is a critical concept in all research designed to generate knowledge that applies to all elements of a unit (population) while studying only a subset of these elements (sample). Commonly applied criteria for generalizing focus on experimental design or representativeness of samples of the population of units. The criteria tend to neglect population diversity and targeted uses of knowledge generated from the generalization.

Objectives

This article has two connected purposes: (a) to articulate the structure and discuss limitations of different forms of generalizations across the spectrum of quantitative and qualitative research and (b) to argue for considering population heterogeneity and future uses of knowledge claims when judging the appropriateness of generalizations.

Research Design

In the first part of the paper, we present two forms of generalization that rely on statistical analysis of between-group variation: analytic and probabilistic generalization. We then describe a third form of generalization: essentialist generalization. Essentialist generalization moves from the particular to the general in small sample studies. We discuss limitations of each kind of generalization. In the second part of the paper, we propose two additional criteria when evaluating the validity of evidence based on generalizations from education research: population heterogeneity and future use of knowledge claims.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The proposed criticisms of research generalizations have implications on how research is conducted and research findings are summarized. The main limitation in analytic generalization is that it does not provide evidence of a causal link for subgroups or individuals. In addition to making explicit the uses that the knowledge claims may be targeting, there is a need for some changes in how research is conducted. This includes a need for demonstrating the mechanisms of causality; descriptions of intervention outcomes as positive, negative, or neutral; and latent class analysis accompanied with discriminant analysis. The main criticism of probabilistic generalization is that it may not apply to subgroups and may have limited value for guiding policy and practice. This highlights a need for defining grouping variables by intended uses of knowledge claims. With respect to essentialist generalization, there are currently too few qualitative studies attempting to identify invariants that hold across the range of relevant situations. There is a need to study the ways in which a kind of phenomenon is produced, which would allow researchers to understand the various ways in which a phenomenon manifests itself.
The Instructional Challenge in Improving Teaching Quality: Lessons from a Classroom Observation Protocol
Authors: Gitomer Drew , Bell Courtney , Qi Yi , Mccaffrey Daniel , Hamre Bridget K. , Pianta Robert C.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Teacher evaluation is a major policy initiative intended to improve the quality of classroom instruction. This study documents a fundamental challenge to using teacher evaluation to improve teaching and learning.

Purpose

Using an observation instrument (CLASS-S), we evaluate evidence on different aspects of instructional practice in algebra classrooms to consider how much scores vary, how well observers are able to judge practice, and how well teachers are able to evaluate their own practice.

Participants

The study includes 82 Algebra I teachers in middle and high schools. Five observers completed almost all observations.

Research Design

Each classroom was observed 4–5 times over the school year. Each observation was coded and scored live and by video. All videos were coded by two independent observers, as were 36% of the live observations. Observers assigned scores to each of 10 dimensions. Observer scores were also compared with master coders for a subset of videos. Participating teachers also completed a self-report instrument (CLASS-T) to assess their own skills on dimensions of CLASS-S.

Data Collection and Analysis

For each lesson, data were aggregated into three domain scores, Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support, and then averaged across lessons to create scores for each classroom.

Findings/Results

Classroom Observation scores fell in the high range of the protocol. Scores for Emotional Support were in the midlevel range, and the lowest scores were for Instructional Support. Scores for each domain were clustered in narrow ranges. Observers were more consistent over time and agreed more when judging Classroom Organization than the other two domains. Teacher ratings of their own strengths and weaknesses were positively related to observation scores for Classroom Organization and unrelated to observation scores for Instructional Support.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This study identifies a critical challenge for teacher evaluation policy if it is to improve teaching and learning. Aspects of teaching and learning in the observation protocol that appear most in need of improvement are those that are the hardest for observers to agree on, and teachers and external observers view most differently. Reliability is a marker of common understanding about important constructs and observation protocols are intended to provide a common language and structure to inform teaching practice. This study suggests the need to focus our efforts on the instructional and interactional aspects of classrooms through shared conversations and clear images of what teaching quality looks like.
The Characteristics of Historically Black College and University Presidents and Their Role in Grooming the Next Generation of Leaders
Authors: Freeman Sydney , Gasman Marybeth
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Although research on college and university presidents has grown in recent decades, historically Black college and university (HBCU) presidents have rarely been included in this research. We know almost nothing about the pathways to the HBCU presidency or the role that current presidents play in grooming future presidents. More literature is needed in order to deepen our understanding of the HBCU presidency.

Purpose

With this study, we sought to capture the background characteristics of HBCU leaders, to lay the ground work for future studies on HBCU presidents, and to understand the role these leaders play in grooming and mentoring the next generation of HBCU leaders.

Research Design

In order to answer our research questions, we used a combination a surveys, document analysis, and qualitative interviews.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Our conclusions and recommendations point to a recycling of presidents at HBCUs as well as the disproportionate presence of long-term presidencies. Moreover, although grooming of future presidents is taking place, it is not systematic and would benefit from deeper thought and commitment.