bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Intergroup Relations in Integrated Schools: A Glimpse Inside Interdistrict Magnet Schools
Authors: Bifulco Robert , Buerger Christian , Cobb Casey
Published: March 2015

The frequency and quality of intergroup contact within racially and ethnically diverse schools has potentially important implications for the achievement of desegregation goals. The analyses presented here use survey data to assess intergroup contact within a sample of ten interdistrict magnet schools in Connecticut. Findings indicate frequent intergroup interactions within interdistrict magnet schools, but also that the perceived quality of intergroup relations differs across racial groups and both the frequency and quality of intergroup contact varies considerably across schools. Students who report higher quality intergroup relations in their school also tend to report more positive academic environments and more positive attitudes towards other groups. Together these findings indicate that attention must be paid to intergroup relations within diverse schools if the goals of integrated schooling are to be realized.
Uneven Distribution of Novice Teachers in the Chilean Primary School System
Authors: Meckes Lorena , Bascopé Martín
Published: March 2015

This study examines the allocation of novice primary teachers in Chilean schools, looking at their characteristics and at the attributes of the schools at which they are hired after having completed their initial teacher training. The study reveals that in Chile, more qualified novice teachers are more prone to get jobs in socio-economically advantaged schools or in schools with better academic outcomes. In contrast, in disadvantaged schools, it is more likely to find novice teachers with poor results on their exit exams and who come from socioeconomic backgrounds similar to those of the school populations. These findings provide new data to inform Chilean policies. Thus, achieving a more equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers is a challenge for Chile if the aim is to reduce the achievement gap between schools attended by pupils of higher and lower socioeconomic status. Furthermore, these findings might shed some light on the current debate surrounding teacher education policies. A new law will mandate that novice teachers pass the exit exam that until now they have taken voluntarily in order to be hired in any publicly funded school. This study provides support and evidence to inform the debate that will follow in parliament, since we found that novice teachers performing at a very low level—perhaps below the minimum that will be required—have a high probability of ending up working in schools in more disadvantaged areas. On a more general scale, this research also provides a simple but complete methodology that can be used to study issues of teacher distribution elsewhere.
Processos e práticas educativas dos povos ameríndios no Brasil um olhar a partir de pesquisas contemporâneas
Authors: Bergamaschi Maria Aparecida
Published: March 2015

A educação escolar indígena no Brasil e nas Américas vem crescendo e modificando suas feições nas últimas décadas, nos colocando algumas questões: o que caracteriza uma escola como indígena específica e diferenciada? Quais os significados desta instituição para os diferentes povos indígenas, para as diferentes comunidades ameríndias? Que relação existe entre escola indígena e processo de constituição e afirmação de identidades étnicas? Que caminhos precisam ser construídos para a formação de professores indígenas? Partindo destas interrogações, o presente trabalho analisa 179 pesquisas de mestrado e doutorado realizadas no Brasil na última década e que constam publicadas no portal da CAPES, sendo 135 mestrados e 44 teses. Buscando as pesquisas por meio da palavra chave “educação indígena” e analisando especialmente os resumos, evidenciamos, entre outros aspectos, os temas e as abordagens teórico metodológicas dessas investigações que, em seus múltiplos olhares, revelam um crescente cuidado, ético e estético, com a educação e com a escola ameríndia.
Formação docente: literatura e memória inventiva na construção da narrativa de formação
Authors: Fröhlich Cláudia Bechara , Moschen Simone
Published: March 2015

Este artigo parte de uma reflexão sobre o projeto Clube do Professor Leitor-Escritor, desenvolvido nos municípios de Dois Irmãos e Morro Reuter, no Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Trata-se de uma “capacitação continuada” para professores de ensino fundamental em que o conto ficcional constituiu-se como texto de estudo. Nosso objetivo foi mapear a forma como as leituras compartilhadas estabeleceram-se neste trabalho e os efeitos da abertura desse espaço na formação continuada de seus participantes. Para tanto, a cada encontro do Clube, produzimos um Diário de Borda: narrativas sobre o modo como as palavras do conto foram sendo tramadas às falas dos participantes. A reflexão sobre os Diários de Borda foi sustentada pelos aportes teóricos de Freud, Lacan e Barthes. Constatou-se que a leitura em companhia favoreceu a escrita criativa dos participantes. O estudo destacou também o estabelecimento de uma articulação entre os significantes do conto e os fragmentos da memória dos leitores, o que resultou na elaboração de uma narrativa que costura a história de cada professor às singularidades de sua prática docente. Enquanto leem contos e escrevem narrativas, os professores tecem o enredo do que nomeamos um conto de formação.
Funding Disparities and the Inequitable Distribution of Teachers: Evaluating Sources and Solutions
Authors: Adamson Frank , Darling-Hammond Linda
Published: March 2015

The inequitable distribution of well-qualified teachers to students in the United States is a longstanding issue. Despite federal mandates under the No Child Left Behind Act and the use of a range of incentives to attract teachers to high-need schools, the problem remains acute in many states. This study examines how and why teacher quality is inequitably distributed, by reviewing research and examining data on school funding, salaries, and teacher qualifications from California and New York—two large states that face similar demographic diversity and educational challenges. Using wage adjustments to control for cost of living differentials, we find that both overall school funding and teacher salary levels are highly inequitable both across and within states – generally exhibiting a ratio of 3 to 1 between high- and low-spending jurisdictions.  Furthermore, low-salary districts serve students with higher needs, offer poorer working conditions, and hire teachers with significantly lower qualifications, who typically exhibit higher turnover. We find that districts serving the highest proportions of minority and low-income students have about twice as many uncredentialed and inexperienced teachers as do those serving the fewest. In an elasticity analysis, we find that increases in teacher salaries are associated with noticeable decreases in the proportions of teachers who are newly hired, uncredentialed, or less well educated. These teacher qualifications, in turn, are associated with student achievement, holding student characteristics constant. We review research on strategies that have been largely unsuccessful at addressing this problem, such as “combat pay” intended to recruit teachers to high need schools, suggesting that small bonuses might be productive if added to an equitable salary structure where working conditions are comparable, but may be inadequate to compensate for large differentials in salaries and working conditions.  We review studies illustrating successful policy strategies in states that have taken a more systemic approach to equalizing salaries, raising teaching standards, and providing supports for teacher learning and school development. We recommend federal initiatives that could provide stronger supports and incentives for equalizing students’ access to well-qualified and effective teachers, including equalizing allocations of ESEA resources across states, enforcing existing ESEA comparability provisions for ensuring equitable funding and equally qualified teachers to schools serving different populations of students, evaluating progress on resource equity in state plans and evaluations under the law, and requiring states to meet standards of resource equity – including the availability of well-qualified teachers – for schools identified as in need of improvement.
Programas Especiales de Formación Superior de Profesores: la universitarización del magisterio en cuestión
Authors: Bello Isabel Melero , Bueno Belmira Oliveira
Published: March 2015

El artículo enfoca las políticas de formación de profesores en servicio en Brasil y las acciones emprendidas a partir de la década de 1990 por estados y municipios, con el objetivo de promover la formación superior de docentes de la escuela primaria. Para ello, analiza los discursos oficiales de ese período, traza una cartografía de los programas especiales creados para atender a esas demandas y examina, por medio de un trabajo de campo etnográfico, las prácticas por las cuales las profesoras se apropiaron del modelo. El uso de nuevos dispositivos de formación, como la educación a distancia y las TIC, y el involucramiento de nuevos agentes pedagógicos definen los trazos más explícitos de ese nuevo modelo de formación. Se detectaron tensiones entre las esferas macro y micro de las políticas adoptadas en esa área: de un lado, el éxito político proveniente de la titulación en nivel superior de millares de profesores; de otro, el incierto éxito pedagógico frente a las condiciones en que los programas se llevaron a cabo. El artículo cuestiona la centralización y la estandarización instauradas por tales programas, la lógica administrativa que guía la concepción del modelo, el vaciamiento de la práctica y el poco alcance de ese tipo de formación para la profesionalización del magisterio.
Estándares TIC para la Formación Inicial Docente: Una Política Pública en el Contexto Chileno
Authors: Silva Quiroz Juan Eusebio
Published: March 2015

Para orientar el manejo de las tecnologías de la información y comunicación (TIC) por parte de los docentes y la formación de los futuros maestros, diversas instituciones a nivel internacional han definido y están constantemente actualizando estándares.  Chile a pesar de contar con el proyecto Enlaces reconocido a nivel regional y mundial como un ejemplo de inserción de TIC en los centros educativos, no contaba con una propuesta de estándares TIC que orientase la formación de los docentes; por esta razón, el Centro de Educación y Tecnología Enlaces del Ministerio de Educación de Chile, desarrolla desde el 2005 una política para insertar las TIC en la formación inicial docente (FID). Este artículo presenta el trabajo realizado en la definición de estándares TIC para la FID y las acciones seguidas para acompañar su difusión y adopción por parte de las universidades responsables de la formación de los futuros docentes.
Academic Performance of New Jersey's Public Schools
Authors: Wainer Howard
Published: March 2015

Data from the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress are used to compare the performance of New Jersey public school children with those from other participating states. The comparisons are made with the raw means scores and after standardizing all state scores to a common (National U.S.) demographic mixture. It is argued that for most plausible questions about the performance of public schools the standardized scores are more useful. Also, it is shown that if New Jersey is viewed as an independent nation, its students finished sixth among all the nations participating in the 1991 International Mathematics Assessment.
Carrot or Stick? How Do School Performance Reports Work?
Authors: Fetler Mark E.
Published: March 2015

State and federal government espouse school performance reports as a way to promote education reform. Some practicing educators question whether performance reports are effective. While the question of effectiveness deserves study, it accepts the espoused purposes of performance reports at face value, and fails to address the more basic, tacit political and symbolic roles of performance reports. Theories of organization, modern government, and regulation provide a context that helps to clarify these political and symbolic roles. Several performance report and assessment programs in California provide illustrations.
Dealing with Diversity
Authors: Levin Benjamin , Riffel J. Anthony
Published: March 2015

Increasing diversity in the population is a major issue for educators in North America, presenting political as well as educational challenges. This paper examines Canadian educational policy responses to four kinds of diversity - bilingualism (French/English), multiculturalism, the situation of aboriginal peoples, and the problem of poverty. A description of each issue leads to some speculations or propositions on the nature of diversity and appropriate educational responses to it.
School Choice
Authors: Glass Gene V
Published: March 2015

Eighteen educators and scholars discuss vouchers as a means of promoting school choice and introducing competition into education. The discussion centers around the thinking of the economist Herbert Gintis, who participated in the discussion, and his notion of market socialism as it might apply to education. In 1976, Gintis published, with Samuel Bowles, Schooling in Capitalist America; in 1994, he is arguing for competitive markets for the delivery of schooling.
Policy Questions: A Conceptual Study
Authors: Green Thomas F.
Published: March 2015

A policy question is a request for a fairly stable, but modifiable authoritative line of action aimed at securing an optimal balance between different goods, all of which must be pursued, but cannot be jointly maximized. To such questions there are no purely technical solutions, a point that is revealed by the etiology of policy questions. They appear to arise from conflicts among humans over the distribution of goods, i.e., conflicts of interest. However, the deeper roots of such questions lie not in a conflict of human interests, but in the incompatibility of the actual goods that human beings seek. Policy questions ask how to allocate such goods. But this allocation is the business of politics. No policy without politics nor politics without polity.
Mothering for Schooling
Authors: Griffith Alison I.
Published: March 2015

In this paper I explore the relationship between mothering work in the family and the social organization of schooling. In particular, I address the ways in which mothers coordinate and contest the textually-organized discourse of schooling In contrast to other studies of the family/school relationship, this research began in the experience of mothers whose children attend primary school. The data were collected through interviews with mothers in two cities in Ontario. Mothering work constructs families that are differently connected to schools -- a connection strongly shaped by and constitutive of social class.
Pursuit of the Ph.D.
Authors: Kerlin Scott P.
Published: March 2015

he thesis is put forward that changes in public policy which originally promoted broad access to higher education are leading to the diminished likelihood that minorities, those from low-income backgrounds and females in underrepresented disciplines will pursue, or be able to complete, the doctorate. By reviewing a wide range of research literature and statistical reports on the status of doctoral education in the U.S. & Canada, a detailed sociological portrait of those who pursue the Ph.D. is presented. Recommendations are given for further research on doctoral education, particularly in areas of attrition,retention, student indebtedness, social stratification, and post-doctoral career plans.
Educational Assessment Reassessed
Authors: Sanders William L. , Horn Sandra P.
Published: March 2015

For decades, the assessment of educational entities--school systems, individual schools, and teachers--has evoked strong and sometimes violent emotions from the educational community, the general public, and their legislative representatives. In spite of attempts to codify standards for the evaluation of these entities, assessment experts remain denominationalized--often religiously so. Methods of assessment based on the use of standardized tests have come under intense fire in recent years with some critics going so far as to call for their complete elimination. Those who advocate alternative methods of assessment have become increasingly outspoken in establishing exclusive rights to the legitimate assessment paradigm. However, some of the most respected advocates of alternative assessment have taken a more moderate view, warning against an "either-or" mentality (Brandt, 1992, p. 35). Reflecting this more moderate perspective, this paper strongly advocates the use of multiple indicators of student learning, including those provided by standardized tests.
Implementing AIDS Education
Authors: Huerta Grace C.
Published: March 2015

The world has been challenged by the AIDS epidemic for 15 years. In 1985, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, allocated funds to all state departments of education to assist schools in the development of AIDS education policies and programs. Yet, these policies do not ensure that all students receive effective AIDS education. On September 21, 1991, the Arizona Legislature passed Senate Bill 1396, which requires public schools to annually provide AIDS education in grades K-12. The bill was rescinded in 1995. With prohibitive curriculum guidelines, limited teacher training opportunities and tremendous instructional demands, this educational policy was implemented in disparate forms. By examining the perspectives of the Arizona educators (representing three school districts), this qualitative study reveals how teachers ultimately controlled the delivery and nature of AIDS instruction based upon personal values, views of teacher roles, and their interpretation of the mandate itself.
Rhetoric and Educational Policies on the Use of History
Authors: Wong Jessie Y. Y.
Published: March 2015

This article attempts to review the rhetoric and the educational policies on the use of history for citizenship education from 1880-1990 in England. In many instances, the rhetoric served as powerful tools to gain the support of educational authorities, namely, the Board of Education, Ministry of Education and Examination Boards. Their support was reflected in the change of educational policies and school syllabi that followed. This study shows that there was strong and consistent widespread rhetoric on history's contribution to citizenship education throughout the century, neither stopped by the two great wars nor impeded by the challenge of social studies as a citizenship subject after the Second World War. Instead it was challenged by the discipline itself in the early 1980s when some historians began to doubt the "new" history on the ground that the "real" history was being devalued. Consequently, there was evidence that the "new" history did not take off widely. In many schools, history was taught for its own sake. Its value for the education of modern citizenship was not being emphasised. This article ends with the argument that under the environment of the National Curriculum, first implemented in the country in 1989, history still claims its relevance for citizenship education.
Educational Standards and the Problem of Error
Authors: Wilson Noel
Published: March 2015

This study is about the categorisation of people in educational settings. It is clearly positioned from the perspective of the person categorised, and is particularly concerned with the violations involved when the error components of such categorisations are made invisible. Such categorisations are important. The study establishes the centrality of the measurement of educational standards to the production and control of the individual in society, and indicates the destabilising effect of doubts about the accuracy of such categorisations. Educational measurement is based on the notion of error, yet both the literature and practice of educational assessment trivialises that error. The study examines in detail how this trivialisation and obfuscation is accomplished. In particular the notion of validity is examined and is seen to be an advocacy for the examiner, for authority. The notion of invalidity has therefore been reconceptualised in a way that enables epistemological and ontological slides, and other contradictions and confusions to be highlighted, so that more genuine estimates of categorisation error might be specified.
Counseling in Turkey: Current Status and Future Challenges
Authors: Dogan Suleyman
Published: March 2015

In this article a special emphasis is placed on the current status and the future challenges of counseling in Turkey. A brief history of counseling in Turkey, current developments, and the basic issues in this field are pointed out. Finally, the future challenges and recommendations to improve the current status of counseling are discussed.
Consequences of Assessment: What is the Evidence?
Authors: Mehrens William A.
Published: March 2015

Attention is here directed toward the prevalence of large scale assessments (focusing primarily on state assessments). I examine the purposes of these assessment programs; enumerate both potential dangers and benefits of such assessments; investigate what the research evidence says about assessment consequences (including a discussion of the quality of the evidence); discuss how to evaluate whether the consequences are good or bad; present some ideas about what variables may influence the probabilities for good or bad consequences; and present some tentative conclusions about the whole issue of the consequences of assessment and the amount of evidence available and needed.
Contextualizing Homeschooling Data: A Response to Rudner
Authors: Welner Kariane Mari , Welner Kevin G.
Published: March 2015

Rudner (1999) presents the results of a survey and testing program, administered by Bob Jones University (BJU), for homeschooling students. In this response, we applaud Rudner's contribution to building a greater understanding of the homeschooling movement. However, we also voice a strong concern that what Rudner contributed with one hand, he took back with the other. We contend that Rudner's analysis of the BJU data fails to offer a straightforward explanation of important and striking limitations. The unfortunate result is an inaccurate portrayal of homeschoolers as a white, Christian, monolithic population. Although the results of Rudner's analyses are likely valid for the particular population he studied, his insufficient attention to the data's bias has led to an erroneous picture of homeschooling.
Paradoxes in the redefinition of the work of the professorate
Authors: Contreras Domingo José
Published: March 2015

In the present atmosphere of education reform in Spain, autonomy of the faculty and the educational institutions is continually referred to. "Autonomy" as it is currently used in this context poses a paradox: autonomy as obligation. Not just this paradox but others as well are discussed. The present article is organized in four sections. In the first section, the article analyzes a set of factors (from the new organizational arrangments of social services and their relationship with the State to the current patterns of production and consumption) present in the autonomy rethoric. In the second section the author describes the main changes in the school as institution, changes that are affecting academic and professional autonomy. In the third section, the paradoxes surrounding present policies of scholastic autonomy are analyzed. In the fourth, suggestions are made for recovering the political and pedagogical meaning of autonomy.
Testing On Computers
Authors: Russell Michael
Published: March 2015

Russell and Haney (1997) reported that open-ended test items administered on paper may underestimate the achievement of students accustomed to writing on computers. This study builds on Russell and Haney's work by examining the effect of taking open-ended tests on computers and on paper for students with different levels of computer skill. Using items from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), this study focuses on language arts, science and math tests administered to eighth grade students. In addition, information on students' prior computer use and keyboarding speed was collected. Unlike the previous study that found large effects for open-ended writing and science items, this study reports mixed results. For the science test, performance on computers had a positive group effect. For the two language arts tests, an overall group effect was not found. However, for students whose keyboarding speed is at least 0.5 or one-half of a standard deviation above the mean, performing the language arts test on computer had a moderate positive effect. Conversely, for students whose keyboarding speed was 0.5 standard deviations below the mean, performing the tests on computer had a substantial negative effect. For the math test, performing the test on computer had an overall negative effect, but this effect became less pronounced as keyboarding speed increased. Implications are discussed in terms of testing policies and future research.
Less Truth Than Error: Massachusetts Teacher Tests
Authors: Haney Walt , Fowler Clarke , Wheelock Anne , Bebell Damian , Malec Nicole
Published: March 2015

Scores on the Massachusetts Teacher Tests of reading and writing are highly unreliable. The tests' margin of error is close to double to triple the range found on well-developed tests. A person retaking the MTT several times could have huge fluctuations in their scores even if their skill level did not change significantly. In fact, the 9 to 17 point margin of error calculated for the tests represents more than 10 percent of the grading scale (assumed to be 0 to 100). The large margin of error means there is both a high false-pass rate and a high false-failure rate. For example, a person who received a score of 72 on the writing test could have scored an 89 or a 55 simply because of the unreliability of the test. Since adults' reading and writing skills do not change a great deal over several months, this range of scores on the same test should not be possible. While this test is being touted as an accurate assessment of a person's fitness to be a teacher, one would expect the scores to accurately reflect a test-taker's verbal ability level. In addition to the large margin of error, the MTT contain questionable content that make them poor tools for measuring test-takers' reading and writing skills. The content and lack of correlation between the reading and writing scores reduces the meaningfulness, or validity, of the tests. The validity is affected not just by the content, but by a host of factors, such as the conditions under which tests were administered and how they were scored. Interviews with a small sample of test-takers confirmed published reports concerning problems with the content and administration.
Achievement and Demographics of Home School Students: 1998
Authors: Rudner Lawrence M.
Published: March 2015

This report presents the results of the largest survey and testing program for students in home schools to date. In Spring 1998, 20,760 K-12 home school students in 11,930 families were administered either the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) or the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP), depending on their current grade. The parents responded to a questionnaire requesting background and demographic information. Major findings include: the achievement test scores of this group of home school students are exceptionally high--the median scores were typically in the 70th to 80th percentile; 25% of home school students are enrolled one or more grades above their age-level public and private school peers; this group of home school parents has more formal education than parents in the general population; the median income for home school families is significantly higher than that of all families with children in the United States; and almost all home school students are in married couple families. Because this was not a controlled experiment, the study does not demonstrate that home schooling is superior to public or private schools and the results must be interpreted with caution. The report clearly suggests, however, that home school students do quite well in that educational environment.
Teacher Quality and Student Achievement
Authors: Darling-Hammond Linda
Published: March 2015

Using data from a 50-state survey of policies, state case study analyses, the 1993-94 Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS), and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), this study examines the ways in which teacher qualifications and other school inputs are related to student achievement across states. The findings of both the qualitative and quantitative analyses suggest that policy investments in the quality of teachers may be related to improvements in student performance. Quantitative analyses indicate that measures of teacher preparation and certification are by far the strongest correlates of student achievement in reading and mathematics, both before and after controlling for student poverty and language status. State policy surveys and case study data are used to evaluate policies that influence the overall level of teacher qualifications within and across states. This analysis suggests that policies adopted by states regarding teacher education, licensing, hiring, and professional development may make an important difference in the qualifications and capacities that teachers bring to their work. The implications for state efforts to enhance quality and equity in public education are discussed.
Collegiate Grading Practices and the Gender Pay Gap
Authors: Dowd Alicia C.
Published: March 2015

Extending research findings by R. Sabot and J. Wakeman-Linn (1991), this article presents a theoretical analysis showing that relatively low grading quantitative fields and high grading verbal fields create a disincentive for college women to invest in quantitative study. Pressures on grading practices are modeled using higher education production functions.
Top-Down, Routinized Reform in Low-Income, Rural Schools
Authors: Bickel Robert , Tomasek Terry , Eagle Teresa Hardman
Published: March 2015

Since 1991, the National Science Foundation has funded fifty-nine state, urban, and rural systemic initiatives. The purpose of the initiatives is to promote achievement in math, science, and technology among all students, and to encourage schools and communities to secure the resources needed to maintain such outcomes. The Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) is a six-state consortium which focuses these efforts on low-income, rural schools. The primary means of accomplishing ARSI's aims is a one-day-one-school site visit, called a Program Improvement Review, done by an ARSI math or science expert. The centrally important Program Improvement Reviews, however, seem to be premised on unsubstantiated assumptions as to the static, easy-to-understand, easy-to-evaluate nature of educational achievement in rural Appalachian schools. As a result, the Reviews resemble exercises in early-twentieth century scientific management, and are unlikely to enhance achievement in science or math. Consequently, even if there is merit to the commonsense human capital approach to economic growth and development on which systemic initiatives are tacitly premised, this first- person account makes a case that desired payoffs are unlikely to follow from the work of ARSI.
Statewide Professional Development Conference
Authors: Bredeson Paul V. , Scribner Jay Paredes
Published: March 2015

In an environment increasingly skeptical of the effectiveness of large-scale professional development activities, this study examines K-12 educators' reasons for participating and beliefs in the utility in a large-scale professional development conference. Pre- and post-conference surveys revealed that while financial support played a significant role in educators' ability to participate, they were drawn to the conference by the promise to learn substantive issues related to, in this case, performance assessmentwhat it means, how to implement it, and how to address community concerns. In spite of the conference's utility as a means to increase awareness of critical issues and to facilitate formal and informal learning, well conceived linkages to transfer new knowledge to the school and classroom were lacking.
The Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative
Authors: Henderson Stephen A. , Royster Wimberly C.
Published: March 2015

This article was written in response to "Top-Down, Routinized Reform in Low-income, Rural Schools: NSF's Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative, by Robert Bickel, Terry Tomaskek, and Teresa Hardman Eagle which was published in the Education Policy Analysis Archives as Number 12 of Volume 8 on February 21, 2000.
Mathematics Achievement by Immigrant Children
Authors: Huang Gary G.
Published: March 2015

In this study, I examined academic achievement of immigrant children in the United States, Canada, England, Australia, and New Zealand. Analyzing data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), I gauged the performance gaps relating to the generation of immigration and the home language background. I found immigrant children's math and science achievement to be lower than the others only in England, the U.S., and Canada. Non-English language background was found in each country to relate to poor math and science learning and this disadvantage was stronger among native-born childrenpresumably children of indigenous groupsthan among immigrant children. I also examined the school variation in math performance gaps, using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to each country's data. The patterns in which language- and generation-related math achievement gaps varied between schools are different in the five countries.
Government Policy on Teacher Evaluation in Greece
Authors: Chrysos Michail D.
Published: March 2015

After nearly two decades of freedom from evaluation, teachers in Greece became the focus of a new evaluation system. In 1998, reformers sought to raise the level of student performance by the regulation of teacher performance through a top-down evaluation system administered by the Greek Ministry of Education and Religous Affairs. The probable effects of this evaluation system on teachers' professional roles and development are analyzed.
Performance Models in Higher Education
Authors: Atkinson-Grosjean Janet , Grosjean Garnet
Published: March 2015

Higher education (HE) administrators worldwide are responding to performance-based state agendas for public institutions. Largely ideologically-driven, this international fixation on performance is also advanced by the operation of isomorphic forces within HE's institutional field. Despite broad agreements on the validity of performance goals, there is no "one best" model or predictable set of consequences. Context matters. Responses are conditioned by each nation's historical and cultural institutional legacy. To derive a generalized set of consequences, issues, and impacts, we used a comparative international format to examine the way performance models are applied in the United States, England, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Our theoretical framework draws on understandings of performance measures as normalizing instruments of governmentality in the "evaluative state," supplemented by field theory of organizations. Our conclusion supports Gerard Delanty's contention, that universities need to redefine accountability in a way that repositions them at the heart of their social and civic communities.
Taxing the Establishment Clause: Revolutionary Decision of the Arizona Supreme Court
Authors: Welner Kevin G.
Published: March 2015

This article explores the nature and implications of a 1999 decision of the Arizona Supreme Court, upholding the constitutionality of a state tax credit statute. The statute offers a $500 tax credit to taxpayers who donate money to non-profit organizations which, in turn, donate the money in grants to students in order to help defray the costs of attending private and parochial schools. The author concludes that the Arizona decision elevates cleverness in devising a statutory scheme above the substance of long-established constitutional doctrine.
Arizona Education Tax Credit and Hidden Considerations of Justice
Authors: Moses Michele S.
Published: March 2015

The current debate over market-based ideas for educational reform is examined, focusing specifically on the recent movement toward education tax credits. Viewing the Arizona education tax credit law as a voucher plan in sheep's clothing, I argue that the concept of justice underlying the law is a crucial issue largely missing from the school choice debate. I question the libertarian conception of justice assumed by voucher and tax credit advocates, and argue instead that a contemporary liberal democratic conception of justice ought to undergird attempts at school reform. A call for educators and policymakers to concentrate energies on efforts to help needy students rather than on efforts to channel tax dollars toward self- interested ends concludes the article.
Effects on Funding Equity of the Arizona Tax Credit Law
Authors: Wilson Glen Y.
Published: March 2015

This article examines the results from the first year (1998) of the Arizona Education Tax Credit program. The tax credit law allows individuals a dollar- for-dollar tax credit of $500 for donations to private schools and a dollar-for-dollar tax credit of $200 for donations to public schools. Although one justification for this statute was that it would help lower income students, the primary beneficiaries of this program tend to be the relatively well off. The author concludes that Arizona's tax credit law increases educational funding inequity in Arizona. Data for 1999, only recently made available, show a 159.1 percent increase in total contributions and an exacerbation of the trends noted here.
Advanced Placement: Access Not Exclusion
Authors: Camara Wayne J. , Dorans Neil J. , Morgan Rick , Myford Carol
Published: March 2015

Lichten (2000) argues that increased access to AP courses in high schools has led to a decline in AP quality. He uses a mix of actual data, inaccurate data, and fabricated data to support this hypothesis. A logical consequence of his argument is that a reduction in the availability of AP courses will lead to an improvement in AP quality. In this paper, we maintain that his thesis is flawed because he confounds quality with scarcity. In contrast to his narrow conception of quality, quality in the AP context is subject- specific and multifaceted, embracing course content, the teacher, the student as well as the exam. Increased access will not diminish quality. Instead, increased access exposes students to college-level course material, encourages teachers to expand their knowledge domains, serves as a lever for lifting curriculum rigor, and provides students with the opportunity to experience the challenges associated with advanced placement in college.
Consistency of Findings Across International Surveys of Math & Science
Authors: O'Leary Michael , Kellaghan Thomas , Madaus George , Beaton Albert
Published: March 2015

The investigation reported in here was prompted by discrepancies between the performance of Irish students on two international tests of science achievement: the Second International Assessment of Educational Progress (IAEP2) administered in 1991 and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) administered in 1995. While average science achievement for Irish 13-year-olds was reported to be at the low end of the distribution representing the 20 participating countries in IAEP2, it was around the middle of the distribution representing the 40 or so countries that participated in TIMSS at grades 7 and 8. An examination of the effect sizes associated with mean differences in performance on IAEP2 and TIMSS indicated that the largest differences are associated with the performance of students in France, Ireland and Switzerland. Five hypotheses are proposed to account for the differences.
Student Evaluation of Teaching: Methodological Critique
Authors: Sproule Robert
Published: March 2015

The purpose of the present work is twofold. The first is to outline two arguments that challenge those who would advocate a continuation of the exclusive use of raw SET data in the determination of "teaching effectiveness" in the "summative" function. The second purpose is to answer this question: "In the face of such challenges, why do university administrators continue to use these data exclusively in the determination of 'teaching effectiveness'?"
Asymmetry in Dual Language Practice
Authors: Amrein Audrey , Peña Robert A.
Published: March 2015

The capacity for dual-language programs to deliver specific benefits to students with different primary and secondary language skills continues to be debated. Individuals favoring dual language assert that as it relies upon a reciprocal approach, dual language students acquire dual language proficiency without the need for teachers to translate from one language to another. By utilizing and conserving the language skills that students bring, dual language students also gain cross-cultural understandings and an expanded opportunity to realize academic success in the future. Research that explores whether these programs meet the needs of monolingual and bilingual students is limited. The intent of this study is not to criticize dual language practice. Instead, it is to describe a newly implemented dual language immersion program that exists and operates in Phoenix, Arizona. In particular, this study examines the practices of dual language teachers at Leigh Elementary School and the challenges encountered as school personnel worked to provide students with different primary and secondary language skills increased opportunities to learn.
Japanese EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Communicative, Audiolingual and Yakudoku Activities
Authors: Gorsuch Greta
Published: March 2015

In recent years, the learning of English as a Foreign Language in Japanese high schools has become the focus of new educational policies applied at the national level. One of these is The Course of Study issue by the Ministry of Education, in which teachers are, for the first time in a long series of curriculum guidelines, adjured to develop students' "positive attitudes towards communicating in English." Another is the JET program, which has put thousands of native English speaking assistant language teachers (ALTs) into Japanese secondary classrooms for the purpose of team teaching with Japanese teachers. Data resulting from a survey project of 876 Japanese high school English teachers was used to provide empirical evidence of teachers' levels of approval of communicative, audiolingual and traditional (yakudoku) activities. Teachers were also asked to rate the strengths of a variety of influences on their instruction, including university entrance exams, and pre- and in-service teacher education programs. Teachers' perceptions of both activities and instructional influences were examined in light of teachers' length of career, type of school (private versus public, academic versus vocational), and level of contact with an ALT. The data revealed the complexities of imposing broad, national educational policies on a diverse group of teachers, and in an educational culture which likely precludes teachers' use of communicative activities.
Education Reform From An International Perspective
Authors: Levin Benjamin
Published: March 2015

A great deal of comparative work on education reform is now being done, but this work often lacks a clearly articulated conceptual frame. This paper, based on a study of change in five jurisdictions in four countries, develops a model of reform based on four interactive elements - origins, adoption, implementation, and outcomes. Within each of these elements, questions and concepts from the relevant literature are developed with the intent of building a more comprehensive approach to the analysis of reform from political, organizational and educational perspectives.
Wealth Redistribution, Race & Southern Public Schools, 1880-1910
Authors: Ng Kenneth
Published: March 2015

This article measures the wealth redistribution effected by southern public schools and the taxes which supported them. It extends and contributes to the existing literature on this subject in three ways. First, the measurement is based on a larger sample of southern states and over more years than previous efforts. Second, this article establishes that from 1880 to 1910 throughout the South the public schools were a conduit for a consistent and significant flow of resources from whites to blacks. Blacks did not pay enough taxes to fully finance black public schools even at the lower levels dictated by white controlled school boards. Third, the establishment of segregated schools and the disenfranchisement of southern blacks did not eliminate this transfer but only moderately reduced it. The effect of Plessy v. Ferguson and the establishment of segregated schools was not as large as previously thought.
Establishment of Modern Universities in Korea
Authors: Lee Jeong-Kyu
Published: March 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine the historical factors which affected the rise of modern higher education during the late Choson period (1880-1910), and to analyze the implications of these historical factors on educational policies in contemporary higher education in Korea. The rise of modern higher education in Korea can be viewed as occurring in three principal phases: Confucian Choson Royal Government, Western Christian missionaries, and patriotic nationalists. The author points out that the major historical factors influencing the development of modern higher education were Confucianism, Christianity, and Korean nationalism. In particular, Confucianism and Christianity have had substantial impacts on the planning of educational policies in contemporary Korean higher education; the former is viewed as an original source of educational enthusiasm which has expanded Korean higher education, and the latter a matrix of modern Korean higher education which has embodied educational enthusiasm.
The formation of Argentina's Masters program in Social Science
Authors: Garcia de Fanelli Ana M.
Published: March 2015

The article describes the main features of Argentine Social Science Masters programs and evaluates the extent to which they are developing innovative strategies in the present conservative institutional context. The research was based on nineteen case studies of Masters in public and private universities. Quantitative data were also gathered from those Masters that were accredited by the National Commission of Evaluation and Accreditation (CONEAU). All these data are analyzed in terms of the program's objectives, inputs, processing and output indicators. The paper concludes with an analysis of the restrictions that limit the suitable development of academic and professional postgraduate courses in Argentina.