bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“Show Some Love”: Youth and Teaching Artists Enacting Literary Presence and Musical Presence in an After-School Literacy-and-Songwriting Class
Authors: Hess Juliet , Watson Vaughn W. M. , Deroo Matthew R.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Youth's multiliteracies and musical practices are increasingly considered as taking place beyond school and including community-based educational contexts. Literacy scholars increasingly seek to understand the social and cultural contexts of literacy practices, underscoring youths’ identities as present and future civic participants. Moreover, Small's concept of musicking reframes academic understandings of music to acknowledge the multiplicity of ways youth are inherently musical. Yet less is known about social and cultural contexts of multiliteracies practices and musicking activities of youth of color in community-based education settings. Moreover, less is understood about how youth demonstrate academic literacies and musicking activities, already present and informed by their lived experiences, and the formal curriculum of community-based educational contexts. This article examines the multiliteracies practices and musicking activities of youth of color during open mic at The Verses Project, a community-based literacy-and-songwriting class, to explore how youth demonstrate what Tatum and Muhammad referred to as “literary presence” and what we extend as youth's literary presence and musical presence.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study1 details ways in which youth of color extended their literary and musical presence as active civic participants through engagement in open mic, in the context of a 15-week community-based literacy-and-songwriting class. In examining experiences of youth participants and teaching artists across open mic, we ask: What academic literacy practices and multifaceted musical activities already-present in youth's lived experiences do youth demonstrate during open-mic? And how do youth demonstrate literary presence and musical presence across literacy practices and musical activities?

Setting

Data for this study were collected at the Community Music School—Detroit (CMS-D) during an after-school literacy-and-songwriting class for youth age 9 to 15.

Research Design

Data for this 15-week qualitative study, informed by critical ethnography, were collected using videotaped observations, field notes, focus-group interviews, curriculum-planning meetings, multimodal artifacts, and researcher memos.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This article shows how youth demonstrated uses of open mic, reflecting sharing as an act of bravery; teaching artists across open mic scaffolded youth's development of literary and musical presence; and youth, in words and music, across open mic, enacted already-present academic literacies and musicking activities. We discuss possibilities for using open mic in formal, school-based, English and music classrooms and extend the possibilities of theory, research, and teaching in literacy studies and music education that attend to the lived experiences of youths’ literate and musical lives.
Renaming the Narrative, Reclaiming Their Humanity: Black and Latino Males’ Descriptions of Success
Authors: Howard Tyrone C. , Woodward Brian , Navarro Oscar , Huerta Adrian H. , Haro Bianca N. , Watson Kenjus
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

An ongoing challenge for scholars who examine the educational experiences of young men of color, particularly Black and Latino males, is to illustrate the complex nature of their experiences and to call into question the dichotomous narrative that these students are either successful or unsuccessful. There is a responsibility for scholars to present a balanced, more nuanced analysis and to highlight that, while a significant number of these young men are underperforming compared to their peers from other backgrounds, there are many students who are doing quite well in school. While interrogating the notion of success can be a complex task, one of the concerns in the professional literature has been that the definition is frequently limited to narrow or conventional standards (i.e., high GPA, high test scores, etc.). While these examples of success are indeed important, we maintain that they do not capture the full spectrum of favorable educational and social outcomes of Black and Latino male students both inside and outside of schools.

Purpose/Objective

This study operates from the standpoint that many Black and Latino males are thriving, yet their stories are rarely told, especially by the young men themselves. The objective of the study is to challenge conventional depictions of Black and Latino males by better understanding how these young men perceive themselves, as well as how they conceptualize success. Thus, the questions that anchored this study include: How do Black and Latino males describe themselves? In what ways do they operationalize the term “success”? And what can researchers, practitioners, and policymakers learn from student perceptions of success?

Research Design

The study included in-depth qualitative interviews that were conducted in person. The interviews were audio recorded and subsequently transcribed. Transcripts were uploaded to a qualitative data analysis program. Prevalent themes, topics, key terms, and phrases were all identified and ultimately represented recurring patterns and codes within the data.

Findings/Results

Students defined success in similar ways to how they described themselves. “Hardworking,” “determined,” and “able to work with others” were a few descriptors offered by the participants. Moreover, the young men expressed an inherent belief that success was not relegated to school alone and that it was equally important to make their mark in their respective homes and communities. Establishing financial security, emphasizing self-improvement, helping their families and communities, and just wanting to be happy were other ways in which the participants defined success.

Conclusion

Allowing students to develop their own definitions of success can serve as an impetus toward a shift away from thinking that success is in how others define the term. Success for these young men was the ability to write their own narrative.
The Possibility of Promotion: How Race and Gender Predict Promotion Clarity for Associate Professors
Authors: Kulp Amanda M. , Wolf-Wendel Lisa E. , Smith Daryl G.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The research on promotion to full professor is sparse. Research that does exist has largely emerged from single campuses and studies conducted through disciplinary associations. Extant studies strongly suggest the presence of equity issues in advancement throughout the academic pipeline. Our study uses cross-institutional results to offer analysis of and potential solutions for the problem.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question

We explore the extent to which tenured faculty members at four-year postsecondary institutions are clear about their prospects of being promoted to full professor and how their background characteristics, institutional characteristics, and satisfaction with various aspects of academic work predict their perceptions of promotion clarity. We are focused on whether cultural taxation in the form of heavy service and advis-ing—often associated with underrepresented minority faculty and women faculty—is a factor. We examine the influence of ideal-worker norms and work/family demands on perceptions of promotion clarity. Lastly, we focus on the structural elements of the academy to frame the topic, rather than focusing on individual agency.

Population/Participants/Subjects

This study uses data from the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) survey, a large, national study of postsecondary faculty. Our sample consists of 3,246 individuals who held full-time, tenured positions as associate professor at four-year institutions when they responded to the surveys between 2010 and 2012. The sample was roughly divided between males (54%) and females (46%), and most faculty were employed at research institutions (59%). The sample was predominantly White (82%). The characteristics of the associate professors in the sample are representative of the larger U.S. faculty population at the time of the survey.

Research Design

This quantitative study uses descriptive statistics to examine patterns in promotion clarity across various demographic and institutional characteristics. We examine how satisfaction variables intersect with perceptions of promotion clarity for associate professors. Then we conduct a series of linear regression analyses to explore the influence of predictors on associate professors’ sense of clarity about promotion.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Being unclear about expectations of promotion to full professor is clearly of concern to faculty members at four-year universities in the United States, but it is especially of concern to women. Satisfaction with service is a very important variable in predicting perceptions of promotion clarity. For all associate professors, working at certain types of institutions or in particular academic disciplines had an inverse relationship with promotion clarity. The factors associated with lack of clarity about promotion are more structural than individual.
Principled Improvisation to Support Novice Teacher Learning
Authors: Philip Thomas M.
Published: November 2021

Background

A significant body of scholarship has highlighted the importance of improvisation in teaching, particularly the interactional and responsive creativity that is required for teachers to co-construct meaning with students. However, recent efforts inside and outside university-based teacher education have pushed against novice teacher learning through improvisation, preferring to focus on the “practicing” of identifiable components or discrete techniques of teaching.

Purpose

Based on an expansive view of practice, I argue that improvisation is inextricably connected to practice and illustrate that the marginalization of improvisation limits opportunities for novice teachers to learn the relational aspects of teaching. I develop the concept of principled improvisation: improvisation that is purposefully oriented toward justice and that accentuates each moment of teaching as political, ethical, and consequential. I describe the design of a learning environment for preservice teachers that was organized around principled improvisation and demonstrate its unique affordances for particular forms of novice teacher learning.

Research Design

Based on a close reading of novice teachers’ weekly reflections and audio recordings and field notes from the whole-class discussions, I highlight five examples of practice guided by principled improvisation that span a diversity of participants, contexts, and scale. These illustrative cases are not meant to systematically characterize all instances of practice guided by principled improvisation in the course; rather, they are meant to be invitations to grapple with new pedagogical and learning possibilities (and limitations) that emerge when teacher education is organized around principled improvisation. In particular, I explore how learning to listen played prominently in teacher practice guided by principled improvisation and examine how the opportunity to narrate, re-narrate, and re-envision experiences allowed novice teachers to learn and collectively build place-relevant theory.

Conclusions

The opportunities to learn to recognize emotion, listen, see race in place, consider political expression, and make sense of power across scales were significant aspects of the relational work of teachers that were learned by organizing novice teacher learning around principled improvisation. These forms of learning could not have taken place if the experiences of the novice teacher were only organized around the rehearsal of components of teaching. It required teaching in a complex space that connects self and interactions in place to larger structures and ideologies in society.
Vanishment: Girls, Punishment, and the Education State
Authors: Vaught Sabina E.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This article emerges from several scholarly traditions, chief among them feminist and critical ethnography; school–prison nexus; and critical feminist and race theories.

Focus of Study

The larger study that informs this article was an 18-month ethnographic inquiry into youth prison schooling in one state. This study explored both the specifics of schooling inside the system and attended to the ways in which it mimicked, mirrored, or resonated with schooling on the outside—offering a qualitative map of power and discipline in schooling writ large. The story that undergirds this article is drawn from that larger study. Here, I attend carefully to one ethnographic moment to conceptualize broad questions of punishment, gender, race, and sexual identity.

Setting

The research took place inside multiple institutions across one state's juvenile detention and prison system. The article organizes its inquiries around an ethnographic vignette from Inside one state's largest juvenile detention facility.

Research Design

The research that informs this article is both a long-term critical ethnographic study and rigorous theoretical research across several areas.

Conclusions

I both begin and conclude this article by offering an initial conceptualization of one form of punishment: vanishment. Vanishment is a punishment that works in concert with imprisonment, banishment, and treatment to organize the disciplinary practices of U.S. school and society. In considering vanishment, the article offers an initial development of the construct and reflects on inquiries that might begin to excavate its seemingly hidden mechanisms. I invite consideration of this punishment across multiple sites and through a variety of approaches.
Teacher Sorting within and across Schools and Nations: A Comparative Study of South Korea and the United States
Authors: Jeong Dong Wook , Luschei Thomas F.
Published: November 2021

Background

Although most research on teacher sorting has taken place in the United States, where teacher distribution favors more advantaged children, there is some evidence that the distribution of teachers across schools is much more equitable in South Korea. This is the first study to directly compare teacher distribution across schools and classrooms in the two countries.

Research Questions

Our research questions are: (1) Are teachers in lower secondary schools distributed evenly across schools in South Korea and the United States? (2) Are teachers in lower secondary schools distributed evenly across classrooms in South Korea and the United States? (3) How does assignment of teachers to classrooms within schools differ in South Korea and the United States?

Research Design

We use data from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey to examine the distribution of teachers across regions, schools, and classrooms in the United States and South Korea. To answer our research questions we employ a range of quantitative techniques, ranging from simple descriptive statistics and Gini indices of teacher variables, to multinomial and ordered logistic regressions of school and classroom conditions on key teacher quality variables.

Results

We find that across schools, inequitable teacher sorting patterns are more pronounced in the United States. In both countries teacher sorting is more pronounced across classrooms than across schools; specifically, teachers with more total experience are less likely to teach in classrooms with higher concentrations of economically disadvantaged students and students with behavioral problems. Further, U.S. teachers with more years of experience in their current schools are less likely to receive assignments in classrooms with more language minority students, economically disadvantaged students, and students with special needs.

Conclusions

We conclude that South Korea can provide lessons to the United States to help reduce inequities in disadvantaged children's access to qualified teachers across schools through policies like centralized assignment of teachers, incentives to teach in difficult-to-staff schools, and mandatory rotation of teachers across schools. In terms of cross-classroom teacher sorting, our results signal a warning for policy makers in both countries. We argue that the most effective way to reduce within-school teacher sorting is to better integrate language-minority, low-income, and special-needs students into classrooms so that teaching conditions do not differ significantly across classrooms, and teachers have fewer options to sort across.
Digesting “the Worm's Share”: Administrative Authority and Faculty Strategies in the Humanities
Authors: Taylor Barrett , Rosinger Kelly Ochs , Coco Lindsay , Slaughter Sheila
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Research on academic capitalism often maps changing conditions in which faculty work occurs without explaining the mechanisms by which change occurs. We use Fligstein and McAdam's theory of fields to posit that the changing conditions in which humanities faculty members work reflect activities in overlapping (the academic profession more generally) and proximate (university administration) fields. We seek to illuminate the ways in which humanities faculty experience heightened administrative authority and strategically respond.

Research Questions

We ask: 1) How do faculty members in the humanities understand the changes in their field? 2) How do faculty members in the humanities understand their relationships to members of overlapping (e.g., faculty in other areas) and proximate (e.g., administrators) fields? and 3) How do faculty members in the humanities strategize to improve their positions?

Participants

We conducted semistructured interviews with 46 faculty members in humanities fields with various appointments (tenured, tenure-track, non-tenure-track). Faculty participants were mainly housed in English and history, two of the largest humanities departments at many institutions, but also in philosophy and religion departments.

Research Design

Our multiple case study design took place at two public research universities to understand how faculty respond to changing conditions. The research sites, typical of many public research universities, experienced declining direct government support and therefore conditions in which academic capitalist processes occur were present at both. Humanities departments contributed a large portion of student credit-hour production at both research sites, yet such funds were centralized and allocated by university administration.

Data Collection and Analysis

Our interview protocol focused on faculty perceptions of resource allocation within the institution, allocation of work within the department, perceptions of the department relative to others, and how faculty structured their time and careers in response to various pressures inside and outside of their university. Semistructured interviews ranged from 25 and 90 minutes and were recorded and transcribed. We analyzed data using a priori and emergent codes which were grouped into broad themes reflecting faculty responses to changing conditions.

Results

Three strategic responses emerged among humanities faculty members we interviewed: utilizing lower status faculty members, exploiting weaker units in the field, and forming alliances.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Strategies result in the improved status of some individual faculty members but do not arrest the diminishing status of the humanities as a field. Our analysis suggests that field-level analyses entail implications for the study of academic work and processes in the academic capitalism tradition.
U.S. Underperformance in an International Context
Authors: Rowley Kristie J. , Silveira Florencia , Dufur Mikaela , Jarvis Jonathan A.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Scholars have attributed the underperformance of U.S. students relative to students in other high-income countries to unequal access to high-quality educational environments. Poor students are presumed to do disproportionately worse on international achievement tests and, consequently, to pull down the U.S. average. Conversely, high-socio-economic-status (SES) students in the United States, who are among the wealthiest in the world, are presumed to outperform other rich students.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question

Despite these common assumptions regarding the performance of different SES groups in the United States, little research has empirically examined the extent to which these assumptions are correct. As such, we seek to benchmark low-, middle-, and high-SES students in the United States relative to comparable groups in other countries in order to contextualize U.S. performance.

Data Analysis

We analyze 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) mathematics achievement for 42 high-income countries. We average scores for low-, middle-, and high-SES groups within each country, using PISA's index of economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS) index to generate categories. We then generate grand means for all countries in our sample to have an overall benchmark for each group. To calculate overall country scores and SES group scores, we use PISA-specific plausible values techniques. We use 12 points to identify meaningful achievement differences.

Findings/Results

Contrary to conventional wisdom regarding the performance of students in the United States on PISA, poor students do not disproportionately pull down U.S. scores; relative to poor students around the world, poor students in the U.S. are average, despite being among the most socioeconomically disadvantaged. Moreover, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the richest students in the United States do not exhibit stellar performance and are average compared with other rich students globally, despite being among the richest in the world. Middle-SES students in the United States, however, perform 17 points below the average for all middle-SES students in the 42 countries we examined, suggesting that they are nearly half a school year behind middle-SES students around the world.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Although common explanations for U.S. PISA achievement may seem logical, they are not always correct. Such incorrect assumptions overlook significant educational concerns that could be shaping educational policies. Considering our findings, the United States needs to address the within-country SES-based achievement gap, but it also needs to address the gap between the United States and other countries. While policy makers should continue to focus on economically disadvantaged students, there are systemic concerns with the U.S. education system that prevent the academic success of students across the class spectrum.
Introduction to the Special Issue
Authors: Herrenkohl Todd I. , Herrenkohl Leslie Rupert
Published: November 2021

In an attempt to explore innovative models to improve student achievement, close the opportunity gap, and deepen the knowledge and skills of current and future educators, the Washington State Legislature passed a bill in 2012 that created a pilot project called Collaborative Schools for Innovation and Success (CSIS). This introduction describes the processes followed by the site teams as they prepared and then implemented their school improvement goals. It also highlights several broad contributions of the CSIS effort and introduces the articles of the special issue.
Teaching “Against” Social Media: Confronting Problems of Profit in the Curriculum
Authors: Krutka Daniel G. , Manca Stefania , Galvin Sarah M. , Greenhow Christine , Koehler Matthew J. , Askari Emilia
Published: November 2021

Educators increasingly teach with social media in varied ways, but they may do so without considering the ways in which social media corporations profit from their uses or compromise transparency, equity, health, safety, and democracy through the design of platforms. There is a lack of scholarship that addresses the curricular topics that educators might investigate to teach about social media platforms and the potential challenges they pose for education and society. In this article, we draw on sociotechnical theories that conceive of social media as microsystems to understand the relationship between users, education, and social media companies. We identify and describe five topics concerning social media design that educators can consider and investigate with students in a variety of settings: user agreements and use of data; algorithms of oppression, echo, and extremism; distraction, user choice, and access for nonusers; harassment and cyberbullying; and gatekeeping for accurate information. In each case, we suggest curricular possibilities for teaching about social media platforms that draw from intersections of curriculum, media, and educational studies.
The Road to Becoming a Scientist: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Supports and Barriers Experienced by First-Year Community College Students
Authors: Wang Xueli , Wickersham Kelly , Lee Seo Young , Lor Na Bedolla , Gaskew Ashley , Prevost Amy
Published: November 2021

Background

Although a long line of research has been devoted to transfer pathways in general, there remains limited work on the capacity for community colleges to cultivate STEM baccalaureate transfer. In particular, both quantitative and qualitative evidence is extremely sparse on how STEM-aspiring students beginning at community colleges experience supports and barriers on their journey to pursue a STEM baccalaureate.

Purpose

This mixed-methods study addresses the question: What salient factors are associated with beginning community college STEM students’ decisions to transfer into baccalaureate STEM programs, and how do students describe the supports and barriers they experienced specifically pertaining to these factors?

Research Design

Guided by the STEM Transfer model, we carried out this research using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. We incorporated survey, administrative, and interview data from three large two-year institutions in a Midwestern state. We applied Artificial Neural Network (ANN) techniques to identify factors associated with beginning community college STEM students’ decisions to transfer into baccalaureate STEM programs. Based on the factors that emerged from ANN, we analyzed the interview data to give meaning to the identified factors using students’ rich descriptions of their experiences.

Findings

Results from the ANN revealed that students’ initial attitudes toward science was the most salient factor related to transfer in STEM. Following that, GPA, students’ initial attitudes toward math, transfer capital, being employed full time, major declaration, science preparation in high school, income levels above middle level, and transfer efficacy also turned out to be important variables shaping students’ transfer in STEM. Qualitative results further illustrated how the factors from the ANN exerted their impact.

Conclusions

This mixed-methods research illuminated significant factors shaping the road to becoming a scientist, as well as how those factors manifested their influences within the contexts of students’ educational journeys. Through this approach, we were able to establish the significance of influential factors without presuming directionality and leverage the interview data to disentangle how these factors functioned independently and together in sophisticated and nuanced ways. Our study brings forth a deeper understanding of community college students’ STEM pathways, including the many plot twists and processes involved to overcome challenges and maintain progress.
Hacking a Path into and through STEM: Exploring how Youth Build Connecting Pathways between STEM-Related Landscapes
Authors: Tan Edna , Barton Angela Calabrese
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Minoritized youth from historically marginalized backgrounds continue to face systemic inequities in STEM. Existing strategies aimed at increasing diversity in STEM, which are guided by the STEM “pipeline” metaphor and are deficit-oriented, have yielded lackluster results.

Purpose/Objective/Research Questions/Focus of Study

This paper investigates how mi-noritized youth attempted to build connecting pathways between STEM-related worlds, how such attempts unfolded, and the resultant outcomes pertaining to their developing STEM expertise and subsequent STEM engagement. We introduce the idea of pathhacking, where youth had to create their own pathways into STEM, often with improvised tools and in treacherous territory, because there were no pre-laid paths.

Research Design/Data Collection and Analysis

Data were drawn from longitudinal critical ethnography of 48 youths across STEM-engagement spaces, in both community and formal school spaces. Attention is paid to the particular resources, both relational and material, and the barriers that affect youths’ efforts to hack pathways toward deeper and more connected engagement in STEM. Spaces included school classrooms, school settings, after-school STEM programs held in community clubs, other spaces in communities such as residential neighborhoods, and local universities.

Findings/Results

Three broad claims are presented: (a) Pathhacking involves youth engaging in practices that challenge and expand ways of being in STEM-related spaces; (b) Pathhacking practices, when coordinated through social activity, reorganize social worlds for both individuals and collectives, expanding future pathhacking possibilities; (c) To aid in pathhacking, youth utilize tools including critical STEM-mobility artifacts and allies as brokers across scales of activity.

Conclusions

The current U.S. education-policy climate focuses attention on student achievement in individual subject areas, highlighting the achievement gap. We illustrate the challenges minoritized youth face as they seek more consequential STEM engagement through hacking connecting pathways. Institutions, people, tools, and practices—all imbued with and embedded in histories—have structured these youths’ opportunities to hack connecting pathways and have also provided points of access and resistance for the youth to resist mar-ginalization during the process.
When Students Speak Out: Understanding the Motivations for I, Too, Am Mobilization
Authors: Blissett Richard S. L. , Baker Dominique J. , Fields Benjamin C.
Published: November 2021

Background

Beginning in the 2013–2014 school year, students across colleges and universities in the United States created a series of campaigns similar to the original I, Too, Am Harvard photo campaign (which focused on highlighting the negative campus climate for black students at Harvard University).

Purpose

This study illuminates some of the reasons why students decided to mobilize in order to provide a clearer understanding of what students are identifying as problems on college campuses.

Subjects

Evidence in this study is drawn from two sources: student newspapers from campuses with a campaign supplemented by interviews with students who were involved with the campaigns.

Research Design

This qualitative case study uses both the newspapers and the interviews as sources of evidence.

Results

We find that the campaigns were primarily motivated by negative campus climates for students from historically marginalized populations, and that these climates were in place before the movements emerged. The campaigns developed within a larger macropolitical context in which there was a larger focus on inclusion. Also, the movements tended to have a specific focus on exposing microaggressions, providing a space for students to speak out, and expressing solidarity.

Conclusions

If institutions have a vested interest in creating more welcoming environments, then proactively addressing the experiences of students on campus, expanding the scope of diversity initiatives to include this focus, and providing spaces for students to be able to express and discuss their experiences may be critical to success.
Do Student-Level Incentives Increase Student Achievement? A Review of the Effect of Monetary Incentives on Test Performance
Authors: Le Vi-Nhuan
Published: November 2021

Background

Policymakers have debated whether test scores represent students’ maximum level of effort, prompting research into whether student-level financial incentives can improve test scores. If cash incentives are shown to improve students’ test performance, there can be questions as to whether test scores obtained in the absence of financial incentives accurately reflect what students know and can do. This can raise concerns as to whether test scores should be used to guide policy decisions.

Purpose

This study used meta-analysis to estimate the effect of student-level incentives on test performance. The study also included a narrative review. Research Design: Twenty-one studies conducted in the United States and internationally were included in the meta-analysis. Effect sizes were estimated separately for mathematics, reading/language arts, and overall achievement.

Findings

Financial incentives had a significantly positive effect on overall achievement and on mathematics achievement, but no effect on reading/language arts achievement. The narrative review suggested mixed effects with regards to whether treatment estimates could be sustained after the removal of the incentives and whether larger cash payments were associated with stronger program impact. Programs that offered monetary incentives in conjunction with other academic supports tended to show stronger effects than programs that offered incentives alone.

Conclusion

The findings raise questions as to whether policymakers should use scores from low-stakes test to inform high-stakes policy decisions. The study cautions against using scores from international assessments to rank order countries’ educational systems or using scores from state achievement tests to sanction schools or award teacher bonuses.
Evaluating the Impact of the Post-9/11 GI Bill on College Enrollment for Veterans with Service-Connected Disabilities
Authors: Zhang Liang
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The Post-9/11 GI Bill has provided educational benefits to millions of military service members and veterans since its adoption in August 2009. Recent studies indicate that the bill has significantly improved college enrollment and educational attainment among post-9/11 veterans. A significant proportion of veterans suffer from service-connected disabilities. While provisions of the Post-9/11 GI Bill may render education benefits that are appealing to veterans with service-connected disabilities, little is known with regard to how the bill has affected college participation among this venerable subpopulation of veterans.

Purpose/Objective

This study examines the effect of the Post-9/11 GI Bill on college enrollment rates among veterans with service-connected disabilities and unpacks potentially heterogeneous impacts across groups with different demographic characteristics (i.e., sex, age, race/ ethnicity, educational attainment, and disability ratings).

Population

Post-9/11 veterans.

Research Design

Triple differences.

Data Collection and Analysis

Secondary data analysis based on American Community Survey 2005–2016.

Findings/Results

While the Post-9/11 GI Bill has increased college enrollment for veterans without service-connected disabilities by less than 1 percentage point, the increase is much larger—about 5 percentage points—for veterans with service-connected disabilities. Enrollment effects for veterans with service-connected disabilities are consistent and positive across sex, age, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and disability ratings.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The results of this study provide strong evidence for the significant enrollment growth among veterans with service-connected disabilities after the adoption of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. While this result is reassuring, it is not clear whether this large effect for veterans with service-connected disabilities is due to favorable provisions in the Post-9/11 GI Bill or due to lower opportunity costs. In the future, researchers may want to identify appropriate sources for data on detailed educational benefits to examine the mechanisms behind the effect.
Using Data for Program Improvement in Teacher Education: A Study of Promising Practices
Authors: Davis Susannah C. , Peck Charles A.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Contemporary accountability policies in teacher education often require that programs systematically use data for program improvement. However, social science research from multiple fields of human service suggests that the challenges of using data involve much more than creating policies and related information technologies to support collection, archival, and analysis of information about program outcomes. In this study we investigated organizational policies and practices implemented within ten high data-use teacher education programs to support faculty and staff engagement with opportunities to use a variety of data for the purposes of program improvement.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question

What organizational tools, policies, and practices are associated with systematic use of data for program improvement in high data-use teacher education programs?

Research Design

We used qualitative field research methods to study a set of teacher preparation programs situated in institutions that varied considerably in size, mission, and organizational structure. Using a comparative case-study approach, we hoped to identify a set of practices that were robust across variations in institutional setting and that therefore might be useful to other teacher educators as they attempt to navigate the pressures of current accountability mandates in ways that are consonant with their aspirations for program improvement.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Organizational practices associated with high levels of data use in the programs we studied included the allocation of specific times and places to allow thoughtful engagement with opportunities to use data in deliberation of program actions, as well as the integration of these activities into regular organizational routines. Consistent with earlier studies, we found that faculty in these programs more readily and vigorously engaged data-use work organized around local inquiry goals, rather than compliance with external policy mandates or grant expectations. Leadership actions related to establishing local inquiry and program improvement as the primary goal of data-use work appeared to be crucial to motivating faculty and staff to take up opportunities to use data as a resource for learning and program decision-making.
Measuring Segregation in a Multiracial Era: The Impact of Federal Racial Reporting Changes on Estimates of Public School Segregation
Authors: Richards Meredith P. , Stroub Kori J.
Published: November 2021

Background

Despite accounting for 3% of the student population, multiracial students are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States. Aligning with new federal guidelines, in 2008, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) revised its single-race reporting scheme for the Common Core of Data (CCD), permitting students to identify as two or more races (i.e., multiracial).

Study Objective

The addition of a multiracial reporting category to the NCES CCD permits students to more accurately represent their racial identity. By creating categories that are not strictly comparable to their historical counterparts, however, it may problematize longitudinal analysis of trends in the racial composition and segregation of schools, which are of perennial scholarly and public interest. In this study, we examine the extent to which the reporting change affects estimates of segregation over time.

Research Design

We compute annual values of racial/ethnic segregation (i.e., isolation and dissimilarity) among elementary schools for 5,357 public school districts using data from the NCES CCD Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey from 2000–01 to 2013–14. Before 2008, we compute segregation for the five monoracial groups tracked by the CCD. After 2008, we compute segregation using the two analytical approaches to the treatment of multiracial students that have been employed by scholars of segregation. We estimate the effect of the racial/ethnic reporting change on estimates of segregation via a series of multilevel longitudinal fixed-effects models.

Results

We found that the NCES CCD's addition of a multiracial reporting category has problematized longitudinal analyses of segregation, particularly racial/ethnic isolation. Models revealed abrupt changes in most dimensions of segregation in the year immediately following the reporting change. Moreover, the reporting change has complicated interpretation of segregation trends since 2008, because seemingly minor analytical decisions may lead to contradictory conclusions: When multiracial students are excluded from calculations, isolation appears to be increasing for all racial/ethnic groups; however, when multiracial students are included in calculations, isolation appears to be decreasing for all racial/ethnic groups. The reporting change has a weaker, but still significant, effect on certain dimensions of racial/ethnic dissimilarity.

Conclusions

In this study, we found that the NCES CCD's recent addition of a multiracial reporting category has resulted in estimates of segregation that are not longitudinally comparable and may vary in magnitude and direction depending on relatively minor analytical decisions. We urge scholars to take particular care in calculating and interpreting segregation trends and offer recommendations for educational research and practice.
Do Students who Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail? Effects of Individualized Learning Plans on Postsecondary Transitioning
Authors: Britton Tolani , Spencer George
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Policies featuring individualized learning plans (ILPs) have become increasingly popular among states seeking to improve college and career readiness through early postsecondary planning. Although ILPs are featured in legislation for more than 35 states, limited work has been done on measuring their effectiveness to ensure that students are better prepared for college and career.

Purpose

In this study, we fill this gap in the literature by exploring the effects of completing an ILP and potential spillover effects in schools that require the use of this tool. We also explore whether these effects vary by parental income status. Using a quasi-experimental design, we offer nationally generalizable evidence of the ILP on individual student's transition from secondary to postsecondary education

Research Design

We use data from the High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009 (HSLS:09), a nationally representative survey of students in 944 public and private high schools who are surveyed at multiple points during their time in high school. Using these data, we employ the quasi-experimental propensity score matching approach to generate balance between treated and untreated groups on observed covariates.

Findings

The findings from this study suggest that students who completed ILPs were more likely to identify a career of interest and make informed college choices with respect to institutional fit as compared with peers who did not use this tool. In particular, low-income students who completed an ILP were more likely to apply for financial aid and submit applications to multiple institutions when compared with economically similar students who did not use ILPs. Also, schools offering ILPs were more likely to help students enroll in moderately selective four-year colleges and to complete some advanced credits in English.

Conclusions

This study's findings offer evidence that schools can use ILPs to help students prepare for college through the college search and selection process. Although ILPs seem to be most effective in helping students plan for the process of applying to college, greater emphasis may be needed to ensure that ILPs also support students in the effort of academic course planning.
Demystifying Disproportionality: Exploring Educator Beliefs about Special Education Referrals for English Learners
Authors: Park Soyoung
Published: November 2021

Background

Federal civil rights law requires that English learners (ELs) with potential disabilities be identified in a timely and appropriate manner. Decades of research documenting the problem of disproportionality among ELs in special education suggest, however, that educators struggle with the proper identification of ELs with disabilities. ELs are found to be underrepresented in special education in the early elementary years and overrepresented beginning in upper elementary school. Although these disproportionality patterns are well documented, little is known about why this phenomenon persists.

Purpose of Study

This study addresses this gap by following 16 ELs and their educators in real time through the special education referral process. Using participant observation research methods, I explore mechanisms in the field that might explain disproportionality. Specifically, I examine educator beliefs about whether and when to refer ELs to special education, as well as how those beliefs manifest in the referral process for ELs.

Research Design

This qualitative research study was part of a yearlong multilevel project looking at the special education identification process for 16 ELs at two elementary schools in an urban district. The project involved data collection and analysis at the federal policy, district, school, and student levels. I used a combination of document analysis methods, participant observation research methods, and triangulation among interviews, field observations, and archival documents. Whereas the larger study investigated the entire special education identification process for ELs, this article focuses on just the referral process. Relevant data collected include interviews with school staff, observations of the referral process for ELs, and documents tied to the ELs’ special education referrals.

Conclusions

The educators in this study were found to adopt one of two stances regarding EL referrals to special education: wait to be sure and the sooner the better. These stances reflected educators’ beliefs about special education, ELs, and teachers. Teachers acted on these beliefs in way that led to the co-construction of “English learner” and “disability.” The findings suggest that educator beliefs about whether and when to refer ELs to special education serve as mechanisms that help to explain disproportionality for this student group. This study brings to light how the prevention of erroneous co-construction of EL and disability statuses requires changing the ways in which English learner and disability are conceptualized—shifting away from deficit views of these student groups and toward recognition of their many assets.