bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Locating Learning in In-Service Education for Preschool Teachers
Authors: Adger Carolyn Temple , Hoyle Susan M. , Dickinson David K.
Published: June 2007

Discourse analysis of interaction in a course on language and literacy development elucidates and exemplifies how preschool teachers constructed new knowledge that can be assumed to contribute to the improved literacy instruction observed in their classrooms. An analytic framework rooted in socio-cultural theory and interactional sociolinguistic methods foregrounds the issues of whose sentiments and knowledge got taken up on the conversational floor and what specific new knowledge was conversationally constructed. We use this framework to explicate a discussion in which the teachers and the instructor assembled a knowledge structure. The group’s emergent response to a question gained propositional content as participants jointly created and used social and informational resources. This approach allows insight into the sociolinguistic processes that contribute to effective professional development experiences.
It’s Not Written Here, But This Is What Happened: Students’ Cultural Comprehension of Textbook Narratives on the Israeli–Arab Conflict
Authors: Porat Dan A.
Published: June 2007

A group of Israeli high school students (n = 11) from two socially distinct schools read aloud a textbook account of a 1920 bloody encounter between Jews and Arabs. The study aimed at examining the relation between the textbook account and the students’ formation of historical perceptions. Prior to reading the textbook excerpts, students wrote accounts of the event from their memory (the prenarrative). After being questioned about the prenarratives, the students read the textbook excerpts aloud and explained their understanding of the event. Twelve months later, they wrote another account of the event (the postnarrative). The study found that students “culturally comprehended” the textbook, or, in other words, that the nature of the students’ recollection was strongly affected by the social memory of the group within which they lived.
Promise, Progress, Problems, and Paradoxes of Three Phases of Accountability: A Longitudinal Case Study of the Baltimore City Public Schools
Authors: Stringfield Samuel C. , Yakimowski-Srebnick Mary E.
Published: June 2007

Issues associated with attempting to achieve academic equity while raising achievement gains for all Americans are being negotiated at a large scale and with particular urgency in our urban school districts. Building from a decade of archival data, 6 years of student-level quantitative data, semi-structured interviews, document analyses, and observations of key informants, the authors examine the long-term interplay of shifting state and federal policies related to accountability requirements, organizational responses, and student outcome measures in the Baltimore City Public School System, a large, high-poverty, majority-minority urban school system. Analyses conducted from 1992 through the spring of 2003 are presented in light of both increasing accountability requirements and national and state calls for urban school reform. The authors conclude by examining possible implications for districts and states serving large concentrations of students at risk.
Effects of a Cooperative Learning Program on the Elaborations of Students During Help Seeking and Help Giving
Authors: Veenman Simon , Denessen Eddie , van den Akker Anneriet , van der Rijt Janine
Published: June 2007

In this study, the effects of a teacher-training program on the elaborations and affective-motivational resources (i.e., intentions and attitudes toward help seeking, help giving, and achievement goals) of students working on a cooperative task were examined. Participants were teachers from seven primary schools and 24 dyads of sixth-grade students. In general, the program showed moderately positive effects on use of elaborations among the treatment dyads. Dyads with experience in cooperative learning achieved more than dyads without such experience. Mastery- and performance-oriented goals were negatively related to use of high-level elaborations and to student achievement, while use of high-level elaborations was positively related to student achievement.
Below the Bubble: “Educational Triage” and the Texas Accountability System
Authors: Booher-Jennings Jennifer
Published: June 2007

This article uses two dominant traditions in the organizational study of schools—the neoinstitutional and faculty workplace approaches—to explain an urban elementary school’s response to the Texas Accountability System. The findings indicate that teachers, guided by an institutional logic, sought to create the appearance of test score improvement by using a constellation of “educational triage” practices. Educational triage was manifest in the diversion of resources to students believed to be on the threshold of passing the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (“bubble kids”) and to “accountable” students (those affecting the school’s accountability rating). Teachers also attempted to remove any liabilities to the school’s rating by referring these students for special education. To explain why teachers participated in educational triage, the author shows how the equation of good teaching with high test scores by the institutional environment and the district reconstituted both teacher professional identities and teacher-teacher relationships.
Effects of Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching on Student Achievement
Authors: Hill Heather C. , Rowan Brian , Ball Deborah Loewenberg
Published: June 2007

This study explored whether and how teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching contributes to gains in students’ mathematics achievement. The authors used a linear mixed-model methodology in which first and third graders’ mathematical achievement gains over a year were nested within teachers, who in turn were nested within schools. They found that teachers’ mathematical knowledge was significantly related to student achievement gains in both first and third grades after controlling for key student- and teacher-level covariates. This result, while consonant with findings from the educational production function literature, was obtained via a measure focusing on the specialized mathematical knowledge and skills used in teaching mathematics. This finding provides support for policy initiatives designed to improve students’ mathematics achievement by improving teachers’ mathematical knowledge.
Dilemmas in Scaling Up Innovations in Elementary Science Instruction With Nonmainstream Students
Authors: Lee Okhee , Luykx Aurolyn
Published: June 2007

In the climate of standards-based instruction and accountability, scaling up educational innovations is necessary to bring about system-wide improvements. As a result of fundamental tensions involving effective educational policies and practices for diverse student groups, scaling up is especially challenging in multilingual, multicultural, and inner-city settings. In this article, grounded in the instructional congruence framework, the authors highlight the challenges facing schools and teachers in articulating science disciplines with nonmainstream students’ linguistic and cultural experiences while also promoting English language and literacy. Rigorous attention to such challenges is needed to make scaling up of educational interventions more effective and to answer the question of what constitutes “best policies and practices” for diverse student groups.
Assessing Barriers to the Reform of U.S. Mathematics Instruction From an International Perspective
Authors: Desimone Laura M. , Smith Thomas , Baker David , Ueno Koji
Published: June 2007

The authors assessed five commonly perceived barriers to increased use of conceptual teaching in mathematics in the United States related to teacher autonomy, trade-offs with computational strategies, student achievement, class size, and teacher qualifications. These barriers were examined through the use of data from nationally representative samples of eighth-grade mathematics classrooms across 38 nations that took part in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study in 1999 and follow-up analyses involving data from the high-achieving nations of Japan and Singapore. Findings suggest that most of these perceived barriers are not impediments to the use of conceptual teaching strategies in other countries, and the comparative findings hold promise for alternative paradigms for organizing better mathematics instruction in the United States.
Early Child Care and Children’s Development in the Primary Grades: Follow-Up Results From the NICHD Study of Early Child Care
Authors:   NICHD Early Child Care Research Network
Published: June 2007

Associations between early child care and children’s functioning though the end of third grade were examined. Some of the relations that had been detected before children’s school entry were maintained. Higher-quality child care continued to be linked to higher scores in math, reading, and memory. More time spent in center care was associated with better memory but also with more conflictual relationships. Some new associations were detected: More hours of care were linked to poorer work habits and poorer social skills. The relation between amount of care and externalizing behaviors decreased and was not significant in third grade. These findings support the relative independence of quality, quantity, and type of child care in relation to child developmental outcomes.
The Student-Initiated Retention Project: Theoretical Contributions and the Role of Self-Empowerment
Authors: Maldonado David Emiliano Zapata , Rhoads Robert , Buenavista Tracy Lachica
Published: June 2007

Despite the many studies of student departure, colleges and universities continue to face difficulties in retaining underrepresented student populations. The authors argue that contemporary social integration and multicultural theories of student retention theory do not adequately address the academic needs of underrepresented students of color. Relying on case studies of student-initiated retention projects (SIRPs) at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the authors develop insights into how student retention theory might be reconsidered for students of color. Three key components of SIRPs are discussed: developing knowledge, skills, and social networks; building community ties and commitments; and challenging social and institutional norms. Findings are then synthesized with theoretical constructs largely deriving from the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Frantz Fanon, and Paulo Freire. The result is a theoretical framework grounded in the concepts of cultural and social capital, collectivism, and social praxis.
Possibilities and Pitfalls: A Comparative Analysis of Student Empowerment
Authors: McQuillan Patrick J
Published: June 2007

Although U.S. schools typically express commitment to preparing students for the responsibilities of democratic citizenship, most American youth are socialized for adult civic life by an institution that defines them as passive and subordinate and treats them in ways that are anything but democratic. In contrast to such counterproductive practices, the author offers a comparative analysis of two schools’ efforts at student empowerment. He first outlines why schools should help empower students and then proposes a conception of student empowerment founded on three dimensions: the academic, political, and social. To explore the “possibilities and pitfalls” of empowerment in practice, the author presents case studies of two schools’ student empowerment efforts. Each examines how the schools sought to help empower students, what power students gained, and how students and faculty responded to these efforts. Drawing on insights derived from these studies, he discusses some practical implications for schools hoping to promote student empowerment.
The National Randomized Field Trial of Success for All: Second-Year Outcomes
Authors: Borman Geoffrey D , Slavin Robert E , Cheung Alan CK , Chamberlain Anne M , Madden Nancy A , Chambers Bette
Published: June 2007

This article reports literacy outcomes for a 2-year longitudinal student sample and a combined longitudinal and “in-mover” (i.e., those students who moved into the study schools between the initial pretest and the second-year posttest) sample, both of which were nested within 38 schools. Through the use of a cluster randomization design, schools were randomly assigned to implement Success for All or control methods. Hierarchical linear model analyses involving the longitudinal sample revealed statistically significant school-level effects of assignment to Success for All on three of the four literacy outcomes measured. Effects were as large as one quarter of a standard deviation—a learning advantage relative to controls exceeding half of a school year. Impacts for the combined longitudinal and in-mover sample were smaller in magnitude and more variable. The results correspond with the Success for All program theory, which targets school-level reform through multiyear sequencing of intensive literacy instruction
“Real Students”and “True Demotes”: Ending Social Promotion and the Moral Ordering of Urban High Schools
Authors: Anagnostopoulos Dorothea
Published: June 2007

Merit promotion policies that require students to post passing scores on standardized tests or be retained in grade have become widespread. In this study, the author used a cultural sociological perspective to examine how teachers and students at two urban high schools enacted a district-wide merit promotion policy. Findings indicate that rather than compelling teachers and students to remedy school failure academically, the policy facilitated a type of moral boundary work that distinguished “deserving” students from those deemed “undeserving.” Moral boundaries were manifest in classroom practices that limited the learning opportunities provided to demoted students. The study extends research on merit promotion by illuminating how such policies operate in urban high schools as both resources for students' identity construction and as mechanisms of social exclusion.
Effects of Cultural and Social Structural Factors on the Achievement of White and Chinese American Students at School Transition Points
Authors: Pearce Richard R.
Published: June 2007

Chinese Americans' high levels of educational achievement have earned them attention as a “model minority” to be emulated by underachieving and underrepresented minority groups. However, the model minority analogy does not adequately explain how this achievement is realized, nor how such information can be used to help other groups close the achievement gap. The ability of both White and Chinese American students to weather school transitions and to remain on track for high achievement and attainment can be explained by both social structural and cultural factors. When the effects of social structural factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, family composition, and parent education level are controlled, the relative importance of cultural factors such as parental expectations and involvement becomes clear.
Effects of a Theoretically Based Large-Scale Reading Intervention in a Multicultural Urban School District
Authors: Sadoski Mark , Willson Victor L.
Published: June 2007

In 1997, Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes partnered with Pueblo School District 60 (PSD60), a heavily minority urban district with many Title I schools, to implement a theoretically based initiative designed to improve Colorado Student Assessment Program reading scores. In this study, the authors examined achievement in Grades 3–5 during the years 1998–2003. PSD60 schools and schools statewide were compared through a series of repeated measures analyses of covariance controlling for school size, percentage of minority students enrolled, socioeconomic status, and the amount of time a school was included in the intervention. Statistically significant and increasing gains favoring the Lindamood-Bell reading intervention were found both overall and in analyses of Title 1 schools.
Why Is Dissemination So Difficult? The Nature of Teacher Knowledge and the Spread of Curriculum Reform
Authors: Craig Cheryl J.
Published: June 2007

Anchored in the narrative inquiry tradition, this article examines commonly held beliefs about curriculum dissemination from the perspective of a teacher whose campus participated in a major school reform initiative. Through the presentation of a constellation of fine-grained stories revolving around the teacher’s curriculum making as an art educator, the integral role that narrative played in the elucidation of her knowledge, most specifically her emerging understanding of curriculum development and dissemination, comes to light. At the same time, the underside of technical rationalism, the taken-for-granted worldview that dominates Western society and drives educational policy, is exposed and held open to scrutiny.
Effectiveness of a Spanish Intervention and an English Intervention for English-Language Learners at Risk for Reading Problems
Authors: Vaughn Sharon , Cirino Paul T. , Linan-Thompson Sylvia , Mathes Patricia G. , Carlson Coleen D. , Hagan Elsa Cardenas , Pollard-Durodola Sharolyn D. , Fletcher Jack M. , Francis David J.
Published: June 2007

Two studies of Grade 1 reading interventions for English-language (EL) learners at risk for reading problems were conducted. Two samples of EL students were randomly assigned to a treatment or untreated comparison group on the basis of their language of instruction for core reading (i.e., Spanish or English). In all, 91 students completed the English study (43 treatment and 48 comparison), and 80 students completed the Spanish study (35 treatment and 45 comparison). Treatment students received approximately 115 sessions of supplemental reading daily for 50 minutes in groups of 3 to 5. Findings from the English study revealed statistically significant differences in favor of treatment students on English measures of phonological awareness, word attack, word reading, and spelling (effect sizes of 0.35–0.42). Findings from the Spanish study revealed significant differences in favor of treatment students on Spanish measures of phonological awareness, letter-sound and letter-word identification, verbal analogies, word reading fluency, and spelling (effect sizes of 0.33–0.81).
Coloring the Academic Landscape: Faculty of Color Breaking the Silence in Predominantly White Colleges and Universities
Authors: Stanley Christine A.
Published: June 2007

This article, based on a larger, autoethnographic qualitative research project, focuses on the first-hand experiences of 27 faculty of color teaching in predominantly White colleges and universities. The 27 faculty represented a variety of institutions, disciplines, academic titles, and ranks. They identified themselves as African American, American Indian, Asian, Asian American, Latina/o, Native Pacific Islander, and South African. This article reports on the predominant themes of the narratives shared by these faculty of color: teaching, mentoring, collegiality, identity, service, and racism. These themes, consonant with findings from the research literature, can be used to offer suggestions and recommendations for the recruitment and retention of faculty of color in higher education.
High School Community Service as a Predictor of Adult Voting and Volunteering
Authors: Hart Daniel , Donnelly Thomas M. , Youniss James , Atkins Robert
Published: June 2007

The influences of high school community service participation, extracurricular involvement, and civic knowledge on voting and volunteering in early adulthood were examined using the National Educational Longitudinal Study. The major finding in this study is that both voluntary and school-required community service in high school were strong predictors of adult voting and volunteering. In addition, involvement in high school extracurricular activities was predictive of voting and volunteering. Civic knowledge was related only to voting. The authors consider the findings for their policy relevance and their contributions to theoretical debates.
Common Belief and the Cultural Curriculum: An Intergenerational Study of Historical Consciousness
Authors: Wineburg Sam , Mosborg Susan , Porat Dan , Duncan Ariel
Published: June 2007

How is historical knowledge transmitted across generations? What is the role of schooling in that transmission? The authors address these questions by reporting on a thirty-month longitudinal study into how home, school, and larger society served as contexts for the development of historical consciousness among adolescents. Fifteen families drawn from three different school communities participated. By adopting an intergenerational approach, the authors sought to understand how the defining moments of one generation—its “lived history”—becomes the “available history” to the next. In this article, the authors focus on what parents and children shared about one of the most formative historical events in parents’ lives: the Vietnam War. Drawing on notions of collective memory, as articulated by the French sociologist Maurice Halbwachs, the authors sought to understand which stories, archived in historical memory and available to the disciplinary community, are remembered and used by those beyond its borders. In contrast, which stories are no longer widely shared, eclipsed by time’s passage and unable to cross the bridge separating generation from generation? The authors conclude by discussing the forces that act to historicize today’s youth and suggest how educators might marshal these forces—rather than spurning or simply ignoring them—to advance young people’s historical understanding.
Education Legislation 1963–68: Various Vantage Points
Authors: COHEN WILBUR J.
Published: June 2007

The education papers are the first category of Presidential Papers in the Lyndon B. Johnson Library to be opened to the public. Constituting some 225,000 documents, the papers provide a rich primary source for researchers in education. The new Library housing the papers is an elegant eight-story building on the campus of The University of Texas, Austin.

The Library is operated by the National Archives and Records Service. Director Harry J. Middleton and a staff of seven archivists service both the collection and its users. The education papers constitute one of 62 categories used to classify the total collection. "The White House classification system is specifically designed to serve the working needs of the President's Office rather than those of researchers," commented Charles Corkran, senior archivist. However, the archivists know both the collection and the classification system well and currently are able to provide customized service on an individual basis to scholars wishing to use the papers. The stacks are closed, but page service is provided to the 28 desk-carrels in the attractive reading room. Although strict National Archives regulations ostensibly govern the use of the library, actual procedures at present appear reasonable, relaxed, and informal. Middleton recommends that researchers desiring to use the Library resources write in advance, outlining the scope of their inquiry and dates or time range. No inter-Library loan or micro-reproduction is available, but limited xerographic reproduction can be arranged by correspondence.

A symposium, "Educating a Nation: The Changing American Commitment", sponsored jointly by the University and the Library, was held January 24–25 to mark the opening of the education papers. Principal speakers included John Gardner, Wilbur Cohen. Sidney Marland, William McGill and Lyndon Johnson. Dr. Cohen's address provides an overview and perspective of the new historical data now available to the educational research and development community.
Learned Societies in Transition: the APA
Authors: WARREN JIM
Published: June 2007

Some of the changes in professional societies chronicled in the recent Carnegie Commission study have been witnessed in varying degrees in AERA. Because of the relatively large percentage of psychologists in educational research, transitions noted in the American Psychological Association often are discussed in AERA programs. Jim Warren, former editor of the APA Monitor, takes a look at some of these developments in this article. He will write an occasional column for ER on other subjects of concern to educational researchers. - Editor.
Dealing with Threats to Internal Validity That Randomization Does not Rule Out
Authors: BORG WALTER
Published: June 2007

Cook and Campbell (1979) identify five threats to internal validity that they claim cannot be controlled by using control group designs with random assignment of subjects. In this article, I suggest a design in which the control group subjects are given an alternate treatment that they perceive as equally desirable and that is similar in duration and procedures to the experimental treatment but that is concerned with dependent variables that are unrelated to the experimental treatment. I suggest that this design rules out or reduces all five internal validity threats, and I discuss the reasons supporting my opinion.
Using the "New Philosophy of Science" in Criticizing Current Research Traditions in Education
Authors: MACMILLAN C.J.B. , GARRISON JAMES W.
Published: June 2007

The “new” or post-Kuhnian philosophy of science emphasizes a historical, comparative assessment of research traditions; here, its use as a critical perspective on current research traditions is explored, with process- product research on teaching as a living example. The research tradition's assumptions about the nature of teaching and the proper methods for studying it are criticized, and an approach that emphasizes different outlooks is recommended. Reflection on the philosophical approach itself leads to recommendations of caution and suggests the philosopher's responsibility to be more than negatively critical. The power of the approach is seen in its results.
AERA Opinions on Women's Equity Issues
Authors: FRARY ROBERT B. , McBEE JANICE K. , WEBER LARRY J.
Published: June 2007

An opinion survey on sex-equity concerns was conducted for a sample of AERA members. Results indicated strong male-female differences on issues related to professional employment, such as reverse bias and the extent to which men are favored over women in work assignments. In contrast, large proportions of men and women supported statements on reduction in use of sex-specific references and the importance of sex-equity research. Women's responses were much more strongly intercorrelated than men's, probably indicating that women tend to view the issues of the survey as facets of a single underlying concern more so than men.
Gender Differences in Math Ability: The Impact of Media Reports on Parents
Authors: JACOBS JANIS E. , ECCLES JACQUELYNNE S.
Published: June 2007

Research reports of educationally relevant findings are infrequently covered by the media. When research is the focus of the popular press, the media are believed to have a strong influence on public opinions. An empirical study was conducted to investigate the impact of media coverage following the release of a research report by Benbow and Stanley (1980). Parents of adolescents were targeted as the population most likely to be influenced by the research findings. Parents who had responded to surveys regarding their children's math abilities prior to the media coverage were recontacted and their beliefs were reassessed. The results provide evidence that research reported in the media can have an effect on the beliefs of people who are exposed to it. In this article, we discuss the nature of the media coverage and its differential impacts according to gender and prior beliefs.
Should We Lengthen the School Term?
Authors: KARWEIT NANCY
Published: June 2007

This article examines the merits of proposals to increase the length of the school term. In reviewing studies of school time and learning, the article points out that there is considerable variation in how existing time is used and that inconsistent effects for time are often found. The research evidence is therefore argued not to support increases in the school term as a means of increasing student achievement.
A Question of Merit: Principals' and Parents' Evaluations of Teachers
Authors: EPSTEIN JOYCE L.
Published: June 2007

New financial incentive plans to restructure the rewards and professional development in teaching require fair and comprehensive evaluations to determine teacher quality. Some suggest that multiple judges are needed to help correct problems of shallow, partial evaluations. In this article, principals’ and parents’ ratings of the same teachers are compared and school, teacher, and family factors that may influence evaluations are examined. Results suggest that parents and principals emphasize different aspects of teaching in judging teachers' merits. Principals' ratings are influenced by situational factors and the extra work that establishes some teachers' leadership. Parents' ratings are influenced by the connections teachers make with families and the quality of classroom life their children experience. The ratings are not explained by teachers’ education or years of experience, which are currently common criteria for annual salary increases. Although principals’ judgments may be more central, parents can make important contributions in the evaluation of teachers.
The Fingertip Effect: How Information-Processing Technology Shapes Thinking
Authors: PERKINS D. N.
Published: June 2007

Contemporary beliefs about the impact of information-processing technology (IPT) on thinking are examined. Whereas some suggest that learning to program and other contacts with IPT will empower thinking, it is argued from both theory and evidence that typical contacts with IPT today do not meet certain conditions for significantly reshaping thought. Whereas others suggest that IPT will have a narrowing and dehumanizing influence, it is argued that the striking diversification of IPT now underway will eventually allow for many styles of involvement. In the long term, as this diversification spreads to nearly all aspects of society, thinking may change in certain basic ways as it has in response to literacy and print.
Teacher Education in India: Observations on American Innovations Abroad
Authors: JOYCE BRUCE , SHOWERS BEVERLY
Published: June 2007

Research on teacher education in India has increased greatly in the last 15 years. A community of professors from several institutions has developed the capability to conduct coordinated large-scale studies and to prepare doctoral students. The process of cultural borrowing greatly influences the structure and conduct of teacher education as well as the substance and design of the research. Most of the studies are constructed to test the fit of North American theories and innovations within the Indian cultural context. This paper examines the structure of Indian teacher education, current criticisms of it, the themes of research and innovation, and the formulation of questions for cross-cultural research. In addition, observing North American practices mirrored in the Indian context provokes reflection on the structural problems of teacher education in general.
Defining Progress in Educational Research
Authors: MOSENTHAL PETER B.
Published: June 2007

This paper addresses the question, What is progress in educational research? It is argued that the question is fundamental to understanding how effective educational research is and might be in improving practice. The paper begins with a discussion of the problem of partial specification. The consequences of this problem for defining the research-practice relationship are considered. Next, three solutions to the problem of partial specification are presented. It is shown that these solutions represent different approaches to defining progress in educational research. In addition, it is argued that these solutions have different implications for relating research to practice. The paper concludes by raising several questions that educational researchers need to consider if some type of rapprochement among definitions of progress in educational research is to be made.
Mind Your p’s and Alphas
Authors: STALLINGS WILLIAM M.
Published: June 2007

In the educational research literature, alpha and p are often conflated. Paradoxically, alpha retains a prominent place in textbook discussions of such topics as statistical hypothesis testing, multivariate analysis, power, and multiple comparisons, whereas it seems to have been supplanted by p in the results sections of journal articles. The unique contributions of both alpha and p are discussed and a plea is made for using both conventions in summarizing the outcomes of tests of significance.
Minority Participation in the 1984 AERA Annual Meeting
Authors:   AERA Standing Committee on the Role and Status of Minorities in Educational Research and Development
Published: June 2007

AERA minority group members were surveyed after the 1984 Annual Meeting regarding their participation in the meeting and ways in which their participation might be enhanced. Results indicated that minority members attending the meeting contributed to nearly two sessions each and that minority participation in meetings can be strengthened by more informative review of presentation proposals and increased access to funds for travel costs. Survey respondents also expressed a concern for increasing their participation in the full range of AERA activities.
The Significance and Permanence of Changes in Federal Education Policy
Authors: CLARK DAVID L. , ASTUTO TERRY A.
Published: June 2007

This article provides support for the assertion that significant and enduring changes in federal educational policy have occurred during the Reagan administration. The administration’s procedural and substantive policy preferences in education are defined, and evidence is provided of progress in achieving those preferences. Finally, a set of contextual conditions are identified that suggest the likelihood of continued progress on the Reagan federal educational policy agenda during the remainder of the Reagan term and beyond.
Best-Evidence Synthesis: An Alternative to Meta-Analytic and Traditional Reviews
Authors: Slavin Robert E.
Published: June 2007

This paper proposes an alternative to both meta-analytic and traditional reviews. The method, “best-evidence synthesis,” combines the quantification of effect sizes and systematic study selection procedures of quantitative syntheses with the attention to individual studies and methodological and substantive issues typical of the best narrative reviews. Best-evidence syntheses focus on the “best evidence” in a field, the studies highest in internal and external validity, using well-specified and defended a priori inclusion criteria, and use effect size data as an adjunct to a full discussion of the literature being reviewed.
What Works: Politics and Research
Authors: GLASS GENE V
Published: June 2007

The Department of Education’s publication What Works: Research About Teach- ing and Learning is analyzed both as a summary of research, which it purports to be, and as a political document. Its contents are alleged to represent an expression of historical conservative political philosophy and not scholarly consensus about which research findings will improve teaching and learning.
The Texas Teacher Test
Authors: Shepard Lorrie A. , Kreitzer Amelia E.
Published: June 2007

The TECAT, the Texas Examination of Current Administrators and Teachers, is a test of basic literacy that was given to Texas teachers in March, 1986. The test, seen as politically essential to leverage a tax increase and pay raise for teachers, was intended to raise the public esteem of teachers by weeding out incompetents. Teachers expended massive effort in reviewing basic skills and drilling on test format. After two tries 99% of the 210,000 who took the test had passed. Shop teachers, special education-teachers, and coaches were overrepresented among the failures. The costs of district-sponsored workshops and the in-service day to take the test brought its public cost to a sum 10 tunes greater than policy makers had anticipated. Though most teachers agreed that literacy skills are prerequisite to good teaching, paradoxically, most also reported that being threatended by a low-level test of fundamental skills was demoralizing. Ironically, many think that the TECAT damaged public esteem for teachers because stories about incompetence in teaching and portrayals of teachers’ trepidation appeared alongside examples from a very easy test.
On Statistical Testing
Authors: HUBERTY CARL J.
Published: June 2007

The statistical testing approaches of Hypothesis Testing (Fisher) and Significance Testing (Neyman-Pearson) are briefly reviewed. Highly related notions of alpha-values, P-values, and magnitude-of-effect are discussed. A statistical testing approach that is a hybrid of Hypothesis Testing and Significance Testing is then advanced. This approach takes into consideration the two decision-error probabilities as well as an alternative hypothesis characterization of interest.
Women's Schooling, Patterns of Fertility, and Child Survival
Authors: LeVine Robert A.
Published: June 2007

Evidence that women's schooling is associated with lower fertility and child mortality has moved some population specialists to advocate expanding female school enrollment to reduce birth and child death rates in countries where they are high. Consistent findings relating years of school attendance to reproductive rates, however, are not matched by an understanding of educational processes. This article provides an overview of the demographic evidence, a framework for analyzing how schooling affects maternal behavior and population change, and a report of findings from a study in Mexico. Problems for further educational research are identified.
The Primacy of Experience and the Politics of Method
Authors: Eisner Elliot W.
Published: June 2007

Knowledge is rooted in experience and requires a form for its representation. Since all forms of representation constrain what can be represented, they can only partially represent what we know. Forms of representation not only constrain representation, they limit what we seek. As a result, socialization in method is a process that shapes what we can know and influences what we value. At base it is a political undertaking. This article addresses the politics of method and its effects on the character of educational research.
Toward Meaningful Accounts in History Texts for Young Learners
Authors: Beck Isabel L. , McKeown Margaret G.
Published: June 2007

This examination of instructional sequences from four 5th-grade textbook series' treatments of the American Revolution is the center-piece of a larger in-depth analysis of content and presentation of commercial social studies programs for elementary grades. Our work has drawn on cognitive research on comprehension and learning in order to bring into focus issues of learning that have direct bearing on textbook content and organization. Our analysis uncovered lack of clarity in the relation between the content presented and the instructional goals, assumption of an unrealistic variety and depth of background knowledge, and inadequate explanation of significant events and their relationships. An approach to improving instruction is embedded in the examination of the text's coverage of the chain of events leading to the American Revolution.
Issues in the Definition and Measurement of the Giftedness Construct
Authors: Hoge Robert D.
Published: June 2007

Significant numbers of children in our schools are being labeled “gifted” and are being streamed into special accelerated or enriched academic programs. An even larger number of children are being implicitly labeled “not gifted” and are not being given the opportunity to participate in these programs. Two issues are raised in this paper in connection with the processes used in identifying these children. The first concerns the adequacy with which the giftedness construct is defined in applied settings. Certain deficiencies in that respect are discussed. The second issue concerns the adequacy of the validation data available for these gifted identification procedures. Weaknesses respecting construct validity and predictive validity are identified. The paper concludes with a discussion of some positive developments relating to definitions of the giftedness construct and validation efforts.
Are Cognitive Skills Context-Bound?
Authors: PERKINS DN , SALOMON GAVRIEL
Published: June 2007

Effective problem solving, sound decision making, insightful invention—do such aspects of good thinking depend more on deep expertise in a specialty than on reflective awareness and general strategies? Over the past thirty years, considerable research and controversy have surrounded this issue. An historical sketch of the arguments for the strong specialist position and the strong generalist position suggests that each camp, in its own way, has oversimplified the interaction between general strategic knowledge and specialized domain knowledge. We suggest a synthesis: General and specialized knowledge function in close partnership. We explore the nature of this partnership and consider its implications for educational practice.
Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning
Authors: Brown John Seely , Collins Allan , Duguid Paul
Published: June 2007

Many teaching practices implicitly assume that conceptual knowledge can be abstracted from the situations in which it is learned and used. This article argues that this assumption inevitably limits the effectiveness of such practices. Drawing on recent research into cognition as it is manifest in everyday activity, the authors argue that knowledge is situated, being in part a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is developed and used. They discuss how this view of knowledge affects our understanding of learning, and they note that conventional schooling too often ignores the influence of school culture on what is learned in school. As an alternative to conventional practices, they propose cognitive apprenticeship (Collins, Brown, & Newman, in press), which honors the situated nature of knowledge. They examine two examples of mathematics instruction that exhibit certain key features of this approach to teaching.
Meaning and Values in Test Validation: The Science and Ethics of Assessment
Authors: Messick Samuel
Published: June 2007

Because both score meaning and the value implications of scores as a basis for action are central issues in test validation, a unified view of validity is required that comprehends both the scientific and the ethical underpinnings of test interpretation and use. This unified concept of validity integrates considerations of content, criteria, and consequences into a construct framework for testing rational hypotheses about theoretically relevant relationships, including those of an applied as well as of a scientific nature. The essence of unified validity is that the appropriateness, meaningfulness, and usefulness of score-based inferences are inseparable and that the unifying force behind this integration is the trustworthiness of empirically grounded score interpretation, that is, construct validity.
Wage Premiums for College Graduates
Authors: Murphy Kevin , Welch Finis
Published: June 2007

Against a general trend over the last 25 years of increasing wage differentials between college and high school graduates, two departures are noteworthy. Between 1971 and 1979, the college wage premium fell by about a third for young graduates and somewhat less for older workers. To some, this narrowing wage differential marked the end of an era when investments in college yielded returns comparable to other investments. In retrospect, the decline in the 1970s was a temporary phenomenon caused by a rapid increase in numbers of college graduates and the baby boom cohorts' entry into the job market. Then, between 1979 and 1986, the college wage premium rose very sharply, exceeding anything found in earlier data. After documenting changes in the college wage premium between 1963 and 1986, we explore dimensions of the recent increase by age, race, and sex, as well as the wage differentials between high school dropouts and graduates and between college dropouts and graduates. Although alternative explanations of earlier departures from the general trend can be found, the sole explanation for the recent dramatic rise in the premium is that the demand for college-trained workers has increased hugely.
The Impact of Differential Expenditures on School Performance
Authors: Hanushek Eric A.
Published: June 2007

Two decades of research into educational production functions have produced startlingly consistent results: Variations in school expenditures are not systematically related to variations in student performance. Enormous differences in teacher quality exist, but differences in teacher skill are not strongly related to educational backgrounds, amount of teaching experience, or teaching in small classes. Further, more skilled teachers simply are not regularly paid more than less skilled teachers. These findings suggest that school decision making must move away from traditional “input directed” policies to ones providing performance incentives. The concentration on expenditure differences in, for example, school finance court cases or legislative deliberations, appears misguided given the evidence.
The Paradigm Wars and Their Aftermath A “Historical” Sketch of Research on Teaching Since 1989
Authors: Gage NL
Published: June 2007

Raging during the 1980s, the Paradigm Wars resulted in the demise of objectivity-seeking quantitative research on teaching—a victim of putatively devastating attacks from anti-naturalists, interpretivists, and critical theorists. Subsequently, the interpretivists' ethnographic studies flourished, enhancing the cultural appropriateness of schooling, and critical theorists' analyses fostered the struggles for power for the poor, non-Whites, and women. Two alternative versions of the aftermath are also conceivable. Pragmatism and Popper's piecemeal social engineering offer paths toward a productive rapprochement of the paradigms, one guided by the moral obligations of educational research.
Educational Policy as an Ecology of Games
Authors: Firestone William A.
Published: June 2007

Educational policy can be considered as a set of overlapping games. Each has its own winners and losers, but each feeds and is fed by others. This metaphor identifies some of the functions and dysfunctions of the policy process. The time perspective of all players is shorter than the whole process, so no one sees the whole picture. Policies interact, so decisions do not reflect what is good for just one issue. Viewing the policy process as multiple games makes uniformity of response to policy less important so that implementation mechanisms that take advantage of local variation can be built. The ecology-of-games metaphor clarifies research use. Research can also be conceived as a game that provides inputs to and gets output from various policy games. The difficulties of putting research to use stem from the discontinuities among games.
Educational Implications of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Authors: Gardner Howard , Hatch Thomas
Published: June 2007

A new approach to the conceptualization and assessment of human intelligences is described. According to Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, each human being is capable of seven relatively independent forms of information processing, with individuals differing from one another in the specific profile of intelligences that they exhibit. The range of human intelligences is best assessed through contextually based, "intelligence-fair" instruments. Three research projects growing out of the theory are described. Preliminary data secured from Project Spectrum, an application in early childhood, indicate that even 4- and 5-year-old children exhibit distinctive profiles of strength and weakness. Moreover, measures of the various intelligences are largely independent and tap abilities other than those measured by standard intelligence tests.