bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Kindergarten Retention: Academic and Behavioral Outcomes Through the End of Second Grade
Authors: Mantzicopoulos Panayota , Morrison Delmont
Published: March 2008

This study examined the impact of retention at kindergarten on academic achievement and behavior. Subjects were 53 children, retained at kin dergarten, who were matched to a group of 53 promoted peers on demo graphic characteristics, a measure of school readiness, and preacademic achievement in reading and mathematics. The data were analyzed using both same-age and same-grade comparisons. Results indicated an academic advantage of the retained children during their second year in kindergarten. This advantage was not maintained past kindergarten. Although retained children demonstrated a decline in attention problems during their second year of kindergarten, they continued to perform below the norm for their school districts on academic achievement. The data in this report do not suggest that retention is an effective policy for the young at-risk child.
Unraveling Teachers’ Beliefs About Grade Retention
Authors: Tomchin Ellen M. , Impara James C.
Published: March 2008

A multimethod approach was used to examine teachers’ beliefs about retention in grades K–7. Questionnaire responses indicated that teachers at all grade levels believe retention is an acceptable school practice that prevents students from facing daily failure and motivates them to work harder. Factors including academic performance, maturity, ability, gender, and age influence retention decisions, but the importance of factors differs among teachers. Teachers agreed that retention was not harmful in grades K–3, but they disagreed about the impact on students in grades 4–7. Teachers of grades 4–7 were less likely to retain students and less likely to agree about which characteristics warrant retention. Interviews suggested that teachers’ beliefs about their roles and responsibilities in student success were critical in retention decisions.
What Happens to Reforms That Last? The Case of the Junior High School
Authors: Cuban Larry
Published: March 2008

This case study of the origins and development of junior high schools offers an answer to the question: What happens to reforms that get institutionalized? The history of junior high schools reveals that their design as a fundamental change in American schooling was, over time, downsized and revised to become a modest addition to the high school. A latter-day effort to correct the flaws of junior highs through the middle school movement shows little change over the original design. This shrinking of aspirations and adaptation of the reform to the existing social architecture of schooling as it survives is the major finding of this study. Explanations for this phenomenon are found in institutional theories of organizations.
The Influence of Family Composition on Children’s Conformity to the Student Role
Authors: Thompson Maxine Seaborn , Entwisle Doris R. , Alexander Karl L. , Sundius M. Jane
Published: March 2008

This article examines how parent configuration (two-parent, mother-extended, or solo-mother) and number of siblings affect first graders’ conformity to the student role as measured by their absences, latenesses, and conduct marks. The article builds on earlier studies by examining the different living arrangements of single parents and by directly comparing compliance indicators for African-American and White children when socioeconomic status, parents’ expectations, mother’s age, and kindergarten attendance are taken into account for both. African-American children with more sibs are more often absent or late. Both White and African-American children with sibs get better marks in conduct at the beginning of first grade. Also, both White and African-American children from two-parent families improve their conduct over first grade more than do their counterparts from solo-mother homes. However, only African Americans from mother-extended homes, not White children from mother-extended homes, improve in conduct over the year. Since two-parent homes generally contain more sibs, sib effects in prior research may have inflated positive effects on schooling attributed to two-parent family arrangements.
Liberal Democracy, Equal Educational Opportunity, and the Challenge of Multiculturalism
Authors: Howe Kenneth R.
Published: March 2008

Liberal political theory in general, as well as liberal educational theory in particular, has been largely silent on the challenge posed by multiculturalism. This lacuna results from the tendency to conflate ‘‘cultural” and ‘‘political” communities and to conceive of equality exclusively in terms of the latter. The result is that equality of educational opportunity is potentially rendered a sham for cultural minorities insofar as they are required to confront educational ideals and practices that are ‘‘culturally encumbered” in a way that reflects only the values and interests of the dominant social group. This article argues that “progressive” liberal educational theory can satisfactorily respond to the challenge posed by multicultural education when concepts such as “freedom” and “opportunity” are properly analyzed and when the demand to promote self-respect among citizens is taken seriously.
An Ethnographic Study of Cross-Cultural Communication With Puerto Rican-American Families in the Special Education System
Authors: Harry Beth
Published: March 2008

This article uses a subset of data from an ethnographic study to address the challenge of parent-professional interaction in a cross-cultural context. Participants in the study were 12 Spanish-speaking, Puerto Rican-American families from low-income backgrounds whose children were classified as learning disabled or mildly mentally retarded. Parents’ views and experiences were sought through a recursive process of ethnographic interviewing, review of students’ documents, and participant observation of parent-professional conferences and community events. The data revealed that inadequate provision of information regarding the meaning of various events, as well as the school district’s reliance upon formalized, written communication, led to mistrust and withdrawal on the part of parents. A habitual deference to authority, however, tended to disguise parents’ real opinions. The data also showed that changes being implemented in the school district were beginning to have a beneficial effect on parent-professional relationships and to result in exemplary parent conferences. The discussion emphasizes that the structure of parent-professional interaction reflects the hierarchical values and the categorical framing of the concept of disability inherent in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Illustrations from exemplary conferences are used to show how parent participation can be restructured to ensure inclusion of culturally different parents.
Restructuring Secondary Social Studies: The Association of Organizational Features and Classroom Thoughtfulness
Authors: Ladwig James G. , King M. Bruce
Published: March 2008

Faced with the remarkable absence of thoughtfulness in U.S. classrooms, some proponents of school restructuring have argued that innovative organizational structures are needed to assist teachers in their efforts to improve the thoughtfulness of classroom practice. Building on previous studies of the general relationship between organizational features and the promotion of classroom thoughtfulness, this analysis presents an in-depth analysis of four secondary social studies departments that made structural changes in school organization while also placing an emphasis on promoting higher order thinking. This analysis suggests that although innovative organizational structures in and of themselves are generally not associated with higher levels of classroom thoughtfulness, innovative organizational structures, in specific contexts, have been positively associated with classroom thoughtfulness. Among the four departments studied here, certain organizational structures, when combined with clear curricular emphases, did appear to be associated with higher levels of classroom thoughtfulness.
Cases as Shared Inquiry: A Dialogical Model of Teacher Preparation
Authors: Harrington Helen L. , Garrison James W.
Published: March 2008

Increasingly, case-based pedagogy is being advocated as an effective method for preparing preservice teachers for the context complexity of classrooms. The specific foci for cases, in both their construction and implementation, are viewed in a variety of ways. In this paper, we propose a dialogical model for connecting theory to practice by conceiving of cases as problems that initiate shared inquiry. Shared inquiry, dialogue, provides us with opportunities to acknowledge and address the theory and value-ladenness of experience; doing so allows us to transcend the limitations of our own experience and to generate better solutions for all of the students in our care.
Individual Differences in the Effects of Educational Transitions on Young Adolescent’s Perceptions of Competence and Motivational Orientation
Authors: Harter Susan , Whitesell Nancy Rumbaugh , Kowalski Patricia
Published: March 2008

We conducted two studies to examine the effects of changing educational environments on children’s academic self-concepts and motivation. In the first study, we examined the effects of transitions to a new grade or a new school on children’s perceptions of their scholastic competence, their motivational orientation, and their anxiety and general affect about school performance. Four groups of children were examined longitudinally as they made the transition to a new grade, some changing schools and some remaining in the same school: (a) fifth to sixth grade, same school; (b) fifth to sixth grade, new school; (c) sixth to seventh grade, same school; and (d) sixth to seventh grade, new school. We hypothesized that many students would reevaluate their scholastic competence after a transition, given new social comparison groups and the possible increased emphasis on grades and competence evaluation in higher grades. Resultant changes in perceived competence, in turn, should impact motivational orientation, anxiety, and affect. As we predicted, we found changes in perceived competence across the transition to be related to changes in motivation and to school-related affect and anxiety after the transition. In the second study, we examined whether the hypothesized grade-related changes in the educational environment were actually experienced by children. The large majority of middle school students in our sample did report an increasing emphasis on grades, competition, and performance evaluation with each new grade, fostering greater focus on their own competence. These children reported relatively more extrinsic motivational orientation and higher levels of scholastic anxiety and viewed academic success as more important than did their peers, who rated the environment to be less performance focused. Children’s affective reactions to their academic performance were also related to both their perceptions of competence and their motivational orientations. Overall, our findings suggest that changing emphases in the educational environment, of which children seem to be well aware, have complicated academic outcomes, depending on the individual resources children bring with them into the school environment.
Storytelling, Imagination, and Fanciful Elaboration in Children’s Historical Reconstructions
Authors: VanSledright Bruce , Brophy Jere
Published: March 2008

Interviews with fourth graders who had not yet received systematic instruction in United States history revealed that these students were interested in the past, concerned about human motives and cause-effect relationships, and able to construct coherent narrative (storytelling) accounts of historical events as they understood them. However, they lacked an experience-based framework for grounding and connecting their historical thinking, so that their accounts often mixed accurate information with naive conceptions and imaginative elaborations. This article provides examples of these historical accounts given by children at this beginning stage of learning about history and discusses them with reference to the work of Dickinson and Lee (1984) and Egan (1989) . Also considered are issues involved in teaching history to elementary students and assessing their historical understandings. The discussion identifies both beneficial and problematic aspects of children’s reliance on imagination in constructing historical narratives.
A Conservative Approach to Special Education Reform: Mainstreaming Through Transenvironmental Programming and Curriculum-Based Measurement
Authors: Fuchs Douglas , Fuchs Lynn S. , Fernstrom Pamela
Published: March 2008

There is strong disagreement about where to educate the majority of children with disabilities—in special or regular education settings. Although most agree that some special-needs students require separate instruction for at least part of the school day, Federal law requires educators to prepare these students for an eventual return to the mainstream. Our study’s purpose was to implement and validate a process for readying students to transition successfully from special education resource rooms to regular classrooms for math instruction. Preparation included use of curriculum-based measurement and transenvironmental programming. Forty-two students with mild disabilities were assigned to experimental and control groups. Math progress was measured by pre-versus posttreatment and ongoing curriculum-based achievement data, obtained in special and regular education settings, and by teacher reports. Findings indicated that experimental students substantially reduced time spent in special education math, whereas control students’ time in special education math was unchanged. Experimental students’ pre- to posttreatment achievement was greater than that of controls and was similar to the progress of lowest-achieving nondisabled students in mainstream classes. Time-series analysis revealed, however, that experimental students’ improved performance occurred only in special education; once in the mainstream, their progress ceased. Implications for educational policy are discussed.
The Experience of Being a Teacher in Residence
Authors: Kagan Dona M. , Dennis Mary Beth , Igou Mary , Moore Polly , Sparks Karen
Published: March 2008

This article represents an attempt to examine the effects of a staff development program on the professional lives of four elementary teachers who participated in it. The program under study is the Teacher in Residence (TIR) partnership at the University of Alabama, which brings experienced elementary teachers to the college of education for 2-year terms, during which the teachers function as adjunct faculty. Four TIRs were interviewed for this article: two who are currently serving their residencies at the university and two who completed theirs and have returned to their elementary classrooms. Their stories suggest that the TIR program is not a chance for experienced teachers to learn radically new things but a chance to clarify what they have always known and believed about their craft. It also appears to be an opportunity for teachers to redefine themselves as competent adults and knowledgeable professionals. Residency at the university was not a stepping-stone to an administrative position or a career in higher education but a recommitment to the role of career teacher. We draw implications for school-university partnerships aimed at enhancing teachers’ professional lives.
The Micropolitics of Teacher Induction
Authors: Schempp Paul G. , Sparkes Andrew C. , Templin Thomas J.
Published: March 2008

This study investigated the political events characterizing the start of a teaching career. An interpretative framework was used to access the perceptions and meanings teachers gave to experiences encountered in their first years on the job. Life history methodology permitted three teachers to tell their stories of professional induction. Data analysis revealed that the teachers’ thoughts and actions were influenced and sustained in three streams of consciousness: biography, role demands, and the school culture. Biography included experiences drawn upon by teachers in making their way in schools. Role demands pressed upon the teachers at two levels: classroom and institutional. Finally, the norms and expectations of school culture influenced the teachers’ professional perspectives and standards of practice. Of particular interest to the researchers were the teachers ‘perceptions of the power relationships in schools and the strategies used for appropriating the power and status necessary to become accepted and functioning school teachers.
Teacher Development Partnership Research: A Focus on Methods and Issues
Authors: Cole Ardra L. , Knowles J. Gary
Published: March 2008

Our purposes in writing this article are to reflect on our own research practice and to raise for discussion some of the issues associated with “alternative” approaches to studying teaching and teacher development. Situating our work within a personal and contextual research framework that is built on the foundations of a hermeneutic perspective, we briefly review the progress towards alternative approaches to research on teaching and teacher development, and then focus on the researcher-teacher relationship in discussing collaboration in partnership research. We use three organizing frameworks: (a) examples of our own research with teachers; (b) a matrix displaying the phases of research activities and the roles of researcher and teacher; and (c) a matrix displaying the phases and scope of the issues in teacher development partnership research that suggest a series of guiding questions that we think need to be asked at the outset and throughout any inquiry.
Higher Order Instructional Goals in Secondary Schools: Class, Teacher, and School Influences
Authors: Raudenbush Stephen W. , Rowan Brian , Cheong Yuk Fai
Published: March 2008

We consider three explanations for variation in emphasis on teaching for higher order thinking in U.S. secondary classrooms: (a) current conceptions of learning encourage pursuit of higher order objectives primarily for high-track students in advanced courses; (b) many teachers lack adequate preparation to teach for higher order thinking; and (c) organizational norms discourage pursuit of higher order objectives. We asked secondary teachers in 16 schools to identify their instructional goals for each of their classes and constructed scales to capture higher order emphasis in math, science, social studies, and English. A three-level hierarchical regression analysis revealed powerful effects of track on higher order objectives in all disciplines, especially math and science. Effects of teacher preparation and organizational norms were manifest in English and social studies, but not in math or science. Differentiation of instructional objectives based on academic track is apparently deeply institutionalized, particularly in math and science.
Teachers in Conference: A Qualitative Study of Teacher-Supervisor Face-to-Face Interactions
Authors: Waite Duncan
Published: March 2008

Ethnographic methods and conversation analysis were used to examine five teacher-supervisor conferences and their contexts. Related to the literature of supervision, teacher socialization, and mentoring, this report details how three teacher conference roles—passive, collaborative, and adversarial—were constructed, face-to-face and moment-by-moment. Teachers’ interactional resources are illuminated as supervisors’ presumed hegemony is reconsidered. Implications derived from this study include those for: supervision, educational leadership, school reform, teacher recruitment and placement, beginning teacher development, and action research.
Ideological Divergences in a Teacher-Research Group
Authors: Schecter Sandra R. , Parkhurst Shawn
Published: March 2008

This article is about the role played by ideology in a teacher-research group. Treatments of teacher research remain mainly directed at clarifying the content, the status, and the boundaries of the research practice engaged in by teachers and describing how teacher research contrasts with “university research” with regard to these elements. We focus on the differing ideologies of research, teaching/learning, and writing held and developed by the members of a teacher-research group. The concept of ideology is used to emphasize that beliefs about society, politics, and cognition were intimately bound up in the teacher researchers’ different perspectives. In analyzing the ideological positions that developed within the group, and the conflicts and interchanges among participants, we show that there exist important divisions within the teacher-research movement that are intellectually creative and socially important in their potential to generate needed discussion of assumptions underlying pedagogic practice.
An Information Processing Analysis of Learning Disabled Children’s Problem Solving
Authors: Swanson H. Lee
Published: March 2008

This study determines whether learning disabled children’s mental processing during problem solving is qualitatively different from average- and gifted-achieving peers, and whether these processing differences are attributable to metacognitive knowledge. To this end, problem solution, “think-aloud” protocols during problem solving, and metacognitive responses from a questionnaire were analyzed. Although learning disabled children were comparable to the other ability groups in problem solution, their metacognitive and ‘‘think-aloud” responses were distinct. Intercorrelational patterns between “think-aloud, “ problem-solution, and metacognition measures reflect low interdependence (weak correlations) for learning disabled children, moderate interdependence for average-achieving children, and high interdependence for gifted children. The results support the notion that learning disabled children’s problem-solving performance reflects a weak integration of metacognitive skills with on-line processing and problem solution.
Making Meaning in Classrooms: An Investigation of Cognitive Processes in Aspiring Teachers, Experienced Teachers, and Their Peers
Authors: Copeland Willis D. , Birmingham Carrie , DeMeulle Lisa , D’Emidio-Caston Marianne , Natal Dottie
Published: March 2008

In an effort to describe the knowledge teachers use to understand and interpret teaching and learning in classrooms, 28 respondents representing four levels of teaching experience were shown a videorecorded vignette of classroom life and asked to explain their understanding of it. Application of qualitative analysis techniques to these descriptions suggested a main assertion that “As people gain education and experience in teaching, the understanding they express of classrooms they observe is characterized by an increase in quantity and complexity of linkages among ideas and by a shift in the focus of these linked ideas toward issues more central to classroom teaching, including content taught and learned, pedagogical processes used and experienced, and basic educational purposes.” Subassertions that support this general assertion are discussed in terms of their contribution to the literature on teacher knowledge and its development.
Analyzing Personal Teaching Metaphors in Preservice Teacher Education as a Means for Encouraging Professional Development
Authors: Bullough Robert V. , Stokes David K.
Published: March 2008

Using data drawn from 22 students enrolled in a year-long teacher certification program, the authors explore the analysis of personal teaching metaphors as a means for facilitating the professional development of beginning teachers. Strengths and weaknesses of the approach are identified, and implications for the practice of teacher education discussed.
Assessment for Measurement or Standards: The Peril and Promise of Large-Scale Assessment Reform
Authors: Taylor Catherine
Published: March 2008

The current call for performance-based assessments is, in part, a consequence of inappropriate uses of norm-referenced achievement tests. Still, the use of performance-based assessment will not automatically eliminate the negative consequences of high-stakes tests, nor support hoped-for changes in schools. School reform will be supported only if new assessment systems are developed using a model that is in harmony with the goals of reform. This article reviews two models for assessment, the measurement model and the standards model, their underlying assumptions about learners, and the resulting implications for performance-based test development. It briefly reviews the current testing debate, defines terms such as authentic assessments and performance-based assessments , and discusses the compromises that have led to the failed attempts to use testing to set standards for education. Finally, the article reflects on the power each assessment model can have on reform efforts.
A Case Study of Empowering Principal Behavior
Authors: Reitzug Ulrich C.
Published: March 2008

During the past decade there has been considerable criticism of administrative leadership behavior in schools. Criticism has focused on the hegemony of autocratic forms of leadership as well as on the manipulation inherent in leadership practices that “sell” leader-held conceptions of organization direction and practice to followers. Principals have been exhorted to empower teachers. However, much of the empowerment literature promotes a narrow conception of empowerment; more expansive constructs are long on concept and theory and short on field-based examples of principal behavior that inform practice. This study addresses this criticism by integrating an iteration of a recently developed theoretical empowerment framework with field-based data collected in a case study of one principal.
Extended Wait Time and University Student Achievement
Authors: Duell Orpha K.
Published: March 2008

Two experiments examined the effects of extending the pauses between teacher questions and naming a student, wait time I. Although articles addressing both preservice and practicing teachers admonish them to extend these pauses to be more effective questioners, comparisons of wait times of 1 s with 3 s, and 3 s with 6 s, detected no significant advantage for extended wait times when university students answered either low-level knowledge questions or higher level application and synthesis questions. Contrary to predictions based upon prior research with younger students, extending wait time to 6 s actually lowered higher level cognitive achievement. The findings are discussed in relationship to those of prior studies examining extended wait time and an information processing model of learning.
Navigating the Psychosocial Pressures of Adolescence: The Voices and Experiences of High School Youth
Authors: Phelan Patricia , Yu Hanh Cao , Davidson Ann Locke
Published: March 2008

This article describes pressures and problems in adolescents’ family, peer, and school worlds that they perceive as powerful enough to have an impact on their ability to engage optimally in school and learning endeavors. The study sample includes 55 ethnically and academically diverse youth in four urban desegregated high schools in California. The primary data were obtained through four in-depth interviews with each student over a period of 2 years. Using the Students’ Multiple Worlds Model and Typology ( Phelan, Davidson, & Yu, 1993 ), which provides a framework for examining the interrelationships of sociocultural components in students’ worlds, we discuss the problems reported by youth in each of four category types: (a) congruent worlds/smooth transitions; (b) different worlds/border crossings managed; (c) different worlds/border crossings difficult; and (d) different worlds/border crossings resisted. Further, we describe social, emotional, and educational consequences of the problems that youth face.
School Reform Unplugged: The Bensenville New American School Project, 1991–93
Authors: Mirel Jeffrey
Published: March 2008

In 1992, the New American Schools Development Corporation awarded Bensenville, Illinois, $1.25 million to design and implement a “break the mold” educational program. Despite this substantial amount of money, apparently broad community support, and a dedicated group of reformers pushing the proposal, within a year the Bensenville New American School project was dead. This article details the controversy that erupted over the reform program and analyzes the events that led to the dissolution of the project. The article argues that questions about such factors as school governance, local control of schools, and school finance played major roles in determining the outcome of the project. The essay concludes that such fundamental political aspects of education as who controls the schools, who pays for changes, and whose security is threatened by reform are as important to the reform process as are exciting ideas, strong financial backing, and a committed group of reformers.
Grade Retention and School Dropout: Investigating the Association
Authors: Roderick Melissa
Published: March 2008

High dropout rates among students who repeated grades are often cited as evidence that grade retention is harmful. This article uses event history analysis to explore whether and how a grade retention influenced graduation outcomes among one cohort of youths from an urban school system. Repeating a grade from kindergarten to sixth grade was associated with a substantial increase in the odds of dropping out even after controlling for differences in background and postretention grades and attendance. This article explores whether grade retention may influence school dropout because it makes students overage for grade. Students who ended sixth grade overage for grade experienced substantial disengagement during middle school; nearly one quarter dropped out, and those who remained had significant declines in attendance. I find that the impact of being overage for grade during adolescence may explain a large proportion of the higher dropout rates among retained youths.
Successful Mainstreaming in Elementary Science Classes: A Qualitative Study of Three Reputational Cases
Authors: Scruggs Thomas E. , Mastropieri Margo A.
Published: March 2008

The overall purpose of this investigation was to identify variables meaningfully associated with mainstreaming success in science classes, across grade levels, and across categories of disability. Subsequent to 2 years’ collaborative work with teachers, we studied, over a school year, three science classes in which students with disabilities were successfully included. Associated building and district-level practices were also examined. Evidence gathered included observational field notes, student and teacher products, videotaped records, curriculum materials, and interviews with students, teachers, and administrators. Seven variables were identified that were common to all settings and independent of grade level or disability category. Most of these served also to enhance the shared experience of all students in the science classes. Implications for mainstreaming and for science education are discussed.
Matchmaking: The Dynamics of High School Tracking Decisions
Authors: Oakes Jeannie , Guiton Gretchen
Published: March 2008

Over the past 20 years, research has expanded educators’ knowledge of the impact of high school tracking on students’ curriculum opportunities and outcomes. Researchers also know that students are unevenly distributed among tracks, with low-income and minority students more likely to be in low ability classes for the non-college-bound. At the same time, they still understand little about how schools actually match particular students to tracked courses. Scholars and educators variously draw on technical/structural (e.g., a match between tracking and the differentiated structure of workforce), cultural (e.g., norms regarding race, social class, and educational prospects), and political or individualistic (e.g., choice, parent pressure) theories to explain students’ track assignments. To shed further light on the school dynamics that shape track-related course taking, we provide findings from a 2-year examination of tracking decisions at three comprehensive high schools. Setting these findings against prior theoretical and empirical work, we suggest an eclectic explanation that blends structural, cultural, and individualistic explanations for track assignments. High school tracking decisions, we conclude, result from the synergy of three powerful factors: differentiated, hierarchical curriculum structures; school cultures alternatively committed to common schooling and accommodating differences; and political actions by individuals within those structures and cultures aimed at influencing the distribution of advantage. Both research on tracking and efforts at school restructuring could benefit from this broader perspective.
The Effects of Gifted and Talented Programs on Academic Self-Concept: The Big Fish Strikes Again
Authors: Marsh Herbert W. , Chessor Danuta , Craven Rhonda , Roche Lawrence
Published: March 2008

Participation in gifted and talented (G&T) programs is predicted to have negative effects on academic—but not nonacademic—self-concept on the basis of social comparison theory and Marsh’s big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE). In two studies, students in G&T programs experienced systematic declines in three components of academic self-concept (Reading, Math, School) over time and in relation to matched comparison students in regular mixed ability classrooms, but not in four components of nonacademic self-concept (Physical, Appearance, Peer Relations, Parent Relations). In both studies, these results were consistent over gender, age, and initial ability level. Selection criteria, program strategies, and advice to parents are proposed to counteract this BFLPE and to maximize the benefits associated with G&T programs.
Color Blindness and Basket Making Are Not the Answers: Confronting the Dilemmas of Race, Culture, and Language Diversity in Teacher Education
Authors: Cochran-Smith Marilyn
Published: March 2008

Although the American educational system is dysfunctional for large numbers of children who are not part of the racial and language mainstream, there are no universal strategies for teaching children who are culturally and linguistically different from one another, from their teachers, or from students whose interests are already well served by the system. Drawing on the inquiries of student teachers working in urban elementary schools, I argue that we need to go beyond color blindness and basket making as responses to cultural diversity. Instead, I propose that we need generative ways for student teachers and teacher educators to reconsider their assumptions, understand the values and practices of families and cultures different from their own, and construct pedagogy that not only takes these into account in locally appropriate ways but also makes issues of diversity an explicit part of the curriculum.
An Organizational Analysis of the Effects of Ability Grouping
Authors: Gamoran Adam , Nystrand Martin , Berends Mark , LePore Paul C.
Published: March 2008

Ability grouping appears to be a logical means of organizing a student body with diverse academic skills. Many observers contend, however, that the practice favors students in high-ability groups at the expense of students in lower groups. An organizational conception of ability grouping clarifies the rationale for ability grouping but also illuminates its shortcomings: Grouping students leads to segregation on nonacademic as well as academic criteria, and differentiated instruction may lead to unequal results for students assigned to different groups. These issues are explored with data from 92 honors, regular, and remedial English classes in eighth and ninth grade. We examine the characteristics of students placed in different groups, similarities and differences in the quality of instruction across groups, and the links between instruction and achievement. The data show that rates of student participation and discussion are higher in honors classes, contributing to the learning gaps between groups. Rates of open-ended questions are similar across classes, but honors students benefit more from such discourse because it occurs more often in the context of sustained study of literature.
Increasing the Academic Success of Disadvantaged Children: An Examination of Alternative Early Intervention Programs
Authors: Ross Steven M. , Smith Lana J. , Casey Jason , Slavin Robert E.
Published: March 2008

In recent years, two programs have gained national attention for producing significant and sustained effects on the reading performance of at-risk children. One is Reading Recovery which uses highly trained teachers and a systematic set of procedures to tutor first graders who are having difficulty learning to read. The other is Success for All which uses research-based beginning and intermediate reading programs, one-to-one tutoring, family support, and other elements to provide support for all students in the targeted elementary school. The present research examined the processes and outcomes associated with the implementation of these approaches in comparable first grade classes during one school year. Results showed that Reading Recovery strongly benefited tutored students, particularly on passage comprehension. Success for All was more beneficial for special education students and for students who were not tutored, especially on word attack measures. School climate and teacher attitude results also showed advantages of Success for All’s comprehensive approach in integrating the reading curriculum with family support and schoolwide restructuring.
Toward a Collaborative Approach to Parent Involvement in Early Education: A Study of Teenage Mothers in an African-American Community
Authors: Neuman Susan B. , Hagedorn Tracy , Celano Donna , Daly Pauline
Published: March 2008

This study addresses the challenge of creating a collaborative approach to parent involvement. As part of a family literacy program, participants in the study were 19 African-American adolescent parents from low-income backgrounds whose children attended an early intervention program. Parents’ beliefs about learning and literacy were sought through a series of peer group discussions. The data revealed a continuum of perspectives ranging from behavioral to constructivist beliefs, suggesting important intragroup variability within this particular sociocultural group. The discussions also revealed shared goals that may be used to forge collaborative relationships between parents and professionals in the interest of improving African-American children’s early education. Illustrations from a family literacy program are used to show how parent beliefs may be incorporated into programmatic changes, building constructive relationships that work toward supporting children’s success in schools.
The Politics of Self-Esteem
Authors: Kahne Joseph
Published: March 2008

The notion of self-esteem resonates powerfully and is referred to frequently in American culture. Rhetorical connections between self-esteem and desirable educational policy are ubiquitous; promoting students’ self-esteem, particularly that of minority and poorly performing students, is a prime concern. Is this focus desirable? Before analysts can assess self-esteem as a goal for policy and practice, they must consider the ideological orientations of those who use the term and the cultural norms which shape the debate. The analysis and knowledge claims regarding self-esteem made by psychologists and political philosophers are of some value in this regard, but explicit attention to the politics surrounding self-esteem is needed to understand and evaluate the use of the concept in policy contexts.
Resonance in Preservice Teacher Inquiry
Authors: Conle Carola
Published: March 2008

Practical knowledge data was generated as four preservice teachers shared experiential narratives. As their project supervisor, I wanted to understand more clearly how they engaged with, and reconstructed, their practical knowledge. I observed a process where, through experiential storytelling, preservice teachers connected specific items in current or past experiences to a narrative of their own or someone else’s experience. In this process, they subconsciously created metaphorical correspondences between two sets of narrativized experiences. I called this process resonance and found its educational usefulness maximized when preservice teachers shared their narrative inquiries and stayed close to concrete experiential contexts.
“Back When God Was Around and Everything”: Elementary Children’s Understanding of Historical Time
Authors: Barton Keith C. , Levstik Linda S.
Published: March 2008

In order to investigate elementary children’s understanding of historical time, we conducted open–ended interviews with 58 children from kindergarten through sixth grade. In order to overcome the limitations of previous research in this area, we asked children to place pictures from various periods of American history in order and to talk about their reasoning. We found that even the youngest children made some basic distinctions in historical time and that those became increasingly differentiated with age. Dates, however, had little meaning for children before third grade, and, although third and fourth graders understood the numerical basis of dates, only by fifth grade did students extensively connect particular dates with specific background knowledge. At all ages, children’s placement of most pictures revealed substantial agreement with one another and with the correct order; this agreement indicates a significant body of understanding of historical chronology. History instruction in the elementary grades, then, might productively focus on helping students refine and extend the knowledge they have gained about history; information which relies on dates, however, is unlikely to activate their temporal understanding.
Building Student Capacity for Mathematical Thinking and Reasoning: An Analysis of Mathematical Tasks Used in Reform Classrooms
Authors: Stein Mary Kay , Grover Barbara W. , Henningsen Marjorie
Published: March 2008

This article focuses on mathematical tasks as important vehicles for building student capacity for mathematical thinking and reasoning. A stratified random sample of 144 mathematical tasks used during reform-oriented instruction was analyzed in terms of (a) task features (number of solution strategies, number and kind of representations, and communication requirements) and (b) cognitive demands (e.g., memorization, the use of procedures with [and without] connections to concepts, the “doing of mathematics”). The findings suggest that teachers were selecting and setting up the kinds of tasks that reformers argue should lead to the development of students’ thinking capacities. During task implementation, the task features tended to remain consistent with how they were set up, but the cognitive demands of high-level tasks had a tendency to decline. The ways in which high-level tasks declined as well as factors associated with task changes from the set-up to implementation phase were explored.
Students’ Responses and Approaches to Case-Based Instruction: The Role of Reflective Self-Regulation
Authors: Ertmer Peggy A. , Newby Timothy J. , MacDougall Maureen
Published: March 2008

In this exploratory study, we examined how students with high and low levels of self-regulation responded to, and approached learning from, case-based instruction. Fifty-eight first-year veterinary students, enrolled in a case-based biochemistry laboratory course, were classified according to their precourse performances on two self-regulated learning inventories. Nine students, representing high and low levels of self-regulation, were interviewed three times during the semester to explore initial and changing responses and approaches to case-based instruction. Students’ responses are described in terms of the motivational components of case-based instruction: the interest expressed, the value students perceived in case-based instruction, as well as their confidence for leaning from the case method. Students’ approaches are described in terms of their goal orientations, evaluative lens, levels of self-awareness, openness to challenges, perceived levels of relevant knowledge, and contextual vulnerability.
Making the Most of Time and Talent: Secondary School Organizational Climates, Teaching Task Environments, and Teacher Commitment
Authors: Riehl Carolyn , Sipple John W.
Published: March 2008

The relationships among teachers’ task environments, more general characteristics of school organizational climates, and teachers’ professional and organizational commitments were examined. Data were derived from the 1987–1988 National Center for Education Statistics Schools and Staffing Survey; the study was based on a sample of 14,844 secondary school teachers. Task environment was operationalized in terms of structural features of teachers’ class schedules, and school climate was measured in terms of administrative support, teacher influence and autonomy, and collegiality. Results suggest that, while teachers’ professional commitment and organizational commitment were unrelated to teachers’ class schedules, commitment was associated with school climate.
Change Without Reform: The Case of Stanford University School of Medicine, 1908–1990
Authors: Cuban Larry
Published: March 2008

Since the late 19th century, medical education has become standardized into 2 years of preclinical schooling followed by 2 years of clinical work in hospitals and clinics. This 2 × 2 model of medical education has turned out to be sturdy in both the official curriculum and pedagogy that characterize the vast majority of medical schools today. Yet reformers have constantly sought major changes in this model throughout the 20th century. Why are there recurring curricular and instructional reforms, and why do these reforms seemingly leave untouched this 2 × 2 model? This article answers these questions by first turning to the 9-decade history of one seldom studied elite private medical school and its recurring reforms in curriculum and instruction. To ground the intersection between content and pedagogy, I inquire into the teaching of one perennial subject in the preclinical curriculum, human anatomy. Ideological issues about teaching anatomy to medical students and the entire preclinical phase of the 2 × 2 curriculum itself emerge as a central political struggle between competing views of what kinds of doctors Stanford University—and other medical schools—should produce. This political struggle among faculty, administration, and students over the kinds of future physicians is marked by periodic curricular and pedagogical treaties that maintain the overall stability of the 2 × 2 model, thus providing answers to the above questions.
Enhancing the Validity and Usefulness of Large-Scale Educational Assessments: III. NELS: 88 Mathematics Achievement to 12th Grade
Authors: Kupermintz Haggai , Snow Richard E.
Published: March 2008

The present study demonstrates the utility of a multidimensional representation of student mathematics achievement. Third in a series of studies using the math test item level data from the NELS: 88 longitudinal study, it carries the analyses through the 12th grade. Full information factor analysis was employed to investigate the structure of math achievement, create meaningful achievement scales, and explore their relationships with student background, academic program, and instructional variables. The findings support a basic distinction between Mathematical Reasoning (MR) and Mathematical Knowledge (MK) for two of the three administered test forms (low and middle levels), replicating previous findings for the 8th- and l0th-grade data. A more complex structure for the high test form reflected variation in problem-solving strategies as well as in content. Regression analyses suggested differential patterns of relationships between student, program, and instructional variables for math achievement subscores. These patterns were also compared with results for the unidimensional total score. Discussion emphasizes implications for score interpretations, both normative and criterion-referenced, within the context of a validity argument.