bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Cultural and Home Language Influences on Children's Responses to Science Assessments
Authors: Luykx Aurolyn , Lee Okhee , Mahotiere Margarette , Lester Benjamin , Hart Juliet , Deaktor Rachael
Published: February 2022

Background

A critical issue in academic assessment is the effect of children's language and culture on their measured performance. Research on this topic has rarely focused on science education, because science is commonly (though erroneously) assumed to be “culture free.” Students’ scientific understandings are influenced by the cultural values, experiences, and epistemologies of their home communities. Efforts to minimize cultural bias include designing tests to be “culturally neutral” and, conversely, tailoring assessments to specific cultural groups; both approaches are theoretically and practically problematic. Several studies have focused on testing accommodations for English language learners (ELLs), but accommodations raise validity and feasibility issues and are limited by “English-only” policies. This article stresses the linkages between language and culture, drawing on contemporary literacy theory and research on scientific communities as well as groups traditionally marginalized from science.

Objective

To examine how children's prior linguistic and cultural knowledge mediates their engagement with school science, as reflected in their responses on science assessments.

Participants

Over 1,500 students from six elementary schools serving diverse populations.

Research Design

Project-developed assessments included items requiring students to explain scientific phenomena. Scoring revealed that students misinterpreted some items, and scorers had difficulty understanding some students’ responses. Project personnel then undertook qualitative discourse analysis of responses on all tests.

Findings

Analysis revealed phonological/orthographic and semantic interference from students’ home languages; responses reflecting students’ cultural beliefs and practices; and “languacultural” features related to genre, authorial voice, pragmatic framing, and textual organization.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Science tests inevitably contain tacit cultural and linguistic knowledge that is not equally accessible to all students. Using “real-life scenarios” in assessment items may confuse students whose lives do not reflect mainstream norms. Furthermore, English-medium assessments are unlikely to accurately measure ELLs’ science knowledge. Teachers can learn to recognize factors that impede ELLs from grasping or expressing science concepts clearly. They should also ensure that all students understand the discursive and textual conventions inherent in assessment instruments. Linguistic and cultural factors shape science knowledge not only of students but of teachers, scientists, and test developers. Uncovering the factors shaping students’ academic performance requires fine-grained qualitative analysis and collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.
“Living on the Edge”: A Case of School Reform Working for Disadvantaged Adolescents
Authors: Smyth John , Mcinerney Peter
Published: February 2022

The issue of why so many young adolescents around the world are disengaging from school and making the choice to drop out is one of the most intractable, vexed, perplexing, and controversial issues confronting educators. Tackling it requires courage and a radical rethinking of school reform around issues of power, ownership of learning, and the relevance of schooling and curriculum for young lives. This means a heightened institutional capacity to “listen.” This article describes an instance of a disadvantaged urban Australian government school that realized it had little alternative but to try new approaches; “old ways” were not working. The article describes an ensemble of school reform practices, philosophies, and strategies that give young adolescents genuine ownership of their learning. This school stands out as a beacon that school reform is possible, even for young adolescents from the most difficult of circumstances. However, such approaches look markedly different from where mainstream educational reform is taking us at the moment.
The Expansion of Federal Power and the Politics of Implementing the No Child Left behind Act
Authors: Sunderman Gail L. , Kim James S.
Published: February 2022

The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) expanded the federal role in American education, and by doing so altered the distribution of power among the federal government, states, and local districts. When the law was enacted, it was unclear how this change in the distribution of power would play itself out. This study examines the developing set of relationships between federal, state, and local officials under the new law and the factors that have contributed to a growing conflict over implementation. To fully understand the implications of NCLB requires examining these interactions as well as understanding the substantive educational issues it raises. We identify three factors that contributed to the growing dissatisfaction with the law, namely, the Bush administration's approach to federalism, the states’ limited capacity to meet the new requirements, and the fiscal constraints facing state governments. We argue that these factors have contributed to the conflict with federal officials, eroded state commitment to the law, and complicated implementation efforts.
Enclothing Identity: A Hmong Girl's Journey into the Politics of Identification in Thailand
Authors: Johnson Tracy Pilar
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

It may appear a simple question for a 12 year old girl to ask: “what should I wear today for school?” But simplicity is deceptive when the possibilities are many and each carries with it a specific and dangerous weight. In this paper I start with a Hmong girl in Ban Rongrian, Thailand, as she faces forms of identifications commonly used for herself and her parents: “the dangerous communist insurgent,” “the good Thai student,” and “the colorful and peaceful ethnic minority.” Interestingly, these identifications are not only made public through speech, but through styles of dress as well.

Purpose

Building on the concerns raised by Michel de Certeu and his problematics of enunciation, as well as Judith Butler's attempts to understand agency and subjecthood within the constraining possibilities provided by language, I examine how Hmong students tell themselves and others who they are, not only through their speech acts, but also through the practice of dressing.

Research Design

In particular, by analyzing two case studies compiled during a two and a half year period of ethnographic research, I demonstrate the ways in which some young Hmong girls struggle to understand the social relations that obtain between the Hmong and the Thai and the ways they creatively appropriate different styles of dress and speech in an attempt to play with the identifications that structure their lives.

Conclusions

I conclude by showing how it is through these practices that Hmong girls enact a present and give us a sense of how they imagine futures for themselves in which they have greater control over the representational systems that seek to identify them.
Hidden Education among African Americans during Slavery
Authors: Gundaker Grey
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Historical studies examine aspects of African American education in and out of school in detail (Woodson 1915, 1933, Bullock 1970, Anderson 1988, Morris 1982, Rachal 1986, Rose 1964, Webber 1978, Williams 2005). Scholars of African American literacy have noted ways that education intersects other arenas such as religion and expressive culture (Cornelius 1991, Gundaker 1998).

Objective

Most of the papers in this volume focus on contemporary ethnographic research that explores processes of “education” outside of schooling which are hidden by the dominance of “schooling” and “learning” as paradigms for what education “is.”

Population

However, African Americans under enslavement often had to hide educational practices, especially those relating to literacy, under threat of violence. Thus the stakes of education were high indeed with much to teach about the “hidden processes of deliberate change” (Varenne, this volume) that are the subject of this special issue.

Research Design

This paper examines three interrelated kinds of activity from a historical anthropological perspective: 1) invisible or seemingly extraneous aspects of schooling and efforts to orchestrate school-like activities; 2) hidden and not so hidden literacy acquisition; and 3) expressive practices with educational dimensions for participants that remained largely invisible to outsiders.

Conclusions

“Hidden education” in the Quarter involved a double language that addressed both the world as it “is” and the world as it could or should be; the world that outsiders control and the one that insiders are continually educating each other to make. Thus, it seems the enslaved have contributed a more complex theory of education than that which informs much of today's schooling. Similarly, they have left a legacy of valuable educative skills that schools today often undervalue.
Putting the Squeeze on Social Studies: Managing Teaching Dilemmas in Subject Areas Excluded from State Testing
Authors: Wills John S.
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Recent research indicates that social studies is being “squeezed” from the elementary curriculum as instructional time is shifted to language arts and mathematics in response to state testing and the federal No Child Left Behind Act, especially in schools serving poor students and students of color. However, less is known about the specific curricular and instructional choices teachers make as they confront reduced instructional time for social studies, and the enacted curriculum resulting from these choices.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyze what happens to the enacted curriculum in social studies in elementary schools where instructional time for social studies was reduced in response to state testing in language arts and mathematics.

Setting

This research was conducted at a rural elementary school in Southern California serving poor Latino, African-American, and White students, a low performing yet improving school as measured by state testing in language arts and mathematics.

Research Design

A ten-month qualitative case study of social studies curriculum and instruction was conducted in one fourth-grade and two fifth-grade classrooms at one elementary school.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection consisted of observation and videotaping of classroom lessons and activities in social studies during the 2002-2003 school year in three teachers’ classrooms, consisting of a total of 125 videotaped observations. Interviews with teachers, students, and the principal, and the collection and analysis of student work and curricular materials supplemented this data. For this article, data analysis was based on the coding of field notes, analysis of transcripts of lessons and activities, and teacher interviews, to understand the curricular and instructional choices teachers made in social studies and the effect of these choices on the enacted curriculum.

Findings/Results

Reduced instructional time in social studies has resulted in a reduction of the scope of the curriculum, the curtailment or elimination of opportunities to promote students’ higher order thinking, and an increased emphasis at times on the simple reproduction of content knowledge.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The institution of a system of accountability meant to improve teaching and learning for all students is instead undermining the quality of students’ education in social studies, especially at low performing elementary schools serving poor students and students of color. As instructional time is shifted to language arts and mathematics the scope of the social studies curriculum and opportunities for thoughtfulness that would deepen students’ understanding of history are being squeezed from the enacted curriculum.
Who Makes the Transition to College? Why We Should Care, What We Know, and What We Need to Do
Authors: Louie Vivian
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

In the last several decades, a college education, in particular the bachelor's degree, has become the key to higher earnings, and overall, to a middle-class lifestyle in the United States. In an increasingly globalized economy, privileging information and communication technologies, it is more than likely that this emphasis on higher education in the American labor market will continue in the future. While we know much about the increasing link between a college education and social mobility, writ large, we know considerably less about who actually makes the transition to college, how this occurs, and why. Despite the strides made, large numbers of individuals are not making the transition to college. Among those who are, there are important differences in the kinds of postsecondary institutions they are attending, and in completion rates, with attendant implications for social mobility.

Purpose

This article has two purposes: (1) to synthesize the key facets of our knowledge base of how to expand the college pipeline and relatedly, to outline particular areas that have been under-examined across the disciplines; (2) to provide future directions that will allow us to better address this important inquiry along substantive and methodological lines.

Research Design

This article draws on disciplinary papers commissioned by the Social Science Research Council's Transitions to College Committee. The discussion of preparation is framed around the contributions from the fields of anthropology, and political science; access vis-à-vis history, sociology, and demography; paying for college vis-à-vis economics; and completion vis-à-vis the field of higher education.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The article calls for an overall integrative model, e.g., K-16 and interdisciplinary, improved coverage in large-scale datasets, and a more refined mixed methods approach to attend to notable gaps in our understandings of the transition to college. Across disciplines, a key substantive gap is variation along the lines of race, ethnicity, immigrant status, gender, and age across domains, which needs to be illuminated.
Converging Reform “Theories” in Urban Middle Schools: District-Guided Instructional Improvement in Small Schools of Choice
Authors: Gallucci Chrysan , Knapp Michael , Markholt Anneke , Ort Suzanne
Published: February 2022

Purpose

This paper explores an instructive case in which two potentially opposed reform theories converge on schools, in order to understand how productively or unproductively the two theories coexist. We attempt to answer the following questions: Can these two reform theories coexist, or do they get in each other's way? In what ways, if any, do the two complement each other? Separately, or together, how do they affect instructional practice and the school-level conditions that support teaching and learning? Finally, can policies and leadership, in this case reflecting two such different reform theories, provide mutually supporting conditions for teaching and learning in urban schools?

Setting

The theories are analyzed as they occurred over the 1990s and into this century in three middle schools in one New York City Community School District.

Research Design

The study utilized a qualitative multiple case study design. Three middle schools within one district were sampled using criteria related to student population, school structure, and configuration of resources such as time and staff. Data were collected over three years during three site visits per year and included extensive interviews, observations, and analysis of pertinent documents.

Conclusions/Recommendations

We argue that the reform theories primarily complemented one another in this case. In the schools, differences in steps taken by school leaders and staff to realize the first reform theory enabled schools to respond productively to, rather than resist, district initiatives based on the second theory. The sophistication of the district's vision for teaching and learning (both for students and adults), combined with a flexible approach to implementing the second reform theory, reduced the likelihood of conflicting reform messages.
Tackling Racial Segregation One Policy at a Time: Why School Desegregation Only Went So Far1
Authors: Wells Amy Stuart , Holme Jennifer Jellison , Atanda Awo Korantemaa , Revilla Anita Tijerina
Published: February 2022

This article provides an overview of the major findings from the “Understanding Race and Education Study,” a 5-year research project conducted by the authors at Teachers College-Columbia University and UCLA. The central theme to emerge from the 5-year historical case study of six racially diverse high schools and their graduates from the late 1970s was that school desegregation faced enormous political obstacles in local communities, which compromised its effect. At the same time, this fairly radical policy fundamentally changed the people who lived through it but had a more limited impact on the society as a whole. This article presents data from this study of 540 interviews and document collection from these six sites, which show that in the 1970s racially diverse public schools were challenged because educators either tried to or were forced to facilitate racial integration amid a society that remained segregated in terms of housing and other social institutions. This context compromised many of the goals of desegregation as politically powerful Whites resisted meaningful equality within desegregated schools and Blacks and Latinos were often angered and frustrated by this resistance. Nonetheless, desegregation made the vast majority of the students who attended these schools less racially prejudiced and more comfortable around people of different backgrounds. After high school, however, their lives, mirroring the larger society, have been far more segregated. They lament that school desegregation was supposed to prepare them for the “real world,” but that world is far more segregated than their schools.
Part One: Understanding Media Literacy
Authors: Mcbrien J. Lynn
Published: February 2022

Most psychological theories were cast long before the advent of enormous advances in the technology of communication. As a result, they give insufficient attention to the increasingly powerful role that the symbolic environment plays in present-day human lives. Indeed, in many aspects of living, televised vicarious influence has dethroned the primacy of direct experience. Whether it be thought patterns, values, attitudes, or styles of behavior, life increasingly models the media.

We cannot hand ourselves over to the television ready to accept whatever comes. The more we sit in front of it… the more we risk being confused about the real nature of the facts. We cannot leave behind our critical conscience.
Teaching for Democracy in an Age of Corporatocracy
Authors: Sleeter Christine E.
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

A challenge for teachers who support teaching for and about democracy is doing so while being pressed into directives rooted in corporatocracy, a political manifestation of neoliberalism. The accountability movement today, particularly No Child Left Behind, is rooted in much more firmly in corporatocracy than democracy. Democratically minded teachers face two tasks: negotiating increasingly undemocratic systems in order to find space for democratic teaching, and critically examining what democracy is, including gaps between its ideals and actual practice.

Purpose

This article explores the extent to which teachers can enact democratic practice in their classrooms in the current accountability context, and limits that context places on them.

Setting and Participants

Participants included two strong classroom teachers in California, both of whom were teaching English language learners from low-income backgrounds, in schools that did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress targets for 2003-2004.

Research Design and Data Collection

A case-study design was used for this study. Data included six hours of observation in each teacher's classroom, an hour-long interview with each teacher, papers they had completed while they were students in my graduate courses, and their masters theses.

Conclusions

While the teachers were able to use standards strategically to enact a limited form of democratic teaching, both, particularly the teacher who had more experience with democratic teaching, felt thwarted by accountability pressures. I argue that, while democratically minded teachers can navigate accountability pressures up to a point, No Child Left Behind, rooted in corporatocracy, limits teachers’ ability to enact democratic teaching, particularly in schools not meeting test score targets.
Creating Mathematical Futures through an Equitable Teaching Approach: The Case of Railside School
Authors: Boaler JO , Staples Megan
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

School tracking practices have been documented repeatedly as having negative effects on students’ identity development and attainment, particularly for those students placed in lower tracks. Despite this documentation, tracking persists as a normative practice in American high schools, perhaps in part because we have few models of how departments and teachers can successfully organize instruction in heterogeneous, high school mathematics classes. This paper offers one such model through a qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Focus of Study

In an effort to better the field's understanding of equitable and successful teaching, we conducted a longitudinal study of three high schools. At one school, Railside, students demonstrated greater gains in achievement than students at the other two schools and higher overall achievement on a number of measures. Furthermore, achievement gaps among various ethnic groups at Railside that were present on incoming assessments disappeared in nearly all cases by the end of the second year. This paper provides an analysis of Railside's success and identifies factors that contributed to this success.

Participants

Participants included approximately 700 students as they progressed through three California high schools. Railside was an urban high school with an ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse student body. Greendale was situated in a coastal community with a more homogeneous, primarily White student body. Hilltop was a rural high school with primarily White and Latino/a students.

Research Design

This longitudinal, multiple case study employed mixed methods. Three schools were chosen to offer a range of curricular programs and varied student populations. Student achievement and attitudinal data were evaluated using statistical techniques, whereas teacher and student practices were documented using qualitative analytic techniques such as coding.

Findings/Results

One of the findings of the study was the success of Railside school, where the mathematics department taught heterogeneous classes using a reform-oriented approach. Compared with the other two schools in the study, Railside students learned more, enjoyed mathematics more and progressed to higher mathematics levels. This paper presents large-scale evidence of these important achievements and provides detailed analyses of the ways that the Railside teachers brought them about, with a focus on the teaching and learning interactions within the classrooms.
Tracking in the Era of High-Stakes State Accountability Reform: Case Studies of Classroom Instruction in North Carolina
Authors: Watanabe Maika
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Considerable controversy surrounds the issue of whether high-stakes statewide accountability programs have led to more equitable educational opportunities for all students. Some researchers suggest that these programs have focused attention on improving the achievement of students of color from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Critics of accountability programs, however, raise concerns that high-stakes standardized tests have lowered the quality of instruction in inner-city schools, where students of color from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have traditionally not tested well, as these students do more out-of-context math and reading drill in preparation for the exams. A central question remains: What is the nature of curriculum and instruction for different groups of students in the new school reform context of high-stakes, statewide accountability programs, and what are the implications for equity?

Purpose of the Study

This account of classroom instruction delves into the instructional opportunities afforded students across different academic tracks under North Carolina's accountability program. The author focuses on the nature of classroom instruction for students in the “regular” classes, which are disproportionately populated by students of color from low socioeconomic backgrounds, with that of their peers in “academically gifted” classes and considers the implications for equity in this new policy context. While previous tracking literature suggests that teacher expectations of students, material available to students and skills emphasized in instruction differ across tracks, the research community has conducted little empirical research to support or refute claims on differential learning opportunities for different groups of students in the new context of high-stakes statewide accountability programs.

Research Design

This research used an ethnographic case study approach with theoretical sampling to select participants.

Data Collection/Analysis

This research was based on the following data: 1) 68 hours of classroom observations in two focal language arts teachers’ classrooms, 2) six interviews with each of the two focal teachers, 3) student work from two focal teachers’ classrooms and 4) interviews with eleven other teachers teaching at other schools.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The analysis reveals five key differences in instruction across tracks that favored students in the “academically gifted” classes. The article discusses the extent to which the high-stakes accountability policies influenced teachers to make bifurcated curricular decisions for their students across tracks. The author argues that despite calls to close the achievement gap through high-stakes accountability programs, the gap will persist unless policymakers and educators consider ways in which school organization can perpetuate or equalize instructional opportunities for students.
Private Secondary Education in Uganda: Implications for Planning
Authors: Jacob W. James , Holsinger Donald B. , Mugimu Christopher B.
Published: February 2022

Purpose of Study

A fundamental question for educational planners and policy makers is which secondary school providers are most efficient in raising student learning for the most youth, given an available level of resources. Considerable attention has been devoted in recent years to the proposition that private providers offer efficient alternatives to government-financed and administered secondary schools. This study examines the rise of private secondary schools in Uganda and calculates a unit cost estimate for representative samples of secondary schools, both private and government.

Setting

A unit cost analysis was conducted among 28 randomly selected secondary schools in Uganda.

Research Design

A national sample of secondary schools was stratified in three ways. First, schools were selected according to the type of school, allowing half of the sample to be government schools and the other half private schools. A second stratification involved urbanicity, so both urban and rural schools were included in adequate numbers to allow subsequent comparison. Finally, the school sample was stratified by the four primary geographic regions in Uganda: Central (n = 10), Eastern (n = 6), Northern (n = 6), and Western (n = 6) Regions. All findings are based on analysis of sample survey data derived from randomly selected administrators, teachers, and parents of students. Using secondary school leaving examinations as the measure of effect, the article examines the relative cost effectiveness of private and government schools.

Results

Private schools in Uganda appear to be attractive, low-cost alternatives to government secondary schools. Per-pupil spending is significantly related to learning achievement, regardless of whether a student attends a private or government school. Thus, if higher performance is the desired ultimate student outcome, additional spending will be required. For their per-pupil cost, this article shows that private schools produce good learning gains—better, in fact, on a dollar basis, than government schools.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Unit cost data, when combined with reliable and valid measures of student learning achievement, are helpful to policy analysts and policy makers in determining the most efficient use of money. Although the comparatively high unit costs of government schools in this study are affected by the inclusion of capital costs, there is strong evidence to support the contention that private schools are a cost-effective alternative to government schools in the provision of general secondary education. Recommendations for future research include extending the analysis beyond the comparison of costs and examination scores by also considering the intangible component gains of schooling experiences in both private and government schools.
Supporting College Transitions through Collaborative Programming: A Conceptual Model for Guiding Policy
Authors: Karp Melinda Mechur , Hughes Katherine L.
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Recent educational policy developments have sought to raise the academic rigor of students’ high school experiences to increase student preparation for postsecondary education. The expansion of credit-based transition programs (CBTPs), both in number and in the type of student served, represents one such strategy. These programs allow high school students to take college classes and earn college credit while still in high school. Despite policy makers’ enthusiasm, there has been little theorizing about why CBTPs might lead to improved student access to, and persistence in, college. Further, because any policy created to support these programs lacks a theoretical foundation, unintended consequences may result.

Research Questions/Focus of Study

The research question guiding this study was, Through what mechanisms might credit-based transition programs encourage student success in postsecondary education? This article presents a conceptual model hypothesizing why and how CBTPs may lead to their intended outcomes. We then explore five CBTPs in diverse policy contexts. We describe the ways that programs are attempting to meet the needs of a wide range of students, and identify program features that appear to best prepare middle- and low-achieving students for postsecondary education.

Research Design

Five in-depth qualitative case studies were conducted. Two visits were made to each site, during which we conducted interviews and observations with faculty, staff, and students, and collected supporting documents. Interview transcript and observational data were uploaded into NVivo, a qualitative software program, for coding and analysis.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The case study data demonstrated that our initial conceptual model oversimplified program structure and the interaction among program components. The model was refined to reflect that complexity and to take student motivation into account. The final model hypothesizes that student participation in college coursework and support services, along with the attendant growth in academic skills, knowledge of the social aspects of college, and motivation, will lead students to matriculate into postsecondary education. Moreover, because of their strong skills, students will be likely to persist in college once there. Future research should seek to test this model. In the meantime, the findings have important implications for policy makers and educators because they suggest that middle- and low-achieving students may benefit from participation in CBTPs if they are properly prepared for, and supported in, their college courses. In addition, the findings stress the importance of collaboration and communication across secondary and postsecondary sectors.
“Your Father Works for My Father”: Race, Class, and the Politics of Voluntarily Mandated Desegregation
Authors: Smith Stephen Samuel , Kedrowski Karen M. , Ellis Joseph M , Longshaw Judy
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Unlike the situation nationally where desegregation progress is faltering, the school district in Rock Hill, South Carolina, has recently undertaken measures to increase balance in pupil assignment despite considerable local opposition to these measures and the absence of a court order requiring the district to do so. Moreover, while other districts that are also pursuing desegregation increasingly rely on voluntary strategies such as magnets, the Rock Hill school district has relied more on adjusting the boundaries of mandatory attendance zones. This article investigates the conditions and developments that facilitated the school district's voluntarily increasing its desegregation efforts through the use of mandatory strategies. In so doing, the article expands upon our previous work that raises the possibility of a new politics of school desegregation.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The purpose of this essay is to clarify the meaning of voluntary desegregation; to understand the political, demographic, and other conditions that affected desegregation efforts in Rock Hill; and to relate these conditions to broader issues such as the changed (since the civil rights era) relationship between the federal government and local school districts on issues involving desegregation, the relative merits of race- versus class-based public policy, citizen participation in desegregation planning, and the Supreme Court's consideration of voluntary desegregation.

Setting

Rock Hill, South Carolina

Research Design

Case study

Conclusions/Recommendations

We find that Rock Hill's school desegregation efforts were facilitated by a change in school board elections, the current relatively loose coupling of policy venues on issues involving desegregation, the overlap between the interests of Blacks and working-class Whites in the development of a high school reassignment plan, citizen participation in desegregation planning, and effective leadership from the district's administration. The findings from this case study suggest that in some situations class-based public policy is more effective than race-based public policy, but they also caution equally strongly against making any sweeping claims for the generic effectiveness of class-based public policy. The findings also suggest why and how, contrary to the situation in the civil rights era, the workings of local politics in southern school districts may currently be consistent with the pursuit of school desegregation, not antithetical to it. Because of this consistency, a Supreme Court ruling against voluntary desegregation may be viewed as undermining not only the pursuit of equality of opportunity, but also the democratic ideal of popular sovereignty.
Embracing Contraries: Combining Assistance and Assessment in New Teacher Induction
Authors: Yusko Brian , Feiman-Nemser Sharon
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Although the induction literature has traditionally recommended separating assistance and assessment, there has been growing recognition that assessment is integral to promoting and gauging teacher quality. This has led to increased interest in approaches to new teacher induction that meld support, development, assessment and accountability.

Focus of Study

This article provides images of mentoring from two well-regarded induction programs that integrate assistance and assessment to promote quality teaching. The programs are the Peer Assistance and Evaluation Program (PAEP) in Cincinnati, and the Santa Cruz New Teacher Project (SCNTP). The article highlights the possibilities and pitfalls of each approach.

Research Design

The research uses a qualitative case study design involving multiple layers of data collection. Program level data included interviews with program leaders, analysis of program documentation, and observations of staff meetings and mentor training. We observed program implementation by shadowing experienced mentors as they worked with new teachers and asked each mentors in our sample to submit documentation of one year's work with one successful and one struggling new teacher.

Conclusions

A comparative analysis reveals that assistance and assessment can coexist. Participating in assessment and evaluation did not prevent mentors from forming trustworthy relationships, although it sometimes made that more challenging. In both programs mentors were highly regarded teachers, carefully chosen, with extensive professional expertise. They earned respect by establishing credibility as useful support providers. Mentors addressed novices’ concerns, but they also assessed how new teachers were meeting students’ learning needs. In both programs, new teachers set professional goals and were expected to demonstrate progress towards those goals. Mentoring conversations structured around “records of practice” provided opportunities to move beyond self-report and personal opinion. Mentoring can be most educative when mentors engage in assistance and assessment structured by appropriate frameworks and processes, get support from a professional community that upholds professional teaching standards, and receive training and ongoing professional development to carry out their important responsibility.
Research Apprenticeship at Michigan State University's College of Education: The Collegial and the Confidential
Authors: Weiland Steven
Published: February 2022

Background

Recent research on the preparation of graduate students in education for research has focused on general matters of epistemology, curriculum, and teaching. What should researchers know, how should research courses be designed, and what instructional approaches are most effective?

Purpose

This article addresses the problem of the preparation of educational researchers via an account of the results of a 10-year foundation-funded project. It focused on the “middle years” of doctoral study and addressed the value of faculty research mentors and other means of strengthening the research capacity of graduate students. The article offers an account of the development and history of the project, and the results.

Research Design

The article is an analytic essay based on the literature on the subject, institutional documents, interviews, and observations. The article also has features of a qualitative case study, featuring the two primary forms of support (beyond financial) that the Michigan State project offered its Spencer Fellows, opportunities for collegial development as scholars, and insight into the professional elements of research careers.

Conclusions

The article proposes that the focus of the Michigan State project—on mentoring students in the middle of their graduate careers (with other things)—produced fruitful attention to the strengthening of research methods and thus more satisfying and better work.
The Spencer Research Training Grant at the Penn Graduate School of Education: Implementation and Effects
Authors: Kecskemethy Thomas A.
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

The Research Training Grant (RTG) program at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education aimed to create strong research training experiences for predissertation fellows through generous financial aid, mentored research apprenticeships, and cocurricular experiences. Collectively these offerings sought to broaden knowledge of urban education and exposure to diverse research methods. Initiated in a context of significant institutional growth and change, the RTG also sought to improve the research training experiences of PhD students outside the RTG program, making broader discussions of urban education, educational research, and social research more integral to the general PhD student experience and to the life of the school. This was attempted with the launch of a schoolwide seminar series on educational research, the introduction of an annual student research symposium administered by the RTG fellows, and continuing faculty attention to policies affecting doctoral student mentoring and research training.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The article describes the aims and organization of the program and discusses strengths and challenges identified by students and faculty.

Research Design

This is a qualitative case study.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The operation of the RTG program at Penn offers several insights into how education schools might get the most out of their investments in doctoral students and doctoral education: (1) Its support of rigorous, discipline-based research training complemented by opportunities for interdisciplinary exposure seems to be important. Further, such initiatives are systematically supported with investments by the faculty and the administration. (2) The opportunity for students to approach research and problems of practice from multiple disciplinary perspectives was a significant perceived benefit of the RTG program's operation at Penn. (3) A flexible model of research apprenticeship, creative seminars, and symposia all helped to illuminate the strengths and limitations of discipline-based research. (4) Penn GSE PhD students who engaged in discussions that promoted epistemological diversity were better off for it. This sort of work is unlikely to occur at the level of the individual degree program, so engagement and support from the whole faculty are implied. (5) “Institutionalizing” these sorts of experiences and opportunities for students may mean consideration of structures and supports for doctoral student training that are unconventional, multidisciplinary, and collaborative.
Toward a Vibrant Research Community in Education: Investing in Early-Career Scholars
Authors: Young Lauren Jones
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

In 1994, the Spencer Foundation embarked on an ambitious experimental initiative to support the preparation of education researchers. Over the 13-year span of the Research Training Grant (RTG) program, the foundation made multiyear awards to more than a dozen leading institutions in the United States and South Africa. This article introduces the RTG program—its history, goals, and practices—as a context for the four case studies of program implementation that follow.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This article traces the development of the RTG program, situating it in the longstanding commitment of the Spencer Foundation to promote high-quality education research and describing the purposes and practices of the program. The primary strategy of the initiative was to provide block grants to institutions to support individual students engaged in full-time doctoral study focused on research preparation. The recipient institutions were expected to develop research training activities and models that might be institutionalized to benefit all doctoral students they served, and not just those supported directly by RTG funds. The purpose of this article is to provide a sense of the history, conversations, and contexts of the Spencer Foundation's investments in this strategy to strengthen the educational research community through the preparation of future scholars.
Did the Social Studies Really Replace History in American Secondary Schools?
Authors: Fallace Thomas
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

In recent decades, professional historians have made considerable efforts to reestablish influence over the teaching of history in American schools. This movement has rested upon a generally accepted historical narrative based on four assertions; first, that during the 1900s and 1910s, professional historians dominated the curriculum of most public schools; second, that this control was usurped by the “educationist” authors of the 1916 Committee on the Social Studies; third, that this report recommended social studies courses that amalgamated history and the social sciences to address current events and problems; and fourth, that over the course of the 1920s and 1930s, these amalgamated social studies courses replaced “straight” history in most American schools.

Purpose

The author challenges each of these assertions directly to present a more nuanced, accurate view of these years.

Research Design

Previous studies of this topic have tended to focus on the correspondence among professional leaders and/or the ideologies of the compilers of the Committee of Ten, Committee of Seven, and the Committee on the Social Studies (CSS) reports. While the author touches on these topics briefly as they relate to the four assertions above, the focus of this article is on some internal and external factors that have been overlooked, such as teacher qualifications, the content of textbooks, changing course enrollments, and the effects of the First World War.

Findings/Conclusions

The author argues that the transition from history to the social studies at the secondary level was not abrupt and that the social studies reform movement did not directly target discipline-based history. More important, he demonstrates that, at least through the 1930s, history courses were never fully displaced by amalgamated social studies classes. Therefore, the degree to which history and historians were “replaced” by the social studies and its advocates have been exaggerated in the present literature, and the use of words like, “abrupt,” “disappearance,” and “educationists,” have been misleading.