bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Crossing the Borders Again: Challenges in Comparing Quality Instruction in Mathematics and Reading
Authors: Graeber Anna O. , Newton Kristie J. , Chambliss Marilyn J. 
Published: November 2021

Context Although many studies have looked at the teaching of mathematics or at the teaching of reading, few have looked at teaching in both subjects and attempted to discuss characteristics of quality instruction across these two domains. In this article, we reflect on our attempts to do so. We focus on one aspect of instruction, the extent of cognitive demand that characterizes reading and mathematics instruction in fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms. Purpose We pursued this work to share the difficulties faced in working across the two subject areas and how the differences and similarities in the two subject areas influenced data collection and the interpretation of results. We also wanted to explore whether the instructional styles of teachers who teach in both subject areas exhibited similar amounts of cognitive demand. Research Design After discussing the struggles faced in data collection, terminology used, and the comparability of research bases in the two domains, we report on an exploratory analysis of classroom observation data from the High-Quality Teaching study. Three aspects of cognitive demand were assessed through the classroom observations of approximately 550 lessons in reading and 600 lessons in mathematics: demand of tasks posed by the teacher, demand of students’ responses, and demand of the lesson content. Using data related to these aspects of cognitive demand, we also compared the level of cognitive demand in the reading and mathematics classes of the 69 teachers who taught both subjects. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the level of cognitive demand exhibited in the tasks teachers pose and the responses and work of students are similar in mathematics and reading. However, we found that the cognitive demand associated with content was higher in reading than in mathematics. For teachers who teach both reading and mathematics, only a small percent demonstrated the same demanding instruction for tasks, responses, or content regardless of subject area. Are the differences real, or an artifact of the definitions and protocols used to compare the subject areas? In either case, we raise issues related to teacher education, professional development, and evaluation. Should teacher policies incorporate information about potential differences in quality instruction across disciplines, and, if so, how? If quality instruction across subjects differs, what are implications for policies that shape expectations for teachers who teach both reading and mathematics?
Emasculation Blues: Black Male Teachers’ Perspectives on Gender and Power in the Teaching Profession
Authors: Brockenbrough Ed 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Over the past decade, a growing chorus of educational stakeholders has called for the recruitment of more Black men into the American teaching profession, casting these men as ideal surrogate father figures for Black youth who may lack adult male role models in their families or communities. Although a small body of scholarly work has begun to examine the gendered forms of culturally relevant pedagogies enacted by Black male teachers, critical analyses have yet to emerge on how these men negotiate the gendered power dynamics and professional culture of a traditionally female workplace. Focus This article presents several sets of findings from a more broadly framed study on the identities, pedagogies, and experiences of Black male teachers. Using Black masculinity studies as a conceptual framework, this article focuses specifically on Black male teachers’ negotiations of workplace gender politics with women colleagues and administrators. Participants The 11 Black male teachers whose narratives are explored in this article were middle or high school teachers in a predominantly Black urban school district on the East Coast of the United States. Research Design The study described in this article was grounded in life history narrative inquiry and employed a three-interview regimen for in-depth interviewing to enable participants to construct rich and nuanced narratives of their lived experiences as Black men and as Black male teachers. Focus groups also allowed participants to co-construct understandings of the challenges and opportunities they faced as Black men in the teaching profession. Transcriptions were coded and analyzed for recurrent themes within each participant's narrative as well as across participant narratives. Findings Participants’ life narratives revealed patriarchal gender ideologies that produced an inattention to male privilege, fueled conflictual encounters with women colleagues and administrators, and informed a desire for more male-centered spaces and interactions within the profession. Conclusions and Recommendations Patriarchal gender ideologies contributed to contentious gender politics in the workplace for the men in this study. Future research should attempt to develop deeper understandings of how these ideologies may influence the experiences of Black men throughout the American teaching profession. Additionally, inquiry efforts should explore strategies for engaging Black male teachers in examinations of their complicated relationships to patriarchy and for applying a critical awareness of gender to their negotiations of gender politics in the workplace.
Learning to Attend to Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners through Teacher Inquiry in Teacher Education
Authors: Athanases Steven Z. , Wahleithner Juliet Michelsen , Bennett Lisa H. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Learning to meet students’ needs challenges new teachers often focused on procedures, management, materials, and curriculum. To avoid this development pattern, student teachers (STs) need opportunities to concentrate especially on needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Teacher inquiry (TI) holds promise as one such opportunity. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study We sought to understand how STs in a teacher credential program with a history of attention to diverse learners were learning about their CLD students through TI. Research Design We examined data collected from 80 STs over a 6-year period, including 80 TIs; STs’ data analysis field memos; questionnaires with reflections on TI processes and products; and taped ST peer discussions and conferences with instructor. Data also documented TI instruction, classroom culture, and opportunities to develop learning related to conducting TI. Drawing on research and theory, we developed, tested, and used a rubric of 17 indicators of attention to CLD learners as a means to examine the range of ways and the extent to which STs attended to CLD students through TI. Findings/Results STs took actions of various kinds to learn about diverse students: researching contexts and histories; examining student work and performance at full-class, subgroup, and individual levels; and asking and listening beneath the surface to students’ reasoning, attitudes, beliefs, and concerns about school learning and other issues. Various assessment and inquiry tools supported the process, helping STs develop data literacy to attend to CLD learners. However, TI elements were used to varying degrees, in various ways, and with varying levels of success. Two cases illustrate the range of TI tools that STs used to learn about their CLD learners, to generate data and evidence about learning, and to act in ways responsive to what they learned about students. Conclusions/Recommendations Those interested in studying multiple STs’ inquiries for attention to CLD learners may need to develop frames and analytic methods to examine a corpus of cases. This study was grounded in an assumption that such crosscutting analyses accumulate knowledge to disseminate to larger audiences, challenging conceptions that values of TI are purely local, serving only those directly involved. Teacher inquiry can help focus attention on individual student learners by allowing a teacher to compare data among individual students, giving a clearer, organized format in which they can observe growth and improvement or a decline in performance. In my own project, I observed lower performance among specific students concurrent with assignments in which instructions may have been difficult to decode for English learners or students with disabilities. (Tracey, preservice English language arts teacher)
Interventions Promoting Educators’ Use of Data: Research Insights and Gaps
Authors: Marsh Julie A. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context In recent years, states, districts, schools, and external partners have recognized the need to proactively foster the use of data to guide educational decision-making and practice. Understanding that data alone will not guarantee use, individuals at all levels have invested in interventions to support better access to, interpretation of, and responses to data of all kinds. Despite the emergence of these efforts, there has been little systematic examination of research on such efforts. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article synthesizes what we currently know about interventions to support educators’ use of data—ranging from comprehensive, system-level initiatives, such as reforms sponsored by districts or intermediary organizations, to more narrowly focused interventions, such as a workshop. The article summarizes what is what is known across studies about the design and implementation of these interventions, their effects at the individual and organizational levels, and the conditions shown to affect implementation and outcomes. Research Design Literature review. Data Collection and Analysis This review entailed systematic searches of electronic databases and careful sorting to yield a total of 41 books, peer-reviewed journal articles, and reports. Summaries of each publication were coded to identify the study methods (design, framework, sample, time frame, data collection), intervention design (level of schooling, focal data and data user, leverage points, components), and findings on implementation, effects, and conditions. Findings/Results The review uncovers a host of common themes regarding implementation, including promising practices (e.g., making data “usable” and “safe,” targeting multiple leverage points) and persistent challenges (e.g., developing support that is generic but also customized, sustaining sufficient support). The review also finds mixed findings and levels of research evidence on effects of interventions, with relatively more evidence on effects on educators’ knowledge, skills, and practice than on effects on organizations and student achievement. The article also identifies a set of common conditions found to influence intervention implementation and effects, including intervention characteristics (capacity, data properties), broader context (leadership, organizational structure), and individual relationships and characteristics (trust, beliefs and knowledge). Conclusions/Recommendations The review finds that the current research base is limited in quantity and quality. It suggests the need for more methodologically rigorous research and greater attention to the organizational and student-level outcomes of interventions, comparative analyses, interventions that help educators move from knowledge to action, and specific ways in which the quality of data and leadership practices shape the effectiveness of interventions.
The Timing of Teacher Hires and Teacher Qualifications: Is There an Association?
Authors: Engel Mimi 
Published: November 2021

Background Case studies suggest that late hiring timelines are common in large urban school districts and result in the loss of qualified teachers to surrounding suburbs. To date, however, there has been no large-scale quantitative investigation of the relationship between the timing of teacher hires and teacher qualifications. Purpose This study examines the pervasiveness of late teacher hiring in urban and suburban school districts and explores the association between the timing of teacher hires and teacher qualifications, including certification, master's degree, and selectivity of undergraduate institution. Research Design Nationally representative cross-sectional data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics are used. Data Analysis The study uses data on school districts, public schools, and teachers from the 1999–2000 Schools and Staffing Survey. Secondary data are analyzed using multiple regression, including labor market fixed effects, to estimate the relationship between the timing of teacher hires and teacher qualifications. Results On average, districts hire 45% of their new teachers late—during the second half of summer and once the school year has already begun. Late hiring is more pervasive in urban and low-socioeconomic-status districts where over half of new hires take place during this late period. In urban districts, fully one fifth of new hires are made once the school year has already begun. The proportion of teachers hired late, however, does not predict the Barron's ratings of teachers’ undergraduate institutions, certification, or master's degree. Conclusions Although descriptive results indicate that late hiring is pervasive and more pronounced in urban districts, analyses do not provide evidence supporting the notion that earlier hiring is associated with hiring better credentialed teachers. Despite these null results, it is important to remember that late hires are still likely to cause problems for students, as well as for teachers, schools, and districts.
School Segregation and Math Achievement: A Mixed-Method Study on the Role of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Authors: Agirdag Orhan , Van Avermaet Piet , Van Houtte Mieke 
Published: November 2021

Background In educational research on children's academic performance, few topics have received more attention than the consequences of school segregation and the impact of self-fulfilling prophecies. However, virtually no research has investigated whether self-fulfilling prophecies account for the impact of school composition on academic achievement. Purpose & Research Objectives This study aims to integrate research on the effects of school segregation with that on self-fulfilling prophecies by examining the mediating role of teacher expectancies regarding the impact of school composition on pupils’ math achievement. First, we investigate whether teachers’ teachability expectations are related to the socioe-conomic and ethnic composition of the school. Second, we investigate whether and how the effects of school composition can be explained by self-fulfilling prophecies. Because it is theorized that teacher expectancies might have an impact on pupils’ academic achievement through pupils’ perceptions of control over their achievement, we investigate the role of pupils’ sense of academic futility. Sample & Research Design Quantitative data from a survey of 2,845 pupils and 706 teachers in 68 Flemish (Belgian) primary schools and qualitative data obtained through in-depth interviews with 26 teachers in five schools are analyzed. A complementary mixed- method design is used: Findings from the quantitative data are strengthened and illustrated with qualitative data. Results The multilevel analysis shows that teachers’ teachability expectations are lower in schools with a high share of nonnative and working-class pupils and that these teachability expectations have an indirect impact on pupils’ achievement through pupils’ feelings of academic futility. The qualitative analysis reveals that the low teacher expectations in these schools are largely triggered by alleged linguistic deficiencies and problematic language use of the pupils and that school staff persistently communicate their preference for Dutch mono-lingualism to pupils. Recommendations The results of this study indicate that socioeconomic desegregation may not be needed if it is possible to reform schools with a larger share of working-class pupils. Schools that produce more favorable teachability expectations are recommended. In particular, teachers’ attitudes and beliefs regarding pupils’ linguistic backgrounds might be the focus of educational reforms.
A Re-Analysis of the Effects of KIPP and the Harlem Promise Academies
Authors: Yeh Stuart S. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Existing evaluations of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) and the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) charter school programs suggest that these programs may potentially be very effective in closing the academic achievement gap. Purpose/Objective The purpose of the current study is to investigate the possibility of an internal contradiction in the assumptions underlying the KIPP and HCZ models that would prevent the models from being scaled up with the same positive results. Research Design The method involves: (1) review of the results of the key impact studies; (2) review of empirical evidence of high teacher attrition; (3) review of statements by the founders of the HCZ and KIPP models articulating the core assumption; (4) a narrative explanation of the internal contradiction in these models; and (5) a formal analysis demonstrating the consequences of this contradiction. Findings/Results The analysis suggests that gains from the KIPP and HCZ models would fall to zero once these programs are implemented in every school across the nation. The analysis suggests why existing impact results are likely due to artifacts stemming from high teacher attrition and hoarding of a disproportionate share of the nation's limited pool of highly dedicated teachers, rather than gains that could be sustained when the programs are scaled up and implemented nationwide. Conclusions/Recommendations The article recommends that national implementation of the KIPP and HCZ models should be delayed until research has been performed that would substantiate the assumption that there is a sufficient supply of highly dedicated teachers to fill the large number of vacant teaching positions that arise as a consequence of these models.
Learning to Resist: Educational Counter-Narratives of Black College Reentry Mothers
Authors: Sealey-Ruiz Yolanda 
Published: November 2021

Background College reentry women are often older than the traditional college student, and in this study are distinguished from other students because of their parental status as mothers (Johnson-Bailey, 2000; Sealey-Ruiz, 2007). As one of the the fastest growing populations in colleges and universities across the nation, it is alarming that many Black college reentry women, despite their educational gains, continue to face stereotypes about who they are socially, politically, and educationally. Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the schooling experiences of Black college reentry mothers (n = 5) and explicate the ways in which they theorize and make meaning of the complexities of their lives, particularly in regard to the intersections of race, college reentry, and motherhood. Research Design Employing qualitative case study and narrative analysis methods, the larger study from which some data for this article derive (Sealey-Ruiz, 2005) examined the educational narratives of Black college reentry women. The original study investigated the influence the participants’ college reentry had on their lives and their daughters’ educational choices. The study reported in this article, then, includes data from individual interviews with the 5 mothers from the original study as they focus on their college reentry experience and motherhood. Findings/Results Contrary to what some researchers assert about schools not providing welcoming spaces for Black women to develop an optimistic sense of self, the reentry mothers in this study viewed college enrollment as a crucial step toward positive self-definition. Their efforts to become educated represent their resistance to public stereotypical images of themselves as Black mothers. In other words, they believed their college reentry served as counterpoint to the three stereotypes about Black mothers discussed in this article: the mammy, the matriarch, and the welfare mother/welfare queen. Conclusions/Recommendations The counter-narratives these mothers offered to the three stereotypes suggest that there are psychological barriers (fear of belonging, self-doubt, fear of marginalization, racism, sexism, negative stereotyping) to their academic success. This conclusion has the strong potential to move educational researchers toward a deeper investigation of challenges to the college reentry experienced by Black mothers, in the hope of creating institutional support structures, systems, and policies that can propel the academic success of this population.
Same Contract, Different Day? An Analysis of Teacher Bargaining Agreements in Louisville since 1979
Authors: Cowen Joshua M. , Fowles Jacob 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Recent political efforts to minimize the influence of teacher unions have called new attention to collective bargaining in American education. Such attention has only heightened a longstanding controversy within the realms of both research and practice. A renewed scholarly literature has systematically considered the relationship between teacher unionization and educational outcomes. The current paper provides additional context for such work by considering teacher contracts over time. Purpose/Objective/Research Question In this study we examine the ways in which the collective bargaining agreements in a large, Midwestern American school district have changed during more than 30 years of policymaking. Research Design The paper presents an historical content analysis/case study of every contract in Louisville, Kentucky since 1979. We focus on several areas of current interest to researchers studying teacher quality. These include salary schedules, transfer and assignment policies, teacher evaluation, dismissal, and working conditions. To fix our analysis within a theoretical framework, we consider an interpretation of our evidence suggested by the perspective of New Institutionalism. Conclusions/Recommendations We show that these contracts have changed very little in more than three decades, and most key provisions are identical. The time period we examine covers important educational reforms at the state and federal levels, as well as a number of popular movements such as efforts to reduce class size and enhance teacher quality through new evaluation schemes and tenure reform. If confirmed in other districts, our evidence would suggest limited potential for policy change to be reflected in individual bargaining agreements.