bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Limits of Generalizing in Education Research: Why Criteria for Research Generalization Should Include Population Heterogeneity and Uses of Knowledge Claims
Authors: Ercikan Kadriye , Roth Wolff-Michael 
Published: November 2021

Context Generalization is a critical concept in all research designed to generate knowledge that applies to all elements of a unit (population) while studying only a subset of these elements (sample). Commonly applied criteria for generalizing focus on experimental design or representativeness of samples of the population of units. The criteria tend to neglect population diversity and targeted uses of knowledge generated from the generalization. Objectives This article has two connected purposes: (a) to articulate the structure and discuss limitations of different forms of generalizations across the spectrum of quantitative and qualitative research and (b) to argue for considering population heterogeneity and future uses of knowledge claims when judging the appropriateness of generalizations. Research Design In the first part of the paper, we present two forms of generalization that rely on statistical analysis of between-group variation: analytic and probabilistic generalization. We then describe a third form of generalization: essentialist generalization. Essentialist generalization moves from the particular to the general in small sample studies. We discuss limitations of each kind of generalization. In the second part of the paper, we propose two additional criteria when evaluating the validity of evidence based on generalizations from education research: population heterogeneity and future use of knowledge claims. Conclusions/Recommendations The proposed criticisms of research generalizations have implications on how research is conducted and research findings are summarized. The main limitation in analytic generalization is that it does not provide evidence of a causal link for subgroups or individuals. In addition to making explicit the uses that the knowledge claims may be targeting, there is a need for some changes in how research is conducted. This includes a need for demonstrating the mechanisms of causality; descriptions of intervention outcomes as positive, negative, or neutral; and latent class analysis accompanied with discriminant analysis. The main criticism of probabilistic generalization is that it may not apply to subgroups and may have limited value for guiding policy and practice. This highlights a need for defining grouping variables by intended uses of knowledge claims. With respect to essentialist generalization, there are currently too few qualitative studies attempting to identify invariants that hold across the range of relevant situations. There is a need to study the ways in which a kind of phenomenon is produced, which would allow researchers to understand the various ways in which a phenomenon manifests itself.
The Instructional Challenge in Improving Teaching Quality: Lessons from a Classroom Observation Protocol
Authors: Gitomer Drew , Bell Courtney , Qi Yi , Mccaffrey Daniel , Hamre Bridget K. , Pianta Robert C. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Teacher evaluation is a major policy initiative intended to improve the quality of classroom instruction. This study documents a fundamental challenge to using teacher evaluation to improve teaching and learning. Purpose Using an observation instrument (CLASS-S), we evaluate evidence on different aspects of instructional practice in algebra classrooms to consider how much scores vary, how well observers are able to judge practice, and how well teachers are able to evaluate their own practice. Participants The study includes 82 Algebra I teachers in middle and high schools. Five observers completed almost all observations. Research Design Each classroom was observed 4–5 times over the school year. Each observation was coded and scored live and by video. All videos were coded by two independent observers, as were 36% of the live observations. Observers assigned scores to each of 10 dimensions. Observer scores were also compared with master coders for a subset of videos. Participating teachers also completed a self-report instrument (CLASS-T) to assess their own skills on dimensions of CLASS-S. Data Collection and Analysis For each lesson, data were aggregated into three domain scores, Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support, and then averaged across lessons to create scores for each classroom. Findings/Results Classroom Observation scores fell in the high range of the protocol. Scores for Emotional Support were in the midlevel range, and the lowest scores were for Instructional Support. Scores for each domain were clustered in narrow ranges. Observers were more consistent over time and agreed more when judging Classroom Organization than the other two domains. Teacher ratings of their own strengths and weaknesses were positively related to observation scores for Classroom Organization and unrelated to observation scores for Instructional Support. Conclusions/Recommendations This study identifies a critical challenge for teacher evaluation policy if it is to improve teaching and learning. Aspects of teaching and learning in the observation protocol that appear most in need of improvement are those that are the hardest for observers to agree on, and teachers and external observers view most differently. Reliability is a marker of common understanding about important constructs and observation protocols are intended to provide a common language and structure to inform teaching practice. This study suggests the need to focus our efforts on the instructional and interactional aspects of classrooms through shared conversations and clear images of what teaching quality looks like.
The Characteristics of Historically Black College and University Presidents and Their Role in Grooming the Next Generation of Leaders
Authors: Freeman Sydney , Gasman Marybeth 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Although research on college and university presidents has grown in recent decades, historically Black college and university (HBCU) presidents have rarely been included in this research. We know almost nothing about the pathways to the HBCU presidency or the role that current presidents play in grooming future presidents. More literature is needed in order to deepen our understanding of the HBCU presidency. Purpose With this study, we sought to capture the background characteristics of HBCU leaders, to lay the ground work for future studies on HBCU presidents, and to understand the role these leaders play in grooming and mentoring the next generation of HBCU leaders. Research Design In order to answer our research questions, we used a combination a surveys, document analysis, and qualitative interviews. Conclusions and Recommendations Our conclusions and recommendations point to a recycling of presidents at HBCUs as well as the disproportionate presence of long-term presidencies. Moreover, although grooming of future presidents is taking place, it is not systematic and would benefit from deeper thought and commitment.
Algebra for All: California's Eighth-Grade Algebra Initiative as Constrained Curricula
Authors: Domina Thurston , Penner Andrew M. , Penner Emily K. , Conley Annemarie 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Across the United States, secondary school curricula are intensifying as a growing proportion of students enroll in high-level academic math courses. In many districts, this intensification process occurs as early as eighth grade, where schools are effectively constraining their mathematics curricula by restricting course offerings and placing more students into Algebra I. This paper provides a quantitative single-case research study of policy-driven curricular intensification in one California school district. Research Questions (1a) What effect did 8th eighth grade curricular intensification have on mathematics course enrollment patterns in Towering Pines Unified schools? (2b) How did the distribution of prior achievement in Towering Pines math classrooms change as the district constrained the curriculum by universalizing 8th eighth grade Algebra? (3c) Did 8th eighth grade curricular intensification improve students’ mathematics achievement? Setting Towering Pines is an immigrant enclave in the inner-ring suburbs of a major metropolitan area. The district's 10 middle schools together enroll approximately 4,000 eighth graders each year. The districts’ students are ethnically diverse and largely economically disadvantaged. The study draws upon administrative data describing 8th eighth graders in the district in the 2004–20-05 through 2007–20-08 school years. Intervention/Program/Practice During the study period, Towering Pines dramatically intensified middle school students’ math curricula: In the 2004–20-05 school year 32% of the district's 8th eighth graders enrolled in Algebra or a higher- level mathematics course; by the 2007–20-08 school year that proportion had increased to 84%. Research Design We use an interrupted time-series design, comparing students’ 8th eighth grade math course enrollments, 10th grade math course enrollments, and 10th grade math test scores across the four cohorts, controlling for demographics and prior achievement. Findings/Results We find that students’ odds of taking higher level mathematics courses increased as this district implemented the state's Algebra mandate. However, even as the district implemented a constrained curriculum strategy, mathematics achievement growth between 6th sixth and 10th grade slowed and the achievement advantages associated with 8th eighth grade Algebra declined. Conclusions/Recommendations Our analyses suggest that curricular intensification increased the inclusiveness and decreased the selectivity of the mathematics tracking regime in Towering Pines middle schools. However, the findings suggest that this constrained curriculum strategy may have may have unintended negative consequences for student achievement.
Facilitating Dialogues about Racial Realities
Authors: Quaye Stephen J. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Facilitating dialogues about racial issues in higher education classroom settings continues to be a vexing problem facing postsecondary educators. In order for students to discuss race with their peers, they need skilled facilitators who are knowledgeable about racial issues and able to support students in these difficult dialogues. Yet previous research on difficult dialogues has largely focused on students’ experiences in these dialogues and the outcomes they gain from participating in them with little knowledge about the roles of facilitators of these dialogues. Purpose The purpose of the present study was to examine how postsecondary educators facilitate racial dialogues. Research Design In this study, I employed case study methodology and conducted semistructured individual interviews with 22 participants, as well as examined participants’ syllabi to see how they structured their courses. Findings Findings reveal the practical strategies educators used to facilitate classroom-based racial dialogues, including utilizing group discussions, using various practical resources, developing ways for learners to apply racial concepts and theories to their lives, and providing ample space for students to debrief at the conclusion of the dialogues. Conclusions/Recommendations Major conclusions and recommendations from this study include the importance of White educators facilitating these dialogues, educators conceiving of knowledge differently, the importance of paying attention to the institutional and classroom cultures for these dialogues, fostering collaborations between faculty and student affairs educators to enable students to grapple with racial issues in classroom and cocurricular settings, and connecting racial dialogues with other historical forms of oppression like sexism and classism.
Understanding For-Profit College and Community College Choice through Rational Choice
Authors: Iloh Constance , Tierney William G. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Scarce research has been conducted examining why students choose to attend higher priced for-profit institutions over community colleges. The authors suggest that increased national concern over proprietary higher education warrants an in-depth comparative case study of the choice factors utilized by for-profit and community college students. Research Question The research questions guiding this analysis are: (a) Why and how do students choose to attend for-profit colleges and community colleges? (b) What factors were important in their decision? (c) What implications do these results have for rational choice and college choice theory? Setting Data were collected at one community college and one for-profit college in California that had similar vocational programs. Subjects A total of 137 for-profit and community college students (75 for profit, 62 community college) enrolled in a vocational nursing or surgical technician associate's degree program agreed to participate. Research Design The authors examine student college choice factors through a case study. The findings were developed from interviews, surveys, and focus groups. Findings The authors found that for-profit and community college students held varying conceptions of costs and benefits as they pertained to college choice factors. Three particular dimensions were highlighted in student responses—short-term and long-term gains, risks, and uncertainty. Conclusions This study illuminates the nuanced factors and goals that informed student college choice decisions. Understanding these distinct college choice considerations could help researchers, practitioners, and institutional leaders develop measures for institutional effectiveness and student success.
Does Preservice Preparation Matter? Examining an Old Question in New Ways
Authors: Ronfeldt Matthew , Schwartz Nathaniel , Jacob Brian A. 
Published: November 2021

Background Over the past decade, most of the quantitative studies on teacher preparation have focused on comparisons between alternative and traditional routes. There has been relatively little quantitative research on specific features of teacher education that might cause certain pathways into teaching to be more effective than others. The vast majority of evidence on features of preservice preparation comes from qualitative case studies of single institutions that prepare teachers. Among the few large-scale cross-institution studies that exist, most provide only descriptive trends that fail to account for teacher and school characteristics that might explain apparent relationships in the data. Additionally, these studies typically look at state- or district-level data, providing little information on national trends. Purpose Focusing on two features of preparation commonly targeted by certification policies, this study asks: Does completing more practice teaching and methods-related coursework predict teachers’ retention and perceived instructional preparedness? Do the results vary for different kinds of teachers and schools. Research Design This is a secondary analysis of data from the two most recent administrations of the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), a nationally representative survey of teachers that includes information about preservice preparation, retention, and perceptions of preparedness. We link surveyed teachers to Common Core of Data on their schools and to Barron's ratings of college competitiveness. Data Analysis We use linear and logistic regression with state and district fixed effects, as well as comprehensive controls for school and teacher characteristics, to estimate whether completing more practice teaching and methods-related coursework predicts teachers’ self-perceived instructional preparedness and persistence in the profession. Findings We find that teachers who completed more methods-related coursework and practice teaching felt better prepared and were more likely to stay in teaching. These positive relationships were similar across alternative and traditional routes and tended to be greater among graduates from competitive colleges, males, and mathematics and science teachers, as well as teachers in urban, rural, and secondary schools. Conclusions Our study provides some of the best suggestive evidence to date that teacher education programs, and certification policies that influence them, can improve teachers’ preparedness and persistence by increasing requirements for practice teaching and methods-related coursework. Policy makers often consider reducing preparation requirements to increase the supply of academically talented and underrepresented teacher groups. Finding these groups to be at least as, and usually more, responsive to additional preparation raises some concern that reducing requirements could have negative consequences for their preparedness and retention.
The School Counselor Caseload and the High School-to-College Pipeline
Authors: Woods Chenoa S. , Domina Thurston 
Published: November 2021

Background Advising students on the transition from high school to college is a central part of school counselors’ professional responsibility. The American School Counselor Association recommends a school counselor caseload of 250 students; however, prior work yields inconclusive evidence on the relationship between school counseling and school-level counseling resources and students’ college trajectories. Focus of Study This study evaluates the relationship between access to school counselors and several critical indicators of student transitions between high school and college. Research Design The study utilizes the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 to explore the relationships between the school counselor caseload and students’ progress throughout the high school-to-college pipeline. The key indicator is the counselor caseload for students at a given high school, measured as the number of 10th graders per counselor at the high school at which each student is enrolled. The outcome variables are students’ college expectations, whether students spoke with a counselor about college, taking the SAT, and college enrollment. Logistic and multinomial logistic regression analyses are applied to examine the relationships between these variables. Findings Students in schools with small counselor caseloads enjoy greater success at navigating the high school-to-college pipeline. Controlling for student- and school-level characteristics, students in schools where counselors are responsible for advising a large number of students are less likely to speak with a counselor about college, plan to attend college, take the SAT, and enroll in a four-year college. Conclusions The findings support the claim that a smaller school counselor caseload may increase students’ access to key college preparation resources and raise four-year college enrollment rates.
Understanding Key Stakeholder Belief Systems or Institutional Logics Related to Non-Tenure-Track Faculty and the Changing Professoriate
Authors: Kezar Adrianna , Maxey Daniel 
Published: November 2021

Background/context Over the past 40 years, the composition of the professoriate has changed substantially across all institutional types. Once predominantly tenure track, now nontenure-track faculty (NTTF) constitute more than 70% of the faculty. While these major changes have occurred, we know little about key stakeholders’ views (accreditors, policy makers, presidents) of these changes. Purpose In this article, we explore the following research question: What are the belief systems (logics) related to the changing professoriate of the key entities within the higher education organizational field? Population/description of participants Thirty-five individuals from key stakeholder groups were included: accreditation agencies; disciplinary societies; faculty stakeholder groups such as New Faculty Majority; unions; state or system leadership and state compacts such as National Association of System Heads; voluntary regional consortia such as those representing deans; governing boards; and individual and institutional membership associations, including the American Council on Education and American Association of Community Colleges. Research design In order to better understand the perspectives of key stakeholders in higher education's organizational field related to the nature of the professoriate, we conducted a modified Policy Delphi study. Findings The findings indicate one of the major reasons that the organizational field did not provide a shield to the decline of tenure or mobilize to combat the deteriorating conditions of nontenure-track faculty is because no new decided upon logic has been created as it relates to the professoriate. Great disagreement exists about what the future professoriate should look like and the four distinctive views are presented. Conclusions There is some opportunity for consensus and mobilization around two key points: (a) All groups believe the current three-tiered model (shrinking tenure track, large part time, and full-time nontenure track) is not working; and (b) there is broad consensus about a few principles for a new model such as greater job security, shared governance, greater academic freedom than most faculty currently have, and more focus on the educational function of faculty.
Everyday Constitutional Assessments and Their Relevance to Formal Assessments
Authors: Varenne Hervé 
Published: November 2021

Background In anthropology and related disciplines, the term “assessment” refers to the everyday activities of ordinary people as they figure out what to do next given what others have just done. The assessments, in turn, constitute what is happening, whether in encounters between policeman and person in the street, or classroom lesson, or joking about a teacher, or giving birth in a hospital, blogging, etc. Findings This review article briefly summarizes the major findings in such research and its roots in American pragmatic thought. Conclusion The article then suggest how to apply this form of analysis to long historical conversations about the foundations of democracy, the assessment of what building a democracy must entail, particularly as it relates to an educated citizenry, and then to the ongoing assessments of whether goals are being met and what reforms may be needed (e.g., “No Child Left Behind”) continuing with further assessments that constitute new realities that will be subjected to further assessments in the political sphere.