bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Is All Classroom Conduct Equal? Teacher Contact with Parents of Racial/Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Adolescents
Authors: Cherng Hua-Yu 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Parental involvement is a key ingredient in the educational success of students and an integral component of involvement is teacher-parent communication. One body of research finds that minority immigrant parents face barriers in interacting with schools, and communicate less with schools than native-born White parents. However, we know little of how schools reach out to parents. Purpose In this study, I use a nationally representative sample of high schoolers to examine patterns of teachers communicating with parents. Population/Participants/Subjects I utilize a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school sophomores, the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). Research Design This study employs quantitative analyses of secondary data, including two-sample tests for proportions, logistic regression, and predicted percentages. Findings/Results Even after considering measures of student behavior and other factors, I find that mathematics teachers are more likely to contact parents of third-generation Black and Latino youth about disruptive behavior than parents of third-generation White youth. Mathematics and English teachers are less likely to contact immigrant Asian parents about academic and behavioral concerns, even when students are struggling. Teachers are also less likely to contact minority parents with news of accomplishments. Conclusions/Recommendations The findings of this study point to the important role that race and nativity play in shaping teacher communication with parents. Education policy should be cognizant that racial/ethnic and immigrant disparities exist in teacher-parent contact, and encourage more training in teacher preparation programs and professional development coursework for teachers and school administrators. Moreover, existing programs and interventions on multicultural / diversity training should be evaluated for their impact on teacher perceptions and behavior.
Beyond Knowledge Ventriloquism and Echo Chambers: Raising the quality of the Debate in Teacher Education
Authors: Zeichner Kenneth , Conklin Hilary G. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context For over two decades, there has been a steady call for deregulating U.S. teacher education, closing down allegedly poor quality college and university programs, and creating greater market competition. In response to this call to disrupt the dominance of colleges and universities in teacher education, and because of the policies and funding allocations of the U.S. Education Department and private foundation funding, non-university providers of teacher education have proliferated in certain areas of the country. A critical aspect of the current call for greater deregulation and market competition in teacher education has been the declaration that university teacher education has failed. While there is no dispute about the need for improvements in the dominant college and university system of teacher education, it is also important to critically evaluate the warrants for the value of programs that critics claim should replace college and university programs. Purpose The focus of this paper is to illustrate how research has been misrepresented to support policies and programs that would simultaneously reduce the role of colleges and universities in preparing U.S. teachers and support the expansion of the role of non-university providers. We also examine the print news media's role in uncritically reproducing a narrative of failure about university teacher education and promoting the success of new non-university programs—attention that has served to inflate the public perception of these organizations and programs beyond what is warranted by the available evidence. Research Design Four cases are presented that illustrate the efforts to manufacture a narrative of the failure of colleges and universities in preparing teachers, and to construct a narrative of success for the non-university programs that have been funded to replace them. The authors use the concepts of echo chambers and knowledge ventriloquism to show how this process operates. Conclusions/Recommendations Following the presentation of the cases, specific recommendations are offered for raising the quality of the debates about the future of U.S. teacher education. These include greater transparency in the process of reform, better communication between researchers and stakeholders, using research that has been vetted to inform the debates, and genuinely exploring different policy options for teacher education.
Culturally Relevant Pedagogies: Possibilities and Challenges for African Canadian Children
Authors: Henry Annette 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Ladson-Billings's concept of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for African American children has been widely reinterpreted in various contexts for racialized students. In this reflective essay, I consider its challenges in Canadian contexts. Focus I use my early ethnographic work to illustrate important aspects of culturally relevant pedagogies, to raise cross-cultural differences, and as a springboard to engage with newer theorizations. Research Design These studies took place in a majority Black K–5 school; in addition, I conducted two studies in Illinois. I argue that the goals of culturally relevant education for Black students within the formal mechanisms of Canadian schooling are impeded by the official policy of multiculturalism that frames the Canadian imaginary and does not include Black people. Conclusions/Recommendations In the quest for pedagogies relevant to students’ lives, I call for fuller conceptualizations of Blackness that complicate notions of culture, transnational relationships, and global migrations. Lastly, I call for teachers to embrace the nexus of issues that students negotiate in their daily lives as part of any potentially transformative pedagogy.
Social Justice Policymaking in Teacher Education from Conception to Application: Realizing Standard VI
Authors: Burns Leslie David , Miller Sj 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context This article describes the fundamental role of social justice in public education and professional teacher education. Purpose The purpose of this policy analysis is to explicate the theorizing, conceptualization, formalization, and implementation of the first standard for social justice teaching and teacher education in U.S. history, published by the National Council of Teachers of English and approved by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education in November 2012. Design Using a policy narrative approach, the authors explicate the grassroots political processes, professional political action and advocacy, and policy procedures and scholarship undertaken to construct a successfully vetted, approved, and fully implemented national policy in one subject-area professional association (SPA). The authors demonstrate how other SPAs and affiliated groups may pursue similar policies for socially just teaching and teacher education across disciplines, fields, and contexts across education. Conclusions Using research to theorize responsive teaching pedagogies and using findings from social psychology research to generate a socially just orientation to teaching in public schools, the authors highlight the ways in which social justice teaching is not simply a possible orientation for professional educators to consider but a fundamental tenet and primary consideration of public education overall. The authors conclude that SPAs and public education professionals not only may but must engage in social justice policymaking for educational equity in order to succeed in attaining education reforms that truly serve the public good.
Help Avoidance: When Students Should Seek Help, and the Consequences of Failing to Do So
Authors: Almeda Victoria , Baker Ryan , Corbett Albert 
Published: November 2021

Background Across computer-based and traditional classroom settings, recent studies have identified motivational orientation, prior knowledge, self-regulation, and cognitive load as possible factors that affect help-seeking behaviors and their impact on learning. However, the question of whether there is an optimal point for determining when a student needs help has not been fully explored. Purpose of Study Using data from two modules of the Genetics Cognitive Tutor, the present study investigates this question by examining whether the relationship of help avoidance (failing to seek help when it is needed) and student learning is dependent on the student's level of prior knowledge. We also investigate how the relationship between help avoidance and student learning is mediated by the amount of prior practice, or the number of attempts at a problem step. Research Design We obtained existing data from the use of the Genetics Cognitive Tutor. We conducted a series of correlational analyses to better understand the relationship between help avoidance and student learning. We correlated students’ proportions of help avoidance at different levels of knowledge with measures of robust learning. We also analyzed the relationship between students’ proportions of help avoidance and measures of robust learning, taking the amount of practice or the number of attempts at a problem step into account. Results Our findings suggest that, except at very high or very low knowledge, help avoidance is generally stably (negatively) related to robust learning outcomes. Our results also indicate that help avoidance is more strongly associated with learning outcomes early in the practice sequence, suggesting that students should be encouraged to seek help on problem-solving skills on the first problem, rather than waiting until later problems. Similarly, our results reveal that help avoidance is more negatively associated with learning outcomes on early attempts at a problem step than on later attempts, indicating that students should be encouraged to seek help on the first attempt if help is needed. Conclusions These findings represent a step toward understanding when students should seek help, with the potential of improving the design of metacognitive support within adaptive learning systems.
Policy-Induced Disparities in Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Teacher Qualifications
Authors: Rosenbaum Rene P. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Research reveals the Head Start program has made impressive gains in increasing the qualifications of its teachers since the passage of the Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1998. These gains have been attributed to the initiatives implemented by the Administration of Children and Families to increase the qualifications of Head Start teachers nationwide. The slow growth in the credentialization of Migrant and Seasonal Head Start program teachers and the resultant teacher qualifications disparity gap that has resulted, on the other hand, has been attributed to the unique characteristics of Migrant and Seasonal Head Start families and programs. Purpose The study documents the widening annual teacher qualifications disparity gap between Head Start (HS) teachers and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) teachers since the passage of the 1998 Head Start Act and asks if the teacher qualifications disparity is a Head Start policy-induced outcome. It is hypothesized in this regard that the way the workforce provisions to increase the qualifications of Head Start teachers were written into the legislation and the actions taken by the ACF in response are contributing factors to the growth in the MSHS teacher qualifications disparity gap. Research Design The qualitative case study analyzes Head Start data to confirm the growing teacher qualifications gap between HS and Migrant Head Start programs. To examine the cause of this growing disparity a review of the literature was conducted, the provisions of the 1998 and 2007 Head Start Acts were examined, as were the programmatic initiatives by the Administration of Children and Families to help Head Start programs increate their share of teachers with early childhood education degrees. The Large Program Effect is introduced as an analytical construct to illustrate the effects large HS programs had on the HS teacher labor market and on the MSHS teacher qualifications disparity gap. Conclusion The article offers an alternative explanation to the growing teacher qualifications gap grounded in the legislative provisions of the 1998 and 2007 reauthorizations of the Head Start Act and the programmatic actions taken the ACF to implement major HS teacher labor market reforms. The findings suggest two course of action, one meant to reverse the policy-induced disparities the other to avoid their perpetuation in the future.
Connecting Math Attitudes with STEM Career Attainment: A Latent Class Analysis Approach
Authors: Dang Myley , Nylund-Gibson Karen 
Published: November 2021

Background For many years now, there have been many job vacancies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but not enough workers to fill these vacancies. Much attention has been given to understanding and changing this situation in our country. Purpose The purpose of this study is to address this dilemma by understanding what may be gained by investigating student's attitudes towards STEM in high school. Specifically, we study the relationship between students’ math attitudes and math self-efficacy beliefs and their career outcomes in STEM. Further, we do this across different English proficiency levels to see if any understanding may be gained by studying these groups differently. Research Design This study implemented secondary analysis by using a nationally representative sample of U.S. 10th graders from the Education Longitudinal Study. A latent class analysis was used to classify students’ math attitudes and self-efficacy. Results The results from this study provide empirical support suggesting that across all three English proficiency groups, students with high math attitudes and high math self-efficacy were more likely to have a career in STEM. When examining demographic characteristics, female students were more likely to have lower math attitude and lower math self-efficacy, which helps to explain why there is an underrepresentation of female students in STEM fields. We also found that race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status operated differently for each of the English proficiency groups. Conclusions/Recommendations This study directly links student math attitudes and self-efficacy to later career choice. This study has implications for researchers and policymakers who are developing interventions, suggesting that fostering positive math attitudes and self-efficacy would help encourage more students to pursue careers in STEM, particularly for non-native English speakers and female students.
Identifying the Determinants of Chronic Absenteeism: A Bioecological Systems Approach
Authors: Gottfried Michael A. , Gee Kevin A. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Chronic school absenteeism is a pervasive problem across the US; in early education, it is most rampant in kindergarten and its consequences are particularly detrimental, often leading to poorer academic, behavioral and developmental outcomes later in life. Though prior empirical research has identified a broad range of determinants of chronic absenteeism, there lacks a single, unified theoretically driven investigation examining how such factors concurrently explain the incidence of chronic absenteeism among our nation's youngest schoolchildren. Thus, it is difficult to determine the relative importance of one factor over another, hence making it challenging to develop appropriate supports and services to reduce school absences. Purpose/Research Questions Our study filled this critical void—we investigated multiple determinants of chronic absenteeism that were grounded, theoretically and empirically, in Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of development. Specifically, using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 and the method of hierarchical generalized linear modeling, we analyzed how the co-occurrence of key (a) process, (b) person, and (c) context (micro-, meso-, exo- and macrosystem) factors was associated with kindergarteners’ probability of being chronically absent. Findings/Results Children who have poorer health, higher internalizing behaviors, and more frequent engagement in learning activities at home had higher odds of chronic absenteeism. Also, children from larger families and of lower socioeconomic status faced increased odds of chronic absenteeism. Conversely, children holding positive attitudes towards school had lowered odds of chronic absenteeism, a finding that remained robust across socioeconomic status groups. Finally, parent–school connections were associated with lowered odds of absenteeism. Conclusions/Recommendations Overall, our findings strongly suggested that addressing chronic absenteeism will require comprehensive and multifaceted approaches that recognize these multiple factors. With this theoretically grounded, more descriptive approach, it is more feasible to identify key factors and subsequently design policies and practices to prevent absence behavior.
Social Capital in Schools: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis of the Equity of Its Distribution and Relation to Academic Achievement
Authors: Salloum Serena , Goddard Roger , Larsen Ross 
Published: November 2021

Background Schools face pressure to promote equitable student outcomes as the achievement gap continues to persist. The authors examine different ways in which social capital has been conceptualized as well as prior theory and research on its formation and consequences. While some theoretical and empirical work conceptualizes social capital as a mechanism for prosocial outcomes, other scholars address it as an apparatus of social status. Purpose This study was conducted to advance knowledge about (a) the validity of measuring social capital as an organizational construct, (b) the equity of social capital distribution in schools, and (c) the relationship between school social capital and academic achievement. Research Design In this paper, the authors examine these possibilities using data collected from 96 Midwestern high schools. Confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical linear modeling, and structural equation modeling were employed to depict the relationships among social capital, socioeconomic status, and academic achievement in schools. Findings/Results The authors found that variance in social capital was significantly related to school membership and that confirmatory factor analysis supported the construction of a school social capital measure. Moreover, more than half of the variance in social capital is unrelated to social class, and social capital is a positive predictor of academic achievement. Conclusions/Recommendations Because of its positive relation to achievement, investments in the development of social capital may be worthwhile. Interventions designed to develop social capital in schools should be guided by efforts to strengthen access to school-based resources in poor and low achieving schools.
The Problem with Screen Time
Authors: Squire Kurt D. , Steinkuehler Constance 
Published: November 2021

Background Since 1999, a “two hours a day” restriction has been recommended for screen time for children, yet American households continue to consume far more media than such recommendations allow. At the basis of such largely ignored admonitions is a dosage model of technology in which a presumed homogeneous substance called “screen time” is the intervention and changes in some set of continuous and measurable variables (e.g., literacy, aggression, social acuity, BMI) are the outcomes. However, to treat “screen time” as a meaningful unit of analysis is to carve the world at the wrong ontological joints. If we want to make claims about what is and is not good for children and counsel parents on how to regulate, mediate, and participate in media use in the home, we need to understand the black box of screen time and unpack how technology is used in specific ways in specific material and social contexts, and the relationship of that activity to systems of meaning beyond the device or screen. Purpose In this article, we unpack the notion of screen time as a way to problematize the dosage model of media use and the regulatory admonitions given parents based on it. Research Design In this investigation, we use Stake's instrumental case study methods to examine in detail a single child's activity in the videogame Madden; the meaning, function and context of this play; and how it is tied to other forms of engagement and the activity of American football. “Madden” is our bounded case, but, as we will show, the meaning of playing Madden comes from its location within the broader activity of “American football.” Data Collection and Analysis Observations of the 7-year-old male's gameplay and attending activities for a period of 3.5 months, with multiple informal interviews about his activity across that observational period, including a 90-minute structured interview midway through observations. Field notes and screenshots were taken on both informal and formal observations. Findings This case study illustrates how digital games, streamed and live video, print documents, tangible manipulatives, and physical action are caught up in a single coherent transmedia endeavor whose means and instruments are constructed first, perhaps, by media producers but then deconstructed and repurposed by users themselves. The videogame as practiced is a simulated system tied to the real world it represents, and, as such, play is deeply embedded in a complex semiotic, material, and social context. Conclusions Constructs such as screen time quantity distract us from other, more explanatory constructs such as productive practice, critical consumption, developmental progressions, and intertextuality.