bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Zoned for Change: A Historical Case Study of the Belmont Zone of Choice
Authors: Martínez Ramón A. , Quartz Karen H. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Over the past two decades, scholars have increasingly called for educational leaders to collaborate with community-based organizations in their efforts to bring about school reform. Observing that school reform efforts often fail to include those most impacted by failing policies and practices, these scholars have turned their attention to the role of community organizations that advocate on behalf of parents and students in under-served communities. These scholars have explored the potential of community organizing strategies for transforming public schools, documenting the crucial role of strategic alliances between community-based organizations and school district officials in bringing about greater equity and improved student outcomes. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of this study is to explore how educational leaders and community-based organizations collaborated to bring about unprecedented education reform in the nation's second largest school district. Research Design This historical case study is based on in-depth interviews with 11 high-profile school district, union, community, and other educational leaders across seven key partner institutions and organizations that were involved in the development of the Belmont Zone of Choice from 2001 to 2009. Conclusions/Recommendations This study reveals the kinds of obstacles facing reformers in large urban school districts, and it illustrates how concerned educators, community-based organizations, and educational reformers can form strategic alliances to fight for meaningful change in underserved communities. Rather than provide a simplistic or idealistic depiction of collaboration, however, this case study illustrates the tensions and struggles that emerged as diverse—and sometimes antagonistic—social actors collaborated to bring about education reform at the local level. It also illustrates that strategic alliances are not necessarily sufficient to ensure successful reform implementation within contexts of political and economic asymmetry. As such, the history of the Belmont Zone of Choice highlights both the promise and challenge of community organizing for school reform.
The Politics of Data Use
Authors: Henig Jeffrey R. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Many contemporary education reformers present themselves as reformers who, armed with data and evidence, are locked in battle against politics, the weapon of choice for entrenched defenders of the status quo. Although studies of school reform increasingly recognize that politics is inevitably intertwined with reform efforts, the conceptualization of politics is thin and largely divorced from the broader literature in the discipline of political science. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study reviews political science theories and findings to inform our understanding of how politics affects efforts in order to increase data usage in education policy and school reform and to lay a foundation for future research on the issue. Research Design This is a review and analytical synthesis of literature that for the most part has not looked at the education policy arena in order to derive insights relevant to contemporary efforts to infuse education policy with greater attention to data. Conclusions/Recommendations Rather than block the door to politics, those who hope to promote informed policy making might consider ways to use politics to protect and defend high-quality data and their informed application.
Music in Higher Education after the Bologna Treaty: Or, in Search of a New Educational Culture
Authors: Mota Graça 
Published: November 2021

If the logos of current pragmatism regulates and places and manages, the logos of metaphor and cadence deregulates and displaces and offers a migratory movement out. Pragmatism addresses the functional brain. Metaphor and cadence address the whole imagination. An age of pragmatism without imagination, and age of postmodernism without meaning, is and age without spirit, prophecy or hope. (Peter Abbs, 2003) At the beginning of the academic year, a student stops me in the corridor of our college and asks, “Do you know if I am already in Bologna?” After a short moment of a little perplexity, I answer jocosely, “Well, I would say that right now you are in Porto, Portugal.” Being in Bologna (or not) means, for our students, that their request to change from the pre-Bologna Treaty course syllabus to the new one, according to the Bologna guidelines, has been institutionally accepted. Bologna is in this sense a metaphor for a new graduation model—for some students, a better solution for their future ambitions of more easily entering the teaching profession and, who knows, perhaps even another European country. Beautiful Bologna, this lively Italian university city with its Renaissance palaces and its innumerous ochre-colored arcades, means little or nothing to my student. She simply wants to know how her graduation prospects will look in the next three years.
Exit Strategies: How Low-Performing High Schools Respond to High School Exit Examination Requirements
Authors: Holme Jennifer J. 
Published: November 2021

Background Over the past several decades, a significant number of states have either adopted or increased high school exit examination requirements. Although these policies are intended to generate improvement in schools, little is known about how high schools are responding to exit testing pressures. Purpose This study examined how five low-performing high-poverty high schools responded to the pressures of Texas’ exit testing policy. The goal of this study was to understand how schools responded to the pressures of Texas’ exit testing system (in terms of curriculum, instruction, and supports for low-achieving students) and how educators reconciled those pressures with other accountability pressures that they faced. Research Design This study employed qualitative case study design. Five low-performing high schools were sampled within the state of Texas, each of which served large concentrations of at-risk students. A total of 105 interviews were conducted across the five case study sites over the course of 2 years (2008–2009). Conclusions This study found that the Texas exit testing policy created a misalignment between educator and student-level accountability, which had particularly negative consequences for struggling students. The findings of this study suggest a need for policy makers to reconsider the assumptions on which exit tests are based and to more closely consider the goal of exit testing systems in the context of, and in relation to, the larger systems of accountability in which they are embedded. Acknowledgments The research reported herein was supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation. The author would like to thank the editors of Teachers College Record, as well as the anonymous reviewers, for their helpful feedback on the manuscript. The author would also like to thank Meredith Richards and Rebecca Cohen for their assistance with data collection for the project.
The Effectiveness of Online and Blended Learning: A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Literature
Authors: Means Barbara , Toyama Yukie , Murphy Robert , Baki Marianne 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Earlier research on various forms of distance learning concluded that these technologies do not differ significantly from regular classroom instruction in terms of learning outcomes. Now that web-based learning has emerged as a major trend in both K–12 and higher education, the relative efficacy of online and face-to-face instruction needs to be revisited. The increased capabilities of web-based applications and collaboration technologies and the rise of blended learning models combining web-based and face-to-face classroom instruction have raised expectations for the effectiveness of online learning. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This meta-analysis was designed to produce a statistical synthesis of studies contrasting learning outcomes for either fully online or blended learning conditions with those of face-to-face classroom instruction. Population/Participants/Subjects The types of learners in the meta-analysis studies were about evenly split between students in college or earlier years of education and learners in graduate programs or professional training. The average learner age in a study ranged from 13 to 44. Intervention/Program/Practice The meta-analysis was conducted on 50 effects found in 45 studies contrasting a fully or partially online condition with a fully face-to-face instructional condition. Length of instruction varied across studies and exceeded one month in the majority of them. Research Design The meta-analysis corpus consisted of (1) experimental studies using random assignment and (2) quasi-experiments with statistical control for preexisting group differences. An effect size was calculated or estimated for each contrast, and average effect sizes were computed for fully online learning and for blended learning. A coding scheme was applied to classify each study in terms of a set of conditions, practices, and methodological variables. Findings/Results The meta-analysis found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed modestly better than those receiving face-to-face instruction. The advantage over face-to-face classes was significant in those studies contrasting blended learning with traditional face-to-face instruction but not in those studies contrasting purely online with face-to-face conditions. Conclusions/Recommendations Studies using blended learning also tended to involve additional learning time, instructional resources, and course elements that encourage interactions among learners. This confounding leaves open the possibility that one or all of these other practice variables contributed to the particularly positive outcomes for blended learning. Further research and development on different blended learning models is warranted. Experimental research testing design principles for blending online and face-to-face instruction for different kinds of learners is needed.
Changes in the Cognitive Complexity of English Instruction: The Moderating Effects of School and Classroom Characteristics
Authors: Polikoff Morgan S. , Struthers Kathryn S. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context A central aim of standards-based reform is to close achievement gaps by raising academic standards for all students. Rigorous standards coupled with aligned assessments will purportedly improve student opportunity to learn through high-quality, aligned instruction. After 10 years of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the impact of standards-based reform on student achievement in English Language Arts (ELA) remains questionable. Improving ELA achievement has been a central focus of NCLB, so this study examines changes in the cognitive demand coverage of teachers’ ELA instruction over time during the NCLB era. Research Question Three research questions guide the analyses: (a) How have the cognitive demand levels of ELA instruction changed over time? (b) To what extent have changes in the cognitive demand level of ELA instruction differed across settings based on school and classroom characteristics? (c) How have cognitive demand levels changed as school composition has changed? Subjects The sample consists of 2,064 ELA teachers in grades K-12. The teachers come from 344 schools in 15 states; the majority are K-3 educators. Research Design This study relies on secondary data analysis of teachers’ responses to the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC). First, we used a within-teacher fixed-effects regression model to determine how cognitive demand coverage changed over time. Second, we examined how these changes varied by school and classroom characteristics (e.g., Title 1 status). Finally, we investigated how changes in cognitive demand coverage varied based on within-school changes in school and classroom characteristics. Findings Findings demonstrate that cognitive demand coverage has changed considerably over the study period, moving from higher and lower levels toward the middle. There were, however, notable variations between schools serving different populations of students. Schools in urban areas serving predominantly students from historically marginalized groups (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities) saw more of a shift toward lower levels of cognitive demand than was seen at schools serving whiter and wealthier students. Conclusions/Recommendations There have been different instructional responses to standards and assessments in different settings, with decreased cognitive demand in urban/ high-needs schools relative to suburban/lower-needs schools. These shifts seem to run contrary to the idea that all students should be held to the same high standards. We recommend that future research consider longitudinal data regarding teachers’ instruction. It is also important that policymakers, particularly those working on the Common Core State Standards, consider these differential responses to standards-based reform.
Mapping Low-Income African American Parents’ Roles in Their Children's Education in a Changing Political Economy
Authors: Greene Stuart 
Published: November 2021

Background Much discussion and debate has surrounded the role that low-income minority parents can play in their children's education. Research focusing on parents’ roles has stressed parents’ sense of self-efficacy, cultural background, socio-economic factors, and the context of school to explain not only what motivates parents to become involved in their children's education, but also how, why, and in whose interests. However, few researchers have examined parents’ roles in the context of race and a changing political economy or the less visible roles that parents’ play in fostering their children's intellectual and emotional growth. Purpose This research examined the roles parents constructed for themselves in their children's education and the assets they brought to bear to support their children at home, at school, and in the community. This study also focused on the extent to which their roles changed over time through interacting with their children, other parents, and educators in parent involvement workshops. Participants 11 parents participated in the study. Of these 11 parents, 7 were females and 4 were males. Their average age was 36. Three had completed high school, two had passed their GED equivalency exams, and two had completed college. One parent was Caucasian, one Latino, and nine were African American. Research Design Qualitative methods were used to examine parents’ legacies of schooling, the ways parents were involved in their children's education, and the challenges parents faced in their efforts to support their children. All data from interviews and focus groups were transcribed and analyzed to address the central questions motivating the study. Identifying categories of parent roles was an evolving and iterative process based on grounded theory and guided by prior research. Findings Findings revealed that parents supported their children's emotional well-being at a time when their children were perhaps most vulnerable. They worked patiently with their children when instruction in school outpaced their children's levels of understanding, when teachers did not provide clear instructions for completing homework assignments, and when parents needed to find programs well suited to their children's education. Conclusion/Recommendations Listening to parents’ voices helps us see the extent to which what matters most to families is often not visible to educators. Parents did not limit their involvement to supporting their children's performance on standardized test scores, but adopted a broad conception of education. Therefore, it is important that educators understand more fully who parents are, what parents are already doing to support their children, and develop models of parent involvement that are reciprocal and collaborative.
Effects of Elementary School Home Language, Immigrant Generation, Language Classification, and School's English Learner Concentration on Latinos’ High School Completion
Authors: Zarate Maria Estela , Pineda Claudia G. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Relying largely on high school measures of home language use, the literature examining immigrant incorporation in schools provides contradictory evidence of home language effects on educational outcomes. More recent research has demonstrated that home language use is dynamic and thus it is important to examine the implications of elementary school home language, as opposed to the typically used high school home language, as a factor influencing various school processes. We argue that it is also necessary to take into account school-related language contexts when considering the experiences of Latino immigrant students. Purpose This study investigates the effects of early acculturation, measured by elementary school language, immigrant generation, and early linguistic experiences on high school completion. Research Design Using hierarchical generalized linear models, we test the effects of elementary home language, immigrant generation, early language classification, and middle school concentration of English Learners (EL) on the probability of high school completion for a cohort of Latino students in a large urban school district (N = 26,487). Findings Consistent with some of the existing research, this study finds that speaking Spanish at home in the elementary school years has positive effects on high school completion. Moreover, for Spanish speakers, having been reclassified as English-fluent before sixth grade and having attended middle schools with lower concentrations of EL students increases the probability of high school completion. Conclusions These findings suggest that taking into account earlier schooling processes and contexts in discussions about the influence of home language on academic achievement broaden the scope of accountability for educating immigrant students.
Asian American Education and Income Attainment in the Era of Post-Racial America
Authors: Covarrubias Alejandro , Liou Daniel D. 
Published: November 2021

Background Prevailing perceptions of Asian Americans as model minorities have long situated this population within postracial discourse, an assumption that highlights their educational success as evidence of the declining significance of race and racism, placing them as models of success for other people of color. Despite evidence to repudiate the model minority thesis, the visibility of Asian Americans in higher education continues to reinforce essentialist paradigms about their presumed success while rendering invisible the educational experiences and diminished educational earning power of low-income, women, and noncitizen Asian populations. Purpose The purpose of this article is to situate the most recent data on the mobility of Asian American students within the K–Ph.D. educational system in the new so-called colorblind postracial America. This article presents the most recent national educational outcomes for Asian Americans by looking at differences in attainment across race, class, gender, citizenship, and educational earning power. Research Design Drawing from the March Supplement of the Census’ 2010 Current Population Survey (CPS), we carried out multiple cross-tabulations that allowed us to disaggregate the educational attainment and earning power for Asian Americans across various social categories. The March Supplement of the CPS, referred to as the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), is given once a year over 3 months—the 2010 ASEC was given to 77,000 households, with a response rate of over 91.5%. This quantitative analysis of the intersectional effect of race, class, gender, and citizenship provides a more nuanced examination of their interactional impact on educational attainment. Findings/Results Our intersectional analysis of educational attainment and earning power reveals the multiplicity of experiences and heterogeneity among Asian Americans. There is a clear positive relationship between class and educational attainment, but the intersectional impact of gender with class, and gender with citizenship points to a nonlinear relationship between these constructs and educational attainment when they are examined together. The data also make evident important gaps in earning power for Asian Americans compared with White Americans, and an especially disproportionate burden of diminished earnings for Asian American women. Conclusions/Recommendations This study sounds the alarm as postracial discourse has created several new challenges on issues related to Asian Americans, affirmative action policies, and the vitality of ethnic studies in the K–Ph.D. system. As a result of this study, the authors warn that the model minority thesis inaccurately depicts Asian Americans in policy discussions on education, race relations, poverty, and civil rights. This article makes important recommendations for coalition building, research approaches, and a new educational policy framework that can mediate current policy failures to include Asian Americans in discussions of equity.