bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Getting to Scale with Moral Education: The Demands of Reproducibility and the Case of the Chicago Manual Training School, 1884–1904
Authors: Mccamant Jane 
Published: November 2021

Background Getting educational reforms “to scale” continues to be a primary preoccupation of scholars, but such studies tend to remain focused on the organizational or other characteristics of the school(s) receiving a given innovation. Purpose This article brackets the organizational elements of reform dissemination to consider the relationship between the ideational content of educational innovations and their success at being “scaled up.” It considers whether particular categories of educational outcomes are inherently less well suited to widespread reproduction. Research Design The article identifies a historical case of an educational reform effort that failed to be brought to scale as a method of considering these larger theoretical questions. First articulated in the early 1880s, the educational philosophy of manual training called for the incorporation of industrial training––in the form of tool work, metal shop, and technical drawing––into a rigorous and traditional academic curriculum. This combination of shop work and school work was intended to function holistically, developing the manual, intellectual, and moral capacities of the student simultaneously. Opened in 1884, the Chicago Manual Training School (CMTS) was intended to be an example of the implementation of this philosophy to be emulated by Chicago's public secondary schools. Such emulation never occurred. The case study portion of this article is based on in-depth historical analysis of the records of the CMTS, the papers of its founder, Henry Holmes Belfield, and other contemporaneous materials relating to the manual training movement and the context of late-19th-century education reform efforts. Conclusions The case of the CMTS suggests two necessary (but not sufficient) criteria for a given educational philosophy to be susceptible to reproduction: intelligibility and measurability. These two requirements are found to be particularly unlikely in educational innovations that emphasize the subtle and intangible connections of mind, body, and spirit or that seek primarily to teach character or disposition—here termed “moral education.”
Should Marriage Equality be Taught as Controversial Post-Obergefell v. Hodges?
Authors: Journell Wayne 
Published: November 2021

Background Having students engage with controversial issues is considered a hallmark of a quality civic education, in part because it requires students to interact with perspectives that contradict their existing worldviews, evaluate the legitimacy of positions based on evidence, and develop the skills and dispositions necessary for participation in an increasingly pluralistic democratic society. Most of the research on the teaching of controversial issues, however, has focused on how teachers and students respond to controversy as opposed to how controversy is framed. Teachers must determine whether an issue should be considered “open,” or controversial, or “settled,” or noncontroversial, in their classrooms, a decision that is both pedagogically important and often controversial. For issues that have been settled for some time, such as slavery or woman suffrage, the decision whether to frame them as open or settled is typically easy for teachers; however, issues that are in the process of tipping from open to settled, or vice versa, are more challenging and require that teachers make instructional decisions based on evidence and logical reasoning. Purpose The purpose of this article is to critically analyze whether the issue of marriage equality should be framed as controversial in the aftermath of the 2015 landmark Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage in the United States. In doing so, this article also offers several implications for the teaching of controversial issues broadly, particularly those that intersect with the identities of students and teachers. Research Design This article makes an analytical/theoretical argument using three commonly cited criteria for determining the openness of controversial issues: the epistemic criterion, the political criterion, and the politically authentic criterion. Conclusions/Recommendations After evaluating marriage equality using each criterion, I conclude that no rational reason exists for treating marriage quality as an open issue post-Obergefell. I also argue that the issue of marriage equality illustrates the need for teachers to be cognizant of how discussions of controversial issues that implicate students’ identities may impact students who may be marginalized by those issues. I recommend that when such issues have reached the point where subjective decisions must be made in determining whether they are framed as open or settled, deference should be made to framing those issues in a way that promotes public values as opposed to legitimizing private views.
Leaving a Profession after It's Left You: Teachers’ Public Resignation Letters as Resistance Amidst Neoliberalism
Authors: Dunn Alyssa Hadley 
Published: November 2021

Context Though there is a growing field of research on what makes teachers leave, little research includes an analysis of narratives written directly by teachers. Yet, amidst a growing body of teacher writing and a surge in digital media, there has emerged a new genre of teachers’ public resignation letters, many of which go “viral” when posted online. This research is contextualized by literature on teacher attrition and neoliberalism and framed within theories of teacher agency and teacher resistance. Purpose Within a context where the letters themselves are becoming more popular and the rates of teacher attrition continue to rise in troubling ways, this study explores a new genre by investigating the content and strategies employed in public resignation letters from teachers around the United States. Research Design This research employed a qualitative design, drawing on methods of content analysis, to analyze 23 publicly available resignation letters. Conclusions I argue that these letters represent a new form of public discourse. This discourse allows teachers to exercise their personal and professional agency in the form of resistance to dominant narratives about what public education is and should be and what current neoliberal reforms are doing to teachers and students. These among other reasons I uncovered through thematic coding are linked to contextual factors rather than individual ones, pointing to the limits of retention in a climate that does not support teachers’ agency. Further, the majority of reasons for leaving are explicitly or implicitly tied to current neoliberal educational policies. According to their letters, teachers left the profession because (1) neoliberal reforms and policies threatened learning conditions and (2) these reforms had negative consequences for teachers’ working conditions and beliefs. Specific neoliberal reforms and policies that were mentioned in the letters include: increased standardized testing and restrictions on curriculum, which teachers argued reflected a lack of care for students’ socioemotional needs; decreasing pay/benefits; and punitive teacher evaluation systems. In addition, the consequences of these reforms meant that teachers felt: a lack of time, a mismatch between their beliefs and the reality of teaching in today's educational climate, and a lack of trust and respect for their profession, and a lack of control over their working conditions.
Navigating the Gray Area: A School District's Documentation of the Relationship between Disability and Misconduct
Authors: Lewis Maria M. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context The administration of student discipline is one of many responsibilities under the purview of teachers and educational leaders across the country. Maintaining a safe environment with minimal disruptions is not an easy task. From existing research on student discipline, we have learned that critical examination of data and continuous reflection are important, particularly in light of documented disparities in discipline practices. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), before a school district may discipline a student with a disability for greater than 10 days, it must first conduct what is referred to as a manifestation determination review (MDR) (20 U.S.C. §1415(k)(1)(E)). During this review process, the current version of the law requires school districts to address two questions: (1) Was the student's behavior caused by, or did it have a direct and substantial relationship to, the student's disability? (2) Was the student's misconduct caused by the district's failure to implement the student's individualized education program (IEP), as required by law? This study examines the implementation of this standard. Research Question This study poses the following research question: What factors (explicit and implicit) influence decision makers when deciding whether a student's misconduct was a manifestation of his or her disability? Research Design This project used a case study approach to examine 80 MDR decisions in one large urban school district in order to better understand how decision makers implement this standard. Specifically, this study reviewed 40 randomly selected decisions wherein decision makers determined that the student's actions were not a manifestation of his or her disability and 40 randomly selected decisions wherein decision makers determined that the student's actions were a manifestation of his or her disability. Findings/Results Decision makers cited the academic and behavioral manifestations of students’ disabilities, students’ behavioral histories, students’ ability to control their actions, and connections to the home and community. Despite these consistent factors, the striking similarities between Yes and No decisions illustrates the overall arbitrary nature of the decision-making process. Conclusions/Recommendations This article discusses implications that attend to both the procedure and substance of manifestation determination review.
Silenced Partners: Language Learning and the Role of Bilingual Peers in High School
Authors: Carhill-Poza Avary 
Published: November 2021

Background In schools, a major obstacle to drawing on emergent bilingual students’ knowledge and skills in their first language is a widespread lack of awareness about language use among adolescent English learners, including how peer talk can connect knowledge and abilities in both languages to school-based learning. Although research often acknowledges the importance of engaging students’ home language and culture to bridge to academic literacies in English, few have explicitly examined bilingual peer talk as a resource for language learning during adolescence. Purpose This study explores how emergent bilinguals engaged multiple linguistic codes to scaffold their own academic language development with peer support. Research Design Ethnography and discourse analysis of student interactions were used to contextualize and analyze the academic language use of four Spanish-speaking adolescent immigrant students, taking into account the affordances of classroom discourse structures and peer talk. Conclusions The study describes the linguistic resources available to Spanish-speaking adolescent immigrant students through their peers and shows that emergent bilingual youth used academic language in both Spanish and English most frequently—and in more elaborated interactions—while off-task or in less supervised spaces. Classroom discourse structures often limited student participation, particularly when students used nonstandard linguistic codes.
Evaluation of a New Theory of the Racial Achievement Gap
Authors: Yeh Stuart 
Published: November 2021

Background Although various hypotheses have been offered to explain the racial achievement gap between White and Black students, conventional theories that focus on the quality of schools, teachers, or a child's home environment are unsatisfactory. Instead, the available evidence points to a new theory. Purpose The purpose of the study was to evaluate the new theory against this evidence and to compare the explanatory capacity of this theory with the explanatory capacity of three conventional theories of the racial achievement gap. Sample/Design/Analysis Analyses of data from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of the Kindergarten Class of 1998 (ECLS-K) were combined with results from studies that suggest how the hypothesized mechanism operates to maintain and perpetuate differences in achievement that exist at entry into kindergarten, plus results from randomized experiments that test hypothesized theoretical relationships. Results The results suggest a pattern of puzzling empirical results that are difficult to reconcile except in terms of the new theory. Conclusion The evidence points away from conventional theories regarding the achievement gap and toward the new theory.
Examining Elementary Teachers’ Risk for Occupational Stress: Associations with Teacher, School, and State Policy Variables
Authors: Lambert Richard G. , McCarthy Christopher J. , Fitchett Paul G. , Eyal Maytal 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context It is widely understood that teachers are plagued by a myriad of challenges that ultimately affect their stress levels, job satisfaction, and effectiveness at work. Teacher stress can lead to burnout, lowered occupational commitment, and an eventual decision to leave the field. An important question for the field is how best to understand which teachers are most vulnerable to stress. This study used Lazarus and Folkman's transactional theory, which is the dominant model within the stress literature, to examine teachers’ stress vulnerability. Objective This study examined how elementary teacher appraisals of their classroom environment contribute to their risk for stress in the context of individual, classroom, and school characteristics, as well as state-level policy factors. Further, this study looked at how these factors are associated with teachers’ occupational stress, burnout, and commitment to teaching. Participants Participants were 11,850 full-time public school elementary teachers (Grades 1–5) who responded to the National Center for Education Statistics 2007/2008 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). Research Design Secondary data from the SASS were employed. The Rasch rating scale model was used to form scores on the Appraisal Index (teachers’ ratio of experiencing resources versus demands), as well as the Classroom Control and Burnout scales. Data Collection and Analysis Multilevel modeling was used. Each model had two levels with teachers nested within the state where they work. Two types of models were estimated using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) software and restricted maximum likelihood procedures. The SASS teacher final sampling weight was then normalized and applied to all analyses within the HLM software. All results were reported with robust standard errors. Findings Teachers classified as at risk for stress based on SASS items about classroom demand and resources were found to be more likely to report lower job satisfaction and burnout symptoms, as well as reduced occupational commitment. Professional characteristics, school context, and the policy climate in which teachers work were also associated with teachers being at risk for stress. Conclusions/Recommendations Given these connections between occupational stressors, teacher appraisals of the classroom environment, and occupational outcomes, these results suggest that education stakeholders should be mindful of the climate and context in which public policies are enacted.
What If Only What Can be Counted Will Count? A Critical Examination of Making Educational Practice “Scientific”
Authors: Ng Jennifer C. , Stull Don D. , Martinez Rebecca S. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context In recent decades, federal policymakers have pushed for education to be a more “scientific” endeavor. While scholars have considered the implications of this orientation for educational researchers, less attention has been given to its impact on educational practitioners. Purpose/Focus of the Study By focusing on the local interpretation and implementation of a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) model in one Midwestern school district, this study documents the translation of a comprehensive reform initiative meant to make educational practice more data-driven and scientific. With particular attention to interactions between district and building administrators, classroom teachers, and a group of outside consultants, we also consider the consequential effects of principal–agent relations in determining how learners (should) learn and teachers (should) teach. Research Design Using ethnographic methods over a period of five months, this study emerged from a larger project examining the work of educators in a rural district that includes 18 schools and serves approximately 7,600 students from racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse backgrounds. With MTSS as the unifying agenda across multiple interactions that involved a cross-section of the district's staff, administrative leaders, and outside consultants, we analyzed fieldnotes generated from participant observation during MTSS-specific meetings and semi-structured, individual interviews conducted with key implementation principals and agents. Other fieldnotes and interviews provided confirmation of our primary analysis, as well as supplementary perspectives from building and classroom contexts. Findings Through our analysis, we found that implementation leaders presumed the infallibility of the MTSS model; relied exclusively on certain forms of quantitative data; standardized the individual needs of learners, processes of learning, and roles of teachers; and insisted on fidelity of intervention as an end in itself. Conclusions/Recommendations Implementation leaders invoking research to inform practice can sometimes silence practitioners rather than foster their substantive involvement and understanding. This marginalizes certain types of knowledge that can contribute to understanding students’ needs, and it forces practitioners to be data-deferent rather than data-driven. The concept of implementation fidelity also needs to be reconsidered—not as an absolute good but with the necessary flexibility afforded to practitioners who are (1) educated in the essential components of available interventions, (2) able to become fluent through practice, and (3) allowed to exercise their professional expertise and judgment as appropriate.
Ability Grouping in the Early Grades: Long-Term Consequences for Educational Equity in the United States
Authors: Buttaro Anthony , Catsambis Sophia 
Published: November 2021

Background Ability grouping has resurged in U.S. schools despite long-standing debates over its consequences for educational equity. Proponents argue that it is the best response to variation in academic skills because it allows teachers to customize the content and pace of instruction to students’ diverse needs. Critics answer that this practice places students in divergent educational paths that reproduce educational and social inequalities. Despite the contested nature of ability grouping, research has yet to produce reliable longitudinal evidence to evaluate critics’ claims. Objective We examine the degree to which exposure to within-class grouping for reading instruction from kindergarten to third grade is predictive of students’ reading test scores and English coursework in the middle grades. Research Design We use multilevel achievement growth models predicting average reading achievement from kindergarten to eighth grade as a function of years of exposure in low, average, or high ability groups in kindergarten through third grade and control variables relevant to each grade. We evaluate the achievement differences between students who are grouped in these ability groups for one or more years and those who were never ability grouped. We use multinomial logistic regression models to estimate the degree to which number of years in each ability group in K–3 grades predicts placements in eighth-grade English classes (below grade or honors, as opposed to regular English classes). Data We use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS–K), a national panel study of the 1998 U.S. kindergarten cohort sponsored by National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education. Our sample consists of 7,800 students with data for fall of kindergarten, and spring of kindergarten and first, third, fifth, and eighth grades. Findings Compared with similar students who were ungrouped in the early grades, those in high-ability reading groups have higher test scores, whereas those in low-ability groups have lower test scores in every grade from kindergarten to the eighth grade. In addition, compared with their ungrouped counterparts, students in low-ability groups in the early grades are more likely to enroll in eighth grade English classes that are below grade level, whereas those in high-ability groups in these grades are more likely to enroll in honors eighth-grade English classes. Achievement gaps between previously grouped and ungrouped students increase with every additional year of exposure to ability grouping. Conclusions Students’ ability group placements in the early grades evolve into divergent educational paths that grow further apart with multiple years of grouping. These findings provide the first longitudinal evidence linking ability grouping to the reproduction of educational inequalities.