bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
What Keeps Teachers in and What Drives Them Out: How Urban Public, Urban Catholic, and Jewish Day Schools Affect Beginning Teachers’ Careers
Authors: Tamir Eran 
Published: November 2021

Background Teacher quality plays a key role in student learning outcomes. Yet, data suggest that elite college graduates who enter teaching are less likely to stay in schools serving low-income and minority students compared to other teachers. Thus, many educators and policy makers agree that in order to equalize the playing field, recruitment, preparation, and retention of high quality teachers should become a high priority. Objective/Focus This paper focuses on how beginning teachers’ passion, commitments, and knowledge to teach in urban public, Catholic, and Jewish schools interact with specific school conditions to shape their career choices. The study's longitudinal dimension underscores the gradual shift that teachers make away from their preparation programs, highlighting how their professional growth becomes intimately associated with the conditions in their schools. Population/Setting This longitudinal study included 30 randomly selected beginning teachers who graduated from three mission-driven teacher education programs located at elite colleges: UTEP at the University of Chicago, ACE at the University of Notre Dame, and DeLeT at Brandeis University. Research Design We employed a comparative, longitudinal case-based study of 30 teachers from three programs. Teachers were interviewed during their second and fourth year in teaching. Findings This study demonstrates the ways in which professional cultures in schools may positively or negatively affect teachers in different school contexts. It illustrates the considerable impact school leaders have on the lives and career commitments of teachers. Finally, it confirms the positive impact that preparing teachers to teach in context (Context Specific Teacher Education) may have on teachers’ career commitments. Conclusions In order to support teachers’ initial commitments to their schools and students, schools need to take a proactive approach. We emphasize the primary role of school conditions and argue that teacher preparation takes a back seat after several years in terms of its impact on teacher career choices. The findings still suggest that preparation can have some effect on teachers’ preparedness to 1. teach in culturally diverse environments and/or 2. adapt to challenging demands in hard-to-staff schools. We believe that over the years, preparation and school conditions get tightly interwoven with each other. Yet, the comparative design of this research enables us to point out that when teachers were not adequately prepared to teach in particular schools they were more likely to move from their schools in search for more hospitable conditions.
Finding the Balance Between Process and Product through Perceptual Lesson Planning
Authors: Uhrmacher P. Bruce , Conrad Bradley M. , Moroye Christy M. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Lesson planning is one of the most common activities required of teachers; however, since the late 1970s and early 1980s, it has not been a major focus of study, either conceptually or empirically. Although there are recent articles on the topic, much of the current work is specific to examining a particular teaching method or subject area. This essay not only examines the lesson planning process, a neglected area of study, but also puts forward a perceptual or arts-based approach to lesson planning that has not been attended to since Elliot Eisner's essays on objectives. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purposes of this conceptual paper are is to provide theoretical grounding for perceptual lesson planning; to analytically examine the two current, dominant approaches to creating lesson plans; and to put forward ideas that undergird a fresh approach to creating and analyzing lesson planning. Research Design This study consists of a major literature review and a related conceptual argument. We also present qualitative data (a lesson plan with attendant interview material) and preliminary findings from an ongoing study. Analytic Framework We use an original analytic framework to discuss the two dominant approaches to lesson planning, the behaviorist and constructivist modes, and to compare them to the perceptual mode. Our analytical categories consist of the following: intentions, process, product, and outcomes. By intentions we mean the aims, goals, or objectives of the lesson plan. The process refers to how the lesson plan is created and what that experience is like for the teacher. Product refers to the actual lessons that result from the planning. Outcomes refer to both the anticipated results of the lesson as well as the general kinds of student outcomes desired in the mode of lesson planning. Conclusions/Recommendations Perceptual lesson planning may be characterized as engaging teachers’ and students senses and creativity; as an artistic endeavor that is joyful in and of itself; as consisting of various stylized products; and leading toward meaningful learning for students and teachers in an environment open to elements of surprise and innovation. Lesson planning may be functional and meaningful to teachers and subsequently their students. Lesson planning could be something teachers enjoy, learn from, and appreciate. Thus, we note that focusing on the process of lesson planning is an important part of education that warrants much more attention.
The Chimera of Validity
Authors: Baker Eva L. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Education policy over the past 40 years has focused on the importance of accountability in school improvement. Although much of the scholarly discourse around testing and assessment is technical and statistical, understanding of validity by a non-specialist audience is essential as long as test results drive our educational system and accountability. Purpose To portray the roles and functions of testing in U.S. educational contexts and the challenges faced in upholding validity principles in practice. Research Design This historical and analytical piece explores the evolution of the concept of validity, its treatment in scholarly discourse, along with challenges faced in practice, and projects future possibilities for educational assessments and their validity. Conclusions The challenge is to imagine a fantasy (like a chimera) where technology, globalization, changes in demography, societal expectations, and individual preferences could impact new forms of tests without losing evidence of their technical quality, including validity. A brief argument is made to consider the learning of skills rather than an exclusive focus on content as the core business of assessment.
The Will to Quantify: The “Bottom Line” in the Market Model of Education Reform
Authors: Casey Leo M. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context There is a deep and yawning chasm between the world of tests and testing practices as they ought to be and the actual tests and testing practices now imposed on American students, educators, and schools. That chasm of theory and practice is a function of the dominant paradigm of educational reform, with its theory of action that schools must be remade in the image and likeness of a corporation. Purpose To explore the role, development, and implications of assessment use in the market model of education reform. Research Design Analysis of the recent publication of the value-added measurements found in the Teacher Data Reports of the New York City Department of Education. Conclusions Since standardized tests provide data for a “bottom line,” they have been widely embraced in some circles as a basis for making “high stakes” decisions that hold individuals and schools accountable. In the market model of education reform, questions about the validity and reliability of the tests and of their use for “high stakes” decisions are dismissed as efforts to avoid accountability.
Complexities Involved in Mentoring toward a High-Leverage Practice in the Induction Years
Authors: Stanulis Randi N. , Brondyk Susan K. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context For years mentoring has been promoted as an essential element of effective induction programs. Since research reports of the impact of mentoring have been uneven, it is critical to closely examine the complex aspects that could affect the ways teachers enact ideas into the practice of mentoring. This study is about mentor teacher learning that supports beginning teacher development. This research examines two teachers as they learned to mentor toward a targeted practice of helping novices lead discussions. Purpose The purpose of this research is to understand features of complexity that could influence how two induction mentors in the same district, and who participated in the same university-based professional development enacted the ideas and practices in different ways. The mentoring professional development targeted the high-leverage practice of helping beginning teachers learn to lead classroom discussions. Specifically, we examine features of the activity settings that influenced how two mentors enacted their work. We explore the question, why are two mentor teachers, who are experiencing the same professional development and scaffolded learning opportunities, enacting their practice differently? Research Design In this longitudinal descriptive case study, data from two mentors’ work with beginning teachers collected over a two-year period, revealed variations in the ways that these mentors talked about and used new ideas. Activity theory provided a lens to examine mentor cases to see how individual and contextual factors related to identity and authority intersected and influenced mentors’ learning and the implementation of a new practice. Key features of activity settings used to analyze data are that they have histories, are goal-oriented, and involve culturally shared language and tools linked to issues of identity and authority. Conclusions/Recommendations Understanding ways in which two mentors implemented a new practice in their school context revealed complexities in learning to mentor in ways that may shift the way we think about preparing mentors. We suggest that identity and authority influenced role enactment. Two issues emerge from these cases that have implications for professional development providers, educators and researchers: (a) mentor learning and growing authority in promoting reform-based practices, and (b) preparing mentors for a more powerful role in enacting reform-oriented practices in schools.
Participatory Action Research and City Youth: Methodological Insights from the Council of Youth Research
Authors: Bautista Mark A. , Bertrand Melanie , Morrell Ernest , Scorza D'Artagnan , Matthews Corey 
Published: November 2021

Background The research community has long documented educational disparities along race lines. Countless studies have shown that urban African American and Latino students are systematically denied educational resources in comparison to their white counterparts, resulting in persistent achievement disparities. Though this research is thorough in many regards, it consistently lacks the voices of the Latino and African American students themselves. This omission not only silences those most affected by educational inequalities, it also denies the research community valuable insights. Purpose This article discusses an analysis of a youth participatory action research (YPAR) program, the Council of Youth Research, in which urban youth of color research educational conditions. We address the following research questions: 1. How do the Council youth appropriate traditional tools of research? How do they adapt and transform these tools to serve their purposes? 2. What methodological insights can adult educational researchers draw from the study of an intervention project that seeks to center the voice and perspectives of youth? 3. How does YPAR as it is practiced by Council youth challenge what is considered as legitimate and transformative research? Research Design To address our research questions, we conducted ethnographic research on the Council during the summer of 2010 and the 2010-2011 school year. Findings We demonstrate how the students in the Council appropriated traditional research methods for critical uses and employed creative approaches to conveying research findings. We focus on the students’ use of participant observation, database analysis, and interviews, and describe the multimodal avenues through which the students conveyed findings. Conclusion Our study points to alternatives to traditional research that take advantage of urban students’ positionality and insights. We argue that the perspective of youth of color, especially in working-class, urban areas, is integral to our understanding of problems in urban schools as well as approaches to transforming inequitable learning conditions and structures. Until we make the power of research accessible to young people and other marginalized communities, educational research will be limited in its scope and impact.
Regulation of Motivation: Students’ Motivation Management in Online Collaborative Groupwork
Authors: Xu Jianzhong , Du Jianxia 
Published: November 2021

Background Online learning is becoming a global phenomenon and has a steadily growing influence on how learning is delivered at universities worldwide. Motivation of students, however, has become one of the most serious problems in one important aspect of online learning—online collaborative groupwork or online group homework. It is surprising to note that few empirical studies have focused on how to enhance and sustain student motivation to work together in online learning environments. Purpose The propose of the present study is to propose and test empirical models of variables posited to predict students’ motivation management in online groupwork, with the models informed by (a) research and theorizing on regulation of motivation and (b) findings from online groupwork that alluded to a number of factors that may influence motivation management in online learning environments. Research Design The study reported here used cross-sectional survey data. Participants The participants were 150 graduate students from 46 online groups in the southeastern United States. Results Results from the multilevel analyses revealed that most of the variance in group-work motivation management occurred at the student level, with online groupwork interest as the only significant predictor at the group level. At the student level, the variation in groupwork motivation management was positively related to student initiative, including arranging the environment, managing study time, and help seeking. In addition, group-work motivation management was positively related to feedback from the instructor and peers. Conclusion As most of the variance in online groupwork motivation management occurred at the student level rather than at the group level, online groupwork motivation management was largely a function of individual student characteristics and experiences. The present study further suggests that feedback and student initiative (arranging the environment, managing study time, and help seeking) play an important role in online group-work motivation management. Consequently, it would be beneficial to promote feedback among the instructor and group members in the online groupwork process. In addition, it would be beneficial to encourage students to take more initiative in online groupwork settings to better manage their motivation.
The Influence of Co-Enrollment on the Success of Traditional-Age Community College Students
Authors: Crisp Gloria 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Student utilization of complex enrollment patterns has been identified as a significant recent development in higher education. Nearly a dozen different multi-institutional attendance patterns have been identified, including co-enrollment. Co-enrollment is simultaneous enrollment at two or more colleges or universities during the course of a given term or semester. Although research exists to understand the factors promoting persistence and degree completion for community college students, work does not properly account for co-enrollment or other forms of multi-institutional attendance. Purpose The purpose of the study is to measure the impact of co-enrollment on success outcomes among a national sample of traditional age community college students. The following research questions are addressed: (a) In what ways are the characteristics of traditional aged community college students who co-enroll similar or different from students who do not co-enroll? (b) Does co-enrollment significantly increase or decrease the odds that a student will earn a degree and/or persist through the sixth year of college? Subjects The sample was drawn from participants in the second follow-up of the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS: 04/09). The pre-matched sample was limited to the 4,920 students who began their postsecondary education at a two-year institution and were traditional in terms of age. The matched sample included a sub-sample of 700 co-enrollees and 700 matched students. Research Design The study utilized a non-experimental quantitative design. Data Collection and Analysis Propensity score matching techniques were used on observational data as a means of reducing observed selection bias. After the sample was shown to be balanced on observed covariates, logistic regression analyses were used to measures the influence of co-enrollment on the success of community college students. Results Results demonstrate that, even after controlling for observable selection bias and variables previously shown to influence success outcomes for community college students, co-enrolling at more than one institution during a given semester significantly increases the odds that community college students will succeed. Conclusions/Recommendations Co-enrollment may promote access to four-year institutions for community college students desiring to transfer and earn a four-year degree. State and federal policy makers and institutional leaders need to be aware that non-linear attendance is a legitimate way for students to experience and be successful in college. Descriptive work is needed to understand how and at what point students are attending multiple institutions.
Effects of Inequality and Poverty vs. Teachers and Schooling on America's Youth
Authors: Berliner David C. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context This paper arises out of frustration with the results of school reforms carried out over the past few decades. These efforts have failed. They need to be abandoned. In their place must come recognition that income inequality causes many social problems, including problems associated with education. Sadly, compared to all other wealthy nations, the USA has the largest income gap between its wealthy and its poor citizens. Correlates associated with the size of the income gap in various nations are well described in Wilkinson & Pickett (2010), whose work is cited throughout this article. They make it clear that the bigger the income gap in a nation or a state, the greater the social problems a nation or a state will encounter. Thus it is argued that the design of better economic and social policies can do more to improve our schools than continued work on educational policy independent of such concerns. Purpose/Objective/Research Question The research question asked is why so many school reform efforts have produced so little improvement in American schools. The answer offered is that the sources of school failure have been thought to reside inside the schools, resulting in attempts to improve America's teachers, curriculum, testing programs and administration. It is argued in this paper, however, that the sources of America's educational problems are outside school, primarily a result of income inequality. Thus it is suggested that targeted economic and social policies have more potential to improve the nations schools than almost anything currently being proposed by either political party at federal, state or local levels. Research Design This is an analytic essay on the reasons for the failure of almost all contemporary school reform efforts. It is primarily a report about how inequality affects all of our society, and a review of some research and social policies that might improve our nations’ schools. Conclusions/Recommendations It is concluded that the best way to improve America's schools is through jobs that provide families living wages. Other programs are noted that offer some help for students from poor families. But in the end, it is inequality in income, and the poverty that accompanies such inequality, that matters most for education.
Teacher Effects, Value-Added Models, and Accountability
Authors: Konstantopoulos Spyros 
Published: November 2021

Background In the last decade, the effects of teachers on student performance (typically manifested as state-wide standardized tests) have been re-examined using statistical models that are known as value-added models. These statistical models aim to compute the unique contribution of the teachers in promoting student achievement gains from grade to grade, net of student background and prior ability. Value-added models are widely used nowadays and they are used by some states to rank teachers. These models are used to measure teacher performance or effectiveness (via student achievement gains), with the ultimate objective of rewarding or penalizing teachers. Such practices have resulted in a large amount of controversy in the education community about the role of value-added models in the process of making important decisions about teachers such as salary increases, promotion, or termination of employment. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the effects teachers have on student achievement, with an emphasis on value-added models. The paper also discusses whether value-added models are appropriately used as a sole indicator in evaluating teachers’ performance and making critical decisions about teachers’ futures in the profession. Research Design This is a narrative review of the literature on teacher effects that includes evidence about the stability of teacher effects using value-added models. Conclusions More comprehensive systems for teacher evaluation are needed. We need more research on value-added models and more work on evaluating value-added models. The strengths and weaknesses of these models should be clearly described. We also need much more empirical evidence with respect to the reliability and the stability of value-added measures across different states. The findings thus far do not seem robust and conclusive enough to warrant decisions about raises, tenure, or termination of employment. In other words, it is unclear that the value-added measures that inform the accountability system are adequate. It is not obvious that we are better equipped now to make such important decisions about teachers than we were 35 years ago. Good et al. have argued that we need well-thought-out and well-developed criteria that guide accountability decisions. Perhaps such criteria should be standardized across school districts and states. That would ensure that empirical evidence across different states is comparable and would help determine whether findings converge or diverge.