bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Sponsors of Policy: A Network Analysis of Wealthy Elites, Their Affiliated Philanthropies, and Charter School Reform in Washington State
Authors: Au Wayne , Ferrare Joseph J. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Charter school policy has evolved into a major component of the current education reform movement in the United States. As of 2012, all but nine U.S. states allowed charter schools, and in one of those nine, Washington State, charter school legislation was passed by popular vote in November 2012. There is a substantial, if contested, research base focusing on charter school effectiveness, particularly related to test score achievement, as well as an equally contested literature base on charter school enrollment selectivity, student expulsions, and increased segregation in charter school populations. Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze the network of relations of policy actors surrounding the statewide campaign to pass the charter school Initiative 1240 in Washington State in order to better understand how wealthy individuals and their associated philanthropic organizations influence educational policy. Research Design Making use of available tax records, public election information, individual and organizational websites, and institutional and foundation databases, this study uses simple directed graphing techniques from social network analysis to analyze the complex relationships and affiliations of policy actors relative to the campaign to pass charter school Initiative 1240 in the state of Washington. Conclusions/Recommendations This study concludes that, compared to the average voter in Washington, an elite group of wealthy individuals, either directly through individual donations or indirectly through their affiliated philanthropic organizations, wielded disproportionate influence over the outcome of the charter school initiative in the state, thereby raising serious concerns about the democratic underpinnings of an education policy that impacts all of the children in Washington State. This study also concludes that elite individuals make use of local nonprofit organizations as a mechanism to advance their education policy agenda by funding those nonprofits through the philanthropic organizations affiliated with those same wealthy elites. In light of these conclusions, the authors recommend that a mechanism for more democratic accountability be developed relative to education policy campaigns, initiatives, and legislation.
Accountability: Antecedents, Power, and Processes
Authors: Meyer Heinz-Dieter , Tröhler Daniel , Labaree David F. , Hutt Ethan L. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context In the United States and abroad, public education is changing as the rhetoric of “accountability” is becoming accepted as the self-evident and self-explanatory rationale for momentous policy shifts. Epitomized by the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the U.S. government's Race to the Top, accountability is becoming a pervasive normalizing discourse, legitimizing historical shifts in educational policy from a social and cultural project of facilitating democratic citizenship to an economic project of engendering usable skills and “competences.” Purpose The purpose of this special issue is to provide context and perspective on these momentous shifts. Research Design The papers point to historic antecedents, highlight core ideas, and identify changes in the balance of power between domestic and global policy makers. The authors are interested in understanding the process by which the new policy frameworks have been constructed and legitimized and how they have changed the accepted “definition of the situation.” Conclusions/Recommendations An important aspect of these changes are three long-term trends: homogenizing the heterogeneous reality of education; shifting power from locally embedded education professionals to a global elite of economists and statisticians; and the move from soft guidance to hard mandates in an increasingly centralized system of governance.
Precollege Exposure to Racial/Ethnic Difference and First-Year College Students’ Racial Attitudes
Authors: Bowman Nicholas A. , Stewart Dafina-Lazarus 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Despite burgeoning racial and ethnic heterogeneity within the United States, many students grow up in racially homogeneous schools and neighborhoods. This lack of interracial interaction appears to play a substantial role in shaping students’ racial attitudes and world views upon entering college. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The aim of the study was to examine the relationships among multiple forms of precollege exposure to racial/ethnic diversity and racial attitudes (e.g., perceptions of workplace discrimination) upon entering college. Research Design A quantitative survey examined attitudes, precollege environments, and other indicators among 3,924 entering first-year college students (with approximately equal numbers of Asian Americans, Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites) at 28 U.S. colleges and universities. Structural equation modeling analyses were conducted on the full sample as well as several racial/ethnic groups separately. Conclusions/Recommendations Findings indicated that exposure to racial/ethnic difference in students’ precollege neighborhoods and schools predict high school interracial friendships, which in turn predict their complex racial attitudes. The multigroup analyses further demonstrate that the relationships between interracial friendships and multiple racial attitudes are nonsignificant among White students, but significant for all other groups. These findings have implications for the promotion of meaningful curricular and cocurricular diversity interventions both before and during college.
Reflections on the Gordon Commission
Authors: Haertel Edward 
Published: November 2021

Background This brief reflection on the work of the Gordon Commission calls out significant themes and implications found in the various papers authored by the commissioners and other scholars, especially those included in this special issue of Teachers College Record. Purpose The forward-looking vision of the Gordon Commission is contrasted with contemporary teaching and testing practices to highlight implications for new assessment purposes and methods. It is argued that a new vision of assessment is inseparable from a new vision of teaching and learning. To realize this new vision, some current practices, especially uses of testing to sort and select students and to rank teachers and schools, will need to be greatly attenuated or even abandoned. Research Design This is a narrative review expressing the author's own point of view. No empirical findings are cited. Conclusions A conservative reading of the Gordon Commission's work might suggest that educational assessment tomorrow should function much as it does today, only better. A closer reading, however, suggests a more radical view. Assessment FOR education must break free from the constraints of standardization and consequential comparison.
Expulsion Litigation and the Limits of in Loco Parentis, 1860-1960
Authors: Gelber Scott 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Legal scholars often contrast the litigiousness of contemporary American higher education with a bygone era characterized by near-absolute respect for academic authority. According to this account, a doctrine of “academic deference” insulated colleges until the 1960s, when campus protests and new federal regulations dramatically heightened the intensity of legal oversight. This study tests that conventional wisdom, and its underlying assumption about the origins of student rights, by analyzing expulsion suits during the 100 years before 1960. Purpose Faculty and administrators tend to question if external legal pressure can play a constructive role in debates about higher education. This predisposition tempts us to invoke an earlier era of in loco parentis in order to portray institutional autonomy as a time-honored source of academic achievement. By highlighting overlooked state statutes (especially regarding public institutions) and contractual obligations (especially regarding private institutions), this study examines whether the power to discipline students in loco parentis actually triumphed prior to the 1960s. Research Design The study presents a historical analysis of the 44 college expulsion cases that were reported between 1860 and 1960. Examination of reported decisions was supplemented by archival research regarding landmark cases. Conclusions/Recommendations This study concludes that courts regularly reinstated expelled students during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These cases indicate that the power to act in loco parentis was limited by a countervailing tradition that emphasized college access and compelled institutions to provide due process prior to dismissal. This early strain of decisions laid the groundwork for the more expansive view of student rights that emerged during the 20th century. This finding encourages faculty and administrators to recognize the legal traditions and student dissenters that helped to enshrine accessibility as a defining feature of American higher education.
Institutionalizing in Loco Parentis after Gott v. Berea College (1913)
Authors: Loss Christopher P. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context The institutionalization of in loco parentis in the wake of Gott v. Berea College (1913) marked a major turning point in the evolution of student management theory and practice. Focusing on the crucial decade of the 1920s, when American higher education first became a mass enterprise, this study explores the interaction of ideas and institutions by retracing the constitutive relationship between in loco parentis and the development of student services and programs targeted to keeping students in school. Purpose/Objective Scholars have tended to think of in loco parentis as primarily a tool of social control used to discipline misbehaving students. This study offers a different interpretation by taking seriously the doctrine's basic terms—namely, administrators’ and faculties’ role as “parents” and students’ role as “children”—and by highlighting the enduring institutional transformations created in the 1920s to help reduce student attrition. Research Design This study offers a historical analysis of the changing meanings and widening jurisdiction of in loco parentis during the 1920s. Conclusions/Recommendations This study finds that changes in the legal definition of in loco parentis following Gott v. Berea College (1913) triggered a revolution in student services that helped lay the foundation for the creation of the modern undergraduate experience and for the education of the whole student.
State Higher Education Performance Funding for Community Colleges: Diverse Effects and Policy Implications
Authors: Tandberg David A. , Hillman Nichola , Barakat Mohamed 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Community colleges are central to the United States’ college completion goals. A popular strategy pushed by a number of influential policy organizations and foundations is a policy of tying state funding to community college completions, otherwise known simply as performance funding. This is happening despite little to no evidence that such a strategy actually increases institutional performance. Purpose This study asks: To what extent does the introduction of performance funding programs impact two-year degree completion among participating states? Population/Participants We created a unique panel data set for the period 1990 through 2010, using states as our primary unit of analysis. The data set contains 1,050 total observations, drawing from a range of postsecondary data sources. Research Design We used a quasi-experimental regression technique called difference-indifferences regression technique. We also included in our model multiple control variables and year and state fixed effects. Findings/Results We find that the program had no effect on average and mixed results for the individual states where performance funding was associated with lower completions in six states, greater completions in four states, and inconclusive patterns in nine states. Conclusions We conclude that performance funding is no “silver bullet” for improving community college completions; rather, in some cases, it may interfere with national completion goals. We recommend that state policy makers seek out evidence-based alternatives for improving community college completions.
The Fragmentation of Metropolitan Public School Districts and the Segregation of American Schools: A Longitudinal Analysis
Authors: Richards Meredith P. , Stroub Kori J. 
Published: November 2021

Context Scholars have increasingly raised concerns about the “fragmentation” or proliferation of metropolitan public school districts, citing the potential for fragmentation to facilitate racial/ethnic segregation by permitting individuals to sort more efficiently across district boundaries. In addition, scholars have expressed particular concern about the rapid growth of charter districts and their potential to exacerbate segregation. Purpose of Study In this study, we provide initial evidence on the effect of public school district fragmentation on the trajectory of racial/ethnic segregation in metropolitan areas, attending to the differential effects of regular school district fragmentation as well as charter district fragmentation. Research Design Using NCES Common Core data for the 2002–2010 school years, we computed measures of regular public school district fragmentation and charter district fragmentation as well as nine measures of racial/ethnic segregation for all 366 U.S. metropolitan areas (3 geographic x 3 racial/ethnic decompositions). We then estimated a series of multilevel longitudinal models predicting change in each measure of segregation as a function of regular and charter school district fragmentation. Results We found that school district fragmentation is unrelated to the overall level of segregation in a metropolitan area. More fragmented metropolitan areas have higher levels of segregation across districts than less fragmented metropolitan areas; however, they have lower levels of segregation within districts and equivalent levels of total metropolitan segregation. Likewise, school district fragmentation was not associated with worsening segregation over time or with attenuation of the secular trend toward declining segregation. More fragmented metropolitan areas had smaller declines in between-district segregation over the study period than less fragmented metropolitan areas; however, they had equivalent declines in within-district and total metropolitan segregation. In addition, charter district fragmentation was unrelated to the level or trajectory of school segregation in a metropolitan area. Conclusions Our results provide a somewhat more sanguine assessment of school district fragmentation than previous research. We found that the fragmentation of regular public school districts serves to shift the geographic scale of segregation from within districts to between districts; however, fragmentation does not exacerbate metropolitan racial/ethnic segregation. In addition, despite the rapid growth of charter districts, we find no evidence that charter district fragmentation has worsened overall metropolitan racial/ethnic segregation. Moreover, metropolitan areas are not experiencing the “fragmentation” of their traditional public school districts; rather, traditional school districts are consolidating despite increasing enrollment.
Afterschool: Growth! (The All Stars Way)
Authors: Gildin Bonny L. 
Published: November 2021

This chapter shares a model of afterschool development created by the not-for-profit All Stars Project. Central to the model are self-conscious and collective acts of performing and pretending that help youth living in high poverty, urban areas grow as learners and builders of their lives and their communities. Everything is a performance… not to say that it's not real. It's very much real, but that's the aspect the All Stars brings to it, that in order to make it real, in order to make some of your dreams real, you have to perform, and as you perform, you start to realize, “I don't know, I can do this.” (Jasmine Morrison, 32, All Stars Project Alumna) What if all the kids currently failing in school pretended to be good learners? What if all the adults—teachers, administrators, parents—played along and pretended that the kids were school achievers, heading for college?… We believe that if such a national “performance” were created, the education crisis in America would be over. (Newman & Fulani, 2011, p. 1)
Stuck in School: How Social Context Shapes School Choice for Inner-City Students
Authors: Condliffe Barbara F. , Boyd Melody L. , Deluca Stefanie 
Published: November 2021

Background High school choice policies attempt to improve the educational outcomes of poor and minority students by allowing access to high school beyond neighborhood boundaries. These policies assume that given a choice, families will be able to select a school that supports their child's learning and promotes educational attainment. However, research on the effects of public school choice programs on the academic achievement of disadvantaged students is mixed, suggesting that families do not necessarily respond to these programs in ways that policymakers intend. Purpose The purpose of this article is to identify how family and neighborhood contexts interact with public school choice policies to shape the educational opportunities of inner-city students. Specifically, we ask: What criteria are used to choose schools? What are the implications of these school choice decisions for students’ future educational and occupational opportunities? Research Design We use data from interviews and fieldwork conducted with 118 low-income African American youth ages 15–24 who attended Baltimore City Public Schools at some point during their high school career. Research on school choice tends to rely on data from parents, and we offer a unique contribution by asking youth themselves about their experiences with school choice. Conclusions Although school choice policies assume that parents will guide youths’ decision about where to go to high school, the majority of youth in our sample were the primary decision makers in the high school choice process. Additionally, these youth made these choices under considerable constraints imposed by the district policy and by their family, peers, and academic background. As a result, the youth often selected a school within a very limited choice set and chose schools that did not necessarily maximize their educational opportunity. Our results demonstrate that school choice policies must take into account the social context in which educational decisions are made in order to maximize chances for students’ individual academic achievement and to decrease inequality by race and social class.
Teaching as Jesus Making: The Hidden Curriculum of Christ in Schooling
Authors: Burke Kevin J. , Segall Avner 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context The ideas of teaching as salvation and teacher-as-martyr are not new concepts. Prior research, however, has largely failed to explore the historical and cultural religious roots that continue to inform the ways in which teachers are constructed. That is, though prior work has engaged with thinking about religion and thinking about teachers as saviors, little work has been done to uncover the hidden curriculum of teaching that positions teachers as versions of Christ in the public school classroom. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Here we highlight the fact that certain elements inherent in the act of public teaching have their roots in Christian, particularly Biblical, thinking. Such connections highlight the religiosity in teaching, regardless of whether a teacher is a Christian believer. Research Design The work is an analytic essay, drawing on critical traditions in cultural studies and curriculum theory. Findings/Results We illustrate that although we think of teaching as a secular activity and assume that religion has been expunged from public, including teacher, education, the sediments of religion remain present in how the teacher learns to imagine, construct, and enact his or her work as teacher as savior and martyr.
The “Two-Way Street” of Having an Impact: A Democratic School's Attempt to Build a Broad Counterhegemonic Alternative
Authors: Meshulam Assaf 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Critical education studies tries to make sense of the relationship between education and differential power in an unequal society and to what degree schools impact the social order. A premise in this field is that a fundamental aim of critical education is exposing unequal social, cultural, and economic power relations and engaging in social action that transcends the setting of the classroom and school. Counterhegemonic schools are thus generally characterized by an aspiration to be meaningful beyond the school community and a commitment to social transformation. Purpose/Focus of Study The study examines a unique bilingual, multicultural school in Israel/Palestine in its struggle to be broadly meaningful and sustainable by opening up enrollment beyond its binational (Jewish-Palestinian) community. In particular, the study analyzes the impact of incorporating external students on the school's counterhegemonic curricula, pedagogy, and dynamics, as well as the implications for the transformative potential of bottom-up democratic education initiatives in the absence of accompanying policy change more generally. Research Design The findings draw on data collected in a broader qualitative case study on multicultural, bilingual schools educating for democracy and social justice in different national, political, and cultural contexts. Data were collected and analyzed from semistructured open-ended individual interviews with school staff, parents, and founders; field observations; and document analysis. Findings The primary finding of this research is the paradox of being impacted while making an impact: The school's attempt to infiltrate the hegemony and expand and sustain its social impact led to the infiltration of external goals, interests, and power relations into its counterhegemonic agenda, curricula and pedagogy, and governance. This in turn undermined transformativity and transcultural border-crossing potential at the school and triggered a neoliberal process of commodification. Yet it also emerged that students still succeed in crossing national and religious identity-borders and in overcoming hegemonic perspectives of their essentialized identities. Conclusions Many obstacles stand between a counterhegemonic school and being socially meaningful, including sociohistorical and political factors. No less important, however, are the broader structural aspects to creating a space in which transformative schools can succeed. Although bottom-up attempts may push hegemonic forms to incorporate certain aspects of their vision, they cannot have meaningful and widespread impact if unaccompanied by broad support and action at the policy level and if they do not become organic parts of a larger transformative agenda.