bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Learning Lessons from Instruction: Descriptive Results from an Observational Study of Urban Elementary Classrooms
Authors: Hill Heather C. , Litke Erica , Lynch Kathleen 
Published: November 2021

Background For nearly three decades, policy makers and researchers in the United States have promoted more intellectually rigorous standards for mathematics teaching and learning. Yet, to date, we have limited descriptive evidence on the extent to which reform-oriented instruction has been enacted at scale. Purpose The purpose of the study is to examine the prevalence of reform-aligned mathematics instructional practices in five U.S. school districts. We also seek to describe the range of instruction students experience by presenting case studies of teachers at high, medium, and low levels of reform alignment. Participants We draw on 1,735 video-recorded lessons from 329 elementary teachers in these five U.S. urban districts. Research Design We present descriptive analyses of lesson scores on a mathematics-focused classroom observation instrument. We also draw on interviews with district personnel, rater-written lesson summaries, and lesson video to develop case studies of instructional practice. Findings We find that teachers in our sample do use reform-aligned instructional practices, but they do so within the confines of traditional lesson formats. We also find that the implementation of these instructional practices varies in quality. Furthermore, the prevalence and strength of these practices corresponds to the coherence of district efforts at instructional reform. Conclusions Our findings suggest that, unlike other studies in which reform-oriented instruction rarely occurred, reform practices do appear to some degree in study classrooms. In addition, our analyses suggest that implementation of these reform practices corresponds to the strength and coherence of district efforts to change instruction.
Examining the Recruitment, Placement, and Career Trajectories of Secondary Mathematics Teachers Prepared for High-Need Schools
Authors: Zahner William , Chapin Suzanne , Levine Rich , He Lingjun A. , Afonso Robert 
Published: November 2021

Background School leaders are challenged by the relatively limited supply and high turnover of qualified secondary school mathematics teachers. In response, policy makers and teacher educators have developed various pathways and incentives to recruit, train, place, and support highly qualified mathematics teachers to work in hard-to-staff schools. Focus of Study In this study, we investigate the recruitment, placement, and early career trajectories of 158 Grades 6–12 mathematics teachers from two preparation programs focused on staffing “high-need” schools in the same region. Setting The contrasting programs were both supported by the same university in the Northeast United States. Participants & Programs The participants were 158 secondary school (Grades 6–12) mathematics teachers. Of these, 48 were recruited and prepared through a teacher education program with financial support from the National Science Foundation-funded Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program. The other 110 school mathematics teachers were recruited and trained through the Greater Boston office of Teach For America. Both programs required two years of service in high-need schools. Research Design In this study, we used a comparative design. Descriptive profiles of teachers from each program were created. Then, participants’ early career trajectories were compared using logistic regression and survival analysis. Data Collection and Analysis We administered a longitudinal survey and created a database combining survey data and each program's administrative data. Conclusions Our data illustrate that the Noyce scholarship-supported pathway was generally successful in recruiting individuals with STEM majors, training them to be mathematics teachers, and placing those individuals as secondary school mathematics teachers in high-need schools. The comparison of the scholarship-pathway teachers with the secondary school mathematics teachers in the alternative-certification pathway provides a useful contrast. On the one hand, the alternatively certified secondary school mathematics teachers were less likely than the scholarship-pathway teachers to have STEM majors, and the attrition rate for the alternatively prepared teachers was higher than the attrition rate for the scholarship-supported teachers, particularly after they had completed the two-year service requirement. On the other hand, the alternative-certification program recruited a more diverse pool of potential teachers and placed these teachers in schools serving a higher proportion of low-SES students.
Understanding Teacher Pay for Performance: Flawed Assumptions and Disappointing Results
Authors: Kozlowski Karen Phelan , Lauen Douglas Lee 
Published: November 2021

Background Policy makers are increasingly adopting performance incentives to spur under-performing teachers as a way to improve teaching and student performance. However, much of the experimental research fails to find meaningful effects of performance incentives on either student achievement or teacher practice. Purpose/Objective Using the “principal–agent problem” as the theoretical motivation for the study, this research examines why performance incentives have not worked in American schools. The principal–agent problem suggests that in the absence of a perfect system to monitor agents, (e.g., teachers), there must be an incentive based on some measurable outcome to ensure maximal effort. The underlying assumptions about why performance incentives should work for teachers are that (1) teachers are primarily motivated by money, (2) teachers are not currently working hard enough, and (3) teachers know how to be more effective but are choosing not to put forth the necessary effort to do so. The purpose of this research is to examine whether these assumptions hold for teachers. Research Design We conducted qualitative analysis of interviews and focus groups with approximately 150 teachers and 20 administrators from 13 of the lowest performing school districts in North Carolina to understand how educators perceived performance incentives in the context of their own practice. Findings Three key themes emerged from our study. First, teachers report being motivated by service to their students instead of opportunities to maximize income. Second, teachers think they are already working as hard as they can and find little room in their practice to work harder, whatever the financial reward. Third, when teachers do improve their practice, it comes from opportunities to learn new strategies and techniques. Conclusions The empirical research presented in this paper suggests that performance incentive programs rest on a set of flawed theoretical assumptions. Performance incentives assume that teachers (1) are primarily motivated by financial rewards, (2) are not working as hard as they can, and (3) know how to be more effective. However, these assumptions do not comport with what teachers and administrators report about their motivation and practice. Therefore, performance incentives will likely do little to improve teacher effectiveness overall.
Helping Students or Just Taking Their Cuts? How Prioritization of State Student Aid Programs Responds to Downturns in Higher Education Appropriations
Authors: Li Amy Y. , Zumeta William 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context During downturns in state higher education support, state student aid becomes especially important for affordability because colleges react by increasing tuition, and other aid sources may not fully respond. From a policy perspective, states might be expected to protect aid support in response to fiscal stringency, yet this key relationship is understudied. We use social construction theory framing, hypothesizing that, because college students are positively construed as a “deserving” target population, policymakers prefer allocating benefits to them relative to institutional support, particularly in hard times. Purposes We seek to better understand the long-term shift in state higher education funding away from institutional support toward student aid, with particular interest in whether this trend accelerates during fiscal stringencies when tuition spikes increase the salience of students’ needs. Further, we aim to understand structural, political, and economic characteristics of states that prioritize student aid during downturns versus not. Research Design Across 50 states from 1980–2013, we identify periods of substantial downturn in higher education appropriations, observing 109 such cases. Within these state-specific downturns, we compare percentage changes in student aid funding versus institutional support, classifying budgetary responses into three priority categories: student aid, institutional support, or budgetary equity. We conduct a regression across 1,700 state-years to investigate whether the share of appropriations allocated to student aid differs in downturn versus non-downturn years and employ a random effects model to explore trends within states. We employ a logistic regression to estimate the relationship between student aid prioritization and state-level factors. Findings States prioritize funding for student aid in most downturns, fewer in the 1980s, but consistent at around 80% across more recent sub-periods (1990s, early 2000s, late 2000s–2010s), indicating considerable stability in this dimension of state higher education policy cultures. On average, states increase student aid's share of higher education appropriations more sharply during downturn years (2.6 percentage points higher aid share) than other years. States with more aid per student and a lower unemployment rate at downturn onset are more likely to prioritize aid. Magnitude of tuition increase during downturns was not a significant factor. Conclusions This study contributes to discussions about higher education affordability policies by illuminating both the relative resilience of student aid support in downturns and that the long-term increase in aid's share of higher education appropriations is more likely a reaction to tuition growth than an explicit “voucherization” of higher education finance policy.
High School Completion in Context: Student- and School-Level Factors Related to On-Time Graduation
Authors: Uretsky Mathew C. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context There is an expansive body of research concerning high school graduation; however, most studies omit students who persist through four years of high school without earning a diploma. In addition, there is scant research exploring longer term outcomes among students whose academic trajectories do not fit within the traditional four-year model of high school graduation, including eventual graduation, postsecondary enrollment, or engagement in the workforce. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The current study addresses the substantive gaps in research regarding high school noncompletion by examining the college and workforce outcomes of persisters—defined here as students who do not formally withdraw from high school, nor earn a regular diploma, four years after entering high school as a first-time ninth grader. Research Design The present study accessed five years of linked, longitudinal, student-level administrative data from the Maryland Longitudinal Data System. Multilevel models assessed the relationship between student- and school-level factors with the odds of students earning a high school diploma four years after beginning their freshman year. Independent variables included student-level demographic and academic indicators and school-level concentrations of student characteristics. Conclusions/Recommendations This study offers a first look into the academic and employment trajectories of an understudied and high-risk group of young adults. The multilevel examination of student- and school-level factors indicated that on-time graduation for four-year persisters should be understood as a function of students within their academic environment. Overall, persisters had less favorable college and workforce outcomes when compared with students who earned a high school diploma, suggesting the need for interventions that promote college and workforce readiness across the population of persisters. The findings presented herein suggest that the phenomenon of persisting should be considered, along with dropout, as a critical element of a more informed analysis of high school graduation. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.
Mapping the Inequity Implications of Help-Seeking in Online Credit-Recovery Classrooms
Authors: Darling-Aduana Jennifer , Good Annalee , Heinrich Carolyn J. 
Published: November 2021

Background Expectations that students should request assistance from teachers when needed, a set of classroom behaviors termed “help-seeking,” have the potential to contribute to inequitable access to quality learning experiences in traditional classroom settings. Purpose This study extends current literature by mapping the nature of help-seeking interactions between students and teachers in online high school credit-recovery classrooms, where the implications of help-seeking have yet to be examined systemically. Research Design Drawing on qualitative and quantitative analysis of data collected from the 2014–2015 through 2016–2017 school years in a large, urban school district serving predominantly low-income student of color, we identify patterns in these interactions and their implications for disparities in academic opportunities. Findings We find that few of the high school students enrolled in online credit-recovery courses had access to consistent, constructive interactions in instructional spaces, even though most students required instructor support to obtain full access to the learning environment. Our observations point to disparate access to quality educational experiences in online credit-recovery labs that mirror those documented by others in traditional classroom settings. Conclusions Based on these findings, we identify strategies to support more equitable learning in online courses including explicit expectations and proactive assistance to students as well as the use of real-time data by teachers, lower student-teacher ratios, and assigning teachers certified in course subjects to improve educational quality.
Supporting Early Career Alternatively Certified Teachers: Evidence from the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Survey
Authors: Redding Christopher , Smith Thomas M. 
Published: November 2021

Background Alternatively certified (AC) teachers have generally been found to turn over at higher rates than traditionally certified (TC) teachers. These higher turnover rates are generally attributed to lower levels of preparedness and less of a commitment to remain in teaching than TC teachers, both of which may be compounded by AC teachers’ increased likelihood of beginning their career in schools that enroll traditionally underserved students. Purpose Our goal is to better understand the early career professional learning opportunities of AC teachers. We consider the ways in which in-service organizational supports such as mentoring, collaboration with one's peers, and professional development compensate for alternative certification teachers’ reduced levels of pre-service training. Research Design We conduct a secondary analysis of data from the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Survey (BTLS). BTLS is a nationally representative survey of the cohort of new teachers who began their career in the 2007–2008 school year. Teachers were surveyed annually for their first five years in the teaching profession. We draw on data regarding teachers’ entry pathway, feelings of preparedness, organizational supports, and turnover (i.e., leaving teaching or moving schools). Data Analysis We first describe differences in self-reported preparedness, commitment to remain in teaching, and use of in-service organizational supports across beginning teachers across different entry pathways. We then conduct discrete time survival analysis to (1) understand differences in the timing of turnover rates across entry pathways and (2) examine the role induction supports play in improving AC teacher retention. Findings We show that AC teachers enter teaching feeling less prepared and, with the exception of mentoring, receive no additional support in their first year of teaching compared to TC teachers. Although we observe a 10-percentage point gap in the turnover between early career AC and TC teachers is, this gap is, in large part, explained by observable teacher and school characteristics. We show some evidence that AC teachers differentially benefit from extra classroom assistance, quality of mentor feedback, and content professional development, which were all associated with lower odds of leaving teaching. Conclusions Our findings suggest that schools and districts could do more to target induction supports for novice AC teachers. Given that AC teachers receive most of their training once they begin teaching, alternative certification programs, schools, and districts can customize supports for AC teachers to fit the needs of their local context.
Tracing States’ Messages About Common Core Instruction: An Analysis of English/ Language Arts and Close Reading Resources
Authors: Hodge Emily M. , Benko Susanna L. , Salloum Serena J. 
Published: November 2021

Background A common set of standards enables the sharing of curricular and professional development resources across state lines. In a previous study of state-provided standards resources for English/language arts, we identified the number of state educational agencies linking to different organizations’ resources. We then identified the 10 most influential organizations; in other words, the organizations to which the highest number of states had linked as resource sponsors. However, little is known about the content of the resources from the most influential organizations. Purpose The first goal of this study was to describe the state-provided resources sponsored by the 10 most influential organizations, including the standards and topics addressed. The second goal was to identify the instructional messages about close reading present in those resources, as well as how consistent those messages were across resources and across organizations. Research Design This study used qualitative coding and descriptive analyses to identify standards and topics included in 177 individual resources in the form of articles, curriculum guidelines, instructional aids, professional development, and student work. We utilized social network analysis to visualize the connections between topics the resources addressed and their organizational sponsors. Then, we used qualitative coding and social network analysis to identify and visualize messages about close reading from a smaller set of resources. Conclusions This study finds that resources emphasized standards focused on reading closely and academic vocabulary. Resources focused most heavily on the topics of reading informational text, complex text and academic language, and reading literature; topics that were less represented included special student populations, curricular design, and narrative writing. This study also finds that the resources’ positions on how teachers should enact close reading diverged around the extent to which historical or background knowledge ought to be allowed to inform students’ reading. This work adds to a small but growing body of research applying social network analysis to visualize the relationships between organizations and ideas. We recommend that teachers, as well as state and district leaders, who are searching for helpful resources turn to literacy organizations like the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Literacy Association as organizations that are concerned with the profession as a whole rather than with one particular standards policy and may therefore present a broader and more integrated view of ELA instruction.
Seeing through Serpent and Eagle Eyes: Teachers as Handlers of Memories
Authors: Cammarano Cristina , Stutelberg Erin 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context This paper is part of the special issue “Reimagining Research and Practice at the Crossroads of Philosophy, Teaching, and Teacher Education.” We propose that there is a vital connection in teaching between curriculum and memories that should be fostered in our classrooms. Because memories are alive and bring meaning to our lives, they need to be handled with care. Unfortunately, however, much of teaching risks to simply embalm what is already dead. We examine how the living work of teachers might reposition curriculum as a body of dynamic memories: a constellation of struggles and belongings, failures and accomplishments. The role of the teacher, in this context, is as a handler of those memories. Research Design Our approach derives from sustained interaction as we have sought to bring our scholarly backgrounds in philosophy of education and English teacher education, respectively, into dynamic contact. The methodology of the inquiry is mixed in that it combines teacher narratives (our own) with critical conceptual analysis, collective memory work, and phenomenology. Drawing on a bibliography of texts organized collaboratively by the larger research group, our main authors of reference are Freire, Gramsci, Anzaldua, Style, and Britzman. We also feature several fine-grained narratives that illuminate what we mean by “handlers of memory” in the educational setting. Conclusions/Recommendations Our shared philosophizing in this paper is a response to the concern that classroom teaching contributes to the deadening of curriculum as a source of meaning and an avenue for students and teachers to learn about themselves. In response, we propose the image of teachers as handlers of memory who work to cultivate and keep memories alive and central to learning. We recommend that teachers explore collective memory work (Haug, 1999) and reflective teaching narratives (Furman, 2015) as ways to get a handle on their own powerful memories of teaching.