bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Stereotypes, Images, and Inclination to Discriminatory Action: The White Racial Frame in the Practice of School Leadership
Authors: Toure Judith , Dorsey Dana N. Thompson 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Most educators have had little if any preparation in racial literacy, the understanding of social identity related to race and the ability to recognize and negotiate racism. In fact, they may view race as irrelevant. Yet teachers and school leaders hold deep-seated racial ideologies that shape their day-to-day practice and have implications for their students’ learning and success This study presents an analysis of school leadership in three, predominantly African-American schools, and the constructions of race, learning, and leadership. Purpose The authors draw from Feagin's (2010) conceptual framework, the White racial frame (WRF), to analyze school leadership practice and ways in which racial ideologies emerge and shape leaders’ work with teachers. The WRF consists of five dimensions including racial stereotypes, racial narratives and interpretations, racial images and language accents, racialized emotions, and inclinations to discriminatory action. Context and Participants This study took place in three schools in two urban districts in western Pennsylvania. Participants included three White school principals, instructional leaders, and several focal teachers. Research Design, Data Collection, and Analysis This ethnographic case study is part of a larger study that took place in three predominantly African-American elementary schools. More than 80 hours of school-based observations took place, by shadowing each principal weekly and observing her in various capacities as she supervised teachers, led walkthroughs and faculty meetings, and attended or provided professional development. Additionally, multiple interviews of the school leaders and focal teachers were conducted to surface beliefs about race, knowledge of culture and learning, and knowledge of teachers’ cultural competence. We developed a coding scheme based upon Feagin's (2010) paradigm of the WRF to surface leadership beliefs and practice and used a qualitative data analysis software package to analyze our data. Findings The school leaders in this study were deeply rooted within the WRF in their daily leadership routines, perpetuating stereotypes and justifying discriminatory actions in the school, ultimately limiting learning opportunities for children of color and for teachers. Conclusions/Recommendations The findings underscore the need for critical knowledge of race and racism to be included in teacher and leadership preparation and professional development. The WRF serves as a fine-grained analytic tool for understanding how racial ideologies surface in leadership. The authors recommend that future research explore the role of school leaders in deframing and reframing the White racial frame and develop the concept of racial literacy in educational contexts.
Teacher Turnover in Organizational Context: Staffing Stability in Los Angeles Charter, Magnet, and Regular Public Schools
Authors: Newton Xiaoxia , Rivero Rosario , Fuller Bruce , Dauter Luke 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Studies that compare the achievement benefits of charter public schools versus traditional public schools (TPSs) yield quite uneven results. The quality and long-term commitment of teachers represent related mediators that may help to explain effective and ineffective charter schools. Early findings on the comparative rates of annual turnover—exiting from one's school—appear to show higher turnover in charter schools relative to TPSs. But longitudinal data that allow scholars to track teachers over time remain rare. Little evidence exists on how organizational context may interact with individual teacher characteristics to further explain the propensity to leave one's school. Purpose/Objective Prior research on teacher turnover focused mostly on whether or not and who leaves. Our research builds on and extends prior studies by investigating not only whether and who but also when a teacher leaves. The phenomenon of our study emphasizes the dynamic nature of teacher exit; namely, we are interested in examining when teachers are at the greatest risk of exiting schools. This dynamic focus marks a departure from the typical teacher turnover analysis in which exit is conceptualized as a status (i.e., exit or not). Population/Participants/Subjects We used a large sample of elementary (4,788) and secondary teachers (8,467) panel data (from 2002–03 to 2008–09) from the LAUSD. A little over 80% of the teachers in the elementary sample were female, while 61% of the secondary teachers were female. About 40% of the elementary and 47% of the secondary teachers were white. The average years of teaching experience was about two for both elementary and secondary teachers. Special education teachers accounted for 12% of the elementary and 15% of the secondary study sample, respectively. Research Design We combined event history and multilevel modeling analysis in order to investigate when a teacher exits his or her first assigned school and how organizational membership conditions decision processes at the individual level. Conclusions/Recommendations The longitudinal and multilevel analysis of teacher turnover supports our theoretical position that organizational dynamics and contextual factors are likely to condition the decision process made at the individual level and thereby influence individual behaviors (i.e., decision to leave a school at certain point in time). This cross-level theoretical perspective adds further support to the argument that focusing on recruiting capable teachers and paying attention to working conditions for long-term staffing stability are aspects of schooling that matter most for student learning, as opposed to a horse-race game (i.e., choice and competition).
Crossing Boundaries: A Qualitative Exploration of Relational Leadership in Three Full-Service Community Schools
Authors: Sanders Mavis G. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Full-service community schools provide comprehensive and coordinated resources and supports to meet the complex needs of children and families in low-income communities. Given their intentional focus on expanded networks of school, family, and community stakeholders, full-service community schools are particularly useful contexts for studying leadership strategies that facilitate cross-boundary collaboration. Focus of Study Drawing from the literature on three interrelated concepts—cross-boundary leadership, relational leadership, and relational trust—this study examines principal leadership practices in three full-service community schools. Setting The study took place in an urban school district in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States and included three full-service community schools—one elementary school and two secondary schools. The three full-service community schools were purposefully selected to provide both a range and depth of insights. Research Design Consistent with a constructivist perspective, this qualitative, multiple case study was designed to understand conditions influencing the effectiveness of full-service community schools from the perspectives of those involved in their development, implementation, and use. Data Collection and Analysis Data collection included semistructured interviews, school observations, and document review. Triangulation of data sources and methods helped to generate a more nuanced account of the principals’ leadership practices. Data analysis was an iterative process, including both inductive and deductive strategies. Findings The focal principals, to varying degrees, used three relational leadership strategies—active engagement with diverse stakeholders, facilitation of stakeholder interaction, and purposive selection of faculty and staff—to build and maintain collaborative school cultures; attract partnerships that provided services and supports to students, families, teachers, and community members; and garner political support and funding for continued implementation of the full-service community school model in the district. At each school, the principals were also called on to address conflicts that threatened the collaborative environments they sought to create. Their success in doing so influenced both stability and trust within the case schools. Conclusions/Recommendations This study underscores the need for a continued focus on relational practices in school leadership programs and research, specifically on strategies to build the interpersonal relationships and organizational conditions that are critical for cross-boundary collaboration and to effectively manage interactor conflicts.
Teacher Talk about Student Ability and Achievement in the Era of Data-Driven Decision Making
Authors: Datnow Amanda , Choi Bailey , Park Vicki , John Elise ST. 
Published: November 2021

Background Data-driven decision making continues to be a common feature of educational reform agendas across the globe. In many U.S. schools, the teacher team meeting is a key setting in which data use is intended to take place, with the aim of planning instruction to address students’ needs. However, most prior research has not examined how the use of data shapes teachers’ dialogue about their students’ ability and achievement. Purpose This study examines how teachers talk about student ability and achievement in the era of data-driven decision making and how their talk is shaped by the use of data within teams, their school contexts, and broader accountability systems. Research Design The study draws on interview and observational data gathered from teacher teams in four elementary schools. In each of these schools, teachers were expected to use data to inform instructional differentiation. Data collection efforts involved regular visits to each school over the course of one year to interview teachers and conduct observations of teacher team meetings. In the process of analysis, interview transcripts and field notes were coded, and themes were extracted within and across codes. Findings Across schools, teachers used common labels (e.g., “low,” “middle,” “GATE”) to describe students of different achievement levels and the programs they were involved in. The use of labels and student categories was relational and comparative and influenced by the accountability and policy contexts in which teachers worked. At the same time, regular meetings in which teachers jointly examined data on student learning provided a space for teachers to examine students’ strengths and weaknesses on a variety of measures and talk in terms of student growth. Teachers questioned whether assessment data provided an accurate picture of student achievement and acknowledged the role of student effort, behavior, and family circumstances as important factors that were not easily measured. These discussions opened up deeper inquiry into the factors that supported or hindered student learning. The implementation of the Common Core State Standards also led some teachers to question prior categorizations of student ability. Conclusions/Recommendations The findings from this study suggest that educational reforms and policies regarding data use influence educators’ conceptions of student achievement and ability. On the one hand, accountability policies can narrow the dialogue about students. On the other hand, educational reforms and policies could also lead to new ways of thinking about student learning and to an examination of a broader range of data, and provide opportunities for professional learning.
Ending Isolation: The Payoff of Teacher Teams in Successful High-Poverty Urban Schools
Authors: Johnson Susan Moore , Reinhorn Stefanie , Simon Nicole 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Many urban schools today look to instructional teams as a means to decrease professional isolation, promote teachers’ ongoing development, and substantially reduce well-documented variation in teachers’ effectiveness across classrooms. Recent research finds that teams can contribute to teachers’ development and increased student achievement. However, research also suggests that teams often fail and that most schools are not organized to ensure their success. Therefore, it is important to learn more about how teams function in successful schools, how teachers experience them, and what factors contribute to their success. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Data for this article were drawn from a comparative case study focusing on the human-capital practices in six successful high-poverty, high-minority schools (traditional, turnaround, restart, and charter), all located in one Massachusetts city. Each school was affected by a distinct set of state and local policies. Here, we focus on the schools’ approaches to professional learning and collaboration among teachers. Did they rely on teams, and, if so, what purposes did the teams serve, and how were they organized? How did teachers assess their experience with teams? What role did administrators play? Were there notable school-to-school differences in how these teams were organized and managed? Research Design/Data Collection and Analysis For this qualitative, comparative case study, we conducted semistructured interviews with 142 teachers, administrators, and other staff in six elementary and middle schools. Interview protocols encouraged participants to discuss their school's approach to teachers’ professional learning and work with colleagues. During school visits, we also observed a wide range of day-to-day practices and collected documents describing school policies and practices. We coded our data with both emic and etic topical codes and used various matrices to analyze responses within and across the sites. Conclusions/Recommendations Five schools relied on teams as a central mechanism for school improvement, dedicating substantial blocks of time each week to teachers’ meetings. Teams focused on matters of content (curriculum, lesson plans, and student achievement) and the student cohort (individual progress, group behavior, and organizational culture). Teachers valued their work on teams, saying that it supported their instruction and contributed to their school's success by creating coherence across classrooms and shared responsibility for students. Factors that supported teams included having a worthy purpose in support of the school's mission; sufficient, regular time for meetings; engaged support by administrators; and facilitation by trained teacher-leaders.
Do Organizational Supports for Math Instruction Improve the Quality of Beginning Teachers’ Instruction?
Authors: Smith Thomas M. , Booker Laura Neergaard , Hochberg Eric D. , Desimone Laura M. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Researchers have found that teachers’ effectiveness at increasing student achievement improves during the first few years on the job. Yet little research maps the trajectory of beginning teachers’ instructional quality or investigates what forms of support are associated with variation in this trajectory. Further, although beginning teachers face many challenges not directly related to the rigor of their instruction, such as classroom management, effectively implementing high-quality instruction remains a major challenge. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article focuses on five research questions: (a) What are the initial levels of beginning seventh- and eighth-grade teachers’ mathematics instructional quality? (b) To what extent are teachers’ preservice qualifications (e.g., major; mathematics knowledge for teaching), prior teaching experience (e.g., weeks of student teaching), and school teaching context (e.g., percent of student receiving free or reduced price lunch) associated with the quality of their instruction during their first semester of teaching? (c) What are the levels of, and changes in, organizational supports for math instruction that these teachers receive during their first three years in the profession? (d) To what extent does the instructional quality of beginning middle school math teachers change over their first three years of teaching? and (e) To what extent do content-focused supports (e.g., math-focused mentoring, math-focused PD, professional community, principal leadership) provided over these three years predict improvement in instructional quality? Population/Participants/Subjects Participants include 62 teachers from eight southeastern and three northeastern districts in the United States. Research Design Using observation, survey, and interview data, we identify the links between the organizational supports provided beginning teachers and the teachers’ improvements in instructional quality during their first three years of teaching. Findings/Results Results suggest little improvement in the instructional quality of mathematics lessons during the first three years of teaching and that most organizational supports, as they are currently delivered, do not appear to help beginning middle school mathematics teachers improve their instructional quality. Using in-depth case studies, we explore the nature of the supports provided and their potential links to teacher improvement. Conclusions/Recommendations Our quantitative findings suggest that current methods of supporting beginning middle school mathematics teachers are not robust enough to support the type of teacher improvement demanded by new math standards, although our qualitative analyses suggest ways of designing these supports to better attend to instructional improvement. Our findings also emphasize the critical role the principal can play in connecting new teachers to effective supports.
The Point of No Return? Interest Groups, School Board Elections, and the Sustainment of the Portfolio Management Model in Post-Katrina New Orleans
Authors: Welsh Richard O. , Hall Michelle 
Published: November 2021

Context Given the growing popularity of the portfolio management model (PMM) as a method of improving education, it is important to examine how these market-based reforms are sustained over time and how the politics of sustaining this model have substantial policy implications. Purpose of Study The purpose of this article is to examine important patterns and trends in the relationship between campaign contributions to local and state school board elections and the sustainability of the PMM in urban districts. We provide a descriptive analysis of the role of interest groups in education reform in post-Katrina New Orleans and document how the PMM changed the landscape of education politics, with a focus on the actors, both local and national, that sustain the PMM. Research Design We describe the creation of Act 35 and the evolution of educational governance changes in New Orleans to determine whether the same interest groups that played a role in the origin of the PMM also contributed to its sustainment. We analyze how these educational governance changes influenced the politics of education reform using data from the Louisiana Ethics Commission on campaign contributions to both state and local school board elections. We apply several non-board and board governance theories to examine interest group behavior. We also conduct interviews with stakeholders throughout the educational system to inform our discussion of the evolution of educational governance and the politics of education reform in post-Katrina New Orleans, as well as the categorization of candidates in school board elections. Results We find that in the post-Katrina era, there was a diversification of actors in the interest group landscape. These groups influenced educational governance through unprecedented levels of campaign contributions to the state and local school board elections. The influence of interest groups, especially out- of- state actors, contributed to an emerging shift in political control from “traditional” school board candidates to an increase in “pro-reform” board members. Conclusions The PMM is accompanied by heightened interest as well as an influx of out-of-state actors in educational policy making and the provision of public education. Unprecedented levels of campaign contributions suggest that state and local school board elections may be one of the primary mechanisms through which interest groups influenced post-Katrina educational governance. Out-of-state campaign contributions were mostly in support of pro-portfolio candidates. There appears to be tangible national support for the PMM that may play a crucial role in sustaining these reforms.
The Origins of Systemic Reform in American Higher Education, 1895–1920
Authors: Ris Ethan W. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context The traditional literature on the history of higher education in the United States focuses on linear explanations of the inexorable growth of the size, mission, and importance of colleges and universities. That approach ignores or minimizes a recurrent strain of discontent with the higher education sector, especially from policy elites. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article examines the century-old origins of a continuing reform impulse in higher education. It identifies the reforms in question as “systemic,” both because they extended beyond the workings of individual colleges and universities and because they had at their heart the dream of systemization, linking and coordinating policy at groupings of institutions at the state, regional, or national level. The narrative focuses on the establishment, operations, and ideology of two early philanthropic foundations designed to spur systemic reform in the higher education sector: the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the General Education Board. Research Design This article relies on historical analysis informed by organizational theory. Data Collection and Analysis The data for this article come from new archival research, mostly conducted at the Rockefeller Archive Center (Sleepy Hollow, NY), Library of Congress Manuscript Division (Washington, DC), and Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library (New York, NY). Conclusions/Recommendations This article identifies an ideologically consistent, interlocked cohort of reformers whom the author calls “the academic engineers.” These individuals, associated with elite universities and philanthropic foundations, articulated a vision of higher education reform based on increasing the efficiency and utility of institutions and linking them together in a hierarchical system. The author identifies four key features of this vision and describes the academic engineers’ efforts to enact them. The reformers had some successes but failed to realize their overarching goals; in the article's conclusion, the author examines the historical context and organizational theory as partial explanations for this shortfall.