bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Influence of Developmentally Appropriate Practice on Children's Cognitive Development: A Qualitative Metasynthesis
Authors: Brown Christopher P. , Lan Yi-Chin 
Published: November 2021

Background As policymakers and advocates across the United States look to early childhood educators to improve children's cognitive development so they enter elementary school ready to learn, debates have emerged over what types of practices these educators should be engaged in to achieve this goal. Historically, the field of early childhood education has advocated for teachers to employ developmentally appropriate practices to ready young children for school success. Yet, empirically, the quantitative studies that have examined the impact of these practices on children's cognitive development have produced mixed results. Absent from these debates are qualitative research studies exploring this topic. Purpose of Study To address this issue, this article presents findings from a qualitative metasynthesis that studied whether teachers and/or administrators were engaging in developmentally appropriate practices, and if so, how such practices might influence children's cognitive development. Research Design This qualitative metasynthesis used a template analysis to code 12 peer-reviewed qualitative studies that were based on original research, took place in the United States, and involved practicing teachers and administrators who worked in early childhood settings (birth through Grade 3). Findings The findings appear to demonstrate a positive influence of teachers’ developmentally appropriate practices on children's cognitive development and a negative influence from practices that contrast with this construct. These findings also reveal the need to continue to refine the conception of these practices as well as additional research that examines the influence of such practices on children's development. Conclusion It appears that developmentally appropriate practices can positively influence children's cognitive development. Still, it is uncertain as to what these benefits mean in terms of student outcomes, which has become a fundamental issue for publicly funded early education programs. This metasynthesis points to the need for further research that uses a range of measures to examine the influence of developmentally appropriate practices on children rather than teachers. Such work should pay attention to children's cognitive development as well as attend to children's cultural backgrounds. By doing so, it could help inform the fields of early and elementary school education about the impact of developmentally appropriate practices on children's development so that educators across both contexts can provide instructional practices that ready young children for school success.
Virtual Virtu: The Moral State and the Online Re-Formation of the School and Society
Authors: Laspina James Andrew 
Published: November 2021

The chapter examines John Dewey's concepts of society and the public in the context of digital technology and its potential to transform society and the moral ethos of the public school. I argue that Dewey's theory of society and the public, though articulated for an industrial age, are, like his moral vision of social democracy and public education, still of perennial importance as a ethical lens to frame and critique the emerging network society and publics. “Don't Be Evil.” Google founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin (2004) In a recent book on schooling in the present era, Tony Wagner describes American society transformed by the global economy, a world students must prepare to enter. The needs of our society have changed dramatically…. The days of well-paid unskilled or semiskilled work are over in this country, due to the forces of global competition. As we know any job that can be routinized is being either automated or off-shored. Increasingly, the only decent jobs that remain in this country will go to those who know how to continuously improve products or services or create entirely new ones—the knowledge workers of the twenty-first century. (Wagner, 2008, p. 256)
Exploring the Intended and Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Teacher Evaluation on Schools, Teachers, and Students
Authors: Lavigne Alyson Leah 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context The stakes are getting higher for teachers daily as more and more states adopt hiring, firing, and tenure-granting policies based on teacher evaluations. Even more concerning is the limited discussion about whether or not high-stakes teacher evaluation can meet the intended outcome of improved student achievement, and at what cost. These high-stakes decisions are based on the rationale that firing ineffective teachers (as primarily measured by observation data and value-added scores) will improve student achievement. This premise is challenged by various variables and assumptions (e.g., reliability, validity, percentage fired, and turnover) that, if not met, could result in a number of possible unintended consequences. Focus of Study This paper examines the history of high-stakes teacher evaluation and the ways in which teacher evaluation data are being used in today's schools to make human capital decisions. The intended consequences and unintended consequences are explored in great detail. Research Design This paper is an analytic essay. Conclusions/Recommendations There is no evidence that high-stakes teacher evaluation can produce a more effective teacher workforce and improve student achievement. Even if basic requirements and assumptions are met (e.g., highly reliable and valid measures, retention of effective teachers, and highly effective hires), gains in student achievement may be short lived, insignificant, or practically meaningless. The possible unintended consequences could result in worse, rather than better, student achievement outcomes and increase the gap in opportunity to learn for students attending the most and least affluent schools.
State and Local Efforts to Investigate the Validity and Reliability of Scores from Teacher Evaluation Systems
Authors: Herlihy Corinne , Karger Ezra , Pollard Cynthia , Hill Heather C. , Kraft Matthew A. , Williams Megan , Howard Sarah 
Published: November 2021

Context In the past two years, states have implemented sweeping reforms to their teacher evaluation systems in response to Race to the Top legislation and, more recently, NCLB waivers. With these new systems, policymakers hope to make teacher evaluation both more rigorous and more grounded in specific job performance domains such as teaching quality and contributions to student outcomes. Attaching high stakes to teacher scores has prompted an increased focus on the reliability and validity of these scores. Teachers unions have expressed strong concerns about the reliability and validity of using student achievement data to evaluate teachers and the potential for subjective ratings by classroom observers to be biased. The legislation enacted by many states also requires scores derived from teacher observations and the overall systems of teacher evaluation to be valid and reliable. Focus of the Study In this paper, we explore how state education officials and their district and local partners plan to implement and evaluate their teacher evaluation systems, focusing in particular on states’ efforts to investigate the reliability and validity of scores emerging from the observational component of these systems. Research Design Through document analysis and interviews with state education officials, we explore several issues that arise in observational systems, including the overall generalizability of teacher scores; the training, certification, and reliability of observers; and specifications regarding the sampling and number of lessons observed per teacher. Findings Respondents’ reports suggest that states are attending to the reliability and validity of scores, but inconsistently; in only a few states does there appear to be a coherent strategy regarding reliability and validity in place. Conclusions There remain a variety of system design and implementation decisions that states can optimize to increase the reliability and validity of their teacher evaluation scores. While a state may engage in auditing scores, for instance, it may miss the gains to reliability and validity that would accrue from periodic rater retraining and recertification, a stiff program of rater monitoring, and the use of multiple raters per teacher. Most troublesome are decisions about which and how many lessons to sample, which are either mandated legislatively, result from practical concerns or negotiations between stakeholders, or, at best case, rest on broad research not directly related to the state context. This suggests that states should more actively investigate the number of lessons and lesson sampling designs required to yield high-quality scores.
Districts’ Efforts for Data Use and Computer Data Systems: The Role of Sensemaking in System Use and Implementation
Authors: Cho Vincent , Wayman Jeffrey C. 
Published: November 2021

Background Increasingly, teachers and other educators are expected to leverage data in making educational decisions. Effective data use is difficult, if not impossible, without computer data systems. Nonetheless, these systems may be underused or even rejected by teachers. One potential explanation for such troubles may relate to how teachers have made sense of such technologies in practice. Recognizing the interpretive flexibility of computer data systems provides an avenue into exploring these issues. Objective This study aims to explore the factors affecting teachers’ use of computer data systems. Drawing upon the notion of interpretive flexibility, it highlights the influence of sensemaking processes on the use and implementation of computer data systems. Research Design This comparative case study draws upon interview and observational data gathered in three school districts. Matrices were used to compare understandings about data use and about computer data systems within each district by job role (i.e., central office member, campus administrator, and teacher), as well as across districts. Results Our findings challenge commonplace assumptions about technologies and their “effects” on teacher work. For example, access to a system or its functions did not determine changes of practice. Paradoxically, we even found that teachers could reject or ignore functions of which they were personally in favor. Although computer data systems can support changes of practice, we found that agency for change rested in people, not in the technologies themselves. Indeed, teachers’ sensemaking about “data” and “data use” shaped whether and how systems were used in practice. Although central offices could be important to sensemak-ing, this role was often underplayed. Conclusion We provide recommendations regarding how researchers, school, and district leaders might better conceptualize data and data systems. These recommendations include recognizing implementation as an extended period of social adjustment. Further, we emphasize that it is the unique duty of school and district leaders to share their visions regarding data use, as well as to engage in dialogue with their communities about the natures of schooling and data use.
The Influence of Tardy Classmates on Students’ Socio-Emotional Outcomes
Authors: Gottfried Michael A. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Researchers, policymakers, and practitioners undoubtedly concur that missing school deteriorates student outcomes. And yet, in evaluating the deleterious effects of missing in-school time, empirical research has almost exclusively focused on absences, and the scant amount of empirical literature on tardiness has focused on academic achievement. Hence, this study contributes novel insight in two capacities: focusing on the effects of tardy classmates and focusing on socio-emotional outcomes. Purpose The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of peer-level tardiness on individual-level socio-emotional outcomes utilizing nationally representative, longitudinal data. Population/Participants/Subjects The data are sourced from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Class (ECLS-K), which is a nationally representative sample of students, teachers, and schools. Information was first collected from kindergartners (as well as parents, teachers, and school administrators) from U.S. kindergarten programs in the 1998–1999 school year. This study utilizes data collected at spring of kindergarten, first grade, and third grade. Across all three waves of data, there were a total of N=21,765 student observations. Research Design This study combines secondary data analyses and quasi-experimental methods. There are five dependent socio-emotional variables utilized throughout this study, delineated into problem behaviors and social skills. Problem behaviors include two scales: (a) externalizing problem behaviors and (b) internalizing problem behaviors. Social skills include three scales: (a) level of self-control, (b) approaches to learning, and (c) interpersonal skills. This study begins with a baseline, linear regression model. To address issues pertaining to omitted variable bias, this study employs multilevel fixed effects modeling. Findings The coefficients on classroom tardies indicated statistically significant relationships between having a higher daily average number of classmate tardies and socio-emotional development. Students whose classmates are, on average, tardy more frequently have higher frequencies of problem behaviors and lower levels of social skills. The effects remain significant even after accounting for multiple omitted variable biases. Conclusions/Recommendations In addition to the previously well-established negative effects of missing school via absences, tardiness also diminishes student outcomes. Hence, the findings in this study—which brought to the surface new ways by which classmates’ actions can influence other students’ outcomes—would support the continuation of those school practices that successfully reduce multiple channels of missing school. Particularly high rates of peer tardies in addition to high rates of peer absences have both now been established in the research literature as detrimental to individual and classmate outcomes.
True Grit: Trait-Level Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals Predicts Effectiveness and Retention among Novice Teachers
Authors: Robertson-Kraft Claire , Duckworth Angela Lee 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Surprisingly little progress has been made in linking teacher effectiveness and retention to factors observable at the time of hire. The rigors of teaching, particularly in low-income school districts, suggest the importance of personal qualities that have so far been difficult to measure objectively. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study In this study, we examine the predictive validity of personal qualities not typically collected by school districts during the hiring process. Specifically, we use a psychological framework to explore how biographical data on grit, a disposition toward perseverance and passion for long-term goals, explains variance in novice teachers’ effectiveness and retention. Research Design In two prospective, longitudinal samples of novice teachers assigned to schools in low-income districts (N = 154 and N = 307, respectively), raters blind to outcomes followed a 7-point rubric to rate grit from information on college activities and work experience extracted from teachers’ résumés. We used independent-samples, t-tests, and binary logistic regression models to predict teacher effectiveness and retention from these grit ratings as well as from other information (e.g., SAT scores, college GPA, and interview ratings of leadership potential) available at the time of hire. Conclusions/Recommendations Grittier teachers outperformed their less gritty colleagues and were less likely to leave their classrooms midyear. Notably, no other variables in our analysis predicted either effectiveness or retention. These findings contribute to a better understanding of what leads some novice teachers to outperform others and remain committed to the profession. In addition to informing policy decisions surrounding teacher recruitment and development, this investigation highlights the potential of a psychological framework to explain why some individuals are more successful than others in meeting the rigorous demands of teaching.
‘A Highly Selected Strain of Guinea Pigs’: The Westinghouse Science Talent Search and Educational Meritocracy, 1942–1958
Authors: Terzian Sevan G. , Rury John L. 
Published: November 2021

Overview This article examines the Westinghouse Science Talent Search over the first sixteen years of its operation. A national contest involving thousands of high school seniors annually, it reflected a growing national concern with developing scientific manpower in the midst of global conflict, the Cold War, and a growing military–industrial complex. Background/Context While there have been recent studies on the historical development of science education, particularly in the mid-twentieth century and immediate postwar era, little attention has been devoted to such extracurricular activities as science fairs and academic contests. This study addresses this gap by examining a prominent national talent search competition, while assessing its place in the development of a meritocratic ethos in science. Focus of Study The study describes the genesis of the Science Talent Search, its approach to identifying winners, and the inequitable impact of this approach. Although the competition's organizers emphasized its meritocratic quality, our analysis demonstrates that the selection process that it employed systematically discriminated against certain groups of students. Research Design The study was conducted by historical research in primary and secondary sources, particularly those associated with the Science Talent Search in the first two decades of its existence. Statistical data also were compiled from Science Talent Search records and combined with data from the U.S. Office of Education and the Census Bureau to conduct an analysis of factors contributing to success in the contest. Conclusions/Recommendations Most Science Talent Search winners over the period in question were White males from large urban schools with greater financial resources. Women and African American students were underrepresented, as were students from rural areas and schools with relatively few resources. Ultimately, this national competition reflected social and cultural forces that shaped the science professions in a crucial period of their growth, and may have represented a lost opportunity to make scientific training more truly meritocratic at a formative time in its development.
“There is Space, and There are Limits”: The Challenge of Teaching Controversial Topics in an Illiberal Democracy
Authors: Ho Li-Ching , Alviar-Martin Theresa , Leviste Enrique N. P. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Research indicates that across democratic societies, teachers face numerous intellectual and emotional challenges when handling controversial topics in the classroom. Less attention, however, has been paid to how teachers’ willingness to teach controversial topics intersects with political and other societal factors in different sociopolitical milieu and, in particular, in an authoritarian–democratic and culturally diverse state like Singapore. Focus of Study This study focused on constraints to the teaching of controversial topics relating to diversity and the manner in which teachers navigated their personal beliefs amidst the evolving contours of public and official discourses in Singapore. By attending to the intersections of teachers’ beliefs, state policies, and other sociopolitical factors, we aimed to inform scholarship on the teaching of controversial topics and illuminate states’ powers to demarcate the discursive spaces of teachers. Research Design The study adhered to the qualitative case study design. We collected data from interviews that featured various elicitation tasks to describe 35 social studies teachers’ perceptions and practice of controversial issues discussions relating to topics of diversity. Additionally, we drew on policy and curricular documents to portray the evolving contours of public discourse in Singapore. Findings/Results The findings highlight how the participants, influenced largely by state policies, differentiated between topics that were controversial-appropriate and controversial-taboo. In spite of the numerous legal constraints limiting the nature of public discussion of race and politics, the majority of the teachers regarded these topics as controversial-appropriate. There was, conversely, a consensus among the participants that topics related to sexual orientation were controversial-taboo even though there were no similar laws constraining public discussion of this issue. Conclusions/Recommendations This study challenges conventional assumptions about the impact of state-imposed constraints and controls on the teaching of controversial topics in schools. Under some circumstances, state controls and constraints can result in teachers having more freedom to discuss controversial topics because of the clearly demarcated political and social boundaries. However, if the state's position is ambiguous, this may result in a Kafkaesque situation in which teachers become even more conservative in their curriculum decision making due to a heightened sense of uncertainty and insecurity. Ultimately, the study brings to light the nuanced ways that state control and censorship influence the spaces and limits of issues-centered discussion, and underlines the need for research that attends to various social forces that frame the teaching of controversial topics in different democratic settings.