ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Adverse Impact of Racial Isolation on Student Performance: A Study in North Carolina
Author: Sharma, Andy
Date: 2014-03-10
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: High School Students,African American Students,Racial Composition,Racial Factors,Algebra,English,Scores,Student Characteristics,Institutional Characteristics,Social Isolation,Mathematics Achievement,Reading Achievement,Educational Environment,Correlation,School Segregation,Student Records,Achievement Gap,Court Litigation,Educational History,Racial Differences,Statistical Analysis,Least Squares Statistics,Regression (Statistics)

This study examines the impact of racial isolation on high school student performance in North Carolina, a state in the southeast United States. Our research goal is to investigate if increased isolation negatively impacts Black students' academic performance. Employing the North Carolina State Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) dataset, we test for this using Algebra I and English I scores on End-of-Course exams for ninth graders (N = 134,646) during the 2007-2008 school year. We control for student-level characteristics, such as race and ethnicity, economic disadvantage (eligibility for free and reduced-price lunch), and designation as gifted. We also analyze the effect of school-level characteristics, such as teacher experience, teacher training (advanced degree), teacher accreditation (fully licensed), and the percentage of students who were Black or Latino. Our results suggest racial isolation adversely impacts student performance on Algebra I by as much as three points. With our restricted hierarchical dataset and multi-level modeling, we (a) contribute to the growing body of literature, which finds a negative association between racial isolation/segregation and student performance, and (b) find teacher attributes can moderate some of the adverse student outcomes.
To Give Good Science: Doing Qualitative Research in the Afterward
Author: Lather, Patti
Date: 2014-02-27
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Qualitative Research,Educational Research,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Athletics,Secondary Schools,Neoliberalism,Feminism

This article explores the &quot;afterward&quot; for qualitative research in the ruins of NCLB and its failure to deliver. In the space opened up &quot;after&quot; the dominance of the gold standard bullying and &quot;metric mania&quot; of neo-positivism, I articulate a post-retirement project on the weight of sports in U.S. secondary schools out of a re-engagement with the work of Walter Benjamin. Here my interest is to imagine forward out of troubling the narrow scientism of the recent past of educational research toward a post-qualitative future.
Achievement at Whose Expense? A Literature Review of Test-Based Grade Retention Policies in U.S. Schools
Author: Huddleston, Andrew P.
Date: 2014-04-17
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Grade Repetition,High Stakes Tests,Educational Benefits,Outcomes of Education,Literature Reviews,Testing Problems,Educational Policy,School Holding Power,Dropouts,Low Income Groups,Minority Group Students,Elementary Secondary Education

The author uses Maxwell's method of literature reviews for educational research to focus on literature relevant to test-based grade retention policies to make the following argument: although some studies have documented average gains in academic achievement through test-based grade retention, there is increasing evidence that these gains have occurred by limiting the educational opportunities for the most vulnerable of students. The author begins by briefly synthesizing research on high-stakes testing policies and teacher-based retention in general and then examines studies that have evaluated specific test-based retention policies in Chicago, Florida, New York City, Georgia, Texas, Wisconsin, and Louisiana. Drawing on Bourdieu and Passeron's concept of reproduction in education, the author shows how testing policies have contributed to class selection and exclusion in U.S. schools. Short-term gains produced by test-based retention policies fade over time with students again falling behind but with a larger likelihood of dropping out of school. These unintended consequences are most prevalent among ethnic minority and impoverished students. The author concludes by providing alternatives for ending social promotion that do not include grade retention as well as suggestions for further researching the role such policies play in perpetuating class inequities.
Evaluating the Validity of Portfolio Assessments for Licensure Decisions
Author: Wilson, Mark
Date: 2014-02-10
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Portfolio Assessment,Teaching Experience,Teacher Certification,Educational Quality,Instructional Effectiveness,Achievement Gains,Scores,Teacher Competency Testing,Prediction,Predictive Validity,Reading Achievement,State Standards,Elementary School Teachers,Praxis,Evidence,Beginning Teachers,Teacher Evaluation,Teacher Characteristics,Correlation,Hierarchical Linear Modeling,Teacher Effectiveness,Achievement Tests,Data Analysis,Student Records,Portfolios (Background Materials)

This study examines one part of a validity argument for portfolio assessments of teaching practice used as an indicator of teaching quality to inform a licensure decision. We investigate the relationship among portfolio assessment scores, a test of teacher knowledge (ETS&apos;s Praxis I and II), and changes in student achievement (on Touchstone&apos;s Degrees of Reading Power Test [DRP]). Key questions are the extent to which the assessment of teaching practice (a) predict gains in students&apos; achievement and (b) contribute unique information to this prediction beyond what is contributed by the tests of teacher knowledge. The venue for our study is Connecticut State Department of Education&apos;s (CSDE) support and licensure system for beginning teachers, the &quot;Beginning Educator Support and Training&quot; (BEST) program (as it was implemented at the time of our study). We investigated whether elementary teachers&apos; mean effects on their students&apos; reading achievement support the use of BEST elementary literacy portfolio scores as a measure of teaching quality for licensure, using a data set gathered from both State and two urban school district sources. The HLM findings indicate that BEST portfolio scores do indeed distinguish among teachers who were more and less successful in enhancing their students&apos; achievement. An additional analysis indicated that the BEST portfolios add information that is not contained in the Praxis tests, and are more powerful predictors of teachers&apos; contributions to student achievement gains.
Measuring Competition: Inconsistent Definitions, Inconsistent Results
Author: Linick, Matthew Allen
Date: 2014-03-24
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Competition,Definitions,Measures (Individuals),Charter Schools,School Choice,Educational Research,Economic Factors

There is a developing literature examining how charter schools, through the effects of competition, impact performance in public school districts and district-run public schools, also known as the second-level effects of competition. What follows is an examination of how competition is measured in this literature that offers a critique of existing approaches to that measurement. Findings in these studies are problematized by inconsistent findings in other, similar studies; inconsistencies which may be due to inconsistent definitions and metrics of competition. I suggest a more specific definition of competition and suggest that other disciplines may offer guidance in the pursuit of a more consistent measurement of competitive effects.
Qualitative Research as Policy Knowledge: Framing Policy Problems and Transforming Education from the Ground Up
Author: Dumas, Michael J.
Date: 2014-02-17
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Research,Qualitative Research,Educational Change,Educational Policy,Neoliberalism,Social Environment,Scholarship

As educational research becomes privatized, commodified and commercialized, research relevance increasingly means being incorporated into neoliberal ideological and economic agendas. Within this social context, qualitative research in particular is often deemed less relevant (if not irrelevant) because it does not provide prescriptions for best practices or claim to offer &quot;proof&quot; that a given policy will lead to specific outcomes. The authors suggest that notions of research&apos;s relevance to policy and practice may be too narrow a way of thinking about how qualitative scholarship might enter policy discourse. Instead, they propose that scholars advance a new common sense, in which &quot;policy knowledge&quot; is understood as more useful--indeed, more relevant--than mere policy prescription. In their view, impacting the very framing of policy will require that scholars expand their notion of the audiences for educational research, and be more creative at reaching a diverse range of stakeholders, including not only policymakers, but also journalists, youth and community activists, and teachers.
What if Educational Inquiry Were Neither a Social Science nor a Humanities Field? Revisiting Joseph Schawb&apos;s &quot;The Practical&quot; in the Aftermath of the Science Wars
Author: Donmoyer, Robert
Date: 2014-02-17
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Research,Scientific Research,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis,Mixed Methods Research,Inquiry

The recent debates about what constitutes scientific research in Education, on the one hand, and the so-called &quot;paradigm wars&quot; that got played out in the final quarter of the 20th century, on the other, are more similar than different. At the center of both controversies was the relative worth of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Both controversies also distracted researchers&apos; from addressing the substantive problems that plague schools and other educational organizations. This paper attempts to move the field beyond the debates of the past and similar debates that seem likely to occur in the future. Inspired, in large part, by Joseph Schwab&apos;s largely unheeded critique of the curriculum field in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the paper attempts to reconceptualize what inquiry in a field like Education should look like, as well as the role that quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research could play in a re-conceptualized approach to inquiry.
Scaling Down: A Modest Proposal for Practice-Based Policy Research in Teaching
Author: Erickson, Frederick
Date: 2014-02-17
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Research,Qualitative Research,Action Research,Educational Change,Educational Policy,Best Practices,Educational Practices,Program Implementation,Fidelity

This proposal addresses the assumptions underlying the &quot;Science Wars&quot; about the purpose of educational research. The author proposes a more modest &quot;Lake Woebegon&quot; approach to school reform that supports long-term professional education, a shift away from &quot;Best Practices&quot; to &quot;Pretty Good Practices,&quot; low fidelity implementation of interventions, and the importance of local context. Action research is presented as one possible qualitative approach for conducting &quot;practice-based research.&quot;
Qualitative Inquiry in an Age of Educationalese
Author: Fischman, Gustavo E.
Date: 2014-02-17
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Qualitative Research,Educational Research,Inquiry,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Statistical Analysis,Scientific Research

In this introduction we reflect on two key questions that initiated this special issue on qualitative inquiry: What can qualitative researchers do to regain their post-paradigm-wars cache? How do we avoid distracting &quot;science wars&quot; in the future? We suggest that the strong tendency to narrow the research methods accepted as &quot;scientific&quot; -- because they adopt quantitative perspectives and are presumed a priori to be more rigorous -- has created an &quot;educationalese&quot;, a narrative of rigid categories that has not necessarily contributed to more effective or persuasive educational research. The article ends by suggesting that the use of &quot;knowledge mobilization&quot; strategies would help to strengthen qualitative research and educational research in general.
Focusing on Short-Term Achievement Gains Fails to Produce Long-Term Gains
Author: Grissmer, David W.
Date: 2014-02-03
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Assessment,Achievement Gains,Federal Legislation,Educational Legislation,Institutional Evaluation,Standardized Tests,Statistical Significance,Comparative Analysis,Demography,Trend Analysis,Monte Carlo Methods,Accountability,Longitudinal Studies,Population Trends,Educational Indicators,Federal Programs,Regression (Statistics),Predictor Variables,Institutional Characteristics

The short-term emphasis engendered by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has focused research predominantly on unraveling the complexities and uncertainties in assessing short-term results, rather than developing methods and assessing results over the longer term. In this paper we focus on estimating long-term gains and address questions important to evaluating schools and identifying educational policies and practices that produce long-term sustained gains. Estimates are made of annual pass rates on state exams using fixed effect models for six years of pass rates at grades 3, 6, 8 and 10; the percentages of schools making statistically significant gains, gains, losses, and statistically significant losses in pass rates are determined. Estimates are contrasted using models that include and exclude demographic characteristics. The percentages of schools with statistically significant gains varied markedly from 38 to 6 at grades 6 and 10, respectively; the percentage of schools with statistically significant declines ranged from less than 8 percent at grades 3, 6, and 8, to 23 percent at grade 10. Including demographics increased the percentages of schools with statistically significant gains and lowered the percentages with statistically significant declines. The results suggest that schools with higher proportions of free-reduced lunch and minority students are more likely to have statistically significant gains with demographic controls. Estimates of pass rate trends are made using Monte Carlo simulations; from these simulations the percentages of schools that may be mislabeled as having statistically significant gains and losses are determined. Even with six years of trend data, results suggest that chance can still play a significant role in mislabeling school performance, especially in grades having weak overall trends.
The Impact of Professional Development and Indigenous Education Officers on Australian Teachers' Indigenous Teaching and Learning
Author: Craven, Rhonda G.
Date: 2014-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Teacher Behavior,Indigenous Populations,Learner Engagement,Self Concept,Teaching Methods,Indigenous Personnel,Correlation,Faculty Development,Learning Processes,Measures (Individuals),Questionnaires,Predictor Variables,Factor Analysis

The study investigated the impact of professional development (PD) in Indigenous teaching on teachers' psychological and behavioural aspects, and Indigenous students' learning engagement. Adopting a multiple-indicator-multiple-indicator-cause model, frequency of PD was found to have positive paths to teachers' self-concept in Indigenous teaching and all the teaching strategies, but had a non-significant path to students' learning, suggesting the more frequently teachers are involved in PD in Indigenous teaching, the higher self-concept they had in teaching Indigenous children and the more frequently they adopted Indigenous teaching strategies. The availability of Aboriginal Education Officers (AEOs), however, had a significant and negative path on learning engagement. That is, Indigenous students' were perceived to be less engaged in learning with AEOs present in the school. An interaction effect was also found between PD and AEOs, indicating that the effectiveness of AEOs in Indigenous students' learning may depend on whether teachers actively attend PD programs.
Relations between Teachers' Classroom Goals and Values: A Case Study of High School Teachers in Far North Queensland, Australia
Author: Pudelko, Claudia E.
Date: 2014-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Secondary School Teachers,Teacher Surveys,Questionnaires,Educational Objectives,Goal Orientation,Values,Student Motivation,Academic Achievement,Correlation,Measures (Individuals)

To date, there is an empirical gap in the evidence of the relations between teachers' classroom goals and values, two key variables linked to students' achievement motivation. The purpose of this study was to investigate this relationship in an Australian teacher sample. We surveyed 102 high school teachers from seven schools in Cairns, Queensland using items of Wentzel's Classroom Goals Scales and Schwartz's Portrait Values Questionnaire. Results showed several positive associations between teachers' classroom goals and values. Social goals were linked to a wide range of values, while academic goals were linked to specific value dimensions, e.g. mastery approach goals were positively correlated with openness to change and self-transcendence values, performance approach goals with self-enhancement values and conformity. Mastery approach goals and social goals were related to similar values, unlike performance approach goals. Schools could benefit from examining their hidden value curriculum in order to maximise teachers' communication of academically relevant learning goals.
Preservice EAL Teaching as Emotional Experiences: Practicum Experience in an Australian Secondary School
Author: Nguyen, Minh Hue
Date: 2014-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Preservice Teachers,Qualitative Research,Case Studies,English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Practicums,Emotional Response,Reflection,Interviews,Mentors,Context Effect,Sociocultural Patterns,Student Attitudes

Drawing on activity theory, this qualitative case study examines the emotional experiences of Maria, a preservice teacher of English as an additional language (EAL) during the practicum in an Australian secondary school setting and the factors shaping these emotions. Data included interviews with the preservice teacher before and after the practicum, a stimulated recall session, and her reflections after lessons. Furthermore, an interview was also conducted with Maria's school mentor teacher. The study found that during the practicum, the preservice teacher experienced strong positive and negative emotions as a result of the influence of personal factors and the sociocultural context of preservice teaching, especially the contradictions inherent within the teacher learning context. The findings provide insights that can be useful for developing learning experiences that foster student teachers' growth.
&quot;Network Teach&quot;: How a Student Led Organisation Supports the Transition to University
Author: Callcott, Deborah
Date: 2014-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Transitional Programs,Schools of Education,Student Needs,Social Networks,Cultural Capital,Identification (Psychology),Interpersonal Relationship,Student Organizations,College Freshmen,Student Employment,Student Personnel Services,Mixed Methods Research,Questionnaires,Focus Groups,Education Majors,Student Adjustment,Pretests Posttests

It is well documented that the first-year experience is crucial to student success at university. The transition to university provides many challenges for students from a personal, social and academic perspective. Over several decades, universities across Australia have implemented strategies to improve the attrition rate of first year students. This paper discusses a program designed to meet the specific needs of students in the School of Education, at a university in a metropolitan suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The Network Teach program is unique in that it is a student-run organisation. It offers social networking and academic support systems to all year levels of enrolled Education students. The research investigates factors that may affect students in their first year of university studies. The research also looks at the types of events the organisation offers, mentoring programs and the overall benefits of Network Teach. The significance of this research revolves around the support initiated by the students and the emergence of new cultural capital within the cohort. The relationships developed throughout this process provide for reinvention of new identities as university students.
Seconding Teachers to the Academy: An Alternative to Traditional Approaches of Sessional Staff Employment
Author: Walkingtion, Jackie
Date: 2014-08-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,College Faculty,Teacher Selection,Teacher Persistence,Professional Identity,Part Time Faculty,Questionnaires

There is a multiplicity of challenges related to employing, supporting and retaining quality sessional (casual) academic staff in higher education. An approach trialled in an Australian education faculty specifically addressed issues of quality and quantity, support and inclusion, motivation and engagement, efficiency and effectiveness. While contextually relevant to an education faculty, the learning gained has potential for other faculties/institutions to provide modifications to traditional models of employing sessional staff. Amongst the significant benefits of a seconded teacher approach were greater engagement in the faculty, enhanced continuity and consistency of commitment compared to traditional models of employing sessional staff. An understanding of their changing professional identity and the strategic benefit to the faculty are emphasised in this paper as these staff provide a bridge across professional/cultural boundaries.
Validating the Adult Playfulness Trait Scale (APTS): An Examination of Personality, Behavior, Attitude, and Perception in the Nomological Network of Playfulness
Author: Shen, Xiangyou Sharon
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Play,Adults,Personality Traits,Behavior,Attitudes,Perception,Test Validity,Correlation,Personality,Predictive Validity,Goal Orientation,Leisure Time,Surveys,Questionnaires

The authors discuss the Adult Playfulness Trait Scale (APTS), a measurement that they developed along with a conceptualization of playfulness based on a synthesis of personality research and play literature. They assert the research they conducted, which examined the nomological network of playfulness and involved relevant constructs of personality (self as entertainment), behavior (playing), attitude (goal attainment), and perception (leisure boredom), empirically validates the APTS. They present data from two studies to show correlations between the APTS and measures of theoretically related constructs to support their claims. In particular, they use results from known-group comparisons to illustrate that the APTS can successfully and effectively distinguish individuals with different levels of playfulness. They hope thereby not only to establish the validity of the APTS but to encourage its wider application in research on play.