ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
A Failed Marriage between Standardization and Incentivism: Divergent Perspectives on Performance-Based Compensation in Shanghai
Author: La Londe, Priya G.
Date: 2017-08-21
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Change,Accountability,Performance Based Assessment,Merit Pay,Teacher Salaries,Elementary School Teachers,Teacher Improvement,Teacher Attitudes,Incentives,Standards,Teacher Effectiveness,Teacher Evaluation,Semi Structured Interviews,Coding,Case Studies,School Policy

The Chinese province of Shanghai has gained international recognition as a high performing education system with strong teaching and learning outcomes. One accountability mechanism in Shanghai's education reform strategy is statewide performance-based compensation (PBC), also known as performance- or merit pay. Providing a first time account of PBC in the Shanghai context, this study investigated variance in stated and perceived aims of this policy instrument. To explore this variance, the study drew on data from national, state, and school level policy documents, and data from interviews with 20 teachers and the principal in a high performing elementary school. The analysis revealed that PBC was intended to improve teaching quality. However, the teachers' perceived merit pay was meant to increase teacher enthusiasm, job satisfaction, and participation in teacher and student development activities. Importantly, the teachers perceived these aims as tangential from instructional improvement goals. Based on these findings, I argue that this particular PBC policy, as a manifestation of the marriage of standardization and incentivism, is unable to fulfill the promises of this marriage--to link incentives with homogenous, uniform metrics associated with a generic and shared notion of teaching quality.
Delaware Longitudinal Study of Fraction Learning: Implications for Helping Children with Mathematics Difficulties
Author: Jordan, Nancy C.
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Mathematics Instruction,Fractions,Longitudinal Studies,Learning Disabilities,Grade 3,Grade 4,Grade 5,Grade 6,Predictor Variables,Mathematics Achievement,Outcome Measures,Clinical Diagnosis,Elementary School Students,Middle School Students,National Competency Tests,Intelligence Tests,Verbal Ability,Vocabulary

The goal of the present article is to synthesize findings to date from the Delaware Longitudinal Study of Fraction Learning. The study followed a large cohort of children (N = 536) between Grades 3 and 6. The findings showed that many students, especially those with diagnosed learning disabilities, made minimal growth in fraction knowledge and that some showed only a basic grasp of the meaning of a fraction even after several years of instruction. Children with low growth in fraction knowledge during the intermediate grades were much more likely to fail to meet state standards on a broad mathematics measure at the end of Grade 6. Although a range of general and mathematics-specific competencies predicted fraction outcomes, the ability to estimate numerical magnitudes on a number line was a uniquely important marker of fraction success. Many children with mathematics difficulties have deep-seated problems related to whole number magnitude representations that are complicated by the introduction of fractions into the curriculum. Implications for helping students with mathematics difficulties are discussed.
We Cannot Call Back Colonial Stories: Storytelling and Critical Land Literacy
Author: Hampton, Rosalind
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Preservice Teachers,Preservice Teacher Education,Student Teacher Attitudes,Land Settlement,Story Telling,Indigenous Knowledge,Indigenous Populations,Participant Observation,Personal Narratives,Literacy,Critical Theory

This article examines the role of stories and storytelling in both shaping and revealing pre-service teachers' understandings of land. The authors conducted a study using digital storytelling as a participatory method of inquiry examining participants' conceptions of land. Participants' narratives reflect stories they have been told about their families, communities, and nations, revealing inextricable links between conceptions of land, nation, and self in relation to others. The authors propose the notion of critical land literacy as a pedagogical goal in Teacher Education. They define critical land literacy as an understanding of, and relation to, land informed by Indigenous knowledges and a critique of ongoing settler-colonialism in Canada.
Predictive Validity of Curriculum-Embedded Measures on Outcomes of Kindergarteners Identified as At Risk for Reading Difficulty
Author: Oslund, Eric L.
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Predictive Validity,Formative Evaluation,At Risk Students,Kindergarten,Reading Difficulties,Longitudinal Studies,Phonological Awareness,Reading Skills,Alphabets,Word Recognition,Structural Equation Models,Preschool Curriculum,Elementary School Students,Emergent Literacy,Reading Fluency,Reading Tests,Pretests Posttests,Student Characteristics

This study examined the predictive validity of formative assessments embedded in a Tier 2 intervention curriculum for kindergarten students identified as at risk for reading difficulty. We examined when (i.e., months during the school year) measures could predict reading outcomes gathered at the end of kindergarten and whether the predictive validity of measures changed across the kindergarten year. Participants consisted of 137 kindergarten students whose reading development was assessed four times from October to February. Measures aligned with content taught in the curriculum and assessed a range of phonologic, alphabetic, and word-reading skills. Results from structural equation modeling indicate that 36.3% to 65.2% of the variance was explained on the latent decoding outcome and 62.0% to 86.8% on the latent phonological outcome across the four time points. Furthermore, the predictive validity of specific skills increased over the kindergarten year, with more complicated tasks (e.g., word segmentation) becoming more predictive at subsequent measurement occasions. Results suggest that curriculum-embedded measures may be viable tools for assessing and predicting reading performance.
Miscalculations: Decolonizing and Anti-Oppressive Discourses in Indigenous Mathematics Education
Author: Stavrou, Stavros Georgios
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Mathematics Instruction,Indigenous Populations,Teaching Methods,Social Justice,Racial Bias,Social Bias,Equal Education,Cultural Awareness,Culturally Relevant Education,Foreign Countries,Canada Natives

In North American mathematics education, many practitioners highlight a disparity in achievement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, and claim that incorporating Indigenous perspectives in mathematics provides a more inclusive teaching approach. However, our analysis shows that there is a stream of North American practitioners who do not use anti-oppressive or decolonizing discourses, including those who claim to be motivated by social justice education. By avoiding or not emphasizing colonization, ongoing racism, and oppression in Indigenous mathematics education, these practitioners are perpetuating a false sense of the origins of inequality. Furthermore, the quest for Indigenous cultural connections in mathematics sometimes has consequences such as placing blame on Indigenous peoples for not being authorities on their cultures, perpetuating stereotypes, homogenizing Indigenous cultures while reducing their history and knowledge to superficial artifacts, and preserving a sense of the inferiority of Indigenous peoples when it comes to understanding and learning mathematics.
Modernizing Schools in Mexico: The Rise of Teacher Assessment and School-Based Management Policies
Author: Echávarri, Jaime
Date: 2017-08-21
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,School Based Management,Educational Innovation,Educational Change,Teacher Evaluation,Educational Quality,Institutional Characteristics,Accreditation (Institutions),Educational Policy,Influences,Stakeholders,Program Implementation,Policy Analysis,High Stakes Tests,Elementary Secondary Education

In this paper we analyze the evolution of the teacher assessment policy and the origins of school-based management initiatives in the Mexican education context from the late 1980s until the last 2012-2013 Education Reform (RE2012-2013). Mexico joined the Global Education Reform Movement during the 1990s through the National Agreement for the Modernization of Basic Education, under which the program Teachers Career Services was created to increase teacher quality. Later, the Quality School Program was implemented in order to decentralize school management and increase school accountability. Lastly, the institutionalization of Monitoring and Evaluation in the Mexican Education System gave birth to the National Institute for the Evaluation of Education. Using a documentary analysis, we review the origins of such accountability policies in order to map out the involved stakeholders, and identify how these influenced and effected the development and implementation of last 2012-2013 Education Reform's teacher high-stakes assessments. Finally, we outline the results and consequences of such policies as they have been implemented and provide a contextual analysis of the implementation and resistance to the latest reform in some regions of Mexico.
Sequence Text Structure Intervention during Interactive Book Reading of Expository Picture Books with Preschool Children with Language Impairment
Author: Breit-Smith, Allison
Date: 2017-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Language Impairments,Preschool Children,Text Structure,Picture Books,Special Education Teachers,Speech Language Pathology,Allied Health Personnel,Receptive Language,Early Intervention,Pretests Posttests,Fidelity,Educational Strategies,Reading Achievement,Early Childhood Education

This study explores the outcomes of an interactive book reading intervention featuring expository picture books. This small-group intervention was delivered by four practitioners (two early childhood special education teachers and two speech-language pathologists) three times per week for 8 weeks to 6 preschool-age children (3 years 1 month to 4 years 9 months) identified with language impairment. The intervention included use of language facilitation strategies during interactive book reading and extension activities after reading for promoting children's understanding of signal words related to the sequence text structure (e.g. first, next, then, finally), academic vocabulary, and science topic knowledge related to plants (how plants grow, plant parts, plant needs). Outcomes indicated that practitioners increased their use of language facilitation strategies over the course of the intervention in both contexts of interactive book reading and extension activities. Children with language impairment made significant improvements in their receptive understanding of sequence signal words, vocabulary, and science topic knowledge from pre-test to post-test. These findings suggest the promise of a sequence text structure intervention implemented in the contexts of interactive book reading of expository picture books and extension activities for supporting the syntax, vocabulary, and content knowledge of preschool children with language impairment.
Fraction Intervention for Students with Mathematics Difficulties: Lessons Learned from Five Randomized Controlled Trials
Author: Fuchs, Lynn S.
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Randomized Controlled Trials,Intervention,Fractions,Mathematics Skills,At Risk Students,Grade 4,Elementary School Students,Mathematics Instruction,Program Effectiveness,Addition,Subtraction,Short Term Memory,Multiplication,Word Problems (Mathematics),Mathematical Concepts,Concept Formation,Teaching Methods

In this article, the authors summarize results from 5 randomized controlled trials assessing the effects of intervention to improve the fraction performance of fourth-grade students at risk for difficulty in learning about fractions. The authors begin by explaining the importance of competence with fractions and why an instructional focus on fractions magnitude understanding may improve learning. They then describe an intervention that relies strongly on this type of understanding about fractions instruction, and they provide an overview of the intervention's overall effects. This is followed by an overview of 5 intervention components for which the authors isolated effects. They conclude by discussing some of the lessons learned from this research program.
The &quot;Power&quot; of Value-Added Thinking: Exploring the Implementation of High-Stakes Teacher Accountability Policies in Rio de Janeiro
Author: Straubhaar, Rolf
Date: 2017-08-21
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Value Added Models,High Stakes Tests,Accountability,Educational Policy,Ethnography,Ideology,Teacher Evaluation,Teacher Education,Educational Practices,Commercialization,State Officials,Employee Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,Administrator Attitudes,Semi Structured Interviews,Educational History,Private Sector

The purpose of this article is to ethnographically document the market-based ideological assumptions of Rio de Janeiro's educational policymakers, and the ways in which those assumptions have informed these policymakers' decision to implement value-added modeling-based teacher evaluation policies. Drawing on the anthropological literature on meaning making (Anderson-Levitt, 2012), the focus of this study is on the common understandings and ideological assumptions regarding &quot;good&quot; teacher education practice that undergird the policymaking decisions of Rio de Janeiro's public education policymakers. On the basis of ethnographic interviews, I argue that the then-current Secretariat of Education in Rio was run primarily by people whose backgrounds in business and administration heavily influenced their ideological assumptions about good educational management. I further explore the ways in which Rio's implementation of value-added modeling and high-stakes accountability-based teacher evaluation mechanisms reflects these latent ideological trends.
Fractions Learning in Children with Mathematics Difficulties
Author: Tian, Jing
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Fractions,Mathematical Aptitude,Learning Problems,Mathematics Achievement,Number Systems,Numbers,Children,Mild Disabilities,Intervention,Student Improvement,Educational Strategies,Elementary School Mathematics

Learning fractions is difficult for children in general and especially difficult for children with mathematics difficulties (MD). Recent research on developmental and individual differences in fraction knowledge of children with MD and typically achieving (TA) children has demonstrated that U.S. children with MD start middle school behind their TA peers in fraction understanding and fall further behind during middle school. In contrast, Chinese children, who like the MD children in the United States score in the bottom one third of the distribution in their country, possess reasonably good fraction understanding. We interpret these findings within the framework of the integrated theory of numerical development. By emphasizing the importance of fraction magnitude knowledge for numerical understanding in general, the theory proved useful for understanding differences in fraction knowledge between MD and TA children and for understanding how knowledge can be improved. Several interventions demonstrated the possibility of improving fraction magnitude knowledge and producing benefits that generalize to fraction arithmetic learning among children with MD. The reasonably good fraction understanding of Chinese children with MD and several successful interventions with U.S. students provide hope for the improvement of fraction knowledge among American children with MD.
Life on the Number Line: Routes to Understanding Fraction Magnitude for Students with Difficulties Learning Mathematics
Author: Gersten, Russell
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Numbers,Number Systems,Fractions,Mathematical Models,Number Concepts,Teaching Methods,Elementary School Mathematics,Mathematical Aptitude

Magnitude understanding is critical for students to develop a deep understanding of fractions and more advanced mathematics curriculum. The research reports in this special issue underscore magnitude understanding for fractions and emphasize number lines as both an assessment and an instructional tool. In this commentary, we discuss how number lines broaden the concept of fractions for students who are tied to the more general part-whole representations of area models. We also discuss how number lines, compared to other representations, are a superior and more mathematically correct way to explain fraction concepts.
Developing and Modeling 21st-Century Skills with Preservice Teachers
Author: Urbani, Jacquelyn M.
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teachers,Teaching Skills,Teacher Education Programs,Competency Based Teacher Education,Student Teacher Attitudes,Teaching Methods,Mixed Methods Research,Student Surveys,Focus Groups,Creativity,Critical Thinking,Teacher Collaboration,Interpersonal Communication,Technological Literacy,Media Literacy,Integrated Activities,Modeling (Psychology)

This study describes a collaboration in one northern California university between three teacher education programs (multiple subject, single subject, and education specialist) that explores how and to what extent faculty are developing and modeling the 21st-century skills in preservice teachers. In addition, this study analyzes preservice teachers' perceptions of their competence in 21st-century skills and their ability to incorporate them into their own teaching. Relying on the theory of cognitive apprenticeship (Collins, 2006; Collins, Brown, &amp; Newman, 1987), the researchers approached this process primarily for the purpose of promoting expertise in teaching, focusing on teaching methods including modeling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection, and exploration. This current study fills a gap in the teacher education literature by using data from surveys and focus groups to identify how teacher educators across programs within one institution developed the 21st-century skills with preservice teachers, through both course work and field experiences. It asks, How and to what extent do teacher education programs develop and model the 21st-century skills in preservice teachers? The study also aims to build a model for teacher education programs by purposefully facilitating the development of these skills; specifically, the initial stage is personal development of each skill, followed by the application of these skills in educational contexts, and finally their utilization professionally with K-12 students, colleagues, and parents.
Learning to Teach Disciplinary Literacy across Diverse Eighth-Grade History Classrooms within a District-University Partnership
Author: Monte-Sano, Chauncey
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Partnerships in Education,History Instruction,Best Practices,Common Core State Standards,Content Area Writing,Teacher Education,Intervention,Essays,Middle School Students,College School Cooperation,Grade 8,Faculty Development,Curriculum Design,Interviews,Student Writing Models,Writing Assignments,Teaching Skills,Educational Strategies

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) emphasize disciplinary literacy by making literacy instruction every teacher's responsibility (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices &amp; Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). The CCSS require content area teachers to adapt curriculum and pedagogy to support disciplinary literacy development. Therefore, teachers accustomed to stressing only factual knowledge must shift to emphasize the disciplinary learning and thinking that undergirds literacy practices in their subject areas. In addition, they must learn to teach the reading and writing central to their disciplines. In this article, the authors share one school-based effort to support teachers' learning of a disciplinary literacy approach to social studies instruction and what their analysis of student work--one pedagogy used to support teachers--says about their learning. An 18-day U.S. history curriculum designed to teach eighth graders to write evidence-based historical arguments was developed and a 1-year professional development (PD) course for teachers who elected to implement the curriculum was created.
Rethinking Side Effects of Accountability in Education: Insights from a Multiple Methods Study in Four German School Systems
Author: Thiel, Corrie
Date: 2017-08-21
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Accountability,Teacher Surveys,Administrator Surveys,Principals,High Stakes Tests,Policy Analysis,Comparative Analysis,Position Papers,Questionnaires,State Policy,Incentives,Program Effectiveness,Foreign Countries,Semi Structured Interviews

Based on a research project comprising data from an interview study and a survey with teachers and school principals in four German federal states (&quot;Bundesländer&quot;), this paper questions the claim that the side effects of accountability in education are bound to high-stakes contexts, and also provides evidence of side effects occurring in no- and low-stakes contexts. The findings suggest that side effects cannot be fully explained by certain implementation features of accountability regimes (e.g., high stakes), but should rather be understood as a result of implementation features as well as systematic effects of accountability in education.
A Combination of Teacher-Led Assessment and Self-Assessment Drives the Learning Process in Online Master Degree in Transplantation
Author: Halawa, Ahmed
Date: 2017-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Self Evaluation (Individuals),Student Evaluation,Masters Programs,Electronic Learning,Peer Evaluation,Graduate Students,Medical Education,Distance Education,Learner Engagement,Alignment (Education),Guidelines,Underachievement,Educational Strategies

Background: Good performance in a summative assessment does not always equate to educational gain following a course. An educational programme may focus on improving student's performance on a particular test instrument. For example, practicing multiple choice questions may lead to mastery of the instrument itself rather than testing the knowledge and its application. We designed an assessment strategy that consistently valid and reliable that would fit with the students with a range of 27 nationalities with a different institutional, cultural and educational background in this totally online masters programme in transplantation. Methods: Based on the published evidence, we analyzed 2 main assessment domains: (a) self-assessment and (b) peer-assessment. We compared them with traditional teacher-led assessment considering the diversity of students. Conclusion: We conclude that traditional teacher-led assessment supplemented by self-assessment is a strong drive in the learning process in this on-line course, whilst peer-assessment is challenging and associated with many flaws giving the diversity of our students. Peer-assessment may be unreliable and not valid due to the difference in the institutional background and variation in experience between the students.