U.S. public schools are required to establish policies ensuring that English language learners have equal access to "meaningful education." This demands that districts put into place mechanisms to determine student eligibility for specialized English language services. For the most states, this federal requirement is fulfilled through the local administration of the WIDA–Access Placement Test (W-APT), arguably the most widely used, yet under-studied, English language assessment in the country. Through intensive participant observation at one, urban new student intake center, and detailed qualitative, discursive analysis of test administration and interaction, we demonstrate how the W-APT works as a high-stakes assessment, screener, and sorter, and how test takers and test administrators locally negotiate this test and enact this federal and state policy. Our analysis indicates that the W-APT is problematic in several respects, most importantly because the test does not differentiate adequately across students with widely different literacy skills and formal schooling experiences.
Faced with declining numbers of students in teacher education programs, policymakers in many states are considering new actions that might increase teacher supply. One approach that has gained increasing popularity is community colleges beginning to offer 4-year degrees in teacher education. This study explores state adoption of these programs and its effect on the number and diversity of students earning bachelor’s degrees in teacher education. Overall, we find no effect of these programs; however, in the limited case of a state with widespread use of community college baccalaureate (CCB) teacher education programs we find that degree production increased, yet the diversity of the graduates declined.
Many studies have investigated whether students in charter schools differ systematically from those in traditional public schools with respect to prior achievement, special education, or English Language Learner status. None, however, has examined gender differences in charter school enrollment. Using data for all U.S. public schools over 11 years, we find charters enroll a higher fraction of girls, a gap that has grown steadily over time and is larger in secondary grades and KIPP schools. We then analyze longitudinal student-level data from North Carolina to examine whether differential rates of attrition explain this gap. We find boys are more likely than girls to exit charters once enrolled, and gender differences in attrition are larger than in traditional schools. However, the difference is not large enough to explain the full enrollment gap between charter and traditional schools in North Carolina, suggesting gaps exist from initial matriculation.
The increasing prevalence of diagnoses for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), now one in 68 children according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), presents a number of policy implications. In particular, many of these children become eligible for special education services under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Given the specialized expertise and resources required of local education agencies (LEAs), how do they respond to this implementation challenge? In May 2015, an online survey was distributed to various governmental and nongovernmental actors in three Virginia localities to measure the extent of collaboration in local autism policy networks. The findings suggest that these networks are driven by autism-related information, and that nonprofit organizations act as intermediary organizations that bridge disparate stakeholders. The results contribute to our understanding of fragmentation across policy subsystems, with the focus here on education policy, and the implementation challenges related to a rapidly changing policy issue.
Weapons at school pose a danger to students as well as faculty. Educational administrators have attempted to reduce their prevalence by implementing random weapons searches in schools. This article examines the effectiveness of this approach using data from two geographically adjacent school districts in Florida (Miami-Dade and Broward). In the 1998-1999 school year, Miami-Dade County Schools implemented mandatory random weapons searches in schools, whereas Broward County did not. Using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, the results indicate that the searches reduced the likelihood that students brought weapons to school and reduced incidences of being offered illegal drugs at school in Miami. Moreover, students in Miami were less likely to report skipping school due to safety concerns following the introduction of the searches.
Educators struggle with "value-added" teacher evaluation models based on high-stakes student assessments. Despite validity and reliability threats, these models evaluate university-based teacher preparation programs (TPPs), and play a role in state and professional accreditation. This study reports a more rational value-added evaluation model linking student performance to teacher candidates’ lessons during Practicum and Student Teaching. Results indicate that K-12 students showed learning gains on these lessons, with mixed findings on comparisons of part-time to full-time internships, academic and functional lessons, and candidates’ grade point averages (GPAs). Results indicated that teacher candidates’ lessons are a viable value-added model (VAM) alternative for TPPs.
Applied science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) coursetaking is becoming more commonplace in traditional high school settings to help students reinforce their learning in academic STEM courses. Throughout U.S. educational history, vocational education has been a consistent focus for schools to keep students on the school-to-career pathway. However, very few studies have examined the role of applied STEM coursetaking in improving schooling outcomes for students with learning disabilities. This is a major missing link as students with learning disabilities tend to exhibit much higher dropout rates than students from the general population. This study examines mechanisms displayed through applied STEM courses and the role they play in helping students with learning disabilities complete high school and transition into college. Using a nationally representative data set of high school students and their full transcripts (i.e., Education Longitudinal Study of 2002), we found that students with learning disabilities who took applied STEM courses significantly increased their educational outcomes in the following ways: lowered chances of dropout, increased math test scores, and increased enrollment in postsecondary education. While the general student population also benefited by taking applied STEM courses, the advantages were greater for those students with learning disabilities.
Educational policies have increasingly promoted parental involvement as a mechanism for improving student outcomes. Few jurisdictions have provided funding for this priority. In Ontario, Canada, the province’s Parents Reaching Out Grants program allows parents to apply for funding for a parental involvement initiative that addresses a local barrier to parent participation. This study categorizes initiatives (N = 11,171) amounting to approximately 10 million dollars (Can$) in funding from 2009 to 2014 and compares them across school settings. Although results show several key contextual differences, parents across settings identify relatively similar needs for enabling parental involvement, emphasizing parenting approaches for supporting well-being (e.g., nutrition, mental health, and technology use) and skills for home-based learning. However, Epstein’s widely used parental involvement typology conceals these prominent aspects of parental involvement. A modified model of parental involvement is presented that may serve as a guide for enhancing parent participation.
A growing body of research examines the role of elite networks, power, and race in the advocacy for market-based reforms and their ultimate effects on students, teachers, and communities of color. Yet, less research explores how such reforms interact with gender in the workplace, especially how policies such as school choice, competition, and incentive-based pay impact female actors within K-12 schools (e.g., teachers, school leaders). The current research on marketization and privatization in education has largely overlooked the potential impact on women in schools. We review the literature on women in K-12 education and in the economy more generally, and organize it conceptually to identify areas for future inquiry. After synthesizing and summarizing themes across diverse bodies of literature, we contend that as schools privatize, we may see greater gender disparities in education leadership and teaching.
This study investigated what research district leaders find useful. It draws on evidence from interviews and surveys of central office leaders in three large urban districts in the United States. We find that although leaders did report using research as federal policies intend—to select among curricula, programs, and interventions to adopt—the kinds of research district leaders find useful are not primarily peer-reviewed impact studies. Instead, research they find useful present frameworks and practical guidance in the form of books. Leaders also report using research to support their own professional learning, guide their instructional leadership activities, and monitor and support implementation of district-adopted programs and practices. These findings make the case that we need a broader understanding of the research that may be relevant for the multifaceted work of district leaders.
In 2010, the Obama administration called for schools with low standardized test scores, often in high poverty, urban communities, to be targeted for rapid school improvement through reforms in teacher professional development, curriculum, and other areas. Since that time, many of schools deemed in need of improvement have experienced a vast array of reform mandates and intense pressure to put mandates into practice without delay. This article presents a critical policy analysis and an ethnographic portrait of the ways math teachers at a low-performing New Jersey public school make sense of multiple, often incoherent, policy mandates. Using a policy enactment lens, which highlights the discursive dimensions of policy and the significance of context, the author interrogates the ways national discourses—in particular, the promise of private companies’ research-based products and services and the teacher as bad or resistant—enter into the school and inform or delimit teachers’ policy enactments. The author provides a discriptive analysis of the institutional reform narrative based on interviews with school administrators. The author then draws on observation data from teachers’ meetings to show how teachers generally worked diligently to make mandates coherent within their institutional context, but their efforts were often frustrated by the inefficacy, inappropriateness, or sheer number of top-down mandates. Findings challenge conventional policy convergence studies that do not account for the ideological dimensions of enactment. Further, the study challenges conventional scholarly and popular perceptions of urban teachers as resistant to change.
This research contrasts two urban school districts that serve similar populations yet vary notably with respect to the provision of speech and language services. The results suggest that variation in the provision of speech-language services is driven by district-level variations in budgetary and legal contexts as well as procedural differences. This article explores how federal and state education policies, district policies, budgetary and legal pressures, as well as procedural differences work in concert to shape the implementation of Individuals With Disabilities Education Act with respect to the provision of services to students with speech-language impairments.
Policy making can be viewed as a large-scale attempt at social justice leadership intended to address vast inequities that persist and are perpetuated in the U.S. K-12 education system. The study examines the text of the Minnesota Desegregation Rule to discern its underlying discourses as they relate to race, racism, and social justice. The findings highlight discursive practices that undermine social justice progress and antiracist efforts, demonstrating how well-intended social justice efforts can go awry without active engagement of critical lenses. The article argues that critical consciousness and racial literacy are essential in social justice and antiracist policy making and educational leadership.
In the current educational context, school models that leverage technology to personalize instruction have proliferated, as has student enrollment in, and funding of, such school models. However, even the best laid plans are subject to challenges in design and practice, particularly in the dynamic context of a school. In this collective case study, we identify challenges, disruptions, and contradictions as they occur across schools engaged in implementing technology-mediated personalized learning. Using cultural historical activity theory—a theoretical framework concerned with the individual and contextual factors influencing school change—to frame the analysis, we also examine some of the structural and contextual sources of these disruptions and contradictions. Our findings enable us to offer recommendations for policymakers and for practitioners engaged in implementing personalized learning models, as well as directions for future research on this topic.
In this article, we illustrate the relationships between Teach For America (TFA) and the deregulation of university-based teacher education programs. We use policy network analysis to create a visual representation of TFA’s connections to individuals, organizations, and private corporations who are working to shift the way teachers are prepared. In doing this, we identify human capital dependents, jurisdictional challengers, and legislative supporters who are working independently and collectively to shift our national focus from teacher education to teacher training for those teachers serving students in marginalized communities.
This study uses the example of the Emergency School Aid Act of 1972, a federal desegregation incentive program, to discuss the benefits and challenges of equity-oriented incentives. This study applies theories of policy instruments and the social construction of target populations to congressional records, archival program materials, and other historical sources to trace the origin and evolution of the incentives and mandates built into the Emergency School Aid Act. The study ultimately concludes that the program’s combination of a financial incentive with rigorous oversight offers lessons for how to incorporate equity-oriented incentives into current education policy.
A growing body of research examines the impact of recent teacher evaluation systems; however, we have limited knowledge on how these systems influence teacher retention. This study uses a mixed-methods design to examine teacher retention patterns during the pilot year of an evaluation system in an urban school district in Texas. We used difference-in-differences analysis to examine the impact of the new system on school-level teacher turnover and administered a teacher survey (N = 1,301) to investigate individual and school-level factors influencing retention. This quantitative analysis was supplemented with interview data from two case study schools. Results suggest that, overall, the new evaluation system did not have a significant effect on teacher retention, but there was significant variation at the individual and school level. This study has important implications for policymakers developing new evaluation systems and researchers interested in evaluating their impact on retention.
Bullying is a significant problem in U.S. schools. Policies have been developed to reduce bullying, yet policy implementation by educators is an essential yet difficult and complex process. Few studies have investigated factors that act as barriers to or facilitators of bullying policy implementation and teacher protection of students. This study examined the influence of school context on educators’ capacity to implement a statewide bullying law and protect students from bullying following the enactment of the policy. Data were collected from 505 educators in 324 schools. School administrators tended to rate fidelity of policy implementation and teacher protection of students higher than teachers, education support professionals, and student service professionals. Policy implementation fidelity scores were higher in high schools than elementary schools. School size and the prevalence of student suspensions were inversely related to implementation fidelity. Higher levels of teacher protection were reported in elementary schools.
The ratings given by citizens to local public schools in the United States have been rising in the last decades. Using national public opinion surveys, this study seeks to understand the determinants of public evaluations of local schools across time. Aggregate trend analyses indicate that public evaluations of local schools are influenced not only by measures of educational performance but also by presidential discourse. Individual-level analyses suggest that minorities and individuals with children may have given higher evaluations in recent years. The evidence suggests that citizens in general have moved away from more negative assessments of their local public schools, possibly as a result of perceived and real educational advances.
Knowledge is Power Program Delta College Preparatory School (KIPP DCPS), an open-enrollment charter school,1 opened in 2002 in Helena, Arkansas. KIPP DCPS students have consistently outperformed their peers from neighboring districts on year-end student achievement scores, and KIPP’s national reputation led Arkansas lawmakers to exempt KIPP from the state’s charter school cap. Yet, skeptics of KIPP in particular, and charter schools in general, voiced a concern that the apparent KIPP advantage in student achievement may have been due to the prior academic ability of the students who selected into KIPP rather than to the KIPP school itself. Furthermore, some KIPP critics have argued that student attrition at KIPP schools accounts for the apparent KIPP advantage. Until now, no prior study has rigorously compared performance of KIPP students with traditional public school peers on matched observable academic and demographic variables or carefully considered student attrition rates at KIPP DCPS. Here, we begin by summarizing prior evaluations of KIPP schools nationally. Next, we carefully examine student attrition from 2005 through 2011, and we find that KIPP DCPS attrition resembles that found in nearby traditional public schools. Finally, using regression models that control demographic and prior academic indicators, we find that KIPP DCPS students gain significantly more each year on standardized assessments than do their matched peers. These results are important as nearly all prior empirical work on KIPP schools has been conducted in urban settings. Despite the fact that many rural students struggle academically or attend struggling schools, we know relatively little about the potential benefits of No Excuses charter schools in rural areas, such as KIPP DCPS.
Desegregated schools are linked to educational and social advantages whereas myriad harms are connected to segregated schools, yet the emphasis on school desegregation has recently receded in two North Carolina city-suburban school districts historically touted for their far-reaching efforts: Charlotte and Raleigh. In this article, we use cross-case analysis to explore segregation outcomes associated with policy changes by analyzing enrollment and segregation trends from 1989 to 2010 in metro Charlotte and metro Raleigh. Both Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Wake County school systems are experiencing a growing share of intensely segregated schools, decreasing exposure of Black and Latino students to White students, disproportionately large exposure of Black and Latino students to poor students, and an increase in segregated charters. Segregation in the districts surrounding Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Wake County is less extreme. An understanding of how policies have contributed to segregation patterns in both metros informs future education reform efforts.
This article analyzes a coaching model focused on classroom management skills and instructional practices across grade levels and subject areas. We describe the design and implementation of MATCH Teacher Coaching among an initial cohort of 59 teachers working in New Orleans charter schools. We evaluate the effect of the program on teachers’ instructional practices using a block randomized trial and find that coached teachers scored 0.59 standard deviations higher on an index of effective teaching practices comprised of observation scores, principal evaluations, and student surveys. We discuss implementation challenges and make recommendations for researcher–practitioner partnerships to address key remaining questions.
Executive leadership of the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) initiated a flexibility offering from No Child Left Behind. Our work explores specific design decisions made in these state-specific accountability systems as associated with state political environments, resources, and demographic characteristics. Our analysis, focused on 42 states with approved flexibility waivers, provides some evidence that design decisions are associated with prior education policies, political leanings, and financial resources within each state. Policymakers should also take note, as these results suggest that state political factors may influence how state policymakers will react in future negotiations with the USDOE.
School districts across the United States increasingly use value-added models (VAMs) to evaluate teachers. In practice, VAMs typically rely on lagged test scores from the previous academic year, which necessarily conflate summer with school-year learning and potentially bias estimates of teacher effectiveness. We investigate the practical implications of this problem by comparing estimates from "cross-year" VAMs with those from arguably more valid "within-year" VAMs using fall and spring test scores from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K). "Cross-year" and "within-year" VAMs frequently yield significant differences that remain even after conditioning on participation in summer activities.
Career decisions of four teachers are explored through the concept of figured worlds in this qualitative, longitudinal case study. Participants were purposefully chosen for similarity at entry, with a range of career trajectories over time. Teacher career paths included remaining in one school, repeated changes in schools, attrition after relocation, and non-renewal of contract. Data included interviews, observations, participants’ assessments, and pupils’ work. Cross-case analysis suggests that no single teacher attribute or workplace condition determined teachers’ career decisions; rather, teachers’ ability to refigure their identity within the figured world of teaching shaped career trajectory. Key factors such as ability to address disequilibrium, teacher identity, agency, and collaborative capacity are examined. Implications call for pre-service preparation and professional development to navigate cultures of schools, amended administrative involvement in teacher retention, and policy reform acknowledging the complexity of teachers’ figured worlds.
We examine whether working conditions in charter schools and traditional public schools lead to different levels of job satisfaction among teachers. We distinguish among charter schools managed by for-profit education management organizations (EMOs) and non-profit charter management organizations (CMOs) and stand-alone charter schools. We investigate our research question using data from the School and Staffing Survey. We find that teachers in charter schools are less satisfied with their jobs than teachers in traditional public schools. We also find that teachers in EMO-managed schools appear less satisfied than those in stand-alone charter schools. Our analyses suggest that lower salaries and limited union memberships help drive these lower levels of satisfaction, particularly among stand-alone charter schools and charter schools managed by EMOs.
Previous studies have shown that state performance funding policies do not increase baccalaureate degree production, but higher education scholarship lacks a rigorous, quantitative analysis of the unintended consequences of performance funding. In this article, we use difference-in-differences estimation with fixed effects to evaluate performance funding in Indiana. We find that performance funding did not increase the number of graduates and instead led to declining admission rates and increased selectivity at Indiana’s public universities. When compared with surrounding states, we find limited evidence that the effects of performance funding could disproportionately limit college access for Indiana’s low-income and minority applicants.
Drawing on a 5-year qualitative study, this article explores opportunities for and barriers to parental engagement in a small, urban school district. Two competing narratives of parental involvement emerge. In one, parents describe their reluctance to engage formally in a district that continually fails their children. In the other, stakeholders argue that schools will not improve until parents become involved. Data demonstrate that many parents actively support their children’s education, exhibiting various forms of what Yosso terms "community cultural wealth." This article concludes by questioning the claim that parents are not involved, utilizing Bourdieu’s theories of symbolic capital and symbolic violence to explain the prevalence of this discourse of disengagement.
This article highlights a set of principles and guidelines, developed by a diverse group of specialists in the field, for appropriately including English language learners (ELLs) with disabilities in large-scale assessments. ELLs with disabilities make up roughly 9% of the rapidly increasing ELL population nationwide. In spite of the small overall percentage of students that they represent, this group experiences significant learning and assessment challenges. In the context of successfully educating all students to high standards, it is important for state education agencies, policymakers, and local education agencies to improve achievement outcomes for these students. One of the first steps in improving test performance is to design and implement comprehensive and accessible assessment policies, and consequently assessments, that address the specific needs of ELLs with disabilities. Doing so will give them the chance to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they have, thus allowing the test results to more accurately show areas for school improvement.
Numerous actors influence how educational policies play out in practice, but this does not mean that policies themselves are without power. Policies are crafted and enacted in part because they serve as signal and symbol: How a policy is formally codified establishes expectations, exerts norming influence, and catalyzes shifts in how issues are framed. But what happens when or if a set of policies do these things in ways that misalign with or incompletely reflect research? In this article, we leverage the issue of educational data use to examine how state and local policies may simultaneously symbolize a commitment to school improvement and signal expectations that fail to align with the broader evidence base. We discuss the implications of this disjoint for policymakers and make recommendations for ways in which policy actors can use the signaling power of policy to frame expectations in ways that more closely align with research.
Weighted student funding (WSF) is a multifaceted school finance, management, and governance reform that is gaining attention. While WSF has a number of goals, its primary objective is to redress intra-district funding inequities. This article draws on a mixed-methods study of WSF in Prince George’s County Public Schools to examine the initiative’s impact on the distribution of financial resources to the 180 schools that were affected by it. Our findings indicate that WSF was not a robust mechanism for advancing equity and illustrate how technical, economic, and political factors can undermine the ability of WSF to realize its equity goals.
This article examines how student movements between traditional public schools (TPSs) and charters—both brick and mortar and cyber—may be associated with both racial isolation and poverty concentration. Using student-level data from the universe of Pennsylvania public schools, this study builds upon previous research by specifically examining student transfers into charter schools, disaggregating findings by geography. We find that, on average, the transfers of African American and Latino students from TPSs to charter schools were segregative. White students transferring within urban areas transferred to more racially segregated schools. Students from all three racial groups attended urban charters with lower poverty concentration.
This study uses 9 years of longitudinal, student-level data from the Los Angeles Unified School District to provide updated, empirically-based estimates of the time necessary for English learners (ELs) to become reclassified as proficient in English, as well as factors associated with variation in time to reclassification. To illustrate how different aspects of proficiency develop, estimates of the time necessary for ELs to attain six separate reclassification criteria are provided. Findings corroborate prior cross-sectional research suggesting that the development of full proficiency in a second language typically takes 4 to 7 years. However, after 9 years in the district, approximately one-fourth of students had not been reclassified. There appears to be a reclassification window during the upper elementary grades, and students not reclassified by this point in time become less likely ever to do so. Findings illustrate the crucial role that students’ initial academic language proficiencies, both in English and their primary language, play in their likelihood of reclassification. This work has implications for the design of next-generation assessment and accountability systems, as well as for instructional practices.
Two federal campus-based financial aid programs, the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) and the Federal Work-Study Program (FWS), combine to provide nearly US$2 billion in funding to students with financial need. However, the allocation formulas have changed little since 1965, resulting in community colleges and newer institutions getting much smaller awards than long-standing private colleges with high costs of attendance. I document the trends in campus-level allocations over the past two decades and explore several different methods to reallocate funds based on current financial need while limiting the influence of high-tuition colleges.
In this cross-sectional study, we examined a matched sample of 924 educators’ perceptions of severity of bullying and harassment and school climate prior to (Wave 1 n = 435) and following (Wave 2 n = 489) the implementation of New York’s anti-bullying and harassment legislation, the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA). Alignment with DASA mandates predicted educator perceptions of (a) less severe bullying and harassment, (b) positive school climate, and (c) less need for improvement in school anti-bullying practices. The relations did not differ before and after the implementation of DASA, suggesting that implementing practices aligned with the legislation was associated with positive outcomes, although the relations may not be due to the mandate itself.
In 2009, a seldom-used policy lever emerged in the form of a competitive grant program, Race to the Top (RTTT), and sparked a flurry of state-led initiatives as states vied for federal dollars. The current study examines the policymaking context that surrounded these events and propelled Tennessee to the top of the race among the states. Through interviews with legislators and bureaucrats, I analyze the state-level processes instigated by a federal program in which all but four states participated, but fewer than half were winners. My examination details the parallels between the RTTT guidelines, Tennessee’s efforts, including the Special Session in the General Assembly, and the state’s plan for improving education in the state as outlined in their RTTT application.
This article describes how the Dutch Department of Education incorporates New Public Management (NPM) principles in educational policy, and whether conflicts of interest between the Department and schools cause deviations from NPM. We reviewed policy documents and performed secondary analyses on school data. Educational policy focuses on output indicators and accountability aspects. However, when departmental interests do not align with school interests, the Department develops new policies that partly contradict NPM principles. We argue that a more consistent focus on output and well-developed school autonomy may help to enhance the quality of education
Several social processes guide and shape how school actors engage with high stakes state and district policies relative to mandated curriculum and instruction. In this article, we use rhetorical argumentation analysis to explore how stakeholders mobilize resources through argumentation and rhetorical appeals (logical, emotional, and authoritative). However, their mobilization process creates opportunities and constraints for the interpretation and implementation of mandated curriculum. Findings show that school actors use state policy as a resource to make logical and authoritative claims in their attempts to clarify conflicts between new curriculum ideas and their implicit schemas.
Mathematical communication has been an important feature of standards documents since National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ (NCTM) (1989) Curriculum and Evaluation Standards. Such an emphasis has influenced content standards of states from then to present. This study examined how effective the prevalence of various forms of mathematical communication in 2009 state standards documents was in regard to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2009 achievement scores for Grade 4. Analysis suggests mixed results with potential implications as states move toward fully implementing the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. Specifically, although including language requiring mathematical descriptions from students had a positive effect on Grade 4 NAEP 2009 achievement scores, including language requiring rationales and justifications was not found to have a statistically significant effect.
Although affirmative action in college admissions has not been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the consideration of race in admissions has been banned in nine states—in six of them by public vote. This article analyzes the campaigns to ban affirmative action in California and Michigan as a battle between interest groups. The course of events in these states demonstrates that public opinion is a threat to the legality of affirmative action, should interest groups continue to take advantage of it by pursuing bans by state initiative.
The Delphi technique is a research method that involves experts and stakeholders in structured deliberation about topics through multiple, iterative rounds of data collection such as surveys or in-person meetings. Although it has been utilized extensively in other fields for researching problems, when there is disagreement among key stakeholders or as issues are just emerging, it has been less common in educational research. In this article, the authors outline the Delphi technique, review the scope of its recent applications in educational research, and offer recommendations to advance efforts to support changes in policies and practices through Delphi approaches to research.
Currently, a significant number of states are in the process of implementing a high-stakes teacher evaluation (HSTE) system. In many ways, Louisiana’s teacher evaluation system, Compass, is typical of the models that many states have adopted. This article reports the experiences of 37 elementary teachers from five districts across Louisiana after their first 2 years under this system. It is through the multiple lenses of teacher support, autonomy, self-efficacy, and satisfaction that we sought to understand how Compass has shaped teachers’ motivation for improvement as well as their continued commitment to the teaching profession. Analysis of longitudinal interview data reveals a widespread lack of support for change in the form of self-efficacy building experiences—particularly vicarious experiences—for teachers. As a result, many teachers experienced, by the second year, significant negative arousal events and profound losses of satisfaction and commitment to the profession—this despite most being rated as "highly effective."
Surveys are frequently used to inform consequential decisions about teachers, policies, and programs. Consequently, it is important to understand the validity of these instruments. This study assesses the validity of measures of instruction captured by an annual survey by comparing survey data with those of a validated daily log. The two instruments produced similar rankings of the frequency with which teachers use particular practices but more than three fourths of the teachers in the study were found to overreport their instruction on the annual survey. Multilevel models revealed a number of teacher and school characteristics related to survey reporting error. The study’s implications for users of survey evidence are discussed.
In this study, U.S. middle school teachers’ perceptions of Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM), CCSSM-related assessments, teacher evaluation processes, and resources for implementing CCSSM were investigated. Using a mixed methods design, a national sample of 366 teachers was surveyed, and 24 teachers were interviewed. Findings indicated that teachers viewed CCSSM as including new content for their grade level. Teachers also reported using multiple curriculum resources to align with CCSSM and indicated that new assessments would serve as a proxy for CCSSM. Implications for rapidly changing policy, curriculum, assessment, instruction, and professional development related to CCSSM are discussed.
The case study is an analysis of a state performance funding policy at a public historically Black college and university (HBCU). The policy attaches state funding to HBCU performance on measures like graduation rates and equity measures like the reduction in achievement gaps between Black and non-Black students. Participants liked that the policy helped the institution to become more outcome minded, but were critical of the equity measures and their relationship with the state system of higher education. The article addresses how the HBCU’s mission was addressed in the policy and its plans for responding that includes focusing on Latino students.
State lottery policies have been created to generate additional funds to support public initiatives, such as higher education scholarships. Through 18 participant interviews and document analysis, this study examined how decision makers in Arkansas socially constructed citizens while forming lottery policy. The social construction of target populations theory provides a framework for better understanding how social constructions became embedded into the policy design process. Participants noted that beneficiaries included higher education students and the retail and vendor community. In addition, discussion centered on burdens being placed on people who derive from low income and people who have gambling addiction.
Teacher churning likely harms student achievement. However, the phenomenon of within-school grade-level teacher reassignments is understudied. The current study provides descriptive evidence on the frequency and predictors of within-school teacher grade switching using both longitudinal administrative data from Michigan and nationally representative survey data. About 7% of self-contained classroom teachers change grades following any given school year. Inexperienced teachers are relatively more likely to switch grades, and grade-level reassignments are inequitably distributed across both schools and students. For example, urban schools experience significantly higher rates of grade switching. Charter schools experience significantly less grade switching than traditional public schools.
Understanding how educational practitioners make sense of and subsequently implement policy has been an increasingly important objective of the K-12 research community. This study extends this research into higher education via an in-depth case study of an urban public 2-year technical college. Drawing on sensemaking theory and critical policy analysis, five primary factors are discussed that significantly influence policy interpretation. These factors include common fixtures within higher education, such as institutional identity and self-interest, and other factors, such as national narratives and perceptions of the target population. The findings also suggest that policy interpretation can influence whether a policy improves equity or maintains the status quo. Finally, by highlighting the roles of race and power within this social context, this study identifies critical implications for how policy can be successfully implemented or, as in this case, resisted and opportunistically disregarded.
School–community relationships can serve many goals ranging from enhancing student achievement to community development. This article examines the relationship between school–community partnerships and community development in light of a state prekindergarten policy that requires partnering. To understand the local responses, we propose a typology using a continuum of partnering, from isolation to committed partner, and a continuum of community health, from declining to growth. Using mixed-method analysis, we apply this typology to the Universal Prekindergarten policy in New York State. The relationship among these measures illustrates the potential role of state education policy to positively or negatively affect the health of a community.
For decades, numerous observers have agreed on the value of collaboration between K-12 and higher education—especially as these sectors work toward increasing college readiness and success. While most states maintain separate agencies for K-12 and higher education, many states have worked to foster collaboration through state P-20 councils. Policy makers’ interest in these councils has waned somewhat as evidenced by the decreasing number of state councils over the past few years. This may be because while collaboration is easy to initiate, it is difficult to do well and sustain. Therefore, understanding the mechanics of collaboration through P-20 council operations may help to improve their functioning and possibly become a more fruitful tool for states. In this study, three state P-20 councils are examined to understand what, if any, catalysts in the organizational structure of the councils promote collaboration.
We argue the emergence of a shift in U.S. language education policy discourses from an equity/heritage (EH) framework focused on equity for English learners and non-English heritage languages, toward a global human capital (GHC) framework linked to neoliberal considerations of the language skills of individuals and nations. This discursive shift represents a change in the audience to which language education programs are primarily marketed. Drawing on a critical approach to content analysis to test for evidence of this discursive shift in Utah, we analyzed 164 articles from 5 Utah newspapers from 2005 to 2011 that assigned value statements to dual language and bilingual education. EH values declined or changed little over time whereas GHC values increased. Policy implications are discussed.
The increased utilization of non-parental pre-kindergarten care has spurred interest by both researchers and policy makers as to what types of care might be effective at boosting school readiness. Under-developed in the research has been an assessment of the influence of pre-kindergarten care on school readiness for English Language Learners (ELLs). This research gap is critical to fill, as ELL students are not only a growing segment of the U.S. schooling population but also enter school at a disadvantage compared with other students. This study fills this gap by using nationally representative data (i.e., Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten [ECLS-K]) to examine the influence of pre-kindergarten care in the year before kindergarten entry on a range of socio-behavioral school readiness indicators measured at kindergarten entry. The findings indicate that ELL students in center-based care or non-center/non-parental care have lower problem behaviors and higher social skills compared with ELL students exclusively in parental care. Implications are discussed.
The completion agenda is the dominant theme in higher education policy in the United States today, and one of the primary strategies advocated in the agenda is performance funding in budgeting for public institutions. Illinois is one example of a state that has attempted to implement performance funding as a means of directing the behavior of public institutions toward meeting state goals. This study explores lessons and limitations found in performance funding implementation in Illinois through the lens of Rubin’s model of the determinants of budgeting including the roles of environment, budget processes, and the strategies of individuals involved.
Improving minority academic achievement is a primary goal for education policy makers. Despite resource allocations, gaps in minority accomplishments persist. Emerging research suggests language variety may hinder minority students, thereby slowing academic progress. This article synthesizes suggestions from a panel composed of experts in the field of language dialect education and findings from a literature review of best practices for addressing language variation in educational instruction. Unique findings from the research were presented to the Texas legislature to be used in shaping policy and practice for students who are standard English learners.
This article critically examines the relationship between recent educational policy and the advancement of second-level subject hierarchies in Ireland. The paradox of promoting an individual subject by means of the matriculation system, while also calling for a broad and balanced curriculum, is questioned. The apparent retreat from a commitment to comprehensive education is discussed with respect to a neo-liberal agenda in education and a modernist-vocational ideology of curriculum development. The article concludes with a discussion on the place of subject-based curricula and a call for more balanced debate around educational policy, which may result in the promotion of subject boundaries.
The promise of "21st century learning" is that digital technologies will transform traditional learning and mobilize skills deemed necessary in an emerging digital culture. In two case studies of video making, one in a Grade 4 classroom, and one in an adult literacy setting, the authors develop the concept of "production pedagogies" as complex multiliteracies embedded in video production oriented to meaningful social ends. Drawing upon concepts of translation in Actor Network Theory (ANT) and the "workaround," the authors trace how in spite of the imaginary of "21st Century Literacy," policy regimes privileged networks oriented to "minimal proficiency" print literacy. They theorize that the workarounds in which practitioners engaged illuminate three nodes or sites of action to strengthen production pedagogy networks: how learners are defined or problematized in literacy projects, how people get access to powerful digital literacy tools for learning, and how time-space regimes of traditional schooling are reconfigured.
In this article, we examine the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as an example of a unique node within larger policy networks composed of new policy entrepreneurs (e.g., venture philanthropists, think tanks, private "edubusinesses" and their lobbyists, advocacy organizations, and social entrepreneurs). These new policy networks, through an array of new modalities of governance and political and discursive strategies, have come to exert an impressive level of influence on public policy in the last 30 years in the United States. We describe and analyze several model education bills that ALEC has promoted and describe the political and discursive strategies ALEC employs. We found that these strategies, which are employed by corporate leaders and largely Republican legislators, are aimed at a strategic alliance of neoliberal, neoconservative, libertarian, and liberal constituencies with the goal of privatizing and marketizing public education.
Using a nationally representative longitudinal data-set, we examine the influence of precollege access programs on high school achievement, college preparation, postsecondary enrollment, and postsecondary persistence. Results do not show much difference in the level of academic preparation between participants and non-participants. However, precollege access program participants were more likely to learn about college opportunities by seeking information about college, applying to college, and receiving financial aid than similar non-participants were. However, although participants and similar non-participants enrolled in college and persisted for 1 year at about the same rates, fewer participants persisted in college for 2 years.
This analysis of the Atlanta test-cheating scandal differs markedly from the version reported in the press. Using discourse analysis, I examined over 50 articles published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), the hometown newspaper at the center of the investigation. Because newspapers are a primary source of information, the AJC’s discursive framing of test-tampering and systemic wrongdoing was a powerful voice in shaping how the public understood what happened. But failure to situate the scandal in a context of economic deprivation and residential segregation while omitting discussion of the damaging cognitive and academic effects that stem from living in distressed neighborhoods meant the AJC depicted a misleading version of events. Although the school district has recovered, the inequalities which fomented the crisis remain intact. I revisit the Atlanta Compromise of 1973 to conclude that as in the past, a policy of schools alone is an insufficient corrective for educational disadvantage.
This study examines the values held by 264 academic deans and the decisions they make pertaining to supporting non-tenure-track faculty (NTTF). Multiple analyses are utilized to examine the prevalence of supportive policies for both full- and part-time NTTF, as well as the extent to which deans’ values are associated with the existence of these policies on college and university campuses. Findings reveal that deans’ values play a significant role in organizational decisions to support NTTF, and part-time faculty remain under-supported in the academy. Implications for practice are discussed.
As charter schools continue to attract lots of political and policy attention, research has emerged suggesting that these schools enroll fewer students with disabilities than public schools. Given that the success of the movement is based on charters being more effective than public schools as determined by test scores, it is not entirely surprising that we see exclusionary practices taking place. Responding to this issue, many states have increased oversight to ensure inclusion and equity. At the same time, other charters have opened specifically for students with special needs. Using a disability studies lens, this article asks questions of the charter movement and the policy responses by problematizing the perpetuation of both normative school practices and constructions of ability.
Educational accountability policy rests heavily on the assessments used to influence teaching, learning, and school improvement. A long-debated aspect of assessment use, consequential validity, plays an important role in public interpretation of assessment use whether for individual students or for state policy. The purpose of this survey study was to explore stakeholders’ perceptions of the variety of tests used in classrooms and schools, especially how testing is used to improve teaching and learning. Results indicated that the majority of stakeholders do not value state assessments and do not see the assessments as useful in the teaching and learning process. However, a proportion of minority respondents were optimistic that state assessments have potential for school improvement.
Interdistrict open enrollment is the nation’s largest and most widespread school choice program, but our knowledge of these programs is limited. Drawing on 5 years of student-level data from the universe of public school attendees in Colorado, we perform a three-stage analysis to examine the dynamics of student participation in the state’s interdistrict open enrollment program. First, we explore the characteristics of students who open enroll in a defined baseline year. Second, we analyze the characteristics of students who continue to participate in the program in subsequent years. Finally, we examine the characteristics of students who—conditional on not open enrolling in the defined-baseline year—choose to participate in the program in one or more subsequent years.
Mobile devices are increasingly upheld as powerful tools for learning and school reform. In this article, we prioritize youth voices to critically examine assumptions about student interest in mobile devices that often drive the incorporation of new technologies into schools. By demonstrating how the very meaning of mobile phones shift as they are institutionalized and by highlighting the divergences between adult and youth assumptions about these devices, we make a significant contribution to policy debates about the role of new digital technologies in the classroom. In addition, we explore challenges such as privacy, freedom, and resource-use that emerge when scaling-upthe use of mobile technologies in the classroom.
Arizona language policy now requires English learners (ELs) to enroll in English language development (ELD) classrooms for 4 hr of skill-based, English-only instruction. In this article, I describe Arizona teachers’ interpretation and negotiation of language policy and practice during this time of change to more restrictive mandates. I conducted this qualitative case study with a teacher study group comprised of six ELD teachers and one instructional coach from an urban elementary school during the first semester of language policy implementation. Using discourse analysis of individual interviews, study group dialogue, and institutional documentation, I investigated teachers’ talk as they grappled with restrictive policy mandates and effective classroom practice. Findings indicated that teachers negotiated the cultural models inherent in the institutional policy in the study group setting. In the contemporary context of restrictive educational policies, implications for stakeholders center on professional and collaborative support for educators.
This study examined state efforts to control tuition increases over the past 10 years. Using data from 50 states and 540 public 4-year universities and colleges, we examined average tuition increases in dollar amount and percentage of change by the type of state tuition control policy and by the authority for tuition-setting power. The state policy efforts considered for this study include setting tuition caps, providing incentives, and linking tuition policy to financial aid policy. Findings revealed that two state policies (i.e., linking tuition to financial aid and providing incentives to limit the tuition increase) are effective in controlling tuition. Tuition was more likely to increase when individual institutions have tuition-setting authority. This study also reveals that a state’s tuition cap policy can adversely affect tuition control.
Although regional equity scholars have demonstrated how cross-jurisdictional collaboration on transportation, housing, and employment can promote opportunity for low-income families, few have paid serious attention to the potential of regional educational policy to improve opportunity for children. This study seeks to address this gap by examining inter-district "collaboratives" or cooperative agreements between school districts within a metropolitan area. These collaborative arrangements address two inter-related demographic shifts: the rising level of segregation in public schools and the shift from within district segregation to between-district segregation. This article examines three regional collaboratives (Rochester, NY, Omaha, NE, and Minneapolis, MN) that involve varying degrees of cooperation, funding, and legal force. Drawing on 60 in-depth interviews across the three sites, this analysis considers how each program’s design features interact with local political dynamics to shape the degree to which these collaboratives are able to achieve policy goals.
Many school districts have recently revised, or tried to revise, their policies for assigning students to schools, because the legal and political status of racial and other kinds of diversity is uncertain, and the districts are facing fiscal austerity. This article presents case studies of politics and student assignment policy in three large school districts: Boston, Massachusetts; Wake County (Raleigh), North Carolina; and Jefferson County (Louisville), Kentucky. In all three districts, there has been pressure to change student-assignment policies in ways that respond to the priorities of White and middle-class populations, with the potential to worsen the options available to students of color. Our case studies reinforce the criticisms of race-neutral politics and policy that have been made by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and others. Race-neutral politics during fiscal retrenchment tends to reframe privilege as common sense and to obscure some students’ structural disadvantages.
This study used a mixed-methods approach to explore the heterogeneity of effectiveness between supplemental educational services (SES) providers in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Using surveys of schools and SES providers, and statistical modeling, providers using college graduates and teachers as tutors were found to be more effective than those using college students. Contrary to what research on tutoring suggested, group size was unrelated to student achievement. Furthermore, school ratings of providers were not related to provider effectiveness. The results suggest that part of improving the overall effectiveness of SES may involve increasing the qualifications of tutors. Furthermore, educators should consider the qualifications of tutors when choosing SES providers to work in their schools. Additional formative research on SES should be done to identify additional levers for increasing its impact.
Should principals enforce mandatory separation of twins in kindergarten? Do school separation beliefs of principals differ from those of teachers, parents of twins, and twins themselves? This survey questioned 131 elementary principals, 54 kindergarten teachers, 201 parents of twins, and 112 twins. A majority of principals (71%) believed that twins should be separated in kindergarten, while only 49% of teachers, 38% of parents, and 19% of preschool and kindergarten twins agreed. Additional survey results describe reasons for separation beliefs held, perceived trauma of kindergarten separation, positive and negative reactions to school separation, and percentage of kindergartners separated. Representative belief statements of twins, categorized into themes, supplement the report. Administrative bias and discrimination against twins are discussed. Recommendation is that principals should avoid making unilateral twin placement decisions.
As the first mayor in the United States to possess independent charter school authorizing authority, Mayor Bart Peterson oversaw the establishment and expansion of Indianapolis’s ambitious charter school initiative. In 2007, Democratic Mayor Peterson’s oversight of the initiative came to an end when he was unexpectedly defeated by Republican Gregory Ballard in the mayoral election. Despite this significant change in leadership, the transition between mayors and political parties was accomplished with minimal disruption to the operation of the charter school office, as well as to the schools themselves. Through the use of in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, this study investigates how the transition between administrations was undertaken to ensure continuity for Indianapolis mayor-sponsored charter schools and offers best practices for mayoral transitions. In addition, this study reveals that to provide continuity for charter schools, policies that insulate schools from political change must be developed and charter schools must be viewed apolitically.
Although much has been written about the potential benefits of effective data use in schools, considerably less attention has been paid to how schools make sense of the data generated from performance-based accountability measures. This article explores schools’ usage of state test data, the intensity of data use, and the perceived utility of state test data. Our findings uncover nuanced differences in school data use and reveal a key disconnect in the assumptions of performance-based accountability systems, wherein schools may faithfully use state data to inform improvement efforts while fundamentally questioning the validity of the data itself.
Historically, the government has sought to improve the quality of the teacher workforce by requiring certification. Teachers are among the most licensed public personnel employees in the United States. Traditionally, an education degree with a student teaching experience and passage of licensure exams were necessary for licensure. In the 1980s, alternative paths to certification developed. In this article, we evaluated the impact of licensure screens and licensure routes on student achievement. Our findings from an analysis of Arkansas data suggest that there is little difference in terms of quality between traditionally and alternatively certified teachers. However, licensure exams do have some predictive power.
Over the years that I have been writing the Reviewing Policy section of this journal, I have paid particular attention to critical conceptual and empirical work that either overtly supports or directly challenges the taken-for-granted assumptions that tend to guide dominant policies in education. These policies may deal with larger issues involving the relations among education, politics, and the economy or those surrounding the more "on the ground" realities of curricula, teaching, and evaluation. One of my key concerns has been the complex ways in which differential power works on and through education. In examining these issues, I have at times turned to books that, while they are not based on material from the United States, still have important things to say to researchers in the United States. The book I shall discuss in this essay provides another example of why this is important. It is written from an Irish context. But it raises more general and quite substantive questions about the ways in which neoliberalism and its accompanying assemblage of mechanisms of audit culture actually work and how the ways they work privilege particular groups. Gender is the primary focus of New Managerialism in Education; but though in itself that is of crucial importance internationally, the implications are also wider than that.
This study examines the institutional factors associated with student loan default. When a college has more than 30% of its students default on their loans, then the institution faces federal sanctions that could make them ineligible from participating in the federal student loan program. Using Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data from 2008 (N = 4,488), and applying logistic regression, this study finds for-profit colleges, those accredited by vocational education programs, and those serving diverse student bodies are most at risk of federal sanctions. It concludes that accreditation reform and improving graduation rates could be long-term solutions to addressing the default problem.
Gender-segregated (GS) schooling has become popular in the United States despite the fact that every major review has concluded that GS schooling is not superior to coeducational schooling. Moreover, concern has been raised that GS schooling leads to negative effects, including increased gender stereotyping. We argue that these negative effects result from peer influences in gender-segregated peer contexts—including GS schooling. We also contend that educational policy makers need to understand these peer effects so that better decisions can be made about how children are grouped in classrooms and to create coeducational programs that promote tolerance and acceptance between girls and boys.
Using statewide longitudinal teacher survey data collected in 2009 and 2010, this study examined the characteristics of teacher evaluation used to determine performance-related pay (PRP), and the association between PRP and improvement in the practice of constructivist instruction. The study found that 10.9% of middle school mathematics teachers in Missouri received PRP in 2009 and the average amount was US$1,463. The teachers were mainly evaluated by principals who conducted classroom observations and held face-to-face meetings to assess their teaching practice and professional development activities. After controlling for the background characteristics, this study found a modest yet positive association between PRP and improvement in teacher practice of constructivist instruction from 2009 to 2010.
This article examines the political and the media discourses concerning the Portuguese governmental program responsible for delivering a laptop named "Magalhães" to all primary school children. The analysis is based on the official documents related to the launch and development of the initiative as well as the press coverage of this topic. The main purpose is to recognize the dominant public discourses and to find out what the media select for the debate in the public sphere. This analysis was done with a particular focus on the critical media literacy framework. The results reveal that the press highlighted the negative aspects of that program and that this framing could have a strong impact on how it was accepted and understood by the public opinion. Analysis also reveals that the governmental initiative was predominantly driven by technological objectives, in particular the access to technology, rather than media literacy objectives.
This study explores whether students from low-income families and racial/ethnic minority groups have the opportunity to benefit in what is arguably the most rigorous type of credit-based transition program: the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). The analyses first describe national longitudinal trends in characteristics of schools offering the IBDP and the characteristics of students within schools who enroll. The analyses draw on data from the International Baccalaureate database, which include individual-level data on more than 400,000 IBDP students from 1995 through 2009, as well as data from the Common Core of Data from the National Center for Education Statistics. The article also draws on data collected from a survey of IBDPs in Florida to document variations in the opportunity to benefit from available IBDPs.
Across the United States, community colleges are facing severe funding reductions and surging enrollment, resulting in a condition of impaction in which demand for coursework exceeds financial or physical capacity. In turn, impaction is necessitating changes in enrollment management policies, including rapid evolution in registration priority policies, which ration access to coursework by granting preferential course enrollment timing to students who meet specified criteria. During times of impaction, such policies effectively preclude some groups of students from making progress toward their goals or, under the worst circumstances, from attending college at all. Given the importance of community colleges for providing access to postsecondary education, these policies have significant, long-term implications. Here, we situate the discourse on registration priority policies in a larger context and body of literature, document the variation in policies across the colleges in one state, and develop a set of recommendations for policy and future research.
This study uses an innovative methodology and six waves of Schools and Staffing Survey data spanning two decades (1988-2008) to assess the potential of midcareer entrants—teachers who enter the profession from careers outside of education—to diversify teaching, staff public schools, and fill vacancies in high-need subjects. We find that the percentage of midcareer entrants among first-year teachers nearly doubled between 1988 and 2008 and that midcareer entrants comprise more than one third of incoming public school teachers. Despite this influx, midcareer entrants have not substantially diversified the teaching workforce. These findings have implications for teacher preparation, induction, and policies aimed at diversifying teaching.
This research examines how the conservative movement has used both conservative think tanks and the media to gain entry into the field of education policy. The study examines how the conservative movement has attempted to use think tanks as legitimating organizations to enter the education policy arena by (a) measuring the historical growth in the number of conservative think tanks focused on education policy, (b) situating that growth within the larger context of efforts on the part of the conservative movement to bring free market ideas to education, and (c) analyzing and comparing conservative think tank media presence to that of centrist and progressive think tanks and university-based education-policy centers. Findings indicate that conservative think tanks produced the largest number of education media citations, followed by centrist think tanks. Liberal/progressive think tanks and university-based education-policy centers had little to no media presence.
In this paper, we explore the use and efficacy of fiscal incentive policies in California school districts. We ask whether districts with high need for teachers with English as a second language (ESL) or special education credentials are more likely to implement incentives targeting these teachers. We find mixed evidence that districts align their incentives with their staffing needs. We conclude by discussing possible rationales for our results.
Professionalization is an important but overlooked dimension in education politics, particularly the politics of accountability. To isolate the importance of professionalization, this article compares accountability movements in K-12 education with similar movements in higher education. I draw on three pairs of reports that have sought to impose accountability between 1983 and 2006, in each case comparing a report on K-12 with a similar report on higher education. I find that calls for accountability in both sectors have intensified over the period under study, but that higher education has been much more protected from accountability pressures by its greater degree of professionalization, its reputation, its greater share in the private sector, and its decentralized professional autonomy. In conclusion, I connect the findings to broader debates about professionalism and the future of accountability in the two sectors.
What roles can and should teachers’ unions play in the deliberations, debates, and conflicts over school reform in a time when education sits at the center of so much of our economic, political, ideological, and cultural tensions? Lois Weiner’s new book, The Future of Our Schools: Teachers Unions and Social Justice, speaks directly to this question. While supportive of unions and their historical and current contributions, Weiner is quite critical of the ways teachers’ unions as organizations function and of many of the dominant political and educational positions that teachers’ unions have taken. Weiner articulates an alternative, "social movement unionism." While not as fully developed as it might be, her position is thoughtful and provocative when grounded in the lost history of the very beginnings of teacher unionism in the United States and also in current examples of more socially involved efforts of union members here and elsewhere.
President Obama has proposed a financial aid policy whereby students who complete 100 hours of community service would receive a tax credit of US$4,000 for college. After lawmakers cut this proposal from previous legislation, the administration was tasked with studying the feasibility of implementation. However, the implications of the policy for potential and current college students are unclear, especially for students who have the most financial need. Given existing literature about student volunteerism, tax credits, and inducements as policy instruments, combined with analyses of student volunteerism from three national data sets, this study explores disparities in student volunteerism by income level and school type and draws implications from these results concerning who would be most likely to benefit from such a policy.
Educational reformers use international evidence to argue that increasing the number of days in school and the length of the school day will improve academic achievement. However, the international data used to support these claims (1999 Third International Math and Science Survey and 2000 Program for International Student Assessment) show no correlation between time in school and achievement. In this article, the author re-examines the effects of instructional time using improved measures of instructional time, a more extensive data set (2006 Program for International Student Assessment), and a more nuanced multilevel model. The author finds mixed evidence of a positive effect of subject-specific instructional time on achievement, controlling for socioeconomic status, school characteristics, and country-level traits. The author finds no effect of the length of the school year on academic achievement and that sample selection and the specific uses of time in school have a strong influence on conclusions about the effectiveness of instructional time.
Drawing on national and state assessment datasets in reading and math, this study tested "external" versus "internal" standards-based education models. The goal was to understand whether and how student performance standards work in multilayered school systems under No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Under the "external" model, states’ common standards shape teachers’ standards which, in turn, affect student achievement. Under the "internal" model, teacher standards are insulated from state standards but instead influenced by prior student achievement and background characteristics in classrooms. The study employed multilevel analysis and instrumental variable analysis with fixed effects. Findings provided support for the internal as opposed to the external model. The linkage between state standards and teacher standards was tenuous, whereas the linkage between teacher standards and student achievement was solid and reciprocal. Further, students’ gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) had direct and/or indirect influences on teacher standards through achievement gaps. Implications for research and policy were discussed.
The article outlines a theoretical framework for understanding education policy and education reforms based on the concept of knowledge regimes. The concept refers to understandings and definitions of governance and procedural aspects, manners of governing and curriculum issues, thus it comprises contents, structures, and processes of education policy and governance. The article discusses how the concept may be helpful in understanding the complexity and ambiguity of education policy and development. The article argues that the concept of knowledge regimes enables us to gain a better understanding of education policy, the politics of education, and the political in education. Greater awareness of knowledge regimes can also help us to better understand both the circulation of national policy documents and technical and administrative plans, and the situation of those involved in education practice.
The authors paint a national portrait of Latina/o trends over more than 30 years in terms of demographic and financial concerns that pertain to access at 4-year institutions. Using a multiple policy streams framework, the authors contend that growing numbers of Latina/os are in the eye of the perfect storm in a global economy that calls for more skilled workers at the same time that there are significant policy shifts converging in college finance. Trends over time reveal that Latina/os have remained more sensitive to financial assistance than non-Hispanic Whites in deciding where to go to college. The data also reveal several alarming trends that indicate Latina/os are not benefiting from policy directions established in the past. Realizing the potential for a new policy window of opportunity to reverse adverse effects for Latina/os will be key to the vitality of the nation.
Although educational policies for emergent bilinguals in New York City schools have historically supported the provision of bilingual education, the past decade has borne witness to a dramatic loss of bilingual education programs in city schools. This study examines the factors that determine language education policies adopted by school principals, through qualitative research in 10 city schools that have eliminated their bilingual education programs in recent years and replaced them with English-only programs. Our findings draw a causal link between the pressures of test-based accountability imposed by No Child Left Behind and the adoption of English-only policies in city schools. Testing and accountability are used as the justification for dismantling bilingual education programs and create a disincentive to serve emergent bilingual students, as schools are far more likely to be labeled low performing and risk sanctions such as closure simply for admitting and educating these students.
This study evaluates the effects of classroom peers on standardized testing achievement for all third- and fourth-grade students in the Philadelphia School District over 6 school years. With a comprehensive individual- and multilevel data set of all students matched to teachers, classrooms, and schools, two empirical strategies are employed. The first relies on the observable distribution of students among classrooms within a particular grade and school in any given year. As a test of robustness, a second strategy is employed, which depends on the idiosyncratic variation in classroom composition based on the random assignment of students entering the school at abnormal times during the academic year. Based on these empirical strategies, this study finds statistically significant classroom peer effects on standardized achievement, though the degree to which they impact performance differs based on peer characteristics.
Using critical policy analysis focused on racial-ethnic equity, this study analyses state policy documents and accountability instruments governing transfer from 2-year colleges to 4-year institutions in the following states: California, Florida, Texas, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, and Wisconsin. Based on data collected in 2009, the findings indicate that state transfer policies are largely "color blind." In contrast, accountability reporting, including data indicators such as those for underrepresented students, may serve as proxies for monitoring progress toward transfer of racially minoritized students. Recommendations are proposed for creating racially equitable state transfer policies and accountability instruments.
In implementing a university-wide programmatic innovation to prepare graduate students to become more effective instructors in their future careers as university educators, a faculty development center encountered various types of resistance, ranging from the structural to the cognitive to the affective. Elaborating upon models of organizational change, we discuss principles and strategies that we applied to address concerns, enlist support, and catalyze a significant structural change. Although the strategies are specific to our program, the lessons learned can be used by anyone trying to bring institutional changes to postsecondary education.
Policymakers and leaders have been calling for changes in the Academy for nontenure-track faculty. This study focuses on the role of governance in creating that policy change, and the practices facilitating their role in changing the institution through governance. Findings include: governance facilitating day-to-day changes, establishing nontenure-track credibility, and dismantling stereotypes; and policies that define faculty roles and enable participation.
The authors evaluated a reform program known as "Strategic Staffing" in which principals were given increased autonomy to modify the delivery of instruction without compromising academic content. The program’s central feature was reassignment of school leaders and key staff members from settings in which they were successful to schools experiencing deep and chronic levels of low student performance. The authors used a causal-comparative design with schools matched on key demographic variables as well as qualitative analyses of key features of treatment schools. After 1 year of implementation, the authors found that achievement scores and other indicators were not statistically significantly different across turnaround schools. Participating principals reported similar concerns, plans, and challenges to those documented in previous studies. The authors discuss their work in the growing knowledge base addressing turnaround in chronically low-achieving schools.
What happens to race in public discussions about "race-neutral" college admissions policies? This article shows how race disappeared from elite political debate during hearings on Texas Senate Bill 175 (2009), the Top Ten Percent Plan (the Plan), which guaranteed college admissions to high school graduates from the top 10% of their classes. Findings indicated that race disappeared from the discussion of college admissions policy in Texas. Instead, policy makers emphasized students’ opportunity to compete for college admissions ignoring that the opportunities for and impediments to success at different high schools varied widely across the state. The implication of these findings is that as policy becomes race neutral, discourse also becomes "colorblind" potentially disguising structural and secondary school inequalities.
Often when philosophers of education address the issue of civic education, they focus on the characteristics individuals should possess to participate in the preexisting democracy; these skills include the ability to listen carefully, reasonably reflect and weigh evidence, articulate one’s demands and concerns in the public sphere, and so forth. However, little consideration is given to the type of collective sensibility necessary to move toward the more ideal society. This article aims to broaden our conception of civic education by detailing the type of citizen that is necessary to create and maintain an ideal society—a deep socialist democracy.
The distinct needs and interests of novice teachers are not always reflected in the priorities of teacher unions, which may impact novice teachers’ attachment to teacher unionism. Using survey data from teachers, we examined novice teachers’ involvement in their unions and their desire for union involvement in their work lives compared to their veteran colleagues’. Finally we explored how novices’ union beliefs and involvement varied by characteristics of their organizational context. Our findings suggest that teacher unions need to more fully address the needs and interests of novice teachers as well as the organizational factors that influence their evaluation of unionism.
Although a decade has passed since passage, few have noticed that section 9528 in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates schools to assist military recruiting. This article focuses on administrators’ responsibility to inform parents of their privacy rights and the struggle to manage recruiting in schools. I highlight two conclusions with policy implications. Although parents and school staff speak as adversaries regarding military recruiting in public high schools, they are both accurate in their positions. Furthermore, recruiters are overly aggressive in schools, resulting in stress for staff or a strategic move to isolate individuals who become liaisons with the military.
This study estimates the effect of zero tolerance disciplinary policies on racial disparities in school discipline in an urban district. Capitalizing on a natural experiment, the abrupt expansion of zero tolerance discipline policies in a mid-sized urban school district, the study demonstrates that Black students in the district were disproportionately affected, with an additional 70 Black students per year recommended for expulsion following the policy change. Furthermore, the study uses negative binomial regression discontinuity analysis to explore the effect of expanding zero tolerance on the proportion of days students are suspended. Following the policy change, the already sizeable difference in the proportion of days suspended between Black students and White students increased.
Utilizing data from the National Center for Educational Statistics Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), a multilevel model (Hierarchical Linear Model) was developed to examine the association of teacher/classroom and state level indicators on reported elementary social studies instructional time. Findings indicated that state testing policy was a significant predictor of elementary teachers’ reported time spent on social studies instruction. Teachers’ perceptions of workplace autonomy and grade level were also associated with increased time on social studies. Conversely, teacher credentials, classroom socioeconomic contexts, and test design were not substantially associated with social studies instructional time. This study suggests that state policy mandates, grade-specific curricular organization, and teacher disposition have a substantial impact on the prioritization of social studies in US elementary schools.
Issues concerning higher education today (e.g., rising costs, declining public trust, changing state economics) have created new demands for postsecondary institutions to demonstrate their productivity. We examine whether differences in states’ political cultures (i.e., underlying traditions, values, and public policy choices) are reflected in variability between state finance policy indicators and institutional variables that explain undergraduate graduation rates. To test our proposed model, we use longitudinal data on state indicators and institutional variables that explain differences in graduation rates compiled over an 11-year period. Our findings suggest that differences in political culture represent mediating factors between states’ economic contexts and higher education appropriations, which help explain variation in their graduation rates over time.
In 2004 a near 30-year legal battle over higher education desegregation in Mississippi was settled with the state’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to receive US$503 million over the course of 17 years. Nearly 65% of this funding is directed toward the recruitment and support of White students, with a significant share of endowment funding tied to the attainment and maintenance of 10% non-Black enrollments. To analyze the fairness of this settlement, I use the theoretical framework of justice as fairness and apply the tenets of Rawlsian theory. I find a mismatch between settlement terms and justice as fairness. Thus, as Rawls predicts, while the settlement is final, it fails to bring closure.
Despite the extensive literature on educational innovations, there is only limited empirical research available into the impact of innovations on student achievement. In this article, the following research questions will be answered: What form do innovations in secondary education take, are there types of innovative schools, and what effect do these innovations have on school quality and student careers? The findings show that types of innovative schools differ significantly on quality assessments aspects of the Inspectorate of Education, quality of "time," and of the "teaching-learning process." Furthermore, the school output data showed that in the lower education tracks the more innovative schools obtain good results with their students, whereas in the higher education tracks the less innovative schools perform significantly better.
Parent involvement is acknowledged as a crucial aspect of the education of students with special needs. However, the discourse of parent involvement represents parent involvement in limited ways, thereby controlling how and the extent to which parents can be involved in the education of their children. In this article, critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to examine the discourse of parent involvement in excerpts from policy documents and interviews from a larger study on immigrant Chinese Canadian mothers’ involvement in the education of their children with disabilities. Contrasting policy documents and interviews, the discourse of parent involvement positioned mothers as over- or underinvolved, subordinate, and inexpert.
The purpose of this article is to explain how a means/ends test can be adapted for the school environment. Public school officials can use a means/ends test to document an analysis of whether dress-code policies will be effective in diminishing risks to the health, safety, or morality of the school population. Elements of policy evaluation--ends, means, and relations--and four main sources of information--authority, statistical or observational analysis, deduction, and sensitivity analysis--were used to illustrate how to analyze dress-code policies. Five components of good policy analysis--validity, usefulness, feasibility, originality, and importance--framed an evaluation of this approach.