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Background: Choice is a key part of the culture of the United States. Americans believe deeply in the personal and social usefulness of being able to make many choices. Hence, all sorts of efforts have been made to increase students' options, whether by creating many different kinds of schools and colleges, offering a great array of majors and degree programs, or allowing multiple modes of attending higher education. However, this proliferation of choices reproduces social inequality in two crucial ways. First, the provision of many options produces social inequality: people often make choices that do not serve their interests as well as they might wish, particularly if they are faced with many options and do not have adequate information. Second, the provision of many choices legitimates social inequality: the more one thinks in terms of choices in the context of a highly individualistic culture such as that of the United States, the easier it is for dominant groups to blame nondominants as creating their own troubles through feckless choices. Purpose: This paper focuses on one particularly important realm of choice—higher education—because it has come to play a central role in the transmission and legitimation of social inequality. Four higher education choices are of particular interest: whether to enter higher education, which college to attend, what major to choose, and what modality to attend college (for example, part time versus full time or in person versus online). Analyzing this choice-making process, the paper focuses on the impact of inequitable access to high-quality information. Beyond analyzing how choice proliferation and information inequity join to produce and legitimate educational inequality, the paper lays out detailed recommendations for what can be done to reduce this inegalitarian impact. Research Design: The paper draws on a wide variety of social science literatures including sociology of education, critical race theory, behavioral economics, and cognitive and social psychology. More particularly, the paper synthesizes sociology of education research inspired by Pierre Bourdieu and work drawing on critical race theory. Although there are major tensions between these two bodies of work, they can be fruitfully combined to both illuminate and overcome the ways information inequity produces and legitimates educational inequality. Recommendations: To reduce the role of information inequity in producing and legitimating educational inequality, the paper recommends four strands of change. One strand involves providing high-quality information more equitably through restructured and much more pervasive school counseling and other forms of information provision during middle school, high school, and higher education. A crucial component of this more equitable information provision is drawing on the community cultural wealth of nondominant communities. Second, it is important to design an "architecture of choice" that simplifies choice making and nudges students toward better choices by such means as simplifying the financial aid process, improving credit articulation for community college transfer students, and building guided pathways through college. A third strand involves reducing the harms of suboptimal choices by creating the means to monitor student progress and intervene when students might or actually do go off course. Finally, because suboptimal choices will still occur, it is important to enlighten student choosers and their observers about how choice making under conditions of information inequity produces and legitimates social inequality and to empower them to combat that stratified and stratifying process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Undocumented youth navigate unwelcoming federal, state, and local contexts in the United States. Although previous research shows the significant impact of immigration policy and enforcement on educational outcomes and social-emotional well-being, this study sheds light on the multiple, intersecting policy, and school contexts that hinder social and educational mobility. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to elicit Latinx undocumented immigrant youth experiences in a southern state to contribute to evolving research on their experiences in K-12 schools. In addition, the purpose was to understand how undocumented youth (a) talk about the policies that impact their daily lives, (b) perceive the organizational-level structures that exist to support them in school and community contexts, and (c) articulate a sense of belonging through their community and school interactions in relation to processes of racialization and its impact on immigration status. Conceptually, the paper uses a multilevel, interactional framework to show the impact of racialization of Latinx undocumented immigrants in policy, school, and community, and relational contexts. Research Design: The study is a 3-year critical ethnography of two Title I high schools in the U.S. South that maintains particularly restrictive policies toward immigrants. Fieldwork from two school sites and interviews with 63 undocumented youth, and relevant personnel deepen our understanding of their status of illegality—specifically how their material lives are impacted by policy and institutional-level dynamics and constraints. Conclusions/Recommendations: The author shows how youth voice through ethnographic evidence counteracts anti-immigrant policies and criminalization of Latinx immigrants; youth critique social policy and institutions that seek to limit their progress in society. The implications for policymakers, educators, and school-based personnel is significant Although legal status may impose certain limitations on undocumented students' educational opportunities, their educational trajectories are still highly determined by school structures. Knowing this, educators can respond effectively to ensure educational rights and equitable educational practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Student loans reflect a larger shift in U.S. society in which people are forced to go into debt for basic needs. Student loan debt in the United States has been recognized as a political economic crisis that disproportionately devastates Black people. Scholars have statistically reported on racialized and gendered stratification in student loan outcomes and several name the racial wealth gap as the main contributing factor to the Black student debt crisis. Yet minimal attention has been dedicated to examining, let alone theorizing, the logics and systemic forces that racialize debt in higher education. Purpose: Drawing on a theory of racial capitalism, this article fills analytic and theoretical gaps in the study of the Black student debt crisis by detailing how the crisis has been arranged as well as how it functions to constrain, dispossess, and exploit Black people. Research Design: This article offers a corrective history, systematic analysis, and theoretical explanation of the Black student debt crisis. Findings/Results: The paper draws on racial capitalism to account for how student loans as a policy has relied on anti-Black racial logics and systemic forces. The authors address how Black educational desires are co-opted, the government configures inclusion according to predatory terms, and the student loan industry forms a debt trap that exploits repayment struggles. While the majority of Black people who enroll in higher education never secure the promise of college as always "worth it," the arrangement continues to be worthwhile for student loan profiteers. Student loans are perfect for racial capitalism because they answer demands for social access and inclusion (which are already reduced to mean credentialism) and reproduce both the disposability and dispossession of Black people's everyday lives. Conclusions/Recommendations: The authors call for the full cancellation of student loan debt. This call forms part of a larger mobilization to abolish the racist logics, processes, and policies that make the Black student debt crisis and Black precarity possible in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Community colleges in the United States are increasingly tasked with demonstrating their commitment to improved institutional outcomes even as measures of student success are critiqued for failing to capture the colleges' diverse missions and student populations. Purpose: This paper offers an alternative framework for understanding and evaluating community college student success based on the normative and interdisciplinary capabilities approach. Setting: The larger study on which this paper is based took place at a large, diverse community college located in the southwestern United States. Participants: The sample for this study consists of 958 e-survey respondents (N = 17,080; response rate 6%), and semi-structured follow-up interviews with a heterogeneous group of 40 community college students. Research Design: The study uses mixed methods consisting of a large-scale e-survey, student interviews, participant- and researcher-generated visual methods, and in-depth reviews of the community college and capabilities approach literatures. Results: The author used a top-down/bottom-up process to generate a final empirical list of 12 community college capabilities that are informed by both the literature and student voices: practical reason, knowledge and imagination, learning disposition, social relations and networks, respect and recognition, emotional health, bodily health, economic opportunities, love and care, language competency and confidence, autonomy, and refuge. This paper also transparently documents the methodological process the author uses to generate these capabilities to aid both researchers and practitioners in their efforts to help students flourish and thrive as they navigate the higher education landscape. Conclusions: The results of this study provide educational researchers and practitioners with a methodological process for developing their own locally sourced understandings of student success. As proposed in this paper, reframing the educational experience around capabilities and capabilities development provides colleges--and education institutions more generally-- with a new, more responsive and democratic set of tools to use in understanding all the ways in which community colleges help students build and sustain meaningful lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Teacher education programs at Minority Serving Institutions - which include Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Native American and Tribal Colleges, Asian American and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions, and Hispanic Serving Institutions - are an under-researched resource. Purpose: Our aim is to provide a foundation and set an agenda for future research on teacher education within the Minority Serving Institution context. Research Design: The first part of this paper reviews the literature on the relationship between minority student achievement and teacher education, with an emphasis on the contribution and role of minority teacher candidates. The second part of this paper sets the agenda for future research on the role of Minority Serving Institutions' teacher education programs, including what we already know and seek to learn about their unique and innovative approaches to recruitment, pedagogical approaches and course content, mentoring, academic support and remediation, and pre-service teaching experiences. Conclusion: Some questions addressed include: In what specific ways are MSIs reframing teaching as a viable and accessible option for minority students? What are MSIs doing with regard to early recruitment of promising minority teacher candidates? What kinds of mentoring and support strategies are they offering, and to what do they attribute high rates of teacher retention in their programs? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper is part of the special issue "Reimagining Research and Practice at the Crossroads of Philosophy, Teaching, and Teacher Education." Early childhood initiatives have joined a nexus of educational reforms characterized by increased accountability and a focus on measurement as a marker of student and teacher learning, with early education being framed as an economic good necessary for competing in the global marketplace. Underlying the recent push for early childhood education is what we see as a "discourse of improvement"--depictions of school change that prioritize achievement as reflected in assessment scores, data collection on teacher effectiveness, and high-stakes evaluation. These characteristics, we argue, foster increasingly inequitable educational contexts and obscure the particularities of what it means to be a child in the world. Purpose: We use the practice of philosophical meditation, as articulated in Pierre Hadot's examination of philosophy as a way of life, to inquire into the logics of educational improvement as instantiated in particular contexts, and for cultivating cross-disciplinary partnerships committed to fostering children's flourishing. We link this meditational focus with feminist and de-colonial theoretical perspectives to make visible the role of power in the characterization of children's learning as related to norms of development, minoritized identities, and hierarchies of knowledge. Research Design: In this collaborative inquiry, we compose a series of meditations on our experiences with the logics of improvement inspired by 12 months of systematic conversation. Our data sources include correspondence between the two authors, written reflections on specific practices in teacher education each author engages with, and a set of literary, philosophical, and teacher education texts. Conclusions/Recommendations: Our meditations illuminate the value of collective inquiry about what constitutes improvement in schools. We raise questions about how the measurement of learning is entwined in historical and present-day relations of power and idealized formulations of the universal "child" or "teacher" and argue that we must work together to reimagine the framings that inform our work. Ultimately and most directly, these meditations can support dynamic attempts to cultivate meaningful and more equitable educational experiences for teachers and students. Philosophical meditations at the crossroads of philosophy, teaching, and teacher education thus extend beyond critique toward imagining and enacting a better world in our classrooms, even though (and especially when) this path is not clear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Minoritized youth from historically marginalized backgrounds continue to face systemic inequities in STEM. Existing strategies aimed at increasing diversity in STEM, which are guided by the STEM "pipeline" metaphor and are deficit-oriented, have yielded lackluster results. Purpose/Objective/Research Questions/Focus of Study: This paper investigates how minoritized youth attempted to build connecting pathways between STEM-related worlds, how such attempts unfolded, and the resultant outcomes pertaining to their developing STEM expertise and subsequent STEM engagement. We introduce the idea of pathhacking, where youth had to create their own pathways into STEM, often with improvised tools and in treacherous territory, because there were no pre-laid paths. Research Design/Data Collection and Analysis: Data were drawn from longitudinal critical ethnography of 48 youths across STEMengagement spaces, in both community and formal school spaces. Attention is paid to the particular resources, both relational and material, and the barriers that affect youths' efforts to hack pathways toward deeper and more connected engagement in STEM. Spaces included school classrooms, school settings, after-school STEM programs held in community clubs, other spaces in communities such as residential neighborhoods, and local universities. Findings/Results: Three broad claims are presented: (a) Pathhacking involves youth engaging in practices that challenge and expand ways of being in STEM-related spaces; (b) Pathhacking practices, when coordinated through social activity, reorganize social worlds for both individuals and collectives, expanding future pathhacking possibilities; (c) To aid in pathhacking, youth utilize tools including critical STEM-mobility artifacts and allies as brokers across scales of activity. Conclusions: The current U.S. education-policy climate focuses attention on student achievement in individual subject areas, highlighting the achievement gap. We illustrate the challenges minoritized youth face as they seek more consequential STEM engagement through hacking connecting pathways. Institutions, people, tools, and practices--all imbued with and embedded in histories--have structured these youths' opportunities to hack connecting pathways and have also provided points of access and resistance for the youth to resist marginalization during the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Institutional missions serve many purposes within universities, but most studies focus on how mission points to direction, guidelines, or priorities. However, organizational missions have been shown to have other functions such as instructing members about actions or behaviors that are acceptable. This paper therefore examines texts for evidence of how respondents' ideas about mission go beyond just a statement of direction or priorities. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: To consider the use of metaphor in describing institutional mission, the following research questions were examined: 1. How are metaphors used to describe institutional mission? 2. What function(s) is the discourse around institutional mission being used to serve? Research Design: The study is a discourse analysis of written texts and interview transcripts as part of a qualitative, comparative case study of six master's-granting institutions that are campuses within one state's public university system. Data Collection and Analysis: Interviews were conducted with 36 university leaders including chief academic officers, deans, department chairs, and faculty members including at least one: (a) member of the institution's body of collegiate deans, (b) department chair and/or collegiate dean directly involved in decision making, and (c) current and/or previous president of the faculty governance body. Qualitative data analysis was conducted using an iterative data analysis method drawing from grounded theory and constant comparative analysis. Following qualitative analysis, a subsequent word count was conducted to determine the extent to which the metaphors were used. Conclusions/Recommendations: Results suggest mission is a socially constructed phenomenon with a variety of different functions revealed through metaphor that engage different audiences and are closely tied to institutional context and purpose. Metaphors of mission articulated by respondents include mission as: (a) symbolic unity, (b) boundary object, (c) tool, (d) cage, (e) metamorphosis, (f) cultural artifact, (g) motivator, (h) authoritative text, (i) transaction, and (j) treaty document. Understanding the complexities of institutional mission suggests a need to reconsider it and the ways in which leaders engage with their institutional missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 2009, the Obama Administration announced its intention to rapidly "turn around" 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools. To do so, it relied on the School Improvement Grant (SIG) program to provide temporary funding for states and schools, and to mandate drastic, school-level reforms. Most of these reforms require massive administrative and teacher layoffs, especially under the "turnaround option." In the public debate about the SIG program, reforms such as turnarounds have been described as new and innovative. In reality, the nation has significant experience with them, particularly over the past 40 years. Turnaround-style reforms are not only based on unwarranted claims; they ignore contrary research evidence about the potential of mass firings to improve organizational performance. Purpose: This paper considers the tensions with democratic education inherent in the federal SIG program's market-based school reforms. It examines the evolution of and intent behind the 2009 federal SIG program. From there, it considers the lessons offorty years of research on educational effectiveness and high-stakes accountability. It builds on this evidence, as well as the growing literature on communities' engagement in reform, in its analysis of the school turnaround research and practice. The paper culminates in a set of recommendations that are intended to re-center the purposes of public education for low-income students, students of color, and local communities in developing more equitable, democratic school turnarounds. Research Design: This article synthesizes forty years of research on school and district effectiveness, high-stakes accountability, and community engagement in school reform to evaluate the federal School Improvement Grant program's potential to cultivate democratic, equitable public schools. It also reviews the small, but rapidly growing literature on school turnarounds, paying particular attention to the ways in which this new field reproduces or departs from earlier literature that examined reform models that are analogous to the current SIG-funded school turnarounds. Conclusions: Based on the provisional lessons that are emerging from current SIG-inspired turnarounds, from research on earlier efforts to improve school and district effectiveness, and from pockets of promising community-based practices that are developing at local and national levels, we propose five steps that federal, state, and local policymakers can take toward fostering more equitable, democratic turnaround processes. First, increase current federal and state spending for public education, particularly as it is allocated for more democratic turnarounds. Second, focus turnaround policies on improving the quality of teaching and learning rather than on technical-structural changes. Third, engage a broad cross-section of schools' communities-- teachers, students, parents, and community organizations-- in planning and implementing turnaround strategies that are tailored to each school and district context. Fourth, incorporate multiple indicators of effectiveness-- apart from test scores-- that reflect the range of purposes for schools. Fifth, support ongoing, systematic research, evaluation, and dissemination examining all aspects of turnaround processes in schools and districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: The disparity between the race and ethnicity of teachers and students is expected to increase as our nation and classrooms continue to become more racially, ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse. It is extremely important to think about not only the educational needs of such a diverse student population within schools but also who will teach these students. However, when looking at subject-matter specificity for the retention of Teachers of Color, such as science teachers, the picture becomes extremely serious when we understand teachers' paths into and out of science and teaching. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to analyze the experiences of preservice Teachers of Color (PTOC) enrolled in an elementary science methods course as they gain access to science as White property. Our analysis provides evidence that PTOC can break the perpetual cycle of alienation, exclusion, and inequity in science when they are given opportunities to engage in science as learners and teachers. In addition, we also offer insights regarding the role science teacher educators may play in preparing teachers and especially TOC for urban schools. Setting/Research Design: The context of this study was a graduate-level preservice elementary science methods course at a large urban university in New York City. Multiple data sources included pre-post surveys, semester observation journals, final course papers, and a post-course questionnaire. Utilizing constructivist grounded during the initial phase of analysis and themes from critical race theory (CRT), our unique voices of color and positionalities allowed us to interpret the data from a CRT perspective and arrive at findings relevant to making science inclusive to PTOC. Conclusions/Recommendations: In order to push the field of science teacher education toward social justice issues of access, opportunity, and enjoyment, efforts must focus on increasing representation of Teachers of Color in science education. The transformation of science teacher education to grant equitable learning experiences for Teachers of Color is needed. Further research on the experiences of science Teachers of Color, as well as Faculty of Color and their relationship with students, is highly encouraged. Both teacher preparation and science education must be open to interrogate and reveal structural forms of race, racism, and power that manifest through curriculum, structure, and pedagogy that cause alienation and exclusion for Teachers of Color. Therefore, we encourage science teacher educators to examine their own course curriculum, structure, and pedagogy through selfstudy and reflection. Overall practices in teacher preparation must empower rather than impede progress toward important goals of CRT, and this may be achieved through building stronger relationships with PTOC and Faculty of Color across teacher preparation courses in support of these goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Educational reform responds to local and national pressures to improve educational outcomes, and reform efforts cycle as similar pressures recur. Currently, reform efforts focus on teachers, even though confidence in a host of American social institutions is dropping. One of the most widespread reforms regarding teachers is the creation of state laws and regulations that require high-stakes evaluation, often using value-added models or related approaches to measuring growth in student learning. Purpose: This article discusses the papers in this special issue of Teachers College Record, drawing implications for teacher evaluation practice and policy, along with possible changes in the demand for teacher education and the teacher labor market. Conclusions: The articles in this special issue of Teachers College Record address the use of emerging high-stakes teacher evaluation regulations and draw implications for policy and practice. All papers address limitations in the reliability and validity of these systems and the impacts that such shortcoming might have on teachers and students. In addition, there could be major impacts on the teacher labor market with implications for the sustained effectiveness of America's schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Background: In the last decade, the effects of teachers on student performance (typically manifested as state-wide standardized tests) have been re-examined using statistical models that are known as value-added models. These statistical models aim to compute the unique contribution of the teachers in promoting student achievement gains from grade to grade, net of student background and prior ability. Value-added models are widely used nowadays and they are used by some states to rank teachers. These models are used to measure teacher performance or effectiveness (via student achievement gains), with the ultimate objective of rewarding or penalizing teachers. Such practices have resulted in a large amount of controversy in the education community about the role of value-added models in the process of making important decisions about teachers such as salary increases, promotion, or termination of employment. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review the effects teachers have on student achievement, with an emphasis on value-added models. The paper also discusses whether value-added models are appropriately used as a sole indicator in evaluating teachers' performance and making critical decisions about teachers' futures in the profession. Research Design: This is a narrative review of the literature on teacher effects that includes evidence about the stability of teacher effects using value-added models. Conclusions: More comprehensive systems for teacher evaluation are needed. We need more research on value-added models and more work on evaluating value-added models. The strengths and weaknesses of these models should be clearly described. We also need much more empirical evidence with respect to the reliability and the stability of value-added measures across different states. The findings thus far do not seem robust and conclusive enough to warrant decisions about raises, tenure, or termination of employment. In other words, it is unclear that the value-added measures that inform the accountability system are adequate. It is not obvious that we are better equipped now to make such important decisions about teachers than we were 35 years ago. Good et al. have argued that we need well-thought-out and well-developed criteria that guide accountability decisions. Perhaps such criteria should be standardized across school districts and states. That would ensure that empirical evidence across different states is comparable and would help determine whether findings converge or diverge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Since the 1970s, researchers have attempted to link observational measures of instructional process to student achievement (and occasionally to other outcomes of schooling). This paper reviews extensively both historical and contemporary research to identify what is known about effective teaching. Purpose/Objective: Good, after reviewing what is known about effective teaching, attempts to apply this to current descriptions of effective teaching and its application value for practice. Good notes that much of the "new" research on effective teaching has simply replicated what has been known since the 1980s. Although this is not unimportant (since it shows that older findings still pertain to contemporary classrooms), it is unfortunate that research has not moved beyond the relationship between general teacher behavior (those that cut across subject areas) and student achievement (as measured by standardized tests). How this information can be applied and the difficulty in using this information is examined in the paper. Research Design: The paper is a historical analysis and reviews research on teaching from the 1960s to today. Conclusion: This paper has stressed that our data base on effective teaching is limited--still it has some implications for practice. Even though the knowledge base is limited, there is no clear knowledge that teachers-in-training learn and have the opportunity to practice and use. It would seem that teacher education programs would want to assure that their graduates, in addition to possessing appropriate knowledge, would also have clear conceptual understanding and skills related to active teaching, proactive management, communication of appropriate expectations for learning, and the ability to plan and enact instruction that balances procedural and conceptual knowledge. Future research on the use of this knowledge base and its effects in teacher education programs would be informative. If done correctly, research on teaching can improve instruction. However, the research must be applied carefully if it is to have useful effects. And, as noted often in this paper, research must consider outcomes of schooling other than achievement such as creativity, adaptability, and problem finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 1991, Savage Inequalities quickly became the most riveting assessment of the inequalities in U.S. public schools. When Kozol visited East St. Louis for his book, the authors of this paper lived and attended schools there. As Kozol's readers in their respective graduate and undergraduate classes, the authors found it difficult to merge his outsider views with their insider experiences because their backgrounds included many unnamed human and structural resources, valuable beyond a dominant and patriarchal framework. Objective: The objective of this paper is to resituate Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities by critiquing Kozol's caricaturization of East St. Louis and its schools as places where students and community members lack communal agency and resources. Through the lens of each form of capital from Yosso's (2005) Community Cultural Wealth Model, the authors show how their stories reflected access to various forms of capital as K-12 students in East St. Louis. Research Design: The methodological framework for this study is narrative inquiry. The authors storied their East St. Louis experiences by generating a narrative protocol and using the protocol to share their backgrounds, historical and contemporary understandings of East St. Louis, and each author's educational and professional trajectories. Once the narratives were completed, the authors shared and analyzed the narrative texts to identify patterns and emergent themes. Findings: The narratives revealed how families, teachers, community centers, churches, and extracurricular programs were sources of familial, aspirational, resistant, navigational, and social capital. The narratives also provided clarity on the power and dignity of "unnamed" family and community structures, even though these forms of capital are rarely explored in the dominant literature. Conclusion: The narratives complicate Kozol's interpretation and prompt readers to look at East St. Louis (and other urban communities) with a more paradoxical frame. This study is important for future educators who read Savage Inequalities and misunderstand urban students and families as subjects who need to be saved. Educators and potential educators require a much more complicated view of urban school districts and school children since scholarship can often provide a one-sided picture of inadequacy and despair. The authors contend that although East St. Louis indeed faces critical challenges fueled by racism and classism, the authors re-storied Kozol's narrative to expose the very rich source of community cultural capital that exists in East St. Louis and other urban centers very much like it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Recent political efforts to minimize the influence of teacher unions have called new attention to collective bargaining in American education. Such attention has only heightened a longstanding controversy within the realms of both research and practice. A renewed scholarly literature has systematically considered the relationship between teacher unionization and educational outcomes. The current paper provides additional context for such work by considering teacher contracts over time. Purpose/Objective/Research Question: In this study we examine the ways in which the collective bargaining agreements in a large, Midwestern American school district have changed during more than 30 years of policymaking. Research Design: The paper presents an historical content analysis/case study of every contract in Louisville, Kentucky since 1979. We focus on several areas of current interest to researchers studying teacher quality. These include salary schedules, transfer and assignment policies, teacher evaluation, dismissal, and working conditions. To fix our analysis within a theoretical framework, we consider an interpretation of our evidence suggested by the perspective of New Institutionalism. Conclusions/Recommendations: We show that these contracts have changed very little in more than three decades, and most key provisions are identical. The time period we examine covers important educational reforms at the state and federal levels, as well as a number of popular movements such as efforts to reduce class size and enhance teacher quality through new evaluation schemes and tenure reform. If confirmed in other districts, our evidence would suggest limited potential for policy change to be reflected in individual bargaining agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: This opening article, like the other articles in this special issue, is situated in scholarship that attempts to understand the racialized nature of mathematics education in the United States and to examine the racial identities of students and teachers in the context of school mathematics. It is designed to respond to the current (mathematics) education policy context that largely ignores teachers' experiential and cultural knowledge while stressing the importance of teachers" content knowledge and academic achievement. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This article presents theoretical perspectives and research questions concerning the knowledge and other resources that African American teachers bring to teaching mathematics, perspectives and questions that are taken up in the five subsequent articles in this special issue. Setting: The cases developed in this special issue were developed from observations of the introductory algebra classes of and interviews with, two well-respected African American teachers in one neighborhood high school in a large urban school district that serves a predominantly African American student population. Research Design: This opening article frames two case study papers and two analysis papers that report on findings from a large-scale qualitative study of the racialized identity and instructional approaches of two of the six African American mathematics teachers studied in the Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning Algebra 1 Case Studies Project. Conclusions/Recommendations: Together with the other articles in this special issue, this work contributes to the development of more sophisticated attempts to integrate understandings of race into the work of the mathematics education community. It challenges taken-for-granted notions of the knowledge base and resources needed to be an effective mathematics teacher of African American students in underresourced large urban schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Schools face pressure to promote equitable student outcomes as the achievement gap continues to persist. The authors examine different ways in which social capital has been conceptualized as well as prior theory and research on its formation and consequences. While some theoretical and empirical work conceptualizes social capital as a mechanism for prosocial outcomes, other scholars address it as an apparatus of social status. Purpose: This study was conducted to advance knowledge about (a) the validity of measuring social capital as an organizational construct, (b) the equity of social capital distribution in schools, and (c) the relationship between school social capital and academic achievement. Research Design: In this paper, the authors examine these possibilities using data collected from 96 Midwestern high schools. Confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical linear modeling, and structural equation modeling were employed to depict the relationships among social capital, socioeconomic status, and academic achievement in schools. Findings/Results: The authors found that variance in social capital was significantly related to school membership and that confirmatory factor analysis supported the construction of a school social capital measure. Moreover, more than half of the variance in social capital is unrelated to social class, and social capital is a positive predictor of academic achievement. Conclusions/Recommendations: Because of its positive relation to achievement, investments in the development of social capital may be worthwhile. Interventions designed to develop social capital in schools should be guided by efforts to strengthen access to school-based resources in poor and low achieving schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: In this paper we draw on an intersectional critical framework to analyze and account for the simultaneous interworkings of race and dis/ability. Specifically, we draw on this framework to examine two aims of modern science: (a) to identify distinct biological markers of race and (b) to locate biological and neurological origins of Learning Disabilities (LD). These aims persist despite evidence that both race and LD are socially and politically constructed categories. Purpose/Objective: By reviewing historical and contemporary attempts by researchers to locate race and LD as immutable features embodied by individuals, we reveal how the science behind these categories shares similar underlying systems of logic; both efforts attempt to locate social problems within bodies and illustrate what Samuels (2014) calls “fantasies of identification,” or culturally embedded desires to definitively identify and categorize bodies. Research Design: This is a historical analysis Conclusions/Recommendations: We assert the need to engage with intersectional analyses, not simply as demographic variables along the lines of identity categories, but as an analytical tool for uncovering underlying logics that undergird systems of oppression. Examining the shared scientific explanations of race and learning disabilities illuminates possibilities for rethinking key issues at the intersection of race and disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: In this paper, the authors discuss the concept of culturally relevant pedagogy 20 years after its introduction to the professional literature. Purpose/Focus: The authors discuss key tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy, examine empirical examples of it, and make recommendations on how the concept may inform and influence the outcomes of culturally diverse students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the Home v Flares Supreme Court decision of June 25, 2009, the Court wrote that one basis for finding Arizona in compliance with federal law regarding the education of its English learners was that the state had adopted a "significantly more effective" than bilingual education instructional model for EL students--Structured English Immersion (SEI). Purpose: This paper reviews the extant research on SEI, its definitions, origins, and its effectiveness, particularly in contrast to other instructional strategies. This paper asks, Does the research bear out the Court's conclusion? What is the evidence that Arizona's program of SEI is really superior to other approaches, including bilingual or dual language education? How are Arizona's EL students faring under this "significantly more effective" instructional program? Research Design: Data on the relative effectiveness of SEI are drawn from a comprehensive review of the literature. Analysis of public documents, particularly records from the Arizona English Language Learners Task Force, which was charged with selecting a research-based instructional program for English learners. Drawing from a recent ethnographic study and student achievement data, we examine the impact of structured English immersion programs on English learners in Arizona thus far, beginning with achievement outcomes. Conclusions/Recommendations: There is no research basis for the Court's statement the SEI is "significantly more effective"; at best SEI is no better or no worse than other instructional strategies, particularly bilingual instruction, when they are both well implemented. However, SEI as implemented in Arizona carries serious negative consequences for EL students stemming from the excessive amount of time dedicated to a sole focus on English instruction, the de-emphasis on grade level academic curriculum, the discrete skills approach it employs, and the segregation of EL students from mainstream peers. Moreover, the paper argues that there are, in fact, strategies that can ameliorate these problems as well as provide an additive, rather than a subtractive, educational experience for English learner and mainstream students alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: For over two decades, there has been a steady call for deregulating U.S. teacher education, closing down allegedly poor quality college and university programs, and creating greater market competition. In response to this call to disrupt the dominance of colleges and universities in teacher education, and because of the policies and funding allocations of the U.S. Education Department and private foundation funding, non-university providers of teacher education have proliferated in certain areas of the country. A critical aspect of the current call for greater deregulation and market competition in teacher education has been the declaration that university teacher education has failed. While there is no dispute about the need for improvements in the dominant college and university system of teacher education, it is also important to critically evaluate the warrants for the value of programs that critics claim should replace college and university programs. Purpose: The focus of this paper is to illustrate how research has been misrepresented to support policies and programs that would simultaneously reduce the role of colleges and universities in preparing U.S. teachers and support the expansion of the role of non-university providers. We also examine the print news media's role in uncritically reproducing a narrative of failure about university teacher education and promoting the success of new non-university programs--attention that has served to inflate the public perception of these organizations and programs beyond what is warranted by the available evidence. Research Design: Four cases are presented that illustrate the efforts to manufacture a narrative of the failure of colleges and universities in preparing teachers, and to construct a narrative of success for the non-university programs that have been funded to replace them. The authors use the concepts of echo chambers and knowledge ventriloquism to show how this process operates. Conclusions/Recommendations: Following the presentation of the cases, specific recommendations are offered for raising the quality of the debates about the future of U.S. teacher education. These include greater transparency in the process of reform, better communication between researchers and stakeholders, using research that has been vetted to inform the debates, and genuinely exploring different policy options for teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Online learning in K-12 education has grown rapidly in the past decade. Cyber charter schools (CCSs) have been a particularly controversial form of online school, but there is very little scholarly examination of these new organizations. As CCSs expand, policymakers and stakeholders have a critical need to understand how to evolve the charter school policies that govern these new school forms. Focus of Study: Through a three-site case study, this paper (1) explores what current charter policies govern CCSs and (2) outlines the practices in these schools that might illuminate future policy needs. Specifically, the findings highlight how cyber charters problematize existing charter school policies in the areas of authorizers and governance, teacher policy, and student achievement. Research Design: The study presents an exploratory, comparative case study. The exploratory analyses illuminate implications for how policymakers understand governance, teacher policy, and the evaluation of student achievement in cyber charters. The comparative case design also highlights how different state policy contexts might influence the practices of CCSs. Conclusions: Cyber charter schools introduce new ways of delivering public schooling. The study shows how state leadership is vital to coordinate student enrollment across geographic boundaries, funding mechanisms, and conflicts between CCSs and established stakeholders. This paper also illuminates how teaching and learning practices differ in an online environment and introduces questions of teacher preparation and professional practices. Finally, CCSs in this study serve unique, niche student populations that opt out of the traditional school system. These considerations are vital for evaluating student achievement in cyber charters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: The theoretical framework of the paper comes from research on problem solving, considered by many to be the essence of mathematics; research on the importance of oral language in learning mathematics; and on the importance of the teacher as the primary instrument of learning mathematics for most students. As a nation, we are not doing well enough in teaching our students mathematics, and need to look to new perspectives about why this is happening. Purpose: This paper looks at a promising tool for enabling students who are not skilled readers to approach problem solving tasks. But in sharing its usefulness with teachers in professional development, the instrument uncovered specific and serious gaps in teacher content knowledge. Group discussion, using the protocol helped to clarify some of those gaps. Setting: All three problem-probing sessions occurred during professional development activities for New York City Public School mathematics teacher leaders. The facilitator was Academic Director of a New Visions for Public Schools' Middle School Mathematics Standards project, (MS)2, funded by. NSF. The sessions were part of a variety of ongoing professional development activities, and occurred during the third year of a five year study. Therefore, the 12 to 20 participants of each session, though different from each other, all knew the facilitator. Research Design: The research design was qualitative. Teachers were presented with a written problem and directed not to solve it. The discourse that followed flowed of its own accord, with participants speaking as they thought and responded to the facilitator and/or the other participants. Records of speakers' words were transcribed in one case hand, and in two other cases by audio tapes. The discourse was then analyzed by the researcher from two perspectives: what mathematical misconceptions mere revealed and how the talk helped to clarify them. Conclusions/recommendations: From preliminary, explorations, the protocol seems an accessible and effective instrument for decoding and analyzing mathematics word problems by teachers who were not able to approach such tasks before. Also suggested was its potential value as an assessment instrument for teachers' content knowledge. Further study is needed to determine what kinds of in-class supports teachers need to internalize the process and use this instrument on a regular basis with their students. Background/Context: A of the literature demonstrates that schools are frequently called upon to improve, by developing high levels of teacher collaboration. At the same time, there a paucity of research investigating the extent to which teachers' collaborative school improvement practices are related to student achievement. Purpose: The purpose of study to was to review the literature and empirically test the relationship between a theoretically driven measure of teacher collaboration for school improvement and student achievement. Setting: The data for this study were drawn from students and teachers in a large urban school district located in the midwestern United States. Population: The population for this study came from the elementary schools in one large midwestern school district. Survey data were drawn from a sample of 47 elementary schools with 452 teachers and 2,536 fourth-grade students. Research Design: Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was the primary analytic method. Survey data were collected approximately 2 months before students took the mandatory state assessments, which provided the scale scores that served as dependent variables in this research. HLM accounted for the nested nature of the data (students nested in schools).… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What happens in a teacher education program when control is neither exercised by formal professional or state standards nor by traditional dominant “disabling” market influences (Labaree, 1994)? To answer this question, the focus of this paper is on looking at teacher education through the lenses of pedagogical practices and discourses not in traditional institutions such as normal schools, colleges, and universities but in an alternative institution. Thus, this paper presents detailed accounts and analyzes the practice of the preparation of teachers in a progressive program during the 1930s in New York at Bank Street College of Education. Mostly, these accounts are grounded in the participants’ perspectives, providing data about how this progressive teacher–education program was experienced, and in particular on Lucy Sprague Mitchell’s teaching based on data especially composed to describe two courses: (1)Environment (a mix of what today can be called social foundations and social studies methods) and (2)Language (mostly about the writing process). Bank Street, initially called the Cooperative for Student Teachers and intrinsically connected with experimental schools and a well–known institution among practitioners and progressive educators, was formed in 1930, which were times with heavy ideological discussion given the social and economic American and international contexts. Teaching at Bank Street centered on making experience a subject matter of study, while making connections between learning about children, the self, the world (the social contexts), and schooling, to foster progressive practices in the classroom. This case about pedagogical practices suggest a need to pay closer attention to the teaching of progressive teachers as an important aspect of learning to teach and teacher education improvement beyond dominant discussions about standards, organization, regulations and control of teacher education. This paper shows that it was possible to have a highly intellectual and inquiry–oriented teacher–education program, with a rigorous study of experience, with passion to understand children, subject matter, social contexts, and the self, and with a commitment to justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses archival and secondary sources to examine the early history of state student assessment in the United States. While it is generally accepted that school evaluation and accountability are the raison d'être of assessment policy making in the United States, between 1865 and 1965 an accountability model for state testing failed to take hold, despite numerous attempts. In accounting for these policy developments, this paper stresses the role that institutionalized clusters of normative and causal ideas play in educational policy making. These idea structures—called policy frameworks—define the core principle or principles that animate state action, the legitimate aims served by intervention, and the manner in which these ends are to be achieved. Three frameworks—examination, guidance, and accountability—play a prominent role in the history of assessment policy making in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: In Milliken v. Bradley (1974), the U.S. Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional a metropolitan-wide desegregation plan in Detroit that sought to achieve racial balance in part by busing white suburban students to the city's majority black schools. In a stark departure from Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), Milliken left the question of how, or even whether, to equalize education fo r black students up to local parents, educators, activists, school board members, state legislators, and other private and public community stakeholders. Purpose/Objective/Focus of Study: In this article, I consider school desegregation as a form o f social justice for blacks and racial equality for all, 40 years porf-Milliken. Drawing from research on school desegregation as social justice and Bell's theory of interest convergence, I argue that integration and equality in the post-Civil Rights Era requires attention to the competing visions of social justice I describe as black equality and white freedom. Research Design: Framed by distributional and relational dimensions of social justice and Bell's theory of interest convergence, this paper presents a conceptual analysis of school desegregation as social justice post-Milliken. Conclusions/Recommendations: The competing interests of black equality and white freedom central to Milliken remain fundamental to the question of school desegregation 40 years later. In light of growing political and public support for local control, school choice, and neighborhood schools, I conclude by discussing the implications o f local control for black students and racial equality within the current context of widening economic equality, political polarization, and racial isolation in the United States and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recent years, charter schools have received a great deal of media attention, appearing in documentary films, newspaper articles, magazine profiles, television news programs, and even sitcoms and feature films. The media is not alone in its interest in charter schools; researchers in the public and for-profit arenas have also focused their attention on charter schools in recent years. Questions: This paper employs qualitative content analysis to answer the following questions: What information have journalists contributed to the charter school debate in the United States? And how might this information have shaped or influenced the debate? Research Design: To answer these questions, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of print media coverage of the early years of the charter school debate. We analyzed 145 articles about public charter schools and public alternative schools that appeared in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times between 1994 and 2006. We developed two types of coding categories: descriptive and interpretive. The descriptive coding categories captured the following information about each article in our dataset: the publisher, the type of school described and the student population. The interpretive coding categories captured reporters' descriptions of the students, teachers, resources, and institutional cultures of charter and alternative schools. Findings: Our analysis uncovered several interesting themes. First, we found that print media depictions of charter and alternative school teachers tended to be more positive than media depictions of teachers in traditional public schools. This was especially true of print media coverage of charter schools that serve low-income students and/or students of color. Our analysis also cast doubt on a core assumption of the charter school debate; that charter schools' approach to educating their students differs significantly from that of traditional public schools and public alternative schools. In their articles about charter schools that serve middle-income students, reporters described institutional cultures and pedagogical strategies identical to those found in alternative schools with similar student populations. When reporting on alternative schools that serve low-income students and/or students of color, reporters described pedagogical strategies that mirrored those found in charter schools with similar student populations. Recommendations: Further research is needed to determine whether charter and alternative schools are educating their low- and middle-income students differently. If future research confirms this, we warn that charter and alternative schools could be preparing their low-income students and/or students of color inadequately for higher education and work in professional environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: As increasing attention is paid to preparing students to succeed in school, the development and adoption of research-based curricula have become progressively more important. However, many curricular designs lack a basis in scientific evidence; research and curricular design are frequently treated as two separate enterprises. Purpose/Objective: In this paper, we present the Research on Curriculum Design (RCD) model, first advanced by Clements in 2007, with results from its application to the design and iterative development of pre-kindergarten mathematics and science curricula. Research Design: RCD is an example of design-based research, with the additional specific goals of the production of an effective curriculum and the evolution of theoretical guidelines to inform future curricular designs. Our implementation spanned two years and involved iterative development and testing of two, year-long curricula. Findings/Results: Application of RCD methods informed our understandings of the target population, the knowledge and skills to be developed, and the theoretical and research-based models that guided the designs. Subsequent iterative development and evaluation in five pre-K classrooms enabled refinement of the curricular design, as well as the evolution of design guidelines useful for informing future curriculum development efforts. A culminating test of the resulting curricula in eight pre-K classrooms suggests the success of the RCD approach, yielding high-quality, high-fidelity teacher implementation, with teacher fidelity and curricular dosage predicting students' mathematics learning gains across the year. Conclusions/Recommendations: Results support the value of the RCD model for achieving research-based curricula that have the potential to effectively support teachers in their practice and positively impact children's early learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Local control has historically been a prominent principle in education policymaking and governance. Culminating with the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), however, the politics of education have been nationalized to an unprecedented degree, and local control has all but disappeared as a principle framing education policymaking. During the same period, policies imposed upon locales by state and federal governments have shifted from an emphasis on equity to accountability. Purpose: This paper examines what the eclipse of local control through NCLB and related policies means for democracy. Research Design: Drawing upon contemporary normative democratic theory, we distinguish two dimensions of democracy that are at issue-- democratic policymaking and democratic education-- and conclude that the effect of NCLB has been to frustrate democracy along both of these dimensions. Findings: In terms of democratic policymaking, we argue that NCLB oversteps the boundaries that may be legitimately imposed upon local participation in policymaking on the basis of democratic principles. In terms of democratic education, we show how NCLB undermines both the content and the context of schooling likely to inculcate the skills, knowledge, and dispositions required for meaningful participation in democratic politics. Conclusions: Based upon this analysis, we offer a set of guidelines to aid in the assessment of future federal education policy vis a vis democracy. First, reform efforts should embrace a participatory model for engaging local communities. Second, curriculum standards adopted by states and locales should include a conscious and substantive focus on developing the deliberative skill and dispositions required of democratic citizenship. Third, efforts must be made to keep individuals and organizations that receive public funds accountable to the public through democratic procedures. Fourth, reform efforts must seek ways to more adequately and equitably finance schools. Fifth, the goal of better integrating schools across important categories of social difference should be revitalized in order to help ensure access to equal educational opportunities and the diverse context of learning that all students need for the inculcation of democratic character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Across the United States, secondary school curricula are intensifying as a growing proportion of students enroll in high-level academic math courses. In many districts, this intensification process occurs as early as eighth grade, where schools are effectively constraining their mathematics curricula by restricting course offerings and placing more students into Algebra I. This paper provides a quantitative single-case research study of policy-driven curricular intensification in one California school district. Research Questions: (1a) What effect did 8th eighth grade curricular intensification have on mathematics course enrollment patterns in Towering Pines Unified schools? (2b) How did the distribution of prior achievement in Towering Pines math classrooms change as the district constrained the curriculum by universalizing 8th eighth grade Algebra? (3c) Did 8th eighth grade curricular intensification improve students' mathematics achievement? Setting: Towering Pines is an immigrant enclave in the inner-ring suburbs of a major metropolitan area. The district's 10 middle schools together enroll approximately 4,000 eighth graders each year. The districts' students are ethnically diverse and largely economically disadvantaged. The study draws upon administrative data describing 8th eighth graders in the district in the 2004-20-05 through 2007-20-08 school years. Intervention/Program/Practice: During the study period, Towering Pines dramatically intensified middle school students' math curricula: In the 2004-20-05 school year 32 % of the district's 8th eighth graders enrolled in Algebra or a higher- level mathematics course; by the 2007-20-08 school year that proportion had increased to 84%. Research Design: We use an interrupted time-series design, comparing students' 8th eighth grade math course enrollments, 10th grade math course enrollments, and 10th grade math test scores across the four cohorts, controlling for demographics and prior achievement. Findings/Results: We find that students' odds of taking higher level mathematics courses increased as this district implemented the state's Algebra mandate. However, even as the district implemented a constrained curriculum strategy, mathematics achievement growth between 6th sixth and 10th grade slowed and the achievement advantages associated with 8th eighth grade Algebra declined. Conclusions/Recommendations: Our analyses suggest that curricular intensification increased the inclusiveness and decreased the selectivity of the mathematics tracking regime in Towering Pines middle schools. However, the findings suggest that this constrained curriculum strategy may have may have unintended negative consequences for student achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In this paper we call for studying school leadership and its relationship to instruction and learning through approaches that highlight the role of configurations of multiple organizational supports. A configuration-focused approach to studying leadership and other essential supports provides a valuable addition to existing tools in school organizational analysis and is particularly useful in examining equifinality and causal asymmetry. Equifinality is the idea that more than one pathway can result in a desired outcome whereas causal asymmetry suggests that the set of conditions that lead to the presence of an outcome need not be the same as the conditions that lead to its absence. Focus of Study: This study uses a configurational approach to examine how school leadership and other organizational supports are related to an important aspect of instruction--students' classroom participation. Research Design: We apply fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to administrative and survey data of high schools from a large urban school district to examine combinations of organizational supports that are associated with classroom participation. Conclusions: The study draws attention to the utility of applying configurational approaches to investigate the influence of complex combinations of organizational supports on school outcomes. We compare this approach to more traditional methods that focus on the effects of isolated factors, controlling for each other. Our results show that leadership is associated with students' classroom participation via multiple configurations of organizational supports. These configurations are different from the set of organizational supports that are related to an absence of classroom participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Research on Chinese immigrant parents tends to focus on their high levels of educational involvement and its positive impact on their children's exceptional educational performances. Relatively little research has been conducted to understand the challenges Chinese immigrant parents face in helping their children with school and the resulting influence on parent-child relations and children's adaptation. Focus of Study: In this paper, we examined how immigration reshapes parental involvement in these Chinese immigrant families and its subsequent influence on parent-child relations. Setting: The research was conducted in the metropolitan area of a northeastern city in the United States. Participants: Our participants were 72 Chinese immigrant children and their parents. Research Design: Our study utilizes longitudinal interview data with open-ended questions. Open, axial, and selective coding procedures were used in qualitative data analysis. Findings/Results: Our findings suggest that when parents face multiple challenges in their adaptation after migration, they often experience a feeling of powerlessness especially in dealing with their children's schooling. This then forces the children to be precociously independent. This dynamic puts strain on parent-child relations and has a negative impact on children's adaptation. Conclusions/Recommendations: It is important for schools and other social institutions working with Chinese immigrant families to reach out to parents by providing them with more information and resources to be more involved in their children's education. Immigrant and local communities can also help by offering parent and youth programs to help improve parental involvement and parent-child relations in Chinese and other immigrant families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 41 states, students must pass the "basic skills" portion of their licensure exam before they can be admitted into a teacher education program. Because African American test takers are roughly half as likely to pass basic skills exams on their first attempt compared to White test takers, this portion of the licensure exam is a key gatekeeper to the field and directly shapes the racial diversity of the profession. Researchers generally frame this problem in one of two opposing ways: (a) by locating the cause in skill and knowledge deficiencies of test takers or (b) by locating the cause in the cultural bias of standardized test instruments. This study looks beyond these two polarized views to conceptualize the licensure exam as a testing event that includes a nexus of cognitive and affective processes beyond the specific skills the test is designed to measure. Focus of Study: The study examined the subjective and social psychological ways African American test takers experience teacher licensure testing events. This study was guided by the following research questions: (a) How do African American preservice teachers experience the licensure testing event? (b) How does race become a salient aspect of the testing event experience for African American preservice teachers ? The study drew from the social psychological constructs of identity contingencies and situational cues to analyze students' experiences in the testing event. Setting and Participants: Participants in this study were 22 African American preservice teachers attending a predominantly and historically Black institution in the northeastern United States. Each of the participants took the paper format basic skills exam in either the spring 2009 or spring 2010 national administration. Research Design: Drawing from culturally sensitive research practice, this study used a qualitative case study research design to explore test takers' experiences in the testing event. Findings/Conclusions: Findings illustrate how the licensure testing event can become a racialized experience for some participants through (a) interactions with test proctors and site administrators before and during examinations and (b) actions of other test takers that inadvertently signaled racial stereotypes about test preparation, intelligence, and character. Racialized experiences for participants were not based upon any specific test questions or content. Findings are discussed in light of previous research to suggest that these experiences have the capacity to produce a host of cognitive and affective states that undermine performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Low community college completion rates are an area of concern for policymakers and practitioners. Although many students require developmental education upon entry, research suggests that even students who are deemed "college-ready" by virtue of their placement test scores or completion of developmental coursework may not earn a credential, suggesting that college readiness encompasses more than academic skill. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide an empirically grounded description of the role of the community college student. Drawing on sociological role theory, we articulate the largely unspoken expectations, behaviors, and attitudes to which students must adhere if they are to be successful. In doing so, we begin to clarify a piece of the college success puzzle that has heretofore been underexamined. We also extend current literature on college persistence by integrating theories of psychosocial identity, social roles, and college persistence. Research Design: The study uses qualitative data from semistructured interviews conducted with community college students (n = 97) and faculty and staff (n = 72) from a study of student success courses in three community colleges in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). We examined a subset of interview questions investigating the expectations that staff and faculty hold of community college students. We used analytic induction to categorize disparate expectations into discrete components of the community college student role. Findings: Relying on sociological conceptions of the role, we find that the demands and expectations placed on community college students are different from other social positions with which individuals are familiar, particularly with regard to the level of fluidity and demands for self-awareness. We also identify four distinct components of the role of community college student: academic habits, cultural know-how, balancing multiple demands, and help seeking. Conclusions: Our data clarify the nonacademic components of college success that contribute to academic readiness. We also find agreement between our data and other college persistence literature focused on other student populations. Our findings extend current understandings of the psychosocial transition to college by paying attention to the cultural elements of the community college student role. This paper concludes with suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Contemporary state and national policy rhetoric reflects increased press for "evidence-based" decision making within programs of teacher education, including admonitions that programs develop a "culture of evidence" in making decisions regarding policy and practice. Recent case study reports suggest that evidence-based decision making in teacher education involves far more than access to data--including a complex interplay of motivational, technical, and organizational factors. Purpose: In this paper we use a framework derived from Cultural Historical Activity Theory to describe changes in organizational practice within two teacher education programs as they began to use new sources of outcome data to make decisions about program design, curriculum and instruction. Research Design: We use a retrospective case study approach, drawing on interviews, observations and documents collected in two university programs undergoing evidence-based renewal. Conclusions: We argue for the value of a CHAT perspective as a tool for clarifying linkages between the highly abstract and rhetorically charged concept of a "culture of evidence" and concrete organizational practices in teacher education. We conclude that the meaning of a "culture of evidence" depends in large measure on the motivations underlying its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Prior research has linked social engagement, such as peer inter-action and participation in school activities, to a host of positive outcomes for youth and adolescents. However, little research considers patterns of social engagement among racial/ ethnic minority and immigrant adolescents, despite prior research suggesting distinct racial/ethnic and generational differences in social interactions among young people. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This paper examines patterns of social engagement in friendships and extracurricular activities among racial/ethnic minorities and immigrant adolescents. We analyze five measures of social engagement: having any friends, socializing with friends, participating in school sports, participating in school clubs, and participating in activities outside of school. Population/Participants/Subjects: This study utilizes the Education Longitudinal Study of2002 (ELS.-2002), a nationally representative sample of high school sophomores. Research Design: Our research design includes statistical analysis of secondary data. Findings/Results: Overall, results show that racial/ethnic minority adolescents, as well as first- and second-generation adolescents, are less engaged in friendships than their third-generation White counterparts. In contrast, there is no clear pattern of advantage or dis-advantage in extracurricular activity participation. Conclusions/Recommendations: These findings suggest that a disproportionate number of racial/ethnic minority and immigrant adolescents are less engaged in friendships than their peers, and that schools and adults play an important role in facilitating social interac-tions that may not occur within informal friendship networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Under supplemental educational services (".supplemental services"), a parental choice provision of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), schools that have not made adequate yearly progress in increasing student achievement are required to offer low-income families free, afterschool tutoring. Existing research shows low attendance rates among eligible students and little to no aggregate effects on achievement for students who do attend. Focus of study: We employ a framework grounded in examining the instructional setting, or "instructional core, " and we draw on the unique contributions of qualitative research to help explain the limited effects of supplemental services on student achievement. Specifically, we address the following research question: How can in-depth examination of the instructional core explain the impact of supplemental services on student learning? Research Design: Our findings draw on data from an ongoing mixed-method and multisite study of the implementation and impact of supplemental educational services in five urban school districts located in four states. Although this paper includes quantitative data from this study, analysis focuses on qualitative data, including observations of tutoring ses-sions using a standardized observation instrument; semistructured interviews with district staff, provider administrators, and tutors; focus groups with parents of eligible students; and document analysis. Findings: We identify two primary reasons for a lack of effects. First, there is a "treatment exposure" problem where most students receive far less than 40 hours of tutoring over the course of a school year, a critical threshold for seeing significant effects on achievement. In addition, there are discrepancies between an invoiced hour of tutoring and actual instructional time. Second, supplemental services has an instructional quality problem. Instruction lacks innovation; the curriculum typically does not align to that of the day school; programs do not meet all students' instructional needs, especially students with dis-abilities and English language learners; and there can be considerable variation in quality within the same provider. Conclusions: Our findings lay the foundations for being able to not only establish best practices for supplemental services, but to suggest policy changes to facilitate these best practices and offer insights to a host of other parental choice, out-of-school time (OST), and accountability-based reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper points out that the most popular current school reforms offered have failed to accomplish their goal because they fail to understand the fundamental problem of American schools, namely, income inequality and the poverty that accompanies such inequality. Prescriptions to fix our schools cannot work if the diagnosis about what is wrong with them is in error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fairytale of U.S. public education reform, the root of all evil has presumably been identified: the dragons of ineffectiveness. In this faisytale, the LA Times, a newspaper team of investigative reporters, hired statisticians, and other columnists rode in on the back of Value-Added Measurement. In this paper, narrative centered on teacher evaluation and effectiveness. We conducted an analysis of 52 articles published between 2009 and 2011 that were from or related to a series on Value- Added Measurement initially published in 2010 by the LA Times. We sought to understand the ways in which discourse choices worked to construct a certain version of policy issues related to teacher quality, positioning some individuals and even national groups on one side ofa polarized debate. We have given particular attention to the ways in which the media discourse functioned to politicize and (over)simplify issues related to educational policy and teacher evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents and analyzes a variety of approaches that teachers in a struggling urban school used after a violent teacher attack ushered in a culture of chaos and fear throughout the school. As this paper suggests, many of these approaches failed to generate the authority necessary to restore student engagement and the relational trust between teachers and students that they had lost following this incident. At the same time, one teacher implemented an approach that allowed him to reclaim his authority, repair the teacher-student relationship, and increase student engagement in his classroom. Drawing on various theories about power and authority in schools, I argue that the degree to which these different approaches created engaging learning environments and restored a meaningful teacher-student relationship depended on whether students recognized a teacher's authority as legitimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Much research has investigated the complex interplay between education and migration. Education has been alternatively conceptualized as playing an important role as motivator or deterrent of future migration. This relationship, however, is often investigated in terms of coarse indicators of educational attainment. Purpose: In this paper we investigate a less commonly explored side of the link between education and immigration. Our study estimates the relationship between immigration and educational quality and opportunity for the case of Mexico and the United States. Using these indicators we are able to delve deeper into how education affects migration decisions. Studying the relationships between immigration rates and aggregate indicators of education quality and opportunity can shed light into the ways in which education systems and governmental structures may influence or react to immigration patterns among school-age children. Research Design: Data for this study come from three different sources: The Mexican Family Life Survey (MXFLS), which contains information on individual migration decisions; the Oportunidades program, which contains extensive family socio-economic characteristics and school quality indicators; and data from the National Population Council of Mexico, which contains socio-economic and demographic information about communities. Taking advantage of this data, we use logistic and linear regression models to estimate the relationship between education quality and migration. Results: Our results suggest significant relationships between individual decisions to migrate and indicators of educational access, quality, and opportunity, suggesting that the experiences and opportunities afforded to individuals and families in school throughout the years can be of consequence for explaining immigration decisions and patterns. Conclusions/Recommendations: Our analyses raise questions for delineating a framework for studying the relationship between educational quality and immigration. Such a framework should consider that not only individuals may have a lower incentive to further their schooling, but communities and even authorities may also have a lower incentive to improve school quality and opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Teacher quality plays a key role in student learning outcomes. Yet, data suggest that elite college graduates who enter teaching are less likely to stay in schools serving low-income and minority students compared to other teachers. Thus, many educators and policy makers agree that in order to equalize the playing field, recruitment, preparation, and retention of high quality teachers should become a high priority. Objective/Focus: This paper focuses on how beginning teachers' passion, commitments, and knowledge to teach in urban public, Catholic, and Jewish schools interact with specific school conditions to shape their career choices. The study's longitudinal dimension underscores the gradual shift that teachers make away from their preparation programs, highlighting how their professional growth becomes intimately associated with the conditions in their schools. Population/Setting: This longitudinal study included 30 randomly selected beginning teachers who graduated from three mission-driven teacher education programs located at elite colleges: UTEP at the University of Chicago, ACE at the University of Notre Dame, and DeLeT at Brandeis University. Research Design- We employed a comparative, longitudinal case-based study of 30 teachers from three programs. Teachers were interviewed during their second and fourth year in teaching. Findings: This study demonstrates the ways in which professional cultures in schools may positively or negatively affect teachers in different school contexts. It illustrates the considerable impact school leaders have on the lives and career commitments of teachers. Finally, it confirms the positive impact that preparing teachers to teach in context (Context Specific Teacher Education) may have on teachers' career commitments. Conclusions: In order to support teachers' initial commitments to their schools and students, schools need to take a proactive approach. We emphasize the primary role of school conditions and argue that teacher preparation takes a back seat after several years in terms of its impact on teacher career choices. The findings still suggest that preparation can have some effect on teachers' preparedness to 1. teach in culturally diverse environments and/or 2. adapt to challenging demands in hard-to-staff schools. We believe that over the years, preparation and school conditions get tightly interwoven with each other. Yet, the comparative design of this research enables us to point out that when teachers were not adequately prepared to teach in particular schools they were more likely to move from their schools in search for more hospitable conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: The pressure to understand "what works" to advance adolescents' reading development has increased as the Common Core State Standards' call for youth to grapple with a range of complex texts. While we have learned more about promising reading programs and interventions for adolescent students in schools, few programs have had a demonstrable impact on middle and high school students' reading achievement. As a result, categorical reading underperformance among youth persists in schools nationwide and is worse in urban schools. Instead of examining the effects of a reading program in isolation, we may need to turn our attention to understand how those programs are lived and enacted within the contexts of their school cultures. Purpose and Research Questions: This study depicts one urban school's efforts to support its middle and high school students in reading. Two research questions guided this study: 1. What are the current practices designed to provide a sociocultural context conducive to growth in reading skills at Grant Street Secondary School? 2. How do various organizational members (i.e., students and staff) perceive and experience these practices at Grant Street Secondary School? Though a range of factors influenced students" reading at the school, this paper provides an in-depth portrayal of another instructional component -- independent reading -- that emerged in my analysis as vital to the way students and staff oriented themselves around literal. Research Design: Because the theoretical frame for this study assumes that literacy is social and situated, my research design reflected an effort to describe interactions related to reading, the domains where reading activity circulated, and perceptions of those interactions. As such, I drew upon three sources of qualitative data: interviews from staff and students, ethnographic observational data, and documents. These three sources of qualitative data enabled me to describe the literacy activities at the school and locate them in the larger school organizational and cultural processes. Conclusions and Recommendations: This study suggests that students may benefit from daily, sustained time for independent reading time that is instructional. This study also suggests that coordinated efforts across school staff may ensure youth's positive interactions with texts. This study also holds implications for school-based research focused on disciplinary literacy. Ultimately, this research reconceptualizes our understanding of effective instructional practices for adolescents, emphasizing a multidimensional approach that highlights the role of reading as a social activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: No Child Left Behind is only the most recent manifestation of a longstanding American impulse to reform schools through accountability systems created from afar. While research has explored the causes and consequences of No Child Left Behind, this study puts the modern accountability movement in longer historical perspective, seeking to identify broader underlying patterns that shape this approach to reform. Purpose and Research Design: The study explores the question of the short and longer-term causes of the movement to "rationalize" schools by comparing three major movements demanding accountability in American education across the 20th century: the efficiency reforms of the Progressive Era; the now almost forgotten movement toward accountability in the late 1960s and early 1970s; and the modern standards and accountability movement, culminating in No Child Left Behind. This paper considers the three movements as cases of school "rationalization" in the Weberian sense, in that each sought to reduce variation and discretion across schools in favor of increasingly formal systems of standardized top-down control. Findings: This impulse to rationalize schools cannot be explained by interest group or partisan explanations since the reformers defy easy ideological categorization.. Instead, the reforms can be understood as a penetration of "technocratic logic" into the educational sphere. In each movement, this process exhibited a similar pattern: (1) the identification of a crisis of quality which destabilized the existing educational status quo; (2) the elevation of a technocratic logic, backed by the knowledge base of a high-high status epistemic community; (3) the rallying of ideologically diverse powerful actors external to the schools behind a commensurating logic that promised control over and improvement of an unwieldy school system; and (4) the inability of education to resist this technocratic logic (and often to be co-opted by it) due to teaching's historical institutionalization as a feminized, weak, bureaucratically-administered field lacking its own set of widely respected countervailing professional standards. Conclusions/Implications: This history suggests that unless teachers are able to develop and organize a stronger field, they will remain at the whim of external actors. It also suggests that top-down accountability-centered approaches are limited if the goal is to consistently produce teaching that can help students engage in higher level academic work. Rather than continuing to pursue these rationalizing strategies, this analysis and emerging international evidence suggest that a more promising approach would be to work towards professionalizing the educational field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Over the last ten years, a convergence of laws and decrees has impacted the development and implementation of Arizona's current program for English language learners (ELLs): the four-hour Structured English Immersion (SEI) model. Arizona's new model, while being touted by some as the most effective program for ELLs (Clark, 2009), is raising concerns with researchers and educators involved with the education of ELLs. A recent Auditor General's report (Davenport, 2011) indicates that instructional programs for ELLs have lacked uniformity and that the impact of the SEI model on ELLs' language development and academic achievement is unknown. Therefore, although it has been over a decade since the Flares Consent Order, we must continue to examine the evidence regarding implementation of the SEI model in order to determine if the instruction offered to ELLs is comparable in amount, scope, and quality to that provided to English-proficient students. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This paper utilizes the trajectory of these language policies as a lens for examining how ideas stemming from the Flares Consent Order and the English-Only voter initiative (Proposition 203), and continuing through to the legislative response of the court order (House Bill 2064) are evidenced in Arizona's SEI classrooms. Research Design: The purpose of this qualitative study is to document and describe the characteristics of the four-hour SEI policy in practice. Over a seven-week period during the spring semester of the 2009/2010 school year, researchers utilized ethnographic observation methods, interviews, and a collection of artifacts to document the implementation of the SEI model and instruction of ELLs. Using a constant comparison analysis, findings were reexamined to show how this restrictive language policy has impacted and shaped the SEI model in practice today. Conclusions/Recommendations: Arizona's current four-hour model, as implemented in K- 12 SEI classrooms, hinders policy intentions: ELLs do not have access to quality instruction, or a curriculum that is comparable in amount, scope, and quality to that of non-ELLs. Furthermore, deficiencies in funding abound, limiting ELLs' opportunities for the compensatory education needed to help them catch up academically. The authors contend that a reexamination of the SEI policy is warranted if the state is to fully realize the intentions of the Flores Consent Order and equal educational opportunity for ELLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study grew out of a recent Supreme Court case known as Home v Flares. The case began in 1992 in Nogales, Arizona when a 4th grade English learner (EL), Miriam Flores, sued the district and the state for failing to provide her (and other EL students) with an appropriate education as guaranteed by the Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974. After years of failing to respond to federal court orders, in 2007 Arizona adopted, and in 2008 implemented, a 4 hour English language development course that (1) segregates EL students from their English speaking peers; (2) denies them access to the core curriculum; and (3) groups them with students who also lack knowledge of English so that the EL students have no opportunity to interact with English speaking students. The Supreme Court intervened in June 2009 with a decision that largely absolved the state from any requirement that they fund programs for EL students in a manner that bore "a rational relationship to the students' needs." But, the Court did remand the case back to federal court to investigate whether the program in place was, indeed, meeting the needs of the EL students. Arizona has a history of serious school segregation that has harmed English language learners and other students. In 1950 the state still had a law mandating racial segregation of students and even when the Supreme Court ruled Southern segregation unconstitutional in 1954, Arizona was one of only a handful of states where state law still permitted school districts to openly segregate their students. Both Latino and black students went to court to try to reverse segregation, winning victories in state and federal courts in the 1950s but this did not resolve the issues, which are still being litigated in Arizona sixty years later in 2011. Purpose: At the time of the remand in 2009, there was no empirical research on the impact of the four-hour English Language Development (ELD) program, nor had there been any legal challenge to a program that both segregated EL students from their English speaking peers for the entire day in many cases, and denied the students access to the regular curriculum, which is guaranteed by an earlier Supreme Court decision, Lau v Nichols, in 1974. This study draws upon both new empirical research on this topic as well as the extant literature on instruction of English learners and the effects of segregation on minority students to fill this void. The study reported here is one of nine studies commissioned by the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA whose intent was to determine how students are taught and how they learn in the four hour program, and to what extent the program operates meets the requirement of federal anti-discrimination laws. Findings: Based on an exhaustive review of the extant research on segregation and linguistic isolation, this study finds that the excessive segregation of Arizona's Latino and EL students is most probably harmful to their achievement and social and emotional development. It exacerbates the existing segregation of these students, not just by school, but by classroom as well, and as other studies recently conducted in Arizona have shown, it is stigmatizing, marginalizing, and putting these students at high risk for school failure and drop out. Moreover, unlike what the Arizona Department of Education has contended, it is not moving the great majority of these students toward full English proficiency within one year, thus potentially exposing them to years of this unnecessary segregation and lack of access to the regular curriculum, pushing them further and further behind academically. Many districts in Arizona simply have not implemented the state required program and some have requested to be waived from the four-hour block for high school students "on track to graduate" because the program makes it nearly impossible for most secondary EL schools to graduate from high school with their peers. This study also finds that many research-based alternatives exist to the present program model being provided by Arizona schools, and some of these are described in the paper. Included here are discussions of sheltered English, bilingual, and dual language programs. Two-way dual language programs are especially highlighted as they have as a clear objective the integration of EL students with English speakers. Research Design: Research review and analysis. Conclusions: This review of new and extant research on linguistic isolation, the effects of segregation of English learners, and the content and practices observed in the Arizona 4 hour ELD model concludes that Arizona's program for its EL students places them at risk of school failure, delayed graduation, and negative academic self-concepts. The program also challenges the rights established in Lau v Nichols (1974), raising serious questions about its constitutionality. The authors conclude that Arizona should seek more effective program models to educate its EL students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Testing accommodations have been widely utilized as a way of increasing the validity of content assessments for English language learner (ELL) students. However, concerns have also arisen regarding the appropriateness of accommodation use, including the accessibility and fairness of accommodations. While many states have developed ELL-specific accommodation policies and guidelines, little research has been available on how the accommodation policies are carried out in practice. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The present study investigated two states' accommodation policies, specifically for the states' respective large-scale Grade 8 math assessments, and conducted a case study to examine teachers' understanding of the policies and uses. The study aimed to identify issues to consider for an appropriate use of accommodations and provide useful information for policymakers to improve their accommodation policies. Research Design: The study utilized a qualitative method employing teacher surveys and interviews. The survey and interview instruments were developed based on previous literature and experts' feedback. The interview transcripts were coded by two researchers using a systematic coding scheme. Descriptive statistics of the responses were computed to observe trends across and within districts and schools. The results were also compared between states or between ELL and math teachers when applicable. Conclusions/Recommendations: Despite the limitation of the small sample in this study, the findings of the study offer practical implications for policymakers and educators in the use of accommodations for ELL students. The study found considerable variation reported by teachers with regard to the perception of accommodation decision makers, selection criteria, and the types of accommodations allowed in each state's math assessment. This variation raised serious concerns regarding the adequacy of the accommodation uses and the comparability of accommodated test results across schools. In this paper, we discussed a number of possible reasons for teachers' reported difficulty in keeping up with state policies: (a) lack of clear guidelines in making accommodation decisions and implementing accommodations in a standardized way, (b) lack of or limited opportunities in receiving information and communicating about accommodations among decision makers and teachers, and (c) limited resources and logistical difficulties. To support an appropriate use of accommodations for teachers, we recommend that states make efforts to provide comprehensive, operationalized guidelines for ELL accommodations, monitor the use of the guidelines, and hold regular professional meetings for ELL and content teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: William H. Kilpatrick is known worldwide as "Mr. Project Method. " Despite considerable scholarship by Lawrence A. Cremin, Herbert M. Kliebard, Milton A. Bleeke,John A. Beineke, and others, the origin of Kilpatrick's celebrated paper of 1918 has never been explored in depth and its historical context. Focus of Study: The reconstruction reveals that the concept of teaching by "projects" arose in seventeenth-century Italy and reached the United States in 1865 where it served as an instructional device in manual training, agricultural education, and general science. Kilpatrick came into contact with the project method movement in 1915. He jumped on the bandwagon, adopted the two-hundred-year-old concept, and used it in a provocative new way to be not only remembered as a genial teacher but as an "originator" as well. Supported by the "Project Propaganda Club," he had already initiated in 1917 and which became known as the National Conference for the Promotion of Educational Method in 1921, Kilpatrick advocated a decidedly child-centered approach that in New York, Milwaukee, and Bethpage, Missouri, failed the practice test and evoked fierce criticism from friend and foe, including Boyd H. Bode, Ernest Horn, Guy M. Wilson, and John Dewey. In the late 1920s, Kilpatrick decided that in defining the project as a subjective "philosophy" of education and not as an objective "method" of instruction he "had made a mistake." Subsequently, he gave up the term and spoke of "activities" when the students carried out their plans and ideas "heartily"and "purposefully." Conclusions: Historians worldwide have fallen victim to an error. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Kilpatrick is not the classic of the project method, but rather the classical outsider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]