8 results
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2. Teacher Incentive Pay: Effect on Student Achievement and Global Competition.
- Author
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Trumbull, Samantha
- Subjects
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ACADEMIC achievement , *TEACHERS' salaries , *EMPLOYEE bonuses , *EDUCATION policy , *UNITED States education system , *STUDY skills - Abstract
This paper will argue against the implementation of public policies which require or encourage individual teacher bonuses based on student test scores. Teacher incentive programs as they are now conceived and implemented in Public Education Policy are unable to produce higher levels of student success. Student achievement is often characterized as job skills learned in comparison to other students worldwide. Success and failure in student achievement should no longer be measured in terms of standardized test scores. Due to outsourcing, an increasing number of jobs in the United States require applicants to acquire advanced degrees. The traditional basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic are no longer sufficient to keep American students competitive with advanced international students. Standardized testing, because it evaluates only basic skills, is not an adequate measure of student success. In order to better account for worldwide competition, measures of student achievement should compare job skills between American and international students in terms of human capital. Programs which link teacher pay to test scores will only stagnate the intellectual development of students. Public policy and education literature argues that incentive-based pay for teachers encourages instructors to focus on test-taking skills and basics without developing the critical and analytical skills of students. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008
3. Undermining inclusion? A critical reading of response to intervention (RTI).
- Author
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Ferri, Beth A.
- Subjects
- *
INCLUSIVE education , *RESPONSE to intervention (Education) , *EDUCATIONAL change , *ACADEMIC achievement , *LEARNING disabilities , *SPECIAL education , *EDUCATION policy , *UNITED States education system - Abstract
In this paper, I critically examine the discourse surrounding response to intervention (RTI), a US-based education reform that has garnered a considerable amount of attention (as well as controversy) in a very short amount of time. A multi-pronged reform effort, RTI is a tiered approach to delivering instructional intervention to students at risk, an on-going and systematic model of monitoring student performance, as well as an alternative to the ability/achievement discrepancy model for identifying learning disabilities. In this paper, I argue, however, that RTI is not so much a reform but a tactic, aimed at returning to the status quo of segregated special education and reinvigorating many of the foundational assumptions of traditional special education practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Framing the Literacy Issue: Correcting Educational Misrepresentations in U. S. Society.
- Author
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NTIRI, DAPHNE W.
- Subjects
- *
LITERACY , *EDUCATION of African Americans , *ILLITERATE persons , *LITERACY & society , *EDUCATION policy , *UNITED States education system , *ACADEMIC achievement - Abstract
A good part of the recent public debate in US educational policy circles has focused on the myriad challenges we face as a nation on literacy achievement particularly in urban communities and among African Americans. In this paper, we examine the problem of framing in literacy that confronts advocates and policy makers who seek to address this deeply entrenched social issue but are challenged by numerous structural constraints on the part of the government, the community and the individual. The paper presents arguments embedded in critical race theories that raise questions surrounding why and how long the illiteracy issue can be framed as an 'African American dilemma or problem' and whether Eurocentric approaches in the classroom should be replaced by Afrocentric ones to improve scholastic achievement among African Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009
5. State and Local Efforts to Investigate the Validity and Reliability of Scores From Teacher Evaluation Systems.
- Author
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HERLIHY, CORINNE, KARGER, EZRA, POLLARD, CYNTHIA, HILL, HEATHER C., KRAFT, MATTHEW A., WILLIAMS, MEGAN, and HOWARD, SARAH
- Subjects
- *
TEACHER evaluation , *UNITED States education system , *EDUCATION policy , *ACADEMIC achievement , *CLASSROOM environment , *RACE to the Top (Education) ,NO Child Left Behind Act of 2001 - Abstract
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]
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. Effects of Inequality and Poverty vs. Teachers and Schooling on America's Youth.
- Author
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BERLINER, DAVID C.
- Subjects
- *
EDUCATIONAL equalization , *EDUCATIONAL change , *POOR children , *EDUCATION policy , *UNITED States education system , *ACADEMIC achievement , *SOCIAL indicators , *SOCIAL mobility , *EDUCATION ,NO Child Left Behind Act of 2001 - Abstract
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]
- Published
- 2013
7. "Everybody Grieves, but Still Nobody Sees": Toward a Praxis of Recognition for Latina/o Students in U.S. Schools.
- Author
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Rodriguez, Louie F.
- Subjects
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EDUCATION of Hispanic Americans , *LOW-income students , *SCHOOL dropout research , *EDUCATIONAL equalization , *EDUCATION policy , *RECOGNITION (Philosophy) , *ACADEMIC achievement , *EDUCATIONAL objectives , *UNITED States education system - Abstract
Background/Context: The academic success and failure of low-income youth, and Black and Latina/o youth in particular, has received significant attention in the educational literature, particularly in relation to school dropout. Over the last decade, several studies have demonstrated that student-teacher relationships, committed teachers, and notions of caring are critical to the success of Latina/o youth. However, high-poverty urban schools are graduating fewer than half of their students, in comparison with about 70% at the national level. There remains a scant body of research, policy, and conceptual frameworks to help address the crisis, popularly deemed the "dropout crisis, "particularly among Latinas/os, the youngest, fastest growing, and lowest educated group in the United States. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: In what ways can and should researchers, practitioners, and policy makers recognize the existence of Latina/o youth? The purpose of the article, contextualized in the theoretical and empirical literature, is to problematize the concept of recognition, particularly for Latina/o youth, and introduce a conceptual framework to understand, examine, and help rectify the crisis facing this population. Research Design: In this conceptual paper, I argue that key stakeholders must recognize the existence of the Latina/o youth by acknowledging their human existence through legitimizing the unequal conditions and struggles they face in school. Educators much engage youth in curricular and pedagogical experiences that seek to raise students' consciousness through critical thinking and dialogue. This article is focused on the human and interpersonal actions and processes that are necessary to facilitate agency and change among students. Theoretical origins informing recognition are discussed, followed by a contextualized analysis of recognition within the present-day conditions of U.S. schools, particularly for Latina/o youth. I then propose five pedagogies of recognition: relational recognition, curricular recognition, pedagogical recognition, contextualizing recognition, and transformative recognition. Each form of recognition is situated in the relevant literature. Conclusions/Recommendations: This article argues that the proposed pedagogies of recognition need to be enacted to foster the intellectual, academic, and political development of youth, particularly Latina/o youth. Recognition can help educators and scholars understand how the social, political, and economic conditions impact Latina/o youth and helps educators reframe the conceptual bases of their work by challenging them to interrogate the (in)effectiveness of institutional and classroom-level practices. The ultimate goal is to help educators and researchers reconstruct and redefine the purpose of education for Latina/o youth in U.S. schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
8. THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE.
- Author
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Barlow, Dudley
- Subjects
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ACADEMIC achievement , *EDUCATION policy , *UNITED States education system , *MIXED-income housing - Abstract
The article discuses the student achievement results of mixed-income schools in the U.S. Gerald Grant, author of the book "Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh" compares the schools in Syracuse, New York and Raleigh, South Carolina and believes that the conditions of the schools in Syracuse result from misguided public policy. Professor Pauline Lipman wrote in her paper "Mixed-Income Schools and Housing: Advancing the Neoliberal Urban Agenda" in the March 2008 issue of the "Journal of Education Policy" that the mixed-income polices will not reduce education and housing inequality.
- Published
- 2010
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