Current Issues in Education (E-Journal, Arizona State University)
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Tolerated Failure or Missed Opportunities and Potentials for Teacher Leadership in Urban Schools?
Get PDFThis monograph examines the existing role of teacher leaders while addressing many of the missed opportunities for teacher leaders to impact student achievement. The work of teacher leaders must impact teacher expectations, teacher content knowledge base, and teacher practice. In an era of teacher accountability and teacher quality schools can no longer continue to tolerate the fact that 40 percent of students in urban and rural schools never make it to high school graduation. To that end, urgency suggests that we begin to examine the potential of teacher leadership
Does it Matter with What I Write? Comparing Performance on Paper, Computer and Portable Writing Devices
Get PDFThe mode of administration effects reported here and in previous studies (Russell, 1999; Russell and Haney, 1997) highlight a complicated challenge testing programs must overcome as they continue to use tests containing open-ended items to make inferences about student and school achievement. To reduce the mode of administration effect, state testing programs should consider allowing students to select the mode by which open-ended responses are composed. For the past decade, the Province of Alberta has employed this strategy for its graduation testing program (Alberta Learning, 2000). Over the past five years, the province has seen the percentage of students opting to perform the English, Social Studies, Biology and French tests on computer increase from 6.7% in 1996 to 24.5% in 2000. Within high schools, the percentage of students opting to perform the test on a computer ranges from 0 to 80% (Sakyi, 2000)
Education as a Human Right: A Comparison of Two Early College Approaches to University Access for Racial/Ethnic Minority Students in Costa Rica and the United States
No full textIn line with the United Nations perspective of Education being a human right for all world citizens, access to higher education by students representing traditionally marginalized racial and ethnic minority groups continues to be a challenge in many nations. In Costa Rica and the United States, early college high school programs represent one approach to facilitating college going and retention rates of racial and ethnic minority students by enhancing college readiness skills and dispositions. An overview of the educational systems and philosophies of each country are given, as well as comparisons of racial and ethnic demographics. Examples of early college high school approaches applied in both Costa Rica and the United States then are presented, followed by a discussion of implications for practice. In comparing early college systems, several questions for further inquiry emerged particularly around the demographic reporting and power mobility of Afro Costa Ricans
Multimedia Observations: Examining the Roles and Learning Outcomes of Traditional, CD-ROM Based, and Videoconference Observations in Pre-service Teacher Education
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to examine the role and learning outcomes of three types of classroom observations in a teacher education methods course: video-based CD-ROMS, videoconference-supported observations, and traditional face-to-face observations. It was not the goal of this study to compare the effectiveness of each type of observation to the other ones; rather, the goal was to examine the role each observation type plays in the overall learning experience of the pre-service teacher, and to investigate the learning outcomes associated with each type of observation. Therefore, this study investigated three questions: 1) What are the advantages/ disadvantages of each observation type? 2) What do the students learn from each observation type? 3) How does the interaction of various types of observation support and/or enhance traditional face to face observations? Results indicate that although the majority of the students preferred face-to-face over technology-supported observations, this was based simply in their preference for being in a real classroom rather than on what they actually learned. More and higher level learning outcomes were associated with the CD and videoconference observations than from the face-to-face observations. Additionally, more advantages of the technology-supported observations were cited than were cited for their face-to-face counterpart
Collaboration between Elementary Schools and Community Agencies to Reduce Violence: Can It Work?
Get PDFSchool personnel at seven urban elementary schools in a high poverty area were surveyed to determine if a multi-faceted approach to school violence prevention (including a major emphasis on collaboration between community human service agencies and schools) was successful in reducing indicators of violence (bullying, fighting, gang involvement, and so forth). Using the Assessment of Risk Factors survey, during the year prior to implementation 2001 to gather pre-test data, and again during the summative year 2004, comparisons were made to determine if these programs had been successful in reducing violence in the schools from the perspective of school personnel. Implications for school-community collaborations will be discussed
Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities: Constructivism or Behaviorism?
Get PDFThere is much controversy concerning the use of constructivist and behaviorist principles for teaching children with learning disabilities. Although many educators support the use of one paradigm exclusively, the author recommends combining ideas from both perspectives for the most effective instruction. This article includes a brief discussion of learning disabilities, a summary of key constructivist and behaviorist principles and their impact on students with learning disabilities, and a list of recommendations for practice in the classroom
Elementary and Pre-Service Teachers' Strategies for Working with Students with Hyperactivity
Get PDFThis study investigated the types of interventions that elementary school teachers and pre-service teachers choose to employ when working with students displaying hyperactive behavior. The extent to which beliefs systems, namely entity/incremental theories, showed relationships with the selection of particular types of interventions was also examined. Participants were presented with fictional scenarios of students that varied according to the level of ADHD-like behaviors exhibited and were then asked to provide appropriate interventions. Overwhelmingly, the teachers in this study chose behavioral interventions (e.g., reinforce appropriate behavior) over more clinical or medical options (e.g., refer for ADHD diagnosis). However, the teachers did not differentiate their interventions in a manner consistent with the qualifications of ADHD as described in the DSM-IV. In addition, entity/incremental beliefs revealed an inconsistent relationship with the choice of intervention
How School Troubles Come Home: The Impact of Homework on Families of Struggling Learners
Get PDFHomework is the focus of many versions of educational reform; yet research on the efficacy of homework as a means of raising student achievement is mixed at best. Even less certain is the impact of homework on the lives of families, particularly family relationships. This study used interviews to examine how a diverse group of parents whose children struggled academically perceived the effects of homework on their families. In general, the presence of homework had a disruptive effect on the lives of these families, reducing the time available for family activities and diminishing the quality of family interactions. In these families, homework was a carrier for school troubles, a means by which school troubles were transformed into family troubles
Contradictory Reforms: When NCLB Undermines Charter School Innovation
Get PDFThe article discusses how instead of being parts of a concerted educational reform effort, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the development of charter schools are in fact contradictory initiatives. Basing itself on a theoretical framework that brings together issues inherent to outcome-based school reform and arguments supporting and criticizing both NCLB and charter schools, the article examines the case of a specific charter school whose program was significantly altered due to pressures imposed by NCLB. School reports, plans, programmatic descriptions, and other documents are reviewed to examine how the school responded over a three-year period to low test scores that may or may not have been a reflection of instructional quality and how NCLB requirements eventually led it to move far away from its original reform-minded mission. Implications regarding how NCLB can undermine the innovative possibilities of charter schools are discussed
Early Childhood Teacher Assessment: Observation, Feedback, and Self-Assessment
No full textEarly childhood education has changed over the years, especially with the additional focus on teacher accountability and student success. Policymakers believe teacher accountability will improve student achievement beginning in early childhood. President Obama is actively promoting his Early Learning proposal, which outlines the President’s goal for providing high quality early learning environments for all four year olds (www.ed.gov/early-learning). As part of this proposal, states are required to increase workforce accountability, which is directly related to teacher evaluations. There are three teacher evaluation methods that are discussed in this article, including observation, feedback, and self-assessment.