W. James Popham, David C. Berliner, Neal M. Kingston, Susan H. Fuhrman, Steven M. Ladd, Jeffrey Charbonneau and Madhabi Chatterji
Against a backdrop of high-stakes assessment policies in the USA, this paper explores the challenges, promises and the “state of the art” with regard to designing standardized…
Abstract
Purpose
Against a backdrop of high-stakes assessment policies in the USA, this paper explores the challenges, promises and the “state of the art” with regard to designing standardized achievement tests and educational assessment systems that are instructionally useful. Authors deliberate on the consequences of using inappropriately designed tests, and in particular tests that are insensitive to instruction, for teacher and/or school evaluation purposes.
Methodology/approach
The method used is a “moderated policy discussion”. The six invited commentaries represent voices of leading education scholars and measurement experts, juxtaposed against views of a prominent leader and nationally recognized teacher from two American education systems. The discussion is moderated with introductory and concluding remarks from the guest editor, and is excerpted from a recent blog published by Education Week. References and author biographies are presented at the end of the article.
Findings
In the education assessment profession, there is a promising movement toward more research and development on standardized assessment systems that are instructionally sensitive and useful for classroom teaching. However, the distinctions among different types of tests vis-à-vis their purposes are often unclear to policymakers, educators and other test users, leading to test misuses. The authors underscore issues related to validity, ethics and consequences when inappropriately designed tests are used in high-stakes policy contexts, offering recommendations for the design of instructionally sensitive tests and more comprehensive assessment systems that can serve a broader set of educational evaluation needs. As instructionally informative tests are developed and formalized, their psychometric quality and utility in school and teacher evaluation models must also be evaluated.
Originality/value
Featuring perspectives of scholars, measurement experts and educators “on the ground”, this article presents an open and balanced exchange of technical, applied and policy issues surrounding “instructionally sensitive” test design and use, along with other types of assessments needed to create comprehensive educational evaluation systems.
Details
Keywords
Joseph C. Rumenapp and P. Zitlali Morales
Purpose – This chapter presents an analysis of a researcher-led follow-up activity during an early childhood reading lesson that was aligned with a gradual release of…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter presents an analysis of a researcher-led follow-up activity during an early childhood reading lesson that was aligned with a gradual release of responsibility (GRR) model. Particularly, the authors seek to understand how students used their language(s) in this lesson, how they described particular linguistic decisions, and how language could be further conceptualized in such events.
Design/Methodology/Approach – The authors develop a telling case (Mitchell, 1984) from the guided instruction portion of a lesson to make salient theoretical connections between metacognitive strategies taught in early literacy and metalinguistic knowledge theorized from the field of linguistic anthropology. The lesson was video recorded for interactional analysis. The video recording was also used to stimulate recall and allow students to reflect on their own language use.
Findings –Through the telling case, the authors use language socialization as a lens to understand the way students represent story retell with physical objects. Though some students do not use the school-based conventionalized form of retelling, they do engage in retelling by using a variety of other forms. The authors highlight through the case that the metacognitive strategy of story retell is distinct from the abstract linear, left-to-right representation of sequencing of events.
Research Limitations/Implications – This study suggests that further attention is needed to theorize the relationship between reading strategies and forms of representation in multilingual preschool contexts. In particular, the very notions of literacy and language need to be nuanced through conversations among multiple disciplines.
Practical Implications – Practitioners are encouraged to attend to the differences between metacognitive strategies that are useful for reading comprehension and the expected styles of representation. Teachers can consider leveraging the communicative repertoires of emergent bilingual students as they accomplish early literacy activities, thereby, potentially offering further scaffolds for learning reading strategies.
Originality/Value of Paper – This chapter brings nuance to the GRR model by demonstrating that there is a difference between the GRR of metacognitive strategies in reading instruction and the way they are represented through diverse semiotic repertoires.
Details
Keywords
Current public education, overwhelmed by piece‐meal reform efforts, is in need of systemic renewal. An investigation of key literature – systems methods, instructional design, and…
Abstract
Current public education, overwhelmed by piece‐meal reform efforts, is in need of systemic renewal. An investigation of key literature – systems methods, instructional design, and group process models – yields the conditions necessary for systemic change and a suitable base model. Namely, a successful systemic educational change effort is ideal‐based, holistic, continuing, participatory, user‐friendly, easy to adjust/improve, and emancipatory. A suitable base model is discovered in the learning systems of Alcoholics Anonymous and then built on for a new model: the Roundtable (RT) for secular learning. Briefly, the RT session is designed so that leadership and learning opportunities are distributed among all participants, who have equal time to present their ideas. Pilot studies in professional scientific organizations allowed refinement of the model. This study investigated sought the seven conditions in four RT applications in 4th‐grade classrooms in California. Participants at each site were the teacher and their 30±1 students. Each teacher held ten RT sessions, with students leading two to three of the last four sessions. Evidence was sought in the RT texts, session recordings, and users’ views. The criteria were met in the following ways. The RT applications were: ideal‐based in the RT texts; user‐friendly as they were user‐ready and engaging; easy to adjust/improve in the simple revision session tasks, and emancipatory as users learned in important, positive and unanticipated ways. The RT applications were holistic: found suitable for all classroom levels at both schools, and for all school groups at one school. They were continuing after the study in 2 or 3 of the four classrooms. They were very participatory in the roles of listener, reader, and speaker; somewhat participatory in the leader and co‐planner roles. Contributions to organizational /educational change theory and future projects are promising.
Details
Keywords
Ben Brown and Wm Reed Benedict
This research updates and expands upon Decker’s article “Citizen attitudes toward the police: a review of past findings and suggestions for future policy” by summarizing the…
Abstract
This research updates and expands upon Decker’s article “Citizen attitudes toward the police: a review of past findings and suggestions for future policy” by summarizing the findings from more than 100 articles on perceptions of and attitudes toward the police. Initially, the value of research on attitudes toward the police is discussed. Then the research pertaining to the impact of individual level variables (e.g. race) and contextual level variables (e.g. neighborhood) on perceptions of the police is reviewed. Studies of juveniles’ attitudes toward the police, perceptions of police policies and practices, methodological issues and conceptual issues are also discussed. This review of the literature indicates that only four variables (age, contact with police, neighborhood, and race) have consistently been proven to affect attitudes toward the police. However, there are interactive effects between these and other variables which are not yet understood; a finding which indicates that theoretical generalizations about attitudes toward police should be made with caution.
Details
Keywords
Michael S. Knapp and Susan B. Feldman
The purpose of this paper is to direct attention to the intersection of external and internal accountability systems within urban schools, and the role of school leadership…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to direct attention to the intersection of external and internal accountability systems within urban schools, and the role of school leadership, especially that of the principal, in managing this intersection. In particular, the paper explores how school leaders are able to strengthen and sustain the school's internal accountability system, in pursuit of school‐defined learning improvement agenda, and at the same time respond productively to external accountability demands. The paper also seeks to identify consequences of these leaders’ efforts to navigate an often problematic set of converging demands.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on findings from a larger multi‐case study of learning‐focused leadership in 15 schools in four urban school districts in the USA. Schools were chosen to represent those that were “making progress” (by local measures). Data were collected over 18 months, spanning two school years, from Spring 2007 to Fall 2008. Data collection included multiple site visits, semi‐structured interviews and observations of leadership activity across school and district settings, and a variety of documentary evidence.
Findings
Though working in substantially different contexts, these leaders found remarkably similar ways of crafting tools and creating occasions, from the array of external accountability demands and resources, to serve internal accountability purposes. They did so by internalizing external expectations and developing accountable practice within the school, leading through data, and modelling what it meant to learn to lead in a fully accountable way. As they did so, they reshaped the scope of instruction and the instructional improvement conversation, and also made teaching and leadership practice more public.
Originality/value
This paper extends discussions of school‐level accountability in two ways. First, it updates scholarship on accountability by examining school‐level responses at a time five years into the new accountability context in the USA defined by strict system‐wide expectations and mechanisms. Second, the paper demonstrates ways in which the often onerous demands of external accountability systems can be treated as a resource by school leaders and used in ways that bolster the school's capacity for accountable professional practice.
Details
Keywords
Julie A. Marsh, Katharine O. Strunk and Susan Bush
Despite the popularity of school “turnaround” and “portfolio district” management as solutions to low performance, there has been limited research on these strategies. The purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the popularity of school “turnaround” and “portfolio district” management as solutions to low performance, there has been limited research on these strategies. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap by exploring the strategic case of Los Angeles Unified School District's Public School Choice Initiative (PSCI) which combined both of these reforms. It examines how core mechanisms of change played out in schools and communities during the first two years of implementation.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on a mixed methods study, combining data from surveys, case studies, leader interviews, observations, and document review. It is guided by a conceptual framework grounded in research on school turnaround and portfolio districts, along with the district's implicit theory of change.
Findings
The paper finds early success in attracting diverse stakeholder participation, supporting plan development, and ensuring transparency. However, data also indicate difficulty establishing understanding and buy‐in, engaging parents and community, attracting sufficient supply of applicants, maintaining neutrality and the perception of fairness, and avoiding unintended consequences of competition – all of which weakened key mechanisms of change.
Research limitations/implications
Data from parent focus groups and school sites may not be representative of the entire population of parents and schools, and data come from a short period of time.
Practical implications
The paper finds that developing processes and procedures to support complex reform takes time and identifies roadblocks others may face when implementing school turnaround and portfolio management. The research suggests districts invest in ways to ensure neutrality and create a level playing field. It also indicates that leaders should anticipate challenges to engaging parents and community members, such as language and literacy barriers, and invest in the development of unbiased, high‐quality information and opportunities that include sufficient time and support to ensure understanding.
Originality/value
This paper begins to fill a gap in research on popular reform strategies for improving low‐performing schools.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore social risk management strategies amongst Fulani in the subhumid zone of Nigeria; and second, to determine current status…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore social risk management strategies amongst Fulani in the subhumid zone of Nigeria; and second, to determine current status and nature of reciprocal exchange networks, risk pooling and social support for pastoral livelihoods in North-Central Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
Surveys of cattle productivity and pastoral livelihoods were carried out amongst Fulani pastoralists on the Jos Plateau: between 2008 and 2013 using participatory epidemiology methods and the sustainable livelihoods framework. Qualitative and quantitative data on livelihood activities, knowledge, attitudes and practices of animal husbandry and disease control, wealth grouping, herd entries and exits was gathered to determine the current state of cattle productivity and pastoral livelihoods in the study area.
Findings
Results show that reciprocal exchange networks for risk management have mostly disintegrated and patron-client relationships have become an important social risk management strategy.
Practical implications
This research has significant implications for sustainability of Fulani livelihoods and communities: decreased social risk-management strategies and increased self-reliance means that the most vulnerable households will find it more difficult to withstand shocks and climb out of poverty. Wealthier households may cope better with high incidence/low severity shocks like but are more vulnerable to low incidence/high severity shocks. Likewise, decreased social cohesion reduces the ability of communities to mobilise and act collectively in the face of community-level shocks. This is very important for engagement with the state – a crucial process, given current levels of acrimony and conflict.
Originality/value
Given the high levels of farmer-herder conflict and civil unrest in this region over the past 15 years this research is valuable in providing insights into economic drivers of conflict, current dynamics of pastoral livelihoods and social cohesion within and between communities.
Details
Keywords
Katrina Levine, Ashley Chaifetz and Benjamin Chapman
Medeiros et al. (2001) estimate 3.5 million cases of foodborne illness in the USA annually are associated with inadequate cooking of animal foods or cross-contamination from these…
Abstract
Purpose
Medeiros et al. (2001) estimate 3.5 million cases of foodborne illness in the USA annually are associated with inadequate cooking of animal foods or cross-contamination from these foods. Past research shows home food handling practices can be risk factors for foodborne illness. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the communication of food safety guidance, specifically safe endpoint temperatures and cross-contamination risk reduction practices, in popular cookbook recipes.
Design/methodology/approach
Recipes containing raw animal ingredients in 29 popular cookbooks were evaluated through content analysis for messages related to safe endpoint temperature recommendations and reducing cross-contamination risks.
Findings
Of 1,749 recipes meeting study criteria of cooking raw animal ingredients, 1,497 contained a raw animal that could effectively be measured with a digital thermometer. Only 123 (8.2 percent) of these recipes included an endpoint temperature, of which 89 (72.3 percent) gave a correct temperature. Neutral and positive food safety behavior messages were provided in just 7.2 percent (n=126) and 5.1 percent (n=90) of recipes, respectively. When endpoint temperatures were not included, authors often provided subjective and risky recommendations.
Research limitations/implications
Further research is needed on the effect of these results on consumer behavior and to develop interventions for writing recipes with better food safety guidance.
Practical implications
Including correct food safety guidance in cookbooks may increase the potential of reducing the risk of foodborne illness.
Originality/value
Popular cookbooks are an underutilized avenue for communicating safe food handling practices and currently cookbook authors are risk amplifiers.