This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Randall Woodard, Pamela Esprivalo Harrell, Alison Goss Coviello, Nancy Fichtman Dana, David Gray, Emily Cole, Suzanne M. Winter, Amy Garrett Dikkers, Amalia Luedeke, and Adrienne Costello.
(2009). Computer Modeling of the Instructionally Insensitive Nature of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Exam, ProQuest LLC. Stakeholders of the educational system assume that standardized tests are transparently about the subject content being tested and therefore can be used as a metric to measure achievement in outcome-based educational reform. Both analysis of longitudinal data for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) exam and agent based computer modeling of its underlying theoretical testing framework have yielded results that indicate the exam only rank orders students on a persistent but uncharacterized latent trait across domains tested as well as across years. Such persistent rank ordering of students is indicative of an instructionally insensitive exam. This is problematic in the current atmosphere of high stakes testing which holds teachers, administrators, and school systems accountable for student achievement. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/disserta… [More] Descriptors: Testing, Standardized Tests, Educational Change, Longitudinal Studies
(2009). Beginning Teacher Beliefs and Wise Practices: A Case Study of a High School Social Studies Teacher, ProQuest LLC. This dissertation investigated the beliefs and practices of a novice high school social studies teacher through her first and second years as a classroom teacher. Results of the study indicate that while her beliefs and goals changed little over time, her classroom practices changed and adapted to the school climate and to student needs. In addition, results of the study indicate that she was able to engage her students in powerful and effective social studies instruction, even in a high-stakes testing environment. Also, because of current standardized testing requirements that focus on student achievement in reading and writing, As such, this teacher incorporated literacy skills, such as reading comprehension and writing, into her classroom to help meet school goals in these areas. Qualitative methods, including interviews, observations, and archival data, were used to understand how this social studies teacher's beliefs influenced her decision-making and classroom practice. Overall, this study suggests that, despite the challenges that she encountered, this teacher practiced in ways that were consistent with her beliefs and that aligned with powerful and effective social studies practice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/disserta… [More] Descriptors: Student Needs, Social Studies, Teaching Methods, Reading Comprehension
(2009). The Social Field(s) of Arts Education Today: Living Vulnerability in Neo-Liberal Times, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. The arts are often seen as peripheral to the "real business" of school and schooling. While this has been the case for some time now, the increasing pressures of high-stakes testing and ever-more draconian public funding schemes (particularly in the wake of 9/11) have created something of a "perfect storm" for those working in the arts. Arts proponents today live and operate within a culture of scarcity, having to justify their increasingly marginalized vocations while competing for continually shrinking resources. The result is an often deep-bodied sense of vulnerability, one which saturates the social field (both micro and macro) of arts education in ways not often publicly acknowledged. In this article, I explore this notion of "vulnerability" as a framework for understanding qualitative data which emerged from a three-year arts and education project I conducted in a large, northeast city in the USA beginning in 2003. In so doing, I look to open up a broader discussion about the oft-ignored intersection(s) between the material and aesthetic in arts and education–a discussion which is sober about the future of such work in times of economic scarcity and conservative retrenchment. [More] Descriptors: Art Education, Educational Policy, Educational Finance, Political Attitudes
(2009). A New Look at Instructional Leadership, International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is the federal government's most recent effort to influence curriculum in America's classrooms. Its requirements for high-stakes testing and Adequate Yearly Progress have put pressure on teachers and administrators to improve student achievement. Principals whose administrative training was grounded in a managerial model are struggling to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to become instructional leaders. State boards of education are insisting that post-secondary administrative preparation programs teach school leaders how to help teachers to improve student achievement. Alabama's governor created a task force of educators, civic leaders, and business people to develop a shared vision of effective school leadership, which was published as a standards-based curriculum. Instructional Leadership faculty at the University of South Alabama spent two years designing what the state superintendent of education described as a national model for principal preparation programs. This publication aligns with the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISSLC) Standard 1: "An education leader promotes the success of every student by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by all stakeholders." [More] Descriptors: Instructional Leadership, Educational Legislation, Federal Legislation, Leadership Training
(2009). The Administrator as Action Researcher: A Case Study of Five Principals and Their Engagement in Systematic, Intentional Study of Their Own Practice, Journal of School Leadership. The purpose of this case study was to understand engagement in action research as a form of professional development for practicing principals and the subsequent knowledge constructed as a result. The research team followed five principals through 1 year of professional development, which focused on supporting each principal in the design and implementation of an action research project on one's own leadership practice. Data sources included artifacts, field notes, video- and audiotaped transcriptions of meetings, and interview transcripts. Two assertions with supporting evidence are reported. First, the high-stakes testing environment and era of accountability dramatically shaped the topics of principals' inquiries and the ways that they understood the inquiry process. Second, collaboration with other principals, regardless of felt time constraints, played a critical role in the ways that principals made sense of the action research process as well as their own practice as administrators, and it precipitated deeper thinking about school and administrative practice. This study revealed that action research provides administrators with opportunities to engage in meaningful professional development that affects their own practices, the practices of other principals, and those within their school communities, thus making the act of reflection systematic and intentional. [More] Descriptors: Action Research, Professional Development, Principals, Case Studies
(2009). The Catholic School Administrator: Using Tacit Assumptions to Promote Human Dignity, Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy. The discussion about the meaning and intended results of education is a conversation that must be undertaken frequently by all stakeholders in the educational process. One of these conversation partners is the Catholic school system. As in the public school sector, the question of school mission is taking place among leaders in the parochial system. Within our current context of high stakes testing and school accountability, today's Catholic school leaders are also working to provide a clear vision of education in their school mission and practice that relates to core beliefs about life and the human person. Although differing in many considerable ways, leaders from both public and separate school systems can delve deeper into the dialogue of educational mission by sharing what is valued within each system's context, and by reflecting on the practices of the other. The purpose of this article is to invite those interested in the social mission of education to consider the perspective of Catholic education in order to continue discussion and debate about the role and meaning of education. Specifically, this paper will attempt to articulate how school administrators might use reflection on tacit assumptions as a means to promote human dignity within their school communities. [More] Descriptors: Catholic Schools, Outcomes of Education, Role of Education, Administrators
(2009). Effectiveness and Accountability of the Inquiry-Based Methodology in Middle School Science, Online Submission. When teaching science, the time allowed for students to make discoveries on their own through the inquiry method directly conflicts with the mandated targets of a broad spectrum of curricula. Research shows that using an inquiry-based approach can encourage student motivation and increase academic achievement (Wolf & Fraser, 2008, Bryant, 2006, National Research Council (NRC), 2000). On the contrary, other research points out that students at the middle school level are unable to properly and effectively perform the necessary and relevant steps of inquiry (Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, Bass, Fredricks, 1998, Jeong, Songer, Lee, 2006). One aim of this paper is to support the findings that, with age-appropriate subject matter and scaffolding, middle school students are capable of inquiry learning and benefit greatly through its usage. Another goal is to highlight that the underutilization of the inquiry method, though supported by national science standards, is due to a lack of accountability in high stakes testing. This lack of inquiry accountability is undermining the inquiry science curriculum movement. [More] Descriptors: Accountability, Teaching Methods, Science Curriculum, Active Learning
(2009). Do State Examinations Measure Teacher Quality?, Educational Studies. This study investigates teacher content knowledge of candidates enrolled in an online graduate teacher certification programme. Descriptive data and linear regression were used to draw conclusions about the content area knowledge of individuals in the sample and the significance of the predictors examined. Descriptive data show 1/3 of the 8-12 life science candidates and 2/5 of the 8-12 mathematics candidates fail the state content examination although a transcript analysis indicates candidates have strong content preparation, high grade point averages and recent coursework. Results of a linear regression analysis indicate, upper-level content area coursework, grade point average and the time elapsed between the initial attempt on the Texas Examinations of Educator Standards content test and the completion of the last upper-level course in the content area were statistically significant predictors of success on the Texas Examinations for Educator Standards (TExES) for 8-12 life science and 8-12 mathematics teacher candidates; F (3, 81) = 3.076, p = 0.032. However, only grade point average was statistically significant accounting for 10% of the variance in Texas teacher content examination scores. Policy-makers may want to reexamine how high stakes teacher testing relates to content knowledge associated with degrees obtained from accredited colleges and universities and how high stakes teacher testing may exacerbate the teacher shortage problem in high need fields such as science and mathematics. [More] Descriptors: Regression (Statistics), Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Preservice Teachers, Teacher Competency Testing
(2009). The Value of Core Principles in the Age of Change, Horace. As the author reflects on CES and its groundbreaking, significant work over the past 25 years, he is regularly reminded of the importance of the core guiding principles, even as the educational landscape changes. In his 10 short years of teaching, he has witnessed many transformations, alterations, and modifications in education. He has been privileged to be a part of some great changes, such as the development of the Small Schools Office in Chicago, an office serving the small schools initiative in Chicago Public Schools that assists the creation and support of small school communities within Chicago by providing a variety of resources as well as research to understand the value of small schools. He has also endured change that has been detrimental to young people. When he started at Young Women's Leadership Charter School (YWLCS) in 2001, No Child Left Behind was enacted. As a result, he witnessed a significant switch from authentic learning and personalized education to the external pressures of standards and high stakes testing. The author contends that change is necessary to meet the needs of young people and their current realities and that amidst the necessary change and progress–and the developing needs of students–that the principles are the foundation that one needs to consistently draw from to keep the focus on creating authentic and equitable school communities. [More] Descriptors: Educational Change, Educational Principles, Foundations of Education, Teaching Experience
(2010). When Standardized Test Success Represents Survival: Creating Opportunities for Democratic Participatory Development in Class 5-340, ProQuest LLC. In many of today's public school classrooms serving students from low-income and minority backgrounds, high-stakes standardized testing overwhelmingly drives both the explicit and implicit curricula. Accordingly, the lessons that children in these classrooms may learn about valid knowledge and knowers, collaboration, or personal and collective agency are likely to oppose the types of critical thinking skills, habits of thought and action, and self-confidence that are necessary for powerful participation in our democracy. In an attempt to address this paradox, I explore what happens when opportunities for democratic participatory learning are established in my own fifth grade classroom. Anchored in critical liberatory pedagogy, three questions guide this inquiry: (1) Within a context of high-stakes standardized testing, what opportunities can be established for democratic participatory education? What happens in my classroom when these openings are created?; (2) What meanings do my students make from their classroom experiences over the course of the school year?; and (3) As I attempt to simultaneously provide opportunities for democratic participatory development in my fifth grade public school classroom and prepare my students for standardized test success, what tensions do my students experience? How do they negotiate the tensions that emerge or the contradictory messages about knowledge, knowers, learning, and agency that they confront? My students' narratives of their own lived experiences constitute the heart of this study. It is these stories that enabled me to more concretely understand that my students live each day struggling to survive the obstacles that poverty presents and recognize that this standpoint of survival deeply affects their school lives. In the end, I understood that the classroom for democracy I endeavored to create not only contributed to my students' development as powerful democratic participants, but also provided them opportunities to look beyond basic survival. This action research study is intended to offer both hope and insight to practicing educators who seek to create opportunities in their own classrooms for democratic participatory development. It is also meant to offer school outsiders, particularly policy makers, an alternate perspective on teaching and learning during an era of high-stakes standardized testing. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/disserta… [More] Descriptors: Public Schools, Action Research, Democracy, Testing
(2005). Is the Glass Half Full or Mostly Empty? Ending Social Promotion in Chicago, Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. In 1996, Chicago became the epicenter for this debate when it "ended social promotion" in the third, sixth, and eighth grades. While not the first, Chicago's initiative has been the most sustained to date and has produced the clearest evidence of positive as well as negative results. Test scores rose rapidly after the institution of high-stakes testing and the proportion of students with very low test scores fell. Early evidence suggested, however, that those students retained under the policy–nearly 1 in 5 third graders and 1 in 10 sixth and eighth graders–were struggling. In this article, the authors look more closely at the long-term evidence on the effects of Chicago's initiative based on findings from the Consortium on Chicago School Research's multiyear evaluation. They begin by laying out the theory of action of high-stakes testing and the debate over its impact. The authors review what they have learned from Chicago's significant and long-standing initiative to end social promotion in elementary schools and the potential effects, the promise, and the pitfalls of such an approach. While their evaluation of Chicago's initiative has allowed them to understand better the reaction of students, teachers, and parents to the policy, the impact of the policy on instruction, and the impact of high-stakes testing in shaping achievement both prior to and after the test, ultimately this evaluation is a look at the effect of a particular set of policies in one city. Throughout their evaluation, the authors were careful to examine how policy effects may have differed given the kinds of schools students attended. But overall trends reflect the impact of both initiatives and a broader policy environment of greater accountability for all educators in the system. The authors conclude by offering two arenas for future research. [More] Descriptors: Testing, Social Promotion, High Stakes Tests, Scores
(2009). Heuristics and NCLB Standardized Tests: A Convenient Lie, International Journal of Progressive Education. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires public schools in the United States to test students in grades 3-8. The author argues that this mandate has been supported by the public, in part, because of the "availability heuristic," a phenomenon which occurs when people assess the probability of an event by the ease with which instances or occurrences can be brought to mind. These "mental short cuts," which tend to oversimplify complex issues, are being employed by policy-makers in promoting standardized testing as the panacea for the problems of the public school system. The premises of this campaign include the "good intentions" to "leave no child behind," the promise of improved accountability through high-stakes testing and the purported worthiness of test results. The author claims these premises are specious and examines their harmful potential for diverting resources, distracting educators and alarming children. [More] Descriptors: Test Validity, Federal Legislation, Testing, Standardized Tests
(2009). Childhood Obesity in the Testing Era: What Teachers and Schools Can Do!, Childhood Education. In this era of increasing accountability and high-stakes testing in schools, a serious paradox has surfaced. Children are becoming overweight at an alarming rate, and mounting evidence points to a relationship between obesity and poor school performance. Ironically, pressure to improve children's academic achievement has led many schools to adopt certain policies, such as eliminating recess or reducing the number of physical education (PE) classes, that put children at greater risk of obesity (Cook, 2005). Critics have characterized schools as "obesogenic" environments that promote obesity through sedentary academic work, limited physical activity, and cafeteria fare of low nutritional value (Davidson, 2007). Obesity is thought to be particularly of concern for children of minorities and those in poverty, who are already at high risk for underachievement. In this article, the author identifies possible causes for this pandemic crisis in children's health and provides five strategies that teachers and other professionals can use to reverse obesity trends and improve the chances for all children to be successful in school. These 5 strategies are: (1) get in the know and stay informed; (2) design a school action plan; (3) promote positive psychosocial development of children; (4) promote healthy diet and nutrition; and (5) encourage physical activity. [More] Descriptors: Physical Education, Obesity, Physical Activities, Nutrition
(2009). Using Fuzzy Logic to Identify Schools Which May Be Misclassified by the No Child Left Behind Adequate Yearly Progress Policy, ProQuest LLC. This investigation developed, tested, and prototyped a Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) that would assist decision makers in identifying schools that may have been misclassified by existing Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) methods. This prototype was then used to evaluate Louisiana elementary schools using published school data for Academic Year 2004. Many authorities believe that the increasing possibility of schools being misclassified with respect to adequate yearly progress (AYP) is a major weakness of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. Human judgment is being introduced into many AYP methodologies. The difficulty of aggregating human judgment with high stakes testing results is widely known (Ammar, 2004). This investigation used a modified Analytic Hierarchic Process (AHP) to capture the human judgments and then trained Fuzzy Inference System modules using neural networks to match that judgment. The modules in turn were asked to evaluate the 2004 Louisiana School Performance data and identify schools that may have been misclassified. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: www.proquest.com/en-US/products/disserta… [More] Descriptors: Investigations, Federal Legislation, Educational Improvement, Federal Programs
(2009). Educational Leadership in the Era of Accountability, Educational Considerations. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent superintendents' leadership practices are influenced by the contemporary focus on the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001 (NCLB). The authors hypothesized that a national policy as pervasive as "NCLB" would have an impact on how superintendents lead, and they sought to identify specific aspects of leadership that have emerged during the current era of accountability. Results indicated that "NCLB" has had tremendous impact on the work of school superintendents. The political dimensions of the Act have tapped into the emotions and actions of superintendents. Components of "NCLB," such as high-stakes testing, requirements for highly qualified teachers, and success of all subgroups on "NCLB" measures have been some of the greatest challenges. Despite these challenges some (not all) superintendents supported all or part of the Act's intentions and procedures. It was evident from superintendents' comments that implementation of national policy at the local level was complex and layered. [More] Descriptors: Federal Legislation, High Stakes Tests, Accountability, Instructional Leadership