Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)
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Educational Policy Formation in Loosely Coupled Systems: Some Salient Features of Guatemala's Public and Private School Sectors
Carlos R. Ruano
The purpose of this article is to analyze the formulation and implementation of educational policy processes in relation to private schools in Guatemala. Specifically, how bilingual education is defined and implemented in the private education sector in Guatemala City where the largest number of privately run establishments exist. ...
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A Multilevel, Longitudinal Analysis of Middle School Math and Language Achievement
Keith Zvoch and Joseph J. Stevens
The performance of schools in a large urban school district was examined using achievement data from a longitudinally matched cohort of middle school students. Schools were evaluated in terms of the mean achievement and mean growth of students in mathematics and language arts. ...
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Using Large-Scale Research to Gauge the Impact of Instructional Practices on Student Reading Comprehension: An Exploratory Study
Harold Wenglinsky
… The current study explores the possibility of using large-scale data and methods to study classroom practices in reading comprehension. It finds that such studies are both feasible and necessary. ...
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An Examination of the Longitudinal Effect of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) on Student Achievement
Donald C. Orlich
Linn, Baker and Betebenner (2002) suggested using the effect size statistic as a measure of adequate yearly progress target (AYPT) as is required by PL 107-110. This paper analyzes a four-year data set from the required high-stakes test--Washington Assessment of Student Learning—using effect size as the AYPT metric. Mean scale scores for 4th, 7th and 10th grade reading and mathematics were examined. ...
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Secondary Education in Argentina during the 1990s: The Limits of a Comprehensive Reform Effort
Jorge M. Gorostiaga, Clementina Acedo, and Susan E. Xifra
… This study describes the main policies on secondary education implemented during the last decade, including their objectives and rationales. Focusing on how the reform can be seen to relate to issues of access, quality and equity, the study presents an analysis of its implementation, and discusses some of its effects. We argue that political, economic and technical factors as well as the strategies chosen by the national government resulted in a limited implementation, and we highlight the need for considering more focused reform strategies, alternative models of teacher training, and a more active involvement of teachers.
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Networks of Schools
Robert W. McMeekin
The study proposes: (1) that the institutional climate in schools, which includes formal rules, informal rules, mechanisms for enforcing both kinds of rules, clear objectives and an atmosphere of cooperation and trust, has a strong influence on school performance; (2) that “networks” of schools such as the Accelerated Schools Project in the U.S. and the Fe y Alegría schools in Latin America help improve school performance in a variety of ways, and have been successful in providing good education to disadvantaged children; and (3) that one of the reasons some networks are successful is that they promote the creation of sound institutional environments in member schools.
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Teaching Children to Read: The Fragile Link Between Science and Federal Education Policy
Gregory Camilli, Sadako Vargas, and Michele Yurecko
Teaching Children to Read (TCR) has stirred much controversy among reading experts regarding the efficacy of phonics instruction. This report, which was conducted by the National Reading Panel (NRP), has also played an important role in subsequent federal policy regarding reading instruction. Using meta-analysis, the NRP found that systematic phonics instruction was more effective than alternatives in teaching children to read. ...
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Educational Aspirations and Postsecondary Access and Choice: Students in Urban, Suburban, and Rural Schools Compared
Shouping Hu
Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS: 88), this study examines educational aspirations and postsecondary access and choice by students in urban, suburban, and rural schools. In addition, this study raises issues with the methods in postsecondary educational research by using students in different grades (8th, 10th, and 12th grades) as baseline populations to compare educational outcomes. ...
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The Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program for New Teachers: A Model of Teacher Preparation Worth Copying
R. Clarke Fowler
This article examines the Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program for New Teachers, a nationally prominent program that has recruited and prepared $20,000 bonus recipients to teach after seven weeks' training at the Massachusetts Institute for New Teachers (MINT). ...
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Teacher learning in context: The Special Case of Rural High School Teachers
Jay Paredes Scribner
… This article examines one overlooked context in the discourse about teacher learning and work—rural high schools. The study focuses on 20 teachers across 3 case study schools and conceptualizes the relationship between teacher learning and work according to three contexts: the core, intermediate and peripheral contexts. ...
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Análisis del concepto de “la docencia” en profesores universitarios: Un estudio cualitativo
Gustavo Hawes Barrios and Sebastián Donoso Díaz
This article explores the conceptions of learning and teaching among university teachers with no pedagogical qualifications. The model of implicit theories is used as a frame of reference, and the analytical process is supported by psychological theories of learning. Observations were carried out in a public university in southern Chile. Results evidence a rather mechanistic vision of learning, associated with a vision of teaching resting on the concept of transmission, although there are some efforts to link this conception with data processing. The vision of the professional teacher is more romantic than professional.
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Exploring the Achievement Gap between White and Minority Students in Texas: A Comparison of the 1996 and 2000 NAEP and TAAS Eight Grade Mathematics Test Results
Thomas H. Linton and Donald Kester
… The purpose of this study was to analyze the gap in mathematics achievement for eighth grade students. The study compared TAAS and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test results to determine if the achievement gap between white, Hispanic, and African-American Students had narrowed between 1996 and 2000. ...
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Creating a System of Accountability: The Impact of Instructional Assessment on Elementary Children's Achievement Test Scores
Samuel J. Meisels, Sally Atkins-Burnett, Yange Xue, Julie Nicholson, and Donna DiPrima Bickel
This study examined the trajectory of change in scores on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) of low-income, urban, third and fourth graders who had been enrolled in classrooms where the Work Sampling System (WSS), a curriculum-embedded performance assessment, was used for at least three years. The ITBS scores of children exposed to WSS were compared with those of students in a group of non-WSS contrast schools that were matched by race, income, mobility, school size, and number of parents in the home and to a comparison group of all other students in the school district. ...
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To Learn and to Belong: Case Studies of Emerging Ethnocentric Charter Schools in Hawai'i
Nina K. Buchanan and Robert A. Fox
The fast growing charter school movement may be impeded if charter schools are perceived as a vehicle for stratifying, segregating, and balkanizing an already ethnically, socio-economically divided population. This article defines ethnocentric schools and describes three Native Hawai'ian charter schools.
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The Impact of Minnesota's "Profile of Learning" on Teaching and Learning in English and Social Studies Classrooms
Patricia G. Avery, Richard Beach, and Jodiann Coler
… In 2000-2001, we surveyed and interviewed selected secondary English and social studies teachers in the state about their perceptions of the Profile’s impact on teaching and learning. Among the positive perceptions was an increase in students’ higher order thinking, students’ understanding of criteria for quality work, and teachers conversations with one another about instructional issues. ...
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Diferencias de resultados cognitivos y no-cognitivos entre estudiantes de escuelas públicas y privadas en la educación secundaria de Argentina: Un análisis multinivel
Rubén Cervini
In this article, effects of attending public or private schools on cognitive achievement (Mathematics and Language) and on non-cognitive outcomes (attitudes toward Mathematics and educational and success expectations) of students in the last grade of the secondary education in Argentina are explored by means of multilevel analysis. ...
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Continuing Education Reform in Hong Kong: Issues of Contextulization
Chris Dowson, Peter Bodycott, Allan Walker, and David Coniam
… In this article, an exploration is made into how reforms in four particular sareas, namely: professional development of principals, higher education, English language standards, and inclusion of students with learning difficulties have been conceived, contextualised and managed in Hong Kong, as it moves gradually toward increased adoption of education reforms. ...
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The Varieties of Knowledge and Skill-Based Pay Design: A Comparison of Seven New Pay Systems for K-12 Teachers
Anthony Milanowski
This article describes the design of knowledge and skill-based pay systems for K-12 teachers in six U.S. school districts and one charter school. Based on a theory of action that relates knowledge and skill-based pay systems to improvements in instruction, and the expectancy theory of motivation, seven dimensions for comparison are identified and the systems are compared based on these dimensions. ...
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The Limits of Sanctions in Low-Performing Schools: A Study of Maryland and Kentucky Schools on Probation
Heinrich Mintrop
The article reports on a study of 11 schools that were labeled as low-performing by the state accountability systems of Maryland and Kentucky, nationally known for complex performance-based assessments. The study shows that putting schools on probation only weakly motivated teachers because the assessments were largely perceived as unfair, invalid, and unrealistic. ...
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Policymakers' Online Use of Academic Research
John Willinsky
In addressing the question of how new technologies can improve the public quality and presence of academic research, this article reports on the current online use of research by policymakers. Interviews with a sample of 25 Canadian policymakers at the federal level were conducted, looking at the specific role that online research has begun to play in their work, and what frustrations they face in using this research.
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High-Stakes Testing and the History of Graduation
Sherman Dorn
An historical perspective on high-stakes testing suggests that tests required for high school graduation will have mixed results for the putative value of high school diplomas: (1) graduation requirements are likely to have indirect as well as direct effects on the likelihood of graduating; (2) the proliferation of different exit documents may dilute efforts to improve the education of all students; and (3) graduation requirements remain unlikely to disentangle the general cultural confusion in the U.S. about the purpose of secondary education and a high school diploma, especially confusion about whether the educational, exchange, or other value of a diploma is most important.
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The Case That Won't Go Away: Beseiged Institutions and the Massachusetts Teacher Tests
Larry H. Ludlow, Dennis Shirley, and Camelia Rosca
Teacher testing was inaugurated in Massachusetts in 1998 and a 59% failure rate among test-takers led to public shaming of the teacher candidates and their colleges and universities in the media. Within a two-year time period, low-performing teacher education programs in Massachusetts initiated a wide range of test preparatory activities which led to a dramatic increase in their students' pass rates. The authors separate colleges and universities into three categories and examine their differentiated responses to teacher testing. Their finding that institutions of higher education have responded effectively to teacher testing does not preclude critique of teacher testing as currently practiced in Massachusetts.
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Failing Georgia: The Case Against the Ban on Social Promotion
Donald R. Livingston and Sharon M. Livingston
Our analysis begins with an examination of the state of Georgia's rationale for the decision regarding social promotion that was based on the perceived views that teachers have on the issue. Research suggests, however, that teachers hold contradictory opinions concerning the use of standardized tests for high stakes decisions, such as promotion, and are not aware of the consequences most children suffer when they fail a grade. ...
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K-12 Voucher Programs and Education Policy: An Exploratory Study of Policy Maker Attitudes and Opinions
Dan Laitsch
… This study used a researcher designed survey to examine policy maker attitudes toward education and education reform in general, as well as the issue of vouchers more specifically. ...
