Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)
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Elección Educacional Entre Escuela Pública y Escuela Privada en Galicia: Un análisis comparativo del gasto de los hogares en las escuelas públicas y privadas
María Jesús Freire and José Venancio Salcines
The goal of the current work is to analyze educational choice between public and private schools at the pre-primary, primary and secondary levels in Galicia, Spain. We also analyze the relationship between the type of educational institution the children attend and the family income and parents' educational level. The overarching purpose of this work is to learn more about how social inequalities are mediated by public and private educational systems.
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Supporting Community-Oriented Educational Change: Case and Analysis
Linda Mabry and Laura Ettinger
A study of a federally funded program to develop and implement community-oriented social studies curricula and curriculum-based assessments grounds cautions for educational change initiatives. In this case, despite the project director's stated intent to support teachers' desire for instruction regarding local culture and history, top-down support for classroom-level change evidenced insensitivity. Production and implementation of the planned curricula and assessments was obstructed by teacher's lack of cultural identification with the targeted community groups, workload, competing institutional priorities, inadequate communication, and organizational politics. Professional development was sometimes beneficial but more often ineffective - either perfunctory, unnecessary, or disregarded. The findings offer insight regarding education change and a system analysis.
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Contextualizing Homeschooling Data: A Response to Rudner
Kariane Mari Welner and Kevin G. Welner
Rudner (1999) presents the results of a survey and testing program, administered by Bob Jones University (BJU), for homeschooling students. In this response, we applaud Rudner's contribution to building a greater understanding of the homeschooling movement. However, we also voice a strong concern that what Rudner contributed with one hand, he took back with the other. We contend that Rudner's analysis of the BJU data fails to offer a straightforward explanation of important and striking limitations. The unfortunate result is an inaccurate portrayal of homeschoolers as a white, Christian, monolithic population. Although the results of Rudner's analyses are likely valid for the particular population he studied, his insufficient attention to the data's bias has led to an erroneous picture of homeschooling.
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Hiring Policy in United States Spanish Departments: Considerations of Social Class, National Origin, and Ethnicity
Jerry Hoeg, Eric Cohen, and Christine Fullen
The present study focuses on two inter-related factors specific to United States college and university Spanish Departments: the unique demographic profile of the entry-level faculty in terms of gender, ethnicity, national origin, and social class; the relation between these factors and hiring practices, especially regarding field of specialization, pay scale, and tenure-track opportunities. We believe these issues are important in that they underscore the value of considering questions of social class as well as ethnicity and gender when analyzing academic job segmentation.
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First Year Implementation of the School to Work Opportunities Act Policy: An Effort at Backward Mapping
Arthur M. Recesso
This study examined the intent of federal policy and the actual implementation within local school districts. Specifically, the focus is on the Federal School to Work Opportunities Act of 1994 and its implementation in 47 school districts in upstate New York as part of a consortium during the 1995-96 school year. The purpose of the study was to determine 1) the extent to which an agreement to participate in a consortium arrangement designed to facilitate the implementation of a specific Federal or state policy resulted in the active implementation efforts by individual consortium members, and 2) how a high school setting where School to Work activities were perceived by local stakeholders as having great specific and important effects differed from a high school setting where School to Work activities were perceived by local stakeholders as having some or no effect. A bottom-up backward mapping policy analysis model was used for the purposes of this study.
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Investigación en educación en América Latina: una continuación del debate
Abdeljalil Akkari and Soledad Pérez
We consider Narodowski's reaction (1999) published by Education Policy Analysis Archives as Volume 7 Number 2 to be an invitation to a fruitful debate on education in Latin America. We want first to call attention to the fact that our original article - EPAA 6(7) - was not exhaustive; we never attempted to present all aspects of educational research in Latin America, an effort that would require the attention of several teams of researchers and numerous written works. Our objective, modest as it is, it to take a closer look at the evolution of educational research and to launch the debate on those aspects that seem to us high-priority for the region.
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High School Staff Characteristics and Mathematics Test Results
Mark Fetler
This study investigates the relationship between measures of mathematics teacher skill and student achievement in California high schools. Test scores are analyzed in relation to teacher experience and education and student demographics. The results are consistent with the hypotheses that there is a shortage of qualified mathematics teachers in California and that this shortage is associated with low student scores in mathematics. ...
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Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Home School Students in 1998
Lawrence M. Rudner
This report presents the results of the largest survey and testing program for students in home schools to date. In Spring 1998, 20,760 K-12 home school students in 11,930 families were administered either the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) or the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP), depending on their current grade. The parents responded to a questionnaire requesting background and demographic information. ...
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Restructuring the Schoolbook Provision System in Indonesia: Some Recent Initiatives
Dedi Supriadi
Schoolbooks account for between 65% and 75% of all publishing activity in Indonesia. The amount of money allocated is continually increasing. Priority is given to the primary and junior secondary school levels (6+3 years), which are compulsory. Between 1969 and 1988, the Government of Indonesia (GOI) has produced some 550 million primary textbooks and library books. ...
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College Students' Use of the Internet
Anna C. McFadden
The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of Internet uses by students in a computer lab of a major state university. Of particular interest was the percentage of "hits" associated with pornography and gambling sites.
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Some Comments on the Ad Hoc Committee's Critique of the Massachusetts Teacher Tests
Howard Wainer
The critique of the Massachusetts Teacher Tests (MTT) by Haney and his colleagues is deserving of comment, both because of the impact of the MTT and because of the evocative manner in which the tale is told. Their emphasis on examples makes for a forceful argument, and I fear that my reliance on precepts may look meager by comparison. Nevertheless, I hope that some of the observations that follow contribute to the more reasoned assessment of these instruments and their use not just in Massachusetts but in the many other states where similar programs are being developed or contemplated. ...
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Less Truth than Error? An Independent Study of the Massachusetts Teacher Tests
Walt Haney, Clarke Fowler, Anne Wheelock, Damian Bebell, and Nicole Malec
The Massachusetts Teacher Tests (MTT), introduced last year, have never been subject to external review as required by the measurement profession's standards and many legal precedents. Neither the Massachusetts Department of Education (DOE) nor the tests' manufacturer have made public information about the exams' reliability (consistency) or validity (meaningfulness). Using data from state and academic reports from the April and July test dates, an ad hoc committee of nationally-known researchers has now been able to make a preliminary assessment of the exams. The committee focused on the Communications and Literacy exam that was required of all prospective teachers regardless of grade level or subject area. The purpose of the analysis was to determine the accuracy of the tests in assessing the reading and writing skills of the test-takers. ...
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Effects on Students of a 4x4 Junior High School Block Scheduling Program
R. Brian Cobb, Stacey Abate, and Dennis Baker
The effects of a 4 X 4 block scheduling program in a middle school on a variety of student measures were investigated. These measures included standardized achievement tests in mathematics, reading, and writing, cumulative and semester grades in middle school and high school, attendance rates, and enrollment rates in advanced high school courses (in mathematics only). The block scheduling program had been in effect for four years allowing analyses of current middle and high school students who had experienced a minimum of one and one-half years of block scheduling while in middle school. The primary research design was a post-test only, matched pairs design. Students were matched on school characteristics, gender, ethnicity, grade level, and 5th grade standardized reading scores. Results were relatively consistent with the extant literature and generally positive.
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Educational Research in Latin America: A Response to Akkary and Pérez
Mariano Narodowski
In a recent article which appeared in Educational Policy Analysis Archives 6 (7) 1998, "Educational Research in Latin America: Review and Perspectives," Abdeljalil Akkari and Soledad Pérez envisage carrying out a general analysis of the situation of educational research in Latin America, in an attempt to describe the context of its historical formation. They focus on the main theoretical framework, they identify the principal institutions involved in educational research, and consider the priorities for future research in the region. ...
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Ethnic Segregation in Arizona Charter Schools
Casey D. Cobb and Gene V. Glass
Among the criticisms of charter schools is their potential to further stratify schools along ethnic and class lines. This study addressed whether Arizona charter schools are more ethnically segregated than traditional public schools. In 1996-97, Arizona had nearly one in four of all charter schools in the United States. The analysis involved a series of comparisons between the ethnic compositions of adjacent charter and public schools in Arizona's most populated region and its rural towns. ...
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Boundary Breaking: An Emergent Model for Leadership Development
Charles Webber and Jan Robertson
We summarize the results of a cross-cultural on-line project for graduate students in educational leadership at the University of Calgary in Canada and the University of Waikato in New Zealand. A conceptual framework for the collaborative Internet project is presented in conjunction with a summary of relevant literature and participant views of the project. Finally, the authors propose a model for on-line graduate learning in educational leadership with the following components: construction of meaning, provision of a forum for discussion, validation of personal knowledge, generative learning, formal and informal leadership, sense of community, and international perspectives.
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Critical Evaluation for Education Reform
Gisele A. Waters
The school reform movement has done little to provide an accurate analysis of the production of inequality or the reproduction of social injustice in the public schools or the larger social order. The ideology that influences this movement has often prevented the realization of any notion of an egalitarian ideal, the elimination of inequality, or the improvement of those who are least well-off. I ask educators and evaluators of education reform efforts to reconsider critically their roles in social science research, to reclaim the battleground of public school reform by focusing on the democratic purpose of public schooling, and the institutional problems in educational programs and practice that often inhibit action toward this ideal.
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The Internet and the Truth about Science: We Gave a Science War but Nobody Came
George Meadows and Aimee Howley
Even though sophisticated discussion of the nature of scientific claims is taking place in the academy, public school teachers of science and mathematics may harbor naive assumptions about the way that scientific processes function to construct the "truth." Reluctant to change their prior assumptions about science, such teachers may become vulnerable to information technologies (including "low-tech" media such as textbooks and films) that construe science as a collection of facts. An on-line lesson about constructivism provided a forum in which a group of teachers revealed well-established epistemologies seemingly inimical to the principles of conceptual change teaching. ...
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The Transformation of Taiwan's Upper Secondary Education System: A Policy Analysis
Hueih-Lirng Laih and Ian Westbury
This paper explores the policy issues circling around the structural "transition" in upper secondary education implicit in the twenty-year increase in secondary and third-level school enrollment rates in Taiwan. This expansion has taken place within a secondary school system which is rigidly divided into both general, i.e., academic, and vocational tracks and into public and private sectors: the majority of students are enrolled in the private vocational sector which is only loosely articulated with the university sector. These features of the school system are analysed against the background of social and economic developments in Taiwan as well as public opinion. ...
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Performance Indicators: Information in Search of a Valid and Reliable Use
E. Raymond Hackett and Sarah D. Carrigan
Measures of overall institutional performance were explored from a decision support perspective with twenty similar Carnegie Classification Baccalaureate II institutions. The study examined the usefulness of performance indicators in campus decision making following both a hypothesis testing and case study approach. Two conclusions were reached: first, that the performance measures most commonly cited in the literature as measures of institutional financial viability are of limited use for institution specific policy development; and second, that performance indicators are most effectively used within an institution specific, whole system framework.
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Criticizing the Schools: Then and Now
Benjamin Levin
Schools in many countries are facing intense and elevated levels of criticism, with much debate over whether the criticism is merited. Much of the criticism embodies a view that things used to be better years ago, when schools were not prey to the many defects they are alleged to show today. Recollections of the past may hide a mixed reality. In this article, criticisms of education from 1957 are compared with contemporary criticisms.
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A Note on the Empirical Futility of Labor-Intensive Scoring Permutations for Assessing Scholarly Productivity: Implications for Research, Promotion/Tenure, and Mentoring
Christine Hanish, John J. Horan, Bethanne Keen, and Ginger Clark
The measurement of scholarly productivity is embroiled in a controversy concerning the differential crediting of coauthors. Some researchers assign equivalent shares to each coauthor; others employ weighting systems based on authorship order. Horan and his colleagues use simple publication totals, arguing that the psychometric properties of labor-intensive alternatives are unknown, and relevant ethical guidelines for including coauthors are neither widely understood nor consistently followed. ...
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Some Comments on Assessment in U.S. Education
Robert Stake
We do not know much about what assessment has accomplished but we know it has not brought about the reform of American Education. The costs and benefits of large scale mandated achievement testing are too complex to be persuasively reported. Therefore, educational policy needs to be based more on deliberated interpretations of assessment, experience, and ideology. Evaluation of assessment consequences, however inconclusive, has an important role to play in the deliberations.
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Consequences of Assessment: What is the Evidence?
William A. Mehrens
Attention is here directed toward the prevalence of large scale assessments (focusing primarily on state assessments). I examine the purposes of these assessment programs; enumerate both potential dangers and benefits of such assessments; investigate what the research evidence says about assessment consequences (including a discussion of the quality of the evidence); discuss how to evaluate whether the consequences are good or bad; present some ideas about what variables may influence the probabilities for good or bad consequences; and present some tentative conclusions about the whole issue of the consequences of assessment and the amount of evidence available and needed.
