Education Commons^™

Let’S Talk: An Examination Of Parental Involvement As A Predictor Of Stem Achievement In Math For High School Girls, Nicol R. Howard, Keith E. Howard, Randy T. Busse, Christine Hunt

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This research was conducted to examine the influence of parental involvement, in the form of parent conversations, on mathematics achievement for high school girls. Data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) public-use file provided a sample of 13,694 students, including 6,592 girls for our analyses. A scale for measuring parent conversations was developed and regression analyses were conducted to examine whether this scale variable predicted mathematics achievement. Results indicated that conversational parental involvement was a significant predictor of mathematics achievement for Black and White girls, but not Hispanic and Asian. Implications for research and policy initiatives are …

School-Wide Implementation Of Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports In An Alternative School Setting: A Case Study, Amy-Jane Griffiths, Elena Lilles Diamond, James Alsip, Michael Furlong, Gale M. Morrison, Bich Do

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Aims

The purpose of this 1‐year case study was to identify how School‐Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SW‐PBIS) can be adapted to meet the needs of students in alternative schools and to evaluate the early impact of SW‐PBIS on discipline outcomes.

Methods

Suggestions for adaptations are provided at each stage of the intervention process with a focus on buy‐in, training, data collection, and resource allocation.

Results

Data from this case study included information about key components of the implementation process as well as initial outcomes. Process data revealed the importance of stakeholder buy‐in, training opportunities, and potential adaptations to …

Research-To-Practice Brief: Using Labor Market Projections For Successful Transition Planning, Amy-Jane Griffiths, Meghan Cosier, Sara Morgan

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Employment rates and post-school transition outcomes for individuals with disabilities remain alarmingly low compared to peers without disabilities. Transition plans often focus on skills associated with employment opportunities that are immediately available to the individual with a disability. We contend that transition plans must be developed with specific attention to projected labor market needs to ensure that we are preparing students with disabilities for long-term success. This research brief describes how the results of an in-depth labor market analysis can be used to develop strong transition plans that prepare students for careers that will last far into the future.

Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports In An Alternative Education Setting: Examining The Risk And Protective Factors Of Responders And Non-Responders, Amy-Jane Griffiths, Jared T. Izumi, James Alsip, Michael Furlong, Gale M. Morrison

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This research examined the risk and protective factors of responders and nonresponders to a schoolwide implementation of positive behavioral interventions and supports (SW-PBIS) within an alternative school. Students completed self-perception measures of individual, school, community, and home systems. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated a statistically significant difference between responders and nonresponders on the individual and school systems models. Direct logistic regression indicated that within these models, hostility, destructive expression of anger, depression, academic self-concept, attitude to teachers, and attitude to school each made a significant contribution in identifying responders and nonresponders. Findings suggest that factors at the individual and school …

Conceptualizing Equity In The Implementation Of California Education Finance Reform, Taylor N. Allbright, Julie A. Marsh, Michelle Hall, Laura Tobben, Lawrence O. Picus, Magaly Lavadenz

Education Faculty Articles and Research

We examine how district administrators’ conceptions of equity relate to the implementation of finance reform. We use sensemaking theory and four views of equity—libertarian, liberal, democratic liberal, and transformative—to guide a case study of two districts, finding evidence of two conceptions of equity: (1) greater resources for students with greater needs and (2) equal distribution of resources for all students. One district demonstrated an organization-wide belief in the first conception, whereas the other conveyed individual-level understandings of both conceptions. These beliefs were mirrored in resource allocation decisions and informed by districts’ student demographics, organizational identities, and perceptions of adequacy.

(In)Visible Men On Campus: Campus Racial Climate And Subversive Black Masculinities At A Predominantly White Liberal Arts University, Quaylan Allen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

There is an emerging body of literature examining the academic success of Black men attending predominantly White colleges and universities, though less is known about Black college men’s experiences at liberal arts institutions. In this paper, I draw upon semi-structured and photovoice interview data from a study on Black male college students attending a predominantly White liberal arts institution in the USA. Specifically, I will present narrative and visual data of how Black college men perceive the campus racial climate and make sense of their (in)visibility at the university. Drawing upon poststructuralist theories of gender and critical race theory, I …

Latent Class Analysis Of Children With Math Difficulties And/Or Math Learning Disabilities: Are There Cognitive Differences?, H. Lee Swanson, Andres F. Olide, Jennifer E. Kong

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study investigated whether a latent class of children with math difficulties (MD) or math learning disabilities (MLD) emerged within a heterogeneous sample of learners. A latent class analysis was computed on children (N = 447) in Grade 3 who were administered a battery of math, reading, and cognitive measures. The analysis yielded four important findings. First, a discrete latent class of children with MD (15% of the sample) or MLD (10% of the sample) emerged when setting cut-off scores at or below the 25th and 11th percentile, respectively. Second, model testing yielded a high probability of finding children with …

From “Turning The Page” To Getting Our Noses Out Of The Book: How Ncte Can Translate Its Words Into Activism, Noah Asher Golden, Deborah Bieler

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This article raises questions about the role of NCTE in an era of widespread education reform that often runs counter to a wide body of scholarship and members’ understandings of ways to build strong, equitable educational systems. The authors call on NCTE to reinvent itself primarily as a space from which to take action toward equity and justice. This provocateur piece offers a loving critique of NCTE’s notion of advocacy at a time when neoliberal education reforms limit educators’ capacity to carry out our collective responsibilities to marginalized and vulnerable youth.

Understanding Campus Spaces To Improve Student Belonging, Michelle Samura

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Michelle Samura demonstrates that we can gain insight into students’ experience of connectedness with a campus community by considering how they use physical, human-built spaces and the meaning they attribute to them.

Cultivating A Professional Culture Of Peace And Inclusion: Conceptualizing Practical Applications Of Peace Leadership In Schools, Whitney Mcintyre Miller, Annmary S. Abdou

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Beyond the role of educating students across all academic domains, school leaders are tasked with the monumental responsibility of creating positive, engaged systems and cultures that embrace the growing cultural, economic, linguistic, and cognitive diversity in the United States landscape. With collective goals to create peaceful learning environments with capacity to serve diverse learners, many school leaders have embraced school-wide prevention and intervention efforts, such as Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) for social-emotional and behavioral development of students. Unfortunately, due to the inherent complexities and fragmentation of such efforts, many school leaders have continued to experience significant barriers to sustainable …

Adolescents’ Perceptions Of “Cheating” In Gaming And Educational Settings, Brandon Nease, Michelle Samura

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Background. Given the widespread popularity of video gameplay among adolescents, it is important to understand the relationship between video gameplay and adolescent behaviors in various contexts.

Aim. This exploratory study aimed to explore adolescent gamers use of player guides and cheat codes during video gameplay in order to understand how they reason about the relationship between cheating in video games and cheating in academic settings.

Method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with adolescents in order to gain in-depth insight into participants’ perspectives on video gameplay and their perceptions of cheating in video games and academic settings. Interview data was coded and …

The Role Of School Climate In Rates Of Depression And Suicidal Ideation Among School-Attending Foster Youth In California Public Schools, Holly Shim-Pelayo, Kris Tunac De Pedro

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Drawing from the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 administrations of the California Healthy Kids Survey, this study explored the relationships between school climate and depression tendency and suicidal ideation among foster youth in California public schools. This research also evaluated the data for the secondary purpose of examining the possible differences in the levels of depression tendency and suicidal ideation among foster youth by race and gender. Findings indicated a positive school climate is associated with lower rates of depression tendency and suicidal ideation among foster youth. In addition, female foster youth reported higher rates of depression tendency and suicidal ideation when …

Preparing Elementary School Teachers To Learn From Teaching: A Comparison Of Two Approaches To Mathematics Methods Instruction, Rossella Santagata, Cathery Yeh, Janet Mercado

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Teacher preparation programs face a significant challenge in determining how to design learning experiences that develop the combination of knowledge, practices, and dispositions needed for effective classroom teaching. Time constraints and the theory-practice divide are two well-documented concerns. We introduce the conceptual framework and design elements of a video-enhanced mathematics methods course that targets these concerns. The course centers on systematic reflection and analysis of practice intended to foster career-long learning. We then examine the impact of this course on several facets of learning-from-teaching competencies, including teacher knowledge, beliefs, and practices. Sixty-two pre-service teachers, enrolled in a one-year post-bachelor elementary …

Examining The Variability In General Education Placements For Students With Intellectual Disability, Meghan Cosier, Julia M. White, Qiu Wang

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Despite the overwhelming body of research suggesting that students with intellectual disability benefit from access to general education placements, students with intellectual disability continue to be educated primarily in segregated settings. Furthermore, the percentage of students with intellectual disability included in general education classrooms varies greatly among and within states across the United States. In an effort to explore such variability in New York State, we examined trends in general education placement rates of students with intellectual disability across districts and possible predictors of placement in regular classes. Results suggest that although descriptive patterns of placement exist, a more definitive …

“In A Position I See Myself In:” (Re)Positioning Identities And Culturally-Responsive Pedagogies, Noah Asher Golden

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Culturally-responsive pedagogies require moving beyond blanket assumptions about learners to focus deeply on local meaning-makings. This narrative analysis case study examines the ways a 20-year-old African American man challenges the negative educational identity with which he is forced to contend as he navigates a large and complex urban public school system. The ways in which Jamahl, a seeker of a High School Equivalency, refuses interpellation as an uneducated learner destined to be “nothin'” provides insight as to how formal education might be more responsive to learners' negotiation of deficiency discourses. Embracing agency, specifically through awareness of the ways Jamahl employs …

Critical Digital Literacies Across Scales And Beneath The Screen, Noah Asher Golden

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Digital technologies and education scholarship tend to focus on either individual creative design or analysis of the political economy. To better understand how ideologies travel across networks, critical digital literacies must focus on enactments beneath the screen, as the linguistic constructs known as software can enact interests across scales of activity to “disembed” local actions and meaning. Investigations of these mobilities and disembedding effects challenge popular notions of digital technologies as neutral, rendering overt the ways that algorithms can naturalize manifestations of power and social arrangements. Such a framework allows for descriptive analyses of the ways hegemonic discourses are enacted …

Using Tablet Technologies To Engage And Motivate Urban High School Students, Nicol R. Howard, Keith Howard

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In this two-year study, researchers examined the impact of using tablet technologies across content areas in an urban high school setting. Class observations provided notable examples of how student motivation and learning appeared to be enhanced by use of the iPads in conjunction with opportunities to collaborate and be creative in the context of their learning. Interviews from a set of teachers with a range of classroom teaching experience provided multiple perspectives of the program’s impact. The opportunity for teachers and students to have the flexibility to select the apps they believe achieve curricular and/or learning goals supports the shift …

Narrating Neoliberalism: Alternative Education Teachers’ Conceptions Of Their Changing Roles, Noah Asher Golden

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The signifier ‘alternative’ in education has largely shifted from progressive or humanizing pedagogies to deficit framings requiring alternate graduation criteria. This development is part of broader neoliberal educational reform efforts that disrupt longstanding conceptions of teachers’ roles. This study serves to investigate long-term teachers’ understandings of their shifting roles in one secondary-level alternative education program in New York City. Specifically, this narrative analysis study explores participating teachers’ meanings around agency and their ability to form the relationships that they argue are central to meaningful pedagogies. Findings demonstrate a sense of loss regarding teacher agency and relationships, and a belief that …

“That’S Why I Say Stay In School”: Black Mothers’ Parental Involvement, Cultural Wealth, And Exclusion In Their Son’S Schooling, Quaylan Allen, Kimberly A. White-Smith

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study examines parental involvement practices, the cultural wealth, and school experiences of poor and working-class mothers of Black boys. Drawing upon data from an ethnographic study, we examine qualitative interviews with four Black mothers. Using critical race theory and cultural wealth frameworks, we explore the mothers’ approaches to supporting their sons’ education. We also describe how the mothers and their sons experienced exclusion from the school, and how this exclusion limited the mothers’ involvement. We highlight their agency in making use of particular forms of cultural wealth in responding to the school’s failure of their sons.

Learning To Notice Mathematics Instruction: Using Video To Develop Preservice Teachers' Vision Of Ambitious Pedagogy, Elizabeth Van Es, Ana Auger, Tara Barnhart, Mary Cashen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Video is used extensively in teacher preparation, raising questions about what and how preservice teachers learn through video observation and analysis. We investigate the development of candidates' noticing of ambitious mathematics pedagogy in the context of a video-based course designed to cultivate ways of seeing and interpreting classroom interactions. Qualitative analysis of candidates' observations of teaching at the beginning and end of the course generated a framework of practices and associated approaches for noticing instructional interactions. The 3 practices include attending to features of instruction, elaborating on observations, and integrating observations to reason about instruction. Findings reveal …

Necessary But Not Sufficient: The Continuing Inequality Between Men And Women In Educational Leadership, Findings From The Aasa Mid-Decade Survey, Kerry Robinson, Charol Shakeshaft, Margaret Grogan, Whitney Sherman Newcomb

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The gender of school leaders makes a difference in career paths, personal life, and characteristics of workplace. There is additional evidence that men and women are appointed or elected to lead different kinds of educational jurisdictions. Even if those differences did not exist, equitable access to leadership positions for people of different backgrounds would make this an important issue. This article reports gender-related findings from the American Association of School Administrators 2015 Mid-Decade Survey. Findings confirm many of the trends in research on the superintendency over the past 15 years. The profiles of women superintendents are becoming more like their …

Math Is More Than Numbers: Beginning Bilingual Teachers’ Mathematics Teaching Practices And Their Opportunities To Learn, Cathery Yeh

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In this article, the author provides results from a 3-year, longitudinal study that examined two novice bilingual teachers’ mathematics teaching practices and their professional opportunities to learn to teach. Primary data sources included videotaped mathematics lessons, teacher interviews, and field notes of their teacher preparation methods courses. Findings revealed that the teachers were oriented toward differing views of learning that shaped how they organized students’ learning of language and mathematics during classroom instruction. While both teachers used similar teaching strategies to support students’ development of mathematics specific literacies, there were variances in how the learners were positioned within the classroom …

Conceptualizations Of Students With And Without Disabilities As Mathematical Problem Solvers In Educational Research; A Critical Review, Rachel Lambert, Paulo Tan

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Students with disabilities are often framed as “the problem” and have limited opportunities to engage in standards based mathematics leading to persistent underachievement. In this paper, we investigate a research divide between mathematics educational research for students with and without disabilities, a divide with significant differences in the theoretical orientations and research methodologies used to understand learners. Based on an analysis of 149 mathematics educational research articles published between 2013 and 2015, we found significant differences between articles focused on learners with and without disabilities. For those with disabilities, mathematical problem solving was understood primarily from behavioral and information processing …

Can Philanthropy Be Taught?, Lindsey Mcdougle, Danielle Mcdonald, Huafeng Li, Whitney Mcintyre Miller, Chengxin Xu

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In recent years, colleges and universities have begun investing significant resources into an innovative pedagogy known as experiential philanthropy. The pedagogy is considered to be a form of service-learning. It is defined as a learning approach that provides students with opportunities to study social problems and nonprofit organizations and then make decisions about investing funds in them. Experiential philanthropy is intended to integrate academic learning with community engagement by teaching students not only about the practice of philanthropy but also how to evaluate philanthropic responses to social issues. Despite this intent, there has been scant evidence demonstrating that this type …

Remaking Selves, Repositioning Selves, Or Remaking Space: An Examination Of Asian American College Students' Processes Of "Belonging", Michelle Samura

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"Only a few studies have examined Asian American students’ sense of belonging (Hsia, 1988; Lee & Davis, 2000; Museus & Maramba, 2010). Scholars who study Asian American college students have suggested that Asian Americans are awkwardly positioned as separate from other students of color vis-à-vis the model minority stereotype (Hsia, 1988; Lee & Davis, 2000). Furthermore, Asian Americans often are viewed as overrepresented on college campuses, yet they remain under-served by campus support programs and resources and overlooked by researchers. Many Asian Americans have gained access to higher education, but the ways in which they belong on campuses is unclear. …

A Latent Class Analysis Of School Climate Among Middle And High School Students In California Public Schools, Kris T. De Pedro, Tamika D. Gilreath, Ruth Berkowitz

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Research has shown that a positive school climate plays a protective role in the social, emotional, and academic development of adolescent youth. Researchers have utilized variable centered measures to assess school climate, which is limited in capturing heterogeneous patterns of school climate. In addition, few studies have systematically explored the role of race and gender in perceived school climate. This study utilizes a latent class approach to assess whether there are discrete classes of school climate in a diverse statewide sample of middle and high school youth. Drawing from the 2009–2011 California Healthy Kids Survey, this study identified four latent …

Adult Relationships In Multiple Contexts And Associations With Adolescent Mental Health, Gordon Capp, Ruth Berkowitz, Kate Sullivan, Ron Avi Astor, Kris T. De Pedro, Tamika D. Gilreath, Eric Rice

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose: Adult relationships provide critical support for adolescents because of their potential to foster positive development and provide protective influences. Few studies examine multiple ecological layers of adult relationships in connection with well-being and depression. This study examines the influence of relationships from multiple contexts for adolescents and their mental health.
Method: Data from the 2011 California Healthy Kids Survey was used for this analysis; a sample of 7th-, 9th-, and 11th-grade students (N = 14,931) was drawn from 6 school districts in Southern California.
Results: Regression analyses revealed that parent, teacher, and community adult support were …

Data-Based Decision Making In School Counseling: Utilizing Multiple Single-Case Indicators To Evaluate Interventions, Ryan J. Mcgill, Kelly S. Kennedy, Randy T. Busse

Education Faculty Articles and Research

As the field of professional school counseling continues to move toward a data-based decision making model of service delivery, there is a need for dissemination of best practice methods for evaluating whether school-based counseling interventions are effective. In that vein, the purpose of this article is to review several methods of data-based decision making within a single-case outcome evaluation model, as well as their potential applications for school counseling interventions. To aid practitioners, the potential use of these methods is demonstrated in a case example and accompanying graphic displays.

Examining The Relationship Between School Climate And Peer Victimization Among Students In Military-Connected Public Schools, Kris T. De Pedro, Ron Avi Astor, Tamika D. Gilreath, Rami Benbenishty, Ruth Berkowitz

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In the Iraq and Afghanistan war context, studies have found that military-connected youth—youth with parents and/or siblings serving in the military—have higher rates of school victimization than their nonmilitary-connected peers. A positive school climate—where students perceive high levels of school connectedness, caring relationships and high expectations from adults, and meaningful participation—is associated with lower rates of victimization in secondary public schools. Based on a survey of 7th, 9th, and 11th grade students (n=14,493) enrolled in six military-connected school districts (districts that have a significant proportion of military-connected students), this study explores victimization rates and the role of school climate, deployment, …

Cultivating Literacy And Relationships With Adolescent Scholars Of Color, Noah Asher Golden, Erica Womack

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The authors explore strength-based learning projects that value the lived realities and literacies of adolescent scholars of color, setting the stage for the powerful relationships through which meaningful learning happens.