Education Commons^™

Poverty, Educational Achievement, And The Role Of The Courts, Michael A. Rebell

New England Journal of Public Policy

The large and growing proportion of U.S. students who come from poverty backgrounds explains this country’s relatively low performance on international achievement tests. These students need a broad range of comprehensive educational services if they are to have a meaningful opportunity to succeed in school. These opportunities include not only adequate resources for basic K–12 educational services but also parent engagement, health and other services, and additional early education, after-school, and summer programs. In most states, the schools attended by students with the greatest needs tend to receive the fewest resources because of the inequitable systems most states use for …

School Reform In Canada And Florida: A Study Of Contrast, Catherine S. Boehme

New England Journal of Public Policy

Alberta and Florida have instituted school reform initiatives over the past fifteen years in an effort to improve the quality of their schools. Alberta has focused on systemic improvement by engaging the community in educational needs assessment, raising the high standards of teacher preparation, and improving effective instructional practices through professional development. Florida’s efforts have concentrated on holding students, teachers, schools, and districts accountable for high-stakes testing results by increasing the number and rigor of required assessments and increasing the negative consequences for low achievement scores. The 2012 PISA scores reveal that Alberta’s students are maintaining their high rankings relative …

The Development And Design Of The Common Core State Standards For Mathematics, Jason Zimba

New England Journal of Public Policy

As one of the lead writers of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, I begin by explaining what the standards are, what they are not, and how they were developed. Then I detail some ways in which the standards differ from previous state standards. Finally, I describe some of the developments I have seen in the implementation of the standards and the key developments I would like to see in the future.

Getting To The Core And Evolving The Education Reform Movement To A System Of Continuous Improvement, Fernando M. Reimers, Eleonora Villegas-Reimers

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article places the most recent study of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) in historical perspective, reviewing the role of international comparisons in efforts to build public education systems as key institutions of democratic societies. It discusses the findings for the United States, examining differences with other participating countries. It also looks at a paradox. Despite the high priority education has received in the United States in the past two decades, the country underperformed in a number of indicators in the PISA in comparison with many other countries participating in the study. The authors explain the findings as the …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

On December 3, 2013, when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores, the ranking of the United States as number 27 on the global scoreboard elicited little surprise among teachers, educational professionals, academics, and educational policymakers. The usual platitudes were trotted out—no mention that the United States’ standing was getting any worse, just which other countries were passing us by. We were stuck at a perennial average.

The results are in a sense a metaphor of the slow decline of the United State since the 1970s from a position of …

The National Commission On Education Excellence And Equity: Hypotheses About Movement Building, Christopher Edley Jr.

New England Journal of Public Policy

In 2013, the congressionally chartered national Commission on Education Equity and Excellence issued unanimous recommendations for P–12 policy changes at the federal, state, and local levels. This remarkably broad consensus, with unusual pragmatism and concreteness, is comprehensive in its scope and predominantly research based. As a clarion call and reform strategy, the commission report, For Each and Every Child, is a successor to A Nation at Risk (1983); the commission’s grand if not grandiose intention was to provide a framework for the next decade or more of nationwide policy struggle. This article, after briefly summarizing the recommendations, focuses on …

International Education Comparisons: How American Education Reform Is The New Status Quo, Randi Weingarten

New England Journal of Public Policy

The United States participates in international studies comparing school systems across the world. Reformers have largely ignored the lessons from these studies about what works best to educate children, and a strategy of test-based accountability has become the new status quo. This article analyzes the failed policy ideas reformers keep pushing on our schools that have been shown across the globe to be unsuccessful in the areas of school choice and competition, teacher quality and evaluation, an engaging curriculum, and equity. Research examines what top performing countries do to help students succeed, as well as what works in districts across …

Transforming Public Education: The Need For An Educational Justice Movement, Mark R. Warren

New England Journal of Public Policy

Nearly fifteen years after the passage of No Child Left Behind, the failures of our educational system with regard to low-income children of color remain profound. Traditional reform efforts have sought improvements solely within the confines of the school system, failing to realize how deeply educational failure is part of and linked to broader structures of poverty and racism. A social movement that creates political and cultural change is necessary to transform the racial inequities in public education itself and to connect this transformational effort to a larger movement to combat poverty and racism. The seeds of a new educational …

Massachusetts Schooling Matters: Good News, Contributing Factors, Challenges, Persistent Problems, Kathleen J. Skinner, Paul Toner

New England Journal of Public Policy

Massachusetts public schools have performed at the highest levels on national and international benchmarked reading, mathematics, and science assessments. The Commonwealth’s population demographics related to educational attainment, employment, and family income coupled with factors within the control of the state, districts, or schools, such as highly qualified and unionized teachers, average school-district size, defined time on learning, universal health care coverage for all children, state funding for pre-K–12 schooling, curriculum articulation through statewide standards, and high participation in college admissions exams, have contributed to academic success. Massachusetts schools, however, still face challenges in narrowing existing achievement gaps, reducing the emphasis …

Book Review: Service-Learning In Theory And Practice: The Future Of Community Engagement In Higher Education., Jennifer A. Kozak

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Empathy And Sympathy In Character Education, Radhi Al-Mabuk

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

The purpose of this paper is to describe and highlight the role of empathy and sympathy in character education. More specifically, the bridging function of empathy and sympathy to civility and their role in promoting development in the context of forgiveness will be emphasized. The paper is organized in five major parts. The first one consists of an introduction and a brief historical overview of character education followed by a discussion of the aims of character education and the school’s role in nurturing it. In the second part, an argument is made for forgiveness as a means of promoting development …

Our Grades Were Broken: Overcoming Barriers And Challenges To Implementing Standards-Based Grading, Randal Peters, Tom Buckmiller

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

The purpose of this study was to describe the barriers and challenges school leaders face as they implement a standards-based grading (SBG) system. The researchers used a multiple case study methodology to investigate how key school leaders described their implementation journey at three schools that differed in size, demographics, and location. Purposeful sampling was used to identify key administrators at three different schools who were in the process of implementing a SBG system. Data were collected primarily via semi-structured interviews. In the analysis, researchers used three phases: horizontalization, thematizing, and textural-structural synthesis. Each of the three schools had very different …

Forgiveness Education And Bullying Prevention And Intervention: Benefits For Bullies, Victims And Schools, Amy Carlon, Suzanne Freedman, Nicole Skaar

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Over the past 50 years, attitudes toward incidences of bullying in the schools have shifted significantly. Previously, bullying was seen as an expected and normal part of a child's development and school experience. Some even believed bullying wasn't harmful, that it assisted in character-building, and was simply "part of growing up" (Smith & Brain, 2000, p. 3). In recent decades, however, the negative effects of bullying have been more widely recognized, and there is growing acceptance that experiences of bullying often lead to negative outcomes, such as poor physical and psychological health, for those who are victimized (Due et al., …

Examining Effective Characteristics Of Professional Development In K-12 Education Since The Inception Of The No Child Left Behind Act Of 2002: A Meta-Analytic Investigation, Eugene M. Thomas, Karen H. Larwin

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

With the dire financial crisis facing our national and state economy, schools are forced to reduce budgets while simultaneously improve program delivery. Professional development is the mechanism that is generally used to facilitate improving educational delivery and subsequently student achievement results. This investigation examines the influence of professional development on student achievement since No Child Left Behind. Results indicate that professional development can have a moderate impact on student achievement. A number of moderators were found to have a positive significant impact on this effect including the level of students, the duration of the professional development, the discipline area focus …

The Power Of Care: An Exploration Of Emotion And Ethics In Male School Leadership Practice, Edward L. Myers

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Research findings from the past two decades have illuminated emotion’s role in organizational performance. Furthermore, studies associated with the ethic of care have revealed the significance of affect in leader/subordinate relationships. In order to augment the literature, this paper will reveal the intentions, decisions, and behaviors of a particular male high school principal who subscribed to a philosophy of care-based leadership. The intent is to further the understanding of how ethics, emotion, and power manifest in male school leadership behavior and to offer insights on the potentialities and structure of care-based educational leadership practice. The study’s findings offer a design …

Professional Development: The Use Of Nonverbal Communication During Class Lecture, Dustin York

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Teachers’ nonverbal communication has a vital role within the classroom environment. This literary review examined (1) a historical perspective of teachers’ nonverbal communication, (2) the relationship between students’ perceptions of their learning and teachers’ nonverbal communication, (3) the relationship between standardized measurements of student learning and teachers’ nonverbal communication, and (4) the relationship between students’ perceptions of teacher credibility based on the teachers’ nonverbal communication. Findings in the literary study suggest that teachers’ nonverbal communication is beneficial to students’ academic success. This review has outlined elements of nonverbal communication a teacher could use to benefit student learning. Using the findings …

Providing The Fuel (And Passing The Flame), Todd Pagano

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

At the risk of opening with a cliché statement- at the heart of the most effective mentor is a burning passion. The fuel for this passion is a desire to convince, not just try to, but actually convince your mentee that you care about their success (be it in the classroom, career, or personal life). I am guilty of believing in, and living by, this cliché. However, despite passion being my primary motivator, I am not unwilling to admit that rationale for mentoring can sometimes transcend this ethically normative line of thinking. I believe that there are also sometimes quantitative, …

Ex Ovo Omnia, Todd Pagano

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

One of history’s most diverse thinkers metaphorically depicted humanity’s dangerous reliance on nonrenewable energy resources as an unborn chick in an egg. American philosopher, poet, scientist, and mathematician, Buckminster Fuller, described the nutrients in an egg as the temporary and extinguishable support required for the development of an unhatched chick. Once the nutrients are depleted, the chick must break from its shell and cultivate its own mechanism for survival. Symbolically, he explained that the human population must view the use of earth’s finite resources as the nutriment in an egg that can be provisionally relied upon in order to provide …

Modeling Student Engagement In The Classroom, Sarah Painter

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Connections to Community is a multi-institutional study that looks at the influence of community on post-secondary, science and engineering students and their engagement in academic activity. This paper focuses specifically on student engagement within the classroom as a follow-up to a previous paper by Wendy Hoffman, Identifying Influential Variables of Student Academic Engagement (Hoffman, 2013). The goal of this work is to model student engagement in the classroom using classroom observation data that has been cleaned and then compare the results with those found in Hoffman’s paper which used pre-cleaning data. The cleaned data is used to create two data …

Examining The Relationship Between Math Scores And English Language Proficiency, Denfield L. Henry, Beate Baltes, Nicolae Nistor

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Multiple studies propose that English proficiency dictates English language learners’ (ELLs) performances on mathematics assessments. The current study investigates the predictive power of English proficiency on mathematics scores, while controlling for gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and grade level among ELLs at a south Florida elementary school. Krashen’s theory of comprehensible input as a precursor to second language acquisition provides the framework for this quantitative, correlation study. Mathematics scores from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test for Grade 3–5 ELLs (N = 177) were analyzed using multiple linear regression. Analysis reveals English proficiency as a statistically significant predictor of mathematics scores. …

Growing Into The Digital Age: A Small Academic Library Confronts The Practical Challenges Of Transition, Steven Gromatzky

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

This paper outlines the recent history of the Benedictine College Library and traces the development of the library’s digital collections since 2006. The librarians have worked to provide an integrated search solution through the EBSCO Discovery Service and streamline off-campus access through EZPROXY. As the library’s electronic resources have grown, we have continued to support its historic core collection in the humanities as well as some unique and eclectic special collections. A range of issues are discussed: integrating electronic resources, ensuring 24-hour access, working with IT staff and the impact of the institutional culture on the college library. The challenges …

Please Come In!: Transitioning From No Access To An Open Door In The Special Collections And Archives, Ashley Todd-Diaz

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

After four years of being closed to patrons due to a combination of a mold outbreak, renovation, and transitioning to a new location, the Emporia State University Special Collections and Archives reopened in fall 2012. While the department was closed, staff members worked hard to care for the collections, reply to patron requests, and prepare to open our doors again; however, after all that work we were not prepared for the lack of patrons walking through the doors. This paper shares our successes and lessons learned, as well as offers ideas for implementing innovative outreach strategies that challenge a variety …

Exploring The Revision Of The Acrl Information Literacy Standards, Gloria Creed-Dikeogu

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

The Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) information literacy standards are currently under revision. As a result, several new concepts have been introduced that will no doubt impact information literacy across the United States. What do librarians understand about the new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2014) that is being developed for application in academia? How will the new Framework (2014), the revision to ACRL Standards (2000), impact the way librarians structure and teach their information literacy classes? This paper summarizes the revisions that have been made up until the last ACRL recommendations draft from June …

Libraries In Transition: 21st Century Library Systems, Art Gutierrez, Earl Givens

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

Libraries are in a state of flux and the integrated library system (ILS) is no exception. In their quest to provide greater access to resources and remain relevant, libraries are somewhat driving this new innovation in systems. We need systems that provide greater interoperability and flexibility to provide a similar user experience that patrons are seeing online elsewhere such as Google and Amazon. This is where still developing cloud based systems come in. These new 21^st century systems include OCLC’s Worldshare Management Services (WMS). This looks at one 21^st century library system and also share one library’s migration …

Publishing And Archiving Trends In Open Access: Preliminary Results, Jenny Oleen, Diana Farmer, Livia Olsen

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

Agricultural researchers are engaged in the growing open access (OA) movement, either publishing in OA journals or archiving in OA repositories. The latter is reflected in the use of the institutional repository (IR) at Kansas State University (K-State), a land grant institution. K-State library faculty are analyzing faculty publications to determine the publishing and archiving habits of selected researchers. Reviewing copyright agreements from journals reveals those with policies for archiving post-prints in an IR; articles by these authors are compared to their total three-year article output to determine the efficacy of the current IR program at K-State. Chosen for analysis …

A Newcomer’S Perspective On The Changing Academic Library: Library To Learning Commons, Lauren Hays, Lindsey Warner

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

Academic libraries are undergoing a great deal of change as they transform themselves from a traditional library to a learning commons. These changes are driven by an increased focus on assessment, data-driven decisions, the need to reach students, and a focus on teaching information literacy. Library schools are responding to transformations in the field through changes in recruitment practices, advising strategies, technology integration, and curriculum. The combined goal of these activities is to ensure that schools can create a diverse group of graduates who are prepared to meet the pedagogical, technological, and administrative challenges of the changing academic library environment. …

Libraries In Transition: Creating A 24/7 Space At Emporia State University, Art Gutierrez, Kael Moffat

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

Libraries are constantly changing and looking for ways to meet the needs of our users. Based on student feedback, the librarians at William Allen White Library at Emporia State University have created a learning commons that also serves as a 24/7 space users. The article covers the learning theory behind the learning commons and programming being offered.

Using Gimlet And Libraryh3lp To Improve Services At The Butler Community College Libraries, Ronda Holt, Teresa Mayginnes, Samuel K. Willis

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

Librarians from Butler Community College will speak about two tools, Gimlet and Libraryh3lp, which they use to improve service and track statistics at the circulation desk and online. The combination of the two software products enables them to track statistics and issues from reference inquiries, along with circulation, college, directional, and technical help questions. Gimlet is an easy and inexpensive desk statistics tracker and knowledge base that allows libraries to staff their desks wisely.

Altmetrics: What Good Are They To Academic Libraries?, Sarah W. Sutton

Kansas Library Association College and University Libraries Section Proceedings

New knowledge is built on existing knowledge and academic libraries are the primary repositories of existing knowledge for the scholars whose work they support. In these times of belt tightening and budget reductions, it behooves academic libraries to think about how to demonstrate to administrators the value being returned on investments in the library, and to provide scholars with tools to do the same. Traditional means of measuring the quality of new knowledge like the impact factor and h-index are being made richer and more meaningful through the addition of new, social media based alternative metrics. Altmetrics also provide scholars …

Is Retention Enough? Learning And Satisfaction Of First-Generation College Seniors, David Mahan, Kristin B. Wilson, Joseph M. Petrosko Jr., Michael R. Luthy

Kentucky Journal of Higher Education Policy and Practice

Progress has been made in retaining and graduating traditional-age first-generation college students at four-year institutions. First-generation students, however, often experience college differently because of external factors, which can negatively influence their learning experience and overall satisfaction. This study explored learning and satisfaction measures of seniors at a small private university in the Midwest. Using Astin’s I-E-O model (1970), the following variables were considered: precollege student characteristics (input); academic engagement, co-curricular activities, campus relationships (environment); and satisfaction, learning (outcome). The sample consisted of seniors participating in NSSE and/or ETS MAPP (n=342). Findings confirmed that first-generation students typically worked more for pay, …