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Avoidable Losses: High-Stakes Accountability And The Dropout Crisis, Linda Mcspadden Mcneil, Eileen Coppola, Judy Radigan, Julian Vasquez Heilig Jan 2008

Avoidable Losses: High-Stakes Accountability And The Dropout Crisis, Linda Mcspadden Mcneil, Eileen Coppola, Judy Radigan, Julian Vasquez Heilig

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

In the state of Texas, whose standardized, high-stakes test-based accountability system became the model for the nation’s most comprehensive federal education policy, more than 135,000 youth are lost from the state’s high schools every year. Dropout rates are highest for African American and Latino youth, more than 60% for the students we followed. Findings from this study, which included analysis of the accountability policy in operation in high-poverty high schools in a major urban district, analysis of student-level data for more than 271,000 students in that district over a seven-year period under this policy, and extensive ethnographic analysis of life …


Modelos De Clase Latente En La Evaluación De La Educación. El Caso Del Aprovechamiento Escolar En La Educación Primaria De Zacatecas, Francisco Muro González Jan 2008

Modelos De Clase Latente En La Evaluación De La Educación. El Caso Del Aprovechamiento Escolar En La Educación Primaria De Zacatecas, Francisco Muro González

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Based on an advanced statistical method (Latent Class Analysis), the author jointly examines two crucial factors in the assessment of students’ performance in elementary school: School attainment and teacher education (based on teachers’ results in tests taken to earn their teaching credentials). Data from files in the 2001 Archives for the State of Zacatecas, Mexico are used to make this analysis. The author shows that when working with latent class models, one can make a more significant in depth analysis because by virtue of using this method, it is viable to construct suitable clusters and to segment the data files …


Achievement Testing For English Language Learners, Ready Or Not?, Sau-Lim Tsang, Anne Katz, Jim Stack Jan 2008

Achievement Testing For English Language Learners, Ready Or Not?, Sau-Lim Tsang, Anne Katz, Jim Stack

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

School reform efforts across the US have focused on creating systems in which all students are expected to achieve to high standards. To ensure that students reach those standards and to document what students know and can do, schools collect assessment information on students’ academic achievement. More information is needed, however, to find out when such assessments are appropriate for English learners and can provide meaningful information about what such learners know and can do. We describe and discuss a study that addresses the question of when it is appropriate to administer content area tests in English to English learners. …


School Commitment And Alcohol Use: The Moderating Role Of Race And Ethnicity, Tamela Mcnulty Eitle, David James Eitle Dec 2007

School Commitment And Alcohol Use: The Moderating Role Of Race And Ethnicity, Tamela Mcnulty Eitle, David James Eitle

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Research indicates that lower levels of school commitment may be one potential outcome of policy initiatives such as high-stakes testing and exit exams. Such outcomes may lead these policy initiatives to have unintended consequences for students, particularly racial or ethnic minority students. This study examines whether race of ethnicity moderate the relationship between school commitment and alcohol use or binge drinking among a sample of Florida public middle and high-school students who were surveyed as part of the 2002 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey. Low school commitment was found to be associated with a greater likelihood of alcohol use in …


Fissures In Standards Formulation: The Role Of Neoconservative And Neoliberal Discourses In Justifying Standards Development In Wisconsin And Minnesota, Samantha Caughlan, Richard Beach Sep 2007

Fissures In Standards Formulation: The Role Of Neoconservative And Neoliberal Discourses In Justifying Standards Development In Wisconsin And Minnesota, Samantha Caughlan, Richard Beach

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

An analysis of English/language arts standards development in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the late 1990s and early 2000s shows a process of compromise between neoliberal and neoconservative factions involved in promoting and writing standards, with the voices of educators conspicuously absent. Interpretive and critical discourse analyses of versions of English/language arts standards at the high school level and of public documents related to standards promotion reveal initial conflicts between neoconservative and neoliberal discourses, which over time were integrated in final standards documents. The content standards finally released for use in guiding curriculum in each state were bland and incoherent documents …


Actitudes De Los Estudiantes De Odontología De La Uam-Xochimilco Frente A Su Formación Profesional, Laura Sáenz Martínez, Leonor Sánchez Pérez, Isabel Luengas Aguirre, Edgar Jarillo Soto Aug 2007

Actitudes De Los Estudiantes De Odontología De La Uam-Xochimilco Frente A Su Formación Profesional, Laura Sáenz Martínez, Leonor Sánchez Pérez, Isabel Luengas Aguirre, Edgar Jarillo Soto

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

The purpose of this article is to analyze the attitudes of students towards the theoretical and clinical knowledge and about research as part of the Dentistry Program during their professional training at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco. A questionnaire with Likert items was applied to students in order to know their answers about these topics. An X2 test was applied to analyze the homogeneity of answers. Results indicate that students’ opinions differ on: a) the amount of theoretical content regarding treatment (p < .003), b) some aspects regarding clinical knowledge (p < .006), and c) research options per school year (p < .05). We conclude that it is necessary to study in depth the achievements and limitations of the program proposed by the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco.


From Policy Design To Campus: Implementation Of A Tuition Decentralization Policy, Michael S. Harris Jul 2007

From Policy Design To Campus: Implementation Of A Tuition Decentralization Policy, Michael S. Harris

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

This study analyzes the implementation of a tuition decentralization policy in North Carolina. Concepts of organizational culture served as a guiding framework for an interpretive analysis. Qualitative case study data for the research was collected from interviews with key policy makers within the University of North Carolina as well as an extensive collection of documents. The findings demonstrate the importance of shared norms and beliefs in achieving successful policy implementation through a case study where incongruence of stakeholder values, beliefs, and goals created institutional conflict.


Descentralización, Poderes Locales Y Participación Social En Educación En Bolivia. Los Casos De Tarabuco Y La Paz (1997-2003), Mario Yapu Jun 2007

Descentralización, Poderes Locales Y Participación Social En Educación En Bolivia. Los Casos De Tarabuco Y La Paz (1997-2003), Mario Yapu

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Since the Declaration of ministers of education of iberoamerican countries held in Santa Fe de Bogotá, November 4-6, 1992, the decentralization of education has been a recurrent subject of educational reforms in Latin American countries, where in some of them the experiences of decentralization have preceded said Declaration while in others they have followed it. The educational reforms that have come about within the last years associate the decentralization of education with social participation and improvements in the quality of education, among other subjects. This article discusses these topics, questioning what type of decentralization would be effective in Bolivia, which …


Bureaucratic Discretion And Alternative Teacher Certification: Understanding Program Variation In Missouri, Ethan B. Heinen, Jay Paredes Scribner Jun 2007

Bureaucratic Discretion And Alternative Teacher Certification: Understanding Program Variation In Missouri, Ethan B. Heinen, Jay Paredes Scribner

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Alternative teacher certification literature has contributed significantly to our understanding of this approach to teacher preparation. However, this literature has more often than not treated alternative teacher certification programs (ATCPs) as a black box, thus ignoring program heterogeneity. The present study examines how and why five ATCPs in Missouri have evolved in different ways. To understand this variation and its potential significance for researchers and practitioners, we use political science literature on bureaucratic discretion to understand programs’ varied responses within the same state policy context. Using a multiple case study design, we present two key findings. First, external factors such …


Examining The Streams Of A Retention Policy To Understand The Politics Of High-Stakes Reform, Christopher P. Brown Apr 2007

Examining The Streams Of A Retention Policy To Understand The Politics Of High-Stakes Reform, Christopher P. Brown

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Using John Kingdon’s (2003) multiple streams approach to agenda setting, I analyze how key actors within the state of Wisconsin understood the need to construct and implement the state’s No Social Promotion statutes to improve students’ academic performance. Policymakers within the state focused their standards-based reforms on the issue of improving students’ academic performance through increasing accountability. In doing so, they did not see these high-stakes policies as a form of punishment for those who fail, but rather, as a tool to focus the education establishment on improving the academic skills and knowledge of all their students. Thus, the retained …


Making Use Of What Teachers Know And Can Do: Policy, Practice, And National Board Certification, Julia E. Koppich, Daniel C. Humphrey, Heather J. Hough Apr 2007

Making Use Of What Teachers Know And Can Do: Policy, Practice, And National Board Certification, Julia E. Koppich, Daniel C. Humphrey, Heather J. Hough

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

This paper is the culmination of a three-year study that sought to frame an initial answer to the question, “What are the circumstances and conditions under which National Board Certified teachers (NBCTs) can have a positive impact on low-performing schools?” The study, funded by Atlantic Philanthropies, was part of the National Board’s more comprehensive effort to answer a number of research questions about the impacts of board certification and board certified teachers in schools and districts across the country.


Responding To The Education Reform Agenda: A Study Of School Superintendents' Instructional Leadership, Paul V. Bredeson, Brad W. Kose Mar 2007

Responding To The Education Reform Agenda: A Study Of School Superintendents' Instructional Leadership, Paul V. Bredeson, Brad W. Kose

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Education reforms have affected schools and the educators who work in them. Using state-wide survey data from 1993 and 2003, this study examines how the work of school superintendents has been affected over a ten-year period by these reform initiatives, especially increased demands for accountability. The general message from our data is that superintendents are interested in curriculum and instruction and believe these are important tasks, but the daily realities of their work often subvert even the most committed professional. Further, the data indicate that superintendents may be able to use external accountability mechanisms as levers to move the internal …


Cambio Curricular En El Bachillerato Tecnológico Mexicano: El Caso De La Disciplina De Ciencia, Tecnología, Sociedad Y Valores, Guadalupe Tinajero Villavicencio, Guadalupe López Bonilla, Carmen Pérez Fragoso Feb 2007

Cambio Curricular En El Bachillerato Tecnológico Mexicano: El Caso De La Disciplina De Ciencia, Tecnología, Sociedad Y Valores, Guadalupe Tinajero Villavicencio, Guadalupe López Bonilla, Carmen Pérez Fragoso

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

This article reports partial results of a research project that attempts, among other things, to identify the scope of educational policies concerning structural reforms to the Mexican high school curriculum. In particular, it covers the curricular reform implemented during the 2004-2005 school year in vocational technological high schools, paying special attention to teacher’s adoption of the new pedagogical proposal. ...


Hugging The Middle: Teaching In An Era Of Testing And Accountability, 1980-2005, Larry Cuban Jan 2007

Hugging The Middle: Teaching In An Era Of Testing And Accountability, 1980-2005, Larry Cuban

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

In the last quarter-century and especially the last decade, testing and accountability have come to dominate education policy at the state and national levels. The common concern about the effects of such testing is that it reshapes teaching in the classroom. But such claims do not look at the evidence of deeper classroom structures (the mix of teacher-centered and student-centered practices) in historical context. This article extends historical research in How Teachers Taught (Cuban, 1993) to the present in three metropolitan school districts. While testing and accountability have become more obvious concerns of teachers, the hybridized classroom environment documented in …


Comparison Of The Enrollment Percentages Of Magnet And Non-Magnet Schools In A Large Urban School District, Emily Arcia Dec 2006

Comparison Of The Enrollment Percentages Of Magnet And Non-Magnet Schools In A Large Urban School District, Emily Arcia

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Are magnet schools in a position to meet diversity ideals? As districts are declaredunitary and released from court ordered desegregation, many are framing their commitments to fairness and equity in terms of diversity—i.e., comparable rates of participation and comparable educational outcomes in all segments the student population. In this study, the enrollment statistics for magnet and contiguous non-magnet public schools in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, a large, urban district that had been released from court ordered desegregation, were compared to each other and to district enrollment averages at two time points: the year the district was declared unitary and four …


Relationships Between High-Stakes Testing Policies And Student Achievement After Controlling For Demographic Factors In Aggregated Data, Gregory J. Marchant, Sharon E. Paulson, Adam Shunk Nov 2006

Relationships Between High-Stakes Testing Policies And Student Achievement After Controlling For Demographic Factors In Aggregated Data, Gregory J. Marchant, Sharon E. Paulson, Adam Shunk

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

With the mandate of No Child Left Behind, high-stakes achievement testing is firmly in place in every state. The few studies that have explored the effectiveness of high-stakes testing using NAEP scores have yielded mixed results. This study considered state demographic characteristics for each NAEP testing period in reading, writing, mathematics, and science from 1992 through 2002, in an effort to examine the relation of high-stakes testing policies to achievement and changes in achievement between testing periods. As expected, demographic characteristics and their changes were related significantly to most achievement outcomes, but high-stakes testing policies demonstrated few relationships with achievement. …


No More Aggregate Naep Studies?, Sherman Dorn Nov 2006

No More Aggregate Naep Studies?, Sherman Dorn

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

This editorial reviews recent studies of accountability policies using National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data and compares the use of aggregate NAEP data to the availability of individual-level data from NAEP. …


Las Universidades Argentinas En El Contexto De Las Políticas De Los 90s: El Caso De La Licenciatura De Articulación En Ciencias De La Educación De La Unicen, Iris Richmond Oct 2006

Las Universidades Argentinas En El Contexto De Las Políticas De Los 90s: El Caso De La Licenciatura De Articulación En Ciencias De La Educación De La Unicen, Iris Richmond

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

This article analyses the changes caused by the implementation of an articulated degree in Educational Sciences at the Universidad Nacional at Centro de la Provincia in Buenos Aires (Argentina). This educational program should be understood within the framework provided by the structural reforms of the educational system, promoted by the national government in the 1990’s with the intention of restructuring the State–Society relations. This program that appeared to be promoting the democratization of access to the university system was transformed into a market mechanism, for the provision of financial resources to the university by selling “knowledge” to graduates from teacher …


Funding For Performance And Equity: Student Success In English Further Education Colleges, Ozan Jaquette Sep 2006

Funding For Performance And Equity: Student Success In English Further Education Colleges, Ozan Jaquette

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

The impact of performance funding on community college student outcomes is a contested issue. Performance funding policies in most U.S. states involve too small a proportion of funding to change college behavior. English further education colleges are similar to U.S. community colleges. 1992 policy reforms in England centralized policy control, and implemented a per-pupil funding formula; 10% of all funding is based on student success but other components of the funding formula pay colleges more money for enrolling disadvantaged students. This research uses five years of student level data to test the impact of these policies. Overall student success rates …


Nclb: Local Implementation And Impact In Southwest Washington State, Linda Mabry, Jason Margolis Sep 2006

Nclb: Local Implementation And Impact In Southwest Washington State, Linda Mabry, Jason Margolis

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

The research reported here is from the first two years of an ongoing and largely qualitative study to examine the impact of the No Child Left Behind federal education policy on educational practice and climate in elementary schools in two districts in southwest Washington. Based on systematic drop-in observations in classrooms and interviews with teachers and school and district administrators, data indicated that the policy had partially yielded the intended standards-based reforms but at considerable local cost. While most participating administrators described efforts to use NCLB to leverage needed change, most teachers described struggles to sustain best practice and to …


The Eight-Year Study: From Evaluative Research To Demonstration Project, 1930-1940, Joseph Watras Aug 2006

The Eight-Year Study: From Evaluative Research To Demonstration Project, 1930-1940, Joseph Watras

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

From 1932 to 1940, the Progressive Education Association (PEA) conducted its Eight-Year Study. At first, the study appeared to be a poorly funded comparison of two groups of students in secondary schools. During the last four years, as more financial support became available, the Eight-Year Study became a broadly based demonstration of a wide range of educational innovations. For contemporary educators, the story of the Eight-Year Study represents an opportunity to reconsider popular principles of program evaluation such as utilization-focused evaluation or program theory in evaluation. Rather than set plans in advance, the PEA members seemed to follow the ideas …


Federal, State, And District Level English Language Learning Program Entry And Exit Requirements: Effects On The Education Of Language Minority Learners, Alex Ragan, Nonie Lesaux Aug 2006

Federal, State, And District Level English Language Learning Program Entry And Exit Requirements: Effects On The Education Of Language Minority Learners, Alex Ragan, Nonie Lesaux

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Identification of a language minority learner for placement in a program for English Language Learners (ELLs), and the length of the support program, may have a significant effect on the student's academic achievement. Widespread anecdotal evidence suggests that criteria used to make placement decisions vary widely across the U.S. This study systematically examines related federal laws and guidance, as well as published entry and exit criteria for ELL programs for the 10 states and 10 districts in the U.S. with the largest enrollment of ELLs. For the majority of placement decisions, a measure of English proficiency is used. Very few …


On Ideology, Casual Inference And The Reification Of Statistical Methods: Reflections On "Examining Instruction, Achievement And Equity With Naep Mathematics Data", Harold Wenglinsky Jul 2006

On Ideology, Casual Inference And The Reification Of Statistical Methods: Reflections On "Examining Instruction, Achievement And Equity With Naep Mathematics Data", Harold Wenglinsky

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

The purpose of this article is to comment on the prior article entitled “Examining Instruction, Achievement and Equity with NAEP mathematics data,” by Sarah Theule Lubienski. That article claims that a prior article by the author suffered from three weaknesses: (1) An attempt to justify No Child Left Behind (NCLB); (2) drawing causal inferences from cross-sectional data; (3) and various statistical quibbles. The author responds to the first claim, by indicating that any mention of NCLB was intended purely to make the article relevant to a policy journal; to the second claim, by noting his own reservations about using cross-sectional …


Perceptions Of The Impact Of Accountability On The Role Of Principals, James E. Lyons, Bob Algozzine Jun 2006

Perceptions Of The Impact Of Accountability On The Role Of Principals, James E. Lyons, Bob Algozzine

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Calls for accountability in America’s schools have created increased responsibilities for educational leaders. In this article, we describe and discuss a study of elementary, middle, and high school principals’ perceptions of the state-wide educational accountability program in North Carolina. The respondents indicated that the state’s accountability program has had its greatest impact on how they monitored student achievement, aligned the curriculum to the testing program, provided student remedial or tutorial opportunities, assigned teachers to grades levels or subjects, and protected instructional time. Views of some components, such as measures of school effectiveness, school safety standards, expectations and promotion standards for …


A Escola E A Diversidade Cultural: Algumas Notas Sobre A Educação Multicultural Em Portugal, José Carlos Pina Almeida Jun 2006

A Escola E A Diversidade Cultural: Algumas Notas Sobre A Educação Multicultural Em Portugal, José Carlos Pina Almeida

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Multiculturalism, as a political project, has captured much attention in the recent decades. Multicultural education, in particular, has been often viewed as the ideal way to facilitate interactions between cultures and society. But it has also been involved in much controversy. We start this article by reviewing some of the debates around the multicultural paradigm. We will then turn out attention to the Portuguese case. In particular we will explore the way the view of the Portuguese history and culture as a humanist, universalist and non-racist one, has influenced the way the education system deals with the growing cultural diversity …


Examining Instruction, Achievement, And Equity With Naep Mathematics Data, Sara Theule Lubienski Jun 2006

Examining Instruction, Achievement, And Equity With Naep Mathematics Data, Sara Theule Lubienski

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

The purpose of this article is two-fold. First, it reports on a study of the distribution of reform-oriented instructional practices among Black, white and Hispanic students, and the relationship between those practices and student achievement. The study identified many similarities in instruction across student groups, but there were some differences, such as Black and Hispanic students being assessed with multiple-choice tests significantly more often than were white students. Using hierarchical linear modeling, this study identified several significant positive - and no negative - relationships between reform-oriented practices and 4th-grade student achievement. Specifically, teacher emphasis on non-number mathematics strands, collaborative problem …


Gathering Evidence On An After-School Supplemental Instruction Program: Design Challenges And Early Findings In Light Of Nclb, Madhabi Chatterji, Young Ae Kwon, Clarice Sng May 2006

Gathering Evidence On An After-School Supplemental Instruction Program: Design Challenges And Early Findings In Light Of Nclb, Madhabi Chatterji, Young Ae Kwon, Clarice Sng

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 requires that public schools adopt research-supported programs and practices, with a strong recommendation for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as the "gold standard" for scientific rigor in empirical research. Within that policy framework, this paper compares the relative utility of federally-recommended RCT versus the demonstrated extended term mixed-method (ETMM) designs as options for monitoring effects of novel programs in real-time field settings. Guided by the program's theory of action, a year-long, two-phase study was conducted to monitor the context, processes and early outcomes of an after-school supplemental program in a New York …


Small Schools And The Pressure To Consolidate, Aimee Howley, Craig Howley Mar 2006

Small Schools And The Pressure To Consolidate, Aimee Howley, Craig Howley

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Positioned in relationship to reform literature calling for small schools “by design” and interpreting data from a case study of a high performing but low-SES district in a Midwestern state, this paper provides a basis for making sense of the apparent divergence in policies governing schooling structures in rural and urban places. Its interpretation examines the way educational reformers work to valorize a multidimensional set of practices constituting “small school reform.”


The Black-White Achievement Gap: Do State Policies Matter?, Henry I. Braun, Aubrey Wang, Frank Jenkins, Elliot Weinbaum Mar 2006

The Black-White Achievement Gap: Do State Policies Matter?, Henry I. Braun, Aubrey Wang, Frank Jenkins, Elliot Weinbaum

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

A longstanding issue in American education is the gap in academic achievement between majority and minority students. The goal of this study is to accumulate and evaluate evidence on the relationship between state education policies and changes in the Black-White achievement gap, while addressing some of the methodological issues that have led to differences in interpretations of earlier findings. To that end, we consider the experiences of ten states that together enroll more than forty percent of the nation's Black students. We estimate the trajectories of Black student and White student achievement on the NAEP 8th grade mathematics assessment over …


Effects Of A State Mandated Policy (Site-Based Councils) And Of Potential Role Incumbents On Teacher Screening Decisions In High And Low Performing Schools, I. Phillip Young, Kimberly Miller-Smith Mar 2006

Effects Of A State Mandated Policy (Site-Based Councils) And Of Potential Role Incumbents On Teacher Screening Decisions In High And Low Performing Schools, I. Phillip Young, Kimberly Miller-Smith

Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA)

Some states have viewed teacher selection as a means of improving student performance and have mandated the use of site-based teacher councils. To assess the utility of this legislative action, an experimental study was conducted. This study uses a 2X3X2 factorial design that varies state legislation, role of the decision maker, and academic performance of the school site. Credentials of hypothetical teacher candidates were evaluated as if screening for a vacant position, and evaluations were submitted to a MANOVA. Results indicate that legislated alterations in the teacher-selection process failed to have any substantial effects on outcomes in the screening of …