Education Commons^™

Teamwork: Crucible For Learning About Collaborative Leadership, Lisa Deangelis, Sherry H. Penney, Maureen A. Scully

Center for Collaborative Leadership Publications

In teaching leadership development we have developed and revised a model of teamwork and collaboration, which has yielded innovative and positive results. Our study draws on insights from more than 90 project teams, gathered over twelve years of a mid-career executive education program designed specifically to teach collaborative leadership. The teams work on a strategic dilemma with a business association or community organization, highlighting the civic engagement aspect of collaborative leadership. Teams devise their own operating procedures, refine (not simply manage) the project, create working relationships with multiple stakeholders, and present a deliverable within the nine-month span of the program. …

What Can Pisa Tell Us About U.S. Education Policy?, Linda Darling-Hammond

New England Journal of Public Policy

Despite years of attention to “reform” in the United States, overall achievement on international assessments such as PISA has not improved during the period from 2000 to 2012. Reforms focused on high-stakes testing attached to sanctions, expansions of charter schools, and a market-based approach to teaching have been unsuccessful in changing outcomes. Meanwhile, growing childhood poverty, along with increasing segregation, income inequality, and disparities in school spending, have expanded the opportunity gap. Lessons from other nations and successful states indicate that systematic government investments in high-need schools along with capacity-building that improves the knowledge and skills of educators and the …

Interview With Andreas Schleicher, Padraig O'Malley, Andreas Schleicher

New England Journal of Public Policy

This interview took place on March 17, 2014, in Washington, DC, with Andreas Schleicher, Director of Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Schleicher is responsible for the Directorate of Education and Skills’ research, analysis, and publication of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), and the development and analysis of benchmarks on the performance of education systems. The OECD reports on PISA, PIAAC, and TALIS were released between December 3, …

Sustaining The Teaching Profession, Ronald Thorpe

New England Journal of Public Policy

Within the United States and across nations, there seems to be consensus that teacher quality is the most important school-based variable in determining how well a child learns. While such an observation hardly sounds like headline news, it is a milestone in the development of teaching as a profession. It suggests where investments should be made if people really are serious about student learning. It also explains why policymakers and the public should care about what it means to be an effective teacher and what it will take to create and sustain a teaching workforce defined by accomplished practice. Teachers, …

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 …

The Challenges Of Rewarding New Forms Of Scholarship: Creating Academic Cultures That Support Community-Engaged Scholarship, A Report On A Bringing Theory To Practice Seminar Held May 15, 2014, John Saltmarsh, John Wooding, Kat Mclellan

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

The need for and value of civic engagement is widely acknowledged and frequently advocated by students and faculty at American universities. Over the last several decades, recognizing the variety of forms of scholarly research and academic achievement has become commonplace on many campuses. The Carnegie Foundation now assesses and validates community engagement as one critical measure of a university’s identity and success. Many faculty stress community involvement, internships, and various forms of experiential learning in their courses and view them as critical components of a university education. Numerous faculty engage in communityengaged research, working with local organizations, local businesses, and …

Panoply: Haitian And Haitian-American Youth Crafting Identities In U.S. Schools, Fabienne Doucet

Trotter Review

In the United States, where race is a powerful factor for social stratification (Appiah & Gutmann, 1998; Glick-Schiller & Fouron, 1990a; Omni & Winant, 1986), foreign-born Blacks find themselves battling the demoralizing impacts of discrimination, racism, and xenophobia on a daily basis. In the school context, racist assumptions have been shown to predispose teachers to have lower expectations of immigrant students and other students of color, to view them more often as behavioral problems, and to assume that their parents do not value education (Doucet, 2008, 2011b; Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, & Todorova, 2008). At the same time, the powerful influence of …

Latinos In Massachusetts Public Schools: Springfield, Michael Berardino

Gastón Institute Publications

This report provides a snapshot of current educational outcomes of Latino students in the city of Springfield. It is based on publicly available data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MADESE) that have been analyzed by the Gastón Institute for a community meeting in Springfield. This report uses the ethno-racial categories assigned by MADESE. It focuses on the evolving demographic trends and the most recent educational outcomes of Latino students relative to other ethno-racial groups in the school district and to students statewide. The first section illustrates the demographic shift occurring in the Springfield Public Schools, with …

Pa'lante! Toward The Presidency: Understanding Factors That Facilitate Latino Leadership In Higher Education, Gloria Lopez

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of my study was to explore the role of cultural values in the lived experiences of Latino college and university presidents at four-year higher education institutions and to determine how cultural values contributed to and reflected their professional strengths. Using the Community Cultural Wealth framework developed by Tara Yosso (2005) to capture the assets or forms of capital that people of color bring with them to all settings, this study utilized a strengths-based approach to examine the ways in which Latino higher education executives translated their cultural upbringing and values into skills and approaches that facilitated their ascension …

Latinos In Massachusetts Public Schools: Pittsfield, Michael Berardino, Valerie Watson

Gastón Institute Publications

This report provides a snapshot of current educational outcomes of Latino students in the city of Pittsfield. It is based on publicly available data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MADESE) that has been analyzed by the Gastón Institute for the 2014 Latinos in Massachusetts Regional Meeting in Pittsfield. This report uses the ethno-racial categories assigned by MADESE. It focuses on the evolving demographic trends and the most recent educational outcomes of Latino students relative to other ethno-racial groups in the school district and to students statewide. The first section illustrates the demographic shift occurring within the …

"True, She Has The Culture You Need": A White Teacher In An Urban School Critically Reflects On The Hidden, Social, And Academic Curriculum, Mathew Arlen Mclean

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is an auto|ethnography , meaning it places the author's experiences at the center of analysis. The thesis argues that educators from the dominant culture can share the burden of change placed on students of color by critically reflecting on their positionality--or the way they socially construct their understanding of who they are in the world and therefore their relationship to educational structures and school actors. The analysis focuses on the author's transition from suburban to urban teaching and how this experience, combined with a broadening of theoretical perspectives, increased his criticality and, therefore, ability to re-conceptualize his …

Does Increased Family Income Reduce Fade Out Of Preschool Gains?, Colin C. Rose

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The current study examines the connection between a change of family income and the retention of academic gains for children in low-income households who have attended a center-based preschool program. These children are often shown to lose the academic advantage they gain during preschool as they move through k-12 education in a phenomenon called fade out. A theoretical framework was constructed positing that material and psychological effects of poverty inhibit the ability of these families to support and maintain growth during this critical time when children are highly nested in the family unit.

Treating family income as a causal risk …

The Academic And Cultural Adaptation Of Chinese International Students At Umass Boston: The Struggles And Progress From The Perspectives Of Students And Professors, Pingping Chen, Theodora Chocos, Lorena Fuentes

English Faculty Publication Series

This panel will articulate the struggles and progress of Chinese international students in their learning processes at UMass Boston. Additionally, the challenges some professors have faced in teaching Chinese international students and the pedagogical practice they have used to engage these learners in their courses will be addressed.

This panel was presented as part of the 2014 8th Annual University Conference on Teaching, Learning, and Technology on May 15, 2014. The theme of the conference was "Teaching both What and How for Deep Learning at Every Level."

Beyond Assumptions: How Urban Students View And Practice Digital Literacies In And Out Of School, Storey Mecoli

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This qualitative, ethnographic case study investigates digital literacy practices and perceptions of students at an urban public high school in the Boston metropolitan area comprising a racially, ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse student body, an under-studied demographic. The study compares in-school and out-of-school literacy practices and posits the role schools might play in preparing learners. The study examines digital literacy practices among student based on information gathered through focus groups, survey methods, and interviews. Three controlling questions guided the study:

1. What digital literacy practices are students in Washington High School engaging in outside of school?
2. What purposes do these youth …

Library Portal 2.0: The Social Research Management System, Apostolos Koutropoulos

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Library 2.0 (L2) has been discussed in depth in library circles in recent years. This article looks at L2 initiatives and technology implementation with regard to L2 and proposes a reboot, repositioning the library portal as a Social Research Management System (SRMS). This SRMS adheres to the L2 principles of purposeful, user-driven, library services. The SRMS is envisioned as the center of academic research and activity at universities, not as a peripheral tool. Creating a new generation library portal (the SRMS) is a group endeavor, thus by utilizing both on-campus and peer resources, the realization of the faceted, modularized, SRMS …

Logging In To Learning Analytics, Edna J. Pressler

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

According to the most recent Higher Education Editions of the Horizon Report (Johnson et al., 2013; Johnson, Adams, & Cummins, 2012; Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine, & Haywood, 2011), learning analytics (LA) is an emerging technology that will be widely adopted within the next few years. In this article, I use the McKinsey 7S Model (Waterman, Peters, & Phillips, 1980) as a way to organize a review of the learning analytics (LA) literature, in order to help organizational leaders assess and increase an organization’s readiness for LA. More specifically, I identify the 7 areas of an organization that need to be …

Dewey, Desi, And Dec: Exploring The Educational Philosophy Of Indian Open, Online, And Distance Education, Dennis Maxey

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This paper explores pedagogical underpinnings of current Indian open, online, and distance education. Tracing the history of national and cultural adherence to the precepts of American educational theorist and philosopher, John Dewey, the paper notes the Deweyesk perspective has not translated into constructivist distance educational practices. The work surveys the history of distance education in India, and reviews literature in the field produced by Indian academics, whose recent reports suggest that online education may be transforming Indian educational philosophy, bringing a more constructivist approach to teaching on the sub-continent.

The paper is organized into the following sections:

• A brief history …

Development Of A New Mindset For Elearning Pedagogy: For The Teacher And The Learner, Tara Devi S. Ashok

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Teaching, like learning, involves a personal journey. This researched narrative records the role of technology integration in one instructor’s teaching practice, and examines how literature in the field accounts for ways eLearning technologies have kept the author and her students engaged in the process of learning. Dr. Tara Ashok of the University of Massachusetts Boston chronicles the personal eLearning tool kit she has selected for effective delivery of contents in different teaching formats. She posits the importance of developing a new mindset to adapt to emerging technologies and examines the literature and her own experiences suggesting how and why, eLearning …

Discovering Behavioral Intervention: A Parent’S Interactive Guide To Aba, Richard Fleming, Carol Curtin, Cheryl A. Gray, Charles D. Hamad

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) affect one in 110 children in the U.S. Parents of children with ASD need clear and accurate information to communicate with professionals as they seek appropriate services, including applied behavior analysis (ABA) based intervention. Behavioral professionals can assist parents in this endeavor by recommending resources, including online courses. This paper describes the development and evaluation of an online course on ABA for parents of children with ASD. Parents completing a summative field test (N=21) made significant gains in knowledge and reported high levels of satisfaction. Implications include the potential for enhanced parent-professional collaboration in treatment decision-making.

Foreword, Apostolos Koutropoulos, Alan Girelli

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This first publication of Current Issues in Emerging eLearning (CIEE) opens and closes with research studies on eLearning practice. The studies frame three theoretical discussions regarding the judicious adoption of eLearning technologies and one extended narrative regarding the various factors behind innovative best practices.

Current Issues In Emerging Elearning, Volume 1, Issue 1

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

This first publication of Current Issues in Emerging eLearning (CIEE) opens and closes with research studies on eLearning practice. The studies frame three theoretical discussions regarding the judicious adoption of eLearning technologies and one extended narrative regarding the various factors behind innovative best practices.

Merced College: An Online Library Presence, Joselle L. Merritt

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

Merced College has a number of courses being taught on line and that the number continues to grow. The college is currently implementing online courses that meet the requirements of California SB520, passed in May of 2013, requiring all California students to have access to online classes at any California community college. This applies only if the classes they need are not available at their home institution. Added to this is the requirement from the accrediting agency for California Community Colleges that all students, both distance and face-to-face have equal access to library resources. As more and more classes go …