0

Eric.ed.gov – Teaching Effectiveness and the Conditions that Matter Most in High-Needs Schools: A Policy Brief

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Over the last decade, policy and business leaders have come to know what parents have always known: teachers make the greatest difference to student achievement. With new statistical and analytical methods used by a wide range of researchers, evidence has been mounting that teacher quality can account for a large share of variance in student test scores. The evidence on the distribution of qualified and effective teachers is also clear–and the findings are not good. Teachers who have met the demanding standards of National Board Certification and those who have generated higher “value-added” student achievement gains are far less likely to teach economically disadvantaged and minority students. As a result, high-poverty schools are more likely to be beset with teaching vacancies in math and special education, and… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Unintended Consequences: High Stakes Can Result in Low Standards

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In all the elementary schools in the county, benchmark assessments were given six times a year in math and three times in reading; they were modeled after the questions anticipated on the Maryland School Assessment (MSA). Although results were sent to the school board, there were no cosmic consequences for the hourlong tests; they were supposed to be used by teachers to diagnose problems and adjust instruction. But at Tyler Heights Elementary School, benchmarks were seen as facsimiles of the MSA and treated with commensurate intensity. The first day of school was the last day the third-graders didn’t write a BCR–a “brief constructed response,” a paragraph-sized answer that’s required on the state test. Using Tyler Heights as an example, this article illustrates how standards and students suffer… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – High Schools and High Stakes Testing in California: Size and Income Do Matter

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the size of high schools, their percentage of SED (socio-economic disadvantaged) students, and API (academic performance index) scores in California, and determine if teacher preparation is a contributing factor. The 2010 API scores and median income of all 52 counties, and the 2010 API scores and % SED of 1,089 high schools were tabulated and graphed to determine the strength of the correlation between the two different sets of data. Also, the percent proficient levels (in English) for all high school students by grade (9-11) and by socio-economic status from 2003 to 2010 were compared. Lastly, the number and percent of English and math teachers with the proper credentials are presented for analysis. Results indicate there… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Some Strategies in Dealing with High-Stakes Testing and the Death of Social Studies Education

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The pressure of high-stakes testing has virtually eliminated the teaching of history and the other social studies from many urban elementary schools. The author has heard it directly from many Philadelphia (Pa.) teachers in numerous classes where he teaches graduate social studies pedagogy courses to graduate student teachers who are pursuing Masters degrees or state certification. Many of these graduate student teachers describe enormous stress on them and their students to meet the established Annual Yearly Progress (AYP), as indicated by standardized test results. Graduate student teachers also describe the pressure they face to eliminate altogether the teaching of subjects other than reading/language arts and math. Over the past two years more than forty graduate student teachers have related receiving similar directives from their supervisors. Moreover, the… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – The Mathematical Experiences of Black Males in a Predominantly Black Urban Middle School and Community

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: There is a growing body of research focused on the mathematical experiences of Black males in the United States of America. This research has emerged to challenge the dominant narrative in mathematics education focused on Black males’ low performance on international, national, and state standardized tests. There is very little research that has explored the impact of high-stakes testing in mathematics on Black males in urban areas. Using qualitative research methods, this study examines the middle school mathematics experiences of four Black males and provides insight into their responses to challenges they face in urban communities, schools, and math classrooms. Critical race theory was used to illuminate Black males’ desire to be challenged in the classroom and describe the community, school, and classroom conditions that impact their… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – MIXED: Educational Perspectives from Families of Mixed East and West Educational Background

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Will my children’s creativity be hindered if I place them within the rigidity of an East Asian school? Conversely, could my children’s math and science skills benefit from the high expectations of an East Asian curriculum and teacher? The purpose of this study is two-fold. Firstly, it aims to demonstrate that comparison between Eastern and Western educational traditions can be framed in terms of a dialectic concerning students’ development, autonomy, learning environment, and curricula. Secondly, it is to analyze the substance and effects of this dialectic in the context of 15 families of mixed educational background situated between Eastern and Western educational traditions. These families in Hong Kong have access to educational opportunities for their children in adherence to educational styles associated with either Eastern or Western… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Towards an Understanding of the Testing Opt-Out Movement: Why Parents Choose to Opt-Out or Opt-In

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The opt-out movement, a grassroots coalition of opposition to high-stakes tests that are used to sort students, evaluate teachers, and rank schools, has the largest participation on Long Island, New York, where approximately 50% of the eligible students in grades three to eight opted out of the English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics tests in 2019 (“Projects: ELA and Math Opt-Outs 2016-2019,” 2019). Quantitative research has shown a racial disparity between parents who opted out and opted in with White, middle class parents participating in the opt-out movement at greater rates than Latinx, Black, and Asian parents (Au, 2017; Bennett, 2016; Hildebrand, 2017; Klein, 2016; Murphy, 2017; Phi Delta Kappa & Gallup Poll, 2017; Pizmony-Levy & Green Saraisky, 2016; Ryan, 2016; Tompson, Benz, & Agiesta, 2013). Parents… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Using Alternative Student Growth Measures for Evaluating Teacher Performance: What the Literature Says. REL 2013-002

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: States are increasingly interested in including measures of student achievement growth, or “value- added,” in evaluating teachers. Annual state assessments, however, which are the typical measure of student growth, usually cover only reading and math teachers and only in grades 4-8. These state assessments thus cannot generally be used to measure contributions to student achievement growth for early elementary school teachers, most high school teachers, and teachers of other subjects. As a consequence, a growing number of states and school districts are exploring alternatives for measuring teachers’ contributions to student learning. These alternatives have the potential to be used for evaluating not only teachers who work in grades and subjects outside the annual state testing regime but also as complementary growth measures for teachers of tested grades… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – The Abacus: Instruction by Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Introduction: This article, based on a study of 196 teachers of students with visual impairments, reports on the experiences with and opinions related to their decisions about instructing their students who are blind or have low vision in the abacus. Methods: The participants completed an online survey on how they decide which students should be taught abacus computation skills and which skills they teach. Data were also gathered on those who reported that they did not teach computation with the abacus. Results: The participants resided in the United States and Canada and had various numbers of years of teaching experience. More than two-thirds of those who reported that they taught abacus computation skills indicated that they began instruction when their students were between preschool and the second… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Tracking Growth: Studying First-Year Teacher Development under a High-Stakes Evaluation System

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Students who have more effective teachers are more likely to attend college, earn a higher salary, and live in higher socioeconomic neighborhoods (Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff, 2012). As such, teacher effectiveness is critically important, and identifying teachers who demonstrate high potential for growth in their first year of teaching could be a real asset to the districts in which they teach. The purpose of this project is to determine which teachers seem to measurably improve their instructional practice over the course of their first-year, measured via a series of observations conducted by normed observers using a common rubric. Data came from 965 first-year teachers recruited and trained by alternative certification programs in 15 geographic regions: Delaware; Baltimore; Washington, DC; Chicago; Charlotte; Nashville; Memphis; Texas (Fort Worth, Dallas,… Continue Reading