College Readiness for English Language Learners (ELLs) in California: Assessing Equity for ELLs under the Local Control Funding Formula

English Learners (ELs) represent critical mass of K-12 students in public schools across the nation. However, states have failed to improve EL student academic outcomes, including college readiness. In 2013, California altered its school funding policy, providing additional support for English learners. Drawing on Vertical Equity and a Critical Community Strength Framework, this study examines the impact of local funding on college readiness among EL students by analyzing accountability plans and secondary data of 13 districts and assessing reforms using markers of college readiness. Document analysis shows: 1) school districts’ prioritization, 2) resource allocation based on those priorities, and 3) different approaches to operationalizing the construct of equity. Secondary data analysis reveals EL students lagged behind peers in performance on state assessments and enrollment in college preparatory and Advanced Placement varied across districts. These data confirm the critical need for intervention and targeted investment to raise overall college readiness rates among EL students in California and have national implications for states with growing Latino and EL student populations.     

Relationship Between Educational Resources and School Achievement: A Mixed Method Intra-District Analysis

This study examines the relationship between educational resources (fiscal, personnel and facilities) and school achievement within a large urban/suburban elementary school district. A sequential mixed methods approach reveals inequitable resource allocation trends and patterns between schools within a school district by producing different student outcomes. The educational resources positively correlated to higher school achievement are: higher teacher salaries, newer schools, more multi-purpose space per pupil and less portable classrooms. Without question, White students receive more of these resources than Latino students, low-income students and English Language learners. This study also conducts a multiple comparative case study analysis comparing between Title I and non-Title I schools, within Title I schools and within non-Title I schools. The study contains policy and practice implications to improve opportunity and school achievement in urban/suburban school districts.     

Measuring equity of education resource allocation: An output-based approach

This paper provides a methodological framework to measure and analyze educational resource allocation within and across systems and ascertain potential equity implications. The proposed approach employs an outputs-driven method to provide a snapshot of the equitable distribution of key educational resources available in relation to student populations that are most in need. Our approach standardizes educational resources into three broad dimensions including teacher quality, school physical environment, and school instructional environment while contrasting the allocation of these resources between low- and high-needs schools. We implement this approach using real world data from Brazil to demonstrate its adaptability to the context and available data while still maintaining a consistent framework across applications.     

School district enrollment and inequality in the supply of classes

This study explores relationships between school district enrollment and the internal allocation of resources across subject areas of the curriculum. The central argument is that differences in how resources are allocated stem, in part, from the uneven impact district size has on the relative costs of educational services. These internal differences in resource allocation are viewed as a possible obstacle to achieving equity in the provision of educational opportunities. The empirical work is based on a random sample of New York State school districts and includes cross-sectional as well as longitudinal results.     

Opposite Sides of the Same Coin? Exploring the Connections between School Absenteeism and Student Mobility

ABSTRACT

Mobile students and absent students are important subsets of at-risk students in schools and districts nationwide. As such, student mobility and school absenteeism are two challenges in K-12 education with significant policy and equity implications. Although both issues are at the nexus of schooling and society and there is an apparent overlap in the attributes of these student subgroups, school absenteeism and student mobility are often discussed in separate conversations. This article connects the two disparate literatures in hopes of forging stronger ties that may benefit policymakers, researchers, educators, and students. The limited empirical evidence is mixed but suggests that school absenteeism and student mobility are correlated and absenteeism plays a small mediating role in the relationship between student mobility and student outcomes. The reasons underlying student mobility and student absenteeism are interrelated but not all reasons are common. The overlapping causes of student mobility and chronic absenteeism indicate that economic and social circumstances are important underlying factors. In particular, poverty is a key shared reason for missing or switching schools. Although both phenomena contribute to disparities in educational opportunities, experiences, and outcomes, this study posits that changing schools and missing school provide instructive examples of how inequality in society may be reproduced in districts and schools. Recommendations to address both phenomena and directions for future research are discussed.     

Accounting for Variation in Science and Mathematics Achievement: A Multilevel Analysis of Australian Data Third International Mathematics and Science Study (Timss)

One of the most consistent themes evident in the literature dealing with rural education is that of rural disadvantage. Much research and literature indicates that students from rural schools receive an education that is inferior to that of students from larger urban or suburban schools. Of the matrix of factors reported to lead to that disadvantage, geographical isolation and the extent to which it restricts access is reported to result in rural schools not having the same standard of resource allocation as urban schools where access is not a problem. This study addresses the issue of resource availability in rural and urban Australian schools and includes the variables: students' attitudes towards science and mathematics and career aspirations of these students. The analysis includes socioeconomic status and gender of these students and investigates how these variables relate to student achievement. Do students in rural schools have the same educational opportunity as students in urban schools? In this study a multilevel model is used which takes into account the classroom level variance in student achievement as well as individual variance and school level variance.     

Exploring weighted student formulas as a policy for improving equity for distributing resources to schools: A case study of two California school districts

This paper presents a case study of two California school districts, San Francisco and Oakland, each of which have implemented their own versions of what is popularly known as a weighted student formula (WSF). One primary goal of the WSF policy is to increase the equity with which resources are distributed to schools. With respect to equity, the findings suggest that for particular schooling levels per-pupil spending became more responsive to student poverty and that the increase in responsiveness appears to have coincided with implementation of the WSF in the two districts. Moreover, each district relies on a different mechanism for driving resources to the schools: San Francisco relying to a greater degree on the unrestricted funds, while Oakland relies more heavily on restricted sources which, as directed by law, drive dollars to special need populations. Interestingly, neither district exhibited any significant change in the distribution of teacher experience after implementation of their SBF models; schools serving the highest proportion of students from low-income families continued to employ teachers with the least experience after implementation of the SBF models. While an additional goal of WSF was to drive more resources down to the school level to be spent, our analysis found little substantial change in the proportion of resources expended at the school versus the district level.     

The perceptions of stakeholders of the implementation of a state funding model in South African public schools

The government has made great strides in redressing past imbalances in education through the National Norms and Standards for School Funding (NNSSF) policy that focuses on equity in school funding. This NNSSF model compels the state to fund public schools according to a poverty quintile system, where poor schools are allocated much more funding for resources than affluent schools. Using qualitative research, school management teams, school governing bodies and principals of six public schools located within the Gauteng West District were interviewed to determine their views of how the NNSSF policy had been implemented. One of the findings revealed that equity in public schools has not been fully achieved since funding provided by the state is insufficient to address the backlog in educational resources. It is recommended that the state abandons the policy of funding schools according to quintile rankings but instead, fund schools based on resource needs.     

Placing math reform: locating Latino English learners in math classrooms and communities

This article explores how place matters in public school reform efforts intended to promote more equitable opportunities and outcomes. Qualitative case studies of three California middle schools’ eighth grade math reforms and the resulting opportunities for Latino English learners are presented, using the conceptual frameworks of critical human geography to situate math reform processes within local and regional social, political, economic, institutional and spatial dynamics. The cases reveal relationships between local efforts to transform or maintain racially and ethnically segregated housing and school attendance patterns, decision-making about math programmes and resource allocation, and resulting student learning opportunities. Together they suggest that (1) efforts to foster more equitable student outcomes must account for the mutually constitutive nature of schools and their localities; (2) mobilization, and educational leaders’ responses to it, matter; and (3) place-sensitive education research demands place-sensitive conceptual frameworks and interdisciplinary, qualitative research methods.     

Equity for English Learners: Evidence from Four Years of California’s Local Control Funding Formula

This study examined evidence of equity for English Learners-one of the three targeted student groups–in the early implementation of California’s Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) across data sets from seven studies. We used social justice inquiry methods and data integration analytic approaches that included purposeful sampling of districts’ Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs), and data integration analyses of interviews with education leaders to examine how equity was advanced for English Learners. Our findings reveal that the quest for equity for English Learners is elusive and requires multilevel efforts to reverse the national, state, and local histories of unequal treatment, deficit orientations, socio-political dynamics, and legacies of unequal funding that still permeate many schools. Further advances in equity will require greater systemic coherence that sharpens the focus on educational outcomes for English Learners. California’s most recent policy shifts–including the passage of Proposition 58 and the English Learner Roadmap–show promise of systemic coherence and alignment to an assets-based approach for English Learners in the state and nation, as tangible evidence of equity in services and outcomes are still works in progress.     

The emperor has no clothes: examining the impossible relationship between gendered and academic identities in middle school students

Despite the social equity work that still needs to be done in schools and society, many researchers, politicians, and social commentators claim that gender equity work in schools has been accomplished. These people assume that actions in school lead to gender equity outside it. But, there may be two problems with this assumption: 1) achieving equity in academic work may mask still‐inequitable gender work in schools and 2) girls’ and boys’ equal academic achievement does not promise social equality, inside or outside schools. The following study offers evidence from a recent middle school study that reveals how children’s gender identities are naturalized as neutral “student” identities, making the effects of children’s gender identity work invisible. This author argues that schooling at best maintains the inequity of the American gender status quo, and perhaps may work to actually lessen chances for women and men’s equitable life opportunities.     

Vertical Equity in School Finance and the Potential for Increasing School Responsiveness to Student and Staff Needs

This article explores the concept of vertical equity in light of school reform efforts aimed at increasing academic outcomes for all students. Vertical equity, or the idea that students who bring certain educational needs to the classroom require additional resources to address those needs within the educational process, is useful as a way to conceptualize school responsiveness. To the degree that vertical equity can encapsulate the complexity of the teaching and learning processes in schools, it carries considerable potential to assess school responsiveness to diverse student and staff needs and facilitate improved educational outcomes.     

区域性教育信息资源均衡发展研究：案例比较与优化策略

教育信息资源建设与应用存在区域性差异问题,以广州市越秀、番禺和花都三个区域的部分学校为研究案例,从各区域教育信息资源的软硬件配置、资源利用、教师对资源的认知、资源建设与应用机制4方面进行对比分析。研究指出,为促进区域性教育信息资源的均衡发展,应当优化投入结构和整体配置效益,遵循统一的技术标准建立优质的资源库,拓展与社会力量的沟通合作。     

学生眼中的教育公平是什么?——基于实验研究的证据

本文运用实验研究的方法,通过利益相关者和旁观者游戏,对小学、初中和高中不同年龄阶段的667名学生的公平偏好进行实验研究,探索学生眼中的公平观,分析学生公平偏好的影响因素。研究发现,中小学不同年龄学生的公平偏好是发展性的,学生最初倾向于均等主义的公平观,随着年龄的增长以及受到同伴关系、认知发展、社会经验等因素的影响,学生越来越倾向于接受由运气、绩效和效率导致的不平等,体现了差异化的公平观。家庭背景与学校教育在塑造儿童公平偏好过程中均起到重要的作用。家长的学历和教育水平会影响儿童的公平偏好,父母学历越高,学生越容易接受由运气导致的不平等分配。中国比较独特的班干部制度的育人价值不仅体现在班级管理与领导力提升等方面,也体现在塑造儿童不同的公平偏好上。因此教育者在不同的年级针对不同年龄的学生要考虑到不同的公平策略。     

Intention or in tension? Recent education reforms in South Africa

The major restructuring of the entire education system in South Africa has produced considerable policy tensions and contradictions. In the light of recent legislation, this paper examines the consequences of the Education Department's attempting to serve the demands for equity in terms of resource allocation and reprioritisation within and between provinces, while simultaneously on a micro school-based level attempting to insert a particular school culture (governance, funding, curricula, conditions of service and so on) across schools that were previously extremely disparate in terms of the elements referred to above. This attempt at equality in the face of the equity drive has considerable consequences for the delivery and provision of education services. The paper discusses these and analyses the policy-making domain which has produced somewhat contradictory outcomes.     

Understanding the Impact of Accountability on Preservice Teachers’ Decisions About Where to Teach

Research has shown that individuals who become teachers are uniquely oriented to the psychic rewards of teaching such as connecting with students and making a difference. Yet, in the era of “No Child Left Behind”, emphasis upon test scores as indicators of student learning, competition within and between school districts, and threats of external sanctions seem to promote a different orientation to teachers’ work. This is especially the case in schools with limited human, social, physical, and cultural capital serving disproportionate numbers of low-income, racial/ethnic and linguistic minority students typically located in urban areas. Given the existing problem of teacher shortages in urban schools and the current impact of accountability, this study seeks to explore two questions: How do preservice teachers believe their aspirations to teach will be affected by the accountability movement? And how do these views affect their considerations about where to teach?     

Educational inequality in Colombia: family background,school quality and student achievement in Cartagena

This study examines the effects of family socio‐economic disadvantage and differences in school resources on student achievement in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. Using data from the ICFES and C‐600 national databases, we conduct a multilevel analysis to determine the unique contribution of school‐level factors above and beyond family background. The results from the hierarchical linear models show that while family socio‐economic background significantly affects student achievement, school composition and school resources explain as much as half of the effects of family background. More specifically, the achievement gap in public schools is explained in large part by differential resource allocation and concentration of poor students in public schools, which in turn lowers student achievement.     

Examining the generalizability of administrative personnel allocation decisions

This study examined the effect of district and school size on principal teacher allocation decisions. The study tested the invariance of a personnel allocation decision making model for elementary school principals from three categories of school and district size. The sample consisted of elementary school principals from small, medium, and large schools and districts. The results confirmed the fit of the model across schools of all sizes and across small and medium size districts. For large school districts the proposed decision-making model did not fit the data. This result implies that district size has an effect on the personnel allocation decisions made by elementary school principals.     

“You’re Trying to Know Me”: Students from Nondominant Groups Respond to Teacher Personalism

Urban school districts have increasingly enacted policies of personalism, such as converting large schools into smaller schools. Such policies ask teachers to develop supportive, individual relationships with students as a presumed lever for student achievement. Research on student?Cteacher relationships generally supports policies of personalism. Much of this literature also considers these relationships?? sociocultural dimensions, and so leads to questions about how low-income youth and youth of color might respond to teacher efforts to develop closer relationships with them. This qualitative study, conducted over 1?year with 34 youth at 3 small, urban high schools, explores how youth from nondominant groups responded to teacher personalism. Data show that teacher practices consistent with culturally-responsive pedagogy and relational trust literature do promote student?Cteacher relationships. However, tensions arose when participants perceived that teacher personalism threatened their privacy or agency. Sociocultural and institutional contexts contributed to these tensions, as participants navigated personalism amidst experiences that constrained their trust in schools. A staged model of student?Cteacher relationships integrates these findings and extends current thinking about culturally-responsive personalism. These findings inform implications for teacher practice and policies of personalism.