Do School Segregation and School Resources Explain Region-of-Origin Differences in the Mathematics Achievement of Immigrant Students? 1

Levels and Dronkers (2006 Dronkers, J. and Wanner, R. A. 2006. Waarom verdienen immigranten minder? Effecten van immigratiebeleid en arbeidsmarktkenmerken [Why do immigrants earn less? Effects of immigration policies and labour market characteristics]. Tijdschrift voor Arbeidsvraagstukken, 22: 379–394.  [Google Scholar]) showed that educational achievement differs between immigrant students from different regions of origin (Latin America, Northern Africa, and Western Asia). This follow-up paper establishes whether these differences in educational achievement between immigrant students from different regions of origin can be explained by school segregation, whether along ethnic or socioeconomic lines. Ethnic and socioeconomic school segregation have a negative influence on the scholastic achievement of all students, although the impact of socioeconomic school segregation is greater than that of ethnic school segregation. Ethnic school segregation affects the scholastic outcomes of native and immigrant students from some regions of origin more than those of immigrant students from other regions. The analysis shows that neither ethnic, nor socioeconomic, school segregation explains the lower mathematics achievement of immigrant students from Latin America, Northern Africa, and Western Asia.     

Differential Patterns of Change and Stability in Student Learning Outcomes in Holland’s Academic Environments: The Role of Environmental Consistency

The findings of this study show wide variation in the learning patterns of college students in the academic environments of Holland’s theory and, more importantly, that such variability differs based on the level of “consistency” or “inconsistency” of the environments. Differences in the learning patterns of students in “consistent” academic environments tend to be more in alignment with the premises of Holland’s theory than those of students in “inconsistent” environments. Implications of these findings for future research using Holland’s theory to understand longitudinal patterns of change and stability in the attitudes, interests, and abilities of college students are discussed, and attention is devoted to policy development and practical implications for academic advisors, career counselors, campus leaders, and governmental and accrediting officials.     

Evolution in Freedom? The Meanings of ‘Free School’ in Chile

This article examines the background in which enterprises called free schools, as well as complementary educational activities, have taken root in Chile. Two kinds of recently burgeoning free schools are identified; one supplementing regular schooling with a social justice focus, and another that is a fully fledged alternative to other schooling. The history of freedom itself in Chile is explored from a historical perspective, contrasting somewhat with freedom as it is understood in more developed countries. Parallels to Anglophone free schools such as AS Neill’s Summerhill are also discussed, as well as the sociopolitical context in which Chilean free schools continue to develop.     

Change or Durability? The Contribution of Metaconceptual Awareness in Preservice Early Childhood Teachers’ Learning of Science Concepts

This longitudinal study examined the role of metaconceptual awareness in the change and the durability of preservice teachers’ conceptual understandings over the course of several months. Sixteen preservice early childhood teachers participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to reveal the participants’ conceptual understandings of lunar phases (pre, post, and delayed-post) and level of metaconceptual awareness (delayed-post only). Based on the change and stability in participants’ conceptual understandings from pre to post and from post to delayed-post interviews, participants’ conceptual understandings were assigned into three groups that described the profile of their long-term conceptual understandings: “decay or stability”, “continuous growth”, and “growth and stability”. The results indicated that participants in the “continuous growth” and “growth and stability” groups had significantly higher metaconceptual awareness scores than participants in the “decay or stability” group. The results provided evidence that metaconceptual awareness plays a more decisive role in the restructuring of conceptual understandings than the durability of conceptual understandings.     

Discipline or Prejudice? Overrepresentation of Minority Students in Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs

The study seeks to determine the underlying factors contributing to the overrepresentation of minorities in school disciplinary programs. Data from 207 Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs) in Texas are analyzed. The data represent more than 62 % of the student population of Texas school districts. Results support the hypothesis that the ‘whiteness’ of school district undesirably affects the overrepresentation of Black students (but not Hispanic students) in DAEP. Overrepresentation of Black students in disciplinary programs is significantly higher in urban school districts than in rural districts. The findings, however, add a new layer of complexity to the debate on the overrepresentation of minorities in disciplinary programs. This is because not only White school districts are more likely than other districts to exercise their discretionary authority to punish minorities but they also more frequently subject their minority students to mandatory disciplines that are well defined by the state. Plausible explanations of such overrepresentation is offered for future research. Neither wealth nor the districts’ type (urban, suburban, rural and mid-size) have been found to have significant impact on discretionary or mandatory disciplinary actions against minority students.     

The School Counselor in Israel: An Agent of Social Justice?

In recent years, leaders in the school counseling profession worldwide have been calling on their colleagues to re-examine their role as “agents of social justice” in schools, with a view to promoting equal educational opportunities for all students. This research examines counselors’ perceptions of the role, role behaviors, personal justice sensitivity, the school’s justice sensitivity and the interrelations among these variables. Two hundred and six Israeli school counselors responded to a questionnaire. Findings show that the majority of counselors perceived their role as promoting social justice, and indeed engaged in activities meant to increase disadvantaged students’ chances of success. The variable of role perception was found to mediate between personal sensitivity to justice (justice sensitivity) and counselors’ actual behaviors. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for the professional socialization of counselors as agents of social justice.     

But Who Is it for? The History of School Science in England

Science & Education -     

School choice in rural Nigeria? The limits of low-fee private schooling in Kwara State

The rise in low-fee private (LFP) primary schooling serving relatively poor clients is becoming well-documented. However much of this literature focuses on urban areas whose dense populations are favourable to market growth and competition. This paper goes some way to filling a gap in the literature on whether LFP schools are serving the needs of the poor in rural areas, taking the case of one Nigerian state. It contrasts the situation in rural areas with that of urban Ilorin, where private schools cater to over half of all enrolled children. The paper shows that private schooling is currently inaccessible to the poor, with only 3.3% of children in the poorest 40% of the population attending them, and only 13% of enrolled children in rural areas. The key message is that redoubled efforts are needed to improve government schools as providers of last resort to those bypassed by the market.     

The Single Sex Debate for Girls in Science: a Comparison Between Two Informal Science Programs on Middle School Students’ STEM Identity Formation

Currently, there are policy debates regarding the efficacy and legality of single sex formal and informal education programs. This issue is particularly poignant in science education due to the historical marginalization of women in these fields. This marginalization has resulted in women being positioned as a stigmatized group within many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related fields. Research points to adolescence as the age where this sense of marginalization begins to develop. As a result, policy responses have utilized various frameworks such as: increased access for women, changing pedagogy to address women’s learning styles, changing the language and culture of science to prevent marginalization of stigmatized groups, and finally exploring the role that individual identity plays in the marginalization of women. This study adds to the policy debate as it applies to single sex education by comparing middle school participants’ STEM identity formation during two informal science learning environments (an all girls’ STEM camp and a co-educational STEM camp). Additionally, this study focuses on the influence of camp activities within two informal science education programs: particularly the provision of role models and authentic STEM research activities, as means to improve STEM identity and make these fields relevant to the lives of middle school students. The results indicate that both camps improved girls’ STEM identities. These findings suggest that the single sex environment is not as important to STEM identity as the pedagogy used within the program.     

Competence or Performance? A Bernsteinian Analysis of Basic Competency Assessment in Hong Kong

This article analyses an assessment initiative known as the Basic Competency Assessment (BCA) in Hong Kong using Bernstein’s performance and competence models of pedagogic practice. On the one hand, BCA is aligned with a competence model through its official projection as a low-stakes, student-focussed and formative assessment. However, an examination of the public perception of and context for BCA reveals its high-stakes, disciplines-centred and summative nature; it is argued that BCA reflects a performance model with strong classification, strong framing and visible pedagogies. The example of Hong Kong illustrates the usefulness of Bernstein’s theory and extends the existing research on the interactions between local culture and pedagogic practices.     

Revolution or backlash? The mediatisation of education policy in Australia

Recent scholarship has identified the emergence of a new modality of policy work: the mediatisation of policy. This paper provides an Australian case study which reports on the tactics of an Australian Federal Minister of Education and a media commentator who both engaged in public pedagogical work for the purpose of spinning education policy. In particular, we argue that this example of the mediatisation of education policy has worked to stifle pedagogical innovation as advocates of middle schooling reform struggle against what appears to be a backlash to the social-democratic reforms of the post-World War II era. Such backlash politics is understood in terms of a struggle to maintain the role of teachers as curriculum designers and not be merely technicians; to sustain critically reflective learning communities of colleagues and friends; and not succumb to pedagogies of resentment that are driven by a logic of deficit views of students and their communities.     

The Effect of Systemic Synthesis Questions [SSynQs] on Students’ Performance and Meaningful Learning in Secondary Organic Chemistry Teaching

Many studies in the field of chemical education have emphasized the fact that students at secondary level have considerable difficulties in mastering organic chemistry contents. As a result, they choose to learn these contents in a “rote” way. Taking this fact into consideration, the first aim of our study was to help students in overcoming the aforementioned difficulties by applying new instructional tools—systemic synthesis questions [SSynQs]. To achieve the aim of our research, an experiment with two parallel groups was conducted. The experimental group was taught using [SSynQs] and the control group was taught using a traditional approach. The study included 65 students, 41 males, and 24 females, aged between 17?– 18 years. All the students attended the same high school and were taught by the instructions of the same teacher. The results showed that students from the experimental group achieved higher scores on the final testing than students from the control group. This confirmed the fact that application of [SSynQs] in the educational process improves students’ meaningful learning in organic chemistry domain. Additionally, after conducting an exploratory factor analysis of the obtained data, [SSynQs] were characterized as highly effective tools for assessing students’ meaningful understanding. Furthermore, our study has highlighted and connected two applications of [SSynQs] in the chemistry educational process. Firstly as an instructional tool and secondly as an assessment tool. The important task for future research would be to evaluate a third application of [SSynQs] as a diagnostic tool.     

School–Community Partnerships,Friend or Foe? The Doublespeak of Community With Educational Partnerships

In recent reform efforts, school–community partnerships have been touted as a means for promoting student success (Decker, Decker, &; Brown 2007 Decker, L.E., Decker, V.A., &; Brown, P.M. (2007). Diverse partnerships for student success: Strategies and tools to help school leaders. Lanham, MD: Rowman &; Littlefield Education. [Google Scholar]; Epstein 2010 Epstein, J.L. (2010). School/family/community partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan, 92, 81–96.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and meeting student needs (Hands 2010 Hands, C.M. (2010). Why collaborate? The differing reasons for secondary school educators' establishment of school–community partnerships. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 21, 189–207.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Yet, despite any accolades, the motives and results of school–community partnerships are contested. Gary Anderson (1998 Anderson, G. (1998). Toward authentic participation: Deconstructing the discourses of participatory reforms in education. 715 American Educational Research Journal, 35, 571–603.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) points out that partnerships tend to be designed to graft members into prior objectives and goals instead of being designed to facilitate staff members in working together to redefine goals. Auerbach (2010 Auerbach, S. (2010). Beyond coffee with the principal: Toward leadership for authentic school–family partnerships. Journal of School Leadership, 20, 728–757. [Google Scholar]) echoes this concern, suggesting that the literature regarding school partnerships focuses primarily on academic achievement while operating under “limited school agendas or mandates for collaboration” which do little to promote “socially just” schools (p. 729). And, schools are egregiously unjust. Thus, in this article, I first evaluate the school–community partnership in a new light by broadly conceptualizing how community exists as a term within the public education system and considering the impact of the historical situatedness of communities and political lines on renderings of community. Second, I offer an understanding of how school–community partnerships are discussed in terms of doublespeak, illustrating how the very word community can be employed across a spectrum of different meanings, interpretations, and implications. Last, I argue that community partnerships have been promoted as educational reform with little prospect of challenging meta-narratives that tell a story of who has something to offer to our schools and who does not.     

Achievement or Arrest? The Influence of the Collegiate Religious and Spiritual Climate on Students’ Worldview Commitment

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the relationship between the collegiate religious, spiritual, and ideological climate and worldview commitment. As part of this process, 1,071 students responded to the Collegiate Religious and Spiritual Climate Survey, an empirically validated and reliable measure designed to assess dimensions of a campus’ religious, spiritual, and ideological climate. Results indicated that aspects of the psychological and behavioral climate were related to worldview commitment and these relationships were often conditioned upon students’ self-identified religious worldview. Implications for scholars and practitioners are discussed.     

Test Score or Student Progress? A Value-Added Evaluation of School Effectiveness in Urban China

Outcome-oriented evaluation of school effectiveness is often based on student test scores in certain critical examinations. This study provides another method of evaluation—value-added—which is based on student achievement progress. This paper introduces the method of estimating the value-added score of schools in multi-level models. Based on longitudinal student achievement data, two measures of school effectiveness in one local education authority in China are compared. It is found that the between-school difference in both test-score and value-added is large comparable with that of Western countries. The results of the two measures of school effectiveness are highly different. The value-added measures lack consistency across different subject areas within schools while the test score measures are highly correlated between subjects. Teachers show their preference for value-added measures over test-score measures of education quality. It is suggested that value-added measures of school effectiveness should be used as a complement to rather than a substitute for test-score measures. The shortcomings of value-added approach are also discussed.     

Social Heteroglossia: The Contentious Practice or Potential Place of Middle-Class Parents in Home–School Relations

Middle-class parents have often been characterized as individualistic in their endeavors with schools and have been shown to advocate to the cultural advantage of their own children with questionable consequences or counter results for the children of others. This research paper situates the activity, influence, and multiple perspectives of the middle class upon school activity, even within a reform effort characterized by and supportive of diversity and community. School people and parent leaders in this research operated under the mandate of promoting partnerships to increase parental involvement and school participation to encourage the social, emotional, and academic growth of children. Findings feature contrasting elements of middle-class activity influencing and structuring home–school relations within a diverse school community. The research illuminates the tensions and possibilities within this urban community, raises questions, and offers alternative interpretations of middle-class activity to a greater degree than usual. The Bakhtinian concept of heteroglossia allows interpretations of the actions and motivations among parents, providing options when parent populations comprise contrasting social groups. The conclusion not only highlights middle-class standards at work within partnership activities but also raises questions about how to best utilize leadership potential of strong cadres of parent volunteers in activities of organizations like PATHWAYS and Parent Teacher Organization.     

Labels or Concepts? The Development of Semantic Networks in Bilingual Two-Year-Olds

The adult lexicon links concepts and labels with related meanings (e.g., dog–cat). How do children's encounters with concepts versus labels contribute to semantic development? Three studies investigated semantic priming in 40 monolinguals and 32 bilinguals, who have similar experience with concepts but different experience with labels (i.e., monolinguals hear “dog,” bilinguals hear “dog” and “chien”). Similarities in performance across monolinguals and bilinguals at age 24 months, as well as across bilinguals’ two languages at age 30 months, support the position that encounters with concepts contribute more to early semantic development than encounters with labels. Findings also suggest that the effects of semantic priming are challenging to observe at 24 months but are strong in bilinguals by age 30 months.     

The Winds of Change in Russian Higher Education: is the East moving West?

In the last 30 years, major changes have taken place in the public sector worldwide under the rubric of New Public Management [NPM]. The education sector is perhaps one of the key areas drawing an intense interest and discussion in the wake of NPM. The Russian State seems to be no longer an exception to this global trend. In line with this, the Russian education sector was declared as a large-scale top priority national project in the late summer of 2005, which was aimed to help raise the living standards of each Russian citizen. This empirical paper seeks to reveal the major institutional and legal changes taking place in Russian higher education over time. This insight is vital as it points to the contexts in which Russian public universities operate. To make the acquaintance of a system of Russian higher education, this research sketches its evolution. It commences from the Soviet era to the present time, highlighting the most significant government initiatives.