The impact of school SES composition on science achievement and achievement growth: mediating role of teachers’ teachability culture

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have shown that schools’ socioeconomic-status (SES) composition has an impact on the academic performance of pupils. Less attention has been given to the explanation of this effect. This study examined whether the teachability culture among the school staff (teachers’ collective beliefs about how teachable their pupils are) mediated the school SES effect on science achievement and achievement growth. Multilevel analyses were conducted with data from 1,761 pupils and 1,255 teachers across 66 primary schools in Flanders. First, the analyses indicated that there was a positive association between school SES composition and teachability culture: Even after controlling for cognitive ability and performance of pupils, there was a more pessimist culture in socioeconomically disadvantaged schools. Second, the association between school SES and academic performance was explained/mediated by the teachability culture. However, no school effects or mediation effects were found for achievement growth as the covered period of academic growth was too short.     

The development of civic values: case study of the United States of America

This chapter describes the study as it was conducted in the United States in three public schools that differed substantially in the socioeconomic status (SES) of the students who were enrolled. The results tended to differ across the schools in line with the student composition. For example, in the two higher SES schools, the emphasis was on the development of critical inquiry and thinking skills, whereas in the lower SES school the focus was on the rudiments of getting a job and becoming a productive member of society. In addition, in the two higher SES schools, there was general congruence among principal, teacher, and student perspectives. This was not the case in the lower SES school.     

How teachers’ values affect their evaluation of children of immigrants: Findings from Islamic and public schools

This study examines the implications of how teachers’ views of immigrant parents predict their ratings of first-grade students’ academic competence and behavioral problems. Teachers rated 191 first-grade immigrant students attending Islamic and public schools in the Northeast United States. The results showed that when teachers perceived parents as having discrepant value differences, they rated students more negatively both in terms of academic competence and behavioral problems, even after controlling for student gender and ethnicity, parental education and parental school involvement. Surprisingly, teachers in Islamic and public schools did not differ in their perceived value differences with parents. The type of school students attend, however, moderated the effects of teachers’ perceived value differences on their academic ratings, but not on their behavioral ratings. While both Islamic and public school teachers rated students’ academic competence equally high when they perceived little or no value differences with parents, public school teachers held lower academic expectations than Islamic school teachers with increased value differences. These findings suggest a mechanism by which children from immigrant families enter a path of diminished expectations, albeit through slightly different levels in Islamic and public school settings.     

Recruiting Principals to Lead Low-performing Schools: Effects on Job Attractiveness

This study addressed recruiting principals into low performing schools. A sample (N = 619) of principals, assistant principals, central office administrators, school counselors, and teacher-leaders from the 29th largest school district in the United States role-played as applicants for principal vacancies at schools classified as low-performing based on results of standardized student achievement tests. The study had an experimental design and involved use of a recruitment simulation. Rating jobs depicted on simulated principal recruitment announcements, principals and assistant principals rated the job highest while school counselors rated the jobs lowest. Among the teacher-leaders, teacher-administrative interns rated the job higher than did highly skilled educators or resource teachers. Implications for recruitment practice and future evaluation research are discussed.     

Primary School Students’ Conflict Resolution Strategies in Turkey

This study examined conflict resolution strategies (CRSs) resorted to by sixth, seventh, and eighth grade primary school pupils in Turkey and identified gender differences in the resolution strategies typically resorted to. In addition, the study aimed to find out what actual conflicts students asked assistance for from teachers and what strategies students thought teachers used in dealing with their conflicts. The data for this research were collected via a questionnaire involving mostly open-ended items. Results supported the notion that three main groups of strategies (problem-solving, avoiding and aggressive) typically get implemented in solving conflicts. Problem-solving strategies were observed to be most frequently employed by the participants. There was a significant gender difference in terms of the use of CRSs, in that girls were more likely to use problem-solving strategies than boys. The majority of the participants tended not to ask for assistance from teachers in resolving their conflicts. However, students from low SES schools were more likely to ask for teacher assistance than students from middle and high SES schools. The participants also stated that teachers typically used two main strategies in helping them resolve their conflicts: problem-solving and aggressive strategies.     

The effects of working conditions on teacher retention

Teacher attrition is one of the driving contributors to the shortage of effective teachers internationally and in the United States. The common factors that spur teachers worldwide to leave the profession include low salaries, quality of teacher preparation programs, overwhelming workload, and poor working conditions. In this study, we analyzed three years of Arizona public schools’ teacher retention data and quantitative and qualitative working conditions survey data to understand the relationship between attrition patterns, perceived working conditions at their schools, and the characteristics of the schools where they were employed. We compared attrition rates in schools with different student demographic compositions and related these differences to working conditions as perceived by teachers in these schools. We found that schools where teachers rated their working conditions as more satisfactory had lower attrition rates and also were schools with higher rates of low-income and/or minority students. This findings support the hypothesis of working conditions being a mediating factor in the interplay between school demographics and teacher attrition. We document patterns of teacher retention rates across schools with different student demographics and discuss implications for policy.     

Mathematics Attribution Differences by Ethnicity and Socioeconomics Status

The differences in attributions for success and failure in mathematics between African American and White students and between students from low and higher socioeconomic status (SES) were examined. Two hundred sixty-four 7th-grade students from 5 schools in a midsize urban school district were surveyed to analyze attribution differences. Then, a stratified purposeful sample of 12 focus students, representing different ethnicity and economic combinations, were selected for follow-up interviews. Results indicated that students from all groups provided similar ratings on 5 attributions related to mathematics success-with effort rated more highly than ability, luck, task difficulty, or rapport with teacher. Notwithstanding this high rating for effort, other differences were found. Ability was rated significantly higher by Whites than by African Americans in relation to mathematics success. African Americans attributed their mathematics success significantly more to rapport with teachers than did Whites. Similar results were found for low versus higher SES students. Further, higher SES students attributed success significantly more to effort than did low SES students. Failure in mathematics was most commonly attributed to a lack of effort.     

The forgotten role of teachers in students’ educational aspirations. School composition effects and the buffering capacity of teachers’ expectations culture

Research on students’ aspirations, an important predictor of educational attainment, is mostly focused on individual-level determinants, reflecting the classical status attainment model. Studies have suggested a school composition effect, but ignore school processes. Inspired by new insights in school effects research looking at teachers’ expectations at the school level, we investigate the mediating and moderating role of teachability culture in the relationship between SES composition and aspirations. Multilevel analyses of data (2013–2014) from 2.354 students and 502 teachers across 30 Flemish secondary schools show that teachers’ shared expectations can compensate for the detrimental effects of low SES composition on aspirations.     

Students in Australian Catholic and Independent Schools Have More Positive Learning Environments: Evidence From the 2012 PISA Study

Critics of Catholic and independent (nongovernment) schools in Australia contend that the higher levels of performance of students in nongovernment schools can be dismissed as simply a function of student- and especially school-level socioeconomic status (school-SES). A recent article extends this critique to school-sector differences in students’ evaluations of their teachers and schools, arguing that the observable school-sector differences are because of differences in school-SES, not because of school-sector differences in their teachers and schools. In response, this article reviews these arguments and focuses on school-sector differences in students’ evaluations of their teachers and schools using the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation’s (OECD) measures in the PISA 2009 study. On eight of the 10 attitudinal measures, students attending Catholic and independent schools have more positive evaluations and these school-sector differences survive controls for students’ SES, their overall level of achievement and school-SES, which has no substantive influence. Although the effect sizes are generally small (0.06–0.26) their combined influence means that nongovernment school students enjoy superior learning environments which is likely to contribute to their generally higher levels of academic performance in senior secondary school.     

Instructional and School Effects on Students' Longitudinal Reading and Mathematics Achievements

For this study, Prospects, a data set on schools and students in the United States collected during the early 1990s, was used to examine the effects of instructional and school organizational characteristics on the longitudinal mathematics and reading achievements of students from either a first- or third-grade cohort. Three schooling models were tested using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) while controlling for parental socioeconomic (SES) status. Factors and variables that represented instructional and school features were derived from teacher and principal responses to survey items. These features had direct and interactive effects on mathematics achievement, supporting both an environmental and interactive model of schooling. Further, schools characterized by teacher collegiality, support for innovation, principal leadership, goal agreement, and community support contained teachers who employed important instructional strategies more effectively, and students who had the highest mathematics gains over the observed period.     

标准化测试在学校问责制中的角色——美国加州的经验教训

以一年或者更短的间隔为期,通过对学生进行标准化测试的方法,收集反映学生学习程度以及学校、教师教学能力的相关数据,是当前美国学校教育改革中的一个重要内容。文章以美国加利福尼亚州为例,考察了上述改革的实施情况,认为在《不让一个孩子掉队》（NCLB）法案推动下,相应的“学校文化”正在逐渐形成,即教师、学生和家长都开始认识到标准化测试在学生学业进步中的重要作用,成绩不好的学生也可以从中得到他们需要的帮助。在此过程中,一些在测试中成绩不佳的学校,可以以标准化测验的成绩为依据,转而雇佣职业素质更佳的校长与教师。然而,学校问责制对标准化测试的过分依赖也产生了一系列问题,如学校在有限的学科里减少与测试无关的课程安排,或者由于测试成绩不佳而惩罚一些在提高学生成绩方面能力有限的学校,包括那些学生大多是穷孩子或者移民后裔的学校。     

Academics and a Culture of Caring: The Relationship Between School Achievement and Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviors in Four Urban Middle Schools

Researchers and practitioners attest to the importance of school culture for school effectiveness, however, critics contest that school culture is neither measurable, nor manipulable. Results from the present study suggest otherwise. The frequency of prosocial and antisocial student behaviors were rated by 1503 students and 92 teachers in four urban middle schools rank ordered by achievement. The highest achieving school combined an emphasis on academics with a culture of caring that was reflected in higher rates of prosocial behaviors and lower rates of antisocial behaviors among students. The second ranked school had a law and order environment but lacked the synergy that a culture of caring achieved. The lower achieving schools had significantly lower rates of prosocial behaviors and higher rates of antisocial behaviors among students. Both student and teacher perceptions supported these findings.     

Emotional labor and burnout among Turkish primary school teachers

Emotions play a critical role in teaching, especially in primary schools. Teachers have to manage their feelings in order to sustain a positive classroom climate. Managing feelings as a requirement of work is called emotional labor, which is a relatively new area of research in teaching. The main aim of this research was to investigate the type of emotional labor strategies Turkish primary school teachers often use and whether emotional labor is a predictor of burnout for primary teachers in a Turkish context. Also, the authors explore if there is a significant variation in emotional labor in terms of gender and school type (public/private). A survey was conducted with the participation of 370 primary school teachers from Ankara, Turkey. Results indicated that Turkish primary school teachers mostly engage in genuine emotions in their relationships with students. Female teachers use deep and surface acting strategies more often than males. Also, private school teachers were found to use deep acting strategies and display genuine emotions more often than public school teachers. Finally, it was found that emotional labor is a significant predictor of burnout among Turkish primary school teachers.     

Profiles of Organizational Culture and Effective Schools∗

This study intends to investigate how school organizational culture is related to important organizational characteristics and observe how the profiles of strong culture‐effective schools are different from those of weak culture‐ineffective schools in terms of organizational variables (such as principal's leadership, organizational structure, and teachers’ social interactions), teachers’ job attitudes, and school effectiveness criteria. It is a cross‐sectional survey research involving 54 randomly sampled Hong Kong secondary schools and 588 teachers. The unit of analysis is the school.

Organizational ideology index was found to be substantially correlated with schools’ perceived organizational effectiveness. Among the 10 measures of these organizational variables, teachers’ esprit and principal's charismatic leadership can contribute substantially to the prediction of school's strength of organizational culture. The organizational profile of perceived strong culture‐effective schools is contrastingly different from that of perceived weak culture‐ineffective schools. The findings suggest that difference in organizational culture can be reflected at least in three overt levels: 1. organizational level in terms of principal's leadership behaviors, organizational formalization and participation, and teachers’ social norms; 2. teachers’ attitudinal level in terms of organizational commitment, social job satisfaction, intrinsic job satisfaction, and influence job satisfaction; and 3. school effectiveness level in terms of perceived overall organizational effectiveness and academic achievements in public examinations.

The findings reinforce the importance of organizational culture to the ongoing effort and discussion of school improvement and school effectiveness.

     

Looking at School from the House Window: Learning from Turkish-American Parents’ Experiences with Early Elementary Education in the United States

This retrospective study is an in-depth investigation of the perspectives of Turkish immigrant parents on their children’s early schooling in the United States (PreK-3). It specifically explores how these parents connect with or are disconnected from school culture, and how their socio-cultural understanding of education and teachers influence their relationships with schools. Using a qualitative research design, data were collected through in-depth interviews with 18 parents from 10 families. Findings suggest that Turkish parents negotiated the ways curriculum and instruction is constructed in American schools—such as their assumptions about the lack of academic rigor—while they also embraced sound pedagogies the teachers practiced. Through their experiences with schooling in the United States, Turkish parents reconsidered their sociocultural perspectives on the role of the teacher in their children’s lives based on their experiences with their children’s teachers. The parents also reported their challenges in understanding school culture and curriculum, and described how they negotiated their access to the school culture. The results indicate the need for a stronger partnership between home and school. Teachers could support parents in their struggle to access to the culture of schooling by establishing an eagerness for communication and a reciprocal personal connection with families, who already socioculturally assume the teacher’s role as part of family.     

教师教育的有效途径——教师发展学校

教师发展学校是借鉴美国专业发展学校的经验构建的，是大学与中小学合作、以中小学为基地建设的、促进教师专业发展的新型学校。教师发展学校的建立对于创造新型教师教育，培养新型教师，实现教师教育一体化具有重要的现实意义。     

教师研究与中学英语教师职业发展

20世纪80年代中、后期,一场被称为“教师研究”的教育实验运动席卷美国,学校教师(K-12)成为课堂教学研究的主体,这一教育实验运动的成效尤见于语言教学领域。联系到目前我国中学英语教学研究的现状,身处一线的教师虽掌握着课堂教学的第一手资料,却由于缺少学科理论上的指导和研究手段上的训练而无法成为教学研究的主体。教师研究对中学英语教师的职业发展和英语教学效能的提高具有着十分重要的意义,因此在我们的师范教育课程设置中应增强旨在提高师范生和在职培训教师的研究能力的研究型培养模式。     

Cultural capital and habitus in context: the importance of high school college-going culture

While an extensive body of research has examined the role of cultural capital in reproducing social class inequality in educational outcomes, the role of habitus and school context has received less attention in quantitative studies. We attend to this gap in the literature by considering the relationship between cultural capital, habitus, and the transition into higher education across high schools with low and high college-going cultures in the United States. Findings indicate that the relationship between cultural capital and transition into higher education is context specific and manifested only in schools with a high college-going culture. In addition, students from less advantaged family backgrounds benefit more from cultural capital than their more advantaged counterparts, but this is the case primarily in schools with a high college-going culture. Habitus, however, is related to the transition into higher education regardless of the high school context and benefits all students equally.     

Cultural Variability in Parent and Child Achievement Attributions: A study from Hong Kong

The primary aim of the present study was to investigate whether variations exist in child and parent attributions in predicting child academic achievement within a culture and between cultures. Participants were 158 students and their parents from three different primary schools in Hong Kong, including one British international school consisting of students who are predominantly from a British background and two Chinese public schools each with a distinct SES profile. This paper extends the findings of previous research whereby Western parents attribute their child’s success to ability and Chinese parents attribute their child’s success to effort. Additionally, this study found that the Chinese children’s attributions differed according to the SES catchments of their schools; children from higher SES were inclined to attribute success to effort. The results are discussed in terms of parent and child attributions’ prediction of child’s academic achievement within Hong Kong’s family demographic.