Urban Immigrant Students: How Transnationalism Shapes Their World Learning

This article examines the lives of three transnational second-generation immigrant Latinas who reside in urban centers in California and maintain close ties to Mexico. Drawing from a participatory research and ethnographic study, I provide evidence of the out-of-school learning that they experience and how this shapes their notions of global citizenship. Although schools have begun to slowly recognize transnational immigrant students, many urban educators whose cities are palpably transformed by immigrants have not fully connected the promise of such a global lifestyle and its potential for instruction in the classroom.

Urban African American Children's Prerogative at Home and School

The study replicates a previous investigation done with middle class children to examine their conceptions of prerogative and restriction, Weber (1999). For the present study, forty nine first, third and fifth grade children who were primarily African American, were drawn from two public schools in a small aging midwestern industrial city. They participated in two interviews which elicited responses concerning personal prerogative at home and school. The children identified areas of prerogative in both settings. They distinguished between personal and conventional issues at school. Children's claims to prerogative appeared to increase with age, as did the amount of disagreement and conflict over such issues. There appeared to be a flattening out of opportunity at school however, that did not occur at home. Unlike the middle class sample, these children sometimes used prudential and punishment reasoning to justify restrictions. Direct responses from the children clearly indicated that school should be different from home in prerogative offered them. They appeared to accept more narrow and rigid boundaries at school with little reservation. The totality of the children's responses, however, suggests the possibility of more complex attitudes. The flattening of provision at school, combined with some presence of punishment reasoning, suggests that there may be some interesting differences in approach between middle class and working class schools.     

Roscoe Elementary School: Cultivating a Caring Community in an Urban Elementary School

The cultivation of a caring community within an urban neighborhood public elementary school is viewed by some educators as an impossibility, by others as being in conflict with academic effectiveness, and by still others as unnecessary for the successful achievement of students. Nevertheless, a significant group of educators advocates schools as caring communities, particularly in meeting the needs of low-income urban students of color. The research reported in this article is grounded in the assumption that there is a relationship between school culture and student achievement. An ethnographic case study of one urban public elementary school that exhibited both a strong caring community and a push toward academic excellence resulted in an analysis of the underlying characteristics that existed in the school. The findings suggest that a climate of mutual trust and respect, fluid boundaries centered around an ethic of caring, and a schoolwide sense of ownership and responsibility for students were central to the cultivation of the school' s caring community. Adapted school structures also fostered an ethos of community and ownership. In addition, the school expanded the definition of effectiveness beyond standardized test scores by focusing broadly on student learning, the link between the success of the individual and the success of the group, and the role of affect in promoting student achievement.     

Empowering Mong Students: Home and School Factors

This article examines how home and school factors affect the education of Mong students in the U.S., a group that, by in large, is not faring well academically. The study is based on related research and interviews with teachers, students, and the parents of a group of Mong elementary school students in northern California. The findings reveal that Mong students' negative schooling experiences are exacerbated by the mismatch between the home and school culture, by misconceptions and labeling by parents and teachers, and by issues pertaining to their attempts to assimilate into American society. Therefore, Mong students experience a culture clash at home and at school. Conversely, Mong students are empowered by a culturally relevant curriculum, and a school environment that values their culture, and that utilizes their parents as resources. Hence, they need more support from both parents and teachers.     

Examining Variation Within the Charter School Sector: Academic Achievement in Suburban,Urban, and Rural Charter Schools

ABSTRACT

To date, there is a paucity of research that examines differences between charter schools that operate in suburban and nonsuburban contexts. This article examines whether students in suburban charter schools perform better or worse than their counterparts in traditional public schools or students in urban charter schools. Boasting the largest and most diverse charter school population in the United States, California offers a fertile urban-suburban context for the study of geographically differentiated charter school impacts and, thus, serves as the focus of our study. The student achievement data (2009–2010, 2010–2011 and 2011–2012 school years) for this study come from the California Department of Education. Using propensity score matching and virtual control records, our findings show that suburban charter schools do not improve academic achievement relative to the matched comparison group of traditional public schools. Suburban charter schools (namely, charters in high-income areas) are largely ineffective and appear to leave their students’ achievement unchanged or diminished. This study adds to the existing literature by examining the effects of charter schools on the neighborhoods in which they operate. Methodologically, another important contribution of this study is that it supplements traditional selection criteria for suburban charters (NCES classification) with census-based neighborhood factors. Finally, this study provides evidence of the broader implications of school choice policies in a suburban setting.     

流动儿童与城市儿童社会认知特点比较

采用整群抽样的方法,对浙江省某市450名城市儿童和434名流动儿童的社会认知进行问卷调查.结果表明:流动儿童社会认知三个因子得分均低于城市儿童(P值均0.05);两组儿童总体,男生社会认知三个因子得分均低于女生(P值均0.05),流动男生归因和社会认知结构两个因子得分均低于城市男生(P值均0.05),流动女生社会认知三个因子得分均低于城市女生(P值均0.05);两组儿童总体,社会认知三个因子得分均存在年级差异(P值均0.05).三个年级流动儿童均有单个因子得分低于城市儿童的现象(P值均0.05);两组儿童总体,社会认知三个因子得分均不存在抚养人差异(P值均0.05),但当抚养人是父母时,流动儿童社会认知三个因子得分均低于城市儿童(P值均0.05).因此,应加强对流动儿童,尤其是流动男性儿童社会认知方面的教育和引导.     

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.     

Stereotype Threat Effects on African American Children in an Urban Elementary School

This study investigated whether a diagnostic testing condition leads to stereotype threat effects for African American children (n = 198) at an urban elementary school. Results indicated that presenting a reading test as diagnostic of abilities hindered the performance of African American children aware of racial stereotypes but not of those unaware of such stereotypes. For stereotype-aware children, the effect of stereotype threat on performance was moderated by level of domain identification such that the effects were most pronounced among children placing greater value on achievement. In addition, domain identification contributed to greater anxiety and lower self-efficacy, suggesting that it is a primary vulnerability factor for stereotype threat effects. Implications for educational equity are discussed, as well as suggestions for developing interventions capable of attenuating stereotype threat effects among children.     

The Bridge Project: Connecting Home,School, and Community for Mexican Immigrant Children

This study examines the academic and psychosocial effects of the Bridge Project after-school program on 25 prekindergarten through 6th-grade English language learner Mexican immigrant children and their families living in an affordable housing complex in the San Francisco Bay Area. The results of the study show that the program increased the children’s reading comprehension by an average of 2.8 grade levels and increased children’s English proficiency an average of 2.8 California English Language Development Test levels over a 2-year period. Parents also observed their children’s growth in confidence, social skills, motivation, responsibility, and the ability to ask questions.     

Teaching Black Immigrant Students in Urban Schools: Teacher and Peer Relationships and Academic Performances

The Urban Review - This study examines teachers’ cultural awareness of Black immigrants and the pedagogical strategies they implemented that aided in the academic success of Black immigrant...     

Between Local Culture and School Science: The Case of Provincial and Urban Students from Eastern Colombia

A lack of congruency between the teaching and learning of science and the student’s personal worlds has long been recognised by the international science education community as an issue deserving space in the research agenda. The purpose of this study was to explore the diversity of student reactions when subcultures such as family, community peers, and personal worldviews are considered along side the subculture of school science. Two-hundred and fifty students from urban and provincial schools in the northeastern region of Colombia (South America) participated. From this group, 18 students were interviewed. It was observed that students adopt a compartmentalisation of knowledge that is evident as both an avoiding strategy in the classroom and as a mechanism to differentiate between the natural world of their everyday situations and the one portrayed by a Westernised science instruction in the classroom. The findings reflect how multiple worldviews correlate with student frameworks as implanted by school science.

美国特许学校政策:论争与走向

从诞生之日起,美国特许学校就处在不同利益集团的博弈中,两大对立利益集团就特许学校的效能、责任和公平性等方面展开了针锋相对的论争。博弈使特许学校的发展呈现出许多不确定性。但基于美国政府的有力支持、特许学校法的修订和利益集团间的对话等理由,美国特许学校将会有一个比较好的发展前景。     

Beyond Stigma and Stereotypes: An Ethnographic Study on the Effects of School-Imposed Labeling on Black Males in an Urban Charter School

This study explores the ways in which school-imposed labeling in a “no-excuses” charter school that was explicitly designed for the purpose of benefiting Black students, impacts teachers’ perceptions of Black male students who were labeled as being high risk or struggling academically, and how these students perceive their own schooling experiences. A conceptual framework with the history of how and why Black masculinity is constructed as deviant and different in the context of U.S. schools, as well as the impact of labeling on Black male students’ learning and self-esteem are detailed. While centering the labeled-students’ experiences, we examine the interactions between key stakeholders (i.e., labeled-students, teachers/administrators, and non-labeled students) at the charter school and overall the findings speak clearly to how language of deficit and pathology impacted Black male students’ schooling experiences as they negotiate racial stigma as racialized bodies at a “no-excuses” public charter school.     

Addressing the Challenges and Needs of English-Speaking Caribbean Immigrant Students: Guidelines for School Counselors

Caribbean students are among the distinct immigrant groups in U.S. public schools with particular needs to be addressed by school counselors. This article discusses the challenges Caribbean immigrant students face that create obstacles to their academic and personal/social success. Guidelines for school counselors are outlined, which can be used to meet the needs of Caribbean immigrant students and promote their healthy adjustment.     

How Students Report Dishonest Behavior in School: Self-Assessment and Anchoring Vignettes

The authors have studied heterogeneity in reporting behavior and its impact on the analysis of self-reports about students’ dishonest behavior in schools. Two hundred sixty-five randomly chosen, seventh-grade students (typically 12 years old) from lower secondary schools in Prague 6, a district in the capital of the Czech Republic, participated in this survey. The results of the self-reports, adjusted for heterogeneity, are highly related to students’ levels of academic achievement and their parents’ education and partly related to their gender, while unadjusted self-reports are only slightly related to the level of parents’ education. The authors also show differences in the reporting behavior across diverse subdomains of school behavior and suggest using anchoring vignettes closely related to the domain described in the self-reports.     

Choice,Competition, and Cognition: How Arizona Charter School Leaders Interpret and Respond to Market Pressures

ABSTRACT

A key goal of school choice policies is to generate competition between schools, which should theoretically drive school leaders to improve their programs to attract and retain students. However, few studies examine how principals actually perceive and define competition. This article empirically examines school leaders’ conceptions of competition and their strategic behaviors using cognitive frameworks from new institutional theory, including sensemaking theory. Drawing on data from qualitative interviews with 30 charter school leaders in Arizona, we explore how leaders’ cognitive understandings of competition influence their actions in an educational “marketplace.” We find charter school leaders make meaning of “competition” in different ways, influenced by their local contexts and their conceptions of what actions are legitimate. Our work suggests that it is important to study the meanings of competition to school leaders, as it has important implications for schools’ competitive responses and, ultimately, student outcomes. Our work has important implications for policy makers seeking to expand school choice as it sheds light on how competition works in practice, with implications for equity and access.     

Cognitive Effects of College: Differences Between African American and Caucasian Students

In this longitudinal study of African American and Caucasian students from eighteen 4-year institutions, objective tests were used to estimate the cognitive effects of race in college, while applying statistical controls for an extensive set of confounding influences including precollege and background traits, institutional characteristics, and academic and social experiences. Evidence from the study suggests that in the first 3 years of college Caucasian students scored higher than their African American counterparts on seven standardized tests measuring critical thinking skills, knowledge of mathematics, reading comprehension, science reasoning, and writing skills. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Consumerism and Gender in an Era of School Choice: A look at US Charter Schools

This article concerns gendered dimensions of parental involvement in two US charter schools. Drawing on the narratives of parents who have founded charter schools, and on conversations with school administrators and parents in the main public school district, it presents an analysis of the way parent-teacher interactions are being reframed in the context of school choice. The author argues that in a context in which parents are being asked both to produce and consume new educational programs, parents-practically speaking, mothers-who involve themselves in organizing charter schools run the risk of being seen as stepping out of their roles as consumers and caregivers. The implications of mothers' involvement in charter schools for parent-teacher interactions and for the trajectory of school reform are explored.