Enhanced use of educational accountability data to monitor educational progress of Australian students with focus on Indigenous students

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - In Australia, under the National Assessment Plan, educational accountability testing in literacy and numeracy (NAPLAN) is undertaken with all...     

试论教育惩戒救济制度的完善

随着我国高等教育事业的发展,高校与学生基于教育与受教育活动而产生的各种纠纷也出现多样化和复杂化的特点.文章从现实出发分析我国目前的教育惩戒救济制度存在的问题,并提出完善教育惩戒救济制度中的申诉制度、行政复议制度、司法救济制度.     

Evolving data use policy in Trinidad and Tobago: the search for actionable knowledge on educational improvement in a small island developing state

This paper presents a single-country case study of the use of large scale assessment (LSA) data to generate actionable knowledge at school and system levels. Actionable knowledge is data-informed insight into school and system processes that can be used to direct corrective action. The analysis is framed from the perspective of the country’s evolving national policy on data use for educational improvement between 1990 and 2013. Trinidad and Tobago first participated in international large scale assessments (ILSAs) in 1991 but also developed a centralized system of national large scale assessments (NLSAs) in 2004. Analyses of both datasets consistently pointed to low quality and high inequality as the main actionable issues in the education system. NLSA data also hinted at notable variation in performance across schools and education districts. Analyses for and of policy point to the need for multiple school performance measures to better inform site-based, formative action. Over the period, actionable knowledge appears to have had greater impact at school level, with evidence being used by some low-performing schools to improve. However, at the system level, the frequent non-use and misuse of actionable knowledge suggest the need to promote and strengthen structures and processes related to evidence-informed policy-making.     

Collaborating for educational change: The role of parents and the community in school improvement

Following the attention given by the Jomtien Declaration to the need for new partnerships and collaboration in the promotion of educational improvement, the International Institute for Educational Planning has initiated a programme of case studies and workshops to examine how partners involved in education can be empowered and encouraged to improve the education in which they have responsibilities or interest. Cases which have been studied fall into three categories: those which enhance collaboration within and across schools, those which centre on school—community interaction and those which involve collaboration among a range of government officials and agencies, NGOs, village organizations and private enterprises. Collaboration in each of these groups may involve changes in the stimulation or control of resources or innovations in educational content or delivery methods. This paper identifies the problems inherent in collaborative exercises, including poverty, institutional or individual inertia and structural obstacles within political or cultural systems. Finally the factors or conditions which affect collaboration are examined along with the implications for staff training, structural re-alignment and skill development at all levels of the educational system.     

Using data on school strengths and weaknesses for school improvement

This paper examines evaluation data use practices of a network of schools implementing an internal, independent, school self-evaluation process for more than a decade. This network currently uses data on its strengths alongside data indicative of its weaknesses, collecting and utilizing both positive and negative data for improvement and accountability purposes. We conducted multiple formal and informal interviews with 24 school management members and teachers, and gathered and analyzed 50 school documents in order to understand how the network used evaluation findings for school improvement. We identified types of data use described in the literature (instrumental, conceptual, and symbolic), and propose a complementary type of use we termed “reinforcement data use”. Our findings suggest that identifying strengths is one of the valid goals and outcomes of evaluation, shedding light on its potential to enhance school ethos, and to promote a positive attitude toward evaluation processes and their subsequent effects.     

On the shortcomings of our organisational forms: with implications for educational change and school improvement

This article informs school improvement and educational change from a radically different perspective. Building upon work done recently in neural psychology, primatology and ethology, the article examines four common and general types of organisational form: the cell, the silo, the pyramidal, and the network types of organisational structures. Status and dominance hierarchies are discussed, as are the dynamics of collaboration/competition and collectivism/individualism. Final consideration is given to the concepts of culture and community, especially as they manifest in the school improvement literature.     

Big Data and data science: A critical review of issues for educational research

Big Data refers to large and disparate volumes of data generated by people, applications and machines. It is gaining increasing attention from a variety of domains, including education. What are the challenges of engaging with Big Data research in education? This paper identifies a wide range of critical issues that researchers need to consider when working with Big Data in education. The issues identified include diversity in the conception and meaning of Big Data in education, ontological, epistemological disparity, technical challenges, ethics and privacy, digital divide and digital dividend, lack of expertise and academic development opportunities to prepare educational researchers to leverage opportunities afforded by Big Data. The goal of this paper is to raise awareness on these issues and initiate a dialogue. The paper was inspired partly by insights drawn from the literature but mostly informed by experience researching into Big Data in education.     

New teachers of color and culturally responsive teaching in an era of educational accountability: Caught in a double bind

The purpose of this article is to examine how and to what extent schools’ responses to accountability policies in the United States influence the ability of new teachers of color to draw on their own and their students’ cultural resources to engage in culturally responsive teaching. A 5-year study of 17 new teachers of color reveals that these teachers identified three principal tensions which correspond to the three dimensions of culturally responsive teaching: (a) cultural and linguistic relevance versus standardization, (b) community of learners versus teacher transmission, and (c) social justice versus enhanced test scores. The teachers also described two mechanisms by which accountability-based programs and policies were enforced: fear of monitoring and internalizing the link between testing and educational opportunity. We applied the metaphor of “double bind” to explain the tensions and enforcement mechanisms encountered by these teachers. The “double bind” forced the new teachers of color to enact contradictory systemic demands promoted by government policy and the teaching profession and exacted an individual toll. We conclude with implications for policy, practice, and research.     

Investigating the use of student perception data for teacher reflection and classroom improvement

This article reports a study involving: (1) developing and validating a learning environment instrument, (2) investigating whether reflection on feedback generated using the instrument led to improvements in the learning environment and (3) examining how teachers used the feedback. For the new learning environment instrument, validity was supported for a sample of 10,345 secondary students over 3 years (2,042 students in 2008, 4,467 in 2009 and 3,836 in 2010). To investigate whether reflection on feedback from this instrument led to improvements in the learning environment, multivariate analysis of variance and effect sizes were used to examine pre–post differences. Statistically significant improvements in students’ views of the learning environment were found for 8 of the 11 scales. Finally, we examined how teachers used the student feedback. Of the 459 teachers, 45 focus teachers used the feedback as part of a formal action research approach involving entries in reflective journals, written reports, discussions and participation at a forum. These data were analysed to provide an overview of the ways in which the information was used, and to provide a more detailed account of the journey of one of the teachers.     

Toward an understanding of how teachers change during school reform: Considerations for educational leadership and school improvement

As the concept of distributed leadership and its concomitant organizational structures become more prevalent in schools, studying how teacher capacity can be enhanced and can be used as a catalyst for reform is important. This article documents the nature of how the implementation of a research-validated reform influenced what teachers thought about their own teaching, student achievement, and expectations. A case study approach documented the experiences of elementary school teachers in a high poverty, historically low-performing elementary school as they implemented a researched-validated instructional reform targeting the most at-risk students in the school. The teachers experienced significant professional growth that encompassed self-doubt, resistance, acceptance, and finally advocacy. Implications for the practices that define educational leadership and school improvement are discussed in light of how successful reform can improve teacher capacity.     

从教室调查结果谈教育技术培训的改进与完善

数字语言实验室已经在高校广泛使用,并且成为专业和公共外语课堂教学应用中的重要硬件设施。通过对数字语言实验室使用情况的调查和分析,宏观把握数字语言实验室的应用现状与教学模式,并阐明应用技能在教育技术培训中的重要性;经常性的调查对于实时调整和反思教育技术培训工作非常重要。