Standardized test outcomes for students engaged in inquiry‐based science curricula in the context of urban reform

Considerable effort has been made over the past decade to address the needs of learners in large urban districts through scaleable reform initiatives. We examine the effects of a multifaceted scaling reform that focuses on supporting standards based science teaching in urban middle schools. The effort was one component of a systemic reform effort in the Detroit Public Schools, and was centered on highly specified and developed project‐based inquiry science units supported by aligned professional development and learning technologies. Two cohorts of 7th and 8th graders that participated in the project units are compared with the remainder of the district population, using results from the high‐stakes state standardized test in science. Both the initial and scaled up cohorts show increases in science content understanding and process skills over their peers, and significantly higher pass rates on the statewide test. The relative gains occur up to a year and a half after participation in the curriculum, and show little attenuation with in the second cohort when scaling occurred and the number of teachers involved increased. The effect of participation in units at different grade levels is independent and cumulative, with higher levels of participation associated with similarly higher achievement scores. Examination of results by gender reveals that the curriculum effort succeeds in reducing the gender gap in achievement experienced by urban African‐American boys. These findings demonstrate that standards‐based, inquiry science curriculum can lead to standardized achievement test gains in historically underserved urban students, when the curriculum is highly specified, developed, and aligned with professional development and administrative support. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 922–939, 2008     

The impact of bargaining and bargaining statutes on the earnings of public school teachers: A comparison in California and Missouri

Among labor economists there is a long-standing interest in the effects of collective bargaining in the public sector. Among industrial relations experts interest exists in the impact that differences in the legal status of public bargaining have on the outcomes of the bargaining process. It is the purpose of this article to shed some light on both questions by estimating the impact of collective bargaining on the earnings of public school teachers in the state of Missouri and then comparing the results with those obtained in the previous study for the state of California. The results reveal the same basic patterns and magnitudes of bargaining effects in the two states despite the differences in the legal status of bargaining.     

Story grammar: effective literature instruction for high school students with learning disabilities

This study examined the effectiveness of an instructional strategy for teaching comprehension of literature to 8 high school students with learning disabilities. The strategy integrated recent advances in cognitive psychology with empirically derived principles of effective instruction. The texts included short stories from middle school and high school literature anthologies. A modified multiple baseline design was utilized. Results indicated improvements in the students' ability to answer questions based on the stories read.     

High and low implementers of content literacy instruction: Portraits of teacher efficacy

This study used a teacher efficacy framework to describe the perceptions of high and low implementers of content literacy instruction in the context of a year-long professional development program. Interviews from middle and high school content teachers illustrated efficacy differences between teachers who demonstrated high and low levels of content literacy implementation. High implementers exhibited higher levels of general, personal, and collective efficacy, whereas low implementers exhibited lower levels of efficacy for literacy teaching. Although both high and low implementers perceived content literacy positively, high implementers were characterized by persistence in overcoming barriers associated with content literacy implementation.     

Trainee Primary Teachers’ Ideas about the Ozone Layer

The ideas of trainee primary teachers about the ozone layer have been examined. Students were well informed about the nature and location of the ozone layer and appreciated that it screens the Earth from ultraviolet (UV) rays, although some thought that it protects the Earth from acid rain. Most identified real causes of ozone layer depletion, but many thought that radioactivity and factory and vehicle emissions cause ozone layer degradation. Almost all realised that ozone depletion might cause more skin cancers; fewer recognised other potential biological problems. Many confused ozone layer depletion with global warming. The proportions holding these ideas were similar to those of older secondary school children, suggesting that misconceptions persist to the adult population. Since these ideas were found in final year trainee teachers, there is a danger that erroneous ideas or the attitudes based on them might be perpetuated in a formal learning context.