An Integrative Approach to Portfolio Evaluation for Teacher Licensure

The purpose of our overall research agenda is to develop and evaluate a methodology for the assessment of teachers in which experienced teachers, serving as judges, engage in dialogue to integrate multiple sources of evidence about a candidate to reach a sound conclusion. The project that provides the venue for this research agenda is the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), which is developing a portfolio assessment system to assist participating states in making a decision about teacher licensure. To develop the theoretical foundation necessary to support and evaluate such dialogic and integrative assessment practices, we turn, in part, to the tradition of philosophical hermeneutics, as a complement to psychometrics. In this article, we characterize and assess the processes in which judges, trying out an integrative approach to portfolio evaluation for the first time, engage as they collaboratively construct and document their conclusions, and we locate this work in the larger research agenda. The premise of this project, which is being carefully evaluated in the course of inquiry, is that these integrative practices cannot only lead to an epistemologically sound evaluation of teaching but also promote an ongoing professional dialogue of critical reflection on teaching practice.     

Uncovering Multivariate Structure in Classroom Observations in the Presence of Rater Errors

We examine the factor structure of scores from the CLASS‐S protocol obtained from observations of middle school classroom teaching. Factor analysis has been used to support both interpretations of scores from classroom observation protocols, like CLASS‐S, and the theories about teaching that underlie them. However, classroom observations contain multiple sources of error, most predominantly rater errors. We demonstrate that errors in scores made by two raters on the same lesson have a factor structure that is distinct from the factor structure at the teacher level. Consequently, the “standard” approach of analyzing on teacher‐level average dimension scores can yield incorrect inferences about the factor structure at the teacher level and possibly misleading evidence about the validity of scores and theories of teaching. We consider alternative hierarchical estimation approaches designed to prevent the contamination of estimated teacher‐level factors. These alternative approaches find a teacher‐level factor structure for CLASS‐S that consists of strongly correlated support and classroom management factors. Our results have implications for future studies using factor analysis on classroom observation data to develop validity evidence and test theories of teaching and for practitioners who rely on the results of such studies to support their use and interpretation of the classroom observation scores.     

Understanding Categorical Hierarchies: The Earliest Levels of Skill

2 categorization skills necessary for understanding hierarchies are the ability to form categories at different levels of generality and the ability to include the same objects into multiple categories. 2-year-olds appear to have the first skill, but some theoretical and empirical work suggests that the second may be a later acquisition. Yet, in 3 studies, 2- and 3-year-olds applied familiar basic level and superordinate labels to the same objects, even when reminded of basic labels before being tested with superordinates. They did not reserve superordinates for objects with unfamiliar basic level names (Study 2), and they were willing to apply superordinates to objects presented singly rather than in groups (Study 3). Thus, contrary to the implications of some previous work, 2- and 3-year-olds appear to have both of the categorization skills necessary for forming categorical hierarchies.     

Bringing action research to the curriculum development process

As new communication technologies enter the classroom, teachers must attend to how digital platforms impact the interpersonal practices of teaching and learning. In this article, I study email exchanges with three of my students – Jorge, Adriana, and Jason – over the course of one year in an 11th-grade English class at River High School, a struggling American school subject to intervention for failing to meet the federal No Child Left Behind requirements. I ask several questions: what role does email play in my relationships with students; what does email reveal about the ideological content of my communication with students; and how could I use email transformatively? When I studied these email exchanges, I found that while email has the potential to transform literacy instruction, it can also perpetuate a poor student/teacher relationship and reproduce neoliberal narratives that narrowly imagine students as test-takers, workers, and consumers.     

Promoting Desirable Outcomes Among Culturally and Ethnically Diverse Children in Social Emotional Learning Programs: a Multilevel Heuristic Model

The primary goal of this article is to situate the findings from evidence-based studies of social emotional learning (SEL) interventions into a broader social context by reframing the discussion to consider how aspects of sociocultural competence impact the development and delivery of programs. The limitations of current SEL intervention efforts are discussed and a multilevel heuristic model that identifies and defines the theoretical constructs that we believe are culturally bound and associated with the content, implementation, and evaluation components of SEL intervention programs is presented. We point out constraints associated with this effort and offer specific strategies and activities by which school personnel involved in these activities can be encouraged to embrace socioculturally based SEL practices in their classrooms and offer guidance for future research.     

Publisher–Society partnerships to further image accessibility and global inclusivity in the Humanities and Social Sciences: Comparing top-down and bottom-up approaches

• Collaboration between publishers and learned society partners can accelerate and amplify DEIA outcomes.
• 97 HSS titles have adopted alt-text publication workflows and this change has been welcomed by journal authors and editors.
• Efforts to promote global inclusivity do not always result in greater membership diversity, retention and growth.
• Top-down, publisher-led DEIA initiatives are effective when they are aligned strategically to pre-existing society initiatives.
• Bottom-up, member-led DEIA initiatives benefit from publisher support to mitigate financial and time-based barriers to active participation.
• To reliably track DEIA outcomes, publishers ought to adopt systematic data collection strategies through initiatives like C4 and the Joint Commitment.

     

论高等教育领域合作伙伴关系模型的构建

本文描述一个可以用来审视和检验教育机构之间合作伙伴关系的理论模型,重点讨论该模型的不同组成成分以及它们之间的相互关系,分析合作伙伴关系建立过程中涉及的各个方面,描述合作伙伴关系的重要特征,特别是发展早期的特征,以及提出评估合作伙伴关系时应该考虑的一系列重要问题.＃     

Recent Publications in Natural History

LIBRARY AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Recent Publications in Natural History is a regular feature of Curator. It lists recent publications under various headings, Mary E. Genett–Editor