Heterogeneous Effects of Charter Schools: Unpacking Family Selection and Achievement Growth in Los Angeles

Disparate findings on whether students attending charter schools outperform peers in traditional public schools (TPS) may stem from mixing differing types of charters or inadequately accounting for pupil background. To gauge prior family selection and heterogeneous effects, we distinguish between conversion and start-up charter schools, along with a third site-run model operating in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). We find that TPS campuses converting to charter status (conversions) attracted more experienced and consistently credentialed teachers, and served relatively advantaged families, compared with newly created charter schools (start-ups), after tracking 66,000 students over 4 years, 2007–2011. Charters overall attracted pupils achieving at higher levels as they began a grade cycle (at baseline), relative to TPS peers, most pronounced among conversions that remained affiliated with the district. After matching students on their propensities to enter a charter school, we find that pupils attending charters outperformed TPS peers over the 4-year period. These benefits are most consistent and moderate in magnitude for middle school students. We observed significant though small effects in English language arts for pupils attending charter high schools. Latino students, mostly attending start-ups, enjoyed consistent benefits from attending a charter school.     

Approaching 18% efficiency of ternary organic photovoltaics with wide bandgap polymer donor and well compatible Y6 : Y6-1O as acceptor

A series of ternary organic photovoltaics (OPVs) are fabricated with one wide bandgap polymer D18-Cl as donor, and well compatible Y6 and Y6-1O as acceptor. The open-circuit-voltage (V_OC) of ternary OPVs is monotonously increased along with the incorporation of Y6-1O, indicating that the alloy state should be formed between Y6 and Y6-1O due to their excellent compatibility. The energy loss can be minimized by incorporating Y6-1O, leading to the V_OC improvement of ternary OPVs. By finely adjusting the Y6-1O content, a power conversion efficiency of 17.91% is achieved in the optimal ternary OPVs with 30 wt% Y6-1O in acceptors, resulting from synchronously improved short-circuit-current density (J_SC) of 25.87 mA cm⁻², fill factor (FF) of 76.92% and V_OC of 0.900 V in comparison with those of D18-Cl : Y6 binary OPVs. The J_SC and FF improvement of ternary OPVs should be ascribed to comprehensively optimal photon harvesting, exciton dissociation and charge transport in ternary active layers. The more efficient charge separation and transport process in ternary active layers can be confirmed by the magneto-photocurrent and impedance spectroscopy experimental results, respectively. This work provides new insight into constructing highly efficient ternary OPVs with well compatible Y6 and its derivative as acceptor.     

The inequitable distribution of public education resources across schools: evidence from Korea

A dearth of literature examines across-school disparities in education resources within local government agencies, particularly in Asia Pacific countries. Little is known about what leads to their inequitable distributions. In this article, we provide some answers by decomposing the inequalities of school resources. In Korea, individual schools make their own revenues from three different sources: local education government agencies (LEA), municipalities, and their parents. Following the economic literature on income inequality, we explored how much each revenue source is attributable to overall disparities. Our results reveal that the LEAs are the greatest contributor to horizontal inequality while parents are the main source of vertical inequality. These findings provide useful policy implications for better equitable distributions of public education resources.     

Improving caregivers’ confidence with the Powerful Tools for Caregivers program

ABSTRACT

The Powerful Tools for Caregivers (PTC) program is designed to help caregivers develop skills to improve their self-efficacy in caregiving. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the PTC program in Boise, Idaho, the program’s pre-survey (n = 277), end-of-program survey (n = 131), and 6-month follow-up post-survey data (n = 100) collected between 2011 and 2017 were analyzed in this study. The end-of-program survey data indicated that caregivers viewed the quality of the program to be excellent and that all of them felt more confident as a caregiver. Factor analysis and reliability testing on the pre-survey data confirmed that seven questions included in the pre- and 6-month follow-up post-survey instruments reliably measured a single factor named as caregiver confidence. A paired samples t-test on 76 complete sets of pre- and 6-month follow-up post-survey data on the seven questions revealed that caregivers improved their confidence in caregiving to a statistically significant level (p < .001, d = 45). Additional paired samples t-tests on each of the seven questions with the Bonferroni correction showed statistically significant improvements in three areas: making tough decisions (p < .001, d = .53), coping with emotions (p < .001, d = .54), and using stress-reducing activities (p < .007, d = .33). Caregivers experienced the greatest improvement in their confidence in making tough decisions. Despite these significant improvements, caregivers still struggled with finding ways to reduce stress and manage their emotions associated with caregiving as shown by the lowest pre- and 6-month follow-up post-survey scores. In addition to the study results, several considerations when synthesizing PTC research results are discussed.     

Narrative inquiry into (re)imagining alternative schools: a case study of Kevin Gonzales

Although there are many alternative schools that strive for the successful education of their students, negative images of alternative schools persist. While some alternative schools are viewed as ‘idealistic havens’, many are viewed as ‘dumping grounds’ or ‘juvenile detention centers’. Employing narrative inquiry, this article interrogates how a student, Kevin Gonzales, experiences his alternative education and raises questions about the role of alternative schools. Kevin Gonzales’s story is presented in a literary form of biographical journal to provide a ‘metaphoric loft’ that helps us imagine other students like Kevin. This, in turn, provokes us to examine our current educational practice and (re)imagines ways in which alternative education can provide the best possible educational experiences for disenfranchised students who are increasingly underserved by the public education system.     

FACTORS THAT PREDICT ELEMENTARY EDUCATORS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE IN TEACHING SELF‐DETERMINATION

Promoting self‐determination has been suggested as a means for students with disabilities to access the general curriculum. We surveyed 407 elementary educators to examine a) the effects of classroom setting and teaching self‐regulation strategies on the perceived importance and frequency of teaching self‐determination; and b) the severity level of student disability, teacher primary assignment, teaching experience, and classroom and school setting on self‐regulation instruction. Teaching experience and classroom setting predicted the use of self‐regulation strategies, but primary assignment, school setting, and student disability did not. Self‐regulation instruction predicted the frequency of teaching self‐determination, but neither it nor classroom setting predicted the perceived importance of teaching self‐determination. Limitations and implications of this study are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.     

The Neoliberal Racial Project: The Tiger Mother and Governmentality

Combining the conceptual approach of racial formation and racial projects with the Foucauldian concept of governmentality, Jeong‐eun Rhee theorizes the “neoliberal racial project” (NRP) and examines contemporary meanings and operations of race and racism in relation to neoliberalism. She analyzes Amy Chua's popular parenting memoir, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, as a specific case of the NRP, and demonstrates how in this text race is pressed to work in new — neoliberal — ways, re/generating different kinds of categories and meanings, yet also continuously drawing upon old categories and meanings, to effect and rationalize social arrangements of power and exploitation, violence and expropriation. What is noteworthy is the way in which racial neoliberalism builds silently on the structural conditions of racism while disabling the very categories of their recognizability. Consequently, Rhee argues for new, historically bounded theories that can articulate how the meanings, categories, and concepts of races are constantly being reconfigured.     

Amount of invested mental effort (AIME) in online searching

This research investigates how people’s perceptions of information retrieval (IR) systems, their perceptions of search tasks, and their perceptions of self-efficacy influence the amount of invested mental effort (AIME) they put into using two different IR systems: a Web search engine and a library system. It also explores the impact of mental effort on an end user’s search experience. To assess AIME in online searching, two experiments were conducted using these methods: Experiment 1 relied on self-reports and Experiment 2 employed the dual-task technique. In both experiments, data were collected through search transaction logs, a pre-search background questionnaire, a post-search questionnaire and an interview. Important findings are these: (1) subjects invested greater mental effort searching a library system than searching the Web; (2) subjects put little effort into Web searching because of their high sense of self-efficacy in their searching ability and their perception of the easiness of the Web; (3) subjects did not recognize that putting mental effort into searching was something needed to improve the search results; and (4) data collected from multiple sources proved to be effective for assessing mental effort in online searching.     

Understanding Academic Information Seeking Habits through Analysis of Web Server Log Files: The Case of the Teachers College Library Website

Transaction logs of user activity on an academic library website were analyzed to determine general usage patterns on the website. This paper reports on insights gained from the analysis, and identifies and discusses issues relating to content access, interface design and general functionality of the website.