The Importance of Making the Well-Being of Children in Poverty a Priority

Hurricane Katrina exposed to the world the side of America that is often ignored or forgotten—the side of America where people live in poverty and struggle to meet their most basic needs. This article focuses primarily on children in Mississippi and highlights the effect that poverty has on children’s well-being at an early age and future academic success. It also provides evidence for the importance of funding high-quality pre-k programs and parental training to ensure they begin the process of preparing their children for success, not only in Mississippi but in the other states that are leaving their children behind. Finally, with the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind in 2007, recommendations are made for refocusing the premise of the law from accountability and high stakes testing to meeting the needs of all children so they can truly be successful in school.     

Entering and exiting a teacher preparation program: What happens in between?

In determining whether graduates of the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program at Southern Oregon University were developing the necessary knowledge, skills, and dispositions to teach, faculty members found themselves examining their own practice. This is just what Goodlad (1988) suggested we do: clarify our own beliefs in order to better understand our teacher preparation program. We discovered that the development of the MAT program is primarily shaped by the people who teach within the program. Who we are as people, influences who we are as teachers and, who we are as teachers influences the nature of the teacher preparation program. This discovery underscored the importance of our efforts to steward the development of our students’ personhood as well as their knowledge and skills.     

What’s in a word? Practices associated with ‘feedforward’ in higher education

Abstract

The term ‘feedforward’ is increasingly employed in higher education, and this paper focuses on the way in which it fits into contemporary debates about feedback and its impact on practitioners. Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate the practices academics associate with feedforward and the ways in which their intentions and understandings varied. The term resulted in practices being framed as a process and prompted academics to consider the points in the future when students were expected to deploy information and improve. Three future horizons were identified: the ‘within-module’ future horizon dominated, while the challenges of ‘beyond-module’ and ‘beyond-programme’ horizons became apparent. Written comments, guidance, formative assessment and design practices were associated with feedforward, comprising both transmission and student-focused approaches. It is concluded that the modular system restricts longer-term future horizons and sustainable practices, and more must be done to address the divide between theoretical and practitioners’ perspectives.     

The synergy of minority student persistence and faculty renewal

In response to increased student assessment and accountability concerns, colleges and universities have been called on to increase their efforts to improve the retention rates of an increasingly diverse student body. This article outlines a synergistic strategy for promoting minority student persistence through faculty renewal efforts that encourage faculty to question their cultural beliefs and academic values concerning the teaching and learning enterprise.Dr. Kay F. Norman is currently with Delaware State University where she is Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching. She also teaches graduate courses in Educational Assessment and Special Education Administration and Supervision. She holds an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration with emphasis in Student Services from Texas Southern University. Her research interests are in student retention, assessment, and effective teaching. James Norman, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Education at Delaware State University's School of Education. He is a graduate of Ohio State University. Dr. Norman's research interest include special education monitoring and compliance issues, and behavioral management systems.     

Tell another story,teacher!

The classroom is still. The children are watching the teacher, wide-eyed. The teacher is dressed in a red cape and hood. Softly she begins: Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Red Riding Hood ...Kay Singley is a former Kindergarten Teacher who lives in Moulton, Iowa.     

Reclaiming Teacher Agency in a Student-Centred Digital World

This article examines the current dilemma faced by many teachers: the drive for a modern day pedagogy advocating student-centred, technology-enabled learning is at odds with teacher comfort zones still nestled in a teacher-talk, print-based classroom. Put another way, the 'techno-reluctance' of many teachers represents a negative reaction to the perception that new technologies represent a threat to their traditional roles and general sense of practical agency in the learning process or classroom. The paper interprets some of the key factors impacting on techno-reluctance as a means of moving beyond such a simplistic view of the connection between digital technologies and changing teacher roles. On this basis, it goes on to discuss the concept of 'technoliteracy' as a means of reclaiming teacher agency in a studentcentred, computer-mediated environment and also reframing teacher attitudes to electronic texts and related literacy practices.     

Caregivers of quality: One mother's search for child care

Too often, guidelines for quality child care emphasize the physical site, the equipment, safety, and the staff-child ratio. However, to ensure high-quality child care for our children, the personal and professional attributes of quality caregivers must be considered. The most important caregiver attributes are discussed, as one mother describes her search for child care.     

Evaluation: judgemental or developmental?

An increasing number of studies are concerned with the international comparison of the results that different education systems achieve. For example, TIMSS, PIRLS and PISA publish the results from different countries in mathematics, science and literacy. The European Commission has also published indicators and benchmarks relating to the quality of school education. This type of external evaluation is often perceived by teachers as judgemental and controlling. In contrast, internal school‐based evaluation aims to be seen as a developmental process contributing to improved teacher and student learning, where ownership of the evaluation processes remains with the school stakeholders. This paper examines the possible tensions and conflicts that may arise between these two types of evaluation and asks the question ‘How can we overcome the negative attitudes that may have resulted from external evaluation in order to encourage schools to undertake internal school‐based evaluation?’ The paper explores, using Scottish case studies, ways in which schools through their internal self‐evaluation processes may use the data in different ways to meet some, if not all, of the external demands placed on them. This strategy, it is argued, ensures that evaluation is largely done for school purposes and as an aid to the learning process, rather than as an external assessment designed to hold schools accountable for the learning achieved to date.

Il y a un nombre grandissant d'études qui s'occupent de la comparaison internationale des résultats atteints par de différents systèmes éducatifs. Par exemple, TIMSS, PERLS et PISA publient les résultats de différents pays en maths, en sciences et en alphabétisation. La Communauté européenne publie aussi des indicateurs et des standards qui se rapportent à la qualité d'éducation dans les écoles. Ce genre d'évaluation externe est souvent perçu par les enseignants comme un moyen de jugement et de contrôle. Par contraste, les évaluations internes, basées et créés dans les écoles essaient d'établir un processus de développement qui contribue à améliorer l'apprentissage des enseignants et des étudiants et qui es la copropriété des preneurs de l'école. Cet article examine les tensions et les conflits qui peuvent se présenter entre les deux genres d'évaluation et pose la question: “Comment peut‐on combattre les attitudes negatives qui résulteraient après des évaluations externes et comment peut‐on par la suite encourager les écoles à entreprendre leur propre évaluation externe?”Plus particulièrement, en utilisant des études de cas de quelques écoles en Ecosse, l'article explore aussi les moyens par lesquels les écoles peuvent utiliser les données obtenues par les processus d'auto‐évaluations internes afin d'adresser au moins quelques‐unes des exigences externes qui s'imposent à l'école. Cette strategie, l'on soutient, garantit que l'évaluation bénéficit en grande partie aux méthodes d'enseignement à l'école au contraire des évaluations externes qui généralement poussent les écoles à rendre des comptes.

Eine zunehmende Anzahl von Untersuchungen befaßt sich mit dem internationalen Vergleich der Leistung, die in verschiedenen Ausbildungssystemen erzielt wird. Zum Beispiel veröffentlichen TIMSS, PIRLR und PISA die Ergebnisse von verschiedenen Ländern in den Bereichen Mathematik, Naturwissenschaften und Lesen/Schreiben. In Bezug auf die Qualität schulischer Ausbildung hat die Europäische Kommission auch Indikatoren und Anforderungsmaßstäbe veröffentlicht. Diese Art von externer Evaluation wird von Lehrern oft als bewertend und als ein Element von Steuerungsmaßnahmen angesehen. Im Gegensatz dazu sollte die interne schulbezogene Evaluation, deren Kontrolle bei den Betroffenen in der Schule verbleibt, als Teil eines Entwicklungsprozesses aufgefaßt werden, der auf die Verbesserung des Lernens von Lehrern und Schülern abzielt. Dieser Beitrag untersucht die möglichen Spannungen und Konflikte, die sich aus den beiden verschieden Evaluationsansätzen ergeben. Es wird die Frage aufgeworfen: “Wie können wir die negativen Einstellungen, die mit externer Evaluationen leicht verbunden sind, überwinden, um damit die Schulen bereit zu machen, interne schulbezogene Evaluationen durchzuführen?” Auf der Grundlage von schottischen Fallstudien zeigt der Beitrag Möglichkeiten auf, wie Schulen im Rahmen von internen Selbstevaluationsprozessen Daten verschiedenster Art nutzen können, um zumindest einigen Anforderungen, die an sie von außen gestellt werden, genügen zu können. Die Verfasser gehen davon aus, daß eine solche Strategie sicherstellt, daß die Evaluation im wesentlichen für schulische Zwecke durchgeführt wird: Daß sie vor allem den weiteren Lernprozeß unterstützt und weniger einer externen Beurteilung dient, die darauf ausgerichtet ist, Schulen für ihre bisherigen Lernleistungen zur Verantwortung zu ziehen.

Ultimamente ha habido un incremento importante de estudios sobre los resultados que han obtenido diversos sistemas educativos en comparaciones internacionales. Por ejemplo, TIMSS, PERLS y PISA publican los resultados de diversos países en matemáticas, ciencias y alfabetización. La Comisión Europea también ha publicado indicadores y bases de datos, referidos a la calidad de la educación de las escuelas. Este tipo de evaluación externa a menudo es percibido por los profesores como un control y una crítica a su labor. En contraste, la evaluación interna realizada desde la escuela, apunta a ser considerada como un proceso de desarrollo profesional que contribuye a la mejora del profesorado y al aprendizaje de los alumnos, y donde el propietario del proceso de evaluación es el mismo centro educativo. Este documento examina las posibles tensiones y los conflictos que pueden darse entre estos dos tipos de evaluación y se pregunta, “¿cómo podemos superar las actitudes negativas que pudieron originar la evaluación externa de manera que se pueda animar a las escuelas a emprender una evaluación interna desde la escuela? El documento explora, usando estudio de casos escoceses, las maneras en las cuales las escuelas a través de sus procesos de autoevaluación interna pueden utilizar los datos de diversas maneras y dar respuesta a algunas, sino a todas, las demandas que reciben del exterior. Esta estrategia, se dice, que asegura que la evaluación esté hecha en gran parte para el propósito de la escuela y como ayuda al proceso de aprendizaje más que un examen externo diseñado para que las escuelas rindan cuentas sobre los resultados que han obtenido.