American Journal of Education最新文献

{"title":"From Central Office to Portfolio Manager in Three Cities: Responding to the Principal-Agent Problem","authors":"Katrina E. Bulkley, A. Torres, Ayesha K. Hashim, Sarah Woodward, Julie A. Marsh, Katharine O. Strunk, Douglas N. Harris","doi":"10.1086/715034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/715034","url":null,"abstract":"A number of districts are moving toward a portfolio management model, in which central offices act as “portfolio managers” (PMs) that oversee—but may not actively manage—publicly funded schools. Using principal-agent theory, with its focus on goal alignment and the use of incentives, we explore how PMs operated in ways distinct from traditional district offices in Denver, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. We consider how PMs identify the goals of multiple principals, incentivize and monitor agents around principals’ goals, and select and develop agents who can meet principals’ goals. Drawing on 76 system-level interviews, we find that PMs in each city confronted similar tensions around PM responsibilities but addressed them differently. Specifically, we observed distinct PM approaches to managing competing goals of stakeholders in the context of school closure and to balancing school-based autonomy with more prescriptive measures for building school capacity and ensuring the equitable treatment of students.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"127 1","pages":"597 - 626"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49258217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"In the NIC of Time: How Sustainable Are Networked Improvement Communities?","authors":"Ela Joshi, Christopher Redding, Marisa Cannata","doi":"10.1086/713826","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/713826","url":null,"abstract":"Networked improvement communities (NICs) mark a promising approach to address the challenges of sustaining school reform. Whereas NICs are intended to help scale and sustain reforms, there is little evidence on how this works, as few NICs have existed long enough to be described over time. This study uses social network theory to understand what happened after the removal of external supports for a NIC regarding the sustainability of the improvement efforts as well as the NIC itself. We use social network data and interviews conducted with about 70 school and district leaders within the NIC to examine changes in the organizational infrastructure that maintained or changed network features. Our findings indicate that, upon the withdrawal of external supports, the network constricted, though core network features were maintained. However, changes to the infrastructure, such as a reliance on teacher-leaders and a focus on school-level empowerment, present challenges to the long-term sustainability of the NIC.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"127 1","pages":"369 - 397"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/713826","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45659690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Do Rising Tides Lift All Boats? Exploring Heterogenous Effects of Florida’s Developmental Education Reform by High School Academic Preparation","authors":"Toby J. Park-Gaghan, Christine G. Mokher, Hayley Spencer, Shouping Hu","doi":"10.1086/714244","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/714244","url":null,"abstract":"Underprepared students at community colleges are often assigned to a sequence of developmental education (DE) courses that can substantially delay, or even halt, their progress to degree completion. In 2014, Florida took a drastic step forward when it implemented a comprehensive DE reform. Our findings show large, positive base effects of the reform for all students as well as heterogeneous effects by high school academic preparation. More specifically, students in the two lowest tracks of high school academic preparation—students for whom much of the reform was explicitly designed—experienced greater gains than did students in the upper two tracks. However, students in the upper tracks also experienced gains and students in the lowest track experienced the greatest gains of all. These findings suggest that when statewide DE reform was implemented in Florida, all students benefited, with the least prepared students experiencing the greatest gains.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"127 1","pages":"471 - 495"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/714244","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46175692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Opportunity for All: A Framework for Quality and Equality in Education by Jennifer A. O’Day and Marshall S. Smith. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2019. 296 pp., $34.00 (paper).","authors":"Jal Mehta","doi":"10.1086/713824","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/713824","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"127 1","pages":"497-500"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48190193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Organic Tomato Production in Alabama: Host Preference of the Tomato Hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata) and Performance of Selected Biopesticides","authors":"B. Koirala, F. Quarcoo, K. Kpomblekou-A, D. Mortley","doi":"10.11648/J.AJE.20210501.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.11648/J.AJE.20210501.12","url":null,"abstract":"Organic farming largely excludes the use of chemical fertilizers, synthetic pesticides, genetically modified organisms, antibiotics, and growth hormones. Organic food production in the Southeastern United States is low and not reflective of the national trend. Warm temperatures and high rainfall patterns in this region cause a rapid decomposition of soil organic matter and high insect pest populations; both conditions do not augur well for vegetable production. The specific objectives of this study were to (1) conduct insect host-preference assessments using three popular tomato cultivars and 2) assess efficacy and cost effectiveness of selected biopesticides against tomato hornworm. Field trials involving three tomato cultivars: Celebrity, Mountain magic and Rocky top were conducted at the George Washington Carver Agricultural Experiment Station Organic Research Farm, Tuskegee University Alabama in 2018 and 2019. The experiments were set up as a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 3x4 factorial treatment arrangement (i.e., 3 tomato varieties and 4 spray treatments) replicated 4 times. An assessment of relative performance and cost-effectiveness of the biopesticide active ingredients: Azadirachtin, Spinosad, and Pyrethrin against hornworms on tomato was done. An improvised Economic threshold (ET) of one adult hornworm per 10 foot-row of tomatoes was used. Biopesticides were sprayed on designated plots when visual sampling revealed the attainment of ET populations. The hornworm counts at different sampling dates were analyzed using SAS statistical software. Tomato hornworms showed equal preference for Celebrity, Mountain magic and Rocky top tomato cultivars. Plots treated with the candidate biopesticides recorded similar hornworm populations as untreated control plots in 2018 whereas in 2019, Spinosad and Azadirachtin performed better than the control. Based on the total volume of biopesticide used, per unit cost of each biopesticide, and reduction of hornworms in treated plots, none of the biopesticides was cost-effective in 2018. This is because none of them was effective (i.e., performed better than untreated controls) against the hornworm. In 2019, however, the use of Spinosad and Azadirachtin resulted in hornworm counts that were significantly lower than those recorded in the control study. However, these significant differences in hornworm populations did not translate into differences in tomato yields. Except for a significantly lower hornworm population observed approximately 57 DAT, pyrethrin treatments resulted in hornworm populations that were comparable to those recorded on control plots. Insignificant effects on tomato yield renders moot, any computations of cost-effectiveness. Pyrethrin is clearly the least expensive option but cannot be described as the most cost-effective.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"5 1","pages":"10"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44743908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Relation between the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Special Education Research: A Systematic Review","authors":"Marian Lewis, Megan M. Burke, Janet R. Decker","doi":"10.1086/713825","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/713825","url":null,"abstract":"Because the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) delineates much of the substantive and procedural dimensions of special education practice, it seems logical that IDEA should be an integral part of special education research. Yet, to what extent do special education researchers discuss IDEA? In this study, we systematically reviewed every article published in a 10-year time frame in three special education journals (N = 887). Only 23.1% of the articles had explicit implications for IDEA. Most implications were tied to the compliance of IDEA as opposed to how IDEA could be improved. The disconnect between research and law has significant implications for research, policy, and practice.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"127 1","pages":"345 - 368"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/713825","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44004567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"On Their Own? The Work-Related Social Interactions and Turnover of New Teachers","authors":"Matthew Shirrell","doi":"10.1086/713828","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/713828","url":null,"abstract":"Work-related social interactions are key to the effectiveness and retention of new teachers, yet little research has examined changes in these networks over time. Using longitudinal social network data from 14 elementary schools, this study explores new teachers’ instructional advice interactions with their colleagues. Results suggest that new teachers are relatively peripheral to their schools’ networks, maintain similar advice-seeking patterns as their early careers progress, and that new teachers’ advice-seeking predicts leaving their schools or teaching the following year. These findings have implications for efforts to support new teachers’ collegial interactions and retention.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"127 1","pages":"399 - 439"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/713828","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44119165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Muddy Waters: The Micropolitics of Instructional Coaches’ Work in Evaluation","authors":"Sarah Galey-Horn, Sarah L. Woulfin","doi":"10.1086/713827","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/713827","url":null,"abstract":"Instructional coaching has emerged as a popular policy lever for improvement efforts in an era of teacher evaluation. In this environment, coaches often face conflicting demands between their educative duties to develop teachers and their reform-oriented responsibilities to implement district policy. Coaches can wield facets of teacher evaluation to promote coherent instructional improvement. Drawing on interview data from 41 coaches across five educational systems, we apply the micropolitics perspective to examine coaches’ work as they navigate the intersection of teacher evaluation and instructional improvement. Our findings elucidate two major micropolitical strategies: convergence and divergence. In particular, coaches frequently converged their work with evaluation around goal setting and observation feedback, facilitating teachers’ and administrators’ understanding of the evaluation system and instructional reform. Conversely, coaches tended to separate issues of teachers’ formal ratings from their coaching. Our analysis reveals details on coaches’ political role and illuminates benefits and limitations of coaches’ involvement in evaluation.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"127 1","pages":"441 - 470"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/713827","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47554624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Intense Teaching Schedule in Israeli Teachers","authors":"Y. Buskila, Tamar Chen-Levi","doi":"10.30958/AJE.8-3-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30958/AJE.8-3-5","url":null,"abstract":"The teaching profession is highly stressful. Stress is a negative phenomenon that develops under conditions of uncontrollable, prolonged and increased pressure. In this study, our goal is (a) to investigate teachers' perception of the sources of stress in school in light of the neoliberal reforms and (b) to compare these sources of stress in primary school, middle school and high school teachers. We hypothesize that the demands and the workload to improve scores in standardized tests, increase the need of teachers to take work home. Therefore, home demands may conflict with school demands. Furthermore, the greatest pressure is on elementary and middle school teachers: Early efforts to improve student achievements in the lower grades would result in better-prepared students in high schools. Data about the sources of stress is based on a previous study of Buskila, Buskila, Giris and Ablin (2019) that investigated the connection between the effects of stress on teachers on somatic syndromes. Three hundred and twenty-one public school teachers working in the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Israel participated in the study. Findings of the mean of the entire samples revealed that the highest level of stress was caused by intense teaching schedule with insufficient breaks. The second cause was related to the composition of the students in the class, and the third was home demands conflicting with school demands. In the middle schools, the highest levels of stress are caused by school principals (M=5.98, SD=3.09) and second is in high school (M=5.00, SD=3.33). The highest level of stress caused by the superintendent is on primary school teachers (M=3.97, SD=3.33) and the second are the middle school teachers (M=3.79, SD = 2.95). The lowest stress level was in high school (M=2.68, SD=2.83). Three significance differences of stress were found among primary, middle, and high schools: The school principal is the highest source of pressure in the middle schools (P=.034), and the superintendent causes the highest level of stress in primary schools (P=.006). The third cause was in high school, related to physical school conditions (p=.002). These results are relevant to teachers, educators, and policy makers involved in planning and managing educational strategies and teachers’ schedules. Identifying and preventing the sources of stress can facilitate better teaching conditions, and a more effective and efficient atmosphere in school. Keywords: Stress at school, teachers' stress, causes of stress in school","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"8 1","pages":"329-348"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42992399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cultural Reproduction Theory and Schooling: The Relationship between Student Capital and Opportunity to Learn","authors":"Alison S. P. Wilson, Angela Urick","doi":"10.1086/712086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/712086","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of this study is to extend the literature on cultural reproduction theory and schools by problematizing the relationship between student background and student achievement. Using Program for International Student Assessment 2012 data, we analyze a series of random effects analyses of covariance to test the relationship between student social and cultural capital variables and student opportunity to learn (OTL) in math class for US 15-year-olds. By examining the relationship between student capital and OTL, we call attention to the role of schools in providing differential learning experiences to students, which helps to explain disparate achievement outcomes. Findings support the cultural reproduction perspective by demonstrating that students who have more access to normative education-based resources outside of school and academically aligned social networks tend to report more opportunities for problem solving and student-oriented instruction during math lessons. These results can help practitioners and policymakers identify and address patterns of stratification and inequity in schools.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"127 1","pages":"193 - 232"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1086/712086","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41691602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}