Educational Researcher 45卷3期

1. 2011 AERA Presidential Address: Designing Resilient Ecologies: Social Design Experiments and a New Social Imagination

Author: Kris D. Gutiérrez

Source: Educational Researcher 45.3(Apr. 2016): 187-196.

Abstract:

This article is about designing for educational possibilities—designs that in their inception, social organization, and implementation squarely address issues of cultural diversity, social inequality, and robust learning. I discuss an approach to design-based research, social design experiments, that privileges a social scientific inquiry organized around a new sociocultural imagination, with an expansive understanding of how people can learn resonantly, as they live together productively and interculturally. I present a case of a postindustrial mining town to illustrate what can be learned from ecological approaches to help us design, sustain, and re-mediate vulnerable ecologies. I also present an educational case from my work and one from architecture as arguments for consequential design interventions for nondominant communities.

2. Testing the Causal Links Between School Climate, School Violence, and School Academic Performance: A Cross-Lagged Panel Autoregressive Model

Author: Rami Benbenishty, Ron Avi Astor, Ilan Roziner, and Stephani L. Wrabel

Source: Educational Researcher 45.3(Apr. 2016): 197-206.

Abstract:

The present study explores the causal link between school climate, school violence, and a school’s general academic performance over time using a school-level, cross-lagged panel autoregressive modeling design. We hypothesized that reductions in school violence and climate improvement would lead to schools’ overall improved academic performance. School-level secondary analysis of the California Healthy Kids Survey was conducted at three points in time. Findings offer credible evidence that a school’s overall improvement in academic performance is a central causal factor in reducing violence and enhancing a school’s climate. In the discussion, we suggest that when strong efforts to improve academics are taken, schools may tend to include issues of climate and victimization as part of those academic reform efforts.

3. Investigating Technology-Enhanced Teacher Professional Development in Rural, High-Poverty Middle Schools

Author: Margaret R. Blanchard, Catherine E. LePrevost, A. Dell Tolin, and Kristie S. Gutierrez

Source: Educational Researcher 45.3(Apr. 2016): 207-220.

Abstract:

This 3-year, mixed-methods study investigated the effects of teacher technology-enhanced professional development (TPD) on 20 teachers’ beliefs and practices. Teachers in two middle schools located in neighboring rural, high-poverty districts in the southeastern United States participated in reform-based lessons and learned how to integrate technologies into their teaching over three summers and throughout the school year. Mathematics and science assessment scores for 2,321 students both with and without TPD teachers were analyzed over the 3 years of teacher TPD. Teachers’ reform-based teaching beliefs and their comfort using new technologies increased significantly, and all of the teachers integrated the use of technologies into their instruction. Although some TPD teachers used technology in ways that transformed their roles and classroom practices, the majority of the teachers adopted technology in ways that improved efficiency and effectiveness. African American students who had more TPD teachers over more years experienced significant gains on end-of-grade mathematics and science tests. Findings suggest that if teachers integrate technology into their instruction, large-scale changes in teachers’ practices are not necessary to enhance students’ learning, particularly for African American students.

4. Risks and Consequences of Oversimplifying Educational Inequities: A Response to Morgan et al. (2015)

Author: Russell J. Skiba, Alfredo J. Artiles, Elizabeth B. Kozleski, Daniel J. Losen, and Elizabeth G. Harry

Source: Educational Researcher 45.3(Apr. 2016): 221-225.

Abstract:

In this technical comment, we argue that Morgan et al.’s claim that there is no minority overrepresentation in special education is in error due to (a) sampling considerations, (b) inadequate support from previous and current analyses, and (c) their failure to consider the complexities of special education disproportionality.

5. Are We Helping All the Children That We Are Supposed to Be Helping?

Author: Paul L. Morgan and George Farkas

Source: Educational Researcher 45.3(Apr. 2016): 226-228.

Abstract:

We reply to three critiques regarding our reporting that White, English-speaking children are much more likely than otherwise similar racial, ethnic, and language minority children to receive special education services in the United States. We show how each critique is unsound. We present further evidence of the robustness of our findings.