Teachers College Record

Teacher evaluation is a major policy initiative intended to improve the quality of classroom instruction. This study documents a fundamental challenge to using teacher evaluation to improve teaching and learning.

Using an observation instrument (CLASS-S), we evaluate evidence on different aspects of instructional practice in algebra classrooms to consider how much scores vary, how well observers are able to judge practice, and how well teachers are able to evaluate their own practice.

The study includes 82 Algebra I teachers in middle and high schools. Five observers completed almost all observations.

Each classroom was observed 4–5 times over the school year. Each observation was coded and scored live and by video. All videos were coded by two independent observers, as were 36% of the live observations. Observers assigned scores to each of 10 dimensions. Observer scores were also compared with master coders for a subset of videos. Participating teachers also completed a self-report instrument (CLASS-T) to assess their own skills on dimensions of CLASS-S.

For each lesson, data were aggregated into three domain scores, Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support, and then averaged across lessons to create scores for each classroom.

Classroom Observation scores fell in the high range of the protocol. Scores for Emotional Support were in the midlevel range, and the lowest scores were for Instructional Support. Scores for each domain were clustered in narrow ranges. Observers were more consistent over time and agreed more when judging Classroom Organization than the other two domains. Teacher ratings of their own strengths and weaknesses were positively related to observation scores for Classroom Organization and unrelated to observation scores for Instructional Support.

This study identifies a critical challenge for teacher evaluation policy if it is to improve teaching and learning. Aspects of teaching and learning in the observation protocol that appear most in need of improvement are those that are the hardest for observers to agree on, and teachers and external observers view most differently. Reliability is a marker of common understanding about important constructs and observation protocols are intended to provide a common language and structure to inform teaching practice. This study suggests the need to focus our efforts on the instructional and interactional aspects of classrooms through shared conversations and clear images of what teaching quality looks like.

Các thực hành phân loại trường đã được ghi nhận nhiều lần là có tác động tiêu cực đến sự phát triển bản thân và thành tích của học sinh, đặc biệt là đối với những học sinh được phân vào nhóm thấp hơn. Dù có những ghi chép này, việc phân loại vẫn tồn tại như một thực hành chuẩn mực trong các trường trung học của Mỹ, có thể một phần là bởi vì chúng ta thiếu những mô hình mà các khoa và giáo viên có thể tổ chức giảng dạy một cách thành công trong các lớp Toán học trung học đa dạng. Bài viết này cung cấp một mô hình như vậy thông qua phân tích định tính và định lượng.

Nhằm nâng cao hiểu biết trong lĩnh vực về giảng dạy công bằng và thành công, chúng tôi đã tiến hành một nghiên cứu dài hơi tại ba trường trung học. Tại một trường, Railside, học sinh đã chứng minh sự tiến bộ vượt trội hơn so với học sinh tại hai trường còn lại và đạt thành tích cao hơn tổng thể trên nhiều tiêu chí. Hơn nữa, sự chênh lệch thành tích giữa các nhóm dân tộc khác nhau tại Railside, vốn tồn tại ở các bài kiểm tra đầu vào, đã biến mất gần như hoàn toàn vào cuối năm thứ hai. Bài viết này cung cấp phân tích về thành công của Railside và xác định các yếu tố đã góp phần vào thành công này.

Thành phần tham gia bao gồm khoảng 700 học sinh khi họ tiến bộ qua ba trường trung học tại California. Railside là một trường trung học đô thị với nền tảng học sinh đa dạng về chủng tộc, ngôn ngữ và kinh tế. Greendale tọa lạc trong một cộng đồng ven biển với nền tảng học sinh đồng nhất hơn, chủ yếu là học sinh da trắng. Hilltop là một trường trung học nông thôn chủ yếu là học sinh da trắng và Latino/a.

Nghiên cứu dài hơi này sử dụng phương pháp nghiên cứu trường hợp đa dạng kết hợp. Ba trường được chọn để cung cấp một phạm vi rộng về chương trình học và dân số học sinh khác nhau. Dữ liệu về thành tích và thái độ của học sinh được đánh giá bằng các kỹ thuật thống kê, trong khi các thực hành của giáo viên và học sinh được tài liệu hóa bằng các kỹ thuật phân tích định tính như mã hóa.

Một trong những phát hiện của nghiên cứu là thành công của trường Railside, nơi mà khoa Toán đã dạy các lớp học đa dạng bằng cách tiếp cận hướng đến cải cách. So với hai trường còn lại trong nghiên cứu, học sinh tại Railside đã học hỏi nhiều hơn, yêu thích Toán học hơn và tiến bộ đến các cấp độ Toán học cao hơn. Bài viết này trình bày bằng chứng quy mô lớn về những thành tựu quan trọng này và cung cấp phân tích chi tiết về các cách mà các giáo viên tại Railside đã tạo ra điều đó, với sự chú ý đến các tương tác dạy và học trong các lớp học.

Recent racial incidents on college and high school campuses throughout the United States have catalyzed a growing conversation around issues of race and racism. These conversations exist alongside ongoing concerns about the lack of attention given to race and racism in the official school curriculum. Given that the field of education is generally located as a space to interrogate why these difficult issues of race in schools and society still persist, this study illustrates how contemporary official school knowledge addresses historical and contemporary issues of race and racism. To do this, we examine how historic acts of racial violence directed toward African Americans are rendered in K–12 school textbooks. Using the theoretical lenses of critical race theory and cultural memory, we explicate how historic acts of racial violence toward African Americans receives minimal and/or distorted attention in most K–12 texts.

We examined the knowledge constructed about racial violence and African Americans in the United States. Using the theoretical lenses of critical race theory and cultural memory, we show how the topic of historic acts of racial violence toward African Americans receives minimal and/or distorted attention in most K–12 texts. The purpose of this study is to illustrate that although accounts of racial violence that historically have been excluded from textbooks are now being included, this inclusion matters little if it is presented in a manner that disavows material implications of racial violence on sustained White privilege and entrenched African American inequities.

The findings from this study come from a textbook analysis of 19 recent U.S. history social studies textbooks adopted by the state of Texas. Drawing from the tradition of recent critical textbook studies, this study used a literary analysis methodology.

In this study, we found that although narratives of racial violence were present throughout the texts, they often rendered acts of violence as the immorality of single actors or “bad men doing bad things.” Additionally, these presentations portray violence as disconnected from the institutional and structural ties that supported and benefited from such acts.

The findings from this study illustrate the limited historical and sociocultural knowledge about race and racism provided to teachers and students through K–12 social studies textbooks. These findings have direct implications for how teachers and students conceptualize and grapple with real issues of race and racism in schools and society. We suggest that the knowledge contained in school texts must go beyond simply representing acts of racism, situating such acts of racism within the discursive and material realities that have shaped the lives of African Americans in the United States.

Partnerships between schools and universities are increasingly advocated as a way to bridge the research–practice gap in education. Empirical research has revealed a wide variety of benefits that these partnerships can bring to merging research and practice. Yet, empirical studies also demonstrate that merging research and practice through partnerships at local sites is neither straightforward nor a guaranteed process. Rather, it is a fragile process fraught with tension that often stems from the relationship between the school and university partners.

Kornfeld and Leyden reflected that if schools and universities are to successfully partner, they “should be ever mindful of … the infinite complexities and potential pitfalls in the relationship.” The purpose of this literature review is to document these complexities and pitfalls more fully so that schools and universities involved in partnerships can have more realistic expectations of the demanding work entailed in maintaining healthy relationships. Realistic expectations can help school and university partners to more successfully navigate the fragility of their work. Furthermore, the research literature suggests that when partners work collaboratively to address these challenges, they will strengthen their relationships.

A literature review was conducted using an intellectual social network analysis and an extensive database search. A total of 56 studies were selected for analysis using relevant inclusion and exclusion criteria.

The 56 studies reveal that challenges to maintaining partnerships emerge from the differences in schools and universities along three high-level categories: organizational structures, discourse practices, and power relations. Yet, schools and universities can mitigate these challenges by working together to collaboratively build organizational infrastructure, shared meaning, and trusting relationships.

Schools and universities that partner to close the gap between research and practice at local sites should be mindful of the ways that their differences in organizational structures, discourse practices, and power relations can complicate their work together. At the same time, schools and universities can strengthen their relationships by intentionally working to collaboratively build organizational infrastructure, shared meaning, and trusting relationships. By working to reconcile the differences between themselves, schools and universities can better learn how to navigate the fragility inherent in their partnership.

Research on data and evidence use suggest that productive use depends on interactive processes, including sustained interactions between educators and researchers. Recent research on research-practice partnerships (RPPs) has examined conditions under which these sustained collaborations support evidence use. Findings from these studies can inform research on early warning indicators, helping interpret implementation studies of productive use and creating conditions for use of data from early warning indicator systems.

This chapter presents results of a review of studies of data and evidence use within RPPs. It investigates the claim that RPPs can support productive data and evidence use only under certain conditions, conditions that are relevant to studying and supporting the implementation of early warning indicator systems in education.

The synthesis focused on identifying studies published between 2013 and 2019 as journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports that focused on data and evidence use in RPPs. To be included, studies had to be empirical and related to the focal topics. A total of 114 studies met criteria for inclusion. For all studies, members of the research team developed summaries, which the team then discussed. Themes emerged from summaries, grouped by RPP, and from team discussions.

The review found six supportive conditions were needed for productive use of data and evidence to guide decision-making and action. These were (1) valuation of knowledge, experience, and perspectives of partners; (2) processes for identifying sources of evidence needed to answer questions that are priorities for educators and community partners; (3) complementarity of knowledge of partners; (4) adoption of a learning perspective on systems change; (5) routines for sensemaking and collaboration; (5) synchrony with decision-making processes; and (6) a commitment to developing and using evidence among partner organizations.

Developers of early warning indicator systems should consider ways an RPP can support the creation of conditions for productive use of data from systems. Effective systems likely will depend on making room for educator voice and valuing of practitioner perspectives at all stages of design and implementation of systems. They will also require allocation of time and skill for structuring opportunities to make sense of data and developing a culture where evidence plays an important role in decision-making.

Research–practice partnerships (RPPs) are proliferating in education, generating increasing interest and posing many challenges. In this study, we shed light on the challenge of supporting practitioners> leadership and building capacity in an RPP. In the RPP literature, practitioner leadership is often highlighted as both a way to improve design development and enactment and as imperative for capacity building and sustainability. However, cultivating leadership also creates challenges which have not yet been adequately explored.

We explore these challenges and related dilemmas in a large-scale Israeli RPP designed to cultivate teacher leadership and build district capacity. We investigate how local actors asserted their leadership, the resources they drew upon, and the dilemmas this posed for us as researchers in an RPP. We critically reflect on how we addressed these dilemmas, and the consequences and implications of our courses of action.

This study explores our partnership with two large Israeli districts, as part of a state-wide professional development reform supported by the Ministry of Education and a philanthropic foundation. The partnership aims to support teachers> collaborative, reflective inquiry on teaching and learning, in weekly in-school meetings facilitated by in-school leading teacher. The partnership began six years ago and currently includes 158 schools (458 leading teachers).

We use linguistic ethnographic methods to analyze leadership assertion in three focal cases, representing three different leadership roles, at different levels of the system: (1) a leading teacher demonstrating creative non-compliance in the team meetings she facilitated, (2) a coach exercising her voice and authority in her professional development workshops, (3) and a district manager independently shaping structures.

Data were collected during the first three years of the RPP, including (participant) observations, audio-recordings, and field notes of in-school meetings, professional development workshops, interviews, and informal conversations.

The analysis shows that leadership assertion played an important role in constructing actors’ identities as competent leaders but posed dilemmas for us, such as how to acknowledge leaders> expertise while also maintaining program integrity. The case studies underscore the difficulties involved in managing a partnership in a large-scale educational intervention and the challenges to maintaining productive dialogue with different partners. The paper advances our understanding of the complexities involved in supporting leadership at different levels of the system, in day-to-day interaction, and at multiple micro and macro contexts in which it unfolds, in particular in a large-scale RPP.