Equitable Educational Opportunities Research Articles

Novice Teachers’ Experiences in High-Poverty Schools: An Integrative Literature Review

Retaining teachers in high-poverty schools is essential for ensuring students who live in poverty have equitable educational opportunities. Understanding novices’ experiences can help school leaders improve novices’ retention in high-poverty schools throughout their careers. This integrative review of studies investigates novices’ experiences teaching in high-poverty schools. We identified common themes in extant studies, as well as several important areas of research that are, to date, under-studied; most notably, more research is needed to explore differences in novices’ experiences of their working conditions in high- versus low-poverty schools, and the implications of those differences for teacher development and retention.

Dispositions for Critical Social Justice Teaching and Learning

This article examines the social justice dispositions that, when honed and developed over time, enable prospective teachers—and teacher educators—to embrace social justice praxis and persist in their everyday quest for equitable educational conditions, opportunities, and outcomes. Developed through work in a Community of Practice (CoP), these dispositions include radical openness, humility, and self-vigilance. In this article, we define each disposition and explore how they may be cultivated, enacted, and modeled in teacher education. These dispositions, we argue, serve as reminders of the unfinishedness of our work and the effort required to stay the course of equity and justice in the rough waters of the status quo.

“It’s All Possible”: Urban Educators’ Perspectives on Creating a Culturally Relevant, Schoolwide, College-Going Culture for Black and Latino Male Students

This article examines how 18 teachers, counselors, administrators, and support staff from seven New York City public high schools collaborated during the Black and Latino Male Professional Development Initiative (a pseudonym) to develop a “culturally relevant, schoolwide, college-going culture” supportive of Black and Latino males’ college readiness and access. We draw from a mixed-methods empirical research study to discuss participants’ changing understandings of the features of such a culture, and how participants’ action plans illuminate steps for change in their schools. We provide recommendations for creating equitable educational opportunities for Black and Latino males supportive of access to postsecondary education.

Addressing the Sociocultural Determinants of African American Students’ Academic Achievement: The Four Themes of the American School Counselor Association’s National Model and the Role of School Counselors

Social justice, ensuring that all students receive access to equitable educational resources and opportunities to succeed academically, is a guiding principle for school counselors. With this ideal in mind, specific sociocultural factors that affect the academic achievement of African American students in urban school settings are considered. Subsequently, the four themes of the American School Counselor Association’s National Model—leadership, advocacy, collaboration, and systematic change—are used to provide school counselors in urban schools with guidelines to address the academic achievement of African American students related to these sociocultural factors.

Poco a Poco

Purpose: Culturally and linguistically diverse students frequently do not receive equitable educational opportunities. Schools across public and private sectors that are striving to ameliorate this problem typically work in isolation, not collaboratively. This article examines how communities of practice emerge within a network of schools striving to effectively educate these students. Data Collection and Analysis: We employ qualitative case study methodology drawing data from relational network survey data, archival documents, interpersonal communications, and field notes. In cycles of coding, we analyze these data to identify the learning architecture that structures the communities of practice within this network. Findings: First, we found the emergent communities of practice were extemporaneous, tentative, and localized. Second, we found that applying the learning architecture shed light on the nature of the learning within these communities of practice. In this case, it revealed that the communities of practice (a) enjoyed relatively strong levels of participation but relatively ineffective reifications, (b) experienced a dynamic tension between local and global influences, and (c) allowed individuals to negotiate new identities in varied and complex manners. Conclusions: This study shows the messiness that unfolds as school leaders pursue organizational learning toward the end of improving educational opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students, and how the learning architecture framework can help school leaders make sense of and respond to this in a nuanced manner.

Supporting students with disabilities and limited English proficiency: STEM educator professional development participation and perceived utility

Professional development offerings assist K–12 educators in addressing new and evolving classroom dynamics, circumstances, and situations. With the emerging demands of an increasingly science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-infused society, teachers are challenged to provide high-quality service and equitable educational opportunities to all STEM education students, particularly to those students who traditionally are underrepresented in comparison to their peers in STEM education and/or have aspirations of participation in STEM-related careers. This study investigated K–12 STEM educator participation and perceived utility regarding professional development addressing specific needs of students with identified categorical disabilities and limited English proficiency (LEP). Collection and analysis methods employed data retrieval and tabulation from the 2011–2012 School and Staffing Survey (SASS) Teacher Questionnaire (TQ). The national restricted access dataset was used to identify targeted teacher populations as well as provide a profile of STEM teacher participation in practice-oriented professional development activities regarding the two specified student groups. The results were categorically summarized and compared across science, technology, and mathematics (STM) disciplines and also between STM educators, non-STM educators, and educators in general. The results indicated that STM teachers tended to engage in fewer professional development opportunities and dedicated fewer hours in the professional development regarding students with categorical disabilities and LEP than the remainder of the teaching population. Overall, STM teachers’ perceived utility of the provided professional development experience was lower than that of the remainder of the teaching population.

Under the Law

Public funding of private K-12 schooling through vouchers continues to be a contentious issue across the U.S., even though a solid majority of Americans continues to oppose them. The voucher plans run the risk of legal challenge for how they handle the rights of students with disabilities and whether they violate state constitutional provisions that require all students to have equitable public educational opportunities.

English

Despite efforts worldwide to ensure quality education for all learners through inclusive education, indications are that many learners, especially those that experience barriers to learning, are still excluded from full access to quality and equitable education opportunities in mainstream primary schools. This article uses a qualitative approach and phenomenological strategy to focus on the ecological aspects influencing the implementation of inclusive education in mainstream primary schools in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 participants from seven schools to gather data, whilst a process of framework analysis was used for the analysis of the data. The investigation revealed that the implementation of inclusive education is not only hampered by aspects within the school environment, but also by aspects across the entire ecological system of education. Keywords : Assessment and Support Strategy, barriers to learning, ecological model, identification, inclusive education, mainstream primary schools, screening

Privatising form or function? Equity, outcomes and influence in American charter schools

The American experiment with charter schools advanced on dual impulses of increasing opportunities for disadvantaged students and unleashing market competition. While critics see these independently managed schools as a form of privatisation, proponents contend that they are public schools because of funding and accountability arrangements and potential benefits, and believe that the economic logic around these schools will produce equitable educational opportunities. This analysis considers how charters are or are not instances of privatisation in education, showing that the marketised environment they are intended to nurture serves as a route for profit-seeking strategies. In reviewing the research on charter school organisational behaviour and outcomes in marketised environments, I find evidence of de facto privatisation in function if not in form. As charter schools often act like profit-seeking entities, but fail to achieve expected academic and equity outcomes, the concluding discussion considers how these schools are placed between conflicting goals, and serve as entry points for private organisations seeking to penetrate the publicly funded education sector. I conclude that perhaps their most important role is in serving as a vehicle for privatising public policy—diminishing the public while enhancing the position and influence of private interests and organisations in education policymaking.

Bilingual literacy or substantive bilingualism? L1 and L2 reading and writing performance among Grade 7 learners in three township schools Gauteng Province, South Africa

Language diversity in South Africa continues to problematise educational provision and the realisation of equitable educational opportunities for all learners in various ways. This article presents the findings of ongoing research which explores the effect of language in education policy on the L1 and L2 proficiency of Grade 7 learners in township schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa. This study compares three subgroups of Grade 7 Xitsonga speaking learners in three respective township schools in terms of English (language of learning and teaching) and Xitsonga (home language) proficiency as determined by standardised testing in two domains: reading and writing. The research is done against the background of language policy in South Africa and is embedded within the theoretical framework of bilingual literacy, additive and subtractive bilingualism. Results indicate there were no significant differences between the reading and writing performance in both L1 and L2 among the subgroups of learners in the three respective schools. Although learners performed somewhat better in writing in both L1 and L2 than reading in L1 and L2, this performance was still sub-standard. This suggests that for these learners bilingualism is largely subtractive which could be attributed to short term exposure to schooling in L1 and low levels of exposure to English outside the classroom.

The Struggle Begins Early: Head Start and the Mississippi Freedom Movement

Floree Smith, a teacher in Marion County, Mississippi remembered that participating in the Head Start program “made a difference in our lives, our home lives, our church lives, and it made it so beautiful and it was a help for the children and it was a help to us too.” The program etched in Mrs. Smith's memory involves Mississippi teachers, sharecroppers, store clerks, preachers, landowners, civil rights activists, and other local people who galvanized the Freedom Movement and democratized the field of education by organizing 280 Head Start centers that served 21,000 children across the state of Mississippi during the summer of 1965. This article examines the history of Head Start, a federally funded program, whose conceptualization emerged in earlier phases of the Civil Rights Movement in order to provide education, nourishing meals, medical services, and a positive social environment for children about to enter the first grade. While Head Start was implemented in states other than Mississippi, a focus on the development of Head Start in Mississippi is particularly significant because it illuminates the ways in which local people placed equitable educational access and opportunity at the center of the broader Civil Rights Movement and broadens our understanding of how local people used, and in several cases essentially created, federal programs to address deeply contextual issues. Furthermore, by illuminating the significance of Head Start and thus federal programs within the Civil Rights Movement, this article demonstrates how the rise of the New Right in the mid and late 1960s was a reaction to a racialized “Welfare State” and the programs like Head Start associated with it.

“Truly Disabled?”

The construct of learning disabilities has been challenged pedagogically, politically, and in the judiciary. Some claim that learning disabilities are socially constructed and created by misdirected efforts of educational reform. Politicians worry about the growing number of children served in special education and propose that many LD students are instructional casualties and not truly disabled. The judiciary has applied a severity screen that narrows the class of eligible children and has contributed to the LD eligibility confusion. This article traces the legislative history of LD eligibility, reviews administrative and judicial decisions pertaining to LD eligibility, and explores the dilemma inherent in a rights-based approach to ensuring equitable educational opportunity for students with LD.

The Role of the State towards Employability of Malaysian PWDs – Myth or Reality?

In this era of globalization, the role of the State in all aspects of development is widely debated. Some scholars contend the ‘demise’ and diminishing role of the State whilst others claim that the State is still “de facto developmental”. Clearly, it is vital to ascertain which of these two contentions are reflective of the role of the State as nations ascend their development trajectories. Based on the findings of this paper, the perception that the Malaysian State plays an active and committed role towards distributing equitable educational opportunities and enhancing employability of Malaysian PWDs is actually a myth and not reality. Thus, in order to fulfill the promise of Vision 2020 to transform Malaysia into a caring and socially-inclusive society; this paper calls for a more interventionist and committed role by the Malaysian State to translate the universal rights of education and employment opportunities for PWDs from mere policy rhetoric into inclusive realities. Keywords—People with Disabilities, Malaysia, role of State, equal employment opportunities

Equity and Empowerment in PDS Work: A Review of Literature (1999 to 2006)

In this paper we examine the degree to which recent research and writing about professional development school activity indicates progress toward fulfilling the professional development school model's commitment to providing equitable educational opportunities and outcomes, especially from a critical pedagogy perspective. Our review of 95 papers and articles from 1999 to 2006 found little published evidence of even a rhetorical commitment to equitable pedagogy and student outcomes. In those cases where equity was mentioned as a factor, it was nearly always in terms only of improved test scores, with no mention of the empowerment of students, teachers, or community.

Reading dis/ability: interrogating paradigms in a prism of power

The dichotomisation of literacy instruction into phonics instruction versus a whole language approach fails to realise a fundamental tenet of providing equitable educational opportunities to diverse groups of children. Diversity becomes a problem to solve through ‘inoculation programmes’ or ‘special’ education expertise. Moreover, children’s individual strengths can fail to be realised because they do not fit well with the programme of the day. Instead of being appreciated for the value that they may bring in higher order conceptual and intellectual tasks, these individual strengths may be neglected at great cost to the individual child because they offer cheap reward in the shape of aggregate test scores. This paper is a philosophical piece, which in refusing to prescribe what one should do on Monday morning joins other strident voices in disability studies in education to question what it is that we are doing today. Whilst not scientific, this is important work – it emphasises the a priori importance of philosophical, moral and ethical questions – reminding science that children are dynamic social beings who cannot be manipulated like genes to ‘express’ themselves in ways more conducive to quick and cheap educational programmes.

Legal and educational perspectives of equity in assessment

Equity in assessment concerns all educational authorities and practitioners. While educators commonly consider issues of equity in terms of accommodations for students with special needs, or addressing cultural difference, equity issues in educational assessment have emerged outside these bases. This paper examines equity assessment issues, drawing predominantly on case history from the United States of America (US) with examples from Australia and England, to demonstrate areas that may draw legal consideration. The discussion shows that the legal standard to establish inequity is high and sometimes illogical from an educational perspective. The paper is intended to assist understanding of legal implications of educational assessment in order to reduce the likelihood of legal claims and the resultant redirection of valuable resources from educational provision. The discussion is also intended to broaden thinking on matters that impact on the provision of equitable educational and assessment opportunities for all students.

Tracking in the Era of High-Stakes State Accountability Reform: Case Studies of Classroom Instruction in North Carolina

Background/Context Considerable controversy surrounds the issue of whether high-stakes statewide accountability programs have led to more equitable educational opportunities for all students. Some researchers suggest that these programs have focused attention on improving the achievement of students of color from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Critics of accountability programs, however, raise concerns that high-stakes standardized tests have lowered the quality of instruction in inner-city schools, where students of color from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have traditionally not tested well, as these students do more out-of-context math and reading drill in preparation for the exams. A central question remains: What is the nature of curriculum and instruction for different groups of students in the new school reform context of high-stakes, statewide accountability programs, and what are the implications for equity? Purpose of the Study This account of classroom instruction delves into the instructional opportunities afforded students across different academic tracks under North Carolina's accountability program. The author focuses on the nature of classroom instruction for students in the “regular” classes, which are disproportionately populated by students of color from low socioeconomic backgrounds, with that of their peers in “academically gifted” classes and considers the implications for equity in this new policy context. While previous tracking literature suggests that teacher expectations of students, material available to students and skills emphasized in instruction differ across tracks, the research community has conducted little empirical research to support or refute claims on differential learning opportunities for different groups of students in the new context of high-stakes statewide accountability programs. Research Design This research used an ethnographic case study approach with theoretical sampling to select participants. Data Collection/Analysis This research was based on the following data: 1) 68 hours of classroom observations in two focal language arts teachers’ classrooms, 2) six interviews with each of the two focal teachers, 3) student work from two focal teachers’ classrooms and 4) interviews with eleven other teachers teaching at other schools. Conclusions/Recommendations The analysis reveals five key differences in instruction across tracks that favored students in the “academically gifted” classes. The article discusses the extent to which the high-stakes accountability policies influenced teachers to make bifurcated curricular decisions for their students across tracks. The author argues that despite calls to close the achievement gap through high-stakes accountability programs, the gap will persist unless policymakers and educators consider ways in which school organization can perpetuate or equalize instructional opportunities for students.

Reclaiming an Important Teacher Competency: The Lost Art of Formative Assessment

We live in an era in which standardized assessments play a necessary and important role in the mission of our public schools to provide equal and equitable educational opportunity to all students. However, our focus on summative accountability measures often has an eclipsing effect on the equally important role of formative assessment practices in the classroom. This article describes why and how formative assessment should be integral to classroom teaching, and it suggests the importance of focusing on teachers’ instructionally-based, formative assessment competencies through our teacher evaluation systems.

Linguistic Privilege: Why Educators Should be Concerned

Awareness of privilege and the unearned power that it brings those who have it is a crucial aspect of becoming a multicultural educator. For some time White and male privilege has been a topic of discussion among educators and people concerned about social justice. All aspects of privilege need to be understood and articulated in order to continue our work to provide equitable educational opportunities for all. This article focuses on Standard native English speaker's linguistic privilege and how educators can increases their awareness of it in order to more equitably educate students learning English.

Counseling Services for Special Education Students

School counselors have been providing services to an increasing number of special education students, especially since the passage of Public Law 94142 and other laws mandating equitable education opportunities for all students including those with special needs. This research was conducted to identify services that general education counselors currently provide to special education students, to assess participants’ perception of preparedness to counsel special needs students, and to identify experiences contributing to the level of preparedness.