American School Research Articles

Interpretation Evidence for the Multidimensional Test Anxiety Scale: A Brief Report

Standardized testing is an integral part of the English and American education systems. However, the use of high-stakes testing has unintended consequences, one of which is test anxiety. Over the last 50 years, increased attention has been directed to developing tools to identify students experiencing test anxiety. However, many test anxiety instruments have been created for research purposes rather than use within school decision-making and lack evidence for interpretation. The purpose of the current study was to support the use of the Multidimensional Test Anxiety Scale (MTAS) in applied settings by using a latent profile analysis to identify respondent groups to support score interpretation. Participants included 918 secondary students in England.

Conceptualizing United States democracy: insights from government content standards

ABSTRACT Objectives In this Paper, I examine how high school social studies content standards in the United States address fundamental concepts of American governance, particularly the concept of democracy. Methods I conducted a qualitative textual analysis of government/civics content standards from all 50 states, Washington DC, and the Advanced Placement United States Government and Politics (AP Gov) course materials. I applied a framework that distinguishes between 'thick' and 'thin' democracy, drawing on theoretical insights from scholars like Michael Apple and John Dewey. Results My findings reveal how democratic ideals are framed and conceptualized within secondary government and civics education in the United States. I identified significant variations in how democracy is addressed in state academic content standards, with important implications for how democracy is taught in American schools. Conclusion I advocate for curricular approaches that promote a more robust and participatory form of democracy, emphasizing critical engagement and collective well-being. This study underscores the importance of recognizing democracy as both a political and governmental concept in shaping educational discourse and policy as well as a practice and way of seeing society.

Natural Law, Common Law, and the Problem of Historicism in American Public Life and Education

Natural Law, Common Law, and the Problem of Historicism in American Public Life and Education

Most significant achievements in the 24 years since its founding. Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)

Most significant achievements in the 24 years since its founding. Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)

Efficiency analysis of engineering classes: A DEA approach encompassing active learning and expositive classes towards quality education

The science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education research delves into the core of sustainable development goals (SDGs), including the pillars of quality education (SDG4), robust economic growth (SDG8), and diminished inequalities (SDG10). These pursuits stand as keystones in sculpting inclusive societies and bridging societal gaps. While previous studies utilising data envelopment analysis (DEA) have explored educational performance mainly from a macro-perspective, there is a lack of micro-perspective investigation. Our study aims to fill this gap by proposing a DEA approach to assess the relative efficiency of engineering classes. We analysed 70 classes covering 38 subjects in the first semester of 2022 at a South American school. Methodologically, we employed the slack-based measure (SBM) model under the benefit of doubt (BoD) condition. Unlike prior research, we analysed classes' relative performance considering different pedagogical approaches - 11 active-learning classes (15.7 %) and 59 passive-learning classes (84.3 %). Our results showed that 18 classes were efficient (25.7 %). Active classes were more efficient, but few subjects maintained similar efficiencies for all classes. Moreover, efficient classes were concentrated in the last two years prior to graduation (57.9 %). This may represent an additional barrier for low-income students, who tend to drop out in the first years. The findings support several improvement recommendations, such as integrating digital technologies, boosting active learning opportunities, and bolstering classes in foundational subjects. Also, implications for researchers, decision- and policy-makers are discussed. Our approach can be replicated in diverse educational contexts, enabling the identification of strengths and weaknesses for more efficient educational management.

Conceptualizing the nomadic habitus: a Mexican–American educator’s journey towards the construction of a narrative curriculum

Conceptualizing the nomadic habitus: a Mexican–American educator’s journey towards the construction of a narrative curriculum

Developing valid assessments in the era of generative artificial intelligence

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) holds tremendous potential to transform the field of education because GAI models can consider context and therefore can be trained to deliver quick and meaningful evaluation of student learning outcomes. However, current versions of GAI tools have considerable limitations, such as social biases often inherent in the data sets used to train the models. Moreover, the GAI revolution comes during a period of moving away from memorization-based education systems toward supporting learners in developing the ability to apply knowledge and skills to solve real-world problems and explain real-world phenomena. A challenge in using GAI tools for scoring assessments aimed at fostering knowledge application is ensuring that these algorithms are scoring the same construct attributes (e.g., knowledge and skills) as a trained human scorer would score when evaluating student performance. Similarly, if using GAI tools to develop assessments, one needs to ensure that the goals of GAI-generated assessments are aligned with the vision and performance expectations of the learning environments for which these assessments are developed. Currently, no guidelines have been identified for assessing the validity of AI-based assessments and assessment results. This paper represents a conceptual analysis of issues related to developing and validating GAI-based assessments and assessment results to guide the learning process. Our primary focus is to investigate how to meaningfully leverage capabilities of GAI for developing assessments. We propose ways to evaluate the validity evidence of GAI-produced assessments and assessment scores based on existing validation approaches. We discuss future research avenues aimed at establishing guidelines and methodologies for assessing the validity of AI-based assessments and assessment results. We ground our discussion in the theory of validity outlined in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing by the American Educational Research Association and discuss how we envision building on the standards for establishing the validity of inferences made from the test scores in the context of GAI-based assessments.

Enhancing students’ reasoning skills by asking students to provide evidence-based explanations in science classrooms: findings from TIMSS 2019

ABSTRACT This study explores teachers’ instructional activities to ask students provide evidence-based explanations in science lessons. The sample of this study is 8739 eighth-grade students, 456 science teachers, and 273 schools in the US that participated in TIMSS 2019. Utilising a hierarchical linear modelling approach, the study found a significant correlation between teachers asking students to provide evidence-based explanations and student performance in answering reasoning questions on TIMSS 2019. The study suggests that promoting career growth that emphasises science content, science pedagogy, and critical thinking is closely associated with teachers’ encouragement of students using evidence-based explanations. Furthermore, the study indicates that teachers who undertook professional development (PD) in the last two years are more likely asking students to provide evidence-based explanations. However, the lack of science resources significantly influences teachers’ decisions to asking students to provide evidence-based explanations in science lessons.

Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s 1915 Pennsylvania Suffrage Speaking Tour Scrapbook

ABSTRACT In 1915 woman’s suffrage was on the ballot in Pennsylvania. State suffrage organizations mounted a vibrant campaign using a variety of strategies in support of enfranchising the women of the Keystone State. Speakers played a central role in this campaign, including a four-month lecture tour by African American author and educator, Alice Dunbar-Nelson. She kept a scrapbook of her tour that reveals her recognition of its historical significance. Her scrapbook also highlights the role of African American women who worked toward the goal of voting rights for all in Pennsylvania. Finally, it illuminates the strategies used by Pennsylvania suffrage leaders. While the men of the state voted down the suffrage referendum in 1915, the hard work of suffragists, including Dunbar-Nelson and other African Americans, paid off four years later when Pennsylvania became the seventh state to ratify the nineteenth amendment to the US Constitution on June 24, 1919.

Effective Communication and Culturally Responsive Leadership

Lately, literature and research in the United States have reported that culturally responsive leadership has become predominant because the increasing diversity in public schools has brought us to a critical juncture. A cultural gap exists between students from diverse backgrounds and their white middle-class teachers, leading to a mismatch in the delivered curricula, leaving many students feeling disconnected, disengaged, and uninterested in the educational process. These emotions can have profound and long-lasting effects particularly due to language and verbal participation structures. Thus, a factor of communication that enhances culturally responsive leadership has been found to enable students' achievement in schools in the US because culturally responsive leadership involves integrating leadership philosophies, practices, and policies to create an inclusive educational environment for students and parents from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. This entails understanding that communication is a complex process that encompasses words, intentions, contexts, histories, and attitudes. As school leaders navigate the complex landscape of modern education, their communication skills become not just desirable but truly critical for any leader to enhance culturally responsive among students and teachers. Thus, this paper recommends School leaders must find ways to bridge language gaps to ensure teaching and learning difficulties in communicating effectively across languages between teachers and students. It is paramount for principals to demonstrate excellent communication skills for listening to and interacting within the teaching and learning process to enhance student achievement effective communication and culturally responsive leadership.

Creating Thirdspace: Indigenous Learning Lab to Transform a School Discipline System

Racial disproportionality in school discipline is an enduring systemic problem. This study is based on a collaboration with 14 school stakeholders: American Indian students, parents, community members, and educators at a high school in a community-driven problem-solving process called Indigenous Learning Lab (ILL). ILL members addressed the root causes of the racialized school discipline and created a new school discipline system. Using critical geography and decolonizing methodology as the theoretical and analytical framework, this study aimed to unpack the emergence of Thirdspace—a space of resistance, possibilities, and hopes—in ILL to address enduring racial disproportionality. Members challenged race-neutrality of data sense-making, mapped out dystopia, revitalized American Indian epistemology, and mapped out a real utopian vision of schooling.

(Re)negotiating Asian and Asian American identities in solidarity as language teacher educators: An AsianCrit discourse analysis

AbstractThe historical and contemporary experiences of Asian/Asian Americans in the United States casts light on the significance of identity negotiation and construction. In this study, the identities of Asian/Asian American language teacher educators (LTEs) are examined within the current sociopolitical context, shedding light on the persistent pursuit of legitimacy and belonging within the Asian/Asian American LTE community. More specifically, this study examines the teaching philosophies of eight Asian/Asian American LTEs from different institutions and regions across the United States as a collective and critically reflexive entryway into their experiences and commitments as LTEs. Using AsianCrit to analyze participants' teaching statements and focus group discussions, this study uncovers (1) a commitment to asset‐based and culturally sustaining pedagogies, (2) identity‐informed convictions to foster critical consciousness in language teacher candidates; (3) pressures to downplay Asian intersectional identities to survive the Eurocentric norms of the job market; (4) a desire to do more than survive; and (5) the power of the collective for healing and liberation. The article concludes with a call for teacher education programs to create spaces for teacher educators to share lived experiences, foster community, and challenge the dominant narratives that marginalize Asian and other minoritized LTEs.

The Influence of Ipad and Tablet Computers on the Enhancement of Oral and Listening Proficiency among Young Students

Educational technology integration rises as schools rethink American school ideology and practices. Technology may be used in schools to develop modern education, but iPad integration in basic math’s teaching has to be understood. In response to these challenges, this in-depth case study examined how iPads as personalised learning aids affect third graders' arithmetic performance and attitudes using nearly experimental qualitative as well as quantitative information. How did NPS School use iPads in a third- grade mathematics classroom as well as how did it influence elementary school students' math skills and attitudes? Subquestions helped fully and comprehensively evaluate the practice problem. How do iPads and textbooks compare in third-grade arithmetic? How do tablet users see math’s differently from traditional students? These study questions were answered by two third-grade math classrooms. Standard education and iPad-integrated teaching were given to two groups. iPads were the only group difference. Content, lesson design, evaluations, inventories, & instructors were identical. Student learning and attitudes were assessed using both pre- and post-tests or an ATMI. The instructor & coordinating administrator were questioned for further information. Researchers also looked at teacher lesson plans to see how iPads were used. This study discovered quantitative-qualitative gaps. Although the post-test and ATMI were not statistically significant, the interviews with the participating adults suggested that students who utilised iPads for teaching had better involvement, attitudes, and productivity.

Big Bang Implementation of Electronic Health Records in a BSN Prelicensure Program for Documentation Competency.

Only ten percent of nursing schools in the US are currently using EHRs in their curriculum. This is seen to decrease students' effectiveness as new nurses. We began implementation of EHR use in Spring 2024 and have started collecting data as to the effectiveness of this process. This is a starting point using semester 1 junior (J1) students and we plan to have this process follow these students throughout all 4 semesters and assess them in their first year of practice to gain full understanding of the benefits.

Human Rights Barbie: Using Critical Media Literacy to Teach About Feminism

This article uses critical media literacy to approach themes of sexism and gender inequality depicted in the 2023 film Barbie. Teachers cognizant of the need to address women’s rights issues in American history often struggle to find resources that are accessible and meaningful for their students. Furthermore, the use of film in social studies instruction can be an engaging and culturally relevant way for students to grapple with contentious issues in social studies education. Additionally, by using human rights concepts to frame inequality and inspire advocacy, teachers can address dimensions of oppression and inequality with a more ‘neutral’ or objective framing. Given the current political climate that instills fear in educators who teach about issues of gender, strategic approaches can empower social studies teachers to engage students in examinations of this contentious topic in American schools. Lastly, this article introduces perspectives of Black feminists and international activists to provide intersectional analyses of women’s rights issues to curb the common emphasis on White feminism. The lesson plan offered in this article includes a film viewing guide, enrichment opportunities, and an activity that connects themes in Barbie with women’s rights movements.

Single-case design emphasis in American Psychological Association-accredited school psychology programs.

Single-case design (SCD) is an underutilized research methodology in school psychology literature. Despite its relevance to practitioners and applied intervention researchers alike, the majority of intervention research disseminated in school psychology journals tends to involve group designs, such as the randomized controlled trial. Group designs are useful for answering a wide variety of research questions but may not always be relevant to practitioners seeking procedures that work for their students or researchers seeking for the optimal design to answer their research questions. In comparison, the relative dearth of SCD studies in school psychology literature, in conjunction with common values among the field regarding data-based decision making and the scientist-practitioner model to training, raises questions about the cause of this gap. The present study sought to review doctoral training programs in school psychology and evaluate their relative emphasis on SCD in training. Seventy-six American Psychological Association-accredited school psychology programs were reviewed, and results indicated that roughly two thirds of programs do not emphasize SCD during training. Implications regarding school psychology training and research are discussed and recommendations are provided on future directions for school psychology trainers and researchers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The relationship between community food environment around schools and student meal participation: the role of school CEP participation status

BackgroundDespite the many benefits of school meals, not all students participate. One reason students may not participate in school meals is because they instead purchase breakfast or lunch from food outlets located around schools that mostly carry unhealthy items. This study examined whether school participation in the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which allows qualifying schools to serve free meals to all students, moderated the association between the community food environment around schools and student meal participation.MethodsThis study employed a longitudinal repeated-measures design using school-level data collected between 2014 and 2020 within four low-income school districts (n = 126 schools) in the US. We obtained meal participation data from state records and created a measure characterizing the community food environment within 0.25 miles of schools (characterized as low-density of unhealthy food outlets vs. high-density of unhealthy food outlets) through a latent class analysis. Regression analysis estimated associations between community food environments, CEP participation, and participation rates in school breakfast and school lunch, assessed in separate models.ResultsWhile no moderating effect of school CEP status was observed for breakfast or lunch participation, school breakfast participation was predicted to be 4% lower in high-density food environments than in low-density environments (P-value = .049) among non-CEP schools, and there was no difference in participation by the community food environment among CEP-participating schools. Differences in breakfast participation by the community food environment among non-CEP schools were mostly attributable to middle/high schools, with participation predicted to be 10% lower in high-density environments than in low-density environments among non-CEP middle/high schools (P-value < .001), whereas such a difference in participation was not observed among non-CEP elementary schools.ConclusionsNegative associations between food environment around schools and school breakfast participation were observed only among middle and high schools not participating in CEP, suggesting that policy actions to increase access to free school meals may benefit students, particularly older children and adolescents.

The role of letters of recommendation in perpetuating or challenging the social stratification of American secondary schools: a quantitative analysis of admission officer assessments in highly selective college admission

Admission to highly selective institutions offers a pathway to upward social mobility, particularly for low-resource students. However, entrenched wealth disparities in the United States present serious challenges for admission officers at highly selective institutions. Utilizing individualized holistic review (IHR), including letters of recommendation (LOR), and contextual consideration, highly selective institutions aim to account for wealth inequities. This quantitative analysis, conducted at a highly selective research university, examined 95,326 applicants across 4 years to explore if admission officers’ internal assessments of LORs relate to contextual independent variables beyond students’ control. Statistical methods, including ANOVA, Two-Way ANOVA, Chi-Square, multiple linear regression, and logistic regression, were employed, controlling for standard measures of academic readiness. Findings revealed higher LOR assessments for students facing greater contextual challenge levels, underscoring the ability of the admission process to identify high achieving students from high challenge contexts. Paradoxically, elevated LOR ratings were also observed for students from private and smaller schools, indicating a nuanced interplay of factors in the admission process. Importantly, LOR assessments significantly correlated with admission outcomes, emphasizing the pivotal role of LORs in highly selective college admissions. This study reveals the nuanced role of LORs in admissions, exposing their potential to tackle inequities. It calls for improved IHR training and heightened consideration of contextual variables, offering a crucial contribution to advancing equity in highly selective institutions, fostering more informed admission practices.

Exploring Latin American Organizational Social Work (OSW): a primary analysis of the conceptual, epistemic and methodological bases of OST in Latin American schools of social work

ABSTRACT Despite the prevalence of social workers working in the organizational field, there is no consensus in the literature on what Organizational Social Work (OSW) is and how it is understood from a Latin American perspective. This greatly hinders undergraduate and graduate education in the area and the training of new professionals. The objective of this article is to identify the theoretical, conceptual, epistemic, and methodological bases underlying the practice and teaching of OSW in Latin America, and to reveal the challenges and shortcomings present in teaching. A grounded theory approach was used to conduct 12 in-depth interviews with social workers to explore their definitions of OSW from an academic perspective. The results indicate that OSW taught in universities does not have a precise definition, which is linked to deficits in the available literature. OSW is an interdisciplinary field that arises from practice rather than theory, and its great challenge is the establishment of research and structured academic education.

Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and the School Choice Movement’s Normative Roots

ABSTRACT In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the ensuring culture wars, the American school choice coalition has almost completely unraveled, but many school choice advocates assert that the coalition can be rebuilt. In this essay, I argue that the school choice coalition dissolved not because of politics or circumstance, but because the coalition’s libertarians, progressives, and conservatives have fundamentally different first principles in politics and education – first principles that are present in the works of theorists like Thomas Paine and John Stuart Mill. By studying Paine and Mill, we can understand that any education-reform coalition will be a temporary aberration rather than an enduring alliance.