@ Penn GSE: A Review of Research
Fall 2007

Research Notes

The following pages present a sampling of recent studies and findings from Penn GSE faculty and researchers. Penn GSE explores the issues at the forefront of American education today—urban education, equity and diversity, educational opportunity and student achievement, and the management of complex organizations. We engage in high-impact research, innovation, and training in public education, as well as in literacy, psychology, social policy, and higher and adult education.

The Value of Playground Talk
For decades, bilingual educators have accepted the BICS/CALP framework developed by Jim Cummins in 1979. That model proposes an explanation of why young second-language learners who are adept in conversational English nonetheless may struggle in academic settings. But has Cummins’s framework outlived its usefulness?

In addressing that question, Maren Aukerman argues for a different approach—one that makes room for children’s existing frames of reference—and then concludes with practical suggestions teachers can use to help students learn English.

The distinction Cummins draws between BICS (basic interpersonal communication skills) and CALP (cognitive language proficiency) is the difference between informal, “playground” talk and formal, “classroom” discourse. He argues that children who lack CALP in either their native or new language will suffer a real academic disadvantage.

In her analysis, Aukerman points out a fundamental problem with Cummins’s framework. His understanding of CALP is as decontextualized language—that is, language stripped of “social context that one can rely upon in figuring out what something means.” To Aukerman, decontextualized language does not exist: “Finding language meaningful, making sense of it, always involves situating that language vis-à-vis other experiences and what others have said. No text, and no spoken word, ever exists without a context.”

That being the case, she continues, teachers would serve students better by helping students recontextualize new material by drawing on “linguistic resources that they already know—even, especially, ones that are not ‘academic.’” Indeed, she maintains that it is actively destructive to the act of learning to predicate success in the classroom on proficiency in decontextualized, academic language.

Concluding with a series of concrete suggestions of ways to foster recontextualization in the classroom, Aukerman “we must value what children are doing. We must honor their frames of reference.... [I]f we fail to acknowledge how children are already making sense of the world around them, and fail to put that at the core of what we teach, we may fail [them] by overlooking the resources they bring, ... believing these to be nothing more relevant or useful than a ‘mistake.’”

“A Culpable CALP: Rethinking the Conversational/Academic Language Proficiency Distinction in Early Literacy Instruction” appears in The Reading Teacher, 60(7).

A Good Teacher in Every Classroom
Despite general agreement that teacher quality is directly related to student achievement, the education community is less than unanimous about how to improve the quality of the teaching force.

In a recent issue of CPRE Policy Briefs, Richard Ingersoll argues that the three most commonly proposed sources of the problem—restrictive entry barriers, teacher shortages, and underqualified/underprepared teachers—are, in fact, misdiagnoses. He writes, “to fully understand issues of teacher quality requires examining the character of the teaching occupation and the nature of the organizations in which teachers work.”

Considering the issue of entry requirements, Ingersoll points out that many professions—law, medicine, the professoriate—have similar barriers. While conceding that the current certification requirements may indeed present problems, he concludes that increased regulation or deregulation alone will not succeed in ensuring a quality teacher in every classroom.

On the issue of teacher shortages, he cites his earlier research demonstrating that the problem is less one of recruitment than of retention. That is, the so-called teacher shortage arises from the substantial number of teachers who leave the field within the first five years of the job.

As for the charge that teachers are underqualified or underprepared, the data point to out-of-field assignments, rather than an inadequate workforce, as the main culprit. Following this line of reasoning, says Ingersoll, raises questions about the efficacy of human-resource management in schools.

“The lesson is clear,” he concludes. “If we want to ensure that all classrooms are staffed by qualified teachers, we will need to change the way that schools operate and that teachers are managed. In short, upgrading the quality of teaching will require upgrading the quality of the teaching job.”

Misdiagnosing the Teacher Quality Problem summarizes a chapter written by Richard Ingersoll for The State of Education Research (edited by S.Fuhrman, D. Cohen, and F. Mosher).

Teacher Qualifications: The Global View
Around the world, few educational issues receive more attention than the problem of teacher quality. In a recent policy brief, Richard Ingersoll describes the results of a comparative study of the qualifications of elementary and secondary teachers in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, and the U.S.

Overall, the study suggests three possible sources for the problem of underqualified teachers: the rigor, or lack thereof, of teacher training and preparation requirements; the failure of the teaching force to meet existing standards; and the problem of misassignment or out-of-field teaching.

A Comparative Study of Teacher Preparation and Qualifications in Six Nations, by Richard Ingersoll, is published by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education.

The Persistence of Inequity
African-Americans are more likely to attend college in one of the 19 Southern or Southern-border states than in the rest of the country, but faculty and administrators at those same institutions experience substantial inequities.

In a recent paper, Laura Perna and colleagues examine the status of equity for Black faculty and administrators in public institutions in the South and conclude that 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, Blacks continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions.

Their analyses relied on the Academic Equity Index, defining equity as the representation of Black faculty and administrators relative to the representation of Blacks who received bachelor’s degrees in a given institution.

Among many specific findings, the statistics reveal that, although some progress has been made in some states, substantial inequities remain. The gaps are greater for Black faculty than for Black administrators and greater for higher-ranking faculty (full professors) than lower (assistant professors) and for tenured faculty than for tenure-track.

“Race continues to define higher education employment in many public colleges and universities in the 19 states,” the authors conclude. “This finding raises serious concerns about the extent to which public colleges and universities are achieving their public purpose.”

They also point to the several contributions their study makes to what is known about the status of Blacks among faculty and administration—specifically, in pointing to the importance of disaggregating data by various criteria (i.e., faculty and staff employment, tenure status and academic rank, state); in providing evidence of the critical role of public four-year HBCUs; and in illustrating the benefits of using an equity index to examine trends over time.

The Status of Equity for Black Faculty and Administrators in Public Higher Education in the South, by Laura Perna, Danette Gerald, Evan Baum, and Jeffrey Milem, appears in Research in Higher Education, 48(2).

Also from Laura Perna
African Americans and Hispanics continue to lag behind whites in educational attainment, and decades of analysis haven’t provided policymakers with a clear explanation for the differences across racial and ethnic groups in college enrollment.

Laura Perna has recently proposed a comprehensive model for examining the sources of these differences, one that integrates traditional quantitative analyses and quantitative analyses that makes room for sociological notions of social and cultural capital.

The Sources of Racial/Ethnic Group Differences in College Enrollment: A Critical Examination appears in New Directions for Institutional Research: Using Quantitative Research to Answer Critical Questions, 133, edited by F.K. Stage.

Random Thoughts
A randomized controlled trial (which randomly assigns subjects to test or control conditions in an experiment) collects data on the effectiveness of social interventions and tests them against the null hypothesis (an assumption that the intervention will have no statistically significant effect).

In The Null Hypothesis Is Not Called That for Nothing, Bob Boruch summarizes thinking about null hypotheses in controlled trials, including critiques of conventional hypotheses and new ideas for research and development. He points out, for example, that there is a difference between statistical significance and practical significance: that is, a causative relationship between an intervention and a result is not necessarily important. He also explains how statistical significance, or its appearance, can be manipulated, depending on how researchers frame questions, select subjects, and measure and report their results.

Boruch also discusses common errors and weaknesses in statistical analysis. One of these is a lack of discussion of why interventions do not show statistical significance. Was the test well-designed? Was the statistical power adequate? Was the theory wrong? “Absent such disciplined post-mortems…we won’t make much scientific progress,” he writes. Another common oversight is attention to tests with negative results: they are generally not published widely, but there is much to be learned from failed interventions.

Boruch recommends portraying trial results in a ways that are more comprehensible for, and useful to, policymakers and the general public. In addition, finding new ways to frame the null hypothesis and focusing attention on replication results and the reasons behind these results will allow scientists to focus on questions from new statistical perspectives.

“The future for better criminological research lies in uncovering mistakes in analyzing evidence from randomized trials,” he concludes, “including errors found in testing formal null hypotheses.” Mistakes may not occur often, he adds, but “often enough to justify serious attention to the topic.”

This article appears in Journal of Experimental Criminology, 3, pp. 1-20.

Johnny, Be Good
Most observers, casual or otherwise, agree that school discipline is failing. The cycle is familiar: unruly students disobey school rules, and schools respond by establishing more rules and sanctions, thereby inspiring more disobedience.

Comparing two different disciplinary situations, Joan Goodman examines the possible causes of failure and potential conditions for success. She starts from the premise that, if discipline is to succeed, students must believe in and identify with the goals it is designed to support. Goodman identifies a particular mix of goal attributes necessary for strong schools: lofty (transcending the classroom), embracing (pervasive throughout school life), and moral (emphasizing the social over the personal). She then proceeds to consider how a wide range of schools (KIPP charter schools, the Hyde School, Hitler Youth, etc.) have applied these criteria, raising valuable questions about the implications of their various approaches.

From there, Goodman poses the thorny question of how purpose-driven public schools should be. Without specifying the ideal scope and content of an educational mission, she argues that a moral component is practical and proper. “The desire to believe in something more than narrow self-interest is ... both essential to the realization of personal growth and to social stability,” she writes.

School Discipline: Buy-in and Belief, by Joan Goodman, appears in Ethics and Education, 2(1).

NCLB’s Troubling Images of Teaching
While conceding that teachers should have a sound knowledge of teaching techniques, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) regards subject-matter knowledge as more critical to effective teaching than pedagogical knowledge. Few argue that a teacher must know the subject. But Marilyn Cochran-Smith and Susan Lytle argue that the NCLB’s line of reasoning is flawed, taking an all-too-narrow view of subject-matter knowledge as a static, easily transmitted entity.

Moreover, NCLB positions teachers as the critical players in improving student achievement while paying scant attention to other causes of educational inequity. This view of teachers as the answer to all the ills of education distracts attention from other systemic factors, such as under-funding, racism, and poverty.

Cochran-Smith and Lytle argue that teachers need a transformed and expanded view of what practice means. Teaching, and teacher learning, should be deliberative, inquiry-based, and interactive. Teaching is inherently contextual, and teachers need to make sense of the many contexts in which they teach and learn. In short, teachers, like their students, need to be encouraged to ask questions, connect ideas, and continue learning and integrating new knowledge with existing information.

Troubling Images of Teaching in No Child Left Behind appears in the Harvard Educational Review, 76 (4).

Out-of-Home Care & School Performance
Interested in understanding the impact of out-of-home placement on children’s academic performance, John Fantuzzo and Staci Perlman turned to the Kids Integrated Data System (KIDS), which enabled them to examine the entire cohort of second-graders in the Philadelphia public school system.

Specifically, their study looked at the unique impact of out-of-home placement and the mediating effects of child maltreatment and homelessness on academic achievement and school adjustment. Their analysis showed that three percent of the second-graders had a history of out-of-home placement and that the co-occurrence of those placements with child maltreatment and/or homelessness with high (35 percent and 70 percent, respectively).

Controlling for demographics and birth risks, children with a history of out-of-home placement were at increased risk for poor literacy and science achievement. They also evidenced greater classroom behavior problems and experienced more school suspensions than their peers. What is more, maltreatment and homelessness were shown to have significant mediating effects on the relationship between out-of-home placement and children's educational well-being.

The authors offer up two policy and practice suggestions. Given the frequent co-incidence of out-of-home placement, child maltreatment, and homelessness and the attendant educational risks they pose, collaboration among social service agencies and school districts seems a wise move. For example, regular contact with case managers could inform school staff of changes in a child’s placement that might affect academic performance and help explain changes in behavior.

Noting that more than 75 percent of these children had their first placement before the age of five, the authors also argue for the importance of providing better early care and educational experiences. “Research supports well the protective value of participation in quality early childhood programs,” they write, “these programs have been found to promote early mastery of the cognitive and social/emotional competencies that are necessary for early school success.”

The Unique Impact of Out-of-Home Placement and the Mediating Effects of Child Maltreatment and Homelessness on Early School Success, by John Fantuzzo and Staci Perlman, appears in Children and Youth Services Review, 29(7).

It Takes a Neighborhood

Recently, researchers are giving more consideration to the influence of neighborhood factors on child and youth outcomes. Low-income children and their families generally experience very different environments children of families with higher incomes, including physical (quality and condition of housing, number of abandoned or dangerous buildings) and social (levels of community violence, crime, and unemployment) variations. “Children growing up in affluent neighborhoods fare better...even after family-level differences are controlled,” write Christine McWayne, Paul McDermott, John Fantuzzo, and Dennis Culhane.

Working in a large northeastern city, they wanted to determine if neighborhood factors influenced early childhood academic achievement, and achieved that goal with research that aggregated data from many of the city’s municipal agencies. Unlike recent similar research, the basic unit of analysis was not a census tract (about 8,000 people), but the census block group that ranged from about 600 to 3,000 people. This narrower definition of neighborhood “more closely represents actual neighborhoods within which children reside.” And because municipal data are collected continually, rather than decennially, they offer a more up-to-date picture.

Overall, there was a correlation between community factors and children’s achievement on kindergarten reading and math assessments: child demographic and community variables accounted for 7.1 percent of variation in scores. Race did not seem to be a strong factor; neighborhood structure and stability was more important.

The authors raise a number of questions for future research. Their work so far has considered only public-school students; is type of school a factor? Individual families, which can have a very strong mediating influence, were also not considered. In addition, the authors point out that there may be important variables that were inadvertently omitted, and that alternative measures of “neighborhood” should be included in future research.

This article appears in American Journal of Community Psychology.

Better Treatment for Substance-Abusing Adolescents
For service providers evaluating adolescents with substance use disorders, the key to delivering appropriate, cost-effective treatment lies in accurate intake information that provides a comprehensive picture of patients’ needs.

The Comprehensive Adolescent Severity Inventory (CASI) is designed to generate precisely the kind of data needed for making decisions about level of care and placement, treatment referral and planning, and outcomes evaluation.

Recently, Paul McDermott and colleagues conducted a psychometric analysis of the CASI with 205 in-treatment substance-abusing adolescents. In an article appearing in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, they report further evidence for the CASI’s promise in research and practice as an adolescent-specific assessment instrument.

Their analysis resulted in four dimensions—chemical dependency, psychosocial functioning, delinquency, and risk behavior—each having high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity.

The dimensions also forecasted substantial variance in adolescent functioning post-treatment, supporting predictive validity. Finally, the dimensional clinical structure was found to be generalizable over male and female adolescents, younger and older adolescents, and adolescents from different ethnic groups.

Factor Structure of the Comprehensive Adolescent Severity Inventory (CASI): Results of Reliability, Validity, and Generalizability Analyses, by Kathleen Meyers, Teresa Hagan, Paul McDermott, Alicia Webb, Mary Randall, and Jeanne Frantz, appears in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 32.

A Unique Visual and Literary Art Form
Picturebooks represent a unique visual and literary art form that engages readers at all ages and levels of learning. A picturebook is not simply a book which happens to have pictures; it is one in which the story depends on the interaction—and the tensions—between the written and the visual text. “It is this dissonance,” explain Larry Sipe and Carol Wolfenbarger, “that catches the reader’s attention.”

Sometimes, though, talking about picturebooks poses a challenge. Recently there has been an increase in the number of picturebooks which depart from traditional “story grammar.” Dubbed “postmodern picturebooks,” these books may be nonlinear, self-referential, sarcastic, or antiauthoritarian. Postmodern picturebooks, write the authors, “have the potential to elicit intriguing and novel responses from children.”

Also, nonfiction picturebooks are growing in importance (though still too often underused in the classroom). Visual features of picturebooks can help students build a sense of scale and texture and can also help them imagine habitats or situations not local to their community. In science instruction, for example, “the genre, content, and visual features encourage young readers’ interest in science-related topics.”

Teachers can encourage students to make connections to existing information or to their own lives or emotions, allowing them to become active constructors of meaning, rather than passive spectators. While students will almost certainly not like every book, teachers can use student reactions—whatever form they take—to a book to help children become more thoughtful and critical readers.

Many picturebooks can provoke thoughtful conversation among younger and older readers; however, most upper-elementary and secondary students reject the genre as too juvenile. Teachers of older students who actively incorporate picturebooks into their classrooms can help overcome this barrier and allow older students to appreciate the stories themselves as well as their presentation (visual and peritextual elements). “Contemporary picturebooks…should be central to the future work of teaching, learning, and research.”

“A Unique Visual and Literary Art Form: Recent Research on Picturebooks” appears in Language Arts, 83 (3).

Aggression and the Classroom
Mounting evidence suggests that school environment can contribute to children’s overall levels of aggressive behavior. However, less research has been done to probe the relationship between the school context (size, economic disadvantage, location) and student aggression. The long-term effects of exposure to aggressive behaviors also have not been thoroughly studied.

Duane Thomas, Karen Bierman, and the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group followed a longitudinal sample of 4,907 students and examined demographic factors associated with exposure to high-aggression classrooms – including school context factors such as school size, school location, student poverty levels, and student ethnicity. They also compared the impacts of primacy (early exposure to aggressive behaviors), recency (recent exposure to aggressive behaviors), and chronicity (continual exposure to aggressive behaviors) effects.

Overall, the study found that children’s exposure to aggressive classroom contexts in their first three years of formal schooling is an important factor in their behavioral development. Consistently with previous studies, a greater percentage of classrooms showed high rates of aggressive behavior in large urban schools serving many economically disadvantaged children. Children living in high-poverty areas with high rates of crime and violence are more likely to show elevated aggression levels at school than children living in safer neighborhoods. African American children were more likely to attend schools with higher rates of aggression.

After controlling for other factors, child ethnicity still contributed small but significant variance to the prediction of aggressive classroom exposure. African-American students were one percent more likely to be exposed to aggressive classroom environments.

Findings from this study have implications for preventive measures. Interventions for school aggression need to assess and target classroom environments directly; policies also need to promote the development of supportive school environments with lower rates of student aggression.

“The impact of classroom aggression on the development of aggressive behavior problems in children” appears in Development and Psychopathology 18, 471-487 (2006).

On Patriotism and Education
What is patriotism, and what role do (and should) the public schools play in fostering it? There are, of course, many definitions of patriotism and its role both in the civic life of the state and in the education of its citizens.

To Sigal Ben-Porath, patriotism is “a sense of affiliation with one’s nation… as well as a commitment to this nation as a shared project with one’s fellow countrymen.” This sense of patriotism as a shared project, she continues, supports respect and deliberation, and thus the “democratic public sphere.”

Conflict and ongoing security threats can threaten this sense of a respectful, deliberative shared project and generate a narrower, illiberal form of patriotism that Ben-Porath terms “belligerent citizenship.” Belligerent citizenship is characterized by an increased emphasis on unity, often at the expense of deliberation or diversity, and reduced support for and emphasis on civil liberties. The state takes on the role of protector and savior, with stronger moral authority to make demands of citizens.

This stance is valuable to individuals and to the short-term endurance of a society. In the longer term, however, belligerent citizenship can pose problems for the long-term aims of a democratic and peaceful existence.

Although some educators do not see patriotism as within the purview of the public education system, schools in fact play a key role in balancing the social need for unity and mutual support with the need to preserve a democratic public sphere. By teaching citizenship and nationalism from the perspective of a shared project, the education system can address both the short- and long-term needs of belligerent citizenship. “The teaching of patriotism,” Ben-Porath concludes, “should not be abandoned, but expanded to include further perspectives into a wider framework of democratic education.”

“Civic virtue out of necessity: Patriotism and democratic education” appears in Theory and Research in Education, 5(1).