American Educational Research Journal

Although giving back is consistently recognized as a goal of Native (Native Hawaiian, Native American, and Alaska Native) college students, little in the literature describes giving back in detail. To fill this gap, this research examines the essence of giving back as it is experienced by Native college graduates. It explores, through both Indigenous and phenomenological research methodologies, how Native college graduates come to value giving back, enact giving back, and make meaning of giving back. The findings from this study contribute to what is known about how Native college graduates may contribute to the self-determination of their nations and call for a reconceptualization of postsecondary success for Native peoples.

This article investigates the interaction between the Common Core State Standards and curricular tracking by examining instructional decision making across tracks in a large metropolitan district. This study draws on institutional logics as a framework to analyze 106 instructional decisions from 24 participants involved in middle school literacy instruction. In lower-track classes, participants often adapted the curriculum and adopted a more teacher-centered approach. About half of the rationales for those decisions reflected a logic of tracking, less than a fifth reflected a logic of differentiation, and almost a third reflected elements of both logics. These findings demonstrate that despite common standards, a tracked school structure continues to serve as a powerful signal about the curriculum and instruction seen as appropriate for different groups of students.

Adolescents’ peer networks tend to segregate by relative language proficiency, but students from all linguistic backgrounds benefit academically from classroom peer relationships both within and across English learner (EL) and non-EL classified groups. We drew upon social network analysis of student survey data in 46 English and math middle school classrooms and qualitative analysis of a subset of these classrooms (N = 10) to address the following: (a) How do demographics differ in classrooms with more or less academic peer network linguistic integration? and (b) How do teachers’ classroom practices relate to differences in the linguistic integration of students’ academic peer networks? Findings from this analysis add to the literature on the complex relationships between classroom characteristics, linguistic integration, and teacher practices.

In this article, we explore longitudinal video data from the student activist group Fossil Free UofT to analyze what it means to become politicized. We argue that politicization is a sociocultural learning process, not merely a process of conceptual development or cognitive change, but a simultaneous process of conceptual, practical, epistemological, and identity development. In the analytic sections, we tease apart aspects of politicization, showcasing examples of transformation that center political concept development, changing practices, reconfigured ways of knowing, and new identities in formation.

Despite consensus regarding critical design elements for professional development (PD), numerous PD studies have not shown anticipated effects for teachers or students. Mixed methods studies investigating when and why PD is successful are needed. The qualitative study reported here was part of a larger, mixed methods study of PD for self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) in writing; the randomized controlled trial found significant and meaningful outcomes for teachers and students. In the current qualitative study, 14 Grades 2 and 3 teachers discussed semistructured, open-ended questions in small focus groups regarding their experiences with, reactions to, and evaluations of aspects and components of PD and SRSD. These teachers’ voices contribute to our understanding of critical aspects of effective PD as well as SRSD.

This study examines the way teachers make sense of data in the context of high-stakes decision making, such as decisions related to student placement in educational tracks. Different types of data, data collected rationally and intuitively, may be used in this sensemaking process, and the same data may be interpreted in different ways by different teachers. Results show that teachers base their decisions on rational processes only to a limited extent. Teachers collect a great amount of data intuitively, and they sometimes interpret data collected rationally by personal criteria and triangulate data to a very limited extent. Since fair educational decisions are informed by a rational collection and a transparent interpretation of data, implications for theory and practice are provided.

Kindergarten in the United States has fundamentally changed. It is the new first grade where children are taught increased academic content and experience more standardized testing. There is much debate among education stakeholders about these changes, but such discussions are often siloed— making it difficult to know whether these changes reflect these stakeholders’ understandings of kindergarten specifically or public education in general. This explorative video-cued multivocal ethnographic study addressed this issue by examining how local, state, and national education stakeholders made sense of the changed kindergarten. Such findings provide insight into what it is they viewed driving these academic and instructional changes, what opportunities for further reform exist, and whether these stakeholders will work to support and/or alter such changes.

Despite the benefits of educators of color to various outcomes for students of color, large-scale research has not explored these educators’ on-the-job interactions with colleagues outside of large urban districts. Using social network analysis, this study examined the work-related social interactions of staff (teachers and administrators) of color in two mid-sized school districts. Where staff of color were likely the only faculty members of color—and where math professional development and curricular change were district-wide foci—staff of color were less likely to seek out colleagues for math advice. Staff of color were generally not sought for advice any more or less than White colleagues. Implications for policy and practice related to staff of color are discussed.

The present study examines if higher socioeconomic status (SES) parents are more involved in their children’s education, and if greater involvement is associated with better student science achievement in Hong Kong (N = 5,353). Results showed that (a) there were three latent classes characterized by different patterns of parental involvement; (b) there was no simple relationship between SES and parental involvement patterns among the three latent classes; and (c) patterns of parental involvement were not significantly associated with levels of student science achievement. These findings support the contention that higher SES parents are not necessarily more involved than lower SES parents in all aspects, and that higher levels of parental involvement may not eventuate in higher levels of student achievement.

Millions of high school students take Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which can provide college credit. Using nationally representative data, I identify a diverse set of higher education outcomes that are related to receipt of AP college credit. Institution fixed effects regression reduces bias associated with varying AP credit policies and student sorting across higher education. Results indicate college credits earned in high school are related to reduced time to degree, double majoring, and more advanced coursework. Bounding exercises suggest the time to degree and double major outcomes are not likely driven by bias from unobserved student characteristics. Policies used to support earning college credits while in high school appear to enhance undergraduate education and may accelerate time to degree.

School district central offices regularly engage with external partners in improvement efforts, but these partnerships are not always productive. Indeed, little is known about under what conditions partnerships are likely to lead to organizational learning outcomes. We conducted a longitudinal comparative case study of two departments in one urban school district central office, both working with the same external partner. Data included 131 interviews and 372 hours of observations as well as artifacts and social network data. While one department did not incorporate the partner’s ideas into policies and routines, the other demonstrated greater integration. We argue this difference is due to organizational conditions that foster absorptive capacity and to the nature of department–partner interactions.

This case study documents a professional learning community (PLC) comprised of urban elementary educators working toward equitable education for students with dis/abilities. We employ an equity-expansive learning frame to evoke and then examine tensions and contradictions that emerged during the PLC and mediated learning as evidenced by participants’ expanded notions of equity. We introduced equity-oriented mathematics education content and tools based on what emerged from the PLC, then utilized an interpretive approach to analyzing data through a multistage process. Results indicate identity and power tensions that worked against equitable practices. However, participants recognized several tensions and proposed to address them as contradictions that mediated learning, thereby expanding notions of equitable education.

Neoliberal market logic positions youth as either commodities produced and marketed by private institutions or consumers for whose business those institutions are competing, a paradigm that narrows pathways for youth participation in civic and political institutions by restricting youth agency to participation in markets. However, youth organizing groups recast what we imagine as the public domain, how public institutions are governed, and who takes part in this governance. In this life histories study of youth organizers, the participants’ organizer identities occupied intellectual, emotional, social, and temporal space in their life worlds, mediating their agentive participation in an increasingly neoliberalized world. This article considers the implications of how youth involvement in social movements shapes identity and agency in a neoliberal sociopolitical context.