Search

The purpose of the "Bringing Theory to Practice" May 15th seminar was to examine and explore a wide range of faculty rewards (including promotion criteria, awards, faculty development support, and policies at various levels) that provide incentives and recognition to faculty for undertaking community-engaged scholarship (CES). The central problem the seminar addressed is that most universities lack a system of incentives and supports for faculty who undertake (or are considering) community-engaged scholarship addressing broad social impact. Thirty individuals participated in the seminar, primarily faculty and administrators from the five campuses in the University of Massachusetts system representing a range of disciplines and various levels of faculty rank. The seminar offered an opportunity to examine what is being done to reward community engagement across the campuses of the University of Massachusetts system within the context of national efforts and change initiatives, and in light of some emergent campus discussions. This paper briefly describes the seminar structure and findings and concludes with recommendations.

AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) is collaborating with BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) in the development of a curriculum unit for eighth grade students that connects fundamental chemistry and biology concepts to better prepare them for high school biology. Recognizing that teachers play an influential role in delivering the curriculum to students, we developed teacher support materials and professional development designed to help teachers use the unit effectively. In order to learn about the promise of the teacher support materials, we developed an assessment targeting aspects of participating teachers' (n = 8) science content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for the specific learning goals of the unit. Specifically, the assessment targeted three areas of teachers' knowledge: 1) content knowledge 2) knowledge of student thinking, and 3) knowledge of strategies to move student thinking forward, across four item contexts: 1) chemical reactions, 2) conservation of mass, 3) flow of matter in living systems, and 4) plant growth. Teachers took the assessment three times: before PD, after PD, and after teaching the unit. The assessment items were mainly constructed response and were scored using indicators of success and difficulty. Teachers made gains over time in most of the knowledge areas and across most of the contexts. Areas where they did not make clear progress, or where their knowledge was particularly low, indicated that either the assessment instrument or the teacher support materials could be improved. Revisions based on these findings are reported. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

Statewide planning for higher education, with specific reference to Massachusetts, is discussed in a 1982 Alden Seminar position paper, comments regarding the position paper, and an overview of the overall seminar. In "One Half Revolution, One Half Status Quo: Remarks on A Long Range Plan for Public Higher Education in Massachusetts," Stephen Joel Trachtenberg discusses the Massachusetts "Long Range Plan" for higher education. This plan requires faculties and administrators to share the responsibility for academic planning not only with their own boards of trustees but with the statewide board of regents. In addition to reviewing annually the enrollments of the 27 taxpayer-supported institutions, the board of regents will undertake periodic systemwide reviews of selected academic fields or program areas, along with comprehensive institutional program reviews on a 5-year cycle. Personal perspectives are offered regarding whether this new system for Massachusetts higher education will succeed, and predictable stresses and strains that will occur as the new system goes into full operation are identified. In addition, the question of whether the plan is adequate in meeting the challenges posed by the current period is addressed. (SW)

This paper is about the funding status of teachers' retirement pension schemes. Its goal is to relate the accounting for the funding of these pension obligations to the endemic, systematic, and fundamentally fraudulent system of accounting our country uses to assess the financial positions of federal, state, and local government as well as many financial and non-financial private enterprises. Indeed, the paper argues that fraudulent accounting and misrepresentation is the defining element of Ponzi schemes and the real reason we find such schemes repugnant. Furthermore, any public or private enterprise that engages in fundamentally fraudulent accounting can fairly be characterized as running a Ponzi scheme. In this regard, it seems fully appropriate to characterize many, if not most, teachers' retirement plans as Ponzi schemes. (Contains 17 footnotes.)

Limited information exists on how early career teachers, particularly those in "Generation Y", feel about the pension system and potential reforms to the pension system. This paper presents an analysis of the appeal of different aspects of pension plans; their influence on charter versus traditional public school teachers; and how retirement benefits influence career decisions. Findings are drawn from a pilot study surveying teachers (n=52) in years two through ten on particular characteristics of defined benefit and defined contribution plans. Key findings include: (1) lack of portability is a frustration to early career teachers; (2) early career teachers have an interest in defined contribution plans; (3) charter school teachers are more open to pension reform; and (4) teachers who plan to stay in the profession are more open to pension reform than might have been expected. A survey is appended.

The Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography, held in Washington City in the autumn of 1912, was a notable event in the history of sanitation and in the discussion of the conditions of the physical and mental health of the people. The exhibition held in connection with the congress was instructive in many ways, and contained much of interest to those who are responsible, directly or indirectly, for the health of children. The first section of the accompanying manuscript contains brief and accurate descriptions of some of the most important of the exhibits, and comprehensive summaries of their meaning. Topics addressed in this section include: (1) School buildings and school sanitation; (2) Hygiene and tuberculosis; (3) Industrial hygiene; (4) Nourishment of children; (5) Mental hygiene; (6) Sex hygiene; and (7) Experimental psychology. An appendix to Part I of this bulletin presents instructions relating to tuberculosis, distributed by the Department of Health, New York City. The second section consists of excerpts and summaries containing the gist of some of the most important papers read at the congress. These abstracts are as follows: (1) Ringworm in the Schools of Mexico (Manuel Uribe Y Troncoso); (2) School Disinfection (J. T. Ainslee Walker); (3) Campaign against Contagious Diseases of Children (Walther Ewald); (4) Management of Tuberculosis among School Children (Arthur T. Cabot); (5) Studies in the Relation of Physical Inability and Mental Deficiency to the Body Social (Isabelle T. Smart); (6) Education of Immigrants in School (William E. Chancellor); (7) Service of Medical Inspection of Schools to the Teacher (Helen MacMurchy); (8) Follow-Up System in Medical Inspection (Thomas A. Storey); (9) Hygiene of Children's Teeth (William H. Potter); (10) Dental Hygiene for Pupils of Public Schools (S. Adolphus Knopf); (11) Universal System of Measurements (Leotardo Matus Z.); (12) Development of Hygiene in Educational Institutions (Dudley A. Sargent); (13) Training in Personal Hygiene in Private and Public Schools (John W. Ritchie); (14) The Public School as a Factor to Lessen Infant Mortality (Henry L. Corr); (15) Physiological Age in Education (C. Ward Crampton; and (16) School Children of the Stock-Yards District of Chicago (Caroline Hedger). It is believed that the information contained in this bulletin will be permanently helpful to teachers, school officers, and others interested in the health of children and the sanitation of homes, schools, and other places in which they work. (Contains 1 footnote.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

Papers from the 1978 conference of the North East Association for Institutional Research are presented. The theme of the conference was new responses to new demands. The conference report is divided into the following sections: five papers on planning, nine papers on marketing, five papers on communication, five papers on curricular and faculty issues, two papers on financial aid, two papers on outcome measures, and 11 papers on retention/attrition. (SW)

This document comprises a collection of conference papers that provide a broad understanding of the problem of homelessness, highlight innovative local and state responses, and uncover key intergovernmental issues that must be addressed in order to improve public and private action. The conference was attended by more than 100 federal, state, and local officials, as well as by academic experts, advocates, and service providers. The document begins with "Opening Remarks: The Interagency Council on the Homeless" (C. Moore), which describes the federal agency whose primary function is to implement the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. Part I, "Defining the Dimensions of Homelessness," comprises the following papers: (1) "Homeless Policy: Expansion during Retrenchment" (D. W. Kirchheimer); (2) "Discussion Paper: Implications of the Low-Income Housing Ratio for National Homelessness Policy" (K. Y. McChesnesy); (3) "The Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill" (H. R. Lamb); (4) "The Low-Income Housing Crisis and Its Impact on Homelessness" (C. N. Dolbeare); and (5) "Rethinking Housing with the Homeless in Mind" (J. Leavitt). Part II, "Exploring Intergovernmental Responses," comprises the following papers: (1) "Hope for the Homeless--Local and State Responses" (K. J. Beirne); (2) "Homelessness: Federal and State Legislative Solutions" (M. Foscarinis); (3) "Ohio's Coordinated Responses to the Problems of Homelessness" (D. Roth and P. S. Hyde); (4) "Discussion Paper: The Ohio Case" (N. G. Milburn); (5) "Assisting the Homeless in an Era of Federal Retrenchment: The Massachusetts Experience" (N. K. Kaufman); (6) "State Coordination of Mental Health Services to Homeless People in Massachusetts" (C. B. Johnson): (7) "Milwaukee"s Outreach to the Homeless Mentally Ill" (M. Rosnow); (8) "Homelessness and the New Federalism: The Westchester Experience" (A. P. O'Rourke); and (9) "Health Care for the Homeless: The Challenge to States and Local Communities" (J. D. Wright). Some papers include statistical data on tables and graphs. All papers include a list of references. A description of the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) and a list of its publications are included. A copy of the conference program and lists of participants and attendees are appended. (FMW)

The purpose of the American Association for the Advancement of Agricultural Teaching, as stated in its constitution, is "to promote the teaching of agriculture and to devise ways and means for increasing the efficiency of such instruction in elementary and secondary schools and in colleges and universities." The time is opportune perhaps for discussing what ought to be the immediate policy of the association in putting its purpose into effect. One matter has already been settled. It has been agreed that for the present efforts shall be centered principally upon promoting the teaching of agriculture in the secondary schools, by devising ways and means of making that teaching more efficient. One who has marked the recent multiplication in the number of secondary schools attempting to teach agriculture can not but commend restriction of attention to the important problems which these schools present. Appended are: (1) 1913 summer practicum (home project) work of the University of Minnesota Northwest School of Agriculture, Crookston, Minn; (2) Students' reports on 1912 and 1913 summer practicum work at Crookston, Minn; (3) Use of land by high schools teaching agriculture. Returns for school year 1911-12; (4) The cooperative use of equipment and illustrative material in teaching agriculture; and (5) Massachusetts State-aided vocational agricultural education-- Examples of the income of pupils from farm work during attendance at school in 1913. [Best copy available has been provided.]

Two position papers on higher education in Massachusetts in the 1980s, which were prepared by the Alden Seminar for Higher Education, are presented. In addition, an overview of the Alden Seminar meeting (Boston, Massachusetts, October 1983), which examined proposals for a Higher Education Development Corporation, is included. In "Adjusting to the Eighties: A Proposal for Assisting Higher Education in New England," Stephen R. Lewis, Jr. and Michael S. McPherson propose that a new organization be formed that would provide analytical and planning assistance to higher education in the New England region. Operations of the organization are discussed, including governance, criteria for assisting institutions, types of assistance to institutions, sources of technical assistance, sources of finance, and the relation to public and private institutions. Comments by Jill K. Conway in support of a Development Corporation for Higher Education in Massachusetts are included. Dorothy N. Marshall and Franklin Patterson's position paper, "A Massachusetts Higher Education Development Corporation: A First Step," provides an overview of the proposed corporation. The corporation would assist higher education in Massachusetts to adapt to the changing circumstances of the next decade. Brief biographies of Alden Seminar participants are appended. (SW)

This publication contains summaries of six papers presented at a conference on community and policy strategies for Latinos in Massachusetts. Each summary follows an executive summary format by briefly describing the project or argument and highlighting and summarizing major findings or recommendations. The papers are as follows: (1) "An Examination of Latino Experiences in Vocational Education: Implications for Education Policy and Reform in Massachusetts" (J. Jennings); (2) "Latinas and the Massachusetts Employment and Training (ET) Choices Program" (M. Uriarte); (3) "A Comparative Analysis of the Labor Market Outcomes for Latinos, Blacks and Whites in Boston, Massachusetts and New England, 1983-1991" (J. Cotton); (4) "Hispanics in the Boston Labor Market 1970-1989" (L. M. Falcon); (5) "Shelter Poverty Among Latinos in Boston" (M. E. Stone); and (6) "The Social Aspects of Small Business Development: The Case of Puerto Rican and Dominican Entrepreneurs" (P. J. Levitt). (JB)

Two position papers for the Alden Seminar on Higher Education and an overview of the January 1982 Alden Seminar meeting are presented. The Alden Seminars, which are attended by officers of business and industry and colleges and universities in Massachusetts, provide a forum for the discussion of the current situation in higher education, with particular reference to Massachusetts. Seminar topics included: quality in higher education; access to higher education for nontraditional students, particularly Blacks and Hispanics; and information needs on Massachusetts higher education conditions. In "All But a Privileged Few: The Emerging Financial Aid Crisis," John J. Maguire considers problems in enrollments, quality, and the availability of student financial aid. He cites the case of Boston College and discusses a pricing and financial aid strategy and the role of the State of Massachusetts. In "Equality and the Finance of Higher Education: A 'Possibilist' Perspective," Michael S. McPherson examines the idea of promoting social equity through the finance of higher education. Attention is also directed to sources of discontent with the welfare state, specifically the pursuit of equity through governmental action and its implications for higher education. (SW)

A position paper on higher education in Massachusetts in the 1980's which was prepared by the Alden Seminar for Higher Education, is presented. In addition, an overview of the November 1981 Alden Seminar meeting, opening statements, and reports of small groups are included. The Alden Seminar discussions on higher education, especially in regard to Massachusetts, provide the views of Massachusetts business and industrial executives and private and public colleges and universities. Seminar topics included academic standards and the maintenance of quality; the need for public-private higher education planning; and the responsibilities of the Massachusetts Board of Regents. In "Higher Education in Massachusetts in the 1980's: Familiar Issues, Changed Circumstances, New Coalitions," Richard M. Freeland focuses on: Massachusetts's role as a national center for academic research and higher education; progress in assuring access to education in Massachusetts; and prospects for the 1980's with respect to national and local roles of higher education in Massachusetts. Enrollment trends for out-of-state and state residents and data on enrollments at public and private colleges in the state are presented. Information on seminar participants is also included. (SW)

A position paper concerning the role of colleges and universities in corporate education, which was prepared for the Alden Seminar on Higher Education, is presented. In addition, a brief overview is presented of the April 1982 Alden Seminar meeting, which examined the current situation of higher education, particularly in regard to higher education in Massachusetts. In "The Interdependence of Employment and Education," Ernest A. Lynton considers the following areas: the importance of human capital, the rise of corporate education and training, the need for more academic involvement in corporate education, the need for change in colleges and universities as well as in employee training, the need for continuous manpower planning in view of uncertainties of the future, the implications of demographic changes, the need to broaden employee education to include liberal arts; and educational and policy issues that need to be addressed by higher education and business. Two projects to enhance business-education cooperation are also described: a brokerage mechanism for the Boston metropolitan area and an educational telecommunications network. Information is presented on seminar participants. (SW)

Drawing primarily on in-depth-interviews with 1.5-generation Brazilian immigrants who migrated to Massachusetts during the 1980s and 90s, this paper examines how race, class, and (il)legality shapes their post-schooling transitions and work experiences. While some scholars argue that illegality can become a master status during adulthood, I analyze how situational whiteness, middle class roots, and (il)legality work together to shape 1.5-generation Brazilians' post-schooling lives in important ways. I find that their positions of power in race and class hierarchies gives them access to important financial resources and networks that can help them overcome barriers to mobility due to illegality. Their networks and financial resources can also help them avoid downward trajectories when they face challenging life events, such as teen pregnancy, dropping out of high school, or deportation. Furthermore, although few 1.5- generation Brazilians identify as white, many can pass as white, at least in certain situations, leading them to report that their everyday interactions in white spaces, including work contexts, are easier for them than for their darker-skinned peers. Finally, many 1.5-generation Brazilians, who were only able to migrate on tourist visas and overstay because of their middle class roots, have been able to adjust their status to become lawful permanent residents and citizens - opening up important education and work opportunities for them in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a longitudinal study of Eastern Massachusetts secondary students from two culturally diverse locations beginning in the fall of 1986 and ending with their high school graduations in 1991 and 1992. After discussing dropout prevention strategies, the paper offers the following justification for the study: By following these students over a protracted period, this research should be a significant step in disentangling the effects of sociocultural background, the sense of belonging or not belonging to a school, and the precipitating events on students' decisions to graduate or withdraw. (JAM)

The papers of this proceedings are presented in three parts. The four papers in part 1, "Issues in 20th Century American Education", discuss the women graduates of Oberlin College, 1836-1860, the Americanization of art museums, the business community's response to government's support of the labor movement, and the response of liberalism to the educational depression as seen through the publications of "Nation" and the "New Republic". The titles are: (1) "Conflict of Roles: Evangelism and Feminism a Twentieth Century Perspective?" (R. S. Saslaw); (2) "John Cotton Dana, The Newark Museum and the Arts in American Society" (A. S. Schnee); (3) "The National Association of Manufacturers and the Free Enterprise Campaign in the Schools, 1929-1949" (C. A. Moore); and (4) "The Assault on the Schoolhouse: Liberal Responses to the Educational Depression" (J. M. Wallace). The three papers in part 2, "Educational Developments in 19th Century American Education", present the moral instruction found in a children's magazine, the debate about the purpose of industrial education, and the growth of colleges in Massachusetts. Part 2's titles are: (1) "The Magazine as Educator: Mary Mapes Dodge and 'St. Nicholas'" (L. B. Fuller); (2) "Book and Platform Over Anvil and Hoe: Horace Mann Bond and the Place of Industrial Education in the Black College Curriculum" (W. J. Urban); and (3) "The Colleges and the State in Mid-Nineteenth Century Massachusetts" (A. Tachikawa). In Part 3, "Studies in European Educational Ideologies", two papers cover Italian education prior to fascism and under fascism, and the third paper gives insights into Homeric educational philosophy. The titles for Part 3 are: (1) "Bottai and Fascist Educational Policy, 1936-1943" (A. De Grand); (2) "Education in Liberal Italy: Prelude to Fascism?" (F. J. Coppa); and, (3) "An Alternative Approach to Homer's 'Iliad'" (R. H. Beck). The proceedings and the business meeting's minutes are included. (DJC)

The papers in this document feature four themes: religion and education, the nature of childhood and its relationship to education, urban educational problems, and the character of educational journalism. Part 1 begins with "A Common Faith for the Common School? Religion and Education in Kansas, 1861-1900" (J. C. Carper) which compares in two parts the responses of Protestants and Catholics to religious education. "Educating 'Watch City': The Transformation of Education in Waltham, Massachusetts, 1840-1880" (G. M. Woytanowitz) discusses the reorientation of education in a rural community undergoing urbanization. "The Most Ordered of Rescues: A Reinterpretation of Childhood History and the Common School" (R. L. Schnell) analyzes Philippe Aries' interpretation of the relationship of childhood to institutions in the 19th century common school. Part 2, "Tribute to Harold B. Dunkel," begins with an introduction to Dunkel and his work by R. L. McCaul. "The Lively Educational Journalists, 1875-1900" (H. B. Dunkel) describes the growth of educational journals from local interest newspapers and the editors behind them. Part 3 begins with "The Urban Superintendency and the Depression: The Case of Thomas Warrington Gosling, Akron, Ohio, 1928-1934" (G. L. Hinson; C. M. Dye), which describes the state of education prior to Gosling's administration, his first years' triumphs, and the financial battles to keep the schools open during the 1930s. "Conservation and Proselytization: How Ancestry, Race, and Religion Shaped Parochial Education in Cairo, Illinois" (R. N. Barger) describes the racial segregation policy of the Catholic parochial school system along Irish, German, and Black lines, and the perception the parochial schools for Blacks had of themselves as missionary schools. The meeting program, business meeting's minutes, and a list of attendees are included. (DJC)

The nature and quality of partnerships between university-based researchers and criminal justice practitioners (i.e., law enforcement) is a welcomed union theoretically, however in practice there is notable tension. The competing paradigms of education and research for the police as opposed to education and research on the police are examined using data from two studiesa sample of 192 Pennsylvania police officers and a Massachusetts police department needs assessment. Social policy implications for criminal justice education will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a pilot study to determine the potential impact of an integrated STEM curriculum on Pre-K teachers' engineering content knowledge, self-efficacy and teaching practice. Using a randomized control trial design, researchers examined the impact of the curriculum in 17 Pre-K classrooms (8 intervention classrooms, 9 control classrooms) in central Massachusetts. Questionnaires measuring STEM and engineering content knowledge, self-efficacy and teaching practice were administered to participating Pre-K teachers (N = 42; 21 intervention, 21 control) in Fall 2017 and again in Spring 2018. Baseline analysis showed no significant differences in engineering and STEM content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, or teaching self-efficacy at the start of the pilot study between intervention and comparison classroom teachers. Fidelity of implementation was measured using an observation instrument developed by the project team based on a published implementation science framework. We hypothesized that teachers who implement the integrated STEM curriculum will have significantly higher engineering pedagogical content knowledge and self-efficacy than teachers in the comparison group. As well the teachers who implement the integrated STEM curriculum will show significant gains in their engineering pedagogical content knowledge and self-efficacy in teaching engineering and STEM as a result of their participation. [This paper was published in: "2018 IEEE Integrated STEM Conference (ISEC)" p234-237. ISBN 978-1-5386-3309-0. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.]

Foreign language telecollaboration pairs learners so that they may improve their language and intercultural skills. A lesser known model, intergenerational telecollaboration, uses senior citizens as native language partners instead of peers. This paper presents the results of an intergenerational videoconferencing project between learners in second-year non-specialist English classes at a French university and senior citizens in Massachusetts. Between September 2014 and June 2016, seven learners were partnered with seniors in order to practice their speaking skills. Based on the data collected over two years, this paper analyses the risks and rewards of intergenerational telecollaboration. [For the complete volume, see ED571330.]

This paper investigates the interplay of words and expressions with students' efforts to indicate times on a clock. We consider how elementary students interpret precise times (e.g., 2:30, 4:30) as compared to relative times (e.g., half past 11) as they describe this intangible quantity using a clock. Interviews with students in grades 2 and 4 (n = 42) revealed that precise times led to whole number descriptions whereas relative times led to descriptions of part-whole relations consistent with representations of measure. A subsequent analysis of assessment performance of students across elementary grades (N = 612) corroborates the differential performance based on expression used in the tasks. Findings suggest that elementary students need further support to treat this invisible quantity according to measurement properties. Implications for theory are discussed. [For the complete proceedings, see ED606556.]

There are well-acknowledged challenges to scaling computerized performance-based assessments. One such challenge is reliably and validly identifying ill-defined skills. We describe an approach that leverages a data mining framework to build and validate a detector that evaluates an ill-defined inquiry process skill, designing controlled experiments. The detector was originally built and validated for use with physical science simulations that have a simpler, linear causal structure. In this paper, we show that the detector can be used to identify demonstration of skill within a life science simulation on Eco- systems that has a complex underlying causal structure. The detector is evaluated in three ways: 1) identifying skill demonstration for a new student cohort, 2) handling the variability in how students conduct experiments, and 3) using it to determine when students are off-track before they finish collecting data. [This paper was published in: "Proceedings of the International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems," 2014.]

This paper reports on an exploratory analysis of the social media policies of municipal governments in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. With a strong Public Records law and language clearly indicating that social media posts are government records, Massachusetts provides a framing for research into municipal policy on social media use, retention, preservation, and access. Of the 351 municipalities in the Commonwealth, just 87 have publicly accessible Social Media policies. These policies indicate that municipal governments take their responsibilities around social media records management seriously, they do not offer many specifics around how they will engage directly with posts from privately‐owned social media platforms. Implications of these findings suggest that the digital preservation community must continue to develop tools and methods to preserve social media records the support broader efforts around government transparency and accountability, as well as advocate for platforms to include features to support responsible public sector social media use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a student-created and facilitated peer-tutoring activity to assist first-year students in preparing for their final exam in an introductory information technology course. Tutors at the CIS Sandbox, a collaborative learning lab at an American university, offered a series of "Crunch Sessions" to their peers. This paper examines how these sessions model characteristics of peer tutoring, and describes how social media and Internet-based collaboration tools support a blended learning environment where an in-person event is aligned with a web presence. Interviews with student tutors and participants suggest that the peer relationship between tutors and tutees was conducive to an open exchange of questions and answers among participants, and that the sessions contributed to student learning for those who attended. Implications for designing and researching online peer learning activities in higher education contexts are discussed. [For the full proceedings, see ED562127.]

Examining the interaction between content knowledge, inquiry proficiency, and writing proficiency is central to understanding the relative contribution of each proficiency on students' written communication about their science inquiry. Previous studies, however, have only analyzed one of these primary types of knowledge/proficiencies (i.e. content knowledge, inquiry proficiency, and writing proficiency) at a time. This study investigated the extent to which these proficiencies predicted students' written claims, evidence for their claims, and reasoning linking their claims to the evidence. Results showed that all three types of proficiencies significantly predicted students' claims, but only writing proficiency significantly predicted performance on evidence and reasoning statements. These findings indicate the challenges students face when constructing claim, evidence, and reasoning statements, and can inform scaffolding to support these challenges. [This paper was published in: "L@S '18: Proceedings of the Fifth Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale." ACM. (978-1-4503-5886-6).]

This paper examines the centrality of families impacted by DACA to the ideals and practices of a sanctuary movement in Western Massachusetts. Movement members provids sanctuary to undocumented immigrants, advocate for immigration reform, manage an immigrant hotline, and partake in community aid and deportation resistance. This paper shows how the sanctuary movement offers a space for the articulation of family desires and mobilizes resources to materialize these desires. Existing literature emphasizes the historically transnational and divided nature of immigrant families. Building on this research, my paper shows that sanctuary movements revolutionize family arrangements among the DACA community by creating sanctuaries that allow families to stay together. Using meeting- and militant-ethnography and indepth interviews, I argue that for the DACA community the realms of family life and political life mediate each other profoundly. Having a (nuclear) family offers undocumented immigrants a measure of recognition as a political subject. Mixedstatus families (especially those with DACA and USborn children) occupy a central role in the realm of undocumented immigrant community activism, precisely because those families most closely approximate the ideal of the American nuclear family ensconced by a white picket fence. Movement participants collectively construct a shared imaginary of family life. It is through these real and imagined equivalences in the emotions around family life that the movement builds bonds of affinity between its DACA activists and citizen allies and makes demands for the equal treatment of immigrant populations by the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are impacted by ADHD in their academic pursuits in higher education. This study aimed to investigate, explore, understand, and offer a voice to the students directly affected by ADHD. The framework for the research was based on Ryan and Deci's (2000) Theory of Self-determination. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight students currently enrolled at Northeastern University pursuing an undergraduate degree who disclosed to the Disabilities Resource Center that they had been diagnosed with ADHD. The data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Findings include early diagnosis and identification as an essential factor in an individual's growth and academic success and the influence of their support systems on their self-awareness and self-confidence. Also, balancing both internal and external motivation for college students with ADHD was essential to their well-being and effectiveness in a college setting. With little research conducted on college students with ADHD, this research provides the potential for further research to enhance faculty preparation and address conditions or disorders. [For the full proceedings, see ED626668.]

Across the country, more Catholic schools are closing, as support for parochial schools in impoverished communities dwindles. Dr. Vernon C. Polite, Dean of the School of Education at the time he was selected to present at AERA (Dr. Polite joined the School of Education at Eastern Michigan University as its Dean during the summer of 2005.) published extensively on predominantly African American Catholic high schools. He invited the writer, who was serving as a Special Assistant to the Dean of the School of Education at Bowie State University, to develop and write a paper updating the status since his published work. The author accepted and expanded the paper to include its relative importance to her prior knowledge of the Washington Scholarship Program and the Archdiocese of Washington through her work with the Office of Non Public Education (ONPE) in the Office of Innovation & Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education and formal and informal conversations with third world clergy from Catholic University, one of whom taught as an Adjunct Professor at Bowie State University during the Spring of 2005. The update uses Detroit, New York and Boston as examples of large urban areas that traditionally supported Catholic high schools in predominantly African American communities but were forced to close them. While closings occurred across the cities, the African American communities were particularly hard hit, despite the high achievement of students enrolled in these high schools relative to the high schools' counterparts. These losses will be particularly felt because the cultural identities of these schools will be lost. The closings are directly linked to budget deficits in all cases. In most case, the parishes in which these high schools are located do not have the resources to sustain them without help from the archdioceses in these cities. The writer relates the current closings to Vernon Clayton Polite's study of 31 schools, 26 of which are in cities or areas that emphasize the cultures of the schools and their importance in Catholicism, as seen through data from surveys, the eyes of the principals and controlled observations. (Contains 1 table.)

The entrenched nature of affirmative action, immigration, and bilingual education programs shows that ethnic minorities as well as powerful economic interests can benefit from client politics (H. D. Graham, 2002). In recent years, ballot initiatives have pierced the cocoon of legislative support for these policies and overturned them in California and several other states, leading scholars to debate whether direct democracy is a threat to minority rights. This paper is a study of four recent initiatives seeking to eliminate well-protected bilingual education programs. The paper notes that California businessman Ron Unz spearheaded this movement, succeeding in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts, and failing in Colorado. It sets out to outline the genesis, conduct, and outcome of the recent initiative campaigns to drastically reform bilingual education. It considers the pattern of elite support and opposition; the campaign themes; and the pattern of mass support and opposition, based on evidence from both aggregate-level and survey data. The paper argues that although bilingual education is a matter of limited salience to the majority of (white) voters, the widely held, if latent, belief that speaking English is an important attribute of U.S. national identity and, as such, important for assimilating immigrants, provided the supporters of the Unz initiatives with an important initial electoral advantage. (Contains 44 references, 13 notes, and 7 tables.) (BT)

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing educators of today is to create and sustain high-quality educational environments for low-income students and students of color. The Boston Pilot Schools Network, a network of eleven small, innovative schools within the Boston Public Schools, can be a model for other schools and districts as to how to create schools in which students of color can achieve at the highest levels. There are several factors that contribute to the success of Pilot Schools. Pilot Schools operate within the Boston Public Schools, but have autonomy from the district over budget, staffing, governance, curriculum and assessment, and the school calendar. Pilot Schools use their autonomies and increased flexibility to organize their schools to meet two conditions known to support high student achievement--creating environments where students are well known to their teachers and providing teachers with adequate time to collaborate. Pilot Schools also use their autonomies to engage parents in the school, and parent engagement is linked to high student achievement, especially among students of color. Another proposed reason for the success of Pilot School students is that most Pilot Schools actively talk about diversity, and these conversations influence the structures, staffing, professional development, pedagogy, and curriculum of the school. The goal of this paper is to show the broad range of how and why Pilot Schools engage in these conversations. After presenting information on the history of the Pilot Schools, this paper describes research that examines the impact of diversity conversations in schools and the negative consequences for students when those conversations are silenced. Next, the results of a study examining how Pilot Schools think about and engage in diversity discussions is described. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for schools to develop the ability to engage in diversity conversations. (Contains 3 footnotes.)

This paper examines the balance between autonomy and accountability in education from the perspective of Massachusetts and Texas charter schools and their state authorizers. By analyzing national survey data, interviews with key policymakers, and case studies of six low, medium, and high performing schools, the paper examines the organizational needs of charter schools and how government oversight policies address or mitigate those needs. The paper draws lessons from the charter school governance model and applies them to the efforts of districts moving toward more decentralized governance systems such as charter districts. It builds on Hassel's 1999 work, "The Charter School Challenge," which highlights three strategies in which charter schools might achieve systemic reform (the laboratory, competition, and replacement theses). This paper notes a fourth thesis, the governance thesis, which hypothesizes that the primary benefit of charter schools is in changing the basic district structure so that schools have the opportunity to control their fiscal and human resources while the central government holds them accountable for performance. (Contains 123 references.) (SM)

Parent involvement in their children's education is widely regarded as a way to help students succeed in school. High parental involvement has been linked to increases in student achievement and engagement in school. As a result, efforts to increase parent involvement in their children's education, both in and out of school, have been included in many school improvement and reform efforts over the last two decades. This paper focuses on preliminary findings of a study on parent involvement in the Pilot Schools. The goal of this paper is to present the range of opportunities that Pilot Schools provide for parents in their communities. As it is the first in a series of reports, it forms a base for future studies on the impact of parent involvement in the Pilot Schools. A list of autonomies is appended. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

This paper describes a unit of instruction about media images--how they work, ways they affect people, and means to use them--in which young adolescents learn the consequences of becoming a media-literate consumer. The paper explains that in the unit, divided into 2 "clusters," 110 Boston-area eighth graders share 5 core academic teachers: math, science, world language/language enrichment, social studies, and English. It notes that, because each cluster's common curriculum planning time is limited to once per 6 day cycle, consensus is built into interdisciplinary design when an instructional leader drives the unit through initiating one-to-one personal meetings, sending e-mails, and drafting lesson plans. According to the paper, both clusters came to agree that an interdisciplinary mass media day assists the students to rise in a "gestalt" to become more complete critical thinkers, since discussion of media images engages the cerebral cortex, activates thinking processes, and generally results in conscious recognition and evaluation of persuasive media intent. The paper suggests that educators need such a bridge to enhance reading, writing, speaking, listening, and understanding and thus, media interdisciplinary lessons became integral to helping young adolescents begin the leap to formal operations development. The paper details the means used to assess the students' media analysis skills. It also states that the unit addresses Massachusetts content standards in all academic areas through four essential media literacy concepts: (1) messages are constructed; (2) messages are representations of the world; (3) messages have economic and political purposes and contexts; and (4) individuals create meaning in media messages through interpretation. (NKA)

This paper addresses the role of serving the public interest and how that relates to education. The document provides specific examples of how education reform efforts in Massachusetts often were couched in such vague terms as to be ineffective in establishing educational standards. The paper discusses how politics influences educational policy and what attempts have been made to straighten out some of the confusion. The paper cites examples of the vagaries of educational jargon found in the educational mandates and how the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 has been undercut. The document advocates that citizen policy makers must be prepared to keep doing the same work over and over again, repeatedly addressing the same tendencies in education toward imprecision and vagueness that are inimical to reform. (EH)

In this paper, we present a dataset consisting of data generated from 22 previously and currently running randomized controlled experiments inside the ASSISTments online learning platform. This dataset provides data mining opportunities for researchers to analyze ASSISTments data in a convenient format across multiple experiments at the same time. The data preprocessing steps are explained in detail to inform researchers about how this dataset was generated. A list of column descriptions is provided to define the columns in the dataset and a set of summary statistics are presented to briefly describe the dataset.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), like other state education agencies, recognizes that a key lever to turning around low-performing schools is the quality of instruction and thus embeds a schoolwide instructional quality measure into its monitoring process. Massachusetts' schoolwide quality instruction score uses Teachstone's Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) tool to conduct observations in a sample of classrooms. In state-identified low-performing schools, there were significant positive relationships between schoolwide observation scores and school-level academic growth in both ELA and math, and in ELA academic achievement. Findings are important, because they suggest it is possible for a state to balance capacity limitations and still use an instructional quality measure that is predictive of improved student outcomes.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) with its research partner have developed a system that changes the equation on monitoring. The research-driven approach to monitoring allows DESE, within its existing activities and resources, to use monitoring to improve the state system of support as well as direct assistance for districts and their lowest performing schools. Findings from studies and how these have changed the state's system for supporting low-performing schools are described.

As teacher educators who work in relatively rural and predominantly white regions of the United States, we see a need to prepare our English teacher candidates to do antiracist work in predominantly white contexts. As such, this qualitative study focuses on the problem of preparing white English teacher candidates, many of whom have not been taught about racism in more than superficial ways, to plan for racial literacy instruction through literary study with their own future students. Findings indicate that teacher candidates' own racial literacy and identity work is necessary, but not sufficient. Teacher candidates need instruction in discipline-specific methods for teaching racial literacy if we are to expect them to consider engaging in antiracist work in English classrooms.

This paper explores changes to the educational policy making arena through case study analysis of a Massachusetts law passed in 2012 that limits seniority-based job protections for public K-12 teachers. I use data from interviews with policy stakeholders, observations of public meetings, and policy artifacts to explore struggles over democratic engagement in what unfolded as a highly undemocratic policy development process. Using the policy cycle framework (Ball 1993; Bowe, Ball, and Gold 1992), I explore the ways that political pressure and political discourses shaped the policy development process through various contexts of political struggle. Ultimately, I argue that the case is indicative of what I am calling 'neo-democratic' decision making, in which high-level interest group conflict leads to narrow forms of democratic engagement.

This paper seeks to enrich the conversation on biographical research in education by adding the stories of contemporary union leaders who are seeking to educate their memberships, the communities they serve, and society as a whole. Karen Lewis of the Chicago Teachers Union, Bob Peterson of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education, and Barbara Madeloni of the statewide union in Massachusetts have built and/or are building democratic unions and leveraging the power of teachers who are united by solidarity, and motivated by a commitment to public schooling and the communities they serve. Their stories will inspire ongoing activism in the face of an extraordinarily challenging public policy context.

Teaching students to create computer games has become a common practice in both K-12 and tertiary education to introducing programming concepts, increasing student engagement, and recruiting majors and minors in technology fields. This study describes a project where first-year college students in an introductory technology concepts course use a visual game creation tool to develop original games to play on their computers and mobile devices. The paper argues that the process of making an original computer game develops digital literacy skills and provides an authentic learning experience as students collaborate to create, publish, and deploy interactive games that they can play on their computers and mobile devices. [For the full proceedings, see ED562095.]

Whether teaching in a classroom or a Massive Online Open Course it is crucial to present the material in a way that benefits the audience as a whole. We identify two important tasks to solve towards this objective; (1) group students so that they can maximally benefit from peer interaction and (2) find an optimal schedule of the educational material for each group. Thus, in this paper we solve the problem of team formation and content scheduling for education. Given a time frame "d," a set of students S with their required need to learn different activities T and given "k" as the number of desired groups, we study the problem of finding "k" group of students. The goal is to teach students within time frame "d" such that their potential for learning is maximized and find the best schedule for each group. We show this problem to be NP-hard and develop a polynomial algorithm for it. We show our algorithm to be effective both on synthetic as well as a real data set. For our experiments we use real data on students' grades in a Computer Science department. As part of our contribution we release a semi-synthetic dataset that mimics the properties of the real data. [For complete proceedings, see ED560503.]

There is increasing evidence that fine-grained aspects of student performance and interaction within educational software are predictive of long-term learning. Machine learning models have been used to provide assessments of affect, behavior, and cognition based on analyses of system log data, estimating the probability of a student's particular affective state, behavior, and knowledge (cognition). These measures have (in aggregate) successfully predicted outcomes such as performance on standardized exams. In this paper, we employ a different approach of relating interaction patterns to learning outcomes, using dynamical methods that assess patterns of fine-grained measures of affect, behavior, and knowledge as they occur across time. We use Hurst exponents and Entropy scores computed from assessments of affect, behavior, performance, and knowledge acquired from 1,376 middle school students who used a math tutoring system (ASSISTments), and analyze the relations of these dynamical measures to the students' end-of-year state test (MCAS) performance. Our results show that fine-grained changes in affect, behavior, and knowledge are significantly related to and predictive of their eventual MCAS performance, providing a new lens on the dynamic and nuanced nature of student interaction within online learning platforms and how it affects achievement. [For complete proceedings, see ED560503.]

This paper explores the influences of wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi) on social interaction and community in coffee shops. Drawing on observations of users in four paid and free Wi-Fi cafés in Boston and Seattle, this paper addresses the question of whether Wi-Fi access affords sociability or isolation. We identify two distinct types of users and suggest that they self-select for free vs. paid access. While one user type is more likely to support public social interaction, Wi-Fi cafés employ strategies to reduce the affordance of public community. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EXHAUSTED: Nursing at Boston MedicalTom JuravichABSTRACTThis paper examines the changing work lives of operating room nurses in Boston after the merger of their public hospital with another facility. It is based on extensive in-depth interviews with nursing staff and union officials. To maximize revenue, the newly formed Boston Medical Center has a significantly higher utilization of their operating rooms, yet few if any adjustments have been made in the staffing schedules of nurses. This has led to tremendous pressure for overtime past normal shifts, and a demand for nurses that far exceeds supply. All of this is taking place in a context where nurses are already required to work weekend and off-shift hours. At the same time, the hospital has increasingly relied on surgical techs and traveling nurses in its operating rooms, which has only intensified the work for the remaining staff nurses. This paper explores the conflict between these changing demands and the culture of caring that is central to the nursing profession, and why some nurses are choosing to leave their profession. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes aspects of the conceptual context and the background for our current study of the identity perception Brazilian immigrant women in the Boston, MA area have of themselves. More specifically, the current, larger study will explore how, within the context of globalization, Brazilian women?s notions of gender, race, ethnicity, nation, class and immigrant status are negotiated, combined, and recombined and how the perception and negotiation of identity, as immigrants, affect Brazilian women?s ideas about their quality of life. In this paper, because of time and space constraints, we look at specific components of the conceptual context for our work, we highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the pioneering work on Brazilians in the Boston area, we describe several themes of globalization relevant to our research questions on identity and belonging and, finally, we report here on some preliminary findings from the interviews that we have begun to conduct with Brazilian women in the Boston area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the emergence of a local blue-green coalition in the Boston area around issues of environmental health. Using social movement theory, I argue that a frame analysis offers several key insights into the process of coalition formation. In particular, the process of forming a coalitional frame by seeking to bridge ideological divides is central to the development of this blue-green coalition, the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow. Based on a shared experience of exposure to health risks from toxic substances, labor and environmental groups have worked together to construct a collective identity frame based on preventing future health risks from hazardous substances. I present in this paper the results of a two-year qualitative study on the development of the Alliance and its efforts to involve labor organizations in the coalition. The Alliance has been successful in garnering support from several unions, including the state AFL-CIO. By examining the strategies used in forming this local coalition, these findings can provide a model for future efforts at building blue-green coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]