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This study examined a state-wide, policy-directed teacher evaluation model implemented across public schools and educator preparation programs. Such models are grounded in a theory of action that situates teacher learning within social relationships, yet does not account for the complexity of systems. Results challenge policy's implicit theory that an evaluation model can function as a boundary object to create a common understanding of good teaching and positively impact teacher professional practice. We found contradictory evidence that the model served as a boundary object that facilitated shared sensemaking as mediated understandings of good teaching collided with expectations in classroom contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to begin to excavate the unstated theoretical underpinnings of teacher evaluation systems as they exist in policy and practice and to explicitly consider how these evaluation systems might intersect theoretically with social learning theory. Research suggests that organizational leaders believe growth-based evaluation practices have yet-untapped potential to support teacher learning within teacher communities. However, models of teacher evaluation, as defined in federal and state policy and developed and implemented in practice, rarely make explicit the theoretical and conceptual frameworks upon which they are based. Further, evaluation models do not explicitly intersect with the conceptual frameworks for such learning, e.g., communities of practice (CoPs) and social learning theory. Rather, the role of teacher evaluation in social learning within and across educational organizations remains under-theorized. We argue for research examining potential connections in theory and practice between two existing conceptual frameworks: 1) social learning theory and 2) teacher evaluation systems (understood as policy, models, and practices).

In June 2008, Albert Sidney Johnston High School (JHS) in the Austin Independent School District (AISD) became the first school in the state of Texas to be closed by the Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) after receiving ratings of academically unacceptable for five consecutive years under the Texas public school accountability system. Opponents noted that reconstitution was unlikely to solve the school's problems of poverty, low attendance, and high rates of teen pregnancy. The 2008 reconstitution of JHS represented the failure of a school once nationally recognized as a model of integration. In this paper, the authors chronicle the role the school played in AISD's early efforts to address the "Brown v Board of Education" decisions. They focus on the 1970s and 1980s, the period in which it was deemed a "model of desegregation." This historical study is based on data that include (a) books, articles, documents, and letters related to desegregation efforts in general as well as those specific to AISD and JHS; (b) documents reporting the achievement results of JHS; (c) newspaper articles derived from JHS, the city newspaper, and national newspaper outlets; (d) documents related to district-level plans as well as minutes of AISD Board of Trustees meetings; and (e) the JHS annual yearbooks. To advance an understanding of the historical underpinnings pertaining to JHS, the district, and the larger community, we trace how the doormat of the district school became a model of desegregation, only to later return to being a segregated reconstituted school. This full circle of change is the focus of our story.

This cross-case synthesis gives voice to evaluators in EC-12 and higher education settings who are enacting a state-mandated system of teacher evaluation and support by examining their perceptions of the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS). Questions addressed included: How do differently situated school administrators and supervisors 1) understand the model, 2) describe the implementation of its elements, 3) understand and enact their roles, and 4) assess the impact of the model? Data from EC-12 school principals and clinical supervisors at the university level indicates the system establishes a comprehensive definition of quality teaching. However, model complexity creates challenges. Coaching and mentoring requires time and expertise, and impact on student learning is unclear, raising the question of whether there is space for support through supervision in a model also used for accountability. Combining support with a reified model of evaluation leaves evaluators to negotiate inherent tensions.

This case study addressed effects of international student teaching on U.S. teacher candidates' cross-cultural adaptability and perspectives on language, culture, and schooling. Interviews and the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory were collected from 18 participants before and after 4 weeks student teaching internationally. Interviews were coded using the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory dimensions and interpreted using Mezirow's transformational learning theory. Findings suggested that increased cross-cultural adaptation aligns with transformational learning. Transformational learning led participants to question assumptions and consider incorporating different perspectives in future teaching.

The increasing diversity of the student population in classrooms across the United States demands the adoption of pedagogical principles based on the concept of culturally responsive teaching. This study adopts the notion that culturally responsive teaching only becomes possible when teachers implement self-reflection and critical consciousness. Using a qualitative approach, the authors aimed at examining the effects of an international professional development experience on a group of elementary teachers from the United States and Costa Rica with a focus on their perceptions about linguistic and cultural diversity in schools. The analysis of the interviews and reflective journal entries revealed that participation in an international teacher exchange program prompted participants to examine their personal beliefs about education and question, not only their own instructional practices, but also broader school systems and policies related to language, culture, and ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The far right in the United States has gained international visibility and power by promulgating its ideas using multiple media sources. This paper considers contemporary right-wing representations of John Dewey as found on English-language internet websites. The author employs discourse analytic methods to address the questions--'How is John Dewey constructed in right-wing internet discourse?' and 'By what means has the Right come to construct Dewey in this way?' Elements of the internet discourse are related to texts that helped shape it. The paper demonstrates that far right-wing websites construct Dewey and his ideas as the antithesis of American values and as a political and existential threat of the highest order. In this discourse, Dewey is connected to Satan, communism and global conspiracy theories. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these beliefs for current educational and political philosophy and praxis.

While case studies have documented how teachers can either ameliorate or exacerbate situations of ignorance or hate in the classroom toward Muslim students, the role of educational leaders in U.S. public schools remains negligible. In response, this paper aims to develop the knowledge base of educational leadership as it pertains to the jihad or struggle of Muslim students to deal with Islamophobia and to provide insights for productive leadership which deconstruct stereotypes toward anti-Islamophobia. Because postcolonial theory, as espoused in Edward Said's work, emphasises creating spaces for subjects to speak for themselves, we highlight an oral history account of a Muslim female immigrant's experiences as a student and teacher in U.S. public schools, and as an activist educational leader in a U.S. Islamic School. The narrative is broadly applicable--as Islam and Muslims have been painted with a pejorative broad brush due to global sociopolitical incidences.

This essay addresses the question of the relevance of the work of educational historians and the ways in which they, historically, have positioned their work as meaningful. In asking what the relevance of the history of education was or could be, the author arrived at the following questions: (1) How do we, as educational historians, understand the relevance and potential impact of our own work?; and (2) What kinds of claims do we make to convince each other that our work is worthy of our own time, worthy of publication, and worthy of others' attention? For this study, Kelley King examined the journals of Midwest History of Education Society (MHES) and the Organization of Educational Historians (OEH) from the birth of the organization to the present. The "Journal of the Midwest History of Education Society" was published as the "papers and proceedings of the annual meetings" of the MHES. Time constraints and the difficulty of obtaining copies of some volumes limited the scope to those published approximately every five years, beginning with the 1972 proceedings (published in 1973). 139 articles over the thirty-five year period were examined to identify the author's stated rationale for each article. The analysis found twelve categories of rationale, which was then reduced to eleven categories of rationale that made the case for history for its own sake or for history in the service of the present. This essay presents each rationale, discusses it, then explores the broader picture.

One of the most controversial notions of the twenty and twenty-first centuries is defining citizenship among nations. The power to decide who is and is not a citizen has become so prominent in the culture of the United States that the topic now pervades the curriculum, particularly in states with diverse and rapidly growing populations, such as Texas. Although the question of citizenship is currently at the center of a very political discussion, it is not a new topic nor is it recent curricular development. A significant number of countries around the world use their educational systems as a means of facilitating citizenship, usually through a course on the structure, theory, and function of government. This is the case in many U.S. schools in which rituals in the education system, such as the pledge of allegiance at school each day, are intended to generate patriotism and nationalism (Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry 2008). In the United States, creating democratic citizens has long been a justification for supporting state-funded public schools (Butts and Cremin 1976; Evans 2011; Ravitch 2010). Although there is noteworthy socialization of the young in the primary grades, this analysis focuses on secondary socialization in schools, particularly at the high school level. Creating democratic citizens is of such importance that it is built into state-mandated curricula.

In 1879, with aid from the Peabody fund, Texas's first tax-supported teacher training institution, Sam Houston State Normal Institute (SHNI), opened on the site of the old Austin College in Huntsville (Richmond 1941, 37). The need for qualified educators in Texas was growing as the state struggled to make up for decades of neglect of and antipathy toward its public schools. In the years after its establishment, graduates of SHNI would fill many of the top positions in education in the state. This article examines the contributions of two members of the first graduating class--Percy V. Pennybacker and Anna Hardwicke Pennybacker--to education in Texas during the post-reconstruction period. From their graduation in 1880 until Percy's death in 1899, the Pennybackers worked to develop new systems of public graded schools in several communities, promoted public education and the teaching profession across the state, served in leadership roles in teacher organizations, and introduced and expanded progressive educational thought in Texas through published articles and presentations. Their efforts in the development of education in Texas helped to establish a modern system of public schools in a state that was understood to lag badly behind.

The authors, who have worked with more than 2,000 schools across the United States in efforts to close gender gaps, describe how gender-related issues consistently intersect and interfere with school improvement efforts. They present statistics showing that schools are now failing boys in more areas than girls, and describe how "the structures, expectations, and teaching styles found in traditional classrooms" generally favor girls over boys. They point out that students are individuals and there is a great deal of overlap in the learning characteristics of the two genders, and they assert that instructional strategies that are effective for teaching boys--incorporating more movement, visual-spatial projects, and choice--can benefit both boys and girls as well as close gender gaps. This article addresses the topics of achievement gaps and single-sex education.

Using brain-based research, Douglass Elementary School in Boulder, Colorado, looked at the natural assets that both girls and boys bring to school and realized that its classrooms were generally a better fit for the verbal-emotive, sit-still, take-notes, listen-carefully, multitasking girl. Teachers tended to see the natural assets that boys bring to learning--impulsivity, single-task focus, spatial-kinesthetic learning, and physical aggression--as problems. By altering strategies to accommodate the male assets, Douglass helped its students succeed. Teachers increased experiential and kinesthetic learning opportunities, supported literacy learning through spatial-visual representations, incorporated topics that appeal to boys, developed policies that would encourage boys to complete homework, offered single-gender learning environments, made reading and writing purposeful, and sought out male role models in literacy. As a result, on the Colorado State Assessment Program (CSAP), Douglass Elementary students experienced an overall net percentage gain of 21.9, which was the highest achievement gain of any school in the Boulder Valley School District. Moreover, Douglass reversed the typical trend of girls outperforming boys in reading and writing.