Unraveling the Myths of Accountability: A Case Study of the California High School Exit Exam

Believing that accountability could be a vehicle for change, the California Department of Education (CDE) requires all high school students to pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) in order to graduate. In doing so, California joins many others states in mandating a high school exit exam as a current or future requirement for graduation. In this essay, the authors will argue that this testing approach to school change is based on myths about the role of assessment, the information testing can provide and the impact high stakes testing has on urban schools. Although California is the focus of this analysis, these issues are salient across the county. Testing as a solution to poor student achievement is based on faulty assumptions. It is these assumptions this piece seeks to address

Emphasing the Need for School Based Mental Health Programme with Few Case Studies

School plays an important part in the lives of children and adolescents and can potentially play a key role in helping to address the mental health needs of their students. In present scenario the school based mental health programme has been recognized and initiated in many schools though mainly by the management or non-governmental organizations not through the government. Objectives: a) to identify commonest factors associated with scholastic problems, b) to develop Case studies, c) to utilize the intervention provide by the psychiatric Social worker and referral service in managing the academic and mental health problems in the school context. Methods: A psychiatric Social worker delivered the intervention using mainly the principles of case work and applied behavioural analysis with 23 case studies. Results: Faulty learning Strategies , peer related adjustment problems, uncongenial family environment , core psychiatric disorders, borderline intelligence or pervasive developmental problems and poor teaching strategies or class room environment  were the major contributors of academic problems. Conclusion: Most of the problems leading not only the scholastic and behavioural problems, but also to strengthen their coping skills through interventions. Case vignettes will help teachers and parents to know more about their wards and also to deal with the children’s problems effectively. Keywords: School mental health, interventions and referral servic

Single-gender female urban middle schools : teachers' perceptions of factors for successful implementation

The aim of this study was to examine teachers’ perceptions of the factors for successful implementation of a single-gender female, urban middle school. The literature suggests there are benefits and drawbacks to the single-gender schooling model. Moreover, research indicates there are fewer benefits for boys than girls. While the literature illuminates there are more benefits for girls, little research outlines the specific factors for the successful implementation of the all-girls, single-gender urban middle school. Teachers involved in this qualitative case study were able to identify factors, share their experiences, identify challenges, and ways in which they addressed the challenges in implementing the all-girls, single-gender urban middle school. The study findings revealed the critical factor of staffing the school with a committed group of educators motivated to meet the instructional needs of the girls. Additionally, perceptions for factors of successful implementation of the single-gender middle school included administrative leadership and expectations as essential components, as well as staffing, professional development, campus culture, and a pilot program. Teachers’ experiences in implementing the single-gender middle school illustrated the importance of building positive relationships with the students and developing teaching strategies to meet the needs of the students. Teachers also faced challenges in implementing the all-girls school, including preparation and planning for lessons as well as consistency in procedures. Such challenges were addressed by building relationships, differentiating instruction, and creating an advisory period.Educational Leadership and Polic

Circling the Cross: Bridging Native America, Education, and Digital Media

Part of the Volume on Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital MediaTo paraphrase a Native elder, any road will get you somewhere. The question for Native America is, where will the information highway take them? As Native Americans continue to face challenges from the legacy of colonialism, new media provide both an opportunity and crises in education. Standardized education policy such as No Child Left Behind and funding cuts in social services inadvertently impact Net access and Indian education, yet alternative programs and approaches exist. It is necessary that programs conceptualize new media learning strategies within a historical context by being sensitive to the political and cultural connotations of literacy and technology in Native American communities. By encouraging the use of new media as a tool for grassroots community media and locally relevant storytelling, this chapter asks educators to consider an alternative epistemology that incorporates non-Western approaches to ecology and knowledge

Beyond functionality and technocracy: creating human involvement with educational technology

Westera, W. (2005). Beyond functionality and technocracy: creating human involvement with educational technology. Educational Technology & Society, 8(1), 28-37.Innovation of education is highly topical. It is obviously boosted by a range of new technologies, which enable new modes of learning that, are independent of time and place through Web-based delivery and computer-mediated communication. However, innovators in education often encounter intrinsic conservatism or even deliberate obstructions. For innovators it is important to be aware of and to understand the basic premises underlying the idea of innovation. This paper explains the origins of technological optimism and the associated faith in progress. Also, techno-pessimism as rooted in the negative side effects of the industrial revolution is reviewed. To solve the conflict between techno-optimism and techno-pessimism we elaborate Borgmann’s “devices paradigm“: in order to avoid apathetic and indifferent consumption of technology-based commodities, users of technological devices should be given the opportunity to develop substantial involvement with the technological devices. While extending this idea to educational technologies, we present an explanatory model for the mediating role of technological artefacts. In conclusion, we explain how to approach technology-based innovations in education by arguing for transparent and interactive devices, for products as carriers of meaning, for values that harmonise with the characteristics of man and for a mixed mode of developing new ideas and preserving former achievements

High School Student Narratives of Error Analysis: A Qualitative Investigation into Literacy for Geometry Learning

This narrative inquiry aimed to relate student narratives to error analysis of Geometry problems as a form of literacy implementation. Teachers need to develop a deep understanding and application of mathematics content through qualitative research to find connections to practice (Enderson et al., 2010). Geometry is a worthwhile subject to understand our world from various perspectives and to spur our imagination with constructing objects based on properties undergoing dynamic changes. However, teachers and researchers often wonder why most secondary students need help with the significance of learning and applying Geometry concepts. Literacy implementation bridges students\u27 narrative experiences and relevance to Geometry concepts (Draper, 2002; Ratnaningsih & Hidayat, 2020). This research involved four high school Geometry students revealing narratives about errors experienced with Geometry error analysis problems. Under a blend of a cognitive apprenticeship (Collins et al., 1991) and anchoring examples (Fast & Hankes, 2010), students responded to error analysis problems related to a Geometry concept and a field of employment. Prior research revealed how narratives about errant situations subconsciously affect errors from real-life experiences to problems in a course like Geometry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Mertova & Webster, 2020). The errors included a wrong strategy needing comprehension, a miscomputation needing process skills, and faulty algorithms needing focus in the midst (transformational) or end (encoded) of a problem (Riastuti et al., 2017; Pomalato et al., 2020; Ratnaningsih & Hidayat, 2020). This research’s findings reveal that students experience narratives involving errors related to Geometry problems. The narratives implement behaviors and actions by students that are analogous to the standards for mathematical practice. The findings support implications for teachers having a model for literacy implementation based on the standards of mathematical teaching practices (Boston et al., 2017)