The Bubble Bursts: The 2015 Opt-Out Movement in New Jersey

"The Bubble Bursts: The 2015 Opt-Out Movement in New Jersey" analyzes the scope, factors, and context of the opt-out movement that occurred in New Jersey in the spring of 2015. Using test participation data released in February 2016 by the New Jersey Department of Education, we found that approximately 135,000 students did not take the state assessment in the spring of 2015. Depending on how it was calculated, this represented between 11-19% of the population of students eligible for testing in grades 3 to 11 in the state. There was also a positive correlation between higher district opt-out rates and wealthier districts. We found that several factors contributed to these trends. Predominant amongst these were an accumulated skepticism with high stakes testing in general and the new PARCC assessment in particular, concerns from the Common Core State Standards rollout, teacher union opposition to premature teacher accountability, and confusion in the messages of state policymakers about graduation requirements. These explanatory factors were based upon interviews with over 30 state policymakers, professional education association representatives, advocacy group leaders, school administrators, teachers, parents, and students

The Bubble Bursts: The 2015 Opt-Out Movement in New Jersey

The Bubble Bursts: The 2015 Opt-Out Movement in New Jersey analyzes the scope, factors, and context of the opt-out movement that occurred in New Jersey in the spring of 2015. Using test participation data released in February 2016 by the New Jersey Department of Education, we found that approximately 135,000 students did not take the state assessment in the spring of 2015. Depending on how it was calculated, this represented between 11-19% of the population of students eligible for testing in grades 3 to 11 in the state. There was also a positive correlation between higher district opt-out rates and wealthier districts. We found that several factors contributed to these trends. Predominant amongst these were an accumulated skepticism with high stakes testing in general and the new PARCC assessment in particular, concerns from the Common Core State Standards rollout, teacher union opposition to premature teacher accountability, and confusion in the messages of state policymakers about graduation requirements. These explanatory factors were based upon interviews with over 30 state policymakers, professional education association representatives, advocacy group leaders, school administrators, teachers, parents, and students

I-LEEP Newsletter Volume 2, Issue 1

https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/ileep_newsletter/1004/thumbnail.jp

Evangelical Christianity and Women’s Changing Lives

Women have outnumbered men as followers of Christianity at least since the transition to industrial capitalist modernity in the West. Yet developments in women's lives in relation to employment, family and feminist values are challenging their Christian religiosity. Building on a new strand of gender analysis in the sociology of religion, this article argues that gender is central to patterns of religiosity and secularization in the West. It then offers a case study of evangelical Christianity in England to illustrate how changes in women's lives are affecting their religiosity. Specifically, it argues that evangelical Christianity continues to be important among women occupying more traditional social positions (as wives and mothers), but adherence is declining among the growing number whose lives do not fit this older model

Establishing a Beachhead or Kicking up Sand?

NAASR President William Arnal invited several members to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses, as well as the future direction of the organization, as part of a Presidential Panel at the 2012 annual meeting. My assessment, in the essay that follows, is that, since its founding NAASR and its related publications, have continued to play an important role in differentiating the academic study of religion from the more theologically minded work with which it is often confused. In my view, what makes the academic study of religion a discipline, as opposed to merely a field of study, is a shared sustained scholarly conversation on theoretical and methodological issues; NAASR is an important home to that conversation. © 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden

Establishing a beachhead or kicking up sand?

NAASR President William Arnal invited several members to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses, as well as the future direction of the organization, as part of a Presidential Panel at the 2012 annual meeting. My assessment, in the essay that follows, is that, since its founding NAASR and its related publications, have continued to play an important role in differentiating the academic study of religion from the more theologically minded work with which it is often confused. In my view, what makes the academic study of religion a discipline, as opposed to merely a field of study, is a shared sustained scholarly conversation on theoretical and methodological issues; NAASR is an important home to that conversation. © 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden