Deconstructing the NCLB Impact on the Instructional Goals and Practices of Urban School Teachers: A Case Study

With the enactment of the NCLB mandates, emphasis on high-stakes testing became more prevalent than ever. Some argue that high-stakes tests can be a driving force behind fundamental change in schools. Whether or not this type of test-driven change leads to school improvement is an empirical question. What we do know is that high-stake testing can affect teachers’ disposition of and their dedication to the teaching profession if what they accomplish at school is measured only in test scores. Drawing on data collected over the course of three academic years, this case study examines the extent to which the institutional pressure resulting from NCLB affected two urban teachers’ teaching practices. To this end, this study analyzes various positions and decisions taken by these teachers to determine to in what way they succumbed to and/or resisted the institutional pressure of standardized tests, and the implication this has for student learning

Voice as a design material : sociophonetic inspired design strategies in Human-Computer Interaction

While there is a renewed interest in voice user interfaces (VUI) in HCI, little attention has been paid to the design of VUI voice output beyond intelligibility and naturalness. We draw on the field of sociophonetics - the study of the social factors that influence the production and perception of speech - to highlight how current VUIs are based on a limited and homogenised set of voice outputs. We argue that current systems do not adequately consider the diversity of peoples’ speech, how that diversity represents sociocultural identities, and how voices have the potential to shape user perceptions and experiences. Ultimately, as other technological developments have influenced the ideologies of language, the voice outputs of VUIs will influence the ideologies of speech. Based on our argument, we pose three design strategies for VUI voice output design - individualisation, context awareness, and diversification - to motivate new ways of conceptualising and designing these technologies

The [de] construction of institutional representation of student achievement: An ethnographic case study of an ELL student\u27s academic growth

Student academic growth is one of the most heated issues surfacing in the frequent debates revolving around school reforms, particularly since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind mandate. Often missing in such debates is a clear articulation of what available resources students have drawn on to grow academically. Informed by socio-cultural theoretical and systemic functional linguistic frameworks and drawing on data collected in a three-year ethnographic case study, this study explores what contributed to the academic growth of Pablo, a middle school English language learner, who was institutionally recognized as an achiever. Specifically, this study examines in what ways and to what extent school resources, such as teaching practices, enabled Pablo to grow academically. This study also explores how and to what degree outside resources, such as parental involvement and support from the community, led to his growth. In addition, this study examines to what degree Pablo\u27s level of motivation contributed to his growth in academic writing. To determine whether or not Pablo\u27s writing changed over time and whether Pablo made progress with his academic writing, I performed a textual analysis of a selective set of essays Pablo wrote over the course of one academic year. Findings suggest that Pablo\u27s institutional status as an achiever stems from his ability to find ways to produce essays that were institutionally valued, recognized, and defined as good essays. Findings also suggest that while such a status helped Pablo maintain his institutional identity as a good student, it may at the same time have slowed down his learning process, prevented the school personnel from exploiting his full potential as a student and, worse yet, led to the over-generalization of student achievement