TCRecord

A Desire to Learn: African American Children’s Positive Attitudes Toward Learning Within School Cultures of Low Expectations

Fri, 9 Nov 2007 15:55:43 EST

This qualitative study examines whether oppositional attitudes toward learning prevail among African American children attending two low-income urban elementary schools in California. In addition, we examine how African American children’s beliefs about good teachers compare with what we document as good teaching.

Leaving No Child Behind Yet Allowing None Too Far Ahead: Ensuring (In)Equity in Mathematics Education Through the Science of Measurement and Instruction

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:17:31 EST

This inquiry raises questions about the manner in which the No Child Left Behind Act aims to improve mathematics education through continued reliance on standardized testing and mandated use of scientifically based teaching practices. Specifically, it is argued that this approach is tied to assumptions about intellectual ability and achievement that precipitated the dividing practices used to justify differential access to mathematics learning almost a century ago. An examination of so-called objective and scientific approaches to school mathematics suggests the need for more earnest reflection about the particular path toward educational progress privileged by this legislation.

Call for Proposals - NSSE Yearbooks to Join TCR

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:20:33 EST

The editors of TCR announce a call for proposals for future volumes of the NSSE Yearbooks.

The Silent Epidemic

Mon, 7 Dec 2009 11:15:15 EST

Recent efforts to combat low school enrollment in the developing world -- such as President Obama's pledge to establish a $2-billion Global Fund for Education and the 2002 creation of the World Bank's Fast Track Initiative -- represent a promising model for a synchronized, global effort on education that should be erected upon. Yet, to effectively supply the funding, guidance, and logistical support to achieve education for everyone, policymakers must focus their efforts more intensely on tapping the unrealized potential of females and rural inhabitants.

The Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning

Wed, 3 Feb 2010 11:51:03 EST

Since an initial explosion in the 1980s, service learning has become increasingly popular on college campuses around the country (Stoecker & Tryon, 2009, p. 3). Many faculty and university administrators, in part, promote service learning because they believe it facilitates student learning. In fact, student benefits are generally well supported. An extensive body of research indicates that service learning can be beneficial for students by, among other things, enhancing jobs skills and improving grades (see Mooney & Edwards, 2001). Yet, one of the primary reasons service learning has become so popular is because of the belief that it enhances student learning and provides service to the wider community. In reality, because of a dearth of research, we know very little about whether service learning actually provides a service. That is what makes Randy Stoecker and Elizabeth Tryon’s edited volume, The Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning, both an important... (preview truncated at 150 words.)

(Mis)understanding Families: Learning from Real Families in Our Schools

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 09:25:28 EST

“Dialogue presupposes that we talk with each other, not at each other” (Brock, 2010, p.129). In (Mis)Understanding Families, editors Monica Miller Marsh and Tammy Turner-Vorbeck successfully assemble diverse and powerful voices that will enrich the dialogue about families’ roles in schools. In eleven chapters, divided in two parts, readers are introduced or reintroduced to key concepts in the field, and encouraged to question existing practices of and assumptions about family involvement. In Chapter 1, which serves as a prelude to Part I of the manuscript, Debbie Pushor invites the reader to question the underlying assumptions of ritualistic family involvement practices such as “Meet the Teacher Nights,” and to consider alternative ways for families and school personnel to begin the academic year. Pushor guides the reader in imagining what family-school interaction might mean for students’ education if parent engagement, which she defines as more inclusive and participatory than parent involvement, served as... (preview truncated at 150 words.)

The Playing Fields of Eton: Equality and Excellence in Modern Meritocracy

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 13:06:34 EST

The Incomplete Child: An Intellectual History of Learning Disabilities

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 14:32:16 EST