Jill V. Jeffery

Voice in Student Essays

Voice in written language — a metaphorical concept capturing the sense of author identity that comes through when readers interact with texts — has intrigued many writing teachers and researchers. While some teachers regard voice to be an essential feature of good writing, others consider it to be unnecessary, if not distracting, especially in the context of academic and professional writing. One of the most obvious reasons for this discrepancy is the varied conception of voice. In the early years, voice was conceptualized in individualistic terms, focusing on the expression of authentic self (Elbow, 1968; Stewart, 1969, 1972). This perspective has often been at odds with social-constructionist views of voice that emphasize the normative aspects of language use (Cope and Kalantzis, 1993; Hyland, 2008). There are more recent, social-constructivist conceptions of voice that see individual and social voice to be mutually constitutive and inevitable (Ivanic, 1998; Ivanic and Camps, 2001; Matsuda, 2001; Prior, 2001). Studies using a social-constructivist definition of voice (Matsuda, 2001) have shown that voice plays an important role in advanced academic literacy (Matsuda and Tardy, 2007; Tardy and Matsuda, 2009). Yet, as Tardy (this volume) has pointed out, the debate over the notion of voice has tended to be caught in a simplistic individual—social dichotomy.

In and of the City: Theory of Action and the NYU Partnership School Program

This article explores the theory of action underlying New York Universitys (NYUs) Partnership Schools Program—explaining in the process what a theory of action is, and how it can be constructed for other innovations in other contexts. NYUs Partnership Program involves 23 schools, K-12, spanning several of New York Citys most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. It operates on the basis of what the authors call “mutual self-interest” and exploits what they call “complementarity.” The authors illuminate the programs original as well as its evolving intentions, and the environmental conditions necessary to enact them and to sustain the program over a decade. They also describe the programs core design elements, with a view to how these may be replicated elsewhere. Finally, they look closely at the Partnerships theory of action in action, employing action research data to portray a meeting where professors and teachers discuss the teacher education residency experiment they have collaboratively launched.

Common Core Standards and their Impact on Standardized Test Design: A New York Case Study

Abstract: With adoption of the Common Core (CCSS) in a majority of U.S. states came development of new high-stakes exams. Though researchers have investigated CCSS and related policies, less attention has been directed toward understanding how standards are translated into testing. Due to the influence that high-stakes tests exert on classroom teaching, research is needed to investigate what kinds of changes in test content are associated with CCSS, as well as the potential impact of these changes on students and teachers. Accordingly, this case study examines changes made to one high-stakes exam by comparing pre- and post-CCSS literacy tests administered to high school students in New York. The study responds to the following: (1) How did the adoption of CCSS alter the design of high school literacy exams in New York? (2) To what extent do exams represent measures of college readiness as opposed to early college equivalence? (3) What are the implications of CCSS exam adaptations for the goal of preparing students to be college and career ready? Findings suggest that the rush to implement more rigorous CCSS exams resulted in an exceedingly long and difficult exam that is more representative of early college equivalence rather than of college readiness.