Kathryn S. Schiller

The Social Dynamics of Mathematics Coursetaking in High School

This study examines how high school boys’ and girls’ academic effort, in the form of math coursetaking, is influenced by members of their social contexts. The authors argue that adolescents’ social contexts are defined, in part, by clusters of students (termed “local positions”) who take courses that differentiate them from others. Using course transcript data from the recent Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study, the authors employ a new network algorithm to identify local positions in 78 high schools in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Incorporating the local positions into multilevel models of math coursetaking, the authors find that girls are highly responsive to the social norms in their local positions, which contributes to homogeneity within and heterogeneity between local positions.

Public School Choice: Some Evidence From the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988

Programs to provide parents with opportunities to choose among public schools have increased to the point that more American high school students are enrolled in public “schools of choice” than private schools. Using indicators of students’ “exercise of choice “ and enrollment in a public school of choice from The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, this article explores certain groups’ propensities to take advantage of opportunities to choose in the public sector. Controlling on the availability of opportunities for choice in their schools, African Americans and Hispanics show a greater propensity to take advantage of those opportunities than Whites and Asian Americans. Students whose parents have lower levels of education are also more likely than those with more education to take advantage of opportunities to choose.

Preparing for Citizenship: Immigrant High School Students' Curriculum and Socialization

Immigrant adolescents are one of the fastest growing segments of our population, yet we know little about how schools prepare them for citizenship. Although prior research suggests that high school civics education, academic achievement, and a sense of connection increase political participation in early adulthood, we do not know if these processes apply to immigrant youth. Using longitudinal, nationally representative data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement study (AHAA) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we employ multilevel models to investigate the effects of formal and informal school curricula on early adult voting and registration. We find that children of immigrant parents who take more high school social studies coursework have higher levels of reported voter registration and voting. In addition, attending a high school where students have a greater sense of connection or where parents have more education are important predictors of registration and voting, regardless of immigrant status.

State Education Policies and Changing School Practices: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Study of Schools, 1980-1993.

Since the early 1980s states have implemented numerous policies designed to change school practices. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Schools, a nationally representative sample of public high schools, we examine the relationship between three state policies and changes in school practices between the early 1980s and 1993. In states with greater high school graduation requirements, high schools are more likely to increase course requirements but are not more likely to change course offerings. Dissemination of school test score policies are associated with an increase in the percentage of students enrolled in the academic track and a decrease in general track enrollments. State policies encouraging site-based management are associated with increases in the influence of teachers and school councils in decision making and with decreases in the influence of the central office. These findings suggest that state policies influence school practices in policy specific domains, rather than having diffuse effects on the organization of schools. These policy effects illustrate the need for more theoretically grounded studies of the complex linkages between state policies and school practices.

Preparing the Next Generation for Electoral Engagement: Social Studies and the School Context.

In an era of accountability focused primarily on academic outcomes, it may be useful to reconsider the other original aim of U.S. schools: citizenship development. Using longitudinal, nationally representative data (Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study [AHAA] and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health [Add Health]), we employ multilevel models to investigate the effects of social science programs and other measures of school context on young adult voting and voter registration. Findings suggest that school social science context directly influences young adult electoral engagement to the extent that peers’ social science performance can counteract an individual’s low level of social connection to produce an active voter in young adulthood.

HIDDEN DISPARITIES: HOW COURSES AND CURRICULA SHAPE OPPORTUNITIES IN MATHEMATICS DURING HIGH SCHOOL

Efforts to promote academic achievement by increasing access to courses, especially in mathematics, may mask educational disparities if variations in curriculum are not also monitored. A multi-dimensional description of students’ mathematics curricula during high school was obtained from analyses of surveys, transcripts, and textbooks collected for a nationally representative study of adolescents during the mid-1990s. Few gaps in the number of years or credits in mathematics coursework were found. However, the quantity and cognitive challenge of instructional materials in textbooks adopted for those courses differed significantly both across and within mathematics tracks. Differences in the quality of curriculum accumulating during high school were also related to parents’ education level. Reducing such gaps in learning opportunities would require teachers to supplement adopted instructional materials to ensure that all students receive a high quality mathematics curriculum.

Drivers for Change: A Study of Distributed Leadership and Performance Adaptation During Policy Innovation Implementation

ABSTRACT Scaling up innovation in the instructional core remains a vexing proposition. Such disruptive innovations require teachers to engage in performance adaptation. Schools vary in their capacity to support changes in teachers’ day-to-day work. By comparing distributed instructional leadership practices of “odds-beating” schools with those at “typically performing schools,” this study identified four qualities of distributed instructional leadership that drive teacher performance adaptation: collective goal setting, instructional feedback, collective guided learning, and trusting relationships. These findings reiterate the need for policy to go beyond standards and accountability mandates to focus on the right drivers of change: capacity building, and opportunities for collaboration in tandem with pedagogical improvement.