Mark Berends

The Effects of Stratification in Secondary Schools: Synthesis of Survey and Ethnographic Research

On the topic of stratification in secondary schools, this paper uses ethnographic research to interpret the findings of survey analyses and uses survey studies to assess the causal implications and generalizability of ethnographic findings. The authors criticize survey research for ambiguity concerning the measurement of within-school stratification and for lack of attention to the mechanisms through which the effects of grouping and tracking occur. At the same time, ethnographic research is seen as limited by an inability to demonstrate the significance of between-track differences in social and instructional conditions and by the failure to disentangle track effects from the influence of social class and other preexisting circumstances. The authors advocate longitudinal, quantitative research that is sensitive to the actual dimensions of stratification in schools, and to classroom conditions and processes that vary across levels of the academic hierarchy.

An Organizational Analysis of the Effects of Ability Grouping

Ability grouping appears to be a logical means of organizing a student body with diverse academic skills. Many observers contend, however, that the practice favors students in high-ability groups at the expense of students in lower groups. An organizational conception of ability grouping clarifies the rationale for ability grouping but also illuminates its shortcomings: Grouping students leads to segregation on nonacademic as well as academic criteria, and differentiated instruction may lead to unequal results for students assigned to different groups. These issues are explored with data from 92 honors, regular, and remedial English classes in eighth and ninth grade. We examine the characteristics of students placed in different groups, similarities and differences in the quality of instruction across groups, and the links between instruction and achievement. The data show that rates of student participation and discussion are higher in honors classes, contributing to the learning gaps between groups. Rates of open-ended questions are similar across classes, but honors students benefit more from such discourse because it occurs more often in the context of sustained study of literature.

Supply and Demand of Minority Teachers in Texas: Problems and Prospects

Teacher supply and demand issues are of critical importance as our society enters the 21st century. Over the next decade, there will be an increasing demand for new teachers––about two million––due in part to a dramatic increase in enrollments and high attrition rates as an aging teacher workforce becomes eligible for retirement. Where these teachers will come from and where they will teach is important to understand as our society faces increasing racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity. Amid this diversity is a continuing concern that some racial-ethnic groups are disproportionately placed at risk. Thus, this article focuses on the supply and demand patterns of minority teachers, with special attention to teachers of students in high-risk districts. We analyze data on teachers from Texas between 1979 and 1996. We provide a variety of descriptive results––both univariate and multivariate––showing that while Texas has been successful in attracting minority teachers, it has a long way to go in attaining the goal of the Texas State Board of Education: to have a teacher workforce that reflects the racial-ethnic composition of the state.

Educational Stratification and Students' Social Bonding to School

Abstract This paper examines the polarization model from qualitative research in both Great Britain and the US, which claims that educational stratification practices polarize students into pro- and anti-school orientations. Because few researchers have adequately conceptualized school attitudes and behavior, social bonding theory (Hirschi, 1969) is used to provide a framework for examining the polarization hypothesis. Relying on High School and Beyond data from the US, an attempt is made to develop measures of respondents’ social bonding to school, including college expectations, absenteeism, disciplinary problems, and engagement. The polarization hypothesis is supported by these US data when examining educational stratification effects on the school bonding measures. Compared to academic-track students, general- and vocational-track students have Iowa college expectations, more disciplinary problems, and are less academically engaged, controlling for prior school orientations and for selection bias due ...

Scaling Up an Early Reading Program: Relationships Among Teacher Support, Fidelity of Implementation, and Student Performance Across Different Sites and Years

Successful implementation of evidence-based educational practices at scale is of great importance but has presented significant challenges. In this article, the authors address the following questions: How does the level of on-site technical assistance affect student outcomes? Do teachers’ fidelity of treatment implementation and their perceptions of school climate mediate effects on student performance? Using a randomized control trial at scale, the authors examine Kindergarten Peer Assisted Learning Strategies, which previously has been shown to be effective in increasing student reading achievement. Analyzing data from 2 years and three sites, the analyses show that the level of on-site technical support has significant effects on reading achievement gains, are robust across multiple sites, and are mediated by fidelity of implementation within teachers’ classrooms.

Instructional Conditions in Charter Schools and Students' Mathematics Achievement Gains.

Since charter school research on student achievement is mixed, many researchers and policy makers advocate looking inside the “black box” of schools to better understand the conditions under which schools of choice may be effective. We begin to address this issue with data from charter schools and a comparison group of traditional public schools. We also conduct propensity score matching at the student level to further understand achievement gains. In our analyses of these data, we find no charter school effects on students’ achievement gains. Instructional conditions, such as teachers’ focus on academic achievement, are related to mathematics gains. However, we find that our innovation measure is negatively associated with gains (when other conditions are controlled for), which suggests that innovation for innovation’s sake should not be the sole focus of schools, whether charter or not.

A Description of Restructuring in Nationally Nominated Schools: Legacy of the Iron Cage?

The rhetoric of restructuring reforms overshadows what we really know about restructured schools. Analyzing data from a nominated sample of restructured schools, this article proposes some relevant dimensions and criteria of restructured schools, and it describes how focused and comprehensive restructuring is in them. For the proposed themes or dimensions of restructured schools-student experiences, professional lives of teachers, governance, and community coordination-schools tended to meet more restructuring criteria in the areas of students and teachers. Significantly fewer nominated schools were restructured in governance and community coordination. Schools tended to be more focused in their restructuring efforts in the areas of teacher professional life and community coordination than in the areas of student experiences and governance. Only 18% (29 of 159) of the schools were comprehensively restructured. If this sample is representative of restructured schools in the United States, restructuring may be much less prevalent than the reform rhetoric suggests.

Factors Contributing to Teachers’ Sustained Use of Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies

Abstract Factors were explored that predicted whether teachers sustained the use of a validated reading intervention. Seventy-three teachers from 37 schools in 3 states were asked in interviews whether they continued to use Kindergarten Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (KPALS) 1 year after their involvement in the program. A logistic regression model was created with teachers’ yes/no responses as the dependent variable and with predictors identified as important to sustainability. Findings were consonant with current theoretical models of sustainability. The logistic regression model captured many key elements of teachers’ decisions to sustain. Strongest predictors were teacher perceptions of the effectiveness of KPALS and degree of external technical support given them.

School Choice Decision Making Among Suburban, High-Income Parents

Parents’ decision making about whether to send their children to a traditional public or charter schools has been studied mostly in urban, low-income areas. Few studies have focused on the decisions of high-income, suburban families. In a sample of Core Knowledge charter schools in a predominantly White and socioeconomically advantaged set of suburbs in Denver, Colorado, we are able to examine both the closed- and open-ended responses of parents who reported the importance of various factors in the decision-making process. Similar to findings from urban, low-income areas, we find that parents rely on their social networks in choosing schools and report the importance of effective teachers, distance to school, and academic quality, which our open-ended responses reveal means different things to different parents. Contrasting previous research, we also find that high-income parents “do their research” on schools to which they are applying.

In (Re)Search of Evidence-Based School Practices: Possibilities for Integrating Nationally Representative Surveys and Randomized Field Trials to Inform Educational Policy

Two types of inquiry have been at the heart of recent discussions of systematic evidence in educational policy and practice: randomized field trials (RFTs) and nationally representative surveys. We argue that integrating these 2 modes of inquiry has the potential to strengthen the evidence base for school reform. In particular, national surveys can help determine the focus of RFTs, by identifying factors that place schools at risk of poor achievement or buffer schools from risk. In addition, surveys can provide data on the prevalence of interventions identified as effective in RFTs and the conditions under which the interventions are being implemented. Finally, RFTs and surveys, taken together, can provide information on ways of improving the coherence of the set of interventions used at the school level.