Stuart Luppescu

Errors, Interaction, and Correction: A Study of Native-Nonnative Conversations.

In an investigation of native speaker (NS)-nonnative speaker (NNS) conversations in social settings, we learn that only a small percentage (8.9%) of NNS errors were corrected by NSs. These corrections occurred in response to errors of fact, discourse, vocabulary, syntax, and omission. Since discourse and vocabulary errors were corrected more frequently than errors in syntax and omission, we recommend that the treatment of vocabulary in the ESL classroom be reexamined, and that serious consideration be given to teaching ESL students the discoursal properties of English.

Teacher Perspectives on Evaluation Reform Chicago’s REACH Students

In the 2012–2013 school year, Chicago Public Schools unveiled its new teacher evaluation system in all of its almost 600 schools. This study draws on 32 interviews from a random sample of teachers and 2 years of survey data from more than 12,000 teachers per year to measure their perceptions of the clarity, practicality, and cost of the new system. Relationships between these measures and teacher characteristics and indicators of leadership and school community are also explored. We find teachers are positive about the new system—especially the observation process. However, they have concerns about the inclusion of student growth in their evaluation. We find teacher perceptions about evaluation are positively correlated with their perceptions of leadership and professional community.

Assessing School Academic Productivity: The Case of Chicago School Reform

This paper considers the issues raised in using standardized achievement test scores for purposes of examining the academic productivity of schools. We critique some commonly used practices by urban school districts and suggest an alternative approach – the school productivity profile. This profile is based on an assessment of each schools contribution to student learning, or value-added, rather than just the overall level of student attainment. We illustrate, using 10-year achievement trend data from the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), both the problems with some commonly reported indicators of school effectiveness and the idea of a school productivity profile. While our analyses suggest broad-based improvements in student learning in many Chicago schools over the past 10 years, we also found that the current testing system is not well designed to make such judgments accurately. We conclude that extant standardized testing systems, like the ITBS used in Chicago, do not afford an accurate basis for assessing school productivity and how this might be changing over time. These results have important policy implications. As school districts seek to become more “outcome oriented,” they will need to invest in better testing and reporting systems in order to know whether they are making genuine progress in this regard.

Examining attitude in teachers and students: the need to validate questionnaire data

The focus of this article is on the importance of validating research data from questionnaires. This was impressed on us while we were attempting to investigate attitudes and beliefs of students and teachers toward various aspects of learning English in Japan. Our goal was to determine what teachers and students believe are critical factors or variables in achieving success in the teaching and learning of English. However, this goal could not be achieved: when we attempted to validate the questionnaire data, we found that the data from teachers fit the expected pattern, but the student data did not. We present speculations on why the student data could not be validated, but we feel that the more important conclusion is the view that questionnaire data should not blindly be accepted or considered meaningful unless they have been properly validated.