Tanner LeBaron Wallace

Bridges and Barriers Adolescent Perceptions of Student–Teacher Relationships

In urban secondary schools where underpreparation and dropping out are real world concerns, students understand that their relationships with teachers affect their learning. Using descriptive coding and thematic analysis of focus group data, we explore adolescents’ perceptions of the bridges that foster and the barriers that inhibit supportive relationships with teachers, and the boundary expectations that function as both. The characteristics of supportive student–teacher relationships identified by youth participants suggest a number of teacher practices capable of meeting adolescents’ developmental needs and, as such, are likely to positively influence adolescents’ developmental and academic trajectories.

Depicting the logic of three evaluation theories

Here, we describe the development of logic models depicting three theories of evaluation practice: Practical Participatory (Cousins & Whitmore, 1998), Values-engaged (Greene, 2005a, 2005b), and Emergent Realist (Mark et al., 1998). We begin with a discussion of evaluation theory and the particular theories that were chosen for our analysis. We then outline the steps involved in constructing the models. The theoretical prescriptions and claims represented here follow a logic model template developed at the University Wisconsin-Extension (Taylor-Powell & Henert, 2008), which also closely aligns with Marks (2008) framework for research on evaluation.

Creating Connectedness Through Being Known Fulfilling the Need to Belong in U.S. High Schools

A multidisciplinary body of literature has established that students’ affective relationships with teachers are associated with important academic and developmental outcomes. In this article, we explored late adolescents’ active interpretations of what we call “being known” in high school. Distinct from a generalized perception of the school environment, namely, sense of school belonging, the concept of being known may provide a cohesive and efficient framework for understanding the intersections of developmental tasks, psychosocial perceptions, and effective teaching. Our focus group data with adolescents (M = 16.65 years old, N = 77) yielded three robust findings (a) moving beyond “just teach” teacher relationships; (b) providing instrumental support; and (c) engaging a benefit-of-the-doubt treatment of students. We examined each of these key themes to probe how connectedness is created or undermined through the moment-by-moment experiencing of relational structures characterized by students’ perceptions of being known by adults in an educational context.

Using Problem-Based Learning to Train Evaluators

As the evaluation profession has continued to grow and develop, there has been a corresponding concern about how to properly train future evaluation practitioners. Those who teach evaluation strive to develop training opportunities that create the appropriate balance of the practical, how-to knowledge of evaluation with the burgeoning theoretical knowledge that undergirds responsible evaluation practice. There is a recognized need to move beyond traditional teaching methods to ones that are more engaging and “hands on” to help students understand the interactive nature of program evaluation. Problem-based learning is an experiential learning approach that can integrate the need to balance self-study of theory and practice, along with the need to familiarize students with the dynamic, interactive nature of program evaluation. This article serves as an introduction to the problem-based learning approach and describes this instructional method applied to teaching a graduate-level course in evaluation procedures.

Providing Choice in Middle Grade Classrooms: An Exploratory Study of Enactment Variability and Student Reflection

Employing descriptive and interpretive analyses of classroom videos and focus group data, this study details how the provision of choice was enacted in instruction, and the subsequent messages students perceived. Participants included six teachers (fourth to eighth grade) and 114 students (age X ¯ = 11.28 years, 60% African American). Survey data indicated students perceived high levels of choice in the focal classrooms (Time 1 X ¯ = 3.32, SD = 0.91; Time 2 X ¯ = 3.25, SD = 0.94). Results suggest five differentiating dimensions of providing choice: strategy, pace, format, topic, and mobility as well as differences in the structure of how choice was provided—a single event versus a generative sequence of autonomy-supportive adolescent-teacher interactions. Analysis of student focus group transcripts indicated the enactment of choice communicated messages around trust, respect, and worth that influenced student engagement. Overall, results suggest the provision of choice can be a context for meeting young adolescents’ developmental needs and fostering students’ motivational resources.

An argument-based approach to validity in evaluation

To maximize the impact of research on programs, this article proposes a ‘reaching-down—reachingup’ perspective in evaluation design, whereby it serves two functions simultaneously: the program improvement function, reaching down, and the knowledge development function, reaching up. This proposal frames applied research as a particular species of evaluation. As validity is a fundamental assessment of how well a design supports particular inferences related to specific uses, the article subsequently summarizes and integrates disparate validity perspectives to develop an argument-based approach to validity in a ‘reaching-down—reaching-up’ evaluation model case study. Lastly, the location(s) of validation is considered in order to highlight evaluator responsibilities.To maximize the impact of research on programs, this article proposes a ‘reaching-down—reachingup’ perspective in evaluation design, whereby it serves two functions simultaneously: the program improvement function, reaching down, and the knowledge development function, reaching up. This proposal frames applied research as a particular species of evaluation. As validity is a fundamental assessment of how well a design supports particular inferences related to specific uses, the article subsequently summarizes and integrates disparate validity perspectives to develop an argument-based approach to validity in a ‘reaching-down—reaching-up’ evaluation model case study. Lastly, the location(s) of validation is considered in order to highlight evaluator responsibilities.

Book Review: Spaulding, D. T. (2008). Program Evaluation in Practice: Core Concepts and Examples for Discussion and Analysis. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 176 pp.,

A recent addition to the growing number of program evaluation textbooks available for use in graduate-level courses is Dean T. Spaulding’s Program Evaluation in Practice: Core Concepts and Examples for Discussion and Analysis, which aims to ‘‘provide a variety of evaluation projects to be discussed, analyzed, and reflected on’’ (p. xv). As the former chair of the American Evaluation Association’s Teaching Program Evaluation Topical Interest Group and a current university faculty member, Spaulding is clearly invested in improving the instruction that graduate students receive in the area of program evaluation. With a decidedly professional development slant—job interviewing and job-specific skill sets are referenced throughout—this text would be the most appropriate for an introductory evaluation course within a terminal master of education program. The case studies, and hence the frameworks and content developed around the case studies, focus exclusively on examples of educational evaluation, such as the evaluation of a training program in mathematics for teachers (chapter 9) or the evaluation of a school improvement grant to increase parent involvement (chapter 11). The text is organized into two parts. Part 1, a little less than a fourth of the total text, contains an introductory chapter, ‘‘Foundations of Program Evaluation’’. To assist students, Spaulding includes within this chapter (chapter 1) a brief program evaluation vignette. This vignette describes an urban school district’s evaluation efforts in relation to a 3-year grant to implement an afterschool program. Spaulding provides a source of concrete examples for the subsequent definitions and perspectives on program evaluation. Part 2 comprises the remainder of the text comprising10 chapters in total. Each chapter in Part 2 is a stand-alone case study of a specific educational evaluation. Spaulding describes the case studies as, ‘‘composites of [his] work in program evaluation over the last decade’’ (p. xv). Apart from covering topics as diverse as the Request for Proposal process related to the initial evaluation proposal (p. 42) to the practice of meta-evaluation (p. 86) and lots in between, Spaulding efficiently covers many important topics and aspects of program evaluation in practice. Because Spaulding believes that ‘‘some programs require several years of intense formative feedback to get the kinks out before the program can become highly successful’’ (p. 9), the formative function of program evaluation is emphasized in the introductory chapter and subsequent case studies. Structurally, Spaulding’s text is a smashing success. The presentation and organization of the content, which is a basic introduction to the foundations of program evaluation and 10 stand-alone case studies, provide optimum opportunities to support authentic learning about a diverse set of topics central to the practice of program evaluation. Spaulding developed ‘‘frameworks’’ to guide each case study. Consistent across cases, the framework includes information about the evaluator, the program, the evaluation plan, the summary of evaluation activities and findings, and the final thoughts. This technique provides both instructors and students the necessary scaffolding to build on students’ prior knowledge to develop a fund of knowledge specific to the practice of program evaluation. American Journal of Evaluation Volume 30 Number 3 September 2009 437-439 # 2009 American Evaluation Association 10.1177/1098214009341661 http://aje.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com