Jennifer Booher-Jennings

Bio: Jennifer Booher-Jennings is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Accountability & Triage. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 684 citations.

Below the Bubble: “Educational Triage” and the Texas Accountability System

Abstract: This article uses two dominant traditions in the organizational study of schools—the neoinstitutional and faculty workplace approaches—to explain an urban elementary school’s response to the Texas Accountability System. The findings indicate that teachers, guided by an institutional logic, sought to create the appearance of test score improvement by using a constellation of “educational triage” practices. Educational triage was manifest in the diversion of resources to students believed to be on the threshold of passing the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (“bubble kids”) and to “accountable” students (those affecting the school’s accountability rating). Teachers also attempted to remove any liabilities to the school’s rating by referring these students for special education. To explain why teachers participated in educational triage, the author shows how the equation of good teaching with high test scores by the institutional environment and the district reconstituted both teacher professional id...

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Abstract: What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

High-Stakes Testing and Curricular Control: A Qualitative Metasynthesis

Abstract: Using the method of qualitative metasynthesis, this study analyzes 49 qualitative studies to interrogate how high-stakes testing affects curriculum, defined here as embodying content, knowledge form, and pedagogy. The findings from this study complicate the understanding of the relationship between high-stakes testing and classroom practice by identifying contradictory trends. The primary effect of high-stakes testing is that curricular content is narrowed to tested subjects, subject area knowledge is fragmented into test-related pieces, and teachers increase the use of teacher-centered pedagogies. However, this study also finds that, in a significant minority of cases, certain types of high-stakes tests have led to curricular content expansion, the integration of knowledge, and more student-centered, cooperative pedagogies. Thus the findings of the study suggest that the nature of high-stakes-test-induced curricular control is highly dependent on the structures of the tests themselves.

Whither Opportunity?: Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children's Life Chances

Abstract: This pioneering volume casts a stark light on the ways rising inequality may now be compromising schools’ functioning, and with it the promise of equal opportunity in America.

In Defense of the Realm: The Departmentalization of School Knowledge@@@Realms of Knowledge: Academic Departments in Secondary Schools

Abstract: The Invisibility of Departments Historical Background - From Realm to Realms The Departmental Plan The New Organisation of the High School Subject Divisions Specialist Divisions The Study Context and Design of the Study The Schools Oak Valley High School Rancho High School Highlander High School Boundaries and Barriers Boundary Strengths Breaking Barriers at Rancho Drawing Boundaries - Communication Cliques Social Worlds Looking for Community The Individuals Involved Departments as Social Worlds Different Kinds of Community Power and Politics Norms of Silence and Political Language Privileged Position of Academic Subjects Relative Privilege Among Academic Subejcts Micro-politics Inside Departments How the Subject Matters Subject Cultures Subject Differences Social Studies English Math Science Underlining Differences Departmental Differences implications for Policy.