Showing papers in "The High School Journal in 2018"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the perspectives and experiences of 10 high-achieving students who attend a rural high school and found that students expressed fears, worries, and concerns regarding their ability to attend and be successful in college.
Abstract: Abstract:Students from rural communities face significant challenges due to low academic preparation, geographic isolation, and poor socioeconomic conditions (Byun, Meece, & Irvin, 2012). These challenges have the potential to hinder or deter rural students from entering four-year colleges or universities. With over nine million students living in rural communities or attending rural high schools (Johnson, Showalter, Klein, & Lester, 2014), research characterizing their college attainment process is necessary to better meet the needs of rurals students aspiring to attend college. Using focus group interviews situated in Coleman's (1988) social capital theory, we examined the perspectives and experiences of 10 high-achieving students who attend a rural high school. Throughout the interviews, students expressed fears, worries, and concerns regarding their ability to attend and be successful in college. Additionally, the students reported having limited access to resources needed for attending and completing college. Study findings have important implications for college access preparation, programming, and research.
21 citations
TL;DR: The identification of best practices and teaching knowledge to enact the curriculum exemplifies the belief that a teacher cannot teach a school subject unless she has adequate knowledge of the disciplinary field of that teaching as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: There is general belief in current reforms that a teacher cannot teach a school subject unless she has adequate knowledge of the disciplinary field of that teaching. Coinciding with this belief is the emphasis in teacher education reforms and research on pedagogical knowledge teachers need for children to learn the content knowledge. The identification of “the best practices” and “the core” teaching knowledge to enact the curriculum exemplifies this belief. “Benchmarks” or standards are indicators of whether the teacher has mastered the core or best practices. The professional, highly skilled teacher is one who exhibits the benchmarks and classified as “effective” and “authentic” in classroom teaching.
17 citations
TL;DR: The authors conducted a case study with secondary English students in a World Literature course as they worked to analyze both the large-scale injustices their curriculum favored as well as the ways in which curricula itself acts as an injustice-perpetuating mechanism.
Abstract: Abstract:Conversations around disciplinary literacy have often focused on the skills particular to each discipline without analyzing closely the discipline-specific properties of curricula. These silences suggest the need to nuance the ways in which curricula acts as a discipline-bound social construct, meaning that English math, history, and science curricula are fashioned, presented, and preserved differently. This article presents findings from a case study conducted with secondary English students in a World Literature course as they worked to analyze both the large-scale injustices their curriculum favored as well as the ways in which curricula itself acts as an injustice-perpetuating mechanism. Findings reveal that the injustice mini-unit positioned students to view curricula as a political entity; connect sociocultural and curricular privileging; and begin to agentively re-purpose, and re-see, curricula. Implications include the importance of delineating the phenomenon of critical disciplinary literacy, and the ways in which problematizing curricula serves as a powerful and important critical disciplinary literacy practice.
14 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored existing narratives within state social studies content standards, specifically secondary United States history and government/civics courses, to understand how academic content standards address the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Abstract: Abstract:Using Critical Race Theory, this paper explores existing narratives within state social studies content standards – specifically secondary United States history and government/civics courses. This paper analyzes how the issue of gerrymandering, racial gerrymandering, and modern voter suppression is addressed in content standards from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This paper also seeks to understand how academic content standards address the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
11 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a dual analysis of entry and exit criteria for reading intervention at a comprehensive high school, and student perceptions of these criteria is presented. But, the results of the analysis are limited.
Abstract: Abstract:High school students' participation in supplementary reading intervention courses shapes their course-taking opportunities. Unfortunately, there is little research that examines criteria that determine whether students are placed in these courses and their possibilities for exit. There is far less research about students' understandings of these entry and exit criteria. These lacunae limit administrator, educator, and researcher knowledge about the role of these criteria in structuring students' educational trajectories. Drawing on participant observations and interviews, this article shares the results of a dual analysis of entry and exit criteria for reading intervention at a comprehensive high school, and student perceptions of these criteria. Findings indicate how shifting criteria, the overreliance on assessments embedded within pre-packaged literacy programs, and the absence of communication with students reproduced inequities in students' access to other electives and choices in their high school trajectories. As a result, this article calls attention to the way in which lack of communication and hidden high-stakes assessments functioned to limit the educational opportunities of the linguistically diverse students of color enrolled in this reading intervention course. In addition, it raises awareness about the necessity for administrators and educators to be critical consumers of assessments embedded within pre-packaged literacy instruction programs.
10 citations
TL;DR: A divergent solution presented by The National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful lobby group that supports the Second Amendment which the Supreme Court has ruled gives an individual the right to possess and use a firearm (District of Columbia v. Heller, 2008), suggests that schools should place highly trained resource officers on school campuses to thwart future attacks as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: School shootings are nothing new in the United States. So far in 2018 there have been two mass shootings on k-12 campuses in the United States resulting in multiple injuries and deaths. The most highly publicized incident occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where 17 unsuspecting students and teachers were killed by a lone gunman. In the wake of such incidents, activists have organized marches like March For Our Lives (March 14, 2018), and the National School Walkout (April 20, 2018), and have engaged in other forms of protest against gun violence. One solution that has been proposed by participants in these protests to stem the tide of gun violence is the development of common sense gun laws. A divergent solution presented by The National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful lobby group that supports the Second Amendment which the Supreme Court has ruled gives an individual the right to possess and use a firearm (District of Columbia v. Heller, 2008), suggests that schools should place highly trained resource officers on school campuses to thwart future attacks (Rostron, 2014; Weatherby, 2015). While some NRA supporters think armed resource officers are a good idea, others think teachers should be armed and trained to carry guns on school campuses in order to be the first line of defense for student safety. The proposal to arm teachers has gained traction since President Donald Trump tweeted his support in February 2018:
9 citations
TL;DR: This paper used a conceptual framework of historical thinking to investigate the representation of the nature and history of science in 17 high school science textbooks and found that the textbooks under study rarely explicated the nature of science and included inconstant descriptions of scientific inquiry.
Abstract: Abstract:Informed by the possibilities that including a focus on the nature and history of science in science curricula fosters relevancy and increases motivation for students to learn science, this study used a conceptual framework of historical thinking to investigate the representation of the nature and history of science in 17 high school science textbooks. Findings revealed that the textbooks under study rarely explicated the nature of science and included inconstant descriptions of scientific inquiry. Additionally, these resources lacked focus on the progression of scientific ideas. We also noted significant emphasis on national origins of scientists. This, however, was often presented acontextually and resulted in few opportunities for students to learn about connections between scientists, collaborators and communities. Implications of this study include how textbook resources may hold the potential to help students see the relevance of science to their everyday lives, recognize the process of \"doing\" science and perhaps see themselves as closer to the real work of scientists. To capture that potential, however, concerted efforts are required to emphasize the nature and history of science in textbook resources.
8 citations
TL;DR: This paper reported the results of a survey on teaching race and gender from a sample of high school social studies teachers (N=309) across Massachusetts using critical race theory mixed methods, and found that teachers at moderate-poverty schools were more likely to teach about Latina/o, Asian, Arab/Middle Eastern, and Indigenous people than teachers in low and high poverty schools.
Abstract: Abstract:This study reports the results of a survey on teaching race and gender from a sample of high school social studies teachers (N=309) across Massachusetts. Using critical race theory mixed methods, the results showed that (1) social studies teachers reported that they were comfortable teaching about race and gender, that race and gender inequity should be addressed in the social studies classroom, and that they regularly covered race- and gender-related topics; (2) teachers at moderate-poverty schools were more likely to teach about Latina/o, Asian, Arab/Middle Eastern, and Indigenous people than teachers in low and high poverty schools; and (3) teachers responded that race and gender were not adequately covered in the curriculum and they wanted more professional development on teaching race and gender.
8 citations
TL;DR: A Richer, Brighter Vision for American High Schools as mentioned in this paper revisited and expanded the argument for interdisciplinary studies that should enliven and deepen educational experience, that will promote democratic participation, collegiality, and connection among the central facets of life.
Abstract: Twenty-five years ago, I expressed great concern about the schools’ concentration on specific facts and concepts—“learning objectives”—and their neglect of the great questions traditionally associated with a full life and wisdom. That concern is even greater today. The disciplines taught in our high schools are still sharply separated and far too specifically defined. Although some scientific thinkers have begun to emphasize interdisciplinary studies, most high school teachers rarely explore related work in other disciplines. How often do math teachers draw on biographies and historical examples to explore questions of friendship, beauty, art, music, religion, or patriotism? In a recent book (A Richer, Brighter Vision for American High Schools, [Noddings,] 2015), I revisited and expanded my argument for interdisciplinary studies that should enliven and deepen educational experience, that will promote democratic participation, collegiality, and connection among the central facets of life. A richer, brighter education should enable people to live more interesting, more fulfilling lives (personal communication, 2017).
7 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors make an argument that community literacy centers, through research with youth in a mid-sized city in the southeastern United States, are uniquely positioned to take up multimodal critical literacy as a lever for intergenerational understanding, but particularly for driving policy making that is responsive to the needs of people in underserved and under-resourced communities.
Abstract: Abstract:The following article centers on involving youth in the process of community-based research—especially using Youth Participatory Action Research as a methodology and frame—as a mode of literacy development for and in the direction of community change. The study makes an argument that community literacy centers, through research with youth in a mid-sized city in the southeastern United States, are uniquely positioned to take up multimodal critical literacy as a lever for intergenerational understanding, but particularly for driving policy making that is responsive to the needs of people in underserved and under-resourced communities.
5 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the ways that two teachers in one US high school intervention program, Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID), make sense of their work as teachers, and reveal structural dimensions of racial inequity in programs designed to increase college access for under-served and under-represented students.
Abstract: Abstract:This article is an examination of the ways that two teachers in one US high school intervention program, Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID), make sense of their work as teachers. AVID is a middle school and high school intervention program that helps middle-achieving low income and under-represented minority students with college access. The paper is grounded in ethnographic data gathered over the course of three years and organized around theoretical concepts of Whiteness, race, and gender performativity. Composite portraits of teachers, generated from field notes, interviews, and focus groups illustrate the ways gender roles and Whiteness are enacted in AVID teaching, and reveal the structural dimensions of racial inequity in programs designed to increase college access for under-served and under-represented students.
TL;DR: In Aesthetics and the Experience of the Arts: Towards Transformations, Maxine Greene speaks to the reader with passion and immediacy about the transformative possibilities of aesthetic encounters with works of art.
Abstract: In Aesthetics and the Experience of the Arts: Towards Transformations, Maxine Greene speaks to the reader with passion and immediacy about the transformative possibilities of aesthetic encounters with works of art. For Greene, works of art are not to be passively experienced. They are to be “achieved” (Greene, 1980, p. 316). A “certain stance” (p. 316) is required of us “if the sounds and the light are to become available to consciousness” (p. 316). To take that stance of questioning and alertness, a willingness to take the time to look more deeply and to see what is to be seen is to understand what it is to “awaken to the ways in which the arts are grasped by human consciousness (p. 317).” This awakening is the means through which art becomes a force for transformation, opening the channels through which individuals are changed by an encounter with a painting or a poem.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the findings of a content analysis of ten historical documents related to the teaching of literature, attempting to answer the following research question: how have defined end goals for teaching literature in secondary schools changed in the United States?
Abstract: Abstract:The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a content analysis of ten historical documents related to the teaching of literature, attempting to answer the following research question: how have defined end goals for the teaching of literature in secondary schools changed in the United States? Our findings suggest that there are common tensions that have remained constant throughout historical attempts to create standards for the secondary English classroom. We saw tensions fluctuate between four curricular perspectives within documents: essentialism, perrenialism, progressivism, and reconstructionalism. These findings highlight how the language of standards documents regarding the teaching of literature has changed, and have implications for where policy makers and professional leaders place value with regard to the teaching of literature in secondary classrooms.
TL;DR: The High School Journal as mentioned in this paper is a high school journal published at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with two key purposes in mind: to improve the quality of teaching in the high schools and examine the form and function of the high school, especially in regards to how best to meet the needs of democracy.
Abstract: Evolving from The North Carolina High School Bulletin, published quarterly from 1910-1917, The High School Journal changed its name and scope with its first issue in January 1918. The original issues of The High School Journal were published at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with two key purposes in mind: to improve the quality of teaching in the high schools of North Carolina and to examine the form and function of the high school, especially in regards to how best to meet the needs of democracy (Walker, Noble, Chase, & Williams, 1918). Published with an intended audience of teachers, administrators, and superintendents, the journal was filled with book reviews, columns rooted in the pedagogical lives of various disciplines, and news from groups close to the heart of the managing editor, Nathan W. Walker. In essence, the journal served as a newsletter of sorts including regular reports from the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (SACS), the North Carolina College Conference, the North Carolina High School Debating Union, and the North Carolina Athletic Association. The journal held true to its North Carolina roots in these first years, with local interest stories such as “Winston Salem’s Proposed High School” (Walker, 1919), “Asheville Normal and Associated Schools” (Calfee, 1922), and “Music in Craven County” (Bourdblais, 1921). Columns focused on disciplinary teaching also proliferated, with G. A. Harrer’s “The Latin Column” first appearing in 1921. It was quickly followed by other regular columns focused on the teaching of English, Spanish, French, Mathematics, and German.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate how high school coaches in eight states are adopting and modifying key components of the Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) intervention to address the high school context.
Abstract: Abstract:Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) is a preventative Tier 2 intervention with demonstrated evidence in decreasing problem behaviors and increasing academic engagement for elementary and middle school students (Bruhn, Lane, & Hirsch, 2013; Hawken, Bundock, Kladis, O'Keeffe, & Barrett, 2014; Maggin, Zurheide, Pickett, & Baillie, 2015). The purpose of this article was to investigate how 18 high school coaches in eight states are adopting and modifying key components of the CICO intervention to address the high school context. Results suggested a majority of coaches made adaptations to specific components of the CICO intervention. Recommendations for how these adaptations may be enhanced by taking into consideration the developmental age of students and the high school context are discussed.
TL;DR: Rodriguez et al. as mentioned in this paper conducted a quasi-experimental study for four years with 316 Native Hawaiian students at 17 high schools in Hawai`i and found that the participation of Native Hawaiians in dual enrollment programs has a positive impact on their academic interests and future plans.
Abstract: Abstract:The contemporary education system in the United States is inadequate in the provision of services to assure that all students exit high school with the knowledge and skills necessary to enter postsecondary education and/or the workforce. This is particularly true for indigenous youth (Tanabe & Mobley, 2011). According to scholars, dual enrollment appears to be an appropriate solution for assisting indigenous youth to perform better in high school and to be better prepared to enter postsecondary education and the workforce (Rodriguez, Hughes, & Belfield, 2012; Vargas, Roach, & David, 2014). The researchers hypothesized that the provision of specific attention to promoting dual enrollment programs for Native Hawaiian youth, along with mentorship, tutoring, and financial assistance, would have a positive impact on academic performance, readiness for taking college courses, perceptions of learning in high school, postsecondary education aspirations, and perceptions of teacher and parent support. To test the hypotheses the researchers conducted a quasi-experimental study for four years with 316 Native Hawaiian students at 17 high schools in Hawai`i. The findings of the study confirm that the participation of Native Hawaiians in dual enrollment programs has a positive impact on their academic interests and future plans.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the powerful outcomes of youth organizing for students, schools, and communities and offer a unique consideration of why youth organizing work belongs in schools and explore both the challenges and successes that inhere to school-based programming.
Abstract: Abstract:Even before the recent election highlighted the growing racial, economic, and economic divides that are fracturing our country, violent civil unrest and increasing levels of civic disengagement and disillusionment evidenced that we are an America where the status quo is no longer acceptable. Youth organizing, a particularly promising type of experiential civic learning, offers the chance to create a new generation of engaged, open-minded, and informed citizens who can effect and realize the change we need to repair America's torn fabric.Unfortunately, youth organizing rarely finds its way into the settings where it can have the most impact: schools. This article discusses the powerful outcomes of youth organizing for students, schools, and communities and offers a unique consideration of why youth organizing work belongs in schools. The article then draws upon the author's experience implementing a youth organizing program in a large urban high school to explore both the challenges and successes that inhere to school-based programming. Lessons learned from this experience and a series of recommendations for educators, activists, and policymakers offer a roadmap for future school-based youth organizing efforts, both domestically and internationally.
TL;DR: Ruth, the youngest teacher in the study, shared that she was thinking about drinking and taking pills until she would be able to lie down and not wake up and the complexity of the question she then posed was almost missed because of its seeming simplicity, "What will I do with her story and the stories of the other teachers?" In that moment, I answered "I will tell your stories as best I can and promise not to forget" as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Abstract:It was a clear day in February, 2008. I was driving home after two days away writing and grappling with the data I had collected for my ethnographic study of Black educator experiences with school reform in New Orleans post Katrina. Traffic was light, the sky blue and clear. I was feeling good until the call. Seeing the phone number of Ruth, the youngest of the teachers in my study, I anticipated and looked forward to hearing her voice, touching base and catching up. However, this conversation was not what I expected. Her voice was weary as she began; another one of her students had been killed. Quietly and with a brokenness in her voice, she shared that she was thinking about drinking and taking pills until she would be able to lie down and not wake up. At that moment, our silence was deafening. The complexity of the question she then posed was almost missed because of its seeming simplicity, \"What will I do with her story and the stories of the other teachers?\". In that moment, I answered \"Iwill tell your stories as best I can and promise not to forget\".
TL;DR: In 2018, anti-racist protestors tore down the Confederate memorial known as Silent Sam at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on August 20, 2018 and for the next three weeks, antiracist protestors, neo-Confederate and White supremacist demonstrators, and officers from multiple police departments squared off at the former location of the statue.
Abstract: Following years of conflict with administrators and lawmakers over the right to its existence, anti-racist protestors tore down the Confederate memorial known as Silent Sam at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on August 20, 2018. For the next three weeks, anti-racist protestors, neo-Confederate and White supremacist demonstrators, and officers from multiple police departments squared off at the former location of the statue. These interactions culminated in physical violence as police aggressively arrested demonstrators on August 25 (Brosseau & Grubb, 2018), deployed pepper spray on student protestors on August 30 (Travis, 2018), and threw smoke bombs and threatened to use bicycles as weapons on September 8 (Brosseau & Grubb, 2018). How the administration and local police have dealt with student protests illuminates critical questions in education today: What constitutes protected student speech, and what kinds of expression lose protection because they are deemed disruptive or unsafe?
TL;DR: Critical media literacy as discussed by the authors applies the ideals of critical literacy to discussions of popular culture and media, and encourages a reader first to understand how it is that texts perpetuate systems of oppression and suppression and then move to identify ways of disrupting the status quo through direct or indirect response to text and/or author.
Abstract: In an age when people have access to so many current and historical perspectives on a wide range of topics, many scholars agree that everyone needs to be able to analyze what they take in. Critical literacy scholars have argued for many years for critical analysis of texts that move beneath the surface of the words themselves to consider perspectives and power structures embedded within and around the text. Critical literacy invites a reader first to understand how it is that texts perpetuate systems of oppression and suppression and then move to identify ways of disrupting the status quo through direct or indirect response to text and/or author (Luke, 2000, 2012; Comber, 1993; Knobel & Healey, 1998). Critical media literacy applies the ideals of critical literacy to discussions of popular culture and media.