Stepping stones: Principal career paths and school outcomes

More than one out of every five principals leaves their school each year. In some cases, these career changes are driven by the choices of district leadership. In other cases, principals initiate the move, often demonstrating preferences to work in schools with higher achieving students from more advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. Principals often use schools with many poor or low-achieving students as stepping stones to what they view as more desirable assignments. We use longitudinal data from one large urban school district to study the relationship between principal turnover and school outcomes. We find that principal turnover is, on average, detrimental to school performance. Frequent turnover of school leadership results in lower teacher retention and lower student achievement gains. Leadership changes are particularly harmful for high poverty schools, low-achieving schools, and schools with many inexperienced teachers. These schools not only suffer from high rates of principal turnover but are also unable to attract experienced successors. The negative effect of leadership changes can be mitigated when vacancies are filled by individuals with prior experience leading other schools. However, the majority of new principals in high poverty and low-performing schools lack prior leadership experience and leave when more attractive positions become available in other schools.     

Public school accountability,workplace culture,and teacher morale

Educational scholars claim that teacher morale has suffered from accountability pressures and constrained professionalism, but exactly what is most diminished by these pressures remains unclear. Drawing on recent theoretical work on public school organizational culture, we hypothesize that accountability pressures hurt teacher morale and increase the risk of turnover by undermining the professional culture of the school and by diminishing teacher cooperation and trust. We find support for this hypothesis in a national sample of teachers in 2011–12, and a follow-up survey from 2012–13. The analyses test whether a collective pedagogical teacher culture, comprised of professional culture and teacher collaboration, buffers the impact of these pressures that diminish teacher morale. Counter to past research, we find that a strong collective pedagogical teacher culture does not buffer teachers from the ill effects of negative workplace conditions in the form of accountability pressures. We also find that accountability pressures in the form of district dismissals are associated with a higher likelihood of teachers leaving their school, and this relationship is not mitigated by strong professional culture. We conclude that accountability pressures partly undermine goals of improving performance and equity in public schools by sowing seeds of teacher dissatisfaction and contributing to teacher turnover, thus thwarting student achievement in struggling schools.     

In-services and empty threats: The roles of organizational practices and workplace experiences in shaping U.S. educators’ understandings of students’ rights

This paper applies theoretical frameworks from organizational sociology and sociolegal studies to examine factors associated with educators’ conceptions of students’ rights to due process in disciplinary actions. We analyze a unique representative data set of 402 teachers and 200 administrators in U.S. high schools to investigate how educators understand the rights to due process articulated in the Supreme Court case of Goss v. Lopez (1975). We then examine whether individual characteristics and participation in organizational processes are associated with educators’ understandings of students’ due process rights. Findings suggest that educators’ understandings of students’ entitlements to due process vary with educators’ level of education, experience of school-related legal threats, and participation in district or diocese in-service training programs on students’ rights. Results point to organizational climate as a key factor in shaping educators’ rights conceptions and the role of law in American schools.     

The impact of the promise of scholarships and altering school structure on college plans, preparation, and enrollment

The Washington State Achiever (WSA) program was a large-scale educational intervention of scholarships, mentoring, and school redesign designed to encourage students from moderate and low income families to attend college in Washington State. Using a quasi-experimental design based on pre- and post-intervention surveys of high school seniors in program and non-program schools, we find a significant WSA effect on educational outcomes, net of the demographic and socioeconomic composition of students across schools. Across the three intervention high schools, the program is strongly significant in one school, significant after a lag in another school, and not significant in a third. We speculate about the potential reasons for the differential program effect across high schools.     

Population migration and children’s school enrollments in China, 1990–2005

This paper examines the impact of migration on children’s school enrollment by analyzing the micro-data from Chinese population censuses in 1990 and 2000 and mini-census in 2005. We match school-age children (7–14 years old) with their parents, and examine how migration status and parents’ absence affect children’s school enrollment in urban China. We also compare rural–urban migrant children with their peers in both origin counties and destination districts. Results show that migrant children are less likely to be enrolled in school than urban local children and that children of rural registration status are particularly disadvantaged in school enrollment over the whole examined period in urban China. Rural–urban migrant children fare significantly worse than non-migrant children in both origins and destinations and noticeably they are even less likely than left-behind children to be enrolled in school. The likelihood of being enrolled in school increases for rural–urban migrant children as they spend more time in destinations.     

Measuring students' school context exposures: A trajectory-based approach

Studies of school effects on children's outcomes usually use single time-point measures. I argue that this approach fails to account for (1) age-based variation in children's sensitivity to their surroundings; (2) differential effects stemming from differences in the length of young people's exposures; and (3) moves between contexts and endogenous changes over time within them. To evaluate the merits of this argument, I specify and test a longitudinal model of school effects on children's academic performance. Drawing on recent advances in finite mixture modeling, I identify a series of distinct school context trajectories that extend across a substantial portion of respondents' elementary and secondary school years. I find that these trajectories vary significantly with respect to shape, with some students experiencing significant changes in their environments over time. I then show that students' trajectories of exposure are related to their 8th grade achievement, even after controlling for point-in-time measures of school context.     

Extracurricular associations and college enrollment

There is consistent evidence that student involvement in extracurricular activities (EAs) is associated with numerous academic benefits, yet understanding how peer associations within EAs might influence this link is not well understood. Using Add Health’s comprehensive data on EA participation across 80 schools in the United States, we develop a novel measure of peer associations within EA activities. We find that EA participation with high achieving peers has a nontrivial link to college enrollment, even after considering individual, peer, and school-level factors. This suggests that school policies aimed at encouraging student exposure to high achieving peers in EAs could have an important impact on a student’s later educational outcomes.     

The impact of suspension on participation in school-based extracurricular activities and out-of-school community service

In recent decades, school suspensions have increased dramatically in the United States. To date, researchers have assessed the consequences of suspensions on adolescents' academic achievement, self-esteem, and psychological well-being. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between school discipline and youths' engagement on in-school and out-of-school activities. In this study, we investigate the relationship between suspension (i.e., in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, or both) and youth participation in extracurricular activities, both in-school and outside of school, using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002. Results suggest students who are suspended are less likely to participate in school clubs (e.g., student government, yearbook, band/choir), and are also less likely to participate in volunteer work/community service. This suggests the impact of school discipline extends beyond the schooling context. These results provide insight into how suspensions may function as a ‘pushout’ mechanism for youth by compromising their attachment to school.     

Social origins and post-high school institutional pathways: A cumulative dis/advantage approach

The social stratification that takes place during the transition out of high school is traditionally explained with theoretical frameworks such as status attainment and social reproduction. In our paper, we suggest the cumulative dis/advantage hypothesis as an alternative theoretical and empirical approach that explains this divergence in institutional pathways as the result of the dynamic interplay between social institutions (in our case, schools) and individuals’ resources.We use data from the NLSY79 in order to compute institutional pathways (defined by educational and occupational status) of 9200 high school graduates. Optimal Matching Analysis and Cluster Analysis generated a typology of life course pathways. Our results show that both ascribed characteristics and students’ high school characteristics and resources are predictors of post-high school pathways.     

Does residential mobility improve educational outcomes? Evidence from the Netherlands

This paper explores the impact of residential mobility on educational outcomes. By considering a large Dutch city with substantial internal residential mobility, we examine how residential mobility influences the decision of students to drop out of school. The paper exploits a rich administrative dataset with extensive information on educational, individual, family, housing and moving characteristics of students. It combines a matching design with a multivariate regression analysis, such that the evaluation draws on a well-comparable control group for the treated students. Accounting for individual, family, educational, neighborhood and housing characteristics, as well as for school and year fixed effects, we observe that residential mobility increases the probability of school dropout in the first few years after moving. The estimated effect changes, however, to a lower risk of early school leaving after an initial period, and then changes again to a higher risk after 6 years. This effect remains, regardless the level of education the students attended, or whether the student moves to a better or a worse neighborhood.     

关于中学教师职业态度的现状调查与对策分析

通过对包头市四所中学教师的抽样调查,中学教师的职业角色意识参差不齐,职业态度和角色认知也不很令人满意。需要转变教师职业意识,优化教师外部环境,制定完善的管理制度,加强教师自身修养。     

Education and fertility decline in China during transitional times: A cohort approach

We examine the effect of education on birth outcomes in China during the period of economic transition and large-scale changes in mass education and population control measures. Retrospective micro data from the 2008 Chinese General Social Survey and discrete time event history analysis are used to examine the fertility history of several cohorts of women born between 1945 and 1968. We observed births at different parities, distinguishing the education effect across cohorts and rural/urban sectors. We found differences across cohorts consistent with unique features of the Chinese context, such as the radical egalitarian era of educational expansion, and the Reform Era. We also found that despite the increase in some education levels across cohorts (e.g., junior high school in rural areas), birth chances were more likely to be concentrated among less educated women, suggesting the impact of factors related to returns to education and hence the desire for children.     

现代语言学流派哲学观的对立与融合

从现代语言流派发展来看,20世纪的语言学史是经验主义、理性主义、体验主义斗争和相互融合的历史。结构主义语言学、生成语言学和认知语言学之间有着密切的学术渊源,它们不是在任何方面都针锋相对的,其研究具有承接性、互补性和发展性,在认识论、方法论、语言观等方面存在一定的统一性。语言学界越来越认识到各个语言流派之间并不存在不可跨越的鸿沟,经验主义、理性主义和体验主义必然会进一步融合。     

Student misbehavior during senior year: A comparison of immigrants and the native-born

Prior research has increasingly shown that the length of time in the U.S. and acculturation may have negative effects on a variety of immigrant outcomes, including academic performance, health, and occupational attainment. However, much of the research on the educational outcomes of immigrants focuses primarily on their academic achievement but neglects another factor that affects educational success—behavior at school. Using data from a sample of high school seniors in several Pacific Northwest school districts, I examine whether more time in the U.S. increases school misbehavior by testing the effects of immigrant generation and indicators of acculturation on three measures of disciplinary problems during the senior year of high school—attending class unprepared, getting in trouble for breaking school rules, and being put on suspension. First and one-point-five generation immigrants attend class more prepared and get into less trouble for breaking the school rules than do third or higher generation students during their senior year of high school. High academic performance and indicators of acculturation explain only part of this beneficial effect of immigrant generation on behavior at school. Additional analyses show that second generation Asian immigrants are more similar to first and 1.5 generation immigrants from all racial and ethnic groups than they are from other second generation racial and ethnic groups in regards to moderate and intermediate behavior.     

“Value in diversity”: School racial and ethnic composition,teacher diversity,and school punishment

American schools have become increasingly punitive and characterized by racial and ethnic disparities in punishment outcomes. Scholarship on the causes and consequences of this shift has highlighted the potential salience of school context. The current study extends this work by exploring the potential effect of an underexplored factor, teacher diversity, on suspension disparities. To date, explorations of the role of teacher diversity have been limited to its impact on academic outcomes, teacher perceptions, and behavioral outcomes. The current study fills a void in the existing literature by examining (1) whether greater teacher diversity is associated with reductions in racial and ethnic suspension disparities and (2) whether greater teacher diversity interacts with the size of the racial and ethnic student population to influence suspension disparities. This study contributes to the existing literature by extending the “value in diversity” perspective to the school setting. Additionally, the findings suggest that racial and ethnic diversity in positions of authority in the school setting fosters a more equitable approach to the administration of student punishment.     

美国教师专业发展学校对我国教育发展的经验与启示

产生于20世纪80年代末期的美国教师专业发展学校(Professional Development School,简称PDS)是由大学与中小学合作,以中小学为基地,融职前教师培养、在职教师培训和学校改革为一体的教师教育新模式,强调学校是教师专业发展的场所,关注大学与中小学的有效合作。本文主要新解美国教师专业发展学校(PDS)的成功经验并反思其教育性启示。     

包头市城市小学课外体育活动现状的调查与研究

本文通过问卷调查法和访谈法等形式,对包头市城市小学课外体育活动现状进行了调查与研究,调查结果表明:小学生课业负担较重,课外体育活动存在挤占现象,且课外活动时间、次数不能保证。校内体育竞赛单调,考虑到学习的原因,多数家长不支持学生参加课余运动训练,小学竞技体育后备人才培养工作滞后。社区体育活动场所少,体育设施缺乏,间接影响学生课外体育活动的热情。     

Women's employment trajectories during early adulthood in urban China: A cohort comparison

This study uses retrospective work history data from CGSS 2008 and employs group-based trajectory analysis to model the diverse employment trajectories of cohorts of urban Chinese women (born in the 1940s–1970s) during young adulthood (age 20–35). We identify ideal-types of urban women's employment trajectories and explore traits associated with each group type. In particular, we examine whether and how the timing of marriage and fertility as well as socioeconomic background help to distinguish patterns of women's labor force attachment in young adulthood. We also examine how these patterns change across cohorts given China's rapid social transformations in the past few decades. We find that delaying family formation is generally associated with more consistent work attachment, but this relationship is also largely associated with one's socioeconomic background. Our results reveal significant cohort variations in the shape of women's employment trajectories and we discuss how institutional and cultural contexts of different historical periods could have shaped family formation and employment processes differently. Our findings highlight the heterogeneity of urban women's work and family formation patterns in the context of rising gender inequalities and rapid socioeconomic transformation over time.     

School ethnic diversity and White students’ civic attitudes in England

The current paper focuses on White British students in lower secondary education and investigates the effect of school ethnic diversity on their levels of trust and inclusive attitudes towards immigrants. Use is made of panel data of the Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study (CELS) to explore these relationships. Ethnic diversity is measured with the proportion of students in a grade identifying with a minority. In agreement with contact theory, the paper initially finds a positive relation between diversity and inclusive attitudes on immigrants. However, this link disappears once controls for social background, gender and prior levels of the outcome are included in the model. This indicates that students with particular pre-enrolment characteristics have self-selected in diverse schools and that inclusive attitudes have stabilized before secondary education. Diversity further appears to have a negative impact on trust, irrespective of the number of controls added to the model.     

我国农村留守中学生孤独感现状及其对策研究——以自贡、乐山地区为例

文章采用中学生孤独感问卷对自贡、乐山地区四所中学共278名留守中学生进行了调查,结果发现：①农村留守中学生在纯孤独感因子上分值均高于非留守中学生,呈现显著差异：②农村留守中学生的孤独感水平存在性别差异,留守女生在对重要关系未满足程度的知觉因子上的分值均显著高于留守男生;③农村留守学生孤独感水平存在年级差异,在对自己社交能力的知觉的纬度上却存在显著性差异,且留守高中生高于留守初中生：④父母是否双方外出打工、外出时间长短与监护人类别、教养方式是影响农村留守中学生孤独感水平的重要因素。本文在对留守中学生孤独感现状调查研究的基础上,阐明了影响留守中学生孤独感的主要家庭因素,并从家庭、学校、社会的角度提出相应的解决对策。