Category: Working Papers

Author: Mark Blitz May 2012, 36 pp. Abstract: This paper presents findings from a piloting of the Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) assessment tool. In the third year of a 4-year grant funded by IES, the CALL research team piloted a formative assessment survey of instructional leadership in six Wisconsin schools. The research …

Author: Naomi Lee April 2012, 11 pp. Abstract: The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 formally endorsed standards-based educational reform for English Language Learners (ELLs) by requiring states to: This paper reports results from a 16-state survey of districts, mostly with relatively small ELL populations (fewer than 500 ELLs), on their engagement with standards-based …

Authors: Mitchell J. Nathan and Chelsea V. Johnson March 2012, 46 pp. Abstract: The relationship between gesture production and mental models was explored in three experiments focusing on situation model (SM) formation when learning from a scientific text. Participants engaged in one-on-one interviews after reading an illustrated tutorial on the human circulatory system. We found …

Authors: Kimberle A. Kelly, Alexan Chalaganyan, Erika Hernandez January 2012, 9 pp. Abstract: The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) engaged in an elementary science instructional reform in Grades 4 and 5 from 2004 to 2009. An experimental study was conducted from 2006 to 2009 in a sample of 80 treatment (40) and comparison (40) …

Authors: Matthew T. Hora, Joseph Ferrare January 2012, 30 pp. Abstract: The antecedents of faculty self-efficacy beliefs for teaching undergraduates are examined using thematic analysis of interview data (n=56) and structural equation modeling of survey data (n=436). Results indicate that many instructors have ambiguous self-efficacy beliefs, and that pedagogical reflection is a significant antecedent to …

Authors: Thomas R. Kratochwill, Kimberly Eaton-Hoagwood, Anne E. Kazak, John R. Weisz, Korey Hood, Luis A. Vargas, Gerard A. Banez December 2011, 14 pp. Abstract: The American Psychological Association (APA) Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) for Children and Adolescents (2008) recommended a systems approach to enhancing care in order to improve outcomes for children …

Authors: Mary Leonard, Sharon J. Derry October 2011, 62 pp. Abstract: Design-based science curricula have sprung up in middle- and high-school science classrooms, attracted by the promise of increased student motivation and improved learning outcomes from providing real-world, engineering problem-solving contexts for science concepts. Yet while engineering and science are deeply interrelated domains of practice, …

Authors: Rebecca Lowenhaupt, Eric Camburn August 2011, 15 pp. Abstract: This paper presents results from a demographic analysis of enrollment patterns in Wisconsin’s New Latino Diaspora. Across the country, shifting immigration patterns are rapidly changing the demographics of schools with little recent tradition of educating immigrant students. Although emerging immigrant communities represent a widespread and …

Author: Constance Steinkuehler July 2011, 16 pp. Abstract: This paper reports on a series of four studies to argue that video games are a solution to, rather than a cause of, the problem of adolescent boys and reading. Results show that the texts regularly involved in video game play are primarily expository, with an 11.8-grade …

Authors: Anthony T. Milanowki, Herbert G. Heneman III, Steven M. Kimball March 2011, 45 pp. Abstract: This paper reports on a study of several prominent systems for assessing teaching practice: the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, the Continuum of Teacher Development, the Framework for Teaching, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification assessment, the …