Masking Attendance: How Education Policy Distracts from the Wicked Problem(s) of Chronic Absenteeism

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Childs ◽  
Richard Lofton
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
Chronic Absenteeism ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Comprehensive Education ◽  
Opportunity Gaps

Traditionally, education policy focuses on reforms that address class size, teaching and learning within classrooms, school choice, and changes in leadership as ways to improve students’ educational outcomes. Although well intentioned, education policy can distract from the multi-layered causes that impact achievement and opportunity gaps, and how students’ life circumstances can affect their school attendance. Students who miss school frequently are less likely to be impacted by even the most robust and comprehensive education reforms. This paper discusses how the root causes of chronic absenteeism are complex and that policy distractions can stifle solutions to solve school attendance issues. As a wicked problem, chronic absenteeism, requires a conceptual framework that helps to organize policy responses within all levels of the educational system, as well as expansive to include other social sectors within public policy.

Tennessee Education Savings Account: Tipping the Scales From Equity to Choice

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 98-110
Author(s):  
Erin Curtin
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
School Choice ◽  
State Level ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
Comprehensive Education ◽  
Policy Window ◽  
Federal Poverty Line ◽  
Scholarship Program ◽  
Shelby County ◽  
K 12

This article provides an analysis of Tennessee’s newly signed Education Savings Account policy, a school choice initiative. The policy provides vouchers, in the form of a debit card, to students in grades K-12 who are at or below 200% of the federal poverty line and are zoned to attend a Nashville, Shelby County, or Achievement School District school. Using the Policy Window Framework the author uncovers that the policy was created in a federal and state-level political convergence, which attempted to place equity at the forefront of the issue. However, using Levin's Comprehensive Education Privatization Framework, we can see that neoliberal ideals of choice and efficiency conquer equity in the finalized policy. The author predicts the outcomes of this new policy using this framework in tandem with 3 case studies: Louisiana Scholarship Program, DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, and Tennessee’s Individualized Education Accounts.

scholarly journals Education Policy

2015 ◽  
Vol 231 ◽  
pp. R36-R43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Allen
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Teacher Recruitment ◽  
Traditional Curriculum ◽  
Coalition Partner ◽  
Low Income Families ◽  
Teacher Workforce ◽  
Education Markets

This article summarises the 2010–15 Coalition government's education policy, contrasting their attempts to liberalise education markets with the desire to impose a highly traditional curriculum. The government's quite radical reforms have not been easy to implement, taking place against severe budgetary constraints and a minority Coalition partner with ambitions to improve the educational outcomes of children from low income families. It could be argued that the reforms have been successfully implemented, and there is little prospect of wholesale reversal by any future government. However, their combative approach to reform leaves a demotivated teacher workforce, a possible impending teacher recruitment crisis as the economy recovers, and a tangled web of accountability structures that will need to be resolved.

Do Slum Upgrading Programs Impact School Attendance?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wladimir Zanoni ◽  
Paloma Acevedo ◽  
Diego Guerrero
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Regression Discontinuity ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Fuzzy Regression ◽  
School Absences ◽  
Slum Upgrading

This paper analyzes how slum upgrading programs impact elementary school childrens attendance in Uruguay. We take advantage of the eligibility rule that deems slums eligible for a SUP program if they have 40 or more dwelling units. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity estimator, we find that students exposed to SUPs are 17 percent less likely to be at the 90th percentile of the yearly count of school absences. That effect appears to be driven by how SUPs impact girls. These interventions have effects that last for more than five years after their implementation. We discuss some critical urban and education policy implications of our findings.

The Legacy of Thatcherism For Education Policies: Markets, Managerialism and Malice (towards Teachers)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dorey
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Education ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Parental Choice ◽  
Managerial Control ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Comprehensive Education ◽  
Post War

The Thatcherite approach to secondary education, which has broadly been adhered to by subsequent governments, was characterized not so much by the traditional 3 ‘Rs’, as by 3 ‘Ms’—marketization, managerialism and malice towards many of those working in education. These three themes and associated policies were predicated on a critique which was scornful of post-war secondary education in Britain, particularly the shift to comprehensive education and its professed egalitarianism, coupled with the apparent hegemony of the education ‘establishment’ in shaping education policy. This chapter examines how the Thatcher governments, and their successors, sought to instil market principles and practices into secondary education, with the associated discourse of competition and (parental) choice. Accompanying this process of marketization was the imposition of greater managerial control over teachers, as symbolized by a regime of audit and inspection, coupled with constant populist denigration of the alleged faults and failings of the teaching profession.

ICT in Education Development in Africa

2011 ◽  
pp. 283-305
Author(s):  
Chijioke J. Evoh
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Ict In Education ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Education Development ◽  
Sub Saharan

This study presents the rationale for policy and institutional frameworks in the development of ICT in secondary education in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). As the adoption of modern ICTs slowly gain momentum, various stakeholders in education have recognized the importance of leveraging these technological tools for the improvement of teaching and learning. To a large extent, the application of modern ICTs in education remains uncoordinated in many countries. This study identifies the institutional framework as the dominant approach to ICT in education policy process in the region. This involves the participation of broad-based interest groups in the policy process. Using South Africa as a case study, the study presents elements of ICT in education policy as well as policy lessons that would enable African countries use ICTs for productive educational outcomes.

Enacting Care-Ful Engagement in the (Post)Pandemic Care-Less University

2021 ◽  
pp. 169-190
Author(s):  
Deanna Grant-Smith ◽  
Ryan Payne
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Care Ethics ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Emotion Work ◽  
Strong Link ◽  
Strongly Connected ◽  
Learner Needs

There is a strong link between student engagement and successful educational outcomes which is driven by the actions of and interactions with educators. In the context of pandemic pedagogies, many educators have taken on additional responsibility for the wellbeing and engagement of their students. The performance of this emotion work is strongly connected to an educator's professional and philosophical stance about the role of caring in teaching and learning. Building on the principles of care ethics with autoethnographic reflection of emergency remote teaching, this chapter presents a model of student engagement which reflects the additional needs and demands of care-based education on both educators and students. This model outlines for the enactment of deliberate, sustainable, and care-ful engagement based on an assessment of learner needs as well as educator investment and contributes insights for shaping (post pandemic) pedagogical practices.

Is Teacher Sorting a Global Phenomenon? Cross-National Evidence on the Nature and Correlates of Teacher Quality Opportunity Gaps

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 556-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Luschei ◽  
Dong Wook Jeong
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
School Teacher ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Qualified Teachers ◽  
Teacher Sorting ◽  
Opportunity Gaps ◽  
Teacher Distribution

Although substantial evidence from the United States suggests that more qualified teachers are disproportionately concentrated in the schools and classrooms of academically and socioeconomically advantaged children, it is not clear whether the problem of teacher sorting is global in scope. This study uses data from the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey to examine whether and how school- and classroom-level teacher distribution patterns vary across 32 education systems with diverse national contexts and education policies. We find that cross- and within-school teacher sorting is common in most countries but within-school sorting is more pronounced in higher income countries. We also identify several national policy variables that are significantly related to both cross-school and cross-classroom sorting of teachers.

Household food insecurity and educational outcomes in school-going adolescents in Ghana

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Rainier Masa ◽  
Gina Chowa
Keyword(s):  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
School Attendance ◽  
School Lunch ◽  
Moderating Effect ◽  
Household Food Insecurity ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
Household Food

Abstract Objectives: We examined the association of household food insecurity with educational outcomes and explored the moderating effect of gender and school lunch programme. Design: The study used a cross-sectional design. Data were collected in 2014 using interviewer-administered questionnaires and school administrative records. We measured household food insecurity using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale. Educational outcomes referred to knowledge, attitudes and skills that students are expected to obtain while attending school. We obtained sixteen different measures of educational outcomes, ranging from academic grades to beliefs and attitudes towards school and education. Data were analysed using multilevel modelling with covariates at the student and school levels. We conducted moderation tests by adding a two-way interaction between food insecurity and gender, and between food insecurity and school lunch programme. Setting: The study was conducted in 100 schools located in fifty-four districts within Ghana’s eight administrative regions in 2014. Participants: Participants included 2201 school-going adolescents aged 15–19 years. Results: More than 60 % of adolescents were from food-insecure households. Household food insecurity was negatively associated with Math grade and school attendance. Food insecurity was also inversely associated with socio-emotional outcomes, including academic self-efficacy, commitment to school and academic aspirations and expectations. We did not find a moderating effect of gender and school lunch programme. Conclusions: Food insecurity is negatively associated with wide-ranging educational outcomes related to both learning and socio-emotional abilities. Our study supports prior evidence suggesting the importance of food access on both cognitive and non-cognitive educational outcomes.

How education policy is made meaningful – a narrative exploration of how teachers show autonomy in the development of teaching and learning

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 1111-1124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Barman ◽  
Staffan Josephsson ◽  
Charlotte Silén ◽  
Klara Bolander-Laksov
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Teaching And Learning
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