Understanding District Support for Leader Development and Success in the Accountability Era: A Review of the Literature Using Social-Cognitive Theories of Motivation

2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-307
Author(s):  
Timothy G. Ford ◽  
Alyson L. Lavigne ◽  
Ashlyn M. Fiegener ◽  
Shouqing Si
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Level ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Cognitive Theories ◽  
Accountability Era ◽  
Learning Development ◽  
Social Cognitive Theories ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act

As an intermediary between U.S. state and federal policy and the school, the school district, many scholars maintain, remains a key player in meeting the needs of school-level leadership. Moreover, the job of the principal is difficult and has become increasingly complex as a result of increased pressure, accountability, and oversight under the No Child Left Behind Act (now the Every Student Succeeds Act) in the United States. These two propositions raise important questions about what we know (and do not yet know) about how to support school leaders’ learning and development in their quest to effectively lead a school. In this review, we use extant social-cognitive theories of motivation to organize the research on district effectiveness in pursuit of the following question: How does the district as a key player in school/instructional improvement facilitate conditions under which school principals’ learning, development, and success are enhanced? In pursuing this question, we hoped to strengthen two particular weaknesses in this strand of scholarship: (1) the concern that research in this particular area is relatively atheoretical and (2) concerns about the applicability of this research to practice.

School Accountability

2018 ◽  
pp. 520-550
Author(s):  
Morgan Polikoff ◽  
Shira Korn
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Accountability ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Accountability Systems ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Accountability Policy ◽  
Improve Student Achievement ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act

This chapter summarizes the history and effects of standards-based school accountability in the United States and offers suggestions for accountability policy moving forward. It analyzes standards-based accountability in both the No Child Left Behind Act and the Every Student Succeeds Act, and discusses the effects of accountability systems. The authors argue that school accountability systems can improve student achievement, but that unintended consequences are possible. How accountability systems are designed—the metrics and measures used and the consequences for performance—has both symbolic and practical implications for the efficacy of the system and the individuals affected. Synthesizing what is known about the design of school accountability systems, the authors propose policy choices that can improve the validity, reliability, transparency, and fairness of these systems.

Recovery in the Clubhouse Environment: Applying Ecological and Social Cognitive Theories

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Pernice-Duca ◽  
Barry Markman ◽  
Heather Chateauvert
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Cognitive Theories ◽  
Social Cognitive Theories

Examining Racial Discrimination’s Association With Depressive Symptoms Through Metadehumanization Among African Americans: Does Racial Identity Matter?

2020 ◽  
pp. 009579842098366
Author(s):  
Yara Mekawi ◽  
Natalie N. Watson-Singleton
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Racial Identity ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Social Cognitive Theories

Though considerable empirical work has documented the ways in which African Americans are dehumanized by other racial groups, there is no research examining how perceiving dehumanization (i.e., metadehumanization) is associated with the mental health of African Americans. In this study, we examined the indirect effect of racial discrimination on depressive symptoms through metadehumanization and explored whether this indirect effect was contingent on racial identity (i.e., centrality, private regard). African American students completed measures in a university lab located in the Midwestern region of the United States ( N = 326; Mage = 19.7, 72.4% women). We found that the degree to which racial discrimination was indirectly associated with depressive symptoms through metadehumanization was contingent on racial identity dimensions. Specifically, the indirect effect of racial discrimination on depressive symptoms through metadehumanization was only significant for individuals who were relatively higher on centrality and private regard. This research suggests that the role of metadehumanization is stronger among African Americans who strongly identify with and have positive views of their racial group. We discuss these results in the context of social cognitive theories.

Situativity: a family of social cognitive theories for understanding clinical reasoning and diagnostic error

Diagnosis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerusalem Merkebu ◽  
Michael Battistone ◽  
Kevin McMains ◽  
Kathrine McOwen ◽  
Catherine Witkop ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Reasoning ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Diagnostic Error ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
Clinical Encounters ◽  
Cognitive Theories ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Social Cognitive Theories ◽  
Physician Patient

AbstractThe diagnostic error crisis suggests a shift in how we view clinical reasoning and may be vital for transforming how we view clinical encounters. Building upon the literature, we propose clinical reasoning and error are context-specific and proceed to advance a family of theories that represent a model outlining the complex interplay of physician, patient, and environmental factors driving clinical reasoning and error. These contemporary social cognitive theories (i.e. embedded cognition, ecological psychology, situated cognition, and distributed cognition) can emphasize the dynamic interactions occurring amongst participants in particular settings. The situational determinants that contribute to diagnostic error are also explored.

scholarly journals A Comprehensive Analysis of High School Genetics Standards: Are States Keeping Pace with Modern Genetics?

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.J. Dougherty ◽  
C. Pleasants ◽  
L. Solow ◽  
A. Wong ◽  
H. Zhang
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Human Genetics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Genetic Literacy ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Genetic Complexity ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Instruction And Learning ◽  
American Society

Science education in the United States will increasingly be driven by testing and accountability requirements, such as those mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, which rely heavily on learning outcomes, or “standards,” that are currently developed on a state-by-state basis. Those standards, in turn, drive curriculum and instruction. Given the importance of standards to teaching and learning, we investigated the quality of life sciences/biology standards with respect to genetics for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, using core concepts developed by the American Society of Human Genetics as normative benchmarks. Our results indicate that the states’ genetics standards, in general, are poor, with more than 85% of the states receiving overall scores of Inadequate. In particular, the standards in virtually every state have failed to keep pace with changes in the discipline as it has become genomic in scope, omitting concepts related to genetic complexity, the importance of environment to phenotypic variation, differential gene expression, and the differences between inherited and somatic genetic disease. Clearer, more comprehensive genetics standards are likely to benefit genetics instruction and learning, help prepare future genetics researchers, and contribute to the genetic literacy of the U.S. citizenry.

Curriculum as Colonizer: (Asian) American Education in the Current U.S. Context

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (12) ◽  
pp. 3102-3138
Author(s):  
A. Lin Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy ◽  
Model Minority ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Education ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Relevant Pedagogy

Background/Context The United States is currently undergoing a period of unprecedented immigration, with the majority of new arrivals coming from Asia and Latin America, not Europe. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (APIs) represent the fastest growing racial group in the United States, and schools are again being asked to socialize newcomer students, many of whom are APIs. Yet, even as the United States becomes more racially diverse, the national mindset regarding immigrants and immigration ranges from ambivalent to increasingly (and currently) hostile, and is often contradictory. “American” typically is imagined as “White,” and perceptions of APIs and people of color as “other” remain cemented in our collective psyche. It is this sociohistorical-political context that frames the education and socialization of Asian American citizens, immigrants, and their children. Objective/Focus As APIs are absorbed into the fabric of society, how will they define themselves? How will they be defined? This article begins by deconstructing the social category Asian and Pacific Islander in order to reveal the immense diversity contained under this label. The discussion illuminates both the horizontal diversity of APIs—differences between ethnic groups, and vertical diversity—differences within ethnic groups, to underscore the insufficiency of the API label. Against the diverse backdrop that APIs truly (re)present, (Asian) American education framed by three curricular contexts in the United States—the major reforms of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, culturally relevant pedagogy, and the “model minority” mythology—is theorized using postcolonial theory as an analytic lens. The article concludes with thoughts on how APIs can resist domination and what might be sites of resistance in schools or society. Research Design This is an analytic essay that examines both historical and contemporary educational and policy contexts. Conclusions/Recommendations Curriculum, defined not simply as subject matter content and instructional procedures, but as a tool of acculturation and a depository of (U.S.) national and cultural values, has the power to emancipate or colonize. Each of the three curricular contexts in the United States—the major reforms of the No Child Left Behind Act, culturally relevant pedagogy, and the “model minority” mythology—exemplify the role Curriculum plays in defining, silencing, and/or marginalizing APIs. Imagined sites of resistance against Curriculum as colonizer include this very page, where one voice deliberately pushes back against the obfuscation of fixed realities layered onto people of Asian descent in the United States, the reexamination and revision(ing) of teacher preparation curricula, and the larger policy arena.

The Every Student Succeeds Act and Multicultural Education: A Critical Race Theory Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 120 (13) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Floyd D. Beachum
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Every Student Succeeds Act

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is now the educational law of the land. It replaced and revised what was known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). ESSA represents a movement from more federal oversight to more state and local control. Although this transitional time period is one of great potential and excitement, educators and policy makers might also want to remain cautious. This next educational era of ESSA is still plagued by the problems of the past era. Teachers and administrators are still struggling to turn around low-performing schools in many U.S. urban areas; many urban educational issues, like high-dropout rates, gang influence, and low student engagement, are still inextricably linked to the socioeconomic problems that exist in local communities. This analysis first seeks to explain the purpose of ESSA. It then outlines the current plight of many students of color in the United States. Next, critical race theory is used to contextualize and categorize persistent problems that face the implementation of ESSA for these students of color. Finally, the author proposes ways to address the stated problems for school leaders and policy makers.

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