Summary:
This source provides a very deep look into a
relatively narrow area of the No Child Left Behind debate. The Author, Jessica
Howell, examines the need for remediation classes in college, that is, special college
classes designed to get people up to grade level, in California colleges and
the possible role of NCLB in perpetuating that problem. By examining data from
across the state, she found that the need for college remediation correlates
with two factors: the student’s race and the degree level of the student’s lower
grade teachers. Students who identified as Black or Latino were more likely to
need remediation due to the correlation in California between race and
socioeconomic disadvantage; students who had teachers with Master’s Degrees or
higher in their subject area were less likely to need it.
Quality:
Quality:
This appears to be a very high-quality source. There is a
tremendous amount of data here, and Ms. Howell appears to have spent a
tremendous amount of time analyzing it; furthermore, the ways in which certain
data were compared to other data were explained thoroughly, gives critical readers
plenty of insight in case they were questioning her methodology. For example,
when explaining a chart in her study, Howell provides a detailed explanation of
the reasons that the graph appears the way it does, “The dependent variable in
each regression is the proportion of students from each high school that need
remedial math (English) upon entering a CSU campus. Year fixed effects are
included in both regressions. ***, **, * indicate statistical significance at
the 1%, 5%, and 10% level, respectively” (Harlow 314). Such detailed
explanation of her data gives the reader confidence that Howell has thought
carefully about her discoveries and the way she presents them.
Issues:
Issues:
The study has some limitations in its set of
observable data and its geographic scope. The study only looks at numerical
data, for example, so some non-quantifiable elements can’t be observed. Ms.
Howell tell us. “[This study] can only tell us so much [about whether having
teachers with master’s degrees will automatically make better classrooms], it
is important to recognize that the analysis is not able to control for
unobservable teacher attributes that may be important determinants of both
master’s degree acquisition and skill in the classroom” (313). Additionally,
the study only focuses on California, so we don’t know for sure if that data
will apply nationally or on the global stage.
Key Words
and Phrases:
No Child Left Behind
College Remediation
Race
Socioeconomic Effects
K-12 Education
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