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Have you seen this? Hope useful! Best regards, Sarah Dr. Sarah Fletcher Editor-in-chief; International Journal for Mentoring and Coaching in Education; http://www.emeraldinsight.com/ijmce.htm --- On Tue, 1/24/12, Teachers College Record <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Preview Freely-Available This Week Articles How Do School Peers Influence Student Educational Outcomes? Theory and Evidence From Economics and Other Social Sciences by Douglas N. Harris This study describes and compares theories from multiple disciplines about how peers (classmates) influence one another. It then compares the empirical predictions of the theories with empirical evidence about peer influences on student achievement, draws tentative conclusions about which theories are most consistent with the evidence, and proposes a new hybrid theory, group-based contagion, that seems most consistent with the evidence. Does the SES of the School Matter? An Examination of Socioeconomic Status and Student Achievement Using PISA 2003 by Laura B. Perry & Andrew McConney This study examines the relationships among student socioeconomic status (SES), school SES, and academic achievement using data from the 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for Australia. The study finds that increases in the mean SES of the school are associated with increases in a student's academic achievement and that this relationship is similar for all students regardless of their individual SES. The article concludes with a discussion of policy implications and possible strategies for mitigating the influence of school socioeconomic composition on student outcomes. Commentaries Icarus and School Reform by Larry Ferlazzo Many efforts by self-styled "school reformers" are like a "fractured fairy tale" version of the Icarus Greek myth. Icarus escaped from prison through the ingenious use of wings made of feathers and wax -- a brilliant idea. However, he ignored warnings to stay away from the sun, so the wax melted and he fell into the sea. Some school reformers seize on great ideas, but then, like Icarus, get so exhilarated by them that they, too, throw all caution to the wind. The "fractured" part in this version, though, is that it's not them who end up suffering the consequences of their exuberance. No, it's us teachers and our students who end up "falling into the sea" as a result. The ideas that can get warped and destructive as they are applied in the name of school reform include videotaping teachers, using student surveys, encouraging social emotional learning (SEL), and emphasizing the importance of the parent/school connection. I describe how they, instead, can be used to more effectively help students, their families, teachers, and schools. Schools of Education Need to Help Build Educators' Capacity to Use Data by Ellen Mandinach & Edith Gummer Educators must become data literate to meet the increasing demands for the use of data-driven decision making in teaching and administrative roles. Schools of education can and must play a key role in improving the human capacity to use data. This Commentary explores the systemic nature of the issue and provides considerations about how to move the field forward. Book Reviews Education and the Crisis of Public Values: Challenging the Assault on Teachers, Students, and Public Education by Henry A. Giroux reviewed by Christopher G. Robbins Strong Community Service Learning: Philosophical Perspectives by Eric C. Sheffield reviewed by Jeffrey B. Anderson & Rachael Steward Spotlight on Technology in Education by Nancy Walser reviewed by Sedef Uzuner Smith Police in the Hallways: Discipline in an Urban High School by Kathleen Nolan & Paul Willis reviewed by Aaron Kupchik Adaptive Educational Technologies - Call for Proposals and Letters of Inquiry by Gary Natriello The editors of the Teachers College Record announce a new project on adaptive educational technologies.NSSE Yearbooks for 2012 by Gary Natriello The editors of the Teachers College Record are pleased to announce the NSSE Yearbooks for 2012. For Subscribers Relevant to Apple's Textbooks on iBooks: Education's Most Basic Tools: Access to Textbooks and Instructional Materials in California's Public Schools by Jeannie Oakes & Marisa Saunders This article addresses critical issues regarding students' access to textbooks, curriculum materials, equipment, and technology. Using California as a case, it reviews the importance of these instructional materials to education, generally, and in the context of current standards-based education policies. Organizational Resources in the Service of School-Wide Ambitious Teaching Practice by Magdalene Lampert, Timothy A. Boerst & Filippo Graziani This article examines the collective use of social, intellectual and material resources by teachers in a school as a framework for understanding how teaching toward ambitious learning goals is consistently maintained across classrooms, time, and varieties of students. Ambitious Pedagogy by Novice Teachers: Who Benefits From Tool-Supported Collaborative Inquiry into Practice and Why? by Mark Windschitl, Jessica Thompson & Melissa Braaten We tested the hypothesis that first-year teachers could take up forms of ambitious pedagogy under the following conditions: 1) that reform-based practices introduced in teacher preparation would be the focus of collaborative inquiry throughout the first year of teaching, 2) that participants use analyses of their students' work as the basis of critique and change in practice, and 3) that special tools be employed that help participants hypothesize about relationships between instruction and student performance. To unsubscribe from this newsletter, please browse to: https://www.tcrecord.org/MyAccount.asp?uid=177519&pwd=1418937