The bookends for this third issue of our fifth volume year are two quantitative studies followed by two qualitative inquiries. Each approach demonstrates that research questions necessitate different approaches and methods of investigation. All four studies provide important information upon which theories can be continually developed, refined, and enhanced. I thank all our contributors for their efforts on behalf of the middle grades research community.
Our lead article is a study by Dr. Bruce Frey, University of Kansas, and our own editor-in-chief, Dr. Vicki Schmitt, University of Alabama. Drs. Frey and Schmitt examined teacher assessment practices across third-grade and 12th-grade classrooms, including but not limited to the middle grades, in a Midwestern state. They found “substantial use of performance-based assessments across grade levels and subject, but traditional paper-and-pencil testing remains the predominant classroom assessment format.” In addition, they found gender differences among teachers as well as subject-specific differences across grade levels. Teachers were found somewhat frequently to construct classroom assessments of their own, but they also used items and other tests from different sources. Surprisingly, to me at any rate, the researchers were not able to confirm extensive use of formative assessments by classroom teachers. In an era marked by much use of the term formative assessment among PK-12 and higher education personnel, one would think that these “buzz words” would be mobilizing action. This descriptive study is timely, documenting current classroom assessment practices in at least one state that might be indicative of others, thus setting the stage for replication in other areas and providing a base upon which future research might proceed.
In our second article, Dr. Keith E. Howard, Chapman University, and Kenneth A. Anderson, Howard University, present findings from their study of the relationship of stereotype threat and academic tasks in middle school settings comprised of significant numbers of African American and Latino students. These researchers found positive correlations between student academic performance and “expectancy” with an interaction effect between stereotype threat and prior academic performance. This correlational study lays important groundwork for subsequent examination of the directional paths of these relationships. Once known, perhaps identified stereotype threats can be addressed in efforts to enhance student academic performance. Again, this is a timely study in our post-No Child Left Behind era and in school settings with significant populations of minority students where efforts are being made to improve academic performance for all children.
Our third installment is a qualitative study conducted by Dr. Mary F. Roe, Arizona State University, in which differentiation is examined in language arts classrooms across urban, suburban, and rural settings. Dr. Roe’s goal is to understand better how differentiation occurred and led to teacher and student understandings, challenges, views, approaches, instructional techniques, and successes. Classroom data were collected from 9 teachers’ classrooms by conducting 135 observations and interviews with both students and teachers. The researcher found that: “(1) differentiation is more than a classroom event, (2) the classroom climate contributes to differentiation options and practices, (3) differentiation entails attention to affective and cognitive variations, and (5) activities drive differentiation practices.”
Our fourth article is titled “Middle Grades Teachers’ Characterizations of Integrated Mathematics and Science Instruction,” written by Helen Meyer, Kevin Stinson, Shelly Sheats Harkness, University Cincinnati, and James Stallworth, Hughes STEM High School. This team studied how teachers of middle grades students viewed the concept of integrated mathematics and science instructional approaches en route to discussing ways these teachers incorporate same into their teaching. Central to their inquiry is an exploration into how “these contexts reflect various educational reforms, such as ‘the middle school model,’ standards-based curriculum and standardized testing.” Open-ended survey questions were constructed and personal interviews were conducted to collect data upon which the research team bases their findings. These qualitative data indicate that “teachers draw upon a teaming model of integration when they are in their teaching contexts, which significantly differs from the models of mathematics and science integration found in the research literature.”
