Teachers' Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Beliefs Regarding the Use of African American English

Purpose In order to provide appropriate and effective assessment and instructional activities, teachers are encouraged to develop their cultural competency. Although speech-language pathologists (SLPs) receive training on the linguistic features of nonmainstream dialects of English, such as African American English (AAE), less is known about teachers' training, beliefs, and pedagogical knowledge surrounding this topic. Method Using stratified random sampling by county population, we invited educators within selected Ohio school districts to complete an online survey ( n = 17,548). The survey probed teachers' pre- and postservice training, beliefs, and knowledge of linguistic features and terminology relating to AAE. A total of 571 teachers completed at least 50% of the survey items (3.66% response rate). Results Few teachers report receiving training on AAE and demonstrated a limited grasp of linguistic terms commonly found in AAE literature; however, many teachers reported feeling confident in their abilities to identify features of AAE in written language tasks. In terms of school culture, teachers reported that they believed AAE to be more appropriate outside (rather than inside) the classroom, and only one third of teachers received resources to enhance their knowledge of the cultural and linguistic features of AAE. Conclusions Results suggest that teachers may benefit from increased access to training and materials to further develop their cultural competence. Given SLPs' familiarity with cultural and linguistic variability, SLPs may work to support teachers' cultural competence and encourage culturally appropriate assessment and intervention practices. Additional research is needed to determine how teachers' skills in these areas predict effectiveness/teaching ability and which factors are most important in the provision of culturally relevant instruction.

Defining “Comparable”: An Analysis of Reduction in Force Provisions in Ohio School Districts

Guided by Honig and Hatch's (2004) conceptualization of bridging and buffering, we undertook an analysis of reduction in force (RIF) provisions from 546 Ohio teacher collective bargaining agreements. We asked the following question: Are the most disadvantaged school districts providing greater protections to tenured teachers when making RIF decisions? Logistic regression analysis revealed a negative relationship ( p < 0.05) between the percentage of students within the district living in poverty and bridging to state efforts to reform the use of seniority alone in RIF decisions.

Students’ Mathematics Academic Performance: An Interaction of Inputs from the Students, Schools, and Voters

This study proposes and tests a model affecting students’ mathematical academic performance in public schools. We postulate that students’ mathematical academic performance depends on the interaction of key factors associated with students, the schools, and the voters. The model incorporates variables such as the attendance rate, social and economic background of parents of the students, marital status of parents, expenditure per pupil that voters are willing to invest, proportion of school expenditure from local sources, and quality of teachers. Academic performance of students is measured by the percentage of the total number of students passing the mathematics part of the proficiency test. The three simultaneous-equations model is estimated by using data for 576 Ohio school districts. Our analysis suggests that an increased expenditure on education would improve the mathematics skills of the students. However, money alone is not sufficient. Our study implies that, along with the increased investment in education, a number of other socioeconomic variables need attention. For example, an increase in the attendance rate of students can bring a substantial improvement in the academic performance of students. An improvement in attendance rate requires reduction in poverty and an increase in the percentage of two-parent families.

The Effects of Fiscal Competition on Local Property and Income Tax Reliance

This paper examines why local governments rely heavily on the property tax, even when they have access to another revenue source, using data from Ohio’s recent experience of permitting local school districts to use both property taxes and residence-based income taxes. Nechyba’s (1997) theory that local governments’ reliance on the property tax instead of the income tax is due to fiscal competition for relatively high-income residents is tested using data from 610 Ohio school districts. The Ohio residence-based school district income tax is used by only 119 school districts, at low tax rates, to supplement the traditional property tax. The use of a local income tax declines sharply as fiscal competition increases, as measured by the number of nearby school districts. School districts with greater opportunities to export the burden of the property tax to non-residential property owners are less likely to adopt a local income tax.

Students' Academic Performance: An Interaction of Inputs from the Students, Schools, and Voters

This study proposes and tests a model affecting students' academic performance. We postulate that students' academic performance depends on the interaction of key factors associated with students, the schools, and the voters. The model incorporates variables such as the attendance rate, social and economic background of parents of the students, marital status of parents, expenditure per pupil that voters are willing to invest, proportion of school expenditure from local sources, and quality of teachers. Academic performance of students is measured by the percentage of total number of students passing all four parts of the proficiency test. The simultaneous-equations model is estimated by using data for 576 Ohio school districts. Our analysis suggests that an increased expenditure on education would improve the academic performance of the students. However, money alone is not sufficient. Our study implies that, along with the increased investment in education, a number of other socioeconomic variables need to be paid attention to. For example, an increase in the attendance rate of students can bring a substantial improvement in the academic performance of students. An improvement in attendance rate requires reduction in poverty and an increase in the percentage of families having two parents.