Welcome to Cardinal Scholar

Cardinal Scholar is the University Libraries Institutional Repository for archival and scholarly research produced at Ball State University.

Recent Submissions

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    Creating Systems of Sustainability: Four Focus Areas for the Future of PK-12 Open Educational Resources
    (2018-10-09) Ishmael, Kristina; Song, Ji Soo; South, Joseph; Benko, Susanna L.; Hodge, Emily M.; Mardis, Marcia A.; Morales, Rebecca; Salloum, Serena J.; Torphy, Kaitlin; New America; International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
    Over the past few years, state and school district education leaders have renewed their focus on the quality of learning materials available in our nation’s classrooms (Chiefs for Change, 2017; RAND Corp., 2016; RAND Corp., 2017). Many leaders have been dismayed to find that existing proprietary textbooks and supplementary resources often do not match their teachers’ and students’ needs (Ishmael, 2018a). Fortunately, there is a growing recognition of teachers and school leaders who are addressing this challenge head-on through open educational resources. Simply put, open educational resources, or OER, are “high quality teaching, learning, and research resources that are free for others to use and repurpose”(Hewlett Foundation, 2015). OER range from entire curricula and textbooks to smaller grain-size learning materials, including assessments, videos and images.
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    A Multilevel Exploratory Study of the Relationship Between Teachers' Perceptions of Principals' Instructional Support and Group Norms for Instruction in Elementary Schools
    (2010-12) Goddard, Yvonne L.; Neumerski, Christine M.; Goddard, Roger D.; Salloum, Serena J.; Berebitsky, Daniel
    At a time when educators and policy makers are focused on improving outcomes for all children, we believe it is essential to understand better the ways in which principals may influence instructional norms in their schools. Our literature review led us to believe that a combination of leadership approaches is important for supporting teachers' use of differentiated instruction schoolwide to meet their students' diverse needs. Therefore, we examined whether principals' instructional support predicts differences among schools in group norms for the use of differentiated instruction. Data were drawn from a stratified random sample of a Midwestern state's noncharter public elementary schools. Hierarchical linear modeling results of surveys from 616 teachers in 77 schools revealed a positive and statistically significant relationship between these two constructs. In addition to presenting these findings, we discuss their importance and the need for further research in this area.
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    (Un)Commonly Connected: A Social Network Analysis of State Standards Resources for English/Language Arts
    (2016-11-14) Hodge, Emily M.; Salloum, Serena J.; Benko, Susanna L.
    As states continue to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), state educational agencies (SEAs) are providing professional development and curricular resources to help districts and teachers understand the standards. However, little is known about the resources SEAs endorse, the states and/or organizations sponsoring these resources, and how states and organizations are connected. This study investigates the secondary English/language arts resources provided by 51 SEAs (2,023 resources sponsored by 51 SEAs and 262 intermediary organizations). Social network analysis of states and sponsoring organizations revealed a core-periphery network in which certain states and organizations were frequently named as the sponsors of resources, while other organizations were named as resource sponsors by only one state. SEAs are providing a variety of types of resources, including professional development, curriculum guidelines, articles, and instructional aids. This study offers insight into the most influential actors providing CCSS resources at the state level, as well as how SEAs are supporting instructional capacity through the resources they provide for teachers.
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    The Relationship Between Collective Efficacy and Teachers’ Social Networks in Urban Middle Schools
    (2017-11-20) Berebitsky, Dan; Salloum, Serena J.
    Collective efficacy, a group’s belief in its capabilities to reach a goal, is an important organizational property repeatedly linked with student achievement. However, little scholarship specifies the antecedents of collective efficacy. To fill this gap, this study examines a potential predictor of collective efficacy: teachers’ social networks. The authors employ social network and regression analysis to explore the relationship between network density, network centralization, and collective efficacy in 20 middle school mathematics departments in two large, urban districts across 3 years. Collective efficacy had a significant relationship with density, but not centralization, when controlling for school demographics. The findings underscore the importance of network density to school improvement reforms. Policymakers need to consider policies that support the building of a dense network, which could increase collective efficacy and, ultimately, student achievement.
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    State Educational Agencies in an Uncertain Environment: Understanding State Provided Networks of English Language Arts Curricular Resources
    (2020-08-17) Salloum, Serena J.; Hodge, Emily M.; Benko, Susanna L.
    Rapid adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Race to the Top (RTTT) competition, and backlash around these policies created widespread uncertainty among state educational agencies (SEAs). SEAs may have not had a clear direction about how to support standards implementation in a new context, and therefore, may have looked to their professional networks, their geographic neighbors or other highly regarded SEAs, or other sources for information and resources to guide their decisions about where to send teachers for information about standards. Drawing on institutional theory (Meyer & Rowan, 1977) and isomorphism specifically (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983), we posit that coercive forces (primarily due to RTTT application and CCSS status) as compared to mimetic and normative forces influenced the organizations to which SEAs turn for curriculum materials. Using Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure and a data set of over 2,000 state-provided resources for secondary English Language Arts teachers from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., we indeed found that coercive forces had a relationship with shared organizational ties, demonstrating that RTTT application and CCSS adoption influenced resource provision.

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