The purpose of the study was to develop a model for use by planners of migrant education. Attitudes and behaviors of planners and teachers relative to the academic expectations set for migrant students were assessed. The levels of task difficulty, information sources, and feedback mechanisms encouraged by planners and the evaluation standards applied by teachers were investigated. Descriptive analyses were made and reported for data collected from twenty-five teachers and fifty state and local planners attending the Eleventh Annual National Migrant Education Conference.While academic achievement was generally judged to be a priority, half the teachers and over one-third of the planners expressed lower expectations for migrant students than for the general student population. These findings were interpreted as substantiating a need for a model for setting higher academic expectations. Teachers and planners also favored assigning easier tasks for migrant students, a practive revealed in the review of literature as producing unhappiness and shame in the student.Diffuse use of warmth and friendlines was reported by-teachers of migrant students. An exception showed that teachers tended to use warmth and friendliness discriminately for purposes of classroom control. In findings of related research a relationship was established between diffuse warmth and friendliness and low academic achievement.Sources, highly susceptible to the effect of existing expectations and stereotypes were favored. Teachers used multiple sources of information, but relied most on ethnic background and communication from other teachers. Information about student past performance was used more than information comparing migrant students to national or local norms.The following were conclusions of the study:1. Migrant teachers and planners hold lower expectations for migrant students than for the general population, an attitude found to relate to low academic achievement.2. Teachers exhibit warmth and friendliness toward migrant students without regard to the quality of performance. Such use of diffuse warmth and friendliness has been found to be directly related to low academic achievement.3. Teachers and planners rely on past performance, ethnic background, and other teachers for information. All three sources promote a continuation of low expectations.4. By giving the highest grade or mark available to migrant students regardless of the quality or difficulty of work, teachers lead migrant students to believe their work is outstanding.5. Migrant students, assigned easy tasks, are thereby subjected to conditions which produce unhappiness as well as limited academic achievement.6. Migrant students, seldom provided evaluation information based on comparison with others, must rely on non-challenging past experiences in establishing future expectation for self.An interactive model involving teachers indirectly in raising Mexican-American student expectations was designed based on the findings of the study and related research. Components of the model included the existing national math and reading skill lists, a national norm-referenced achievement test or tests, systematic student career goal-setting by parents, systematic academic expectation objective-setting by students, and process evaluation of teacher use of feedback with students.Processes were identified for interstate, intrastate, and intra-project interactions. At each level peer commitments among implementers combined with implementation experiences would result in the use of increasing numbers of information sources. Ultimately teachers, parents, and students supported by local, state and federal planners would set challenging academic expectations for migrant students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/177536 |
| Date | 03 June 2011 |
| Creators | Lamble, Nora Yeager |
| Contributors | Patton, Don C. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vi, 108 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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