Confronting the Known Unknown: How the Concept of Opportunity to Learn Can Advance Tier 1 Instruction

Kurz, Alexander

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-71126-3_9

Cited by 1 publication

(5 citation statements)

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“…We operationalized mathematics instructional OTL using teachers' responses to items in the HSLS:09 teacher survey regarding their emphasis on various course objectives, such as algorithms and procedures, increasing student interest in math, and mathematical reasoning. Given the framing of the objectives in the survey instrument, these objectives aligned to two aspects, content and quality, of the construct of OTL as enacted curriculum proposed by Kurz (2011Kurz ( , 2018 and Walkowiak and colleagues (2017). These items were measured using a Likert-type scale (1 = no emphasis or minimal emphasis, 2 = moderate emphasis, 3 = heavy emphasis) and were used as the observed indicators for identifying latent classes of math OTL (see Appendix A for descriptive statistics all LCA observed indicators).…”

Section: Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Murray and colleagues (2018) discussed cognitive demand on students as an important tenet of OTL that researchers must also contend with when considering students’ access to content. However, OTL focuses on variables that are dimensions of enacted curriculum, including time spent in a subject, content covered, and the quality of that coverage (Covay Minor, 2015; Kurz, 2011, 2018). Kurz (2011, 2018) proposed a three-dimensional OTL framework as enacted curriculum comprising time spent on content; the content itself and how the content presented overlaps with assessed or desired objectives; and quality, which includes useful heuristics (problem-solving strategies) and cognitive demands in instruction (depth of knowledge and level of cognitive processes required).…”

Section: Conceptual Framework Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, OTL focuses on variables that are dimensions of enacted curriculum, including time spent in a subject, content covered, and the quality of that coverage (Covay Minor, 2015; Kurz, 2011, 2018). Kurz (2011, 2018) proposed a three-dimensional OTL framework as enacted curriculum comprising time spent on content; the content itself and how the content presented overlaps with assessed or desired objectives; and quality, which includes useful heuristics (problem-solving strategies) and cognitive demands in instruction (depth of knowledge and level of cognitive processes required). While many of these frameworks have an emphasis at the teacher and classroom level, other work links instructional leadership and OTL (Urick et al, 2019).…”

Section: Conceptual Framework Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[; it] both reflects education policy and is amenable to education policy reform” (p. 400). For this reason, OTL can be viewed as a “generative concept” that can act as a policy instrument for identifying a diverse range of educational policy goals, empirically testing the effect of strategies for reaching identified goals, and informing measures of progress toward reaching identified goals (Kurz, 2018; McDonnell, 1995). However, OTL can also function as a policy critique by demonstrating the failures of accountability policy to achieve its stated outcomes and identifying mechanisms that may explain those failures.…”

Section: Conceptual Framework Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tracking creates inequity by denying access to advanced math coursework those students enrolled in remedial math courses at the beginning of their secondary education. However, teachers can also create differential opportunities to learn within their classes through the choices they make in both content coverage and pedagogical approaches (Chmielewski, 2014; Kurz, 2018; Schmidt et al, 2011). Students’ instructional experiences vary between different tracks of courses, and within lower tracks, students are often exposed to a range of educational ills.…”

Section: Review Of the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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Beyond Tracking: The Relationship of Opportunity to Learn and Diminished Math Outcomes for U.S. High School Students

Wronowski

Thornton

Razavi-Maleki

et al. 2022

Teachers College Record

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Background/Context: In this study, we draw on evolving definitions of opportunity to learn (OTL) to conceptualize mathematics OTL has having two main components: structural OTL, defined by gatekeeping access to specific mathematics courses through the process of tracking, and instructional OTL, defined by the learning experiences of students in their mathematics courses. We also conceptualize both of these aspects of OTL as occurring in the current educational milieu, where sociopolitical factors reward or punish specific school strategies. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: This study seeks to examine, using an OTL framework, the relationship between high school math teachers’ instructional practices, students’ course tracks in mathematics, students’ perceptions of mathematics, and students’ distal measures of academic attainment, including completion of advanced math coursework and completion of a high school diploma. Research Design: Using latent class analysis, this secondary data analysis analyzed the 2009 High School Longitudinal Study data from the National Center for Educational Statistics to examine mathematics instructional OTL based on math teachers’ objectives of emphasis and its relationship to structural OTL in the form of course tracking. Findings/Results: We identified “Enriched” and “Rote Knowledge and Skills” latent classes of math OTL. Teachers providing Enriched OTL emphasize the widest variety of objectives, including cognitively demanding problem-solving and logic objectives and practical applications of mathematics, while teachers providing Rote Knowledge OTL emphasize basic computation, algorithms, and computation skills. Black students, Hispanic students, and students living in poverty were more likely to be in math OTL classes focused primarily on basic concepts, algorithms, and computation, with little to no emphasis in more applied and cognitively demanding math course objectives, and they were less likely to be enrolled in advanced ninth-grade math courses. Students in Rote Knowledge OTL courses with little to no emphasis in applied and cognitively demanding math course objectives had lower mathematics identity and self-efficacy, and math achievement. Conclusions/Recommendations: This study adds to the literature suggesting that students in the United States experience an opportunity gap rather than an achievement gap, and that opportunity gaps are both structural and instructional. This study also adds to the literature suggesting student sorting systems are inherently unequal and must be addressed through policy, leadership, and cultural shifts in both schools and districts.

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Section: Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%