- penn state university
David Baker
Penn State University, Education Policy Studies, Faculty Member
Enrollment in institutions of higher education around the world is growing. Some scholars have suggested that one reason for this expansion is that the role of higher education has shifted over the last 50 years from an elite to a mass... more
Enrollment in institutions of higher education around the world is growing. Some scholars have suggested that one reason for this expansion is that the role of higher education has shifted over the last 50 years from an elite to a mass institution. This book discusses the worldwide transformation of higher education from multiple perspectives.
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A content analysis of over 28,000 pages from 141 elementary school mathematics textbooks published between 1900 and 2000 shows that widely used mathematics textbooks have changed substantially. Textbooks from the early part of the century... more
A content analysis of over 28,000 pages from 141 elementary school mathematics textbooks published between 1900 and 2000 shows that widely used mathematics textbooks have changed substantially. Textbooks from the early part of the century were typically narrow in content but presented substantial amounts of advanced arithmetic and also asked students simultaneously to engage with material in effortful and conceptual ways. A period of change marked the middle of the century, when less advanced topics were presented and problem-solving tasks were simplified. From the mid-1960s onward, however, the trend reversed, and 3 major changes occurred in primary school mathematics curricula over the next 4 decades: (a) expansion of topics and the number of pages devoted to each topic; (b) a shift of traditionally more advanced topics from higher to lower grades; and, (c) within arithmetic, an increase in the number, abstraction, and cognitive demand of problem-solving strategies. Implications o...
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An analysis from 2002 to 2014, aligning media reporting of the effectiveness of the fully online K–12 cyber charter school model with data on enrollment flows to cyber charter schools and expenditure and demographic indicators across all... more
An analysis from 2002 to 2014, aligning media reporting of the effectiveness of the fully online K–12 cyber charter school model with data on enrollment flows to cyber charter schools and expenditure and demographic indicators across all 500 residential public school districts in Pennsylvania, finds a three-part geospatial-social process. Initial high-tech cachet surrounding the option stimulated statewide spread in enrollments, but over time growth in student flows became more pronounced among disadvantaged, lower tax-base public school districts. As mass media coverage shifted to a research-substantiated narrative of the model’s academic ineffectiveness, cyber charter enrollments declined first in districts with higher parent educational attainment and then intensified. With the large movement of students, the mean amount of public funds transferred from residential districts in 2014 was about $800,000 (standard deviation about $3,100,000). With dubious academic benefits, districts with the lowest tax base lost significant revenue to cyber charter providers.
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This research investigated the cognitive demands of reading curricula from 1910 to 2000. We considered both the nature of the text used and the comprehension tasks asked of students in determining the cognitive demands of the curricula.... more
This research investigated the cognitive demands of reading curricula from 1910 to 2000. We considered both the nature of the text used and the comprehension tasks asked of students in determining the cognitive demands of the curricula. Contrary to the common assumption of a trend of simplification of the texts and comprehension tasks in third- and sixth-grade curricula, the results indicate that curricular complexity declined early in the century and leveled off over the middle decades but has notably increased since the 1970s, particularly for the third-grade curricula.
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Prior research shows that stratification of future adult opportunities influences stratification in the academic performance of students. This perspective is used to generate hypotheses regarding the sources of cross-national gender... more
Prior research shows that stratification of future adult opportunities influences stratification in the academic performance of students. This perspective is used to generate hypotheses regarding the sources of cross-national gender differences in mathematics performance. These hypotheses are tested using multivariate and multilevel analyses of adult opportunities for women and cross-national differences in mathematics performance by gender. This future opportunity perspective is expanded to take into account the historical incorporation of women in modern nation-states through institutionalized mass schooling emphasizing egalitarian ideals. Results indicate a cross-national shift in the direction of less gender inequality in overall school mathematics performance. However, gender inequality is more evident in the advanced 12th grade mathematics. The results of a more specialized analysis of the advanced 12th grade mathematics are compared with the earlier findings regarding mathematics performance.
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As comparativists of education are well aware, over the second half of the 20th century there was a dramatic increase in the pace of educational expansion around the world. This revolution has made the world a schooled place both in terms... more
As comparativists of education are well aware, over the second half of the 20th century there was a dramatic increase in the pace of educational expansion around the world. This revolution has made the world a schooled place both in terms of enrollment rates and increased average total years in schooling. What has been particularly noticeable is the degree to which governments in all types of nations have come to see that education plays a central role in the future development of the nation's human capital, and in turn governments have become the main providers of schooling. This alone is a significant shift from anything ever seen before the 20th century. Further this remarkable expansion of education has fostered notable homogeneity of goals, aims, and basic organizational forms of elementary and secondary schooling and, more recently, higher education.
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Research Interests: Sociology, Anthropology, Education, Development Studies, Mental Health, and 15 moreSocial Determinants of Health, Public Health, Medicine, Social Science & Medicine, Humans, Chronic Disease, Life Expectancy, Risk factors, Health Status, Public health systems and services research, Neoplasms, Educational Status, Risk Factors, Meta Analysis and Systematic Review, and Socioeconomic Factors
... Reconsidering the Origins of ... Similarly, Rury (1991) and Greene and Jacobs (1992) reported that the relationship among urbanization, industrial-ization, and school enrollments forms a com-plicated pattern across age groups and... more
... Reconsidering the Origins of ... Similarly, Rury (1991) and Greene and Jacobs (1992) reported that the relationship among urbanization, industrial-ization, and school enrollments forms a com-plicated pattern across age groups and regions of the country. ...
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Page 1. MOTHERS' STRATEGIES FOR CHILDREN'S SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT: MANAGING THE TRANSITION TO HIGH SCHOOL David P. Baker The Catholic University of America David L. Stevenson Oberlin College and Stanford University Sociology of... more
Page 1. MOTHERS' STRATEGIES FOR CHILDREN'S SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT: MANAGING THE TRANSITION TO HIGH SCHOOL David P. Baker The Catholic University of America David L. Stevenson Oberlin College and Stanford University Sociology of Education 1986, Vol. ...
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nationally representative data sets like SIMS, comparative analysis, and debate such as the one that has been joined here, are indispensable first steps for developing preliminary maps of issues that have significant policy implications... more
nationally representative data sets like SIMS, comparative analysis, and debate such as the one that has been joined here, are indispensable first steps for developing preliminary maps of issues that have significant policy implications as we think about priorities and strategies for the improvement of schooling. I am grateful to David Baker for requiring me to address these issues again. In particular, his response has required me both to refine my sense of the problems involved in undertaking an analysis of these issues using the SIMS data and to extend my understanding of what I attempted to argue in "Comparing American and Japanese Achievement." Together, our different points of view define, although they do not resolve, some some key policy questions circling around middle school math. The intersection of our perspectives, as I hope is clear, maps some important questions for further research.
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EJ546779 - Good News, Bad News, and International Comparisons: Comment on Bracey.
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This volume assesses the current status of disadvantaged children in American society and offers a set of policy recommendations for addressing their educational needs. The authors begin by describing the various definitions of... more
This volume assesses the current status of disadvantaged children in American society and offers a set of policy recommendations for addressing their educational needs. The authors begin by describing the various definitions of "disadvantaged" used by researchers and policy makers, linking these definitions to the strategies and policies they imply in efforts to address the problems of the disadvantaged. Part 1 also includes a sociodemographic profile of the disadvantaged and a projection of changes in that population over the next 35 years. Part 2 is a comprehensive review and evaluation of compensatory education efforts (preschool, elementary, and secondary) over the past 25 years. In addition to this, this section provides an interpretive framework for analysis that groups programmes in to useful categories and summarizes the features of successful programmes. In Part 3 the authors describe the types of data (at levels ranging from classroom to national) needed by policy makers and practitioners to ameliorate the conditions of the disadvantaged. They also propose a theory-based approach to restructuring schools to make them more responsive to disadvantaged students. The authors conclude by developing the policy implications of the current and future conditions of disadvantaged studies in US schools. Their reflective analysis aims to provide a solid basis for all future discussion and debate of issues surrounding the education of disadvantaged children. This volume should be an important resource for policy makers, researchers and administrators in education. It may also be of value for courses in the sociology of education, educational policy, urban education and educational administration.
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tinuity of Dutch foreign policy thinking, opposed to too much of Brussels centralism. The reviewer, as a quantitative world systems scholar, would have liked to have seen more statistical tables, graphs, and other materials about... more
tinuity of Dutch foreign policy thinking, opposed to too much of Brussels centralism. The reviewer, as a quantitative world systems scholar, would have liked to have seen more statistical tables, graphs, and other materials about globalization and its impact on Dutch performance over the last 30 years. A good idea, perhaps, for a future publication might be the detailed analysis of the performance of the Netherlands on the European Union’s core 14 so-called “structural indicators” of the so-called Lisbon process. Compared to the EU-27 average, how good was the performance of the “Polder” model? Are the Dutch reforms a path for other old, saturated European welfare systems? Or, is the British, Danish, or Swedish model the “best practice” country towards which European social policy makers should re-orient their own models? Solid quantitative data analysis would have also been possible with the Dutch and the EU27 data contained in the World Values Survey and the European Social Survey, freely available on the Internet. But these suggestions for further research do not disqualify this important book on an important European country, often overlooked in political science literature.
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tinuity of Dutch foreign policy thinking, opposed to too much of Brussels centralism. The reviewer, as a quantitative world systems scholar, would have liked to have seen more statistical tables, graphs, and other materials about... more
tinuity of Dutch foreign policy thinking, opposed to too much of Brussels centralism. The reviewer, as a quantitative world systems scholar, would have liked to have seen more statistical tables, graphs, and other materials about globalization and its impact on Dutch performance over the last 30 years. A good idea, perhaps, for a future publication might be the detailed analysis of the performance of the Netherlands on the European Union’s core 14 so-called “structural indicators” of the so-called Lisbon process. Compared to the EU-27 average, how good was the performance of the “Polder” model? Are the Dutch reforms a path for other old, saturated European welfare systems? Or, is the British, Danish, or Swedish model the “best practice” country towards which European social policy makers should re-orient their own models? Solid quantitative data analysis would have also been possible with the Dutch and the EU27 data contained in the World Values Survey and the European Social Survey, freely available on the Internet. But these suggestions for further research do not disqualify this important book on an important European country, often overlooked in political science literature.
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ABSTRACT The rise in globalisation studies in comparative education places neo-institutional theory at the centre of many debates among comparative education researchers. However, uncertainty about how to interpret neo-institutional... more
ABSTRACT The rise in globalisation studies in comparative education places neo-institutional theory at the centre of many debates among comparative education researchers. However, uncertainty about how to interpret neo-institutional theory still persists among educational comparativists. With this uncertainty comes misinterpretation of its principles, variations and explanatory power. Two problematic misconceptions prevail: (1) the belief that the ‘world culture’ strand is the only version of neo-institutional theory applicable to comparative education research; and (2) the assumption that the global homogenisation of society, culture and schooling is a goal of researchers applying neo-institutional theory to comparative education phenomena. This article addresses these misconceptions, elucidating neo-institutional theory and its applicability to comparative education research. Our findings suggest that neo-institutional frameworks for comparative education research are useful, but that complementary approaches and methods are also necessary.
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Abstract A content analysis of over 28,000 pages from 141 elementary school mathematics texts published between 1900 and 2000 shows that widely used mathematics textbooks have changed substantially. Results indicate that texts from the... more
Abstract A content analysis of over 28,000 pages from 141 elementary school mathematics texts published between 1900 and 2000 shows that widely used mathematics textbooks have changed substantially. Results indicate that texts from the early part of the century ...
Shadow education is a set of educational activities that occur out-side formal schooling and are designed to enhance the student's formal school career. Analyses of data from a longitudinal study of... more
Shadow education is a set of educational activities that occur out-side formal schooling and are designed to enhance the student's formal school career. Analyses of data from a longitudinal study of high school seniors in Japan indicate that students from higher ...
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David Baker untersucht in einer eher soziologischen Perspektive den Zusammenhang zwischen Privatisierung, Hochschulexpansion und der Entstehung von Super Research Universities in den USA. Diese Tendenzen, so sein Argument, setzen sich... more
David Baker untersucht in einer eher soziologischen Perspektive den Zusammenhang zwischen Privatisierung, Hochschulexpansion und der Entstehung von Super Research Universities in den USA. Diese Tendenzen, so sein Argument, setzen sich wechselseitig voraus und verstärken sich gegenseitig: Die Zunahme des Hochschulbesuchs zeigt an, dass das Hochschulwesen eine immer größere Wertschätzung erfährt, die ihrerseits privates Engagement im Hochschulbereich und die beispiellose Entwicklung der amerikanischen Forschungsuniversitäten begünstigt. Er entwickelt vor diesem Hintergrund Szenarien der zukünftigen Hochschulentwicklung. (HoF/Text übernommen)
The education revolution is profoundly transforming postindustrial culture, creating new types of knowledge and experts; new definitions of personal success and failure, intelligence, and human talent; a new workplace and conception of... more
The education revolution is profoundly transforming postindustrial culture, creating new types of knowledge and experts; new definitions of personal success and failure, intelligence, and human talent; a new workplace and conception of jobs; and new styles of parenting, political mobilization, and reach of mass religion. At the same time, educational achievement, degree attainment, and credentials have come to dominate social
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In this Forum we suggest that a growing intensity of contradictory public and private interests in education is a persistent force in education development stemming from the increasing centrality o...
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Previous studies found that developed and developing countries present opposite education-overweight gradients but have not considered the dynamics at different levels of national development. An inverted U-shaped curve is hypothesized to... more
Previous studies found that developed and developing countries present opposite education-overweight gradients but have not considered the dynamics at different levels of national development. An inverted U-shaped curve is hypothesized to best describe the education-overweight association. It is also hypothesized that as the nutrition transition unfolds within nations the shape of education-overweight curve changes. Multilevel logistic regression was used to estimate the moderating effect of the nutrition transition at the population level on the education-overweight gradient. At the individual level, a non-linear estimate of the education association was used to assess the optimal functional form of the association across the nutrition transition. Twenty-two administrations of the Demographic and Health Survey, collected at different time points across the nutrition transition in nine Latin American/Caribbean countries. Mothers of reproductive age (15-49 years) in each administrati...
Research Interests: Public Health Nutrition, Developing Countries, Adolescent, Latin America, Overweight, and 15 moreHumans, Female, Patient Compliance, Mothers, Body Mass Index, Risk factors, Prevalence, Developed Countries, Adult, Educational Status, Cambridge University, Risk Factors, Nutrition Policy, Cohort Studies, and Medical and Health Sciences
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Conventional wisdom has it that policymakers rationally approach an ongoing or potential problem, carefully consider the reasons for the problem, and then sensibly debate the information and research on this problem. The final stage of... more
Conventional wisdom has it that policymakers rationally approach an ongoing or potential problem, carefully consider the reasons for the problem, and then sensibly debate the information and research on this problem. The final stage of this ideal vision of the educational policymaking process is that the policymakers decide how to solve specific problems based on their consideration of all of the relevant data and possible options (Vickers, 1994). This is rarely, if ever, the case.
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Page 1. STATE CONTROL OF THE CURRICULUM AND CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION David Lee Stevenson David P. Baker US Department of Education The Catholic University of America This article examines the relationship ...
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How young children develop an academic self-image is not well understood, although parents and other influences exerted in the home must be important. This paper offers an approach to permit detection of differences in the processes by... more
How young children develop an academic self-image is not well understood, although parents and other influences exerted in the home must be important. This paper offers an approach to permit detection of differences in the processes by which mothers influence the development of young boys' and girls' academic selfimages. It employs parallel estimates of a structural equation model for the two sexes. We estimate effects (1) of mothers' appraisals of their children's general ability relative to others in the school, and (2) of mothers' specific expectations for their children's performance in reading, arithmetic and conduct, on the children's own academic expectations in those areas. By examining differences in parameters of structural equation models estimated separately for the two sexes, we can see whether there are processual differences in expectation formation for children of the two sexes. We provide an application of this approach to illustrative data from two schools.
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Underdeveloped theory about educational credentialing flies in the face of the immense practice of educational degree attainment by ever increasing proportions of each new generation, and the ensuing pervasive belief in the power of... more
Underdeveloped theory about educational credentialing flies in the face of the immense practice of educational degree attainment by ever increasing proportions of each new generation, and the ensuing pervasive belief in the power of degrees to both allocate individuals in the labor market and to serve as job requirements throughout the occupational structure. Considering educational credentialing at the center of
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Higher education (or more years of formal schooling) is widely associated with better health, but the underlying causes of this association are unclear. In this study, we tested our schooling-decision-making model, which posits that... more
Higher education (or more years of formal schooling) is widely associated with better health, but the underlying causes of this association are unclear. In this study, we tested our schooling-decision-making model, which posits that formal education fosters intellectual ability, which in turn provides individuals with enduring competencies to support better health-related behaviors. Using data from a field study on formal education in 181 adults in rural Ghana, we examined health-protective behaviors related to HIV/AIDS infection, a critical health issue in Ghana. As expected, individuals with more education practiced more protective health behaviors. Our structural equation modeling analysis showed that cognitive abilities, numeracy, and decision-making abilities increased with exposure to schooling, and that these enhanced abilities (and not HIV/AIDS knowledge) mediated the effects of education on health-protective behavior. Research and policy implications for HIV prevention effo...