EDTHP 1154/30/03

•Final week: –Instruction and Instructional Leadership:

•The role of the teacher•How do we improve the Curriculum and Instructional Practices?

–Are there good examples anywhere? Examples past and present–Federal Role in Education (vs. local role) and Strategies that they use. –Connecting the foundations of education together

Teaching

• Teacher Unions: AFT and NEA

• Teacher Professionalization

• Loyalty Oaths

• Bad Pay and Criticisms of the 1950s

• Teacher-Proof Curriculum of the 1960s– Example of Distar

• Effective Schools, 1970s

Teaching 1950s-Present

• Free Schools and Alternative Schools, 1960s & 1970s– Examples: Summerhill, Parkway

• Teaching after A Nation at Risk• Systemic Reform and Professional

Development• Charter Schools (the good and the bad)• Standards-based Reform• NCLB

1950s—Critiques of Progressive Education & Reactions

• Albert Lynd, Quackery in the Public Schools, 1950

• Arthur Bestor, Educational Wastelands, 1953• Rudolf F. Flesch, Why Johnny Can’t Read—

and what you can do about it, 1955• Harsh critiques of Life Adjustment Education

—video clip• Life Magazine, 1958

Federal Strategies• Role of the Federal Government—legislation and

litigation• Federal involvement in education very limited up

through WWII– Northwest Ordinance– Morrill Act 1862– Smith Hughes Act– School Lunch Program– Role sponsoring and disseminating research and

info about other programmatic issues, collecting statistics, (some building funds)

– NDEA 1958– ESEA 1965– Bilingual Education Act 1968– P.L. 94-142– Goals 2000– No Child Left behind

NDEA 1958

• TITLE I. GENERAL PROVISIONS• TITLE II. LOANS TO STUDENTS IN

INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION• TITLE III. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR

STRENGTHENING SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION

• TITLE IV. NATIONAL DEFENSE FELLOWSHIPS

NDEA continued• TITLE V. GUIDANCE, COUNSELING, AND

TESTING: IDENTIFICATION AND ENCOURAGEMENT OF ABLE STUDENTS

• TITLE VI. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT• TITLE VII. RESEARCH AND

EXPERIMENTATION IN MORE EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF TELEVISION, RADIO, MOTION PICTURES, AND RELATED MEDIA FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES

• TITLE VIII. AREA VOCATIONAL PROGRAMS• TITLE IX. SCIENCE INFORMATION SERVICE• TITLE X. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

1960s--Commentaries on and Critiques of Schooling

• John W. Gardner, Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too? 1961

• Max Rafferty, Suffer, Little Children, 1962• Jonathan Kozol, Death at an Early Age, 1967• Peter Schrag, Village School Downtown, 1967• David Rogers, 110 Livingston Street, 1968• John Holt, The Underachieving School, 1969• Charles Silberman, Crisis in the Classroom,

1970

1960s (con’t.)

• Poverty– James Bryant Conant, Slums and Suburbs,

1961– Michael Harrington, The Other America,

1963– President Johnson’s “War on Poverty”– 1964 Economic Opportunity Act– Head Start

ESEA 1965

• Title I Provided financial assistance for schools with high populations of poor students

• Title II Provided library books and other materials

• Title III Set up supplementary education centers to furnish educational programs and services unavailable in local school. Also supported experimental programs and models for regular schools.

ESEA 1965 continued

• Title IV Support for regional centers of research

• Title V Support for state departments of education

• Title VI Proposed grants for research

1970s

• James Coleman, Equality of Educational Opportunity, 1966

• Do Schools Make a Difference?

• Effective Schools (Purkey & Smith)

• Federal Funding, Implementation, and Mutual Adaption

1970s Strategies

• 1974, Lau v. Nichols and Bilingual Education

• 1975, Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142)

1980s

• A Nation At Risk, 1983

• School Choice

• “Cultural Literacy”

• Restructuring and Site-Based Management

• School-by-School Networks

1990-2003

• Smith & O’Day, Systemic School Reform• America 2000-Goals 2000• Standards-Based Reform• Charter Schools• Vouchers• Home Schooling• Fiscal Equalization Reforms• No Child Left Behind

No Child Left Behind

• Strengths– Brings national attention to education– Encourages states to be responsible for

school improvement– Asks all students to perform at “high” levels– Focus on accountability

No Child Left Behind

• Weaknesses– Many punishments but few rewards– State standards and accountability systems

are dramatically different– Little support – Little focus on professional development– Dogmatic about its instructional methods

What seems to work

• Teachers who are passionate about their subjects and their work

• Good teacher professional development• Focus on instruction and student learning• Understanding of content and importance of

content• Instructional leadership• Systems that work with and support teachers

and good teaching• Don’t focus on the story of the maverick and

lone heroic teacher

Examples

• Denver and Winnetka

• Effective Schools

• District 2, NYC

District 2

• Why District 2 has been seen as an illustration of good school improvement

• It’s about the kids!

• What the district has done

• Development of exceptional leaders, and now the spread of those leaders

• How has it done that?

• Strategies

District 2 Strategies

• Intervisitation

• Monthly Principal and Faculty Support Groups—Focus on Instruction

• Monthly Principal Conferences and Grade Conferences

• Collegial Support Groups

• School Based Consultants and Professional Developers

District 2 Strategies (cont.)

• District Staff Developers• District After School Seminars and

Institutes• Reading Recovery Training• Teacher Mentor Program• Buddy Teachers and Principals• District Office Visits• Professional Development Lab

Common Elements of High Quality Districts, Schools, and Classrooms

• Instructional Leadership throughout the school and system.

• Rethinking managerial leadership• Rethinking role of teacher and learner (and teacher

as learner)• Teachers who are actively a part of the improvement

process, who get deeply involved in the intellectually challenges of the work, and who constantly strive to improve their practice (not stories from students like Chicago or San Diego)

• Be realistic about nature of the system, multiple pressures on schools and children, but also understand the that your job is your students

Common Elements of High Quality Districts, Schools, and Classrooms (cont.)

• Teachers who know how to work with other teachers, give critical feedback

• Blending content-driven reform, teacher involvement in curriculum revision, and student engagement

• Inter-visitation and knocking down the walls of isolation.

• Having the courage to open up your own classroom and your work to visitors, critiques.

• Having the strength and will to improve practice based on feedback

We did not cover the following slides. I include them for your benefit. They highlight

the categories listed below:

1. What else is happening in education today & what still needs to happen?

2. What you’ve learned in the this course about the traditional disciplines that make up the foundations of education—and how these foundations should help you make connections between educational issues in the future

3. What lies ahead

What else is happening?

• Putting NCLB in perspective

• San Diego

• Institute for Learning (and 12 districts)

• Annenberg-Funded Reforms – Chicago– BASRC

What else is happening? (cont.)

• AFT involvement in Curric. Development

• Positive statewide efforts that might lead to good things (whether NCLB helps or not)

• Council of Great City Schools

• Council of Chief State School Officers

What else needs to happen?

• Reculturing Schools• Defending intellectual values• Improving teacher quality• Improve teacher salaries• Improve funding for most schools, especially schools in

the poorest communities• View schools as essential to the nation• View children as essential • Improve supports for instructional leadership, teacher

professional development, teacher engagement in the curriculum, student engagement in the curriculum

• Safe-guarding schools and children from: consumerism, drugs, anti-intellectual views, one another

Reflect on what you’ve learned this semester

HistoryPhilosophySociologyPhilosophyLegal FoundationsEconomic FoundationsPolicyLiberal Arts/Analytic/Critical Thinking SkillsWriting

Legal Foundations

• Plessy to Brown

• Lau v. Nichols

• First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments (you didn’t realize when you studied the constitution in high school that it would follow you into college and then back into the school)

Why Legality Matters

• So you won’t get arrested

• You may well be called upon to make split decisions—know your stuff.

• Union contracts, photocopying, etc.—so many large and small issues of the day

• Constitution and Civil Rights (Jean Anyon)

Economics of Education

• Mix of Local, State, Federal Taxes

• Inequity of Funding—at times massive (e.g. Jonathan Kozol)

Why Economics of Education Matters

• Your salary is dependent upon this• Your out of pocket expenses too—things

that most organizations take for granted• Textbook politics• The quality of education for children is

dependent on this• Problems of Funding Special Education• Keep pushing for change, keep gathering

information. All politics is local.

HistoryHistory

• Puritans, the Bible, and Salvation• New Republic• Common School• Progressive Era• Desegregation• National and Federal Efforts to Improve Access

and Equity• A Nation at Risk and the Recent History of

Reform, 1983• Standards-based Reform• No Child Left Behind—Unprecedented intrusion

of the federal government

Why History Matters

• Nature of Evolving Practices• Understanding that other educators have

struggled in the past• Always new “crises” in education• What works and what hasn’t• Understand the reasons and social and

economic behind the cyclical nature of school crises (and reforms)

• Never a golden age. That’s for you to create.

Philosophy

• Essentialist

• Perennialist

• Pragmatist

• Existentialist

• Critical Theory

• Dewey

Why Philosophy Matters

• Helps us get in touch with/tap into your own core values and beliefs about education, more broadly, and curricular content and classroom practice, in particular

• Aids in understanding the many different goals and purposes of education

• Helps explain why parents, educators, politicians, political parties, and business leaders often disagree about educational policies

• Interrogate the values Americans hold and don’t hold about children

• Peel away the skin of assumptions that surround much of what we do.

Sociology

• Role of class, race, gender, and ethnicity

• Role of social class

• Role of race

• Unintended outcomes

• Immigrant education

• Segregation and Desegregation and Resegregation

Why Sociology Matters

• Understanding and analyzing large changes in society, – Orfield and Reardon

• Analyzing the impact of race and class– Diel-Amen, Pong

• Connecting larger demographic, economic, vocational shifts to the impact on education

• Understanding organizations• As a teacher, recognize that many, many things

impact states, districts, schools, classrooms, and students—things that you can’t control

Policy and Politics:Assessment & Instructional Practices and Policies

• Understanding how ideas become policies

• Understanding what happens when pubic officials implement policies

• Standards based reform (as an example)– Content Standards– Performance/Assessment Standards– Opportunity to Learn Standards– Standardized Tests

Why Do Schools Matter?

• What’s your answer?

What or How to Use in the Future

• Interrogate ideas, policies, practices• Look behind the surface for evidence• Don’t take things for granted• Don’t believe politicians or those who know little

about classroom practice• Be actively engaged intellectually• Be a voice for your students• Work and network with colleagues• Develop a tough skin—BUT remain open and

trusting• Be realistic about new “solutions” and silver bullets

The Future (con’t.)

• It takes you to educate a child• Pay attention to the details—it’s often the minutiae

that matter• Focus on intellect, but you will be called on to do

and be many things (that’s what those who criticize education and teachers don’t usually get)

• Accountability and efficiency and basic skills are not everything—not even close

• Find a mentor. Look for the best teachers and learn from them.

• Visit other classrooms• Keep reading, reading, reading …

Final Words

• The one most important question

• Forcing politicians to follow other kinds of standards