Policy studies for education leaders

Exercises

Chapter 10

1. Questions and activities for discussion

• 1.1 Reflect on the implementations in which you have been involved. Which ones went smoothly? Why? What errors were apparent in those that encountered serious difficulty?

• 1.2 Assume that you work in an SDE and that next year you will be involved in implementing a statewide voucher plan. Using a scenario and forward mapping develop a tentative plan for this implementation.

• 1.3 Assume that you are going to lead the implementation of portfolio assessment in your district. Identify the resources that will be needed and develop a plan for gathering them.

• 1.4 Select one of these policies: site-based management, vouchers, inclusion, or detracking. Be prepared to discuss the value conflicts that some educators might feel when implementing this policy and the types of resistance they might try.

2. Case study: The reform that went awry

• In the mid-1980s, the state of Tennessee set out to change its curriculum policy for elementary schools. Committees dominated by college professors, SDE officials, and representatives of wealthy city districts developed the new policy, which was called the Basic Skills First Program (BSF).

• These committees devised a comprehensive system for monitoring student progress in the basic skills. The mathematics and reading components alone included seven manuals, 112 tests, 18- individual student charts, and 15 pages of class record sheets for each grade. Teachers’ record-keeping work was supposed to be facilitated by computers. However, the state provided only one computer per school, and it arrived five months after implementation had begun.

• The SDE did offer computer training, however: a two-hour session for one representative from each school. This person was supposed to go back and teach the others how to enter the data in the special software developed for BSF.

• The state’s teachers, who enjoyed making jokes about the program’s acronym, did not enjoy the prospect of doing the many extra hours of paperwork that full compliance would require.

• In fact, because many of them had neither planning periods nor duty-free lunch periods, they deeply resented the state’s new demands on their time. Eventually, most decided not even to do the BSF record keeping. They had divided the number of teachers in the state by the number of monitors for the program and figured out that at most they would be monitored once every three years. Moreover, they had detected a distinctly cool attitude toward BSF among their principals and superintendents, too.

• In Nashville, SED officials and politicians knew that the BSF implementation was not going as it should but blamed the traditionalism of Tennessee teachers. They did not think to blame themselves.

• Note. Based on Fowler (1985)

Questions

• 1. Identify the errors that the Tennessee SDE made during the adoption stage of this policy.

• 2. How could the SDE have modified its approach to increase the chances of a successful implementation of BSE?

• 3. Using the premise that successful implementation requires creating and sustaining the will and the capacity of the implementers, analyzes the weaknesses of this implementation effort.

• 4. Describe the forms of resistance Tennessee educators used and explain the role school administrators played in this resistance.

News story for analysis: Pasco ponders teaching issue: Paraprofessionals face new federal stan

dards• Land o’Lakes, FL- A federal mandate to improve the qualifications of teacher assistants who work with low-income children concerns Pasco County School officials. They say the intent is good, but the implementation could prove difficult and costly.

• Under the No Children Left Behind Act of 2001, new paraprofessionals hired at Title I schools must hold at least an associate degree, or take a test to demonstrate they meet a “rigorous standard of quality” for assisting in teaching reading, writing, and mathematics. Paraprofessionals already employed in Title I schools must meet the new standards within four years. Paraprofessionals assist teachers by tutoring students or by helping with other classroom duties.

• Seventeen of Pasco’s 56 schools are Title I schools. Just 44 of the paraprofessionals they employ meet the new requirements, while about 220 don’t, said Kathleen Vito, the district’s Title I supervisor. Schools are given the Title I designation, which qualifies them for extra money from the federal government, when they have a high number of students from low-income families.

• The federal government mandated the new paraprofessional requirements to make sure the nation’s poorest children aren’t receiving much of their instruction from unqualified adults, school officials told Pasco County School Board members during a workshop last week. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that intent,” said Susan Rine, the district’s administrative assistant for elementary schools. “If you’re going to teach someone to read, you need to know how to read.”

• But officials say the district’s administrative assistant for elementary schools. “If you’re going to teach someone to read, you need to know how to read.” But officials say the district may need to revisit the $6.50-an-hour starting salary for paraprofessionals if it wants to attract people with the education level now required. School districts are also waiting to get clarification on what kind of test would qualify as rigorous enough to allow paraprofessionals to bypass the two-year requirement, Assistant Superintendent Sandy Ramos said.

• The act didn’t change the qualifications for paraprofessionals at schools that don’t receive Title I money. But Assistant Superintendent Sandy Ramos and the Title I supervisor said they would recommend that the school board implement the more stringent qualifications at all schools so that requirements are uniform throughout the country.

• Ramos said the district could grandfather in paraprofessionals already working at non-Title I schools, but make the higher qualifications a requirement for any new people hired. But board member Marge Whaley expressed skepticism about whether the district could find enough job candidates who meet those qualifications.

Questions:

• 1. What policy values are implicit in the portion of the No Child Left Behind Act discussed here?

• 2. To what extent does the Pasco County School District have the will and the capacity to implement this new policy?

• 3. Discuss resource differences among districts and how these might affect implantation.

• 4.What do you think will happen if the school district is unable to find enough qualified job candidates for positions as teachers’ assistants?