EDTHP 115 43003 Final week Instruction and Instructional

EDTHP 115 4/30/03 • 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 1950 s Teacher-Proof Curriculum of the 1960 s – Example of Distar • Effective Schools, 1970 s

Teaching 1950 s-Present • Free Schools and Alternative Schools, 1960 s & 1970 s – 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

1950 s—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

1960 s--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

1960 s (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

1970 s • James Coleman, Equality of Educational Opportunity, 1966 • Do Schools Make a Difference? • Effective Schools (Purkey & Smith) • Federal Funding, Implementation, and Mutual Adaption

1970 s Strategies • 1974, Lau v. Nichols and Bilingual Education • 1975, Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94 -142)

1980 s • • 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 History Philosophy Sociology Philosophy Legal Foundations Economic Foundations Policy Liberal Arts/Analytic/Critical Thinking Skills Writing

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.

History • • • 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 …

Final Words • The one most important question • Forcing politicians to follow other kinds of standards