School Reform and the Future of Education

If I don’t understand one or more of the comments Prof. Turner made on my paper, I should • ignore them; they probably don’t matter. • celebrate them by making more. This way Prof. Turner pays attention to me. • ask my roommate what she thinks I should do to get a good grade on this paper. • ask Prof. Turner. He probably knows what he meant. And because he’ll be the one to give me a grade, it behooves me to take his advice. He might, just might, also know something about writing in psychology.

Schools • Current Context • History of Schooling • Curriculum: rigor or relevance • What makes a good school? • School Organization • School and Class Size • Age Grouping: School transitions • Ability grouping: Tracking • School Climate • School Violence • Post high school

Function of schools Schools as a medium for… • Education • Basic academics • General “liberal” education • (Elite) intellectual training • Vocational training • Preparation for adulthood • Family life • Citizenship • Employment and finance • Social change • Social control

The Rise of Schooling Compulsory education for adolescents is a recent advent in America In other Western countries, a similar trend took place.

Secondary Education Around the World

Secondary Education in Industrialized Countries Benefits and drawbacks to these different systems?

In Developing Countries…

International Comparison: Grade 8 Achievement Tests Countries that perform the best? Industrialized Western Countries; Japan, S. Korea Lowest ranking of all Industrialized Countries? United States Developing Countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia Lowest performance?

Secondary School in America: Changes Mid-20th C Expanding school population; curriculum expands to include family life, arts 1920 Training for work and citizenship; college prep, vocational training 19th C For the wealthy, esp. males; Broad liberal arts 1980s Back to Basics movement What social and political factors mediated these changes in the school system?

Origins of Compulsory Education in America • Industrialization • Many families could make ends meet without the labor of their adolescents • Greater need for skilled and reliable (adult) workers • Urbanization and Immigration • Rapid population growth led to overcrowding, slums, crime • Compulsory secondary education was a means of social control, to improve lives of poor and working classes

School Reform: What Should Schools Teach?

School Reform:What Should Schools Teach? • No Child Left Behind Act (2002) • Mandates that all states ensure that all students, regardless of economic circumstances, achieve academic proficiency on standardized annual tests • Schools that repeatedly fail face losing funding, being forced to close • Addresses problem of social promotion • Advancing students regardless of their academic competence or performance • Introduces problem of teaching to the test for teachers who are under pressure to get kids to pass annual exams

School Reform: Education in Inner Cities • Some have argued that low American academic achievement was concentrated among poor/minority youth in inner cities • Why has school reform failed in urban schools? • Increasing concentration of poverty in certain inner-city communities has led to a population of students with very grave academic and behavioral problems • Urban school districts are burdened by administrative bureaucracies that impede reform • Students report less sense of belonging to their schools • Erosion of job opportunities: Little incentive to remain in school or put effort into academic pursuits

Characteristics of good schools • Emphasis on intellectual activities • Challenging curriculum • High quality teachers • Self-monitoring (meta-cognitive) • Community integration • Active learning • Higher-order thinking

School Engagement Public vs. Private schooling Worry of elitism “Free-market” model of education Education vouchers Charter schools

Public Schools vs.Private Schools • To encourage better schools and competition among schools for better students, parents given more choices of where to send their children • Government-subsidized education vouchers • Used to “purchase” education at a school of one’s choosing–private or public schools • Charter schools • independent public schools that operate as they wish

Public Schools vs.Private Schools • Recent research has suggested that private schools aren’t necessarily more effective than public schools • Family background is more important influence on achievement than school quality • True even for charter schools in urban areas, hoped to be the solution to public school problems in the cities • Exception is Catholic (private) school: • Climate is different from public schools • Strong community values promote social capital, give students additional resources • Most private school students feel more safe than public school students

Good schools, good parents • Two crucial dimensions • Responsiveness • Demandingness • What do these look like in parenting? • What do these look like in school?

School Climate • Includes….the kinds of interactions teachers and students have in the classroom, expectations of standards, methods used in the classroom….

Optimum School Climate • Supportive teachers, involved with students, dedicated • Firm but fair discipline • High expectations for student performance and conduct • Higher attendance • Higher achievement scores • Lower rates of delinquency

Engagement and Achievement Engagement: Being psychologically committed to learning Research indicates that more and more, students are “physically present but psychologically absent” (Steinberg, 1996, p. 67)

American High School Students’ School Engagement

Positive Impacts on Engagement • Positive school climate • Parents’ high expectations for achievement • Parents’ involvement in their adolescent child’s education • Parenting style: High demandingness and high responsiveness

Diversity of American Education • Local and state level legislation and funding • Results in diversity in curriculum, rules and requirements and resource disparity • 1994 – “Goals 2000” est. by federal government toward national educational policy • 2001 – “No Child Left Behind Act” passed provided federal funding for national testing, teacher training standards and evaluation • Even still, only 5% of school funding is provided by the federal government 77% of Americans support national standards for academic performance (1997) 66% of Americans supported a national curriculum (1997)

Problems • Lack of funding • especially in inner city schools • Lack of focus • Ravitch (2000) • Educational goals are too expansive • Different standards for different groups • Too much process, no content

School organization Size • Size of school or size of class • Which is more important? • Less bureaucracy, more intimacy • Stronger sense of connection • Greater involvement in activities School transitions • elementarysecondary education • Major differences between them?

The Organization of Schools:School Size • Schools grew larger to offer a wider range of courses and services to students at decreased cost to taxpayers • Student performance and interest in school improve when schools are more intimate • Schools within schools

Effective Schools: Size Matters • Large schools • Offer diverse courses and extracurricular activities • Small schools • Less diversity in offerings; students more likely to participate in extracurricular activities • Scholars agree: optimum school size for adolescents is?.... Between 500 – 1000 students What size of school did you go to?

The Organization of Schools:School Size • Smaller school size encourages participation • Ideal size: Between 500 and 1,000 students • In larger schools, students tend to be observers rather than participants • Especially important for students whose grades are not very good to begin with

The Organization of Schools:Class Size • Classroom size • Research findings misinterpreted by politicians who began emphasizing importance of small classes • Does not affect scholastic achievement during adolescence, except in remedial courses • Adolescents learn as much in classes of 40 students as in classes of 20 students Insert photo from DAL

Effective Schools: Size Matters • Some research claims direct negative relation between class size and academic performance • Other scholars claim that typical variation (between 20 and 40 students) has little affect on achievement • Small Class Size preferable for students with academic difficulties, more individual attention Scholars don’t agree: How do your experiences compare?

Junior High, Middle School or Neither? Which system did you attend? What were the benefits? Drawbacks? Which do you think is best, particularly with respect to transitions and adolescence.

Age Grouping and School Transitions • Early 1900s • Two-school system • Elementary School (6 or 8 grades) • Secondary School (6 or 4 grades) • Compulsory Secondary Education • Introduction of Junior Highs • More recent years • Introduction of Middle Schools

Age Grouping and School Transitions • As children move into middle school or junior high • School grades and academic motivation drop • Scores on standardized achievements tests do not decline • Student motivation and changes in grading practices may be changing, not student knowledge • Schools can combat these changes by reducing anonymity, hiring teachers with training in adolescent development, and strengthening ties between the school and community

Transition from Elementary School In comparison to Elementary Schools, Jr. High Schools: • Place greater emphasis on teacher control and discipline. • Provide fewer opportunities for student decision-making, choice, and self-management. • Have teachers who spend more time controlling and less time teaching. • Have less personal and positive teacher-student relationships. Students perceive teachers less friendly, less supportive, and less caring.

Age Grouping and School Transitions • Classroom environment in middle school/junior high is different than elementary school • Teachers hold different beliefs about students • Teachers also hold different beliefs about their own teaching abilities • Developmental mismatch between what adolescents need and what they get from teachers • Junior high school students in more personal, less departmentalized schools do better in school than their peers in larger and more anonymous schools • No uniform effects on all students during transitions (individual differences)

Schools and Adolescent Development Low SES students • Rates of academic progress during the school year are equal to high SES students • Scores decline in the summer • Summer school may reduce widening of achievement gap between affluent and poor students

Schools and Adolescent Development • Most schools are not structured to promote psychosocial development • For most adolescents, school is the main setting for socializing

Social Organization of Schools: Tracking • Grouping kids according to abilities • Advanced, regular, remedial classes • Advantages? • Disadvantages? • Ability – or stereotype? • What is with the gender bias in math/science?? • Alternative: mainstreaming • Which do you favor?

Social Organization of Schools: Tracking • Proponents argue that ability-grouping allows teachers to design class lessons that are more finely tuned to students’ abilities • Critics argue tracking leads to problems • Students who are placed in the remedial track generally receive a poorer quality education, not just a different education • Socialize only with peers from same track • Difficult to change tracks once in place, especially for minority students

Social Organization of Schools: Tracking • Sex and gender differences • Girls score higher on math tests in elementary school, yet are less likely to be placed in high math track • Gifted students–score 130 or higher on IQ test • Learning disabled students • Actual academic performance less than expected from IQ tests, no emotional explanation for discrepancy • Assumed to have neurological problems • Mainstreaming of gifted and learning disabled students into regular classrooms • Big-Fish-Little-Pond effect for gifted students • Problematic for learning disabled students

School organization Desegregation vs. Segregation • Minority effect • De facto segregation • Becoming color-blind

The Organization of Schools: Ethnic Composition • Landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings legally ended segregation of schools (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 1954; 1955) • How does desegregation affect school achievement? Research findings mixed: • Desegregation has little impact on achievement levels of either minority or white adolescents • Minority youngster’s self-esteem is higher when they attend schools in which they are in the majority • African Americans who attend desegregated schools more likely to graduate and continue education in college

Ethnic Differences in High School Dropout Rates

Ethnic Differences: Achievement • What explains these differences? • Some differences are intertwined with issues of social class, parenting practices, friends’ influences • Systemic prejudice and discrimination

School Reform and the Future of Education