Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Readings #11 Power and control ((Gunnersson (Across countries, there are…

- - - - • “There are numerous reasons why local control may yield poor outcomes. Bardhan (2002, 2005) argues that autonomous decisions are particularly prone to fail in developing countries. First, populations may not be mobile, so households may not move because of poor quality public services. Second, local ofﬁcials may be subjected to undue inﬂuence by prominent local families seeking to divert public resources toward their private needs.”(26)
      - • “We should comment on Cuba, a country included in the LLECE database but which we exclude from our analysis. Cuba’s children have test scores that averaged about one standard deviation above the mean across the other countries. Carnoy (2007) attributes the Cuban success to a nondemocratic, centrally dictated, and strictly enforced system that removes the ability of local school ofﬁcials or parents to make choices that could retard a child’s academic success”(33)
      - • “Children in the selected classrooms were given tests of mathematics and language.Thesameexamwasadministeredineachcountry,withtheexception that the language exam was in Portuguese in Brazil and Spanish elsewhere. The mathematics exam had a maximum score of 32, and the language exam had a top score of 19. We use the raw exam scores as our measure of child schooling outcomes.”(33)
        
        Overall, they found that this didn't really make the system better or worse. It opened up new issues involving parents, funding, etc..
- - - - As a result, the positions of both the Democratic and Republican parties moved toward the center on education over the course of the decade as support grew for tying expanded federal investment in education to state accountability for school improvement efforts.
        By the end of the decade, both the liberal and conservative approaches to federal education policy had been discredited and there was growing consensus around a grand bargain of greater federal investment in education in exchange for increased accountability.
      - Congressional Republicans, however, continued to believe such measures would inevitably lead to federal control of education. Democrats feared that they would lead to the imposition of tough school accountability measures and a deemphasis on the importance of increasing federal funding.
      - Meanwhile, the activism of Presidents Johnson and Carter and Democrats in Congress had by the 1970s successfully established the Democratic Party as the party of education. Democrats embraced the nation's public school teachers and the public education establishment as core constituent groups of their evolving coalition and pushed for increased federal spending and mandates in education.
    - - People are worried about the ability of states to comply with the laws mandated as well as to be able to meet the academic proficiency in the time required.
    - - In the wake of A Nation at Risk, education gained greater national visibility, and an alternative reform vision, which called for national leadership and reforms centered on academic standards and assessments, began to develop.
    - - NCLB also requires states to have a "highly qualified teacher" in every classroom where core academic subjects are taught by 2005-6.
      - Richard Elmore calls NCLB "the single largest expansion of federal power over the nation's education system in history," and Andy Rotherham, a former Clinton education advisor, says that it "represents the high water mark of federal intrusion in education.
      - • Other interpretations of NCLB have acknowledged that the law was made possible by longer-term developments but claimed that it largely represents a continuation of earlier state and federal reform efforts. Some scholars have argued that NCLB does not represent a major shift in federal education policy but rather is simply an extension of the 1994 reforms contained in Goals 2000 and the Improving ( McGuinn 2005, pg. 44)
      - NCLB's significance is in mandating that all states adopt a standards and testing regime, that they conform to federal timetables for achieving student proficiency, and that they suffer real consequence for failing to do so.
    - - For most of the nations history the federal government had little role in elementary and secondary education and confined itself to supporting state efforts to create public schools and to collecting statistical information about them.
      - • 1960s. The Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 engaged the federal government directly in schools for the first time and the busing mandated by federal courts engendered vitriolic opposition in many parts of the country. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 was a central component of the Great Society and committed the national government to the defense of civil rights and the promotion of equal opportunity in education ( McGuinn 2005, pg. 48)
    - - • The past three years have been eventful ones for federalism and education as states have worked to implement No Child Left Behind and strong opposition to the law has been voiced from many different quarters. Some of this opposition can be attributed to what Dale Krane calls the "normal 'implementation pains' associated with all new. ( McGuinn 2005, pg. 57)
      - • A report on state implementation of NCLB released by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) in March 2005 concluded that although student test scores are rising and achievement gaps narrowing in a majority of states and districts, large numbers of schools remain in "in need of improvement" status and state and district officials have a number of concerns about the law going forward.
    - - Crucially, the original bipartisan congressional coalition that passed NCLB remains largely intact. Bush administration officials and congressio nal Republican education leaders-including committee chairs Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Rep.John Boehner (R-OH)-have remained steadfastly supportive of the law and opposed to making any legislative changes before it comes up for reauthorization in 2007. ( McGuinn 2005,pg.63)
- - - - Results
        
        • “Two of the most often mentioned catalysts for change were students’ choices of content and grading. Both are important in affecting students’ motivation and ownership of their physical education experiences. In many school reforms, the program and policy changes may be imposed in a top-down manner by administrators, but the MUs in this set seem to highlight that these changes were teacher generated.” (Cameron, 2016, p.44 )
        
        “These teachers saw program change as a shared responsibility that included students’ assessment results as well as their views and took it upon themselves to adjust physical education content after analyzing results of students’ surveys.” (Cameron, et al, 2016, p. 45)
        
        “Another important consideration for change related to instruction was raised by a teacher who described assessments as important tools to evaluate where students were and to adjust instruction accordingly.” (Cameron, et al, 2016, p. 42)
      - Discussion
        
        “Data from this study indicated that changes within all three Fullan phases were apparent: Program development was initiated, implemented, and institutionalized over 5 years beginning with the actions of two teachers who initially took the lead and continuing with all department teachers using assessments and a changed grading policy. This discussion is focused on highlighting how the results are and are not aligned with Fullan’s (2007) factors for successful school change.” (Cameron, et al, 2016, p. 50)
      - Students’ View of Change in Physical Education/Students’ Perspectives on Physical Education Experiences
        
        “Although students are obviously affected by changes, they appear to go along with these changes without much questioning or, perhaps, understanding. Their views on change are important, but they may have less to do with how change happens or continues. There were surprisingly no observations of students resisting change (whining about it), and in fact, many cases of students’ approval of new content were documented in field notes.” (Cameron, et al, 2016, p. 47) … “Students interviewed in this study appeared to see physical education as an enjoyable part of their school day. They also appreciated that it was different from other school subjects and liked being able to interact more with their friends and peers. For the most part, students reported that physical education was not a subject on their parents’ radar—none had been asked about physical education by parents or ever had a grading issue that required parental intervention.” (Cameron, et al, 2016, p. 49)
      - “Teachers also believed that demonstrating that students are learning and that aligning content assessments and expectations with other high school subjects were important aspects of changing physical education.” (Cameron,2016, pg 45)
      - “In the current realm of educational reform, a model for successful change would tremendously benefit physical education teachers and their students” (Cameron,2016, pg 55)
      - “Two of the most often mentioned catalysts for change were students’ choices of content and grading.” (Cameron,2016, pg 44)
      - Teachers’ Perception of Change
        
        “There was also a perceived need for teachers to break out of the same old teaching habits. Even teachers who were highly experienced and had been working in the school for over a decade were able to change. It is apparently possible to have “veteran” teachers learn new tricks when there is a “perfect storm” of needing to change, wanting to change, having tools to change, and feeling supported to change:” (Cameron, et al, 2016, p. 46)
        
        • “If you focus on it and show the benefits of physical education that is when change will happen. I think it is a group effort and everyone is on the same front and we have assessments and will students complain about it? Of course they will. “Why am I writing in physical education?” You write in math, you write in history; I am not asking you to write every day; however, I need to see if you’re learning something. . . . I think change happens when a department as a whole is willing to make these changes and stick to them. [That’s when] I think change will happen in your classes.” (Cameron, 2016, p.46 )
      - Methods
        
        Data Analysis
        
        Two researchers independently analyzed all the data
        
        Data sources
        
        Data were collected in 2008. Researchers interacted with a group of students and teachers 4 times a week from 2008-2012
        
        Setting and participants
        
        This study took place in a modernly affluent suburban community
        
        “Classes were 40 min in length with 30 min of activity time per class on alternating school days. Observed physical education content during the study included volleyball, fitness, softball, Ultimate Frisbee, personal wellness, and team handball.” (Cameron, et al, 2016, p. 38)
      - “A grading policy handout and grade book entries both supported a change in grading based on an assessment rationale. After gaining administration approval, the grading change was presented to students and parents” (Cameron,2016, pg 44)
    - - Teacher-Powered Schools align accountability with authority in K-12
        
        “Teachers report having little influence on policy and even in their own workplaces frequently feel their experience and knowledge is not recognized or honored. A spring 2014 report from the Gallup organization found that, of 12 professions, teachers are least likely to agree with the statement, “My opinion seems to matter at work.”” (Education Evolving, 2014, p. 4)
        
        “The study noted that seasoned teachers often report that they can no longer teach a rich and varied curriculum because of fears their students’ test scores will suffer – their own fears, that their principals’ fears, and their district and state leaders’ fears.” (p. 4).
        “In short, teachers are being held accountable for the outcomes of decisions they do not make.
      - Teacher-Powered Schools
        
        “The types of teacher-powered arrangements vary widely. Teachers can secure authority to design and run whole schools, a department within a school, or a program that spans several schools.” (p. 3).
        
        autonomy secured by teachers also varies
        
        “Some teacher teams are charged with all decision-making responsibilities in ten identified areas of autonomy, including budgeting, selection and dismissal, evaluation, creating curricula, and developing school policy.” (p. 3).
        
        “Second only to increased parental involvement, teachers say that giving teachers more “voice” in school-based decisions is the single change that would most improve student learning.” (p. 6).
        
        Teachers who design and run teacher-powered schools:” (p. 10).
        
        “Accept ownership and accountability, and embrace a shared purpose.” (p. 10).
        
        1 more item...
        
        “Innovate” (p. 10).
        
        1 more item...
        
        “Collaborate to effectively lead” (p. 10).
        
        70 teacher powered schools in the United States today
        
        Located in 14 states
        
        suburban, urban, and rural settings
        
        “For example, bringing responsibility and accountability together in teacher-powered schools gives teachers the opportunity to address in innovative ways the quality of entrants to the profession, tenure policies, evaluation, achievement, and assessment.” (Education Evolving,2014, pg 3)
        
        “They recognize that concepts of “teacher leadership” and “teacher professionalism” need not be stuck in the confines of the boss-worker framework, as is too often the case.” (p. 5).
        
        “In this way and others, these schools serve as a community-driven solution to improving student achievement while also elevating the possibilities of the teaching profession for teachers.” (p. 7).
        
        “Teacher-powered schools are about fulfilling one of the nation’s greatest responsibilities: educating a citizenry that can meet the needs of the community and rise to the challenges of the 21st century global economy.” (p. 3).
        
        “The results are clear: schools thrive when teachers have the authority to lead collaboratively as partners and make the decisions that matter most for student success.” (Education Evolving,2014, pg 10)
      - Understanding teacher leadership through Teacher-Powered Schools
        
        “Over the past decade a growing body of research has confirmed that the quality of teaching is the single most powerful influencer of student learning. As a result, policymakers have turned their attention to increasing the effectiveness of teachers. The general consensus is our nation needs teachers who are ready, willing, and able to take on new, professional roles to transform teaching, schools, and schooling.” (Education Evolving, 2014, p. 3)