Portfolio Part 1

Now is the time to begin a focused discussion of education reform at the national level and that this discussion should be rooted in an appreciation of and understanding of the reform successes among the states. Washington, in other words, can learn a great deal from what has happened to education among the states and should look to the states for ideas and solutions. That would be a profound transformation in a set of policies and programs that have signaled to states that ideas – and rules – flow from Washington.

As a shortage of teachers grows toward crisis proportions, the nation’s schools are struggling against twin burdens to hire well-prepared new teachers and to keep them from leaving the profession. Many schools, particularly those in urban areas, have turned to formal programs of training and support for novice teachers as a way of easing what for many is a make-or-break first year, according to a new study. The study contends that the scope and quality of these induction programs has taken on unprecedented significance in the face of the nationwide demand for teachers.

Custom course packs give university instructors enormous freedom in course design. Unlike traditional textbooks, course packs can take any shape, and can be tailored to fit almost any subject matter, teaching method, or educational goal. These qualities, combined with their reasonable cost, make course packs very popular among university instructors. Cost aside, however, many university students see course packs in a very different light. To students, many course packs are an intimidating maze of texts that are highly confusing and difficult to navigate. If the course pack is a collection of undifferentiated articles or discrete book chapters without organizational signposts, clear reading guidelines or chapter headings, students must struggle to build the contexts necessary for comprehension.

As teachers, we tend to present material to our classes in the form of the results of our discipline’s work. We collect the data, do the reading and synthesize the material into a finished product. Students, in their assignments and exams, are generally expected to demonstrate that they have learned what we as scholars have already found out. Rarely are they provided with the opportunity to make those discoveries themselves. And yet it is potentially very rewarding to offer students the opportunity to use raw materials themselves, giving them “hands on” experience doing the work of the discipline. In specific courses, instructors do offer undergraduate students problem-based learning opportunities in which students collect, analyze and critically evaluate data and ideas, synthesize their findings and then propose answers to complex problems.

Many teachers devote the first class meeting to giving a general description of the course and its requirements and, after answering questions about the course, either begin to lecture or dismiss the class early. But there are many things you can do on the first day that will help establish rapport with the students, prepare them for the semester’s work, and generate excitement about the course subject matter. According to surveys of undergraduates, students want to know two kinds of information on the first day of class. They want to learn as much about the nature and scope of the course as possible so they can decide whether they want to remain in the course or so they can better anticipate the work requirements for the semester. They are also curious about the teacher as a person. They want to know if you will be reasonable and fair with them, if you care about them as individuals, and if you care about the course itself.

One of the major challenges in supporting the scholarship of teaching on campus or in the disciplines, is to encourage not just those individuals who are interested in pursuing such work, but to help develop the field itself. We aim to explore the ways in which the scholarship of teaching might become positioned within the more general discourse and practice in teaching and learning. The hope, of course, is that as the scholarship of teaching is developed, it will become attractive to a larger number of faculty, and that the enterprise will ultimately raise the level of reflection about teaching and learning for all academics – teachers, administrators, and students. We can’t forget the role of students in shaping a culture of teaching and learning on campus. Their expectations about what a proper course should be can be a powerful conservative force.

Growing awareness that the current U.S. K-12 education system is producing woeful results and that incrementalist strategies for reforming it (smaller classes, added graduation requirements, etc.) haven’t made much difference. Bolder alternatives – including some that overturn yesterday’s axioms and power relationships – are now thinkable. Widening recognition that “one size fits all” education does not work very well in our pluralistic democracy. As people have demanded additional options, new types of schools have come into existence along with new ways of enabling families to choose among them. Not only do some of those novel schools better suit America’s varied educational needs, but the marketplace of parental choice also helps to hold them accountable for student achievement. Such reasoning, of course, is familiar from the old voucher debate, but it’s no longer just the stuff of argument.

Although teacher leadership is an established feature of educational reform, it was only 30 years ago that most literature on school improvement focused on principals and superintendents. Though the idea of teacher leadership is not new, the conception of this role has evolved considerably. The teacher has been considered an organizational leader since the one-room schoolhouse of the 19th century. With the advent of professional school administration in the 21th century, teacher leadership became an issue of workplace democracy.

Images of the school administrator have been shaped over the past century by various ideas serving to focus practice. While the behavioral sciences image that influenced preparation curricula after World War II has lost its luster, the earlier managerial perspective that sees the school as a system of production remains, pervading educational reforms. This perspective appears in current pressures to measure and assess performance and in expectations that adjusting instructional strategies will improve learning outcomes.

It stands to reason that treating all students equitably in terms of teacher attention and behavior would increase the academic achievement of the students in general and improve classroom climate; this reasoning is supported by a plethora of research. The research also confirms a commonly held view that male students get more attention than female students, regardless of the teacher’s gender. Racial/ethnic attributes in students are also linked to differentiated teacher expectations. To summarize this research in broad strokes, the Pygmalion effect is widespread and, ironically, is communicated to students in ways that would otherwise be effective teaching practices, if only carried out equity.

Most people recall their high school and undergraduate education in fragments. Atoms possess a property called valency. Great Britain has no constitution, but is a constitutional monarchy. Many students have trouble using such discrete, disembodied facts. Yet most people define “education” as the delivery and storage of such “facts” and think of lectures as the most efficient form of delivery. However, how many of us can accurately and concisely explain how blood courses through the body? How changes in interest rates affect stock market indicators or currency exchange rates? And how does a bill move through Congress?

In the ideal the academy is a place where anything can and should be discussed with confidence and vigor; sadly the reality is somewhat different. In fact, many professors and their students live in fear. They are afraid of controversy, conflict, and violence. The mere mention of race, religion, and difference evokes considerable apprehension. Such anxiety results in self censorship, silence, and paralysis. Thus college classrooms that should be characterized by activity, excitement, and the freedom to argue according to one’s conscience (to echo John Milton) are often inactive milieus distinguished only by the evident level of formalized boredom.

Exemplary literacy programs, which emphasize learning across the curriculum, are organized around teacher and student teams designed to meet the needs of struggling readers. Evidence that literacy is valued can be found in interesting and accessible materials, instructional methods, beliefs about literacy learning, school organization, and school culture. First, the amount of reading and writing required for successful academic progress in the middle grades increases substantially from that required of elementary school students. Second, content area courses such as social studies, science, language arts, math, music, art, and technology are likely to require that students read and understand texts in each academic area. These texts are primarily expository and often complex, detailed, and filled with difficult vocabulary.

This paper reports findings from ongoing research partnerships with inclusive classrooms and with selective and competitive outreach programs that seek to bridge school, college, and college-based occupations for Latino and other underrepresented youth. Findings draw on qualitative methods (interviews, field observations, and case studies) and quantitative methods (surveys, grades, test scores, and statistical analyses) involving over 850 students.

The end of high school is usually considered the end of childhood. If this is still true, students on the cusp of adulthood have to be ready to take on its responsibilities, including a readiness to work hard, even for those going on to the very pleasurable experience of college. The end of high school should focus less on the hasty gathering of bits of information and more on the skills and attitudes which are needed in those who want to be of use to others.

A major and pressing problem facing educators, particularly in the context of the current national agenda of achieving schooling success for each student, is the consistent finding of differential correlation among low, mid-range, and high academic achievement in different groups of ethnic minority students. The research base shows a striking achievement gap between Asian American and European American students on the one hand, and, on the other, African American, Latino, and Native American students.

Even recently, men sustain their dominance in the field of public education and women remain underrepresented in school administration despite their numbers in teaching and in school leadership preparation programs. Thus men define what it means to manage and lead schools and school systems. Their assumptions, beliefs, and values constitute that which has been held as natural and normative.

The information age poses a whole new set of challenges and questions to America’s schools. The quality of our nation’s political, social and economic future will depend on the ability of young people to become functioning members of society who understand how to access information and determine its significance, draw independent rational conclusions and communicate findings. A democracy requires contributing citizens who are informed and capable of independent, critical thought.

Many educators, policymakers, Republicans and Democrats are now talking reasonably about the future of education. It is important to prescribe what should be done. The belief is that the federal government could provide the answers. Driven by the spirit of reform at the state and local level that has changed the focus of education from inputs to outputs, there is now an educational bottom line. Education seems to be the only sector of the economy that is not competing for top talent. Almost every state has created some sort of alternative route to teacher certification – though many jurisdictions make limited use of them.

To maintain higher education opportunities, particular for low- and middle-income students, increased resources must be made available to students through financial aid programs to meet the higher tuitions. Proposed changes in federal support for financial aid programs will increase the financial burdens on low and middle income students and will exacerbate the growing problem of inadequate access to post-secondary educational opportunities.

Public education was created in part to be one of the mediating institutions that would mold the American character one citizen at a time. It is critical to the creation of responsible citizens capable of making informed decisions in order to produce and maintain a system of government that works.

Much of the intervention research focuses on preschoolers, but a new generation of inquiry focusing on infants and toddlers indicates that intensive child development and early education interventions starting in infancy can result in significantly improved academic and developmental outcomes. Further, evidence from research indicates that the strongest interventions include comprehensive frameworks that focus on both the child and the family, combined with efforts aimed at changing community risk factors.

Nothing can be counted as progress in a community until the children and youth are well-served and show healthy development and steady, sustained advances in learning. The needs of children and youth in inner-city communities are very great, yet these communities continue to receive too little attention in most places. Even in those urban areas where major revitalization initiatives have been put into place, disinvestment of all kinds-economic, professional, and social-is the pattern, and fractionation across agencies, professional societies, and bureaucracies is pervasive.

The School-to-Work (STW) partnership model is based on the idea that there are significant economies of scale in the provision of STW programming and therefore that groups of districts working together on relatively large projects will accomplish more than single districts working by themselves on smaller projects. As soon as a state has established a statewide partnership and begun to receive STW funds, local partnerships are formed.

An array of family, school and community characteristics clearly work together in shaping students’ access to postsecondary education. Our research identified a number of factors, many of them interrelated, that act as barriers to students continuing their education after high school.