Will Marshall

Bio: Will Marshall is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Mediocrity principle. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 83 citations.

A nation still at risk

Abstract: Fifteen years ago, the weaknesses of American education detailed in A Nation at Risk catalyzed a reform movement that was supposed to radically restructure the nation's schools. A new, follow-up report says not much has changed. Fifteen years ago, the National Commission on Excellence in Education declared the United States a nation at risk. That distinguished citizens' panel admonished the American people that "the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people." This stark warning was heard across the land. A decade and a half later, the risk posed by inadequate education has changed. Our nation today does not face imminent danger of economic decline or technological inferiority. Much about America is flourishing, at least for now, at least for a lot of people. Yet the state of our children's education is still far, very far, from what it ought to be. Unfortunately, the economic boom times have made many Americans indifferent to poor educational achievement. Too many express indifference, apathy, a shrug of the shoulders. Despite continuing indicators of inadequacy, and the risk that this poses to our future well-being, much of the public shrugs and says, "Whatever." The data are compelling. We learned in February that American 12th-graders scored near the bottom on the recent Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS): U.S. students placed 19th out of 21 developed nations in math and 16th out of 21 in science. Our advanced students did even worse, scoring dead last in physics. This evidence suggests that, compared to the rest of the industrialized world, our students lag seriously in critical subjects vital to our future. That's a national shame. Today's high-school seniors had not even started school when the Excellence Commission's report was released. A whole generation of young Americans has passed through the education system in the years since. But many have passed through without learning what is needed. Since 1983, more than 10 million Americans have reached the 12th grade without having learned to read at a basic level. More than 20 million have reached their senior year unable to do basic math. Almost 25 million have reached 12th grade not knowing the essentials of U.S. history. And those are the young people who complete their senior year. In the same period, more than 6 million Americans dropped out of high school altogether. The numbers are even bleaker in minority communities. In 1996, 13 percent of all blacks aged 16 to 24 were not in school and did not hold a diploma. Seventeen percent of first-generation Hispanics had dropped out of high school, including a tragic 44 percent of Hispanic immigrants in this age group. This is another lost generation. For them the risk is grave indeed. To be sure, there have been gains during the past 15 years, many of them inspired by the Excellence Commission's clarion call. Dropout rates declined and college attendance rose. More high-school students are enrolling in more challenging academic courses. With more students taking more courses and staying in school longer, it is indeed puzzling that student achievement has remained largely flat and that enrollment in remedial college courses has risen to unprecedented levels. The Risk Today Contrary to what so many seem to think, this is no time for complacency. The risk posed to tomorrow's well-being by the sea of educational mediocrity that still engulfs us is acute. Large numbers of students remain at risk. Intellectually and morally, America's educational system is failing far too many people. Academically, we fall off a cliff somewhere in the middle and upper grades. Internationally, U.S. youngsters hold their own at the elementary level but falter in the middle years and drop far behind in high school. We seem to be the only country in the world whose children fall farther behind the longer they stay in school. …

Innovation in Education Markets: Theory and Evidence on the Impact of Competition and Choice in Charter Schools

Abstract: Charter schools elevate choice and competition to foster educational innovations. Indeed, these market-style mechanisms are intended to challenge standardized practices associated with district administration of schools. However, a comprehensive review of practices in charter schools indicates that, although some organizational innovations are evident, classroom strategies tend toward the familiar. Drawing on organizational and economic theory, this article considers the forces shaping educational innovation in market-oriented reforms. Although reformers assume that competition and choice necessarily lead to innovations within schools, a more complex examination of competitive institutional environments suggests that mechanisms employed by reformers may actually undercut their intended purposes. The discussion highlights the potential for choice and competition to constrain opportunities for educational innovation and to impose pedagogical and curricular conformity.

Examining the Educational Benefits of Interacting with International Students.

Abstract: Through the analysis of alumni survey data from three graduating cohorts, this study examined the influence of interaction with international students on domestic students' college outcomes and explored factors that helped to promote international interaction on college campuses. The findings indicate that in comparison to non-interactive domestic students, highly interactive domestic students reported significantly higher levels of development in a wide range of areas across the three cohorts. Also, the findings suggest that active engagement in college activities, such as coursework outside the major, contact with faculty outside class, ethnic or cultural clubs or organizations, and visiting speakers, was likely to promote interaction across cultures.Keywords: international interaction; questioning beliefs; skill development; educational benefits; college activities; college outcomes.Over the past half century, a growing number of international students have enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities. According to the latest report by Farrugia, Chow and Bhandari (2012), the number of international students in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 764,495 in the 2011/12 academic year, reflecting a 31% increase over a decade ago. This steady increase is largely due to the active recruitment efforts by many U.S. academic institutions and the actions by the U.S. government to promote American higher education as well as a rising middle class in key source countries that could afford to send their children to study abroad (Fisher, 2009).With the greater involvement of many countries in the global free trade economy and a new environment of budgetary cuts, the competition for talented and self-funded international students among nations has become intense and strategic in recent decades for two major reasons. First, international students provide a strong talent pool and make academic and cultural contributions to college campuses (Andrade, 2009; Choudaha & Chang, 2012; McCormack, 2007). Second, international students make a significant contribution to the economy of host countries (Farrugia, Chow, & Bhandari, 2012). In 2011/12, for instance, international students contributed over $22.7 billion to the U.S. economy through expenditures on tuition and living expenses.Although many institutions world-wide aspire to maintain their financial health by aggressive recruitment of international students, it is claimed that the main purpose of most colleges and universities in recruiting international students is "to provide international and cross-cultural perspectives for their students and to enhance their curricula" (Altbach & Knight, 2007, p. 293). The significant impact of international students on the local, state, and national economy is apparent and has been quantified in indisputable monetary terms. Also, a sizable body of research highlights the challenges international students face while adapting themselves to the living and learning environments of the host country (e.g., Abe, Talbot, & Geelhoed, 1998; Lee, 2010; Trice, 2004; Ward, 2001). Despite these facts, few empirical studies have systematically examined the extent to which international students contribute to the intellectual and cultural environments on U.S. college campuses from the perspective of domestic students (Geelhoed, Abe, & Talbot, 2003).This study seeks to provide empirical evidence for claims of potential outcomes and to equip institutions with useful information on how to develop programs to enhance students' collegiate experiences, by examining whether interaction with international students benefits U.S. students' college experiences and to identify factors that are likely to promote such interaction. Three research questions guide this study: (a) To what extent does international interaction influence U.S. students' questioning of beliefs and values about politics, religions, and the nature of human beings or society during the course of their undergraduate studies? …

Do Quasi-markets Foster Innovation in Education?: A Comparative Perspective

Abstract: This report seeks to address critical issues such as these by synthesising the evidence on innovations in more market-driven education systems. The analysis draws on data from over 20 OECD and non-OECD countries, including both developed nations that seek to move beyond established systems of state-run schools, and developing nations where formal and de facto policies promote more free-market approaches to educational expansion. In doing this, the report focuses on the primary and secondary levels, where education is usually compulsory. The more universal nature of educational access at those levels provides a different set of conditions and incentives compared to the post-compulsory tertiary level. And the report pays special attention to the charter school experiment in North America, where reformers explicitly tried to create more competitive conditions in order to encourage the development of innovations in the education sector. Policy approaches such as this that use decentralisation, deregulation, greater levels of autonomy, competition and choice may have singular potential to induce innovations in the education sector, both in how education is organised and the school content that is delivered — critical concerns if the education sector is to be more effective and reach under-served populations.

Looking Back, Looking Forward: A Conversation About Teaching Reading in the 21st Century

Abstract: Looking back, looking forward: A conversation about teaching reading in the 21st century. Two researchers, frequent collaborators on studies of policy for learners at-risk of school failure, talk about what they learned about teaching reading—appropriate instructional texts, for example—from studies conducted during the past century. They identify themes that were significant at various points in time that have surfaced again as the century comes to a close, such as the need to evoke and define scientific inquiry in reading by the research community. As these researchers look to the future, they discuss their views on particular policy instruments, namely, school choice, teacher development, and mandated instructional material, as strategies for building school capacity for teaching reading to learners at-risk in the new millennium. Una mirada hacia atras, una morada hacia delante: Dialogo acerca de la ensenanza de la lectura en el siglo XXI. DOS INVESTIGADORES, colaboradores frecuentes en estudios sobre politicas para ninos en riesgo de fracaso escolar, hablan acerca de lo que han aprendido sobre la ensenanza de la lectura-textos de ensenanza apropiados, por ejemplo-en estudios conducidos durante el siglo pasado. Se identifican temas que fueron significativos en varios momentos y que han resurgido a medida que finaliza el siglo, tales como la necesidad de que la comunidad cientifica evoque y defina la investigacion en lectura. Al mirar hacia el futuro, estos investigadores discuten sus concepciones sobre instrumentos especificos como la eleccion de escuela, la formacion docente y los materiales de instruccion exigidos, en terminos de estrategias para capacitar a las escuelas en la ensenanza de la lectura a ninos en riesgo en el contexto del milenio. Ruckblick, vorausschau: Eine Konversation uber den leseunterricht im 21ten Jahrhundert ZWEI FORSCHER, haufige Mitarbeiter beim Studium von Anweisungen an Lernende bei denen die Gefahr des Versagens in der Schule besteht, unterhalten sich daruber, was sie uber den Leseunterricht gelernt haben-geeignete Anweisungstexte, zum Beispiel-aus Studien, die wahrend des vergangenen Jahrhunderts durchgefuhrt wurden. Sie identifizieren Themen, die einmal zu bestimmten Zeiten bedeutungsvoll waren, dann erneut am Ende des Jahrhunderts wieder auftauchten, sobald die Notwendigkeit zur Herausforderung und Definition wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen im Fach Lesen seitens der forschenden Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft bestand. Wahrend diese Forscher in die Zukunft blicken, diskutieren sie ihre Ansichten uber bestimmte Verfahrensweisen, namlich Wahl der Schule, Lehrerentwicklung, und vorgegebene erzieherische Unterrichtsmaterialien, sowie Strategien zum Ausbau der Schulkapazitat im Leseunterricht fur jene Schuler, die im neuen Millennium Risiken ausgesetzt sind. Regarder en arriere, regarder en avant: Discussion sur l'enseignement de la lecture au 21°siecle DEUX CHERCHEURS, qui effectuent souvent ensemble des recherches sur la politique relative aux enfants a risque d'echec scolaire, parlent de ce qu'ils ont appris au sujet de l'enseignement de la lecture—les textes au niveau voulu, par exemple—dans les recherches qui ont ete faites au siecle dernier. Ils identifient des themes qui ont ete significatifs a differents moments et qui ont a nouveau fait surface alors que le siecle tirait a sa fin, comme le besoin de la commu naute scientifique de mettre a l'ordre du jour et de definir la recherche scientifique en lecture. Quand ces chercheurs se tournent vers l'avenir, ils discutent de leurs conceptions relatives a des instruments politiques particuliers, a savoir le choix de l'ecole, la formation des maitres, et le materiel pedagogique prescrit, comme strategies permettant de construire la capacite de l'ecole a enseigner la lecture aux enfants a risque du prochain millenaire.