Showing papers in "American Journal of Education in 2008"

District Central Offices as Learning Organizations: How Sociocultural and Organizational Learning Theories Elaborate District Central Office Administrators' Participation in Teaching and Learning Improvement Efforts.

Abstract: School district central office administrators face unprecedented demands to become key supporters of efforts to improve teaching and learning districtwide. Some suggest that these demands mean that central offices, especially in midsized and large districts, should become learning organizations but provide few guides for how central offices might operate as learning organizations. This article presents a conceptual framework that draws on organizational and sociocultural learning theories to elaborate what might be involved if central offices operated as learning organizations. Specific work practices that this conceptual framework highlights include central office administrators’ participation in new school assistance relationships and their ongoing use of evidence from assistance relationships and other sources to inform central office policies and practices. Sense making and managing paradoxes are fundamental to these processes. I highlight these activities with empirical illustrations from research an...

Architectures for Learning: A Comparative Analysis of Two Urban School Districts

Abstract: This article explores the usefulness of communities of practice theory for understanding how districts can create organizational environments that foster teachers’ opportunities to learn the new ideas and practices required to carry out ambitious reforms. It draws on data from a longitudinal study of the implementation of ambitious mathematics curricula in two urban districts. By analyzing the contrasting ways that teachers in two schools in each district were linked to each other and reform efforts at the district level, the article shows how the district reform effort in one district led to significant opportunities for teacher learning and alignment with reform goals while efforts in the other district coordinated action but failed to spur meaningful opportunities for teacher learning. The article closes with implications for policy and practice.

The Professional Practice of Mentoring

Abstract: Mentoring of novice teachers has become a prevalent component of programs that help beginning teachers. A conceptualization of mentoring practice that rests on a shared vision of good mentoring, however, needs to be developed so that novice teachers receive more than emotional support or professional socialization. Knowing how to be a good mentor is not necessarily inherent in being a good teacher. How should good mentoring be conceptualized, and what images help shape that conceptualization? This article draws on data from a cross‐national study of preservice and beginning teachers and their mentors to examine these questions. It concludes that, much like teaching, mentoring that is aimed at helping novices learn to teach is a professional practice with a repertoire of skill sets that must be learned over time.

Achievement Differences and School Type: The Role of School Climate, Teacher Certification, and Instruction

Abstract: Recent analyses challenge common wisdom regarding the superiority of private schools relative to public schools, raising questions about the role of school processes and climate in shaping achievement in different types of schools. While holding demographic factors constant, this multilevel analysis of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics data on over 270,000 fourth and eighth graders in over 10,000 schools examines differences among schools on five critical factors: (1) school size, (2) class size, (3) school climate/parental involvement, (4) teacher certification, and (5) instructional practices. This study provides nationally representative evidence that both teacher certification and some reform‐oriented mathematics teaching practices correlate positively with achievement and are more prevalent in public schools than in demographically similar private schools. Additionally, smaller class size, more prevalent in private schools, is significantly correlated with achievement.

Districtwide Instructional Reform: Using Sociocultural Theory to Link Professional Learning to Organizational Support

Abstract: No Child Left Behind Act accountability pressures and calls to close achievement gaps between groups of students have challenged school districts to achieve systemwide instructional improvement. These policies create learning challenges for classroom teachers and for school and district leaders. This article engages questions about organizational support for professional learning in the context of reform initiatives. A theoretical lens—called the Vygotsky Space—is used to analyze case study data from a reforming urban school district located in the Pacific Northwest. A job‐embedded professional development structure called the Elementary Studio/Residency Model is explored in depth as are the learning processes of one participating teacher. The teacher’s professional learning experiences are then connected with leadership actions and institutional supports for learning. The relationship between organizational change and district leaders’ attention to practitioner learning and innovation is discussed.

How Can Organizational and Sociocultural Learning Theories Shed Light on District Instructional Reform

Abstract: This article explores how organizational and sociocultural learning theories can help us to understand the problem of system‐wide instructional reform in school districts. After briefly summarizing the central challenges facing leaders in such districts, the article reviews key ideas associated with each theoretical lens and considers how each lens can sharpen understanding of these challenges and how, viewed together, these organizational and sociocultural lenses might offer a more integrated understanding of this leadership problem. After noting some blind spots, the article concludes with several observations about prospects for this kind of work.

Rethinking School Reform: The Distractions of Dogma and the Potential for a New Politics of Progressive Pragmatism

Abstract: At the national level, debate about school reform typically has been characterized by clashing paradigms offering unicausal explanations and universal prescriptions. At the street level, where parents and practitioners wrestle on a day‐to‐day basis with questions of what to do, the terms of discussion more typically are concrete, rooted in local history and influential personalities. The former style of discourse tends to promote polarization and winner‐take‐all battles while the latter sustains a process of unguided “muddling through.” These two dynamics—clashing ideas and parochial practice—operate largely independently, but when they do intersect, it is more often in ways that are dysfunctional rather than enlightening. We lay out this dilemma and suggest some prospects for reform.

The Declining Significance of Race in College Admissions Decisions

Abstract: Using 18 years of data from more than 1,300 four‐year colleges and universities in the United States, we investigate the extent to which institutional characteristics and contextual factors influence the propensity of colleges to indicate that they engage in affirmative action in their admissions decisions. Consideration of race/ethnicity in admissions declined sharply after the mid‐1990s, especially at public institutions. Rather than being shaped by specific historical and political contexts, affirmative action in admissions appears to be a widely institutionalized practice in higher education that has been tempered by changes in the policy environment over time.

The District Effect: Systemic Responses to High Stakes Accountability Policies in Six Southern States

Abstract: High stakes accountability (HSA) reforms were enacted in state after state and federally through the No Child Left Behind law, based on the belief that incentives that have consequences attached are effective ways to motivate educators to improve student performance. Our focus for this article is on school district level responses to HSA reforms that could produce positive changes in teaching and learning. We set out to determine whether a district effect was present in the implementation of HSA systems in six southern states and whether that effect was accompanied by the types of activities previously identified in the research literature as being associated with changes in teaching and learning and student achievement. We tested a theory of action that assumed that HSA would cause school districts to develop coherent instructional strategies that would be evidenced by the provision of coherent, high‐quality professional development and the alignment of district policy and resources in support of school ...

Education, Science, and the Politics of Knowledge: The American Educational Research Association, 1915–1940

Abstract: In the early twentieth century, a new alliance formed between university‐based scholars who dedicated themselves to the scientific study of education and public school officials. This alliance centered on the proposition that applied research could advance the professionalization of schooling and become a prestigious academic specialty in its own right. The American Educational Research Association (AERA) emerged to further these dual goals. This essay analyzes changes in the ideological and organizational dynamics of the AERA between 1915 and World War II. By 1940, the AERA’s founding faith in a unifying professional identity had been undercut in two ways: first, by a weakening of the Progressive Era paradigm of a socially relevant science of education, and second, by an intensification of divisions among the constituencies that the AERA aspired to serve. Relying heavily on archival data, we track the multiple sources from which this gradual distancing of research from the politics of education occurred.

Looking for Leadership: Assessing the Case for Mayoral Control of Urban School Systems

Abstract: Replacing boards of education conceived during the Progressive Era with mayoral control has been a popular reform strategy in urban districts such as Boston, Chicago, and New York City. A thorough review of the extant research, however, shows little evidence regarding its impact on governance, management, school organization, or teaching and learning. Looking beyond the K–12 sector suggests that there is some reason to believe that appointed boards can be more effective than elected ones at pursuing shared ends and resisting short‐term political pressure. This analysis explains the key political and organizational claims for and against mayoral control and considers the implications for governance reform. In the end, the author concludes that mayoral control is an uncertain bet and poses potential long‐term problems but—if designed thoughtfully—holds promise for deeply troubled urban school systems.

Educational Professionalism: An Inside-Out View.

Abstract: The past two decades have witnessed numerous efforts to enhance educational professionalism, such as more stringent requirements for entry, increased autonomy, and higher pay. Yet, these types of initiatives typically target aspects of the profession external to the work of teaching. In this article, I expand the view of professionalism implicit in these reform efforts by showing how practice can also be seen as an explanatory variable that acts on professionalism. I propose a theoretical frame for understanding the complex relationships between instructional practice and professionalism, illustrating the way in which practice both shapes and is shaped by public perception of the profession and how this bears on education’s professional strength. The framework highlights key levers for improvement, less emphasized in past research, and in particular, draws attention to the way in which most professions control practice and the viability of these mechanisms in education.

Within‐School Variation in Teacher Quality: The Case of Ninth Grade

Abstract: There is abundant evidence that ninth grade is a critical year for students, particularly those enrolled in large urban school districts. Despite the importance of the freshman year for subsequent academic success, the existence of teacher status systems within schools suggests that ninth graders, who are traditionally viewed by teachers as low‐status clients, will more likely be taught by low‐status teachers: specifically, teachers who are not certified to teach and those who are new to the school. Using a merged teacher‐student data set from a large urban district, we find that ninth graders are disproportionately assigned to uncertified teachers and teachers who are new to the school building and that having higher percentages of these teachers decreases predicted attendance, controlling for other factors. The article concludes with a discussion of strategies for staffing the ninth grade with strong teachers.

Constructing an Authentic Self: The Challenges and Promise of African‐Centered Pedagogy

Abstract: African‐centered pedagogy aims to cultivate a positive and productive culturally based identity for Black children, and African‐centered schools endeavor to supply that cultural base, placing the history, culture, and life experiences of individuals of African descent at the center of everything that they do. Our study examines the historical contexts in which African‐centered education has emerged and the justification for racially separate schooling. The article’s major contribution is its examination of whether African‐centered schools prepare Black children to participate in a democratic society and whether the construction of an essentialist racial identity might compromise their mission and success. We conclude that African‐centered schools provide many of the same strengths found in other forms of community‐based education but that they must continue to wrestle with essentialist notions of Black identity on which its discourse is built.

Learning to Support Improvement—Next Steps for Research on District Practice

Abstract: Research on the district’s role in fostering improvements affecting student learning is still in its infancy. Since the early 1990s, when school districts were often viewed as a waste of time and money (Chubb and Moe 1990), the winds have shifted, with states and districts expected to promote coherence and accountability in the loosely coupled U.S. school system (Boyd and Crowson 1981). The articles in this issue not only expand middle-level theories concerning how these enlarged responsibilities and roles may develop but also add empirical meat to expectations in state and federal accountability policies. As advertised, the articles represent a “first installment” on a needed scholarly dialogue. Let me further the dialogue by suggesting topics for additional investigation arising from their work.

Small Schools: Size or Community?.

Abstract: Small schools are not just about size. They are also about authentic instruction, portfolio evaluation, and a thematic curriculum. Their agendas overlap with that of charter schools. They have an uncomfortable and sometimes adversarial relationship with standards, accountability, and the No Child Left Behind Act. They have migrated from their beginnings in Barker and Gump’s (1964) work on rural schools to become a significant factor in urban school reform. They face two major hurdles. The first is scaling up. Small reform movements can survive on exemptions from prevailing policy. Large reform movements need institutional change. The second is that as an enterprise becomes popular it runs the risks of co‐option and confusion. I argue that small school advocates need to work hard to maintain clarity about what is central to the movement. And I suggest that what should be central is an emphasis on creating community, not school size per se.

Theorizing the Politics of Educational Reform: The Case of New Jersey’s Alternate Route to Teacher Certification

Abstract: Employing Bourdieu’s notion of social field, this research conceptualizes New Jersey’s alternate route to teacher certification as a contested arena, in which the interests, ideologies, and visions of different stake‐holders regarding the character of public education have collided. Findings for this study are primarily based on data from the New Jersey State Archives and on other open public documents. I conclude that during the 1980s New Jersey became one of the leading states in developing educational policies that excluded teacher unions and teacher educators from the positions of power they formerly held in the field of educational policy, gradually subordinating them to the power of the state.

Charter Ranking Roulette: An Analysis of Reports That Grade States' Charter School Laws

Abstract: Since 1996, the Center for Education Reform has released an annual report card, grading each state’s charter school legislation and labeling as the “strongest” those laws placing the fewest and slightest restrictions on charter schools. While the Center for Education Reform rankings have undoubtedly been the most influential, at least four other systems have been developed. In this article, we analyze the different ranking systems, including a new approach we have developed in order to illustrate the arbitrariness of any given ranking system and to highlight some key charter school issues. We then investigate the general, popular phenomenon of rankings in the field of education, exploring the benefits, drawbacks, and appeal of such rankings.

Toward a Theory of the University: Mapping the American Research University in Space and Time

Abstract: Universities are increasingly characterized as businesses, and higher education as an industry. Yet there has been little empirical work to support claims of growing corporatization—and no theoretical basis offered to test them. To motivate research and discussion from a cross‐disciplinary perspective, I examine three analogies for the university—business, state agent, and quasi‐state—by evaluating the history of higher education in light of the theory of the firm and the theory of the state. I draw conclusions about the viability of each construction of the university, including leadership implications of the strongest theoretical possibility, and suggest further multidisciplinary research.

“Sitting on a Tinderbox”: Racial Conflict, Teacher Discretion, and the Centralization of Disciplinary Authority

Abstract: The centralization of school discipline in the second half of the twentieth century is widely understood to be the inevitable result of court decisions granting students certain civil rights in school. This study examines the process by which school discipline became centralized in the Los Angeles City School District in the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, and finds that the locus of control over student discipline shifted from the school site to the centralized district largely in response to local pressures. Indeed, during a period of large‐scale student unrest, and in an environment of widespread racial and cultural tensions, many Los Angeles students, parents, community members, and educators actively promoted the centralization of school discipline—although often for directly conflicting purposes. Ultimately, this article argues that the centralization of school discipline was not inevitable and must be understood in the broader historical context in which it occurred.

Sociocultural Theory as a Lens to Understand Organizational Learning

Abstract: The articles in this issue represent work at the forefront of the field. These authors are engaging in empirical exploration of school districts as learning organizations while also trying to build theory that can be used to explain this work. In choosing sociocultural theory, the authors move beyond the individual and social/cultural determinism that characterized much of twentieth-century social science. They focus on learning and leadership as phenomena that belong to persons in contexts. They examine how interactions among individuals situated in particular social and cultural institutions support teacher professional development, leadership development and opportunities, organizational learning, and ultimately student learning. This is exciting and important work that has and will continue to significantly affect theory and practice. As a developmental psychologist who uses sociocultural theories of the mind to understand learning (primarily science learning) in and out of school environments, I have found sociocultural theory to be a generative theoretical perspective in these contexts. Like John Bransford and Nancy Vye (2008, in this issue), however, I recognize the challenges associated with trying to work toward widespread change at district levels. What happens beyond the classroom walls? How does the work done in some classrooms have the opportunity to affect the work in others? How do we move to thinking about learning and change at the building, cluster, district, and professional levels? Where does central office leadership fit in? These questions are being taken up by this set of articles in ways that help us to understand anew that some of the most vexing problems concerning student learning (or lack of student learning) do not rest inside the classroom alone. The articles begin to shed light on what counts as organizational learning and how it transpires in institutional

Hate in the Classroom: Free Expression, Holocaust Denial, and Liberal Education.

Abstract: This article is concerned with a specific type of hate speech: Holocaust denial. It is concerned with the expression of this idea by educators. Should we allow Holocaust deniers to teach in schools? This article attempts to answer this question through a close look at the Canadian experience. First, I will establish that Holocaust denial is a form of hate speech. Next, I will lay down the main premises of the argument and make some constructive distinctions that will guide our treatment of teachers who are Holocaust deniers. Finally, I will probe three cases—James Keegstra, Malcolm Ross, and Paul Fromm—and argue that hatemongers cannot assume the role of educators.

District Reform and the Learning Sciences: Issues and Opportunities

Abstract: The focus of this special issue of the American Journal of Education is on systemwide leadership practices As the authors in this issue note, policy changes carry with them the need for new learning (eg, Cohen and Sproull 1996) Accordingly, their articles are a first installment in examining how learning theories might enable district leaders to develop strong school districts that help all students to succeed This issue explores two particular lines of theory—sociocultural and organizational learning theories—and the possibility of combining them to create synergies We comment on the articles as learning scientists who are fans of many aspects of sociocultural and organizational learning theories yet who have conducted research from somewhat different theoretical traditions (eg, Bransford et al 2005; Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbilt 2000; National Research Council 2000) Our work with the Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center is rapidly expanding our theoretical and methodological vistas (eg, Bransford et al 2006), and writing this commentary provides an opportunity to see whether and how new lenses can clarify our vision Rather than review each article separately, we will discuss what we learned from the whole set

“The Great Contest”: The American Philosophical Society Education Prize of 1795 and the Problem of American Education

Abstract: In 1795 America’s preeminent scholarly organization sponsored a contest for the best essay on education. The two winners have been canonized in the scholarship on early American educational thought. This essay refocuses attention on the great contest itself, not only seeking understanding of the works that it produced but also analyzing its intrinsic significance in American educational thought. While the great contest was a failure in its day, the essays it produced provide evidence of a decided lack of consensus about American education right from the start of the nation. The contest highlights key tensions in American educational research and policy: Should girls be educated the same as boys? Can religion be taught in public schools? Is higher education a right or a privilege? Should policy be made locally or centrally? Is there such a thing as an “American” education? The founding generation could not provide answers, but they did identify the enduring questions.

“Hate in the Classroom”: A Rejoinder

Abstract: Raphael Cohen-Almagor’s article “Hate in the Classroom: Free Expression, Holocaust Denial, and Liberal Education” (2008) calls for sanctions on those K–12 public school teachers whose deployment of “hate speech”—and/or associations with others who deploy it—creates a “poisoned environment” in the classroom. Paying lip service to the role of free expression as “a fundamental right and value in democracies” (217), Cohen-Almagor nevertheless believes that hate speech “causes immediate mental and emotional stress” and perhaps even “psychological harm” (218) to those it targets and so has no place in the public school system, which should be guided by liberal educational principles. He illustrates his argument by reference to the cases of three Canadian teachers, each of whom has had his teaching certificate revoked, is politically on the far right, and is directly or indirectly associated with Holocaust denial. One of these, James Keegstra, was later convicted under Canada’s anti–hate speech law; another, Malcolm Ross, was subject to a human rights complaint upheld by a human rights tribunal and ultimately by the Canadian Supreme Court; and the third, Paul Fromm, awaits a fate perhaps similar to either. There is much to criticize in Cohen-Almagor’s essay: for one thing, his definition of hate speech would not pass any minimal vagueness and overbreadth test; for another, his exposition of the liberal educational virtues is both vacuous and operationally useless; and for still another, his argument that hate speech causes unjustified harms and should be criminalized is, to say the least, undeveloped. However, what I shall focus on here is his contention that public school teachers should be fired if their out-of-classroom utterances or associations cross liberal and contractual requirements. What

Teaching in Class versus Free Expression

Abstract: Terry Heinrichs’s rejoinder (in this issue, 169) criticizes me and the Canadian boards of education for firing Malcolm Ross and Paul Fromm. In essence, Heinrichs agrees that the firing of James Keegstra was justified, as Keegstra brought his hatred into his classroom. Heinrichs thinks the case is very different when hate mongers preach hatred only outside of the classroom. Then their position as “educators” should remain intact. In essence, while I think that you can either be a hate monger or a teacher, Heinrichs thinks there is no inner contradiction between the two. You can spew your venom in all public places, but as long as you refrain from explicitly bringing it to the classroom, that’s fine. Well, I remain convinced that it is not. I explained my case thoroughly in “Hate in the Classroom” (Cohen-Almagor 2008) and do not intend to repeat myself. Let me add the following reflections on this quite puzzling rejoinder. It is puzzling because Heinrichs failed to understand that my article deals with education and the role of the teacher. Heinrichs instead interprets my article as a restrictive thesis of free expression. It is also puzzling because of its particularly harsh and inflamed tone. And it is puzzling because it is marred with inaccuracies as well as sweeping and sometimes demagogic assertions. Let me explicate. Heinrichs writes that I said (1) teachers must keep their nonconforming views to themselves both in and out of the classroom and that they must either (2) refrain from expressing these views publicly or (3) express only those approved by the relevant board of education. What I did say is that teachers should keep their hateful views to themselves and not pronounce them publicly (i.e., involve themselves in hate mongering) if they wish to serve as educators. I never made the third claim. Heinrichs asserts that “Cohen-Almagor’s contention that it is right to fire