Showing papers in "Peabody Journal of Education in 1989"

Beyond role models: An examination of cultural influences on the pedagogical perspectives of black teachers

Abstract: This article posits that the increasing alienation and school failure of minorities, particularly the growing numbers of at-risk black students, is directly related to the decline of minority teachers who bring to the classroom unique, culturally based pedagogical approaches that are often compatible with the learning needs of their minority students. The article argues that black teachers, as one example of a minority teacher, are more than mere role models. They are cultural translators and intercessors for black students, thereby directly contributing to their school achievement. Black teachers are more likely to understand black students' personal style of presentation as well as their language. They frequently exhibit a teaching style that attends to cultural differences in perceptions of authority, instructional delivery and teacher performance, and in their use of culturally familiar speech and events.

Agenda setting, enlightened self‐interest, and equity in mathematics education

Abstract: In many recent documents and calls for reform in school mathematics, issues of educational equity have been transformed into concerns that are couched in terms of enlightened self‐interest. That self‐interest is predicated on the need for increased levels of mathematical, scientific, and technical knowledge for people to participate in the workforce, world economy, and our social institutions. Failure to educate women, minorities, and the poor adequately will result in the creation of a permanently unemployable underclass within our society, in exacerbated social problems, and in economic problems for our country. Equity, on the other hand, is defined in terms of social arrangements as judged against standards of justice. When these issues are scrutinized in terms of equity, it becomes clear that—though there are large areas of overlap between concerns for equity and for enlightened self‐interest— these are two distinct constructs that should be kept separate. This article ends with an indication...

Evidence from project star about class size and student achievement

Abstract: When considering the adoption of any change or new program a policymaker has three major questions to answer. First, how effective will the change be? Second, how much will it cost? And third, what are the problems of implementation, including the support or opposition of the clients and staff (teachers) who implement it? When looking at the issue of

Carry‐over effects of small classes

Abstract: A two‐part follow‐up study was conducted of students in grade 4 who had participated in the reduced class size experiment during the preceding years. Outcome measures included a range of norm referenced and criterion referenced achievement tests and teachers’ ratings of the youngsters’ effort, initiative taking, and disruptive behavior in the fourth grade classroom. Statistically significant carry‐over effects of small classes were found on every achievement measure. Significant differences were also found in participation levels between students who had attended small classes and those in regular classes, but these were not as consistent as the impact on cognitive performance. The confirmed consequences of placing youngsters in classes with 12 to 17 pupils need to be supplemented by research on other outcomes in order to compare the complete range of benefits with the relatively large monetary costs that could be incurred.

A feminist reinterpretation of presidents’ definitions of leadership

Abstract: (1989). A feminist reinterpretation of presidents’ definitions of leadership. Peabody Journal of Education: Vol. 66, Educational Leadership and the Struggle for Mind, pp. 143-156.

Teaching Practices and Class Size: A New Look at an Old Issue.

Abstract: The reduction of class size is one of a number of policy decisions with the potential for direct impact on classrooms and classroom instruction; however, little descriptive information exists about how teachers may adapt teaching practices to take advantage of possible benefits of reduced numbers of students. With few exceptions, studies of class size have examined achievement effects, but have not documented how class size affects teaching practices. Investigators who have addressed this question have reported mixed results. Filby, Cahen, McCutcheon, and Kyle (1980, and discussed in Odden, 1990), in intensive case studies, found that teachers in smaller classes were more able to complete their direct lessons in reading and math, and to develop them in depth; smaller classes functioned more smoothly and were better managed; and students in smaller classes received more individualized attention, had less wait time, and tended to have better task engagement. Bourke (1986) documented relationships among class size, teaching practices, and student achievement in Australian math classes. Teachers in larger classes used more groups and lectured or explained more to students; students in larger classes asked more questions. Teachers in smaller classes asked more follow-up questions, assigned more homework, gave more oral tests, had more direct interaction with students, and made fewer nonacademic procedural arrangements. Teachers with smaller classes followed teaching practices similar to those found in classes with higher ability students. Teaching practices affected student

Advancing Democracy: A Critical Interpretation of Leadership.

Abstract: (1989). Advancing democracy: A critical interpretation of leadership. Peabody Journal of Education: Vol. 66, Educational Leadership and the Struggle for Mind, pp. 157-175.

Social Inequality, Cultural Discontinuity, and Equity in School Mathematics

Abstract: In order to achieve equity in school mathematics, mathematics educators must question their assumptions about its nature and worth. Culture practice theory, based on the idea that knowledge is situated within particular contexts, explains the difficulty particular groups have with school mathematics as the result of a discontinuity between schooling and other cultural contexts in their lives. Critical theory, based on the idea that political and economic power are unequally and unjustly distributed in society, describes the school curriculum as a result of a selective tradition that provides the greatest benefits to powerful social groups. Missing from culture‐practice theory is an analysis of the relationship between cultural discontinuity and social inequality; missing from critical theory is an analysis of the privileged position of mathematics in the school curriculum. Taken together, culture practice theory and critical theory provide the foundation of a reform and research agenda for equity...

The Administrator as a Transformative Intellectual

Abstract: While the reformist agenda of the recent past has been a welcome addition to our discourse on the nature of education, it has failed in many respects to address some essential aspects of educational reform. The rhetoric is in many instances laudatory; the California Commission on Public School Administration and Leadership (Association of California School Administrators, 1988), for example, found that "there are times when evolutionary change is appropriate, but these are not those times. If our society is to succeed, nothing short of a revolution is needed in our schools" (p. 51). Such sentiments are indeed accurate and they are appropriate for all levels of education; they display a concern with the way educational systems generally have responded to the needs of their clientele and they issue strong statements about the need for educational reform. But the need is not fully met by those reforms which fail to address the underlying assumptions and worldviews held by American educators and which govern the direction in which education proceeds. This is to say that competing moral philosophies undergird our approaches to practice, and each philosophy is a struggle for mind: a struggle to control the shape and structure of those social agendas we engage in. From Aristotle to Kant, from Sidgwick to Dewey, there is a contested analysis of the right way for resolving dilemmas, making decisions, and governing ourselves. These moral philosophies-from pragmatism to behaviorism-are the keystone of the relationships that bind individuals together in organization.

So what do we do with the poor, non‐white female? Issues of gender, race, and social class in mathematics and equity

Abstract: Concerns about equity in mathematics tend to assume that “all the women are White, all the Blacks are men.” This occurs even though research and programs in mathematics and equity need to focus on individuals in their complexity rather than defining them solely by race or by sex. Along with focusing on the need to address multiple equity areas, this article includes an overview of programs to encourage girls and minority boys in mathematics, what is known about the effectiveness and impact of such programs, and implications for an equity agenda in mathematics.

Changing from within: Feminist educators and administrative leadership

Abstract: (1989). Changing from within: Feminist educators and administrative leadership. Peabody Journal of Education: Vol. 66, Educational Leadership and the Struggle for Mind, pp. 19-40.

Needed: An agenda for equity in mathematics education

Abstract: The purpose of this special issue of the Peabody Journal of Education is to help bring issues of equity to the fore of the current mathematics education reform movement. Over the past decade, we have been inundated with studies, reports, and policy initiatives based on the belief that the American educational system is in crisis. A main focus of that concern has revolved around the teaching of school mathematics. We agree with many of the concerns that underlie calls for reform and note that public education has undergone similar periods of crisis and reform at least since the formation of the common school in the late 1800s. Yet mathematics educators should be concerned that issues of

Getting into the castle of educational administration

Abstract: (1989). Getting into the castle of educational administration. Peabody Journal of Education: Vol. 66, Educational Leadership and the Struggle for Mind, pp. 104-123.

The Practice of Equity.

Abstract: The EQUALS and FAMILY MATH programs at the Lawrence Hall of Science (University of California, Berkeley) were first developed from a concern with gender equity and then were widened to encompass issues concerning race and class of all underrepresented students in mathematics. The evolution from a single‐focus equity program to a multiple focus is described. The specifics of each program's philosophy, methods, and impacts are explained, and the characteristics of programs that enable students to succeed in mathematics are presented. Finally, future directions for the projects are discussed in light of teachers’ needs to untangle social and class inequities that occur in classrooms and that create barriers to children's learning. The task for each of us is to challenge the educational system that has resulted in socially unjust outcomes in mathematics classrooms and to examine, reshape, and diversify instructional practice and attitudes to eliminate gender, race, and class biases that hinder and in...

Critical requisites for transformational leadership: Needed research and discourse

Abstract: (1989). Critical requisites for transformational leadership: Needed research and discourse. Peabody Journal of Education: Vol. 66, Educational Leadership and the Struggle for Mind, pp. 176-181.

Equity: The missing element in recent agendas for mathematics education

Abstract: Reform documents of the past decade are examined in terms of their inclusion and treatment of equity issues. These papers reflected reform efforts aimed at general education, the mathematics curriculum, mathematics teaching, and mathematics education research. Equity issues, although acknowledged, were seldom articulated. Instead, equity was often submerged in global concerns for excellence. Recommendations are made for an agenda for equity.

The Relationship of Race, Class, and Gender with Mathematics Achievement for Fifth-, Eighth-, and Eleventh-Grade Students in Pennsylvania Schools.

Abstract: This integrative study of student socioeconomic status (SES), race, and gender focused on mathematics achievement derived from the Pennsylvania Educational Quality Assessment Program for the years 1981 through 1984. Analyses were conducted at the 5th, 8th and 11th grade levels. Replicable achievement differences in mathematics were observed across grade levels for student SES and race, but not for gender. White students were found to score higher than black students and achievement varied directly with student SES level. The only replicable interaction to emerge was a relatively weak but persistent SES by race effect that occurred for all analyses involving students attending low SES schools. This was a function of the fact that, although achievement increased across student SES level for both white and black students the increment tended to be slightly larger for white students. Supplementary analyses of mathematics achievement incorporating school SES, student SES, and race were also performed....

Teacher Perceptions of Changes in Teaching When They Have a Small Class or an Aide

Abstract: (1989). Teacher perceptions of changes in teaching when they have a small class or an aide. Peabody Journal of Education: Vol. 67, Project star and class size policy, pp. 106-122.

Enrollment trends in big‐city schools

Abstract: The current crisis in urban schools is symptomatic of a general demographic trend in urban life. The problem is the large build-up of minority students-especially black and Hispanic, the majority of whom are educationally disabled because of family structure and welfare dependency-in city schools and the continuing exodus of white middle-class families from the city. Nationwide, minority enrollments increased from 19.8% in 1966 to 24% in 1976 to 29.6% in 1986, and are projected to increase to 37.5% by 1996. The biggest minority gain came from the Hispanic student population, representing 4.6% of the public school enrollment in 1966 and 9.9% in 1986 (more than 100% increase in 20 years). Based on current immigration and fertility trends, the Hispanic student population should reach 14% by 1996 and surpass the black student population in the year 2010. On the heels of the Hispanic student population is the Asian enrollment-the next fastest growing minority group. It doubled in the 10 years from 1966 to 1976, doubled again from 1976 to 1986, and it is expected to increase another 60% by 1996 and double before 2010 (Bouvier & Davis, 1982; U.S. Government, 1989a). These trends in minority enrollments are shown in Table 1. The largest 25 city school districts (as of 1980) posted the largest gain in minority students. In 1950, all but one of the nation's 25 largest city school systems had a white majority. By 1980, all but two had a majority of minorities (Columbus and San Diego). By 1990, these two school districts also comprised a majority of minorities. These figures are shown in Table 2.

Lessons for Class Size Policy and Research.

Abstract: Teachers and parents both believe that "smaller is better" for student achievement. The Gallup Polls (1979, 1988, 1989) show that a very large majority (75 to 80%) of these two influential interest groups believe that small classes are important to enhance student achievement. Research results have been mixed, and while recent research summaries (Odden, 1990; Slavin, 1990) indicate that a substantial (one-third or more) class size reduction in the elementary grades has some positive effect on achievement, it is not a large one. The kind of strong positive research results that would support teacher and parent preferences for small classes was reported by Glass and Smith (1978) and Glass, Cahen, Smith, and Filby (1982). But reanalysis of these summaries by Slavin shows that the substantial effect found by Glass was largely due to the inclusion of tutoring (class size of one) studies. Tutoring makes a big difference, but reducing class size by about a third (from 24 or 25 to 15 or 16) produces an average effect that is positive, but small (effect size of about .13) (Slavin, 1990). Project STAR found larger effects than most other well-designed studies done in the elementary grades. The Project STAR average effect size over both reading and math and over all four

Power and the politics of knowledge: Transformative leadership and curriculum development for minority language learners

Abstract: Asian, and Native American youths will constitute one-third of the nation's student body. Within 40 years, the Hispanic population is expected to multiply two-and-one-half-fold to nearly the size of the Black population, from 14.5 million in the late 1980s to 37 million in 2030. The Asian population is expected to quadruple during the same period, from 3.5 to 17 million. Meanwhile, Native Americans, with the highest birth rate in North America, are experiencing equally precipitous population growth. Already in major cities across the country, even in large states such as Texas and California, more than one-half of the overall student body is of minority background. To deal with this pressing diversity, educators have developed myriad models, instructional approaches, materials, and teaching techniques under a general rubric of multicultural schooling. At the risk of oversimplification, most of these can be situated along a continuum from cultural-inclusion to cultural-exclusion: from strategies that incorporate students' home language, history, and customs, to strategies that aim to promote and reproduce a single common culture. At the culturalinclusion end of the spectrum exists a wide variety of dual language programs that attempt to build standard forms of knowledge upon a foundation of vernacular forms. At the cultural-exclusion end exist

Improving Urban Education in the 1990s.

Abstract: In 1952, the city (New York) had 8,757 robberies. Last year it had 93,387-a stickup every 6 minutes. Twenty-one cabbies were murdered this year, girls were raped and then thrown off rooftops, a boy was tied up and set afire, and four small children were shot to death in drug wars within three weeks. Each year 10,000 infants are "born toxic," most of them crack babies who will cost $220,000 each in remedial attention before kindergarten. (Leo, 1990, p. 37)

Introduction: Educational leadership and the struggle for mind

Abstract: Educational leadership is an abused concept. More often than not it is seen as synonymous to administration and with the power of office. It has become symbolic of hierarchy, of structure, and of power. It has, in effect, been reduced in its own power and in its scope because it now only replicates other useful terms, such as management and administration. Yet its potential for informing the debate over what formal education should be like, how it should serve, and why it exists is great. In the recent past, good educational leadership has been equated with effective management practices. Leadership has been geared toward the successful achievement of the organization's goals. And, most often, we equate leadership with the individual who resides at the top of the educational hierarchy-a principal, a superintendent, or a college president. Further, whether the leader be a school principal or a college president, the assumption has been that the effective leaders must orchestrate and manage the technical aspects of the organization in order to achieve the desired ends of the school or college. Faced with a myriad of problems from declining enrollments to tightened budgets, the effective leader has been considered the individual who can motivate

Stories of Supervision: Tutorials in a Transformative Practice of Supervision

Abstract: Four years ago I began asking students in a graduate course on instructional supervision to present what I called "critical incidents in supervision" I explained that they were to think of experiences that stood out in their memories, experiences of being supervised themselves or of being the supervisor, and that these experiences should still trigger in them an emotional reaction-either positive or negative-even though the events themselves were long past The students were to provide sufficient information and detail to engage the class audience in the experience, and then were to analyze the experience for its implications for supervisory theory and/or practice My expectations for the assignment were that the analysis of the critical incident would be most important Perhaps I was seduced by the instrumentalist implications of the term "critical incident" to think that recognition and analysis of key events is a linear process by which felt experience is sanitized and transformed into the purer form of theory I was wrong Frankly, the analyses were usually rather thin and unmemorable The experiences recounted by students, however, were compelling and have left their impression on me and on other members of the various class audiences We remember details and feelings, characters and consequences In other words, we remember stories, and by our associations of the stories with their authors, we remember the storytellers as well I, for instance, have much better recall of the stories told by those whose names fill pages in my grade book from past semesters

Ethnic Diversity and Differing Value Systems: A Theoretical Analysis of Educational Alienation

Abstract: I propose in this article to examine the concept of ethnic diversity, the emergence of differing value systems, and their impact on the educational process. I will examine how differing value systems are derived, how they contribute to ethnic diversity, and how significant they are to the educational process. Lawrence Kohlberg, late of Harvard University, was the foremost American theoretician of the development of morality and values in human society. He based his research on the theoretical formulations of Jean Piaget, whose pioneering works-particularly The Moral Judgement of the Child (1965)-delineated the progressive stages in the child's development of moral reasoning. Kohlberg's research in the United States and several foreign countries led him to the conclusion that the cognitivestructural development of moral reasoning was universal, and that it proceeded through six stages which were sequential and invariant. In agreement with Piaget, Kohlberg believed that "the progression of children's [moral] development reflects the evolution of societies from forced conformity, to differentiation, diminished supervision, autonomy, and cooperation" (Cortese, 1990, p. 38). Kohlberg, in his own work, developed six stages of moral development with the sixth and highest stage being principled reasoning leading to human rights and justice.

Implementation of reforms to improve comprehension skills at an unusually effective inner city intermediate school

Abstract: This article describes reforms that were introduced at a Bronx, New York intermediate school at which large gains in students’ comprehension performance were registered among seventh and eighth graders. One central focus was on introducing the DRP approach, which assesses students’ functional reading level, facilitates teachers’ efforts to match student comprehension levels and the readability of instructional materials, and helps teachers acquire and use comprehension‐improvement strategies. Concurrent reforms included a variety of staff and organizational development efforts, establishment of a mini‐school for at‐risk students, climate improvement activities, and intensive assistance for low achievers. Analysis of the school indicates that it exemplifies selected characteristics of unusually effective schools, namely active/ engaged learning, successful grouping and provision of intensive assistance for low achievers, emphasis on personal development of students, coordination of instruction, av...

School policies and educational opportunities for minority students

Abstract: Schools are bureaucratic organizations characterized by a variety of structural features. Among these features are rules, regulations, and procedures designed to focus the efforts of students and school employees on the achievement of organizational goals. Rules, regulations, and procedures typically draw their legitimacy from policies developed at the district, state, and federal levels. It is often difficult to determine where policies stop and rules, regulations, and procedures begin. The purpose of this article is to examine various school policies, along with related rules, regulations, and procedures in order to determine whether they work to the disadvantage of minority students., The material in this article derives, in part, from a new book by the author and a colleague. School Policy (Duke & Canady, 1991) is premised on the notion that the policies which exert the greatest impact on the lives of students tend to be those that are developed locally, rather than at state and national levels. These policies concern such matters as curriculum, scheduling, grouping, assessment, grading, and discipline. The book offers a definition of a good policy as "one that increases the likelihood that school goals will be achieved without adversely affecting any particular group of students" (Duke & Canady, 1991, p. 7). I propose to use this conception of good policy to guide my review of key policies developed at the local level. My intention is to identify policies that might adversely affect minority students, particularly those with the greatest risk of failing and dropping out of school. The article opens with a discussion of school policies as important variables in efforts to account for student outcomes. Subsequent sections focus on the possible impact on minorities of school policies dealing with curriculum, scheduling and grouping, student assessment and grading, and