Showing papers in "Phi Delta Kappan in 1988"

Integrating the Children of the Second System.

Abstract: IN AN AVERAGE week at least 15,000 children across the U.S. are referred for special diagnosis in their schools because of learning and behavioral problems. Most of them are placed in special education pro grams. On any given day about 4.5 mil lion students are enrolled in special edu cation, two-thirds of them for relatively minor problems. In effect, a second sys tem of education has been created that serves children with diverse learning problems and disabilities. Education for students with special learning needs has been largely ignored in the recent school reforms. We wish to discuss here the problems that have surfaced from the proliferation of "sec ond system" programs and to recommend steps to bring about needed reforms. We propose integrating second-system pro rams into regular education to form a comprehensive educational system that encompasses a wide range of coordinat ed programs and alternative educational opportunities. Such a system, we believe, can improve the schools' capabilities for meeting the diverse needs of all the stu dents they serve. Most special programs have not been carefully evaluated. Parents appreciate some of them, but others carry a stigma and are resented by students and parents. T e labels attached to some programs are irrelevant to the nature of students' in structional needs. A National Research Council panel of the National Academy of Sciences recommended that the place ment team that labels and places a child in a special program be responsible "to demonstrate that any differential label used is related to a distinctive prescrip tion for educational practices . . . that lead to improved outcomes.", Judged by these standards, current practices of clas sification and placement in special edu cation are woefully inadequate. Many schools also operate other cate gorical programs, such as Chapter 1, mi grant education, and remedial reading. Each program has its own special teach ers, eligibility requirements, account ability measures, and funding. Togeth er, these categorical programs form the second system of education for children floundering on the fringes of the main stream. Ironically, second-system pro grams have generated problems that hin der full achievement for the children they were designed to help.

Models of Wisdom in the Teaching of History

Abstract: It may be their ability to alternate between different modes of teaching that earns teachers the designation "wise practitioner,' Mr. Wineburg and Ms. Wilson suggest.

Revitalizing Classroom Assessment The Highest Instructional Priority

Abstract: RICHARD J. STIGGINS is director of the Center for Performance Assessment, North west Regional Educational Laboratory, Port land, Ore. ments, and of measurement-driven in struction, we are again failing to address the central issue in school assessment: in suring the quality and appropriate use of teacher-directed assessments of student achievement used every day in class rooms from coast to coast. Classroom as sessments are the tools teachers use to de termine whether the pace of instruction is appropriate and whether their instruc tional objectives have been met. They are the assessments that determine to a large extent what grades students receive and Classroom assessment requires a great deal of time and effort; teachers may spend as much as 40% of their time directly involved in assessment-related activities. Yet teachers are nei ther trained nor prepared to face this demanding task, says Mr. Stiggins.

Contradictions of Control, Part 3: Contradictions of Reform.

Abstract: If you can't teach at this school, you can't teach. Magnet high school teacher (spring 1984) We're not teachers any more. We're workers now. Magnet high school teacher (spring 1986) M i r S. WATTS IS an extra ordinary science teacher. She is one of the teachers who come to my mind when I think of Patricia Graham's recommendation that we re cruit into the profession people who have a "passion for teaching," a passionate love of their subject and a deep commitment to bringing it to their students. Ms. Watts' academic background in cludes degrees in science and engineer ing; she represents the level of profes sional knowledge and training for which schools are accustomed to being outbid by industry. She has taught in a pre dominantly Hispanic high school, and she now teaches in an integrated magnet school in which black students are the majority. Ms. Watts begins her physics course with the reading of a play about the ethics of physics. Right from the start, her stu dents learn that science is full of emo tions, moral dilemmas, and personal in volvement. She tries to organize all her courses around the concepts and process es that help students see science in the world around them. Ms. Watts is the kind of teacher who is both willing and expert ly able to expend the time to build her lessons in ways that will involve her stu dents in the scientific questions and pro cedures she finds so exciting. Although she was very reluctant to leave her previous teaching position, Ms. Watts welcomed the chance to teach in a magnet program whose official pur pose is to engage students in active learn ing. Within such a program, she knew she would not only be allowed but re quired to create distinctive curricula in physics and physical science that would draw on her own "best" knowledge in these fields. In the company of other teachers developing active, engaging courses, she would be able to work on ways to structure classroom activities to link her students to the concepts and processes of the physical sciences.' During Ms. Watts' first year of teach ing, the district had pilot-tested a system of proficiency exams that, over a two year period, would take both the choices of curriculum-building and the means of testing students away from teachers like Ms. Watts and place them in the hands of consultants who design standardized tests. The content of Ms. Watts' courses would be divided into closely sequenced, numbered sections of factual content '"proficiencies." All of her lesson plans LINDA M. McNEIL is an associate profes sor and head of the Department of Education at Rice University in Houston. She has taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and has been project director and principal investigator for two major grants from the National Institute of Educa tion. She is the author of Contradictions of Control: School Structure and School Knowl edge (Methuen/Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986).

How Comprehensive Reform Legislation Can Improve Secondary Schools.

Abstract: S INCE APRIL 1983, when pub lication of A Nation at Risk touched off a national desire to reform education, many states have enacted comprehensive legislation intended to improve their schools. Such legislation typically in creases high school graduation require ments, encourages a more substantive curriculum, defines new roles for teach ers, and establishes higher standards. Like that of many other states, Cali fornia's major reform legislation, S.B. 813, had no previous parallel in terms of scope. Enacted in 1983, its dozens of provisions, if fully implemented, would alter curriculum and instruction in virtu ally every school in the state. S.B. 813 spells out neither a philosophy of reform nor a cohesive strategy for changing the schools. Instead, it represents a return to conventional wisdom, to a set of aspira tions meant to restore the state's educa tion system to a former level of achieve ment and academic rigor. Little is known about the effects of enacting such a broad range of reforms simultaneously. Can local school districts and individual schools cope with the complexities involved? How do the var ious components of an extensive legislat ed reform program influence one anoth er? Can local districts weld the disparate provisions of comprehensive state legis lation into coherent and effective instruc tional programs? Earlier studies produced data indicat ing that California's reforms were being formally implemented, but most of those studies relied on surveys or on statewide aggregate data.' They left unanswered questions about how the reform programs actually operate in local schools and whether or not they result in substantive change.2 Given the high stakes involved in education reform, answers to these questions are crucial for policy makers and practitioners alike.3