scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

A nation at risk: the imperative for educational reform

01 Jul 1983-Communications of The ACM (ACM)-Vol. 26, Iss: 7, pp 467-478
TL;DR: Because of the extraordinary clarity and importance of the Commission's Report, the editors of the Communica t ions decided to reprint the Report's main section in its entirety and present it to you here.
Abstract: released a remarkab le report, A Nation at Risk. This Report has s t imulated in the media considerable discussion about the problems in our schools, speculation about the causes, and ass ignment of blame. Astonishingly, f e w of the media reports have focused on the specific f indings and recommendat ions of the Commission. A lmos t none of the med ia reports tells that the Commission i tsel f re frained f rom speculation on causes and f rom assignment of blame. Because of the extraordinary clarity and importance of the Commission's Report, the editors of the Communica t ions decided to reprint the Report's main section in its entirety. We are p leased to present it to you here.
Citations
More filters
Book
01 Jan 1985
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review basic issues of theory and method in approaches to research on teaching that are alternatively called ethnographic, qualitative, participant observational, case study, symbolic interactionist, phenomenological, constructivist, or interpretive.
Abstract: This chapter reviews basic issues of theory and method in approaches to research on teaching that are alternatively called ethnographic, qualitative, participant observational, case study, symbolic interactionist, phenomenological, constructivist, or interpretive. These approaches are all slightly different, but each bears strong family resemblance to the others. The set of related approaches is relatively new in the field of research on teaching. The approaches have emerged as significant in the decade of the 1960s in England and in the 1970s in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany. Because interest in these approaches is so recent, the previous editions of the Handbook of Research on Teaching do not contain a chapter devoted to participant observational research. Accordingly, this chapter attempts to describe r~s and their theoretical _nresup~s in considerable detail and does not attempt an exhaustive review of the rapidly growing literature in the field. Such a review will be appropriate for the next edition of this handbook. From this point on I will use the term interpretive to refer to the whole family of approaches to participant observational research. I adopt this term for three reasons: (a) It is more inclusive than many of the others (e.g., ethnography, case study); (b) W Blake

4,382 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the authors point out that public and professional interest in education is likely to be short-lived, doomed to dissipate as frustration over the inability of policy to improve school practice sets in.
Abstract: N RECENT YEARS, public and professional interest in schools has been heightened by a spate of reports, many of them critical of current school policy.' These policy documents have added to persistent and long-standing concerns about the cost, effectiveness, and fairness of the current school structure, and have made schooling once again a serious public issue. As in the past, however, any renewed interest in education is likely to be short-lived, doomed to dissipate as frustration over the inability of policy to improve school practice sets in. This frustration about school policy relates directly to knowledge about the educational production process and in turn to underlying research on schools. Although the educational process has been extensively researched, clear policy prescriptions flowing from this research have been difficult to derive.2 There exists, however, a consistency to the research findings that does have an immediate application to school policy: Schools differ dramatically in "quality,"

3,102 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Signals are drawn from studies of naturally occurring resilience among children at risk because of disadvantage or trauma and also from efforts to deliberately alter the course of competence through early childhood education and preventive interventions.
Abstract: The development of competence holds great interest for parents and society alike. This article considers implications from research on competence and resilience in children and adolescents for policy and interventions designed to foster better outcomes among children at risk. Foundations of competence in early development are discussed, focusing on the role of attachment relationships and self-regulation. Results from studies of competence in the domains of peer relations, conduct, school, work, and activities are highlighted. Lessons are drawn from studies of naturally occurring resilience among children at risk because of disadvantage or trauma and also from efforts to deliberately alter the course of competence through early childhood education and preventive interventions. Converging evidence suggests that the same powerful adaptive systems protect development in both favorable and unfavorable environments.

3,034 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper investigated the possibility that there are other factors, such as organizational characteristics and conditions of schools, that are driving teacher turnover and, in turn, school staffing problems, and the results of the analysis indicate that school staffing problem is not primarily due to teacher shortages, in the technical sense of an insufficient supply of qualified teachers.
Abstract: Contemporary educational theory holds that one of the pivotal causes of inadequate school performance is the inability of schools to adequately staff classrooms with qualified teachers. This theory also holds that these school staffing problems are primarily due to shortages of teachers, which, in turn, are primarily due to recent increases in teacher retirements and student enrollments. This analysis investigates the possibility that there are other factors—those tied to the organizational characteristics and conditions of schools—that are driving teacher turnover and, in turn, school staffing problems. The data utilized in this investigation are from the Schools and Staffing Survey and its supplement, the Teacher Followup Survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The results of the analysis indicate that school staffing problems are not primarily due to teacher shortages, in the technical sense of an insufficient supply of qualified teachers. Rather, the data indicate that school...

2,832 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of the literature on problem solving and metacognition can be found in this article, where the authors outline and substantiate a broad conceptualization of what it means to think mathematically, summarize the literature relevant to understanding mathematical thinking and problem solving, and point to new directions in research, development and assessment.
Abstract: The goals of this chapter are (1) to outline and substantiate a broad conceptualization of what it means to think mathematically, (2) to summarize the literature relevant to understanding mathematical thinking and problem solving, and (3) to point to new directions in research, development, and assessment consonant with an emerging understanding of mathematical thinking and the goals for instruction outlined here. The use of the phrase “learning to think mathematically” in this chapter’s title is deliberately broad. Although the original charter for this chapter was to review the literature on problem solving and metacognition, the literature itself is somewhat ill defined and poorly grounded. As the literature summary will make clear, problem solving has been used with multiple meanings that range from “working rote exercises” to “doing mathematics as a professional”; metacognition has multiple and almost disjoint meanings (from knowledge about one’s thought processes to self-regulation during problem solving) that make it difficult to use as a concept. This chapter outlines the various meanings that have been ascribed to these terms and discusses their role in mathematical thinking. The discussion will not have the character of a classic literature review, which is typically encyclopedic in its references and telegraphic in its discussions of individual papers or results. It will, instead, be selective and illustrative, with main points illustrated by extended discussions of pertinent examples. Problem solving has, as predicted in the 1980 Yearbook of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (Krulik, 1980, p. xiv), been the theme of the 1980s. The decade began with NCTM’s widely heralded statement, in its Agenda for Action, that “problem solving must be the focus of school mathematics” (NCTM, 1980, p. 1). It concluded with the publication of Everybody Counts (National Research Council, 1989) and the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 1989), both of which emphasize problem solving. One might infer, then, that there is general acceptance of the idea that the primary goal of mathematics instruction should be to have students become competent problem solvers. Yet, given the multiple interpretations of the term, the goal is hardly clear. Equally unclear is the role that problem solving, once adequately characterized, should play in the larger context of school mathematics. What are the goals for mathematics instruction, and how does problem solving fit within those goals? Such questions are complex. Goals for mathematics instruction depend on one’s conceptualization of what mathematics is, and what it means to understand mathematics. Such conceptualizations vary widely. At one end of the spectrum, mathematical knowledge is seen as a body of facts and procedures dealing with quantities, magnitudes, and forms, and the relationships among them; knowing mathematics is seen as having mastered these facts and procedures. At the other end of the spectrum, mathematics is conceptualized as the “science of patterns,” an (almost) empirical discipline closely akin to the sciences in its emphasis on pattern-seeking on the basis of empirical evidence. The author’s view is that the former perspective trivializes mathematics; that a curriculum based on mastering a corpus of mathematical facts and procedures is severely impoverished—in much the same way that an English curriculum would be considered impoverished if it focused largely, if not exclusively, on issues of grammar. The author characterizes the mathematical enterprise as follows:

2,756 citations

References
More filters
Book
01 Jan 1974
TL;DR: This paper presents a meta-analysis of the literature on comparative qualitative and quantitative approaches to quantitative qualitative research and concludes with a call for further research into these techniques.
Abstract: Brief Contents PART I THE FUNDAMENTALS Chapter 1 THE NATURE AND TOOLS OF RESEARCH PART II FOCUSING YOUR RESEARCH EFFORTS Chapter 2 THE PROBLEM: THE HEART OF THE RESEARCH PROCESS Chapter 3 REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE Chapter 4 PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT Chapter 5 WRITING THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL PART III QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH Chapter 6 DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH Chapter 7 EXPERIMENTAL, QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL, AND EX POST FACTO DESIGNS Chapter 8 ANALYZING QUANTITATIVE DATA PART IV QUALITATIVE RESEARCH Chapter 9 QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS Chapter 10 HISTORICAL RESEARCH Chapter 11 ANALYZING QUALITATIVE DATA PART V MIXED-METHODS RESEARCH Chapter 12 MIXED-METHODS DESIGNS PART VI RESEARCH REPORTS Chapter 13 PLANNING AND PREPARING A FINAL RESEARCH REPORT APPENDICES Appendix A USING A SPREADSHEET: MICROSOFT EXCEL Appendix B USING SPSS

10,491 citations

Book
01 Jan 1985
TL;DR: In this age of "process," with downsizing and restructuring affecting many workplaces, companies have fallen trap to lack of communication and distrust, and vision and leadership are needed more than ever before.
Abstract: In this illuminating study of corporate America's most critical issue -- leadership -- world-renowned leadership guru Warren Bennis and his co-author Burt Nanus reveal the four key principles every manager should know: Attention Through Vision, Meaning Through Communication, Trust Through Positioning, and The Deployment of Self. In this age of "process," with downsizing and restructuring affecting many workplaces, companies have fallen trap to lack of communication and distrust, and vision and leadership are needed more than ever before. The wisdom and insight in "Leaders" addresses this need. It is an indispensable source of guidance all readers will appreciate, whether they're running a small department or in charge of an entire corporation.

3,240 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply a simple sense of fairness in the dis tribution of the primary goods and services that characterize our social order to public education and show that to achieve greater equity in public education requires public policy that begins by making the poor less poor and ends by making them not poor at all.
Abstract: It seems only fair that the reader know what biases, if any, inform the summary remarks I plan to make. Equity will be the focus of my discussion. By equity I mean a simple sense of fairness in the dis tribution of the primary goods and services that characterize our social order. At issue is the efficacy of a minimum level of goods and services to which we are all entitled. Some of us, rightly, have more goods and services than others, and my sense of equity is not disturbed by that fact. Others of us have almost no goods and access to only the most wretched serv ices, and that deeply offends my simple sense of fair ness and violates the standards of equity by which I judge our social order. I measure our progress as a social order by our willingness to advance the equity interests of the least among us. Thus, increased wealth or education for the top of our social order is quite beside the point of my basis for assessing our progress toward greater equity. Progress requires public policy that begins by making the poor less poor and ends by making them not poor at all. This discussion of edu cation will apply just such a standard to public school ing. Equitable public schooling begins by teaching poor children what their parents want them to know and ends by teaching poor children at least as well as it teaches middle-class children. Inequity in American education derives first and foremost from our failure to educate the children of the poor. Education in this context refers to early acquisition of those basic school skills that assure pupils successful access to the next level of schooling. If that seems too modest a standard, note that as of now the schools that teach the children of the poor are dismal failures even by such a modest standard. Thus, to raise a generation of children whose schools meet such a standard would be an advance in equity of the first order. I offer this standard at the outset to note that its attainment is far more a matter of politics than of social science. Social science refers to those formal experiments and inquiries carried out by

2,391 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors address the following questions that must be addressed in this paper: 1.questions that must and do not need to be addressed.2.question 1.
Abstract: questions that must be addressed

1,827 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Fullan's complex, thoughtful monograph as discussed by the authors deals with the social and psychological problems of meaning and the realities of innovators, researchers, superintendents, curriculum personnel, principles, and teachers.
Abstract: Michael Fullan's complex, thoughtful monograph compelled me in the sense that I am fascinated by John LeCarre's intricate novels. Fullan treats more dimensions of the problem of educational change than anyone has before in a single-author volume, thoroughly outlining the literature and extracting the core meanings from each topic. He deals with the social and psychological problems of meaning and the realities of innovators, researchers, superintendents, curriculum personnel, principles, and teachers. He deals with the sources of change, the processes of adoption, implementation, and continuation, the problems of planning, and the workplace of the school. He discusses the world of the teacher, administrators, students, consultants, and community members. He explores the structure of national and provincial governments in the United States and Canada and the problem of funding change. He analyzes the initial and continued professional development of teachers, administrators and consultants. Finally, he proceeds to discuss the future problems of educational change. Within each topic he has located the central literature.

1,430 citations