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Journal ArticleDOI

Promise And Peril: Charter Schools, Urban School Reform, and the Obama Administration

30 Jun 2009-Harvard Educational Review (Harvard Education Publishing Group)-Vol. 79, Iss: 2, pp 227-239
TL;DR: Payne and Knowles as mentioned in this paper argue that given President Obama's support of charter schools, it is time for educators and policymakers to closely consider both the possibilities and the limitations of these schools in the context of urban school reform.
Abstract: In this essay, Charles Payne and Tim Knowles argue that given President Obama's support of charter schools, it is time for educators and policymakers to closely consider both the possibilities and the limitations of these schools in the context of urban school reform. The authors discuss the unique flexibility of charter schools—namely in staffing, time, budgetary autonomy, governance, and protection from district policies—as a significant source of their potential effectiveness. However, they also note the major challenges these schools face, as evidenced by variability in achievement results, sustainability, and quality of instruction. The authors suggest that these strengths and challenges must be considered together, and that the administration must focus on the elements of effective schooling for all children. Drawing upon this kind of evidence, the authors conclude, will lead to a more grounded and less partisan debate about urban education.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors used policy network analysis to create a visual representation of Teach For America (TFA) key role in developing and connecting personnel, political support, and financial backing for charter reform and examined how the networks unfold at a local level by zooming in on a case study of New Orleans.
Abstract: In this paper we illustrate the relationships between Teach For America (TFA) and federal charter school reform to interrogate how policy decisions are shaped by networks of individuals, organizations, and private corporations. We use policy network analysis to create a visual representation of TFA’s key role in developing and connecting personnel, political support, and financial backing for charter reform. Next we examine how the networks unfold at a local level by zooming in on a case study of New Orleans. By mapping out these connections, we hope to provide a foundation for further investigation of how this network affects policies.

132 citations


Cites background from "Promise And Peril: Charter Schools,..."

  • ...…options for families neglected by traditional public schools, provide individual students with pathways to higher education, or allow for flexibility in staffing and curriculum, which potentially enables schools to respond directly to the needs of communities and students (Payne and Knowles 2009)....

    [...]

  • ...This suggests that charter schools are not the panacea of educational reform (Payne and Knowles 2009)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examines commonsense understandings in education reform, which are supported by assertions that market-based schooling options are superior for children of color, and argues that a primary reason for the popularity of such reforms is an underexamined advocacy coalition, formed nominally around school choice, while also encompassing several other entrepreneurial educational reforms.
Abstract: What is the landscape of the racial politics of public education in the age of Obama? To what factors can we attribute the seeming educational policy consensus from Washington, DC, to the states and from philanthropies and policy entrepreneurs in urban school districts? How should we understand opposition to the policy menu? This article examines commonsense understandings in education reform, which are supported by assertions that market-based schooling options are superior for children of color, and argues that a primary reason for the popularity of such reforms is an underexamined advocacy coalition, formed nominally around school choice, while also encompassing several other entrepreneurial educational reforms. The article describes the structure of this network, arguing that its dominance has precluded an understanding of counter advocacy against school choice and related reforms. It then describes several past and current movements that challenge commonsense understandings of the reforms’ currency, ...

99 citations


Cites background from "Promise And Peril: Charter Schools,..."

  • ...Even moderate charter school supporters have come to understand that without sufficient attention to professional development, assessment, and access to resources, charter schools are not likely to achieve the results imagined by reformers (Payne & Knowles, 2009)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the emergence and effects of contemporary market-based reforms within a framework of urban political economy that centers on racial inequality are discussed, and the authors discuss how and why market-b...
Abstract: The authors situate the emergence and effects of contemporary market-based reforms within a framework of urban political economy that centers on racial inequality. They discuss how and why market-b...

76 citations


Additional excerpts

  • ...…which their abilities to realize their choice in schools is constrained by structural, geographic, institutional, cultural, and linguistic barriers (Bell, 2007, 2009; Jessen, 2011; Pattillo, 2015; Pattillo, Delale-O’Connor, & Butts, 2014; Payne & Knowles, 2009; Pedroni, 2007; Wilson-Cooper, 2005)....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were designed to address poor science and math performance in United States schools by inculcating globally competitive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics literacies relevant to participation in future society as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) were designed to address poor science and math performance in United States schools by inculcating globally competitive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics literacies relevant to participation in future society. Considering the complex network of influences involved in the development of the NGSS, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate how educational values are embedded in the discourse of the standards. Using critical discourse analysis and content analysis, we evaluated how themes related to (i) performance, (ii) accessibility, and (iii) innovation and creativity are discursively constituted in the NGSS. Our analysis indicates the NGSS prioritizes: measurable and reproducible performances; the standards appear to be based on a conception of accessibility closely aligned with equality, and self-investment, and; innovation and creativity are discursively constituted as attributes that can be developed through specific, prescribed practices. We discuss these findings in relation to the goals of the NGSS and potential teaching and learning outcomes resulting from education based on the standards.

74 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that returning to a unified approach to considering the development of individual differences in both cognition and personality can enrich the understanding of human development.
Abstract: Empirical studies of cognitive ability and personality have tended to operate in isolation of one another. We suggest that returning to a unified approach to considering the development of individual differences in both cognition and personality can enrich our understanding of human development. We draw on previous meta-analyses of longitudinal, behavior genetic studies of cognition and personality across the life span, focusing particular attention on age trends in heritability and differential stability. Both cognition and personality are moderately heritable and exhibit large increases in stability with age; however, marked differences are evident. First, the heritability of cognition increases substantially with child age, while the heritability of personality decreases modestly with age. Second, increasing stability of cognition with age is overwhelmingly mediated by genetic factors, whereas increasing stability of personality with age is entirely mediated by environmental factors. Third, the maturational time-course of stability differs: Stability of cognition nears its asymptote by the end of the first decade of life, whereas stability of personality takes three decades to near its asymptote. We discuss how proximal gene-environment dynamics, developmental processes, broad social contexts, and evolutionary pressures may intersect to give rise to these divergent patterns.

74 citations


Cites background from "Promise And Peril: Charter Schools,..."

  • ...Indeed, key components of efforts to increase academic development involve expanding early educational opportunities and disseminating to parents information about the educational system (Arnold & Doctoroff, 2003; Lareau, 2002; Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005; Payne & Knowles, 2009)....

    [...]

References
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Posted Content
TL;DR: The authors disentangles the separate factors influencing achievement with special attention given to the role of teacher differences and other aspects of schools, and estimates educational production functions based on models of achievement growth with individual fixed effects.
Abstract: Considerable controversy surrounds the impact of schools and teachers on the achievement of students. This paper disentangles the separate factors influencing achievement with special attention given to the role of teacher differences and other aspects of schools. Unique matched panel data from the Harvard/UTD Texas Schools Project permit distinguishing between total effects and the impact of specific, measured components of teachers and schools. While schools are seen to have powerful effects on achievement differences, these effects appear to derive most importantly from variations in teacher quality. A lower bound suggests that variations in teacher quality account for at least 7« percent of the total variation in student achievement, and there are reasons to believe that the true percentage is considerably larger. The subsequent analysis estimates educational production functions based on models of achievement growth with individual fixed effects. It identifies a few systematic factors a negative impact of initial years of teaching and a positive effect of smaller class sizes for low income children in earlier grades but these effects are very small relative to the effects of overall teacher quality differences.

3,882 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors disentangle the impact of schools and teachers in influencing achievement with special attention given to the potential problems of omitted or mismeasured variables and of student and school selection.
Abstract: This paper disentangles the impact of schools and teachers in influencing achievement with special attention given to the potential problems of omitted or mismeasured variables and of student and school selection. Unique matched panel data from the UTD Texas Schools Project permit the identification of teacher quality based on student performance along with the impact of specific, measured components of teachers and schools. Semiparametric lower bound estimates of the variance in teacher quality based entirely on within-school heterogeneity indicate that teachers have powerful effects on reading and mathematics achievement, though little of the variation in teacher quality is explained by observable characteristics such as education or experience. The results suggest that the effects of a costly ten student reduction in class size are smaller than the benefit of moving one standard deviation up the teacher quality distribution, highlighting the importance of teacher effectiveness in the determination of school quality.

3,076 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors investigated teachers' use of knowledge from research on children's mathematical thinking and how their students' achievement is influenced as a result, and found that experimental teachers encouraged students to use a variety of problem-solving strategies, and they listened to processes their students used significantly more than did control teachers.
Abstract: This study investigated teachers’ use of knowledge from research on children’s mathematical thinking and how their students’ achievement is influenced as a result. Twenty first grade teachers, assigned randomly to an experimental treatment, participated in a month-long workshop in which they studied a research-based analysis of children’s development of problem-solving skills in addition and subtraction. Other first grade teachers (n = 20) were assigned randomly to a control group. Although instructional practices were not prescribed, experimental teachers taught problem solving significantly more and number facts significantly less than did control teachers. Experimental teachers encouraged students to use a variety of problem-solving strategies, and they listened to processes their students used significantly more than did control teachers. Experimental teachers knew more about individual students’ problem-solving processes, and they believed that instruction should build on students’ existing knowledge...

1,050 citations

01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: The racial achievement gap is as old as slavery as discussed by the authors and it has been identified as a major obstacle to black achievement in the United States since the 18th and 19th centuries, when European and American intellectuals relied on craniometry to explain and defend racial hierarchy.
Abstract: The racial achievement gap is as old as slavery. In the 18th and 19th centuries European and American intellectuals relied on craniometry to explain and defend racial hierarchy. They measured our heads and compared them to those of gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. In the 20th century intelligence testing replaced measuring skulls as the “science” which proved that Blacks belonged at the bottom of the social, political, and economic ladder.

563 citations

Book
01 Nov 1998
TL;DR: Hess argues that much of what ails urban education is actually the result of continuous or fragmentary reform as discussed by the authors, which distracts teachers and principals from efforts to refine classroom teaching while seldom resulting in successful long-term changes.
Abstract: Almost everyone agrees that America's urban schools are a mess. But while this agreement has fostered widespread support for aggressive reform, Frederick Hess argues that much of what ails urban education is actually the result of continuous or fragmentary reform. Hess explains that political incentives drive school superintendents to promote reforms--to demonstrate that they are "making a difference." Superintendents have to do this quickly, both because their tenure is usually three years or less and because urban communities are anxious to see educational improvement. However, the nature of urban school districts makes it very difficult to demonstrate concrete short-term improvement. The result is what he terms "policy churn," which distracts teachers and principals from efforts to refine classroom teaching while seldom resulting in successful long-term changes. Hess argues that policymakers have misallocated resources by pursuing the "right" structure or the "best" pedagogy while paying insufficient attention to the more mundane--and more important--questions of how to implement, refine, and sustain a particular approach in their particular district. Hess explains that previous research on high-performing schools suggests that the best schools are characterized by focus and by an ability to develop expertise in specific approaches to teaching and learning. To help educators and policymakers adopt and nurture a focused agenda, he recommends institutional changes that increase the effectiveness of performance outcomes and reduce the incentives to emphasize symbolic reform.

314 citations