Tinkering Toward Utopia
BEV BRICKER
COURTNEY DOUSSETT
How Schools Change Reforms
Ways reforms can be judged
1. fidelity to the original design
2. effectiveness in meeting outcomes
3. longevity
John Dewey
……thought concepts
should be evaluated on
the basis of practical
effects. Whether those
effects are positive or
negative, adjustments
can and should be made
to continue to improve.
Aims and practices
should have continuous
interaction.
The Unintended Consequences…..
Reforms gone bad
 Home Ec was supposed to stop divorce…
 Girls did learn how to make white sauce….and tuna casserole
 The Good High School reform pushed larger schools.
 Alienated, anonymous students and isolated staff
 NCLB and previous attempts at testing students has
resulted in teaching to the test, no higher order
thinking skills taught
When educators are faced with reforms created by
elite policymakers they respond in several ways:
1. adapt innovations to the local circumstance
2. comply - often in minimal ways
3. sabotage the movement
If the reform is vague or unattainable, educators make it
concrete and into what they know how to do.
Reforms Defined
Usually
reforms are
not clearly
mandated
policies but
rather
concepts to
be evaluated
on the basis of
their practical
effects
Seeing a need……
 Elizabeth Peabody thought there should be a place
where children could be spontaneous, curious, and
active.
1848 Kindergarten Introduced
 Teachers were child gardeners
 Preventative Charity (child saving)
 Provided food, hygiene, parenting skills and moral development
to underprivileged children.
 Teachers visited homes to support families
 Hoped to solve the race problem
 Tame the unruly children
of the cities.
Kindergarten Assimilated into the Mainstream
 Kindergarten evolved to be
a part of the first-third
grade continuum.
 The mission became to
redeem society through
compensatory socialization
of the misfits.
 5 year-olds were prepared
for first grade in a
scientifically
developmental way.
One Room School Houses
 Inefficient
 Unprofessional
 Meager in curriculum
offerings
 Made the teacher be
subordinate to
community members as
they were in control.
School Structure – 1858
 Most schools in cities could have a student teacher
ratio 200:1 with one or two assistants. Students
recited their learning.
Graded School Reform
 Specific classrooms
 Promotion
 Retention
 Alienated students
1860 Graded Schools Introduced
By 1870 the idea spread to practically all cities.
 More efficient
 Easily reproduced method of educating large
populations.
 Resulted in sorting of students from 'normal' and
'retarded'.
 Good for the students whose culture matched the
requirements, but failed the minority students.
Differing Views on Educational Purpose
 Traditional educators saw high school as a
college preparatory institution.
 Others believed the high school
should serve more as a people's
school, offering a range of practical courses.
NEA - The Committee of Ten - 1892
 recommended eight years of elementary education
 four years of secondary education
 It defined four different curricula for high school.
 The first two followed a classical trend: classical and Latinscientific.
 The second two were more contemporary: modern language
and English.
 Courses that are now considered basic like foreign languages,
mathematics, science, English and history were included in
each curriculum.
 The goal of high school was to prepare all students to
do well in life, contributing to their own well-being
and society's good, and to prepare some students for
college.
1906
Carnegie Unit Introduced to standardize High School.
 Meant to improve preparation for college, it instead
created departments, test driven content, 50-55 min
periods.
Eliot (Harvard)
Wilson (Princeton)
Hadley (Yale)
Jordan (Stanford)
Timing of Reforms – Jr High School
1920 – 1930





Child labor laws enacted
Social promotion
encouraged
Vocational Education
funding money went to
schools (Smith Hughes
Act)
Laws requiring school
attendance adopted
The Great Depression –
adults needed work and
took jobs from children
1916 Junior High Schools Introduced
 Concerns over graduation rates:
K-5 100%
6-8 50%
9-10 10%
 This was proof that something was wrong with the
middle grade instruction.
 Moved from developmental (elementary) to social,
vocational, ethical and health needs of older
students.
Jr. High School
Lingering Influence on the System
 Team teaching
 Guidance for students
 Specialist teachers were moved to elementary upper
grades
 Pathways for Studies were developed.
An empty shell of what it should have been
 In 1922 Thomas Briggs
proclaimed Jr. High schools
nothing more than
Potemkin villages
Dalton Plan – 1920s
 Rose as a counter to the Graded School Reform
 Eliminated:
 self-contained classrooms
 Recitations
 50-55 minutes periods
 Promotion
 Retention.
The Dalton Plan
 aiming to achieve a balance between each child's




talents and the needs of the community
Ideas taken from Montessori and Dewey
Encouraged freedoms, responsibility, cooperation,
time budgeting
Kept curriculum and textbooks
Students



worked on contracts
paced themselves in academic subjects
able to take art, music and P.E.
The Dalton Plan
 1930 - 8600 secondary schools (2%) were Dalton
Plan schools
 By 1949 only 1 school was still practicing this
philosophy – The school run by Parkhurst herself
1930 Social Promotion introduced
By 1940 it is mainstream practice
 Graded schools had
made it painfully
obvious who was
successful and who was
not.
 In order to move
students through the
system, it was simpler to
move them with others
manufactured on the
same date.
Timing of Reforms – 8 Year Plan
 Colleges had room as low college enrollment due to
the Depression was threatening their livelihood.
 There were no jobs so staying in school made more
sense.
 Democratic Administration (FDR) 1933-1945
allowing for less rigid educational reform ideas.
Eight Year Plan 1933-1941
 An agreement to admit students to college who did
not meet "normal" requirements was given.
 Students were able to complete community service,
artistic productions, create publications, participate
in decision making.
Eight Year Plan 1933-1941
 Integrated work program with student generated




questions students drove the inquiry.
More individualization, student centered education.
They performed better in college academically and
were more involved in social, artistic and political
events than the traditionally educated students.
The war and the depression ended and colleges no
longer needed a boost to their enrollment.
The program faded away……..
1970s
 Vietnam War Ending
 Scramble to keep federal funds
 Conservative Tone to the Country
 The high school dropout rate declined steadily in the years
prior to 1973.
 Average SAT scores in USA have declined since 1967
 Backlash from the 1960s…..
 Teach the basics……Raise Student Scores
 Business Reformers
 New management systems
 Schools as a marketplace

Planning, budgeting, competition, incentives
Corporations Become Educators
 The Office of Economic
Development under Pres.
Nixon provided federal
dollars to 31 companies to
raise student achievement.
 No pay if students did not
achieve.
 Behavioral Learning
Centers - Dorsett
Educational System
 Behavioral Research Labs
1980-1990s
 A Nation At Risk
 Promoted excellence
 ‘lazy students’
 ‘incompetent teachers’
 Excellence Cannot Be Coerced
 Restructuring to mirror the business world
“Assume the schools we have inherited so not exist. Do
not be content with incremental change.”
- New American School Development Corporation (NASDC)
The Constants in Education
Students
and
Teachers
Challenges to the Teaching Profession
 Single salary schedule
 1920 Unions fought to create them
 Intrinsic equality of all good teaching
 Merit Pay
 Fought to defeat this in 1950, 1960, 1980
 Previous support also came form other unions (UAW)
 If enacted could curtail collaboration as competition moves in
 Career Ladders
 To continue to provide opportunities for educators who do not
wan tot go into administration
The Influence of a Teacher
 Challenging students
 Making subjects exciting
 Listening when you need
someone to talk to
What motivates teachers?
……………seeing their students grow intellectually and
mature as persons.
Structuring Reforms for Educator Acceptance
Reforms should make encounters between students
and teachers more common.
The aim of reform is to improve learning – rich
intellectual, civic and social development.
Teachers embrace reforms they saw as useful,
interesting incorporating them into their daily
routines – there must be adaptability to local
circumstance.