WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO
BE WELL EDUCATED?
Dr. Len Elovitz
The Five Minute University
“… THE EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATIONS OF OUR
SOCIETY ARE PRESENTLY BEING ERODED BY A
RISING TIDE OF MEDIOCRITY THAT THREATENS OUR
VERY FUTURE AS A NATION AND A PEOPLE. WHAT
WAS UNIMAGINABLE A GENERATION AGO HAS
BEGUN TO HAPPEN – OTHERS ARE MATCHING AND
SURPASSING OUR EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTS.
IF AN UNFRIENDLY POWER HAD ATTEMPTED
TO IMPOSE ON AMERICA THE MEDIOCRE
EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE THAT EXISTS TODAY,
WE MIGHT WELL HAVE VIEWED IT AS AN ACT OF
WAR. AS IT STANDS, WE HAVE ALLOWED THIS TO
HAPPEN TO OURSELVES.”
• 1. DO YOU RECOGNIZE THIS STATEMENT?
• 2. WHERE IS IT FROM?
– National Commission on Excellence in Education. A Nation at Risk: The
Imperative for Educational Reform.
(1983)
• 3. HOW DO YOU REACT TO THE ABOVE
STATEMENT?
• Do You Believe T hat Schools Should be
Restructured?
• How? What Should They Be Like?
DO WE NEED TO CHANGE?
• Did You Know?
• Education for Today and Tomorrow
Age of Information
Age of Information
• Infoglut
• infowhelm
• 540,000 words today
• 5 X more than
Shakespeare’s time
Age of Information
• New York Times gives more
information to most people than
a person in 1900 knew in a
lifetime.
• 1.5 exabytes of new information
a year (1 plus 18 zeros)
Who was John Paul Jones?
• The Maryland Colony
• What should kids know and be able to
do?
• Cultural Literacy: What every American
Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch
• Cultural Literacy: What every American
Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch (1987)
• What Do Our 17-Yearolds Know? A
Report on the First National
Assessment of History and Literature by
Diane Ravitch & Chester Finn 1987
Age of Information
• George Gilder said we are in the
age of disposable information - in a
4 year program by the beginning of
the third year, information learned
as a freshman is either wrong or
outdated.
Age of Information
“The educational models of the past operate on
the assumption that content was king. In fact,
content is free and overwhelming in size. In a
world of rapid information growth, it is context
that matters. Context is king. This means that
learners at all ages need to master two very
important skills: 1 – the ability to locate
information specifically related to the question
they are exploring; and 2 – to establish the
veracity and utility of this information.”
David D. Thornburg, The Future Isn’t What it Used to Be
(1997)
“This is the first time in history
that the student, teacher, and
content do not have to be in the
same place at the same time.”
David D. Thornburg, The Future Isn’t What it Used to Be
(1997)
New Jersey Core Curriculum Content
Standards
“First adopted by the State Board of
Education in 1996. The standards
describe what students should know and
be able to do upon completion of a
thirteen-year public education and
provide local school districts with clear
and specific benchmarks for student
achievement in nine content areas.
The 2009 standards reflect current research,
exemplary practices, national and state standards
and standards from other countries. They were
drafted by taskforces consisting of educators and
experts recognized for their content area
expertise and for demonstration of excellence as
practitioners in their respective fields. In each
content area, standards and cumulative progress
indicators align with the knowledge and skills
needed for post-secondary education and the
workplace.” NJDOE
Standards Timeline
• Standards timeline
• Standards
Common Core State
Standards initiative
• Standards for Mathematics and Language Arts
Literacy are part of the Common Core State
Standards initiative
• Coordinated by the Council of Chief States School
Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governor’s
Association (NGA) in partnership with other national
organizations. New Jersey is one of 44 states,
Washington, DC and the U.S. Virgin Islands to join
the state-led Common Core State Standards
initiative.
Common Core Standards
• Math & Language Arts
– What’s needed for college
– What’s needed for work
– What’s used around the world
• 46 States
• National Assessment?
Compulsory Education
• Massachusetts act of 1642
– Required parents and masters to tend to the
educational requirements of the colony’s sons.
– “The child is to be educated, not to advance his
personal interest, but because the state will suffer
if he is not educated.”
– Selectmen were to ascertain if parents and
masters were attending to “training in learning and
labor and other employment”
– _All between 10 and 16 had to be schooled in “ye
exercise of arms as small guns, halfe pikes, bows
and arrows”
– Girls stayed at home and learned household tasks
and embroidery
– Fines could be imposed
– Law failed after 5 years
• Formalized, legislated commitment to
providing education to citizens
– Massachusetts’ Ye Olde Deluder Satan Act
(1647)
• Settlement of > 50 required to hire a reading
and writing teacher and pay him what
compensation the citizens deemed appropriate
• Settlement of > 100 required to establish and
support a grammar school
Graduation Requirements
• 4 years of English
• 2 years of US History
• 1 year of Phys. Ed. For each year in HS
What do Employers Want?
• Excellent written and verbal
communication skills
• Self-motivation and a keenness to learn
• Flexibility to manage multiple tasks
• Computer literacy
• Ability to work in a team
• Analytical problem solving and the ability
to plan, organize, and reflect
•
Early Childhood Longitudinal Study
ECLS
The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) program includes
three longitudinal studies that examine child development, school
readiness, and early school experiences. The birth cohort of the
ECLS-B is a sample of children born in 2001 and followed from
birth through kindergarten entry. The kindergarten class of 199899 cohort is a sample of children followed from kindergarten
through the eighth grade. The kindergarten class of 2010-11
cohort will follow a sample of children from kindergarten through
the fifth grade.The ECLS program provides national data on
children's status at birth and at various points thereafter; children's
transitions to nonparental care, early education programs, and
school; and children's experiences and growth through the eighth
grade. The ECLS program also provides data to analyze the
relationships among a wide range of family, school, community,
and individual variables with children's development, early
learning, and performance in school.
http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/
What Matters
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The child has highly educated parents
The child's family is intact.
The child's parents recently moved into a better neighborhood
The child's parents have high socioeconomic status.
The child's mother didn't work between birth and kindergarten
The child's mother was thirty or older at the time of her child's
birth.
7. The child attended head start
8. The child had low birthweight.
9. The child's parents speak English in the home
10. The child's parents regularly take him to the museum
11. The child is regularly spanked
12. The child is adopted.
13. The child frequently watches television
14. The child's parents are involved in the PTA
15. The child has many book in his home
16. The child's parents read to him nearly every day
What Matters?
The child has highly educated parents
The child's family is intact
A family with a lot of schooling values education
What Matters?
The child's parents recently moved into a better neighborhood
The child's parents have high socioeconomic status
Successful parents are more likely to have successful kids
What Matters?
The child's mother didn't work between birth and kindergarten
The child's mother was thirty or older at the time of her child's birth
Women are more likely to be established - Education or job
and likely to want the child more than a teenage mother
What Matters?
The child attended head start
The child had low birthweight.
Poor prenatal care is a good predictor of poor parenting
Head start and High Scope
What Matters?
The child's parents speak English in the home
The child's parents regularly take him to the museum
Culture cramming doesn’t work
What Matters?
The child is regularly spanked
The child is adopted.
Child’s academic ability is more linked to biological parents’ IQ
than to the adoptive parents’.
What Matters?
The child frequently watches television
The child's parents are involved in the PTA
PTA parent likely to have a strong relationship with Education
What Matters?
The child has many book in his home
The child's parents read to him nearly every day
Parents with a lot of books in the home are
likely to be better off financially and value education more
Do These Inputs Matter?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Books in the Library
Teacher salary
Books in the library
Number of computer stations
Class Size
Racial mix
Which hypothesis is
correct?
• There is a strong positive relationship
between school quality and student
achievement
• Or
• There is a very weak relationship
between school characteristics and
student outcomes
» Sadovnik
Equality Of Educational
Opportunity
• The Coleman Report
• 1966
• 570,000 students, 60,000 teachers,
4,000 public schools
• SES mattered most
• Peer group associations matter
• Other inputs were weak
Top New Jersey High
Schools 2008: By Rank
• http://njmonthly.com/articles/towns_and
_schools/highschoolrankings/top-newjersey-high-schools-by-rank.html
NJ Monthly -All High Schools
.84
Scattergram
9
8
7
DFG
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0
50
100
150
200
High School Rank
250
300
350
NJ Monthly -Minus Magnets
.89
Scattergram
9
8
7
DFG
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0
50
100
150
200
High School Rank
250
300
350
Coleman report also said
”… improving the school of a minority pupil may
increase his achievement more than would improving
the school of a white child increase his. Similarly, the
average minority pupil's achievement may suffer
more in a school of low quality than might the
average white pupil's. In short, whites and, to a lesser
extent, Oriental-Americans are less affected one way
or the other by the quality of their schools than are
minority pupils. This indicates that it is for the most
disadvantaged children that improvements in school
quality will make the most difference in achievement.”
DO SCHOOLS MATTER?
1. EDMUNDS (1979)
A. EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS RESEARCH
B. CORRELATES
2. LAZOTTE
EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS
RESEARCH
SAFE ORDERLY ENVIRONMENT
A CLEAR SCHOOL MISSION
STRONG PRINCIPAL – INSTRUCTIONAL
LEADERSHIP
CLIMATE OF HIGH EXPECTATIONS
A CONCENTRATION ON
INSTRUCTIONAL TASKS
MONITORING OF STUDENT PROGRESS
POSITIVE HOME SCHOOL RELATIONS
RECENT RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENT GOES UP
A. STUDENTS COMPELLED TO TAKE
ACADEMIC COURSES
B. CONSISTENT DISCIPLINE
C. ACADEMIC LEARNING TIME
D. Reduced Total student Load (TSL)
Why do we want to raise
student achievement?
• Individuals
– Increased lifetime salary
– Improved health
– If you don’t have a Bachelor’s degree, you
are worse off than in 1975 if you do you
are better off
Why do we want to raise
student achievement?
• Society
– Lower criminal justice costs
– Lower health care costs
– Increased economic growth
What’s the solution?
• Is it Structural?
– Small schools
– K-8 schools
– Class size
• (about a 4% increase in achievement for a 50%
cut in class size)
– Class grouping
What’s the solution?
• Is it Alignment?
– Curriculum reform
– Textbook replacement
• Is it governance?
– Charter schools
– Vouchers
• Is it Technology?
IT’S
THE
TEACHER
Effect of Teacher Effectiveness on
Student Achievement
• 3rd graders placed with 3 high performing teachers in
a row averaged 96th percentile at end of 5th grade in
math
• 3rd graders placed with 3 low performing teachers in
a row averaged 44th percentile at end of 5th grade in
math
• Tennessee’s State Math Test
“The results of this study well document that the most
important factor affecting student learning is the
teacher…more can be done to improve education by
improving the effectiveness of teachers than by any
other single factor. Effective teachers appear to be
effective with students of all achievement levels,
regardless of the level of heterogeneity in the
classroom.”
William Sanders
• The effects on achievement of both
strong and weak teachers persisted
over 3 years
Dallas Study
• 1st graders placed with 3 high performing
teachers in a row increased from 63rd
percentile to 87th on ITBS math
• 1st graders placed with 3 low performing
teachers in a row decreased from 58th
percentile to 40th on ITBS math
• The difference in reading was 42 points
Dallas Study
• The negative effect of poor-performing
teachers persisted through three years of
high-performing teachers - it took 3 yrs. For
the kids to catch up.
• Lower achieving students are more likely to
be put with less effective teachers
“Highly Effective teachers are able to produce much
greater gains than their less effective counterparts.”
“…not only does teacher quality matter when it comes
to how much students learn, but also that, for better
or worse, a teacher’s effectiveness stays with
students for years to come.”
Tucker & Stronge
In Linking Teacher Evaluation and Student Learning
How do we get better
teachers?
• Replace existing teachers with better ones
– Increase pay
• No evidence that increased pay brings better teachers
– Change certification standards
• No evidence that there are better teachers out there
deterred by certification requirements
• “Love the one your with” (CSN&Y)
• Improve the effectiveness of existing teachers
What Most Influenced Your
Teaching Style?
• HOW YOU WERE TAUGHT
• WHAT YOU LEARNED IN
EDUCATION COURSES
• YOUR PRINCIPAL
• YOU COLLEAGUES
• INDEPENDENT STUDY
Van Miller
Practice
Practice
Practice
Hunch
Practice
Practice
Hunch
Principles
Practice
Hunch
Theory
Practice
Principles
Practice
What is Theory?
“There is nothing impractical about good
theory … Action divorced from theory is
the random scurrying of a rat in a new
maze. Good Theory is the power to find
the way to the goal with a minimum of
lost motion and electric shock.”
-Paul Mort
“Insanity: doing the same thing over
and over again and expecting
different results.”
Albert Einstein
In Search of a Vision
Organizational Behavior is the interplay
between individuals and the social
environment in which they work.
62
Assumptions, Beliefs, and
Behaviors
• Every culture has basic assumptions about
people.
• From these assumptions flow values and beliefs.
• From values and beliefs flow action.
• Yet in society and organizations, our expressed
assumptions do not always lead to appropriate
action.
– Hypocrisy abounds in education and other
organizations. Examples?
63
Hypocrisies
• Most money is spent at secondary level
• High schools start earlier than
elementary schools
• Others?
Modernist and Structuralist
Thought
• Modernism is a way of thinking about the world and cultures in
an orderly, logical manner, leading us to discover truths through
the scientific method.
–
–
–
–
–
Up to mid 1900’s
Uses quantitative research methods
The truth is there to be discovered through the scientific method
The clockwork universe - Kepler (1605)
Fredrick the Great
• Prussian ruler - 18th century
• Structure, uniformity and standardization of his army
– Chain of command
– Line and staff organization
– Training and development
– The organization as machine
• Assembly line
65
Postmodernism
– is a challenge to modernism and its focus on absolute truths
and “grand narratives or metanarratives”.
– Primarily uses qualitative research methods.
Paradigms
A Paradigm is an interlocking set of
scientific, social, and political beliefs.
67
Psychology Paradigms
• Behaviorism—focus on extrinsic
rewards and punishments to explain
and control behavior.
– B.F. Skinner
– Remains Influential in
• Curriculum and instruction
• Classroom management
68
Psychology Paradigms
(continued)
• Psychoanalytic Psychology—unconscious
drives and internal instincts motivate people
and cause their behavior.
– Sigmund Freud and Bruno Bettelheim
• Cognitive Psychology—mental processes
including thinking, reasoning, decision
making underlie behavior (critical and
creative thinking).
– Jean Piaget most influential in affecting education.
69
Psychology Paradigms
(continued)
• Social Psychology—the study of how individuals
perceive, influence and relate to others in the
context of environment.
– Kurt Lewin
• B = f(p · environment), that is behavior is a function of the
interaction between the person and the environment.
• This is the basis of Organizational Theory -
70
Sociological and Psychological
Points of View
• Sociologists and Psychologists generally agree on
goals of schooling.
• However, they differ on how to achieve those goals.
– Psychologists tend to focus on the individual
interactions and relationships.
– Sociologists tend to focus on group interactions
and organizational characteristics.
• Taken together, these points of view help us
understand organizational behavior.
71
Paradigms in Education
• Education has no overarching paradigm.
• The last paradigm in education was
progressive education.
• The conservative social and political
landscape is currently attempting to force a
scientific revolution as embodied in NCLB,
which does not have full support of the
education community.
72
Schools as Educative
Organizations
• School are unique and should not mindlessly follow business
approaches to management.
• Schools foster learning and personal growth of all participants,
including the adults as well as the children.
• Organizational Theory helps us make more informed choices to
attain our goals.
• Theory enables us to describe what is going on, explain it,
predict future events under given circumstances.
• This is essential to the professional practitioner so they may
think about ways to exercise control over events.
The Relevance of School
Leadership Today
• The processes of developing Educational Leadership
are dynamic with constant and ongoing change and
development.
– The emergence of new knowledge about how people
function in organizations.
– The dynamic impact of changes in the larger society in which
the schools exist.
• Leaders must guide schools to be nimble, adaptive
organizations that detect emerging problems and
react proactively.
74
No Child Left Behind
• The reauthorization of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965
(ESEA).
• Signed by President George W. Bush
on January 8, 2002.
• Signified a clear shift in federal role
toward policy maker and reformer.
75
NCLB (continued)
• Three goals of NCLB:
– Closing the achievement gap for disadvantaged students.
– Improving the preparation of teachers and increasing their
compensation so as to have every classroom in America staffed
by a “highly qualified” teacher by the end of the 2005–2006
school year.
– Instituting closely monitored systems of accountability for
students, teachers, and schools.
• NCLB mentions research 116 times, giving rise to
controversy over the operational definition of
scientifically-based research.
76
• Stanford Professors – American
students are falling behind foreign
students in problem solving.
• Alan November – Problem solving
ability is inversely proportionate to
NCLB
Research Methods in
Education
• Education research has not been held in high
esteem in the research community.
• A scholarly discipline has a well-defined body
of knowledge from theory and research.
• The “gold standard” for research are studies
that use randomized selection and
assignment of participants into experimental
and control groups.
78
Examples of Gold Standard
Research
• Framingham Heart Study
– Over 5,000 participants since 1948.
– Cigarette smoking, cholesterol level, and hypertension increased risk of
heart disease.
• Tennessee Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR). Began in
1985 for four years.
– Over 7,000 students in 300 k-3 classes, randomly assigned.
– Found that:
• small classes (<18) improved student achievement and grade
retention;
• low SES students gained more than high SES students;
• large classes with aides were no better than large classes
with no aides.
79
Impact on School Leaders
• In the wake of NCLB, School leaders should be
cognizant of what constitutes “good research”.
• NCLB has been highly criticized, not in its focus on
scientifically-based research or accountability, but in
the over-reliance on high-stakes testing and
mandates whose costs are borne by the states.
– Pontiac School District v. Spellings –defendant wins in US
District Court.
– Many educational leadership organizations are strong
advocates for changes in NCLB, such as AASA, NASSP,
NAESP, NEA, CEC, and the National PTA.
80
• WHERE IS NCLB TODAY?
• Where will it be next?