CONNECTIONS 211: THE LIFE (AND DEATH?)
OF PUBLIC EDUCATION IN AMERICA
Spring 2015
Professor Katherine McClelland
Office Hours: Announced Weekly
(typicallly W and F afternoons, and either T or Th)
Office: 201 Gerhart House; x4030; kmcclell@fandm.edu
Preceptor: Rebecca Gant ‘15
Education reforms have been the subject of public debate for decades; however, the
challenges and changes we face today are unprecedented. Are we witnessing the
death of public education in America? Its transformation into something completely
new and different? Or more of the same “churn” of failed educational reforms?
This course will examine these questions from the perspectives of three different
disciplines: psychology, sociology, and public policy. In the process, we will explore
such critical question as: Why can’t we get schools right? Why are we always
looking at reform - shouldn’t we have figured out how schools work by now? Or do
we actually have the answers – in which case, perhaps all we need is a market to
spur new and creative solutions, and incentivize ineffective teachers and
administrators to get going or get out?
This is also a Community Based Learning (CBL) course. As we are grappling with
these issues at the policy level, students will also be tutoring at local public schools
for 2 hours/week. Through this experience, you’ll have the chance to see what
schools and learning look like “at ground zero” as we read what pundits, scholars,
and policy makers have to say. To maximize your ability to learn from your CBL
experiences, you are required to submit weekly written reflections connecting your
tutoring with course material covered in that week; see more information on this,
below.
CONNECTIONS
As a Connections 2 course, you will be further refining your skills at reading, writing,
speaking, and doing research at the college level as we explore these questions.
These will entail taking responsibility for your learning at a higher level than in
Connections 1. The course structure and assignments are designed to help you do
this in several ways.
FIRST: This course is a seminar; therefore, you as the student are as responsible for
its success as I am. Regular attendance at and informed participation in class
meetings is absolutely essential to the success of the course; indeed, without your
input there will be no class. Thus, a portion of your final grade will be determined
by your class participation.
SECOND: You will be doing a lot of writing and research in this class. Early in the
semester, each student will select a research question related to our course topics
and explore it in further detail as the semester goes on. This work will culminate in
a research paper, which students will share with one another during the last two
weeks of the class. The research paper will build over the course of several
assignments, including guided revisions of key elements.
THIRD: All students will do a formal oral presentation of their papers during the
last two weeks of class, thus providing you the opportunity to develop and practice
your skills in this critical domain.
REQUIREMENTS
There are three types of requirements for this class: oral, written, and CBL.
ORAL requirements are both formal and informal. The formal requirements
include periodic presentations in class and your research presentation at the end of
the term; the informal requirement is regular attendance at and informed
participation in our seminar discussions.
WRITTEN requirements include the completion of 10 reflections (details below),
three short “free-standing” assignments, three assignments building up to the
research paper, and the research paper (in two drafts). Note on Revisions: While
the research paper must be drafted and revised (with separate grades assigned to
each), revisions of other written assignments are also possible, and will be required
if the original submission falls short in key respects. In all cases except the final
paper, the final grade for a revised assignment will be an average of the grades
assigned to each version (first draft and final).
CBL. All students must complete 20 hours of tutoring in public school classrooms by
the end of the semesters in order to pass the course.
GRADING: The components above will be factored in to your final grade as follows:
NOTE: This needs to be updated to reflect changes in assignments….
Assignment
Portion of Final Grade
Separating Assertions from Evidence
5
Facts and Values in Public Policy
5
Reading a Journal Article
5
Research Question
5
Annotated Bibliography
10
Extended Outline
10
Complete Draft of Research Paper
10
Final Revised Research Paper
25
Oral Presentation
10
Class Participation
10
Reflections
5
In addition, as noted above, 20 hours of CBL must be completed in order to pass the
course.
REFLECTIONS
In order to get the full benefit of the field experience, students will need to connect what
they are doing and seeing in the schools with what they are reading and discussing in class.
The reflections are designed to help you accomplish this. Reflections are short (one
paragraph to one page) responses that connect course readings and discussions for that
week to your experiences in the field. These are meant to be opportunities for you to
work through issues and questions with course material, develop your own analyses of
them, and think about how they connect to what you're seeing in the schools. They are
CRITICAL for the success of this class, in that they form the bridge between its various
components - readings, seminar discussions, research, and your work in the schools.
Reflections can take many forms: reactions to one or more of the readings in light of your
field experiences, links you see between course material, observations from your tutoring,
and your own educational experiences, questions raised by the readings in light of your
classroom experiences, criticisms and/or analyses of the readings informed by your field
experiences, or even particular aspects of the readings that you find confusing or otherwise
unsatisfactory. They can deal with a single reading or they can attempt to pull all material
for the week together, and they can be used to raise questions as well as attempt to answer
them. Occasionally, I will give you a specific topic to write on.
There are two necessary components for all reflections, however: first, they must go
beyond summaries of readings or simple narrative reports of field experiences, and second,
they must deal with both readings and discussions for that week AND what you've seen in
the schools. (The only exception to this will be made for the week(s) before placements are
made.) These reflections will also help you prepare for class. Because these reflections
are intended to encourage you to develop ideas and draw connections, to be "intellectually
creative", THEY WILL NOT BE GRADED. However, in order to get full credit for the 5% of
your grade that they constitute, you must complete 10. (Each reflection thus equals 1/2
point, except when they are late.) Reflections above the required 10 will be considered for
"extra credit". There are 12 weeks of material in this course, and you must complete and
hand in reflections for 10 of these; thus, you each get two free “byes” – weeks when you
don't have to do a reflection. You are responsible for keeping track of when you have
exercised your “bye”. If there are activities on campus (Common Hour speakers, lecturers,
films, etc) that relate to our course, you are encouraged to attend them and submit an
additional reflection, as described above, for extra credit; such opportunities should be
cleared with me and shared with the rest of the class in advance.
BOOKS
The following books have been ordered at the bookstore, and put on reserve in
Shadek-Fackenthal library. We will read all or most of them. All other course
readings will be available on our course e-disk, in the “E-Reserves” folder.
Paul Tough, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
Prudence Carter and Kevin Welner, eds., Closing the Opportunity Gap: What America
Must Do To Give Every Child a Chance.
SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Weeks 1 and 2: The State of Our Nation’s Schools?
1/14:
Introduction
1/16:
Denvir, “How To Destroy a Public School System”
Mezzacappa, “Austerity, Uncertainty Loom Large as Class of
2018 Arrives”
Finn, “Eight of the Toughest Challenges Schools Still Face”
FILM: Waiting for Superman: Sunday, 1/18, 7:30 PM in STA105
1/19:
1/21:
Nelson, “US Schools are Better Than They’ve Ever Been”
Goldberg, “Do Away With Public Schools”
Narzaryn, “Sorry, Louis CK….”
Ravitch, “Diane Ravitch Defends Louis CK”
Niles, “Why I Send My Child to Public Schools”
Steven Brill, “The Ephiphanies”; pp 19-30 in Class Warfare:
Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools. Simon and Shuster,
New York: 2011.
Bryant, “The Great Charter School Rip-Off”
Assignment 1: Facts and Assertions. Due WEDNESDAY, 1/21, in class
1/23:
Kober and Usher, “A Public Education Primer”
Week 3: Where we are and how we got there…
1/26:
Kober, “Why We Still Need Public Schools”
Library Workshop: Who Are These People?
1/28:
Duncan and Murnane,”Diverging Destinies” and “Family Income
and School Success”, Chapters 2 and 3 from Restoring
Opportunity: The Crisis of Inequality and the Challenge for
American Education. Harvard Education Press, 2014.
Assignment 2: Facts and Values. Due THURSDAY, 1/29, 4 PM
1/30:
Ravitch, “What I Learned About School Reform.” Chapter 1 in
The Death and Life of the Great American School System.
Basic Books, 2010.
Week 4: Opportunity Gaps: Class. Race and Education
2/2:
Rothstein, “Why Children from Lower Socioeconomic Classes, on
Average, Have Lower Academic Achievement Than Middle
Class Children.” Chapter 5 in Closing the Opportunity Gap
Library Workshop: Identifying Scholarly/Scientific Work
2/4:
Ladson-Billings, “Lack of Achievement or Loss of Opportunity?”
Chapter 2 in Closing the Opportunity Gap
Badger, “What Your First Grade Life Says About the Rest of It”
2/6:
Darling-Hammond, “Inequality and School Resources”, Chapter
6 in Closing the Opportunity Gap
Weeks 5 – 7: How Children Learn
2/9:
Paul Tough, How Children Succeed: Introduction, Chapters 1 and
2
Assignment 3: Research Question. Due 2/11, in class.
2/11:
Diamond, Barnett, Thomas and Munro. 2007. “Preschool
Program Improves Cognitive Control.” Science 318: 13871388.
Diamond. 2010. “The Evidence Base for Improving Outcomes
by Addressing the Whole Child and by Addressing Skills and
Attitudes, Not Just Content.” Early Education and
Development 21(5): 780-793.
2/13:
Seligman and Duckworth, 2005. “Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in
Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents.”
Psychological Science 16 (12): 939-944.
Duckworth, Perterson, Matthews and Kelly. 2007 “Grit:
Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals.” Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 92 (6): 1087-1101.
Duckworth, Quinn, and Tsukayama. 2012. “What No Child Left
Behind Leaves Behind: The Roles of IQ and Self-Control in
Predicting Standardized Test Scores and Report Card
Grades.” Journal of Educational Psychology 104(2): 439-451.
2/16 and 2/18: Library Workshop – How To Do Scholarly Research
2/20:
Tough: Chapter 3
2/23:
Blackwell, Lisa; Trzeniewski, Kali; and Dweck, Carol. 2007.
“Implicit Theories of Intelligence Predict Achievement
Across an Adolescent Transition: A Longitudinal Study and
an Intervention.” Child Development 78 (1): 246-263.
Mueller, Claudia and Dweck, Carol. 1998. “Praise for
Intelligence Can Undermine Children’s Motivation and
Performance.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
75 (1): 33-52.
Mangels, Butterfield, Lamb, Good, and Dweck . 2006. “Why Do
Beliefs About Intelligence Influence Leaning Success? A
Social Cognitive Neuroscience Model.” Scan (1): 75-86.
Cimpian, Arce, Markmann, and Dweck. 2007. “Subtle
Linguistic Cues Affect Children’s Motivation.” Psychological
Science 18 (4): 314-316.
Assignment 4: Reading a Journal Article. Due Wednesday, 2/22, 4 PM
2/25:
Tough: Chapters 4 and 5
2/27:
Heckman Essay and Responses
Week 8: The market critique of public schools
3/2:
Writing Workshop: Annotated Bibliographies
3/4:
Ravitch, pp 113-123 in “Choice: The Story of an Idea”, Chapter 7
in Ravitch, The Death and Life….
Christopher and Sarah Lubienski, “The Theory of Markets For
Schooling”, Chapter 2 in The Public School Advantage.
University of Chicago Press, 2014.
3/6:
Wahlberg, “Expanding the Options”, Chapter 5 in What Lies Ahead
for America’s Children and Their Schools. Hoover Institution
Press, 2014.
Assignment 5: Annotated Bibliography. Due Friday, 3/6, 3 PM
Week 9: Educational Markets in Practice
3/9:
Carter and Wells, “A More Perfect Union: Reconciling School
Choice with Equality of Opportunity.” Chapter 9 in Closing
the Opportunity Gap.
3/11:
Cucchiara, “Cities Are Trying To Fix Their Schools By Luring the
Middle Class”
Ravitch, “Choice” – rest of chapter.
3/13:
Noguera, “Why Don’t We Have Good Data About Charter
Schools?”
Strauss, “Major Charter Researcher Causes Stir with Comments
about Market-Based School Reform “
Week 10: Testing and Accountability
3/23:
Williamson Evers, “Implementing Standards and Testing”,
Chapter 6 in What Lies Ahead for America’s Children and
Their Schools. Hoover Institution Press, 2014.
Schneider, “The Accountability Plateau.”
3/25:
Ravitch, “The Trouble With Accountability.” Chapter 8 in The
Death and Life …
Tienken and Zhao, “How Common Standards and Standardized
Testing Widen the Opportunity Gap”, Chapter 8 in Closing
the Opportunity Gap
3/27:
Duncan and Murnane, “Challenges in the Classroom” and
“Restoring Opportunity”. Chapters 4 and 9 in Restoring
Opportunity.
Assignment 6: Extended Outline. Due Friday, 3/27, 3 PM.
Week 11: Teachers
3/30:
Hanushek, “Boosting Teacher Effectiveness”, Chapter 2 in What
Lies Ahead
Goldstein, pp 201-230 of Chapter 8, “Big, Measurable Goals”, in
The Teacher Wars
4/1:
Berry, “Good Schools and Teachers for All Students: Dispelling
Myths, Facing Evidence, and Pursuing the Right Strategies”.
Chapter 13 in Closing the Opportunity Gap.
4/3:
Brill, “A Marathon, Not A Sprint”; pp 422-438 in Class Warfare.
Goldstein, pp 256-262 of Chapter 10, “Let Me Use What I Know”,
in The Teacher Wars
Week 12: ARE Public Schools Failing?
4/6:
Lubienski and Lubienski, “Achievement in Public, Charter, and
Private Schools”, Chapter 4 in The Public School Advantage.
4/8:
Lubienski and Lubienski, “The Effectiveness of Public and
Private Schools”, Chapter 5 in The Public School Advantage.
4/10:
Moses and Rogers, “Enhancing a Nation’s Democracy Through
Equitable Schools”. Chapter 15 in Closing the Opportunity
Gap.
Weeks 13 and 14: Presentation of Research Papers
Assignment 7: Complete Draft of Research Paper. Due Thursday, 4/16,
4 PM
Assignment 8: Final Draft of Research Paper. Due Tuesday, 4/28, 9 AM