Exploring the Purpose of
School after NCLB
Steve Stemler
Lauren Sonnabend
Wesleyan University
Intro
• What is the purpose of school?
– Clearly not monolithic
– Varies by school type – focus on secondary
• Thesis: The prominent purposes of school shift
over time as a result of political, social influences
– Empirical way to evaluate prominent purposes?
• Four Specific Research Questions
Do missions vary by State?
• Need different pictures to represent
different political influences (red/blue) and
different landscapes (cornfields of IA v.
City of NY v. Industry of XX v. Microsoft in
WA)?
Do missions vary by Urbanicity?
• Show pictures of urban, suburban, rural
schools/areas
• Different needs for different schools
• Media statements about what urban
schools should do for children
– Some evidence that indicates that urban
schools are called upon to be “home”
Do Missions Vary by NCLB Status?
• Failing Schools v. High-Performing
Schools
• Show league table ranking highperforming and low-performing schools
• Picture of a multiple-choice test with pencil
Do Missions Change over Time?
• Insert Blank Timeline with Dates from
1900 to today
– We can just create this in the draw feature
Background
• Philosophers of Education
• Historical Timeline that shows when civic
development was important, when
emotional, when social, when cognitive,
etc.
Background
• Federal v. Local Control of Education
• Show different Federal educational
policies (Goals 2000 with their safe
schools, NCLB with their cognitive
emphasis) on Historical Timeline
– Can you search for something like this on the
web?
Background
• State Influences on Education
• MA Constitution
– First US State Constitution
– Written by John Adams
– Direct quote on purpose of schools
Background
• How this gets translated into legal
responsibilities today
• McDuffy 7
– Kentucky, MA, other states
Background
• Parental perspectives and student
perspectives
• Survey results
Summary
• All conclude that there are multiple purposes to
schools
• No one purpose has inherent precedence over
another
• Two problems
– No systematic voice of the schools themselves!
– Can’t all have precedence simultaneously; must
change over time. Influenced by policy?
Our Study
• Look at school’s perspective
• Using Mission Statements
• Why Mission Statements?
– Simple, effective, easy to obtain and analyze
– Necessary for accreditation (cite)
– School Effectiveness Lit shows that more effective
schools show comittment to shared vision
– Prior research (Stemler & Bebell; Strobel; Havelauk)
Study 1: Purpose
• Longitudinal Analysis of School Mission
Statements
• Research Question: Do they change over
time and if so, in what ways?
Study 1: Methods
• Truly random sample of 50 MA secondary
schools.
• 90% response rate (n=45)
• Content Analysis of Statements
– Give Example with Scoring Rubric
Study 1: Methods
• Example Statements and Scoring Rubrics
• Rubric
• Interrater reliability results:
Study 1: Methods
• Reported in Stemler & Bebell 2001
NEERO paper
– Pre-NCLB
• Looked at same schools 5 years later. Had
they changed at all?
Study 1: Results
• 50% changed, 50% did not
• Graph showing how they changed
• Common argument – NCLB narrow’s schools focus
• Findings = added one more thing on top – didn’t throw anything
away!
• Shift in emphasis from civic, emotional, cog to cog, civic, emot
• Qualitative example of loss of “love of learning” in favor of “critical
thinking”
– Need 2 or so examples here
Study 2: Purpose
• Large-scale empirical analysis
– Examine systematic differences by state,
urbanicity, and NCLB status
• Geographically and politically diverse
states
– Give picture with the states we picked
highlighted
Study 2: Methods
• How we did it
– Purposive selection of 10 geographically and
politically diverse states
– Random selection of 50 public high schools in each
state
– Selection criteria > 70% with mission statements
• Coding Rubric
– Interrater reliability
– Modification from 2001 to 2006
Study 2: Results
• Table with 10 states and % with mission
statements/websites
• Kind of interesting sidenote, probably first
study to look at truly random sample and
estimate prevalence of school websites
Results
• Systematic differences by state?
• Graph
• Summarize – CO, NY/CA, TX/FL
Results
• Urbanicity
• Table
• Urban schools being asked to do more
than most (article lit review/media)
Results
• NCLB
• Confounded with urbancity?
– Check this – compare percentage of pass and
fail by urbanicity
• Explanation
Discussion
• Summary of our findings overall as related
to major questions
Limitations
• Does mission match practice?
– Any influence practice at all?
• Mention phone interviews
– Findings
– Summary
– Qualitative
Broader Implications
• Study presents empirical approach to
evaluating school perspective
– Currently missing in literature
• Study provides a technique for monitoring
social weather and its impact on school