Group items tagged

Data on Teachers Uneven

use their data to help struggling teachers and to reward successful ones

but the information is used in principals' evaluations of their teachers

While it's useful to have that kind of longitudinal data [for policy purposes]," he says, "one should not impute conclusions about the true depth of a child's intellectual development in terms of math, science, or whatever."

results on statewide tests aren't as useful as many policymakers think.

Students take the tests at the start of every quarter in every subject, and the results are available the same day. The data are broken down by the racial, ethnic, economic, and other subgroups used in NCLB accountability reports.

the cellular organization of schools keeps teachers physically apart from other professionals in the school. This isolation then impacts teacher attitudes and limits the relationships between teachers, students, administrators, and the community -- relationships that are essential factors in the change process.

Structures in the school that contribute to teacher isolation and the feeling that the individual cannot make a difference are indeed barriers to school improvement efforts.

Secondary students, in particular, must cope with a structure with which no worker in the real world would be saddled (Shanker, 1989). Shanker (1989) describes some of these conditions: They're put into a room to work with 30 or more of their peers, with whom they cannot communicate. The teacher gives them their tasks, and, when the bell rings 40 or so minutes later, they have to gather up their belongings and head to another "work station" for a whole new set of tasks with a new "supervisor" who has a different personality and, very likely, a different method of operation. This routine is repeated six or seven times a day�All youngsters are expected to have sufficient motivation and self-discipline to get down to serious work on day one in anticipation of a "reward" far down the road -- something most adults need all their fortitude to accomplish. (p. 3)

Spady (1988) believes that the organization of schools around the calendar, the clock and the schedule, exerts a pervasive influence on the thinking of those who work and study in them. This focus on time, along with the legal mandate to keep students in the custody of the school for fixed periods of time, may result in teachers adopting the unproductive syndromes of "putting in time" and "covering material" (Spady, 1988).

In a 1987 study, Pittman and Haughwout estimate that the

dropout rate at a school increases one percent for every 400-student increase in the high school population.

benefits to the curriculum gained by size of enrollment peaked at 400 students

In large schools a breakdown occurs in communication, feedback about performance, and staff involvement in decision making (Hallinger, Bickman, & Davis, 1990).

According to Fullan (1991), the working conditions of teachers in the vast majority of schools are not conducive to sustained teacher innovation

To improve teacher performance, the work environment must enhance teachers' sense of professionalism and decrease their career dissatisfaction.

Sarason (1982) reports that the untested assumption that few others think the same way keeps school staff from expressing ideas for improving the school.

This vast array of regulations runs counter to the findings of Chubb and Moe (1990), who found that schools with a greater percentage of academically achieving students have "substantial school autonomy from direct external control" (p. 183)

Basic education policy should be shaped at state and district levels, but the day-to-day decision-making should shift to the local school, according to a report of the Carnegie Foundation (1988). This report concludes that what is needed is school-based authority with accountability at the school level.

leadership in change efforts is well documented at the school level.

This method of examining change finds its roots in the cultural approach to school improvement, which suggests that "teachers and students are strongly influenced by the culture of the school, the mores, routines, and conventions about how things are done in their schools" (Deal & Peterson, 1990, p. 6).

at risk of failing to achieve their academic potential, dropping out of school, and/or having limits placed on their ability to function as productive adults in society.

the ecology, includes the inorganic elements of the school

The resources available, policies and rules, and size of the school are examples of this dimension of school context.

Culture is an expression that tries to capture the informal side of social organizations

Schein (1985) goes on to define culture as "the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously, and that define in a basic `taken-for-granted' fashion an organization's view of itself and its environment" (p. 6).

attitudes and beliefs

cultural norms of the school, c

relationships of persons inside the school