A Geology of School Reform

A Geology of School Reform PDF Author: Liane Brouillette
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791429907
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Provides a rare look at how successive waves of educational reforms have interacted within a single school district.

A Geology of School Reform

A Geology of School Reform PDF Author: Liane Brouillette
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791429907
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Provides a rare look at how successive waves of educational reforms have interacted within a single school district.

A Geology of School Reform

A Geology of School Reform PDF Author: Liane Brouillette
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791497712
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
A Geology of School Reform provides a rare look at how successive waves of reform have interacted within a single school district. Among the questions raised are: Which practices proved destructive to the learning of students and the morale of teachers? What innovations have practitioners kept despite changes in educational fashion? The Cottonwood School District, which began as two rural schoolhouses in the early 1950s, is followed through the experiments of the 1960s; the back-to-basics movements of the 1970s; and the innovations of the 1980s. The successive waves of reform had different meanings for various professional and community groups within this culturally diverse district. Educators, enmeshed in the priorities of previous reforms, often resisted subsequent changes. Although the differences that arose between them and their communities sometimes required facilitators to assist communication, collaborative decision making has helped Cottonwood to deal with these changes.

Spinning Wheels

Spinning Wheels PDF Author: Frederick M. Hess
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815719953
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Almost everyone agrees that America's urban schools are a mess. But while this agreement has fostered widespread support for aggressive reform, Frederick Hess argues that much of what ails urban education is actually the result of continuous or fragmentary reform. Hess explains that political incentives drive school superintendents to promote reforms--to demonstrate that they are "making a difference." Superintendents have to do this quickly, both because their tenure is usually three years or less and because urban communities are anxious to see educational improvement. However, the nature of urban school districts makes it very difficult to demonstrate concrete short-term improvement. The result is what he terms "policy churn," which distracts teachers and principals from efforts to refine classroom teaching while seldom resulting in successful long-term changes. Hess argues that policymakers have misallocated resources by pursuing the "right" structure or the "best" pedagogy while paying insufficient attention to the more mundane--and more important--questions of how to implement, refine, and sustain a particular approach in their particular district. Hess explains that previous research on high-performing schools suggests that the best schools are characterized by focus and by an ability to develop expertise in specific approaches to teaching and learning. To help educators and policymakers adopt and nurture a focused agenda, he recommends institutional changes that increase the effectiveness of performance outcomes and reduce the incentives to emphasize symbolic reform.

Resources in Education

Resources in Education PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 1032

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Book Description


Charter Schools

Charter Schools PDF Author: Liane Brouillette
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135653186
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
This book takes the reader inside the charter school movement, answering such questions as: *What is a charter school? *How are charter schools different from other public schools? *What does it take to create a charter school? *What motivates the people who initiate such schools? *What lessons can be learned from the experiences of those who have founded charter schools? *What does the growth of the charter school movement mean for society at large? Using detailed case studies of seven schools in three states, this book explores the challenges faced by the founders of these schools and develops guidelines for creating a successful school. Seymour Sarason's work on the creation of settings is used as a basis for examining the complex human interactions that contributed to formation of a unique culture at each school, as well as to establish guidelines for setting up a successful school. Introductory and concluding chapters place the charter school movement within a broader social and historical context. Tensions between the American tradition of local control of schools and the centralized tradition of schooling imported from Europe in the late 19th century are discussed. The gradual bureaucratization of U.S. public schools during the 20th century is described, along with problems that have been associated with the increasingly hierarchical and impersonal nature of educational institutions.

Revolution at the Margins

Revolution at the Margins PDF Author: Frederick M. Hess
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780815798576
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
For more than a decade, school choice has been a flashpoint in debates about our nation's schooling. Perhaps the most commonly advanced argument for school choice is the notion that markets will force public schools to improve, particularly in those urban areas where improvement has proved so elusive. However, the question of how public schools respond to market conditions has received surprisingly little attention. Revolution at the Margins examines the impact of school vouchers and charter schooling on three urban school districts, explores the causes of the behavior observed, and explains how the structure of competition is likely to shape the way it affects the future of public education. The book draws on research conducted in three school districts at the center of the school choice debate during the 1990s: Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Cleveland, Ohio; and Edgewood, Texas. Case studies examine each of these three districts from the inception of their local school choice program through the conclusion of the 1999 school year. The three school districts studied did not respond to competition by emphasizing productivity or efficiency. Instead, under pressure to provide some evidence of response, administrators tended to expand public relations efforts and to chip holes in the rules, regulations, and procedures that regulate public sector organizations. Inefficient practices were not rooted out, but some rules and procedures that protect employees and vocal constituencies were relaxed. Public school systems are driven by political logic, according to Hess, and their incentives lead them to respond generally through symbolic and metaphorical gestures. Choice-induced changes in public school systems will be shaped by public governance, the market context in which they operate, and their organizational characteristics. Revolution at the Margins encourages scholars and policymakers to think more carefully about the costs and benefits of educational competition, to understand how competitive effects will be heavily shaped by the outcomes of more conventional efforts to reform schooling, and to reevaluate some of the facile promises of market-based education reform.

Distributed Leadership According to the Evidence

Distributed Leadership According to the Evidence PDF Author: Kenneth Leithwood
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135252165
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
Although not new, the concept of distributed (shared) leadership has re-emerged in recent years as one highly promising response to the complex challenges currently faced by schools. Responding productively to these challenges far exceeds the capacities of any individual leader. If schools are to flourish in the future, they will need to enlist the collective expertise of many more of their members and stakeholders than they have in the past. The purpose of this volume is to both present and synthesize the best available evidence about the nature, causes, and effects of distributed school leadership. The book also clarifies common misunderstandings about distributed leadership and identifies promising implications for practice and for future research. Key features include... Expertise – Written by the most active and widely respected scholars engaged in research on distributed leadership, the book encompasses the very latest knowledge about the nature, causes and consequences of such leadership in schools. Comparative Models – The book compares various approaches to distributed leadership and examines the conditions under which some approaches may be better than others in improving schools. Evidence-Based – Much of the popularity of distributed leadership is rooted in expectations unsupported by systematic empirical evidence. Virtually all of the available evidence about distributed approach to leadership can be found in this book. This book is appropriate for researchers studying school leadership, instructors and students in graduate-level school leadership courses and practicing administrators at the district and building level.

School Reform

School Reform PDF Author: Noël Merino
Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing
ISBN: 9780737772876
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This collection of articles pro and con on school reform debates the policies that should guide reform; how students, teachers, and schools should be evaluated; the role of school choice in reform; and whether curriculum content should be reformed.

Taking Education Really Seriously

Taking Education Really Seriously PDF Author: Michael Fielding
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134528825
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Michael Fielding looks at what the Labour Government has achieved in the last four years with its policy of 'education, education, education'. There has been widespread disappointment in New Labour's education policies, which on the whole have not steered too far wide of those put in place by Margaret Thatcher, including issues of marketisation, testing and performativity. Michael Fielding has called on the key policy thinkers in education to offer their opinions on what has happened in education over the first three to four years of the New Labour Government. Education policy is a controversial subject and with a General Election expected within the next few months, this book will be read widely by people within education, politicians and journalists and by others anxious to get to facts and avoid the spin. The subject matter and the presence of so many high profile educationalists make this an essential read.

Curriculum, Community, and Urban School Reform

Curriculum, Community, and Urban School Reform PDF Author: B. Franklin
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230105742
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This book asserts that efforts to reform schools, particularly urban schools, are events that engender a host of issues and conflicts that have been interpreted through the conceptual lens of community.