for Dr. John Holton, EDLP 725. February, 1998.
Introduction and Methodology
The authors selected six students at five different Coalition schools and studied their accomplishments, transition, and evolution from their sophomore to senior year. Assessment began with student interviews and analysis. The authors then tracked the students, encountering and interviewing others during the time frame, as well as interviewing the associated parents and teachers. They reported their findings in qualitative terms of individual personality traits, home life input from parents, and input from teachers and other community members. Quantitatively, the authors reported the demographic composition of schools: geographic setting, number of students enrolled, percentage of minority students, and number of principals from 1988-1995 for each individual school. The authors also analyzed specific reform activities for each of the five schools:
Teaching strategies:
The authors’ use of obtrusive research methods to answer questions about kids and school reform resulted in the finding that "higher levels of competence, better skills, justified confidence, authorized opinions - require change of some kind in schools." (183) The key word in this evaluation is change. The assertion that change is a process and not an event is important because qualitative educational research of this type requires months and usually years to complete. (Hall) The change that was observed in the performance of six students and achievements occurred over the three-year period, not at one specific time. This is important to note, and as with other studies of this scale, a change of any kind is always a process and must be accepted by those involved. For a positive change to occur such as improved grades, awareness of community and preparation for becoming productive members in that community, all members of that community must embrace the change process by learning about its intricacies and work together to turn a vision into reality.
This change process takes a great deal of perseverance on the part of educators, administrators and students. Over the three-year period, no single event to change the curriculum, develop repertoire, make connections, or develop skills of civil discourse took place but the process of change with these and similar variables allowed the researchers to learn that, "eventually ... they [the teachers] were better able to make the connection between rigor and innovation [change], and as a result, they strengthened the connection between their efforts to improve their schools and student achievement." (137) However, a problem was revealed in the Routine and Innovation pair. Many teachers in the five schools viewed themselves as applying a variety of teaching methods to stimulate mental growth. In fact, the authors encountered, most teachers’ repertoire is much more confined and constricted than they recognize and that "school reform requires dynamic interplay between sets of conditions that are too often pursued in isolation." (xii)
At the end of the three-year research period, the authors’ conclusions regarding change proposed that "greater results for kids must first be conceptualized by teachers and administrators, who then bring their ideas to bear on students through strategies, projects, or other concrete changes in their work. Such changes require time, analysis, critical feedback, and continuing work to assure that these gains accrue to kids." (183-4)
As an educator and instructor, I am greatly intrigued by the environment of school evaluation which was set up in Kids and School Reform. The authors described pressures associated with goals and practice by using the following four paired concepts that they believe are needed for change in school curriculum: Caring and Expectation, Rigor and Innovation, Routine and Repertoire, and Scale and Discourse. As one example illustrates, mentor groups were used in the Caring and Expectation pair, such that groups had been designed to cultivate nurturance and caring, however, they appeared to fall short in knowing students as learners, therefore the students’ expectancy of academic achievement was not fully revealed which is an example of the changes yielding little or nothing for kids.
Teamwork among administration and teamwork in the sense of team teaching to accomplish the needed changes yielded both positive and negative results. For the students, some saw team teaching as both a help and hindrance because those teachers who were able to work well together changed to improve teaching their students; those who did not work well together and did not like change did nothing and only hindered students’ learning. This is a facet of the study I would liked to have seen developed more fully.
Individual Personality
Throughout the text of this book the important factor of individual teacher personality was neither promoted nor thoroughly analyzed. The authors give only a brief insight into individual teacher personality by stating that "teachers with high expectation consistently differed from colleagues with lower expectation in two crucial ways: they held an undiminished faith in the potential of their students, and they persisted when a class seemed unable or unwilling to work hard." (76) This interpretation of the Caring and Expectations pair is important to expand. Teacher personality plays a large role in nurturing and caring to enhance students’ learning skills. Teachers who are introverted and do not accept change will not likely appear to or actually care if students learn what it is they are teaching. Conversely, caring, outgoing and energetic teachers will more likely help students make the connections between the previously stated pairs that will help both teacher and student learn from one another thus allowing the change process to succeed for whatever goals may be sought. Connections
Another important argument of the researcher’s study was "that to achieve this essential connection between reform efforts and student performance, schools must grapple with four embedded linkages, four stepping-stone connections to the major connection." (17) Throughout the text, the authors concentrate on the connections which were either made or not within the context of Caring and Expectation, Rigor and Innovation, Routine and Repertoire, and Scale and Discourse. The authors also asked themselves the question, "when do changes truly improve student learning?" (xii), but never seem to give a truly quantifiable answer. Their research lead them to believe that "despite their [schools’] differences, all were either struggling to make these connections or were struggling because of the lack of them. Thus, it seemed to us that making the connections between various aspects of schooling paved the road to the essential connection between school reform efforts and real gains in student achievement." (206)
Evidence and Improvement
In my view, the authors’ evidence is credible. They were able to spend three years observing the progress of the six students and at the end of the period, after compiling what must have been enormous amounts of qualitative data, were able to make logical assumptions based on observation and voiced results directly from the objects of the study. According to all participants, when a proposed change was made and handled with the positive hope for an overall achievement, the change worked. But when a proposed change was made and approached from a negative stance, the change occurred but due to the lack of energy, enthusiasm and time by the adults, the outcome yielded a negative or no result.
Conclusion
What does this credible evidence mean to those who are interested in improving curriculum and instruction in a school? Well, the results teach us that 1) change is a process and not an event (Michael Fullan); 2) as educators, we must be able to approach change optimistically and with a positive attitude; and 3) adults will always bring their individual personalities to every situation. I believe that individual personality has the greatest impact upon any form of change. If we want change badly enough, we do everything possible to make that change occur. Conversely, whether it be subconscious or obvious, if we do not want a change to occur, we do everything we possibly can to hinder it.
The greatest impact educators can have on the world’s future is through well educated, motivated, caring and productive students. If we do not change to attempt to improve curricula specific to our individual needs and desired outcomes, our efforts will perpetuate a somewhat educationally stagnating generation. To think positively, to change attitude toward optimism, and to generate enthusiasm for learning through methodology are images I see projected from the research and results presented by these skilled researchers. I can only hope that my individual traits toward educating our students personify the positively expressed characteristics of those who have already succeeded.
Works Cited
Hall, Gene. "The Local Educational Change Process and Policy Implementation." Journal of Research in Science Teaching v29n8, 1992. p.877.
Wasley, Patricia A., et al. Kids and School Reform Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco. 1997.