tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/school-reform-9554/articlesSchool reform – The Conversation2023-01-02T12:40:34Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1940062023-01-02T12:40:34Z2023-01-02T12:40:34ZStudent and teacher involvement in reforming schooling matters — how Montréal schools are tackling this<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501691/original/file-20221218-11243-y0enmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C206%2C2752%2C1738&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Schooling models designed for the industrial revolution need to change.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you could redesign high school, what might you change? How could the schedule be more flexible? What if teachers worked together as teams? What if groups of students were combined based on interest and given the opportunity to connect learning to their everyday lives? </p>
<p>Noel Burke, the founder of an educational reform initiative in Québec called NEXTschool, has been asking these questions for years. </p>
<p>After working as a teacher, administrator and government official, Burke travelled to innovative high schools in <a href="https://ojc.school.nz/">New Zealand</a> and <a href="https://www.designtechhighschool.org/">Southern California</a> and met with educators throughout Canada with the goal of figuring out how he might help empower schools in Québec to “<a href="http://www.nextschoolquebec.com">better align with the learning needs of students in the 21st century</a>.” </p>
<h2>Designed for industrial revolution</h2>
<p>Like most educational institutions across Canada, Québec English high schools <a href="https://www.edweek.org/education/opinion-theres-nothing-especially-educational-about-factory-style-management/2014/04">retain structures designed for the industrial revolution to support shift work and a culture of management</a>. </p>
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<img alt="Lockers seen in a hallway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501690/original/file-20221218-22-n4klx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501690/original/file-20221218-22-n4klx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501690/original/file-20221218-22-n4klx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501690/original/file-20221218-22-n4klx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501690/original/file-20221218-22-n4klx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501690/original/file-20221218-22-n4klx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501690/original/file-20221218-22-n4klx3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">High schools need to adapt to today’s challenges and what students need to know for their futures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
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<p>Today though, the realities of students’ lives have transformed, and schools are slowly adapting to a <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=6864">knowledge-based economy</a> and <a href="https://www.cmec.ca/682/global_competencies.html">unpredictable ecological and social challenges</a>.</p>
<p>As part of a <a href="https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/about-au_sujet/index-eng.aspx">Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council</a> funded research project, we belong to a team of researchers from <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/dise/">McGill’s Department of Integrated Studies in Education</a> studying educational change. </p>
<p>Working alongside Burke, we examined new models of education that emphasize learning opportunities that connect to what high school students care about and what they need to know for our future.</p>
<h2>New models for schooling</h2>
<p>These new models often feature <a href="https://www.amle.org/is-your-school-schedule-flexible/">flexible timetabling</a>, <a href="https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl">project-based learning</a>, <a href="https://www.overlake.org/students/policies/cocurricular">co-curricular crediting</a> where students
earn credits for participating in extracurricular activities, and <a href="https://edpolicyinca.org/publications/learning-hubs">learning hubs</a> that offer small groups of students academic and other holistic supports.</p>
<p>To date, we have worked alongside teachers from several local Québec English high schools to consider their creative, context-specific responses to how they’d redesign school. We have also been engaging students in activities to ensure that teachers and administrators know what students really want and need from school. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/machines-cant-personalize-education-only-people-can-154339">Machines can't 'personalize' education, only people can</a>
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<p>Teachers discussed concerns such as replacing homeroom with flexible blocks where students can access academic support and turning campus green spaces into shared instructional areas.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Vanessa Gold, part of the research team examining NEXTschool asks ‘Would it all go to hell if we got rid of the bell?’ in a song about the reform initiative.</span></figcaption>
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<p>We adapted a participatory visual research method called <a href="https://participatorycultureslab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/wake-up-and-smell-the-coffee-facilitators-guide-pdf.pdf">photovoice</a> to invite student input. Students explored their educational problems and aspirations by taking photographs around their school, displaying them and then gathering with classmates and teachers to discuss what their photos mean to them. </p>
<p>Teachers have consistently been surprised by students’ concerns and suggestions — highlighting the importance of finding ways to involve genuine student input into educational change.</p>
<h2>Teachers as agents of change</h2>
<p>For a reform like NEXTschool to be successful, Burke agrees that students must be involved more authentically and more often. But he believes teachers are the ones who need to be positioned as the “project implementors” and “agents of change.” He shared this with us over the course of several interviews we held with him in summer 2022.</p>
<p>Burke is aiming to empower teachers as the frontline workers best able to facilitate the changes needed for lasting educational reform. He suggested schoolboards have to follow teachers on the path they want to go rather than showing them the path based on top-down policy.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-are-on-the-front-lines-with-students-in-the-coronavirus-pandemic-149896">Teachers are on the front lines with students in the coronavirus pandemic</a>
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<p>Research has shown that conventional reforms driven from the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0031721715614828">top down are rarely aligned with the path teachers believe best for their classes</a>. </p>
<p>NEXTschool aims to centre teachers’ understanding of their teaching and school while balancing the voices of students in expressing their learning needs.</p>
<p>The project engages teachers around the key features of space, time and learning in ways that function more like a menu as opposed to a recipe. Burke’s position is that educational partners benefit from having options laid out with the repercussions of choices unpacked. For example, if teachers choose to <a href="https://www.enrichingstudents.com/flexible-high-school-schedule-examples">pursue flexible timetabling</a>, they benefit from understanding how it impacts teacher planning time. </p>
<h2>‘How can we make this happen?’</h2>
<p>Burke believes educational change is more likely when teachers are trusted in determining what changes are needed and how to go about them. </p>
<p>This means that, as Burke explained, NEXTschool is an evolving model amenable to a variety of settings, where local control and student engagement drive the reform.</p>
<p>Burke conceded that even with his confidence in teachers, he is aware of the vital role administrators play in supporting teachers to take the necessary risks to innovate schools. </p>
<p>Burke suggests administrators’ primary role is helping mitigate the risk teachers take when trying <a href="https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/taking-beautiful-risks-in-education">new things in the classroom</a>. Administrators must ask teachers: “How can we make this happen and how can I help you with this?” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-serve-school-communities-and-address-inequities-after-covid-19-principals-must-become-activists-175491">To serve school communities and address inequities after COVID-19, principals must become activists</a>
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<img alt="A teacher seen in a hallway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501694/original/file-20221218-25-t8sc5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501694/original/file-20221218-25-t8sc5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501694/original/file-20221218-25-t8sc5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501694/original/file-20221218-25-t8sc5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501694/original/file-20221218-25-t8sc5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501694/original/file-20221218-25-t8sc5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501694/original/file-20221218-25-t8sc5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Engaging teachers at the local level matters with schooling reform.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley/EDUimages)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<h2>System now intolerant of risk-taking</h2>
<p>Teachers often <a href="https://www.k12dive.com/news/risk-taking-adds-value-for-both-educators-students/517390">feel unable to take risks</a> because, as Burke described, they feel the system is intolerant of risk-taking. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://crowleym.com/2018/03/22/education-in-a-world-of-compliance/">compliance culture common to educational institutions</a>, teachers and students have to navigate the top-down management that prescribes rigid scheduling requirements, discrete subject area focuses, standardized ministerial exams and so on.</p>
<p>One of the significant promises Burke has made about NEXTschool is that “it liberates” teachers from the conventionally rigid structures and expectations of a Canadian high school.</p>
<p>Yet, a more malleable and open structure can be discomforting when schools have only known a <a href="https://theconversation.com/6-actions-school-systems-can-take-to-support-childrens-outdoor-learning-167745">system characterized by quite the opposite</a>.</p>
<p>For educational change to be achieved, the NEXTschool approach of identifying context-specific features to reform can provide the structure that teachers and students are accustomed to while promoting flexible, meaningful innovations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aron Rosenberg is research assistant at McGill University, investigating and supporting the NEXTschool initiative. His research team receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Starr receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p>A schooling reform project is taking lessons from innovative high schools and educators in New Zealand, Southern California and Canada to make schooling more relevant for students today.Aron Lee Rosenberg, PhD Candidate, Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill UniversityLisa Starr, Associate Professor, Department of Integrated Studies, Faculty of Education, McGill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1819172022-08-01T12:35:55Z2022-08-01T12:35:55ZCity residents who support neighborhood schools are often divided by race and purpose<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473644/original/file-20220712-19-iupfn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C54%2C4485%2C2949&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Local school support is fragmented by race and class.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/lonely-woman-royalty-free-image/488975197?adppopup=true">digitalskillet / Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>When community activists protest issues related to local schools, they do so through movements that are largely segregated by race and class. This is what I found through my <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/this-is-our-school-race-and-community-resistance-to-school-reform/oclc/1311404138&referer=brief_results">research on community activism and school reform in Denver</a> over a span of five years.</p>
<p>Both Black and white community activists had an interest in keeping local schools from being closed. They also wanted better quality schools and more of a voice in what happens at those schools. But they seldom joined each other in their efforts because their battles for neighborhood schools were rooted in different experiences of gentrification.</p>
<p>Gentrification is when more-affluent residents move into low-income neighborhoods, changing the character and makeup of those neighborhoods and forcing low-income residents to move elsewhere due to rising rents. Gentrification often involves <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/marketing-schools-marketing-cities-who-wins-and-who-loses-when-schools-become-urban-amenities/oclc/7391947585&referer=brief_results">turning around, reforming, closing and replacing neighborhood schools</a>.</p>
<p>Black community activists viewed gentrification as an elite-driven process of exclusion and displacement, while white community activists viewed gentrification as an inevitable and even beneficial process.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Community movements can help bring about educational reforms. These <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/986861637">reforms</a> include improvements like more college prep courses, school-based community centers and food programs.</p>
<p>These movements don’t always succeed. I found in my research that different experiences of gentrification produce segregated movements to preserve neighborhood schools. This split <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859221086508">ultimately keeps activism fragmented</a> and prevents it from turning into a stronger, larger, more unified multiracial movement.</p>
<p>Although white, middle-class activists told me they valued diversity, none of them saw gentrification as problematic. They also felt their presence was beneficial to the neighborhood. They wanted schools to which their children could walk and with which they felt connected.</p>
<p>They also felt <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085916636656">entitled</a> to have more say in how neighborhood schools operate. This in turn alienated Black and Latino activists.</p>
<p>Black, low-income activists, on the other hand, saw school closures as a part of gentrification. For them, fighting against school closures was simply one piece of a larger fight against being <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2016.1245069">displaced by gentrification</a>.</p>
<p>These divergent views on gentrification as beneficial or destructive ensures that white, middle-class activists and Black, low-income activists will be unable to join forces. Consequently, they are unlikely to use each other’s strengths to fight for their common cause – which, in this case, is to sustain and provide resources to local neighborhood schools instead of closing them in favor of charter schools or moving them out of the neighborhood.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>It remains to be seen how segregated school reform movements, produced through different experiences of gentrification, can work through their deep divides and unite for their shared interests. White, middle-class activists in particular would need to better recognize their own participation in gentrification and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2009.56.4.647">affirm the grievances</a> of the low-income Black and Latino activists who could be in their coalition.</p>
<p>Research suggests that money and political will are already <a href="https://theconversation.com/states-are-favoring-school-choice-at-a-steep-cost-to-public-education-95395">stacked against</a> the prospect of high-quality, public neighborhood schools in every community. If segregated school reform movements could find common ground, they might be better positioned to fight against these forces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hava Rachel Gordon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Different views of gentrification drive divisions that keep school activists separated by race.Hava Rachel Gordon, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of DenverLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1824652022-05-16T14:35:22Z2022-05-16T14:35:22ZGhana’s high school system sets many students up for failure: it needs a rethink<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462707/original/file-20220512-15-7seusg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Legacy schools in Ghana are over subscribed.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the world, educational research has found that students’ achievement and experiences largely depend on which school they attend and the resources available to support learning. Educational policies mostly determine the distribution of resources to schools and a student’s choice of school could be limited by these policies. </p>
<p>In Ghana, secondary schools are grouped into categories based on their performance in the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination. This is a school-leaving exam that grade 12 students take before progressing to tertiary institutions. Some schools are better resourced based on their history and the largesse of past students. They use networks to build infrastructure and provide key learning resources that the government does not provide.</p>
<p>Students are placed in a category of school based on their exam results at the end of grade 9. Students with low scores are mostly placed in under-resourced schools (category C). Students with high scores are mostly placed in better-endowed schools (A and B). </p>
<p>So, if an individual performs poorly in grade 9 he or she is placed in a school that also tends to do poorly in grade 12.</p>
<p>The Ghana Education Service 2020 <a href="https://ges.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Annual-Digest-2020-ecopy.pdf">report</a> revealed that in 76% of senior high schools captured in the report, fewer than half the students passed the school leaving exam. This helps explain why only <a href="https://myshsrank.com/images/2021%20senior%20high%20schools%20-%20category%20A.pdf">8%</a> of schools are in category A. </p>
<p>Categorisation of students based on academic achievements has been <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/219374375.pdf">documented</a> as spurring inequities. It encourages stereotyping, discrimination, and marginalisation. </p>
<p>This effect appears to show in the fact that about 46% of the students who qualify for tertiary education in Ghana are from the top 20% of senior high schools. Only 8% of students from the bottom 20% of the schools qualify for tertiary education.</p>
<p>Against this background, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10911359.2022.2061665">we examined</a> how secondary school categorisation in Ghana shapes students’ learning and schooling experiences. </p>
<p>We found that students in less endowed schools had lower self-esteem than students in more endowed schools. Category C students felt less confident about their academic abilities. In contrast, students in the most prestigious schools reported that they were more confident about their academic abilities. They believed they were better placed to succeed academically and hence felt highly motivated to learn.</p>
<p>Grouping schools into categories worsens inequities and we believe this system should end.</p>
<h2>Student motivation</h2>
<p>We interviewed 20 students in total: nine males and 11 females aged 18 to 20. They were enrolled in government-funded secondary schools. Using in-depth, unstructured interviews, we invited students to share their experiences of attending categories A, B or C schools, their learning motivation and how their experiences shaped their learning. </p>
<p>We found that students’ motivation to learn differed significantly based on the category of school they attended. </p>
<p>All the participants in the undervalued schools reported low motivation to learn. They were eager to change schools if they had the means to do so. A 2020 <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1262305.pdf">study</a> found that affluent parents used their monetary influence to secure placement for their wards in better schools. Those in category C schools cited academic performance, the quality of teaching and learning, the resources available and negative community perceptions of their school as reasons for wanting to move.</p>
<p>Conversely, all the students in highly valued schools reported that they were motivated to learn and preferred to stay in their schools because of the prestige, quality of teachers, high academic abilities of their peers and the availability of education resources that promoted lifelong learning. </p>
<p>A central theme that emerged from the interviews was disparities in teaching and learning resources. When the participants were asked what affected their academic work, all the students in category C schools alluded to shortcomings in teaching and learning materials, physical infrastructure such as science resource centres or laboratory and computer access. Those in category A and B schools reported that their schools were well equipped with resources which promoted learning.</p>
<p>Students in category C schools reported that most of their teachers perceived them to be less intelligent than those in valued schools. Category A and B students responded that they believed their teachers had high expectations of their academic abilities and supported them to succeed in their learning.</p>
<p>All the students in category C schools said their communities’ perceptions and beliefs about their schools were mostly demotivating. People – including their parents – did not have high expectations of their academic performance. They had already been labelled “not good enough”. Students in category A and B schools reported a narrative that elite schools produce the best and brightest students in the country.</p>
<h2>Effects of the category system</h2>
<p>In Ghana’s secondary school system, placing a student in a category C school is tantamount to setting the student on a path of academic and social failure because these schools have fewer resources and record poorer academic results in the school leaving exam. </p>
<p>In effect, students who may need support to succeed in their schooling are placed in schools that are under-resourced. After three years of secondary education, these students who face double marginalisation are required to take the same exams as students in better-equipped schools, if they want to continue to post-secondary education. Only a few students from category C gain admission into higher learning institutions.</p>
<p>Category C students are restricted from accessing the opportunities that come with higher education. They also have lower confidence and esteem.</p>
<h2>Recommendations</h2>
<p>The study’s sample size was relatively small, therefore findings cannot be generalised. Nevertheless, this study has provided an initial understanding of students’ experiences.</p>
<p>It shows that the inadequate resources in low performing schools pose a major barrier to academic success. Grouping schools into categories also exacerbates inequities by encouraging people to discriminate against students in low ranked schools. </p>
<p>Therefore the distribution of students and resources should be more equitable. We recommend that the system of categories based on exam results should be phased out. Every student should have the opportunity to be enrolled in well resourced secondary schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Grouping of high schools in Ghana into categories perpetuates inequalities.David Baidoo-Anu, PhD Candidate, Queen's University, OntarioKenneth Gyamerah, PhD Candidate, Queen's University, OntarioTimothy Chanimbe, PhD Candidate, Hong Kong Baptist UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1499022021-02-01T19:45:31Z2021-02-01T19:45:31Z‘School choice’ policies are associated with increased separation of students by social class<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380309/original/file-20210123-19-qtl924.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=95%2C5%2C3898%2C2191&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Advocates of 'school choice' are often talking about wanting public funding for models like charter schools, but specialized programs should also be considered part of school choice debates. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-school-choice-is-a-better-way-than-the-public-school-pandemic-panic">Some commentators believe the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated</a> the need for parents to have more “school choice,” while others <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/stem-charter-school-in-calgary-approved-by-education-minister-1.5873575">say the pandemic shows the urgency of new schooling models</a> developed under <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/events/school-choice-in-a-time-of-transition/">school choice</a> policies.</p>
<p>But what is school choice? </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-trump-betsy-devos-and-school-choice-eight-essential-reads-62800">Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos and school choice: Eight essential reads</a>
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<p>The language of school choice supports the idea that education funding should follow students to the schools they believe best fit their learning needs. Education is then managed according to the free-market dynamics of consumer choice.</p>
<p>What this means is parents can choose among a variety of models that receive both state funds and financial support from personal and/or corporate sponsors. In the United States, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8TZIhpIV6c">and more recently</a> <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-alberta-public-charter-school-system/">in Canada</a>, when people talk about “<a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/david-staples-people-power-takes-another-step-forward-in-alberta-schools">school choice</a>” they’re often talking about how parents can or should be able to access funded or semi-funded school models like <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/4/30/18076968/charter-schools">charter schools</a>, <a href="https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-rights/school-vouchers-what-you-need-to-know">school vouchers</a>, home schooling or private schools. </p>
<p>In England, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/03/choice-inequality-education-system-social-segregation">academy schools, enabled</a> under <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/21/contents">Tony Blair’s New Labour government</a>, and more traditional <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/education-34538222">grammar schools</a> are selective schools that enable school choice. Both are a <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2018/may/governments-grammar-school-funding-wont-improve-childrens-outcomes-say-experts">source of debate</a> in terms of how effective they are for student outcomes and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jun/30/coalition-education-reform-academies-fuelling-inequality">students’ social mobility</a>.</p>
<p>School choice alternatives position parents as consumers, and in many cases divert students and funding away from <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Comprehensive_school">comprehensive public schools</a>. This has been a noticeable trend in virtually all western industrialized democracies for more than 25 years. </p>
<h2>Reform agendas</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Brian Mulroney and Margaret Thatcher." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380311/original/file-20210123-13-1d8pidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1070&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prime Minister Brian Mulroney welcomes Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the Economic Summit at Toronto City Hall, June 1988.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We should be concerned about advocacy for school choice models, because recent cross-national research shows <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811398629">increased school choice is associated with increased social stratification in terms of social class</a>. School choice and competition tend to be associated with <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/sites/jrcsh/files/fairness_pb2019_educational_inequalities.pdf">larger gaps between high and low socio-economic status student groups and lower student achievement outcomes nationally</a>. </p>
<p>The rise of school choice advocacy has coincided with and followed neo-liberal school reforms in industrialized countries since the 1980s. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot">Margaret Thatcher’s British government</a> of the late 1980s is largely credited with the close <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789400740945">coupling of curriculum requirements with standardized testing</a> that popularized the adoption of market logic to the realm of public institutions and schools. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-neoliberalism-84755">What exactly is neoliberalism?</a>
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<p>A key assumption is that choice and competition, like private sector companies, leads to a better product — in this case, better student outcomes and more effective schools and systems that are in the best interests of students. </p>
<p>School choice options such as charter schools are not as prominent in Canada as in other countries such as the U.S. and England: <a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Only Alberta now has charter schools</a>.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/charter-schools-largely-ignored-in-canada">think tanks like the Fraser Institute</a> in Canada <a href="https://www.fraserinstitute.org/blogs/six-reasons-to-support-school-choice-in-canada">continue to call for greater options for schooling outside of traditional publicly funded settings</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charter-schools-what-you-need-to-know-about-their-anticipated-growth-in-alberta-141434">Charter schools: What you need to know about their anticipated growth in Alberta</a>
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<h2>Beyond the neighbourhood</h2>
<p>When students can enrol in schools beyond their local neighbourhood, this is a sign that school choice is increasing. <a href="https://bc.ctvnews.ca/students-in-choice-programs-out-of-catchment-schools-face-dilemma-if-homeschooled-this-fall-1.5066854">French immersion</a>, arts-based schools and other specialized schools must therefore be considered part of the school choice debate since some parents may be more adept at seeking out and securing spots in these programs. </p>
<p>In the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/publications/balancing-school-choice-and-equity-2592c974-en.htm">vast majority of education systems in developed countries around the world</a>, students are assigned to schools within their catchment area based on their home address. However, examples abound of how middle- and upper-class families have been able to use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2014.968245">strategies such as choosing rare curricular options to avoid attending assigned schools</a> — thereby further contributing to social segregation between schools.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/how-are-school-choice-policies-related-to-social-diversity-in-schools_2d448c77-en">one analysis conducted by the OECD between 2000 and 2015</a>, the share of 15-year-old students who were admitted to school based on their home address shrank by 20 per cent or more in Denmark, Hong Kong (China), Iceland, Japan, Sweden and the U.S., and by six per cent on average across <a href="https://www.oecd.org/">28 OECD countries</a> with comparable data. In Canada, more than 60 per cent of students attend schools that use residence-based criteria. These findings reflect a global and national trend of the availability of greater school-choice options for families.</p>
<h2>Impact of school choice</h2>
<p>It is difficult to make general statements about the impact of school choice and increased school competition that is applicable to all provinces or countries. Nevertheless, research does suggest some general patterns — many of which have remained fairly stable over time.</p>
<p>One analysis of <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisainfocus/pisa-in-focus-n42-(eng)-final.pdf">65 countries</a> suggested that education systems where parents chose schools, and schools competed for enrolment, are often more socially segregated — often in relation to socio-economic differences. </p>
<p>The process of segregation is driven not only by parental preferences, but also by institutional factors. For example, schooling that promotes market-like dynamics are more likely to accentuate the separation of students based on socio-economic background. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Student on a city bus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380312/original/file-20210123-17-1pfj0tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An OECD analysis correlated a rising number of students attending school outside their neighbourhoods with rising school choice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Some of the factors that may aggravate socio-economic segregation in school-choice settings are the participation of for-profit providers, the use of school fees or tuition add-ons and allowing student selection. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fun-fair-and-all-school-fundraising-may-carry-hidden-costs-to-society-118883">The fun fair, and all school fundraising, may carry hidden costs to society</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These institutional features may be an important reason why socio-economic segregation has not <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-019-09437-3">significantly decreased in recent decades</a>.</p>
<p>Not only has for-profit participation been shown to be related to greater segregation, but it raises concerns about equity and the use of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-big-winners-from-swedens-for-profit-free-schools-are-companies-not-pupils-29929">public funding</a>. Reports of discriminatory practices towards <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2020.1744239">socio-economically disadvantaged students and those deemed “low achievers” are frequently reported in market-driven educational systems that allow academic selection</a>. </p>
<h2>System effectiveness and selectivity</h2>
<p>Countries (or in Canada, provinces) that demonstrate high student achievement outcomes and smaller achievement gaps between groups of students (high- versus low-socio-economic status, boys versus girls, non-immigrants versus immigrants) are generally lauded internationally. Other regions seek to <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-PISA-Effect-on-Global-Educational-Governance/Volante/p/book/9780367884529">emulate their success and they become known as “reference societies</a>.”</p>
<p>Over the past two decades, countries such as <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-PISA-Effect-on-Global-Educational-Governance/Volante/p/book/9781138217416">Finland and Singapore, and education authorities in Canada (particularly Alberta), to name a few, have traditionally been viewed as effective systems</a> for simultaneously possessing high achievement and equity when judged against their international counterparts.</p>
<p>These countries differ substantially based on a variety of key dimensions such as cultural context, size of their student population and homogeneity, teacher training and compensation, to name but a few. Schools in these places are also less likely to select students, which reduces the prospect of social stratification. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen in Alberta how recent <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7000587/alberta-government-ucp-charter-schools-home-schooling-education-may/">charter school legislation</a> will affect equitable learning opportunities and outcomes. </p>
<h2>Education and evidence-based policy</h2>
<p>Although collaboration and co-operation are often at odds with private sector companies competing for market share, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13632430701379354">research suggests</a> these attributes are critically important for raising the prospects of all students within education systems. </p>
<p>Ultimately, policymakers need to continually interrogate research findings, free from political interference. They need to carefully consider both the positive and negative effects of a shift away from comprehensive public education systems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Volante receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Wyse has research funding from the Helen Hamlyn Trust, The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), and The Nuffield Foundation. He is the President of the British Education Research Association (BERA).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Gutiérrez receives funding from CONICYT PIA CJE grant number CIE160007 and the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/T008911/1). </span></em></p>Letting parents choose which school their child attends positions parents as consumers, and often diverts students and funding away from public schools.Louis Volante, Professor of Education, Brock UniversityDominic Wyse, Professor of Education, UCLGabriel Gutiérrez, Postdoctoral research fellow, London School of Economics and Political ScienceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1502402020-11-24T13:09:31Z2020-11-24T13:09:31ZSchool suspensions don’t just unfairly penalize Black students – they lead to lower grades and ‘Black flight’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369977/original/file-20201118-15-1dzjolw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C0%2C5472%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Suspensions have continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, while children are attending remotely from their homes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/tired-african-teenager-girl-with-headache-royalty-free-image/1202565621?adppopup=true"> Marie-Claude Lemay/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>School suspensions are intended to deter violence and punish students who demonstrate problematic behavior.</p>
<p>Yet, when I interviewed 30 Black high school students in southeast Michigan who had been suspended from school and 30 of their parents, I learned that many students were suspended because school officials misinterpreted their behaviors. Additionally, the suspensions led to students’ grades dropping significantly and to some parents withdrawing their children from their school districts.</p>
<p>I published my findings in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0190740919312034">Children and Youth Services Review</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0042085920968629">Urban Education</a> journals as part of my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VcznCP0AAAAJ&hl=en">ongoing research</a> on how Black students and parents view school punishment and its impact on their daily lives.</p>
<p>You might assume that these punitive disciplinary practices have stopped since so many children are not physically in school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. You would be wrong. News reports show that suspensions have continued throughout the pandemic, while children are attending school remotely from their homes. </p>
<p>For example, in September, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/26/us/student-suspended-gun-virtual/index.html">school officials suspended</a> 9-year-old Louisiana student Ka’Mauri Harrison for six days because he placed a BB gun on a shelf in his room after one of his siblings tripped over it during virtual learning. In other incidents, such as when 12-year-old Isaiah Elliot played with a toy gun during virtual art class, school officials sent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/08/colorado-springs-boy-suspended-toy-gun-virtual-class-police">law enforcement officers</a> to his home – terrifying everyone in their household. Although these cases attracted considerable media attention, I believe most do not.</p>
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<img alt="A man, woman and teenager pose together" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370351/original/file-20201119-22-3h56zn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370351/original/file-20201119-22-3h56zn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370351/original/file-20201119-22-3h56zn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370351/original/file-20201119-22-3h56zn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370351/original/file-20201119-22-3h56zn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370351/original/file-20201119-22-3h56zn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370351/original/file-20201119-22-3h56zn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Curtis and Dani Elliott were shocked when armed El Paso County Sheriff’s deputies came to their house. Their 12-year-old son Isaiah was suspended for playing with a toy gun during his virtual art class.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Dani Elliott</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Collectively, these instances of unwarranted school punishment raise important questions about their impact on millions of individuals – <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2020-10-13/school-suspension-data-shows-glaring-disparities-in-discipline-by-race">particularly Black students and parents</a>. The <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/school-climate-and-safety.pdf">most recent data shows</a> Black students represent 15% of K-12 public school students in the U.S. but receive 39% of school suspensions. </p>
<h2>Students and parents silenced</h2>
<p>In one interview after another, students told me they were denied the opportunity to explain their side, which could have led school officials to determine a suspension was unnecessary. Parents also said educators and administrators ignored them throughout the disciplinary process. </p>
<p>For example, Sandra, a ninth grader, received a five-day suspension for deescalating a fight between peers.</p>
<p>“I feel like they didn’t hear me out,” she said. “I told my mom and my dad and they was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t see why they suspended you.’ … [T]he [school officials] was like, ‘We feel like you threatened her.’ I’m like, ‘I didn’t, and the girl even said I didn’t threaten her.’ When I came back to school she was like, ‘Why did you get suspended?’ and I was like, ‘[Because] they said I threatened you,’ and she was like, ‘How did you threaten me?’ I’m like, exactly. So, I just felt like they should have listened to me and let me explain the whole situation.” </p>
<p>Mike’s daughter Kimberly, a ninth grade student, received a five-day suspension for hugging a boy. </p>
<p>“To suspend a child for five days for giving a person a hug is ridiculous,” he said. “I raised my voice about it many times. Their policies around suspension are very unnecessary.”</p>
<h2>Grades declined</h2>
<p>Students also told me their achievement declined by as much as two letter grades due to suspensions. Students and parents attributed the academic declines to missing high-point-value assignments, experiencing difficulty catching up, missing vital instruction and educators’ unwillingness to distribute makeup assignments to suspended students. </p>
<p>“[School discipline] affected my grades a lot,” said Marcus, a 10th grade student who received a 39-day suspension after he punched a gated window in response to his teacher calling him a “failure.” “I go up there to get my work, but it’s hard to do the work when you are outside of school. You get where you’re not receiving the proper guidance to do the work.”</p>
<p>Tangie’s 10th grade son received a 10-day suspension for defending himself after several gang members attacked him at school.</p>
<p>“I was going back up to the school every other day, fighting to get his makeup work from the teachers,” she said. “I kept calling and calling, and finally I ended up taking him to [a new school], which is terrible. But I had to because his teachers would not give me the damn work.”</p>
<h2>Black educational flight</h2>
<p>Several parents told me that excessive school suspensions motivated them to remove their child from a school district.</p>
<p>Lisa’s son, a 10th grader, borrowed a cellphone from a classmate. Then another student stole the cellphone from him. In response, school officials handcuffed him to a railing, suspended him for five days, and referred the case to the local prosecutor.</p>
<p>“I just feel at that time they failed him,” she told me. “He is asking to be transferred so I am looking into another school for him.”</p>
<p>Patrice met with school officials after her son was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in order to create an individualized education plan for him. Although school officials created the plan, she said, they didn’t implement it. Instead, they continued to suspend him. </p>
<p>“He is going to another school this year,” she said. “How are you going to have an IEP and not follow through with what’s on the IEP? That’s a big issue! It’s just a lack of communication and too much suspension.”</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=experts">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p>
<h2>Rethinking school discipline</h2>
<p>My findings suggest that schools should use alternatives to school suspensions. They also suggest that teachers should be required to distribute assignments to students who receive suspensions, and consider using virtual learning to reduce the negative impact of suspensions on student achievement. </p>
<p>Schools should also better understand how students and parents view school discipline and involve them in establishing school rules. Students changing schools is a <a href="https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/unexplored-consequences-student-mobility">major concern</a> for administrators, and my study shows excessive school discipline motivates Black families to leave a district. </p>
<h2>Discipline transparency</h2>
<p>Several states, such as <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/02/zero-tolerance-schools/85317800/">Michigan</a> and <a href="https://ieanea.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/SB-100-FINAL.pdf">Illinois</a>, have passed school discipline reforms to reduce suspension rates. However, the data I collected, which will be featured in my upcoming book “<a href="https://www.drcharlesbell.com/">Code of the School</a>,” suggests the discipline reforms have been ineffective in some districts because school suspension data is not publicly available. </p>
<p>School discipline data that is anonymous and separated by race, gender, disability and infraction type should be published annually on the district’s website. Without school discipline transparency, parents and legislators cannot hold school districts accountable for the disciplinary reforms. I am working with Michigan legislators to resolve this issue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150240/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Bell receives funding from the American Society of Criminology and the Midwest Sociological Society.</span></em></p>Schools can consider virtual learning and other ways to reduce the negative impact of suspensions on student achievement.Charles Bell, Assistant Professor, Illinois State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/712192017-02-06T19:14:45Z2017-02-06T19:14:45ZRethinking how we assess learning in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152511/original/image-20170112-25897-13ytzq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students don't always know if they are making any progress in their learning.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/educating-australia-35445">this series</a> we’ll explore how to improve schools in Australia. Some of the most prominent experts in the sector tackle key questions, including why we are not seeing much progress; whether we are assessing children in the most effective way; why parents need to listen to what the evidence tells us, and much more.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>There is a major flaw in the way we currently assess school students. By labelling them as either “good” or “poor” learners based on their overall grades at the end of each year, students have no clear idea whether they are making progress over extended periods of time.</p>
<p>We need to move away from focusing on what grade a child will get at the end of a year, to assessing the progress that students make over time.</p>
<h2>How students are assessed</h2>
<p>This is how most parents, teachers and students likely view the school process:</p>
<p>It begins with a curriculum that spells out what teachers should teach and students should learn in each year of school.</p>
<p>The role of teachers is to deliver this curriculum by making it engaging and meaningful, and ensuring that all students have an opportunity to learn what the curriculum prescribes. </p>
<p>The role of students is to learn what teachers teach, and it is accepted that some students – the better learners – will learn more of this than others.</p>
<p>The role of assessment is to establish how well students have learnt what teachers have taught. This can be done at the end of a period of teaching such as a semester or school year. Such assessments are sometimes called “summative” or assessments of learning. </p>
<p>Alternatively, assessments can be undertaken during teaching to establish how well students have learnt so far. These assessments are sometimes called “formative” or assessments for learning, because they provide information about gaps in learning and material that may need to be retaught.</p>
<p>Students are then graded on how well they have learnt the curriculum for their year level. Those who can demonstrate most of this curriculum receive high grades; those who demonstrate relatively little receive low grades.</p>
<h2>Unintended consequences</h2>
<p>In support of this way of organising teaching and learning is the argument that the best way to raise achievement levels in schools is to set clear curriculum standards for each year of school, rigorously assess how well students meet those expectations and report performances honestly and fearlessly. If a student has failed, say so.</p>
<p>All of this may be appropriate if all students in each year of school began the year at the same starting point. This is patently not the case. </p>
<p>In any year of school, the gap between the most advanced 10% of students and the least advanced 10% is the equivalent of at <a href="http://www.nap.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/2016-naplan-national-report.pdf">least five to six years of school</a>. If school were a running race, students would begin the year widely spread out along the running track. Despite this, all students would be judged against the same finish line (the year-level expectations).</p>
<p>And the consequences are predictable. Students at the back of the pack, who are two or three years behind the bulk of students and the year-level curriculum, struggle and generally achieve low grades, often year after year. </p>
<p>A student who receives a “D” this year, a “D” next year and a “D” the year after is given little sense of the progress they are actually making and, worse, may conclude that there is something stable about their ability to learn (they are a “D student”). Many of these students <a href="http://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/default-document-library/engagement_in_australian_schools__grattan">eventually disengage</a> from the schooling process.</p>
<p>At the front of the pack, more advanced students generally begin the school year on track to receive high grades. Many receive high grades on the middling expectations for their age group without being overly stretched or challenged. There is <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/results-flatline-fortop-students-20130109-2cgud.html">evidence</a> that least year-on-year progress is often made by these students.</p>
<h2>An alternative – monitoring learning</h2>
<p>An alternative is to recognise that the fundamental purpose of assessment is to establish and understand where individuals are in their long-term learning progress at the time of assessment. </p>
<p>This usually means establishing what they know, understand and can do – something that can be done before, during or after teaching, or without reference to a course of instruction at all.</p>
<p>Underpinning this alternative is a belief that every learner is capable of further progress if they can be engaged, motivated to make the appropriate effort and provided with targeted learning opportunities. </p>
<p>This is a more positive and optimistic view than a belief that there are inherently good and poor learners as confirmed by their performances on year-level expectations. </p>
<p>It also recognises that successful learning is unlikely when material is much too difficult or too easy, but depends instead on providing every learner with well-targeted, personalised stretch challenges.</p>
<p>A good understanding of where students are in their learning provides starting points for teaching and a basis for monitoring learning progress over time. </p>
<p>One of the best ways to build students’ confidence as learners is to help them see the progress they are making over extended periods of time.</p>
<p>A focus on monitoring learning encourages a long-term perspective. Rather than being defined only in terms of year-level expectations, successful learning is defined as the progress or growth that students make over time. </p>
<p>Under this approach, every student is expected to make excellent progress every year towards the achievement of high standards – regardless of their current levels of attainment.</p>
<hr>
<p>• <em>Geoff Masters explores this theme further in a new book called <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/items/165663">Educating Australia: Challenges for the Decade Ahead</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71219/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Masters is the CEO of the Australian Council for Educational Research, a body that provides assessment resources to schools and advice to governments. </span></em></p>Our current way of assessing students doesn’t let them see the progress they are making over extended periods of time.Geoff Masters, CEO, Australian Council for Educational ResearchLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/658692016-11-09T11:06:39Z2016-11-09T11:06:39ZAre wealthy donors influencing the public school agenda?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144904/original/image-20161107-4711-ztg3ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A campaign for Los Angeles Unified School District school board candidates. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/local99/8554994975/in/photolist-e2YzXn-e2YA84-9eURCL-9chSab-e35hi1-e2YzTv-ayha1Q-e35huU-e2YAdX-e35h5w-e35hbS-e35gVy-e35hmm-e2YzFr-e2YAma-e35hwd-67s9Nw-e35hrh-e35h9j-e2YApM-e35hcY-e35hjf-e2YA2P-e2YzJk-e2YA9H-e2YzLn-Jtmtf-e35ho1-e35hej-e2YzYR-e2YzQP-e35gSN-6RxVaY-e35h2s-e2YzMX-9vMoNQ-suGwU9-e35hpy-apfKHG-j2ybSo-j2v9DE-j2vnro-j2uKj2-e35h4u-8LAmzc-bjog9-9kwJUR-vMQG5J-k2H3L-4nKVq">SEIU Local 99 | Education Workers United Follow</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>School boards have often been portrayed as old-fashioned and dysfunctional, so much so that <a href="http://educationnext.org/lost-at-sea/">some school reform leaders have advocated</a> for eliminating school boards altogether. </p>
<p>It is no surprise then that school board elections have mostly been known as being <a href="http://educationnext.org/the-union-label-on-the-ballot-box/">sleepy affairs</a>. Most candidates in the past have been known to <a href="https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/HessFeb2011.pdf">spend less than US$1,000</a> toward campaign expenses such as campaign literature and name recognition efforts. In 2010, for example, <a href="https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/HessFeb2011.pdf">less than 3 percent</a> of candidates reported spending more than $25,000. </p>
<p>However, this reality, as we have known it, is changing. Of late, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/04/school-board-races-attract-big-outside-money/">out-of-state donors are writing</a> very large checks to support candidates and <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/23/32adv-local.h31.html">political action committees (PACs)</a> in local school board elections. Yes, there are PACs now involved in local school board elections. </p>
<p>Recent school board elections in places such as <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/big-money-bad-media-secret-agendas-welcome-americas-wildest-school-board-race/">Denver</a>, <a href="http://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2014/10/27/behind-five-figure-fundraising-ips-board-races/17980029/">Indianapolis</a>, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-lausd-election-money-20150515-story.html">Los Angeles</a>, <a href="http://www.startribune.com/out-of-state-money-pouring-into-minneapolis-school-board-race/280863712/">Minneapolis</a> and <a href="http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2012/10/orleans_parish_school_board_ca.html">New Orleans</a> have seen candidates routinely raising at least 50 times as much money as the 2010 national average. </p>
<p>Why is this happening? And how might the involvement of these large wealthy donors change our local schools?</p>
<p>We are scholars of politics and education. Our research shows that such large donations have the potential to change who is elected to govern and, as a result, how our schools are reformed. </p>
<h2>Why do school boards matter?</h2>
<p>First, let’s look at the unique arrangement of power in the U.S. education system to understanding why this new infusion of funding is significant. </p>
<p>The U.S. education system is highly decentralized, with control of schools spread across over <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_098.asp">13,000 independent, local school districts</a>. Most boards, comprising five to eight members, <a href="https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/HessFeb2011.pdf">enjoy considerable power</a> <a href="https://www.nsba.org/about-us/frequently-asked-questions">over many areas,</a> <a href="https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20060228_SchoolBoards.pdf">including</a> whom to hire, what to teach, when to hold school and how to allocate budgets.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144896/original/image-20161107-4704-1c6wsy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144896/original/image-20161107-4704-1c6wsy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144896/original/image-20161107-4704-1c6wsy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144896/original/image-20161107-4704-1c6wsy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144896/original/image-20161107-4704-1c6wsy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144896/original/image-20161107-4704-1c6wsy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144896/original/image-20161107-4704-1c6wsy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">State of Maryland school board meeting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdgovpics/6973055520/in/photolist-bCbJtb-4x9RNU-oR7oB7-sq8LAW-qLARnd-hcKA2y-bCbCDq-bCbWwY-bR6oNz-bCbLKw-bR6Tpt-bCbZZm-bR6Pj8-bR6E7P-bCbStq-bCc97A-bR6tTk-bCcavG-bR6JZ6-bR6Lui-bR6FJe-bCc7VY-bR6BY4-bR6Rpa-6Hz6yp-bCc2uS-bR6LMP-bR6jhx-bR6rHt-CqJyt-sqg7q2-4TgSjk-bCbWKG-bR6DLv-bR6KTa-bCbRBS-bCbXSf-bCbMTC-bCbFn9-bCc8vs-bCbZHq-bCbLn7-bCbR2b-8Zdkbv-bCc1E3-bCc64f-bR6Jpn-bCbEj7-bBLYhZ-bR6N4V">Maryland GovPics</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is true that of late, the decision-making power of school boards has been curtailed by recent national (e.g., <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml">No Child Left Behind</a> and <a href="http://www.ed.gov/essa">Every Student Succeeds Act</a>) and state (e.g., <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED473720">state takeover laws</a>) policies. For example, when NCLB came up with its own guidelines for “highly qualified teachers,” school boards had to ensure that their definition for teachers’ qualifications aligned with federal standards and not only with local priorities and standards. Ignoring these federal guidelines was accompanied by the potential loss of federal funding. </p>
<p>Even with these recent limitations, however, school boards nonetheless remain important. They can modify, regulate, innovate and resist state and federal policy demands. </p>
<p>This ability to resist or modify policy guidelines was evident recently after the Obama administration released its <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201605-title-ix-transgender.pdf">“Letter on Transgender Students,”</a> which advised school districts to treat transgender students based on their expressed gender identity rather than their sex assignment at birth. </p>
<p>School boards across the country were called upon by local citizens to resist this policy. In some cases, <a href="http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/education/2016/02/23/lgbt-brevard-school-meeting-draws-crowds/80814556/">local school boards voted</a> to not comply with the Obama administrations guidelines. </p>
<p>Thus despite their relatively low profile, school boards have the power to dramatically shape local educational experiences by modifying, or even at times ignoring, state and federal rules and regulations. </p>
<h2>How widespread is outside money?</h2>
<p>This ability to alter or resist state and national policy may be the motivating force behind the recent investment by wealthy, national donors. </p>
<p>To examine this rise in donations to local school board candidates, <a href="http://uar.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/09/1078087416663004.full.pdf?ijkey=VwXQR0XzBxo8aFx&keytype=finite">we investigated over 18,000 campaign contributions</a> in local education elections between 2008 and 2013 in five cities (Bridgeport, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and New Orleans). We selected these five sites for examination because they were geographically and politically diverse and yet all five had school board elections where national donors became involved. </p>
<p>We found that donations from outside donors were widespread and significant. In the 2012-2013 elections, for example, we found that large outside donors gave over $2.8 million to school board candidates and committees, comprising 44 percent of all funds contributed by individuals. <a href="http://uar.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/09/1078087416663004.full.pdf?ijkey=VwXQR0XzBxo8aFx&keytype=finite">This represents a significant increase</a> from 2009-2010, when large outside donors comprised only 4 percent of donations in the cities we examined. </p>
<p>The figure below shows the growth of out-of-state donations by individuals in each city. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144610/original/image-20161104-27925-ymve9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144610/original/image-20161104-27925-ymve9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144610/original/image-20161104-27925-ymve9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144610/original/image-20161104-27925-ymve9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144610/original/image-20161104-27925-ymve9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144610/original/image-20161104-27925-ymve9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144610/original/image-20161104-27925-ymve9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=584&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In-state vs. out-of-state individual donations by city and by year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Data Source: Authors’ Data</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who’s making the contributions?</h2>
<p>By examining publicly available campaign finance disclosure reports, which are filed by all candidates, including school board candidates, and list each donor and the amount donated, we were able to track a list of wealthy donors who contributed at least $1,000 in one election cycle (<a href="https://ethics.lacity.org/campaignfinance.cfm">see here</a> for an example of how to access these data). In total, we found 96 large national donors involved in education philanthropy and education reform. These donors included, for example:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reed-hastings-netflix-bio-2015-8">Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix</a>, who donated in Los Angeles in 2011 ($150,000) and 2013 ($100,000) and in New Orleans in 2013 ($2,500). The high-tech billionaire is active in supporting the development of new charter schools and founded educational organizations such as NewSchools.org and Aspire Public Schools. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144898/original/image-20161107-4683-10ajx7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144898/original/image-20161107-4683-10ajx7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144898/original/image-20161107-4683-10ajx7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144898/original/image-20161107-4683-10ajx7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144898/original/image-20161107-4683-10ajx7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144898/original/image-20161107-4683-10ajx7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144898/original/image-20161107-4683-10ajx7e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reed Hastings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/re-publica/16760697834/in/photolist-rx5XwS-stYCEg-scMne8-9jdZbs-j3EXbe-5BQvAf-srNyUo-q8qJnA-egnoEy-scEEdw-scEsMY-9jasn7-A5FGZ-eaTzdN-fvZNk6-sud3qH-9UgLqZ-eaTAFf-eaMYHV-eaMXbP-eaMY8a-iZu339-2AJju-eggDGg-5BQvAC-2WrM-egnoUA-sGZuJY-n9ETU-61T2xM-5BLdKZ-9UgLr6-82WugK-sccaXs-xkS59-5BLdNg-82ZCUA-9UgLr8-6qW2ct-4SeARf-5BQvzq-47aZAA-476V2t-9TvUCF-snKfP-9UgLri-5qJi5-sK7ZVJ-5BQvwQ-5BQvz1">re:publica</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=4509275&privcapId=4509225">Alan</a> and Jennifer Fournier, who donated in Indianapolis in 2012 ($4,000), Los Angeles in 2013 ($2,000) and New Orleans in 2012 ($2,200). Alan Fournier is <a href="http://www.insidephilanthropy.com/wall-street-donors/alan-fournier.html">founder</a> of Pennant Capital Management, which manages $6 billion in assets. Alan Fournier cofounded (with <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/15/david-tepper-hedge-fund-manager-on-guard-toward-stock-market.html">David Tepper</a>, a hedge funds manager), <a href="http://b4njkids.org/">Better Education for Kids</a>, which advocates for tenure reform and greater teacher accountability. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.citybridgefoundation.org/team/katherine-bradley/">Katherine Bradley</a>, the president of CityBridge Foundation, which “finds, incubates and invests in the most promising practices in public education,” who donated in Denver in 2009 ($500) and 2013 ($6,500), New Orleans in 2012 ($2,500) and Los Angeles in 2013 ($2,000). </p>
<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/laurene-powell-jobs/">Laurene Powell Jobs</a>, wife to the late Steve Jobs and founder of Emerson Collective, who donated to Los Angeles in 2009 ($1,000) and 2013 ($103,000), New Orleans in 2012 ($2,500) and Denver in 2009 ($2,525). She is active in school reform and is a board member for several education nonprofits including Teach for America, the New Schools Venture Fund, and Stand for Children. </p>
<h2>Could the top 0.01 percent change local schools?</h2>
<p>Outside money may not be a bad thing if the values and interests of donors align with residents in the communities. It might even be a good thing if outside donations raise the visibility of school board elections, so often plagued by disengagement.</p>
<p>Perhaps bigger campaign war chests and close election battles will fuel engagement in school board elections, increase voter turnout and increase awareness of education issues. But these presumed benefits rest on the assumption that these elite donors share the same values and interests of the local community. </p>
<p>Research suggests that this assumption is unlikely to hold because policy preferences among the very wealthy differ from most Americans. Research by prominent academics working on economic inequality, <a href="http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/%7Ejnd260/cab/CAB2012%20-%20Page1.pdf">Benjamin I. Page, Larry M. Bartels and Jason Seawright</a>, captures these differences. These scholars found that,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“[o]n many important issues, the preferences of the wealthy appear to differ markedly from those of the general public.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These different preferences are borne out in our data as well. We found that <a href="http://uar.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/09/1078087416663004.full.pdf?ijkey=VwXQR0XzBxo8aFx&keytype=finite">national donors favored</a> “reform” candidates, or, put simply, those who supported policies such as school choice, performance-based accountability and adoption of the Common Core of State Standards. </p>
<p>School choice offers parents the ability to choose a their child’s public school rather than being assigned one based on one’s home location. Performance-based accountability plans generally require that school or teacher performance evaluations be based upon student standardized test scores. Schools or teachers <a href="http://www.edweek.org/rc/articles/2008/03/04/sow0304.h27.html">may face sanctions</a> if these targets are not met. The <a href="http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/development-process/">Common Core of State Standards (CCSS)</a>, adopted voluntarily by states, outline what students should know and be able to do at the end of each grade. </p>
<p>We found that candidates who received union support <a href="http://uar.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/08/09/1078087416663004.full.pdf?ijkey=VwXQR0XzBxo8aFx&keytype=finite">received almost no support</a> from large, national donors. This targeted funding ultimately shaped, at least in some cases, the focus of the election debate.</p>
<h2>Here is why it matters</h2>
<p>The concentration of funds on candidates with particular policy agendas can squeeze out other policy issues. For example, a candidate we interviewed who was very interested in restoring adult education programs for immigrant parents noted,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It [money] changes the discourse…their [the reform candidates] message is the only message. Not just the dominant message anymore. It’s the only message that people are hearing.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>While this candidates wanted to focus on the importance of providing adult education programs for immigrant parents, he felt his message about the importance of this issue was unable to compete with the messages being put forth by the reform candidates because he lacked funding to promote his policy agenda. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144895/original/image-20161107-4669-113sdsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/144895/original/image-20161107-4669-113sdsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144895/original/image-20161107-4669-113sdsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144895/original/image-20161107-4669-113sdsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144895/original/image-20161107-4669-113sdsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144895/original/image-20161107-4669-113sdsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/144895/original/image-20161107-4669-113sdsr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What changes in public schools when wealthy donors get involved?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/6233339252/in/photolist-auPuAq-eowcsm-nXst2t-gZxNxQ-aDoLpP-7NTPGn-nocbWr-dMbHcy-7z7nA8-pdkaV2-aEdWc5-6NzxWW-6Nzx1A-5wCB3M-8UAvRs-eKsFxB-ajCYNC-rk2pPy-8ruiG5-o6UDG7-dz27wr-enWtJ8-8rqyqn-4ahAgw-7zeVz-5CKuKa-nocygt-aDoUpH-5PR25T-5vmkcz-cbLMj1-8Gn5bq-3Rbvct-8zWhxG-fzk4cn-Ma595-nxNiDK-mYoBUQ-5HtRMq-oHQAkx-9YU2Bc-8MKniF-6r5HQf-9a6x89-7FMndG-newNtp-aa1tWH-dMaX4L-nXmJB-eM7jWY">woodleywonderworks</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our interviews, candidates who received outside funds noted that additional funding enabled them to reach voters more often and through multiple strategies. One candidate supported by large, national donors explained that in addition to mailings and yard signs, more traditional forms of reaching voters, the additional funds enabled him to hire a professional videographer who filmed and edited three vignettes that were shown on TV: one at his home with his family, one in a local library in the community and one in a classroom. </p>
<p>Even traditional forms of contact were given an upgrade. For example, a candidate noted that her materials were “more polished” with “nice photos,” something other candidates were unable to do because of a lack of funds. </p>
<p>Some candidates we interviewed felt voters benefited from this, whereas others worried that voters were “inundated” with information from just a few candidates. One candidate described how a friend received seven mailers from a candidate supported by outside funding in a single day. Candidates without this level of funding repeatedly noted that their message couldn’t compete. </p>
<h2>Increasing polarization</h2>
<p>As with state and national elections, we heard from several candidates that outside donations were also leading to increased conflict during campaigns and less willingness to compromise once elected. </p>
<p>One candidate described the polarization of the local board as being “very much like our federal government” where board members were either “a charter school candidate or a union backed candidate” and when on the board, “nobody can cross the line.” </p>
<p>As a result, some expressed concern that voters were becoming more cynical and less confident in their local public schools.</p>
<p>One candidate shared that she heard from voters on several occasions to “please stop calling” because “I’ve already gotten 10 calls this week about the election.” This candidate was concerned that disengagement in the form of low voter turnout was a direct result of citizens being turned off by the election.</p>
<h2>What does this mean for public schools?</h2>
<p>We certainly support greater attention to improving our public education system. But reform takes time. It takes compromise. It takes understanding of the day-to-day realities of local schools. </p>
<p>The old fashioned school boards, with all of their faults, were often slow and pragmatic, a force that could shield school leaders, teachers and students from broader political forces that whip the local agenda back and forth. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen whether school boards are strengthened by the nationalization of local school board elections or whether the injection of national funds will hinder the ability of schools to improve.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Jacobsen receives funding from the Spencer Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Spencer Foundation provided us with a small grant for research on this topic.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Reckhow receives funding from the Spencer Foundation and W.T. Grant Foundation. </span></em></p>The involvement of large wealthy donors in local schools is influencing who gets elected to govern on school boards. Why does it matter?Rebecca Jacobsen, Associate Professor of Teacher Education, Michigan State UniversityJeffrey Henig, Professor of Political Science and Education, Teachers College, Columbia UniversitySarah Reckhow, Assistant Professor of Political Science , Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/628402016-08-14T21:05:57Z2016-08-14T21:05:57ZExplainer: why Kenya wants to overhaul its entire education system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131425/original/image-20160721-32628-l9bvud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kenya's existing school system isn't producing the sorts of working people the country needs.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dai Kurokawa/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenya is <a href="http://www.kicd.ac.ke/curriculum-reform.html">reforming</a> its education system for the first time in 32 years. It’s also changing its curriculum from pre-school all the way through to high school. </p>
<p>Part of what’s prompted this huge overhaul is <a href="http://www.ibe.unesco.org/National_Reports/ICE_2008/kenya_NR08.pdf">the realisation</a> that Kenya isn’t doing enough to produce school-leavers who are ready for the world of work. The government’s own assessments have <a href="http://www.kicd.ac.ke/images/PDF/national-curriculum-policy.pdf">showed</a> that the current system isn’t flexible. It struggles to respond to individual pupils’ strengths and weaknesses.</p>
<p>In this article I’ll explain what the current Kenyan education system looks like. I’ll explore its weaknesses and then unpack how the new structure that’s being proposed hopes to tackle these.</p>
<h2>The status quo</h2>
<p>Kenya operates on an 8-4-4 education system. This was introduced in 1985 and based on a <a href="http://softkenya.com/education/mackay-commission/">presidential commission’s</a> recommendations. Under this system, pupils had to complete eight years of primary schooling and four at the secondary level. University degrees took a minimum of four years to complete. The whole system’s guiding philosophy was education for <a href="http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/bitstream/handle/11295/90450/Ambaa%20Carolyne_Analysis%20of%20the%20kenyan%208-4-4%20system%20of%20education%20in%20relation%20to%20aims%20of%20education%20for%20self-reliance.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">self-reliance</a>.</p>
<p>There have been some reviews and evaluations since then. These have mostly addressed curriculum content issues and tidied up areas where there’s unnecessary overlap. The reviews haven’t adequately addressed fundamental issues. If these issues are tackled, the education system could transform Kenyan society by enhancing all citizens’ productivity and accelerating economic development.</p>
<p>Then in 2008 the Kenyan Institute of Education produced an <a href="http://www.ibe.unesco.org/National_Reports/ICE_2008/kenya_NR08.pdf">evaluation report</a> about the 8-4-4 system. It found that the system was very academic and examination oriented. The curriculum was overloaded. Most schools, the institute <a href="http://www.ibe.unesco.org/National_Reports/ICE_2008/kenya_NR08.pdf">reported</a>, weren’t able to equip their pupils with practical skills. Many teachers also weren’t sufficiently trained.</p>
<p>The evaluation report pointed out that secondary school graduates didn’t have very many entrepreneurial skills – the sort needed for self-reliance. High unemployment arises from this phenomenon. There’s also the risk of social vices emerging among those youngsters who aren’t prepared for the world of work. The institute <a href="http://www.ibe.unesco.org/National_Reports/ICE_2008/kenya_NR08.pdf">worried</a> about increased levels of crime, drug abuse and antisocial behaviour. </p>
<p>It also found that the existing system wasn’t providing flexible education pathways. These are important for identifying and nurturing learners’ aptitudes, talents and interests early enough to prepare them for the world of work and career progression. This lack of flexibility was found to be pushing up drop-out rates, even among academically talented pupils.</p>
<p>One of the biggest problems was a focus on exam results. The system didn’t seem to care whether pupils had the skills and knowledge they needed at different levels. It just wanted them to perform well on written assessments. </p>
<h2>A new approach</h2>
<p>The Kenyan government decided to take action. Drawing from the institute’s evaluation and a <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/erykkoh/task-force-finalreportfeb20123">2012 report</a> by the Ministry of Education, it developed <a href="http://www.kicd.ac.ke/images/PDF/national-curriculum-policy.pdf">a plan</a> to reform education and training. This stated that the sector should be guided by a national philosophy that places education at the centre of Kenya’s human and economic development.</p>
<p>Some of the plan’s aims include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>developing learners’ individual potential in a holistic, integrated manner while producing intellectually, emotionally and physically balanced citizens;</p></li>
<li><p>introducing a competency-based curriculum that focuses on teaching and learning concrete skills rather than taking an abstract approach;</p></li>
<li><p>establishing a national assessment system that caters for the continuous evaluation of learners;</p></li>
<li><p>putting in place structures to identify and nurture children’s talents from an early age; and,</p></li>
<li><p>introducing national values, cohesion and integration into the curriculum. This will, it’s hoped, promote a Kenyan society whose values are harmonious and non-discriminatory.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Another important element of the plan is an emphasis on science, technology and innovation. The current education system doesn’t provide a strong foundation for developing such skills. The proposed new system will try to develop <a href="http://www.kicd.ac.ke/images/PDF/national-curriculum-policy.pdf">vocational and technical skills</a> in a bid to meet Kenya’s demand for skilled labour and its push for greater industrialisation.</p>
<h2>Three tiers</h2>
<p>The new system that’s being proposed will involve a three-tier approach to education.</p>
<p>Tier one is described as the early years of education. It focuses on what the plan calls the “foundational skills of literacy and numeracy”. It will consist of pre-primary and lower primary school. Kindergarten and primary school grades one to four will offer general education. Grades five and six will centre on academic subjects, including languages, sciences and arts. </p>
<p>Tier two will concentrate on “curriculum exploration, abilities and interests, as well as pathways for high school”. It will cover grades seven to 12 and offer subjects that are relevant to some generalised learning areas. This will allow learners to firm up their interests and strengths. </p>
<p>Finally there’s tier three. This will combine senior school education and tertiary training. It will offer more specialised and targeted competencies that prepare learners either for vocational, college or university education. </p>
<p>By the end of this level, learners should be equipped with the skills they’ll need to either be self-reliant – entrepreneurs – to join the labour market, pursue a diploma or enrol for a university degree. College education, technical and vocational training would last for two years. An average university degree would be three years long. </p>
<p>University education also has its critics. They argue that Kenyan universities are not preparing students well for the job market. Reform, if it happens, will be led by the <a href="http://www.cue.or.ke/">Commission for University Education</a> and individual universities.</p>
<h2>The process</h2>
<p>So, the plan exists. Now it must be brought to life. Policies must be formulated. Curricula must be designed. Every subject’s syllabus needs to be developed and approved. Curriculum support materials – course books and teachers’ guides, handbooks and manuals – must be developed.</p>
<p>Teachers, education officers and other stakeholders must be trained and prepared for all of these changes. Then it will be time to select pilot schools where the new plan can be put to the test. Once this is done, it’s on to national implementation and a crucial period of monitoring and evaluation.</p>
<p>This is an ambitious, important process. Can it be done? Yes – but only if the national government of Kenya puts its money where its mouth is and invests comprehensively. Overhauling the curriculum will require a great deal of physical and human resources; a proper financial investment is critical.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62840/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Sifuna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Kenya has realised that its school-leavers aren’t ready for the world of work. An ambitious plan aims to change this.Daniel Sifuna, Professor of History of Education, Kenyatta UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/591532016-05-11T01:22:30Z2016-05-11T01:22:30ZWhat if young people designed their own learning?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121830/original/image-20160510-20581-drzwui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Imagine a school with no year levels or set curriculum – could it work?</span> </figcaption></figure><p><em>The federal budget has been delivered and Australians are headed for the polls. In this series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/reform-revisited">Reform Revisited</a>, we ask writers for innovative ways to tackle our reform agenda.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Imagine two teenagers. Let’s call them Jack and Alaysa. They go to Imaginary High School somewhere in Australia.</p>
<p>There are no year levels or set curriculum. Students move on to the next stage when they are ready, irrespective of age. They partner with teachers to design what they learn and how they are assessed.</p>
<p>Traditional subjects are replaced with real-world problems. Kids are still learning maths and English – they’re <a href="https://mtelizarealtime.wordpress.com/projects/">applying their knowledge</a> to build and race a billycart and to market products at a local fair. </p>
<p>Students develop their capabilities and give back to their communities. They might be out revegetating the local creek, mentoring preschoolers or restoring furniture. </p>
<p>Students are totally absorbed in what they are doing, studying areas they have chosen which clearly matter to them. Four topics that catch your eye are the challenges of migration for kids, why the internet is changing punctuation, what it’s like to be an apprentice, and an exploration of different school systems across the world. </p>
<p>Students are creating products, producing blogs and sophisticated multimedia presentations.</p>
<p>Classes have students of different ages. Teachers from different subjects are working together. At times during the week, lessons last for a whole morning or afternoon. </p>
<p>Rather than having an identical timetable to others in their year, students here have a personal plan, which is updated twice a week. </p>
<p>Students have the flexibility to work part-time, engage in physical activity and community service. They create electronic portfolios to show what they have learned. In some cases these exist as <a href="http://openbadges.org/">“open badges”</a>, digital proof that they have reached certain levels of accomplishment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121832/original/image-20160510-20575-1nfm8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121832/original/image-20160510-20575-1nfm8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121832/original/image-20160510-20575-1nfm8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121832/original/image-20160510-20575-1nfm8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121832/original/image-20160510-20575-1nfm8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121832/original/image-20160510-20575-1nfm8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121832/original/image-20160510-20575-1nfm8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students are becoming increasingly disengaged in school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why schools need to change</h2>
<p>The current system is clearly not working for a large number of students. <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-students-are-becoming-increasingly-disengaged-at-school-heres-why-51570">Levels of disengagement</a> within schools are high and increase as students pass through secondary school. </p>
<p>To carry on batching children into year groups and teaching them the same content partly <a href="http://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/learning-frontiers-resources/engagement_in_australian_schools-background_paper-pdf.pdf">explains why</a> there are high levels of disengagement, stress and underachievement.</p>
<p>Schools recognise that today’s complex world needs <a href="http://www.fya.org.au/2016/04/20/big-data-reveals-the-skills-young-people-need/">students who are capable in different ways</a>. </p>
<p>There is growing disquiet about the capacity of education to meet future skill needs and a recognition that we need students with a <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/opinion/capabilities-are-the-new-currency-for-success-in-life/">different set of capabilities</a>. </p>
<p>The American educational reformer John Dewey was making these kinds of arguments a century ago in his book <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/852/852-h/852-h.htm">Democracy and Education</a>. Dewey believed that students thrive in an environment that allows them to interact with the curriculum, and that all students should have the opportunity to take part in their own learning.</p>
<p>Creativity expert <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en">Ken Robinson</a> became a TED-talk phenomenon as a result of his savage critique of assembly-line schooling. He called for a radical rethink of the school system so that it nurtures, rather than undermines, creativity.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iG9CE55wbtY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ken Robinson poses the question: do schools kill creativity?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australian Council for Educational Research CEO <a href="https://www.teachermagazine.com.au/geoff-masters">Geoff Masters</a> has called for us to view the school curriculum as a roadmap rather than a series of identical short road trips. We should measure children’s learning in terms of breadth and depth, with the roadmap laying out the ultimate learning goals. Each student’s journey would run at their own speed.</p>
<p>International education advisers Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas have similarly reimagined schooling in their book <a href="http://www.educatingruby.org/">Educating Ruby</a>. They suggest the core purpose of education should be to build young people’s capabilities to function in their lives beyond school.</p>
<p>We need to shift the focus away from teaching to the test towards learning for life. </p>
<h2>How do teachers fit in with this?</h2>
<p>The teacher’s role is vital in this new approach. </p>
<p>Where once teachers imparted knowledge and skills for an age-related syllabus, today they need to be coaches, critics and experts in learning. They need to be able to ensure that students get the very best out of their time in class. </p>
<p>Teachers need to strike the balance between encouraging independent learning and providing students with guidance. They have a key role in cultivating confident, curious learners who can take risks and learn from their mistakes. <a href="http://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/learning-frontiers-resources/insights-and-ideas-issue-2.pdf?sfvrsn=2">Feedback loops are critical</a>, with students and teachers providing regular feedback to each other to achieve quality learning. </p>
<h2>But could this really work?</h2>
<p>The Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education (CUREE), an international centre of expertise in evidence-based policy and practice, shows some of the benefits of a shift towards more independent learning. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.curee.co.uk/files/publication/%5Bsite-timestamp%5D/Whatisindependentlearningandwhatarethebenefits.pdf">CUREE found</a> that independent learning could improve academic performance, motivation and confidence. Studies showed some students in particular, such as those with special learning needs and socially excluded children, felt more engaged in their learning. </p>
<p>However, learning needed to be scaffolded with support and feedback. Teachers played a key role in facilitating students’ independence. Further empirical evidence would strengthen understanding of the size of the effect.</p>
<p>Education professor John Hattie <a href="http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/about/research/ravisiblelearning.pdf">reminds us that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“the biggest effects on student learning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching, and when students become their own teachers”. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, what’s needed is a rethinking of roles for teachers and students. </p>
<h2>Making Imaginary High a reality</h2>
<p>Across Australia some of these ideas are being put into practice. Some <a href="http://www.mountalexandercollege.vic.edu.au/about/a-revolution-is-happening-here">schools have dropped the notion of year levels</a> to enable them to meet children at their point of need and acknowledge that not all students learn at the same pace. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.mathspathway.com">Computer programs</a> are enabling instruction tailored to the student by assessing where they are at and providing a tailored curriculum. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/searchcentre/pages/results.aspx?k=capabilities">Capabilities</a>, such as personal and social capability and critical and creative thinking, are being embedded in the curriculum. <a href="http://www.mitchellinstitute.org.au/opinion/capabilities-are-the-new-currency-for-success-in-life/">Work is under way to develop assessment measures</a>. Teachers across Australia are working on developing new models of practice to support this approach.</p>
<p>We need to accelerate the change. We are wasting too much of students’ learning time and are failing to amplify their talents. To continue along the current path is increasingly unscientific, unjustifiable and plain dull.</p>
<p>• <em>Read more in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/reform-revisited">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Lucas is affiliated with the Mitchell Institute which is partnering with the VCAA to measure capabilities in the curriculum.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan O'Connell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our education system fails to amplify students’ creativity and interest in learning. To continue along the current path is increasingly unscientific, unjustifiable and plain dull.Megan O'Connell, Policy Program Director, Mitchell Institute, Victoria UniversityBill Lucas, International adviser, Mitchell Institute, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/482122015-11-04T11:12:22Z2015-11-04T11:12:22ZLessons from Newark: why school reforms will not work without addressing poverty<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100664/original/image-20151103-16547-mujd68.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who's in charge of America's schools?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rutgersnursing/10409301955/in/photolist-gRQoPn-gRQVot-gRQoUm-gRQTu7-gRQqT3-gRQshq-gRQTmH-gRRbRa-gRQoGP-gRQp5b-gRRbK8-gRQXpo-gRRc8T-gRQU9e-gRREn2-gRQUXN-gRQsbo-prXiGR-gRQX79-gRQU6Y-gRRJ3t-gRQTuE-gRQTyA-gRQp13-gRQT1b-gRRH44-8N3JQ7-8MZFbP-8MZMDe-8N35hS-8MYQXn-8N2VFW-8MZdPP-8N3uKw-8MYRHM-8MYQaB-8MYXg8-8N336f-8N3Tdu-8N2Z7E-8N2R5o-8MYH34-8N3kay-8MZeQa-8N31t7-8MYGcX-8MYHE2-8MZhbi-8MZjx4-8N3dfs">Rutgers Nursing</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2010, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Cory Booker, Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey, and Chris Christie, Republican governor of New Jersey. <a href="http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Mark-Zuckerbergs-Big-Announcement-Video">Zuckerberg announced</a>, to cheers and applause, a US$100 million challenge grant to “turn Newark into a symbol of educational excellence for the whole nation.”</p>
<p>The plan mattered not only for Newark – <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOuKAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Robert+Curvin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAGoVChMIx9yWirr0yAIVQx0eCh3IPQ68#v=onepage&q=Robert%20Curvin&f=false">a desperately poor city</a> with failing public schools despite significant state funding and state control – but also for the national debate about how to best improve public education.</p>
<p>Five years later, Dale Russakoff, a longtime journalist, has published her valuable chronicle of the process, <a href="http://www.hmhco.com/bookstore/authors/Dale-Russakoff/10379459">The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools</a>? Her <a href="http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/09/author_dale_russakoff_discusses_new_book_on_newark.html">verdict</a>: Newark’s children are generally not better off for the experiment. </p>
<p>That’s disappointing news to me personally and professionally. I’ve taught journalism and American studies at Rutgers University-Newark since 2000, and I know firsthand the complaints of students, parents and teachers with the Newark school system. </p>
<p>I’ve also written widely on the history of New York City. In researching my latest book – <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100956020">Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York City</a> – I learned how the city’s public schools have long defined neighborhoods and shaped economic opportunity. I’ve also seen how inequalities in the schools have sparked movements for democracy and racial justice.</p>
<h2>Newark schools in desperate need of reforms</h2>
<p>Downtown Newark is only 12 miles from lower Manhattan, but there are days when the distance seems much greater. While New York grapples with gentrification and globalization, Newark struggles – with some signs of success – to revive its economy. New York’s politics are famously multi-ethnic, but in Newark – despite a growing Hispanic population – city politics is stubbornly set in a racial frame. </p>
<p>In New York, school reform is a project more than a decade old that began in the mayoralty of Michael Bloomberg. Working in a safer city with a more robust economy and a growing population, New York reformers closed low-performing schools, expanded school choice, and opened charter schools. Their <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/NYCeducationReport.pdf">efforts</a> were controversial and not always successful, but they succeeded in breaking up the city’s ossified educational bureaucracy. </p>
<p>In Newark, there is no question that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/06/03/the-ugly-reform-mess-in-newark-public-schools-by-a-top-newark-education-official/">public schools</a> needed reform. Despite substantial court-ordered state funding and direct state control of public education, over the years weak schools far outnumbered good schools. </p>
<p>Newark adopted many elements of the New York reform effort, including a reliance on charters and school closings. Indeed, the school superintendent in Newark who presided over this project was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/06/22/controversial-newark-schools-chief-leaving-post-finally/">Cami Anderson</a>, a product of the reformed New York City system. </p>
<h2>Poverty in the classroom</h2>
<p>Yet Newark’s reform effort yielded little, Russakoff argues, because it was a relentlessly top-down effort, with grandstanding by both Booker and Christie and little consultation with parents and teachers. It was also, she suggests, proof of the limitations of the current <a href="http://njmonthly.com/articles/towns-schools/the-great-debate-on-school-reform/">debate</a> over how to improve urban public schools.</p>
<p>For all the complexities of urban education, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/02/28/separating-fact-from-fiction-in-21-claims-about-charter-schools/">differences</a> between opposing camps are sharp. One side, including teachers’ unions, says that educational problems cannot be solved without addressing poverty. The other side, which includes school reformers and supporters of charter schools, argues that unionized schoolteachers are making excuses when they cite poverty as a critical problem in educating inner-city kids. </p>
<p>Russakoff wisely rejects this framing, and gives vivid examples of how poverty affects Newark’s children in the classroom. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100649/original/image-20151103-16502-anuh29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100649/original/image-20151103-16502-anuh29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100649/original/image-20151103-16502-anuh29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100649/original/image-20151103-16502-anuh29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100649/original/image-20151103-16502-anuh29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100649/original/image-20151103-16502-anuh29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/100649/original/image-20151103-16502-anuh29.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A top-down effort?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/insiderimages/5185328069/in/photolist-8Ugfm7-8Udamz-8UgfnL-8Udao6-8Ugfhu-8Udawe-8UdarV-8UdaqX">Insider Images</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Readers will be inspired by Princess Fils Aime, a teacher from Newark who overcomes homelessness to become a talented presence in the city’s schools. Russakoff shows how she impressively combines discipline, high standards, and nurturing learning in a classroom where, in one year, 15 of her 26 kindergartners are being monitored for “alleged neglect or exposure to domestic violence.”</p>
<p>And they will remember Russakoff’s depiction of Alif Beyah, a struggling student whose performance improves with help from his mother, a principal, assistant principal, special education teacher and basketball coach. This support system vanishes when he goes to high school, where he makes the basketball team as a freshman but loses ground academically. </p>
<p>When Alif’s friend is stabbed to death while they are walking home from a pickup basketball game, he goes into a tailspin and cries himself to sleep. Alif finishes his freshman year failing history, math and English.
Despite the dogged efforts of a vice principal, his academic future does not inspire optimism. </p>
<p>Cases like Alif’s convinced Zuckerberg to retool his approach to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/30/mark-zuckerberg-donation_n_5416950.html">philanthropy</a> to take into account poverty. </p>
<h2>Can education be left to reformers?</h2>
<p>As for the political questions that surround public education, reformers might argue that their top-down approach was necessary to create change. But in 2014, their Newark efforts culminated in a <a href="http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2014/05/newark_voters_elect_new_mayor_to_succeed_cory_booker.html">mayoral election</a> that was something of a referendum on their project. </p>
<p>The winner was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/nyregion/newark-mayoral-race.html">Ras Baraka</a>, an opponent of school reformers, who derided them as elitists who violated Newark’s right to self-rule. </p>
<p>As Russakoff points out, the anger at public school reform (not only in Newark, but also in Chicago and New York City) suggests “education reform is too important to be left to reformers alone.” </p>
<p>But engaging communities is a difficult task. In cities like Newark, where schools define neighborhoods and provide <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOuKAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Robert+Curvin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAGoVChMI6o_rhsL0yAIVRT8-Ch0CzAGy#v=onepage&q=Robert%20Curvin&f=false">much-needed jobs</a>, the same parent who wants a charter school to provide a better education for her child might be angry to see her sister lose her job as a school aide when a regular public school closes. </p>
<h2>Do charters provide a better model?</h2>
<p>The Prize is a taut work of narrative journalism, written with sharply rendered scenes and characters. It memorably portrays dealmakers, teachers and students. In a political landscape defined by opponents and defenders of charter schools, it describes good work done in both charters and regular public schools. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, its structure has limitations. </p>
<p>Through close-up portraits of two schools, Russakoff argues that charters do better than regular public schools at getting money into classrooms where it can help students. She echoes politically varied <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOuKAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Robert+Curvin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAGoVChMIx9yWirr0yAIVQx0eCh3IPQ68#v=onepage&q=Robert%20Curvin&f=false">critics</a> who say Newark’s schools are mired in a wasteful, choking bureaucracy rife with patronage.</p>
<p>There is something to her argument, but it has been <a href="https://njedpolicy.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/the-mis-use-of-data-in-dale-russakoffs-the-prize/">criticized</a> by Mark Weber, a teacher and graduate student in education at Rutgers. Weber makes a good case that in some places The Prize juxtaposes schools and administrative structures that are too different to compare usefully. Also, as Weber points out, it ignores publicly available state data that call into question the charters’ reputation for efficiency and effectiveness. </p>
<h2>The missing Latino voices</h2>
<p>The tight focus of The Prize also removes from view the story of Hispanic Newark. </p>
<p>Russakoff’s close attention to Mayor Booker, an African American, and the black/white racial politics of school reform say next to nothing about Latinos who make up about a third of the city’s <a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/34/3451000.html">population</a>. </p>
<p>Newark has long been thought of as a black city, but its school-aged <a href="http://acnj.org/kids-count/new-jersey-kids-count-2015/">population</a> is roughly half African American and 40% Hispanic. Latinos have been less vocal than blacks in the city’s school wars, and therefore less visible. </p>
<p>Their place in Newark’s schools deserves greater recognition. </p>
<p>The growth of Newark’s charter schools and the decline of public school <a href="http://www.nps.k12.nj.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Newark-Board-of-Education-District-Assessment-2015.pdf">enrollments</a> both raise serious questions about the future shape of the city’s school system. </p>
<p>Equally important for the future are Mayor Baraka’s demands for home rule, a surge of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/nyregion/newark-mayor-ras-baraka-wins-praise-for-trying-to-unite-city.html">energy</a> in his administration and a major commitment to improving education in Newark made by my own university, <a href="http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/node/14362">Rutgers University-Newark</a>.</p>
<p>The Prize may not answer every question in the <a href="http://dianeravitch.net/2015/09/10/jersey-jazzman-fact-checks/">school reform wars</a>, but it does convey the importance of lessons learned and opportunities lost in New Jersey’s largest city. </p>
<p>Anyone who cares about the future of education, in Newark and the rest of the United States, can learn something from this book.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48212/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert W. Snyder does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Newark’s children are no better off even after Mark Zuckerberg pumped $100 million to improve public schools. What opportunities have been lost? What lessons have we learned?Robert W. Snyder, Associate Professor of Journalism and American Studies , Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/473822015-09-17T05:33:21Z2015-09-17T05:33:21ZYoung people must be consulted on reforms to A-levels and GCSEs<p>In a society where exams play such a huge part in the lives of young people, it’s surprising that substantial reforms to qualifications in the UK are taking place without their consultation. </p>
<p>In a presentation at the <a href="https://www.bera.ac.uk/beraconference-2015">British Educational Research Association</a> annual conference in Belfast, I <a href="http://assessment2025blog.aqa.org.uk/2014/06/09/can-and-should-young-people-play-a-role-in-designing-assessments/">argued</a> that this lack of student consultation on reforms to qualifications is a grave omission. Young people – both those who have already done exams and those about to sit them – can and should be asked for their views before changes are rolled out. </p>
<p>While there is a proliferation of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/reform-of-gcse-qualifications-by-ofqual">government consultations</a> on <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/reform-of-as-and-a-level-qualifications-by-ofqual">reforms to examinations</a>, young people’s views are omitted as a matter of course. </p>
<p>In mid-September, the qualifications regulator Ofqual announced a new <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofqual-launches-further-consultation-on-reformed-qualifcations-for-2017">consultation</a> seeking views on a second phase of changes to GCSEs and A-level subjects including statistics, media studies and film studies. The views of young people have not been specifically sought out on these subjects – nor were they for subjects reformed in the first phase, some of which are already being taught in schools. This lack of participation by young people in the policy development is a missed opportunity. </p>
<h2>Changes set in motion</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gove-generation-first-pupils-to-live-through-a-level-reforms-wait-for-results-45532">Initial reforms</a> of the GCSE and A-level curriculum, begun by the former education secretary Michael Gove, mean that some students who sat exams in summer 2015 already took very different exams to their peers a few years ahead of them. </p>
<p>Now, a cohort of students have just started GCSE and A-level courses this September with new content and new rules. These changes are certain to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gcse-changes-a-summary">have major ramifications</a> for young people’s future educational and employment opportunities.</p>
<p>There are new specifications for exams, based on revised subject content and assessment objectives in key subjects such as maths and English. These qualifications are now linear, assessed solely by examinations with no modules and in some subjects, no coursework assessment. At A-level, there will be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gove-generation-first-pupils-to-live-through-a-level-reforms-wait-for-results-45532">“de-coupling” of the AS-level</a> exams pupils sit in Year 12 with the final A2 exams in Year 13, and a reduction in resit opportunities. <a href="https://theconversation.com/removing-practicals-from-a-level-sciences-will-leave-students-poorly-equipped-25563">Practical science assessment</a> will no longer count towards students’ final grades.</p>
<p>At GCSE, a <a href="http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/gcse-and-a-level-reform/gcse-reform/">new 9-1 grading scale</a> will replace the former A* to U system (where nine is the top mark). And <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/aug/29/gcse-english-speaking-listening-drop">speaking and listening</a> has been removed from students’ overall grades. </p>
<h2>Young peoples’ views ignored</h2>
<p>Students have no history of any meaningful input into what reforms of these qualifications might look like. The <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DeliveringReform.pdf">last Labour government</a> saw the promise of “student voice” as a crucial dimension to the successful implementation of many of its 14–19 initiatives. </p>
<p>But in the present landscape of reform, there is no direct policy that drives the government to carry out consultations with students. Many <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2012.00442.x/abstract">in-roads</a> that were made into treating young people as equal decision-makers with regard to education policy have stalled. </p>
<p>These are worrying developments, specifically in terms of children’s rights. The <a href="http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf">UN Convention on the Rights of the Child</a>, to which the UK is a signatory, stipulates that children and young people are rights holders and are entitled to engage in processes that affect them directly. This includes the development of policies and services (in this instance educational ones) through research and consultation. </p>
<p>But looking at the impact of assessment on young people in terms of rights is rare – and any real effort to enforce <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02671522.2010.498150">compliance</a> with international children’s rights standards in the development of qualifications systems is rarer still. </p>
<h2>Worried about their future</h2>
<p>Through national research <a href="http://qub.library.ingentaconnect.com/content/ioep/clre/2013/00000011/00000002/art00002?crawler=true&mimetype=application/pdf">that has engaged with young people</a> who were just about to do exams, we are beginning to know a great deal more about what they think about reforms. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94917/original/image-20150915-29620-10h9pm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94917/original/image-20150915-29620-10h9pm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94917/original/image-20150915-29620-10h9pm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94917/original/image-20150915-29620-10h9pm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94917/original/image-20150915-29620-10h9pm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94917/original/image-20150915-29620-10h9pm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94917/original/image-20150915-29620-10h9pm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">High stakes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Teen boy via eurobanks/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>During my 2012 research with nearly 250 students <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0305764X.2012.733347#.Vfg1LxFVhBc">from across England</a> they told us that examinations structured through modules (and re-sits) allow for any mistakes to be made better and take the stress off having to do everything in one sitting. Students thought that it was only fair to have a mixture of examinations and coursework because: “we don’t all like the same things”. </p>
<p>They felt insulted at the annual circus of debates in the media around falling <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9366785/Exam-standards-fall-in-race-to-the-bottom-MPs-will-say.html">exam standards</a>, which they saw as degrading their own achievements. They were also concerned that changes to examinations are introduced “live”, rather than being piloted in advance, and felt their future successes might be “messed up” as a result. All of these changes could have considerable impact on their final grades and they argue this is too high a price to pay. </p>
<p>There are a number of ways that young people could be listened to more effectively. Qualification awarding bodies, the Department for Education and Ofqual could set up panels with young people so that their views can be fed directly into assessment design and implementation. Education officials and politicians could attend focused policy briefings with young people in order to obtain input into current debates. And there could be an attempt to reach out directly to students via social media to gauge their opinions on reforms. </p>
<p>But we should also ask young people what they think is the most effective way to engage with them directly, and change our practice accordingly. When it comes to reforming exams that form such an important step in any young person’s life, it’s vital that all students have their voices heard.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47382/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jannette Elwood is a Trustee of AQA Education. She has received funding from various educational charities and government departments, recently the Schools Examination Commission, Ireland.</span></em></p>New look GCSEs and A-levels will be sat by young people – but they haven’t been asked about the reforms.Jannette Elwood, Professor of Education, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/463132015-08-25T09:55:16Z2015-08-25T09:55:16ZWhen it comes to New Orleans schools, who is making the choices?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92809/original/image-20150824-17787-g39x95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who has benefitted from New Orleans school reforms?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/editor/2652643515/in/photolist-53puv2-8m1c3f-4PQFNE-pgFL3F-9XbsKJ-9X8zQR-9XbrdW-9X8AH2-9XbtyW-9XbrN1-8szUb-qsCeMN-pXdHrP-5LJQJL-eZhn1-4AaZBb-4A6HG4-iJgyUp-eZhpg-eZhjU-74jgox-zGDkx-74o4NS-5SdFQT-7X6V72-4MWFHF-4N1NCu-4N1Nh7-4MWBNP-4MWBDB-4MWBJg-4MWBvB-4MWBSD-4QwgHH-4MWJ3r-4MWDx4-4N1UEj-jJGemr-7ALVft-8bVYiG-9yRdyo-9yRekY-9yRdNq-9yRdEu-9yNdG4-9yNdyR-9yRdWw-9yNcYa-8bVXPJ-4CDr4J">Bart Everson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1948, <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/felix-frankfurter-9301106">Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter</a> wrote, “the public school is at once a symbol of our democracy and the most pervasive means for promoting our common destiny.” </p>
<p>But these days, with public education becoming more about test scores, we are forced to consider whether it still remains so. A case in point is that of New Orleans, where the charter school education model has routinely excluded the voices of many of the parents and children who are directly affected. </p>
<p>Though many <a href="http://educationresearchalliancenola.org/news/new-publications-in-harvard-journal-education-next">scholars</a> have <a href="http://www.researchonreforms.org/html/documents/Tracking9thGradeCohortsFinal.pdf">debated</a> the <a href="http://hechingerreport.org/education-reform-is-working-in-new-orleans-just-like-white-privilege/">effects</a> of education reform in New Orleans on educational outcomes, few have examined the impact on democratic decision-making that has always been a central part of public schools. </p>
<p>As a parent, living and raising children in New Orleans, I have witnessed the transformation of the school system and the <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/08/03/reform_makes_broken_new_orleans_schools_worse_race_charters_testing_and_the_real_story_of_education_after_katrina/">widespread disdain</a> for voices <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/05/03/time-for-reformers-to-retire-cliche-defend-the-status-quo/">that are skeptical</a> of the reforms. Also, as a political scientist studying political behavior and public policy, I see these trends through the lens of democratic participation. </p>
<h2>School reforms in New Orleans</h2>
<p>In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/gnocdc/reports/TheDataCenter_PublicEducation.pdf">implemented significant changes</a> to its education system. </p>
<p>The vast majority of schools were deemed “failing” (even if they earned a C on the state’s letter grade formula) and were taken over by the state-run Recovery School District. All teachers were fired. Except for a few, all schools became charter schools, and default <a href="http://apps.npr.org/the-end-of-neighborhood-schools/">neighborhood school zones</a> were eliminated. Parents now have to actively choose a school for their children. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.vanderbilt.edu/schoolchoice/conference/papers/Smith%20-Wohlstetter_COMPLETE.pdf">Advocates</a> <a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6783.html">argue</a> that the expansion of school choice enhances democracy by engaging parents who must learn to actively choose for their child. For example, at a recent public discussion of New Orleans parent perspectives, <a href="http://wwno.org/post/parents-share-perspectives-new-orleans-schools">one mother</a> stated that the new system had forced her to learn more about the schools and to become more engaged.</p>
<p>Others contend, however, that <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11109-014-9270-8">contemporary reforms</a> have made parents <a href="http://blog.chron.com/k12zone/2014/03/school-choice-anxiety/">anxious</a> and have <a href="http://www.academia.edu/1288825/When_Community_Control_Meets_Privatization_The_Search_for_Empowerment_in_African_American_Charter_Schools">excluded</a> them from real <a href="http://www.theneworleanstribune.com/main/why-we-must-say-no-to-renewing-the-school-millage/">decision-making</a>. Indeed, some parents in New Orleans have expressed <a href="http://neworleans.edweek.org/parents-struggle-with-school-choice-system/">great frustration</a> and anxiety about school choice programs. </p>
<h2>Who gets heard</h2>
<p>In <a href="http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300049381">Democracy and Its Critics</a>, esteemed political scientist Robert Dahl developed criteria for an ideal democracy, all of which point to the centrality of political equality. In other words, in a democracy, everyone ought to have an equal voice in the important decisions.</p>
<p>To examine how the democratic process functions in New Orleans schools, 22 Tulane students in my class collected <a href="http://jcelestelay.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/StudentPolBriefs.pdf">data and wrote five policy briefs</a> that can assess the degree to which the New Orleans education model embodies Dahl’s ideals. The briefs show clear violations of political equality.</p>
<p>For one, as my students found, campaign contributions to candidates running for the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) are skewed heavily toward pro-charter voices. </p>
<p>Nearly 10% of the total amount raised from individual contributions in each of the most recent BESE and OPSB elections came from just one family. Further, several of the winning candidates received over a third of their donations from outside the state of Louisiana. And most of the largest donors, such as Michael Bloomberg, were from outside the state. </p>
<p>So, a small number of voices – in this case staunch pro-charter advocates – outweigh those who are directly affected. </p>
<p>And the fact is, New Orleans residents themselves have had a <a href="http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/11/bese_takes_john_mcdonogh_decis.html">limited</a> <a href="http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/bese-to-decide-fate-of-lagniappe-academies-charter-school/31621984">role</a> in many <a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/opsb-superintendents-proposals-under-fire/">decisions</a> of these boards.</p>
<h1>Governance and democratic process</h1>
<p>Beyond the elected boards, democratic participation is far from equal on the nonelected charter school boards that make most school-based decisions. My students’ research into charter boards demonstrates that these boards are not representative of the school population. </p>
<p>Some charter schools are part of national networks, such as <a href="http://www.kipp.org/">KIPP</a>, while others stand alone. In a school district where about 90% of students are African American, less than 20% of members of non-network charter boards and 25% of members of network charter boards are black. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92806/original/image-20150824-17762-1ip1vss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/92806/original/image-20150824-17762-1ip1vss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92806/original/image-20150824-17762-1ip1vss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92806/original/image-20150824-17762-1ip1vss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92806/original/image-20150824-17762-1ip1vss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92806/original/image-20150824-17762-1ip1vss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/92806/original/image-20150824-17762-1ip1vss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There isn’t enough information for the public to effectively participate in the school choice program.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/clutterbusters/2383764892/in/photolist-4CDqfG-anxRsw-anyjBj-anyij1-an2t1N-anxSp9-sjBmtE-anvzAM-bBWXCL-7ZGU9e-anyqnN-bBWWSw-bQRErz-amYDkP-bQRDv6-bBWYAo-bBWY97-6AdVPf-8XEJ4r-8XEHJa-8XHKsA-8kVjWq-bo3RTt-8kS8TV-8kS8Cr-8XEH6K-8XHLey-8XEHgv-8XHKXS-8XHL4A-8XEHwB-8XEGTD-8XEHQ8-8kS7Ui-8kS8kF-7DF1be-7DF12p-7DF1dH-7DF1wz-7DJP7J-7DF1pH-7DF1kM-7DJPM3-7DJP5J-7DJPgs-7DJPzW-7DJPDA-7DJPHA-bCBHR4-8vocEe">Tami Hills</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Further, in violation of state laws, <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/gnocdc/reports/TheDataCenter_PublicEducation.pdf">information about charter board members</a>, meetings and board vacancies is very difficult to find. In the absence of even this basic information, there is no means for the public to effectively participate.</p>
<p>Even marketing tools, such as advertisements, are strategically targeted at particular audiences, leading to unequal opportunities for parents to learn about their choices. For example, predominantly black schools place television and radio ads only on stations whose audience is primarily African American, while more diverse schools, such as the International High School, advertise on jazz stations with a broad audience. There is then a risk for schools to exclude particular students. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="http://educationresearchalliancenola.org/files/publications/ERA-Policy-Brief-How-Do-School-Leaders-Respond-To-Competition.pdf">a recent report</a> shows that local principals rely on branding and marketing, including choosing not to advertise in order to limit the types of students who enroll. </p>
<p>Those who are selected out tend to be the students who are harder and more expensive to educate, such as those with a history of behavioral problems and special needs.</p>
<h2>Choice as manipulation?</h2>
<p>In spite of these findings, <a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/cowen.poll_.2015.pdf">polls</a> indicate widespread support. Nearly 70% of New Orleans residents believe that charter schools have improved education in the city. If the people did not believe their interests were represented or that the system was fair, why would they support this model? </p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Power-Radical-View-Steven-Lukes/dp/0333420926">One theory</a> suggests that power is exercised not only through the expression of preferences or even control of the agenda, but also through the covert manipulation of interests such that people may even act against their own will.</p>
<p>The relentless focus on “choice” represents a perfect example of this manipulation. </p>
<p>Reformers contend that expanding choice enhances democracy and levels the playing field for disadvantaged children. Because Americans believe more choices are better than fewer, it is hardly surprising to see that New Orleanians support school choice in spite of unequal access to power.</p>
<p>Because they are told that their child’s future lies solely in their hands – and is not the responsibility of the government or society – parents may be preoccupied with their choices and ignore the fact that a small minority of affluent individuals exercise enormous influence on the real education power brokers.</p>
<p>By focusing on choice, people may miss the fact that they have almost no control over the boards that make most school-based decisions. </p>
<p>The pressure to collect information to make the best choices for their own children may mean that parents see their experiences as unique and to overlook the systemic problems with decentralization.</p>
<h2>What New Orleans must address</h2>
<p>Of late, <a href="http://educatenow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/RSD-OPSB-2014-CEA.pdf">reforms</a> have addressed inequalities in the enrollment process and discipline, but there has been no move to open up decision-making to include a broader set of voices.</p>
<p>For example, studies have <a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Choice-Focus-Groups-FINAL-small.pdf">shown</a> that there is widespread agreement that entrance into the few top-performing schools is unfair. These schools use admissions tests and required parent meetings to exclude all but the highest achievers. To protect their interests, they exercise significant <a href="http://hechingerreport.org/when-a-top-nola-charter-wont-reveal-its-admission-test-for-kindergarten/">pushback</a> against any move to change the selective admissions system.</p>
<p>If public schools are to exemplify democracy and produce tomorrow’s democrats, New Orleans must deal with the lack of political equality in its current system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>J Celeste Lay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans implemented significant changes to its education system. But the reforms may have excluded a lot of parents from decision-making.J Celeste Lay, Associate Professor of Political Science, Tulane UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/419932015-05-19T11:18:45Z2015-05-19T11:18:45ZExplainer: what is a ‘coasting’ school?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82195/original/image-20150519-30501-fcw3ij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">No room for flat-lining.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Classroom by michael jung/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Central to the new government’s education policy is a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32763097">determination</a> to “tackle coasting schools”. But what are “coasting” schools and why is the education secretary Nicky Morgan so exercised about them?</p>
<p>There is no agreed definition of a coasting school. New Labour saw coasting schools as those “at risk of failure” in its <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/325111/2007-childrens-plan.pdf">2007 Children’s Plan</a> but was unable to translate that concern into policy. This was perhaps partly due to the report’s recognition that we needed to be better at identifying such schools. </p>
<p>The subsequent Conservative-led coalition was less circumspect. The Conservatives’ concern with coasting schools can be traced back to 2011 and David Cameron’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pms-speech-on-education--2">speech to a free school in Norwich</a> where he identified coasting schools broadly as “the ones whose results have either flat-lined or where they haven’t improved as much as they could have”. </p>
<p>This resulted in a change in Ofsted’s grading system. Before 2012, schools inspected by Ofsted could be judged outstanding, good, satisfactory, or inadequate. From 2012, the “satisfactory” rating became “requires improvement”. This significant shift in tone enabled Michael Wilshaw, chief inspector of schools at the regulator Ofsted, to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofsted-scraps-satisfactory-judgement-to-help-improve-education">define coasting schools in the following terms</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No schools will be allowed to remain in the category of ‘requires improvement’ for more than three years. Under the proposals, schools judged in this new category would be subject to earlier re-inspection, within 12-18 months, rather than up to three years as at the moment. Schools will be given up to two inspections within that three year period to demonstrate improvement. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What makes a school ‘coast’?</h2>
<p>If it has been difficult to define “coasting” schools, determining what makes a school “coast” is even more problematic. The research that has been done in this area tends to reflect the findings of school improvement and school effectiveness research. <a href="https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/reports/satisfactory-schools/">A report in 2011 by the Royal Society for the Arts</a> into what were then still “satisfactory” schools found that “what came across overwhelmingly is the inconsistent quality of teaching and assessment practice within ‘satisfactory’ schools”, and also identified problems with systems and monitoring, school leadership and governance, and engagement with parents. </p>
<p>They also highlighted the fact that students from disadvantaged backgrounds were over-represented at satisfactory schools and that school contexts had a significant impact. A New Labour <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/00941-2008DOM-EN.pdf">report on improving coasting secondary schools</a> in 2008 identified insufficient accountability and challenge and lack of focused awareness of key areas such as aspirations for pupils and effective pupil support strategies. Again, context was seen to be a crucial factor.</p>
<h2>Morgan’s new proposals</h2>
<p>We are now beginning to find out what will happen to coasting schools that fail to demonstrate improvement. The <a href="https://www.conservatives.com/Manifesto">Conservative Manifesto</a> stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any school judged by Ofsted to be requiring improvement will be taken over by the best headteachers – backed by expert sponsors or high-performing neighbouring schools – unless it can demonstrate that it has a plan to improve rapidly. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Education secretary Nicky Morgan wasted no time in promoting this policy in both <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/11610551/Nicky-Morgan-We-will-step-up-our-school-reforms-so-every-child-can-thrive.html">an article in The Daily Telegraph</a> and an appearance on the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02rkrsj">Andrew Marr Show</a> on May 17. In the article she wrote of the need to “extend our academies programme to tackle ‘coasting’ schools” and insisted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>These schools must improve too and will be put on immediate notice and required to work with our team of expert head teachers. Those that aren’t able to demonstrate a clear plan for improvement will be given new leadership.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the moment these policies remain very vague. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofsted-scraps-satisfactory-judgement-to-help-improve-education">Ofsted identified</a> around 3,000 coasting schools in 2012. But as teacher and headteacher <a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-is-a-teacher-shortage-looming-34990">shortages loom</a> and pressures on primary school places and school budgets increase, there is no indication of where all these “expert head teachers” will come from. </p>
<p>It is also not clear if this new leadership – and the sacking of existing headteachers – will be enough to prevent schools from being absorbed rather chillingly into the expanding academies programme. In her Telegraph article, Morgan said “we will speed up the process of turning schools into academies to make sure that new expert leadership is found for all schools that need it as quickly as possible”. </p>
<p>There has been no no acknowledgement in these proposals of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cameron-forges-on-with-academies-revolution-despite-mounting-concerns-on-oversight-37080">criticisms</a> in the <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmeduc/258/258.pdf">House of Commons Education Committee’s 2015 report on Academies and Free Schools</a>, which found that there is still no evidence that academies, especially primary academies, are a positive force for change. </p>
<p>And crucially, there is no recognition of the importance of context when looking at coasting schools and their future. Education policy since 2010 has been founded on ignoring the factors that influence children and young people’s engagement at school and assuming that transferring successful practice between schools via academisation is straightforward. </p>
<p>There is no evidence yet that suggests this approach is effective. This is not to suggest that we should accept “coasting” schools, but that we need to understand them, and the localities they serve, much better before imposing wholesale change upon them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Jopling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nicky Morgan has wasted no time on pursuing plans to intervene in schools where results are ‘flat-lining’.Michael Jopling, Professor in Education, Department of Education and Lifelong Learning, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/393282015-03-25T16:20:49Z2015-03-25T16:20:49ZFinland’s school reforms won’t scrap subjects altogether<p>Finland’s plans to replace the teaching of classic school subjects such as history or English with broader, cross-cutting “topics” as part of a major education reform have been getting global attention, thanks to an article in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/finland-schools-subjects-are-out-and-topics-are-in-as-country-reforms-its-education-system-10123911.html">The Independent</a>, one of the UK’s trusted newspapers. Stay calm: despite the reforms, Finnish schools will continue to teach mathematics, history, arts, music and other subjects in the future. </p>
<p>But with the new basic school reform all children will also learn via periods looking at broader topics, such as the European Union, community and climate change, or 100 years of Finland’s independence, which would bring in multi-disciplinary modules on languages, geography, sciences and economics.</p>
<p>It is important to underline two fundamental peculiarities of the Finnish education system in order to see the real picture. First, education governance is highly decentralised, giving <a href="http://www.localfinland.fi/en/authorities/education-culture-wellbeing/basiceducation/Pages/default.aspx">Finland’s 320 municipalities</a> significant amount of freedom to arrange schooling according to the local circumstances. Central government issues legislation, tops up local funding of schools, and provides a guiding framework for what schools should teach and how. </p>
<p>Second, Finland’s <a href="http://www.oph.fi/english/curricula_and_qualifications/basic_education">National Curriculum Framework</a> is a loose common standard that steers curriculum planning at the level of the municipalities and their schools. It leaves educators freedom to find the best ways to offer good teaching and learning to all children. Therefore, practices vary from school to school and are often customised to local needs and situations.</p>
<h2>Phenomenon-based learning</h2>
<p>The next big reform taking place in Finland is the introduction of a new <a href="http://www.oph.fi/english/education_development/current_reforms/curriculum_reform_2016">National Curriculum Framework</a> (NCF), due to come into effect in August 2016. </p>
<p>It is a binding document that sets the overall goals of schooling, describes the principles of teaching and learning, and provides the guidelines for special education, well-being, support services and student assessment in schools. The concept of “phenomenon-based” teaching – a move away from “subjects” and towards inter-disciplinary topics – will have a central place in the new NCF. </p>
<p>Integration of subjects and a holistic approach to teaching and learning are not new in Finland. Since the 1980s, Finnish schools have experimented with this approach and it has been part of the culture of teaching in many Finnish schools since then. This new reform will bring more changes to Finnish middle-school subject teachers who have traditionally worked more on their own subjects than together with their peers in school.</p>
<h2>Schools decide the programme</h2>
<p>What will change in 2016 is that all basic schools for seven to 16-year-olds must have at least one extended period of multi-disciplinary, phenomenon-based teaching and learning in their curricula. The length of this period is to be decided by schools themselves. Helsinki, the nation’s capital and largest local school system, has decided to require two such yearly periods that must include all subjects and all students in every school in town. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.hel.fi/hki/ressuy/en/Etusivu/">One school</a> in Helsinki has already arranged teaching in a cross-disciplinary way; other schools will have two or more periods of a few weeks each dedicated to integrated teaching and learning.</p>
<p>In most basic schools in other parts of Finland students will probably have one “project” when they study some of their traditional subjects in a holistic manner. One education chief of a middle-size city in Finland predicted <a href="https://twitter.com/peterjohnsonphd/status/580485716150472704">via Twitter</a> that: “the end result of this reform will be 320 local variations of the NCF 2016 and 90% of them look a lot like current situation.” </p>
<p>You may wonder why Finland’s education authorities now insist that all schools must spend time on integration and phenomenon-based teaching when Finnish students’ test scores have been declining in the most <a href="http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Tiedotteet/2013/12/pisa.html?lang=en">recent international tests</a>. The answer is that educators in Finland think, quite correctly, that schools should teach what young people need in their lives rather than try to bring national test scores back to where they were. </p>
<p>What Finnish youth need more than before are more integrated knowledge and skills about real world issues, many argue. An integrated approach, based on lessons from some schools with longer experience of that, enhances teacher collaboration in schools and makes learning more meaningful to students. </p>
<h2>Students involved in lesson design</h2>
<p>What most stories about Finland’s current education reform have failed to cover is the most surprising aspect of the reforms. NCF 2016 states that students must be involved in the planning of phenomenon-based study periods and that they must have voice in assessing what they have learned from it.</p>
<p>Some teachers in Finland see this current reform as a threat and the wrong way to improve teaching and learning in schools. Other teachers think that breaking down the dominance of traditional subjects and isolation of teaching is an opportunity to more fundamental change in schools. </p>
<p>While some schools will seize the opportunity to redesign teaching and learning with non-traditional forms using the NCF 2016 as a guide, others will choose more moderate ways. In any case, teaching subjects will continue in one way or the other in most Finland’s basic schools for now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pasi Sahlberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Curriculum reforms being introduced in Finland from 2016 will set aside time for ‘phenomenon-based’ learning across subjects.Pasi Sahlberg, Visiting Professor of Practice in Education, Graduate School of Education, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/364692015-01-20T06:19:57Z2015-01-20T06:19:57ZEvaluate education reforms today to avoid mistakes being repeated for our grandchildren<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69438/original/image-20150119-14489-hjc4v3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C52%2C973%2C723&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wiping the slate clean won't always help. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-53976814/stock-photo-teacher-cleaning-the-chalkboard-suits-horizontal-composition.html?src=uN4XHWldsyy7UGmV6sE_gw-1-0">Chalkboard via Lonni/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For most governments, it’s their platform of education reforms that is politically one of the hardest programmes to push through. Yet push it through they do, in what has become a constant effort by politicians to keep reforming the structure and content of education systems to keep up with a fast and unpredictably changing world. </p>
<p>Now a <a href="http://www.oecd.org/education/education-policy-outlook-2015-9789264225442-en.htm">new report</a> by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, looking at the global trends in education reform, has come to an important conclusion: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Once new policies are adopted, there is little follow-up. Only 10% of the policies considered in this dataset have been evaluated for their impact. Measuring policy impact more rigorously and consistently will not only be cost-effective in the long run, it is also essential for developing the most useful, practicable and successful education policy options.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Politically inconvenient</h2>
<p>There may be three reasons for this. First, rigorous evaluation of reforms is very difficult and expensive. Complex education reforms take a long time to implement. National curriculum reforms, for example, often take a decade before they are fully implemented in schools and adopted in classrooms. Fair and reliable impact evaluation can therefore be made only when implementation is completed or progressed so that impact can be measured. The OECD reports that preparing students for the future is one <a href="https://theconversation.com/only-1-in-10-education-reforms-analysed-for-their-impact-finds-oecd-report-36461">common policy trend in many countries</a>. How to evaluate the success of this policy is very difficult given the unpredictably changing future landscape.</p>
<p>Second, too many education reforms end in failure or the end results are something very different than initially expected. It is understandable that there may be reluctance among politicians to spend significant amounts of money to evaluate something that was a failure. Moreover, national education reforms are often influenced by changing social or economic conditions that significantly affect their implementation.</p>
<p>And third, more often than not, education reforms are highly political constructions – and therefore are high-stakes gambits when it comes to national politics. Many education reforms today are seen as part of more complex and comprehensive social policies that are interdependent and sometimes difficult to be evaluated separately. Only a few politicians would take a risk and evaluate their, or their colleagues’, reforms knowing that the chances of getting a poor rating are abnormally high.</p>
<h2>Other ways of measuring</h2>
<p>The OECD has been very courageous in taking on some very challenging works of analysis, with its <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Programme for International Student Assessment</a>, its 2014 report <a href="http://www.oecd.org/education/measuring-innovation-in-education.htm">Measuring Innovation in Education</a> and now the Education Policy Outlook 2015. These reports all should have clear notes upfront of the reliability and validity of these exercises and, perhaps most importantly, what national politicians and pundits should not do with the findings. </p>
<p>Similar notes are needed in this new report on education policies around OECD countries. It is useful in indicating some trends and challenges in global education policy and reform. But at the same time it is based on one chosen way of analysing international education policies that relies primarily on self-reported information and data from member countries. </p>
<p>There are various alternative ways to systematically analyse and understand global education reform movements to that presented by the OECD. I would argue that the international academic community has been rather active during the past ten years in researching education policies and reforms around the world. </p>
<p>But the OECD has been sparing in its use of this existing research literature and other current policy analysis. For example, it remains silent about the negative effects of some common global education policy trends, such as the increased competition between schools, growing use of external standardised testing, misuses of technology and market-like school choice around the world, often <a href="http://pasisahlberg.com/finnish-lessons/about-finnish-lessons/">referred to as GERM</a> – the global educational reform movement. </p>
<p>Together with “what-to-do” types of recommendations it would have been useful to tell those who make education policy “what doesn’t work” in education policy reform. The important question of why national education policies are following the trends the OECD has identified in this report is not adequately answered. I think it would have been helpful for readers to hear about why national education policies and reforms look so much alike.</p>
<h2>Body of research growing</h2>
<p>But I actually do believe that educational researchers today are doing more to understand the nature and impact of education policies and reforms than the OECD gives them credit for. Take Chile, England, the US, Sweden, Australia, Germany, just to mention a few, and you’ll find more research and policy analysis on their education systems than ever before by both their own and international scholars.</p>
<p>Much of this research is directly addressing questions of the impact of reforms. There are good examples of how difficult it is to get reliable, up-to-date knowledge about the real impact of major national education reforms to be found in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sweeping-reforms-set-to-end-for-profit-education-in-chile-26406">Chilean market-based education reforms</a> in the 1980s, Swedish and English school governance reforms in the 1990s and the new US education policy and legislation in the 2000s.</p>
<p>Measuring the impact of these case studies have been targets of massive studies, but the results often take too long for the purpose of making policy. Now researchers are looking at their impact, it’s becoming clearer what does and doesn’t work. Politicians should ensure they look at both sides of that picture when planning their next education reform promises. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, the OECD should be applauded because it has bravely brought new, important policy themes to national and global education reform discussions, including equity in education, early childhood education and the need for more student-centred pedagogy – things that have previously been put on the back seat of education policy vehicles.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36469/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pasi Sahlberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For most governments, it’s their platform of education reforms that is politically one of the hardest programmes to push through. Yet push it through they do, in what has become a constant effort by politicians…Pasi Sahlberg, Visiting Professor of Practice in Education, Graduate School of Education, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/291902014-07-15T11:02:26Z2014-07-15T11:02:26ZGove’s revolution leaves behind a fast-food education system<p>In what must surely be seen as a significant demotion, secretary of state for education, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28302487">Michael Gove, has been moved</a> to become chief whip in David Cameron’s cabinet reshuffle. Given he is such a big fan of “discipline” and “rigour”, he may be perfectly suited to the role – only time will tell whether MPs will be as difficult to keep in line as teachers.</p>
<p>So after four years in charge of education, what is Gove’s legacy? It has been revolution at warp speed. Thanks to his rush, instead of creating the multi-Michelin starred, world-leading restaurant he so desired, what Gove built instead (with help from the previous Labour government) was a fast food joint.</p>
<p>A list of his reforms is dizzying. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/4-000-down-20-000-to-go-the-academies-drive-gathers-pace-26028">number of academies</a> has risen from <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-academies-and-academy-projects-in-development">203 to 3,979</a> (with 56% of English secondaries now converted). There are now 174 free schools with even more autonomy. We have a brand new “core knowledge” national curriculum, plus reform of GCSEs including the ending of modular assessment. </p>
<p>Teachers have seen the scrapping of national pay frameworks and the introduction of <a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-remain-divided-on-performance-related-pay-27664">performance-related pay</a>. But at the same time, academies are <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19017544">no longer required</a> to employ people with Qualified Teacher Status. </p>
<p>There have been radical changes to assessment in primary schools plus a <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-look-gcse-league-tables-reconfirm-wide-disparities-between-schools-22793">new system called “progress 8”</a> to replace the five A star to Cs accountability measure in secondary schools. Ofsted is <a href="http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/news/ofsted-carry-out-no-notice-behaviour-inspections-response-concerns-of-parents-0">now planning to start</a> inspecting schools with no notice, in reaction to criticisms that have come after the so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/focus-on-test-scores-over-curriculum-leaves-big-questions-for-ofsted-after-trojan-horse-27772">Trojan Horse</a> extremist plot in Birmingham schools. </p>
<p>Gove’s reforms have also seen the replacement of university-based teacher training with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/counting-the-costs-of-moving-teacher-training-out-of-universities-23157">expansion of the school-based School Direct</a> programme. It’s hard to remember them all as they’ve come so thick and fast.</p>
<h2>Govian revolution</h2>
<p>Since the 2010 election, speed has perhaps been the defining factor of the Govian Revolution in English education reform. He was right on both counts when he <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/michael-gove-speaks-about-securing-our-childrens-future">said recently</a> that “the pace of change in our education system recently has been fast – and the reaction at times furious.” </p>
<p>In fact, Dominic Cummings, his now well-known former advisor, has said recently that Gove would have moved even “<a href="http://schoolsimprovement.net/gove-ally-savages-no-10-on-schools/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gove-ally-savages-no-10-on-schools">faster, further, better</a>” had it had not been for “dysfunctional” civil servants and incompetence at Number 10.</p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine what else Gove might have done. But schools and teachers across the country should perhaps be grateful for the various Sir Humphreys who stopped it.</p>
<p>In political terms, what Gove achieved in office was remarkable and makes him possibly the stand-out minister of the coalition government. For many <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100220069/osborne-was-the-future-once-now-gove-drives-the-tories-on/">Conservatives he is a hero</a> – his policies constituting a long-wanted shopping list of right-wing educational reforms. </p>
<p>There is also little doubt that many of his reforms will be long lasting and will permanently change the face of education. Academy policy in England is the most obvious example, but <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26405714">the Labour party has said</a> that with the exception of the policy on non-qualified teachers, they wouldn’t repeal the Coalition’s other education reforms either. In historical terms, no education secretary achieved so much in their time of office. Long gone are the days when politicians felt education should be <a href="http://ioelondonblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/thatcher-and-education/">left to those who knew what they were talking about</a>.</p>
<h2>Bland food on the menu</h2>
<p>But political success must not be confused with educational success and the Gove Fast Food Restaurant will make no improvement to the nation’s long term educational diet. Schools and teachers are now obsessed by meeting the short-term numerical targets that Gove’s regime has created. So much so, that they serve an increasingly limited and impoverished pedagogical menu, designed purely for profit in key exams rather than genuine long-term nourishment of the mind. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53886/original/shprh66j-1405418277.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53886/original/shprh66j-1405418277.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53886/original/shprh66j-1405418277.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53886/original/shprh66j-1405418277.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53886/original/shprh66j-1405418277.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53886/original/shprh66j-1405418277.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53886/original/shprh66j-1405418277.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pedagogical menu akin to fast food.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/roboppy/9504004273/sizes/l">roboppy</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The food may meet short-term cravings, but it is ultimately bland, unsatisfying and hollow. Schools know the menu has limited nutritional value, but there is little they can do about it. </p>
<p>The pressure to deliver the menu as quickly as they can is creating <a href="https://www.teachersassurance.co.uk/money-news/teachers-stress-levels-affecting-performance">alarming levels of stress</a> among employees, nearly half of whom are seriously considering <a href="http://www.comres.co.uk/poll/1068/nasuwt-teachers-satisfaction-and-wellbeing-in-the-workplace-survey.htm">looking for other forms of employment</a>.</p>
<p>The speed of the Govian Revolution, however, may ultimately lead to its unravelling. Again, the academies policy is the most glaring example of this, with increasing acceptance that the department for education cannot cope with the number of schools they are now responsible for – something formally acknowledged with the creation of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/regional-schools-commissioners-to-oversee-academies">Regional Schools Commissioners</a> to oversee academies. </p>
<p>A more thought-out idea may have been to create these before academy policy was turbo charged. <a href="https://theconversation.com/ofsteds-future-at-stake-after-trojan-horse-scandal-25936">The Trojan Horse</a> allegations are unlikely to be the last education story where a sudden lack of oversight causes problems.</p>
<h2>Shift of powers</h2>
<p>What the Gove Fast Food Education Restaurant represents is the apogee of a power-grab by politicians that can be traced back to Jim Callaghan’s famous <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/speeches/1976ruskin.html">“Secret Garden” speech</a> at Ruskin College in 1976. </p>
<p>The main feature of the past 40 years of school reform is increasing centralisation. Education has been run more and more at the whim of political ideology and the career expediency of the minister holding the keys to the department for education. Despite his neoliberal, free market views, Gove’s four years in charge have actually been characterised by a dramatic speeding up of a move towards “big government”.</p>
<p>Many teachers will feel like rejoicing at today’s news, but history suggests their happiness will be short-lived. It is highly unlikely that Gove’s replacement, Nicky Morgan, or future holders of the education secretary portfolio (from whatever party) will decrease the number of cards the government now holds. This means that schools and teachers should prepare themselves for permanent revolution. </p>
<p>Ironically, when we collectively come to our senses and realise that there are better ways to feed our nation’s young minds than the fast food diet they currently receive, there may be many in the profession who are grateful that actions can be taken quickly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29190/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graham Birrell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In what must surely be seen as a significant demotion, secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, has been moved to become chief whip in David Cameron’s cabinet reshuffle. Given he is such a big fan…Graham Birrell, Senior Lecturer in Education, Canterbury Christ Church UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/278322014-06-17T05:10:29Z2014-06-17T05:10:29ZExplainer: what was the Louisiana school takeover?<p>The Department for Education has been scrambling to end the crisis over allegations of extremism at Muslim schools in Birmingham (the so-called Trojan Horse affair). Among all the ideas floated, one, the “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/09/downing-street-launches-snap-ofsted-visits-after-extremism-claims">Louisiana option</a>” of a full-scale government takeover of the schools in question, has started to arouse serious interest. </p>
<p>While hardly a simple solution, New Orleans’s radical attempt to turn around its failing school district has understandable appeal at such a fraught moment – and it’s a natural test case for officials in Birmingham and Westminster to use.</p>
<h2>Segregation</h2>
<p>In the 1840s, the City of New Orleans founded the <a href="http://www.opennola.org/home/pictures-videos/">first major urban public school system</a> in the American South. But in a city made up of waves of multilingual immigrants, enslaved Africans, and free people of colour, reaching consensus on the purposes and structure of a public education system has never been easy. </p>
<p>The racially segregated public school system of the <a href="http://plessyandferguson.org/events.html">Plessy era</a> came to a close after the 1954 <a href="http://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/get-involved/federal-court-activities/brown-board-education-re-enactment/history.aspx">Brown v. Board of Education</a> decision, and the forced <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/11/fifty_years_later_students_rec.html">desegregation of New Orleans Public Schools</a> took place in 1960. The school system became nearly all poor. Most middle class and non-white students either left for private schools or moved to nearby suburbs. </p>
<p>Intended primarily for the poor, Now Orleans’s public schools were chronically underfunded, suffered from <a href="http://www.neworleansleftbehind.com/">poor results</a>, and were <a href="http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/03/former_orleans_parish_school_b.html">frequently mismanaged</a>. While generations of educators, both <a href="http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/03/former_orleans_parish_school_b.html">black</a> and <a href="http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/robert-m-ferris-flood-conflict-new-orleans-free-school-story">white</a>, served admirably in <a href="http://www.octaviabooks.com/event/robert-m-ferris-flood-conflict-new-orleans-free-school-story">difficult conditions</a>, the schools still struggled. </p>
<h2>Bankruptcy</h2>
<p>After the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, student test data was made public annually, and showed <a href="http://cis.uchicago.edu/outreach/summerinstitute/2013/documents/sti2013_perry_thetransformationofneworleanspubliceducation.pdf">just how far behind New Orleans’ students were</a> compared with their peers across the state. And while academic achievement improved steadily in the years leading up to Hurricane Katrina, state policymakers viewed the school district and its predominantly African American students and teachers as a thorn in the side of the powerful economy of this historic city. </p>
<p>A month after Katrina, Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Leslie Jacobs stated in a <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4944196">radio interview</a> that the district “was academically bankrupt, it was financially bankrupt, and it was operationally bankrupt … the central office ability to support schools was not there. So pre-Katrina, one could argue that Orleans public schools could vie for being one of the worst districts in the nation.”</p>
<p>Following suit, on November 31 2005, three months after the hurricane and with most residents still not able to return home, the state removed nearly all of the schools from the locally elected school board and placed them under the control of the state-run Recovery School District.</p>
<p>This was achieved by adding a clause to a 2003 state takeover bill that allowed to state to define a “district in academic crisis” as any local school district with more than half of the schools deemed as failing based on student test scores. This meant any school performing below the state average (rather than simply a school with inadequate annual growth) could be taken over. </p>
<p>In turn, this allowed the transfer of nearly all local schools to state control and, crucially, to the dismissal of nearly 7,000 school district employees, who could not be paid by a district that now only received funds for the few remaining schools under its control. Due to the extreme displacement of the city’s population, there was <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ784847.pdf">little effective opposition</a> to the move.</p>
<h2>Mixed bag</h2>
<p>To date, <a href="http://neworleansparentsguide.org/files/NOPG2014.pdf">79 of New Orleans’ 85 public schools</a> (93%) are charter schools. The largest group (59 schools) are charters overseen by the state-run Recovery School District, with some schools run by the local school board and a few by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Ten non-profit charter management organisations run 42 of the RSD charters, with the remainder each governed by its own non-profit board. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/NBTN-Test-Performance.pdf">Test scores have continued to rise</a>, as they had been doing prior to Hurricane Katrina, but academic performance is still below average for Louisiana students. With the dismissal of many pre-storm teachers, and a rapid expansion in the numbers of young, alternatively certified teachers, the teaching force has become <a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SPENO-20121.pdf">increasingly inexperienced</a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/RAND_TR1145.pdf">2009 RAND survey</a> found that parents tended to be satisfied with their schools, and have <a href="http://www.coweninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Choice-Focus-Groups-FINAL-small.pdf">enjoyed greater school choice</a> in the nearly all-charter system. The pro-market Fordham Institute named New Orleans the <a href="http://www.edexcellencemedia.net/publications/2010/201008_SchoolReformCities/Fordham_SchoolReform_Final_Complete.pdf">best US city for school reform</a> in 2010 and both the <a href="http://www.ed.gov/oii-news/national-conference-highlights-federal-grants-charter-schools">federal Department of Education</a> and <a href="http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/laura-and-john-arnold-foundation-announces-25-million-investment-support-high-performing-charter-sch">private funders</a> have heaped praise (and money) on the reforms. </p>
<p>As other cities have eyed the New Orleans reform, powerful local reform support organisation <a href="http://www.newschoolsforneworleans.org/">New Schools for New Orleans</a> has published a <a href="http://www.newschoolsforneworleans.org/a-guide-for-cities">Guide for Cities</a> interested in implementing New Orleans-style reforms.</p>
<p>However, there have also been persistent criticisms of inequitable service for <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/access-denied/special-education-in-new-orleans-public-schools">students with special needs</a> and <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/access-denied/security-and-safety-in-new-orleans-public-schools">stringent discipline policies</a> that push out challenging students. Critics have also raised legitimate concerns about the <a href="http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3dd2726h">lack of local community participation</a> and <a href="http://www.j4jalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/J4JReport-final_05_12_14.pdf">racially-targeted school closures</a>. In January 2014, the teachers dismissed after the storm <a href="http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/01/7000_new_orleans_teachers_laid.html">won in state court</a>, setting the stage for possibly crippling back payments. </p>
<p>Nearly ten years into the reform, it seems clear that these decisions will ultimately help raise student achievement from its admittedly very low baseline. Mass conversion to charter schools, heavy reliance on inexperienced teachers, and a lack of centralised control have allowed the state to easily support the expansion of higher-performing schools and shut down lower-performing ones. It therefore comes as no surprise than citywide averages are up, and this is worth applauding. </p>
<p>But some of the policies that have made the past ten years of growth possible might also make it more difficult for New Orleans’s schools to be excellent, rather than just acceptable or mediocre. Until the city can re-establish <a href="http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=beabout">school and community linkages</a>, keep experienced educators in classrooms, and sufficiently educate the hardest-to-serve youngsters, we will not know if we have seen temporary gains or truly sustainable reforms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27832/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Robert Beabout does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Department for Education has been scrambling to end the crisis over allegations of extremism at Muslim schools in Birmingham (the so-called Trojan Horse affair). Among all the ideas floated, one, the…Brian Robert Beabout, Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership , University of New OrleansLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/254172014-04-14T04:59:43Z2014-04-14T04:59:43ZAre the tables turning in Michael Gove’s war on teacher unions?<p>The Easter holidays have arrived, heralding the start of teacher union conference season. These are always important events, not least because according to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/219648/DFE-RR268.pdf">research commissioned</a> by the government, 97% of the teaching workforce in England and Wales is unionised. </p>
<p>The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) kicks off its conference first, followed by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Schoolmaster Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT). </p>
<p>This year the unions meet as many British teachers are engaged in an <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26729786">industrial dispute</a> seeking to challenge key elements of the government’s education policies. These are highly contentious reforms that have been driven through by a government determined to accomplish a single-term revolution whereby change is introduced so fast, and on such a scale, that by the time any future government is elected, reversing the changes appears impossible. </p>
<p>Central to the strategy of single term revolution has been a “<a href="http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Education/article1173083.ece">war on teachers”</a> in which government has made an attack on the teacher unions part of its wider goal of defeating the so-called “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/4537403/David-Cameron-Tory-leader-talks-to-the-Daily-Telegraph-about-education.html">educational establishment</a>”. </p>
<p>For teachers, these changes have meant the further erosion of their professional autonomy, longer working hours and real-terms cuts in pay and pensions. There is also now the potential for a pay and conditions “race to the bottom” as teacher contracts are de-regulated and free schools – government-funded independent schools – are <a href="http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6064221">encouraged to appoint unqualified staff</a> into teaching positions. Recent figures show that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/apr/10/rise-number-unqualified-teachers-state-funded-schools-england">13% of full time teachers</a> at free schools are now unqualified. </p>
<p>Given such changes, it can hardly come as a surprise that teachers are pushing back. What is perhaps more surprising is that it has taken so long for such widespread action to emerge.</p>
<p>One of the best explanations of why high levels of individual dissatisfaction have been slow to develop into collective acts of resistance is provided by “<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/From-Mobilization-Revolution-Charles-Tilly/dp/0201075717">mobilisation theory</a>”. This seeks to explain the conditions in which individual employee grievances coalesce into collective defiance. </p>
<p>Proponents of mobilisation theory <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Rethinking_Industrial_Relations.html?id=CD-cNRGSfWQC&redir_esc=y">assert that</a> workers are most likely to act collectively when employees experience a deep sense of injustice, when they believe that this injustice can be reversed and, crucially, when they believe that by acting collectively, sufficient pressure can be applied to the powers-that-be to bring about the change they seek. </p>
<p>As far as teachers are concerned there can be little doubt that wide sections of the profession harbour many of these grievances. However, until now the power imbalance between the state and organised teachers has appeared too skewed in favour of the government for a coherent teacher opposition to emerge. </p>
<p>There can be no doubt that Michael Gove, the secretary of state for education, has proven to be a particularly effective politician, whilst teachers’ unions have struggled to cope with having to fight his reforms on multiple fronts. This is a problem <a href="http://feweek.co.uk/2014/02/20/unions-divided-by-strikes-over-pay/">compounded by divisions between unions</a> that can undermine confidence and dissipate resistance.</p>
<h2>Tipping point</h2>
<p>But now teachers’ sense of grievance appears to be growing. The range of issues that frustrate teachers continues to increase and the accumulation of these may well have reached a tipping point.</p>
<p>Gove is also looking <a href="https://theconversation.com/ofsted-row-gets-to-heart-of-battle-over-tory-education-policy-22709">increasingly vulnerable</a>. By post-war standards for education secretaries he has been in post a long time – long enough for some of his more radical ideas to already start unravelling. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/failing-academy-chains-highlight-hole-at-heart-of-education-policy-23954">governance of free schools and academies</a>, a growing <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/09/goves-free-schools-are-failing-solve-school-places-crisis">crisis over school places</a>and looming problems in <a href="https://theconversation.com/counting-the-costs-of-moving-teacher-training-out-of-universities-23157">teacher training and supply</a>, all flow from the instabilities inherent in aggressive marketisation. And not unrelated to Gove’s problems, is the sense that teachers’ collective confidence is growing.</p>
<p>This emerged towards the end of 2013, when the two largest unions, NUT and NASUWT, undertook a campaign of regional strike action. ATL, the more moderate union, did not participate in these strikes, although it had participated in public sector-wide pensions strike action in 2011.</p>
<p>Not long after these strikes, the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) published its 2014 report and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/goves-changes-to-teachers-contracts-rejected-by-review-body-9126591.html">rejected Gove’s proposals</a> to make sweeping changes to key elements of teachers’ national contract. This development was sufficient to split the NUT and NASUWT’s united front, with the NASUWT announcing it would suspend its participation in strike action, whilst the NUT called a one-day strike for 26 March.</p>
<p>As with many industrial disputes, the headline issues of pay and pensions act as a focus for a much wider set of grievances, many of which relate to professional concerns such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-a-levels-need-to-be-tougher-for-universities-to-accept-them-25466">curriculum</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/reforms-based-on-pisa-tests-alone-wont-fix-gcse-standards-25251">assessment reforms</a> and the break-up of local school systems. </p>
<h2>Where next?</h2>
<p>The Easter conference season marks a key moment for both unions to assess their decisions and decide their next steps. It is high risk for both of them. There is no doubt that the NUT’s decision to continue with action risks isolation, and the decision of NASUWT to withdraw from the strikes was a setback for the strategy of united action. </p>
<p>However, the NUT has so far waged a highly effective campaign. Through a well-run organising strategy it has worked hard to connect with its members and there is no doubt that its <a href="http://www.teachers.org.uk/parents">“Stand Up for Education”</a> campaign, that links grievances over pay and workload to much wider issues of policy, has resonated not only with teachers but with many parents. It may be that in the government’s war on teachers, the tables are beginning to turn.</p>
<p>The risk for the NASUWT is that its approach looks too cautious at a time when teachers’ grievances run deep and the government appears weak. </p>
<p>Only time will tell which of the two unions made the better judgement and more accurately captured the mood of teachers. </p>
<p>In the meantime, the further fragmentation of the school system and the emergence of more <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-26067673">overtly anti-union employers</a> continues to point to the need for unions to work together more, not less. In the new educational landscape, teachers’ unions will maintain their influence if they engage with employers from a position of strength. It is hard to see how that strength is enhanced by being divided.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25417/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Howard Stevenson has received funding from ESRC for a project researching industrial relations in schools.</span></em></p>The Easter holidays have arrived, heralding the start of teacher union conference season. These are always important events, not least because according to research commissioned by the government, 97…Howard Stevenson, Director of Research and Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, School of Education, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/247542014-03-28T14:11:22Z2014-03-28T14:11:22ZRelaxing zero tolerance in schools could be Obama’s boldest civil rights reform<p>“Hope and change” may have driven the first presidential campaign for Barack Obama, but many educators and public education advocates have been <a href="http://www.infoagepub.com/products/The-Phenomenon-of-Obama-and-the-Agenda-for-Education">discouraged by Obama’s education policy</a>. </p>
<p>While the US secretary of education, Arne Duncan, often claims Obama addresses <a href="http://www.ed.gov/news/media-advisories/us-education-secretary-arne-duncan-address-civil-rights-progress-toward-equal-">education reform as the civil rights issue of our time</a>, that rhetoric has often been contradicted by policy. </p>
<p>However, the <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/school-discipline/index.html">recent government initiative on discipline in schools</a> could salvage the hope that education reform can turn in the direction of better equity for all students. Based on <a href="http://ocrdata.ed.gov/">data from the US Department of Education on civil rights</a>, the Obama administration is calling for an end to harsh discipline policies, such as zero tolerance, that <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/holder-duncan-announce-national-guidelines-on-school-discipline/2014/01/08/436c5a5e-7899-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html">“disproportionately affect minorities”</a>. </p>
<p>This introduced policies such as discipline codes that mandate expulsion or suspension for first-time offences (such as <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3758286">bringing a knife to school</a>).</p>
<p><a href="http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16406-education-reform-in-the-new-jim-crow-era">Two trends with disturbing parallels</a> began in the early 1980s during the Reagan presidency: the era of mass incarceration, <a href="http://newjimcrow.com/">labelled the New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander</a>, and an era of public education reform that introduced high-stakes exams and accountability measures for schools and teachers.</p>
<p>Mass incarceration and school discipline patterns over the past three decades have disproportionately impacted African American men. African Americans are <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/">arrested and incarcerated</a> for drug use at rates much higher than whites, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/us/marijuana-arrests-four-times-as-likely-for-blacks.html">even though African Americans and whites</a> use drugs at similar rates.</p>
<p>White men outnumber African American men in the US about six to one, but per 100,000 people in each racial group, <a href="http://www.prisonpolicy.org/articles/notequal.html">there are 2,207 African Americans</a> for every 380 whites in the prison population – an inverse proportion of nearly six to one.</p>
<p>There are also more whites in poverty than African Americans (<a href="http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/poverty-rate-by-raceethnicity/">about 2 to 1</a>, according to 2011-2012 data).</p>
<p>Incarceration inequity is a function of race, not class. As <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-2012-data-summary.pdf">data from the Office for Civil Rights</a> reveals, African-American students represent 18% of students in a representative sample of 85% of the US students. But they represent 35% of those suspended once, 46% of those suspended more than once, and 39% of students expelled.</p>
<h2>Prison pipeline</h2>
<p>As a policy that reinforces personal accountability, “zero-tolerance” resonates with the public in the US as part of a larger trust in cultural myths such as the rugged individual and meritocracy.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/zero-tolerance-in-schools-policy-brief.pdf">Kang-Brown, Trone, Fratello, and Daftary-Kapur</a> have exposed the racially inequitable consequences of zero-tolerance policies:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is abundant evidence that zero-tolerance policies disproportionately affect youth of colour. Nationally, black and Latino students are suspended and expelled at much higher rates than white students … And because boys are twice as likely as girls to receive these punishments, the proportion of black and Latino boys who are suspended or expelled is especially large</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Based on her research in a high-poverty urban high school, Kathleen Nolan’s book <a href="http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/police-in-the-hallways">Police in the Hallways</a> forces readers to listen to the stories of young people who live under zero-tolerance policies. “In a building full of struggling and alienated students, order-maintenance policing took precedence over educative aims and a culture of control permeated the building,” she wrote. </p>
<p>Zero-tolerance policies were introduced to address some of the social concerns about how public schools often serve as “school-to-prison pipelines” for impoverished minority students. But by placing police in the hallways, these same policies only worked to turn those schools into virtual prisons.</p>
<p>The parallel inequity in the criminal justice system and in schools is repeated, however, in the academic inequity experienced by impoverished and minority students in their classrooms. Nolan details that in urban schools, there is often a predominance of high-pressure tests and controversial programs in reading and maths with “limited focus on other content areas and often none at all on art and other kinds of enrichment”.</p>
<h2>Addressing inequity</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-2012-data-summary.pdf">Office for Civil Rights</a> highlights that gender, race and native language inequities also exist in access to advanced courses, grade retention, and teacher assignment. So for the students who need public schools the most, academics and discipline policies are apt to fail those students in ways that are discriminatory. </p>
<p>Zero-tolerance policies, like mass incarceration, are creating failure and criminality specifically among high-poverty African American boys. </p>
<p>Just as many of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/moving-quality-teachers-between-schools-will-not-help-disadvantaged-children-23541">current education reform commitments</a> – such as those related to high-stakes testing, grade retention, charter schools, and Teach for America – are failing to address, and often intensifying, educational inequity, the discipline policies in US schools represent patterns that must be corrected.</p>
<p>Although the Obama administration appears unwilling to change course on academic reform policies, a call for addressing discipline inequities could serve as a turning point that fulfils the claim that education reform in the 21st century is the civil rights issue of our time.</p>
<p>But that possibility must include a <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/03/21/26grant.h33.html">larger recognition</a> that education reform needs to address systemic racial, class, and gender inequities in society as well as institutionalised inequities reflected in and perpetuated by public schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24754/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>“Hope and change” may have driven the first presidential campaign for Barack Obama, but many educators and public education advocates have been discouraged by Obama’s education policy. While the US secretary…Paul Thomas, Associate Professor of Education, Furman UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/249292014-03-28T06:14:50Z2014-03-28T06:14:50ZWhy testing four-year-olds as they start school is a bad idea<p>The coalition government is to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/297595/Primary_Accountability_and_Assessment_Consultation_Response.pdf">introduce the testing of young children</a> soon after they enter primary school at the age of four or five. </p>
<p>English children are already tested far more than children in most other countries and if our four and five year olds are tested, they will be amongst the very youngest children in the world to undergo a formal assessment of their abilities and achievements.</p>
<p>Some people think this testing is long overdue; many others think that it is not only a waste of time but it is very damaging to young children’s confidence at a time when they are having to adjust to new surroundings and new ways of learning. Is the testing then a welcome development or a harmful activity?</p>
<p>The government believes that testing is necessary to find out where children are at the beginning of their formal education so that their <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/step-change-in-ambition-will-mean-higher-standards-for-all">progress can then be mapped out</a> and eventually assessed at age 11 and later at age 16. </p>
<p>The tests are supposed to measure not only the children’s progress, but also how good the schools are that they attend. Children will be given a baseline test when they start reception, and are expected to have achieved a new standard by the end of primary school. It all sounds very sensible and straightforward. But is it?</p>
<h2>What to ask</h2>
<p>Do we have the know-how to devise tests for children at such a young age? Many of us in education don’t think we do. It has taken a long time to develop tests for 11-year-olds and yet these are far from perfect, as many parents will know from the experience of their own children. If tests for very young children can be devised – and it’s a big “if” – they will take years to develop, yet the proposed tests are supposed to start in 2016.</p>
<p>Part of the problem lies with the children themselves. They learn in very different ways and at different rates, so developing tests that are fair to all is difficult, perhaps impossible. Also at that age children are particularly volatile. Not only do they find it difficult to sit still but they change from day to day, almost minute to minute at times. How can a test capture that changeability?</p>
<p>Children come to school with a wide range of achievements but the proposed tests are only likely to look at a fraction of these. Many of the most important skills such as self-confidence, wanting to learn, willingness to cooperate with others and a degree of personal independence ,cannot be measured or tested at all. </p>
<p>Early literacy and numeracy are important, of course, but not all-important and not as important as emotional security which is the foundation of all school learning.</p>
<h2>Impact on children</h2>
<p>Which brings us to the effects of the tests on the children themselves. They may not fully realise the importance of the tests but they will soon pick up signals if their parents or teachers are anxious about them, as many will be. </p>
<p>The result will be many worried children. This worry could get in the way of their early learning and will threaten their enjoyment of the challenge of a new school. Some of the most anxious children are likely to be the youngest, who could be almost a year younger than their class-mates taking the same tests depending on when they were born in the school year. </p>
<p>Would you like to take a series of tests just weeks into a new job and tests that could well label you “good”, “OK” or “poor”? Presumably not, but that’s how many children will feel just weeks into school.</p>
<p>Lastly, the government assumes that children’s performance at five can be compared meaningfully with their performance six years later. But how reasonable is that ? Not only are the children taking the test different people, but the tests themselves are different and their results are not comparable.</p>
<p>All this leads me, and many other teachers, to believe that the tests are likely to be harmful. Of course, we do believe that children’s achievements on entry to school need to be recognised and built upon but not through tests conducted so early in their school lives. </p>
<p>We think that class teachers are best placed to find out where young children are and what they need to learn next on the basis of observing and working closely with them during their first few months in school. Such assessments are likely to be much more sensitive to individual children’s needs than any tests provided by the government </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin Richards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The coalition government is to introduce the testing of young children soon after they enter primary school at the age of four or five. English children are already tested far more than children in most…Colin Richards, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of CumbriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.