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An Emerging Conceptual and Practical Framework for Implementing
Districtwide Effective Schools Reform Leading Without a Map Examining the Stability of Effective School Measures: Establishing
Validity Teacher Professional Development and Instructional Effectiveness |
Establishing the Utility of a Classroom Effectiveness Index
as a Teacher Accountability Measure |
| An Emerging Conceptual and Practical
Framework for Implementing
Districtwide Effective Schools Reform |
| This article portrays the work of a partnership, between the California Center for Effective Schools at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Oxnard (CA) Elementary School District, to implement an Effective Schools Initiative. The work is theoretically grounded in three major concepts, which push traditional Effective Schools Research and programs in new directions. First, the article illustrates how a systems perspective is essential to expand the focus of school reform from the individual school to encompass the entire district. Second, is a discussion of socio-cultural perspective of professional development and how these concepts have been incorporated into the Initiative’s design principles in order to engage teachers and administrators in deep conversations around the complex problems of teaching for high levels of student learning. Third, the article explores ways in which the structures and processes of the initiative can contribute to development of the social and human capital of both individual schools and the district as a whole. Without attention to the ways that schools foster or inhibit the development of social and human capital, it is unlikely that continuous improvement can be sustained at a level that will allow significant numbers of low income students to master state curriculum standards. The results of this partnership, even at this early stage, are encouraging. Teachers indicate both frustration and excitement at learning from and engaging with colleagues; administrators are focusing attention on both shared and instructional leadership and beginning to address the challenges of these tasks; and student achievement has increased on publicly important measures. |
| Leading
Without a Map David Coffland Idaho State University |
It is well established that the effective school leader makes use of education research when making programmatic decisions. However, what is the leader to do when required to make decisions in an emergent field of study? Without a clear research base to use as a map, the effective leader must still make the best possible, informed decision. This article outlines a four-step process by which an educational leader can select and evaluate potential problem solutions: determination of the problem, identification of possible solutions, pilot testing a potential solution, and the evaluation/decision process. Determining the problem is often related to the issue of high standards. Instructional leaders may make use of a wide variety of sources to identify potential solutions. While piloting a new technique, allow the potential solution the opportunity to succeed. Finally, an evaluation of the project is conducted and a decision is made. It is of critical importance that the decision process be based on the principles of data-driven decision making. This implies that the data collected are directly related to the goals of the potential solution. An example of this process is provided concerning the problem of maintaining students’ enrollment in upper-level mathematics courses through a geometry course innovation. |
| Examining
the Stability of Effective School Measures: Establishing Validity
for Monitoring Results Ronald H. Heck University of Hawaii at Manoa |
Researchers have identified several limitations of cross-sectional designs in studies of school effectiveness. First, the impact of the school may be underestimated in adjusting for differences in students’ backgrounds. Adjusting outcomes for student composition within schools greatly diminishes the between-school variance in outcomes. Because the differences in outcomes are reduced, there is often little variance left to be explained by school process variables, which are often at the center of researchers’ interest in explaining levels of school effectiveness. Second, cross-sectional designs are also not sensitive to differences in school effects that may occur over time. A more appropriate comparison between schools may center on the distribution of student growth over time, as opposed to the distribution of outcomes on one occasion. Longitudinal studies of school effects put the attention more squarely on students’ experience in attending a particular school over an extended period of time (e.g., 3 to 6 years), as opposed to their experience over the course of a year with a particular teacher in the school. Schools considered to be effective should produce stable effects on student learning over time. Correctly monitoring the stability of school effects measures, however, has been problematic in previous research. This article discusses these issues and outlines a new approach researchers may use in modeling the stability of school processes and outcomes over time. |
| Teacher
Professional Development and Instructional Effectiveness Hui-Ju Huang Northwest Missouri State University |
The success of Effective Schools hinges, in large part, on the qualifications and effectiveness of teachers. If schools are dedicated to the mission of Effective Schools, then they must be committed to teacher professional development. Researchers increasingly seek to characterize teacher learning, what leads to it, and what teacher professional development supports it. Just as classrooms promote student learning by becoming communities of learners where students engage in collective reflections and challenge each others’ thinking, teacher professional development needs to foster teacher learning in a learning community where teachers engage in challenging one another’s thinking. This study suggests the application of computer technology to create a dynamic professional communication among teachers. Professional development through computer networking can have a meaningful effect on teacher instructional effectiveness and foster improvement in classroom practice. |
| Streamlining,
Integrating and Focusing the Staff Development Process in Lincoln
County School District #2 Jerry G. Mathews Ronald D. Tolman |
Training of teachers, more than any other activity, pre-determines quality of teaching. Given this belief, administrators, teachers and staff in Lincoln County School District #2 implemented training for all personnel connected to teaching including principals, district personnel, secretaries, aides, and media personnel. All of these educators were directly trained in a reading program rather than sending a select group to be trained and having the group return to train others in the district. The two-day Accelerated Reader training took place just prior to the opening of the 1998 school year. Results are shown for the different schools in the district. Student scores improved in most cases and in one case, where a modified version of the Accelerated Reader program was used, scores did not increase. The training process used in the district suggests that focused, earnest and thorough training for all school personnel will provide a better process to improve student achievement. |
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Establishing the Utility of a
Classroom Effectiveness Index as a Teacher Accountability Measure Randall E. Schumacker |
Methods to identify effective teachers who improve student achievement
despite diverse student populations and school contexts are an ongoing
discussion in public education. The need to show communities and
parents how well teachers and schools improve student learning has
led districts and states to seek a fair, equitable, and valid measure
of student growth based on student achievement. This study investigated
the utility of a Classroom Effectiveness Index (CEI) derived from
a two stage hierarchical model for estimating teacher effectiveness
based on student achievement. CEI consistency over time, variance
among CEIs across four years, and correlations of second stage student
residuals with first stage student residuals were analyzed. The
statistical analysis used four years of student residual data from
a state-mandated mathematics assessment (n = 7086) and a state-mandated
reading assessment (n = 7572) aggregated by teacher. The study identified
the following results: |