Logics of Educational Technology Reform

Change Processes and Strategies at the Local Level

Mejora escolar, liderazgo y reforma sistémica: una retrospectiva (School improvement, leadership and systemic reform: a retrospective)

School Reform: The District Policy Implications of the Effective Schools Literature

School improvement has been the dominant model for educational reform for many educational systems in recent years. It is still the most robust model in terms of its academic integrity, its capacity to inform policy making and its impact on professional practice in schools. The dominance of school improvement in largely explained by its consistent success. There is little doubt that it has had a significant impact on the comparative performance of schools and school systems. Evidence from a wide variety of national systems points to the demonstrable success of the model against a wide range of criteria. In essence, performance has improved, achievement has been raised and a range of related outcomes have been met. However, this success has always been subject to questioning when the criteria for success are changed from generic, system wide improvements to a focus on the achievement of the individual child. Whether it is the realisation of the potential of an outstandingly gifted young person or the maximisation of the life chances of a young person with profound learning difficulties the prevailing system does not always seem able to accommodate specific, personal needs. What might be described as the ‘Improvement Movement’ has created an effective hegemony since the mid 1980s. The combination of an emphasis on measurable outcomes and the improvement of the internal processes of the school has created an orthodoxy which has been reinforced by models of accountability and the redefinition of the characteristics of effective teaching and management in schools. It is an hegemony because it is a highly integrated model with educational policy moving from an enabling function to being deterministic. One of the key characteristics of educational policy making by many governments has been the increasing specificity of regulations and guidelines. It could therefore be argued that the school system is approaching an optimum state — it is difficult to envisage what else might be done to improve its efficiency and effectiveness. However, one characteristic of the school improvement strategy that is practised by governments is that it has not in any way questioned the fundamental premise of the nature of the school as an organisation or of the system of administering schools. There has been a tacit acceptance of the school as the optimum means of organising education. Indeed, education has come to be defined as the outcome of schooling. This notion will be questioned later in the following discussion.

When the societies are worried about their educative process and they consider get it better, they are planning the progress in all their dimensions. There is the importance to set up politics that tend to have a high quality education. Nevertheless, the efforts in the Soledad township are not enough. In the development plan SOLEDAD CONFIABLE 2016-2019, the community indicated as a main problem the low quality education in the township. That is reflected in the performance levels measured by the ISCE. Hence, the investigation ́s objective is to analyze the continuous improvement processes of the educative quality in the successful schools of Soledad township. In other matters, this investigation used the paradigm quali- quantitative with a descriptive design to explain the academic process and the description of the factors that have influenced on this continuous process. With the help of four tools: documentary review rubric, semi-structured interview script and two questionnaires; it was achieved determine the specific practices that are using the principals and teachers to support the improvement of learnings and the integral development of the students.

During the 1990's educational technology became a major educational policy issue for every state (White, 1997; Education Commission of the States, 1997; National Council of State Legislators, 1996; Trotter, 1997). By early 1998, all 50 states had state-level technology plans in various stages of implementation, and state funding for educational technologies was rapidly increasing across the country (Trotter, 1997). The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of recently enacted Louisiana state-level technology reforms on public school district technology efforts between the 1996--97 and 1997--98 school years. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect data, creating a mixed methodological strategy. The quantitative data for this study came from three separate survey instruments. The 1997 and 1998 Louisiana Educational State Technology Surveys (SETS) were designed to annually gather district and school technology level data for the state. The third survey instrument, A District Evaluation of Recently Enacted State Educational Technology Policies ( DERST), was specifically designed to gather district perceptions of the state's technology reforms that were implemented during the 1997--98 school year. Qualitative data were gathered through case studies of three Louisiana public school districts. Descriptive statistics were utilized to initially analyze the data from all three surveys. Analysis of Variance ( ANOVA) was used to determine if there was any significant difference between district responses to questions in the DERST instrument when districts were placed in the following sets of sub-groups: (1) district type---rural, suburban and urban districts; (2) district size---small, medium, and large districts; (3) district technology levels---average, below average, above average. Cross-case analysis (Herriot and Firestone, 1983; Yin, 1990) was utilized to develop and analyze data from case studies on three public school districts. Content analysis was then utilized to analyze case study data and determine emerging themes and patterns (Patton, 1990; Yin, 1984; Miles, 1990). The data were reported in the form of case studies and provided insight into the impact of state technology reforms on district technology efforts during the 1997--98 school year.

What Does Globalization Mean for Educational Change? A Comparative Approach

Section I: Educational Reforms and Changing Schools: International and Asia-Pacific Perspectives 1. Changing schools in Asia-Pacific societies in a global society 2. Educational reforms and school improvement in China 3. Educational reforms and school improvement in China Hong Kong 4. Educational reforms and school improvement in Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) 5. Educational reforms and school improvement in Australia 6. Educational reforms and school improvement in Singapore Section II: Issues in Educational Reforms 7. School Choice: Privatization and Decentralization of Schooling 8. School Improvement, Curriculum and Teaching Innovations 9. Accountability and assessment measures 10. Responses of the Government and the Educational Profession to the Educational Reform Agenda and Policies Section III: Reflections on Educational Issues and Creations of Future Leaders and Schools 11. Future educational reform policies and measures in China, Australia, Taiwan and Singapore 12. Future schools, leadership development and school education in China, Australia, Taiwan and Singapore Notes Bibliography Index

THE INVOLVEMENT of business leaders in supporting educational improvement and school reform has a long history, but the current wave was launched in the 1980s with the release of A Nation at Risk and books such as Winning the Brain Race, co-authored by former Xerox chairman David Kearns. (1) Kearns went on to become deputy secretary of education under Lamar Alexander during George H. W. Bush's Administration. School improvement efforts continued when in 1996 the National Governors Association collaborated with IBM to convene a summit of 40 governors and 49 corporate executives. The summit resulted in an agreement to pursue higher academic standards, related assessments of student learning, and technological innovations in the nation's schools. The Business Roundtable, a group of chief executive officers of the nation's largest corporations, has had a long-standing strategy of having business leaders lobby for higher standards in education, primarily at the state level. The Business Roundtable promotes standards-based education reform with a focus on the policy changes needed to produce measurable results. It supports the efforts of state business coalitions to improve educational performance at all levels and provides an effective voice for the business community on critical education and work-force policies that affect economic growth. In addition to these organized efforts, several individual business leaders have embraced the cause of improving our nation's schools, including Robert Wilmers, a Buffalo business leader who volunteered to pay for the district's superintendent search and to supplement the new district chief's salary. (2) And perhaps one of the most outspoken and active business leaders in education reform efforts has been former IBM chairman Louis Gerstner, whose work in education spans three decades. While many leading corporate executives have contributed in various ways to efforts to improve public education, I know of only one who has stepped down from his CEO position to actually teach in the public schools for an extended period of time. Randy Moore, a longtime member of the Hawaii Business Roundtable, was president of Oceanic Properties, Inc.--now known as Castle & Cooke Hawaii--from 1984 to 1986, when he became president and director of Molokai Ranch, Ltd. In 1989 he left that position to serve as president and director of the Kaneohe Ranch Company, Ltd., and as executive vice president of the Harold K. L. Castle Foundation. Then in 2001, Moore left the business world to teach mathematics in one of Honolulu's inner-city middle schools. He completed a state-approved teacher preparation program while teaching in Hawaii's single school district on an emergency credential. He had taught for just over three years when the state superintendent asked him to oversee the implementation of Act 51, Hawaii's school reinvention legislation that, among other things, calls for more authority and decision making at the school level. A former Peace Corps volunteer, Randy Moore has many outstanding qualities, but what has struck me most are his thoughtfulness and his humility. His unique experience as a corporate executive turned classroom teacher has provided him with insights that deserve our attention. Hitz: What motivated you to seek a teaching position? Moore: I had two related jobs at the time. One was president of Kaneohe Ranch, which managed real estate owned by various family trusts established by Harold Castle and his wife for the benefit of their children, grandchildren, and their descendants. The other was executive vice president of the Harold K. L. Castle Foundation, a local family foundation established by Harold Castle for the benefit of the community. The foundation, along with other nonprofit and corporate grantmakers, had long grappled with the question of what could be done to help the public schools but had not come to a conclusion. …

Why are some schools more successful than others? Why are some improving while others remain stagnant? These questions have driven education reform for decades. In recent years, concepts such as decentralisation and organisational culture, and emphasis on the related notions of shared decision-making and teacher empowerment have been highlighted as major determinants of school effectiveness and school improvement. But are they the sole determinants of these characteristics? This article, based on an action research study in two Gauteng schools that focused on two female principals, suggests that school effectiveness and improvement are not possible without transformational leadership. The outcomes of the study indicate furthermore that school effectiveness and improvement entail more than simply who makes what decisions. Rather, it consists in finding a way to be successful in collaboratively defining the essential purpose of teaching and learning, and then empowering the entire school community to become involved. In schools where such a focus had been achieved, the study found that teaching and learning became transformative. The two principals sampled help us see how leadership can influence school culture such that it has a transformative impact on all stakeholders at school level.Keywords: Action research; School effectiveness; School improvement; Transformational leadership; Principals; South Africa; Schools

The article explores the ways to improve the pupil support system in school practice as part of the transition from integration to the inclusive education of pupils with special needs. The research question addresses the ways of improving the pupil support system in a school focused on inclusive education.
 Determining the ways of improving the pupil support system in school practice by promoting inclusive education following the case study of Verdenė Gymnasium in Visaginas can be described as the subject of the research. The objective of the research is to outline directions for improving the pupil support system in schools while focusing on the targets of inclusive education. The tasks of the research include: 1) analysing theoretical and operational guidelines provided in scientific literature and education guidance documents on the development of the pupil support system in inclusive schools; 2) determining the reasons why the current pupil support system in school needs improvement whenever the focus is placed on inclusive education; 3) drawing up guidelines for schools to help them upgrade the pupil support system based on inclusive education.
 Case study is used as the method of this research (Yin, 2003) focusing on an educational institution – gymnasium (grammar school). The choice of the case was determined by the distinctive character of the gymnasium: it delivers a broad range of curricula including an accredited secondary education programme (two years), two-part basic education programme (six years), primary education programme (four years) along with adapted and personalized programmes in primary and basic education and social skills development; it also provides the necessary support for pupils with a variety of special educational needs. The applied research methods include the analysis of written documents, a questionnaire survey and modelling. Units of analysis include national and school documents, teachers and other experts related to the case study schools and the research context. The theoretical and empirical study of the case established that:
 The implementation of the UNESCO proposed inclusive education concept is still a target to be achieved in the case study school. The school focuses on the types of pupil support established nationwide, which exclude children having special educational needs due to their exceptional abilities, nor do they place emphasis on the need for day to day teacher’s help, thus narrowing the scope of inclusive education.
 Pupil support in the case study school is institutionalised, its provision being entrusted to different bodies and structures. School documents by themselves postulate the philosophy of inclusive education; however, when it comes to education delivery, integration rather than inclusive education of SEN children tends to prevail in the school: pupils with SEN and gifted children are treated as homogeneous groups without highlighting the importance of the teacher’s help for all student groups in daily education process. The case study schools and other context schools delegate responsibility for inclusive education to SEN teachers and for the education of gifted children to other appointed teachers.
 The analysis of the research data leads to a conclusion that pupil support delivered by the case study schools is now in the phase of the deconstruction of special needs education and the formation of inclusive education; therefore, it needs improvement implementing inclusive education in line with the philosophy of togetherness and appreciation of diversity, which grants equal opportunities and respect for individuality.

Addresses the lack of success in educational reform efforts by utilizing a metacognitive analysis of the base assumption of most, if not all, current reform efforts. Suggests a different theoretical orientation and perspective for understanding education and attempts to improve it. By contrasting the common orientation of today and the one proposed, the paper applies this new perspective to two examples. Examines educational reform in light of the orientation proposed.

Digital technologies have fundamentally changed organizations, industries, and even the society. Although institutional theory provides rich array of perspectives to both the content and dynamics of such changes, research at the intersection of institutional scholarship and digitalization has remained scarce. In this essay, I draw on the institutional logics perspective to elaborate digitalization as involving a new set of interconnected managerial beliefs and norms, organizational practices, and diverse material and social structures that together complement and challenge the established logics in organizations and institutional fields. I draw attention to two central organizing principles in the logic of digitalization: the pursuit of digital omniscience – the efforts to represent and conceive the world through digital data – and digital omnipotence – the efforts to bring activities inside and outside organizations under the control of information systems. I conclude the essay by elaborating how the institutional logics perspective can help understand organization-level efforts to leverage digitalization by incumbent corporations and new digital-native companies.

Many countries around the globe are focusing on improving the quality of education for student achievement. In this global pursuit of educational enhancement, Turkey has implemented a School Improvement (SI) programme, specifically demonstrating the importance of change leadership (CL). The current study aimed at examining the optimisation of school components through the SI programme based on CL. We adopted mixed method and longitudinal research by using quantitative (survey) and qualitative (focus group and observation) instruments. Our quantitative findings indicate that the SI programme changed the participants' perspectives on involving themselves in the SI. Participants from experimental schools emphasised that the SI experimental programme improved their capacities to identify and manage areas for SI. Additionally, our findings revealed the importance of parental involvement and leadership practices for the sustainability of SI. Further conclusions and implications are fully discussed. Context and implicationsRationale for this study: This study's rationale is based on a lack in empirical research exploring how leadership of change would be effective across SI contexts.Why the new findings matter: The findings indicate that the SI experimental programme improved their participants' capacities to identify and manage components for SI. Additionally, we found a positive influence of SI on parental involvement and leadership practices for the sustainability of SI.Implications for practitioners and researchers: Practitioners can utilise these insights to foster more school improvement practices and the management and leadership of change. Researchers are encouraged to explore the specific school improvement model components based on change leadership. The present study also posits that more empirical research is required to provide a solid basis for the benefits of the interventions by school improvement programmes based on change leadership. The findings are relevant for policymakers developing educational improvement strategies and who are interested in sustainable educational reform initiatives.

Research has supported the assumption that computer technology is beneficial for students’ performance. Nevertheless, knowing that technology is beneficial is not sufficient on its own where teachers remain the key stakeholders in the success of the process. Teachers need to be aware of various issues, challenges, and ethical aspects when using technology for teaching, with such aspects being alleviated further in a young country with a conservative society such as the UAE. The chapter offers an overview of the Net Generation and computer technologies’ impact on student performance. It provides a briefing about the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its educational system while highlighting formal initiatives launched by the government to support the educational reform and introduction of technology into the K-12 classroom. Finally, the chapter presents preliminary findings from a research study that investigates teachers’ perceptions about technology integration and their current practices in a UAE private school.