Holmes Group Research Articles

Educational reform: Implications for educational psychologists

The Holmes Group report, titled Tomorrow's Teachers (1986), and the report of the Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy, titled A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century (1986), contain major reform proposals that have implications for educational psychologists. To understand the nature of these proposals, we performed a content analysis of the Holmes and Carnegie documents and constructed a 149-item survey instrument. Three separate mailings were conducted to solicit volunteer respondents from the initial Holmes Group, Division 15 of APA, and the Teacher Education Council of State Colleges and Universities (TECSCU). A principal components analysis with varimax rotation was performed on data collected from 1039 respondents, and three factors were found to underlie the survey instrument: Incremental Changes, Sweeping Changes, and Financial Changes. A multivariate analysis of variance on the three factor scores revealed that the Holmes Group more strongly supported Incremental and Sweeping Changes than did TECSCU respondents, and that Division 15 members more strongly endorsed Sweeping Changes than did TECSCU. Recommendations are made for involving educational psychologists in the reform process.

Educational reform: Implications for educational psychologists?A comment on Benton and Hoyt's study

Stephen L. Benton and Kenneth B. Hoyt have studied the reactions of TECSCU members contrasted to those of Holmes Group Members to the recommendations made in the Holmes Group and the Carnegie reform reports. This paper agrees with several observations made by these authors, including the elitist nature of the Holmes Group and the ignoring of educational psychology and other teacher-education faculty, but it disagrees with some of the causes behind these accusations, some attributed to naivety of the Holmes Group leaders and others attributed to their purposeful, self-serving goals. This paper has focused on those report recommendations that are educationally unsound and it has offered explanations with supportive information.

Educational psychology and the reform of teacher education

Benton and Hoyt (1989) perform a service for educational psychology by obtaining empirical evidence about educational psychologists' reactions to changes in teacher education proposed by the Holmes Group and the Carnegie Commission. Their paper should serve to stimulate debate about the proper role of educational psychology in teacher education. In this paper, we challenge the empirical findings reported by Benton and Hoyt and suggest reasons why the findings may misrepresent educational psychologists' interest in teacher education. We argue that some of the Holmes and Carnegie recommendations contradict the emerging consensus among cognitive psychologists about the contextually bound nature of knowledge. Benton and Hoyt conceptualize educational psychology according to the traditional middleperson viewpoint and make recommendations with respect to educational psychology that presume this conceptualization. We counter that the middleperson viewpoint is being made obsolete by changes in psychology, and describe an alternative conception of educational psychology. This alternative conception leads to a set of alternative recommendations about the appropriate role of educational psychology in the reform of teacher education.

A ?model? proposal for reform in teacher training

The present paper uses as a point of departure two of Benton and Hoyt's (1990) survey items concerning undergraduate teaching and their finding that Holmes Group and Division 15 members favored more “sweeping changes” in teacher education whereas TESCSU members favored more “incremental changes.” It: (a) suggests that reform is unlikely to succeed without change in the behavior of those who teach prospective teachers; (b) suggests ways in which educational psychologists can improve the effectiveness of teachers and teacher training; and (c) questions whether moving teacher training to the graduate level will in fact improve such education.

A reaction to educational reform: Implications for educational psychologists

Issue is taken with Benton and Hoyt's (1990) study of three groups as to their agreement or disagreement with the Holmes Group report Tomorrow's Teachers (1986), and the Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy's Report, A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century (1986). The three groups studied were volunteer respondents from the initial Holmes Group, Division 15 of the American Psychological Association, and the Teacher Education Council for State Colleges and Universities. Questions are raised regarding the Benton and Hoyt study's general assumptions, selection of documents for study, selection of and generalization about group responses, and general implications for all educationists as well as educational psychologists.

Teacher Testing and Implications for Physical Education

There has been a dramatic increase in teacher testing in the last decade. State and national attention to this issue is evidenced by the amount of literature devoted to assessment in general and teacher testing in particular. An invitational conference was held last fall by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to provide a forum for clarifying issues regarding uses of standardized tests in American education in general and teacher testing in particular. Flippo (1986) outlined how all but six states in the nation are presently involved in planning, designing, or implementing some form of teacher testing. Darling-Hammond (1986) predicts that almost all states will have teacher testing by the early 1990s. Haney and Madaus (1989) reported that the volume of standardized testing of teachers and students increased 10 to 20% in the last 40 years. Organizations supporting some type of teacher testing include the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the Holmes Group, the Carnegie Foundation, and the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. The major purposes of this article are to outline the history of teacher testing in this county, describe current trends and alternatives to traditional forms of teacher assessment, and draw some implications for physical education teacher education.

Teacher Certification Testing in Physical Education

The 1980s witnessed an unparalled review, analysis, and critique of the quality of education and schooling in the United States. Criticism that has emanated from the wide range of reports and research studies was directed to all levels of education including the nation's schools (Boyer, 1986; Goodlad, 1983; Sizer, 1986), teacher education (Holmes Group, 1986), conditions of teaching and the teaching profession (Carnegie Task Force, 1986), and the quality of undergraduate education (Bennett, 1984; Boyer, 1987)_ federally funded report called A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (National Commission, 1983) was the impetus for many of the later documents and was largely responsible for shaping the public's view of education. The seriousness of the allegations about the decline and general malaise in education that set the tone for many later documents can best be understood from an oft-quoted line of the report: If an unfriendly foreign power had done to American education what the country has done to itself it would have been regarded as an act of war (p. 1). Several solutions have been proposed to what has been described as the mediocrity of American education. These can be summarized as (a) improve the quality of those who in schools improving the quality of teacher preparation programs and extend them to a fifth year, (b) improve the conditions of schooling and the autonomy of teachers and reward quality work, thereby encouraging creative teachers to remain in the profession, and (c) keep less able teachers and less able prospective teachers out of the profession establishing higher standards. Prospective teachers must demonstrate such competencies passing a test that allows entrance into the profession. There has been a dramatic increase in teacher testing in the last 6 or 7 years (Haney, Madaus, & Kreitzer, 1987). All indications are that by 1990, virtually every state in the nation will require tests of basic skills, subject matter knowledge, and professional knowledge before a teacher can receive a standard license to teach (Darling-Hammond, 1984, p. 1). Certification tests have become a visible and controversial issue in education, with several of the major reports on schooling and teacher education advocating some form of teacher testing. The Carnegie report, Teachers for the 21st Century, was most explicit about test-

An Overview of Reform in Holmes Group Institutions

Institutional reform efforts described during the past 3 years in the The Holmes Group Forum, the consortium newsletter, were analyzed. Fifty institutions have described planning and pro gram changes. Six types of reforms are discussed: new connections with faculty in arts and sciences, teacher and school collaborations, professional development schools, internships, pro fessional studies, and new organizational partnerships. Questions needing discussion and investi gation related to these reforms are identified.

Book Review: Reforming Teacher Education: The Impact of the Holmes Group Report

Book Review: Reforming Teacher Education: The Impact of the Holmes Group Report

Barriers and facilitators to equity in the Holmes group

(1990). Barriers and facilitators to equity in the Holmes group. Theory Into Practice: Vol. 29, Reforming Education: The Holmes Agenda, pp. 50-54.

Reflections of the JTE Research Editor (1984-1989)

Howey served as research editor for the JTE from 1984-1989. In this article he reflects on many of the ideas and perspectives that surfaced in research manuscripts and concept pieces published in the JTE during that time. Howey focuses attention on two circumstances: the increasing preoccupa tion with a knowledge base for teacher preparation and the effects of a major consortium concerned with teacher preparation, the Holmes Group.

Inviting Conversations: The Holmes Group andTomorrow’s Schools

The Holmes Group’s second major report, Tomorrow’s Schools, offers a radically different perspective on teachers and the role they might play in school reform than that put forth in their first report, Tomorrow’s Teachers (1986). In 1986 the university was considered the sole source of educational wisdom and teachers were expected to become conventional educational researchers in order to improve educational practice. In 1990 teachers are viewed with greater respect and as potential colleagues in educational research, now redefined to include teacher-centered inquiry. These new views of the teacher and research suggest necessary structural changes in graduate education programs in order to promote professional conversations between professors and practitioners.

Inviting Conversations: The Holmes Group and "Tomorrow's Schools"

Inviting Conversations: The Holmes Group and "Tomorrow's Schools"

Coping with Holmes: Two Papers on the Holmes Group Report

Coping with Holmes: Two Papers on the Holmes Group Report

Empirical evidence that school-university collaboration is multicultural education

Four frames of reference existing in school and university cultures were defined: (1) work tempo and the nature of professional time; (2) professional focus, from theoretical to practical; (3) career reward structure and the nature and importance of rewards for work; and (4) sense of personal power and efficacy, or the degree to which one perceives one's efforts lead to intended outcomes. A survey instrument indexing the four dimensions with four summated rating scales was mailed to a sample of 1225 educators from the 19 Midwest Holmes Group universities and the public schools with which they work. Results indicated that Tempo, Focus, Reward, and Power standardized scale scores differed by position, collaboration experience, and university affiliation. These differences are presented and discussed with respect to their meaning in the context of school-university collaboration.

Equity and Excellence in Education—Compatible Concepts or Hostile Abstractions?

Since 1983, with the publication of five well-known national reports calling for reform in education, the later release of other reports by prestigious groups (such as the Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession and the Holmes Group), and the enactment of approximately 700 state statutes focused on school reform, the push for excellence has overshadowed earlier commitments to equity in schools. As Orlich writes, “In at least one instance, implementing the proposals of these two groups [Carnegie and Holmes] would have the same undesirable effect: reducing the number of minority teachers from few to virtually none.” This movement for excellence has had a narrowing effect on the level of social consciousness concerning sex and race equity in schools and in society. Any movement which restricts the growth of equity should be examined critically; for it, both as a topic of study and as a fact in practice, is a necessary component of an excellent and complete preparation of teachers in a pluralistic society. By providing programs that both “preach and practice” equity principles, today's teacher educators assist the next generation of teachers to develop a contextual understanding of the field of teaching and a heightened social consciousness of their role in education.

Should we extend teacher preparation?

A s the attacks on teacher education have increased, one reform strategy seems to have gained the most adherents: the proposal to require teacher candidates to have at least five years of preservice education rather than the four now typically needed for certification. The fiveyear teacher preparat ion movement, which encompasses many programmatic variations, has powerful proponents. Among them are a special task force of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), the majori ty of the members of the National Commission on Excellence in Teacher Education, and the Carnegie Forum on Educat ion and the Economy. The Holmes Group, which includes the deans of schools of education at most of the nation's research universities, publicly calls for would-be teachers to complete five years of college and an internship before teaching full-time. Many leading schools of education (such as those at the University of Chicago and Stanford University, and Teachers College, Columbia University) now offer teacher training opportunities only at the postbaccalaureate level. Remarkably, this movement to increase the years of preservice educat ion for prospective teachers has been proceeding apace without serious opposition, despite the probabil i ty that it could decrease both the number and the quality of teacher candidates at a t ime when we expect a severe teacher shortage. Moreover, there is no evidence that ex tended p repara t ion programs make beginning teachers more effective. One reason that extended programs have not been subject to more criticism is that they come in so many shapes and sizes. Here, I am concerned with any strategy that requires students to take a m i n i m u m of five years of college-based coursework (which could inc lude pract ice teaching) before they are allowed to teach at full salary. The case for extended teacher preparat ion programs rests fundamental ly on criticisms of undergraduate programs rather than on documented benefits for postbacca laurea te preservice t eacher educa t ion . A m o n g the attacks on undergraduate programs that appear most to inf luence demands for this p roposed reform are the following:

Broadening teachers’ perspectives on research

The need for reform in teaching K12 mathematics and science has been well established (James & Kurtz, 1985, pp. 104-114; Holmes Group Executive Board, 1986; Carnegie Task Force on Teaching, 1986). Teachers must be able to foster student interest in the nature of the scientific enterprise and an understanding of its relevance to individuals and society. Unfortunately, it is common to fred that teachers' understanding of and knowledge about the scientific enterprise and research is not adequate to accomplish this goal. Teacher educators must, then, revise existing preservice and inservice programs to address the need.

Soundoff: Mathematics Teachers' Preparation: A Challenge

The 1982 “excell ence reports” on the dire state of education and the two influential proposals by the Carnegie Forum (1986) and the Holmes Group (1986) beckon mathematics educators to identify implications for our own field and in particular to reexamine the recurrent question. What should he included in a program for the preparation of mathematics teachers?

The Professionalization of Tomorrow's Teachers: an analysis of US teacher education reform rhetoric

Abstract Teaching cannot ‘professionalize itself as medicine has done, and reform proposals that urge it to do so ignore issues of teaching's place in the occupational hierarchy. Applying methods of discourse analysis, the present paper demonstrates how the discourse of US education reform proposals, exemplified by the Holmes Group report, Tomorrow's Teachers (1986), constructs knowledge about professionalization of teaching. This analysis bears not only on what the report says but how it says it, thus differing from the numerous studies and critical reviews of the report in focusing on the report's form, and not only its content. The rhetoric of Tomorrow's Teachers reveals its close family resemblance to the long tradition of the ‘American jeremiad’ (Bercovitch, 1978), the typically American genre of self‐criticism (and self‐reassurance) that dates back to the political sermons of the New England Puritan preachers. The underlying medical metaphor of Tomorrow's Teachers (teaching is doctoring') is shown t...