School Reform Efforts Research Articles

Forms of culture in the implementation of school reform efforts: A conceptual framework

Despite concerted efforts to improve educational practices through reform, classroom implementation remains a persistent challenge. This theoretical article draws on recent work in cultural sociology to offer a fresh perspective on this problem. It introduces a framework that differentiates between declarative, procedural, and public forms of culture, highlighting their unique mechanisms of internalization and enactment. This multidimensional understanding of culture reveals the cognitive challenges inherent in translating reform principles into classroom practices. More specifically, the article contends that the common assumptions of convertibility and transferability between these forms of culture underlie the limited success of many reform initiatives. By attending to the cognitive dimensions of cultural dynamics, the proposed framework opens new avenues for understanding and addressing the difficulties of educational change. This article concluded with an agenda for future research to test and refine the framework.

Transcending attitudes: teacher responses to professional development in trauma-informed education

The adoption of trauma-informed practices in schools is a significant and growing area of school reform efforts. It has been assumed that professional development aimed at influencing teacher attitudes toward trauma-informed care in schools is an important first step in adopting trauma-informed practices and improving student and school outcomes. However, there are gaps in the literature assessing the impact of trauma-informed professional development on teacher attitudes toward trauma-informed care, and there is little evidence linking changes in teacher attitudes to changes in practices. This exploratory study assessed teacher responses to a year-long pilot program providing intensive professional development and consultation on trauma-informed practices in one urban elementary school in the U.S. Southwest. Findings raise questions about the impact of professional development on teacher attitudes and subsequent changes to practice.

Conflict-competent leadership

Conflict management is one of the most stressful and frustrating aspects of a school leader’s job. An inability to overcome conflicting viewpoints, ever more palpable in today’s polarized climate, stymies innumerable school reform efforts. Yet, the subject is rarely examined in graduate-level leadership preparation programs or in-service professional development. Robert Feirsen and Seth Weitzman explain that conflict in schools is normal and discuss why knowing how to manage conflict can strengthen leaders and build capacity for school improvement. They offer specific strategies to build conflict resolution skills and embed collaborative problem solving in school culture.

Instructional leadership practices: Exploring deputy principal’s instructional leadership practices – A Zimbabwean case study

School reform efforts have focussed on the principal as the major determinant of students’ outcome without saying much on the contribution of deputy principals. Deputy principals are 2nd on the school’s hierarchical structure. The distributed leadership construct advocates more actors in instructional leadership. In this study we examined whether deputy principals were engaged in instructional leadership practices for overall student performance. The study was carried out in high schools of the Gutu district of the Masvingo province in Zimbabwe. A qualitative research approach and a case study design were adopted for the study. Three deputy principals, 1 deputising at a government-run school, another at a church-run school and the other at a rural district council-run school were purposively sampled for document analysis, observation and multiple interviews. The findings reveal that deputy principals were engaged in instructional leadership practices cursorily and to a limited extent. Deputy principals performed instructional leadership tasks through vision statement formulation, supervision of lessons, monitoring students’ progress and modelling good teaching behaviour. In the era of accountability and distributed leadership, pressure mounts for more engagement of deputy principals as instructional leaders. We, therefore, recommend a collective approach to vision development by all stakeholders and the development of protocols that encompass pre- and post-observation conferences that mainly focus on the teacher.

The relationship between buy-in and implementation: Measuring teacher buy-in to a high school reform effort

‘Buy-in,’ or the extent to which individuals believe in and actively support interventions, is an important but understudied component of program evaluation. This paper articulates a conceptual framework and describes survey scales for measuring buy-in. The paper applies the framework and survey to a program evaluation of an effort implementing the early college model in 16 high schools. The paper empirically connects teacher buy-in to perceptions of program implementation. In our main regression analysis, we found a significant relationship between teacher buy-in and model implementation. Through a dominance analysis, we also found that items related to collective buy-in were stronger predictors of implementation than items measuring individual buy-in. Our results suggest that it is important to measure both individual and collective buy-in because both are predictive of implementation. The survey items and framework presented could be of use to evaluators through modification for use in implementation studies of other program evaluations.

Systematic and evaluative review of school climate instruments for students, teachers, and parents

AbstractThis study involved a systematic and evaluative review of school climate measures to catalog main domains and subdomains and rate parameters of instrument presentation and psychometric quality. Four databases were used (Web of Science, Scopus, ERIC, and PsycINFO) and 37 instruments (studies) met inclusion criteria (instrument measured school climate; psychometric properties of the instrument were provided; every instrument included in the review has its original version published; the article was in English or Spanish; the article was a peer‐reviewed publication). Information was synthesized according to instrument presentation and psychometric quality. The expansion of literature search routes was designed to mitigate publication bias. Analysis revealed four main domains among extant school climate measures: relationships (social relationships, school connectedness, leadership, and culture), environment (school facilities, physical comfort, and cleanliness), safety/discipline (school safety, fairness of rules, bullying and aggression, disciplinary harshness, and general drug use), and academic (academic outcomes, equality of opportunity, engagement, and cohesiveness/competitiveness). This domain/subdomain architecture could serve as a touchstone for conceptualizing school climate and developing and refining future assessment devices for this construct. The domain/subdomain architecture could also help guide school reform efforts. Limitations included possible publication bias and an exclusive focus on questionnaires and not other methods to assess school climate.

PENERAPAN PPDB ONLINE SISTEM ZONASI KOTA SURABAYA DALAM PERSPEKTIF GOOD GOVERNANCE

The aims of the online-based PPDB zoning system is to analyze the application of the Surabaya City zoning system online in the perspective of good governance, to find out the positive and negative impacts of implementing the online zoning system PPDB. The government in the distribution of education one of which is issuing new policies in accepting new student admissions through Minister of Education and Culture Regulations. The zoning system is part of the school reform effort to improve the quality of education in Indonesia. According to Mardiasmo there are principles of good government governance, as follows: Accountability (Accountability), Transparency (Transparancy)), Democracy (Democration), Rule of Law. The benefits of PPDB online Zoning System are that it is more efficient, makes it easier for the community, improving the quality of education and there are also positive and negative impacts in the application In this study, implementing that the process of Implementing New Student Admissions (PPDB) conducted online Zoning in the city of Surabaya has been considered successful in efforts to express access and quality of education.

A Scoping Review of Colorism in Schools: Academic, Social, and Emotional Experiences of Students of Color

Students of color experience academic, social, and emotional challenges due to colorism in schools. The purpose of this scoping review is to compare the experiences with colorism of students from varying racial backgrounds (African Americans, Native Americans, Asians, and Latin) in U.S. public schools. It is predicted that the understudied group of Latinx and indigenous students of color will uniquely experience colorism in academic settings when compared to African American and Asian students. A 30 article literature review utilizing search dates from 1990 to 2020 was conducted employing a scoping review framework. Themes emerged that include: the privileging of lighter skin and more Eurocentric features in academic outcomes, the complicated social status created for students of color experiencing colorism in schools, and the increased potential for emotional challenges as a result of colorism. This review highlights possible school reform efforts to affirm all skin tones, reduce colorist biases, and offer mediation to mitigate colorist experiences in the school environment.

Interplay of Shared Leadership Practices of Principals, Teachers’ Soft Skills and Learners’ Competitiveness in COVID 19 Era: Implications to Economics of Educational Leadership

The COVID 19 pandemic had a significant impact on both the administration and instructional delivery. A close partnership between administrators and teachers is essential to students' overall growth, particularly in this COVID 19 era. This study employed a descriptive correlational research design. A survey was done using online to selected schools in South East Asian countries. From the study, it can be inferred that the highly positive results are seen on the level of principal shared leadership practices are manifested by the school heads, teachers' soft skills enhancement, and learners' competitiveness. The school heads are capable of exuding shared leadership aspects on effective communication, proper coordination, direction, and influence. Test of relationship showed a positive interplay between principals' shared leadership with the selected variables on teachers' soft skills and learners' competitiveness. Research on the comparative impacts of leadership styles will assist policymakers and practitioners in better understand which leadership techniques are most successful for specific elements of school reform efforts, in our view. Further, the implications of this study will help teachers better their interpersonal and administrative abilities while administrators are urged to continue to improve their leadership techniques. The result of this present study will provide a way for policymakers and other stakeholders to fund allocation and develop a plan of action to strengthen principal leadership in the COVID 19 era.

Researching SCSU's Hilton C. Buley Library's New Haven Mayoral Archives

Researching SCSU's Hilton C. Buley Library's New Haven Mayoral Archives

School safety starts in the classroom

AbstractThis paper combines reflection on my experiences as a public school principal with an analysis of two papers about safety in schools: “School Safety and Violence: Research and Clinical Understandings, Trends and Improvement Strategies” by Jonathan Cohen and “Tipping the Balance: Moving Toward School Safety While Considering Student Needs” by Nancy Rappaport. Cohen and Rappaport offer sound guidance on how to make schools safe—from macro system reforms to more micro, interpersonal interactions. I agree with Cohen's assertion that “learning how to have constructive controversial conversations is an essential foundation for healthy relationships on the one hand and democracy on the other.” Indeed, I believe that safe schools are necessarily democratic schools. And I strongly agree with Rappaport's assertion that we must “make learning deeply personal.” Just as important and true is the assertion conveyed by both Rappaport and Cohen that educators must be attuned to environmental conditions in the society—contemporary and historical—that erode safety in school communities, from systemic racism to pandemics and other threats to the wellbeing of children and families. My critique of both papers, and of many social‐emotional school reform efforts in general, is that there is not enough emphasis on the place where students and teachers spend the majority of their time: the classroom. The teaching and learning that happen in the classroom—both what is taught and how it is taught—are dominant forces in determining whether a school is healthy and safe. Drawing from my own work as a teacher and principal, I describe several essential ingredients for curriculum and pedagogy that enable classrooms to be places of trust, healthy risk‐taking, empathy, democratic practice and, ultimately, safety.

Reckoning With Ourselves: A Critical Analysis of White Women’s Socialization and School Psychology

The future of school psychology requires us to examine present challenges, our capacity to address them, and how we might better prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. This piece raises the question of whether school psychology is not only demographically but structurally oriented to the norms of middle-class White women, especially those who demonstrate gender normative identities. Our dependence on the social norms of White women, although having conferred benefits to date, may be limiting the impact of school psychology, especially in the effort to achieve and sustain systemic changes in education. Evidence cited in support of the points made here ranges from literature in social psychology and organizational psychology, to education and Black feminism, to school psychology scholarship and professional standards. The crux of this thesis is not that the feminization of our profession is to blame for the yet unrealized potential of our leadership within education. Rather, as a product of structural, patriarchal racism, the race by gender socialization process creates particular vulnerabilities in White women’s social identities that affect the values and behaviors of the profession in ways that may be hindering school psychology from achieving its stated goals. Supplemental data for this article is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2021.1956856 . Impact Statement School psychology is a profession dominated by White women, who are generally taught to see themselves as powerless, in the service of both racism and misogyny. For the past twenty years, school psychology has diligently championed evidence-based school reform, but little sustained, widespread impact is yet evident. This paper examines how much of school psychology has been shaped by White women’s social norms, and how those norms may undermine school reform efforts. The overall goal is that discussing the issue openly will help us to begin to change and become more effective advocates for children, schools, and communities.

Assessment Practices in K–12 Physical Education in the United States: A Scoping Review of Research, 2000–2020

ABSTRACT Appropriate assessment practices are recognized as a critical part of the learning process and represent a key component of quality physical education. Recent shifts in school reform efforts toward more accountability in the United States and an emerging emphasis on student-centered approaches challenge historical approaches to assessment. Purpose: Therefore, the purpose of this review was to (a) identify research conducted on physical education teachers’ assessment practices during the years 2000–2020, (b) determine the impact of assessment practices on student outcomes, and (c) describe research that explores factors associated with the SHAPE America guidelines for appropriate assessment practices. Method: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-Sc) Checklist guided this review. All related empirical, peer-reviewed, English-language studies conducted in U.S. schools and published since January 1, 2000 qualified for inclusion. Results: A total of 17 articles met the inclusion criteria for this review. Most used non-experimental methods and were conducted in the secondary (grades 6–12) physical education context. Limited studies examined the relationship between assessment practices and learning outcomes. Recommendations for future research are provided based on the results. Conclusions: A diverse body of studies provides valuable, yet limited evidence related to teacher assessment practices. Systematic research is needed to better understand the impact of teacher assessment practices on student outcomes and to build a stronger foundation for evidence-based recommendations for practice.

Exploring the Impact of a Community School Reform Initiative on the Literacy Achievement of Middle Level English Language Learners

Inequitable learning opportunities are a leading contributor to the persistent literacy achievement gaps evident between historically marginalized students and their more affluent peers. This study investigated the impact of a community school reform effort in an urban middle school. The community school initiative focused on meeting the complex academic and non-academic needs of newcomer (i.e., immigrant and refugee) students and families. The researchers compared the community school students to a propensity score-matched group and found that the community school students significantly outperformed the comparison group in English language arts (ELA) from Grade 6 to 8 and had significantly fewer course failures in Grade 8. Results of this study also indicate the promising contributions community school wrap-around services lend to reducing the literacy learning gap between ELL students and their non-ELL peers in the middle grades.

Chapter 4: Understanding Community through Critical Service-Learning: Preparing Future Teachers to Enact School Reform Principles that Empower Youth

Background/Context A number of states across the United States are seeking to implement school redesign efforts to support greater equity and to empower youth. Because these initiatives require teachers to implement strategies they typically have not experienced as learners, there is a need for models to prepare them to enact these innovations. Research has shown that service-learning can provide a view into educational experiences that are different from what teacher candidates experienced in their own schooling. Purpose/Focus of Study The state of Vermont recently legislated school reform that includes three elements: (1) proficiency-based learning, (2) personalized learning, and (3) flexible pathways to graduation. Enacting these mandates requires fostering youth voice. When redesigning our courses to model these principles, we added a critical service-learning experience to a content literacy course in our teacher education program, providing one-on-one academic support to resettled refugee youth. This qualitative study explores the learning outcomes of that service-learning experience. In addition, this study examines how these learning outcomes relate to the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to enact school reform efforts focused on empowering youth. Research Design This interpretive study examines the critical service-learning experience embedded in a content literacy course. Candidates provided weekly academic support to resettled refugee youth in one of three community centers. There were 18 participants in the study. Data collection included reflection papers, an anonymous questionnaire, and interviews with selected participants. Conclusions/Recommendations Data analysis demonstrates that the service-learning experience (1) cultivated an awareness of individual learners, (2) increased the understanding of pedagogical practices for diverse learners, (3) fostered a sense of cultural humility, and (4) broadened understanding of the community. Taken together, these impacts help prepare future teachers to enact school reform in ways that empower youth.

Vzpostavitev slovenskega šolskega sistema leta 1919

In the foreword, we outline the situation in the field of education in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, so that we can later in the text further analyse the goals and visions of the school reform efforts of teachers organized in local associations and two prominent pedagogical theorists. In doing so, we limit ourselves to the activities of primary school teachers and primary school legislation. In the central part of the text we describe the efforts to improve the financial and status position of teachers, the efforts to systematically reform primary education, the efforts to overcome the ideological divisiveness of the two most powerful teacher associations, and the efforts to unify teachers' associations throughout the kingdom. At the end, we outline the three most important programming texts on the reform of education in the new country and try to identify the pedagogical theoretical influences that are characteristic of the period between the two wars.

Reading and inquiring in an afterschool tutoring program: Working to re-imagine the reading intervention paradigm

In this article, we discuss tensions that emerged as we collaborated with teachers to iteratively design and refine an afterschool reading intervention approach that emphasizes inquiry and disciplinary learning for upper elementary readers positioned as struggling in school. Our findings are organized around four design tensions that help us consider what it takes to re-imagine the ‘ofcourseness’ that dominates traditional approaches to tiered intervention in schools. These design tensions are: (1) competing priorities in student learning; (2) compromised forms of inquiry-based instruction; (3) negotiating how texts are chosen; and (4) complexities of responsiveness. These tensions underscore the messy challenges that must be addressed in school reform efforts related to reading intervention for older elementary readers.

Presuming competence, belonging, and the promise of inclusion: The US experience

This article examines the US experience with school inclusion, highlighting effective policies, practices, and school reform efforts. Specifically, it reveals how a case-by-case assessment of whether a child can be included works against the goal of full inclusion. Despite this policy limitation, inclusion is moving forward, especially when guided by the principles of presuming competence, belonging, and full citizenship, and informed by the experiences of students who have grown up within the change movement.

Co-navigating the Complexities of School Reform: The Establishment and On-going Maintenance of Relational Trust in School Reform Efforts

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to examine the ways in which the principal and literacy coach collectively developed and maintained relational trust in order to establish school literacy reform efforts. Drawing from a larger set of data, we employed qualitative methods to explore interviews and surveys from the principals and literacy coaches at two different schools who were able to implement literacy reform for several consecutive years. The relational trust established between the coach and principal enabled them to co-navigate issues that might have otherwise impeded literacy reform efforts in their school. Acting together, the principal and the coach were able to communicate a common vision for literacy reform, which resulted in increased implementation of the reform framework in their schools.

A Community School Reform Initiative for Middle Grades Urban and Newcomer Students: Using Mixed Methods to Examine Student Academic and Nonacademic Outcomes Over Time and Compared to a Matched Sample

In recent years, community school (CS) reform efforts have been established and implemented as a method of realizing comprehensive school reform in under-performing school districts. This study investigates the impact of one CS initiative in a middle school on student academic and nonacademic outcomes over time and compared to a propensity score matched sample. Significant quantitative findings were found related to an increase in CS students’ GPA over time and in comparison to their matched peers. Additionally, significantly more CS students met GPA college readiness benchmarks and significantly less at-risk indicators compared to the demographically similar comparison group. Qualitative explanations indicated CS student growth and differences found were largely due to specific school goals, relationships and partnerships between the school, family and community members, safe/supportive learning environments, and a deliberate focus on newcomer services.