To be effective, public education needs
to implement the correlates of Effective Schools Research and tenets of social
justice to promote equity in quality.
The result of such implementation would be optimal opportunities to learn
for all students. Effective Schools
Research identifies the following correlates as being present in all cases of
an effective school:
1.
Clear
and focused mission
2.
Climate
of high expectations
3.
Instructional
leadership
4.
Opportunity
to learn/student time on task
5.
Frequently
monitoring student progress
6.
Safe
and orderly environment
7.
Home-school
relations (Lezotte, 1991)
The
Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA), reauthorized as No
Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001), requires instructional leaders utilize
strategies, approaches, and program initiatives that are scientific
or research based and frequent monitoring
to close identified achievement gaps. Prospective teachers and in-service teachers benefit
from understanding the seven correlates of Effective Schools Research include
these two variables within an inter-connected system. Given any system is a "network of
interdependent components that work together to accomplish the aim of the
system" (Deming (1993), institutes of higher education (IHE) and other
teacher preparation programs should increase expectations for knowledge of
systems and the ability to think systemically.
Given the interdependency of the seven correlates of Effective Schools, school leaders must approach them
with the view of implementing them all at once.
Thus, a clear and focused mission as well as strong instructional
leadership is required to move the other interdependent correlates from being
an ideal to effective practice. Since Effective Schools Research demonstrates that a result of schools ignoring the
interdependence among the seven correlates is slow progress, then without
strong, respected instructional leadership that can help bring consensus for a
clear and focused mission, confusion about how to incorporate all the
correlates simultaneously would prevail.
An Effective
School’s mission, grounded in the seven correlates for reform, would expect
success regardless of socioeconomic status (SES) of its students. Stakeholders would therefore need to make the
interconnected seven correlates more powerful within its mission than the power
of the low SES to deny opportunity. “Effective indicates
that a school, teacher, or district is doing the right job. Based on our definition of an effective
school, this term specifies that the school must attend to the twin policy
pillars of quality and equity. Effective
schools research has shown that the practices among effective schools have
consistently been found to be more alike than different” (Lezotte & Snyder,
2011, p 17).
Frequent monitoring for
success is more than testing (Lezotte & Snyder, 2011). States utilizing
large-scale testing to make high-stakes educational decisions must ensure
alignment between such tests and the state’s curricula or learning
standards. Alignment provides a fairer
measure of student learning. As states became increasingly
reliant on large-scale educational assessments, experts began to explicate
scientific–based guidelines for developing and implementing assessment and
accountability programs (Baker, 2001). “Standards
for Educational and Psychological Testing" (1999) was jointly published by
APA, the American Educational Research Association and the National Council on
Measurement in Education. Guidelines. A revision is pending. State test developers have since found the
following standards useful:
·
Utilize tests only for their
validated purpose.
·
Avoid making high-stakes decisions
based on the results of only one test.
·
Align tests to the states'
curriculum standards, so that teachers can prepare students to succeed.
·
Ensure tests only measure the
academic domain of interest, without unwittingly emphasizing extraneous
factors.
·
Adjust test sensitivity based on
school quality differences.
Educational psychology
links the science of psychology with educational practice and provides teachers
with evidence-based knowledge to support their day-to-day decision-making in
the classroom. (Bohlin, Durwin, &
Reese-Weber, 2009). The science element
of educational psychology involves formulating theories and conducting research
on those theories. All teachers should
practice action research. As both
consumers of research and practitioners of research, it becomes important for
pre-service and in-service teachers to understand guidelines for what
constitutes reputable research.
·
Avoid using newspaper and magazine
articles, as they are not research articles.
·
Avoid Internet searches using search
engines, because they may not yield credible sources.
·
Find and utilize peer-reviewed
articles in scholarly journals at a local university library.
·
Find and utilize peer-reviewed
articles in databases such as ERIC and PSYINFO.
·
Bookmark websites of professional
associations and monitor them for links to new education research.
·
Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
(Bohlin, Durwin, & Reese-Weber, 2009)
Since 2006, the
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) has been actively
advocating for educators, policymakers, business leaders, families, and
community members to work together on a whole child approach to education. The whole child approach to learning,
teaching, and community engagement has been grounded in the belief that “each
child, in each school, in each of our communities deserves to be healthy, safe,
engaged, supported, and challenged” (ASCD, 2010). Advocates of these fundamental tenets have
long considered them essential for ensuring students become college-, career-,
and citizenship-ready, which is a desired outcome of the Effective Schools
Movement.
In order to
effectively lead a school using a whole child approach to education, a
principal needs to be “visionary; effective instructional leaders; active
learners; and influencers within their staff and the community” (ASCD,
2010). As can be expected, the Whole
Child Approach to education promotes policies and practices aligned to support
the whole child. This requires a change
in how adults currently work together to educate children.
Professional
Learning Communities (PLCs) have emerged as perhaps the best, most agreed
upon means of continual improvement in instruction and student
performance. PLCs are evidenced in a
single school or online. Models include
study groups, action research teams, communities of practice, or conversation
circles. The essential focus of any PLC
is for educators to work together, with a shared focus on learning and
accountability to help all students learn at high levels.
Just
as public schools needed to establish metrics for accountability of their
teaching and learning mission, so too would institutes of higher education
(IHE) and teacher preparation programs need to establish better metrics for
measuring the competencies of their graduates, including knowledge of systems
and ability to think systemically. To
address this, IHE and other teacher preparation programs must recognize the aim
for graduating “instruments
of systems change” rather than merely preparing
individuals to administer curriculum.
Basile
and Nathenson-Mejía (2003) suggests the process for problem-based learning
creates a healthy environment for reflection,
discussion, and problem solving. Their study illustrates how teacher
candidates move from micro-reflection to self-reflection to macro-reflection
resulting from a year-long engagement in a teacher education program within a
professional development school.
Implications from their study suggest that problem-based learning is a
valid process for the enculturation of teacher candidates to schools and to the
profession of teaching.
To cite:
Anderson, C.J. (February 3, 2013)
Statement of pedagogical beliefs [Web log post]
References:
Basile,
C., Olson, F., & Nathenson-Mejía, S. (2003). Problem-based learning:
reflective coaching
for teacher educators. Reflective Practice, 4(3), 291.
Bohlin, L., Durwin, C., &
Reese-Weber, M. (2009). Ed Psych: Modules. NY: McGraw-Hill.
Lezotte, L. W. (1991) Correlates of effective schools: The first
and second generation.
http://www.effectiveschools.com/images/stories/escorrelates.pdf
Lezotte, L. W., & Snyder, K. M. (2011). What effective schools do:
Re-envisioning the correlates.
Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree
Press.
Schmoker, J, (1999)
The Key to Continuous School Improvement (2nd edition)
ASCD
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