Effective Schools Research identifies
the following correlates are 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 both benefit from understanding the seven correlates
of Effective Schools Research, which includes 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. Forthcoming is a 2012 revision. 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).
These fundamental tenets have long been
seen as essential for ensuring students become college-, career-, and
citizenship-ready, 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.
References:
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
