Improving the Performance of America's Schools (1995) / Chapter Skim
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2 Research-Based School Reform: The Clinton Administration's Agenda
2 Research-Based School Reform: The Clinton Administration's Agenda
Pages 9-27
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From page 9... ...
Let us consider the key pieces of legislation in roughly the chronological order that they became law. Student Aid The first Clinton education bill, passed early in the 103rd Congress, created a program designed to facilitate student access to postsecondary education while reducing the overall cost of loan programs to taxpayers and students.
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From page 10... ...
10 Improving the Performance of America's Schools Policy · School Preparedness Head start and parent education WIC and Immunizations · School Reform Goals 2000 ESEA reforms School-to-Work · Learning for Everyone College student aid reform Improved education and training opportunities Desired Results All children healthy and ready to learn A reauthorized Head Start upgrades quality and opportunity; encourages intergenerational learning Nutrition and immunizations for all children through increased appropriations High standards and opportunity to achieve for all students Coherent strategy and framework to support state and local school reform based on high standards I n context of common high standards for all students: . Resources for those least able to help themselves · Improved teacher preparation · Safe and drug-free schools · I nnovation and flexibility for local districts and schools and performance accountability Support state and local reforms to develop workplace-based and classroom learning to earn nationally recognized credentials in high-skilled occupations Workers have the skills to compete A simplified, more efficient loan program; new payment options; reduced overhead costs; savings for students and taxpayers Consolidated and simplified programs; increased information and accountability; easier and earlier access to training FIGURE 1 Lifelong Learning: The Clinton Agenda.
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From page 11... ...
State standards for occupational majors that set out content and performance expectations would be developed or adopted by representatives of industry and vocational educators. Eventually, the standards would be common across the states.
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From page 12... ...
School Reform Focused on Challenging Academic Standards The third major Clinton legislative victory was the passage of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the cornerstone of the administration's K-12 reform initiative. Goals 2000 codifies into law the National Education Goals established in 1990 by President Bush and then head of the National Governors Association, Governor Clinton.
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From page 13... ...
Instead of having Title I, the massive compensatory education program, heading in one direction, Goals 2000 in another direction, and a professional development program in yet another direction, we are letting states pull these programs together to focus them on the same ends. Those ends are to support state and local reforms to bring all students up to demanding state and local academic standards.
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From page 14... ...
SYSTEMIC SCHOOL REFORM The Department of Education hopes to stimulate state and local reforms through Goals 2000 and then to reinforce those efforts using the added resources of the newly reauthorized ESEA. A central idea behind this "systemic" school reform strategy is to establish at the state and local levels challenging content and performance standards that serve as clear academic expectations for the system and for all students.
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From page 15... ...
A rich performance assessment system that is aligned with student content standards and consequently with schools' curricula would serve to reinforce both student and teacher efforts and would operate as a much more legitimate accountability mechanism (O'Day and Smith, 1993~. To create an environment of support for teaching and learning to the challenging new state academic standards, school and state administrators should ask themselves: Are our strategies for resource allocation and other key administrative decisions focused on supporting all students to learn to higher standards?
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From page 16... ...
The mean grade achieved also rose across all groups (College Entrance Examination Board, 1994)
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From page 17... ...
If teachers are going to be expected to teach to the kinds of science standards under development by the National Academy of Sciences, or the mathematics set out in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards, they will need ongoing and sustained support, beginning with preservice training and continuing through a lasting system of professional development opportunities and technical assistance (Cohen, 1989; Cuban, 1984; Darling-Hammond and Berry, 1988; Darling-Hammond and Green, 1990; Lieberman and Miller, 1991; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1982 and 1989; and National Research Council, 1994~.
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From page 18... ...
Over time, however, most such schools lose the support system that helped them begin the change process. Principals change jobs, supportive teachers move away, school district policies change, financial support dwindles, schools lose their momentum, and the light goes out.
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From page 19... ...
The reauthorized ESEA will put the weight of $9 billion in federal programs behind these reforms, by linking ESEA to state standards rather than erecting separate federal requirements. Simultaneously, in many communities across the nation local schools are undergoing privately initiated reforms to improve teaching and learning and to engage students.
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From page 20... ...
Second, to make standards-based reform come to life, we need clear examples of high-quality standards and of the caliber of student work that we hope to see in the future. For example, while the Goals 2000 and ESEA legislation make it clear that states will develop or select their own content standards, exemplary standards can provide ideas about the content and structure of standards.
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From page 21... ...
Included in the administration's reform agenda discussed earlier are features intended to facilitate school responsibility in resource management by pushing resources down to schools, by granting waivers, and by other strategies. At the same time, incentives are provided so that schools will focus on challenging content standards and aligned performance assessments that together raise expectations for student learning, hopefully leading to increased efficiency and improved student achievement.
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From page 22... ...
Much carefully collected data suggest only marginal benefits to smaller class sizes (Robinson, 1990; Tomlinson, 1990a and l990b; and Mitchell et al., 1989~. By the same token, the number of teachers with master's degrees is not a predictor of student achievement.
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From page 23... ...
In the language of systemic school reform, if the dependent variable is not aligned with the teaching and learning going on in the school, it is no wonder that it does not pick up variations in school resources. in Yet the standardized norm-referenced tests have to be sensitive to variation n student performance, for they are required to be psychometrically reliable instruments.
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From page 24... ...
For our dependent variable we use student performance on a state assessment that is aligned with challenging state standards. For our independent variables we use measures of the resources that our theory of schooling indicates are critical to providing students with the opportunity to learn to the challenging new standards.
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From page 25... ...
College Entrance Examination Board, Advanced Placement Program. AP National Summary Report, 1989-1994.
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From page 26... ...
1979. "Conceptual and empirical issues in the estimation of educational production functions." Journal of Human Resources XIV(3)
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From page 27... ...
O'Day, 1990. "Systemic school reform." Politics of Education Association Yearbook 1990.
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