A 335 Syllabus Fall 2015 Page 1

DILEMMAS OF EQUITY AND EXCELLENCE IN AMERICAN K-12 EDUCATION

HGSE A335 and KSG SUP-415

Professor Katherine K. Merseth

Fall 2015, Mondays 4-7 (and one additional 80 minute section/week)

Kyle Hartung, Head TF: kjh357@mail.harvard.edu Mary Wall: mary_wall@mail.harvard.edu

Christina de Guzman: cdg1975@gmail.com

Susan Kandel, Faculty Assistant susan_kandel@gse.harvard.edu

COURSE OVERVIEW Throughout its history, the American education system has served as a critical force in reflecting, reinforcing, and reshaping American society. K-12 schools, arguably the most “common” of all public institutions, function as a microcosm in which broader social, political, legal, economic, and cultural issues are played out. To study schools is to study our history, our society, and ourselves, and to contend with the interconnections among the three. Using this multi-directional relationship as a frame for analysis, this course asks students to grapple with some of the major dilemmas that have defined American K-12 education throughout history reaching to the present. What should be the purpose of schooling? Who should have the authority to decide who and what is taught in a democracy? What constitutes educational excellence, and how can it be achieved? Does “equal” mean “equitable”? Finally, how can one make sense of families, school-practitioners, policymakers, and the courts that often disagree about the answers to these questions? This course will explore many of these questions from a variety of perspectives, drawing on historical, contemporary, comparative, and personal examples. Americans are generally silent about the purpose of schooling – largely because fundamental differences in values and beliefs characterize a pluralistic society. Specifically these differences often revolve around the dual, sometimes competing goals of equity and excellence. Without recognition and consideration of these differences, however, large-scale school reform will be impossible. Thus, the course asks students to “take a stand” on the deepest educational question of all – the question of purpose – and to explore potential levers to implement their selected purpose. This is a very engaging and active course with students partaking in debates and case study discussions that help them to explore the complexity of the issues as well as to make connections with broader themes in American society. The course is relevant for students with an interest in public or private K-12 schooling in the United States and abroad.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS Course Texts The following text is available for purchase from the Harvard Coop. Reese, W.J. (2011). America's Public Schools: From the Common School to No Child Left Behind (pp. 10–44). Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins Press

Evaluation Policies Please keep several policies in mind as you plan your work for this class:

• All assignments must be completed at a satisfactory level in order to receive a satisfactory grade.

• Late assignments will not be accepted unless the student has a verified medical or emergency situation. Documentation from UHS of illness should be submitted to the Professor.

• All papers will be submitted via drop box directly to your Teaching Fellow. Each paper must be

double spaced, with one-inch margins and in 12 point Times New Roman font. A word count as well as your student ID is required on the front of every submitted paper.

• Please make sure to follow all academic integrity policies, listed below. If you have ANY questions about academic integrity, contact the teaching staff.

Lectures, section discussions, and readings will ordinarily cover different aspects of the course materials and students are expected to complete and show mastery in all phases of the course. Students will be evaluated on class participation and attendance, an optional reading essay for feedback on writing, the midterm and the final paper. Rubrics as well as further details about the assignments will be provided during the course. The weights of the various assignments are:

Class and section participation 20% Midterm paper 35% Final paper 45%

A 335 includes one 3 hour class on Mondays from 4-7 plus an 80-minute discussion section at a time to be scheduled later in the week. Students are required to attend class and sections, and 20% of the final grade will be based on the quality of class and section participation. Due to the interactive nature of this class, students must have read background materials including the cases and come to class prepared to discuss them. Students are expected to participate in every class. Class sessions will not necessarily review course readings. PowerPoint presentations and other in-class materials will be posted on the course website after the class. However, attendance at all class lectures and sections is required.

Assignment Calendar

Assignment Covering readings from

Due Date Percentage of grade

Midterm Paper

Classes 1 - 5 Friday October 16, at 5 pm 35%

Final Paper Whole Course December 11, 2015 at 5 pm 45% Academic Integrity Policy Discussion and the exchange of ideas are essential to academic work. For assignments in this course, you are encouraged to consult with your classmates and Course Assistants on the choice of paper topics and to share sources. You may find it useful to discuss your chosen topic with your peers, particularly if you are working on the same topic as a classmate. However, you should ensure that any written work you submit for evaluation is the result of your own writing and that it reflects your own approach to the topic. You must also adhere to standard citation practices in this discipline and properly cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, and individuals that have helped you with your work. This means that if you received any help with your writing (feedback on drafts, etc.), you must acknowledge this assistance formally in citations. When in doubt, include a citation!

A 335 Syllabus Fall 2015 Page 4

A 335 Fall 2015 – Class and Readings Schedule CP= Course Pack; OL= On-Line; RB= Required Book

I. Purposes of Schooling in American Society, Then and Now

What purposes and practices have characterized the American K-12 education system throughout the last two centuries? What individuals, policies, and social forces have been most influential in shaping it? Conversely, how has the education system shaped and reinforced broader norms and social structures in American society? What should be the purpose of schooling in contemporary society? Class 1: Wednesday September 2 Introduction - Silence about Purpose and Early Origins of Schooling

OL Graham, P. (1984). Schools: Cacophony about practice, silence about purpose. Dædalus,

113(4), 27-57. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/20024941?seq=1

RB Reese, W. (2011). The origins of the Common School. In W.J. Reese, America's public schools: From the Common School to No Child Left Behind (pp. 10–28). Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins Press.

OL Middlekauf, R. (1961). Education in Colonial America. Current History 41, 5–8, 14.

http://search.proquest.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/docview/202914885

OL Nash, M. A. (2009). Contested identities: Nationalism, regionalism, and patriotism in early American textbooks. History of Education Quarterly, 49(4), 417–422. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1748-5959.2009.00224.x/epdf

CP CASE: Childress, S. (2008). If we blew it up, then we could… Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. 9-309-042.

Class 2: Monday Sept 14 – Creating a Bureaucratic System and Progressive Education, 1800-1930

CP Anderson, J. (1988). Common schools for black children. In J. Anderson, The education of

Blacks in the South, 1860-1930 (pp. 148-185). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

CP Tyack, D. (1974). From village school to urban system: Bureaucratization in the nineteenth century, (pp. 28-59). Inside the system: The character of urban schools, 1890-1940, (pp. 177-216). In D. Tyack, The one best system: A history of American urban education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

RB Reese, W. (2011). A democracy of differences. In W.J. Reese, America's public schools:

From the Common School to No Child Left Behind (pp. 149–179). Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins Press.

OL Dewey, J. (1916). The school and social progress. In J. Dewey, The school and society (pp. 19–44). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. https://ia600404.us.archive.org/16/items/schoolsociety00deweiala/schoolsociety00deweiala.pdf

CP Kliebard, H. M. (1995). The struggle for the American curriculum 1893–1958, (pp 8–14,

23–25. 77–81). New York: Routledge. Class 3: Monday Sept 21 – Schooling for Socialization & Access, 1930-1982

RB Reese, W. (2011). Rising expectations and raising standards.. In W.J. Reese, America's

public schools: From the Common School to No Child Left Behind (pp.215-250). Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins Press.

OL Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/347/483/case.html

OL Baldwin, James. (1963). A talk to teachers. Saturday Review, December 4, 1963

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xKr98fPk84sC&oi=fnd&pg=PA7&dq=%22A+talk+to+teachers%22+%22James+Baldwin%22&ots=cPD9R8nDE1&sig=E3ym1pe1AbPn3BeaDTISBWxY_LE#v=onepage&q=%22A%20talk%20to%20teachers%22%20%22James%20Baldwin%22&f=false

CP Ryan, J. (2010). Don’t cross that line. In J. E. Ryan, Five miles away, a world apart (pp. 63–65, 91–108). New York: Oxford University Press.

WATCH Hampton, H. et al. PBS Video. (2006). Keys to the kingdom, Episode 13. Eyes on the Prize, Alexandria, VA: PBS Video.

OL Seelye, K. (2012, October 4). Four decades after clashes, Boston again debates school busing. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/05/education/new-boston-busing-debate-4-decades-after-fervid-clashes.html?_r=1

GUEST SPEAKER: Kim M. Janey, Senior Project Director, Boston School Reform Project, Massachusetts Advocates for Children

Class 4: Monday Sept 28 - Schooling for Achievement of All 1982-Present

OL (SKIM) National Commission on Excellence in Education. (1983). A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform: A report to the Nation and the Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education (pp. 5–33). Washington, D.C. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED226006.pdf

RB Reese, W. (2011).Epilogue. In W.J. Reese, America's public schools: From the Common

School to No Child Left Behind (pp.322-337). Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins Press.

OL Labaree, D. (1997). Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational

goals. AERA, 34(1), 39-81. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1163342 OL McGuinn, P. (2005). The national schoolmarm: NCLB and the new educational federalism.

Publius, 35(1), (pp.41–57). http://publius.oxfordjournals.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/content/35/1/41.full.pdf+htmlOL

OL McGuinn, P. (2012). Stimulating reform: Race to the Top, competitive grants, and the Obama education agenda. Education Policy, 26(1), 136–147. http://epx.sagepub.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/content/26/1/136.full.pdf+html

OL Partanen, A. (December 2011). What Americans keep ignoring about Finland’s school success. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/

CP CASE: Miller, J. (1997). Dante Alighieri High School (A and B). In K. Merseth (Ed.),

Cases in educational administration (pp. 151-165). New York, NY: Addison Wesley Longman.

Class 5: Monday Oct 5 – Perspectives on Education in the 21st Century

OL Levy, F. & Murnane, R. (June, 2013) Dancing with robots: Human skills for computerized

work. Washington, DC. Third Way. http://www.thirdway.org/report/dancing-with-robots-human-skills-for-computerized-work

OL Tough, P. (2011, September 18). What if the secret to success is failure? New York Times

Magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?pagewanted=all

OL P21 Partnership for 21st Century Learning (2015). P21 Framework Definitions.

http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/docs/P21_Framework_Definitions_New_Logo_2015.pdf

OL Dede, C. (2014). The role of digital technologies in deeper learning (pp. 1-22; skim pp. 5-

19). Jobs for the Future. http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/publications/materials/The-Role-of-Digital-Technologies-in-Deeper-Learning-120114.pdf

CP City, E., Elmore, R., Lynch, D. (2012). Chapter 6 Redefining Education. In Mehta, J., Schwartz, R., & Hess, F. The futures of school reform (pp. 151–176).

Midterm Essay Due:

Friday October 16, 2015 at 5pm (via TF dropbox)

II. Influences on Student Learning How do class, race and culture affect the ways in which schools promote or prevent equity and excellence? How do approaches and philosophies about teaching influence student learning? How does curriculum content influence their learning? How does assessment influence learning? Class 6: Monday Oct 19 – Race, Class and Culture

OL Anyon, J. (1981). Social class and school knowledge. Curriculum Inquiry, 11(1), 3-41.

http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1179509?seq=1 OL Kahlenberg, R. (2012). From all walks of life: New hope for school integration. American

Educator, Winter 2012-13. http://www.aft.org/ae/winter2012-2013/kahlenberg OL Reardon, R. (2013, April 27). No rich child left behind, New York Times.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/no-rich-child-left-behind/?emc=eta1 CP Bonilla-Silva, E. (2003). The central frames of color-blind racism. In E. Bonilla-Silva,

Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. (pp. 25-52). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

OL Delpit, L. (1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s

children. Harvard Educational Review, 58(3), 280-298. http://www.metapress.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/content/c43481778r528qw4/?volume=58&spage=280&issn=0017-8055&issue=3&genre=article

LISTEN This American Life podcast #562 The Problem We All Live With and #563 The

Problem We All Live With - Part Two, July 31 and August 7, 2105.

Class 7: Monday Oct 26 – Curriculum

OL Whitman, D. (2009). The achievement gap and education reform; The rise, fall and rise of

paternalism. In D. Whitman, Sweating the small stuff: The new paternalism in American schools (pp. 10-67). Washington, D.C.: Fordham Institute. http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED502972.pdf

OL Hirsch, E.D. (2009). Creating a curriculum for the American people. American Educator, 6–

38. http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/hirsch.pdf

CP Levy, S. (1996). What do we teach? In Levy, S. Starting from scratch: One classroom builds its own curriculum, (pp. 18–39).

OL Lacey, M. (7 Jan 2011). Rift in Arizona as Latino Class Is Found Illegal. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/us/08ethnic.html

OL Brown, E. (5 July 2015). Texas officials: Schools should teach that slavery was ‘side issue’ to Civil War. Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/150-years-later-schools-are-still-a-

battlefield-for-interpreting-civil-war/2015/07/05/e8fbd57e-2001-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html

OL Phippen, J. W. (July 19, 2015). How one law banning ethnic studies led to its rise. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/07/how-one-law-banning-ethnic-studies-led-to-rise/398885/

CP CASE: Schechter, J. (2012). Expanding access to AP: A path to equity and excellence? (Unpublished case)

Recommended:

Hirsch, E.D. (1988). Appendix: What literate Americans know. In Hirsch, E.D. Cultural literacy: What every American needs to know. New York: Vintage Books (pp. 146–215).

Class 8: Monday Nov 2 – Approaches to Teaching

OL Cohen, D. (1988). Teaching practice: Plus ça change. In Philip W. Jackson, (Ed.), Contributing to educational change: Perspectives on research and practice (pp. 27-84). Berkeley, CA: McCutchan. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dkcohen/downloads/CohenTeachingPractice.pdf

CP Lampert, M. (2001). An instance of teaching practice. In M. Lampert, Teaching problems and the problems of teaching (pp. 9-28). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

OL Whitman, D. (2008). Introduction; The habits of highly effective schools—and how to create more of them. In Whitman, D. Sweating the small stuff (pp. 1–9, 260–262). http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED502972.pdf

OL Thomas, D. (1985). About teaching and teachers: The torpedo’s touch. Harvard Educational Review. 55(2), 220–222. http://www.metapress.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/content/mu2m42q7058k6675/fulltext.pdf

CP Freire, P. (1970). Chapter 2. In P. Freire, Pedagogy of the oppressed (pp. 57–74). New York: Seabury Press.

OL Edwards, C. P. (2002). Three approaches from Europe: Waldorf, Montessori, and Reggio Emilia. Early Childhood Research & Practice, 4(1). http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED464766.pdf

Class 9: Monday Nov 9 –Policies for Improving Teaching

OL Darling-Hammond, L, Amrein-Beardsley, A., Haertel, E., & Rothstein, J. (2012). Evaluating teacher evaluation. Phi Delta Kappan, 93(6), 8-15. http://ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ985081&site=ehost-live&scope=site

OL Jacob, B., & Lefgren, L. (2008). Can principals identify effective teachers? Evidence on subjective performance evaluation in education. In Journal of Labor Economics, 26(1): 101-136. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/10.1086/522974

OL Hanushek, E., & Rivkin.S. (2010). Generalizations about using value-added measures of teaching quality. In American Economic Review 100 (2), 267–71. https://www-aeaweb-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.100.2.267

OL Diamond, J.B. (2007). Where the rubber meets the road: Rethinking the connection between high stakes accountability policy and classroom instruction. Sociology of Education 80(4):285-313. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/20452714

OL Hasiotis, D., Jacobs, A., & McGovern, K. (2015) The mirage: Confronting the hard truth about our quest for teacher development. In The New Teacher Project. Washington, DC: http://bit.ly/1htHmxD

OL Johnson, S. (2015). Will value-added reinforce the walls of the egg-crate school? In Albert Shanker Institute Blog. http://www.shankerinstitute.org/blog/will-value-added-reinforce-walls-egg-crate-school

CP CASE Merseth, K. (1997). It ain’t fair. In K. Merseth (Ed.), Cases in educational

administration (pp. 21-26). New York, NY: Addison Wesley Longman Recommended

OL Rivkin, S., Hanushek, E, & Kain, J. (2005) Teachers, schools and academic achievement. In Econometrica, 73( 2), 417–458. (skim for policy recommendation) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0262.2005.00584.x/abstract

OL Kane, T.J., Rockoff, J.E., and Staiger, D.O. (2008). What does certification tell us about

teacher effectiveness? Evidence from New York City. In Economics of Education Review, 27(6), 615-631. http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/science/article/pii/S0272775707000775

Class 10: Monday Nov 16 – Who Teaches Today?

OL Mead, S, Chuong, C., & Goodson, C. (2015). Exponential growth, unexpected challenges: How Teach for America grew in scale and impact. Washington, DC: The Bellwether Education Partners. SKIM but note especially pp 62-94 http://bellwethereducation.org/publication/TFA_Growth

OL Goldhaber, D. (2009). Lessons from abroad: Exploring cross-country differences in teacher development systems and what they mean for US policy. In Goldhaber & Hannaway, (Eds.) Creating a new teaching profession (pp. 81–104). Washington, DC: Urban Inst. Press. http://site.ebrary.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/lib/harvard/detail.action?docID=10558906

OL Grossman, P., Hammerness, K., & McDonald, M. (2009). Redefining teaching, re-imagining teacher education. In Teachers and teaching: Theory and practice, 15(2), 273–289. http://www-tandfonline-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/13540600902875340

OL Klein, J. (2009). Urban schools need better teachers, not excuses, to close the education gap.

USNews. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2009/05/04/urban-schools-need-better-teachers-not-excuses-to-close-the-education-gap

CP Merseth, K. (2014). The Harvard Teacher Fellows program proposal.

Recommended:

OL Zeichner, K. (2003). The adequacies and inadequacies of three current strategies to recruit, prepare, and retain the best teachers for all students. Teachers College Record, 105(3), 490–519. http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kenneth_Zeichner/publication/240645834_The_Adequacies_and_Inadequacies_of_Three_Current_Strategies_to_Recruit_Prepare_and_Retain_the_Best_Teachers_for_All_Students/links/0f31752e41a9fa3fe8000000.pdf

Class 11: Monday Nov 23 – Standards and Testing

CP Ryan, J. E. (2010). Lowering the bar: The standards and testing movement. In J. E. Ryan, Five miles away, a world apart (pp. 239-267). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

OL National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers & Achieve. (2008)

Benchmarking for Success. Washington, DC. http://www.nga.org/cms/home/nga-center-for-best-practices/center-publications/page-edu-publications/col2-content/main-content-list/benchmarking-for-success-ensurin.html

CP Ravitch, D. (2010). What I learned about school reform; Hijacked! How the standards movement turned into the testing movement. In D. Ravitch, The death and life of the great American school system (pp. 1-30). New York, NY: Basic Books.

CP Darling-Hammond, L., & Pecheone, R. L. (2009). Reframing accountability: Using performance assessments to focus learning on higher-order skills. In L. M. Pinkus (Ed.), Meaningful measurement: The role of assessments in improving high school education in the twenty-first century. Washington, D.C.: Alliance for Excellent Education.

OL Strauss, V. (2015, March 1) Standardized tests: The important things standardized tests don’t measure. In Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/01/the-important-things-standardized-tests-dont-measure.

OL Northern, A. & Petrilli, M. (2014, February 27). Common Core in the districts: An early look at early implementers. In The Education Gadfly, 14(9). http://edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/common-core-watch/common-core-in-the-districts-an-early-look-at

OL Barrow, B. (2015, March 26). ABC News Fact Check: Myths in the political roar over the Common Core, The Associated Press. New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/03/26/business/ap-us-gop-2016-common-core-.html

Class 12 Monday November 30- Changes in Education Organization and Systems OL Chubb, J. & Moe, T. (1990). Choice is a panacea. Brookings Review. Summer 8(3), 4-12.

http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/20080159?seq=1 OL Viteritti, J. (2010). School choice and market failure: How politics trumps economics in

education and elsewhere. Journal of School Choice 4(2), 203-221. http://www-tandfonline-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/doi/abs/10.1080/15582159.2010.483923#.Vc5OFfkYHIs

OL Barnett, S. & Belfield, C. (2006). Early childhood development and social mobility. In The

Future of Children,16(2), 73-91 http://muse.jhu.edu.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/journals/future_of_children/v016/16.2barnett.html

OL Betts, J and Tang, V. (2014). A meta-analysis of the literature on the effect of charter

schools on student achievement. Center for Reinventing Public Education http://www.crpe.org/publications/meta-analysis-literature-effect-charter-schools-student-achievement

LISTEN This American Life. (2008). Going Big: Prologue and Act 1.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/364/going-big?act=0#play

Recommended

OL Hirschman, A.O. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to declines in firms, organizations, and states. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. http://quod.lib.umich.edu.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;idno=heb04043.0001.001;node=heb04043.0001.001%3A2;view=toc

OL Blank, M.J., Jacobson, R., & Melaville, A. (2012). Achieving results through community partnerships: How district and community leaders are building effective, sustainable relationships. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 1-26. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED535652.pdf

Final Assignment Due:

Friday December 11, 2015 at 5pm (via TF dropbox)