SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND

IMPROVEMENT

By: Janine Crump Date: February 27, 2014

Professor Larsen

Opening ActProve It!!!!

Attention Grabber/ Assessing Prior KnowledgeScenario: Your school, along with several others have been chosen to receive Federal monies in the sum of 175,000.00 yearly. Great! But first, you have to prove that your school is worth the investment or else you risk loosing this very much needed financial donation.

In groups of 2, collectively choose a name for your school, and come up with a convincing argument as to why your institution should receive this monetary donation. Provide some school facts which may be worth mentioning in order for your school to be considered most effective, causing your institution to outshine the others.

Challenges of School Effectiveness

How to demonstrate an effective system.

How to continually demonstrate effectiveness as definitions change.

How to please multiple stakeholders with different definitions of effectiveness.

School Effectiveness! Why the Big Deal?!?!?!?!

Cause Introduction of Nation at Risk ( National Commission

on Excellence in Education, 1983) A) clear belief that the world economy had become

intensely competitive, inter-dependent, and knowledge driven

Effects the commission called for higher levels of

effectiveness, especially student achievement, and for stronger accountability by holding “ educators and elected officials responsible for providing the leadership necessary to achieve these reforms”

It’s Broken! Let us Fix it!!!! State-level reform A) Altering of graduation requirements B) Extended school days/years C) Established new career paths for

teachers D) Created competency tests for

graduation E) Instituted various types of diplomas to

recognize different levels of student performance.

Back to the Drawing Board We Go!

Reform….. Take II The National Governors’ Association and

then President George H. Bush met at the Charlottesville Education Summit in 1989.

Outcome National Education Goals ( Educate America Act of 1994)

National Education Goals Goal 1: Ready to Learn— All children in America will start school

ready to learn. Goal 2: School Completion— The high school graduation rate will

increase to at least 90 percent. Goal 3: Student Achievement and Citizenship— All students will

leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, the arts, history, and geography, and every school in America will ensure that all students learn to use their minds well, so they may be pre-pared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our nation’s modern economy

. Goal 4: Teacher Education and Professional Development— The nation’s teaching force will have access to programs for the continued improvement of their professional skills and the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to instruct and prepare all American students for the next century.

National Education Goals Goal 5: Mathematics and Science— United States students will

be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement. Goal 6: Adult Literacy and Lifelong Learning— Every adult

American will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

Goal 7: Safe, Disciplined, and Alcohol- and Drug- Free Schools— Every school in the United States will be free of drugs, violence, and the unauthorized presence of firearms and alcohol and will offer a disciplined environment conducive to learning.

Goal 8: Parental Participation— Every school will promote partnerships that will increase parental involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional, and academic growth of children.

Reform……. Take III Systematic Reform: unite the earlier waves of activity with

two dominating themes: comprehensive change of many school elements simultaneously and policy integrations and coherence around a set of clear outcomes ( Fuhrman, Elmore, and Massell, 1993).

Social Systems and School Effectiveness

Input-Output ResearchInput- output research, or production- function studies:A) Examine how educational resources or inputs are

changed into educational outcomes ( Rice, 2002). B) Gained popularity in mid 1960-s after Coleman and

associated conducted Equality of Educational Opportunity.

C) Production function research assumes that the performance outcomes of schools are related directly to inputs such as teacher characteristics, teacher- student ratios, and student and family characteristics

D) Outcomes are scores on achievement tests

Research States……

Researcher Year ResultsColeman and Associates

1966 Home environment had a greater correlation on student achievement than school inputs.

Rowan, Correnti, Miller

2002 Differences in family backgrounds are more strongly correlated to initial levels of student achievement in elementary school than their year- to- year achievement gains.

Two Sets of Factors in the Effective- Schools Formula

SMITH AND PURKEY SCHEERENS AND BOSKER Instructional leadership Planned and purposeful curriculum Clear goals and high expectations Time on task Recognition of academic success Orderly climate Sense of community School site management Parental support and involvement Staff development Staff stability Collegial and collaborative Direct support

Educational leadership Curriculum quality/

opportunity to learn Achievement orientation Effective learning time Feedback and

reinforcement Classroom climate School climate Parental involvement Independent learning Structured instruction Adaptive instruction

School Effectiveness/Student Achievement

ADMINISTRATORS TEACHERS Philip Hallinger and Heck

(1996, 1998; Heck, 2000) found that principal leadership has measurable influence on student achievement, but that the effects are indirect and occur when principals manipulate internal school structures, processes, that are directly connected to student learning.

Teachers directly influence student learning through a variety of classroom behaviors and activities. William L. Sanders (1998) contends that “ the single largest factor affecting academic growth . . . of students is differences in effectiveness of individual classroom teachers”

Accountability and Educational Reform

Smith and Oday (1991): In their influential essay, “ Systemic

School Reform,” they make a well- reasoned argument for establishing systems of school accountability and improvement using a set of critical environmental, input, transformational, and performance outcome variables.

Accountability Defined Elmore ( 2002a) calls the dominant form of

educational accountability— a system that holds students, schools, and districts responsible for academic achievement. Evolving primarily at the state level during the 1990s, accountability systems focus on performance outcomes with data collected and reported school by school (Fuhrman, 1999).

Accountability Plans (3 components): Standards to identify the subject matter knowledge

and skills to be learned. Tests aligned with the standards. Consequences to recognize the differing levels of

goal attainment.

Principles of Accountability

Schools should be held accountable for higher standards of performance.

Schools should be provided assistance to build their capacities for delivering improved education.

Schools must increase the quality and quantity of their performance outcomes, especially student achievement.

Accountability x 3 No Child Left Behind Act:

Requires states to develop and implement standards in reading/ language arts, mathematics, and science;

Administer annual assessments connected to the standards

Mandate sanctions for continued poor performance by offering school choice and supplemental service options to students.

The law also accentuates equal educational outcomes for all subgroups of students, imposes time-lines for improving student achievement through a requirement for adequate yearly progress (AYP)

demands added qualifications for teachers

Defines proficiency as test scores in reading and mathematics (Sunderman, Kim, and Orfield, 2005).

Standards Advocates maintain that standards

provide schools with a common sequence of goals and supply students, teachers, and principals with a consistent and coherent guide for selecting content, developing teaching and learning strategies, and assessing whether the goals have been met.

Assessment In the new accountability system, the primary

purposes of testing are to monitor improvement trends and to find out whether interventions such as new standards, curricula, and staff development programs are influencing student performance positively ( Barton, 2001).

Accountability systems are now tightening the link or alignment between standards and assessments significantly by prescribing that student learning outcomes become the content of the tests.

Test Controversy Who should be tested ( e. g., all students,

random samples, special needs children)? What content should be assessed? What types of measures should be used ( e.

g., norm- or criterion-referenced, portfolios)? How often should the examinations be

administered? Are the assessments valid? What level or cut score indicates the

standard has been met?

Rewards, Sanctions, and Interventions

The third leg of most accountability systems is a scheme of consequences attached to performance outcomes.

Good Schools/ Individuals = Rewarded Failing School – Punished

Rewards – monetary donations, scholarships, etc.

Punishment – loss of funding, termination, being transferred, etc.

Improving School Effectiveness and Accountability

Professional Development: For standards- based reform to be successful in advancing student achievement, early reformers recognized that educators would require many and varied professional development opportunities ( Fuhrman, 1994).

Whole-school Reform Models Thousands of schools across the United States are implementing over 100 different models of com-prehensive school reform, and the numbers are growing at unprecedented rates ( Datnow et al., 2003).Accelerated Schools, Coalition of Essential Schools, Core Knowledge, Direct Instruction, School Development Program, and Success for All.

And the Winner Is?????!!!!!!!!

Let us apply what we have learned. ( refer back to Opening Act Activity)

In conclusion, it is quite clear that school effectiveness will forever be a changing concept. From a social- system perspective, effectiveness is not one thing but is comprised of indicators from inputs or resources from the environment, harmony among and quality of the school organization’s transformational components, and the relative attainment of feasible standards that can be exchanged for other resources and incentives. This complex view means that defining school effectiveness in terms of performance outcomes, while extremely important, is insufficient