Conflicting Views of School Community: The Dichotomy Between Administrators and Teachers

This project was the second phase of a two-phase study of teachers’ knowledge of community in an urban, private boys’ day school in Canada. The first phase examined a teacher’s perception of her classroom community, and this phase asked teachers and administrators in the same school about their perceptions of school community. We found that the school created and implemented an organizational structure designed to foster and sustain a professional community. However, administrators and teachers conceptualized, understood, and experienced community in different ways. Administrators saw community as a management tool to generate support for the school’s objectives. Teachers experienced community as social support that served as a remedy for professional isolation. Neither group based its view on community as a capacity-building, reflective process leading to a generative professional community

Accountability Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Superintendent, Principal, and Teacher Perceptions

A key assumption of NCLB appears to be that assessment data in and of itself can foster or promote change. Specifically, the supposition is that by requiring assessment data to be reported yearly, schools will be motivated - and will have the ability - to address those areas where student achievement is lagging. This assumption rests on the notion that educator competence in understanding and utilizing such data will result in academic success. Testing this assumption with empirical evidence is an important component of researching the efficacy of current accountability policies and practices in general. Over the past three years we have been involved in a series of empirical examinations of accountability. Each of these studies has been aimed at gathering varied perspectives on and about accountability, ranging from superintendents to principals to teachers. Our research examines education accountability at three interconnected layers: district administrators, principals, and teachers. This nested data set (superintendents were surveyed, as were their principals, and their principals’ teachers) allows for not only an examination of the perceptions and reflections of the members of each group but also for an evaluation of the consistency of those beliefs across the members of the educational community. This study will present findings from research projects that speak to each of these levels, focusing on how each understands education accountability and how those meanings are consistent across groups and to what degree

Rebuilding Afghanistan’s Higher Educational System: Observations from Kabul

This paper describes the crucial issues and challenges facing Afghanistan’s universities as they begin the demanding task of rebuilding and restructuring their university system after two decades of war and civil unrest. The setting for this qualitative study is a four-day professional development conference for Afghan university presidents and academic deans sponsored and funded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the Afghanistan Ministry of Higher Education. Cooperative Studies (an NGO, not-for-profit educational organization located in Kansas City) provided a team of academics to Kabul, Afghanistan, to offer professional development workshops. Using the Grounded Theory Methodology as a theoretical framework for this research, data was derived from interactive sessions, questionnaires, informal dialogue, small group sessions and question and answer sessions; the perspectives of the 39 Afghan academic leaders are presented as they describe the problems facing university administrators in their country today. Findings identify these challenges and center on 1) the lack of autonomy; 2) the need for qualified faculty; 3) concerns regarding students’ access and preparation; and 4) concerns about funding and budget issues. Based on these findings, policy suggestions and recommendations are provided

What Does it Cost a University to Educate One Student

A dilemma that may confront administrators is whether it makes economic sense to continue offering a program that is unable to draw in a sufficient number of students to recover its cost. But what is cost? Often, a university may determine a standard cost per credit or unit and use this figure as basis for computing total cost. This is then compared to a revenue stream and the difference, whether positive or negative, is imputed to the decision analysis process. This method of computing costs, while appealing for its simplicity, may fail to capture the effects of economies that may arise as one school or college services another. The inaccuracy in the cost computation may lead one to favor or disfavor a program that may have repercussions to the total university cost structure. Drawing from this need to determine a more accurate means of computing costs, as basis for decision-making, the authors used basic cost accounting methodology applied to the academic environment and were able to compute for a cost per degree per student for each university studied. While the methodology is more time consuming, the computed figures are deemed closer to actual costs and thus is more valuable to that critical decision of whether a program is worth pursuing or not

Using deliberation to address controversial issues: Developing Holocaust education curriculum for Latvian schools

This paper explores how a cross-cultural project responded to the need for new Holocaust educational materials for the Republic of Latvia through the method of curriculum deliberation. Analysis of interview, observational, and document data drawn from seven curriculum writers and numerous project members suggest that curriculum deliberation helped awaken a controversial and silenced history while attending to a wide range of needs and concerns for a variety of stakeholders. The findings highlight structural features that empowered the curriculum writers as they engaged in protracted rumination, reflected upon competing norms, and considered the nuances of the curriculum problem in relation to implementation. Understanding the process, challenges, and promises of cross-cultural curriculum deliberation holds significance for educators, curricularists, and educational researchers wishing to advance teaching and learning within silenced histories and controversial issues

Teacher Education Reform in the United States and the Theoretical Constructs of Stakeholder Mediation

In the United States, 48 of the 50 states have adopted standards-based policies that attempt to reform teacher education and licensing from an input-based course and credit system to one based on outcomes and performance through their authority to approve preparation programs. This article draws from qualitative, collective case study research that examines implementation tensions between the new program approval policies and the program administrators, faculty, and students of teaching at three Wisconsin teacher-preparing institutions. The findings suggest that stakeholders' beliefs and sensemaking mediate the policy directives to the point that program completers continue to receive the same preparation despite reform efforts. The theoretical constructs to support this claim are presented and potentially shed light on stakeholder mediation in other education reform efforts

A Conceptual Framework for Multiple Stakeholder Educational Decision Making

The purpose of this paper is to construct a conceptual framework of educational decision making that accounts for critical factors in decision processes. Elements of the framework include multiple stakeholders’ objectives and influence, varying degrees of collaboration, the concept of coupling between decision makers and stakeholders, and feedback as decisions evolve. The theoretical and conceptual contributions of this paper help to fill in an important gap in the decision making and leadership literature by explaining the dynamics of multiple actors involved in a series of decisions over time. This conceptual framework is developed by presenting areas of inquiry that are not addressed in the current literature and responding to them in a step-wise fashion. A brief school district case is used for illustration. The paper concludes with research and practice applications of the conceptual framework

Small Classes in the Early Grades and Course Taking in High School

Researchers examined the relationship between small-class participation in the first four years of school and course-taking patterns in high school. Using original data from Tennessee's Project STAR (Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio) with high school transcripts for 3,922 students from the STAR experiment, the hypothesis that class size is related to the amount and level of coursework taken in mathematics, science, and foreign language was tested. Results indicated that students who spent three or more years in small classes took more foreign language courses, higher-level foreign language courses, and higher-level mathematics courses than did students in full-size classes. The possibility that small-class participation would benefit low-SES students more than high-SES students was also explored, but no evidence was found of an SES-specific effect. The results are discussed in terms of (a) using class-size policies to promote the taking of advanced courses in high school, and (b) the need to consider long-term outcomes when evaluating class-size reduction initiatives

School Library Policy and the Legal Opinions of Texas Public-School

oai:ijepl.journals.sfu.ca:article/16This study involved a survey of Texas public-school principals and certified librarians’ attitudes, perceptions and experiences with regard to school library policy for media selection and procedures for responding to complaints against library media. Analysis of the data included a methodology of mixed-methods explanatory design. Selection of the principals and certified librarians was proportionate and stratified according to the state’s 20 Education Service Center regions. Of the 1,036 Independent School Districts that employed the state population of 10,014 principals and certified librarians, 275 Independent School Districts (26.5 percent) allowed participation in the survey. Though random sampling of the state population had not been possible, the demographic and employment characteristics of the study sample were comparable to those of the state population. Two key findings were (a) that the legal opinions of principals and certified librarians were useful predictors of their opinions of library media selection policy and complaint procedures and (b) that the principals’ appreciation of selection policy and complaint procedures sometimes differed from the librarians’ because of the principals’ different legal perspective of library selection policy and complaint procedures