A New Era of Education Reform: Preparing All Students for Success in College, Career and Life

As society changes, the knowledge and skills required for citizens to navigate the complexities of life and work must also change. As a result, some argue that schools must provide students with a broader set of skills that will enable them to thrive in our increasingly diverse, rapidly evolving and globally-connected world. The intent is not to replace the traditional academic disciplines but to infuse them with knowledge and skills that will better prepare students for success in the 21st century -- often referred to as "21st century skills." While others maintain that as long as a portion of the student population is not mastering basic reading, writing and mathematics skills, schools must continue to focus exclusively on the traditional core academic disciplines. In order to inform the debate about the rationale for and relevance of 21st century skills in Massachusetts' public schools, the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy conducted a survey of superintendents, charter school leaders and principals statewide to gauge the extent to which school and district leaders support the integration of 21st century skills into public education. The goal of the survey was to provide a better understanding of Massachusetts' public school and district leaders' priorities for improving student learning, including their views on 21st century skills. The survey was followed by interviews with a small sample of administrators and educators in districts and schools where the integration of 21st century skills is a priority, in order to better understand district, school and teacher approaches for infusing 21st century skills into teaching and learning.The report describes the background and context for the study, the study methodology, and key findings from the statewide survey and interviews in a sample of schools and districts. The final section of the report puts forth considerations for policymakers and K-12 school and district leaders. Case studies of two public school districts, Reading Public Schools and Brockton Public Schools are included in Appendix B. The case studies offer two different approaches to integrating 21st century skills district-wide. The case study of Reading Public Schools illustrates a district-led approach. The case study of Brockton Public Schools is an example of how one school has spurred a district to focus on 21st century skills.The study gives voice to key education stakeholders who have not been part of the public debate about 21st century skills and provides clarity about what teaching and learning in classrooms that incorporate 21st century skills looks like. While opponents of 21st century skills argue that districts where most students have not yet mastered reading, writing and mathematics skills, should focus exclusively on core academic content, the study revealed that most school and district leaders believe all public schools in Massachusetts should be required to integrate 21st century skills into learning, including schools where students are lacking adequate basic skills. Interviews with superintendents who prioritize integration of 21st century skills revealed that input from a range of stakeholders led their district to expand their mission and vision for student learning to include 21st century skills and rather than adopt a pre-packaged set of skills, the focus in these districts is on particular skills and competencies that ?t the needs of their student body. While most schools and districts have not developed measurable goals for student mastery of 21st century skills, interviews with a small sample of administrators and educators revealed that 21st century skills are assessed at the classroom level, and most administrators view school- and district-wide assessment as a future step in the process of fully integrating 21st century skills. The endings also suggest that administrators believe that, to date, state policymakers have not adequately supported the teaching and learning of 21st century skills.This report was released at a public event on October 7th, 2010. View video clips from this event on our YouTube channel and read an EdWeek article featuring this report

Developing Senior Management Teams in Schools: Can Micropolitics Help?

While there is a vast body of literature that examines the role of the principal in schools, it has been only relatively recently that attention has focused on the working practices and relationships o f members in the Senior Management Team (SMT). This paper suggests that the study of micropolitics has potential for illuminating SMTs since it provides a lens to understand the dynamics of the team and the interactions and inter-relationships between and amongst their members. This micropolitical lens is concerned with how players use a variety of strategies such as power, coercion, cooperation, cooption and influence to obtain resources and achieve goals. This paper examines some of the recent research into SMTs and micropolitics and identifies five hey issues or pointers that may be linked to either facilitating or inhibiting the effective functioning of SMTs in schools. The set of issues provides a useful framework for members of SMTs to critically reflect upon as they seek to build shared purpose, cooperation and collaboration

Evaluation of the ArtsSmarts Strategy: Impacts and Sustainability

The purpose of this report is to provide: 1) an analysis of findings from a survey, interviews and focus groups regarding ArtsSmarts projects funded by the J.W.McConnell Family Foundation across Canada in 2002-2003 and 2) to support advocacy work to obtain long term funding and support for sustainability of the ArtsSmarts approach. The report focuses on the impact of the projects on students, the education system, the community and the arts community addressing key "spheres of Influence" in the educational system

Integrating ICT in Kenyan secondary schools: an exploratory case study of a professional development program

This study explores the introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Kenyan secondary schools. Specifically, it is a case study of four schools with no previous access to ICT. The professional development program from which data for this study were drawn was designed to support teachers learning to integrate ICT in the curriculum. Using a mixed method research approach, we collected data from multiple sources and triangulated the views of various stakeholders: questionnaires with teachers, focus groups with teachers, school leaders and ICT coordinators, field observations and document analysis. While the broader program focused on the use of ICT, the results highlighted in this study focus on the development of the four schools with respect to 1) vision building, 2) leadership, 3) collaboration, 4) expertise, and 5) access to adequate resources. The discussion centers on the challenges and opportunities inherent in understanding how to prepare schools in developing countries to integrate ICT in education

From vision to reality: views of primary school principals on inclusive education in New South Wales, Australia

This paper discusses the findings of a research study that used semi-structured interviews to explore the views of primary school principals on inclusive education in New South Wales, Australia. Content analysis of the transcript data indicates that principals’ attitudes towards inclusive education and their success in engineering inclusive practices within their school are significantly affected by their own conception of what “inclusion” means, as well as the characteristics of the school community, and the attitudes and capacity of staff. In what follows, we present two parallel conversations that arose from the interview data to illustrate the main conceptual divisions existing between our participants’ conceptions of inclusion. First, we discuss the act of “being inclusive” which was perceived mainly as an issue of culture and pedagogy. Second, we consider the mechanics of “including,” which reflected a more instrumentalist position based on perceptions of individual student deficit, the level of support they may require and the amount of funding they can attract