If the teacher is not capable of understanding the perspective of six year olds then the child's learning becomes unnecessarily difficult, or in some cases the child's interest in learning may not be aroused at all. This is revealed in a new thesis by Agneta Simeonsdotter Svensson, from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Educational programmes for six year olds became an institutionalised section of the Swedish school system in 1998 under the designation of preschool class, with a syllabus linked to that of after-school centres and junior schools.
The main emphasis in the preschool class is educational circle time. It is there that the day's activities, themes and topics are linked together and integrated into a whole.
Circle time is central; it's where a lot happens in terms of the interplay between children and adults and between the children. It should also be a place where the different perspectives of the children and the teacher meet, but on many occasions it is the adult's arena, says Agneta Simeonsdotter Svensson.
In her thesis she has conducted video observation of children and teachers in 15 preschool classes and interviewed 115 six year olds.
The steering document for the preschool class specifies that play is an essential constituent in active learning. In practice, this has turned out to be difficult to implement in relation to the children's perspective.
It entails being aware of how children reason when they are facing a task that they feel is difficult, and stimulating children to cope with challenges and dare to overcome obstacles. However, in my research many children perceive themselves as obstacles, says Agneta Simeonsdotter Svensson.
Her analysis shows that teachers often find it difficult to put the steering document into practice in terms of the children's perspective. A method of working that is highly influenced by practice in schools is allowed to dominate in the preschool class, where preschool teachers are the predominant occupational group represented in the research.
The tasks that the children work on are presented in a way that on many occasions does not arouse their interest or the children do not understand how to perform the task. Furthermore, when the children are working on tasks that are designed to prepare them for school or if they feel the task to be difficult, the teachers engage in less communication with the children on how to implement them.
A lot is taken for granted. It often concerns tasks that are part of a theme on which the children are working. The six year olds are not treated on the basis of their way of seeing, thinking and reflecting, rather they are simply given instructions. Teachers are not always capable of explaining the tasks that are designed to prepare the children for school, for example by asking the child what he or she is thinking in relation to the situation. Participation by the children in the interplay is thus given less space, says Agneta Simeonsdotter Svensson.
Twelve States Rise Above the Nationwide Dropout Crisis
A dozen states significantly improved their high school graduation rates between 2002 and 2006, while the rest of the nation lagged behind, according to a report by researchers at the new Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University.
Tennessee led the way with an 11 percentage point increase in its graduation rate, according to the report, "Progress Toward Increasing National and State Graduation Rates." The other 11 states and their percentage point increases are:
- Delaware, 6.8 percentage points
- Kentucky, 6.8
- S. Dakota, 5.3
- Arkansas, 5.2
- Alabama, 4.1
- N. Carolina, 3.6
- New York, 3.5
- Hawaii, 3.4
- Missouri, 3.4
- Nebraska, 3.1
- New Hampshire, 3.0
This progress report comes on the heels of a major education address by President Obama in which he cited the work of Johns Hopkins education researchers in identifying the 2,000 high schools that produce half of the nation's dropouts, and issued a challenge to all Americans to turn around these low-performing schools.
The report draws on several methods of measuring graduation rates to make its assessments. The rate increases represent thousands of high school graduates who might not have earned diplomas a few years ago.
The full report is available at http://www.every1graduates.org/PDFs/StateProgressReport.pdf
President Obama's speech is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-the-President-to-the-Hispanic-Chamber-of-Commerce/ .
Stopping the Math Meltdown: Monterey Institute For Technology and Education Launches Developmental Math Solutions Project
Making math easier to learn could change the world. Nearly three-quarters of freshman entering community colleges have to take remedial math. Less than half of them pass. Getting into and through college is key to the future of these students, but math is often an insurmountable hurdle for many of them. Change is on the way though. A new planning project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is designed to find ways to retool math education to overcome this obstacle to success. The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education (MITE), known for innovation in online learning, is meeting with school administrators, teachers and students across the nation to find new and practical ways to tackle this issue.
Gary Lopez, MITE's executive director said, "These focus groups span the educational system from middle school through high school and into community colleges. We want to find out what works and get it into the hands of people who need it."
Ground-breaking online technology will form the backbone of the program, giving students and teachers diverse and affordable ways to access math concepts and applications. Plus the program will target previously overlooked parts of math education, such as reading and comprehension.
"We know community college students don't come in one form or fashion, the project will look at multiple variables to help students be successful as they move through math remediation and into college level studies," said Stella Perez, project advisory board member and vice-president at the League for Innovation in the Community College.
Early focus group results are showing that it's critical to make math relevant to the lives of contemporary students by using examples and problems that they can relate to. Additionally, students and teachers agree that offering graphical interfaces and interactive learning opportunities are preferable to providing information simply through text.
Administrators bring a different perspective to the focus groups. While it's crucial for them to find materials that make it easier for teachers to teach and students to learn, they also have concerns about keeping costs within budget, ensuring that state requirements are fulfilled and guaranteeing that the content can be distributed through their systems.
Josh Jarrett, senior program officer at the Gates Foundation said, "MITE brings a depth of expertise and experience in developing instructional materials that work for students and can be easily adopted by institutions, allowing them to remove the stumbling block of failing math from the path of many students as they strive to graduate from community college and go on to success in work and life."
Ultimately, the developmental math coursework will be distributed through MITE's highly respected library of web-based content, the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC), which is accessible to individual learners free of charge online at www.hippocampus.org. NROC is an Open Educational Resource, part of a movement fueled by the belief that everyone is entitled to an education, regardless of their financial or social circumstances.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its partners are working to ensure that all students graduate from high school prepared for college and go on to successfully earn a postsecondary credential with real value in the labor market, with a focus on low-income and minority students. Since 2000, the foundation has invested more than $2 billion to this end, supporting more than 2,600 schools in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. For more information, visit: http://www.gatesfoundation.org .
The League for Innovation in the Community College is an international organization dedicated to catalyzing the community college movement. The League hosts conferences and institutes, develops Web resources, conducts research, produces publications, provides services, and leads projects and initiatives with member colleges, corporate partners, and other agencies in continuing efforts to make a positive difference for students and communities. For more information, visit; http://www.league.org .
The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education is a non-profit educational organization committed to helping meet society's need for access to effective, high-quality educational opportunities in an era of rapid economic, social and personal change. The Monterey Institute for Technology and Education was founded in 2003 as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Learn more at http://www.montereyinstitute.org
Full report:
http://epicpolicy.org/files/PB-Berliner-NON-SCHOOL.pdf
Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 2006-07 (Fiscal Year 2007)
This brief publication contains basic revenue and expenditure data, by state, for public elementary and secondary education for school year 2006-07. It contains state-level data on revenues by source and expenditures by function, including expenditures per pupil.
Obama: Reforming our Schools
…The first pillar in reforming our schools – investing in early childhood initiatives.
…Even as we invest in early childhood education, let’s raise the bar for early learning programs that are falling short. Today, some children are enrolled in excellent programs. Some are enrolled in mediocre ones. And some are wasting away their most formative years. That includes the one fourth of all kindergartners who are Hispanic, and who will drive America’s workforce of tomorrow, but who are less likely to have been enrolled in early education programs than anyone else.
That is why I am issuing a challenge to our states. Develop a cutting-edge plan to raise the quality of your early learning programs. Show us how you’ll work to ensure that children are better prepared for success by the time they enter kindergarten. If you do, we will support you with an Early Learning Challenge Grant that I call on Congress to enact. That is how we will reward quality, incentivize excellence, and make a down payment on the success of the next generation.
Second, we will end what has become a race to the bottom in our schools and instead, spur a race to the top by encouraging better standards and assessments. This is an area where we are being outpaced by other nations. It’s not that their kids are any smarter than ours – it’s that they are being smarter about how to educate their kids. They are spending less time teaching things that don’t matter, and more time teaching things that do. They are preparing their students not only for high school or college, but for a career. We are not. Our curriculum for eighth graders is two full years behind top performing countries. That is a prescription for economic decline. I refuse to accept that America’s children cannot rise to this challenge. They can, they must, and they will meet higher standards in our time.
Let’s challenge our states to adopt world-class standards that will bring our curriculums into the 21st century. Today’s system of fifty different sets of benchmarks for academic success means 4th grade readers in Mississippi are scoring nearly 70 points lower than students in Wyoming – and getting the same grade. Eight of our states are setting their standards so low that their students may end up on par with roughly the bottom 40% of the world.
That is inexcusable, and that is why I am calling on states that are setting their standards far below where they ought to be to stop low-balling expectations for our kids. The solution to low test scores is not lower standards – it’s tougher, clearer standards. Standards like those in Massachusetts, where 8th graders are now tying for first – first – in the world in science. Other forward-thinking states are moving in the same direction by coming together as part of a consortium. More states need to do the same. And I am calling on our nation’s Governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don’t simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity. That is what we will help them do later this year when we finally make No Child Left Behind live up to its name by ensuring not only that teachers and principals get the funding they need, but that the money is tied to results. And Secretary Duncan will also back up this commitment to higher standards with a fund to invest in innovation in our school districts.
Of course, raising standards alone will not make much of a difference unless we provide teachers and principals with the information they need to make sure students are prepared to meet those standards. Far too few states have data systems like the one in Florida that keep track of a student’s education from childhood through college. And far too few districts are emulating the example of Houston and Long Beach, and using data to track how much progress a student is making and where that student is struggling – a resource that can help us improve student achievement, and tell us which students had which teachers so we can assess what’s working and what’s not. That is why we are making a major investment in this area that we will cultivate a new culture of accountability in America’s schools.
To complete our race to the top requires the third pillar of reform — recruiting, preparing, and rewarding outstanding teachers. From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents, it’s the person standing at the front of the classroom. …
Full speech:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/03/10/obamas-remarks-on-education-2/
What Was Missing From Obama's Education Speech by Richard D. Kahlenberg
In President Barack Obama's speech on education today to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, he outlined four pillars of K-12 school reform: Investing in early childhood initiatives; encouraging better standards and tests; recruiting, preparing and rewarding outstanding teachers; and promoting innovation through charter schools and longer school days and school years. These are mostly very good and important ideas, worthy of support, but I was left wondering about a fifth pillar -- the need to attack the fountainhead of unequal schooling: our system of educating low-income and minority students separately from middle-class and white students. Especially before an audience of Latinos, whose children are more segregated in schools even than African Americans, why not address this question head-on?
Of course, Obama is rightly leery about being associated with the old notion of compulsory busing from the 1970s, which was politically toxic and in many cases was counterproductive, feeding white flight. But he recognized in his famous speech on race during the campaign that segregated schools are still unequal, and there are lots of examples of highly successful school integration programs that are voluntary and politically popular.
One important example is Metco, Boston's longstanding program that allows urban minority children to attend better performing schools in Boston's affluent suburbs. According to a new report by Amy Stuart Wells of Columbia University and Jennifer Jellison Holme of the University of Texas, Metco students see their test scores increase at a higher rate than those who don't participate in the program, and there is no negative effect on the achievement of white students in receiving districts. The vast majority of Metco graduates say they would participate again, and there is a huge wait list of 13,000 students wanting to get into the program.
It was surprising, therefore, that a front page story in Sunday's Boston Globe chose to emphasize the gap in the types of colleges that Metco students attend compared with their more affluent peers in suburban districts. The article, "Metco grads lag on college choices: More likely to enroll in less-selective schools," focused on the glass one tenth empty rather than the portion nine-tenths full.
The Globe found that nearly 90 percent of Metco students go on to college -- compared with 67 percent of Boston public school graduates -- but that they attend "decidedly less selective and prestigious colleges than their classmates" in affluent white districts like Wellesley, Belmont and Lexington. I think everyone of good will would like to see 100 percent of Metco students go to prestigious colleges, but let's consider how well the program is working as a whole.
While 67 percent of Boston public high school graduates (of all races) go to college, 40 percent of black students and 50 percent of Latino students fail to graduate from high school in four years, so the overall college going rate of black and Hispanic students in Boston is likely somewhere in the 30-40 percent range. Virtually all of Metco students, by contrast, graduate from high school and of those almost 90 percent go on to college. So the overall college going success rate of minority Metco students is two to three times the rate of minority students in Boston public schools.
President Obama has called for replicating what works. He's called for 20 Promise Neighborhoods, modeled after the Harlem Children's Zone, providing pre-K programs, and extended day charter schools in a 97 block are of Manhattan. What about calling for 20 Metco programs too?
The critics will note that Metco is not perfect. It needs to be opened up to include low income whites in order to remain legally sound. And as the Globe story suggests, it could do an even better job of getting its students into selective four year colleges. But here's a program that in the larger scheme of things is producing outstanding results. Why is it not even part of the national dialogue on education under the most progressive administration in memory?
Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success
This brief details six out-of-school factors (OSFs) common among the poor that significantly affect the health and learning opportunities of children, and accordingly limit what schools can accomplish on their own: (1) low birth-weight and non-genetic prenatal influences on children; (2) inadequate medical, dental, and vision care, often a result of inadequate or no medical insurance; (3) food insecurity; (4) environmental pollutants; (5) family relations and family stress; and (6) neighborhood characteristics.
These OSFs are related to a host of poverty-induced physical, sociological, and psychological problems that children often bring to school, ranging from neurological damage and attention disorders to excessive absenteeism, linguistic underdevelopment, and oppositional behavior.
Also discussed is a seventh OSF, extended learning opportunities, such as preschool, after school, and summer school programs that can help to mitigate some of the harm caused by the first six factors.
Full report:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009337.pdf
Physically fit students more likely to do well in school,
less likely to be disciplinary problems
A first-of-its-kind study of more than 2.4 million Texas students found that students who are physically fit are more likely to do well on the state’s standardized tests and have good school attendance. Fit students are also less likely to have disciplinary referrals.
The findings released today are based on the results of a battery of six FITNESSGRAM® tests taken by students in grades 3-12 during the 2007-2008 school year. The FITNESSGRAM® tool was created by The Cooper Institute of Dallas. The six types of assessment measure five areas - body composition, aerobic capacity, muscular strength, endurance and flexibility. The assessments determine whether students are in a “healthy fitness zone” for their age and gender.
The study analyzed data from 6,532 schools, which represents about 75 percent of the schools in Texas and about 84 percent of the school districts.
The study found that cardiovascular health, measured by a walking/running test, had a higher correlation to school success than did the Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a measure of body fat based on height and weight, adjusted for age and gender.
About 78 percent of fourth-grade students were in the healthy fitness zone for cardiovascular fitness, whereas only 20 percent of high school seniors reached the healthy fitness zone. As with the overall FITNESSGRAM® data, cardiovascular fitness levels declined with each passing grade.
About 70 percent of students in each of the grades 3-12 reached the healthy fitness zone for Body Mass Index. About 30 percent of the students were not able to achieve the healthy fitness zone for their age and gender.
Significant correlations were found between physical fitness and various indicators of academic achievement. The study shows that:
∑ Higher levels of fitness are associated with better academic performance. At high performing schools that have earned the state’s top rating of Exemplary, about 80 percent of the students have healthy levels of cardiovascular fitness.
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∑ At schools that have received the state’s lowest rating called Academically Unacceptable, slightly more than 40 percent of the students achieved cardiovascular fitness.
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∑ Higher levels of fitness were associated with better school attendance.
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∑ Higher levels of fitness at a school were also associated with fewer disciplinary incidents. The research looked at the number of incidents involving drugs, alcohol, violence and truancy.
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∑ Counties with high levels of cardiovascular fitness tended to have high passing rates on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). Regional and county data can be found at www.texasyouthfitnessstudy.org.
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The physical fitness assessments are given annually to Texas students. The 2007-2008 school year was the first time students were assessed statewide using the FITNESSGRAM®. About 2.6 million students were tested. To ensure that results were representative of a school, test results were removed from the analysis if fewer than 25 percent of the students at a school were tested. Consequently, the research into the correlation between the cardiovascular health and BMI and academic success is based on the performance of 2.4 million students.
The original 2008 baseline data from 2.6 million youngsters, which was analyzed by researchers with The Cooper Institute, found that:
∑ Students were most likely to achieve a healthy fitness zone level on all six FITNESSGRAM® tests at third grade;
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∑ Of the 331,379 third-grade students who participated in the study, 33.25 percent of the girls and 28.60 percent of the boys were in the healthy fitness zone on all six tests;
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∑ Fitness levels declined with each subsequent grade level, reaching a low at 12th grade. Of the 152,144 seniors tested, only 8.18 percent of the girls and 8.96 percent of the boys meet healthy standards on all six tests.
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This spring students in grades 3-12 are undergoing a second round of FITNESSGRAM® testing.
Studies Show That Students Aren't the Only Ones Who Benefit From School-Based Tutoring; Washington University, Johns Hopkins Researchers Find Sustained Improvement in Health in Experience Corps Tutors Over 55
Tutors over 55 who help young students on a regular basis experience positive physical and mental health outcomes, according to studies released by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The tutors studied were members of Experience Corps, an award-winning organization that trains thousands of people over 55 to tutor children in urban public schools across the country.
Researchers at Washington University's Center for Social Development assessed the impact of the Experience Corps program on the lives of its members and found that, compared with adults of similar age, demographics and volunteer history, Experience Corps tutors reported improvements in mental health and physical functioning (including mobility, stamina and flexibility) and maintained overall health longer. In addition, Experience Corps members reported more physical activity, larger social networks and higher self-esteem as a result of their participation.
Other key findings:
- The comparison group's levels of depression and functional limitations increased over a two-year period, while Experience Corps members experienced a significant decrease in both of those categories.
- Both the comparison group and the Experience Corps group reported a decline in health over the two-year study period, but the Experience Corps members reported significantly less decline, suggesting that the program postpones age-related loss of health.
- After a year with Experience Corps, about two-thirds of the least active members reported that they became significantly more physically active and more engaged in social and community events.
- 84 percent of Experience Corps members report that their circle of friends - a key measure of social well-being, particularly for aging adults - increased as a result of their involvement in the program.
- 86 percent of Experience Corps members say their lives have improved because of their involvement with the program.
A separate study released in the March issue of the Journal of Gerontology by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine also found lasting, positive health impacts from participation in the program. The findings built on previous studies by the Hopkins researchers that have shown older adults who were physically inactive when they joined Experience Corps nearly doubled their activity level after just four to eight months of volunteering. The new Hopkins study found that for Experience Corps tutors in Baltimore - primarily African-American women over 60 - the women continued their increased level of activity for at least three years.
An earlier study, published by Johns Hopkins researchers in the Journal of Gerontology in January 2008, also found improvements in memory and executive function among Experience Corps tutors.
Lester Strong, CEO of Experience Corps, says the new research underscores the value of doing meaningful work in the second half of life. "Our members know that they are making a difference in the lives of students who desperately need academic help and encouragement. That keeps them going - and healthy."
Experience Corps members are diverse in many ways.
- Age: The average age of Experience Corps members is 65, but the age range of members in this study extends from 50 to 87.
- Race: About half (53 percent) of Experience Corps members are African American; 39 percent are white.
- Background: One-third of Experience Corps members have some higher education, and one in five is a retired educator (teacher, professor, administrator or classroom assistant).
- Income: 20 percent of Experience Corps members earn less than $15,000 per year, while 15 percent earn more than $75,000 per year.
Washington University researchers also studied the impact of Experience Corps tutoring on students' reading ability. The results, which demonstrate significant, positive gains in student learning, will be made available in April.
About Experience Corps
Experience Corps (http://www.experiencecorps.org), an award-winning program, engages people over 55 in meeting their communities' greatest challenges. Today, in 23 cities across the country, 2,000 Experience Corps members tutor and mentor elementary school students struggling to learn to read. Independent research shows that Experience Corps boosts student academic performance, helps schools and youth-serving organizations become more successful, and enhances the well-being of the older adults in the process.
Education Department to Distribute $44 Billion in Stimulus Funds in 30 to 45 Days - $49 Billon More to Be Available within 6 months
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that $44 billion in stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will be available to states in the next 30 to 45 days. The first round of funding will help avert hundreds of thousands of estimated teacher layoffs in schools and school districts while driving crucial education improvements, reforms, and results for students.
"These funds will be distributed as quickly as possible to save and create jobs and improve education, and will be invested as transparently as possible so we can measure the impact in the classroom," said Duncan. "Strict reporting requirements will ensure that Americans know exactly how their money is being spent and how their schools are being improved."
Guidelines posted by Duncan today authorize the release this month of half the Title I, Part A stimulus funds, amounting to $5 billion, and half the funds for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), $6 billion, without new applications.
By the end of March, governors will be able to apply for 67 percent of the State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (SFSF) and discretionary SFSF, totaling $32.5 billion. These funds will be released within two weeks after approvable applications are received.
In the next 30 days, nearly $700 million more will be available for various programs including vocational rehabilitation state grants and impact aid construction, Duncan said. Another $17.3 billion for Pell Grants and work-study funds is available for disbursement for the next academic year beginning July 1.
An additional $35 billion in Title 1, IDEA, and State Fiscal Stabilization Funds, as well as monies for other programs will be distributed between July 1 and September 30.
ARRA funds must be used to improve student achievement. To receive the first round of state stabilization funds, states must commit to meet ARRA requirements, including making progress on four key education reforms, sharing required baseline data, and meeting record-keeping and transparency requirements. To receive the second round of funding, they must provide evidence and plans for progress on these assurances. All four education reforms were previously authorized under bipartisan education legislation—including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the America Competes Act of 2007:
0. Raising standards through college- and career-ready standards and high-quality assessments that are valid and reliable for all students, including English language learners and students with disabilities;
0.
0. Increasing transparency by establishing better data systems tracking student progress over time;
0.
0. Improving teacher effectiveness and ensuring an equitable supply and distribution of qualified teachers;
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0. Supporting effective intervention strategies for lowest-performing schools.
0.
Finally, a $5 billion fund has been established under the law for the Department of Education. This includes a $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" fund to help states with bold plans to improve student achievement—including these four reforms—and $650 million to assist school districts and non-profit organizations with strong track records of improving student achievement. State grants will go out in two rounds over the next year, beginning in October 2009. Applications will be available later in the spring.
"These investments will save and create jobs in the short term, while raising achievement in the long term," Duncan said. "We will need a strong commitment on the front end and even stronger proof on the back end that states are making progress."
Duncan also said that states should work hard to avoid "funding cliffs" by investing ARRA funds in ways that minimize "the tail"—i.e., ongoing costs after the funding expires.
"These are one-time funds, and state and school officials need to find the best way to stretch every dollar and spend the money in ways that protect and support children without carrying continuing costs," Duncan said.
Additional details, including a category-by-category list of all ARRA funds appropriated to the Department of Education, as well as requirements and plans for their distribution are posted at www.ed.gov/recovery.
Enterprising school management leads to more effective schools
School management teams have only a limited influence on school effectiveness. However, there are indications that a development-focussed school culture in which cooperation, professionalisation and innovation take centre stage, results in better school effectiveness. So concludes Dutch researcher Gerdy ten Bruggencate who investigated the influence of school management teams on school effectiveness in secondary education.
In recent years it has become increasingly more obvious that school management teams exert relatively little influence on school effectiveness, certainly compared to the influence of pupils’ background. Moreover, detecting the influence of school management teams is far from easy. Nevertheless, Ten Bruggencate has now established a small but significant effect of school management teams on school effectiveness.
Over the past few decades the focus of research into school management has shifted. In the 1980s a ‘narrow’ view of school management prevailed in which the school director was viewed as an educational leader and supervisor of teachers. Yet later, broader models came to the fore in which the involvement and capacities of teachers as well as the division of leadership tasks became the focus.
Development-focussed schools perform better
Although little is still known about the influence of school management teams on pupil performance, many factors that might influence this have already been found, such as teachers' motivation and the working climate for pupils. Ten Bruggencate used a general organisation model, the so-called competing values model, to accurately characterise both the school management and the school organisation. The researcher discovered that an enterprising school management team can stimulate a development-focussed school culture by ensuring clear targets and providing the space needed for individual choices. In such a development-focussed school culture the emphasis is on cooperation, professionalisation and innovation. A greater focus on development, results in a better working climate in the classrooms, which in turn leads to better school effectiveness. This mainly concerns an increase in the percentage of pupils that move on to the senior high school without having to repeat one or more years. Interestingly, management teams of schools with poor final exam results are at the forefront of setting targets, making changes and innovation. Management teams of schools with stable high performances place less emphasis on these aspects. These results possibly reflect the effect of a government policy, which is focussed on a high degree of autonomy for schools that is linked to accountability.
More than one hundred schools analysed
To assess the effect of school management teams on school effectiveness, data were collected from more than 100 high schools in the Netherlands. A total of 103 school management team members, 998 teachers and 4336 pupils in year 5 of schools for senior general secondary education participated in the study. The school effectiveness was measured on the basis of the average results in the national written examinations and the average progress in the senior high school. Gerdy ten Bruggencate carried out her research within the project ‘Educational management and school effectiveness’. NWO’s Programme Council for Educational Research funded her work.
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