Organizing and Managing for Excellence and Equity: The Work and Dilemmas of Instructionally Focused Education Systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 812-845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald J. Peurach ◽  
Maxwell M. Yurkofsky ◽  
Daniella Hall Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Public School ◽  
Public Education ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Public School Districts ◽  
Improve Quality ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Central Offices

A sustained policy press to improve quality and reduce disparities in public education is driving U.S. public school districts to organize and manage instruction for excellence and equity. The purpose of this analysis is to elaborate and to animate patterns and dilemmas in this work. The analysis identifies five domains of work central to this transformation, four patterns in the distribution of this work among central offices and schools, and four dilemmas endemic to the work. It then uses the preceding to frame vignettes of that work and those dilemmas as playing out in four different public school districts.

scholarly journals In a State of Fragility: The Compromised Dignity of Communities, Indignation, and the Incapacitation of Public Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Agnes Krynski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public School ◽  
Public Education ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public School Districts ◽  
Exclusionary Practices ◽  
Institutional Agency ◽  
Ethical Oversight

The dominant framing of the work of public school districts in the United States prevents schools from contesting the indignities they themselves or their neighbors suffer. This incapacitates teachers and learning communities to work toward the attainment of inclusive democracy and the contestation of exclusionary practices and policies. An institutionally-grown advocacy of connection that nurtures intercommunity solidarity can help us redefine the work communities do as they learn to think of themselves as being in connection with other groups in a web of affiliation and care. I suggest that public education take on an informal function of ethical oversight rooted in a strong sense of collective institutional agency. Through such agency schools can recognize and respect and help us work through past and present civic grievances while addressing economic and social realities that give rise to feelings of indignation.

scholarly journals From Mass Schooling to Education Systems: Changing Patterns in the Organization and Management of Instruction

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald J. Peurach ◽  
David K. Cohen ◽  
Maxwell M. Yurkofsky ◽  
James P. Spillane
Keyword(s):  
Public School ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
Systemic Reform ◽  
Public School Districts ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Organization And Management ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
High Standards

In the early 1990s, the logic and policies of systemic reform launched a press to coordinate the pursuit of excellence and equity in U.S. public education, with each other and with classroom instruction. There was little in that policy moment to predict that these reforms would sustain, and much to predict otherwise. Yet, nearly three decades hence, many public school districts are working earnestly to pursue the central aims of the reforms: all students engaging rich instructional experiences to master ambitious content and tasks at the same high standards. That begs a question: What happens when new educational ambitions collide with legacy educational institutions—not in a policy moment but across a historical moment? This chapter takes up that question by reviewing the rise of mass public schooling in pursuit of universal access, a historic pivot toward instructionally focused education systems in pursuit of excellence and equity, and changing patterns in instructional organization and management that follow. The lesson we draw is that, even amid incoherence and turbulence in education environments, sustained public, political, and policy support for new educational ambitions opens up new opportunities for those ambitions to manifest in the structures and the work of public school districts.

The Extent and Impact of Educational Policy Bargaining

ILR Review ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M. Goldschmidt ◽  
Leland E. Stuart
Keyword(s):  
Public Education ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Public School Districts ◽  
Student Placement ◽  
Teacher Organizations ◽  
Policy Content ◽  
Teacher Placement

The authors examine a national sample of 80 collective bargaining agreements negotiated in 1981–82 by teacher organizations and school boards in large U.S. public school districts to determine how great was the educational policy content of those agreements. They find that educational policy provisions, defined as those that affect educational programs more than teachers' working conditions, are far more extensive than previous studies suggest. Of the contracts sampled, 46 percent are found to contain provisions regulating the curriculum; 59 percent, provisions regulating student placement; and 96 percent, provisions regulating teacher placement. The authors conclude that this extensive policy bargaining has reduced the capacity of many school districts to respond to changing expectations for public education.

Spending Floors in Gifted Education Services

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-45
Author(s):  
Jaret Hodges ◽  
Jessica Ottwein
Keyword(s):  
Public School ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Gifted Education ◽  
The State ◽  
Public School Districts ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Education Services

For nearly two decades, the state of Texas mandated gifted education services and provided funding to public school districts. One policy that was unique to the state is the mandatory minimum spending. This research examines how these mandatory minimum spending floors influence spending in public school districts within the state and how that influence varies across locales. Our findings provide evidence that rural public school districts in Texas were more likely to operate near to the mandatory state minimum spending for gifted education than non-rural public school districts. In particular, rural public school districts allocated 50% of the funds towards gifted education programming as suburban public school districts when the minimum spending floors was accounted for. The results should provide caution to policy makers on the possible ramifications of removing spending floors on gifted education programming in rural public school districts.

Face Mask Policies of US Public School Districts in States without Statewide Mandates

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Jacobs ◽  
Arvi Ohinmaa
Keyword(s):  
Public School ◽  
School District ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Public School Districts ◽  
Us States ◽  
School Settings ◽  
The Individual

Objective: We developed categories of the degree of restrictiveness of public schoolboards’ face mask policies in 10 US states that had no statewide mask mandates at any time during the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected data on schoolboards’ mask wearing policies for the individual boards in these states. Methods: We obtained school reopening plans found on school district webpages. We abstracted district mask policies and sorted them into groups indicating whether mask wearing was required or recommended. Results: Overall, 44% of boards mandated masks in school settings. There was a wide variation of policies within and between states. Conclusions: When left to their own resources, schoolboards will follow a variety of policies, many of which are a departure from state recommendations.

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