scholarly journals Why Reform Sometimes Succeeds: Understanding the Conditions That Produce Reforms That Last

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 644-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Cohen ◽  
Jal D. Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Common Core ◽  
Educational Infrastructure ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
The Common

Counter to narratives of persistently failed school reform, we argue that reforms sometimes succeed and seek to understand why. Drawing on examples from the founding of public schools to the present, we find that successful system-wide reforms addressed problems that teachers thought they had by being consistent with prevailing norms and values, mobilizing a significant public constituency, and building the needed educational infrastructure. We distinguish between system-wide and niche reforms, suggesting that some—particularly those seeking ambitious instruction—failed system-wide but succeeded by creating protected educational niches. We conclude with a discussion of the implications for the Common Core.

The happy (and not so happy) accidents of Bush-Obama school reform

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 31-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick M. Hess ◽  
Michael Q. McShane
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Common Core ◽  
School Reforms ◽  
Achievement Testing ◽  
Data Systems ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Policy Ideas ◽  
The Common ◽  
Unexpected Outcomes

Drawing upon their new edited volume of essays looking back on the school reforms of the Bush and Obama years, the authors explain just how few of those reforms went according to plan. Some of the unexpected outcomes were positive, they note, pointing to the improvement of school data systems and the bipartisan compromise that put an end to No Child Left Behind. Some of them were negative, such as a public backlash against achievement testing in general and the implementation of the Common Core in particular. And all of them should lead reformers to question their own certainty about how their policy ideas will play out.

The First Era of School Reform

2020 ◽  
pp. 148-180
Author(s):  
Mark Boonshoft
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Reform ◽  
White Men ◽  
War Of 1812 ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Common Schools ◽  
Educational Vision ◽  
Common School ◽  
The Common ◽  
Panic Of 1819

This chapter explains how, during the 1810s and 1820s, a more effective political opposition to aristocratic education formed. In different ways, the “Jeffersonian Revolution” of 1800, the War of 1812, and the Panic of 1819 all helped bolster the critique of academies, and built popular support for public common schools. Historians often skip over this “first era of school reform” and look instead at Horace Mann and the common school reformers of the 1830s. But it was during this period that many northern states started investing in common schools, and also revamping academies and colleges to serve a new educational vision. These institutional changes were all geared toward overthrowing aristocratic education and instead trying to create widespread informed citizenship. But as education came to be seen as an important path to citizenship, the impulse to segregate public schools grew, confining their benefits primarily to white men.

New Assessments and Teacher Accountability: Lessons for Teachers’ Practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 000283122110245
Author(s):  
Jessalynn James
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Common Core ◽  
Common Core State Standards ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Value Added ◽  
State Standards ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Core State ◽  
The Common ◽  
Using Data

The transition to new assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards was a significant turning point in the standards’ implementation. Concerns about the transition led districts to suspend the use of value-added scores for evaluating teachers, but changes to other measures, such as classroom observations, were rare. Using data from the Washington, DC Public Schools, I evaluate the effect of the assessment transition on teachers’ practice. I find substantial declines in instructional practice, ranging from 13% to 20% of a standard deviation, for teachers in tested grades and subjects when the new exam was introduced. These results suggest that policymakers should consider the ramifications of testing changes on a wider array of teaching outcomes than value-added scores alone.

O ENSINO RELIGIOSO EM QUESTÃO

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (21) ◽  
pp. 459
Author(s):  
Mauro Rocha Baptista
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Common Core ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
National Curriculum ◽  
The Other ◽  
Federal Constitution ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Common

Neste artigo analisamos a relação do Ensino Religioso com a sua evolução ao longo do contexto recente do Brasil para compreender a posição do Supremo Tribunal Federal ao considerar a possibilidade do Ensino Religioso confessional. Inicialmente apresentaremos a perspectiva legislativa criada com a constituição de 1988 e seus desdobramentos nas indicações curriculares. Neste contexto é frisado a intenção de incluir o Ensino Religioso na Base Nacional Curricular Comum, o que acabou não acontecendo. A tendência manifesta nas duas primeiras versões da BNCC era de um Ensino Religioso não-confessional. Uma tendência que demarcava a função do Ensino Religioso em debater a religião, mas que não permitia o direcionamento por uma vertente religioso qualquer. Esta posição se mostrava uma evolução da primeira perspectiva histórica mais associada à catequese confessional. Assim como também ultrapassava a interpretação posterior de um ecumenismo interconfessional, que mantinha a superioridade do cristianismo ante as demais religiões. Sendo assim, neste artigo, adotaremos o argumento de que a decisão do STF, de seis votos contra cinco, acaba retrocedendo ante o que nos parecia um caminho muito mais frutífero.Palavras-chave: Ensino Religioso. Supremo Tribunal Federal. Confessional. Interconfessional. Não-confessional.Abstract: On this article, we analyze the relation between Religious education and its evolution along the currently Brazilian context in order to understand the position of the Supreme Court in considering the possibility of a confessional Religious education. Firstly, we are going to present the legislative perspective created with the 1988 Federal Constitution and its impacts in the curricular lines. On this context it was highlighted the intention to include the Religious Education on the Common Core National Curriculum (CCNC), which did not really happened. The tendency manifested in the first two versions of the CCNC was of a non-confessional Religious Education. A tendency that delineated the function of the Religious Education as debating religion, but not giving direction on any religious side. This position was an evolution of the first historical perspective more associated to the confessional catechesis. It also went beyond the former interpretation of an inter-confessional ecumenism, which kept the superiority of the Christianity over the other religions. As such, in this paper we adopt the argument that the decision of the Supreme Court, of six votes against five, is a reversal of what seemed to be a much more productive path on the Religious Education.Keywords: Religious Education. Brazilian Supreme Court. Confessional. Inter-confessional. Non- confessional.Enviado: 23-01-2018 - Aprovado e publicado: 12-2018

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