Allan C. Ornstein

Grading Practices and Policies: An Overview and Some Suggestions.

The same studies showed that middle level teachers rely more on their observations of student participation in class, motivation, and attitudes than on tests. High school teachers assign grades mainly on the basis of test results. On average, no more than 15 percent of the grade is based on professional judgment. Teachers need to recognize, also, that young students (grade 4 or lower) have little understanding of the meaning of grades,

Administrative Decentralization and Community Policy: Review and Outlook.

ConclusionsThe issues related to administrative decentralization, community control, and community participation have not been satisfactorily resolved by the various proponents. Do students, schools, or society really benefit? There is little research evidence that any one of these three administrative models, alone or combined, have positive effects. If no systematic response to these models is provided by the proponents, they are operating on unsupported assertions or questionable assumptions, reform slogans, and political pressures, and many of their concusions, either stated or implied, are probably unjustified.The lack of data on administrative-community “solutions” (decentralization, community control, even community participation) means there are more slogans than carefully worked-out concepts with consequences understood and accounted for. We often assume that the “community” voice is the most vocal and articulated, and we have yet to hear from the majority of silent parents, who have their own aspirations for their children and their own ideas about how the school should fulfill them. Indeed, we need a partnership between practitioners and researchers, among the various interest groups, and especially between blacks and whites, if a breakthrough is to be made to a higher level of mutual understanding and quality education for all children and youth.

The textbook‐driven curriculum

Textbooks have come to drive the curriculum, and one might wonder why so little attention is given to the position of the textbook in the process of curriculum making. Reliance on the textbook (as well as its companion, the workbook) is consistent with the stress on written words as the main medium of education, as well as the way many teachers themselves were educated. Dependence on the textbook is also linked to the time when a majority of teachers were poorly prepared in subject matter or teaching out of license and read the text one day in advance of the students. Many of todays teachers, while better educated than their predecessors, sometimes lack the time or training to prepare new materials; thus, they continue to rely on the textbook and workbook.

Homework, Studying, and Note Taking: Essential Skills for Students

The learning skills discussed here repre sent a rethinking of the responsibility of the student and teacher; a shift from a student-centered responsibility to know or learn these skills on their own to a teacher-centered responsibility to teach these skills.

School size and effectiveness: Policy implications

For the first 75 years of this century, the only “good” schools were considered to be large. Today the buzz word is small. Educators who still promote the idea of biggest, largest, or strongest are living in the post-sputnik era, when for national pride we had to be number one. Today small is related to school effectiveness, community and school identity, and individual fullfillment and participation. Big corresponds with school inefficiency, institutional bureaucracy, and personal loneliness.

A Look at Teacher Effectiveness Research—Theory and Practice

Because educators are unable to agree upon or pre cisely define what a good teacher is, we can define it almost any way we like. But to understand teacher effec tiveness, educators should consider some of the cur rent—and past—theoretical issues related to teacher effectiveness research.

Research on Teaching: Issues and Trends

The research on teaching is becoming an important part of the teacher educa tion curriculum. Ornstein identifies selected findings from the research liter ature and discusses some of the prob lems facing educators as they attempt to formulate generalizations based on these findings to guide teaching prac tice. The author concludes the article with a list of problem areas that teacher educators need to consider if they are to develop preparation experiences that are responsive to an emergent and ex panding knowledge base.

Norm-Referenced and Criterion- Referenced Tests: An Overview

Until school districts improve their potential to develop meaningful crite rion-referenced tests, norm-refer enced (standardized) tests will be the major yardstick for measuring student learning—despite criticisms that the test content may not match the cur riculum objectives or content of the local school district.

Enrollment trends in big‐city schools

The current crisis in urban schools is symptomatic of a general demographic trend in urban life. The problem is the large build-up of minority students-especially black and Hispanic, the majority of whom are educationally disabled because of family structure and welfare dependency-in city schools and the continuing exodus of white middle-class families from the city. Nationwide, minority enrollments increased from 19.8% in 1966 to 24% in 1976 to 29.6% in 1986, and are projected to increase to 37.5% by 1996. The biggest minority gain came from the Hispanic student population, representing 4.6% of the public school enrollment in 1966 and 9.9% in 1986 (more than 100% increase in 20 years). Based on current immigration and fertility trends, the Hispanic student population should reach 14% by 1996 and surpass the black student population in the year 2010. On the heels of the Hispanic student population is the Asian enrollment-the next fastest growing minority group. It doubled in the 10 years from 1966 to 1976, doubled again from 1976 to 1986, and it is expected to increase another 60% by 1996 and double before 2010 (Bouvier & Davis, 1982; U.S. Government, 1989a). These trends in minority enrollments are shown in Table 1. The largest 25 city school districts (as of 1980) posted the largest gain in minority students. In 1950, all but one of the nations 25 largest city school systems had a white majority. By 1980, all but two had a majority of minorities (Columbus and San Diego). By 1990, these two school districts also comprised a majority of minorities. These figures are shown in Table 2.

How Good Are Teachers In Effecting Student Outcomes

Heres the second of two arti cles describing the research on teacher effec tiveness. Part I was in the December 1982 Bulletin. This article clarifies the subject by present ing a model that de lineates the major categories involved in assessing teacher effectiveness.