Ariel Tichnor-Wagner

Implementing Educational Innovations at Scale: Transforming Researchers Into Continuous Improvement Scientists

There is growing concern among researchers and governmental officials that knowing what works in education is important, but not enough for school improvement. Sound evidence alone is not sufficient for large-scale, sustainable change, both because practitioners may consider it irrelevant to their own problems of practice or run into challenges when they try to implement. Failed attempts at replicating positive outcomes in new (or simply expanded) settings underscore the need for a different relationship between research and practice, one that takes a systemic perspective on improvement and transforms the role for research. In this article, we describe the new science of improvement and where it sits in the evolution of research on education policy implementation. We discuss the roots of the approach as well as its key features. We explain how the work differs from that of traditional research and end with illustrations of this difference from our experiences with the National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools.

After the Two-Year Commitment: A Quantitative and Qualitative Inquiry of Teach For America Teacher Retention and Attrition

Teach For America (TFA), an organization that places college graduates as teachers in low-income areas for 2 years, contributes to teacher attrition. With this mixed methods study in one urban region, we investigated teachers’ professional decisions at the end of 2 years. Respondents fell into categories in relation to the organization’s 2-year commitment, including leavers, lingerers, and lasters, and descriptors related to remaining at placement school or relocating to another school. Historical, environmental, and external factors impacted teachers’ professional decisions related to retention and attrition. Findings provide insight to improve retention of TFA teachers.

Cultures of Learning in Effective High Schools.

Purpose: Research indicates that a culture of learning is a key factor in building high schools that foster academic achievement in all students. Yet less is known about which elements of a culture of learning differentiate schools with higher levels of academic performance. To fill this gap, this comparative case study examined the cultures of learning among adults and students in two highly effective high schools and two less effective high schools with similar demographics in a single large, urban school district. Research Method: Using 135 interviews and focus groups with administrators, teachers, and students across four case study schools, the authors analyzed the extent to which various elements of a culture of learning was present within and across schools. Findings: Effective high schools had stronger cultures of learning with distinct structures and practices that distinguished them from the less effective schools. These included frequent opportunities for formal collaboration, shared goals centered on universal high expectations, structured opportunities for participatory leadership, and deliberate supports to help students engage and achieve in academics. Findings further revealed that certain structures were necessary though not sufficient in fostering effective cultures of learning, the active role of school leaders in reinforcing a culture of learning, and high leverage practices that addressed multiple elements of a culture of learning. Implications: This study provides implications for how school leaders can begin to create and improve on school-wide cultures of learning by drawing on the high leverage practices that distinguished the highly effective case study schools.

Moral Mondays and the Defense of Public Education: The Fusion Movement Against ALEC-Influenced Legislation in North Carolina

On a muggy southern summer Monday afternoon, with thunderstorm clouds looming in the notso-distant horizon, thousands of adults, teenagers, and children; men and women; black, white, and brown; straight and gay; doctors, teachers, fast-food workers, and day laborers; preachers, pastors, and rabbis all gather at the mall outside of the North Carolina State Legislative Building. Teachers don bright red T-shirts inscribed with the words “Educator Activist: Unite, Organize, Empower.” Protesters hold signs reading, “Public tax dollars need to go to public schools,” “All of us can’t protest ’cause most of us have second jobs,” and “Public education is under attack! Stand up, Fight Back!” As has been done every Monday of the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions, the crowd engages in call-and-response with the lineup of clergymen and clergywomen, grassroots organizers, and everyday citizens speaking at the podium: “Forward Together. Not one step back.” A barrage of pro-privatization policies that cascaded into North Carolina education statutes during the 2013–2014 legislative session helped spark a series of organized protests known as the Moral Monday Movement. The controversial policies that drew the ire of the protestors are emblematic of the new wave of neoliberal values sweeping into state education policy across the

“You don’t have to travel the world”: accumulating experiences on the path toward globally competent teaching

As classrooms become increasingly diverse and students need more complex skills for collaboratively addressing transnational issues, we need a better understanding of the factors that contribute to globally competent teaching. Education research has highlighted the benefits of study abroad and overseas teaching, as well as local cross-cultural immersion, but these options are not always feasible. We sought to identify the various means by which teachers develop global competence. Through this qualitative case study of 10 global educators, we found that international travel, though present in some instances, was not always necessary. In fact, it was an accumulation of experiences that prompted teachers to incorporate global perspectives, lessons, and skill development throughout their careers. Thus, globally competent teaching may be better conceptualized as a path, rather than as an end goal.

Accountable for Care: Cultivating Caring School Communities in Urban High Schools

ABSTRACT This comparative case study examines the prevalence of caring practices in two higher performing and two lower performing urban high schools and the contextual factors that helped or hindered the extent to which students felt cared for. We found that higher performing schools demonstrated caring communities, where interpersonal relationships and high academic expectations were prevalent throughout the school. Strong leadership support, caring as a core school value, and abundant curricular and extracurricular structures facilitated relationships in caring school communities; these contextual factors were less prevalent in lower performing schools with isolated instances of care. Implications for school leaders are discussed.

Neoliberal Policy Network Governance and Counter-Networks of Resistance: Actions and Reactions From Across Policy Arenas

This 2017 Politics of Education Yearbook focuses on the power of policymaking networks to set agendas and shape education policy. As the yearbook title suggests, we present a series of case studies that illustrate the complexity of modern policy arenas and highlight the existence of competing networks with different visions for public education goals and governance. Neoliberal policy networks create hybrid public–private governance structures based on collaborative ties between policymakers, nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, and philanthropies in order to promote market-based solutions and enterprise models. As described by Anderson and Donchik (2014), such networks also represent a “strategic alliance that draws from proponents of neoclassical economics, social conservatives, libertarians, and liberals” (p. 3). The power and influence of neoliberal networks over public policy has greatly expanded in recent decades (Blyth, 2002; Harvey, 2007), causing concern among some observers that the “public” in public education is under attack (Bourdieu, 2003; Giroux & Giroux, 2006). This yearbook draws attention to the emergence of counter-networks of resistance. Such networks oppose neoliberal models of education reform and advocate for state agencies to play more of an activist role in protecting society’s most vulnerable. At the heart of the interaction between neoliberal policy networks and counter-networks are disputes regarding the very structure and function of government (Bourdieu, 2003; Lakoff, 2008). The yearbook has been organized in three main sections, each of which contains the work of established and emerging scholars in politics of education. In Section I: Networks at Work— Shifting Policy Toward Market-Based Philosophies describes the overarching layout of the neoliberal policy networks on a national and global scale. Next, Section II: How Power Is Negotiated in State Policy Arenas surveys the power of “edupreneurs” to influence education