Jay Paredes Scribner

Teacher Quality, Opportunity Gap, and National Achievement in 46 Countries

The 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study data from 46 countries showed that, although the national level of teacher quality in the United States was similar to the international average, the opportunity gap in students’ access to qualified teachers between students of high and low socioeconomic status (SES) was among the largest in the world. Cross-national analyses revealed that the countries with better teacher quality produced higher mathematics achievement. However, larger opportunity gaps in access to qualified teachers did not predict larger achievement gaps between high-SES and low-SES students cross-nationally. These analyses provide empirical, cross-national evidence of the importance of investing in teacher quality for improving national achievement. National policies and practices related to improving teacher quality appear to be a promising area for future research to identify how other countries have achieved both excellence and equity in student achievement.

Teacher Teams and Distributed Leadership: A Study of Group Discourse and Collaboration

Purpose: This article explores distributed leadership as it relates to two teacher teams in one public secondary school. Both situational and social aspects of distributed leadership are foci of investigation. Methods: The qualitative study used constant comparative analysis and discourse analysis to explore leadership as a distributed phenomenon. Data from field notes and video recordings of two teacher teams during one semester were used. Findings: Three constructs emerged that informed our understanding of collaborative interaction within each professional learning team: purpose, autonomy, and patterns of discourse. Purpose and autonomy, manifest as organizational conditions, largely shape patterns of discourse that characterize the interaction of the team members. We argue that the nature of purpose and autonomy within a teacher team can influence the social distribution of leadership. Conclusions: The nature of teams in shared governance structures—the fact that teams can organize to either find or solve problems—has important implications for the creative and leadership capacity of individual teams. Thus, structures and social dynamics of distributed leadership must be attended to and not taken for granted. Implications include (a) conceptualizing leadership in terms of interaction, (b) needing to help teachers become aware of conversational dynamics that lead to or subvert effective collaboration, and (c) needing to help principals become more aware of their role in helping to establish clarity of purpose and appropriate levels of autonomy, so that teams may engage in work that leads to effective and innovative problem-finding and problem-solving activities.

Creating Professional Communities in Schools through Organizational Learning: An Evaluation of a School Improvement Process

This article presents an analysis of the potential for a school improvement process to foster professional community in three rural middle schools through the processes of organizational learning. The findings of this 2-year qualitative case study demonstrate the tensions schools must negotiate between bureaucracy and professional community and suggest that four organizational factors influence the establishment of professional community: principal leadership, organizational history, organizational priorities, and organization of teacher work. The findings further suggest that double-loop learning is invaluable to sustain professional community.

Professional Development: Untangling the Influence of Work Context on Teacher Learning

Professional development has become the panacea of 1990s reform efforts. However, our understanding of the breadth, depth, and nature of teacher learning experiences remains limited. Using an embedded case study design, this article examines the factors that motivate teachers to engage in development activities, the ways they experience professional learning, and most important, how work context influences their learning experiences. The author suggests that a complex nesting of work contexts limits the types of learning activities, and hence knowledge, available to teachers. Finally, steps that school leaders and education policy makers can take to broaden and enhance professional learning opportunities are discussed.

The Paradox of Professional Community: Tales from Two High Schools

This comparative case study of two urban high schools surfaced a critical paradox of professional community heretofore obscured in the literature. Although extant literature has focused on school structures, values, and beliefs that engender collective identity, this study brings into focus the importance of both professional autonomy (“I-ness”) and shared identity (“we-ness”) in professional community. Examining the findings through two lenses—professional community and micropolitics—this study explores how, paradoxically, professional autonomy and attention to individual needs are necessary and salient conditions of strong professional communities. Furthermore, this study focuses on the important role that principals play in balancing individual and organizational needs and fostering professional community. Finally, the study reinterprets professional community to include a micropolitical dimension, thus enhancing its conceptual and practical utility.

The Dynamics of Group Learning in a Cohort: From Nonlearning to Transformative Learning.

The instructional cohort is a popular delivery format in educational administration programs. This case study delves into the “black box” of cohort learning by critically examining the relationship between group dynamics and the types of learning that took place among a set of group members within a cohort. This study shows how group dynamics— including group climate, norms, roles, and communication—can foster or impede learning. The study raises concerns about whether a focus on high-performing cohorts or groups necessarily results in meaningful learning for students. With the performance-learning tension in mind, implications and recommendations for instruction and future research are also presented.

Exploring the Relationship Between Prior Career Experience and Instructional Quality Among Mathematics and Science Teachers in Alternative Teacher Certification Programs

This mixed-method evaluation study examines relationships between the nature and characteristics of teachers’ prior experiences and teachers’ practice of standards-based instruction as a measure of instructional quality among alternatively certified mathematics and science teachers. The study found that career length, number of prior careers, and career relevance to subject area were not related to instructional quality. However, teachers with prior career experiences that were education-related practiced standards-based instruction to a greater degree than teachers with no education-relevant career experience. Implications of these findings for policy makers and practitioners are discussed.

‘To honor and glorify God’: the role of religion in one intercollegiate athletics culture

Numerous events have provided evidence that the cultural values and assumptions of intercollegiate athletic departments are often incongruent with those of their host institutions. This discrepancy has even been evident in Christian institutions which seek to integrate faith into the learning experience. Using the organizational culture perspective, this study sought to determine how religion influenced the culture of one intercollegiate athletics department. The study took place at a highly selective evangelical Christian college with a nationally competitive athletic department. Data were collected through interviews with 19 campus leaders, observation of cultural events and document analysis. Analysis occurred qualitatively through a process of theorizing. The results indicate that evangelical Christianity played a significant role in the athletic departments culture by constraining its membership, influencing its pedagogy and guiding department decisions. As a result, its values and assumptions were consistent with those of the overall campus culture. The reasons underlying this cultural integration offer coaches and administrators of all institutional affiliations the possibility that the organizational culture perspective can be used to create athletic programs that are more consistent with institutional values.

Changes at Honey Grove High

This case provides a contemporary look at the complexities of environmental and organizational change and the challenges faced by a new high school principal in this changing social context. The case offers an in-depth look at a rural high school and the resistance by veteran teachers, the school board president, and the local superintendent when stability and tradition are threatened. It presents a broad overview of the various dilemmas associated with change, power, and micropolitics, while offering a greater understanding and appreciation of the depth and endurance of organizational culture.