Sam Stringfield

Educational effectiveness research (EER): a state-of-the-art review

Research and scholarship into educational effectiveness research (EER) is comprehensively reviewed from the UK, The Netherlands, the US, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, and other societies, dating from the field’s origins in the 1970s. Issues include its history, methodological and theoretical advances, scientific properties of school effects, processes at school and classroom level behind these effects, the somewhat limited translation of findings into policy and practice across the world, and future directions for research and practice in EER and for all of the discipline more generally. Future research needs are argued to be a further concentration upon teaching/teachers, more longitudinal studies, more work on possible context specificity, exploration of the cross-level transactions between schools and their teachers/classrooms, the adoption of “efficiency” as well as “effectiveness” as outcome measures, and a renewed focus upon the education of the disadvantaged, the original focus of our discipline when it began.

School and System Improvement: A Narrative State-of-the-Art Review.

Over the last 4 decades, the school effectiveness and school improvement research bases have gained prominence and recognition on the international stage. In both a theoretical and empirical sense, they have matured through a wide range of well-documented projects, interventions, and innovations across a range of countries, describing how efforts to help schools become increasingly effective learning environments for the full range of their students have been more or less successful. This review presents evidence of the effects of reform efforts at the school and system levels, through articulating 5 phases: Phase 1 – understanding the organisational culture of the school; Phase 2 – action research and research initiatives at the school level; Phase 3 – managing change and comprehensive approaches to school reform; Phase 4 – building capacity for student learning at the local level and the continuing emphasis on leadership; Phase 5 – towards systemic improvement. The review concludes by reflecting on how the phases evolve and overlap and offers 3 concluding thoughts about how to identify those levers that together provide more powerful ways to enhance the learning and achievement of our students within a systemic context.

The Contributions of Classroom Observation to School Effectiveness Research

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the measurement of the classroom level. It describes the problems with classroom observation instruments/systems used in the research on effective teaching and presents some solutions to those limitations. The chapter also describes the kinds of classroom observation instruments that have been used in recent studies on effective schools, citing both their strengths and limitations. It presents the challenges related to the development of classroom observation instruments for an international study of school effects that includes classroom processes in the design. It proposes a classroom observation system based on both the effective teaching and effective schools research. The instrument attends to these challenges involved in conducting observations in an international school effectiveness study. The chapter discusses the problems that are involved in developing observational instruments appropriate for internationally comparative studies, where there are very large variations by context in the meaning attributable to behavior and in the simple practical problems of translating and back translating items.

Diverse Populations and School Effectiveness and Improvement in the USA

We begin this chapter by setting the stage with a brief review of the literature on effective school practices, primarily focusing on racially and linguistically diverse districts and schools. We then discuss the background of this project, describing how we conducted a review of research on linkages between policy domains in an educational reform context. We next analyze, across the education system, those linkages that enhance the likelihood that these practices can be institutionalized, and close with directions for future research. The research base on school-level reform practices that lead to measurable improvements in student learning in high-poverty, culturally diverse urban settings is quite large (e.g., Teddlie & Reynolds, 2000; Teddlie, Stringfield, & Reynolds, 2000), yet few studies isolate the effects for language minority students (Goldenberg, 1996). We agree with the perspective that findings from the more “generic” effective schools research are probably applicable to English Language Learners (ELLs), even if ELL issues are neither specifically highlighted nor directly addressed. However, “other factors related to language, culture, or immigration experience are also likely to come into play for [Limited English Proficient] students” (Goldenberg, 1996, p. 1). School effects and school improvement research have consistently identified several core elements that result in improved student achievement. These include a pervasive focus on learning; attention to producing a positive school climate; initiatives to involve parents in productive ways; support systems to help students achieve success; specific efforts to achieve equity in learning opportunities and outcomes; multicultural education strategies; challenging academic content; and opportunities for students to use dialogue and ideally develop both their native language and English language skills (e.g., Brophy, 1982; Chrispeels, 1992; Cotton, 1995; Levine, Levine, & Eubanks, 1985; Tharp, Estrada, Dalton, & Yamauchi, 2000).

The Labor Market Imperative for CTE: Changes and Challenges for the 21st Century.

The labor market in the United States is evolving in unexpected ways following the 2007 recession. Career and technical education (CTE) has historically linked young people to the workplace. In this article we examine the U.S. labor market and provide multiple perspectives on its growth and direction and implications for future directions for CTE. We examine the often conflicting data-based arguments and suggest that in a future increasingly dominated by robotics and artificial intelligence, new entrants to the workforce will require very strong social, employability, and work-readiness skills that reflect the behavioral, attitudinal, and character traits highly valued in the workplace and in society. These noncognitive, nontechnical skills can be developed in the CTE classroom, but require both new technical content in these classrooms and changes in how CTE teachers deliver their curriculum.

Chapter 8 Exit exams and organizational change in a vocational high school

This chapter examines one vocational high schools response to a state exit exam. Many states now require high school students to pass an exit exam before graduating, a key element of standards-based accountability reforms. Little is known about how educators and students inside vocational schools respond to these exams which typically emphasize literacy and academic skills. We examine how one such school attempted to respond to demands linked to the exit exam and the states labeling the school as underperforming. While teachers reported support for state intervention and placing stronger demands on the school, one remedy involved becoming more selective in terms of new students admitted. As a result, tensions arose between academic subject and vocational teachers. Deep frustrations were voiced by several teachers and students about whether preparation was sufficient to ensure a reasonable pass rate. We employ a critical public policy framework to illuminate how this policy shock spurred positive action while penalizing students for years of insufficient preparation in the public schools.

Integrating Educational Systems for Successful Reform in Diverse Contexts: Community-Level Reform Efforts

Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. School level improvement efforts 3. District level reform efforts 4. Community level reform efforts 5. State level reform efforts 6. The role of reform design teams 7. The role of the Federal Government in reform efforts 8. Methodological issues in the study of systemic integration for effective reform 9. Discussion and conclusion Bibliography.