Improving America's Schools The Role of Incentives (1996) / Chapter Skim
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2 Research-Based School Reform: The Clinton Administration's Agenda
2 Research-Based School Reform: The Clinton Administration's Agenda
Pages 9-28
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From page 9... ...
Student Aid The first Clinton education bill, passed early in the 103rd Congress, created a program designed to facilitate student access to postsecondary education while reducing the overall cost of loan programs to taxpayers and students. The Direct Loan program provides an attractive alternative to the existing Guaranteed Student Loan (GSL)
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10 Improving America's Schools: The Role of Incentives Policy Desired Results • School Preparedness All children healthy and ready to learn Head Start and parent education A reauthorized Head Start upgrades quality and opportunity; encourages intergenerational learning WIC and Immunizations Nutrition and immunizations for all children through increased appropriations • School Reform High standards and opportunity to achieve for all students Goals 2000 Coherent strategy and framework to support state and local school reform based on high standards ESEA reforms In context of common high standards for all students: • Resources for those least able to help themselves • Improved teacher preparation • Safe and drug-free schools • Innovation and flexibility for local districts and schools and performance accountability School-to-Work Support state and local reforms to develop workplace-based and classroom learning to earn nationally recognized credentials in high-skilled occupations • Learning for Everyone Workers have the skills to compete College student aid reform A simplified, more efficient loan program; new payment options; reduced overhead costs; savings for students and taxpayers Improved education and training Consolidated and simplified opportunities programs; increased information and accountability; easier and earlier access to training FIGURE 2.1 Lifelong Learning: The Clinton Agenda.
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State standards for occupational majors that set out content and performance expectations would be developed or adopted by representatives of industry and vocational educators. Eventually, the standards would be common across the states.
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More importantly, the Goals 2000 legislation creates a stimulus for states to initiate reforms that are focused on all students meeting challenging academic standards established by states and local education agencies -- standards that set out in clear prose what all students are expected to be able to know and do in a subject (content standards, illustrated in Figure 2.2) and what level of performance they should be expected to achieve (performance standards)
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Instead of having Title I, the massive compensatory education program, heading in one direction, Goals 2000 in another direction, and a professional development program in yet another direction, we are letting states pull these programs together to focus them on the same ends. Those ends are to support state and local reforms to bring all students up to demanding state and local academic standards.
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A central idea behind this "systemic" school reform strategy is to establish at the state and local levels challenging content and performance standards that serve as clear academic expectations for the system and for all students. A second part of the strategy calls for states to provide maximum resources and flexibility to the local education agency, so that teachers, parents, and schools have the wherewithal and responsibility to decide how best to educate their students to those standards (Smith and O'Day, 1990)
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In the past the federal role focused almost exclusively on categorical programs for defined populations, such as the poor, migrants, or students with limited English proficiency or on specific subjects such as reading, science, or drug prevention. Goals 2000 and the School-to-Work program are attempts to help strengthen the functioning of the entire system rather than only a particular aspect of it.
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The growth was even more pronounced for black, Hispanic, and Asian students, whose participation rates nearly doubled. The mean grade achieved also rose across all groups (College Entrance Examination Board, 1994)
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If teachers are going to be expected to teach to the kinds of science standards under development by the National Academy of Sciences, or the mathematics set out in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards, they will need ongoing and sustained support, beginning with preservice training and continuing through a lasting system of professional development opportunities and technical assistance (Cohen, 1989; Cuban, 1984; Darling-Hammond and Berry, 1988; Darling-Hammond and Green, 1990; Lieberman and Miller, 1991; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1982 and 1989; and National Research Council, 1994)
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From page 18... ...
Principals change jobs, supportive teachers move away, school district policies change, financial support dwindles, schools lose their momentum, and the light goes out. Study after study indicates that schools in which quality and effectiveness increase over three to four years have trouble maintaining those gains long term (Cuban, 1990; David, 1990; Elmore and McLaughlin, 1988; and Fuhrman and Elmore, 1990)
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The legislation also emphasizes local resources, autonomy, and responsibility and promotes strong professional development and technical assistance to prepare teachers to help students meet the standards. Building on a Decade of Education Reform Goals 2000 and the new ESEA also build on the knowledge and experience gained in a variety of states and local districts over the past two decades.
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Second, to make standards-based reform come to life, we need clear examples of high-quality standards and of the caliber of student work that we hope to see in the future. For example, while the Goals 2000 and ESEA legislation make it clear that states will develop or select their own content standards, exemplary standards can provide ideas about the content and structure of standards.
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From page 21... ...
Included in the administration's reform agenda discussed earlier are features intended to facilitate school responsibility in resource management by pushing resources down to schools, by granting waivers, and by other strategies. At the same time, incentives are provided so that schools will focus on challenging content standards and aligned performance assessments that together raise expectations for student learning, hopefully leading to increased efficiency and improved student achievement.
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From page 22... ...
Much carefully collected data suggest only marginal benefits to smaller class sizes (Robinson, 1990; Tomlinson, 1990a and 1990b; and Mitchell et al., 1989)
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In the language of systemic school reform, if the dependent variable is not aligned with the teaching and learning going on in the school, it is no wonder that it does not pick up variations in school resources. Yet the standardized norm-referenced tests have to be sensitive to variation in student performance, for they are required to be psychometrically reliable instruments.
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For our dependent variable we use student performance on a state assessment that is aligned with challenging state standards. For our independent variables we use measures of the resources that our theory of schooling indicates are critical to providing students with the opportunity to learn to the challenging new standards.
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College Entrance Examination Board, Advanced Placement Program. AP National Summary Report, 1989-1994.
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1989. "The impact of differential expenditures on school performance." Educational Researcher 18(4)
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From page 27... ...
Newman, Fred M 1989, "Student engagement and high school reform," Educational Leadership 46(5)
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