The big problem with the usual approaches to improving schools is that we fiddle with all kinds of things except the one thing that really matters, which is instructional practice, according to Harvard's Dick Elmore. Putting pressure on schools to improve won't work unless teachers know what to do at the level of practice, and Elmore says they don't. Schools are not organized in a way that teachers can learn this, either, in part because teachers resist any intrusion into their classrooms. "The ethic of atomized teaching-teachers practicing as individuals with individual styles-is very strong in schools. We subscribe to an extremely peculiar view of professionalism: that professionalism equals autonomy in practice," he writes. In real professions, people get sued for doing things the way they like if they don't work, he points out. For more see "The Limits of 'Change," by Richard Elmore, Harvard Education Letter, January/February 2002.

For years, the advocates of standards-based reform have held up Advanced Placement tests and the International Baccalaureate as models: a clearly defined syllabus; a teacher who is prepared to teach that syllabus; a course based on the syllabus; an end-of-course examination. Those students who enroll know what is expected of them and have a fair chance to learn it and to demonstrate their learning.

Now comes a bizarre report from the National Academy of Sciences (which can be counted on always to make the perfect the enemy of the good) telling the world that AP and IB curricula are no good; that they rely too much on "factual" knowledge rather than understanding; that some of their teachers are teaching out-of-field; and that these courses need "urgent improvement." To those who have followed the battles in mathematics and science between "hands-on" reformers and reformers who believe in the value of knowing some facts and skills, these debates will appear familiar.

What is truly odd, however, is that after blasting the AP and IB, the NAS panel complains that more minority youth and rural youth should be taking these courses. Go figure.

This panel, according to The New York Times of February 15, was created in 1998 to explain why American students performed so poorly on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. Here is the best part of the committee's findings: The students who had taken Advanced Placement courses performed better on TIMSS than students who had not taken them.

In other words, the committee is recommending that American education dump one of the preparation programs that is demonstrably effective in addressing the problem of low achievement. As the syndicated columnist Cindy Adams says, "Only in America, kids, only in America."

"Study Faults Advanced-Placement Courses," by Karen W. Arenson, The New York Times, February 15, 2002

Diane Ravitch is a Research Professor at the New York University School
of Education and a trustee of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

David K. Cohen and Heather C. Hill
2001

Based on a long-term research project in California, this book by David K. Cohen and Heather C. Hill of the University of Michigan shows (says the jacket flap) that "[S]tate policy had a constructive influence on education when there was consistency among the tests and other policy instruments; when there was consistency among the curricula and other instruments of classroom practice; and when teachers had substantial opportunities to learn the practices proposed by the policy." But this didn't all come together in many California schools. A series of factors conspired to block these necessary conditions in most places. Among the key inferences the authors draw from this rather gloomy study (which echo those drawn by Dick Elmore above): "For instruction to improve, teachers must have the will to make it improve. Changing professional norms will be essential to reform.... Most California districts and schools dealt with the problem...by offering teachers lists of professional development from which to choose.... That made a certain sense in the professional and political contexts of U.S. schools, but it did not advance improvement in most classrooms....A few policymakers and reformers have tried to remedy this problem, but most administrators know little about teaching and learning, and teachers' norms are especially difficult to change when the profession makes change a matter of individual preference. If the evidence we have presented is at all typical, efforts to improve teaching and learning on a large scale still have a long way to go." To get your own copy of this thoughtful 220-page book, you could contact the Yale University Press by surfing to www.yale.edu/yup/books/089473.htm or you could consult a cooperative bookstore. The ISBN is 0300089473.

General Accounting Office
February 1, 2002

The General Accounting Office (GAO) is at it again, this time with a report on dropout prevention efforts. I should declare my view that the only sure form of dropout prevention is for schools to be high performing and effective places that students are not tempted to abandon. As GAO notes, "[D]ropping out of school is a long-term process of disengagement that occurs over time and begins in the earliest grades." But they didn't get very far in saying what to do about this. GAO admits that "the total federal funding used for dropout prevention activities or [sic] their impact on reducing dropouts is not known." This leads to the unhelpful recommendation that the Department of Education should do a better job of distilling the research, evaluating its programs and disseminating its findings more broadly. Yawn. Should you wish to bother anyway, you can find it at http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/summary.php?recflag=&accno=A02619&rptno=GAO-02-240.

If you feel amused or provoked by anything you read in the Education Gadfly, write us at [email protected]. From time to time we will publish correspondence that we think might interest other readers.

Dear Gadfly,

I enjoyed Chester Finn's two articles on Singapore. I have also heard reports from other sources that Singapore is looking to "nurture individualism and creativity." Some of this appears to involve introducing more discovery-learning-type modules to the classes. Without any data, I would suggest that this is as pointless and likely to be as unproductive as trying to teach generalized problem solving. I don't think the cause of the difference in individualism and creativity between Americans and Singaporeans is class size, uniform curriculum or nation building.

I would suggest as an alternative that the fundamental difference is the difference between the societies themselves. Americans fundamentally value free speech and view the free exchange of ideas as a national creed. We honor individual genius and the inventors of new things. By contrast, Singapore is not a politically open society. Free expression of novel or challenging ideas is not encouraged and, it appears, often not allowed. In this climate, the open expression of inventive or individual ideas will be suppressed in almost any context. I don't think it is possible to say "in this context you
can be creative and fully open," while at the same time saying "we neither think nor say things contrary to certain views." We have often put up with some level of offensive speech to ensure that new, important ideas, and challenges to accepted ideas can appear. This may be changing in various contexts, but it certainly has bred a culture of both individualism and creativity in many domains.

Michael McKeown
Mathematically Correct

Michael Cohen, Jobs for the Future and The Aspen Institute
December 2001

Many believe that U.S. high schools urgently need reform and have not gotten enough attention. It's good that the thoughtful Michael Cohen, former assistant secretary of education (for elementary/secondary education), has turned to this sizable challenge. His new 22-page report, jointly published by Jobs for the Future and The Aspen Institute, begins the process by sketching three sets of strategies. One involves fine-tuning and expanding some current reforms. The second entails changes in high-school graduation requirements. The third, called "laying the groundwork for transformation," though skeletal in this version, heads toward tougher territory such as new governance structures, performance contracts for new high schools, and collateral changes in certification, finance, etc. All in all, a worthy start. You can find a PDF version at http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ecs/pdfs/highschools.pdf.

Paul E. Barton, Educational Testing Service
July 2001

The Educational Testing Service has a new unit called the Educational Policy Research Institute, led by Sharon Robinson, former NEA official and (in the early Clinton administration) assistant secretary of education for research and improvement. She summoned up this brief report by the perceptive Paul Barton, which contends that standards-based reform, while necessary, cannot do the entire job. He worries that today's emphasis on testing is overwrought and not enough is being done to deal with classroom order, peer pressures, parental attitudes, low college-admission standards and inattentive employers. He also contends that incentives and motivations need more attention and that technology is underutilized. It may not be worth the $10.50 that ETS asks for hard copies (which can be ordered by calling 609-734-5694) but you can download a PDF version by surfing to http://www.ets.org/research/.

The National Commission on Service-Learning
January 2002

In his recent State of the Union address, President Bush called on Americans to embrace a "new culture of responsibility" and to commit at least two years, or 4,000 hours, of their lives to serve their neighbors and country. To help meet this goal, supporters of service-learning want young people to participate in more hands-on activities that connect academics with the real world. In a report issued late last month by the National Commission on Service Learning, an august collection of supporters has urged the expansion of service learning as an effective teaching strategy for enhancing students' academic and civic experience. This report covers six key areas: the potential of service learning for improved academic and civic engagement; the basics of service learning projects; the breadth of support for service learning; the impact of service learning; implementing quality service learning programs; and recommendations for the future. Although the authors argue that service learning helps motivate children to learn and is associated with increased attendance and reduced drop-out rates, it will be some time before there is hard evidence to show that it leads to academic improvement. This important point aside, service learning is already playing an important role in getting young people involved in their communities and their nation-a worthy goal in itself. View the report online at http://www.servicelearningcommission.org/learningindeed.pdf. For a hard copy, contact the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, one of the report's sponsors, at 800-819-9997 or [email protected].

The California State Board of Education has proposed new regulations that would undo the reform of bilingual education enacted by the state in 1998 after voters passed Proposition 227. That ballot measure limited native language instruction in public schools to a single year, unless parents requested a waiver. It had previously been routine in California to keep children in Spanish language instruction for years and years, and as a result the English language skills of many Latino students suffered greatly. Since Prop 227 ended this practice, Latino test scores have shot upward in California. But, as Michael Barone writes in USNews.com, these gains are now jeopardized by regulations proposed by the state board that would 1) give teachers rather than parents the right to apply for waivers to place students in bilingual programs and 2) eliminate the requirement that all limited-English students under the age of 10 spend the first 30 days of every school year in an English-language program before a waiver allowing them into Spanish-language instruction could be obtained. Combined, these two changes would undermine the whole reform, Barone notes, as many teachers and administrators will try to keep children in Spanish-language instruction for ideological reasons or to keep more money coming into the building, since Spanish-language teachers are paid a premium. Will California Governor Gray Davis keep his pledge to carry out the letter and intent of Prop 227, or will he allow his own appointees on the state board to break that promise and undercut the will of the voters? Stay tuned. "Debating bilingual education," by Michael Barone, USNews.com, February 8, 2002.

The White House budget released last week contained good news for school choice supporters. It includes a tax credit that would pay up to $2,500 a year in private school tuition for parents of children whose public schools are failing. The credit would cover 50 percent of the first $5,000 per child that's spent on books, computers, transportation, supplies and tuition at a school of the parents choice. It would be refundable, so even low-income workers who pay no taxes would benefit. The White House education budget also includes a new $50 million Choice Demonstration Fund, which would support local school choice experiments and $100 million to help charter schools buy, lease, or renovate buildings. Congressional Democrats have attacked the budget request for education, both for its choice elements and because, they say, it provides less money than the President agreed to when he signed the No Child Left Behind Act last month. Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Representative George Miller, who worked with the President to enact that law, argued that the funds for the tax credits would be better spent on Title I, the main federal education program to help poor children, and other programs under the No Child Left Behind Act. A White House spokesman noted that the President's budget also includes billion dollar increases for Title I and special education. School choice supporters, meanwhile, are watching for evidence that the administration is not only going to lay these new proposals on the table but is going to do battle to get them enacted. For details see "Bush Budget Proposes Education Tax Credit," by Mike Allen, The Washington Post, February 4, 2002, and "Democrats Criticizing Bush Budget on Education," by Robert Pear, The New York Times, February 13, 2002.