The policy mandates that school reforms and practices should be grounded on “Scientifically Based Research” and employ educators that are “Highly Qualified” (Manna & Petrilli, 2008, p. 63). The “Scientifically Based Research” (SBR) and “Highly Qualified” (HQ) teachers are supposedly, fruits of collaboration between educational researchers and the policy makers. Regretfully, the overuse phrases have become mantras and in the process the real definitions of the words or how they are supposed to be implemented is convoluted. Combined with school leaders’ professional wisdom, HQ should be the foundation of school reforms and SBR supposed to inform teaching practices, curriculum decisions and school programs to improve student learning. …show more content…
Reflectively, if policy makers have invested their own funds and time, or the cause or goals are more in line with that of their own ideology, then clearly they will have to pay much more attention to the data before making their decisions. The finger-pointing reveals the miscommunication between researchers and policy makers, and is a major dilemma in the fragmentation of research effort. To further their own agenda, sometimes political entities higher influential “synthesizers” to carry out their own research in order to promote what their organizations deemed important (p. 77). As Petrilli states, the synthesizers put together the “High Qualified” research, package it into something that is ideologically suitable for their own agenda and pass it down to policy makers. The user-friendly language, same ideology and compelling evidence why policy makers should embrace the definition of HQ will ultimately help policy makers to make their decision. Education field as a whole, whether it is academic, research, structures, management or a combination of them all is a complex entity and full of political, social, economical and ideological agendas tangled deeply within it.
One would think that if a program that has been researched extensively and the findings are conclusively effective, school leaders might want to use it to improve education practice. However, quite often personal philosophy, ideologies and beliefs of school
In Admiraal et al. (2016)’s article, four teachers participated in the study and they reported that through conducting their research, they were able to take diverse perspectives on teaching, think of alternative solutions to address the issues, thoroughly reflect on their teaching and their colleagues’ teaching (Admiraal et al., 2016). By researching and reading the literature that is relevant to their topics, these teachers mentioned that they use the findings of the educational research to inform and shape their practices by analysing and translating the research findings to pedagogical practice, and assess the effectiveness of new ways of teaching (Admiraal et al., 2016). Furthermore, Admiraal et al. (2016) proposed suggestions to close the gap between educational research and teachers’ pedagogical practice by offering more opportunities for collaborations between researchers and practitioners, and encouraging teachers to embark academic
During Reagan’s presidency in the 1980’s the Secretary of Education reported that education in the United States was very poor. The publication of this report enhanced the publics concerns about education. This was the beginning of the gradual process of making educational changes based on research evidence instead of unproven and ineffective teaching practices.
The scientific method continues to be misrepresented in public schools all over the world. Students are being taught that there is a beginning and an end to the scientific method, and that everything in between is protocol and must be followed chronologically. “Ask a question, do some research, come up with a hypothesis, conduct an experiment, understand your data, make your conclusion!” a grade six science teacher will tell their students. “It’ll be on your quiz!”. However, what those students are not being taught is that the scientific method has never been, and will never be a linear process. Scientists constantly revisit different steps of the process in order to better understand the subject matter; sometimes it can take many years to
“In 1983 American education reform entered a new era. It was in that year that the federal government published a report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education entitled A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. Commissioned in August 1981 by President Ronald Reagan's secretary of education, Terrel H. Bell, and chaired by David P.” (1). School reform has been poisoning our American educational system for 33 years and keeps on going with Obamas’ No Child Left Behind. This article should inform you on how school reform had developed, what is still causing the problem, and how school reform affects society.
“Unintended Educational and Social Consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act” Journal of Gender, Race and Justice, no. 2, Winter 2009, pp. 311. EBSCOhost. In this peer-reviewed academic journal article, Liz Hollingworth, an associate professor in the College of Education at the University of Iowa, explores the history of school reform in the United States, and the unintended consequences of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Hollingworth states that the great promise of NCLB is that schools will focus on the education of low-achieving students, reducing the gap in student academic achievement between White students and African-American, Hispanic, and Native American student populations. Hollingworth states that an unintended consequence of NCLB was that teachers and school administrators had to shift curriculum focus in an effort to raise test scores, but in some cases, they had to also abandoned thoughtful, research-based classroom practices in exchange for test preparation. NCLB also affected teachers, highly qualified teachers left high-poverty schools, with low performance rates especially those schools where teacher salaries are tied to student academic performance. Hollingworth concludes her article by stating “we need to be wary of policy innovations that amount to simply rearranging the deck chairs on the
Educational policies are the rules, guidelines and or boundaries that have shaped my career as student, a teacher and most recently as an educational administrator. Throughout my career I have not questioned always questioned the reasons for the development of these policies. From the readings in this course, I have begun to examine the how and why of policy development and beginning to understand role the policy analysis has in the evaluation of educational policies over time. The role of the state, the role of the individual within the state, changes to political ideologies and the development of globalization have all directly impacted policy development and the directions that education has taken over the last century.
World War I, also known as the First World War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from July of 1914 to November of 1918. In the war, technology was just beginning to advance enough to have a considerable effect on the war. The technology developed for World War 1 was mainly offensive and this caused the war to be battled in trenches. Key technological developments include but are not limited to-the machine gun, poison gas and the creation of tanks. These innovations with new advancements led to, on both sides, a war that no one had yet to see earning it the name The Great War.
Through teacher-led research, the findings which are generated through the gathered evidence for these enquiries can be employed by policy-makers and other governmental bodies in order to inform the production of new educational policies that are “evidence-supported” and not “evidence-based”, as all evidence must always be analysed carefully in order to avoid occurring in biased results (Pollard, 2014, online), and have a relevance within a classroom setting.
What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) is an important part of IES’s strategy to use rigorous and relevant research, evaluation and statistics to improve the education system. (What Works Clearinghouse Procedures and Standards Handbook, 2014) The WWC is created by Institutes of Education Sciences (IES) within the U.S. Department of Education in 2002, which was a respond to the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002. From then on, the WWC has been a central and credible platform for the evidence-based research on educational interventions, practices, and policies. In 15 years, the WWC has reviewed more than 10,000 in education domain and has made updates in procedures and
Every few years, some new process, concept, reform, or innovation is touted as the magic cure-all that will remedy whatever ails the profession – followed by disappointment that many ailments continue to plague us. Educators are often baffled by – and perhaps impatient with – these perpetual shifts and their accompanying array of
If you were a musician would you be able to compete with the other artists and musicians out there in the music industry? Try going against one of the most influential musicians of all time. Dominating the 90s and early 2000s with much success since her debut album “Mariah Carey” you will have a great challenge reaching to that success. Her debut album alone got the first four #1 singles apart from the other eighteen #1 singles out of her entire career so far. Seventeen of those #1 singles were produced and written by her only one of them was not. A woman this powerful should never be a force to mess with she has power in the industry her vocals and music have shown it all. Also, the hard-working and bravery that she has
The paper included information regarding the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. In the paper, I discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the policy as well as recommended changes to the policy. This paper provided me with the opportunity to question what my beliefs and values are on a policy that directly impacts children. In addition, the paper addresses what I think is important regarding education based on my values. As I wrote the paper, I recognized that I do value the importance of education. I also realized the importance of questioning statements of values and the underlying ethics of policies. I will continue to be competent and strive to increase my professional knowledge and skills in policies as it relates to my values and beliefs.
The new changes No Child Left Behind laws were passed earlier in 2010 stresses the importance of education has to be our main concern to ensure that our children are getting quality education. The legislation is called “Performance Counts,” It reevaluates tenure laws and evaluation. This means that teachers are evaluated and being laid off because of their performance in the classrooms. No matter how long the teacher has been in his/her position that still wouldn’t keep them in their position because of their low performance. Over the next 10 years the focus will be to prepare hundreds of new teachers in STEM science, technology, engineering, and math (Mclatchy, 2010). The program is to encourage students in the STEM field or alternative teacher certification programs to switch their careers if they choose to. For
Public education in the United States is perhaps one of the most critical issues we face as a nation. Once pronouncing the United States as a “nation at risk”, the educational institution began to implement one reform strategy after another. In efforts to improve schooling for K-12 students, education reform has fiddled with class size, revised graduation requirements, and created standardized testing just to name a few. Unfortunately, traditional public schools are still failing to provide students with a quality education. This is disheartening as we learn that the United States lags behind in math and science compared to our international counterparts. It is safe to say that educational reform has spent billions of dollars over the
The view of the world is different in the mind of every individual, but at times these views correspond establishing research schools. In the world of politics, research schools have different ontological and epistemological assumptions which allows them to view the state and power differently. Their primary concern is to figure out the nature of the world and be able to figure out what one is going to focus on and disregard. The four main research school are pluralism, rational choice, institutionalism and Marxism. Pluralism embraces societal values, culture and interests which they believe are the driven force of political outcomes. Rational choice focuses on the individuals’ self interest and self awareness and believes that an