Comments on The Educated Reporter: What the teacher research DOESN'T say.

Linda, you ask about the relative impact of princi...

2010-04-03T21:15:11.154-04:00

Linda, you ask about the relative impact of principals. Kenneth Leithwood at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto did a metanalysis finding that principal leadership is second only to teacher effectiveness in terms of its effect on student learning. Principal leadership is particularly important at schools serving challenging students.

One critical piece of research that the public sho...

2009-10-26T16:31:31.951-04:00

One critical piece of research that the public should understand is that the NAS Board on Testing and Assessmente has warned the U.S. Department of Education NOT to use NAEP scores to evaluate Race To The Top programs.

http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12780&page=1

Thanks for the thoughtful post, Linda. I too am in...

2009-10-25T09:01:41.627-04:00

Thanks for the thoughtful post, Linda. I too am intrigued by the over the top rhetoric and writing on the issue of teaching effectiveness and the presumed preeminence of the individual teacher in ensuring that students learn or not. At my blog (and in other published pieces of late) I have been pointing to an important new study demonstrating the powerful effect of teacher collaboration in producing greater student achievement gains. Using 11 years of student data in North Carolina, researchers found that most value-added achievement gains are attributed to the make-up of teacher teams, not the traits and characteristics of individual teachers. And guess what: the teachers who did the best when it came to student achievement had more experience and were more highly qualified.

The education agenda is a war agenda. Those educat...

2009-10-24T18:47:04.169-04:00

The education agenda is a war agenda. Those educators who joined in the hysteria around the demagogue, Obama, are now seeing the chickens come home to roost. That David Brooks and Jeb Bush give Duncan and Obama an "atta boy" on education is evidence that the bi-partisan project is unchanged: regimented curricula promoting witless nationalism, anti-working class high stakes exams, militarization in poor areas, and now merit pay. Toss in some limited privatization and you have a society dedicated to endless war and rising inequality making odd demands on schools.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/01/18620428.php

Why would Obama say teacher quality mattered more ...

2009-10-22T22:18:43.557-04:00

Why would Obama say teacher quality mattered more than income or skin color if he meant to address only factors inside the school? Income and skin color have nothing do to with factors inside the school. If he had meant factors inside the school he would have said class size or per-pupil funding. His wording is clearly intended to indicate ALL factors in a child's life -- that's self-evident.

Hi Linda, Thanks for starting this blog. I'm...

2009-10-22T22:18:11.892-04:00

Hi Linda,

Thanks for starting this blog.

I'm glad you made the critical distinction about the research regarding the importance of the teacher. Many, if not most, journalists and politicians have repeated the fallacy that the teacher is the most important factor in a child's education. Of course this is not true, but this misinformation is being used to shape policy for the entire country. Are we on the verge of another expensive but ultimately disappointing experiment in education?

In his books and speeches, President Obama seemed clear about the importance of the partnership between home and school, so I'm perplexed as to why his administration seems to be focusing on schools alone.

Linda Mele Johnson

Nothing is black and white, in my book. Why wouldn...

2009-10-22T17:39:04.590-04:00

Nothing is black and white, in my book. Why wouldn't I care what a lobbyist, or a teacher, or anyone else has to say? I welcome everyone's thoughts.

It looks like you've attracted the lobbyist bl...

2009-10-22T17:24:26.642-04:00

It looks like you've attracted the lobbyist bloggers. Do not be fooled by their pronouncements about studies and the like, much of which represents a mythology that has been years in the making.

Linda, When I read President Obama's comments...

2009-10-22T14:33:51.384-04:00

Linda,

When I read President Obama's comments, I assumed he was talking about the school environment - not life in general. Consider this line:

"From the moment students enter a school, the most important factor in their success is not the color of their skin or the income of their parents, it's the person standing at the front of the classroom."

... from the moment students enter a school, not from the moment kids pop out of the womb. In the context of that part of his speech - which is about recruiting and preparing excellent, talented teachers - it's difficult to read his speech the way you have. There is absolutely no confusion in the paragraph you cite about what President Obama does and doesn't refer to.

Since we're playing "gotcha" journalism, I'll say no, Linda - "you're wrong."

The determinants of student performance outcomes i...

2009-10-22T14:01:50.701-04:00

The determinants of student performance outcomes in a school are complex and, sometimes, exceptional - - in that they can change in the same classroom from student to student. Overall, parent education is a powerful factor. Families with college educated grandparents and parents speak academic English, the concept-based, college level language in which textbooks are written and most instruction is conveyed. Not knowing this language is a major disadvantage. School factors: curriculum, teacher quality, learning culture, extra support, etc., are all powerful. If every lesson unit began at each student's existing skill, knowledge, and conceptual level, and included the amount of instruction and practice the student requires to master new standards (next level skills, knowledge, etc.) schools would produce much higher levels of student success.

I don't doubt that there are some remarkable p...

2009-10-22T13:27:58.704-04:00

I don't doubt that there are some remarkable principals out there, but education is generally a loosely coupled system -- most reforms that start as a wave outside of the classroom only cause a ripple inside it.

That said, you raise an interesting point: even if the teacher's teaching is the mechanism by which students learn more (or less), how/what the teacher teaches isn't totally up to the teacher. In other words, teacher quality can be influenced by people other than the teacher. I have little doubt that some principals make their teachers better teachers than they would be otherwise. In that sense, I don't completely disagree with your argument.

But I will push back on the idea that the climate and policies a principal establishes influence a student anywhere near as much as what a teacher does inside a classroom. Again, I have little doubt that an effective discipline policy and positive climate make teachers better, but a high-quality school environment won't teach kids how to read. Besides, teachers have as much of a hand in how school policies play out as does the principal.

Corey: Because in many schools principals set the ...

2009-10-22T12:25:55.766-04:00

Corey: Because in many schools principals set the agenda for what's done in classrooms, how teachers work together (or don't) and use data (or don't), set discipline policies and test-prep protocals, and so on. I've seen schools where teachers have very little leeway for what they do and how every day in their classrooms. In those cases, my guess is that the principal is a HUGE factor.

Linda: Good post, but I don't understand why p...

2009-10-22T12:05:35.385-04:00

Linda: Good post, but I don't understand why principal quality would have at least as large of an effect as teacher quality. Kids spend virtually every moment in school with their teacher(s), but many only see the principal patrolling the hallway or presiding over an assembly. Over a period of time, the principal might have more influence than a single teacher since they influence the climate of the school, but in any given year it's hard to imagine than anything other than the teacher could be the largest influence inside a school.

Jason: The reason you can't find such a paper ...

2009-10-22T11:54:36.693-04:00

Jason: The reason you can't find such a paper is probably because it doesn't exist. Most research on non-school factors has been correlational rather than longitudinal. For example: we know that students with more educated parents do better in school, but we haven't really tested whether educating parents will subsequently result in better school performances by their kids.

In other words: all of the effect sizes in Whitehurst's paper have to do with one change begetting another change, but that research hasn't really been done on non-school factors (with a few notable exceptions, like Gautreux and MTO).

For those interested in Stephanie's comment ab...

2009-10-22T11:05:38.346-04:00

For those interested in Stephanie's comment about the research on small schools, EWA is running a conference on that subject in San Diego Nov 8-10 - here's information http://www.ewa.org/site/Calendar/579628511?view=Detail&id=100501

Watch the website for info after the meeting or email Raven Hill (rhill@ewa.org).

The public perception that small class size equals...

2009-10-21T22:19:08.675-04:00

The public perception that small class size equals a better education. I have friends who seem to think that a schools quality can be measured by their student to adult ratio.

Seems like me and Pondiscio responded simultaneous...

2009-10-21T16:43:57.761-04:00

Seems like me and Pondiscio responded simultaneously with similar thoughts.

I've consistently seen this same claim made, b...

2009-10-21T16:39:25.640-04:00

I've consistently seen this same claim made, but I haven't seen any research which compares effect-size of community factors and school factors. Do you know of any studies that do work similar to the recent Brooking's letter (http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2009/1014_curriculum_whitehurst.aspx)that looks at curriculum reform versus other forms of reform?

Curriculum remains the Great Undiscussed in educat...

2009-10-21T16:36:37.458-04:00

Curriculum remains the Great Undiscussed in education. Apropos of Obama's stance on teacher quality, Brookings' Russ Whitehurst just published a paper last week that as far as I can tell has received no attention in print but should. He pointed out that curriculum effects on educational outcomes dwarf the effect sizes of favored reform strategies (charter schools, teacher quality, early childhood ed and academic standards). Whitehurst writes:

"Further, in many cases they are a free good. That is, there are minimal differences between the costs of purchase and implementation of more vs. less effective curricula. In contrast, the other policy levers reviewed here range from very to extremely expensive and often carry with them significant political challenges, e.g., union opposition to merit pay for teachers. This is not to say that curriculum reforms should be pursued instead of efforts to create more choice and competition through charters, or to reconstitute the teacher workforce towards higher levels of effectiveness, or to establish high quality, intensive, and targeted preschool programs, all of which have evidence of effectiveness. It is to say that leaving curriculum reform off the table or giving it a very small place makes no sense. Let’s do what works for the kids, and let’s give particular attention to efficient and practical ways of doing so."

The bottom line: “We conclude that the effect sizes for curriculum are larger, more certain, and less expensive than for the Obama-favored policy levers,” writes Whitehurst, the former director of the Institute of Education Sciences.

Granted, this is not about "what the research doesn't say." It's about what the research DOES say, but isn't discussed.