Summer 2004
| Volume 61 | Number 9
Best of Educational Leadership 2003-2004
Marge Scherer
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Robert J. Marzano and Jana S. Marzano
In a recent meta-analysis of more than 100 studies, the authors found that the quality of teacher-student relationships is the keystone for all other aspects of classroom management. The characteristics of effective teacher-relationships have nothing to do with the teacher's personality or even whether the students view the teacher as a friend, they assert. Instead, the most effective teacher-student relationships are characterized by specific teacher behaviors: exhibiting appropriate levels of dominance; exhibiting appropriate levels of cooperation; and addressing the problems of high-needs students. The article describes teacher strategies for shaping the dynamics of the classroom through the balance of these three types of behavior.
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Mel Levine
Many faltering students have specialized minds—brains exquisitely wired to perform certain kinds of tasks masterfully, but miswired when it comes to meeting other expectations. If schools do not learn to identify and manage students’ learning differences, many students with illusive learning dysfunctions will have difficulty succeeding in school or in life. The author suggests that schools need to take action on three fronts: broadened student assessment, curriculum reexamination, and professional development for teachers. He asserts, “I am advocating neurodevelopmental pluralism in our schools—the celebration of all kinds of minds.”
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Richard F. Elmore
The design flaws in No Child Left Behind and their implications for education make knowing how schools actually improve the most urgent task for educators. The author reviews design flaws in the No Child Left Behind legislation: overinvestment in testing, underinvestment in capacity building; ungrounded theories of improvement; weak knowledge about how to turn around failing schools; perverse incentives for quality and performance; and policymaking by remote control. He outlines the principles of a strong theory of school improvement: a high level of internal accountability; recognition of improvement as a developmental process that proceeds in stages; leadership as a cultural practice; powerful, distributed instructional improvement and leadership; recognition of how much nominally low-performing schools understand about the processes of school improvement. Educators need to engage in powerful collaborative learning around their central problems of their work to develop the discipline of improvement.
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Deborah Perkins-Gough
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James W. Stigler and James Hiebert
The TIMSS Video Study 1999 documents typical teaching practices in mathematics classrooms in seven countries: the United States, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, and Switzerland. By collecting and analyzing hundreds of videotapes of classroom process used by random samples of teachers in these countries, the researchers created a picture of what average teaching looks like in the different countries. This article reviews findings from the new video study and the original 1995 video study to arrive at several recommendations for improving mathematics instruction.
The video studies showed that teaching methods within each country were strikingly homogeneous, but the differences among countries were equally striking. The researchers discuss two basic categories of math problems: those that call on students to use basic computational skills and procedures, and those that focus on concepts and connections among mathematical ideas. What was important was not just the percentage of each type of problem presented in math classes, but also the way in which teachers and students worked through the problems. Teachers in the United States turned most math problems into procedural exercises—even those problems that were intended to focus on making connections. Student achievement tended to be higher in countries in which making connections problems were implemented as they were intended.
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Connie Juel and Rebecca Deffes
Teachers can make vocabulary meaningful and memorable for younger students by anchoring new words in multiple contexts. But just what would that instruction look like? The authors discuss the results of a six-week study that compared three types of vocabulary instruction: traditional context-based instruction, in which teachers related word meanings to students' background knowledge; analytic instruction, in which teachers related words to students' background knowledge and engaged students in analyzing word meanings; and anchored instruction, in which teachers related words to students' background knowledge, engaged students in active analysis of words, and called students' attention to the letters and sounds in words. The results of the study confirm previous research suggesting that instruction that engages students in active analysis of word meanings—both the analytic and the anchored approach—is far more effective at promoting learning than traditional context-based instruction.
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Richard H. Ackerman and Pat Maslin-Ostrowski
Effective leadership in schools requires more than just strength, power, and competence. According to the authors, it means developing a genuine sense of self grounded in strengths and vulnerabilities alike. Two essential questions arise: How can school leaders preserve a healthy sense of self in a crisis situation that can seriously wound them? How can leaders learn and grow from such experiences? Three school leaders describe the wounding experience, and their stories illustrate the meaning of leadership: a high school principal uses the wound to learn about himself and become a better leader; a superintendent takes a year off to reflect on his purpose and decides to become a middle school principal; a principal under attack learns to trust in herself and her community. Sometimes forces outside the leader's control seem to fuel the crisis. Although this can often be the case, genuine leadership requires that the leader confront the vulnerability from within and without. Discussing the problem with a trusted group of people, ‘communicating clearly and honestly,’ and showing willingness to question one's beliefs, feelings, and preconceptions pave the way to effective leadership.
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Pedro A. Noguera
In a study of 10 high schools in Boston that had implemented various reforms, the author found that many of the reforms were not improving the experiences of students. For example, the school's strategies to provide remedial help to students who had failed the state high school exit exams focused on test-taking skills, rather than on the harder work of improving instruction. Schools had also implemented reforms aimed at personalizing learning, including Small Learning Communities, advisory periods, and block scheduling. Almost all of the schools, however, emphasized the form instead of the substance of these reforms. The author did find two schools in which reform efforts were producing higher student achievement. Both of these schools maintained a “laser-like focus on teaching and learning,” took time to make sure that teachers, parents, and students understood the purpose behind a reform strategy, and looked for evidence that the reform was achieving its goals instead of “introducing a reform and hoping for the best.” The author recommends that high schools seek input from students on how to make school more meaningful, and move past superficial reforms.
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Marge Scherer
The author of Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored and Habits of the Mind describes growing up in the 1950s in Mississippi. He reflects on the values his community instilled in him, the beneficial effects of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and on current concerns about the resegregation of schools in the United States.
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