What rituals and routines shape classroom life?Typically, teachers are enormously busy, instructing, monitoring, distributing material, evaluating student work, organizing class activities. Students spend much of their time sitting still and waiting. Many students must manage their energy and curiosity by denying their needs, becoming involved in distractions, and sometimes by daydreaming. How is class time related to student achievement?John Goodlad and others have documented startlingly inefficient use of time in many classrooms. While some teachers use time efficiently and well, others lose much instructional time in issues ranging from managing student behavior to administrative routines. Teachers who can efficiently organize classroom activities and manage students are able to invest more time teaching. In those classrooms, students learn more. How does the teacher's gatekeeping function influence classroom roles?Researcher Ned Flanders found that two-thirds of the classroom time is talk; two-thirds of that talk is from the teacher. In the"pedagogical cycle," teachers structure (lecture and direct), question, and react to student comments, and initiate about 85 percent of these verbal cycles. Research shows that most questions are asked by the teacher and require only rote memory. Ironically, while a major goal of education is to increase students' curiosity and quest for knowledge, it is the teachers, not the students, who dominate and manage classroom interaction. What is tracking, and what are its advantages and disadvantages?Being tracked into slower classes has a negative impact on students' self-esteem and achievement, and results in fewer opportunities to learn, and a growing achievement gap between students in the highest tracks and those in the lowest ones. Researchers such as Jeannie Oakes have found a disproportionate impact on poor children and students of color. These students are more likely to find themselves labeled as slow learners even when their achievement levels are strong. For reasons such as these, it is not surprising that tracking has acquired an"undemocratic" aura. Yet many teachers and parents believe that some sort of grouping is necessary. Teaching gifted students along with weaker ones will meet no one's objectives, and serve to frustrate everyone. Tracking must be reformed to avoid racism and classism, but advocates argue that tracking is inevitable and can be productive. Why has"detracking" become a popular movement?Opposition to tracking grew with recognition that African American and Hispanic students were being underrepresented in programs for the gifted, and teachers with the least experience and the lowest levels of qualifications were being assigned to students in the lowest tracks. Supporters of detracking call for more individualization of instruction, more authentic learning, and less reliance on a"one size fits all" view of learning, teaching, and evaluating. By 2000, only a small number of schools continued to use the term"tracking," although many continued the practice under names such as"ability grouping." How do peer groups impact elementary school life?Beginning in elementary school, peer pressure wields great power in children's lives. Young children's peer groups are rigidly segregated by a gender wall, with boys tending to form hierarchic societies and girls usually forming pairs of best friends. Those left out may develop adjustment problems and emotional difficulties. Compared to children in the early 1980s, in the late 1990s, elementary children spent more time studying, playing sports, reading, in day care, in school, and involved in personal care, while spending less time watching television, enjoying leisure time, or in religious activities. In what ways does the adolescent culture shape teenage perceptions and behaviors?Sociologist James Coleman described the intensity of the adolescent society, perhaps the closest thing to a"closed social system." Students seek and value peer status as a mark of their own worth. Authors such as Ralph Keyes suggest that high school's social status system may very well have a lifelong impact. Students who are socially frustrated in high school may be particularly motivated to succeed as adults. In A Tribe Apart: A Journey Into the Heart of American Adolescence (1999), Patricia Hersch provides insight into contemporary adolescent culture, and the lack of community or parental monitoring. As a result, today's teenagers are more isolated, intense, and at risk than ever before. What steps can educators take to create a more supportive school environment?Concerned by the apathy, alienation, and sometimes violent nature associated with adolescents, leaders like Frances Ianni have called for schools to nurture many of the at-risk children by providing"affective" or emotional and psychological support and resources. Ianni advocates youth charters, a coordinated network of school and community services to provide students with the resources that they may not be getting at home. The Carnegie Foundation in its report Turning Points: Preparing Youth for the 21st Century, also suggests that schools implement more humane and caring structural changes, such as detracking, cooperative learning, and creating smaller school units that can promote a sense of community. What are the characteristics of effective schools?Researchers such as Ron Edmonds have set forth a"five-factor theory" of effective schools. These factors can be summed up as (1) strong administrative leadership, (2) clear school goals shared by faculty and administration, (3) a safe and orderly school climate, (4) frequent monitoring and assessment of student progress, and (5) high expectations for student performance. Not all educators or parents view the five factors in the same light. For instance, in monitoring student progress, some advocate the use of norm-referenced tests, while others rely more on objective-referenced tests, currently so popular with the state standards and testing movement. Whether to assign homework, and how much to assign, is another point of contention. Some limitations on research findings on the five factors include: (1) differences on the definitions of an effective school; (2) overemphasis on urban and elementary schools; (3) the lack of a strong blueprint for developing effective schools. Beyond these traditional five factors, newer research connects effective schools with early intervention programs, an emphasis on reading and math, smaller schools, smaller classes, increased learning time, assessment of student progress, and expanded teacher training. To date, there is little evidence connecting technology with school effectiveness. Some believe that the long-term reform effort of Connecticut offers a vivid example of an effective schools success story, achieving many of the factors reported in the research. |