Pedagogue Blog

Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Teachers

Emails and Teacher Morale

**The Edvocate is pleased to publish guest posts as way to fuel important conversations surrounding P-20 education in America. The opinions contained within guest posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of The Edvocate or Dr. Matthew Lynch.**

A guest post by Megel Barker

I overheard a conversation a few days ago between two of my colleagues. The text of the interchange was the concern with the frequency of emails and more importantly there was some doubt about the relevance of most of them. The conclusion centered round the idea that emails were a major distraction to the serious issue of teaching. One colleague signed off with a retort that maybe we were all better before emails.

This final utterance really made me think. I pondered what the world of teaching was like before emails became the daily deliverer of information. How did we get by? A cursory check with other teachers conveyed a similar annoyance with the uninvited intrusion of email on their daily duties. Another task added to the ever burgeoning list of ‘to-dos”.

Twilight Zone

But how could we arrive at this place? How is it that in the age of information, teachers are feeling overwhelmed, confused, tensed and lost when confronted with an inbox of school e-mails? Rather strangely, we seemed to have entered a twilight world of either under-information or over-information. The former, occurs when important emails become swamped or lost in your inbox, while the latter manifesting as being told everything happening in school. So where did we go wrong? Do we all need to know that someone’s goldfish died? Do we all need to know that a new student has joined the school, when I won’t teach him this year?

A quick survey among my colleagues, gleaned a similar sentiment. Emails are the bane of teacher communication in fact it is even being touted as having significant contribution to teacher morale. How could such a technological improvement, one that enhances the sharing of information and is proven to improve time become the sore thumb in a school environment? I have even heard the words “detest” and “hate’ being associated with some teachers’ feelings toward this mode of communication.

Staff Morale

Knowing that email must be a good thing, I decided to look at email from a purely mathematical perspective and see if it was possible to determine an optimal solution to this dilemma. The common thread that I identified from my simple survey was that email had two variables affecting the environment in which it operates. These variables were Email Volume (EV) and Email Relevance (ER). Email Volume was literally the number of emails received daily, while relevance referred to the impact the email had on the teacher carrying out their daily functions effectively.

The graphic shows four possible situations that teachers can encounter in their work environment. Each scenario has, I believe, a tremendous impact on teacher morale.

Situation A

Situation A is the case where there is a high volume of emails in the school environment. Everyone emails and everything is emailed. All important documents are shared by emailed and all official communications are disseminated by this medium. Staff is expected to read emails but is also expected to read and respond in this way. The reality of this is that the emails are all important! They have high relevance to staff’s daily work but the volume is quite high. This type of environment is quite pressured, where staff feels compelled to read emails but is strapped for time. The morale in that environment is

Situation B

A full inbox is the daily expectation. In this scenario, everything is shared and important emails get lost in the traffic. Teachers are constantly informed about every event in school with numerous follow-ups and communiques that involve issues that require no action. Social events and social notes are posted without concern for who might want to know. The bulk group “all teachers” is used with impunity. This creates an environment that makes teachers disconnect from the emails. They adopt a system that involves requiring them to be reminded that an email was sent. This disconnection can lead to a level of apathy among teachers and paradoxically also a level of tension. This tension, coming from the sensation, that they might be missing something that has great importance.

Situation C

An almost empty email inbox is the daily fare. Numbers of messages in your inbox is small and is irrelevant. This is not a common scenario for most teachers however it is an all too familiar experience for new teachers. This situation plagues the newcomer mostly and can be traced to not being added to main mailing lists. The natural outcome of this is that the teacher is less informed about important and relevant issues and is constantly left to find things out at the coffee bar or in the staff room. Teachers can either disengage from the system or they can complain that they do not know what is going on. Morale is indeed low here; a feeling of detachment persists and can affect performance especially if high relevance information is not shared.

Situation D

The only emails received have high relevance to the teacher’s practice. There is a very low volume of email but each email is entirely impacting on daily practice. Even though the volume is low, the information shared is current, composed and clear. In this scenario, it would be expected to have other means of sharing information such as Google Drives or folders kept on a local server with vital forms and archived information. Essentially, there is an expectation that the only people who get the emails are the ones who will be able to do something about it. Morale here is high and teachers feel valued, they feel their time is being recognized as truly important and so they respond by being energized and motivated. Work gets done and communication is valued.

The table above shows my summary of the four potential dimensions of email in the workplace and the prevailing morale. Despite the clear cry from all I interviewed for situation D, none of my respondents felt they had experienced this Utopian world. In fact they feel it is impossible to have this outcome at their current workplace. This is worrying. Emails should make us more efficient. I propose that Situation D is the optimal solution and I believe that schools should strive for this to materialize. So how do they do this?

An email protocol?

While there will be positives and negatives regarding this, schools should engage with their staff and collaborate on an email protocol. Some key features of this would include:

  1. Clarity on who is copied on emails
  2. Who uses the bulk email features such as “allstaff@….com
  3. The frequency with which emails are shared from admin
  4. Other means of sharing information such as cloud drives
  5. Use of “reply all”
  6. The frequency of social emails
  7. How the subject line of the email is worded

So, which of these scenarios best describe your current email climate? Is my description of staff morale correct? Please respond to my survey by clicking on the link: http://goo.gl/forms/I7y6P9hPXh.

____

Megel Barker is a Google Certified Educator that has taught mathematics for 21 years. He’s currently Assistant Principal at an International School in Oman and has written two workbooks that support the Oman GED Exams. You can follow him on Twitter @mathter.

Read all of our posts about EdTech and Innovation by clicking here. 

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Matthew Lynch published in Equity, Parental Involvement, The Whole Truth

In kids, even low lead levels can cause lasting harm

Robert L. Fischer, Case Western Reserve University and Elizabeth Anthony, Case Western Reserve University

The recent firestorm over lead exposure from drinking water in Flint, Michigan is a reminder of the enduring risk posed by environmental lead. While we can all agree that it is unacceptable for children to be exposed to dangerously high levels of lead, there is less awareness of what this means.

Flint is just one of many cities in the country where lead exposure is a serious issue. For cities with an industrial past and much pre-1978 housing stock, like Cleveland, where we work, the risks to today’s children is of continuing concern. In recent years, we and our colleagues have been examining the incidence and effects of lead exposure on young children in Cleveland and its first-ring suburbs.

Even though lead paint was banned in 1978, many old homes still have it.
Thester11 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

Lead is a known neurotoxin that is associated with cognitive deficits in children – even at low levels of exposure. In fact, reports indicate that most of the harm may occur at levels of exposure well below current standards for concern. Though lead is no longer used in household paint and has been removed from gasoline, there is still plenty of it out there. Lead leaching into water pipes, in paint dust and chips, and soil remains a serious threat to children.

Children living in low-income neighborhoods, children of color and children whose families live in rental housing are statistically at the greatest risk of exposure to lead. That means the children most at risk of lead exposure also disproportionately face the effects of poverty, low-resource communities and trauma.

Lead’s effects never go away

Often attention is focused on the number of children who have an elevated lead test result in a given year. This is an important metric, but it can mask the cumulative role of lead exposure on child development.

For example, in Cuyahoga County, where nearly 25,000 children are tested each year, we have seen the number of children with an elevated blood lead level (above 5 micrograms per deciliter) drop from 35 percent in 2004 to 9 percent in 2013. This is a very encouraging trend showing success from public health efforts.

Despite the fact that the number of children with high lead level rates seems to be going down, it is important to think about the overall share of children that have ever had a positive lead test. These children carry those effects with them as they age.

In a recent unpublished analysis using integrated data from multiple sources, we found that fully 35 percent of children in a sample of preschool classrooms had an elevated blood lead level at some point in their lives.

The treatment options for children with elevated blood lead levels include dietary approaches and dealing with the effects of lead by managing sensory exposures. At greater exposures, chelation therapy – in which a synthetic compound is injected into the bloodstream which binds itself to the heavy metals – can be used. Though chelation has been shown to significantly reduce blood lead levels in the short term, there is evidence of a rebound in lead levels after therapy has concluded. Also, blood lead levels do not fully capture the retention of lead in bone and deep tissue.

Kids with lead exposure start behind nonexposed kids.
Children image via www.shutterstock.com.

Long-term consequences

Children exposed to lead are at elevated risk for learning delays and academic issues. We have also found that students with confirmed early childhood lead exposure have lower kindergarten readiness scores.

In tracking the experiences of children in our community, we find that lead-exposed children entering high-quality preschool start the year significantly behind their nonexposed peers.

In our ongoing research, we have found that on standardized measures these children score 10-30 percent below their peers on skills such as identifying letters, numbers and shapes. More sobering is the reality that while these children show significant progress during preschool they still finish the year, on average, below where their nonexposed peers start the preschool year.

This disparity is likely to grow as children age unless special efforts are made to address it. Results from Detroit show that these children are much more likely to experience academic challenges as they age.

And it looks like it doesn’t take much lead to cause harm. Other research has shown that blood levels well below the current standard for intervention can also cause negative effects on school readiness for young children.

There is no known safe level of lead exposure

Until a few years ago, the federal standard for action was 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood, and in 2012 it was lowered by half in recognition of evidence showing a lower threshold of concern.

But the truth is there is no known safe level of blood lead for children, and the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said as much.

The medical research community has documented negative impacts on children with even lower levels of lead exposure than the current 5 micrograms per deciliters standard. With that view, we might consider every child with a confirmed nonzero lead test as at-risk.

Based on our analysis of lead data in our county, we calculate that if this standard were adopted in the U.S., our lead exposure rate for kids younger than 6 in a single year would climb from 9 percent to 3-4 times this rate.

Short of ensuring that every housing structure has been certified as lead-safe, parents and caregivers should be the first line of defense in keeping children from this exposure. Testing lead blood levels in children is simply too late.

This is akin to the TSA searching for lethal weapons after the passengers have boarded the flight and the plan has taken off. Once the lead is in the bloodstream, the damage is real and lasting for these children, and the options for response are far fewer and less effective.

The Conversation

Robert L. Fischer, Co-Director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, Case Western Reserve University and Elizabeth Anthony, Research Assistant Professor, Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, Case Western Reserve University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Equity, Policy & Reform, Teachers

Why do fewer black students get identified as gifted?

Jason A. Grissom, Vanderbilt University

Nationally, black and Hispanic students are underrepresented in gifted programs, which provide specialized instruction or other services to meet the needs of especially bright or talented students.

Data from the U.S. Department of Education show that black and Hispanic students make up 40 percent of public school students but make up only 26 percent of students enrolled in gifted programs.

So what are the reasons for this underrepresentation?

One possibility is that these disproportionately low rates simply reflect differences in academic achievement across demographic groups. Indeed, a large body of research demonstrates that black and Hispanic students lag behind their white and Asian peers even at kindergarten entry.

However, a recent study I coauthored with Christopher Redding, a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University, shows that differences in achievement are only part of the story.

The black-white gap in gifted identification

We based our research on an analysis of gifted placements in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which tracked a nationally representative sample of kindergartners throughout elementary school. A nice feature of these data is that they contain standardized achievement measures in math and reading for every student.

When we took student achievement levels into account, we found different patterns for Hispanic and black students. Essentially all of the gifted assignment gap between Hispanic and white students can be explained by test score differences. In stark contrast, math and reading scores explained only a little of the black-white gap in gifted assignment. In fact, a black student with the same scores as a white student is still only half as likely to be assigned to a gifted program.

In other words, two students – one black and one white – with the same math and reading achievement could have very different likelihoods of being identified as gifted.

This is a startling finding.

And, as additional analysis in our study shows, it cannot be explained by other differences in student background, such as parental education and household income.

Our investigation of school and classroom factors, however, does point toward two contributors to the black-white gap.

The first is that black students are less likely than white students to attend schools that offer gifted programs.

A teacher’s race can influence who gets selected for gifted programs.
US Department of Education, CC BY

The second is that black students assigned to a white classroom teacher are much less likely to be assigned to gifted programs than those assigned to a black teacher.

The differences are big.

Black students in black teachers’ classrooms have almost the same probability of being assigned to gifted services as otherwise similar white students. However, black students in white teachers’ classrooms are identified for gifted services only about a third as often.

We find no similar evidence that having a same-race teacher matters for the gifted assignment of white, Hispanic or Asian students.

Black teachers vs. white teachers

Why would the teacher’s race matter for whether a black student is identified as gifted?

There are multiple possible explanations.

Perhaps black students respond differently to teachers who look like them in ways that make their giftedness more apparent. Perhaps parents feel more comfortable advocating for their child to be evaluated for giftedness when they share a common background with the child’s teacher.

More likely, however, is that black teachers and white teachers perform differently when it comes to identifying giftedness in black students. What a black teacher more attuned to a black child’s background, culture and language may recognize as evidence of exceptional aptitude or talent may go undetected by a white teacher.

Research also shows that white teachers tend to express lower expectations for the academic success of black students than do black teachers. Worth noting is that at last count, 83 percent of the teacher workforce is white.

How should students be screened?

To receive gifted services, students must go through an evaluation to be formally designated as gifted.

School districts’ gifted evaluation processes vary, but most begin with a referral for gifted evaluation from a classroom teacher. Students who are not referred by a teacher are unlikely to be evaluated. Teachers failing to recognize (or expect) giftedness in some students can be an important barrier to equal access.

One solution to the problem is to reduce the role of teacher discretion in gifted identification. Testing or evaluating all students for giftedness could ensure that high-aptitude students from traditionally disadvantaged groups get access to the services they need.

Indeed, school districts that have implemented so-called “universal screening” policies have seen dramatic increases in the numbers of black, Hispanic and low-income students (another group our analysis shows are underrepresented) identified as gifted.

Studies show that gifted youth benefit from gifted programs on such outcomes as achievement and motivation. And gifted youth from marginalized groups benefit even more than other students.

Gifted black students deserve the same opportunities as gifted white students to reach their academic potential. Whether the strategy is universal screening or better training of teachers to recognize giftedness among all students or another approach, our research suggests that school districts need to get serious about making sure that gifted services are accessible to all students who need them.

 

Click here to read all our posts concerning the Achievement Gap.

The Conversation

 

Jason A. Grissom, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Education, Vanderbilt University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Matthew Lynch published in Equity, HBCU's, Higher Education

If a female president is good for the Ivy League, why not for the rest of us?

Cathy Sandeen, University of Wisconsin Colleges and the University of Wisconsin-Extension

On July 1, Elizabeth Garrett assumed the presidency of Cornell University.

With this, half of the eight-member Ivy League schools now have female presidents. Garrett joins an illustrious group: Christina Paxson (Brown University), Drew Faust (Harvard University) and Amy Gutmann (University of Pennsylvania).

But what about colleges and universities outside the Ivy League?

Women in academia

I am enormously proud to have been appointed recently as chancellor of University of Wisconsin Colleges and University of Wisconsin-Extension. Although I am the first woman to hold this position, I am not the only woman in a top job in our system.

Four other campuses now have women leaders, including our flagship research university, University of Wisconsin Madison. In addition, a woman was recently elected as president of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents (the governing body that oversees the UW system).

Women outnumber men at universities.
Jair Alcon, CC BY

It’s clear that there is a commitment to gender equity at Wisconsin. But national data show a different picture.

First, let’s look at how women have come to outnumber men on college campuses. The majority of degree earners in our colleges and universities are women. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, women began eclipsing men in terms of degree attainment beginning in 2000. By 2014, 37% of women between 25 and 29 years had earned a bachelor’s degree, compared to men at 31%.

Women are well-represented in education careers in general. For instance, 76% of K-12 teachers and 48% of college faculty in the US are women.

Based on this data, it might not be unreasonable to expect that now or in the near future, 50% of all colleges and university leaders would be women.

However, the latest figures indicate that only 26% of college presidents are women. How slowly it is changing becomes evident when we see that back in 2006, this number was at 23%.

Why women don’t make it

So why do women get left behind when it comes to leadership roles?

Here is where we need to see how college and university presidents are selected.

There is, as research shows, a tendency to play it safe and hire someone who fits the existing norm (ie, men). As an American Council on Education study put it:

In 1986, the first year of ACE’s college president study, the demographic profile of the typical campus leader was a white male in his 50s. He was married with children, Protestant, held a doctorate in education, and had served in his current position for six years. Twenty-five years later, with few exceptions, the profile has not changed.

The fact that there is often a dearth of women on search committees does not help.

There is higher bar for women in leadership roles.
The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, CC BY-NC

In addition, as research shows, there is often a higher bar set for women seeking leadership roles in terms of qualifications and prior experience. This applies not just to the higher education sector but to other fields as well.

Here in the US, a former football coach, a former military officer and an elected official were all recently appointed as college or university presidents over the last year. They were all male.

No doubt, they are all strong leaders. But they did not “check all the usual boxes” we usually expect in terms of broad higher education experience. Unlike women presidents, none of them had a significant amount academic leadership experience.

Now take a quick look at the stellar curriculum vitae of the female Ivy League leaders: We see multiple books (including national award winners), distinguished and endowed professorships, service as founding deans and directors of major departments and centers, appointments to chair presidential commissions, and numerous awards and honors.

Lack of ambition or confidence?

The trouble may not lie with the hiring process alone. Often, women do not even consider applying for such jobs.

Research shows that women may hold themselves back if they feel they do not have the required experience or because they fear failure.

Men, on the other hand, are more willing to throw their hats in the ring and compete for a higher-level position, even if they do not have all of the stated qualifications.

Much of this comes from women’s tendency to play down their accomplishments.

A recent study of high-ranking Israeli women leaders found that women were reluctant “to take credit for their accomplishments. They attributed them to circumstances or luck.”

Perhaps surprisingly, female Ivy League presidents are no different. For instance, at a gathering in 2007, the Ivy League’s female presidents played down their accomplishments saying “they wound up at the head of four of the world’s leading universities almost by accident.”

Balancing a demanding job and parenting responsibilities also play a role in women’s willingness to seek major leadership roles.

This “childrearing penalty” may be especially strong in higher ed. Most women presidents come from faculty ranks. Women with children have a disadvantage in academic career progression compared to men with children. Gender bias may play a role as well.

Making connections

There is another crucial fact here that we cannot ignore: the role of a powerful sponsor.

Having a powerful sponsor probably paves a smoother path to the top. It is hardly a coincidence that three former and current Ivy League women leaders, Shirley Tilghman (former president of Princeton), Ruth Simmons (former president of Brown) and Amy Gutmann also had something else in common: they were all supported by former Princeton president Harold Shapiro.

A mentor provides advice and support. A sponsor will open doors and make crucial introductions. Often, men are more likely than women to have that sponsor.

Who wants to be the last?

Culture and attitude are critical in driving change. And competition is part of the Ivy League culture.

As Ruth Simmons, the first black president of an Ivy League institution, pointed out in a 2007 forum,

When it starts to become the issue of being the last Ivy League school to have a woman president – who wants to do that? This is a league and this is a league based on competition.

As we strive for greater gender equity in college and university leadership, we need more institutions to think of women leaders as a competitive advantage.

Those of us who already hold these positions need to also be leaders in raising awareness and becoming mentors and sponsors. Perhaps more importantly, we need to encourage other women to see themselves as qualified to apply for these leadership positions.

If the Ivy League can do it, if Oxford University can do it, why not the rest of us? Indeed, who wants to be the last institution to appoint a woman as president?

The Conversation

Cathy Sandeen, Chancellor, University of Wisconsin Colleges and the University of Wisconsin-Extension

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Read all of our posts about HBCUs by clicking here. 

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Matthew Lynch published in EdTech & Innovation, Matthew Lynch

BYOD, Customized Learning and Virtual Academics: K-12 Trends for 2014 — Part II

On Monday I wrote about what lies ahead for K-12 schools in 2014 when it comes to life skills programs, expansion of cloud technology, and a greater emphasis on individual school branding. In all three cases, the trends have been part of classrooms for some time but are sure to see rapid growth in the coming year.
I want to continue that conversation today with three more trends I think we will see emerging, or expanding, in the U.S. K-12 classrooms of 2014:

BYOD: This movement which embraces mobile technology through the devices that students already own has already gained momentum in many districts across the country, but expect it to move rapidly towards mass adoption within this calendar year. Places like Chesapeake Public Schools are already allowed to use privately owned electronic devices to access the wireless network on the school system’s filtered Internet. In Chesapeake, as in the other public and private schools where BYOD policies exist, students must sign a responsibility form that says they will only use the mobile device for academic enrichment while on school property. Students who bring their own devices into the classroom eliminate the initial costs and are also already comfortable with the technology. The downside of course is that not all students can readily afford such technology but look for schools to develop technology financial assistance programs for families to help offset the full cost and maintenance of school-owned devices.

Customized learning experiences: Self-initiated and self-directed learning experiences are based upon individual needs, preferences and abilities of students who are then the masters of their own success. The traditional way to look at learning is through teachers creating and assigning all work for students in a one-size-fits-all approach. By contrast, customized learning that students help direct focuses on feedback techniques that provide strategies for improvement during the process, instead of waiting until much further down the road to see if the methods are working. Customized, or personalized, learning is often met with hostility, especially as teachers must relinquish some classroom control for this trend to really work.

On the flip side, customized learning has the ability to incorporate a variety of resources, such as virtual learning, to aid in the learning process while making it a way for teachers to moderate one-on-one learning experiences in practical ways. I think that the idea of handing control to students is hypothetically frightening to some educators and administrators but once they’ve actually tried it on a small scale, personalized learning actually looks more attractive from an adult’s perspective.

Online learning: Virtual learning is certainly not new to the K-12 scene, but its increasing popularity can’t be ignored. It used to be that online learning was associated only with distance learning, or students who went through the academic process off of school grounds. Today, online learning is more segmented and often just one part of a more traditional learning experience. Virtual learning is no longer all or nothing; it has become mainstream and will continue to transform in-classroom learning in the coming year.

Virtual learning also makes it possible parents, teachers and students have access to information they may need no matter where they are physically located. This, in essence, expands the classroom and gives students more time and space to complete and comprehend their lessons. There are many spinoffs of online learning, like the increasing availability of Massive Open Online Courses, which make virtual academics a returning trend for K-12 learning in 2014.

On Friday I will wrap up my list of K-12 trends for 2014. Has your school embraced any of today’s trends fully?

Read all of our posts about EdTech and Innovation by clicking here. 

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Matthew Lynch published in Equity, HBCU's, Higher Education

Let’s face it: gender bias in academia is for real

Cynthia Leifer, Cornell University; Hadas Kress-Gazit, Cornell University; Kim Weeden, Cornell University; Marjolein C H van der Meulen, Cornell University; Paulette Clancy, Cornell University, and Sharon Sassler, Cornell University

Cornell Professor Sara Pritchard recently made the argument in The Conversation that female professors should receive bonus points on their student evaluations because of the severe negative bias students have toward their female professors.

Commentators on FOX News attempted to discredit her argument as “insane,” ridiculed the idea that gender plays a role in evaluations and repeatedly mentioned a lack of data to support her claims. But the reality is women faculty are at a disadvantage.

Unfortunately, as we well know, for many women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), the path to academia ends long before they obtain a faculty position and are the “lucky” recipient of biased student evaluations.

We represent the success stories – women with careers at Ivy League universities. And yes, while we agree that there are more women in STEM fields today than ever before, bias still affects women in STEM, and not just in student evaluations.

Letters of recommendation and teaching evaluations

It starts right from the hiring process.

In the first stage of the hiring process, a candidate for an academic position must be selected from a pool of hundreds to give a job talk and on-site interview.

The decision of who to invite for a job talk is based on materials about the candidate including CVs, letters of recommendation from prominent figures in the field, samples of research, “buzz” about who’s a rising star and teaching evaluations.

A large body of research shows that many of these materials, and how they are evaluated by search committees, reflect bias in favor of male candidates.

Letters of recommendation, for example, tend to have a very different character for women than for men, and their tone and word choice can affect the impression that the hiring committee forms about candidates.

For example a 2008 study of 886 letters of recommendations for faculty positions in chemistry showed that these letters tended to include descriptors of ability for male applicants, such as “standout,” but refer to the work ethic of the women, rather than their ability, by using words such as “grindstone.”

It turns out that female candidates are seen as less hireable as well.
Mike Licht, CC BY

A similar study showed that female, but not male, students applying for a research grant had letters of recommendation emphasizing the wrong skills, such as the applicants’ ability to care for an elderly parent or to balance the demands of parenting and research.

Furthermore, a 2009 analysis of 194 applicants to research faculty positions in psychology found that letters of recommendation for women used more “communal” adjectives (like helpful, kind, warm and tactful), and letters of recommendation for men used more decisive adjectives (like confident, ambitious, daring and independent), even after statistically controlling for different measures of performance.

Perhaps not surprisingly, a follow-up experiment in the same paper found that these subtle differences in the language can result in female candidates being rated as less hireable than men.

Unfortunately, even when the same language is used to describe candidates or when the key objective criteria of productivity are used, evaluators rated female candidates lower than male candidates.

Teaching evaluations, as our colleague already pointed out, are also known to be biased.

Historian Benjamin Schmidt’s recent text analysis of 14 million rankings on the website ratemyprofessor.com showed substantial differences in the words students used to describe men and women faculty in the same field: men were more likely to be described as “knowledgeable” and “brilliant,” women as “bossy” or, if they were lucky, “helpful.”

If a female candidate makes it through the “on paper” process and is invited for an interview, the bias does not end.

What makes a ‘fit’?

Once a field of candidates is narrowed down from hundreds to a handful, very little distinguishes the top candidates, male or female. Final decisions often come down to intangible qualities and “fit.”

Although “fit” can mean many things to many people, it boils down to guesses about future trajectories, judgments about which hole in a department’s research profile or curriculum is most important to fill, and assessments about whether a person is going to be a colleague who contributes to mentoring, departmental service, and congeniality.

Research in social psychology and management shows that women are seen as competent or likable, but not both. The very traits that make them competent and successful (eg, being strong leaders) violate gender stereotypes about how women are “supposed to” act. Conversely, likable women are often perceived as being less likely to succeed in stereotypically male careers.

Despite all this information, FOX News isn’t alone in its view that women candidates for academic positions are not at a disadvantage.

In fact, one of the commentators in that segment cited a study from other researchers at Cornell that concluded the employment prospects for women seeking faculty positions in STEM disciplines have never been better.

The authors of that study go so far as to blame women’s underrepresentation in the sciences on “self-handicapping and opting out” of the hiring process.

Women doing better, but not better than men

The fact is at the current rate of increase in women faculty in tenure-track positions in STEM fields, it may be 2050 before women reach parity in hiring and, worse, 2115 before women constitute 50% of STEM faculty of all ranks.

This is supported by faculty data at Cornell itself. Between 2010 and 2014, there was only a modest 3%-4% increase in women tenure-line STEM faculty.

In contrast to these data, the study cited by FOX News argued women are preferred to men for tenure-track STEM academic positions. The authors of that study used a research method common in social sciences in which true randomized experiments are impossible to carry out in real-life contexts called an audit study.

In an audit study, people who make the relevant decisions, such as faculty or human resource managers, are sent information about two or more fake applicants for a position. The information is equivalent, except for a hint about the question of interest: for example, one CV may have a male name at the top, the other CV a female name.

The battle against sexism has yet to be won.
European Parliament, CC BY-NC-ND

Although the audit study design can be very useful, in the case of STEM faculty hiring it oversimplifies the complex hiring process, which typically involves many people, many stages and many pieces of information.

The authors sent out equivalent descriptions of “powerhouse” hypothetical male or female candidates applying for a hypothetical faculty opening to real professors. Among the respondents, more said that they would hire the woman than the man. However, the study in question “controlled for,” and thus eliminated, many of the sources of bias, including letters of recommendation and teaching evaluations that disadvantage women in the hiring process.

Furthermore, only one-third of faculty who were sent packets responded. Thus, the audit study captured only some of the voices that actually make hiring decisions. It is also hard to believe that participants didn’t guess that they were part of an audit study about hiring. Even if they didn’t know the exact research question, they may have been biased by the artificial research context.

The study by our Cornell colleagues has already generated a lot of conversation, on campus and off. The authors have entered this debate, which will undoubtedly continue. That’s how science works.

Contrary to what FOX News and some of our academic colleagues think, the battle against sexism in our fields has not been won, let alone reversed in favor of women. We must continue to educate hiring faculty, and even the society at large, about conscious and unconscious bias.

Paulette Clancy, Hadas Kress-Gazit, Cynthia Leifer, Marjolein van der Meulen, Sharon Sassler, and Kim Weeden are professors at Cornell University. Hadas Kress-Gazit, Cynthia Leifer and Kim Weeden are also Public Voices Fellows at The Op-Ed Project.

The Conversation

Cynthia Leifer, Associate Professor of Immunology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University; Hadas Kress-Gazit, Associate Professor of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University; Kim Weeden, Professor of Sociology, Cornell University; Marjolein C H van der Meulen, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University; Paulette Clancy, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Cornell University, and Sharon Sassler, Professor of Policy Analysis and Management , Cornell University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education, Policy & Reform, Teachers

6 Ways to Reform Teacher Education

As contemporary K-12 students change their learning styles and expectations for their educations, teachers need to change too. More specifically, the education that teachers receive needs to be modified to meet the modern needs of K – 12 classrooms. There are policy and practice changes taking place all over the world – many driven by teachers – that address the cultural shifts in the classroom. Some of the teacher education reforms that show a lot of promise include:

Subject-specific recruiting by colleges and universities. The book Teaching 2030, written by 13 experts in K-12 classroom pedagogy, calls for education schools to stop letting in any and every education major in the broad sense of the subject area. Instead, the experts suggest that colleges become more selective to meet the demand of actual student need. Young people that are interested in teaching high-demand subject areas like mathematics, bilingual education, physical science and special education should be viewed as more valuable to institutions of higher learning. This needs-based philosophy addresses actual voids in the industry and better equips schools to meet students’ needs.

Target urban backgrounds. Teachers with connections to urban locations and educations are prime candidates to return to these schools and make a difference. Universities are not doing enough to find these qualified future educators and then place them on specific tracks for career success at urban schools. There needs to be greater customization when it comes to college learning for future educators who understand firsthand the challenges that urban students face – and then job placement programs need to be built around the same concept.

Require urban student teaching. All educators-in-training should spend at least a few hours in an urban classroom, in addition to their other teaching assignments. Seeing urban challenges firsthand must be part of every educator’s path to a degree, even if he or she never teaches full time in such a classroom. I believe this would not only raise awareness of issues that tend to plague urban schools (like overcrowding and the impact of poverty on student performance) but may also inspire future teachers to want to teach in those settings. College programs must expose teacher-students to real-world urban settings in order to make progress past the social and academic issues that bring urban K-12 students down.

Reward urban teachers. The test-heavy culture of American K-12 classrooms puts urban teachers at a distinct advantage when it comes to resources and even lifelong salaries. If a teacher whose students score well on standardized tests is rewarded with more money and access to more learning materials, where does that leave the poor-performing educators? Instead of funneling more funds and learning help to teachers with student groups that are likely to do well, despite the teacher, urban teachers should be receiving the support. At the very least, the funding and attention should be evenly split. In almost every case, failing urban students and schools should never be blamed on the teacher. That mentality is what scares away many future educators who may otherwise have given urban teaching a try. There is too much pressure to perform and that leads to many urban teachers leaving their posts after the first year, or not even looking for those jobs in the first place.

Virtual learning options. Though colleges often get all of the attention when it comes to online learning programs, K-12 education is also shifting more toward distance learning options. During the 2010-2011 school year, 1.8 million students in grades K-12 were enrolled in some type of distance learning program. That is up from just 50,000 in the 2000-2001 school year, according to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. This is a trend that teachers-to-be simply cannot ignore. Virtual learning is not reserved for only those that can afford it; 40 U.S. states have state-run online programs and 30 of those states provide statewide, full-time K-12 schools. The University of Central Florida is one of the only schools to offer a virtual-school emphasis for education majors that lets students apprentice with Florida Virtual School instructors.

Continued classroom learning for administrators. Since the people at the top are generally the decision-makers, they should be required to return to the field every now and then. On the other hand, the teachers that are actually in the student trenches should be empowered to help change educational policy based on the reality of the modern classroom. The Center for Quality Teaching supports a “teacherpreneur” program that would “blur the lines… between those who teach… and those who lead.” Actionable strides toward closing the public education gap between teachers and administrators are necessary for real, effective change to take place in K-12 classrooms.

Public education in America needs teachers that are better trained to meet the needs of specific student populations, those that understand the necessary role of distance learning, and those that are willing to speak up to facilitate classroom change. Without these teachers, effective reform to meet global demand is not possible.

How have the roles of teachers changed over the years in your opinion? What is the single greatest obstacle that teachers face that stands in the way of maximum K-12 student achievement?

photo credit: zubrow via photopin cc

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Education Leadership, Matthew Lynch

4 Ways School Administrators Can Discover Their Unique Leadership Style

Each administrator has his own unique personality traits. So as can be expected, some leadership styles will appeal more to some school administrators than others. The natural differences in personality among various leaders lead to preferences that run below the leader’s awareness.

What often happens due to these personality traits is that a leader develops judgments, and responds to his or her environment by focusing on certain leadership aspects more than others.

Variations caused by factors such as age, upbringing, and gender have been shown to affect the way personality is developed and expressed. Practices are also influenced by the interaction between personality and contextual aspects associated with the workplace. Examples of these contextual aspects include the perceived nature of work, the leadership experience, the school level, and the leader’s position.

So which is the best way forward? What can school administrators do to find the leadership style that simply clicks for them and leads to unbridled success? Here are a few tips.

1. School leaders and administrators should first acknowledge their inborn, natural tendencies toward some practices over others. They should then reflect on whether these preferences affect their leadership practices. Honesty and transparency in admitting personality differences would motivate the leaders to consider ways to satisfy the various needs of their schools. Self-awareness is a necessary step before leaders can really engage in effective team-building.

2. Delegate, delegate, delegate. Many researchers consider delegation vital for leadership success. Research has shown that delegation is dependent on personality preferences, which translate to foregone conclusions in leadership behavior and in competence. The leader’s preferences are heavily influenced by what is natural, comfortable, and enjoyable for the leader.
Delegation allows the leader and team members to do what they do best.

3. School leaders need to consider the administrator’s preferences when it comes to shaping school leadership responsibilities. They will end up attempting more modest efforts, which sounds counterintuitive—but the success of this practice is actually based on sound research. While this may be more supportive of a differentiated rather than instructional leadership style, the importance of including varying differences of opinion is vital for any leadership model.

4. School leaders should embrace their differences as assets when working together. As schools seek to redefine themselves as learning communities, its members must work together in a friendly, cooperative fashion, by challenging and engaging with each other. Jungian theory finds that diversity generates synergy and innovation. Most leadership researchers and theorists have noted that human differences provide the creative tension needed in the forward movement and growth of any institution. Models of leadership that ignore the nature of leaders tend to be far less effective.
As school principals work to close the achievement gap in learning, they should strive to build a conscious understanding of their own natural preferences, in relation to instructional leadership.

Human differences are often depicted as weaknesses, and are quickly pushed aside. Seeking to address them in a meaningful way, instead of dismissing them, can be a seed for success in educational leadership.

Do you think that leaders need to be aware of and develop their unique leadership qualities to be successful at school? Why (or why not)? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts.

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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform

Future Trends in K-12 Classroom Management and Discipline

K-12 Classroom management and discipline is all about the balance between learning within the classroom and discipline. Today, various trends are currently popular. Strategies that come to mind include Wong’s Pragmatic Classroom, which stresses the need to define expectations for students, and Canter’s Behavior Management Cycle, which emphasizes a distinct discipline model.

So far, though, despite the range of strategies and their fluctuating popularity, all strategies applied to date have their pros and cons, their various strengths and weaknesses.

Above all, there is an increased importance applied to classroom management these days. A relatively new open-mindedness also applies to classroom discipline strategies (the recognition that it is not, after all, better to punish the child for inattention or some indiscretion).

What does this point to? Inevitably, there are several trends to be aware of:

• We are likely to see an increase in success for one strategy or another. Existing strategies for classroom management and discipline approaches tend to be, in general, quite effective. Inevitably, there is also the need to make some allowances for teaching style. Some teachers excel with one approach to classroom management and discipline. Others prefer alternative methods. While this is unlikely to change because it is unlikely that there will be a single strategy deemed more effective than the rest, we can be fairly sure that the handful of top recommended strategies will see an increase. We should see an increase in their strengths and a corresponding reduction in weaknesses as overall efficiency and effectiveness are improved.

• Because of the increased use of technology in the classroom, we can certainly expect to see more of an integration of technology within the classroom, in part as a management approach but perhaps also as a discipline approach. Teachers may well find means of applying technology. Whether it is some sort of integrated system used via a system like the iPad (with more and more public school classrooms enjoying access to this type of technology) or some online database for monitoring student behavior in class will depend on the circumstances. It is likely that teachers will have increased scope to experiment, very likely knowing ten or fifteen years down the line precisely which of these various resource types is likely to be the most effective.

• With a bit of luck, although this trend is less certain, teachers may well also see a greater transfer of learning responsibility to the child. A further advantage of the integration of technology to the classroom is the increase in scope for independent activity among children. In many other areas of school life (for instance, library use and general self-care areas), children are already encouraged to take a lead, to the effect that they learn relevant skills faster and that much more effectively. Very likely, teachers will have means of encouraging students to be more independent in their discipline – in their self-discipline –and, depending on the way in which curriculum and standards develop, perhaps also in terms of how they go about learning within the classroom, moving from task to task and perhaps even having independence in their learning choices.

One thing is for sure though — we can expend change to classroom management and discipline strategies in public education classrooms. We may not have the full story yet on what is likely to happen five to ten years down the road, but we have some signs of change, some definite evidence of the types of shifts. How exactly these individual shifts play out? Only time will tell.

 

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Equity, Parental Involvement, Policy & Reform

Cops in Washington believe that preschool leads to crime prevention

According tdn.com, police officers in Cowlitz County in Washington believe that by expanding preschool may help reduce or prevent crime.

Cops were visiting schools in the county to talk to students and to help push state lawmakers to “add 1,000 additional slots to the state-funded Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program.”

“A long-range study of Michigan’s Perry Preschool found that at-risk children who did not participate in a high-quality program were five times more likely to be chronic offenders by the age of 27 than those who did not attend. Another Chicago study found at-risk kids were 70 percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime by the age of 18 if they missed out on quality preschool.”

If so, and if implemented in Washington, a move of this nature will eventually cut costs as it is much cheaper to educate kids than it is to jail an adult.

Additional statistics from the state show that “[t]here are 235 children enrolled in the state-funded Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, plus an additional 300 clients in the federally funded Early Head Start serves pregnant moms and their kids up to 3 years old.”

That’s a lot of students, and if the program is extended to allow for more kids, it will certainly serve as a life changing event for many of the state’s low-income children.

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Matthew Lynch published in Policy & Reform

U.S. graduation rates at record high

The U.S Department of Education announced this week that the high school graduation rate reached another record high of 82 percent in the 2013-14 year, according to the Huffington Post.

The announcement follows October’s release of preliminary data by the Education Department that shows a decreasing gap in graduation rates between black and white and black and Hispanic students. The data shows that graduation rates climbed for the country as a whole.

The past four consecutive years have shown a continual increase in the U.S. high school graduate rate after the states and districts began using a new metric to measure this number in 2010.

The achievement gap in graduation rates between black and white and white and Hispanic students continues to steadily diminish. The 2010-11 school year there was a 17-point percentage gap in graduation rates between black and white students. The number fell to 14.8 by 2013-14.

New data shows that graduation rates have risen for the past few years for subgroups like low-income students, English language learners and students with disabilities.

Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education said, “America’s students have achieved another record milestone by improving gradation rates for a fourth year. The hard work of teachers, administrators, students, and their families has made the gains possible and as a result many more students will have a better chance of going to college, getting a good job, owning their own home, and supporting a family. We can take pride as a nation in knowing that we’re seeing promising gains, including for students of color.”

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Matthew Lynch

New Teacher Tip: Getting Ready for the First Day of Class

Okay, so now you have decided on the layout of your classroom and feel that you are ready for the new a new batch of students. Not really! There are many other things that you need to prepare before you can feel comfortable about welcoming your new students. Use the checklist below as a guide to make sure you have taken care of all the aspects of classroom preparation that need to be addressed prior to the first day of school.

Teacher Supplies

Being an organized teacher will make your life a whole lot easier; trust me. If you have your materials and supplies in one place, you will not have to frantically look for folders or paper clips at the last minute. It will also help your classroom management efforts and decrease the frequency of classroom disruptions and misbehavior. You should also make sure you have adequate numbers of the following items:

• Textbooks
• Plan books
• Classroom reading books
• Attendance register
• Paper clips
• Grade book
• Rubber bands
• Stapler and staple pins
• Tissue
• Pencil, pens, erasers and pencil sharpeners
• Tapes of different kinds
• Folders and folder tags

Take Home Packets for New Students

Take home packets are a must for students at the start of the New Year. This packet helps you communicate the objectives of the class for the year to students and their parents. It also helps you communicate important information concerning rules and consequences, the school calendar, special events, and any new activities or changes that have been made over the summer months. If you keep parents informed from the beginning, you have made the first step in building strong parent-teacher relationships. Make sure that you include the following in the take home packet.

• Welcome message to parents
• School rules
• Supply list
• Emergency and approval forms to be signed by parents
• Transport rules and bus route

Additionally, you may want to accomplish the following activities during the first week of the new academic year.

• Prepare class rolls and records
• Create nametags for each child
• Get to know the schedule for each student, including gym, art, library and lunch
schedules
• Create a folder that can be used by a substitute teacher in case you are unable to
make it to the school; this should include the daily schedule and seating chart
• Create a file for each student that contains information about the child and
• correspondence from parents
• Develop tentative lesson plans for the next week and place them in a folder

Completion of items on this checklist will surely help you feel more comfortable, organized, and in control when the horde of excited students appear at your door on the first day of school! Also, by starting the year off with a bang, you are setting the tone for the rest of the school year. Instead of dealing with classroom management issues, organizational issues, and disgruntled parents, you will be able to enjoy a relatively stress free year. Good luck to you and I hope you have an outstanding year.

 

 

 

 

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