Pedagogue Blog

Matthew Lynch published in Policy & Reform

How to Create and Sustain Educational Change

By Matthew Lynch

When it comes to creating and launching school reform, the most critical question administrators must confront is: where do we begin? It is not advantageous to begin reform by tackling several goals at once; when trying to start reform in a complex environment such as a school, administrators need to focus on one task at a time. When making decisions, the administration needs to be sure to complete all steps of the reform in sequential order, using a strategic way of thinking.

Schools as business models

When considering school reform, it may be advantageous for administrators to think of their schools as businesses. If the structure of the school were to reflect the business model, we would work from the assumption that students in the school system are customers, schools are the businesses, teachers are the employees/supervisors, and the administrators are the CEOs.

In any business, the customers needs always come first. The reputation for customer service is the best advertising a business can receive. Keeping this savvy business strategy in mind, the business of the school should be to create learning opportunities that lead to greater academic achievement. If educators make lessons fun while adhering to the curriculum, the graduation rate will increase dramatically. If children feel safe and entertained, they will want to come to school. It is the educator’s task to make sure students learn to love to learn, while it is the administration’s task to support their efforts.

Categorizing goals

In some cases, goals can be independently accomplished. Departments will be able to achieve short-term goals while accomplishing the larger goals. When it comes to long-term change, however, three conditions must be present in order to sustain it.

  • Administrators must come to an agreement concerning the issues that have made it necessary for school reform to take place. They must be open and honest and refrain from blaming others for the issues that exist. All individuals directly and indirectly involved in the school reform must share a common vision. Administrators also need to agree on the rules and guidelines that will support the implementation of the reform, while respecting cultural beliefs of the faculty, staff, and students.
  • Administrators must communicate the current issues of the school and the vision for the future to stakeholders. Those who support and participate in reform need a clear vision of the common goal. Administrators must paint a reform picture that alleviates fears, and entices all to buy into the vision.

It Takes a Village

Administrators should make sure that teachers are a major part of school reform. Reform is considered a success or a failure based on the students’ performance, but teacher performance is inextricably linked to student performance. Through positive teacher-student relationships, genuine learning can take place in the classroom. Teachers know their students and the educational practices that work best in their classroom.

When creating school reform, administrators should also consider communicating with community members. Community members and parents have a lot to contribute when it comes to school reform and they should be encouraged and allowed to do so. Parents and educators undoubtedly have a genuine concern for the needs of students. Why not place the important decisions concerning our students in the hands of the people that have the children’s best interests at heart?

Too often, the most critical decisions concerning the educational system are made by people without the capacity to understand the inner workings of the individual school and what it takes to live up to the standard that “no child is left behind.”  To achieve true success in any school change, the decision-makers need to seek out the people who know what needs to happen to make a real difference in the outcomes for students.

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education, Secondary Education

Why High School Graduation Is the Key to Improving At-Risk Communities: Part I  

A guest post by Frank Britt, CEO of Penn Foster

Education is the catalyst for bottom-up change and can become the epicenter of transformation for communities. With a high school diploma, at-risk youth can be armed with academic pedigree, are far more attractive professionals and have better social and civic skills. This milestone creates a catalyst for driving personal and communal change. Educate our youth, and our communities will flourish.

What Drives (and Improves) Economic and Productivity Growth in a Community?

States that invest in k-12 education help build a strong foundation for economic success and prosperity, according to the 2013 Economic Analysis and Research Network report, “A Well-Educated Workforce Is Key to State Prosperity.”

Education is the cornerstone to providing people from disadvantaged backgrounds with decent healthcare and sufficient nutrition, the report found. Education also equates to greater productivity. Economic Policy Institute analysis found that between 1979 and 2007, states with greater productivity also had increased median worker compensation, thus supporting the strong link between productivity and education. In other words, giving workers access to high-quality education strengthens the economic infrastructure of a state—the effect on local communities is no different.

High school diplomas are commonly the jumping-off point to such improvements, as is continuing education to cultivate a skilled and productive workforce. Education boosts productivity and redistributes the increased earnings into higher wages for workers.

What Drives (and Improves) Poverty and Income Inequality in a Community?

Income inequality and poverty-stricken households significantly influence the demise of a local community. And a low-income community driven by under-educated individuals actually perpetuates this chronic cycle of fiscal depression. This a primary reason that the U.S. economy is growing but the traditional “all boats will rise” prosperity phenomena has not happened is because millions of people exist outside the economic mainstream and lack the skills and opportunity to exploit this middle-skills labor gap moment.

Combating poverty with initiatives to lower high school dropout rates is an essential ingredient, according to John Bridgeland in his article “Fight Poverty: Lower High School Dropout Rates.” Without high school completion, young people experience higher unemployment rates and rates of receiving public assistance, going to prison, divorcing and becoming single parents—all catalysts for a life and community plagued by poverty. Poverty is cyclical, yet academic options specifically designed to meet the unique needs of these low-income individuals can break the treacherous cycle.

Dropout prevention and high school completion programs designed to meet the specific needs and challenges of the nontraditional student (such as hybrid learning models) can help raise high school graduation rates and make both secondary education or career opportunities more viable.

The Time Is Now

Poverty and income inequality are combustible forces that can destroy families, corrupt communities and harden society in countless ways. The good news is that the common vaccine to all these ailments is education, starting with a high school degree. More than 90 percent of jobs demand this credential to get a job, and the imperative for all stakeholders (students, parents, schools, businesses and government) is to build a cohesive plan of attack.

The high school diploma serves as the cornerstone to future citizens and our communities. If academic communities can collectively address educational crises by implementing both traditional and unconventional student solutions, we can foster higher economic returns, poverty mitigation, crime-free environments and enhanced civility.

Frank Britt is the CEO of Penn Foster, a leading career-focused online and hybrid education institution that annually supports over 100,000 active students and 1,000 institutions nationwide. His mission is to create a national movement to better connect education, career pathways and job creation, and to promote debt-free and affordable learning. By utilizing the power of practical education, career training and hands-on mentoring, he has helped improve the lives of everyone from underprivileged children and families, to front-line workers and recent college graduates. His efforts recognize the challenges faced by the 7,000 people that regrettably drop out of high school each day, the 4 million middle-skilled workers seeking employment, 50-70 year olds transitioning careers, and the thousands of veterans focused on establishing new career pathways.

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Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Equity

Want to change perceptions of Muslims? Support students of all beliefs

Matthew Mayhew, New York University

In the wake of the recent terror attacks in Paris, Baghdad and Beirut, our national discourse has been full of conversations about Muslims in civic life.

Presidential candidates have offered up religious tests as potential barriers to entry for refugees seeking to flee conflict zones. State governors have proposed suspending accepting new refugees in the wake of the attacks.

Despite the recent surge of interest, skepticism about the trustworthiness of Muslims in America is anything but new.

National research data demonstrate that Muslims were ranked in the coldest third on a “feeling thermometer” by their fellow Americans of different faiths.

Even more troubling is the reality that religion-based violence against Muslims represented about 14% of hate crimes in 2013, despite the fact that Muslims comprise less than 1% of the US population.

The national attitude toward Muslims extends into the collegiate environment.

Our research on religious and spiritual campus climate has indicated that only 46% of students believe that Muslims are accepted on campus. But our data also point to ways in which college educators can make a real difference in the ways Muslims are perceived by Americans generally.

Prejudices on campus

Controversy around Muslims on campus has hit the headlines on a number of occasions.

Universities have faced criticism, for example, for providing worship space to Muslim students (most recently at Wichita State in Kansas). Earlier this year, Duke encountered an outcry from alumni after announcing plans to permit Muslim students to sound the call to prayer from the chapel bell tower. Similarly, in 2007 the University of Michigan-Dearborn faced a backlash after installing footbaths for Muslim students on campus.

These situations, unsurprisingly, have an impact on how Muslim students perceive their campus communities.

Bruce Speck’s study of Muslim college students demonstrates that they feel largely unsupported in their religious practices and subject to bias and disrespect both in and out of the classroom.

Incidents such as the murder of three Muslim students in North Carolina earlier this year continue to fuel fear in this community.

Students gather during a vigil on the campus of the University of North Carolina for Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife Yusor Mohammad and Yusor’s sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, February 2015.
Chris Keane/Reuters

It is our belief that these prejudices and misperceptions damage the strength of our American democracy. Higher education has a role to play in beginning to address these challenges.

But what can campus leaders do?

Together with Alyssa Rockenbach at North Carolina State University, we have collaborated on research to answer precisely this question.

Data speak volumes

We developed a survey to examine the attitudes shown and values held by people on university campuses about religious diversity. From 2011-2014, we administered this survey at 52 colleges and universities.

The findings of our research point in some exciting directions for educators seeking to make a positive impact on negative perceptions of Muslims in higher education and beyond.

One of our key questions was related to the idea of how non-Muslim students perceive Islam and Muslims in the world. And following on from that, we wanted to know what experiences help non-Muslim students come to appreciate Islam and Muslims around the world.

We asked non-Muslim students to respond to a series of statements to gauge their level of appreciation for Muslims. These questions included, “Islam values service to others,” “Islam promotes peace,” and “In general, Muslims are moral and ethical people.”

Our subsequent data analysis revealed a variety of interesting trends.

Consistent with the literature on collegiate experiences, our analysis showed that the types of educational experiences students encounter within a campus community are critical in shaping their perceptions and attitudes.

Non-Muslim student appreciation for Islam and for Muslims around the world was associated with:

  • participating in interfaith experiences, such as an interfaith service activity or an interfaith dialogue
  • having uncomfortable conversations that moved non-Muslim students to examine their own prejudices, and
  • engaging in informal opportunities to interact across difference, like dining together or studying together.

However, opportunities to encounter difference did not always lead to greater appreciation of Muslims.

In fact, our research also showed that, among non-Muslim students, the following experiences were associated with a lack of appreciation of Islam:

  • attending their own or other formal religious services
  • being silenced and feeling unsafe to express their own faith freely on campus, often due to moments of conflict or tension around religion
  • feeling as though their college seems to favor certain worldviews above others
  • perceiving less support for their own religious or nonreligious identities.

A unique opportunity

What do these data points tell us? As the number of Muslim college students continues to grow, college educators have a unique opportunity to create and support productive meeting spaces that promote positive attitudes toward Muslims among non-Muslim college students.

As the number of international students from a variety of religious traditions increases on college campuses so will the opportunities for these students to return to their nations as leaders. Our work hopes to equip these future leaders with the tools needed to effectively and productively engage across religious differences.

However, increasing diversity on campus is only part of the solution.

Religious diversity needs support.
Pass a Method, CC BY-SA

In fact, the mere presence of diversity on campus may actually harm relations among communities, as diversity left unengaged and unsupported can lead to greater isolation and distrust.

Educators, we would argue, have the responsibility to appropriately design and thoughtfully support opportunities for interaction where students can genuinely learn and get to know one another.

Simply attending a religious service on or off campus or participating in a religious course is not enough.

Students are profoundly impacted by their own experiences of inclusion and exclusion. When they themselves feel safe and respected, they more readily extend a welcoming hand to others.

This suggests that educators must give greater attention to campus climate around religious identity and diversity as a whole.

Although students are less likely to formally identify with a religion over the course of their studies, there has been a notable increase of students who participate in voluntary religious activities since the 1990s.

Faculty, staff and other campus leaders play a critical role in shaping a community where all feel welcomed.

Let us be clear: we believe these data give us the opportunity to change the news headlines of the future. Our research indicates that creating thoughtful educational experiences and building a constructive campus climate for all around religion has the potential to change hearts and minds about all Muslims.

It’s worth noting that those benefits are not limited to Muslims. Jewish, atheist, Mormon students and more would all benefit from this type of collegiate experience.

If higher education were to prioritize this work, how might the world respond differently in the wake of major global events related to religion? We challenge educators to help us discover the answer to that question.

This piece was coauthored with Mary Ellen Giess from the Interfaith Youth Core.

The Conversation

Matthew Mayhew, Associate Professor of Higher Education, New York University

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

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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, OpEducation, Policy & Reform

3 Reasons Today’s Students Might Be Worse Off than Their Parents

The great dream of all parents is that their children will grow up to have even better life circumstances than they do. Parents want their little ones to have more materially and academically – to, in essence, face more opportunities in their lives and continue to progress. In America, this desire has translated to a reality in general terms. Robert J. Gordon of the New York Times reports that a typical American was four times as “well off” in 2007 as in 1937, and eight times better off compared to 1902. He points out that these numbers of improvement have traditionally had a direct correlation with the level of education achieved. As the American public has become better educated, its quality of life has risen.

But just how far up can improvement numbers rise? At what point do Americans become so comfortable with their ways of life that they simply stop trying to achieve more?

If you look at the education system, beginning with the K-12 years and extending into the college years, it looks as if current generations of Americans may end up worse off than their parents, and potentially their grandparents too.

Let’s look more closely at how this is happening—and why.

  1. High school dropout rates are not improving: In 1970, 80 percent of Americans graduated with an official high school diploma. That number was only at 74 percent in 2000. The numbers are climbing back up, with the Department of Education reporting that the dropout rate was only 7 percent in 2011 but the way those numbers are calculated needs consideration. Those who group G.E.D. earners in with other high school diploma recipients when it comes to graduation rates present a skewed view because long term, G.E.D. students earn around the same amount as high school dropouts.
  2. “Teaching to the test” is hurting our students: Initiatives to democratize education, like No Child Left Behind, have actually hurt schools by placing too much emphasis on teacher performance and ignoring the learning needs of the students. Increasingly, K-12 teachers have to prove themselves to onlookers and at the demise of the young people who are there to learn.
  3. Minority groups are being left behind: Certainly factors outside the school environment can affect the likelihood that a student will earn a high school diploma. In 2011, 14 percent of Hispanic students dropped out of high school, compared to 7 percent of Black students and 5 percent of White students, proving that minority groups are still at a disadvantage when it comes to the American education system. Poverty, hunger, family dysfunction and just a general lack of educated role models play into the way these numbers add up.

If the high school dropout rate is higher than it has been in past generations, one of the first places to look for answers is in the classroom. What can educators do to ensure the students sitting at their desks are equipped to outperform their ancestors academically and in their careers? Is there really any way to battle environmental factors and stringent teacher accountability metrics and come out on the winning side of educating America’s youth?

For the graduates of 2020 and beyond to live up to their parents dreams of a better life, a better foundation is needed in K-12 years. The flame of desire when it comes to academic achievement must be fanned in the foundational learning years. A future that is “better” than the present is one that not only has material gains, but academic ones too. At some point, having things will simply not be enough anymore. American students will need a renewed love of learning to come out ahead of past generations and that passion will need to be born in K-12 classrooms.

In what ways do you think this generation of students will be worse or better off from its parents’ generation? Leave a comment below—I would enjoy hearing your thoughts on this.

 

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Matthew Lynch published in Diversity, Equity, Higher Education, list, Matthew Lynch

4 Fascinating Truths about First-Generation College Students

College attendance has become less of a privilege and more of a necessity in the contemporary workforce. This cultural shift is a reflection of President Obama’s goal of having the largest percentage of college graduates out of all the countries in the world by 2020. With this push has come an influx of students that may not have been part of the college scene as early as a decade ago. Availability of courses online and expansion of options at the community college level have paved the way for non-traditional students to earn degrees and a better living. A growing demographic in college attendance and graduation are first-generation students.

First-generation college students face a unique set of challenges, and some of them may just surprise you. Here are some fascinating truths about first-generation college students.

  1. Half of the college population consists of first-generation students. A 2010 study by the Department of Education found that 50 percent of the college population is made up of first-generation students, or those whose parents did not receive education beyond a high school diploma. The National Center for Education Statistics released numbers in 2010 that broke down the educational levels of parents of current college attendees. Minority groups made up the largest demographics of students with parents that had a high school education or less, with 48.5 percent of Latino and Hispanic students and 45 percent of Black or African-American students included. The parents of students of Asian descent came in at 32 percent with a high school diploma or less and Native Americans at 35 percent. Of students that identified themselves as Caucasian, only 28 percent were first-generation college students.

Though higher in minority groups, these numbers show the overarching trend of first-generation college attendance in all American demographics. While an education is viewed as an advantage in the job marketplace, the degree alone does not automatically lead to better opportunities and pay. In order to ensure optimal career success in the growing group of first-generation college students, the specific needs of these young people must be addressed – beyond what lies in textbooks.

  1. First-generation students are less prepared to make the most out of their education. The simple assumption is that a higher number of educated first-generation college students will translate to better jobs for these graduates and a better quality of life. The answer to the equation is just not that simple, however. Even with a college degree, first-generation students often come from low-income, minority or immigrant families and do not have the same set of life skills and personal capital of middle-to-high income bracket students.

Parents of first-generation students also do not have the life experience to adequately guide their children to the next step in succeeding in the college-educated workforce. A 2004 report in the Journal of Higher Education put it this way: “first-generation students… may be less prepared than similar students whose parents are highly educated, to make the kind of informed choices… that potentially maximize educational progression and benefits.”

The transition from a college setting to a full-time career is often bumpy for all college students, especially first-generation graduates. The things learned in a classroom simply cannot adequately translate to the real-world; in addition to “book smarts” colleges and universities have a responsibility to prepare attendees, particularly first-generation ones, for the challenges of the modern workforce.

  1. Mentorship and academic success programs go a long way in helping first-generation college students. There are some federally funded programs in place to address the specific issues that face first-generation college students, like the TRIO and Robert McNair programs that lend academic and tutoring services to this group. The problem with these programs, and others like them, is that they are not required for college graduation and are vastly underutilized. A better approach is proactive mentorship and advising that mandates interaction between students and professors or other staff members that can provide real-world guidance. These programs would focus on the translation of knowledge to marketplace settings from people that know the ropes.
  2. Some students may need to learn how to apply what they learn to the real world. Colleges and universities should place continued focus on developing skills and employability among students. Schools with especially high numbers of first-generation students, like California State University Dominquez Hills, have implemented workforce “101” courses to up the social and intellectual skills of future graduates. It is not enough to assume that students inherently know how to apply classroom skills to a real-world environment, particularly in the case of first-generation ones.

Researching the needs of these students should be a priority of all institutions of higher education as it would help them form a better-prepared student body and strong workforce.

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Matthew Lynch published in Higher Education, International Education

Why South Africa’s universities are in the grip of a class struggle

Rajendra Chetty, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Christopher B. Knaus, University of Washington

Each year, hundreds of thousands of students enrol to study at South Africa’s universities. Of the 60% of black African students who survive the first year, only 15% will ultimately graduate. This is hardly surprising: these failed students come from an oppressive, ineffective public school system. Most of their classmates never make it into higher education and those who do come poorly prepared to the killing fields.

The post-apartheid educational system is not founded on what the poor and marginalised need. Instead, as research shows, it is racial and class-based. This notion of class has great significance in a post-apartheid – but not post-racial – South Africa, not only in education but in all realms. Class, here, refers to the norms and experiences that come from living within a particular economic and financial resource base.

Access to basic shelter, adequate food, clothing and decent schooling all empower or disadvantage particular communities. There have been attempts to provide redress to previously disadvantaged South African communities, such as social grants, the provision of low cost housing and the introduction of “no fee” schools. But these have proved insufficient to remedy their continued economic exclusion.

This, then, is the unchanging element of pre and post-1994 South Africa: black youths’ life chances remain significantly lower than those of whites. What role can academics and universities play in changing this? And might they finally be spurred into action by the student protests that marked 2015 – protests which, we would argue, are a class struggle.

Inequality abounds

Education is unequal at all levels in South Africa. There is deepening racial segregation at schools and universities. Higher education is increasingly racially stratified, and it is particularly apparent in the concentration of black and coloured students at historically disadvantaged universities. Most white students attend the previously advantaged universities, like the English liberal Universities of Cape Town and the Witwatersrand, or more conservative Afrikaans institutions like the Universities of Stellenbosch and Pretoria.

Those universities catered almost exclusively to the white minority until 1994. They occupy top positions in local and international research rankings. That stems from their obtaining the lion’s share of research funding from statutory bodies such as the National Research Foundation.

They also charge much higher fees than the universities that were built exclusively for blacks during the apartheid era. This maintains the class structure of apartheid society. It is logical that universities which charge higher fees are able to provide a higher quality of education to middle class students.

But the status quo has been disrupted. In 2015 something shifted inexorably at South African universities. Students protested against institutions’ language policies, high fees, structural inequalities and colonial symbols.

It was poor and working-class youth who drove the protests – a clear indication that it is a class struggle. This is further emphasised by the fact that most students who protest, whether during 2015 or on other occasions, are black. Race and class lie at the heart of opposition to South Africa’s existing, exclusive university system.

Let’s talk about class

But racism and class are largely excluded from any understanding of the current youth resistance in higher education. This is possibly because the education system has distributed relatively petty advantages within the working class through limited scholarships and loans. It also allows for entry into elite, predominantly white institutions based on academic achievement. This serves to disorganise the entire working class and allows the capitalist democracy to more effectively exploit the majority of poor youth.

Modern forms of class prejudice are invisible even to the perpetrators, who remain unconvinced of the class struggle of black youth. They dismiss it as unruly behaviour and a lack of respect for the new “progressive” order governing universities. Protesters are berated for not understanding universities’ financial pressures; they are viewed as being insensitive to their peers who just want to get on with their education without disruptions.

Where are academics in all of this? Sadly, we believe that the voice of thinkers in the academe has been discouraged and repressed. Many of the activists among us have been co-opted onto the university bureaucracy and unashamedly drive a neo-liberal agenda of colourblindness.

Our silence has given consent to the deepening crisis of inequality. Once again, it’s the youth that had the courage to resist the system, just as they did during the Soweto uprising in 1976. They do so at great personal risk. But students should fear less the angry policemen with their rubber bullets than the racist academe that covertly discriminates against the poor.

The current black student resistance over fees, housing and limited intake clearly shows that higher education’s transformation agenda needs serious consideration. The professoriate, for instance, remains largely white and male with more gestures at window dressing than inclusion. Racism against black students and staff is prevalent.

It is also evident that in spite of profound policy changes in higher education, a “new” racial structure is operating. This accounts for the persistence of racial inequality and must be challenged. Academics are well placed to lead the charge.

Academics have a responsibility

Universities and academics should be grateful for these protests, and to the students who took up the cudgels for change. The protests should be viewed as a positive initiative. They represent a chance for the academe to generate ideas that will address the racial and class divide in South Africa rather than entrenching it. Academics cannot abdicate their responsibility towards social change any longer.

The Conversation

Rajendra Chetty, Head of Research, faculty of Education, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Christopher B. Knaus, Professor of Education, University of Washington

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

Who says libraries are dying? They are evolving into spaces for innovation

Crystle Martin, University of California, Irvine

With the expansion of digital media, the rise of e-books and massive budget cuts, the end of libraries has been predicted many times over.

And while it is true that library budgets have been slashed, causing cuts in operating hours and branch closures, libraries are not exactly dying. In fact, libraries are evolving.

As a researcher of youth learning in out-of-school spaces, I have studied the online information habits of youth. I am currently studying how librarians are supporting teen learning and teaching coding to novice learners.

So, how are libraries changing and what is their future?

Making a difference

Traditionally, libraries provided no-cost access to books and a quiet place to read.

But many of today’s public libraries are taking on newer roles. They are offering programs in technology, career and college readiness and also in innovation and entrepreneurship – all 21st-century skills, essential for success in today’s economy.

Look at some of the examples of this change happening across the nation.

In 2014, the San Diego Public Library Central Library opened the IDEA Lab, where students can explore and learn new technology with the support of their peers.

The lab hires teen interns to run workshops on a variety of topics of their interests. These range from Photoshop to stop-motion animation and skill-building technology projects.

These interns, coming from schools with predominantly African-American and Latino students, also get to work with a librarian to plan activities that give them experience related to their career goals.

Libraries are becoming spaces for collaborative learning.
Jisc infoNet, CC BY-NC-ND

Similarly, in early 2015, librarians at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library in North Carolina created a “maker space” called Idea Box, a place where area youth are invited to learn to 3D model, 3D print, knit and code. This creates learning opportunities for the youth and develops their interests in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) careers.

In another such example, the Seattle Public Library started a partnership in 2014 with the Seattle Youth Employment Program. Together, they have designed curriculum to build digital and information literacy skills.

Alongside individual libraries, national organizations such as YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association), who strengthen library services for teens, are already making changes to what they view as the purview of the library professional. Their recent report focuses on changing the role of library staff to support young people as they explore and develop career paths.

Libraries for the homeless

This is not all. Libraries are expanding beyond their traditional roles and reaching further into their communities.

Since spring 2014, the Brooklyn Public Library has been running “transitional services” that focus on providing programs such as “pop-up libraries” for people who are homeless, as well as opportunities for children to read books with parents who are incarcerated.

Even institutions going through budget cuts strive to maintain this component of serving the community. For example, when the Detroit Public Library had to deeply slash its budget during the economic downturn, alongside reducing its branch hours to 40 per week, it reworked its schedule to maximize the number of evening and weekend hours it was open, so as to best serve the community.

Future will be service

Libraries in the 21st century are going to be less about books and more about the services that library staff provide to their communities.

Miguel Figueroa of the Center for the Future of Libraries sums it up best, when he says:

The library of the future, whether the physical space or its digital resources, can be the place where you put things together, make something new, meet new people, and share what you and others bring to the table. It’s peer-to-peer, hands-on, community-based and creation-focused.

The Conversation

Crystle Martin, Postdoctoral Researcher , University of California, Irvine

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

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Matthew Lynch published in Policy & Reform, Teachers

A winning formula: how to pick the best teachers

John Hattie, University of Melbourne and Terry Bowles, University of Melbourne

It’s one of those debates that has seemingly gone on forever. All the way back to the ancient Greeks, people have been trying to figure out the best way to choose teachers.

Australian governments, most notably the NSW government and their commonwealth counterparts, have made “lifting the bar” to entry into the teaching profession a priority. Most recently, education minister Christopher Pyne announced plans to have aspiring teachers sit exams before getting into the classroom. While other states are trying to set university entrance score cutoffs for teaching.

These governments are seeking to tackle the perception (and, in some cases, reality) that there is a decline in the standard of entry into the teaching profession. Indeed, it is true that the average Australian Tertiary Admission Ranks (ATAR) for undergraduate teacher education have been slipping year on year, with some universities accepting applicants into teaching with ATARs below 50.

But ATAR cutoffs aren’t the best measure for the quality of pre-service teachers, and they would only likely affect the 40% of people who use ATARs to get into teaching in the first place.

But with quality teaching having such a big impact on student achievement, we should be looking at ways to better select teachers before they enter the classroom. If not, just to address the problem of so many new teachers dropping out.

The question is: how?

TeacherSelector

We, along with colleagues at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education (MGSE), have developed one tool that could be used, called TeacherSelector.

A web-based tool, TeacherSelector is comprised of a battery of tests and is now used by a number of education institutions in Australia and overseas to help with their selection processes. We are also using it, along with a student’s academic record, to better select students into the Master of Teaching from next year.

TeacherSelector sees students complete a series of questionaires online, over a period of about one to one and a half hours. These questionnaires are based on what qualities we know excellent teachers have; factors like achievement, experience, motivation and personal attributes. The aim is to select people into teacher education programs who will suit the teaching profession.

After all, there’s more to being a great teacher than getting high academic scores. They also need relationship skills, communication skills and sensitivity to others. We know that previous academic achievement and experience as well as certain aspects of personality, can give us a pretty good picture of an individual’s future success in teacher education and their teaching career.

Using a Five Factor Model, we look at key personality traits, including emotional stability, conscientiousness, perseverance or grit, openness to views of others. We also ask open-ended questions about how individuals engage with others, apply themselves to tasks and manage emotion under stress when there are many competing demands on their time. This information can tell us a lot about an individual’s ability to self-regulate, their resilience, their communication style and other personal attributes.

There are also sections asking for transcripts of academic performance, but to complement this, TeacherSelector also measures general cognitive ability, including numerical, verbal and spatial reasoning. This is because general cognitive ability has been shown to be a good predictor of high performance as a beginner teacher.

Finally, the test also covers the individual’s motivation for, understanding of and experience with teaching, through a series of written responses; highly effective teachers are known to be passionate about teaching and learning, and show a deep understanding of their content area.

What we’re finding out

Our findings about TeacherSelector to date generally confirm what we already know, but we are also finding that candidates have a strong interest in using their individual results as as way to become a better teacher. They can identify their own strengths, as well as areas they would like to work on, and take proactive steps to address these, with the support of academic staff.

We are also interested in the predictive capacity of the tool and have embarked on longitudinal studies to establish which factors predict prolonged career engagement and service.

TeacherSelector is not dissimilar to other selection processes that have been used for many years in disciplines like business and medicine, as well as professional career selection. Given the high stakes involved in recruiting the right candidates into teaching, it’s wise to introduce similar measures in education, for the good of our teaching students and, ultimately, students in schools.

The Conversation

John Hattie, Professor, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne and Terry Bowles, Academic, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne

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

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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform

Year-Round Schooling: Should We Add on Extra Time, Too?

In this series, I’ve advocated for K-12 schools to shift from the traditional summers-off school calendar to  year-round schooling. Consistency, less time spent relearning material, and the implications that year-round schooling has for closing the achievement gap are just a few of my reasons for feeling so strongly that this shift take place. There’s another piece to this argument though, and one that deserves a closer look. Along with more evenly splitting up time off, should schools be adding more time to their school days or more total days in the classroom?

Where We Stand

Let’s look at where American schools rank right now when it comes to days in school versus time off. Thirty states require schools to have a 180-day calendar, two ask for more than 181 school days and the rest ask for between 171 and 179 days on the official school calendar each year. Minnesota is the only state in the nation that has no minimum requirement for number of days students are in the classroom (though the state averages 175 school days). This means that in states with the lowest day requirements, students are out of school for more days than they are in it (as many as 194 days per year), a number that contrasts greatly with other developed nations.
Korea has the highest required number of school days, at 225, followed by Japan at 223 and China at 221. Canadian requirements are close to the U.S., at 188 days, and England is at 190 days. When all developed nations are considered, the international average for days in school is 193 – a full two weeks+ higher than most of the U.S.
But are all these days considered equal?

How long are the school days in places like Korea, China and England? It varies, but it is not uncommon for Korean high school students to spend 16 hours each school day in classrooms. That is more than twice the amount of time that American students spend at school, and perhaps a bit too extreme. Korean students consistently rank at the top of developed nations when it comes to subjects like math and science, though, vastly outpacing U.S. student. By contrast, in England school-aged children spend 6.5 to 7 hours at school – the equivalent of American students (but they spend more days in the classroom).

A Call for More Time in Classrooms

When comparing the amount of time dedicated to educational settings in the U.S. and competing economies, it becomes glaringly obvious that our standards of what is acceptable in terms of days in school varies greatly from the rest of the world. Even President Obama has been vocal about the need for American schools to add more time in the classroom – either through longer school days or more days on the school calendar.

“Today, it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea. That is no way to prepare them for a 21st century economy,” said President Obama in 2009.

Predictably those comments have received some pushback in the years since, both from parents who believe their children are already under too much pressure at school and need every single day off they are allotted, and from teachers unions who want to know how educators will be properly accommodated for the extra time spent in classroom instruction. The idea of adding more time to student school calendars is an unpopular one – but I’m not sure that is reason enough to rule it out.
Is it time to turn the U.S. K-12 school calendar completely on its head by abolishing summers-off schedules and adding time in the classroom? Would such actions make a significant positive impact on student performance, particularly in STEM topics?

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

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Matthew Lynch published in HBCU's, Higher Education

While rethinking admissions process, consider creativity

James C. Kaufman, University of Connecticut

The Turning the Tide report released last week by the Harvard Graduate School of Education has colleges and universities across the country taking a hard look at what many believe is a deeply flawed admissions process.

A number of colleges have already been reexamining their admissions process. In September last year, more than 80 leading colleges and universities announced the formation of the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success, so as to make changes in the admissions process and diversify student bodies.

The new report characterizes the message being sent by colleges to high schools “as simply valuing their achievements, not their responsibility for others and their communities.” It asks college admissions officers to take the following three primary steps to improve the admissions process so that it is fairer and inculcates a concern for others:

  • promote more meaningful contributions through community service and other engagement for the public good
  • assess how students engage and contribute to family as well as community across race, culture and class
  • redefine achievement in ways that level the playing field for economically diverse students and reduce excessive achievement pressure.

However, what often gets left out of admission criteria is a student’s creativity. As a creativity researcher, I have studied many aspects of creativity that reinforce the idea that creativity is a valuable and necessary attribute for students in the 21st century.

Why measure creativity?

Creativity can be seen at all levels – from young children to geniuses. Creativity can help us discover new things, from the next generation of smartphones to new ways of recycling our trash.

It enables us to make art, tell stories, design buildings, test hypotheses and try new recipes. Indeed, creative people have been found to be more likely to succeed in business and be happier in life.

There is a growing volume of research that shows putting greater emphasis on creativity assessments in the college application process could provide a more holistic impression of students’ potential. Right now, we look only at a narrow range of abilities, which means that we over-reward people with certain strengths and penalize people with other strengths.

SAT is a better predictor of success for white students.
Dennis S. Hurd, CC BY-NC-ND

Studies have shown that the most widely used standardized performance tests for college admission, the SAT, is a better predictor of college success for white students than African-American and Hispanic-American students.

However, creativity assessments are more likely to be gender- and ethnically neutral, thereby avoiding the potential for bias.

A study we conducted recently on more than 600 college applicants compared applicants’ performance on a series of online tests assessing various forms of creativity to application data, which included SAT scores, class rank and college admission interview scores.

We found that traditional admissions measures (SAT scores and GPA) were only weakly related to the creativity measures. Further, people with high creative self-efficacy (i.e., people who think they are creative) did slightly worse on some admission tests.

We are continuing to capture data about students over the course of their college careers to assess whether including creativity tests with traditional admissions measures can better predict student outcomes such as retention, college success and graduation rates.

Assessing creativity makes a difference

We do understand that assessing students’ creativity would not be easy. But that is not to say it is impossible.

As part of the admissions process, students could be asked about how they would solve world problems or what their dream job would be or how they would spend lottery winnings; these responses could then be rated for their creativity by admission officers or trained raters. Many studies have shown that this is a reliable and valid way of measuring creativity, although it can be resource-intensive.

Students participate in creative teamwork. Can creativity be measured?
Creative Sustainability, CC BY-SA

Some universities may ask such questions in current admissions, but most do not actually score answers for creativity. In fact, being creative on admissions essays can actually hurt students.

If there are concerns about adding too much stress on students during applications, schools could use a portfolio approach in which students could simply upload a poem, drawing, movie, invention or science experiment that they have already produced.

The fact is that using creativity as a criterion in admissions has been done before. At one point, Cornell University Professor of Human Development Robert Sternberg and colleagues included creativity and practical intelligence as an optional part of college admissions at Tufts University. What Sternberg and colleagues found was that students enjoyed the application process more and the average SAT score of all applicants increased from previous years.

In an equally important outcome, differences on these new measures showed reduced or no ethnic differences, and minority admissions increased.

Such results are typical in creativity studies. Whereas many standardized or intelligence tests show ethnic, cultural or gender differences, creativity measures tend to produce no differences – everyone has the same potential to be creative.

Creativity is more important than ever as college and universities try to both emphasize diversity in their student population and seek future innovators in science, technology, engineering and math, otherwise known as the STEM fields. Including creativity helps accomplish both goals.

If early impressions of the Turning the Tide report are any indication, we could be heading into a pivotal time for college admissions. Such changes should not be limited to the scope of this landmark report. We need to be creative.

The Conversation

James C. Kaufman, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Connecticut

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

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Matthew Lynch published in Ask An Expert, Matthew Lynch, Teachers

The Master List of Interview Prep for Teachers

While the precise format for an interview may vary from site to site, no matter where you are, there are some general tips and tricks for succeeding in your interview. Remember to:

1. Smile. Teachers are expected to be good-natured, friendly people; you can convey this by smiling during your interview.

2. Listen. Make sure that you listen very closely to what the interviewer is saying. Maintain eye contact, pay close attention, and be sure to ask pertinent questions.

3. Pause before answering. You don’t have to give
a quick answer. Take a few moments to collect
your thoughts and reflect; then give a well-thought response.

4. Don’t filibuster. Although some people would disagree, admitting that you Add New don’t have all the answers can be a positive trait and not the end of the world. If you’re stumped by a question, let the interviewer know that you don’t have a clear and concise answer. Tell the interviewer that you would probably seek the advice of a veteran educator, especially if it’s in the best interest of your students.

5. Dress to the nines. Like the old adage says, “always dress to impress.” Women should wear slacks or a nice suit and closed-toe shoes; men should always wear a business suit or at the minimum slacks, a shirt, and tie.

6. Participate in a mock interview. Before the interview, have someone from the field of education (friend, family member, professor) conduct a mock interview using a list of commonly asked interview questions. If this is done correctly, then the interview should be a breeze.

7. Break out the portfolio. The majority of teacher education programs require students to begin creating a portfolio beginning with their introduction to education and culminating with their student teaching experience. Ask your interviewer if you can showcase your portfolio during the interview.

8. Research. Make sure that you take the time to learn as much about the interviewing district as possible. Demonstrating a thorough understanding of the mission and vision of the district can really impress interviewers.
Remember, practice makes perfect! It’s a good idea to practice answering questions you think you might face in your interview before you have to answer them in the moment. Practicing what you’re going to say ahead of time can help you sort out your thoughts and sharpen your diction. Common interview questions include:

1. Education and Background
Briefly describe your education background and explain how it has prepared you to teach.

2. Work Experiences
What work and volunteer experiences have you had, and how have they helped prepare you for teaching?

3. Strengths and 
Weaknesses
What do you consider to be your particular strengths as a beginning teacher? What are your weaknesses, and how do you plan to strengthen them?

4. Teaching
Why did you select teaching as a profession?

5. Meeting Diverse Needs
How do you plan to meet the diverse needs of students in your classroom? Give an example of how you would plan to meet the special needs of a student in your classroom with a disability.

6. Curriculum
What kind of curriculum do you think is appropriate for the students you will teach? What was your most successful lesson?

7. Preparation and 
Planning
What are things you will do to prepare and plan for instruction? What kind of planning have you done?

8. Instruction
What instructional strategies do you think are most effective? How will you meet the individual needs of your students?

9. Evaluation
What techniques will you use to evaluate student learning?

10. Classroom Management
What kind of classroom management techniques do you plan to use?

11. Parent/Family/ Community Involvement
Describe how you plan to involve and communicate with parents.

12. Philosophy/Beliefs
What are your core values and beliefs about education? About students? What is your philosophy of education?

13. Collaboration
Do you get along well with others? What are some people skills that you use when collaborating with others?

14. Extracurricular Activities
What extracurricular and community activities have you participated in? What extracurricular activities would you be able to supervise?

Practice answering these questions while watching yourself in the mirror, or have another person act as an interviewer. Learn what it feels like to say your answers out loud to another person, and you’ll ace your interview when you have to say the words for real!

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Matthew Lynch published in Matthew Lynch, Policy & Reform

Lessons from Educators on the Big Screen: Part III

It may be true that Hollywood tends to glamorous things and turn true stories into not-so-true ones for the screen, but there are also a lot of impactful films that serve a purpose. In the case of teachers, Hollywood has produced some great examples of lessons that are integral to strong educators. Last week I mentioned six of my favorites that fall into this category, and today I want to add my final three.

Won’t Back Down (2012): Teachers unions panned this one because of its implications that organizations like theirs were to blame for school underperformance. At the heart of the movie, though, is a teacher (played by Viola Davis) partnering with parents to make a difference in the lives of the people who mattered: students. The movie is set in Pittsburgh which I think is important because it tells an urban, inner-city story. I think this is the type of film that makes people uncomfortable, but in all the right ways. I also appreciate that in this film parents are part of the solution – I think that in and of itself is a powerful message to teachers.

Remember the Titans (2000): There are teachers in the classroom, and there are teachers outside it. This Denzel Washington classic shows that character and belief, despite all odds, can overcome a lot. The racial tensions in the movie demonstrated through a high school football team also show how schools are at often at the front lines of social change. Important changes do not just happen overnight, either. They take dedication, especially when the stakes are high. Washington’s character isn’t easy on his students either. He pushes them to point of being uncomfortable but brings them past their barriers in the process.

Stand and Deliver (1988): It’s not easy to teach students who are not willing to learn, particularly if the subject is calculus. In this Edward James Olmos classic, he takes control of a class of dropout prone students and not only keeps them in school, but teaches them some of the toughest topics. The students featured are not surprisingly urban and low-income (but some of the strongest teachers are needed in these very schools, even today). Where this movie was ahead of its time was in its depiction of Hispanic students. Other movies with students in need of saving had maybe one or two Hispanic characters, but the high school in this one is predominantly full of this demographic. Since 1988, the Hispanic K-12 population has exploded, making this movie even more relevant and impactful to the educators of today.

All 10 of the movies I put on my list are ones that made me stop and think about my career when I first saw them. Scenes from them still pop in my head and in some cases, inspire me. It can be so easy to get caught up in the monotony and paper-pushing of the education industry and in the process, lose sight of the truly important parts of teaching. Taking a few moments to watch these movies for the first time, or rewatch them, can restore your faith in the profession. After all, no one ever got into teaching to fill out reports correctly, or pass through as many students as possible. We all have our deep-seeded reasons for becoming educators and the characteristics we see on the screen in these movies remind us of our own ideals.

In reading through my list, are there any movies that you think I missed? What films about teachers have made the biggest impact on your career?

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