Students' ethics challenged by survey results

This from H-L:

NEW YORK — In the past year, 30 percent of U.S. high school students have stolen from a store and 64 percent have cheated on a test, according to a new, large-scale survey suggesting that Americans are too apathetic about ethical standards.

Educators reacting to the findings questioned any suggestion that today's young people are less honest than previous generations, but several agreed that intensified pressures are prompting many students to cut corners.

"The competition is greater, the pressures on kids have increased dramatically," said Mel Riddle of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. "They have opportunities their predecessors didn't have (to cheat). The temptation is greater."

The Josephson Institute, a Los Angeles-based ethics institute, surveyed 29,760 students at 100 randomly selected high schools nationwide, both public and private. All students in the selected schools were given the survey in class; their anonymity was assured...

Debating National Standards, and more

It's debate time at EKU....at least, it is in my classes.

This summer I'm back with grad students and that allows me to push for a deeper exploration of topics that are of concern to the schools. It also means helping students to develop their leadership potential by finding/refining their "voices."

I've always encouraged impromptu debates among students, but over the next two weeks I'm test-driving a formal debate format between two two-member teams.

Our topics:
EMS 850 - Curriculum for Leaders in Education

• Direct instruction v. Student-initiated instruction
• Senate Bill 1
• National Standards (See below)

EGC 820 - Professional Studies I: Teachers, Schools and Society (Special Education Cohort)

• The use of aversive techniques for behavior management
• Direct instruction v. Student-initiated instruction

KSN&C readers may not be aware...but what happens in class sometimes influences which articles get posted. Students regularly scan the news for articles that confirm, confuse, amaze and dismay. We talk about the issues in class. I'm also very pleased to learn that other professors are starting to use the blog to bring current content into their classes. With all that in mind....

This from the Principal's Policy Blog:

Has the Time Come for Voluntary National Standards?

It’s a time-honored tradition in America that states and local districts should have control over our schools. But in the age of global competitiveness and student mobility, is it time to loosen the reigns of local control in favor of something more national?

This was the question addressed in a recent report by the Center for American Progress. The report’s author, Matt Miller, a senior fellow at the Center, argues that local control of education creates several major problems, including financial inequality, inconsistent standards and inadequate data, and a lack of education research and development. Miller contends that a more national approach to education would help solve many of these problems and calls for the establishment of national standards and increasing the federal government’s share of education funding from approximately 9% to 25 – 30%, with a portion of this increased investment going toward increasing funding for education research.

Miller argues that “it is only by transcending traditional local control, and by getting serious about a new national role in standards and finance, that we can at last create genuine autonomy for local schools.” In creating this “genuine autonomy” Miller also recommends eliminating school boards, which he believes are dominated by teacher unions that heavily influence the election of board members.

Not everyone is convinced this is the correct path to follow, however. At the release of the report, Reginald Felton, director of federal relations for the National School Boards Association, urged the American people to guard against the assumption that doing away with local control of education (and school boards) would remedy decades of neglect, or that a nationalization of education would immediately result in a spike in student achievement.

“One size does not fit all” agreed former Superintendent of Schools for the Los Angeles Unified School District Roy Romer. However, he pointed out that a local school board is not able to create a national math curriculum, and later expressed his support for national standards. Romer indicated that these standards should be
voluntarily adopted by states from the ground-up, instead of forced upon states by the federal government.

Earlier this year, the NASSP Board of Directors proposed a position statement on National Academic Standards in K-12 Education. In the statement, NASSP calls on Congress to “appoint an independent, diverse group of researchers, practitioners, advocates, and experts to develop a set of common national standards and authentic, reliable assessments beginning with Language Arts and mathematics in grades K-12 and examine the feasibility of national standards in other subjects.” NASSP also urges states to actively participate in the development and adoption of those standards, and for the federal government to provide grants to states to assist with the adoption and implementation of those common standards. NASSP invites members’ comments on the proposed statement through April 30, 2008.

There is little doubt that America has, and continues to be going through a period of flux. As Matt Miller concludes in his report, “Once upon a time, a national role in retirement security was anathema. Then suddenly, after the Depression, there was Social Security. Once a federal role in health care would have been damned as
socialism, yet federal spending now accounts for one of every two dollars devoted to health care in the United States, with more certain to come in the years ahead. When it comes to schools, there has likewise always been a tension between the desire to improve the life chances of more children by involving higher levels of authority, and the primordial American distrust of central government. But the truth is we started down this road even on schooling a long time ago. It’s time now to finish the job.”

Now, back to the topic of debate:

In addition to the blog content, students may received support in more traditional ways as shown by this topic outline from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Direct Instruction v Child-initiated instruction

Resolved: Direct Instruction is an educationally and socially justifiable instructional method.

A longstanding curriculum debate in early childhood education centers on whether early childhood education should follow the traditional academic model of education used with older students (that is, large group, teacher-directed, formal instruction) or whether learning experiences for preschool children should be informal and consist largely of child-initiated activities. Both approaches have pros and cons.

For example, when discussing children living in poverty, Schweinhart (1997) states that an approach that is primarily teacher-directed is likely to discourage children's social and emotional development, intellectual dispositions, and creativity, while an approach based exclusively on child-initiated activities may not sufficiently support children's academic development.

What are some differences between direct instruction and child-initiated learning?

Disputes concerning curriculum and teaching methods go back a long way in the field of early childhood education. Over the years, many different terms have been used to capture the opposing positions. In recent years, the term "academic" has come to describe those parts of the early childhood curriculum intended to help children master the basic skills involved in literacy and numeracy (Jacobson, 1996). Katz (1996) suggests that from the academic, or direct instruction, perspective, the young child is seen as dependent on adults' instruction in the academic knowledge and skills necessary for a good start for later academic achievement.

This perspective is in direct contrast with the child-initiated approach, which views young children as active constructors of knowledge who are not dependent on didactic instructional cues from a teacher. Child-initiated curricular techniques may utilize learning centers within a classroom, promote learning from play-based activities, or encourage child interaction and cooperation. Academic learning may certainly occur in child-initiated learning environments. However, this learning results not from teacher-led formal didactic (seat work, lectures, etc.) instruction, but from a variety of child-initiated learning activities (Katz, 1999b).

What does the research say about the advantages and disadvantages of each approach?

Three long-term preschool curriculum comparison studies began in the 1970s: the High/Scope Preschool Curriculum Comparison study (Schweinhart & Weikart, 1997a; Schweinhart & Weikart, 1997b), the Louisville Head Start study (Miller & Bizzell, 1983), and the University of Illinois study (Karnes et al., 1983). All three included the direct instruction model, which offered scripted, teacher-directed, academic instruction, and a nursery school model, in which children initiated their own learning activities with minimal teacher support. Additionally, the High/Scope study included the High/Scope model, in which children initiated learning activities with substantial teacher support. The Louisville and Illinois studies also included several additional teacher-directed models and the Montessori model, which encouraged child-initiated activities with didactic materials.

These three studies found that children in direct instruction programs intellectually outperformed children in child-initiated activities programs during and up to a year after the preschool program, but not thereafter. In the Louisville study, the nursery school children showed higher verbal-social participation and increased more in ambition and aggressiveness than did the direct instruction children, but both groups scored lower than their peers on inventiveness. In the Illinois study, 78% of the nursery school group that engaged in child-initiated activities with minimal teacher support graduated from high school, compared with only 48% of the direct instruction group (Karnes et al., 1983).

SOURCE: Early Childhood and Parenting (ECAP) Collaborative at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Principals’ Group Calls for National Academic Standards and Tests

This from Education Week:

A plan for adopting national academic standards and assessments in reading and mathematics, as well as for helping states and districts implement them, should be included in the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act...the National Association of Secondary School Principals [said]. [NASSP called] on Congress to appoint an independent panel of researchers, educators, and others to come up with a set of common guidelines for what students should know and be able to do in the two subjects at each grade level. The standards, and accompanying assessments,
should replace punitive provisions in the federal law, the NASSP says.

“Under NCLB, we’re holding schools accountable, talking about adequate
yearly progress, creating lists of schools not reaching AYP,” said Gerald N.
Tirozzi, the executive director of the Reston, Va.-based organization. “The
irony is that we have 50 states, which have 50 different definitions of
proficiency, and NCLB never even describes what is meant by proficiency.” ...

USA's top principal could teach CEOs a thing or two

This from USA Today:

There are few leadership positions more challenging than high school principal, especially if the school has a history of underperformance. Molly Howard is the 2008 Principal of the Year selected by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and MetLife. Her Jefferson County High in small-town Louisville, Ga., has increased graduation rates, raised test scores and believed enough in students — 80% of whom live in poverty — to eliminate remedial courses.

Howard, 52, spoke to USA TODAY corporate management reporter Del Jones.

Q: There are 48,000 secondary school principals. What distinguishes you?

A: All finalists had similar strengths: passion and commitment to higher expectations for all. Every child who walks through that door is of value. Their social-economic background and previous educational success, or lack of, does not determine their
performance at this high school.

Q: Passion and high expectations. Is that the sweet spot of leadership in general?

A: Yes. Passion and a can-do attitude. You can't lead if you can't see where you're going.

Q: If a Fortune 500 CEO were lucky enough to have lunch with you, what leadership lesson could you teach?

A: Power does not emanate from position. It emanates from relationships that we develop with our stakeholders.

Q: What would you want to learn at that lunch?

A: I'd like to know what strategies they use to persuade and get commitment from people.

Q: I thought you might ask them how come they make so much more money?

A: (Laughs.) I knew what the salary range was when I started. There are a lot of perks to being an education leader. Taxpayers don't pay theCEO's salary. I want that money to go to funding schools.

Q: Many successful CEOs have suggested that schools adopt competitive practices such as school vouchers.

A: I can appreciate the business community wanting to strengthen schools, and they have a right to ask for accountability. But in competition there is a winner and a loser. If parents send their students to a higher-achieving school, what about the children left behind with the stigma of being the loser? It's too simplistic of a solution.

Q: Losers must improve or go out of business. What's wrong with that model?

A: Companies can pick and choose the raw materials. Public education accepts all. We are a zero-reject business. That's a big, big difference.

Q: So business leaders should shut up about schools?

A: I hate to tell the business world to shut up. It's a symbiotic relationship for sure. No one wins if we teach about computer software that's already becoming obsolete. We've got to stay in touch, but it's more complex than some business leaders and policymakers understand.

Q: You must spend most of your time dealing with unhappy people: parents, teachers, problem students. That's something business leaders can relate to. At the end of the day, what gives you satisfaction?

A: Parents have entrusted us with the thing they hold in highest regard, their children, and so I do hear complaints. Once they learn to trust me, I don't have angry complaints, I have questions. My reward is in finding win-win solutions. I believe in (Stephen) Covey's "Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood" (Habit 5 of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). When someone complains, leaders don't have to agree, but they must understand.

Q: As more jobs are created in the service sector, the boss can't be looking over every shoulder. How do you get the most out of your teachers when you almost never see them in the classroom?

A: Teachers don't get to decide to spend the entire semester on World War II because they like it. There are standards and checkpoints and accountability. I look at the data to make sure it's happening. You have to inspect what you expect. But Big Brother is not watching, so the main way to ensure teacher performance is to get buy-in.

Q: How do you accomplish buy-in?

A: Teachers have to see themselves as empowered leaders. A leader is not just a position of title like principal, assistant principal or department chair. There are teacher-leaders. It's all (William Edwards) Deming's stuff.

Q: You're a Deming disciple?

A: I'm somewhat knowledgeable about TQM (total quality management), and there are certain aspects that are very applicable to education. Having buy-in is a lot more
powerful than any directive I could send down.

Q: Getting back to your high expectations of students and teachers. How do you pull it off without being overly demanding?

A: You have to model it. I'm visible at extracurricular things, and I put in 75 to 90 hours a week. Second, we must understand what we have control over. We don't have control over the homes the children come from in the morning. But we do have control over our beliefs. We believe that all children can learn to high levels, and we look at practices we employ that are contradictory to that. Sometimes it's not a matter of what you implement, but what you stop doing. We eliminated dual-track, where children could take a watered-down curriculum. When a child turns in an assignment that doesn't meet or exceed the standard, the teacher says, "Do this again. This is not acceptable work." We don't give zeros. The power of zero is astronomical. It destroys motivation. Just don't accept less than people are capable of doing.

Q: Do high expectations apply to your teachers?

A: Absolutely. There is no room for a marginal teacher. If a teacher doesn't work at a high level, intervention and support increase and intensify. We all hear in the media that we must raise the bar. Well, if you just raise the bar it doesn't mean people are going to jump higher. You must build steps and structures and a scaffold. Then teachers and students can reach the highest mark.

Q: Is it impossible to fire a bad teacher?

A: We're not unionized and don't have tenure. But it's very time consuming and you must document, not only ineptness, but what was done to try to develop and support the teacher.

Q: Do you wish you could award bigger pay raises to your best teachers?

A: Not just merit pay, but it would be nice to reward those who take on extra duties and responsibilities. I'd love that flexibility. There is a lot of power in recognizing the work they do and give them more responsibility, opportunities to create, take risks and be involved. I try to ask teachers in the hall about their families. Let them know that I care about them personally and professionally.

Q: Business thrives on data, but they complain about information overload. With all the student testing, you must have a lot more data these days. Is it overwhelming?

A: It can be. We can be data-rich and information-poor. They key is to ask the right question, and then turn to the data for an answer. If you look first at all the numbers and ask what they all mean you would get overwhelmed.

Q: Over 30 years, you've seen many students grow up. What qualities separate students who go on to become leaders?

A: They are usually future-oriented and goal-focused. They tend to be service-oriented and have a community mind. However, I've seen students start off slow. Sometimes it takes life experiences to mature. You can't pigeonhole kids. I've seen valedictorians who didn't graduate from college.