Adolescence 8th edition

1. Adolescence8th edition Insert Photo of Text Chapter Six: Schools By Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D.

2. Chapter 6 Overview • The context of secondary education in America • What should schools teach? • What are the problems specific to inner-city schools? • The social organization of schools • Which is more important: school size or class size? • Should students be put in special tracks? • Why does the climate of the classroom matter? • Beyond high school: college and non-college-bound students • What are the main characteristics of a good school?

3. Secondary Education • Middle schools, junior highs, and high schools are all forms of secondary education • The proportion of the 14- to 17-year-old population enrolled in school increased dramatically between 1910 and 1940 • Today, nearly 95% of individuals this age are in school

4. Origins of Compulsory Education in America • Industrialization • Many families could make ends meet without the labor of their adolescents • Greater need for skilled and reliable (adult) workers • Urbanization and Immigration • Rapid population growth led to overcrowding, slums, crime • Compulsory secondary education was a means of social control, to improve lives of poor and working classes

5. The Rise of the Comprehensive High School • Before secondary education was compulsory, high schools were for the socioeconomic elite • By 1920s, educators called for curricular reform to match changes in social composition of schools • Focus on intellectual training • New focus on preparing youth for life in modern society (roles of work and citizenship) • Comprehensive high school • General education, college preparation, vocational education all housed under one roof

6. School Reform: What Should Schools Teach?

7. School Reform: What Should Schools Teach? • Current debate over whether education should focus on traditional academics or on preparing young people for adulthood • 1980s–Back to Basics movement resulted from American students faring poorly in international comparisons • Late 1980s–movement toward increasing amount of critical, higher-order thinking in schools • Late 1990s–movement toward Standards-Based reform, combination of more higher-order thinking and better performance on standardized tests

8. School Reform:What Should Schools Teach? • No Child Left Behind Act (2002) • Mandates that all states ensure that all students, regardless of economic circumstances, achieve academic proficiency on standardized annual tests • Schools that repeatedly fail face losing funding, being forced to close • Addresses problem of social promotion • Advancing students regardless of their academic competence or performance • Introduces problem of teaching to the test for teachers who are under pressure to get kids to pass annual exams

9. School Reform: Education in Inner Cities • Some have argued that low American academic achievement was concentrated among poor/minority youth in inner cities • Why has school reform failed in urban schools? • Increasing concentration of poverty in certain inner-city communities has led to a population of students with very grave academic and behavioral problems • Urban school districts are burdened by administrative bureaucracies that impede reform • Students report less sense of belonging to their schools • Erosion of job opportunities: Little incentive to remain in school or put effort into academic pursuits

10. The Organization of Schools:School Size • Schools grew larger to offer a wider range of courses and services to students • Student performance and interest in school improve when schools are more intimate • Schools within schools • Smaller school size encourages participation • Ideal size: Between 500 and 1,000 students • In larger schools, students tend to be observers rather than participants • Especially important for students whose grades are not very good to begin with

11. The Organization of Schools:Class Size • Classroom size • Research findings misinterpreted by politicians who began emphasizing importance of small classes • Does not affect scholastic achievement during adolescence, except in remedial courses • Adolescents learn as much in classes of 40 students as in classes of 20 students Insert photo from DAL

12. Age Grouping and School Transitions • Early 1900s • Two-school system • Elementary School (6 or 8 grades) • Secondary School (6 or 4 grades) • Compulsory Secondary Education • Introduction of Junior Highs • More recent years • Introduction of Middle Schools Insert Photo from DAL

13. Age Grouping and School Transitions • As children move into middle school or junior high • School grades and academic motivation drop • Scores on standardized achievements tests do not decline • Student motivation and changes in grading practices may be changing, not student knowledge • Schools can combat these changes by reducing anonymity, hiring teachers with training in adolescent development, and strengthening ties between the school and community

14. Age Grouping and School Transitions • Classroom environment in middle school/junior high is different than elementary school • Teachers hold different beliefs about students • Teachers also hold different beliefs about their own teaching abilities • Developmental mismatch between what adolescents need and what they get from teachers • Junior high school students in more personal, less departmentalized schools do better in school than their peers in larger and more anonymous schools • No uniform effects on all students during transitions (individual differences)

15. Social Organization of Schools: Tracking • Separating students, by academic ability, into different classes within the same school • Proponents argue that ability-grouping allows teachers to design class lessons that are more finely tuned to students’ abilities • Critics argue tracking leads to problems • Students who are placed in the remedial track generally receive a poorer quality education, not just a different education • Socialize only with peers from same track • Difficult to change tracks once in place, especially for minority students

16. Social Organization of Schools: Tracking • Sex and gender differences • Girls score higher on math tests in elementary school, yet are less likely to be placed in high math track • Gifted students–score 130 or higher on IQ test • Learning disabled students • Actual academic performance less than expected from IQ tests, no emotional explanation for discrepancy • Assumed to have neurological problems • Mainstreaming of gifted and learning disabled students into regular classrooms • Big-Fish-Little-Pond effect for gifted students • Problematic for learning disabled students

17. The Organization of Schools: Ethnic Composition • Landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings legally ended segregation of schools (Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 1954; 1955) • How does desegregation affect school achievement? Research findings mixed: • Desegregation has little impact on achievement levels of either minority or white adolescents • Minority youngster’s self-esteem is higher when they attend schools in which they are in the majority • African Americans who attend desegregated schools more likely to graduate and continue education in college

18. Public Schools vs.Private Schools • To encourage better schools and competition among schools for better students, parents given more choices of where to send their children • Government-subsidized education vouchers • Used to “purchase” education at a school of one’s choosing–private or public schools • Charter schools • independent public schools that operate as they wish

19. Public Schools vs.Private Schools • Recent research has suggested that private schools aren’t necessarily more effective than public schools • Family background is more important influence on achievement than school quality • True even for charter schools in urban areas, hoped to be the solution to public school problems in the cities • Exception is Catholic (private) school: • Climate is different from public schools • Strong community values promote social capital, give students additional resources • Most private school students feel more safe than public school students

20. The Climate of the Classroom • How teachers interact with students, use class time, and the expectations they hold for students all influence learning and academic achievement • Students achieve more when attending schools that are responsive and demanding, where teachers are supportive but in control • Similar to the authoritative family environment

21. The Climate of the Classroom • Comer School Development Project • Improving student achievement by changing broader school climate, not on individual classrooms • Unique components: • School Planning and Management Team • Social Support Team • Parent Team • Evaluations of this intervention have provided mixed results • Worked well in Chicago elementary schools • No differences in Maryland middle schools

22. School Violence • One in four American high school students has been the victim of violence in or around school • Violence more common in overcrowded schools in poor urban neighborhoods • Asian Americans targeted because of perceived teacher preference toward these students • Zero-tolerance policies • Lethal school violence • Widely publicized but rare, school shootings declined since 1990s • Increase in number of school-shooting related deaths because of automatic weapons • Impossible to predict which students will commit these acts

23. Beyond High School: The College Bound • 1900 • 4% 18-21 year olds in college • Today • 75% of high-school graduates enroll in college (two-thirds do so immediately after high school)

24. Beyond High School: The College Bound • College in the United States relative to other countries • More diverse and accessible • Wider variety of liberal arts, technical, vocational, preprofessional schools • Rates of graduation lag far behind rates of enrollment • Only 50% of all students who enroll in a 4-year college complete their degree within 6 years

25. Beyond High School: The Non-College-Bound • Secondary schools are geared almost exclusively toward college-bound youngsters, even though one third of adolescents do not go on to college • Rise in minimum-wage service jobs means less chance of making decent living without college experience • Critics argue we should ease transition to adult world of work for those not interested in college by providing apprenticeship and advanced skilled job training Insert Photo from DAL

26. What Do Good Schools Look Like? • Emphasize intellectual activities over athletics or social activities • Employ teachers who are strongly committed to students and have enough freedom to teach effectively • Constantly monitor the students and the school itself in order to make policy changes and function better • Links with the community–Schools are well integrated into the communities they serve (e.g., with local colleges and employers) • Composed of classrooms with good climate, where students are active participants who are challenged to think critically

27. Schools and Adolescent Development Low SES students • Rates of academic progress during the school year are equal to high SES students • Scores decline in the summer • Summer school may prevent widening of achievement gap between affluent and poor students

28. Schools and Adolescent Development • Most schools are not structured to promote psychosocial development • For most adolescents, school is the main setting for socializing