Exploring the Purpose of School after NCLB

Exploring the Purpose of School after NCLB Steve Stemler Lauren Sonnabend Wesleyan University

Intro • What is the purpose of school? • Clearly not monolithic • Varies by school type – focus on secondary • Thesis: The prominent purposes of school shift over time as a result of political, social influences • Empirical way to evaluate prominent purposes? • Four Specific Research Questions

Do missions vary by State? • Need different pictures to represent different political influences (red/blue) and different landscapes (cornfields of IA v. City of NY v. Industry of XX v. Microsoft in WA)?

Do missions vary by Urbanicity? • Show pictures of urban, suburban, rural schools/areas • Different needs for different schools • Media statements about what urban schools should do for children • Some evidence that indicates that urban schools are called upon to be “home”

Do Missions Vary by NCLB Status? • Failing Schools v. High-Performing Schools • Show league table ranking high-performing and low-performing schools • Picture of a multiple-choice test with pencil

Do Missions Change over Time? • Insert Blank Timeline with Dates from 1900 to today • We can just create this in the draw feature

Background • Philosophers of Education • Historical Timeline that shows when civic development was important, when emotional, when social, when cognitive, etc.

Background • Federal v. Local Control of Education • Show different Federal educational policies (Goals 2000 with their safe schools, NCLB with their cognitive emphasis) on Historical Timeline • Can you search for something like this on the web?

Background • State Influences on Education • MA Constitution • First US State Constitution • Written by John Adams • Direct quote on purpose of schools

Background • How this gets translated into legal responsibilities today • McDuffy 7 • Kentucky, MA, other states

Background • Parental perspectives and student perspectives • Survey results

Summary • All conclude that there are multiple purposes to schools • No one purpose has inherent precedence over another • Two problems • No systematic voice of the schools themselves! • Can’t all have precedence simultaneously; must change over time. Influenced by policy?

Our Study • Look at school’s perspective • Using Mission Statements • Why Mission Statements? • Simple, effective, easy to obtain and analyze • Necessary for accreditation (cite) • School Effectiveness Lit shows that more effective schools show comittment to shared vision • Prior research (Stemler & Bebell; Strobel; Havelauk)

Study 1: Purpose • Longitudinal Analysis of School Mission Statements • Research Question: Do they change over time and if so, in what ways?

Study 1: Methods • Truly random sample of 50 MA secondary schools. • 90% response rate (n=45) • Content Analysis of Statements • Give Example with Scoring Rubric

Study 1: Methods • Example Statements and Scoring Rubrics • Rubric • Interrater reliability results:

Study 1: Methods • Reported in Stemler & Bebell 2001 NEERO paper • Pre-NCLB • Looked at same schools 5 years later. Had they changed at all?

Study 1: Results • 50% changed, 50% did not • Graph showing how they changed • Common argument – NCLB narrow’s schools focus • Findings = added one more thing on top – didn’t throw anything away! • Shift in emphasis from civic, emotional, cog to cog, civic, emot • Qualitative example of loss of “love of learning” in favor of “critical thinking” • Need 2 or so examples here

Study 2: Purpose • Large-scale empirical analysis • Examine systematic differences by state, urbanicity, and NCLB status • Geographically and politically diverse states • Give picture with the states we picked highlighted

Study 2: Methods • How we did it • Purposive selection of 10 geographically and politically diverse states • Random selection of 50 public high schools in each state • Selection criteria > 70% with mission statements • Coding Rubric • Interrater reliability • Modification from 2001 to 2006

Study 2: Results • Table with 10 states and % with mission statements/websites • Kind of interesting sidenote, probably first study to look at truly random sample and estimate prevalence of school websites

Results • Systematic differences by state? • Graph • Summarize – CO, NY/CA, TX/FL

Results • Urbanicity • Table • Urban schools being asked to do more than most (article lit review/media)

Results • NCLB • Confounded with urbancity? • Check this – compare percentage of pass and fail by urbanicity • Explanation

Discussion • Summary of our findings overall as related to major questions

Limitations • Does mission match practice? • Any influence practice at all? • Mention phone interviews • Findings • Summary • Qualitative

Broader Implications • Study presents empirical approach to evaluating school perspective • Currently missing in literature • Study provides a technique for monitoring social weather and its impact on school

Exploring the Purpose of School after NCLB