The Role of the School District in Student Discipline: Building Consensus in Cincinnati

The problem of student discipline disproportionately affects urban schools with large numbers of low income and ethnic minority students. Research over the past 35 years however has consistently shown that discipline policies that are understood and accepted by teachers, students, and parents and consistently enforced by school officials, correlate with lower levels of student disruption. The important role that urban school districts can play in building consensus in support of student discipline policies has not been well documented. But increased levels of student mobility in large urban areas, and increased diversity among the families served by urban districts, highlight the need for district-wide codes of behavior that provide schools with a range of discipline programs that serve the needs of their particular communities. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the process of developing and implementing a district-wide code of student behavior in Cincinnati played an important role in reducing disruptive behaviors leading to student suspension and expulsion. By involving all stakeholders in the development of its policies, and by responding to the concerns of all stakeholders in the range of programs it offered, the Cincinnati Public Schools was able to build consensus across socioeconomic and ethnic lines and make its code of behavior effective. On the basis of the evidence presented, it is argued that urban school districts can play a more active role in the area of student discipline. By developing and implementing district-wide codes of behavior that are understood and accepted by teachers, students, and parents, and consistently enforced by school officials, urban districts can lay the foundation on which schools can build healthy learning communities. Dr. Lionel H. Brown holds Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees from the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Brown is retired from the Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) where he served as a teacher, vice-principal, principal, and Deputy Superintendent. His responsibilities in the role of CPS Deputy Superintendent included the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, the Office of Student Discipline, and the Office of Student Affairs. Dr. Brown is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Educational Studies, College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. His research and teaching interests include urban education, alternative education, and programs for Black males.Dr. Kelvin S. Beckett holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of British Columbia, Canada and a Doctoral degree from the University of London, United Kingdom. He is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Division of Educational Studies, College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. His teaching and research interests include urban education and alternative education.     

The Early College High School Initiative: An Overview of Five Evaluation Years

In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation started the Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI). Through this initiative, more than 200 Early College Schools (ECSs) opened by fall 2009. All of the schools aim to provide underserved students access to college classes while in high school. This article will provide an overview of the first 6 years of the ECHSI, and key findings across 5 years of the ECHSI evaluation, in particular highlighting how participants have implemented the ECHSI's core principles. However, the ECS is not a rigid model, and this article describes the variations in ECS implementation. Finally, this article documents outcomes such as attendance, grade-to-grade progression and graduation rates, student performance on assessments, and college credit accrual.     

The District Superintendent and School Improvement: A Western Australian Perspective

ABSTRACT

The contribution district superintendents can make to school effectiveness and improvement is a neglected area of research in Australia. Research in the US suggests four ways in which superintendents impact on school improvement: the evaluation of principals and auditing of schools; the matching of school and district goals; the provision of informal support for principals; and the appointment and positioning of principals. Within an Australian setting of devolution to school‐based management, evaluation assumes major importance at school level and at district superintendent level in the pursuit of school effectiveness and improvement. An evaluation of the performance of two superintendents in Western Australia took place in 1990. It focused on superintendent performance within one key accountability area, the provision of principals’ professional development. The evaluation procedures and results are described and analysed, and implications are drawn for improving district superintendent evaluation as a means of enhancing school effectiveness and improvement.     

The Role of Images in the Secondary School Change Process

Abstract

Secondary schools are facing significant reculturalization in the very meaning of secondary school education. Educators involved in such changes are coping with finding new ways of conceptualizing and implementing such changes. This paper employs the concept of images, as a component of personal practical, in order to understand the impact of the reculturalization currently being experienced in some Ontario secondary schools. The article explores the difficulties in dealing with reculturalization incurred because of the past images of secondary school department heads and explores new images emerging in some of the studied schools.     

Making the Cut: The Cut Score Setting Process in a Public School District

This qualitative study seeks to tell the story of how teachers, district administrators, and consultants came together to construct a cut score to be recommended to the Willtown Board of Education. Findings suggest that cut score setting is influenced by social and political as well as educational concerns. The findings of this study suggest continued examination of the motivations and beliefs of teachers as they participate in the cut score setting process, and exploration of the attitudes and beliefs of policy makers (e.g., members of school boards) as they use teacher judgments as a basis for setting cut scores.     

服务:教育行政部门在学校改进中的角色定位

当前,教育行政部门在学校改进中存在服务责任缺乏、服务内容模糊、服务能力不足、服务网络未完善等服务功能的缺失。实际上,在学校改进中,教育行政部门应将自身的角色定位于"服务者",这不仅是教育行政部门自身职责的本质体现,也是学校改进对教育行政部门的现实诉求。教育行政部门应从以下几个方面为学校改进提供优质的教育服务:抓住服务的本质,明晰行政部门服务的边界;强化组织的自我更新,激发行政人员的服务热情;挖掘学校人员潜力,培养学校的自我改进能力;吸引多方力量参与,形成平等的伙伴关系。     

西峰区未来五年项目拉动农民增收策略研究

近年来,西峰区农民收入发生了显著变化。拟从西峰区项目拉动农民增收的现状与成效出发,归纳总结了农民增收的发展机遇与潜力,并就存在的问题与差距提出了相应思路与对策。     

农村小学科学课程实施现状及改进措施

当前,农村小学在科学课程的实施上存在诸多问题。教育管理部门和学校应深刻认识小学科学课程的重要性,加强师资队伍建设,加大教育资金投入,改革课程评价制度,以全面提高农村小学科学课程的教学质量。     

可持续发展教育:英国政府角色与学校推进策略

英国是最早倡导可持续发展教育的国家之一.2005年3月联合国及"可持续发展教育十年国际实施计划"(2005-2014)发布之后,各国政府纷纷启动可持续发展教育十年(DESD)活动.本文重点介绍英国为有效实施可持续发展教育政府的角色作用,以及2005年以来英国教育与技能部推出"未来教育战略"(SFE)、建立可持续学校(Sustainable Schools)和可持续学校自我评估系统等学校推进可持续发展的新策略.     

历史课程在五年制师范学校中的地位与作用

历史课程在五年制师范学校课程结构中属于通识课程,对完善学生的知识结构,丰富学生的心灵,提高学生的认识,塑造学生的灵魂,提升人才培养的质量起着重要作用.同时承担着为基础教育小学阶段培养社会课教师的任务,在实现五年制师范学校人才培养目标中起着不可替代的作用.     

Leadership for School Improvement: The Role of the Head of Department in UK Secondary Schools

The study examines the role of the Head of Department in UK secondary schools in terms of its potential for school improvement. Thirty-two heads of department in secondary schools in Birmingham and Manchester were shadowed and interviewed in order to identify: (1) their leadership and management styles; (2) the sense of empowerment felt by each; (3) initiatives for improving teaching, learning and achievement in their departments; and (4) obstacles to improving teaching, learning and achievement. Four deputy head teachers in the sample schools were also interviewed with the purpose of eliciting their views on the role of the head of department in facilitating school improvement. The findings support the prediction that distributed leadership (or shared power) among senior and middle managers in UK schools still remains rhetoric rather than practice and that there is a growing need for current middle management development and training provision to change radically if middle managers are to be supported as curriculum leaders and managers     

The Ecology of School Improvement: Notes on the School Improvement Industry in the United States

This paper explains how organizations otherthan schools and governing agencies affect thescope and pace of change in American education.In particular, the paper discusses a set oforganizations operating in what can be calledthe school improvement ``industry' in the UnitedStates, that is, a group of organizationsproviding schools and governing agencies withinformation, training, materials, andprogrammatic resources relevant to problems ofinstructional improvement. The paper shows howthe structure and functioning of theseorganizations explain patterns of change inAmerican education – including why schools inthe United States experience wave after wave ofinnovation and reform while at the same timemaintaining a stable core of instructionalpractices.     

Making Sense of the Role of Culture in School Improvement

Addressing the need to find new ways for examining workplace cultures quickly and effectively in order to facilitate school improvement efforts, this article proposes a technique for carrying out such enquiries. By exploring the nature of school cultures and how they impact upon day-to-day encounters in classrooms, it illustrates how critical incidents can be analysed so as to help those in schools to understand themselves better in terms of those factors that shape their practice. It is argued that the proposed method has the potential to go beyond systems of external monitoring in such a way as to enable schools to develop procedures for self-review.     

美国学区督导的角色探析

学区督导是美国学区教育管理中的核心人物,其担负的职责颇为繁多,扮演的的角色颇具多样性。同时,美国学区督导所扮演角色又在不断发展,具有动态发展性。这种动态发展的多样性由多方面的因素促成,其中包括学区类型、学区规模、学区发展与改革的背景以及学区内的学生组成结构。在各种角色中,学区督导在各个历史时期所扮演的核心角色不同。就核心角色变化的历史发展轨迹来看,学区督导的角色呈现一种回归态势。     

Thirty Years in the Storm: Leadership at an African-Centered School

For most Americans, access to a quality education has always been perceived as the fundamental link to upward mobility and increased life chances within our society (Ballantine and Hammack in The sociology of education: a systematic analysis. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 2011; Brown et al. 2010; Holyfield 2002). This perception of the role of education has been particularly salient for African American people. From the beginning of their experiences in America, the African American community creatively established schools for their children (Anderson in The education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1988). Even during the enslavement of the majority of African people in this country, they would often risk their lives in the effort to learn to read and write (Douglass and Stepto in Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2009). Subsequently this rich history, along with the continued presence of inequities and underachievement in the public schools became the undergirding impetus for the development of independent Black schools within the African American communities around the nation beginning in the early 1960’s. Through the years, many of these schools have waged a fervent battle to remain operating. In spite of difficulties with various factors such as, finances, facilities location and maintenance, as well as an unstable teaching force, the leaders who founded these institutions remain committed to the education of African American children. Currently, there is a paucity of research on the founders of these independent Black schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the educational philosophy and strategies which guided the decision-making process of the founder of an independent Black school.     

论杨时在洛学到闽学中的作用

从洛学到闽学,是宋代中国古代文化重心南移的一个重要过渡。在这期间,杨时、游酢到河南拜洛学大师二程为师,“程门立雪”、“载道南归”,三传而至朱熹。朱熹创立闽学,集理学之大成,在闽、浙、赣之武夷山一带形成新的文化重心。杨时道南学派在洛学到闽学中的主要作用：其一是传续洛学,沟通二程与朱熹思想;其二是为朱熹思想体系的形成和成熟作了准备;其三是为朱熹的代表作《四书集注》成书提供了思想资料。杨时道南学派的思想是宋代中国文化南移再兴的源头活水。     

美国学区督导的角色探析

学区督导是美国学区教育管理中的核心人物,其担负的职责繁多,扮演的角色多样。同时,美国学区督导所扮演角色又在不断发展,具有动态发展性。这种动态发展的多样性由多方面的因素促成,其中包括学区类型、学区规模、学区发展与改革的背景以及学区内的学生组成结构。学区督导在各个历史时期所扮演的核心角色不同,就核心角色变化的历史发展轨迹来看,学区督导的角色呈现一种回归态势。     

The Role of School District Science Coordinators in the District-Wide Appropriation of an Online Resource Discovery and Sharing Tool for Teachers

When introducing and implementing a new technology for science teachers within a school district, we must consider not only the end users but also the roles and influence district personnel have on the eventual appropriation of that technology. School districts are, by their nature, complex systems with multiple individuals at different levels in the organization who are involved in supporting and providing instruction. Varying levels of support for new technologies between district coordinators and teachers can sometimes lead to counterintuitive outcomes. In this article, we examine the role of the district science coordinator in five school districts that participated in the implementation of an online resource discovery and sharing tool for Earth science teachers. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted and coded interviews with district coordinators and teachers to examine the varied responsibilities associated with the district coordinator and to infer the relationships that were developed and perceived by teachers. We then examine and discuss two cases that illustrate how those relationships could have influenced how the tool was adopted and used to differing degrees in the two districts. Specifically, the district that had high support for online resource use from its coordinator appeared to have the lowest level of tool use, and the district with much less visible support from its coordinator had the highest level of tool use. We explain this difference in terms of how the coordinator’s promotion of teacher autonomy took distinctly different forms at those two districts.     

STEAM Designed and Enacted: Understanding the Process of Design and Implementation of STEAM Curriculum in an Elementary School

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Educators are now moving classroom instructional objectives away from what content do we need to know towards how can we support learners in the...     

Melding Internal and External Support for School Improvement: How the District Role Changes When Working Closely With External Instructional Support Providers

To support instruction, school districts must provide a wide array of assistance to schools. Broadly speaking, districts play the roles of authority in holding schools accountable for their activities and performance, support in assisting school faculties to build their capacity to better instruct students, and brokerage between schools and outside providers of service and materials. The roles of authority, support, and brokerage typically contend with each other, producing a set of perennial tensions for district leaders. This article examines the influence on these three roles of external support providers working in close partnership with districts on instructional improvement efforts. First, the article reviews the literature on district/provider partnerships for examples of role adjustment. Second, using a case study of a deep partnership between a district and an external provider, this article empirically examines the influence of a district/provider partnership on the balance of district roles. The findings illustrate how the traditional district roles of authority, support, and brokerage are adjusted by partnerships with external providers.