DOCUMENT RESUME PS 027 810 ED 433 114 Miller, Edward, Ed. AUTHOR The Harvard Education Letter, 1995. TITLE Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA. Graduate School of Education. INSTITUTION ISSN-8755-3716 ISSN PUB DATE 1995-00-00 49p.; Published six times a year. For 1996-1998 issues, see NOTE PS 027 811-813. Harvard Education Letter, P.O. Box 850953, Braintree, MA AVAILABLE FROM 02185; Tel: 617-495-3432 in Massachusetts; Tel: 800-513-0763 ($32 for individuals; $39 (Toll Free outside Massachusetts) for institutions; $40 for Canada/Mexico; $42 other foreign; single copies, $5). Serials (022) Collected Works PUB TYPE Harvard Education Letter; v11 n1-6 Jan-Dec 1995 JOURNAL CIT MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE At Risk Persons; Child Abuse; Computer Uses in Education; DESCRIPTORS *Decision Making; Drug Use Testing; *Educational Finance; Educational Technology; Elementary Secondary Education; Integrated Curriculum; Learning Theories; Legal Problems; Mathematics Education; Models; Newsletters; Partnerships in Education; Professional Development; School Based Management; *School Choice; Sex Differences; Sexual Abuse; *Staff Development; *Teacher Attitudes; *Textbooks ABSTRACT This document is comprised of volume 11 of the Harvard Education Letter, published bimonthly and addressing current issues in elementary and secondary education. Articles in the volume's six issues are: (1) January-February--"The Old Model of Staff Development Survives in a World Where Everything Else Has Changed" (Miller), "Giving Voice to Our Hidden Commitments and Fears: A Conversation with Robert Kegan," "Businesspeople and Educators Have a Lot to Learn from Each Other" (Arnett); (2) March-April--"The Numbers Game Yields Simplistic Answers on the Link between Spending and Outcomes" (Sadowski), "The Physically or Sexually Abused Child: (3) May-June--"Despite the Promises, What Teachers Need to Know" (Fossey); School Choice Can Worsen Racial and Social Class Inequities" (Tovey), "Money Matters Here: Programs That Work" (Sadowski), "How School Mathematics Can Prepare Students for Work, Not Just for College" (Forman and Steen); (4) July-August--"The Textbook Business: Education's Big Dirty Secret" (Webb), "A Narrowly Gender-Based Model of Learning May End Up Cheating All Students" (Tovey), "Computers in the Classroom: Where Are All the Girls?" (Tarlin); (5) September-October--"Moving beyond Traditional Subjects Requires Teachers To Abandon Their 'Comfort Zones'" (Sadowski), "Knowing No Boundaries: A Conversation with James Beane," "Random Drug Testing of Athletes Poses Legal and Psychological Questions" (Sandler); and (6) November-December--"Shared Decision-Making by Itself Doesn't Make for Better Decisions" (Miller), "The Application Essay: Texts, Subtexts, and Teacher Intervention" (Kreisberg), "Awareness Programs Help Change Students' Attitudes towards Their Disabled Peers" (Tovey). Regular features include letters to the editor and summaries of recent educational research. (KB) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Minor changes have been made to lOth Office of Educational Research and Improvement improve reproduction quality. EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Points of view or opinions stated in this This document has been reproduced as document do not necessarily represent ceived from the person or organization official OERI position or policy originating it k_O January/February 1995 Published by the Harvard Graduate School of Education Volume XI, Number 1 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND 1-1 KizAkk.\ G DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY esoi_ TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES TEACHERS AS LEARNERS 1 INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Q 1 The Old Model of Staff Development Survives LT4 In a World Where Everything Else Has Changed A fundamental mismatch between the demands made of educators and their opportunities for professional growth makes for frustrated and stressed-out teachers BY EDWARD MILLER than allow them to learn it themselves, had watched his kids play happily with Howard Pit ler, principal of at their own pace. Now I see that it's a the program at home, and had success- Elementary L'Ouverture fully taught a course on it at the local mistake to think we all need to be in the School in Wichita, Kansas, same place at the same time." was excited. His plan to re- university. structure the school into a technology Pitler designed a three-day course in Boring and Irrelevant magnet, with computers integrated which he would teach HyperCard to his into all phases of instruction and a Pitler's HyperCard class illustrates entire staff. At noon on the first day, they one problem with the design of many schoolwide emphasis on cooperative all went to lunch together. "I suddenly realized that something was terribly learning and small-group work, had staff development activities in schools. wrong," he says. "There were thirty Research over the last 20 years has con- been approved. And he had discovered shown sistently teachers sitting HyperCard, the versatile, open-ended that teachers learn around this big ta- Macintosh software that would, he be- blepeople who new methods best lieved, be the centerpiece of his pro- One test of professional knew each other not from lectures gram, enabling teachers to develop development is its by experts but by their own interactive curricula, suited and got along really wellbut capacity to help seeing those meth- there to their individual needs and interests. ods used in actual was dead silence. He had become an expert user himself; teachers be informed classrooms, by de- No one said a word. critics of reform. They were abso- signing their own learning experi- lutely miserable be- cause they didn't ences, by trying out INSIDE: Professional new techniques and getting feedback get it, and they felt angry and resentful." Development Though the L'Ouverture teachers on their efforts, and by observing and talking with fellow teachers (see eventually did learn the program, over How Teachers Talk a period of months, Pitler now looks "Schools Where Teachers Learn," HEL, and Don't Talk July 1986). Teachers typically forget 90 back on that course as the worst he ever About Their Work taught. "I had made the techno-nerd percent of what they learn in one-shot workshops, researchers report. mistake of thinking something was easy Making School-Business In spite of this well-documented because it was easy for me," he says. Partnerships Work body of research, not much has "Some of those teachers had had a total of two hours experience on a Mac. I changed in the world of staff develop- Letter From the Editor ment. Judith Warren Little of the Uni- tried to teach them all together rather EDITOR: Edward Miller. ASSISTANT EDITORS: Lisa Birk, Michael Sadowski. EDITORIAL BOARD, HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION: Mildred Blackman, Director, The Principals' Center; Sally Dias, Superintendent, Watertown Public Schools, Watertown, MA; Jay P. Heubert, Assistant Professor; Harold Howe II, former U.S. Commissioner of Education; Susan Moore Johnson, Professor and Academic Dean; Robert Kegan, Seniortecturer; Jerome T. Murphy, Professor and Dean; Gary A. Orfield, Piofessor; Robert S. Peterkin, Senior Lecturer; John Ritchie, Principal, Winchester High School, Winchester, MA; Judith D. Singer, Professor; Jay Sugarman, Teacher, Runkle School, Brookline, MA; Dennie Palmer Wolf, Lecturer on Education. NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD: John Brademas, President Emeritus, New York University; Constance E. Clayton, former Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia; Alonzo A. Crim, Professor of Education, Spelman College; Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University; Andrew Heiskell, Chairman Emeritus, New York Public Library; Marya Levenson, Superintendent, North Colonie Central Schools, NY; Deborah Meier, Principal, Central Park East Secondary School, NY; John Merrow, President, The Merrow Report; Arthur J. Rosenthal, Editor, The Free Press; Albert Shanker, President, American Federation of Teachers. David Devine. MANAGER: Karen Maloney. PRODUCTION EDITOR: Dody Riggs. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: GENERAL BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Ten Years Old and Growing Strong About ten years ago, Patricia Albjerg Graham, then dean of Today, the vision of Pat Graham and Arthur Rosenthal re- the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Arthur Rosen- mains true. The demands of a Hydra-like school reform move- thal, director of Harvard University Press, had an idea: to pub- ment and the needs of an unprecedentedly diverse (and often lish a newsletter that would bridge the worlds of education troubled) generation of students make teaching in and man- research and practice. They saw a need for an authoritative aging schools more difficult than ever. The need for knowl- and readable source of information on the theory and practice edge and the pressures of time have never been greater. of teaching and learninga publication that would help edu- With this issue, which focuses on professional development cators do a better job. The result of their brainstorm, the Har- and its central importance to school improvement, we thank vard Education Letter, first appeared in February 1985. all who have contributed to the Letter in its first decadees- As the tenth anniversary issue of HEL goes to press, we are pecially our editorial board and former editors Helen Feath- struck both by the loyal following this newsletter has won erstone and Adria Steinberg. We acknowledge, with awe, the among educators across the world and by the growing com- dedication and achievements of all of you who make our plexity of the work these professionals are doing. On issues schools work. And we invite you to write us with suggestions from homework to cooperative learning to tracking, the Letter on how the Letter itself can be a more effective resource for has helped make the work of our best teachers and scholars your professional development. Congratulations on HEL' s accessible to thousands of readers. tenth birthday also cheerfully accepted. EDWARDMILLER work in teams with other teachers, pro- versity of California, Berkeley, says that shapers, promoters, and well-informed the old "training model" for teachers' mote "critical" and "creative" thinking critics of reform. development remains dominant. "Lo- The context for changing the way instead of rote learning, attend to chil- cal patterns of resource allocation tend dren's social and emotional needs, rely teachers work has become extremely to favor the training model over alter- on "performance assessment" instead complicated, says Barbara Neufeld of natives," she observes. "The investment of multiple-choice tests, get with the lat- the Harvard Graduate School of Educa- in packaged programs tends to con- est technology, encourage active learn- tion. "The problem is that many teach- sume all or most of the available re- ing in "real-life" contexts, use fewer ers came through schools where they textbooks, and, on top of everything sources." learned how to do the math problem, else, become "agents of change" in A 1994 study of staff development say, but they don't actually understand practices in four large urban districts by their schools. why," she explains. "Or the teacher may understand the math but not under- Barbara Miller and Brian Lord of Edu- Contradictory Reforms cation Development Center and Judith stand what makes it difficult for chil- The old training model of profes- Dorney of SUNY New Paltz found that dren. Teachers often don't have a rep- the traditional modelshort-term pas- sional development is simply not ade- ertoire of examples and skills to help quate for the ambitious visions of sive activities with limited follow-up kids understand. They need visual im- was still common, even though teach- schooling in current reform initiatives, ages of what these new kinds of teach- ers generally found such training ing look likeand a human being in argues Little. "Teachers are pressed to boring and irrelevant. Many teachers the classroom to observe and help move on many fronts at once," she says, were angry about being "subjected" to them." Few school districts are pre- "keeping them in an exhausting perma- inappropriate, unfocused, or ill-con- nent mode of implementing innova- pared to support this kind of learning ceived activities. They noted that the by teachers, and even if they were, tions." Moreover, the demands made of there are few people around able to teachers are often contradictory "Re- kind of teaching they saw at such work- forms aimed at critical thinking sit in shops would be unacceptable in a class- provide it. room for children. tension with the basic skills reforms `A new kind of structure and culture What has changed is the nature of that began in the 1960s and are still a is required," says Little, "compatible the demands being made on teachers, prominent part of the urban school im- with the image of 'teacher as intellec- provement landscape," Little points who are faced with a staggering array of tual' rather than 'teacher as technician.' out. "Reformers call for more 'authen- complex reforms. Teachers are told that Also required is that educators enjoy tic' assessments, but state and local they have to set higher standards for all the latitude to invent local solutions policymakers continue to judge the students, eliminate tracking, tailor les- rather than to adopt practices thought success of reform efforts by stand- sons to kids' individual needs (includ- to be universally effective." ing those with various disabilities), ardized test scores." Because of these One result of this fundamental mis- adopt small-group and cooperative tensions and contradictions, she says, match between the demands on teach- ers and their opportunities for pro- learning techniques, design interdisci- one test of professional development is plinary and multicultural curricula, its capacity to help teachers act as fessional growth is a high level of THE HARVARD EDUCATION LETTER (ISSN 8755-3716) is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138-3752. Second-class postage paid at Boston, MA, and additional mailing office. POSTMASTER: Send address change(s) to The Harvard Education Letter, P.O. Box 850953, Braintree, MA 02185. Signed articles in THE HARVARD EDUCATION LETTER represent the views of the authors. Address editorial correspondence to Edward Miller, Editor, The Harvard Education Letter, Gutman Library, 6 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138; telephone 617-496-4841; fax 617-496-3584; Internet address: EDLE'ITER @hugsel.harvard.edu. ©1995 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Published as a nonprofit service. All rights reserved. Special written permission is required to reproduce in any manner, in whole or in part, the material herein contained. Call 617-495-3432 for reprint permission information. How to subscribe: Send $32 (840 for Canada/Mexico, $42 other foreign, in U.S. funds only) to The Harvard Education Letter, P.O. Box 850953, Braintree, MA 02185; or call Customer Service at 617-380-0945 in Massachusetts or 800-422-2681 outside Massachusetts between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. EST Monday-Friday. Single copies, $5.00. Back issues and bulk subscriptions available at special reduced rates; call 617-495-3432. 0 source for designing teacher-led re- New Models Emerge frustration and stress and a tendency to blame others for students' failure to search, study groups, school networks, A few new models for effective pro- Neufeld, and leadership programs. The Center learn. "Eventually," says fessional development have emerged "teachers begin to think, 'I wonder if also publishes Teaching Voices, a news- in recent years. Milbrey McLaughlin these children can learn. Another side letter written by educators, and guides and Joan Talbert of Stanford University effect is the anger and resentment that for mentoring, grant-writing, and other concluded from a five-year study of sec- staff development concerns. Principal Howard Pit ler encountered at ondary schools that strong professional lunch. And even where change is suc- communities provided a context for For Further Information cessful, teachers may experience unex- sustained learning. They found that the pected levels of stress. Institute for the Management of Lifelong Education, most effective teachers had hooked up 339 Gutman Library, 6 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA `After we became a technology mag- with a network of professionals who 02138; 617-495-3572. net," says Pit ler, "we began to see a addressed problems and found solu- J. Little. "Teachers' Professional Development in a change in the staff. Without really think- Climate of Educational Reform." Educational tions together, gaining in their sense of Evaluation and Policy Analysis ing about it, we had redefined the role 15, no. 2 (Summer professional identity, motivation, and 1993): 129-151. of teacher from 'sage on the stage' to willingness to undertake challenges. Mass. Field Center for Teaching and Learning, `guide on the side.' We knew in our They also make a strong case for the UMass/Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA hearts that this was the most appropri- 02125-3393; 617-287-7660. importance of "teacher discourse" ate way to teach, but we were unpre- M. McLaughlin and J. Talbert. "Contexts That Matter that is, the ways teachers talk to each for Teaching and Learning." Available from the ERIC pared for the personal loss we felt. We other about their workin managing Clearinghouse (ED357023, 1993); 800-443-3742. were no longer the sole source of systemic reform. Staff Development B. Miller, B. Lord, and J. Dorney. knowledge in the classroom. Now, for Teachers. Education Development Center (55 Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey of the often it was the student coaching the Chapel St., Newton, MA 02158), 1994. Institute for the Management of Life- adult, or students coaching each other H. Pitler, L'Ouverture Technology Magnet, Wichita long Education at Harvard have also Public Schools, 1539 Ohio, Wichita, KS 67214; 316- with the teacher completely out of the been working on new models of 833 -3075 (e-mail: [email protected]). loop. One teacher was talking to me teacher discourse as a prerequisite for about this change when she burst into "transformative" professional develop- tears. 'I don't know who I am anymore!' ment (see below). The Massachusetts she said. We ended up bringing in a psy- Field Center for Teaching and Learning chologist to help us through the griev- in Boston is widely cited as a model re- ing process." ADULT DEVELOPMENT Giving Voice to Our Hidden Commitments and Fears: A Conversation with Robert Kegan Examining the ways we talkand don't talkabout our work can lead to professional development that doesn't just inform us but also transforms us Psychologist Robert Kegan, in his people to develop more complex ca- Clinical-Developmental Institute. He books The Evolving Self and In Over was interviewed for the Harvard Edu- pacities of mind. We think that the most powerful changes in professionals' cation Letter by Edward Miller and Our Heads, has proposed a new way of practice come about because profes- understanding the processes of devel- Terry Woronov. opment across the lifespan and the sionals change their minds. complex mental demands placed on HEL: How can professional develop- HEL: Is there something wrong with children, adolescents, and adults by ment for teachers be informed by an the informative type of staff develop- modern society. His most recent work, understanding of adult development? ment? with Lisa Lahey, focuses on how tradi- Kegan: Not at all. Informative train- Kegan: First, we have to make a dis- tional forms of professional develop- tinction between two kinds of profes- ing increases your fund of knowledge. ment might be adapted to fit better sional development: informative and Lord knows, that's a useful thing. But it transformative. Informative training with the needs of educators in today's is an insufficiently nourishing diet by schools. Kegan is a senior lecturer at transmits information. It increases the itself. If in our work with young people we found that their knowledge in- teacher's content knowledge, under- the Harvard Graduate School of Edu- cation, a senior faculty member at the creased, but they did not develop more standing, and skills. Most in-service staff designed on this development Massachusetts School of Professional complex capacities of mind, we would is Psychology, chairman of the Institute be disappointed. We should want no model. But Lisa Lahey and I are more interested in professional development for the Management of Lifelong Educa- less for ourselves as adults. that is transformativethat enables tion at Harvard, and a Fellow at the HEL: What does transformative pro- The Harvard Education Letter, January/February 1995 3 professional praise-givers, but they may fessional development look like? nate. It becomes an indirect way of tell- ing people what you want them to do. find after practice with the Discourse of Kegan: It begins with school leaders The Discourse of Ongoing Regard is who create contexts for adult transfor- Ongoing Regard that much of how they mation. It's ironic that principals and praise students is really a form of char- about enlarging the vocabulary of your superintendents are known as their acterization: "You're smart." response to others when you find your- self feeling in some way admiring, communities' chief child educators, HEL: Okay, what's the second form? Kegan: The Discourse of Personal but their actual success depends more moved, inspired, or informed. on their talents as adult educators. One Commitment or Conviction, which cre- HEL: Can you give an example of this ates a different context for complaints. form of discourse? way we have seen school leaders do this The discourse of complaint, disap- is by changing the discourse forms in Kegan: I might send you a note say- the organization, by which we mean ing, "In watching the way you handled pointment, wishing, hoping, and so on that difficult parents' meeting yester- changing the rules for what one talks is one that leaders don't usually have to work at establishing in their schools. It day, I got a sense of another way I could about. is already alive and welland usually deal with the hard questions from par- unproductive of transformation be- ents that have so often left me feeling Principals' and cause all it leads to is letting off steam unclear what to do." That communica- tion has in it three elements important or looking for allies who will sign on to superintendents' success your particular negative characteriza- to effective appreciation and admira- depends on their talents tion: First, it's specific, rather than a tion of somebody or some situation. as adult educators. When subordinates bring com- vague "You were just so great in that plaints to their bosses, the bosses usu- meeting." Second, it's direct and to the ally feel they have a limited range of person, as opposed to my standing up responses: they can confirm or deny HEL: What are these rules and how at a staff meeting and saying, "Ed was them, they can defend themselves or does one go about changing them? so helpful," and never really delivering the other parties being complained Kegan: First, by becoming aware of the message to you. them. Principals, department chairs, But the third, most important, and about, or they can sympathize with the and other leaders are discourse- complainer's position. None of these is most difficult to achieve element is that shapers. They influence the nature of as transformative as the Discourse of it is not a characterization of you. It's a Personal Commitment or Conviction, the language in the workplace. In every description of my experience, which I organization there are rules about which is a way of inviting people to am letting you in on. That's what distin- translate their complaint into a new what's appropriate to discuss, who you guishes it from praise. can talk to, and what subjects are not form: the deeply felt personal commit- Compare that to the very weird and ment or conviction that is actually the widely practiced form of discourse in okay to bring up. letters of recommendation, where source of the complainer's disappoint- For example, in many schools it's not considered appropriate to talk about ment. every writer has this rich bank of adjec- how well your teaching is going, be- tives they draw from: So-and-So is very cause that would be bragging. At the generous and quick-witted and so on. We invite people to same time, it's not safe to talk about That's what we think of as apprecia- your teaching going badly. So those tionwhere we characterize the other identify what they are person. We dress them in a suit of very powerful and potentially transfor- doing to undermine mative conversations about practice clothes that they almost always know their own commitments. and how each teacher feels about her doesn't really fit. work may never take place. At the same If I tell you my experience, that I was helped by what you did, that should .time, certain other forms of discourse are quite common: the discourse of HEL: If my complaint is "That faculty leave you completely uncharacterized, meeting was boring and useless," complaint, of disappointment, of gos- un-pulled-upon, undescribed. There's what's the underlying conviction? no record you have to correct. What sip, of talking behind people's backs. Kegan: Ten people with the same you're learning is not whether you're We have identified five relatively rare complaint might name ten different forms of discourse that can enhance terrific or notthat's not for me to say rather than inhibit professional de- anywaybut how the things you do commitments or convictions. It might velopment by creating a context for be: "I am committed to the importance make a difference in a positive way to of making the best use of the precious transformation. They do not, we find, me. When properly practiced, the Dis- spontaneously emerge within an or- opportunities we get as a faculty to ac- course of Ongoing Regard helps create ganization the way the discourse of a safer environment for the kinds of tually spend time together and focus on complaint or the discourse of gossip the nature of our work." We do that so learning risks necessary for transforma- does. tion; it establishes a context for later rarely, and when we do it's in these ritu- alistic meetings where 80 percent of forms of discourse that are more diffi- The first we call the Discourse of On- going Regard, which is about the twin what happens could have been done by cult or threatening. HEL: That one sounds difficult faces of admiration and appreciation. memo." It's more complex than just praising To help people clarify their commit- enough. ments, we ask them to finish this sen- and stroking people, telling them how Kegan: It can be uncomfortable at great they are. That can easily be un- tence: "I am committed to the value or first, but once teachers are accustomed genuine and even a form of manipula- importance of ..." The idea is not to try to this form of discourse it can carry tion when it's directed to a subordi- to change the essence of my complaint over into their classrooms. Teachers are 4 The Harvard Education Letter, January/February 1995 Looking at these hidden commit- other people want us to do this, too. itself but to locatz the underlying cause: Once we begin to look at the things ments brings us to the fifth form of dis- the fact that I have a certain commit- coursethe Discourse of Our Big As- we generated in the Discourse of Per- ment or belief. When I complain about a student who's causing trouble in sumptions. These are the assumptions sonal Responsibility, we are forced to that, typically, we don't have so much consider the fact that we are complex class, the commitment behind my com- people with multiple sets of commit- as they have us. We tend not to be aware plaint may be to the value of having a of them, but they have enormous influ- nondisruptive class environment. It ments. If I feel committed to having bet- ence over us. ter faculty meetings, I might identify my puts me in a different position, experi- HEL: If we're not aware of them, own responsibility by recognizing that encing myself not as a complaining, dis- how can we begin to talk about them? I have never actually gone to the prin- appointed person but as a person who Kegan: Let's say you have a hidden cipal and said, "You know, I am really holds certain convictions. commitment never to hurt another per- disappointed and disturbed about the HEL: Does it put the leader in a dif- son's feelings. We would invite you to way we spend our time." I've never ac- ferent position as well? finish this sentence: 'And I assume that Kegan: It changes the way leaders tually asked for what I wanted. if I ever did hurt another person's feel- receive complaints. Usually either they ings, then...." What? What emerges are just don't want to hear them, or they School leaders some pretty powerful and sometimes may have a view of themselves as he- unwarranted fears: "The other person invariably tell us they roic, healing leaders, and they want to would be so hurt that she would hate hear all the complaints so they can wish complainers would me" or "She'd never trust me again." make everything better for people. We take more responsibility. And then, there it is, right out there invite instead a kind of discourse in where you can actually look at it. which they receive the complaint but it Making those Big Assumptions gets converted into a commitment that emerge for an interesting moment Now I can't just vow to changethat you really stand behind. Once that is doesn't guarantee change. In the ab- is, to start asking for what I wantuntil identified and made public, there is a I see that my behavior comes out of sence of a context that preserves my possibility that someone is going to act relationship to that assumptionmy some other commitment. For example, on that commitment. ability to look at itit will generally get I may have a commitment to having the When you derive commitments out sucked back into my being identified principal love me, or a commitment to of complaints, they are by definition never hurting another person's feel- with it. Like Scarlett O'Hara, "I'll think not fully realized commitments, or they about it tomorrow" After a while it's wouldn't have become complaints. ings, or a commitment to never seem- ing to be disloyal. just gone again. That raises the question, "Why aren't HEL: Is this another level of dis- they fully realized?" Well, there are So we invite people to form ongoing teams, or even to buddy up, to sustain course? many reasons why our commitments a relationship to those assumptions in Kegan: Yes. We call it the Discourse are not fully realized, but the one we order to be able to begin to explore of Our Hidden Commitments. These can do the most about begins with our- them, even possibly to alter them. are often very powerful commitments selves. There's almost always some that, in our naive conceptions of our- These groups, teams, or even pairs be- hand we have in things being the way selves as professionals, we're embar- come little "discourse communities," they are in our lives. So we invite peo- rassed about and think we're supposed pockets in the organization where new ple to identify the things they are doing, to check at the door of work. But or very often the things they are not forms of speech are practiced. there's no way to check them at the doing, that keep their commitments HEL: What's the role of conflict in all door. They always come in. of this? from being realized. The Discourse of Our Hidden Com- Kegan: I've focused on those forms HEL: Is that the third form of trans- mitments asks us to consider that the of discourse that can support the kinds formative discourse? of internal work that one would do on things we generated in the Discourse of Kegan: Yes. We call it the Discourse Personal Responsibility are not just of Personal Responsibilitythat is, oneself. There are still other forms that professional equivalents of naughti- have to do with making productive use identifying the things we are doing or ness that we should stop doing. We of conflict. We don't believe that you not doing that actually undermine our should ignore conflict or that conflict can't simply resolve to cut these things own commitments or convictions. This isn't a normal part of organizational out of our act, like making a New Year's discourse converts us from the experi- resolution. Such resolutions have very life. Far from it. There are forms of dis- ence of ourselves as complaining, dis- appointed people to people who are course for difference that enable us not little power because they are essentially only to handle managerial problems disrespectful to our own complexity. not just committed to something but but actually to use the conflict to en- able to own some responsibility for We must instead identify the underlying commitments that are expressed in the hance transformation. things being the way they are. But that's a pretty high art. We may things we are not doing. How important is this owning of re- This discourse is very revealing. need to develop a richer relationship to sponsibility? School leaders invariably ourselves and our own inner contra- Once I realize that I'm actually commit- tell us that when people come to them ted to never hurting another person's dictions before we can hope to make with complaints, they always wish that feelings, I'm likely to think, "Oh, this is the best use of our contradictions with the other person would be taking more so trueand I hate that this is true." others. responsibility for their hand in things. That puts me in a place where it be- Since we are "the other person" for eve- comes possible to change. rybody other than ourselves, obviously The Harvard Education Letter, January/February 1995 5 YOUTH AT RISK at California State University yields a different conclusion. Their long-term research found that children whose mothers Full-Service Schools Could Let use task-extrinsic motivators such as rewards and punish- Teachers Go Back to Teaching ments to encourage school performance tend to have dimin- ished intrinsic motivation to learn over time. The "full-service school" is a radical idea for educators over- Stay tuned. The debate on incentives is expected to heat up burdened by society's demand that schools "do it all." Joy in forthcoming issues of the Review of Educational Research Dryfoos, formerly of the Alan Guttmacher Institute and now and other journals. an independent researcher, proposes bringing community, See: J. Cameron and W D. Pierce. "Reinforcement, Reward, and Intrinsic Motiva- health, and social services into schools where students and tion: A Meta-Analysis." Review of Educational Research 64, no. 3 (Fall 1994): their families could receive dental care, welfare services, coun- 363-423. seling, and so on, under one roof. Her recommendations are A. Gottfried et al. "Role of Parental Motivational Practices in Children's Academic Intrinsic Motivation and Achievement." Journa/ofEducational Psychology 86, no. based on a broad national survey of fledgling full-service pro- 1 (March 1994): 104-113. grams. The benefits of this "package of interventions," Dryfoos sug- CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES gests, would be enormous. Families fragmented by poverty Print-Rich Environments could get help for many different needs in one place. Teachers could go back to teaching. And students, served by a variety Recommended for Young Children of social agencies within the school, could go back to learning. The need, Dryfoos argues, is pressing. She estimates that Even if young children with disabilities are not ready to read one in four public school students, or ten million young conventionally, they can benefit greatly from exposure to people, are at high risk of failure. They arrive at school with "print-rich environments." So say the directors of Project I.E.P. social, emotional, or health (Intervention for Early Pro- gress) at the University of problems that make learning difficult if not impossible. New and Noteworthy Texas at San Antonio. The researchers studied One inner-city principal de- 24 children age four to six scribed his school to Dryfoos underdeveloped "an who were identified as hav- as Brief notes on significant recent research in education ing a variety of cognitive, country " physical, emotional, behav- See: J. Dryfoos. Full Service Schools: A ioral, and developmental disabilities. Two-thirds had mild to Revolution in Health and Social Services for Children, Youth, and Families. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1994. moderate mental retardation. The children were divided into two self-contained classes-14 in an experimental class and 10 in a control classfor an entire school year. Teachers fol- REWARDS AND MOTIVATION lowed the same curriculum in both classes, but the experi- The Debate Over Incentives mental group also had a well-stocked classroom library, which Heats Up children used independently several times a day; daily "read- alouds" by adults; and a classroom writing center. The debate about the effect of rewards and incentives on Students worked on compositions in the writing center sev- intrinsic motivation (see "Letting Talent Flow" and "The Case eral times a week; the teacher accepted any scribbles or marks Against Rewards and Praise," HEL, March/April 1994) is far (but not coloring) as writing. The students composed on sub- from over. jects like holidays, the seasons, and books the teacher had read Judy Cameron and W David Pierce of the University of Al- to them; they were encouraged to share their compositions berta, authors of a "meta-analysis" of 96 previous studies, say with each other. that extrinsic rewards have no appreciable effect on intrinsic The experimental class showed significantly greater gains motivation. The only exceptions, they argue, are verbal praise, than the control group on the Concepts About Print Test, an which significantly increases intrinsic motivation, and rewards assessment of basic knowledge about the ways print is used that are given simply for doing a task (rather than for meeting to convey meaning in books. In addition, these students de- a performance standard or completing a task), which slightly veloped increasingly sophisticated book-handling behaviors, decrease intrinsic motivation. more complex and varied composition styles, and a greater But some prominent researchers have challenged Cameron tendency to interact with books in their free time over the and Pierce's methods. Affie Kohn, author of the 1993 book course of the year. A few students even progressed to actual Punished by Rewards, says their meta-analysis excludes sev- reading. eral major studies that show rewards decrease intrinsic moti- Project director David Katims says the findings challenge vation when they are withdrawn. And psychologist Mark Lep- conventional reading instruction methods for children with per of Stanford University believes the analytical technique disabilities, which often result in their having to wait until later Cameron and Pierce used is flawed because it allows impor- childhood for meaningful experiences with books. "A lot of tant positive and negative effects to cancel each other out. reading instruction for disabled children still follows a strictly Cameron and Pierce defend both their methods and their bottom-up approach, breaking reading down to its most sepa- conclusions. "The literature in this area has caused a lot of rate components," says Katims. "We're suggesting a top-down people to be afraid of incentive systems," says Judy Cameron. approach that begins with meaning and background knowl- "Our research suggests that teachers can use incentives with- edge and works its way down to word decoding." out fear that children will lose their intrinsic drive to learn." See: D. Katims. "Emergence of Literacy in Preschool Children with Disabilities." A related study by Adele Eskeles Gottfried and colleagues Learning Disability Quarterly 17, no. 1 (Winter 1994): 5 &69. 6 The Harvard Education Letter, January/February 1995 cantly greater gains in problem-solving than other students. TEACHING MATH Control group students received either traditional instruction Irrelevant Information emphasizing computation skills or no instruction at all be- May Aid in Problem-Solving tween pre- and post-tests. The greater improvement among those trained in text ed- It may seem contradictory, but giving math students irrele- iting held whether problems contained irrelevant information vant information (and tips on how to spot it) may help them or not. Text editing works, the researchers conclude, "by as- to develop their problem-solving skills Australian researcher sisting the student to identify the structure of the problem that Renae Low and colleagues at La Trobe University in Bundoora is to be solved and to process information from the text in studied the teaching of algebraic problem-solving to 208 elev- ways consistent with the structure the student has identified." enth-graders. The students who received instruction in "text R. Low et al. "Solution of Algebraic Word Problems Following Training in See: editing"that is, identifying whether a word problem con- Identifying Necessary and Sufficient Information Within Problems." American tains irrelevant or insufficient informationshowed signifi- Journal of Psychology 107, no. 3 (Fall 1994): 423-439. PARTNERSHIPS Businesspeople and Educators Have a Lot To Learn from Each Other A diverse Ohio partnership shows what can happen when business and school people begin to see the world through each other's eyes BY ELIZABETH ARNETT tricts limited the use of professional Educators often respond with opportunities for growth and learning leave or could not afford substitute when suspicion business to students and adults alike. I know, be- shows an interest in public cause for the past three years I have teachers or bus drivers. One executive schools. What's the business asked why the teachers could not use worked with the Total Quality Educa- tion Resource Group of the Ohio community's real purpose? Do they vacation days and was truly shocked to Department of Education, a diverse learn that teachers have no vacation just want to create an education factory partnership of more than 50 busi- days. Most of the business repre- that will turn out willing workers rather nesspeople, superintendents, princi- sentatives had financial support from than educated citizens? pals, teachers, support personnel, vo- their companies, but many of the edu- Businesspeople in turn often harbor cational educators, state officials, and negative attitudes toward teachers that cators bore the expense of participating in the project themselves. can make productive collaboration dif- union representatives. We share profes- As we began to plan programs, the sional development activities and link ficult. Many corporate executives think of teaching as an easy job with short businesspeople's eyes were opened to businesses with schools. hours, long vacations, and a general the problems school districts face. In No Vacation Days? business, training is considered work lack of standards for performanceun- like the tough, market-driven world of time and is conducted during the work The path has not been smooth. All of us have had to examine our assump- day. In school, professional develop- private enterprise. Schools would work ment opportunities are usually limited better, they think, if only they were run tions about each other. After several ses- to two to four days per year, including sions the business partners expressed more like businesses. concern that the teachers and other district meetings and classroom prepa- This climate of distrust makes it hard school staff were not really interested to get businesspeople and educators to ration time at the start of the year. Any work together on professional devel- in the project because they did not al- additional training usually occurs after school. As one principal put it, "I'm a ways show up for meetings. They were opment for improving schools. And yet weary warrior, working with other surprised to learn that teachers often such partnerships, when they do spring weren't allowed to come. Many dis- weary warriors, as we stay after school up and manage to survive, offer superb STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION (Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685) 1. Title of publication: The Harvard Education Letter. 2. Publication no. 8755 - 3716.3. Date of filing: October 25, 1994.4. Frequency of issue: bimonthly. 5. No. of issues published annually: 6. 6. Annual subscription price: 832.00. 7-8. Mailing address of known office of publication/publisher: Gutman Library Room 349, 6 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138 - 3752.9. Harvard Graduate School of Education, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138-3752; Editor: Edward Miller, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Gutman Library Room 349, 6 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138-3752. 10. Owner: President and Fellows of Harvard College, Neil L. Rudenstine, President, Massachusetts Hall, Cambridge, MA 02138-1423. 11. Known bondholders, mortagagees, or other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of the total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: none. 12. The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes have not changed during the preceding 12 months. 13. Publication name: The Harvard Education Letter. 14. Issue date for circulation data below: Sept./Oct. Issue, Sept. 6, 1994. 15. Extent and nature of circulation (average no. of copies each issue during preceding 12 months/actual no. of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date): a. Total no. copies (16,74622,000). B. Paid and/or requested circulation: 1. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, and counter sales (182/78). 2. Paid or requested mail subscriptions (13,637/16,396). c. Total paid and/or requested circulation (13,819/16,474). d. Free distribution by mail (966/971). e. Free distribution outside the mail (100/75). f. Total free distribution (1,066/1,046) g. Total distribution (14,885/17,520). h. Copies not distributed: 1. office use, leftovers, spoiled (1,861/4,480). 2. Return from news agents (0/0). i. Total (16,746/22,000). I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. /s/Karen E. Maloney, General Manager. opment impossible, how in-service tribute to the support of the city's pub- to begin our own learning." lic schools. They began to understand. Time was not the only problem new days offer little in the way of stimulation or new experiences, and how special to the business community. Executives Teachers Are Too Nice interest groups monopolize the time of were surprised to learn that many edu- schools boards and administrators. Not all the learning was on the busi- cators do not have access to secretarial ness side of the table. Educators often services, computers for e-mail commu- "There is no quick, easy fix for all school complain that businesspeople don't problems," he concluded. nication, or telephones in their class- understand them because they don't What resulted from all this learning? rooms. With no money for substitutes, An outpouring of support for educa- have to work with students who are the teachers worried about how they tors' professional development from could get involved in long-term pro- hungry, neglected, or abused, and who the business partners in our group. vary enormously in motivation and grams and still properly supervise their skill. But these problems are not re- students and maintain continuity in Tom Baldrick of the Liebert Corpora- tion, Don Botto of Goodyear Tire and their classes. This, too, was simply not Rubber, and Jed Osborn of Ball Metal an issue in the business world. When I Container have given their own time suggested that the businesses in the Educators learned that and money to provide training pro- group help solve the problem by offer- the problems of hunger, grams. Corporations have paid for sub- ing a two- to four-day field experience neglect, and abuse are stitute teachers and sponsored scholar- for students, one executive simply put his head down on the table. "We ships for school employees to attend not restricted to schools. conferences. Honda of America sends couldn't do that!" he said, appalled at its own employees into schools to teach the thought of having kids in his work- and conducts management training for place. stricted to schools. The worlds of edu- "Why not?" said Bill Hayes from teachers at its manufacturing sites. cation and business work with the same Superintendents, principals, teach- Honda of America, based in Marysville, people; there are malnourished and ers, custodians, secretaries, and bus Ohio. "We're doing it." Hayes and his abused employees, and workers in the drivers have learned new methods for company, which runs an innovative same setting have different levels of solving problems and planning work. training and development program for ability and interest. Teachers often com- The business community has learned students and teachers, have been in- plain about the amount of after-school more about its own planning methods strumental in educating other business time they spend planning lessons and partners in the Education Resource by adapting them to the special circum- grading papers. They learned in our stances of schools. Perhaps most im- Group about what is possible. group that others take work home, too. portant, the business partners discov- Part of this education came via a sur- Educators also benefited from the ered that there is something educators vey that the group sent to all 600 school frank observations of business partners superintendents in Ohio. The busi- want even more than money: time and like Joe Zitnik, a former AT&T executive opportunity to learn. nesspeople were stunned to learn from from Brecksville, Ohio. Zitnik spent For Further Information time watching teachers and administra- tors at work and reported that educa- Business leaders were Total Quality Education Resource Group, c/o Ben tors were far too nice. "They're always Lavin, Ohio Department of Education, Ohio Depart- stunned to learn that ments Building Room 907, 65 S. Front St., Colum- thanking people, even for the insignifi- bus, OH 54366-0308; 614-644-0787. school administrators cant," he said. "They look insincere. Joe Zitnik, JAZ Associates, 4760 Sentinel Dr., They're not willing to risk offending did not hold business in Brecksville, OH 44141; 216-526-5666. anyone. They praise students even for high regard. mediocre work." He also noted that Elizabeth Arnett, a former middle and high school teachers often complained about the math, English, and speech teacher, is now an edu- cation reform consultant for the Ohio Education administration but weren't willing to Association. She can be reached at 225 E Broad St., the more than 200 responses we re- initiate change. Box 2550, Columbus, OH 43216; 614-227-3100. ceived that school administrators did At the same time, Zitnik's apprecia- not hold the business community in tion for the complexity of school im- high regard and, indeed, questioned provement issues grew. He saw first- their motives for getting involved in hand how certification and work rules education. Did business want workers make change difficult, how the sched- who would think creatively and solve ule makes ongoing professional devel- problems or simply follow orders on Correction the production line? Why should we The opening scenario in the page trust business's supposed interest in 1 article on teacher intervention in Tired of Reading supporting schools when at the same the November/December 1994 is- Someone Else's HEL? time they push for special deals that ex- sue was incorrectly described as empt them from property taxes? Read- Why not order your own subscrip- an actual case from Toledo, Ohio. ing the survey responses, our business tion to the Harvard Education In fact, it was a composite story partners learned how the Chemical Ab- Letter right now? Just call Cus- based on several cases of interven- stracts Company in Columbus threat- tomer Service at 1-800-422-2681 tion in Toledo and Rochester, New ened to pack up and leave town rather (617-380-0945 in Massachusetts). York. than give up its tax exemption and con- tat 8 The Harvard Education Letter, January/February 1995 Printed on recycled paper March/April 1995 Published by the Harvard Graduate School of Education Volume XI, Number 2 SCHOOL FINANCE The Numbers Game Yields Simplistic Answers On the Link Between Spending and Outcomes Does money matter? Though politicians and pundits love to ask, it's really the wrong question BY MICHAEL SADOWSKI nane is not being facetious. He is simply Educational Progress (NAEP) as further more for money Does pointing out that quantitative research proof that spending more money on schools equal better aca- methods can't account for all the com- education does not in itself lead to bet- demic performance? Newt plexities of relating school spending to ter results. Gingrich and the Wall Street student outcomes. He is also telling us But Larry Hedges and colleagues at Journal say no, relying in large part on that "Does money matter?"a hot the University of Chicago reached ex- the work of Eric Hanushek, an econo- topic in the current politics of educa- mist at the University of Rochester. His tionis the wrong question. often-cited 1989 review of 38 research studies concluded that "there is no Schools that used smaller The Austin Experience strong or systematic relationship be- classes as an opportunity Murnane cites the case of 15 elemen- tween school expenditures and stu- to change instruction tary schools in Austin, Texas. Targeted dent performance." because of poor student performance, Reducing class sizethe most ex- showed dramatic each was given $500,000 for each of five pensive change schools have made in improvements. years beginning in 1989 to raise recent years to raise achievement achievement. In 13 of the schools, per- makes no difference, Hanushek argues. formance and attendance remained ex- He cites figures for rising education ex- tremely low four years later; the other penditures and falling student per- actly the opposite conclusion last year two, the Zavala and Ortega elementary formance on tests like the S.A.T. and after a new analysis including many of schools, showed dramatic gains. parts of the National Assessment of the same studies Hanushek cites. Using Using Hanushek's "vote-counting" what they considered more sophisti- method of analysiswhich basically 17-111M91.s. than methods cated synthesis counts the number of studies that find Hanushek's, they found that "expendi- positive, negative, or no effects, and tures are positively related to school INSIDE compares the totals in each category outcomes" (italics added) and that class What Teachers Should the conclusion in Austin would be that size does make a difference. Know About Abused additional spending has no effect, be- Who's right, Hanushek or Hedges? cause a large majority of schools Children "They're both right, if you look at their showed no improvement. But in data," says Richard Murnane, an econo- Coworkers Held Liable for Hedges's "meta-analysis" method, the mist at the Harvard Graduate School of Knowledge of Sex Abuse magnitudes of the effects would also be Education and coauthor, with Frank measured, and the huge gains of the Levy of M.I.T., of a forthcoming book on More on Peer Intervention two successful schools would lead to an schools in a changing economy. Mur- EDITOR: Edward Miller. ASSISTANT EDITOR: Michael Sadowski. EDITORIAL BOARD, HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION: Mildred Blackman, Director, The Principals' Center; Sally Dias, Superintendent, Watertown Public Schools, Watertown, MA; Jay P Heubert, Assistant Professor; Harold Howe II, Senior Lecturer Emeritus; Susan Moore Johnson, Professor and Academic Dean; Robert Kegan, Senior Lecturer; Jerome T. Murphy, Professor and Dean; Gary A. Orfield, Professor; Robert S. Peterkin, Senior Lecturer; John Ritchie, Principal, Winchester High School, Winchester, MA; Judith D. Singer, Professor; Jay Sugarman, Teacher, Runkle School, Brookline, MA; Dennie Palmer Wolf, Lecturer on Education. NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD: John Brademas, President Emeritus, New York University; Constance E. Clayton, former Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia; Alonzo A. Crim, Professor of Education, Spelman College; Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University; Andrew Heiskell, Chairman Emeritus, New York Public Library; Marya Levenson, Superintendent, North Colonie Central Schools, NY; Deborah Meier, Principal, Central Park East Secondary School, NY; John Merrow, President, The Merrow Report; ArthurJ. Rosenthal, Publishing Consultant; Albert Shanker, President, American Federation of Teachers. GENERAL MANAGER: Karen Maloney. PRODUCTION EDITOR: Dody Riggs. ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT: David Devine. BEST COPY AVAILABLE