Keeping the Faith until the Outcomes Are Obvious

Reform initiatives do not produce instant results, Ms. Rallis and Ms. Zajano point out. question becomes how to maintain the support of the various stakeholders during the trial-and-error stage of implementation. school improvement team at Charles Webber School was meeting. Now in its third year, the team was pleased that the faculty had accepted its proposed mission, goals, and improvement plan. A variety of professional development activities had already taken place, and a substantial portion of the faculty was using the instructional strategies recommended in the plan. team was now grappling with the matter of how to measure the impact of the school improvement effort on student learning. The real question, stated Paul, the project evaluator, is How do we know that students are learning more with the new instructional strategies that teachers are using? Well, know my students are learning more. Their thinking is more complex, responded Sandra. what exactly does that mean? asked Paul. How do you know their thinking is more complex? For one thing, they can apply a concept they learn in one situation to another, Sandra offered. That's a start. But we need to collect evidence of how they are applying those concepts, Paul responded. I find it kind of hard to talk about collecting evidence to measure impact - mostly just feel a whole lot better when I'm teaching because students in my class are so busy interacting and solving problems together. You know what mean, said Carmen. Fine. But are parents and taxpayers going to be satisfied with a measure like 'I feel better because students in my class are working together'? asked Paul. The superintendent told me yesterday that he needs results or the board may recommend that we drop some of the I don't think the board understands that this change stuff takes a long time and is pretty messy. We don't exactly know what students will do differently if we believe that each learner constructs his or her own meaning, said Tony. Besides, as teachers, we are still learning the new strategies. It might take me years before am totally comfortable using some of them. So how can we expect to see changes in the students right away? That's what was trying to say, interjected Carmen. And am not even sure how to assess what am expecting. don't mean that do things without a purpose, but some of what want my class to be doing will not show up on any kind of test that know of. You're right. But can see how it would help if we had some sort of image of what we expect to see students doing. Something more than goals and objectives - a sort of picture that we can all share, so we know we are all talking about the same thing. Restructuring and learner-centered schools are such broad and general terms that they can mean different things to different people. do we mean? said Anna. Think about it. Columbus might never have received any support at all if he had actually been heading for parts unknown. But his stated destination was the Indies, and people at that time did carry a similar picture in their heads of what they thought China looked like, even though they had never been there. We need some picture like that. I like that analogy. To keep us and others going until we can see the actual results, we need to agree on a picture of what a classroom in a restructured school will look like, a picture of what students and teachers in these places will be doing, Paul agreed. What you're talking about is what makes restructuring so difficult for me. We don't yet have a picture of what we expect classes and students and teachers to look like. When a parent asks me, can describe cooperative learning, but have trouble going much deeper. Still, guess you're right that we need clear shared images of what restructured classrooms will look like. …