In Getting Beneath the Veil of Effective Schools: Evidence from New York City, Harvard researchers Will Dobbie and Roland Freyer collected “unparalleled data” on the inner workings of 35 New York City charter schools.
Their findings, subject to a few caveats, were thattraditionally collected input measures such as class size, per pupil expenditure, the fraction of teachers with no certification, and the fraction of teachers with an advanced degree, are not correlated with school effectiveness.
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is a typical example of a school system that publicizes the number of classes taught by teachers designated as highly qualified. For example, the system asserts that, “as of December 1, 2010, 96.9 percent of MCPS core academic classes were being taught by teachers who are designated as highly qualified.” That, if the Harvard research holds up to scrutiny, may not be a good measure of the quality of MCPS schools.
The researchers conclude that “frequent teacher feedback, the use of data to guide instruction, high-dosage tutoring, increased instructional time, and high expectations – explains approximately 50 percent of the variation in school effectiveness”
MCPS has invested heavily in smart boards, and other technological enhancements have sometimes served to replace instruction, in a process that I call “techno-teaching,” with watching YouTube videos, rap songs (for more MCPS recommended rap, please see here), and the likes. Exams designed by the district are administered to students with nary a discussion on the mistakes an individual student may have made on the test.
MCPS recently jettisoned the self-esteem movement that was well-ensconced in the education establishment, in favor of the mindset movement advocated by Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck.
Now, the Harvard report demonstrates that the time worn instructional practices of high-dosage tutoring, increased instructional time and high expectations may be more effective than techno-teaching. While videos and rap songs may be an appealing supplement to instruction, they are not, the Harvard findings indicate, a substitute for good old-fashioned teaching.
© Kumar Singam, 2012
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