Earlier this week, John Wilson put the spotlight on a national embarrassment in his Education Week blog post entitled Flunking 3rd Graders Is Not An Intervention. His central point is worth repeating here:

"Flunking 3rd graders is costly to the taxpayers and devastating to the students. Do the math. It costs $10,000 to educate a student every year or $20,000 annually for a special needs student. Is it better to fail a student and create an extra year of that cost or to create a "bridge" program for students who have not mastered reading by the end of the third grade? It is better to provide an intensive intervention in literacy while covering a fourth grade curriculum and eventually place the students in the fourth grade classroom when they will be successful there."

Wilson's assessment could not be more devastatingly true. Clearly, retention is a fiscally irresponsible option. Even worse, it sets children back an entire year in their education by repeating the course of action that set them behind in the first place. Yet schools continue to opt against adopting more effective proven interventions because they are deemed "too expensive," and legislators in several states are considering mandatory retention for low-performing third graders.

The Doing What Works initiative at the Center for American Progress takes one step forward in addressing this issue by educating school leaders on cost-effective, proven options that are available. School leaders can also refer directly to the government-funded What Works Clearinghouse, the Top Tier Evidence Initiative at the Coalition for Evidence Based Policy, and the Best Evidence Encyclopedia from Johns Hopkins School of Education to find out what works for struggling readers. All of these sites provide comprehensive information about the strength of the evidence supporting a variety of education programs.

Wilson ends his post with the question: "What are your best interventions to help children read?" With all the resources that exist, we cannot simply throw up our hands when faced with this question. If the well-meaning legislators talking about mandatory retentions were aware of the evidence, they would see that retention is far from being the only solution to the problem of school failure.

For the latest on evidence-based education, follow me on twitter: @RobertSlavin

Disclosure Note: Robert Slavin is the Director of the Best Evidence Encyclopedia project at the Johns Hopkins School of Education.

Posted by Robert Slavin at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

I was at a meeting in London recently, and got into a friendly argument with a colleague about strategies for scaling up proven programs. I was arguing that teachers should have an opportunity to collectively learn about a variety of proven programs appropriate to their school and then vote to adopt one or more of them, or none at all. This way, I argued, teachers would feel committed to whatever they had chosen and implement it with spirit and care.

My colleague was appalled. She thought my way was too slow and would abandon kids who happened to be in schools that voted "No" to terrible fates. She gave as a positive example England's National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, implemented by Tony Blair's government starting in the late 1990s. The NLS/NNS was imposed across every one of England's 25,000 schools. Scores on a new set of tests went up for a few years, but then flattened out, as happens in every U.S. state that adopts a new test.

My colleague's impatience was understandable. How long must struggling schools and children wait? But the consequence of impatience is all too often the boom-and-bust pendulum cycle of education reform. This is what happened to the NLS/NNS; teachers hated it, because of its meddlesome intrusion into professionalism. And the new conservative government is abandoning it.

I think a more gradual approach might be more likely to stick. If Title I schools had encouragement and funding to adopt proven programs, I think most of them would do so, and then the choice would have been their own professional judgment, not something imposed from above. Further, a more gradual expansion of proven programs would enable schools to find out what really works, and what it takes to make proven programs work at scale. It would allow providers of proven programs to scale up their operations in a planful, progressive way, and for research and development to identify new strategies and improve existing ones. As schools that originally voted "No" see schools around them happily and successfully using proven programs, they are likely to rethink their decisions.

Beyond the certainty of even further alienating teachers, who have already had it just about up to here, sweeping, mandatory prescriptions can't demand anything very complex, both because such approaches would take a lot of PD all at once and because the teachers wouldn't stand for it. So sweeping reforms sweep in and then get swept out, while kids get no benefits and the system gets no smarter.

I do share my English colleague's impatience. In the U.S. there are 100,000 schools and 40 million kids. Can we really reform it all one school at a time?

I think we can. In five to ten years, for example, I'm certain that proven programs could be introduced in every one of the roughly 20,000 Title I schoolwide elementary schools. Getting these schools right would make a huge difference in reducing achievement gaps and getting disadvantaged kids off to a great start.

As the old riddle goes, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." One bite at a time may not be fast, but no one wants that elephant stuffed down his throat.

Posted by Robert Slavin at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

When I was a kid, I loved my textbooks. I loved their heft, their musty smell, and the long list of names of previous users in the back. I loved the confident, definitive prose that led into new worlds of thought and experience. When I grew up, I even wrote some textbooks myself.

So it is with mixed emotions that I'm witnessing the demise of the textbook as we know it. Apple recently announced that it will be partnering with major publishers to create online textbooks, and the Obama Administration set the goal of having e-textbooks in the hands of every student by 2017, It's only a matter of time before the textbook goes the way of the slide rule, the typewriter, and the chalkboard.

The end of the paper textbook will lessen the weight in students' backpacks and perhaps reduce schools' costs, but will it be beneficial to students' learning? It's our job to make it so. If electronic textbooks are just like paper ones, there is little reason to expect them to be more effective. But e-texts offer many possibilities for innovation. Electronic texts can be linked to videos, including tutoring or alternative and more in-depth explanations. They can provide study aids, such as outlines, summaries, self-assessments, and embedded definitions. They can connect students in online study groups to jointly prepare each other for assessments. They can continuously assess students' understanding and prescribe either remedial work to fill gaps or offer extensions for students willing and able to go beyond the ordinary. Digital textbooks may be linked to content shown by teachers on interactive whiteboards, tablets, or other electronic devices used in classrooms to supplement teachers' instruction. They may communicate to teachers students' current levels of knowledge and skill so that teachers can adapt their class lessons to meet the needs of their class and identify individual students who need additional assistance.

Using video, games, online study groups, and other means, electronic homework might actually become something students want to do, perhaps even replacing some of the vast wasteland of mindless television and shoot-'em-up video gaming that currently occupy a huge proportion of children's days.

The move toward electronic textbooks will soon require that every student has secure, reliable access to technology at home that connects to school-approved networks. When teachers can count on the idea that every student (and parent) has access to technology, the possibilities for home-school collaboration will be limitless.

Of course, all of these possibilities are just that - possibilities. When electronic textbooks become the norm, it will also be possible to rigorously evaluate each of hundreds of variations in how they are used. Even if electronic textbooks are no better than paper ones at first, e-textbooks can be rapidly and continuously improved in a way that paper textbooks never could. A hundred years ago, cars were not much better than horses, as they were expensive, difficult to maintain, and prone to breakdowns. However, it was easy to see that eventually, the car would prevail. Horses had reached their limit, while cars could be progressively improved.

Electronic textbooks will provide opportunities for researchers and developers to create exciting, astonishingly effective learning opportunities for students. They will also provide opportunities to create "killer apps" that turn out to be ineffective or even harmful. As we cross this digital bridge, the onus is on us to test the numerous applications and know which are beneficial and which are not, not just which are popular.

I, for one, will miss the old-fashioned textbook, but I welcome the great potential of its electronic successor. Now let's make sure that this potential is realized.

Posted by Robert Slavin at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright changed the world in the most American of ways, by tinkering in their bicycle shop and then testing their flying machine in the dunes of Kitty Hawk. The basic design principles they followed were the same as those being followed by optimistic airplane designers all over the world. Others used similar airframes, engines, and controls. The Wright brothers did make numerous innovations, but to an observer, there was little that differentiated their model from many others, with one exception: their airplane actually flew.

Now space forward 109 years, and consider school reform. In turning around persistently low-achieving schools, report after report tells us that we need to emphasize strong leadership, high expectations, extensive professional development, effective use of time, and data-based management. All of these are emphasized in School Improvement Grants (SIG), for example, and all are certainly sensible. But is emphasizing such a list of "design principles" enough to turn around failing schools?

In a recent post I wrote about the importance of developing and disseminating well-structured, well-integrated programs that have been rigorously evaluated and found to be effective. Disseminating proven programs is very different from disseminating lists of variables associated with effective schools. For one thing, proven programs are known to work across a variety of circumstances, and are not limited to a particular set of circumstances unlikely to exist elsewhere. The Wright biplane would have just been another curiosity if it had not turned out to work anywhere with an airfield. Second, proven programs depend on many more, and more specific, innovations than those captured by the lists. Third, proven programs are provided by organizations that build expertise in supporting their effective use, and are essentially held accountable for the success of their approach. If the Wright brothers had not been able to improve upon and scale up their model, their inventiveness would not have mattered.

Anyone who has tried to turn around a failing school armed with a list of variables and general good advice will know that the chances of takeoff are uncertain. No program guarantees success, but replicating and adapting proven programs offers the best chance of making a difference. It's better to do it the Wright way.

Image: John T. Daniels, 1903, available via public domain

Posted by Robert Slavin at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In the 1980s, Madeline Hunter was extremely popular for her speeches and writing focused on making basic principles of educational psychology practical for teachers. I saw her speak once in a huge auditorium packed to the rafters with enthusiastic teachers. At the end, the teachers were streaming out excitedly discussing the speech. On every side, the comment I heard was, "This confirms everything I've always believed!"

Everyone likes to have their beliefs confirmed by articulate speakers, but I wondered at the time whether the teachers had wasted their time. How could confirmation of what they've always believed change their teaching methods and improve children's learning?

The reason I'm bringing up Madeline Hunter now is that I increasingly hear this refrain from educators at all levels: "We don't do programs." Many educators oppose the entire idea of adopting programs, particularly in professional development, preferring to learn about principles of good practice that they can then weave into daily teaching.

In principle, there's nothing wrong with principles, and educators do need to know about all the variables and teaching that contribute to good outcomes for children. However, learning about basic principles is not the same as school reform. In the case of Madeline Hunter's very sensible, well-founded principles, several studies that applied her principles found no effect on student learning (in comparison to control groups). Why? Because observations and interviews revealed that the control groups, teachers who did not receive Madeline Hunter training, were also using almost all of the principles on the Hunter list.

A great deal of research in all subjects and grade levels tells us that when success is achieved in providing professional development to teachers, the content of the PD is almost always structured, well-defined, and replicable programs, rather than sets of principles or smaller practices from which teachers pick and choose what they want to use. One reason for this is that effective teaching is a complex orchestration of many elements, and a well-designed program can deal with many of these elements and the interplay among them. Also, when teachers pick and choose they often pick the elements most like what they already do.

This is not to say that all programs are effective or that there is never a case when PD on a few powerful principles can produce better learning. Teachers and administrators should have a wide array of proven programs to choose from, and a belief in programs should not require a belief in prescription. The bottom line should always be "use what works," not "use programs." We need to be open to all sorts of solutions known to improve children's learning. But, it is important to note that in the history of educational research, it's most often well-designed, well-evaluated programs that end up making a difference.

Posted by Robert Slavin at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In recent posts I've argued that while we can and should learn a great deal from international comparisons of educational practices and outcomes, we should not simply adopt the practices of other countries, but should put them (and home-grown solutions) to the test in our country. Last week, as part of Education Week's Quality Counts, there was an article by Pasi Sahlberg, of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. Finland, of course, has become the poster child for those who point abroad for inspiration, because of its top rankings on international tests, such as PISA and TIMSS.

Sahlberg explains that Finland's success is no miracle, but is based on studying the policies and practices of other countries, trying them out in Finland, and keeping those that work. These include many innovations from the U.S.; in fact, he singles out cooperative learning as a positive example.

Finland and other countries whose students excel on international tests pay close attention to the U.S. and other countries' research and innovations. In fact, I think countries other than the U.S. pay a great deal more attention to research and examples from beyond their borders than we do in the U.S. The willingness to find out what works, regardless of its source, and then try it out at home is exactly what I was arguing for. This is a Finnish policy I can absolutely endorse - use what works!

Posted by Robert Slavin at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In a November 10 Sputnik I wrote some cautionary thoughts about what we can and cannot learn from international comparisons to improve educational policies. My old friend Marc Tucker, in his December 20 blog called Top Performers, took me to task, saying that by suggesting we try out ideas from abroad in our own schools before adopting them wholesale, I was "looking for my keys where the light was better" rather than where they might actually be.

In my blog I was completely agreeing with Marc that we can learn a lot from other countries. I work part-time in England and am very familiar with education there and elsewhere in Europe. There is indeed much we can learn in other countries. In fact, we already are: the hot off the press Quality Counts report from Education Week found that "Education officials in 29 states reported that their agency uses international education comparisons to inform their reform strategies or identify 'best practices.'" Where I take issue with Marc is in his apparent belief that if we study what successful nations do, we can just plunk their policies down in our context and all will be well. Marc seems to think that international comparisons have proven that our main efforts need to be directed toward improving teacher quality. He might very well be right. I'd love to see teacher salaries doubled, teacher education dramatically improved, induction enhanced, and so on, and perhaps these policies would solve our problems by making teaching a more attractive profession, bringing higher-quality students into teaching, and providing excellent professional development and support to help existing and new teachers to be effective and to want to stay in the profession. Frankly, however, there isn't a U.S. educator or policy maker who didn't already know that these would be great ideas long before we ever heard of Finland.

But how do we cause all of these things to happen in our society, with our kids? Which of these policies are not only effective, but most cost-effective? Is it too much to ask that whatever ideas we glean from observing Finland or Singapore or Japan be tested in Minnesota or Massachusetts or Mississippi, so we can learn how they work here? And in the meantime, might we also increase use of programs and practices that have been proven to work in the U.S., and develop and evaluate more of them?

America's strength in every field, from medicine to agriculture to satellites, lies in its extraordinary capacity in research and development. This is true in education as much as in other areas; the products of U.S. educational R & D are much sought after in other countries. While other countries can give us good ideas and benchmarks to evaluate our students' performance, let's also build on our strengths.

Posted by Robert Slavin at 9:18 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

On a family trip to Minneapolis, I happened to see an end-of-the-year article on the dramatic reduction in gunshot incidents in the Twin Cities in recent years. The article in the Star Tribune attributed the decline to better policing strategies, such as use of data to focus police on areas of particularly high crime, as well as other prevention efforts such as keeping local recreation centers open late.

What the Star Tribune failed to note is that the reduction in violence and crime is not limited to the Twin Cities, but is a national phenomenon. In fact, there have been remarkable improvements in all categories of crime, delinquency, and drug abuse. Notwithstanding the occasional articles to this effect, I think the general public continues to think that urban areas are going to hell in a handbasket, when in fact in the crucial area of crime the truth is just the opposite.

I think it would help the cause of evidence-based reform to further publicize and celebrate the turnaround in crime and violence, as an indication that our key social problems can be solved using strategies derived from social science. Evidence-based reform in juvenile delinquency, at least, has been greatly advanced by government and by organizations such as Blueprints that summarize research in this area. At the same time, we need to be working on the next round of improvements (crime and violence are much better than they were, but still too high) and understanding what went right, for a change. Which of the many things cities have been doing over the past two decades have contributed to the reductions in crime?

It's not enough to declare victory. To make further progress, we need to continue to invest in experiments that evaluate promising approaches to reducing crime and violence.

The remarkable rebirth of inner cities such as New York, Baltimore, Washington, and yes, Minneapolis, have both depended on and contributed to reductions in crime. Evidence-based practices can help identify and spread this to more cities and make real contributions to the quality of life for everyone. And who knows, perhaps this approach could also work in education!

Posted by Robert Slavin at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

There's an old story about a town that was planning to build a playground. In the town council, someone brought up the problem that the proposed site was at the edge of a cliff, so there was a danger that children might fall off. The council then got into a debate about whether to build a fence at the top of the cliff or station an ambulance at the bottom!

The point of the story, of course, is that it's ridiculous to invest in remediation of problems that could have been prevented. Yet in education, that is what happens all the time. We spend billions on remediation and special education, not to mention damage caused by preventable delinquency and mental health problems, while investing relatively little in prevention, or research on which preventive approaches work.

There is plenty of evidence, for example, to the effect that early reading failure is catastrophic for students' progress in school and in life. Further, there is plenty of evidence illustrating that most reading failure can be prevented using proven preschool, kindergarten, and primary-grades reading strategies using structured, phonetic one-to-one or small group tutoring, and whole-school reforms focusing on reading for all. Add to these the likely improvements in prevention that could result from ensuring that all children who need them have eyeglasses and other health services necessary to ensure that students are ready to learn every day.

There are good reasons to invest in proven educational programs at all levels and in all subjects, but when proven programs also reduce government expenditures within a few years, even the most bottom-line oriented administrator or legislator should see the need to invest in proven prevention. A fence is not only smarter and kinder than an ambulance - it's also a lot cheaper.

Posted by Robert Slavin at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

I will be taking a brief break from posting to Sputnik over the holidays, but I look forward to continuing the dialogue on evidence-based education reform in 2012. In the meantime, I leave you with this seasonal cartoon and remind readers that even during the season of miracles, remember to be wary of miraculous claims in education.

Illustration: Slavin, R.E. (2007). Educational research in the age of accountability. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Reprinted with permission of the author.

Posted by Robert Slavin at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend