Sputnik
Robert Slavin is the director of the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University and co-founder and chairman of the Success for All Foundation. Along with guest bloggers, he wrote about how educational policy can be informed by research and innovation and, in turn, promote development and evaluation of promising practices to improve outcomes for all children. This blog is no longer being updated.
Education
Opinion
Render Politics Unto Politicians, But Practice Unto Evidence
I recently heard a thought-provoking speech by Baroness Estelle Morris, former Secretary of State for Education in England. She was talking about the spheres of activity in which evidence is most and least likely to make a difference in education policy. Her argument was that in questions of values, such as school governance, standards, and curriculum, it is appropriate for the political process to argue alternative visions of the future, and come to decisions that are inherently political. Evidence may be taken into account, but many issues are just not questions of "what works," they are questions of "what kind of society do we want."
Education
Opinion
Shouldn't Government Be Accountable, Too?
For many years, the main focus of educational policy in the U.S. has been on accountability for students, for school and district leaders, and, increasingly, for teachers. Perhaps the most important form of accountability, however, is accountability of federal, state, and local governments to see that schools have the wherewithal to ensure maximum achievement. But what are governments doing to set up students, teachers, and school leaders up for success?
Education
Opinion
OMB to Government: Show Us the Evidence
The words "OMB" and "exciting" rarely go in the same sentence, much less "OMB" and "OMG!" Yet on May 18, Jeffrey Zients, Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), sent out a memo that could change history. In guidance to executive departments and agencies, the memo asks the entire Executive Branch to use every available means to promote the use of rigorous evidence in decision-making, program administration, and planning. Some of the specific strategies urged by OMB were as follows:
Education
Opinion
Once Upon a Math Problem: Stories and Learning
Once upon a time, there was a red-headed fourth grader named Ned. Ned was bored in school, and he didn't get good grades. His mom was mad at him, his teacher pleaded with him, and Ned wanted to please them, but he just couldn't get interested enough in school to put in enough effort to really succeed.
Education
Opinion
Senator Lugar Will Be Missed in Education, Too
People of all political persuasions all over the world have reason to mourn Senator Richard Lugar's loss to a Tea-Party candidate in the recent Indiana Republican primary. Senator Lugar is the ranking minority member on the Foreign Relations Committee, where he has long put principle and practicality above partisanship. Yet his defeat matters in education, too.
Education
Opinion
Classrooms Need More Pizzazz
On a recent trip to London, I visited Cayley Primary School, a high-poverty elementary school that has been using our Success for All* whole-school reform approach for several years. The principal, Lissa Samuel, has been at this same school for many years before and after it adopted Success for All. She is proud of the achievement gains, which include a jump from 30% to 80% of students passing sixth-grade reading assessments. During our conversation, though, she talked more about how disciplinary problems, fights, and stealing had completely disappeared. Success for All has very good approaches to classroom management and social-emotional learning, and Ms. Samuel thought these had helped. But even more powerful, she thought, was the effect of success itself. Kids who feel confident, engaged, and motivated to learn do not act out.
Education
Opinion
Note to SIG Schools: Good Lists ≠ Good Outcomes
Everyone loves a good list of things to do to get desired outcomes. Go into any bookstore and you'll see 10 habits, eight steps, 12 secrets, to accomplish all sorts of wonders. What's nice about lists is that they are easy to understand and they appear finite: implement the "seven-step plan to weight loss" and you're done.
Education
Opinion
Recipe for Reform: Take One Class. Stir. Repeat.
In America, there is no shortage of ideas for improving education at every level, pre-k to college. These ideas fall into two categories: Federal, state, and district policy, and school and classroom improvement. Proposals for reforming educational policies almost always focus on issues far from classroom practice: governance, standards, assessment, funding, accountability, certification, district organization. Everything in this list is important, but none of them really matters unless classroom instruction greatly improves. My belief is that instead of starting from large-scale issues and then hoping that solving big funding, governance, and accountability issues will somehow improve daily teaching, we should start thinking about how to create effective classrooms and then to create policies to support them. A recent Brookings report by Chingos and Whitehurst makes the same point. Unless teachers are exciting kids, teaching them effectively, making them feel capable and be capable, things will not change.
Education
Opinion
Evidence-Based Reform and Test-Based Accountability Are Not the Same
Among the many objections I sometimes hear to the concept of evidence-based reform in education is a concern that buying into evidence entails buying into stodgy, boring, top-down instruction. I think these concerns carry over from concerns about instruction driven by standardized testing and accountability. But evidence-based education and test-driven education are very different.
Education
Opinion
How (and Why) to Visit Schools
Over the past 40 years, I've visited an awful lot of schools. Usually, I'm visiting high-poverty elementary or secondary schools that are doing well. I love visiting schools, I love the kids, the teachers, and the administrators, who are all doing their best to create a culture of success and caring that is often a haven in a depressed neighborhood.
Education
Opinion
Proven Programs Don't Implement Themselves
One of the criticisms often leveled at evidence-based reform in education is this: Programs may be proven effective in controlled experiments, but on a larger scale, they won't be implemented with care and therefore won't work. I have seen many awful implementations of programs that have been successful elsewhere and I agree that this is a problem. Proven programs don't implement themselves.
Education
Opinion
When Every Student Has a Computer at Home
The history of technology in education is one of schools running to catch up with technology developments outside of school. Learning from our past follies in this area, perhaps now it is time we anticipate how ubiquitous computer access can be achieved and then exploited to benefit all children.
Education
Opinion
Are Evidence and Innovation in Conflict?
I do a fair amount of speaking on the importance of evidence-based reform in education, and I hear a disturbing objection to this idea: insisting on evidence for educational programs will slow down the process of innovation.
Education
Opinion
Shifting Government from "Who Gets What" to "What Works"
Every political science student knows the old adage that the focus of government is "Who gets what?" That is, government takes in taxes and then distributes benefits, and contending groups pressure government to increase the proportion of those benefits delivered to their constituents.