Meaningful Urban Education Reform: Confronting the Learning Crisis in Mathematics and Science

Chapter 9

215 Understanding the factors that enhance the impact of systems reform is critically important for many reasons. Perhaps the most important of these is that equitable reform of urban education is necessary to insure both a just and a prosperous society. Large urban districts educate 25 percent of all school-age students, 35 percent of all poor students, 30 percent of all English-language learners, and nearly 50 percent of all minority children (Hewson, 1998). We will fail utterly as a society if we do not work for equity in access to challenging materials in mathematics and science and opportunity to achieve to high standards for all children. The major goals of the research study that has been the focus of this volume were: (1) to assess the impact of the reforms undertaken through the National Science Foundation’s Urban Systemic Initiative by modeling relationships between latent variables (drivers) and sets of indicator variables (outcomes); (2) to determine how reforms in mathematics and science curriculum and instruction affect teacher practices and student outcomes at the classroom level; and (3) to investigate the roles of leadership, resources, and policies related to systemic reform that foster or inhibit student achievement outcomes and outcome differences . To achieve these goals, our research was organized to undertake three studies conducted simultaneously: (1) the Study of the Enacted 9 What Have We Learned? A Summary of Key Findings Curriculum; (2) the Policy Study; and (3) the Mathematics and Science Attainment Study. In this book’s previous chapters we unpacked the results of these interrelated studies to show that effective systems reform requires the full-scale involvement and commitment of all individuals at all levels, including school district administrative leadership; teachers, principals, and community members at the level of the school; and ultimately, the teaching and learning that take place in the crucible of the classroom. In this chapter we attempt to pull together a discussion of the most critical findings from the three years of research in the four cities and their districts. Overall, the research reported in this volume contributes to an understanding of how and under what circumstances systems reform is best put into practice at district, school, and classroom levels. This chapter is organized to report on our key findings at three levels of influence: the district, the school, and the classroom. It should be mentioned that the national policy environment is also critical , though it went unexamined systematically in our work. However, without national standards governing student learning and achievement in mathematics and science, and absent the resources and support of the National Science Foundation, systems reform is unlikely to occur. WHAT MATTERS AT THE DISTRICT LEVEL First, at the district level, we learned that when top-ranking administrators, including the superintendent or district CEO, adopt the objectives of the reform as the centerpiece for districtwide staff development and curriculum reform, they are able to affect positively student achievement over the period of reform. These findings are extremely important and show plainly how critical it is to have a coherent policy at the district level that pervades the full fabric of the district’s mission, vision, and resource allocation efforts. Furthermore, even the largest districts can achieve coherence. Although our data point to Memphis as a district successfully engaged in systems reform, our data also clearly show that Chicago, the nation’s third-largest district, was also highly successful in achieving the goals of the reform. Findings from the Policy Study indicate that both district and school administrators viewed the provision of professional development opportunities as a primary focus for reform implementation (see chapter 2). District administrators varied, however, in their commitment to USI reforms and in the subsequent organization of reform implementation. Districts that saw the USI reform as the centerpiece for 216 MEANINGFUL URBAN EDUCATION REFORM curriculum change were more effective in influencing implementation of USI reforms than districts with less optimal approaches. Both Memphis’s and Chicago’s district chiefs embraced the USI reforms, embedded district staff development and curricular strategies in the implementation of the USI initiative, allowed little or no discretion in course taking, with the expectation that all students were to achieve in challenging coursework, and fully accepted the ideology that all students can achieve to high standards. These two USI sites made exemplary changes in the level of expectations and performance of teachers and other staff participating in our study, ultimately leading to...