From Mass Schooling to Education Systems: Changing Patterns in the Organization and Management of Instruction

Abstract

In the early 1990s, the logic and policies of systemic reform launched a press to coordinate the pursuit of excellence and equity in U.S. public education, with each other and with classroom instruction. There was little in that policy moment to predict that these reforms would sustain, and much to predict otherwise. Yet, nearly three decades hence, many public school districts are working earnestly to pursue the central aims of the reforms: all students engaging rich instructional experiences to master ambitious content and tasks at the same high standards. That begs a question: What happens when new educational ambitions collide with legacy educational institutions—not in a policy moment but across a historical moment? This chapter takes up that question by reviewing the rise of mass public schooling in pursuit of universal access, a historic pivot toward instructionally focused education systems in pursuit of excellence and equity, and changing patterns in instructional organization and management that follow. The lesson we draw is that, even amid incoherence and turbulence in education environments, sustained public, political, and policy support for new educational ambitions opens up new opportunities for those ambitions to manifest in the structures and the work of public school districts.

Idle chatter or compelling conversation? The potential of the social media‐based #NGSSchat network for supporting science education reform efforts

“…Participation in #NGSSchat was from individuals from a variety of professional roles, particularly teachers, who made up more than one‐third of the 247 participants, but also administrators (20% of participants) and researchers (7% of participants). This heterogeneity of professional roles was significant given past research that highlights how challenging it is for educational stakeholders in different roles to coordinate their work in schools, districts, and Universities (Coburn & Stein, 2010; Peurach et al, 2019; Penuel et al, 2013). Moreover, this heterogeneity is important in that stakeholders from multiple roles could see themselves as active participants because of the involvement of others with whom they share a key (in this context) personal characteristic, their professional role; in other words, homophily could contribute to not only researchers and administrators, but also teachers to choose to be involved in this network (Spillane et al, 2012).…”

“…In particular, such networks may profitably incorporate multiple stakeholders and provide them with opportunities to interact on more equal grounds—whether that be through social media or carefully designed questions (such as those used by the moderators of #NGSSchat to structure the chats) to interact in any setting. In this way, #NGSSchat suggests new visions for how to address a persistent challenge for those seeking to reform education (Coburn, 2001; Peurach et al, 2019), implementing changes in complex systems that require the collective participation of multiple stakeholders.…”

“…For example, when researchers and non‐profit organizations develop curricula, instructional coaches support their teachers, and teachers adapt and shape what they are exposed to in professional development for their practice. While this facilitates specialization—which can be positive for organizations—recent research points out a striking lack of coordination between the individuals working in different roles in education (Cherbow, McKinley, McNeill, & Lowenhaupt, 2020; Coburn & Stein, 2010; Penuel et al, 2011; Peurach et al, 2019)—to the detriment of intended changes in the system (Farrell et al, 2019; Stein & Coburn, 2008). Therefore, networks that support the active participation of stakeholders from multiple roles and interactions among them could play an important role in educational reforms.…”

“…Despite success in targeting specific stakeholders like teachers or school administrators (Lowenhaupt & McNeill, 2019; Sandoval, Kwako, Modrek, & Kawasaki, 2018), previous large‐scale reform efforts in education have struggled to support learning and sustained coordination across stakeholders and components of the educational system (Cobb et al, 2018; Penuel, Fishman, Haugan Cheng, & Sabelli, 2011; Peurach, Cohen, Yurkofsky, & Spillane, 2019; Windschitl, 2006). Research that takes a systems approach to educational reform demonstrates the importance of professional networks for this learning and coordination and has identified the role that networks play in how educational reforms are made sense of and taken up over time (e.g., Coburn, Russell, Kaufman, & Stein, 2012; Penuel, Lin, Marshall, Anderson, & Frank, 2018; Spillane, Kim, & Frank, 2012).…”

Evaluating Access, Quality, and Equity in Online Learning: A Case Study of a MOOC-Based Blended Professional Degree Program

“…MOOCs are often described as promoting access to higher education by providing entry points into higher education with lower stakes and costs than traditional higher education offering (Koller et al, 2013;Perna et al, 2014). However, in practice, access to equal opportunities does not ensure equal outcomes because of structural inequalities that privilege the already advantaged (Peurach et al, 2019;Roemer & Trannoy, 2015). An equity perspective argues that access to equal opportunities is not sufficient and that compensatory measures are needed in order to ensure that all groups can have equal outcomes (Clancy & Goastellec, 2007;Lim et al, 2018).…”