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Research Won't Do Much If Schools Lack the Conditions to Use it Well

vonzastrowc's picture
By Claus von Zastrow on June 21, 2010

Because hope springs eternal, we still hold out high hopes for research that will lead to dramatic improvements in our most troubled schools. But much promising research will fall flat in schools if we don't give people in those schools the conditions to use it well. That's one of the insights I draw from our recent forum on education research.

On June 8, the Learning First Alliance and the Knowledge Alliance convened a forum entitled "Using Evidence for a Change: Challenges for Research, Innovation and Improvement in Education." With generous support from the WT Grant Foundation, the forum brought together some very smart people with diverse perspectives on the issue. (See our new report on the forum.)

Quite a few of the panelists' comments have really stuck with me. For example, Susan Freiman, an award-winning staff development teacher in Maryland, made a strong case for giving schools a more direct role in the whole research enterprise. We've fawned over her on this site before. The success of Freiman and her colleagues at Viers Mill Elementary School prompted a visit from President Obama last fall.

Her staff have the luxury of applying and adapting the research it receives from her district. She and her colleagues study it, test the strategies it supports, review their outcomes, adjust their approach when they need to, and then begin the cycle again. “It’s the whole plan, do, study, act, use [cycle].”

But none of this can happen if people in schools lack the conditions for doing it well, she said. They need time to study the research, collaborate with their colleagues and review the results of their work. They need staff development to build capacity for this work. They need the shared authority to act on the needs they see in their own students—and to change their practice when the need arises. And they need a school-wide commitment to a focused research agenda.

As long as people on the front lines lack these conditions, Freiman said, they won’t think much of research:

If we don’t have the time to use the research, to collaborate with our peers, to…look at the data to make decisions—the time to change what we’re doing—then [research] is not useful.

Her closing appeal to the Department of Education struck a similar note:

Please slow down. Please stop rushing educators to make changes and then make a new change when it doesn’t work…. When it’s too much, nothing gets done, and we don’t even know what would have been successful and what wasn’t successful…. I know it’s Race to the Top, but we can’t keep racing. You are going to lose great educators, because they are going to get stressed out.

Freiman's remarks were just some of the gems forum participants took away from the event. For more, read our full (though brief) report here.

(Note: I adapted parts of this blog posting from the language in the report.)

Link to this story: http://www.learningfirst.org/research-wont-do-much-if-schools-lack-conditions-use-it-well

3 Comments Digg this article Del.icio.us

Excellent discussion. Yes,

Submitted by john thompson on Tue, 06/22/2010 - 10:29

Excellent discussion. Yes, we should Slow down and 90% of the time be more cautious. We should also throw an occassional long ball, and extended learning time is an excellent nominee.

I don't agree that researchers should be less concerned with misuse of their research. Avoiding misuse of research is at least as important as attempting proper use. In fact, it is probably more important.

And yes, using research to identify problems is crucial. If anything it will produce more focus on kids. Its hard to believe that Philly did not understand how unprepared their students were when entering high school but i believe it.

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The Right Question... It

Submitted by Anthony V. Manzo, Ph.D. on Tue, 06/22/2010 - 13:37

The Right Question...
It doesn't matter how much Research id done if the wrong questions are being raised.Teacher Education is a disaster. Let's Fix it First and Foremost.There is no core curriculum of Principles and Prescriptive practices, and every professor gets to stress whatever they choose no matter what the syllabus says.Reforms and Reformers abound; there were 5400 hundred documents on the web with these word between 1900-2000, between 2001-2010 there were 4.7 million.
Without stepping away from these related reform issues we must first get our own house in order. We need some of these other reformers to join us for a brief intensive period followed by an ongoing one to engage in a very serious and honest dialogue on a very basic Professional Education issue; namely, the means or process by which we will identify the BEST core Principles and Prescriptive Practices of Professional Teaching, without this step, we simply do not qualify as a Profession. This, of course, will not immediately solve the other sociological and economic matters, but it will further insure that students will more consistently be exposed to the Best Instructional Practices. That done, we will have a far less costly, better educated electorate and our profession would be able to better hear fresh ideas from other Educational Reform Movements.
Oddly this is very easily done, and very inexpensive. Of course, we cannot minimize the practical difficulty in actually having 2 million teachers actually doing the right thing at the right time however it is evident that every certified teacher should have been educated and trained in the best scrutinized, and most results-based practices. This need not, and should not cancel out ongoing experimentation and even the ever present need for some creative improvisation in the classroom any more than it has in medicine or any other profession.
Please join this narrative at:
1.http://teacherprofessoraccountability.ning.com/main/invitation/new?xgsource=msg_wel_network
2.http://bestmethodsofinstruction.com/

3.http://anthony-manzo.blogspot.com/2010/05/race-to-top-accountability-leaves.html
LiteracyMan
avmanzo@aol.com

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Thanks for your comment,

Submitted by vonzastrowc on Thu, 06/24/2010 - 06:43

Thanks for your comment, John. While I certainly see that researchers should remain concerned about misuse of their findings, I also see Steve Fleishman's point in calling for researchers to think more about how the research can be used than misused. There is, to be sure, a lot of research out there commissioned by people who have a big stake in the results, and the media often interpret and judge the research before peer researchers can. But too much concern for mis-use of the research can prompt researchers to limit the scope and ambition of their work. It's a delicate balancing act.

Thank you for your thoughts, Anthony. I think you're right to stress the importance of framing the right question. But doesn't improving teacher education according to your vision assume that we have more and better research on what the best teaching practicies are? And I may be over-reading your words, but "prescriptive practices" sounds a bit, well, prescriptive. One of the challenges raised in our report is the challenge of finding research that can be validated in practice in many different local sites. The report also suggested that people working in and for schools could become part of the research enterprise, studying, adapting and continuously improving the research they receive to suit their own local needs. Too much prescription might frustrate this process.

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