Purpose: The workshop is designed to offer classroom teachers and school administrators an opportunity to look beneath the surface of the critical issues of accountability and school reform policies as they marginalize, politicize, reward, and punish professional educators. It examines both the intended and unintended effects education policy on educators whose voices too often have been silenced by politicians, media, and, professional associations, and professional unions. The format will be seminar-discussion by the participants.
      This workshop will provide participants with opportunities to study school reform and accountability issues relevant to effective practice and professional empowerment. While the purpose is to educate practitioners, it is also the purpose of this workshop to educate them in issues and topics of school reform and school accountability most empowering to their professional development and political effectiveness. The workshop stresses interest, relevance, and meaningfulness.

Readings:
See: http://cc.ysu.edu/~rlhoover/ClassConnections and Closed Reserve in Wilcox CRC in Beeghly College of Education.

Topics:

1. State of the State and State of the Union.
2. Informational discussion of ESEA/NCLB.
3. Ohio SB1.
4. Ohio HB 3.
5. PA Legislation.
6. Understanding of proficiency testing.
7. Understanding the assessment schedule.
8. Test development process.
9. Importance of professional culture.
10. Lessons from movies and classic television.
11. Exploring empowering websites.
12. Reconceptualization of the teacher.
13. The History of educational trends and meritocracy.
14. Accountability: Intended and unintended results.
15. The use or lack of authentic accountability in Ohio’s accountability system.
16. Public schools or government schools?
17. Explore and understand your school and the performance of your students.
18. Self assessment of lesson plans.
19. Tools for the everyday, practical demands of educators.
20. Teacher advocacy.
21. Defining and deconstructing school reform, accountability, sanctions, testing, and the standards movement.
22. Federal and State sanctions now in place to punish teachers and administrators in low performing schools.
23. Teacher advocacy, teacher voice, and political demonization of educators and schooling.
24. The betrayal by our professional unions.
25. Analysis of ESEA (No Child Left Behind) and Ohio's SB #1 and HB #3 in terms of how they will affect the day-to-day activities of teaching and schooling.
26. Defining, understanding, and dealing with the politics of being a teacher.
27. The impact of school reform on children.
28. Vision and passion in teaching.
29. Understanding the rights of teachers, students, and parents in terms of accountability law and policy.
30. The Standards movement and what it means.
31. Public schools vs. Government Schools.
32. The history of the school reform movement since 1980.
33. The role of corporate special interests in shaping public school policy.
34. The role of teacher unions in the reform movement.
35. The validity and reliability problems found in proficiency testing and school report cards.
36. The role of economic class in accountability.

 

Specific goals of the workshop are:

1. To provide a historical perspective for the current state of school reform law and policy both nationally and in terms of the State of Ohio and the State of Pennsylvania.
2. To distinguish between those variables that are not related to what happens in school and those that are in terms of how they explicitly or implicitly shape accountability assessments.
3. Define, conceptualize, distinguish, and operationalize the terms: Reform, Accountability, Policy, Law, and Standards as they are used legally, politically, and educationally.
4. Define and use the concepts of curriculum and instruction in relevant and meaningful ways.
5. To conceptualize school reform law and policy in terms of power relations, advantage, disadvantage, decision latitude, and professional maginalization of the primary players.
6. To recognize and understand the role of personal and professional vision in dealing with the mandates contained in school reform policy.
7. To disseminate the specific conclusions about the role of SES in testing and accountability found in Hoover’s (2000) study of Ohio Proficiency Test performance.
8. To provide clear understanding of how school reform policy sorts students, schools, and districts.
9. To provide clear understanding of the values that motivate the role of schools as sorting mechanisms.
10. To conceptualize and apply the concepts of enfleshment, ideology, and hegemony in the conduct of teaching and schooling within the context of reform policies.
11. To understand and use the concepts of teacher rights as they apply specifically to federal and state policies dealing with school reform issues.
12. To recognize and understand the nature of today's postmodern youth, the forces and factors shaping their behavior, and the role of popular culture in the lives of today's children within the context of school reform effects.
13. To propose more reasonable, valid, and meaningful models of school accountability.
14. To identify the various stakeholders in public schooling and examine the basis for their claims of legitimacy.

Assignments and Assessment:

1. Participants will be required to attend all classes.
2. A final project appropriate to graduate level expectations and performance. (To be discussed in class.)
3. Participation in discussion and dialogue during class.