OISE_CPL_Ontario's Levers For Change- Evidence Based Research

RESEARCHEducation Reform: Levers For ChangeSAMPLE Prepared By:Evidence OISE Continuing and Professional LearningBasedResearch Ontario Institute for Studies i n   Education   University of Toronto  WITH OISE I CAN www.oise.utoronto.ca1 OISE CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING  

ONTARIO’S LEVERS FOR CHANGE  The Ontario Story20 YEARS AGO RENEWED VISION TODAY1. Student Achieving Excellence 1. Student performance Ensuing Equity is very high performance was very average Promoting Well-being 2. Universities are Enhancing Public satisfied with students’2. Universities Confidence level of preparation claimed students LEVERS FOR CHANGE 3. Businesses not were ill-prepared complaining about graduates3. Businesses complained 4. Parents have confidence in public graduates had poor education skills and poor 5. Politicians support attitudes teachers with financial resources and4. Parents lacked professional confidence in development public education 6. Teachers are5. Politicians blamed empowered and proud teachers 4. STUDENT ENGAGEMENT6. Teachers had low self-esteem1. EDUCATION 2. LEADERSHIP 3. TEACHINGPOLICY EFFECTIVENESS OISE RESEARCH AND INNOVATIONOISE CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING 2  

EVIDENCE BASED RESEARCH AT OISE  EDUCATION POLICY  Fullan, M., Rolheiser, C., Mascall, B., & Edge, K. (2004). Accomplishing large scale reform: a tri-level proposition. In F. ez,& I. F. Goodson (Eds.), Social Geographies of Educational Change. (pp. 1-14). Netherlands: Springer.AbstractThe field of educational reform has shifted focus over the past decade to issues of large scale, sustainable reform. It is nolonger sufficient to work with one school at a time. In our own work we are working on the tri-level reform model which iswhat has to happen at the 1) school and community level 2) the district or regional level and 3) the state level. Bothintralevel development (within the levels) and crosslevel coordination are needed. We have been involved in manyexamples of district level capacity building involving many or all schools within a district, and some multilevel reforminitiatives such as the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy in England. This chapter outlines the tri-level model andprovides examples of how the model works in practice.Harris, A., C., C., Mujis, D., R., D., Campbell, C., C., B., Earl, L., K., L., Munoz, G., S., L., Stringfield, S., van V., B., &Weinstein, J. (2013). Getting lost in translation? An analysis of the international engagement of practitioners and policy-makers with the educational effectiveness research base. School Leadership and Management, 33(1), 3–19.AbstractEducational effectiveness research (EER) has accumulated much knowledge in the areas of school effectiveness research(SER), teacher effectiveness research (TER) and school/system improvement research (SSIR). Yet many schools andeducational systems are not making enough use of the material and their insights. The article reviews evidence ofpractitioner engagement and finds it limited in the areas of SER, greater in the area of TER and most prevalent in SSIR.Policy-maker engagement has been notable in some countries, but more limited in others. The article concludes byarguing for a new paradigm of EER that studies multiple levels of the educational system simultaneously utilising multiplemethods and involves practitioners and policy-makers in a true EER community of expertise, in order to increase the reachand take-up of the discipline.Sharratt, L. (2001). Making the most of accountability policies: Is there a role for the school district? Orbit (32)1, 37-42.University of Toronto Press.Excerpt from IntroductionDistrict wide reform has become increasingly important over the past decade as educational leaders have sought toachieve larger-scale, sustainable school improvement across the system. Our paper delves deeper into what such reformlooks like, and what we must do to obtain substantial success in student learning. We don’t provide here a review of theresearch on school district reform (for lessons learned from several cases see Fullan, Bertani, and Quinn, 2004). Onerecent major study, however, puts our paper in perspective. The Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform (2005)contains case studies of reform in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Seattle. All three systems had the attention of political leadersat all levels of the system; all focused on many of the “right things” like literacy and math, used obvious choice strategiessuch as concentration on ‘assessment for learning’ data, invested heavily in professional development, developed newleadership, and focused on system-wide change.Flessa, J., Gallagher-Mackay, K., & Ciuffetelli, D. (2010). “Good Steady Progress”: Success stories from Ontarioelementary schools in challenging circumstances, Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 101.AbstractThis paper presents findings from a funded case study research project conducted in Ontario, Canada during the 2007-2008 school year. Together with the Elementary Teachers‘ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), the researchers undertook aqualitative investigation to identify and describe success stories from a diverse sample of 11 Ontario elementary schoolsworking with students and communities affected by poverty. Through school visits, interviews, and document analysis,3 OISE CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING  

researchers identified three major findings: schools made connections with parents and the broader community; schoolsbuilt a sense of collective endeavor and community within the school; and schools struggled with a persistent dilemmaregarding students‘ social versus academic needs. The project contributes to the Canadian research literature on povertyand schooling and to the practical understanding of how schools can better work with students and communities affectedby poverty.Sharratt, L., Fullan, M. (2006) Accomplishing district wide reform. Journal of School Leadership Volume 16 (September),583-595.AbstractThis is a mystery story. It is about a district that apparently did the right things but seemed not to get commensurate resultsacross all classrooms and schools. In this paper we look closely at the details and discover a very important lesson aboutdistrict-wide reform. The district is York Region District School Board (YRDSB), which is a large multicultural district justnorth of Toronto, Ontario. YRDSB is a rapidly growing district with a diverse socio-cultural and linguistic population withover 100 different languages spoken in York’s schools. The school board has been opening, on average, at least 5elementary schools a year for the last five years. There are a total of140 elementary schools and 27 secondary schoolswith over 108,000 students in total and 8,000 teachers.LEADERSHIPAnderson, S., Leithwood, K., & Strauss, T. (2010): Leading data use in schools:Organizational conditions and practices at the school and district levels, Leadership and Policy in Schools, 9(3), 292-327.AbstractThis study examined data use and conditions influencing data use by typical principals and teachers, as well as therelationship between data use and student performance. The analysis drew upon a multi-method investigation ofleadership at the school, district, and state levels. The findings emphasize the leadership of principals in establishing datause purposes and expectations, opportunities, training, access to expertise, and follow-up actions. Principal and teacheruse of data is strongly shaped by district leaders in the context of state accountability systems. Statistical evidence linkingpatterns of data use to achievement test results was weak, and limited to elementary schools.Leithwood, K., & Mascall, B. (2008). The collective leadership effects on student achievement, Educational AdministrationQuarterly 44(4), 529-561.AbstractPurpose: This study aimed to estimate the impact of collective, or shared, leadership on key teacher variables and onstudent achievement. As well, it inquired about the relative contribution of different sources of such leadership and whetherdifferences among patterns of collective leadership were related to differences in student achievement.Methods: Evidence included 2,570 teacher responses from 90 elementary and secondary schools in which four or moreteachers completed usable surveys. Student achievement data in language and math averaged over 3 years wereacquired through school Web sites. Data were analyzed using path-analytic techniques.Findings: Collective leadership explained a significant proportion of variation in student achievement across schools.Higher-achieving schools awarded leadership influence to all school members and other stakeholders to a greater degreethan that of lower-achieving schools. These differences were most significant in relation to the leadership exercised byschool teams, parents, and students. Principals were awarded the highest levels of influence in schools at all levels ofachievement.Implications: Influence seems to be an infinite resource in schools. The more those in formal leadership roles give it away,the more they acquire.OISE CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING 4  

Leithwood, K., Louis, K., Anderson, S., Wahlstrom, K., and Mascall, B. (2009). How Successful Leadership InfluencesStudent Learning. In A. Hargreaves, A., Lieberman, M. Fullan and D. Hopkins (Eds.), Second International Handbook onEducational Change. Dordrecht: Springer.AbstractThis chapter summarizes recent evidence about the links between successful leadership and student learning. Results of awide-ranging review of literature, initially completed several years ago (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004)and regularly updated, are combined with key findings from a large-scale study of leadership and student learning currentlyunderway in US schools. Results from the study reported in this chapter are based on responses by more than 3,400teachers and 130 school administrators to the first of two rounds of surveys. Also included are selected results the firstthree rounds of district and school site visits including observations of instruction in more than 165 classrooms andinterviews with 32 principals and 180 teachers, along with based members, community members and district staff.TEACHING EFFECTIVENESSCampbell, C., L., A., & Yashkina, A. (2013). Teacher learning and leadership for classroom,school and system improvement. Pensamiento Educativo: Revista de Investigación Educacional Latino Americana, 50(2),51–68.AbstractThis article presents a study of the Teacher Learning and Leadership Program (TLLP) in Ontario,Canada. Introduced in 2007, the TLLP is a joint initiative between the Ontario Ministry of Education(Ministry) and the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF) with goals to support experienced teachers’professional learning, develop teachers’ leadership and support knowledge exchange for improvements in teachers’practices. Our research was funded by OTF to examine the value of the TLLP, to identify to what extent the goals of TLLPhave been realized and to draw lessons from the TLLP for going forward.Evans, M. (2006). Characterizations of citizenship education pedagogy in Canada andEngland: Implications for teacher education. International Journal of Citizenship, Learning, Volume 2(4), 40-54.AbstractThis study explored a sample f specialist secondary school teachers’ characterizations of citizenship education pedagogyin Ontario, Canada and England. A qualitative orientation, with comparative overtones, underpinned the study. Empiricaldata were collected through a variety of research methods and sources in light of appropriate literatures. A case is madethat this sample of teachers characterize citizenship education pedagogy in a variety of ways, reflective in very generalterms of liberal/civic republican tendencies represented in contemporary conceptions of citizenship education. Further, it isargued that teachers’ characterizations tend to reveal both eclectic and distinctive tendencies that cut across variouscurriculum perspectives with two unique, and overlapping, orientations emerging across the sample. It is contended thatthese particular orientations privilege certain curricular learning goals while others are neglected (e.g. civic participation).Lastly, implications for teacher education are considered, signaling the need for a more sophisticated conceptualization ofcitizenship pedagogy.Sharratt, L. (1999). Technology implementation: lessons for school and district leaders. Orbit (30)1, 36-39.AbstractConcerns about technology use in schools are endemic. While there is a growing literature puzzling over technology use,very little of it considers the problem from a systemic district-wide perspective. In this paper, I describe my personaljourney as a district administrator to assist schools in more effectively integrating technology use throughout the system.The journey begins with a doctoral dissertation that addressed three questions: 1) What school conditions explaindifferences in how a technology-based source of curriculum information influenced teachers’ individual and collectivelearning? 2) How important do teachers perceive the in-service training they received in assessing technology-basedsources of information? 3) To what extent do technology-based sources compare with conventional sources of informationin fostering teachers’ individual and collective learning? A framework combining organizational learning and knowledgeutilization concepts provided the perspective through which these questions were addressed.5 OISE CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING  

Lopez, A.E. (2013). Collaborative Mentorship: A Mentoring Approach to Support and Sustain Teachers for Equity andDiversity. Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 21(3), 292-311.AbstractIn this article, I propose collaborative mentorship (CM) as a mentoring approach to support and sustain teachers indiversity and equity education. CM is theorized as a mentoring relationship grounded in critical dialog between mentor andmentee. Drawing on research conducted in a culturally, racially, linguistically, and socially diverse secondary school inSouthern Ontario, Canada, this article examines tensions teachers experience with equity and diversity and the knowledgebase necessary for such a mentoring approach. As the schools become more diverse, it is vital that teachers seek out newapproaches that respond to the changing social contexts. The findings of my research have implications for teacherprofessional development and teacher training in discovering new ways to support in diverse classrooms.Lopez, A. E. (2013). Embedding and Sustaining Equitable Practices in Teachers Everyday Work: A Framework for CriticalAction. Teaching & Learning, 7(3), 1–15.AbstractDiverse student populations are now one of the distinctive features of schools in North America. This changingdemographic reality in schools places equity education that includes the lived experiences of diverse students at the centreof the teaching and learning process. However, research continues to show that despite the efforts and good work ofteachers, huge gaps persist in the educational achievement and outcomes of Aboriginal students, students of colour, andpoor children. Based on research conducted with teachers in Southern Ontario, Canada, grounded in critical pedagogy andculturally relevant teaching, this article examines the complexities of equity education and ways to better serve the needsof diverse students. Drawing from the author’s experiences as a classroom teacher, administrator, and teacher educator,the article posits a framework for critical action on ways that teachers can embed equitable practices in their teaching.STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT  Campbell, C. and Fullan, M. (2006) ‘Unlocking Potential for Learning Effective District-Wide Strategies to Raise StudentAchievement in Literacy and Numeracy – Project Report’, in Campbell, C., Fullan, M. and Glaze, A. (series editors)Unlocking Potential for Learning: Effective District-Wide Strategies to Raise Student Achievement in Literacy andNumeracy. Queen’s Printer for Ontario: Ontario Ministry of Education.AbstractThis publication contains the overall report from the Effective District-Wide Strategies to Raise Student Achievement inLiteracy and Numeracy research project conducted by The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat. The purpose of this projectwas to identify school boards that are demonstrating improvements in literacy and numeracy and to evaluate thestrategies, actions, and outcomes associated with such improvements. Eight school boards participated in the project – allboards are demonstrating improved student achievement. The boards were also selected because they represent thediversity of contexts and experiences in Ontario urban/suburban/rural locations, small/medium/large numbers of schools,public/Catholic systems, French/English language and with improvement starting from existing higher or lowerachievement levels. A selection of case study reports with details of strategies, practices, and outcomes in individualdistricts will also be published as part of the Unlocking Potential for Learning series.Davies, I., Evans, M., & Peterson, A. (Eds.) (2014). Civic Activism, Engagement andEducation: Issues and Trends. Special Edition for the Journal of Social Science Education (JSSE), Germany (Volume 13(4) 2014).Editorial IntroductionIn this issue of the Journal of Social Science Education we explore the connections (explicitly or otherwise) between civicactivism, engagement and education. We seek better to understand the educational outcomes of civic activism andengagement and the interplay between young people’s involvement and the development of knowledge, skills andattitudes that allow active participation in civil society. Crucially, we are interested in identifying and highlighting the foci,forms, levels and pedagogical approaches that young people and their educators recognize as meaningfully encouragingcritical and creative engagement with young people’s civic activism and engagement. As such, we are concerned with 2OISE CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING 6  

interlocking areas: the relevance of education to those who become actively involved in society and the educative role ofactivism to those who are so engaged.Aitken, M., & Martinussen, R. (2013). Exploring predictors of performance on acurriculum-based measure of written expression. Journal of Research in Writing, 4(3), 281-299.  AbstractThis study examined the role of word-level reading proficiency and verbal working memory in grade 4 and 5 students’ (N =42; 23 boys) performance on a curriculum-based measure of narrative writing. Two outcomes were measured: correctminus incorrect word sequences (CMIWS; accurate-production of spelling and grammar in-text), and composition quality.CMIWS scores were moderately correlated with the holistic quality score. Word reading proficiency predicted CMIWSabove and beyond the variance accounted for by gender, grade, handwriting automaticity, and working memory. Wordreading proficiency also predicted composition quality controlling for gender and handwriting automaticity. Workingmemory, as measured by an updating task, was not a significant unique predictor of CMIWS or composition quality. Grade(5 > 4) and gender differences (girls > boys) were also found for CMIWS scores. The results provide further evidence of thesensitivity of the CMIWS index and highlight the importance of considering reading proficiency and handwriting automaticitywhen assessing children’s writing abilities and planning instruction for children with writing difficulties.7 OISE CONTINUING AND PROFESSIONAL LEARNING  

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