Category: Education Reform

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The Conservative Takeover of American Education

In recent years, conservative ideologies have taken hold of American education. The conservative takeover of American education can be seen in the growing trend of promoting religious and conservative values in schools.

The conservative takeover of American education has been a gradual process. Many conservative politicians and organizations have long been advocating for a more conservative approach to education. They have argued that liberal ideologies have dominated American schools for too long and that it is time for a change.

One of the most visible ways in which conservatives have taken over American education is through the promotion of religious values. Many conservative groups have pushed for public schools to teach creationism alongside evolution, arguing that it provides a more complete understanding of the origins of life. Additionally, conservative politicians have used their power to influence the school curriculum and to promote conservative values, such as abstinence-only education and the need for traditional family structures.

Another aspect of the conservative takeover of American education is the push for school choice and privatization. Conservative groups argue that the public school system is failing students and that alternative forms of education, such as private schools and charter schools, are better equipped to provide quality education. This has led to the defunding of public schools and the redirection of resources toward private schools and charters.

The conservative takeover of American education has also been reflected in the appointment of conservative officials to key positions in the education system. For example, Betsy DeVos, a prominent conservative, was appointed as the Secretary of Education under the Trump administration. DeVos has a long track record of advocating for school choice and privatization, as well as promoting conservative values, such as the need for prayer in schools.

Critics of the conservative takeover of American education argue that it is eroding the principles of public education and promoting a political agenda. They argue that public schools should remain a neutral space, free from political agendas and religious values. They also point out that school choice and privatization may undermine the availability of quality education for all students, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds.

In conclusion, the conservative takeover of American education has been seen in the increased promotion of religious and conservative values in schools, the push for school choice and privatization, and the appointment of conservative officials to key positions in the education system. While some argue that these changes are necessary to address the shortcomings of the public school system, others see them as a threat to the principles of public education.  

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Online Credit Recovery Programs

Over one million students drop out of high school in the United States each year (Pettyjohn & LaFrance, 2014). When students fail to earn credit in a course, the likelihood of them dropping out increases drastically (Frazelle, 2016; Oliver & Kellog, 2016). To support students in staying in school, 71% of high schools in the United states offer online credit recovery (CR) programs (Pileggi et al., 2020). These CR courses help students quickly regain credits and increase the likelihood that they will graduate.

The success of credit recovery programs is contingent upon many factors, from how each program measures success to how funds are used to support the program. There is no consistent definition of success across credit recovery contexts (Rickles et al., 2018, Nourse, 2019). Some programs define success as the student earning lost credit, while others define success as preparedness for future learning and student persistence to graduation. Nourse (2019) and others highlight the relationship of quality content to student outcomes, but there is little discussion in the literature about what would constitute quality CR content. This article highlights some considerations related to the quality design of online CR products. For those purchasing online CR programs, these suggestions could be used as evaluation criteria for content to maximize the impact of the product. Broadly, these suggestions are grouped by their relationship to academic content, scaffolds, and content structure.

Design Considerations for Online Credit Recovery Content

The academic content of online CR programs should clearly be rooted in the belief that all students can achieve grade-level work and expectations. Content should include the depth and breadth of content that would: 1) support student success in future courses in the content area and 2) foster educator belief that the content is appropriately rigorous for the grade level. Instructional strategies should be pedagogically sound and research-based. Content should emphasize active learning; this includes strategically using technology to support exploration and construction of knowledge,  rather than simply converting lectures and textbooks onto a digital platform. Interesting and relevant experiences that motivate learning of academic content and processes should be offered to students. Activities should be thought-provoking and dissuade students from copying and pasting the answer from an online resource; students frequently seek help by accessing the work of others online, so content should engage them with personal, meaningful learning. It is key that students are aware of what they will learn and why, as well what is expected of them to successfully complete the course.

Online CR content should provide scaffolding and resources for students to maximize their success. Some students may have content gaps and need remedial instruction to access grade-level learning, including modeling, explanations, or supplementary activities. To support CR teachers in addressing content gaps, materials should include teacher-facing materials that help address differentiation. Students need to spend their cognitive resources on the content, not the technology. Programs should provide simple and intuitive user experiences, as well as in-product tutorials that help students develop the technological skills and digital literacy needed to use the program. Finally, content should provide students with early experiences of success in the program so they begin to develop a sense of self-efficacy and motivation in their online learning.

The structure of the content should support students in both gaining lost credit and acquiring sufficient academic knowledge for future coursework. Online CR programs can employ mastery learning by using assessment data to remove mastered content, thereby reducing redundancy and disengagement. Students earn credit faster when they are not required to study previously mastered content. Assessments for mastery learning should be rigorous enough to ensure that students have learned skills to the depth needed for future content within the domain. Customization features that allow instructors to add, omit, and organize content also support right-sizing the content for each student. Programs should have features that allow instructors to learn about students’ identities, skills, and areas for growth to plan for individual support. Programs should offer useful reporting that aids instructors in data-driven decision making. Features that provide real-time data to instructors about students’ progress and alert the instructors when an interaction may help a student can drastically increase effectiveness.

Conclusion

Online credit recovery will continue to be an important strategy in decreasing dropout rates and encouraging student persistence in high school. When designing a credit recovery program, it is important for each program leader to define the metrics of success within their context. After defining success, leaders should align funding, staffing, scheduling, grading, and content decisions to their definition. When thinking about content for online CR, designers and decision makers should consider the academic content, scaffolds and support, and the structure of the program. High-quality content will provide grade-level work, support students in achieving that work, and be customizable based on students’ needs.

References

Frazelle, S. (2016). Successful strategies for providing online credit recovery in Montana. Regional Educational Laboratory Northwest.

Nourse, D. (2019). Factors influencing student academic performance in online credit recovery. Journal of Interdisciplinary Teacher Leadership 4(1). https://doi.org/10.46767/kpf.2016-0030

Oliver, K., & Kellogg, S. (2015). Credit recovery in a virtual school: Affordances of online learning for the at-risk student. Journal of Online Learning Research 1(2), 191-218.

Pettyjohn, T., & LaFrance, J. (2014). Online credit recovery: Benefits and challenges. Education Leadership Review of Doctoral Research, 1(1), 204–219.

Pileggi, M., Turner, A., Liu, L., Fontana, J., Philadelphia Education Research Consortium (PERC), & Research for Action. (2020). Recovering credits in the school district of Philadelphia: High school student credit recovery utilization in 2018-19. Philadelphia Education Research Consortium.

Rickles, J., Heppen, J. B., Allensworth, E., Sorensen, N., & Walters, K. (2018). Online credit recovery and the path to on-time high school graduation. Educational Researcher 47(8), 481-491. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X18788054

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The Edvocate’s Guide to Achievement Growth

Academic progress is accomplished over a period and assessed at the onset and end of a specified time. It can be calculated for countries, states, cities, schools, or learners, and many variables and strategies can be used to decide if “growth” has occurred.

Achievement growth refers to educational progress made over time, as measured from the beginning to the end of the defined period. Achievement growth can be tracked and decided for personal learners, schools, states, or countries. A broad variety of variables and methodologies may be used to decide whether “growth” is being achieved.

Achievement growth is tracked and calculated to decide how efficiently or how quickly learners, schools, states, or countries are improving, and “achievement” is most commonly measured utilizing standardized-test scores—although other measures, such as graduation rates, can be included in certain methods or reports. Achievement growth is usually reported in a comparative format.

Achievement growth is also paired with school reform in various ways, usually by utilizing achievement growth as a factor when making essential decisions about schools or educators. For instance, educator compensation or job security may be based in part on achievement-growth measures, or schools may be subject to penalties or negative publicity if they fail to achieve expected growth levels.

When investigating achievement-growth statistics, it is essential to decide precisely how growth was calculated since a broad variety of factors—such as length of the measured period, the calculation methodology and tests that were used, or the size of the represented learner population or subgroups—can produce significant variation in results.

For instance, a school may experience a dramatic or atypical drop in standardized-test scores one year, which will have a much bigger effect on perceived achievement growth if it comes at the end of three years instead of ten years. An atypical drop in test scores would skew the perception of growth if it came at the beginning of three years since it would seem that the school made gains, but the growth may be based on a statistical abnormality.

Is Achievement Growth an Education Reform Strategy?

Since achievement-growth statistics are usually used to assess the effectiveness of education systems, schools, or educators, they are motivated by a desire to improve educational quality. For this reason, the statistics could be labeled as a reform strategy since there would be no need to track, calculate, and report achievement growth if the status quo were considered acceptable. Achievement-growth metrics are either used to make the case that improvement is needed or to equip education leaders, policymakers, and elected officials with the information and arguments they need to improve results.

There has been an emphasis on and attention to growth-related measures in America in recent years. In general, the attention is based on identifying that a school, state, or country may be well behind another state, school, or country. Still, reforms could be introduced that accelerate improvement in others. For instance, a school located in a high-poverty urban community may begin with standardized-test scores that are much lower than the scores in suburban schools in wealthier communities.

Still, despite facing significant disadvantages, the urban school may improve scores at a much faster rate relative to its suburban counterparts. Given that educational achievement can be influenced by factors outside the control of the school or education system, the basic idea is that growth-related measures are a more reliable and useful indicator of how a school or system is improving or of how they are addressing and overcoming factors that may adversely affect achievement.

Also, by looking at the schools and systems that are achieving greater and more rapid growth, the reasoning goes, education leaders can find reform strategies that will work for their district.