Critical Issue:
Creating High-Achieving Learning Environments

Samuel Betances, professor of education, Northeastern Illinois University, emphasizes the importance of knowing and building upon students' culture, experiences, and knowledge. Excerpted from a presentation at NCREL's 1992 Academy for Urban School Leaders, in Lisle, Illinois. (Audio file, 172k) A text transcript is available.

OVERVIEW: Many students are trying to learn in traditional learning environments that emphasize fragmented knowledge and basic skills separated from higher-order thinking skills. Their teachers do not believe that all students can learn, do not have high expectations for all students, or do not understand the culture and needs of diverse students.

James Banks, professor in the School of Education, University of Washington-Seattle, talks about the importance of culturally responsive education. Excerpted from NCREL's video, Many Voices, Many Dreams (1995) (Audio comment, 222k). A text transcript is available.

In high-achieving environments, teachers have high expectations for all students and provide an enriched curriculum.

Maria Patterson, principal of Hollinger Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona, discusses the importance of high teacher expectations.Filmed in 1992 for NCREL's urban school leadership case studies (QuickTime slide show, 537k). A text transcript is available.

High-achieving learning environments involve students in a variety of learning activities that are challenging and aligned with learning goals, promote engaged learning, and draw on the culture, life experiences, and knowledge of all students. They allow students to discuss, argue, and analyze issues and concepts. Students explore, solve problems, and construct knowledge rather than just memorizing it. Their work is authentic, engaging, and important, and it builds understanding from in-depth investigation.

Henry Gradillas, principal of Garfield High School in Los Angeles, California, describes the effects of a challenging curriculum at his school. Excerpted from a presentation at NCREL's 1992 Academy for Urban School Leaders. (Audio comment, 129k) A text transcript is available.

GOALS:

• Instructional strategies teach all students both basic skills and demanding, higher-order thinking skills.
• A new view of at-risk students challenges the deficit model often applied to urban learners.
• Students have the opportunity to construct knowledge - not just memorize it.
• Culturally responsive curricula and instructional practices foster understanding of and respect for students of different cultural backgrounds and make use of students' culture, language, and prior experiences.


James Banks, professor in the School of Education, University of Washington-Seattle, emphasizes that culturally responsive education is as important for homogeneous, white schools as it is for schools serving students from many cultural backgrounds. Excerpted from NCREL's video, Many Voices, Many Dreams (1995) (QuickTime slide show, 278k). A text transcript is available.

• Active, engaged learning tasks motivate as well as teach.
• Classrooms and schools are heterogeneously grouped and tracking is avoided.
• Groups of students work together on projects that explore ideas and information.
• Instruction accommodates students' learning styles.
• Instructional uses of technology promote engaged learning, rather than rote, skill-driven, or low-level instruction on computers.
• Elements that promote high performance and successful learning include interactive instruction, focus on in-depth understanding, self-regulated learning, and higher-order thinking.
• Traditional tracking is replaced by a "culture of detracked" schools (Oakes & Lipton, 1992) that:
1. Recognize that tracking is supported by powerful norms and assumptions that should be acknowledged and addressed as alternatives are created
2. Broaden the reform agenda so that changes in the tracking structure become part of comprehensive changes within the school
3. Engage in inquiry and experimentation that is idiosyncratic, opportunistic, democratic, and politically sensitive
4. Change teachers' roles and responsibilites to include new ways of working with other adults in the school
5. Involve risk-taking leaders who guide schools toward a focus on scholarship and a commitment to democratic values

ACTION OPTIONS:

• Encourage teachers to use new approaches in the instruction of at-risk students.
• Develop professional development activities, classroom instruction, and schoolwide programs that go beyond the surface in celebrating cultural diversity. Students' learning experiences must be transformed to nurture relationships among culturally diverse students by face-to-face contact or via technology and to build upon students' culture, language, and experiences in reading, writing, and content area instruction.


Paul Winfield, actor and narrator of NCREL's video, Many Voices, Many Dreams (1995), challenges educators to move beyond the surface in celebrating cultural diversity (QuickTime slide show, 278k). A text transcript is available.

• Promote efforts to reshape the curriculum and encourage the development of in-depth curricular offerings as described by the new standards being developed in several disciplines, such as math and science.
• Explore authentic instruction and provide students with tasks that allow high levels of thinking and engagement.
• Make higher-order thinking, problem solving, and the construction of knowledge available to all students.
• Replace homogeneous grouping and tracking with heterogeneous grouping to serve all students.
• Complement teacher-centered instruction with cooperative learning and small group activities.
• Replace norm-referenced assessments with authentic assessments.
• Explore new instructional frameworks for producing high- achieving learning environments.
• Establish faculty teams to examine alternative ways to organize instruction, such as longer class periods, new scheduling formats, and cross-disciplinary programs.
• Acquire funding and support for technology that is needed in the classroom to prepare students for the demands of a predominantly service-oriented, high-technology workforce.
• Contact schools, programs, and organizations that can help your school implement culturally responsive practices throughout the school.
• Stay up-to-date on the latest research in effective teaching practices by reviewing journals, research-based educational materials, and so forth.
• Increase teacher engagement (which leads to greater student engagement) by creating a professional, collegial atmosphere that encourages teachers to work together in teams.

Karen Seashore Louis, associate dean for academic affairs, University of Minnesota, describes the effects of high levels of teacher engagement and peer pressure on teachers' motivation to work hard, and clarifies the relationship between teacher and student engagement. Excerpted from NCREL's Urban Education monograph, Teacher Engagement and Real Reform in Urban Schools (NCREL, 1995, forthcoming).

• Document and evaluate the norms of experience of students in your school in order to make informed decisions about instructional practices, programs, and policies.
• Discuss new initiatives with parents and community members when implementing new grouping patterns and new forms of instruction and assessment.

IMPLEMENTATION PITFALLS:

• School districts and staff often do not have the skills and knowledge needed to implement new forms of instruction and assessment. Program planners and staff need to consider important issues in redesigning educational programs for educationally disadvantaged students.
• Extensive staff development may be necessary to institutionalize new instructional approaches.
• It is important to understand the complexities of the change process when initiating major improvement efforts. If school leaders do not acknowledge and address the challenges of substantive change, staff and community may resist change and retaliate against it.
• Rigid and entrenched policies of districts and schools are among the factors that inhibit the implementation of high-achieving learning environments.
• Teacher schedules often do not include time for professional development - to discuss, learn, and plan new instructional approaches.
• There is a danger in introducing new instructional programs without buy-in and real commitment among classroom teachers. Teachers may perceive these new programs as the latest fad rather than making lasting changes in instruction.

DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW: Some writers still believe that curriculum should focus on the dominant Western European culture. They contend that factual knowledge should be a core element of classroom work and that students should be organized according to ability.

The early effective schools programs and some state efforts emphasized basic skills learning. Many of these early initiatives are being redesigned to focus on higher-order thinking, problem solving, and an indepth curriculum. Some groups worry that basic factual knowledge will not be addressed or learned through these newer instructional approaches.

ILLUSTRATIVE CASES:

Hollibrook Elementary School, Houston, Texas

Central Park East High School, New York, New York

Audubon Elementary School, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), Aurora, Illinois

CONTACTS:

The Accelerated Schools Project, CERAS 109, School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-3084, (415) 725-1676. Contact: Beth Keller, assistant director of communications, e-mail: bkeller@leland.stanford.edu

Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST), UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, 405 Hilgard Ave., 1320 Moore Hall, Mailbox 951522, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1522, 310- 206-1532, Fax: 310-825-3883, Contact: Ron Dietel, e-mail: ron@ucla.edu

Center on Families, Communities, Schools, and Children's Learning (two locations)

Institute for Responsive Education, 605 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215, 617-353-3309, Fax: 617-353-8444, Contact: Don Davies, e-mail: dondav@bu.edu

OR

Johns Hopkins University, 3505 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218, 410-516-8800, Fax: 410-516-8890, Contact: Joyce L. Epstein (e-mail: jepstein@inet.ed.gov) or Dianne Diggs

Coalition for Essential Schools, Dr. Ted Sizer, Director, Box 1938, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, 401-863-2847.

School Development Program, Yale Child Study Center, 230 South Frontage Rd., Box 3333, New Haven, CT 06510, 203-785-2548 Contact: Cynthia Savo.
WWW Site: http://info.med.yale.edu/comer

National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning, Center for Applied Linguistics, 1118 22nd St. NW, Washington, DC 20037, 202-429-9292, e-mail: ncrcdsll@cal.org, WWW Site: http://www.cal.org/crede/

National Research Center on Student Learning (NRCSL), Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, 3939 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, 412-624-7020, Fax: 412-624-9149, Contact: Kate Maloy, e-mail: katem@lrdc3.lrdc.pitt.edu
WWW Site: http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu

North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1120 Diehl Road, Suite 200, Naperville, IL 60563-1486, (800) 356-2735 or (630) 649-6500, fax (630) 649-7600.

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Centre for Leadership Development, 252 Bloor Street W., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S IV6, 416-923-6641, Contact: K. Leithwood, e-mail: kleithwood@oise.on.ca

References

This Critical Issue summary was researched and written by Kent Peterson, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Date posted: 1995