Abstract:
Despite evaluators’ good
intentions and the commitment of schools to improving the instruction they
provide, the primary goals and constraints of evaluation activities and
those of practitioners are different, if not at odds. Especially in
large-scale research and evaluation activities, the need for efficient,
standardized data collection approaches works against providing individual
schools, teachers, and students with something of value in return for their
participation.
The systematic collection
and analysis of teachers’ assignments and associated student work, as
pioneered by Fred Newmann, Tony Bryk and their associates, has proven its
potential as a strategy for resolving this tension. In contrast to the
administration of surveys or experimental assessments, teachers and students
are not asked to do anything other than their normal activities to satisfy
the needs of evaluation. By providing a set of theoretically based, reliable
analytic constructs for reflecting on not just students’ work but also the
activities that teachers ask students to undertake, evaluators provide tools
that schools are finding useful for professional development purposes.
SRI has extended this
approach to research on schools that are striving to integrate technology
into teaching and learning. The approach will be illustrated with examples
from studies including the evaluation of schools from 12 different countries
participating in Microsoft’s Innovative Schools Project.
Biographical
Information:
Dr.
Barbara Means directs the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI
International. Her research focuses on ways to foster students' learning of
advanced skills through the introduction of technology-supported
innovations. Her current work includes evaluating the changes in instruction
in schools in 12 different countries participating in Microsoft’s Innovative
Schools Project; a study of schools’ use of student data systems in
instructional decision-making; and an examination of high schools with a
science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) focus. Her published
works include the edited volumes Evaluating Educational Technology,
Technology and Education Reform, and Teaching Advanced Skills to
At-Risk Students as well as the jointly authored volumes The
Connected School and Comparative Studies of How People Think.
