Teaching+Excellence

I. Introduction:
Many factors influence teaching in the classroom, including teacher's content knowledge, teaching strategies and equally important, the broader cultural context in which the teacher is working. This cultural context includes the societal cultural and its expectations of teachers and schools, the culture of the school or "grammer of the school" as Tyack and Cuban discuss in //Tinkering Toward Utopia// (1997), and the different cultures that students and teachers bring into the classroom. This page was created to help discuss four of these factors and their relationship to one another. By looking at these topics, the hope is to show that there is much more to teaching than meets the eye.

II. Teachers' Content Knowledge

 * Lead Editor: Katrina Traficante **

Teachers clearly have a significant influence on how much students learn in the classroom. One of the main aspects that can determine the effectiveness of teachers is their content knowledge. //Inequality for All// by Schmidt & McKnight (2012) looks specifically at the mathematical content knowledge of U.S. teachers and how well-prepared teachers felt. While many school reforms have put emphasis on the need for "highly qualified" teachers, such as NCLB, the definition of a highly qualified mathematics teacher has never been defined. Because of this, there are no common standards for the type or amount of mathematical knowledge required among U.S. teacher preparation programs, according to data from TEDs studies. Thus there is a substantial variation in the required coursework of these programs. Only about one-third of teacher preparation was in mathematical content for primary school teachers. While high school teacher preparation typically requires a major in mathematics, it is simply a desire for middle school teachers to have a major in their field. Despite this hope, however, teachers usually do not have sufficient knowledge for teaching mathematics and consequently do not feel prepared to teach many of the topics that are required of them (Schmidt & McKnight, 2012).

Schmidt & McKnight (2012) defined a qualified teaching force with a 75% criterion, saying that 75% of teachers should feel well prepared to teach a given topic. However, using this criterion, a mere two mathematics topics (the meaning of whole numbers and operations with whole numbers) out of 28 met this criterion. If the criterion was lowered to 50%, only eight more topics met this standard. For most topics, the median percent of teachers who felt well-prepared was below 50%. The other troubling statistic is the variation across districts. For example, one district only had 25% of its primary school teachers feeling well-prepared to teach geometry while another district had 90%. This variation across districts is similar to middle school teachers due to the strong national movement to include algebra topics in middle school. In one district, no teacher felt prepared to teach linear equations and inequalities while another school had all of its teachers feeling well prepared to teach it. This variation absolutely adds to the inequality of opportunities to learn that students face in different schools and districts. The percent of high school topics that teachers felt well-prepared to teach was higher than elementary and middle school teachers because of the fact that high school teachers have greater preparation in content knowledge. Thus, 60% of the topics that high school teachers taught did meet the 75% criterion. However, this is still rather low, and there still was a great variation across districts, especially for geometry (Schmidt & McKnight, 2012).

The reason elementary and middle school teachers feel ill-prepared, according to Schmidt & McKnight (2012), is because they are ill-prepared. Less than 10% of first to fourth grade teachers have a major or minor in mathematics. What is more troubling is in the higher grades; in 7th and 8th grade, this percentage increases to only 35% to 40%. Although we would hope that all high school teachers have some degree in mathematics, almost one-third of teachers did not have a major or minor in mathematics; and almost 50% of 9th and 10th grade teachers had no specialization in math. So while it is tempting to blame teachers for our students lack of achievement, clearly the state and districts are also to blame for the lack of requirements of teachers (Schmidt & McKnight, 2012).

Jeffrey Brooks gives another reason for why teachers are feel (and are) ill-prepared in his book //Black School White School: Racism and (Mis)leadership// (2012): basic incompetence related to not knowing school and district procedures, as well as to content knowledge and pedagogical acumen. This, he claims, is due partially to the high turnover of teachers at the school, frequent changes in these policies and the fact that there was a generally low level of accountability at the school. Educators seldom were held responsible for incompetence. This lack of accountability extended so far that basic requirements to assume teaching and administrative positions frequently were waived or ignored (Brooks, 2012).

In //Bad Teacher! How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture//, Kumashiro also examines the quality of teachers. Kumashiro presents three common ways to assess the quality of teachers. That is, first, quality is determined by what programs do. Second, quality is determined by what students do. Third, quality is determined by how future teachers perform (Kumashiro, 2012). He says the standards by which we assess teaching quality are crucial to teaching and educational reform. These three ways to assess have their fatal disadvantages, but they are spreading nationwide now. Looking at the relationship between money and quality of teachers, research has shown that incentivizing teacher salaries by evaluating teachers based on their students’ test scores does not raise the quality of instruction or student achievement (Kumashiro, 2012).

**Without teachers who are well-prepared to teach their content area, students will struggle to succeed academically. A teacher’s content knowledge not only affects what information is presented to students, but how it is presented as well. Without a deep understanding of the content, it is extremely difficult to create well thought-out lesson plans, to develop creative way to present the information, and to accurately assess the student learning.**

III. Teaching Strategies (including their use of textbooks)

 * Lead Editor: Julie DiBari **

While individual teacher content knowledge is important, the field agrees that teaching strategies play an equally important role in student learning. There is a lot to be learned about successful teaching strategies from comparing different cultures. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) has been particularly beneficial in enabling the field to make these comparisons. (Hiebert and Stigler, 1999; Schmidt & McKnight, 2012) Equally important is the issue of understanding the important role of different cultures within American society. The role of culture in determining teaching strategies leads many in the field who examine this topic to conclude that cooperative learning groups and communities of practice are the best means of supporting learning. (Hiebert & Stigler, 1999; Powell, 2001)

//The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World’s Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom//, focuses primarily on this question of teaching strategies. The authors, James Stigler and James Hiebert point out that teaching is primarily a cultural activity that can only be improved slowly, over time. They highlight the practice of “kounaikenshuu” from Japan as a model for identifying and implementing effective teaching practices. In Japan it is the responsibility of the teachers to to improve practice and they do it in communities dedicated to professional development. They incorporate "lesson study" which is a group process of defining the question for study and planning the lesson. After the group defines the questions and creates a lesson plan together, one teacher teaches the lesson and is observed by the others. The group then evaluates and revises the lesson. The focus is all on the lesson itself, rather than the teacher. They then re-teach the lesson and again observe, reflect and make changes. The teachers see "sharing of their findings as a significant part of the lesson-study process." (p. 115) They often produce a report and share it not only locally but nationally. Stigler and Hiebert point out that the key to the effectiveness of lesson study is the commitment to gradual, continuous improvement, the focus on student learning and student improvement, teaching in context, the collaborative nature of the work, and the motivation of participating in an activity that will improve practice beyond their walls.

Hiebert and Stigler offer the following steps for U.S. education reform and associated changes to improve teacher effectivness: • An expectation of continuous, gradual improvement - to do this systems must be developed that measure incremental change • Focusing on student learning goals - development of shared goals at the district level at least, ideally at the national level • Focusing on teaching rather than teachers - make time during the work week for teachers to learn and to collaborate - eliminate bureaucratic staff and activities • Develop reforms in classrooms where teachers teach ("teaching in context") - context is important - teachers need opportunities to test reforms in their setting • Allow teachers to lead improvement efforts - put the onus on the teachers - when the recommendations come from teachers they are perceived as more valid • Build a learning system - provide a system to share results and time for teachers to study and test the recommendations in their context

Their conclusion is that simply incorporating a new concept, such as problem based learning, but not changing the underlying teaching system, is ultimately regressive.

//In Bad Teacher! How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture// (2012), Kumashiro shared the same idea that improving the effectiveness of teaching and teachers should be treated as a systematic process. He focuses on how to assess the effectiveness of teaching and teacher from a broader perspective. Most importantly, he tries to analyze the factors that hinder the improvement of teachers. Kumashiro holds the belief current reforms are reducing the role of teacher to one of a mere “technician”. Grover Whitehurst argued that we merely need “good enough teachers” who can teach their lesson in order for No Child Left Behind to success. Within this logic, “traditional” teacher preparation is both unnecessary and undesired, not only because it is much more costly, but also because it would potentially prepare teachers to challenge the official script. (2012)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Kumashiro also discusses the relationship between teacher preparation and curriculum materials, pointing out that they are sometimes in conflict. On one hand, the curriculum provides a guideline for teachers; on the other hand, the curriculum restricts the teachers thinking and development and ignores the diversity of students.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In //Inequality for All//, Schmidt & McKnight (2012) also discuss the impact of textbooks on the quality of teaching that occurs in U.S. classrooms. They explain that textbooks “fall somewhere in between the intended and the implanted curriculum, acting as a bridge between intentions and implementation” (Schmidt & McKnight, 2012, 165). Since teachers often do not have time to make decisions about how to present each topic and in what sequence, textbooks help make these decisions, and thus affect the quality of learning opportunities. There are three different roles that textbooks can play:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scenario I - textbooks are the “de facto” curriculum; it is followed page by page to however far the teacher can get by the end of the year.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scenario II - the textbook is used only as a supplement to other materials to implement those topics that the standards say should be covered.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scenario III - (the most typical case) the textbook is a combination and plays a major role as only one of several sources. In all three scenarios, textbooks do influence the quality of content knowledge.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In all of these scenarios, textbooks have a significant impact on learning opportunities. Schmidt & McKnight (2012) examined what topics are covered in textbooks, the length of textbooks, the percentage of the book spent on each topic, and content flow to demonstrate the impact textbooks can have on opportunities to learn. By doing this, it can be seen that textbooks can influence whether or not a topic is covered, to what depth, and in what sequence (Schmidt & McKnight, 2012). They point out that U.S. textbooks are much longer compared to other countries. An average international 8th grade textbook was 225 pages compared to the average U.S. textbook of 800 pages. One effect of this is that not all topics can be covered when books are this long. More time is spent on earlier topics, and the end of the textbook is never reached. The content flow of U.S. textbooks is also significantly worse than other countries. On average, TIMSS countries' textbooks had approximately 50 breaks in content flow. The three leading U.S. textbooks ranged from around 60 breaks in 12th grade textbooks to over 300 breaks in 4th grade texts (Schmidt & McKnight, 2012).

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Also focusing on the role of of text books in teaching, //Curriculum Planning: Integrating Multiculturalism, Constructivism, and Educational Reform// discusses that despite the recent trend of multicultural literature, many school texts remain monoculture in their presentation of knowledge. The suggest that teachers should select texts that represent non-mainstream persons positively. (Henson p.419) Some believe that the curriculum, through its texts, ought to describe the ways different cultural groups have contributed to western civilization to eliminate racism. Texts should also promote equity of people with mental and physical handicaps, the gifted, the elderly and between the genders. (Henson, p.424) The latter may be accomplished by portraying men and women in roles traditionally held by the opposite sex.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">They conclude that cooperative learning groups are an effective tool to stimulate academic growth through participation, but they may also be a successful vehicle to help eliminate racism. Through the creation of a team, a micro-society, educators can attempt to break down the superficial barriers that students may see when they are individuals. Group work exposes individual attitudes, ideas, experiences, and beliefs that are used to achieve a common goal through a collective effort. Group work leads to better understanding of the task at hand, the dynamics of team-work, which will be valuable in later stages of life, and opens the lines of communication between group members despite race, sex, age or religion. (Powell, p.3-4)


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Recent educational theory on situated learning and communities of practice from Etienne Wenger and Jeanne Lave and associated research could be helpful in identifying ways to implement positive reform that build on this idea of cooperative learning groups. Cooperative learning groups, led by teachers, can be a successful strategy for improving teacher practices. Choosing appropriate texts that complement learning and reflect the diversity in the classroom is also an effective teaching strategy to support student learning. **

IV. The Effect of Race in the School and on Student Achievement

 * Lead Editor: Yilia **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How do race and race relations influence leadership practice and the education of students? In this timely and provocative book, Brooks identifies cultural and unstated norms and beliefs around race and race relations, and explores how these dynamics influence the kind of education students receive. Drawing on findings from extensive observations, interviews, and documents, the author reveals that many decisions that should have been based on what is best for students were instead inspired by conscious and unconscious racist assumptions, discrimination, and stereotypes. With applicable implications and lessons for all, this book will help schools and leadership programs to take the next step in addressing longstanding and deeply entrenched inequity and inequality in schools. （Jeffrey S.Brooks，2012）

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">According to the U.S. Census survey (2004) ，by 2050, the non-Hispanic, White population will comprise only 50.1% of the country’s total population, a sharp decline from the 77.1% of the population in the 2000 census. However, as the nation’s population grows increasingly diverse, schoolteachers and educational administrators are increasingly White. And this fact influence those factors:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1）Leadership and School Culture <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2）Direct effects on teachers and indirect effects on students <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3）School Sub-culture: which is represented as <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">a moiety of two racial sub-cultures. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">They interact in a manner of race relations and has four types:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Complementarily ¡ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The moieties worked together to accomplish certain tasks and goals <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Reciprocity ¡ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Inter-moiety exchanges were usually transactional, while intra-moiety exchanges were transformational <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Antithesis ¡ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Each half of the moiety harbored resentment and mistrust of the other, for different reasons <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Rivalry <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Members of each half of the moiety were in competition for scarce resources and trying to implement different social missions

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Racism has different form. Sometimes racism is invisible and we cannot discovery and we tend to take it for granted that no racism exists in our school. However, in Black School White School, Brook propose that racism sometimes is screaming and sometimes silent. For example, temporarily is one of silent language of racism and it has two characters: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1) There were striking differences between the ways that Black and White educators viewed time. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2) Black educators showed a great deal more patience and an understanding that for educational change to take hold, it would take among other things a great deal of time, sustained progress and steady change

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To sum up, in //Black School White School//, Brook propose that due to culture difference, Black and White education leader hold totally different attitude and use different strategies in making decisions such as curriculum design. Teachers from the same ethnic tend to be more supportive of leader of their ethnic and this leads to a bigger and deeper segregation in school. The different ethnic groups often have dispute and contradiction. In conclusion part, Brooks propose in order to move toward a new educational leadership, it’s important that white men who lead listen first, support and advocate for oppressed peoples, and, using their privilege, create opportunities for others. Self-promotion are a form of oppression that will only lead us back to another form of white privilege.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//In Bad Teacher!// Kumashiro talks about the negative effects of competition including broadening the educational gap between students from different races. He states that competition can not solve all of educational problems and he is opposed to marketization of education.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> //Inequality for All// spends a chapter discussing the difference in learning opportunities in regards to socio-economic status (SES). Schmidt & McKnight (2012) divided 61 districts into four categories based on students’ SES: Low SES (Group I), Low-to-lower middle class (Group II), Middle class (Group III), and High SES (Group IV). Even though typically students from lower SES backgrounds tend to have lower academic achievement, no statistically significant differences were ground among the four groups in terms of the average number of math topics that were tended to be covered. (Schmidt & McKnight, 2012).


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Conclusion: **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As a nation, we expect our schools to create equal outcomes for all Black and White students.In a nation with 44 percent non-White students and extreme inequality in educational attainment, it's time for education administrators address these issues seriously. If we don't have a plan for racial equity everywhere and for integration where possible, we are all too likely to replicate the failures of the past.(“NEA - Race and Schools: The Need for Action,” 2013) **


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">What is the role of education leaders play in creating an equal environment for all students? Education leaders should pay attention to those three things that most powerfully influence educational outcomes which are families, teachers, and other students who create a climate and level of competition. As education leaders, we need different, positive policies that address our racial issues, policies that respect and employ the talents of our teachers. We need to try to treat our teachers and students from other cultures equally. Recognizing differences is the first step. Then we need to respect each culture, combine and embrace all the different cultures in one school. **

V. Public Opinion of Educational Reforms

 * Lead Editor: Sophi **

Hiebert and Stigler illustrate that teaching is primarily a cultural activity in //The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World’s Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom//. They also point out that teaching varies much more among cultures than it does within them.They find that "the cultural nature of teaching might also help to explain why teaching per se has rarely been the direct focus of efforts to reform education." Most members of the public have gone through schools as they are and have a difficult time conceiving of them substantively in any other way. Reforms therefore focus on improvements that still assume the existing system of teaching will remain unchanged.

//In Bad Teacher! How blaming teachers distorts the bigger picture//, Kumashiro deepens the understanding of this cultural nature of education and educational reform through presenting the commonsense ideas about education and educational reform and pointing out their fault. He holds three beliefs about education and educational reform. Education is a complex system which includes more actors than what teachers are doing in classrooms; education is what happens between teachers, students, and parents and many other participants; education is not a game of failures and success but a differentiated process in which the students can learn something more than the basics. Kumashiro believes that common sense narrows our understanding of education and educational reform, which will have effects on the effectiveness of teaching unconsciously.
 * In Inequality for All, Schmidt & McKnight (2012) are trying to demonstrate that opportunities to learn is another cultural factor that should be taken into consideration. The opportunities to learn do not vary between districts or schools, as many people believe, but between classrooms. They argue that despite all the reform efforts, such as NCLB, some students still are left behind, not always because of lack of efforts. There are many factors that contribute to learning opportunities - one of the most impact according to Schmidt & McKnight (2012), is simply where a student lives. By examining content variation between states and districts, the variation in content of what student’s actually receive in the classroom, and teachers’ content knowledge along with the textbooks used, it is clear that there is a large difference between the learning opportunities that some students have opposed to others. While many people may believe that if a student takes a certain math course in one school that it would be comparable to another, Schmidt & McKnight (2012) show that is usually not the case. With such a variation in the topics that are covered and what teachers know, school can be thought of as “a game of chance on an unlevel playing field” (Schmidt & McKnight, 2012, 1). **


 * Education is a cultural conception and teaching is a primary a cultural activity, which includes many factors, therefore educational reform is a process which takes time. **
 * ** Education is a cultural conception. **
 * Education is a complex system which includes more actors than what teachers are doing in classrooms.
 * Education is what happens between teachers, students, and parents and many other participants.
 * Education is a differentiated process in which the students can learn something, not a game of failures and success.
 * Education is a process in which students can learn more than the basics.
 * ** Education is an process that includes some unfair things, such as opportunity to learn **

=** Conclusion **=

**VI. Individual Links:** Inequality for All - KatrinaT Black School White School - YizheH Bad Teacher - XiaoluL The Teaching Gap - JulieD

VII. Teach-In Activities:
1. Introduction 2. Individual Reading 3. Group Discussion - How are each of these topics related to one another?



4. Conclusion - "Pyramid"

VIII. Sources
<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Abbeduto, L. 2000. "Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Educational Psychology " Guilford: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Eliminating Racism in the Classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved July 23, 2013, from http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/racism_morgan.html.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5;">Henson, K. 2001. "Curriculum Planning: Integrating Multiculturalism, Constructivism, and Educational Reform: 2nd Edition" Boston: McGraw-Hill.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Hiebert, J. and Stigler, J. (2009) The teaching gap: best ideas from the world’s teachers for improving education in the classroom. Free Press. New York.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Jeffrey S. Brooks (2012).//Black School White School: Racism and Educational (Mis)Leadership.// Teachers College Press.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Kumashiro, K. K. (2012). Bad teacher!: how blaming teachers distorts the bigger picture. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">NEA - Race and Schools: The Need for Action. (n.d.). Retrieved July 25, 2013, from http://www.nea.org/home/13054.htm

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Powell, R, Cantrell, S, Adams, S. "Saving Black Mountain: The Promise of Critical Literacy in a Multicultural Democracy" in Reading Teacher. May 2001. Volume 54. Issue 8.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Schmidt, W. H., & McKnicght, C. C. (2012). //Inequality for all: the challenge of unequal opportunity in American schools//. New York: Teachers College Press.

Tyack, D., & Cuban, L. (1997). // Tinkering toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform //. Harvard University Press.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Wenger, E. Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity: Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives.