Supervision Related to Education - Annotated Bibliography Example

Supervision related to education Apple, M. W. (2003). What Effects Do Social Movements Have on Curricular Reform?.Educational Policy, 17(4), 519-525. This article is a review of Amy Binder’s article, “Contentious Curricula: Afrocentrism and Creationism in American Public Schools”. It is an important analysis that uses the perspective of social movement to explore the dynamics that are involved in curriculum change politics and proposals. The author discusses all the negative and positive impacts of social movement on education reform acts. He places much of his emphasis on Afrocentrism and Creationism. Social movement provides the engine of durable educational reforms. The results of education reform due to such movements are negotiations among several different ideological tendencies. The actions of social movements have been among the main weapons of marginalized and dispossessed in society. Arhar, J. (2003). Perspectives on middle level studentachievement: Rethinking student achievement. MiddleSchool Journal, 35(1), 5. This article gives a discussion of the trends in increased adjustment in examining the learning and academic achievement of students. The author affirms that the root of the reforms of middle-level curriculum involves a background concept of achievement. The author further argues that the philosophy and practice of middle school is based on how teachers make judgments and what makes student learning. Therefore, teachers, should work out middle-level student’s conceptions and make professional judgments on all constitutes of student’s education. Teachers should implement sound learning strategies in order to improve the achievements of the students during their middle school level. Bianchini, J. A., & Kelly, G. J. (2003). Challenges of standards‐based reform: The example of Californias science content standards and textbook adoption process. Science Education, 87 (3), 378-389. The authors of this article concentrates on standards-based science prospectus in California. The article is a discussion that uses standard transformations to come up with standards based practices. Science education in U.S. has a series of proposed reforms in its history. Currently, education administration in U.S. asserts that all students should be scientifically literate. In order to ensure science for all, the science education reformers recognized that they should specify details such as science teaching, teacher’s professional development, assessment, educational systems and programs, and science content standards. Chance, P. L., & Anderson, R. B. (2003). The Principals Role in Standards-Based Reform: Linking Accountability to Instructional Improvement.Chicago, 25(8), 1-43. The content of this article is a discussion of the impacts that standards have on curriculum, assessment, instruction, accountability, development, supervision, and professional. The author explores the opinions of both education administrators and teachers. The author claims that perceptions of science teachers and school administrators on the impacts of science standards is different in all the instructional leadership areas. Principles claim that standards have much impact on instructional leadership and curriculum than teachers. In general, both teachers and principals perceive that teachers are more accountable to the achievement of students than principals. Comer, J. P. (2005). Child and adolescent development: The critical missing focus in school reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(10), 757. Dr. Comer asserts that, in order to improve the academic achievement of a student, one must pay attention to both the child and his or her adolescent development. Overlooking this factor means that the other approaches to assessment, curriculum, and instruction will not bring the required success. The author feels that this is a very critical factor towards student’s achievement and failure to focus on it, all reform efforts will be useless. They suggest that teachers should have a critical thinking when monitoring the progress and performance of their students otherwise their efforts will be in vain. Cothran, D. (2005). Promoting Change: In Your Physical Education Program. Strategies, 18(5), 37-38. Cothran feels that in order to improve students’ curriculum achievements, education administrators should ensure that they integrate promotion of change in physical education into the proposed reform programs. This is because promoting change is much easier than its implementation. Further, Cothran argues that, many curriculum reform efforts fail because they fail to address all procedures in a clear manner. For instance, a fitness curriculum proposal should have sample lessons as well as designed assessment tools. The author also adds that physical education is a very good approach and therefore, it must have cross-curriculum focus. Burris, C. C., &Welner, K. G. (2005). Closing the achievement gap by detracking. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(3), 594-598. These two authors assert that achievement results from opportunities and continuous tracking practices, denies many students a series of opportunities. In addition, one of the reason why achievement gap is so persistent is that many of these students come from minority families. In order to narrow this achievement gap, the authors suggest that education stakeholders should offer high-track curriculum to every student. The article gives an example of a diverse suburban New York district that reduced this gap by ensuring all students are tracked. Ediger, M. (2003). Reading Instruction and State Mandated Testing. 97(9), 240-256. Ediger claims that students should be given their results on state mandated exams yearly in grade 3 through 10. The reading instructions should also be placed at the school curriculum apex. These standards are also inherent in the No Child Left Behind Act and should be put into action. By doing this, students will be able to read well. The author outline six procedures that students and teachers should follow in order to avoid failures in reading curriculum. (i) Teachers should carefully study each child (ii) teachers should assist each student until he understand the matter being read. (iii) Teachers should motivate all pupils. (iv) Reading should fulfil its purpose. (v) The matter being read should be sequential.(vi) Use the appropriate ways of appraising the achievement of each student. Grisham, D. L., & Brink, B. (2003). Teachers Reflect on the Reform Movement and Its Impact on Their Practice. Journal of Reading Education, 28(3), 15-25. This article is a discussion of how teachers offer documentation on the state to which educational reform movement of Washington has changed literacy practices of classroom over time. The author suggests that curriculum should be narrowed to “teach the test” and replace the professional development chances with jobs designed to improve test score. The author also asserts that teachers have been influenced to “teach the test” by accountability. Ketterlin-Geller, L. R., McCoy, J. D., Twyman, T., & Tindal, G. (2003). How Do Critical Thinking Measures Fit Within Standards-Based Reform?.Assessment for Effective intervention, 28(3-4), 37-48. In this article, the authors evaluate three constituents of the current education assessment approach and gives an analysis of the problems that affects the documentation of the students’ progress and performance. In particular, the article focuses on the middle-secondary matter. The authors assert that, critical thinking is one of the successful procedures for monitoring the performance and progress of students. They suggest that teachers should have a critical thinking when monitoring the progress and performance of their students otherwise their efforts will be in vain. Kristensen, H. J., &Sørensen, B. L. (2004). An example of how assessment relates to practice when student learning is the main principle for creating curricula. European journal of engineering education, 29(2), 203-209. This article is an example of a university where the learning of students is used as the main aspect in determination of curriculum. Assessments and feedbacks from the students are used for development of the appropriate curriculum to be used for courses. The authors try to show that feedback and assessments are appropriate for influencing students to learn. They emphasize that assessing student learning outcomes are the specific measurable and observable objectives to improving the performance of students. Successful practice of students in classroom is automatically linked to continuos outcome assessment. Assessments also encourage students to place their focus on the appropriate goals for their education. Therefore, teachers should use assessments for creation of curricula. Meyer, L. (2005). The Complete Curriculum: Ensuring a Place for the Arts in Americas Schools. Arts Education Policy Review, 106(3), 35. Meyer claims that the standards set for language and math arts make many schools around United States sacrifice arts. His article offers several suggestions to teachers and education administrators on how to set a complete curriculum. He suggests that other curriculum activities such as co-curriculum activities should be given equal concentration as math and language. The main reason is to help students who are not good at arts to realize their talents in other fields. The author concludes by asserting that arts should be given a place in Americ’a learning institutions. Education administrators should ensure that arts are included in the school curriculum since failure to do this will make the entire school curriculum incomplete. Montgomery, P. S., Ranney, L., &Growe, R. (2003). High-Stakes Tests versus High-Quality Education, 27(4), 19-25. This articles discusses the use and impacts of high-stakes examination. High-stakes tests are sometimes criticized for interfering with the quality of education. They pressurize students and may cause problems because they are not perfect and due to such bad decisions, both students and teachers are deeply harmed. Many U.S. states are setting strong education standards that has assessment design aligning with the standards set by the state. The authors suggest that schools should be accountable for their own education-based standards and high-stakes tests in order to improve the quality of their education. Negroni, I. A., &Iwanicki, E. F. (2003). An Exploration of How School District Leaders Are Responding to the Connecticut Academic Achievement Test (CAPT), 89(3), 45-60. This study focuses on how education district leaders of Connecticut translate educational reform acts to instructional practices.it also explores the implementation of improvement initiatives in order to improve performance of students on CAPT. The authors also examined the procedures in which the initiatives were reignforced and intergrated with development of staff. After carrying out their research, the authors concluded that staff development has a positive effecttowards school improvement. They also asserted that evaluation of teachers is less impacted when it comes to integration of school improvement and staff development. Orrill, C. H., & Anthony, H. G. (2003). Implementing Reform Curriculum: A Case of Whos in Charge, 97(9), 40-56. The main focus of this article is reporting how implementing new mathematic curriculum affects teachers who implement it. The articles strengthens that teachers who implement such curriculums face many challenges. Some of the barriers that affect teachers who implement new curriculum are: (i) concern about the vision of teachers and the beliefs and roles as a math teacher; (ii) reactions of parents to the test scores of their children; (iii) lack of necessary materials to put the new curriculum into action; and (iv) lack of skilled and knowledgeable teachers. References Apple, M. W. (2003). What Effects Do Social Movements Have on Curricular Reform?.Educational Policy, 17(4), 519-525. Arhar, J. (2003). Perspectives on middle level student achievement: Rethinking student chievement. Middle School Journal, 35(1), 5. Bianchini, J. A., & Kelly, G. J. (2003). Challenges of standards‐based reform: The example of Californias science content standards and textbook adoption process. Science Education, 87(3), 378-389. Burris, C. C., &Welner, K. G. (2005). Closing the achievement gap by detracking. Phi Delta Kappan, 594-598. Chance, P. L., & Anderson, R. B. (2003). The Principals Role in Standards-Based Reform: Linking Accountability to Instructional Improvement, 25(8), 1-43. Comer, J. P. (2005). Child and adolescent development: The critical missing focus in school reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(10), 757. Cothran, D. (2005). Promoting Change: In Your Physical Education Program. Strategies, 18(5), 37-38. Ediger, M. (2003). Reading Instruction and State Mandated Testing, 97(9), 240-256. Grisham, D. L., & Brink, B. (2003). Teachers Reflect on the Reform Movement and Its Impact on Their Practice. Journal of Reading Education, 28(3), 15-25. Ketterlin-Geller, L. R., McCoy, J. D., Twyman, T., & Tindal, G. (2003). How Do Critical Thinking Measures Fit Within Standards-Based Reform?.Assessment for Effective intervention, 28(3-4), 37-48. Kristensen, H. J., &Sørensen, B. L. (2004). An example of how assessment relates to practice when student learning is the main principle for creating curricula. European journal of engineering education, 29(2), 203-209. Meyer, L. (2005). The Complete Curriculum: Ensuring a Place for the Arts in Americas Schools. Arts Education Policy Review, 106(3), 35. Montgomery, P. S., Ranney, L., &Growe, R. (2003). High-Stakes Tests versus High-Quality Education, 27(4), 19-25. Negroni, I. A., &Iwanicki, E. F. (2003). An Exploration of How School District Leaders Are Responding to the Connecticut Academic Achievement Test (CAPT), 89(3), 45-60. Orrill, C. H., & Anthony, H. G. (2003). Implementing Reform Curriculum: A Case of Whos in Charge, 97(9), 40-56. Read More