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EA 022 894

Brown, Rexford G.

Schools of Thought: How the Politics of Literacy

Shape Thinking in the Classroom. The Jossey-Bass

Educat:ion Series.

ISBN-1-55542-314-0

91
311p.

Jossey-Bass Publishers, 350 Sansome Street, San

Francisco, CA, 94104 ($24.95 plus state sales tax

where applicable).

Guides - Non-Classroom Use (055) -- Books (010)

MFL- Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS.

*Classroom Environment; *Educational Policy; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; *Literacy; *Politics of Education; *Program Development; Rural American Indians; Rural Education; School Restructuring; State Action; *Thinking Skills;

Urban Education

*Ontario (Toronto); Pittsburgh School District PA The new literacy goes beyond the requirements for a high school diploma, including capacities once demanded only of a privileged, college-bound elite. This book concerns this new, higher literacy and whether current educational restructuring efforts are likely to foster such literacy in all students. The study used informal interviewing techniques and examined classrooms for evidence of nine general climate indicators conducive to a literac of thoughtfulness. The first chapters focus on rure America, especially the Deep South, where teachers are educating children to leave their communities. The third chapter describes education on an Indian reservation, where the colonial model is waning. Chapter 4 describes the conflicts and contradictions in a troubled, but typical urban school district unintentionally engaged in undermining literacy efforts. Chapter 5 broadens the notion of "policy environment" and describes the contributions of a governor, a legislature, a state school board, and a district judge. Chapter 6 describes a Pittsbargh, Pennsylvania, school district that is addressing serious problems in positive ways. The next chapter describes the Toronto (Ontario, Canada) School District, where the most advanced form of literacy thoughtfulness is occurring. Chapter 7 tells how local and provincial policies sustain this literacy, and chapter 8 sums up findings from all the schools, districts, states, and Canadian provinces visited. The book contains an index and a bibliography of 214 references. (MLH) f** ****** ******************* ***** ********** ***** **** ***** *** Reproductions supplied 1,y EDRS are the best that can be made

from the original document.***************** ********** **************************** ***** ** *********

U.S. DEPAINVENT OR EDUCATION

Moe a Educehonar Research and Imorovamini

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCFNTER IERIC)X

document has been firpfoducw asmewed from the person or hIStAnaRtionprep-Wing rt r Min Ot chlIOGIWS

Iva ham mac* to ettproy.

*414.4,ri"-'1,4 "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS

MATERIAL IN MICROPCHE ONLY

HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC),"

A publication in

THE JOSSEY-BASS

EDUCATION SERIES

Some teachers and some

schools have always found ways to instill the higheststandards of literacy in all their students, especially the children of the poor and minorities.But can entire districts or states do it? What kinds of policy are likely to bring about the necessary changes? These are the kinds of questions

Rexford Brown and his fellow

investigatorE ask in this first major study of the effects of the 1980s' school refonn policies.

Arguing that it is not enough to

demand competence in the simple basic skills. Brown recommends creating thoughtful learning environments for adults andchildren that develop the ability to think critically and cre- atively, to solve problems. exercise judgment. and to learn new skills.

In examples taken from

visits to classrooms across North

Americafrom the backroads

of the rural South tounadnmed native

American schools, to urbanbuildings in tl-e

industrial northeast and finally to an Ontario school districtBrown shows the ways in which national, state, and local politics either encourage or discourage efforts to develop these thoughtful learning environments. He recommends creating policy frameworks that encourage conversation, stimulate inquiry. and foster trust and collaboration, and he suggests raising our expectations for all students. especially the poor a-id minorities. and building curriculums that begin with students' interests and concerns. (continued on back nap) 3 schools or6ihoughit

REXFORD G. BROWN

chooly ehogot

How the politics

of literacyshape thinkingin theclassroom jossey-Bass Publishers

San Frmu.sto

oxfmd1991

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHI

How the Politics of Literacy Shape Thinking in the Classroomby Rexford G. Brown Copyright ft, 1991 by: Jossey-Bass Inc.. Publishers

350 Sansome Street

San Francisco, California 94104

Jossey-Bass LimitedHeadington Hill Hall

Oxford OX3 OBW

Copyright under International, Pan American, and

Universal Copyright Conventions. All rightsreserved. No part of this book may be reproducedin any formexcept for brief quotation (not to

exceed 1,000 words) in a review or professionalworkwithout permission in writing from the publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brown, Rexford.

Schools of thought : how the politica of literacy shape thinkingin the classroomRexford G. Brown.p.cm.(The Jossey-Bass education series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 1-5542-3)4-0I. LiteracyUnited StatesCase studies.2. Educational changeUnited StatesCase srudies.I.Title.IL Series.LCI51.8771991302.'244'0973dc20

90-19892

Manufactured in the United States of America

The paper in this book meets the guidelines forpffmanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of theCouncil on library Resources. _MAE I OF.SIGN SY C HARL0111 KAN

FIRs1 F DI foN

Code 9119

The jossey-Bass

Education Series

Li'

Contents

Preface

The Authorxi

xxi 1.

Back to Basics in the Rural South1

2.

Hand-Me-Down Literacy31

3.

Language and Culture on the Reservation59

4.

An Urban District: One Exn OP theGas,

the Other on the Brakes 92
5.

The Politics of Literacy137

6.

When Teachers Talk164

7.

A Higher Literacy in Toronto202

8.

Cultivating a Literacy of Thoughtfulness232

ix

Resource: Guidelines for Program Review from

the Ontario Ministry of Education

BibliographyContents

253
269
Index 284

Preface

Years ago in this country, people were

considered literate if they could sign tiieir names. As times changed, ideas about what consti- tuted a satisfactory level of literacy also changed, and always up- ward. Mere ability to sign one's name gave way to the ability to write at a certain level of sophistication, higher for rach succeeding generation. Mere ability to read gave way to increasingly demand- ing reading in a wide range of fields, and for a wide range of pur- poses. As our school system grew, being literatebecame equated with having completed a certain number of years of school. As our economic system grew and changed, school credentials played an increasingly important role in screening and selecting people for jobs. The number of years of schooling a person completed began to be wrrelated with potential earnings. The s"Ikes involved in attaining the right kind or degree of literacy and the right level of education rose steadily. The system charged withdetermining what the stakes would be for any individual, what life opportunities any of us mightenjoy, grew haphazardly throughout this century and ac hievedits mature form only twenty-five years ago.

Only then was it ready to be the

instrument of mass educationtrue masseducationthat its pro- ponents had long promised it would become, and it wasimme- diately clear that public expectations and economic and social changes were rendering it obsolete. xi xli

Preface

During the 1970s, critics charged that

too many Americans

were "functionally" illiteratethat is, not totally illiterate, butnotliterate enough to function productively and happily.Doubts werealso expressed about whether a high school diploma stillsaid any-

thing about the literacy of graduates. Stories of high schoolgrad- uates who could neither read nor write abounded; reading, writing, and mathematics test-score declines were chronicled year after year, with more and more public hand-wringing. Almostevery state leg-

islature passed laws requiring evidence of minimalcompetency forgrade promotion and graduation. Almostevery district developed

school-improvement plans based on a burgeoning research industry that was devoted to the study of "effective" schools. The 1980s brought new alarms about literacy in the United States, most dramatically expressed in the National Commissionon

Excellence in Education's A Nation at Risk (1983). Thisreport wasthe Reagan administration's call for major improvementsin edu-cation as a matter of national survi-al inan increasingly compet-

itive global economy. Throughout the decade,a broader and deeper notion of literacy emerged from dozens of books and blue-ribbon reports and the words of nationally prominent speakers. The stakes involved in this more robust kind of literacygrew higher than ever, both for the individual and for the countryas a whole. The decade ended with an unprecedented summit meeting ofthe nation's gov- ernors and the president of the United States, who issued a call for radical reform and total restructuring of the educational system.The new literacy that requires such massive changegoes beyond mere reading and writing ability, beyondthe so-called bas- ics, and beyond the current requirements fora high school diploma. It now includes capacities once demanded only ofa privileged, college-bound elite: to think critically and creatively, solve prob- lems, exercise judgment, and learnnew skills and knowledge throughout a lifetime. What at the beginning of the twentieth cen-tury was a high standard for a few has apparently become, in the minds of a good many powerful people,a desideratum for all.

Background of the Book

This book is about that new, higher literacy and about whether current efforts to reform and restructure the educational system are

Preface

xiii likely to foster such literacy in all students. The book is based on a series of case studies undertaken in 1987-1988 with the generous support of the John D. and Catherine T Macikt thur Foundation. The literacy my colleagues at the Education Commission of the States and I have been investigating is one that goes beyond basic skills and includes enhanced abilities to think critically and crea- tively; to reason carefully; to inquire systematically into any impor- tant matter; to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information and arguments; and to communicate effectively to a variety of audiences in a variety of forms. We have come to call it a literacy of thought- fulness, since it involves both the exercise of thought and a certain amount of caring about other thinkers in past and present commit. nities. A major question that underlies our study is whether the unprecedented amount of educational policy activity of the last de- cade is leading (or is likely to lead) to this literacy of thoughtfulness. To what &wee, we wondered as we began the rase studies on which this book is based, are various kinds of policy serving as positive forces for thoughtfulness. and to what degree are they discouraging it? To find the right way to ask that complicated question, and perhaps even to suggest some answers, we interviewed experts around the country, conducted focus groups with parents and var- ious other people interested in education, reviewed all available rewarch and relevant policy material, interviewed state and local administrators and policymakers, and then visited schools and classrooms (mostly for grades 3, 6, 8. and I ) where thinking and problem-solving activities were supposed to be a major part of the curriculum. All told, we gathered 650 hours of interviews and ob- servations in the case studies, about two-thirds of it based on talkiRg with teachers and visiting their classes. We wanted to get a good sense of the status of those policies and programs purported to be conducive to thoughtfulness (as we have defined the term). We also wanted to learn what kinds of barriers confronted pec pie who were trying to be thoughtful or were trying to develop programs that would involve far more students in activities likelyto develop critical and creative thinking and problem-solving skills. joining me in the interviewing and the observing of class- 1 xiv

Preface

rooms were Jane Armstrong of the Education Commission of the

States; Alan Davis, now at the University of Colorado;Patty Flakus-Mosqueda of the Education Commission of theStates; AnthonyPetrosky of the University of Pittsburgh;Sam Stringfield, now atJohns Hopkins University's Cet-ar for Research on Effective

Schooling for Disadvantaged Students; and RonaWilensky, an in-

dependent education researcher who lives in Boulder,Colorado.During the interviews, we explained thepurpose of our re-search and how we intended touse the results. Our intent was tolearn what people believe about students' capacitiesto think crit-ically, solve problems, and become active, engagedlearners. Wetried to get a sense of how adults in schools andschool systemsinteract, communicate, and model thoughtfulnessfor students. Weinquired into the history of, and the intentionsbehind, reforms inthe district and the state; andwe probed for beliefs about relation-

ships between policy and practice. Our interviewswere conductedinformally, without tape recorders, ininterviewees' offices and in

classrooms. We transcribed the interviews shortly afterconductingthem, relying on our notes and memories and oftenchecking withinterviewees to see if we had captured their remarks correctly.I havemade every effort to present remarks accurately andin the spirit inwhich they were made.

In our classroom observations,

we looked for nine general indicators of climates conduc ive to a literacy of thoughtfulness: I. The p, v.sical classroom environment. Are referencematerials

and laboratory equipment available? Is the environmentrichlytextured, with much to look at and touch, includingsamplesof students' work? Are students encouragedto move around togather information or to work in variousgroups? Are therefrequent interruptionsby the public addresssystem, for ex-

ample? Is the classroom overly noisy?quotesdbs_dbs43.pdfusesText_43

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