10 High School CurriculaFocus Questions

1. What are the major developmental concerns of high school–level students?

2. What are some of the “internal problems” that confront today’s high schools?

3. What were the reasons behind the development of the comprehensive high school in America?

4. What recommendations have been made for restructuring high schools?

5. What are some appropriate curricular goals for high school–level students?

Developmental Challenges of High School–Level StudentsHigh school–level students are beginning to seek some assurance of eventual economic independence from parents and other adults. They sense their new intellectual powers and their need to develop additional cognitive skills. Their dominant motivation most often is to achieve social status within the adolescent community and to meet the expectations of their peers. Often, they feel the tension between two orientations—engaging in behavior approved by adults versus engaging in behavior approved by peers. In this chapter’s Case Study in Curriculum Implementation section, Hugh Campbell, a high school principal, outlines how teachers at his school developed a curriculum to help students adjust to the transition between the middle school and high school (see “Going the Extra Mile to Smooth the Transition to High School”). According to Erik Erikson, students at this level seek a “sense of identity” and the development of values they can call their own. According to Bennett M. Berger, a well-known sociologist and author of An Essay on Culture: Symbolic Structure and Social Structure (1995), adolescence is one of the ways that culture violates nature by insisting that, for an increasing number of years, young persons postpone their claims to the privileges and responsibilities of common citizenship. At this point, you may wish to review the perspectives on human development that have been advanced by Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan, and others by turning to Chapter 3.

The world of today’s high school–level students is dramatically different from the one their parents experienced. Technological changes, a multiplicity of social options and values, the pervasiveness of crime and violence, the media’s intrusiveness and influence, and the blurring of the lines separating adults and children have a tremendous impact on today’s youth. Among other challenges facing high school youth, in “Becoming Citizens of the World,” Vivien Stewart suggests in this chapter that today’s high school students are not prepared to be citizens of a multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual world.

Adults may have difficulty comprehending the realities that characterize the lives of many youth today—for example, results from the South Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey revealed that 47 percent of adolescent males and 13 percent of adolescent females carried weapons, and large numbers reported fighting; the strongest predictors of weapon carrying and fighting were alcohol and drug use and sexual intercourse (Valois and McKewon, 1998). In this chapter’s Leaders’ Voices article, “A Tale of Two Curriculums,” Mira Reisberg describes an approach to curriculum development that helps students understand and transcend the harsh realities of their lives by creating “heartfelt connections among student’s lives, communities, creative intelligences, bodies, and spirits.”Curriculum Leadership StrategyPrior to developing curricula for high school students, conduct a series of focus group interviews with students to identify their psychosocial concerns—what are their goals, aspirations, and dreams? In what ways can high school curricula address these concerns?

The Quest for Self-IdentityAs young people move through their high school years, they usually come to attach less importance to the reactions of their peers and more to their quest for a strong self-identity. They tend to move from relying on others to self-reliance; their own sense of what matters, rather than the reactions of peers, guides their actions. Eliot Wigginton, the originator of the Foxfire approach to the high school curriculum, says in Sometimes a Shining Moment: The Foxfire Experience that the needs of high school students are best met by allowing them “to do things of importance—to do real work of real consequence in the real world” (1985, p. 236). To the extent that they have these experiences they are less likely to see the school curriculum as meaningless and to turn to self-destructive activities such as drug abuse, dropping out, school absenteeism, suicide, teenage pregnancy, vandalism, criminal activity, and cultism. In “A Tale of Two Curriculums” in this chapter, Mira Reisberg explains how she uses place-based pedagogy similar to

Wigginton’s Foxfire approach to prepare pre-service teachers to enter the high-stakes testing environment of today’s schools.Often, though, high school–level students gain their independence and sense of identity only after going through a period of conflict with parents, teachers, and other adults. In far too many instances, they express their defiance and rebellion by turning to the self-destructive activities mentioned above. The challenge for those who plan high school curricula, then, is to provide them with appropriate ways to express their emerging sense of independence or, as Carolyn Mamchur (1990) suggests, opportunities to use their “power” to decide what and how they learn. In “Possible Selves: Identity-Based Motivation and School Success” in this chapter, Daphna Oyserman suggests that schools can assist adolescents in successful exploration of various “school-focused possible selves.”

Challenges to the American High SchoolIn addition to being buffeted by frequent waves of criticism and calls for reform from external sources, high schools in the United States have been coping with a myriad of internal problems during the last few decades. Many high schools are plagued by hostility, violence, despair, alienation, and drug abuse. Their expansive campuses, large enrollments, and bureaucratic organizational structures make matters worse; and students often express underlying negativity toward teachers, administrators, and staff. Some students find their school experiences unenjoyable, if not painful. Minority group students may feel that they receive differential treatment. Typically, students ask for more openness and mutual respect. Neither students themselves nor teachers see students as influential in setting school policies. Many students believe they are not learning as much as they should. The high school typically does not use the rich resources of the community.

In addition, confirmation that high school curricula are not as rigorous as they ought to be comes from the students themselves. One survey of college students for their views on what should be included in the high school curriculum indicated that students wanted more reading, literature and vocabulary, speaking and writing skills, research papers, and computer courses (Sandel, 1991). Instead, Susan Black maintains that many high school students are “disengaged” because they experience only a narrow, skills-based curriculum while at school (see “Engaging the Disengaged Student: Research Shows Why Some Are Immersed in Learning While Others Are Indifferent” in this chapter). In addition, high school students need to learn “real-world skills,” as Patricia Joyce points out in “Learning the Real-World Skills of the 21st Century” in this chapter. Joyce describes the

“transitions career education curriculum” that some high schools are using to prepare students to enter the workforce.

Development of the “Comprehensive” High SchoolTo meet the needs of middle adolescents and to catch up with the Soviet Union in the production of engineers and scientists, former Harvard University President James B. Conant and others called for the development of the “comprehensive” high school during the 1950s and 1960s. The comprehensive high school would “provide learning opportunities for all … adolescents within a range from barely educable to the gifted and talented. Its purpose [would be] to enable each pupil (a) to develop to his [sic] greatest potential for his [sic] own success and happiness and (b) to make a maximum contribution to the American society of which he [sic] is a part” (Gilchrist, 1962, p. 32).Conant recommended that “every pupil who can do so effectively and rewardingly should take a minimum of eighteen academic subjects” (1962, p. 29). This course of study, which Conant estimated 15 to 20 percent of students could complete “with profit,” would include four years of mathematics, four years of one foreign language, three years of science, four years of English, and three years of social studies.

Expectations for the comprehensive high school were high. As the superintendent of University City Public Schools in Missouri wrote in 1962: “America desperately needs the developed abilities of all its youth. Citizens and educators have, in the comprehensive high school, an exciting and valuable tool to fulfill America’s needs for the future” (Gilchrist, 1962, p. 33).The comprehensive high school, however, has proven inadequate for the program of education many middle adolescents need. Some observers believe that attempts to develop comprehensive high school curricula that address the needs of all middle adolescents have resulted in curricula that lack coherence. High schools tend to try to teach “too much” to students. As a result, high school curricula focus more on covering content than on developing understanding, as Fred M. Newmann points out in “Can Depth Replace Coverage in the High School Curriculum?” in this chapter.

The Great Debate On High School Reform

The 1980s saw a plethora of reform-oriented reports and books on American education, most of which focused on the high school and called for raising standards, promoting excellence, and rebuilding public confidence in the schools. The 1983 report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, launched a great national debate on how to improve high schools in the United States. With alarm, the report claimed that the nation had “been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament” and cited the high rate of illiteracy among seventeen-year-olds and minority youth, a drop in SAT scores, and the need for college and business to offer remedial reading, writing, and computation. In response to the perceived ineffectiveness of America’s schools, A Nation at Risk recommended raising standards (not clearly defined), requiring “Five New Basics” (four years of English, three years of mathematics, three years of science, three years of social studies, and one-half year of computer science) for graduation, assessing students’ learning more frequently, and lengthening the school day and the school year.Another widely discussed report was Ernest Boyer’s (1983) High School: A Report on Secondary Education in America sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. High School recommends first and foremost a “core of common learnings” and service-oriented activities for all, more flexibility in scheduling, a program of electives to develop individual interests, the mastery of language, and a single track for academic and vocational students.Broad, sweeping reform of America’s high schools was also called for in Horace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School by Theodore Sizer (1984). Through his analysis of the professional dilemmas encountered by Horace Smith, a hypothetical high school English teacher, Sizer built a case for “revamping the structure” of the high school. He asserted that higher-order thinking skills should form the core of the high school curriculum and they should be learned through students’ confrontations with engaging, challenging problems. Sizer also believed that high schools should have fewer and clearer goals, and should require mastery of subject matter for graduation. Interdisciplinary nongraded curricula were essential, he believed, and instruction should be adapted to students’ diverse learning styles. To put his ideas into practice, Sizer began the Coalition of Essential Schools at Brown University. From a modest beginning with five schools in 1984, the coalition grew to more than one thousand schools and twenty-four regional support centers by the end of the century.In Horace’s School: Redesigning the American High School (1992), Sizer further described the coalition’s approach to restructuring high schools. A basic premise of the coalition is that top-down, standardized solutions to school problems don’t work and that teachers must play a key role in changing schools. Since no two coalition schools are alike, each is encouraged to develop an approach to restructuring that meets the needs of

faculty, students, and community. However, the restructuring efforts of coalition schools are guided by ten common principles, two of which specifically address the content of the educational program:1. The school should focus on helping young people develop the habit of using their minds well. Schools should not attempt to be comprehensive if such a claim is made at the expense of the school’s central intellectual purpose. Schools should be learner centered, addressing students’ social and emotional development, as well as their academic progress.2. The school’s academic goal should be simple: that each student master a limited number of essential skills and areas of knowledge. The aphorism “Less Is More” should dominate. Curricular decisions should be guided by student interest, developmentally appropriate practice, and the aim of thorough student mastery and achievement. Students of all ages should have many opportunities to discover and construct meaning from their own experiences. (Coalition of Essential Schools, 1998)In Horace’s Hope: What Works for the American High School (1996), Sizer describes the lessons he learned from a decade of efforts to reform America’s high schools.

Goals for the Education of High School StudentsWhat goals should be included in educational programs for high school–level students? As we have emphasized throughout this book, curriculum goals should be derived, in large measure, from the three curriculum bases—social forces, theories of human development, and the nature of learning and learning styles. With this perspective in mind, the goals would surely include the following:

1. Encouraging the development and practice of critical thinking, what the Coalition of Essential Schools has described as “the habit of using [one’s] mind well”

2. Helping learners begin the process of career development, whether through vocational guidance, vocational education, or additional academic development

3. Providing learners with experiences that enhance their citizenship skills, sense of responsibility, and understanding of and concern for the world about them

4. Helping students to become self-directed, lifelong learners5. Assisting learners to become self-actualized and secure in their

identities6. Assisting learners in making the transition to the world of work, to

participation in their communities, and to the world of the future

Currently, virtually every state has responded to the recurring calls to reform high schools in America. Teachers are playing a greater role in restructuring and curriculum change. For example, many schools participate in collaborative school reform networks, and through these networks, teachers receive training and resources for facilitating change in their schools. As the articles in this chapter confirm, more and more educational programs for high school students are being developed in light of the recommendation from the Coalition of Essential Schools that “decisions about the details of the course of study, the use of students’ and teachers’ time and the choice of teaching materials and specific pedagogies must be unreservedly placed in the hands of the principal and staff” (Coalition of Essential Schools, 1998).Curriculum Leadership StrategyExplore the possibility of developing a reform-oriented network or coalition of high schools in your area. Create a team of teacher leaders from network schools to focus on curriculum issues that are common to the schools. The team may decide to develop a series of curriculum workshops to be held, on a rotating basis, at each school that has joined the network.

References Berger, Bennett M. An Essay on Culture: Symbolic Structure

and Social Structure. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

Boyer, Ernest. High School: A Report on Secondary Education in America. New York: Harper and Row, 1983.

Coalition of Essential Schools. “Ten Common Principles.” Oakland, CA: Coalition of Essential Schools, 1998.

Conant, James B. “The Comprehensive High School.” NEA Journal LI, no. 5 (May 1962): 29–30.

Gilchrist, Robert S. “What Is a Comprehensive High School?” NEA Journal LI, no. 8 (November 1962): 32–33.

Mamchur, Carolyn. “But … the Curriculum.” Phi Delta Kappan 71, no. 5 (April 1990): 634–637.

Sandel, Lenore. “What High School Students Need to Know in Preparation for Success in College.” The High School Journal 74, no. 3 (February/March 1991): 160–163.

Sizer, Theodore R. Horace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984.

                  . Horace’s School: Redesigning the American High School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.

                  . Horace’s Hope: What Works for the American High School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

Valois, Robert F., and Robert E. McKewon. “Frequency and Correlates of Fighting and Carrying Weapons Among Public School Adolescents.” American Journal of Health Behavior 22, no. 1 (January–February 1998): 8–17.

Wigginton, Eliot. Sometimes a Shining Moment: The Foxfire Experience. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, Doubleday, 1985.

Becoming Citizens of the WorldVIVIEN STEWARTAbstractIn this article, Stewart discusses what she sees as the preparedness of U.S. high school graduates to be citizens of a multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual world and presents four trends that have contributed to the globalized society: economics and the opening of Asia; changes brought about by science and technology; international health and security matters; and changing demographics due to international migrations. Stewart believes that U.S. schools are not preparing students adequately for the challenges posed by these changes. Changes such as promotion of international knowledge, teacher training in international matters, world language teaching from elementary school through graduation, and innovative use of technology are recommended.

The world into which today’s high school students will graduate is fundamentally different from the one in which many of us grew up. We’re increasingly living in a globalized society that has a whole new set of challenges. Four trends have brought us here.

The first trend is economic. The globalization of economies and the rise of Asia are central facts of the early 21st century. Since 1990, 3 billion people in China, India, and the former Soviet Union have moved from closed economies into a global one. The economies of China, India, and Japan, which represented 18 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004, are expected to represent 50 percent of the world’s GDP within 30 years (Wilson, 2005). One in five U.S. jobs is now tied to international trade, a proportion that will continue to increase (U.S. Census Bureau, 2004).

Moreover, most U.S. companies expect the majority of their growth to be in overseas markets, which means they will increasingly require a workforce with international competence. According to the Committee for Economic Development (2006),To compete successfully in the global market place, both U.S.-based multinational corporations as well as small businesses increasingly need employees, with knowledge of foreign languages and cultures to market products to customers around the globe and to work effectively with foreign employees and partners in other countries.Science and technology are changing the world and represent a second trend. In The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman (2005) describes how the “wiring of the world” and the digitization of production since 1998 are making it possible for people to do increasing amounts of work anywhere and anytime. Global production teams are becoming commonplace in business. In addition, scientific research, a key driver of innovation, will increasingly be conducted by international teams as other countries ramp-up their scientific capacity.The third trend involves health and security matters. Every major issue that people face—from environmental degradation and global warming, to pandemic diseases, to energy and water shortages, to terrorism and weapons proliferation—has an international dimension. Solving these problems will require international cooperation among governments, professional organizations, and corporations. Also, as the line between domestic and international affairs blurs, U.S. citizens will increasingly vote and act on issues—such as alternative energy sources or security measures linked to terrorism—that require a greater knowledge of the world. In response to this need, a 2006 report from the National Association of State Boards of Education recommends infusing classroom instruction with a strong global perspective and incorporating discussions of current local, national, and international issues and events.

The fourth trend is changing demographics. Globalization has accelerated international migration. New immigrants from such regions as Asia and Central and South America are generating a diversity in U.S. communities that mirrors the diversity of the world. Knowledge of other cultures will help students understand and respect classmates from different countries and will promote effective leadership abroad.

In short, U.S. high school graduates will

Sell to the world. Buy from the world. Work for international companies.

Manage employees from other cultures and countries. Collaborate with people all over the world in joint ventures. Compete with people on the other side of the world for jobs and markets. Tackle global problems, such as AIDS, avian flu, pollution, and disaster

recovery (Center for International Understanding, 2005).However, U.S. schools are not adequately preparing students for these challenges. Surveys conducted by the Asia Society (2002) and National Geographic-Roper (2002) indicated that, compared with students in nine other industrialized countries, U.S. students lack knowledge of world geography, history, and current events. And shockingly few U.S. students learn languages that large numbers of people speak, such as Chinese (1.3 billion speakers) and Arabic (246 million speakers).Many countries in Europe and Asia are preparing their students for the global age by raising their levels of education attainment; emphasizing international knowledge, skills, and language acquisition; and fostering respect for other cultures. The United States must create its own education response to globalization, which should include raising standards, increasing high school and college graduation rates, and modernizing and internationalizing the curriculum.

What Global Competence Looks LikeThe new skill set that students will need goes well beyond the United States’ current focus on the basics and on math, science, and technology. These skills are necessary, of course, but to be successful global citizens, workers, and leaders, students will need to be knowledgeable about the world, be able to communicate in languages other than English, and be informed and active citizens,

World KnowledgeTeaching about the rest of the world in U.S. schools has often focused on the superficial: food, fun, and festivals. Today, we need deeper knowledge, such as understanding significant global trends in science and technology, how regions and cultures have developed and how they interconnect, and how international trade and the global economy work. For example, students might consider how increasing the supply of fresh water or changing forms of energy use in one country could have major effects on another country.

In a world in which knowledge is changing rapidly and technology is providing access to vast amounts of information, our challenge is not merely to give students more facts about geography, customs, or particular conflicts. Rather, our challenge is to hone students’ critical-thinking skills and to familiarize students with key concepts that they can apply to new

situations. In this way, they can make sense of the explosion of information from different sources around the world and put factual information into perspective and context. Only then can this information become meaningful.

Teaching students about the world is not a subject in itself, separate from other content areas, but should be an integral part of all subjects taught. We need to open global gateways and inspire students to explore beyond their national borders. Programs like iLEARN and Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) make it possible for students to work collaboratively with peers in other countries. School-to-school partnerships enable both real and virtual exchanges.U.S. students are global teenagers, similar in many ways to their technology-enabled peers around the world. Adding an international dimension to subjects and encouraging students to reach out to peers in other countries are powerful ways to make the curriculum relevant and engaging to today’s youth.

Language SkillsOnly about one-half of U.S. high school students study a foreign language. The majority never go beyond the introductory level, and 70 percent study Spanish (Draper & Hicks, 2002). This results in a serious lack of capacity in such languages as Arabic and Chinese, both of which are crucial to the prosperity and security of the United States.The United States should do as other industrialized countries in Europe and Asia do—start offering foreign languages in the elementary grades, where research has shown that language learning is most effective (Pufahl, Rhodes, & Christian, 2001), and continue the emphasis in secondary school to create pipelines of proficient language speakers. U.S. students need opportunities to learn a broader range of languages, as in Australia, where 25 percent of students now learn an Asian language (Asia Society, 2002). Heritage communities in the United States—communities in which a non-English language is spoken at home, such as Spanish or Navajo—provide rich sources of teachers, students, and cultural experiences (National Language Conference, 2005). Specific practices, such as immersion experiences, can greatly enhance language proficiency.The growing interest in learning Chinese, as shown by the fact that 2,400 U.S. high schools expressed interest in offering the new advanced placement course in Mandarin, suggests that parents and teachers are realizing the importance of communication skills in a multilingual, multicultural world (see www.AskAsia.org/Chinese). Even if graduates don’t use a second language at work, quite possibly they will work in cross-cultural teams and environments.

Civic Values

U.S. students need to extend traditional American values into the global arena. These include a concern for human rights and respect for cultures that differ from the United States. By learning to understand other perspectives, students can develop critical-thinking skills and enhance their creativity.

Students should focus on becoming active and engaged citizens in both their local and global environments. Schools can promote civic engagement by weaving discussions of current events throughout the school day and through participatory forms of education, such as Model UN or the Capitol Forum on America’s Future, in which high school students voice their opinions on current international issues. Schools should use technology to connect students directly to peers in other parts of the world and promote service learning projects on issues that students can address at both the local and international levels, such as alleviating hunger, providing education support to students in poverty, and improving the environment.

What Schools Can DoAcross the United States, many schools already define their mission as producing students who are prepared for work, citizenship, and leadership in the global era. These schools have found that internationalizing the curriculum creates a more exciting environment for students and teachers alike (Bell-Rose & Desai, 2005). Several approaches have proven successful.

Introducing an international studies requirement for graduationMore than a decade ago, the school board of Evanston Township, Illinois, introduced an international studies requirement for graduation and asked the high school’s teachers to develop the necessary courses. Now, every sophomore in this diverse Chicago suburb must complete the one-year international studies requirement. Students choose from a series of in-depth humanities courses on the history, literature, and art of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Simulations and participatory projects are central to instruction, and partnerships with local universities ensure that teachers have ongoing professional development in international affairs.

Creating an elementary school immersion program

After surveying parents and local businesses about the future needs of the community—they cited skills in English, Spanish, and Japanese as important—Seattle public schools created the John Stanford International School, a public elementary bilingual immersion school. Students spend half the day studying math, science, culture, and literacy in either Japanese or Spanish; they spend the other half of the day learning reading, writing, and social studies in English. The school also offers English as a second language courses for immigrant students and after-school courses for their parents. As a result of the school’s success, the city of Seattle has recently decided to open 10 more internationally oriented schools.

Developing international schools-within-schoolsThe Eugene International High School is a school-within-a-school on four high school campuses in Eugene, Oregon. The school is open to all interested students. The four-year sequence of courses centers thematically on culture, history, and the political, economic, and belief systems of different world regions, such as Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. The school also emphasizes independent research courses to give students the tools to address global issues. An extended essay and a community-service requirement in 11th and 12th grade both have an international focus. For example, one student wrote a 4,000-word research essay on hydrogen cars and their place in the world economy. Students volunteer at such places as Centro Latino Americano, University of Oregon International Education and Exchange, and Holt International Children’s Services. Finally, students have the option of pursuing the International Baccalaureate.

Teaching crucial language skills to prepare for the global economyWith strong support from Mayor Richard M. Daley, whose goal is to make Chicago a hub for international trade, the city has created the largest Chinese-language program in the United States. Twenty public schools teach Mandarin, from an all-black school on the West Side to a nearly all-Hispanic school on the South Side to more diverse schools throughout the city. For many of these students, Chinese is their third language after English and Spanish. The program resulted from partnerships among political, business, school, and community leaders and the Chinese Ministry of Education, which provides Chinese teachers and organizes a summer cultural program for Chicago educators in China.

Redesigning urban secondary schools with an international focus

Using the International High School of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas, and the Metropolitan Learning Center in Hartford, Connecticut, as anchor schools, the Asia Society has created a network of small, internationally themed secondary schools across the United States (see www.internationalstudiesschools.org/). The mission of each school is to prepare low-income students for college and to promote their knowledge of world regions and international issues. Each public or charter school incorporates international content across the curriculum, offers both Asian and European languages, provides international exchange opportunities, and provides links to international of organizations and community-service opportunities. To date, 10 schools have opened in New York City; Los Angeles; Charlotte, North Carolina; Denver, Colorado; and Houston, Texas. Additional schools are slated to open in other locations, such as Mathis and Austin, Texas, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Using student-faculty exchanges to promote curriculum changeTwo public high schools in Newton, Massachusetts—Newton North and Newton South—run an exchange program with the Jingshan School in Beijing, China. Created by two teachers in 1979, the exchange enables U.S. and Chinese teachers and students to spend time in one another’s schools every year. The program has served as a catalyst for districtwide curriculum change, bringing the study of Asian cultures into various academic disciplines, from social studies to science, and adding Chinese to the district’s broad array of language options. The leaders of this exchange now help schools around the United States develop exchange programs with China as a way to internationalize their curriculums.

Using a K–12 foreign language sequence to promote excellenceThe Glastonbury School District in Connecticut has long promoted language study beginning with a K–8 language requirement. Ninety-three percent of students study at least one foreign language, and 30 percent study more than one. The foreign language curriculum is thematic and interdisciplinary, integrating both foreign language and world history standards. All high school students take a one-semester history course on a non-Western geographic/cultural region and a civics/current issues course that includes international content. The school district’s reputation for languages and international studies is a major draw for families moving to the area.

These and other pioneering schools offer models that all schools can replicate. What are the lessons learned? Have a large vision of what you

want to achieve, but start slowly, one course or grade level at a time. Involve parents as well as business and community leaders in planning and supporting international education and world languages. Focus on professional development for teachers, including partnerships with local colleges, so teachers can broaden and deepen their international knowledge. Include a focus on mastery of languages, including nontraditional languages, and start at the lowest grade levels possible. Use international exchanges, both real and virtual, to enable students to gain firsthand knowledge of the culture they are studying. If it is unfeasible for students to travel, try technology-based alternatives, such as classroom-to-classroom linkages, global science projects, and videoconferences (Sachar, 2004).

What Policymakers Can DoRecognizing that future economic development and jobs in their states will be linked to success in the global economy, many states are developing innovations to promote international knowledge and skills. Nineteen states have been working together through the Asia Society’s States Network on International Education in the Schools. States have developed commissions (North Carolina, Vermont); statewide summits (Delaware, Indiana, Massachusetts, Washington); and reports to assess the status of international education in their state (North Carolina, New Jersey, Wisconsin, West Virginia). They have created mechanisms, such as International or Global Education Councils (Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin), and appointed International Education Coordinators to develop new policies and action plans (Delaware, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Wisconsin). They are revising standards (Delaware, Idaho) or high school graduation requirements (New Mexico, Virginia) to incorporate international content. Some states are offering professional development (Oklahoma); initiating new language programs (Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming); engaging in school exchanges with China (Connecticut, Massachusetts); adding crucial foreign language courses to their virtual high schools (Kentucky); and adding an international dimension to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) schools (Ohio, Texts). Finally, some (Arizona, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Washington) have introduced state legislation to provide additional funds to incorporate a global dimension into their schools (see http://Internationaled.org/states).

In 2006, the National Governors Association held a session on International Education at its annual meeting. In addition, the Council of Chief State School Officers recently adopted a new policy statement on global education (2007). These state efforts are a good start, but the United States has yet to make international knowledge and skills a policy priority on the federal level and develop the systems and supports necessary to get high-quality international content into U.S. classrooms.

States need to pursue four policy goals to make this happen. They should

Redesign high schools and create new graduation requirements to motivate higher achievement and promote important international knowledge and key skills.

Expand teacher training to deliver rigorous study in world history and cultures, economics, world regions, and global challenges.

Develop world language pipelines from primary school to college that focus on crucial languages, such as Chinese, and that address the acute shortage of language teachers.

Use technology in innovative ways to expand the availability of international courses and ensure that every school in the United States has an ongoing virtual link to schools in other countries.

For almost 50 years, the U.S. government has played a crucial role in fostering foreign languages and international education in higher education. We need to extend this commitment to K–12 education and make it an urgent priority. By doing so, we can improve students’ international knowledge and skills and increase both the competitive edge and security of the United States.In his 2006 report, The Economics of Knowledge: Why Education Is Key for Europe’s Success, Andreas Schleicher from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development wrote,The world is indifferent to tradition and past reputations, unforgiving of frailty and ignorant of custom or practice. Success will go to those individuals and countries which are swift to adapt, slow to complain, and open to change.Part of the great strength of the United States is its adaptability. U.S. schools adapted to the agrarian age, then to the industrial age. It’s time to open to change once more and adapt to the global age.

References Asia Society (2002). States institute on international education

in the schools: Institute report, November 20–22, 2002. New York: Author.

Bell-Rose, S., & Desai, V. N. (2005). Educating leaders for a global society. New York: Goldman Sachs Foundation.

Center for International Understanding. (2005). North Carolina in the world: A plan to increase student knowledge and skills about the world. Raleigh, NC: Author.

Committee for Economic Development. (2006). Education for global leadership: The importance of international studies and foreign language education for U.S. economic and national security. Washington, DC: Author. Available: www.ced.org/docs/report/report_foreignlanguages.pdf

Council of Chief State School Officers. (2007). Global education policy statement. Washington, DC: Author. Available: www.ccsso.org/projects/International_Education/Global_Education_Policy_Statement/

Draper, J. B., & Hicks, J. H. (2002). Foreign: language enrollments in secondary schools, fall 2000. Washington, DC: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Available: http://actfl.org/files/public/Enroll2000.pdf

Friedman, T. L. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

National Association of State Boards of Education. (2006). Citizens for the 21st century: Revitalizing the civic mission of schools. Alexandria, VA: Author. Available: www.nasbe.org/publications/Civic_Ed/civic_ed.html

National Geographic-Roper. (2002). 2002 global geographic literacy survey. Washington, DC: Author.

National Language Conference. (2005). A call to action for national foreign language capabilities Washington, DC: Author. Available: www.nlconference.org/docs/White_Paper.pdf

Pufahl, L., Rhodes, V. C., & Christian, N. (2001). What we can learn from foreign language teaching in other countries. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Sachar, E. (2004). Schools for the global age: Promising practice in international education. New York: Asia Society.

Schleicher, A. (2006). The economics of knowledge: Why education is key for Europe’s success. Brussels: Lisbon Council. Available: www.oecd.org/dataoecd/43/11/36278531.pdf

U.S. Census Bureau. (2004). Table 2. In Exports from manufacturing establishments: 2001 (p. 8). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce.

Wilson, W. T. (2005). The dawn of the India century: Why India is poised to challenge China and the United States for global

economic hegemony in the 21st century. Chicago: Keystone India. Available: www.keystone-india.com/pdfs/The%20India%20Century.pdfVivien Stewart is vice president, Education, at the Asia Society, 725 Park Ave., New York, New York.

Questions for Reflection1. Why doesn’t Stewart believe U.S. high schools are adequately

preparing students for the challenges of a changing world? What evidence does she cite and is her argument compelling?

2. How does Stewart believe U.S. high schools should be preparing students to be citizens of the world? Explain how her recommendations align with the four trends that she identifies as contributing to the globalization of society.

3. How “globally competent” are you? What more could you do to cultivate your global competence? How might you bring the importance of global competence to your current educational setting?

Engaging the Disengaged Student: Research Shows Why Some Are Immersed in Learning While Others Are IndifferentSUSAN BLACKAbstractIn this article, Susan Black explores why some kids in the classroom are immersed in learning, while others are unmotivated and indifferent about it. She offers observations and advice to help teachers engage students in the learning process.

The 10th-graders are supposed to be writing essays in their English class. But student researchers from the University of California, Irvine, observing this Orange County classroom, report that most of the kids are indifferent to the assignment, preferring to while away their time napping, daydreaming, talking, or putting on makeup.

Researchers have no trouble spotting disengaged students—the kids who lack motivation to study and learn and spend their time watching the clock and waiting to escape from what one 10th-grader called “my private prison.” In fact, disengaged students are highly visible, and their numbers are disconcerting, as I discovered during a recent tour of a city high school in upstate New York.

As we made the rounds, an assistant principal and I noticed disengaged students throughout the school. Kids nonchalantly sauntered into their rooms with no concern for the tardy bell, slouched into their desks, and tuned out the lesson, preferring to stare out the window, listen to music on personal CD players, snooze, or catch up on news with their friends.

To be sure, learning sparkled in some classrooms. But why, I wondered, are some kids immersed in learning, while others are unmotivated and indifferent? And what can schools do about this problem?

Teachers Who Engage StudentsSchools can do plenty to keep students engaged in learning, says Charlotte Danielson, of the Educational Testing Service. Students who are deeply engaged in learning are not simply spending “time on task,” she says, but are intellectually involved with curriculum topics and mentally involved in what she calls “minds-on learning.”

Making that happen, not surprisingly, starts with the teacher. The best teachers, according to Danielson, keep students highly engaged throughout an entire lesson and encourage students to contribute their ideas and insights as a way of enhancing their own and other students’ learning.

Danielson says the mark of a distinguished classroom is a “distinguished teacher” who has mastered a number of skills in four broad domains: planning and preparation; classroom environment; instruction; and professional responsibilities. Teachers who are adept at engaging students in learning, a skill she defines as the heart of instruction, demonstrate mastery of a number of performance standards. They:

Represent curriculum content appropriately Expect students to help define topics and determine how they can be

studied Link content to students’ prior knowledge and experiences Ensure that students are mentally engaged in all activities and

assignments Allow students to initiate and adapt learning activities and projects

Form instructional groups that work to achieve learning goals Choose suitable instructional materials for lessons and encourage

students to select resources that will help them learn Teach highly coherent, well-planned, and well-paced lessons that include

time for student reflection.

High School SlumpStudent disengagement occurs at all levels—in fact, some first-graders I’ve observed have as much apathy toward learning as many 10th-graders. But, according to Cori Brewster and Jennifer Fager, researchers at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, disengagement is more frequent and more pronounced in the upper grades.

Outside influences take a particular toll on susceptible high school students, Brewster and Fager say. Such factors as unsupportive families and downtrodden neighborhoods can diminish kids’ motivation and engagement in learning. In the early grades, kids from such environments can be hard to reach and difficult to motivate. By middle school, their interest in schoolwork steeply declines. And by high school, these researchers say, seriously disengaged students completely lose touch with learning. Many drift out of their classrooms and drop out for good.

Linda Lumsden, a researcher with the University of Oregon’s ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management, says younger children generally maintain their self-confidence and believe they can succeed despite repeated failures. But older students easily lose self-confidence, attributing their failures to low ability and believing that no matter how much effort they put forth they won’t succeed.

Schools can counteract negative influences and other factors that contribute to student disengagement. But first, say Brewster and Fager, it’s important to know what not to do.For one thing, teachers should avoid using extrinsic motivators such as pizza parties or free time. Teachers might believe that token rewards motivate students, but research shows that, in the long run, they actually diminish students’ desire to learn and lower their achievement. Brewster and Fager advise teachers to develop students’ intrinsic motivation by making classrooms inviting, designing challenging and compelling lessons, and giving students choices. (For more information see “The Praise Problem,” August 2000 ASBJ.)They also advise schools to forego ranking and comparing students according to achievement scores. Competition ends up with winners and losers, and kids who lose soon give up on themselves, detach from school,

and disengage from classroom learning. Students are more likely to be engaged when teachers pay close individual attention to their interests and the ways they learn. Students stay engaged when teachers create lessons centered on “big ideas” and design assignments at the correct level of difficulty—not too easy and not impossibly difficult—so students are challenged but still able to succeed.

Focusing on intrinsic motivation pays off in the long run, Brewster and Fager say. They cite a number of research studies showing that, compared with students who are motivated by rewards, students whose motivation comes from within are more likely to:

Earn higher grades and test scores Adjust better to school Apply more effort Feel more confident about their ability to learn Use more decision-making strategies Persist and complete difficult assignments Retain information and concepts longer Avoid the need for remedial courses and review Work on more challenging tasks Value lifelong learning.Teachers who are most successful in drawing students into deep and thoughtful learning develop activities that keep students’ psychological and intellectual needs in mind. Brewster and Fager cite research showing that student engagement is higher when teachers give students a strong sense of competence, grant them autonomy and opportunities to work with others, and allow them to be original and creative. Teachers who keep students engaged also give them time for self-assessment and reflection about what they’ve learned and how.

A Plan for EngagementDistrict 186 in Springfield, Ill., is one district that takes engaged learning seriously. Teachers are expected to follow the school’s checklist for assessing engaged learning by answering questions such as these:

Are students able to select resources and strategies thoughtfully and apply them to unfamiliar tasks?

Are students excited about their learning and eager to spend extra time and effort?

Are tasks complex and designed for students to stretch conceptually and take greater responsibility for learning?

Do students have frequent opportunities to get to know and work with all students?

Are groups formed for specific purposes, and are they re-formed as needs require?

Do students have time to explore “uncharted territory”?Springfield’s expectations correspond with Vito Perrone’s principles for engaging students in learning. Perrone, former director of teacher education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, says students’ intellectual engagement depends on studying topics that relate to their own lives.

Students report feeling most engaged in learning, he says, when they help define the content to be studied; have time to wonder and pursue areas of most interest; are prompted to view topics in new ways; are encouraged to raise questions; have teachers who are passionate, inventive, and respectful; become “resident experts”; create original products that demonstrate their learning; and sense that their study is open-ended rather than predetermined and predictable.

Perrone says that teachers should start by defining their goals and sharing them with their students. Then, he says, teachers need to find primary sources—such as government documents, original photographs, and genuine objects and artifacts—that can help students gain entry into new topics. As part of their planning, Perrone urges teachers to “leave room for student choices, for inquiry for interpretation, for role-playing.”

Perrone’s hope is that teachers avoid teaching what he calls narrow, skills-based, understanding-poor lessons. He believes all students—including those assigned to remedial or low-track classes—should have opportunities to reach understanding, not just knowledge, by “making connections among and between things, about deep and not surface knowledge, and about greater complexity, not simplicity.”

Imagine the world of difference teachers in your district can make in kids’ learning—and in their lives—by taking these ideas to heart and engaging your most disengaged students.

References Brewster, Cori, and Jennifer Fager. Increasing Student

Engagement and Motivation: From Time-on-Task to Homework. Portland, Ore.: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, October 2000; www.nwrel.org/request/oct00/textonly.html.

Danielson, Charlotte. Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1996.

Lumsden, Linda. Student Motivation: Cultivating a Love of Learning. Portland, Ore.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management, 1999.

Lumsden, Linda. “Student Motivation to Learn.” ERIC Digest Number 92, 1994. ED370200; www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed370200.html.

Perrone, Vito. “How to Engage Students in Learning.” Educational Leadership. February 1994; www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/9402/perrone.html.

“Student Disengagement in High School: A Precious Waste of Talent and What Can Be Done About It.” Report from the Spring 1996 Class of Education 150: Changing the High School Experience. University of California, Irvine; www.gse.uci.edu/doehome/deptinfo/faculty/becker/HS-Disengagement/IntroChaptl.html.Susan Black is a contributing editor to the American School Board Journal and is an education research consultant in Hammondsport, New York.

Questions for Reflection1. What does Black see as the main difference between kids who are

immersed in learning and those who are unmotivated and indifferent about it? Are unmotivated kids “reachable” at some point, or have they become so distant from learning that many of them will never become engaged?

2. How does Black recommend teachers engage the unengaged? Is this a realistic expectation? How much responsibility do students have to engage with their own learning?

3. How can schools that wish to better engage students learn from District 186 in Springfield, Illinois? Is the school’s checklist for assessing engagement easy to follow for all schools or is it specific to those in certain conditions? Should this checklist be the basis for how all schools approach learning?

Possible Selves: Identity-Based Motivation and School SuccessDAPHNA OYSERMANAbstractAdolescent identity development plays a crucial role in better understanding and supporting student learning and achievement. The term “possible self” has been coined to describe the incorporation of future goals into self-concept; possible selves are positive and negative images of the self already in a future state—the “clever” self who passed the algebra test, the “fat” self who failed to lose weight, the “fast” self who fell in with the “wrong” crowd. In this article, Oyserman argues that sustained self-regulation is less likely when relevant possible selves do not feel congruent with important social identities. To address this challenge, Oyserman presents a model with particular attention to school-focused possible selves, drawing heavily on her research with urban, low income and minority youths and especially her preventive intervention work.

The idea that the self is temporal and that the future-oriented components of the self are critical to understanding well-being can be traced to William James (1890/1950), who proposed that the selves we strive to become focus motivational attention, guide behavior, and are an important source of positive self-regard. James proposed that the future, as represented by one’s self-relevant goals for the future, is likely to exert a major influence on current behavior. In a review of the literature, Karniol & Ross (1996) note the ubiquity of this assumption as well as the idea that these future self-relevant goals matter because they shape the strategies one chooses to achieve one’s goals. Following from these models, it seems reasonable to suppose that possible self-goals play a motivational and self-regulatory role in shaping future behavior.Indeed, the term possible self has been coined to describe incorporation of future goals into self-concept; possible selves are positive and negative images of the self already in a future state—the “clever” self who passed the algebra test, the “fat” self who failed to lose weight, the “fast” self who fell in with the “wrong” crowd (Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry, 2006; Oyserman & Markus, 1990). Failure to attain possible selves may increase risk of depression (Oyserman & Fryberg, 2006; Strauman, 2002; Strauman & Higgins, 1988) and there is some evidence that well-being (King, 2001) and performance (Ruvolo & Markus, 1992) improve when positive possible selves are brought to mind. But clearly we do not always function in an

“imagine it and you will be it” kind of world; possible selves do not always sustain self-regulatory action. In spite of possible selves, youth sometimes fail algebra, gain undesired weight, and engage in behaviors they themselves would prefer to avoid.Why might it be that possible selves might fail to sustain self-regulatory action and what would a predictive model need to take into account? In this article I argue that sustained self-regulation is less likely when relevant possible selves do not feel congruent with important social identities, when these possible selves are insufficiently cued in context, when possible selves are not linked with strategies, and when effort is undermined by mis-interpretation of difficulty in working toward one’s possible selves. A predictive model therefore must outline both which possible selves are likely to be contextually cued (or “on-line”) and, of these possible selves, which are likely to be invested in over time. I outline and provide supporting evidence for such a predictive model, with particular attention to school-focused possible selves, drawing heavily on my research with urban, low income and minority youths and especially my preventive intervention work (see Oyserman, Brickman, & Rhodes, 2007; Oyserman et al., 2006).While school (both doing well and avoiding failure) is a common focus of youth’s possible selves (Oyserman, Johnson, James, & Bybee, 2008), school underperformance is a national problem. I propose that youth have difficulty creating and sustaining school-focused possible selves when they perceive these possible selves to be incongruent with other important aspects of their self-concept (e.g., racial-ethnic identities), live in social contexts that fail to cue strategies for attaining their school-focused possible selves, and misinterpret difficulties in working on these possible selves as evidence that school success may be an unrealistic goal. Conversely, I propose that youth will commit sustained self-regulatory effort to a possible self when the possible self feels congruent with important social identities, is contextually cued, contains behavioral strategies, and when difficulty working on the possible self is construed as normative.

School-Focused Possible Selves and Social IdentitiesSelf-concepts include both personal and social identities, that is, ways of defining the self in terms of personal attributes, traits and goals as well as ways of defining the self based on group memberships and the traits and goals assumed to define one’s in-groups (Oyserman, 2007). These group-based identities are likely to include community expectations about the occupations and academic attainment of in-group members. For some youth these community expectations are negative images of the in-group as low achieving (Thomas, Townsend, & Belgrave, 2003). These negative stereotypes may set the stage for assuming that school-focused possible

selves are not congruent with the selves that are possible for oneself and other in-group members.Indeed, ethnographic research suggests that high school students perceive Latinos as more likely to become manual laborers, Asians to do well in school, and African Americans to do poorly in school (Kao, 2000). The same results emerge from scenario-based experimental research, whether focused on the link between minority status and low academic attainment or on the link between low social class and low academic attainment. Thus, when a failing student is described, Latino and African American students are more likely to predict that the target is Latino or African American than white (Graham, 2001). When asked to predict academic performance a target student, low income students infer worse performance of from low (vs. middle) social class peers (Régner, Huguet, & Monteil, 2002; Weinger, 2000).When imagining what future is possible for one’s self, such negative preformed group images are likely to be highly accessible, making social group membership feel like it conflicts with school-focused possible selves. Working toward one’s school-focused possible selves is likely to feel harder in the presence of accessible images of in-group members engaging in behaviors that undermine chances of attaining school-focused possible selves and failing to engage in behaviors that would help attain school-focused possible selves. While there is debate as to the degree of evidence that school success is viewed as a white middle class goal (Cook & Ludwig, 1997; Ferguson, 1998), there is consistent evidence of the stereotyped link between minority status and low achievement (e.g. Steele, 1997).The stereotype threat literature documents that simply bringing to mind category membership as minority or working class dampens academic performance (e.g. Croizet & Claire, 1998; Steele, 1997). Individuation or separation of self from in-group alleviates this effect (Ambady, Paik, Steele, Owen-Smith, & Mitchell, 2004), but the idea of intervening to disconnect youth from their racial-ethnic in-group (e.g., creating “racelessness” see Fordham & Ogbu, 1986) is unappealing and likely to have other negative consequences (Arroyo & Zigler, 1995).

School-Focused Possible Selves and Inoculation From Over-Interpretation of DifficultyRather than attempting to dampen the centrality of important social identities, a more reasonable strategy to improve success in attaining school-focused possible selves may be to increase the felt congruence between school-focused possible selves and social identity. This is not easy to do. School-focused possible selves are likely to be difficult to attain and

experienced difficulty implies questions (“Why is engaging in this school-focused activity so hard for me; is this possible self really the true me? Do we have school-focused possible selves?”), the answers to which that often result in misinterpreting difficulty as meaning that school-focused possible selves are not “true” possible selves. Likewise, youth must judge whether particular behavioral patterns (e.g., asking for help) are likely to work and if they contradict in-group identity (e.g., “Will asking the teacher for help actually help me succeed in school or is it just a ‘white’ thing to do?”).

To better understand how the feelings of difficulty that are experienced as adolescents imagine and pursue their possible selves actually influence commitment to those possible selves, it is fruitful to reconsider James’ (1890) original formulation of the self. James viewed the self as composed both of content—what one thinks about when one thinks about one’s self, and the accompanying metacognitive process—the feeling of thinking about one’s self. This implies that self-judgments about who one is or may become are based on both content (what comes to mind) and process. Considering the content of thoughts about the self separately from the feelings associated with these thoughts parallels work in social cognition (Schwarz, 1998, 2002). This work proposes that human reasoning is accompanied by metacognitive experiences of relative ease (difficulty) and fluency (dis-fluency) (Schwarz, 1998, 2002).Following from this research in social cognition, when imagining a possible self is accompanied by a metacognitive experience of difficulty, the feeling of difficulty is interpreted with a naϊve theory—things that are hard to think of are less likely to be true (Higgins, 1998; Schwarz & Bless, 1992; Schwarz & Clore, 1996). The experience of ease or difficulty when bringing to mind a possible self can provide the basis for inferring whether a possible self is a “true” self that is worth pursuing and investing effort in or a “false” self, conflicting with social identities. Metacognitive experience of ease also provides feedback as to whether the gap between the current and possible self is manageable or unmanageable and therefore whether effort should be expanded or the possible self should be abandoned.Though the experience of metacognitive difficulty is generally interpreted as meaning “not true for me,” a number of studies have documented that other interpretations are possible (Rothman & Schwarz, 1998). For example, common sports sayings and parables involve reinterpretation of the meaning of experienced difficulty (e.g., “no pain, no gain”) and the need to keep trying (e.g., “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”). In the case of attempting to attain school-focused possible selves, while the metacognitive experience of difficulty is generally interpreted as “not the true me,” the experience of difficulty could be reinterpreted to mean other things. Difficulty can be viewed as a normative part of the process (e.g., “success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”). Difficulty can also provide evidence of progress (e.g., “the important things in life are the ones you really have to

work for”); if difficulty and failures along the way are viewed as critical to eventual success, then difficulty is evidence of striving.These interpretations are important because attaining school success and avoiding school failure requires ongoing behavior; it is not enough to complete one homework assignment or stay after class one day. If one’s metacognitive experience is that working on a possible self is difficult and if this difficulty is interpreted with a naϊve theory that ease is associated with truth, then difficulties associated with working toward the possible selves will undermine it. As is detailed in the previous section, low income and minority youth are likely to have difficulty integrating school-focused possible selves and social identities. As detailed in the following sections, they are likely to live in social contexts that do not cue strategies to help attain possible self goals and may not fully appreciate the need to have possible selves that fit with the high risk context in which they are growing up.

Contextual Cuing of Possible SelvesYouth growing up in low socioeconomic status (SES) contexts have multiple models of adults who failed to attain their possible selves. These models make it unlikely that youth growing up in low SES contexts will recognize the normativeness of difficulties, and instead likely that they will misinterpret feelings of difficulty as a sign [of] inevitable failure. This misinterpretation is crucial because it is likely to undermine behavioral persistence in pursuit of possible self goals. Thus rather than assuming that youth are able to make sense of difficulty as normative, low SES youth are likely to need specific inoculation from over-interpreting current difficulty and failure as predictive of future possibilities. Taken together, their metacognitive experience of difficulty is likely to provide feedback that school-focused possible selves are false rather than true selves, cuing disengagement from these possible selves and the goal pursuit they imply.

Self-concept includes an enormous amount of information about the self, but not everything one knows about oneself is likely to be accessible at any point in time and only accessible self-knowledge is likely to influence judgment, decision making and behavior (Higgins, 1996b). Therefore, it is important to consider which possible selves are likely to be contextually cued in differing social contexts. Of particular interest is the effect of resource-rich versus under-resourced contexts.Resource-rich contexts (e.g., a middle class neighborhood school) provide models of success and a developed structure to guide the process of attaining school-focused possible selves. In these contexts, strategies may be automatically cued when possible selves are cued because parents, teachers, parents of friends, and other adults all converge to emphasize homework, persistence in the face of difficulty, tutoring or staying after school if needed. Parent involvement in school also sends a number of effort-

congruent messages. By spending time at school, parent involvement implies that investment in school is worthwhile, that attaining school success is possible, is congruent with other important identities, and that the way to do it is to work hard and engage with others in school (see Oyserman, Brickman, & Rhodes, 2007).Conversely, in under-resourced contexts, school-focused possible selves and strategies to attain them are unlikely to be automatically cued; these contexts are less likely to present easily accessible models to guide success. Youth are more likely to encounter adults who are unemployed, have low academic attainment, and hold non-professional jobs (e.g., Roderick, 2003). Given lack of easily accessible models or automatically cued strategies, youth may maintain an abstract commitment to education without connecting school-focused possible selves to everyday behavior—expressing high aspirations even as their behavior reflects avoidance or even flight from school (for qualitative description, see Roderick, 2003). Evidence for these assumptions comes from three sources: correlational studies, randomized trial intervention research and other field experiments. Parent involvement with school is associated with positive academic outcomes for low income and minority children just like it is for higher income and majority children (for an overview of this literature, see Oyserman, Brickman, & Rhodes, 2007). The negative effect of low parent involvement in school on youth academic outcomes is moderated by youth participation in a possible selves-focused intervention (Oyserman, Brickman, & Rhodes, 2007). Priming studies (Destin & Oyserman, 2007a) document increased homework focus among low-income African American and Latino students after being reminded that college can be paid for by financial aid (compared with either control condition or when simply reminded of the high cost of college). Priming studies (Destin & Oyserman, 2007b) also document that students are more likely to plan on school-focused action, such as finding ways to get extra help in classes, when contextual risk and possible selves are matched. Students expended more effort to work on school-focused possible selves in two conditions—first, when reminded of high contextual risk (e.g., on average, GPAs decline) and asked about their feared possible selves and second, when reminded of low contextual risk (e.g., on average, most students do fine) and asked about their positive expected possible selves. Focusing on positive possible selves alone is not effective in the kinds of higher risk contexts experienced by youth living in low-income neighborhoods and attending under resourced schools.

Effective Possible SelvesCorrelational research provides initial empirical support for the self-regulatory power of possible selves and their association with better academic outcomes. Adolescents who believe that positive possible selves

are likely to be attained have higher self-esteem than those who do not (Knox et al., 1998). Sixth grade students with positive academic possible selves improved their GPA by seventh grade, especially when their sixth grade academic possible selves were more positive than their current academic self-concept (Anderman, Anderman, & Griesinger, 1999). Among sixth to eighth graders, positive academic possible selves predicted higher endorsement of performance goals—wanting to do schoolwork in order to prove one’s competence (Anderman et al., 1999). Even in samples at high risk of academic problems clue to high poverty concentration, youth who had more school-focused possible selves and strategies to attain them had significantly improved grades, even controlling for prior GPA than did youth with fewer of these possible selves and strategies (Oyserman, Bybee, Terry, & Hart-Johnson, 2004).Moreover, a number of studies suggest that possible selves differ in self-regulatory effectiveness. Self-regulatory effort improves when youth have both positive possible selves (goals) and negative possible selves (fears) in the same domain (“balanced” possible selves) (Oyserman & Markus, 1990) and when youth have incorporated detailed strategies into their possible selves (“plausible” possible selves) (Oyserman et al., 2004). When possible selves are balanced, individuals select strategies that both increase the likelihood of becoming like the positive possible selves and decrease the likelihood of becoming like the negative possible selves, thereby focusing self-regulation and broadening effort (Oyserman & Markus, 1990). Plausibility provides automatic cuing of predeveloped strategies (e.g., “set my alarm,” “go to class even if my friends skip”).There is evidence that having school-focused possible selves that include detailed strategies results in improved grades over the course of the school year (Oyserman et al., 2004). Simply having school-focused possible selves alone, without strategies for their attainment, is not associated with improved grades (Oyserman et al., 2004). Despite the fact that most low-income youth have at least one possible self focused on school, few of these possible selves are linked with strategies (Oyserman, Johnson, et al., 2008). Many youths fail to attain even the basic school-focused possible self goal of graduating from high school. Thus, the national average for on-time graduation is 75% overall, 50% for African Americans, and 53% for Hispanics (Orfield, Losen, Wald, & Swanson, 2004). In urban centers like Detroit, graduation estimates are even lower (between 40% and 44% on time graduation) (Detroit News, May 2005).

Evidence from Experimental Design StudiesA Process Model

Figure 1 presents a process model of the connections between possible selves, self-regulatory

Figure 1 Process Model: Antecedents of Self-Regulatory Effectiveness of Possible SelvesNote: Adapted with permission from Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry (2006). Possible selves and academic outcomes: When and how possible selves impel action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 188–204. Copyright 2006 American Psychological Association.behaviors, and important outcomes for youth. The process model links social identities, fit between possible selves and social context, and metacognitive experience to possible selves and links possible selves to persistent engagement in self-regulatory behavior. In this section, I summarize results from experimental work carried out in my lab that uses this model. Demonstrating effects which move beyond correlation associations between possible selves and behavior is important because the possible selves model posits a causal process by which possible selves influence the course of important behaviors over time. Experimental designs provide stronger support for causal reasoning about possible selves. In these studies, we either cue possible selves (Brickman, Rhodes, & Oyserman, 2007) or cue

both possible selves and social contexts (Destin & Oyserman, 2007b) to provide evidence that changing possible selves leads to change in academic behavior. Based in this model, I also developed a preventive intervention and tested it with my colleagues (Oyserman et al., 2006; Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee, 2002). The intervention manual and broader conceptualization of the theory and evaluation results is available (Oyserman, 2008).

Randomized Field Trial with Two-Year Follow-UpGoalsThe goals of the intervention were to evoke possible selves and strategies to attain them, forge links between possible selves and strategies that are not otherwise automatic, inoculate youth from misinterpreting failure and setbacks in attaining these possible selves, and create a link between social identity and possible selves.

Sample and methodAfrican American, Hispanic, and European American low-income eighth graders attending one of three targeted middle school in Detroit were randomly assigned to their regularly assigned elective or to the eleven session possible-selves based intervention. The intervention was completed by the Thanksgiving break, prior to the conclusion of the first academic quarter. To ensure that the intervention effects would be sustained over time, the intervention occurred in school, with peers, during the school day and targeted the core aspects of the process model outlined in Figure 1.Specifically, structured group activities evoked academically focused possible selves, made clear that academic possible selves were held by peers (and therefore something that “we” aspire to), and highlighted the normativeness of difficulties and failures along the way to attaining possible self goals. Thus, the intervention operationalized the theory of how possible selves might influence self-regulatory behaviors (and through these behaviors, academic outcomes and well-being).

Data were collected with parental consent and included a baseline and three postintervention data points (spring 8th grade, fall 9th and spring 9th grade). All children were enrolled in one of three middle schools in the fall of 8th grade, tracking followed students through that year and the following transition to high school year, when students were enrolled in about 80 schools in various districts. While the income of parents was not obtained, the student body on average could be termed low-income in that 2/3 of students received free or reduced lunch and students lived in census tracts averaging 54% of households below the poverty line (U.S. Census Bureau,

2000). This rate is well above the Census Bureau’s 40% cutoff for describing a tract as a high poverty area (Bishaw, 2005).To obtain informed consent, parents were mailed home information, and this was followed up by face-to-face contact at the parent’s home or via telephone to ensure that all parents had heard about the goals of the study, what data would be collected from school, teacher, and youth, and for what purpose. Given the chance to hear about the study and get their questions answered, few parents refused participation—94% of the potential sample had parental consent.

Data were collected on behavior in class from core subject teachers in middle school (first two data points) and high school (second two data points). GPA and extent of unexcused absences were obtained from school records. Youth self-reported on their possible selves, the time they spent doing homework, and their possible selves.

Youth self-report responses were based on a brief, in-class survey. In-home interviews were completed in year 1 for the 56 students suspended (n=11n=11), expelled (n=9n=9), transferred (n=10n=10), or otherwise not in school (n=26n=26). By year 2, students were enrolled in 80 schools; the at-home interview procedure was followed when in-school survey completion was not feasible. Teachers were reimbursed $5 for each assessment ($10 in year 2); students were reimbursed $5 (year 2 only).While control condition youth attended their regularly scheduled elective, intervention condition youth received the intervention (for manual and fuller description of the model and evaluation see Oyserman, 2008). Fidelity to protocol was maintained via in vivo ratings by trained observers and weekly staff meetings (see Oyserman et al., 2006). Across the three schools, average attendance for the 11 school sessions ranged from 80% to 90% by school, with only 36 youths assigned to the intervention group failing to attend at least half the inschool sessions. In these, 13.6% of intervention group cases, the youths were not attending school (often due to suspension or move to another school).Despite the challenges of maintaining contact with the highly mobile sample, Oyserman et al. (2006) were able to keep missing data and attrition to a minimum. Only four youth were completely lost to follow-up by the spring of 9th grade; information from at least one source (youth, teacher, or school records) was obtained at this final point for 98.5% of the intention-to-treat sample. Also, missing data rates were low. Across four measurement points, Oyserman et al. (2006) report missing 9% of youth questionnaires, 11% of teacher ratings, and 12% of the by-term school records. School records and teacher ratings are of particular importance for the current study. At any point in time, almost all records (92% to 96%) and teacher ratings (83% to 97%) were obtained. Expectation maximization methods were used to estimate the approximately 7.9% of data that were missing due

to skipped items or unavailable information (across youth, school, and teacher data elements) incorporating the full set of preintervention variables. All results reported use estimated data.While attaining and sustaining an intervention effect is notoriously difficult, Oyserman et al. (2006) documented effects that were stable and even increasing over time. This sustained effect over 2 years is particularly impressive, given the high poverty neighborhoods the youth were embedded in and the difficulty of improving academic outcomes when prior academic attainment accounts for much of the variance to be explained. They documented effects using two very different analytic strategies (structural equation modeling and longitudinal multilevel modeling) with different strengths and assumptions.

ResultsTesting both direct effect and mediation effects, the authors report both moderate-sized direct effects (e.g., d ≥ .3) on changing possible selves and linking them with strategies and, at 2-year follow-up, effects on academic outcomes ranging from large (e.g., d ≥ .7) for time spent doing homework, change in in-class disruptiveness and change in time spent doing homework, to moderate (e.g., d ≥ .3) for grades, change in grades, and unexcused absences taken from school records and in-class initiative taking, change in initiative taking and disruptiveness by teacher report. The intervention also reduced 2-year follow-up risk of depression (youth reported) (d=−.26d=-.26). Importantly, Oyserman and colleagues (2006) also demonstrated that the 2-year follow-up effects are mediated by change in possible selves and in the possible self-to-strategy linkage. Table 1, reprinted from Oyserman et al. (2006), provides a summary of some of the main outcomes.

DiscussionAlthough possible selves focused on school success are common, so is failure in school, suggesting a puzzling gap between possible selves and the sustained self-regulatory behavior needed to attain one’s goals. In the current [reading], I suggest a process model in which self-regulation is likely when context-relevant possible selves and relevant strategies are cued, feel congruent with important social identities, and when difficulty in pursuing possible selves is understood to be normative. An intervention based on this model is described as well as 1 and 2 year follow-up data. Confidence in the generalizability of results is high because a randomized design was used and participation in both the intervention and each of the four waves of data collection was over 90%. The intervention was documented to change possible selves, increasing both feared off-track and school-focused possible selves and strategies to attain them. As hypothesized, intervention youth

both had more of these possible selves and were better able to use them to improve behavioral self-regulation. The intervention produced measurable change in possible selves, and change in possible selves predicted change in behavioral self-regulation—going to school rather than skipping, behaving and participating in class, and spending time on homework; self-regulation not only improved academic outcomes but, equally importantly, reduced risk of depression.

The possible self framework assumes that motivation is influenced by both positive (expected, wanted, or hoped for) possible selves and negative (feared or unwanted) possible selves. Indeed, the intervention research shows that the impact of school-focused possible selves on self-regulatory

Table 1 Multilevel Models: Estimated Means in Experimental and Control Conditions—Spring 8th and 9th GradeNote: N = 228 youth in the participating sample.STL = Treatment group.Source: Adapted with permission from Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry (2006). Possible selves and academic outcomes: When and how possible selves impel action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 188–204. Copyright 2006 American Psychological Association.

  Estimated condition means/percents

  Spring of 8th grade Spring of 9th grade

Dependent variablesa

STL (n=116)(n=116)

Control (n=112)(n=112)

STL (n=116)(n=116)

Control (n(n=112)

aFor variables with estimated means for both 8th and 9th grades, estimates were from the intercept term of a 3-level longitudinal multilevel model (time, students, homerooms); for variables with estimated means for only one grade, estimates were from cross-sectional 2-level multilevel models (students in homerooms).bThese positively skewed variables were log transformed for analysis; however, to facilitate interpretation, means are presented here in the original metric (i.e., in exponentiated form).cDepression was measured only in the spring of 9th grade; means were estimated by a 2-level cross-sectional multilevel model.

Change in APS balance

0.07 –0.12 — —

Change in feared off-track PS

0.31 0.00 — —

APS 2.36 1.96 — —

  Estimated condition means/percents

  Spring of 8th grade Spring of 9th grade

Dependent variablesa

STL (n=116)(n=116)

Control (n=112)(n=112)

STL (n=116)(n=116)

Control (n(n=112)

plausibility

Absences (student report)

3.49 3.95 — —

Unexcused absences (school records)b

12.28 14.53 22.52 24.77

Homework time (hours/week; open ended)b

3.49 3.28 2.51 1.57

Homework time (hours/week; closed ended)

4.15 3.74 — —

Disruptive behavior (student report)

2.37 2.63 — —

Disruptive behavior (teacher report)

1.74 1.83 1.55 1.73

In-class initiative (teacher report)

2.51 2.44 2.48 2.25

  Estimated condition means/percents

  Spring of 8th grade Spring of 9th grade

Dependent variablesa

STL (n=116)(n=116)

Control (n=112)(n=112)

STL (n=116)(n=116)

Control (n(n=112)

Core academic GPA (school records)

1.98 1.83 1.64 1.36

Standardized tests (school records; proportion passed)

0.83 0.77 — —

Referral to remedial summer school

36.2% 48.2% — —

Retention in 8th grade

4.3% 10.7% — —

Depression (CESD—spring of 9th grade)c

— — 10.35 12.29

behaviors was distinct from the impact of feared off-track possible selves on self-regulatory behaviors. Youth with balanced and plausible academically focused possible selves spent more little doing homework, were less disruptive and more behaviorally engaged in classroom activities. Youth with feared off-track possible selves attended school more (had fewer school absences).

The distinct role of feared off-track possible selves is also congruent with a number of other self-regulatory models. For example, Carver (2004) describes self-regulation to avoid feared possible selves or anti-goals as discrepancy-enlarging self-regulation. Larsen (2004) describes the self-regulatory system as vigilant to environmental dangers; when danger is cued, individuals are more cautious about engaging in behaviors that may

increase risk. Higgins (Higgins & Spiegel, 2004) describes prevention-focused self-regulation as risk averse.Following these perspectives, youth with feared off-track possible selves can be expected to be cautious about risk increasing behaviors; they are likely to engage in action (e.g., attending school) they perceive as antithetical to their off-track selves (becoming pregnant, involved in drugs or crime). Although pregnancy and crime data were not obtained, data on absences were obtained and indeed, increased feared off-track possible selves reduced risk of school absences. While vigilant focus on anti-goals or prevention is likely to reduce risk of harm, active engagement in goal attainment (discrepancy-reducing self-regulation) is likely to increase chances of success.

In my laboratory, we followed up on the possibility that feared possible selves are more effective in risky contexts where vigilance is necessary and found this to be the case. Specifically, we examined the “fit” between perceived risk and possible selves. In a between-subjects priming design, we demonstrated that the efficacy of expected and feared possible selves in cuing school-focused motivation differed depending on how the context of school was framed. When school was described to students as a low risk context (e.g., most students do fine), then priming students to think about their expected possible selves increased their school-focused motivation. The reverse was true when school was described to students as a high risk context (e.g., most students experience declining GPAs). In this case, it was priming students to think about their feared possible selves that increased their school-focused motivation (Destin & Oyserman, 2007b).Although self-regulatory systems theories posit roles for both discrepancy reducing (promotion) and discrepancy increasing (prevention) systems, prevention focus, engaging in self-regulatory behavior to avoid feared possible selves, is not particularly prominent in the academic goal literature. Perhaps this is because in middle class contexts, pursuit of academic goals may more commonly involve the discrepancy reducing feedback system—engaging in self-regulatory behavior to attain positive expected possible selves. There is evidence that college students are more likely to use promotion-than prevention-focused self-regulation (e.g., Lockwood, Sadler, Fyman, & Tuck, 2004).Prevention-focused self-regulation may become more salient in a number of circumstances. First, prevention-focused self-regulation may be more likely when social contextual risk is high, such as in circumstances of poverty. For example, first generation college students are more likely to engage in strategies to avoid feared possible selves than strategies to attain positive possible selves (Oyserman, Gant, Ager, 1995, Study 1). Ethnographic evidence from low-income high school students also highlights the salience of feared off-track possible selves—becoming unemployed, homeless and destitute (Steinitz & Solomon, 1986; see also Kaiser Foundation, 2002). Second, it is possible that culture influences choice of self-regulatory system; while Euro-Canadian college students find promotion-focused

strategies compelling, Asian Canadian college students find prevention-focused strategies compelling (Lockwood, Marshall, & Sadler, 2005). Similarly, Hong Kong Chinese college students found prevention-focused reasons for action more convincing than did American college students (Lee, Aaker, & Gardner, 2000, Study 4). Prevention focus alone may not be helpful, without a framework guiding action suggesting a role for possible selves (e.g., Uskul, Keller, & Oyserman, in press).Whether focused on positive expected or feared possible selves, self-regulation fails when individuals do not realize that a particular action is antithetical to goal achievement, when possible selves do not provide clear standards of what to attain or avoid or when possible selves are not linked with self-regulatory behaviors (e.g., Carver, 2004; Higgins, 1987). For low income teens, lapses in self-regulation may be difficult to repair—when risk of failure is high, any misstep can spell disaster. This contrasts with the situation of middle-class teens whose self-regulatory lapses can be compensated for by contextual regulation set in place by neighborhood, school, and parents. Middle class students are more likely to be provided mentoring, tutoring, monitoring, and enrichment activities whether they seek them out or not (e.g., Sampson, Morenoff, & Earls, 1999).Low-income students are more likely to live in contexts lacking such collective efficacy resources (Sampson et al., 1999). Thus, for low-income youths, self-initiated engagement in self-regulation that focuses on attaining positive possible selves and avoiding negative possible selves is likely necessary. A number of studies have documented that when stereotype threat is activated, prevention (discrepancy enhancing) focus increases (Oyserman, Uskul, Yoder, Nesse, & Wiliams, 2007; Seibt & Förster, 2004), as do negative thoughts about one’s math capacity (Cadinu, Maass, Rosabianca, & Kiesner, 2005).These results can be construed to suggest that stereotype threat undermines academic attainment by making academic possible selves less salient and school-focused strategies less accessible as ways of avoiding off-track possible selves. While much research has focused on academic outcomes, the identity-based motivation model has also been documented in the domain of health promotion (Oyserman, Fryberg, & Yoder, 2007). Taken together, these results suggest that when possible selves feel congruent with social identity, relevant strategies are cued in context, and experienced difficulty is interpreted as part of the process, possible selves can improve goal attainment.

AcknowledgmentsThe research reported in this [reading] was funded by NIMH grant R01 MH 58299 and by NIMH grant T32 MH63057-03, Oyserman PI.

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Questions for Reflection1. What possible selves do you have and how do they shape your

perceptions of yourself, both in the present and future? How does the notion of possible selves explain your own development? How might it shape your development in the future?

2. Explain Oyserman’s model and how it could contribute to improved outcomes for students, especially low income and/or ethnic minorities.

3. How might you bring Oyserman’s school-focused model and her theory of possible selves to your educational setting? What outcomes might you hope for? How would you measure the efficacy of the model in action?

Learning the Real-World Skills of the 21st CenturyPATRICIA JOYCEAbstractIn this article, Joyce focuses on the development of career education programs at various high school campuses in the United States. What she reveals is that some campuses have developed programs that compound 21st century skills and academics by using the transitions career education curriculum—a complete curriculum developed by ASCL Educational Services. The curriculum includes five basic modules with lessons in every module and leads to real-life skill building for high school students as they prepare to enter the workforce.

Students at South Houston High School learned invaluable workplace skills last summer by participating in an apprenticeship program that utilized an innovative curriculum and forged a successful partnership between school and business. The high school created a career education program that combined 21st century skills and academics. Using the Transitions career education curriculum—a comprehensive curriculum created by ASCL Educational Services to fulfill Chicago Public Schools’ need for soft skills development—students learned the necessary soft skills to be successful in a career, and reinforced them in a simulated workplace which provided authentic and relevant learning.

Last spring Ed Beaudry, career and technical education instructor, began to develop a plan to combine two needs at the school. First, the administration had informed him of Siemens Building Technologies Division’s interest in partnering with a school. In addition, he was aware that the school’s Independent Study Center was in need of new desks. He formulated a plan to engage his students in an authentic project that addressed job skill enhancement. He approached the principal, then Deborah Aubin, who took an immediate interest, and meetings with Siemens finalized the project.

The program encompassed about 96 hours of job-skill training and construction activity. Students were selected through a hiring process, which included a basic application, group interview, attendance and discipline

records, as well as letters of recommendation. Construction experience was not a prerequisite for acceptance; in fact, among the 14 girls and 11 boys in the program only one, the shop assistant, had any prior experience. Siemens Corporation provided a $600 stipend to all students who completed the four-week program. Students worked six hours a day, four days a week. This authentic applied learning experience allowed students to incorporate academics in a real-world workplace scenario.

The Transitions CurriculumThe curriculum consists of five modules with twelve lessons in each module. Each lesson includes approximately two hours of activities, which are aligned to SCANS and the National Institute for Literacy’s Equipped for the Future. Transitions teaches critical soft skills necessary for obtaining employment and building a lasting career. Teachers were trained on the curriculum, and then chose those lessons and activities pertinent to the project; this included interpersonal skills, career preparation, communication, self improvement and on-the-job skills. Use of these skills was woven throughout the job simulation portion of the program, and a before and after test was given to assess progress. Beaudry, Greg Arrant and Rhonda Carmody were instructors for the program. Beaudry used the On the Job module in the curriculum to help students understand that preparing for the workforce doesn’t end once a job has been secured. Its purpose is to teach students to identify and navigate political systems in the workplace to establish strategic alliances and help them do their jobs, attain resources, gain more followers, and block out those who will be a detriment to them.

Workers must identify the positive political alliances to help become part of the system and avoid negative political games that will result in messy and confusing situations. Some of these situations are the basis of role-play scenarios, which will teach them how to participate in positive, ethical politics and learn to align themselves with those who can support them and help them fit into the culture of the workplace. For instance, a lesson entitled “Go with Your Gut!” helps students follow their instincts in everyday situations when a supervisor is not on hand for guidance or if the learner needs to make quick decisions. The point is that with a solid foundation of political savvy, integrity and humility, one’s instinct is likely to be correct, and as a result will build confidence for future decision making. Lessons in group dynamics, such as meeting etiquette, are addressed as are multitasking and managing chaos. An extremely important topic called “How Do You Act When No One is Looking?” addresses the immense value of integrity, and students develop solutions to negative workplace temptations. The goal of this module is to teach learners how to manage themselves in groups, in ethical situations, and in times of workflow chaos so that time on the job can be productive and fulfilling.

Other modules address similar employability skills. The communication module covers interpersonal communication, perhaps the most important of all types. Researchers are finding that today’s youth are less skilled in face to face communication (Simonetti, Jack L. 1999), so this module deals with anger control tools and listening, followed by appropriate actions. Practicing respectful, professional workplace communication is designed to show learners that tone of voice, vocabulary, and body language send a message. All lesson plans include vocabulary, writing exercises, videos, role-play scenarios, and assessments. Students were expected to complete all assignments and kept track of completion using Beaudry’s giant grade book, which was prominently displayed in the front of the classroom.

Role-PlayingThe role-playing sessions were particularly successful and popular with students. One member of each group served as the director with three or four scenarios to be presented. Students tried out for roles, learned lines, and presented frequently. They applied judgment and logic to real-life job situations. Students quickly learned to support and compliment each other on their work, making it one of the most positive experiences in the curriculum. Evidence of the success is seen in this student’s feedback, “During the past four weeks I have become more confident in standing up in front of a crowd and sharing my ideas and thoughts. I’ve learned to work with others that I had never met, and in the end we’ve all become friends.” Another student says, “This experience has helped me to grow so much as a person. I was able to learn how to communicate with people who at one point I thought I had nothing in common with. Getting to know my peers was an awesome experience.”

AssignmentsWritten and oral assignments were presented each day, and various research assignments were also required. Using a list of the top 100 Houston companies, students selected one company which interested them either because of a hobby or career possibility. By researching both company and investor information, students grasped the overall picture of a corporation. Other research reports included informational interviewing, networking trees and corporate culture.

Putting the Knowledge Into PracticeAs students completed the lessons, employing those skills in the simulated workplace became seamless as the groups worked cooperatively to

manufacture the individual study desks. The district purchased materials including 20 sheets of plywood for eight desks. Beaudry designed the desk to ensure that it could be created safely and successfully in the school’s shop; however, students had input into the design, size and ergonomics. The desks were large and students quickly discovered cooperation was a key concept in the assembly because no student could lift or maneuver the desk alone. Students noted that the main concept they learned was how to work cooperatively. As a final touch, each group designed a corporate logo, discretely affixed to the underside of each desk. One logo included this slogan, “Heavyweight Builders: Interns United Across Texas to Achieve and Build our Way into the Future.” The sense of accomplishment increased daily for each student, both academically and in the construction area, as excitement about the project grew. One student remarked, “This program has taught me how to be more confident in myself and how to rise to the occasion; it also taught me how to work together with a group. This program helped me break out of my shell.”

Thursdays were set aside for fieldtrips sponsored by Siemens. Visits were made to the Museum of Natural Science and History, NASA, and the Moody Gardens. Students have already asked for a reunion, so an additional fieldtrip is planned to visit one of the local universities. A graduation luncheon was held on the last day and students gave presentations including thank-you letter and an outline of key concepts learned during the internship. Overwhelmingly, students reiterated the value of getting along and cooperative group efforts as key factors in their jobs. New principal, Steve Fullen, who eagerly embraced the internship program, expressed his pleasure at the exciting results of the program stating that “this is what schools should be about.” Students also presented the project at a Board of Education meeting where they displayed the desks and the content of the program. While the new study desks were a visible end result, there was also a 10-point gain in job skill understanding and development which integrated math, writing and TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) standards.

One student said, “I am walking away from this program with the ability to converse with others and convey myself in a more confident and well-spoken manner, as well as many other things that will help me better myself, resulting in a brighter future.”

Patricia Joyce is an education consultant with Prime Time Computer Services.

Questions for Reflection1. Do you think high schools in the United States do an adequate job

preparing students for the workforce, or does the modern high school

curriculum focus too much on academic principles without enough real-world application?

2. What twenty-first–century skills that students need to be competitive in the contemporary workforce do modern high schools neglect to teach ?

3. What is the five module transition career education curriculum that Joyce writes about and how might it be used in the educational setting with which you are most familiar?

Can Depth Replace Coverage in the High School Curriculum?FRED M. NEWMANNAbstractThe emphasis on broad content coverage is a fundamental limitation of the high school curriculum. This “addiction to coverage” allows students to develop only superficial understanding of what they study. As an alternative, the curriculum should emphasize depth. If given time to differentiate, elaborate, qualify, and integrate, students will acquire a rich understanding of content. To overcome the obstacles to depth will require cutting content from the existing curriculum, developing new approaches to assessment, and changing instructional strategies.

Debates about the high school curriculum tend to focus on two general questions. First, are students studying the proper content? In other words, are they taking the right number of courses in each content area, and do these courses provide an appropriate blend of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values? Second, what are the best ways to organize and teach a given body of content to certain groups of students? These important questions seem likely to persist, due to a lack of definitive research and to the political nature of education policy making. Meanwhile, a more fundamental problem continues to plague our efforts. Despite an abundance of sophisticated rationales, pedagogical approaches, and curriculum designs, we usually try to teach too much.

In our research on higher-order thinking in high school social studies classes, we asked students whether they ever had the opportunity to really dig into a given topic and study it in depth for at least two weeks. John responded to our question:

I got totally immersed in a project when the teacher forced us to do a paper on some guy. We couldn’t pick him, but we had to read at least four books and write at least 100 note cards—big cards—and develop at least a 10-page paper. I got Montaigne. It ended up real interesting. As Mr. Foster pointed out, it was kind of cool that I got to be a real expert and to know more than probably five million people in America about this guy. I’m not sure what made it so interesting—whether it was Montaigne’s own works and life or just the fact that I got to know so much about him.Asked whether he had such opportunities very often, John replied:

Most of the time, you don’t get this in school. A lot of times it’s a total skim; it’s very bad. The course in European history is a classic example. We covered 2,000 years. Every week we were assigned to cover a 30-page chapter. The teacher is a stickler for dates and facts. We had 50 dates a week to memorize. The pity of it all is that now I don’t remember any of them. I worked so hard, and now basically all I remember is Montaigne. There’s like maybe five dates I remember, when I probably learned 300 or 400 dates all year. I can’t even remember a lot of the important guys we studied.

I’d like to have worked where you dig in depth, but it’s a double-sided sword, because if you’re constantly going in-depth about each thing you come across, then you’re not going to get very far. It’s quantity versus quality. The only reasonable thing is you’ve got to find a balance. I guess there’s more of a superficial quality to school now—teachers trying to cover as much as they can. They’re not going into depth.

Addiction to CoverageWe are addicted to coverage. This addiction seems endemic in high schools—where it runs rampant, especially in history—but it affects all levels of the curriculum, from kindergarten through college. We expose students to broad surveys of the disciplines and to endless sets of skills and competencies. The academic agenda includes a wide variety of topics; to cover them all, we give students time to develop only the most superficial understandings. The press for broad coverage causes many teachers to feel inadequate about leaving out so much content and apologetically mindful of the fact that much of what they teach is not fully understood by their students.

For several reasons, the addiction to coverage is destructive. First, it fosters the delusion that human beings are able to master everything worth knowing. We ought to realize that the knowledge explosion of this century has created a virtual galaxy of material worth knowing. Moreover, we ought to recognize that a crucial task of curriculum builders is to choose from this vast quantity of valuable knowledge a relatively infinitesimal portion to teach. The more we attempt to make this infinitesimal sample of knowledge representative or comprehensive, the more we delude ourselves, given the swift pace at which knowledge is accumulating. It is both arrogant and futile to assume that we can keep up with the knowledge explosion.

Furthermore, survey coverage is often a waste of time. Students learn most material in order to use it on one or two brief occasions (a quiz and a test), after which the material is quickly forgotten. When knowledge is used only rarely, it is seldom available for transfer to new situations.

Beyond simply wasting time or failing to impart knowledge of lasting value, superficial coverage has a more insidious consequence: it reinforces habits of mindlessness. Classrooms become places in which material must be learned—even though students find it nonsensical because their teachers have no time to explain. Students are denied opportunities to explore related areas that arouse their curiosity for fear of straying too far from the official list of topics to be covered. Teachers’ talents for conveying subtle nuances and complexities are squelched. Not surprisingly, many students stop asking questions soon after they leave the early elementary grades. Instead, they passively allow teachers and textbooks to pour material into their heads, where they will try to store it for future use in educational exercises. However, the press to “cover” offers little opportunity to develop that material in ways that will help students meet more authentic intellectual challenges.

Most of us recognize the negative consequences of an addiction to coverage. We all want our curricula to foster fundamental understandings and complex, higher-order thinking. But despite our best intentions, we cannot break the habit.

The Alternative: DepthThe alternative to coverage, though difficult to achieve, is depth: the sustained study of a given topic that leads students beyond superficial exposure to rich, complex understanding. The topic might be “broad” (e.g., liberty, ecological balance) or “narrow” (e.g., John Winthrop’s leadership in colonial America, the effect of acid rain on sugar maple trees). To gain rich understanding of a topic, students must master a great deal of information,

use that information to answer a variety of questions about the topic, and generate new questions that lead to further inquiry. In demonstrating their knowledge of the topic, they should go beyond simple declarative statements to differentiation, elaboration, qualification, and integration.

Depth has been summarized as “less is more.”* But less in this context does not mean less knowledge or information, for depth can be achieved only through the mastery of considerable information. Rather, less refers to less mastery of information that provides only a superficial acquaintance with a topic. In general, depth is preferable as a principle of curriculum development, because depth is more likely to facilitate lasting retention and transfer of knowledge, more likely to cultivate thoughtfulness than mindlessness, and more likely to enable us to cope in some reasonable fashion with the explosion of knowledge.* Theodore R. Sizer, Horace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984).It is important to head off two possible misinterpretations of my advocacy of depth over coverage. First, I do not suggest that skills should replace knowledge as the focus of the curriculum. Instead, I maintain that knowledge in depth is more valuable than superficial knowledge and that, in order to achieve knowledge in depth, we must radically reduce the number of isolated bits of information that are transmitted to children.

Second, some readers may worry that emphasis on depth will produce excessive specialization and thus undermine the quest for a common core of knowledge, which is necessary for communication and social cohesion. However, there is no logical contradiction between knowledge in depth and attempts to achieve a common core. A common core can consist either of in-depth knowledge of a few topics or of superficial knowledge of many topics. What to include in the common core and what proportion of the curriculum the common core should occupy are difficult questions, but they should remain separate from the issue of superficial familiarity versus complex understanding. I am arguing here only that we should be devoting a far greater proportion of formal education to the development of complex understanding of fewer topics, whether those topics are unique to certain classes and schools or common to all of them.

Obstacles to DepthWhy is depth so difficult to achieve? What are some of the major obstacles?

First, we must recognize that the point of education is, in a sense, to cover material—that is, to expose students to and make them familiar with new information. Conversely, to be unaware of information considered “basic” for

productive living within a society is to be uneducated. In our society, becoming educated involves learning the meanings of thousands of words and mastering hundreds of conventions for manipulating information and communicating effectively with others. Clearly, to master ideas and techniques, students must be exposed to information.Unfortunately, this legitimate need for a certain degree of coverage has fostered the illusion (firmly held by professional educators and by the general public) that it is possible to teach a reasonably comprehensive sample of all the worthwhile knowledge that is currently available. We are remarkably unwilling to accept the consequences of the knowledge explosion. Instead, we cling to a conception of education more appropriate to medieval times, when formal public knowledge was relatively well-defined, finite, and manageable. Although we know that times have changed and that we can’t teach everything, we apparently retain our faith in the ideal of comprehensiveness, because we continue to try to cover as much as possible.

The mounting pressure for schools to be accountable and to prove their effectiveness through students’ test scores gives added impetus to an emphasis on coverage over depth. It is more convenient to test for superficial coverage, because thousands of multiple-choice test items can be constructed to tap countless bits of knowledge.

We teachers have been socialized to construe knowledge as outlines of the content of introductory textbooks. Seldom in our own undergraduate or graduate education did our professors engage us in deep inquiry, except for such special experiences as participating in an honors program or writing a graduate thesis (rare instances that are reserved for individuals who have already endured many years of ritualistic coverage). Thus many of us would hardly know what to do with students if the pressure for coverage were suddenly lifted.

Even teachers who have a commitment to depth and a vision of how to achieve it in the classroom are frustrated by the lack of suitable textbooks and other instructional materials. Literary works, journal articles, and primary sources are useful with highly motivated and able readers, but such materials are too difficult for many students, and few alternatives are available.

Another obstacle to depth is the orientation that students bring to their schoolwork. They have been rewarded primarily for completing discrete tasks that require the recognition of countless bits of knowledge. Those knowledge bits are organized into many separate subjects, and students’ learning schedules are divided into small chunks of time. A variety of topics

must be studied each day. Therefore, continuous and sustained study of any one topic seems virtually impossible.

Television further undermines intense and sustained concentration on a single topic. Teachers report that young people of the television generation have no patience for study in depth; they want quick, simple, unambiguous answers. Moreover, college-bound students want some assurance that they have been exposed to the range of information covered by admissions tests.

Overcoming the ObstaclesThe obstacles are formidable indeed. But teachers, administrators, and state-level policy makers who seek to overcome them may find the following recommendations helpful.

First, schools and school districts must continue to develop a rationale for study in depth. At the same time, they must focus the public’s attention on the problems of addiction to coverage. In other words, they must help policy makers, academics, business leaders, and the general public to see that well-intentioned efforts to cover a broad range of material have developed into an obsession that is undermining education.

Second, instead of focusing immediately on which courses to eliminate, schools and school districts would probably find it less divisive to work first on ways of achieving depth within existing courses. Later, criteria such as the following might be used to decide which content to cut from the curriculum:

Does the topic occupy a critical position in a hierarchy of content, so that students must master it in order to understand the important ideas that follow? Does failure to understand this particular topic put students at risk?

If the topic is of critical importance, could it be readily learned outside of school through reading, televiewing, or some other form of independent study? Or does mastery of this topic require special guidance by a professional educator?

Are teachers likely to spend a large amount of time developing this topic and assessing students’ understanding of it, or will they simply give students a superficial exposure to the topic and then test for recognition or recall?

These criteria alone cannot resolve all the complicated issues related to the selection of curricular content. But they illustrate the kinds of educational principles (as opposed to teachers’ personal preferences or faculty or school district politics) on which curriculum decisions might be based.

Third, in any individual school that tries to foster depth at the expense of coverage, the teachers will need special support as they wrestle with such issues as what content to cut from the curriculum, how to teach for depth, and how to assess new and more complex forms of mastery. Such support ought to include resources that would enable teachers to participate more fully in the development of curriculum materials and new approaches to testing and that would enable them to help one another more frequently in planning, teaching, and evaluating lessons.

At the state level, policy makers affect the coverage of content in at least five areas: assessment, textbook selection, curriculum requirements, school improvement programs, and teacher education. Let us consider the nature of state influence in each area and how the states might encourage a greater emphasis on depth.

AssessmentTo the extent that state testing programs rely primarily on short-answer, multiple-choice tests that cover a broad range of subjects, the states contribute to the disease of coverage. There are two basic strategies for improving assessment. First, test developers can reduce the number of isolated bits of information covered by the tests, using instead items that allow students to demonstrate in-depth mastery of a smaller number of topics. Second, test developers can replace multiple-choice, short-answer questions with writing exercises—perhaps even speaking exercises—that require students to synthesize their ideas and to show the development of their thinking on selected topics.

Textbook SelectionStates spread the disease of coverage when they adopt textbooks written primarily for survey courses aimed at comprehensive exposure. Publishers must be persuaded to prepare textbooks that take a more selective, in-depth approach; meanwhile, the states should adopt and publicize existing textbooks and other instructional materials that reflect this approach. One of the students I interviewed remarked that he had enjoyed a course in European history. “What made the course so interesting?” I asked. “Was it the teacher?” “No, the teacher was not particularly exciting,” he said. “But the textbook was really terrific.” He recalled neither the title of the book nor the name of its author. What he remembered was that the book did not inundate readers with dates and facts, headings, review questions, and test questions. “It was like a book you’d find in the library—a real book,” he added.

State Curriculum RequirementsState legislators are pressured by every conceivable organization to insert subjects into the curriculum, and a reasonable case can be made for almost every proposed course or unit of instruction. Individually, each requirement seems legitimate; collectively, however, they often resemble a disorganized smorgasbord. Current efforts to reduce the number of electives and to return to a common core of required courses may seem to address the problem. But elective courses often enable students to inquire more deeply into specific topics than do core courses, which often become superficial surveys. We should avoid sanctifying either approach and instead support having students study fewer topics in greater depth.

School Improvement ProgramsMoving away from an emphasis on coverage will be difficult. Many teachers regard coverage as a primary educational goal. Others recognize that the pace of instruction makes thoughtful inquiry impossible, but they worry that they will do a disservice to students if they fail to cover all the territory required by state mandates and standardized tests. To resolve this complex professional dilemma, teachers need time to think, to argue, to select, and to develop new instructional materials. States should appropriate funds to help the schools pay for programs of staff development and for the production by staff members of curricula and tests that emphasize in-depth study.

Teacher EducationColleges and universities perpetuate the addiction to coverage through survey courses and broad distribution requirements. These offerings permit many students to complete their degrees without ever having to engage in a sustained struggle to master the complexity of a field or topic. Thus higher education encourages teachers to conceive of knowledge as that which is contained on the table of contents of an introductory text. The states should counter this tendency by requiring that prospective teachers devote a greater proportion of their training to the in-depth study of an academic area.

Regardless of what we teach or how we teach it, we try to teach too much. The addiction to coverage is a futile attempt to offer students a comprehensive education; it wastes time and it undermines intellectual integrity. Instead of superficial exposure, curricula should emphasize sustained study aimed at developing complex understanding. But powerful obstacles—illusions about the nature of knowledge, pressures for accountability, patterns of socializing teachers and students, the organization of schooling, and the quality of instructional materials—stand in

the way of a shift to study in depth. Moving in that direction will require action at the school, district, and state levels to cut content from the curriculum, develop new approaches to assessment, and change instructional materials and pedagogy. Most important, schools, districts, and states will have to carefully reexamine the goals of education.

Fred M. Newmann is director, National Center on Effective Secondary Schools, School of Education, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Questions for Reflection1. To what extent does an “addiction to coverage” characterize curricula

at the elementary, junior/middle, and postsecondary levels of education? What examples can you cite?

2. In what ways does an emphasis on coverage “reinforce habits of mindlessness”?

3. What steps can curriculum planners take to help policymakers, other educators, business leaders, and the general public understand how the “addiction to coverage” undermines the educative process?

Case Study in Curriculum Implementation Going the Extra Mile to Smooth the Transition to High SchoolHUGH CAMPBELLAbstractAlthough many schools have structures in place to ease the transition between middle level and high school, some students need more help. In this article, Campbell describes how Norwich Free Academy in Norwich, Connecticut, extended its freshman program into the tenth grade to help students achieve greater success.

Many educators are concerned about ninth grade students who enter high school lacking the skills necessary for success. At the Norwich Free Academy (NFA) in Norwich, Conn., our guiding belief is that all students can learn, but several of the young people entering the NFA are one, two, or three years

behind their classmates. Maybe they are missing some of the basic elements required to meet the demands of a high school curriculum. Weak study or organizational skills or gaps in their learning may have limited their success in the eighth grade, and they have to play catch-up for four years. Perhaps they are socially immature. Or they may have rarely received the attention they needed to tackle academic challenges independently. Schools often address these issues during the ninth grade, but what happens to these students after they finish their ninth grade year?

NFA is an independent high school of 2,300 students that is the designated high school for the city of Norwich and seven surrounding towns. NFA is a large school, and students travel to and from its five classroom buildings, athletic facility, and library media center each period. Although we are confident that our ninth grade program successfully integrates students into the school community, we recognize that we have students who need extra support and attention during their second year. As both a teacher and an administrator, I saw many tenth graders struggle to complete the transition.

The Ninth Grade HouseNinth grade students are taught in the Cranston Building. Students are scheduled in one of five units with teacher teams from four core subject areas—English, civics, mathematics, and science—which carries over an essential component from middle level philosophy. Curriculum is often integrated to allow the students to make better connections from one subject to another. In a school our size, with students coming from eight sending communities, the teams make NFA seem smaller and more inviting.

This structure encourages a more personalized approach as the students begin their high school experience. But despite the teachers’ best efforts to enhance students’ skills and encourage solid study habits, not all of the students receive the messages that we are trying to send. When we researched composite GPAs over a 10-year period for each grade level, we found that our freshmen had a composite GPA of 2.35 during the first semester and 2.27 during the second semester. This was at least .4 points below any other grade. This finding reinforced our belief that not all of our ninth graders are prepared to fly independently when they leave our freshmen house. What kind of safety net could we create for our tenth graders?

The Tenth Grade SolutionIn spring 1998, a group of colleagues, including teachers from both ninth and tenth grade, guidance counselors, and the curriculum director, brainstormed

ways to meet our tenth graders needs. We felt strongly that extending the unit concept for those students who needed another year of firm structure and support was a good beginning. We agreed that tenth grade might be our last chance to make any significant changes in how students approach school—before students are distracted by driver’s licenses, dating, and jobs. Meanwhile, we could target one of NFA’s strategic goals: Provide a private school education to a public school population.

Could a tenth grade unit fit with this strategic goal? We thought so.

First, we reviewed research on this idea. Lessons from Privilege provided an excellent starting point (Powell, 1996). Powell notes that “the glory of the private school is taking the third rate student and making him/her second rate.” He maintains that personalizing education for each student is the answer and class size is a key component. Other research supports Powell’s claims. Diana Oxley (1994) points out:Organizing schools by units encourages a coordinated, cross-disciplinary approach to instruction. Within a unit, teachers share a group of students in common rather than a discipline. They take collective responsibility for their students’ success, and they work together to unify instruction and allow students the opportunity to exercise skills and knowledge across subjects. (P. 521–526)Second we took a closer look at our ninth grade house to determine which practices were most effective for students. Ninth grade teams have been in existence at NFA since 1988. It was important to carefully examine which of the original concepts were still useful; what needed to be priority for change; and most important, what positive components we could replicate in a tenth grade unit. The ninth grade teachers and their house principal provided insights and experiential anecdotes on successes and failures. It was clear that the pros far out weighed the cons, and we gained a better sense of what could be done with a unit of 80 students rather than an entire class of 560 students.

Then we started to paint a picture of what we wanted the tenth grade unit to look like. We asked ourselves questions:

What are the criteria for student selection? Who makes the recommendations? Who determines acceptance? Where do we set the bar for student achievement? How do we get the parents to buy in so there is a consistent message at

home and at school?

What kinds of interventions are we prepared to make for students who fall below expectations?

How will teachers be selected to teach within the unit?We decided to give the first three questions priority. We felt that we had to clearly define the types of students who would be included in the program before we could begin to recruit teachers.

We determined that the criteria for identifying students would include:

Students who struggled freshman year, but should be doing better according to their Connecticut Mastery scores (CMT) from eighth grade and Educational Records Bureau (ERB) performance scores from ninth grade.

Students who have an apparent weakness in one or more subject areas. Students with poor motivation or poor work ethics. Students who may have little support at home. Students who struggle with maturity issues connected to handling the

increased responsibility of being a high school student. Students who were prepared to take Geometry, Biology, World History,

English II, or certain electives in NFA’s sequence of study. (These students took Algebra their freshman year.)

The committee decided that the unit leaders in the ninth grade house, the ninth grade guidance counselors, and the ninth grade principal would make recommendations in late January. All recommendations were forwarded to my office by the end of February. To our amazement, 160 recommendations were submitted, far exceeding our expectations.

We compiled data on each of the recommended students, including their grades, CMT scores, and ERB scores. Our director of guidance, the ninth grade house principal, and I scrutinized the data and added pertinent anecdotal information from student records and guidance counselors’ observations. We whittled the list to about 90 names.

After we selected the students, we sent letters to their parents or guardians, explaining the purpose of our pilot tenth grade unit. We emphasized that the unit would provide a safety net of support for another year, and that the unit would emphasize organizational skills and good study habits. Goal setting would be an important component, so students would learn to make good long-term decisions, rather than live for the moment. Classes would have no more than 22 students. The letter also emphasized that we had high expectations for the students in the unit. We pointed out that anytime a student’s performance fell below that expectation, the student’s parents would be notified by a teacher. We included a postcard for the parent to return to indicate whether they were interested in having their child included in the unit.

The positive response was overwhelming. Of the 90 letters that were sent, only two parents declined. I invited each selected student to my office to discuss the unit and to encourage them to make a commitment to the program and to himor herself. This was very important: It didn’t matter so much that the parents wanted their children to be included, but how badly the students wanted it themselves. Conversations lasted anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes. It was exciting to see how many of the students were honest about their struggles in ninth grade and anxious to make a commitment to self-improvement.

The students’ biggest concern about being part of the unit was being isolated. They did not want to be stuck in one building, as they were in the ninth grade, or worse, one section of one building for their core classes. I assured them that this would not be the case. Although they would share a team of teachers, these teachers would be spread out all over campus, and they would go from building to building, just like any other tenth grader. Their homerooms and guidance counselors would be assigned, like the other tenth graders and would remain the same until they were graduated.

Faculty SelectionFinally, the faculty had opportunities to ask questions. The biggest concern of a few teachers was that this pilot might become the first step toward teaming the entire tenth grade. We assured them that we didn’t intend to do so at present. Not all tenth grade students needed the safety net that we were planning to provide.

The committee was asked to recommend members of the faculty who had experience with the tenth grade curriculum and students. Some recommendations were made, but no one expressed overwhelming interest until I began to contact individual teachers and thoroughly explained the intent of the program. Four excellent faculty members were genuinely excited about working as a team and being part of the pilot program. These teachers were integral to the eventual success of this program.

Designing CurriculumThe teachers and I met in spring and summer 1999 to set goals for the students and to modify our standard tenth grade curriculum to allow more integration. The teachers were excited to have this opportunity to experiment and design. We decided that they would teach four-fifths of their teaching load in the unit and teach one class outside the unit and have a common planning period. The biology and geometry teachers attended a workshop during the summer about integrating math and science curricula.

The teachers left for summer break with a complete data sheet for each student in the unit so the teachers could contact the ninth grade teachers if they had questions about a particular student.

Before the students left for the summer, we gave them two books to read. Normally, tenth grade students choose three books from the tenth grade reading list. But we required that the pilot program students read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Stephen Covey (1998) and A Separate Peace by John Knowles (1985). The students were also required to read a book of their choice from the tenth grade reading list. Reading The Seven Habits gave the students some thoughtful information about how they could fine-tune their personal lives. It was very easy to read and humorous. A Separate Peace was chosen by our English and history teachers for an integrated lesson. These books were common topics for class discussion after the school year began.Scheduling the unit was a challenge. We decided that scheduling the unit in four consecutive periods would allow time for guest speakers and field trips. After announcing the schedule, we immediately lost four students who preferred to take electives that conflicted with the schedule.

OrientationOrientation sessions with both the students and the parents were held on the evening of the first day of school. We gave parents a handout titled “Back to School Tips for Parents,” and we borrowed ideas from a variety of sources, including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Parenting a Teenager (Kelley, 1996), Teen Tips: A Practical Survival Guide for Parents with Kids Ages 11–19 (McMahon, 1996), and a few ideas of our own. Each teacher introduced briefly discussed his or her expectations and curriculum.The parents filled out questionnaires on how they perceived their children as students and what their hopes were for their children. Parents or guardians of 52 of the 80 students attended. The next day, we had a similar meeting with the students, and they also filled out questionnaires. The teachers received copies of the parents’ and students’ responses. The students were very honest in their responses, recognized their weaknesses, and seemed to welcome the opportunity to improve within the framework of the unit.

We felt that we were off to a solid start. The teachers and I met every Friday during the teachers’ common prep time to compare notes, plan, and decide whether any interventions were needed. We quickly established lines of communication among the teachers, the students, and the parents or guardians. Most of our students were comfortable asking for extra help when they needed it. When a student’s work fell below 80 percent in a subject, the teachers notified the student’s family. The teachers divided the students into

four groups and one teacher was responsible for communicating our concerns to those students’ families. Individual teachers made additional calls if they felt an issue was serious enough to warrant personal contact. E-mail became the most popular means of communication for both teachers and families and allowed teachers to send assignments to students who were absent.

When the first marking period ended, we had our first bit of data to look at. We were excited that 34 percent of the students received all As or Bs in core subject areas. Only five Fs were given. It was amazing improvement for that group of students. The teachers felt that because they expected the students to meet high standards and communicated consistently with parents, the students responded. The parents did not have to wait until the end of the marking period to discover how their children were doing; they were notified regularly.

We also asked the students to fill out a first quarter review sheet. We wanted to know what differences they saw in themselves. Questions included:

In regard to your studies, what are you doing better now as compared to last year? What do you think the reason is for your improvement?

What do you still need to work on, and what do you intend to do about it? We have spoken to you a lot about how important it is to set goals and to

establish relationships with people who can help you achieve those goals. What short- and long-term goals have you set?

Responses varied, but a couple of messages came through loud and clear. Students felt much more organized in their studies and they were beginning to make long-term goals. As students started to feel better about themselves and school, making long-term decisions seemed practical to them.

Prior to midyear exams, we invited parents to the school. We gave parents review sheets similar to the ones the students received. The resulting dialogue was productive, and we shared hints with parents on ways they could assist their children’s study and time management.

Semester grades indicated that our efforts had been fruitful. We compared our students’ grades from their first semester, ninth grade classes to their grades in their first semester, tenth grade classes. Seventy percent improved their grades in science, 65 percent improved in mathematics, 77 percent improved in English, and 77 percent improved in history. We brought the students together to applaud their efforts and encourage them to continue.

The second semester was more challenging for our teachers. The students, feeling good, naturally wanted to relax a bit. Unfortunately, there are no

vacations built into our calendar at midyear. Teachers continued to keep parents apprised of student progress. Second semester results, although not as good as first semester, were still impressive. Comparing second semester grades from ninth and tenth grades: Sixty-one percent of students improved in science, 62 percent in mathematics, 61 percent in English, and 66 percent in history.

The individual success stories were many. Tina is a student of color who is extremely bright, but struggled in her freshman year. She got caught up in socializing with friends and did not pay enough attention to her studies. At the end of her freshman year, she had a GPA of 1.91. She admitted that she did not have good organizational skills and really did not know how to prepare herself for class everyday or how to study for tests.

Tina took full advantage of lessons on organizational skills and started keeping meticulous assignment books and notebooks. After a slow start, she blossomed during the second marking period and did a truly remarkable job during the second semester earning no grade lower than a B in her core subject areas. By the end of the year, she raised her GPA to 2.27.

David often clowned around in class, rarely keeping a focus on the tasks at hand. When motivated, he demonstrated that he could do excellent work, but those instances were few and far between. Because of the behavior issue, David’s situation was a bit more complex than Tina’s. We had a conference with his parents to obtain further insight into his patterns of behavior. We found that David had a history with attention deficit disorder and had been taken off medication when he started high school. It was quite obvious that his distractibility was getting in the way of his academic success. His parents were willing to take David back to his doctor to reassess his attention deficit issue. He was given a new prescription, and the academic dividends were almost immediate. David raised his freshman GPA of 1.16 to 1.83 at the end of tenth grade. David earned nothing lower than a B during the second semester.

There were many success stories in our tenth grade unit. Because of our teachers’ dedication and the pilot program’s small class sizes, teachers were able to personalize lessons for the students, which resulted in significant improvements by those students who were open to making changes in the way they studied. At the beginning of the next school year, many of the students visited their teachers to touch base. The students are anxious to share their summer activities and their new successes in school.

We will continue to monitor the students’ performance in school through the eleventh and twelfth grades. We want to determine whether the lessons we

taught about how to succeed in school are lasting. We will examine the students’ performances on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT), which the students took in May 2000, and their performances on the PSAT and SAT exams.

Our superintendent and our board of trustees were impressed enough by our success with this pilot program that they gave me permission to expand the program to two units during the 2000–2001 school year. A second team of teachers was recruited, and all of the teachers from last year were anxious to return. This year, each team of teachers is teaching three classes within their units. Each unit will contain approximately 65 students. The parent support and student commitment has been excellent.

Keeping students connected to school often takes extra effort and some creative thinking on the part of the school community. We feel strongly that our efforts with the tenth grade unit saved some students who might have otherwise fallen through the cracks into the sea of academic indifference.

References Covey, S. 1998. The seven habits of highly effective teens. New

York: Simon and Schuster. Kelley, K. 1996. The complete idiot’s guide to parenting a

teenager. New York: Alpha Books. Knowles, J. 1985. A separate peace. New York: Bantam Books. McMahon, T. 1996. Teen tips: A practical survival guide for

parents with kids ages 11–19. Pocket Books. Oxley, D. 1994. Organizing schools into small units: Alternatives

to homogeneous grouping. Phi Delta Kappan 75(7): 521–526. Powell, A. 1996. Lessons from privilege. Cambridge, Mass.:

Harvard University Press.Hugh Campbell is principal of the Tirrell Building of NFA in Norwich, Connecticut.

Questions for Reflection1. What is the ninth grade house and what features about it are

appropriate for tenth graders’ success in school?2. Campbell’s article demonstrates how collaborative work between

teachers and administration can lead to system changes within a school district. How might other schools accomplish this same kind of

collaboration? What are key characteristics of this collaborative effort that made it successful at Norwich Free Academy?

3. What positive outcomes can the teachers and administration point to to demonstrate that their program was a success? Is “proof” necessary to justify this kind of endeavor, or are there times when faith that a system has been improved is enough?

Leaders’ Voices—Putting Theory into Practice A Tale of Two CurriculumsMIRA REISBERGAbstractThe author, a teacher educator and illustrator of children’s books, contrasts the progressive, constructivist curriculum found in most teacher education programs with the conservative, traditional curriculum that pervades today’s schools. To prepare pre-service teachers for the curricular realities they will encounter in schools, the author’s students experience a curriculum that incorporates a pedagogy of pleasure, place-based pedagogy, critical race theory, and social reconstructionist arts education.

Here lies a tale of two curriculums. One is a progressive, constructivist curriculum that employs strategies such as cooperative learning, inquiry-based learning, scaffolded instruction, multiple intelligences theory, and authentic assessments. The other is a conservative, traditional curriculum that, for the most part, employs teacher-delivered, top-down rote memorization activities and basic skill building techniques. These activities typically culminate in a series of high-stakes tests that determine both the child’s and the school’s future (McNeil, 2000). In general, teacher education programs are structured around progressive, constructivist pedagogy, while an increasingly conservative legislative body favors the traditionalist, conservative pedagogy.Federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have helped create an educational climate privileging the traditional conservative curriculum. Funding connected with NCLB is tied to “scientifically based” programs that have a traditionalist orientation of skill and drill and rote memorization (Coles, 2002; Garan, 2004). For children who struggle with issues of motivation and comprehension, focusing primarily on skill and drill programs while ignoring issues of cultural congruence and personal connection does not promote a love of learning (Delpit, 1995; Taylor, 2004).Anyone who has learned to play a musical instrument will remember the boredom and tedium of repetitive practice and basic skills acquisition. Without this practice they would never have been able to play.

However, if the learning focused solely on technique, chances are they never connected with the heart and soul and love of music and dropped it as soon as they could. Those fortunate enough to have a teacher who taught them using culturally relevant, meaningful music and who also encouraged them to explore music in many ways frequently developed a lifelong love of music. In other words, a combination of traditional and constructivist pedagogies are needed for an effective education. Cowen (2003) has termed this a “balanced approach” to education.This paper posits that, although basic skills and rote memorization are necessary for learning, teachers do their students a great disservice if they focus primarily on such pedagogy at the expense of meaningful experiences such as those I try to provide my students. As a teacher of pre-service elementary teachers at a major university, I have noticed the polarization between the two curriculums. However, because my future teachers will be provided with an abundance of conservative skill building materials in the field, my curriculum focuses on teaching critical, constructivist pedagogies that are vitally important. Before detailing the specifics of my curricular approach, I will provide further background information on the differences between the two curriculums.

Differences Between the Two CurriculumsA traditional curriculum is based on learning discrete parcels of information (or facts) that are acquired through rote memory. These facts are discipline specific and taught in a prescribed skill and drill manner within a delineated time frame. Students work alone on basal, textbook-centered problems, and their learning is assessed by tests.

A constructivist curriculum, in contrast, tends to be integrated, inter-disciplinary and inquiry-based. Learning is socially constructed, and the context of learning and students’ prior knowledge are central to the educational experience. Projects are frequently student generated and group oriented, and they involve more flexibility in the use of time. In addition, authentic literature is used with portfolio and other authentic assessment models (Cambourne, 2002; Moursund, 1999).Traditional conservatives and progressive constructionists both want children to succeed and do well. However, it appears that they have different ideas of what success means and how to go about achieving it. For many traditional conservatives, success appears to be about learning the basic cognitive and class-appropriate vocational skills that enable one to participate in the American dream. For critical, constructivist educators, the goal is less job oriented than about developing higher-order thinking skills and enabling students to become active participants in their own lives.

However, some critical pedagogues believe that constructivism simply serves to “rearrange the furniture” in an institution whose foundations are rotting. By preparing students to take tests, institutionalized constructivists have been co-opted into propping up a system that continues to colonize and dominate humans, animals, and environments (Bowers, 1997; Gruenewald, 2003a). In other words, constructivism is merely “the other side of the same coin” as traditionalism. Such arguments notwithstanding, the reality is that pre-service teachers are entering a world they cannot immediately change. Consequently, it is important to find ways to integrate pedagogies that help them teach critical thinking skills to challenge the status quo and to construct something better, while also teaching successful test-taking strategies so they can keep their jobs and students can progress to the next grade.Meanwhile, social reproduction theorists (Kozol, 1991; Tozer, Violas, & Senese, 2002) hold that education is consciously and historically constructed to reproduce class and inequality through the different curriculums taught in economically segregated schools. One class of schooling focuses on the basics needed for low-level employment, while the other focuses on the development of creative critical thinking skills needed for positions of management and leadership. Not coincidentally, those in more privileged schools have parents who are educated to take advantage of political power by making decisions about who gets educational resources that influence test scores and opportunities (Kozol, 1991; Ladson Billings, 1998).

Dewey or Don’t We?Advocates for traditional, top-down education believe that the system of education that worked for them is best for today’s children. As President George W. Bush stated in 1996:

The building blocks of knowledge were the same yesterday and will be the same tomorrow… . We do not need trendy new theories or fancy experiments or feel good curriculums. The basics work. If drill gets the job done then rote is right (Coles, 2002).However, not everyone can or did learn this way, and such approaches ignore a long history of unequal outcomes as well as the question of the purpose of education. The entire history of progressive, constructivist education tells us that students benefit from an experiential curriculum connected to their lived experiences (Dewey, 1916; Freire, 2003).In contrast to the traditional curriculum, I propose a curriculum that centers on feeling good—about one’s self, one’s work, and one’s place in the world. This approach strives to create heartfelt connections among student’s lives, communities, creative intelligences, bodies, and spirits.

Dewey was one of the first to advocate for pleasure, connection, and integration in the curriculum. In Interest and Effort in Education he wrote:education rises or falls with our ability to make school life an interesting and absorbing experience to the child. In one sense there is no such thing as compulsory education. We can have compulsory physical attendance at school; but education comes only through willing attention to and participation in school activities. It follows that the teacher must select these activities with reference to the child’s interest, powers, and capabilities. In no other way can she guarantee that the child will be present. (Dewey,

1913, p. ix)Although Dewey wrote these words over ninety years ago, they are still profoundly relevant and compelling for today’s educators.

The Practice of Pleasure: Teaching for Social Justice and Environmental StewardshipEngaging students is central to a curriculum based on the principle of pleasure. If learners enjoy doing something, they will do it frequently and, consequently, get good at it. If students are motivated by connections—to themselves, their communities, their environment, their classmates, and their history; if they see themselves reflected in the literature they read and as creators of literature; if they see their work as having value not only to their teachers, but also to others outside the school and in the real world—they will enjoy learning more, and participate in it with enthusiasm (Dewey, 1913, 1934; Eisner, 1995; Greene, 1978).In brief, my course, Integrated Fine Arts, teaches pre-service teachers how to teach the various content areas using a creative integration of art and drama. These methodologies are designed to teach critical, higher-order thinking skills as well as to foster a love of learning. The curriculum consists of three conceptual threads:

1. A pedagogy of pleasure, based on the joy of sensory play while making multiple connections across content areas, personal experiences and culture (Cambourne, 2002; Dewey, 1913, 1934; Eisner, 1982, 1995, 1998; Greene, 1978).

2. A pedagogy that employs place-based education (Gruenewald, 2003b; Haas & Nachtigal, 1998; Sobel, 2004), critical race theory (Delpit, 1995; Ladson Billings, 1998, 2000; Nieto, 2000; Schwartz, 1995), and social reconstructionist arts education

practices (Cahan & Kocur, 1996; Klein, 1992, 2000; Milbrandt, 2002).

3. A pedagogy that promotes democratic participation through awareness and action for social justice and environmental stewardship (Dewey, 1916; Furman & Gruenewald, 2004; Greene, 1978).

These conceptual threads are woven through a creative and critical combination of authentic, multicultural children’s literature and art. What follows is a brief description of these ideas, including examples of how I encourage students to use them in their own classrooms.

Place-Based PedagogyIn the Deweyan tradition, connection is one of the central tenets of place-based education through which students connect with their local environments as sites for situated learning experiences that benefit both themselves and their communities. Place-based educators and their students promote environmental stewardship and active participation in their “place of being.” As Gruenewald (2003b) writes:

Place-conscious education, therefore, aims to work against the isolation of schooling’s discourses and practices from the living world outside the increasingly placeless institution of schooling. Furthermore, it aims to enlist teachers and students in the firsthand experience of local life and in the political process of understanding and shaping what happens there (p. 620).

Critical Race TheoryCritical race theorists advocate for understanding and shaping issues of culture and race. Among other things, they call for authenticity and critical inclusion in children’s literature. Describing how the non-critical use of multicultural literature supports an ineffective liberalism that effectively maintains hegemony in the form of existing class structures and racism, they effectively ask: “Who says what and for whom,” and “How culturally congruent is the curriculum with students’ own cultures?” Multicultural literature that is authentic can truly be a valuable form of storytelling that creates agency and affirmation for all children (Ladson Billings, 2000; Nieto, 2000; Yenika Agbaw, 1997).

Social Reconstructionist Arts EducationArts based educators taking a more holistic approach note the spiritual, emotional, and practical importance of the arts in educating the whole child

while covering the content areas in fun and meaningful ways. At the same time, social reconstructionist arts educators believe that the practice of art with its sensual, reflective, and collaborative qualities can provide an excellent forum to explore and challenge official reifying discourses. As Milbrandt (2002) writes:Rather than accepting intellectual and moral complacency, art educators must possess the courage and the skills necessary to initiate art programs that engage students in critical inquiry, connect learning to authentic and meaningful issues in life, and inspire responsible intellectual and moral action (p. 153).

My Curriculum in ActionCurriculum choices strongly influence students’ beliefs about race, gender, class, and environment (Parkay & Hass, 2000). Drawing on the transformational theories mentioned above, I encourage my pre-service teachers to build curriculum around a central book that is place specific, culturally authentic, and visually and linguistically aesthetic. This can jumpstart community-oriented art projects that utilize multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983), as well as the many other forms of knowledge needed to navigate in life. I encourage inclusion of European American stories as part of the multicultural discourse to show that all students have culture and that multiculturalism does not once again marginalize people of color as separate and “other” and European Americans as cultureless (Newling, 2001).I use quality, place-specific, multicultural literature as the starting point of a unit to model culturally congruent teaching for my pre-service students to use in their own future teaching. By starting here, they are able to find themselves and others reflected and affirmed. While exploring concepts of embedded racism, they are provided opportunities to learn about and respect the many cultures that make our world. These books also help promote environmental awareness by providing opportunities to compare and contrast place. The books also stimulate connections with students about their own communities and environments to facilitate the creation of situated learning experiences that benefit students and their communities (Gruenewald, 2003b; Haas & Nachtigal, 1998). After conducting a close reading of a book, the class compares and contrasts the embedded themes in the text and illustrations and makes connections to their own race, place and culture. From this awareness, they can then create projects that promote awareness of social and environmental issues.For example, the book Where Fireflies Dance (Corpi, 1997) promoted a range of projects in my class. One was the creation of portraits and intergenerational oral histories with local senior citizens, which were exhibited and celebrated in the public library. These histories showed seniors connected to “lived history” in contrast to “official histories,” while using art

to address state standards of science, history, communication, reading, and writing.A second place-based project involved creating large cut-paper murals of our local wildlife and landscape through the seasons. This project modeled how to integrate math and science with art by embedding math concepts in the numbers of animals depicted while learning about our local environment.

A third project integrated dance, drama, and science through the creation of “Science Theater”: body-based interpretive dances of the life cycles of endangered and at-risk local animals with instructions on how to save them.

In a fourth example, inspired by the work of contemporary African American artist Fred Wilson, my pre-service teachers learned how to teach about embedded racism in how language is used. After creating paper-maché Halloween insect masks, students created labels for them showing how the kind of language used to exhibit African and minority art is radically different than that used to exhibit European and European American art. Their labels used demeaning vocabulary like primitive and ritual and were un-credited except for the geographic area they came from.

These examples are just some of the many projects that provide rich and meaningful ways to integrate all the content areas. They are also frequently fun and pleasure-based. These methodologies are student driven, culturally relevant, and center on collaborative learning. They incorporate time-outs for teaching content areas with more traditional methods, and the framework is there to provide connected, concrete, learning opportunities. These are valuable skills that children need to know along with the basics. What could be more important than learning how to be a multiliterate, caring, and capable member of one’s community?

Justification and AccountabilityBecause teachers are frequently called upon to justify and provide accountability for their teaching methodologies, I also provide examples of research my students can cite showing that children can do well on achievement tests by doing culturally congruent, fun, and rewarding projects while also learning test-taking strategies if needed.

Teachers can also cite examples showing how all students, particularly low socioeconomic status students, do well when their learning is connected to their lives and their communities (Dillard & Blue, 2000; Ladson Billings, 2000). My future teachers can make use of arts-based research (Catterall, 1998; Cornett, 2003; Elfland, 2002; Fowler, 1996; NAEP, 1997) that describes the significantly positive outcomes of arts infused curriculums in

high-stakes testing arenas as well as in other areas. As Upitis and Smithrim (2002) note, “Students, teachers, parents, artists, and administrators [can see] how the arts motivate children, referring to the emotional, physical, cognitive, and social benefits of learning in and through the arts” (p. 2). Finally, my future teachers can question why these integrated teaching methodologies are considered ineffective when wealthier schools value them so much (Kozol, 1991; Ladson Billings, 1998).Accountability to parents and community members occurs when children and their work go out into the community, and when the community comes into the classroom. In utilizing place-based pedagogies of engaged local learning that incorporate art and literature, parents and community members can experience the delightfulness of their children’s experiences, while their children learn important, real-life, integrated skills and how to pass mandated tests. Stakeholders can see that their children are reading, writing, performing, creating, understanding, and working with challenging math and science concepts. By enriching the traditional teacher education curriculum with these ideas, my pre-service students will be more apt to teach in ways that challenge unfairness and inequality while maintaining or exceeding mandated standards. By bridging the two curriculums and engaging and motivating students to find pleasure and meaning in their education, students will succeed academically, and, in all likelihood, they will also become lifelong learners and valuable community members.

References Bowers, C. A. (1997). The culture of denial: Why the

environmental movement needs a strategy for reforming universities and public schools. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Cahan, S., & Kocur, Z. (1996). Contemporary art and multicultural education. New York: Routledge.

Cambourne, B. (2002). Holistic integrated approaches to reading and language arts instruction: The constructivist framework of an instructional theory. In What research has to say about reading instruction (pp. 25–46). Newark, NJ: International Reading Association.

Catterall, J. (1998). Does experience in the arts boost academic achievement? A response to Eisner. Art Education, 51(4), 6–11.

Coles, G. (2002). Learning to read—“scientifically”. Retrieved 10/20/04, 2004, from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/special_reports/bushplan/Read154.shtml

Cornett, C. E. (2003). Creating meaning through literature and the arts: An integration resource for classroom teachers. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Corpi, L. (1997). Where fireflies dance. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.

Cowen, J. E. (2003). A balanced approach to beginning reading instruction: A synthesis of six major U.S. research studies. Newark, NJ: International Reading Association.

Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press.

Dewey, J. (1913). Interest and effort in education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. New York: G. P. Putnam and Sons.

Dillard, C. B., & Blue, D. A. (2000). Learning styles from a multicultural perspective: The case for culturally engaged education. In M. Gallegos & S. Hollingsworth (Eds.), What counts as literacy: Challenging the school standards. New York: Teachers College Press.

Eisner, E. W. (1982). Cognition and curriculum: A basis for deciding what to teach. New York: Longman.

Eisner, E. W. (1995). What artistically crafted research can help us understand about schools. Educational Theory, 45(1), n.p.

Eisner, E. W. (1998). The kinds of schools we need: Personal essays. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.

Elfland, A. D. (2002). Art and cognition: Integrating the visual arts in the curriculum. New York: Teachers College Press and National Art Education Association.

Fowler, C. (1996). Strong arts, strong schools: The promising potential and shortsighted disregard of the arts in American schooling. New York: Oxford University Press.

Freire, P. (2003). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (30th Anniversary Edition ed.). New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group.

Furman, G., & Gruenewald, D. A. (2004). Expanding the landscape of social justice: A critical ecological analysis. Educational Administration Quarterly, 40(1), 49–78.

Garan, E. M. (2004). In defense of our children: When politics, profit and education collide. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.

Greene, M. (1978). Landscapes of learning. New York: Teachers College Press.

Gruenewald, D. A. (2003a). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3–12.

Gruenewald, D. A. (2003b). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place-conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 619–654.

Guthrie, J. T. (2002). Preparing students for high-stakes test taking in reading. In A. Farstrup (Ed.), What research has to say about reading instruction (pp. 370–391). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Haas, T., & Nachtigal, P. M. (1998). Place value: an educators’ guide to good literature on rural lifeways, environments, and purposes of education. Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools.

Klein, S. (1992). Social action and art education: A curriculum for change. Journal of multicultural and cross-cultural research in art education, 10, 111–125.

Klein, S. (2000). Spirituality and art education: Looking to place. Journal of multicultural and cross-cultural research in art education, 18, 57–66.

Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities. New York: Crown Publishers.

Ladson Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice fields like education? Qualitative studies in education, 11(1), 7–24.

Ladson Billings, G. (2000). Reading between the lines and beyond the pages. In M. Gallegos & S. Hollingsworth (Eds.), What counts as literacy: Challenging the school standards. New York: Teachers College Press.

McNeil, L. M. (2000). Creating new inequalities: Contradictions of reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 81, 728–734.

Milbrandt, M. K. (2002). Addressing contemporary social issues in art education: A survey of public school art educators in Georgia. Studies in art education: A journal of issues and research, 44(1), 141–157.

Moursund, D. G. (1999). Project-based learning using information technology. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

NAEP. (1997). The NAEP 1997 Arts Report Card: Eighth-grade findings from the National Assessment of educational progress. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

Newling, M.-L. (2001). Approaches to critical literacy through literature. In L. Ramîrez & O. M. Gallardo (Eds.), Portraits of teachers in multicultural settings: A critical literacy approach. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Nieto, S. (2000). Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Parkay, F. W., & Hass, G. (2000). Learning and learning styles. In F. W. Parkay, & G. Hass (Eds.), Curriculum planning: A contemporary approach (pp. 165–171). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Schwartz, E. G. (1995). Crossing borders/Shifting paradigm: Multiculturalism and children’s literature. Harvard Educational Review, 65(4), 634–649.

Sobel, D. (2004). Place-based education: Connecting classrooms and communities. Great Barrington, MA: The Orion Society.

Taylor, H. (2004). Education expert wonders if NCLB is too focused to accommodate children living in poverty. School administrator’s compliance hotline, 7(2), 4–5.

Tozer, S. E., Violas, P. C., & Senese, G. (2002). School and society: Historical and contemporary perspectives. New York: McGraw Hill.

Yenika Agbaw, V. (1997). Taking children’s literature seriously: Reading for pleasure and social change. Language Arts 74(6), pp. 446–453.

Mira Reisberg, a former K–6 teacher and literacy consultant for K–12 schools, is an illustrator of children’s books and teaches in the School of Art at Northern Illinois University.

Questions for Reflection1. Reisberg suggests that “mandates such as No Child Left Behind have

helped to create an educational climate privileging the traditional, conservative curriculum.” Do you agree or disagree with her observation? Explain your position.

2. With respect to the subject area and grade level with which you are most familiar, how might you employ place-based pedagogy strategies such as those described by Reisberg?

3. Reisberg’s article includes the following observations by President George W. Bush:The building blocks of knowledge were the same yesterday and will be the same tomorrow. … We do not need trendy new theories or fancy experiments or feel good curriculums. The basics work. If drill gets the job done then rote is right.To what extent do you agree or disagree with the president’s view of education?

Learning ActivitiesCritical Thinking

1. Are a common high school curriculum and uniform standards appropriate in a pluralistic society? Can a common curriculum and uniform standards be implemented with diverse groups of students? Can individual differences be accommodated? Should they be?

2. Reflect on this chapter’s recommendations for changing the curriculum for high school students in light of curricular goals for this age group, the three bases of the curriculum, and curriculum criteria. Which recommendations from the articles in this chapter would you like to see implemented?

3. Which developmental changes discussed in Chapter 3 should guide curriculum planners in designing educational programs for high school students?

4. What are the essential elements of effective curricula for high school students?

5. What are some of the challenges that today’s high school students face that were unknown or little known to their parents or grandparents? To what extent can (or should) these challenges be addressed in educational programs for high schoolers?

Application Activities1. When you were a high school student, what school experiences

helped you to grow and learn? What experiences hindered you? What implications do these experiences have for your current and future curriculum leadership activities?

2. Drawing from the material in this chapter, develop a short questionnaire or set of interview questions that curriculum leaders could use to learn more about high school students. Compare your questions with those of your classmates.

3. Invite a group of high school teachers to your class and ask them to describe the steps they take in planning curricula for their students. What do they see as the most important curriculum criteria to use in planning?

4. Obtain a statement of philosophy (or mission statement) from a nearby high school. Analyze the statement in regard to this chapter’s six recommended goals for educational programs for high school. How many of the goals are reflected in the statement?

Field Experiences1. Visit a nearby high school and obtain permission to interview a few

students about their curricular experiences. Take field notes based on these interviews. The following questions might serve as a guide for beginning your interviews: Do the students like school? What about it do they like and dislike? What are their favorite subjects? What about those subjects do they like? What are their plans for the future? Then, analyze your field notes; what themes or concerns emerge that would be useful for curriculum leaders at this level?

2. Visit an agency in your community that offers services to high school students and their families. Ask a staff member to describe the services that are offered. Report your findings to the rest of your class.

3. Talk with a group of high school students about the social forces of concern to them in their school, their community, their nation, and the world. What implications do their concerns have for curriculum leaders at this level?

Internet Activities

1. At the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR), gather research results and curriculum-related resources useful to those who plan educational programs for high school students placed at risk.

2. Go to the State Curriculum Frameworks and Contents Standards page maintained by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) and obtain your state’s secondary-level curriculum frameworks. Critique these frameworks in light of the recommendations in Chapter 10.

3. Go to OERI’s Blue Ribbon Schools Program, which recognizes outstanding public and private schools. From that site, “visit” a few exemplary high schools. To what extent do they reflect the recommendations made throughout Chapter 10?