Abstracts of Articles Published in Volume 1, 1993

Education Policy Analysis Archives

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Volume 1 Number 1

January 19, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Action Research and Social Movement:
A Challenge for Policy Research

Stephen Kemmis
Faculty of Education
Deakin University - Geelong

kemmis@deakin.edu.au

ABSTRACT: Large-scale policy research on topics of concern to teachers may assist in changing educational theory, policy and practice, as may educational action research. This article discusses different traditions of action research in relation to their views about the connection of research and social movement, touching on the so-called "macro-micro" problem which bedevils conceptualizations of this relationship.

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Volume 1 Number 2

February 2, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Educational Reform in an Era of Disinformation

David C. Berliner
College of Education
Arizona State University

ATDAB@ASUACAD.BITNET

ABSTRACT: Data which suggest the failure of America's schools to educate its youth well do not survive careful scrutiny. School reforms based on these questionable data are wrongheaded and potentially distructive of quality education. Reforms of the kind proposed by those who have started from an assumption that America's schools have failed will exacerbate the differences between the "have" and the "have-not" school districts.

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Volume 1 Number 3

March 5, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

The Devil's Bargain:
Educational Research and the Teacher

Ivor F. Goodson
University of Western Ontario

GOODSON@EDU.UWO.CA

ABSTRACT: The concern of this paper is to explore why it is that so much educational research has tended to be manifestly irrelevant to the teacher. A secondary question is how that irrelevance has been structured and maintained over the years. There are I think three particularly acute problems. Firstly the role of the older foundational disciplines in studying education. Secondly, the role of faculties of education generally. Thirdly, related to the decline of foundational disciplines and the crisis in the faculties of education, the dangers implicit in too hasty an embrace of the panacea of more practical study of education.

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Volume 1 Number 4

April 24, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Three Book Reviews

JAPANESE EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY
Edited by Robert Leestma and Herbert J. Walberg; Vol. II
Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, 1992 Price: $24.95
Reviewed by Steven J. Fountaine, Arizona State University

INSIDE AMERICAN EDUCATION: The Decline, the Deception, the Dogmas
Thomas Sowell 1993, Free Press, Division of MacMillan, Inc. Price: $24.95
Reviewed by Susan G. Haag at Arizona State University

EDUCATION REFORM IN THE '90s
1992. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Edited by Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Theodor Rebarber Price: $24.95
Reviewed by Kent Paredes Scribner, Arizona State University

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Volume 1 Number 5

May 3, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

STUDENTS AND EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY

Benjamin Levin
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada, R3T 2N2

LEVIN@CCU.UMANITOBA.CA

ABSTRACT: The literature on productivity in education is extensive. The object of this effort is to find a production function--a mathematical expression of the relationship between inputs and outputs in education. In this paper, the status of the literature on production functions is reviewed. Most of these approaches have seen schooling as something that is done to students, rather than thinking about education as something that students essentially do for themselves. An argument is developed that makes students the key factors in shaping school outcomes, and therefore a central focus of our thinking about productivity. The paper concludes with suggestions for research and policy.

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Volume 1 Number 6

May 3, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Anti-Intellectualism in U.S. Schools

Aimee Howley
Marshall University

ESS016@marshall.wvnet.edu

Edwina D. Pendarvis
Marshall University

Craig B. Howley
ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural
Education and Small Schools
Charleston, WV 25235

U56E3@wvnvm.bitnet

ABSTRACT: In this essay we present an argument about the relationship between schools' intellectual mission and their role in advancing social justice. In providing an argument of this sort, we claim neither to present a comprehensive review of literature nor to analyze specific educational policies. Rather, we bring together findings about certain features of schools in the United States that we believe contribute to their anti-intellectualism. This examination allows us to tell a story about schools that we think needs to be told; and it also elaborates a frame of reference from which to reconsider schools' mission and practice. Reframing these bases of schooling may be a necessary prelude to educational policies that promote both intellectual and egalitarian outcomes.

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Volume 1 Number 7

June 7, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Merging Educational Finance Reform and Desegregation Goals

Deborah Kazal-Thresher
Arizona State University

ATDKT@ASUACAD.BITNET

ABSTRACT: Educational finance reforms and desegregation have both sought to address inequities in educational opportunities for minorities and low income families. The recent methods of addressing desegregation issues have tended to focus on attaining racial balance rather than educational quality, however. This paper explores how desegregation goals can be merged with educational finance reform to more systematically address educational quality in schools serving low income and minority populations. By moving toward centralized control over school financing, the inequity of school outcomes that are based on unequal school resources can be reduced. In addition, state determined expenditures when combined with desegregation monies, would meet the original intention of desegregation funds by clearly providing add-on monies for additional services for minority children, while at the same time, creating a better monitoring mechanism.

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Volume 1 Number 8

June 17, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Learning on the Job:
Understanding the Cooperative Education Work Experience

Alison I. Griffith
College of Education
University of New Orleans
New Orleans, LA 70148

ABSTRACT: Cooperative learning programs in Ontario provide on the job learning experiences for students. This paper analyzes three cases of student work placements described in extensive interviews with students, teachers and co-workers. Some students had enjoyed their work experience while others had not. When the student experiences were situated in the socially organized work processes of the work sites, the diverse experiences were found to have a common theme. When students are able to participate in and make sense of the work process, their work placement experience was seen to be useful for making future employment decisions. Where students were marginal to the work process, their lack of knowledge often translates into an unpleasant work experience and decisions about employment based on an experience of failure. This article suggests that our understanding of student learning on the job would be strengthened by a focus on the socially organized work process.

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Volume 1 Number 9

July 16, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Evidence, Ethics and Social Policy Dilemmas

Steven I. Miller
L. Arthur Safer
School of Education
Loyola University Chicago
820 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60611

ABSTRACT: Within the philosophy of the social sciences, the relationship between evidence, ethics, and social policy is in need of further analysis. The present paper is an attempt to argue that while important social policies can, and perhaps ought to be, grounded in ethical theory, they are seldom articulated in this fashion due to the ambiguity surrounding the "evidence condition." Using a consequentialist-utilitarian framework, and a case study of a policy dilemma, the authors analyze the difficulties associated with resolving policy-based dilemmas which must appeal to evidential support as a justification for an ethical stand. Implication for the relevance of ethics to social policy formulation are discussed in detail.

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Volume 1 Number 10

September 15, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Technology Refusal and the Organizational
Culture of Schools

Steven Hodas
Leadership and Policy Studies
School of Education
University of Washington

hhll@u.washington.edu

ABSTRACT: Analyses of the deployment of technology in schools usually note its lack of impact on the day-to-day values and practices of teachers, administrators, and students. This is generally construed as an implementation failure, or as resulting from a temperamental shortcoming on the part of teachers or technologists. It is predicated on the tacit assumption that the technology itself is value-free. This paper proposes that technology is never neutral: that its values and practices must always either support or subvert those of the organization into which it is placed; and that the failures of technology to alter the look-and-feel of schools more generally results from a mismatch between the values of school organization and those embedded within the contested technology.

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Volume 1 Number 11

November, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Why Production Function Analysis is Irrelevant in Policy
Deliberations Concerning Educational Funding Equity

Jim C. Fortune
College of Education
Virginia Tech University
Administrative and Educational Services
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0302

FORTUNE@VTVM1.BITNET

ABSTRACT: Hanushek and Walberg use production function methodology to contend that there is no relationship between school expenditures and student achievement. Production function methodology uses correlational methods to demonstrate relationships between input and output in an economic system. These correlational methods may serve to hide rather than reveal these relationships. In this paper threats to the validity of these correlational methods for analysis of expenditure-achievement data are discussed and an alternative method of investigation is proposed. The proposed method is illustrated using data from two states (Ohio and Missouri). The method demonstrates relationships between expenditures and achievement that were overlooked by the production function method.

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Volume 1 Number 12

November 1, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Is Water an Input to a Fish?
Problems with the Production-Function
Model in Education

Steven Hodas
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
College of Education
University of Washington

ABSTRACT: The concept of a production-function as a metaphor of the educational process is critiqued. In particular, Monk's (1992) discussion of the production-function is seen as typical of the final stages of a dying paradigm.

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Volume 1 Number 13

November 15, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Against "Values"
Reflections on Moral language and Moral Education

Kenneth A. Strike
Cornell University

YZ5J@cornella.bitnet

ABSTRACT: It is increasingly popular to ask educational institutions to do something about values. It is also becoming possible to take substantive moral positions in schools. We have become increasingly concerned about the morals of our children. Much of the discussion of values is incoherent. Many educators contribute to the public babble about ethics because of how they talk about moral questions; they have acquired a dysfunctional and obfuscating vocabulary ("values speak") for describing ethical phenomena and ethical issues. Assertions about values are distinct from assertions about character. The question of how to form democratic character is a crucial question that society has almost stopped asking. We do occasionally put the question as one about democratic values. While "values speak" seems initially liberating, nevertheless, it easily contributes to an authoritarian outlook. Four pieces of advice to educators are offered: 1) do not let "values speak" make you deaf to the nuances of the complex moral vocabularies; 2) learn to think of a liberal arts education as part of professional training; 3) an essential moral practice is dialogue; 4) support those trends in educational reform that increase opportunities for conscientious moral dialogue among members of school communities.

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Volume 1 Number 14

November 22, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

Further Reflections on Moral Education: A Response to Strike

Rick Garlikov
Faculty of Education
Lawson State Community College

DEM042@UABDPO.DPO.UAB.EDU

ABSTRACT: While moral discourse is in need of much help, there is a solution which is not dependent on Kenneth Strike's remedy of understanding or building character, as such, and which teaches moral reasoning without promoting particular moral values or character traits. Further, contrary to Strike's claim, moral skepticism is not the main problem with moral debate today, which often features diametrically opposed, absolutely certain, dogmatic assertions by all sides. The author teaches ethics courses, and has found among students from a variety of ages and socio-economic backgrounds that the understanding of certain topics in ethics is necessary and often sufficient for promoting more reflective and responsible behavior, and for promoting discourse that has a greater chance to resolve differences.

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Volume 1 Number 15

December 23, 1993

ISSN 1068-2341

A Reply to Mr. Hodas

David H. Monk
Department of Education
Cornell University

ABSTRACT: In which David Monk offers arguments in rebuttal of the article by Steven Hodas (Problems with the Production Function Model in Education) which was published in this journal as Issue 12 of Volume 1.

© Copyright 1993 by the EDUCATION POLICY ANALYSIS ARCHIVES.

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EPAA Editorial Board

John Covaleskie jcovales@nmu.edu	Andrew Coulson andrewco@ix.netcom.com
Alan Davis adavis@castle.cudenver.edu	Mark E. Fetler fetlerctc.aol.com
Thomas F. Green tfgreen@mailbox.syr.edu	Alison I. Griffith agriffith@edu.yorku.ca
Arlen Gullickson gullickson@gw.wmich.edu	Ernest R. House ernie.house@colorado.edu
Aimee Howley ess016@marshall.wvnet.edu	Craig B. Howley u56e3@wvnvm.bitnet
William Hunter hunter@acs.ucalgary.ca	Richard M. Jaeger rmjaeger@iris.uncg.edu
Benjamin Levin levin@ccu.umanitoba.ca	Thomas Mauhs-Pugh thomas.mauhs-pugh@dartmouth.edu
Dewayne Matthews dm@wiche.edu	Mary P. McKeown iadmpm@asuvm.inre.asu.edu
Les McLean lmclean@oise.on.ca	Susan Bobbitt Nolen sunolen@u.washington.edu
Anne L. Pemberton apembert@pen.k12.va.us	Hugh G. Petrie prohugh@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
Richard C. Richardson richard.richardson@asu.edu	Anthony G. Rud Jr. rud@sage.cc.purdue.edu
Dennis Sayers dmsayers@ucdavis.edu	Jay Scribner jayscrib@tenet.edu
Robert Stonehill rstonehi@inet.ed.gov	Robert T. Stout stout@asu.edu