Suzy B Software 2/Suzy B Software CD-ROM 2 (1994).iso/kids/child_ed/intro.txt

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Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Assistant Secretary for Research and Improvement,
  Counselor to the Secretary

    As  Secretary Bennett notes in  his  foreword,  preparing
this  volume  was  the first assignment that I  received  when  I
joined  him at the Department of Education in June l985,  just as
restructuring  and streamlining the part of the  Department  that
produces  research and statistics was the first major  "organiza-
tional"  effort  that  Dr.  Bennett launched after  assuming  his
present office.
What  is  the message in these two actions?   They show  that  we
believe  strongly  in  the responsibility of  the  Department  of
Education  to  gather information and  generate  knowledge  about
education in an efficient and energetic manner and then make that
information  and knowledge accessible to people who might benefit
from them.
But it turns out to be easier to gather data and support research
than  to  make results available in forms that people  will  find
clear and useful.
Statistical data tend to come in vast,  indigestible  quantities,
often without the markers of changes and trends, improvements and
declines, that distinguish information that is merely interesting
from that which can form the basis for decisions and actions.  As
for research findings, scholars ordinarily write for other schol-
ars  and they seldom know as much as they think they should  know
before  drawing  definite conclusions.   In many research  areas,
furthermore, there are conflicts between rival interpretations of
the  same evidence,  and at every turn conclusions are hedged  by
the  well-known academic caution:   statistical correlation  does
not reliably indicate causation.   Finally,  scholars and  laymen
are often at odds about the significance of things.  What strikes
the  scholar as interesting and important may seem to the  layman
remote and trivial; what the layman wants most to know may strike
the researcher as banal, simplistic, or vague.
Despite  yeoman  efforts,  we may yet stumble into some of  those
traps  between the covers of this slim volume.   We  may  present
research findings that some readers will find obscure,  puzzling,
or impracticable and still others that seem to be oversimplifica-
tions  of  complex  phenomena or premature resolutions  of  hotly
contested disputes.
     This risk we must take, but we have tried to minimize it.
The book does not make a particular point,  beyond the  straight-
forward  one  that education is susceptible both to being  under-
stood and to being improved.  We have provided evidence from many
but  not all spheres of education research.   We sought  findings
that,  in Secretary Bennett's frequent phrase,  are "true, useful
and  important."   We included only those  findings  about  which
research evidence and expert opinion were consistent, persuasive,
and  fairly  stable over time.   Each finding in this volume  has
been  checked and rechecked by professional staff members in  the
Office  of  Educational Research and Improvement  and  by  expert
outside reviewers.   During this process, we discarded more items
than  we  kept,  among them dozens of research findings  that  we
judged to be less reliable,  less helpful,  or less consequential
than those we retained.
It  must also be noted that people do not necessarily agree about
what knowledge is most useful or important.   They may even  dis-
agree  about  what is "known," sometimes because the evidence  is
mixed,  sometimes  because one may not welcome the implication  of
another's  "knowledge."  Statistical  significance  aside,  since
what  is certain to one may be inconclusive to another,  we  have
tried to follow the wisdom of Socrates who explained (to Meno, in
Plato's  dialogue  of that name) that "true opinion is as good  a
guide to correct action as knowledge."  Solid knowledge is surely
to be preferred,  but to wait for absolute certainty is sometimes
to  wait too long,  particularly in the field of education  where
millions of children are affected every day by our actions.  If we
would  have  those actions be as well-informed  as  possible,  in
situations where we do not have knowledge we can reasonably allow
our  actions to be informed by "true opinion," by  what  informed
people judge to be the "most likely story."
In this volume,  as you will see,  we draw upon the knowledge and
opinions both of modern scholars and of distinguished thinkers of
earlier times.  Let me now take up several questions to which
readers may want answers.

Is this report comprehensive?
No.   In many branches of education that people regard as  impor-
tant,  not much formal research has yet been done,  or that which
has been done is fragmentary, inconclusive, or hotly disputed.  A
substantial  portion  of  educational research is  of  relatively
recent vintage,  and much that has been done in the past  several
decades has centered around this straight-forward question:
What  can  we  do to make it more likely that all  children  will
emerge  into adulthood with the basic skills and  knowledge  that
some  children  routinely seem to acquire as they pass from  home
through elementary and secondary school?
Because  variations  on that question  have--I  think  properly--
driven  so  much of our research to date,  we should not be  sur-
prised  that we have learned relatively more about it.  But  that
means less attention has thus far been devoted to other issues in
education that also deserve study.
Why do so many of these findings look so obvious?  Was "research"
really  needed  to reveal what intuition and common  sense  would
show?
In the absence of reliable and valid evidence or experience,  our
unprejudiced  views  are usually shaped by intuition  and  common
sense.   Until they are put to the test,  however,  one  person's
intuition  and  common sense are as  reliable--or  unreliable--as
another's,  and they are often in conflict.  In company with some
geographers and scientists of his day, Columbus surmised that the
world  was  round.   But many less astute observers embraced  the
conventional  wisdom of his time and insisted that it  was  flat;
this  "wisdom"  did  not change until Columbus  tested  the  true
opinion  of himself and the scientists with the voyage that  dis-
covered  America  and  proved their version of the  truth  to  be
correct.
In  education,  too,  research  sometimes appears to confirm  the
self-evident.   But  sometimes it raises important  doubts  about
conventional wisdom.
Why  is  so  much of the research about  elementary  schools  and
disadvantaged children?
This  situation  stems from the ambitious educational reforms  of
the 1960s.  Ironically,  it is also one more example of the fail-
ings of conventional wisdom.
Two  decades ago,  conventional wisdom about education held  that
disadvantaged  and minority children did poorly in school  mainly
because of the inequitable distribution of educational resources.
To  document this belief,  Congress commissioned a huge  national
survey of the schools.  The resulting project came to be known as
the  Coleman Report.   This was probably the best known and  most
influential  piece of educational research ever  published.   Its
conclusion  that  unequal achievement could not  be  ascribed  to
unequal  school resources so offended the conventional wisdom  of
the time that the next 20 years of educational research have been
dominated by the quest for contrary evidence.
But,  of course, the problem of educational disadvantage--a prob-
lem  still  with us today--was deeper and more complex  than  any
simple disparity in the size of school libraries or the condition
of  school  buildings.   Its roots reached into the home and  the
classroom.  Coleman's discovery, for example, that there was more
difference  in the achievement of black children within the  same
school  than from one school to another also led  researchers  to
examine  more closely the interaction between teacher and student
rather  than  just the effects  of  school  facilities,  spending
levels, or class size.
This  line of inquiry is visible throughout the past two  decades
of educational research,  much of which describes practices found
to  be particularly effective in fostering the academic education
of  disadvantaged school children.   Heated arguments  about  the
appropriate expectations and methods of instruction for disadvan-
taged  children  were  commonplace during the  1960s  and  1970s.
Research had to document common sense:   children are more likely
to learn the basics in schools that emphasize the basics and less
likely to learn them in schools that do not.
It  has been a worthy effort.   The critical features of instruc-
tion and organization for more effective schools were  documented
by  research.   (A number of them are summarized and repeated  in
this  volume.)  It is no coincidence that the achievement scores
of  disadvantaged  elementary school students have  steadily  im-
proved in the past decades.  That part of the academic puzzle has
been at least partly demystified.
Would  all children benefit equally from the application  of  the
facts and findings contained in this report?
Within  the  range and limits of the evidence,  we have tried  to
deal  with the "general" or "usual" or "average"  situation,  not
with all the special circumstances that are found among  millions
of  children,  tens  of thousands of schools,  and  thousands  of
school  systems in as many communities.   Hence no one will  find
here  a map out of every tangled situation or a solution to  each
distinctive problem.  In an enterprise as large and variegated as
American education, many children, teachers, parents, and schools
differ from the "general" in various respects.  But few differ in
all respects and we therefore hope that practically everyone will
find  something  of  interest  and relevance in  the  pages  that
follow.
Why does the report contain so few specific recommendations about
actions that should be taken?
This is not an education "cookbook" so much as a "guide to  sound
nutrition."   Specific policies,  practices,  and actions are the
responsibility  of  the parent and the school,  the  teacher  and
principal,  the  school  board and the  State.   The  appropriate
design and implementation of these policies,  practices,  and ac-
tions will differ according to local conditions and it is not the
place of the federal government to interfere.   Nor do we seek to
exhort  people  to do anything that contradicts their  own  "true
opinions", although we would urge you to subject them to the test
of experience at every opportunity.
The  purpose  of this volume is to provide  reliable  information
that people can,  if they wish,  put to use in various ways.   In
most instances, the reader will rapidly be able to visualize some
implications for action of findings that we have included.
Why  are so many of these findings aimed at parents and  teachers
rather  than at those who direct and make policy for the  "educa-
tion system?"
Let  us emphasize that many of them are indeed meant for  parents
as  well as for professional teachers.   Parents are the  child's
first and most influential teachers. If parents are not effective
teachers,  then  in most cases the school will have  far  greater
difficulty being effective.
As  for  administrators and policymakers,  we believe that  they,
too,  will find in this volume many implications--if not specific
recommendations  --for  their own  activities.   Besides  setting
overall standards and furnishing resources,
perhaps their most important function is to create the conditions
in which parents and teachers, working together, can maximize
educational effectiveness.
What of the students themselves?  Don't they share in
this responsibility?
    Indeed,  yes.   The passive learner usually doesn't learn
much  and the hostile student rarely learns anything  worthwhile.
Many  of the findings in this volume convey--or  assume--an  old-
fashioned  "desire  for  improvement" on the part of  the  child;
others indicate the sorts of actions that parents or teachers can
take to maximize the child's enthusiasm for learning and to avoid
chilling his ardor.
    While it is true that some children have difficulty mastering
complicated subjects,  few are without resources to do so.   More
commonly,  the  resources they have are underused.   Parents  can
play  vital and constructive roles in the education of their  own
children,  and  research  has illuminated sound methods  of  home
assistance.   Students  can add greatly to the time  provided  in
school  with time set aside at home for study and other forms  of
homework.   We  see  too  little "self-help" in  many  households
today, especially among those students whose academic achievement
is lagging and who need it the most.
What if I want to learn more than this volume contains? To assist
the reader interested in more evidence or in exploring the actual
research,  each  finding is accompanied by citations  of  several
sources  for further reading.   Most of these sources can be  ob-
tained through a good library.
In  turn,  many  of those citations lead to  articles,  books  or
studies that contain lengthy bibliographies of their own.  We did
not try to provide complete research documentation,  but in every
instance  we have pointed the direction to further--and  deeper--
understanding.   In  addition,  we would invite your attention to
the  Education Research Information Clearinghouse (ERIC)  system,
supported by the Education Department,  which provides  extensive
information  about  research findings and which can  be  accessed
through most libraries.
                              * * *
This  volume  appears at a special time.  American  education  is
undergoing  enormous reform,  a nationwide effort to improve  the
outcomes of schooling and reverse the decline in student achieve-
ment  that developed over the past quarter century.   Many of the
actors are new;  for example,  the governors of many States  have
taken  a deep interest in the quality of schools and colleges  in
their jurisdictions,  and many State legislatures have stolen the
march on the education profession in prescribing the reforms that
they  expect  will boost educational outcomes.   The contents  of
this volume ought to be of help to them,  as well as to  parents,
teachers and citizens.
We  do not,  however,  claim to be offering pat answers or simple
nostrums.  It is not reasonable to expect research to resolve all
issues or to erase all differences of opinion.  We can but supply
some  information that we think reliable and we will continue  in
the future to supply more.   But it is up to the American  people
to  decide what to do.   The better their information,  the wiser
will be their decisions.

                              * * *

    Finally,  on  behalf of Secretary Bennett as well as  my-
self,  I  want to thank the many individuals whose  efforts  made
this report possible.
Milton  Goldberg and Jim Bencivenga were responsible for  project
oversight  and  management.   Development and production  of  the
material in this volume was accomplished through the extraordina-
ru efforts of Tommy M. Tomlinson and Susan Traiman.  Editing
through  many  drafts was coordinated by Kay McKinney with  major
assistance from Laurie Maxwell.
Several dozen staff members of the Office of Educational
Research and Improvement also contributed to this project.

We especially appreciate the contributions of the outside
reviewers who did their best to help assure the accuracy,
veracity, validity, and importance of the contents of this
report:  Joseph Adelson, Lois Coit, Bernard R. Gifford,
Robert Glaser, Robert Hogan, Michael Kirst, Rita Kramer,
Leanna Landsmann, Jean Marzollo, and Diane Ravitch.
Particular thanks are due to Professor Herbert Walberg
for his manifold efforts on our behalf.  While the
Department of Education is properly responsible for any
error of style, substance, or selection, the willing
assistance of these reviewers has added immeasurably to
the quality of the result.