Class Reflection

Learned from the articles

Chrispeels- very well done study looking at implementation…..a little outdated. A lot has changed in California—how is this applied differently?

-used McDonough and Elmore—used as a frame in practice

Domina—can publish an article even if it doesn’t have the outcome desired….not desirable findings are still findings in themselves

Remember--Keep trying to tie back with earlier readings!!!!

STEM questions—group work.  Again-- love my seat and group :)

IROQUOIS case study

--do intermediaries take on a strong role because there is a swirl at the top (changing in superintendents often)

Revolving superintendents—someone gets it started but someone else has to finish it

--implications for implementation

·         Voicing concern, losing buy-in

·         Poor language—not putting positive spin on it

·         Said true feelings, but new superintendent will need to clean it up

--intermediaries

·         Stronger role because need buy-in

·         New guy needs all the information

--look back to chapter for unfunded mandates—Iroquois did apply for grant.  Understand disappointment but left a mess for the person after him.

--nowhere in the article do they talk about changing the current system and questioning the status quo

Are smaller districts put at a strong disadvantage because they don’t the resources to implement the right way?

Looking at things regionally—smaller, rural districts more likely to cooperate because they don’t have a lot of other resources

Class Reflection

Sometimes I think my focus is too narrow.  I started with a narrow college perspective and now it’s a little like all I know is law school….

The above is the only thing I have written in my word doc notes (I have more notes in the power point and on the group worksheet).  I leave class each week wanting to learn more and wishing I had access to more.  I know I do have access, but there's always the excuse of time-- I need to make time.  So right now, unfortunately, I'm adding it to the list.

When we were discussing contemporary issues, funding stood out to me, particularly with being at the law school (sometimes I feel like we're the ugly step-sister of main campus, particularly after sitting through meetings that we aren't paying enough for electricity, and we owe main campus more when I feel like the services provided to us from main campus--particularly if our requests are mostly on back burners- are not equal to what we are paying in return).  I though Virginia was bad, but there are certainly worse places.

--WM- 12% state funded, CO- 4% state funded (CO also had a huge program with vouchers, moving from public into private good realm)

Other challenges– organizational climate and pressures for accountability

-- Doing more with less

--Look at fowler chapter on implementation--- Resistance is a HUGE piece…almost it take more time to resist than to change.

--Assume certain things about learning, make assumptions that may/may not be true.  How do you even catch these assumptions to rethink and restructure what you are doing?

--If you are a new leader, how are you able to create space for creativity and safety in that space to come up with something new?  One of the challenges– how do we do this? I see this with my work.  My boss (who is wonderful and has been in her job for 30+ years) hired younger staff for new ideas, and I was excited for that.  Now, however, not much has been changed in the year I have been there due to resistance.  It can be frustrating, but part of it is taking baby steps.

It’s important to include people that have ideas that are different than yours (maybe even you don’t like….).  Transparency is also a big thing– let people know what you are doing.  This is something that Pam said that stood out to me-- yes, I should include people who have different opinions than me and really listen-- not let it go in one ear and out the other! :)

How do we help each other out?  We don’t know because we’re so focused on ourselves.

Always be able to ask

-who’s at the table?

-power sources?

-What are we assuming?

START with these and other things/assumptions will show up 

P.S.  Seat update-- I LOVED my seat this week.  I sat on the left side of the room and having teachers in the group was fantastic.  We had wonderful conversations in the class discussion that were inclusive of all members.  It was awesome-- I learned so much from this group and felt like I added a lot of value as well.

Class Discussion

The article critique portion of the class stood out to me the most! 

·         Research Design

o   Hypotheses based on type of government (conservative, social-democratic, liberal)—interesting they used regime versus government

o   Looked at indicators of participation and other indicators—seeing if it is grouped by government type

o   Where they got the date from is under the results section—from 2008 OECD Education­—supplemented with other information/data-- countries reported what wanted to, a lot of missing observations

·         Findings

o   Conservative regimes expanded less than liberal regimes

§  Same pattern with graduation rates

o   Policy makers should make decisions based on regime

§  Why do they have to do that?  Wouldn't they do that naturally?

§  How can they change outcomes if they’re only making policies based on your regime

·         Discussion/Conclusion

o   Useful that it was with four policy makers instead of one….multiple lenses

o   Interesting—sample age is 25-64—why so large?

o   Quote on page 22- why low achiever??  Does this mean tracking….

§  Conservative—people have their proper place I society—46

§  More extensive tracking….more money and resources

§  What about Fowler models….

o   Framework analysis helps with framing for article critiques

§  Also look at leadership and power—how are they being used

Take away from Article Discussion

·        You can always poke-- I really liked this language :)  

·        Can always cite Fowler and Smirch/Morgan—this will become second nature as you come along

o   Weick also with sense making

o   There is a cast of characters that you can start citing along the way

·         Soon—you will be able to see holes in anything and be able to increase your own writing

Online Class Reflection

I liked the online class and how we were still able to talk about the articles, but I did miss the face to face meeting.  The discussion board certainly has its pluses and minuses.

I liked hearing more voices, but I had a really hard time trying to remember who each person was.  I feel bad that I don't know as many people's names in the class.

However, this did help with understanding of the articles.  I did like how Pam helped to guide conversation, helped to get things deeper into the articles, and sometimes, we do not have that level of discourse about individual articles in class.

I would have liked to have the discussion board as a supplement to class discussion for some of the beginning, building block articles at the start of the semester.  I was frustrated with structure and how small the box was for threads—maybe smaller groups for next time if we use the discussion board again.  This wasn't the same as class, but it was an okay substitute :)

Reflection from Class Trip

I am exhausted-- I had such an amazing time yesterday, but I am tired.  I wish DC was closer, and the metro temperatures weren't so temperamental :)  My drive to/from the train station was fascinating since I had the opportunity to travel with Aliaksandr.  Some of our conversation was lost in the language barrier-- or at least, I had a bit of a hard time understanding him.  I can only imagine the hardships that he and his family went through and now to be working for a university in exile-- it's hard to wrap my head around it.  International convergence is certainly seen with Aliaksandr traveling to the US and visiting WM, Oberlin, and Earlham (which is where Fran Branford went).  I hope I have a chance to talk to him more before he leaves!

The first speaker was Chris Mullin from the Association of Community Colleges.  I learned so much from him and even had some of my views changed by getting more information (my viewpoints were similar but not as harsh as Kelly from Lou Baretta's office prior to this talk).  Highlights from his talk:

• His job is to inform, educate, and advise
• 26.4% of cc students already have a completion degree
• 7% of the student body is under the age of 18-- dual enrollment (this was 1.7% in 1993)
• The for-profit schools are not part of "the six"-- Chris doesn't know why, but I think it's a great thing!
• Chris believes that HS GPA is a higher predictor that tests since the diagnostics are better with consistent, repeated measures.  I don't agree fully.  I think there is a correlation between GPA, test scores, and student success.  Although tests are biased in how they constructed, I think they should still be considered to a point

Next up was Margaret Reed Miller.  I had never heard of the Common Core Standards until hearing Margaret talk.  Takeaways:

• curriculum is NOT equal to standards.  This is state led, state adopted, and teacher/school control the curriculum
• intentional design that is about outcomes, not teacher inputs.  CCS is a floor, not a ceiling.
• 45 states have adopted/in the process.
• Exceptions-- VA (SOL very high quality), AK and MN (very similar/adopted part), NE (lower standards), TX (Texas is Texas and dropped out of virtually all common state organizations)
• CCS are college and career ready standards.  Federal law (Race to the Top) states that states need to have college and career ready standards.  Doesn't say that they need to adopt CCS but many states have opted for this
• Why Common Standards?  Consistency, equity, opportunity, clarity, economies of scale.  This is creating a marketplace focused on quality.  With military children, for example, quality increases or decreases depending on location.
• I learned a lot about why the opposition exists-- CCS seems great to me, but I can understand how there is opposition-- could appear to be fed gvt overreaching instead of coming from the outside
• LOVED the graph with how the US teaches math-- we do everything in math every year-- a mile wide, inch deep.  Thought it was really interesting that China is switching to our model-- happy that Hong Kong is sticking with the no tricks, just learn the math.

Lunch with Alumnae.

• I thought Christen Cullum Hairston was fantastic- she was so down to earth, and it was great to hear how her undergrad connects to her dissertation and then on to what she does at work on a daily basis.  A big plug for the liberal arts!  I also appreciated how her dissertation is taking a little longer than expected.  She got her stuff together, so it gives me hope that I will get my thesis in gear soon.
• I'm sure Cristin Toutsi is very nice, but she seemed a little too corporate for me.  I know we all work for the man in some way shape or form, but the ultimate "man" is college presidents and trustees.  I interned for my college president for a year, and I don't know if I could play that political game in education.  She was a little drier than the other Christen, and you could tell she worked at a corporate non-profit-- lots of money (ie-- she talked about all of her cab fares to be reimbursed-- I think it's the metro for almost all other groups).  
• The two were good for information but also for juxtaposition.  I don't mean to knock anyone, but it helped me frame that I would rather go toward student services than administration.  The hard thing though is in admissions, it's harder to get to more student services.  I want to be less like "the man" if I can.

Department of Ed.  For all the travel that we did there, I was sadly underwhelmed.  For all the travel, we went though, I was hoping for a little more....whatever that might be.  First of all, dress was surprisingly casual.  Second, none of their backgrounds were as strong with on the ground teaching or even policy as I would want the people making larger educational decisions.  The second speaker was stuck in the political machine.  He did not seem passionate about his work and was only placed in his position due to his political connections.  That was disappointing.  The third speaker-- focus on K-12-- was the best of the three.  Stronger background-- taught in a private school and then instructional aid (most likely-- no teaching certification ).  He at least was passionate and excited about his work and well-informed.  Will things change come January or will it be more of the same in the Dept of Ed?

It was wonderful to hear Ilana Brunner and Kelly ___ back to back.  Ilana represents Bobby Scott (Democrat) and Kelly represents Lou Baretta (Republican).  I wouldn't think that both ladies are not from the districts or event states that their bosses represent...but I guess you can believe in the people and find attachment to a geographic area while working with the constituents.  I really liked how Ilana talked about her background and how she wanted to work with the intersection between civil rights and education.

• Ilana was soft-spoken and addresses us in what seemed like more facts.  Kelly probably had facts on her side, but because she was speaking so impassioned, it almost seemed like she was doing a sales pitch.  But Kelly did want to hear more from us and our opinions and Ilana was just telling us stories.
• Different ideas on NCLB re-authorization
• Kelly- Congress set aside, Exec and Dept of Ed overreaching.  NCLB went through right process.
• Ilana- NCLB- "soft bigotry of low expectations". 
• Race to the Top and CCS
• Kelly- does not agree-- process concern.  states should decide own goals and receive funding once evidence of goal attainment.  She would prefer funded focuses on existing things, like IDEA and Title 1 school funding.  CCS came mostly from the outside and wishes employers were at the table.  She would be fine with CCS if it went through the right legislatively process.
• Ilana talked more about education in general and how education beginning at birth is too late-- she spend a lot of time talking about teen mothers and educating them to be better parents; therefore, things would be better for their children.  The Youth Promise Act seems like a great for more activities during the afternoon hours (most crime happens between 3-6 pm and 2/3 prisoners are HS dropouts).  She talked about future savings by investing money now-- I say let's do it :)  HS jobs are definitely much cheaper and more beneficial than incarceration.

GREAT TRIP!  Loved having a day full of speakers and on the ground policy makers!

Class Reflection- Week 6

I have a new favorite person, and her name is Fran Bradford.  I love that she is an outspoken woman who just says what's on her mind.  I imagine that she can't do that all the time, but I could see her saying what this thinks over what is necessarily pc/business, and I really respect that.

Thanks to Jess for asking Fran about her background because I always find it interesting to see the circular paths people take to get where they are.  A degree in art-- like my degree in political science and history-- I know how to "think" but it took some help to figure out how studying what I was interested in could help me find a job that I enjoy.  Also shows again that who you know is helpful-- yes, you need to make opportunities for yourself but a foot in the door never hurt.

Fran provided a great framework and discussion of the 2011 Higher Education Opportunity Act of Virginia and the 2005 Restructuring Act.  Language plays such a large role in these laws, especially who was initiating it and why.  Big differences—Restructuring was a ground up initiative while Higher Ed was top down  and much more political.   As a top down act, 100,000 more degrees are wanted from VA, and this comes from grow by degrees (if you multiply this number by 50, this is the amount of graduates encouraged by some federal law
• Mass differences across the state schools what they need to do—help with retention and grad (comm colleges) to take more students in (WM, already high graduation rates)

She also gave us some background into the process and the different laws-- to test drive the language of these acts before going in for a vote, public meetings were held.  I'm really interested in this.  In class and in the readings, we have talked about different laws and how the laws provide the framework but not the money or infrastructure to enact these laws.  Do the people at the public meetings know this?  That the law may not actually be enacted as written due to vague language and no funding?

My last bit of my notes from Fran's talk is:
SCHEV is drowning in data—great dissertation, would love to help.  THESIS topic??  SCHEV data compared to the student satisfaction survey that college seniors complete (would be interesting to compare the SCHEV data and graduation/job placement to college satisfaction from one school in the Commonwealth to the other, especially for WM as liberal arts school-- Fran's comment that WM grades don't make more than other recent grads in Commonwealth but have higher growth potential, potentially, but take advantage of opportunities of gap year, Peace Corp, etc).  I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself....

From the Fowler reading, here is my order of my social values:

1. Liberty
2. Equality
3. Efficiency
4. Individualism
5. Order
6. Quality
7. Fraternity
8. Economic Growth

I'm not sure why economic growth is last (since it drives so much of life around us), but I have somehow been okay when the economy has not been.  I guess I care about the other things more, but I imagine my list would change as my life circumstance alter.

Week Five, "Class" Reflection

Week Four- Class Reflection

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” -Toni Morrison

Having Anne Charity Hudley in class tonight was great-- it was really interesting to hear her talk about meaning making along with symbols and language and especially how as educators do we best best reflect, serve, and incorporate the communities we serve?

Key question that has driven her research—How do we value the home language and build on it while learning standardized English, without demeaning the student’s linguistic and cultural background?

-This resonated with me, particularly after taking the Leadership and Cultural Competency class.  We read many articles about how people were thought to not be as smart due to accent (southern drawl), culture, etc.  

 The comment that Professor Hudley made about talking so well for being black is something I have heard and read about on many occasions.  (microaggression!!)

Another thing that stuck out was when we talked about front porch initatiatves.  At Bucknell, all the dorms were made out of "Bucknell brick", with the exception of the 7th Street House for Africana studies.  This was a big rambling house with an awesome front porch, and the house did a lot of their programming right on their front porch.  This was a big aha moment for me-- and I wish I would have been able to make that connection earlier.

I really enjoyed the connections that her talk made directly to the readings.  I loved hearing about Prof. Hudley's research but especially how it has implications in the everyday, particularly with the variations in language depending on the time and place and that we speak differently going from one situation to the other.

When do I speak differently?

- with my husband

- with friend versus work

- in my office vs admin meetings

-this list goes on, but it made me think about my persona-- and made me think critically if just the way I spoke changed or who I was as a person. I should be the same from one scenario to the other-- but am i?

 Acronym ultimately based on S&M's Observations/reading--SPEAKING

-thought this was a great concise way to explain it

·         S- setting and scene.—stands for time and place as well as the psychological characteristics of communication 

·         P- participants—speakers and audience—both intended and unintended

o    Ex- wedding toast- intended audience are guests, unintended- catering staff

·         E- ends-stands for purpose of the communication and what participants seek to accomplish

·         A- at sequence- refers to the form of the order of the communicative event.  Discourse order of the situation

·         K- key represents the tone, manner, spirit of communication, much as we talk about music being in a certain key.  The key can be communicated both verbally and nonverbally.  (key should relate to end goal)

·         I- instrumentalities- forms and styles of speech that are used

·         N- norms refer to the social conventions governing the communication, including the participants’ actions and how the events unfolds

o    How the social interactions and the norms of the school influence/suggest how you act/respond

·         G- Genre- refers to the type of communication—written, oral, multimedia

Microagressions-- I also found this really interesting.  I was always outspoken as the oldest of five children, but I feel like I really found my voice during my freshman year of high school when I attended an all-girls school.  Not having males around for some reason was so liberating  and I felt like I could really speak my mine.  Then when my family moved, I went to a very rural high school.  I was called a dumb cheerleader, etc, and being outspoken in such a small, conservation town, I certainly had microagressions targeted against me. 

But I'm hypocritical and use my own toward others-- the most common one is "Oh, Honey" -- similar to the Bless your heart we talked about.  I need to work on this.

 Speaking out and being your own advocate is important, especially when women aren't heard or don't speak up as much.  One of my favorite readings/books from my organizational behavior class was entitled Women Don't Ask and it discussed that women make significantly less because they don't ask for me/don't negotiate.  I do more publicity for my blog than for me personally, but I appreciate how much Prof. Hudley puts herself out there to advance her career and does it deliberately.

Here is my last note from Prof. Hudley's talk--

Hmm—I want to help her with research---fourth book, college area.  How/when can I get involved?

I think maybe I need to get my master's thesis done first, but it's a thought :)


At the end of class, we watched the videos from bureaucrats, President Reveley, and teachers, and we filled out the worksheet "language and symbols of policy."  Depending on the actor, the tone and approach was very different.  Kerri's point about ethos, logos, and pathos was very appropriate, and it was another thing that made perfect sense, but I don't think I could make the connection on my own.  I should have because I am tutoring a young man in tenth grade English, and that's what we covered this past weekend :)

P.S.  I did reach my goal for this week-- I sat in a different seat this week-- I met a couple wonderful people, but one not so great person.  In the downtime sitting next to him, he told me was sorry for me because I advise one of the "bad" sororities, sang a song about my sorority's stereotypes, and insulted my rec kick ball team.  I was and still am so taken aback.  I know we all have our own biases, but I would hope that in a professional setting or with someone new, you wouldn't put them out there so easily.  It makes me a little sad and a little worried for the students that he works with and if they get a fair deal when working with him.

Week Three- Class Reflection

It was great to be in class last night.  I felt a little out of place because I don't know people too well, so I need to try to be more social, remember names, etc for next week!

I really love the discussions in this course and how much I learned about the content but also from each other.  When we discussed the Fowler definitions, it was great to hear what definitions stood out to others.  The instructor at TNCC was also drawn to the definition I liked (compromise and leading to more problems) although he through the use of problems could be type o.  I liked it because compromise (while important) can often water things down and doesn't necessarily fix the problems it had meant to and, in fact, create additional problems.

Talking about coupling helped a lot too, especially the examples others provided-- airport, circus, where there is a center than influences everything (air traffic control, circus master) and the outside things (planes, elephants) don't change the overall picture and how things run.  My example of law school ranking was a little muddle, but I think your perception of where you are in the law school system also influences whether you think you are tightly or loosely coupled to rankings.

This diagram helped me the most:

For the group work, the prompt was to look at policy process (ch 1) first and then through lens of each of four theoretical frameworks (ch 12).  Here's what our group came up with-- it made sense for me but not necessarily other group members, but I like to look at things linearly (first column) and put things in neat, tidy boxes (even if that always can't happen- I will still try) with the other columns.

	Competing Values	Policy Types	Institutional Choice	International Convergence
Issue Definition
Agenda Setting
Policy Formulation
Policy Adoption
Implementation
Evaluation

I loved the conversation our group had about assessments.  It was great to have K-12 perspective, higher ed perspectives, and even my perspective at the law school.  When I was working in undergrad/liberal arts, I would have said absolutely no to national assessments in college.  Now from the law school side, I am not too sure.  Maybe there needs to be something unifying what skills and abilities students graduate with. I see too much variation in writing and speaking abilities in the law school admissions process to not feel like more of our students should be better prepared when coming to law school.

The fishbowl was a really interesting exercise.  I would be nervous to be in the hot spot, but I always wanted to speak up during the conversations.  The conversation about the Culver article mirrored my own ideas that it wasn't as successful as intended since all schools didn't participate and inputted only the data they wanted to share.  CHEV wants tight coupling and the institutions want loose (I didn't think about that when reading since I didn't read the coupling articles at that point).  The fishbowl overall was great.  It was really interesting to be an outside and have that perspective.

Week Two- "Class" Reflection

I wasn't in class (recruiting in Atlanta-- and boy, can I say a lot about my thoughts on HBCUs, privates, and large public institutions when it comes to career and professional school preparation just from my couple hours at each type of campus and interacting with their students and staff-- but that can wait for another day) last night, but two of my financial aid group members sent me their notes!

I watched the Shift Happens video, but this wasn't the first time I watched it.  I watched it previously in a Career Development course and found it so interesting.  Looking at it from a policy perspective, I really enjoyed it in a completely different way than when I first saw it.  With the career course, I took it more with we need to prep our students with life skills that will make them successful and adaptable in an ever changing job market.

From a policy standpoint, I had to really think about it.  With things changing so much, how can we make broad policies and expect them to stick and be rigid for long periods of time.  That's in direct opposition to how our students will need to react in the world, and it could put us at a disadvantage (if it hasn't already).  It also confirmed ideas of international convergence and how need to emulate what works in other countries (particularly those with growing economics and workforces) to help our students after they leave the traditional school system.

It also made me feel a little hopeless because we working withing many educational policies that are not successfully and are potentially disadvantaging our students with teachers teaching to a test at the end of the year instead of teaching students to think critically and analytically.  Important skills are being removed out of the classroom that need to be brought back in.

Week One- Class Reflection

I just left our first class, and I am feeling a little overwhelmed and out of my league.  I feel like my viewpoint is a little narrowly defined, and I do not have the background that many of the other students have.

I chose to take this class because I knew it would be a challenge, but more importantly, I thought it would be really interesting since I don't have any background in educational policy.  I was hoping that my coursework in my Master's program would help, but I can certainly see a difference in this class with all doctoral students versus my cross-listed graduate/undergrad classes.

I am hoping that this course will push me to think bigger and broader.  For example, when we discussed critical incidents, my example was on my alma mater's alcohol policy.  I thought it applied well to what we were discussing, and it did, but the scenarios that my group members brought to the table were much broader and had more real world implications that a college's alcohol policy.  I think the difference could be that my group was mostly K-12 and my background is in higher ed.  Having a discussion with my group members was really beneficial for me, and I hope that I also added some value back to the group.

In looking at our critical incidents in general, we saw that the policies were all top-down and buy-in was not created before implementation, and how the policy would be implemented and reacted to was not also thought through or the reaction was not anticipated by the policy makers.  It was a good group discussion, but the discussion as a class was ever better.

While a little overwhelmed, I really enjoyed this class meeting.  It makes me excited for two weeks (I need to miss a week for work, and I hope I don't feel too behind when I return) and to push me to add value to the class discussion.