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Cracking the Code of Education Reform

Creative Compliance and Ethical Leadership

By: Christopher H. Tienken

Beyond simple commentary on reforms, this book introduces evidence-informed critique, ethical considerations, and creative compliance strategies as a practical framework school leaders can use in their everyday practice.

Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781544368214
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2019
Page Count: 176
Publication date: September 03, 2019

Price: $39.95

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Description

Lead between the lines— evaluate Ed policies to emphasize the positives and minimize the negatives

Although educational reform is intended for positive change, sometimes it misses the mark. However, when school leaders capitalize on the positive aspects of reforms they can strategize to ensure the best outcomes for students.

Christopher Tienken, professor and international speaker, shares his insights on how to identify both positive and negative aspects of education reform to maximize the benefits for students. This book introduces a practical framework for interpreting educational reform within an evidence-based practice, and provides thoughtful ways to finesse results out of challenging policies. Designed for use on the ground level, this book features:
• Seven specific creative compliance strategies to maximize student and educator success
• Case studies that illustrate how to critique reforms and take action
• Reflective questions to guide evaluation and application
• Ethical decision-making checklist

Analyzing both successful and unsuccessful reform ideas from the past, this book champions creative compliance and how to lead innovatively/judiciously.

Key features

There is no shortage of challenging issues confronted by public school leaders. The list seems to grow each year. School accountability plans, educator evaluation programs, standardization of curriculum and assessment, contradictory policy-maker expectations, and influences from international testing programs are just some of the current issues that exert pressure on public school leaders via rhetoric and education reform policy proposals. The lack of an integrated and practical framework from which to critique reforms can leave some school leaders in the position of supporting reforms that have long-term negative effects on students or educators. School leaders should be able to make accurate judgments about the ethics and efficacy of education reforms so they can decide whether they must defend students and educators from practices and policies built on nothing more than rhetoric, junk-science, and anti-intellectual ideology, or whether they should support a proposal or program founded on evidence of positive outcomes. This book is not an academic treatise on education reform. It is aimed squarely at practitioners and it is meant to be practical, yet it rests solidly on a foundation of empirical evidence.

· Part I presents the critique framework

· Part II presents critiques of some of the more dubious education reforms enacted since the inception of the No Child Left Behind Act: (a) rigor, (b) uses of standardized test results, (c) merit pay, and (d) TBD.

· Each chapter presents a case study critique, based on the six lenses of the framework

Author(s)

Christopher H. Tienken

Christopher Tienken, Ed.D. is an associate professor of leadership, management, and policy and education consultant. He has public school administration experience as a PK-12 assistant superintendent, middle school principal, director of curriculum and instruction, and elementary school assistant principal. He began his career in education as an elementary school teacher. Tienken is the former editor of the American Association of School Administrators Journal of Scholarship and Practice and the current editor of the Kappa Delta Pi Record.

Tienken’s research interests focus on curriculum and assessment policy and practice at the local, state, national, and international levels. He was selected in 2019 as the Lead Author and Principal Investigator for the AASA Decennial Study of the Superintendent and was invited to be a member of the Professors of Curriculum organization in 2015. The Seton Hall College of Education and Human Services named him Researcher of the Year in 2014 and Tienken received the Truman Kelley Award for Outstanding Scholarship from Kappa Delta Pi in 2013. The Institute of Education Sciences recognized his research about the effects of professional development on student achievement and the National Staff Development Council (Learning Forward) awarded him the Best Research Award in 2008.

Tienken has authored over 80 publications including book chapters and articles. His third book is Defying Standardization: Creating Curriculum for an Uncertain Future was awarded Outstanding Book by the Society of Professors of Education in 2019. His co-authored books include, The School Reform Landscape : Fraud, Myth, and Lies with Don Orlich and Education Policy Perils: Tackling the Tough Issues with Carol Mullen. He presents papers regularly at state, national, international, and private venues. Tienken has ongoing research collaborations with colleagues at the Universita` degli Studi Roma Tre, Rome, Italy, the University of Catania, Sicily, and he was named as a visiting professor at both universities.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Joshua Starr

Acknowledgments

About the Author

INTRODUCTION

Creatively Comply!

Reform Defined

Purposes

Audience

Framing the Issues

Organization of the Book

Features of the Book

Why I Wrote This Book

Part I. Reform Critique

CHAPTER 1. ETHICAL CONTEXT OF EDUCATION REFORM AND COMPLIANCE

Reform

Ethics Within the Context of Education Reform

The Ethical Dilemma

Ethical Responsibility

Leadership Take-Away: Ethics

CHAPTER 2. CREATIVE COMPLIANCE

Creative Leadership Pathways

Seven Creative Compliance Strategies

Compliance Entrepreneur

Failure Is an Option

Leadership Take-Away: Creative Compliance

CHAPTER 3. REFRAMING REFORM

Reframe It!

Framing Reform

A Framework for Critique

Ethical Evidence

Now What? and Creative Compliance

Leadership Take-Away: Framing Reform

Part II. Reform Case Studies

CHAPTER 4. CASE STUDY 1: REFRAMING RIGOR

Origins of Rigor

What Is Rigor?

Redefining Rigor

Complexity Versus Difficulty

Goldilocks View of Rigor

Complex Curriculum Standards

Rigor in the Context of Democracy

Functional Fixedness and Knowledge Reproduction

So What? Understanding the Big Picture of Rigor

Ethical Considerations

Creative Compliance and Now What?

Leadership Take-Away: Rigor

CHAPTER 5. CASE STUDY 2: USING OR ABUSING STANDARDIZED TEST RESULTS?

Large-Scale Use

Three-Legged Stool of Validity

Standards of Testing

So What? Understanding the Big Picture of Assessment Use

Ethical Considerations

Creative Compliance: Now What?

Leadership Take-Away: Testing Use

CHAPTER 6. CASE STUDY 3: MERIT PAY

Money for Merit

Theoretical Frameworks for Merit Pay

Previous Experience With Merit Pay in Education

Profit Over People

So What? Understanding the Big Picture of Merit Pay

Ethical Considerations

Creative Compliance: Now What?

Leadership Take-Away: Merit Pay

Part III. Promising Practices

CHAPTER 7. CASE STUDY 4: RECESS OF THE MIND

Walking in Their Shoes

Options for Recess of the Mind

Move It!

Recess of the Mind at Work

S.W.A.G

Mindfulness in Nanuet

Well-Being in White Plains

Charting a Course in Pennsylvania

So What? Understanding the Big Picture of Recess of the Mind

Creative Compliance

Leadership Take-Away: Recess of the Mind

CHAPTER 8. CASE STUDY 5: PROBLEM- AND PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

Importance of Active Learning

So What? Understanding the Big Picture of PBL

Creative Compliance

Leadership Take-Away: PBL

CHAPTER 9. FINAL ISSUES

Spencer Returns

Top 10

Crack the Code and Act!

References

Index

Reviews

In Cracking the Code of Education Reform Creative Compliance and Ethical Leadership Chris Tienken offers the reader an action plan for how to stay true to core values and ethics and still implement education reform on behalf of all students. Even in the era of “accountability” Tienken reminds us all that the student, not any test or reform is our “why” as educational leaders. Throughout the book, the “Try This” features offer in the moment professional learning opportunities. This is a must read for anyone interested in education!

Michael Lubelfeld, EdD, Author & Public School Superintendent
North Shore School District 112, Illinois