DOCSLIB.ORG

A Critical Study of the National Institute for School Leadership in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts John Michael Perella University of Massachusetts Boston

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Critical Study of the National Institute for School Leadership in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts John Michael Perella University of Massachusetts Boston University of Massachusetts Boston ScholarWorks at UMass Boston Graduate Doctoral Dissertations Doctoral Dissertations and Masters Theses 6-1-2012 A Critical Study of the National Institute for School Leadership in the Commonwealth Of Massachusetts John Michael Perella University of Massachusetts Boston Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umb.edu/doctoral_dissertations Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Perella, John Michael, "A Critical Study of the National Institute for School Leadership in the Commonwealth Of Massachusetts" (2012). Graduate Doctoral Dissertations. Paper 75. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Doctoral Dissertations and Masters Theses at ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SCHOOL LEADERSHIP IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS A Dissertation Presented by JOHN M. PERELLA Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies University of Massachusetts Boston, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION June 2012 Leadership in Urban Education Program © 2012 by John M. Perella All rights reserved A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SCHOOL LEADERSHIP IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS A Dissertation Presented by JOHN M. PERELLA Approved as to style and content by: _________________________________________________ Jack Leonard, Assistant Professor Chair of Committee _________________________________________________ Joseph Check, Professor Member _________________________________________________ Ray Shurtleff, Lecturer Member ________________________________________________ Joseph Check, Graduate Program Director Leadership in Urban Schools ________________________________________________ Wenfan Yan, Chair Department of Leadership in Education ABSTRACT A CRITICAL STUDY OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SCHOOL LEADERSHIP IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS June 2012 John M. Perella, B.A., University of Massachusetts Amherst M.A.T., Salem State University C.A.G.S., Salem State University Ed.D., University of Massachusetts Boston Directed by Assistant Professor Jack Leonard Since 2005, the National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) has contributed to school leadership training in Massachusetts and has trained over 945 superintendents, principals and school administrators with a very unique mission and leadership style (MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2010) and yet very little is known about the program origins or philosophy. The current study seeks to understand NISL’s origins, objectives and financial and philosophical foundations while determining the extent it is understood by educators who have been through the training. This research utilized critical theory to conduct a qualitative study through content analysis of the curriculum and interviews of NISL leadership, facilitators, participants and DESE leaders involved in its implementation. Neoliberal and iv privatization indicators were also developed and used to determine trends and relationship within the program. NISL is a program that was created by a small group of public school reformers from The National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE), a Washington think tank. Unlike the academies of the past, NISL is a non-collegiate, for-profit, private institution. It was developed as a means to influence public education through the benchmarked training of school leaders and was initially resourced by a combination of private and non-profit organizations. NISL’s philosophical foundation derives primarily from Marc Tucker, a noted leader of the standards driven education reform movement, and NCEE. They, in turn, benchmarked the structures and strategies of military, private business and international leadership training and education systems. Participant awareness of the NISL program (history, context and agenda) is minimal. The findings reveal that there are strong elements of both privatization efforts and neoliberalism within the NISL program. v DEDICATION To Elizabeth, Jack and Benjamin To my parents – Thank you for always believing in me To Thea vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am unable to put into words the role Dr. Jack Leonard has played in my completion of this dissertation. I cannot imagine how many times he had to read, re-read and edit my research. You may know this material better than I do! I will truly miss our discussions, thank you. I must also thank David DeRuosi. You have always pushed me to take my thoughts to the next level. Thank you to the entire LIUS staff. Tricia Kress, Joe Check, Jay Dee, Ray Shurtleff and Molly Pedriali – you all played an enormous role in helping me complete this feat. And thank you to my classmates in the 2006 cohort, especially Dianne Kelly. Working with you made my experience in the program unforgettable. Thank you to my family and friends for understanding and believing in me. Thank you to my three beautiful children, Elizabeth, Jack and Benjamin. From your love, I found the strength to complete this study. Thank you to Thea Popolizio, you have been with me for every step on this journey. Finally, thank you to all the participants in this study. I will never forget your words and kindness. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION....................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................... vii CHAPTER Page 1. RATIONALE FOR EXAMINING THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SCHOOL LEADERSHIP ............................................................................1 Introduction......................................................................................1 Initial Problem Statement ................................................................4 The National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) .....................5 NISL Engagement in Massachusetts .............................................11 Purpose...........................................................................................12 Research Questions........................................................................13 Context...........................................................................................13 Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks ......................................18 Methodology..................................................................................21 Rationale and Benefits ...................................................................22 2. CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS WITH LITERATURE REVIEW ..........................................................................23 Rationale ........................................................................................23 Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks ......................................24 Theoretical Framework.............................................................24 Historical Contextualization .....................................................30 Neoliberalism and its Role in Public Education .......................38 Growth of Neoliberalism ..........................................................44 Privatization ..............................................................................45 Comparative Leadership Curricula................................................57 Previous Research on NISL...........................................................64 3. METHODOLOGY ................................................................................66 Introduction to Methods.................................................................66 Participants.....................................................................................69 Research Parameters and Time Line..............................................71 Data Collection and Analysis.........................................................74 Limitations and Conclusions..........................................................78 4. RESEARCH CONDUCTED.................................................................81 Introduction....................................................................................81 viii CHAPTER Page 2011 Old Dominion Report ...........................................................82 NISL and NCEE ............................................................................85 Interview Findings .........................................................................89 NISL Operations .......................................................................93 NISL in Massachusetts .............................................................96 The NISL Experience ...............................................................98 The NISL Plan for the Future ...................................................99 Participant Awareness of the History/Foundation of NISL....102 The NISL Curriculum..................................................................103 Key Informants .......................................................................107 The Business Model................................................................111 The Military Model.................................................................116 What is Missing from the NISL Curriculum ..........................120 Marc Tucker.................................................................................121
Load more

Recommended publications
  • I Used to Be Antifa Gabriel Nadales
    I Used to be Antifa Gabriel Nadales There was a time in my life when I was angry, bitter, and deeply unhappy. I wanted to lash out at the whole “fascist” system—the greedy, heartless power structure that didn’t care about me or the rest of society’s innocent victims, a system that had robbed, beaten and stolen from my ancestors. The whole corrupt edifice deserved to be brought down, reduced to rubble. I was a perfect recruit for Antifa, the left-wing group which claims to fight against fascism. And so, I became a member. Now I was one of those who had the guts to fight against “the fascists” who were exploiting disadvantaged people. I wasn’t a ‘card-carrying’ antifascist—there is no such thing as an official Antifa membership. But I was ready at a moment’s notice to slip on the black mask and march in what Antifa calls “the black bloc”—a cadre of other black-clad Antifa members— to taunt police and destroy property. Antifa stands for “antifascist,” but that’s purposefully deceptive. For one thing, the very name is calibrated so that anyone who dares to criticize the group or its tactics can be labeled “fascist.” This allows Antifa to justify violence against all who dare stand up or speak out against them. A few groups boldly declare themselves Antifa, like “Rose City Antifa” in Portland. But most don’t, preferring to avoid the negative publicity. That’s part of Antifa’s appeal—and strength: It’s hard to pin down.
    [Show full text]
  • Common Core State Standards and Race to the Top an Introduction to Marxism 101
    Common Core State Standards and Race to the Top An Introduction to Marxism 101 Restore Oklahoma Public Education By Jenni White, Lynn Habluetzel and Jo Joyce Smashwords Edition © 2011 Jenni White, Lynn Habluetzel and Jo Joyce Thank you for downloading this free eBook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support. Chapter One AMERICA'S FOUNDERS SPEAK ABOUT EDUCATION Immediately after the founding of our nation, literacy rates in America1 ranged from 70 percent to virtually 100 percent though most newly-minted citizens were grievously poor by today's standards.2 In fact, the French political thinker DeTocqueville commented on American education during his visit to America in the 1830's, "In New England every citizen receives the elementary notions of human knowledge; he is taught, moreover, the doctrines and the evidences of his religion, the history of his country and the leading features of the Constitution. In the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts, it is extremely rare to find a man imperfectly acquainted with all these things, and a person wholly ignorant of them is a sort of phenomenon."3 In 1843, Daniel Webster described the oratory and language skills of even children in America by saying, "And whatever may be said to the contrary, a correct use of the English language is, at this day [1843], more general throughout the United States than it is throughout England herself."4 The Founders of our country believed that the key to a free Republic was a public education for ALL children.
    [Show full text]
  • Our 2020 Form
    PUBLIC DISCLOSURE COPY Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax OMB No. 1545-0047 Form 990 Under section 501(c), 527, or 4947(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code (except private foundations) 2020 a Department of the Treasury Do not enter social security numbers on this form as it may be made public. Open to Public Internal Revenue Service a Go to www.irs.gov/Form990 for instructions and the latest information. Inspection A For the 2020 calendar year, or tax year beginning , 2020, and ending , 20 B Check if applicable: C Name of organization LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE D Employer identification number Address change Doing business as 51-0235174 Name change Number and street (or P.O. box if mail is not delivered to street address) Room/suite E Telephone number Initial return 1101 N HIGHLAND STREET (703) 247-2000 Final return/terminated City or town, state or province, country, and ZIP or foreign postal code Amended return ARLINGTON, VA 22201 G Gross receipts $ 24,354,691 Application pending F Name and address of principal officer: MORTON BLACKWELL H(a) Is this a group return for subordinates? Yes ✔ No SAME AS C ABOVE H(b) Are all subordinates included? Yes No I Tax-exempt status: 501(c)(3) 501(c) ( ) ` (insert no.) 4947(a)(1) or 527 If “No,” attach a list. See instructions J Website: a WWW.LEADERSHIPINSTITUTE.ORG H(c) Group exemption number a K Form of organization: Corporation Trust Association Other a L Year of formation: 1979 M State of legal domicile: VA Part I Summary 1 Briefly describe the organization’s mission or most significant activities: EDUCATE PEOPLE FOR SUCCESSFUL PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT, POLITICS AND MEDIA.
    [Show full text]
  • Spring 2013 COME Volume 14 Number 3
    the Flame The Magazine of Claremont Graduate University Spring 2013 COME Volume 14 Number 3 The Flame is published by Claremont Graduate University 150 East Tenth Street Claremont, California 91711 ©2013 by Claremont Graduate BACK TO University Director of University Communications Esther Wiley Managing Editor Brendan Babish CAMPUS Art Director Shari Fournier-O’Leary News Editor Rod Leveque Online Editor WITHOUT Sheila Lefor Editorial Contributors Mandy Bennett Dean Gerstein Kelsey Kimmel Kevin Riel LEAVING Emily Schuck Rachel Tie Director of Alumni Services Monika Moore Distribution Manager HOME Mandy Bennett Every semester CGU holds scores of lectures, performances, and other events Photographers Marc Campos on our campus. Jonathan Gibby Carlos Puma On Claremont Graduate University’s YouTube channel you can view the full video of many William Vasta Tom Zasadzinski of our most notable speakers, events, and faculty members: www.youtube.com/cgunews. Illustration Below is just a small sample of our recent postings: Thomas James Claremont Graduate University, founded in 1925, focuses exclusively on graduate-level study. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, distinguished professor of psychology in CGU’s School of a consortium of seven independent Behavioral and Organizational Sciences, talks about why one of the great challenges institutions. to positive psychology is to help keep material consumption within sustainable limits. President Deborah A. Freund Executive Vice President and Provost Jacob Adams Jack Scott, former chancellor of the California Community Colleges, and Senior Vice President for Finance Carl Cohn, member of the California Board of Education, discuss educational and Administration politics in California, with CGU Provost Jacob Adams moderating.
    [Show full text]
  • INTERNSHIP RESOURCES and HELPFUL SEARCH LINKS These Sites Allow You to Do Advanced Searches for Internships Nationwide
    CHRISTENDOM COLLEGE OFFICE OF CAREER & LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 2017 INTERNSHIP LIST New Jobs…………………………………………………………………………….. 2 Politics/Non-profit…………………………………………………………………... 3 Public Policy/Non-profit …………………………………………………………... 5 Business……………………………………………………………………………... 10 Journalism and Media ……………………………………………………………… 11 Catholic/Pro-Life/Religious Freedom ……………………………………………… 13 Academic/Student Conferences and Fellowships ………………………………….. 14 Other ………………………………………………………………………………... 15 Internship Resources and Search Links …………………………………………….. 16 Please note: this is not meant to be exhaustive list, nor are all internships endorsed by Christendom College or the Office of Career Development. Many of the internships below are in the Metropolitan DC area, but there are thousands of internships available around the country. Use the resources on pg. 16 to do a search by field and location. Questions? Need help with your resume, cover letter, or composing an email? Contact Colleen Harmon: [email protected] ** Indicates alumni have or currently do work at this location. If you plan to apply to these internships, please let Colleen know so she can notify them. 1 NEW JOBS! National Journalism Center- summer deadline March 20 The National Journalism Center, a project of Young America's Foundation, provides aspiring conservative and libertarian journalists with the premier opportunity to learn the principles and practice of responsible reporting. The National Journalism Center combines 12 weeks of on-the- job training at a Washington, D.C.-based media outlet and once-weekly training seminars led by prominent journalists, policy experts, and NJC faculty. The program matches interns with print, broadcast, or online media outlets based on their interests and experience. Interns spend 30 hours/week gaining practical, hands-on journalism experience. Potential placements include The Washington Times, The Washington Examiner, CNN, Fox News Channel, and more.
    [Show full text]
  • Vincent Russo Represents Clients on a Diverse Set of Legal and Public Policy Matters
    Vincent Russo represents clients on a diverse set of legal and public policy matters. He was previously the Executive Counsel to Georgia Secretaries of State Brian Kemp and Karen Handel from 2008 to 2014, and served as the Assistant Commissioner of Securities in Georgia. Vincent currently serves as campaign counsel to Kemp for Governor and is Chief Deputy General Counsel to the Georgia Republican Party. Vincent has over a decade of legal, regulatory, and policy experience in Georgia, including in the areas of financial services, professional licensing, tax, real estate, elections, and procurement. He has worked on legislation involving the Georgia Civil Practice Act, the Georgia Business Corporations Code, the Georgia Election Code, the Georgia Uniform Securities Act, the Vincent Revised Georgia Trust Code, several professional licensing boards, and investment tax credits. In 2011 and 2012, Vincent oversaw and was Russo instrumental in the comprehensive overhaul of Georgia’s securities [email protected] regulations while serving as the Assistant Commissioner of Securities. Phone: 404-856-3260 Vincent brings a profound understanding of the pivotal relationship between government, business, and the law to his clients. As a litigator, Vincent represents clients in an array of business disputes, shareholder actions, real estate litigation, and administrative proceedings. He also advises clients bidding on government contracts, including representing them in procurement disputes. Because of his experience in both the public and private sector, Vincent is able to develop strategic plans to achieve his clients’ legislative, regulatory, and policy objectives at all levels of government, and provide direct advocacy with key government decision-makers on issues critical to his clients.
    [Show full text]
  • Download File
    Tow Center for Digital Journalism CONSERVATIVE A Tow/Knight Report NEWSWORK A Report on the Values and Practices of Online Journalists on the Right Anthony Nadler, A.J. Bauer, and Magda Konieczna Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 7 Boundaries and Tensions Within the Online Conservative News Field 15 Training, Standards, and Practices 41 Columbia Journalism School Conservative Newswork 3 Executive Summary Through much of the 20th century, the U.S. news diet was dominated by journalism outlets that professed to operate according to principles of objectivity and nonpartisan balance. Today, news outlets that openly proclaim a political perspective — conservative, progressive, centrist, or otherwise — are more central to American life than at any time since the first journalism schools opened their doors. Conservative audiences, in particular, express far less trust in mainstream news media than do their liberal counterparts. These divides have contributed to concerns of a “post-truth” age and fanned fears that members of opposing parties no longer agree on basic facts, let alone how to report and interpret the news of the day in a credible fashion. Renewed popularity and commercial viability of openly partisan media in the United States can be traced back to the rise of conservative talk radio in the late 1980s, but the expansion of partisan news outlets has accelerated most rapidly online. This expansion has coincided with debates within many digital newsrooms. Should the ideals journalists adopted in the 20th century be preserved in a digital news landscape? Or must today’s news workers forge new relationships with their publics and find alternatives to traditional notions of journalistic objectivity, fairness, and balance? Despite the centrality of these questions to digital newsrooms, little research on “innovation in journalism” or the “future of news” has explicitly addressed how digital journalists and editors in partisan news organizations are rethinking norms.
    [Show full text]
  • GORDON DAKOTA ARNOLD [email protected] EDUCATION
    GORDON DAKOTA ARNOLD [email protected] EDUCATION Hillsdale College Hillsdale, MI Ph.D. in Politics Expected May 2023 Regent University Virginia Beach, VA B.A. in Government, Minor in History August 2013 to May 2017 FOREIGN LANGUAGES Latin Reading Competency TEACHING EXPERIENCE Regent University Academic Support Center Virginia Beach, VA Writing Tutor August 2016 to May 2017 May 2019 to June 2020 Tutored undergraduate and graduate students to better organize, stylize, and format academic writing projects by delineating linguistic rules for clarity, concision, grace, and grammar. RESEARCH EXPERIENCE Hillsdale College Hillsdale, MI Graduate Faculty Research Assistant August 2018 to May 2020 Assisted Hillsdale political scientists in their scholarship by transcribing lectures and editing drafts of their written scholarship. Hillsdale College Hillsdale, MI Library Archivist August 2020 to Present Assists the library in logging and transcribing information from the letters and essays of Harry V. Jaffa and other scholars affiliated with Hillsdale College. PUBLICATIONS Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles: “Truth is Never Out of Date”: The Political Thought of Robert Lewis Dabney,” Journal of Markets and Morality (In-Progress; Received Revise and Resubmit). “Calvin Coolidge: Classical Statesman,” Humanitas Journal, Vol. XXXII, Nos. 1 and 2 (2019). Book Reviews: “It’s a Perfect Time to Rediscover the Virtues of Andrew Jackson,” The Federalist (January 25, 2019). http://www.thefederalist.com/2019/01/25/rediscovering-the-virtues-of-andrew-jackson/ Online Journal Articles: “The Democratic Impulse of the Scholars in Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil,” Voegelin View (Forthcoming; Confirmed for Publication Nov. 2020). “Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant’s Competing Views of the Enlightenment,” Voegelin View (Forthcoming; Confirmed for Publication Dec.
    [Show full text]
  • Educating Educators in the Age of Trump
    ISSN: 1941-0832 Educating Educators in the Age of Trump by Erika Kitzmiller PHOTO COURTESY OF AUTHOR RADICAL TEACHER 65 http://radicalteacher.library.pitt.edu No. 111 (Summer 2018) DOI 10.5195/rt.2018.475 n January 11, 2018, the day that our president learned in this course into our own classrooms. I wanted uttered his reprehensible comments about Haiti to teach this course to give students an opportunity to O and Africa, I received an email from an explore the history of racism and white supremacy that investigative reporter affiliated with Campus Reform. was visibly on display during and after the 2016 Campus Reform is a conservative website under the presidential campaign so that they, a group comprised direction of the Leadership Institute, a non-profit founded primarily of white educators, could explore this history with in 1979 to teach “conservatives of all ages how to succeed their own students. This history is rarely, if ever covered in politics, government, and the media.”1 Campus Reform in schools, because most white educators do not know it. I has daily reports on what its authors claim to be incidents wanted to change that. of liberal bias, political indoctrination, and restrictions on free speech in American college classrooms.2 I was their new target. The reporter asked me to answer several I wanted to teach this course to questions about my upcoming course, “Education in the give students an opportunity to Age of Trump.” In his email, the reporter asked me if my explore the history of racism and course might “alienate students who may have supported white supremacy that was visibly the current U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • The Long New Right and the World It Made Daniel Schlozman Johns
    The Long New Right and the World It Made Daniel Schlozman Johns Hopkins University [email protected] Sam Rosenfeld Colgate University [email protected] Version of January 2019. Paper prepared for the American Political Science Association meetings. Boston, Massachusetts, August 31, 2018. We thank Dimitrios Halikias, Katy Li, and Noah Nardone for research assistance. Richard Richards, chairman of the Republican National Committee, sat, alone, at a table near the podium. It was a testy breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club on May 19, 1981. Avoiding Richards were a who’s who from the independent groups of the emergent New Right: Terry Dolan of the National Conservative Political Action Committee, Paul Weyrich of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, the direct-mail impresario Richard Viguerie, Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum and STOP ERA, Reed Larson of the National Right to Work Committee, Ed McAteer of Religious Roundtable, Tom Ellis of Jesse Helms’s Congressional Club, and the billionaire oilman and John Birch Society member Bunker Hunt. Richards, a conservative but tradition-minded political operative from Utah, had complained about the independent groups making mischieF where they were not wanted and usurping the traditional roles of the political party. They were, he told the New Rightists, like “loose cannonballs on the deck of a ship.” Nonsense, responded John Lofton, editor of the Viguerie-owned Conservative Digest. If he attacked those fighting hardest for Ronald Reagan and his tax cuts, it was Richards himself who was the loose cannonball.1 The episode itself soon blew over; no formal party leader would follow in Richards’s footsteps in taking independent groups to task.
    [Show full text]
  • Target San Diego
    Target San Diego The Right Wing Assault on Urban Democracy and Smart Government Lee Cokorinos Target San Diego The Right Wing Assault on Urban Democracy and Smart Government A Report for the Center on Policy Initiatives Lee Cokorinos November 2005 Table of Contents Acknowledgments . ii Foreword . iii Executive Summary . v Introduction: The National Significance of the Battle for San Diego . 1 1. The National Context: Key Organizations Leading the Right’s Assault on the States and Cities . 5 A. The American Legislative Exchange Council . 7 B. The State Policy Network . 13 C. The Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy . 17 D. The Pacific Research Institute . 21 E. Americans for Tax Reform and the Project for California’s Future . 25 F. The Reason Foundation . 33 2. The Performance Institute and the Assault on San Diego . 39 3. The Battle for America’s Cities: A National Engagement . 49 Endnotes . 57 I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgments This report was made possible through the generous support of the New World Foundation. Special thanks go to Colin Greer and Ann Bastian of New World for their leadership in fostering the movement for progressive renewal. Thanks also to Donald Cohen of the Center on Policy Initiatives for contributing keen insights and the benefit of his ground level experience at engaging the right at every step of the research and writing, to Murtaza Baxamusa of CPI for sharing his expertise, and to veteran political researcher Jerry Sloan for his valuable advice. Jerry’s decades of research on the California and the national right have educated a generation of activists.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Lessons: Shanghai's Rise to the Top of the PISA League Tables
    The Chinese characters on the cover translate to “Education.” Copyright © 2014 by the National Center on Education and the Economy. All rights reserved. Chinese Lessons Shanghai’s Rise to the Top of the PISA League Tables Interviews with: Kai-ming Cheng Tom Corcoran Ben Jensen Vivien Stewart Minxuan Zhang Interviewed with an introduction by Marc Tucker ® A Program of the National Center on Education and the Economy® Table of Contents 1 Introduction by Marc Tucker 8 Vivien Stewart 13 Minxuan Zhang 23 Tom Corcoran 26 Kai-ming Cheng and Ben Jensen 31 Biographies 5 Marc Tucker Introduction In 1978, when Deng Xiao Ping took the helm in China, the schools there were in disastrous shape. Mao had closed them years earlier, during the Cultural Revolution, and sent the teachers out to the countryside to perform manual labor, to do penance for their bourgeois values. But, when the 2009 PISA results came out, Shanghai was at the top of the global education league tables. And, when the results for 2012 were released in December 2013, Shanghai still topped the charts, but its average performance had improved by more than four percentage points from the previous survey. How could this have happened? Many of us had earlier been struck by the Singapore achievement. Singapore had gone from having hardly any public education system at all when it first became fully independent in 1965 to the top of the charts in the 2000 PISA survey. But Singapore had a population of only 2.5 million when it began and around 5 million when it won the PISA sweepstakes in 2000.
    [Show full text]