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Good Schools
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SHORT PAPER
OPTION A:
Assume that you are the newly-appointed principal of what the school board, superintendent, and a small group of activist parents have labeled a "lousy" school. The school population is composed of one-quarter African-American, one third Mexican-American, one-quarter white, and the rest Asian-American, mostly from Laos and Cambodia. Half of the students come from families eligible for a free lunch. One-third of the students' first language is not English. The school building has been renovated five years earlier and won an architectural award for the facility.

The signs of that "lousiness" are high numbers of transfers of children to nearby schools, three principals quitting in three years, 20 percent annual teacher turnover, a school climate that has been characterized by teachers as filled with adult and student anger and by parents as hostile to their even entering the building; increasing incidents of school vandalism and students fighting in the halls, standardized test scores in reading that decline as the students move from lower to higher grades, etc.,etc. The board, superintendent, and parents are at their wits' end.
The superintendent has asked you, an experienced and well-respected teacher at another school who has clear ideas of what a "good" school is and how to improve a school, to be principal. It is mid-May and she wants you to get started in late August. This is a chance that you have dreamed about for many years. You ask the superintendent for a week to visit the school. You promise to write a confidential letter to her about your ideas and then you will discuss with her whether or not to accept the job.
After a week of listening to teachers, parents, and students you write a 3-page confidential letter (typed and double-spaced--about 750 words) to the superintendent. In your letter assume that she knows the situation well so there is no need to go over the history of the school. In the confidential letter you lay out clearly what you see as a "good" school, how you plan to go about making this school (you can make it elementary or secondary) a "good" one--in short, your strategies for improvement, and, finally, what signs or indicators would convince the superintendent and members of the school community that the school has become "good."
NOTE: Please do not read any articles in the Reader or elsewhere for this writing assignment. Just sit down and think through what you believe and apply your knowledge, beliefs, and values to this situation.
OPTION B:
Write a 3-page (double-spaced, about 750 words) op-ed piece for the New York Times or other metropolitan daily about what you believe a "good" school is and why there are ought to be more of them than there are now. If you are unfamiliar with opinion pieces in the daily and Sunday newspapers, please look at some examples on the editorial page or opposite page to editorials newspapers.
In the op-ed piece lay out clearly what you see as a "good" school, how you plan to go about making this school (you can make it elementary or secondary) a "good" one--in short, your strategies for improvement, and, finally, what signs or indicators would convince parents and members of the school community that the school is "good."
Please note that each option (confidential memo and op-ed piece) is geared to a different audience.

QUARTER PROJECT
All project reports are due by 5PM December 5th.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
1. Choose an educational organization. It can be a class at Teachers College or in another school. It can be a department in a school or a school itself. It can be a public or private school. It can be a community educational organization. It can be an alternative school. If you have an organization in mind and are uncertain whether it fits what I list here, let's talk about it. Keep in mind that you will have limited time (about 8 weeks) to complete the research and write the report.
2. The central question you will be asking is: Is this a "good" class? School? Department? Organization? Etc.
3. Research the organization. Interview key people in the organization; collect documents; use short surveys or questionnaires to obtain data; observe teaching and learning activities; record impressions of what you observe.
4. Write a report that includes (at the minimum) the following
items:
* How the organization is set up and governed. The activities of the head of the organization including roles, how important decisions get made, etc.

* The organizational climate (the formal and informal norms and expectations for behavior and performance)
* The expected outcomes of the organization. For a class, it might be test scores, number of students retained in grade, non-test indicators of student performance such as attitudes toward learning, self-confidence, creativity, independent thinking, etc.
* The definition of "goodness" that members of organization implicitly or explicitly have and the definition that you have decided to use in the study.
Remember, unless you define "goodness" as organizational effectiveness, that is, does the organization achieve what it says it wants to achieve?--you are NOT to determine whether your project is effective. Effectiveness is merely one way of defining "goodness" of an organization; there are other definitions of "goodness" that may or may not include effectiveness. Please keep this in mind.
* Similarities and differences between your study and other cases that you have read and discussed in this course or elsewhere.
* Your judgment as to how "good" the organization is and a rationale for your conclusion.

* In an Appendix to the report, include a description of the methodology and tools that the team has used to conduct this study. Analyze the strengths and limitations of the methods and tools that the team has used. Include a sample of any instruments that the team has used to secure information. Finally, on a separate sheet in the Appendix of paper, indicate what work each member of team did in organizing the work of the team, collecting data, analyzing the data, and writing the report.
4. How to do the study?
a. Create a team. At least 2 but no more than 4 people may join together to do the study. At the minimum, I expect at least each person to find a partner.
b. By September 25, I need to know who is working with whom and what organization you will study. If you need help in deciding or figuring out how to get access to the organization that you wish to study or similar issues, talk with me. I will be available to each team to discuss the project beginning today and for the rest of the quarter.
5. Length of report (typed and double-spaced): no longer than 25 pages exclusive of appendix. Footnotes or endnotes are to be included should you quote sources or use materials from other sources.