This is a message from the Greening Schools Research Network discussion
--------------------------------------
Greetings Greening Schools Research Network
My colleagues and I have generated some quantitative program evaluation
findings that point to the possible presence of a kind of "tipping point"
phenonmenon in K-12 schools. In short, our data suggests that place-based
education programs that work systematically with a whole school community
for multiple years may end up impacting the school culture in such a way
that exposure of the school as a whole to the intervention becomes a more
accurate predictor of desired outcomes than exposure of the individual
teachers to the formal elements of the program intervention. It seems that
teachers new to a school exhibit many of the desired teaching practices on
par with teachers with teachers who have been exposed to the intervention
for years. We're thinking that this may be due to those norms of teaching
practice somehow having become embedded in the way teaching happens at
that school.
As we follow this emergent hypothesis and consider developing and/or
refining our measures to look at some kind of whole school "dosage" of the
program intervention, we are first conducting a focused review of existing
literature on the construct of "school culture." What evidence is there
that school's have an identifiable "culture?" If so... How might that
culture be measured? Under what conditions does it seem likely that the
school culture changes? How important is school culture in affecting what
goes on for students? for teachers? for administrators or the local
community?
Can any of you suggest the top ONE or TWO most important studies or
meta-analyses of literature that you know of that could get us started in
the right direction on investigating this idea of "school culture?"
Thank you. ;-)
Peace
Michael Duffin
Evaluation Co-Director
Program Evaluation and Educational Research (PEER) Associates
272 Eaton Rd.
Swanzey, NH 03446
603-357-3547
--------------------------------------
This message is from the Greening Schools Research Network discussion
forum. To view archives of this discussion forum, go to
| 