M PinskayaI Frumin

Schools with poor academic results: a study of the reasons behind the lag and the capacity to improve

Research context: inequality of schools and schoolchildren

1. Socio-economic inequality Comparative international research (PIRLS, PISA) demonstrate socio-economic inequality of

schools and schoolchildren, i.e. the correlation between the performance of schoolchildren and the economic and educational background of their parents It shows that children coming from families with different social and economic backgrounds study at different schools. According to the Russian sample for PIRLS-2006 :

schools where the number of disadvantaged families is less than 10%, cover one third of students ;

schools where the number of disadvantaged families is 25-50% cover 23% of students;

schools where the number of such families is above 50% cover 14% of schoolchildren. The level of achievements of schoolchildren gradually declines with the increase in the number of economically disadvantaged families represented in this school.

2. Geographical inequality

The performance of rural schools surveyed for PIRLS, PISA is significantly lower than that of their peers in town, especially in cities. According to the Unified State Examination (USE) data, city school leavers are more successful in such exams as Russian, computer science, and English.

3. Inequality stemming from the type of educational institution

Graduates of gymnasia and lyceums are more successful than those of schools specializing in certain subjects, the latter, in their turn, are more advanced than leavers of ordinary secondary schools.

Schools with poor academic results: a study of the reasons behind the lag and the capacity to

improve

The aim of the research: To lay the foundation for reducing the inequality of access to quality

education.

Research has set the following objectives: defining the ways of identifying schools most urgently needing

assistance;

designing the tools of diagnosing school problems underlying poor academic results;

developing the models of relevant programs to help inefficient schools improve the quality of education there.

Research hypothesisThe factors/reasons of the consistent lowering of schools’ academic outcomes are the

following: Problematic contingent (socio-demographical factor) Significant number of disadvantaged families High proportion of migrant families Many children with special educational needs and behavior problems High staff turnover Under enrollment due to high competition with educational institutions nearby.Management and staff issues (infrastructure factor) Lack of certain employees Lack of psychologists, speech pathologists, tutors Lack of skilled teachersEducational strategy and school culture problems (pedagogical factor) Low level of teaching Out-of-date teaching technologies and forms of assessing academic results Absence of in-school performance monitoring Absence of emphasis on learning achievements, students’ low motivation

Methodology and course of the study

The preliminary stage included the general survey and formulation of criteria for identifying schools with poor academic results that would be acceptable at the regional municipal level.

1. Collecting and analyzing statistical data that could be collected from: educational governing bodies on the basis of their statistical reports; regional centers for assessment (monitoring) the quality of education on

the basis of monitoring results.These data have allowed to cluster 1500 schools and identify those with

poor academic results in the three regions of the RF in order to conduct further diagnostics there.

2. Further diagnostics consisted in collecting contextual information related to the enrollment and educational process characteristics of the school. Further diagnostics included:

collecting data on student performance dynamics, sociological research embracing all the educational process

participants, pedagogical evaluation of teachers’ performance working at different

educational levels, auditing school facilities and creating the school profile..

Preliminary stage results – according to regional experts

Experts suggest developing certain arrangements and measures to support schools in remote areas and schools with correctional classes. According to case studies, the following problem school types can be defined:

Urban schools with the main feature – location in a socially deprived area, where students have low learning motivation and switch to a night school to be able to work or not go to school at all.

Other school type – schools with a wide range of programs, including correctional schools. Plus, unprofessional, incompetent management and students from disadvantaged families. These schools that apart from academic function take social one upon themselves, often cannot cope with the assigned task.

Rural schools that become problem schools due to their location. Schools in remote areas are usually ungraded and have few students; there are no learning technologies that would allow to effectively work with small classes, and nobody is actually concerned with developing them.

Data and figures analyzed on the research stages 1,2

The research was based on a set of statistical data (135 indicators), among them:

Financing Technical facilities Staff Educational institution’s results Educational process characteristicsThe information analyzed to diagnose school context concerned: Management; Curriculum design; Teaching; Relations with parents and co-workers (school climate).

Indicators

Stable Medium Elite Stigmatized StaffDifficult enrollment

The whole amount of schools/share 32%24%

12% 17%8% 6%

Students in the certain school type/share37,3% 20%

11,5% 18,5% 6% 6,8%

Schools in rural areas/share 26% 44% 7% 56% 47% 15%

General schools/share 72% 63% 55% 93% 85% 86%

Top-rank teachers 41% 43% 50% 35% 35% 38%

Teachers having higher education 81% 82% 85% 79% 69% 80%

Teachers/Students 8% 11% 7% 12% 11% 8%

Share of students for whom Russian is not a native language 3% 0% 1% 2% 5% 5%

Students-delinquents 1.36 0.89 4.47 0.74 0.95 7.12

Students registered with drug abuse clinics 0.15 0.21 0.34 0.06 0.09 2.06

Unsatisfactory grades in language (USE) 0% 0% 1% 6% 3% 7%

Unsatisfactory grades in math (USE) 0% 0% 3% 10% 6% 18%

School collaborating with universities 42% 45% 61% 21% 33% 44%

Students receiving any specialization 30% 35% 47% 0% 41% 26%

Students participating in academic competitions 15% 25% 31% 13% 22% 11%

Academic results

Pro

files natio

nal lan

gu

age an

d m

ath

exams 1.Stigmatized

2.Difficult

Enrollment

3. Staff

4. Elite

5. Medium

6. Stable

Enrollment characteristics Indicators

StigmatizedDifficult

enrollmentOthers

Low-income families 30-85% 10-70% 10-60%

Broken families 11-60% 30-60% 10-46%

Students of intervention programs 3-20 (35)% 5-35% 4-35%

Professionals: psychologist/speech therapist (availability of position)

-/- +/+ (+/-)/(+/-)

Enrollment reduction 15%- 50%

grades 10-11 Decreased twofold

15%-25%Decreased threefold

Decreased by 40%

Organizing the learning process and school culture - common problems and challenges

The diagnostics carried out at schools has allowed to reveal a set of common problems in organizing the learning process and culture:

Insufficient number of optional courses; Absence of in-depth courses; Limited range of additional educational services; Project activity being made extracurricular; Absence of extra tasks for advanced students; Absence of professional exchange among teachers; Insufficient outward activity of the school; Absence of cooperation with parents; Absence of demands for the level and quality of education. It is typical of the schools surveyed that they take on the functions of family

care for students and engage in protection and upbringing issues focusing on them rather than on their direct educational tasks.

Low level of teaching

Only 13 teachers scored 46-57 points thus demonstrating a higher level of professional skills development This number is much lower than that for the teachers who scored 32-43 (23 people) and thus got into the middle group.

Most teachers lacked such professional skills as critical thinking development, shaping the understanding of processes and phenomena, connecting the material with students’ personal experience, monitoring students’ achievements and building feedback, monitoring individual progress. This gap itself results in decreased learning motivation and students’ achievements when they finish primary school. Besides, it becomes an obstacle for those few advanced students who also attend the schools surveyed.

Teaching practices prevailing in the schools surveyed does not allow them to cope with difficult enrollment.

Teachers’ professional skillsGroup of teachers with high scores Group of teachers with low scores

Conclusions Research has revealed the practical coincidence of disadvantaged/weak

schools’ characteristics formulated by the experts and those formulated as a research hypothesis and used for describing schools in need of assistance and foreign school improvement programs.

The data received have allowed to conclude that the decrease in school’s educational achievements is accompanied by the following problems: extremely difficult enrollment, low recruitment potential and inefficient educational strategies. The junction of these factors gives rise to different types/clusters of problems. Thus schools facing exceptionally challenging circumstances work with difficult enrollment though they lack teaching potential to cope with these issues.

The existence of this type of schools and their fate to lag behind has become the basis for strengthening inequality of access to quality education. The existence of this type of schools and their fate to lag behind has become the basis for strengthening inequality of access to quality education.

Outcomes

The research outcomes include:

Working out and adapting to the Russian context the tools used by foreign experts to diagnose disadvantaged schools’ status;

Clustering and defining the key reasons that have led to declining school performance;

Identifying conditions and reasons for schools getting into the crisis situation;

The results obtained have served as a basis for developing programs aimed at resolving the problems identified and school improvement.

Referensis

Fullan M. The new meaning of educational change. Prosveshenie, 2006. Alma Harris, Judith Gunraj, Sue James, Paul Clarke and Belinda Harris.

Improving Schools in Exceptionally Challenging Circumstances Tales from the Frontline. Continuum Press, 2005.

Hopkins D. Meeting the Challenge. An Improvement Guide for Schools Facing Challenging Circumstances. London: Department for Education and Skills, 2001.

Mortimore, P. The road to improvement. Reflections on school effectiveness. Swets&Zeitliner Publishers. 1998.

Marzano R. J. What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action. 2006. McCutcheon A. Latent class analysis. London: Sage, 1987. P. 5-44; Dayton

C.M., Macready G. Use of categorical and continuous covariates in latent class analysis // Applied latent class analysis / Ed. by J. Hagenaars and A. McCutcheon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002

Pinskaya M., Timkova T., Obukhova O. Can schools influence students’ reading literacy? Based on the PIRLS-2006 results analysis.//Study of Education, № 2, 2009