Keep Safe, Keep Learning: Principals' Role in Creating Psychological Safety and Organizational Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Utilizing a sample of 54 interviews from a larger study of traditional public school principals' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, we examined the degree to which principals in 19 states and representing both urban (e.g., intensive, emergent or characteristic; n = 37) and suburban settings (n = 17) and across all student levels (i.e., elementary, middle, and high), experienced and engaged in behaviors to create psychological safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also sought to understand how various environmental and organizational features may have influenced these conditions and thus the likelihood of learning taking place. We find principals reported varied levels of psychological safety in their schools with associated differing levels of organizational learning and responsiveness to the crisis. However, rather being grounded in environmental conditions (e.g., urbanicity, demographics, etc.), organizational factors and specifically, differences in accountability, principal autonomy, professional culture and teacher decision-making were all key in the degree of psychological safety exhibited. Together, these findings serve to expand understanding of leadership as creating conditions for learning and give insight into the degree our pre-COVID-19 system may have facilitated or stymied the ability or capacity of school leaders in different settings to support transformational learning. In this way, this research may have real and important implications for the types of support leaders and teachers require as we collectively transition into the next phase of uncertainty as many schools continue to try and re-open safely and all that lays ahead.

Do charter schools receive their fair share of funding? School finance equity for charter and traditional public schools

U.S. charter schools are publicly funded through state school finance formulas that often mirror the traditional public school finance systems. While charter school advocates and critics disagree over whether charters receive an equitable share of funding, few discussions are based on rigorous analyses of funding and expenditures. Most prior analyses, especially those presented in policy briefs or white papers, examine average funding differences without exploring underlying cost factors between the two sectors. Our purpose is to demonstrate how careful analysis of charter school funding with appropriate methodological approaches can shed light on disagreements about charter school finance policy. Using detailed school finance data from Texas as a case study, we find that after accounting for differences in accounting structures and cost factors, charter schools receive significantly more state and local funding compared to traditional public schools with similar structural characteristics and student demographics. However, many small charter schools are actually underfunded relative to their traditional public school counterparts. Policy simulations demonstrate that on average, each student who transfers to a charter school increases the cost to the state by $1,500. We discuss the implications of these findings for both school finance policy in Texas and nationally.

Simple Answers to Difficult Issues about Learning and Learners Internationally at pK-12 Levels

The traditional educational model was designed in the industrial age of the 20th century. That model is outdated for various reasons. This paper is introducing a case study of a project, "The S-Cool Days Program," which applies new routines to reframe those aspects. The introduction of the Program does not require significant changes in the curriculum, can be realized in Art and Music classes, or as a homeroom activity in advisory class.The Program was implemented in Europe, in two countries, in 3 different school types, one American School, a School Start-up and a traditional public school. The activities are introduced by creative art and craft sessions, are engaging enough to invite students to present their passion projects in the classroom, to take the first steps towards purpose-driven learning, learn how to focus on monitoring and expressing of emotions, among other things.The goal is to have some school habits reframed, that results in mindset change. New values are introduced and through them, the class is transformed into a comfort zone for students to envision and follow their dreams. The expected changes can be realized by easy-to-do new routines, which maintain the newly introduced behaviors. The Program supports the 4C's; the 21st-century skills education is supposed to focus on: the creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.As visualized on social maps, the research realized before and after the Project shows changes in the social relations of the participating classes after the new routines were introduced. New mutual common choices were emerging in all participating grades, classes. The paper shares insights from participating teachers, how they felt in and after the Program, what changes did they identify in the classroom.

The Montessori Model and Creativity

Prior research has demonstrated that the characteristics of school environments can impact the development of creativity in children. Thus, we explored the construct of creativity in the context of a Montessori environment. We used the Evaluation of Potential Creativity to measure creativity in children during one academic year. The study sample comprised 77 third-grade students at a Montessori public school in the southeastern United States and 71 demographically similar students at a traditional public school. Results show that Montessori students performed somewhat better on the Evaluation of Potential Creativity assessment than similar non-Montessori students did. Subgroup analyses indicate that male Montessori students demonstrated higher creativity than did male non- Montessori students. The findings of this study augment the body of research supporting creative development in Montessori children and suggest that researchers should continue to focus on the measurement of creativity in studies related to the efficacy of the Montessori model.

Teacher Power and the Politics of Union Organizing in the Charter Sector

Despite the growing media attention paid to charter-school unions, comparatively little empirical research exists. Drawing on interview data from two cities (Detroit, MI, and New Orleans, LA), our exploratory study examined charter-school teachers’ motivations for organizing, the political and power dimensions, and the framing of unions by both teachers and administrations. We found that improving teacher retention, and thus school stability, was a central motivation for teacher organizers, whereas, simultaneously, high teacher turnover stymied union drives. We also found that charter administrators reacted with severity to nascent unionization drives, harnessing school-as-family metaphors and at-will contracts to prevent union formation. As the charter sector continues to grow, understanding why teachers want unions and how those unions differ from traditional public school unions is crucial to analyzing the long-term viability of these schools and the career trajectories of the teachers who work in them.

Patterns of Teacher Attrition by Preparation Pathway and Initial School Type

This study examines the retention rates of new teachers in Texas given their initial certification type and initial school setting. The 5-year persistence rates of 175,664 teachers from 2000 to 2015 are analyzed using logistic regression to calculate the probability of new teacher persistence at the school, district, and state level. Main findings suggest that teachers’ certification type and initial school setting are statistically significant predictors of new teacher persistence, and traditionally licensed teachers initially placed in traditional public school are more likely to persist when compared with other preparation types or initial placements into charter schools.

Closed Schools, Open Markets: A Hot Spot Spatial Analysis of School Closures and Charter Openings in Detroit

The purpose of this study is to use geographic information systems to map the spatial distribution of traditional public school closures and the opening of charter schools in Detroit. To achieve this purpose, we examine the following research questions: (a) How are traditional public school closures and the opening of charter schools spatially distributed throughout neighborhoods in Detroit during three education policy eras? (b) How, if at all, might these schools’ spatial patterns cluster in certain neighborhoods to create hot spots of traditional public school closures and/or charter school openings? As such, this descriptive study uses hot spot geospatial analysis to identify whether the spatial occurrence of traditional public school closures and charter school openings is randomly distributed or if it occurs in statistically significant spatial clusters. Rollback and rollout neoliberalism is used to theoretically frame the study and guide the analysis. Findings suggest that charter school openings occur more often in hot spots or concentrated ways than the closure of traditional public schools in Detroit. We conclude with implications for future research.

Democracy in the Middle School Music Classroom

Including democratic principles in a traditional public school general music program can be challenging, but the benefits are significant, including greater student independence and motivation for learning. Democratic practice is both an approach to teaching and an outcome of the experience. It prepares students to be participants in society by providing space for student voices and encouraging students to think deeply and ask challenging questions. It also involves negotiating a rebalance of control in which the music teacher is more of a teacher-facilitator, learning alongside the students and allowing their choices and decisions to be a driving force in the learning process. This article presents one model for incorporating democratic ideals in middle school general music.