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ERIC Number: ED236274
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1983-Jan
Pages: 679
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
An Abashing Anomaly: The High Achieving Predominantly Black Elementary School.
Sizemore, Barbara A.; And Others
This is the report of a study funded in 1979 to investigate organizational factors important to producing quality education in three high-achieving elementary schools with predominantly poor and black student populations. Research techniques consisted of nonparticipant observation and study of documents and school routines from the perspective of the Organizational Process Model. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with principals, teachers, and parents. Findings indicate that the "anomaly" of success in these schools began with the selection of moderately authoritarian principals who generated a climate of high expectations for student performance, mobilized consensus around achievement as the highest priority, chose functional routines, and were willing to disagree with their superiors regarding these choices. The most important functional routines were (1) assumption of responsibility for student discipline, attendance, and parental conflict through publication of procedures enforced by selective sanctions; (2) close contact with and supervision of teachers and staff; (3) consistent monitoring of students' skill mastery; (4) involvement of parents as an instructional support group; (5) establishment of the school office as a central command post; (6) use of skill mastery grouping as a means of placing students in self-contained classrooms modified by nongrading and team teaching; (7) expansion of the school day by using subject, preparation, and after-school periods for reinforcement; (8) refusal to place students in classes for the retarded until other alternatives had been exhausted; and (9) refusal of additional programs which would consume regular school time. (GC)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Inst. of Education (ED), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: Pittsburgh Univ., PA. Dept. of Black Community Education, Research, and Development.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A