Diplomas Count - June 5, 2014 - 9

EDUCATION WEEK JUNE 5, 2014
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Diplomas Count > www.edweek.org/go/dc14
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SUBSTANTIAL CHALLENGES
Lack of parental support
In responses to an open-ended survey
question, teachers and school-based
administrators who are registered
users of the Education Week website,
described the greatest challenges
they face in engaging and motivating
students. An analysis of responses
indicates that lack of parental support
and student apathy were the most
commonly cited obstacles.
SOURCE: Education Week Research Center, 2014
Student apathy and lack of intrinsic motivation
Inadequate time and resources
Accountability pressures and administration policies
Challenges students face outside of school
Students' prior performance and lack of prerequisite skills
Absenteeism and disruptive behavior
Other
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8
20
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15
25%
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8
ing to help students become more
active in their own learning while
also catching up those who arrive
several grade levels behind in
reading, math, and other subjects.
"Motivation skills can be taught;
The behaviors associated with motivation
can be taught," said David
Levin, a co-founder of the Knowledge
Is Power Program, or KIPP,
charter network, which is not connected
to Venture. "[Educators] are
building a research base about how
you teach those."
KIPP's network has been experimenting
with ways to build and
measure so-called grit, or students'
internal motivation and perseverance.
(See article, Page 23.)
'Dark Side' of Motivation
At the same time, researchers
and policymakers are starting to
see unintended consequences from
the rising prominence of measures
of internal motivation, such as grit
ratings.
"There is a risk that poorly informed
educators or parents could
misuse the idea and ... could
overattribute students' poor performance
to a lack of grittiness
without considering that critical
supports may be lacking in the
environment," cautioned Nicole
Schectman and other researchers
from SRI International in a
study for the U.S. Department
of Education's office of educational
technology that discusses
both the potential and the "dark
side" of efforts to improve student
motivation.
Separate studies by Stanford
University psychologist Carol
S. Dweck, Harvard University
economist Roland G. Fryer Jr.,
and others, have found shortterm
efforts to motivate students
to meet external goals, such as
providing cash or prizes for behavior
or improved test grades,
could damage their motivation
in the long term.
As schools work to motivate
students, teacher Joey Weinstein
warned that they should be careful
to help students distinguish
simple enthusiasm from true academic
drive. (See article, Page 17.)
Mr. Weinstein, an upper-grades
English teacher at Da Vinci Science
High School in Los Angeles,
created a two-year curriculum
in which students learned to
research colleges, practice application
essays and resumes,
and eventually apply to multiple
colleges. Last year, nearly all
the class of 2013-about half of
whom would be first-generation
college-goers-were accepted to
universities.
Injecting Realism
Yet in follow-up interviews,
Mr. Weinstein found that many
students still didn't continue to
college, or opted for local community
colleges over larger state
and other schools where they had
been accepted. He also found that
students excitedly applied to outof-state
schools during class, but
didn't consider the realities of
leaving family, paying higher tuition,
or even simply moving from
Southern California's endless
summer to the harsh winters of
northern campuses.
Their responses persuaded Mr.
Weinstein to overhaul the school's
college-preparation courses to
make students more realistic about
their goals after high school and
how they planned to achieve them.
This year, students are starting
with much more extensive
writing on their academic and
career goals and are assigned to
have early conversations with
their families on what options
are financially feasible. Instead
of basic college research, students
now do comprehensive
spreadsheets that allow them to
compare academic and testing
requirements for entry, available
majors, student-faculty ratios,
costs of transportation and
living on campus, and other factors.
In a paired economics class,
students also study the costs and
benefits of college and different
options to pay for it.
"Getting students to think about
these things," Mr. Weinstein said,
"is a big shift." I
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Diplomas Count - June 5, 2014

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