Research Abstract
The goal of the project is to highlight some of the current policies surrounding education and to examine how these policies are affecting the classroom and the teaching profession. News articles, scholarly journals, and policy statements from the U.S. Department of Education and the Michigan Department of Education about topics such as assessment, technology, and leadership were reviewed and summarized by the student researcher. From these documents questions were formulated about how the policies have been put into practice. These questions were posed to practicing educators in interviews and/or surveys.
Research Questions
1. What are the current policies surrounding education today?
2. How do these policies affect the classrooms? Teachers? The teaching profession?
3. What are the intended and unintended effects of the policies?
Hypothesis
Policy does affect practice, but maybe not in the way that is originally intended when implementing the policy.
Research Topics
Assessment
In this section I explore current policies that the U.S. and Michigan have involving standardized assessment, and the journey through policy that the U.S. has taken to get where we are today. I also provide information about assessment policy from Finland, for comparison.
Educational Technology
In this section I explore current policies that the U.S. and Michigan have involving educational technology. This includes several examples of educational technology, standards, and ISTE.
PBIS
In this section I explore current policies that the U.S. and Michigan have involving educational leadership topics, such as classroom management, and the journey through policy that the U.S. has taken to get where we are today.
Play
In this section I explore current policies about play (physical activity, learning play, and free play). This includes the pros of the different types of play. This also includes information about other countries' policy on play, for comparison.
Presidential Candidates and Politics
In this section I explore current policies ideas of current political candidates (2016) in regard to education.
For this research, 3 subjects were interviewed, and more than 30 were surveyed. All subjects, including those surveyed, were practicing k-12 educators with a BA or higher. Below you will find further background information on the teachers interviewed.
-
Mrs. Smith is a public school teacher at an elementary school in Indiana.
-
Mrs. Johnson is an English teacher at a private high school in Indiana.
-
Mrs. Nye is a Science teacher at a charter school in Michigan.
*All names are pseudonyms in order to protect the interview subjects.
Interview Subjects
