Observing School Restructuring in Multilingual, Multicultural Classrooms: Balancing Ethnographic and Evaluative Approaches

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511616419.008

8 - Observing School Restructuring in Multilingual, Multicultural Classrooms: Balancing Ethnographic and Evaluative Approaches

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 November 2009

Amanda Datnow and

Edited by

Roland G. Tharp and

Amanda Datnow: Affiliation:
Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California
Susan Yonezawa: Affiliation:
Center for Research in Educational Equity, Assessment, and Teaching Excellence, University of California, San Diego
Hersh C. Waxman: Affiliation:
University of Houston
Roland G. Tharp: Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz
R. Soleste Hilberg: Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz

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Summary

The goal of this chapter is to discuss a methodology for conducting classroom observations in culturally and linguistically diverse schools implementing externally developed reform designs. The classroom observation strategy discussed in this chapter was developed for a study entitled Scaling Up School Restructuring in Multicultural, Multilingual Contexts. In this study, we conducted longitudinal case studies of 13 elementary schools in Sunland County Public Schools (SCPS), each of which was implementing one or more nationally regarded school reform designs.

Assessments of such reform models have become particularly important as the number of schools implementing these models has increased dramatically in the past few years. The passage of the Obey–Porter law, a bipartisan initiative that allocated 150 million federal dollars in the fall of 1998 (and additional funds in subsequent years) to schools willing to adopt research-based reform programs, is evidence of the growing enthusiasm for external models. This was spurred in part by research suggesting that scaling up externally developed school reform models or promising programs may be the best way to systematically raise students' academic achievement (Stringfield et al., 1997).

However, we know little about how these reforms can be implemented successfully in districts serving linguistically and culturally diverse student populations. Many externally developed school reform models were developed mindful of schools serving students who speak English as a first language. None of the models was developed specifically for multicultural, multilingual student populations.

Type: Chapter
Information: Observational Research in U.S. Classrooms
New Approaches for Understanding Cultural and Linguistic Diversity
, pp. 174 - 204

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511616419.008 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2004

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