Profile ’01: Curriculum and Teaching in North American Division Schools

From AIMS to OUTCOMES:Quality Cycles

in Adventist Education

Paul Brantley, Alfredo Ruiz, and Glynis Bradfield School of Education, Andrews University

2001

Larson’s Four Basic

Temperament Types

Is the glass half full or half empty in Seventh-day Adventist education in the

North American Division?

You be the judge!

What is a Quality Cycle?

• It’s when an organization has determined that its purposes are met in its plans, practices, and its products (results).

• To what extent has the NADCC completed the cycle?

Unfortunately, many educational systems fail to document a

completed quality cycle. They plan and practice without

sufficiently examining their purposes and products.

• “For which of you intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it?” --Jesus, in Luke 14:28

Products Plans

Purposes

Practices

Some findings regarding NAD

PurposesWe asked 725 NAD educators if:

(1) our system had a clearly articulated philosophy and

(2) schools were putting it into practice

Purposes: % who ‘strongly agree’ that our NAD system has articulated a clear philosophy to guide

practice

41 39 42 44 44

0

20

40

60

80

100

Purposes: Points to Ponder

• Prior Profiles indicated that the vast majority of Adventist educators want a guiding philosophy

• A third of respondents said they lack easy access to NAD’s philosophy statement. Many said they never received the FACT21 document.

• Most respondents marked “Yes, somewhat” to items about philosophy and practice.

Purposes: % who ‘strongly agree’ that Adventist schools are putting their philosophy into practice

16 13

2417 19

0

20

40

60

80

100

Purposes: More Points to Ponder

To what extent are WE as an NADCC clear as to the relationship between—

• NAD mission statement (Strategic plan)

• NAD ten goals (FACT21)

• NAD ten core values (Strategic plan)

• NAD essential learnings (FACT21)

• ITBS assessment objectives

• Objectives of the Potentials assessment project

• Approved textbook objectives

• Et cetera?

Some findings regarding NAD

Plans • Once our purposes are clear, what plans

and resources should we prepare?

What can be done to help more Adventist youth attend Adventist schools?

Strategic suggestions from NAD Educators

Elem Acad Conf Coll NADC AVG

Make them excellent

74% 71% 69% 72% 69% 72%

Better promotion 59 58 63 56 62 59

Lower cost 49 55 48 58 69 51

Improve climate 40 40 41 39 44 40

Reform (spiritual) 31 31 31 33 0 31

Distance education

20 20 26 17 37 21

Open more schools 11 8 16 11 12 11

What do you feel is the best way for our system to produce curriculum for teachers?

Elem Acad Conf Coll Nadcc Total

Contract talented SDA educators

49% 48% 52% 42% 50% 49%

Summer Workshops

47 53 47 50 88 49

SDA supplements to regular texts

49 45 41 59 38 48

Use Christian mat’ls (non-SDA)

37 32 16 28 50 33

Hire full time SDA curriculum workers

35 22 52 20 19 30

Adapt major publ (eg.Life reading)

26 22 30 20 31 25

Use more Multimedia

26 39 51 38 19 32

Plans and Resources: % “Excellent” ratings

for Elementary and Academy Bible series

0

20

40

60

80

100

Elem Bible

Acad Bible

% Respondents Who Reported Using the Web

1995 & 2001

0

20

40

60

80

100

Resources: Software for Classroom UseSelf-ratings of Elementary and Academy teachers

67

219

47

2330

0

20

40

60

80

100

have/use have/no use no have/no use

Elem

Acad

Plans and Resources: Points to Ponder

• Could genuine spiritual reform according to inspired counsel hold the key to such qualities as excellence, climate, and lowered cost?

• Can we identify still more creative, responsible curriculum development options?

• 95% of all SDA teachers in the NAD now have computers--but half of all academy teachers and a third of elementary teachers fail to use them for classroom learning.

Some findings regarding NAD

Practices What are the realities teachers experienced

in relation to curriculum and teaching during the 2000-2001 school year?

Preferred Practices: % ImplementedSchool or Conference-Wide

INITIATIVES Conf Elem AcadReleased time/Prof . develop. 94 60 64Master technology plan 78 42 58Learning style workshop 65 45 52School-improvement plan 64 40 53Formal curriculum audit 57 28 55Home-school-church partners 45 32 30Integration faith-learning 36 24 22Multicultural programs 21 28 41School-business partnerships 6 8 8

Teachers Self-ratings of Proficiency in Recommended FACT21 Practices

2720

6 6 6

198 9 8 6

0

20

40

60

80

100

Elem tchrs

Acad tchrs

Practices: How many times this year has someone visited your classroom, observed,

and coached teaching?

0

20

40

60

80

100

more thanonce

once not at all

Conf (est.)

Elem

Acad

Practices: Points to Ponder

• Are there systemic changes that would encourage the Preferred Practices? Will we monitor this implementation over time?

• Although many teachers have begun implementing recommended instructional practices, few teachers (and their supervising conference personnel) feel proficient.

• Hardly will teachers attain proficiency without a vibrant network of coaching with conference and college people and with their peers.

Some findings regarding NAD

Products (results) What evidence do we have that students are actually accomplishing the purposes

that NAD set in the beginning?

Products: Do schools (Did faculty) use Iowa Test scores to improve instruction?* % Yes

4434

59

2412

0

20

40

60

80

100

Products: Value of SDA school accreditation? % rating “Excellent”

4735

55

25

45

0

20

40

60

80

100

Products: Should there be a test like ITBS to assess Bible knowledge?* % Yes

3145

33 35

19

0

20

40

60

80

100

Products: Should we as a group assess student outcomes related to character development? % Yes

0

20

40

60

80

100

Should

Does

Products: Should Adventist education consider adopting standards like

states/provinces?

63 65 68 6350

0

20

40

60

80

100

% Yes

Products: Points to Ponder• Do we have a system in place to determine clearly how

well FACT21/NAD purposes are being attained?

• Academic goals are assessed (to an extent) by the ITBS, but applying ITBS results in system-wide improvement of instruction appears to be limited.

• Some of the most important system goals for our SDA system are non-academic. How are they being measured? What gets measured gets done!

• To what extent are we examining the character development outcomes of SDA education including research by Roger Dudley, Valuegenesis, etc.?

• All categories except NADCC appear to favor considering the adoption of system-wide Standards.

Is the glass half full or half empty in Seventh-day Adventist education in the

North American Division?

You be the judge!

Is the glass half full or half empty?

Our thoughts? We should--

• Feel grateful to God for the excellent work our NAD educational system has accomplished to date

AND

• Feel sobered by the challenges documented in part by this report--along with the resolve, by God’s grace, to reach His ideal

Thank you, NADCC! Dr Paul Brantley, Alfredo Ruiz, & Glynis Bradfield,

with special appreciation to Dr Randy Siebold and the NADOE staff