July 19, 1996
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Vanderbilt University research for back-to-school stories


KEY TO SCHOOL REFORM: SPIRIT Schools today suffer from a spiritual deficit -- the more we restructure and reform, the more we dampen the spirit, says a Vanderbilt University professor of educational leadership. As an educational consultant and researcher, Terrence E. Deal repeatedly found that school reformers too often focus on rational and technical problem-solving. They analyze, plan, change policies, restructure, reengineer. The best teachers and principals have learned a deeper, timeless lesson: they must look inside, not outside, themselves for answers. Co-author of the book, "Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit" (Jossey Bass 1995), Deal can give examples of school leaders who create an environment that links learning to the human spirit.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT BONUS It's no secret that parental involvement in school influences students' academic achievement. A Vanderbilt University researcher found another benefit of getting parents involved: it can promote equity in the schools. Claire Smrekar argues against traditional, piecemeal approaches to enhancing parent involvement. She advocates a new concept called building school community, which helps lower socio-economic parents tap into resources otherwise unavailable to them. Teachers report that middle-income parents participate more than lower-income parents. Building school community changes that by transforming class-based social ties into school-based networks. Smrekar can give examples of schools that embrace this new concept. An assistant professor of educational leadership, Smrekar's research is detailed in the new "The Impact of School Choice and Community: In the Interest of Family and Schools" (SUNY Press).

DISPELLING DROPOUT MYTHS As children head back to school, it might be a good time to look at those who drop out. Perhaps you'd like to interview a Vanderbilt University education professor and author of a new book, "Creating the Dropout: An Institutional and Social History of School Failure." The only history of dropout policies in the United States, the book dispels some myths including: Dropout programs in the 1960s did not change trends in high school graduation; educators and social critics created, rather than discovered, the dropout problem; and dropout policies have assumed that high schools should prevent poverty and social chaos. A research assistant professor of special education at Vanderbilt's Peabody College, Dorn also can speak about the existence of alternative, more democratic, perspectives on the problem.

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