Instant Experts & False Authorities are such remarkable people: "They get so great a return of conclusion from the most trifling input of fact" (with thanks to Mark Twain).

This is the one -- perhaps the only -- website that directly and honestly addresses the silent conspiracy of ignorance. Here is where research and proof replace fiction and dogma; where science resolutely replaces myth; where truth and fact replace fraud and fantasy. Accordingly, all references (and dozens more relevant refs as well!) cited on this page may be found in Biblio-Refs.

Teachers Are NOT Responsible for Everything!

      Listen to False Authorities (click) at your peril! They will have you believe that teachers should be held strictly accountable for what goes on in their classroom. You will not hear the falsies speak about latchkey homes, about broken homes, about abusive homes, about kids depending on local gangs for support, sustenance, and understanding. You won't hear the False Authorities point the finger at unfinished homework, too much sports and too many videos. The falsies will not even point a finger at incompetent administrators who so often run, scurry, scamper and hide instead of facing any issue that might threaten their tenure or retirement benefits.

For the falsie, the culprit is the teacher. But what would one expect: False Authorities and Instant Experts have not a clue about the relevant research. They know nothing about the factors that impact classroom behavior. Were the falsies to review even a few studies, they would discover that much of what occurs in the classroom is a function of influences that lie far beyond the reach of teachers. Those factors are enumerated below, on this web page. Students, prospective teachers, and parents who want to know just how tough the art and science of teaching is, this web page will provide a measured perspective.

Teaching: UNalterable Factors

"What a student brings to class in large measure determines what the class can bring to the student."

      Table 1 (below) presents a number of the more prominent community-based inputs which individually and together affect classroom learning conditions. From the teacher's perspective, they are not alterable; they are the givens, the unalterable conditions within which teachers must try to instruct. These unalterable conditions transform the so-called "scientific basis of teaching" (e.g., Gage, 1978) into what often becomes "the art of teaching" (Highet, 1959). The factors beyond teacher control are many, their classroom impact large, and still the teacher must find a way to get the job done amid the mayhem.

           Examples: Take the following variables from the left column of Table 1 (see the Table displayed toward the bottom of this page) --

• Parent involvement
• Teacher turnover
• Teacher experience
• Teacher training
• Teacher motivation
• Teacher burnout
• Teacher degree
• Family health and stability
• Libraries
• Language spoken
• Day care facilities

           The teacher has virtually no control and no influence on any of those variables other than for herself (e.g., teacher degree, teacher burnout, language spoken). The individual teacher can only do her individual best; yet that is not enough. (S)he cannot, for example, force, persuade, convince, or otherwise get any of the other teachers in the school to show up for work, to be more motivated, to stay in the job, to attend graduate school, to do anything that might help students before they enter her own classroom. Those factors in the left column in Table 1 below are the factors that every single day affect every single class of students who enter the teacher's classroom for a lesson. A "bad" teacher (however defined) the previous period can affect the behavior, the attitude, the attentiveness of the students who enter your classroom -- and as the classroom teacher, there is not much you can do about it!

              The classroom teacher also has very little affect on the right-hand column in Table 1.

                                                                                                       • Attendance                                                                                                        • Punctuality                                                                                                        • Dropout rate                                                                                                        • Verbal ability                                                                                                        • Reading scores                                                                                                        • Achievement scores                                                                                                        • Grade point average                                                                                                        • Vandalism/crime

           True, the teacher can influence the attendance, grades, vandalism, etc regarding her own classroom. But that is only for her classroom. From the perspective of the student, the school, and the family, the issue is "How is my child doing?" The issue is not, "How is my child doing only in your classroom?"
           One classroom does not a school or student record make. Student grades, attendance records and so forth include all courses and all classes -- not just your classroom. And there is nothing you the teacher can do to improve those factors. Nothing a classroom teacher can do to influence the factors in the right column. Nothing. The classroom teacher can only control her own teaching behavior. And let's face it: What I do in my classroom may be laudable; but how well any student does depends on so many other teachers who make up the total instructional experience of a student. Seasoned classroom teachers know that fact. False Authorities bury their heads, minds, and thoughts -- denying the reality.

          Classroom scenario

      Chapter 3 of the book manuscript (from which this webpage is abstracted) sets forth in depth a typical computer classroom on a quite-typical inner city school day. The regular teacher is absent. The substitute teacher has "covered the computer room" on many occasions. She is no novice, either to the learning handicapped students or to the way the computer room curriculum operates. Yet in so many ways her hands are tied: The students have attended at least two other classes before their ten o'clock computer class with her (in the scenario). And that fact alone raises a host of issues.
      The previous teacher is nowhere to be found. Since the previous teacher did not bother to accompany the class to the computer room, there is no way the computer teacher knows what if anything might have occurred during the previous ninety minutes. "Antecedent behavior" is critical to present behavior, as seasoned teachers know all too well. (The teacher's aid who brought the learning handicapped students "to computers" had been too busy finishing up homework for the after-school "higher learning" college course that will be meeting at 4pm this day. So he hasn't a clue what went on the previous period or two.)

           The computer teacher is left in the dark. Were all students well-behaved? Were the teachers during the previous periods regular assigned teachers or substitutes? Are they experienced? Trained? Familiar with the students? Are any students now hungry because periods earlier some silly staff member refused food as power play form of punishment? Have the "meds" been given to those requiring medication for seizures, or whatever? Worse, could one or more students now in computer class may be acting differently because a staff member during a previous period thought that yelling and screaming at the students would, ah, "help" them remain on-task or learn "a better way?" What about the homelife of any of the students; any problems last night that might affect present behavior in the classroom this period? Given the many, many potential dangers six individual computers can present (Chapter 5, book manuscript), computer teachers need to know. This computer teacher doesn't. But, if a student gets hurt, trips on a computer cord, knocks a disk drive off a table, suddenly erupts and destroys a keyboard, or decides to finger-play with the back of a computer -- no one but today's substitute teacher will take the rap! (And the union rep will suddenly straddle the fence, if an issue comes up!) Such is the daunting reality of school life beyond the rhetoric of False Authorities....

          Left column/Right column Interactions

      Again, Table 1 (below) provides a lengthy set of factors in the left column over which one individual top-class classroom teacher has scant influence. The factors in the right column a similarly out of reach of the caring and concerned classroom teacher.

           However independent each column is of an individual teacher, the two columns can be highly interactive. Forget the classroom teacher. For the moment she no longer exists. Notice how tightly the two columns in Table 1 are associated....

• Parent involvement                                                         • Attendance
• Teacher turnover
• Teacher experience
• Teacher training
• Teacher motivation
• Teacher attitude
• Teacher burnout
• Teacher degree
• Family health and stability
• Libraries
• Language spoken
• Day care facilities

           Look at the above several community-based (rather than classroom-based) factors extracted from Table 1. Every single factor in the left column can affect the right-hand/student behavior column. Poor school libraries can persuade a good student to skip school. A teacher degree from a very poor "education college" -- and there are very few quality teacher-preparation college programs (click) -- might well dissuade some students from bothering to attend class. Poor teacher motivation and attitude are enough to keep a lot of students out of school! Pick any one factor from the right-side Table 1 column and notice how that one factor can be influenced by any and perhaps all factors in the left column. And remember: A stellar classroom teacher can be "disadvantaged," "victimized," "put at risk" by the rest of a school and/or the surrounding community that is weak in terms of the factors in that left column of Table 1. Only False Authorities would have you believe otherwise.

      Not surprisingly, research has confirmed multiple connections between these community-based input factors and student output or achievement. Educational research has found time and again that a significant relationship can be drawn between various input factors, many of which are listed in Table 1, and several measures of student performance (truancy, graduation rates, test scores, etc.) Study upon study confirm, for example, that often where there is high teacher burnout, there may be low student achievement; where schools are safe, truancy is lower; where the administrative leadership is firm, caring, and consistent, more learning takes place; where the teachers are well-trained, motivated, and class sizes smaller rather than larger, student achievement scores improve. The studies are neither uniform nor totally in agreement. The issue is too complex and assessment instruments still inadequate for that. Nonetheless, individual studies have found repeatedly that a positive relationship does exist in study after study between one or more of the input factors and one or more of the output variables (e.g., Bridge, Judd, & Moock, 1979) depicted in Table 1.

      Summary: What students bring to class in a large measure determines what the class can bring to them. Taking a student out of a shattered homelife for six hours, five days a week, for perhaps thirty-eight weeks a year will not take the broken-home/latchkey experience out of the student. The conclusion is clear: The foremost task of the classroom teacher in particular and the neighborhood school in general is to do what is best with what little time is available.

Classroom Teaching: Yes! Alterable Factors

          Table 2 below sets forth a number of factors over which, yes, the classroom teacher does have some say, some influence.

      The community context pervades the classroom, without question. And that broader context is largely beyond the reach of the busy teacher. No so with the instructional context, however (Table 2). For also at work within the classroom are a set of factors which can indeed be altered, can be influenced, can be manipulated to the good of the student. These factors are called antecedent inputs that make up the classroom context ( Table 2, left column). Another set of factors over which the individual classroom teacher has influence are the consequences of behavior (Table 2, right column).

              In Table 2, the factors in the left column and the right column are alterable. The classroom teacher -- yes! -- can influence student Behaviors of the sort listed in the middle column by structuring, by changing, by influencing the factors in either the left or right columns or any of the factors in both left and right columns. Finally the caring, hard-working, often over-taxed classroom teacher has a say in the instructional process. She can't do much about family background. She can't do much about the school library contents. She can't do much about the health and welfare of the student. But she can do a lot about a lot of things -- and those things are the factors listed in the left and right columns of Table 2. In sum, given a measurable, observable student Behavior (middle column), events or conditions that precede the behavior (setting events, input factors, instructional context) are termed Antecedents (left column). Whatever follows the target behavior are the Consequences (right column). Chapter 3 of the book manuscript discusses in detail the interaction and interrelationship between target behaviors (middle column) and reinforcing or punishing consequences, given the context of the classroom and the instructional process.

Biblio-Refs

....knowledge provides insight, belief offers comfort. Is life meant to be comfortable, or insightful?

           The short reference list presented below is a fine starting point for understanding the present discussion. Of course, Biblio-Refs contains dozens of additional references for interested readers. Moreover, the free cut-and-paste References elsewhere on this website offers many other resources as well.

           Join the fight against Falsies, against the False Authorities who have plenty of answers but no solutions to pressing social problems. Dig into the references provided and email me for more information, if needed. Remember, the challenge addressed at this website is to replace fiction with fact, fantasy with research, myth with science. So please review the sample -- the classic! -- references listed below; then visit our page of free References (click).

"We have enough youth. What about a Fountain of Brains!"

Bridge, R.G., Judd, C.M., & Moock, P.R. (1979). The determinants of educational outcomes: The impact of families, peers, teachers, and schools. Cambridge, MA: Harper and Row.

Bridge, R.G., Judd, C.M., & Moock, P.R. (1979). The input-output approach. In R.G. Bridge, C.M. Judd, & P.R. Moock, The determinants of educational outcomes: The impact of families, peers, teachers, and schools (pp. 9-32). Cambridge, MA: Harper and Row.

Cohn, E., Millman, S., & Chew, I. (1975). Input-output analysis in the development of an educational production for elementary and secondary schools. In E. Cohn, S. Milliman, & I. Chew, Input-output analysis in public education (pp. 29-49). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.

Coleman, J. (1966). Equal schools or equal students. The Public Interest, 2, 70-78.

Coleman, J. (1968). The concept of equality of educational opportunity. Harvard Educational Review, 38, 7-23.

Dunkin, M., & Biddle, B.J. (1974). The study of teaching. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Gage, N.L. (1978). The scientific basis of the art of teaching. New York: Teachers College Press.

Glasman, N.S., & Biniaminov, I. (1981). Input-output analyses of schools. Review of Educational Research, 51, 509-539.

Glass, G.V., Cohen, L., Smith, M.L., & Filby, N. (1982). School class size. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Good, T.L., Biddle, B.J., & Brophy, J.E. (1975). Teachers make a difference. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Goodlad, J.I. (1983). A place called school. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Goodlad, J.I. (1983). A study of schooling: Some findings and hypotheses. Phi Delta Kappan, 64, 465-470.

Lortie, D.C. (1975). Schoolteacher. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Paschal, R.A., Weinstein, T., & Walberg, H.J. (1984). The effects of homework on learning: A quantitative synthesis. Journal of Educational Research, 78, 97-104.

Peterson, P.L., & Walberg, H.J. (Eds.). (1979). Research on teaching: Concepts, findings, and implications. Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.

Rutter, M., Maughan, B., Mortimore, P., Ouston, J., & Smith, A. (1979). Fifteen thousand hours: Secondary schools and their effects on children. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wang, M.C., Haertel, G.D., & Walberg, H.J. (1993). Toward a knowledge base for school learning. Review of Educational Research, 63, 249-294.

Table 2: Instructional Context: Selected Alterable Variables Affecting Teaching

Antecedents      <------------------>     Behavior      <------------------>   Consequences (Conditions, Context)              (What student does)              (Result of student behavior) • Schooling inputs                                  • Class attendance                                           • Performance scores • Student history                                   • Compliance                                                       • Attendance • Instructional materials                        • On-task attention                                            • Compliance • Task requests                                      • Self-initiation                                                   • Task completion • Teacher prompts                                 • Task participation                                             • Peer acceptance • Class period length                             • Following directions                                         • Recognition • Student medication                              • Reading comprehension                                • Satisfaction • Fatigue                                                    • Appropriate social behavior                         • Skills • Satiation                                                • Time management                                             • Job offers • Teacher motivation                                • Counting change                                          • Earned income • Familiarity with program                       • Job applications                                               • Independence • Language cues                                        • Telephone use                                               • Self-esteem • Scheduling activities                                • Riding buses, trains • Classroom organization                          • Leisure time activity selection • Teacher competencies                             • Peer-tutoring • Room temperature/humidity • Ambient noise

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