Presentation on equity in education by Ben Levin at the January 2013 Seattle Symposium of the Global Cities Education Network.

1. Improving Achievement in
Large Cities
Global Cities Education Network
Ben Levin, OISE
With assistance of Sofya Malik, Jacqueline Sohn
January, 2013
@BenLevinOISE
webspace.oise.utoronto.ca/~levinben/

2. Outline
• The Study
• Main findings
• Issues for discussion

3. The Study
• Focus on ways of improving student
outcomes in large systems
• Five participants – Chicago, Denver, Seoul,
Shanghai, EdVisions charter school network
• Based on public data and information
supplied by participants

4. Challenges
• Cities are very different in almost every
way
– Size, culture, demographics, education issues
– Hard to take all that into account
• Available information is not similar across
all settings

5. Challenges of High Achievement
• Increasing evidence that equity and
excellence are not in conflict; some systems
have both
• Potential impact of schools on achievement
subject of much debate
• Improving outcomes across an entire system
is very hard to do

6. What Matters Most?
• Focused, coherent, aligned approach to
improvement
• Strategy grounded in evidence
– “First, do no harm”
– Most outcome for least effort
• Building capacity to do the work
• A real plan for implementation

7. Strategic Choices
• Which measures to adopt?
– Many different ideas proposed
– Few have strong supporting evidence
• Where to focus
– Governance/structure vs. teaching/learning
– Supports for students vs. instruction
– In school vs. in home and community
• Strategies for all vs. focus on key groups,
schools

8. Systems - Chicago
• High profile change for more than 20 years
• Extremely high poverty students
• Much focus on choice and accountability
• Ongoing political challenges - $, labor
• Some improvement in outcomes but still not
good

9. Systems – Denver
• Rapidly changing demographics –
increasingly Hispanic
• Balancing central focus with school
autonomy
• Strong focus on instruction
• Significant improvements in outcomes but
still large gaps

10. Systems – EdVisions
• A network not a centrally operated system
• Schools adopt a common set of principles,
approaches
• Attempt to broaden the outcomes
considered important
• No single set of outcome metrics

11. Systems – Seoul
• High achievement, small socio-economic
gaps, little diversity compared to others
• Huge pressures on students on exam
performance
• Major out of school sector – hagwons
• Concerns about level of student stress,
engagement

12. Systems – Shanghai
• Very high achievement on available
measures
• Migrant students lag; working on more
support for such schools
• Much emphasis on exam preparation, want
to have more engaged and active students
• Much attention to teaching practice

13. Key Issues
1. Is there a clear plan with a small number of priorities
linked to actions and resources?
2. Are the strategies in place in each system consistent so that
priorities are clear?
3. How best to balance an overall strategy with appropriate
autonomy for schools?
4. Are strategies firmly grounded in research evidence?
5. What measures are used to judge progress?
6. Is there a robust implementation strategy including a
process for adjustment as needed?

14. Questions?