Fred M. Newmann

University of Wisconsin–Madison | UW · Department of Curriculum and Instruction

In this article, the authors summarize important and promising research on what they call "authentic intellectual work." It is important because so often schoolwork, not only in social studies but across the curriculum, requires little in the way of deep conceptual learning that also connects to life beyond school, and it is promising because the r...

During the late twentieth century in the field of social studies education, Donald Oliver, Fred Newmann, and James Shaver were prominent leaders. Their work on the Harvard Social Studies Project was part of the New Social Studies movement popular in the 1960s and 1970s that attempted to transform the social studies curriculum nationwide. By creatin...

Schools are organizations that affect and are affected by teachers' learning. School capacity stresses the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of individual teachers; creating a professional community among the staff; and program coherence within schools. To be effective in boosting the quality of instruction, professional development must address...

We present the concept of instructional program coherence and explain why school improvement frameworks that incorporate instructional program coherence are more likely to advance student achievement than multiple, unrelated efforts. We present evidence that Chicago elementary schools with stronger instructional program coherence make higher gains...

Situates current research on professional development within an organizational perspective. Offers a framework for the study of professional development, and proposes that key factors that affect student achievement be conceptualized as school capacity. Argues that increases in school capacity will lead to gains in student achievement, and that pro...

This report is part of a series of special topic reports developed by the Chicago Annenberg Research Project to document key issues and problems affecting the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and the improvement of Chicago public schools in general. The report introduces the concept of instructional program coherence and explains why schools whose impro...

We argue that professional development should address five aspects of school capacity: teachers' knowledge, skills, and dispositions; professional community; program coherence; technical resources; and principal leadership. A two-year study of nine urban elementary schools in the United States found considerable variation in schools' use of profess...

From 1990 to 1995, the Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools at the University of Wisconsin-Madison examined questions about the effects of school restructuring on student performance. Center researchers analyzed data from more than 1,500 elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the United States and conducted field research in...

Many politicians and policymakers today link school accountability and school performance. Drawing on evidence from the corporate world, they assume that strong external accountability will impel schools to improve student achievement. In this article, however, Fred Newmann, M. Bruce King, and Mark Rigdon argue that three issues keep this popular t...

This chapter presents standards for authentic assessment in social studies derived from a concept of authentic human achievement. It also illustrates various examples. These examples come from teachers and students in schools across the United States who participated in our study of the effects of school restructuring on student learning. The teach...

Reform efforts may increase active learning without enhancing the intellectual quality of students' work. We present a vision of authentic academic achievement and specific standards for pedagogy and student performance that are consistent with active learning, or constructivist, perspectives but that establish standards of intellectual quality rat...

This report presents general criteria for authentic pedagogy, instructional activities rooted in a primary concern for high standards of intellectual quality, as well as more specific standards that can be used to judge the quality of assessment tasks, classroom lessons, and student performance. Examples are given of tasks, lessons, and student per...

This document focuses on the challenge of building professional community within schools. The introductory article provides a definition of and rationale for "community within schools." The second article discusses some of the benefits that schools enjoy when they develop strong professional communities, and what conditions and resources make the d...

Common sense proposals for restructuring schools suggest promising directions, but in order for this potential to be fulfilled, two major issues must be addressed: What content is needed to give educational direction to the structures, and how can the many factors that influence this content be linked? This article proposes an agenda of content for...

Why do many innovations fail to improve the quality of instruction or student achievement? In 1990, we began to explore this question by studying schools that have tried to restructure. Unfortunately, even the most innovative activities—from school councils and shared decision making to cooperative learning and assessment by portfolio—can be implem...

Findings of six projects conducted by the National Center on Effective Secondary Schools are presented in this report. The center's mission is to improve the academic achievement of all students, focusing on the disadvantaged and less successful. The first project described is the Clearinghouse on Academic Achievement, which presents an updated bib...

Examined, among 1,387 9th–12th graders in 73 classes in 11 high schools, the kind of assessment that would give meaningful indicators of the quality of students' thinking in social studies. The ideal approach could be summarized into 3 categories: context-specific exercises, multiple indicators, and authenticity. Although there was lack of consensu...

A study of social studies departments in 16 high schools examined the extent to which higher order thinking (HORT) was promoted and how barriers were overcome in the more successful departments. This overview article presents a conception of HORT grounded in nonroutine intellectual challenges, a discussion of the role of knowledge, skills and dispo...

Staff developers who have worked intensively with teachers to promote higher order thinking tend to emphasize similar types of training activities, especially involving teachers in higher order thinking and authentic problem solving in their subjects and translating ideas about the teaching of thinking into specific lessons for students. Developers...

Reports a research project with the goal of learning about the barriers to promoting higher-order thinking in high school social studies. Compares social studies departments that are successful at promoting higher-order thinking with less successful departments. Describes the technical aspects in the development and use of the 17 observational dime...

Argues for a new approach to empirical work which focuses on classroom thoughtfulness. Proposes a conception of higher-order thinking that synthesizes theoretical literature with the views of practitioners. Offers a conceptual basis for empirical study of classrooms, teachers, students, and institutional leaders. (GG)

Provides a model National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) essay examination that teachers may use to evaluate higher-order thinking among social studies high school students. Presents a constitutional issue for students to argue positions. Reports examination results from 51 classrooms. Includes essay examples and scoring rationale. Concl...

This study contends that the alienation of teachers in high schools can be reduced through improvements in school organization. Using the High School and Beyond Administrator/Teacher Survey, the study explored the impact of 10 organizational features on efficacy, community, and expectations in 353 public high schools. When school size, urban locati...

Reconceptualizes the definition of citizenship from the concept of persons acting in rational self-interest to that of the citizen who acts in the interest of the public good. Argues that reflective citizen participation must be engendered through a new curricular framework. Delineates five areas that must be considered in this curricular framework...

Offers information useful to educators interested in implementing community-service programs. Provides estimates of students' participation in community service in U. S. high schools; describes the nature of the programs and students' experiences; and reports data which illustrate that the potential for influencing civic responsibility may not yet...

What is higher order thinking? Why is it so hard to promote in secondary schools? How can the principal help? These are some of the questions addressed by this writer.

Quality versus quantity of information taught in the classroom is a controversial issue in these days of educational reform where academic achievement is measured by test scores. The author asserts that we try to teach too much, wasting time and undermining intellectual integrity. (MD)

Social studies assessment for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) should focus on students' oral and written discourse on social topics. Discourse is language produced by the student with the intention of providing a narrative, argument, explanation, or analysis. The assessment of discourse is important because: emphasis on disco...

An attempt is made to synthesize the diverse perspectives on the teaching of thinking, especially in the area of social studies. A conception is developed that incorporates major theoretical orientations as well as the views of teachers. The conception emphasizes interpretation, analysis, and manipulation of information to solve problems that canno...

Identifies diversity of teachers' instructional priorities, student disengagement (boredom), and mediocre teaching as three problem-areas of social studies instruction. Overcoming these problems requires that teachers place depth above coverage, that the school culture be changed to enhance student engagement, and that efforts be made to promote st...

Presents the results from a 1984 national survey of high school community service programs. Findings include: 27 percent of high schools offer some kind of community service programs, enrollments vary greatly, females outnumber males, more than half of the programs have no hispanics, and 36 percent have no black students. Includes tables, reference...

Radical writing in education suggests a) that emancipation should be the guiding social ideal; b) social life should be understood largely in terms of such concepts as domination, autonomy, contradiction, and the social construction of knowledge; and c) that teaching should emphasize the development of critical discourse. If potentially appealing a...

The implications of six national reports for social studies are examined. These implications are compared with past and present practices in the social studies and the ways in which the reports fail to give useful guidance to teachers are noted. An introductory chapter presents a broad overview of the six reports: "The Paideia Proposal: An Educatio...

This is an integrated report on 28 ongoing projects that were set up to study and improve American high schools on a large scale. The activities include establishment of a national data base on high school students; a study of new standards for college admission; administrators' reports on what works in urban schools; intensive studies of single sc...

Student alienation is a difficult problem facing many U. S. high schools. Not only does it adversely affect the quality of student life, but it is an underlying factor in other school problems such as violence, vandalism, and poor achievement. Drawing on an extensive literature, Fred M. Newmann develops six guidelines for reducing student alienatio...

While schools are not called upon to meet all human needs, they have a responsibility to strive toward an institutional life of high quality. Although there are no systematic studies of human alienation, reports on secondary education indicate that much of the secondary program breeds alienation. Theory in sociology and social psychology of organiz...

Education consists of three important facets: reflection, action, and systematic instruction. Various mixtures of these components should be available to meet the needs of persons at the various stages of life, of persons in different groups, and of persons in different types of communities. (Author/WM)

provided helpful suggestions related to study design and data analysis. The author is deeply appreciative of the assistance provided by staff in the schools and districts participating in the study. Any opinions expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.

Some critics of social studies education argue that U.S. students spend too much time in unfocused discussions and unproductive group work—and not enough time learning the facts of history, geography, or government. Other critics contend that students spend too much time absorbing and reproducing trivial information conveyed by textbooks or teacher...

THIS PAPER PRESENTS A DISSENTING VIEW OF PREVAILING CONCEPTS OF EDUCATION AND APPROACHES TO EDUCATIONAL REFORM. THE AUTHORS STATE THAT REFORMS CURRENTLY DIRECTED AT AMERICAN SCHOOLS ARE GROUNDED IN CONCEPTUAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORKS THAT FAIL TO CONFRONT THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS OF THE AGE. THEY OUTLINE THE NATURE OF THESE PROBLEMS, SUGGE...