Resistances in School/Community Co-Constructed School Reform: Scaling Up from Research to Practice in a Native American Community

5.6 Final Report 5.6 Executive Summary School reform is difficult in the best of circumstances. When reform meets with a long tradition of institutionalized resistance, can change, no matter how slight, be expected? In this study, the researchers attempted to influence change, not only within the community and district, but at the most basic level - the classroom — to improve student achievement in a Native American community. An important addition to the literature on school reform, this study documents the journey of resistance as a community and its schools struggle to co-construct a vision of better schooling for Native America children In Zuni, New Mexico, CREDE researchers worked with school personnel, parents and families, and community members to co-construct and operationalize a vision of reformed education for Native American children. Their study was designed to provide a reformed vision of teaching, through the Standards for Effective Pedagogy, to teachers, as well as to document the resistances encountered in reforming the public education system in the Zuni Pueblo. Through intensive professional development, development of a portfolio system of accountability, and a system of supports that included both human and fiscal resources, the implementation of the Standards for Effective Pedagogy resulted in moderate gains in student achievement in middle grade students’ achievement in reading and science. The development and validation of the Standards Performance Continuum and the Activity Settings Observation System allowed researchers to observe and document the degree of implementation of the Standards and the organizational pattern of activities in teachers’ classroom practices. Four strategic goals in reforming Zuni schools, as well as a detailed account of the resistances encountered to these goals, are discussed. They are: the creation of systematic curricula and assessment; the formal us of the Zuni language (Shiwi) in the schools; the improvement of teacher performance, especially in pedagogy; and the strengthening of community and family involvement in school policies and practices. The lessons learned from this research can serve as a useful guide to other Native communities as they travel their individual paths toward school reform.