Describing Schools in Research
July 29th, 2009
So often in research, we describe schools generally as public or private, charter or traditional district-run, etc. However, the variation within these categories are huge. Is there some way we could better describe characteristics of schools so that after we complete our research, we really know what elements of the school are related to what we are studying?
Enter the Variable-Based Descriptive Framework for Schools. The model uses three broad categories: learning model, administration, and facilities and resources. Within each of these are more variables. For example, within learning model are descriptions of:
- curriculum
- assessment of learning
- place and time
- teacher to student programs
- student to student programs
- other learning related variables
For each of these, there are more potential variables with what might be described as a rubric to score the variable. For example within curriculum are: amount of structure, course offerings, authentic pedagogy, individual learning plans, and more.
To create this taxonomy of schools, the creators attempted to “catalogue differences in schools that could be expected to impact student outcomes.” The idea is that this is an empirical, rather than a theoretical taxonomy. They next want to describe a large number of schools using these descriptions and use clustering techniques to see if these characteristics “hang together” and form types of schools that are more meaningful than charter vs. district run.
I think the descriptions, even as they are, are useful for researchers looking at school-level variables. It can provide a framework by which to gather data describing schools in a systematic way.
Tags: taxonomy of schools
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