Profile ’01: Curriculum and Teaching in North American Division Schools From AIMS to OUTCOMES: Quality Cycles in Advent

1. Profile ’01: Curriculum and Teaching in North American Division SchoolsFrom AIMS to OUTCOMES:Quality Cyclesin Adventist Education Paul Brantley, Alfredo Ruiz, and Glynis Bradfield School of Education, Andrews University 2001

2. Larson’s Four Basic Temperament Types

3. Is the glass half full or half empty in Seventh-day Adventist education in the North American Division? You be the judge!

4. What is a Quality Cycle? • It’s when an organization has determined that its purposes are met in its plans, practices, and its products (results). • To what extent has the NADCC completed the cycle?

5. Purposes Unfortunately, many educational systems fail to document a completed quality cycle. They plan and practice without sufficiently examining their purposes and products. Products Plans • “For which of you intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it?” --Jesus, in Luke 14:28 Practices

6. Some findings regarding NAD Purposes We asked 725 NAD educators if: (1) our system had a clearly articulated philosophy and (2) schools were putting it into practice

7. Purposes: % who ‘strongly agree’ that our NAD system has articulated aclear philosophy to guide practice

8. Purposes: Points to Ponder • Prior Profiles indicated that the vast majority of Adventist educators want a guiding philosophy • A third of respondents said they lack easy access to NAD’s philosophy statement. Many said they never received the FACT21 document. • Most respondents marked “Yes, somewhat” to items about philosophy and practice.

9. Purposes: % who ‘strongly agree’ that Adventist schools are putting their philosophy into practice

10. Purposes: More Points to Ponder To what extent are WE as an NADCC clear as to the relationship between— • NAD mission statement (Strategic plan) • NAD ten goals (FACT21) • NAD ten core values (Strategic plan) • NAD essential learnings (FACT21) • ITBS assessment objectives • Objectives of the Potentials assessment project • Approved textbook objectives • Et cetera?

11. Some findings regarding NAD Plans Once our purposes are clear, what plans and resources should we prepare?

12. What can be done to help more Adventist youth attend Adventist schools?Strategic suggestions from NAD Educators

13. What do you feel is the best way for our system to produce curriculum for teachers?

14. Plans and Resources: % “Excellent” ratings for Elementary and Academy Bible series

15. % Respondents Who Reported Using the Web 1995 & 2001

16. Resources: Software for Classroom UseSelf-ratings of Elementary and Academy teachers

17. Plans and Resources: Points to Ponder • Could genuine spiritual reform according to inspired counsel hold the key to such qualities as excellence, climate, and lowered cost? • Can we identify still more creative, responsible curriculum development options? • 95% of all SDA teachers in the NAD now have computers--but half of all academy teachers and a third of elementary teachers fail to use them for classroom learning.

18. Some findings regarding NAD Practices What are the realities teachers experienced in relation to curriculum and teaching during the 2000-2001 school year?

19. Preferred Practices: % ImplementedSchool or Conference-Wide

20. Teachers Self-ratings of Proficiency in Recommended FACT21 Practices

21. Practices: How many times this year has someone visited your classroom, observed, and coached teaching?

22. Practices: Points to Ponder • Are there systemic changes that would encourage the Preferred Practices? Will we monitor this implementation over time? • Although many teachers have begun implementing recommended instructional practices, few teachers (and their supervising conference personnel) feel proficient. • Hardly will teachers attain proficiency without a vibrant network of coaching with conference and college people and with their peers.

23. Some findings regarding NAD Products (results) What evidence do we have that students are actually accomplishing the purposes that NAD set in the beginning?

24. Products: Do schools (Did faculty) use Iowa Test scores to improve instruction?* % Yes

25. Products: Value of SDA school accreditation? % rating “Excellent”

26. Products: Should there be a test like ITBS to assess Bible knowledge?* % Yes

27. Products: Should we as a group assess student outcomes related to character development? % Yes

28. Products: Should Adventist education consider adopting standards like states/provinces?

29. Products: Points to Ponder • Do we have a system in place to determine clearly how well FACT21/NAD purposes are being attained? • Academic goals are assessed (to an extent) by the ITBS, but applying ITBS results in system-wide improvement of instruction appears to be limited. • Some of the most important system goals for our SDA system are non-academic. How are they being measured? What gets measured gets done! • To what extent are we examining the character development outcomes of SDA education including research by Roger Dudley, Valuegenesis, etc.? • All categories except NADCC appear to favor considering the adoption of system-wide Standards.

30. Is the glass half full or half empty in Seventh-day Adventist education in the North American Division? You be the judge!

31. Is the glass half full or half empty? Our thoughts? We should-- • Feelgrateful to God for the excellent work our NAD educational system has accomplished to date AND • Feel sobered by the challenges documented in part by this report--along with the resolve, by God’s grace, to reach His ideal Thank you, NADCC! Dr Paul Brantley, Alfredo Ruiz, & Glynis Bradfield, with special appreciation to Dr Randy Siebold and the NADOE staff