Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

US K-12 minority students have unequal access to opportunities and resources; researchers are trying to understand the nature of these inequalities and to identify the underlying processes. In order to generate understanding, researchers need to utilize students as a source of information and knowledge. Student-centered learning, in which learning is guided by students, has not been widely discussed from a policy and management perspective as a participatory process that helps students overcome institutional barriers. Some teachers use student-centered learning but this is not mandatory, and teachers differ in how much they use it.

In this study, we seek to understand how institutional characteristics and values support or hinder service provider organizations from addressing service recipients’ needs. In particular, we seek to understand how institutional values influence the ability of service recipients to help service provider organizations meet their needs through participatory processes. These questions will be investigated in the context of examining the US education system as a service provider organization to minority students. 

Service providers may make assumptions about the needs and capacities of service recipients based on training, perceptions of successful organizations, pressure from organizations that provide resources, and personal experience. Some assumptions may prevent service providers from asking questions and gaining helpful knowledge. Service recipients can serve as a resource to build capacity that is not present in the institutional structures. Service recipients may have unique knowledge about their own needs and capacities and the effect of the services on those needs and capacities.

The Mathematics Coaching Program (MCP) provides a context to evaluate these questions, particularly as they pertain to minority students and those with nontraditional backgrounds. The MCP trains teachers in a student-centered learning approach at low-performing schools across Ohio. Teachers have been evaluated by MCP coaches based upon their success in implementing the student-centered approach. This information can be used to assess the impact of student-centered learning on minority student achievement.

We will also evaluate how values with an economic emphasis, including measures of teacher/school quality and merit based pay, influence the implementation of the MCP, which focuses on longer-term outcomes; this will be done by contrasting the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful teachers, schools, and districts that implement the MCP. 

Our results will inform educators about the potential of student-centered learning to reduce institutional inequalities. They will also explain how ingrained institutional values affect service implementation.