What Works May Hurt―Side Effects in Education

by Yong Zhao

Medical products are required to disclose both their intended outcomes and known side effects. Educational policy and practice, however, carry no such labels. Thus, teachers, school leaders, and the public are not told, for example, that "this program helps improve your students' reading scores, but it may make them hate reading forever," or that "school choice may improve test scores of some students, but it may lead to the collapse of American public education."

In his new book, Yong Zhao, distinguished professor and specialist in education policy, shines a light on the long-ignored phenomenon of side effects of education policies and practices, bringing a fresh and perhaps surprising perspective to evidence-based practices and policies. Identifying the adverse effects of some of the "best" educational interventions with examples from classrooms to boardrooms, the author investigates causes and offers clear recommendations.

This volume will help the field of education to advance beyond the extreme pendulum swings that characterize today's school reform efforts.

Book Features:


Provides evidence to show how popularly endorsed education strategies, policies, and systems can actually do harm to students. Encourages educators to consider some less-publicized or lower-effect strategies that may be just what the doctor ordered for some students and classrooms. Cautions educators, policymakers, and parents to be more thoughtful when considering educational programs and weighing evidence. Calls for researchers to include possible downsides to strategies that they are testing and promoting in order to assist school leaders and practitioners in choosing and implementing educational interventions.

Genres: Education, Professional Development

176 pages, Paperback

Published June 29, 2018

About the author

Yong Zhao is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education, with a courtesy appointment in the School of Business, at the University of Kansas. He is also a global chair in education at East China Normal University. He previously served as the presidential chair and director of the Institute for Global and Online Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon, where he was also a professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. Prior to Oregon, Yong Zhao was University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education, Michigan State University, where he also served as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology and executive director of the Confucius Institute as well as the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence. His works focus on the implications of globalization and technology on education. He has published over 100 articles and 30 books.

Reviews

[Seán Mchugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great, the perfect antidote to book's like Dylan Wiliam's recent retrogressive missive with it's admonishment of progressive education and it's lauding of traditional content/knowledge driven teaching, with the only metric of efficacy worth considering being standardised test scores.

Zhao's book isn't too long, a wish more author's would consider that, despite its short length it is rather repetitive, and too focused on NCLB for a non American like me. Still the best far outweighs the rest. We need more writers like this, resisting the tendency to encourage the extremes of pendulum swings from traditional to progressive educational practices. Finding a balance between them is difficult, maybe impossible, but that's exactly what most teachers have to do, no matter what their leaders expect from them. I finish with this great quote from the book—I live an work in an international school in Singapore, and I'm sick of pedants in the UK who are convinced the PISA international comparisons are a useful metric for determining effective teaching. If that was true, why would expat parents in Singapore pay tooth and nail to keep their kids OUT of local Singaporean schools? Because those schools may well excel at teaching kids how to be great test takers, but 'what works hurts'.

[Remember this is written by a Chinese man]
"East Asia has admired American education for its effectiveness in producing a diversity of innovative and creative talents, happy and confident children, and socially adept and emotionally mature students. East Asian parents and students also are jealous of American children for their opportunities to participate in sports, music, and free play; their relaxed school life; their equal status with teachers; their freedom from anxiety and pressure; and their interactions with society and nature. If at all possible, they don’t want to care about test scores. This is why many East Asian parents, given the opportunity, pursue an American-style education either by coming to America or having their children attend an American-style school in Asia..."

[Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this was a great read about education and testing. The author talks about different types of educational models and discusses how they are presented only with positive side effects but never considers negative side effects. For example, East Asian countries are well known as countries that can crush the test scores for reading and math. However, in order to do this, there are many things that they can’t focus on. East Asian countries look to the US and try to change their educational models to include more subjects like music, art, and sports.

“The East Asian systems are indeed very effective in producing outstanding test results in a limited number of subjects. The outstanding performances on tests are accompanied by less confidence, less satisfaction, less creativity and less diversity of talents.”

Confidence, resilience, grit, mindset, personality traits, social skills and motivation have been found to be at least as important as cognitive skills in the workplace. Yet we don’t test for any of those.

A lot of really great ideas and concepts to think about. What do we lose when we focus only on test results for reading and math? This book helps answer that question.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

A thought-provoking, yet infuriating read. Zhao makes a logical overall argument, that the “side effects” of educational interventions need to be considered. Much of the history provided by Zhao was interesting and added much needed context to the points he was trying to make. Yet, Zhao repeatedly tears apart educational interventions as lacking a research-base, while simultaneously providing incredibly flimsy research for his points.

For example, Zhao clearly abhors direct instruction, despite the compelling data that came out of Project Follow Through. In order to discredit direct instruction, Zhao uses long term research studies that include incredibly small sample sizes. For instance, he cites a study of 53 students that argues that student who participate in direct instruction programs are more likely to end up in jail after 20 years. What?!?!?!

Zhao really lost me when he implied that there was a significant research base for grit and growth mindset. Hint: the research on both of these concepts is incredibly flimsy when held to traditional research standards.

Interesting. Though-provoking. Infuriating. Zhao does it again!

[Jean Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author presents an excellent explanation of side effects in education with specific examples and a call to action. “When looking for evidence of effectiveness of educational interventions, we must take a holistic and long-term perspective. We should look not only at the effects on intended outcomes, but also at the impact on other outcomes. We should look at the effects not only on all students, but also on individuals in different situations. This is the lesson we should learn from medicine, but that has been missed in the current movement to transform education into an evidence-based field” (32). I actually got chills reading the chapter of the unintended side effects of (the bipartisan) No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act (on students and on teachers such as myself, as we were perceived to be the cause of the achievement gap). We MUST take a holistic and longitudinal look at each of the choices we make in education on the large- and small-scale levels. I look forward to reading this book again, as well as reading other books by this author.

[Marlene Scholfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yong Zhao has some great things to say about education and how we probably should be looking at the side effects that happen when we make the changes or jump on new bandwagons. NCLB had so many side effects that could have been monitored and changed to make education better but we will not know now because it was such a failure. Yong suggests that we kn education start demanding that these researchers show the side effects whether positive or negative abs from there we can make those changes. He uses the medical field as his example as to how education can start this change slowly to help all.

[John Whaley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely dry, but a necessary read and call to action for anyone interested in finally fostering the best educational opportunities and strategies for ALL students at the INDIVIDUAL level. Counting What Counts impelled me more, but this text dove into much more of the failed attempts at education reform than CWC. Panacea doesn't exist, and it's time to start treating each student's education as just that: individual.