Private school location and neighborhood characteristics

Using data from Illinois, I examine relationships between the number of private schools and characteristics of the public schools and surrounding population. I find positive, statistically significant relationships between number of private schools in 1998 and public school 3rd grade class size, the percent college educated, and the percent over 55 years of age. I find significant negative relationships between number of private schools and average household income and racial concentration.Looking at private school entry, areas with larger increases in the school-aged population had less entry, and areas with increasing income dispersion experienced greater entry. The results suggest that if a universal education voucher program is introduced, parents in relatively well-educated, racially diverse, and more moderate income areas will likely have greater access to private school options because of more existing private schools in their area. These areas will also likely have more private school entry in response.     

Ideal versus school learning: Analyzing Israeli secondary school students’ conceptions of learning

This study explored 130 secondary school students’ conceptions of learning using an open-ended task, analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Students’ reality of learning comprised two separate spheres, ideal learning and school learning, which rarely interacted. Generally, students commented more about school than ideal learning. Factor analysis of learning conception categories revealed separate “grand” categories for each sphere and some shared ones. Strikingly, students held complex, deeper conceptions of ideal learning (as self-interest/curiosity, understanding, and knowledge acquisition), but these were separate from their conceptions of school learning as merely the minimal, surface compliance necessary to survive the system by “satisficing” [Simon, H. A. (1955). A behavioral model of rational choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69(1), 99–118] – satisfying and sufficing – the teachers (grades, task completion, and active class participation). Theoretical and educational implications were discussed regarding classroom instruction to heighten educators’ awareness of students’ thinking about learning.     

Trust versus control: the impact of school leadership on teacher reflection

As teacher educators have worked to encourage teachers to become more reflective, they have noted the important role that school context plays in supporting or constraining reflection in action. This study describes one kindergarten teacher's experiences in two contrasting school contexts. The study documents the leadership styles, school organizational structures and resources, faculty‐administration communication processes, and curriculum decision‐making practices that promoted or hindered the teacher's ability to reflect. Data analysis revealed striking contrasts between the two schools. These differences had an impact on the curriculum provided by the teacher, her ability and willingness to accept responsibility for her professional decisions, and her self‐confidence and job satisfaction. The study concludes with suggestions for teacher educators interested in helping their graduates find and maintain contexts supportive of reflective practice.     

The Effects of Busing and School Desegregation on Majority and Minority Student Dropout Rates

Abstract

This study evaluates the effects of school desegregation by court-ordered busing on the subsequent dropout rate of majority and minority students. Using before and after busing measures of dropout rates, school records and personal interviews, this research finds majority dropout rates are not affected by desegregation procedures. While the dropout rates of bused minority students appear to be identical to those of non-bused minority students, large disparities between minority rates in various bused sectors indicate highly uneven educational experiences of bused minority students. School socio-economic composition and the expectations of teachers concerning student behavior are used to analyze the disparities, with the conclusion reached that the more favorable expectations of teachers at higher socio-economic climate schools produce lower minority student dropout rates. Desegregation produces a positive benefit for this most crucial dimension of minority student educational accomplishment, when the school to which the minority student is bused is one where teachers' expectations are positive and supportive.     

Middle school students' achievement in laboratory investigations: Explicit versus tacit knowledge

This study examined the relative importance of middle school students' explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge in carrying out open-ended laboratory investigations. The results indicate that the students provided with explicit knowledge through instruction performed significantly better in overall achievement in such investigations than those using only tacit knowledge. However, the performance over the duration of the study (7 weeks) of those students provided with explicit knowledge improved for some integrated process skills, while for other skills, the explicit knowledge gave no significant advantage over those provided with tacit knowledge. These findings have important implications on what teachers should emphasize when teaching open-ended laboratory investigations.     

Professional versus academic values: cultural ambivalence in university professional school in Australia

University staff who teach and research in professional schools inhabit an ambivalent cultural world. Their dual mandate requires commitment to traditional academic norms and scholarship through the disciplines on the one hand, and commitment to the transmission of distinctly vocational skills and attitudes on the other. Tensions created by these two intersecting roles both within professional schools and between professional school staff and their colleagues in non-professional fields, and the implications of these for the functioning of a university are explored. Findings suggest that university leaders who understand more fully the bases of tension between the two and develop strategies to minimise symbolic separation, are more likely to ensure the survival and growth of both the academic-scholarly and practice-oriented cultures.     

Popularity versus respect: school structure,peer groups and Latino academic achievement

This article begins with a discussion of recent critiques of Fordham and Ogbu’s argument on the ‘burden of acting white’. These critiques point to the stereotypical and homogeneous characterization of the black peer group by Fordham and Ogbu, as well as their inattention to the ways in which schools relegate into the lower tracks those students who behave too ethnically and who do not demonstrate proficiency with dominant cultural attributes. The second half of the article presents data showing that academic achievement is related to peer‐group membership and that schools are largely responsible for which peer group students join. Based on an ethnographic study at a predominantly Latino urban high school, I argue that Latino high achievers do not necessarily experience the ‘burden of acting white’ as Fordham and Ogbu suggest. This was due to the institutional practices at Hernandez High School, which ensured that high achievers and low achievers occupied different academic and social spaces, resulting in little interaction between the groups, and to the very different culture that prescribed the ways in which members of each group could achieve status.     

Student workshops and neighborhood revitalization

This paper describes an effort to integrate neighborhood technical assistance and student field training through a student workshop. In the spring of 1978, ten students in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign provided technical assistance to the South Austin Realty Association (SARA), a leading neighborhood organization in Chicago. Working in close collaboration with neighborhood leaders, the students produced a report which concluded that South Austin was an excellent location for neighborhood revitalization and that housing rehabilitation was the recommended approach for a demonstration block. The students received academic credit, a positive educational experience, and $72.87 for production costs of the finished report. Neighborhood leaders used the report to help develop plans for a project on the block, then used these plans in a proposal which resulted in a $120,062 contract from the Office of Neighborhood Development of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This paper examines the way in which students provided a neighborhood organization with a written plan, assistance in raising funds, and working relations with a university. It also examines the way in which students received substantive knowledge and skills, credentials for future education and careers, and valuable new experiences. It concludes with analysis of the major lessons learned and of the practical problems and questions for educators.This paper is based in part on work done under contract with the South Austin Realty Association to the Bureau of Urban and Regional Planning Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The views reported are solely those of the authors, not the South Austin Realty Asociation or the University of Illinois.     

The value of neighborhood schools

This paper attempts to measure both an access effect and an externality effect of neighborhood schools on the value of surrounding residential properties. While the access effect appears to dominate, an external cost effect may have been identified as well. Using the estimated value-distance function, a downward-biased estimate of the aggregate loss in value is computed assuming that the neighborhood school is closed or that busing eliminates its neighborhood character. This loss is referred to as the value of a neighborhood school.     

Emotional adjustment and school functioning of young adolescents with multiple versus single learning disabilities

Early adolescents (Grades 6-8) with multiple learning disabilities (LD; reading and math) in inclusive settings were compared to adolescents with single LD (reading or math) and typically achieving (TA) peers regarding their psychosocial functioning in two areas of adolescent well-being: emotional adjustment and school functioning. The Behavior Assessment System for Children (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1998) Self-Report of Personality for adolescents was used to determine well-being. One hundred twenty middle school students-15 boys and 15 girls in each group-were included in the current study. The results confirmed that adolescents with multiple LD (reading and math) reported poorer functioning (i.e., higher T scores) on school maladjustment, clinical maladjustment, emotional symptoms index, attitude to school, atypicality, and depression when compared to TA peers but not when compared to peers with a single LD (reading or math). All three groups differed from the TA group (but not from each other) on sense of inadequacy, with the multiple LD group reporting the highest T scores. Additional analyses indicated significant differences between girls and boys, regardless of disability status. Girls reported higher T scores on the emotional symptoms index, social stress, and depression, but boys reported greater school maladjustment and sensation seeking. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

History taught at school versus history discovered at home: The case of Estonia

Two conflicting versions of the history of their country were acquired by children in Estonia during the Soviet rule. While the official version was taught systematically at school, the unofficial one, banned from the public sphere, was discovered individually by each child with the help of parents or other adults, family photo albums, surviving books from the 1920'ies and 1930'ies, and other sources. Differences between the two versions are described as well as their relations to ethnic identity and self-esteem, and the reasons for the failure of the official version and the survival of the unofficial one are analysed.     

农村居民消费“邻居效应”的调查与分析

通过调查发现,农村居民消费具有＂邻居效应＂的典型特点,主要表现在生活性消费的＂跟风＂、生产性消费的＂趋同＂以及特殊性消费的＂从众＂等方面.＂邻居效应＂形成的原因包括消费观念、消费心理、消费行为、消费环境、消费市场等因素.