Evaluating the provision of flexible learning for children at risk of primary school dropout in Malawi

Communities in Malawi selected 15 children deemed “at-risk” – predominantly orphans – in Class 6 of each of 20 intervention schools to receive learning materials, support from the community and a school “buddy.” An experimental evaluation found that dropout was reduced by 45% across intervention schools compared to 20 control schools. The program had spillover effects, indirectly reducing dropout among older pupils in the class not deemed at-risk. These findings imply that age, and not orphanhood, was the main indicator of dropout risk and that when targeting criteria are considered carefully, flexible learning programs can reduce dropout substantially among vulnerable children.     

Towards inclusion: provision for diversity in the transition to school

Policies of inclusion challenge the construct of readiness and require schools to prepare for the diversity of children as they transition to school. However, there is limited empirical evidence concerning how this challenge is met. This paper presents two Australian studies that investigate inclusive practices in the transition to school. Study 1 examined the predictors of child outcomes across a sample of 1831 children in 39 schools. The results indicate that both quantity and quality of programme provision influenced outcomes and that programme effects were particularly potent for children with diverse abilities and backgrounds. Study 2 focuses on pedagogy in three of the schools to highlight how this provision can be achieved. Results show that provisions were reactive, that saliency of children's needs directed school practices and that professional knowledge impacted on measures of quality. Inclusive processes accounting for both child progress and broader family and teaching influences are necessary for improved transition to school.     

Every school a school of choice: school choice in Ireland as viewed through American eyes

‘Choice’ and ‘freedom’ as measured by the ability of parents to select their children's schools are deeply embedded in the national ethos of the United States of America. Wealthy American parents have always exercised school choice but minority and lowincome students are often trapped in failing schools. This paper is based on research conducted in a purposive sample of Irish primary schools into the nature of school choice. The authors examine five aspects of the Irish national primary school system that could provide models for American educators, whose vision often stops at the boundaries of the United States: education law, school choice for all, a national curriculum framework, the role of assessment, and the role of parents and educators in the creation of new schools. While arguably the five relate directly to school choice of different degrees, they collectively weave a web whereby school systems in the Republic of Ireland and the USA may productively be compared to the benefit of both.     

Parental preferences in the choice for a specialty school

Choosing a specialty school involves huge challenges for families. This research aims to understand the behavioral process that leads families to choose among various specialty school programs. Discrete choice models, based on revealed preferences data from middle school applications in a large school district in Florida, are estimated using both, the top and all-ranked alternatives. This study returns insights into geographic settings, theme specialties and socioeconomic characteristics of applicants, schools and their relationships. Distance from home, the school’s academic quality, the school’s theme specialty, and the high percentage of applicant’s own race are found to be the strongest factors related to the decision to apply.     

Residence-based priorities and school choice

Many countries use centralized school choice procedures to assign pupils to schools. To address excess demand for a particular school, ties are broken according to priority points granted based on various criteria, such as proximity to the school. Using a unique reform undertaken in Madrid (Spain), we estimate the impact of abolishing residence-based priorities on families’ school choices, the stated motivation for choosing a school, and the final school allocation. Utilizing several administrative datasets on school applications, we find that the reform increases families’ out-of-district school assignments and assignments to schools further away from their home address. Parents of immigrant children did not change their application behavior in the first years of the reform but caught up with natives three years after its implementation. Children generally accessed slightly better-performing schools, particularly those from lower-educated backgrounds.     

Education and Liberty: public provision and private choice

ABSTRACT Conventions on human rights give priority to parents in education but modern states tend to make uniform provision, tending towards a monopoly position. Education itself is not incompatible with liberty but is a condition of it. A three-sided conflict exists, however, between the state, parents and professionals as to who should represent the interests of children. Liberty is best preserved if the conflict is resolved in favour of parents, for only parental decision-making guarantees educational variety and change. In addition, the parental relationship itself generates rights, including one derived from the broader political right to cultural and religious freedom.     

Academic performance,childhood economic resources,and the choice to leave school at age 16

A general international observation is that adolescents from disadvantaged families are more likely to leave school at age 16. In this paper we extend the literature on school-leaving decisions by using a new and extensive panel data set from New Zealand; and by examining the effect of family income, and personal and environmental characteristics since childhood on both academic performance and subsequent schooling choices. Results obtained from single equations and joint estimation, allowing for possible endogeneity of academic performance, reveal the importance of the role of academic performance in models of demand for education. Several factors that are at work for a long time, such as household income at different points in time, influence the school-leaving decision through academic performance. These results point to the role that stimulating academic performance can play in breaking cycles of disadvantage.     

Developing special needs provision in an international school

Abstract

Although all multicultural, multilingual, and multinational students in international schools can have special needs, the International School of Brussels wanted to increase support for particular ‘at risk’ students. This population seemed to include: students who passed standardized English as a Foreign Language tests but were not literate enough for regular classes, students with learning problems not identified in previous language or culture, and students who experienced temporary learning disabilities because of a discrepancy between what they brought to the school programme and what the school programme asked of them. The existing secondary school options included English as a Foreign Language and English as a Second Language (EFL/ESL) to prepare students for entry into regular classes, and also small group or individualized instruction to support students with special needs in regular classes. Adapting Curriculum‐Based Assessment (CBA) in an international school caused staff to review: curriculum offerings, examinations and activities, enabling objectives and minimum competency skills, and multinational approaches to special needs. The CBA philosophy supported an emphasis on local needs and the development of a school‐appropriate standard of performance for students despite culture, language, or nationality.     

Attribution of conditions for school performance

210 children (110 girls and 100 boys) were interviewed individually about causes that lead to success or to failure in school tests. They were presented fictitious scenarios about an unknown peer who had either success or failure in a dictation task and a sums task. The free answers were taken as mirroring means-ends beliefs of the interviewed persons. A content analysis of the answers led to the differentiation of 30 different categories. Practice, specific abilities, and concentration were mentioned most frequently both in success and in failure situations. The gender differences were more pronounced in failure than in success situations: For boys, it was rather the (lack of) instant effort that counted, whereas girls stressed more the (lack of) lasting effort, e.g., preceding practice. As compared to children, adolescents mentioned more often specific abilities, fast understanding, practice, and didactical presentation, and less often extrinsic motivation. A cluster analysis and a principal components analysis proved that the 30 basic categories overlap partially and can be combined into eight groups of categories.     

Evaluating the efficacy of a school counseling program

In the age of shrinking educational dollars, accountability and efficacy have become increasingly important components of program standards. This program evaluation study demonstrates a methodology for evaluating an elementary-school-based counseling program and was designed and initiated by school psychologists. The research demonstrated gains made by those referred for treatment, and outlines the differences between the nonreferred and referred populations.     

Learning design for multiple modes of provision: the Zambian community school teacher development programme

Abstract

The use of technology to support learning is becoming ubiquitous in Africa. However, technology is more often used to distribute information rather than as a tool to mediate learning. The work presented here on a programme for Zambian community school teachers (non-traditional students) illustrates how learning design allied to appropriate theoretical concepts make use of technology to mediate learning. The objective of this course was to support Zambian community school teachers, with little formal teacher education, to use interactive methods to support their teaching practices. The research makes use of a constructivist-hermeneutic-interpretivist-qualitative paradigm to critically evaluate the learning design by experts. A social constructivist framework for learning design and technology mediation was used to create and evaluate learning resources. The work illustrates how a distance education paper-based course design is enhanced by the use of contemporary learning theory and digital technology to model good interactive classroom practice.     

Language choice in a minority school

This article arises from fieldwork in a school of the German minority in South Jutland, Denmark. The minority exists as a result of frontier changes between Germany and Denmark, most recently in 1920. A referendum held in that year as a result of the Treaty of Versailles left a cultural and linguistic minority which, by today, has its own school system, politial party and cultural rights.The research was carried out using qualitative, ethnographic methods and the article focuses on one aspect, namely the issue of language use by bilingual pupils in one of the minority's schools. Pupils' choice of Danish or German in different situations within and outside schools was analyzed through the use of language diaries, informal interviews, and participant observation. The diary entries are analyzed and commented on in the light of interviews and observations. Pupils' awareness of their language use is not static but becomes dynamic as a consequence of being involved in research. The implications of this for educational policy are considered in the context of current developments in language education in British schools.

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Zusammenfassung Auf Grund eines im Anschluß an den Vertrag von Versailles abgehaltenen Volksentscheides aus dem Jahre 1920, entstand in Südjütland, Dänemark, eine Minderheit mit einer deutschen kulturellen und sprachlichen Tradition. Heute hat diese Minderheit ihr eigenes Schulsystem, ihre eigene politische Partie und ihre eigenen kulturellen Rechte.Gestützt auf die Primärehebungen in einer dieser Minderheitenschulen, konzentriert sich dieser Artikel auf die Frage nach dem Sprachgebrauch zweisprachiger Schüler. Ihre jeweilige Wahl zwischen Dänisch und Deutsch in verschiedenen Situationen, sowohl innerhalb als auch außerhalb der Schule, wurde an Hand von Sprachtagebüchern, informellen Befragungen und Beobachtungen der Teilnehmer analysiert. Daraus wird ersichtlich, daß das Bewußtsein der Schüler bei der Sprachwahl nicht statisch bleibt, sondern durch die Einbeziehung in die Untersuchungen dynamisch wird. Die Folgerung daraus für die Bildungspolitik werden im Zusammenhand mit derzeitigen Entwicklungen im Bereich der Spracherziehung an britischen Schulen berücksichtigt.

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Résumé Le référendum organisé en 1920 par suite du Traité de Versailles s'est prononcé en faveur d'une minorité de tradition linguistique et culturelle allemande dans le sud du Jutland au Danemark. Aujourd'hui, cette minorité a son propre système éducatif, son parti politique et ses droits culturels.Cet article provient d'une étude menée dans l'une des écoles de cette minorité et met l'accent sur le problème de la pratique linguistique des élèves bilingues. Le choix du danois ou de l'allemand dans différentes situations au sein de l'école comme à l'extérieur a été analysé à partir de journaux tenus sur la performance linguistique de ces élèves, d'interviews non formelles et en observant les participants. II est évident que la conscience de ces élèves de leur performance linguistique n'est pas statique mais qu'elle devient dynamique à la suite de leur implication dans la recherche. Les implications de ces travaux pour la politique éducative sont considérées dans le contexte des développements actuels de l'enseignement linguistique dispensé dans les écoles britanniques.

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This article is based on fieldwork carried out from March to September 1983 in South Jutland, Denmark, with financial support from the Danish Ministry of Education and the Nuffield Foundation, UK.     

Veiled and overt school choice: A consideration of the ways in which different forms of school choice affect student experiences

Parental choice of secondary schools is central to the Labour Government's education agenda. This article draws on work from an Economic and Social Research Council funded study considering teachers' and students' perspectives and experiences of choice in two locales. Two distinct ways in which choice operates are identified: overt choice, which is parental choice as Labour's education policy envisages it, and veiled choice, which refers to the previous more clandestine operation of parental choice. The article qualitatively explores students' experiences of choice in East Town with active parental choice, and in North Town where there is a strong tradition of attending the local school. For some students who do not get into their chosen school, choice appears to be having negative effects on their experiences of school, whilst choice has positive effects when students attend a school they actively chose and one which is viewed positively by the community.     

择校问题的理性分析

择校作为一个相对较新的事物,能够出现并且有很大的发展,说明有其存在的合理性。教育公平是择校问题出现的基础,成本和收益是家庭进行择校的重要依据,供给和需求是学校选择出现的重要原因。缓解择校问题,可以从促进学校的多样化、政府通过财政支持消除教育的不平等、转变教育管理机构职能等方面入手。     

Children's rights,school exclusion and alternative educational provision

This paper examines findings from a recent study in Wales of school exclusion and alternative educational provision. Many, but not all, children in alternative provision have been excluded from school. The most recent statistics reveal that nearly 90% of pupils in alternative provision have special educational needs, nearly 70% are entitled to free school meals (free school meal entitlement is often used as a proxy indicator for poverty in the UK) and three quarters are boys (Welsh Government. 2012a. Pupils Educated Other than at School, 2011/12. Cardiff: Welsh Government). The paper focuses on analysis of findings about young people's experiences of exclusion and alternative provision, and how these experiences may be contextualised within a discussion of children's rights. This analysis suggests that young people's experience is highly variable; that inappropriate curricula are still common, pastoral support uneven and that few opportunities exist for success or re-integration. In the most disturbing examples, young people were found to have experienced physical restraint and the use of isolation as punishment. The paper concludes, therefore, with a proposal for change aimed at ensuring that children's rights are placed at the heart of educational experience in practice as well as policy.     

Evaluating the performance of school psychologists: Current status and future directions with a 360-degree evaluation process

The purpose of this article is twofold: (a) to present the results of a study examining the current status of performance evaluations for school psychologist and (b) to use those findings to inform future directions. A content analysis of a national sample of 36 performance appraisal rubrics was conducted to examine their alignment with the professional standards established by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). Among the rubrics reviewed, 88.9% featured eight or more of the NASP domains of practice, yet only 56% of the rubrics featured all 10 domains, suggesting variability in the degree to which the rubrics aligned with the standards of practice, particularly for rubrics developed at the district-level. The results of this study informed the development of a 360-evaluation process based on the Framework for Personnel Evaluation of School Psychologists Utilizing the NASP Practice Model and Morrison's four key principles for evaluating the performance of school psychologists.