Parent preferences and parent choices: the public–private decision about school choice

School choice survey data from the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, a large county‐wide school district, is analysed to examine the characteristics of parents who consider choosing private schools for their children and those who do not. We examine differences in background, including race, educational attainment and socioeconomic status, as well as differences in parent satisfaction with their child’s previous school, parent involvement in school, parents’ priorities in school choice, as well as parents’ social networks. After controlling for background characteristics, we find that parent satisfaction with their child’s previous school was not a predictor of considering a private school. Rather, parent involvement seems to be a more important indicator of whether or not a parent would consider sending their child to a private school. In this case, parents are not ‘pushed’ away from public schools, contrary to much public rhetoric that suggests private schools are somehow inherently ‘better’ than public schools and parents who are dissatisfied with their public schools will opt for private schools. Instead, these findings suggest a ‘pull’ towards private schools. Parents may perceive that parent involvement and parent communication are more easily facilitated and valued in private schools.     

High School Economic Composition and College Persistence

Using a longitudinal sample of Texas high school seniors of 2002 who enrolled in college within the calendar year of high school graduation, we examine variation in college persistence according to the economic composition of their high schools, which serves as a proxy for unmeasured high school attributes that are conductive to postsecondary success. Students who graduated from affluent high schools have the highest persistence rates and those who attended poor high schools have the lowest rates. Multivariate analyses indicate that the advantages in persistence and on-time graduation from 4-year colleges enjoyed by graduates of affluent high schools cannot be fully explained by high school college orientation and academic rigor, family background, pre-college academic preparedness or the institutional characteristics. High school college orientation, family background and pre-college academic preparation largely explain why graduates from affluent high schools who first enroll in 2-year colleges have higher transfer rates to 4-year institutions; however, these factors and college characteristics do not explain the lower transfer rates for students from poor high schools. The conclusion discusses the implications of the empirical findings in light of several recent studies that call attention to the policy importance of high schools as a lever to improve persistence and completion rates via better institutional matches.     

Official and popular culture in the schooling process

This article analyses the schooling process in rural areas of Galicia (Spain) from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, considering educational initiatives promoted by both the state and the rural population. The former, which were governed by the official school culture, were driven by a moralistic approach; the latter, within the framework of popular school culture, were essentially aimed at literacy. The confrontation that arose between the two initiatives was finally resolved in favour of the official school. Our main goal here is to analyse how popular schools (ferrado schools) were perceived by official culture (school administrators and education experts) as well as by those who were directly involved as protagonists, i.e. the schoolteachers who ran these schools (escolantes) and their pupils.     

择校现象研究:中小学教师的视角

从中小学教师的角度来对择校现象进行调查分析。可以发现:择校已成为一种被大多数教师认可或赞同的行为;优质教育资源分配不均衡并不是导致择校现象的最主要因素,升学率和盲目追求重点校是二个不可忽视重要因素;择校增加了学校的压力和教师的负担,但对教师的收入和报酬并没有多大影响,择校最大的影响是校际间的;缓解择校现象最主要的是加强学校自身建设,扶持薄弱学校建设,促进优质教师资源的合理流动,而不是发展民办和补习学校;关系生和占坑生成为择校生的主要来源,而有优惠政策的尖子生所占比例很少。     

瑞典择校改革及其实效述评

瑞典1992年正式推行择校改革,家长和学生可以在本地区和地区以外的所有公立学校和独立学校中自由选择学校就读。实践表明,家长选择学校时更关心学校质量而非种族等其他与质量无关的因素,但择校客观上造成了学校学生种族构成的变化。瑞典择校激发了学校间的竞争,提高了整体的教育质量,鼓励了学校创新,但是也造成了学生和学校的分化。     

Private tutoring intensity in schools: a comparison between high and low socio-economic schools

Private tutoring (PT) is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. In Israel too, about a third of elementary school students participate in PT. Based on sociological and school quality considerations, we examined school characteristics that are associated with PT intensity at school. The data encompassed a random state wide sample of 389 Israeli elementary schools collected by the Ministry of Education in 2012. The results showed that in high school socioeconomic status (SES) schools the percentage of students who participated in PT was higher compared to low SES schools. In high SES, schools with high PT intensity were characterized by high school achievements whereas in low SES, schools were characterized with low school achievements. PT seems to be a factor that increases the social distinction between high and low SES schools. In Israel, PT seems to create distinct ‘school enclaves’ that reproduce social inequality.     

The impact of peer support schemes on pupils' perceptions of bullying,aggression and safety at school

The research was carried out in four secondary schools, two with a peer support system and two without, and involved a total of 931 pupils (49.5% males and 50.5% females). Participants were aged between 11 and 15 years of age, mean age 12.8 years. The aims were: to compare the perceptions of safety on the part of older and younger pupils in secondary schools with and without a system of peer support in place; to find out if there are differences in perceptions of safety within peer support schools on the part of those who are aware of the existence of a peer support service in their school and those who are not aware; and to find out if pupils in peer support schools are more likely to tell someone about school violence and bullying than those in schools without peer support. The results indicate very little difference between pupil perceptions of safety in schools with and schools without a peer support system in place. In fact, older pupils in the schools without peer support responded that they felt safer than pupils in schools with a peer support system in toilets and lessons. However, within the peer support schools there were significant differences in perceptions of safety between the substantial minority of pupils who were unaware that their school had a peer support system and those who were aware of it. The pupils who were aware felt safer in lessons, perceived school as a friendlier place to be, and worried significantly less about being bullied in comparison with those who were unaware. They were also much more likely to tell someone when bad things happened at school. The results are discussed in the light of previous research in the field and some recommendations are made for the practice of peer support.     

The adverse effects of parents’ school selection errors on academic achievement: Evidence from the Beijing open enrollment program

One major concern with public school open enrollment programs is the potential for parents’ school selection errors to adversely affect their children's academic achievement. In this study of the Beijing middle school open enrollment program, we estimate the degree to which children's school outcomes were negatively affected by the poor choices their parents made during the school selection process. We do this by examining parents’ responses to a survey on school choices combined with actual school applications, school admission records, and High School Entrance Examination test scores for 4717 students entering middle schools in Beijing via randomized lotteries. We find that the children of parents who made judgment errors in school selection were admitted to lower quality schools and achieved lower test scores on the High School Entrance Examination. Parents who had less education, whose children performed at lower levels in primary school, and who were less attentive to teachers’ opinions about schools were more prone to make these errors. Providing assistance to parents, especially those less prepared to make informed choices about school selection, is consequently important for supporting more efficient and equitable open enrollment programs.     

Measuring the effect of charter schools on public school student achievement in an urban environment: Evidence from New York City

This paper uses student level data from New York City to study the relationship between a public school losing enrollment to charter school competitors and the academic achievement of students who remain enrolled in it. Geographic measures most often used to study the effect of school choice policies on public school student achievement are not well suited for densely populated urban environments. I adopt a direct approach and measure charter school exposure as the percentage of a public school's students who exited for a charter school at the end of the previous year. Depending on model specification, I find evidence that students in schools losing more students to charter schools either are unaffected by the competitive pressures of the choice option or benefit mildly in both math and English.     

The geography of school choice in a city with growing inequality: the case of Vancouver

This analysis aims to measure the impact of school choice policy on secondary school students’ enrolment patterns within the social geography of Vancouver, an increasingly polarized global city. The rationale for the study is to examine the impact of ‘education market’ reforms on the socio-economic composition of schools in a Canadian context, where a social welfare commitment to educational equality is being replaced by market-oriented policies and increasing social inequality. Our study is guided by Bourdieu’s theory of site in considering whether growing inequality and polarization of wealth in a city are correlated with the ways families choose schools. We apply a geographical methodology (Geographic Information System) to delineate spatial patterns of choosing schools. Our analysis shows that those who opt out of the under-subscribed schools come from the neighborhoods with relatively higher capital than those who remain in their assigned schools. Also, those who opt into the over-subscribed schools in the affluent areas come from the neighborhoods with above-average levels of capital in Vancouver. Overall, we find that the spatial inequality in school choice generally follows the uneven distribution of capital/wealth across the city. The pattern of student mobility indicates an increasing level of segregation.     

试论师范院校艺术教育师资培训课程的改革与建设

中小学艺术综合课教学的目的和特点,给我们的中小学艺术课教师提出了新的更高的要求,上好艺术综合课对从师范院校的现有艺术教育体制下培养出来的中小学教师是一种严峻的挑战。只有果断加以改革,进一步加强师范院校艺术教育中的师范性特征,弱化对单一技能的过度强调,设计和开发出符合艺术教育特点和满足新时代需求的师范院校艺术教育师资培训课程,艺术课师资才能真正符合时代的需求,中小学艺术课才能开展得更加名副其实和卓有成效。     

A Review of the Empirical Research on Private School Choice

Parents in the United States have had the legal right to choose the school their child attends for a long time. Traditionally, parental school choice took the form of families moving to a neighborhood with good public schools or self-financing private schooling. Contemporary education policies allow parents in many areas to choose from among public schools in neighboring districts, public magnet schools, public charter schools, private schools through the use of a voucher or tax-credit scholarship, virtual schools, or even homeschooling. The newest form of school choice is education savings accounts (ESAs), which make a portion of the funds that a state spends on children in public schools available to their parents in spending accounts that they can use to customize their children's education. Opponents claim that expanding private school choice yields no additional benefits to participants and generates significant harms to the students “left behind” in traditional public schools. A review of the empirical research on private school choice finds evidence that private school choice delivers some benefits to participating students—particularly in the area of educational attainment—and tends to help, albeit to a limited degree, the achievement of students who remain in public schools.     

Turnaround Policy and Practice: A Case Study of Turning Around a Failing School with English-Language-Learners

In an era of school reform and high stakes accountability, the major challenge in education is to turnaround the nation’s lowest-performing schools. National policy provides abundant resources with often restrictive prerequisites. Research indicates that quality principals and teachers are the most important factors for turning around the lowest performing schools; however there is little research in how to turnaround failing schools with high enrollments of students in poverty, who are English-Language Learners, and who are Hispanic. The purpose of this study is to understand how demography, policy and practices affect the educational edge of students in poverty, who are English-Language Learners, and who are Hispanic. How do the practices of a school leader who is professionally/culturally/linguistically responsive affect turnaround for a failing schools? How does the personal and professional background of a Latino principal affect student performance in a failing school? This research conducted a qualitative case study to include principal interviews, principal observations, teacher interviews, and the use of state and school archival data. Analyses included organizing data into data themes and triangulating data themes, using principal background, principal professional/cultural beliefs and practices, school context, teacher data, and archival data. Conclusions confirm the need to conduct research to document and define the performances for professionally/culturally/linguistically responsive principal models and their effect on student performance in historically failing schools. In addition, policymakers need to consider the organizational contexts of professional/culturally/linguistically responsive leadership and teaching models as turnaround school models.     

A strategic approach to tackling school absenteeism and truancy: the PSCC scheme

This paper focuses upon a long-term strategic approach to tackling school absenteeism and truancy within secondary schools. It utilises a tiered colour-coded concept to monitor the progress of pupils within the groups and subsequently take the appropriate action. The PSCC scheme combines attainment and attendance data collected from pupils' primary schools with monitoring and enhancement strategies within the secondary school. The scheme enables schools to tackle their long-term absentees and erratic attenders as well as those who have learning and/or special needs. Over a five-year period, properly implemented, the scheme has the potential to help to transform the prevailing culture within low attendance schools. The PSCC model utilises school change strategies in a dynamic manner in order to improve the attendance, behaviour and learning support needs of pupils which, in turn, can help to raise standards and attainment levels. It can also help to improve parents' attitudes towards their children's school. Finally, it provides a managerial focal point for staff to combat pupils' absence utilising a whole school approach.     

Examining the relationship between perceptions of teaching self-efficacy,school support and teacher and paraeducator burnout in a residential school setting

Despite teacher self-efficacy and burnout’s influence on student outcomes, little research has been conducted on teacher self-efficacy and burnout in residential treatment schools. This study attempts to fill this need by examining the self-efficacy and burnout of teachers and paraeducators in a residential treatment school in the United States. We explore the relationships between educators’ perceptions of school supports and educators’ sense of self-efficacy and burnout Our results revealed that while educators’ perceptions of school supports were not related to educators’ sense of efficacy, there was a significant relationship between educators’ perceptions of school supports and reported levels of burnout. Educators who reported lower levels of school supports had high levels of burnout. We discuss implications for larger studies on this topic and for supporting educator well-being in residential treatment schools.     

Patterns of Urban Student Mobility and Local School Reform

Student mobility is a topic that frequently surfaces in discussions about the problems of urban schooling. Surprisingly, it tends to fade from the agenda as discussion turns toward reform initiatives and school restructuring. Student movement, however, penetrates the essential activity of schools--the interaction of teachers and students around learning. Using data from Chicago public elementary schools, I first describe the extent of urban school instability. Many schools, in fact, do not have a stable cohort of students whose progress they can track over time. Second, I explore the causes of this high level of instability, connected both to residential mobility and to more school-related reasons. Distinctive patterns emerge that reveal clusters of schools that are closely tied by the students they exchange from year to year. Third, given this context, I examine the impact of mobility on students, schools, and urban education more generally. Recent school reform efforts that center on promoting greater local school autonomy implicitly assume that students will attend a specific school consistently enough that the school can "make a difference" in their achievement. In the unstable urban context, however, even improving schools lose their accomplishments as students transfer, and mobile students forfeit the benefit of continuity of school services. Thus, not only does mobility impact individual students who are changing schools, it has deep (though often hidden) consequences for the schools these students attend and for the systemic changes intended by local school reform.     

Capacity for (quality) instruction: a framework for understanding the use of resources to promote teaching and learning in schools

Abstract

The inception of no-fee schools and a school-fee exemption policy has become a contentious issue but also an exciting one for school managers in South Africa. Managers opposed to the policy have cited amongst others things, academic standards dropping, as well as parents who can afford to pay jumping on the bandwagon and refusing to pay. While the advocates for no-fee schools argue that it is not only a moral obligation for the authorities to ensure that every child is able to get basic education, it is also a basic human right. Notwithstanding these contrasting views, an overwhelming majority (62%) of the purposively sampled principals of public schools in the Free State Province expressed relief and agreement with this decision to declare poor school nofee schools. This article, therefore, intends to explore not only the background to the policy but also the possible impact of this decision on overall school performance as perceived by the school principals.     

Grammar Schools' Achievements and the DfEE's Measures of Value-added: An attempt at clarification

In an endeavour to compare the teaching-efficiency of individual secondary schools in England, the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) published measures of pupils' progress in learning attainments between the ages of 14 and 16, based on the results of obligatory nationwide tests in a range of school-subjects at each of those ages (SATs and GCSE). The results were subsequently used by commentators to suggest that grammar schools do not make as much progress between those ages as comprehensive schools; and that pupils who are high-attainers at age 14 do better in their subsequent two years if they attend a comprehensive school rather than a grammar school. The present paper examines the robustness of the measuring rods for these purposes; it concludes that they are hardly adequate but, insofar as they are used for these purposes, the results indicate precisely the opposite: namely, greater average progress (greater 'value-added') for grammar schools, and for high-attaining pupils in grammar schools.     

Education accountability in Hong Kong: Lessons from the school management initiative

In March, 1991, the Hong Kong Government launched a scheme entitled the School Management Initiative. As suggested by the sub-title, “Setting the Framework for Quality in Hong Kong Schools,” the concern was for quality education. In September, 1991, 21 aided secondary schools took part in a pilot scheme. The schools were asked to set up a framework for accountability. This chapter reports how the teachers in the pilot schools responded to these changes. It was found that teachers who were involved in school administration were more favorably disposed to the changes. The remaining half of the teachers who were not involved in school administration were less enthusiastic. Both groups of teachers complained about the heavy increase of work load and reported that the accountability framework failed to make any impact on the quality of teaching.     

Outstanding Students Should Be Encouraged to Apply for the Entrance Examinations to Key Schools

Mustering strength to run key schools successfully is one of the major tasks on the educational front. Many ordinary schools regard it as an unshirkable duty to supply key middle schools with junior high graduates who do well in their studies. Nevertheless, there are now some ordinary schools that, proceeding from selfish departmentalism, do not encourage their junior high graduates with better scholastic attainments to sign up for the entrance examination to senior grades of key middle schools. Instead, they caution the students, "If next semester you will continue to study at our school in senior grade one, we'll put you in the key class. If you apply for the entrance examination to a key school and return to our school when rejected, then it would be impossible for us to assign you to the key class." Some even warn, "You will not be accepted if you come back." In this way, a batch of students who do well in their studies are pressured not to sign up for the entrance examinations to key schools. They are afraid that they may have no opportunity to study at all if they fail in the entrance examinations. This practice is obviously wrong. If every school does things this way and every student with better scholastic aptitude does not apply for the key school, how can the key school recruit the better qualified? Where can the "better qualified" come from?