Specific language disability programs in Bloomington,Minnesota, public schools

V. Summary Once we clear out the undergrowth so that the Jungle of Confusion becomes a Forest of Learning, the child with a unique learning style or specific language disability can be invited into it to succeed, to learn and to “become”. There are many ways this child can go through the forest—we can find a guide to take him through, and he will be likely to see only what the guide shows him; or we can allow him to go through alone and risk the chance of losing him; or we can put him in a plane and fly him over so he can see from a distance but never get involved; or we can put him in a car and drive him around the perimeter; or we can set him on a path which will limit his exposure to learning; OR we can teach him to use a compass so he can work his way through with an independent sense of direction and security. If we honestly accept responsibility for our role in the lives of these children, wemust clean up our forest; and, we must teach children how to use a compass (basic skills). As leading explorers of knowledge, rather than merely critics of the negative or headmasters in the function of memory, or prophets of doom, we should give these children basic tools to allow them to learn and successfully develop a capacity for independent living. As Mrs. de Hirsch stated last evening, “children need living models who are intelligent—who have integrity and character”. Yes, they need models to lead them—models who believe in them, who will equip them and then let them honestly“become”. Our challenge is clear—wemust go from materials-centered teaching vagueness to child-centered teaching excellence if this Jungle of Confusion is to become a Forest of Learning. From a paper presented at the Twenty-first Annual Conference of the Orton Society, Washington, D. C., Nov. 14, 1970.     

A case for collaboratives: Turning around the Bronx public schools

This article chronicles pace-setting collaborative educational programs which are succeeding in turning around Bronx public schools. It focuses on the results achieved when corporations, universities, cultural institutions, and health-care facilities become partners with the public schools to share their expertise, sophisticated technology, and superior financial resources with the city's children. The marshalling of new resources from outside the school establishment in support of a number of initiatives has set public education in the Bronx on a new course. The transformation of many troubled neighborhood high schools into theme schools which feature a particular career preparation has already brought dramatic changes in the borough's dropout rate and raised the aspirations of large numbers of students.     

Who chooses non‐public schools for their children?

Using the pooled 1998–2000 GSS data, this study examines what kinds of parents tend to select non‐public schools for their children, a question that is fundamental but lacks direct, adequate answers in the literature. The results of logistic regression analysis show that religion, socio‐economic status, age, nativity, number of children and region play significant roles in parental choice of religious schools, but race, gender, urban residence and family composition make no difference. Parental socio‐economic status is a key factor in determining their choice of non‐religious private schools. Currently, no significant differences in demographic, religious, socio‐economic and family‐structure characteristics can be detected with regard to which parents are more likely to home‐school their children. Implications of the findings are considered.     

Regulating private support for public goods: de-clubbing public schools

ABSTRACT

Urban schools in many OECD countries are contending with policy trends that squeeze budgets and incentivize parent fundraising. The trend may be most pronounced and longstanding in the US, where parent groups and local education foundations have turned increasing attention to raising funds to support additional services, staff, or programs for schools to which admittance is primarily based on residence. This article argues that private fundraising for public schools contributes to the creation of what public economics, public choice, and urban planning theorists have described as ‘clubs’ that may exacerbate inequality. It examines two school districts that have adopted policies aiming to curb this potential inequity: the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District in California and Portland School District in Oregon. A case study approach was used to detail the policies adopted and explore their potential for de-clubbing as well as resistance encountered to reallocation of dollars at the district level.     

Printing in the public schools

An important hallmark of American teacher education has been its integral role in 4-year or comprehensive colleges and universities for the past 100 years. In more than 1,100 colleges in the United States, teacher education is offered as one of many baccalaureate or graduate-level programs. The preparation of elementary and secondary and special and vocational teachers is offered as an integral part of comprehensive or university-based programs. Today that situation is threatened by a number of factors that are separating teacher education from its traditional place in American higher education. These factors include (a) the inability of campus-based teacher education programs to keep pace with the accelerating demands and expectations of policymakers, (b) alternative preparation programs that are proliferating and gaining credibility, (c) resource constraints that are pervasive and real, (d) teacher shortage conditions that demand a response, (e) new forms of professional development that invite separation from university Inservice Education of Teachers (INSET) courses, (f) widespread development of professional development schools (PDSs), and (g) a commitment to assess teacher candidates separate from and outside the university. Without responses to these factors, Ed Schools are likely to see this separation accelerate and could experience the relocation of teacher education off the campus and to a variety of other providers. Preserving the unique role that teacher education plays as an essential part of American higher education is a major challenge. The factors just cited are reinforced by a host of public policy and academic initiatives that are causing teacher education to be dispersed and deinstitutionalized and "reembedded in other sites and spaces" (Hargreaves, 1995, p. 7). Reinforcing this relocation are the efforts of college faculty and Ed School "reformers" who are creating 100% field-based programs or recentering teacher education in PDSs. Those new field- or school-based entities enforce the idea of embedding teacher education in entities away from and often separate from universities. A hostile fiscal and policy environment adds to the potential for relocation and poses significant consequences for Ed School faculty in the United States.     

Do public schools have a future? A case study of retrenchment and its implications

The present paper describes a model for predicting the consequences of reduced funding for public education and a case study designed as an initial test of the validity of the model. The case study highlights an inner-city high school in San Jose, California, during the aftermath of Proposition 13. As a result of the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, severe limitations were placed on the ability of school districts in California to generate revenues from property taxes. San Jose High School was forced to cut programs and personnel. The impact of these cuts on the capacity of the school to serve its urban clients is investigated. Findings from the case study support the model's prediction that budget cuts in public education are more likely to exert a negative impact on disadvantaged students than on students from middle-class homes. Implications of further cuts in public education in general are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.     

The responsibility for the public schools 1

Collaboration between a metropolitan university's college of education and urban and suburban school districts is described via an initiative to support dissemination of effective elementary practices across 7 districts. The effort focused on the creation of 4 booklets that described best practices as identified through the research-based literature. Parent involvement, literacy instruction, multiage classrooms, and brain-based learning were the areas targeted for attention. Two conferences to share the information were also a part of the plan for dissemination. Trust and camaraderie evolved as faculty members, teachers, and administrators worked together to create a product and share it with their colleagues.     

试论公立学校的转制

本文主要对公办学校转制的目标、基本思路、及需注意的问题进行分析及阐述。     

Self-regulatory climate: A positive attribute of public schools

This study contributes to the development of a positive framework for effective public schools in 2 ways. First, it advances the construct self-regulatory climate as consisting of 3 generative school norms—collective faculty trust in students, collective student trust in teachers, and student-perceived academic emphasis. The authors argue these norms signal a school climate supportive of student psychological needs. Second, they test the predictive validity of self-regulatory climate by empirically examining its relationship with school performance. Results of structural equation modeling support the theory that collective faculty trust in students, collective student trust in teachers, and student-perceived academic emphasis combine to form a self-regulatory climate that has positive consequences for urban school performance.     

Shopping for schools or shopping for peers: public schools and catchment area segregation

Market theory positions the consumer as a rational choice actor, making informed schooling choices on the basis of ‘hard’ evidence of relative school effectiveness. Yet there are concerns that parents simply choose schools based on socio-demographic characteristics, thus leading to greater social segregation and undercutting the potential of choice to drive quality improvements. In this paper, we explore segregation by examining catchment areas for a range of public high schools in a specific middle-class urban area. We focus on socio-demographic characteristics, including levels of income, country of birth and religion affiliation, in order to explore residential segregation according to public high school catchment areas. Our data suggest distinct residential segregation between catchment areas for each public school within our data-set, particularly for the schools deemed to be popular and rejected, that may pose risks for broader equity concerns. We argue that, in contrast to market theory, even more affluent and active choosers are not equipped with information on the programmatic quality of their different school options, but instead may be relying on socio-demographic characteristics of schools – through surrogate information about the urban spaces that the schools occupy – in order to choose peer groups, if not programmes, for their children.     

Special education supervisors' perceptions of secondary LD programs: a comparison with LD teachers' views

Perceptions of secondary LD program supervisors were identified and compared with views of secondary LD teachers regarding the presence of specific program features, field-related issues, and suggestions for program improvement. Responses indicated that the supervisors were more positive and, in many cases, held significantly different views than LD teachers.