The Costs of Experience Corps® in Public Schools

Objective: To describe the annual operational costs of a mature Experience Corps® program in elementary schools in the Baltimore City Public School System. Methods: Systematic records of expenditures kept by the community partner, Greater Homewood Community Corporation, to be reported to funders were made available for analysis. Expenditures were aggregated to the level of fiscal year and grouped in categories in consultation with the community partner. Results: Expenditures to provide reimbursement to volunteers and to administer this complex volunteer program in an environment in which the school district needed additional management resources for such a program dominate the total expenditures. In the 2008 fiscal year, the program provided 158,305 hours of older adult volunteer service to public elementary schools in Baltimore City and the cost per volunteer hour was $9.79; in the 2009 fiscal year the program provided 157,238 hours of older adult volunteer service and the cost per volunteer hour was $9.60. This suggests consistency and may also suggest that the program is becoming more efficient over time. Conclusion: The costs presented represent the costs of running a mature program after an initial investment has been made. These costs would need to be compared with the short-term and long-term benefits to the older adult volunteers, the school children, other school personnel, and the schools' and volunteers' communities to perform a comprehensive benefit-cost analysis to inform public policy.     

Genuine Religious Tolerance: Is It a Thing of the Past in Public Schools?

The so-called Culture Wars have made the issue of religious tolerance in schools more confusing than ever. Where once free speech trumped nearly every concern in these wars in the public schools, there is now great concern about whether messages put out are politically correct. The preoccupation teachers now have with avoiding speech or themes likely to get them into trouble has led to a new form of censorship. The authors explain that free speech in the educational forum requires respect for every earnest attempt to get at a legitimate truth claim. In matters religious, this epistemic openness is no longer respected. The argument below does not encourage teachers to engage in debate among students in matters religious, or even to encourage it. Nor are the arguments below aimed at introducing religious discourse as a means of developing skills of critical thinking as the feminist, moral philosopher Nel Noddings has previously recommended. The argument simply concludes with the modest recommendation that teachers be more conscientious about indirectly censoring or trivializing student religious speculations.     

Should Creationism be Taught in the Public Schools?

This article discusses philosophicalarguments relevant to the question of teachingcreationism, especially with regard to developments inthe debate since the early 1990s.Section 1 reviews the newfactions within the creationist movement, and theoverlapping views from young earth to intelligentdesign creationism, as well as non-Christianvarieties. It also considers what are the relevantdifferences for the policy question for private,public schools, and for home schoolers, as well aspossible differences in what it means to teachcreationism. Sections 2 & 3 discuss the main legal argumentsthat have ruled in the public school case, as well asarguments from academic freedom, fairness, censorship,parental rights and majority rule. Section 4 evaluates theepistemological issues regarding competing claims oftruth, and the contention that excluding whatChristians know (Alvin Plantinga) amounts toviewpoint discrimination (Phillip Johnson). Section 5argues that religious protection arguments actuallyfavor excluding creationism more than including it. Section 6 considers the goals of education, especiallyDewey's views on science education, and what theseimply regarding the teaching of a theistic science. In Section 7, I review a new argument of Alvin Plantingabased upon a purported Rawlsian basic right of aparent not to have her children taught anything thatviolates her comprehensive beliefs, and show whyRawlsian agents would reject it.     

Teaching and Learning IT in Secondary Schools: Towards a New Pedagogy?

New Technologies, particularly Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), have caused profound changes throughout society. A generation of children is emerging already immersed in a multimedia 'data storm' (Moshell, 1995). Their understandings and expectations of the world are mediated through their experiences of multimedia and ICTs and these differ from those of preceding generations nourished on linear technologies. Educating these children using models of teaching and learning that are grounded in concepts of knowing and understanding that are linear and finite will not help them succeed in a technological, global future where multi-disciplinary, holistic approaches predominate. The conflict between the traditional and the new in English secondary schools is particularly intense in the teaching and learning of Information Technology (IT). Teaching and learning IT are inherently constructivist activities, and IT teachers who attempt to implement learning programmes designed from predominantly behaviourist perspectives quickly find that these are less effective. A new pedagogy is needed that is theoretically sound, that goes beyond a cookbook approach, and that guides teachers in using constructivist approaches within an education system grounded in an inimical behaviourist paradigm. This paper takes some tentative steps in this direction. © 1999 IFIP, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers     

Development of Reading and Mathematics Skills in Early Adolescence: Do K-8 Public Schools Make a Difference?

Abstract

Educators and policymakers are paying increased attention to the academic outcomes of students in the middle grades (i.e., Grades 6–8). One reform proposed to improve outcomes for these students is to replace middle schools (with Grade 6–8, 7–8, or 7–9 configurations) with K-8 schools. This longitudinal study evaluated the effects of continuously attending a K-8 school, rather than transitioning from an elementary school to a middle school, on Grade 8 reading and mathematics achievement. Drawing on nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten 1998 cohort (N = 8,237), the study used propensity score stratification to control for observable selection bias. Findings indicated that K-8 schools produce small, significant effects for reading (effect size = 0.15 or approximately 6–8 months of schooling), but nonsignificant effects for mathematics. Results were robust to several alternative specifications, including accounting for nesting of children within schools and using different approaches for propensity score matching. Findings provide conditional support for K-8 schools, highlight the need for cost-effectiveness research on this topic, and raise questions about the specific mechanisms for K-8 schools’ advantages.     

A New Beginning? John Yandell’s The Social Construction of Meaning: Reading Literature in Urban Classrooms

John Yandell’s The Social Construction of Meaning: Reading Literature in Urban Classrooms provides a powerful counterpoint to current policy discourse in education. By focusing on the social interactions that occur in the classrooms of two English teachers, Yandell shows how their pupils are able to explore dimensions of language and experience that far exceed the outcomes prescribed by official curriculum documents. This is because their teachers conceive of reading as a social activity in which everyone can participate. Yandell thereby affirms the value of a literary education as an integral part of an educational project that is genuinely democratic and inclusive.     

Comments from the Editor: The End of Teacher Evaluation?

Commentary

Comments from the Editor: The End of Teacher Evaluation?     

The Reform Religious Schools of New York City; A Decade of Progress — 1940–1950

The focus of my remarks will be narrow: Title V of S.1141, the “AMERICA 2000 Excellence in Education Act.” This section of the bill, entitled “Parental Choice of Schools,” authorizes the appropriation of federal grants for local educational agencies that implement educational choice programs; assures that Chapter I remedial educational services will be available for children participating in educational choice programs; and provides special grants for educational choice programs of national significance. A key aspect of these provisions—and one of its most controversial — is the requirement that an “educational choice program” must include both public and nonpublic educational options. Thus, for example, section 523(b) defines “educational choice program” as:

a program adopted by a State or by a local educational agency under which

(1) parents select the school, including private schools, in which their children will be enrolled; and

(2) sufficient financial support is provided to enable a significant number or percentage of parents to enroll their children in a variety of schools and educational programs, including private schools.     

The End of Britis Pub Culture？

本刊从2010年第1期起辟专栏连载英国大使馆文化处提供的系列稿件,为读者介绍英国文化,内容涵盖了假日、饮食、酒吧和英国皇室等方面。本栏目除文章外,每期还附有趣味小练习,另外,wordoftheday板块每期为读者介绍一个俚语。读者在深入领略英国文化底蕴的同时,还可学习到原汁原味的英文。本期文章介绍的是：英国的酒吧文化源远流长,极具特色。     

Christian Schools in a Pluralistic Society?

The central question of this article is whether separate Christian schools are defensible in a pluralistic liberal democracy. This question is answered from the perspective of Christian parents and based on the premise that these parents want to send their children to separate Christian schools. We argue that Christian education and separate Christian schools can be compatible with civic education of children towards a liberal democratic citizen, but that for some Christian communities this will not be easily achieved.     

Going…Going…Gone:The End of the Banana?

Nobody ever thought it could happen, but botanical and agricultural experts have issued a grave warning:the banana, one of the world's best-loved fruits, might practically go extinct in as short as 10 years.The bananas we eat today originated from the wild banana(Musa acuminata), which is inedible because of the many sturdy seeds it contains. Apparently, about 10,000 years ago, people somewhere in South-East Asia discovered a rare mutated variety that yielded soft, delicious fruits without seeds. This mutant plant came about mostly because of a     

Ronald Reagan:The End of Departing Light

On June 5, 2004, Mrs. Ronald Reagan issued the following statement from herhome in Los Angeles, California:"My family and I would like the world to know that President Ronald Reagan haspassed away after ten years of Alzheimer's1, at 93 years of age. We appreciate everyone'sprayers over the years."At the end of his two termsin office, Ronald Reaganviewed with satisfaction theachievements of his innovativeprogram known as the ReaganRevolution, which aimed toreinvigorate the Americanpeople…     

Public Accountability and the Academic Effectiveness of Grant‐Aided Catholic Schools

This paper is offered as a contribution to a debate about the public accountability of church‐affiliated schools grant‐aided by the state. The paper provides an account of two parallel secondary school systems in Northern Ireland, popularly described as ‘Catholic’ and ‘Protestant’, in effectiveness terms. The outcome measure is academic performance in public examinations taken by pupils at the end of the period of statutory schooling. The paper extends earlier work of the author by focusing on Catholic schools in the light of access to a second and more up‐to‐date data set and to recent Scottish findings. Having indicated ‘raw’ performance differences between the two sectors, a value‐added approach to performance measurement is presented. Doubt is cast on aspects of the received wisdom concerning the superior academic performance of Protestant‐educated pupils.     

Makeover Or Takeover? The strange death of educational autonomy in neo-liberal England

This paper is concerned with the erosion of educational autonomy in Britain in recent years. Employing an analytical framework derived mainly from the recent work of Basil Bernstein, it examines ways in which weakened boundaries between the educational and the economic/political spheres may be linked to attempts by government in Britain to take over, to an unprecedented degree, domains where educators and producers of knowledge have in the past enjoyed significant, although by no means unqualified, autonomy. Implications for changing educational identities are highlighted, as is Bernstein's central contention that we may be witnessing not merely presentational changes, but rather a fundamental redefinition of the relationship between knowledge and the knower. Certain aspects of the political and educational agenda of the present New Labour government are seen as continuing many of the directions of policy set by previous New Right administrations. It is suggested that such continuities at the level of politics and policy indicate the potency of neo-liberal forms of governmentality and the extent to which they have become entrenched. Postmodernist and modernist interpretations of these developments are briefly considered. Obstacles to effective contestation of the new modalities of control are discussed.