Revisiting free school meal eligibility as a proxy for pupil socio‐economic deprivation

Whether someone has ever had free school meal (FSM) eligibility over a six‐year period is the measure of socio‐economic disadvantage currently used in the English school system. It is used to monitor the socio‐economic gap in achievement in the education system, to identify particular children at risk of low achievement and to direct funding to particular children and schools. In this paper we assess how well this measure predicts pupil attainment in secondary school in comparison to other measures of socio‐economic background known to influence pupil attainment, such as parental education or income. We ask whether the FSM measure is an adequate proxy for a pupil's socio‐economic disadvantage in an educational context. To do this we draw on the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England and matched administrative data. We find that the FSM eligibility measure correlates highly with other measures of socio‐economic disadvantage, however it does not identify all children living in what would be deemed deprived households. We then compare the extent to which the FSM eligibility measure predicts educational achievement relative to other measures of deprivation and find that its predictive power is only marginally lower than many richer survey measures. This provides some reassurance on its use in policy.     

Performance Indicators and Quality Review in Australian Universities

This paper examines the relationship between sets of quantitative performance and diversity indicators and the qualitative banding of Australian universities made by the Committee for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. Using factor analysis, three performance factors (Traditional Research University Performance, Teaching Performance and Competitive Research Performance) and four diversity factors (Size, Equity, Student Staff Ratios and Access) were obtained. Strong association was found between quality ranking and composite measures of performance. When factor‐based composite measures were used, quality rankings were significantly correlated with Traditional Research University Performance, Teaching Performance and Size, and negatively with Equity.     

Organization of schooling: Achieving access and quality through inclusion

Conclusion Michael Fullan, Dean of Education at the University of Toronto and an acknowledged expert on educational change, reform and improvement, has noted that reform in special education ‘represents just about all the issues involved in bringing about educational reform.’ complexity and leadership are particularly difficult challenges. Fullan has noted that, ‘the solutions to inclusion are not easily achieved. It is complex both in the nature and degree of change required to identify and implement solutions that work. Given what change requires—persistence, coordination, follow-up, conflict resolution, and the like—leadership at all levels is required...’ (Fullan, 1991b). Organizational support for inclusive education must be in place at the provincial/state level, the regional/school district level, and at the school level. These structures, programmes and policies must deliver the support needed by classroom teachers and their students. We have set out specific ways that this can be done, consistent with an inclusive policy framework. The commitment to equity, as well as access and quality, requires continuing development by building on these approaches. In so doing, we can achieve better results for students with special needs while simultaneously creating more effective schools for all students. A former teacher and school principal, Gordon Porter is now director of student services for the public schools in Woodstock, New Brunswick. A well-known advocate for integrated education, he has been instrumental in developing inclusionary programmes for all students in the schools in the Woodstock area, and throughout the province of New Brunswick. Dr. Porter has conducted training in many parts of Canada as well as the United States. He is currently vice-chair of the Committee on Integrated Education of the International League of Societies for the Mentally Handicapped.     

School Exclusions in England: Children's voices and adult solutions?

This paper examines the rise in school exclusions in England in the 1990s. It discusses the definitions and different types of exclusion and how policies towards exclusion have been changing. It considers the groups of students that have been, and remain, at the greatest risk of exclusion and the main reasons given by schools for excluding students. Particular attention is focused on the views of excluded children themselves, collated from a wide range of studies, including primary research with excluded students and some of their parents. The 1999 government initiative to cut exclusions by one third by the year 2002 is then considered. The paper argues that much more attention should be given to the opinions and ideas of young people themselves in the search for a solution to young people's disaffection with education and England's high rates of exclusion.     

Verbal energy: attending to poetry

This paper contends that the current English curriculum does not adequately acknowledge the potential of poetry to make meaning through sound. It reflects on how sound may embody or communicate meaning, and seeks enhanced conceptions of this aspect of poetry for pedagogy and the curriculum. It begins with the attention the mainstream press gave to Seamus Heaney's remarks about Eminem, and progresses to consider Heaney's notion of ‘verbal energy’ in the light of developing conceptions of multimodal ‘new literacies’. It suggests that new approaches could accord with an oral heritage approach to poetry while also acknowledging the influence of the communicational environments pupils experience beyond English classrooms. Throughout, the author draws on material that has informed his on‐going Teacher Training Agency‐sponsored project exploring the ways in which pupils approach poetry as sound, soon to be detailed on web resources for the English teaching community.     

ICT and educational (dis)advantage: families,computers and contemporary social and educational inequalities

Because access to new technologies is unequally distributed, there has been considerable debate about the growing gap between the so‐called information‐rich and information‐poor. Such concerns have led to high‐profile information technology policy initiatives in many countries. In Australia, in an attempt to ‘redress the balance between the information rich and poor’ by providing ‘equal access to the World Wide Web’ (Virtual Communities, 2002 Virtual Communities (2002) About us. Available online at: http://www.virtualcommunities. com.au (accessed 18 August 2002)  [Google Scholar]), the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Virtual Communities (a computer/software distributor) and Primus (an Internet provider) in late 1999 formed an alliance to offer relatively inexpensive computer and Internet access to union members in order to make ‘technology affordable for all Australians’ (Virtual Communities, 2002 Virtual Communities (2002) About us. Available online at: http://www.virtualcommunities. com.au (accessed 18 August 2002)  [Google Scholar]). In this paper, we examine four families, one of which had long‐term Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) access, and three of which took advantage of the Virtual Communities offer to get home computer and Internet access for the first time. We examine their engagement with ICT and suggest that previously disadvantaged family members are not particularly advantaged by their access to ICT.     

The Status of Career and Technical Education Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in the United States

The purpose of this study was to examine undergraduate and graduate student enrollments, course delivery modes, and curricular trends and issues of CTE programs. Based on findings from 139 program/department coordinators, results emphasized that although CTE programs within institutions of higher education have declined in number (Fletcher, Gordon, Asunda, &; Zirkle, 2015 Fletcher, E., &; Djajalaksana, Y. (2015). Instructional strategy preferences in the career and technical education classroom. Journal of Research in Business Education, 57(1), 32–56. [Google Scholar]), student enrollments within those programs have remained steady compared to prior studies (Bruening et al., 2001 Bruening, T., Scanlon, D., Hodes, C., Dhital, P., Shao, X., &; Liu, S. (2001). The status of career and technical education teacher preparation programs. (Report No. V051A990004). Minneapolis, MN: The National Research Center for Career and Technical Education. [Google Scholar]; Lynch, 1990 Lynch, R. (1990). A national database on vocational teacher education (Report No. V051A80004-89). Berkeley, CA: National Center for Research in Vocational Education. [Google Scholar]). Even so, CTE program/department administrators have articulated that declining student enrollment is a major challenge within their programs. Additionally, the development of online courses and the impact of state/national educational reform initiatives were identified as major curricular trends for CTE programs. Recommendations include the need for CTE faculty to embrace online instruction, and for programs to use broader nomenclature of CTE/Workforce Education, instead of names of more traditional subdisciplines within the field to remain more accessible and sustainable in the future. The condition of undergraduate and graduate CTE programs will likely impact the viability and sustainability of CTE teacher preparation programs, recruitment of a talented and diverse CTE teaching force, continuity of the U.S. teaching workforce, and ability of K–12 teachers to maintain high-quality CTE programs.     

The Key Stage 3 Strategy: what kind of reform is this?

The Key Stage 3 Strategy is a complex and evolving government strategy intended to improve the education of 11‐ to 14‐year‐olds in England. This paper provides a snapshot of its development by early 2004, drawing on our evaluation of the pilot phase which began in 2000. The evolution of the Strategy, with its phased introduction of both subject and cross‐curricular strands, is described. We then examine the policy intentions and evidence base which underpin it before considering what the Strategy offers in terms of curricular and pedagogical reform. While the Strategy seeks to improve schooling for 11‐ to 14‐year‐olds, it has struggled to offer a coherent approach, though recent changes in emphasis may help. We conclude that a more radical approach to the learning needs of 11‐ to 14‐year‐olds is needed and draw evidence from international trends in middle years education.