6 Urban schools as organizations: political perspectives

Reformed at the turn of the century toward top‐down, centralized administration, city school systems are frequently being reorganized today toward a bottom‐up, decentralized construction. The most radical of these is Chicago. But Chicago, in a condition shared widely throughout the USA, is a city school system experiencing serious budgetary and infrastructure decline ‐ a condition tending anew toward organizational centralization. Such political forces may not mesh well ‐ as a new politics of adaptive realignment at the grassroots encounters renewed strength in an ‘old politics’ of bureaucratic centralization. Largely unstudied and unknown at this time are the effects on the internal politics of the organization in city schooling ‐ a politics that may adapt in some unforeseen way to new battles between top‐down and bottom‐up.     

Prevalence of streaming in UK primary schools: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study

The adoption of streaming in the primary school (where children are placed in a class on the basis of measures of attainment and remain in that class all of the time) was commonplace when the 11 plus examination was used to select children for grammar school places. During the 1950s and 1960s the practice died out with most children being taught in mixed ability classes with some in‐class grouping. During the 1990s successive governments indicated that some form of ability grouping should be introduced in primary schools, setting (children placed in ability groups for some subjects and taught in mixed groups for the remainder of the time) being preferred, however, streaming was introduced in some schools despite evidence that movement between structured ability groups is infrequent and that children tend to remain in the same groups throughout their school careers limiting their educational opportunities. Recent research based on 8875 children, in the Millennium Cohort Study showed that 16.4% of children in Year 2 were in streamed classes. Logistic regression analysis showed that the best predictors of being in the top stream were whether the child was born in autumn or winter 2000, parents owning their own home, and the child's cognitive ability score. The measures predicting being in the bottom stream were being a boy, being born in the spring/summer of 2001, having a behaviour problem, being born into a lone parent family, and cognitive ability score.     

Understanding of epilepsy by children and young people with epilepsy

There is a striking dearth of studies focusing sensitively and in depth on the mainstream educational experiences of children with epilepsy, as viewed by those children themselves. The one‐year project (2006–7) reported here addresses that gap. Children’s perceptions about mainstream teachers’ understanding of epilepsy and school‐based needs are particularly interesting and this work breaks new ground in that connection. The authors report findings from two complementary qualitative methods of data collection: (1) an e‐survey of 44 self‐selected children and young people with epilepsy, and (2) interviews (mainly individual) in mainstream schools with 22 children/young people with epilepsy. Overall, the children and young people (aged 7–18) were clear about the nature of their condition, including seizures. For many, there was an implicit reluctance in accepting epilepsy as a “part of them”; self‐reported feelings of secrecy, stigma and shame abounded. This had repercussions for how schools were seen to need to respond with sensitivity and knowledge‐based understanding. Taking a qualitative methodological approach revealed important insights into complex concepts like stigma in the school context. This was illustrated in children and young people’s readiness to talk about their feelings of “difference” in relation to others when given the opportunity to do so sensitively. The findings have important implications for how schools and services work in a genuinely fully inclusive way with children and young people who have epilepsy.     

训练课RPE在短距离自行车训练负荷监控中的应用

目的：采用训练课RPE对自行车短距离项目场地专项、素质力量和公路有氧训练课的负荷水平进行监测,比较不同水平、不同性别运动员的评分差异。方法：上海自行车队短组运动员8名,其中男子6名,女子2名。赛前4周共完成16节场地专项训练课、8节素质力量训练课和7节有氧训练课。采用Borg的11分量表对运动员单节训练课的自感劳累水平进行评分,训练课RPE由RPE乘以训练课时间进行计算,分别统计单日及每周训练课RPE（sRPE）总和。采用Pearson相关对单日sRPE与次日晨尿PH和SG的相关性进行检验。结果：总sRPE在赛前4周逐渐下降,场地专项和素质力量训练sRPE分别在第3周（W3）和第2周（W2）达到较高水平,4周期间有氧训练sRPE维持在较低水平;后两周3组运动员sRPE总体上表现出E-Female＞N-Male＞E-Male的变化趋势;仅女运动员的尿比重（SG）与sRPE存在低度相关,其它指标均未见显著的相关关系。结论：训练课RPE是评价自行车短距离项目训练内部负荷的有效指标,但会受运动员不同运动水平的影响。     

Gendered citizenship and the individualization of environmental responsibility: evaluating a campus common reading program

Campus common reading programs are intended to stimulate critical thinking and dialogue across disciplines yet scarce evidence exists to evaluate the success of such programs. We assess the extent to which engagement in an environmentally-themed common reading program is related to (1) concern for waste-related issues, (2) beliefs that addressing waste is an individual responsibility, and (3) individual behaviors intended to reduce personal waste. Results are drawn from a sample of undergraduate students (n = 398) with varying levels of engagement in the common reading program. Students who participated in the common reading program have higher levels of concern for waste than those who did not, are more likely to locate responsibility for addressing the problem of waste on the individual, and self-report higher frequency of engagement in individual efforts to reduce waste. We conclude with recommendations for further developing the critical thinking capacity of campus common reading programs.     

Longitudinal literacy professional development in an urban elementary charter school

The authors describe a school-university professional development partnership in a high-needs urban elementary charter school. University and school partners collaborated to build instructional capacity to develop teachers’ understanding and implementation of effective literacy instruction. Design-based research revealed increased understanding and implementation of effective literacy practices among school leaders and teachers. Findings revealed the importance of administrative stability; coaching support; and a focused, school-wide instructional vision.     

Study of Self: The Self as Designer in Online Teacher Education

In this article we describe our engagement in self-study as part of an examination of design-based research for education. We focus on graduate-level online teacher education as an example of how self-study provided a means of examining deeply our teaching and our roles as teacher and designer in the learning environment. We posit that online learning environments are particularly well suited for self-study to enhance design perspectives because the interactions between teacher and students are informed by personal context and mediated by technological tools. The graduate students in our courses were teacher leaders in literacy or mathematics who were learning how to support professional development for other teachers. Throughout our self-study research we found ourselves drawing upon our previous design research experiences, which aided our ability to engage in self-study: We were part of the classroom system, focusing on our roles within the teaching and learning process as designers of the online learning environment. Three key design principles resulted from our self-study process: focusing on systems of learning and teaching, designing pedagogical tools and products, and using iterative processes. Engaging in self-study enhanced our understanding and implementation of synchronous online instruction, particularly regarding our use of technological tools to enhance student learning and support learning communities.     

The emergent literacy skills of four-year-old children receiving free kindergarten early childhood education in New Zealand

This study investigated the emergent literacy and language skills of four-year-old children in New Zealand during their kindergarten year prior to school-entry. A total of 92 four-year-old children from a range of socio-economic areas were seen individually at their local kindergarten and were assessed on code-related measures (letter name knowledge, initial phoneme awareness, emergent name writing) and meaning-related measures (story comprehension and retelling ability). Approximately, 60% of the parents completed a home literacy questionnaire. Regression analyses showed no effect for age on any of the code-related measures. In contrast, significant effects for age were found on story comprehension and retelling ability. There were no differences in performance based on gender with two exceptions: Girls performed better than boys on letter name knowledge and early name writing. Questionnaire results suggested literacy activities were valued in the home environment with most parents reporting reading to their child each night, and the majority of parents reported owning more than 60 children’s books. Results from the current study suggest more explicit teaching may be necessary within the kindergarten curriculum to facilitate the code-related skills linked to successful word recognition ability and early spelling development.