Evaluating Education Reform: Students' Views of Their Charter School Experience

Abstract

One aspect of charter schools that is often overlooked when one evaluates their success is the support that they receive from students. By using data from a survey of Texas charter school students, supplemented with statistics from the Texas Education Agency, the author examined students' satisfaction with their charter school, especially as it compared with their previous educational experiences. Results suggest that when students perceived that the charter school had higher quality teachers, better classes, and a more caring environment, they were more satisfied with their charter school than with their previous school. Furthermore, students most at risk for dropping out also were those who tended to be more supportive of their charter school.     

Comparison and Comparability: Fitness Tracking Between Youths with Different Physical Activity Levels

This study compared a three-year tracking of health-related physical fitness between two comparable samples of six graders that enrolled either in a PE4life middle school (n?=?154) or another school with a traditional PE program (n?=?93) in the United States. For the cohort, the FITNESSGRAM^TM (Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research, 1992 Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research. 1992. The Prudential FITNESSGRAM^®test administration manual, Dallas, TX: The Cooper Institute.  [Google Scholar]) battery was administered twice with a three-year interval, and moderate and vigorous physical activity levels in PE classes were assessed. Fitness tracking then was assessed with six statistical techniques and compared between the two samples. Students in the PE4life Program demonstrated significantly higher moderate and vigorous physical activity level (p < .001) in PE classes and improved significantly more in most fitness measures at follow-up (ps < .05–.001) than those in the traditional program. Results of tracking assessed with Spearman correlations, Kappa statistics, and Kendall's tau-b did not reflect the significant differences in fitness changes between the two samples, whereas those assessed using stability in extreme quartiles, changes in percentage of students in at-risk groups, and odds ratios reflected the significant differences in the fitness changes between the two samples. The last three tracking methods identify differences in fitness changes in addition to assessing tracking stability and are recommended in fitness tracking research.     

The Role of Technology and Computer-Based Instruction in a Disadvantaged Alternative School's Culture of Learning

New approaches to instruction are increasingly being advocated to meet the needs of diverse learners. Educational researchers have identified the further development and application of computer-based instruction technologies for managing differentiated learning for all students as essential for shifting to a learner-centered paradigm of instruction in future schools. This study examines how a disadvantaged alternative high school implemented technology use and computer-based instruction to support a learner-centered culture of learning. Based on findings, the study looks for implications and future directions to better support learner-centered instruction for diverse students.     

Sex,School, and Society

Accurate teacher judgment of students' reading ability is critical for identification of students in need of intervention. Little research is available that examines the accuracy of teachers' judgments in identifying students at risk for early reading difficulty as students begin school. Findings of this study indicate that teachers are fairly accurate in their judgments, but the fact that reading ability provides the foundation for academic success suggests the need for a high degree of accuracy in their judgments of students' reading ability.     

On paper,on air,on screen: ‘teledidactics’ and education at the margins, 1920–1950

In this paper, I examine the provenance of distance education or ‘teledidactics’ in Australia. I take as my case studies the New South Wales Correspondence School and the School of the Air and suggest that their emergence was underpinned by a desire on the part of educational and broadcasting bureaucrats to increase the equity of school provision by addressing the problem of educating remote populations. I argue that this problem was ultimately solved by drawing on elements of the medial ecology (as theorised by Friedrich Kittler) that emerged circa 1900 and that the machines associated with this ecology underpinned the realisation of educating such populations.     

我国大众体育中农民体育问题浅析

与现阶段我国小康社会中物质文明和精神文明建设的要求和进程相比,农民体育的问题表现在4方面.1) 农村体育教育和体育设施整体水平滞后;2) 农民对体育的认识局限;3) 农民体育的宣传和推动欠缺力度;4) 农民体育问题的配套研究基础薄弱.在综合分析的基础上,提出了从体育生态建设层面发展农民体育,全面推进我国大众体育进程的相关建议和对策,包括积极推进农村体育设施硬件建设,强调农民体育的教育和宣传,政府切实应对和解决农民体育发展的需求,培养与农民体育相关的组织、管理专业人才,从系统工程角度加强农民体育问题的研究和成果推广等.     

高校图书馆对“蚁族＂群体的知识援助

通过分析“蚁族”群体对知识的需求,阐述了高校图书馆向其提供知识援助的意义、优势与具体方法。     

The importance of rule fairness: the influence of school bonds on at-risk students in an alternative school

Using Hirschi’s social bonds theory as a foundation, this study examines the effects of at-risk students’ school bonds on their classroom behaviour. In this article, school bonds are defined as the students’ attachment to teachers/staff, students’ affiliation to the school, students’ belief in the fairness of the school rules and students’ involvement in school-related activities. The data are from a sample of 77 at-risk students attending an alternative middle school in a small city in the northeastern region of the USA. The findings based on results of a school-wide survey and students’ school records, parallel prior research demonstrate a statistically significant inverse relationship between school bonds (namely the affiliation and the belief bonds) and classroom misconduct. The results of this study reveal the driving force behind reducing classroom misconduct is students’ perception of fairness of school rules (as defined by the belief bond).     

More than Skin Deep – Understand Skin Biology by Means of Dermatogenomics

<正>The Paul Gerson Unna Research Group on Dermatogenomics was founded in October 2012 at the Partner Institute for Computational Biology.The ultimate goal of the group is to understand the biology of skin and skin appendages.     

Meeting the Needs of High School Science Teachers in English Language Learner Instruction

This survey study explored high school science teachers’ challenges and needs specific to their growing English language learning (ELL) student population. Thirty-three science teachers from 6 English as a Second language (ESL)-center high schools in central Virginia participated in the survey. Issues surveyed were (a) strategies used by science teachers to accommodate ELL students’ special needs, (b) challenges they experienced, and (c) support and training necessary for effective ELL instruction. Results suggest that language barriers as well as ELL students’ lack of science foundational knowledge challenged teachers most. Teachers perceived that appropriate instructional materials and pedagogical training was most needed. The findings have implications for science teacher preservice and inservice education in regard to working with language minority students.