The effect of the integration of students with special educational needs: Evidence from Chile

This paper studies the effect of the integration of students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) on the academic achievement of their peers without SEN. This achievement is measured using performance in standardized reading and mathematics tests. The study also evaluates the effect of a policy that recognizes and increases resources for special educational needs that had not yet been considered and improves education provision protocols for students with SEN. Using administrative data and standardized test scores, we constructed a panel that follows a cohort of students before and after the reform, determining for each individual and year whether the class to which he/she belongs has any students with SEN. Our identification strategy employs panel data with fixed effects at the school, individual, and time levels. Estimates show that, on average, having a peer with SEN in the classroom has a negative effect on the academic performance of students without SEN. However, these effects are small and decrease, or even vanish, once better inclusion policies are in place. These results suggest that the effect on peers is almost totally canceled when more resources are provided and when adequate treatment and support protocols are implemented.     

Fake news,fake truth: A new purpose for public schooling

The world is adversely affected by the plethora of easily available fake and misleading information. Public schools are established to help generate responsible citizens.Public schools may have a role to play in addressing the fake news, fake truth problem.     

中国大陆侨资与外资发展比较研究——基于2005——2008数据分析

对近年来中国FDI数据与国侨办侨资企业数据库进行全面比较和深入研究发现,近年来的中国侨资企业发展大大超过外资成长:新批侨资企业数量连续大幅度增加且大大超过外资成长;新增侨资在全国FDI中的比重逐年提高;侨资企业平均投资额大增,并且在制造业中比重下降;新批侨资企业主要来源地分布较广,位次变化显著.这一转变根本的原因在于,大多数侨资企业在一二十年的中国经济高速快车上不断壮大,经营规模与产业层次得到提升,与世界企业的差距大大缩小,国际竞争力日益增强。这一重大转变在这次研究中首次被揭示,应引起有关部门的重视。政策取向必须随着新的形势变化应适时调整,高度重视侨资企业的发展。     

基于微信辅助下的成人本科阶段英语阅读能力提升实践

分析了成人本科阶段学生在英语阅读理解方面存在的问题,采用“微信打卡”小程序和“微信公众号”帮助学生每天坚持阅读技能训练。参与的学生可以进行文字、语音、图片等方式的打卡操作,分享自己完成该篇阅读的时长、答案、收获、困惑等,教师次日在“微信公众号”中发布阅读理解的答案、译文、解析、阅读技巧等,并根据学生的提问进行个别化的辅导。实践证明,基于微信辅助下的阅读方式能有效帮助成人学生坚持阅读训练,分享阅读心得,提高阅读技能,提升阅读兴趣。     

Arts education partnerships: sources of harmony and dissonance with cultural institutions’ collaborative efforts

ABSTRACT

Due to budget constraints, schools in the United States have increasingly turned to community arts organizations for support. School-community arts partnership stakeholders collaborate because of shared missions to provide students with valuable arts learning experiences. Investigations of these initiatives indicate that these partnerships improve arts learning opportunities and increase public support and resources for arts education. However, not much is known about the experiences and perspectives of the arts organizations that participate in these partnerships. Coordinating collective efforts with a multitude of institutions and interests poses challenges. In this study, we examine survey data collected from arts organization administrators who participated in a large-scale school-community arts partnership initiative. We find that these organizations are generally positive about their impacts on students’ educational outcomes, but there is substantial variation in these views. We also find that organizations differ in their levels of support for these collective efforts. Sources of this variation appear to be attributable to organizations’ preexisting resources and extent to which they are established. While this difference in levels of support is potentially inevitable, we find evidence that the operations handled by the “backbone” organization, i.e. the initiative’s facilitators and overseers, can significantly influence organizations’ levels of support for these efforts. Organizations are more likely to support these collaborative efforts when they believe the backbone organization ensures transparency with initiative operations, provides regular, effective communication, and effectively resolves competing priorities.     

Arts councils,policy-making and “the local”

ABSTRACT

In the British Isles, national policies for the arts are primarily viewed as the responsibility of arts councils with statutory duties to distribute state funding that meet the requirements of both “arms-length” principles and national strategic frameworks. This paper explores the tensions between policy making for the nation-state and for “the local” through comparative research on the arts councils (and equivalent bodies) in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with senior representatives from these organisations, it explores their notions of, responsibilities to and affiliations with “the local”. Findings suggest that despite their different models and relationships to the nation-state, and the disparities in the scale of investment, these national policy bodies commonly rely on networked governance to facilitate their relationship to “the local” which risks reproducing national interests, limiting the localised agency of place-based approaches and contributing to a culture of competition within cultural policy.     

Special educational needs and inclusion,moving forward but standing still? A critical reframing of some key issues

This article draws together my thinking in relation to special educational needs and inclusion that have dominated my practice. The article, through the concept of embodiment, revisits, reviews and reframes the key issues of the construction of special educational needs, inclusion and the ideology that binds them together. Through this exploration, I argue we often seem to move forward with policy while in reality standing still in ensuring the ‘success’ of all of our pupils. By critiquing and reframing taken‐for‐granted assumptions and the sacred words ‘success’ and ‘achievement’, this article maps out the future directions of inclusive education. It concludes with a reflection on my first days as a ‘teacher of special educational needs’ and my work to support Kenny, a student with cerebral palsy. This personal reflection maps out a different form of educational success that perhaps could provide a forward momentum to develop more successful inclusive education policy and practice.     

Change management and the SENCo role: developing key performance indicators in the strategic development of inclusivity

This article follows an earlier publication highlighting the changing role of special educational needs co‐ordinators (SENCos) in England. SENCos are now required to manage change strategically and deliver inclusive school cultures. School‐based action research undertaken by a teacher studying for the postgraduate National Award for SEN Co‐ordination (NASENCO) is featured in the article; a strategic review of resource allocation increased the availability and quality of interventions for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The commentary which frames the study acknowledges that many SENCos are not yet members of a senior school management team (SMT) despite their mandated strategic whole‐school remit. Featuring the process through which one SENCo has strived to enhance SEND provision and develop context‐specific key performance indicators brings official guidance on the SENCo's role in strategic change management into sharp focus, raising questions that should concern both SMTs and non‐SMT SENCos.     

陕西省民办高等教育考察报告

陕西省民办高等教育发展很快 ,办学规模不断扩大 ,民办高等教育与公办高等教育共同发展的格局已初步形成。大胆进行教育创新 ,不断研究和解决面临的新情况、新问题 ,是陕西民办高等教育得以迅速发展的主要原因。为了促进民办高等教育进一步发展 ,应提高认识 ,提高质量意识 ,加强民办高校管理机构的建设