NEW RESEARCH FINDS SCHOOL HIRING AND SUPPORT PRACTICES FALL SHORT
BLOCK SCHEDULING RESEARCH
THE LANGUAGE POLICE, HOW PRESSURE GROUPS RESTRICT WHAT STUDENTS LEARN
GERMAN SCHOOL SYSTEM NOW GETS FAILING GRADES
STUDIES, TESTIMONY SAY HIGHER SPENDING DOESN'T IMPROVE ACHIEVEMENT
NEW RESEARCH FINDS SCHOOL HIRING AND SUPPORT PRACTICES FALL SHORT
"New research from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) reveals that many schools are not organized to hire and support new teachers in ways that help them enter the profession smoothly and attain early success:
- 33% of new teachers are hired after the school year has already started, and 62% are hired within 30 days of when they start teaching
- Only 50% of new teachers interview with any of their future teacher colleagues as part of the hiring process
- 56% report that no extra assistance is available to them as new teachers"
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BLOCK SCHEDULING RESEARCH
A variety of articles and research on block scheduling are given at this website which overall questions the effectiveness of block scheduling. For example, one resources states, "Texas Education Agency researchers say they can find no proof that longer class periods -- used in the block scheduling approach in Texas high schools -- have resulted in improved student learning. The findings are contained in a new 54-page study prepared by the TEA's research and evaluation division...How effectively students and teachers engage in the teaching-learning process appears to matter much more than the length of class periods. . .The authors also acknowledged the arguments of critics who complained that block scheduling actually reduces instructional time over the school year -- and that teacher and student concentration is weakened over a 90-minute period."
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THE LANGUAGE POLICE, HOW PRESSURE GROUPS RESTRICT WHAT STUDENTS LEARN
A Book Review by Merle Rubin, from the Los Angeles Times, April 28
The Center for Education Reform remarks, "Not enough can be said about historian Diane Ravitch's 'The Language Police,' a book that finally documents the strange and true in textbook, content, and answers, in part, why our students know so little considering they are allegedly taught so much." CER comments that Rubin's review is one of the best they've ready to date. "Ravitch relates how history textbooks written by prominent champions of multiculturalism and expressly designed to be inclusive and inoffensive have still come under fire from various racial and ethnic groups. 'Rewarding groups that complain by allowing them to censor words and images that they don't like only encourages them,' she concludes. 'Censorship should be stopped, not rewarded with compliance and victories.'"
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http://edreform.com/letter/2003/july.htm#The%20Language%20Police,%20How%20Pressure%20
Groups%20Restrict%20What%20Students%20Learn
GERMAN SCHOOL SYSTEM NOW GETS FAILING GRADES
"It sounds like every child's dream: only 4 1/2 hours of school a day, no attendance taken, a free day if a teacher is sick and no punishment for playing hooky. But this is no dream, as Germans have suddenly awakened to discover; it's the sorry state of their schools. Germany's education system, like its economy, was once considered the pride of Europe. Worries about the stagnating economy have recently preoccupied Germans, and now they are realizing their schools are in trouble, too. Things have gotten so bad that not only parents are complaining. Even some high school students grumble that it's hard to take school seriously.
"German pupils are tracked after fourth grade into secondary schools that determine whether they will learn a trade or vocation or go on to the university. 'It is too difficult at the end of fourth grade to determine who should go into which (secondary) school,' said Hans Bruegelmann, an education professor at the University in Siegen."
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http://www.detnews.com/2003/schools/0308/07/a10-237989.htm
STUDIES, TESTIMONY SAY HIGHER SPENDING DOESN'T IMPROVE ACHIEVEMENT
Michigan Education Report reports that "Recent studies and congressional testimony say that increased education funding does not improve student achievement.
"Krista Kafer, education policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said in recent testimony that, although states have considerably increased education funding, nearly 60 percent of high school seniors do not have "even a basic knowledge of American history," and more than half of the country's low-income fourth graders cannot read at the most basic level. "The evidence suggests that there is little reason to expect that increasing funding will improve the situation."
"A Standard & Poor's study of spending in Pennsylvania found that 60 percent of school districts with students scoring high on achievement tests had below-average education spending. The study also found that nearly one-third of lower-scoring districts had above-average education spending."
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http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200308/NAT20030808b.html
