Developmental guidance and student acquisition of social competence.

In a changing world, it is increasingly important to articulate what are the social emotional competencies that students leaving secondary schools need to acquire in order to be effective learners and citizens and how schools can facilitate the acquisition of such competencies. There is an emerging consensus that CASEL [1] has identified five of those core competencies. They are a) self-awareness, b) self-management, c) social awareness, d) relationship skills and e) responsible decision-making. There is not, however, a consensus as to how schools can facilitate the acquisition of these competencies. This paper will argue that each community needs to articulate the competencies they expect from their children and ensure that their schools implement a program of developmental guidance that helps them acquire these competencies. Developmental guidance is a combination of curriculum that teaches these competencies, experiences through which students can put them into practice, a systematic approach to developing and implementing a post-secondary plan for each student, and a way to assess the success of such an approach. In the same way that competence in literacy and numeracy is developed over a child’s career in school through a series of increasingly complex coursework, we need to implement systematic developmental guidance in all schools so that we more effectively prepare our children to take their place in a world that is changing as a result of technological and social developments. There are several barriers to implementing effective developmental guidance programs. One is the lack of consensus as to the role of schools in providing such training. Another is the lack of consensus as to what are those desired competencies. A third is the lack of resources made available to support such implementation.Accepted manuscrip

School Resources and Educational Outcomes in Developing Countries: A Review of the Literature from 1990 to 2010

Developing countries spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year on schools, educational materials and teachers, but relatively little is known about how effective these expenditures are at increasing students’ years of completed schooling and, more importantly, the skills that they learn while in school. This paper examines studies published between 1990 and 2010, in both the education literature and the economics literature, to investigate which specific school and teacher characteristics, if any, appear to have strong positive impacts on learning and time in school. Starting with over 9,000 studies, 79 are selected as being of sufficient quality. Then an even higher bar is set in terms of econometric methods used, leaving 43 “high quality” studies. Finally, results are also shown separately for 13 randomized trials. The estimated impacts on time in school and learning of most school and teacher characteristics are statistically insignificant, especially when the evidence is limited to the “high quality” studies. The few variables that do have significant effects – e.g. availability of desks, teacher knowledge of the subjects they teach, and teacher absence – are not particularly surprising and thus provide little guidance for future policies and programs.

Vocational Schools Are No Vacation: Determining Who Really Benefits from Student Labor

On April 28, 2011, in Solis v. Laurelbrook Sanitarium & School, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that students who worked as part of the curriculum at a religious-based boarding school were not employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. In so holding, the Sixth Circuit expressly endorsed the “primary benefit” test for determining whether trainees are employees for purposes of the FLSA. The primary benefit test effectuates the purpose of the FLSA, provides courts with the flexibility to prevent employers from exploiting workers, and ultimately benefits employees and students like those at Laurelbrook. Nevertheless, the test does little to clarify Congress’s circular definitions of “employ” and “employee,” leaving employers and schools like Laurelbrook without much guidance

Übergangschancen benachteiligter Hauptschülerinnen und Hauptschüler : Evaluation der Projekte "Abschlussquote erhöhen - Berufsfähigkeit steigern 2" und "Vertiefte Berufsorientierung und Praxisbegleitung"

"The research report is based on the evaluation of the projects 'Increasing graduation quota - enhancing occupational capacities 2' (AQB2) and 'Improved occupational orientation and practice guidance' (VBOP). The two projects aimed at increasing the chances of successful school-to-training-transitions of less-educated youth. The projects intended to improve their occupational orientation, learning motivation and the practical relevance of education by establishing so called 'Be-rufsstarterklassen' and 'Praxisklassen', respectively, for low-achieving youth. These are separated classes, in which students attended of practical training in a form twice a week a und were supervised by 'occupational guidance advisers'. The two main goals of the projects were: successful graduation after grade 9 with a lower secondary school degree (Hauptschulabschluss) and getting a vocational training place. The projects in general had been successful. 90 per cent of the students of AQB2 and 95 per cent of the students of VBOP (who had attended the project until the end) obtained a lower secondary school degree. Moreover, 47 per cent of the AQB2 participants and 55 per cent of the VBOP participants (compared to 34 per cent of students attending a parallel class without 'treatment'), who left school after grade 9, have started with vocational training. However, this projects' success is reduced by a dropout rate of the two projects. In addition, AQB2 participants with good school grades had a lower chance to get a training place after leaving school than comparable students from the control classes." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Hauptschulabsolventen, Bildungschancen, Berufsorientierung, Chancengleichheit, benachteiligte Jugendliche, Benachteiligtenförderung, Berufseinmündung, erste Schwelle

WP7 Regional/local Case Studies

This report provides an in depth and transversal analysis of the policy Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) in Glasgow City Region and Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshrie Region. It analyses the correspondence of meanings attributed to the policy by national policymakers, regional managers, practitioners and young adults’ beneficiaries of the DYW policy, as well as identifying governance issues and (un)intended consequences on young peoples’ lives

Reducing Workload: Supporting Teachers in the Early Stages of Their Career

Excessive workload is the most commonly cited driver for teachers leaving the profession and 33% of teachers leave the profession within the first five years. The Teacher Workload Survey 2016 identified that teachers with less than six years’ experience have higher workload than more experienced colleagues. School leaders, induction tutors, mentors, appropriate bodies and teachers themselves can use this advice to help remove the burdens that might be associated with the first five years of a teacher’s career. This should build from the support and advice early career teachers have received from their ITE provider during their training period, statutory induction, wider advice in the workload reduction toolkit and the three independent workload reports on marking, planning and data management. This guidance has been developed by the sector and will continue to evolve as further evidence, case studies and advice becomes available, including the outcomes from the strengthening QTS consultation