Faith-based charter school success at education ground zero

This study examined the practices of three faith-based charter schools with sustained student enrollment within the Metropolitan Detroit area. Qualitative data analysis methodologies were used to identify the similarities and differences between the structural components/correlates manifested within these three schools and Effective Schools Research. The goals of this project were two-fold. The first goal was to look in-depth at the internal make up of three separate institutions to identify whether or not they aligned to the tenets of Effective Schools Research. The second goal was to compare these tenets across schools to identify their similarities and highlight their difference in an attempt to provide possible explanations for their success. The objective of this project was to identify, for administrators and the educational community, elements within these schools that may have been effective in sustaining enrollment and viability, and might be identified as or perhaps labeled among research-based best practices for urban charter schools.  A combination of adult entrepreneurs and leaders from three successful charter schools were formally interviewed. Each participant was interviewed separately for thirty to sixty minutes on their own individual campuses. A twenty-one question interview protocol was used to extract information, beliefs, ideals and perceptions from leaders in reference to the five original correlates of the Effective Schools Research. A non-participatory facility walkthrough was conducted at each individual campus and an informational document review was performed for each school. The study concluded that all three schools shared total alignment in three of the five correlates: (a) High Expectations for Student Success, (b) Frequent Monitoring of Student Performance, and (c) Safe and Orderly Schools. In addition to this alignment, however, schools held unique qualities which may also contribute to their individualized success. The remaining two correlates, (d) Strong Administrative Leadership, and (e) A Focus on Basic Skills, revealed a distinctive dissimilarity in leadership style and their approach to student mastery of basic skills

Automorphism groups of countable algebraically closed graphs and endomorphisms of the random graph

We establish links between countable algebraically closed graphs and the endomorphisms of the countable universal graph $R$. As a consequence we show that, for any countable graph $\Gamma$, there are uncountably many maximal subgroups of the endomorphism monoid of $R$ isomorphic to the automorphism group of $\Gamma$. Further structural information about End $R$ is established including that Aut $\Gamma$ arises in uncountably many ways as a Sch\"{u}tzenberger group. Similar results are proved for the countable universal directed graph and the countable universal bipartite graph.Comment: Minor revision following referee's comments. 27 pages, 3 figure

Dynamic characteristics

Standard level N-channel enhancement mode Field-Effect Transistor (FET) in a plastic package using TrenchMOS technology. This product is designed and qualified for use in computing, communications, consumer and industrial applications only. 1.2 Features and benefits � Higher operating power due to low thermal resistance � Suitable for high frequency applications due to fast switching characteristics 1.3 Application

“Look at them! They all have friends and not me”: the role of peer relationships in schooling from the perspective of primary children designated as ‘lower-attaining’

This paper explores the peer relationship experiences of 23 primary-school children who had been designated as “lower-attaining”. It is written against the backdrop of the mental health crisis among young people in Britain. Using John Macmurray’s principles of equality and freedom as underpinning positive personal relationships, it investigates how “lower-attaining” children experience their peer relationships in a climate where attainment in mathematics and English is politically prioritised over the nurturing of positive relationships. We drew on the recent literature pertaining to peer relationships in general; and peer relationships among “lower-attainers” in particular. We build on the assumption that positive personal relationships support creative learning and high attainment. Using 107 extended individual and paired/triad activity-interviews as well as lesson observations every term over six school terms, we carried out research in four sample primary-schools. Our findings illustrated the high value put on friendships by sample children, despite a strong emphasis in schooling on individual competition. The children described instances of feeling troubled by their relationships; and their “low-attainment” status appeared to be linked to some, if not many, of their troubles. They sometimes felt excluded from the main body of their classes due to emphasis on high-attainment. We conclude by proposing a greater emphasis on collaboration and the nurturing of relationships in schooling, which in turn could support these children’s creative learning and attainment

Parity of participation? Primary-school children reflect critically on being successful during schooling

Nancy Fraser describes parity-of-participation in social interaction as an important component of social justice. In this paper, we explore the participatory experiences of primary-school-children who have been labelled ‘lower-attainers’ in mathematics and/or writing. The paper explores justice drawing on the perspective of these pupils, in relation to how they perceive success in their school learning. We link the concept of participation to the three components of social justice outlined in Nancy Fraser’s definition: a) distribution of wealth; b) recognition of status; and c) representation of voice. Our findings indicate that children who do not excel in attainment in prescribed subjects may experience obstructions to parity-of-participation within schooling which are beyond those encountered by all children. We conclude that injustices in all three senses (above) are being experienced by specific children and these injustices need urgent confrontation

'My life is like a massive jigsaw with pieces missing'. How 'lower-attaining' children experience school in terms of their well-being

‘Lower-attaining’ children are known to encounter negative experiences in school, including experiencing feelings of upset, shame and inferiority. Using extensive interview and observation data from the first two years of a five-year longitudinal study of 23 ‘lower-attaining’ children (age 7–9), we draw on Seligman’s theory of well-being to identify the children’s experiences of school in terms of their emotions, relationships and sense of achievement. Our analysis finds that on balance, these children are experiencing threats to their well-being in relation to their perceived lack of attainment and its associated shame, in an increasingly performative educational culture. We conclude that such threats are hampering the well-being of these children, which may cause both immediate and longer-term damage

Systemic threats to the growth mindset: classroom experiences of agency among children designated as 'lower-attaining'

In this paper, the authors consider how Carol Dweck’s concept of growth mindset has been misconceptualised. They explore the proposition that agency is an important aspect of growth mindset and that the effects of hard work by children is reduced when agency is limited. They draw on qualitative data from 84 interviews with 23 participant children who had been designated at the end of their Year 3 as ‘lower-attainers’ in mathematics, English or both. They explore their experiences of this designation across the first two years of the five-year project. Their findings suggested that participants displayed ample capacity for action, curiosity, engagement and creative learning. However, classroom rules sometimes mitigated against children benefiting from these capacities. Children narrated adopting the performance orientation suggested by Dweck, which could lead to a reduced sense of competence, which itself led to less agentic classroom behaviours

Persevering for a cruel and cynical fiction? The experiences of the 'low achievers' in primary schooling

This paper is significant in its exploration of the experiences of children designated as ‘lower-attaining’ in British primary schooling. It is underpinned by Nancy Fraser’s conceptualisation of a global shift from government via nation-state welfare structures to governance through supra-national financialised neoliberalism. Within this context, we take the innovative path of investigating how ‘lower-attaining’ children explain perseverance with hard work at school within neoliberalism’s ‘cruel and cynical fiction’ of social mobility. Our extended interviews with 23 ‘lower-attaining’ children over two years provide findings which indicate – with a startling vividness – that these particular children experienced loneliness at school and blamed themselves for being inadequate and inferior. Fear appeared to be an essential component of their schooling system and sometimes elicited from them anger as well as humiliation. In particular, these children feared being assessed and sorted according to attainment. We propose that these factors often led the ‘lower-attaining’ children to experience schooling as at least uncomfortable. And yet they came to accept as fact the fiction that they were inadequate; and to perceive that perseverance in conforming to schooling’s rules was their only chance of not slipping out of the race altogether