More Efficient High Schools in Maine: Emerging Student-Centered Learning Communities

American K-12 public education all across the nation is at a difficult and critical crossroads. We are at a time when keen global competition underscores the need for exceptional performance in our primary and secondary schools. Yet, state and federal governments face unprecedented budget deficits and limited resources for the foreseeable future. Additionally, our schools are being called upon to do an even better job of preparing students for the 21st century. There is growing evidence that success in the 21st Century requires more than what has traditionally been the content of schooling. It requires more and different types of knowledge, skills, and learning. To help students acquire this knowledge base and skills, many educators and leaders are calling for transformative changes in our schools and changes in how we help students learn. This transformative change is called by many names: performance-based learning, standards-based learning, and student-centered learning. The Nellie Mae Education Foundation (NMEF) describes this transformation to more student-centered learning as the need for:... growing a greater variety of higher quality educational opportunities that enable all learners -- especially and essentially underserved learners -- to obtain the skills, knowledge and supports necessary to become civically engaged, economically self-sufficient lifelong learners. (2011) Can our schools be transformed to meet these challenges? More importantly, can they be high performing, efficient, and student-centered at the same time? To explore these questions, the Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation at the University of Southern Maine conducted a study in 2010-2011 of a sample of Maine high schools. Funded in part by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the study examined the degree to which these More Efficient high schools were also student-centered. In 2010, NMEF identified some of the key principles and attributes of studentcentered learning. The principles are that: Student-centered education systems provide all students equal access to the skills and knowledge needed for college and career readiness in today's world. Student-centered education systems align with current research on the learning process and motivation. Student-centered education systems focus on mastery of skills and knowledge. Student-centered education systems build student's identities through a positive culture with a foundation of strong relationships and high expectations. Student-centered education systems empower and support parents, teachers, administrators, and other community members to encourage and guide learners through their educational journey. The key attributes are that: Curriculum, instruction and assessment embrace the skills and knowledge needed for success. Community assets are harnessed to support and deepen learning experiences. Time is used flexibly and includes learning opportunities outside the traditional school day and year. Mastery-based strategies are employed to allow for pacing based on proficiency in skills and knowledge. The goal of the study reported here was to determine to what extent these principles and attributes may be found in the high schools. To that end, once a sample of More Efficient high schools was identified, the beliefs, strategies, and practices found in these schools were examined in light of the 2010 NMEF key principles and attributes

Arthur Pap’s Functional Theory of the A Priori

Arthur Pap was not quite a Logical Empiricist. He wrote his dissertation in philosophy of science under Ernest Nagel, and he published a textbook in the philosophy of science at the end of his tragically short career, but most of his work would be classified as analytic philosophy. More important, he took some stands that went against Logical Empiricist orthodoxy and was a persistent if friendly critic of the movement. Pap diverged most strongly from Logical Empiricism in his theory of a “functional a priori” in which fundamental principles of science are hardened into definitions and act as criteria for further inquiry. Pap was strongly influenced by the pragmatists C. I. Lewis and John Dewey in developing this alternative theory of a priori knowledge. Using Poincaré’s conventionalism as a springboard, Pap attempted to substantiate these views with examples from physics, and this was his largest foray into philosophy of science topics. Pap, as well as Lewis and Dewey, developed an alternative theory of the a priori in the 1950s that never quite took hold, despite the fact that their views are very intriguing and similar to Michael Friedman’s recent work on the constitutive a priori

Taxonomy of the Genus Perodicticus

The specific and subspecific taxonomies of African primate populations such as Cheirogaleus and the Galagidae have been challenged in recent years (Bearder, Honess, Bayes, Ambrose, and Anderson 1995; Groves 2000), and it has been suggested that the taxonomy of another group, Perodicticus, may not adequately reflect the diversity of its members either (Schwartz and Beutel 1995; Grubb, Butynski, Oates, et al. 2003). Taxonomies are an organizational framework used by researchers conducting comparative studies, and their completeness and accuracy is important for evolution and systematics.A representative sample (N=132) of specimens allocated to Perodicticus, representing the entire known geographic range of the genus, was examined and described by dentition, cranium, post-cranium, and pelage. Measurements were taken with sliding calipers, and tape and non-metric descriptions are supported by photographs. The descriptions (observed values) were then compared to summaries of distinguishing and diagnostic descriptive traits received from previous taxonomies (expected values).Specimens were found that were highly congruent with traditional descriptions of the taxa Perodicticus potto edwardsi, Perodicticus potto ibeanus, and Perodicticus potto potto. A single specimen was found that matches the expected description for Perodicticus potto faustus, which is not taken as support for reviving that taxon out of its synonymy with Perodicticus potto edwardsi. Specimens were found that partially resemble the descriptions for Perodicticus potto ju-ju and have been tentatively identified as such. Previously undescribed features present in the population assigned to the genus Perodicticus have also been found, including a bowed fin on the mesial margin of the lower (caniniform) anterior premolar in most of the specimens conforming to the descriptions for P. p. ju-ju and P. p. potto

Naturalized Philosophy of Science with a Plurality of Methods

Naturalism implies unity of method-an application of the methods of science to the methodology of science itself and to value theory. Epistemological naturalists have tried to find a privileged discipline to be the methodological model of philosophy of science and epistemology. However, since science itself is not unitary, the use of one science as a model amounts to a reduction and distorts the philosophy of science just as badly as traditional philosophy of science distorted science, despite the fact that the central theme of naturalized philosophy of science is that methodology should be true to science as practiced. I argue that naturalized philosophy of science must apply a plurality of methods to epistemological issues