Theories of action for effecting education reform

While it is a considerable over-simplification, I have found it useful to think in terms of four theories of action that I believe dominate the education-reform arena today. I think that two of these theories have some promise. Two of them do not, but we will nevertheless surely continue to use them. In the real world, we commonly find more than one of these theories operating at the same time in a given place. It gets very complicated when you start mixing and matching and coming up with hybrids. On the other hand, that is the real world, and I think we are probably going to discover at the end of the day that a hybrid will work better than any one of these strategies taken alone.Education

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of A Leisure Education Curriculum On Deliquents\u27 Motivation, Knowledge, And Behavior Changes Related To Boredom

Adolescents today have more unsupervised and unstructured free time than ever before. Poor decisions by youth during periods of free time may lead to substance abuse, teen pregnancy and juvenile delinquency. The highest frequency of juvenile crime, a major social problem, occurs during the 2-4 hours following the end of the school day. Research has demonstrated the benefits of engaging adolecents in prosocial leisure activity. However, no research has studied the issues of free time and leisure education with a delinquent population. This paper documents the impact of a leisure education curriculum on a population of delinquent youth in a randomized experiment. The delinquent youths who received the leisure education reported higher intrinsic motivation and better use of free time. The delinquent youths also reported improved decision making related to their involvement in healthy, prosocial free time activities. Finally, the improvement in the delinquent youths\u27 motivation influenced a significant decrease in the delinquent youths\u27 proneness to boredom during their free time

Book Review: Public Dollars for Private Schools: The Case of Tuition Tax Credits. Edited by Thomas James and Henry M. Levin.

Book review: Public Dollars for Private Schools: The Case of Tuition Tax Credits. Edited by Thomas James and Henry M. Levin. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1983. Pp. viii, 271. Reviewed by: Chester E. Finn, Jr

Book Review: Public Dollars for Private Schools: The Case of Tuition Tax Credits. Edited by Thomas James and Henry M. Levin.

Book review: Public Dollars for Private Schools: The Case of Tuition Tax Credits. Edited by Thomas James and Henry M. Levin. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1983. Pp. viii, 271. Reviewed by: Chester E. Finn, Jr

ESEA Briefing Book

Political leaders hope to act soon to renew and fix the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, also known as No Child Left Behind). In this important paper, Thomas B. Fordham Institute President Chester E. Finn, Jr. and Executive Vice President Michael J. Petrilli identify 10 big issues that must be resolved in order to get a bill across the finish line, and explore the major options under consideration for each one. Should states be required to adopt academic standards tied to college and career readiness? Should the new law provide greater flexibility to states and districts? These are just a few of the areas discussed. Finn and Petrilli also present their own bold yet "reform realist" solutions for ESEA

Halpha-Derived Star-Formation Rates For Three z ~ 0.75 EDisCS Galaxy Clusters

We present Halpha-derived star-formation rates (SFRs) for three z ~ 0.75 galaxy clusters. Our 1 sigma flux limit corresponds to a star-formation rate of 0.10-0.24 solar mass per year, and our minimum reliable Halpha + [N II] rest-frame equivalent width is 10\AA. We show that Halpha narrowband imaging is an efficient method for measuring star formation in distant clusters. In two out of three clusters, we find that the fraction of star-forming galaxies increases with projected distance from the cluster center. We also find that the fraction of star-forming galaxies decreases with increasing local galaxy surface density in the same two clusters. We compare the median rate of star formation among star-forming cluster galaxies to a small sample of star-forming field galaxies from the literature and find that the median cluster SFRs are \~50% less than the median field SFR. We characterize cluster evolution in terms of the mass-normalized integrated cluster SFR and find that the z ~ 0.75 clusters have more SFR per cluster mass on average than the z <= 0.4 clusters from the literature. The interpretation of this result is complicated by the dependence of the mass-normalized SFR on cluster mass and the lack of sufficient overlap in the mass ranges covered by the low and high redshift samples. We find that the fraction and luminosities of the brightest starburst galaxies at z ~ 0.75 are consistent with their being progenitors of the post-starburst galaxies at z ~ 0.45 if the post-starburst phase lasts several (~5) times longer than the starburst phase.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 20 pages, 24 figure