Academic achievement in American cities: Comparsion of public compregensive, public magnet, Catholic, and non-religious private high schools

Problems with our public urban high schools are intensifying, and many see magnet schools and private schools as the answer. But are those schools really better at increasing the academic skills of students? Using the National Educational Longitudinal Survey, the author estimates the effect of attending a magnet school, Catholic School, or secular private school on the achievement of urban students in math, reading, science, and social studies; he compares these estimates to the achievement of students who attend comprehensive public high schools. He finds that magnet schools are more effective than regular schools at raising the proficiency of students in science, reading, and social studies; Catholic schools have a positive impact on math skills, while secular private schools do not offer any advantage, net of preexisting differences among students. Further analyses test the sensitivity of the results to assumptions about independence and selectivity; these show support for the magnet school advantages in reading and social studies, but raise doubts about the Catholic school effects in math and the magnet school effects in science.

Effects of Nonmaternal Child Care on Inequality in Cognitive Skills

As a result of changing welfare policies, large numbers of children of poor, uneducated mothersare likely to receive care from others as their mothers enter the workforce. How will this change affect inequality in cognitive skills among young children? One view suggests that inequality will expand because children from economically advantaged families have access to better child care, and families with well-educated parents are more likely to reinforce the cognitive benefits of care. Another view argues that inequality will diminish because even though child care may be unequal, it may be less unequal than the home environments that are supplanted by nonmaternal care. A third view suggests that because the effects of care are inconsistent, there will be little overall change in inequality. Analysis of the children of mothers in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth provides tentative evidence in support of the first view, that nonmaternal care tends to magnify inequality. Although ordinary least squares regressions reveal no effects of child care, fixed-effects models that control for differences between families indicate that children of high-income, well-educated mothers benefit from center-based care, but children of low-income, poorly educated mothers suffer a cognitive disadvantage from attending day care centers. Home-based care, however, is not associated with cognitive performance. Results from nonparametric analyses are consistent with the findings from fixed-effects models. The key results rely mainly on a relatively small sample of about 700 children in 300 families that sent their children to different types of care, and they do not pertain to families with only one child, so caution is warranted in generalizing the findings.

Upgrading High School Math: A Look at Three Transition Courses

This issue of CPRE Policy Briefs focuses on the nature of instruction in transition math courses, the consequences of student placement in the new transition courses, and the linkages among course type, course content, and student achievement. The findings presented here are based on both qualitative and quantitative data gathered from seven high school across four districts in two states. We studied transition math courses in seven high schools in San Diego and San Francisco in California and in Buffalo and Rochester in New York. We chose schools that had high percentages of minority and low-income students, because the problem of dead-end classes for low-achieving students is most sever in such schools. The transition math courses were initiated as early as 10 years ago in Rochester, New York schools, and 3 to 5 years ago in California schools

Diseño de un Instrumento para Evaluar el Valor Social Subjetivo de la Educación en Estudiantes, Docentes y Familias: Resultados de un Ensayo Piloto

Encontramos multitud de estudios sobre el diseño y validación de instrumentos de evaluación sobre variables socio-afectivas complejas. En estos casos ha sido evidente que un desarrollo sistemático de estandarización ha mejorado las propiedades métricas y su adecuación. Por ello planteamos algunos resultados previos sobre un estudio piloto para la construcción de un instrumento que evalúe el Valor Social Subjetivo de la Educación en tres audiencias (estudiantes, profesorado y familias). En este caso se presentan las propiedades métricas encontradas y las diferencias entre grupos con 131 estudiantes, 28 docentes y 36 familiares. En general los datos son adecuados en las tres escalas implementadas, sin embargo se encuentran nuevas líneas de indagación. Como conclusión se reflexiona sobre la necesidad de asegurar la fiabilidad y la validez de la escala para poder mejorar la investigación

School life on the margins: Slovak Roma pupils negotiating education

Building on the work of Chris Searle in this journal, the author draws on an ethnographic study of a Sheffield school to examine the experiences of Slovak Roma children in the first year of secondary school as they negotiate prevailing English-only language ideologies and complex curriculum challenges and attempt to fit into an educational framework that is trying to adapt to the forces of migration and super-diversity. Struggling to engage academically, pupils are banished to the bottom sets where they are fed a watered-down curriculum. It is argued that the Roma pupils in this situation are in the exclusionary ‘anteroom’; unable to rise through the academic system, weighed down by lack of English language, an alien culture, non- white skin colour and the lack of various forms of capital prized by schools, the next logical step for many is temporary or permanent exclusion. This article sheds light on those pupils at the bottom of the heap for whom chances are curtailed, and adds to debates about xeno-racism, exclusion and class- biased pedagogies

Secondary school pupils' preferences for different types of structured grouping practices

The aim of this paper is to explore pupils’ preferences for particular types of grouping practices an area neglected in earlier research focusing on the personal and social outcomes of ability grouping. The sample comprised over 5,000 year 9 pupils (aged 13-14 years) in 45 mixed secondary comprehensive schools in England. The schools represented three levels of ability grouping in the lower school (years 7 to 9). Pupils responded to a questionnaire which explored the types of grouping that they preferred and the reasons for their choices. The majority of pupils preferred setting, although this was mediated by their set placement, type of school, socio-economic status and gender. The key reason given for this preference was that it enabled work to be matched to learning needs. The paper considers whether there are other ways of achieving this avoiding the negative social and personal outcomes of setting for some pupils

Deweyan tools for inquiry and the epistemological context of critical pedagogy

This article develops the notion of resistance as articulated in the literature of critical pedagogy as being both culturally sponsored and cognitively manifested. To do so, the authors draw upon John Dewey\u27s conception of tools for inquiry. Dewey provides a way to conceptualize student resistance not as a form of willful disputation, but instead as a function of socialization into cultural models of thought that actively truncate inquiry. In other words, resistance can be construed as the cognitive and emotive dimensions of the ongoing failure of institutions to provide ideas that help individuals both recognize social problems and imagine possible solutions. Focusing on Dewey\u27s epistemological framework, specifically tools for inquiry, provides a way to grasp this problem. It also affords some innovative solutions; for instance, it helps conceive of possible links between the regular curriculum and the study of specific social justice issues, a relationship that is often under-examined. The aims of critical pedagogy depend upon students developing dexterity with the conceptual tools they use to make meaning of the evidence they confront; these are background skills that the regular curriculum can be made to serve even outside social justice-focused curricula. Furthermore, the article concludes that because such inquiry involves the exploration and potential revision of students\u27 world-ordering beliefs, developing flexibility in how one thinks may be better achieved within academic subjects and topics that are not so intimately connected to students\u27 current social lives, especially where students may be directly implicated