School Effectiveness Toolkit

Research has identified certain key characteristics that allow schools to succeed. These characteristics are the focus of this toolkit. This toolkit is designed to provide Jamaican school leaders with information, strategies and resources to help improve their schools. It discusses what makes a school effective, identifies effective practices from Jamaican classrooms, and provides resources and guidelines to help school leaders adapt and adopt these practices to improve student outcomes in schools across the island. We know that, depending on their resources and needs, schools will make their own adaptations to the suggested approaches to building effectiveness features, but we reaffirm the importance of each of the featured characteristics in this toolkit in developing successful schools

Health risk behaviours among adolescents in the English-speaking Caribbean: a review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this paper was to review and summarize research on prevalence of health risk behaviours, their outcomes as well as risk and protective factors among adolescents in the English-speaking Caribbean.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Searching of online databases and the World Wide Web as well as hand searching of the <it>West Indian Medical Journal </it>were conducted. Papers on research done on adolescents aged 10 – 19 years old and published during the period 1980 – 2005 were included.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Ninety-five relevant papers were located. Five papers were published in the 1980s, 47 in the 1990s, and from 2000–2005, 43 papers. Health risk behaviours and outcomes were divided into seven themes. Prevalence data obtained for these, included lifetime prevalence of <b>substance use</b>: cigarettes-24% and marijuana-17%; <b>high risk sexual behaviour</b>: initiation of sexual activity ≤ 10 years old-19% and those having more than six partners-19%; <b>teenage pregnancy</b>: teens account for 15–20% of all pregnancies and one-fifth of these teens were in their second pregnancy; <b>Sexually-Transmitted Infections (STIs)</b>: population prevalence of gonorrhoea and/or chlamydia in 18–21 year-olds was 26%; <b>mental health</b>: severe depression in the adolescent age group was 9%, and attempted suicide-12%; <b>violence and juvenile delinquency</b>: carrying a weapon to school in the last 30 days-10% and almost always wanting to kill or injure someone-5%; <b>eating disorders and obesity</b>: overweight-11%, and obesity-7%. Many of the risk behaviours in adolescents were shown to be related to the adolescent's family of origin, home environment and parent-child relationships. Also, the protective effects of family and school connectedness as well as increased religiosity noted in studies from the United States were also applicable in the Caribbean.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There is a substantial body of literature on Caribbean adolescents documenting prevalence and correlates of health risk behaviours. Future research should emphasize the designing and testing of interventions to alleviate this burden.</p

Intensive training course on school mapping and microplanning, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Nov. 21 - Dec. 2, 1983 : report

Meeting: Regional Workshop on Microplanning of Education, 21 Nov.-2 Dec. 1983, Ocho Rios, J

What is a principal's quality mark? Issues and challenges in leadership progression among primary teachers in Jamaica

Perceptions about teacher progression among Jamaica's primary school teachers should force society to stop and ask itself several questions. Are these perceptions accurate? If not, how did these perceptions emerge and what can national leaders and those in positions of authority do to ‘manage’ if not resolve these perceptions? If there is any truth to them, a different set of questions needs to be asked. How did things come to be like this? How can the perception of corruption and mistrust be minimised? What will be done differently going forward? Either way, there is a more fundamental question: Do the current perceptions among teachers mirror perceptions in other areas of the public service? The answers to these questions are not easy. The findings being reported in this article form part of a small-scale qualitative exploratory study aimed at identifying and understanding the perceptions of primary school teachers in Jamaica as regards progression to the rank of principal. The findings point to a number of perceived barriers including religious affiliation, political affiliation, interference, and social connections. This article proposes that promotion on any basis other than merit is problematic and does not promote trust, openness and transparency; nor does it build confidence in those who are part of the system, but themselves do not have such connections and/or affiliations

Regional conference of the directors of rural youth and home economics programmes of the countries of the Caribbean area: Barbados, Guyana, Haití, Jamaica and U.S.A

218 p. Reports from conferences, courses and meetings no. 173.En 1977, la OEA en su reunión en St. Georges, Crenada, aprobó la resolución 279 declarando 1978 Año de la Juventud Rural Interamericana. Para la organización de los programas del año, se asignó la responsabilidad al Instituto Interamericano de Ciencias Agrícolas (IICA), ubicado en San José, Costa Rica, y al Sr. Jaime Cusicanqui, Secretario Ejecutivo de los Programas para la Juventud Rural, dada la trabajo. Se convocó una conferencia de representantes de América Latina y el Caribe en San José, Costa Rica, del 12 al 16 de diciembre de 1977, para planificar los detalles de los programas. In 1977, the OAS at its setting in St. Georges, Crenada, passed resolution 279 declaring 1978 aa Inter-American Rural Youth Year. To organize the programmes of the year, the Inter-American Institute of Agricultural Sciences (IICA), located in San Jose, Costa Rica, vas assigned the responsibility and Mr. Jaime Cusicanqui, the Executive Secretary of the Programes for rural youth, given the job. A conference of representatives from Latin American and the Caribbean was convened in San Jose, Costa Rica, December 12-16, 1977, to plan the details of the programmes