Archive for the ‘Classroom styles’ Category

In a recent study, researchers questioned whether class size reductions are worth the cost. (AP Images)

University of Georgia education professor Peter Smagorinsky wrote a piece in response to our discussion here a few weeks ago on a new study on class size. I am running his piece on the education page I assemble and edit for the AJC  each Monday, but here is a preview: (By the way, please send me submissions.  mdowney@ajc.com)

By Peter Smagorinsky

One of the debates surrounding public education centers on the question of whether or not size matters – in this case, class size.

A recent report from the Brookings Brown Center on Education Policy concludes that, compared to other investments in schools, reducing class size has a relatively low payoff.

The study found that large reductions – seven to 10 students – can improve student achievement, most notably in the early grades and for low-income students.  But increasing or decreasing enrollment by one or two students has little …

Continue reading Does class size matter? Don’t ask Bill Gates. Ask a teacher. »

SAVANNAH: At the summer conference of the Georgia School Boards Association this morning in this port city, noted education researcher Diane Ravitch lambasted most of the reforms du jour in education today, merit pay, value-added teacher evaluations, charter schools, vouchers and testing.

She cautioned the 600 attendees to look critically at reforms being led by the high tech sector and hedge fund managers “who don’t much about public schools. They don’t much about education and, sometimes, I think they don’t know much about children.”

The competitive model that they are pushing will not work because the goal of education is not to produce winners and losers, Ravitch said, but to give “every child our best effort.”

She urged the school board members to “Stand up for public education. Don’t let private entrepreneurs divide your community and turn your schools into profit centers. Don’t stand by and let politicians tear down a public institution that has been the foundation of …

Continue reading Diane Ravitch in Savannah: Don’t let reformers and politicians destroy public schools »

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has an op-ed in Politco in which he calls for greater flexibility for public schools, saying,”States, districts and schools need the freedom to implement high standards, strengthen the quality of their teachers and school leaders and embrace a more flexible, fair and focused system of accountability”

What’s interesting to me is that Duncan’s call for flexibility and freedom for schools echoes a movement in Georgia back in the late 90s. There were statewide hearings on how to improve Georgia schools, and one of the premises was giving more freedom to those schools that were doing well.

I don’t think it ever happened. Why are flexibility and freedom so hard to give schools? The concept is talked about all the time, but it doesn’t seem to happen very often. Is there a fundamental mistrust of school-level management?

Consider this 1999 AJC story about proposed changes for Georgia’s schools. Those of you in the trenches at that time can tell us …

Continue reading More talk about giving flexibility, freedom to schools. But does it ever happen? »

Summer school has long been viewed as punitive by kids watching friends go off to the pool. (AP Images)

On the list of edicts you never want to hear in childhood: “You need braces,” “Brussels sprouts for dinner,” and “Get ready for summer school.”

While most children come to see the merit in straight teeth and cruciferous vegetables, few ever look warmly at summer school. And why would they?

Summer school is still perceived as a punishment for failing to get it right during the regular school year.

Ensconced in a hot, stuffy room while their pals skateboard, jump in the pool or haunt the mall, students stuck in summer school see the classroom windows between them and freedom as thick and unyielding as prison walls.

But a quality summer learning program can play a role in closing the gap between low-income students and their middle-class peers, according to a new study released today by the RAND Corporation, “Making Summer Count: How Summer Programs Can Boost Student …

Continue reading Slowing the summer slide to lower academic achievement: Making summer school cool »

It was standing room only at a Senate committee hearing today on the fate of 16 charter schools approved by a state commission now deemed unconstitutional. (Phil Skinner/AJC)

I am sitting in a corner on the floor at the Senate hearing on the fate of 16 charter schools ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court because they were established by a state commission over the objections of local boards of education.

The hearing is packed with children in red shirts from Atlanta Heights Charter, one of the schools left in the limbo last month by the high court ruling. (The ruling was 4-3, and the court has been asked to reconsider its decision.)

State Sen. Fran Millar, chair of the Senate ed committee, is speaking now, giving the background on the situation and the options. Millar says he has talked to “people in Washington” about Race to the Top grant funds and whether they can be tapped to rescue these schools and assure them full funding.

“Unfortunately, Race to the Top …

Continue reading Blogging live from Senate committee: Any ideas on saving charters? »

After reading some of the comments from teachers about disruptive kids in their schools, one poster wrote: "After reading more of the posts, I think some of y’all need an EXORCIST to visit your schools." (AJC file)

When my oldest son was in elementary school, he came home with wild tales of a new boy who was turning desks and the class upside down. Other parents reported to me that their children were afraid of this child.

I had a hard time understanding how one little boy could create such pandemonium — until I met him one afternoon. Home on maternity leave with my newborn twins, I would walk them past the playground where we would sometimes run into my son’s class at recess. The double stroller always drew a crowd of children.

On this afternoon, the new boy pushed himself into the center of the throng,  grabbed hold of the stroller and tore off down the sidewalk. He was jostling the carriage so much that it nearly toppled. I was able to catch up to him and yank the stroller …

Continue reading When a child holds the class hostage to his outbursts »

Researchers raise questions about limited state dollars going to class size reductions rather than other, more effective reforms. (AP Images)

Parents like smaller classes. I was always delighted when my children had fewer than 20 in a high school class. (It did not happen too often.)

But are the costs of smaller classes worth it?

That’s an ongoing education debate and one taken up in a new policy paper from the Brookings Brown Center on Education Policy. The center’s Russ Whitehurst and Matthew Chingos reviewed the research on the impact of class size on student learning in light of the fervor in many states to lower class size.

From the center:

The authors identify only a few research studies that are of sufficient quality and relevance to have credence as a basis for legislative action. Some show a positive impact of class-size reduction on student achievement, others have mixed effects, and still others find no measurable difference in the performance of students in bigger …

Continue reading Do schools get enough bang for the buck from reducing class sizes? »

With all the comments on unschooling from the interview I did with the author of new book on the movement, I decided to post this ABC “Good Morning America” clip on “radical” unschoolers. This interview spurred a lot of comment from unschoolers.

Continue reading Here is interesting video on unschooling in the extreme »

Among the ever expanding lexicon of alternative education is the trend toward unschooling.

Unschooling might best be defined as homeschooling without the school. It eschews standardization of education in favor of customization. Unschoolers don’t turn their kitchen tables into de facto classrooms, piled high with math textbooks, reading lists and maps of Asia.

Among the unschooling rules in Clark Aldrich's new book: Outdoors beats indoors. (AJC file)

Instead, unschoolers let their children take the lead, allowing them to decide whether they want to study algebra or Civil War history. The children determine whether they prefer to spend a day or a month playing chess or building a catapult.

Unschoolers shun tests, homework and work sheets, believing that a day spent skipping rocks and running barefoot in a meadow yields more science exploration than growing a plant on a windowsill.

Often described as “natural learning” or “independent learning,” unschooling and its belief in …

Continue reading Unschooling: Homeschooling without the school »

One of the points that I try to stress here on the blog is that there are many success stories even in troubled school districts. Despite the overall attacks on public education, many kids, including my own, are getting a first-rate education in public systems.

Here is a good e-mail from an Atlanta parent making that point:

With her permission:

I’ve enjoyed reading your blog and news stories about our education system here and elsewhere.  However, I have noticed that there are very few positive stories listed about our local schools. I understand the massive problems plaguing our area, but it amazes me that there are great success stories out there.

Something that I am witnessing in Buckhead is a great resurgence in families that choose public over private education for middle and high school.

I don’t know if the schools are hesitant to tell their great stories for fear that there will be an outcry that white Buckhead once again has it better than other areas, but our …

Continue reading Leaving the “private school bubble of wealth, privilege and non-diversity” to return to APS »