SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Fun With Numbers

I don’t often repeat posts, but here’s a blast from the past that merits repetition. Click this link for a very cool game that provides a bit of math practice and also a bit of a shock if your arithmetic is correct. (If you can’t figure out how it works, send me an e-mail and I will enlighten you.) There are some other ingenious games on the site, and they all give practice in easy reading and arithmetic - or both. 

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PS October 4th

From the NY TImes:  “More U.S. school districts are using Singapore’s national method for teaching math. The approach features a slower pace and devotes more instructional time to fewer subjects—a technique that has been found to address students’ different learning needs and increase students’ understanding of concepts. Visual aids and hands-on learning are also key components of Singapore math, which is seen by some as striking a balance between traditional and reform approaches.”

The Moon and Stars of School Reform

No one can say it better than Jay Greene, and so I urge you to read his recent blog on school choice. In a nutshell, he says that even the “tiny, cramped, ridiculously overregulated and sabotaged-by-educators” school voucher programs in existence have achieved modest improvements - and that universal vouchers would deliver the moon and stars that voucher advocates promise. You don’t actually have to read all the way to the bottom of Jay’s posting, unless you want to get his opinion on “dirty, smelly, dopehead dropouts”.....

Charter School Wars

The latest addition to our lending library is Spin Cycle: How research is used in policy debates: The case of charter schools by Jeffrey R. Henig. The author is a professor who has studied and written about school choice issues for 20 years and is viewed as unbiased by researchers on both sides of the argument. His book examines how the debate became so polarized and, as well, lays out the bottom line of the evidence regarding charter schools. 

Here are the author's main conclusions regarding charter schools.

• There are some good charter schools and there are some bad charter schools.
• Overall, it does seem that charter school test scores are slightly lower than those of conventional public schools, but this does not necessarily mean that charter schools in general are failing to perform (because charter schools may attract weaker students).
• Poorly-performing charter schools do not necessarily lose customers.
• Whether overall and over time charter schools will become more innovative than conventional public schools remains to be seen.
• Parents are generally more satisfied with charter schools than with the schools they left behind and than parents who remain with conventional public schools.
• The jury is still out on the issue of whether charter schools spur local conventional schools to improve.

Here is an excerpt from the book (p. 219) that outlines how the left came to oppose charter schools - even though these schools stand to benefit disadvantaged children.

"Charter school research, as we have seen, was drawn into the swirling waters of a much broader battle between those who believe government ultimately is the protector of democracy and the public good, and those who believe it is the protector of privilege and the status quo. Most scientific issues do not set off this tripwire of partisan engagement, and research in such arenas tends to be less visible and less fraught. Moreover, I argue, it was not a foregone conclusion even that charter schools woudl take on such heavy political baggage. The definition of the charter schools initiative as market-based rather than an experiment in public sector decentralization was a consequence of political positioning by conservative strategists who sought to convert the popularity of charters into a leading issue for vouchers, a more radical privatization scheme. Those on the left might have successfully contested this way of framing the issue. Most decided instead to fight the battle in these terms, as market versus government. It was as a result of this framing that pro-charter came to be seen as equivalent to pro-privatization. It was as a result of this framing that supporters of democratic and efficiacious government were led to consider charter schooling a serious threat.

"Once issues are defined in ways that map onto existing partisan cleavages, the stakes in the battle are substantially raised. They are raised so high that proponents on both sides are tempted to believe that any admission of uncertainty, any recognition of contingency, will be exploited by an enemy they fear and mistrust. In the hothouse environment of ideological warfare, too, speed of response is seen to be of the essence; deliberation is a potentially fatal weakness if while your side studies, the other acts. Good science depends on these very things: uncertainty and contingency and taking one's time to draw conclusions. It is this tension - both real and perceived - between the rules of engagement in partisan politics and the rules of engagement in the scientific enterprise that is the axis along which the events and dilemmas recounted in this book take shape."

Homeschooling resources

Thank you Canadian Homeschooler for calling the SQE website one of their "cherished Canadian resources".   Homeschooling is a growing trend in Canada.  Homeschoolers range from those who have made a serious commitment do this full-time or who, more frequently, home-school their children on a part-time basis. 

SQE used to call this "school-proofing", which should not be confused with how progressive educators have used the term.  For us it means re-teaching or pre-teaching kids basic skills at home.  From the thousands of requests for Stairway to Reading and Stairway to Math we have received, we know parents (and a surprising number of teachers!) are looking for effective materials to help their children.  We continue to make our materials available free of charge to help parents and teachers in their struggle against whole language and fuzzy math that continue to pervade Canadian curricula. 

If readers get a chance, they might also like to take a peek at our other resources.