Free Public Schools Research Articles

Digital learning: Differentiated teaching models using ICTS in Greek context – good practices: “I learn Europe through its cultural tradition: Traditional gastronomy products and traditional games Alanas"

It is supported by modern pedagogy for individuals with special needs to be included in regular classroom settings. A free public school is accessible to everyone. A nation's cultural traditions evolve and are largely preserved through intergenerational learning, or the transfer of information from one generation to the next. The use of new technologies in education can help achieve this goal by converting traditional instruction into differentiated instruction that adjusts to the unique needs, skills, interests, and experiences of each student. This creates learning environments where students can approach the material at their own pace and convenience. This project offers an example of customized instruction within a cultural heritage project.

The Philippines’ History Curriculum: Origins and Repercussions

The Philippines, a twice-colonised nation, has an educational system heavily influenced by its formercolonisers, Spain and the United States. Spanish occupation introduced compulsory elementary education,albeit with restrictions based on social class and gender, and established Spanish as the language of the elite.In contrast, American occupation revolutionised the education system by creating a free public school systemwith English as the medium of instruction. This shift led to the propagation of American ideals andsubversion of separatist tendencies. The study of history, despite its importance in understanding a nation'sculture and colonial struggles, is often not prioritised in the education system of the Philippines. Thecountry's linguistic diversity, with an estimated 170 distinct languages, has been impacted by theLatinisation of indigenous scripts during Spanish occupation and the widespread use of English in schoolsduring the American period. The Philippines' education system continues to evolve owing to its dynamicdemographic and political atmosphere, with the efficacy of the system often called into question due toadministrative oversight, infrastructural deficiencies, and pervasive corruption. Reforming the current flawsrequires a fundamental understanding of the underlying structure of the system and the importance of properhistorical education in the development of a nation.

Crude oil cycles and the choice of private vs public school: Evidence from Saudi Arabia

We show how in Saudi Arabia, a country that relies heavily on crude oil exports, negative shocks in crude oil prices significantly impact households’ decisions to invest in education. Our findings reveal that the downturn in the oil market, which began in the second half of 2014, led parents to refrain from sending their children to tuition-based private schools. In some cases, they even withdrew their children from such schools and enrolled them in free public schools, despite perceiving lower education quality in the public sector. The influence of the oil downturn on private school enrollments varied depending on the type of school. In national private schools, which follow the national curriculum, the growth rate of Saudi students decreased from 6 percent prior to the shock to -3.8 percent in the academic year of 2018. Conversely, in international private schools, which offer international curricula and tend to charge higher fees, the growth rate declined from 40 percent before the shock to 23.8 percent in the academic year of 2017. Furthermore, our study reveals that the recovery rate of national private schools, following the rebound in oil prices, exhibited significant variation across cities, genders, and educational levels. This heterogeneity highlights the diverse impact of the oil downturn shock.

Exploring the Difference in Academic Performance Determinants between Public and Private Junior High Schools

Despite improvements in basic education accessibility in public schools throughout time, there are worries regarding the lower Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) performance of students in public schools when compared with the performances of private schools. The current study sought to establish if there is, the differences in academic performance indicators between private and public junior high schools (JHS). The study focused on the Effutu Municipality following the establishment of the lower performance of public JHS students in literature. The study employed a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional survey design to sample JHS teachers in the Municipality. The study used a questionnaire to collect data from a sample of 385 teachers who were chosen by quota sampling. Teacher professional practice (TP), schools’ resource endowment (SR), instructional supervision (IS), school time usage (ST), teacher motivation (TM), and parental support (PS) were considered as the determinants of academic performance in the study. It was revealed that private schools scored higher in terms of the indicators of academic performance, except for ST where equal variances were established for either school type. Statistically significant differences between established with the Mann-Whitney U test were found for all indicators except as well for ST. the study recommends that there should be efforts to boost-motivate public Junior High Schools teachers, and also consider subsidization over free public schools to generate funding for school resourcing.

A Tale of Two Catechisms: Education, Generational Conflict, and Geographical Division in Nineteenth-Century American Judaism

A Tale of Two Catechisms:Education, Generational Conflict, and Geographical Division in Nineteenth-Century American Judaism Laura Yares (bio) In the second issue of his English-language newspaper The Israelite, published in July 1854, Isaac Mayer Wise offered his appraisal of the current state of American Jewish education in an editorial column acerbically titled "What Should Be Done?"1 He had been in the United States for just eight years, but with characteristic belligerence Wise showed no hesitation in decrying what he deemed the "pitiable deficiencies" of the American Jewish educational scene. He admitted that he was no admirer of the Jewish Sunday school, pioneered by Rebecca Gratz in 1838 and replicated in Jewish communities across the country. As an institution of Jewish learning, he complained, it was superficial in scope, hardly capable of offering the intense training in Hebrew language and literature that he deemed necessary for the education of American Jewish children. Such educational curricula, he argued, required instruction by educators trained in the Jewish textual canon, as Wise himself had been.2 Yet he retained his principal animus for catechisms, short question-answer primers that were popularly used in Sunday schools to teach the basics of Jewish religion through rote memorization. "It appears to us," he opined, "that catechisms were written in imitation of Christian schools, for the purpose of giving to the pupil who does not study the Bible a superficial knowledge of his creed as the author understands it." Wise's appraisal was not inaccurate. In most Jewish Sunday schools, students were drilled in catechisms rather than required to study the Torah in Hebrew. Memorizing catechetical questions and answers offered an expedient means to instill a basic understanding of Jewish religion in the [End Page 283] few hours that classes convened each week. Few mid-nineteenth-century American Jewish parents were interested in pursuing more intensive Jewish education for their children, particularly as free public schools opened across the country. Rote memorization of catechisms was the dominant pedagogy used in American Jewish Sunday schools throughout the nineteenth century. Wise may have been idealistic when it came to Jewish learning, and indeed nostalgic for his own Jewish education in Europe, but he was also pragmatic.3 Within a few years, as he carved out a leadership role within the emergent American Jewish Reform movement, Wise would not only become a supporter of the Jewish Sunday school but would also author a catechism that would become one of the most popular texts used in American Jewish schools for decades. This article explores Wise's embrace of catechisms as an educational technology and his attempts to standardize catechetical instruction to advance his platform of American Jewish unity based on moderate reform. His efforts would be thwarted by a new generation of Reform rabbis at the end of the nineteenth century who would challenge not only Wise's moderate approach to Reform Judaism but also the ideological monopoly of American Jewish thought by a self-appointed leadership class based in Cincinnati. In most historical surveys of American Jewish education, catechisms have been dismissed as overtly Christian incursions on Jewish pedagogy, representative of the assimilationist approach to Jewish education characteristic of the nineteenth-century Sunday school movement.4 This article argues that, while nineteenth-century catechisms may not offer paradigms for Jewish pedagogy, as sources of print media they transcended the classrooms of American Jewish Sunday schools and served as a conduit for ideological, geographical, and generational power struggles in American Judaism writ large. [End Page 284] CATECHISMS IN AMERICAN JEWISH EDUCATION As a genre of introductory Jewish theological writing, catechisms can be situated within a long tradition of synthesizing Judaism for popular consumption. From Maimonides's Mishneh Torah to Joseph Albo's Sefer ha-ʿiqqarim, primers and codes have offered guides to Jewish theology and outlined the demarcations between Judaism and other systems of religious thought.5 As a specific print medium within this broader tradition, however, Jewish catechisms are a particular product of modernity.6 Typically short texts presented in the form of question and answer, Jewish catechisms offered concise explanations of Jewish thought, and were believed to constitute an effective pedagogical tool to convey the essentials of...

Resist and advance in public education: contributions of historical-critical pedagogy

The study stems from the analysis of the 2016 Legal-Media-Parliamentary Coup that triggered a sharp crisis, mainly in the educational field. In view of this situation, it establishes dialogues with a counter-hegemonic pedagogical tendency: the Historical-Critical Pedagogy (PHC), proposing to answer what have been the contributions of the PHC to thinking about the public school in the context of crisis in Brazilian education. Through bibliographic research, the results indicate that, under a context of dismantling and vulnerabilities, the PHC is incorporated in educational debates and practices as an instrument of humanization, defending free public schools, omnilateral training, class struggle and the construction of an emancipatory praxis. As a pedagogical theory, PHC represents a fresh start in the face of the contestation of decontextualized curricula and processes, indicating the integration of individual/collective knowledge and universal knowledge, a movement conducive to the formation of articulated individuals in favor of social transformation.

Private (institutional) schools: bridging social gaps in urban cities in Nepal?

The interest of parents in the urban cities in Nepal is tending towards enrolling their children in paid private (institutional) schools, rather than free public schools. This paper aimed at exploring the reasons behind growing craziness of the parents towards the private education system in Nepal. We adopted a critical paradigm, case study approach using in-depth interviews, and observation techniques to gather field information. This study has signaled that institutional schools are facilitating to homogenize the education system between haves and have nots groups in society. Different categories of private education systems, with accountable management team have facilitated in bridging the social gaps in Nepal. At the same time, public schools urgently need to revisit their management model, pedagogical system, and publicize their services and strengths, so that they could regain their trust from the urban parents. The explorations of this research could be helpful to outline the positive aspects of private schools and buildup the public education system along in Nepal.

Mathematical Performance of American Youth: Diminished Returns of Educational Attainment of Asian-American Parents

The Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDR) phenomenon refers to the weaker effects of parental educational attainment for marginalized groups, particularly ethnic minorities. This literature, however, is limited to Blacks and Hispanics; thus, it is not clear if the MDR phenomenon also applies to the educational performance of Asian Americans or not. To explore ethnic differences in the association between parental educational attainment and youth mathematical performance among 10th-grade American high schoolers, this cross-sectional study used baseline data from the Education Longitudinal Study, a national survey of 10th-grade American youth. The analytical sample included a total number of 10,142 youth composed of 1460 (14.4%) Asian-American and 8682 (85.6%) non-Hispanic youth. The dependent variable was youth math performance (standard test score). The independent variable was parental education. Gender, both parents living in the same household, and school characteristics (% students receiving free lunch, urban school, and public school) were the covariates. Ethnicity was the moderating variable. Linear regression was used for data analysis. Overall, parental educational attainment was positively associated with math ability (test score). We observed a statistically significant interaction between ethnicity (Asian American) and parental education attainment on the results of math test scores, indicating that the boosting effect of high parental educational attainment on youth math function is smaller for Asian-American youth than for Non-Hispanic White youth. While high parental educational attainment contributes to youth educational outcomes, this association is weaker for Asian-American youth than non-Hispanic White youth. Diminished returns (weaker effects of parental education in generating outcomes for ethnic minorities) that are previously shown for Hispanics and Blacks also apply to Asian Americans.

Educação Básica em “xeque”: Homeschooling e fundamentalismo religioso em tempos de neoconservadorismo

This article aims to understand how fundamentalist religious perspectives threaten the concept of Basic Education and, therefore, call into question the ideal of free, compulsory and secular public school, through the defense and regulation of homeschooling in Brazil. The qualitative study of bibliographic and documentary type is transversalized by contributions coming from the epistemological fields of the Sciences of Religion and Education, in order to highlight the ideological strategies undertaken by a religious-fundamentalist and neoconservative activism against rights-related themes, social rights, human rights and school secularity. The analysis indicates that home-based education is rooted in fundamentalist religious values, supported and strengthened by political parties, institutions and religious leaders aligned with the neoconservative movement that is now spreading internationally; and that a possible regulation of homeschooling will jeopardize the subjective public right to Basic Education, this right is ensured after decades of collective struggle for a free, compulsory, equal, inclusive and secular school. Keywords:  Basic Education. Homeschooling. Religious fundamentalism. Neoconservatism.

Speaking cooperation, acting competition: Supply-side subsidies and private schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts in Buenos Aires

Few studies have explored how schools respond to competition in socially embedded education quasi-markets. This study focuses on how state-subsidized privately-run low-fee schools (S-LFPSs) compete with free public schools in some of the poorest neighborhoods of the City of Buenos Aires. In particular, we explore how S-LFPSs follow different logics of action to attract (and shape) enrollment profiting from their extended autonomy and some regulatory gaps. We applied discourse analysis on data from eight months of ethnographic case study research in nine S-LFPSs. Student selection and operational changes (e.g., increasing the student/teacher ratio) prevail over academic and curricular changes. Selection is operated by means of aptitude tests and screening interviews, and other symbolic artifacts aimed at signaling differences with state-run schools and the potential fit between schools and families. We present a heuristic typology of the different logics of action systematizing the schools’ responses as their leading orientations toward the competitive environment. We suggest that policy inconsistencies and deficient governmental oversight tilt the field against state-run schools. Rather than ensuring equality of educational opportunity, the policy contributes to shape and deepen a highly segregated and inequitable educational landscape.

“The Most Just of All Educational Legislation”: Provision of Free Textbooks in the Province of Ontario, 1846–1967

It took the province of Ontario from the establishment of its free public school system in 1846 to 1951 to extend the principle of equality of educational opportunity to the provision of free textbooks for all elementary students. It took another fourteen years to apply the principle to students in grades 9–12. This study explores the sporadic and partial steps taken towards that decision over time. It concludes that the prime reason for the late implementation of the policy was Ontario’s employment of what was called “permissive legislation,” which gave school districts the autonomy to decide whether to institute the policy. In all other provinces, once the decision was made at the level of the Department of Education, it applied across all districts and was implemented immediately. The study examines the province of Ontario in the context of other provinces.

Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America by Johann N. Neem

Reviewed by: Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America by Johann N. Neem Stephen Lassonde Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America. By Johann N. Neem. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017. xiii + 240 pp. Cloth $54.95, paper $22.95. The book that will come to mind for most readers of Democracy’s Schools is Carl Kaestle’s now-classic Pillars of the Republic. It covers the same period as Democracy’s Schools, but Johann Neem’s emphases differ. Both books address the contest between local control of schools and centralized schooling (what Kaestle dubbed “cosmopolitanism”); both explore the infinite variety in early schooling and the rise of the common school (precursor to tax-supported, free public schools); and both describe the undercurrents, and underbelly, of the nativist streak that has reverberated in American life since the decades of the common schools’ expansion. Both attest to the eventual triumph of pluralism and the wisdom of confident assimilationism. But whereas Kaestle brings down the curtain on the first half of Pillars with the brilliant chapter in which he explains the peculiar and (in my view) almost inexplicable success of “schooling for all” in terms of the “ideology” of native Protestantism, Neem’s inclination is to look at local politics to explain the reluctant capitulation of localism to the centripetal inevitability of cosmopolitanism. Democracy’s Schools springs from Neem’s conviction that historians of the last generation were so engulfed by the “culture wars” of post-1960s debates in education history that they too often lost sight of the big picture. Concerns about whether public schooling primarily served the interests of the ruling elite, by creating a vast mechanism of social control in the guise of public interest, obscured important philosophical issues, he urges, such as efforts to assert civic values and the liberal arts over homegrown values and the desire of local taxpayers to bolster community interests and local custom. One wonders, though, what impelled Neem to retrace terrain already rendered so ably and in such intimate detail by some of the most notable scholars who have ever turned their minds to the history of education, such as Lawrence Cremin, Maris Vinovskis, and Carl Kaestle? The answer may lie in what is so conspicuously downplayed in Neem’s narrative: the recognition that schooling is a mechanism fundamental to preparing young people for economic competition as adults. Given how central this aim is today—how intimately connected schooling is to future employment—one might expect more illumination here than Neem provides. [End Page 151] But Neem’s is a purposeful omission, for one of his objects in highlighting the basic goals of citizenship and broad exposure to the liberal arts is precisely to make us set aside the more economic, utilitarian aspects of schooling in favor of virtues that have withered in an economy with so little use for young adults lacking a high school diploma. Neem’s contributions are four: He identifies social capital as an attribute of schooling appreciated by early advocates of public education, a concept he employed effectively in his first book, A Nation of Joiners (and elsewhere). In the most illuminating portion of Democracy’s Schools (chapters 1 and 2), he discusses the many ways that Americans of the early republic, especially in their promotion of public education, stressed the importance of “self culture.” He offers a highly readable analysis of issues particular to the rise of public education during the first half of the nineteenth century in light of contemporaneous political and social changes. And finally, he provides a useful guide to the historiography produced after the publication of Kaestle’s Pillars on this important era in the history of education. Newcomers to the history of education in the United States are understandably energized by contemporary issues such as the role of schooling in perpetuating racial inequality, the extreme social stratification of access to good schooling, and the continued disenchantment of the American public with public education. Against these concerns, the retelling of “origins stories” like Democracy’s Schools may be greeted by the rising generation of education historians with tepidity. There are echoes in Neem’s account...

Introduction: The Future of Scholarly Knowledge in the Humanities

IntroductionThe Future of Scholarly Knowledge in the Humanities James Miller (bio) it seems fitting that david bromwich kicked off the new school's two-day conference on "The Future of Scholarly Knowledge." A quarter-century ago, Bromwich helped shape our ongoing conversations about the future of the academy by publishing Politics by Other Means: Higher Education and Group Thinking, a polemic of rare eloquence. Then as now, Bromwich himself defies stereotyping: he champions the idea of tradition, but he's an open-minded pluralist whose heroes range from Burke and Hume to Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill. And he writes a plain prose that exemplifies the pleasures of demotic English in the hands of a scholar who knows how to wear his learning lightly. As Bromwich's keynote paper for the conference makes plain, the terms of his critique remain largely unaltered: today, as he did 25 years ago, he deplores how young scholars are advised "to aim at corporate approval, at the sacrifice of the difficult thing that intellectual self-knowledge may be. There has never been a more desolate title of a scholarly essay than 'The Way We Think Now.'" That is true enough, even though the late Clifford Geertz, who wrote the classic essay of that title, was jaunty, even insouciant, while contemplating the barbarians inside the academy's gates, quite unlike Bromwich, whose lamentations are keen. In his opening remarks, Bromwich directed our attention to two different forces that he believes darken the prospects for free inquiry in the contemporary academy: the growing influence of learning [End Page 557] assessment experts who demand that scholarship and teaching undergo a kind of cost-benefit accounting to demonstrate their utility to students; and the countervailing influence of the intellectual fashionistas of the academic left, who beat the drum of "social justice" in an effort to secure "safe spaces" for individuals belonging to previously marginalized and oppressed groups. As Bromwich puts it, the most militant proponents of social justice on campuses "have discouraged the inquisitive instincts that nourish education quite as effectually as the funding giants who demand to know the cash value of every course a student might take." Even worse, "the branch of the humanities that has gone furthest to make a fetish of 'resistance' and 'transgression' has itself sponsored protocols of intellectual conformity as thoroughly routinized as any in academic history." The three panelists who convened the day after Bromwich's keynote to discuss the challenges to scholarly knowledge in the humanities were a diverse group, including Daniel Kevles, a historian of science; Rosalind Morris, an anthropologist with a strong interest in the humanities; and Akeel Bilgrami, a multifaceted philosopher from an analytic background. In his paper, Daniel Kevles issued a salutary reminder that the pursuit of useful results in applied research sometimes fosters progress in fundamental knowledge in the sciences—it would be too glib simply to denounce all forms of instrumental inquiry. The American land grant research universities that sprang up in the nineteenth century were built, in part, on the promise that they would produce advances in knowledge that would prove useful to society as a whole. I would add that it is also worth recalling how Enlightenment proponents of universal education, such as Condorcet, hoped that the spread of free public schools would be instrumental in fostering "real equality, the final end of the social art," by enabling all citizens to "have the knowledge necessary to conduct himself in the ordinary affairs of life, according to the light of his own reason, to preserve his mind free from prejudice, to understand his rights and to exercise [End Page 558] them in accordance with his conscience and his creed" (Condorcet [1794] 2012, 126). Rosalind Morris, in sharp contrast to Kevles, issued a sweeping denunciation of the instrumental focus of the "corporate university"—and she clearly received Bromwich's keynote address as the provocation he intended. At one point in her spoken remarks, she made plain her core disagreement with him: deploring his lack of sympathy for students seeking safe spaces, she declared that "the problem is that there should be an aspiration for an imagination of the place of the other."1...

English

This study aims to study households’ expectations for their children’s academic performance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Education has a significant role in increasing the productivity and income level of an individual in a society. Household education, income, distance from school, gender discrimination within household and cost of education can affect parents’ expectations of their children. The present study aims to understand why households in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan do not send their children to school, when free and compulsory public schools are available. A two stage Propensity Score Matching approach was applied in the study. Data were estimated through two stages Propensity Score Method. The first stage consists of probability model, used to estimate the propensity score of the characteristics of household. In the second stage, each household group was matched to predict households with similar propensity score values. Literacy rate had a negative effect on the completion of school for household members under 20 years. This means that most school graduates are unable to even read and understand. This is due to dynamic causes, like untrained teachers, lack of facilities, old syllabus, and poor quality education and socio-economic background of the household. But the main delinquency is the failure of educational policies attributed to inadequate economic structure and political instability since the existence of Pakistan. Pakistan government and policy makers need to take initiatives to improve the socio-economic condition of the individuals in the province, and also to give awareness about the importance of education in the region. Further investigation is needed to know the effect of other heterogeneous treatment. Key words: School completion, propensity score matching, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450–1650. By Carlos M. N. Eire (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2016) 893 pp. $40.00

<i>Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450–1650</i>. By Carlos M. N. Eire (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2016) 893 pp. $40.00

The Education and Employment Effects of DACA, In-State Tuition and Financial Aid for Undocumented Immigrants

Many undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. as children. Undocumented immigrant children have a legal right to attend free public primary and secondary schools. However, in most states undocumented immigrants are treated as out-of-state students in public colleges and universities, and are therefore required to pay substantially higher tuition than other state residents. Since 2001, 21 of 50 U.S. states have implemented policies that allow undocumented immigrants to qualify for in-state resident tuition (ISRT) at public colleges and universities. In 12 of these states undocumented immigrants are also eligible for financial aid. In this study we present strong evidence that both ISRT policies and access to financial aid significantly increase the college enrollment and graduation rates of undocumented immigrants but have no impact on the college enrollment or graduation rates of U.S.-born youth. Another important change in immigration policy that affects many undocumented immigrant children is the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA allows undocumented individuals who came to the U.S. as children to obtain legal employment. The potential of being able to work legally in the United States could represent a significant increase in earnings as well as a substantial increase in the perceived benefits of higher education. Our findings present evidence that DACA led to an increase in youth employment and a decrease in college enrollment rates. Further, we find no evidence that the introduction of DACA reduced or increased the positive impact of ISRT and financial aid policies.

Promoting independence among children with disabilities at the Milwaukee Center for Independence (MCFI)

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) [1] formally and explicitly recognizes the importance of how to achieve independence for individuals with a disability. This encompasses individual autonomy, the opportunity to be actively involved in decision-making processes, and the opportunity to access the physical, social, economic and cultural environment [1]. To ensure independence is achieved, it is crucial that individuals have access to a range of opportunities and resources so that they can make meaningful choices and decisions about the management of their life and environment [2]. The Milwaukee Center for Independence (MCFI) is a nonprofit agency assisting individuals with a disability to live and work successfully in their communities. At MCFI, the concept of independence is reflected throughout the agencies many evidence-based programs and services. The purpose of this article is to describe how independence is fostered in children attending the School for Early Development and Achievement (SEDA), an affiliate of MCFI. Founded in 2002, SEDA provides early intervention services to at-risk children from grades K4 through 2nd, with a particular focus on children with early developmental disabilities. SEDA is a free public school chartered through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The intended audience for this article includes parents and families of children with early developmental disabilities, teachers, special educators, speech, occupational and physical therapists, donors and potential donors of non-profit organizations.

Promoting Independence among Children with Disabilities at the Milwaukee Center for Independence (MCFI)

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) [1] formally and explicitly recognizes the importance of how to achieve independence for individuals with a disability. This encompasses individual autonomy, the opportunity to be actively involved in decision-making processes, and the opportunity to access the physical, social, economic and cultural environment [1]. To ensure independence is achieved, it is crucial that individuals have access to a range of opportunities and resources so that they can make meaningful choices and decisions about the management of their life and environment [2]. The Milwaukee Center for Independence (MCFI) is a nonprofit agency assisting individuals with a disability to live and work successfully in their communities. At MCFI, the concept of independence is reflected throughout the agencies many evidence-based programs and services. The purpose of this article is to describe how independence is fostered in children attending the School for Early Development and Achievement (SEDA), an affiliate of MCFI. Founded in 2002, SEDA provides early intervention services to at-risk children from grades K4 through 2nd, with a particular focus on children with early developmental disabilities. SEDA is a free public school chartered through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The intended audience for this article includes parents and families of children with early developmental disabilities, teachers, special educators, speech, occupational and physical therapists, donors and potential donors of non-profit organizations.

Identifying Factors Driving and/or Inhibiting Participative Decision Making in Public Schools: Principals’ Perspectives

This paper reports on a study conducted to identify factors driving and/or inhibiting participative decision making in public schools. Using the qualitative research method, the researcher investigated the extent to which principals, who are studying towards the Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE), were engaged in participative decision making in their schools. The study revealed that in many Free State public schools, principals do not engage school governing bodies (SGBs) in participative decision making. A number of inhibiting factors emerged, such as the school governing body's lack of knowledge about governance and policy development, poor literacy levels, the abdication of their power to the principal and the dominance of principals over school governing bodies. It is recommended that both principals and SGBs should receive relevant and appropriate training with regard to participative decision making.

Determinants of School Choice: Evidence from Rural Punjab, Pakistan

The objective of this study is to understand why parents in rural areas of Punjab, Pakistan, choose to send their children to private schools when free public schools are available. The study utilizes the Privatization in Education Research Initiative (PERI) school choice dataset compiled by the Lahore School of Economics in collaboration with the Punjab Bureau of Statistics. These data provide rich information on parents’ perception of their child’s school relative to alternative schools he or she could have attended. The findings suggest that parents’ perceptions play an important role in school choice. In particular, their perceptions of school quality and employment opportunities emerge as key determinants of private school choice. Additionally, expenditure on and access to private schooling relative to public schooling as well as the socioeconomic status of the household have a significant impact on parents’ probability of choosing a private school for their child.