State School System Research Articles

Otitis media and academic achievements

Objective: This is a study of whether there are any long-term differences in academic achievements between children with and without observed or treated middle ear disease in a population with a stable long-standing treatment policy. Methods: A birth cohort of 2156 children was previously studied through a questionnaire to the parents at 4 years of age, follow-up after audiometric screening at 4, 7, 11 and 14 years of age, and study of records from all Ear, Nose and Throats departments in the area; 2095 of these still lived in the area and received academic grades on leaving the ninth year of the state school system. We have compared these grades, and the choice of high school course for children with different experiences of otitis media. Results: A history of treatment for bilateral secretory otitis media was correlated to minor group difference in the mean of grades, but not to any significant difference in the individual grades or in the choice of further studies. Having many episodes of acute otitis before the age of four was uncorrelated to lower grades and to less tendency to continue with theoretical studies. Conclusions: No harmful effect of middle ear disease could be shown in a large sample, suggesting that Swedish children do not suffer long-term effects on learning from otitis media.

German Schools and Teachers in Nineteenth‐Century South Australia

This article uses the biographies of three German teachers to explore nineteenth century German immigrants' efforts to provide education which upheld their ethnic traditions and prepared their children to take their place in the British colony of South Australia. Lutheran schools, German state schools and private schools initially performed these functions in both rural and urban areas. Once compulsory schooling was introduced in 1875, however, German state schools were marginalised as English became the only language of instruction in the rapidly expanding state school system, and many private schools closed. Rural Lutheran schools maintained their role as nurseries of the church but also accommodated the demand for English language and culture by using state school courses of instruction in many subjects. In essence, by 1900 schools were no longer the key sites for the maintenance of German language and culture in South Australia

Raising Black Children Who Love Reading and Writing: A Guide from Birth through Grade Six

Raising Black Children who Love Reading and Writing: A Guide from Birth Through Grade Six, by Deirdre Glenn Paul. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000.168 pp. $35.00, cloth. Reviewed by Ming Shi Trammel (doctoral student), Howard University. (ProQuest Information and Learning: Document begins here in the original) bell hooks, a leading feminist scholar and writer, recalls, when as a young girl she fell in love with the Schomburg Library-a library filled with books written solely by Americans. It was in that moment of discovery that hooks knew she wanted to read all of those books in the library by American writers. It was at that moment she knew she wanted to become a writer. It is this love of reading and writing that Deirdre Glenn Paul. is trying to help American parents encourage with their own children in her book, Raising Black Children Who Love Reading and Writing: A Guide from Birth through Grade Six. In the introductory chapter of Paul's book, she explains to parents the Black community's deep oral and literary history that dates back to slavery. In spite of the challenges that Africans had when they were brought into slavery, Paul writes, African Americans learned to use oral language in ways that bridged aspects of their native tongues with standard American and British (p. 1). Paul narrates in the latter part of this introductory chapter the debate that White slave masters had over teaching slaves to read and write and the subsequent passing of laws that would forbid slaves to become educated. She also describes how, despite such laws slaves like Fredrick Douglas would still learn how to read and write-skills Douglas eventually used to seek his physical emancipation (p. 3). In the ensuing chapters of Paul's guide book, she gives an overview of the American child in the United States school system, and she details prescriptive ways for parents to impact their child's reading and writing abilities from birth to adolescence. In Chapter 2, about the history of the American child in the school system, Paul describes segregated school systems, desegregated schools, and multicultural education. There is also a small section in this chapter about the high placement of minority children in special education, especially Latino and American boys. Chapter 3 of this guide engages the reader in the spirited dialogue on the context of language in the minority community. Paul takes us through the debate over Ebonics and then through the struggles of the Latino community over the issues of Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language programs. In Chapter 4, the new parent learns how infants acquire language. The author tells parents that they should actively be working on their children's learning development from infancy. Parents can do this by talking to their infant children. According to Paul, at this stage of development, it is important that American parents' talking be full of praise and compliments on their racial features, thereby, instilling an early sense of racial pride. …

"To the Advantage of Infidelity," or How Not to Deal with Religion in America's Public Schools

The role of religion in public education continues to spark spirited public debate. This article argues that if religion is viewed functionally, then the state school system is permeated with religion. This raises important questions with regard to free exercise of religion, parental rights, and the role of the state in education. Short of getting the government out of the business of operating schools that inevitably transmit particular belief systems, universal parental choice in education and released-time religion classes are the best ways to deal with first-order questions that provoke different religious answers.

The Role of the Headteacher in Developing Children Holistically

Voluntary church schools have long been a part of the state schooling system in England and Wales. It would seem that one of their purposes is to encourage the holistic development of their pupils in the context of certain moral codes and faith traditions. In the face of an increasingly secularized, even post-traditional society, these voluntary schools (in the main, Church of England and Roman Catholic ones) remain popular with parents. This article reports on a small-scale study that sought to examine how the heads of Church of England and Roman Catholic schools see their own roles as builders of school cultures that support and encourage the spiritual and moral development of their pupils. Differences of approaches within the two types of schools were identified: the Church of England school approach incorporates a willingness to adapt to its changing context and so display both an openness and ambivalence; and the approach of the Catholic school reflected a central determination, producing a commonality that perhaps underestimates the emphasis on individuality and choice current in today’s society.

A review of Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations

Editorial Note This book review arrived here at the beginning of this year with a very apologetic note from the author, Bill Hamilton, about the long delay in producing the review and its ‘rambling essay format’. Sadly, Hamilton died just a few weeks later from complications following malarial infection. Several tributes have been published, such as Science (2000), 287, 2438, and we continue the tributes with a final unedited manuscript from the hand of this unique, colourful and idiosyncratic evolutionary theorist. Dysgenics: Genetic Deterioration in Modern Populations. Human Evolution, Behaviour, and Intelligence Series. By R. Lynn (Series Editor: S. Itzkoff). Westport, Connecticut and London: Praeger. 1996. Pp. 237. £47.50 (hardback).In a sense a dominance hierarchy has only one satisfied individual – she or he at the top. If the hierarchy is bottom‐numerous rather than linear, as is the case with most human hierarchies, it is all the more true that the vast majority of people are dissatisfied, wishing they were higher up, a thought which provides a basic reason why democracies (and especially, within democracies, such institutions as their state school systems) have to be unstable. We see a wobbly pyramid, and particularly within that pyramid we see certain side stairs all human examples have by which demagogues skip up a level or two so as to shout down to the restless base that the whole structure is somehow ‘wrong’. Under a different system, the demagogue shouts, ‘You could be higher too’.

Los Colegios Rurales Agrupados, primer paso al mundo docente

La constante busqueda por mejorar la calidad de la educacion en el medio rural ha provocado en los ultimos anos la aparicion de los Colegios Rurales Agrupados -CRAs- en la practica totalidad del territorio espanol. Las especiales condiciones del medio rural exigen que la vida educativa de estas zonas se adapte a estas peculiaridades provocando una dinamica interna educativa bien diferente a la de otros centros. Este articulo estudia y analiza las condiciones de creacion, la organizacion, estructura y funcionamiento de estos centros partiendo del marco legal vigente que los sustenta hasta llegar a su contextualizacion en un CRA de la Comunidad Autonoma de La Rioja. Tambien se exponen unas serie de valoraciones respecto a este tipo de centros una vez transcurridos varios anos desde su puesta en marcha. El contenido del mismo pretende servir a la Formacion Inicial del Profesorado de Primaria, ya que el primer destino para los maestros que optan profesionalmente por la funcion publica docente viene siendo, habitualmente, un Colegio Rural Agrupado.

Amphetamine abuse during pregnancy: environmental factors and outcome after 14-15 years.

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of social environmental factors on school performance and behavioural problems among 14-year-old children who had been exposed to amphetamine during foetal life. The study group comprised a cohort of 65 children who had suffered intrauterine exposure to amphetamine due to maternal drug abuse. This group has been followed since birth and examined at regular intervals. Information regarding the academic performance of the children was gathered from the school authorities. The psychosocial environment of the children was determined through interviews and through information obtained from the social authorities. Of the 64 children who attended a school within the state school system, 10 (15%) were a year behind for their age. The mean grades were significantly lower than those of their classmates. Behavioural problems were mentioned in the social authority documentation of one-third of the children, regardless of whether the child was placed in a foster home or was residing with the biological mother. A positive significant correlation was found between maternal age and the outcome of the children, as well as between therapy during pregnancy and outcome, whilst several environmental factors, particularly during the child's first four years, correlate negatively to outcome. Psychosocial factors early in life influence the outcome at 14 years. The positive effect of intervention during pregnancy illustrates the importance of early identification preferable during pregnancy.

Surviving and Thriving in a Secularized Culture: The Phenomenon of Religious (Church/Faith) Schools in England

While the mainstream churches are being increasingly ignored as religious institutions in rapidly secularizing England, their schools survive and, in many instances, thrive. These schools, financed by public funds, are an increasingly important part of the English state schooling system. It would appear that their survival and expansion has been driven by increased societal emphasis on academic success, which, in the main, these schools provide. What are the implications of this in terms of social divisiveness and what is the response of the churches themselves in terms of their role in the communities they serve? While the arguments for and against are entered into by a small number of commentators, it is perhaps significant that the once politically sensitive area of church/faith schools is still left alone by politicians.

The Queensland Year 2 Diagnostic Net: a critical commentary

In 1995 the Queensland state school system moved towards early assessment of children’s progress in reading and writing in the second year of schooling, when children are from 7 to 7?? years old. This paper describes the international, Australian and Queensland contexts for the development of the Year 2 Diagnostic Net. Based on a commissioned critical review of the Net materials (Luke, Land, Elkins and van Kraayenoord, 1997), we then raise a number of crucial theoretical and operational issues about its use in schools for formative assessment and reporting of student performance in early literacy. The paper offers a critical commentary on the Net in terms of its: views of learners and literacy learning; assumptions about assessment; relationships with the current Queensland Syllabus in English; validity and moderation practices; its consequences for ‘at‐risk’ student populations; and the systemic uses and potential abuses of the data.

Schooling, the churches and the state in Northern Ireland:a continuing tension?

After a period of generally collaborative, professionally based relations between the main churches and successive governments in Northern Ireland since the late 1960s, a feature of the recent politics of education has been the renewed concern of the Protestant churches about the protection of their interests in the state school system, which most Protestant children attend. As one of the reforms of school governance in the 1980s, the setting up of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools created a middle‐tier organization in the school system, which, in spite of its limited remit, has been able to establish itself as the ‘voice’ of the Catholic school system. In addition, government has supported the development of a religiously integrated group of schools with its own ‘parent’ body, the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education. In their response to these developments the main Protestant churches have sought to obtain government recognition of an ‘umbrella’ Protestant church body to reassert the Protestant nature of the schools which they once owned, but transferred to the state. In this paper we outline the main developments in church—state relations since the formation of the government of Northern Ireland, describe the changes introduced since 1980, and explore the responses of headteachers and governors, and of church and government representatives, to the questions which have been raised by recent church initiatives. Finally, we consider the extent to which the concerns of the Protestant churches are likely to be formally addressed.

Some methodological problems in planning, executing and validating a cross-national study of children's sexual cognition

The purpose of this article is to describe and discuss methodological problems involved in the planning, designing and later validity of the sampling method, and the instrument used in a cross-national study of children's sexual cognition. While the normal problems of cross-cultural/cross-national studies were encountered, some quite specific difficulties had to be resolved relating to specific subcultures and to the topic of children's sexuality. The focus is upon these problems, and although some results are briefly provided these have been reported in full elsewhere (noted in the text). The countries sampled are Australia, England, America, and Sweden, the latter being used as a contrast group due to its compulsory sex education school programs. Matched samples of age cohorts 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15 were drawn from the state school systems of each national group, controlled for sex, socioeconomic status, family size, ability, and ethnicity. The article concludes with some lessons learned and suggestions for future cross-national studies.

The Institutional Genesis of Special Education: The American Case

This article explores the historical context and institutional linkages that contributed to the genesis of special education during the early decades of this century. At the heart was the antinomy between a mandate for compulsory attendance and the practical interests for efficient school organization. The dilemma faced by city and state school systems was resolved by the successful anchoring of vocational education within public education and the scientific surety of intelligence testing. Yet key to the genesis of special education was the role of perceived gender differences. Early special education categories of backward pupils and truant and incorrigible pupils were defined by the conception of the "bad boy," which linked special education to the male reformatory.

The 6‐3‐3‐4 education system and tertiary mathematics curriculum—A case for matching the objectives in senior secondary mathematics curriculum with the preparatory stance of the teacher

The National Policy of Education (revised 1981) professes a functional literacy dimension to educational attainments in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Consequently, obvious and unavoidable steps were adopted by government for the purposes of ensuring the realization of this functional literacy element in the system. One such step bordered on the revision/restructuring of school curricula at the appropriate levels. In this paper, we sought to examine to what extent that teacher preparation at the tertiary levels reflected the attainment of objectives for mathematics education at the senior secondary level. This report centred essentially on the Imo, Bendel and Rivers State School Systems, the result of which guided us to the conclusion that vital elements of teacher preparation seemed lacking in the context of ensuring thorough grounding in mathematics of pupils at the senior secondary level.

The Development of Educational Computing Policy in the Victorian School System, 1976–1985

This paper is a critical historical review of the development of school computing policy primarily in the Victorian secondary state school system. As Victoria is linked to the national computer education program, relevant developments at that level are also explored. Computer technology is conceptualised as a social phenomenon and policy development as both a historical and political process. Policy development is located within the context of the development of microcomputer technology and of teacher relationships to that technology. In the early stages of policy development, the rudiments of a critical social perspective on technology are apparent. In the Victorian policy, this perspective became marginalised during the policy process. The orientation towards a broad social concept of technology was displaced by an instrumental framework in which computers were conceived as an unproblematic set of tools and associated techniques.

Restructuring of Administrative Policies in Australian and New Zealand State School Education Systems: Implications for Practice, Theory and Research

The administrative policies in the state school systems of New Zealand and Australia have undergone radical changes in recent years. Research into the origins and patterns of the reforms, their progress and problems encountered, shows that the holistic reforms were intended to achieve higher levels of economic efficiency, educational effectiveness and political quiescence. Two major restructuring strategies are identified, the corporatisation and the politicisation of educational administration. These purposes and strategies are found to cohere with a neo‐pluralist theory of state. A provisional theory of systemic restructuring is developed comprising a Gestalt of three realms: the existential, the social and the material. Three questions for further research are posed. Why have Australian state education ministers and their chief executives been developing new national structures rather than waiting for their restructure of state systems to deliver reforms? What are the origins and dynamics of administrative policy myths? To what extent can a centralist corporate managerialism cohere with a philosophy of educative leadership?

THE FORMATIVE EFFECT OF SOCIALISATION ON ORGANISATION CLIMATE

A study was conducted using two school districts in a state school system as example organisations to illustrate the formative effect of socialisation on climate. Interviews were conducted with superintendents and principals, while teachers completed questionnaires and documents were inspected. The results clearly illustrate a relationship between the socialisation practices of the two organisations and their climates. The subtle signals sent out by managers were largely responsible for the socialisation processes and it is suggested that managers from all organisations can create the same effects.

The Comprehensive School—A Reform Model in Contradiction

A few figures will give a quick orientation on the comprehensive schools: the first integrated comprehensive school in the Federal Republic was opened in 1968. There are currently (1986) 243 integrated comprehensive schools (ICS) in the state school system (see [2, p. 32]). If in addition one includes the 200 cooperative comprehensive schools (CCS) (see [1, p. 235]) the number of state comprehensive schools in the Federal Republic will soon be 450.1 If at the same time one also considers that in 1986 there were more than 32,000 schools providing general education in the Federal Republic, the minority position of the comprehensive school becomes clear: 5.7 percent of all seventh graders attended an integrated comprehensive school in 1984-1985, and 4.4 percent attended a cooperative one. This means, in other words, as before, 90 percent of pupils in the Federal Republic attend a school of the traditional type (Hauptschule, Realschule, and Gymnasium). The table shows how the Federal states diverge from these...

The System the Ogre? Effects of System Requirements on Schools′ Curriculum Structures

It is part of educational folklore that Australian State school systems are highly centralised. A corollary of the lore is that schools generally lack the organisational flexibility to cater adequately for the diverse educational needs of their students. This article tests these beliefs as they relate to the States of Queensland and New South Wales. The research finds that the form of system‐level directives is more prescriptive in the latter State. In both States, however, the proportion of time which must be devoted to prescribed activities is less than many would expect, both for teachers and pupils. Even where head office directives appear to constrain, regional office staff can practise “benign neglect” in their policing of the directives, if they can see that there are educationally sound reasons for doing so. The article finds that there is sufficient substance in the folklore to give conservative principals an excuse to resist introducing innovations in their schools. Any principals who are determined to adapt their schools′ operations to better serve the educational needs of their students are however, unlikely to be prevented by central directives.

Children as Citizens in Training: Political Socialization for a Strong Democracy

The author analyzed the content of three popular prime-time televi sion programs and the California state school system's social science curriculum to determine their possible effect on the development of political efficacy in children. The findings were checked by conduct ing focus groups with children. This exploratory research suggests that participation in a youth service organization is a more potent agent for the transference of knowledge, values, and skills relating to political efficacy and civic voluntarism than either television or formal education.