Over on Successful Teaching Pat Hensley had a post a few days ago that she headed “Class Size – Learning to Live With It.” In it she recounted her experiences with an extraordinarily diverse group of students. She leads with an experience about facing a large number of students, but there’s lots of other factors to think about when reading her post. Here’s a snippet:
On the first day of classes at my new school, due to a schedule mix up, I ended up with 30 students in one high school English class. Now, some of you might say that this wasn’t as bad as some could be. The problem was that this was a self contained special education class with students from 9th to 12th grade with all different disabilities (learning disabled, emotionally disabled, mentally disabled, and autistic). I also shared a paraprofessional with another teacher, but it was not my turn to have her.
As this snippet hints, there are other administrative factors that exacerbate the problem. She goes on to ask questions of teachers who have faced atypical situations.
Link to Ms. Hensley’s post (and check some of her other posts; there’s lots of perspective there about in-the-trenches issues). Of course, there are other posts about class size on Teach Effectively here, here, and here.
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In “Educators worried about changes,” Joanna Miller and Keighla Schmidt of the Savage (MN, US) Pacer write about concerns special educators expressed regarding new rules and regulations. It appears that the local educators are fearful that practices for behavior intervention plans, response-to-intervention initiatives, and other changes will require too much additional paper work.
Continue reading ‘New policies appear costly’
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Well, as regular readers know, I sometimes check on the cartoons at Weapons of Math Destruction. I learned about this one yesterday. It’s about some fellows discussing an exorcism of a crazy character who maintains that students do not need to learn multiplication tables.
I have actually heard some mathematics educators contend that students should learn mathematics without reference to numbers. I can imagine how that’s possible, but I sure have a hard time understanding why it’s wise, let alone practical.
The image is linked to it, but you can get to the original on WMD from here, too.
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In “Massive Funding Cuts to ‘Reading First’ Generate Worries for Struggling Schools,” Kathleen Kennedy Manzo of Education Week reports about the views of educators and policy analysts on recent reductions in funding for the US government’s Reading First program. Ms. Manzo, whose article includes the opinions of both those who consider the RF program to be succeeding and those who are frankly critical of it, uses this lead.
Continue reading ‘Reading First cuts’
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The US Department of Education Institute for Educational Science has published the January 2008 edition [3(1)] of its electronic newsletter. The newsletter has regular features as well as special foci.
Welcome to the IES Research e-News, the electronic newsletter of the Institute of Education Sciences. This issue highlights the Institute’s efforts to promote the development and use of longitudinal data systems, which are paving the way for research that can be used to improve student outcomes and better inform education policy. Also included are recent activities from the four Centers, including report releases and funding and training opportunities, along with news about the upcoming annual research conference and special honors received by the Institute and its staff.
The issue is available online.
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In an article entitled “Regents back McWalters on special-ed class sizes,” Linda Borg of the Providence (RI, US) Journal reported about a disagreement between a teachers’ group and an administrator about the number of students who could be assigned to a classroom. The administrator wanted to increase special education class sizes from 10 to 12 students per room, and the teachers’ group countered that move was predicated on financial concerns, not educational reasons (see some relevant paragraphs appended here).
This sounds a lot like an age-old disagreement, and in some ways it is. However, there are some other relevant points to be made about it.
Continue reading ‘Class size spat’
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Elona Hartjes had a delightful and insightful post, one of many, on her blog some time ago. In the post she explains how she took an important lesson from a book she happened to read in a bookstore. She applies the lesson to her teaching.
Continue reading ‘Ms. Hartjes’ lettuce’
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The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy continues to promote investment in research-proven programs. The coalition proposes a $3 billion investment in grants permitting scaling up of evidence-based social interventions.
Continue reading ‘Emphasizing excellence’
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