According to an article by Jenny LaCoste-Caputo in the San Antonio (TX, US) Express-News, one of the schools adopting the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is graduating well-prepared students. Under the headline “Charter school shatters stereotypes,” Ms. LaCoste-Caputo reported about eighth-grade students graduating from KIPP: Aspire Academy and enrolling in competitive, private secondary schools.
Continue reading ‘KIPP success story’
Archive for the 'Research' Category
The Institute for Literacy and Learning is offering an outstanding series of presentations over the next few months. Randy Sprick, Sharon Vaughn, Jan Hasbrouck, Rollanda O’Connor, Deb Glaser, Patricia Mathes, and Lucy Hart-Paulson will present free, on-line chats about discipline, reading, assessment in response-to-instruction models, matching interventions to students’ needs, professional development, early language and literacy, and more.
Continue reading ‘Up-coming ILL sessions’
Here’s a “Welcome” to Kylie Sturgess and Podblack Cat. I’m routinely pleased to find folks with whom I share skepticism about the bologna that masquerades as reasoned discourse in education. Because of Ms. Sturgess’ focus on skepticism, education, and science, I’m noting here that I’ve added her site to the blogroll on Teach Effectively.
Continue reading ‘Podblack Cat’
Dan Willingham has posted a revised version of his brief video explaining the relationship between research on brain functioning and education. I referred both faithful readers of Teach Effectively to the original video in this earlier post and I’ve now updated that post with a link to the new video (a link to the old one’s still there, too).
Sphere: Related ContentMultiple sources accross Canada have covered a distressing story: Nearly ½ of parents of students with disabilities say they had problems securing special education for their children and nearly ¼ of the parents of students with disabilities in Canada said the needs of their children were not being met, according to a survey called “Participation and Activity Limitation Survey” (PALS) conducted in 2006. Overall the report shows that children with disabilities are served well, regardless of variations in type of education provided (full inclusion, part-time special education, or full-time special education) and students’ levels of severity.
As in most other developed countries, Canadian schools are required by law to provide “free and appropriate public education.” Apparently, lots of parents don’t think their children are getting it. To be sure, these are perceptions, but parents’ perceptions are powerful influences on schools’ functioning.
Continue reading ‘Which needs unmet?’
My colleague Dan Willingham has posted a marvelous video that’s an introduction to thinking about neuroscience and education. Under the title “Brain-based Education: Fad or Breakthrough,” he illustrates important elements about what are reasoned extrapolations from cognitive neuroscience to education and what are not.
Update (18 May 2008): It’s heartening to see that other sites are pointing to Dan’s video. Here’s a preliminary list (please add others via the comments):
Update (7 June 2008): A couple of days ago, Dan posted a new version of the video; I’ve modified the links in the box accordingly.
Sphere: Related ContentShep Barbash published “Looking Beyond the Reading First Controversy” in Education Next, the quarterly journal of the Hoover Institute that examines issues related to US education reform. Although he probably wrote his piece before the recent release of the interim version of the study examining the impact of Reading First, Mr. Barbash makes a spirited argument for the benefits of Reading First. Here’s his lead:
Sphere: Related Content“Reading First is the most effective federal program in history.” So reads the opening line of a report that Alabama superintendent of education Joseph Morton sent to his congressional delegation last June, in which he recounts how the program has raised reading achievement for poor students in his charge. Morton’s view is shared by leaders in many other states, where thousands of Reading First elementary schools have reported unprecedented progress closing the “literacy gap” among the poor.
Over at Skeptic’s Dictionary Robert Todd Carroll has an extended and detailed analysis of the bologna marketed under the brand name “Brain Gym.” Mr. Carroll, who retired as professor of philosophy in 2007 after teaching taught courses on logic and reasoning, created a Web site (and wrote a book) that covers diverse lunch meats ranging from supernatural, paranormal, and pseudo-scientific. His examination of Brain Gym shows that it falls into the third category of those three…at least, he doesn’t go into any connections between Brain Gym the supernatural or paranormal.
Continue reading ‘Skeptics’ Brain Gym workout’