We’ve reported many times on the growing number of flexischooling initiatives.  The concept originated with our own leading light Dr Roland Meighan  http://edheretics.gn.apc.org/ http://www.rolandmeighan.co.uk/ and discussions held with  John Holt on his final visit to this country in 1984 before his untimely death from cancer. In 1988 Roland wrote the book ‘Flexischooling. Education for tomorrow, starting yesterday’.

One of earliest examples of flexischooling came again with our own trustee Philip Toogood … one of this country’s serial innovators and educational heretics. Philip has spent a lifetime as a leading educational whistleblower. He was a headteacher within the secondary phase. In Telford, he developed the theory and practice of mini-schooling (schools within schools) to break up large schools into small human-scale learning communities.  At Hartland, he was invited by the Schumacher Society to co-ordinate a movement to become known as the Human Scale Education organisation in 1985. Philip and his wife Annabel spent two years working at the Small School at Hartland; they then re-opened the Dame Catherine’s School at Ticknall, Derbyshire. It operated as an independent, all-ages school, and the base for the development of flexi-schooling. Philip then later established a Flexi-College in Burton-on-Trent. What Philip proved was that flexischooling was an extremely workable idea and that    ‘rigid systems produce rigid people, flexible systems produce flexible people’

Ever since these early days CPE-PEN has received numerous enquiries every month about the availability if flexischooling and how to go about it. The broadsheets have featured flexischooling  at least twice a year and usually very positively. Unfortunately they have not really followed up  and developed the narrative to the potential implications of flexischooling. They have also, sadly been prone to stereotype flexischooling families as querky, wealthy, middle class part-time home based educators. We have heard about and supported various flexischooling ventures around the country and fielded many queries from headteachers and governors. In terms of government guidance … there is little and this has always hindered the development the idea. Failure to grasp with real practical issues, legal responsibilities, funding, registration etc has made things messy for schools, families and local authorities and difficult for those not prepared to go the extra mile.

Matters have been worsened by a lack of understanding of what flexischooling can encompass. This is definitely not a fixed concept – it is a continuum that goes from a simple transaction in terms of shared time between home-based learning and school learning through to radical challenges across all dimensions including notions of curriculum, learning and teaching.   Deep Flexischooling like Deep Personalisation recognises the rapidly changing world, the ubiquitous availability and ease of knowledge access, the complexities of life and behaviour. It recognises rigid people don’t cope, flexible people have a better chance. Behaviour in the modern world is  so complex. Sometimes need authoritarian behaviour (knowing when to take orders / give them), at other times need self- managing skills of autonomous behaviours at other times the cooperative skills of democratic behaviour. The world is multidimensional whilst our schools for the most part are unidimensional , offering predominantly authoritarian experiences. Flexischooling can begin to address these issues.

Despite all this over recent years there does appear to be a growth in flexischooling in all its guises. mainstream schools like Hollingsclough CE Primary in the North Staffordshire Moorlands (HT: Janette Mountford-Lees)  http://www.hollinsclough.staffs.sch.uk/Flexi.htm and Erpingham CE Primary in Norfolk (HT: Simon East) http://www.erpinghamprimaryschool.co.uk/have both had extensive media coverage. Clusters of schools in various local authorities are known as are isolated examples across the country. There are non mainstream flexischools like the Manara Acaemy in Leicester (Principal: Fatima D’Oyen) www.manara-education.co.uk . There are also settings who offer different types of flexitime experiences split between perhaps mainstream school and some form of alternative learning centre or home-based learning and alternative learning centre… Self Managed Learning College  (Prof Ian Cunningham) http://www.college.selfmanagedlearning.org/ , The stables Project, York (Linda Fryer)http://www.thestablesproject.co.uk/ The permutations are endless.

So are these indications of a shift from the ad hoc to a growing trend… the tip of an iceberg? Well the truth is we don’t know. It certainly feels like it. The interest generated by the CfBT Flexischooling Conference in 2011 was indicative of something stirring.http://tinyurl.com/7u28k3u . The more we look into the current state of flexischooling the more we find going on.

What is most exciting is the potential to harness and network families, learners and flexi-settings and to develop ideas and practices that can be built on the real needs of learners, on what we know about learning and the needs of society. Fleshing out the possibilities can offer some real leadership in developing our learning landscape and achievement for our young people.

For 2012 we hope a number of initiatives will take this agenda forward.

• CPE-PEN Flexischooling Learning Exchange 28th April, Loughborough (Tbc)
• CPE-PEN Special Flexischooling Journal To Be Launched At The Learning Exchange
• Flexischooling National Conference (Organised By Alison Sauer, Sauer Consultancy) 2nd November, Coventry
• Flexischooling Book To Be Launched At The November Conference

If by the end of by the end of the year we could have established or at least be on the way to establishing a national network of flexischools / flexischooling families and learners it would be  a tremendous achievement. A network could be a great resource for everyone concerned and a lever to pressurise DFE, Ofsted, LAs to address flexischooling more openly. In this way we may be able influence really positive changes in our learning systems.

Further details will follow soon.

Peter Humphreys

At CPE-PEN we’re always delighted to support the work of Don Glines. He’s delivered a blockbuster here. Don has successfully got to grips with personalisation across the pond. A review from us will follow shortly but this will surely whet the appetite.

Declaring War Against Schooling documents 100 years of educational wars between Visionary learning leaders and Traditional school people. Ironically, to win the existing war, both opposing groups must unify to overthrow the control of education by politicians.

 The script cites the eras when education was in the hands of flexible educators with support, not opposition, from many politicians. President Lyndon Johnson called for “Tomorrow’s Schools”—a vision not yet achieved. The Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations transformed education into politics. Traditionalists submitted to one-size-fits-all mandates. Visionaries failed to unify to prevent unjust political requirements.

 Research is presented which validates the flaws in current school and college rituals. Outlined are venues to overcome political control, offer educational alternatives, and create voluntary personalized choices for all learners.

 Declaring War Against Schooling calls for ACTION NOW by visionary critics, educators, parents, and students. The goal is optional learning paths, not mandated schooling systems.

Don Glines has distilled 50 years of his forward thinking and practice into this profoundly important book. He finds that research supports radically different schools. In fact, the word “school” carries the baggage of obsolete beliefs and automatically sets us on the wrong path of trying to fix it. Start with learning, a natural human trait, to design optimal conditions rather than just repairing what we have. Glines sears that point extraordinarily. Start the war!

— Wayne B. Jennings, Board Chair, International Association for Learning Alternatives

Don Glines has been around long enough to know from personal experience that there will be no significant improvement in the nation’s schools as long as policy is being shaped by leaders of business and industry, politicians, syndicated columnists, school boards, and other amateurs. They’re products of “the system,” so bring to the issues the conventional wisdom—the same conventional wisdom that has brought the institution to crisis. At the core of that crisis is failure to recognize the obvious, that no two learners are alike. Glines maintains that on this fact all working educators agree, an agreement sufficient to justify direct, forceful confrontation—including acceptance of the probable necessity for acts of civil disobedience—to counter the simplistic, destructive thrust of current education policies.

— Marion Brady, author of What’s Worth Learning and education columnist for the Washington Post

The Industrial-Age paradigm that controls teaching and learning in America’s schools and school systems has outlived its usefulness. Systems designed to comply with the paradigmatic rules do and always leave children behind. The systems are perfectly designed to get the results they are getting. Applying principles of continuous improvement to maintain the old paradigm will never create the kinds of breakthrough performance that is required to provide our children and grandchildren with the quality education they need and deserve. A new paradigm to guide teaching and learning is required—one built on principles of personalized, learner-centered education.  Don Glines’ book offers a powerful and compelling argument to transform the education system and its component school systems to comply with principles of personalized learning.

— Francis M. Duffy, professor of change leadership in education, Gallaudet University; and codirector, FutureMinds: Transforming American School System

Declaring War Against Schooling brilliantly and boldly demands that control of education be directed by the will of the learner.  Dr. Glines challenges the naïve arrogance of today’s decision-makers.  He affirms what we have known from the beginning:  no matter the mandates, the policies, the high-stakes, or the power grabs, the individual always holds the key to personal development.  As educators, parents, leaders, and citizens, we have the choice to create multiple pathways to learning.  The most important question asked in these timely pages is whether our children will have the option of one door, or one hundred.

— Angela Engel, author of Seeds of Tomorrow: Solutions for Improving our Children’s Education and director, Uniting4Kids

Available on Amazon and direct from www.rowman.com

Fancy a flexischool arrangement with your youngsters? Four opportunities have arisen below. The flexischooling concept is one of  CPE-PEN’s primary foci at the moment. There is great interest. We are working closely with Alison Sauer at Sauer-Consultancy. Alison is doing amazing work across the country and working in close contact with the DFE.Flexischooling emerged with the work and writing of our own Roland Meighan and his seminal book on the subject. http://edheretics.gn.apc.org/ http://www.rolandmeighan.co.uk/  

Four Flexi – school places available at St Mary’s, Mucklestone near Market Drayton, Staffordshire.

 St Mary’s C.E. (A) Primary School is a small (32 pupils on roll) 2 class school on the Staffordshire/ Cheshire/ Shropshire boarders near Market Drayton. We are set in idyllic surroundings and offer a vibrant child centred cross curricular curriculum within a caring and supportive environment. We have decided to offer 6 flexi-school places at our school from January 12. Three places in our Reception/KS1 class and a further three places in our KS2 class. Two places were taken within weeks in our KS1 class but we do have one place left in KS1 and three places in KS2. If you would like to find out more please visit our website – www.st-marys-mucklestone.staffs.sch.uk or telephone 01630 672877 and ask to speak to our headteacher Jane Hughes who would be delighted to show you around our school.

St Mary’s CE Primary,

Mucklestone,

Market Drayton

Staffordshire,

TF94DN

New book from Charles Leadbeater… Innovation in Education: Lessons from Pioneers Around the World. This is a ‘head up’ on the book. Charles Leadbeater is always a good, challenging read and worthy of our attention. We hope to have a review in due course.

In Europe the proportion of children attending school went from about 25% in 1870 to 75% in 1900

 72 million children are not enrolled in primary school, many of them in zones of conflict

 About 17% of the world’s adults – 796 million people – still lack basic literacy skills, nearly two-thirds whom are women

 ‘It opened a door for me. The door to infinity… Education does not mean getting a certificate. Education means I have the right to learn anything this world and nothing can obstruct me’ – A student in Bangladesh

 ‘Innovators are mixers: they blend together ideas and people to come up with new recipes’ – Charles Leadbeater

 Innovation in Education: Lessons from Pioneers Around the World is a highly illustrated, inspiring celebration of pioneering, sustainable and scalable innovation initiatives from the world of education.

 Charles Leadbeater explores the work of 16 pioneers around the world, almost all of whom are applicants for awards from the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE). The book highlights innovations which increase access to education for groups outside the mainstream, and it considers the competencies that should be taught for the future, such as intercultural understanding, creative thinking and team working. By tracing the story of these innovations, this book aims to raise awareness of why innovation in education is needed, where it comes from and how it can be generated.

 The book includes case studies and portraits of lives that have been changed by new approaches to education, from fathers’ groups in Istanbul to the favelas of Bogotá, from rural villages in India and inner city programmes in Canada and the United States, to farm schools in Paraguay.

 It is extensively illustrated with outstanding photographs, specially commissioned across the world.

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A leading authority on innovation, creativity and learning, Charles Leadbeater has advised companies, cities and governments around the world on innovation strategy and the knowledge economy. He has worked with organisations including the BBC, Vodafone, Microsoft, Ericsson, Channel Four Television and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He wrote the first British report on the rise of social entrepreneurship, and has advised the 10 Downing St policy unit, the Department for Trade and Industry and the European Commission on the rise of the knowledge driven economy. For more about Charles, click here.

 ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Romain Staros Staropoli began his career as a photojournalist, and has worked in fashion and commercials. To see more of Romain’s work, click here.

www.bloomsburyacademic.com

Our good friend Dr Tim Rudd has been stirring up public and political eductaional debate for some time.  To kick off 2012 he’s attempting to get 100,000 signatures on the following e-petition. I doubt that anyone in the CPE-PEN networks would dissent from Tim’s petition so I urge you to take the time out to support it.

Please sign the e-petition ‘The Purpose of Education: A Need for an Extensive Public Debate’ at: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/25504

If it gets at least 100,000 signatures, it will be eligible for debate in the House of Commons, so please tweet, blog and share with others who feel a meaningful debate on this issue is well overdue.
 
How many times over recent years have we heard claims that there is a need for an extensive public debate around the purpose of education? Yet, why has such a debate never materialised? How many Governments, Ministers and policies have there been without such a debate taking place? Does this mean that education policy is informed more by political expediency and ideology than it is by what we know about learning and teaching?
 
In the context of the current socio-economic crises and wider concerns about the future of society, we need to debate the purpose of education now more than ever.
There are numerous groups and organisations who feel the skills, competencies and abilities being developed in schools are not suited to future needs. Many others feel the values and principles underpinning the education system need to be re-considered, whilst others still question the relevance, form and function of our current education system altogether.
 
Please sign the e-petition ‘The Purpose of Education: A need for an Extensive Public Debate’ at: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/25504

With great thanks to Fiona Nicholson for news from the Home Education world.

Upcoming:Survey of Number of Home Educated Children

At the end of 2011 I sent a Freedom of Information request to all local authorities in England asking for the numbers of home educated children recorded in 2010 and in 2011. I will be sending out an email update in February with the full results.

The first 14 responses indicate that in total the number is up 10% since 2009, though the picture is extremely mixed and most LAs are reporting fewer home educated children.

 Received wisdom says home education numbers are rising all the time but my hunch – based on statistics from 60 local authorities between 2005 and 2009 shown on graphs here http://edyourself.org/articles/lalinegraph.php- is that while some LAs have seen a continuing increase year on year, overall the rising trend may have peaked around 2007.

Click on the map to see relative numbers of home educated children in different LAs throughout the country.

This update goes out to everyone who has participated in surveys on home education issues over the past year. It is also sent to home educators and local authority representatives who have asked to be put on the mailing list. The next update will be in February and will include the latest information about numbers of home educated children recorded by local authorities in 2010 and 2011.

Fiona Nicholson
Home Education Consultant - http://edyourself.org

Institute for Democratic Education in America by Wayne JenningsA fairly new organization the, Institute for Democratic Education in America identifies critical areas for learning that “equip every human being to participate fully in a healthy democracy.” Their website urges reinventing education strategically, collaboratively, and sustainably. It offers examples, links, definitions, invitations to become involved and a host of resources. Clearly, an up-and-coming organization bound to have an impact on public education.

Posted on December 19, 2011 at 8:54 pm under Alternatives, Choices, Democratic schools, Policy, Reform |

School Choice Necessary for Education by Wayne JenningsThe Brown Center on Education at Brookings published a system for ranking school districts on how much choice of educational programs is afforded children. They argue that options are necessary  and valuable in an article and short video. Their rank of 25 large cities on 13 criteria ranges from grades B to D.  Their booklet Expanding Choice in Elementary and Secondary Education argues that the government should as a matter of policy provide choices for every child.

IALA espouses this policy as its core mission.

 Posted on December 19, 2011 at 8:02 pm under Alternatives, Choices, Competition, IALA, Parents, Policy, Reform, Reports | 

Reshaping National Assessment Policy by Wayne JenningsHarold Berlak, an experienced educator writes: “Dozens of professional educational associations corporate lobbies, think tanks, have offered proposals for reauthorizing ESEA/ NCLB. I summarize and offer commentary on key proposals of three prominent organizations….”  They are The Forum on Educational Accountability, Broader Bolder Approach to Education (an offshoot of Economic Policy Institute), Forum for Education and Democracy. All three issued their reports prior to Obama’s election and were “written with an eye to how Congress should go about reauthorizing NCLB, and repairing or undoing the educational disaster inflicted by ESEA 2001, aka No Child Left Behind.” Berlak’s brief readable critique offers sensible and politically feasible suggestions for Congress that on its present course is unlikely to yield much in the area of accountability and testing. His paper can be requested from hberlak@yahoo.com.

 Posted on October 19, 2011 at 11:26 am under Assessment, Policy, Reports, Research | 

National and State Alternative Education Conferences by Wayne Jennings Mark your calendar for any of the following conferences about alternatives of interest to you or colleagues.

The first annual School Choice and Reform Academic Conference will be held January 14-17, 2012 at Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Texas Association for Alternative Education will hold its 22nd annual conference February  2-3, 2012o the in Austin.

The National Alternative Education Association will hold its annual conference February 8-10, 2012 in Nashville.

The Minnesota Association of Alternative Programs will hold its 29th annual conference Feb. 15-17, 2012 in Rochester, MN.

The National At-Risk Education Network will hold its annual conference Feb. 21-23, 2012 in Panama City, FL.

The International Democratic Education Conference will hold its 20th annual conference March 24-28, 2012 in Caguas, Puerto Rico.

The California Continuation Education Association will hold its annual conference April 26-29, 2012 in North Hollywood.

The Magnet Schools of America will hold its 30th annual conference May 18-21, 2012 in Dallas.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools will hold its annual conference June 19-22, 2012: in Minneapolis.

The Alternative Education Resource Organization AERO will hold its annual conference August 1-5, 2012 in Portland, OR.

I can honestly say I probably learned more about learning and teaching with my career long association with the Development Education Centre (Birmingham) now TIDE – (Teachers in Development Education). Nothing inspired my teaching and learners like the issues and content I drew in from colleagues, teachers and resources involved in TIDE. Things are very difficult at present. If you do know them please show your support. If you don’t know their work then please, please do get on to their website and take a look at what I’m ranting about http://www.tidec.org/ 

Campaign January 2012 … support Tide~
Over a period of 30 years, Tide~ has established a successful reputation in developing teachers’ knowledge of global issues and their ability to help young people understand the complexities of living in a global society.  As a small education charity, Tide~ is facing a very difficult economic situation which may mean it is not possible to continue with this valuable work. We are asking for your support to allow us to carry on. 

The role that Tide~ plays is still vitally important. The government has started an ongoing review of the whole of the national curriculum, and stated that schools should have more autonomy over what they teach, tailoring it to the needs of their learners. They have also rightly pointed out that teacher-to-teacher collaboration is the most effective form of professional development. As a teachers network, curriculum and professional development is exactly what Tide~ has expertise in – and we don’t want that to disappear.

We are looking to the future and want to continue to develop creative curriculum approaches, producing resources, sharing understanding and promoting global learning – which is why we are asking for contributions to our Campaign January 2012 

We have set an ambitious target of £15,000 by the end of January 2012, so any donation you can make will be much appreciated.

Every donation is hugely appreciated and makes a real difference to our work.

http://www.tidec.org/resources/campaign-january-2012

Dear all,

 We will be holding a book launch for Jayne Osgood’s new book:

Narratives from the Nursery: Negotiating Professional Identities in Early Childhood. 

The book launch will take place on Monday 5th December, 5-7 pm in Room T1-20, Tower Building, London Metropolitan University.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP to me, Angela Kamara on a.kamara@londonmet.ac.uk

 Best wishes,

Angela Kamara
Projects Administrator
Institute for Policy Studies in Education,
London Metropolitan University
Room LB01,166-220 Holloway Road,
London N.7 8DB

Tel: 0207 133 4189
Fax: 0207 133 4219
a.kamara@londonmet.ac.uk

Excerpt from Aero’s newsletter 25.11.2011

Dear friends of AERO,

Last Sunday we did a very successful first Internet radio show based on our current school starter’s class. We’re doing another show on Sunday the 27th at 6PM again. Click here to listen to the last one and to listen to this one live on Sunday.

We would like to express our profound thanks to those of you who have supported AERO during the last year. It has been a great year but it has not been an easy year. We are excited for some new projects as well as a new website that will be launched shortly. Here is some of the other work we’ve done this year:

1. We had a wonderful AERO conference at Portland, Oregon, with a record number of participants. We’ll be going back there again in August 2012.
2. We have a record number of school starters registered in our online Start a School course.
3. We helped organize a great International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) in Devon, England last July.
4. We are helping to organize the next IDEC to be held in March in Puerto Rico.
5. We participated in consultations and events in many places, including Vinnitsa, Ukraine at the Stork School’s 20th anniversary celebration.
6. We helped schools develop democratic process in Puerto Rico.
7. We networked at the first Parents Decide gathering in Massachusetts.
8. We participated in organizing meetings with Occupy Wall Street.
9. We presented at the American Educational Research Association and Education Writers Conference in New Orleans.
10. We presented at the Voyagers conference in New Jersey.

First announcement and Call for Papers for an International Conference:

Children, Young People and Adults: Extending the Conversation

(5^th-7^th September, 2012)

The University of Central Lancashire is proud to host the second international conference of the International Childhood and Youth Research Network (http://www.icyrnet.net/).

The first conference was in Nicosia in May 2008, on the theme ‘Child and Youth Research in the 21st Century: A Critical Appraisal’, and was attended by delegates from all over the world. The 2012 conference will take place in Preston, in North West England, and will be on the theme ‘Children, Young People and Adults: Extending the Conversation’.

The international research conference is aimed at researchers (both new and experienced), policy-makers and practitioners from all around the world. It will take place side by side with an international gathering of children and young people, currently being planned around broad themes of participation and citizenship. Shared plenary sessions, and a series of smaller workshops, will create spaces where children, young people and adults can come together and engage in dialogue.

Research and policy papers are invited on the following sub-themes:

• Spaces, places and institutions of childhood
• Inter-generational relationships
• Public and private domains
• Global and local
• Inclusion and exclusion
• Family and lifespan
• Culture and context
• Work, play and leisure
• Mobilities and borders
• Transitions and disruptions
• Conflict and peace
• Citizenship and rights
• Responsibility and dependency
  • Public perceptions and attitudes

Cross-cutting themes are expected to include, for example, power, gender, abuse and exploitation.

 Confirmed plenary speakers are:

• Libby Brooks (Columnist, The Guardian, UK)
• Jim Davis (Good Childhood Advisor, The Children’s Society, England, UK)
• Allison James (Professor of Sociology, University of Sheffield, UK)
• Berry Mayall (Professor of Childhood Studies, Institute of Education, University of London, UK)
• Kavita Ratna (Director-Communications, Concerned for Working Children, Bangalore, India)
  • Harry Shier (Education Adviser, CESESMA, Matagalpa, Nicaragua)

Other plenary speakers may be added nearer the date.

Preston is surrounded by beautiful country, including the Lake District, the Forest of Bowland and the Fylde coast. The town was at the heart of the industrial revolution and the struggle for democracy in the 19^th century, and since 2002 it has been England’s newest city. This conference will coincide with Preston Guild, a unique civic celebration which has taken place every twenty years since the Middle Ages.

Full details of conference fees and booking arrangements will be announced in January 2012.

Abstracts (up to 150 words) are invited to be submitted by 5pm on 31^st March 2012. Decisions will be notified on 30^th April 2012.

The Centre for Children and Young People’s Participation

promoting and researching participation, inclusion and empowerment

 CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN SOCIETY

Seminar Series 2011-12

Tuesday December 6th, 4-6pm, HA338

 Slippin’: Reflections on Participation at the Margins

 Simon Newitt

This seminar will consider the applicability of participatory theory with very socially excluded young people. Slippin’: A Participatory Enquiry into Youth, Masculinity and Mental Health emerged from a participatory action research (PAR) project with third- and fourth-generation African-Caribbean young men in St Pauls, Bristol. The study explored the generative themes of respect, gang violence, drugs, race and community, before the research collective embarked on making a short documentary film on coming of age in St Pauls.

 The seminar will consider issues of process, reflexivity, power and representation in participatory practice, using the challenges experienced in the above study to stimulate a dialogue about the applicability of theory and the liberatory potential for participatory practice to transform the lives and circumstances of socially excluded young people.

Simon Newitt is a doctoral research student in the School of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire. He is also the Director of Off the Record (Bristol), a third sector mental health service provider for children and young people aged 5-25.

 Room Ha338, Harrington Building, Adelphi Street, Preston PR1 7DR

Session free, refreshments provided

To book a place email socialwork@uclan.ac.uk

Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist describes the real differences between the left and right halves of the human brain. It’s not simply “emotion on the right, reason on the left,” but something far more complex and interesting. A Best of the Web talk from RSA Animate. http://tinyurl.com/6xx89cc

We at CPE-PEN may want to stress a whole range of issues about ‘compulsory school attendance’ but its worth just reading some of the facts in this news release. It really does scream out that there is something devastatingly wrong and that young lives and families are being hit. 

Family Lives report highlights growing levels of concern from parents and carers of secondary school children who truant 

Charity calls for Government to consider non-punitive measures to combat truancy, such as encouraging all schools to offer family support, helping parents manage their child’s behaviour

53% of truancy related calls to charity’s Parentline made reference to their child’s anger

 A new report from Family Lives – ‘Combating Truancy: A Family Lives Report’ – reveals that families continue to be concerned about truancy and the associated risky behaviours their child may also be engaging in.  The report also highlights a worrying trend emerging over the last five years where unauthorised absence in primary schools has increased by 56%, while secondary schools have seen an increase of 21% over the last four years.*

Over a 12 month period between April 2010 and March 2011:

67% of callers seeking truancy advice from Parentline concerned children aged 13-15 years old.

55% of parent callers made mention of their child’s education when calling about truancy compared to 7% across all other issues.

40% of callers mentioned conflict as part of their call about truancy, where conflict typically features in only 16% of calls.

Parents who called about truancy were more likely to mention that their child was engaged in risky behaviours with:

·         Drugs. Five times as many mentioning concerns with drugs – 21% in calls about truanting compared to 4% in other calls

·         Theft. Six times as likely to mention issues about their child stealing – 20% of calls compared to 3% in other calls

·         Alcohol. Five times as many mentioned worries about their child and alcohol – 17% compared to 3%

The report identifies four main reasons for truancy:

 ·         Home and parental pressures, which include a lack of parental engagement in their child’s education and learning, or a chaotic home environment.

·         Peer Relationships, most significantly bullying which can cause children and young people to fear going into school.

·         School based reasons, including systemic issues, leadership issues or a failure on the part of the school to prioritise strategies to prevent truancy.

·         Child Centred reasons, which included low self-esteem, educational disadvantage and mental health problems.. Parentline data found that parents were much more likely to report that their child had self-esteem issues when discussing truancy compared to all other calls (12% of calls compared to 4%).  Parents were also much more likely (53% of truancy calls compared to 14% of all calls) to speak about their child’s anger and more likely to state that their child was stressed (30% compared to 16% of all calls)

A user of Family Lives’ services, whose son truanted, highlighted her concerns to the charity, they said:

 “I have a 16 year old son who is driving me mad.  We have had nothing but trouble with him since he was 15. First it was skipping school, then he got in with the wrong crowd and got into drugs, drink and trouble with the police. We have been to court with him three times for shoplifting, burglary and for affray…He has taken valium, cocaine and cannabis and maybe other drugs. I have been at the end of my tether and at the bad times have even thought of ending my life as that’s how far he has pushed me.”

A user of Family Lives’ Bullying UK website highlighted the impact bullying can have on the health and wellbeing of those affected, they said:

“My grades at school have gone right down and I’m bunking off when my mum’s at work because I can’t face all the lessons I have with the bullies. I’m being called names about my weight and I have nobody to go around with at break. When I sit down with my packed lunch the others get up and move away. I’m taking so much time off that my mum is going to find out soon. I’ve told my head of year and she spoke to them but they’re still doing it. This is making me feel very depressed and I’ve self-harmed a few times.“        

Jeremy Todd, Chief Executive, Family Lives says: 

“Truancy is a significant problem for schools, families and children alike.  On any given day, it is estimated that 64,000 children will skip school without permission**.  Many of the parents Family Lives works with have experienced a breakdown in the parent – child relationship that leaves them unable to enforce boundaries. They have tried everything they can think of to persuade, cajole, bribe or force their children to attend school and have nothing left to try. With the Coalition Government investigating new ways to tackle truancy, including considering proposals to cut benefits to parents with children who truant, Family Lives’ report examines the evidence supporting the use of punitive measures, and finds that in many cases a supportive approach would be far more effective.. Active family support can give parents new skills to get the parent-child relationship back on track, empower the parent to regain their position of authority and enabling them to enforce boundaries.

Schools who take a proactive approach to engaging parents, stand a good chance of bringing down truancy levels and by working with parents can help those children who are persistently absent to re-join their peers. Greater dialogue needs to be encouraged between parents and schools to combat truancy and its associated risks.”

The report makes three recommendations to reduce levels of truancy:

 1.       Government should consider how to encourage all schools to offer family support as part of a core strategy for addressing truancy.  Mechanisms for sharing good practice between schools and clusters of schools should be considered, enabling schools to make the most of extra money afforded as part of the pupil premium.

2.       Schools should give thought to their strategies for engaging parents. Strong parental engagement in education improves outcomes including attendance, but many parents encounter barriers to participating in their child’s education which may include their own poor experience of education. Schools must be aware of the potential barriers and consider strategies for engaging all parents.

3.       Ofsted  have retained a measurement of schools’ work to engage parents under the leadership and management section  of the new draft framework for school inspections which is due to come into force in January 2012, pending the successful passage of a Bill through Parliament. It is essential that inspectors recognise the importance of this measure and its relationship with other factors such as attainment, behaviour and attendance, and continue to prioritise it in the new streamlined inspections regime.

Parents concerned about truancy and the associated risky behaviours can call Family Lives’ free helpline, Parentline, on 0808 800 2222, visit www.familylives.org.uk or email parentsupport@familylives.org.uk for a personalised reply within 3 days.

-Notes to editors

For media enquiries, contact: Simon Walsh, Family Lives Press & PR Manager on 07525 403 642 / 020 7 553 3094 or email simonw@familylives.org.uk

* DfE (2011), ‘Pupil Absence in Schools in England, including pupil characteristics: 2009/10’, First Statistical Release, National Audit Office, available at: http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000994/index.shtml; DCSF, (2010), ‘Pupil Absence in Schools in England including Pupil Characteristics: 2008/09: First Statistical Release’; DCSF (2009) ‘Pupil Absence in Schools in England, including Pupil Characteristics: 2007/09’

 **DfE(2011) ‘Pupil Absence in Schools in England

Parentline free confidential service on 0808 800 2222 offering a 24 hour
provision

Extended support for complex difficult issues

Personalised email service at parentsupport@familylives.org.uk

Online advice, peer support and information on all aspects of family life at
www.familylives.org.uk

Face to face support groups and workshops

 What’s the use of Homework?2 

Chris may be less mobile than he used to be but nothing has stopped the flow of his thoughts and ideas. Here he tackles that controversial schooling issue – homework.

What is the educational rationale behind giving children who have already spent the best part of five hours in the classroom up to another three hours of what the French call ‘devoir’ – duty – by way of homework? It certainly doesn’t add to the absolute quality of the learning experience, since homework is, in vast majority of cases, compulsory, leaving the learners no space in which to think about whether they need to do the task set to them. 

The traditional answer to the question which forms the title of the present article is probably that it is good for school students to develop study skills of a kind which would be useful to them in later academic life, and that homework allows them to reinforce learning done more sketchily in the classroom during the school day. I wouldn’t challenge the truth of those assertions, but I would add that they are only valid in the measure  to which the subject of the homework is interesting to the individual learner and he or she is committed to it. Otherwise it is otiose, a thorough-going waste of time which does infinitely more harm than good to the student’s mental hygiene.

Many educational rigorists point out in defence of homework that it acts as a preparation for a time in the child’s life when he or she will have unavoidable, adult  obligations to fulfil. It is probably true that most people find moments in their lives when they face trials and problems, but it is impossible to know what they will be and therefore the steps that that we decide to take to prepare our youngsters for them, and therefore the preparation can only be generic. That is surely to insult every serious student of any subject by saying that we impose homework on children not to give them an opportunity to more deeply appreciate some aspect of their culture, but simply and solely as a sort of  ‘boot camp’ to prepare them for life’s hardships.

This kind of  reasoning is of a piece with so much else which goes on in school. The origins of homework are found in the Public Schools. There the only subjects taught there in the 19^th Century were Latin and Greek. The main  teaching method was calling upon a student to ‘construe’ – translate – the next part of the work they happened be studying. Since no pupil could know for certain that he – it was usually a boy – would not be called  on to translate they all had to prepare the next passage from the book they studying, often with the aid of a ‘crib’, a pre-prepared translation. Because the Public Schools had prestige their methods became a major influence on the technology of what passed for education at the time. Of course, the immediate rationale for the various aspects of daily life in schools changed from time to time in harmony with social mores, but one element remained constant: the idea that schools should respond actively to the needs and interests of the children who attended them was beyond the pale. Apart from the handful of experimental schools, like Summerhill, the prevailing purpose of schools was not to pander to the individual child but rather to bring the individual under the sway of the abstract but intuitively shared complex of ideas and social mores masquerading as ‘common sense’.

What are the global effects of such rigorism? One of the most prominent, it seems to me, is to surround education, a process which should be a joyful voyage of discovery, with a miasma of conflict, frustration, anger and parental strife. Because homework has become so universal a part of at least secondary education, and because for most adolescents a proportion, in some cases a large proportion, of their homework is a chore rather than a pleasure, they tend to look around for ways of avoiding it either by ‘forgetting’ to do it, copying the correct answers from some more enthusiastic student or even claiming that ‘the dog ate it’. This leads to conflict, either between the parents and the school, if the parents side with their offspring, or with the youngster if they take the part of the Authorities, as many of them are inclined to do. This conflict has no educational value at all. It serves only to provide work for the disciplinary authorities at school and anguish for the parents, not to mention sowing the seeds of a lifelong aversion to learning in the youngsters, who grow up thinking that learning is first and foremost a boring, stressful activity.  I have seen the truth of that assertion more times than I care to recall. It is all of a piece with the general culture to which are wedded in this country which only approves of children to the extent that they share our adult enthusiasms and adopt our standards as their own.

The most educationally valuable reform in homework would be simply to make it voluntary, and to allow the students to design their own tasks, according to their needs and wishes. Under those conditions if the class happened to be studying social conditions during the industrial revolution, say, one student, an enthusiast for maps could draw a map of the canal system, while another, who liked listing things, could find out how wages and prices varied from year to year. Yet another a scientist in embryo, might like to find out how a steam engine worked, and make a drawing sufficiently detailed to enable others in the class to understand the machine and how it worked. The sharing of information by the students would be useful in developing skills such as articulacy and presentation, and certainly more useful than a range of tasks suitable to be set to a whole class.

The chief defect of the present school system is not only that it is compulsory but also that it makes a virtue of a number of what ought to recognised as educational vices. Among them are compelling children to do tasks which they find otiose and uninteresting, and punishing them when they decide they have better things to do. This would tend to provoke resistance if it were done to adults, especially if they were not paid for it: how much more should we expect children, without the advantage of maturity, to have the reaction, but more intensely? It is clear, to me at least, that philistinism, resistance to higher forms of culture, and delinquent behaviour are born in the classroom, where children are not respected as to their human right to be recognised as unique human individuals.

A new website www.savechildhood.net has been developed by the OpenEYE Campaign – the multi-disciplinary action group.

Two weeks ago the OpenEYE Campaign had a letter published in the national press that was signed by more than 200 concerned experts calling people’s attention to the current erosion of childhood. We have also just had published the book ‘Too Much, Too Soon?’ which you can now buy on Amazon.

You can read about both of these on the website and there is a petition that you can also sign. The idea is to then create a new and more substantial movement to promote the call for change. The recent UNICEF report on child wellbeing has clarified the damage that has been done to the current generation of children and we hope to be able to bring people together to ensure that we protect the children of the future.
Wendy Ellyatt.

News from david Gribble

Authoritarian Schooling: A Catalogue of Damage, the website I have been working on for the past year, is now live, at www.authoritarianschooling.co.uk .

David has compiled a powerful and damning catalogue here of the current model of schooling. It needs to be read widely … especially by those entrenched in the system.

Another ‘Fireship’ from our very own Chris Shute!

One of the prime paradoxes of education is that a most important part of anyone’s education takes place at an age before even reactionary English Law requires children to be sent to school. I spent years learning how to teach modern languages by the most modern methods, which I did without recognisable success. Lest it be thought that I was a specially poor teacher, I took over several fourth and fifth year classes whose pupils, instructed by others for years before me, were possessed of practically no serious knowledge of the languages they were supposed to have been learning to speak. Yet I remember Bob Malik, one of my pupils, who claimed to be able to speak six Indian languages. His father had been a doctor working for the Indian Railways, and he had followed his family up and down  the length and breadth of the line, picking up the local speech-patterns from the stall-holders in the bazaars. Many of them would have been illiterate, and all of them were innocent of anything remotely like a teaching qualification, yet they were able to transform young Bob into an efficient user of the language they happened to speak.

He was an example of a phenomenon which passes unnoticed, possibly because it represents a danger to the establishment of the School Industry. It is the simple, but radical fact that children learn the things that they perceive to be vital for their survival in this world, or that seize their consuming interest, without lessons or tests, curricula or programs, by trial and error,  taking as much time and effort as they feel they  need. The resulting skills tend to be polished because they are pursued with energy and enthusiasm, and the child is not ground down and thwarted by adults intent on ‘correcting’ him or her.

Why is teaching school subjects so different from the things we learn, as we say, ‘at our mother’s knee’? Presumably the same mechanisms in the brain are used for both, and we call them by the same names – ‘learning’, ‘getting skilled’. The only departure from the desired outcome of the experience is that people who have learnt  naturally tend to retain what they have been exposed to, whereas school students have to revise and be tested on the subjects on their curriculum lest they forget the things which they have been so expensively taught.

What, then, are the differences which seem to make ‘natural’ learning so much more efficient than learning under instruction? My analysis is, I suppose, no more probative than anyone else’s, but I proffer it as the fruit of a lifetime’s experience of observing human beings growing up and adding to their knowledge and skills.

First, we need to consider the conditions in which learning takes place. ‘Natural’ learning occurs in a continuum of organic activity which proceeds from the normal course of life. The learning is perceived as continuous and contiguous with all the other things a person does throughout their life. Certainly, a child, and for aught I know an adult as well, discovers, in the routine of daily life, an ever-widening range of tasks which they find they can do. Initially it might be cooperating with the person who is dressing them; in time tying shoelaces might be added to the repertoire, and then saying what they choose to wear. They learn to do these things without ‘study’, by trial and error. Often they find themselves able to what they couldn’t do earlier, without being able consciously to trace the stages which they pass through in the learning process. This indicates clearly that there is a way of inducing learning which is successful, not stressful and easily retained. 

The next aspect of ‘natural’ learning which distinguishes it from lesson-based learning is immediate relevance. Lesson-based learning tends to occur when a bell rings or when the clock shows a certain time. The relevance of the material                                                                            presented by the teacher is only evident to him or to her. To the learners the lesson is a mere accident, an episode in the course of their lives. They may be interested in the material which the teacher happens to be presenting to the class, but no-one ever sets out to discover whether they are or not. Of course, the teachers consider their lessons relevant. Haven’t they spent years at school, college and University, attending lectures and field-courses, tutorials and writing endless essays and lecture-notes? The effort to gain knowledge and the fact that someone else thought it important enough to set up a course to teach the subject confers a degree of ‘relevance’ – in the common understanding of the word – on the object of study. However, a more precise, humanistic  definition might incorporate the thought-patterns of the person called upon to establish it, so that the only way a thing can be ‘relevant’ is if the person or people involved perceive it to be so. No other standard of judgement is authentic.

The third distinction between ‘natural’ and lesson-based instruction lies in the enthusiasm and verve with which the learners approach their task. When a piece of learning is seen by learners as necessary for  their social survival, or it captures their interest they approach it with enthusiasm. I remember being intrigued by languages at school. The idea of learning to speak to other people in their language rather than mine intrigued me, and although it was taught from a traditional, pedestrian book I enjoyed the lessons. I had no such reaction to History, which was taught by a teacher who had mastered the subtle art of boring his students into submission. Any attempt at subversion succumbed instantly to a miasma made up of grinding boredom and a hypnotic, droning voice. The man had perfect control, but his lessons killed any interest I might have had in history. As a result I had to wait till my mature years to revive any interest in the subject.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of lesson-based learning of which the ‘natural’ variety is innocent is simply organisation. Teachers assume, because they have been taught from the very beginning an unplanned lesson is a bad lesson, yet under conditions of ‘natural’ learning, the ‘student’ encounters new information in what seems like random order, or rather in an order determined by the precise nature of the task in hand. We tend to assume that people require to be taught the simplest things at first, and only when they have mastered them can they pass on to the more complicated stages of the subject. That may apply to some areas of interest, but I would resist the idea that this principle applies in every case. Some things are complicated from the start. The act of walking cannot be simplified: a person either walks or doesn’t walk. Teaching children to walk only requires that they have the necessary strength in their legs and space to walk in. Speaking one’s mother tongue is the same: no-one starts teaching children to speak by using the ‘simple’ words at first. Rather they speak in whole sentences, incorporating all the subtleties peculiar to the language, and sooner or later the children display the same mastery. It is all a matter of time: children take their  time to pick up a language, but they generally achieve a good grasp of it. They begin by listening to already efficient speakers, then they experiment with phrases and sentences which they happen to understand, before finally achieving the goal of thinking in the target language. I remember hearing a German Holocaust survivor recounting how as a child he spoke German, then his family migrated to England, where he learned English, and then he was taken to the Netherlands, where he became fluent in Dutch. The only course materials he needed were other people, including children who could speak the local tongue.

If I have made any sort of a case against lesson-based learning – and I believe I have, in embryo, at least – the guardians of modern education are wasting billions of pounds by insisting that all children study all the traditional subjects in the same way, without inquiring whether the students had any interest in them, or whether at any time in their lives they would need any of the facts or skills so expensively forced upon them. The history of compulsory education is the history of a government-organised theft of generations of children’s time, energy, curiosity and enthusiasm for life. We have culpably decided, as a Nation, to sweep aside a whole gamut of supremely efficient natural mechanisms for autonomous learning, and installed in their place a method of instruction which succeeds only in transmitting to some pupils a limited range of information and skills at the expense of a vast social problem made up of classroom disruption and school refusal. A similar waste of money in another field might lead to rioting in the streets, but we have invested too much of our longing for our children to be successful in the simplistic procedures of schooling to abandon easily a method which we perceive to be working, even when it fails in a large proportion of cases, and blights the lives of many children by convincing them that they cannot learn anything worthwhile.

New DfE Guidance on Claiming Funding for Home Educated Children

On September 30th the Department for Education published the new Alternative Provision Funding Guidance for 2011-12.http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/a/alternative%20provision%20census%202012%20guidance.pdf

For the first time DfE has made it clear that local authorities can claim back funding for college “or other alternative provider” by entering home educated children on the Alternative Provision Census under the category of Not a School (NOT).

Funding can also be claimed where the LA chooses to pay for SEN support where a home educated child has special needs. DfE does not require the child to have a statement of SEN in order for this funding to be claimed.

The first page of the new Guidance draws attention to “updated guidance on elective home education” and also mentions that Appendix 3 (Guidance on groups to include as ‘Alternative Provision) provides “clarification of text in relation to elective home education.” This is in line with assurances given by Schools Minister Nick Gibb and civil servants from the Department for Education. Frequently Asked Questions will be on the DfE website shortly, but in the meantime please contact Lisa Thom at DfE.

http://edyourself.org/articles/APguidance2011-12.php

Clarification Of “Pupils Taught At Home.”

The new Guidance explains that “pupils taught at home” does not mean home educated children, but refers to pupils who are registered at a school and who receive some tuition at home which is paid out of the school funding. The new Guidance also explains that while local authorities cannot claim funding for home educated children simply because these children are home educated, the LA can claim funding for home educated children where the council is paying for alternative provision or SEN support.

News Items of Interest to Home Education Professionals

The last update was sent out in September and drew attention to the House of Commons meeting, chaired by Graham Stuart MP and attended by Lisa Thom from the Department for Education, which looked at the issue of support from local authorities and access to further education and exams. Nick Duggan, Assistant Commissioning Director for 14-19s also gave a brief outline of the Sheffield Council pilot to improve access to FE.

Since the last update, I have put together a couple of pages displaying information about the numbers of home educated children known to local authorities in England. Click here for the map and here for a page of graphs showing numbers from 2005-2009. NB the numbers area complete set, as they only show data from 59 out of 152 LAs.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list for further updates, please reply to this email or use the contact form on the website.

Links

http://edyourself.org/articles/September2011newsletter.php
http://edyourself.org/articles/June2011newsletter.php
http://edyourself.org/contact/
http://edyourself.org/news/
Daily updates on Twitter (no need to register)
http://twitter.com/#!/edyourself

Fiona Nicholson
Home Education Consultant - http://edyourself.org

 1^st Call for papers

4^th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

 CELEBRATING CHILDHOOD DIVERSITY

9-11 JULY 2012.

 To celebrate the 10^th year of the establishment of the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth at Sheffield University, (CSCY) this conference addresses the theme of diversity in the lives of children and young people.

 Issues to be explored include, but are not restricted to:

       Children’s and young people’s diverse social and cultural worlds

        Understanding identity and difference

        Structures and institutions as indices of childhood diversity

        Time, space and place

        Methodological innovations in childhood research

        Theorising similarity and difference

 Those wishing to organise small symposia around a specific theme are also invited to submit a proposal.

 Abstracts:

Abstracts of no more than 200 words (for papers) 400 words (for symposia) should be sent to the conference administrator, Dawn Lessels, by January 31^st 2012. E-mail: d.j.lessels@sheffield.ac.uk.  

 Check out our conference page: http://www.cscy.group.shef.ac.uk/activities/conferences/index.htm

Today there is good news and bad news. We have a great gathering to report about, but also we have received the sad news that John Gatto has had a stroke and progressive education pioneer Vito Perrone has died. Among the multiple ways he worked to improve education and assessment, Vito Perrone was for many years a member of FairTest’s Board of Directors. We send condolences to his family as we celebrate Vito’s life and recommit ourselves to his vision.

Thank you for supporting what we do! I hope you find this issue helpful in your work.

JM

1) JOHN GATTO HAS STROKE

Recently we received the sad news that John Gatto has had a serious stroke. Last night I talked to his wife who told me that John was in the hospital for a week and has been in a rehab center for three weeks. He has speech problems and problems on his left side. But she said he can walk 40 steps now and his speech is getting better. We need John to return to full health! If you would like to send some good words to John you can write to me and I’ll put them together and get the messages to him. Send to JerryAERO@AOL.com

Some of our Gatto materials:
Weapons of Mass Instruction
The Underground History of American Education
2006 AERO Conference Keynote Address
2005 AERO Conference Keynote Address
2004 AERO Conference Keynote Address

2) PARENTS DECIDE!

On September 17th I had the opportunity to participate in an event that could be an important prototype for educational change. I was asked to be a presenter at “Parents Decide!” The inspiration of Dennis Pratt, retired from a career in high tech startups, he organized a presentation of a spectrum of educational choices to parents from central Massachusetts. Parents were invited to the free event through a variety of media outlets. There were presentations from representatives of supplemental programs in mainstream schools, charter schools, independent schools, and homeschool programs. My presentation was about learner-centered alternatives and was well received. After the presentation the parents came to the AERO table and gobbled up many of the books we had brought.

It was refreshing to be talking to people who are not yet part of any network but just searching for information to find choices for their children. The International Democratic Education Conference in England, the AERO Conference and the Rethinking Everything Conferences were great events, but it was nice to be in a situation in which I was not “preaching to the choir.”

I’ve spoken to Dennis about future plans and we are very interested in organizing similar events elsewhere. If you are interested in this, write to me at JerryAERO@AOL.com.

3) SCHOOL STARTERS COURSE UPDATE

There is a lot of exciting news about this year’s course. Several of last year’s class members who have now started their schools and programs will participate in the course to help new members. Chris Mercogliano, who wrote “How to Grow a School” will again help with the course and we have several new guest speakers. All class members will get the books “How to Grow a School,” and “Turning Points.” In addition they will receive the DVD of the School Starters workshop from this year’s AERO conference.

The places in the course are gradually being taken, but we have a record amount of interest, far more than there are places in the course. We hope we can find a way to accommodate everyone’s needs and get them into the course. If the course is filled, some may need to audit. Payment plans can be arranged for those who need it.

A couple of comments from former course members:

“This course has been spectacular– it really has opened many doors for me and made a *major* step in the right direction for me opening my school– both in what it has taught as well as in the people I have met.”

“This course has been immensely helpful. Among other things, I’ve discovered that there is a considerable body of literature on the subject of alternative education, but the literature is NOT readily available. You won’t encounter it as required reading in teacher preparation courses. You won’t find it in most public libraries.”

Click here to learn more or sign up for the Start a School 101 course.

Also, our Spanish-language School Starter’s course will again be offered this year. Early bird registration will go on until October 7. 

Click here for more information or to sign up for the Spanish School Starter’s course.

4) CHOICE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and the US Department of Education assembled leaders from 20 of the largest school district for a discussion of providing choices. Their report Reforming Districts Through Choice, Autonomy, Equity, and Accountability: An Overview of the Voluntary Public School Choice Directors Meeting strongly affirmed the importance of providing learning alternatives of various kinds including open enrollment, magnet schools and charter schools for all students to better meet the needs and preferences of parents and students. School districts need to take leadership for a seamless combination of choices even if it means relinquishing levels of control.

From the International Association of Learning Alternatives‘ standpoint, this is an overdue but welcome affirmation of our position that all students should have a choice of distinctively different programs.

5) AERO SURVIVAL FUNDRAISER UPDATE

Speaking of IALA, they made a donation of $1000 to the AERO matching fund. The fund now stands at $5675 not including the eventual 50% match, from 60 AERO supporters in 21 states and five countries. We are aiming for a total of $20,000 to get us through the year, when we expect we can receive more foundation grants. If you have not contributed please do so if you can. All donors have now received the Internet link to the keynotes from the recent AERO conference, as you will when you contribute.

Thanks to all who are supporting AERO! If you can become a sustaining supporter let us know and monthly donations will continue to keep us going.

You can donate to the AERO annual fund here.

6) TOO MUCH TESTING
by Thomas Ratliff, member Texas State Board of Education
September 12, 2011

In the fourth week of this academic year, I would like to borrow and tweak a quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet to describe what is happening in public schools all over Texas, “The State Doth Test Too Much, Methinks.”

Educators and school board members across the state are becoming painfully aware of how much testing the Texas Legislature has inflicted on our local schools and our children.

Did you know, this year our public schools will spend almost 1 out of every 5 days conducting tests for the State of Texas? Yes, that’s right, an average of almost one day a week, or nearly 20% of the school year. According to the Texas Education Agency, Texas public schools will spend 34 days out of the 185 day long school year conducting tests mandated by state government, an average of 4 days per student. Keep in mind; this figure doesn’t include the number of days spent taking other tests (6-weeks tests, weekly quizzes, semester exams) or getting students ready to take the state’s tests. Due to the high stakes nature of these tests, schools spend extra time getting their students ready to take the test by working on testing strategies, and other things that take away from learning the material. I think this is over the top.

We have all heard politicians talk about wanting government to run like a business. If a business had its employees take 20% of their time to fill out government reports about how they are doing their job, that business wouldn’t be around very long. It’s not productive and adds little value. As the old saying goes, “A cow doesn’t get heavier the more you weigh it.”

To put a dollar figure on this problem, consider this. Texas spends $44 billion per year on public education. Of that, almost $1 billion is spent on testing days, just for the state. If you are looking for ways to make public education more efficient, this seems like a good place to start.

To be clear, I support accountability. Should there be some general measure of how our public schools compare to one another? Absolutely. But I also believe the State of Texas should be accountable to the parents of public school students and explain why we must endure so much TESTING at the expense of LEARNING.

What these figures tell me is very simple. The Texas Legislature doesn’t truly believe in the term “Independent” School District. The Texas Legislature apparently believes that if THE STATE doesn’t test the kids, NOBODY will. I couldn’t disagree more. I believe in our local schools and trust them to do what’s best for their students. We don’t need more mandates or rules from Austin or Washington. We need less.

There was a day when the Texas Legislature set the standard of student expectations and left the rest up to the local school districts to get the students to meet or exceed that standard. But just like the days of Shakespeare, those days are long gone.