Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Scottish experts recognizing that there are -- SURPRISE! -- 'unruly pupils'

Schools urgently need off-site "behaviour" units to deal with unruly pupils, teaching experts have said. The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) blamed spiralling indiscipline and an official policy of "inclusion" for pupils with behavioural problems. Both, it claims, lead to difficulties dealing with uncontrollable children who constantly disrupt classes. Education Minister Peter Peacock said he would look closely at the recommendations made by the EIS.

Schools are bound to group children together regardless of ability or learning difficulty. The requirement was set out in the Standards in Scotland's Schools Act 2000. But in a report out on pupil indiscipline, the EIS claimed it had made it virtually impossible to exclude disruptive children on a permanent basis. Sandy Fowler, convener of the EIS indiscipline committee, said the effects for teachers were time-consuming, stressful and damaging for the education of other pupils.

"These challenges certainly require teachers to be more reflective about their teaching and about pupils' learning," he said. "But they also call into question the level of support that they receive from school management, from local authorities and indeed from the Scottish Executive." Mr Fowler, a teacher with 35 years' experience, added: "It is the responsibility of the Scottish Executive and local authorities to meet these requirements. "The Scottish Executive should provide, as a matter of urgency, additional off-site behaviour facilities for children and young people displaying particularly challenging behaviour." Such units would be staffed by specialist teachers or volunteers, he said.

Mr Fowler claimed all of Scotland's estimated 3,500 primary and secondary schools had been affected by indiscipline to some degree. Mike Finlayson, director of Teacher Support Scotland, backed the EIS comments and said 90% of teachers thought indiscipline had got worse over the last five years. He added: "Indiscipline over a protracted period of time, even at apparently low levels, can have a devastating effect on the health of individual teachers. "This can lead to anxiety, depression and illness. "The unique pressures teachers experience are still not recognised and support for them remains inadequate."

James Douglas-Hamilton MSP, Conservative education spokesman, said: "The presumption in favour of mainstreaming has created a number of new problems and power needs to be given back to teachers. "At the moment they do not have powers to permanently exclude disruptive children from class. "Teachers must be put back in control of the classroom."

Responding to the report, Mr Peacock said: "I want to see teachers everywhere benefiting from the experience and practices of the strongest leaders and most effective techniques. "I also welcome the recognition that there is now an unprecedented level of activity dedicated to seeking solutions to these difficult issues. "Nonetheless, I will look closely at their recommendations for the executive, many of which we are already working on or have made provision for, and I look forward to continuing this constructive dialogue with EIS over coming months."

Source




OXFORD IS DIFFERENT

The academics below are addressing the claim that State school pupils have to be brighter to get the same High School results as private school students

Oxford academics have challenged the belief that state-educated pupils perform better at university than those who have been privately educated. Their study suggests that at Oxford and Cambridge, A-level grades accurately indicate success and that admissions tutors should not be more lenient towards those from state schools. Oxford and Cambridge took a smaller proportion of entrants from state schools in 2004 than the previous year, despite government pressure.

The academics, writing in The Oxford Magazine, noted that research published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England in 2003 had shown that, given equal A-level scores, a higher proportion of graduates from state schools achieved a 2:1 than those from the independent sector. Dr N.G. McCrum, Emeritus Fellow of Hertford College, Dr C.L. Brundin and A.H. Halsey, Emeritus Professor of Social and Administrative Studies, said that at Oxford and Cambridge this was not the case. Looking at A-level scores and finals scores of graduates between 1976 and 2002, they concluded that, overall, A-level results determined finals results. "For both types of school for both genders at Oxford and Cambridge, A level dictates finals score, except in the sciences for males," the dons wrote. "This is surely a boost for the use of A level in the admissions exercise."

In other words, Oxbridge colleges should not expect state school students to do better than their privately educated peers with the same grades, except if they are male and studying science at Oxford. Conversely, privately educated men studying science at Cambridge also had a lead; traditionally, scientists from private schools have gone to Cambridge.

The academics insist they are making "no comment on the intrinsic value of different institutions and courses". Dr Brundin, who taught engineering at Oxford and was Vice-Chancellor of Warwick University, said of the funding council: "We're saying we can't challenge their study as a whole, but that we cannot say it applies to a single institution and in particular, it does not apply to Oxbridge." The study, which corrected A levels for grade inflation over the decades, showed that a pupil who achieved two A grades and a B grade would continue to do less well in the finals - whatever their background, except as a man studying science - than a student who achieved three A grades.

John Thompson, an analyst for the funding council, argued that the Oxford academics had "not fully appreciated" its findings. "Overall, if you make a comparison, keeping everything the same, state school students do a little better," he said. At the most selective universities, including Oxbridge, he said, the picture was less clear. Advocates of widening participation have argued that the findings of the council made the case for tutors being more lenient when admitting comprehensive pupils to the top universities. The latest study appears to favour a system where students are measured entirely on their A-level grades.

Source

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"


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