Megan Wilson
Stories (32/0)
All Students Have The Opportunity To Learn And To Achieve High Standards
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act has provided federal assistance to schools to meet the educational needs of disadvantaged students. The Congress substantially overhauled the program by shifting from a focus on remediation to high standards and accountability for higher achievement. For the first time, the law spelled out requirements for full inclusion of students with limited English proficiency in Title I programs, assessments, and accountability systems. California is an especially important state with respect to Title I reforms because it receives substantially more Title I funding than any other state. Twenty-two percent of California’s children fall below the federal poverty line, and the achievement of its students— especially its poor—African American, and Latino students, has lagged behind the rest of the country.
By Megan Wilson3 years ago in Education
Schools Should Collaborate With After-School Programs
Youth thrive and achieve in programs that foster caring child/adult relationships. These programs allow youth to form bonds with adults they grow to trust and staff who encourage them to succeed. When staff have long-term relationships with after-school program participants, they are able to identify changes in the child’s behavior that signal a need for intervention.
By Megan Wilson3 years ago in Education
Better Prepared For College Or Work
The U.S. has a terrific opportunity to bring dynamic public schools to its neediest children, but it just might blow it. Called charter schools elsewhere, community schools are independent public schools of choice. That's not an oxymoron. They are new kinds of public schools, freed from most bureaucratic hassles, open to any child who chooses to attend and held to account for their results. We've visited dozens around the nation as a part of a new project. Most of those we've seen are terrific. They come in all flavors: progressive institutions with lots of hands-on learning, back-to-basics schools with stern discipline and old-fashioned curriculum, schools for at-risk kids, even a virtual charter school that operates in cyberspace. The intent was to make our students work harder, take more classes, and naturally the students would be better prepared for college or work.
By Megan Wilson3 years ago in Education
A Complete Rethinking Of The Very Concept Of Education
Never before has American education been in as precarious a situation as it seems to be at present. For over ten years now we have seen many governors' summits, and a host of commissions, committees, panels, unions, boards and business executives trying to warn citizens that American schools have become dysfunctional and are in dire need of repairs. And for over ten years the results of student performance have worsened despite the billions being spent to stop the downward trend. Perhaps the time has come to stop and try to examine the problem rationally. It is not the first time that American education has reached a threshold at which only radical solutions seem to be called for. This time, however, reformers are calling for a systemic reform, a complete rethinking of the very concept of education. As politicians, educators, academicians, psychologists, sociologists, and CEOs entered the fray, the well-intentioned movement became murky and increasingly chaotic. It soon became clear that the reformers truly intended a clean sweep of what education had meant to Americans.
By Megan Wilson3 years ago in Education
Why a Truly Liberating Education Is Imperative
This entire journal is dedicated to the theme of democracy. Exhibited are many teachers’ and students’ answers to "what is democracy"? I ask further questions: Why has democracy disappeared in our country? And can democracy exist in our schools? This nation is ours to shape, to create, to criticize, and to democratically raise our voices. As I stand in front of my class, the definition of democracy that was taught to me in my youth rings through my ears: a nation of, by, and for the people. This was a main principle upon which this nation was built. Unfortunately, those same forefathers were slave owning, misogynist, white men. Their idea of democracy was never to include all of the people. But they were onto something remarkable. I think the true potential of democracy, one where the people have an informed, legitimate, and constant say in the shaping of this nation, is something we should strive for. To that end, I have chosen to struggle to make my school more democratic. Indeed, my struggle begins within my very own classroom where I try to make my curriculum and my class environment democratic. I can’t say this is an easy task. Our schools are over-crowded and under-funded. Add to that, a conservative need for artificial and superficial "accountability" causing congress people, district big wigs, and administrators to scramble for higher test scores, and my workplace often seems the antithesis of democratic. Nevertheless, when I close my classroom door, what goes on is up to my students and me.
By Megan Wilson3 years ago in Education
New School Reform and Community Development
Parents and community members now sit on site-based decision-making committees that determine curricular materials, budgetary expenditures, staffing, building usage and scheduling, discipline procedures, professional development for staff, school programs, and technology utilization. This public involvement has led to fundamental changes within the school community. As leaders for change, we have learned that revamping systems, policies, and structures invigorates the community and encourages change in practice at the school level. In addition, our responsive learning culture attracts and develops new parent and community leaders who can carry on the work of articulating and leading change processes. Our hope for continuing improvement in student achievement rests in the belief that engaging the voices of parents, community members, teachers, and students will ensure that this generation of learners meets the high standards that will carry them successfully into the twenty-first century.
By Megan Wilson3 years ago in Education
What Are The Most Important Long-Term Benefits of Preschool Programs?
Rising enrollments in preschool programs and increasing use of nonparental child care are surely among the most significant worldwide trends of the past two decades. Demand for preschool services has also been fueled by an increased understanding of the importance of the early years of life, as well as by concern over the high proportions of children who are doing poorly in school. It is generally agreed that the nations comprising the European Union have some of the world’s most highly developed early care and education (ECE) systems and some of the best empirical evidence on the effects of preschool experiences on children’s development and welfare. During the 1980s and 1990s, there was a tremendous expansion of preschool programs for children from the age of three to the age of compulsory schooling (ranging from five to seven), and approximately half of E.U. countries now have publicly funded preschool places available for 79% or more of the children in this age group. Of course, as a result of the increased dominance of free market economics, many countries are feeling pressure to reduce social benefits to become more “efficient”—in this context, continued support for quality preschool programs may depend on compelling evidence of their cost-effectiveness and not on their popular support. The information presented here may prove helpful to U.S. policymakers, researchers, early childhood educators, and advocates seeking evidence of ECE program effectiveness and results.
By Megan Wilson3 years ago in Education
Overcoming Adversities For Children And Youth At Risk Of Educational Failure
The primary goal of the present study is to examine the impact of the changing macroecological characteristics of cities on school performance, and to draw from the research base and from innovative developments on what can be done to make a significant difference in reducing the achievement gap among urban students from minority backgrounds. Greater numbers of children from increasingly diverse sociocultural and economic backgrounds have been included in our nation's schools, and the kinds of educational programs offered in the classroom have been greatly diversified. These accomplishments, while significant, have fallen short of the educational vision of a universal school system that provides all children with equal access to schooling success. To date, efforts during the past three decades to desegregate schools have produced very little change to enhance social and academic integration. Furthermore, the focus on the "setting" of schooling has become a barrier to the nation's quest to improve schooling for the very students who are the intended beneficiaries of school desegregation. In particular, the difficulties of life in the inner city often overshadow the urban community's rich resources for children and families. By finding ways to magnify the positives in urban life, we can improve the capacity for education in the urban community and enhance the schooling success of those children and youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds who live in some of the most adverse inner-city environments. There is increasing evidence that the achievement gap in this nation's urban schools may be better understood in terms of the decentralization of cities, the resulting changes in the social ecology of neighborhoods, and the structure of the urban labor market. The contention is that the changing makeup of the cities accounts for much of the failure of urban schools. The United States leads the industrialized world in numbers of children living in poverty. In addition, residential segregation by race and social class has also worsened despite efforts to desegregate the nation's cities following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. African-American and other minority students tend to be in schools where overall achievement is low. And even in schools that have achieved racial integration, students from language and ethnic minority backgrounds are often resegregated by a variety of pullout remedial or compensatory education programs. These programs tend to underestimate what students can do, neglect fundamental content, provide inferior instruction, delay the introduction of more challenging work, and fail to provide students with a motivating context for learning. These circumstances place children at risk of educational failure and place schools at the center of interconnected social problems. Countering these trends and reducing the achievement gap requires an inclusive approach to responding to student diversity and the provision of powerful instruction that can increase the capacity for achieving the educational success of all students.
By Megan Wilson4 years ago in Education