While the fierce debate over religion in public schools receives ample media attention, we rarely consider the implications of religious schools on moral education and liberal democracy. In this groundbreaking work, Walter Feinberg opens up a critical new dialogue to offer a complete discussion of the important role religious schools play in the formation of a democratic citizenry. Feinberg, a leading philosopher of education, approaches the subject of religious education with a rare evenhandedness, drawing on examples from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim schools and exploring topics as disparate as sex education and creationism. For Goodness Sake provides a much-needed take on a controversial topic, demonstrating that the relationship between religion and schooling is not simply the exclusive concern of members of a given religious community, but a relevant and vital issue for everyone who cares about education.

This comprehensive handbook is the ultimate reference work, providing authoritative and international overviews of all aspects of schools and schooling in Asia. Split into 19 sections it covers curriculum, learning and assessment, private supplementary tutoring, special education, gender issues, ethnic minority education and LGBTQI students in Asian schools. The volume displays the current state of the scholarship for schools and schooling in Asia including emerging, controversial and cutting-edge contributions using a thematic approach. The content offers a broad sweep of the region with a focus on theoretical, cultural and political issues as well as identifying educational issues and priorities, such as curriculum, assessment, teacher education, school leadership, etc., all of which impact students and learning in multiple ways. The Routledge International Handbook of Schools and Schooling in Asia brings together experts in each area to contribute their knowledge, providing a multidimensional and rich view of the issues confronting the region's school and education systems. Chapter 34 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138908499_oachapter34.pdf Chapter 35 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315694382-35 Chapter 36 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315694382-36 Chapter 37 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315694382-37 Chapter 38 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781315694382-38

Anyone who wants to know what is really happening in schools - behind all the hype and political rhetoric about the privatizing reforms in education - should read this book. It clarifies how private interests are influencing the public education process, and investigates Labour's successes and failures. These are critical moves for parents, teachers, school principals, head teachers and governors, student teachers, teaching assistants, researchers, administrators, government officials, politicians, taxpayers and in fact anyone interested in the future of education. In plain English, it shows how schools are set up, run and held to account through testing and inspection and how they make judgements about the relative merits of different schools' performances. It also indicates ways in which ordinary people can participate in shaping the future of education in order to achieve progress and better standards of achievement from schools and the education service generally. This is essential reading for all those concerned about the new future of our education system and of our children.

Overcoming barriers to learning and raising standards of achievement are central efforts in education. In the UK the government has made education its leading domestic priority and it has made education the center of its drive to improve public services by using the private sector to bring about improvements in performance and to break the status quo. Likewise, throughout the world private interests are now impinging heavily upon how state education is perceived; the 'educational apartheid' between state and private is diminishing across schools and local authorities. This book provides an incisive commentary on this rapidly changing phenomenon through clarification, analysis and evaluation of a variety of policy initiatives and implementation issues in the UK and by assessing parallel developments elsewhere in the world.
The ways in which change is being forced along in a range of guises from public partnerships to private company deals are illustrated with many real and contentious examples. Partnership arrangements, sponsorships, new categories of state independent schools and private sector take-overs of schools and education authorities form the patchwork of how state education is becoming privatized. Will these changes bring more choice and improved standards? How valuable to parents is the information presented in league tables and inspection reports? How will this impact on the future of education? This provocative and critical book moves forward this highly topical debate by providing a direct, in-depth and jargon free commentary on what is happening under the banner of privatization.

Many school buildings across America are falling apart due to age or lack of maintenance. Others are outmoded and do not meet the needs of modern educational programs and curricula. Unfortunately, school administrators and boards of education have found it increasingly difficult to obtain the funding necessary to correct facility problems in their districts. However help is at hand in the fourth edition of a popular title originally published in 1999. Holt updates the status of school facilities in the U.S. and provides new information on the gap between federal, state, and local funding. New to this edition is a discussion of the importance of senior voter contributions for the success of election campaigns. The nuts and bolts of securing the funding for facility construction, a component of the building process usually overlooked in training administrators, are clearly outlined in chapters that begin with a look at the problem of aging schools and follow through the planning and project development phases to the bond campaign and election-day. Filled with tips, checklists, and insights on the details from experienced school leaders, this is the perfect guide to consult every step on the way to victory.

Concerns with the nature of and relationship between responsibility and responsibilisation pervade contemporary social, political and moral life. This book turns the analytical lens on the ways in which responsibility and responsibilisation operate in diverse educational settings and relationships, and social, policy and geographical contexts in the USA, Europe, the UK, New Zealand and Australia. Scholars have sought to explain the genealogy and the melange of rationalities, technologies, bio-politics and modes of governmentality that bring responsibility and responsibilisation into being, how they act on and are taken up by individuals, groups and organisations, and the risks and possibilities they create and delimit for individuals, social collectives and their freedoms. Contributors to this collection have diverse views and perspectives on responsibility and responsibilisation. This disagreement is a strength. It underlines the importance of unravelling both the differences and similarities across scholars and contexts. It also issues a salutatory warning about assumptions that reduce the complex concepts of responsibility and responsibilisation to simplistic, fixed categories or to generalising and universalising single cases or experiences to all areas of education. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education.

School choice is a hot topic in the United States. Private school vouchers, public charter schools, open enrollment, and homeschooling all regularly appear on the policy agenda as ways to improve the educational experience and outcomes for students, parents, and the broader society. Pundits often make claims about the various ways in which parents select schools and thus customize their child's education. What claims about school choice are grounded in actual evidence? This book presents systematic reviews of the social science research regarding critical aspects of parental school choice. How do parents choose schools and what do they seek? What effects do their choices have on the racial integration of schools and the performance of the schools that serve non-choosing students? What features of public charter schools are related to higher student test scores? What effects does school choice have on important non-cognitive outcomes including parent satisfaction, student character traits, and how far students go in school? What do we know about homeschooling as a school choice? This book, originally published as a special issue of the Journal of School Choice, provides evidence-based answers to those vital questions.

Fuelled by social equity concerns, there have been vigorous debates on the appropriateness of certain non-state actors, particularly those with commercial and entrepreneurial motives, to meet universal education goals. There are further questions on the relative effectiveness of government and private schooling in delivering good learning outcomes for all. Within this debate, several empirical questions abound. Do students from poorer backgrounds achieve as well in private schools as their advantaged peers? What are the relative out-of-pocket costs of accessing private schooling compared to government schooling? Is fee-paying non-state provision 'affordable' to the poorest households? What is the nature of the education market at different levels? What are the relationships between different non-state actors and the state, and how should they conduct themselves? The chapters in this volume present new empirical evidence and conduct critical analysis on some of these questions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Oxford Review of Education.

This book presents a story of school improvement activity in East Africa from 1985 to 2000, which focused on sustained teacher development. The core of the book consists of six evaluations of school-and district-wide school improvement projects (SIPs) supported by the Aga Khan Foundation in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. The case studies present an evolving body of knowledge about the successes and challenges of a comprehensive approach to school improvement grounded in a common set of strategic principles. The strategic principles embody the belief that the chances for quality improvement in teaching and learning are greater when change efforts *are school-based, *involve whole schools as the unit of change, *emphasize the ongoing professional development of teachers, *attend to school management and organizational conditions affecting the capacity of teachers to implement change, * prepare for the institutionalization of organizational structures and processes that enable continuous school development, and *evolve through partnerships among relevant education stakeholders. The book concludes with commentaries by international experts in school improvement and teacher development on the SIP project designs, implementation and outcomes, and on lessons that can be drawn from the projects and their evaluations for school improvement policy, practice and theory in developing and developed countries around the world.

This book analyses the ways in which schools in urban areas are shaped and influenced by social, economic and political forces within the social environment. Utilizing research from schools in Chicago, the book shows how schools attempt to respond to external factors that are typically seen as being beyond the control of schools. These external factors include demographic change (i.e. immigration), poverty, drug trafficking, violence and social inequality: issues that confront urban schools throughout the United States. The central argument of the book is that unless strategies are devised to address these external forces, it is unlikely that schools will succeed in serving the academic needs of students.
Increasingly, the term urban is a social and cultural construct, used to describe economically depressed inner-city neighborhoods and the people who live there, rather than a geographic concept. Schools in such communities are typically regarded as some of the worst in the nation, and many have been written off as hopeless academic wastelands. Yet, for poor children and their families, such schools constitute the last remnant of the social safety net; the only public institution that is required by law to serve their needs. The basic contention of this book is that though the obstacles faced by urban schools are formidable, action for improvement is possible when strategies are devised that deliberately seek to address external constraints.
The book consists of six chapters. The first two situate the study within the national debate over school reform and urban poverty. Chapters three through five provide case studies in which efforts undertaken by schools to address larger social and economic issues are explored. The final chapter analyzes the policy implications of the research and the cases that are presented.

This text demystifies a difficult and delicate subject. It invites teachers to help themselves by acquiring a better knowledge of the issues involved, enabling them to achieve the confidence to handle a variety of sensitive issues, and foster inclusive attitudes both in and out of the classroom. Approximately one in 500 children have a serious facial disfigurement, which means that there is at least one such child in every school. Common causes are birthmarks, cleft lips and palates, scarring, burns or serious skin conditions. The author examines many of theses problems in a practical, uncomplicated style, covering: teasing, name-calling and bullying; career ideas and work experience; medical needs, special educational needs and related issues; creating inclusive school communities; self-perception and self-expression; and social skills for life. With illustrative case studies, and reference to useful resources, this book will be of particular relevance to teachers with responsibility for special educational needs, pastoral care, curriculum planning and school ethos, English, Drama, Citizenship or PSHE.

Education and Conflict is a critical review of education in an international context. Based on the author's extensive research and experience of education in several areas afflicted by conflict, the book explores the relationship between schooling and social conflict and looks at conflict internal to schools. It posits a direct link between the ethos of a school and the attitudes of future citizens towards 'others'. It also looks at the nature and purpose of peace education and war education, and addresses the role of gender and masculinity.
In five lucid, vigorously argued sections, the author brings this thought-provoking and original piece of work to life by:
* Setting out the terms of the debate, defining conflict and peace and outlining the relevant aspects of complexity theory for education
* Exploring the sources of conflict and their relations to schooling in terms of gender/masculinity, pluralism, nationalism and identity
* Focusing on the direct education/war interface
* Examining educational responses to conflict
* Highlighting conflict resolution within the school itself.
This is the first time that so many aspects of conflict and education have been brought together in one sustained argument. With its crucial exposure of the currently culpable role of formal schooling in maintaining conflict, this book will be a powerful and essential read for educational policy makers, managers, teachers and researchers dealing with conflict in their own contexts.

An exploration of the variables that contribute to the improvement of literacy instruction in large urban school districts. The text grew out of a five-year initiative known as The Dallas Reading Plan - a 50 million dollar collaborative effort between area business and corporate interests, philanthropy, and the Dallas Independent School District. Features include: an analysis of systemic reform factors from the varied viewpoints of key stakeholders (such as change management experts, university scholars, school leaders, teachers, and educational researchers) involved in the improvement of urban literacy education in a major school district; concise reporting on the effects of long-term teacher development programmes built upon scientific research; quantitative and qualitative research data on the improvement of teacher performance in literacy instruction gathered over a five-year period. systemic reform efforts in urban settings; insights into the benefits of principal training as part of creating effective school-wide literacy programmes; and data showing that previously ineffective teachers can become effective literacy educators through deep and sustained professional development.

New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., Oxford, Wien. Following an outline of the origins of the concept of ethos as it is found in the writings of Aristotle and Plato, James Norman examines the Catholic Church's understanding of ethos in post-Vatican II educational documents and compares this understanding with the Irish Catholic Church's approach to school ethos. Based on his own experience and research, Norman suggests new possibilities for the development of ethos in Catholic schools.

Providing a practical guide to strategic management in the field of special educational needs, this text gives the reader a framework for raising achievement throughout the school.

By focusing on how to manage SEN strategically, rather than on planning for individual children, it shows how you can make it part of the overall school improvement process.

The text also provides tools that SENCOs, headteachers and governors can use to analyze data, set objectives, measure and evaluate outcomes for SEN just as they do for other areas of the curriculum. Included are sections on: school self-evaluation; school development plans; the evidence base for different forms of provision; developing staff; and how to minimize bureaucracy.

Helpful for OFSTED planning and securing best value, "Special Educational Needs and School Improvement" also enables schools to target limited resources where they should have most impact on promoting inclusion and raising attainment for all.

Discover why and how schools must become places where thinking is valued, visible, and actively promoted As educators, parents, and citizens, we must settle for nothing less than environments that bring out the best in people, take learning to the next level, allow for great discoveries, and propel both the individual and the group forward into a lifetime of learning. This is something all teachers want and all students deserve. In Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools, Ron Ritchhart, author of Making Thinking Visible, explains how creating a culture of thinking is more important to learning than any particular curriculum and he outlines how any school or teacher can accomplish this by leveraging 8 cultural forces: expectations, language, time, modeling, opportunities, routines, interactions, and environment. With the techniques and rich classroom vignettes throughout this book, Ritchhart shows that creating a culture of thinking is not about just adhering to a particular set of practices or a general expectation that people should be involved in thinking. A culture of thinking produces the feelings, energy, and even joy that can propel learning forward and motivate us to do what at times can be hard and challenging mental work.

Education is a values-based experience. Consciously or not, we are highly attuned to one another's values. We see, time and again, that the 'best' schools are compelled and propelled by strong values which inspire and guide the creation of a meaningful context for learning and an aspirational ethos. However, values can often be submerged, overlooked, or ignored. By infusing our teaching with values, both explicit and implicit, learning can serve a greater purpose, nourishing us as humans and deepening our experience. Drawing on the views and inspired teaching practice of a range of contributors, this book offers both the theoretical underpinning and practical examples to bring values to life in the classroom. It shows how each subject has a unique and valuable role, and how a values-based culture generates a powerful climate for successful learning in every subject discipline. It is a 'bedside book' that will bring joy and practical support to the many professionals who work from the heart and wish to touch the future. It offers validation to those teachers who deeply care about the subject disciplines they teach, ultimately making a difference to children, their lives, and their world. In our current educational context, this work is unashamedly people-orientated, futures-thinking, and forward-facing.

'It's stimulating stuff: more of a guide to reflection, perhaps, than to action, but encouraging none the less as a counterblast to the control-and-command mentality that characterises mosr education policy and practice today.' - Michael Duffy, TES

'It's stimulating stuff: more of a guide to reflection, perhaps, than to action, but encouraging none the less as a counterblast to the control-and-command mentality that characterises mosr education policy and practice today.' - Michael Duffy, TES

Addressing leadership issues in American schools, this volume examines various strategies for creating inclusive schools, including zero tolerance policies, teachers' perceptions of African American principals' leadership in urban schools, and perceptions of intergroup conflict.

First published in 1997, this study examines the trend towards markets in UK schools, with a particular focus on fee-paying schools in South Wales, by outlining the varied economic and political arguments both for and against increased parental choice and exploring parents' real reasons for using fee-paying schools. Stephen Gorard destroys the cosy myth that fee-paying schools are large, successful, charitable institutions catering chiefly for a select group of privileged families. Instead, he reveals them as typically privately owned, coeducational and with fewer than a hundred pupils, based in a poorly-converted residential site with few facilities. It is the first book which allows children's voices to be heard fully in the context of debates on the choice of a new school. Gorard has gathered the voices of parents and children via observation, interview and survey, comparing them directly and revealing stark differences in the perception of each generation.

Is there really a discernable difference between the education provided by public and private schools? Is it true, as advocates of voucher plans assert, that market driven education results in improved educational practice, greater parental involvement, and heightened student achievement? Not necessarily.

Through advocates of school privatisation have, in the past, produced compelling evidence to support their claims of private school superiority and campaigned for state voucher programs, other, equally compelling, studies have repeatedly shown that socio-economics plays the defining role in determining student achievement

Straightforward and authoritative, All Else Equal, challenges us to reconsider vital policy decisions and rethink the issues facing our current educational system.

This practical comprehensive book for senior managers and inclusion coordinators covers all the essential aspects of how to manage inclusion more effectively. It informs coordinators about effectively managing their own continuing professional development, and that of other staff working within the inclusion team.

The book explores the role of inclusion assistants, managing an inclusive resource center, identifying barriers to learning for a diversity of pupils; and applying the Index for Inclusion, the Business Excellence Model and the Ofsted school self-evaluation model to review and support inclusive school practice. It also looks at the role of external professionals, support services, beacon, special and specialist schools, national initiatives and ICT enabling schools to improve their inclusive provision.

"Ensuring Safe School Environments: Exploring Issues--Seeking Solutions" presents research findings and information about school violence, with a focus on strategies for increasing school safety. Based on a special topical issue of "Rural Special Education Quarterly," the original journal articles have been rewritten to address safe schools from the perspective of suburban and urban, as well as rural environments. Topics include the frequency of violence in these different settings; violence as it directly impacts school administrators; strategies for preventing and addressing violence at both the school and individual levels; and ways to work with the community both in and out of schools. Part I focuses on issues. In Part II, solutions that have been used to deal with youth violence are offered for readers to consider, including chapters on effective conflict management practices, behavioral support plans, school-community relations, the development of a caring school community as a way to decrease tendencies toward violence, and a model which demonstrates an in-practice, state-wide program designed to assist in the development of a community-focused school. Each chapter concludes with discussion questions and a case study to enhance understanding of and reflection on the issues surrounding school violence.
The text is intended as supplementary material for any course preparing school administrators. Presenting both research and practice, the text can be a guide for practicing school administrators in their search for ways to insure the safety and well being of the students whom they serve, as well as a resource for individuals in other community-based human service agencies who deal with school violence.

Self-evaluation is going global. This book describes what happened when teams of school students from across the world embarked on the trip of a lifetime to explore the school lives of their international contemporaries.
The students involved in The Learning School project used a variety of tools to evaluate the learning, motivation and self-evaluation abilities of school students in the UK, Sweden, Japan, Germany, the Czech Republic, South Africa and South Korea. From the easy freedom of the Swedish school to the highly structured day in the Czech Republic, this study shows that success and effectiveness in education really is in the eye of the beholder.
The results of this study have significant implications for school leaders and managers, policy makers and academics, and all those concerned with school improvement. This lively and accessible book makes intriguing and important reading, raising fundamental questions about how we judge quality and effectiveness in teaching and learning.