Work & Academics

Critical Issues in Education

Maggie Stehr’s article Carson going to multiage classrooms allows us to revisit the idea of multiage classrooms in the educational setting today¹. The idea of multiage classrooms brings many different images to the mind for different individuals and different groups of people. Although brief, Stehr’s article raises some of the conflicting views associated with this old, yet controversial, educational reform practice. While decisions regarding multiage classrooms affect everyone within a school district, the group focused on in Stehr’s article—the group offering the most resistance to the reform—is the parent group at Roosevelt Public Elementary School. Many parents, quite rightfully, question whether using a multiage classroom approach will result in lowered educational opportunities for their children, especially if their children are older. Parents also question whether teachers will be able to adequately address educational standards—a factor increasingly important when considering the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act.

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1. Multiage classrooms date back to the “one-room schoolhouses” that served rural America from the mid-17th century. At the time, because of significantly lower enrollment levels, they were very well suited for the educational needs of the participants. As the population expanded, so too did schools, leading to an easier division of grades based on a student’s age. This allowed for at lease two significant things: (1) curriculum could be standardized, and (2) teachers could specialize according to a single age group. One flaw with this argument, however, is that homogeneity within groups is always difficult to achieve; even within a group where students are only one year apart, they will already be at different levels of proficiency (Pardini, 2005). [back]

Critical Issues in Education

The 2006 proposed budget, as with the proposed budgets of the past few years, includes recommendations to eliminate funding for certain high school after-school programs. Upward Bound, which turned 40 last year, is one of those programs proposed for elimination. We have offered Upward Bound to our students for many years, so our school district needs to closely consider the implications that these budget recommendations have for our school. With many of our students still being potential first generation college graduates, it is important that we, as educators, voice our concerns about the negative impact of the elimination of these programs.

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Lifespan Development and Learning

In comparing different learning theories in detail, one ultimately gets to the point that they realize that no one theory is right or wrong, but that each theory has something to offer. Learning theories are valuable because they are often revised and reanalyzed or tested in different contexts to see how well they stand up, effectively minimizing the need for teachers to spend too much time developing research projects and testing them for accuracy. Instead, teachers are given the opportunity to test the results of theories they find interesting or solidly designed and see how well each theory works as a predictor of outcomes. This testing of theories is important for at least two main reasons: (1) theories are often developed in a very controlled environment where the limited variables used do not always accurately reflect the “real world” and (2) depending on how old the theory is, it may be out of date and not applicable to many of the problems we encounter in schools today. Thus, even if we do not fully agree with the implications of a particular theory, it may be helpful to periodically review them and carefully consider their messages about human learning and behavior.

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I’ve just completed compiling the fist issue of the newsletter for the Centre for Micro Finance, “Eye on Micro Finance”. The goal is to get this out every other month, but honestly, I doubt whether that is a realistic goal or not.

I took advantage of this project to familiarize myself with Adobe InDesign for page layout. Overall, I must say it’s pretty easy to use and results look refreshingly good when compared to earlier efforts merely using MS Word—and I know I’ve barely scratched the surface of what is possible.

I’m guessing that the layout will essentially remain the same for each issue, with the exception of the “cover” (which for me is one of the more fun stages in the design process anyway).

You can download the PDF or view the articles directly at the Centre for Micro Finance website.