Students at Anacapa School in California have proven that conquering the final frontier is not reserved for the big space agencies like NASA or multimillionaire Richard Branson. On May 5, members of the Anacapa Near Space Exploration Club launched two payload capsules tethered to a weather balloon—and the on-board camera broadcast its path into near space.
Scheduling Theory: The Rate of Collapse and ‘Loose’ Periods
In lower schools, there is rarely free time or, in scheduling language, unstructured time. Such free time usually occurs during homeroom, where the teacher recognizes the need to ease off and provide some relaxation for students who are starting to become overwhelmed, just need time to play, or are having trouble concentrating. This does not need scheduling attention because it is a result of teacher acuity and responsiveness to student need.
Your Department Chairs as Coaches and Mentors
As Division Head, you have Department Heads reporting to you—and their duties could range from selecting text books and doing paperwork to hiring, coaching, and mentoring faculty members. Indeed, the potential responsibilities of a Department Head can range far and wide, and vary by school.
Bully and Stand 4 Change
Bullying is nothing new to kids, but it has come into sharp focus, with stories of cyberbullying, text threats, and what seems to be the growing number of victim suicides. Schools and school districts are beginning to deal seriously with bullying, and are putting anti-bullying policies into place.
Child Abuse Law and Mandatory Reporting Procedures
The Department of Health and Human Services reported that, in 2009, Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies investigated allegations of maltreatment of 3.6 million children. Of the cases determined:
78.3% were victims of substantiated neglect;
717.8%, victims of physical abuse;
79.5%, victims of sexual abuse; and
77.6%, victims of psychological maltreatment.
There were an estimated 1,770 known deaths as a result of abuse or neglect in 2009.1
The Student Culture Profile II
In the 2010–11 school year, ISM conducted a one-year partial replication—using a stronger research design and a more exacting statistic—of itsoriginal six-year International Model Schools Project, a research project that focused on student performance, satisfaction, and enthusiasm. The results of the 2010–11 project, titled the ISM Student Experience Study (SES), have been published by ISM in its complete form as a “white paper” in January 2012, and summarized in Ideas & Perspectives in Vol. 37, No. 4.
The following article, featuring one of the instruments derived from the SES findings, is designed to be read in the context of either of those two documents. Readers are asked to take note of the fact that the Student Culture Profile II, shown in this article, supersedes ISM’s original Student Culture Profile. Unlike the original, it is designed to be administered directly to private-independent school students, grades five and higher. (The original instrument was designed to be administered by a third-party professional interviewer, rather than administered directly to the students.)
Research Outcomes: The ISM Student Experience Study
The ISM International Model Schools Project ran for six years, from 1989 to 1995, and entailed ISM on-site data collection expeditions—usually three per year—to eight to nine private-independent schools annually. The project focused upon relevant factors in student performance, satisfaction, and enthusiasm, and, secondarily, on teacher performance, satisfaction, and enthusiasm. In the school year 2010–11, ISM conducted a one-year partial replication of the original project.
The full research report was released in January 2012.1 The following article is a summary of that report’s central points and findings.
Am I In the Right Job?
ISM believes that the primary responsibility of an academic administrator is to develop the capacity of faculty to deliver the mission with excellence. Here’s the rub: Most academic leaders entered the education field because they love helping children learn, grow, and develop. At a certain point, though, you switched over from teaching to administration, whereby you traded one constituency (children) for another (faculty). In doing so, you are still responsible for helping people learn, grow, and develop—the only difference is, now the people you are directly helping to grow are adults, who in turn help develop the children. These are very different jobs. Both are very important; you just need to be sure that you’re doing the one that you really want to do.
Wildlife Cams Give Students a Chance to See Animals in Nature
Not often does anyone get to see an American Bald Eagle nesting in real time. After all, the nest is situated in a tree 80’ in the air. But thanks to sharp, clear cameras and the live streaming service UStream.com, you can watch a nesting pair of Bald Eagles take turns sitting on the eggs, bring food back to the nest, and ultimately, watch the eggs hatch … and the eaglets grow.
Can Evaluation Really Drive Faculty (and Student) Performance?
In many schools (and most other organizations, as well), performance evaluations are considered a waste of time or a meaningless bureaucratic exercise. What if evaluations could be used to actually increase performance—to help “average” teachers become excellent, and excellent teachers become even more outstanding?