Wednesday, March 14, 2012

JESPAR Features Turnaround Article by BCP President

The current issue of the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR) features an article by BCP President and Founder Muriel Berkeley entitled A Practitioner's View on the Policy of Turning Schools Around.

The articles asserts that all BCP schools provide a high-quality education and that differences in state test scores have more to do with the barriers to learning associated with poverty than with any deficiency in instruction.

Read the abstract below:
The concept of turnaround schools implies that decision makers can distinguish between schools that need to be turned around and those that do not need to be. Decision makers assume that schools in which students score at levels deemed proficient on multiple choice standardized tests are successful and that schools with students who do not score proficient are failing and need to be turned around.

Should multiple choice tests be the sole criterion for determining the success of schools? Might society want to consider whether or not schools are motivating students to be productive members of society and equipping them with the skills and habits that they will need to be productive?
To preview and purchase the article visit:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10824669.2012.636700#preview