"Inquiry-Based Learning"

A model which seems to be having some success for some students, reported at Hogwarts for Hackers: Inside the Science and Tech School of Tomorrow | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

the school’s secret isn’t cash or high tech gimmicks like online classes. At the core of the school is the notion of “inquiry-based learning,” a concept that dates back to the 1960s and draws on earlier concepts from thinkers like Jean Piaget, John Dewey, and Maria Montessori.

“The math teachers don’t lecture. They give out worksheets, and we learn as we go,” explains Emma Sloan, a sophomore. These worksheets are basically problems that the students must solve, using their own wherewithal — and help from other students. In class, students will often gather in circles — or “hexagons” ...
The inquiry approach is then taken to extremes on IMSA Wednesdays. There are no classes held on this day. The entire day is devoted to completely freeform education. “You can go find a mentor — some bad-ass in the particular field you’re interested in. You can do your own research. Or you can play video games,” says Kador.

It's interesting that "freeform education" would be effective; apparently it is. One question would be: is all-Wednesday an optimum, or should it be only half of a day, or half of every day, or...? (Or different for different students at different ages?)

The US is Not Really #1 Yet...Fortunately

More on Yong Zhao's case against US educational "reform" trends (I've mentioned him here and here) at Be Glad for Our Failure to Catch up With China in Education | Psychology Today

Our schools are better than China’s because ours don’t work as well as theirs.

For more than 20 years we’ve had national educational goals aimed at emulating the Chinese (and Japanese and Korean) educational system. We’ve been working toward more centralization of control, more standardization of curricula and methods, and more student time in the classroom and at homework, all in an effort to produce higher scores on standardized tests. ...

You might think the Chinese educational leaders would be happy that their kids are scoring so high on these international competitions. But they’re not. ... At the same time that we are continuing to try to be more like them, they are trying—though without much success so far—to be more like us, or like we were before we began trying so hard to be like them. They see that their system is quashing creativity and initiative, with the result that it produces decent bureaucrats and number crunchers, but very few inventors and entrepreneurs.

The columnist is psychologist Peter Gray; his alternative reform direction is interesting, to put it mildly. I should write about that.

New York is #1

We're the top: CONVERSABLE ECONOMIST: U.S. Public Schools: Unequal Spending Across States

For the U.S. as a whole, average public school K-12 current spending per student was $10,560 in 2011, with 61% of that going to "instruction," and 35% going to "support services."
But four jurisdictions--New York, Wyoming, Alaska, and the District of Columbia--spend more than $16,000 per K-12 student, with New York leading the way at $19,076 per student. Conversely, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma,and Mississippi spend less than $8,000 per student, with Utah having the lowest tally at $6,212 per student. That is, New York spends on average three times as much per K-12 student as does Utah.

Of course, the money is well-spent.
Or then again, maybe not.

The US is #1

The United States has the highest number... BBC News - Lack of sleep blights pupils' education

The international comparison, carried out by Boston College, found the United States to have the highest number of sleep-deprived students, with 73% of 9 and 10-year-olds and 80% of 13 and 14-year-olds identified by their teachers as being adversely affected.
In literacy tests there were 76% of 9 and 10-year-olds lacking sleep.
This was much higher than the international average of 47% of primary pupils needing more sleep and 57% among the secondary age group...
So the tests were accompanied by questionnaires for teachers, pupils and parents about sleep patterns. And this information was compared with pupils' test results, so that the performance in maths, science and literacy could be compared with levels of sleep.
.... "Our data show that across countries internationally, on average, children who have more sleep achieve higher in maths, science and reading."

Well, maybe the school can't fix it. Or maybe school should simply start later. (A practical problem for parents getting off to work, though.) Or maybe every day should begin with a YogaNap class. It would be interesting to see what happened to test scores.
Or then again, maybe not.

Education Funding: the Null Hypothesis

It's hard to believe that more money doesn't produce better results. It's hard to believe the graphs that accompany Evaluating the Null Hypothesis in Education | askblog

there is no clear correlation between funding and school average performance; for a given level of funding, there is significant variation in performance the calculated correlation coefficient between the two variables was less than 0.1. In our view, this suggests that the level of funding, per se, is almost irrelevant as a predictor of performance.

Not absolutely irrelevant; only almost.
Or then again, maybe not.

America's "Best" High Schools (Newsweek/Daily Beast)

Radio Free Hamilton notes that HCS is #874 among the country's high schools "that have proven to be most effective at turning out college-ready grads." HCS Rates Among Best Public High Schools in U.S.

Only a handful of schools in the area were included on the list:

• Clinton 635th
• Cazenovia 903rd
• Skaneateles 941st
• Cooperstown 1,386th
• Vernon-Verona-Sherrill 1,896th

I would also note that New Hartford Senior High was #250, Jamesville DeWitt was #561, and Fayetteville-Manlius was #606. Morrisville was not on the list.