(Press-News.org) EAST LANSING, Mich. — Despite criticism that local school boards are "dinosaurs" that need to be replaced, Americans support local control of their schools, Michigan State University education scholars argue in a new paper.
The public believes that all three levels of government – local, state and federal – should be involved in education policy and that local officials should be in charge of day-to-day operations of the schools, said Rebecca Jacobsen, lead researcher on the project.
Jacobsen, assistant professor of education, and doctoral student Andrew Saultz analyzed some 40 years of public surveys involving education. Their analysis, in Public Opinion Quarterly, comes as federal education initiatives such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top have led many policy advocates to focus on federal control of schools.
But Jacobsen said it's a mistake to discount the popularity of local school boards. There are more than 90,000 locally elected school board members serving on nearly 15,000 school boards in the United States.
"A lot of policymakers today think they can just go around the local boards; that the federal government can create a policy that goes directly to the schools or works around the existing institutions," Jacobsen said. "But that's not going to work in the long run, because local control is not dead. People still feel it plays an important role."
When it comes to policy decisions related to equitable funding and standards across all schools, the public favors state and federal government control, Jacobsen said.
"At the national level we want schools to be relatively equitably funded, and we want schools to teach relatively the same topics and make sure kids have access to the same types of curriculum," she said.
But the public also believes local officials should be in charge of "running schools" or "improving schools," the paper found. These findings are particularly powerful, Jacobsen said, given that this preference remains strong even as national policy discussions have criticized local control and taken steps to diminish local decision-making ability through policy changes.
"Some argue that local school governance is a 'dinosaur' that needs to be replaced, but local leaders are going to be the ones implementing these federal policies," Jacobsen said. "So if they're going to have a major hand in how these policies get shaped at the local level, then we better pay attention to their resources, their capabilities, and not just dismiss them."
INFORMATION:
Americans support local control of schools
2012-07-18
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Notre Dame, MIT economists demonstrate wage impacts of large microfinance program
2012-07-18
A major argument in favor of microfinance is that the poor who live in areas without banking services will gain higher returns on investments and increase their assets when provided with credit.
But a notable new study from the Consortium on Financial Systems and Poverty presents some of the first real evidence of microfinance impacts and indicates that the true returns of expanding access to credit are much more complex. Some of the greatest benefits to alleviating poverty, the study suggests, may be in the impact the programs have on driving up wages.
The research, ...
Female money doesn't buy male happiness
2012-07-18
Macho men whose partners earn more than they do have worse romantic relationships, in part because the difference in income is a strain for them, according to a new study by Patrick Coughlin and Jay Wade from Fordham University in the US. Conversely, men who are not so traditional in their masculinity do not place as much importance on the difference in income and, as a result, appear to have better quality relationships with their female partner. The work is published online in Springer's journal Sex Roles.
The breadwinner role for men is still the accepted norm in marriage, ...
Anti-Semitic violence down 27 percent, but harassment is on the rise
2012-07-18
Though 2011 saw a significant decline in major acts of violence against the Jewish population world-wide, anti-Semitic harassment and incitement, including verbal threats, insults, and abusive behavior, have escalated, according to this year's Antisemitism Worldwide General Analysis, a publication of Tel Aviv University's Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry. The yearly report is based on the Center's Moshe Kantor Database for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism.
Incidences of major violence, including the use of weapons, vandalism, ...
Punishment motivated by fairness, not revenge
2012-07-18
Researchers at UCL and Harvard have found that we punish cheats only when they end up better off than us, in a study that challenges the notion that punishment is motivated by revenge.
Published today in the journal Biology Letters, the research shows that victims of cheating compare their own payoffs with those of partners when making punishment decisions.
"Punishment is a costly behaviour which is often aimed at individuals that cheat during social interactions," said Dr Nichola Raihani (UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment), lead author of the study. "Imagine ...
Musical glove improves sensation, mobility for people with spinal cord injury
2012-07-18
VIDEO:
Researchers at Georgia Tech and Atlanta's Shepherd Center have created a wireless, musical glove that may improve sensation and motor skills for people with spinal cord injuries. The gadget, Mobile...
Click here for more information.
Georgia Tech researchers have created a wireless, musical glove that may improve sensation and motor skills for people with paralyzing spinal cord injury (SCI).
The gadget was successfully used by individuals with limited feeling or ...
Research update: Chips with self-assembling rectangles
2012-07-18
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Researchers at MIT have developed a new approach to creating the complex array of wires and connections on microchips, using a system of self-assembling polymers. The work could eventually lead to a way of making more densely packed components on memory chips and other devices.
The new method — developed by MIT visiting doctoral student Amir Tavakkoli of the National University of Singapore, along with two other graduate students and three professors in MIT's departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and Materials Science and ...
Thieving rodents: Did they save tropical trees?
2012-07-18
Big seeds produced by tropical trees such as black palms were probably once ingested and then left whole by huge mammals called gomphotheres.
Gomphotheres weighed more than a ton and dispersed the seeds over large distances.
But these Neotropical creatures disappeared more than 10,000 years ago. So why aren't large-seeded plants also extinct?
A paper published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that rodents may have taken over the seed-dispersal role of gomphotheres.
"The question has been: how did a tree like ...
Expert panel calls for new research approach to prevent youth violence
2012-07-18
San Diego, CA, July 17, 2012 – Most research into youth violence has sought to understand the risk factors that increase the likelihood of violence. Now, a federal panel has called for a new research approach to identify the protective factors that would reduce the likelihood that violence will happen. Grounded in the tools and insights of public health, the approach calls for studies that can guide the development of prevention strategies to reduce or eliminate risk factors, and add or enhance protective factors. The findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's ...
Cleaning with sunlight
2012-07-18
Summer is just around the corner and it's time to dust off the garden tables and chairs. But garden furniture that has been left in the shade too long is often covered with a slimy film of algae, moss, bacteria and fungi which is difficult or even impossible to remove. Scientists are now hoping that they can solve this problem by incorporating titanium dioxide molecules in the plastic used to make the garden chair and adding a little bit of sunlight. When these titanium dioxide molecules are 'activated' by the UV light in the sun's rays, they act as a kind of catalyst, ...
First snow leopards collared in Afghanistan
2012-07-18
WAKHAN CORRIDOR, AFGHANISTAN, (July 17, 2012) – Two snow leopards were captured, fitted with satellite collars, and released for the first time in Afghanistan by a team of Wildlife Conservation Society conservationists and Afghan veterinarians conducting research during a recent expedition.
The team successfully captured and released the male snow leopards on May 27 and June 8 respectively. Each cat was weighed, measured, fitted with a Vectronix satellite collar, and DNA samples were taken. After DNA samples, the healthy snow leopards were released and headed up the ...