Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: determinants of great schools

[Hans Tilstra (tilstra]

I recollect that research shows that the #1 determinant of a productive
school is the student population. Check out whether the sum of the parents'
education levels in the neighbourhood is high, which unfortunately
correlates with money. This is also how universities side-step their
teaching responsibilities: they've learned to set high thresholds, get
bright students and then, when they graduate, claim the credit!

As a teacher trained in western european approaches as Jena and Freinet, I
would have hoped that the quality of the teaching would be high on the list.
Apparently, Dalton scores a bit higher.

Even class size findings are ambivalent. It appears that smaller classes
sometimes trigger a relaxing of the teacher, who feels entitled to a normal
workload, whereas bigger classes trigger all sorts of undertakings such as
getting in volunteers and co-teaching etc.

;-) Hans Tilstra