tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/alternative-education-2919/articlesAlternative education – The Conversation2023-07-03T00:35:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2087412023-07-03T00:35:57Z2023-07-03T00:35:57ZSchool of last resort: how to fix NZ’s vital but ignored alternative education system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535167/original/file-20230702-212410-kgb8rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C2771%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It wasn’t surprising when last week’s <a href="https://ero.govt.nz/our-research/an-alternative-education-support-for-our-most-disengaged-young-people">Education Review Office (ERO) report</a> found New Zealand’s alternative education (AE) system suffers from inadequate facilities, a lack of qualified teaching personnel and poor long-term outcomes. </p>
<p>After all, alternative education funding had <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/a-far-better-alternative-to-dropping-out/LDC43JABBWK7JDYSUOJIDANNU4/?c_id=1&objectid=10644999">remained static</a> for its first decade of operation, after which it received only minor increases until <a href="https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/publications/budget-2023/supporting-those-akonga-who-need-it-the-most/">this year’s government budget</a>. </p>
<p>This is despite around 2,000 young people each year accessing alternative education as a school of last resort, having been excluded or disengaged from mainstream secondary schools. </p>
<p>For many, behavioural and learning difficulties, and a cultural disconnection between school and home, have made schooling challenging. These young people have not received the help they needed earlier in their school years. </p>
<p>But beyond the immediate headlines that alternative education is <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/06/ero-slams-state-of-alternative-education-says-nz-s-most-vulnerable-learners-are-being-failed.html">failing students</a>, a closer reading of the report also reveals how successful the system has been, despite the challenges. Young people in AE told the ERO they:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/121647070/alternative-education-preferred-to-mainstream">greatly preferred learning</a> in the alternative system to their previous schools</p></li>
<li><p>receive help from their educators (97% of the time, compared to 44% in their old school)</p></li>
<li><p>feel safe (93% compared to 59% in their old school)</p></li>
<li><p>almost never feel lonely (81% compared to 56% in their old school)</p></li>
<li><p>feel cared for (84%) and that their culture is respected (87%).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>These young people also reported they had developed their own learning goals, and that their schoolwork was set at the right level. Surely those are things we would wish for all young people, whether in alternative education or not.</p>
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<h2>A system under pressure</h2>
<p>Time and time again, the caring and dedicated AE workforce has been shown to be central to these successes. </p>
<p>Many staff are not qualified teachers, but are <a href="https://www.dunmore.co.nz/p/education-the-tutor-transformational-educators-for-21st-century-learners">tutors</a> with community and youth work experience and training. They artfully mentor young people to develop prosocial skills. The success of their work was further highlighted in the <a href="https://www.youth19.ac.nz/publications/health-wellbeing-alternative-education">Youth19 AE report</a> also released last week.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mainstream-schools-need-to-take-back-responsibility-for-educating-disengaged-students-71988">Mainstream schools need to take back responsibility for educating disengaged students</a>
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<p>While the ERO report found fewer than one in ten AE students attain NCEA level 2, alternative education’s focus has to be elsewhere. As the report stated, students arrive in AE centres with large gaps in their basic education. They have to catch up on schooling as well as work on developing life and social skills.</p>
<p>Until only recently, students couldn’t stay in alternative education beyond the age of 16. Due to a lack of transitional support, many end up languishing in their later adolescent years.</p>
<p>At the same time, pressures on the system are growing, with more students entering alternative education with high and complex needs. Without adequate funding, others simply <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/129592638/more-children-out-of-school--government-failing-to-help-educators-say">cannot get in</a>.</p>
<h2>Out of sight, out of mind</h2>
<p>The problems in the AE system are in many ways a product of its origins. To begin with, it was never a government initiative. </p>
<p>In 1989, when the “Tomorrow’s Schools” reforms introduced competition between schools, vulnerable students soon became seen as liabilities because most struggled to meet the academic standards schools were judged on. </p>
<p>The 2019 <a href="https://conversation.education.govt.nz/conversations/tomorrows-schools-review/">Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce</a> found competition had exacerbated ethnic and socioeconomic segregation. Students suspended or excluded from their schools began turning up on the doorsteps of youth organisations, churches and iwi groups. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/millions-of-kids-get-suspended-or-expelled-each-year-but-it-doesnt-address-the-root-of-the-behavior-164539">Millions of kids get suspended or expelled each year – but it doesn't address the root of the behavior</a>
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<p>These communities established alternative education as a makeshift response. In 1996, there were 500 young people being educated in at least 60 AE centres nationwide – effectively educational facilities without government approval, so technically illegal.</p>
<p>Systematic government funding was finally made available in 2000. The fledgling sector became legitimate by virtue of young people being able to remain on a school roll while attending an alternative education centre somewhere else. </p>
<p>It was hailed at the time as a community-school partnership, but as the <a href="https://ero.govt.nz/our-research/secondary-schools-and-alternative-education-april-2011">ERO has found in the past</a>, once young people enter alternative education they have been largely out-of-sight, out-of-mind for referring schools.</p>
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<h2>Focus and funding needed</h2>
<p>Alternative education is not unique to New Zealand. Most Western countries have some system of catering for young people who need a different way of schooling. But New Zealand can do a lot better.</p>
<p>We need to consider how schools can best serve all young people to give them the best chance to stay engaged. Current research investigating <a href="http://www.tlri.org.nz/tlri-research/research-progress/school-sector/critical-moments-education-journeys-students">critical turning points</a> in the education journeys of AE students, due to be released later this year, will give us more insights. </p>
<p>But alternative education is here to stay. So we need to better support young people transitioning into and out of the system.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-need-to-teach-pupils-skills-to-maintain-good-mental-health-heres-how-95885">Schools need to teach pupils skills to maintain good mental health – here's how</a>
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<p>That means we need a bigger workforce of qualified teachers to work alongside tutors in alternative education. In turn, this will require increased funding and support from the Teachers Council of New Zealand to register teachers in this setting.</p>
<p>AE tutors also need to build and extend their expertise. New Zealand is behind other countries in offering qualifications to social educators – a unique profession that works alongside people to develop civic and life skills. </p>
<p>We might look to <a href="https://uclpress.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14324/111.444.ijsp.2020.v9.x.002">Denmark</a>, for example, where tertiary-qualified social educators are highly skilled at working with young people within and beyond mainstream schools.</p>
<p>But most importantly, we need to increase the focus on alternative education. It represents the last, best opportunity to make a sustained difference to the lives of these young people. The significant investment required now will pale in comparison to the future cost to society of failing them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian Schoone was a member of the Expert Advisory Group for ERO's Alternative Education report. He also advises the Alternative Education National Body, of which he was a past chairperson.</span></em></p>Despite a ‘damning’ report, the alternative education system still works wonders with students outside the mainstream. What it needs is more money and commitment.Adrian Schoone, Senior Lecturer in Education, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/719882017-02-13T03:04:27Z2017-02-13T03:04:27ZMainstream schools need to take back responsibility for educating disengaged students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/155597/original/image-20170206-18741-j3ps0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many young people drop out or are excluded from mainstream schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/educating-australia-35445">this series</a> we’ll explore how to improve schools in Australia. Some of the most prominent experts in the sector tackle key questions, including why we are not seeing much progress; whether we are assessing children in the most effective way; why parents need to listen to what the evidence tells us, and much more.</em></p>
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<p>Mainstream schools need to take back responsibility of educating all students, even those who have temporarily become disengaged in education. </p>
<p>An alternative education sector has rapidly expanded in recent decades as Australian federal and state policies have sought to keep disengaged and vulnerable young people in education.</p>
<p>Over 900 plus so-called flexible learning programs are operating throughout the country, within and outside mainstream schools, catering for more than <a href="http://dusseldorp.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Victoria-Institue-1-7-MB2.pdf">70,000 students</a> each year.</p>
<p>The growth of this sector can be seen as both a reflection of changing labour markets – paired with <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-get-young-people-into-work-we-first-need-to-understand-how-the-workplace-is-changing-65394">rising youth unemployment</a> – and a pragmatic response to <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-we-expelling-too-many-children-from-australian-schools-65162">exclusion practices</a> by education systems that are focused on academic achievement and outcomes. </p>
<p>Exclusion from school places makes vulnerable young people at <a href="http://apo.org.au/research/family-factors-early-school-leaving.pdf">greater risk</a> of long term unemployment, dependence on welfare, mental health issues and social isolation. </p>
<p>Young people unable to attend mainstream education then need to look for an educational alternative that addresses the complexity of their lives and needs. </p>
<h2>Can these students still get a good education?</h2>
<p>With success increasingly defined through <a href="http://www.myschool.edu.au/">league tables</a> and comparison of schools through national tests such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/naplan-results-reveal-little-change-in-literacy-and-numeracy-performance-here-are-some-key-takeaway-findings-70208">National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)</a>, a growing number (around 70,000) are no longer able to maintain their education in the mainstream system. </p>
<p>Many young people drop out or are <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-we-expelling-too-many-children-from-australian-schools-65162">excluded</a>. This is often because of their feelings of rejection and disillusionment with a system that fails to recognise the impacts of disadvantage, related social and mental health issues, and family trauma. </p>
<p>Ideally, alternative programs offer the potential of a curriculum that is individualised and relevant to their lived experiences. They offer:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>practical skills such as basic carpentry, motor maintenance or food preparation;</p></li>
<li><p>authentic learning experiences, which include real life tasks that are relevant to the student’s lived experience and facilitate success. For example, practical maths activities related to cooking and catering projects;</p></li>
<li><p>flexible learning that enables students to work at their own pace in small group or one-to-one situations;</p></li>
<li><p>a curriculum based on real-life scenarios, such as researching aspects of their local communities;</p></li>
<li><p>schooling that addresses the biological and developmental impacts of trauma before focusing on relationship-building and engagement with learning;</p></li>
<li><p>welfare and counselling support, which could include, for example, a school day consisting of two hours of counselling and two hours of classes.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Types of alternative education programs</h2>
<p>Alternative education activities in Australia fall into <a href="http://education.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1962718/User_croftsj_Stokes_26_Turnbull_Final_Web_18-5-16.pdf">three broad categories</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Programs within mainstream schools. These are usually aimed at keeping young people connected to school. Some are supported by philanthropic organisations, others by government initiatives.</p></li>
<li><p>Programs within Technical and Further Education (TAFE) or Adult and Continuing Education (ACE), such as Victorian Certificate of Alternative Learning (VCAL) (Years 11 and 12) or Certificate of General Education for Adults (to Year 10 level). </p></li>
<li><p>Standalone programs: often referred to as Flexible Learning Options (FLO). These programs operate either within mainstream settings but on separate sites or as separate schools in their own right. They typically offer alternative Year 9 to 12 options and/or curriculum and welfare support designed to meet the specific needs of their students, such as responding to the impact of trauma. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Such programs have the potential to support students at risk of disengaging entirely from mainstream education, but also to promote the resilience and well-being of all young people in mainstream schooling. This leads, in turn, to whole-school change that will benefit all students.</p>
<p>Many of the programs grapple with the delivery of a rigorous curriculum, the expectation of student academic achievement, and creating opportunities for students to return to mainstream education and training. </p>
<h2>Taking back responsibility</h2>
<p>Mainstream education needs to take back responsibility for adequately catering to the needs of a growing sector of marginalised young people, and learn to work in partnership with alternative education providers and community-based organisations to better support students. </p>
<p>One thing to consider is whether these sites of education offer a distinctive developmental approach that should influence curriculum and pedagogical design more widely.</p>
<p>Within the alternative sector, greater transparency is needed around curriculum and instructional quality, combined with better data on enrolments, course completion, and program outcomes. </p>
<p>We also need more consistent funding practices (many programs are dependent on the uncertainty of short-term grant allocations) and professional skills development.</p>
<p>These variables, consistently monitored and supported by effective local partnership between agencies, would contribute to a cultural shift in which Australian schools come to provide meaningful education for all young people, not just those engaged in the mainstream.</p>
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<p>• <em>The authors explore this theme further in a new book called <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/items/165663">Educating Australia: Challenges for the Decade Ahead</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fragmentation, inconsistency and a lack of accountability between alternative education providers means not all young people get access to a good education.Helen Stokes, Associate professor, The University of MelbourneMalcolm Turnbull, Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/302982014-08-12T13:28:24Z2014-08-12T13:28:24ZSteiner schools should adopt modern reading methods<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56307/original/d8j7cx95-1407852237.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ready to read but playing catch up.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-210165580/stock-photo-pupils-sitting-in-classroom-reading-books-at-the-elementary-school.html?src=5ZsI3y_yQ79YUInCclofSg-1-7">Pupils reading via wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A recent storm has emerged over <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-28646118">reports of secret government memos detailing complaints of bullying and racism</a> at Steiner schools in the UK. Steiner schools, built around the philosophy of Austrian educationalist Rudolf Steiner who died in 1925, are no strangers to criticism and controversy. But now the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-28598342">debate is heating up</a> on whether these schools should get public money. </p>
<p>I conducted detailed research into the way children learn to read at Steiner schools between 2007 and 2009, and gained a unique perspective on their approach to teaching literacy as well as the Steiner philosophy on life in general. While I didn’t see any direct signs of bullying, I saw some worrying signs of what happens when children don’t fit in. But I also witnessed some very positive aspects of the way children can flourish under the Steiner educational philosophy.</p>
<h2>Reading not as good as expected</h2>
<p>The main research project for my PhD focused on reading development. Steiner schools do not begin teaching children how to read until they are seven, therefore I was able to look at the effect of this later start by comparing a group of 30 Steiner-educated children with a group of 30 younger, mainstream-educated children, aged between four and five. I tested both groups four times during their first two years of learning to read.</p>
<p>At the start, <a href="http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/37626/">I found</a> the Steiner children were ahead of the younger comparison group in language, memory and their awareness of the sounds in words. As these skills have all been shown to predict reading progress, this meant they were more “ready” to begin the process of learning how to read. </p>
<p>But <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/000709910X522474/abstract">I found</a> that at the end of the first and second year, there was no difference in the word reading and reading comprehension performance between the Steiner-educated and mainstream-educated children, while the mainstream children were better at spelling. There was also evidence of a higher proportion of very poor readers at the Steiner schools.</p>
<h2>Old-fashioned methods</h2>
<p>The reasons for this lay in the way the Steiner teachers taught reading. In standard schools in the UK, children are taught how to read through a method called synthetic phonics (all 40+ sounds and their corresponding letters are taught), which is <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100526143644/http:/standards.dcsf.gov.uk/phonics/report.pdf">highly effective in producing</a> fast initial progress in word reading and spelling. </p>
<p>In contrast, Steiner schools use a more traditional, “whole-language” method which <a href="http://psi.sagepub.com/content/2/2/31.short">has been shown not to be</a> as effective. With this method, words are taught to be recognised as wholes with some reference to the sound of the initial letter. They also spend less time overall on literacy teaching. This is why they did not make faster progress, as would have been expected from their skills at the start. This is an example of where Steiner schools would benefit from adopting more modern teaching methods. </p>
<p>But in general, I think it is of benefit to start formal education later, allowing children time to develop their social and oral language skills. This was the principle recommendation of the independent 2009 <a href="http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/">Cambridge Primary review</a>, and since then the benefits of <a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-at-what-age-are-children-ready-for-school-29005">play for young children</a> have been clearly set out by researchers. </p>
<h2>Imagination shone through</h2>
<p>During my research, there were many things that I thought were good about Steiner education. In particular, the holistic, child-centered way in which the day was constructed. There was lots of time devoted to outdoor play, drawing, knitting and story-telling (activities that there is not enough time for in the mainstream schools). </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56289/original/5zdfwh8t-1407839594.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56289/original/5zdfwh8t-1407839594.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56289/original/5zdfwh8t-1407839594.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56289/original/5zdfwh8t-1407839594.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56289/original/5zdfwh8t-1407839594.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56289/original/5zdfwh8t-1407839594.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56289/original/5zdfwh8t-1407839594.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1027&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Teaching is based around the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARudolf_Steiner_um_1891.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>The children I tested were mostly happy and confident and the boys in particular thrived. There were more male teachers and those from continental Europe than usual, which fostered good modern language skills and a less “feminised” curriculum, with less time sitting quietly listening to female teachers. </p>
<p>I was amazed by the incredible imagination and art skill of the teachers. Almost daily I would come in to find a new spectacular drawing on the chalkboard. Some of the work I saw the children produce was excellent; beautiful crayon drawings and models to represent Viking dwellings. I loved the way everything was related – if they were learning about the Vikings, they’d write stories about it, draw it, model it, and do sums about it.</p>
<h2>You have to fit in</h2>
<p>The main difficulty was that Steiner children remain with the same teacher for an eight-year “cycle”. The teacher is the authority in the classroom and typically there are no teaching assistants or ability groupings. This meant that if you had a teacher you got on well with and who was good, you could thrive, but if the teacher was not so good and there was a personality clash, then things had the potential to go wrong. </p>
<p>For example, there was a high rate of absenteeism with several children on the register appearing not to have been at the school for weeks. At one of the schools, it was implied that a child had not attended all year because “the forces of the classroom did not agree with him”. I later found out that the child had behavioural difficulties. </p>
<p>In many ways, the Steiner philosophy is like a religion. You’re either a believer or a non-believer (one teacher even talked to me about his “conversion” after a previous life as a banker), and they expected everyone to be a believer both at home and at school. </p>
<p>For instance, part of the Steiner philosophy is not to expose children below the age of 12 to technology; so no TV, computer or video games. One mother confessed to me that her six-year-old daughter may not be offered a place in Class 1 because the teacher found out that she was watching the TV programme Strictly Come Dancing. On another day, during a discussion about one child at a staff meeting, the whole family was described as “not one of us” and the child’s place at the school questioned.</p>
<p>This said, there are many positive aspects of Steiner education that I would like to see incorporated into mainstream schools, such as a later start to formal lessons and a more holistic curriculum. But I would like to see these things done because research has shown they are good for children, not because they conform to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-creativity-capability-and-resilience-steiner-schools-work-24763">teachings of an Austrian man</a> who lived a hundred years ago. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30298/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Cunningham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recent storm has emerged over reports of secret government memos detailing complaints of bullying and racism at Steiner schools in the UK. Steiner schools, built around the philosophy of Austrian educationalist…Anna Cunningham, Research Fellow (Psychology), School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/264192014-05-13T14:42:43Z2014-05-13T14:42:43ZIt’s good TV, but most excluded boys can’t afford Mr Drew’s summer school<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48271/original/7qmvz59x-1399894948.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A summer with Mr Drew for all excluded boys?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Channel 4</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/mr-drews-school-for-boys">Mr Drew’s School for Boys</a>, currently showing on Channel Four, illustrates in graphic detail the kinds of behaviour that causes trouble in school. Eleven boys under the age of 12 who have either been excluded or are at risk of being so, were enrolled in a four-week residential summer school with their parents. Four teachers, a child psychologist and a headteacher – Mr Drew, first seen in the 2011 series Educating Essex – attempt to reform the boys and support their parents to be more consistent in their approach. </p>
<p>It’s worth looking at the figures on school exclusion to put the boys in the series in context. In England, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-from-schools-in-england-2011-to-2012-academic-year">5,170 young people were permanently excluded</a> from school in 2011-2012 and a further 162,400 received one or more fixed term exclusions. The number of students being permanently excluded has been steadily declining over the last decade, but this is still a worrying number of young people whose life chances will be lessened because of their inability to get on with and progress through their school. “Persistent disruption” can have serious consequences.</p>
<p>The majority of excluded pupils are working class boys who struggle with school and with school-work. They can often be found yelling out, walking out and generally acting out in ways that most schools aren’t prepared – or able – to put up with. So they are removed for a short period of time, or if they don’t change their behaviour, removed from the school for good.</p>
<h2>No miracle cure</h2>
<p>In Mr Drew’s school, the day follows a relatively conventional pattern. Students attend lessons in English, Maths, Science and PE. They go on excursions and play team sports. They eat school dinner together. </p>
<p>However, this is where the similarity to an ordinary school ends. Classes are small, and always have two adults in attendance, with others not far away if it all “kicks off”. All the staff, like Mr Drew himself, are supremely patient, balancing humour and positive regard for the boys and their parents with reason and a firm commitment to a basic set of behavioural rules. They are everything you might expect extremely good teachers to be.</p>
<p>Mr Drew is clear that this is no miracle cure. The residential experience is unlikely to result in a Hollywood-style salvation, where naughty boys come to stay, are transformed and then never get in trouble again. It is, Mr Drew suggests, a chance for the boys to have a positive educational experience and to develop some new responses to situations they previously found impossible. Their parents may also practice some new coping strategies. </p>
<p>But Mr Drew’s School for Boys is a pretty expensive intervention. A month of six professional salaries, plus boarding costs for the boys and their parents, doesn’t come cheap. </p>
<p>From September 2014, the pupil premium, an additional sum given to schools to provide additional support for vulnerable pupils is <a href="https://www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and-alternative-provision-settings">£1,300 for primary pupils, £935</a> for secondary aged pupils and £1,900 for looked-after children. These sums would come nowhere near the costs involved in Mr Drew’s summer school. </p>
<p>So what does this programme offer, other than providing a glimpse into the lives of some troubled and troubling boys and their parents? It does raise important questions. </p>
<p>First, about whether this is an option that can be extended. There are after all 5,170 permanently excluded young people in England, and potentially many more in the making. Assuming that a residential option does have a positive long-term effect – and we have only <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FyEiAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123&dq=effectiveness+of+residential+education+for+at+risk+youth&source=bl&ots=7nod4z-lxS&sig=RsugN5W2V4DrVkYF7lhPktZ75ZY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=37xwU8vBBcfAO-S_gOgF&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=effectiveness%20of%20residential%20education%20for%20at%20risk%20youth&f=false">very limited evidence</a> about this kind of programme – how can we provide this kind of intensive intervention for others who might benefit? </p>
<p>But this also raises the question of whether there are less expensive interventions that would have the same results. <a href="http://www.nfer.ac.uk/nfer/publications/lglc02/lglc02.pdf">Other early intervention methods</a> include intensive literacy support, behaviour support and work with families. Are there ways in which the problems that Mr Drew’s boys had could be dealt with earlier? </p>
<p>And it points to how schools themselves can provide more support for young people on the edges of education. Do they always have to be sent somewhere else? What kinds of changes might schools have to make to their curriculum, organisation and teaching in order to be more inclusive of young people? There is a growing body of evidence of <a href="http://alternativeducationresearch.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/best-practices-in-alternative-education/">best practice on what principles</a> works in alternative education. </p>
<p>Mr Drew’s real school, Brentwood County High School is actually taking on this challenge. Mr Drew announced on the school website that they <a href="http://www.bchs.essex.sch.uk/3/welcome">cut exclusions for year 7 to 11 pupils by 60% in 2012-13</a>. They are not the only school to do this, and there may well be wider benefits accrued by looking at these experiences than at the more novel residential approach. But of course this may not be such good television.</p>
<p>As the government comes to the end this July of a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190908/DFE-RR284.pdf">three-year trial</a> to give schools responsibility for providing alternative education for children who are excluded, these questions deserve wider debate. Perhaps Mr Drew’s School for Boys will be a catalyst for them to be aired.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26419/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pat Thomson receives funding from the Princes Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. </span></em></p>Mr Drew’s School for Boys, currently showing on Channel Four, illustrates in graphic detail the kinds of behaviour that causes trouble in school. Eleven boys under the age of 12 who have either been excluded…Pat Thomson, Professor of Education, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/234002014-04-06T20:09:33Z2014-04-06T20:09:33ZDo boys dislike school? Or just what they’re learning?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/44991/original/62nvmghk-1395979816.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Increasing boys' confidence by letting them focus on something they want to do offers a strategy to reengage them with school. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=130949135&size=medium&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTM5NjAwODM5NiwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTMwOTQ5MTM1IiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDEzMDk0OTEzNSIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xMzA5NDkxMzUvbWVkaXVtLmpwZyIsIm0iOiIxIiwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCJQRXVoNkJVNHg5SFlUTStPRDFVWlk1bEpCeXciXQ%2Fshutterstock_130949135.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=1&license=standard&src=iTuS1tQ1s-V9PuggNwvDdg-1-26">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the 1970s, a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stiffed-The-Betrayal-American-Man/dp/0380720450">panic</a> about “disaffected” boys <a href="http://www.genderandeducation.com/resources/contexts/the-boys-underachievement-debate/">underachieving in formal schooling</a> has gripped Western society. Despite efforts in Australia like <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=edt/eofb/report.htm">Boys: Getting It Right</a> and the UK <a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/RR636.pdf">Raising Boys Achievement</a>, this panic still exists, and academics and policy-makers still seek to improve boys’ engagement with school.</p>
<p>Despite the large amount of research available on boys and schooling, little work has been done on how boys engage with learning outside of the formal curriculum. No research has looked at re-engaging working-class boys with what they are passionate about. Music educationalist Lucy Green got the ball rolling with <a href="http://bit.ly/1fZdMw2">Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy</a>, but few scholars have tackled learning outside of the formal curriculum, and student-driven projects. </p>
<p>While schools often place little importance on students’ passions, such as alternative music, in favour of a literacy and numeracy based standard curriculum, engaging boys through their interests can offer a strategy to reengage them in formal schooling.</p>
<h2>The research</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/44993/original/bbcsvspp-1395979981.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/44993/original/bbcsvspp-1395979981.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/44993/original/bbcsvspp-1395979981.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/44993/original/bbcsvspp-1395979981.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/44993/original/bbcsvspp-1395979981.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=853&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/44993/original/bbcsvspp-1395979981.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/44993/original/bbcsvspp-1395979981.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/44993/original/bbcsvspp-1395979981.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Creating urban music reintroduced the boys to hard work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=115002919&size=medium&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTM5NjAwODc1NCwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTE1MDAyOTE5IiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDExNTAwMjkxOSIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xMTUwMDI5MTkvbWVkaXVtLmpwZyIsIm0iOiIxIiwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCJIZEtOSE9ENU1PZGdrWE1DWjIzRllLeUwvTlkiXQ%2Fshutterstock_115002919.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=1&license=standard&src=GV1oR0VnTCwtm-NSsAPCoQ-1-6">Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131725.2012.708386#.U0IjOK1dU0o">Research</a> into re-engaging boys disinterested in school was undertaken in Newcastle in north-east England. The case-study school was in a suburb with endemic unemployment since the late 1970s, and where many young men turn to crime to develop their masculine identities. </p>
<p>The study tried to understand what engaged boys, and critically examined the schools’ attitudes that alternative activities boys wanted to do were not legitimate, despite the boys’ passion for them.</p>
<p>The study asked whether the boys disengaged from school because they disliked the notion of learning, or because they were not interested in the content. Research showed boys were well engaged when studying their passions, in this case creating DJ and MC-based music.</p>
<h2>How can this help them re-engage with school?</h2>
<p>Participants in the study achieved self-discipline and hard work, as well as creating a balance between self-reliance and learning to use their supportive networks. Despite the effects of extreme poverty, the boys were highly driven when engaging in the act of urban music making.</p>
<p>Their music-making was vivacious, honed and highly controlled. While the boys were highly disengaged from formal education, the music worlds in which they immersed themselves provided support, validation and admiration which were not part of their formal education. Creative spaces, musical spaces in this instance, allowed the boys to feel moments of success that led them to question the way they had always seen themselves as learners. </p>
<p>Recognising where boys, particularly working-class boys, can make positive decisions, means understanding how they use new mediums to become learners and teachers amongst their peers and potentially beyond. DJ and MC-based music offered a strategy for re-engagement with formal schooling.</p>
<p>While the boys in this study may not have enjoyed their formal education, focusing on enhancing their skills in DJ-based music-making created a caring and supportive environment. They found improvements in their self-esteem, willingness to work hard, and their “practice makes perfect” determination. Confidence found in these positive experiences can translate back into the classroom where they had so often failed before. </p>
<h2>Why did they disengage in the first place?</h2>
<p>There has been over-emphasis on working-class boys who are resistant to education in studies of boys in school. Boys’ troubles with academia are often highlighted, but in truth the worst off are boys of colour, working-class, non-heterosexual and rural boys. As a result, there has been an under-emphasis on boys who engage with learning <em>despite</em> social and identity barriers. Too often research labels working-class boys as loutish or lazy, without looking at the reasons why they have disengaged from formal learning.</p>
<p>Another gap in the research on boys in schools is in the area of what boys actually want to achieve and how engagement with achievement-oriented activities can change their behaviours in school. </p>
<p>By not exploring where boys achieve and what this achievement means to them, we know little about how to reengage disenfranchised boys, especially those in the “at-risk” categories, with formal schooling. Learning why they disengaged to begin with, and how to re-engage them, is essential to improving the outcomes for boys in schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23400/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since the 1970s, a panic about “disaffected” boys underachieving in formal schooling has gripped Western society. Despite efforts in Australia like Boys: Getting It Right and the UK Raising Boys Achievement…Garth Stahl, Lecturer, Secondary English/Literacy Education, University of South AustraliaPete Dale, Senior Lecturer in Popular Music, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/194112013-10-23T13:00:46Z2013-10-23T13:00:46ZGrowth of academies and free schools reinforces student segregation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33499/original/bb8xhcbz-1382468845.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C303%2C3500%2C2211&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Al-Madinah school in Derby: making news for all the wrong reasons.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rui Vieira/PA Wire</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each new administration tends to try to improve compulsory education by introducing a new and purportedly better type of school. The current government has at least three, and is pushing vocational schools, free schools, and especially converter academies – state schools with more autonomy. There is now <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jan/28/academy-brokers-ofsted-pressure-schools-academies">considerable and not very subtle pressure</a> for many schools to convert into academies. </p>
<p>But none of these various types of school has been satisfactorily demonstrated to be more effective than any other, given equivalent pupil intake. Some, such as <a href="http://news.tes.co.uk/b/news/2013/12/12/al-madinah-free-school-quot-remains-in-chaos-quot-second-ofsted-inspection-finds.aspx">Derby’s Al-Madinah free school</a>, have even been labelled dysfunctional and threatened with closure. The expense of each of these new types of school and the disruption they have made to children’s lives and to their local communities have occurred with <a href="http://www.evaluationdesign.co.uk/the-new-book-overcoming-disadvantage-in-education/">no gain in terms of pupil attainment</a>.</p>
<p>Parliament’s Education Select Committee is now <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news/academies-and-free-schools1/">beginning an inquiry</a> into academies and free schools. </p>
<p>Although any one of these types of school might be a good idea, the way they have been introduced is somewhat unethical. Instead of being tested fairly against the best that was already on offer, they have simply been introduced in double-quick time. </p>
<p>Neither have they been introduced across the country so that all pupils could benefit from these schools that are “somehow known to be better”. This would be the fair and ethical thing to do if the superiority of free schools were genuinely to be believed. </p>
<p>Instead, they have been introduced in a piecemeal fashion. And now more than ever before, the nature of the school any pupil attends is related to where they live. This exacerbates levels of social and economic “segregation” between schools, and so <a href="http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10651544.print/">exacerbates divisions within society</a>.</p>
<h2>Segregation by poverty</h2>
<p>The extent to which pupils with similar characteristics are clustered in schools with others like them can be described as “segregation” – whether this is intentional (as in faith-based selection to schools), or a by-product (as in selection to grammar schools by prior attainment). </p>
<p>This tendency to cluster can be measured. Here the calculations are based on the <a href="http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/stats/schoolcensus/a00208045/school-census-2013">Annual Schools Census</a> of all pupils in England. </p>
<p>Taking, or being eligible for, free school meals is an indicator of whether pupils live in poverty. The level of free meal pupil segregation in any area (nationally, regionally or locally) <a href="http://dro.dur.ac.uk/10796/">is represented</a> as the proportion of those free meal pupils who would have to change schools if each school in the area was to have their fair share.</p>
<p>In any year, around one third of pupils living in poverty would have to change schools for all schools to have the same proportion of poor children, as the graph below illustrates. There are changes in this level over time and these largely reflect changes in the economy.</p>
<p>When, as after 2007, there is an economic downturn, the number of pupils entitled to free school meals tends to grow and this is linked to a slightly more even spread of such children. An exception to this is the decline in segregation from 1990 onwards, which runs against the economic cycle and is more strongly linked to an abrupt <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=USnT2GuchQ8C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Schools,+Markets+and+Choice+Policies,+London:+Routledge&ots=xlyrhAr424&sig=tT7UTHeDP26k_iHAel_s2N1bUGc#v=onepage&q=Schools%2C%20Markets%20and%20Choice%20Policies%2C%20London%3A%20Routledge&f=false">increase in school choice by parents</a>. </p>
<p>The graph below illustrates how far the national system is from an even distribution of children living in poverty. The lower the lines running along the X axis, the fairer the distribution between schools is of children who qualify for free school meals. As it is, the height of the lines on the graph show that around one third of poor children would have to change school (to a school with a lower level of free school meals) to create a national school system with a perfectly balanced intake. </p>
<p>Segregation by free school meals, all schools, England, 1989-2012</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33501/original/xjbdpmpc-1382473092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33501/original/xjbdpmpc-1382473092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33501/original/xjbdpmpc-1382473092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33501/original/xjbdpmpc-1382473092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33501/original/xjbdpmpc-1382473092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33501/original/xjbdpmpc-1382473092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33501/original/xjbdpmpc-1382473092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Annual Schools Census</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The causes of segregation</h2>
<p>Apart from these changes, the actual underlying level of free meal segregation (around 30% nationally) is relatively stubborn, and it has a number of causes. Partly it is due to the geography of the area surrounding each school, transport facilities, and the nature of the local population. However, the single largest educational determinant of segregation is the diversity of local schooling. </p>
<p>Those authorities that have mostly retained “bog-standard” community schools have a much fairer mix of pupil intakes. Those with grammar schools, faith-based schools, academies and especially those with academy converter schools have much higher levels of segregation. </p>
<p>For example, Trafford in the North East is an area with one of the highest levels of local segregation between schools because it retains a grammar school system. Shropshire, on the other hand, has a much lower level of segregation and has so far retained a clear majority of comprehensive schools maintained by the local authority.</p>
<p>Similarly, areas that have embraced academies also have much higher levels of local between-school segregation. In fact, there is a high correlation between local segregation by poverty and the number of converter academies in the area. Some of the new free schools have no pupils eligible for free school meals at all! In that respect, these new types of school are linked to as much social segregation as the entirely selective grammar schools. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>This unintended clustering of students within schools matters a great deal. A school’s mix of students influences how they are treated, how well they are taught, how well they learn, the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged, wider school outcomes such as students’ sense of justice, and longer-term outcomes such as levels of aspiration. </p>
<p>Clustering disadvantaged students together in selected schools simply does not work, and is all pain with no discernible gain. It is also easily avoidable. But the current policy on schooling seems determined to widen the poverty gradient, destroy the national nature of schooling and so make it matter more and more where any pupil lives. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19411/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Gorard has previously received funding from The British Academy</span></em></p>Each new administration tends to try to improve compulsory education by introducing a new and purportedly better type of school. The current government has at least three, and is pushing vocational schools…Stephen Gorard, Professor of Education and Public Policy, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.