Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
JIGSAW Group FISCHEL & MURRAY (Age Graded Schools (A teacher with…
JIGSAW Group FISCHEL & MURRAY
Combining School Districts
Most one-room schools were the only school in the district,6 so consolidation of several one-room schools almost always meant consolidation of several districts. Fischel, W. A Pg. 178
As school enrollments declined, a one-room school could not easily cut costs. There was only one teacher to start with, so the only cost- saving possibility was to consolidate with another school nearby. Fischel, W. A Pg. 181
The negatives of district consolidation were higher transport costs (including loss of children's availability for farm work) and less community control." Advocates of consolidation pointed to the possibility that taxes would be lower." Fischel, W. A Pg. 181
Fischel Abstract: American public school districts numbered more than 200,000 in 1910. By 1970
there were fewer than 20,000.
The decline was almost entirely accounted for by the consolidation of one-room, rural schools into larger school districts. Education leaders had Graduates of one-room schools found it
difficult to get into high school Rural districts that were not "making the grade" were
unattractive to home and farm buyers, and the threat of reduced property values induced voters to agree to consolidate.
Murray
The motivation for school district secession
“The prime background condition for school district secession is the manner in which we fund education in the USA. In most cases, schools are financed via regressive property taxes raised by municipalities."
"...affluent communities have a more solvent tax base, yet tend to tax themselves at a much lower rate than their less well-to-do counterparts in order to fund their respective schools."
“As the school population increases, teacher to pupil ratios decrease and other indicators of decline in the quality of local education emerge, affluent parents investigate other means of educating their children. Often, the combined weight of these factors pushes affluent parentsto send their children to private or parochial schools."
the nature of school distrect secession
“Secession involves a pair of conditions: 1) it is the redrawing of political boundaries in such a way as to allow for a change in jurisdiction over a territory and 2) the new political unit takes territory with it. School district secession meets both of these requirements in the most basic sense" (Murray, p. 53)
“If certain members of the community or the school board promote secession,they should not only show why such a break is necessary, but also should demonstrate that it is going to be viable in the immediate future. A secession that causes the new school district or the rump district financial despair does not serve the objective of promoting a reasonable system of institutions that provide all pupils with an appropriate education” (Murray, p.54)
‘pragmatic’ justifications by pro-secessionists
The complaint is that more affluent citizens are the victims of discriminatory redistribution. Being forced to pay more than the poor, especially for a school system not utilized, is a loss of benefit for these better-off citizens and places an unjustifiably high burden on them. The government continues to demand a greater sum of resources from the rich,..."
“The problem here is that, merely because citizens have the privilege of educating their children in the private domain, doesn’t mean they release themselves from the obligation of paying their share in the public system."
Age Graded Schools
A teacher with students in each cohort would have to cover on average six subjects in each grade. That would be forty-eight separate recitations per five-hour day, or six minutes per lesson.3 In theory, students would be in "study hall" for seven-eighths of the school day. Fischel, W. A Pg. 184
Age grading is relevant to school district consolidation because it required coordination between classes within the same school and
among other schools. (Fischel Pg.183)
The chief advantage of a graded class- room was that all students could be taught the same, age-appropriate material. A student who missed two weeks of school was in this setting a far greater liability to the rest of the class. The teacher would have to spend time with the truant to get him up to the level of the rest of the class, and this attention subtracted from the overall pace of the class. Fischel, W. A Pg. 183
Within the same school it was essential to have curricular in the upper grades follow from material taught in the immediately preceding grade. (Fischel, Pg.183)
One-room Schooling
One-room schools could not do age-graded education very well. Teachers with students in each of eight grades simply did not have time to give a separate recitation lesson in their individual grades. Fischel, W. A Pg. 184
The tide of age-graded schooling swept away local resistance to consolidation by making one-room schools obsolete. Just as the word-processing computer has vacuumed up even the most dedicated users of manual typewriters, age-graded schooling created an irresistible impetus for greater school expenditures. Fischel, W. A Pg. 182
Ungraded one-room schools were cheaper not just
because the teacher and building were less expensive, but because students could take as much or as little as they wanted of what the school
had to offer.(Fischel, Pg.182)
It makes it easier to integrate new students who transfer from another school into ongoing courses, and it simplifies the preparation of teachers who
change jobs. (Fischel. Pg.191)