This week on the Guardian Teacher Network you can find lots of fun resources in celebration of archaeology
Offer a class the chance to make fake poo, and they might think the teacher had lost the plot.
But making fake poo and learning how to excavate it is just one of the resources lined up for teachers on the Guardian Teacher Network this week – in celebration of the start of the 21st British Festival of Archaeology.
Continue reading...This week on the Guardian Teacher Network you can find lots of fun resources in celebration of archaeology
Offer a class the chance to make fake poo, and they might think the teacher had lost the plot.
But making fake poo and learning how to excavate it is just one of the resources lined up for teachers on the Guardian Teacher Network this week – in celebration of the start of the 21st British Festival of Archaeology.
Continue reading...How can one school get many more pupils into 'top' universities than another with the same exam marks? There may be a few secrets worth noting
Last week, a Cambridge tutor was visiting St Edward's college in Liverpool to talk to students about her subject – Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic – when the subject turned to university admissions. Neither Grace Taylor nor Natalie Allmark fancies delving into the murkier end of the Middle Ages themselves – they're hoping to study nutrition and engineering respectively – or indeed going to Cambridge, but they still found the meeting enlightening as they prepare to apply to university in an ever more competitive environment.
"She told us you've got to show commitment to your course, and go out and do extra reading," Taylor says. "You've got to show you're actually interested in it," Allmark adds. "I think that was really important."
It's this kind of provision that helped St Edward's, a Catholic academy with 1,200 pupils, to become one of just four non-selective state schools lauded in a recent Sutton Trust report as punching well above their weight in terms of the number of pupils they get both into university overall, relative to their exam results, and also into the 30 institutions defined as the most selective (the "Sutton Trust 30").
Much coverage of Degrees of Success, the trust's study into the higher education destinations of pupils at every school and college in England, focused on the astounding fact that just five – Westminster, Eton, St Paul's, St Paul's Girls' and Hills Road sixth form college in Cambridge – sent more students to Oxbridge over three years than 2,000 others combined.
The statistics also revealed predictable chasms between the success of state and independent institutions. But of equal concern to the Sutton Trust were the wide differences it exposed in the proportions getting into higher education between schools with similar exam results – especially for the highly selective universities.
Such contrasts appeared at all levels of results, the report says, and are a genuine cause for concern. It highlights two grammar schools with almost identical exam scores, one of which got 61% into Sutton Trust 30 institutions, while the figure at the other was only 27%. At two comprehensives in the north of England with similar results, the proportions were 23% and 55%.
Such disparities may be due in part to the backgrounds of pupils' parents and geographical factors, if schools are not close to any of the top universities. But the subjects offered and the information and guidance given to students are also likely to be to blame in many cases, according to the Sutton Trust. In February, the Russell Group published Informed Choices, its guidance for applicants, which acknowledged officially for the first time that the top universities favour traditional subjects at A-level, and warned them off taking too many "soft" subjects.
"Beyond the results they produce, schools appear to differ considerably in the levels of aspiration they engender in their pupils and in the quality of preparation for selection for higher education," the report says. "There are many good examples of effective IAG [information and guidance] throughout the state sector, but there is widespread concern that poor advice may be contributing to the low progression rates in many comprehensive schools and FE colleges."
Admissions staff in several of the top 30 institutions complain that it is commonplace for able candidates to apply for places on courses they're not qualified for.
Lee Elliot Major, the Sutton Trust's research director, says schools may be offering too many soft subjects. "It could be that students are doing the wrong subject mix. That can maximise league table performance, but it's not particularly good for kids' prospects after school."
So who's getting it right and how?
Pupils at St Edward's achieve an average score of 793 points in their A-levels – a little over the 2010 national average of 744.8. An A is worth 270 points, a B 240 points and a C 210 points in the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) scheme. But over three years (2007-2009) the school saw 91% of its year 13s go to university, and 46% get into Sutton Trust 30 institutions. Other schools with similar Ucas scores see between 60% and 80% of students go to university and 15% to 30% reach the most selective institutions.
The key to the school's success in these terms turns out to be fairly simple: the headteacher, John Waszek, has a firm philosophy of "quality over quantity" when it comes to exams, with most students studying four subjects at AS-level and dropping down to three for their A2 exams. Similarly, most do no more than nine GCSEs. So while their average overall scores are not sky-high, what the tables don't show is that pupils are doing pretty well at the exams they are sitting, and those are the results that are getting them into the best universities.
The school has also put particular effort into working out the most reliable way of accurately predicting A-level grades, to give all pupils the best chance of choosing their strongest subjects.
"It's about looking at where they are and trying to give them a range that's right for them," Waszek says. "I know very few universities that focus on overall scores. Offers are about what goes on in your best three subjects." Limiting the number of subjects means students are likely to do better in those they're focusing on, and means they also have time for activities such as music, sport and "just being teenagers".
St Edward's, a former grammar school, is a highly successful, hugely oversubscribed school – it has been graded as outstanding three times in a row by Ofsted, and last year saw 670 applications for 150 places. It selects 10% of its intake on musical aptitude, as it is entitled to do as a specialist school. The proportion of pupils on free school meals is well below the national average. In other words, its students are by no means disadvantaged.
But Waszek reckons it's probably still the case that the majority of pupils' parents did not go to university themselves. He points out that four out of five of the students given Oxbridge offers this year are from families in which the parents did not go to university. Pupils are encouraged to aspire to higher education from the time they enter the school, and in the sixth form there are frequent talks from staff and experts about applications. For a communications skills day in year 12 they must all produce CVs and covering letters, and have mock interviews with local business people and professionals.
Allmark says she feels well supported over what is an increasingly fraught decision. "They don't just push you to apply for Oxford and Cambridge just because they're supposed to be the best. They're good at helping you make the decision that's right for you. Everyone feels the pressure to choose the right university. You don't want to go and then hate it."
Fellow student Mark Dickinson chips in: "Especially with the fees now."
It's a theme picked up by Andy Gardner, a careers adviser and a representative of the Institute of Career Guidance (ICG) who helped to write Informed Choices. Too many schools still don't give pupils enough decent advice, he says.
"If you're buying a house, you've got two people to help you, a solicitor and a surveyor. If you're buying a car, you get the AA to check it out for you. But when young people are choosing a university, they're making this huge decision with a really patchy system of advice.
"Many schools don't have a system whereby young people in the sixth form can book in with somebody who's trained in advice and guidance and talk through their individual situation.
"They're often making choices that are not informed. It's as simple as that."
The problem can be particularly acute for students destined for sixth-form college who are choosing A-level subjects at schools that don't have a sixth form and are not investing time in guidance.
And incredibly, admissions tutors at all types of universities report coming across students who have picked first-choice and insurance offers that have the same grade requirements, apparently failing to understand that the insurance offer should be a back-up if they don't make the grades. "That has to be an example of schools not having good systems of IAG," Gardner says.
One of the Sutton Trust's aims with the Degrees of Success report was to give parents and pupils a league table that would be more meaningful than one that gave exam results but did not indicate what success they had translated to in the outside world. Yet it admits that there are bound to be subtleties that the figures cannot convey, especially when it comes to reasons for an apparent lack of success in translating results into degree places.
Burgate school and sixth form centre in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, has an average QCDA points score of 886, higher than that of St Edward's, but according to the report gets only 65% of students into higher education and 19% into top 30 universities.
The assistant head, Katja Gibson, says the trust's overall figure is lower than the reality because it doesn't take into account all students who went on a gap year. The figure for the number of 2010 leavers going to university is 83%.
As for the number getting to the "top" universities, it may have more to do with geography and economics than anything else. Careers guidance is full and thorough, with a strong focus on how to get to Russell Group institutions, Gibson says, but students may choose different institutions. "We've got some other good universities around here. A lot of it is students aren't going so far away from home, for financial reasons." Both Portsmouth and Winchester are popular.
It's a similar story elsewhere. Dover Grammar school for girls is the school highlighted by the Sutton Trust as getting a much lower proportion of pupils into top 30 universities than another grammar with similar results, Torquay Boys – both are rated outstanding. Dover's QCDA points score is 1,091 and Torquay's 1,061.
But the headteacher, Matthew Bartlett, says the disparity is partly because around 20% of his students go to the University of Kent, which the school rates highly, but which is not in the Sutton Trust 30. "This choice is in many instances a pragmatic one, based on the need to live at home due to economic and social factors," he says. "Students choose Kent as the best university closest to them."
Dover students take more subjects on average than those in the Torquay school – five as opposed to four, based on a belief that breadth and depth will make them "well-educated young adults who are ready for their futures". That means the grades they are getting to achieve similar overall scores are lower and they're making fewer applications to the top universities.
"Why are the grades lower? Simply because we are committed to access for all of our students, and set a lower entry criteria, welcoming not just the highest achievers at GCSE," Bartlett says. "The lower grades at A-level will represent a very significant achievement for these students." Overall, 92% of students go to university, higher than Torquay's 87%.
Waszek, too, points out that a large number of his pupils, for financial reasons, go to Liverpool University. It is one of the Sutton Trust's top 30, and if it weren't, he admits the school probably would not be doing so well in the table.
Gardner's fear is that for pupils lacking good advice – very often those from disadvantaged backgrounds – the situation is only going to get worse, given the huge cuts to the Connexions careers service. Earlier this year, a survey by the public sector union Unison found that 8,000 advisers across England were losing their jobs, with some services closing completely. The ICG is worried many will have no one to give them crucial advice during clearing.
"Connexions was really getting into talking to young people about the Informed Choices decisions," Gardner says.
"Middle-class parents are picking up on it and telling their kids, but if it's a working-class kid in a provincial school, there's every chance they might not pick up on that. It looks pretty bleak."
How can one school get many more pupils into 'top' universities than another with the same exam marks? There may be a few secrets worth noting
Last week, a Cambridge tutor was visiting St Edward's college in Liverpool to talk to students about her subject – Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic – when the subject turned to university admissions. Neither Grace Taylor nor Natalie Allmark fancies delving into the murkier end of the Middle Ages themselves – they're hoping to study nutrition and engineering respectively – or indeed going to Cambridge, but they still found the meeting enlightening as they prepare to apply to university in an ever more competitive environment.
"She told us you've got to show commitment to your course, and go out and do extra reading," Taylor says. "You've got to show you're actually interested in it," Allmark adds. "I think that was really important."
Continue reading...How can one school get many more pupils into 'top' universities than another with the same exam marks? There may be a few secrets worth noting
Last week, a Cambridge tutor was visiting St Edward's college in Liverpool to talk to students about her subject – Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic – when the subject turned to university admissions. Neither Grace Taylor nor Natalie Allmark fancies delving into the murkier end of the Middle Ages themselves – they're hoping to study nutrition and engineering respectively – or indeed going to Cambridge, but they still found the meeting enlightening as they prepare to apply to university in an ever more competitive environment.
"She told us you've got to show commitment to your course, and go out and do extra reading," Taylor says. "You've got to show you're actually interested in it," Allmark adds. "I think that was really important."
Continue reading...Why are young people who take apprenticeships rather than A-levels unable to get on to degree courses?
Andy Huckle had always been interested in politics, so when he heard that his local MP was looking for an apprentice, he saw it as the ideal opportunity to gain experience and qualifications. After a tough interview process, he was taken on to be apprentice to the Tory MP for Harlow, Rob Halfon, assisting him in parliament and his constituency while working towards a level-3 qualification (equivalent to A-level standard) in business administration at Harlow College.
Before starting his apprenticeship, Huckle had passed four AS-levels with B grades and had hoped this, along with his apprenticeship qualification and parliamentary experience, would help him to secure a place at university.
Over the past year, he has drafted speeches and early day motions, and done extensive research on the Middle East uprising and other international issues.
But Huckle has found his apprenticeship – a qualification that is not currently recognised by the universities admissions service Ucas – is of little worth to him. The universities of East Anglia, Essex, Exeter and Leeds have all rejected his application to study international relations, and he now faces the prospect of going back to college at 20 to complete his A-levels.
Although he was aware that apprenticeships did not appear on the Ucas tariff (the system used for allocating points to qualifications for entry to university), Huckle says he felt sure admissions officers would look at the "whole package" of qualifications and experience he had and make a judgment on that. "It's so frustrating, because I feel ready for university. I'd have been happy to go to an interview, take an exam, show them examples of the work I've done this year – whatever it took to prove my worth – but they all just rejected my application."
Lucy Atkinson is another former apprentice finding it difficult to progress to higher education. She completed an apprenticeship in IT in 2008 and enjoys her work as a helpdesk technician in a hospital, but would love to become a teacher. Like Huckle, she has been rejected by a number of universities, which she believes is down to the fact that she has an apprenticeship rather than A-levels. "It's madness: employers are complaining that graduates are coming out of university with no work experience, while people with on-the-job experience are being turned away from university courses."
Both Huckle and Atkinson would probably be accepted on a foundation degree course (two-year degrees with a more vocational focus that can be "topped up" to a full degree at a later date), which typically have more flexible entry requirements. But Atkinson says this is unfair. "I don't see why I should have less choice, just because I opted for the vocational route. I got good GCSE grades and did well in my apprenticeship – why should I be penalised?"
Dave Thompson from the Consortium for Learning (CfL), a charity based in Humberside that aims to raise the profile of work-based learning, says his organisation has been campaigning on the issue for some years – with little success. While there has been regular dialogue with government departments, the National Apprenticeship Service (the government body responsible for apprenticeships in England) and Ucas, "it just doesn't seem to be a priority", he says.
"There is this common perception that people who do apprenticeships are less academically able, but that is just not the case. For some routes, particularly advanced apprenticeships, the requirement is five A*-C grades at GCSE at least."
Thompson points out that many apprentices may want to follow academic routes, for example, accountancy apprentices who may need a degree to become a chartered accountant.
Childcare is another example. The government is keen for nurseries and other early-years settings to be led by graduates, but Penny Buckmaster, who looks after the training of early-years workers at Chichester College in West Sussex, says the lack of recognition for apprenticeships is stopping bright, capable early-years workers from getting on. "We had a young lady who completed her advanced apprenticeship in children's care, learning and development and was refused entry to a teacher training course as the university didn't recognise her qualifications."
The university did eventually accept the student after seeing proof of her grades in different components of her apprenticeship, but under new regulations, introduced earlier this year (known as the Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England, or Sase) more apprenticeships are "competency based", which means learners simply pass or fail. So even if universities take the trouble to "vet" applicants with apprenticeships, they may not have enough evidence to make a decision.
CfL puts on activities for apprentices to encourage them to think about going to university, ranging from seminars on essay-writing and taking notes in lectures to tours of universities. The organisation has strong links with Hull University, an institution that is willing to consider applicants with apprenticeships, but Thompson says change is needed on a much wider scale. "This is a situation that can only be resolved by the government, Ucas and universities getting together," he says.
Kate Shoesmith, senior policy and practice manager for the City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development, agrees. "It's worth noting that a number of universities do accept those who have completed apprenticeships by reviewing their portfolios and through interviews. What we need now is a more holistic policy that sets out roles and responsibilities for everyone involved in the system. That way we can have greater clarity about what the entrance requirements are for university, which will give learners a better chance of knowing how to take the routes they want."
That apprenticeships are still not recognised by many higher education providers is an anomaly that seems particularly baffling at a time when the government says it is investing so heavily in vocational learning, with funding allocated to deliver over 360,000 apprenticeships this year alone.
Ucas says it is currently carrying out a review of its tariff that could lead to the inclusion of a wider range of qualifications. A spokesman said: "We recognise the importance of developing a qualification information and evaluation system that incorporates as wide a range of qualifications as possible. We are committed to supporting progression to HE from a broad range of qualifications, including vocational ones."
The universities minister, David Willetts, says: "The government is committed to more diverse pathways into higher education, including via the expanded and improved apprenticeships programme. We are working closely with Ucas as it reviews its tariff system, to ensure that vocational awards and apprenticeships are properly considered."
But Buckmaster thinks this could be too little, too late. "By not recognising apprenticeships as valid qualifications, universities are denying the workforce skilled employees, and cheating many motivated and competent young people out of higher education."
• This article was amended on 19 July 2011 because the original incorrectly named a former apprentice as Lucy Atkins.
Why are young people who take apprenticeships rather than A-levels unable to get on to degree courses?
Andy Huckle had always been interested in politics, so when he heard that his local MP was looking for an apprentice, he saw it as the ideal opportunity to gain experience and qualifications. After a tough interview process, he was taken on to be apprentice to the Tory MP for Harlow, Rob Halfon, assisting him in parliament and his constituency while working towards a level-3 qualification (equivalent to A-level standard) in business administration at Harlow College.
Before starting his apprenticeship, Huckle had passed four AS-levels with B grades and had hoped this, along with his apprenticeship qualification and parliamentary experience, would help him to secure a place at university.
Continue reading...Why are young people who take apprenticeships rather than A-levels unable to get on to degree courses?
Andy Huckle had always been interested in politics, so when he heard that his local MP was looking for an apprentice, he saw it as the ideal opportunity to gain experience and qualifications. After a tough interview process, he was taken on to be apprentice to the Tory MP for Harlow, Rob Halfon, assisting him in parliament and his constituency while working towards a level-3 qualification (equivalent to A-level standard) in business administration at Harlow College.
Before starting his apprenticeship, Huckle had passed four AS-levels with B grades and had hoped this, along with his apprenticeship qualification and parliamentary experience, would help him to secure a place at university.
Continue reading...The government's record on social mobility is poor, says Mike Baker, but it could do better if it took the controversial step of reserving places for students from less privileged backgrounds
"It is a unique source of shame that England has the worst record for social mobility." That was the message from the education secretary, Michael Gove, at last week's launch of the Education Endowment Fund, which aims to tackle educational disadvantage.
Perhaps only he could so elegantly weave a quotation from the 18th-century author Oliver Goldsmith ("Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ill a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay"), into a speech about education and social mobility. He argued that what was true in Goldsmith's time is true again today, with a growing number of young people condemned to educational disadvantage by accident of birth.
But has this government's high rhetoric on social mobility been matched by action? Let's examine their credit and debit account.
On the positive side, they are putting £125m into the new fund, which will go to develop projects aimed at raising the attainment of the poorest children in the lowest-performing schools.
Its real value will be as seed-money, encouraging innovative projects (I declare an interest as a member of its advisory board). But the amount is tiny compared to the overall education budget.
A bigger financial commitment comes with the pupil premium, worth £2.5bn a year from 2014-15. But, for all the fanfare, only a quarter of that sum will be spent in 2011-12, with the premium worth only £430 per pupil. For many schools, this will barely compensate for reductions elsewhere in their budget.
The third positive might be the English baccalaureate (Ebacc). While this risks becoming a straitjacket for many schools – limiting the curriculum for those who would benefit from vocational options – it should benefit some academically able students at less successful schools who might otherwise limit their university options by taking inappropriate subjects at 16.
So, credit where it's due, there are some positives. But they are outweighed by negatives. Top of the list is abolition of the education maintenance allowance (EMA), which helped 650,000 students from poorer homes to stay in post-16 study. Although the government eventually announced its partial replacement by a new bursary scheme (only worth around one-third of the EMA budget), the damage had been done with young people.
Equally damaging is the scrapping of Aimhigher, the scheme that encouraged wider participation at university by providing advice, summer schools, mentors and campus visits for pupils from 14 upwards. As the university system becomes an even more expensive and complex market, this kind of help will be even more necessary for pupils from families with little history of higher education.
And that brings us to the big one: tuition fees. With most universities charging close to £9,000, the new cost of university is likely, despite the availability of bursaries, to have a disproportionately negative effect on students from poorer homes.
There is plenty more on the negative side: the failure to act on post-qualification admissions, the damaging changes to the schools careers advice service, and the predicted advantage to middle-class students of the plans to allow universities to expand places for those with A,A,B grades at A-level.
So with such a poor report card, what could the government do to live up to its own rhetoric? Well, it could limit top universities to admitting a fixed number of students from any single school. That would deal with the extraordinary statistic, revealed by the Sutton Trust, that just five schools (four of them expensive independents) sent more pupils to Oxbridge than 2,000 other schools combined.
Another bold suggestion would be for the top 10% of students in any individual school to be guaranteed a place at leading universities. Similar schemes exist in the US and recognise the achievement of these pupils in rising to the top of their school, whatever the disadvantages of living in their neighbourhood or attending a less effective school.
The Sutton Trust estimates that, if 45% of places were reserved for such a scheme, it could result in an extra 10,000 state school pupils getting into the top 30 universities, boosting their state-educated intake from 75% to 80%, getting closer to the balance of the school population as a whole.
These policies would undoubtedly be controversial. But if Michael Gove wants to translate his passion for social mobility into action, it's the sort of bold step he should consider.
The government's record on social mobility is poor, says Mike Baker, but it could do better if it took the controversial step of reserving places for students from less privileged backgrounds
"It is a unique source of shame that England has the worst record for social mobility." That was the message from the education secretary, Michael Gove, at last week's launch of the Education Endowment Fund, which aims to tackle educational disadvantage.
Perhaps only he could so elegantly weave a quotation from the 18th-century author Oliver Goldsmith ("Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ill a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay"), into a speech about education and social mobility. He argued that what was true in Goldsmith's time is true again today, with a growing number of young people condemned to educational disadvantage by accident of birth.
Continue reading...The government's record on social mobility is poor, says Mike Baker, but it could do better if it took the controversial step of reserving places for students from less privileged backgrounds
"It is a unique source of shame that England has the worst record for social mobility." That was the message from the education secretary, Michael Gove, at last week's launch of the Education Endowment Fund, which aims to tackle educational disadvantage.
Perhaps only he could so elegantly weave a quotation from the 18th-century author Oliver Goldsmith ("Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ill a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay"), into a speech about education and social mobility. He argued that what was true in Goldsmith's time is true again today, with a growing number of young people condemned to educational disadvantage by accident of birth.
Continue reading...As private providers eye up opportunities in the UK, economist Morton Schapiro says other universities can learn from them
On the face of it, US universities are booming. The most competitive can afford to be more selective than ever before. And in the country that invented mass higher education, there is now a place at university for virtually anyone who graduates from high school.
Of course, some say this is the boom that presages a bust. Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who backed Facebook, has described education as "a bubble in a classic sense".
Morton Schapiro, an economist who specialises in higher education, gives this short shrift. "A 30-year bubble – the increased focus on 50 of us [elite US universities] that started in the late 1970s and has continued since, that's one hell of a bubble. That's not tulips," he says, a reference to the speculative bubble in tulip bulb prices in 17th-century Holland.
Schapiro, speaking to me on a visit to London, is president of Northwestern, a private research-intensive university in Illinois. It is one of those elite institutions – 29th in the world ranking produced by Shanghai Jiao Tong university, a few places behind Imperial. This year, it had 31,000 applications for an intake of 2,000.
His view is that private and for-profit universities are destined to continue thriving. But the outlook is bleaker for the public sector.
It's a scenario that could become familiar here. A recent survey of vice-chancellors suggested that more than a third are looking outside the public sector for growth. The survey, for PA Consulting, identified two institutions actively considering going private, and nearly a quarter that expected government-funded activities to become less relevant to their business planning.
Meanwhile, around half foresaw institutional failures and the takeover of struggling universities. BPP, the for-profit university, has launched an expansion strategy to run at least 10 public universities.
Schapiro says: "The real problem in American higher education is we have great public [universities] as well as private ones but the publics are struggling. They are supported by and large by the states, and the states are having a really tough time, critically, in the aftermath of the great recession, they have reallocated funding away from higher education."
The loss of funding for public universities creates an opportunity for the private sector. At a university struggling for resources, it takes students longer to complete the components of their course. Schapiro suggests that a typical four-year course could balloon into five or more. This makes the difference in price between the sectors easier to justify, he argues. "If you can go to one school like Northwestern and can get a degree in four years ... as opposed to taking five and a half, that difference of 12 to 18 months eliminates a fair share of the differential tuition.
"People say to me, it's so much cheaper to go to a public. Not if you think about the opportunity cost of your time. And the opportunity cost of your time is high if the counter-factual is: 'you're going to go to a private and you already have a degree'."
From a social pespective, this loss of funding for public universities is regrettable, as Schapiro is quick to point out. But it does hand universities like his – and the for-profit sector – an advantage.
"You ask about, say, the next 10 years, and I don't see the publics rebounding. Unfortunately, from a social point of view, they are really struggling. Look at the University of California, which is the flagship public programme. They have been decimated by budget cuts. It's terrible for California, it's terrible for the US, it's terrible for the world."
The English and US systems are hard to compare. Our universities are more independent of the state than US public institutions. Lavish endowment funds are central to the financial stability of their private institutions, while even the wealthiest of ours remain dependent on public funding.
The English analogy to America's savaged public sector might be the squeezed middle rank of universities, which have seen their teaching grant cut and are now at risk of losing student places at both ends of the spectrum – to more prestigious universities on quality, and to cheaper ones on cost. Meanwhile, for-profit education providers are snapping at their heels.
Schapiro praises the for-profit sector in the US. The biggest of these, the University of Phoenix, educates more than 400,000 undergraduates. "At their best, some of the for-profits could teach us things, they leverage student aid more effectively than some of the rest of us do. They get every dollar of student aid," Schapiro says. "Sometimes they work pretty closely with business, with specific firms.
"At their best, they're not exactly the enemy and the end of all goodness that some people think. There's a system of community colleges, two-year colleges in the US, and they may compete with them, or less selective comprehensive publics.
"I like competitive markets ... If schools can't really prove their value, they lose some students to the for-profit sector."
The increased competition the government proposes for England's universities may lead to greater specialisation. Critics warn that the recent white paper could lead to a more stratified sector, with the most prestigious brand names scooping up the highest-achieving candidates, an expansion of cheaper providers and middle-ranking institutions getting squeezed.
Schapiro describes the variety of the US system with approval. This ranges from the simple diversity of location to ones of scale; Schapiro's previous job was as president of a liberal arts college with just 2,000 students.
"I like that idea [of specialisation] – we're really well known for journalism ... we have engineering, we have a music school, but we don't have other things. We don't do undergraduate business, [or] urban planning. We don't have a school of architecture, [or] a public policy school."
Schapiro doesn't believe degrees are merely signals of underlying ability. This charge, that the university system is failing to educate young people, is levelled in the controversial new book Academically Adrift, by sociologists Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia.
The authors say that, according to their analysis of more than 2,300 undergraduates at 24 institutions, 45% demonstrate "no significant improvement in a range of skills – including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing – during their first two years of college".
Schapiro responds to this by saying: "Most universities in the US are open enrolment – they'll take anybody who applies. If you're talking about selective privates or selective publics, it's a whole different clientele, a whole different purpose." There's no question that the "most highly selective, heavily endowed" universities add a lot of value, he says.
In any case, he adds, if the purpose of university were simply to screen out the most talented individuals rather than develop students' potential, "you would probably develop a screen that's less expensive than taking four years of your life and possibly $200,000 [£124,000]".
As private providers eye up opportunities in the UK, economist Morton Schapiro says other universities can learn from them
On the face of it, US universities are booming. The most competitive can afford to be more selective than ever before. And in the country that invented mass higher education, there is now a place at university for virtually anyone who graduates from high school.
Of course, some say this is the boom that presages a bust. Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who backed Facebook, has described education as "a bubble in a classic sense".
Continue reading...As private providers eye up opportunities in the UK, economist Morton Schapiro says other universities can learn from them
On the face of it, US universities are booming. The most competitive can afford to be more selective than ever before. And in the country that invented mass higher education, there is now a place at university for virtually anyone who graduates from high school.
Of course, some say this is the boom that presages a bust. Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist who backed Facebook, has described education as "a bubble in a classic sense".
Continue reading...Top marks for being gay-friendly go to Imperial College, UCL, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth
In his first year at Bath University, Felix Slade had a housemate who regularly used the words "poof", "bender" and "batty boy", and described anything negative as "gay". "I would address this with him in a non-aggressive way, but it appeared to make very little difference," he says.
Yet Slade's experience at Bath has been "incredible". "The strong presence of a prominent and proactive student group has meant that I have been able to embrace all aspects of being gay in a really healthy and well-rounded way," he says. "I have absolutely loved being a gay student."
Bath met eight out of the 10 criteria measured in this year's online university guide Gay by Degrees, produced by Stonewall, which campaigns for equality and justice for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals.
Last year, the launch year of the guide, no institution met every criterion, but this year four did: Imperial College, University College London, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth.
Chris Dye, Stonewall's education officer, who helped to put together the guide, suggests its very existence has prompted institutions to improve. "All universities were notified last year that they were being profiled," he says. "The checklist has allowed them to compare themselves with other institutions and that may be why they have got better."
How far higher education institutions have progressed in promoting gender equality is also shown by the fact that this year, five universities were included in Stonewall's index of top 100 gay-friendly employers – Liverpool John Moores, Salford, Cardiff, Imperial and Cambridge, when only two were included last year.
Dye suggests that the Equality Act 2010, which simplifies and strengthens existing legislation, may have made a difference, as has the prospect of higher tuition fees. "People will be looking a lot more to get value for money generally and LGBT students will want to know exactly what their university is providing for them," he says.
Mike Lawson, an automotive engineering student and chair of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Society at Wolverhampton University, says that things have improved noticeably in the two years he has been there, with better structures for students to voice any concerns. The university has strong staff and student LGBT networks and the LGBT Society recently campaigned successfully for transgender toilets in the student union.
"If we have a problem, there are people we know we can go to and say 'we don't think this is fair'," he says. "Things like that do get fixed."
He says he has always felt accepted, even by the "butch lads" on his engineering course, but that the LGBT Society has been invaluable. "It has been great for my personal development, confidence, friendships and for connecting me with loads of other people," he says.
Jak Hammond, a second-year digital forensics student and social secretary of the LGBT Society at Portsmouth University, says the LGBT group of staff and students at Portsmouth is open and approachable and "care about each other" without being cliquey in any way.
LGBT issues were fundamental to his choice of university, he says. "I wanted to make sure I could get to a university where I could enjoy it, but also be myself."
Dye says LGBT pupils often have a hard time at school, with 65% experiencing homophobic bullying and most of them finding their schoolwork affected, so they want university to be different.
The guide assesses 160 universities according to whether they have a policy that protects LGBT students from bullying, whether they have compulsory staff training on LGBT issues and a student LGBT society, whether they offer information on LGBT issues, specialised events, explicit welfare provision, consultation and career advice for LGBT students, whether they have an LGBT staff network, and whether they are members of Stonewall's diversity champion's programme, a network of organisations that work together, and with Stonewall, to ensure a working environment where everyone can be themselves.
This year, the assessment was based entirely on information available in the public domain because Stonewall felt it was important to measure not only what provisions institutions had in place, but also how accessible information on these provisions was to prospective students. As the guide is online, it can be updated throughout the year.
While more institutions than last year have met at least eight of the criteria, there is huge diversity in the sector, with some, including Middlesex (new fees: £8,602), Glasgow Caledonian and Ulster meeting just one, and others, including Buckingham and the University of the Highlands and Islands, meeting none at all.
But Stonewall has been careful not to rank institutions, arguing that different LGBT students may want different kinds of support, and says a low score does not necessarily indicate that an institution is not LGBT-friendly. Smaller institutions, for example, may not be able to offer as many societies and events.
Instead, it aims to help students make an informed decision about where they want to study, and so far, it seems to be fulfilling a need. The website has had more than 23,000 unique users in the last year.
Davina Moss, who starts a degree in English literature this year at Cambridge, says last year's guide completely altered the way she thought about going to university and that she changed many of her Ucas choices as a result.
While the course and academic credentials were her first priorities, she realised she needed to think about the institution's diversity policy, too. "I didn't want to get worried about being bullied about my sexuality," she says. "I wanted somewhere where I knew that if something happened I would be supported."
But it was not just about her sexuality. "It was more to see what kind of place I would be going to," she says. "A university that has thought about its diversity and anti-bullying policy in this area would likely have thought about these policies across the board. I didn't want to go to a university where a person – any kind of person – might feel institutionally marginalised."
Top marks for being gay-friendly go to Imperial College, UCL, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth
In his first year at Bath University, Felix Slade had a housemate who regularly used the words "poof", "bender" and "batty boy", and described anything negative as "gay". "I would address this with him in a non-aggressive way, but it appeared to make very little difference," he says.
Yet Slade's experience at Bath has been "incredible". "The strong presence of a prominent and proactive student group has meant that I have been able to embrace all aspects of being gay in a really healthy and well-rounded way," he says. "I have absolutely loved being a gay student."
Continue reading...Top marks for being gay-friendly go to Imperial College, UCL, Wolverhampton and Portsmouth
In his first year at Bath University, Felix Slade had a housemate who regularly used the words "poof", "bender" and "batty boy", and described anything negative as "gay". "I would address this with him in a non-aggressive way, but it appeared to make very little difference," he says.
Yet Slade's experience at Bath has been "incredible". "The strong presence of a prominent and proactive student group has meant that I have been able to embrace all aspects of being gay in a really healthy and well-rounded way," he says. "I have absolutely loved being a gay student."
Continue reading...A reading scheme developed by the US country singer Dolly Parton is a proving a big hit in the UK
Elizabeth Smith was in hospital having had her first child when she learned about the free books. The nurses gave her the form as part of an information pack and six weeks later a book – a Peter Rabbit story – addressed to her son, Aaron, slipped through the letterbox of her Rotherham home. The following month, another book arrived for Aaron and another the next month, until the little boy became used to the sight of the postman delivering a fresh title every month.
"He calls it 'Aaron post' and he knows the books are for him," says his mother. "When the postman comes Aaron runs to check, and if there is a book he wants me to open it straight away. The books have been a wonderful way to bond, and reading the stories before bedtime has become part of his routine." Aaron is now 22 months and he will go on receiving a new book a month until his fifth birthday. He is one of 13,000 children in Rotherham, aged under five, who are sent a book every month because of a woman the children refer to as 'The Book Lady', but who is better known as Dolly Parton.
Parton is one of the all-time great country singer–songwriters, but for the past 15 years she has also been spearheading a campaign to get children reading. Her Imagination Library started in her home town of Sevier County in Tennessee where she had grown up in a two-room wooden shack with her 11 siblings. When I met Parton in Dollywood, the theme park she co-owns in eastern Tennessee, she explained why she started the library. "Many of my own relatives didn't get a chance to go to school or get an education," she told me, "and my dad didn't learn to read and write because he was born into a very large family and they had to go out and work in the fields to make money. My dad felt crippled by that – so I thought this book scheme would be a wonderful tribute to him."
From those modest beginnings the Imagination Library has grown. "In 1999, the library was mailing books to 2,300 children every month", says David Dotson, president of the Dollywood Foundation, which looks after the administration of the scheme. "Today, it is mailing to just under 700,000 children every month in the US, Canada and, since 2008, Britain. The scheme was launched with a visit by Parton to Rotherham in December 2007."
"Rotherham borough council was the first to sign up and we started registering children at the start of 2008", explains Alison Lilburn, project manager for the scheme in the town, "and since then we have registered over 18,000 children and we are sending out books to just over 13,000 children each month – which is 85% of the population under five years old."
I met some of those children, along with their mothers, at the Coleridge children's centre, which offers family learning programmes that look at the benefit of sharing books and the importance of reading out loud to children. One woman told me that reading to her baby had inspired her to start reading more herself, to set a good example; while an Asian woman said that the books were helping illiterate parents to learn to read English – the children were reading to their parents.
Rotherham's council leader, Roger Stone, heard about the Imagination Library while on a visit to the US. Convinced the book scheme could raise literacy standards in Rotherham, he set about trying to bring it to the UK. Following Rotherham's lead, Sheffield, Luton, Sheerness, Nottingham, Wigan and two communities in London have joined in, and recently the Scottish Book Trust announced that it would be adopting the scheme for "looked after" children across the whole of Scotland, funded by the Scottish government.
There are, of course, other book schemes operating in Britain – Bookstart, for example, offers free books to children before they start school and the National Literacy Trust has many reading schemes. "The Imagination Library complements other book-gifting programmes", says Natalie Turnbull, the UK director of the scheme, "simply by the volume of the books we send – one a month – and also the fact that the books are being delivered by post to the home, so there is a guarantee that the book is going to reach that child."
The fact that the scheme carries Parton's name has led some to think that Parton herself funds the library; in fact, while her Dollywood Foundation pays for all the administration costs in maintaining the database, it does not pay for the actual books. It is, however, able to ensure that the books are bought at a hugely discounted rate: Penguin, which supplies all the books, sells them to the scheme for an average price of £2, which is up to a quarter of their usual cost.
In Rotherham the cost of the scheme is met through donations from the Chamber of Commerce, the NHS and, this year, the local authority. In Luton, the scheme is being paid for by the Wates group and it is anticipated that around 24,000 books will be sent out each year.
While the scheme is undoubtedly laudable, is there any need to spend money giving families free books when they can easily visit their local library? "Not everybody is that way inclined", says Lilburn. "The difference with this scheme is that the book is addressed to the child and, based on all the parental feedback we get, the children are really excited when that book comes through the door."
Rotherham is now trying to measure the impact of the Imagination Library. "Because we have other initiatives to assist reading, it isn't easy to measure how much the Imagination Library has helped," says Lilburn. "But we do know that year on year Rotherham has improved in terms of its education, language and literacy development and we are now the same level nationally, when in previous years we have been way below the national average."
By the time children start school they are coming to the end of their eligibility for the Imagination Library, but schools in Rotherham are, Lilburn says, increasingly recognising the part that the book-gifting scheme can play in developing reading. "What we are getting back from teachers is that where they use Imagination Library books, the response from children is really positive," she says. "There is a commonality among kids because they know each other has had the book, and they are familiar with the books."
Aaron has not yet started school, but he has already started putting sentences together from books he has read with his mother. She believes the Imagination Library should be expanded so that every child has the opportunity that her son has. "I don't think it is just schools' job to encourage reading," she says. "What is so great about the Imagination Library is that it is not means-tested. When things are means-tested it means that there can be a stigma to being part of the scheme, but with the Imagination Library every child has the opportunity to allow their imagination to grow."
• Sarfraz Manzoor's programme, How Dolly Got Rotherham Reading, is on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday at 10.30am
A reading scheme developed by the US country singer Dolly Parton is a proving a big hit in the UK
Elizabeth Smith was in hospital having had her first child when she learned about the free books. The nurses gave her the form as part of an information pack and six weeks later a book – a Peter Rabbit story – addressed to her son, Aaron, slipped through the letterbox of her Rotherham home. The following month, another book arrived for Aaron and another the next month, until the little boy became used to the sight of the postman delivering a fresh title every month.
"He calls it 'Aaron post' and he knows the books are for him," says his mother. "When the postman comes Aaron runs to check, and if there is a book he wants me to open it straight away. The books have been a wonderful way to bond, and reading the stories before bedtime has become part of his routine." Aaron is now 22 months and he will go on receiving a new book a month until his fifth birthday. He is one of 13,000 children in Rotherham, aged under five, who are sent a book every month because of a woman the children refer to as 'The Book Lady', but who is better known as Dolly Parton.
Continue reading...A reading scheme developed by the US country singer Dolly Parton is a proving a big hit in the UK
Elizabeth Smith was in hospital having had her first child when she learned about the free books. The nurses gave her the form as part of an information pack and six weeks later a book – a Peter Rabbit story – addressed to her son, Aaron, slipped through the letterbox of her Rotherham home. The following month, another book arrived for Aaron and another the next month, until the little boy became used to the sight of the postman delivering a fresh title every month.
"He calls it 'Aaron post' and he knows the books are for him," says his mother. "When the postman comes Aaron runs to check, and if there is a book he wants me to open it straight away. The books have been a wonderful way to bond, and reading the stories before bedtime has become part of his routine." Aaron is now 22 months and he will go on receiving a new book a month until his fifth birthday. He is one of 13,000 children in Rotherham, aged under five, who are sent a book every month because of a woman the children refer to as 'The Book Lady', but who is better known as Dolly Parton.
Continue reading...Why do people love festivals – is it the music? The beer? Or a place to forget your rubbish job?
You fetch up at a festival, bop to the bands, get trashed and then hunker down in your sleeping bag for a nice bit of shut-eye. It's been a heavy night, and you wait for the inevitable hangover to arrive. As the smell of frying sausages drifts across the early morning damp of the camping field, how do you reckon you feel when an academic researcher comes knocking on your tent flap asking if it would be all right to ask you a few questions?
Though he doesn't say how many retreated swiftly, Dr Andrew Bengry-Howell, visiting fellow at the University of Bath, confirms that he and his team managed to persuade 98 people at four of the UK's largest music festivals to have a chat.
Prompted by his earlier research into how alcohol is marketed and consumed, and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, these breakfast conversations made up part of Bengry-Howell's study examining what festival-goers get out of attending this kind of live music event.
"We became interested in the sponsorship of festivals by large drinks companies at the end of the previous piece of work," Bengry-Howell explains.
As the number of music festivals soared by over 70% between 2003 and 2007, various big brands, he continues, began exploring what they call "experiential marketing".
"The idea is that you can attach a brand to a particular experience, like music festivals, where that experience is quite intense," he says. "People then – the marketers hope – associate the brand with that experience."
When Bengry-Howell was planning his research, "quite a few festivals were completely branded by beer companies," he explains. However, after the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and Alcohol suggested in 2006 that sponsorship of festivals attracting under-18s should be banned, the alcohol industry started to shift away from completely branding events – a notable exception being T in the Park, sponsored by Tennents Lager. Instead, they focus on sponsoring bars at festivals, and certain companies, including Tuborg Lager, have bought up the "pouring rights" at festivals so that they are the only beer that can be sold there.
As well as visual reinforcement of the brand around the festival site, the enforcement of pouring rights can be strict, with security guards searching festival-goers' bags to ensure that no alcohol is brought in from outside.
Most of the major festivals operate this type of sponsorship restriction, says Bengry-Howell.
"We were interested in how this very regulated environment was being marketed to people as a place where they could be free. But we were also interested in how people perceived that environment, in the context of going to festivals, which are traditionally seen as anti-corporate."
The University of Bath team mapped out where and how brands were profiled on each festival site, and noted how they were being marketed and sold.
"A lot of brands were making great claims about their ethics and how those ethics resonated with the values of the festival," says Bengry-Howell. "Brands were consciously positioning themselves within festival culture."
While his interviewees downed their first cup of coffee of the day, Bengry-Howell quizzed them. Did they mind that big companies had become so deeply embedded in their festival experience? What did they reckon to having just the one choice of beer for which they had to cough up £4 a pint? How did their hopes for the festival experience compare with the reality when they arrived?
"We found... that a lot of the younger people didn't really care or see it as an issue," he says.
"A small minority were irritated by the cost of brands. Some moaned that they had to pay so much for a lager they didn't particularly like. I think some people did feel ripped off, but had resigned themselves, because they felt sponsorship kept these events going."
Dispiritingly for the companies themselves, who pour millions into sponsorship, it looks as if some of this could be going down the drain. In follow-up focus groups, Bengry-Howell found that some interviewees had "ended up going away not having the sense of it being a branded event".
What most surprised him, however, was the way people talked about why they chose to go in the first place. Having expected them to rave about the music, the message he got was that festivals were a way to help them to cope with their increasingly dull and stressful lives.
"One person said that without music festivals there'd be no point in living in this country at all," he recalls.
"Others talked about freedom and being able to totally forget about your rubbish job in a call centre. Many started talking about the pressure they felt under ... and about seeing festivals as havens."
There was a sense of release in being able to drift aimlessly and not feel guilty while inside the protected "world" of the festival site. Some said they tried to "disappear" into a festival and would purposely leave their mobile phones at home.
The overall message was that festivals provided an escape for young people who felt ground down by the competitive nature of finding work that wasn't either satisfying or enriching, the constant pressure to achieve and the sense they got from society that it was their personal failure if they didn't manage to make the grade – financially, socially and on the career ladder.
"I'm interested in this idea about festivals being where people go to experience a kind of freedom, and that they feel so restricted even though we now have more freedoms than ever," says Bengry-Howell.
If that all sounds rather sombre, Bengry-Howell notes more optimistically that his interviewees were also consciously using their time at these events to develop a sense of belonging and community with other like-minded people.
A possible new area for research is the post-event flurry of social networking that now occurs – a way for people to maintain the communities they start to build while at the festivals and to deal with the festival "come-down", he says.
Why do people love festivals – is it the music? The beer? Or a place to forget your rubbish job?
You fetch up at a festival, bop to the bands, get trashed and then hunker down in your sleeping bag for a nice bit of shut-eye. It's been a heavy night, and you wait for the inevitable hangover to arrive. As the smell of frying sausages drifts across the early morning damp of the camping field, how do you reckon you feel when an academic researcher comes knocking on your tent flap asking if it would be all right to ask you a few questions?
Though he doesn't say how many retreated swiftly, Dr Andrew Bengry-Howell, visiting fellow at the University of Bath, confirms that he and his team managed to persuade 98 people at four of the UK's largest music festivals to have a chat.
Prompted by his earlier research into how alcohol is marketed and consumed, and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, these breakfast conversations made up part of Bengry-Howell's study examining what festival-goers get out of attending this kind of live music event.
"We became interested in the sponsorship of festivals by large drinks companies at the end of the previous piece of work," Bengry-Howell explains.
As the number of music festivals soared by over 70% between 2003 and 2007, various big brands, he continues, began exploring what they call "experiential marketing".
"The idea is that you can attach a brand to a particular experience, like music festivals, where that experience is quite intense," he says. "People then – the marketers hope – associate the brand with that experience."
When Bengry-Howell was planning his research, "quite a few festivals were completely branded by beer companies," he explains. However, after the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and Alcohol suggested in 2006 that sponsorship of festivals attracting under-18s should be banned, the alcohol industry started to shift away from completely branding events – a notable exception being T in the Park, sponsored by Tennents Lager. Instead, they focus on sponsoring bars at festivals, and certain companies, including Tuborg Lager, have bought up the "pouring rights" at festivals so that they are the only beer that can be sold there.
As well as visual reinforcement of the brand around the festival site, the enforcement of pouring rights can be strict, with security guards searching festival-goers' bags to ensure that no alcohol is brought in from outside.
Most of the major festivals operate this type of sponsorship restriction, says Bengry-Howell.
"We were interested in how this very regulated environment was being marketed to people as a place where they could be free. But we were also interested in how people perceived that environment, in the context of going to festivals, which are traditionally seen as anti-corporate."
The University of Bath team mapped out where and how brands were profiled on each festival site, and noted how they were being marketed and sold.
"A lot of brands were making great claims about their ethics and how those ethics resonated with the values of the festival," says Bengry-Howell. "Brands were consciously positioning themselves within festival culture."
While his interviewees downed their first cup of coffee of the day, Bengry-Howell quizzed them. Did they mind that big companies had become so deeply embedded in their festival experience? What did they reckon to having just the one choice of beer for which they had to cough up £4 a pint? How did their hopes for the festival experience compare with the reality when they arrived?
"We found... that a lot of the younger people didn't really care or see it as an issue," he says.
"A small minority were irritated by the cost of brands. Some moaned that they had to pay so much for a lager they didn't particularly like. I think some people did feel ripped off, but had resigned themselves, because they felt sponsorship kept these events going."
Dispiritingly for the companies themselves, who pour millions into sponsorship, it looks as if some of this could be going down the drain. In follow-up focus groups, Bengry-Howell found that some interviewees had "ended up going away not having the sense of it being a branded event".
What most surprised him, however, was the way people talked about why they chose to go in the first place. Having expected them to rave about the music, the message he got was that festivals were a way to help them to cope with their increasingly dull and stressful lives.
"One person said that without music festivals there'd be no point in living in this country at all," he recalls.
"Others talked about freedom and being able to totally forget about your rubbish job in a call centre. Many started talking about the pressure they felt under ... and about seeing festivals as havens."
There was a sense of release in being able to drift aimlessly and not feel guilty while inside the protected "world" of the festival site. Some said they tried to "disappear" into a festival and would purposely leave their mobile phones at home.
The overall message was that festivals provided an escape for young people who felt ground down by the competitive nature of finding work that wasn't either satisfying or enriching, the constant pressure to achieve and the sense they got from society that it was their personal failure if they didn't manage to make the grade – financially, socially and on the career ladder.
"I'm interested in this idea about festivals being where people go to experience a kind of freedom, and that they feel so restricted even though we now have more freedoms than ever," says Bengry-Howell.
If that all sounds rather sombre, Bengry-Howell notes more optimistically that his interviewees were also consciously using their time at these events to develop a sense of belonging and community with other like-minded people.
A possible new area for research is the post-event flurry of social networking that now occurs – a way for people to maintain the communities they start to build while at the festivals and to deal with the festival "come-down", he says.
George Washington counted everything from ships and horses to peas and beans. But was this a clinical obsession?
"Of all the presidents we have had, George Washington was the only who really counted." That single sentence with its double meaning comes at the end of a four-page monograph published in 1978 in the Alabama Journal of Mathematics. The report's title is, George Washington: He Liked to Count Things. The author Pete Casazza, a mathematician who writes under multiple pen names, adds fuel to a tiny fire of his own creation, suggesting that the number one number one official of the United States of America was a little obsessed.
Casazza, now a maths professor at the University of Missouri, wrote this under the pseudonym Cora Green, back when he was at Auburn University of Montgomery, Alabama.
Casazza/Green specifies more than 40 specific things that America's first president counted. They are mere examples, he emphasises, plucked from a myriad: "First, and foremost, he liked to count things on his plantation at Mount Vernon. He counted and recorded his horses, cataloging them by color, working mares and others, unbroken or not, as well as recording their height, age and weight. He counted ewes, hogs, calves, yearlings, spades, axes, and knives..."
In wartime, as commander of the rebel American army, General Washington counted "soldiers and armies (as well as the distances between them), guns, ships, horses, mortars, batteries ... the number of casualties suffered by his army ... listing time periods, killed and wounded, and separating it into colonels, Lt colonels, majors, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, and privates."
In peace time, President Washington counted how many bushels of wheat were sown on his farm, and how many trees — oak, yew, hemlock, aspen, magnolia, elm, papaw, lilacs, fringe, swamp berry — were planted.
He counted nuts. He counted seeds. He counted miles travelled, and compared them with the sometimes inaccurate distances marked on maps.
Washington was originally a surveyor by profession, and perhaps also by inclination. Casazza/Green writes: "He recorded in his diary on May 11, 1788, that he had spent the entire Sunday at home counting different kinds of peas and beans ... He found it took exactly 3,144 of the small round peas known as gentleman's peas to fill a pint, 2,268 peas of the kind he brought from New York, 1,375 of the peas he had brought from Mrs Dangerfield's, 1,330 of those he had been given by Heziah Fairfax, 1,186 of the large black-eyed peas, and 1,473 bunch hominy beans. Having arrived at his count, he next calculated the number of hills a bushel of each kind of peas and the beans would plant, allowing five to a hill."
The monograph supplies no clear evidence as to whether Washington actually enjoyed totting. Who, under any circumstances, can say for sure what was in another person's mind? But neither does it try to persuade us that this was a psycho-medical problem, an undiagnosed case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. And for that, we might choose to count our blessings.
• This article was amended on 20 July 2011. The original caption and text said that George Washington counted how many bushels of wheat were sewn on his land. This has been corrected.
George Washington counted everything from ships and horses to peas and beans. But was this a clinical obsession?
"Of all the presidents we have had, George Washington was the only who really counted." That single sentence with its double meaning comes at the end of a four-page monograph published in 1978 in the Alabama Journal of Mathematics. The report's title is, George Washington: He Liked to Count Things. The author Pete Casazza, a mathematician who writes under multiple pen names, adds fuel to a tiny fire of his own creation, suggesting that the number one number one official of the United States of America was a little obsessed.
Casazza, now a maths professor at the University of Missouri, wrote this under the pseudonym Cora Green, back when he was at Auburn University of Montgomery, Alabama.
Casazza/Green specifies more than 40 specific things that America's first president counted. They are mere examples, he emphasises, plucked from a myriad: "First, and foremost, he liked to count things on his plantation at Mount Vernon. He counted and recorded his horses, cataloging them by color, working mares and others, unbroken or not, as well as recording their height, age and weight. He counted ewes, hogs, calves, yearlings, spades, axes, and knives..."
In wartime, as commander of the rebel American army, General Washington counted "soldiers and armies (as well as the distances between them), guns, ships, horses, mortars, batteries ... the number of casualties suffered by his army ... listing time periods, killed and wounded, and separating it into colonels, Lt colonels, majors, captains, lieutenants, sergeants, and privates."
In peace time, President Washington counted how many bushels of wheat were sown on his farm, and how many trees — oak, yew, hemlock, aspen, magnolia, elm, papaw, lilacs, fringe, swamp berry — were planted.
He counted nuts. He counted seeds. He counted miles travelled, and compared them with the sometimes inaccurate distances marked on maps.
Washington was originally a surveyor by profession, and perhaps also by inclination. Casazza/Green writes: "He recorded in his diary on May 11, 1788, that he had spent the entire Sunday at home counting different kinds of peas and beans ... He found it took exactly 3,144 of the small round peas known as gentleman's peas to fill a pint, 2,268 peas of the kind he brought from New York, 1,375 of the peas he had brought from Mrs Dangerfield's, 1,330 of those he had been given by Heziah Fairfax, 1,186 of the large black-eyed peas, and 1,473 bunch hominy beans. Having arrived at his count, he next calculated the number of hills a bushel of each kind of peas and the beans would plant, allowing five to a hill."
The monograph supplies no clear evidence as to whether Washington actually enjoyed totting. Who, under any circumstances, can say for sure what was in another person's mind? But neither does it try to persuade us that this was a psycho-medical problem, an undiagnosed case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. And for that, we might choose to count our blessings.
• This article was amended on 20 July 2011. The original caption and text said that George Washington counted how many bushels of wheat were sewn on his land. This has been corrected.
A new Ofsted report praises 'nurture' groups for their life-changing work. So why are so many closing?
"People are very kind to me here and I learn about doing nice things to people," says eight-year-old Jamie. "It makes me feel happy coming here and I laugh more. It makes me feel calm," says seven-year-old Alice.
The two children are talking about the time they have spent in the nurture group at Hayesdown First school in Frome, Somerset. The nurture group is a class of eight to 12 children, separate from other classes, and designed to give special care and attention to children who are struggling because of problems at home, family bereavement, abuse or other difficulties. Among the nurture group they learn social skills such as listening, sharing and turn taking and they are given the attention they need to improve their self-esteem. In most of these groups children stay for up to four terms and are then reintegrated back into the classroom.
An Ofsted report out today has found that these early intervention groups can have a "highly significant and far-reaching" impact on children who might otherwise be at risk of losing their way at school, of behaviour problems, or even of exclusion.
"Nurture groups help to support some of the country's most vulnerable children," says Ofsted's chief inspector, Miriam Rosen. "Well-planned, rigorous intervention that focuses on academic as well as social, emotional and behavioural progress can make a huge difference to the lives of children who might otherwise be left behind."
And yet while Ofsted is lauding the success of nurture groups, and MP Graham Allen is calling for more spending on early intervention, nearly 100 nurture groups have already closed this year due to cuts in funding.
A survey carried out by the Nurture Group Network (NGN) found that 87 have closed, while others are running reduced hours or are under threat of closure.
Some nurture groups are funded by their local authority; some schools use their own budget, while others get grants from charities.
Hannah Millinship, executive assistant at NGN, says: "Some of these groups were given very little warning and there has been very little time for them to find alternative provision."
Nurture groups do need their own classroom and dedicated, trained staff, and generally cost around £50,000 a year to run, but NGN's national director, Irene Grant, is adamant they are cost-effective. "In this time of economic constraint, research has shown that nurturing is one of the most cost-effective methods of early intervention for young people with a range of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties," she says. "Graham Allen MP talks about the importance of early intervention. With nurture groups, we can turn these kids around so quickly if we get them at an early age."
Grant points to figures from the London Borough of Enfield, which show the price of running a place in a nurture group is £5,500 per child per year – three times less expensive than full-time local authority support.
Grant hopes that things will improve with more schools seeking academy status and receiving more funding. "In theory, this should be good news for nurture groups as schools will have more money and more flexibility," she says. "We have found that schools which run them quickly recognise their value and fight tooth and nail to keep them," she says.
Glasgow city council has vowed to protect the 69 nurture groups it funds although it is making cuts in other areas, and even wants to roll out the scheme to nursery and secondary schools.
In Scotland, all nurture groups are run by a teacher and a teaching assistant. In England and Wales, the model is slightly different. Sometimes they are run by a teacher, but sometimes by two teaching assistants, making them marginally cheaper. The nurture group at Hayesdown First school runs for four afternoons a week and is completely funded by the school budget.
The headteacher, Liz Stokes, says: "I would love to run it full-time, but I can't afford to. We did have problems originally convincing the other staff, as it meant taking two teaching assistants away from the classroom. But if I tried to get rid of it now, there would be an outcry. It is vital for the child and it also helps the other classes as it gives them a breather, as some of these children can be quite challenging."
The group, which was set up seven years ago, takes 12 children aged between four and nine, and each session follows a rigid routine. "It means there are no surprises, which makes it very safe and secure for them," explains Clare Kennedy, who leads the group.
At the end of the session, all the children lay the table and eat together so they can have a "family-type experience".
Denise Bultitude, assistant leader of the group, says: "We have children who don't even have a table at home and never sit at a table to eat, so it is very alien to them."
Many of these children are unable to do simple social interactions, so the group begins with an exercise called "stand and greet", where the children take it in turns to go up to another child and shake their hand and say hello.
"Basic things like reading facial expressions are very hard for some of these children, so we practise doing angry faces and happy faces. A lot of these children are either just happy or sad. Life is very black and white for them. Some children are withdrawn, some have very low self-confidence and self-esteem, and some behave aggressively." One of the children is in care and five are on the child protection register, says Kennedy.
The group works on turn-taking, sharing and feelings such as empathy and eye contact. They learn about cooperation and teamwork through parachute games, and the children get lots of praise and encouragement.
"We give them things to do that they can achieve at, which boosts their confidence. We have children who were permanent fixtures in the head's office and once they start coming here, she never sees them again. We find if we build up a relationship with them and gain their trust, we don't get them kicking off. Their listening and concentration skills improve, which helps them to access the curriculum," she adds.
There are around 1,500 nurture groups in the UK, with the majority in primary schools, although there is an increasing number in secondary schools.
In its report out today, Supporting Children with Challenging Behaviour through a Nurture Group Approach, Ofsted looked at 29 of these and evaluated their impact.
Inspectors found pupils improved their behavioural, social and emotional skills as a result of the nurture group provision, with a third making substantial progress.
Pupils in the groups had sometimes previously been excluded from school or were in danger of permanent exclusion. Others had experienced severe trauma outside of school. Almost all the nurture group pupils in the schools surveyed were working below the academic level expected for their age.
However, despite this need to improve their academic learning, some schools put academic learning on hold while the pupils were in the nurture group, because they believed the pupils should learn to socialise first. This led to them falling further behind, said the report.
The best schools ensured that "pupils made progress with their literacy, numeracy and other academic skills, so that they did not fall behind while they were in the nurture group".
In the report, inspectors called for schools to ensure that all intensive interventions enable pupils to make academic as well as social and emotional progress.
• Children's names have been changed