The first step in constructing timetables in secondary schools in Netherlands consists of constructing the clusterschemes for the higher classes. A clusterscheme contains clusterlines with optional subjects that will be taught in parallel; the problem is to divide these optional subjects in clusterlines, such that the number of hours needed is as low as possible. We describe an efficient branch...

Using an individual panel data set to control for student fixed effects, we estimate the impact of charter schools on students in charter schools and in nearby traditional public schools. We find that students make considerably smaller achievement gains in charter schools than they would have in public schools. The large negative estimates of the effects of attending a charter schools are neith...

Green Dot Public Schools is a nonprofit organization that operates more than 20 public charter middle and high schools in California, Tennessee, and Washington. The Green Dot Public Schools are regulated and monitored by the local school district, but operate outside of the district’s direct control. The Green Dot Public Schools model emphasizes high quality teaching, strong school leadership, ...

OBJECTIVES We examined the extent to which schools in the United States have health-promoting policies, programs, and facilities. METHODS We analyzed data from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000. RESULTS We found that public schools (vs private and Catholic schools), urban schools (vs rural and suburban schools), and schools with larger enrollments (vs smaller schools) had m...

Perham (2010) describes the “irrelevant sound effect (ISE)” – or the presence of sound that is irrelevant to the task at hand. According to his research, sounds that exhibit “acute changing states” or acoustical variations impair outcomes when performing a memory or linear task, such as recalling a string of numbers. Sounds with little acoustical variation, or “steady state sounds” don’t impair...

BACKGROUND Healthy Schools programmes may assist schools in improving the oral health of children through advocating a common risk factor approach to health promotion and by more explicit consideration of oral health. The objectives of this study were to gain a broad contextual understanding of issues around the delivery of oral health promotion as part of Healthy Schools programmes and to inve...