European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 31, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday october 31. 1988 the stars and stripes Page 9 owls meals providing children in Naples with food for learning Fly Gary Millert Ilia Trail Ull Bureau Naples lil Alice Larson s fifth. Graders Are learning Anatomy geography and vocabulary from a single unorthodox source dried and undigested bits t f prey that owls vomit after eating. The egg shape d masses called Pel lets contain Itu hones Teeth hair. Feathers and is ales Phil the Birds regurgitate is in 211 hours alter swallowing their dinner  the time  s fifth stat Lars at Naples Elemi ii Hin. School receive them the pullets a i Wen Decd and Fumi gated. I Camii Luiu it merely the Job of research. What you have to do first is pick out All the  said 11-year-old Mirandon Outia. When you get finished breaking off the other parts you soak the Bones in peroxide. So then after you be soaked them in the peroxide for a Day you get a Black piece of paper. The to Allier writes your Nameon it. And then vim cup glue All the Bones thai Jou Lund in Jour Pellet Anil put them on the paper asked what he thought about the project. Outlaw said. It  a senti ment echoed by Many of his classmates when they  broke up their pellets. But it s  Larson a leather in the Naples Are for 15 years Learned of the owl pellets from a colleague. Donna Lii Inderman was the first per son i d Ever seen doing it. Site had Doneit for a couple of years and introduced it Here. I watched her class working with the pellets got the information from Herand ordered the pellets from the United Stales Larson said. Gunder Nian now teaches in Japan and Larson s students arc writing gun Hcrman about their experiences thai s part of a writing project we re working on. Too. Hut it s All interconnected Larson said. Larson also uses the pellets to teach other  s pan of health pan of science part of language she said. Really it s everything put together even a Little bit of geography. We refer to the map to find japan."1 think one of the Best things about it is that they be sat Down and looked at something Lorn it apart put it Back to Gether and talked about it. The idea of classifying the parts has also been a big thing a Vii them and they use the words now Larson said. They la say 1 have a Scapula n shoulder Boner. Somebody hit me in the sternum the breast Bon Elarson s class faced with a painstaking project also Learned at least one other word education news study Calls big districts faulty idea Chicago a rigger in t better for school systems and spending More Money also in t the answer to improving student performance a study says. It really goes against the Grain of a Lotof thinking and opinion in stale legis  said Herbert Walberg a co author of the study. The results of our study suggest strongly that All things being equal Stu dents in smaller districts do � lot belter than Middle sied districts and Middle sized districts do belter than larger school  the study also confirmed research indicating that students from higher socioeconomic areas score better on Stan Dardi cd achievement tests than those from poorer areas. The report was prepared fur the heart land Institute a Chicago based Public policy research organization. It was conducted by Walburg. A re search education professor at hell Niver shy of Illinois in Chicago and William a 1 Owler jr., a senior research associate atthe . Department of education. Over the past several decades hundreds of Small school districts have been merged into larger ones by state and local officials hoping to make them More Cost efficient and to allow for such improvements As greater teacher specialization the study said. Hoping to save Money with economics of scale Many Legislatures also have forced smaller districts to merge into larger ones the study said. Rut. In their study of student achieve ment in new Jersey school districts Wal Berg and Fowler found that in All cases larger District enrolments Are associated with lower test  All these mergers and consolidations May have been a very grave mistake Walberg said. Walburg and Fowler reached that conclusion in analysing the relationship be tween student achievement test scores in More than 500 new Jersey school sys tems and the districts socioeconomic level spending per student and sic. Their report noted that research has shown that the students  whether the students Are from poor Middle class or wealthy families and neighbourhoods is one of the Best forecasters of performance. It appears that neither general spend ing nor spending on specific components of educational budgets has much to do with learning the report said. In their study Walberg and Fowler found that student achievement was highest in districts serving higher socioeconomic areas and appeared to have no relation to  explained 10 them that that s. 1 s8s a " economic areas an appeared to have i what to it Ken by u Jious she snid. Alice Larson and to i Luimit a i examine Doneis taken Iro it. Relation easy test stumps teachers . Paper finds London api too Many schoo1le.chi is in John signed the Magna Cana. And 15 percent were Itan. Only 42 pc vol Goi Al Hryc capitals right.�-.-. It .,.1-. ,. .i.,-.,.,1A i Sikir Tim a ining Iii a to nor  it unfit in n he the insult of i his Lar Vav i Druid be lauyhabil1 if in Ai j o y schoolteachers in Britain cannot spell cannot do a simple mini and Don t know West Germany s capital. The sunday times commissioned what s considered an easy general knowledge Survey among 30& teachers in primary Junior and High schools across the country1 and reported that three quarters of them could not spell All the arc words in the test Embarrass Sal Elitc and harassment. Almost ill made mistakes Over the 16 simple questions on current affairs geography spelling math Sci ence history and literature said the weekly which commissioned the Telephone Survey from Market opinion and research International. One in five of the teachers did not know that King Joh unaware that the Canterbury tales was written by Geoffrey Chaucer the father of English poetry. Sixteen percent including 22 of the 171 Niath and science teachers in the Sample were unable to answer what is 15 percent of 10 pounds Sterling the answer is 1.50 pounds eleven percent of the teachers could not say How Many Millimetres Are in a meter 1,000and one in 14 thought the Rev. Ian Paisley the militant and much publicized Northern Ireland protestant politician is a roman Catholic. One in five did not know that Warsaw is the capital of Poland. 27 percent that Bonn is the capital of West Ger Many and 47 percent that Kabul is the capital of Afghani Stan. 4 percent got All three capitals right. The results o Thi Survey woul laughable they were not so  said Peter Dawson. General Secretary of the professional association of teachers. The sunday times said a press officer at the depart ment of education also had difficulty in spelling the three test words and could not do the percentage question. The reporter who wrote the Story got everything right except the one about the Magna Cana tradition ally regarded As the basis of English liberties. He said he had no idea who signed it. The sunday times said the Survey might help to explain its poll two weeks earlier when it found thai one in six British adults could not find Britain on a map half did not know How to read a railway timetable and two thirds could not spell Embarrass