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--- Wednesday --- May 7, 1997 --- Vol. 1 --- No. 1 ---
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AN UPDATE ON THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS
__________ __________
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU | SPOTLIGHT |
The NEGP Weekly is interested | |
in programs, policies and | GOING FOR THE GOALS |
publications that relate to any | |
of the eight National Education | The DAILY REPORT CARD and |
Goals. If you are involved in | the NATIONAL EDUCATION |
a program that falls under one | GOALS PANEL have forged a |
of the Goal headings, please | new partnership to report |
mail, fax or e-mail info to: | on programs and policies |
NEGP Weekly; 1255 22nd Street | related to the eight |
NW; Suite 502; Washington, D.C. | National Education Goals. |
20037; 202/632-0957 (fax); GET | DRC readers will continue |
MY E-MAIL ADDRESS. | to receive the DRC on |
The Goals are listed at the | Monday, Wednesday and |
end of this document. | Friday; but, starting |
| today, the Wednesday |
MORE NEWS ON THE GOALS | document will be called the |
The NEGP also will be | NEGP Weekly and feature |
offering its web-site visitors | stories about the Goals. |
an NEGP Monthly, which will | |
provide in-depth coverage on | Today's issue describes |
Goal-related issues. The | the NEGP and includes |
Monthly, scheduled to begin | articles on parental |
late June, will attempt to | involvement, NAEP scores, |
answer questions such as, | teacher training and a |
"Which states are performing | state reading initiative. |
the best in mathematics | |
achievement, and why?; and, | The NEGP Weekly will |
"How have states and | continue to be delivered to |
communities implemented their | readers in the same way as |
standards into curriculum, | the DRC. However, it also |
teacher training, textbooks and | is available at the NEGP |
assessments?" Readers can | web site: www.negp.gov. |
find the NEGP Weekly and | |
Monthly at: www.negp.gov. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"This tough, new test is going to notch up what our young people
know about science and it's long overdue."
U.S.Ed Sec Richard Riley, on the new NAEP science exam that
includes a hands-on section. (#2)
_______________________________________________________________
| by the Education Policy Network, Inc. |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Washington, D.C. 202/632-0952 |
| The EPN hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL UPDATE
AN INTRODUCTION: The National Education Goals Panel. (#1)
GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
DOING SCIENCE: New NAEP exam includes hands-on section. (#2)
"READING FIRST:" Arkansas program boosts early literacy. (#3)
GOAL FOUR: TEACHER EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
A NEW ATTITUDE: Dallas board sets goals for teachers. (#4)
CHANGING COURSE: NEA research group awards grants. (#5)
GOAL EIGHT: PARENTAL PARTICIPATION
PARENTS AND CURRICULUM: Not so involved. (#6)
==== NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL UPDATE ====
*1 AN INTRODUCTION: THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL
The National Education Goals Panel is a bipartisan and
intergovernmental body of federal and state officials created in
July 1990 to monitor and report annually on state and national
progress towards achieving the National Education Goals. It is
composed of eight governors, four members of Congress, four state
legislators, the U.S. Ed Sec and one other White House appointee.
In 1994, the Goals Panel became an independent agency,
charged in legislation to report national and state progress
towards the goals, encourage the development and achievement of
high academic standards, promote promising and effective
education practices, and build a bipartisan consensus for
educational improvement.
Each year from 1991 to the year 2000 the Goals Panel is
scheduled to release annual reports. These reports are based on
solid data on schooling in comparable form across the states and
the nation. In 1996, the focus of the Goals Panel reports was
education standards and associated state assessments. The 1995
report highlighted parental involvement and included numerous
examples of successful school programs to encourage parental
involvement. The 1997 report will be released 23 October.
The Goals Panel also has issued various reports on
standards, assessments and early childhood, including a "Profile
of 1994-1995 State Assessment Systems and Reported Results
(1996), an "Inventory of Academic Standards-related Activity
(1995), a research synthesis called "Reconsidering Children's
Early Development and Learning: Toward Common Views and
Vocabulary (1995), and the 1994 "Promises to Keep: Creating High
Standards for American Students.
In 1997, the Goals Panel has commissioned a set of papers on
current efforts to implement state standards and will publish new
papers on early childhood and elementary education. An abstract
of the papers, along with the full-length text, will be available
in the NEGP Monthly, a new report to begin late June. The NEGP
Monthly will be available at the Goals Panel's web site
(www.negp.gov).
Current members of the National Education Goals Panel are:
Governors James Hunt (D-N.C.), chairman, John Engler (R-Mich.),
Kirk Fordice (R-Miss.), William Graves (R-Kan.), Paul Patton (D-
Ky.), Roy Romer (D-Colo.), Tommy Thompson (R-Wisc.), and
Christine Todd Whitman (R-N.J.), U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-
N.M.) and Jim Jeffords (R-Vt.), U.S. Representatives William
Goodling (R-Pa.), and Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), state
Representatives G. Spencer Coggs (D-Wisc.), Ronald Cowell (D-
Pa.), Mary Lou Cowlishaw (R-Ill.), and Douglas Jones (R-Idaho).
Members of the White House Administration are: Carol Rasco,
assistant to the president for domestic policy, and Richard
Riley, U.S. Ed Sec.
Ken Nelson, former Minnesota state legislator serves as the
Goals Panel's executive director.
For more information, contact the National Education Goals
Panel; 1255 22nd Street NW; Suite 502; Washington, D.C. 20037;
202/632-0957 (Fax); e-mail: negp@goalline.org. Many Goals Panel
reports are available to read, download and reproduce at
www.negp.gov.
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*2 DOING SCIENCE: NEW NAEP EXAM INCLUDES HANDS-ON SECTION
In a departure from traditional testing, the latest National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science exam included
hands-on experimentation, as well as multiple-choice questions.
While the 4th- 8th- and 12th-grade students who took the test
appear to have mastered most basic principles of science, their
ability to explain the reasoning behind certain science
experiments was "disappointing," according to Michael Nettles, a
member of the National Assessment Governing Board.
Nettles highlighted several findings from the report: "By
the end of high school most students seem to have some grasp of
basic scientific facts and principles. They can read graphs and
follow directions to carry out simple experiments. But when NAEP
asks students to go beyond that -- to apply scientific knowledge
to a new situation, to design an experiment themselves, or to
explain their reasoning clearly -- the results are
disappointing."
The 1996 NAEP Science Report Card also found that the gender
gap, in which males outperform females in science, does not exist
at grades 4 and 8. However, the gap does widen considerably
among the highest achieving students at grade 12, which has
critical implications for which students major in science
programs in college and eventually enter a science profession,
explained Nettles.
The gap between white and African-American students is
evident in the NAEP science exam; one standard deviation at all
three grade-levels tested. Nettles points out that an older,
mostly multiple-choice NAEP science exam found that the racial
gap had narrowed significantly until around 1986, and since then
it has widened. "This, of course, is disturbing," said Nettles.
Other findings: private school students out-perform their
public school counterparts -- except that the top 10% of 12th-
graders at public and private schools perform the same; the
highest-achieving students hail from North Central and New
England states; Maine has the highest mean score, Washington,
D.C. has the lowest; and other top-performing states include
N.D., Mont., Wisc., Minn., Iowa, Wy., Neb., Vt., and Mass.
The inclusion of the hands-on portion of the test means that
it cannot be compared with previous years' findings. The 1996
exam took 90 minutes to complete, compared to one hour for past
tests that relied on multiple choice questions. Such questions
make up only 20% of the new NAEP science exam; the remaining
questions require written explanations and hands-on
experimentation.
Ed Sec Richard Riley: "This tough, new test is going to
notch up what our young people know about science and it's long
overdue."
Visit the National Center for Education Statistics web site:
www.ed.gov/NCES. NCES directs NAEP testing and releases its
data. For NCES publications visit: www.ed.gov/nces/pubs
*3 "READING FIRST:" ARKANSAS PROGRAM BOOSTS EARLY LITERACY
Ark.'s efforts to help young grade-school children develop
reading skills is chronicled in a new publication released by the
Southern Regional Education Board (SREB press release). The
report, "Getting Elementary Schools Ready for Children: Reading
First," found that, in Ark., a winning combination to develop
reading skills is one-on-one tutoring coupled with small group
instruction.
"Traditional ways of helping at-risk children learn to read
like retaining them in one or more grades or providing
decelerated remedial reading instruction do not really help them
catch up to grade level," said David Denton, director of SREB's
health and human services programs. "Arkansas is one state that
is having a lot of success with early intervention and changes in
general classroom reading instruction. Their approach provides
an example of what is working to help elementary schools teach
all children basic skills."
In 1990, Ark. began training teachers in Reading Recovery,
"an intensive one-on-one tutoring program for at-risk first
graders," writes the release. The state also created the Early
Literacy Program for kindergarten through third grade that also
includes small group instruction and early-literacy training for
teachers.
According to the report, the cost of one-on-one tutoring in
reading is less expensive in the long run than many traditional
programs for children with learning problems. For example, the
use of Reading Recovery can reduce the number of children
referred to special education and other expensive remedial
services, notes the report. The tutoring programs also cost less
than retaining children in first grade or providing traditional
Chapter 1 services.
Reading Recovery also reduces the time at-risk children
spend outside of their regular classroom and it has been found to
increase teacher morale, notes the report. From the release:
"Strategies like Reading Recovery -- when adopted by choice and
accompanied by rigorous training -- reinvigorate teachers and
administrators with a renewed hope that they can help students
who they once thought were doomed to failure."
Copies of the report are available for $5.00 from the
Southern Regional Education Board; 592 Tenth Street NW; Atlanta,
Ga. 30318-5790.
===== GOAL FOUR: TEACHER ED/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT =====
*4 A NEW ATTITUDE: DALLAS BOARD SETS GOALS FOR TEACHERS
The Dallas School Board recently approved a set of
"ambitious" goals that not only set high standards of achievement
for each student, but measure the quality of instruction against
student academic performance (Witherspoon, Fort Worth STAR-
TELEGRAM, 4/26).
"This represents a fundamental change in attitude and
approach to improving education in this district," said Trustee
Lois Parrott. "The retraining of teachers and administrators is
extremely important and is what is different about this program.
There's nothing wrong with our kids. It's how we have approached
the kids that has been the problem," she added.
Board members are considering a pilot program designed to
ensure that 90% of children in each school can reach or exceed
national norms in reading and mathematics within four years,
reports the paper. The STAR-TELEGRAM notes that 41% of Dallas
students currently read at the national mean, while 56% are at
that level in math.
According to the paper, the program emerged from a series of
workshops structured to help trustees "overcome their personal
differences and work more productively." A central principle of
the workshops, conducted by Jeff Howard, president of the
Efficacy Institute, was for board members to agree on developing
goals for the district. The Lexington, Mass.-based Efficacy
Institute trains teachers to "believe that all their students can
function as well as those identified as 'talented and gifted,'
and to teach them accordingly," writes the paper.
Board members asked Howard to submit to them a teacher-
training proposal, which the paper reports could cost $45,000 per
school.
*5 CHANGING COURSE: NEA RESEARCH GROUP AWARDS GRANTS
The National Foundation for the improvement of Education
(NFIE) recently awarded grants to 16 organizations nationwide to
encourage the proliferation of professional development
opportunities for teachers (NFIE press release). The grants were
the first round of awards in "A Change of Course," a national
NFIE initiative designed to promote teacher professional
development.
Grantees are creating programs that coincide with
recommendations made in NFIE's report, "Teachers Take Charge of
Their Learning: Transforming Professional Development for
Student Success." For example, the U of Louisville School of
Education, in partnership with the Center for Leadership in
School Reform, Gheens Academy, Jefferson County Teachers
Association, Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative and the
Jefferson County Public Schools, will address two of the report's
recommendations: school-based professional development; and
balancing individual teachers' and school needs for learning.
Other grantees, all of whom have forged partnerships to
implement their programs, include businesses, local school
districts, NEA or AFT union affiliates, state departments of
education, and teacher subject-matter associations like the
Michigan Science Teachers Association.
"NFIE's report showed that we already know what to do to
provide high quality professional development to teachers that
results in improved student achievement," said Judith Renyi, NFIE
executive director. "What the report suggests is how to take
that knowledge to scale -- to reach the lives of the 3 million
public school teachers and their classrooms. It is union reform
that is the key to scale."
The press release notes that many of the grantees plan to
establish peer evaluation so that teachers and their unions can
take an active, responsible role in assuring the quality of the
teaching workforce. Others are working on providing mentors for
teachers in new assignments, while others are stressing access to
high-quality learning opportunities.
Robert Chase, president of the National Education
Association: "The work of these grantees is a first step to
taking direct responsibility for the professionalism and
competence of our members and to working with management to
insure that every student is taught by a qualified teacher."
According to the release, each of the 16 grantees will
receive technical assistance and $2,000 to plan their programs
during an initial phase, which will end in August 1997. Programs
selected to participate in the implementation phase will receive
technical assistance and up to $15,000 to support their work over
a three-year-period. Start-up funds for the program were provided
by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and The Ford Foundation.
For more information, visit the National Foundation for the
Improvement of Education's web site: www.nfie.org
==== GOAL EIGHT: PARENTAL PARTICIPATION ====
*6 PARENTS AND CURRICULUM: NOT SO INVOLVED
Few Minneapolis-area parents are involved in the nitty-
gritty of structuring school curriculum, according to the
Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE (Draper, 4/27). "My reality is that
parents do not get involved in our curriculum," said Anoka High
Principal Dean Soutor. "I have very few questions about it ...
The majority of the questions center on activities: band,
hockey, sports."
The paper comments on the incongruity between the outcry of
parents and policymakers concerning low-performing schools and
parental involvement in the curriculum decision-making process.
"I have gone entire years when no one has called into question
anything I have done," said St. Louis Park teacher Shannon
D'Alessio.
New Hope Elementary School Principal Robert Ziegler said he
cannot recall, during his 33 years as school principal, "a parent
being really upset with this or that, or wanting us to do
something we're not doing."
One reason few parents challenge the curriculum is a
Minneapolis school district policy that invites parents to
participate in curriculum committee meetings and review
"potentially sensitive subject matter," reports the paper. In
many districts, schools stem off parental attacks by letting
families know ahead of time any changes in the curriculum.
The paper reports that about 90% of Chanhassen Elementary
School parents attend an orientation meeting that focuses on
curriculum. Parents have been permitted to review sex-education
materials at New Hope Elementary for the past three years.
Most of the parental challenges noted in the article
revolved around banning or restricting certain books.
_______________________________________________________________
| National Education Goals Panel |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Suite 502; Washington, D.C. 20037 |
| 202/632-0957 (fax); e-mail: negp@goalline.org |
| Web site: www.negp.gov |
|_______________________________________________________________|
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