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--- Wednesday --- May 21, 1997 --- Vol. 1 --- No. 3 ---
NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL
NEGP Weekly
THE UPDATE ON AMERICA'S NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS
__________ __________
MEMORIAL DAY | SPOTLIGHT |
The DAILY REPORT CARD will | |
take a Memorial Day break from | WORLD-CLASS: |
Friday, 5/23 to Monday, 5/26. | WORKING ON A DEFINITION |
We will return on Wednesday, | |
5/28. Enjoy the holiday! | The American Federation |
| of Teachers is helping to |
ZERO TO THREE | define what it means to |
The National Center for | have world-class academic |
Infants, Toddlers and Families | standards. In its search |
has gone online to distribute | for meaning, the union has |
"cutting-edge" research, | examined exams and curricu- |
demonstrate best practices, | la in the U.S., France, |
advance the field of infant and | Germany and Japan. In |
family professionals and | short, the AFT urges U.S. |
answer questions about our | schools to develop "higher |
nation's youngest children. | expectations in mathematics |
The group's address is: | education" for students |
www.zerotothree.org. | and their teachers. (#3) |
| |
INSIDER WINS | The U.S. DoEd is in the |
Los Angeles Deputy | midst of preparing best |
Superintendent Ruben Zacarias | practices material for the |
was chosen by the board of | teaching of eighth-grade |
education to lead the 670,000- | math -- which they view as |
student district (Pyle, L.A. | the gateway to higher-level |
TIMES, 5/5). He is the first | mathematics. (#5) |
fluent Spanish speaker and only | |
the second Latino to serve as | More rigorous standards |
superintendent of the Los | are the battle cry for the |
Angeles Unified School | Edna McConnel Clark Founda- |
District, notes the paper. | tion, which has provided |
Zacarias' comment: "I'm very | funds to raise standards |
proud of my heritage; but I've | for middle schools. (#4) |
spent 30 years working for all |_____________________________|
children."
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"Teachers are not interchangeable parts, and students deserve
teachers who really know their subject."
Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
(#4)
_______________________________________________________________
| (c) by the Education Policy Network, Inc. |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Washington, D.C. 202/632-0952 |
| The DRC hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL ONE: READY TO LEARN
KINDERGARTEN READINESS: When is a child ready? (#1)
GOAL TWO: HIGH SCHOOL COMPLETION
SOME GOOD NEWS: The black-white graduation gap narrows. (#2)
GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS: AFT examines math standards. (#3)
MIDDLE SCHOOL STANDARDS: Foundation supports reform. (#4)
GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
EIGHTH-GRADE MATH: Making it a gateway to higher learning.(#5)
GOAL EIGHT: PARENTAL PARTICIPATION
PARENTS R US: Mich. board urges parental participation. (#6)
We would appreciate information on programs, policies and
publications that relate to any of the eight National Education
Goals. Send your material to: NEGP Weekly; 1255 22nd Street NW;
Washington, D.C. 20037; 202/632-0957 (FAX).
Thank you for all the information we have already received.
===== GOAL ONE: READY TO LEARN =====
*1 KINDERGARTEN READINESS: WHEN IS A CHILD READY?
The Calif. Legislature is haggling over kindergarten
readiness, with several lawmakers introducing bills that would
change the cutoff date for kindergarten and make kindergarten
mandatory (Nguyen, L.A. TIMES, 5/5).
According to the paper, parents struggle with "confusing
arguments" over what age they should enroll their child in school
for the first time. Currently, Calif. has a December-birthday
cut-off date for kindergarten, rather than the more common
September-birthday cutoff. Bonnie Bruce, owner of a Huntington
Beach testing service, claims the December date means more Calif.
students are starting school before they are ready. "The
differences between a 4 1/2 year-old and a 5-year-old are very
significant," said Bruce. "Those few months in between are very
crucial in helping them mature and develop."
The TIMES reports that the debate over kindergarten
readiness has spurred a "cottage industry of kindergarten
readiness testing ... that some experts scoff at as unscientific
and virtually worthless." Lorrie Shepard, a researcher in early
childhood education at the U of Colorado: "This is a fad.
People are inventing this worry."
Ada Hand, a consultant with the Calif. DoEd's child
development division, said readiness testing is as accurate as
"flipping a coin." She added: "No research has proven that
holding back a child is beneficial."
Hand critiqued readiness tests as biased. She also claims
the tests do not measure a child's capacity to learn. According
to Hand and other researchers, "young children develop at such a
rapid and irregular pace that one who seems unready in May might
catch up or even surpass the pack by December."
Child psychologist Stanley Walters counters the criticism
waged against kindergarten-readiness tests. He maintains that
"high quality testing by qualified clinicians" appropriately
examines a child's physiological and psychological development
through games and verbal instruction, writes the paper. "If we
ask him to draw a tiny person and he draws an image of Casper the
Ghost, that's a sign of depression. If they zip off a circle,
that means they are temperamental," said Walters. "These images
are scaled with ages on them, showing temperament, angst, signals
of their psychological state."
Shephard disagrees. "Shyness, temperament, immaturity,
those are normal behaviors for young children," she stated.
"[Readiness] is predominantly an upper middle-class concern."
Shephard explained that differences among kindergarten-age
children diminish over time because children tend to "speed
forward" when surrounded by a learning environment, reports the
paper.
According to the TIMES, Calif.'s position is that schools
should be ready for all children, not the other way around.
The debate over school readiness is underway among state
lawmakers. Assemblyman George Runner (R) has proposed
legislation that would shift the kindergarten cutoff from
December to September, which would make children older when they
start kindergarten. Another bill, offered by Senator Barbara Lee
(D), would make kindergarten mandatory. Her bill has won the
support of the California Teachers Association.
===== GOAL TWO: HIGH SCHOOL COMPLETION =====
*2 SOME GOOD NEWS: THE BLACK-WHITE GRADUATION GAP NARROWS
The high school graduation gap between white and black
Americans is closing, primarily due to an increase in the number
of blacks in their late 20s who are receiving their diplomas,
according to a report released by the American Council on
Education (AP/BOSTON GLOBE, 5/19).
According to the report, blacks and white aged 25 to 29 had
virtually the same rate of high school completion, about 87%, in
1995. The graduation gap among the 18-24 age group was larger,
writes the paper. ACE theorizes that more blacks are taking high
school equivalency exams in their 20s.
Other findings from the ACE report: minority students
earned 16.8% of all baccalaureates awarded in 1994, but made up
22.3% of four-year undergraduates that year; between 1975 and
1995, the proportion of white, 18- to 24-year-old high school
graduates enrolled in college each year rose by 10 percentage
points, to 43.1% -- the rate for black graduates rose by 3
percentage points, to 35.4% -- Hispanic 1995 college
participation rate was 35.3%, compared to 35.5% in 1975.
The report also found that Hispanics fell behind whites and
blacks in completing high school, with a rate of 57%, reports the
paper.
An ACE press release also points out that "while minorities
continued to register increases in the number of students
attending colleges and universities and receiving degrees during
the period covered by the report, the findings raise concerns
about the impact of more recent political and legal attacks on
affirmative action."
"The continued progress shown by the report in most
respects is cause for celebration," said ACE President Stanley O.
Ikenberry. "But it also is a sharp reminder of just how far we
have to go to wipe out historic inequities in educational
opportunities and success." Specifically, the report found that
enrollment of students of color increased by 2.9% between 1994
and 1995, compared with gains of 4.6% between 1993 and 1994 and
7.1% in 1992.
The release mentions recent policy and court decisions that
affected affirmative action at the U of California and the U of
Texas at Austin. Both schools report substantial declines in the
number of African-American and Hispanic applicants and
acceptances. From the release: "In California, the drop comes
in the wake of the decision by the Board of Regents of the U of
California to end affirmative action in admissions effective this
year, as well as the passage of Proposition 209. In Texas,
colleges and universities have been barred from considering the
race of applicants in the admissions process subsequent to a 1996
ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals."
ACE is a group of college, university and education
associations. For more information on ACE, visit their web site
at http\\:www.acenet.edu. Copies of "Minorities in Higher
Education" are available for $24.95 (prepaid), from Publications
Department M; American Council on Education; One Dupont Circle;
Washington, D.C. 20036. For additional ordering information or
to pay by credit card, call 202/939-9380.
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*3 INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS: AFT EXAMINES MATH STANDARDS
American students are not exposed to high levels of
mathematics early enough in their academic careers, with some
students never progressing beyond arithmetic, according to a new
report issued by the American Federation of Teachers. In
comparison, much larger percentages of students in France,
Germany and Japan take and pass more demanding exams than their
American counterparts.
The report, "What Students Abroad Are Expected to Know About
Mathematics," examines exams in the U.S., France, Germany and
Japan at two points in a student's schooling: prior to entering
high school and prior to entering college. The exams studied
include: the French brevet, the German Realschule exam, and the
Tokyo prefecture high school entrance exams -- the pre-high
school exams; and the French baccalaureat, the German Abitur, the
Tokyo University entrance examination, and the SAT I: Reasoning
Test, the Advanced Placement mathematics exam and the SAT II.
Findings from the report:
The mathematics exams are taken by a significant proportion
of students in France, Germany and Japan and reflect expectations
well above the standards in most U.S. schools. These findings
help dispel the myth that the education systems in other
countries are elitist, because large numbers of students are
expected to perform well on tests that are more demanding than
the average U.S. curriculum.
There is a strong connection between the percentage of
students who are expected to take a gateway exam of the caliber
shown in this report and the percentage who subsequently take and
pass college entrance exams as demanding as those in this report.
France, Germany and Japan all have national standards or
nationally coordinated state standards measured by national
or state assessments.
The French, German and Japanese exams are aligned with a
specific national or state curriculum so that students are
tested on what they are actually learning in school.
There are clear incentives and consequences attached to
foreign exams in this report, so students are motivated to
study hard in school in preparation for the tests.
"The difference is not just the tests," said Sandra Feldman,
president of the AFT. "The difference is that these other
countries all have systems of education aimed at getting more
students to higher levels of achievement. They have a common
curriculum, tests based on the curriculum and incentives for
students to work hard in school. There is no parallel in the
United States, so it's no surprise that our students don't
perform as well."
Feldman also pointed out that too many U.S. teachers
teaching math are not certified to teach that subject. She said
that 25% of students in grades 7-12 are taught math by teachers
without even a minor in math. Feldman: "Teachers are not
interchangeable parts, and students deserve teachers who really
know their subject."
The study, while stipulating that there is "no simple
formula for determining which country's exams are the most
rigorous," undertakes a review of the toughness of each exam.
The math study is part of a series produced by the AFT
called "Defining World-Class Standards." Earlier volumes
analyzed biology, chemistry, and physics exams taken by college-
bound students and gateway exams taken by students at the end of
lower secondary school in a variety of subjects.
Copies of "What Students Abroad Are Expected to Know About
Mathematics" (Item #253) is available for $10 prepaid from the
AFT Order Department; 555 New Jersey Avenue NW; Washington, D.C.
20001. Visit the AFT's Web site at: http://www.aft.org.
*4 MIDDLE SCHOOL STANDARDS: FOUNDATION SUPPORTS REFORM
Academic standards for middle schools are too often
forgotten as educators focus on the emotional needs of children
as they pass through "childhood's most difficult years (Morgan,
Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 3/28). Hayes Mizell, director of the
Edna McConnell Clark Foundation's program for student
achievement, says that nurturing should not be the primary focus
for middle schools. Mizell: "Our view is that many middle
schools ... have tended to lose their academic focus because
their concerns have been so dominated by the developmental issues
of young adolescence."
The foundation has funded six school districts nationwide to
help schools set standards and improve student achievement in
middle schools. According to the paper, the foundation has
awarded Jefferson County's (Ky.) 24 middle schools $1M over the
past two years. A significant amount of the grant is being used
to train teachers in "best teaching practices." The district has
hired five teacher trainers, called Clark fellows, notes the
paper. It also has developed "parent support coordinators" at
several schools and "is working with the Prichard Committee for
Academic Excellence to teach parents about standards and how to
be advocates for their children," writes the paper.
The Clark Foundation required the district to come up with
matching funds, which the school system did -- $100,000 was
raised from the community and the school district offered
$400,000.
Coalition building is a cornerstone of the foundation's
program in Louisville. A Clark Foundation brochure explains that
the middle school coalition is comprised of representatives form
the public schools, government and nonprofit social service
programs, the courts, unions, professional organizations, small
and large businesses and the larger community. Business meetings
are held every month, "with presentations by experts on youth
development or education issues scheduled for the months
between," writes the foundation.
Donna Price, a teacher at Frost Middle School, said teachers
welcome standards as long as their hands are not tied to meet the
needs of individual students and to be able to use different
teaching methods. Mizell responded that the standards are not
set up to tell teachers how to teach. Instead, standards say:
"Here's what students need to learn. Now you figure out how to
teach," she said.
For more information on development in middle school
education around the country, see the Clark Foundation's web
site: http://www.middleweb.com
===== GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE =====
*5 EIGHTH-GRADE MATH: MAKING IT A GATEWAY TO HIGHER LEARNING
A new initiative underway at the U.S. DoEd focuses on
improving eighth-grade math instruction (Lightfoot-Clark, ED
DAILY, 5/9). According to DoEd officials, eighth-graders should
be learning algebra and geometry and routinely using basic
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division skills. They
also should be performing multi-step calculations.
President Clinton "directed" the DoEd to review math-related
programs after the nation's students produced below-average
scores on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study
(TIMSS). DoEd officials targeted eighth-grade math because they
say it is the gateway to higher-level mathematics and college.
According to ED DAILY, the initiative would: create by the
end of this year a math "expert" panel to review curricula
submitted as models; provide a curriculum analysis tool, with
models from TIMSS and other groups, and examples of good math
practices and polices "that will allow administrators to
determine whether a school's standards align with sate and
district standards;" and develop guidelines for best practices in
professional development and teacher preparation, which are
expected to be unveiled in the fall.
Rick Miller, a DoEd spokesman, told ED DAILY that the
initiative is intended to give states ideas, not dictate
curricula decisions.
The DoEd is working with the National Science Foundation and
the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics to fully develop
its math initiative.
==== GOAL EIGHT: PARENTAL PARTICIPATION ====
*6 PARENTS R US: MICH. BOARD URGES PARENTAL PARTICIPATION
In a 5-2 vote, the Mich. State Board of Education adopted a
policy that urges school districts statewide to develop plans
that encourage a high level of parental participation in local
schools (Chicago TRIBUNE, 5/16).
The board's directive noted that children tend to do better
in school when their parents have strong connections with the
school. Under the board's proposal, school districts should
"adopt plans that include outreach strategies, home learning
activities and community resources," writes the paper.
THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS
* GOAL 1: READY TO LEARN
All children in America will start school ready to learn.
* GOAL 2: SCHOOL COMPLETION
The high school graduation rate will increase to at least
percent.
* GOAL 3: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
All students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having
demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter including
English, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and
government, economics, arts, history, and geography, and every
school in America will ensure that all students earn to use their
minds well, so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship,
further learning, and productive employment in our Nation' modern
economy.
* GOAL 4: TEACHER EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The Nation's teaching force will have access to programs for
the continued improvement of their professional skills and the
opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to
instruct and prepare all American students for the next century.
* GOAL 5: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
United States students will be first in the world in
mathematics and science achievement.
* GOAL 6: ADULT LITERACY AND LIFELONG LEARNING
Every adult American will be literate and will possess the
knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy and
exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
* GOAL 7: SAFE, DISCIPLINED, & ALCOHOL- AND DRUG-FREE SCHOOLS
Every school in the United States will be free of drugs,
violence, and the unauthorized presence of firearms and alcohol
and will offer a disciplined environment conducive to learning.
* GOAL 8: PARENTAL PARTICIPATION
Every school will promote partnerships that will increase
parental involvement and participation in promoting the social,
emotional, and academic growth of children.
_______________________________________________________________
| 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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John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org