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--- Wednesday --- December 17, 1997 --- Vol. 7 --- No. 27 ---
NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL
NEGP Weekly
THE UPDATE ON AMERICA'S NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS
www.negp.gov
__________ __________
ATTENTION JOURNALISTS | SPOTLIGHT |
The Center For Education | |
Reform's Excellence in | LEARNING TO READ |
Journalism Awards deadline has | |
been extended to 31 December | A Montgomery County, Md., |
1997. CER awards four First | proposal calls for hiring |
Place prizes ($750 each) and up | more reading teachers in |
to two Honorable Mention | order to reduce class size |
prizes ($250) in the categories | for reading instruction. |
of single article (news or | Supporters highlight the |
feature,) opinion/editorial/ | research of G. Reid Lyon |
column, single-theme series and | (NIH) who claims reading |
special section (insert or | problems can be solved with |
issue), as well as a Grand | 30 minutes of addtional |
Prize of $2,000 for outstanding | reading lessons in K and |
articles on education reform | first grade, while it takes |
issues. | 2 hours of added instruc- |
Last year's winners included | by third grade. (#9) |
journalists from THE MIAMI | |
HERALD, LOS VEGAS SUN, THE | Diane McGuinness, author |
WASHINGTON TIMES, INVESTORS | of "Why Our Children Can't |
BUSINESS DAILY and THE DALLAS | Read" (Simon & Schuster) |
MORNING NEWS on a variety of | would argue more time is |
subjects, including: charter | fine if it involves the |
schools, school choice, federal | right instruction. She |
education policy, state-level | claims the ability to read |
judicial actions, standards and | depends on a child's |
assessments, curriculum reform | ability to correctly hear |
and local special education | the sounds of our language |
issues. | and on an understanding of |
For more information, contact | the "spelling code," the |
CER at 1001 Connecticut Ave. | letters and letter |
NW; Suite 204; Washington, D.C. | combinations that go with |
20036; 202/822-9000; e-mail: | the sounds. |
cerdc@aol.com. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"There is no way to ignore this issue. We have lost ground on
class size, and I do not intend to let this continue."
Montgomery County (Md.) Schools Superintendent Paul Vance. (#9)
_______________________________________________________________
| (c) by the Education Policy Network, Inc. |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Washington, D.C. 20010; 202/724-0124 |
| EPN, Inc. hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
MARYLAND CO. BEEFS UP READING & MATH: Adds more teachers.(#1)
GOAL FOUR: TEACHER ED/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PEACE CORPS GRADS: Serving their own country. (#2)
HIRING TEACHERS: Home-grown means more than quality. (#3)
GOAL SIX: ADULT LITERACY AND LIFELONG LEARNING
ADULT LITERACY: Few enroll in Missouri programs. (#4)
GOAL SEVEN: SAFE, DISCIPLINED AND DRUG-FREE SCHOOLS
SCHOOL CHOICE: An at-risk twist. (#5)
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
The DAILY REPORT CARD will take a winter-holiday break. We
will return on Wednesday, 7 January. Enjoy the holidays!
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*1 MONTGOMERY CO. BEEFS UP READING & MATH: ADDS MORE TEACHERS
A school budget plan unveiled by Montgomery County Public
Schools Superintendent Paul Vance calls for hiring more teachers
to reduce class size in "critical gateway" classes -- reading and
algebra (Burka, Montgomery JOURNAL, 12/12). "Larger class size
is having an increasingly negative impact on our students," said
Vance. "There is no way to ignore this issue. We have lost
ground on class size, and I do not intend to let this continue."
Vance's $9.2M class-size reduction initiative is designed to
ensure that all children read independently by third grade and
40% complete Algebra I by eighth grade and 80% by ninth grade.
His total budget calls for $939.5M, which is 5.6% more than last
year.
In order to reduce class size for reading instruction in
first and second grade, Vance calls for adding 104 fully
certified classroom reading teachers next year and another 52
teachers each of the following two years, reports the paper.
According to the JOURNAL, this means that every first- and
second-grade child in the district will be in classes no later
than 15 students. Currently, first- and second-grade students
attend reading class with up to 23 other children.
Vance's second "gateway" would ensure that more students
complete Algebra I by the end of eighth grade, which would allow
more students to take honors math courses in high school. The
paper cites findings from the 1997 Success for Every Student
plan, which revealed that half of the county's high school
students take honors classes, but only 25% take honors math.
"With math, it has such a sequence to it, the only way you
can get in [an honors math class in high school] is by completing
Algebra I in the eighth grade," said Katheryn Gemberling,
assistant superintendent of schools. Vance proposes hiring 33
middle school math teachers to "intensify instruction among small
groups of students."
The paper notes that currently 30% of students do not
complete Algebra I by the end of ninth grade, and some classes
are bursting with as many as 32 students. "Such a missed
opportunity [not finishing Algebra I by the end of ninth grade]
has profound effects on their ability to succeed not only in our
own highly competitive academic environment but also in the world
of work and college studies," said Vance.
Other proposed increases in the budget are for: staff
development with a concentration on reading instruction;
curriculum development and teacher training to meet the needs of
gifted and talented children; and expansion of alternative
programs for disruptive students.
===== GOAL FOUR: TEACHER ED/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT =====
*2 PEACE CORPS GRADS: SERVING THEIR OWN COUNTRY
After their tour of foreign service, some Peace Corps
volunteers embark on a new experience in their own country --
teaching (Farrell, Miami HERALD, 12/8). The Returned Peace Corps
Volunteers (RPCV) was begun 12 years ago in New York "as a way to
help Peace Corps fellows adjust to life -- and new careers --
back in the United States," writes the paper.
"Peace Corps is a two-year experience, then people go on
with their lives," said Farley Ferrante, coordinator of South
Florida's Peace Corps Fellows Program based at Florida
International U. "Why not use them at home?"
Most of the Dade County RPCV participants are placed in
inner-city schools. To teach in the Dade school district, the
Peace Corps fellows must earn a Fla. temporary teaching
certificate, "which means they have a bachelor's degrees with a
significant number of credit hours in the subject they teach,"
writes the paper. The fellows also must be on their way to earn
a full-time teaching certificate from FIU, within a two-year
period.
However, the lack of full-time certification has raised the
ire of educators, including David Imig, head of the American
Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, who holds that on-
the-job training is an inappropriate way to get "warm bodies"
into the classroom. Imig: "We don't let people become licensed
pharmacists because they've spent time in a drug store."
According to the paper, Dade County school administrators
sing high praises for their Peace Corps teachers. "The Peace
Corps adds a lot of maturity to a person," observed Olga
Figueras, principal of Greynolds Park Elementary.
Ferrante also pointed out that a majority of the 10 Peace
Corps fellows who have graduated from FIU since it began five
years ago are still teaching, with three still in Dade, reports
the paper.
FIU's Peace Corps Fellows Program was initially funded by De
Witt Wallace-Reader's Digest and the Miami-based John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation.
*3 HIRING TEACHERS: HOME-GROWN MEANS MORE THAN QUALITY
More than 40% of teachers hired in Pa. are graduates of the
high school in the district in which they teach, according to a
study conducted by Robert Strauss, professor of economics and
public policy at the H. John Heinz School of Public Management at
Carnegie Mellon U (Chute, Pittsburgh, POST GAZETTE, 12/10). His
report was prepared with a $137,000 grant from the state Board of
Education, the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, the Grable Family
FOundation and the Buhl Foundation.
Other findings:
High school students statewide planning to become teachers
earned lower average SAT scores that the state and national
averages;
The state passing score on the National Teacher Exam
required for teacher certification is so low that more than
95% of applicants pass;
Whether a district hired teachers with a strong grasp of
their content area was not related to whether a district was
poor or rich or high or low paying, writes the paper.
"If we expect to test our kids and expect them to take more
challenging curriculum, I think we have to pay attention to who's
going to be doing that," said Strauss. "We're going to have to
be a lot more selective." He concluded that districts do not
"aggressively" search for teachers since so many teachers are
"home-grown," reports the paper.
Some educators criticized the report for ranking colleges
based on how well their students scored on the National Teacher
Exam. Lawrence Petit, president of Indiana U of Pennsylvania:
"Whenever you have a standardized test, you will find that some
people will teach to the test. The test doesn't mirror
everything students learn, and it doesn't reflect the rigor of
the general studies or the educational requirements. You have to
put it in the context of other things." Petit's school scored
well on the college ranking, reports the paper.
The study, based on surveys sent to 1,500 school
superintendents, union leaders and school board presidents, was
designed to "analyze policy issues related to teacher preparation
and selection," writes the paper. The full report was reviewed
by the Reaction Panel on Teacher Preparation and Program Approval
at Penn State U.
===== GOAL SIX: ADULT LITERACY AND LIFELONG LEARNING =====
*4 ADULT LITERACY: FEW ENROLL IN MISSOURI PROGRAMS
Few eligible adults take advantage of adult basic education
programs, not only in the U.S. but in other countries, according
to a report released by the Paris-based Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development (Schremp, St. Louis POST DISPATCH,
12/11). Sweden scored best and Poland the worst in the
International Adult Literacy Survey.
In Mo., only 5% to 6% of eligible adults enroll in the
state's adult basic education programs. The paper reports that
more than 52,000 Missourians signed up for the programs.
Other findings from the report: an education is not always
a guarantee of literacy; between 25% and 75% of the surveyed
adults failed to demonstrate "a suitable minimum skill level for
coping with the demands of modern life and work;" in the U.S.,
46% were below this level in reading prose, 49% in reading
documents and 46% in math.
The report urges companies to provide a "literacy-rich work
culture," because workers who do not use their mental skills lose
them.
Some Mo. businessmen expressed dismay over the job-applicant
pool. "You should read the jobs applications we get," said John
Blaskiewicz, president of John Ramming Machine Co. "People can't
spell. People can't fill out the application properly. Basic
grammatical literacy is a big issue. They don't know the names
of machines they've worked on in the past ... The level of
competency of kids coming out of high schools is not real
encouraging."
===== GOAL SEVEN: SAFE, DISCIPLINED AND DRUG-FREE SCHOOLS =====
*5 SCHOOL CHOICE: AN AT-RISK TWIST
How to effectively teach at-risk students while not allowing
them to disrupt their classmates is a question that burns in the
minds of school officials in every town, village and metropolitan
area of this nation. Minn.'s efforts to solve this dilemma are
lauded by David Osborne and Peter Plastrik, co-authors of
"Banishing Bureaucracy: The Five Strategies for Reinventing
Government," in a WASH POST MAGAZINE article (12/14).
Minn. operates 290 small alternative schools for students
at-risk of getting pregnant, dropping out of school, or getting
involved with drugs or gangs. The twist: Students choose to
attend these schools, reports the article. Osborne and Plastrik
cite surveys that found students selected an alternative school
for these reasons: they are small, with 85% having fewer than
150 students; teachers work individually with students; they
offer flexible, individualized instruction and hands-on learning
opportunities.
The authors report that one school, Sobriety High, works
specifically with students who have a drug or alcohol problem.
The City Inc. School "offers a group home for girls, family and
individual counseling, day care for children of teenage parents,
court-ordered day treatment for chemical dependency and a
carpentry program" writes the article.
However, a study by U of Minnesota researcher Cheryl Lange
and Camilla Lehr found that 40% of the 59 alternative-school
students they surveyed dropped out during the first year. They
also found that significant improvement was made by the remaining
students in reading and attitude toward school, but not in math
or writing.
"You have to use a 'but for' test: But for these schools,
they'd be dropouts," said Peter Hutchinson, who served as
superintendent in Minneapolis for over 3 years. "So if you said,
'Does this program work?' -- at that level, there's no question
that it works."
Lange's research also discovered that many students who were
labeled "emotionally disturbed" "were suddenly no longer
emotionally disturbed after they enrolled in alternative
schools," writes the article. "You just don't see disruptive
behavior; you don't see disrespectful behavior," noted Lange.
"And we've been in these schools a lot."
According to Lange, there are four reasons why student
disruptions are few at these schools: students feel more
respective by the teachers; the schools offer more counseling and
related services; the school emphasizes individual learning
plans, contracts with students, and one-on-one tutoring; and they
dismiss students who do not follow the rules.
Lange: "There's a theme that comes out of all of our
surveys and interviews with students and teachers, and that is
the importance of relationships. These students really desire an
environment that fosters relationships between staff and
students."
While the authors admit that quality can be "uneven" at the
alternative schools, they highlight praise from Gene Johnson, an
alternative program specialist in the Minn. DoEd. "I see a lot
more creativity in the alternative schools on school-to-work,
work-based learning, and career-based learning," he said.
Minn. pays to educate the 47,000 students who choose to
attend the 290 alternative schools by allowing the money from
their district to follow them to the new school, writes the
article. From the article: "In fact, the alternative schools
probably cut down on state spending for special education."
The authors conclude: "Is it worth all the effort?
Consider just two facts: Every year these schools lure more than
3,000 adult dropouts back into school -- many of whom earn that
all-important high school diploma. And almost 30 percent of the
diplomas Minneapolis gave out last year went to graduates of
alternative schools -- most of whom would have dropped out
otherwise, according to district officials."
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