The NEGP Weekly for January 20, 2000

[NEGPWEEK@westat.com (NEGPWEEK)]

*******************THE NEGP WEEKLY****************
A weekly news update on America's Education Goals 
and school improvement efforts across America from the 
NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL

Thursday - January 20, 2000 -- Vol. 2 -- No. 40
***************************************************

CONTENTS
**STATE POLICY 
1.) STATE-OF-THE-STATES:  EDUCATION LOOMS LARGE (All Goals)
2.) NEW TEACHERS: MASSACHUSETTS STANDS AND DELIVERS (GOAL 4) 

**COMMUNITY AND LOCAL NEWS 
3.) DIGITAL DIVIDE: HOW SOME COMMUNITIES TRY TO BRIDGE THE GAP (Goals 3 and
5)
4.) PHYSICS FIRST: ONE SMALL STEP IN ARKANSAS (Goal 5)

**FEDERAL POLICY NEWS 
5.) DRAGON TALES: A READY-TO-LEARN PROGRAM (Goal 1)
6.) TECHNOLOGY UPDATE: CONFERENCE REPORT ON-LINE (Goal 5)

**RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRACTICE 
7.) "EQUIPPED FOR THE FUTURE": STANDARDS FOR ADULT LITERACY (GOAL 6)
8.) THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE: NEW ROLE FOR SCHOOL LEADERS (Goals 3 and 4)

**FEATURE STORY
9.) TEACHER QUALITY: IT MATTERS (Goals 3 and 4)

***FACT OF THE WEEK***
In 1996, the states with the highest percentages of degrees earned by female
students that were awarded in mathematics or science were: the District of
Columbia (52%), Massachusetts (50%), Maine (49%), Colorado (48%), and
Virginia (48%).

--The National Education Goals Report: Building a nation of learners, 1999


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STATE POLICY NEWS
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1.) ********STATE-OF-THE-STATES:  EDUCATION LOOMS LARGE
(All Goals)

Education continues to be a top priority for the nation's governors,
according to an analysis of the governors' state-of-the-state addresses by
the National Governors' Association (NGA).  NGA's Center for Best Practices
identified several emerging themes defined by the governors:
>  recruiting and training qualified teachers
>  early childhood
>  technology
>  higher education
>  construction
>  reading

"The one important thing I had not expected to find [in the speeches] was a
growing realization of the importance of education in recruiting the kind of
workforce you'll need for a strong economy and an emphasis on community
colleges as a part of that," said Kathy Christie, a policy analyst for the
Education Commission of the States in Denver. (Keller, ED WEEK, 1/19)  ED
WEEK also notes that many surveys of voters find that education is high on
the minds of the American public.  

Information on the governors' speeches can be found at www.nga.org.
                

2.) ******** NEW TEACHERS: MASSACHUSETTS STANDS AND DELIVERS
(GOAL FOUR: TEACHER Education and PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT)

In response to a startling 40 percent dropout rate of teachers who leave the
classroom after their first few years, Massachusetts launched a new program
to stem the tide of teachers leaving school (Franklin, BOSTON GLOBE, 1/16).
Nearly 800 first-year Massachusetts teachers will be assigned a veteran
teacher to serve as a mentor, be given teaching tools to help them implement
the state's standards and also be allotted time to discuss the "craft and
art of teaching" with other teachers. 

The new teachers also will participate in a series of seminars devoted to
the challenges of first-year teaching, sponsored by the Massachusetts
Department of Education, reports the paper. 

For more information on the first-year teacher program, visit
www.doe.mass.edu/tqe.


*************************
Community and Local News
*************************


3.) ******** DIGITAL DIVIDE: HOW SOME COMMUNITIES TRY TO BRIDGE THE GAP
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Citizenship and Goal Five: Mathematics
and Science)

A digital divide exists between rich and poor schoolchildren over access to
computers, according to the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration.  Wealthy Americans are 20 times more likely to own a
computer than low-income families, according to the group's 1998 report,
Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide.  Only 8 percent of
families earning less than $10,000 a year have PCs, and only 3 percent of
that group have Internet connections, notes the report.

The SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE reports that disadvantaged students in the Bay
Area and nationwide are relying on grants - both public and private - to get
computers in their homes (May, 1/18).  For example:
>  Fourth- through eighth-grade students at Edison McNair Academy, a charter
school in East Palo Alto, California, receive an iMac desktop computer for
use in their homes, compliments of Gap founder Don Fisher. 
>  Christopher Columbus School in New Jersey pieced together enough funds to
send every middle-school student home with a laptop.  According to the
paper, the school "turned itself around and avoided a state takeover in 1995
by pursuing technology."
>  Oakland, California, school officials plan to combine two federal grants
totaling $24 million over the next five years to send every high school
student and 3,500 seventh graders home with an Internet-ready computer.

"For the last decade, business and government were focused on getting
computers into schools, but now people are starting to realize that what
really divides kids academically is whether they have a computer at home,"
said Peter Hutcher, coordinator of instructional technology for the Oakland
schools.

Visit the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at
www.ntia.doc.gov.


4.) ******** PHYSICS FIRST: ONE SMALL STEP IN ARKANSAS
(Goal Five: Mathematics and Science)

Tradition is being broken in Little Rock's Central High School, where
freshmen are taking physics.  The typical sequence of high school science
classes - ninth-grade biology, tenth-grade chemistry, and for the elite
only, 11th-grade physics is being turned around (Parker, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
MONITOR, 1/18).  "The effort [in Little Rock] is what we want to see happen
across the country," said Dr. Leon Lederman, a Nobel Prize-winning
physicist.  "Physics is all basic knowledge that students need to learn in
order to progress to the next level of learning science."

According to the paper, the Little Rock students learn an "array of sensible
lessons through simple experiments - how a lightning rod protects a house,
the intensity of a tornado, or why a sunset glows orange."

The Little Rock School District was recognized for being one of the first in
the nation to adapt the "active physics" curriculum for all high school
freshmen.

The CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR can be found at www.csmonitor.com.


*********************
Federal Policy News
*********************


5.) ******** DRAGON TALES: A READY-TO-LEARN PROGRAM
(Goal One: Ready To Learn)

Dragon Tales, a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) children's program, is the
first show produced out of the Ready-To-Learn Television Grant, a
collaboration between the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting.  The Ready-To-Learn grant is authorized by the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The purposes of the grant are to: develop educational programming for
preschool and early elementary school children; develop educational
television programming and printed materials to increase school readiness
for young children in limited English proficient households and to increase
family literacy; and develop accompanying support materials and services
that promote the effective use of educational television programming.  

Another program, Between The Lions, will target four-to-seven-year-olds to
help them develop reading skills.  The program, which will premier in April,
takes place in a library inhabited by an animated group of puppets and
"real" people.  Children will find the tools they need to learn to read,
seek out books and find information.

Information on Ready-To-Learn Television can be found at www.ed.gov, search
for Ready-To-Learn Television.  Visit www.pbs.com for news on Dragon Tales
and Between The Lions.


6.) ******** TECHNOLOGY UPDATE: CONFERENCE REPORT ON-LINE
(Goal Five: Mathematics and Science)

Proceedings from the U.S. Department of Education's summer conference,
Secretary's Conference on Educational Technology: Evaluating the
Effectiveness of Technology, are available on-line.  "The primary reason for
this conference is to gather information from all of the outstanding
schools, districts and states represented here so that we can study it,
share it and learn from it," said Richard Riley.  Conference participants
noted a shift in the emphasis in technology.  Initially, building a
technology infrastructure took precedence, but now educators, parents and
policymakers are interested in the effectiveness of technology use in
schools and classrooms.

Seven key issues in evaluating the effectiveness of technology in education
emerged from the conference, including:  

> The effectiveness of technology is embedded in the effectiveness of other
school improvement efforts.
>  The role of teacher is crucial in evaluating the effectiveness of
technology in schools, but the burden of proof is not solely theirs.
>  Implementing an innovation in schools can result in practice running
before policy.  Some existing policies need to be transformed to match the
new needs of schools using technology.

For more information, visit the Department of Education's conference site at
www.ed.gov/Technology/TechConf/1999/ 


*********************************
Research and Education Practices
*********************************


7.) ******** "EQUIPPED FOR THE FUTURE": STANDARDS FOR ADULT LITERACY
(GOAL SIX: ADULT LITERACY AND LIFELONG LEARNING)

The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) last week released a set of 16
standards to help make the adult education system "more responsive to
learners' needs," according to an NIFL press release.  Each standard is
based on skills and knowledge adults need for their roles as workers,
parents and family members and citizens.  The standards were piloted in
adult education programs in 12 states during the past two years.  They
include: use math to solve problems and communicate; plan; cooperate with
others; take responsibility for learning and speak so others can understand.


"The standards suggest a road definition of literacy based on skills and
knowledge adults need for their daily lives," said Dr. Anderw Hartman, NIFL
director.  "When those standards become classroom goals, we find that
instruction is focused, learners often feel satisfied and programs can
explain their results in language that makes sense to employers,
policymakers, taxpayers, everyone."

More information on the report, Equipped for the Future Content Standards:
What Adults Need to Know and Be Able to Do in the 21st Century, can be found
at www.nifl.gov. 


8.) ******** THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE: NEW ROLE FOR SCHOOL LEADERS
(Goal Three: Student Achievement And Citizenship and Goal Four: Teacher
Education And Professional Development)

The Council for Basic Education (CBE) features the role of the principal in
its December 1999 BASIC EDUCATION publication.  Today's focus on student
achievement, standards and testing translates into a role for principals
that extends beyond running a school "where the buses arrive on time, the
lunchroom is orderly and the children are disciplined," writes Susannah
Patton, director of CBE's academic programs and manager of the Principals'
Instructional Leadership Academy, in the publication's introduction.  

A series of articles written by "successful practitioners" covers a range of
topics related to the office of school principal.  Also included are
highlights from CBE's conference on the implementation of academic
standards, which stressed the importance of school leadership - the
principal - in achieving improved student learning. 

Visit CBE at www.c-b-e.org for more information on School Principal as
Instructional Leader and other issues.


*****************
Feature Story
*****************


9.) ******** TEACHER QUALITY: IT MATTERS
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Citizenship and Goal Four: Teacher
Education and Professional Development)

The quality of America's teaching workforce matters - a lot, according to
EDUCATION WEEK's latest report, Quality Counts 2000: Who Should Teach?  In
this fourth annual survey of the states, ED WEEK examines what states are
doing to attract, screen and retain top-notch teachers.  Their answer:  "Not
enough."  Yet, Virginia B. Edwards, editor of Quality Counts and EDUCATION
WEEK offers up some good news.  "Many states have begun to focus on issues
of teacher quality," she said.  "Teaching matters for student performance,
and lawmakers seem to be getting the message."

Quality Counts 2000 presents results from an "exhaustive" national survey on
how states recruit, test and license beginning teachers.  The survey also
reviews state efforts to support and evaluate new teachers in the classroom.
The report is divided into two sections.  "Who Should Teach?" is a series of
articles that discuss ED WEEK's theme for this issue.  The second section is
"The State of the States," which examines student performance and more than
75 indicators of the quality of each state's public education system

Findings from the survey include:

>  Thirty-nine states require prospective educators to pass a basic-skills
test.  But 36 of those states have loopholes that allow at least some people
to teach who have failed such exams.
>  Twenty-nine states require high school teachers to pass tests in the
subjects they plan to teach, and 39 require them to have a major, a minor,
or an equivalent number of course credits in their subjects.  Yet all of
those states, except New Jersey, can waive those requirements, either by
granting licenses to individuals who have not met them or by permitting
districts to hire such people.
>  Fewer than half the states expect middle school teachers to earn
secondary licenses in the subjects they plan to teach.  The rest allow them
to use "generic" elementary school certificates.  Only nine states require
all middle school teachers to pass tests in their subjects.
>  Of the college graduates who began teaching by 1993-1994, nearly one in
five had left within three years.
>  The brightest novice teachers, as measured by their college-entrance
exams, were the most likely to leave.

Quality Counts 2000 is produced in collaboration with the Pew Charitable
Trusts.  For more information on Quality Counts 2000: Who Should Teach,
visit ED WEEK at www.edweek.com.

        
************************************
The NEGP WEEKLY is a publication of:
The National Education Goals Panel 
1255 22nd Street NW, Suite 502 
Washington, DC 20037; 
202-724-0015 

NEGP Executive Director: Ken Nelson 
Publisher: Barbara A. Pape 
www.negp.gov 
************************************

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WHAT IS THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL? 
The National Education Goals Panel is a unique bipartisan body of state and
federal officials created in 1990 by President Bush and the nation's
Governors to report state and national progress and urge education
improvement efforts to reach the National Education Goals. 

WHAT DOES THE GOALS PANEL DO?
The Goals Panel has been charged to: 
* Report state and national progress toward the National Education Goals. 
* Work to establish a system of high academic standards and assessments. 
* Identify promising and effective reform strategies. 

* Recommend actions for state, federal, and local governments to take. 
* Build a nationwide, bipartisan consensus to achieve the Goals. 

WHAT ARE THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS? 
There are eight National Education Goals set for the year 2000. They are: 
1) All children will start school ready to learn. 
2) The high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90%. 
3) All students will become competent in challenging subject matter. 
4) Teachers will have the knowledge and skills they need. 
5) U.S. students will be first in the world in math and science achievement.
6) Every adult American will be literate. 
7) Schools will be safe, disciplined, and free of drugs, guns and alcohol. 
8) Schools will promote parental involvement and participation. 

WHO SERVES ON THE GOALS PANEL AND HOW ARE THEY CHOSEN?
Eight governors, four state legislators, four members of the U.S. Congress,
and two members appointed by the President serve on the Goals Panel. Members
are appointed by the leadership of the National Governors' Association, the
National Conference of State Legislatures, the U.S. Senate and House, and
the President. The number of Republicans and Democrats are made even by
appointing five governors from the party that does not control the White
House.
 
The current Panel Members are Governors Paul E. Patton, KY, (Chair, 1999);
John Engler, MI; Jim Geringer, WY; James B. Hunt, Jr., NC; Frank Keating,
OK; Frank O'Bannon, IN; Tommy G. Thompson, WI; Cecil H. Underwood, WV;
Secretary of Education Richard Riley; Michael Cohen, Assistant Secretary of
Education; U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, NM; U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords, VT;
U.S. Representative William F. Goodling, PA; U.S. Representative Matthew G.
Martinez, CA; Representative G. Spencer Coggs, WI; Representative Mary Lou
Cowlishaw, IL; Representative Douglas R. Jones, ID; Senator Stephen Stoll,
MO. 

The annual Goals Report and other publications of the Panel are available
without charge upon request from t he Goals Panel or at its web site
www.negp.gov. Requests can be made by mail, fax, e-mail, or Internet. 

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