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****INVITATION****
Who: You are invited to join Governor Tommy Thompson (WI), Chair of the NEGP
and US Representative Matthew Martinez, Panel member
Where: Alhambra City Hall, Council Chambers, Los Angeles, California
When: Monday, May 22, 9:00AM -12:30PM
What: Regional field hearing on achieving high academic standards with minority
and urban students
Why: Hear current effective practices in use in Los Angeles, CA and Texas.
This field hearing is the first of four scheduled to be held nationwide as part
of the Panel's 2000 agenda. The hearings are intended to raise public awareness
of the current best practices in helping all students achieve high academic
standards.
*******************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 - May 4, 2000 -- Vol. 2 -- No. 51
***************************************************
CONTENTS
**STATE POLICY
1.) FIRST-GRADE READINESS: SREB STATES "LEAD THE WAY" (Goal 1)
2.) STATES SUPPORT STANDARDS: ACHIEVE DOCUMENTS STATUS OF STANDARDS (Goal 3)
**COMMUNITY AND LOCAL NEWS
3.) URBAN SCHOOL REFORM: "IT TAKES A CITY" (All Goals)
4.) DEVOLUTION: L.A.'S HOPE FOR SCHOOL SUCCESS (All Goals)
**FEDERAL POLICY NEWS
5.) IN CLASSROOM: MORE TRAINING, MORE USE BY TEACHERS (Goals 4 and 5)
6.) COMPUTERS EDUCATING AMERICANS: A WORLDWIDE EFFORT (Goal 3)
**RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRACTICE
7.) MATH STANDARDS: UPDATED BY NCTM (Goal 5)
8.) NATIONAL READING PANEL: WHAT CHILDREN NEED TO LEARN TO READ (Goal 3)
**FEATURE STORY
9.) QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A TOOL FOR SCHOOL SUCCESS (All Goals)
***FACT OF THE WEEK***
--The National Education Goals Report: Building a nation of learners, 1999
********************
STATE POLICY NEWS
********************
1.) ******** FIRST-GRADE READINESS: SREB STATES "LEAD THE WAY"
(Goal One: Ready To Learn)
Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states have become "national leaders in
implementing programs to help prepare children for first grade" writes Mark
Musick, SREB president in a new publication issued by SREB. SREB STATES LEAD
THE WAY: Getting Children Ready for the First Grade is the fourth report in
SREB's Educational Benchmarks 2000 series.
According to the report, every SREB state has a reading initiative that includes
early assessment to identify first graders who are having problems learning to
read and interventions to correct those problems. In seven SREB states, the
total number of children served by state preschool programs and Head Start
exceeds the number of children who live in poverty. Other findings include:
> 14 of the 16 SREB states provide funds for preschool programs for children
under the age of five.
> 13 SREB states have early childhood immunization rates that are as good as or
better than the national average.
> Every SREB state has a federally approved plan to reduce the number of
children without health insurance.
For more information, visit the Southern Regional Education Board at
http://http://www.sreb.org.
2.) ******** STATES SUPPORT STANDARDS: ACHIEVE DOCUMENTS STATUS OF STANDARDS
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Citizenship)
A majority of states support a standards-based agenda, according to a recent
analysis of the standards movement conducted by Achieve, a bipartisan group that
provides states with information and guidance on standards, assessment and
accountability. "States are sending a message that they are not backing down
from using standards," said Robert Schwartz, president of Achieve. "There is
much work to be done, but states are telling us that the standards movement is
alive and well."
In the fall of 1999, a National Education Summit was held and attended by nearly
30 governors, as well as national education and business leaders. Meeting in
Palisades, New York, they identified three key challenges facing America's
schools: improving teacher quality, helping all students reach high standards
and strengthening accountability (Learner, EDUCATION DAILY, 4/17). Forty states
responded to the summit's six-month deadline to provide information on how their
state intends to handle these challenges. Achieve found that many of the plans
outlined efforts to improve standards. Eight states reported adding standards
or improving on existing ones. Fifteen states replied that they are designing
or revamping their assessments.
A full list of state action plans can be found at the Achieve web site:
http://http://www.achieve.org.
*************************
Community and Local News
*************************
3.) ******** URBAN SCHOOL REFORM: "IT TAKES A CITY"
(All Goals)
Mayors and city leaders in large urban areas must take on more responsibility if
they want to improve public education in the cities they govern, according to a
new book published by the Brookings Institution. It Takes a City: Getting
Serious about School Reform examines school-reform efforts in six cities -
Boston, Memphis, New York City District 2, San Antonio, San Francisco and
Seattle. The authors analyze the strengths and weaknesses in reform strategies
and recommend strategies for other city leaders interested in designing and
implementing comprehensive school reform efforts in their jurisdiction.
Authors Paul Hill, Colin Johnson and Derek Roseman outline three reform
strategies:
> The CEO-Strong Schools Strategy, which depends on a superintendent with broad
powers and independent schools with their own budgets;
> The Diverse Providers Strategy, which requires schools to operate under
contracts with local education agencies.
> The Community Partnerships Strategy, which calls for a public board to create
a portfolio of educational alternatives and broker health and social services
for needy children.
It Takes a City outlines how public, nonprofit, philanthropic and for-profit
resources can be combined to manage and sustain the most promising reform
strategies. The publication is the second of three volumes on urban school
reform, following the 1999 release of Fixing Urban Schools.
It Takes a City (ISBN 0-8157-3639-8) is available for $12.95. Visit the
Brookings Institution at http://http://www.brookings.edu.
4.) ******** DEVOLUTION: L.A.'S HOPE FOR SCHOOL SUCCESS
(All Goals)
In an attempt to improve student achievement and the general condition of
education, the Los Angeles school system is "taking a bold new tack:
devolution," writes the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR (Wood, 4/27). Outgoing,
temporary Superintendent Ramon Cortines conceived of the plan that will
eliminate 800 central office jobs and shift another 500 from central
headquarters to 11 new subdistricts. The plan also calls for the opening of 11
district offices, with 11 new superintendents.
"There has been a general agreement by education reformers for years that the
nation's big-city school systems got too big, too fast from the '60s to the
'90s," said Chris Roellke, professor of education at Vassar College. "Now there
is a shift of thinking that says smaller units might be the way to go. The
question everyone will be trying to answer from the Los Angeles example will be:
How does all this shifting of people and bureaucracy translate into better
education in the classroom?"
Visit the CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR at http://http://www.csmonitor.com.
*********************
Federal Policy News
*********************
5.) ******** IN CLASSROOM: MORE TRAINING, MORE USE BY TEACHERS
(Goal Four: Teacher Education and Professional Development and Goal Five: Math
and Science)
Teachers with more than 32 hours of professional development are twice as likely
to use computers as are teachers with no such training, reports a new survey
released by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education
Statistics. According to Teacher Use of Computers and the Internet in Public
Schools, virtually all full-time regular public school teachers say they have
access to computers or the Internet in their schools. Two-thirds of those
teachers report that they are using the new technology for classroom
instruction; but two-thirds of teachers also say they are not well prepared for
the task.
Other findings from the report:
> Teachers working in high-poverty schools have less access to technologies
than teachers serving primarily more affluent students.
> 41 percent of teachers reported assigning students work that involved
computer applications such as word processing and spreadsheets.
> Elementary school teachers were more likely than secondary school teachers to
assign students practice drills using computers and to have their students use
computers or the Internet to solve problems (39 percent versus 12, and 31
percent versus 20, respectively).
> Secondary school teachers were more likely to assign research using the
Internet than those in elementary schools (41 percent versus 25 percent).
The survey was conducted in spring of 1999. Results are available online at
http://nces.ed.gov.
6.) ******** COMPUTERS EDUCATING AMERICANS: A WORLDWIDE EFFORT
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Citizenship)
Last month, President Clinton issued an executive memorandum on the need to
establish a comprehensive national policy for educating American citizens
worldwide. The U.S. Departments of Education and State are charged with
fulfilling the directive, which "renews and strengthens the federal government's
commitment to support international education in the broadest sense," according
to a State Department press release (4/20).
The Departments of Education and State plan to work with schools and colleges to
encourage more students from other countries to study in the U.S. and to promote
increased study abroad by U.S. students. The departments also will take steps
to support the exchange of teachers, scholars and citizens at all levels of
society and to strengthen and expand cross-national partnerships among education
institutions. The directive calls on the State Department to ensure that
international educational exchange programs, including the Fulbright program,
receive the support they need to fulfill their mission of promoting mutual
understanding.
Both departments also will support state and local governments and educational
institutions to expand foreign language learning and in-depth knowledge of other
cultures by Americans. According to the press release, "this support will
prepare and bolster teachers' efforts to interpret the world to their students."
For more information, visit the Department of Education at
http://http://www.ed.gov.
*********************************
Research and Education Practices
*********************************
7.) ******** MATH STANDARDS: UPDATED BY NCTM
(Goal Five: Math and Science)
Ten years ago, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics released its
first set of standards for math education. NCTM last month unveiled updated
standards with the release of Principles and Standards for School Mathematics.
The new standards are organized into four grade levels: K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12.
The 1989 version included only three grade-level groupings, but the new
version was expanded to give more emphasis on the early grades.
Key principles set forth in Principles and Standards are:
> Students must be fluent in arithmetic computation. Students should know
their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division combinations.
> Technology is essential in teaching and learning math and it must be used
wisely by well-informed teachers to support understanding of concepts.
> By the end of eighth grade, after a coherent experience across pre-K through
grade eight, students should have a very strong foundation in algebra and
geometry so they can use ideas to solve problems with understanding.
> All students should study math for each of the four years in high school
> Teachers need to know and use "mathematics for teaching," which means it is
critical to provide ongoing support and resources for teachers.
Principles and Standards is available online at http://http://www.nctm.org.
8.) ******** NATIONAL READING PANEL: WHAT CHILDREN NEED TO LEARN TO READ
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Citizenship)
After nearly two years of examining the research in the field of reading, the
National Reading Panel issued their report on the status of research on reading
and the reading instruction needed to produce strong readers. The panel found
that for children to become good readers, they must be taught:
> phonemic awareness skills - the ability to manipulate the sounds that make up
spoken language;
> phonics skills - the understanding that there are relationships between
letters and sounds;
> the ability to read fluently with accuracy, speed and expression; and
> to apply reading comprehension strategies to enhance understanding and
enjoyment of what they read.
The Panel also found that while asking children to read silently is an accepted
practice, the research demonstrated that it was not as effective as guided oral
reading in helping children become fluent readers. Other findings include:
little research about teacher education in reading exists and rigorous research
is needed to understand the potential of computers in reading instruction.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the
Department of Education convened the Panel in 1997. Congress directed the
creation of the National Reading Panel to "reevaluate educational research and
give our teachers and schools a roadmap to address" the problem that too many
children were reading below grade level, explained U.S. Representative Anne M.
Northup, at the release of the report.
The National Reading Panel report can be found at
http://http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org.
*****************
Feature Story
*****************
9.) ******** QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A TOOL FOR SCHOOL SUCCESS
(ALL GOALS)
The National Education Goals Panel last month sponsored a teleconference that
highlighted the application of the Baldrige criteria and Quality Management in
the nation's schools. Quality Management is a model introduced in the corporate
community two decades ago when American businesses faced "new challenges to
their growth and success in the global marketplace," writes a Goals Panel press
release. Business leaders used Quality Management principles to help empower
employees to set goals for their own success, which led to significant gains in
productivity and greater satisfaction among employees and customers.
Baldrige criteria refer to the Malcolm Baldrige awards program. It is a
self-assessment of organizational practices that support high performance. The
seven component parts of the Baldrige self-assessment framework are a set of
processes that provide direction and concrete steps in achieving high
performance.
At the teleconference, Creating a Framework for High-Achieving Schools,
educators and elected officials praised the Quality Management model used by
business as a "way to give both students and teachers a stake in a school's
achievement," writes EDUCATION DAILY.
"This teleconference is an important first step in stimulating a dialogue that
will showcase policies, practices and actions that are working in education
today," said Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson ( R ), chair of the Goals Panel.
"Today's teleconference highlights an exciting set of ideas, relatively new to
education, that a group of innovative education leaders have pioneered with the
help of partners from business."
Several success stories were featured during the teleconference, including:
> Dr. Gerald Anderson, superintendent of the Brazosport Independent School
District in Texas, discussed the impact of Quality Management in his district's
schools. Because of Brazosport's focus on state standards, today there is
virtually no difference in academic achievement between minority and majority
students or economically disadvantaged and advantaged students.
> Representatives from Azalea Elementary School in Pinellas County, Florida,
and from Bonny Eagle High School in Standish, Maine, underscored the importance
of school leadership in a quality-driven environment and how it contributes to
student success. At Azalea, a predominantly low-income school, all students
contribute to classroom goals and mission statements and track their progress
using data.
> Goals Panel member and Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon (D), Indiana
Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Suellen Reed and two state legislators
discussed how states can support Baldrige as a framework for reform. Indiana
passed legislation with bipartisan support to encourage such reforms.
"It is often remarked that someone somewhere has solved every problem in
education," said Ken Nelson, executive director of the Panel. "The National
Education Goals Panel is launching this teleconference as the first step in a
yearlong examination of these promising practices so people may one day remark
that everyone everywhere has solved every problem in education."
At the teleconference, the Goals Panel launched a yearlong initiative called
High Achieving Schools: The Promise, The Practice, and The Results that will
focus on standards-based reform. Other aspects of the Goals Panel agenda for
2000 are:
> Four regional hearings to examine issues key to achieving high standards for
all students. (May 22 - Los Angeles, June 1 - Vermont, September 19 - Atlanta
and October - Chicago)
> The formation of the Measuring Success Task Force, led by former Maine
Governor John "Jock" McKernan, that will make recommendations on data and
reporting issues.
> A final National teleconference in December that will engage the nation by
summarizing what has been learned and will empower educators to build consensus
around promising practices.
For more information on any of the National Education Goals Panel's activities,
visit http://http://www.negp.gov.
************************************
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
http://http://www.negp.gov
************************************
The NEGP/ Daily Report Card (DRC) hereby authorizes further reproduction and
distribution with proper acknowledgment.
To subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) the NEGP Weekly, respond to this email
or address an email message to: NEGPWEEK@westat.com and put subscribe or
unsubscribe in the message portion of the e-mail.
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 Tommy G. Thompson, WI (Chair, 2000);
John Engler, MI; Jim Geringer, WY; James B. Hunt, Jr., NC; Frank Keating, OK;
Frank O'Bannon, IN; Paul E. Patton, KY; Cecil H. Underwood, WV; Secretary of
Education Richard Riley; Michael Cohen, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Elementary
and Secondary 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 the Goals Panel or at its web site
http://http://www.negp.gov. Requests can be made by mail, fax, e-mail, or
Internet.
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