NEGP Weekly for July 13, 2000

[Negpweek <NEGPWEEK@WESTAT.com>]

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*******************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 - July 13, 2000 -- Vol. 2 -- No. 63
***************************************************


CONTENTS
**STATE POLICY 
1.) MORE SUMMER CLASSES IN OHIO: WILL DICK AND JANE PASS STATE TESTS?
(Goal 3)
2.) MARYLAND TEACHERS: ON THE FRONTLINES OF REFORM (Goal 4) 

**COMMUNITY AND LOCAL NEWS 
3.) SCHOOL'S OUT, OR IS IT: MORE STUDENTS ATTEND SUMMER SCHOOL (Goal 3)
4.) GRAND JURY: STATE SHOULD BETTER SUPPORT MIAMI SCHOOLS (All Goals)

**FEDERAL POLICY NEWS 
5.) REDUCE, REDUCE, REDUCE: FEDERAL MONEY FOR SMALLER CLASSES (Goals 3 and
4)
6.) TOP DOLLAR: TOP SCHOOLS (All Goals)

**RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRACTICE 
7.) SMALL BABIES DON'T GROW UP TO GRADUATE: A NEW STUDY (Goal 1)
8.) TEACHER SALARIES: STILL LAGGING BEHIND OTHER PROFESSIONS (Goal 4)

**FEATURE STORY
9.) BILL OF RIGHTS FOR ALL: FAILING TO TEACH CIVICS (Goal 3)


***FACT OF THE WEEK***
Between 1990 and 1997, the U.S. and 37 states (out of 49) significantly
reduced the percentages of infants born with one or more of four health
risks.

--The National Education Goals Report: Building a nation of learners, 1999
http://www.negp.gov/reports/99rpt.pdf


********************
STATE POLICY NEWS
********************


1.) ******** MORE SUMMER CLASSES IN OHIO: WILL DICK AND JANE PASS STATE
TESTS? (Goal Three: Student Achievement)

More students in Northeast Ohio are attending summer school this year to
better prepare for the state proficiency test (Gonzalez, Cleveland PLAIN
DEALER, 7/5). A new Ohio law requires that all fourth graders who fail the
reading part of the test repeat fourth grade. In response, the state,
earmarking $15.8 million, mandates that school districts offer summer
classes for those who read below grade level or who fail the proficiency
test three out of five times.

"What you're seeing is an increase in summer school programs because the
funding is available and there's greater awareness about the proficiency
test," Dorothea Howe, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Education,
said in the Plain Dealer. 

Karen Majeski, coordinator of pupil services at Strongsville School
District, said many parents send children to summer school to polish
skills, but many now want their children better prepared for the
proficiency test.

Summer school offerings range from intensive academic instruction to
enrichment classes in dance, music and computer. Schools experiencing an
increase in students attending summer school include:
>  Strongville School District's summer program has gone from 110 last
summer to 130
>  Willoughby-Eastlake School District in Lake County increased three
times to 150 students
>  East Cleveland School District has 802 students
>  Cleveland School Districts has 14,121 students

For more information, visit http://www.cleveland.com or the Ohio
Department of Education at http://www.ode.ohio.gov


2.) ******** MARYLAND TEACHERS: ON THE FRONTLINES OF REFORM
(Goal Four: Teacher Education and Professional Development)

When trying to reform a school system, teachers are the most important and
effective people to explain the process to parents, wrote Nancy S.
Grasmick, Maryland State Superintendent of Schools in the April issue of
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP. Grasmick outlined what reforms Maryland has gone
through, moving from an educational system "concerned more with inputs
than with outputs and tolerant of low expectations for traditionally
under-challenged populations."

The outcome of the reforms in the state is the Maryland School Performance
Assessment Program tests given in grades 3, 5 and 8. The test looks at
total school performance, not individual student scores, and evaluates
mastery of basic skills. Students are asked to write explanations of their
answers.  

Now the state is introducing high school assessment exams, "high-stakes
exit exams." To ensure a smooth introduction, Grasmick wrote in
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP, the state is meeting often with teachers and
parents. Teachers have written and checked potential test questions. They,
along with business leaders, administrators and parents, have refined
curriculums and have encouraged the state to implement the tests over a
few years instead of right away.

"The best spokesperson for improving the perceptions of reform are
teachers," Grasmick wrote. In the 11 years of reform, "teachers brought
insights from the frontlines of school reform and taught valuable lessons
to state officials,"  

For more information, visit the Maryland State Department of Education at
http://www.msde.state.md.us.


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


3.) ******** SCHOOL'S OUT, OR IS IT: MORE STUDENTS ATTEND SUMMER SCHOOL 
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Citizenship)

Nearly one student in five this summer is in school in the country's 53
largest urban districts (Wilgoren, the N.Y. TIMES, 7/5). They are there to
improve their school performance, raise test scores or to ensure passing
into the next grade level. School districts with the most students
enrolled include Chicago, St. Louis and Miami. 

"This notion of a 180-day school year is really obsolete," said Judith
Johnson, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.
"We need to stop thinking about summer school as an activity separate from
the regular school year. All children do not learn in the same way nor do
all of them learn along the same developmental timelines."

The idea of summer school is growing in the suburbs as well as cities, but
by and large it is urban centers with low-income populations that have
instituted classes in July and August. According to the Times, in 1998 all
districts had about 27 percent of their students enrolled in some kind of
summer school; 52 percent in areas with large pockets of poor students. 

Washington, D.C., for example, requires all students with low scores on
standardized tests to enroll in its "Summer Stars" program and to pass a
test at the end. Third graders in Atlanta must attend summer school if
they can not pass their grade.

For more information, visit the N.Y. TIMES at http://www.nytimes.com.


4.) ******** GRAND JURY: STATE SHOULD BETTER SUPPORT MIAMI SCHOOLS
(All Goals)

The state needs to provide more money to the Miami-Dade County school
system reported a 21-member grand jury appointed by State Attorney
Katherine Fernandez Rundle (Sanchez, MIAMI HERALD, 7/7). The report,
"Miami-Dade Public Schools: An Education in Differences" claims that the
state when allocating funds for districts across the state did not
consider the high cost of educating the large number of foreign-born
students.  

"We have found many instances where a failure to understand the unique
needs of our student population, or an unwillingness to learn about them,
results in insufficient and inequitable state funding at four local school
districts," the jurors wrote in the 26-page report. 

Miami has a constant flow of immigrants; they make up 22 percent, or
80,000 students, of the county's 360,000 pupils. The jurors have urged the
Miami-Dade school board to sue the state if in the year 2001 the
legislature does not change how it funds school construction and
operations.

"No matter what we do, no matter how fast we build schools, it's almost
impossible to catch up," said Superintendent Roger Cuevas. "From July 1,
1999 through June 30, 2000, we enrolled over 18,000 foreign students.
That's above and beyond our growth projections."

For more information, visit the MIAMI HERALD at http://www.herald.com.


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


5.) ******** REDUCE, REDUCE, REDUCE: FEDERAL MONEY FOR SMALLER CLASSES
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Citizenship and Goal Four: Teacher
Education and Professional Development)

At the end of June U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley announced the
award of $1.3 million to local communities to hire some 29,000 teachers to
lower the class size in grades kindergarten through third. The funds will
be used to hire new teachers, recruit teachers or train teachers already
on staff. The funds come through the  "Class-Size Reduction Program" and
especially targets poor districts.

Schools that have already reduced classes to 18 or fewer children in
kindergarten through third grade may use the funds to further reduce class
size or reduce class size in other grades. Riley stated that about 1.7
million students in 90,000 classrooms in 20,000 schools across America
would benefit from this infusion of money.

"The benefits of small class size with qualified teachers -- for both
students and teachers -- are abundantly clear."  Concluded Riley.

For more information, visit the Department of Education at
http://www.ed.gov.


6.) ******** TOP DOLLAR: TOP SCHOOLS 
(All Goals)

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley announced another award of money
at the beginning of July. This award, $134 million, goes to thirty-one
states and the District of Columbia to improve low-performing schools.
Part of the Title I Accountability Fund, these monies will help 2,700
schools devise schemes to better their schools, improve leadership and
teacher quality, find new instruction strategies and curriculums,
strengthen parental involvement and improve discipline.

"In 1997-98, states identified nearly 8,000 Title I schools that were not
making ample progress toward helping students meet state academic
standards as measured by state tests," Riley said. "Low-performing schools
are often found in high-poverty communities and frequently lack the
financial and human resources to put effective improvements into practice.
These school improvement funds will help states and districts make
progress toward this critical goal."

The Department of Education is working with the remaining 19 states and
Puerto Rico to ready plans on how they may use the Title I money.

For more information, visit the Department of Education at
http://www.ed.gov.


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


7.) ******** SMALL BABIES DON'T GROW UP TO GRADUATE: A NEW STUDY 
(Goal One: Ready To Learn)

If babies are born weighing less than five and a half pounds they are less
likely to finish high school compared to siblings of normal weight,
according to a study conducted by Dalton Conley, a sociologist at New York
University and Neil G. Bennett of the Baruch School of Public Affairs and
reported in June in the AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW and in July in the
NEW YORK TIMES (Lewin, 7/5).  Of normal-birthweight siblings in the
families studied 57.5 percent graduated from high school by the age of 19,
while 15.2 percent of the low-weight children graduated. The study, based
on data from the University of Michigan's Panel Study of Income Dynamics,
followed thousands of families since 1968.

"That's a huge effect, four times less likely to graduate from high
school," said Greg J. Duncan of the Institute of Policy Research at
Northwestern University. "And it's a little puzzling, since most studies
have shown that most effects of low birthweight fade out in preschool
years. But a sibling comparison is a good way to look at it."

The study did not address why there was such a large discrepancy between
normal weight and low weight children.

For more information, visit the N.Y.TIMES at http://www.nytimes.com or the
American Sociological Review at http://www.pop.psu.edu/ASR/asr.htm


8.) ******** TEACHER SALARIES: STILL LAGGING BEHIND OTHER PROFESSIONS
(Goal Four: Teacher Education and Professional Development)

Teachers salaries have not kept pace with other professions and as a
result, American Federation of Teachers President Sandra Feldman said
schools continue to have trouble hiring new recruits and retaining new
teachers beyond five years. The AFT's 50th salary survey found that
average teacher salary is $26,639 for starting teachers and $40,574 for
teachers with at least 16.2 years of experience.

"The unfortunate fact is that low teacher salaries nationwide are putting
us on a collision course with the national standards movement," Feldman
said at the union's biannual national convention. "Low salaries are
preventing quality people from both entering and staying in the
profession."

While beginning teacher salaries have improved, even from the 1997-98
school year, they are far below beginning salaries for engineers, computer
science graduates and math graduates, for example. And the incremental
increase is only about $135 in constant dollars over the average salaries
from 1972-73. States with the highest beginning salaries are Alaska, at
$32,884, Connecticut at $31,191 and New York at $30,808. The lowest
starting salary was in North Dakota at $19,136.

For more information and a copy of the report, visit the AFT at
http://www.aft.org.


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


9.) ******** BILL OF RIGHTS FOR ALL: FAILING TO TEACH CIVICS 
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Citizenship)

In an effort to shore up test scores, schools are emphasizing math and
English over civic lessons, the OREGONIAN newspaper (Esteve, 7/4) reported
recently. Classes in the rights and duties of citizenship are watered down
or not taught at all and students don't learn these lessons elsewhere.
This "civic illiteracy" has been linked to low voter turnout, intolerance
and lace of respect for authority among young people.

"Civics education clearly isn't working," wrote Kathleen Cotton, a writer
for the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon, in
the July edition of the AMERICAN SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAL. Cotton surveyed 100
reports on the state of civics education; researchers, she said, were
"properly horrified about the ignorance and apathy about our history and
laws."

In the same issue of the school board journal, the University of Texas
published a similar report highlighting the lack of education in how
America's government works. Students leave school not knowing about the
Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights or the constitutional
guarantees of the right of expression. According to the study, only 13
states mention civic lessons in their constitutions. And about 75 percent
of students scored average to below-average on a national test two years
ago that measured the readiness of students to become "responsible
citizens," the newspaper said.

"The average person doesn't really care too much," said Stephen Corkett, a
teacher of geography and politics in Sam Barlow High School in Gresham,
Oregon. "Today, it's not even polite. If you spout about your own country,
you're something of a jingoist."

Teachers' reluctance to talk about controversial social issues compounds
the problem, Kathleen Cotton said. "Citizenship skills, by their very
nature, have to do with deliberation about things, the give and take," she
said.

There are exceptions to this slide in civic classes. Oregon, for example,
has joined six other states in drafting standards for social studies,
including civics. The state hopes to reinvigorate classes in history,
geography and government within two years, given that math and writing
scores are stabilized. More specifically the North Clackamas School
district provides students in all grades weekly lessons in patriotism,
respect for authority and instruction in compassion and self-esteem. At
one elementary school in the district, View Acres, the principal, Chris
Burks, said since teachers have been spending time each week on civics,
vandalism has gone down and the number of students sent to his office has
been cut in half.  "I believe the kids coming out of this school are more
connected to their community, more conscious of being a good citizen,"
Burks said. 

For more information, visit http://www.oregonlive.com or the American
School Board Journal at http://www.asbj.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 
Writer: Laura Hambleton
http://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 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://www.negp.gov. Requests can be made by mail, fax, e-mail, or
Internet. 

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