The NEGP WEEKLY for March 1, 2001

[Negpweek <NEGPWEEK@WESTAT.com>]

*****************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 - March 1, 2001 -- Vol. 2 -- No. 92
*************************************************

CONTENTS

**STATE POLICY 
1.) WHOLE-SCHOOL REFORM: IS IT WORKING IN NEW JERSEY? (All Goals)
2.) THE STATE-OF-THE-STATES: GOVERNORS' EDUCATION PROPOSALS (All Goals)

**COMMUNITY AND LOCAL NEWS 
3.) EVERY CHILD COUNTS: A REPORT ON MIDDLE SCHOOLS FROM JEFFERSON COUNTY
(Goal 3)
4.) MAKING SCIENCE MAKE SENSE: A BAYER PROGRAM (Goal 5)

**FEDERAL POLICY NEWS 
5.) K-12/COLLEGE CONNECTIONS: ON PAIGE'S AGENDA (All Goals)
6.) SCHOOL-TO-WORK:  MAKES A DIFFERENCE (Goals 2, 3 and 6)

**RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES
7.) CHECK:  NEW REPORT FROM PUBLIC AGENDA (Goals 3 and 8)
8.) REALITY THE ECONOMICS OF CLASS SIZE: DOES IT IMPROVE STUDENT LEARNING
(Goal 3)

**FEATURE STORY
9.) CHANGES IN EDUCATION MEASUREMENT: A GOALS PANEL GOAL (All Goals)


***FACT OF THE WEEK***
Between 1991 and 2000, the U.S. and 51 states (out of 51) significantly
increased the numbers of Advanced Placement examinations receiving a grade
of 3 or higher (per 1,000 11th and 12th graders.)

--Promising Practices: Progress Toward the Goals 2000
http://www.negp.gov/promprac/promprac00/promprac00.pdf


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


1.) ******** WHOLE-SCHOOL REFORM: IS IT WORKING IN NEW JERSEY?
(All Goals)

Problems continue to "bedevil" educators attempting to overhaul New Jersey's
urban schools, according to research recently released by Professor Bari
Anhalt Erlichson, assistant professor of public policy at Rutgers
University, and Margaret Goertz, school finance expert and co-director of
the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of
Pennsylvania.  

While the new study does not evaluate the effectiveness of various
school-reform models adopted in the nearly 60 schools examined for the
study, it does identify implementation problems that arise with each of the
designs being used in the schools (Hendrie, EDUCATION EEK, 2/21).

Overly tight timelines, heavy paperwork burdens and lack of support provided
the schools are cited as critical problems to overhaul the urban schools.

For more information and a copy of the report, call (732) 932-2499.


2.) ******** THE STATE-OF-THE-STATES: GOVERNORS' EDUCATION PROPOSALS
(All Goals)

EDUCATION WEEK provides brief summaries of each state's education
initiatives provided by governors in their state-of-the-state addresses
(EDUCATION WEEK, 2/21).  Each state summary includes the proposed fiscal
year 2002 state budget, the proposed K-12 state education budget, the fiscal
year 2001 K-12 budget, proposed percent change K-12 budget, estimated K-12
enrollment and highlights of education initiatives from the governors'
speeches.

For more information, visit EDUCATION WEEK at http://www.edweek.com.


*************************
COMMUNITY AND LOCAL NEWS
*************************


3.) ******** EVERY CHILD COUNTS: A REPORT ON MIDDLE SCHOOLS FROM JEFFERSON
COUNTY
(Goal Three: Student Achievement)

Low expectations for students is a key obstacle to the success of middle
schools in Jefferson County, Kentucky, according to the report Every Child
Counts: Raising Student Achievement in the Middle Grades.  The report, from
the Community Accountability Team, a group of Jefferson County parents and
citizens, also found that low student motivation and low parent and
community involvement also had a negative impact on schools and learning.

The purpose of the study was to help community members gain first-hand
knowledge of the complex issues related to middle schools and to check the
district's progress in raising student achievement.  Every Child Counts
recommends solutions and highlights promising practices found in the five
schools examined in the report.

For more information and a copy of the report, visit the Community
Accountability Team, a project of the Pritchard Committee at
http://www.prichardcommittee.org.


4.) ******** MAKING SCIENCE MAKE SENSE: A BAYER PROGRAM
(Goal Five: Math and Science)

Making Science Make Sense (MSMS) is a school/business partnership sponsored
by Bayer Corporation that provides students and teachers with hands-on
science experience (Curtis, EDUTOPIA, Fall 2000).  MSMS, a company-wide
initiative, involves more than 1,000 employees at 24 locations.  Programs
include a science center located in a California school, an environmental
awareness program in South Carolina, "farm day" for city students in
Missouri, and a national competition in which middle school students solve
community problems using science applications and technology.

In Pittsburgh, Bayer employee-volunteers have created the Bayer Association
for Science in Communities (BASIC).   Bayer personnel visit schools
throughout the year to "help make science come alive," with grade
appropriate lessons.  Another program out of Myerstown, Pennsylvania, gives
teachers an opportunity to work side-by-side with Bayer scientists.

For more information, visit the Bayer Corporation at http://www.bayerus.com.


*********************
FEDERAL POLICY NEWS
*********************


5.) ******** K-12/COLLEGE CONNECTIONS: ON PAIGE'S AGENDA
(All Goals)

At a conference of the American Council on Education (ACE), U.S. Education
Secretary Rod Paige urged college leaders to encourage partnerships between
their colleges of education and K-12 schools (Hardi, EDUCATION DAILY, 2/21).
Paige said the education schools should produce "improved K-12 curricula and
graduates better able to teach math, science and reading," writes the
newsletter.  

Paige pointed out what colleges could accomplish if entering freshman came
fully prepared, as opposed to the 30 percent who now must enroll in remedial
courses.  "What could you accomplish if you could start right away, with
students doing rigorous college and university work?" he asked.  "The bottom
line is that our students must be better prepared by public schools."

For more information on the American Council on Education, visit
http://www.ace.org.   The Department of Education can be found at
http://www.ed.gov.


6.) ******** SCHOOL-TO-WORK:  MAKES A DIFFERENCE
(Goal Two: School Completion, Goal Three: Student Achievement and
Goal Six: Adult Literacy and Lifelong Learning)

School-to-Work:  Making a Difference in Education concludes that
school-to-work (STW) initiatives including job shadowing and work-site
internships reduces dropout rates and increases college enrollment.  The
report, released by the Institute on Education and the Economy, Columbia
University's Teachers College, examines several studies that have reviewed
the effectiveness of STW initiatives.

However, the report also found a lack of evidence to explain whether or not
STW improves standardized test scores and if STW has a positive impact on
college enrollment and completion.

For more information and a copy of the report, visit the Institute on
Education and the Economy at http://www.tc.columbia.edu/iee.


*********************************
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRACTICES
*********************************


7.) ******** CHECK:  NEW REPORT FROM PUBLIC AGENDA
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Goal Eight: Parent Involvement)

Reality Check 2001 is the latest in a series of education reform surveys
conducted by Public Agenda.  This fourth-in-the-series report found that
standards has started to take hold in America's schools.  It also found
several statistically significant changes, including:
>  Fewer teachers report their schools use social promotion and more parents
say their children have to pass standardized tests to advance in school.
>  The perception gap between public and private schools seems to be
narrowing, with 34 percent of parents saying public schools have higher
standards than private ones - up from 22 percent four years ago.
>  Only one-fifth of teachers say they currently have to focus on test
preparation so much that real learning is neglected, but 83 percent say
they're worried "teaching to the test" could become the norm. 

Reality Check 2001 was conducted in association with EDUCATION WEEK and
funded by Pew Charitable Trusts and the GE Fund.

For more information and a copy of the report, visit Public Agenda at
http://www.publicagenda.org.


8.) ******** REALITY THE ECONOMICS OF CLASS SIZE: DOES IT IMPROVE STUDENT
LEARNING
(Goal Three: Student Achievement)

Edward Lazear, an economist at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and
the Hoover Institution, entered the debate over class size by presenting a
paper to the American Economic Association that created a framework to help
educators "understand the relation between class size and learning," reports
the NEW YORK TIMES (Postrel, 2/22).  

Lazear developed a mathematical model to "express the relation among class
size, behavior, learning and the cost of teachers," reports the paper.  The
model predicts what will happen when various factors change.  The most
critical variable is student behavior and how someone's behavior may affect
others' learning.  

One finding suggested by Lazear's model is that across the board class-size
reductions, similar to California's initiative, are doomed because this type
of reform spends "a lot of money to cut the size of classes where [student]
behavior is already good and smaller classes won't make that much
difference," notes the paper.

For more information, visit the American Economic Association at
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA.


*****************
FEATURE STORY
*****************


9.) ******** CHANGES IN EDUCATION MEASUREMENT: A GOALS PANEL GOAL
(All Goals)

The National Education Goals Panel at a meeting this month called for
expanding the use of the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) in
measuring state education performance.  As part of this initiative, the
Goals Panel also called for subsidizing state costs for administering the
assessment on an annual basis.  This proposal is part of a series of
recommendations made to the Goals Panel by the Measuring Success Task Force,
a group of leading educators, policy makers and researchers assembled to
evaluate and make recommendations on the data needed to judge the progress
in education reform.

"The National Education Goals Panel is considering some sweeping changes in
the way we measure educational progress as a nation," said Indiana Governor
Frank O'Bannon, the new chair of the National Education Goals Panel.  "These
changes are particularly relevant now that the new President has made
accountability the foundation of his education policy, and the Panel is
poised to issue its end-of-decade report on education reform."

Other task force proposals considered by the Goals Panel included:

>  establishing better measures of the links between state standards and
policies for certifying teacher education programs and new teachers;
>  developing a regular schedule of participation in international
assessments of student academic performance, such as the Third International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS);
>  providing regular data on adult literacy at the state and national
levels;
>  collecting information about the readiness of young children when they
start kindergarten on a regular four-year-cycle

"We have made enormous progress in saying what we want students to know and
putting standards in place to guide them there," said former Maine Governor
John McKernan, chairman of the Measuring Success Task Force.  "Now if we are
serious as a nation about reaching our education goals, we need to invest in
the data that will tell us whether we are succeeding."

For more information, visit the National Education Goals Panel at
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 Acting Executive Director: Emily O. Wurtz 
Publisher: Barbara A. Pape 
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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