[neweekly] National Education Weekly January 24, 2003

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National Education Weekly January 24, 2003 Vol. 1 No. 10

CONTENTS
  1)DISTRICT, KNOW THYSELF:Buffalo, N.Y., schools turn to research 
 2)READING BUDDIES:Phoenix students share the gift of literacy 
3)HIGH SCHOOLS WITH A PERSONAL TOUCH: Making large schools to feel like home 
4)TAXING OUR SCHOOLS:Tax breaks take a toll on public education
5)THE APPRENTICE:Former Escalante student aims to deliver on math  
6)READING AND RAP:Street-smart lyrics meet classics in classroom revolution 
7)PASS THE BREAD,PLEASE:Researcher looks at school lunch America style
8)MINORITY STUDENTS AND SPECIAL-ED:Educators address rampant referrals

  COMMUNITIES

1) DISTRICT, KNOW THYSELF: An African proverb says "not to know
is  bad; not to wish to know is worse." School superintendent
Marion  Canedo decided to take the opposite attitude toward her
Buffalo,  N.Y., school system. Canedo came up with the notion of
creating a  think-tank when a massive budget crisis tanked
district education  reform efforts.  In tandem with Donald
Jacobs, associate dean of  the graduate school of education at
the State University of New  York, Canedo created the Education
Innovation Consortium to  research issues affecting the Buffalo
schools -- and to come up  with practical policies. Current
consortium projects include a  pilot program to delegate more
decision-making authority to  schools and the development of a
district report card.  Jacobs has great things to say about the
willingness of the  superintendent and the think-tank's other
board members to  "arm-wrestle" over the toughest decisions. But
it didn't take him  much time to ponder the question of who's the
boss. In the end,  he said, Canedo always wins.  (Education Week,
1/15)  
http://www.edweek.com/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=18buffalo.h22&keywords=Buffalo%2C%20New%20York

2) READING BUDDIES: Struggling readers at Red Mountain High in 
Phoenix are lucky to have Pat Heck on their side. Fifteen years 
ago, Heck, a veteran Arizona teacher, created Reading Buddies to 
help high-schoolers work on their reading skills and grade-school
 children learn the pleasure of a good book. The high-school 
students, connected to the local chapter of Reading is 
Fundamental (RIF), are trained to read aloud to younger children,
 explain stories and develop projects tied into the story. Heck 
initially started the high-school project with her advanced 
readers, but soon realized that struggling teenagers would 
benefit as well. Heck is thrilled with the results of the 
long-time program. "There's an old saying," she says. "If you 
want to learn something, teach it. My reading students took that 
lesson to heart and rekindled their joy of reading by sharing it 
with others. That's what makes me so proud."  (NEA Today,
November 2002)  http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0211/reading.html

STATES

3)HIGH SCHOOL WITH A PERSONAL TOUCH: Remember that 80s show 
"Cheers," where "everybody knows your name"? Well, Peter 
McWalters, Rhode Island commissioner of education wants to bring 
the neighborly atmosphere of the show -- minus the drinking -- to
 high schools throughout his state. All 36 school districts must 
draft and implement plans to personalize their high schools, with
 the goal of keeping students engaged and connected with their 
classmates, teachers and learning environment. "We want to be 
certain that no student goes through our high schools unknown," 
said James A. DiPrete, chair of the board of regents. "Because if
 we don't know them, how can we teach them well?"  (Education
Week, 1/15)  
http://www.edweek.com/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=18ri.h22&keywords=Peter%20McWalters

4)TAXING OUR SCHOOLS: Local officials all over the country are 
doling out tax subsidies to corporations left and right, and it's
 hurting public schools to the tune of billions of dollars each 
year. That's the conclusion of a new 50-state study by the 
National Education Association and Good Jobs First. Two key 
types of local property tax subsidies are allowing big business 
to delay or skip paying taxes for several years, taking needed 
funds out of the pockets of public schools in at least two-thirds
 of the states. Furthermore, the report said, subsidies often are
 shrouded from public scrutiny and granted with little or no
input  from elected school board officials. And the tax breaks
are  rarely evaluated for their promised effectiveness in
promoting  local economic development.  Toledo Blade, 1/23)  
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2003101230082

Protecting Public Education from Tax Giveaways to Corporations: 
http://www.nea.org/nr/nr030122.html

THE NATION

5) THE APPRENTICE: From behind the pillar of Jaime Escalante
steps  his former student, Roy Marquez. Yes, that’s Mr.
Escalante of  ''Stand and Deliver'' fame and Marquez was one of
his students in  Escalante’s original break-through class of
1982 -- the class  of low-income Hispanic students who so
surprised educators by  passing with flying colors the Advanced
Placement calculus test  that they were asked by Educational
Testing Service (ETS) to  re-take the test to prove there was no
cheating.  Well, Marquez is now standing and delivering in his
old school, Garfield High  in East Los Angeles. Marquez’s plan
is to re-build the math  program set in place by the legendary
Jaime Escalante. The goal  is to raise standards and merge the
curricula in the high school  and feeder schools. His students
can expect to spend  two-and-a-half hours on homework every
night. They even attend  class for two hours every day during the
year-round school’s  two-month breaks. Don’t expect to get
off the hook if you are  a parent: He wants you to send your kids
to him prepared to  learn. That means they must be fed, feel safe
and have a place to  study at home. More good news: ETS now is
sold on helping more  high-poverty schools bask in the success
achieved at Garfield  High. They have provided model programs --
such as Mr.  Marquez’s class --– and a reduction in the AP
test fees for  low-income students.  (NEA Today, January 2003)  
http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0301/learning.html

6) READING AND RAP: In New York's South Bronx, Nancy Brodsky, a 
23-year-old high school teacher, has her ninth-grade students 
listen to a song by rap group Dead Prez before reading George 
Orwell's 1945 fable "Animal Farm," the classic commentary on the 
Russian Revolution. The rap group's "Animal in Man" is based on 
Orwell's use of animals to represent figures such as Karl Marx 
and Vladimir Lenin. In both works, a group of pigs seizes power 
on a farm and turns on the other animals. The creatures then 
revolt against the boss pig, Hannibal. Teachers nationwide are 
starting a reading revolution, using street-savvy song lyrics to 
breathe life into lessons on literary classics. Some colleges are
 even training future educators to weave rap into high school 
lessons. Some parents and teachers think it's wack -- that's out 
of line in rap speak -- to use the raw language and violence of 
rap to teach literature. But others say when it comes to 
universal themes such as love, acceptance and oppression, the 
generation gap is not so wide.  (Los Angeles Times, 1/14)  
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hiphop14jan14001442,0,7982621.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dcalifornia

RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRACTICE

7)PASS THE BREAD, PLEASE: You don't need research to tell you
there is something wrong with  lunch time in most school
cafeterias. Just breeze through the  cafeteria doors and . . .
but wait a minute. There really is no  cafeteria in most schools.
Typically, students dine in a gym, or  an auditorium, or some
combination of the two that has been  converted into a cafeteria
at lunchtime. Don't expect sweet  violin music serenading
students as the children delight in  gastronomical pleasures and
enjoy pleasant conversation. Instead,  voices ricochet off stone
walls, sounding like the latest  intergalactic Star Wars battle,
all of which make adult human  heads spin.  Karen Evans Stout, a
Lehigh University professor,  who observed lunchtime in U.S.,
Swiss and Austrian schools, has  documented all this in a study.
She hopes U.S. schools do  something about the food-fight
environment present in many  cafeterias.  Here's a school that
easily could be featured in  Gourmet Magazine: Lunch and library
staff at Dorothy C. Goodwin  Elementary School in Storrs,
Connecticut teamed up to decorate  the kitchen with themes from
library books. During Chinese New  Year, the kitchen was awash in
Chinese decorations, the librarian  read books about Chinese
culture and the food manager designed a  Chinese menu. No, they
don't take outside reservations.  Some of Stout's other ideas
that are easier to accomplish include playing  music during
lunch, using round tables instead of those  ever-so-long
rectangular ones to encourage conversation and  having a teacher
or community volunteer lead discussions at the  tables. Stout
encourages school leaders to go that extra mile to  develop
appropriate dining skills for students. Remember, she  says, "The
kids we are educating are going to be our next-door  neighbors." 
(Education Week, 1/15)  
http://www.edweek.com/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=18lunch.h22&keywords=Karen%20Evans%20Stout
 Prescription for Change: 10 Keys to Promote Healthy Eating in 
Schools:  
http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/HealthyEating/HealthyEatingBehavior/healthyeatingchallenge.htm



WEEKLY FEATURE

8) MINORITY STUDENTS AND THE SPECIAL-ED LINK: For years in Lee 
County, Ala., a rural spot-on -the-map community, referrals of 
African-American students to special education was off the 
charts. More than half of children labeled mentally retarded were
 black, though they were just a fifth of the student population. 
 Then county instructional director, Eddie Clark, decided to get 
involved -- leading all elementary teachers on a mission to learn
 and use new teaching strategies. "Now, they're looking at how 
they actually teach the child," Clark said.  The erroneous
placement of minority children in special education is a problem 
that has longed plagued U.S. schools and just won't go away. 
Research conducted at the Civil Rights Project at Harvard 
University finds that the label of "mentally retarded" actually 
increases for African-American boys attending schools in middle 
to upper-income neighborhoods. The problem is quite complex. 
Yet, there is one solution heralded by the National Education 
Association and other education groups: Beef up training for 
regular-education teachers. Specialists suggest giving educators 
strategies to teach diverse students, make them aware of cultural
 nuances and give them the tools to intervene early in the
child's  life so that labels, such as "at-risk," are avoided. 
Patti Ralabate, NEA's special education specialist is clear on
the need  to step in for the sake of all children. "It's not to
say there  won't be kids who will require special education
services, but  this process helps schools focus resources on
those who truly  need them. Kids no longer would have to fail
before they can get  help." Alabama, Clark's home state, is one
state that is leading  the way by offering front-line teachers
more help in teaching and  assessing all students. State leaders'
goals include a statewide  teacher-training program and a
reevaluation of minority students  who were deemed borderline
mentally retarded.  Penny Call, a second-grade at-risk teacher in
Alabama feels the pressure of  time and tries to make it work for
her students. "I've learned  you really have to take a lot of
time and talk to [the  students]," she said. "You set the pace a
little slower then  slowly speed up. If they get out of control,
you don't say, 'I  don't have the time; go sit in the corner.'
You say, 'What's up  today? I'm sorry you didn't sleep well. It's
okay to be mad, but  let's figure out how we can let go of that
anger.' "   (NEA Today, January 2003) 
http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0301/cover.html   Harvard University
Civil Rights 
Project:http://gseweb.harvard.edu/%7Ehepg/racialinequity.html  
Council for Exceptional Children: http://www.cec.sped.org/  
National Alliance of Black School Educators: 
http://www.nabse.org/

-Barbara Pape, Editor

***FACT OF THE WEEK***   Georgia: Math Scores Soar  The
proportion of Georgia public school 4th graders who scored at the
 highest two levels in math increased by 38% between 1996 and 
2000, and the proportion of 8th graders who scored at the highest
 two levels in math increased by 46% between 1992 and 2000.  
(NCES, Nation’s Report Card: Mathematics 2000. August 2001)  
http://www.nea.org/goodnews/ga01.html