--- Friday --- February 9, 1996 --- Vol. 6 --- No. 13 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
"BRIDGING THE GAP | SPOTLIGHT |
... School Reform and | |
Student Achievement" is a new | THE WAITING GAME |
publication issued by the | |
Education Commission of the | Some African-American |
States. The report examines | educators have grown tired |
what states have done to | of waiting for public |
improve their education | school bureaucracies to |
systems, what progress has been | overhaul failing schools. |
made, where gaps exist and what | They are jumping aboard the |
are the next steps, writes an | charter school bus to reach |
ECS press release (2/1). | their destination of top- |
"This report underscores the | flight schools. (#5) |
need for governors, business | |
leaders and educators to come | W.S. JOURNAL writer Hugh |
together and re-commit | Pearson points out that 31% |
themselves and re-double their | of the 42 charter schools |
efforts to improving the | in Mich. have been |
education system for all | launched by blacks; and |
students," said Wis. Gov Tommy | that nearly 40% of charter |
Thompson (R). Thompson is this | school students are black. |
year's chairman of both ECS and | Juxtapose this with data |
the National Governors' | showing that blacks |
Association. Thompson is co- | comprise 14% of the state's |
convening the National | population and only 16% of |
Education Summit, along with | the state's public school |
IBM Chairman and CEO Louis | enrollment. |
Gerstner. The Summit is | |
scheduled for 26-27 March, in | The bureaucracy ended the |
Palisades, N.Y. | waiting game in Ill. The |
To receive a copy, contact | state board of ed stopped |
ECS Distribution Center; 707 | requiring schools to submit |
17th Street; Suite 2700; | meaningless school |
Denver, Colo. 80202-3427; | improvement plans. (#2) |
303/299-3692. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"We're no longer known as the tea-drinking, cookie-eating group."
-- Maureen Bailey, Arkansas's Parent Teacher Association Parent-
to-Parent coordinator. (#1)
_______________________________________________________________
| A service of the National Education Goals Panel |
| Published by the Education Policy Network |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Wash, D.C.; 20037; 202/632-0952 |
| The DRC hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
Staff Writer: Elizabeth Gage |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL EIGHT: PARENTAL PARTICIPATION
BUILDING BLOCKS: Parental involvement at day care. (#1)
STATESIDE
COMMON SENSE CONQUERS BUREAUCRACY: A Chicago story. (#2)
STANDARD BEARERS
MOVING UP: N.J. and N.Y. Call for higher standards. (#3)
RESEARCH NOTES
R&D: DoEd funds centers to study how children learn. (#4)
CHARTING A NEW COURSE
TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS: African-American charters. (#5)
HE SAID, SHE SAID
EFFICACY: Education's EST training? (#6)
REACHING THE SUMMIT
NEW LIFE FOR STANDARDS & GOALS: The next education summit.(#7)
==== GOAL EIGHT: PARENTAL PARTICIPATION ====
*1 BUILDING BLOCKS: PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AT DAY CARE
A joint effort between the Arkansas Early Childhood
Commission and the state chapter of the Parent Teacher
Association has spawned a program charged with encouraging
parental involvement at day care centers (Cox, Arkansas DEMOCRAT-
GAZETTE, 2/5). Officials of both groups claim that parents who
become involved in their children's schooling early on will
remain committed throughout the years, reports the paper.
"We're all excited about [the new program,]" said Maureen
Bailey, the state's PTA Parent-to-Parent coordinator. "What it's
designed to do is to help the parents with the transition period
into public schools," she explained.
The Early Childhood Commission has targeted about $4,000 for
the Building Block program. According to the paper, the funds
will be used to print materials, workbooks and other reading
material for day-care center and preschools that are interested
in launching a PTA program. "The PTA is statewide, recognizable
and, we feel, something parents would be comfortable being
involved in," said Glenda Bean, executive director of the Early
Childhood Commission.
Three areas -- N.C., Texas and Rochester, N.Y. -- already
have established PTA programs at their Head Start centers, notes
Caroline Butler, a board member of the national PTA. "We are
trying to, in those pilot sites, work out any bugs that might be
there, and encourage parents to get involved in their child's
public school before they formally are enrolled, so that they
will have a real idea of how to be involved as parents,"
explained Butler.
Bailey observed that the mission of PTAs has changed over
the years. "We're no longer known as the tea-drinking, cookie-
eating group," she quipped. The organization historically has
focused on fundraising. Now, PTAs sponsor programs on drug
abuse, suicide prevention and other health issues, writes the
paper.
===== STATESIDE =====
*2 COMMON SENSE CONQUERS BUREAUCRACY: A CHICAGO STORY
The "triumph of common sense over bureaucratic obsession" is
evident in the Illinois Board of Education's decision to no
longer require schools to submit "voluminous" School Improvement
Plans, editorializes the CHICAGO TRIBUNE (2/4). Even the state
superintendent of schools conceded that few of the plans were
read, notes the paper.
According to the TRIBUNE, the School Improvement Plans did
little to "assess the quality and effectiveness of school
curricula or classroom instruction." Some schools allocated
"thousands of dollars" for teachers and administrators to attend
seminars on the state's process or to hire "school improvement
coordinators" who ensured that state reviewers would find the
school plans up to snuff, writes the paper. The TRIBUNE also
explains that school improvement plans were required of all
schools, "regardless of how well or poorly their students
performed on standardized tests."
Instead, the state now intends to assess schools based on
student scores on the Illinois Goals Assessment Program exams and
on formal school reviews. Schools that perform exceptional will
be exempt from outside review, while low-achieving schools will
"be reviewed more frequently as a spur to improvement."
The TRIBUNE concludes that the new plan, effective this
fall, is an "infinitely more sensible approach, one that makes
better learning -- not filling out the right forms -- the measure
of school improvement."
==== STANDARD BEARERS ====
*3 MOVING UP: N.J. AND N.Y. CALL FOR HIGHER STANDARDS
Officials in N.J. and N.Y. this week released new academic
standards intended to raise the level of achievement of public
school students (multi cites). "I think academic standards have
slipped to the point that there are no longer any real standards
that you can point to," said Dr. Leo Klagholz, N.J.'s
Commissioner of Education. "Over the last 20 to 25 years, there
has been an emphasis on minimum basic skills. We need to raise
our standards back up," he added.
N.J. is under court order to equalize financing among all
districts by September; and the standards are a "step toward an
overhaul of education for 1996," writes the N.Y. TIMES
(MacFarquhar, 2/8). According to the paper, the 150-page report
presents 56 standards in the arts, health and physical education,
literacy, mathematics, science, social studies and languages.
The standards do not attempt to dictate classroom instruction.
Instead, they set forward "indications on what students will be
tested on in the 4th, 8th and 12th grades," reports the TIMES.
Some critics praise the move toward higher standards but
fear failure unless teachers receive updated training. Nicholas
Sacco, an elementary-school principal and a State Assemblyman
said, "The first question is, what is the cost to the taxpayer,
and the second is, whether in the school day is this going to
fit?"
In N.Y., the State Board of Regents this week released a set
of guidelines that all public schools must follow to improve
their level of instruction, "an early step in a sweeping plan to
revamp the basic curriculum for school districts across the
state," writes the TIMES (Hernandez, 2/8).
For example, the new guidelines call for all high school
students to study algebra, trigonometry, statistics and
probability to graduate. "What we're attempting to do here is
reorder a gigantic system," said Carl Hayden, chancellor of the
Board of Regents. "That reordering will cost some money. The
public needs to understand that," he added.
Currently, N.Y. has a two-tiered testing system that awards
two types of high school diplomas. Students who pass the Regents
High School Examination tend to attend college. Statewide, about
40% of students take a course of instruction that leads to the
Regents exam. Other students, including 80% in New York City,
take the "far less demanding" Regents Competency Tests after a
less difficult course of instruction," reports the paper. The
Board of Regents intends to furnish a new Regents exam in the
spring, which will require schools to follow the new guidelines
that would force a higher level of instruction.
The new exam would emphasize critical thinking over
memorization and analysis over rote learning in math and science,
English and technology, notes the paper. Current Regents exams
primarily rely on multiple-choice questions. State Education
Commissioner Richard Mills said the new standards "will help to
answer every student's perennial question: 'What's going to be
on the test?'."
===== RESEARCH NOTES ====
*4 R&D: DoEd FUNDS CENTERS TO STUDY HOW CHILDREN LEARN
Seven national research and development centers this week
received grants from the U.S. DoEd to examine significant
problems and issues in teaching and learning for all students
(DoEd press release, 2/5).
"Research tells us how children learn and what can be done
to help them learn better," said Ed Sec Richard Riley, who
announced the five-year grants. "For example, from research we
know that involved parents who set limits on TV watching actually
help their children succeed in school. It's important that we
continue to study what works and what doesn't, and that we share
findings that can improve teaching and learning in classrooms and
communities across the nation."
The centers are: Enhancing Young Children's Development and
Learning, The U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ($2.8M);
Improving Student Learning and Achievement at the U of Wisconsin-
Madison ($2.5M) and at the State U of New York at Albany ($2.5M);
Improving Student Assessment and Educational Accountability, the
U of California at Los Angeles ($2.8M); Meeting the Educational
Needs of a Diverse Student Population, the U of California at
Santa Cruz ($3.9M); Increasing the Effectiveness of State and
Local Education Reform Efforts, U of Pennsylvania ($2.8M); and
Improving Postsecondary Education, Stanford U ($2.5M).
Each of the centers will collaborate with other universities
and regional educational laboratories, and many will work with
early childhood, elementary, secondary or post-secondary
institutions, writes the press release. The release notes that
only 32% of the $19.8M grant allocated for the first year will be
awarded due to current budget constraints, pending passage of the
DoEd's FY 1996 appropriation.
===== CHARTING A NEW COURSE =====
*5 TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS: AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHARTERS
The charter school movement is running full steam ahead, led
by African-American parents, teachers and communities "fed up
with waiting for slow-moving bureaucracies to improve public
education," pens Hugh Pearson, a W.S. JOURNAL editorial page
writer (2/7).
Pearson points to charter school data from Mich. that
reveals the following: blacks comprise 14% of the state's
general population and 16% of the state's public school
enrollment; 31% of the 42 charter schools recently opened in the
state have been started by blacks; and nearly 40% of charter
school students are black.
The Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Independent
Education estimates that there are nearly 400 private, religious
and charter schools nationwide created by African-Americans,
notes Pearson. The schools, which enroll between 70,000 and
80,000 students, range from charters with Afrocentric
curriculums, charters with traditional curriculums and religious
schools like the Nation of Islam's Mohammed U of Islam in
Chicago. According to Pearson, most of the schools are small,
"with enrollments of 50 to 400 students." Twenty-two percent of
the students come from families earning less than $15,000 a year;
35% from families earning $15,000 to $30,000; and only 13% from
families making $50,000 or more.
One school featured by Pearson is Lansing, Mich.'s, Sankofa
Shule. The school was founded by Freya Rivers, a former
"frustrated Lansing public school teacher who now happily wears
the hats of school principal, district superintendent, full-time
language arts teacher, and part-time janitor and nursemaid."
Rivers intends to keep Sankofa small -- currently the student
body numbers 132 -- because small is essential for maintaining
parental involvement.
Parents Linda and Travis Sherer illustrate the passion of
parents who send their children to Sankofa. The Sherers
mortgaged their home to secure the financing to lease the
school's building, "since state money didn't arrive until 1 1/2
months into the school year," writes Pearson. Ms. Sherer, an
attorney with the Michigan Court of Appeals: "We decided to help
launch the school and send our six-year-old son, Jason, to it
because of its individualized instruction. I've seen what
happens to young black kids in the Michigan criminal justice
system. We decided that either we wold pay up front and give our
boy the opportunity to get a good foundation, or suffer the
consequences."
Sankofa parents also are credited with a unique solution for
handling troubled students, notes Pearson. Instead of suspending
the child from school, parents are "suspended" from work.
Pearson explains: "One parent must take time off from work and
attend school with the child all day and work with the school to
iron out the problem."
Pearson describes another Mich. school, Aisha Shule, located
in Detroit. Aisha began twenty years ago as an Afrocentric
private school; but recently the school became a charter school.
Student test scores on the Michigan Educational Assessment
Program reveal that Aisha students achieve much higher than
students from Detroit public schools. For example, only 22% of
Detroit public school seventh-graders last year scored a
satisfactory in reading, compared with 71% of Aisha Shule's
seventh-graders.
Charter status has allowed Aisha to increase teacher
salaries, which still are about 75% of what the public school
system pays, purchase computers and expand enrollment, said Aisha
founder Imani Humphrey. Like Rivers, Humphrey intends to keep
enrollment low to retain high-quality. She also claims that
"opening small charter schools, rather than providing school
vouchers, is the key to offering better schools to youths whose
families can't afford private education."
Pearson concludes with a remark by Rivers. "If the
education of black children is really going to improve, it will
have to be done by black people," she said.
==== HE SAID, SHE SAID ====
*6 EFFICACY: EDUCATION'S EST TRAINING?
Minority children can achieve at high levels if it were not
for low expectations held by their teachers and schools,
according to the philosophy that underlies the Efficacy
Institute. The model for learning may become better known to New
Yorkers if efficacy "talisman," Chancellor Rudy Crew has his way,
notes Chester Finn, in a N.Y. TIMES editorial (2/6). According
to Finn, Crew has worked under the philosophy as a key educator
in Boston, Sacremento and, most recently, Takoma, Wash. But is
"efficacy" worth it, queries Finn.
Finn urges readers to set aside the "sizable question" of
how New York could pay for the training involved in the program:
$17M just for teacher training. Instead, the focus should be on
whether the efficacy method can increase achievement. Finn notes
that there is "sacnt hard evidence that efficacy training for
teachers raises the learning levels of their pupils." Although
test scores rose during Crew's second year in Tacoma, the
increase also could be due to a simultaneous overhaul of the
curriculum and standards for the district. "Moreover, no
difference was visible between schools whose teachers had
received efficacy training and those still waiting for it,"
reports Finn.
However, Finn quickly adds that just because efficacy has
not been proved should not preclude the method from being
employed in schools. Finn: "After all, a favorite stratagem by
which the education establishment fends off any bold reform that
threatens it is by asserting that this musn't even be tried until
it has been proved ... [an] attitude [that] typically paralyzes
all innovations save for the most marginal."
Yet, Finn questions why there is a lack of hard evidence
since the efficacy method has been around since 1985. He
challenges any edict to bring efficacy to all city schools,
without at least trying it out on a smaller scale.
Finn's fundamental problem with efficacy is the tenets that
underlie the program. While agreeing with the need for higher
standards and expectations for all students, Finn observes that
"expectations alone don't yield learning." Finn: "Successful
education also demands well-conceived standards, a proper
curriculum, high-quality materials, astute instruction, ample
time, a conducive atmosphere ... and having the rest of one's
life in decent enough shape that one can concentrate on the three
R's."
Jaime Escalente's Los Angeles math classes are a case in
point, according to Finn. Escalente's math successes,
immortalized in the film "Stand and Deliver," can be attributed
to "10% expectation, 20% superb pedagogy and 70% dogged hard work
in school and out, week in and week out, by teacher and pupils
alike," writes Finn. Efficacy training does not prevent any of
these things from happening, but neither does it pay much
attention to the criteria, save standards, notes Finn. Finn:
"More like a cult in which belief transcends all, or a pop-
psychology movement like EST, efficacy beckons adherents into its
tent for soulbaring, esteem enhancement and attitude adjustment
but does not equip them with many tools."
According to Finn, underlying the efficacy model is the race
issue, "always a touchy topic but nowhere more than in urban
schools with their mostly minority students and still mostly
white teachers." The message for the school system's mostly
white teachers is that what is wrong with student achievement is
mostly their fault; "that their lack of faith is what holds their
minority pupils back," writes Finn.
Finn is troubled by this view because it pays no heed to
teachers with strong positive attitudes, who lack the "essential
tools for imparting knowledge and skills" to students. For
example, Finn notes that nearly one third of American high school
students are enrolled in math, science and English classes taught
by teachers who either did not major, or even minor, in those
fields in college or are not certified to teach them.
Finn concludes by asking "how are young people to learn what
they need to know from teachers who don't know much of it
themselves -- no matter how lofty their sense of personal
'efficacy'?"
==== REACHING THE SUMMIT ====
*7 NEW LIFE FOR STANDARDS & GOALS: THE NEXT EDUCATION SUMMIT
An education summit is scheduled for this March to breathe
new life into the campaign to enrich America's public education
system (Sanchez, WASH POST, 2/8). "We've clearly lost momentum,"
said Wis. Gov Tommy Thompson (R), chairman of the National
Governors' Association. "We need to get it going again at this
summit." Thompson pointed out that only six of the governors who
attended the 1989 education summit in Charlottesville, Va., are
still in office.
According to Thompson, the purpose of the summit will be for
governors to "reach agreement on rigorous, blunt new standards
for what students in every grade level should be learning in core
subjects ... then to develop ways to hold schools and teachers
accountable for them," writes the paper. Recent attempts by the
federal government to create voluntary national education
standards through the Goals 2000 program have been condemned by
critics as "excessive federal meddling," reports the POST.
Thompson and others believe the states have a better chance of
promoting the standards movement.
According to the paper, 37 governors have agreed to attend
the conference to be held 26-27 March in Palisades, N.Y.
Business leaders also will attend the summit. "We know there is
a crisis. We know we must act," declared Louis Gerstner, the
chief executive officer of IBM. "This summit will not be a
debate. We will not argue about whether a problem really exists
or how serious is the crisis."
The TIMES reports that the National Education Association,
the nation's largest teachers union, plans to attend the summit.
"The Goals 2000 initiative is faltering, and so is the standards
movement," said Kathleen Lyons, an NEA spokeswoman. "We want to
do our part to give it new life."
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