--- Wednesday --- February 14, 1996 --- Vol. 6 --- No. 15 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
LOVE NOTES | SPOTLIGHT |
The U.S. DoEd issued a love | |
note to many groups seeking | TRUE DEVOTION |
federal grants. Ed Sec Richard | |
Riley announced that the | Ten years ago, two |
department will extend until | Brookline, Mass., teachers |
mid-March the deadlines of more | at the Edward Devotion |
than $37M in grant competitions | School became fed up with |
that were disrupted by recent | teachers who couldn't teach |
government furloughs (DoEd | and the isolation that |
press release, 2/13). The | pervades the profession. |
postponements would affect most | Instead of walking away in |
competitions that had been | disgust or burying their |
scheduled to close between 18 | heads, they fought back and |
Dec., when the furlough began, | established the "Learning- |
and 15 Feb. | Teaching Collaborative." |
Riley said the action was | |
taken to "allow more time for | The collaborative is a |
the preparation and submission | partnership among six |
of applications by potential | schools and two colleges. |
applicants adversely affected | Teachers Vivian Troen and |
by the closure of the depart- | Kitty Boles, founders of |
ment for a number of weeks." | the project, are still part |
Anyone who submitted their | of the program. Together |
applications during the | with their colleagues, they |
specified time period may | operate a year-long intern |
submit amended or replacement | program in which graduate |
documents, writes the release. | students work side by side |
For more info, contact the | with veteran teachers. And |
DoEd's computer bulletin board | the veterans get to teach |
by modem at 202/260-9950; or at | college courses and |
gopher.ed.gov, under | participate in meaningful, |
"Announcements, Bulletins, and | self-directed professional |
Press Releases", or at | development. (#3) |
http://www.ed.gov/money.html. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"I've never seen anything like it." -- Dr. Robert Green,
Loogootee (Ind.) school superintendent, on his district's
technology drive. (#6)
_______________________________________________________________
| 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 THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
NEW REPORT CARDS: Moving forward in Ohio. (#1)
GO GREEN: An American Forest Foundation curriculum. (#2)
GOAL FOUR: TEACHER EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
A DEVOTION TO TEACHING: NEA's learning-teaching project. (#3)
MONEY MATTERS
EDUCATION FUNDING: Examining spending patterns. (#4)
BYTES AND PIECES
CHANGING OF THE GUARD: Benton takes charge of NIIAC. (#5)
LOOGOOTEE'S LINK: Technology comes to rural Indiana. (#6)
INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
REACHING OUT: Educating Bolivia's working children. (#7)
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*1 NEW REPORT CARDS: MOVING FORWARD IN OHIO
Ohio educators are exploring new ways to evaluate student
achievement (Hicks, THE PLAIN DEALER, 1/28). Some believe that
the traditional A-B-C-D-F scale labels young students and deters
them from learning. The scale also is criticized because it does
not specifically identify skills the student has achieved or
failed to achieve.
School districts are responding to these criticism's by
revising elementary school report cards, reports the paper. For
example, Lakewood elementary schools evaluate second-grade
students using a scale of outstanding, satisfactory or need
improvement. Students in the Berea District are assessed as
satisfactory or unsatisfactory until third grade. Up to seventh
grade, South Euclid-Lyndhurst school students are graded using a
number system: "1" represents that a student "consistently
demonstrates" a skill or effort; "2" indicates "progressing
satisfactorily"; "3" means that a student is "not yet
demonstrating" a skill, writes the paper.
The new report cards detail the skills students are expected
to learn and provide symbols that can be used to indicate that a
skill has not yet been evaluated, a student is progressing, or
that the student needs to improve a skill.
Parents have mixed emotions about the new report cards,
writes the paper. "It's very difficult for someone who grew up
with the A through D or F grading system to not want to equate
skill numbers with grades," said Danda Shepka, who has two sons
in the South Euclid-Lyndhurst District. "But getting such a
complete listing of skills by subject makes it a lot easier to
focus on things they are not having an easy time with."
District school boards have the authority to change the
grade reporting system. However, they frequently consult the
community before enacting the changes, notes the DEALER. In
South Euclid-Lyndhurst schools, staff and parents studied the
evaluation system before planning changes. The Berea District
formed a panel that included students. And Lakewood organized a
committee of parents, teachers and administrators that met for
two years before completing revisions.
The Lakewood committee also allowed half of their teachers
to issue pilot report cards, according to the paper. Parents
were surveyed after report cards were issued to obtain feedback
on the new system; and the committee responded to parents'
comments. They agreed to retain the basic grading system because
parents valued grades; but the new report card also includes a
thorough list of skills and concepts students need to master.
Critics of the new report card trend claim that grading
changes are "a watered-down scale that ensures success for
everyone," pens the paper. Among the critics, is Albert Shanker,
president of the American Federation of Teachers. He recently
wrote an article that criticized non-graded report cards as a way
to ensure that "no child fails," notes the paper.
*2 GO GREEN: AN AMERICAN FOREST FOUNDATION CURRICULUM
The American Forest foundation has released a revised
Project Learning Tree (PLT) curriculum (PLT Press Release,
12/20/95). PLT is an environmental education curriculum designed
to develop the skills students need to make responsible, informed
decisions about the environment, according to the release. The
revised curriculum is for pre-K to 8th-grade students. A 9th- to
12-grade curriculum is being developed.
The curriculum revision started in 1990 with a survey of
more than 50,000 teachers, environmental educators and curriculum
specialists. Educators, scientists, natural resource managers
and technical specialists also contributed to the development of
the new curriculum.
The curriculum covers issues dealing with land, water and
air. Approximately 100 different activities that can be applied
to a local, national or global scope are incorporated in the
curriculum. Activities also can be "piggybacked" on other
academic subjects, explains the release.
"PLT works because we have always had only one agenda: to
help kids learn how to think about complex local and global
environmental issues," said Dr. Louis Iozzi, professor and
director of the Center for Environmental Education, Rutgers U.
"The PLT program was designed to provide students with the
awareness, understanding and skills they need to become
intelligent environmental decision makers." Iozzi, who also is
chairman of the PLT Education Operating Committee, added that PLT
is neither pro- nor anti-business.
For more information, contact Project Learning Tree; 1111
19th Street NW; Suite 780; Washington, D.C. 20036; 202/463-2462.
==== GOAL FOUR: TEACHER EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ===
*3 A DEVOTION TO TEACHING: NEA'S LEARNING-TEACHING PROJECT
In 1986, two teachers at Brookline, Mass.'s, Edward Devotion
School conceived of a project to better prepare teachers for the
classroom and to give veteran teachers opportunities to develop
as professionals (Weiss, NEA TODAY, Feb. 1996). Vivian Troen and
Kitty Boles were frustrated because: the student teaching
experience was "too short, too shallow;" the "culture of
isolation ... pervades teaching;" they yearned for professional
growth, writes the magazine. Boles: "Over the years teachers'
skills increase, but they're not given any more responsibility or
authority."
Troen and Boles desired a connection between a college
education and the "realities of the classroom," according to
Troen. Their hard work created the "Learning Teaching
Collaborative;" a project that connects pre-service and in-
service education. Currently, a dozen teachers at the Devotion
Elementary School participate in a partnership among six schools
and two colleges -- Wheelock and Simmons, reports NEA TODAY.
Classroom teachers select "interns" from a pool of graduate
students. These students spend a full school year in the
classroom, learning and teaching under the guidance of veteran
teachers. The students also meet regularly with a Wheelock
professor "who spend half her time at the school supervising
their progress," writes the magazine.
The interns teach alone one day a week, giving veteran
teachers time to pursue their own professional interests such as
curriculum development, research or writing, notes NEA TODAY.
Students are awarded a master's degree after the full year and
two summers of course work.
Veteran teachers also spend part of their time teaching at
the college level. For example, Troen and colleague Jim Swaim
teach classes at Wheelock, while Boles teaches at Harvard U's
education school.
According to NEA TODAY, professional development schools
such as Devotion are becoming popular because: professional
development partnerships provide those entering the profession
with meaningful classroom experience; partnerships improve
college and university teacher preparation programs; partnerships
allow veteran teachers to pursue their own professional
interests; and partnerships improve education for students."
"Today's teachers have a responsibility to make sure that
tomorrow's teachers get the best possible training for their
jobs," said NEA's Chuck Williams. "That's why NEA created the
Teacher Education Initiative." Williams directs the initiative.
According to NEA TODAY, one aspect of the initiative is a five-
year program that links seven universities engaged in the
systemic restructuring of teaching and learning. They are: U of
Memphis (e-mail: Chance.Cindi@coe.memphis.edu); George Mason U
(mlecos@gmu.edu); Texas A&M (Cloving@TAMU.edu); U of Southern
Maine (Major@usmcoe.usmacs.maine.edu); U of Wyoming
(paradise@wyo.edu); Montclair State U
(Pines@Saturn.Montclair.edu); U of South Carolina
(Larry.Winecoff@SCarolina.edu).
For more information about NEA's Teacher Education
Initiative, write to Sylvia Seidel at NEA; 1201 16th Street; NW;
Washington, D.C. 20036.
===== MONEY MATTERS =====
*4 EDUCATION FUNDING: EXAMINING SPENDING PATTERNS
Despite a "considerable investment" in education, education
funds have been dispersed unfairly and used ineffectively
throughout the states, according to a recent study conducted by U
of Wisconsin Education Professor Allan Odden and colleagues
(Wisconsin Center for Education Research, U of Wisconsin-Madison,
WCER HIGHLIGHTS, Winter 1995-1996). Researchers analyzed
spending patterns in 50 states using state-level data, and
studied spending and staffing patterns at the district and school
levels. They also examined expenditures by function and program,
staffing patterns, and use of dollars across curriculum content
areas at individual schools in Calif., Fla., and N.Y., according
to the newsletter.
Several conclusions: when funding levels increase, the
greatest portion of it is usually used to hire more teachers; the
purpose of hiring more teachers is either to reduce class size
and/or to provide more out-of-classroom services or "pull-out"
instruction for handicapped and low achieving students; and
although some funding increases do raise teacher salaries, they
are not used as incentives to enhance teacher professional
expertise. These findings were consistent in urban, rural,
wealthy and disadvantaged districts that exhibited both high- and
low-spending levels.
Findings from the study also revealed that: spending per
pupil in 1990 was three times what it was in 1960; teachers make
more today than they did in 1960, but since 1970 they have not
gained much relative to other occupations; 60% of education
dollars are spent on total instruction services; administrative
expenditures are approximately 10% of the budget; high-,low-, and
average-spending districts tend to allocate their resources in
the same allotments; and the greatest levels of staffing are in
English/Language Arts.
Unfortunately, current spending patterns do not bolster
student achievement, notes the newsletter. "If the education
system is to teach all students to high standards, both
programmatic and fiscal regularities must be uprooted," Odden
said. "Schools will need to be restructured and school finance
will need to change. Funds will need to be focused strategically
on programs and strategies that produce high levels for student
achievement."
The study has been underway for five years, and is a joint
effort between the U.S. DoEd's Office of Education Research and
Improvement's Finance Center and the Consortium for Policy
Research in Education at WCER.
For more information contact Odden at WCER (606)263-4260, or
odden@macc.wisc.edu.
===== BYTES AND PIECES =====
*5 CHANGING OF THE GUARD: BENTON TAKES CHARGE OF NIIAC
The Benton Foundation has become "heir" to the President's
National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council, according
to a Benton Foundation press release (2/13). NIIAC, a 36-member
council, recently concluded a two-year effort to bring the
information superhighway to schools, libraries and community
centers nationwide.
"The Benton Foundation welcomes the opportunity to continue
the council's important work to connect communities to the
Information Superhighway," said Larry Kirkman, executive director
of the Benton Foundation. "At Benton, we believe that the public
interest in the digital age means that telecommunications
technologies and policies are configured to build community, to
sustain values of diversity and equity, to deliver real
capability to enhance public education and lifelong learning, and
to build a strong civic sector," he added.
Benton is charged with distributing and building on NIIAC's
documents, including "KickStart Initiative" and a policy report,
"A Nation of Opportunity." NIIAC also produced a video entitled,
"The National Information Infrastructure and YOU!," with Bill Nye
the Science Guy as host. Besides promoting these resources,
Benton also will "create new information services and forums to
help schools, libraries, and community centers share their
successes and challenges," writes the release.
Funders for the KickStart Initiative include: At&T, West
Publishing, Microsoft Corporation, EDventure Holding, Inc. and
the National Education Association.
The Benton Foundation was founded in 1981. It works with
nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and industry to
promote the effective use of communications technologies to serve
and connect America's communities. To access the NIIAC
documents, use Benton's World Wide Web site:
http://www.benton.org. For document descriptions or other
information: email: kickstart@benton.org; or use Benton's fax-
on-demand service: 800/622-9013.
*6 LOOGOOTEE'S LINK: TECHNOLOGY COMES TO RURAL INDIANA
Technology has come to roost in Martin's County, Ind.
(Pesta, TECHNOS, Winter 1995). The Loogootee Community School
Corporation, one of the most disadvantaged communities in the
state, "is among the richest when it comes to instructional
technology," writes the magazine. "I've never seen anything like
it," said Dr. Robert Green, Loogootee's superintendent. "The
school board and the community have adopted the attitude that we
want to provide as much technology as we can."
For example, Loogootee's two elementary schools and its
junior-senior high school are networked, linked by computer,
video and voice mail. TECHNOS reports that "the heart of the
system" is the media-retrieval center, a room that includes 16
VCRs, four videodisc players, three CD-ROM players, satellite-TV
receivers and other devices. Teachers easily can tap into this
system, notes TECHNOS. And students produce live or taped
programming.
For example, students produce "news" as part of their
journalism class. "They are involved in the writing, production,
camera work, and announcing," explained Green. He noted that the
student news has replaced the daily announcements over the
intercom. Elementary school students produce live news shows,
while the older students prefer to tape their shows one day in
advance.
One elementary school child with cerebral palsy also
benefits from the technology, reports TECHNOS. A computer and
printer give him complete access to activities other students are
doing. According to the magazine, all special-education rooms
also are equipped with one computer per student.
Green has a wish list for future technological needs: he
hopes some local business would become an Internet hub site,
which would allow the schools access for a regular monthly fee;
he wants a fiber-optic link to the wider world, which would offer
Loogootee students distance learning opportunities; and he is
working for a workplace technology lab.
TECHNOS reports that Loogootee has no "golden goose" to
finance their technology enterprise. Most of the money comes
from property taxes, a few small grants from the state, and
private donations. The school district also is working in
partnership with GTE, Entex, IBM and Jostens.
Teacher training is critical to Loogootee's technology plan,
reports the magazine. Educators receive three days of training
prior to students reporting to school, six half-days of in-
service training and three more days when substitute teachers are
brought into the schools.
Green points to the demands of business as a major reason
why the district embarked on the technology project. "One of the
criticisms you hear from employers is that kids graduate without
the skills to do certain jobs. We want to make sure that when
they leave here, our students are ready for the workplace. Our
policy is to provide the instructional methods and technology
that will enable students to prepare for the world out there."
==== INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ====
*7 REACHING OUT: EDUCATING BOLIVIA'S WORKING CHILDREN
The Inter-American Development Bank approved $2.6M in
financing to Bolivia to enable working children aged 7-12 to
receive primary education (Inter-American Development Bank Press
Release, 2/7). The money will support a three-year pilot program
that will help 1,900 working children from impoverished families
in urban areas of La Paz, El Alto, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.
The program will provide education for approximately 21% of
the working children in the target cities, writes the release.
The goals of the program are to provide conditions to allow
children to enroll in school, prepare them to continue school at
the secondary level, and to train them for the work force.
Incentives to encourage family participation include food
coupons in exchange for regular school attendance of the
children, notes the release. Children also will receive
clothing, books and other school supplies for attending school,
writes the paper. In addition, access to academic monitoring,
tutoring, and supervised recreational activities will help
guarantee that children attend school regularly.
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