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--- Monday --- February 26, 1996 --- Vol. 6 --- No. 19 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
NEW ADDRESS | SPOTLIGHT |
Please note the DRC's new | |
address: 1255 22nd Street NW; | INDISPENSABLE |
Suite 502; Wash. D.C., 20037; | |
202/632-0952; 202/632-0957(F) | Training is indispensable |
| for leadership; and |
THREE CHEERS | leadership is fundamental |
The Centers for Disease | for meaningful school |
Control and Prevention are | reform to take place, |
moving toward their goal of | according to the Southern |
having 90% of U.S. children | Regional Education Board. |
immunized. A new nationwide | "Show me a good school and |
study of children 19 to 35 | I'll show you a good school |
months revealed that 75% of | leader," says SREB. |
preschoolers are getting | |
recommended vaccinations. The | SREB calls on state |
basic vaccines are four against | lawmakers to pass legisla- |
diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, | tion that promotes local |
three against polio and one | control, but also provides |
against measles-mumps-rubella | teachers, principals and |
(AP/ N.Y. TIMES, 2/25). | other administrators with |
| training that helps them to |
A FASHION STATEMENT | emerge as leaders. |
... was made this weekend by | |
President Clinton when he | According to SREB, good |
instructed the DoEd to | leadership training is not |
distribute packets to the | only instruction on how to |
nation's school districts that | implement the latest law or |
provide information on how they | comprehend complex funding |
can legally enforce a school | formulas. It also helps |
uniform policy (Mitchell, N.Y. | educators connect the work |
TIMES, 2/25). Clinton made his | they do with the larger |
statement in Long Beach, | world and encourages |
Calif., which already has a | teamwork. (#1) |
mandatory uniform policy. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"Unfortunately, the majority in Congress has been in demographic
denial." -- U.S. Ed Sec Richard Riley. (#2)
_______________________________________________________________
| 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 FOUR: TEACHER EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
LEADERSHIP TRAINING: Key to strong schools. (#1)
RESEARCH NOTES
"DEMOGRAPHIC DENIAL:" The state of the GOP in Congress? (#2)
THE PRIVATE EYE
CLEVELAND'S VOUCHER PROGRAM: Bumps along the way. (#3)
TAKING STOCK
AMERICAN INTEGRITY: Reaching a low point. (#4)
GOVERNANCE
A NEW CHIEF: St. Louis welcomes Cleveland Hammonds Jr. (#5)
MAKING A SHIFT: New district to direct St. Louis voc ed. (#6)
CHOOSING SCHOOLS
OPTIONS: Find them in public schools. (#7)
===== GOAL FOUR: TEACHER EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT =====
*1 LEADERSHIP TRAINING: KEY TO STRONG SCHOOLS
Southern state legislatures have handed more authority to
local school officials, yet lawmakers are not nearly as committed
to sustaining leadership training necessary for superintendents,
school board, principals and teachers to meet the challenge of
school improvement, writes the Southern Regional Education Board
in its latest publication. "Hungry for Leadership: Educational
Leadership Programs in the SREB States" describes key elements of
leadership training, challenges to leadership development and a
state-by-state review of education leadership programs for SREB
states.
The publication is based on the premise that leaders are not
born, but learn their skills on the job, "struggling with
problems in a live work setting while also engaged in a
structured leadership training program," notes Alton Crew,
director of the SREB Leadership Academy, and co-author of the
publication.
According to SREB, good leadership training: tackles real-
life problems; helps educators connect the work they do to the
larger world; and develops a vision and planning skills by
pursing key goals. Ga.'s Governor's School Leadership Institute
is mentioned as a program that incorporates these
characteristics. The institute is a three-year program of local
school leaders. Participants meet several times a year for up to
a week at a time. They create a school improvement plan "as a
way to apply what they're learning to the real world," notes the
publication.
SREB also advocates training in teamwork. "Team training is
probably the most significant piece of training that we do," said
one state training director, writes the report. "And we see more
changes in school district leadership out of that training than
anything else we do."
According to the report, state-supported team leadership
programs typically provide training to "vertical" management
teams that include teachers, superintendents, principals, school
board members and other administrators. Tenn.'s Education
Improvement Act of 1992 spurred the merger of the state
leadership academy and the teacher professional development
office. The new program will stress team approaches to
leadership training.
SREB points out that state-run "nuts-and-bolts-training" is
important but should not be mistaken for leadership training.
Training sessions explaining complex school funding formulas or
bringing officials up to date on legislative changes are key, but
do not take the place of training leaders. Few states take
advantage of the resources offered by corporations, colleges of
business or management and other organizations that may offer
"highly sophisticated leadership development programs.
According to SREB, the best leadership training programs are
public-private partnerships. For example, Texas, Fla., Ark. and
N.C. all have independent leadership programs that: serve a
broad constituency; draw their expertise from varied sources; and
are flexible in the way they deliver training. For example, the
Texas LEADership Center is the state's primary research and
development agency for leadership training, writes the report.
The center, operated by the Texas Association of School
Administrators, is a joint venture of various associations and
business charged with designing leadership programs. Regional
education service centers of the Texas Education Agency deliver
the training.
SREB points to Ga.'s Fanning Leadership Center as a possible
model for other states. The center is housed at the U of Georgia
and operates "along lines similar to the federal Agricultural
Extension Service, which is able to draw on the diverse resources
of the university and the community as it conducts research,
develops new techniques and disseminates the most successful
practices," writes the report. A team of businesses, university
departments including the College of Education, local school
systems and regional education service centers develop the
training programs.
The report goes on to describe the SREB Leadership Academy
and provides state-by-state highlights of leadership training
initiatives.
Copies of "Hungry for Leadership: Educational Leadership
Programs in the SREB States," is available by contacting the
Southern Regional Education Board; 592 Tenth Street NW; Atlanta,
Ga. 30318-5790; 404/875-9211.
===== RESEARCH NOTES ====
*2 "DEMOGRAPHIC DENIAL:" THE STATE OF REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS?
Student enrollment in American K-12 public and private
schools is expected to rise by about a million students from the
fall of 1995 to the fall of 1996, according to U.S. Ed Sec
Richard Riley. He explains that to maintain current class size,
about 50,000 new teachers must be hired nationwide.
Riley points out that the rise in enrollment breaks the
previous enrollment record. "And we are not looking at a one-
year blip," he adds, since enrollments are expected to explode
over the next decade.
Riley: "This is the reality that local communitites are
facing. Unfortunately, the majority in Congress has been in
demographic denial."
Riley explains that the current continuing resolution cuts
about $3B from education, "shortchanging our children and
potentially eliminating about 50,000 teaching jobs." He claims
that the enrollment explosion and Congressional budget cuts are
on a collision course. "Unless we change course, the result will
be serious damage to teaching and learning," he warns.
Riley also chastises Congress for its inability to produce a
full-year appropriations bill: the current continuing resolution
is the ninth in a series of short-term budget bills. This
situation leaves local school districts in a "state of
uncertainty," said Riley.
For example, Calif. law requires districts to notify
teachers by 15 March whether they will have a job for the
following school year. Calif. schools need to know the amount of
federal funding they can expect. Riley "Should they deny
excellent teachers a contract and lose them for next year when
they have more students? Or should they 'throw the dice' by
retaining them and if federal funds are cut, figure out where in
their already tight budgets they can find the money to pay them
from other sources?"
Riley admonishes those in Congress who "say government ought
to be run like a business," yet are willing to "let local school
principals, superintendents, school boards and mayors twist in
uncertainty with no firm sense of how much federal aid to
expect."
Riley adds that this "lack of planning would be intolerable
in the private sector [and] it ought to be equally unacceptable
in the public sector."
Riley questions the majority in Congress for picking a
"mighty strange time to blow up the tradition of bipartisan
support for education." Riley: "In this information Age when
education is more important than ever before, at this time when
enrollments are rising and will soon reach record levels, it
defies common sense to reduce America's investment in improving
our school children's learning and safety."
According to the DoEd's National Center for Education
Statistics, fall 1985 public and private, K-12 national school
enrollment was 44,979,000; fall 1995 estimated enrollment is
50,709,000; and fall 1996 projected enrollment is 51,745,000.
===== THE PRIVATE EYE =====
*3 CLEVELAND'S VOUCHER PROGRAM: BUMPS ALONG THE WAY
Cleveland officials intend to avoid a major problem
confronted by Milwaukee's school-voucher program: the inability
to accommodate the maximum number of students allowed under the
voucher law (Hicks, Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 2/20). Consequently,
the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program has opened its
doors to six private non-sectarian schools that are still on the
drawing board. The six schools plan to be ready for students for
the fall 1996-1997 school year, writes the paper.
"We're excited about being involved in this," said Jeanene
Kress, a former teacher who sits on the board of the Hope Bridge
Avenue Academy, one of the new schools. "The whole concept of
choice is so important right now," she added. "Parents feel they
want something better than what they are getting."
Some parents concede that sending their children to a school
that has no track record is disconcerting. "It's kid of scary,"
said Jackie Gardner, whose grand-daughter won a voucher in last
month's lottery. "You don't know what the curriculum is," she
said. "You don't really know what the setting is going to look
like. And you don't know if it's going to work, because it is a
new situation."
Bert Holt, administrator of the city' voucher program, said
her office is still determining how many students will qualify
for vouchers next fall, reports the paper. Each voucher is worth
$2,500. However, some school tuition falls below $1,000,
"leaving money available for another student on the program's
waiting list," writes the paper. The entire experiment costs
$5.5M and will include Cleveland children in grades K through 3.
Holt's office has accepted the new schools pending approval
of their charter school applications, reports the PLAIN DEALER.
"For the success of this program to occur, we are going to
have to create new schools," said Mary Ann Jackson, a consultant
for Hope for Cleveland's Children, a nonprofit group created by
David Brennan, a "wealthy" Akron lawyer and industrialist,
explains the paper. Hope is the umbrella group for five of the
six new schools. Each Hope school will operate autonomously from
the central organization, but Hope will provide expertise and
administrative help. The sixth school is Hough Academy for
Higher Learning.
According to the paper, city school officials plan to place
some voucher students in adjacent public school district, which
is permissible under state law. However, none of the other
districts have signed up for the program.
===== TAKING STOCK =====
*4 AMERICAN INTEGRITY: REACHING A LOW POINT
An overwhelming number of Americans surveyed by the
Josephson Institute of Ethics embrace the concept that "honesty
is the best policy," but an equally high number admit to ignoring
that policy when it suits them (Josephson Institute press
release). The Josephson Institute announced the results of their
three-year survey last week.
From the release: "The willingness of young people to lie,
cheat and steal reveals a disturbing, "I deserve it attitude that
seems born of an unnerving credo: 'Whatever I want, I need.
Whatever I need, I deserve. Whatever I deserve, I have a right
to have, and I will do anything to get it.'"
According to the survey, 42% of male high school
respondents, 31% of female high school respondents said they had
stolen something from a store within the previous 12 months.
Nearly half of high school males (48%) and one-third of high
school females (32%) admitted they would lie if they thought it
necessary to get or keep a job. Two-thirds of high schools
students said they had cheated in the previous year, and nearly
half admitted they had done so more than once.
Yet, a vast majority of high school students surveyed (87%)
said they believe honesty is the best policy and 75% said it is
always wrong to cheat on an exam. "It is not that young people
don't know the difference between right and wrong so much as they
don't have the willpower or desire to do what they know is
right," writes the release.
Survey results revealed that college students generally
behave better than their younger counterparts, writes the
release. Still 21% of college male respondents and 14% of
females said they had stolen something from a store within the
last year. Thirty-three percent admitted they had cheated on an
exam at least once during the previous year, and 24% said they
would lie to get or keep a job.
"Parents also should be concerned with the data," cautions
the release. Nearly 30% of high school respondents and 13% of
college respondents said they had stolen something from a parent
or relative; 17% admitting to stealing from relatives more than
once. Other findings: 70% of high school students said they
lied to their parents more than once in the previous year; 57%
said they were lied to by a parent in the previous year; one in
four adults respondents, 39% of collegiate respondents and over
half of high schoolers admitted they would or probably would lie
about their debts to get a badly needed loan.
Copies of the survey are available by contacting the
Josephson Institute of Ethics; 4640 Admiralty Way; Suite 1001;
Marina Del Rey, Calif. 90292-6610; 310/306-1868; e-mail:
ji@jiethics.org.
The survey also will be available in two weeks on the
Josephson Institute's Web Page:
http:\\www.easywebinc.com\\ch_counts.
==== GOVERNANCE ====
*5 A NEW CHIEF: ST. LOUIS WELCOMES CLEVELAND HAMMONDS JR.
The St. Louis school desegregation will be the top priority
for incoming St. Louis schools chief Cleveland Hammonds Jr., most
recently superintendent of schools in Birmingham, Ala. (Little,
St. Louis POST-DISPATCH, 2/21). Hammonds was selected by the St.
Louis School Board over two other candidates.
St. Louis Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. said Hammond's most
"impressive" victory was his ability to have every school in the
Birmingham system "adopted" by a corporation, writes the paper.
Bosley wants a stronger public school-business bond built in St.
Louis.
However, the St. Louis Teachers Union is less sanguine about
the choice of Hammonds to lead the school system. Union leaders
are concerned about Hammonds position on teacher and principal
tenure. Hammonds last week said he opposes principal tenure.
Instead, he endorses individual contracts with principals. He
also said while he does not oppose tenure for teachers, he favors
modifying tenure so incompetent teachers are not protected,
reports the paper.
However, one parent organization endorsed Hammonds because
of his strong stance on parental involvement. Hammonds promised
he would visit the home of any parent where five or more people
were invited.
Prior to the announcement of a new superintendent, Mayor
Bosley declared that the "public schools must work leaner, harder
and smarter." He compared the public school system, with a
central-office staff of 250 for 43,000 children with a per-child
expenditure of $5,000, to St. Louis Catholic schools, with a
central staff of 25 for 67,000 students and a per-child
expenditure of $2,000.
*6 MAKING A SHIFT: NEW DISTRICT TO HEAD ST. LOUIS VOC ED
The newly established St. Louis Career Education District is
preparing to take over responsibilities for teaching vocational
education to 2,500 high school students in St. Louis and St.
Louis County from the county's Special School District (Librach
and Little, St. Louis POST-DISPATCH, 2/20). The Special District
has managed vocational education in the city and county since
1991.
However, legal battles, primarily over funding, are
stymieing efforts to have the CED up and running by the fall. A
lawyer for the CED last week asked a federal court judge for
$757,000 in start-up costs, reports the paper. The funds would
be used for hiring staff, recruiting teachers, beginning work on
a four-year vocational high school and developing classroom
materials. According to the paper, the funds requested by the
CED is money the Special District already budgeted for this
school year for vocational education. The CED claims the funds
are above what is needed for the Special District to run the
program. The POST-DISPATCH reports that the Special District
disagrees. "SSD has no 'surplus' of funds," stated its attorney
Laurence Mass.
The paper reports that the Special District was created in
1957 to serve disabled children. Voters authorized the district
in 1965 to also provide vocational education and approved a 25-
cent tax increase. Another 28-cent tax increase was passed in
1986, raising the levy to the current 62 cents for each $100 of
assessed valuation, writes the paper. A portion of the funds is
targeted to vocational education.
The Special District is managing a student-recruitment
program to reach enrollment goals of 2,100 students in three
vocational high schools now owned and managed by the Special
District and about 400 students who are expected to attend a city
high school. Special District administrators are sponsoring a
"Career Expo Spring 1996" on 2 March to promote the vocational
education program, including the Career Academy, a four-year
vocational high school the CED will open next fall.
==== CHOOSING SCHOOLS ====
*7 OPTIONS: FIND THEM IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The WASH POST describes the growing movement to give parents
more options in public schools (Evans, 2/25). According to the
paper, the trend emerged as more parents demanded a stronger role
in determining their child's education and as research suggested
that children learn in different ways. "Educators are realizing
that a one-size-fits-all approach to education just doesn't work
for everybody," said Michael Casserly, executive director of the
Council of Great City Schools. "There's been a substantial
rethinking of the traditional comprehensive school in the public
education arena."
The paper describes sundry public school options available
in the metro Washington, D.C., area. For example, parents from
the city can enroll their children in schools that teach in
Spanish and English, Montessori programs for 3- to 9-year olds
and an elementary school performing arts magnet program.
Neighboring Montgomery County, Md., also offers dozens of
elementary schools that focus on communication arts, computers,
reading and language arts, science and math and languages.
Prince George's County, Md., boasts even more magnet schools at
the elementary level. And Fairfax County, Va., started a partial
language immersion program in Japanese, Spanish and French six
years ago. The county also has an art and science magnet program
and other specialized schools.
However, not everyone favors specialized programs. "When
you uproot a child from elementary school and put them into
another school, it does have an impact," said Samuel Sava,
executive director of the National Association of Elementary
School Principals. Sava also has concerns about selecting a
specialized track for early elementary children. "I would not
want my child to be directed in one way or another until my
youngster had an opportunity to explore all options," he said.
"For the early years, parents should look for the greatest
educational environment, access to computers and a feeling that
[the child] can do."
Others argue that magnet and other specialized programs
sabotage the neighborhood school, which makes it harder to
"recreate the camaraderie and interaction that occur naturally at
neighborhood schools," writes the paper.
Nonetheless, Casserly predicts that "there is a lot more
diversifying of public schools" on the horizon.
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