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--- Wednesday --- April 24, 1996 --- Vol. 6 --- No. 38 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
OPTING OUT | SPOTLIGHT |
More college applicants are | |
opting out of providing | A SIGN OF THE TIMES |
information on college | |
application forms and on the | TIME Magazine's cover |
S.A.T. regarding their race | story is the dismantling of |
(Stecklow, W.S. JOURNAL, 4/24). | school desegregation |
"It's certainly something that | nationwide. The "history |
jumped out at us," said a state | reversal" has met with |
university of Calif. spokesman, | thunderous applause from |
about the increase in the | some members of the |
number of students refusing to | African-American community, |
check a racial/ethnic descrip- | who shake their heads at |
tion on the application. Five | the outrages that occur in |
percent of U of Calif. students | the name of desegregation. |
"ducked" the question last | Case-in-point: in Kansas |
year, a nearly 30% increase | City some black students |
from 1994, writes the JOURNAL. | are denied access to the |
Some claim parents advise | most popular schools |
their children, particularly if | because their admittance |
they are white males, to ignore | would tilt the delicately |
the question to enhance | engineered racial balance. |
admission prospects. Others | |
say it may be a protest over | Perhaps this point-of- |
the "growing campus furor over | view is best expressed by |
affirmative action," writes the | U.S. Supreme Court Justice |
paper. | Clarence Thomas in his |
However, Dartmouth U's dean | concurrence in Mo. v. |
of admissions, Karl | Jenkins: "It never ceases |
Furstenberg, said a protest is | to amaze me that the courts |
"a lost message" in the | are so willing to assume |
admission process, where much | that anything that is |
socio-economic info is gleaned | predominately black must be |
from application essays and | inferior." (#4) |
recommendations. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"The more salt you have, the more white you can turn the pepper."
-- Federal District Judge Russell Clark. (#4)
_______________________________________________________________
| 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
GIFTED STUDENTS ARE PEGGED: A new approach in St. Louis. (#1)
GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS
DISRUPTIVE STUDENTS LOSE PROGRAM: Columbus tackles budget. (#2)
CHILDREN IN CRISIS
HOUSTON & BOSTON: Fourth Estate on immigrant children. (#3)
FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF INTEGRATION: A "TIME" report. (#4)
PROMISING PRACTICES
LOOPING: Benefits of keeping students & teacher together. (#5)
SCHOOL GOVERNANCE: Democracy reigns at teacher-un school. (#6)
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*1 GIFTED STUDENTS ARE PEGGED: A NEW APPROACH IN ST. LOUIS
Only the best and the brightest students make it to the St.
Louis Regional Program for Exceptionally Gifted Students also
known as PEGS (Librach, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 4/15). Students
chosen for PEGS often are selected because part-time gifted
programs typically offered in public schools are not challenging
enough to meet their needs, writes the paper.
The program serves two dozen elementary and six middle
school students. Students are "hand-picked" by educators based
on tests, interviews, and recommendations. Students also must
have an IQ of 140 or higher. Out of 40,000 kindergarten through
12th-grade students in the state, less than 1% make it to PEGS,
reports the paper.
David Welch, Missouri's director of gifted education
programs, said being labeled "gifted" can be "a blessing and a
curse," the paper reports. Although they are bright and can
potentially contribute a great deal to society, they also are
different and may not always fit in, Welch explained.
Many PEGS students taught themselves to read by age 3, and
they learn 10 times faster than the average student, according to
the paper. Third- and fourth-grade PEGS students recently
learned how to solve linear algebra equations. They also are
mastering Japanese.
However, some parents hesitate sending their offspring to
PEGS, writes the paper. Kim Barrington Ritchie had reservations
about enrolling her six-year-old daughter because she felt the
program might push her child too much and deprive her of a
childhood.
PEGS was established five years ago and costs approximately
$179,000 a year to operate. Most of the money comes from the
state's fund for gifted education, notes the paper. Parents
making private contributions cover the rest of the costs.
===== GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS =====
*2 DISRUPTIVE STUDENTS LOSE PROGRAM: COLUMBUS TACKLES BUDGET
Two programs for disruptive students are on the budget
chopping block in Columbus, Ohio (AP/Cleveland PLAIN DEALER,
4/21). The Columbus Board of Education decided to eliminate the
I-PASS and PEAK program to help eradicate a projected $47.3M
budget deficit.
I-PASS sends middle and high school students who "otherwise
would be expelled" to the North Education Center, a program
designed that offers counseling and classes for disruptive
students, reports the paper. Eliminating the program saves the
district about $630,000.
According to the paper, middle and high schools also will
eliminate PEAK, an in-school suspension program where students
"continue class work isolated form their peers." This move saves
the district about $2.1M.
Instead, the district intends to send troubled students who
otherwise would have been enrolled in one of the programs home.
However, Superintendent Larry Mixon said he plans to go forward
with plans to open four alternative schools next fall, "including
a controversial Afrocentric school," reports the paper.
Other cuts expected: $1M from funds to purchase textbooks;
a freeze on administrative salaries, saving about $750,000; and
cutting high school activities buses to save about $600,000,
writes the paper.
The PLAIN DEALER reports that middle school athletics,
middle school athletic transportation, and eight string and
woodwind specialists will be saved.
===== CHILDREN IN CRISIS =====
*3 HOUSTON & BOSTON: FOURTH ESTATE ON IMMIGRANT CHILDREN
A proposal in Congress to deny illegal immigrant children access
to elementary and secondary public school education is a short-
sighted, inappropriate way of curbing illegal migration into this
country, editorilizes the HOUSTON CHRONICLE (4/17).
Illegal immigration should be stopped by the federal
government at the border and other points of entry. "However,
once here, what does the country gain by denying school-aged
illegal immigrants a public education?" the editorial queries.
Denying illegal immigrant children a public education will
place even greater burdens on society, according to the paper.
Rather than encouraging them to learn, develop job-skills, and
eventually become productive, working taxpayers, these
individuals more likely will grow dependent on state and federal
social services. Moreover, "why should children be made to
suffer for the illegalities of their parents? It is not the
nature of a great nation to punish innocent children," the
editorial notes.
The cost of providing public education to illegal immigrant
children should be paid by the federal government as should the
cost of medical and other social services received by illegal
immigrants, recommends the CHRONICLE. For the sake of the
children and the nation, illegal immigrant children should not be
denied opportunities offered by a free public education system,
concludes the paper.
A BOSTON GLOBE editorial concurs (4/16). The current
amendment to a House immigration bill "would allow states to
throw the children of undocumented aliens out of school,"
explains the apper. Senator Majority Leader Bob Dole (R) and
House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) support the amendment, but the
proposal is bad public policy, according to the GLOBE.
The Supreme Court already has asserted that the 14th
Amendment states that no state shall "deny to any person within
its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws," and the justices
are unlikely to allow the proposed amendment to stand.
The consequences of denying immigrant children public
education far outweigh the benefits, writes the paper. The
nation's police chiefs have voiced their concern about the
proposal because children thrown out of school "invariably end up
in trouble with the law," the editorial writes.
Matt Rodriquez Superintendent of the Chicago police
recently sent a letter to Dole stating, "Forcing young people out
of school and onto the streets would have a disastrous long-term
effect on public safety."
===== FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE =====
*4 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF INTEGRATION: A "TIME" REPORT
School integration is being dismantled, "as exhausted courts
and frustrated blacks dust off the concept of 'separate but
equal,'" writes TIMES magazine in a cover story (Kunen, 4/29).
The magazine traces the legal history of desegregation and
focuses on Kansas CIty's unsuccessful efforts to create an
integrated district.
From TIMES: "After two decades of progress toward
integration, the separation of black children in America's
schools is on the rise and is in fact approaching the levels of
1970, before the first school bus rolled at the order of a
court." One third of the nation's black children are enrolled in
a public school that is 90% to 100% minority. Segregation is the
strongest in the Northeast, where half of all black students
attend such schools, writes the magazine.
Ironically, the "history reversal" has been met with
applause by many African-Americans. Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas wrote in his Missouri v. Jenkins concurrence:
"It never ceases to amaze me that the courts are so willing to
assume that anything that is predominantly black must be
inferior." TIME cites Denver, Colo., where a group of black
leaders, who claimed their children bore the brunt of
desegregation through burdensome bus rides, protested the city's
desegregation efforts. And a local leader of the N.A.A.C.P. in
Yonkers, N.Y., was suspended by the national organization for
"declaring that busing had outlived its usefulness," writes the
magazine.
TIME traces the legal history of desegregation, beginning
with the 1896 Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
Other court cases summarized include: Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka (1954); Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board
of Education (1971); Milliken v. Bradley (1974); and Missouri v.
Jenkins (1995).
The magazine calls Kansas City desegregation's Waterloo. In
1976, the federal government reprimanded the Kansas City School
District for operating a dual system of segregated schools and
threatened to stop the flow of federal dollars, reports the
magazine. Integration advocates sued the suburban school
districts and the State of Missouri. Federal District Judge
Russell Clark ruled that the state and the school district had
violated the Constitution, but he "dropped the outer districts
from the case, finding insufficient proof that they had acted
illegally -- a decision he would have cause to regret," writes
TIME. "The very minute I let those suburban school district out,
I created a very severe problem for the court and for myself ...
in trying to come up with a remedial plan to integrate the Kansas
City, Missouri, School District," he said. "The more salt you
have, the more white you can turn the pepper. And without any
salt, or with a limited amount of salt, you're going to end up
with a basically black mixture."
Kansas City officials set off on creating "the nation's most
ambitious and most expensive" magnet school system, with the
intention of enticing whites back into city schools, according to
TIME. Yet, results are modest compared to expense: Achievement
gains are not what were expected; the number of out-of-district
white students peaked last year at under 1,500, only slight gains
were registered in standardized tests; and white flight, while
slowing down, has not reversed, writes the magazine.
Mo. Attorney General Jay Nixon, outraged by the high cost of
Kansas City and St. Louis desegregation efforts, is seeking
"unitary status," which means ending court supervision based on a
judicial finding that the system is desegregated in both cities,
explains TIME. The Supreme Court ruling in Missouri v. Jenkins
supports Nixon's move. In that decision, the court ruled that
Judge Clark had no authority to order the state and district to
pay for a plan aimed at attracting suburban students. Judge
Clarence in Missouri v. Jenkins: "The Constitution does not
prevent individuals from choosing to live together, to work
together, or to send their children to school together, so long
as the State does not interfere with their choices on the basis
of race."
TIME holds up Norfolk, Va., as the wave of the future. The
school district won federal court approval to revert to
neighborhood schools in 1986 for the "stated purpose of
increasing parental involvement and arresting white flight,"
writes the magazine. Two black school board members agreed to
support the decision in exchange for a commitment for extra
resources for all-black schools.
Although desegregation may be on its way out, the magazine
points to a soon-to-be-released study by Debora Sullivan and
Robert Crain of Teachers College, Columbia U, that reveals that
among 32 states, the gap between black and white fourth-grade
reading scores is narrowest in W.V. and Iowa, "where blacks are
least isolated from whites," and largest in Mich. and N.Y.,
"where blacks are the most racially isolated," writes TIME.
"Talk about 'separate but equal,'" said Kenneth Clark, who
provided research for Brown v. Board of Education. "If they're
going to be equal, why are they separate?"
==== PROMISING PRACTICES ====
*5 LOOPING: BENEFITS OF KEEPING STUDENTS & TEACHER TOGETHER
Several St.Louis, Mo., schools keep children with the same
teacher for two years. Known as "looping," the practice has its
origins in the one-room schoolhouse of the early part of the
century, writes the St. Louis POST-DISPATCH (Bower, 4/22).
"Of all the innovative concepts I've seen, this is the most
enthusiastically embraced by teachers, principals and,
particularly, parents," said Jim Grant, a former N.H. educator
who helped coin the term "looping." Grant and Bob Johnson wrote
a book, called "A Common Sense Guide to Multi-age Practices."
Grant also directs a teacher-training institute in Peterborough,
N.H.
The paper reports that teachers give looping high marks
because it helps them get a "better grasp of the children's
strengths and weaknesses." However, keeping the same children
for two consecutive years also demands more from teachers, "who
must learn curriculums for two grades," notes the paper.
"Teachers are enthusiastic about this," said Max
Loudenslager, principal at Robinson school, where looping has
been in effect for five years. "Parents like it. I think it has
had real benefits for the kids."
*6 SCHOOL GOVERNANCE: DEMOCRACY REIGNS AT TEACHER-UN SCHOOL
Democracy reins at the Patrick F. Lyndon Elementary School
in West Roxbury, a community adjacent to Boston (Avenoso, BOSTON
GLOBE, 4/16). The school is run by a team of teachers who also
work as administrators.
Lyndon opened in September as one of the city's five pilot
schools, which are not required to adhere to union or School
Committee rules. The school serves grades K-2 and has a staff of
thirteen teachers. Three of the teachers act as site
facilitators; they share and or rotate school dismissal duties,
mail sorting, check distribution, phone call returning, and other
bureaucratic and administrative responsibilities, writes the
paper. All decisions affecting the school are determined by
consensus among the faculty.
School reform experts claim that democratic governance
structures work best in small schools like Lyndon, reports the
paper. But consensual decision making is challenging. "At
times, we are so open and allow so many voices that it can feel
like anarchy instead of democracy," admits Sherry Brooks-Roberts,
one of the facilitators at Lyndon. Maureen Roach another site
facilitator agreed. "The hardest part is getting to consensus,
but once a decision is made, everyone has been in on it."
Other teachers at the school complain that the staff often
reverts to tradition roles, with facilitators playing principal
and teachers heeding to three supervisors. However, they
acknowledge that the behavior is due to inexperience and
confusion over their new roles, reports the paper.
Charlotte Rose, a Roxbury administrative assistant whose
grandson attends kindergarten at Lyndon, point out a key benefit
of the school's governance structure. "In a lot of schools, the
first-grade teacher isn't even aware of what the second-grade
teacher is doing," she said. "Here, teachers are always talking
to each other about lessons and individual children."
Last week, in an effort to help the school staff adjust to
the new governance structure consultants visited the school to
work on team-building skills. Teacher-facilitators remarked that
it may just take time and practice to refine the new decision-
making and administrative procedures of the school, writes the
paper.
"At first, I thought some things would happen more naturally
-- teachers teaming up, everyone feeling included -- but this
isn't so natural," said Brooks-Roberts. "We've all come from
different places and we're learning, just as kids learn, to do
something new."
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