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--- Friday --- April 26, 1996 --- Vol. 6 --- No. 39 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
KIDS FOR ChARACTER | SPOTLIGHT |
... is a new video being | |
released by the CHARACTER | SHOCKING?! |
COUNTS! Coalition. The show | |
features a "never-before" | The NEA is launching a |
collaboration of 30 children's | charter school initiative. |
characters including Babar, | Some observers, who |
Barney, Shari Lewis and Lamb | regularly castigate the |
Chop, and characters from The | union for defending the |
Magic School Bus, The Puzzle | status-quo, may be |
Place, Gullah Gullah Island, | astounded to hear that the |
Cat in the Hat, Madeline, Spot | NEA is bankrolling a five- |
and others. The 60-minute | year, $1.5M initiative to |
video is geared to building | "explore" charter schools. |
character in young children and | |
is accompanied by a 32-page | "The world has changed," |
parents' guide. | declared NEA President |
Children in selected | Keith Geiger. He said the |
locations, including | union embraces charters |
Washington, D.C., Albuquerque, | already underway that share |
N.M., Bridgeport, Conn., and | such NEA goals as high |
Omaha, Neb., will participate | standards and site-based |
in a nationwide kick-off event | management. The NEA will |
that premiers the video. | share what it learns with |
The Coalition consists of | all public schools. (#4) |
nearly 100 educational, youth | |
service and civic organizations | Meanwhile, Cambridge, |
that reach over 40 million | Mass., known for its |
children, according to a | efforts to voluntarily |
Coalition press release. | desegregate schools, is in |
The KIDS FOR CHARACTER video | an uproar over the city's |
is available for rental or | first charter -- one with a |
purchase. Suggested retail | predominately minority |
price is $14.95. Call 800/711- | enrollment. (#5) |
2670 to place an order. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"From now on each student wears a tag of $10,000 round his neck,
and it is incumbent on schools to duke it out for that child." --
William McLaurin, one of the founders of the Banneker charter
school in Cambridge, Mass. (#5)
_______________________________________________________________
| 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
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Kudos for the best. (#1)
CERTIFICATION INCENTIVES: Miss offers helping hand. (#2)
HIGHER EDUCATION
CUTTING COSTS: Way of life for most colleges. (#3)
CHARTING A NEW COURSE
HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS: Charter schools and the NEA. (#4)
THE TROUBLE WITH CHARTERS: Cambridge in an uproar. (#5)
ON THE HILL
BUDGET BATTLE ENDS: House and Senate reach agreement. (#6)
CHOOSING SCHOOLS
THERE GOES THE JUDGE: Seeking pro-choice court. (#7)
===== GOAL FOUR: TEACHER EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT =====
*1 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: KUDOS FOR THE BEST
U.S. Ed Sec Rchard Riley last week announced an initiative
"to recognize exemplary professional development opportunities
for teachers and other educators," (DoEd press release, 4/18).
The DoEd has joined forces with several professional
organizations to establish the National Awards Program for Model
Professional Development. "Parents have every right to expect
that their children will have fully prepared teachers ... and
teachers should expect to receive first-rate, ongoing training.
Today we're asking for nominations. Who is doing this essential
job right? I look forward to honoring this critical work," Riley
said.
Riley outlined the criteria for prospective applicants.
They must show evidence of improved student learning and
increased teacher effectiveness. Applicants also must
demonstrate that their approach adheres to the mission of
professional development: "to prepare and support educators to
help all students achieve to high standards of learning and
development," writes the paper.
Principles of Professional Development also must be
considered by applicants. The principles were developed through
a public process to ensure that the DoEd's efforts reflect "the
best available research and exemplary practice," writes the press
release.
The principles of professional development include: a focus
on teachers as central to students learning, while including all
other members of the school community; a focus on individual,
collegial, and organizational improvement; respect and nurturing
of the intellectual and leadership capacity of teachers,
principals and other in the school community; reflection of best
available research and practice in teaching, learning and
leadership; and enabling teachers to develop further expertise in
subject content, teaching strategies, uses of technologies, and
other essential elements in teaching to high standards, among
others.
All public and private schools and districts are eligible to
participate in the contest. Up to ten winners will be selected
and honored in December at a Washington, D.C. ceremony.
Applications are due by 1 July 1996. To request and application
contact Terry Dozier, special advisor on teaching, Office of the
Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Ave.,
SW, Washington, DC 20202.
*2 CERTIFICATION INCENTIVES: MISS OFFERS HELPING HAND
Miss. Gov Kirk Fordice last week signed legislation that
offers salary incentives and fee reimbursement to encourage
teachers to become certified by the National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards (NATIONAL BOARD FOR PROFESSIONAL
TEACHING STANDARDS ress release, 4/18). The mandate will allow
National Board Certified Teachers in Miss. to receive a salary
supplement of $3,000 per year, and will reimburse them for the
$2,000 National Board Certification fee.
"Mississippi has much to be proud of," said James A. Kelly,
president of the National Board for Teaching Standards, a
nonprofit organization that establishes high and rigorous
standards for teachers. "The state has made a strong commitment
of improving student learning in teacher professional development
by creating and passing this legislation. I commend Gov. Fordice
and Ronny Musgrove, lieutenant governor, for encouraging teachers
to improve their practice and for encouraging real impact on
student achievement."
At present, Miss. has only three National Board certified
teachers in its schools. The legislation is expected to heighten
awareness of and interest in the certification process, writes
the release. Officials hope that hundreds of Miss. teachers will
take advantage of this professional development opportunity.
Teachers pursuing National Board Certification can receive
certificates as generalists, that is, those who teach across the
curriculum, or as subject specialists, in one of six
certification fields. They must demonstrate their knowledge and
skills through performance-based assessments, which include
portfolios of student work, interviews and videotapes. They also
must answer essay questions that probe their knowledge of the
subject matter they teach. Some teachers report spending up to
150 hours on this voluntary certification process, which is
available to all K-12 public and private school teachers who have
been in the classroom at least three years, reports the paper.
National Board Certification is different from state
certification because the later focuses on entry-level
requirements for teaching in a given state. The former is
designed to recognize accomplished teachers.
N.C. Gov. James B. Hunt (D), chair of the National Board,
said, "National Board Certification is about improving the
teaching profession and bringing teachers the respect and
recognition their important work deserves. Years from now,
thousands of teachers will have earned National Board
Certification and the profession will soar to new heights, in
much the same way that medicine improved when doctors began
seeking and achieving board certification."
===== HIGHER EDUCATION =====
*3 CUTTING COSTS: WAY OF LIFE FOR MOST COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES
Only 20% of America's colleges and universities are "healthy
financially," and 60% are "struggling to adjust," (Hancock and
McCormick, NEWSWEEK, 4/29). Higher education institutions are
downsizing and using innovative ideas to cut costs, writes the
magazine.
The higher education industry boomed from $7B in the late
1950's to a $200B industry today. Government subsidies,
increasing tuition rates, big-name professors, expanding graduate
departments and administrations contributed to the rising costs,
writes the magazine. But in the late 1980's federal and state
governments drastically cut grants and aid.
Cuts in government spending were coupled with poor
development choices made by universities. According to
Northwestern's Chancellor Arnold Weber, schools accepted too many
"gifts that eat." That is too many schools accepted lavish
gifts, without considering future maintenance costs. For
example, "a $40M lab will cost three times that in maintenance
over its lifetime," writes the magazine.
Costs also increased as professors salaries escalated.
Simultaneously, the number of hours taught by professors
decreased. Universities vying for star professors contributed to
skyrocketing salaries, reports the magazine.
Universities began slashing costs in 1990. For example,
Harvard has cut approximately $43M and Stanford cut $54M from
their respective budgets. However, university cost cutting is
not necessarily akin to corporate downsizing, because "presidents
and deans are obliged by academic tradition to consult faculty on
cost-cutting moves. The faculty ... forges elaborate alliances to
guard its turf," reports the magazine.
Northwestern has managed to straighten out its finances
under Weber's guidance, notes NEWSWEEK. As an economist, Weber
kept tuition increases below average. After deciding that
programs in evolutionary biology, nursing and geography could not
be first rate, he eliminated them. As the school's focus
narrowed, its academic reputation increased, the magazine reports
-- the number of applicants rose and faculty salaries increased.
However, cutting costs is not always as easy as it seems in
the Northwestern case. The U of Rochester expects $6M in annual
administrative cuts in the next four years. Many of the programs
targeted for elimination are support services, such as career and
psychological counseling, which are increasingly demanded by
students, writes the magazine.
Faculty also are on the budget chopping block.
Traditionally tenured faculty, research and Ph.D. personnel have
had protected jobs at the expense of undergraduate programs.
Robert Zemsky, a higher-education expert at the U of
Pennsylvania, said, "Students ended up paying more for less."
Tenure guarantees a faculty member lifelong work,
regardless of student course evaluations or changes in the
universities curriculum. "When a top college grants tenure, it
is committing as much as $4M in lifetime pay," the authors write.
The problem is compounded by federal law that prohibits
mandatory retirement ages.
In response to the tenure problem, some universities
increasingly rely on part-time faculty -- 38% of the nation's
professors are part-timers. In addition, universities offer a
choice of "faculty development leave" or tenure. The former
allows professors to submit performance reviews in exchange for
frequent sabbaticals.
Aside from cost cutting, some schools are using innovative
methods to create more effective and efficient programs.
Officials at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.,
examined their freshman introductory calculus, physics and
biology courses: They decided they were boring, too big and
expensive. The courses were taught lecture-style to 500
students. Students also attended smaller discussion groups led
by graduate students. The whole approach was tossed aside and
replaced with high-tech labs. Students now sit at multimedia
computers and the professor and teaching assistants wander around
the lab answering questions. A course that once took five hours
and 40 graduate students to teach, now takes only four hours with
12 teaching assistants. In addition, the new approach has cut
the operating cost of the course by $50,000.
David Porter, president of Skidmore College in New York,
wonders how institutions will act once universities and colleges
survive their financial crises . "Do we just survive, or can we
thrive?" Porter asked. The answer remains to be seen, concludes
NEWSWEEK.
===== CHARTING A NEW COURSE =====
*4 HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS: CHARTER SCHOOLS AND THE NEA
The National Education Association last week launched a
five-year "exploration" into charter schools to examine whether
the concept is a viable way to improve public education (National
Education Association press release, 4/16). "The world has
changed -- and that's forcing all of our institutions to revisit
the way they do things. Schools are no exception," said NEA
President Keith Geiger.
Geiger announced the five charter school sites that
constitute the union's Charter School Initiative: Phoenix,
Ariz., San Diego, Calif., Colorado Springs, Colo., Atlanta, Ga.,
and Oahu, Hawaii. The best charter schools already underway
nationwide reflect "rigorous learning standards, site-based and
shared decision making, a diversity of educational programs,
freedom from red tape and a suspension of rules that may impede
innovation;" attributes that also are valued by the NEA,
according to Geiger.
The NEA intends to apply what it has learned about teaching,
learning, curriculum and the "conditions that support quality
education" through several other NEA reform initiatives. "And
everything we learn from the charter exploration will be plowed
back into the public schools to advance systemic renewal," noted
Geiger.
The NEA plans to make a "major investment" in its charter
school initiative: an estimated $1.5M over the five-year period.
NEA charter "explorers" also will be electronically connected
through the union's School Renewal Network, "which links its
members involved in NEA-sponsored school restructuring efforts,
and in face-to-face gatherings where they can share their
experiences to accelerate the learning curve," writes the
release.
The Charter School Initiative also includes an "ongoing
documentation and assessment" provision to be conducted by
faculty and staff from the U of California, Los Angeles. NEA
funds will underwrite the research effort, with the results
shared with others nationwide. Geiger said the research will
focus on: increasing and sustaining student learning in
essential core subjects; new ways of teaching to high standards;
connecting schools with their communities; and understanding how
charters affect governance and accountability.
All NEA charter schools will be free, with open admission,
and non-sectarian. Geiger: "At their core, charters, when done
right, uphold the democratic principles that are the foundation
of all public education."
The TENNESSEAN lauds the NEA's experiment with charter
schools (4/22). From the paper: "Look who's opening charter
schools ... With this proposal, the NEA has the chance to
convince its membership and the nation that the organization
needs a place at the table determining the future of education in
this country."
The editorial points out that charter schools emerged as a
way to "sidestep teacher unions ... by giving parents and the
community the greatest possible flexibility in the operation of
the schools." Teacher tenure, which tops teacher union agendas,
typically is "unheard of in most charter schools," notes the
paper.
*5 THE TROUBLE WITH CHARTERS: CAMBRIDGE IN AN UPROAR
Benjamin Banneker elementary school, a charter being planned
for Cambridge, Mass., is the eye in a storm over charter schools
(Pereira, W.S. JOURNAL, 4/26). The school has touched a "raw
racial nerve" as parents battle over public education dollars,
writes the paper.
Banneker, named after a colonial African-American
mathematician and astronomer, recently received charter school
status. The school will begin with K through 5th-grade and has
had no difficulty meeting its enrollment. According to the
paper, at least 260 mostly minority students entered a lottery
for the school's 216 slots, "even before a building lease was
formally signed."
The school's almost all-black student body will "stand out"
in Cambridge, a city that has been working to voluntarily
desegregate its schools. However, school founder Pamela
Ogletree, who is acting director of the charter, is not concerned
about protests of "racial isolation." She claims that the
city's public school system's policy of tracking students by
ability directs minority students to less rigorous academic
programs. As a result, minorities post lower test scores than
their white counterparts, according to Ogletree and other
founders of Banneker. "People here might not want to see
themselves as racist," she said. "I myself feel that they are."
However, school Superintendent Mary Lou McGrath, counters
that the school district is phasing out tracking and also offers
parents a wide variety of choices. Some parents are not so
"sanguine," reports the paper. "The Banneker School is going to
be the ruin of my children's education," said Joyce Sanchez, a
white mother.
School officials predict Banneker will cost Cambridge's
regular public schools $1.4M in state revenue next year. The
paper explains that under state law, per-pupil funding is
attached to the student: If a student goes to a charter, the
regular public school loses the funds. "From now on each student
wears a tag of $10,000 round his neck, and it is incumbent on
schools to duke it out for that child," said William McLaurin, a
Banneker founder and a vice-principal at Cambridge's high school.
McLaurin is one of three vice principals and 30 teachers to be
laid off from Cambridge public schools as a result of the new
charter school and budget cuts, writes the JOURNAL.
One white parent at a "stormy" public hearing on Banneker
told the JOURNAl that some whites in Cambridge embrace the
charter for drawing minority children because "minorities hold
their children back from getting into good universities" due to
the watering down of curriculum and de-emphasis on tracking.
According to the JOURNAL, Cambridge residents should be
braced for more charters. The state has granted preliminary
approval for a charter high school sponsored by Harvard, Boston U
and public-TV station WGBH. "If the traditional system of
district-operated schools can't hack it in the new marketplace,"
said Marc Dean Millot, an educational research at Rand, "I'm not
sure that it's a horrible thing."
==== ON THE HILL ====
*6 BUDGET BATTLE ENDS: HOUSE AND SENATE REACH AGREEMENT
The U.S. House and Senate yesterday passed legislation
ending its "long standoff" over 1996 spending levels (Harris and
Pianin, WASH POST, 4/26). Ed Sec Richard Riley said the budget
agreement was an "important victory" for education. He
specifically pointed to the restoration of most of the funding
cuts proposed by the House last year for Chapter 1 (Barr and
Morgan, WASH POST, 4/26).
According to the paper, the budget bill also "protects"
Goals 2000, Clinton's safe and drug-free schools program, Head
Start and Job Corps funding. And the agreement does not impose
spending caps on the direct student loan program.
However, the Perkins loan program suffered a "substantial"
blow, "dropping from $176M to $113M," writes the paper.
Disadvantaged students are the primary beneficiaries of Perkins,
and the cuts mean the federal government will make a smaller
contribution this year to college lending programs.
The WALL STREET JOURNAL notes that total funding for the
U.S. DoEd was cut by about 9% (Calmer and Rogers, 4/26). The
paper observes that student financial aid experienced most of the
cuts, while programs for young children were "effectively frozen
at $7.2B or almost $1B above what the House GOP had wanted."
A DoEd chart shows that Technology in Classrooms --
Challenge Grant/National Programs, which is a competitive grant
program, increased from a $22,500 appropriation in FY 1995 to
$48,000 in the recently passed budget appropriation. School-to-
Work also increased from $122,500 in FY 1995 to $180,000. Goals
2000 dropped from $371,870 in FY 1995 to $350,000.
Riley: "As President Clinton has shown and as the American
people believe, we can balance the budget while investing in
quality education. If we abide by that conviction in a
bipartisan fashion, we can help to prepare our young people for
the challenges ahead."
==== CHOOSING SCHOOLS ====
*7 THERE GOES THE JUDGE: SEEKING PRO-CHOICE COURT
Edward Marion, a lawyer for Gov Tommy Thompson (R),
requested that a supervising judge take a controversial school
choice case away from Dane County Circuit Court Judge Paul
Higginbotham (Walters, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 4/18).
The school choice plan would allow tax money to be used to
pay tuition at "church-run schools for poor Milwaukee students"
writes the paper. The plan was passed by the Legislature last
year, but a lawsuit filled by opponents of the plan has delayed
its implementation.
The case went to the state Supreme Court on 29 March, and
the justices were split on whether or not the plan could be
implemented. The courts decision returned the case to
Higginbotham.
"Marion asked Dane County Circuit Judge Dan Moeser to review
Higginbotham's decision to preside in the case," writes the
paper. His request reflects school choice proponents' desire to
find a judge who favors the school choice plan, according to the
paper. John Matthews, the governor's chief of staff, referred to
Higginbotham as a "liberal judge" who had "already decided" that
using tax money to help church-run schools is illegal, pens the
paper.
Opponents of the plan have tried to ensure that the
presiding judge opposes the school choice proposal. For example,
when the case initially was assigned to Dane County Circuit Judge
Richard Callaway, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a
request for a new judge, which is how Higginbotham got the case.
Asking a supervising judge to remove a judge from a case is
a rare legal maneuver. However, Marion said Moeser is chief
judge and has the authority to make another substitution.
Marion also asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider its
decision against choice after 1 August when Chief Justice Roland
Day retires, according to the paper. The court has not responded
to this request.
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