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--- Monday --- April 29, 1996 --- Vol. 6 --- No. 40 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
TRIMMING THE FEDERAL BUDGET | SPOTLIGHT |
... and what it means to | |
education and other federal | TO FLUNK, OR NOT TO FLUNK |
departments was highlighted in | |
the WASH POST (Barr, Lippman | A broad consensus has |
and McAllister, 4/29). | emerged among many |
The DoEd lost $455M from last | educators, business |
year in program dollars. | leaders, policymakers and |
Officials said they absorbed | parents: raising student |
$1M in cuts by paying for them | standards is essential to |
in carryover money from Pell | improving American |
Grants. | education. A formidable |
However, most of the funding | challenge that looms for |
for math, reading and other | standard advocates is what |
programs aimed at disadvantaged | to do with students who |
school districts was restored. | fail to meet higher |
Funding also was restored for | measures of achievement. |
the Goals 2000 and Safe and | |
Drug Free Schools program. | Melissa Roderick, from |
A "big hit" was taken by the | the U of Chicago's School |
Perkins loan program; it took a | of Social Service Adminis- |
cut from $176M to $113M, writes | tration, claims that |
the paper. | retaining students in the |
At the Department of Labor, | same grade is not the |
the deepest cuts were made in | solution. Her review of |
employment and training | the research suggests that |
programs that help | holding children back in |
disadvantaged adults and laid- | the early grades may have |
off workers, reports the paper. | some short-term positive |
Summer job programs for youths | effect. However, it does |
also was drastically cut. For | not "fix the problem" of |
example, the summer youth | low achievement and may |
program faces a 28% cut from a | cause students to eventually|
year ago. The paper also notes | drop out of school. (#5) |
that Job Corps "held steady." |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"Hopefully, the children's peacemaking efforts will catch on and
pretty soon they'll be like the Maytag repairman, with nothing to
do." -- Melrose Biagas, assistant program coordinator for a New
Orleans peer mediation school program. (#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 THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
SCHOOL-TO-WORK BENCHMARKS: New report tracks progress. (#1)
GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS
PEACE KEEPERS: New Orleans supports peer mediation.(#2)
SCHOOL SUSPENSION: Va. program sends students to college. (#3)
STATESIDE
TENURE: On the way out in New York City?. (#4)
RESEARCH NOTES
GRADE RETENTION: Does it have any long-term benefits?. (#5)
THE BIG PICTURE
"DO WE STILL NEED PUBLIC SCHOOLS:" Future is in our past. (#6)
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*1 SCHOOL-TO-WORK BENCHMARKS: NEW REPORT TRACKS PROGRESS
Five communitites actively engaged in developing school-to-
work programs are featured in a new report by Jobs For the
Future, a nonprofit organization based in Boston (JOBS FOR THE
FUTURE press release, 2/15). The communitites include Boston,
Mass.; Jefferson County, Ky.; Milwaukee, Wis.; North Clackamas,
Ore.; and Philadelphia, Pa.
According to the release, the report reveals that the
Benchmark Communities Initiative's effort to build school-to-work
systems has been "well received, that school-to-career is being
embraced as both an education and labor market reform strategy,
and that progress is being made in building the infrastructure
for sustaining school-to-career systems in these communities."
Wis. Gov Tommy Thompson (R), a strong supporter of school-
to-work programs, observed that such programs do not happen over
night. "School-to-careers is not another program handed down to
states and communities ready-made by the federal government," he
said. "As the first year of the BCI shows, for this kind of
change to take root and flourish, broad coalitions of parents,
employers, union members, educators, and others must come
together -- at the local, state, and federal levels -- to knit
together a seamless system."
The BCI is an "attempt to implement school-to-careers on a
large scale, creating a system that bridges the worlds of
education and employment for all young people," writes the report
titled "A Year of Progress in School-To-Career System Building."
BCI is a multi-year, foundation funded initiative, which boasts
five-year goals for each community. These goals include: create
a more academically rigorous and relevant approach to education;
create new labor market arrangements that provide students with a
system of organized access to quality employment; and improve
education and employment outcomes.
Overall findings from the report include: school-to-career
is a strong level for restructuring the entire education system;
school-to-career's restructuring of entire high schools into
smaller learning communitites is very effective; formal compacts
among business, education and government leaders are essential
for community-wide school-to-career systems; overarching
governing bodies -- that represent all vested interests, have
significant clout in the community, can systematically monitor
and assess progress and ensure accountability -- are essential to
building a school-to-career system.
The report describes each benchmark community's school-to-
work mission and progress, as well as general guidelines on what
it takes to embark on a school-to-work mission.
"School-to-career has helped unify and energize our
education reform efforts," said David Hornbeck, superintendent of
the Philadelphia public schools. "We're using school-to-career
to raise expectations and academic standards for all students, to
more effectively measure what students know and are able to do,
and to break down the walls between individual teachers and
academic subjects so that learning is made more meaningful and
all students can achieve," he added.
Copies of the report are available for $15.00 (pre-paid)
from Jobs for the Future; One Bowdoin Square; Boston, Mass.
02114; 617/742-5995.
===== GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS =====
*2 PEACE KEEPERS: NEW ORLEANS SCHOOLS SUPPORTS PEER MEDIATION
Three hundred New Orleans school children in grades three
through six were selected to become "peer assistants" in a
program designed to curtail student fighting (Nabonne, THE TIMES-
PICAYUNE, 3/9). Three students were selected from each of the
city's elementary schools to be trained to help resolve conflicts
and also to encourage their classmates to study and participate
in extracurricular programs, writes the paper.
"This program encourages children to think and consider
consequences," said Melrose Biagas, an assistant program
coordinator. "Hopefully, the children's peacemaking efforts will
catch on and pretty soon they'll be like the Maytag repairman,
with nothing to do," she added.
Training sessions were conducted by a team of school social
workers. The sessions were held for three days on the U of New
Orleans campus, reports the paper. Gwen Williams, a social
worker at one of the elementary schools, said students choose
peer mediation over suspension and detention, reports the paper.
ANother Orleans safe-schools program targets older students.
The students are invited to a weekend retreat to "expose [them]
to the art of peacemaking," writes the paper. Teachers also are
trained for the peer-assistance program by conflict resolution
instructors from UNO, a community group, and Loyola U's Twomey
Center for Peace Through Justice.
Sixth-grade teacher Donald Parker, who conducted one of the
sessions, said the program helps "compensate for the media [T.V.,
movies, and comic books] that generally do not show peace as a
means of solving conflict."
*3 SCHOOL SUSPENSION: VA. PROGRAM SENDS STUDENTS TO COLLEGE
A partnership among the Rockingham County, Va., school
district and two nearby colleges offers a second chance for
students suspended from school (Grove and Mullet, THE AMERICAN
SCHOOL BOARD JOURNAl, March 1996). Carole Copeland Grove, an
associate professor of education at Bridgewater College and
Judith Hostetler Mullet, faculty member of Eastern Mennonite U,
conceived of the two-year-old program that has college education
majors tutoring suspended students in a college setting.
Not all students suspended from school qualify for the
program, according to the authors. "Essential to the success of
a program like this is selecting the right students," they write.
Several of the criteria they use to select students include: the
students must be on long-term suspension; students must be able
to work independently in a setting unlike the traditional
classroom; and parents must be cooperative. Students excluded
from the program include those with "chronic discipline problems,
or those suspended for acts of violence, write the professors.
Students and parents sign a contract prior to participation
in the program. Failure to abide to the terms of the contract
result in dismissal from the program, explains the authors.
At the college, education majors are recruited to work on a
team of typically four or five pre-service teachers. They create
an individual education plan for each student that is "flexible
and allows the students to make use of the colleges' libraries
and fine arts programs," writes the authors. A college
supervisor reviews the work of the college students to ensure
that it meets the requirements of Va.'s standards of learning.
Some of the suspended students are given community service
opportunities. All of the students are required to maintain a
journal, which is reviewed by the college tutors and their
supervisors. Parents are constantly updated about their child's
progress and the student's home-school is given a portfolio of
their work and grades.
According to the authors, the program "pays for itself, as
long as it remains relatively small." Each student teacher signs
a contract with the school district, and receives $7.50 per hour.
The Rockingham school district continues to receive state funds
for the suspended students because they "continue to count toward
the average daily membership numbers the district sends to the
state," explain the authors. The colleges incur no
administrative costs because the supervisors donate their time,
"which isn't difficult as long as the number of students in the
program remains approximately 12."
Grove, who also serves as a Rockingham school board member,
conceived of the partnership when her district was grappling with
ways to handle suspended students who did not receive any kind of
schooling during their suspension. She also knew that many
education majors were seeking professional experience; and a
partnership was born.
According to the article, several other alternative
education programs have spun off from the original partnership
between the district and the colleges. While the partnership
initially was designed to meet the needs of suspended students,
its "ultimate goal" was to prevent students from dropping out of
school. The authors writes that five years ago, the dropout rate
for the district was 6%. Currently, it ranges between 2% and 3%,
notes school Superintendent John Kidd.
===== STATESIDE =====
*4 TENURE: ON THE WAY OUT IN NEW YORK CITY?
New York City Schools Chancellor, Dr Rudy Crew, has
recommended eliminating tenure for the school system's
principals. "If the school system is going to achieve success,
we must hold principals to a much greater level of
accountability," Crew told a group of business leaders
(Greenhouse, N.Y. TIMES, 4/27). . "If they foster success,
principals should be rewarded. But if they cannot provide
educational leadership, then they must be removed."
While the details of Crew's plan must be worked out, Deputy
Chancellor for Instruction, Judith Rizzo, explained that Crew was
thinking of replacing tenure with three- or four-year contracts
"that spelled out criteria for rehiring," writes the paper.
According to the paper, Crew will be noted for spearheading
"historic change" if he is successful in urging the Legislature
to eliminate tenure for principals (Hernandez, N.Y. TIMES, 4/27).
Principals have enjoyed tenure since the turn of the century,
writes the paper. The Legislature abolished tenure for
principals in the early 1970s, but it was re-instated in 1975
with support from Gov Hugh Carey.
The paper also notes that tenure is a tough issue in New
York City because the tenure policy states that once granted
tenure, a principal has a "relatively ironclad right" to stay in
his or her school; a provision adopted to ensure principals were
not arbitrarily transferred by local school boards. However, the
"building tenure" policy has grown into an "enormous restraining
on management, since it allowed school administrators virtually
no way to transfer incompetent or ineffective principals," writes
the paper.
In 1990, Schools Chancellor Joseph Fernandez won the right
to remove incompetent principals from the schools through an
agreement hammered out with the principals' union. However, few
principals have been removed, under this provision, according to
the paper.
Principal union leaders claim Crew's proposal would subject
their members to arbitrary removal and could discourage them from
implementing bold innovations, writes the paper. They also argue
that there are far bigger problems in the school system than
principal tenure. "This is a starving school system," said
Donald Singer, president of the Council of Supervisors and
Administrators, the union representing principals. "It's the
most neglected school system in the country. We have to do more
with less and less. Class size is out of sight. We don't have
the right books ... And now we're told that tenure for principals
is what's holding things back."
State Senator Guy Velella (R), co-sponsor of a bill to
eliminate tenure, said there is a 50-50 chance his bill would be
passed this year, writes the paper.
===== RESEARCH NOTES ====
*5 GRADE RETENTION: DOES IT HAVE ANY LONG-TERM BENEFITS?
A review of the research indicates that holding children
back in school may have some short-term gains, if done in the
early elementary years, but also can lead to higher dropout rates
as the child progresses through school, according to Melissa
Roderick, assistant professor in the School of Social Service
Administration at the U of Chicago (Phi Delta Kappa, RESEARCH
BULLETIN, Dec. 1995).
Roderick notes that grade retention has rode the pendulum of
prevailing education philosophy. Social promotion was stressed
during the 1970s. But social promotion "came under attack during
the standards-raising movement of the 1980s, catalyzed by the
publication in 1983 of "A Nation At Risk," writes Roderick.
Educators have again changed course during the 1990s, with New
York and Chicago leading the sea change, according to Roderick.
One reason the New York City school chancellor in 1990
overhauled the system's "strict promotion policy" was evidence
that dropout rates among retained students were higher than
dropout rates among promoted students with comparable reading
levels, "even though retrained youths had received special
services," writes Roderick.
A "rough estimate" of the proportion of students who are
retained can be derived from the 1984 Current Population Survey.
According to Roderick's interpretation of the data, approximately
20% of 14-year-olds in 1992 may have experienced a grade
retention between first and eighth grades. Roderick also
observes that retention rates "vary significantly by race and
gender." Almost 40% of all 14-year-old males in 1992 were
overage for grade compared to 20% of all females, she writes.
OVer half of black 14-year-old males and nearly half of Hispanic
males were enrolled below ninth grade.
Roderick attributes two new developments to the increase in
retention rates during the past two decades: the strict
promotion policies adopted during the 1980s; and the steady
increase in kindergarten and preschool enrollments accompanied by
"rising academic demands" that consider academic and
developmental readiness in making promotion decisions.
According to Roderick, the research on grade retention also
reveals three key aspects of retention that "combine to place
students at risk of school failure and early school leaving:"
grade retention does not appear to "fix the problem it purports
to address" -- low achievement -- and may actually, in the higher
grades, "exacerbate poor school performance;" the "permanency" of
retention and the message it sends may have "long-term effects on
self-esteem and school attachment that may override even short-
term academic benefits;" and grade retention may increase the
likelihood of dropping out of school, regardless of whether it
occurs in the early grades, because it makes a student overage
for grade during adolescence, writes Roderick.
For Roderick, the distinction between the effect of being
overage for grade and the effect of grade retention is critical
for policymakers. Roderick: "If negative effects occur
primarily when students are retained later in their school
careers, then school systems should pursue alternatives to
retention in the middle grades. In this case, there would be
less basis for alarm about high retention rates in early grades,
since early retention would appear to have relatively neutral
effects." However, if being overage -- regardless of when a
student is retained -- has a negative impact on school
performance during adolescence, "then early grade retention would
increase the risk of school dropout, even if it had short-term
positive benefits earlier in a student's school career."
Roderick cautions that the trend to use test scores to hold
schools and teachers accountable for performance actually is a
disincentive for teachers to "allow heterogeneity in the
classroom and students to develop at their own pace, even as
early as first grade." She also observes that the trend for
increasing academic demands in kindergarten will not end; a
problem for disadvantaged and minority students who are least
likely to be enrolled in preschool and have parents who stress
academic skill development prior to kindergarten. These trends
ensure continued high retention rates "in the absence of policy
attention," she concludes.
Copies of the report, "Grade Retention and School Dropout:
Policy Debate and Research Questions," is available by contacting
Betty Bradbury; Phi Delta Kappa; P.O. Box 789; Bloomington, Ind.
47402-0789; 800/766-1156.
===== THE BIG PICTURE =====
*6 "DO WE STILL NEED PUBLIC SCHOOLS:" FUTURE IS IN OUR PAST
A new publication produced by the Center on National
Education Policy, Phi Delta Kappa and the National PTA traces the
history of schooling, beginning with the post-American Revolution
era to the present. "Early U.S. leaders believed common
schooling was critical to prepare people to participate as
citizens and to promote cultural unity," said Ron Joekel,
executive director of PDK. The booklet presents arguments made
by early American leaders for "common schooling" and for public
funding.
But do we still need public schools today, queries the
publication. "Many American believe the public schools are not
doing a good job and are intrigued by private schools or profit-
making schools," said Jack Jennings, director of the Center on
National Education Policy. "We need to examine why common
schools were created and whether other alternatives can perform
the same tasks."
The publication poses several questions to help citizens
ascertain whether or not public schools are needed. These
questions include: "Does the nation still need to prepare people
to become responsible citizens;" does the nation still need to
improve social conditions;" and "does the nation still need to
promote cultural unity."
"Do We Still Need Public Schools" concludes that "the
reasons for creating public schools are still valid;" which is
not to say that all public school are doing a good job. From the
publication: "Certainly the public schools have problems that
need to be addressed. But there are ways to improve the schools
without undermining the essential concept of a system of public
schooling." A series of questions is presented for the citizenry
to ponder as they debate options for improving American
education. For example: "Will this reform prepare all American
to become responsible citizens, or will the reform benefit only
some citizens;" "Will it dispel inequities in education or
aggravate them:" and "Will it help all people become economically
self-sufficient, or will it leave some citizens out of the
economic mainstream?"
For more information, contact Phi Delta Kappa; P.O. Box 789;
Bloomington, Ind. 47402-0789; 800/766-1156.
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