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--- Wednesday --- May 8, 1996 --- Vol. 6 --- No. 43 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME | SPOTLIGHT |
Conservative school board | |
members lost their seats in a | KING OF THE LIONS |
recent election in Texas' | |
Grapevine-Colleyville school | Disney rules in Osceola |
district (Wilson and Anderson, | County, Fla. The firm |
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 5/5). | developed the town of |
A heated debate over teaching | Celebration and its new |
methods enveloped the race. | school, the Celebration |
The three conservative | School. The Disney- |
candidates said students should | Celebration venture is |
devote more time to learning | perhaps the most celebrated |
fundamental skills. The | of developer-school |
victors preached innovative | arrangements burgeoning in |
methods such as peer tutoring | Fla. (#4) |
and cooperative learning. | |
| Other examples: one |
WORKING WELFARE MOTHERS | Weston developer joined |
President Clinton announced | forces with a community |
his proposal to goad states to | foundation to develop a |
encourage teen moms on welfare | kindergarten and teen |
to stay in school (Mitchell, | center; and a handful of |
N.Y. TIMES, 5/5). Among his | Dade County developers |
plans: the Department of | want to build primary |
Health and Human Services would | learning centers in their |
require states to submit plans | communities. |
that show how they will design | |
welfare programs that allow | Some critics warn that |
young mothers to stay in | school districts are |
school; and, citing Ohio as a | entering a "Faustian |
model, Clinton said states | bargain" by selling their |
would be allowed to provide | souls -- and losing control |
cash bonuses to moms who stayed | of their schools -- to |
in school and to reduce checks | corporations. |
for those who don't. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"It's an advise-and-consent arrangement. What that means is they
advise and we consent." Martha Anderson, the only Osceola School
Board member to oppose a contract with Disney to build the
Celebration School. (#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
THE SOUND OF MUSIC: A school's halls are alive. (#1)
STATESIDE
ON FAST TRACK: Ohio bill to end troubled school boards.(#2)
STANDARD BEARERS
RAISING THE BAR IN FLORIDA: Standard-raising legislation. (#3)
PARTNERS IN EDUCATION
A DEVELOPING TREND: Developer-school partnerships in Fla. (#4)
CHARTING A NEW COURSE
CONTEMPLATING A CHARTER: With help from the NEA. (#5)
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*1 THE SOUND OF MUSIC: A SCHOOL'S HALLS ARE ALIVE
New York City's Special Music School of America is the first
American public school to offer intensive musical training from
kindergarten through 12th grade (Tabor, N.Y. TIMES, 5/5). The
school is the brainchild of pianist Vladimir Feltsman, who was
trained in "Soviet-style institutions that identified and
harnessed gifted children from tender ages," writes the paper.
Feltsman: "If you don't get the basics of the discipline
between the ages of 7 and 12, you might be as gifted as five
Horowitzs but you will never make it. The beginning of a musical
education, the very first musical steps, are crucial. You have
to suck it in the way a baby sucks in a mother's milk."
Lydia Konton, director of a West Side cultural center, and
Feltsman joined forces to secure a public-private partnership to
fund the school. The city pays for the academic program, while
grants from foundations such as the Annenberg Foundation, pay for
the music, reports the paper. Per-pupil cost is estimated at
$10,000 to $13,000: "so raising money remains a concern," writes
the TIMES.
Children audition for placement. "The ability to sing on
pitch and clap correctly is not enough, " said Eteri
Andjaparidze, a Russian pianist and the school's music director.
"We are looking for those with a certain possession of music,
those for whom music is a native language, those for whom music
lives a full life in their brains before they ever touch the
keyboard." Andjaparidze and others auditioned five-year-olds who
will begin as kindergartners when the new school opens its doors
this fall, reports the paper. The children took part in a three-
part test. They were asked to repeat rhythms and melodies, move
to different styles of music and improvise songs and rhythms.
They also were given paper and asked to illustrate melodies,
write the paper. Children were asked to identify and sing back
the various notes in a chord. Thirty children will be enrolled
in kindergarten and 1st grade. One grade will be added each
year, according to the TIMES.
The school is housed in Community School District 3, a
primarily black and Hispanic district. However, the first wave
of applications came from mainly middle-class white families,
said Kontos. She quickly "dispatched scouts" to day-care centers
and kindergartens in disadvantaged areas. "We want the criteria
for admission to be musical gift, not ability to pay," she said.
Some critics argue that intense Soviet-style music training
can "stunt" children in other areas, writes the paper. But
Feltsman claims that faculty will not "cage our children and make
them practice five yours a day until their fingers bleed."
Children will be given private piano lessons, lessons on another
instrument and group lessons in singing and music theory, in
addition to their regular schoolwork. They also will be required
to give regular recitals.
Anne Farber, one of the school's music teachers, described a
moment in the testing when "musical genius sometimes flickers
up," writes the paper. She plays the piano and asks the children
to close their eyes and paint the music with their hands and
arms. "Every now and then, you'll see one child tilt his head,
because he hears something in the music that speaks to him. Or a
facial expression will suddenly change. We've had some quite
moving moments."
===== STATESIDE =====
*2 ON THE FAST TRACK: OHIO BILL TO END TROUBLED SCHOOL BOARDS
Several Ohio lawmakers introduced a bill last week that
could "unseat" elected school board members and replace them with
appointed "budget watchdogs," writes the Cleveland PLAIN DEALER
(Suddes, 5/3). The bill would cover financially troubled school
districts, which currently include Cleveland, Lorain and
Youngstown. Senate President Stanley Aronoff and other lawmakers
want the legislation to go into effect before they will allow the
Cleveland school district to borrow more money, reports the
paper.
Under the proposed bill, a seven-member Financial Planning
and Supervision Commission would be created. Commissioners would
include the following state officials: Auditor Jim Petro; Budget
Director Gregory Browning; John Goff, superintendent of public
instruction; and a Goff appointee, writes the paper. The three
remaining members would come from the troubled districts: the
mayor of the district's largest city; the local superintendent;
and a mayoral appointee.
According to the paper, the proposed commission would be
given the authority to dissolve a school board whenever the
commission found it necessary "to eliminate a fiscal emergency."
Once a school board is abolished, its employees become employees
of the commission.
Auditor Petro recently recommended a similar oversight panel
in an audit of the Cleveland schools, which are under state
control.
Hearings are underway.
==== STANDARD BEARERS ====
*3 RAISING THE BAR IN FLORIDA: STANDARD-RAISING LEGISLATION
Legislation to raise student standards for high school
graduation is expected to pass in Fla. (Griffin, ORLANDO
SENTINEL, 5/3). While several bills are being debated, the "most
notabl[e]" is a House bill (HB 1041) that would require a C
average for graduation or for participation in extracurricular
activities. Currently, a 1.5 grade-point-average is required.
Ken Bovio, a lobbyist for Seminole County schools: "The
only real change here is that they're going to have to work
harder. You're going to see more folks doing their homework."
Under the proposed legislation, students also would be
required to pass Algebra I or an equivalent course, and the
number of "Level 1" classes would be limited. Students also
would find it more difficult to earn a D grade: a new grading
system changes the lowest D mark from a 65 to a 70. "These are
reasonable standards that will impact a generation of students,"
said Sen Don. Sullivan (R). "If we demand quality, we'll get
quality."
According to the paper, the proposed bill would phase in the
standards -- next year's ninth-graders would face the higher
standards when they are seniors.
===== PARTNERS IN EDUCATION =====
*4 A DEVELOPING TREND: DEVELOPER-SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS IN FLA.
The "ultimate" in local control or a corporate takeover of
public education, Disney's Celebration School in Osceola County,
Fla., is the focus of a debate over partnerships between Fla.
developers and school districts (Marks, MIAMI HERALD, 5/6).
According to the paper, Disney donated 35 acres, hired and
paid Boston architects to design the school, awarded the district
$5M for an "enhancement fund," paid consultants to design an
innovative curriculum and promised to train other Osceola
teachers at the nearby Teaching Academy, also built by Disney.
Critics caution that Disney's voice will dominate in school
decisions. For example, Disney may test commercial products at
the school and the school board must secure the firm's consent to
bring in portables. Disney also has one seat on the three-member
Board of Trustees, which makes recommendations on a wide range of
issues.
"They are calling the shots," complained Martha Anderson,
the only Osceola School Board member to oppose the Celebration
contract. "It's an advise-and-consent arrangement. What that
means is they advise and we consent." However, Osceola's School
Board chairwoman, Judy Robertson, countered that "every school
has business partners. This school just has a super business
partner." Robertson added that other school districts will
benefit from Celebration because teachers nationwide will be
exposed to lessons learned from the project.
Other developer-school district partnerships are underway in
Fla. For example, the Legislature recently approved a budget
that earmarks $270,000 from Broward County schools' budget to a
kindergarten and teen center in Weston, a project spearheaded by
Weston developer Arvida/JMB Partners. "What is extraordinary to
me -- and it looks too good to the public -- is the inequity in
this," said Broward County Schools Superintendent Frank
Petruzielo. "These dollars that should have been coming to the
School Board for its use and discretion, looking at all the
district's needs. Now it's been taken out of the pot and
earmarked for one specific project in one specific community."
He queried: "Why wouldn't any other community want its fair
share?"
The HERALD points out other developer-school arrangements.
For example, some developers in Dade County have agreed to build
primary learning centers in their communities. The paper reports
that while most developers would rather stay out of education,
they feel compelled to "pitch in where school systems have fallen
short." Charles Adams, of Disney's Celebration Company: "It's
very difficult to get people to move into a new community if they
don't have a neighborhood school."
Evan McKenzie, author of "Privatopia" (Yale U Press), a book
on private communitites, said the cost of such communities is
high -- "growing separation between rich and poor," with public
policy decisions made to boost corporate profit rather than
community welfare, writes the paper. "Cities and school
districts are entering a Faustian bargain with developers," said
McKenzie, a professor at the U of Illinois at Chicago.
"Everything we have known that was public and shared is being
privatized -- and we end up with more and more of our lives
controlled by corporations."
===== CHARTING A NEW COURSE =====
*5 CONTEMPLATING A CHARTER: WITH HELP FROM THE NEA
Woodland Middle School, located in Fulton County, Ga., is on
the brink of seeking charter status, with the help of the
National Education Association (White, ATLANTA CONSTITUTION,
5/6). Earlier this month, the NEA announced its Charter School
Initiative, which targets schools in six school districts.
"We want to draw on what we've learned as a national
organization to help these schools put their charter together, to
help with budget, to assist with their plans for community
outreach and how they're going to be accountable for student
learning," explained Andrea DiLorenzo, co-director of the NEA
initiative.
Only three Ga. schools have become charter schools since the
state passed charter school legislation three years ago, writes
the paper. The paper also notes that Woodland's faculty "isn't
necessarily sold on the [charter] idea." While schools gain much
freedom from regulation, teachers also face "more work, more
risks, more responsibilities and more unknowns," under charters,
reports the CONSTITUTION. Woodland counselor Dean Chandler said
the school already is experimenting with the state's pay-for-
performance program and faculty may not be willing to undertake
another project that would require additional time and effort.
However, the NEA has "sweetened the pot" by promising to
bring national experts to Woodland and by inviting four Woodland
faculty members to an invitation-only conference in Colo. to
instill enthusiasm for the project, reports the paper.
The CONSTITUTION reports that the NEA endorses "mainstream"
charter schools that are created by public school educators and
that answer to local school boards. NEA policy opposes "more
radical" charter school legislation that allows groups of parents
or existing private schools to create charter schools that are
beholden only to a state charter school authority.
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