--- Monday --- September 30, 1996 --- Vol. 6 --- No. 70 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT READING | SPOTLIGHT |
... is the subject and title | |
of a new publication released | LEARNING TO READ |
by the Council for Educational | |
Development and Research. | ... leads to reading to |
"What We Know About Reading, | learn, say many educators. |
Teaching and Learning," is part | While the debate over |
of the council's "EdTalk" | phonics vs. whole language |
series. The publication offers | rages on, the reading |
teachers pointers on how to | discussion has a new battle |
motivate students to read, how | cry -- get children to |
to improve reading skills and | read by third grade, or |
strategies, and how to assess | schools will be forced to |
students' reading development. | offer remedial education |
The reading report does not | throughout grade school. |
advocate a specific method or | |
approach to teaching reading. | President Clinton |
Instead, it describes many | recently unveiled his |
instructional approaches "in an | campaign proposal to jump- |
effort to help educators strike | start early literacy. (See |
the right balance in the | DRC 8-28-96) |
classrooms." | |
Sections focus on basal | Texas Gov. George Bush |
readers, technology's role in | has been stumping the state |
reading instruction, teacher | for his literacy campaign. |
professional development and | (See DRC 2-7-96) |
what parents and communities | |
can do to boost reading skills | Mass. is jumping on the |
in young people. Copies of the | bandwagon by requiring that |
report are available for $5 by | all third graders be |
making a check payable to | able to read at grade |
CEDaR; Council for Educational | level. Schools that don't |
Development and Research; 2000 | produce could face a state |
L Street NW; Suite 601; | takeover. (#2) |
Washington, D.C. 20036. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"If a child is not reading by the third grade, the rest of school
is going to be remedial." -- John Silber, chairman of the
Massachusetts Board of Education. (#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 |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL TWO: SCHOOL COMPLETION
PATROLS AND PARENTS: Chicago's tough truancy program. (#1)
GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
READING BY THIRD GRADE: Mass.'s goal for every child. (#2)
ALLIANCE FOR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION: Building the basics. (#3)
GOAL FOUR: TEACHER EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMEN
TEACHER OVERBOARD: New marine science curriculum. (#4)
GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS
SAFE SCHOOLS ACT: Missouri law up and running. (#5)
FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE
OVERBOARD ON TESTING: Hispanic groups say look at grades. (#6)
PROMISING PRACTICES
ALL-GIRLS SCHOOL: An experiment in East Harlem. (#7)
===== GOAL TWO: SCHOOL COMPLETION =====
*1 PATROLS AND PARENTS: CHICAGO'S TOUGH, NEW TRUANCY PROGRAM
Chicago public school students can expect to find more
encouragement to not cut class. A Board of Education plan would
award $6.6M to implement several initiatives designed to keep
students in school (Rossi, Chicago SUN-TIMES, 9/25).
Under the plan, every school with less than 95% average
daily attendance would be required to develop an "attendance
improvement plan," reports the paper. The SUN-TIMES notes that
every high school in the district and 65 of the district's 465
elementary schools fall in that category.
"We want schools to at least lay out a strategy," said Chief
Executive Officer of the public schools Paul Vallas. "Some of
the strategies will be if students are absent, we will call
parents and contact social service agencies."
Under the plan, all schools would be required to report
their daily attendance to the system's mainframe computer. The
board also would install in every school an automated calling
system that dials the home of truant students. For parents who
cannot be reached by phone, the board plan would pay for
postcards to be sent to the home. "How can we hold parents
accountable if we've never informed them that their child is
absent?" said Maribeth Vander Weele, the system's chief of
investigations. "This puts the first responsibility squarely in
the lap of the parent."
The school board also intends to install a 24-hour truancy
hotline. Anyone who cites school-age children outside of school
could call the number and a police van would visit the site to
locate any truants, notes the paper.
Parents also will play a vital role in fighting truancy.
The plan calls for providing each high school with a stipend to
pay for four parents to receive training at the U of Illinois to
work as attendance officers, reports the paper. And 100 police
officers will be assigned to the system's 24 "neediest" high
schools, writes the SUN-TIMES.
However, one elementary school principal is skeptical that
the plan will successfully curb the truancy rate. Booker
Thomason, principal of a school that serves the Robert Taylor
housing development lamented that "the families where the
students are truant need social services ... I need bodies."
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*2 READING BY THIRD GRADE: MASS.'S GOAL FOR EVERY CHILD
In the "swiftest and most far-reaching action" taken yet by
the Mass. Board of Education, all third graders will be required
to take a reading test beginning next spring to see if they read
at grade level (Zernike, BOSTON GLOBE, 9/25). If a significant
number of third-graders in one school are not at grade level, the
state could possibly take over that school.
"We keep talking about how reading is No.1 in importance,"
said Education Commissioner Robert Antonucci. "It's time we get
serious." Antonucci proposed the idea at a board meeting last
week and board chairman John Silber "seized on it immediately,"
notes the paper. "It would seem to me that if a school doesn't
have 90% of its students reading by Grade 3, there's something
deficient with that schools," said Silber. He added: "If a
child is not reading by the third grade, the rest of school is
going to be remedial."
According to the paper, it appears a consensus has been
reached about the importance of being able to read by third
grade. Read Boston, a program developed by Boston Mayor Thomas
Menino (D), shares the learn-to-read-by-third-grade goal, as do
programs in other cities. The GLOBE also points out that
President Clinton promised to put early literacy high on his
agenda for a second-term as president.
From the GLOBE: "Until third grade, educators say, students
are learning to read. After third grade, they are reading to
learn, and any student who can't read falls fast and far behind
in every subject."
Silber requested specific information to accompany each
student's test: the native language of the child and whether the
child completed first or second grades at another school.
*3 ALLIANCE FOR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION: BUILDING THE BASICS
A Mich. effort to improve the basic reading, writing and
math skills of children is underway (Mich. DoEd press release,
9/17). The Alliance for Children's Education encourages schools
to expand or begin to build one-on-one mentoring-tutorial
programs. Volunteer mentors and tutors are recruited from
businesses.
"This year nearly half of Michigan's fourth- and seventh-
grade students received less than satisfactory on the state's
reading test. This must change," said Clark Durant, president of
the State Board of Education. "The ACE program is an immediate
response to an immediate problem, by bringing businesses and
other community organizations together to provide teachers and
schools with the extra help they need."
According to the Mich. DoEd, mentor-tutors who follow
curricula designed specifically for their pupil are second only
to teachers for improving individual student performance. ACE
helps pair interested companies and volunteers with a student in
a nearby participating school who needs help in reading, writing
and math.
"Education is not something that companies, taxpayers,
parents and society at large can simply delegate to the schools,"
said Bob Lutz, president and chief operating officer of the
Chrysler Corporation and one of the founding ACE business
partners. "There must be business and community involvement.
ACE is going to allow us to provide hands-on assistance in
schools to students who need it most."
===== GOAL FOUR: TEACHER EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT =====
*4 TEACHER OVERBOARD: NEW MARINE SCIENCE CURRICULUM
Teachers from kindergarten through college are eligible to
participate in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration's Teacher at Sea program (U.S. Commerce Department
press release, 9/17). Participants board NOAA hydrographic,
oceanographic and fisheries research vessels to work under the
tutelage of scientists and NOAA Corps commissioned officers and
crew. In 1996, 44 teachers gained first-hand experience in
science at sea.
High school teacher Todd Tarrant went on one cruise last
year and two this year to cover two types of fisheries research
and hydrographic surveying and charting, notes the release.
During the past school year, he used slides taken during his 1995
cruise aboard the DAVID STAR JORDAN not only to illustrate the
science he was teaching and to pass along cruise research data,
but to get his students thinking about future careers. "The
slides helped my students understand what kinds of jobs are
available at sea. I told them what they had to do to prepare for
those kinds of jobs, and how to go after summer jobs that would
give them the experience needed to make good career choices."
Teachers interested in participating in the Teacher at Sea
program must be willing to submit a detailed report of the cruise
and ideas for implementation in the classroom, including a mini-
unit of lessons based on experiences at sea and data collected.
They also must submit an article for publication or conduct a
presentation at an educators' conference. The program is free-
of-charge, but teachers are responsible for paying their own
transportation to the ships' departure points.
Applications for the 1997 Teachers at Sea program are
available from Judy Sohl; Teacher at Sea Program; 1801 Fairview
Avenue E.; Seattle, Wash. 98102; 206/553-2633. Teacher
applications are due between 1 January and 8 March 1997. A
review panel will judge each applicant's plan to incorporate
their experiences into classroom curricula.
Further information about the NCAA Corps can be found on the
Internet at: http:\\www.noaa.gov/nchome.
===== GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS =====
*5 SAFE SCHOOLS ACT: MISSOURI LAW UP AND RUNNING
Mo.'s Safe Schools Act took effect 28 August, and one
superintendent took the law's message straight to the students
(Sauerwein, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 9/25). Edward Hillhouse,
superintendent of Meramec Valley R-III School District spoke to
all students in grades six through 12, explaining the law and its
consequences.
One provision of the law calls for administrators to report
student acts of violence to the juvenile justice system, writes
the paper. The acts also will be noted in the student's
permanent record, which would follow the child to different
schools. Classroom teachers would be privy to the information on
a "need-to-know" basis, according to the paper.
Most districts informed students of the law via pamphlets or
letters sent home. Hillhouse decided to meet with students
because "they are the ones who would be affected, and they need
to be educated so they can make smart choices."
The law calls for the suspension or expulsion of students
who bring lethal weapons to school. Firearms, knives explosives
and other harmful objects are considered weapons.
===== FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE =====
*6 OVERBOARD ON TESTING: HISPANIC GROUPS SAY LOOK AT GRADES
In lieu of the recent court ruling that rejected the use of
racial preferences in the U of Texas' law school admissions
process, several Texas Hispanic groups and a state legislator
called for a de-emphasis on standardized test scores.
"I believe we've gone overboard on test scores," said State
Rep Ciro Rodriguez (D). "We rely on it because it's convenient
instead of looking at the individual for what he or she is. But
the court ruling allows for all sorts of criteria and we should
start using them."
Four white students in 1992 filed a lawsuit against the U of
Texas law school, claiming they were victims of reverse
discrimination when the university denied them admission while
the school accepted some minorities with lower scores. Texas
universities face a conundrum: the federal government is
pressuring the state to increase desegregation, but university
admissions offices are no longer allowed to consider race as a
factor.
However, Rodriguez and others suggest that universities
could encourage diversity by easeing transfers for high-achieving
community college students and automatically admitting high
school students who rank in the top 10% to 20% of their class,
reports the paper.
==== PROMISING PRACTICES ====
*7 ALL-GIRLS SCHOOL: AN EXPERIMENT IN EAST HARLEM
East Harlem's Young Women's Leadership School is America's
"latest and boldest gamble on same-sex public education," writes
the WASH POST (Sanchez, 9/25). The school, located on three
floors in a former office building, opened its doors over the
"furious objections" of some feminist and civil liberty groups,
notes the paper.
"Regardless of how good their educational intentions are,
public school cannot segregate by gender or by race," said Norman
Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
"The focus should be on improving integrated public schools. But
what they're trying to do is turn the clock back." Siegel's
group has filed a formal complaint with the U.S. DoEd protesting
the single-sex focus of the school. Other criticism waged
against the school includes: it "fosters a stereotype that young
boys are an intrinsically bad influence on girls; it is
"demeaning" to assume girls must be taught in classes without
boys in order to meet their academic potential; it overlooks the
fundamental problem with traditional public schools -- "poorly
trained teachers, or poorly supervised boys," writes the paper.
The POST explains that years ago a cadre of single-sex
public schools flourished. However, most became coed after the
nation's civil rights movement. Advocates of single-sex schools
point to the academic success of students attending private, all-
girls schools as incentive to experiment again with single-sex
public education. "This is an old idea whose time has come
again," said Ann Tisch, a founder of the Young Women's Leadership
School. "So many studies say things start to unravel
academically for many girls -- and boys -- once they reach junior
high. We're not trying to pamper any of these girls. We just
want to address some of the problems they have in other schools."
Girls at the Leadership school attend classes with less than
15 students. They sit around small tables, "because research
shows that girls prefer to learn by cooperating -- not competing
-- with each other," reports the paper. The POST also observes
that the atmosphere is relaxed and that teacher lectures are more
like conversations. The girls wear uniforms and few males are
visible at the school. Preference for enrollment was given to
girls from disadvantaged families who demonstrated strong
academic ability.
New York U's Diane Ravitch's comment sums up the current
state of affairs over single-sex schools. Ravitch: "There's a
lot of rethinking about the whole idea of the common public
school and whether it's absolutely right for everyone. ... No
one wants an entirely separate system, but on the other hand
there are real differences between boys and girls. Schools are
acknowledging that more, and looking for some voluntary ways to
address it."
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