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--- Monday --- October 21, 1996 --- Vol. 6 --- No. 76 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
BOARDING SCHOOLS | SPOTLIGHT |
Everything you always wanted | |
to know about boarding schools | "LEARNING TOGETHER" |
is at your fingertips on-line | |
at The Association of Boarding | The pressure is on |
Schools (TABS) Web Site | teachers to embrace new |
(www.schools.com) The site | responsibilities with high |
provides access to directory | levels of accountability. |
information, a calendar of | Powerful roles on site- |
school fairs worldwide and | based management teams, |
links to individual schools | challenging curricula and |
with homepages. | experimental student- |
A free directory of boarding | testing practices all have |
schools also is available both | emerged on teachers' radar |
on-line and by calling 800/541- | screens. Are they ready? |
5908. The on-line and hard- | |
copy version both include | Most teachers would say |
profiles of 265 boarding | no. They point to pre- and |
schools across the U.S., 20 in | in-service training that is |
Canada and another 6 English- | inadequate at best. The |
speaking schools in Europe. | Indiana Education Policy |
Both are indexed to help | Center concurs, and initi- |
readers locate schools with | ally tried to convince |
particular offerings such as | state lawmakers to mandate |
single-sex schools, five-day | a center-developed series |
boarding programs, military | of professional development |
schools, special needs schools, | policies. When that failed, |
English as a Second language | they decided to take their |
programs and pre-professional | strategies directly to the |
arts training programs. | classroom in a new |
TABS is sponsored by the | publication that calls on |
National Association of | teachers, administrators |
Independent Schools and the | and university educators to |
Secondary School Admission Test | start "Learning Together." |
Board. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"What economists and business academics always fail to mention is
the universally acknowledged downside to the competitive
marketplace: Four out of five small businesses go bankrupt in
their first five years of operation." --
Cleveland teacher Richard Oldrieve. (#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 |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL FOUR: TEACHER EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PRINCIPLES FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Ind. leads way. (#1)
"BEYOND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:" New model from Ind. (#2)
GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
"JOURNEY FROM THE CENTER OF THE EARTH:" The JASON Project. (#3)
STATESIDE
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN': Phonics, safety, On-line U. (#4)
THE PRIVATE EYE
VOUCHERS: A Cleveland teachers's perspective. (#5)
IN FAIRNESS
SINGLE-SEX RESEARCH: Putting theory into practice. (#6)
===== GOAL FOUR: TEACHER EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT =====
*1 PRINCIPLES FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: INDIANA LEADS WAY
American teachers are being asked to serve in new roles as
schools nationwide undergo various reform initiatives. Some
teachers are assuming leadership roles as participants in site-
based management programs, while others are asked to devise and
implement new curricula and instructional strategies, use
portfolios and incorporate technology in the classroom. Most
teachers are being held accountable for rigorous academic
standards set for all students.
The Indiana Education Policy Center for the Indiana DoEd
describes these new roles for teachers in a publication designed
to promote a set of principles for effective professional
development. Two underlying assumptions about teacher
professional development are noted in "Learning Together:
Professional Development for Better Schools:" professional
development is usually a waste of time; and professional
development is central to the success of education reform in
America.
In order to create a set of principles to guide professional
development, researchers at the IDOE reviewed the research on
professional development, discussed models with experts
nationwide, conducted focus groups with Ind. teachers,
principals, and representatives of professional organizations;
and conducted a review process that included teachers,
principals, superintendents and representatives of education
service centers, professional organizations and the IDEO.
A set of five principles emerged from this process:
effective professional development is school based; uses coaching
and other follow-up procedures; is collaborative; is embedded in
the daily lives of teachers; provides for continuous growth; and
focuses on student learning and is evaluated at least in part on
that basis.
"Learning Together" expands on each principle and also
includes several "exemplary practices" underway in schools
throughout the state. (See today's DRC, #2 for a description of
one of the model schools).
In 1994, the Indiana Education Policy Center produced a
similar report on professional development that offered
recommendations for state lawmakers. However, the Legislature
took no action on the recommendations. "Learning Together" is an
updated version that is directed to local practitioners.
Recommendations were re-designed with the new audience in mind,
and a detailed plan for local practitioners to implement
effective programs in the absence of state support was included.
Copies of the report are available for $15.00 each ($10.00
each for bulk orders) plus shipping and handling. Contact the
Indiana Education Policy Center at Smith Center fo Research in
Education; Suite 170; Indiana U; Bloomington, Ind. 47408-2698;
812/855-1240.
*2 "BEYOND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:" A NEW MODEL FROM INDIANA
A profile of Lynwood Elementary School in the Indian
Education Policy Center's "Learning Together" report describes
the school's efforts to become a model professional development
school (See today's DRC #1 for a summary of the report "Learning
Together: Professional Development for Better Schools.").
Lynwood along with the MSD Decatur Township and the U of
Indianapolis have created a new professional development school
model, which during the 1995-1996 school year emphasized a
literature-based reading program and reading/writing process,
writes the publication. The program was designed to meet the
university's need to have pre-service teachers work in real
school environments and the school district's need to "align
instruction with curriculum," writes "Learning Together."
Some of Lynwood's teachers enrolled in a graduate course on
literacy, which was taught on the school campus during the school
day by a U of Indiana professor, Mary Lynn Woods. School
Principal Gary Pellico commented: "After we talked about
strategies in class, the professor would then demonstrate and
model those strategies in teachers' classrooms. In this way, we
could see the strategies put into place with our own students.
And the professor could also be with the teachers in the
classroom to provide feedback and clarification as well as see
firsthand how the strategies were working."
Undergraduates substitute taught for the Lynwood teachers
enrolled in the course. Two U of Indiana professors, Nancy
Steffel and Rick Breault, supervised the student-teachers, worked
with other Lynwood teachers, attended and presented at staff
meetings and generally became well-known at the school. Woods
also conducted her undergraduate methods course on site at
Lynwood.
According to "Learning Together," peer coaching was a side
benefit to the program. "Teachers would go back and talk with
each other and other colleagues about how the strategies worked,"
said Pellico. "This was a great way of reinforcing and
encouraging people to take risks. Teachers felt supported and
could get immediate feedback."
According to the report, two sessions of the graduate course
were combined during the second semester to form a three-hour
course on literacy. Participants divided into small groups to
focus on a particular idea or approach that interested them. The
end result was for each group to create a notebook that "showed
others how a literature-based approach might be implemented in
the classroom," writes the report.
Benefits to Lynwood teachers from their professional
development program include: release time, graduate credit for
study, demonstration, practice, feedback, and coaching, according
to the report. Other benefits: the U of Indiana education
students received practical experience, U of Indiana professors
were able to "reconnect their teaching to the daily exigencies of
actual public school practice and tailor their lessons
accordingly," and students gained from new ideas implemented by
well-trained teachers, notes the report.
Pellico: "This program has just far outdistanced the dream
that we had for it. I see a difference in our instructional
practices on a daily basis. It has just been wonderful to see
the difference we're making in kids."
===== GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE =====
*3 "JOURNEY FROM THE CENTER OF THE EARTH:" A JASON PROJECT
This year's eighth annual JASON Project will transport
teachers and students to Yellowstone and Iceland, which are both
located above geothermal "hot spots" -- areas in the earth's
upper mantle where rocks from the lower mantle move upward and
melt, forming magma (JASON Project press release, 10/21).
Dr. Robert Ballard created the JASON Project in 1989 after
he received thousands of letters from students asking him about
his discovery of the wreckage of the R.M.S. Titanic. The project
is administered by the JASON Foundation for Education, whose
mission is to "excite and engage students in science and
technology and to motivate and provide professional development
for their teachers," writes the release. Competitively selected
student and teacher "Argonauts" join Ballard and the team of
JASON Project scientists on each expedition.
In this year's program, teachers and students will team with
scientists to conduct field studies that relate to movement in
geology (cataclysmic, tectonic and geothermal movement), biology
(human and animal migration and movement), and glaciology
(glacier movement and its effect on climate).
For two weeks, "you-are-there" telecommunication
technologies called telepresense will transport millions of other
students to the expedition research sites in Yellowstone and
Iceland via live satellite feed. This telepresence allows
students at Primary Interactive Network Sites (PINS) in the U.S.,
Bermuda, the United Kingdom and Mexico to not only watch the
expedition live, but also to interact with scientists and control
live-feed video cameras.
Prior to the exploration, students and teachers use an
"award-winning" interdisciplinary curriculum disturbed to all
JASON Project participating teachers to "ensure students are
well-versed in the scientific principles they'll encounter during
the live broadcasts," writes the release. The JASON Project also
offers teachers professional development programs and an annual
Educators' Conference to demonstrate the investigations in the
JASON curriculum.
Students are encouraged through the curriculum to conduct a
variety of local field investigations, using the same scientific
methods employed by scientists at the expedition site. An on-
line system also provides a forum for students and teachers
across the PINS. The JASON Project Homepage is located at
http:\\www.jasonproject.org.
The JASON Foundation for Education is supported by an
alliance of public, private and non-profit organizations,
including Bechtel, the National Geographic Society, Sprint, SUN
Microsystems, Eastman Kodak Company and ICI Worldwide.
===== STATESIDE =====
*4 CALIFORNIA DREAMIN': PHONICS, SAFETY, ON-LINE U
Calif. Gov Pete Wilson (R) recently signed a law that
requires many candidates for teaching credentials to study
phonics (Lynch and Lembke, EDUCATION BEAT, 10/11). A companion
bill provides $29M to schools for staff development and $1M to
the CTC to develop an exam for new reading teachers.
Another bill signed by Wilson is designed to get tough on
disruptive students. The legislation requires school officials
to recommend expulsion for students who assault teachers or any
other school employee. Under another bill, those students may
enroll in alternative schools, but the facilities may not be on
regular school campuses, writes ED BEAT.
In a higher education matter, Wilson wants to part paths
from other Western governors who together developed a plan to
create a virtual higher education institution for the region
called Western VIrtual U (See DRC 1-12-96). However, Calif.'s
version may "involve little more than pulling together different,
existing efforts of public and private universities in one
place," writes ED BEAT.
On 2 October, Wilson made an announcement regarding Calif.'s
approach to creating a Virtual U. He directed his deputy chief
of staff, Joseph D. Rodota, Jr. together with U of California
President Richard Atkinson, California State U Chancellor Barry
Munitz, Acting California Community College Chancellor Thomas
Nussbaum, U of Souther California President Steven Sample and
Stanford U President Gerhard Gasper and officials from the
private sector to form a design team to "analyze all issues
relating to the creation and operation of a California-based
initiative and recommend potential implementation approaches."
According to ED BEAT, Sample's support for Wilson's idea to
stray from the other western governors' approach is lukewarm.
===== THE PRIVATE EYE =====
*5 VOUCHERS: A CLEVELAND TEACHERS'S PERSPECTIVE
In a WASH POST editorial, Cleveland teacher Richard Oldrieve
writes that advocates of school vouchers are only "fooling"
themselves about the free-market advantages of the voucher model
(10/21). "What economists and business academics always fail to
mention is the universally acknowledged downside to the
competitive marketplace: Four out of five small businesses go
bankrupt in their first five years of operation."
According to Oldrieve, a bankrupt business is closed and the
owner searches for another job to pay off the debts. However,
students from the "four out of five new private schools that are
destined to fold" are bigger losers who "lose valuable years of
early development and must be re-enrolled in the remaining public
schools," writes Oldrieve. Vouchers serve only a "few talented
students," while the rest, whom he calls "free-market refugees,"
are summoned back to their old public school district.
Oldrieve acknowledges that voucher proponents often concede
this point. They then argue that the whole point of vouchers is
to see what ideas work best, and then "franchise them to the
public schools." This logic also is flawed, according to
Oldrieve, who cites academic studies that conclude an "energetic
entrepreneur with a vision, who is able to recruit talented
employees," is the key to any successful business. Few
businesses are successfully franchised "because the original
entrepreneur usually designs his or her outlet around his or her
own creative and recruiting talent," he pens.
Oldrieve goads politicians, academics, educators and the
general public to "focus their energies to develop educational
reforms that are designed to work with average principals,
average tachers, students from impoverished backgrounds and
parents who, for whatever reason, won't or can't enroll their
children in to a magnet, charter or voucher school."
In short, the nation must move away from "designing systems
that work only with the best of the best, and start designing
schools that will succeed with 95% of the principals, teachers,
parents and students who currently exist in our inner-city public
schools."
==== IN FAIRNESS ====
*6 SINGLE-SEX RESEARCH: PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE
Women's Schools Together, Inc., a national coalition of
Catholic high schools for young women, organized the "first-of-
its-kind" conference in New England (Franklin, BOSTON GLOBE,
10/13). More than 200 educators from eight, all-girls, Catholic
high schools in Mass. and R.I. attended the conference to discuss
how best to put into place promising practices that emanate from
the current flurry of studies on single-sex education and gender
inequity in schools.
"We need a more compelling way to relate the findings of the
reports to the everyday lives and education of girls," said Nona
Lyons, professor of psychology at the U of Southern Maine, during
her keynote address at the "Women's Schools Together,
Collaborating on Educating Women." Lyons referred to several
studies including "How Schools Shortchange Girls and "Hostile
Hallways," both released by the American Association of
University Women. The GLOBE summarizes the content of the
reports: "The studies suggest pervasive gender bias against
girls in the nation's public schools as well as widespread sexual
harassment fo schoolgirls by boys." The reports also assert that
boys have the clear advantage in co-educational classes because
they receive more teacher attention, have greater access to
leadership roles and athletics and more encouragement to enter
math and science fields, reports the paper.
Noting that the research gives educators key information on
difficulties faced by girls in school, Lyons said it is now time
to focus on the positive. "As educators and as role models in
all-girls schools, your task is to figure out what works for
girls and how we can best prepare them for the 21st century,"
said Lyons. She suggested that teachers interview students about
their life at school and assign writing that reflects personal
experiences, writes the paper. "We need to tap into our students
so we can find better ways to support the life experiences of
girls," she said.
Sharon Gouveia, the first non-religious principal of
Fontbonne Academy, holds that one of the most important missions
of all-girls Catholic schools is not only the preparation for
college, but also to create an environment for girls to "learn
about their own gifts and skills and to develop confidence at a
time when their role in the world is being questioned."
Fontbonne health teacher Eileen Sullivan conducted a
workshop focused on strategies for helping girls develop a
healthy body image and lifestyle. "Society has done a lot of
damage to the female body image," she said. She challenged
health and physical education teachers to "challenge students'
perceptions on gender issues -- everything from ideal body
weights to career aspirations to domestic violence," reports the
paper. However, she also issued a cautionary note: "We must be
careful not to get into male bashing because we all have to live
in this world together. But our first goal is to help students
understand how they operate as women."
Several small groups discussed the effectiveness of
cooperative learning with females and the use of journal writing,
portfolio evaluation and narratives, writes the GLOBE. Other
workshops focused on ways to integrate the female perspective in
the study of literature and history, creative approaches to
teaching math and computers and ethnic sensitivity in the
classroom.
Sister Theresa Farrell, a math teacher for 27 years in both
all-girl and co-ed schools, said "girls tend to take a back seat
[to boys] because they don't want to be wrong. In class, they
say things like 'Oh, this is probably wrong,' or 'I can't do this
problem.'" Farrell shared one of her more successful techniques
for countering girls' claims of not being able to do math. She
charges her students a quarter every time they say,"I can't,"
writes the paper.
Farrell: "As teachers we need to build their confidence and
encourage their participation, and a lot of teachers don't take
the time to do this."
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