Click here to return to OFCN's Main Index Page.
--- Wednesday --- October 23, 1996 --- Vol. 6 --- No. 77 ---
D #### ##### #### ### #### #### ##### ### #### ####
A ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
I #### #### #### ## ## #### ## ## ##### #### ## ##
L ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ##
Y ## ## ##### ## ### ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## ## ####
THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
MILLION DOLLAR MAN | SPOTLIGHT |
Basketball superstar Michael | |
Jordan pledged $1M to his alma | GOIN' TO THE CHAPEL |
mater earlier this month. | |
Jordan's donation will help | The vicissitudes of life |
create the Institute for | for youngsters growing up |
Families at UNC's School of | in poor and tough urban |
Social Work, reports THE | areas are well documented. |
ATLANTA JOURNAL/CONSTITUTION | So are the problems these |
(Burritt, 10/1). The institute | children bring to school. |
will tap the expertise of UNC | Chicago's school chief, |
professors to tackle numerous | Paul Vallas, wants to call |
problems that face families in | in the cavalry -- from |
poverty. | local churches. |
| |
ON THE WEB | Vallas has summoned |
The Michigan State Board of | Chicago's church leaders to |
Education unveiled a new web | explore partnerships with |
page designed to encourage | public schools. Vallas' |
school, business and community | vision is that the churches |
participation in the board's | could help with tutoring, |
Alliance for Children's | pre-school, homework cen- |
Education. | ters and an anti-truancy |
Gov John Engler (R) launched | program. He is confident |
the Alliance in Sept. at his | of avoiding church-state |
state's Education Summit. The | constitutional issues.(#7) |
purpose of the Alliance is to | |
help students who have fallen | Another Vallas program, |
behind in reading and other | Parents As Teachers First, |
basic skills by encouraging | is designed to help pre- |
schools to expand or begin a | school-aged children by |
structured one-on-one | sending a welfare mom |
mentoring-tutorial program. | trained in early childhood |
The ACE address: | ed into their homes. (#5) |
http:\\www.mde.state.mi.us. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"There is no one at the helm of U.S. mathematics and science
education. In truth, there is no one helm." -- A National
Science Foundation report comparing math and science instruction
in the U.S. with instruction in other countries. (#1)
_______________________________________________________________
| 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 FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
U.S. MATH/SCIENCE INSTRUCTION: Pretty superficial. (#1)
CHILDREN IN CRISIS
BAD BEHAVIOR IN SCHOOL: Canadians blame single mothers. (#2)
CHARTING A NEW COURSE
BLAZING OLD TRAILS: Charter school stresses phonics. (#3)
FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE
ADMISSIONS NOT BASED ON RACE: A temporary edict in Boston. (#4)
PROMISING PRACTICES
"PARENTS AS TEACHERS FIRST:" Program taps welfare moms. (#5)
HEALTH AND EDUCATION
SCHOOL NURSES: Not what they used to be. (#6)
PARTNERS IN EDUCATION
S.O.S.: Vallas seeks help from clergy. (#7)
===== GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE =====
*1 U.S. MATH/SCIENCE INSTRUCTION: PRETTY SUPERFICIAL
A National Science Foundation study, attempting to discern
why American students' math and science scores are far below
their counterparts in other countries, reveals that U.S.
math/science instruction is "a mile wide and an inch deep."
Researchers reviewed 1,000 textbooks and teaching guides
used in 45 countries and discovered that U.S. schools "teach too
many math and science concepts -- and cover them too
superficially," reports THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS (10/16). "There
is no one at the helm of U.S. mathematics and science education.
In truth, there is no one helm," writes the report, which is the
first worldwide study of math and science instruction. "No
single coherent vision of how to educate today's children
dominates U.S. educational practice," concludes the study.
The report charges that American instruction relies too
heavily on wide-ranging textbooks, which "-- in the absence of a
national curriculum -- exert profound influence on teachers and
instruction," according to the study, writes the paper.
The study observes that the current battle in the U.S. over
how to improve math and science education -- one group advocating
a return to basic skills instruction and another favoring less
drill and more emphasis on the problem-solving process -- misses
the point. According to Phil Daro, co-chair of the California
Mathematics Task Force, both sides neglect to mention the
"overriding need to prune down a U.S. math curriculum that is now
too inclusive and hurried," writes the paper.
Greater deficiencies were found in U.S. math instruction
than in science, according to the report. Researchers also
observed that the advanced math courses typically reserved for
top students in the U.S. is considered basic knowledge in many
other nations.
===== CHILDREN IN CRISIS =====
*2 BAD BEHAVIOR IN SCHOOL: CANADIANS BLAME SINGLE MOTHERS
A Canadian study concludes that young children raised by
single mothers in Canada demonstrate higher rates of behavior
problems and school failure than other students (Lipovenko, THE
GLOBE AND MAIL, 10/18). Statistics Canada and the Department of
Human Resources Development released the data as part of a major
federal study on the well-being of Canada's children.
According to the study, about 458,000 of Canada's 2.8
million children age four to 11 live in single-mother families.
One in six of those children displayed some type of "conduct
disorder," including engaging in physical violence against a
person or property, writes the paper.
One in nine of the 324,000 children age 6 to 11 raised by
single mothers had repeated a grade in school. The paper notes
that the national average for repeating a grade among this age
group is one in 16.
The study also found that while slightly more than one-
quarter of children from all types of families had at least one
problem, such as anxiety, depression or physical aggressiveness,
41% of children with single mothers exhibited those qualities.
The GLOBE AND MAIL reports that the findings from the
National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth are "among the
most comprehensive on the state of Canadian children and the
risks that can affect their subsequent development."
===== CHARTING A NEW COURSE =====
*3 BLAZING OLD TRAILS: CHARTER SCHOOL STRESSES PHONICS
The Ball Foundation, located in Glen Ellyn, Ill., is
planning to create a charter school that stresses the "old-
fashioned" way of teaching reading, by using phonics (Banas,
Chicago TRIBUNE, 10/21). If approved, the charter would be the
first for DuPage County.
"We need to develop an old-fashioned elementary school,"
said Andrew Carson, the Ball Foundation staff member developing
the proposal. "We need a school where children learn to read
using a strong phonics approach."
Two decades ago, Carl Ball, chairman of the Burpee Holding
Company, created a foundation to focus on education issues,
writes the paper. According to the paper, the foundation's plan
to focus on phonics-based instruction may determine whether area
parents remained dissatisfied with the whole-language method that
operates in the public school system. A group of parents,
primarily evangelical Christians, revolted against a supplemental
reading series called "Impressions," in 1990-1991. The parents
claimed the series "featured stories and poems with satanic and
witchcraft themes and promoted disrespect for parents," writes
the paper.
The school board decided to keep the series as part of its
whole-language program. Carson said Ball's charter school would
avoid "the whole-language curriculum that is unfortunately still
alive and well in this district, [which] as a primary means of
reading instruction, has failed utterly."
Carson also said he intends to secure an empty elementary
school as the site for the new charter school.
Ill. passed charter school legislation last May that permits
45 charter schools to open: 14 in Chicago, 15 in the suburbs and
15 throughout the rest of the state. Under the law, charters
must be public, not-for-profit and nonreligious. They also
cannot be based in a home. Charters will be granted for three to
five years.
===== FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE =====
*4 ADMISSIONS NOT BASED ON RACE: A TEMPORARY EDICT IN BOSTON
The Boston School Committee voted last week for public
school officials to assign students to schools without
considering their race -- a first for Boston (Cornell, BOSTON
HERALD, 10/17). The decision was greeted with mix reviews.
"I fear the tipping effect," warned Peggy Wiesenberg, a
Jamaica Plain parent. "This could unravel a carefully crafted
system." Leonard Alkins, president of the NAACP of Greater
Boston, expressed support for the plan. "We would love to have
the neighborhood schools back in reality. The system we have now
can't guarantee that all children -- regardless of color -- will
receive a quality education. We've come 20-odd years and we've
regressed." Alkins was one of the plaintiffs in the 1970s
desegregation suit that Boston lost.
Current policy calls for students to be assigned to schools
under a racial-balance formula, explains the paper. Under the
new plan, five schools will lose their racial balance and two
will gain as students on waiting lists are granted admission,
according to the HERALD.
However, the committee did not go so far as to make the
change permanent. The policy is only for this year, scheduled to
start on 6 November, at the end of the first grading period.
==== PROMISING PRACTICES ====
*5 "PARENTS AS TEACHERS FIRST:" PROGRAM TAPS WELFARE MOMS
A new program initiated by Chicago Schools Chief Paul Vallas
trains welfare mothers to serve as tutor-mentors in the homes of
the city's most at-risk children (Poe, Chicago TRIBUNE, 10/20).
Parents as Teachers First already has come under attack for not
spending enough time training the welfare mothers and for
requiring them to report on any children who are being abused at
home.
According to the paper, the tutor-mentors receive 64 hours
of training, split between traditional classes and in-school
observations. Some education experts contacted by the TRIBUNE
claim the training is insufficient. Burton White, of the Center
for Parent Education in Newton, Mass., holds that home-school
tutors should have "no less than a year of full-time training
before entering homes," writes the paper.
White and others also question whether the tutors should be
required to report any abuse. "The mentor is going to be put in
this position where they are not really qualified to make these
determinations but they are obliged to, and that is a tough
role," said White.
However, Vallas defended the abuse-reporting aspect of the
program. "The mission is not only to stimulate the child but to
check on the health of the child," he countered. Diane Fager, a
representative of the Illinois Department of Children and Family
Services, stresses that the tutors will not be asked to
intervene, only to report any suspect behavior. "Their job is
not to do the job of DCFS," she explained.
The TRIBUNE notes that the Parents as Teachers First program
is part of the school board's effort to "make preschool education
available to all Chicago children." Tutor-mentors are paid $6 an
hour for 12 hours of work each week. Participants who are on
public aid also will be enrolled in Work Pays, a state welfare
reform program that subtracts $1 from a welfare check for every
$3 earned on a part-time job, reports the paper. About 80% of
the 540 parents in training receive public assistance.
Chicago's program is based on home-based education programs
in Ark. and Mo. The $1.5M Parents As Teachers First program will
be expanded to 200 tutor-mentors on 1 November, writes the paper.
==== HEALTH AND EDUCATION ====
*6 SCHOOL NURSES: NOT WHAT THEY USED TO BE
The BOSTON GLOBE profiles Susan Fencer, a school nurse at
James W. Hennigan Elementary School located in a disadvantaged,
urban neighborhood (Avenoso, 9/23). Her job goes well "beyond
band-aids and lollipops" to handling cases of severe asthma,
epilepsy and depression, writes the paper.
Fencer is a former acute care hospital nurse who decided
nine years ago to ease out of her high-stress job into a school
nurse position. "One reason I took this job was because I
thought I'd get home early, have some long vacations. I've never
worked harder in my life," she conceded.
While many children stream through her door with typical
school-related ailments -- twisted ankles, headaches and nausea -
- other patients show up for "more critical primary care," the
"check-ups they would get if their parents had the money for
doctors' fees," reports the GLOBE.
Fencer also runs a weekly asthma club. She explains that
asthma is on the rise among low-income youth because they often
live in dank, moldy basement apartments that are filled with
smoke and pollutants.
Typical of her experience is a call she made to one mother
after the daughter showed up in Fencer's office with a wrist
swollen to the size of her ankle. Fencer located the mother at
work and encouraged her to leave her job to take the child to an
emergency room. However, Fencer agreed not to call an ambulance
after the mother explained she does not have any insurance to
cover the cost of the ride.
A contemporary twist on the common chicken pox illness is
one Fencer confronts regularly. Fencer dutifully contacts all
family members of any child showing up with chicken pox to
ascertain whether they have AIDS because this "childhood virus
could kill a student's mother or father," notes the paper.
Besides her medical duties, Fencer teaches a class about
sexually transmitted diseases and sexual harassment and plans to
study Spanish while working at a church clinic in Central America
next summer. She also regularly handles children's emotional
needs, including what she says is an increase in depression and
problems controlling violent impulses.
Fencer: "In a lot of ways, we've forced our parents out of
their homes and into the economic world in order to support their
children We've placed our kids at risk and right now, schools --
and the nurse's office -- are where they're getting taken care
of."
==== PARTNERS IN EDUCATION ====
*7 S.O.S.: VALLAS SEEKS HELP FROM CLERGY
Chicago schools chief Paul Vallas has invited the city's
ministerial associations and other clergy to a 1 November meeting
to "explore the forming of partnerships between our schools and
their nearby churches." The move is considered "unprecedented"
among large, urban school systems," writes the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
(Nicodemus, 10/21).
Vallas intends to encourage the clergy to participate in an
adopt-a-school-program, based on the smaller scale "One Church,
One School" program that operates in St.Louis, Mo., Gary, Ind.,
and other cities. Another type of church-school partnership to
be explored at the meeting is the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow-
PUSH Action Network's mentoring program, operating at six South
Side high schools.
"Churches and church members could help with tutoring, pre-
school programs, homework centers, our anti-truancy campaign,
volunteers for hall monitors and 'safe school' patrols,"
explained Vallas. He also noted that his plan does not make a
"direct, structural tie between the schools and the religious
community. We're not proposing that churches be given any public
funds for these programs. But we're making a formal, concerted
effort to have the religious community -- which is one of the
strongest, most vital forces in the city -- bring its resources
to bear, with ours, to help improve the education of our
children."
Vallas expressed confidence that his plan could be
implemented without violating the Constitution's call for
separation of church and state, reports the paper.
Click here to return to OFCN's
Academy Program
Click here to return to OFCN's Main Index Page.
John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org