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--- Wednesday --- December 4, 1996 --- Vol. 6 --- No. 92 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
CALLING ALL JOURNALISTS | SPOTLIGHT |
Outstanding reporting on | |
reading and literacy will be | FAILED GED |
honored by the International | |
Reading Association, which | Mass. H.S. seniors may be |
sponsors an annual Print Media | required to take the GED to |
Award and Broadcast Media Award | graduate, and if they do |
for Television. | not pass, will possess a |
Professional journalists | diploma with "FAILED GED" |
interested in the 1997 Print | stamped across it, under a |
Media Award may submit articles | proposed plan. Gov Weld |
and article series published by | and state board of ed |
newspapers, magazines and wire | president John Silber |
services in 1996. Articles | conceived the idea after |
will be judged on their | board members suggested |
journalistic quality, impact, | they want to revisit their |
accuracy, objectivity and | initial vote to not allow |
newsworthiness. Topics may | students who don't pass the |
include in-depth studies of | GED to graduate. |
reading instruction or | |
discussions of research and | How low can we go, |
trends in the field of | complain some educators. |
reading/literacy education. | The GED, typically used to |
Broadcasts must have aired on | grant diplomas to prisoners |
T.V. for the first time in 1996 | and dropouts, tests only |
and could cover reading | minimal skills. (#1) |
activities in schools, homes or | |
the community, interview | Others go one step |
programs on reading, and public | further, pointing out that |
service or entertainment | a major difference between |
programs that inform the public | the U.S. and other nation's |
about reading and literacy. | whose students perform |
Applications are due by | higher on tests is a |
1/15/97. For more info, call | national curriculum. (#4) |
the IRA at 302/731-1600. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"Would you want armed men in your child's school? What has it
come to?" -- A guidance counselor at Washington, D.C.'s McKinley
high school, commenting on school chief Becton's call for armed
guards patrolling school hallways. (#3)
_______________________________________________________________
| 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: Rosemary Polanco |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
GED BROUHAHA: Should it serve as exit exam in Mass.? (#1)
GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
REAL-LIFE MATH: Carnegie Mellon's software package. (#2)
GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS
CALL IN THE GUARD: D.C.'s battle against crime. (#3)
STANDARD BEARERS
STANDARDS: Why not go national?. (#4)
PROMISING PRACTICES
ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE: Alive and well in America. (#5)
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*1 GED BROUHAHA: SHOULD IT SERVE AS H.S. EXIT EXAM IN MASS.?
Last week the Massachusetts Board of Education endorsed
three programs to boost student achievement: ending a physical
education requirement, requiring new teachers to pass a test, and
mandating that high school seniors take the GED to determine if
they should graduate (multi cites).
Of the three, the GED proposal has encountered the most
controversy -- so much so that Gov. William Weld (R) and state
Board of Education chairman John Silber have proposed a
compromise plan. Some educators complained that the GED sets too
low a standard for graduating seniors. "The GED does not
incorporate a terribly elevated level of knowledge," said Michael
Sentance, education adviser to Weld. "We're trying to get beyond
a basic level to set higher standards for our schools, and we
need a test that judges whether we've done that. We don't need
to waste our time with a distraction like this," he added.
State Rep. Harold Lane Jr. (D) remarked that, "The greatest
way to confuse people is to give tests like the GED that don't
measure what we want to measure." He threatened that the
Legislature would pass such a requirement only "over my dead
body." And Paul Reveille, chairman of the Massachusetts
Education Reform Review Commission, said the board's recent GED
vote "is a massive and highly problematic detour from the hard
work of genuine education reform."
The BOSTON GLOBE reports that some board members regretted
their vote after Silber vocalized his notion of denying diplomas
to students who failed the GED (Aucoin and Zernike, 11/28).
Board members are scheduled to reconsider their vote at their
next meeting on 11 December.
As the public and educators deluged Weld and Silber with
calls against the GED plan, the two joined forces to develop a
compromise that will be considered by state board members later
this month, writes the paper. The new proposal would require all
high school seniors to take the test next spring, but would wait
until 1999 to withhold diplomas for those who cannot pass the
test. Rather than deny students a diploma, "Failed GED" would be
stamped on the diplomas of students unable to pass the test.
According to the paper, Weld said the compromise would "get
a source of pressure into the mix as soon as possible" while
creating "a middle ground between making the GED a condition of
graduation this year, and not having any consequences
whatsoever." He also surmised that "If I were a graduating
senior, I would not want 'Failed GED' on my diploma. So it may
be a motivational tool, as well as a diagnostic one."
Senate President Thomas Birmingham (D): "Perhaps this year
we'll have to rely on the GED, but we will not be relying on the
GED tests in three years. We will be relying on the standards
that should have been promulgated already, and the tests
developed pursuant to those standards."
===== GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE =====
*2 REAL-LIFE MATH: CARNEGIE MELLON'S SOFTWARE PACKAGE
BUSINESS WEEK highlights Carnegie Mellon's Lifetime Math
program, in operation at Pittsburgh, Pa.'s, Langley High School
(Baker, 11/25). The program centers on software that gives
students real-life tasks "ranging from choosing cellular-phone
service to renting cars to equipping a basketball team with
sneakers."
Albert Corbett, a cognitive scientist who helped develop the
software, said that students who took the beginning algebra
course were twice as likely as others to continue on to a second
year in algebra, reports the magazine.
BUSINESS WEEK emphasizes that Lifetime Math software is the
"core" of Langley's math instruction in algebra and geometry,
"not a supplement to classroom instruction." The magazine
concedes that the program's weakness is that students will learn
how to problem solve without acquiring basic knowledge. Several
companies attempted to develop math programs that stressed
thinking skills, with the result that "kids got stomped on the
SAT," notes Illana Weintraub, founder of MathMedia Educational
Software in Northbrook, Ill.
Lifetime Math is used in 46 high schools in Pittsburgh,
Milwaukee adn Pensacola, Fla., writes the magazine. Carnegie
Mellon charges schools $16,000 for as many copies of the software
as it needs, and training is included.
According to BUSINESS WEEK, Langley High School students who
used the program scored 100% higher than a comparable group of
Algebra I students in a problem-solving tests and 15% higher on a
standardized exam drawn from the math portion of the SAT. From
the magazine: "The real test will come when graduates encounter
algebra and geometry at work."
===== GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS =====
*3 CALL IN THE GUARD: D.C. SCHOOL CHIEF'S BATTLE AGAINST CRIME
Newly appointed school chief for the Washington, D.C. public
schools, retired Army General Julius Becton Jr., has signaled his
willingness to dispatch armed guards to the city's most violent
public schools (AP/N.Y. TIMES, 11/30).
Becton's plan met with resistance at McKinley High School.
"These kids are not criminals, they are students," said a
guidance counselor. "Would you want armed men in your child's
school? What has it come to?" The paper reports that two girls
recently were stabbed at McKinley and a local radio reporter was
beaten on campus. The TIMES also notes that at least twice a
day, police cars are summoned to the school to arrest students or
"hangers-on" for crimes that include killings, beatings, sexual
assaults, and theft.
According to the paper, D.C. spends more than any other
large American city per pupil -- more than $8,000 per year. The
system also boasts a lower student-to-teacher ratio than the
city's wealthier suburbs; but to no avail since crime remains
rampant.
Becton is reviewing plans submitted by a McLean Va., company
hired to provide armed police officers, security guards, cameras
and metal detectors to prevent further crime on school campuses,
writes the paper.
==== STANDARD BEARERS ====
*4 STANDARDS: WHY NOT GO NATIONAL?
BUSINESS WEEK reviews two international studies released
last month that compare math and science scores of U.S. students
versus their foreign counterparts (Pannar, 11/25). The studies,
released by the National Science Foundation and the National
Center for Education Statistics both revealed that American
students are lagging in math and science (See DRCs 10/23/96 and
11/22/96).
William Schmidt, professor of education at Michigan State U
blames the lack of a "single, coherent vision of what students
need to learn" for the failure of U.S. students to score well on
math and science tests, reports the magazine. Schmidt, who is
the U.S. research coordinator for the study released by the
National Center for Education Statistics also points out that the
typical U.S. math teacher "offers a variety of problems and
exercises in a scatter-shot, 'episodic' fashion," writes BUSINESS
WEEK.
A decentralized school system is the cause of this "lack of
vision" in teaching math and science, according to Schmidt,
writes the magazine. While national standards in math and
science have been developed, they have been implemented in a
"rather haphazard way," writes the magazine. If more schools
bought into the standards, classroom instruction would improve
and textbook publishers would have an incentive to develop higher
quality books, claims Schmidt.
However, some educators loath the new math and science
standards. "The math standards are too touchy-feely," complains
E.D. Hirsch Jr., author of "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't
Have Them." Others agree with Hirsch, complaining that the
standards leave out basic arithmetic skills because they
discourage rote learning.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics President Gail
Burrill counters that "computational skills are as important as
they were" in the math standards produced by her group. BUSINESS
WEEK adds that the science standards call for less time to be
spent in high school biology on taxonomy in order to spend more
time on genetics, biochemistry and other topics.
According to the magazine, the math and science standards
"hold promise" because they "introduce coherence without
rigidity." U of Michigan professor Harold Stevenson also lauds
national standards. Stevenson: "National standards say a child
should understand say, the relationship between a circle and a
cylinder. But they don't say how and when to explain that."
Yet, "American schools will never adopt a national
curriculum under duress," writes the magazine. BUSINESS WEEK
points to an emerging clearinghouse, Achieve, established by the
National Governors Association, which will "permit state
officials to measure academic performance in all subjects against
other states." Stanley Litow, IBM vice-president for corporate
community relations, holds that Achieve should "drive the quality
of the standards up" by featuring programs and standards that
work and those that fail.
==== PROMISING PRACTICES ====
*5 ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE: ALIVE AND WELL IN AMERICA
NEWSWEEK Magazine reports on the return to multi-age
classrooms (Leslie and Halpert, 12/6). "Call it Grade
Conflation. Spurred by reform proposals around the nation,
educators are discarding traditional age groupings. Instead,
they are once again turning to multi-age classrooms," writes the
magazine.
For example, Ky. state law mandates that every school in the
state offer multi-age classes for children age 5 to 9. In
Cincinnati, school officials plan to convert all classes from K
through 10th grade to multi-age classrooms by 2001, writes the
magazine.
According to NEWSWEEK, contemporary multi-age classrooms are
more akin to the "popular but flawed open-classroom experiments
of the late 1960s" than they are to the one-room schoolhouses of
yesteryear. The theory holds that instruction can be more self-
paced in multi-age classrooms, with children moving from easier
to more difficult material quicker than if they had to wait to be
promoted to the next grade.
Critics lambaste the concept as too chaotic, reports
NEWSWEEK. "Kids everywhere running around," is how one Ky.
parent describes multi-age classrooms. But proponents are not
deterred. "We are building this from the ground up," said Linda
Edin, a teacher at Landsdowne Elementary School in Lexington, Ky.
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