The Daily Report Card

--- Wednesday --- February 26, 1997 --- Vol. 7 --- No. 18 ---

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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel

============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"When you give credit for flower arranging, the kids know they
have not participated in community service but in some paperwork
project designed by a teacher."
Md. Delegate Joseph Getty (R), on meaningless community service
projects. (#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 THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
GET SERIOUS: Md. students not meeting service requirement.(#1)
MIDDLE-SCHOOL LEARNING: Connecting research with practice. (#2)

STATESIDE
GEORGE ALLEN'S SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN: Part two. (#3)

HIGHER EDUCATION
GRADE INFLATION: Duke U seeks remedy. (#4)

TAKING OVER
ENGLER'S STATE TAKEOVER PLAN: Public isn't taken by it. (#5)

===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====

*1 "GET SERIOUS:" MD. STUDENTS NOT MEETING SERVICE REQUIREMENT
Md. graduating seniors, for the first time in 1997, are
required to work as many as 75 hours in voluntary community
service positions in order to earn a degree (Beyers, WASH POST,
2/26). More than 6,000 students throughout the state are
expected not to graduate on time because they have failed to meet
the service mandate.
School districts "need to get serious," said State Board of
Education President Christopher Cross. "I'm very hopeful they
will, based on the enormous progress we've made just in the last
six months. But I remain concerned."
Md. is the only state so far to require community service
for graduation, reports the paper. "There will be students who
won't graduate on time," conceded Luke Frazier, the state's
coordinator of the service initiative. "But I'm not raising the
white flag yet." Frazier added that the school districts with
the highest community-service completion rates were those that
"aggressively" helped to link students with service
opportunities, "instead of waiting for students to take the
initiative," writes the paper.
Some educators complain that the initiative, which was
adopted in 1992, fails to live up to its purpose, which is to
"expose students to new learning opportunities and link that
experience to the classroom," according to the paper. Delegate
Joseph Getty (R) points to a case in which students received
credit for making flower arrangements in class. "The program is
not meeting the goals the state had for it," he said. "When you
give credit for flower arranging, the kids know they have not
participated in community service but in some paperwork project
designed by a teacher," Getty has introduced legislation to
eliminate the program.
However, Tiffany Butcher, the student member of the State
Board of Education, enjoyed her community service work, which she
found to be relevant. She organized a club at Winston Churchill
High School in Bethesda to connect students with volunteer
opportunities. From the paper: "The club has organized tutoring
sessions for elementary and middle school students, provided
volunteers for soup kitchens and 'adopted' six families during
the Christmas holidays, collecting food and gifts for them."

*2 MIDDLE-SCHOOL LEARNING: CONNECTING RESEARCH WITH PRACTICE
The March 1997 issue of the PHI DELTA KAPPAN features a
section titled "What Works in Middle-Grades School Reform." The
report was edited by Joan Lipsitz, who recently retired from
Lilly Endowment Inc., and Robert Felner, chair-elect of the
Department of Education at the U of Rhode Island, Kingston.
Lipsitz notes that while the education of young adolescents
has become a topic of concern, "surprisingly little quantitative
information" is available to help "thoughtful practitioners and
policy makers" evaluate the success of reform efforts in the
middle grades.
The section consists of three articles and an annotated
bibliography. The first article focuses on the Project on High
Performance Learning Communitites, initially housed at the Center
for Prevention Research and Development at the U of Illinois and
currently based at the National Center on Public Education at the
U of Rhode Island. Middle-grades education is the focus of one
of the project's divisions.
According to PDK, the project promotes collaborations
between research and practitioners and has been modeled after the
connections between land-grant universities and the agricultural
community. Felner explains tat "as lessons are learned, they are
introduced into participating schools and undergo further testing
on an ongoing basis."
Four networks of middle-grades schools are partners in the
Project's work and comprise the data set reported in PDK: the
Illinois Middle Grades Network, facilitated by the Association of
Illinois Middle Level Schools; the Middle Grades Improvement
Program in Ind., supported by the Lily Endowment Inc; the Middle
Grade School State Policy Initiative, a national initiative
supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York; and the Middle
Start Initiative in Michigan, supported by the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation. Combined, the four networks provide information on
more than 420 schools, 14.000 teachers and administrators and
158,000 students.
The networks' reform efforts are based on recommendations
made in "Turning Points," a 1989 report by the Task Force on
Education of Young Adolescents, funded by the Carnegie
Corporation of New York. According to PDK, "Turning Points"
recommends the creation of small communitites of learners,
teaching a core academic program, empowering teachers and
administrators and involving families and communitites in the
education of middle-school students.
A second article summarizes longitudinal data on the
Illinois Middle Grades Network. The data indicate, among other
things, that students in schools that have "highly implemented"
the recommendations in "Turning Point" achieve at much higher
levels than students in schools that have not implemented those
reforms or have put them in place, but to a lesser degree.
According to the article, reforms must be "comprehensive and
integrative" because there are "clear patterns of
interdependence" among the elements of reform.
An article co-authored by Lipsitz called "Speaking with One
Voice: A Manifesto for Middle-Grades Reform," concludes the
section. The article presents the agreed-upon recommendations of
four foundations that have funded studies of middle-school
education: the Lilly Endowment Inc, Edna McConnell Clark
Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York and the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation.
The authors quip that school reform is "not for the literal,
the timid, or the undecided."
Reprints of the special PDK section on middle-grades
education are available while supplies last. Single copies are
$3.00, 50 copies at $10, and 100 copies at $15. Write to Middle-
Grades Insert, Phi Delta Kappan; P.O. Box 789; Bloomington, Ind.
47402; 800/766-1156.

===== STATESIDE =====

*3 GEORGE ALLEN'S SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN: PART TWO
Va. issued in new state curriculum guidelines for each grade
level last fall, with the purpose of raising student achievement.
Earlier this week, Gov. George Allen (R) unveiled the second
phase of his school improvement plan: tougher graduation
requirements and a return to the basics (Hsu and O'Harrow Jr.,
WASH POST, 2/25). According to the paper, the requirements
"spell out how those academic standards [introduced in the fall]
would be enforced."
Under the new proposal, all high school students, beginning
with the class of 2001, would be required to pass a series of
tests in 11th grade. The tests include English, math, science
and social studies, reports the paper. Schools in which students
consistently perform poorly on the exams initially would receive
a warning from the state. However, if student scores did not
rise, the schools would be labeled "unsatisfactory" and would
face a state takeover.
The POST reports that local school districts also would be
encouraged to withhold any third-, fifth- or eighth-grader who
fail the exams. In addition, the school day for grade-school
children would be filled with the study of English, math, science
or social studies, while high school students would be forced to
take additional courses in math, science and history, writes the
paper.
The new plan means Va.'s academic standards "will have
rigor. They will have vitality," state Superintendent of Public
Education Richard T. LaPointe, upon announcing the 40-page plan
called the "Standards of Accreditation. "It was obvious we had
dumbed down our courses and requirements."
The plan was met with general praise and some caveats. For
example, some educators say the crux of the plan turns on the
quality of the state exams, which have not yet been released to
the public, reports the paper. These exams are scheduled for a
test run in the spring, and will be counted when students take
them in the fall (See DRC 2/24). "If [teachers] are not teaching
what's being tested, then there's a real problem," said Robert
Spillane, superintendent of Fairfax County. "Those are the tail
that are going to wag the dog."
Prince William Superintendent Edward Kelly noted that the
strong emphasis on basic subjects will "crowd out art, music,
technology and other electives," writes the paper.
So far, state officials have not determined how many
students would have to fail for a school to be issued a warning.
According to the POST, the state board of education will address
that issue in 1998.
Some lawmakers expressed relief that the conservative school
board unveiled a plan void of more controversial elements, such
as going after sex education and guidance counseling. Del
Kenneth Plum (D), last month sponsored legislation that would
give the Legislature final say over the accreditation rules, in
order to check any ultra-conservative action, reports the paper.
However, Plum appeared pleased with the plan, saying the board
and released "a much more acceptable product" than expected.
For students, the plan would increase from 21 to 23 number
of credits students need to receive a regular high school
diploma; and an increase from 23 to 27 number of credits to
receive an "advanced" diploma. The plan also "makes virtually
obsolete the six-year-old Literacy Passport Test," writes the
paper. Currently, the passport test is the only exam required
for students to earn a high school diploma. According to the
POST, "that standard pales against national measures of student
achievement," including the NAEP exams.
The WASH POST has posted online the full text of Virginia's
Standards of Learning for English, history, math and science.
Click on the square icon on the POST's site at
http://www.washingtonpost.com.

===== HIGHER EDUCATION =====

*4 GRADE INFLATION: DUKE U SEEKS REMEDY
College students averaging A-minus or better increased from
7% in 1969 to 26% in 1993, according to research conducted by
Arthur Levine, currently the president of Teachers College at
Columbia U (Pedersen, NEWSWEEK, 3 March) The out-of-control
grade inflation is causing university officials to recheck their
grading systems to make grades more meaningful.
For example, Stanford U reinstated the F grade two years
ago, "after A's and B's accounted for 93% of all grades," reports
NEWSWEEK. Harvard also is reviewing grade reform. But "no idea
rivals Duke's for radical change," notes the magazine.
Duke U officials are proposing to eliminate the traditional
grading system and replace it with a "formula that will make
grades a matter of campuswide, interdisciplinary comparisons."
Valen Johnsons, a statistics professor, created the "achievement
index" to halt grade inflation. NEWSWEEK explains Johnson's "AI"
formula: "Professors would grade students in the usual way, but
the results would then be fed through a computer to adjust for
levels of difficulty. The index relies on an algorithm that
measures one student against real-world classmates -- not a
subjective 4.0 ideal. It rewards those who do well in classes
with a wide distribution of grades."
For example, if you earn a B-plus in economics where the
average grade was a B-minus, your AI rises, writes the magazine.
However, if you earn an A-minus in another course where everyone
else got an A, your AI would fall.
NEWSWEEK reports that a 40-member Duke faculty committee
will decide whether to pilot the AI by fall of 1998 at a 13 March
meeting. Students will hold a referendum late next week; but,
according to the magazine, they "overwhelmingly" oppose the
measure. Among their complaints: competition would become more
cutthroat and "leave their futures to the mercy of an arcane
formula no other college uses," writes the magazine.
Art-history professor Annabel Wharton argues that quality
isn't always relative. "A great Manet is not better than a great
Rembrandt," she said. From NEWSWEEK: "True enough. But is
every kid at Duke really an old master?"

==== TAKING OVER ====

*5 ENGLER'S STATE TAKEOVER PLAN: PUBLIC ISN'T TAKEN BY IT
A recent poll of Mich. citizens finds that a majority (53%)
are opposed to Gov John Engler's (R) proposal for the state to
take over school districts where the dropout rate exceeds 25%, or
less than 20% of students pass the state's standardized tests
(Moorlehem, DETROIT FREE PRESS, 2/24).
The governor's spokesman, John Truscott, said the poll
results only show what is typical of Engler. "The governor has
typically been the type of person, his ideas run ahead of public
opinion. It often takes public opinion time to catch up."
Truscott pointed out that a higher percentage (41%) of
respondents with children living at home approved of the takeover
proposal. Engler unveiled his takeover plan during last month's
State of the State address (See DRC 1/29).
According to the paper, the survey also found little support
for allocating more funds to charter schools. However, some
question the wording of the survey question on charters. State
Senator Bill Schuette (R) said the wording may have prompted a
negative response because it pitted charters against other public
schools. The question: "Gov. Engler has proposed that more
state money should be spent to create more charter schools as an
alternative to local public schools. Do you think it is a good
idea or a bad idea?"
Other findings from the survey: a lack of parental
involvement was the top reason given for poor performance at the
most troubled schools; 71% said standards should be set at the
state or national level, only a fifth said the local level should
set academic standards.
The FREE PRESS survey of 600 Mich. voters was conducted by
telephone 17-20 February. The survey has a margin of error of 4
percentage points, writes the paper.

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John Kurilecjmk@ofcn.org