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--- Friday --- February 28, 1997 --- Vol. 7 --- No. 19 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
HATS OFF | SPOTLIGHT |
... to John O'Rourke, | |
superintendent of the Pittsford | WHAT DOES IT TAKE? |
(N.Y.) Central School District, | |
for being honored as the 1997 | ... competition and |
National Superintendent of the | government control. That's |
Year. The announcement was | what the L.A. TIMES |
made on 14 February during the | attributes to Singapore's |
American Association of School | ability to come in #1 on |
Administrators National | international exams. |
Conference on Education. | |
O'Rourke has developed three | The island's education |
common values for his school | system is dominated by a |
system: focus, partnerships | national curriculum for all |
and continuous improvement. | grade levels that steers |
"Our focus is on children and | curricula development, |
their learning," he said. | testing & teacher training. |
The Pittsford school district | |
conducts regular customer sat- | Students also are put |
isfaction surveys of parents, | through the paces of |
teachers and students in grades | rigorous state exams at the |
4-12, with results used to help | end of grades 4, 6, 10 and |
direct the system's | 12. Singapore teachers |
Comprehensive Action Plan, | pooh-pooh qualms about |
writes an AASA press release. | teaching to the test. |
O'Rourke wins a $10,000 | Doing well on the exams |
scholarship presented in his | means getting a top job, |
name to a high school student | says one teacher. |
from the school which O'Rourke | |
graduated. He also wins a gold | Does America have what it |
medallion, a $2,000 U.S. | takes to take on Singapore? |
Savings Bond and other awards. | Does it want to, queries |
The award program is | Boston College professor |
sponsored by AASA and The | Albert Beaton. (#5) |
ServiceMaster Company. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"I don't care if a young man can lift 500 pounds. You have to
learn how to read. You can take gym for the rest of your life."
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley,
on waiving a physical ed requirement. (#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
COUCH POTATO WARS: Drumming up support for physical ed. (#1)
GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS
WE KNOW WHAT WORKS: Now, let's fund it. (#2)
FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE
RIGHT TO STRIKE: Teacher union challenges decision. (#3)
UNDER ATTACK: Pennsylvania's school funding system. (#4)
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE'S SECRET: Competition and government control. (#5)
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*1 COUCH POTATO WARS: DRUMMING UP SUPPORT FOR PHYSICAL ED
Despite unprecedented opposition, the Chicago School Board
passed a waiver that allows schools to drop two years of high
school gym classes to make room for more academic requirement.
According to the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, about 200 people attended a
meeting to oppose dropping the required two years of high school
gym.
The paper reports that Ill. is the only state in the country
that requires daily gym classes for students in grades K-12.
Already, 126 other Ill. school districts have partial waivers of
the gym requirements.
But physical education supporters complained that granting
the waiver is tantamount to promoting a "couch potato" ethic
among students. "You're killing our children," said Darryl
Backstrom, a gym teacher at Lane Technical High School. Others
concurred that physical education helps to counter cardiovascular
disease and get students started on a lifelong habit of exercise.
"Physical education is equally important as any of the other
subjects we offer our students," said Chicago Teachers Union
Treasurer Melvin Williams. The granting of the waiver will cost
many physical education jobs in the school system, notes the
paper.
School officials sought the waiver in order to make room in
an already crowded student schedule for a new core curriculum
that would add an extra year of math, two years of science, two
of foreign language and two years of career education classes to
high school graduation requirements, writes the paper.
Mayor Daley: "I don't care if a young man can lift 500
pounds. You have to learn how to read. You can take gym for the
rest of your life."
===== GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS =====
*2 WE KNOW WHAT WORKS: NOW, LET'S FUND IT
Ed Sec Richard Riley last week released a four-year study of
drug education programs, running from the 1991-1992 school year
to the 1994-1995 year. The study found that certain key elements
improve the effectiveness of drug-prevention programs: using
prevention programs that are based on research; delivering
programs with more consistency; and providing tachers with new
techniques to reach students.
"We take these findings very seriously," said Riley.
"Clearly the current effort is not enough. We must be more
effective in reaching students. Parents, schools and the whole
country must be involved."
In light of the study, Riley has proposed special
appropriations language that would require state grant funds from
the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communitites Act to be used
according to principles of drug education effectiveness that will
be published this spring in the FEDERAL REGISTER for public
comment, writes a DoEd press release (2/21).
"The strongest theme that emerged throughout our examination
of the drug prevention programs in the participating districts
was variability ... at least as much variation in the delivery of
prevention program components within districts as among them,"
wrote researchers E. Suyapa Silvia and Judy Thorne of Research
Triangle Institute, which conducted the study. "At all grade
levels, teachers varied greatly in the amount of time they
devoted to prevention instruction ... Teachers in a given school
did not always use a common set of prevention curriculum
materials; but even when they did, they presented or omitted
different sections or activities," wrote the researchers in their
report, "School-Based Drug Prevention Programs: A Longitudinal
Study in Selected School Districts."
Other findings: inconsistent or incomplete delivery of the
prevention curriculum is a main reason even approaches proven
effective may not show positive results; student results were
somewhat better in districts where prevention programs had
greater stability over time and in districts with more extensive
program components, but effects were small; attitudes among
fifth- and sixth-graders toward illicit substances -- as well as
their actual levels of drug use -- were highly predictive of
their attitudes and drug use levels four years later; activities
associated with lower drug use included sports and exercise,
volunteer work, and spending more than two hours per day on
homework, while spending more time on video games or television
was associated with greater drug use.
Copies of the report's executive summary, "School-Based Drug
Prevention Programs: A Longitudinal Study in Selected School
Districts," may be obtained from the Planning and Evaluation
Service; U.S. Department of Education; 600 Independence Ave., SW;
Room 4162; Washington, D.C. 20202-8240; 202/401-0590.
The report soon will be available on the DoEd's Web site:
www.ed.gov.
President Clinton joined the anti-drug effort by announcing
his $16B anti-drug program this week. He has called for a T.V.
ad campaign aimed at teens, 500 additional Boarder Patrol agents
and more drug courts, writes the Philadelphia INQUIRER (Cannon,
2/26).
Clinton wants the private sector to join his effort by
paying for half of the $350M ad campaign that would broadcast
anti-drug messages during prime television hours (Jackson, L.A.
TIMES, 2/26).
===== FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE =====
*3 RIGHT TO STRIKE: TEACHER UNION CHALLENGES JUDGE'S DECISION
Attorneys for the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers
in Ark., are arguing before a federal appeals court panel that
U.S. District Judge Susan Weber Wright's 28 August 1996 decision
to order county district striking teachers to return to work was
inappropriate (Howell, Arkansas DEMOCRAT -GAZETTE, 2/25).
Wright ordered the striking teachers back on grounds that
the strike was "hindering the district's efforts to comply with
its federal-court-approved 1989 school desegregation plan,"
writes the paper. Robert Chanin, a lawyer for the National
Education Association, holds that the district's desegregation
plan does not bar employee strikes in the Pulaski County School
District.
According to the paper, the union and the district are
parties to the consent decree. Chanin claims that Wright's order
"unduly expands" the authority of the federal court over parties
to a consent decree, writes the paper. The NEA lawyer also said
Wright violated the union's right to strike, which is protected
by state law.
However, an attorney for the district disputed Chanin's
claims by stating that teacher strikes are illegal in Ark. The
lawyer, Sam Jones, also said Wright made an appropriate decision
because the strike perversely effected the district's efforts "to
provide an education to children in an environment free from
racial discrimination."
The paper reports that teachers went on strike 19 August,
after negotiations with the district over a proposed 2.84%
across-the-board salary increase broke down. On 28 August,
Wright ordered the teachers back to work and called on union and
district officials to begin mediation "as directed by the master
teacher contract to reach a settlement," explains the paper.
Since then, mediation efforts have failed, and negotiating teams
intend to present their arguments before a fact finder who will
make a non-binding recommendation on settling the contract
dispute, reports the paper.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also will hear an
appeal from the Little Rock School District over a March 1996
decision that denied the district's request to dismiss a 14-year-
old desegregation case, "except to the extent that the judge
would retain jurisdiction to enforce school district compliance
with desegregation obligations," writes the paper.
*4 UNDER ATTACK: PENNSYLVANIA'S SCHOOL FUNDING SYSTEM
A formidable coalition of Philadelphia's City Hall, school
district and public school parents is solidly backing the city's
and school district's decision to sue the state of Pennsylvania
for not sending enough education dollars to the city (Jones,
Philadelphia INQUIRER, 2/25). The latest suit coupled with a
suit previously filed by the Pennsylvania Association of Rural
and Small Schools form a "dramatic attack on the very nature of
state education funding," writes the paper.
The new lawsuit charges that the state "plainly and
palpably" has violated the Pennsylvania Constitution and
"condemns hundreds of thousands of children" to a inadequate
education. The plaintiffs are demanding more than $50M this year
in state funds, "and millions more after that," to rejuvenate the
city schools, reports the paper.
However, the state defends its current school funding system
as fair, "even generous," to Philadelphia, writes the paper. "We
continue to be chagrined and disappointed in the way the district
is distorting the plain fact of school funding in Philadelphia,"
said Tim Reeves, spokesman for Gov. Ridge (R). "The district is
a winner in the state funding issue."
Reeves pointed to a recent study that found the city spends
$6,260 per pupil, which is more than the $5,623 national average.
"If the level of spending is immoral and unconscionable in
Philadelphia, what is it for the percentage of students across
the country for whom less is spent," said Reeves. "I continue to
see this disparity between the facts and the rhetoric," he added.
The INQUIRER calls the suit a "bold offensive strike," that
"comes on the eve of next month's school budget hearings in CIty
Council."
The other suit filed by the Pennsylvania Association of
Rural and Small Schools is being heard by Commonwealth Court
Judge Dan Pellegrini. The plaintiffs claim that their districts
"cannot afford to spend as much money on education as richer
ones," and therefore, the state is not meeting its constitutional
obligation to provide every student a "thorough and efficient"
education.
Mayor Rendell anticipates that all the school-funding cases
will be resolved by next spring. But Paul Tractenberg, founder
of the Education Law Center, said that may be wishful thinking.
"It's tough sledding," said Trachtenberg, a law professor at
Rutgers U. "These cases are not easy. It's a lot simpler for
people to say that they are for equal education than to provide
for it."
==== FOREIGN AFFAIRS ====
*5 SINGAPORE'S SECRET: COMPETITION AND GOVERNMENT CONTROL
The tiny island of Singapore last year dominated the world
on the Third International Math and Science Study (Colvin, L.A.
TIMES, 2/25). According to the paper, the secret is the
country's emphasis on competition and total government control of
education.
Singapore students face "high-pressure" exams at the end of
grades four, six, 10 and 12, that eventually will determine
"whether they will wind up as doctors or cabdrivers," writes the
paper. The country also boasts a national curriculum, with
"amazingly concise" standards set for each grade level. For
example, a ten-page document comprises eighth-grade math, which
covers 19 topics within algebra, geometry and other math areas.
By comparison, American eighth-graders "race through 30 or more
topics learning them so superficially that they have to be
repeated over and over," reports the paper.
Involved parents also are key to Singapore's academic
success. Parents pay extra to hire tutors for their children.
They also pay fees so they can take weekend courses that allow
them to better help their children learn subjects, writes the
paper.
The Singapore government also directs significant funds to
education. The TIMES notes that while Calif. Gov. Pete Wilson
(R) recently announced a $50M campaign for computers-in-the-
schools, Singapore is spending $1B over five years, "in a school
system with fewer pupils than Los Angeles."
Other aspects of Singapore education: class size is on
average 40 students, including in elementary schools; teachers
spend more time than any others in the world planning lessons and
grading homework; students devote more time to homework than
their worldwide colleagues -- 4.6 hours per day; students do not
use calculators on exams until the seventh grade, and are taught
math using the abacus.
Of course, the paper comments on the severe discipline code
that governs students, and citizen, behavior in Singapore. It
also mentions that producing top-notch students is a critical
component to the nation's economic and security agenda. "We are
constantly being drummed with the message that we cannot take our
survival for granted," said Tan Teng Wah, principal at a
Singapore school for 16- to 18-year olds. "Human nature is such
that students will take the path of least resistance."
The paper describes Singapore's geographic disadvantage --
it lacks oil, minerals and land to grow rice. Its natural
resources are its ports and a high quality workforce, reports the
paper.
Competition is valued as a way to maintain a well-educated
workforce. From the paper: "So obsessed is Singapore with
comparisons, the schools are ranked not only on academics but by
the percentage of students who are obese -- fitness, too, is
national policy." "If students are not fit, they won't cope with
their studies very well," said Kwek Hiok Chuang, principal of the
Anderson Secondary School.
Boston College professor Albert Beaton said the U.S. is not
"ready for the type of formal, controlled system of Singapore."
He added: "The U.S. has to examine its own values and decide
whether it wants to be No. 1 in the world that badly." Beaton
also headed the recent 41-nation study by the International
Association for the Evaluation fo Educational Achievement
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