The Daily Report Card

--- Friday --- March 14, 1997 --- Vol. 7 --- No. 25 ---

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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 ==============
"SAT scores capture a student's academic achievement no more than
a student's yearbook photography captures the full range of her
experiences in high school." -- U.S. District Judge John Walker,
in a decision in which he ordered New York state to end awarding
Merit Scholarships based solely on PSAT scores. (#4) _______________________________________________________________
| 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 SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS
CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS: One way to tackle drugs & violence. (#1)
ZERO TOLERANCE: Troubles when the rubber meets the road. (#2)

STATESIDE
IF IT'S BROKE, FIX IT: Louisiana's plan to "fix" education.(#3)

TESTS AND TESTING
GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE A FAIR SHAKE: SAT bias. (#4)

TAKING OVER
S.O.S.: Hartford leaders signal for state takeover. (#5)

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===== GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS =====

*1 "CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS:" ONE WAY TO TACKLE DRUGS & VIOLENCE
A new program taps the arts and humanities to help curb drug
use and prevent violence among students. "Creative Partnerships
for Prevention: Using the Arts and Humanities to Build
Resiliency in Youth" is a project run by the Washington, D.C.-
based Learning Systems Group and initially developed under a
grant from the U.S. DoEd's Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program.
The Creative Partnerships for Prevention: resource guide
encourages collaboration among schools, youth-serving
organizations, and arts and humanities groups, including dance
companies, museums, theaters, libraries and others (Creative
Partnerships for Prevention press release, 3/13/). Students
learn "valuable skills, healthy behaviors and develop positive
relationships within their community" as participants in arts
programs active in the partnership, writes the release.
The resource guide, which is free-of-charge, is "designed to
foster resiliency as well as information on successful drug and
violence prevention strategies," according to the release.
Middle school students are the target audience, although the
programs can be adapted to meet the needs of younger and older
students.
To order a free copy of "Creative Partnerships for
Prevention: Using the Arts and Humanities to Build Resiliency in
Youth," send or fax your name, school/organization and address by
1 August 1997 to: LSG-Creative Partnerships; 1819 L Street NW;
Suite 300; Washington, D.C. 20036; 202/628-8080; 202/628-3020
(Fax).
Additional information in available on-line at
http://www.CPPrev.org. The web site includes the Creative
Partnerships for Prevention resource guide text, tips from
educators and cultural organization personnel who have
successfully used the arts and humanities in drug and violence
prevention; profiles of existing programs that foster resiliency
through the arts and humanities, a forum for exchanging ideas on
arts- and humanities-based prevention; and referrals to other
resources.
Another relevant on-line resource is the DoEd's Safe and
Drug-Free Schools web site at: www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SDFS.

*2 ZERO TOLERANCE: TROUBLES WHEN THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD
Zero-tolerance policies designed to rid schools of violent
students encounter difficulties when the student charged with a
crime is enrolled in special education. The case of 14-year-old
Theresa M., a Philadelphia middle school student, illustrates the
problem, reports the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER (Fazlollah, 3/11).
Theresa M. suffers from dyslexia, which means she is labeled
a special-education student and entitled to special treatment
under federal law. Under the state's zero-tolerance law,
students who bring knives, guns or other weapons to school are
required to be suspended for at least one year. However, a 1975
federal law prohibits expulsion of special-education students
"without sanction from a federal judge if parents fight the
expulsion," reports the paper.
In Theresa's case, she first tried to cut another girl with
a razor blade at Wagner Middle School in September. She was
transferred in October to Pickett Middle School "on a strict
trial basis" to determine if she would behave better in a
different environment. However, a Pickett student claimed
Theresa cut him with a razor blade and investigators found a
razor blade in Theresa's pocket. Theresa has stayed home from
school since the incident, which occurred on 28 January, and the
school board began a process to transfer her to an alternative
school for disruptive children.
U.S. District Judge John Padova agreed that Theresa should
be sent to an alternative school, pending expulsion, writes the
paper. At his hearing, a school district psychologist testified
that Theresa's actions were not related to her dyslexia.
However, U.S. District Judge Jay Waldman, "who heard a
second phase of the case, reversed Padova, ordering that Theresa
be sent back to Pickett," writes the paper. Waldman said the
board "had failed to meet the legal standard for expelling a
disabled student," reports the paper. The judge pointed to the
Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 1975, which
establishes "a highly appropriate test for showing that there are
absolutely no other reasonable means of mitigating the risk"
posed by the child. Waldman to the board: "I don't think you
come close to meeting the 'no other means' test."
He suggested that the school could install a metal detector
and hire a female security guard, since the school's male guard
is prohibited from performing body searches on female students,
writes the paper.
Thomas Mills, chairman of the board's expulsion committee,
said Theresa is the only student wielding a weapon that the
courts have not allowed school officials to remove. "Usually,
the courts are very cooperative," said Mills. About 100 students
a year are expelled and educated at school board expense in "out-
of-school settings," reports the paper.
The board has asked Waldman to reconsider his decision,
according to the paper.

===== STATESIDE =====

*3 IF IT'S BROKE, FIX IT: LOUISIANA'S PLAN TO "FIX" EDUCATION
Cecil Picard, La.'s state education superintendent told a
group gathered at the Baton Rouge Press Club that he "won't
defend a system that isn't working." (Coates, New Orleans,
TIMES-PICAYUNE, 3/11). He delivered a litany of ills that have
befallen the schools including that most public school children
are not reading at their grade level by the third grade.
A piecemeal approach to education reform has not worked,
declared Picard. He went on to outline Gov. Foster's plan for
overhauling education. The plan includes: increasing teacher
pay to move closer to the Southern average as a way to attract
and keep good teachers;" putting computers in the classroom;
placing disruptive students in alternative schools "where they
will learn behavior modification as well as academics;"
developing an accountability system for schools; and more funding
for preschool, writes the paper.
Picard noted that Neb. allocated $400M to preschool
training, Ga. spends $200M and La. spends only $3M. Foster's
plan is to pump more funds into preschool and reading programs.
"It's time we all got angry," said Picard. He predicts the
Legislature will do their part to upgrade La. public schools.

==== TESTS AND TESTING ====

*4 GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE A FAIR SHAKE: SAT BIAS
The SAT is biased against girls, claim Leslie Wolfe,
president of the Center for Women Policy Studies and Phyllis
Rosser, director of the Equality in Testing Project (DETROIT FREE
PRESS, 3/12). In an editorial, the women report that the purpose
of the SAT is to predict first-year college grades -- "but it
consistently underpredicts the grades of girls."
Wolfe and Rosser chide the College Board for refusing to end
sex bias in the SAT, especially after a recent civil rights
settlement to eliminate sex discrimination in the PSAT. From the
editorial: "The refusal by the College Board, which administers
the PSAT and SAT, and the Educational Testing Service (ETS),
which writes the tests, to produce an unbiased college entrance
exam is tantamount to consumer fraud."
The women hold that the SAT gender gap limits female
opportunities in three ways: It lowers girls' chances of gaining
admission to the nation's top colleges and universities; "robs"
girls of valuable scholarship, including the National Merit
Scholarships, which are based on PSAT scores; and it "diminishes
girls' aspirations and career goals," according to the women.
Yet, in 1972, ETS intervened when girls outperformed boys on
the verbal section of the SAT, report the women. ETS added
questions about science and business "and -- lo and behold --
boys began to outscore girls," they write.
Wolfe and Rosser point out that in 1989 a federal judge
ordered New York State to end awarding Merit Scholarships based
solely on PSAT scores. "SAT scores capture a student's academic
achievement no more than a student's yearbook photography
captures the full range of her experiences in high school," wrote
U.S. District Judge John Walker. That same year, the Center for
Women Policy Studies and Equality in Testing Project published
the first report identifying the SAT gender gap, "The SAT Gender
Gap: Identifying the Causes."
They also note that ETS researchers Howard Wainer and Linda
Steinberg found that women who earned the same grades in the same
college courses as men averaged 33 points lower on the math SAT.
Wolfe and Rosser conclude: "While the College Board and ETS
earn millions of dollars from their tests, young women and their
parents pay dearly in terms of diminished educational
opportunities and loss of scholarships. The test makers must
eliminate bias in their tests."
The Center for Women Policy Studies yesterday announced a
public education campaign designed to motivate parents, students
and the public to urge ETS and The College Board to eliminate
test bias from the PSAT and SAT. By calling a toll-free number
(888/SAT-BIAS), individuals will receive an action kit with
information detailing the SAT gender gap and materials they can
use to write letters to The College Board, ETS, newspapers and
others, educating them about the bias and urging the test makers
to better balance the questions on the test.
According to a Center for Women Policy Studies spokeswoman,
SAT questions are field tested. During the field test, it is
possible to determine which questions boys significantly outscore
girls on. Elimination of those questions would close the gender
gap.
A survey of 1,000 parents released by the Center, and
included in the action kit, revealed that when parents are
informed of the gender gap, they overwhelmingly (77%) want test
publishers to eliminate the bias. Another finding: 75% of
respondents agreed that the National Merit Scholarship Corp.
should stop using the PSAT to determine national merit scholars
until the gender bias is eliminated.
The Center also plans to tap into the membership of the
National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education to spread the
word about the SAT gender gap and to inspire action.

==== TAKING OVER ====

*5 S.O.S.: HARTFORD LEADERS SIGNAL FOR STATE TAKEOVER
Hartford, Conn., school and city leaders in a "rare
consensus" called on the sate to partially take over the troubled
school district (N.Y.TIMES/Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 3/12). A
state takeover of Hartford schools would be the first for Conn.
"I see it as an acknowledgment that the problems of the
system are so significant that the current structures just don't
seem to work," said school board president, Donald Romanik. "We
tried doing it on our own. We tried the whole privatization
experiment. There's a frustration level that things don't seem
to be moving as quickly as we hoped," he added.
Under the plan proposed by the Hartford school board and
City Council, the state would create a financial review panel to
oversee financial and management issues, writes the paper. The
Hartford school board would remain in control of curriculum
issues.
The paper also notes that Hartford is the focal point of the
Sheff vs. O'Neill decision, in which the "state supreme court
ordered the state to correct the racial imbalance of Hartford
area schools," according to the paper.

872-1770

301-469-0188
301/469-6758 (Fax)

and Phyllis Rosser, director
of the Equality in Testing Project (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 3/12).
In an editorial

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