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--- Wednesdat --- April 23, 1997 --- Vol. 7 --- No. 35 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
YAHOO! FOR INDIANA U | SPOTLIGHT |
Indiana U (Bloomington) is | |
ranked the nation's number one | RADICAL CHIC, |
state-funded university in | FOR THE '90s |
providing access and exposure | |
to the Internet, according to | If Corpus Christi's new |
"Yahoo! Internet Life" magazine | standards fail to raise |
(May 1997). Among all | achievement levels for 90% |
universities, the Massachu- | of the student body, "we'll |
setts Institute of Technology | have to be more radical," |
was ranked number one, followed | says one principal. The |
by Northwestern U. "Yahoo!" | Pre-K to 12th-grade |
surveyed 300 colleges and | academic standards were |
universities across the | deemed standouts by USA |
country. Criteria used to | TODAY. It took two years |
determine the rankings are: | to implement the standards |
student services, hardware and | and reports from the Texas |
wiring, academic use of the | frontlines are positive. |
Internet and recreational use. | Teachers are pleased, |
| claiming that student |
SOFTWARE MASTER | scores on the rise. |
Northwestern U has unveiled a | |
new master's program for | Besides tough standards, |
students wanting to specialize | the district also put in |
in developing computer-based | place a strict discipline |
educational and training | code and ended social |
materials. "This new program | promotion. (#3) |
will allow students to | |
customize their curriculum from | What constitutes going |
their freshman year on to | "more radical"? Two on the |
prepare themselves for careers | R-list: An extended school |
in educational technology," | day and bringing parents |
said the program's director. | into schools to learn how |
The program begins this fall | to help their children. |
(Chicago TRIBUNE, 4/14). |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"Where does collaboration end and cheating begin?"
Dennis Evans, U of California at Irvine, on the complexity of
issues surrounding a group of honor-roll students punished for
cheating on an assignment. (#4)
_______________________________________________________________
| (c) by the American Political Network, Inc. |
| 282 N. Washington St., Falls Church, VA (703) 237-5130 |
| APN, Inc. hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL ONE: SCHOOL READINESS
Rx FOR READING: Pediatricians on call. (#1)
GOAL TWO: SCHOOL COMPLETION
ROUND-UP TIME: Paper praises truancy sweep. (#2)
STANDARD BEARERS
GOING RADICAL: Corpus Christi sells standards. (#3)
THE PRIVATE EYE
IF IT LOOKS LIKE A VOUCHER ... : Minn. tries again. (#4)
THE BIG PICTURE
TEAMWORK VS INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY: Drawing the line. (#5)
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===== GOAL ONE: SCHOOL READINESS =====
*1 Rx FOR READING: PEDIATRICIANS ON CALL
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton last week at a White House
conference on early education announced a new national
partnership designed to encourage parents to read to their
children early on. The project is supported by the American
Academy of Pediatrics, Scholastic Inc, the American Library
Association, Reading Is Fundamental, the National Association of
Chain Drug Stores, and others.
"There are few things that I believe could make a more
dramatic difference over the next 10 years in this country than
to persuade parents of all educational and economic levels to
take this mission of reading to and talking with their young
babies seriously," said Clinton.
For their part, the American Academy of Pediatrics is
recommending that pediatricians prescribe reading activities
along with other instructions given to parents at the time of
well-child visits (AMERiCAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS press release,
4/16). Other ways AAP will join the effort: provide models of
community outreach programs, such as "Reach Out and Read,"
whereby pediatricians can either distribute books or provide
vouchers for books to families; provide prototype prescription
pads for AAP members that prescribes daily reading to children
beginning at six months of age; and develop checklists for parent
on developmental milestones so that they too can measure their
child's growth and development.
According to AAP, "Reach Out and Read," calls for volunteers
to read to children in waiting rooms, health-care providers to
prescribe reading, and for books to be given to children at the
end of a well-child visit. The program is underway in more than
80 health centers and hospitals nationwide.
From the release: "Pediatricians are uniquely educated and
positioned, through regular health supervision visits with
infants and children, to advise parents on ways to stimulate and
support their child's cognitive growth and to evaluate their
progress over time."
The reading project continues to seek additional partners.
For more information contact the American Academy of Pediatrics;
601 Thirteenth Street NW; Suite 400 North; Washington, D.C.
20005; 202/347-8600.
===== GOAL TWO: SCHOOL COMPLETION =====
*2 ROUND-UP TIME: PAPER PRAISES TRUANCY SWEEP
More needs to be done to lower truancy rates, editorializes
the New Orleans TIMES PICAYUNE, 4/18). In the editorial, the
paper praises the efforts of the city's police officials, who
earlier this month rounded up 42 school students in one day in
one section of town.
School and city officials recently have asked the Police
Department to develop a plan for enforcing truancy laws. "It is
a prudent request that deserves the department's prompt
consideration and cooperation," pens the paper. "Like the city's
evening juvenile curfew, such a plan would strengthen the hand of
officials in holding kids who break the rules and their parents
accountable."
Under current New Orleans law, parents of children who are
caught breaking the truancy laws for the third time are sent to
juvenile court and face a fine of $500 or community service or
both.
At the meeting between the New Orleans City Council and the
Orleans School Board, one councilman described the link between
truancy and daytime juvenile crime. According to the paper,
police have been picking up an average of 50 to 60 truants a day.
School Superintendent Morris Holmes noted that about 500 of the
systems 5,600 students who are absent on a given day are truants.
The paper recommends more frequent police sweeps as the best
way to get truant students back in school.
==== STANDARD BEARERS ====
*3 GOING RADICAL: CORPUS CHRISTI SELLS STANDARDS
Tough discipline coupled with rigorous Pre-K through 12th-
grade academic standards are credited with turning around the
Corpus Christi, Texas, school district (Ritter, USA TODAY, 4/18).
"Standards took the mystery out of learning," said Wynn Seale
Middle School Principal Richard Peltz. "Our kids know exactly
what's expected of them. And they know we expect a lot. There
aren't any more excuses."
Although standards have been promoted by numerous educators
and politicians, including President Clinton and his predecessor
George Bush, few schools nationwide have adopted or enforced
tough standards. From the paper: "No large school district has
pushed the envelope the way [Corpus Christi] has."
A two-year "crusade" culminated in the standards called
"Real World Academic Standards," which details what children
should know and be able to do from Pre-K to 12th grade. Twenty-
three schools piloted the standards last year, and all 61 Corpus
Christi schools adopted the standards this year.
According to the paper, other provisions of the district's
school reform initiative have helped improve the schools
including: a strict discipline code; regular testing that
determines whether the standards are being taught; remedial
programs, offered before or after school and on weekends, which
"kick in quickly;" and a ban on social promotion, reports the
paper.
USA TODAY also notes that teachers were part of the
standard-setting process from the beginning, which is one reason
the process has been successful. "Before, you closed your door
and you didn't want anyone to know what you were doing,"
commented one seventh-grade language arts teacher. "Teachers
used to keep their successes to themselves. Now we want to share
our successes."
Peltz discusses the old method of teaching with the new
standards. "We're used to hearing teachers say, 'Tell me,
listen, restate.' Now we're hearing, 'Evaluate, create, defend,
justify, give reasons.'" Peltz adds that the standards have
improved the achievement of his school's at-risk students.
However, the district's goal is for 90% of students to pass state
tests. Peltz: "Anyone can take a school to 60% or 70%. The
research says we're going to plateau next year, and the kids will
slip. So we'll try more radical strategies. Maybe extend the
day, regroup children every other day. Teach, assess and
regroup. The paradigm is going to have to be broken by the
parents. Maybe the parents of underachievers will have to come
to school once a week, learn how to help their kids with
homework."
"We'll have to be more radical," he concluded.
===== THE PRIVATE EYE =====
*4 IF IT LOOKS LIKE A VOUCHER ...: MINN. TRIES AGAIN
In the latest attempt to pass school-voucher legislation,
Senator Larry Pogemiller (DFL) has proposed a $150M "voucher-
like" plan that would give "certificates" of up to $18,000 to
disadvantaged students and their schools (Hotakainen, Minneapolis
STAR TRIBUNE, 4/12).
Pogemiller's proposal, which was passed by the Senate K-12
Education Budget subcommittee, would not allow the certificates
to be cashed at any school that does not meet state requirements.
"That's a big deal," said Pogemiller, who is trying not to allow
his plan to be labeled a voucher proposal, "because we've set
conditions." "No matter how the name is changed, vouchers are
vouchers, whether they are called certificates or vouchers or
opportunity scholarships," countered Judy Schaubach, president of
the Minnesota Education Association.
Senator Keith Langseth (DFL) also criticizes the bill. "I
don't see how we can vote for a proposal like this," he said.
Specifically, Langseth protests sending $18,000 to any private
school while some public schools are in financial distress,
writes the paper.
However, the Minnesota Rural Education Association supports
the bill, primarily because 85% of the group's member districts
would qualify for the funds.
Under the plan, a student would receive a basic $6,000
certificate, with an additional $12,000 in state aid sent
directly to the student's school.
Gov. Arne Carlson's administration has praised the bill.
"We believe this is a very interesting starting point," said
education Commissioner Bob Wedl.
===== THE BIG PICTURE =====
*5 TEAMWORK VS INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY: DRAWING THE LINE
A group of about 20 Sunny Hill High (Fullerton, Calif.)
honor-roll students were reprimanded for cheating, when they
insist all they did was work in a group (Anderson, L.A. TIMES,
4/11). The paper observes that the incident, which left 13 of
the students disbarred from the National Honor Society, "falls
precisely at the nexus of two issues on the front lines of
teaching": the trend toward "cooperative learning" and the
nationwide crack down on cheating.
"We are sending mixed signals," said Dennis Evans, head of
teacher credentialing at UC Irvine and a former school principal.
"Where does collaboration end and cheating begin?" While the
Sunny Hill students concede that they were wrong, some did not
understand the rules of the project. "Certainly, they took few
steps to cover their tracks," writes the paper.
Their assignment, according to the TIMES, was to outline 10
scientific and philosophical texts. Students in the course
called "Theory of Knowledge" divided the work and "shared whole
sections of their reports with each other, verbatim," writes the
paper. "We didn't think it through, this not being a major
assignment," explained one student. "It's not a test or a term
paper or anything like that."
Patrick Lampman, the teacher for the course, remained firm
that "students who work together must share credit together,"
reports the paper. Lampman: "What you need to be is very
forthright: If you did [the work] with someone else, put both
names on it. If your name goes on it, then clearly you're the
one that assumes responsibility for it." He added that his
directions were clear: Students are expected to do their own
work unless otherwise told.
Cynthia Martini, a career and academic counselor at Sunny
Hill: "It is wrong any time you copy or take something from
another student. But students work together all the time That's
the difficulty. Our society says that if you can't collaborate,
you can't function.
Teachers elsewhere agree that they too face similar dilemmas
in classroom teaching -- "balancing the twin objectives of
student teamwork and individual responsibility," writes the paper
Dan Shepard, a biology teacher at Westminster High School:
"That's the way research is done in real life. Teamwork is
important. When all is said and done, they're going to have the
same data. But the discussion of the results should be each
kids' own work. It's always an effort to encourage them to do
that. Obviously, if one kid transcribes another kid's work. I
can catch it."
The TIMES notes that the Sunny Hill episode also has
political overtone. One professor who asked the paper to remain
anonymous explained that some conservatives disparage the
academic teamwork model, "saying that public schools fail to put
enough emphasis on individual work," reports the paper. These
critics tally episodes of cheating as "evidence of the evils of
cooperative learning," said the professor.
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