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--- Monday --- June 16, 1997 --- Vol. 7 --- No. 48 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
__________ __________
SPECIAL ED UNDERFUNDED | SPOTLIGHT |
The Michigan Supreme Court | |
ruled last week that state | EDUCATION'S M.V.P.? |
funding for special ed in | |
public schools fell short of | No doubt, if ever there |
constitutional requirements | was, remains that Michael |
(Bell and Van Moorlehem, | Jordan is the NBA's Most |
Detroit FREE PRESS, 6/11). | Valuable Player. He clear- |
However, the court failed to | ly is able to not only out- |
answer a "range of questions of | perform other players, but |
major importance to local | encourage his teammates to |
schools and taxpayers -- who | achieve at higher levels. |
might be due rebates," reports | |
the paper. The court requested | Some computer advocates |
that both sides file additional | want to bestow education's |
arguments over the next month. | MVP award to technology. |
Questions to be addressed | Others question whether |
include: "Is money owed to | computers deserve the |
anyone, or can the state simply | honor. Is technology a |
adjust future funding to pay | classroom player capable of |
for mandated services:" and | helping students achieve at |
"should federal funds offset | higher levels? |
the state's obligation?" | |
Estimates of repaying school | The L.A. TIMES offers a |
districts range from $500M to | two-part series |
$3.5B, depending on whether | investigating the promise |
only the 84 districts in the | and potential failure of |
suit or all districts are | technology in the nation's |
reimbursed, notes the paper. | schools. (#2) |
| |
MORE SPECIAL NEWS | Meanwhile, the Radnor |
The DALLAS MORNING NEWS | (Pa.) school district has |
"Education Extra" section | figured out a way to keep |
discusses the overhaul of the | technology costs down.(#3) |
federal IDEA law (Drew, 6/10). |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"When you look at what's coming out of the inkjet printer, it's
basically pictures of Michael Jordan."
Fairfax High (Los Angeles) English teacher Alan Warhaftig,
criticizing the use of technology in schools. (#2)
_______________________________________________________________
| (c) by the Education Policy Network, Inc. |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Washington, D.C. 20010; 202/632-0952 |
| EPN, Inc. hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
CHARTING A NEW COURSE
CHARTER FANS CHEER IN PENNSYLVANIA: Bill passed. (#1)
BYTES AND PIECES
PENTIUM PARADISE?: LA Times exams theology of technology. (#2)
WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM FRIENDS: Saving tech costs. (#3)
A SPECIAL CASE
MASS. SPECIAL EDUCATION: Expect change. (#4)
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===== CHARTING A NEW COURSE =====
*1 CHARTER FANS CHEER IN PENNSYLVANIA: BILL PASSED
Pa. became the 27th state to allow charter schools late last
week when the House approved legislation that was a "pet cause"
of Gov Ridge (R). (Mezzacappa, Philadelphia INQUIRER, 6/13). The
Senate already passed the legislation earlier in the week.
A tough political battle preceded the vote, with teacher
union leaders and school boards "skeptical" of the charter school
concept, which they claim could syphon funds from public
education, writes the paper. "I honestly think it's just another
fad," said Ted Kirsch, president of the Philadelphia Federation
of Teachers.
Jeanne Allen, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Center
for Education Reform, and a charter school advocate, explained
that Pa.'s new law "falls in the middle of those states with very
strong laws and those allowing for charter schools in name only."
Pa.'s law allows for appeals of rejections of charter application
by school boards, "although the appeals process won't take effect
for two years," explains the paper. Appeals would be taken to a
state board, provided the applicant gathers a required number of
signatures on a petition.
In order to establish a charter, groups would have to secure
approval of more than half of the teachers and half of the
parents at the school, before applying to the school board. The
legislation also allows up to 25% of the teaching staff at
charter schools to not hold teacher certification. Public school
teachers who move to charter schools would retain tenure,
seniority and benefits, but the charter school board would set
salaries, under the new law. Students would be required to meet
or exceed the state's 180-day, 990-hour academic year
requirements.
According to the paper, the state already has awarded 67
planning grants for charter schools. The state DoEd expects that
six charters could open by September, with most opening their
doors in September 1998.
===== BYTES AND PIECES =====
*2 PENTIUM PARADISE?: L.A. TIMES EXAMS THEOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY
In a two-part series, the L.A. TIMES investigates the
promise of technology in schools. Schools nationwide are racing
to get on-line, yet there are few successful models of what can
be accomplished with technology and few programs that include
adequate teacher training, concludes the paper's first article
(Banks and Renwick, 6/9).
Fairfax High (Los Angeles) English teacher Alan Warhaftig:
"When you look at what's coming out of the inkjet printer, it's
basically pictures of Michael Jordan." From the paper: "The
machines work fine, and students benefit from learning to operate
computers. But educators are finding that even the best
technology cannot make students smarter or teachers more
capable."
William Rukeyser, a former Calif. DoEd official, questioned the
nation's practice of "making some very expensive, long-range
decisions [about technology] in the absence of any evidence that
shows this is the solution to the problems of public schools."
Rukeyser now heads Learning in the Real World, a nonprofit group
"formed to challenge the use of computers in schools," explains
the TIMES.
The paper also points out a Rand Corporation study that
examined five model public schools touting technology. According
to the report, successful schools did more than simply install
the equipment. Some reworked the school day to allow longer
periods and more interdisciplinary programs, while others
eliminated classrooms and developed multi-age teams where
students worked at self-paced research projects, according to the
Rand report. The report also found that all successful schools
had highly trained teachers and clear goals for students.
However, there are "few shining lights on the technology
horizon," notes the paper. From the Rand study: "Few [schools]
... have used [technology] to transform the content and mode of
instruction."
The TIMES lists several obstacles to achieving student
success using technology: high costs in installing and
maintaining technology, lack of teacher training, and no
consensus on how to best use technology.
Yet, some adherents to a high tech future for schools claim
that children enjoy learning more when technology is a part of
the curriculum, "and that's worth a lot," said Sally Bowman
Alden, head of the Computer Learning Foundation, a group
dedicated to promoting school technology. The TIMES discloses
that the Palo Alto-based foundation is partly funded by software
manufactures. "We hear, 'Is this going to improve children's
reading and writing and arithmetic?' That's almost irrelevant,"
added Alden. "It's the tool of our children's day."
The second part of the series describes the vested interest
of computer and software firms that have targeted the school
market to sell their wares (Helm, 6/10). While President Clinton
and Vice President Al Gore have embarked on a mission to wire
every school and Calif. Gov Pete Wilson (R) has called on the
state to dedicate $500M over the next four years to putting more
computers in classrooms, the TIMES claims that the real "force
driving much of the frenetic activity is a hard-nosed corporate
effort to sell computers and software."
"This is a mega-scam," said Alex Molnar, professor of
education at the U of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and author of
"Giving Kids the Business," a look at corporate influence in
schools.
Business leaders counter that technology turned around the
business community, and the nation's public schools need the same
overhaul to produce higher achieving students. "Technology was
applied to the business world to re-engineer business," said
Terry Crane, chief executive at Jostens Learning Corporation, a
San Diego-based computer educational software company. "The same
thing has to happen on education. We need systematic reform.
*3 WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM FRIENDS: SAVING TECH COSTS
The Radnor (Pa.) School District has figured out a way to
build a computer network while saving money (Woodal, Philadelphia
INQUIRER, 6/12). Rather than spend the more than $100,000 a
technology consultant said the district needed to bring the
Internet into classrooms at Ithan Elementary school, district
officials hired a moonlighting technology expert from neighboring
Ridley School District and paid their own employees overtime to
wire the school.
"When all is said and done ... we will have the entire
project up and running for about $45,000," said Maureen Reusche,
Radnor's director of instructional technology. "We are doing our
own version of NetDay." According to the paper, the Radnor
experiment "charts a middle course between relying on NetDay
volunteers to wire buildings and paying commercial installers."
An added benefit: school employees learn the ins and outs of
installing and maintaining the technology, which should save the
district money and headaches down the road. Reusche: "You can
avoid paying the high wages of having a major business come out,
but still have the safety of someone who knows all about
networking and knows schools." She added that tapping the skills
of Don Otto, director of data processing and network services at
Ridley, allowed the school to "do the whole building instead of
half."
The INQUIRER reports that Ithan, which enrolls 600 children
in grades K-4, is the district's first networked school. The
district plans to bring Internet access to all schools and
connect all buildings through a district-wide network.
Joanne Romano, the Wallingford-Swarthmore's technology
director, also called Otto to help her district. Romano wanted
to get her buildings connected in a cost-efficient way. "It
seemed as if school districts were given prices by providers that
were on the scale businesses would pay," explained Romano. "I
thought 'Where is all the money going?' There has got to be a
way that someone could do the wiring and do it in a much more
cost-effective way."
Four years ago, Otto began work on an "ambitious technology
program" for his district that "included providing computer work-
stations for every teacher, and connecting the machines through a
district-wide network," writes the paper. Since then, he has
formed a small business to help other schools and districts
implement technology plans. Romano: "It is just novel in that
we are getting quality work by certified people at a rate that
the schools can afford."
The INQUIRER notes that a $22,000 grant Radnor received from
the state's Link-to-Learn program covered some of Ithan's costs.
Otto's company charged $12,350, with the rest of the district's
money spent on software, staff development and overtime for
Radnor employees "who did most of the drilling so that Otto's
group could concentrate on pulling wires and installing the
network infrastructure," reports the paper. Otto: "That saved
us a lot of time. Most of our work was installing the drops,
connecting all the fiber optics, and installing the electronic
equipment."
Otto concedes that he appreciates the additional income, but
adds: "We all are focused on education for our kids. I like to
see a district being connected. The kids benefit."
==== A SPECIAL CASE ====
*4 MASS. SPECIAL EDUCATION: EXPECT CHANGE
Mass. would move from requiring schools to provide "maximum
possible" services to children with learning and other
disabilities to compliance with federal law that only requires a
"free and appropriate public education," under a recommendation
made by a legislative commission (Zernike, Boston GLOBE, 6/10).
Special-education advocates were dismayed with the
recommendations made by the House Working Group on Special
Education.
Members of the commission defended their position. "There's
going to be the sense that we're opting for a lesser system, but
this is not about dismantling special education," said Rep Lida
Harkins (D), who headed the special House commission. "This is
about taking away the conflict between special education and
regular education, about providing a system that is fair to all
students. This is not an attempt to save money, this is an
attempt to be fair."
Another recommendation: schools would no longer be required
to pay for a free second opinion for any parent seeking to have a
child diagnosed as learning or emotionally disabled, "a guarantee
schools have said was being abused by parents 'shopping' for a
diagnosis," writes the paper.
The recommendations, endorsed by legislative leaders, are
expected to be incorporated into legislation to be proposed this
week by the Governor's Task Force on Special Education. The
"sweeping changes" in the state's special-education law are the
most significant since Mass. passed the nation's first special-
education law in 1972, reports the GLOBE.
"I think there's going to be a bill that generates, once
again, a lot of opposition because parents believe these changes
will make it more difficult to get the services they need,"
predicted Julia Landau, a lawyer with the Mass Advocacy Center,
and the special-education community's representative on the
governor's task force.
However, House Speaker Thomas Finneran, who supports the
changes, promised that, while this is the year of reform, the
Legislature would not pass changes without hearing from parents
and advocates. "We expect forward progress, but it won't be damn
the torpedoes, full speed ahead," he said. "There will be a
rational pace to this all."
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