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--- Monday --- October 20, 1997 --- Vol. 7 --- No. 64 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
__________ __________
G.B.'S PROMISE KEEPERS | SPOTLIGHT |
All British schools will be | |
connected to a "national grid | MAD AS HELL |
for learning" on the Internet, | |
promises Tony Blair, the | ... and doing something |
nation's Prime Minister. | about it are Los Angeles |
According to MSNBC, Microsoft | parents of gifted children. |
leader Bill Gates will serve as | The L.A. TIMES describes |
an adviser to the project. | the odyssey of one family |
(www.msnbc.com/news/117672.asp) | desperately searching for |
However, plans to create a | an appropriate school |
"virtual teacher center" has | setting for their highly |
raised the eyebrows of teacher | intelligent child, who at |
unions and a senior member of | six reads novels in English |
the royal family, Princess | and Spanish and adds three- |
Anne, who fears children could | digit numbers in his head. |
become "enslaved by computers." | |
Eamonn O'Kane, deputy general | A gifted-child parent |
secretary of the National | lobby is demanding the |
Association of Schoolmasters | district provide earlier |
and Union of Women Teachers, | testing for intelligence |
also expressed caution. "The | and more accelerated |
fear of some teachers is that a | program slots to |
sustained emphasis on | accommodate the number of |
information technology and | gifted children. |
computers could undermine the | |
basic skills of numeracy and | However, school board |
literacy." | members also hear cries of |
Gates' response: "Nobody is | unfairness from parents |
suggesting that technology is a | concerned with equity |
substitute for teachers getting | issues, including the |
the kids together and giving | underrepresentation of |
them feedback. Technology is | minority students in gifted |
just a tool in the hands of the | programs. (#4) |
teacher." |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"The joke in the district is these are the stealth programs --
parents don't even know they exist."
Carol Knee, member of the Committee on Gifted Education,
on Los Angeles public school programs for gifted children. (#4)
_______________________________________________________________
| (c) by the Education Policy Network, Inc. |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Washington, D.C. 20010; 202/724-0124 |
| EPN, Inc. hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
ON THE HILL
READING HELD HOSTAGE: GOP fights national testing. (#1)
STATESIDE
ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION: State support in Indiana. (#2)
CHOOSING SCHOOLS
VOUCHERS FOR D.C.: House votes yes. (#3)
A SPECIAL CASE
BEING GIFTED IN L.A.: Hard to find a school. (#4)
Read the Wednesday DAILY REPORT CARD on the WEB at:
www.negp.gov
==== ON THE HILL ====
*1 READING HELD HOSTAGE: GOP FIGHTS NATIONAL TESTING
U.S. Representative William Goodling (R-PA.) has tweaked the
cheek of the White House by halting legislative activity on
President Clinton's reading initiative in order to "gain more
leverage" against national testing (Sanchez, WASH POST, 10/19).
Goodling: "Americans should not be misled into thinking
that more testing will lead to better students. The president's
plan is a waste of taxpayers' money and will not do anything but
increase federal involvement in our schools."
According to the paper, the White House is "infuriated,"
calling Goodling's move a purely political maneuver. "There's no
positive agenda there," said Michael Cohen, a White House
education policy aide. "All of it is to stop whatever we're
trying to do." Clinton's reading initiative had previously won
"general support" from Republican leaders in a budget agreement
reached earlier this year, writes the paper. While Clinton's
focus is on creating a volunteer "reading army of 1 million
volunteer tutors" to help children learn to read by the end of
third grade, the GOP would prefer to use the funds to better
train teachers. A compromise is being worked out, writes the
paper.
However, Goodling, enraged that Clinton is pursuing his plan
to develop voluntary, national reading and math tests for
4th- and 8th-grade students, has taken the reading initiative
hostage in an attempt to persuade Clinton to drop national
testing. So far, the House has defeated the testing bill and the
Senate approved a "modified version of Clinton's plan," writes
the paper. A conference committee will take place soon to
resolve the two bills.
=== STATESIDE ===
*2 ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION: STATE SUPPORT IN INDIANA
Ind. lawmakers "significantly boosted" alternative education
in their state by better defining and funding such programs
(Vesper, POLICY NEWS & NOTES, Indiana Education Policy Center at
Indiana U, Summer 1997). According to the newsletter,
alternative education was pat of Gov O'Bannon's campaign agenda
for school reform.
Lawmakers specifically defined requirements an alternative
program must meet in order to receive state funding. For
example, the program first must be approved by the Indiana DoEd
and the State Budget Agency, after review by the State Budget
Committee. Alternative school officials must submit an
application to the State Budge Committee that includes
information on the number of students enrolled, the nature of the
program and how it differs from traditional school instruction
and the "disciplinary procedures used in the traditional school
program as they apply to disruptive students admitted to the
alternative education program," writes the newsletter.
Alternative programs seeking state support also must enroll
what the state considers to be "eligible" students. These
students must be in grades 6 through 12 and must, among other
things, have dropped out or intend to drop out of school before
graduating; have "failed to comply academically;" be considered
disruptive in class; and be employed due to dire family need, and
that the employment disrupts regular class attendance.
Other requirements alternative schools must meet to receive
state funding are: an appeal process for students assigned to an
alternative program; an individual service plan for each student;
and operate a program that instructs students in a manner
different from a traditional school. The school can seek waivers
from certain state laws such as length of the school day and
required curriculum.
From the newsletter: "Although seemingly restrictive, these
requirements are broad enough to permit a number of different
alternative education programs."
Programs that meet these detailed requirements are eligible
to receive $750 in state funding per full-time equivalent
student. The school corporation also must allocate $250 of
additional funding per full-time equivalent student to the
alternative education program, reports the newsletter. State
lawmakers have provided $15M over the biennium for alternative
education, "enough to fund the program for an average of 10,000
per students per year,'" writes the newsletter.
The law also directs the state DoEd to encourage school
corporations to determine the need for alternative education and
to provide assistance help establish programs.
==== CHOOSING SCHOOLS ====
*3 VOUCHERS FOR D.C.: HOUSE VOTES YES
In a 203 to 202 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives
approved a school voucher plan for Washington, D.C. (Gray, N.Y.
TIMES, 10/10). "Thousands of children today in the nation's
capital, at $10,000 a child, are being cheated," said House
Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who provided the deciding vote.
"They are being cheated by the politicians, they are being
cheated by the teachers, they are being cheated by the unions."
The bill would provide $7M to create "choice scholarships"
for 2,000 disadvantaged public school students, who would receive
between $2,400 and $3,200 each for tuition at private schools.
Families also would be eligible to receive up to $500 in tutoring
and transportation costs.
The measure passed on a party line vote, with 11 REpublicans
switching to vote with the Democrats, while no Democrat joined
the 203 GOP votes. Rep James Moran (D-Va.), leader of the floor
effort to defeat the bill, quipped: "Congress has never been
able to resist the opportunity to play City Council for a day and
impose its will on the city." The TIMES writes that Republicans
in Congress have "used the District of Columbia as a testing
ground for many of their urban policy ideas."
==== A SPECIAL CASE ====
*4 BEING GIFTED IN L.A.: HARD TO FIND A SCHOOL
Classroom programs for highly intelligent children are few
and controversial in public schools nationwide. The L.A. TIMES
describes the saga of one mother and her "gifted" six-year-old as
they navigated the Los Angeles Unified School District in search
of an appropriate school (Pyle, 10/17).
According to Ellen Winner, a psychology professor and
author of "Gifted Children: Myths and Realities," "moderately
gifted" children should stay in regular classrooms. However,
highly gifted children, sometimes described as above the 145 IQ
range, are another story. Winner states that these children can
be "at-risk." "A lot get bored or teased in school and they tune
out or become disinterested in their abilities and end up
underachievers," she said. "They need to be in classes with
other kids who are like them."
Yet, few school districts, even large ones like Los Angeles,
offer enough opportunities for highly intelligent children.
Fewer than 400 slots in special accelerated elementary school
classes are available for the city's 1,600 elementary school-age
children identified as highly intelligent, writes the paper. For
the first time last year, LAUSD mailed to parents its "Choices"
brochure, which describes school programs that handle gifted
children. Several of those schools are: Eagle Rock elementary
school, a magnet; North Hollywood's Highly Gifted magnet; San
Jose Highly Gifted school; and Carpenter Elementary, a non-magnet
school that offers a program for the highly gifted.
According to the paper, the district's school board pays
little heed to the district's Committee on Gifted Education,
primarily because of equity issues. Board President Jeff Horton
conceded that he is "torn on the issue -- between agreeing the
[gifted] system could be improved and worrying about the equity
issues, including the traditional underrepresentaion of poor
children in the programs," writes the paper.
Members of the Committee on Gifted Education have been
advocating for increased testing to determine giftedness and for
additional special gifted classes to serve all children
identified as highly intelligent. Their proposals have not found
favor with school board members.
However, parental outcry may be the catalyst for school
board support. Last spring, the North Hollywood Highly Gifted
magnet received media attention for its top scores on Advanced
Placement tests; consequently, the school was flooded with
applications. Parents complained vociferously of a lack of slots
at the school, and the "uprising -- among some of the very
parents the district likes to showcase whenever funding for
magnets is threatened" helped make district officials aware of
the need, reports the paper.
The TIMES notes that advanced programs were added at seven
high schools to accommodate the overflow of applications, but
information was sent only to those students who were turned away
from the North Hollywood program. "The joke in the district is
these are the stealth programs -- parents don't even know they
exist," said Carol Knee, a founding member of the committee.
David Tokofsky, who head the board's curriculum committee,
commented that high-volume parental outcry is what it takes to
"bust through an administrative culture that favors 'equity over
excellence,'" writes the paper.
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