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--- Monday --- November 3, 1997 --- Vol. 3 --- No. 70 ---
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THE UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
__________ __________
"LIKE SPITTING | SPOTLIGHT |
ON SCHOOL COLORS" | |
Private school choice and a | A "DANGEROUS FAD" |
conservative philosophy seem to | |
go hand-in-hand. Not in the | New approaches to |
Hoosier State, writes Michael | teaching math have raised |
Gerson, policy director for | the eyebrows of some |
Sen. Dan Coates (R-Ind.), in | educators and parents. |
U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT | They worry that students, |
(11/10). | especially young children, |
"Conservative politicians | who are not steeped in the |
running in this state quickly | rudiments of mathematics |
find that criticizing public | will not meet their |
education --or suggesting that | potential in school nor in |
some people might want to opt | the work world. |
out -- is like spitting on the | |
school colors," pens Gerson. | Complaints are waged |
The reason: Basketball! | against hands-on math |
Students, teachers, parents and | programs and incorporating |
the community are intensely | games in the teaching of |
loyal to their school and their | math concepts. But the |
team. | king of villains appears to |
Gerson says such loyalty | be calculators. (See DRC |
serves the "more useful purpose | 10/29). |
[of] expressing and creating a | |
sense of community." Thus, he | Some new-math advocates |
concludes, "arguments for | counter that they have not |
competition, choice and | thrown out the old with the |
efficiency [can't] compete with | new. But their message has |
tradition, loyalty, and hoops." | not reached the masses. |
Gerson claims that other | More should be done to |
conservative locales share the | educate parents on new math |
view that public schools are | strategies, concedes one |
essential as community | math coordinator. (#1) |
institutions. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"If we keep everything so that parents could understand it, we'd
never do anything new. But we do realize that we haven't done a
good job of telling them what we're changing and why."
Tom Nuttal, math coordinator for Fairfax County schools, on new
math instruction. (#1)
_______________________________________________________________
| (c) by the Education Policy Network, Inc. |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Washington, D.C. 202/724-0124 |
| The DRC hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
NEW MATH: Critics emerge. (#1)
GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS
UP AND DOWN: Drug use among teens. (#2)
FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE
CLEARLY STATED: Federal judge rules on school prayer. (#3)
TESTS AND TESTING
IMPASSE: National testing legislation shakes up conference.(#4)
IN THE NEWS
A TRIBUTE: Innovators in education. (#5)
===== GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE =====
*1 NEW MATH: CRITICS EMERGE
Hands-on math is referred to as a "dangerous fad" by some
educators and parents who are not ready to get rid of the old for
the new (Benning, WASH POST, 11/2). The criticism is directed at
new ways of learning math that include games and hands-on
experiments. Critics claim students never master basic skills
under new math instruction, reports the paper.
According to the paper, even some members of the National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the group credited with
introducing new math techniques in 1989, are skeptical.
"I'm not in favor of a dull, drill-and-kill way of teaching
math, but there are some elements of math -- particularly at the
elementary level -- where some basic facts simply must be
memorized," said Tom Loveless, a Harvard U professor who stuides
curriculum trends. "We have lots of teachers reporting that
they're getting kids in third, fourth, fifth grade who don't know
their basic facts," he added.
Critics also condemn the reliance on calculators for
computation, especially for younger children. (See DRC 10/29)
But proponents of the new math counter that while they have not
"abandoned paper-and-pencil calculations," they prefer students
use calculators so teachers can spend more time on complex math
concepts, writes the paper. "I would want a child to know how to
add and subtract two- and three-digit numbers, but I don't want
to spend class time in fourth and fifth grade adding and
subtracting six-digit numbers," said Patricia Campbell, an
associate professor of math education at the U of Maryland and
board member of the math teachers council. "I would rather spend
class time doing other math."
Some parents denounce new math instruction out of fear of
the unknown, reports the paper. Many educators respond that they
need to do a better job reaching out to parents to explain the
new concepts. "If we kept everything so that parents could
understand it, we'd never do anything new," said Tom Nuttal, math
coordinator for Fairfax County public schools. "But we do
realize that we haven't done a good job of telling them what
we're changing and why."
Nuttall and Barbara Kelly, a sixth-grade math teacher in
McLean, Va., both noted their schools' inclusion of traditional
teaching methods, including timed tests on multiplication tables,
division and fractions. "We haven't turned our backs on
essential skills' we've just been striving for a balance," said
Keith Jones, coordinator of math for elementary public schools in
Montgomery County.
===== GOAL SEVEN: SAFE SCHOOLS =====
*2 UP AND DOWN: DRUG USE AMONG TEENS
Drug use among younger teens is on the rise nationwide,
according to a the Atlanta-based PRIDE, the Parents' Resource
Institute for Drug Education. The survey of 141,077 students in
grades 6 through 12 also found that drug use was "leveling off"
at the senior high school level, writes USA TODAY (Manning,
10/29).
The survey, conducted during the 1996-1997 school year is
the first of PRIDE's annual surveys to reveal "signs of progress
in preventing teen-age drug use," remarked Doug Hall, PRIDE
senior consultant.
Other findings from the survey:
smoking rose to 50.2% from 48.2% in the 1995-1996 school
year, while liquor use rose from 53.4% to 54.9%;
monthly use of illegal drugs used by junior high students
rose .5% to 11.4%;
the percent of students drinking beer in the previous month
dropped .4% to 12.1%;
use of illegal drugs remained at about 25% for senior high
school students, but use of inhalants and hallucinogens
declined .3% each, to 4.2% for hallucinogens and 3.1% for
inhalants;
only 31% of students surveyed say their parents warn them
about drugs often;
students frequently cautioned against drug use showed 30%
less drug use.
"We may have turned a corner this year," said Gen. Barry R.
McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy. "But drug use by children is up ... and it will get
worse if we don't get organized."
USA TODAY notes that the PRIDE findings are similar to
results from an August report issued by Columbia U that found
drug use on the rise among young teens.
===== FROM COURTHOUSE TO SCHOOLHOUSE =====
*3 CLEARLY STATED: FEDERAL JUDGE RULES ON SCHOOL PRAYER
U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent last week issued a ruling for
Alabama public schools that some say will clear up confusion over
prayer and religious activities in public schools (AP/WASH POST,
11/2). DeMent's ruling bars public schools from allowing any
"school organized or officially sanctioned religious activity."
Vocal prayer, Bible devotionals, distribution of religious
materials and discussions of a devotional nature are included in
the ban.
However, schools are permitted to use religious texts in an
academic context and individuals can display religious symbols or
clothing with religious messages if they adhere to "time, place
and manner restrictions." Under the ruling, prayer is not
permitted at commencements, but students are allowed to give
brief thanks to God at graduation.
"I hope he's got their attention now," said Michael
Chandler, an assistant principal at Valley Head High School, who
filed a lawsuit in which he cited "years of coercive religious
activity at school events," reports the paper.
Donald Sweeney, a lawyer for several Alabama school boards:
"No longer will well-intending persons, political or otherwise,
be able to argue to our principals or educators that 'the law is
not clear, or the law doesn't apply in your city or county so do
what you want and what we want you to do. You won't get in
trouble.'"
Ala. Gov Fob James (R) disagrees with the ruling, reports
the paper. He wrote DeMent a "lengthy" letter, claiming that the
states, rather than the federal government or courts, have the
authority to decide how freedom of religion may be practiced in
public places. James also wrote that the Bill of Rights does not
apply to states. From the paper: "The judge rejected his
claim."
==== TESTS AND TESTING ====
*4 IMPASSE: NATIONAL TESTING LEGISLATION SHAKES UP CONFERENCE
An agreement reached by House and Senate conferees on a
national testing plan "crumbled" on Friday after being attacked
by conservative Republicans and other testing critics (Pianin,
WASH POST, 10/31). The compromise, drafted by Rep. David Obey
(D-Wis.) and initially "blessed" by House and Senate GOP leaders
would have allowed President Clinton to develop national
educational tests for reading and math. However, it also would
have given Congress the authority to review the tests and decide
whether to allow the tests to be administered.
Obey, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston
(R-La.) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens
(R-Alaska) said the compromise offered the "last best hope for
resolving the dispute this year and passing the underlying $269
billion labor-health-education spending bill," writes the paper.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and other GOP leaders,
who initially backed the compromise, began to distance themselves
from the plan, which drew the ire of Livingston, reports the
paper. Gingrich is working with Rep. Bill Goodling (R-Pa.),
chairman of the House Education Committee, to find a new solution
(Alvarez, N.Y. TIMES, 11/2).
A veto threat from President Clinton, who vowed to veto any
bill that would hinder his plan to permit national testing, looms
over the process.
==== IN THE NEWS ====
*5 A TRIBUTE: INNOVATORS IN EDUCATION
The N.Y. TIMES supplement "Education Life" describes the
accomplishments of 13 "innovators who changed education (Honan,
11/2). While the 13 honored by the paper are "by no means the
only movers and shakers of the century, [they are] some of the
more provocative leaders on whose shoulders the future is being
built."
The 13 are:
Charles William Eliot, president of Harvard U from 1870 to
1910. Eliot was the first to establish the "free elective
system," in which college students could choose their own
courses.
Andrew Carnegie, the iron and steel entrepreneur, who
started a retirement program for college teachers "that
helped to attract many first-rate intellects to the
profession."
John Dewey, philosopher, who "became the leading publicist
of a new approach to education ... [that] centered on the
notion that a broad public education is an essential
component of democracy."
Maria Montessori, physician and educator, who developed a
method of teaching children that has blossomed into
"thousands of schools for young children around the world."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the nation's 32nd President, who
conceived and got Congress to pass the G.I. Bill of Rights,
"which opened the doors of higher education to the middle
class."
Thurgood Mashall, Supreme Court justice, who, as a lawyer
for the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense Fund became "the architect
of the legal strategy that in 1954 led to the Supreme
Court's legal ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ... "
Benjamin Mays, who as president of Morehouse College (1940-
1967) "preached the gospel of racial equality and social
justice" and inspired dozens of civil rights leaders,
including the Rev. Martin Luther King.
Clark Kerr, who as president of the U of California at
Berkeley in 1960, conceived of a "sweeping new plan for
state-supported higher education "in the state, which soon
became a model for the nation."
Albert Shanker, who "transformed the teaching profession as
the longtime president of New York City's United Federation
of Teachers and its parent organization, the American
Federation of Teachers."
Joan Ganz Cooney, creator of "Sesame Street," who is
credited for not only creating a "new art form" but for
shaping the teaching of young students.
Allan Bloom, who lit a fire with his book "The Closing of
the American Mind" (Simon & Schuster, 1987).
Paulo Freire, the "radical" Brazilian educator who, in his
book "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (Continuum, 1970),
presented "the banking conception" of teaching, which he
wrote is "a characteristic of the ideology of oppression,"
which "negates education and knowledge as a process of
inquiry."
Annette Polly Williams, the Wis. legislator who wrote the
state's school voucher plan that became law in 1990.
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