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--- Friday --- December 5, 1997 --- Vol. 7 --- No. 77 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
www.negp.gov (on Wednesdays)
__________ __________
ON BOARD | SPOTLIGHT |
U.S. Ed Sec Richard Riley | |
late last month appointed three | PUTTIN' ON THE GLITZ? |
new members to the National | |
Assessment Governing Board. | The naked truth about |
They are: Diane Ravitch, | computers in the classroom, |
senior research scholar at New | say some skeptics, is that |
York U and senior fellow in | they are "glitzy toys" that |
governmental studies at the | distract students from real |
Brookings Institution; Lynn | learning, pens Ethan |
Marmer, Cincinnati school board | Bronner, in a N.Y. TIMES |
president and attorney; and Jo | editorial (11/30). |
Ann Pottorff, state | |
representative, Kansas | "The idea that children |
Legislature. | are in educational trouble |
The 25-member NAGB formulates | because they don't have |
policy for the National | access to enough glitz and |
Assessment of Education | what they really need is a |
Progress, "the only nationally | bigger database is stagger- |
representative and continuing | ingly ludicrous. They need |
assessment of what students | practice in the basics," |
should know and can do in | says Yale professor David |
various subjects," writes a | Gelernter. (#4) |
DoEd press release (11/21). | |
Riley: "Members of the | They're not glitz, but |
National Assessment Governing | real gold, say computer |
Board provide the guidance and | defenders, who see compu- |
leadership our schools need to | ters as liberating stu- |
ensure that all students learn | dents from "authoritarian |
to high standards. ... The | teachers and rote |
people appointed to NAGB have | learning." One thing for |
the experience, knowledge, and | sure, computers are |
the insight to develop and | draining resources from the |
design future assessments for | arts and other programs. |
our nation's students." |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"For anybody to take a square root without a calculator is the
height of absurdity."
Dan Fendel, a mathematician at San Francisco State, and critic of
Calif.'s new back-to-basics math standards. (#1)
_______________________________________________________________
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| EPN, Inc. hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
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| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
MATH MAYHEM IN CALIFORNIA: Outcry over new standards. (#1)
STATESIDE
TAKE BACK EDUCATION: Cry from nation's GOP governors. (#2)
PARTNERS IN EDUCATION
COMMUNITY LEARNING: DoEd funds after-school programs. (#3)
BYTES AND PIECES
RETHINKING COMPUTERS: More than a toy?. (#4
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===== GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE =====
* 1 MATH MAYHEM IN CALIFORNIA: OUTCRY OVER NEW STANDARDS
Calif.'s State Board of Education this week unanimously
approved a "set of no-nonsense" standards in K-7 math education
(Colvin, L.A. TIMES, 12/2). But members of the standards
commission, which had drafted an initial standards document,
frowned on the back-to-basics nature of the adopted standards.
Under the new standards, public school students will be
expected to memorize multiplication tables in third grade and
"master the age-old routines of borrowing and carrying while
adding and subtracting," writes the paper. They also would be
required to study long division, a skill that "some educators
believe is obsolete in an age of calculators," reports the TIMES.
The use of calculators should be minimal and not used on
state tests, according to the new standards.
Members of the standards commission complained bitterly that
the adopted standards overemphasize basic skills, while not
giving enough time for students to develop an understanding of
math concepts and to "be able to use them to solve problems that
don't fit a standard formula," explains the paper.
Although the state's school districts are not under a
mandate to use the standards, the guidelines will be influential
because they will be used by textbook and state test publishers.
The TIMES reports that even math educators present at the
unveiling of the new standards disagree over how much emphasis
should be placed on basic skills. Ralph Cohen, a Stanford U math
professor who helped the board write its draft: "[Student]
skills will be strong, their problem-solving for sure will be
strong because they will have the sills with which to solve
problems, and certainly their conceptual understanding will be
strong because you can't ask kids to understand concepts without
giving them the tools."
But Dan Fendel, a mathematician at San Francisco State,
countered that the students will become adept in only one aspect
of math -- number crunching, writes the paper. Fendel argues
that the standards "shift the focus to a very computational look
at what math is and that's not what math is about." He added:
"For anybody to take a square root without a calculator is the
height of absurdity."
According to the paper, the board will take a final vote on
the standards up to seventh grade next week. At that time, board
members also will act on standards for the upper grades "in order
to meet a Jan. 1 legislative mandate," notes the TIMES.
===== STATESIDE =====
*2 TAKE BACK EDUCATION: CRY FROM NATION'S GOP GOVERNORS
At a meeting in Miami, the nation's Republican governors
vowed to move the power of making decisions regarding education
from Washington to the states (Sack, N.Y. TIMES, 11/23). "What
we want COngress to do with education is exactly what it did with
welfare three years ago,"explained S.C. Gov David Beasley,
incoming chairman of the REpublican Governors Association. "Give
us the flexibility."
Specifically, the GOP governors want Congress and the U.S.
DoEd to end federally required paperwork and regulations on
schools.
Republicans base their decision to "seize [the] education
issue" on electorial victories in N.J. and Va, writes the paper.
In Va., James Gilmore 3rd beat his Democratic opponent,
Lieutenant Gov. Donald Beyer, on a pledge to cut "an unpopular
property tax on automobiles," but he also ran on education
issues, according to the paper. Gilmore stressed his plan to
reduce class size by hiring more elementary school teachers. "We
showed that we can run on education and can win on education,"
said Gilmore.
However, many Democrats remain skeptical that the GOP can
convince the public of their credibility on education. "Some of
the Republican governors can legitimately run on education, but
the problem is that the Congress has been awful on education,"
said Governor Howard Dean of VT., chairman of the Democratic
Governors Association. "We're going to wrap that around their
necks."
Education issues the GOP governors agreed upon: reducing
the federal role; using block grants to distribute federal
education dollars to the states; more rigorous standards and
testing for students and teachers; and more school choice for
parents.
Beasley: "What we're focusing on is not necessarily more
money for education but better education."
===== PARTNERS IN EDUCATION =====
*3 COMMUNITY LEARNING: DoED FUNDS AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS
The recently enacted federal Labor-Health and Human
Services-Education bill includes a provision that expands the
nation's after-school grant program (U.S. DoEd press release,
12/2). U.S. Ed Sec Richard Riley is spreading the word to
communities interested in applying for funds from a pot of $40M
to create "21st Century Community Learning Centers."
According to the release, the centers are community-based,
after-school programs in rural and inner-city public schools.
The grant notice appears in the 2 December 1997 "Federal
Register" and grant applications will be available 16 December.
"These grants will help expand existing programs ... where
kids can go after school and feel safe and get proper instruction
and supervision for their homework and other needs," said Riley.
"The activities in these types of centers focus on the needs
parents want: improving student achievement and preventing
violence and substance abuse, as well as providing enriching
opportunities to focus on computers and the arts."
Grants funded under the "21st Century Learning Community
Learning Centers Program" will be awarded to schools or consortia
of schools to enable them to plan, implement or expand projects
that benefit the educational, cultural and recreational needs of
the community, writes the release. The DoEd expects to award
200-300 grants for up to three years, averaging $100,000 per
center. Grants will range from $25,000 to $200,000.
Riley and Vice President Gore announced the expanded
community learning center program at Middletown, Conn.'s, Woodrow
Wilson Middle School. The school boasts an after-school program
that began in 1994 with a state grant of $55,000. The after-
school program operates from Monday to Thursday every weekday
until 5:15 p.m., with transportation provided for all
participants. Weekend and summer programs also are available to
students. However, state funding has decreased to $38,000 for
this school year.
For more information, contact Carol Mitchell or Amanda
Clyburn, U.S. DoEd; Office of Educational Research and
Improvement; 555 New Jersey Avenue NW; Washington, D.C. 20208-
5644. Requests can be e-mailed to Clyburn at
amanda_clyburn@ed.gov or faxed to 202/219-2198.
===== BYTES AND PIECES =====
*4 RETHINKING COMPUTERS: MORE THAN A TOY?
Blasphemies are beginning to be heard from outside the
church of technology. Criticism of computers in the classroom
are surfacing nationwide, according to a N.Y. TIMES editorial
written by Ethan Bronner (11/30). Most of what passes for
education on computers "is akin to glorified video games offered
in the vague but firm belief that access to endless information,
regardless of quality, must be good," pens Bronner.
Bronner describes an "intellectual backlash" against
technology in the schools, particularly in the lower grades. "At
the moment, the most mindless use of computers is at the
elementary school level," said Judah Schwartz, professor of
education at Harvard U.
Interestingly, some of the criticism has leaked from the
lips of computer gurus themselves, writs Bonner. Many computer
experts "point out that since it doesn't take 12 years of school
to master computers, they can become a distraction from other
learning that takes longer," writes Bronner.
David Gelernter, professor of computer science at Yale U:
"Computers themselves are fine. But we are in the middle of an
education catastrophe. Children are not being taught to read,
write, know arithmetic and history. In those circumstances, to
bring a glitzy toy into the classroom seems to me to be a
disaster."
Other computer masters, however, predict a new age of
education -- one in which students are liberated from
authoritarian teachers and rote learning, reports Bronner. This
group includes Don Tapscott, author of "Growing Up Digital" and
Idit Harel, founder of MaMaMedia, "a creative new educational Web
Site for children," writes Bronner. According to Tapscott, the
"Net Generation" is "beginning to process information and learn
differently than the boomers before them. New media tools offer
great promise for a new model of learning -- one based on
discovery and participation."
Tapscott predicts that computers will support a shift from
teaching to "the creation of learning partnerships and learning
cultures. The schools can become a place to learn rather than a
place to teach."
Astronomer and computer expert Clifford Stoll disagrees.
"Maybe I'm the weird one, but I never thought learning was
supposed to be fun. It requires discipline responsibility and
attention in class. He added: "Learning is work. Turning
scholarship and class work into a game is to denigrate the most
important thing we can do in life. Someone has to react against
all this bogus stuff."
Bronner admits that computer literacy for children "may not
be all bogus." He cites research that found college and high
school students who learned algebra with computers "have done
markedly better than those without them in a series of tests."
Although studies have not yet found that reading and arithmetic
achievement have increased due to computer use, the technology
has improved other skills including communication, presentation
and initiative-taking, reports Bronner. Some experts also point
out that writing and editing skills are completed with "more
ease" on computers.
Yet, many still view the technology as the classroom toy of
the 1990s. "The idea that children are in educational trouble
because they don't have access to enough glitz and what they
really need is a bigger database is staggeringly ludicrous," said
Gelernter. "They need practice in the basics."
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