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--- Wednesday --- September 23, 1998 --- Vol. 1 --- No. 55 ---
NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL
NEGP Weekly
THE UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
In cooperation with the DAILY REPORT CARD
NEXT CENTURY READING
A $10M U.S. DoEd grant will
allow all Washington, D.C.,
public schools to hire reading
specialists. The grant will
support D.C.'s "Turn of the
Century Achievement Project,"
which supports schools in
implementing comprehensive
reforms to raise the quality of
their teaching and learning
environments," according to a
DoEd press release.
The grant also will fund a
professional development
resource center aimed at
improving the quality of
teaching and a community
outreach program to more
effectively involve families in
their children's education.
TEACHING TECHNOLOGY TO TEACHERS
Twenty school district
partnerships in 17 states will
share $30M in federal funds to
prepare teachers to teach
effectively using technology.
The Technology Innovative
Challenge Grant Program grants
range from $789,000 to $2M a
year for five years, and will
leverage business and community
partners by generating matching
commitments.
__________ __________
| SPOTLIGHT |
| |
| A NEW ATTITUDE |
| |
| "We want to get away from |
| a public image of middle |
| grade students as |
| hopelessly entangled in |
| adolescence and incapable |
| of high academic achieve- |
| ment," says Sondra Cooney, |
| director of the Southern |
| Regional Education Board's |
| middle-grade initiative. |
| |
| SREB is publishing a |
| series of reports on middle |
| school education reform. |
| The first report concludes |
| that middle schools are the |
| "weak link" in the |
| educational system. "Raise |
| the Bar in the Middle |
| Grades: Readiness for |
| Success," the latest |
| report, argues that the key |
| reason eighth-grade |
| students living in the |
| South lag behind their |
| counterparts nationwide is |
| that too little is expected |
| of them. The report's |
| solution: Raise the bar of |
| student achievement.(#2) |
|_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"There is something very important we are not sharing with our
students: Not everything is going to be pizza; some things will
be spinach. Students need to know how to determine what is
important and get through it."
A Tennessee educator, from SREB's "Raise the Bar" report. (#2)
_______________________________________________________________
| (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 ==============
GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
DRUMMING UP SUPPORT FOR READING: A Reading Summit. (#1)
MIDDLE SCHOOL MEDIOCRITY: Raise the bar. (#2)
GEORGIA: School-to-work on its mind. (#3)
GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
SCIENCE + MATH = GRANTS: GTE seeks proposals. (#4)
IN THE NEWS
CAMPAIGN '98: Education tops candidates' agendas. (#5)
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*1 DRUMMING UP SUPPORT FOR READING: A READING SUMMIT
The nation's first Reading Summit was held last weekend,
with teams representing all 50 states attending the meeting
sponsored by America Reads, a program of the U.S. DoEd.
According to Pam Hughes, spokesperson for America Reads,
each state's chief state school officer was asked to send a state
team to the Summit. Invitations also were sent to national
education organizations that address issues related to reading
achievement. Participants included: teachers, superintendents,
state policymakers, school board members, parent leaders, reading
specialists, higher education leaders and early childhood
specialists, among others.
Three needs were presented to participants: develop skills
in early childhood; better prepare teachers in reading; and
target public and private resources toward child literacy.
Catherine Snow, Harvard U education professor and chairwoman
of the National Research Council's landmark report, "Preventing
Reading Difficulties in young Children," presented the Summit's
keynote address. Hughes said Summit participants concurred that
the Snow report is the "research base that should drive state
policy."
Ed Sec Richard Riley issued five challenges to Summit
participants that he hopes will ignite the movement toward full
child literacy:
More parents should read daily to children, beginning in
infancy;
The "reading wars" between various teaching methods must
cease;
Pre-kindergarten caregivers should work together to develop
pre-literacy skills;
Children with limited English, disabilities, and low incomes
should receive special help;
Standards for teacher preparation in reading should be
raised.
Riley also challenged state teacher certification boards and
colleges of education to require that every prospective K-3
teachers have rigorous training to teach reading. "State
certification requirements and teacher education curricula must
be changed, and many veteran teachers need strong re-training in
what the research shows works best in the classroom.
State teams were encouraged to network with other states and
to develop action plans designed to promote reading achievement.
Some state leaders expressed an interest in calling a state
Summit for reading.
For more information on America Reads Challenge, contact:
U.S. Department of Education; 600 Independence Avenue; Room
6100; Washington, D.C. 20202; 202/401-8888;
www.ed.gov/inits/americareads.
*2 MIDDLE SCHOOL MEDIOCRITY: RAISE THE BAR
Eighth-grade students living in the South lag behind their
counterparts nationwide. One reason may be that too little is
expected of them, according to a new report issued by the
Southern Regional Education Board.
"We should be putting everything we do in schools and
classrooms to a simple test: How does this help students learn
more?" said Sondra Cooney, director of the SREB's middle grades
education initiative.
Her view sets the tone for the SREB's report, "Raise the Bar
in the Middle Grades: Readiness for Success," the second in a
series of middle school reports. The first report concludes that
middle schools are the "weak link" in the educational system.
"Raise the Bar" maintains that schools and classrooms can use
standards to improve student achievement.
For example, students should be expected to meet challenging
requirements that might include reading 30 books a year, writing
a research paper, completing an algebra course and designing,
conducting and presenting science investigations. Schools also
could provide students and families with actual examples of
student work that meet the higher criteria and tell students how
their work will be judged. This last suggestion addresses
parental concerns noted in the U.S. DoEd's latest survey, "Family
Involvement in Education: A National Portrait," which found that
fewer than half of parents surveyed said their child's school did
"very well" in explaining what children should know and be able
to do at their grade level. (See NEGP Weekly, 9 September 1998)
"Raise the Bar" opens with a "Readiness for High School"
chart, which lists a series of readiness indicators, describes
current performance in SREB states for each indicator, and
provides "questions to ask" that can help teachers and parents
assess whether their school is preparing students for high
school.
The report also found that every middle school visited by
SREB staff "sorted" students. From the report: "For one group
of students, the focus was on academic achievement and
accelerated learning. For the rest, the focus was on textbook
coverage, special short-term instructional programs and self-
esteem improvement." "Raising the Bar" cites data from both the
National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) and the Third
International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) that
maintains sorting students "leads to different expectations and
lower achievement." The report adds that "students who are
accommodated through lower expectations are given a license to
'hide' from more challenging work."
Block scheduling, which allows a class to delve more deeply
into subject matter, is a successful tool in schools that use it
to improve student performance. At many of these schools,
instruction has changed significantly, writes the report.
Students cover fewer topics in greater depth and "demonstrate
greater understanding of content through comparing, analyzing,
summarizing and reporting." The report underscores that lesson
plans in these classes focus on what students will do, not what
the teacher will do.
A Louisville, Kentucky, middle school was praised for its
decision to grant teaching teams flexibility in creating their
own schedules based on academic needs. "This level of
flexibility is too rare in schools today," notes the report.
"We have tried to ask the right questions that can lead to
better-prepared students," said Cooney, of the report. "We want
to get away from a public image of middle grade students as
hopelessly entangled in adolescence and incapable of high
academic achievement. Until we erase that false image, we will
not succeed in getting our middle schoolers ready for challenging
work in high school."
SREB's next report on middle schools will present what
teachers should know and be able to do to prepare students for
rigorous high school work.
For more information, contact SREB at: 592 Tenth Street NW;
Atlanta, Georgia 30318-5790; 404/872-1477; www.sreb.org.
*3 GEORGIA: SCHOOL-TO-WORK ON ITS MIND
Georgia becomes the 45th state to receive federal funds to
implement a school-to-work program (SCHOOLtoWORK press release,
9/21). The National School-To-Work Office, administered jointly
by the U.S. DoEd and the U.S. Department of Labor, announced that
Georgia will receive a $6M grant.
"School-to-Work offers students the chance to see how
academic achievement relates to the working world," said Ed Sec
Richard Riley. "Moreover, both the young people and adults
involved in School-to-Work partnerships recognize that to succeed
in the 21st Century,they must be lifelong partners, willing to
master new skills and equipped to handle the changing times."
Georgia's implementation grant will be used to "'fill in the
gaps' of its existing educational initiatives such as Hope
Scholarships, which provide free tuition to students with a 3.0
GPA and P-16 which focuses on promoting student success in school
and on into the workforce," explains Kristina Stroede, with the
Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education.
Local partnerships will focus on tearing down obstacles that
interfere with students and out-of-school youth who are trying to
make a successful transition from school to work. The School-to-
Work partnership also will attempt to streamline duplicate
programs and services.
The newly formed Governor's Workforce Policy and Planning
Council, which has strong business representation, will provide
oversight of the School-to-Work project.
Key partners in the project are Georgia State University
System, Chatham Steel Corporation, The Boeing Co., BellSouth,
Southwire and Garrett-Dixon Development Group.
===== GOAL FIVE: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE =====
*4 SCIENCE + MATH = GRANTS: GTE SEEKS PROPOSALS
High school science and math teachers from the same school
who develop a joint proposal that integrates the two subjects
into a curriculum that employs innovative technology use could be
the recipients of a grant program sponsored by the GTE
Foundation.
GTE's 1999 Growth Initiatives for Teachers (GIFT) intends to
award sixty teams with a $7,000 grant to implement their
proposals. Members of winning teams also will receive $2,500 to
enroll in professional development programs.
The deadline is 16 January 1999.
GTE Communications Corporation also is working with several
high technology companies and state and local government agencies
to make the Hyattsville (Maryland) Elementary and Middle Schools
wireless classrooms. The Hyattsville Wireless Community will
make its debut at Maryland's Net Weekend '98, scheduled for 25-26
September. According to GTE's Web site, the "statewide event
focuses on helping public school in Maryland establish high-speed
Internet connections from multiple access points in schools, as
well as provide teachers the knowledge and skills to effectively
integrate Internet resources into the curriculum."
Hyattsville teachers will have access to:
multimedia notebook computers with CD-ROM to use at school
or home, which will have wireless connections to the Local
Area Network (LAN) within the school to access the Internet
and shred files;
wireless telephones to make and receive phone calls from
anywhere on the school grounds;
personal voice mail boxes that will allow 24-hour
communication with parents and school administrators;
a school-based electronic fax service to send and receive
faxes from parents, students and other educators;
a Distance Learning room that links the elementary students
with teachers at the middle school for enhanced and
accelerated instruction.
For more information about GTE's 1999 Growth Initiatives for
Teachers (GIFT), contact: GTE Foundation; One Stamford Forum;
Stamford, Connecticut 06904; 800/315-5010; e-mail:
gift@gte.com. Or, visit GTE's Web site at: www.gte.com.
==== IN THE NEWS ====
*5 CAMPAIGN '98: EDUCATION TOPS CANDIDATES' AGENDAS
Across the nation, political candidates are trumpeting their
views of improving American education, reports the N.Y.TIMES
(Bronner, 9/20). While disagreement between Democrats and
Republicans over the means is widespread, the paper notes that
there is "near-universal consensus" on the ends.
Larry Cuban, an education professor at Stanford University,
discusses the common ground that has been reached by both
parties. "The traditionalists have won, "he said. "New math and
whole-language reading are in retreat. Today there are more
phonics, more multiplication tables, more tests. There is a
consensus between the public and officials that the basic,
traditional model is the one to pursue. Whatever experimentation
is occurring today challenges the boundaries far less than two to
three decades ago."
For the politicians, this means that most are promising
voters that they will provide "better equipment, safer classrooms
and better teachers," writes the paper. However, Democrats and
Republicans split over how to reach these goals, with the GOP
willing to embrace vouchers and confront unions, while the
Democrats prefer to focus on traditional, public schools and work
cooperatively with the unions.
The TIMES argues that agreement has been reached over the
appropriate end results of education because the "economic
rationale for schooling has triumphed." More Americans concur
that their child's future financial success is contingent on a
strong academic program. From the paper: "Campaigning about
education does not displace campaigning about the economy -- it
is a proxy for it."
Politicians also believe that voter concern over education
reflects angst over their child's character development. "Astute
politicians realize that a lot of us are worried about our kids,"
said Theodore Sizer, an education author and school-reform
advocate. "The moral dimension and the safety dimension overlap.
More and more families are frightened by what they see."
The paper reports that some educators question whether the
political campaign rhetoric will have any consequence for what
goes on in the classroom. Chester Finn, senior fellow at the
Hudson Institute, challenges the preeminence of class-size
reduction in the on-going political banter over education.
Finn: "American class sizes have been shrinking for 50
years. Many countries that beat the pants off of us in
international comparisons have much larger class sizes than we
do. The biggest immediate effect of reducing class size in most
places will be to draw more unqualified people into teaching and
suck good teachers out of urban into suburban schools.
Nonetheless, everyone is proposing class-size reduction."
Patricia Albjerg Graham, a professor and former dean of the
Harvard Graduate School of Education, remarks on what she argues
is a salutary outcome of the education debate. "The most
important result of this prolonged debate on education has been
the widespread conviction that children of all social classes are
now expected to learn academic material," she said. "The ideas
that educational achievement is for everybody is revolutionary.
That's real progress."
_______________________________________________________________
| National Education Goals Panel |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Suite 502; Washington, D.C. 20037 |
| 202/632-0957 (Fax); e-mail: negp@goalline.org |
| Web site: www.negp.gov |
|_______________________________________________________________|
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