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Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a publication.
Publications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose
of digitization. To see the full publication please search online or
visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.
Authentic Teaching, Learning,
and Assessment with
New English Learners at
International High School
Jacqueline Ancess
Linda Darling-Hammond
A Series on Authentic Assessment and Accountability
NCREST
Clinton Presidential Records
Digital Records Marker
This is not a presidential record. This is used as an administrative
marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff.
This marker identifies the place of a publication.
Publications have not been scanned in their entirety for the purpose
of digitization. To see the full publication please search online or
visit the Clinton Presidential Library's Research Room.
An Inquiry High School:
Learner-Centered Accountability
at the Urban Academy
Jacqueline Ancess
Foreword by Linda Darling-Hammond
NCREST
U.S. NEWS
"Christianity is a big problem. It says 'God
loves us all.''
After an unremarkable stint as a mar-
ginal figure in the hate movement, Hale
When Johnny can't
today boasts followers in 40 states and 22
countries-30,000 total adherents, he
claims. Civil rights groups put the number
in the low thousands but say the group has
read-try tough love
targeted younger, more educated recruits,
like Smith, who grew up in a wealthy sub-
urb and got into a good college. After ex-
Waging war against "social promotions"
pressing regret that Smith was dead-"and
that other people are, too"-Hale added:
BY BEN WILDAVSKY
Taurean Pullen will face another year in
"But we can also reach people now through
eighth grade.
this unfortunate incident."
ACO, TEXAS-On a stifling morn-
This is raising the bar, Waco-style. Like
"The hate movement is more sophisti-
W
ing here 10 eighth graders sit in
many other school districts with high
cated today than two decades ago," says
silence behind their desks at the
percentages of poor, minority stu-
Brian Levin, a hate crimes expert at Cal-
G. W. Carver Academy, staring in-
dents, Waco has struggled for years with
ifornia State University-San Bernardino.
tently at the math problems that stand be-
dismal academic performance. Now it's
"They want more upwardly mobile, young
tween them and high school. Today's fill-
trying to jump-start student achievement
people who are computer literate and dis-
in-the-bubble test is only a practice session
with a controversial crackdown on "social
enfranchised. Matt Hale is a microcosm
for the teenagers attending summer class-
promotion," the long-entrenched practice
of the future of this movement."
es at this magnet public school. But the
of advancing students to the next grade
Hate-group explosion. The resurgence of
pressure is on nonetheless. If they can't
even if they haven't learned what they
the World Church of the Creator reflects
pass their final tests when summer school
should have. To be promoted under the
an alarming trend in the shadowy world
ends, students like Vanessa Balderas and
district's two-year-old policy, kids in grades
of right-wing extremists: The "Patriot," or
militia, movement is declining, but the
number of white supremacists is increas-
ing. "Hate groups, neo-Nazi, and Klan
groups have been rising markedly for two
years," says Mark Potok, who tracks such
groups for the Southern Poverty Law Cen-
ter. "At the same time, weekend warriors
who wanted to defend the Second Amend-
ment have gotten sick of waiting for the
to
revolution that never came." He points
to more than 500 hate groups operating
in the United States last year, notably
the National Alliance, the Ku Klux Klan,
and the National Socialist White People's
Party. A neo-Nazi group, the Knights of
Freedom Nationalist Party, recently was
given permission to march in downtown
Washington, D.C., next month.
One reason the groups are rising: the
Internet. At the time of the Oklahoma City
bombing in 1995, there was one Web site
with a hate message, according to the
Simon Wiesenthal Center. In February,
there were 1,400. Today, there are 2,000.
The World Church of the Creator has a
women's Web page featuring a diet and
jewelry, and a kids' page offering cross-
word puzzles, comics, and coloring books.
White-power music-with unprintable
lyrics-also trumpets the message. Some
50,000 CDs by bands with gruesome
names like White Terror, Aggravated As-
sault and Nordic Thunder are sold an-
nually. These sorts of messages empow-
er fearful, hate-filled people, like gun-toting
Benjamin Smith, who once might have felt
like part of society's margins but who sud-
denly feel part of a big movement.
Kimbra Talley, 7, is among the 15,000 children in Waco schools who will have to pass muster
24 U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT, JULY 19, 1999
LIFE INSURANCE ISN'T
FOR THE PEOPLE WHO DIE.
IT'S FOR THE PEOPLE
WHO LIVE.
"It broke my heart to hear my
daughter Dorsey say she wished
her daddy was still here. But
thanks to his foresight, we'll still
have the things he worked for."
Dorsey Hoskins father Bryan feh a
tingling in his arm. The diagnosis-
an inoperable brain tumor. He died
six months later, at 33. leaving his
wife Dean alone to raise Dorsey and
her sister Hattic.
Fortunately, Bryan bought life
insurance when he got married, and
again when his daughters were born.
Dean invested the proceeds in her
own clothing store, which gives her
the flexibility to spend more time
with her children.
Are you prepared? Without insur-
ance, your financial plan may be
just a savings and investment pro-
gram that dies when you do. An
insurance agent or other financial
professional can help you create a
plan that will continue to provide
for the ones you love.
To learn more call I 888-LIFE-
777. or visit www.life-line.org.
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A NONPROBIT ORGANIZATION
Dorsey Hoskins
U.S. NEWS
DAVID BUTOW-SABA FOR USN&WR
straight? And that's all I know to do."
Ronald Reagan made dozens of misstate-
ments both as a candidate and as a pres-
ident, and the public never seemed to mind
much. Reagan's Gary Cooperesque aw-
shucks attitude (which Bush has cultivat-
ed) got him through many a scrape. "The
press just never got the point, which is that
people look for leadership and character
and principles and they don't expect com-
plete mastery of every detail," says Bush
spokesman David Beckwith. "In fact, the
public knows that sometimes if you are
worried about tiny details, you are not look-
ing at the big picture."
School's out. No, say the Democrats,
it's more serious than that. "Bush seems
to have a cavalier attitude toward whether
it's important for him to have information
in the first place," says Pat Ewing, senior
adviser to the chairman of the Democra-
tic National Committee. "Where other pres-
idential candidates are studying, knowing,
researching vital issues, Bush is saying:
Bush, joking with a reporter in California, has displayed a touch that's common but confident.
'Hey, I'll call someone."
Some Republicans agree. Dan Quayle
may not know how to spell potato, but
Is it wrong to call him
he knows that Bush is getting breaks from
the media that Quayle never got. "Use your
wildest imagination and multiple it by a
factor of three and then you'd come close
George Dumbya Bush?
to what would be happening to me if I had
made similar gaffes," says Quayle.
Multiple it?
Another Republican presidential hope-
He's no genius, but presidents often aren't
ful, Lamar Alexander, is even more
scathing, worrying that Bush could be torn
apart by Gore in head-to-head debates
BY ROGER SIMON
Oxford, it took great pains to "dumb down"
"We need to know going into the general
Clinton and stress his roots in tiny Hope,
election that we have a candidate who's
S Dubya dumb? Is George W. Bush not
Ark., and his love for Big Macs, Ray-Ban
ready to be president."
the sharpest knife in the drawer? We
sunglasses, and the AstroTurf he had in
It is revealing that the Bush campaign
know he doesn't know Slovakia from
the back of his pickup truck as a youth.
does not make any great claims as to Bush's
Slovenia, Greeks from "Grecians," or
That won't be Bush's problem. The Dem-
intellect. "When you are out taking ques-
that there is no "standard" version of the
ocratic National Committee has sent out
tions from reporters, the public realizes
Ten Commandments. And we also know
a series of withering "blast faxes" dubbing
that it's stressful and somewhat risky,"
that the big bookshelf in his Austin office
the Texas governor "Bush-Lite" and claim-
Beckwith says. "If someone handles it with
contains baseballs and not books. But
ing: "Bush has a long way to go and
aplomb, the voters care about that more
this begs the question: How bright
a lot of learning to do
having
than the precise answers."
do you have to be to be president?
already demonstrated his ten-
"We're going to make mistakes," says
"Well, you certainly don't have
uous grasp of foreign affairs, ge-
Karl Rove, Bush's chief strategist. "But we
to be brilliant in an academic
ography, comparative religion,
need to avoid the biggest mistake of all,
sense," says presidential scholar
and
the Constitution." The
and that is to be tepid."
Allan Lichtman. "You just have to
Gore campaign is even less char-
Tepid they are leaving to Al Gore.
have a certain basic level of intelli-
itable. "When people say George
"Gore is very smart, but he is almost too
gence. "True, Bush attended Andover,
W. is all hat and no cattle, they're not
smart," says Jim Hightower, a radio com-
Yale, and Harvard-but that doesn't prove
referring just to his lack of positions but
mentator and former Democratic offi-
he's dumb. For much of American history,
to the lack of gray matter filling that hat,"
cial from Texas. "He's too controlled. He
too much intelligence has been a potential
a Gore aide says.
sits around planning on how not to make
problem for presidential candidates.
Typically, however, Bush is unfazed.
mistakes, and so he will never make a bold
William Henry Harrison's advisers worked
"Just because I happen to mispronounce
stroke. Let's face it, Gore vs. Bush is going
to take off his patrician edge when he ran
the name of a country doesn't mean that I
to be a race between Dull and Dullard.
for president in 1840. When Bill Clinton's
don't understand how to lead," he says.
But after seven action-packed years
campaign staff found out that people as-
"What matters is do I know how to see clear
Bill Clinton, that may be exactly the kin
sociated him with Georgetown, Yale, and
goals? Do I know how to lead? Do I shoot
of race the public wants.
26
NEWS & WORLD REPORT, JULY 19, 1999
three through eight must pass
modest structure in a poor and
their classes, have a 90 percent
mostly Hispanic section of South
attendance record, and pass the
Waco that stands next to one of
Texas Assessment of Academic
the numerous churches that dot
Skills. The standardized test,
this town of 110,000 people. Ken
known as the TAAS, is the back-
drick has gone through a dra:
bone of the state's rigorous ed-
matic turnaround under the new
ucational accountability system.
policy. An intense focus on test
The new requirements put
preparation includes lots of prac-
pressure on kids. Balderas cried
tice exams, bar charts on class-
when she first heard she might
room walls that record each stu-
be held back. She'd failed the
dent's progress, and a system of
reading and math sections of the
"TAAS buddies" that pairs school
TAAS by just a few points. "I was,
staff-including custodians and
like, real mad," the 14-year-old
cafeteria workers-with students
says. "I wanted to be with my
to offer test-taking encourage-
right grade." Pullen, who went
ment. Skyrocketing scores have
through summer school last year
moved it off the state's low-per-
under the new policy and barely
forming list and are likely to earn
squeaked into eighth grade, was
Vanessa Balderas feared being held back: "I was, like, real mad."
it a top rating this year.
equally dismayed when he
But Waco's experience also
flunked the spring exam for the second
Waco's policy is part of a broader na-
shows that a crash program to bring pupils
year running. Still, he's buckling down
tional trend. It's also the toughest in Texas,
up to par quickly can be painful for some
under his mother's watchful eye. "She don't
where it is being watched as a harbinger
kids and their families. About 44 per-
let me go nowhere," he says, "till I finish
of a statewide plan championed by Gov.
cent of last year's summer-school students
my homework."
George W. Bush. The GOP presidential
still weren't able to meet the new pro-
CHRIS ANDERSON-AURORA FOR USN&WR (2)
front-runner has praised the Waco poli-
motion standards by summer's end. Other
cy on two separate visits, calling himself
kids didn't even attend summer classes.
"a strong believer" in the tough-love ap-
When the new school year began last Au-
proach of a district where 4 of 5 pupils are
gust, over 1,000 children were set to be re-
poor. Bush's plan, somewhat kinder and
tained. More than 500 balked and left the
gentler than Waco's, will take effect when
district. Of the 523 students who ended up
this fall's incoming kindergarteners reach
repeating a grade, more than half were pro-
third grade. "What Waco did," says Texas
moted at the end of the school year. But
Education Commissioner Mike Moses, "is
that still leaves over 200 who face the harsh
what we're trying to do." By many mea-
prospect of being retained for the sec-
sures, Waco's assault on social promotion
ond year in a row. "They're punishing
has been a success. At the end of the 1997-
the children," complains Arnita Scott,
98 school year, more than 19 percent of
whose son Michael attended summer
students in third through eighth grade, or
school last year and went on to pass the
1,350 pupils, failed the TAAS. Along with
TAAS. "When a child has really applied
students who had bombed their course-
himself" and passed his coursework, "then
work or had too many absences, they were
I don't think a state test should punish him
urged to attend summer school. Then they
and keep him from going to the next grade.
had to retake and pass an old version of
It's not fair." McLennan County Commis-
the test to move on to the next grade. This
sioner Lester Gibson, who spearheaded
spring, after students, parents, and teach-
a lawsuit against the district last year in
ers had seen the district make good on
an unsuccessful effort to strike down the
its pledge to retain students who didn't
new promotion rules, calls the new ap-
measure up, scores rose to all-time highs.
proach "a racist policy" and predicts it will
The TAAS failure rate dropped to 9 percent
lead more minority kids to quit school.
following two rounds of testing. By the time
There's plenty of evidence to support that.
students are retested at the end of sum-
Most educational research has found that
mer school, district officials hope to lower
kids forced to repeat a grade don't nec-
that figure still further. This year's sum-
essarily improve their academic skills and
mer school head count of 1,202 kids in
are more likely to drop out.
grades one through eight is one third lower
Others dispute that. "What was really
than last year's record enrollment of 1,810.
punitive was the system we had in place,"
TAAS buddies. Rising test scores and
says District Court Judge Ralph Strother,
falling retention rates demonstrate that
who served on the school board from 1992
setting higher standards works, many Waco
until Bush appointed him to the bench ear-
educators say. "We've found here the kids
lier this year. "If I were a racist and want-
will rise to the occasion," says fourth-grade
ed to devise an educational system that op-
teacher Sherry Johnson, an eight-year vet-
pressed minorities, I would have continued
the district's tough new testing policy.
eran of Kendrick Elementary School, a
with the one we had."
NEWS & WORLD REPORT, JULY 19, 1999
25
NEA: Bob.Chase's Column 03/22/98
http://www.nea.org/society/bc/bc980322.html
March 22, 1998
Change That Works
A School Can Overcome a Legacy of Failure
Bob Chase
President, NEA
Those who would have us believe that public education is
"an ossified government monopoly," incapable of change,
ought to visit one of the many "turnaround" schools across
America.
Visit, for example, Martin Luther King Elementary in San
Diego, California. Talk with faculty members who
remember when the school was a shambles, completely
isolated from its surrounding community, and failing by any measure.
Today, King is a very different place--hopeful and spruced up. The drug
dealers are gone from the sidewalk outside the school, test scores are up,
and a community-based Friends of King Foundation supports the school's
music and arts programs.
The Alamo Middle School in Alamo, Texas has re-energized itself by
reconnecting with its community. Parents are now deeply involved in their
children's school. Teachers visit students' homes, and parents take evening
courses at the school. Twice as many of Alamo's middle schoolers now
meet Texas academic standards as did before the community
reinvolvement.
Today, Willow Bend Elementary school in Palatine, Illinois, enjoys an
attendance rate of 97 percent, and student test scores have gone from the
bottom third to the top third in the district. What happened? Three years
ago the educators at Willow Bend took a hard look at what they were doing
and how they were doing it, and they reinvented the school. They came up
with a team-teaching approach that transformed the way students learn, and
they retooled the curriculum.
Besides renewal, King, Alamo, and Willow Bend have one other notable
thing in common: they serve a high number of students from low income
families.
School redemption begins with a leap of faith. You have to believe that
change is possible. You have to believe in your ability to change. And you
have to believe in the school's children, seeing them as thinkers, problem
solvers, and truth seekers, not as "students at risk."
More and more, individual public schools around the country are making
that leap of faith.
In Seattle, Washington, over the last three years, 10 city schools have
worked their way off a list of the lowest performing schools, with joint
management-union support. In New York City, 15 schools have improved
sufficiently to be removed from the state's dreaded Schools Under
Registration Review.
1 of 2
7/7/99 6:57 PM
NEA: Bob Chase's Column 03/22/98
http://www.nea.org/society/bc/bc980322.html
What can we learn from these and other successful school turnaround
efforts?
Raising the bar works. Set clear, high expectations for all students. That is
what El Paso, Texas, has done. The majority of students in the three school
districts that serve El Paso, the fifth-poorest metropolitan area in the
country, now pass the state achievement test.
Downsizing works. Research now shows, conclusively, that students in
smaller classes (13 to 17 students per teacher) consistently score higher on
achievement and basic skills tests than students in regular classes (22-25).
Reducing class size, especially at the elementary and intermediate levels,
pays dividends. In addition, student learning improves when very large
high schools are broken down into smaller learning units, because students
no longer get lost in the system.
Professional development works. University of Wisconsin professor
Jennifer O'Day, who has studied school turnarounds, notes that successful
school reform efforts invariably include a strong program of learning for
teachers and support staff. This enables educators to continue to improve
their skills much as physicians do.
Off the shelf can work. Fortunately, not every school has to reinvent the
wheel. Models have been developed and demonstrated to help schools
improve student achievement. These models come with curricula and
instructional guides and trainers. They include Johns Hopkins' Success for
All program, E.D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge Sequence, and others. The
challenge for school administrators and faculty is to find the program that
best fits their local circumstances. (NEA now has a website for those
seeking more information about reform programs:
http://www.nea.org/reform.)
School renewal is gathering speed and gaining ground. However, those of
us who believe in public education must remain impatient-there is so much
still to do.
Bob Chase
President, National Education Association
1201 16th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
(202) 822-7200
Good Schools
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2 of 2
7/7/99 6:57 PM
AFT: Where We Stand: December 1997: A School is Reborn
http://www.aft.org/stand/previous/1997/1297.hm.
Where We Stand
aft.org
AFT Home > Where We Stand
About AFT
Contact AFT
Search
Index
1999
A School is Reborn
1998
1997
by AFT President Sandra Feldman
December 1997
1996
1995
Two years ago,
children in PS 154
1994
were among
1993
the lowest-achieving
students in the city.
A critical question in American education is how to provide poor children
in failing and mostly urban schools with a good education. Voucher
advocates have given up and argue that we should just rescue a few
children by subsidizing their tuition at private schools. But how can we
have a public policy of saving a few kids and ignoring the rest? If a school
is that bad, no one should be stuck there.
Instead, we must-and can--educate all the children by turning around
schools that are disorderly and unsafe and where kids are not learning.
Close them if necessary; rethink everything about them--and do it fast.
This is not just talk. It's what Chancellor Rudy Crew, with the support and
collaboration of the United Federation of Teachers, is doing in New York
City. Schools that were performing so poorly the state threatened to take
them over are being redesigned. Most are starting to improve, and some
have made remarkable progress.
I recently visited PS 154 in central Harlem, where scores in a state-wide
reading exam have risen 19.5 percent since the redesigned school
opened in September 1996. (This figure is solidly documented, unlike the
claims made for some private school voucher programs.)
PS 154 looks the way a good school should. The hallways are bright and
clean and filled with the terrific work of children. There are no graffiti, no
torn-up bulletin boards. Classroom doors stand open, and you can hear
the sounds of children and teachers working together. They look busy and
intent on what they're doing.
Most of the students are poor. They come from a public housing project
across the street, and nearly 95 percent are eligible for Title I funds.
Some have very serious problems, but the majority are average,
normal-to-bright, big-city kids--and they are thriving.
A Dirty, Disorderly Place
Two years ago, the children in PS 154 were among the lowest-achieving
students in the city. The school they attended, this same school, was dirty
and disorderly. It was always short of books and supplies, and the
adults--teachers and administrators--were frequently at odds with one
another. There was no vision of what the school should be like--or any
hope of making it different and better.
How did all this change? First, PS 154, which had been neglected and
starved for support and resources by its local sub-district, was taken over
by the chancellor. The chancellor's office, together with the United
Federation of Teachers, assisted PS 154's administrators, parents,
teachers, and other staff in redesigning the school. The idea was to draw
up a plan whose every part would contribute to improving student
learning. Ultimately PS 154 chose, as a centerpiece, "Success for All," a
1 of 2
7/7/99 6:35 PM
AFT: Where,We Stand: December 1997: A School is Reborn
http://www.at.org/stand/previous/1997/1297.hml
reading program that has proven very effective in inner-city schools, and
they organized the rest of the education plan around that program.
Teachers who wanted to be part of the new PS 154 were invited to apply;
others transferred to schools elsewhere in the district. In all, 50 percent of
the teachers stayed on. The rest were mostly new, young teachers who
were eager to work in the redesigned school. All of the teachers-both
new and experienced--got extra training to prepare them for putting the
education plan into action.
Working Together
As for the leadership, the final and all-important piece, the school got an
excellent new principal. She and the school's talented union building rep
were able to work together and help teachers and parents follow through
on every detail of the redesign.
This is a story about one school--and it's only the first chapter. But there
are many stories like it, and more to come. In fact, as I was writing this
column, the state education department and the Chancellor announced
that PS 154, along with 14 other schools was being removed from the
state's list of low-performing schools--a major accomplishment in a
relatively short period of time.
But there's another angle--an important one: Vouchers divide a
community; they pit the few families who "win" the voucher lottery against
the many who do not. They encourage people to give up on neighborhood
schools and take scarce resources out of these schools. The rebuilding of
PS 154 demonstrates something very different. Many groups made a
commitment to fix this school so all the kids in the neighborhood could get
a good education. Together, they achieved what none of them could have
done alone. And in helping a community get back its neighborhood
school, they made the community stronger.
American Federation of Teachers, AFLCIO - 555 New Jersey Ave, NW - Washington, DC 20001
Copyright by the American Federation of Teachers, AFLCIO. All rights reserved. Photographs
and illustrations, as well as text, cannot be used without permission from the AFT.
2 of 2
7/7/99 6:35 PM
NEA: Three Proven Programs
http://www.nea.org/issues/vouchers/3proven.hm.
nea
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Three Proven Programs
Among the many school improvement programs in America's
schools are three that have proven effective, especially in
schools that enroll a high percentage of underachieving
low-income students. Research has shown that each of these
programs increases student achievement, attendance and
family and community involvement and improves the school
climate. The three programs are:
Accelerated Schools Project
School Development Program
Success for All
All three approaches use staff collaboration,
parent/community involvement, and expectations of high
student achievement to improve school. The Accelerated
Schools Project, associated with Stanford University, focuses
on providing an enriched and accelerated curriculum. The
School Development Program, associated with Yale
University, emphasizes improved school climate and
home-school partnerships. And Success for All, associated
with Johns Hopkins University, stresses cognitive practices
that increase learning. Each of these programs implement
schoolwide change, and each has demonstrated success
improving student achievement and attendance and increasing
parent involvement.
Each of the three programs has been adopted, replicated, and
implemented in up to 700 schools (elementary through high
school) in as many as 70 school districts in more than 30
states. The districts range from some of the largest cities in
the country (e.g., Houston, Philadelphia, Baltimore) to such
middle-sized districts as Montgomery, AL, Rockford, IL, and
Modesto and Riverside, CA, to tiny rural districts including
tow Navaho reservations in Arizona. In addition, Accelerated
Schools has a national network with ten regional centers
across the country.
It should be noted that the cost of transforming existing
schools into, for example, an Accelerated School is generally
less than 1 percent of the school budget, about $30-40 per
student year. Success for All is funded by reallocating Title I
funds plus an additional $20,000 for start-up costs. The
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NEA: Three Proven Programs
http://www.nea.org/issues/vouchers/3proven.html
schools remain public schools with no profits or fees going to
for-profit companies.
The programs can be reached at the following addresses:
Accelerated Schools Project
School of Education, CERAS 109
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-3084
415-725-1676
Success for All
Johns Hopkins University
3505 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
800-548-4998
School Development Program
Yale Child Study Center
55 College Street
New Haven, CT 06510
800-811-7775
FYI
For Your Information
Back to Issues
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nea
1201 16TH STREET, NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20036
202.833.4000
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School Based Reform - Lessons from a National Study
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Reform/
School-Based Reform
Lessons from a National Study
A Guide for School Reform Teams
1995
Table of Contents
Title Page
Acknowledgments
Section I - Introduction
Federal Legislation
The Purpose of This Guide
The Study of Effective Schools Programs: The Basis for the Guide
Key Features of Promising Reforms
How to Use This Guide
Section II - Practical Advice: Key Features of Successful Reform Strategies
A Portrait of South Mission High School: Building on the Effective Schools Model
Create Challenging Learning Experiences for All Students
1. Set High Expectations for All Students
2. Develop Challenging Curriculum
3. Consider Alternative Configurations of Students and Teachers
4. Track Student Progress with a Range of Outcome Measures
Build a School Culture That Nurtures Staff Collaboration and Participation in Decision Making
1. Find Ways for Teachers and School Staff to Collaborate on Significant Changes Needed in
the School
2. Seek Ways to Reformulate the Roles and Authority of Teachers and Administrators
3. Consider Reformulating Staffing, Resources, and Time and Space to Increase Staff
Collaboration
Provide Meaningful Opportunities for Professional Growth
1. Identify and Prioritize the topics and types of Staff Development That Will Promote the
School's Reform Goals
2. Plan a Coherent, Sustained Program for Professional Growth That Will Provide Time and
Expertise for Staff to Acquire, Implement, and Reflect on New Approaches
3. Explore a Variety of Methods for Developing Expertise
Section III - Examples of Promising School-Based Reform Efforts
Changing a School from the Classroom Out: Cicely Elementary
The Little Engine That Could: Arbor Elementary
On the Way: Empire High School
Too Much, Too Quickly: Attempts to Change Edgemont Junior High
Slow Going: The Beginning of Change in Petersburgh Elementary
Summary
Section IV - Beyond the Schoolhouse: What Districts Can Do to Support School-Based Reform
Providing Professional Development Opportunities
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School Based Reform - Lessons from a National Study
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Reform/
Setting and Waiving Requirements
Namaging Forces and Conditions outside the School's Control
Garnering Resources
Summary
References
Appendix: Resources
I. Research Resources
Research on School-Based Reform
Case Studies of Successful Reform
II. How-To Resources
Guidelines for School Level Reform
The Role of Principals in School Reform
The Role of Teachers in School Reform
The Role of Parents and the Community in School Reform
Curriculum Reform
Assessment Reform
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Tried and True: Table of Contents
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/triedandtrue/
Tried and True
Tested Ideas for
Teaching and Learning from
the Regional Educational Laboratories
Table of Contents
Title page
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Early Childhood Education
Family Connections
A set of guides for parent involvement in the education of young children
Program for Infant and Toddler Caregivers
A complete multimedia training system for caregivers of young children
Instructional Content and Practice
Classroom Assessment Video Training Workshops
A set of video-based workshops to improve the assessment skills and understanding of
teachers
Comprehensive School Mathematics Program (CSMP)
Kindergarten through sixth grade mathematics focusing on problem solving and concept
development
Literacy Plus
A language arts framework for kindergarten through eighth grade integrating reading,
writing, vocabulary, and reasoning
SEDL Follow Through Program
A comprehensive program for Tanguage-minority children in kindergarten through third
grade
Strategic Teaching and Reading Project (STRP)
An instructional and professional development program for kindergarten through 12th
grade designed to improve students' reading
Success for All and Exito Para Todos
An early elementary school program for at-risk youth
Vocational Mentoring
An experience-based career education program for high school juniors and seniors at risk
of not graduating
Teacher Professional Development
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Tried and True: Table of Contents
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Dimensions of Learning
A framework for planning instruction based on constructivist learning
Improving Multigrade Classroom Instruction in Small, Rural Schools
A series of workshops for educators interested in multigraded classroom instruction
Peer-Assisted Leadership (PAL)
A year long program of professional development for educational leaders involved in
school improvement
Questioning and Understanding To Improve Learning and Thinking (QUILT)
A program designed to enhance student learning by improving teachers' classroom
questioning techniques
Teaching Cases: New Approaches to Teacher Education and Staff Development
A program that supports the development and use of cases in education
School Improvement Strategies
Onward to Excellence
A ten-step school improvement process designed to improve student performance
Successful Schools Process
A rural school improvement process for reaching consensus and developing plans for
student outcomes
References and Contacts
The Regional Educational Laboratories
Postscript
For the user's convenience, this document is also available in portable document format (pdf) (934K). In
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Reform Models
http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/natspec/catalog/index.hml
NORTHWES IF RECEIVAL EDUCAT ONAL LABORATORY
NWREL - Search - Resources - Hot Topics . What's New - Programs and Services - Organization
School Improvement Program
Catalog of School Reform Models
National Specialty in School Change
Catalog of
School Reform Models
First Edition
The Catalog of School Reform Models: First Edition was developed to support
schools, school districts, states, and others as they proceed with their work
under the Obey-Porter Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program
(CSRD) passed by the U.S. Congress in 1997. It provides information on 26
entire-school, or whole-school, reform models and 18 skill- and content-based
models. An Addendum comprising an additional 4 models (1 whole school
model and 3 skill- and content-based models) also has been published.
The catalog was developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
(NWREL) with assistance from the Education Commission of the States. It
presents information as prescribed by the U.S. Department of Education,
Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), the funding agency.
The addendum was developed by NWREL with assistance from representatives
of the other nine regional labs, who helped (a) structure the review process for
models, (b) develop criteria for inclusion, (c) conduct reviews, and (d) write
descriptions of included models.
This page contains the full text of the catalog and the addendum in two forms:
first, a hypertext version with links to Web sites maintained by each model; and
second, a Portable Document Format (PDF) version that preserves the original
formatting of the catalog to make printing and photocopying as easy as
possible.
Catalog of School Reform Models: First Edition
Hypertext version
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
ENTIRE-SCHOOL REFORM MODELS
Introduction
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Reform Models
http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/natspec/catalog/index.hml
Models
Accelerated Schools Project (K-8)
America's Choice School Design (K-12)
ATLAS Communities (preK-12)
Audrey Cohen College: Purpose Centered Education (K-12)
Center for Effective Schools (K-12)
Child Development Project (K-6)
Coalition of Essential Schools (formerly 9-12, now K-12)
Community for Learning (K-12)
Community Learning Centers (PreK-Adult)
Co-NECT Schools (K-12)
Core Knowledge (K-8)
Different Ways of Knowing (K-7)
Direct Instruction (K-6)
Edison Project (K-12)
Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound (K-12)
Foxfire Fund (K-12)
High Schools That Work (9-12)
High/Scope Primary Grades Approach to Education (K-3)
Integrated Thematic Instruction (K-12)
League of Professional Schools (K-12)
MicroSociety® (K-8)
Modern Red Schoolhouse (K-12)
Montessori (PreK-8)
Onward to Excellence (K-12)
Paideia (K-12)
QuESt (K-12)
Roots & Wings (PreK-6)
School Development Program (K-12)
Success for All (PreK-6)
Talent Development HighSchool with Career Academies (9-12)
Urban Learning Centers (PreK-12)
Ventures Initiative and Focus System (K-12)
Matrix of Components
SKILL- AND CONTENT-BASED REFORM MODELS
Introduction
Models
Reading/Language Arts Models
Breakthrough to Literacy (K-2)
Carbo Reading Styles Program (K-8)
Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (2-8)
Early Intervention in Reading (K-4)
First Steps (K-10)
Junior Great Books (K-12)
National Writing Project (K-16)
Reading Recovery (1)
Strategic Teaching and Reading Project (K-12)
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Reform Models
http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/natspec/catalog/index.html
Mathematics Models
Comprehensive School Mathematics Program (K-6)
Connected Mathematics Project (6-8)
Core Plus Mathematics Project/Contemporary Mathematics in Context
(9-12)
Interactive Mathematics Program (9-12)
MATH Connections (9-12)
University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (K-12)
Science Models
Developmental Approaches in Science, Health and Technology (K-6)
Foundational Approaches in Science Teaching (Middle School)
GALAXY Classroom Science (K-5)
Other Models
ACCESS (PreK-1)
Basic Skill Builders (K-6)
COMP: Creating Conditions for Learning (K-12)
Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment (4-12)
HOSTS (Help One Student To Succeed) (K-12)
HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) (4-8)
Lightspan (K-6)
Positive Action (K-12)
Responsive Classroom® (K-8)
Success-in-the-Making (K-9)
APPENDICES
A. List of References
B. Components of Comprehensive School Reform Programs
C. Continuum of Evidence of Effectiveness
D. Regional Educational Laboratories
E. Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers
F. Comments Form
I Top I
Catalog of School Reform Models: First Edition
(Portable Document Format version)
In downloading and copying any or all of the PDF files, please keep the
following information in mind.
1. When put together, the three files below comprise the full Catalog (234
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Reform Models
http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/natspec/catalog/index.html
pages).
2. The document is set up to be printed on a regular printer (one-sided), then
photocopied in two-sided format. That's why there are occasional blank
pages throughout the document.
3. Each regional laboratory and state department of education has received
copies of the catalog. If you want a printed version, check with the
regional laboratory that serves your area or with your state department of
education.
To view the Portable Document Format files (PDFs) on this site, download a
free Acrobat Reader from Adobe http://www.adobe.com/acrobat/readstep.html
Get Acrobat
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Catalog of School Reform Models, Part 1
Preface, introduction, and other front matter (pp. 1-6).
Catalog of School Reform Models, Part 2
Descriptions of Entire-School Reform Models (pp.
7-118), including a matrix with ratings for each model
on the nine components outlined in the legislation for
a comprehensive school reform program (p. 117).
FOR
Catalog of School Reform Models, Part 3
Descriptions of Skill- and Content-Based Reform
Models and Appendices (pp. 119-234).
Catalog of School Reform Models: Addendum
Descriptions of four additional school reform models.
Top
National Specialty Home Page 1 About Reform Models I School Change Collaborative Key Issues
Site Map
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Telephone (503) 275-9500
School Improvement Program: National Specialty in School Change
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Policy-Review, January-February, 1998
http://www.policyreview.com/jan98/noexcuses.html
POLICY Review
January-February, 1998
Number 87
Published by The Heritage Foundation
Return to Home Page
No Excuses
by Tyce Palmaffy
Houston educator Thaddeus Lott
puts failing schools to shame
Gayle Fallon wanted to give her 10-year-old godson a measure of stability in life. With a
father who had compiled a long record of felony convictions and a mother imprisoned for
shoplifting after two prior convictions for drug possession, the boy had shuffled in and out
of foster care since birth. To worsen matters, he was languishing in the chaotic environment
of a dismal urban school. Fallon, the president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, knew
that without a decent education, her godson might stumble along the same destructive path
his parents had followed. So in 1994 she secured him a spot at Mabel B. Wesley
Elementary, an innovative public charter school on the outskirts of Houston.
"I love that program," Fallon says. "I wouldn't invest my godson in it if I didn't."
Fallon's praise evokes a sun-dappled public school set against a leafy suburban backdrop.
And so would Wesley's manicured lawn, pristine brick facade, and buffed floors-if you
ignored the barbed-wire fencing and boarded-up houses encircling the school. In fact,
Wesley Elementary serves the violent, drug-infested Acres Homes section of Houston. All
of its students qualify for federal Title I education funds earmarked for disadvantaged
children, and its student body is 99 percent minority (93 percent black, 6 percent Hispanic).
The lives of many closely mirror that of Fallon's godson.
We have come to expect mediocrity from schools whose students are saddled with such
tragic circumstances. But since Thaddeus Lott became its principal in 1975, Wesley has
graduated thousands of children whose reading and math scores rival those of their
suburban peers. Before Lott introduced his educational philosophy, only 18 percent of
Wesley's third-graders were scoring at or above grade level in reading comprehension on
the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. By 1980, 85 percent were achieving at or above grade level.
In 1996, 100 percent of Wesley's third-graders passed the Texas Assessment of Academic
Skills (TAAS) in reading. Statewide, fewer than 70 percent of third-graders in schools with
similar demographics passed.
To achieve this astounding turnaround, Lott eschewed popular nostrums-computers,
school-to-work initiatives, parental involvement-for the basics: a proven curriculum,
rigorous teacher training, strict discipline, high expectations of teachers and students, and a
fervent belief that any child can learn.
"It's a myth," says Lott, "that if you're born in a poor community and your skin is a certain
color that you can't achieve on a higher level."
Having succeeded at Wesley, Lott wanted to vindicate his beliefs at other troubled schools.
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In this desire the community saw an opportunity to have every Acres Homes child schooled
by Lott. So its residents petitioned the Houston school board to allow Lott to manage
Wesley and three neighboring schools as a separate district of charter schools. The contract
was signed in spring 1995, making Lott's district the first charter-school arrangement of its
kind in Texas, predating even the state law encouraging communities to establish charter
schools. The charter's goal: To have 70 percent of all children who have spent three years in
the charter system scoring at or above grade level.
The charter gives Lott total freedom to train staff, develop a curriculum, and make hiring,
firing, and promotion decisions at the four schools. The charter "allows us to feel like we're
not committing a crime by doing things differently," says Lott. "It does not release us from
accountability, though. We have a three-year contract, and the community expects results."
As the equivalent of a district superintendent, Lott reports directly to the superintendent of
Houston schools, enabling him to sidestep several layers of bureaucracy.
Only $2,500 Per Child
It is 8 a.m. at Wesley, and Mary O'Connor's third-graders are in a hurry. They are leaving
on a field trip at 9, and there's plenty of learning to do before then. Not a moment is wasted
as they correct their math homework, recite vocabulary lists, and read from a novel, Laura
Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie. By 9 a.m., they have accomplished more than
many classes do all morning.
This is the typical classroom at Wesley: The pace is quick, the goals are set high, and no
disruptions are tolerated. "We have a lot of ground to cover," says "The success of
these kids depends on the percentage of time they are on task. We can't let one or two
students disrupt the educational experience." The first lesson Wesley kids learn is how to
walk through the halls quietly, single-file with hands folded. Fighting is forbidden.
The pace is rooted in the curriculum. Upon entering Wesley as principal, Lott purchased the
Direct Instructional System for Teaching and Remediation (DISTAR), a program developed
at the University of Illinois during the 1960s. Known now as Reading Mastery and
Connecting Math Concepts, it is based on the direct-instruction model of teaching, in which
students and teachers engage in a lively, interactive regimen of structured drills and
sequential lessons, each building on the last. DISTAR's phonics-based reading lessons are
literally scripted for the teacher, who is required to ask 200-300 questions per day, often in
rapid-fire sequence. The children's high-decibel choral responses may sound like a
high-school cheerleading squad hopped up on No-Doz, but they are learning the
relationships between the sounds and the letters that constitute the English language. And
there's no quibbling with the results at Wesley.
During Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty," the federal government began Project Follow
Through, which spent $500 million and many years investigating the most effective
pedagogy for disadvantaged students. It concluded that direct instruction was the only
method that even came close to elevating poor readers to the 50th percentile in achievement.
Child-centered approaches that diminish the teacher's role in the classroom and reject the
teaching of basic skills finished in the cellar. Ironically, researchers also found that direct
instruction elevated students' self-esteem far more than the child-centered methods that
ascribe a central role to high self-esteem and maintain that self-esteem suffers in heavily
controlled, teacher-directed environments. Disadvantaged students succeed more often with
direct instruction, however, and Lott knows that achievement builds self-esteem, not the
other way around.
Direct instruction works so well that Lott steers just 3 percent of Wesley students into
special-education classes. By comparison, 10 percent of all Houston schoolchildren are
labeled special ed.
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Houston schools can mask poor achievement by inflating their special-ed ranks because
special-education children do not count toward a school's average TAAS scores. Lott
refuses to engage in such subterfuge. By exempting only 3 percent of its students for special
ed, Wesley's TAAS scores represent more than 90 percent of the student body (a small
percentage of Hispanic children are exempted for taking the test in Spanish). Only five of
242 other Houston schools test more children; most test well below 70 percent.
"Other principals hire remedial teachers," says Phyllis Hunter, manager of reading
instruction for the Houston school district. "Thaddeus hires teachers who keep kids out of
remedial classes." In fact, Wesley retains just one special-ed teacher, which helps to trim its
costs to an average of $2,500 per child-nearly $1,000 less than the district average.
"We've always done more with less," boasts Lott.
Lott held to his faith in basic skills while his counterparts swooned over the now-discredited
"whole-language" theory of reading, which disavows explicit phonics instruction and views
teachers more as "learning facilitators" than instructors. "People started teaching without
ever giving kids any decoding skills," Lott says. "They gave them a bunch of books and
said, 'Read.' That was the fallacy of the whole-language bandwagon."
So many educators jumped on this bandwagon that Lott, in the pre-charter era, had to run
candy sales and forgo technology upgrades to purchase DISTAR because it was not on the
state's list of approved curricula. Now the charter allows him to spend his precious
curriculum dollars on whichever program he deems best.
Holding Teachers Accountable
In fact, Lott defies convention at every turn. Tracking-the practice of grouping students by
skill level-has been accused of pigeonholing students into rigid categories. The first action
Lott took as principal was to test his students, rank them by instructional level, and place the
top 22 students in one class, the next 22 in another, and so on. The students in each class
comprise, at most, three skill levels, making it easier for teachers to tailor their lesson plans
to the individual needs of their students.
"If you don't teach a child on his instructional level," Lott says, "you will teach him at his
frustration level. A child's self-esteem and success at learning are determined by his having
an opportunity to be taught at the rate and level that he is capable of being taught."
Moreover, few school districts rate teachers based on performance, yet Lott demands
accountability. Early in his career he began testing children at the beginning and end of each
school year. By breaking the scores down by classroom, he knows which teachers are
succeeding. His personnel decisions and merit bonuses are based on the results. Often he
will even post the average student scores achieved by each teacher. "Now that's peer
pressure," says Karen Anastasio, a reading specialist at Wesley.
Teachers are also subject to unscheduled visits from Lott and current Wesley principal
Suzie Rimes, who checks on each classroom at least once a day. On one of the days I spent
at Wesley, Rimes found a teacher who had not checked her students' homework. "She's got
a short-lived existence here," Rimes said. "If she can find a place to pay her to do what she
wants to do, more power to her." New teachers, in particular, can expect to be observed two
to three times a day.
"New teachers don't come equipped to teach" upon graduation from education schools, says
Lott. "So we have a lot of training focused on teaching teachers how to teach. They get so
little field practice in college."
Underlying these policies is Lott's conviction that if a child does not learn, it is the teacher's
fault. "I'm in the education business," says Osborne Elementary principal Ann Davis,
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another of the Lott disciples in charge of the four charter schools under his management. "If
I'm not doing my job, I need to be put out of business."
These lofty expectations would merely provoke resentment among teachers if Lott did not
equip them with proven strategies. New teachers attend several days of training before
school begins, and Lott will release them from classes for a week to observe an experienced
teacher if they need to. "Teachers need to be trained," Lott insists. "They need to know that
they are supported." The school year is replete with opportunities for further training and
time to share strategies with colleagues. "You can't as a teacher fail at Wesley unless you
don't want to do the program," says Gayle Fallon, the head of the teachers union.
But Fallon warns prospective teachers that if they want to interpret their contracts literally,
Wesley is not the place for them. "I tell them, 'You're going to work through lunch, past 5
p.m., and on Saturdays. But you're also going to get disciplinary support, the materials you
need, and all the training you require," Fallon says. Wesley typically loses four to six
teachers at the beginning of each year because they dislike the program or fail to meet Lott's
standards of competence.
The workload is heavy because students must be graded in five subjects each day. And a
linchpin of direct instruction is that students are tested often to ensure they have mastered
the material before moving on. These measures enable teachers to give students feedback on
their mistakes. It's no use, Lott says, to have kids practicing bad habits. Or to have them
turning the page without having learned the previous lesson. But it also makes the job of
teaching that much harder.
The demanding hours and pressure to perform take their toll. The majority of Wesley
teachers have fewer than five years of teaching experience, while the average Houston
teacher has spent 12 years in the same school. According to Lott, the problem is
competition: "We're surrounded by plenty of less rigorous schools that love to take the
teachers we've already trained." Several observers say this is integral to Lott's success: He
trains young teachers his way before they become entrenched in another philosophy.
Franchising Success
In terms of education policy, the key question is: Can the Wesley way become a model for
widespread education reform? Can Lott succeed without devoting the amount of time to
each of his four charter schools that he has always given to Wesley? Which is indispensable,
the visionary leader or the approach he has championed?
It's too early to render a verdict on the charter experiment, but the initial signs are
promising. Lott's first step at Highland Heights was to replace the principal (a power the
charter gives him) with Sandra Cornelius, a former Wesley assistant principal. "The last
principal was a joke," says Lott. "The place was a mess, and she wouldn't even show up on
time." Cornelius shares his philosophy, and she began by beautifying the school, imposing a
sense of order, and adopting the direct-instruction programs.
The results have been remarkable. In 1994-95, the year before Lott assumed responsibility
for Highland Heights (where 94 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunches),
37 percent of its fourth graders had passed the TAAS in reading. Last spring, a whopping
100 percent passed. In math, 94 percent of the school's fourth graders passed the TAAS this
year. Two years ago, the passage rate was 30 percent among fourth graders.
Osborne Elementary, the third elementary school now under Lott's management, has been
improving steadily ever since Davis was hired as principal in 1993, several years before
Lott took over. Fewer than 40 percent of its students had passed the TAAS in reading and
math in 1993. Nowadays, more than 80 percent pass. Instead of DISTAR, Davis has chosen
to use Success For All, a teaching model developed at Johns Hopkins University that
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incorporates direct-instruction techniques. Lott, for the most part, has left well enough
alone. "All of [the principals] are free to do their own thing as long as they get results," Lott
says.
Lott's most daunting challenge is to revamp M.C. Williams, the lone middle school (grades
six through eight) in his care. He spent the first year of the charter battling the old principal,
who disagreed with Lott philosophically and has since been replaced. This year the school
has a new principal and a new look. Formerly dark hallways now have fluorescent lighting;
a once perpetually dirty floor is swept and waxed daily; graffiti is cleaned up immediately;
and new principal Roy Morgan himself donned an old sweatshirt one Saturday and painted
the front doors bright blue.
Morgan is a constant presence in the hallways and classrooms, and teachers are assigned
posts at high-traffic areas during breaks. Their mission: Maintain order. "The teachers and
administrators have finally gotten control," says assistant principal Sylvia Jones. These
initial renovations are revealing, for they reflect Lott's priorities. Before attending to
academics, Lott says, you must create an environment for learning. That means a clean
school with cheery colors, a staff of professionals who treat students with respect, and
students who understand what type of behavior is expected of them.
Test scores, however, have only seen minor improvements. Besides the turnover in
leadership and the wasted year with an ineffective principal, Williams suffers from a more
serious problem: Cherry-picking. Wesley graduates are technically zoned to attend
Williams, but few actually enter. Most are accepted by magnet schools throughout Houston
or wooed by private schools seeking high-achieving minority students. So Williams is left
with hundreds of graduates of other local elementary schools starting well below grade
level.
Lott's solution is to bring textbooks from Wesley into the middle school. "These kids don't
know how to decode a word," he says. "Now we're having to do what the elementary
schools didn't do." The charter arrangement exempts Williams from regulations forbidding
the use of below-level textbooks.
A Failure To Replicate
Lott's devotion springs from his deep roots in the community. His boyhood home stands
just five blocks from Wesley, and as a child he attended Highland Heights. Back then Acres
Homes was largely rural; his parents raised livestock and pumped water from a well. It was
a different kind of community, too, "There were more families and they looked out for each
other's children," Lott laments. "My neighbor was as much a guardian as my parents. Now
we have drugs, violence, babies having babies-the whole nine yards."
Soon after graduating from Texas Southern University and becoming an educator, Lott and
his wife built a home near Wesley. "I wanted my children to know their heritage," Lott says.
"I wanted them to sit in their grandmother's rocking chair."
Even though Lott was told that he would never recoup the house's full value, it was
important to him that Acres Homes kids hold high aspirations. "Children would pass the
house and admire it," Lott says, "and say, 'You can come from Acres Homes and make a
difference in the world.' "
But living in Acres Homes meant his children had to attend Wesley. Finding the education
lacking, he sent them to private school and vowed to take the job as principal at Wesley if it
ever opened. "I knew what it was like to be a parent looking for a school that taught my kids
as well as I was taught," Lott says. "For them to do less is criminal."
Opportunity knocked in 1975, and the swift and dramatic improvements at Wesley soon
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attracted notice. In 1980, the school district conducted a study of Wesley and 10 other
schools with similar demographics. It attributed the sudden uptick in Wesley's scores to the
use of DISTAR.
With these results in hand and a supportive superintendent, more than 300 Texas schools
adopted DISTAR in the early 1980s. But since DISTAR had still not been approved by the
state education board, public schools had to divert discretionary funds away from other
endeavors to afford the program. When classroom computers became the latest rage, these
schools largely abandoned DISTAR to purchase computer hardware.
The next superintendent, Joan Raymond, was an ardent whole-language acolyte. Lott's
philosophy was anathema to her, and, according to Gayle Fallon, his success prompted
many Houston school district administrators to question the validity of Wesley's scores.
"They assumed that if minority kids were doing well on tests, they had to be cheating," Lott
says. The district sent a pair of investigators into the school to look for evidence of foul
play, but they came away empty-handed.
The baseless charges provoked an indignant backlash. "[Raymond] got to meet the entire
Acres Homes community at the next school board meeting," says Fallon, smiling. The
pivotal moment came when ABC's PrimeTime Live broadcast scenes of Lott's children
reading two and three years above grade level. Raymond squirmed as reporter Chris
Wallace questioned the district's lack of support for Lott and her own prejudices. It had all
the elements of a juicy story-a crusading hero, an intransigent bureaucracy, and children's
education in the balance-and ABC ran it twice. Ultimately, it gave Lott an aura of
invincibility and forced Raymond out of office.
It also brought a wave of requests from parents throughout the city desperate to enroll their
children at Wesley. Some resorted to lying about where their children lived, providing the
address of a vacant lot or of a relative within Lott's district. While most schools take pains
to expose such fraud, Lott does not. If they want to come and don't cause any trouble, he is
glad to educate them.
Now Lott has a supportive superintendent in Rod Paige (the two are good friends) along
with an adoring community and a national reputation. When Paige impaneled a blue-ribbon
commission to settle the reading-instruction debate in Houston, Lott was one of the experts
called to serve. The charter-school arrangement sprung from Paige's desire to "create an
environment in which a renegade principal like Lott could flourish," he says. Observers visit
Wesley from across the country. And despite the pressures Lott places on his teachers, even
the national office of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has published approving
stories on direct instruction and Wesley in its journal American Teacher.
The most important lessons, however, have yet to be learned. Lott's direct-instruction
programs are still not a part of Texas's approved curriculum; schools that want to use the
programs must either gain charter status or use precious discretionary funds to buy the
textbooks. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is contributing $4.4 million over the
next three years to bring Reading Mastery (formerly DISTAR) into six low-performing
Houston schools, but the school district has made little effort to find out what makes Lott's
program work and encourage other schools to follow it.
The resistance to adopting direct instruction is an apt metaphor for the problems and
promise of our decentralized system of public education. Current thought in education
circles emphasizes "child-centered" classrooms and collaborative learning groups, values
the learning "process" over correct answers, and disavows the teaching of basic skills in
math and reading (although phonics has experienced a resurgence as of late). These trends
place control over curriculum content largely in teachers' hands.
Direct-instruction programs do the opposite. Their scripted lessons leave the teacher with
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little freedom, although Wesley teachers say that having ready-made lesson plans leaves
them more time to develop creative supplements. In direct instruction, the teacher runs the
classroom and the students focus initially on acquiring basic skills; the primary goal is
measurable student achievement. How much a teacher likes the program is of little concern.
Most teachers blanch at having their instructional methods dictated so heavily by the
curriculum.
Moreover, longstanding traditions of local control in education prevent any superintendent
from imposing a curriculum like direct instruction on an entire district. Although that means
not everyone will adopt misguided reforms (as happened in California when the state
education board mandated whole language statewide and repealed it several years later after
a fierce public outcry), it also means not everyone will adopt the right ones. Lott has the
pleasure of managing only four schools whose principals were either trained by him or
believe in his approach. Imagine attempting to impose a curriculum on 242 Houston
principals and their staff, all of whom possess their own educational philosophies.
The failure to replicate Lott's program reveals another vexing matter in education: Hero
worship. Whether it's Thaddeus Lott, Joe Clark of New Jersey, or Jaime Escalante of
California, the latter two made famous by popular Hollywood films, when we elevate
educators to the height of myth we place their achievements seemingly beyond reach. For
example, when asked why the school district had not tried to replicate direct instruction in
other schools, Paige answered, "The error in your premise is that it's the methodology that
makes [Lott] succeed. If I had to choose any single foundation of his success, it is his
intense desire to cause children to learn."
Yet Thaddeus Lott spends most of his day in meetings. Although he should be applauded
for ensuring that teachers have a well-designed curriculum and the training they need, they
ultimately bear the responsibility for whether the children learn. "That's what bothers me,"
Lott says, "the people who say you need to have a Thaddeus Lott to change things. No, you
don't."
To prove that there's nothing unique about direct instruction, Paige's office provided TAAS
scores from 22 Houston schools with demographics and achievement levels comparable to
Wesley's, only a few of which use direct instruction. The office neglected to supply-until
asked-a list including the percentage of children in each school who actually took the test.
Of the 22 schools, only two tested more than 70 percent of their kids-and one of the two
was Highland Heights, which uses direct instruction. Ten of the 22 actually tested less than
50 percent of their students. No schools had tested more than 80 percent of their students,
while Wesley tested 93 percent. Lott does not need to hide low-performing students to
prove that direct instruction works.
To be sure, Houston has made great strides in the area of reading-the blue-ribbon
committee overhauled the district's curriculum to include a focus on early systematic
phonics, and TAAS passage rates are way up under Paige's watch. The school district's
accountability system, in which each school is given a grade for its TAAS passage rate, has
forced principals to show marked improvement or risk losing their jobs. But schools are also
exempting more and more of their students from the TAAS by labeling them special
education or giving them the test in Spanish.
The district's policy of benign neglect toward a man like Thaddeus Lott may allow him to
"flourish," in Paige's words, but education reform demands replicable models for improving
entire districts, not just a tiny subset of schools. Lott's success with direct instruction, and
even Davis's record with Success For All, suggest effective reforms. "Direct instruction will
certainly give us a lot more success than we have right now," says Lovely Billups, the
director of field services for educational issues at the AFT.
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It's a measure of how low our expectations in education have sunk when a sense of
mystique surrounds a man who brought in common-sense reforms such as choosing a
research-based curriculum, measuring teacher performance, conducting an on-going effort
to train those teachers, and expecting children to master subjects before moving on. Should
we really expect anything less?
Tyce Palmaffy is the assistant editor of Policy Review: The Journal of
American Citizenship.
Read Policy Review's Statement of Purpose
Subscribe to Policy Review or call 1-800 304-0056.
Send a Letter to the Editor or write our editorial office:
Policy Review 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE,
Washington, D.C. 20002. Phone (202) 546-4400, Fax (202) 608-6136.
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Taking Responsibility for Ending S...ders - May 1999, Table of Contents
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/socialpromotion/
OF
FONCATION
Taking Responsibility for Ending Social
Promotion: A Guide for Educators and State and
Local Leaders
DOLINE
STATES OF
THE
Title Page
Executive Summary
Presidential Directive
Introduction
What is social promotion?
How widespread is social promotion?
What are the costs to students and society?
Taking Responsibility
Set high standards of learning for all students
Create reliable measures of achievement against standards
Concentrate on providing high-quality curriculum and instruction for
all students
Include families
Involve community stakeholders
Starting Early
Provide opportunities for preschool
Emphasize early childhood and family literacy
Strengthening Learning Opportunities in the Classroom
Identify and intervene early with students at risk of falling behind
Ensure that there is a well-prepared teacher in every classroom
Use research-based practices
Reduce class size
Accommodate students with special needs
Extending Learning Time
Establish after-school programs
Provide summer school for students not meeting standards
Move toward year-round schooling
Helping Students Who Still Do Not Meet Standards
Develop effective transition programs for students unprepared for
promotion
Prevent dropouts and help students realize postsecondary
opportunities
Holding Schools Accountable for Performance and Helping Them Improve
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Require public reporting of school performance
Intervene in low-performing schools
Reward school improvement
Conclusion
U.S. Department of Education's Inventory of Resources for Ending Social
Promotion
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
For the user's convenience, this document is also available in portable document
format (PDF) [571K]. To read PDF files you will need the Adobe Acrobat
Reader; if you do not have a copy of Acrobat, you can download a free copy from
Adobe.
HOME
This page last modified June 30, 1999 (saw)
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http://www.ed.gov/pubs/socialpromotion/accountable.html
Taking Responsibility for Ending Social Promotion: A Guide for Educators and State and Local Leaders
- May 1999
Holding Schools Accountable for Performance
and Helping Them Improve
Ending social promotion requires attention to the systemic issues that reduce the capacity of our schools
to educate our children, along with the political will to make changes and an understanding of the
long-term benefits of those changes.
To achieve the goal of ending social promotion, states and districts will have to allocate the resources to
help all students meet high standards. School administrators and teachers will then face the challenge of
dealing with students who cannot make the grade. Ending social promotion involves taking risks and
holding firm to the commitment to help all students reach their full potential. It requires holding
stakeholders accountable for helping students reach high standards.
This section discusses the lessons to be learned from the experiences of districts that have made the
effort to hold schools accountable for students' performance.
Require public reporting of school performance
Public reporting of school performance is playing an important role in holding schools more accountable
and is an important tool for communicating to parents and the public about the quality of schools. To
date, 36 states issue school-level report cards. An analysis of early report cards indicates that no two
states report the exact same information, and the reports tended to be heavy on "input measures" that
described the characteristics of schools rather than focusing on quality or performance. (45)
School Report Cards: What Do Parents Really Want to Know?
A recent special study on school report cards by Education Week reveals what parents,
taxpayers, and educators feel they need to know about schools in order to make schools
more accountable: for results. Parents rated the following as the top indicators that
could be reported to hold schools accountable:
school safety
teacher qualifications
class sizes
graduation rates
dropout rates
statewide test scores
parent survey data
SAT scores
percent of students promoted to the next grade
attendance rates
Quality Counts, 1999
To be useful, report cards need to display information about a variety of indicators, from student
demographics and performance on assessments to use of resources and parental involvement. In some
states, such as New York, report cards permit comparisons of student achievement results across similar
schools in the state based on the age of students, the resource capacity of the district or school, and the
economic needs of the students. Recent amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Act also require
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that, under certain conditions, the performance of students with disabilities be included in these reports.
In many states these report cards are distributed each year to parents and are publicized in local media
when released. State, district, and school leaders generally agree that publishing school level indicators
of achievement has been an important means of holding schools accountable for student performance.
Intervene in low-performing schools
Accountability for performance means that there must be consequences for schools that fail to help
students achieve. Earlier this year the President released Turning Around Low-Performing Schools: A
Guide for State and Local Leaders. The guide makes the point that holding schools accountable is not
enough. Chronically low performing schools rarely have the capacity, on their own, to make the kinds of
changes necessary to improve students' achievement. In these cases, states and districts must help create
the capacity, vision, and commitment needed to improve. The guide examined numerous strategies
pursued by districts across the country to intervene in chronically low-performing schools, including
efforts in:
New York City, where the city's lowest-performing schools, as identified by the New York State
Education Department as Schools Under Registration Review (SURR), are assigned to the
"Chancellor's District." The Chancellor's District Intervention Plan includes an in-depth
assessment of existing school conditions using the Performance Assessment in Schools System
(PASS) review, a comprehensive plan to address identified needs, and an intensive support system
that ensures quality implementation. This focused intervention has resulted in the removal from
the SURR list of all but four of the twelve schools in the Chancellor's Districts within the span of
only two years.
In Chicago, where very low performing schools are placed on probation. As part of the process,
schools must develop a corrective action plan. Schools must select an external partner to assist
them in the process. The district provides a school operations manager to deal with fiscal and
administrative matters so that the principal can focus on improving instruction. The district also
assigns a probation monitor (a former or current successful principal) to monitor a school's
progress toward improving student achievement.
Because social promotion and retention disproportionately affect disadvantaged students in needy
schools, it is essential that efforts to hold these schools and students accountable for meeting standards
are accompanied by effective intervention strategies. To be effective, accountability measures must
engage teachers and the unions that represent them, along with parents and the wider community in
bringing about improvement.
Reward school improvement
Holding schools accountable for performance means not only intervening in and assisting schools where
students are not meeting standards but also providing incentives for schools to continually improve
performance and rewarding schools that meet expectations.
In Maryland, schools that attain significant improvement over a one-year period receive a
certificate of recognition. Schools that improve over two to three years receive monetary awards
(ranging from $19,000 to $79,000 per school). School improvement teams decide how funds are
spent for the benefit of the entire school.
In North Carolina, schools achieving exemplary growth/gain (approximately 10 percent above
statewide average) or expected growth/gain are eligible for incentive awards, which can be
distributed as direct bonuses to teachers or can be used by the school. For exemplary gains,
schools receive up to $1,500 for each certified staff member and $500 for each teacher assistant.
For expected gains, schools receive up to $750 per certified staff member and $375 for each
teacher assistant. To be eligible for incentives, schools must not have excessive exemptions and
must test at least 98 percent of eligible K-8 students and 95 percent of high school students.
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Ending social promotion requires real accountability for results--and this accountability must begin at
the school level. These strategies require strong leadership, a sense of collective responsibility from
within and outside the school, and open and honest communication among stakeholders.
Notes:
45. Education Week, 1999.
-###-
[Helping Students Who Still Do Not Meet Standards]
PREV
UP
NEXT
Conclusion]
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Improving America's Schools: Newsletter on Issues in School
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/IASA/newsletters/profdev/
Improving America's Schools:
Newsletter on Issues in School Reform
Funded and Distributed by the U.S. Department of Education
May 1996
This is the third in a series of newsletters intended to help state, district, and school leaders explore
key topics in improving America's schools. Each issue focuses on a critical education reform
element, describes current thinking and activities, and offers sources of additional information. The
newsletters share ideas nationwide on how states and school districts are reforming education and
how U.S. Department of Education programs and initiatives can help.
This issue of Improving America's Schools provides an overview of the variety of professional
development activities in this country. The issue describes: (1) better ways in which professional
development is being conducted--both in school and out of school--to support improved teaching
and learning; (2) principles of high-quality professional development that supports education
improvement; (3) opportunities for professional development under federal legislation, including
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and Goals 2000; and (4) state and local efforts to
reform preservice preparation programs and teacher certification standards.
What's Inside:
Rethinking Professional Development
High-Quality Professional Development Supports Education Reform
Opportunities for Professional Development Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education
Reforms in Preservice Preparation Programs and Teacher Certification Standards
Resources for Professional Development
Guest Editor:
Ann Lieberman, National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching
Contributing Editors:
Leslie Anderson, Miriam Gonzales, Kate Laguarda, Mary Leighton, Karen Walking-Eagle, Lisa
Weiner
--Policy Studies Associates
The views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the U.S.
Department of Education and no official endorsement by the Department should be inferred.
-###-
UP
Return to IASA Newsletters Index
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NEA: Great American Schools
http://www.nea.org/goodschools/grtamsch.html
Great American Schools
Public Education Works
Schools are changing.
All across America, public school faculties are transforming teaching and learning to better
meet the needs of their students, families, and communities.
Decisions about how to change the schools are not made by staff members on their own.
They listen to their students, talk with parents, and meet with business and neighborhood
leaders. They involve those whose lives are touched by the school. Because they know that
schools are key neighborhood and community institutions - and that the only way to make
meaningful improvements in student learning is to re-connect parents, communities, and
their public schools.
The creation of community partnerships is one vital aspect of the school transformation
process. Another crucial aspect is the support NEA members receive from the National
Education Association and their state and local Associations. NEA members are education
professionals committed to educational excellence. They draw on the knowledge and
resources of NEA specialists and other education researchers as they work to improve
learning in their schools.
Eighteen Great Schools.
The following are 18 shining examples of public school change. All are publicly managed
and staffed schools deeply involved in the process of transforming teaching and learning.
All are schools staffed by members of the National Education Association, education
professionals committed to helping every child in America achieve to the best of his or her
ability. These are public schools - free, accessible to all youngsters, committed to meeting
the needs of all students and their families. They are models of what America's schools can,
and must, be.
Students at the Key School in Indianapolis may not know Harvard University
Psychology Professor Howard Gardner and his theory of multiple intelligences. They
may not be able to pronounce Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the name of the Professor of
Psychology and Education at the University of Chicago who's done pioneering work
on people's motivation to learn. But these two academics have had a major impact on
learning at the Key School. The school's faculty redesigned their curriculum to reflect
Gardner's work on how and Csikszentmihalyi's work on why students learn.
Results? Improved student learning in an inner-city school parents all over
Indianapolis are clamoring to get their children into.
The constant bells and hallway frenzy of the six-period day are gone from West
Seattle High School. Students now take four 85-minute classes a day. Teachers have
revised their teaching strategies to include more active and in-depth learning that
teaches to multiple intelligences and different learning styles. The changes at the
Seattle, Washington high school were made possible by a joint effort of the Seattle
Education Association and the Seattle Public Schools to move more decision-making
responsibility and resources to each school.
Results? In just one year student attendance jumped from 86 to 93 percent.
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There are more electives. The school's halls are quieter. Discipline has improved.
And teachers have three classes instead of five; 75-100 students instead of
130-150.
Those accustomed to classes of students all the same age with the teacher in the front
dispensing knowledge are in for a surprise when they visit Travis Heights Elementary
School in Austin, Texas. Students are grouped in multi-aged classes that stay with the
same teacher for two years. Teachers and students work cooperatively. There's loads
of hands-on, active learning. Older students serve as mentors for their younger peers.
Travis Heights' assessment system is based on portfolios of student work,
parent-teacher and student-parent-teacher conferences, and narrative reports of
student progress.
Results? Improved student achievement, including a narrowing of the gap
between Hispanic and white student test scores. A waiting list of students who
want to transfer to this inner city Austin school.
The teachers in New Albany, Indiana control 72 percent of their school district's
budget. They're the ones who decide how instructional funds are spent. They set
teacher salaries, make key curricular decisions, and determine their own working
conditions. The New Albany/Floyd County Education Association has transformed its
collective bargaining committee into the budget oversight committee. Over the past
couple years they've reshaped the school district budget to create 60 new teaching
positions, reduce secondary school class size, and create prep time for elementary
teachers.
Results? Improved student learning, greatly increased community support for
the schools, and a newly supportive atmosphere for learning in the community.
West Ridge Elementary in Greece, New York may be housed in an old building, but
it's a very new school. Every classroom boasts seven IBM computers used by both
students and staff. Students are grouped in K-5 families and they stay with those
families throughout their West Ridge years. There's lots of cooperative and active
learning that recognizes different learning styles. When Greece teachers planned the
school in 1990, they designed it to meet the needs of students and their families,
outside as well as within the traditional school day. They planned the school to make
parents partners in their children's education - and partners in school decision
making as well.
Results? High parental involvement. Student excitement about school and
learning. West Ridge selects each year's kindergarten class by lottery. There was
a 150-child waiting list for the 1995-96 kindergarten class.
At San Diego's O'Farrell Community School students are grouped in Educational
Families that consist of 150 students and six teachers. Student assessment centers on
portfolios and exhibitions of mastery. The commitment is to prepare all students for
advanced high school courses. The school, chartered under California's Charter
School Law, is governed by a Community Council composed of staff, parents, and
students. The Council has authority for staffing, budget, and all operational decisions.
Teachers in the Educational Families decide on curriculum, scheduling, and discipline
within their families.
Results? Increased student attendance and involvement. A strong sense of unity
and caring among the students at this racially diverse urban middle school.
Keep your fists down and your mind open. That's how students at Colbert Elementary
School in Broward County, Florida are learning to create a safe school environment.
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Working with parents and the community through the Coalition for Community
Empowerment, the support staff at Colbert and seven other Broward County schools
have developed safe school plans. Colbert students with a score to settle meet in the
Peace Center to talk out their disputes with the help of an adult from the community
trained in mediation.
Results? A safe school. Increased academic achievement. Closer
school-community ties. And national recognition through a Safe and Drug-Free
School Award.
When Aztec Elementary in Scottsdale, Arizona opened in fall 1993, its staff and
parents had already been working together for months. They planned a school in
which school-wide, year-long learning themes are taught in multi-aged classrooms of
no more than 25 students. Students work cooperatively. Active, student-centered
learning is geared to multiple intelligences. Students with special needs are fully
integrated into regular classrooms. The school uses a variety of assessment techniques
including portfolios, performance tasks, and projects. Teachers plan and work
together.
Results? After just two years of existence, Aztec is nationally recognized as a
school of excellence.
Six years ago teachers in Glenview, Illinois exchanged their collective bargaining
contract for a constitution assuring that teachers, along with parents, play a major role
in making educational decisions. Teacher-majority committees oversee instructional
leadership, personnel, and finance for the district. And at each school, local school
councils composed of parents and staff set educational goals and evaluate results. The
collaboration has led to real educational change in this Chicago suburb. Among the
instructional innovations are multi-age grouping of students; team teaching and
learning; vastly increased use of technology; and whole school thematic learning.
Results? A new research paper on Glenview documents that increased staff
collaboration has resulted in increased student cooperation and achievement.
Up-to-date technologies and a learning community that includes staff and parents are
hallmarks of Silver Ridge Elementary School in Central Kitsap, Washington. The
media center is the hub of the school; classrooms with moveable walls are grouped
around computer labs. Networked computers link students, teachers, and the media
center. All classrooms have telephones. School-wide themes create a true learning
community in this school designed by the staff with parent cooperation. Students'
siblings and staff children are given top priority at a daycare program housed in the
school.
Results? Silver Ridge students' achievement test scores have risen from the 43rd
to 63rd percentile. Discipline referrals have decreased dramatically at this school
serving a highly transient military community.
A family resource center is located in the school. Adult classes -- in subjects as
diverse as English, computers, and fire safety -- are offered at the school. These are
just two of the initiatives the staff of Woodbury Elementary in rural Marshalltown,
Iowa, has taken to meet the needs of its changing student population. Many
Woodbury students are newly arrived immigrants who come to school speaking no
English. Eight out of ten of the students are eligible to free or reduced price lunch.
The Woodbury staff knows that the key to improving student learning is parent
support. They are making parents welcome in the school and working to involve them
in their children's education,
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Results? Attendance has increased to 98 percent. Parent volunteer hours have
quadrupled as Woodbury has become a focal point for the community.
A program that provides high school students opportunities to explore careers ranging
from the arts to health care to plumbing and law. A schoolwide emphasis on writing
and critical thinking. Internships, community service work experiences, and walking
trips to local government, business, and cultural centers. All this is part of the
educational program at the Brown School, a 600-student, ethnically diverse, K-12
inner city school in Louisville, Kentucky. Students are carefully guided through a
self-directed curriculum as part of the school's focus on fostering student
self-discipline and responsibility.
Results? Improved student learning and increased test scores. A waiting list to
for places in the school.
The staff at Azalea Elementary School in St Petersburg, Florida determined that to
improved student learning they needed to: set clear standards for promotion from one
grade to the next, increase the school-home connection, and provide access to health
and social services for the families of students in need. They also decided to focus
some extra attention on the fourth of Azelea's students who are bused to the school
from one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. They've done it all -- including setting
up after-school and summer programs in the neighborhood from which the students
are bused.
Results? Dramatic increases in daily attendance, standardized test scores, and
parent involvement. A dramatic decrease in disciplinary problems.
In addition to stressing written and verbal communications, the 21st Century Learning
Center in Largo, Florida focuses on providing its students with opportunities to
explore different career paths. The Learning Center is a school-within-a-school,
housed on the campus of a large senior high. Students -- those who are college-bound
and those who plan to move directly into the labor force after graduation -- create
individual career development portfolios and have the opportunity to work with local
people in different careers.
Results? Exceptionally high pass rates on the state high school exit exam: 98% in
English, 92% in math. Two applicants for each available opening.
The Woods Learning Center in Casper, Wyoming is managed by its staff. The
120-student kindergarten through eighth grade school has no principal. Classrooms
include students of varying ages. Instruction focuses on themes that cross traditional
subject areas. Parents are in the building every day working with students and
teachers. Woods Learning Center has managed to keep the school and classes small
without spending more than other district schools.
Results? Twelve of last year's 15 graduates are on the honor roll in their current
high schools. There's always a waiting list for admission to Woods.
In the four years since the 1991-92, Tempe, Arizona's Rover Elementary School has
been completely transformed. Working with a new principal, the staff totally
redesigned the approach to student learning in this 400-student school. Students are
grouped in multi-age classrooms, learning is organized around themes and skills
instruction is woven into the themes. Teachers work with students to solve problems
and student leadership teams take on responsibilities not only in the school, but in the
community as well.
Results? Student attendance is high and discipline problems are minimal.
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NEA: Great American Schools
http://www.nea.org/goodschools/grtamsch.html
Standardized test scores are among the highest in the district.
Manhattan, Kansas, a rural community of 2,200, has no public library, health services,
or public transportation. But it has Ogden Elementary School. The Ogden staff is
dedicated to educating students -- and to serving the broader community. The school
offers all-day kindergarten, health screening for preschoolers, after-school and
summer enrichment programs, family reading and math workshops, budgeting and
nutrition classes, and library services for everyone in Manhattan.
Results? Students at all grade levels average 17 months growth annually on
standardized achievement tests. Ninety-eight percent of parents participate in
four yearly parent, child, teacher conferences.
America's high schools are changing. At Asheboro (North Carolina) High School, as
at West Seattle High, the 55-minute, six-period day has been replaced by a
slower-paced, more intensive day of four-periods. Students learn more and change
classes less. Teachers use the time they're not assigned a class to work one-on-one
with students, confer with parents, or plan with each other. Ashboro has also
instituted a student registration to help personalize the large high school. Each student
is assigned a staff advisor for the four high school years. Since the entire staff --
including the principal -- participates, each staff member works with just 10 to 12
students.
Results? Student scores on state-required tests, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, and
advanced placement tests have increased across-the-board since the new
scheduling plan was implemented.
National Education Association National Center for Innovation 1201 Sixteenth Street,
N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 202-822-7350 / FAX 202-822-7482
Good Schools,
Resource
Homeroom
Good Students!
Room
NEA
What's
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New?
Homeroom Good Schools, Good Students! Resource Room
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5 of 5
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AN E ) JCA 'ORS' GJ )E O
SCHOOLWIDE REFORM
PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS:
American Association of School Administrators
American Federation of Teachers
National Association of Elementary School Principals
National Association of Secondary School Principals
National Education Association
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE
Charlie Ericksen, NEA
(202) 822-7228
1 p.m.
February 11, 1999
Darrell Capwell, AFT
(202) 393-6959
June Million, NAESP
(703) 684-3345
Joe Schneider, AASA
(703) 875-0771
Rob Mahaffey, NASSP
(703) 860-7260
EDUCATIONAL REFORM 'CONSUMER GUIDE' UNVEILED
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Five national education associations representing both
teachers and administrators have joined in announcing publication of "An Educators'
Guide to Schoolwide Reform," a consumer-friendly analysis of 24 widely used
programs designed to improve student achievement in low-performing schools.
1191
FOR
The 141-page guide, prepared by the independent, Washington, D.C.-based
American Institutes for Research (AIR), was unveiled at a briefing at the National Press
Club Feb. 11. Teaming to sponsor the project were the American Association of School
Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, National Association of Elementary
School Principals, National Association of Secondary School Principals, and National
Education Association.
NEESP
"Our common commitment to schoolwide reform brought us together to invest
in this extensive research," explained NEA President Bob Chase. "When we have solid,
defined measurements to show how reform efforts are really working, there can be
significant payoff in the classroom."
nassp
"Our members want to know what will work to help their students succeed,"
said Nat LaCour, executive vice president of the AFT. "This guide helps us scrutinize
the research so that we can distinguish among programs with a track record of success,
nea
programs that show promise, and those that are anybody's guess."
The guide evaluates the programs' performance and capabilities based on
evidence of increased student achievement, first-year costs, and assistance provided by
the developers to schools that adopt their strategies. Some of the programs have been in
-more-
EDUCATIONAL REFORM 'CONSUMER GUIDE' UNVEILED
2.
existence for more than two decades. More than 8,000 schools nationwide follow their models.
AIR ranked the programs according to the amount of solid research and the findings of that
research, according to Rebecca Herman, who directed its project team.
Included among the 24 schoolwide programs are 17 mentioned in legislation funded last year
which created the federal government's Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program.
While some are rapidly gaining popularity and wide attention in the press, studies on their
effectiveness or comparative strengths have been sparse.
The guide found:
Three programs show "strong" evidence of positive effects on student achievement: Direct
Instruction, High Schools That Work, and Success for All.
Five programs show "promising" student achievement results: Community for Learning,
Core Knowledge, Different Ways of Knowing, Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound,
and School Development Program.
Six programs show "marginal" achievement results, two programs show "weak" results,
while eight, most of them relatively new, had no research on which to judge results.
Twelve programs offer "strong" support to schools that implement their strategies, with 10
others considered "promising."
First-year implementation costs, which reflect variations in scope and requirements the
programs place on schools, range from $12,000 to more than $588,000.
Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators,
pointed out, "Before this guide came along, about the only way educators could judge the worth of
some of these programs was by the quality of the developers' advertising and the firmness of their
handshakes. Now, superintendents, principals, and classroom teachers can sit down together and make
reasonable decisions about which are best for their districts' needs."
National Association of Elementary School Principals Executive Director Samuel Sava
emphasized that, while this report is a useful tool, principals should not rush to drop established
programs that work in their schools. "No one size fits all schools; each one is unique. This report can
guide principals and their teachers to reform programs that must fit their students and local
circumstances, but the ultimate test of any reform is how well and thoroughly a school facility puts it
to work."
An introductory letter by leaders of the five groups identified two challenges. "We need to
develop a strong evidence base on if, how and why students are achieving," stressed Thomas Koerner,
executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. "And the federal
government must invest in more schoolwide programs, building in multi-year programmatic research
and development elements."
Copies of "An Educators' Guide to Schoolwide Reform," which includes extensive appendices,
are available from the sponsoring organizations. Non-member price: $15.95. Member price $12.95.
The full text or a link to the full text is available on the Web sites of the sponsoring organizations and
the publisher, Educational Research Service.
###
2/9/99
AFT Internet Resources on School Reform
Raising Student Achievement: An Internet Resource
Guide for Redesigning Low-Performing Schools
Access on-line information about how to fix one of this nation's most persistent
problems: schools that don't work. This resource guide presents ideas,
information, and materials which educators and policymakers can use to help
foster educationally sound efforts to turn around low performing schools. The
site includes an AFT policy statement on redesigning low-performing schools,
legislative updates and guidance, profiles of selected districts, sample contract
language, information on research-backed programs, guidance on how to
effectively select and implement such programs, links to additional resources on
school redesign, and more. Visit the site at:
http://www.aft.org/edissues/rsa
CSRD
$$$$
The Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program, or Obey-Porter,
is a three-year federal program that, in its initial year, provides $145 million to help improve low-performing schools
-- especially those serving economically disadvantaged students. The program funds schools to select and adopt
schoolwide reform models based on solid research, which can demonstrate their effectiveness and prove that they
can be replicated. This web site includes more information about whole school reform, an overview of the CSRD
legislation, guidance to states or districts on how to apply for CSRD funds, and up-to-date links to resources and
events on whole school reform. Visit the site at:
http://www.aft.org/edissues/csrd
For more information, contact:
Steve Fleischman
Educational Issues Department
American Federation of Teachers
555 New Jersey Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20001
Email: [email protected]
Policy Review, January-February, 1998
http://www.policyreview.com/jan98/noexcuses.html
POLICY Review
January-February, 1998
Number 87
Published by The Heritage Foundation
Return to Home Page
No Excuses
by Tyce Palmaffy
Houston educator Thaddeus Lott
puts failing schools to shame
Gayle Fallon wanted to give her 10-year-old godson a measure of stability in life. With a
father who had compiled a long record of felony convictions and a mother imprisoned for
shoplifting after two prior convictions for drug possession, the boy had shuffled in and out
of foster care since birth. To worsen matters, he was languishing in the chaotic environment
of a dismal urban school. Fallon, the president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, knew
that without a decent education, her godson might stumble along the same destructive path
his parents had followed. So in 1994 she secured him a spot at Mabel B. Wesley
Elementary, an innovative public charter school on the outskirts of Houston.
"I love that program," Fallon says. "I wouldn't invest my godson in it if I didn't."
Fallon's praise evokes a sun-dappled public school set against a leafy suburban backdrop.
And so would Wesley's manicured lawn, pristine brick facade, and buffed floors-if you
ignored the barbed-wire fencing and boarded-up houses encircling the school. In fact,
Wesley Elementary serves the violent, drug-infested Acres Homes section of Houston. All
of its students qualify for federal Title I education funds earmarked for disadvantaged
children, and its student body is 99 percent minority (93 percent black, 6 percent Hispanic).
The lives of many closely mirror that of Fallon's godson.
We have come to expect mediocrity from schools whose students are saddled with such
tragic circumstances. But since Thaddeus Lott became its principal in 1975, Wesley has
graduated thousands of children whose reading and math scores rival those of their
suburban peers. Before Lott introduced his educational philosophy, only 18 percent of
Wesley's third-graders were scoring at or above grade level in reading comprehension on
the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. By 1980, 85 percent were achieving at or above grade level.
In 1996, 100 percent of Wesley's third-graders passed the Texas Assessment of Academic
Skills (TAAS) in reading. Statewide, fewer than 70 percent of third-graders in schools with
similar demographics passed.
To achieve this astounding turnaround, Lott eschewed popular nostrums-computers,
school-to-work initiatives, parental involvement-for the basics: a proven curriculum,
rigorous teacher training, strict discipline, high expectations of teachers and students, and a
fervent belief that any child can learn.
"It's a myth," says Lott, "that if you're born in a poor community and your skin is a certain
color that you can't achieve on a higher level."
Having succeeded at Wesley, Lott wanted to vindicate his beliefs at other troubled schools.
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In this desire the community saw an opportunity to have every Acres Homes child schooled
by Lott. So its residents petitioned the Houston school board to allow Lott to manage
Wesley and three neighboring schools as a separate district of charter schools. The contract
was signed in spring 1995, making Lott's district the first charter-school arrangement of its
kind in Texas, predating even the state law encouraging communities to establish charter
schools. The charter's goal: To have 70 percent of all children who have spent three years in
the charter system scoring at or above grade level.
The charter gives Lott total freedom to train staff, develop a curriculum, and make hiring,
firing, and promotion decisions at the four schools. The charter "allows us to feel like we're
not committing a crime by doing things differently," says Lott. "It does not release us from
accountability, though. We have a three-year contract, and the community expects results."
As the equivalent of a district superintendent, Lott reports directly to the superintendent of
Houston schools, enabling him to sidestep several layers of bureaucracy.
Only $2,500 Per Child
It is 8 a.m. at Wesley, and Mary O'Connor's third-graders are in a hurry. They are leaving
on a field trip at 9, and there's plenty of learning to do before then. Not a moment is wasted
as they correct their math homework, recite vocabulary lists, and read from a novel, Laura
Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie. By 9 a.m., they have accomplished more than
many classes do all morning.
This is the typical classroom at Wesley: The pace is quick, the goals are set high, and no
disruptions are tolerated. "We have a lot of ground to cover," says Lott. "The success of
these kids depends on the percentage of time they are on task. We can't let one or two
students disrupt the educational experience." The first lesson Wesley kids learn is how to
walk through the halls quietly, single-file with hands folded. Fighting is forbidden.
The pace is rooted in the curriculum. Upon entering Wesley as principal, Lott purchased the
Direct Instructional System for Teaching and Remediation (DISTAR), a program developed
at the University of Illinois during the 1960s. Known now as Reading Mastery and
Connecting Math Concepts, it is based on the direct-instruction model of teaching, in which
students and teachers engage in a lively, interactive regimen of structured drills and
sequential lessons, each building on the last. DISTAR's phonics-based reading lessons are
literally scripted for the teacher, who is required to ask 200-300 questions per day, often in
rapid-fire sequence. The children's high-decibel choral responses may sound like a
high-school cheerleading squad hopped up on No-Doz, but they are learning the
relationships between the sounds and the letters that constitute the English language. And
there's no quibbling with the results at Wesley.
During Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty," the federal government began Project Follow
Through, which spent $500 million and many years investigating the most effective
pedagogy for disadvantaged students. It concluded that direct instruction was the only
method that even came close to elevating poor readers to the 50th percentile in achievement.
Child-centered approaches that diminish the teacher's role in the classroom and reject the
teaching of basic skills finished in the cellar. Ironically, researchers also found that direct
instruction elevated students' self-esteem far more than the child-centered methods that
ascribe a central role to high self-esteem and maintain that self-esteem suffers in heavily
controlled, teacher-directed environments. Disadvantaged students succeed more often with
direct instruction, however, and Lott knows that achievement builds self-esteem, not the
other way around.
Direct instruction works so well that Lott steers just 3 percent of Wesley students into
special-education classes. By comparison, 10 percent of all Houston schoolchildren are
labeled special ed.
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Houston schools can mask poor achievement by inflating their special-ed ranks because
special-education children do not count toward a school's average TAAS scores. Lott
refuses to engage in such subterfuge. By exempting only 3 percent of its students for special
ed, Wesley's TAAS scores represent more than 90 percent of the student body (a small
percentage of Hispanic children are exempted for taking the test in Spanish). Only five of
242 other Houston schools test more children; most test well below 70 percent.
"Other principals hire remedial teachers," says Phyllis Hunter, manager of reading
instruction for the Houston school district. "Thaddeus hires teachers who keep kids out of
remedial classes." In fact, Wesley retains just one special-ed teacher, which helps to trim its
costs to an average of $2,500 per child-nearly $1,000 less than the district average.
"We've always done more with less," boasts Lott.
Lott held to his faith in basic skills while his counterparts swooned over the now-discredited
"whole-language" theory of reading, which disavows explicit phonics instruction and views
teachers more as "learning facilitators" than instructors. "People started teaching without
ever giving kids any decoding skills," Lott says. "They gave them a bunch of books and
said, 'Read.' That was the fallacy of the whole-language bandwagon."
So many educators jumped on this bandwagon that Lott, in the pre-charter era, had to run
candy sales and forgo technology upgrades to purchase DISTAR because it was not on the
state's list of approved curricula. Now the charter allows him to spend his precious
curriculum dollars on whichever program he deems best.
Holding Teachers Accountable
In fact, Lott defies convention at every turn. Tracking-the practice of grouping students by
skill level-has been accused of pigeonholing students into rigid categories. The first action
Lott took as principal was to test his students, rank them by instructional level, and place the
top 22 students in one class, the next 22 in another, and so on. The students in each class
comprise, at most, three skill levels, making it easier for teachers to tailor their lesson plans
to the individual needs of their students.
"If you don't teach a child on his instructional level," Lott says, "you will teach him at his
frustration level. A child's self-esteem and success at learning are determined by his having
an opportunity to be taught at the rate and level that he is capable of being taught."
Moreover, few school districts rate teachers based on performance, yet Lott demands
accountability. Early in his career he began testing children at the beginning and end of each
school year. By breaking the scores down by classroom, he knows which teachers are
succeeding. His personnel decisions and merit bonuses are based on the results. Often he
will even post the average student scores achieved by each teacher. "Now that's peer
pressure," says Karen Anastasio, a reading specialist at Wesley.
Teachers are also subject to unscheduled visits from Lott and current Wesley principal
Suzie Rimes, who checks on each classroom at least once a day. On one of the days I spent
at Wesley, Rimes found a teacher who had not checked her students' homework. "She's got
a short-lived existence here," Rimes said. "If she can find a place to pay her to do what she
wants to do, more power to her." New teachers, in particular, can expect to be observed two
to three times a day.
"New teachers don't come equipped to teach" upon graduation from education schools, says
Lott. "So we have a lot of training focused on teaching teachers how to teach. They get so
little field practice in college."
Underlying these policies is Lott's conviction that if a child does not learn, it is the teacher's
fault. "I'm in the education business," says Osborne Elementary principal Ann Davis,
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another of the Lott disciples in charge of the four charter schools under his management. "If
I'm not doing my job, I need to be put out of business."
These lofty expectations would merely provoke resentment among teachers if Lott did not
equip them with proven strategies. New teachers attend several days of training before
school begins, and Lott will release them from classes for a week to observe an experienced
teacher if they need to. "Teachers need to be trained," Lott insists. "They need to know that
they are supported." The school year is replete with opportunities for further training and
time to share strategies with colleagues. "You can't as a teacher fail at Wesley unless you
don't want to do the program," says Gayle Fallon, the head of the teachers union.
But Fallon warns prospective teachers that if they want to interpret their contracts literally,
Wesley is not the place for them. "I tell them, 'You're going to work through lunch, past 5
p.m., and on Saturdays. But you're also going to get disciplinary support, the materials you
need, and all the training you require," Fallon says. Wesley typically loses four to six
teachers at the beginning of each year because they dislike the program or fail to meet Lott's
standards of competence.
The workload is heavy because students must be graded in five subjects each day. And a
linchpin of direct instruction is that students are tested often to ensure they have mastered
the material before moving on. These measures enable teachers to give students feedback on
their mistakes. It's no use, Lott says, to have kids practicing bad habits. Or to have them
turning the page without having learned the previous lesson. But it also makes the job of
teaching that much harder.
The demanding hours and pressure to perform take their toll. The majority of Wesley
teachers have fewer than five years of teaching experience, while the average Houston
teacher has spent 12 years in the same school. According to Lott, the problem is
competition: "We're surrounded by plenty of less rigorous schools that love to take the
teachers we've already trained." Several observers say this is integral to Lott's success: He
trains young teachers his way before they become entrenched in another philosophy.
Franchising Success
In terms of education policy, the key question is: Can the Wesley way become a model for
widespread education reform? Can Lott succeed without devoting the amount of time to
each of his four charter schools that he has always given to Wesley? Which is indispensable,
the visionary leader or the approach he has championed?
It's too early to render a verdict on the charter experiment, but the initial signs are
promising. Lott's first step at Highland Heights was to replace the principal (a power the
charter gives him) with Sandra Cornelius, a former Wesley assistant principal. "The last
principal was a joke," says Lott. "The place was a mess, and she wouldn't even show up on
time." Cornelius shares his philosophy, and she began by beautifying the school, imposing a
sense of order, and adopting the direct-instruction programs.
The results have been remarkable. In 1994-95, the year before Lott assumed responsibility
for Highland Heights (where 94 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunches),
37 percent of its fourth graders had passed the TAAS in reading. Last spring, a whopping
100 percent passed. In math, 94 percent of the school's fourth graders passed the TAAS this
year. Two years ago, the passage rate was 30 percent among fourth graders.
Osborne Elementary, the third elementary school now under Lott's management, has been
improving steadily ever since Davis was hired as principal in 1993, several years before
Lott took over. Fewer than 40 percent of its students had passed the TAAS in reading and
math in 1993. Nowadays, more than 80 percent pass. Instead of DISTAR, Davis has chosen
to use Success For All, a teaching model developed at Johns Hopkins University that
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incorporates direct-instruction techniques. Lott, for the most part, has left well enough
alone. "All of [the principals] are free to do their own thing as long as they get results," Lott
says.
Lott's most daunting challenge is to revamp M.C. Williams, the lone middle school (grades
six through eight) in his care. He spent the first year of the charter battling the old principal,
who disagreed with Lott philosophically and has since been replaced. This year the school
has a new principal and a new look. Formerly dark hallways now have fluorescent lighting;
a once perpetually dirty floor is swept and waxed daily; graffiti is cleaned up immediately;
and new principal Roy Morgan himself donned an old sweatshirt one Saturday and painted
the front doors bright blue.
Morgan is a constant presence in the hallways and classrooms, and teachers are assigned
posts at high-traffic areas during breaks. Their mission: Maintain order. "The teachers and
administrators have finally gotten control," says assistant principal Sylvia Jones. These
initial renovations are revealing, for they reflect Lott's priorities. Before attending to
academics, Lott says, you must create an environment for learning. That means a clean
school with cheery colors, a staff of professionals who treat students with respect, and
students who understand what type of behavior is expected of them.
Test scores, however, have only seen minor improvements. Besides the turnover in
leadership and the wasted year with an ineffective principal, Williams suffers from a more
serious problem: Cherry-picking. Wesley graduates are technically zoned to attend
Williams, but few actually enter. Most are accepted by magnet schools throughout Houston
or wooed by private schools seeking high-achieving minority students. So Williams is left
with hundreds of graduates of other local elementary schools starting well below grade
level.
Lott's solution is to bring textbooks from Wesley into the middle school. "These kids don't
know how to decode a word," he says. "Now we're having to do what the elementary
schools didn't do." The charter arrangement exempts Williams from regulations forbidding
the use of below-level textbooks.
A Failure To Replicate
Lott's devotion springs from his deep roots in the community. His boyhood home stands
just five blocks from Wesley, and as a child he attended Highland Heights. Back then Acres
Homes was largely rural; his parents raised livestock and pumped water from a well. It was
a different kind of community, too, "There were more families and they looked out for each
other's children," Lott laments. "My neighbor was as much a guardian as my parents. Now
we have drugs, violence, babies having babies-the whole nine yards."
Soon after graduating from Texas Southern University and becoming an educator, Lott and
his wife built a home near Wesley. "I wanted my children to know their heritage," Lott says.
"I wanted them to sit in their grandmother's rocking chair."
Even though Lott was told that he would never recoup the house's full value, it was
important to him that Acres Homes kids hold high aspirations. "Children would pass the
house and admire it," Lott says, "and say, 'You can come from Acres Homes and make a
difference in the world.'
But living in Acres Homes meant his children had to attend Wesley. Finding the education
lacking, he sent them to private school and vowed to take the job as principal at Wesley if it
ever opened. "I knew what it was like to be a parent looking for a school that taught my kids
as well as I was taught," Lott says. "For them to do less is criminal."
Opportunity knocked in 1975, and the swift and dramatic improvements at Wesley soon
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attracted notice. In 1980, the school district conducted a study of Wesley and 10 other
schools with similar demographics. It attributed the sudden uptick in Wesley's scores to the
use of DISTAR.
With these results in hand and a supportive superintendent, more than 300 Texas schools
adopted DISTAR in the early 1980s. But since DISTAR had still not been approved by the
state education board, public schools had to divert discretionary funds away from other
endeavors to afford the program. When classroom computers became the latest rage, these
schools largely abandoned DISTAR to purchase computer hardware.
The next superintendent, Joan Raymond, was an ardent whole-language acolyte. Lott's
philosophy was anathema to her, and, according to Gayle Fallon, his success prompted
many Houston school district administrators to question the validity of Wesley's scores.
"They assumed that if minority kids were doing well on tests, they had to be cheating," Lott
says. The district sent a pair of investigators into the school to look for evidence of foul
play, but they came away empty-handed.
The baseless charges provoked an indignant backlash. "[Raymond] got to meet the entire
Acres Homes community at the next school board meeting," says Fallon, smiling. The
pivotal moment came when ABC's PrimeTime Live broadcast scenes of Lott's children
reading two and three years above grade level. Raymond squirmed as reporter Chris
Wallace questioned the district's lack of support for Lott and her own prejudices. It had all
the elements of a juicy story-a crusading hero, an intransigent bureaucracy, and children's
education in the balance-and ABC ran it twice. Ultimately, it gave Lott an aura of
invincibility and forced Raymond out of office.
It also brought a wave of requests from parents throughout the city desperate to enroll their
children at Wesley. Some resorted to lying about where their children lived, providing the
address of a vacant lot or of a relative within Lott's district. While most schools take pains
to expose such fraud, Lott does not. If they want to come and don't cause any trouble, he is
glad to educate them.
Now Lott has a supportive superintendent in Rod Paige (the two are good friends) along
with an adoring community and a national reputation. When Paige impaneled a blue-ribbon
commission to settle the reading-instruction debate in Houston, Lott was one of the experts
called to serve. The charter-school arrangement sprung from Paige's desire to "create an
environment in which a renegade principal like Lott could flourish," he says. Observers visit
Wesley from across the country. And despite the pressures Lott places on his teachers, even
the national office of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has published approving
stories on direct instruction and Wesley in its journal American Teacher.
The most important lessons, however, have yet to be learned. Lott's direct-instruction
programs are still not a part of Texas's approved curriculum; schools that want to use the
programs must either gain charter status or use precious discretionary funds to buy the
textbooks. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is contributing $4.4 million over the
next three years to bring Reading Mastery (formerly DISTAR) into six low-performing
Houston schools, but the school district has made little effort to find out what makes Lott's
program work and encourage other schools to follow it.
The resistance to adopting direct instruction is an apt metaphor for the problems and
promise of our decentralized system of public education. Current thought in education
circles emphasizes "child-centered" classrooms and collaborative learning groups, values
the learning "process" over correct answers, and disavows the teaching of basic skills in
math and reading (although phonics has experienced a resurgence as of late). These trends
place control over curriculum content largely in teachers' hands.
Direct-instruction programs do the opposite. Their scripted lessons leave the teacher with
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little freedom, although Wesley teachers say that having ready-made lesson plans leaves
them more time to develop creative supplements. In direct instruction, the teacher runs the
classroom and the students focus initially on acquiring basic skills; the primary goal is
measurable student achievement. How much a teacher likes the program is of little concern.
Most teachers blanch at having their instructional methods dictated so heavily by the
curriculum.
Moreover, longstanding traditions of local control in education prevent any superintendent
from imposing a curriculum like direct instruction on an entire district. Although that means
not everyone will adopt misguided reforms (as happened in California when the state
education board mandated whole language statewide and repealed it several years later after
a fierce public outcry), it also means not everyone will adopt the right ones. Lott has the
pleasure of managing only four schools whose principals were either trained by him or
believe in his approach. Imagine attempting to impose a curriculum on 242 Houston
principals and their staff, all of whom possess their own educational philosophies.
The failure to replicate Lott's program reveals another vexing matter in education: Hero
worship. Whether it's Thaddeus Lott, Joe Clark of New Jersey, or Jaime Escalante of
California, the latter two made famous by popular Hollywood films, when we elevate
educators to the height of myth we place their achievements seemingly beyond reach. For
example, when asked why the school district had not tried to replicate direct instruction in
other schools, Paige answered, "The error in your premise is that it's the methodology that
makes [Lott] succeed. If I had to choose any single foundation of his success, it is his
intense desire to cause children to learn."
Yet Thaddeus Lott spends most of his day in meetings. Although he should be applauded
for ensuring that teachers have a well-designed curriculum and the training they need, they
ultimately bear the responsibility for whether the children learn. "That's what bothers me,"
Lott says, "the people who say you need to have a Thaddeus Lott to change things. No, you
don't."
To prove that there's nothing unique about direct instruction, Paige's office provided TAAS
scores from 22 Houston schools with demographics and achievement levels comparable to
Wesley's, only a few of which use direct instruction. The office neglected to supply-until
asked-a list including the percentage of children in each school who actually took the test.
Of the 22 schools, only two tested more than 70 percent of their kids-and one of the two
was Highland Heights, which uses direct instruction. Ten of the 22 actually tested less than
50 percent of their students. No schools had tested more than 80 percent of their students,
while Wesley tested 93 percent. Lott does not need to hide low-performing students to
prove that direct instruction works.
To be sure, Houston has made great strides in the area of reading-the blue-ribbon
committee overhauled the district's curriculum to include a focus on early systematic
phonics, and TAAS passage rates are way up under Paige's watch. The school district's
accountability system, in which each school is given a grade for its TAAS passage rate, has
forced principals to show marked improvement or risk losing their jobs. But schools are also
exempting more and more of their students from the TAAS by labeling them special
education or giving them the test in Spanish.
The district's policy of benign neglect toward a man like Thaddeus Lott may allow him to
"flourish," in Paige's words, but education reform demands replicable models for improving
entire districts, not just a tiny subset of schools. Lott's success with direct instruction, and
even Davis's record with Success For All, suggest effective reforms. "Direct instruction will
certainly give us a lot more success than we have right now," says Lovely Billups, the
director of field services for educational issues at the AFT.
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It's a measure of how low our expectations in education have sunk when a sense of
mystique surrounds a man who brought in common-sense reforms such as choosing a
research-based curriculum, measuring teacher performance, conducting an on-going effort
to train those teachers, and expecting children to master subjects before moving on. Should
we really expect anything less?
Tyce Palmaffy is the assistant editor of Policy Review: The Journal of
American Citizenship.
Read Policy Review's Statement of Purpose
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POLICY Review
March-April 1998
Number 88
Published by The Heritage Foundation
Return to Home Page
The Gold Star State
By Tyce Palmaffy
How Texas jumped to the head of the class
in elementary school achievement
If funding and demography were vital to educational performance, then Texas would likely
have one of the worst public-school systems in the nation. Spending per pupil in the Lone
Star State is well below the national average, and teachers' pay ranks 35th among the states.
One-third of the state's schoolchildren qualify for federal education aid to disadvantaged
students under the Title I program, and among the states Texas has the fourth-highest
percentage of school-age children living in poverty. Nearly half the state's public-school
students are black or Hispanic, minority groups that historically have done poorly on
national achievement tests.
Yet within the past few years, Texas has become one of the highest-performing states in the
nation. Consider a few telling statistics:
Among the 39 states that participated in the 1996 National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP) in fourth-grade math, Texas finished in the top 10, right alongside
states such as Maine, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, which have far fewer low-income
and minority students.
The state's black fourth-graders and Title I fourth-graders scored higher in math, on
average, than their counterparts in every other state, and its Hispanic children finished
sixth.
White fourth-graders in Texas had the highest average math score in the nation.
Between 1992 and 1996, the percentage of Texas fourth-graders achieving at or above
the NAEP's "proficient" level in math rose from 15 to 25 percent, far outstripping
improvements nationwide. Similarly, the share of Texas children scoring below the
"basic" level (the lowest tier on the NAEP) fell from 44 percent to 31 percent during
the same period.
Like every other state, Texas still has a broad racial chasm: In fourth-grade math, 53
percent of blacks and 45 percent of Hispanics scored below the "basic" level,
compared with 15 percent of whites. But the gap is narrowing faster there than in any
other state.
Texas achieved this remarkable turnaround by applying a simple lesson from the corporate
world: Educators will find innovative ways to raise achievement if they are given the
freedom to experiment and are held accountable for student performance.
Over the course of a decade, Texas lawmakers devolved more and more decisionmaking
authority to local districts and schools. Meanwhile, they established nationally recognized
achievement standards as well as tests to measure whether students had met them. In 1993,
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with these cornerstones of an accountability system-standards, testing, and autonomy-in
place, the state education department (known as the Texas Education Agency, or TEA)
began rating schools based on test scores and other factors. The system combines
deregulation for schools and high expectations for students of all races and income levels.
"Texas is paying deliberate attention to the fact that you can't leave any group behind," says
Kati Haycock, the executive director of the Education Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based
organization devoted to improving educational opportunities for low-income children. "That
sends a powerful message to educators that they have to make their system work for all
kids. In Texas, we hear far fewer excuses, like having a lot of minority children, than we do
in places like California."
A "Consumer Reports" for Schools
The yardstick for the TEA's ratings is the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS), a
series of yearly tests in reading, writing, and math given to students in grades three through
eight and grade 10. Based on the percentage of its students passing the TAAS, as well as on
its dropout and attendance rates, each school in the state is labeled "exemplary,"
"recognized," "acceptable," or "low performing." Schools may exempt from the TAAS
students with limited English proficiency (LEP) or special-education needs, but no other
allowances are made for a school's socioeconomic or demographic circumstances.
Texas has the usual set of rewards and sanctions tied to a school's results, from small cash
awards for high ratings to wholesale layoffs at the state's worst schools. But the
accountability system's real power rests within the ratings themselves. By spotlighting the
performance of individual schools and districts, the ratings affect the career prospects of all
educators, from teachers to superintendents. For instance, principals at "low-performing"
schools have experienced a turnover of 31 percent during the past four years. By contrast,
principals who have transformed schools already find themselves receiving promotions to
middle and high schools.
This provides strong incentives to deliver results, and thus far they have been spectacular. In
1994, the TEA bestowed its top two rankings, "exemplary" and "recognized," on 67 and 516
schools, respectively. Last year, those numbers catapulted to 683 "exemplary" and 1,617
"recognized." Meanwhile, the number of schools receiving the TEA's lowest ranking
dropped from 267 to 67, of which only a few were repeat offenders.
In 1994, barely half of all Texas students passed the TAAS math exam. By last year, the
proportion had climbed to 80 percent. What's more, the share of black and Hispanic
children who passed the test doubled during that time to 64 percent and 72 percent,
respectively.
On the TAAS reading test, 70 percent of students were already passing the test in 1994. This
included, however, only 51 percent of blacks and 54 percent of Hispanics. By 1997, 84
percent of Texas students had passed, including 73 percent of blacks and 75 percent of
Hispanics.
These figures must be interpreted with care, since some schools might be hiding poor
students by placing them in special-education classes or encouraging them to stay home on
the day of the test. But the percentage of children exempted from the TAAS for limited
English proficiency or special ed has not increased since 1993. The standards for each
rating, meanwhile, have actually risen over time, and the TAAS has not been made any
easier. Moreover, Texas's rising NAEP scores confirm that the gains are genuine.
"Their system is a real model for other states to follow," says Haycock.
The Emerging Movement
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Texas is the vanguard of an accountability movement sweeping the states. Earlier this
decade, Kentucky began to measure students' progress by the rise in their test scores each
year. Schools whose scores on the state's tests rise more than expected receive financial
rewards, while those whose performance declines receive assistance in the form of
instructional specialists and extra resources. Kentucky also publishes the percentage of
children scoring at each of four performance levels: "novice," "apprentice," "proficient," and
"distinguished."
So far the results have been promising: Statewide, the percentage of elementary
schoolchildren scoring at the "proficient" level rose from 8 percent in 1993 to 38 percent in
1997. Tennessee has a similar system, and North Carolina recently created an accountability
system modeled on its neighbors'.
More broadly, every state except Iowa either has a set of standards for what is to be taught
in each grade or is in the process of developing them. Among others, Arizona, Florida,
Virginia, Colorado, Maryland, Louisiana, and Indiana also have created or are creating
assessments that test students' knowledge of academic standards. States such as Alabama,
New York, and Florida use such tests to compile and publish lists of low-performing
schools in the hope that dishonor will spark improvement.
A growing number of states, including New Jersey, Georgia, Michigan, and New York, also
provide access over the Internet to performance "report cards" for every school and school
district in the state. These reports list information ranging from per-pupil spending to
student test scores. Very few of these states translate these report cards into
easy-to-understand performance ratings like those of Texas and Kentucky, but simply
having test scores readily available to parents and policymakers is a step towards
accountability.
Educators used to understand "accountability" to mean a focus on how students were
educated. State regulators handed schools guidelines for methods, such as how much time to
spend on each subject or what curricula to purchase, rather than results. In practice, this
usually meant that good and bad schools alike passed inspection. (Under Virginia's former
accrediting system, not one school ever lost its accreditation.)
The emerging accountability movement reflects the slow seepage of market principles into
education. It recognizes that a prerequisite for holding any organization accountable,
whether it be a Fortune 500 company or your neighborhood school, is to have information
about its performance. That's why reform-minded state superintendents such as Linda
Schrenko in Georgia, Lisa Keegan in Arizona, Frank Brogan in Florida, and Mike Moses in
Texas insist on testing students and, at the least, publishing the results.
Business Takes Over
The old focus on teaching methods was "perfect" for educators, says Darvin Winick, a
founding member of the Texas Business and Education Coalition (TBEC), an important
player in Texas education reform. "It said that if we do what we're supposed to do, if we
process correctly, and the kids don't learn, it's the kids' fault. That meant that the problems
were communal and societal, not instructional." That attitude was reflected in the Texas
Education Code, which dictated such minutiae as the amount of teacher training a school
had to provide and the number of hours spent learning math each day.
In seeking to shed this antiquated system, Texas benefited from a unique set of
circumstances. Early on, members of the state's influential business community, concerned
about the quality of Texas's work force, organized to push for educational reform. Because
Texas has four competing teachers unions and no trade organizations for principals or
superintendents, any resistance was divided and weak. And the state's largest teachers
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union, the Texas Federation of Teachers, actually joined businessmen in their decade-long
quest for accountability. "It's important that we have some way of telling the public that
their education dollars are being spent well," says John Cole, the TFT's president.
Before the TAAS was developed in 1990, accountability in Texas took the form of various
minimum-skills tests and the famous "No Pass/No Play" provision for extracurricular
sanctions championed by billionaire Ross Perot. School districts were handcuffed by state
regulations and student test results were not used in any constructive fashion. To its credit,
Texas was one of the first states to develop a system of education standards and
assessments, but the business community and the public rightly criticized the
minimum-skills tests for being just that.
Led by Charles Duncan, an investment banker from Houston, TBEC in the early 1980s
pulled together powerful CEOs and educators interested in reform. Throughout the 1980s, in
his role as head of TBEC and as an appointed member of the Texas school board, Duncan
continued to jawbone educators into focusing on student performance.
In the late 1980s, court rulings forced Texas to narrow the gap in funding between wealthy
and poor school districts. In the course of overhauling the finance system, lawmakers
wanted to ensure that redistributed funds would be spent well. Thus the legislature
established the Educational Economic Policy Center, a quasi-governmental body charged
with developing an accountability system. Chaired by Charles Miller, another
Houston-based money manager and a founder of TBEC, the center presented its report in
1993. With strong support from the Texas legislature, most of Miller's recommendations
became law, including the rating system and testing in most grades.
Many educators were not pleased about business meddling in their bailiwick. One
superintendent called the system "despicable." Nancy McClaran, the executive director of
the Texas Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, wrote in the Houston
Chronicle that Miller's report "contradicts every major, reputable piece of research on
student testing that has been done in our nation in recent years
If implemented, the
recommendations would mean the dismantling of the public schools."
Despite such resistance, the Texas Education Code was rewritten in 1995 to further
decentralize authority from the Texas Education Agency to local districts, giving schools
even more autonomy to find solutions while holding them accountable for the results.
"The new Code put a major emphasis on performance and deleted references to telling
districts how to teach," says Criss Cloudt, an associate commissioner at the TEA. Unlike
rating systems such as Kentucky's that credit schools for simply making progress each year,
Texas schools must reach a set of absolute benchmarks to improve their standing. In a
school seeking an "exemplary" rating, for instance, 90 percent of the students must pass the
TAAS in reading, writing, and math, the dropout rate must not exceed 1 percent, and the
attendance rate must surpass 94 percent. In short, an "exemplary" school in the
poverty-stricken barrios of El Paso must meet the same standards as an "exemplary" school
in the cozy Bellaire section of Houston.
The TEA is sensitive to a school's socioeconomic or racial makeup, but only to hold it
equally responsible for the performance of its most vulnerable students. A school striving to
earn a "recognized" ranking this year must achieve not only a TAAS passage rate of at least
80 percent of all students, but at least 80 percent of each of three special racial and
economic subgroups as well. If any one subgroup, such as black students, should fall below
80 percent or fail one of the other measures, the school would receive a lower ranking.
That's why affluent Bellaire High School in Houston was labeled "low performing" last
year. Its overall scores were typical of a school that sends its top 50 students to the Ivy
League, but its Hispanic dropout rate was too high. Average scores at Royal Middle School
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in rural Pattison were good enough for an "acceptable" rating in 1996, but only 28 percent
of its black students had passed the TAAS math test. Because that fell below the 30 percent
cutoff for "acceptable" schools (which has since been raised), Royal was also branded "low
performing."
Royal Middle's plight illustrates the slow pace of improvement at most schools. In the end,
the "low performing" rating had its desired effect: Midway through the 1996-97 school year,
the district replaced the ineffective principal with Patsy Ann Parker, who initiated two-hour
afternoon tutoring sessions, cracked down on truancy by hauling parents into court, and
began offering 7 a.m. breakfasts to lure struggling students to before-school tutoring
sessions. Her efforts earned the school an "acceptable" rating in 1997.
The school, though, still occupies a precarious position between "low performing" and
"acceptable." According to Parker, parental involvement is low, in part because the truck
stops along Interstate 10 bring a steady flow of drugs into the community. To encourage
parents to care about academic results, Parker requires teachers to call each student's home
once a week. She is also using computer programs in reading and math to track students'
progress; from now on, 80 percent of the children who advance to the next grade must have
skills at or above grade level. Where gang fights once were routine at Royal, "now we have
quiet halls and productive classrooms," Parker proudly says. She also brings drug-sniffing
dogs into the school regularly. Still, Parker says, it will take three to five years to turn the
school around.
If Royal is typical, Isaacs Elementary is extraordinary. One-hundred percent of the school's
students qualify for Title I funds, yet they scored higher than the statewide average on the
TAAS in 1995, when Isaacs received an "acceptable" rating. Even so, principal Leon Pettis
was determined to raise scores. To him, "acceptable" was unacceptable.
He adopted the Saxon reading and math programs known widely for their adherence to
traditional methods such as phonics-based instruction. He also began to monitor his
teachers' instructional habits by requiring them to give him portfolios of students' work
each week. Teachers in turn were expected to act on the feedback Pettis delivered. "He
would tell the teachers, 'If your students aren't performing, you as a teacher are lacking
something,' says Fredye Hemanes, the school's Title I coordinator. He also required
students who had failed or nearly failed the TAAS to attend after-school tutoring sessions
four days a week.
Two years later, 95 percent of the Isaacs kids who sat for the TAAS tests in reading, math,
and writing passed all three tests, compared to just 66 percent in 1995 and 73 percent
statewide. The reward came when Isaacs was named an elite "exemplary" school in 1997, a
distinction it shared with just 10 percent of Texas schools.
The Lessons
The successes of school districts all over Texas yield many lessons about accountability:
First, decentralization is critical. The TEA gave districts wide discretion in running their
school systems. In turn, the most effective superintendents have decentralized even further,
allowing individual schools to make most curriculum and training decisions. "Site-based
management" has become the new catch phrase in Texas education. Superintendents see the
district office as less a regulatory overseer than as a source of instructional expertise,
information, and targeted spending. In Corpus Christi, where the percentage of kids passing
the TAAS in reading rose from 66 percent in 1994 to 82 percent in 1997, superintendent
Abelardo Saavedra managed the creation of tough district-wide standards and gave his
schools broad freedoms to meet them.
"We expect all our schools to be on track towards 'exemplary,' says Saavedra, "and we
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look at the central office as their support system as opposed to the autocratic system we
used to operate under."
The Houston school district, the largest in Texas, once mandated instructional methods like
"whole language." Now superintendent Rod Paige routinely grants exemptions to principals
who believe that district mandates are hampering their efforts. Houston was also the first
district in Texas to permit public charter schools, which are liberated from most regulations
in return for meeting rigorous performance standards. "We have turned the schools loose,"
says Paige. "We tell them that they're going to be responsible for the pie, so we're not going
to give them the recipe." Paige's district boasted 25 "exemplary" schools in 1997, up from
none in 1993, when the standards were easier to meet.
Second, student testing, used properly, helps schools to identify weaknesses among
students and teachers. One key to Houston's resurgence has been its innovative use of the
test data provided by the accountability system. The district office breaks apart the data to
ensure that principals know how their schools, their students, and their individual teachers
are doing. "We're able with this kind of data to go back down to the classroom, to the
teacher," says Paige. "That makes the teacher's performance visible. It can be used to
provide staff training and, in some cases, to make changes."
It's hard to overestimate the importance of test data in evaluating teachers and students.
Teachers, says Saavedra, would like to improve but often don't know where their
weaknesses lie. They often have no measure of their students' weaknesses either. Test
scores provide the information they need. "When we do poorly in reading, we know
specifically what part of reading we're not doing well in," says Saavedra. "There's no
excuse for a classroom teacher not to be able to identify where she is weak. Scores should
help guide the teacher."
Third, test data can also illuminate good practices. With schools' scores and
demographic makeup in hand, educators can identify high-performing schools that are
succeeding despite their obstacles. Without its TAAS scores, how else would Texans be
able to identify a gem like Isaacs? "We've shown," says Darvin Winick, now an advisor to
Texas governor George W. Bush's business council, "that you can't get credit for doing
well without accountability." Then places like Isaacs become models for reform. According
to Paige, more and more Houston schools are adopting programs such as Direct Instruction,
Success for All, and Saxon reading and math because they have found that other successful
schools are using them. "Schools are trying to find proven solutions because they're
accountable for the results," says Paige.
Sonny Donaldson, superintendent of the nearby Aldine district, sent a team of curriculum
and instructional specialists to the North Forest and Brazosport districts three years ago to
divine their secrets. Both districts are famous for educating children who live, like those in
Aldine, on the troubled outskirts of Houston, and Donaldson wanted to find strategies that
would work for his students.
He found that these districts were closely analyzing individual students' test scores in order
to tailor instructional programs to their needs. So he hired a consultant to write a computer
program that would break down his own district's scores in a fashion helpful to teachers. He
also sent curriculum specialists to any school rated below "recognized" to work with
teachers in the field. With these reforms in place, 13 of the 26 schools that had been rated
"acceptable" in 1995 rose to the "recognized" level in 1997. The district as a whole
improved from "acceptable" to "recognized" in just two years. "We set out to be a
'recognized' school district," says Donaldson. "Now our goal is to be 'exemplary.' If 85
percent of a campus's kids are passing the TAAS, and they set a goal of maintaining that,
we reject that. We want them to set more challenging goals."
Educators can use the test data to scour the state for proven instructional programs. At
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Stephens Elementary in Aldine, principal Ruth Dimmick used the Success For All reading
program developed at Johns Hopkins University to raise her school from "acceptable" in
1995 to "exemplary" in 1997-the only school in the district to do so. Don Hancock, the
superintendent of the Connally school district near Waco, dispatched his math teachers to
travel the state for the best program and they returned with Saxon math in hand. As a result,
his district rose from "acceptable" in 1995 to "recognized" in 1997. Taft High School near
Corpus Christi brought in Saxon math in 1996 and shot from "low performing" to
"recognized" in one year. These programs are spreading throughout Texas as educators
search for what works.
Fourth, in the most troubled schools, principals say, parental involvement is
indispensable to reform. The principal at Brandon Elementary, a school north of Houston
that went from "low performing" in 1996 to "acceptable" in 1997, now requires his teachers
to call home whenever a student's performance falters. This is supposed to prompt parents
to monitor their child's study habits or at least, in the worst of cases, just make sure their
child comes to school regularly. Stephens Elementary in Aldine offers parents of its mostly
Hispanic student population free English lessons. Hambrick Middle School in the same
district offered parents gang-awareness workshops conducted by police officers, and
exempts students from homework if they bring their parents to school. Hambrick parents
now volunteer more hours than parents at any other school in the district. Frazier
Elementary in Dallas, which jumped from a "low performing" rating in 1994 to "exemplary"
in 1997, gives away donated furniture, pots and pans, and clothing to entice low-income
parents to teacher conferences.
Lastly, the success of any reform depends on the deeply held conviction that any child
can learn, even in the most challenging of circumstances. "I will not accept low student
performance or excuses that students can't learn," says superintendent Gerald Anderson of
the Brazosport school district. "We have a basic philosophy in this district that if one
teacher can do it, then all teachers can do it. The same goes for school campuses and
districts." Houston's Rod Paige adds, "We don't accept the conventional wisdom that some
kids won't be able to handle the content and that we should lower the standards for them.
There are schools in Houston loaded with low-income kids who perform. We believe that
the school itself can make a difference."
Building Accountability
Texas is one of a handful of states fulfilling the model of an accountability system for
educators. Such a system, says researcher Heidi Glidden of the American Federation of
Teachers union (AFT), must have four prongs:
A set of standards describing the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn
at each grade level. Teachers and principals in Texas know what they need to cover each
year because the state gives them clear guideposts. The magazine Education Week and the
AFT both gave Texas high marks for its academic standards.
A set of tests that are closely aligned with the state's standards. That way, the schools,
the state, and the public know whether children are learning the skills needed to succeed in
each grade. "Norm-referenced" tests such as the Stanford Achievement Test only measure
where their students are relative to all the students who take the test. "Criterion-referenced"
tests such as the TAAS and the NAEP tell them how much knowledge a student has
acquired. The TAAS is easier than the NAEP, but it is much tougher than most states'
assessments.
A system of rewards and sanctions for schools and students based on student test
scores and other criteria such as dropout rates. Sanctions in Texas include the shame of
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a "low-performing" rating and the public hearing that accompanies it, the threat of a state
takeover, and, for students who don't pass the 10th-grade TAAS exam, failure to graduate
high school. But these are merely stopgap measures, used only when the state is confronted
with massive failure. For the average school or district, the surreptitious ways in which
educators base their promotion decisions on performance have much more influence over
achievement.
A system of aid to failing schools. Without extra help, says Chris Pipho, a senior fellow at
the Denver-based Education Commission of the States, giving a "low performing" rating
would be like "giving an 'F' in an algebra class and saying the student is going to improve
because he got an 'F'." Many schools could use the instructional expertise of top-flight
teachers as well as an infusion of funds to purchase textbooks or to give teachers merit
bonuses. Last fall, TEA commissioner Mike Moses visited the Dallas school district to
scold the school board for public infighting. The district, in turn, provided $25,000 and a
team of specialists to each of its two "low-performing" schools.
Standards and tests are clearly an important piece in the accountability puzzle, but what is
most important-and what is lost in the debate over national testing-is what you do with
the results. Key to Texas's reforms is how public and how understandable the ratings are.
The TEA holds an annual press conference to announce the rankings, after which big-city
newspapers such as the Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Morning News
(http://www.dallasnews.com/) splash the names of "low performing" and "exemplary"
schools across their front pages. In addition, every school's ranking and vital statistics are
readily available on the Internet, a key tool in the accountability movement.
"We're finding more and more that when people come from other cities and states, they've
already done a lot of legwork over the Internet," says Diane Craig, a real-estate agent in San
Antonio. Homeowners and businessmen take a keener interest in the local schools when
their quality affects property values.
Subterfuge and Solutions
Texas's system is by no means perfect. For one thing, the benchmark for earning an
"acceptable" rating is still rather low. In fact, just four years ago a school could see 80
percent of its students fail the TAAS and still avoid the "low performing" stigma. But the
threshold to qualify as "acceptable" rises each year by 5 percentage points. By the year
2000, a school will need a TAAS passage rate of 50 percent to earn an "acceptable" rating.
"The standards aren't where we want them to be," says Chris Cloudt of the TEA. "But that's
a pretty fast pace to be increasing them." The standard for a "recognized" rating has also
ratcheted up, from 60 percent in 1994 to 80 percent this year.
Another major weakness in the system is the loophole that overlooks the performance of
special-ed and LEP students. The TEA already reports the scores of Hispanic students who
take the TAAS in Spanish, and those scores will soon influence the rankings. A test for
special-ed students is in the works. "There's a dual emphasis on raising standards and
including the maximum number of students," says Cloudt of the TEA.
A more troubling issue is the sheer number of children labeled special education and LEP in
the first place. Statewide, 10 percent of students are exempted from the TAAS, and another
6 percent or so take the test, yet are not included in the rating system because of their
special-ed status. At some schools, those numbers are alarmingly higher. In 1997, the
Houston school district only used the test scores of 39 percent of Brock Elementary students
in determining the school's accountability rating because the school had labeled 40 percent
of its students special ed and another 18 percent LEP. "The number of kids who are special
ed ought to be 5 percent, max," says John Cole of the TFT union. Superintendent Thomas
Tocco of the Fort Worth school district recently ordered an investigation of its
special-education programs after discovering that one-third of all Fort Worth elementary
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schools had exempted at least 20 percent of their kids for special ed.
What is happening here is a cloudy and controversial issue. Some observers claim that
principals are finding ways to hide struggling students because the accountability system
carries such high stakes. "We told lawmakers that if they didn't make the exemptions very
tight, schools would test only the kids who do well," says Gayle Fallon, the president of the
Houston Federation of Teachers, the largest local arm of the TFT. "And that's precisely
what happened." Houston superintendent Rod Paige denies such charges, saying that
schools have strict guidelines for placing children into special education classes. Just last
year, the TEA set up a special unit to investigate such claims.
Equally important is the question of how often students should be tested. Many teachers say
the state tests students too often, and some say they are spending too much time teaching to
the test, but others disagree. "If you're sure you have a strong link between the curriculum
and the test, then you're testing what you want the children to learn," says Cloudt of the
TEA. And there is strong support among business leaders and policy analysts for expanding
testing to the first and second grades and to grades nine through 11. "When you last test kids
at the 10th-grade level, you have not told them whether they are qualified to move past high
school," says John Stevens, the executive director of TBEC.
Stevens's point is punctuated by the prevalence of high schools among the ranks of the "low
performing." While many elementary-school pupils, with their fresh minds and
pre-adolescent innocence, have little trouble climbing to a higher rating, high schools and,
to a lesser degree, middle schools, have proven more intransigent.
The story that unfolded at Fox Technical High School in San Antonio illustrates the
difficulty. After two straight years as a "low-performing" school, in 1995 auditors from the
TEA deemed the problems plaguing Fox Technical High School too intractable for minor
tinkering. Citing divisions among the staff and low morale, the team of auditors
recommended a rare measure called "reconstitution"-essentially, starting from scratch. A
new principal with a reputation for reform was brought in and the entire staff had to reapply
to the school. Every principal's dream became a reality for Joanne Cockrell: She was able to
hand-pick her entire staff, only a third of whom were holdovers from the prereconstitution
days. "We thought that it be ludicrous to keep the same teachers and expect different
results," says Cockrell.
Two years later, Cockrell unexpectedly found herself having to explain to TEA
commissioner Mike Moses why the results had hardly improved. Despite higher reading
scores and a declining dropout rate, in 1997 Fox Tech was saddled with the
"low-performing" stigma for the fourth straight year because the proportion of its students
passing the TAAS in math remained below 35 percent, the benchmark for an "acceptable"
rating. The improvements were strong enough to justify some faith in Cockrell and her staff,
but the TEA's monitoring of Fox Tech continues.
The Coming Years
The Texas accountability system must continue to prove itself. The gains of eighth-graders
on the 1996 NAEP math tests were not as impressive as those of fourth-graders, perhaps
because they had already received five years of Texas schooling by the time reforms began
in 1993. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming years, as kids who began
their schooling during the reform era start to enter middle school. (Likewise, the benefits of
reforms would not have shown up on the last NAEP reading assessment in 1994. On that
assessment, Texas's fourth-graders performed at the national average.)
In the meantime, the reforms continue to spark some opposition. In October, the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) filed suit against the TAAS. The
suit charges that the TAAS's 10th-grade test, which students must pass to graduate,
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discriminates against minorities. This accords with MALDEF's long history of opposition
to student testing in general and to testing as a graduation requirement in particular.
Fortunately, the U.S. Department of Education ruled against a similar complaint filed by the
NAACP last summer, and few observers expect the outcome to change.
These groups are finding themselves on the wrong side of public opinion in Texas, even
among educators. "Now the system is just a part of Texas," says Catherine Clark, director of
the Texas Center for Educational Research. "It's not a subject of debate." Of the educators I
have spoken with, the ones who did criticize the system argued that it wasn't tough enough.
Meanwhile, reforms continue apace. Governor Bush has proposed ending social
promotion-the practice of graduating children to the next grade regardless of their skill
level-statewide, and Rod Paige is in the process of drafting a plan for his district. A
nascent program, the Public Education Grant, now allows students to leave any school
receiving a "low-performing" rating within the past three years as long as another school or
district will take them. Texas lawmakers are looking to provide incentives for districts to
open their doors.
While many educational reform efforts quickly buckle to union pressure or public
discontent, Texas's system has only become more rigorous over time. If this trend
continues, Texas, one of the nation's poorest states, may soon become the best place to get
an education.
Tyce Palmaffy is the assistant editor of Policy Review: The Journal of
American Citizenship.
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