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122241502
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[08/04/1998] [1]
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122241502
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[08/04/1998] [1]
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Presidential Electronic Mail from the Automated Records Management System (ARMS)
Automated Records Management System (ARMS) Email from the Office of Policy Development (OPD) Bucket
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42-t-26444780-20150017F-Seg2-002-001-2017
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RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (NOTES MAIL)
CREATOR: [email protected] (OPA) ( [email protected] (OPA) [ UNKNOWN ])
CREATION DATE/TIME: 4-AUG-1998 13:35:31.00
SUBJECT: Clips
TO: Scott R. Palmer (CN=Scott R. Palmer/OU=PIR/O=EOP [ PIR D
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: Sonyia Matthews (CN=Sonyia Matthews/OU=OPD/O=EOP [ OPD ])
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: [email protected] ( [email protected] [ UNKNOWN ) (OPD)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: [email protected] ( [email protected] [ UNKNOWN ] ) (OMB)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: [email protected] ([email protected] [ UNKNOWN ) (OPD)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: [email protected] ([email protected] [ UNKNOWN ]) (OPD)
READ:UNKNOWN
TO: [email protected] ( [email protected] [ UNKNOWN D (OPD)
READ:UNKNOWN
TEXT:
Good afternoon,
Here are today's education clips.
Carlin Hertz
Education Department public affairs
401-1576
- 08041998.wir - 08041998.w51
ATTACHMENT 1
ATT CREATION TIME/DATE: 0 00:00:00.00
TEXT:
Unable to convert t ARMS_EXT:[ATTACH.D83]MAIL405846919.226 to ASCII,
The following is a HEX DUMP:
END ATTACHMENT I
ATTACHMENT 2
ATT CREATION TIME/DATE: 0 00:00:00.00
TEXT:
WPC
2xBZ!
Online clips cover page
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PXP# Address1#i2PP#Tuesday, August 4, 1998Address1
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Body type#:\ PP#
#&G\
P&P#This compilation of news reports contains copyrighted materials
obtai
ned through licensing agreements and is intended solely for the use
of departme
nt employees.
#*0 x7##What Follows
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P &P#
NATIONAL
1. Associated Press
Calif. School Bilingual Law Begins
2. The Washington Post
In Calif. Classrooms, A Troubled Transition
3. Los Angeles Times
With Gestures, but Not Chaos, Prop. 227 Begins
4. San Diego Union Tribune
Englishimmersion era under way as Prop. 227
reaches the classroom
5. World Today (CNN)
Bilingual Education Dropped from California
Curriculum
6. World News Tonight (ABC)
A CLOSER LOOK PROP 227 LEADS TO
CONFUSION IN CALIFORNIA CLASSES
7. World News Tonight (ABC)
A CLOSER LOOK MIAMI IS PROUD OF ITS
BILINGUAL PROGRAM
8. All Things Considered (NPR)
California Bilingual Education
9. All Things Considered (NPR)
Colorado Bilingual Education
10. ABCNews.com
In California, Proposition 227 Begins This Week:
Back to the Big E for the 3Rs
11. Associated Press
Clinton Warns of Veto To Help Kids
12. Christian Science Monitor
The Challenge for Schools: Connecting Adults With
Kids
13. Chri
stian Science Monitor
Tackling the SAT? TestPrep Help Abounds
14. Christian Science Monitor
Summer and Basic Skills
15. Associated Press
Reno Urges Laws on Kids and Guns
16. Associated Press
MIT Requires Online Applications
17. The New York Times
Students Abroad Find A Wealth of Choices, And Even Bargains
18. The New York Times
Why Johnny's Doing Calculus: The Booming Education Industry
19. The New York Times
Easy Degrees Proliferate on the Web
20. The New York Times
Back To the Blackboard
21. The New York Times
Sonny, We Didn't Have Calculators Back Then (And I Had to Walk)
22. The New York Times
Barbarians at the Schoolhouse Door
23. The New York Times
Alumni Editors Call for Freedom
24. The New York Times
Military Fires a Warning Shot at Law Schools
25. The New York Times
Where the Girls Are: Where Boys Aren't
26. The New York Times
Forging a Worldview: From Crow's Nest to Ivory Tower
27. The New York Times
'So, Like, What Do I Do Now?' Some of the Alternatives
28. The New York Times
After High School, A Call to arms
TRADE
29. Education Week
It's About Teaching And Learning "Not Testing
30. Education Week
What's Wrong With Bilingual Education? Repair It, Don't Replace It
31. Education Week
What's Wrong With Bilingual Education? Is It 'Lingual,' or Is It 'Educa
tion'?
32. Education Week
More Parents Want Charters, Ed. Dept. Study Concludes
33. Education Week
Predominantly Black Charters Focus of Debate in N.C.
34. Education Week
N.Y. To Require Accreditation For Ed. Schools
35. Education Week
Senate OKs HEA Bill That Would Streamline Teacher Ed.
36. Education Week
Future Shape of ERate Program In State of Flux on Capitol Hill
37. Education Week
Contractor Gets More Time To Write National Test Items
38. Educa
tion Week
GOP Report Underscores Two Views on Federal Role
39. Education Week
House Spending Bill Takes Conservative Line
40. Education Week
District Holding Some Notes in Assault Case
41. Education Week
Mayor To Control Cleveland Schools After Judge Ends State Intervention
42. Education Week
Mass. Reacts to More Test Data; Teacher Proposal Outlined
43. LRP Publications
Senate Passes Job Training Conference Report
44. Education Week
Researchers Blame Test Revisions for Falling III. Reading Scores
45. LRP Publications
House, Senate GOP Lawmakers Offer Measure to Abolish ERate Agency
46. LRP Publications
Teacher Group Launches Laptop Computer Initiative for Educators
47. Education Week
Georgia, Maryland Beef Up Teacher Education Programs
48. LRP Publications
Study Reveals Threat of School Shootings "Overblown"
49. Education Week
Taxes, Transfer Program on the Table In St. Louis Desegregation Settlem
ent
50. LRP Publications
Clinton Gears Up to Veto GOP Education Agenda
51. Education Week
Barriers to Education Exist Long Before High School Among Latinos, Repo
rt Says
52. Education Week
Pirated Software Could Prove Costly To L.A. District
53. Education Week
Waco Gets Tough With Summer School Effort
54. Education Week
Despite National Defeat, NEA and AFT Work Toward Mergers in States
55. Education Week
Schools Gear Up As Bilingual Ed. Law Takes Effect
56. Education Week
Black Parents Want Focus on Academics
57. Education Week
Researcher at Center of Storm Over Vouchers
58. Education Daily
Funding Alert
59. Education Daily
News Briefs
60. Education Daily
Initiative Spurs Math, Science Teaching Via Laptops
61. Education Daily
Job Training Bills Would Allow Joint Voc Ed Plans
62. Education Daily
House Consolidated Loans Spell Trouble In Congress For ED
63. Education Daily
Revised IDEA Quashes School District's Help For Student
64. Educat
ion Daily
Tracking Isn't A Bogeyman, Harvard Professor Says
65. CongressDaily
Clinton Threatens To Veto LaborHHS Bill In Current Form
66. Education Daily
House Again Uses D.C. Bill For Pet Education Policies
LOCAL
67. The Washington Post
Back to Class
Already?
68. Austin American Statesmen
Record number of Texas schools given top grade
69. Ft. Worth Star Telegram
Pay raises proposed for some teachers
70. Columbia (SC) State
Schools plan what to do in case of shootings
71. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Doyle unveils effort to avert pupil violence
72. Detroit Free Press
New leader says Detroit presence is a possibility
73. Boston Globe
Communities, school districts to see record increases in state aid
74. Richmond TimesDispatch
THE OLD COLLEGE TRY SCRAMBLE FOR TUITION IS EASIER THE EARLIER
YOU STAR
T SAVING
75. Richmond TimesDispatch
CONFUSED ABOUT HOW TO PLAN FOR TUITION?
76. The Pueblo (Colo) Chieftain
Magnet School Ready to Open Doors
77. Houston Chronicle
Public schools crumbling as tax money hard to find
78. The Washington Post
To a Degree, Darrell Green Has Filled the Last Hole in His Life
79. Chicago SunTimes
Feds probe suburb teacher pensions
INTERNATIONAL
80. BBC News
Bilingual ban takes effect
COMMENTARY
81. Daily Texan
Education debates ignore real issues
82. Christian Science Monitor
Getting Beyond Cramming for Exams
83. Los Angeles Times
Lengthening Class Time
84. The Wall Street Journal
ESAs Don't Divert Public School Funds
85. Boston Herald
Principals can help ed success
86. Worcester Telegram & Gazette`
Are education schools lost among t
rends?
87. Harrisburg PatriotNews
Other needs supersede 4year university
88. Greensboro News & Record
SCHOOL YEAR'S FIRST CHALLENGE
89. The Washington Times
Keeping science education on the cutting edge
90. Raleigh News & Observer
Student courts must be free to punish campus crime
91. The Sacramento Bee
'LOOPING' KEEPS KIDS, TEACHERS TOGETHER FOR MORE THAN 1 YEAR
EDITORIAL
92. Investors Business Daily
Education Reform In Black And White
93. New York Times
Keeping the Census Fair
94. The Washington Times
The stakes for the economy
95. Los Angeles Times
The Internet and Child Safety
96. The Salt Lake Tribune
Give Charter Schools a Try
97. San Diego Union Tribune
Too good for the job
98. The (Boulder, Colo.) Daily Camera
Media bias distorts affirmative action debate
Body type#:\ P!P#Tabs-storiesdPublication#W\ P"P# 1. Associated Press"Public
ation" #:\
P#P# 08/03/98
Headline#\
P$P# Calif. School Bilingual Law Begins Headline #:\ P%P#
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Thousands of kids headed back to school Monday, giving teac
hers, students and parents their first look at
how California's new bilingual e
ducation law will translate in the classroom.
ddVoters in June approved Proposition 227, which virtually eliminated bilingual
education classes with its decree that children in
the nation's most populous
state should be taught "overwhelmingly" in English.
ddTeacher Isabel Rodriguez was nervous and frustrated as she looked upon the fa
ces of her 18 first-graders starting a new session
of year-round school.
"They're anxious anyway because it's their first day of school, and I was una
ble to console them in their language," Ms. Rodriguez
said. "So I had to use si
mple, basic words in English to tell them that everything will be all right."
ddMs. Rodriguez's feelings of insecurity, confusion and even anger were shared
by many teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School
District, the nation's secon
d largest, as 19,700 students started new semesters at 50 schools. A year-round
schedule staggers the school
year for the district's 681,000 students to maxim
ize space.
ddOf those students who started school Monday, less than half are fluent in Eng
lish.
ddCritics say the law is the latest strike against immigrants in California, wh
ere voters already have stripped illegal immigrants of
health, education and we
Ifare benefits, and the University of California has banned affirmative action.
ddBut some say the initiative was long overdo.
dd"They should have done something about it years ago," said parent Sylvia Vela
Z, whose 9-year old daughter spoke Spanish and
then became fluent in English.
I don't think bilingual education works very well. If they're kept in an enviro
nment where they're
speaking Spanish all the time, it won't do anything."
ddThe law requires that children who have limited English ability be put in a o
ne-year immersion course. After 30 days, parents can
get a waiver to put their
child back in bilingual education under limited conditions.
ddMost school districts in California do not reopen until September. But the SC
hools in Los Angeles Unified began a new year-round
track Monday, forcing teach
ers, students and parents to struggle early with the question of how to make th
e transition as painless
as possible.
dd"It's more emotional than hectic," said Esther Castruita, principal at Theres
a Hughes Elementary School, where the student
population is 99 percent Latino.
"We are bidding farewell to a very dear friend, a bilingual friend that we beli
eve in. It's like
mourning, but now the denial phase is over."
ddInstead, they will try to make the best of it, she said, vowing that Hughes E
lementary would become one of the "best Proposition
227 schools" in the Los Ang
eles area. The school is located in the small working-class city of Cudahy, sou
thwest of downtown Los
Angeles.
ddIn Lucia Espinoza's combination second- and third-grade class at Hughes, her
13 students sat cross-legged at her feet as she read
a story to them about a bo
y who did not like school and walked to class slowly.
dd"Who can show me how you walk slowly?" Ms. Espinoza asked. A boy raised his h
and and shuffled across the rug in front of
his classmates.
ddThe children did not actually say the word "slowly," but appeared to grasp it
S meaning.
ddAn immersion class was active and noisy as children learned English through W
ords and pictures on the walls, role-playing,
puppetry and hearing lessons read
aloud.
l"Children are very, very resilient," said Victor Chavira, a fourth-grade teac
her at Hughes. "They will adapt. But how well they
adapt remains to be seen. It
's a gray area."n
Publication#W\
P&P# 2. The Washington Post"Publication" #:\
P'P# 08/04/98; Ed
ition: FINAL; Section: A Section; Page A03
Headline#\ P(P# In Calif. Classrooms, A Troubled TransitionHeadline #:\
P)P#S
ubhead#[\ P*P# Students, Teachers Struggle to Adjust On First Day of English-
Only
EducationSubhead#:\
P+P#
By William Booth
Washington Post Staff Writer
The sweeping social experiment known as bilingual education officially ended t
oday in the state where it began. Confusion reigned
in many California school d
istricts and defiance in others as teachers struggled to switch from Korean, Ar
menian and Spanish to
all-English, all the time, often without the help of text
books or lesson plans.
ddIn Oakland and San Francisco, where schools do not open for another few weeks
, officials were still holding out against
implementation of Proposition 227, t
he voter initiative that passed with overwhelming support on June 2. The initia
tive, sponsored
by Silicon Valley software entrepreneur Ron Unz, replaced bilin
gual education with a year of English language immersion. Exceptin charter scho
ols, students are then to be pushed into mainstream all-English classes.
ddThe end of bilingual education in California, the largest state in the union
and the one with the largest immigrant population, is
being closely watched by
other states also facing influxes of immigrant children. Reflecting resentment
over the spreading challenge,
a bill curtailing funding for bilingual education
has been introduced in Congress. But in the meantime, the change began today i
n
Los Angeles.
ddIn Maria Elena Crabb's first day with her new second-grade class at Alexandri
a Avenue Elementary School here, students who
previously were taught almost exc
lusively in Spanish found their teacher introducing herself this morning in Eng
lish. As the children,
in their new blue and white uniforms, sat squirming on t
he floor at her feet, Mrs. Crabb began reading from the storybook about little
Madeline:
dd"In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, lived 12 little girls
in two straight lines."
ddSome of the children understood almost every word (vine was a tough one), and
waved their hands in the air to answer questions.
But others seemed lost and W
ithdrawn. "You see those faces?" asked Crabb later. "Total blanks."
ddIn Los Angeles, where a new semester started today at 50 year-round schools,
the district is replacing bilingual education with
two alternatives. In the fir
st, students are taught exclusively in English. Under the second, students, suc
h as Crabb's second-graders,
are also taught mostly in English, but their teach
ers are allowed to occasionally explain concepts and words in Spanish.
ddHow much Spanish?
dd"Nobody knows," said Alexandria Principal Carol Labrow. "As they've explained
it to us, before we had a full cup of Spanish.
Now we have a quarter cup. It i
S a precious resource and I'm telling my teachers not to waste it."
ddBut Labrow promised that no students would be punished for speaking their pri
mary languages. "I'm not going to have a bunch
of kindergarteners out on the pl
ayground crying because no one will tell them what to do in Spanish," she said.
ddThe termination of bilingual education has produced bitter feelings among man
y of its advocates, who believe that students are
well served by first learning
reading, writing and core subjects such as math and science in their primary 1
anguages, and then being
"transitioned" into all-English classes after several
years. Many bilingual activists have charged that Proposition 227 was racist an
d
anti-immigrant.
ddBut opponents of bilingual education describe it as a failed experiment that
became bogged down, where students spent years
learning Spanish and not English
, the language immigrant children most need to succeed. In California, only 7 p
ercent of bilingual
students made that elusive "transition" each year.
ddSan Francisco Superintendent Waldemar Rojas has said he plans to continue off
ering bilingual education, as the school district
is still under a federal cour
t order dating from the 1970s. That order, the so-called Lau decision, began th
e bilingual age by
guaranteeing lessons in a language the student can understan
d. Rojas said the decision to continue bilingual education is not an act
of def
iance, but adherence to a court order.
ddIn Orange County south of here, school officials took advantage of a loophole
and have delayed ending bilingual education, but
only for several months. One
panicky official in Santa Ana compared ending bilingual education to stopping a
speeding train.
ddOver the last 20 years, California educators created an elaborate bureaucracy
for teaching students whose primary language is not
English. Foreign-language
textbook sales boomed. Bilingual teachers were coveted and given an extra $5,00
0 a year. About 1.4
million students in California are not proficient in Englis
h, and at least half of them have been in some kind of bilingual program.
But W
ith the passage of Proposition 227, schools had only 60 days to come up with a
new way to teach.
ddThe 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday refused to grant an injunctio
n to block implementation of the initiative statewide.
An appeal is pending.
ddIn another ruling, U.S. District Judge Lourdes Gillespie Baird turned down an
other challenge by the Mexican American Legal
Defense and Education Fund to blo
ck the end of bilingual education in Los Angeles. MALDEF attorneys had argued t
hat the Los
Angeles district is unprepared for such a massive upheaval. But Bai
rd said that the teachers were quite capable of teaching English.
dd"You're not giving the teachers the credit they're due," Baird said.
ddBut in Los Angeles, half of the district's 680,000 students are not fluent in
English. And at Alexandria Elementary School, the
teachers today did their bes
t without textbooks or detailed teaching plans.
ddMaria Elena Crabb said the problem is not so much teaching her students Engli
sh, but teaching them other subjects. In math, for
example, she must first teac
h them the numbers in English, and then introduce concepts such as addition and
subtraction, borrowing
and carrying, all in English.
dd"I think the smart kids will succeed, like anything else in life," Crabb said
"The ones who are slower? They might not get it."
ddOn the first day of class, as the children sounded off their assigned numbere
d spaces in line, several could not utter the magic
words in English. Crabb was
not disheartened. She coaxed the numbers out of them, and when they spoke in S
panish, she simply
repeated their words in English. Over and over and over agai
n.
ART PH,, TODD BIGELOW FOR TWP CAPTION: Above, Maria Elena Crabb's students sho
W up for their first day of second
grade at Alexandria Avenue
Elementary School in Los Angeles. Crabb, left, used to teach in
Spanish and English but now must immerse her students in English. One
student, Yolanda Alvarado, right, was among many students who needed help
understanding what Crabb was saying.n
Publication#W\
P,P# 3. Los Angeles "Publication" #:\ P-P#* 08/04/98; Edi
tion: Orange County Edition; Section: Metro Desk; Page A-1
Headline#\
P.P# With Gestures, but Not Chaos, Prop. 227 BeginsHeadline #:\ P/
P#
By TINA NGUYEN;
BETTINA BOXALL
The post-bilingual age began in Los Angeles schools Monday with uncertainty, im
provisation and a good many hand gestures'
seemingly none of the chaos predi
cted by apprehensive educators.
ddAnd in Orange County, two of the school systems with the largest enrollments
of immigrant children continued to offer
primary-language instruction. Official
S of the Santa Ana Unified and Anaheim City school districts said they will con
tinue to do so
until administrators craft solid plans for English-immersion pro
grams.
ddThat allowed Santa Ana first-grade teacher Victoria Boyd to read aloud a Span
ish translation of the popular children's book "The
Very Hungry Caterpillar" to
her pupils at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School.
ddThroughout the story, the youngsters sat perfectly still, lis
ddtening intently and answering questions eagerly. But when Boyd moved to anoth
er story, this one in English, eyelids drooped,
little bodies fidgeted and atte
ntion faded.
ddSwitching to an "overwhelmingly" English program will be tough, said Boyd, wh
o has taught bilingual classes for 14 years.
dd"I don't want the students to feel like their primary language is being shove
d out of the door," she said. "At the same time, I think
we can abide by the la
W and meet the needs of the children."
ddMany students in Los Angeles, however, seemed to be struggling Monday.
ddThere were glazed looks of incomprehension and worry in some classrooms as te
achers and students at 47 year-round elementary
schools started a new semester,
making them among the first in the state to return to class under Proposition
227, the June initiative
that essentially eliminated bilingual education in Cal
ifornia's public schools.
ddBut the morning went surprisingly smoothly at eight schools visited by Times
reporters. There was no flood of requests for
waivers to dodge the English-imme
rsion instruction that is now the state mandate. There was no defiant flouting
of the initiative.
ddInstead, teachers, parents and students all seemed in a mood to try to do wha
t they were now expected to do, however difficult"or
even distasteful"it might
be for them. And many of the youngsters had little difficulty following their t
eachers' English.
ddAt Van Nuys Elementary, one could hear only a sprinkling of Spanish among the
students who returned Monday, as the language
all but disappeared from many cl
assrooms. Youngsters who once spent their days reading and writing Spanish were
instead reciting
the alphabet and greeting one another in English.
ddInstructors who had spent years teaching in Spanish reminded themselves to sp
eak English, even as some said they preferred the
bilingual approach.
ddThe majority of Van Nuys classes offered virtually no help in Spanish except
for bilingual aides who gave occasional tips to
students. Teachers tried hard t
o make their lessons clear by using gestures' one pointed to the floor when she
asked the class to sit
down. The teachers spoke slowly and clearly and frequent
ly repeated words for the benefit of their students.
ddWhen second-grade teacher Beth Shwarz told her pupils to write their names at
the bottom of their personal journals, she repeated
the last two words of her
instructions in slow motion: "T-H-E B-O-T-T-O-M."
ddAt one point, she emphasized, "Please, if you have questions, ask me," adding
in Spanish, "Por favor, si tienen preguntas,
preguntenme." No Textbooks or Les
son Plans
ddWhile they improvised their way through the first morning, many teachers wond
ered how they would fare in the coming days
without a formal lesson plan for te
aching English"it won't be ready for three more weeks"or the necessary English-
language
textbooks, which won't even be ordered for another month.
dd"I said to my family that I can get through the first day and probably the ne
xt few days," said first-grade teacher Rosario Martin
at Christopher Dena Eleme
ntary in East Los Angeles. "My greatest concern is the curriculum. As we see it
right now there's no real
curriculum."
ddThat is exactly why officials at Santa Ana Unified and Anaheim City have used
a technicality to delay implementation of
English-only programs. To do so, the
y changed the date when their official school year starts.
ddProposition 227 was to take effect for all schools that begin after Aug. 2. B
ut in those two districts, last Friday's teacher training
day was used to mark
the start of the school calendar.
ddThe two districts, both on year-round schedules, thus are exempt from impleme
nting English-immersion programs until their next
batch of students starts clas
ses. For Santa Ana Unified, that will be Sept. 10; and for Anaheim City, Novemb
er.
ddCritics called the move an attempt to skirt the new law.
dd"If a district as large as Los Angeles Unified can make an attempt to impleme
nt 227, then it is inexcusable that Santa Ana is
lagging," said Sheri Annis, sp
okeswoman for the Prop. 227 initiative.
ddBut teachers say their students' needs have to be a primary concern.
ddWith more than 312,000 students classified as having limited English skills"n
early a quarter of the 1.4 million such students
statewide"tl Los Angeles Unif
ied School District will play a pivotal rule in determining whether Proposition
227's mandate for
English instruction succeeds or fails.
ddThe district has developed four instruction options that parents of limited-E
nglish students can chose from: Immerse the pupils
in English; instruct them al
most entirely in English with classroom aides and fellow students offering nati
ve-language help (knownas Model A); teach them almost entirely in English with
a certified bilingual education teacher in class to help (known as Model B);
ap
ply for a waiver to place the child in a traditional bilingual program.
ddParents will not have to pick a method for another month.
ddSanta Ana Unified officials said they plan to offer similar options. Their in
tensive English-immersion program will allow teachers
to spend 80% of the time
teaching in English and the rest of the class in the students' primary language
Also available will be a
dual-immersion program that teaches students of vari
ous language backgrounds both Spanish and English.
ddAdministrators from both Santa Ana Unified and Anaheim City said they intend
to comply fully with the new law by their
respective deadlines. However, the ex
tra time they created by changing their official start day will help them devel
op a well-planned
program, they said.
dd"Rather than spend our time lamenting that [Prop. 227] is here, we need to ma
ke good plans to make the program successful,"
Franklin Elementary Principal Ro
bert McDonald said.
ddBackers of Proposition 227 let its first day of enforcement pass with little
fanfare, though businessman Ron K. Unz, the oft-quoted
sponsor of the initiativ
e, announced a program to help monitor its implementation. The "English for the
Children Project," will take
calls from whistle-blowers on a toll-free number.
ddUnz said the calls would be logged to help determine which schools or distric
ts should be targeted with lawsuits for
noncompliance. Few Requests for Waivers
ddThe post-bilingual era began in Los Angeles and a few other districts scatter
ed around the state despite the best efforts of
opponents, who went to court to
block implementation of the initiative and in some cases have vowed to defy it
As late as Friday,
two federal courts ruling in separate lawsuits filed by ci
vil rights groups gave the initiative a green light.
ddOfficials of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which V
ehemently fought Proposition 227, said last
month that they would urge as many
parents as possible to apply for waivers to thwart the initiative.
ddlt is too soon to tell if such waiver requests will come pouring in, but ther
e was no great demand Monday. Only a handful of
parents asked about them at bac
k-to-school meetings with administrators at San Pedro Street Elementary. Some p
arents at the sessions
did express fear, though, that their children would some
how forget how to speak Spanish. A few wanted assurances that some
Spanish woul
d be used in the classroom.
ddAt Monte Vista Elementary in Highland Park, Sabina Cortez was concerned that
she would not be able to help her child on
homework that was only in English. L
ike several other parents, she was leaning toward putting her child in the Mode
1 B program,
with limited Spanish support.
ddBut Veronica Estrada, who said she speaks Spanish perfectly, was firm about c
hoosing the all-English model. "I don't speak
Spanish at home," she stressed.
ddHer older daughters are now in high school and are taking Spanish as a second
language. That suits her, she said.
ddPredictions of upheaval in classrooms failed to materialize on Monday precise
ly because of the role that English played under
the school district's old bili
ngual programs, teachers said.
dd"I think the public's perception was that no English was being taught in bili
ngual programs but that's not so," said Heather
Hagen-Smith, as her first-grade
rs at Canoga Park Elementary School sang songs about shoes and buses in English
to build their
vocabulary.
ddStill, other teachers expressed concerns about whether students with limited
English abilities will be able to adequately develop
learning skills in English
"and whether they will get the help they need at home.
dd"It's a big concern. I can't tell how it's going to go," said Canoga Park kin
dergarten teacher Christina Cuevas. "The kids have to
be taught in English, reg
ardless of what I think."
ddn
Publication#W\
POP# 4. San Diego UnionTribune"Publication" #:\ P1P#August 4,
1998
Headline#\
P2P# English-immersion era under way as Prop. 227 reaches
the clas
sroomHeadline #:\ P3P#
By Chris Moran and Anna Cearley
STAFF WRITERS
dd VISTA Iris Huerta speaks some English, but her first day of second grade
at Olive Elementary School promised to test how
much.
dd When asked if she would understand her teacher, the 7-year-old just shrugged
dd With gestures as the lingua franca, two North County school districts yester
day kicked off a new school year and a new era
in teaching California's li
mited-English speakers.
dd The passage of Proposition 227 in June means Iris's teachers will speak ove
rwhelmingly in English. In Vista Unified School
District, that means at least
70 percent of the time.
dd The voter-approved proposition ended most bilingual education in the state's
public schools. Instead, limited-English-speaking
students receive a one-year
crash course in English backed up by bits of their first language.
dd Because the measure took effect over the weekend, year-round schools in Vis
ta and Escondido, which started a new school yearyesterday, became the first i
n the county to try to live under it.
dd Most local schools won't be affected until classes resume this fall. The mea
sure will impact 1.4 million students with limited
English skills statewide.
dd The Vista school board is expected Thursday to adopt a plan giving parents o
ne of three classroom options for their
limited-English-speaking kids: 70 perc
ent English, English only or bilingual education (parents could seek waivers t
o keep their
children in bilingual programs).
dd There's no choice for the first 30 days. Limited-English speakers get the 70
percent option. Then parents are allowed to move
their children to other cla
sses.
dd Iczel Posos, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Washington Middle School in Vist
a, said she already notices the difference. She gave
terse answers to question
S during a break, and said this year is more difficult "because it's mas (mor
e) English."
dd Asked if that meant she'd learn her second language more quickly, she replie
d, "Maybe."
dd She and her friend Daisy Morales, a 13-year-old seventh-grader, responded q
uickly to teacher Tim Wright's questions,
particularly when he asked for trans
lations to Spanish.
dd But when they needed to ask something of Wright, more often they relied on
Spanish.
dd When Wright began assigning seats, Daisy blurted out, "Yo quiero sentarme a
lla, (I want to sit there)," pointing to a vacant seat
next to a boy.
dd Wright responded, "I get to make that decision."
dd Daisy, hoping to appease him with English, said "Please!"
dd At Felicita School in the Escondido Union elementary district, teacher Tatia
na Dearinger went over class rules, and the
consequences of breaking them, wit
h her second-graders. It was all done in English, slowly and with hand motions
dd "If you need to get a drink of water, then you push in your chair and go to
get a drink," she said, pointing to the faucet in the back
of the room. "But t
here's only one person at the fountain at a time."
dd She passed out crayons and rulers, and reminded the students not to break th
em or use them as weapons. The students started
to fill out a work sheet, find
ing classmates who "like to read" or "walk to school." A picture accompanied e
ach phrase, so they could
figure it out. A few asked Dearinger in Spanish what
the words meant, and she explained to them in English until they understood.
dd No one had to ask her what the word "recess" meant. The class let out a chee
r.
dd Marcela Torres, 6, admitted that "not everything" was making sense in Englis
h. Israel Martinez, 7, made a similar assessment,
and said he wants to learn
English.
dd At Olive Elementary in Vista, Denise Childs reached her 30 percent allotment
of Spanish by 11:25 a.m., and switched to English
for her first-graders' geo
graphy and penmanship.
dd Childs told the students in English to take out pencils and paper.
dd Felisha, a native English speaker, complied. But Sheila to her left and Liss
ette to her right (the school forbade the use of last
names) merely continued
to look at the teacher.
dd It wasn't until Childs showed them by drawing her hand out of a desk and ont
o its surface that the Spanish speakers followed
the directions.
dd Vista Superintendent Dave Cowles said the new law did not cause any unusual
disruptions, though it drew plenty of media
attention to the 25,000-student d
istrict.
dd "I think this will be a significant change. I hope that this makes for a qui
cker transition to (the) English language," he said.
dd That would please Maria Rojero. Her 6-year-old daughter, Karina, started an
English immersion program last year.
dd "I don't understand much English," Rojero said in Spanish, "but I don't want
my children to be like me."n
Publication#
P4P# 5. World Today (CNN)"Publication" #:\ P5P#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
P6P# Bilingual Education Dropped from California
CurriculumHeadline
#:\ P7P#
JIM MORET, CNN ANCHOR: As thousands of children in Los Angeles head back to sch
ool this week, a new state law is making
the return more stressful than usual f
or some of them. It requires children whose first language is Spanish to be tau
ght only in English.
ddCNN's Anne McDermott reports.
dd(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ddANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're about to see something
a little amazing.
ddPATRICIA YURICH, 1ST GRADE TEACHER: The first word I want you to write on you
r paper is "cat."
ddUNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Easy.
ddMCDERMOTT: And it was easy, even though some experts predicted these Spanish-
speaking kids might fail at English
immersion classes. English immersion: in Ca
lifornia schools, that's what's replacing bilingual education, which some belie
ve became
less and less "bi" as time went on and more and more Spanish.
ddIn June, voters passed California Proposition 227, which dropped bilingual ed
ucation in favor of English immersion. Now some
critics of 227 saw it as someth
ing of a racist slap at Spanish-speaking school children. But supporters pointe
d out that nearly half
of Los Angeles school children speak limited English and
argued something had to be done. And they got support from a somewhatsurprisin
g quarter. They got support from some Spanish-speaking parents.
ddAlice Callahan, who runs a day care center for poor families, says many of th
em believe no English means no way out.
ddALICE CALLAHAN, PROPOSITION 227 SUPPORTER: The families that come to Las Fami
lias work in the garment district
sweat shops. They sell tamales on corners. Th
ey clean offices downtown. It's not a future they want for their children.
ddMCDERMOTT: What does this woman want for her child?
ddUNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I want her to learn to speak Englis
h, but at the same time, that she doesn't stop
speaking Spanish. MCDERMOTT: The
principal at Los Angeles' Alexandria Avenue Elementary School says she's not c
ompletely
sold on English immersion yet, but admits she's discovering the child
ren know more English than she thought they did.
ddYURICH: What does "plant" mean?
ddMCDERMOTT: And Ms. Yurich's first graders are learning even more.
dd(on camera): Do you think people underestimated the kids?
ddYURICH: I kind of think so. I do. Because at an early " at a young age like
this, they're very adaptable, and they're so eager to
learn.
ddWhere did it go?
ddMCCDERMOTT: Eager to learn.
ddAnne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.n
Publication#W\
P8P# 6. World News Tonight (ABC)"Publication" #:\ P9P# 08/03/9
8Section: NEWS;
Headline#\
P:P# A CLOSER LOOK PROP 227 LEADS TO
CONFUSION IN CALIFORNIA CLASS
ESHeadline #:\ P;P#
By JUDY MULLER
CHARLES GIBSON
CHARLES GIBSON: Tonight, "A Closer Look" at one of the most hotly debated issu
es in America bilingual education. Some
argue against it, saying that if chil
dren raised in non-English-speaking families are going to succeed in America, t
hey need to know
and learn in English. Others argue that children can learn an
d flourish in a bilingual environment.
ddIn California today, it is the first day of classes in what's supposed to be
a new era in education. Proposition 227 goes into effect
" the measure passed
by California voters in June that seeks to end bilingual education once and for
all. But will it really do that?
ABC's Judy Muller reports on the California
confusion.
ddSTUDENTS: I pledge allegiance to the flag.
ddJUDY MULLER, ABC News: (voice-over) These children are among the first in Ca
lifornia to get a taste of Proposition 227.
In the words of the law, "nearly a
11" instruction must now be in English.
ddCATHERINE KENNEY, Teacher: Can everybody say bathtub?
ddSTUDENTS: Bathtub.
ddJUDY MULLER: (voice-over) But what does "nearly all" mean exactly?
ddCATHERINE KENNEY: Our understanding at the meetings that we've had is that we
can have a very broad interpretation of that.
It could be 51 percent, you kno
W, really kind of pushing it.
ddRON UNZ, Chairman, Proposition 227: I think it would be 90 percent or a lot m
ore than that. Nearly all means nearly all.
ddCATHERINE KENNEY: Buenos dias, ninos.
ddJUDY MULLER: (voice-over) Previously, children were instructed in their nati
ve language and gradually transitioned into
English. Now, they are immediately
placed in an English immersion class. But there is a legal loophole. After 3
0 days, parents can
sign a waiver requesting their child be moved to a bilingua
1 program. At Walnut Park Elementary in East L.A., the faculty's
confusion is
typical.
ddFACULTY MEMBER: If they do sign the waiver and they do choose for that biling
ual program, will it look just like what we
have now? Or will it be something
different?
ddGROUP LEADER: It will still be the same kind of program that we're running ri
ght now. Yeah.
ddJUDY MULLER: (voice-over) Backers of Prop 227 worry that too many waivers fr
om parents will result in bilingual education
as it used to be in schools from
San Diego to San Francisco. Educators say the 30-day waiver creates a scheduli
ng nightmare,
because teachers and classes may have to be reshuffled after the
first month of school.
ddCORA WATKINS, Assistant Principal: It's kind of like being a semi with a flat
tire. We're rolling down the road. We started
July 1. We're expected to cha
nge the tire en route.
ddJUDY MULLER: (voice-over) Like many schools, Walnut Park may be stuck with b
rand new bilingual textbooks ordered before
the initiative was passed.
dd(on camera) So how much are you out in terms of money?
ddCORA WATKINS: Over $100,000, was the initial order, English and Spanish.
ddJUDY MULLER: Will they take them back?
ddCORA WATKINS: Extremely doubtful.
ddJUDY MULLER: Many educators opposed Prop 227, arguing that a one-size-fits-al
I ballot initiative does not make for soundeducational policy. Now that they m
ust comply with the law, a lot of them are wondering who will police it?
ddKEN URBINA, Principal: That's a very good question. We know it will be polic
ed because we know the proponents of
Proposition 227 are going to be on top of
this all the time.
ddJUDY MULLER: (voice-over) Prop 227 has a provision allowing parents to sue a
ny teacher who fails to follow the law.
ddRON UNZ: And we think that will put a lot of pressure on school officials to
implement the law as they really should anyway.
ddJUDY MULLER: (voice-over) How the children react to these changes remains to
be seen. Clearly, the voters hope the transition
to English
ddSTUDENTS WAITING FOR SWING: Once, doce, trece, catorce
ddJUDY MULLER: (voice-over) will be swift.
ddLITTLE GIRL NEAR SWING: Get off it.
ddJUDY MULLER: (voice-over) Judy Muller, ABC News, Los Angeles.
ddn
Publication#W\
P<P# 7. World News Tonight (ABC) "Publication" #:\ P=P# 08/03/9
8Section: NEWS;
Headline#\
P>P# A CLOSER LOOK MIAMI IS PROUD OF ITS
BILINGUAL PROGRAMHeadline
#:\ P?P#
By REBECCA CHASE
CHARLES GIBSON
CHARLES GIBSON: Actually, there's a national movement to cut back bilingual ed
ucation. A bill before Congress would set a
limit of three years on the length
of time a student could be enrolled in a bilingual program.
ddBut we also go tonight to Florida, where ABC's Rebecca Chase reports from Mia
mi. In Miami, they're not trying to end bilingual
education, they're proud of
it.
ddREBECCA CHASE, ABC News: (voice-over) For three hours a day, children at Cor
al Way Elementary learn in English.
ddlst STUDENT: Something that makes hair shorter.
ddREBECCA CHASE: (voice-over) Then for two hours, lessons are in Spanish.
dd(Students speaking Spanish)
ddREBECCA CHASE: (voice-over) About a third of the students here enter school
unable to speak English fluently. But by fourth
grade, most are fluent in Engl
ish
dd2nd STUDENT: It's like a cup that keeps - that makes things hot.
ddREBECCA CHASE: (voice-over) .and in Spanish.
ddJORGE VACA, 4th GRADER: I think you can learn both languages perfectly at the
same time. At least that's what I did.
ddREBECCA CHASE: (voice-over) In this model program, bilingual instruction is
not considered remedial education, but essential
for everyone even English-sp
eaking children.
ddEYDA CALZADILLA, Teacher: When they're going to out there in the real world,
this is what they are going to deal with. They
are not going to deal with someo
ne that speaks English 24 hours a day, every day.
ddREBECCA CHASE: (on camera) In Miami, the "real world" is bilingual. Fifty p
ercent of the population here is Hispanic. Being
able to speak both English an
d Spanish is increasingly an economic necessity.
dd(voice-over) Business here is conducted in two languages. Television, radio,
newspapers, even the yellow pages are delivered
in both languages. Trade with
Latin America is worth billions. Business and civic leaders are among the str
ongest supporters of
bilingual education.
ddMayor ALEX PENELAS, Miami-Dade County, Florida: Our economic future depends,
to a great extent, on our ability to compete
in this international marketplace,
and that's why it's so important for us in this community to have biliterate p
eople.
ddREBECCA CHASE: (voice-over) That's why earlier this year, the school board V
oted to spend more than $2 million to expand
bilingual education. Here, the go
al is to prepare all students for a future where one language will not be enoug
h. Rebecca Chase,
ABC News, Miami.
ddCHARLES GIBSON: When we come back, risking the future. Teens and gambling r
esults from an alarming new study.
n
Publication#W\ P@P# 8. All Things Considered (NPR)"Publication" #:\ PAP# 08/0
3/98Section: News; Domestic;
Headline#\
PBP# California Bilingual Education
Headline #:\ PCP#Subhead#[\ PDP# California's new bilingual education regulat
ions officially take affect today.
A newly-passed voter initiative, Propositi
on 227, puts strict limits on the
length of time that children in the state's
schools may receive assistance in
their native language. Although most schools
won't begin classes until
September, year round schools will have to implemen
t the new law today.
Subhead#:\
PEP# By Linda Wertheimer
Washington
DC; Mandalit delBarco, Los Angeles, CA
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: In California, thousands of children began their scho
ol year today under the state's stringent new
regulation for bilingual educatio
n.
ddln June, California voters passed a ballot initiative that limits bilingual i
instruction to one year. This morning, NPR's Mandalit
delBarco visited a year-r
ound elementary school in Los Angeles as the changeover began.
ddMANDALIT DELBARCO, NPR REPORTER: On the playground at Alexandria Elementary,
the kids are doing what they always
do during recess: play ball games, giggle,
and talk to each other in Spanish. Eighty-five percent of the students here c
ome from
Spanish-speaking homes. But on this first day of school, their classe
S were conducted in English only.
ddCHILDREN SPEAKING IN UNISON: One, two, three, four, five, six
ddDELBARCO: Most of the Central American first-graders in Serraya Vasquez's (p
h) class can already count in English. But now,
when they talk to her in Spani
sh, the former bilingual teacher responds in English.
ddSERRAYA VASQUEZ, BILINGUAL TEACHER: English. Try try it.
ddSTUDENT: Twenty.
ddVASQUEZ: Twenty. There you go. How 'bout what if we
ddDELBARCO: Now that Proposition 227 is the law, Vasquez can no longer use
Spanish as the primary language of instruction
for teaching concepts.
ddVASQUEZ: To be honest, yeah. Yeah. It's been hard. Yeah. They don't reall
y quite follow the (unintelligible) in English, you
know. You have to kind of,
like, repeat things a lot of times so they could get it.
ddWe'll see what happens. I'll take it day by day.
ddDELBARCO: In the past few weeks, teachers and school board members in Los An
geles have been hurriedly preparing for the
change. After 30 years of instructi
ng students in their native languages, sometimes their entire school career, bi
lingual instruction
will be limited to one school year.
ddMany had predicted chaos. They said there wasn't enough time to write new cu
rriculum, no time to order all-English textbooks.
ddCarol Labrow (ph) is the principal of Alexandria Elementary.
ddCAROL LABROW, PRINCIPAL, ALEXANDRIA ELEMENTARY: Well, I don't think there's
anything to panic from our
standpoint. School has opened; school is operating
just fine for these boys and girls.
ddThe questions will arise as we get further into it. We will need a lot more
support; because there's a lot of difference between
maintaining a very superfi
cial kind of level in English and between getting into some depth and whether t
hey're going to learn the
content at the grade level, or whether this will simp
ly be a year of English only for them.
ddAll of those questions have yet to be answered.
ddDELBARCO: The Los Angeles School District is the largest in California that
conducted bilingual classes. Some teachers say
it's too soon to know exactly h
ow the new policy will affect students. But already, school is a bit confusing
for six-year-old Aileen
(ph).
ddTEACHER: Entiendes (ph), or no?
ddSIX-YEAR-OLD AILEEN: No.
ddTEACHER: No, entiendes (ph).
ddDELBARCO: Aileen says she doesn't understand what her teacher is saying. Bu
t she hopes that someday she will.
ddThe Oakland, San Francisco, and Hayward (ph) school districts have filed suit
challenging Proposition 227. And individual
parents can seek special permits
to allow their children to continue in bilingual classes.
ddMandalit delBarco, NPR News, Los Angeles.
ddThis is a rush transcript. This copy may not be in its final form and may be
updated.
n
Publication#W\
PFP# 9. All Things Considered (NPR)"Publication" #:\ PGP# 08/0
3/98Section: News; Domestic;
Headline#\ PHP# Colorado Bilingual Education Headline #:\ PIP#Subhead#[\
PJP# In Denver, the debate over bilingual education has taken a radically di
fferent
tack than in California. After complaints by parents, the federal gov
ernment
may take the city to court for failing to provide adequate bilingual ed
ucation.
The city program runs for 3 years, but parents want up to 7 years'
i
nstruction in kids' native languages.
Subhead#:\
PKP# By Robert Siegel
Washington
DC; Aaron Schacter, Denver, CO
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: Even as Prop 227 goes into effect in California, the fed
eral office for civil rights is accusing school
officials in Denver of violatin
g the human rights of some students by giving them insufficient bilingual educa
tion.
ddAs Colorado Public Radio's Aaron Schacter reports, this is the first time the
federal government has threatened to sue a school
district because its bilingu
al education program is not adequate.
ddAARON SCHACTER, NPR REPORTER: In this Biology I class at West High School i
n Denver, ninth and tenth graders sit
perched atop metal stools surrounded by S
inks and gas burners a typical high school science class. Except in this cla
SS the students
are instructed in Spanish.
ddSOUND OF TEACHER INSTRUCTING AMERICAN STUDENTS IN SPANISH
ddSCHACTER: This is an example of how school officials in Denver believe bilin
gual education should be taught. It's part of a
three- step approach. Content
is given in a native language, most often Spanish.
ddWhen a student is ready, he moves on to transitional level courses called she
Itered English with classes taught mostly in English.
And, as language skills
get better, the child is mainstreamed. School officials expect the process to
take three years.
ddAlfonzo Hackas (ph) is assistant principal at West High School.
ddALFONZO HACKAS, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, WEST HIGH SCHOOL: The Denver public sch
ools finally is making an
effort always has been, but finally has found an un
derstanding of what needs to be done so that our students can be successful
in
their second language.
ddl believe here at West High School we do have the ideal program.
ddPAM MARTINEZ (PH), PADRES UNITOS (PH) CO-CHAIRMAN: Denver's failing on every
front.
ddSCHACTER: Pam Martinez, who co-chairs the advocacy group, Padres Unitos Pa
rents United calls Denver public school
officials and people like Hackas delu
sional.
ddMARTINEZ: Denver has never ever implemented bilingual education or anything
" any form of teaching non-English
speaking students in an effective and seri
ous
manner. SCHACTER: Martinez is especially dubious of the district's pl
an to move
kids out of bilingual education within three years. She claims it t
akes about five to seven years for students to become truly proficient
in Engli
sh.
ddThe current flap began about four years ago when Padres Unitos presented the
federal office of civil rights with more than 20
pages of alleged violations by
the Denver public schools. The Othen did its own investigation, finding even
more infractions.
ddAmong them: they charged that Denver had no way of identifying which kids sho
uld be in bilingual education, or when a child
was ready to get out. Again, Pa
m Martinez.
ddMARTINEZ: Kids get put in there who maybe shouldn't be. And kids get stuck
in there. And kids get exited who are not ready
for mainstream. Our studies S
how when that happens, they can't succeed in the classroom. They drop out. An
d we call that being
pushed out.
ddSCHACTER: And Martinez says not a thing has changed since the suit was filed
Denver school officials acknowledge the
problems. Denver school board member
Rita Montaro (ph) says as late as two years ago, students were taught by unqua
lified teachers
equipped with meager supplies.
ddRITA MONTARO (PH), DENVER SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER: Absolutely, this district has
not served the children in the
way that they should have. Has the district don
e something to rectify it? Absolutely. And all you have to do is take the pla
n and
look at it.
ddSCHACTER: But in the last two years, Montaro says, Denver has spent more tha
n a hundred thousand dollars on books and
supplies. And she says qualified bil
ingual education teachers have been hired.
ddMONTARO: You have teachers who are trained to be able to recognize problems
and issues that a kid of another language may
have because teachers otherwise
didn't know how to recognize those problems, don't have any background in bilin
gual education,
or the issues that are associated with a child of another langu
age.
ddSCHACTER: Schools in the mile-high city aren't the only ones the Office for
Civil Rights claims is flouting federal law. Dozens
of school districts are in
vestigated every year. The difference, though, is that Denver is the only dist
rict refusing to accept the federal
government's mandate, making it the only on
e facing the possibility of a lawsuit or having federal funds revoked.
ddTeachers and principlas say the game of chicken going on between Denver and t
he feds is overshadowing the real problem: takingkids who don't speak English a
nd helping them to succeed.
ddLU LIN YANG (PH), DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOL BILINGUAL INSTRUCTOR: OK, everybody:
Rarely.
ddSTUDENTS (in unison): Rarely.
ddLU LIN YANG: Rarely.
ddSTUDENTS (in unison): Rarely.
ddLU LIN YANG: OK. Different.
ddSTUDENTS (in unison): Different.
ddLU LIN YANG: What else did you guys have problems with? Currently.
ddSTUDENTS (in unison): Currently.
ddLU LIN YANG: Straight.
ddSTUDENTS (in unison): Straight.
ddLU LIN YANG: Thin.
ddSTUDENTS (in unison): Thin.
ddLU LIN YANG: Not tin. Thin.
ddSTUDENTS (in unison): Thin.
ddLU LIN YANG: Thin.
ddSTUDENTS (in unison): Thin.
ddLU LIN YANG: Through your tongue. Thin.
ddSTUDENTS (in unison): Thin.
ddLU LIN YANG: OK. That's better. OK, you have to remember
ddSCHACTER: In Lu Lin Yang's (ph) English classroom at West High School, the k
ids all have workbooks, the walls are covered
with posters of Hispanic achiever
s, movie stars, authors and performers, encouraging students to read and learn
English.
ddNearly all the students in this class have been in the United States for less
than four months. Most come from Mexico or South
America.
ddSome of the students are barely literate in their first languages. Lin Yang
says her class points to the difficulties of teaching
bilingual education.
ddLIN YANG: You're not going to have the highly educated professional people m
oving to the states. You're going to have
lower-class, the people that can't m
ake it in their own country that are very poor. They're going to come whicheve
r way they can
to the United States to make a better life. And then they bring
their familiy.
ddSCHACTER: While people like Lin Yang scramble to teach kids from other count
ries, the city, federal government, and parents
are squabbling over what a bili
ngual program should look like and how long kids should be in it.
ddNo one appears to know the answer; but in Denver, both school officials and t
he federal office for civil rights claim to have the
right idea. The Departmen
t of Justice is reviewing the case and is expected to decide later this year if
it will take Denver public
schools to court.
ddFor NPR News, I'm Aaron Schacter in Denver.
dd
ddn
Publication#W\
PLP# 10. ABCNews.com"Publication" #:\
PMP#August 3, 1998
Headline#\
PNP# In California, Proposition 227 Begins This Week: Back
to the B
ig E for the 3RsHeadline #:\ POP#
By Rebecca Leung
ABCNEWS.com
ddAug. 3 A California initiative banning bilingual education formally takes e
ffect this week, and teachers are struggling to answer
an increasingly imperati
ve question: How will Proposition 227 be applied in classrooms?
dd Some teachers are definitely pulling their hair out, says Dale Martin, a spo
keswoman for the California Teachers Association.
Theyre lost, agrees Jim Swee
ney, superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District.
I cant remember anything like this.
ddProposition 227, sponsored by software millionaire Ron Unz, eliminates bilin
gual education instruction with its decree that all
children should be taught
overwhelmingly in English.
ddThe measure, which was approved in June by 61 percent of the voters, will req
uire as many as 1.4 million students with limited
English-speaking ability to b
e placed in a one-year English-immersion course without instruction in their na
tive tongues.
ddConsiderable Disruption Civil rights groups tried Friday to block implementat
ion with a lawsuit charging that the plan was put
together too hastily and lack
ed adequate teacher training and a fully developed curriculum. But a federal ju
dge denied them an
injunction that would have prevented the English-only measur
e from taking effect today. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, a district judge
refused
to block the nations second-largest school district from proceeding with a new
teaching plan aimed at complying with
Proposition 227. The ruling clears the W
ay for the Los Angeles Unified School District to educate its 312,000 students
with limitedEnglish proficiency without the benefit of teaching them in their n
ative languages. Theres no question it will cause a considerable
amount of dis
ruption, said U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird. But as far as the magnitude o
f the change, the methodology is
basically going to be the same.
ddFrom Compliance to Defiance School districts such as Sacramento plan to follo
W the new rules, although some administrators
believe a year would have been a
more realistic timetable. But other districts are fighting the change.
ddThe Oakland, Hayward and Berkeley school districts took their challenge to st
ate court to force the state Board of Education to
grant them exemptions under
the propositions waiver clause. Oakland officials argue that they are bound to
provide primary
language instruction under an agreement with the Office of Civi
1 Rights.
ddSan Francisco officials sent parents a letter declaring that"under a 1970s fe
deral consent decree' 'the district will continue to
offer a variety of programs
for English-language learners as well as English immersion. And two Orange Cou
nty districts have
asked state Schools Superintendent Delaine Eastin to spare t
heir dual immersion programs by using her authority to waive most
education la
WS for alternative and magnet schools.
ddThese programs would allow both English and Spanish speakers to learn some co
re subjects in their non-native language. The
request, still pending, has given
rise to speculation that other programs could be exempted this way.
ddBut supporters of Proposition 227 say they will be forced to seek legal reco
urse if districts try to circumvent the law.
dd We may have to end up taking a lot of these districts to court, Unz said. He
cited a provision in Proposition 227 that allows
parents to sue if teachers or
other officials willfully and repeatedly refuse to comply with the new law.
ddBut, although teachers know that the passage of the measure will means big ch
anges in their classrooms, theyre still not sure how
much. Nobody knows, and
thats the scary part, said bilingual teacher Mary Rose Ortega, a 21-year vetera
n of the Los Angeles
School District. Its all in the air whats going to happen
ddThe Associated Press contributed to this report.n
Publication#W\ PPP# 11. Associated ress"Publication" #:\ PQP# 08/03/98
Headline#\ PRP# Clinton Warns of Veto To Help KidsHeadline #:\ PSP#
By SONYA ROSS Associated Press
CHEVERLY, Md. (AP) Accusing Congress of trying to put young Americans' futu
res "in the back seat," President Clinton said
Monday he will veto any federal
budget that lacks money for a summer jobs program and the education proposals t
hat he wants.
ddThe president looked out at a roomful of summer workers at Prince George's Ho
spital Center and said that he, like them, had
worked during his breaks from SC
hool in jobs funded by the federal government - and today he is in the White Ho
use.
dd"I hope when the history books are written it will look like a pretty good in
vestment that was made in a young man from a modest
family in a small town a lo
ng time ago," Clinton said. "You, too, will do great things. And in part, it wi
Il be because your country
has believed in you and invested in you."
ddHouse Appropriations spokeswoman Elizabeth Morra called the veto threat "unfo
rtunate," and said Republicans were simply
"prioritizing spending" and trying t
o stay within the balanced budget agreements
ddWhite House spokesman Barry Toiv said the president is "looking forward to a
pretty good fight" with Congress over spending
on education and job training, e
ven if it leads to a veto.
dd"He's hoping that the Congress will see the light early rather than late," To
iv said. "They have deliberately passed a bill that they
know is unacceptable.
So they're the ones creating this issue."
ddClinton also sent a letter to House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., urging that
the House approve a campaign reform bill proposed
by Reps. Christopher Shays,
R-Conn., and Martin Meehan, D-Mass.
dd"It would show the American people that it is possible to make bipartisan pro
gress on this most difficult of political reform issues,"
Clinton wrote. "A par
tisan minority continues to resist change. The members of the House have a chan
ce to change that pattern."
ddThe young workers Clinton met Monday were taking part in the federal summer
obs effort through the Summer Academic
Enhancement and Career Exploration Progr
am run by the Private Industry Council. A spending bill the House may consider
this week
would eliminate the $871 million jobs program and provide less than t
he president wants for Head Start, tutoring efforts and some
other school progr
ams. Head Start is an early childhood education program for the poor.
dd"The House Republican plan puts politics ahead of people and puts your future
in the back seat. That is wrong," Clinton said. "If
a bill like the one that i
S proposed by the House Republicans passes, I will veto it."
ddHouse leaders have said they are working to provide funds for such programs i
n a way they believe to be most effective. House
Education Committee Chairman B
ill Goodling, R-Pa., has promised to propose legislation that would consolidate
31 education
programs and send $800 million directly to public schools.
ddMorra, the house Appropriations spokeswoman, called Clinton's veto threat "un
fortunate," saying GOP lawmakers tried hard to
set spending priorities within t
he boundaries of the balanced budget agreement. She said they felt it better to
ensure a $1.2 billion
increase in funding to the National Institutes of Health
for medical research efforts, which Clinton also has advocated.
dd"He spent $9 billion more assuming we'd have tobacco legislation and user
fees that never materialized," Morra said. "Both
Republicans and Democrats wan
ted that increase for NIH. It was really about prioritizing spending."
ddThe summer jobs program provides work for up to 530,000 youths in communities
around the country. The Clinton administration
argued that without it, three o
ut of four young people now enrolled in the program would be unemployed during
the summer.
ddHe said the program reminded him of two summers during his college years, whe
n he had jobs in his hometown helping tomaintain a national park and working as
a counselor at a camp for disadvantaged youth.
ddTerence Newton, a 15-year-old who is working this summer as a patient escort
at the hospital, said he now understands the
demands of work, from adhering to
dress codes to taking his duties seriously.
dd"There are many things I could be doing on days like this, things that would
lead to nothing good," Terence said. "I had another
choice. I didn't have to si
t around acting silly all the time like so many of my friends. I had people who
were pushing me to go
further."
ddAmong those pushers was Clinton. He suggested that next summer Terence should
be given a job with Prince George's County
Executive Wayne Curry, Maryland Lt.
Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend - or even at the White House.n
Publication#W\
PTP# 12. Christian Science Monitor' "Publication" #:\
PUP#August
4, 1998
Headline#\
PVP# The Challenge for Schools: Connecting Adults With
Kids Headlin
e #:\
PWP#
Gail Russell Chaddock,
Staff writer
of The Christian Science Monitor
ddRESTON, VA. " The students heading back to school this month will be among t
he most tested, measured, and analyzed in the
history of American education. Th
ey could also be the most alone.
ddAs a result, many kids are making dangerous choices involving illegal drugs,
alcohol, sex, and violence - and their parents rarely
have a clue what is going
on.
ddThat is the conclusion of Patricia Hersch, whose recent book, "A Tribe Apart"
(Ballantine), takes a close look at the daily lives
of eight teens in the pict
ure-book suburb of
ddReston, Va. "Kids have been growing up without a substantial adult presence i
n their lives for years, and we're only beginning
to see the consequences," she
says.
ddThe book is not another exercise in parent-bashing. Nor does it plunk all the
blame on the schools. But both parents and educators
will find much to ponder
in the stark and riveting accounts these kids give of their lives. In the end,
caring teachers and parents make
a difference.
ddWe meet Jessica Jones (not her real name) at 13. Her parents are loving and a
ttentive, but friends' parents offer access to empty
bedrooms, drugs, car keys,
and liquor. A friend's rape prompts her to rethink sneaking around and boozy n
ights. Brandon, a Boy
Scout, resents coming home to an empty house and worrying
over money after his father's job loss. He turns to pushing drugs and
tagging
underpasses as a graffiti artist. Charles's parents are successful black profes
sionals, but their achievements can't shield him
either from racist slurs or th
e trash-talking "ghetto boys" at his high school. Joan attempts suicide, and Jo
nathan succeeds.
ddlt's a tough world these kids describe, and more threatening than its tree-li
ned streets would suggest. The message that comes
through speaks to what is bec
oming the heart of the education debate in the United States: how to reconnect
with children.
dd"I am troubled by the fact that so many young people in America are growing u
p disconnected. They are growing up almost
alone," said Education Secretary Ri
chard Riley at the Safe and Drug Free Schools Conference in Washington last Ju
ne.
ddOne of the most extensive surveys ever done on drug use, sexuality, violence,
and suicide concludes that young people who feel
connected to their parents an
d schools are less likely to engage in high-risk behavior, he added.
ddA rise in high-risk behavior
ddFor now, many trends are headed in the wrong direction. High-risk behavior fo
r kids is up in the 1990s, and it's moving into
ever-younger grades, according
to a study released by the National Center for Education Statistics last month.
ddThe percentage of students reporting illicit drug use, for example, increased
substantially between 1992 and 1996 - up to 26
percent for 12th-graders, 23 pe
rcent for 10th-graders, and 15 percent for 8th-graders. More than 1 in 3 10th-g
raders reported that
they had been threatened or injured at school during the p
revious year, according to a recent survey by the Washington-based
National Edu
cation Goals Panel. Adding to a sense of urgency in this debate are recent scho
olyard killings in Springfield, Ore.,
Edinboro, Pa., Jonesboro, Ark., West Padu
cah, Ky., and Pearl, Miss.
ddAs schools gear up to reopen this month, many districts are adding metal dete
ctors, more police, safety audits, and early-warning
guides for teachers to ens
ure safer schools. But the cornerstone of this effort must be reestablishing ti
es with students, educators say.
dd"We must commit ourselves to one very basic idea: that every child in America
in a school has a positive and caring relationship
with at least one adult. Th
is simply has to be the new standard we set for our nation's schools and commun
ities," says Education
Secretary Riley.
ddA work-at-home mother, Ms. Hersch says she began to develop ideas for "A Trib
e Apart" when she realized that she was one of
the few adults in the neighborho
od when kids came home from school. "I ended up driving kids everywhere, and I
began listening
to what they talked about in the car," she says.
ddOne conversation particularly moved her: "I once asked a 15-year-old girl wha
t she did after school, and she said, 'I go home. I
have a snack, talk on the t
elephone to my friends, do some chores I guess you could say sometimes it's
really lonely.' "
ddShe began research for the book by spending a year observing classes every da
y at a local middle school. She contacted the parents
of 60 kids for permission
to talk to their children. ("I worried about how easily some parents granted p
ermission - some didn't evenwant to meet me," she says.) Eventually, she narrow
ed the focus to eight, and spent three years talking to them.
dd"Many parents start to think that it's OK to leave a good kid at home for a W
hile at about age 10, as long as you say 'Don't go out
of the house after schoo
1 until we get home.' But nobody has considered what it means to have eight yea
rs of huge blocks of time
without meaningful adult interaction," says Hersch, W
ho raised three sons in Reston. "Things are worse now for my younger son than
f
or my older sons: The vacuum surrounding kids has gotten deeper and more extens
ive," she adds.
ddHer study does not claim to be scientific. The children's accounts are not te
sted for accuracy, and the parents and teachers who
come under the severest cri
ticism are not afforded equal time.
ddIn Reston, Stuart Gibson is urging colleagues on the Fairfax County School Bo
ard to take the Hersch book and these issues
seriously. "The message of this bo
ok is counterintuitive: We always thought that when our kids got older, they ne
eded less attention,
less care. But as kids have more choices, parents need to
exercise more responsibility that they make good choices," he says.
ddThere are practical steps schools can take to close down that window of isola
tion, such as a later start to the school day so that
stretches from 2:20 p.m.
until parents return from work isn't such a looming block of time, he says.
ddMaking time to listen
ddln Alexandria, Va., Riley and Attorney General Janet Reno met recently with S
tudents about safety at T.C. Williams High School.
Students spoke of the need t
o listen. "I have lots of friends who get into trouble in school, and I ask the
m, 'What did your parents
say?' and they tell me that they were too busy or did
n't care," says Mohamed El-Hassan, whose family moved from Sudan five years
ago
dd"Some parents work two or three jobs, and they really don't have any choice,"
he adds. "But I can talk to my dad about anything,
even though he works two jo
bs."
ddMany credited the school's crisis coordinator, Barbara Finney, with helping t
hem. "If kids see that you don't have time for them,
they move on or just put y
ou in the category of all the other adults who didn't have time for them," she
says in an interview.n
Publication#W\
PXP# 13. Christian Science Monitor"Publication' #:\
PYP#August
4, 1998
Headline#\
PZP# Tackling the SAT? Test-Prep Help Abounds Headline #:\
P[P#
WASHINGTON " For high school students, it's an academic challenge dreaded more
than reading the English epic poem Beowulf:
The SAT and ACT college-entrance t
ests.
ddBut put away the pencils and grab a computer mouse. Test-preparation programs
on the Internet and CD-ROMs that slide into
home computers are flooding the ma
rket.
ddWith colorful graphics, cartoon figures, personalized practice tests, and tes
t-taking strategies, the computerized products - as well
as commercial prep cla
sses and private tutors - appeal to many of the more than 3 million test takers
tackling the Scholastic
Assessment Test and American College Testing program e
xam each year.
ddStudents preparing for the tests can find free help on the World Wide Web. Th
ey can buy prep books, mostly priced between $10
and $30. There are CD-ROM disk
S for personal computers, selling for around $20 to $50. Coaching classes cost
from $60 for a high
school English teacher doing test-prep on the side to more
than $500 or $600 for classes from national commercial companies. Some
parents
spend thousands of dollars for private sessions, including some offered at well
-to-do vacation spots like Martha's Vineyard,
off the Massachusetts coast.
ddEducators caution that not all students need to invest in test-prep software
or classes. They advise students to check out free
materials and determine whet
her their preliminary college-entrance test score will be adequate to obtain ad
mission from the college
they've chosen.
ddTo get a preview of the ACT, Paul Silva, a senior at Ponderosa High School in
Parker, Colo., loads a CD-ROM, sold by Kaplan
Educational Centers, into his co
mputer. "You put in the CD. It's like you're driving a car and you have a road
map to the ACT. After
you take the pretest, it tells you what areas you need to
work on," he says.
ddBob Schaeffer of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing in Cambridge,
Mass., advises students who prepare on their
computers to sharpen a No. 2 penci
1, sit down at a desk, and take a practice exam, methodically coloring in the t
iny ovals, or bubbles,
on the answer sheet. "A very common mistake is mis-bubbl
ing skipping a question, but not skipping a line on the answer sheet,"
Schaef
fer says. "You can't get that practice with a mouse."n
Publication#W\
P\P# 14. Christian Science Monitor' "Publication" #:\
PJP#August
4, 1998
Headline#\ P^P# Summer and Basic Skills Headline #:\ P_P#
Amelia Newcomb,
Staff writer
of The Christian Science Monitor
ddBOSTON " Here's an easy quiz: When do children achieve more academically, du
ring the summer or the school year?
ddMost everyone knows the answer. It's one of the reasons parents may indulge i
n a mental tug-of-war between wanting offspring
to experience that American ide
al - the content-free summer - and taking a second look at summer-school classe
S. Exchange the
September routine for more TV and little in the way of reading,
after all, and the most common warm-weather lesson becomes one
in how to backp
edal.
ddNow, you could argue that a little nose-to-the-grindstone after Labor Day wil
I get students back on track. But there's more at stake.
Summer is not only whe
n skills may slide, but also when gaps in academic growth widen between childre
n of different social and
economic backgrounds - sometimes creating long-term b
arriers to success in school.
ddThe research is sobering. A recent study looked at the difference in reading
comprehension skills between high-poverty and
middle-class students at the end
of elementary school. More-advantaged kids moved steadily ahead over the years,
while high-poverty
children barely budged. The problem, the study stated, lay
almost completely at the feet of differing summer experiences.
ddTwo other studies found that while high-poverty first-graders moved ahead mor
e quickly than their peers in reading, their progress
slowed more than that of
their peers over the following summer and did not pick up again in second gra
de.
ddMost kids lose some academic skills over the summer. But those from more-pros
perous homes often get camp, summer classes,
or most important, many informal I
earning, playing, and reading opportunities to keep them on track.
ddA number of urban systems are requiring more summer classes for students who
have fallen behind - a move that is often popular
with inner-city parents and t
he kids themselves, in part because it keeps them safe and with other children.
But experts say that some
informal (and free) efforts can make a difference as
well.
ddJanine Bempechat, assistant professor in human development and psychology at
the Harvard Graduate School of Education in
Cambridge, Mass., makes a key point
:
If adults show interest, kids typically will as well. If you both liked the m
ovie "Contact," for
example, read the book (by Carl Sagan) aloud. Try to find S
omeone, or a university, who has a telescope you can check out. Do the
shopping
together, making a game out of reading labels and sorting items. Borrow librar
y passes to museums.
ddThe United States Department of Education also is chipping in to help. Its
"Summer Challenge in
ad*Write*Now!" program encourages children to read 20 minutes and write 10 m
inutes each day. Partners meet with children
once or twice a week. The departme
nt provides activity books, including "summer home recipes" in reading, math, a
nd history
(Contact 1-800-USA LEARN or www.ed.gov). The department also has mat
erials for preschool kids.
ddNo question - kids deserve a summer break. But that doesn't mean some fun tha
t slips in a few learning tips is a bad idea.n
Publication#W\ P`P# 15. Associated Press "Publication" #:\ PaP# 08/03/98
Headline#\ PbP# Reno Urges Laws on Kids and GunsHeadline #:\ PcP#
By LAURIE ASSEO Associated Press
TORONTO (AP) Attorney General Janet Reno told the largest U.S. lawyers' org
anization Monday that more must be done to keep
guns away from children and hel
p end a national "culture of violence."
dd"There can be very few people in the United States who disagree with the prop
osition that no one should possess a gun unless
they know how to safely and law
fully use it, and evidence a willingness and capacity to do so," Reno told the
American Bar
Association's policy-making House of Delegates.
d"States must enact and enforce laws requiring gun owners to store their weapo
ns securely so that children cannot get access to
them," she added.
ddPointing to the recent fatal shootings inside the U.S. Capitol and killings a
t a number of schools around the country, the attorney
general said gun-related
violence is a major threat to Americans' safety. While Toronto had only 100 gu
n killings from 1992 through
1996, Chicago - a similar-sized U.S. city - had 3,
063 gun homicides during that same period.
ddEvery day in the United States, about 100 people die from gun- related injuri
es, she said.
d"Thus, reducing the number of injuries and deaths influenced by others must c
learly continue to be a national priority," the
attorney general said.
ddShe called for federal, state and local efforts to enforce gun laws and carry
out prevention programs.
dd"We need to teach these young people that guns kill and maim for life
tha
t guns really do kill," Reno said. "The bottom line
is that lawyers can change
our country's attitude about guns We can end the culture of violence in thi
S nation."
ddOn July 21, the Senate rejected a bill to require all handguns sold in the Un
ited States include safety locks designed to prevent
accidents. ddThe ABA's Hous
e of Delegates passed a resolution Monday seeking stronger efforts to deal with
school gun violence, including
firearms education, mediation to head off dispu
tes and stronger laws to keep guns away from young people.n
Publication#W\
PdP# 16. Associated 'ress"Publication" #:\
PeP# 08/03/98
Headline#\
PfP# MIT Requires Online ApplicationsHeadline #:\
PgP#
By ROBIN ESTRIN Associated Press
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - Students aspiring to attend one of the country's most
prestigious business schools can say farewell
to one well-known ritual: the fr
antic, down-to-the-wire trip to mail an application by the deadline.
ddBeginning this month, MIT's Sloan School of Management will accept applicatio
ns only via computer - apparently becoming the
nation's first graduate or under
graduate school to adopt such a policy.
ddPlenty of the nation's 3,400 colleges and universities have been experimentin
g with electronic applications, using them as an
admission option for the compu
ter-savvy. But the class that will enter Massachusetts Institute of Technology'
S graduate business
school in September 1999 is charting new territory.
dd"I don't know of anybody who's gone 100 percent that way," said Mark Milroy,
chief officer of programs and services with the
National Association for Colleg
e Admission Counseling.
ddBy wiping out paper applications, MIT says it will save thousands of dollars
in processing, printing and postage costs - plus
hundreds of hours of staff tim
e.
ddUsing a new Internet site started by the folks who sponsor the Graduate Manag
ement Admission Test - the standardized exam
for business school admission - ap
plicants can fill out the required Sloan School forms, pay the application fees
and arrange to have
their GMAT scores sent to the university in one electronic
package.
ddThe only items that can't be electronically mailed - at least, not yet - are
college transcripts and outside recommendations.
ddAbout two dozen other business schools, including Harvard, Columbia, Dartmout
h, Northwestern, the University of Texas, Tulane,
Michigan State and the Univer
sity of California-Davis, will accept electronic applications through the GradA
dvantage Web site,
which went online Aug. 1.
ddParticipating institutions pay $5,500 a year for the administrative Web site
software. Students pay a $12 processing fee for each
application.
ddOnly MIT is so far telling its future MBAs to forget about applying if they c
an't go online. But exemptions will be considered
in the first year of the new
plan.
ddExperts said it's unlikely many undergraduate schools will require only onlin
e applications anytime soon. After all, it's elitist to
assume that every appli
cant has computer access, said Timothy J. McDonough, a spokesman for the Americ
an Council on Education,
which represents 1,800 colleges and universities natio
nwide.
ddAnd Sloan is making no changes in the back end of the process: Officials ther
e still plan to send acceptance and rejection letters
the old-fashioned way.n
Publication#W\ PhP# 17. The New York es"Publication" #:\ PiP# 08/02/98Sect
ion: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 12, Column 1
Headline#\
PjP# Students Abroad Find A Wealth of Choices, And Even
BargainsHea
dline #:\ PkP#
By Robert D. Hershey Jr.
A generation ago, American collegians going abroad were typically well-bred W
omen with rich or indulgent parents, students whose
commitment to mastering the
pluperfect sometimes wavered before the myriad enticements of Paris or Madrid.
ddWhile distractions remain, foreign study these days is a far different propos
ition. No longer confined largely to language courses,
study abroad offers a va
st array of places and subjects from which to choose.
ddAnd students have no need for investment-banker lineage. In fact, they may sa
ve money by spending a semester or two abroad
" perhaps as much as 50 percent o
ff the cost of a private American college, which can range from $20,000 to more
than $30,000
a year.
dd"I don't know any country that has colleges as expensive as here," said Pau
lo Sotero Marques, a Brazilian journalist who lives in
Washington and has three
college-age children.
ddNissa Petersen spent the 1997-1998 academic year studying sociology at Univer
sity College in Cork, Ireland. The cost, including
housing and one-way air fare
but not meals, came to $15,200 not inexpensive but significantly less than t
he $20,000 or so she
would have paid to Salem College in Winston-Salem, N.C., W
here she was enrolled back home.
dd"I was pleasantly surprised," said Virginia Petersen, Nissa's mother. "I t
hought it would end up costing more." For her part, Nissa
Petersen said the sa
vings gave her the sense "that I wasn't gallivanting around at my parents' exp
ense."
ddHeidi Janes, 18, of Chevy Chase, Md., who spent her freshman year at Reed Col
lege in Portland, Ore., heads off this month toCapital Normal University in Chi
na. She needed to stretch her resources, since her parents had set aside a spec
ified amount for her
education. She looked to China for a bargain year expected
to cost $7,500, including room and board, far less than the $28,000 she
would
have paid to stay in Portland. "She believed she had to do something like this
to be able to graduate from Reed," Heidi's
mother, Elizabeth, said.
ddAdding to the possible savings is the fact that students can sometimes apply
their financial aid to foreign studies. While state aid
and grants and scholars
hips from the home college cannot always be applied, Federal aid like Stafford
loans and Pell grants can; in
fact, it's a requirement.
ddBut no matter how much less a foreign program appears to cost, students need
to check whether they still have to pay their school
at home the full domestic
tuition. Among the increasing number that do are Wesleyan and Columbia Universi
ties, Swarthmore
College, the University of Pennsylvania and, beginning in the
2000-2001 academic year, Smith College.
ddSome institutions are "shutting the doors," said William Hoffa, a foreign-s
tudy consultant in Amherst, Mass. "The new compact
is, 'You owe us eight semes
ters worth of tuition, regardless."
ddStudents do tend to remain enrolled in a college or university at home while
studying abroad, and American schools generally
grant full credit for their for
eign study. But because methods of evaluation vary widely by country, grades ar
e normally disregarded
in calculating grade-point averages.
ddMore than 80 percent of students enrolling in foreign-study programs do so th
rough their own schools or other American colleges.
They can also apply on thei
r own directly to foreign universities, taking a route that is becoming somewha
t more popular, largely
because it is the least expensive option. But undergrad
uates don't always have this choice. Some colleges will not let their students
go independently and still have the work blessed with home-school credit.
ddWith hundreds of foreign-study programs, finding the right one often involves
one of the two dominant placement bureaus that
have made a business of linking
American students with appropriate courses in foreign institutions. One is the
Institute for Study
Abroad at Butler University in Indianapolis; the other is
Beaver College in Glenside, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia. The broker, who
take
S care of all arrangements and continuing supervision, is paid a fee that varie
S by place and situation and is built into the total
cost quoted.
ddStudents seeking the widest options may want to consult one or more of the st
andard references published by the
ddInstitute of International Education in New York (Web site: www.iie.org). The
se include "Academic Year Abroad" ($44.95),
"Vacation Study Abroad" ($39.95
) and "Financial Resources for International Study" ($39.95). A free pamphlet
called "Basic Facts
on Study Abroad" is also available. All can be ordered b
y writing to I.I.E. Books, P.O. Box 371, Annapolis Junction, Md. 20701;
by call
ing (800) 445-0443, or by connecting to the institute's on-line catalogue (www.
iiebooks.org). Another useful reference is
"Peterson's Study Abroad" ($29.95)
, from Peterson's, P.O. Box 2123, Princeton, N.J. 08543; (800) 338-3282 (www.pe
tersons.com).
ddOf course, students study abroad for reasons that transcend finances: to expa
nd their cultural horizons, and their resume. The
following choices meet those
criteria, but also are regarded as good value.
ddBritain and Ireland
ddStudying in foreign countries is not a guaranteed bargain. London and other m
ajor cities in Western Europe can be expensive.
But Britain is still the most p
opular choice for Americans, attracting more than 25 percent of those going abr
oad, and it offers a
wealth of programs.
ddBeaver College, which places the most American students in Britain, deals wit
h 28 universities there, including University College
London, known for its eco
nomics department ($19,900 for the full year, including housing but not meals).
City University in London
offers a popular program in which students attend cl
asses two days a week and intern three days a week in places like the London
Zo
o and Parliament ($18,000 a year, including housing but not meals).
ddBeaver also places students in Ireland. University College Galway exerts the
strongest pull on Americans, especially those of Irish
descent, because of the
sizable Irish-speaking community and its idyllic, west-country bayside location
.
(The cost is $8,700 for the
fall semester, $15,200 for a full year, including
lodging and one-way air fare but not meals.) Other highly regarded places are
University College in Cork, which specializes in Irish studies and music, and t
he Institute of Public Administration, where students
work as unpaid aides to m
embers of Parliament.
ddBeaver College Center for Education Abroad, 450 South Easton Road, Glenside,
Pa. 19038; (888) 232-8379 (www.
beaver.edu/cea/).
ddRutgers University has a junior-year program for study at one of 10 English a
nd Scottish universities that students are assigned
to after they are accepted
into the program. Students from other colleges and universities get secondary c
onsideration. Costs range
from $14,280 a year for New Jersey residents to atten
d the Universities of Bristol and Sussex to a high of $21,370 for students from
other states who attend University College London. The prices do not include r
oom, board or air fare.
ddThe other universities are those of Exeter, Manchester, Reading, York, Glasgo
W and St. Andrews and City University in London.
ddRutgers Study Abroad Office, 102 College Ave., New Bruns-wick, N.J. 08903; (7
32) 932-7787
(www.rutgers.edu/academics/study/uabroad/sao.html).
ddGermany
ddGermany has some of the biggest potential bargains because all its institutio
ns of higher education are government-financed. Under
an increasingly rare poli
cy, as more countries end or sharply limit subsidies for noncitizens, foreigner
S are not charged tuition.
ddAs might be expected, however, this policy has led to an emphasis on one-for-
one exchanges between American and German
students, making arrangements more di
fficult. A good source of information on scholarships, visas and other foreign-
study matters
is the New York office of the German Academic Exchange Service, 9
50 Third Ave., New York 10022; (212) 758-3223
(www.daad.org).
ddOne seasoned American operator, the Institute for the International Education
of Students in Chicago, has setup its own programs
instead of brokering studen
ts. One is in Berlin ($9,000 a semester, $16,200 for a full year, including lod
ging but not meals), and twoare in Freiburg. One Freiburg program, on the Europ
ean Union, costs $8,400 for the semester, including lodging but not meals.
ddInstitute for the International Education of Students, 223 WestOhio St., Chic
ago, III. 60610; (800) 995-2300 (www.iesabroad.org).
ddThe University of Maryland University College runs sizable German programs, m
ostly for the military, but it also offers one in
Schwabisch Gmund for civilian
S planning careers in international business. This English-language curriculum
costs $11,000 a year
for Marylanders and $16,000 for nonresidents, including ro
om and board.
ddU.M.U.C. International Programs, University Boulevard at Adelphi Road, Colleg
e Park, Md. 20742; (301) 985-7442 (www.
umuc.edu/internat/germany.html).
ddItaly
ddFlorence, not Rome, is the most popular Italian destination for American stud
ents, with Georgetown University, Smith College
and Sarah Lawrence College offe
ring programs of some renown. But the program that educators usually mention fi
rst is run by
Syracuse University, which for more than 30 years has been a siza
ble presence with its own campus in this arts capital, a virtual
museum without
walls. Art history and architecture are the chief subjects of study for the Am
erican contingent' 200 strong last
semester.
ddThis program is unlikely to be a money-saver, though, because Syracuse charge
S the same amount, about $13,000 a semester, that
students pay at its campus in
New York State. The price includes housing, some meals and one-way air fare. S
tudents who join the
program from higher-priced universities might find Florenc
e cheaper than, say, Yale or Princeton, but even as a financial wash, the
sunny
seat of the Medicis is hard to resist.
ddDivision of International Programs Abroad, Syracuse University, 119 Euclid Av
e., Syracuse, N.Y. 13244; (800) 235-3472 (sum
web.syr.edu/dipa).
ddFairfield University, a Jesuit institution in Connecticut, offers two monthlo
ng summer programs and one-semester and full-year
programs. Cris Bowers, Floren
ce Program Assistant, Fairfield University, Dolan House, Fairfield, Conn. 06430
; (203) 254-4220
(www.fairfield. edu/sce/index.htm).
ddNew York University has begun offering a year in Florence for freshmen. New Y
ork University Study Abroad Admissions, 7 East
12th St., Room 608, New York 100
03; (212) 998-4433 (www. nyu.edu/studyabroad/under graduate/florence.html).
ddCentral and South America
ddThe University of Costa Rica attracts students interested in the rain forest
and other environmental subjects; a brochure mentions
the country's 800 varieti
es of butterflies. The university has become such a magnet for foreigners that
some students have complained
about a lack of connection to the local populace.
ddThe University of Kansas sponsors a highly regarded program that costs only $
5,300 a semester, $4,300 for those enrolled at the
Kansas school. This price co
vers everything but transportation and includes intense Spanish-language study.
ddOffice of Study Abroad, University of Kansas, 108W Lippincott, Lawrence, Kan.
66045; (785) 864-3742 (www.ukans.edu/osa/).
ddThe University of Illinois leads an American consortium that expects to place
70 students in one or more of three top institutions
in Buenos Aires this fall
. The three are the University of Buenos Aires, still a center of political fer
ment but not as strike-prone as
it used to be; the Catholic University of Salva
dor, and Torcuato Di Tella University, which has rigorous economics and busines
S
programs.
dd"This isn't a fun-in-the-sun type of program," said Joan Solaun, foreign-st
udy director at the University of Illinois, noting that the
program requires tw
o weeks of orientation at an Andes retreat. Tuition, room and board come to $7,
985 a semester.
ddStudy Abroad, University of Illinois, 115 International Studies Building, 910
South Fifth St., Champaign, III. 61820; (217)
333-6322 (www.uiuc.edu/providers
/ ips/sao/).
ddThe Middle East
ddIsrael offers many choices for foreign students. Its five principal universit
ies have formed a consortium to coordinate efforts, but
each maintains individu
al admissions requirements and sets its own price, although costs for each are
around $10,000 a year for
tuition and housing. The Hebrew University of Jerusal
em and Tel Aviv University are the most popular choices of American students.
B
ar-llan University, in a Tel Aviv suburb, concentrates on Jewish heritage; Ben-
Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba offers
a desert experience, and the
University of Haifa exploits its location in a cosmopolitan port city and cent
er for high technology.
ddThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Office of Academic Affairs, 11 East 69th
St., New York 10021; (800) 404-8622
(www2.huji.ac.il/www/usfos/top.html) Tel A
viv University, Office of Academic Affairs, 360 Lexington Ave., New York 10017;
(800) 665-9828. Bar-Ilan University, Office of Academic Affairs, 91 Fifth Ave.
, Suite 200, New York 10003; (888) 248-9327.
Ben-Gurion University, Center for
International Student Programs, 342 Madison Ave., Suite 1224, New York 10173; (
800) 962-2248
(www.bgu.ac.il/osp/). University of Haifa, Overseas Student Progr
ams, 352 Seventh Ave., New York 10001; (800) 334-0755
(www.haifa.ac.il).
ddAn intriguing new Arab-studies program is being offered this fall in Sana, ca
pital of newly unified Yemen in the southwestern
corner of the Arabian peninsul
a, along ancient trade routes for spices and luxury goods. The 10-week program
consists of Arabic
and two other courses: one on the country's 5,000-year histo
ry, the other on its current political science. Study of Arabic is
recommended
before starting the program, but it is not required. Registration is through Po
rtland State University in Oregon, which
has more than 30 years of experience i
n the Middle East. The Yemeni program costs $5,500, which covers tuition, lodgi
ng and at
least one meal a day.
ddStudy Abroad, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, Ore. 97207;
(503) 725-8246 (www.oaa.pdx.edu/International
/InternationalEd/studyabroad).
ddAustralia
ddSydney, host to the Olympic Games in 2000, is becoming a highly popular desti
nation for American students. In size and breadth
of curricula, institutions li
ke the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales are similar t
o state-financed
universities in the United States. The cost is $11,500 to $12,
000 a semester, including housing and air fare, but not meals. The firstsemeste
r runs from February to June and the second from July to November.
ddA student must take a full course load to qualify for a student visa, and a g
uidebook cautions that foreign students are sometimes
"surprised at the worklo
ad required of them."
ddButler is the main broker for Australian study. But students can save money b
y enrolling directly at, say, the University of Sydney,
paying about $6,675 a S
emester for tuition, room and meals.
ddInstitute for Study Abroad, Butler University, 4600 Sunset Ave., Indianapolis
, Ind. 46208; (800) 858-0229, (www.butler.edu/
www/isa). Study Abroad Adviser,
University of Sydney, NSW Australia 2006; 61-2-9351-5841 (www.usyd.edu.au/su/io)
).
ART Drawingsn
Publication#W\ PIP# 18. The New York Times"Publication" #:\ PmP# 08/02/98Se
ion: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 28, Column 1
Headline#\ PnP# Why Johnny's Doing Calculus: The Booming
Education IndustryHea
dline #:\ PoP#
By Jim Yardley
In late May four teachers and administrators, sitting solemnly behind a table
at the office of a top Manhattan public school, delivered
the bad news to Eliz
abeth and Antonio Trindade. Their son, Lorenzo, could not keep up. He needed to
be placed in special education
classes at a smaller school.
ddMs. Trindade listened with disbelief. The future she had imagined for her chi
Id a competitive high school, maybe an Ivy League
university was disintegra
ting.
ddIn the not-too-distant past, this sort of conference might have occurred in L
orenzo's eighth year of school, or even as early as the
fourth grade. But Loren
zo was 6 years old. He was failing kindergarten.
dd"They could kill my son," Ms. Trindade said of the school officials.
ddSo she responded as if Lorenzo had been diagnosed with a fatal disease: she W
ent looking for a second opinion. After that meeting,
she arranged appointments
with a child psychologist and a pediatrician. And then she took Lorenzo to a H
untington Learning Center,
one of the for-profit tutorial and educational cente
rs that are becoming increasingly common in cities and suburbs.
ddIn doing this, Ms. Trindade joined thousands of other parents across the coun
try who are plunging into the vast world of
"supplemental education," of whic
h chains like Huntington, Sylvan and Score! make up only a part. In the past fi
ve years, an
enormous educational industry has taken off to meet the needs and
demands of parents who are either frustrated with schools, or
fearful that thei
r children will fall behind in an increasingly competitive world.
ddThe amount of products and services how-to books, software titles, learning
centers, private tutoring programs is stunning.
Since 1991, Sylvan, one of t
he first chains of storefront learning centers, has grown from 466 to 700 outle
ts across the country, with
more than 124,000 students registered last year. Hu
ntington is also expanding, from 112 centers in 1995 to a planned 200 by the en
d
of this year.
dd"The message we get from parents is not so much that they're frustrated with
schools, but that they're frustrated with their child's
performance," said Ra
y Huntington, who with his wife, Eileen, founded the first Huntington Learning
Center in Oradell, N.J., in
1977. "Originally, we were the last choice. Today,
we are increasingly the first choice."
ddThere is so much educational software that stores cannot come close to stocki
ng it all. About three new titles arrive on the market
every day, all aspiring
to become the next "Rabbit Reader" or "Jumpstart." Last year, sales of educ
ational software topped $511
million.
ddThe hottest sellers are for children in preschool through third grade, and th
e target group seems to be getting only younger: the
new "Jumpstart Baby" is
for babies 9 to 18 months old.
dd"I say there will soon be electrodes they will hook up to a woman's stomach
that will be educational," said Ann Stephens, president
of PC Data, which trac
ks software sales. "What's next? 'Jumpstart Fetus'?"
ddProbably not. But parental anxiety over education and future success certainl
y helps explain some books, like "Career Coaching
Your Kids, for Ages 6 to 26.
The volume of materials hasn't necessarily made for more clarity: Different bo
oks and tutoring programs
often espouse contradictory advice, like using the ph
onics or whole-language approaches' or neither to help children learn to
rea
d. Some child development experts note, meanwhile, that many "new approaches"
on the market are merely repackaged old
maxims like drills and memorization.
ddWhat also concerns many development experts is the notion that young children
can be cleanly assessed and categorized. However
good their intentions, they S
ay, parents and schools must be careful not to place unrealistic expectations o
n young children, and they
caution that learning is not a one-size-fits-all com
modity.
d"There's a magic bullet for everything now," said Gail Furman, a Manhattan
child psychologist who works with several private
schools. "If you're depresse
d, you take Prozac. If you're impotent, you take Viagra. If you have a learning
problem, you get tutored,
get tested and you think it will all get better. But
that's not always true."
ddYoung children, Dr. Furman noted, develop differently. Some may excel in earl
y grades; others may take longer to bloom. One
child with early reading or hand
writing problems may be incredibly creative; another who achieves early may sim
ply be more mature
and better organized. The second child may be identified ear
ly as a high achiever' and then end up struggling later as school
subjects bec
ome more complex.dd" You then make these kids 'labeled' and 'identified,' and W
hat happens is they become more and more defensive and self-conscious
about lea
rning," Dr. Furman said.
ddln Manhattan, though, the intense competition for admittance into top element
ary schools, public and private, often hinges on early
assessments. Private tut
ors charge up to $150 an hour on the Upper East Side to help students meet, or
get ahead of, their workloads.
ddIn her own practice, Dr. Furman says she sees many examples of children who S
he believes are inappropriately labeled as slow
learners by schools. She is now
counseling a 6-year-old girl in kindergarten whose parents want her to attend
an elite elementary
school. In one sample of her work, the child has written,'
'Ples Do Not Tush, Thik you." She scored well on I.Q. tests, but has not
yet g
rasped spelling and reading. "This child has been identified as a youngster wi
th severe learning problems," Dr. Furman said.
"Her parents have been advised
to get outside tutoring and counseling, and that she may not be a candidate fo
r the school."
ddParents wait up to a year to take their children to Dr. Mel Levine, director
of the Center for Development and Learning at the
University of North Carolina
School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. The author of several highly regarded books
on child development,
Dr. Levine agrees with Dr. Furman that early assessments
can lead to premature conclusions, except where a child has severe
problems.
ddBut, he said, parents are right to be concerned if a fourth grader is still S
truggling to read, or if a sixth grader resists writing or
doing homework. Such
a child could have subtle motor problems, memory problems or difficulty in org
anizing ideas, he said.
ddBecause he considers learning disorders to be an "epidemic," Dr. Levine cre
dited private learning centers with providing strong
remedial tutoring in basic
skill subjects like reading and math. But he said parents should not believe t
hese programs are reinventing
the educational wheel.
dd"A lot of these programs portray themselves as being on the cutting edge, bu
t they're doing things that are very traditional," he
said, adding that much o
f what is offered is old-fashioned repetitive drilling.
ddA conflict of interest can exist, Dr. Levine said, when centers that offer tu
toring also sell child-assessment services. "You come
in, and you get assessed
, and they say, 'Well, we just happen to have exactly what you need,' he sai
d. "It would be better to separate
assessment and treatment."
ddVickie Glazar, a Sylvan spokeswoman, noted that Sylvan uses the respected Cal
ifornia Achievement Test to make its assessments;
Huntington uses a combination
of tests, including parts of the California test.
ddBut another potential area for conflicts of interest can come from "co-brand
ing." In one example, Sylvan and the software company
Virtual Knowledge have a
relationship in which children who take Virtual Knowledge's "Children's Skill
S Test" assessment software
are nudged toward Sylvan for help.
ddThough Dr. Levine has not seen that test, he cautioned parents about placing
too much weight on findings from any generalized,
at-home computer assessments.
In many ways, this assessment is a descendant of the old at-home I.Q. tests. D
esigned to be "fun"
and not intimidating to children, the at-home assessment
software is based on the Iowa Skills Test and the California Achievement
Test,
according to company officials.
ddParadoxically, many assessment specialists like child psychologists, develo
pmental pediatricians and educational diagnosticians
" are struggling to stay i
n business, because relatively few parents can afford the hundreds of dollars n
eeded to pay for a
comprehensive evaluation, and insurance usually does not cov
er it.
ddSuch specialized assessment can include a battery of medical and diagnostic t
ests. Lawrence Green, a retired educational therapist
and diagnostician who liv
es near San Jose, Calif., said only specialists can properly assess complicated
, underlying learning
weaknesses that often go undetected in quick diagnostic a
ssessments.
dd"The parent is faced with all these options and they have limited resources,
" said Mr. Green, whose book, "Finding Help When
Your Child Is Struggling in
School," will be published later this summer by Golden Books. "What they know
is: 'I have a child who
is bright and capable, but he is not working at a leve
1 commensurate with his ability. So what can I do?'
ddExperts worry that lower-income children, many of whom would greatly benefit
from extra help, are far less likely to get it,
pushing them even further behin
d academically. Educational software begins at around $30. And most poor famili
es don't have home
computers in any case. One session at a learning center, mea
nwhile, can cost $55 to $75 an hour, depending on the child's age and
skill lev
el, and the centers suggest three hours a week putting the price beyond the r
each of many middle-class families as well.
dd"The learning centers work, obviously, with kids who have money," said Debo
rah Briggs, who owns two Huntington franchises
in Manhattan.
ddln response, a small number of public school systems, using Federal grants, h
ave contracted with Sylvan to operate tutoring centers
in disadvantaged schools
And there are nonprofit programs sprinkled across the country. The Readnet Fo
undation operates programs
in five upper Manhattan schools, using computers and
specially designed software to provide intensive reading support and tutoring
for underprivileged children. But these programs are the exceptions.
dd"If I get 100 calls a month, 60 percent of them are from parents who are rea
lly poor," Ms. Briggs said. "The first thing they ask
is do we have financial
aid. It's unbelievably heartbreaking." She said currently she has five lower-
income students being tutored for
free.
ddMs. Briggs emphasized that learning centers are not designed for students wit
h problems like dyslexia or other learning
disabilities. Instead, they best ser
ve students who, for one reason or another, are not reaching their potential.
ddAt Huntington, incoming students undergo two to three hours of diagnostic and
achievement testing to determine reading level,
to measure phonetic ability, t
o assess ability to recall information and to pinpoint learning strengths and W
eaknesses. In one test, the
Slosson Visual-Motor Performance Test, a child is S
hown 14 different shapes and asked to perform tasks; for example, to "draw a
S
traight line inside the rectangle." Ms. Briggs said this test helps establish
whether a child can process visual information properly.
ddShe said her tutors all of them certified teachers do not adhere to any p
articular educational philosophy. If they think phonics
will work, fine. If it
is whole-word reading, fine. The educational director, Robert Golden, says four
of five students show
improvement after several months.dd"It's about going to
a child's weaknesses and helping them survive with that weakness," Ms. Briggs
said.
ddJust the promise of individualized attention is why so many parents turn to h
elp outside their children's schools.
dd"It doesn't matter how good or bad the school system is," said Gary Natriel
lo, a professor at Columbia University's Teachers
College, who took his own son
to Sylvan. "They're organized to produce bunches of kids. They're just not or
ganized to really address
the needs of particular kids. They're not organized t
o help a kid catch up."
ddOn the surface, chains like Sylvan and Huntington may seem as similar as McDo
nald's is to Burger King. Both use a ratio of one
tutor per three pupils and bo
th have similar hourly rates. But Sylvan offers an incentive plan in which stud
ents can earn points toward
winning a prize, such as a skateboard; Huntington c
onsiders rewards to be the wrong message. Sylvan guarantees that a student's
re
ading skills will jump at least one reading level after 36 hours of tutelage; H
untington doesn't make guarantees.
ddSome independent learning centers or private tutorial services offer even mor
e individual attention. K.C. Genzamer, a Manhattan
tutor who charges $90 an hou
r and works with children ages 3 to 14, offers a weekend study hall at her apar
tment so students can
drop by to work on homework.
ddLinda Nelson, a retired teacher who opened Learning Power, a tutoring center
in Hartford, offers one tutor for every student. Ms.
Nelson said she decided ag
ainst buying a Sylvan or Huntington franchise because of what she described as
their "cookie-cutter"
methods.
dd"We spend a lot of time looking over report cards, calling teachers," Ms. N
elson said. Ms. Glazar, the Sylvan spokeswoman,
responded that the centers offe
r the assurance of "consistent programs around the country."
ddlf learning centers represent a 90's variation on old-style tutoring, then so
ftware the other fast-growing component of the
supplemental education industr
y may be the educational brave new world. Titles like "Math Blaster," "Rea
der Rabbit" and "Where
in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?" already constitute
something of a canon. There seems little doubt that using educational software
only enhances children's computer literacy, and many parents regard it as essen
tial to preparing for the future.
dd"Parents are very worried in general that the world is going to turn into a
computer-generated place, and that their kids have got
to get started prenatall
y," said Mary Sue Lindley, an elementary school computer teacher at Public Sch
ool 321 in Park Slope,
Brooklyn.
ddDiane Shohet, an executive producer with Hasbro Interactive, which makes comp
uter games with an educational bent, said that
"edutainment" is the most rece
nt trend for children. In edutainment, the emphasis is on visual graphics and'
'fun" animated characters.
"People are doing more entertainment-form titles t
hat happen to have some education in them," Ms. Shohet said. "Fun," of cours
e,
is part of the attraction of software; unlike rote school exercises, childre
n embrace software learning games.
d"There's nothing to say that just because something is fun, it isn't educati
onal," Ms. Shohet said.
ddBut even educators involved with software worry that some products labeled as
educational are merely thinly veiled video games.
Robin Hubbard, executive dir
ector of the Readnet Foundation, which has developed a reading software program
in conjunction with
Teachers College, said most titles "for younger children
are really just pleasant looking, not based on academic theory, generally."
dd"The software the little kids are using really has to be a close relative to
the television they have been watching," she said.
"Otherwise it won't hold
their interest."
ddWhat is lacking is an easy way to make sense of it all. In this, the Governme
nt offers little help. Charles Blaschke, head of
Education Turnkey System, a ma
rket research group that monitors Federal and state initiatives for software, S
aid that the last major
study of computer-based education in schools was done i
n 1975. For simply weeding through the options, the Web sites of Family
PC, Chi
Idren's Software Revue, Home PC and Technology & Learning offer reviews of new
software.
ddSome educators say the evolution of software is already transforming the lear
ning process for the better. Voice-sensitive computer
software can interact wit
h students doing exercises. The not-too-distant future of virtual reality whe
n a student can put on a headset
and find himself in first-century Asia Minor"
tantalizes many educators.
dd"It's only the beginning," said Paul Houston, executive director of the Ame
rican Association of School Administrators. "It's going
to inevitably revoluti
onize a lot of learning.
ddKids and families are having direct access to learning and education, he adde
d. They don't have to go through an intermediary
like a school.
ddElizabeth Trindade is spending much of the summer looking for ways to help he
r son. Huntington determined that Lorenzo was,
in fact, in need of tutoring and
recommended three hours a week at $225. Ms. Trindade could not afford it. She
is a personal trainer
who runs her own business; her husband is a personal trai
ner for a health club.
ddAfter Huntington, Ms. Trindade took Lorenzo to a child psychologist, who rais
ed the possibility of attention deficit disorder. She
also bought a copy of "T
he World Almanac for Children," and she kept meeting with officials at Manhatt
an's District 2.
ddFinally, she said, she reached a compromise with them: Lorenzo will repeat ki
ndergarten this fall rather than transfer into special
education. In her resear
ch, she discovered that Lorenzo was one of only a few children in his class who
hadn't attended preschool.
Perhaps, Ms. Trindade said, Lorenzo wasn't slow, bu
t simply behind before he had started.
ddTo help him catch up, she has restructured her home life. She now spends time
every day tutoring Lorenzo; when he makes up
his bed, he has to also spell b-e
-d. She has devised counting games and learning games, partly from consulting b
ooks. He also works
with different educational software titles.
ddIt's all geared toward one goal: success, from first grade on. "I didn't rea
lize that after kindergarten," she said, "you've got to be
ready."
ART Photos: Students being tutored at a Huntington Learning Center in Englew
ood, N.J. "Originally, we were the last choice,"
said Ray Huntington, the ch
ain's founder. "Today, we are increasingly the first choice." (Philip Greenb
erg for The New York Times;
Photo illustration by Terry Miura) (pg. 28); Eliza
beth Trindade is spending the summer looking for ways to help her 6-year-old
S
on, Lorenzo, who had fallen behind in kindergarten. (Thomas Dallal for The New
York Times) (pg. 31); K.C. Genzamer, a private
tutor, works with Eric and Jak
e Murray on educational games. (J. Emilio Flores/The New York Times) (pg. 3
8)n
Publication#W\ PpP# 19. The New York Times "Publication" #:\ PqP# 08/02/98Sect
ion: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 17, Column 1
Headline#\ PrP# Easy Degrees Proliferate on the WebHeadline #:\ PsP#
By David Koeppel
Ira Doreen Donovan, an elementary school teacher in Miami, was 31 credits shy
of a master's degree in special education when she
saw an on-line advertisement
for Columbia State University. After sending $800 as the first payment on a $2
,000 degree, Ms.
Donovan received a textbook to summarize and send back for gra
ding.
ddBelieving this was the first step of several, she was shocked when shortly af
ter, a certificate not only for a master's but a doctorate
arrived at her home.
Along with the degrees came transcripts awarding her a 3.9 grade point average
for classes never taken and credit
for a completed thesis and dissertation.
TD "I called the school and told them if this degree isn't worth the paper
it's printed on, I don't want to pay for it," Ms. Donovan
said. "This degree
mill made me look like a fool."
ddColumbia State returned her money, but others say they have not been so lucky
ddAfter investigating 36 complaints, including one from Norway and one from Mal
aysia, the Louisiana Attorney General's office
has filed for a preliminary inju
nction against Columbia, charging that it violates the state's Unfair Trade Pra
ctices Act and consumer
protection laws. Last month the State of Illinois also
filed suit seeking an injunction and restitution for consumers and the state.
ddRepeated calls to Columbia's office in Metairie, La., seeking comment were no
t returned.
ddThe Internet has "rekindled the old-fashioned diploma mill," said Michael L
ambert, the executive director of the Distance
Education and Training Council,
a recognized accrediting agency that has approved 65 on-line and home-study sch
ools. "The Internet
is a haven for these places."
ddSurfing the Web these days is like flipping through a virtual college catalog
ue. With its interactivity and accessibility, the Internet
has sparked new inte
rest in home-study programs, offering actual courses on line or just informatio
n.
ddAlthough many distance-learning schools have solid reputations and graduation
requirements, hundreds of Web sites have popped
up for schools charging betwee
n $200 and $7,000 for sheepskin that requires little or no work from students.
Columbia, for instance,
promises degrees within 27 days.
ddElaborate home pages make schools look credible, Mr. Lambert said. The school
S can operate in the anonymity of cyberspace,
sometimes listing just an E-mail
address or post office box. And on line, they can reach a global audience for m
inimal cost.
ddEugene Sullivan, co-author with David W. Stewart and Henry Spille of "Extern
al Degrees in the Information Age," the American
Council on Education's guide
to correspondence programs, defines a diploma mill as an "organization that se
Ils degrees without an
academic base and without requiring sufficient academic
achievement."
ddWhile perfectly legitimate schools might have an element or two of a diploma
mill (say, credit for work experience), experts say
there are multiple defining
characteristics:
ddThe school emphasizes credit for work or life experience without appropriate
mechanisms for assessing that experience in terms
of college-level learning.
ddDegrees are obtained in far less time than would be required at a legitimate
institution. (A bachelor's degree typically takes four
years of full-time cours
e work, a master's one to two years, a Ph.D. dissertation several years to rese
arch and write.)
ddTuition and fees are on a per-degree basis instead of per semester or course.
ddSchool brochures list faculty members who neither teach nor provide other ser
vices, and there is virtually no interaction with
faculty members.
ddThe school is not accredited by an agency approved by the Department of Educ
ation , the Council for Higher Education
Accreditation or other legitimate inst
itutions.
ddAccreditation, however, is voluntary.
dd"From my experience it's not the blatantly fraudulent schools that are the r
eal threat," Mr. Stewart said. "It's the academic frauds
that have a little S
ubstance that are the problem."
ddHe was referring to schools that require students to perform some academic ex
ercises like writing a paper or taking an exam"
and some students might invest
considerable effort but their degrees are unacceptable to established colleg
es and universities and
unimpressive to prospective employers.
ddBut experts admit that most such institutions cater to people who know exactl
y what they are getting into.
dd"Many people are well aware of what they are doing," Mr. Sullivan said. "T
hey want a credential and they want to get it quickly.
But others are busy peop
le or foreign students who don't know much about higher education. They see the
se places as programs that
fit their needs."
ddJoe Joyal of Atlanta said he had worked as an engineer for 20 years without a
degree and applied to Columbia State for a joint
bachelor's/master's degree in
mechanical engineering. He received both degrees in under six months after sum
marizing two textbooks.
ddHe said he suspected the degree was worthless but nonetheless listed it on hi
S resume. Later he had second thoughts and took it
off. He is pursuing a degree
from an accredited distance-learning program.
ddColumbia State claims in Internet advertising that it is accredited by the In
ternational Accrediting Association, a "fictitious school
accrediting agency,'
' according to the Louisiana Attorney General's complaint. The owner of Columbi
a, Ronald Dante, was sentencedin February in Los Angeles to five-and-a-half yea
rs in prison for operating fraudulent schools in California. He jumped bail and
is
being sought by United States marshals, according to Michelle Muth, a spoke
swoman for the Federal Trade Commission. Columbia
continues to operate.
ddPerhaps the largest crackdown on schools took place from 1981 to 1991, when O
peration Dipscam (for diploma scam) put 50 out
of business on charges ranging f
rom mail or wire fraud to conspiracy. "Sometimes we'd find phony accreditation
S or that we were
able to negotiate a degree for a lower price," said Allen Ez
ell, a former agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who oversaw
Dipsca
m. "Some schools sent transcripts and diplomas to students for courses never t
aken."
ddStates like New York and Illinois closely regulate academic institutions, req
uiring that they be authorized to operate. But many
don't. Mr. Ezell said inves
tigations often start by looking into schools incorporated in the states with t
he weakest laws, like Hawaii,
Utah and Louisiana.
ddHawaii has been wrangling with a few unaccredited schools lately. Its departm
ent of consumer affairs has sued Pacific Western
and American State Universitie
S, two distance-learning schools with offices there, for not making clear in ad
vertisements that they
are unaccredited. After agreeing to a settlement, Americ
an State decided to close. "The penalties were too substantial," the school's
lawyer, Evan R. Shirley, said, specifically citing the requirement that every
ad disclose its unaccredited status.
dd"My client never explicitly expressed wrongdoing," he added, "but a conclu
sion could be rationally made that there was
wrongdoing."
ddPacific Western's case is pending. Calls to its office and lawyers were not r
eturned, but in answer to the complaint filed in circuit
court in Honolulu, it
denied allegations that it misleads consumers about its accreditation or sugges
ts it is "somehow accredited or
approved by the State of Hawaii to award acade
mic degrees."
ddAnother area of dispute that has caused considerable legal wrangling has been
the similarity in names between accredited and
unaccredited schools.
ddAn unaccredited school called Washington University, which has an office in B
ryn Mawr, Pa., but is incorporated in Hawaii and
the British Virgin Islands, se
ttled a suit in June filed by the more established Washington University of St.
Louis. The suit charged
that the unaccredited school infringed on its trademar
k and engaged in unfair competition.
ddThe details of the settlement are confidential, but the consent judgment ente
red by the court told the school to come up with a new
name, and one that separ
ated the words "Washington" and "University" with a word of at least 10 cha
racters.
ddYil Karademir, who owns the unaccredited school, chose Washington Internation
al University. (Unaccredited schools tend to favor
the word "International,"
as well as "America," "United" and "Pacific.")
ddThe St. Louis school had complained that it had received inquiries from prosp
ective students and alumni who were confused when
they saw the other school's a
ds" not to mention being the target of protests from human-rights activists af
ter a businessman linked
to Myanmar's military dictatorship bought an honorary
doctorate.
dd"What they do bears no resemblance to the education we provide," said Lori
Fox, the associate general counsel for Washington
University in St. Louis. "Ar
e they a diploma mill? You'll have to draw your own conclusions."
ddMr. Karademir said he is not running a diploma mill.
dd"We are a young university," he said. "We didn't even know about them when
we chose the name three years ago. They're not
exactly Harvard. Calling us a d
egree mill is hitting below the belt in order to belittle and discredit us."
ddMr. Karademir said his school is made up mostly of international students who
are given academic credit for life experience,
though he plans to add on-line
courses in the fall. Washington International's Web site is extensive and promi
ses to grant degrees
in one year. "The academic comunity [sic] find our degree
programs to be OUTSTANDING!" the Web site declares. "All Washington
Internat
ional University degrees are ATTESTED and sealed for authenticity by a Governme
nt appointed NOTARY!"
ddCosts range from $2,850 for a Bachelor of Science in business administration
to $7,400 for a combination bachelor's and master's
degree.
ddMeanwhile, the Pennsylvania Department of Education is investigating complain
ts about the school, according to Michelle
Haskins, a department spokeswoman.
ddLast year, the Illinois Attorney General succeeded in shutting down an on-lin
e school, Loyola State University, for violating
consumer protection laws by co
nfusing students into thinking it was Loyola University of Chicago. Patricia Ke
Ily, division chief
of consumer protection in the Attorney General's office, sa
id that Lorie LaFata, who ran the school, created dummy transcripts with
fictio
nal class names, codes and grades. Students would receive diplomas after paying
$2,800. "We were able to see she was not
offering what she promised," Ms. Ke
Ily said.
ddIn her settlement with the Attorney General's office, which had filed suit ag
ainst her, Ms. LaFata agreed to pay restitution to the
state and not to conduct
business on the Internet for five years, including having a Web site.
dd"The state and I came to a good understanding," said Ms. LaFata, who offere
d that she had been a Columbia State student. "I did
have to admit to wrongdoi
ng. It was an awful time for me. I hope to leave that behind."
ddRichard Mitchell, president of the New Orleans Better Business Bureau, advise
S prospective students to do their own investigating
before signing up with a d
istance education school.
dd"Do some intelligent things like checking out a school with agencies that ca
n give you more information," he said. "Don't just jump
into a school because
they have an impressive Web site. If you take time and do your homework, you c
an avoid a problem."
ddMr. Lambert said it was easy for unsophisticated applicants to be fooled. "I
n mixing dollars and dreams," he said, "it's many of
the true innocents that
get trampled on."
ddHow to Check School Credentials
ddSurfing the Web for a home-study school? The Department of Education suggests
that thr first step is to check a school's
accreditation - a process in which
courses are reviewed, students surveyed and campuses inspected. For a list of a
gencies approved
to accredit schools, write: Department of Education Accreditat
ion and Eligibility Determination Division, 6000, Independence Ave.,S.W., Washi
ngton, D.C. 20202-5244; (202) 708-7417; www.ifap.ed.gov/scb.html/agenc.htm.
ddThe Council for Higher Education Accreditation, an organization of colleges a
nd universities, also approves accrediting agencies.
Write: One Dupont Circle,
N.W., Suite 854, Washington, D.C. 20036-1110; (202) 955-6126; www.chea.org.
ART Photo: The home pages of two on-line schools that offer quick degrees, le
ft. Ira Doreen Donovan's doctorate.n
Publication#W\
PtP# 20. The New York Times "Publication" #:\
PuP# 08/02/98Sect
ion: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 32, Column 1
Headline#\
PvP# Back To the BlackboardHeadline #:\
PwP#
By Mikki Shaw
A recent survey suggested that education professors are out of touch with the
reality of the American classroom, students' needs and
the public's desires. Th
e survey, by the research organization Public Agenda, concluded that education
professors value the learning
process over the right answer and creativity over
grammar and spelling, and they consider discipline a low priority.
ddNot surprisingly, such conclusions make parents growl and classroom teachers
cringe.
ddThose of us who work with new teachers struggle daily with the conflicting de
mands of classroom realities and academic ideals.
We want our teachers to have
realistic expectations and appropriate tools, but we also seek commitment to ch
ange and a recognition
that the traditional ways of teaching are not the only W
ays. In our program at Columbia University, we encourage aspiring teachers
to r
ead widely and work in cooperative groups, and we offer alternative methods for
assessing their future students' progress besides
traditional testing.
ddStill, many of our graduates find jobs in schools that emphasize traditional
teaching and learning and the transition can be
difficult. I think of Ashley,
for example, idealistic and enthusiastic, who was placed in a school where the
teachers focused on issues
of control and discipline. Ashley found the approac
h troubling. Yet when she took over a class and tried out other techniques,
stu
dents responded only to the lack of restraints, and chaos ensued. She was left
feeling that there was no choice but to assert control.
ddLast May, prompted by questions of pedagogy and a conviction that, after five
years at Teachers College, it was time to get back
to kids, I accepted an invi
tation to spend two weeks teaching at a Yonkers high school. I had been a high
school English teacher for
20 years, and later, as a teacher of teachers, I had
spent three years at the Yonkers school supervising student-teachers. My inten
t
in returning to a high school classroom was to teach, not to write. But much
of what I saw lends a firsthand glimpse into the chasm
between the theory and t
he practice of education, a disjuncture that recurs in urban districts across t
he country.
ddThe high school where I taught is located among practically identical well-ma
nicured, one-family homes. Until a decade ago, the
school was well respected fo
r academic achievement. But today, its reading and math scores are among the lo
west in the state. In
the mid-80's, a high-profile, bitterly fought redistricti
ng effort triggered white flight. Today the school is 10 percent white, 40 perc
ent
Hispanic, 45 percent black and 5 percent Asian and other.
ddI returned to the classroom to see if I still responded to students and the
y to me, but what surprised me most was the teachers.
Some were curious about m
e, others suspicious about my motives or aggressive in their attacks on the Ivo
ry Tower. Day after day,
what I heard was sadness, sometimes anger, and often d
espondence when the subject turned to the lack of money or support services.
Ye
t, what my colleagues wanted most was help in becoming more effective teachers,
help working with their students.
ddMonday, Day 1
ddI had been up until 3 the night before, worrying, but class was completely an
ticlimactic. The 27 10th graders came full of noise
and energy, but settled dow
n quickly at the request of my host teacher, Mr. M., as the kids call him. He i
ntroduced me, distributed
our project for the next two weeks, "The Taming of t
he Shrew," and took a seat in the back of the room.
ddI asked why anyone would want to read Shakespeare today, and we wended our wa
y into a discussion about whether human nature
" and teen-agers have changed
much in 400 years. We talked about arranged marriage, why older siblings always
think they got
a bad break, and who has the upper hand in the battle of the se
xes.
ddMid-discussion, one child asked, "What are you doing here if they don't be p
aying you?"
ddI told him, "I came down to see what the big deal is with all the dopey Tomm
ies you guys wear."
ddFortunately, they laughed. Perhaps I wasn't so bad for a geeky-looking, middl
e-aged white woman.
ddMidnight
ddI'm worried. I spent four hours tonight making up questions, group projects a
nd character maps for my new students, indicating
each character's role and rel
ation to the others. I have my own project due this week for a class at Teacher
S College, plus another
rewrite for my dissertation proposal. Tomorrow I pick u
p curriculum projects from my own Teachers College students, which will
have to
be returned in a week or so.
ddWhat was I thinking?
ddTuesday, Day 2
ddMr. M. had a conference day, so there was a substitute teacher in class with
me. Maybe in her mid-20's, she was certified to teach
Health Ed. She seemed swe
et. She took attendance' there were five kids who had been absent yesterday "
then she sat down and
chewed gum for the rest of the period. I could tell when
I got boring just by looking over at her. She would start bobbing her head
or S
taring out the window.
ddl handed out the character maps. Now, all I needed was their attention! I tol
d the class that Mr. M. had told me the class was great
and so should be able t
o do the entire play in one period.
dd"Come on, we can do it."ddNothing. No open books.
dd"Well, O.K., if we can't read the whole play, maybe we can at least get an i
dea of what the play is about, and then we can try and
convince Mr. M. that we
did read the whole play."
ddA few grins: they knew they'd been set up, but it wasn't such a bad idea.
ddSo we plowed through the summary and the character map with small time-outs
for explanations about dowries, soliloquies,
asides and why the Shakespearean
casts were all men.
ddWe got to the crucial scene in which Petruchio admires what he claims is moon
light in the middle of the afternoon, and forces
Kate to acquiesce to the false
observation. A few kids started going off on Kate how she was a sellout, and
worse.
ddOne boy said, "Most of the women be saying they want their rights, but when
the man says the word, they be bending their heads
to it."
ddI was pleased that they were being talkative. I had feared silence. At the en
d of the period, they asked if we were still going to fool
Mr. M. Sure, I told
them, why not?
ddAfter class, the substitute said she had thought I was in trouble when I star
ted by asking questions. It turned out "good," though,
she said. I asked her
why she didn't consider getting certified in one of the major subjects, where t
here are more opportunities than
in Health Ed. No, she told me, that's boring S
tuff and too much work.
ddWednesday, Day 3
ddThe kids laughed when I started class by asking Mr. M. if he could please get
me some coffee. ("Hey, Mr. M., she think she
Petruchio!") While he was gone,
we planned our attack. Mr. M. returned.
dd"Mr. M., what are we going to read next?"
dd" "Taming of the Shrew.' I thought you started it yesterday."
dd"We finished it."
dd"You what?" He played it big. "You guys don't know about the moonlight S
cene, do you?"
ddAmazement, laughter, all very silly.
ddWe moved on to the reading. They took turns, but some read so haltingly it wo
uld have been difficult to sustain all period. After
reading a pivotal scene an
d discussing it, we watched the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton version. They I
iked the movie.
ddI spent the next period in the faculty room with Mr. M. When he introduced me
as "from the university," several teachers started
talking about "reality,"
' as if theirs is separate from mine. It's what I'm here to see, I told them.
ddThey began to tell stories. They agreed that the central problem in this scho
ol is that students suffer few consequences for breaking
rules, unless violence
is involved. This last is not a rare occurrence. In the fall and winter, there
were half a dozen reported instances
of fights involving teacher injury.
ddAnother typical scenario they described goes like this: There's an announceme
nt that teachers should make boys remove their hats.
A teacher sends one studen
t who refuses to do so to the office. He is back in five minutes his hat stil
1 on. Another five minutes,
an administrator peeks into the classroom and criti
cizes the teacher in front of the class for not enforcing the hat rule! I groan
dThursday, Day 4
ddMr. M. has his kids in the computer room every Thursday working on vocabulary
. The kids look up 20 words, copy the definitions
into their notebooks and then
write sentences using them. Some teachers might use the time to go "on vacati
on," but Mr. M. circulated
throughout the entire period, troubleshooting compu
ters and assisting with vocabulary.
ddHe has plenty of energy and enthusiasm. It's his 30th year, and he still want
S to learn as well as teach. He wants interaction and
feedback and stimulation
and support something teachers don't often get, because it is so easy to beco
me isolated in classrooms.
Many of us teach as we were taught, and as we were t
aught to teach. But we need to teach differently today, because kids learn
diff
erently.
ddAnd, with the vocabulary lesson as an opportunity, I decided
ddto raise a point. I'm certain
ddthat memorizing words out of context and copying dictionary definitions is no
t very effective. Many students, for example, write
sentences like these:
ddMy friend is glib.
ddMy friend is forbearance.
ddMy friend is finesse.
ddMr. M. listened and encouraged me to think of different approaches. My first
thought was to trash the vocabulary altogether. If
these kids need to know thes
e words because the Curriculum God says so, why not just give them definitions
and be done with it?
Then we could spend the time focusing on context. I tried
to design a handout that gives definitions, indicates parts of speech, and
then
asks students to put the correct words into a coherent paragraph hardly the
challenging innovation I'd fantasized about, but
perhaps useful.
ddFriday, Day 5
ddl missed a fight yesterday afternoon.
ddTwo young women were involved, one of whom took her shirt off to fight. Mr. M
tried to break it up, and in the process was
slugged by a boy. The girls were
suspended for five days; the boy got three.
ddThe class was restless today, edgy. I wasn't a new face anymore. Perhaps they
figured they'd been polite for long enough. One
boy turned and started talking
to the boy behind him. I stood near them as we were reading, and he stopped.
ddBut then two girls in the back started up. When I moved toward their desks, n
aturally, I heard a new conversation sprout up on
the side of the room. So I st
rolled casually over.
ddPretty soon I was playing the classroom equivalent of "Whack-a-Mole," the c
arnival game where little animals pop up from
different holes as fast as you ca
n whack them down. Finally, Mr. M. bailed me out by again showing a key scene f
rom the movie.ddAfter class, Mr. M. spent the break in the faculty room. The ma
in topic there was a principal's letter to a teacher detailing the
proper dispo
sal method for dead rodents. Having tried unsuccessfully to get the custodian t
o remove the offending mice from her
classroom, the teacher had finally scooped
them into a box and left it on top of the garbage can, prompting the reprimand
ddThen Mr. M. had three classes in a row, and I stayed to observe. Each class W
as much like second period resistant, even a little
hostile. Mr. M. worked th
e room, pushing and pulling and teasing the kids. But I noticed there were some
he didn't approach or touch.
Later, he told me he fears they might really go o
ff.
ddNow I know why Mr. M. has structured the week like this, with Thursdays in th
e computer room. Consciously or unconsciously,
he's saving his energy for Frida
y.
ddYesterday I was critical of the relative ineffectiveness of the vocabulary wo
rk. Today I was in awe that he comes back every
Monday.
ddThere is no lunch period for upperclassmen. The cafeteria had been the site o
f too many fights, so lunch was eliminated. Juniors
and seniors attend school o
nly from 8 until 12:45 with no lunch and no break and then are dismissed.
ddAfter his last class, as Mr. M. and I were walking toward the lobby with a cr
ush of students all around us, I noticed a spill " red
paint or something.
ddI pointed it out, saying, Should we call the custodian? Someone spilled paint
ddHe looked at me strangely. It took a minute, but then I realized that it wasn
't paint. It was blood. The kids didn't seem to notice.
They walked right throu
gh, trailing blood all over the hall.
ddOn my way out of the building, a boy from second period asked me, "Miss, you
coming back next week?"
dd"Yeah," I tell him. "I am."
ddThe Weekend
ddI have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I might have done differ
ently on Friday. Why has discipline become the
Consideration That Dare Not Spea
k Its Name in our universities? Keeping students engaged and expressing concern
for them goes
a long way toward maintaining a good working atmosphere but it
isn't the whole answer. I decide we need to keep reminding them
of the relevan
ce of the material, and they need to have at least two activities each period.
Designing those kept me entertained for
four or five hours late Sunday evening.
It is taking me well over three hours each evening to prepare for a 40-minute
class.
ddMonday, Day 6
ddI brought in a few props, including one of my son's books, Where's Mommy's Tr
uck? It shows the Mommy driving a pickup to
work at a construction site and cha
nging her own tire on the way. I knew I had my class back when I walked over to
one of the
biggest guys and got him to lift the flap to show the class "Mommy
's truck."
ddI also brought in an article about Kelly Flinn, the first female B-52 bomber
pilot, who was accused of adultery. We spent 10
minutes on a few "Dear Abby"
situations, like what if your brother wanted to be a nurse or a kindergarten te
acher? And, should Tasha
ask out the shy boy in her class who she thinks likes
her?
ddIn between we read and paraphrased the play. Some of the boys persisted in th
inking that I was poisoning their minds with
propaganda, but for the most part,
they were surprisingly willing to examine their preconceived notions.
ddTuesday, Day 7
ddQuiz day. Mr. M. and I each made up our own, 10 questions each. Mr. M.'s had
five on vocabulary, and five on the play, all based
on memory. What year was Sh
akespeare born? What was Kate's suitor's name?
ddMine was a paragraph of fill-in sentences, each one about Shrew, and each usi
ng one of the vocabulary words. Among them:
Gremio, Hortensio and Lucentio are
eager to Kate's marriage so Bianca will be free to marry. (The word: expedite.
)
ddMr. M. was concerned that mine might be too hard, so we gave both quizzes and
told them we'd count whichever grade was
higher.
ddThe results were interesting, but not very definitive. The average grade on m
ine was 69; on Mr. M.'s, 62. The kids who did the
worst on my quiz were four gi
rls who usually get grades in the 80's. All four study hard, memorize definitio
ns and facts, and were
probably thrown by the change in format.
ddThe kids who did the best on my quiz were students who usually do poorly. The
y may not study, but they're bright. When the test
depended on memorizing facts
and definitions, they failed; but when they could use context clues or informa
tion from discussion
to figure out the answer, they did well. Angel, who rarely
comes to class, got a 90.
ddWednesday, Day 8
ddToday Mr. M. and I co-taught, and we had them hooting and hollering. We read
the scene where Kate and Petruchio finally meet,
and I asked Mr. M. to read alo
ud with me. The scene is rife with double entendres, and these kids seemed to p
ick up on all of them.
ddJust before we started the scene, Mr. M. surprised me by inviting the class t
o split up, girls on one side, boys on the other, and
encouraging them to root
for the character of the appropriate gender. I was taken aback, but the kids lo
ved it. Mr. M. and I were soon
striding around the room:
ddPetruchio: "Myself am moved to woo thee for my wife."
ddKate: "Moved? In good time: let him that moved you hither
ddRemove you hence!"
ddTiffany and Krystal: "You go, girl!"
ddWe then showed the Taylor-Burton version of the same scene, and as it played,
two boys determinedly shredded loose-leaf paper
into the tiny pieces of confet
ti that you find on the floor in every high school in America. When the bell ra
ng, I walked over and told
them, "Hey, there's paper all over the floor by you
r desk." They both looked up and replied in concert, "I didn't do it."
ddThere was no way I could win this one. It was a perfect example of Mr. M.'s m
axim: Don't grab the rope. Don't take the bait,
Mikki. Don't argue.
ddl wanted to. Instead, I looked down and said, "Well, let's pick it up." I d
idn't wait to see their reaction; I just started picking upthe confetti. After
a moment, first one boy, then the other helped. It took 10 seconds. I stretched
out my hand for the paper, but one
of them smiled and rolled his eyes at me, a
nd said, "No, I'll do it, Mom."
ddThursday, Day 9
ddVocabulary in the computer room. I gave out a sheet with words and definition
S, parts of speech and a sentence for each as an
example. Students had to say W
hether the word was used correctly and then write a new sentence using it. The
period was tough;
they kept calling us over and asking questions. It seemed as
if they weren't listening or reading the directions. But their sentences
were m
uch improved.
ddThe one exception was Benjamin, whose first three sentences were terrific, cl
early indicating that he knew the part of speech, that
he could write a complex
sentence and that he understood the meaning of the word. But the fourth senten
ce was "He is grimy." The
fifth was "She is a hypochondriac." And so on. Wh
en I asked him why the difference, Benjamin, a recent transfer student, said:'
'The
school I come from, no teacher ever read past my third sentence."
ddFriday, the Last Day
ddl asked the kids to write a letter with some advice for the new teachers I wo
rk with. What do they need to know to be good
teachers? The kids struggled, uns
ure what right answer I was looking for.
ddSome wrote things like, You've got to like kids and then quit. Others wrote f
rom the heart. Tyrone, whom I thought I'd really made
a connection with, asked
to leave the room. The pass was out so I told him he had to wait. He insisted h
e had to get something from
his locker, made a face and walked out. Don't grab
the rope, Mik, I told myself again. I'll write him up later. To my amazement, h
e
was back in a minute with a pen to write his letter.
ddI walked around and shook hands with each student and wished them good luck.
This seemed to take them by surprise.
ddSeveral girls hugged me; a few
ddasked if I would come back and visit. But when the bell rang, they
ddzipped out the door without a backward glance. I left the building feeling bo
th reluctant and relieved, remembering what Mr. M.
had told me when I asked how
he kept going after 30 years.
dd"The kids," he said. "I'm there for the kids."
n
Publication#W\ PxP# 21. The New York Times"Publication" #:\ PyP# 08/02/98Sect
ion: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 7, Column 1
Headline#\ PzP# Sonny, We Didn't Have Calculators Back Then (And I
Had to Walk
)Headline #:\ P{P#
By Jame Barron
A generation ago, every engineering student, prospective physicist and buddin
g chemist carried a slide rule. Made of ivory, wood
or (later) plastic, a slide
rule looked like a fancy ruler but used logarithms to perform mathematical fun
ctions, from simple
multiplication to trigonometry.
ddHand-held calculators came along in the 1970's, and slide rules disappeared f
rom backpacks and briefcases. So how many
companies still make slide rules?
dd"Pretty much no one," said Gordon P. Smith, a graduate student at the Unive
rsity of Mississippi who has a collection of 50. The
best-known maker of slide
rules in this country was the Keuffel & Esser Company, whose slide-rule factory
in Hoboken, N.J., was
converted to apartments in the 1980's.
ddThe Oughtred Society was formed in 1993 to help collectors and dealers swap i
nformation. The society, which is based in
Emeryville, Calif., has 300 members
and is named for William Oughtred, who invented the slide rule in the 17th cent
ury.
ddMr. Smith, the son of a physics professor at the University of Florida, studi
ed at the Georgia Institute of Technology and other
hard-core engineering insti
tutions. He set up one of the first World Wide Web sites about slide rules, usi
ng computer technology to
honor an anachronism while he still used the anachron
ism in class.
dd"I was in that gray area where students no longer used slide rules but calcu
lators weren't allowed for tests, so I managed to keep
some math skills," Mr.
Smith, 27, said. "I'd show up with a two-foot slide rule for the final and mak
e a point of sitting in the front
row. People would stare at it and wonder what
it was."
ddThen he became a teaching assistant. "I weep for the students I see now," h
e said. "They can't do simple multiplication or addition,
and the first reacti
on when you give them a problem is to reach for the calculator. They have no co
ncept of order of magnitude or
estimation."
ddHe encourages his students not to use calculators.
ddThe slide rule, he said, is an even harder sell. So far, no converts. JAMES B
ARRON
ART Photo: Gordon P. Smith shows off part of his treasured collection (Rolli
n Riggs for The New York Times)n
Publication#W\
P|P# 22. The New York Times"Publication" #:\
P}P# 08/02/98Sect
ion: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 7, Column 1
Headline#\
P~P# Barbarians at the Schoolhouse DoorHeadline #:\ PP#
By David W. Chen
One father barged into the principal's office, screamed obscenities and deman
ded a copy of his son's summer school schedule.
Another argued with the driver
when his daughter's school bus arrived 20 minutes late, then lay down in front
of the vehicle in
protest.
ddThese were the most egregious examples of the boorish behavior that prompted
the Capistrano Unified District in Orange County,
Calif., to do something that
apparently no other district has tried before: pass a civility policy aimed at
adults.
ddThe policy stipulates that, in accordance with a rarely invoked state law, an
yone who yells, uses profanity or behaves in a way
that threatens the safety of
students may be asked to leave school property.
dd"This is not meant to chill people from criticizing us," said James A. Flem
ing, the district's Superintendent. "What we're saying
is, someone's got to ma
ke a point to stop the incivility."
ddBut the policy has its critics.
dd"What example does it set for school administrators to micromanage the manne
rs and morals of their staff, pupils and parents?"
Tibor Machan, who teaches b
usiness at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., wrote in The Orange County Reg
ister. "It fosters
paternalism carte blanche."
ddSince the policy went into effect in March, no one has been asked to leave, D
r. Fleming said. A few parents, however, have been
warned: be civil. DAVID W.
CHEN
n
Publication#W\
PP# 23. The New York nes"Publication" #:\
PP# 08/02/98Sectio
n: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 7, Column 1
Headline#\ PP# Alumni Editors Call for FreedomHeadline #:\ PP#
By Macarena Hernandez
It's an age-old debate: what is the role of the alumni magazine?
IdTraditionally, administrators have seen them as fund-raising tools (some oper
ate right in public relations or development offices).
ddBut editors have long had different ideas. Last month, a group of 250 editors
submitted a statement of standards to the Council
for the Advancement and Supp
ort of Education, an organization of alumni association administrators, seeking
"the protection of
academic freedom generally accepted in higher education"
and the right to present a balanced portrait of their universities "good
and
bad news, popular and unpopular views."
ddA council subcommittee is discussing whether to recommend the standards to me
mber institutions. The statement grew out of
discussions on the Internet betwee
n several editors about disagreements they had had with administrators over edi
torial content.
ddTom Bleezarde, editor of the Williams College Alumni Review and head of the d
rafting committee, said it strived to balance
traditional freedoms of expressio
n with concern for the institution.n
Publication#W\
PP# 24. The New York Times "Publication" #:\
PP# 08/02/98Sectio
n: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 7, Column 1
Headline#\ PP# Military Fires a Warning Shot at Law SchoolsHeadline #:\ PP#
By David W. Chen
After getting word that several law schools were barring its recruiters from c
ampus, the Department of Defense decided to take a
closer look, and over the la
st few months it has notified 40 law schools that their policies most likely vi
olate Federal law.
ddThe warning is the latest broadside against campuses that ban employers who d
iscriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. The
Defense Authorization Act f
or 1995 cuts off Defense Department grants and contracts to educational institu
tions that do not give
the military access to students.
ddNow, after soul-searching over the military's "don't ask, don't tell" polic
y toward gay soldiers, most of the 40 law schools are either
changing their pol
icies on recruitment or reinterpreting them (say, redefining what constitutes'
'on campus"), said Lieut. Col. Tom
Begines, a Defense Department spokesman.
ddThe College of Law at Willamette University in Salem, Ore. worried that it
might lose as much as $100,000 is one of the
schools that will allow military
recruiters on campus for the first time. "We decided to make an exception und
er the theory of comply
now, grieve later," said Dean Robert M. Ackerman of th
e law school.ddSo far, no law school has been declared ineligible for aid, said
Colonel Begines, though detente has not been reached with
everyone. He would n
ot identify any schools.
ddBut New York University Law School is apparently one of the holdouts. Irene D
orzback, an assistant dean, said the school saw
no reason to change.
dd"We're not putting a monetary value on individuals' civil rights," Ms. Dorz
back said, adding that the school had not even calculated
how much money it mig
ht lose. n
Publication#W\ PP# 25. The New York s"Publication" #:\ PP# 08/02/98Sectio
n: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 7, Column 1
Headline#\ PP# Where the Girls Are: Where Boys Aren'tHeadline #:\ PP#
By Andrew Jacobs
In recent years, an insistent group of educators has been making the case for
all-girls schools. Now it seems that parents are jumping
on the bandwagon. From
1991 to 1997, enrollment at girls' schools has increased 15.4 percent, accordi
ng to a study by the National
Coalition of Girls' Schools. During the same peri
od, the total population of elementary and secondary schools rose 7 percent,
ac
cording to the National Center for Education Statistics.
ddThe increase is a sharp turnabout from the previous three decades, when singl
e-sex schools lost favor to co-educational
institutions.
dd"It shows the growing realization that girls do better when they're not comp
eting with boys in the classroom," said Meg Milne
Moulton, executive director
of the coalition, which represents 88 schools with 37,000 students nationwide.
The coalition survey,
which compared 80 of its member schools, found that enrol
Iment had risen to 33,802 in 1997, from 29,282 in 1991.
ddStudies have demonstrated that in co-educational settings boys get more atten
tion than girls and so perform better academically,
but critics contend that se
gregation inhibits social development and is not particularly healthy for socie
ty, either.
ddDavid Sadker, a professor of education at American University, has analyzed p
atterns of instructional favoritism in his book
"Failing With Fairness," but
he does not necessarily support the creation of more single-sex academies.
dd"We should be fixing coed schools," he said, "because the girls that get I
eft behind are the ones who will lose out." ANDREW
JACOBS
n
Publication#W\
PP# 26. The New York "Publication" #:\
PP# 08/02/98Sectio
n: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 24, Column 3
Headline#\
PP# Forging a Worldview: From Crow's Nest to Ivory TowerHeadline #:
\
PP#
By Linda Lee
Four years ago, Danny Siegle graduated from the North Carolina School of Scien
ce and Mathematics, a public boarding school in
Durham known for its tough admi
ssions standards, rigorous course work and personal attention to students.
"Everybody goes straight to college from the School of Science and Math," h
e said. "It's assumed you go."
ddMr. Siegle, one of five children, wanted to attend a small private college, b
ut he couldn't afford it. Instead, he found himself
headed for the University o
North Carolina at Chapel Hill (enrollment: 23,000). He began to get cold feet
dd"I thought I'd fall through the cracks there," he said. "I was afraid I wo
uld get lost. Meanwhile, I didn't think I knew anything. I
knew science and mat
h, but I didn't know what made countries different."
ddSo he decided to defer enrollment for a year and see the world.
ddThere were long talks in the living room with his family. Friends balked. "P
eople said, 'Oh, you'll never go to college,' he said.
ddHis mother, Kathleen, accepted his unconventional idea. "I think there's thi
s desire to be in a path of your own," she said, "and
some people know that S
ooner, and take these brave steps."
ddAfter graduation, Mr. Siegle first spent five weeks delivering pizza to buy a
plane ticket to Seattle, where he got a job as a cook
on a fishing boat. "The
y didn't ask me if I knew how to cook," he said. "They asked if I liked to co
ok. I knew how to boil water."
ddThe job lasted four months, 100 hours a week. "So I learned a lot about the
real world there," he said. He saved $10,000, got off
the boat in Japan and wa
ndered through China and Tibet, Pakistan, Jordan, Israel, Greece, Albania ("on
e of my faves"), Serbia and
Hungary. He then traveled through Western Europe a
nd flew home from London in August 1995. "I entered school just like I told
ev
eryone I would," he said, adding that the trip taught him how to deal with bur
eaucracies, a skill he believed he needed on a large
campus, and something more
dd"I traveled because I wanted to learn, and universities didn't offer what I
wanted to experience," he said. "The same desire to learn
that drove me out o
f the U.S. drove me back to school."
ddToday, at 22, Mr. Siegle has completed three years as a biology major at Chap
el Hill. He has spent seven months studying in
Denmark and four more teaching E
nglish in Turkey. When he graduates next spring, he wants to go back to work on
a fishing boat,
this time as an observer for the National Marine Fisheries Ser
vice.dd"We got paid about the same," he said of the observer on his last expe
dition. "But I was working 14 hours a day and he was sitting
in a chair." L
INDA LEE
ART Photo: (Jennifer Warburg for The New York Times)n
Publication#W\
PP# 27. The New York Times "Publication" #:\
PP# 08/02/98Sectio
n: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 25, Column 3
Headline#\
PP# 'So, Like, What Do I Do Now?' Some of the AlternativesHeadline
#:\
PP#
By Linda Lee
Admissions officers agree that no one should go to college until he or she ca
n do so with enthusiasm and optimism.
ddBut parents often divide along ideological lines (carrot vs. stick) about wh
at a child should do instead: mothers tend toward an
expansion of horizons like
internships and seminars, while fathers often want their child to learn some h
arsh lessons about work and
responsibility.
ddPerhaps the best advice comes from Cornelius Bull, founder of the Center for
Interim Programs, a counseling program in
Cambridge, Mass. "If you don't know
where you're going," he says, "any road will take you there."
ddHere are six options:
ddMilitary Service
ddAn old remedy for young men at loose ends, the military now finds that 20 per
cent of recruits are women.
ddAdvantages: The G.I. Bill offers up to $15,300 (paid out at $400 a month) for
college after completion of service and between
75 percent and 95 percent tuit
ion assistance up to a certain amount while still serving. The experience can p
ut some young people
on track. "I just had a young man come in who had a 1.9 a
verage in high school," said John Chopka, dean of admissions at Malone
College
in Canton, Ohio. "He'd spent the last three years in the Marines. We did admi
t him, conditionally. I really think this young
man is going to make it."
ddDownside: Discipline may come as a shock; pay is low ($856.80 a month for bas
ic training), and a two- to six-year commitment
is required.
dPostgraduate Year
ddBoarding schools like Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., offer programs
that give students who have just graduated from
high school a chance to take c
lasses they missed or retake ones they did poorly in; to play more sports, or m
aybe to mature a little
more.
ddAdvantages: Students can bring up their grade point average and take advanced
courses that could get them into a better college.
"A postgraduate year is ve
ry much like what their freshman year will be like, but very structured," said
Karyl Clemens, dean of
admissions at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. "It he
lps them gain confidence and helps them sharpen skills. And it may motivate
the
m."
ddDownside: Cost can reach $25,000, about the same as a year of private college
ddInternships
ddA number of companies help match students with suitable programs and can prov
ide a leg up in the application process. For
$1,500, Mr. Bull (below) and his C
enter for Interim Programs offers two years of counseling and a list of adventu
re internships, like
farming in New Zealand or helping at an orphanage in India
Students usually receive room and board but pay transportation costs.
Time Ou
t Associates in Milton, Mass., charges $150 an hour for counseling on internshi
ps and experimental education programs.
ddAdvantages: Going to remote locations teaches self-reliance and provides imme
rsion in other cultures. "Those students who travel
and see the world learn a
lot about themselves," said Diane Anci, associate director of admissions at Mo
unt Holyoke College in
Massachusetts. "They come back with an unbelievable abi
lity to make connections."
ddDownside: Some children are not ready for a solo adventure.
ddResidential Internship Programs
ddDynamy, in Worcester, Mass., provides a structured living environment, counse
ling and three unpaid internships. The yearlong
program, for applicants ages 17
to 22, begins with three weeks of canoeing and rock climbing through Outward B
ound.
ddAdvantages: Provides guidance, supervision and the chance to work in a variet
y of challenging fields that are traditionally hard
to break into, like adverti
sing or television. "Some kids can pack a suitcase and take off, said David
Rynick, executive director of
Dynamy. "Others need the support."
ddDownside: An expensive solution: the fee is $10,250 and housing $3,600.
ddGood Works
ddNonprofit groups religious, cultural, humanitarian can usually make use o
fa willing worker. Government programs like
Americorps and private national se
rvice organizations like Americare, based in New Canaan, Conn., also welcome he
lp.
ddAdvantages: Looks good on a college application, is beneficial to society, ex
pands horizons. Joshua Wray, 19, of Durham, N.C.,
said he was "just getting by
" in high school. At the end of September, he is to help manage computers in a
Senegalese village as part
of a nonprofit program connected to the Ecopartners
Project at Cornell University. He is to get room and board but must pay his ow
n
plane fare. "My friends said, 'Go to college first, and then do it,' he r
ecalled. "But if I went to college, I'd never be able to do this
again."
ddDownside: Low or no wages, and some youths need more supervision.
ddA JobddMany jobs will pay handsomely for something a teen-ager already knows,
from fooling around on a computer or car to mowing
the lawn. And a little bit
of training' say, in bartending or truck driving" will greatly increase incom
e.
ddAdvantages: Teen-agers have a chance to grow up and support themselves.
ddDownside: A temporary gig could become a lifelong career. But, as Larry Griff
ith, the director of admissions at the University
of Delaware, says, "There's
a snobbery in academia, but there are perfectly legitimate hair salon schools.
Some people have a different
path." LINDA LEE
ART Photos: (Monkmeyer; Kirsten Elstner; Evan Richman; Laura Pedrick)n
Publication#W\
PP# 28. The New York "Publication" #:\
PP# 08/02/98Sectio
n: Education Life Supplement; Section 4A; Page 42, Column 5
Headline#\ PP# After High School, A Call to armsHeadline #:\ PP#
By Kristina Shevory
WHEN I TOLD MY father I was looking for something interesting to do the summe
r after high school graduation, I was not quite
prepared for his suggestion: th
e Army.
ddI thought he was joking. What young woman with an upper-middle-class backgro
und, graduating from one of the best high
schools in Texas, would even consider
the military? I had a bright future awaiting me at the University of Chicago t
hat fall.
Obviously my father doubted my intellect.
ddBut being an astute man, he knew exactly why the Army might draw me: I was ye
arning for an eventful break after four years
of intense study, and I loved lan
guage. The military could send me to the Defense Language Institute in Californ
ia. I could learn a
foreign language. I could learn to surf.
ddThe local recruiter assured me of the superb wave conditions around the insti
tute. And in the summer of 1993, fresh from
graduation, I left for basic traini
ng in Missouri.
ddThe military intelligence unit in Austin I was assigned to was up to quota in
every language but Russian. So it was Russian I
learned. Now I also know how t
o fire a machine gun, throw grenades, move under enemy fire, jam enemy communca
tions. I can
march to John Philip Sousa.
ddMore important, during two years of active duty, the Army instilled in me a h
igh sense of self worth and discipline, and a desire
for an education. In fact,
I often find little in common with my fellow students, who are largely ambival
ent about their own direction
in life. I have a clear vision of my future as a
Russian specialist. In August, I leave for St. Petersburg, where I will study R
ussian for
another year.
ddl remember, at boot camp, how unsure I was about some of the more difficult t
asks I was challenged to undertake for instance,
rappelling down a 30-foot wa
II in less than a minute. I have always been terrified of heights, and the thou
ght of throwing myself off
that wall positively filled me with terror. Somehow,
I managed to muster up the courage, and I beat everyone else's time.
ddMy father was not crazy at all. And I can surf. KRISTINA SHEVORYn
Publication#W\ PP# 29. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\ PP# It's About Teaching And Learning "Not Testing Headline #:\ PP
#
By Gerald N. Tirozzi
ddIn decades past, television and radio stations ran this public service announ
cement: "It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your
children are?" As we approach
the new millennium, we should revisit this PSA, asking parents and educators a
slightly different
question: "It's 9 a.m. Do you know how your children are doi
ng in school?"
ddAs important as it is to know where our children are after school, we must al
so know how they are doing in school.
ddThe declaration "all children can learn" is emblazoned on the walls of corrid
ors and classrooms in most of our schools. Yet while
a critical and optimistic
statement, the phrase is incomplete. It begs the central question: What is it t
hat we expect all children to
learn? For answers to that, states and school dis
tricts have to clearly articulate challenging content and performance standards
for
all students, especially in reading and mathematics. Educators must decide
once and for all what students should know at specific
grade levels and clearl
y state how well they should know it. And to ensure that such challenging expec
tations are being met, states
will have to implement rigorous assessment system
S aligned with their standards.
ddYes, we know that all children can learn. We know, too, that not all children
are learning to the same high standards. That is why
the voluntary national te
sts recommended by President Clinton and U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W
. Riley will be critical
to helping determine whether or not children are lear
ning reading and math as well as their peers across the nation and around the
g
lobe.
ddContrary to popular belief, a student's report card or standardized-test scor
es may not accurately represent how he or she is doing
in school. A recent stud
y of students in low- vs. high-poverty schools reinforces this point. It shows
that students in low-poverty
schools who receive C's in math score higher on ma
th assessments than students in high-poverty schools who receive A's in math
("
Prospects: Student Outcomes," U.S. Department of Education , 1997). In additio
n, significant disparity exists in many states' assessments of student performan
ce in reading and math when compared with results from the National Assessment
of Educational
Progress of a random sample of the same students. For instance,
Louisiana reports that 80 percent of its students meet state standards
in 8th g
rade mathematics. Yet, NAEP reports that only 7 percent of Louisiana 8th grader
S meet the basic mathematics level.
Wisconsin reports that 85 percent of its 4t
h graders meet the state standards in reading. According to NAEP reports, howev
er, only
35 percent of 4th graders in Wisconsin meet the basic reading standard
S.
ddResearch tells us that if a student is unable to read independently and with
comprehension by 4th grade, he likely will fall further
behind as he progresses
through middle and senior high school. As a result, this student's learning po
tential in all other courses is
seriously impaired. A child who does not master
the foundations of algebra by grade 8 is less likely to take challenging cours
ework
such as geometry, trigonometry, and calculus in high school; thus, this c
hild will be less likely to be prepared for more advanced math
and science cour
ses, college-level work, and a demanding technological society.
ddRigorous voluntary national assessments in reading at the 4th grade level and
math at the 8th grade level will provide a national
and international baromete
r against which teachers, administrators, parents, and students can assess lear
ning at critical junctions on
the pathway to academic success.
ddVoluntary national tests in reading and math are being debated in Congress, p
romoting a national discourse on the issue. The
reality is that much of the deb
ate and dialogue is missing the point. The issue is not testing, states' rights
, federal intrusion, or
disadvantaged communities. The real issue is teaching a
nd learning.
ddThe voluntary national tests will support learning in the classroom. They wil
1 not take valuable time away from instruction, as
critics purport. Each test W
ill take one and a half hours to administer, representing approximately one-ten
th of 1 percent of the total
school year. Imagine a doctor deciding not to test
a child for a life-threatening disease "one for which there is a cure if diagn
osed
early on "because the test would take one and a half hours to administer.
If one and a half hours of instructional time is really the
issue, then school
officials must re-examine how each and every 90-minute period of the school yea
r is being utilized.
dd
ddWe also have clear and critical new evidence that the voluntary national test
S will not merely repeat tests that states are currently
administering. Congres
S asked the National Academy of Sciences, in consultation with the National Gov
ernors' Association, the
National Conference of State Legislatures, and the Nat
ional Assessment Governing Board to study whether tests that already have
been
developed by commercial publishers and states may be used to measure individual
student performance against NAEP standards,
and whether existing tests can be
compared against each other. The results are in. The national academy found tha
t it is not possible
to compare and link commercial and state achievement tests
, nor is it feasible to report individual scores from those tests based on
the
NAEP scale. The administration and Congress agreed last fall to have these resu
Its inform congressional action on national
testing. These findings clearly dem
onstrate that the voluntary national tests are needed to show how well students
are performing
compared with rigorous national standards.
ddCritics of the voluntary national tests also claim that public education is t
he responsibility of the states, not the federal government,
and that it is sta
tes' rightful role to develop standards and assessments to support student lear
ning. I wholeheartedly agree. The
seminal question that states must address is
how they define "challenging" and "rigorous." These two words should not have a
variety
of definitions. Would it not make sense to have a national and interna
tional benchmark against which 50 states "individually and
collectively "can as
sess the extent to which students meet challenging learning outcomes? After all
, reading is reading and math
is math, regardless of where it is being taught.
The voluntary national tests are tools that districts and states should be give
n the
opportunity to use to measure whether their students are meeting challeng
ing standards.
ddUnless there is a rigorous benchmark against which states can accurately gaug
e what their students know and how well they know
it, states will never really
understand how high they have "raised the bar" for student achievement. This ch
allenge can be met by
utilizing NAEP standards, which the president is recommen
ding as the national barometer.
ddAEP has been used for 28 years to assess a random, stratified population of A
merica's students on achievement in reading and
math. It is recognized and acce
pted by educators, researchers, and evaluation experts as a rigorous, valid, an
d reliable assessment
of student progress. The voluntary national tests will be
developed in accordance with the content and performance standards
embedded in
the NAEP 4th grade reading and 8th grade math assessments. Therefore, states,
districts, schools, teachers, parents, and
students will be able to assess stud
ent progress against other 4th graders nationally in reading, and 8th graders n
ationally and
internationally in mathematics. Also, states can objectively and
realistically determine how high their "achievement bars" measure
up to world-c
lass standards.
ddThe voluntary national tests are not an attempt at federal intrusion into the
schools, as critics charge. First and foremost, voluntary
means voluntary. Sta
tes and local districts will determine whether or not they participate. And the
federal government will not be
involved in the development and administration
of the tests. These tasks will be determined by the National Assessment Governi
ng
Board, a group of 26 independent individuals "not federal employees "that al
so oversees NAEP. Furthermore, the federal
government will not collect informat
ion on individual students.
ddWithin 45 days of test administration, educators and parents will receive det
ailed information about students' performance on the
tests, including an item-b
y-item analysis that will further enhance the teaching-learning process.
ddA new form of the test will be developed by the test contractor each year. NA
EP will place the "old test" on the Internet within
45 days of administration.
So students, parents, teachers, principals, and superintendents can review the
test's individual questions
and answers. The availability of an item analysis o
f this type can be a useful tool for states, districts, schools, and classrooms
to
collectively and individually assess instructional strengths and address le
arning weaknesses. In turn, this becomes an even more
powerful tool for teacher
S, students, and parents in determining student progress.
ddMany states and districts are in the process of aligning their assessments to
their standards. The national tests will serve to
supplement such efforts and
validate results of student achievement. In effect, states and districts can us
e the voluntary testing
initiative to take an additional and more comprehensive
snapshot of student progress through both a national and international lens. d
dCritics of the voluntary national tests say it is unfair to expect students fr
om lower socioeconomic school districts to do well on
a rigorous test until the
y have all of the necessary material and personnel resources. While I respect a
nd understand this, as a former
educator with more than 37 years of experience
in education at all levels, I believe we do a greater disservice to students in
these
communities by holding them accountable to a lower set of standards whil
e they wait for the resources to arrive. With this
waiting-period mentality, ma
ny districts and schools try to explain away poor students' performance. Securi
ng the best resources for
classrooms is important, but even more important are
high expectations and a commitment to excellence for all. The ultimate irony
in
this continuing discourse is that, even if suddenly the resources became avail
able, the critical issue would remain: resources to
learn what?
dd
ddThe new millennium will require a highly educated citizenry and workforce. As
a nation, we cannot afford to leave even one
student behind. The urgency of th
is national imperative is captured in a closing scene of the movie "Apollo 13,"
when the flight
commander cogently warns the crew of a damaged space capsule,
"You have one hour to build a filter, and failure is not an option."
ddFailure is not an option for America's schools. But, as a nation, we have a d
ilemma. Simultaneously and to varying degrees, all
50 states and a majority of
our 15,000 school districts are engaged in defining academic success and failur
e. In effect, the assessment
of student progress is in the eyes of a multitude
of beholders; one state or district's idea of success may be another state or d
istrict's
lament over failure.
ddUntil there is a national resolve to articulate a vision of what students mus
t know and be able to do in the core academic subjects
of reading and math, par
ents, teachers, students, school boards, and communities will only have access
to a state and local
interpretation of student progress. Often, this limited vi
ew of reality hinders the potential to improve the teaching-learning process.
ddWithout question, there are examples throughout the nation's schools of high-
quality assessment and challenging academic
standards. But if we are committed
to academic success for all students, we cannot be content with the celebration
of victory gardens
when what is truly needed is a commitment to amber waves of
grain. Voluntary national tests represent tools that can help us reap
the harv
est of equity and excellence in our schools.
ddGerald N. Tirozzi is the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary edu
cation for the U.S. Department of Education in
Washington.n
Publication#W\
PP# 30. Education "eek"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# What's Wrong With Bilingual Education? Repair It,
Don't Replac
e It Headline #:\ PP#
By Jerry Jesness
ddIf bilingual education has been a failure in the United States, it is not bec
ause of its bilingual nature. A number of foreign countries
have done well with
bilingual or multilingual education. The Friesians of Holland receive their el
ementary education in both Friesian
and Flemish. That simply means that by the
end of high school they will be expected to have mastered four languages instea
d of three
(Flemish, English, and German) like other Netherlanders. Citizens of
Luxembourg are educated in their native language, plus French
and German. Leba
nese schools prepare many students to speak, read, write, and do business in bo
th Arabic and French. Even the
supposedly homogeneous Japanese have a form of b
ilingual education in which dialect-speaking Japanese children receive their
ea
rliest years of education from teachers who understand their dialect.
ddThe political right has blamed the bilingual education establishment for poor
academic performance by Hispanic students. The
political left has blamed preju
dice and poverty. While there may be some truth in both allegations, there are
other important factors
that have not been adequately addressed. Part of the pr
oblem both with bilingual education and English-as-a-second-language
instructio
n in the United States lies in our unwillingness to treat English for nonspeake
rs as an academic subject. Although truly
limited-English-proficient, or LEP, S
tudents are children in need of instruction in the English language, schools of
ten treat them as
members of a social caste, a group of helpless individuals in
need of a warm, fuzzy environment created by caring but undemanding
teachers.
The polyglot Dutch see Friesian children as students who need early instruction
in two languages. In addition, their polyglot
school administrators and policy
makers understand the process of second-language learning. Monolingual American
educators,
however, are likely to see immigrant children merely as a disadvant
aged group that must be held to a lesser standard.
ddPlacement in bilingual or ESL classes is not always strictly according to lan
guage ability. In some schools on the U.S.-Mexican
border, bilingualism is the
norm. Bilingual students are not, however, necessarily limited-English-proficie
nt. Many are English
dominant, and others are fully proficient in both language
S. In some such schools, bright, well-behaved bilingual students get placed
in
regular education, while their slower or more troublesome peers find their ways
into bilingual classes. Farther from the border,
even monolingual English-spea
king students with Hispanic surnames may find themselves with the LEP label. I
have taught a number
of students who were suddenly found to be
limited-English-proficient after failing a semester or creating a major disrup
tion in a regular education class.
ddSchools have benefited by artificially inflating their numbers of limited-Eng
lish-proficient students. Low test scores can be
explained away by pointing to
a high number of LEP students, so applying the LEP label to low-performing stud
ents, even those
who are English dominant, can make a school appear statistical
ly better than it really is. In some places, LEP students can even be
exempted
from standardized testing. There are supposedly safeguards to prevent students
from being mislabeled aslimited-English-proficient but, unfortunately, these S
afeguards are weakly enforced and many students are not appropriately placed.
B
ecause of this abuse of the system, bilingual classes sometimes become holding
pens for poorly performing students.
dd
ddAmerican schools aren't particularly good places to learn languages. Few Amer
ican students of foreign languages (other than
English) actually master them, a
t least not in school. Immigrant children tend to pick up English eventually, b
ut not at a speed that
would impress European educators. ESL and immersion prog
rams have not necessarily been more successful than bilingual
education. There
have been pockets of success for each method, but none stands head and shoulder
S above the others. It is unfortunate
that so many educators and politicians gl
orify one approach while demonizing the others. In reality, all three are valid
and can work
if, and only if, they are well implemented.
ddImmersion, the solution being touted by conservative educators, will not solv
e all of the problems of LEP students. The American
public schools of years pas
t, when non-English-speaking children sank or swam, yielded mixed results. Alth
ough some immersed
students did quite well, others, unable to speak English and
forbidden to speak anything else, went mute daily from 8 a.m. to 3:30
p.m. Tea
chers would "modify" for these students by allowing them to mindlessly copy phr
ases from textbook to worksheet or to
review for tests with "study sheets" that
were in reality copies of upcoming tests with the answers filled in. They even
tually absorbed
enough English to communicate, but missed out on academics. Tha
nks to grade adjustment and social promotion, such students
managed to get thro
ugh school conversant in English but barely literate in any language. It was th
e failings of immersion education
that gave rise to bilingual education.
dd Immersion works well for some students, and needs to be at least a larg
e part of the program for all. Older students with a
grasp of basic Engli
sh and the willingness to pore over their homework with dictionaries and
grammar books benefit from such
an approach, especially if they have access
to someone who can explain and clarify difficult English concepts. The gr
eater the
ratio of native speakers to nonspeakers, the more appropriate i
mmersion becomes. One teacher cannot truly immerse 30 students.
When a tiny han
dful of nonspeakers is spread throughout a sea of English speakers, every activ
ity becomes an English lesson.
However, in communities in which most people spe
ak the child's native language, opportunities to practice English in true one-o
n-one
conversations are few.
ddYounger students respond to immersion better than older ones, especially if a
large number of native speakers surround the LEP
child, but immersion of very
young students can create a problem with reading. Children cannot read beyond t
heir vocabularies, so
those who are taught to read a language that they do not
speak will not progress well.
ddIf there is true immersion, the trade-off, more oral English but less reading
, may be reasonable as long as the schools understand
the situation and allow f
or more intensive reading instruction when the student is ready. Unfortunately,
this is often not the case, and
students whose reading has been delayed becaus
e of language problems may end up being labeled slow learners or learning-disab
led.
A major advantage of bilingual education is that it permits students to le
arn to read at a developmentally appropriate age. These early
literacy skills W
ill transfer over to English.
ddWorse than sink-or-swim, however, is stay-out-of-the-water-until-you-know-you
-can-swim. Bilingual education at its worst allows
students only very limited c
ontact with spoken English. I once had a beginning ESL class made up of recent
immigrants mixed with
students from a bilingual program like the one described
above. The bilingual students had been in American schools from two to
four yea
rs, but none had more than a rudimentary command of English. By Christmas, some
of the recent immigrants were
outperforming the ex-bilingual education student
S in both oral English and academics. Obviously, these students had been cheate
d
out of both contact with and instruction in English. A good bilingual teacher
realizes that a student needs thousands of hours of
contact with a second lang
uage in order to become fluent. Bilingual programs that do not recognize this d
eserve to be eliminated.
dd
ddlt is never a good idea for educators to stand on dogma. Bilingual education
and immersion need not be mutually exclusive. If
an immersion approach is to be
used, schools could still provide students with access to out-of-class tutors
who could give
explanations in the students' native language, or we could imita
te the Japanese and allow beginning students to speak to their teachers
in thei
r native languages while requiring the teachers to respond in English. One dail
y period of native-language reading instruction
could be offered to 1st and 2nd
graders even if the rest of the day is spent in total English immersion.
ddBilingual programs would do well to provide long periods of total English imm
ersion as well as opportunities to interact with
native speakers. Both bilingua
1 and immersion programs should be held to accountability standards. Bilingual
education needs to
be repaired, but not necessarily replaced. Let us not replac
e the status quo with less effective programs.n
Publication#W\
PP# 31. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# What's Wrong With Bilingual Education? Is It
'Lingual,' or Is
It 'Education"? Headline #:\ PP#
By Raul Yzaguirre
ddIf someone had only read news coverage of the Ron Unz initiative that passed
resoundingly on June 2 of this year (the so-called
"English for the Children" C
alifornia ballot proposition which all but mandates the end of bilingual educat
ion), one would think that
bilingual education was an educationally unsound con
cept doomed to failure. Yet just in the last few months, three well-regarded
re
ports were released that give a resounding educationally based endorsement of b
ilingual education. ddThe first was "Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young C
hildren" by the National Research Council, a respected organization
with unassa
ilable research standards that is not given to unfounded pronouncements. In the
section on literacy, the NRC's carefully
worded finding on bilingual education
states:
d"Schools have the responsibility to accommodate the linguistic needs of stude
nts with limited proficiency in English. These
children should be taught ho
W to read in their native language while acquiring proficiency in spoken Englis
h, and then subsequently
taught to extend their skills to reading in English."
ddAnother recently released NRC study, "Educating Language-Minority Children,"
conducted in conjunction with the National
Institute of Medicine, found:
dd"Bilingualism, far from impeding the child's overall cognitive or linguistic
development, leads to positive growth in these areas.
Programs whose goals are
to promote bilingualism should do so without fear of negative consequences. Eng
lish-language learners
who develop their native-language proficiency do not com
promise their acquisition of English."
ddEven more dramatic was the report from Jay P. Greene of the University of Tex
as at Austin, who did a meta-analysis of all the
research done on bilingual edu
cation. Mr. Greene is not an educator and therefore has neither a predetermined
agenda nor any claims
to expertise on the subject. He is, however, an expert i
n the field of ensuring statistical and methodological validity in research. Us
ing
rigorous standards, Mr. Greene found that the research evidence was overwhe
Imingly in favor of bilingual education as the best way
to educate limited-Engl
ish-proficient, or LEP, children.
ddThese three reports, taken together, should end any question about the effect
iveness and worth of bilingual education, both as an
educational strategy and a
S the best way to make sure that proficiency in English is achieved. But anybod
y who believes that this
will end the debate is either uninformed, naive, or bo
th.
ddAlthough I have been an observer of and a participant in this debate for year
S, it took me a long time to understand why there is
so much passion and so lit
tle rational discussion on this issue. What I realized is that while I and othe
r proponents of bilingual
education were talking about education, others were r
eally talking about language policy.
ddAnd while education philosophy is hardly emotion-free, language policy and pr
actice affects us in a very personal way. It gets
at the core of the kind of so
ciety we want or are likely to have. And since the debate on bilingual educatio
n should now be over, let
us then have a discussion on language.
dd
ddThe debate over language has at least three aspects to it: language as a prob
lem, language as a right, and language as a resource
and/or a reality. For many
years, educators saw language "or rather any language other than English as th
e primary or only language
spoken by children attending school "as a problem. I
use the term "problem" rather than challenge deliberately. It was not simply
a
question of the practicality of adding English to whatever language the child
brought to the class to assure a common means of
communication. Rather, it was
a question of instilling in immigrant children, so far as it can be done, the o
bjective of "absolute
forgetfulness of all obligations, or connections with oth
er countries because of descent or birth," as the superintendent of schools
in
New York City noted in 1918.
ddTherefore, any language other than English was neither positive nor benign. I
t was a "problem" to be washed away, and led to
a process which obliterated tha
t other language because it represented a threat to the nation, or at least, to
those who did not
understand that language. And if the child failed to keep up
with his or her peers, so be it; there were always factory and field jobs
that
did not require literacy but only the ability to understand the verbal command
S of their bosses. At a time when universal literacy
was only a dream even for
native-born Americans and when there were a plentiful number of union factory j
obs that allowed a
hard-working person with drive and determination the opportu
nity to work, buy a home, and send his and her kids to college, this
might have
made some sense. It was the process by which millions of what we now call "whi
te ethnics" assimilated into this society,
and the process became a source of p
ride to them.
ddFor others, particularly Native Americans and Hispanics whose roots in this c
ountry predated the British, the trade-off was not
perceived to be so equitable
To those who had not gone through the psychological experience of crossing an
ocean and leaving
family and other ties behind them for greater opportunities,
the idea of having to give up something so personal and so defining as
languag
e and culture for a society that did not accept them even when they did speak E
nglish, the trade-off was fraudulent and
demeaning. Thus, intellectuals, activi
sts, and other leaders from these groups and others reacted by raising the issu
e of language
rights.
ddThere are many ethnic Americans who lament that their ancestors were put thro
ugh this pressure cooker that passed for a melting
pot and that deprived them o
f their heritage. More vocal and more prominent, however, are Americans, partic
ularly some white ethnic
Americans, who are incensed with the idea of language
as a "right," particularly if the notion is that this right should be paid for
by
their taxes. How many times have we heard, "My grandfather came to America n
ot knowing a word of English and nobody helped
him," or, "We were taught to lea
rn English and nothing but English was spoken in front of us." Even some Hispan
ics, who had been
forced to give up some of their birth language and heritage,
became the staunchest supporters of this notion. Indeed, "contrarians"
like the
commentators Richard Rodriguez and Linda Chavez have been given far more publi
city and coverage than mainstream Latino
leaders for embracing this "philosophy
Mr. Rodriguez once went so far as to argue that it is great for non-Latinos
to learn and speak
Spanish but not Hispanics.
ddlt is precisely folks who equate bilingual education with an effort to preser
ve, or worse, demand the right to, their own language
that are most rabidly aga
inst bilingual education. Language as a right, or more precisely a minority lan
guage as a right, conjures up
images of a Quebec-style divisiveness and the pos
sible Balkanization of the country.
ddThat, of course, is precisely the issue "the tendency to draw analogies that
are familiar to us, which in the case of language are
overwhelmingly about prob
lems, controversies, and feuds. Even if the analogy does not apply, too many of
us believe that it does.
After talking to dozens of Canadians familiar with th
e Quebec separatist movement, I have yet to find one who believes that
Hispanic
S in the United States are remotely like French-speaking Quebecers. For one thi
ng, the Francophone separatists and thehard-line Anglo opponents of French-lang
uage rights are both opposed to bilingual education. It is the "One Canada" lea
dership that
promotes bilingualism in the name of unity. But how often do you h
ear about countries where people speak different languages and
enjoy peace and
prosperity, as is the case in Switzerland and other countries? Peace and comity
do not make the evening news.
dd
ddWhich brings us to a third way of understanding language: language as a power
ful national resource. During World War II,
America profited enormously from U.
S. citizens who spoke other languages well. German-Americans, Italian-Americans
, and even
Japanese-Americans from our own internment camps served our country
honorably and gallantly and were an asset in helping
American forces understand
the Axis powers. Navajo Indians known as the "code talkers" were assigned to d
ifferent units to facilitate
communications without fear of the enemy breaking
the code. In fact, it was the only code not deciphered by the Axis powers.
ddThere exists an enormous contradiction in this country. On the one hand, the
National Governors' Association unanimously agreed
last year that the United St
ates should make foreign-language acquisition a priority in our schools, given
the fact that we are the
industrialized world's most linguistically ignorant na
tion. On the other hand, as a recent Washington Post headline summed it up:
"Ca
lifornia Rejection a Big Blow to Bilingualism." I believe this contradiction ex
ists because the debate over bilingualism has been
about language policy and no
t about education.
ddLet me be clear: I believe learning English is a must for every American. If
anyone doubts my word, I would ask them to visit
any of the 100 or so National
Council of La Raza affiliates that provide English-language training to tens of
thousands of Latinos
each year. But it is equally unconscionable to allow the
debate over bilingual education to lead our country into wasting such a
valuabl
e natural resource as a population that already speaks a multitude of languages
It is also wrong not to use the best method
available to teach LEP children E
nglish, which research shows is bilingual education.
dd
ddRaul Yzaguirre is the president of the Washington-based National Council of L
a Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights
organization. Education poli
cy analyst Raul Gonzalez assisted in the preparation of this essay.n
Publication#W\ PP# 32. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\ PP# More Parents Want Charters, Ed. Dept. Study
Concludes Headline
#:\ PP#
Parent demand for charter schools has grown, but the schools continue to face S
uch obstacles as a lack of start-up funds and
inadequate facilities, a report f
rom the U.S. Department of Education says.
ddNationwide, the department counted 693 charters running in 23 states and the
District of Columbia in the 1997-98 school year,
taking into account school clo
sures. The school tally jumps to about 780 when counting as separate schools Ar
izona's multibranch
charter schools. In the 1997-98 school year, 279 new charte
r schools opened their doors, according to the report.
ddFewer than one in 20 charter schools has closed voluntarily, merged with othe
rs, or been shut down, the report says.
dd While most charter schools are similar to their districts in the racial
and economic backgrounds of their students, it says,
about one-third are
more likely to serve poor and minority students.
dd The report issued last month is the second installment in a four-year S
tudy of such public schools, which operate without
some state and local r
egulations in exchange for greater accountability for student results. ("ED
Study Paints Portrait of Charter
Schools," June 4, 1997.)
ddLater reports will address issues such as what impact charter schools have ha
d on student achievement and on public education
as a whole.
ddThe department late last month also released a guide for chartering entities
that outlines such tasks as devising solid evaluation
criteria for reviewing ch
arter applicants, conducting background checks of applicants, and managing an a
ppeals process.n
Publication#W\
PP# 33. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Predominantly Black Charters Focus of Debate in N.C.
Headline
#:\ PP#
By Lynn Schnaiberg
ddWhen North Carolina lawmakers opened the door to charter schools in 1996, cri
tics predicted a rush of "white flight" schools
would follow.
ddlt seems precisely the opposite has happened. Of the 33 charters that are up
and running, a dozen have student populations that
are more than 85 percent bla
ck.
ddMany state charter school supporters say that as long as the schools produce
positive academic results "and do not not
intentionally block students based on
their race "those figures should not be cause for alarm. ddBut North Carolina
law suggests otherwise, and a debate has ensued over whether "or how "the racia
I-balance provision of the
charter school law should be enforced. State policym
akers have spent months trying to resolve the issue in a legal and political
cl
imate that looks with growing suspicion at policies drawn on the basis of race
or ethnicity.
ddWhile many states' charter laws aim to encourage racial diversity, North Caro
lina's is relatively prescriptive, experts say.
Neighboring South Carolina, whi
ch has one of the nation's strictest racial-balance rules for its charter schoo
Is, has confronted similar
issues. ("Racial Makeup at Issue In S.C. Charter Deb
ate," April 30, 1997.)
ddNorth Carolina law says that within a year after a charter opens, its enrollm
ent "shall reasonably reflect" the racial and ethnic
composition of the general
population within the countywide district boundaries or the district's racial
and ethnic composition.
ddSupporters fear the state's predominantly black charter schools may be forced
to close. "It's a scary and confusing time for these
schools," said Roger A. G
erber, the president of the Association of North Carolina Charter Schools.
dd'Fear of Resegregation'
ddFor now, the state's charter schools are operating against a shifting landsca
pe.
ddln July, the state school board voted to allow a statewide charter school adv
isory committee to determine on a school-by-school
basis whether a charter scho
ol's racial imbalance is justified and what action, if any, the state should ta
ke.
ddThe Raleigh-based North Carolina Foundation for Individual Rights, a conserva
tive nonprofit legal group, plans to file a lawsuit
to block the state from enf
orcing the law's racial-balance provision.
ddAnd a bill is moving through the legislature that would soften the provision
to require only that schools make a "good faith effort"
toward achieving divers
ity.
ddBut both critics and supporters of the proposed change say it is unlikely to
survive the legislative process.
ddWhile the state wrestles with the issue, charter schools are not sure what, i
f any, steps to take as the next school year approaches,
said Jack Daly, the ex
ecutive director of the legal group challenging the state law.
ddHe points to one such school that last year held separate enrollment lotterie
S for blacks and whites in order to strike racial balance.
Such action amounts
to an illegal racial quota system, he contends.
ddState board President Phillip J. Kirk Jr. said he opposes shutting down the c
harter schools and points out that there are nearly
all-white or all-black trad
itional public schools in the state.
dd"I don't think charters were intended to resegregate the schools," he said.
ddJane P. Norwood, a state board member and a professor at Appalachian State Un
iversity's school of education in Boone, said she
is undecided on the issue.
dd"I have a definite fear of resegregation. I am old enough to remember 'separa
te but equal' in this state," she said. "But I believe
in freedom of choice to
a certain extent. It's a real dilemma."
ddSeeking 'Good Schools'
ddA recent U.S. Department of Education study found that most charter schools
are similar to their districts' racial and ethnic
breakdowns, but about a thir
d are more likely to serve minority students.
ddClose to 49 percent of North Carolina's charter school students are black. In
the state's public schools as a whole, 31 percent of
students are black.
ddRoughly half a dozen of the state's charter schools are predominantly white,
but many reflect their surrounding communities in
the rural western areas of th
e state, according to Grova L. Bridgers, who oversees charter schools for the S
tate education department.
ddExperts point to myriad reasons for the high percentage of African-Americans
in charter schools, too. Many of the predominantly
black charter schools are in
majority-black neighborhoods in large cities like Raleigh and Durham, and some
were launched by black
community leaders.
d"People aren't fleeing the public schools because of race," Mr. Gerber said.
"They're fleeing to what they think are good schools.
And they are unsatisfied
with what they've been getting in traditional public schools."
ddBalancing Goals
ddTom Williams, the director of Healthy Start Academy, said that when the schoo
I organizers wrote their charter, they never
expected they would draw anything
but a mixed student population. But the search for an affordable building led t
hem to a poor and
mostly black neighborhood in Durham.
ddAlthough the organizers tried to talk the 40 white students who had signed up
last year into staying, they all withdrew, he said.
ddThe vast majority of Healthy Start students come from the neighborhood. Of th
e 320 pupils in grades K-3, four are white. Mr.
Williams said he hopes that mor
e white families will give the school a chance once they see the students' impr
essive test gains.
ddBut the former New York state school administrator, who is white, said his to
p priority "and his parents' priority "is a
high-quality education. True integr
ation, he argued, comes from the upward economic mobility gained through educat
ion. "I hear
parents say: 'My kid is reading a year above grade level. And I do
n't care whether he's sitting next to a white student or not."n
Publication#W\
PP# 34. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# N.Y. To Require Accreditation For Ed. Schools Headline #:\ P
P#
By Jessica L. Sandham
ddColleges and schools of education in New York state are taking a hard look at
teacher-exam pass rates and accreditation
requirements following the state's r
ecent adoption of stricter teacher education standards.
ddThe New York board of regents last month passed a set of reforms geared towar
d improving the quality of the state's teaching
force. Among the changes, which
range from strengthening
professional-development standards to overhauling teacher-review processes, th
e regents now will require that all public and private
higher education institu
tions attain accreditation for their teacher education programs by Dec. 31, 200
4.
ddUnder the new standards, the state also retains the right to shut down, or "d
eregister," schools of education where fewer than 80
percent of graduates pass
one or more required certification exams beginning next year.
ddThe mandate comes even as the regents move to make existing certification exa
ms on teaching skills and liberal arts knowledge
more difficult, and as they re
quire all new teachers to pass a third exam that will gauge their expertise in
a specific content area or
specialty.
ddAdoption of the new standards should push universities that skimp on their te
acher education programs, sometimes to the benefit
of other disciplines, to wis
e up to the need to allot more resources to teacher training, said regent Saul
B. Cohen, who served on the
task force that initially proposed the teacher refo
rms.
dd"Right now, schools of education are cash cows for the universities," Mr. Coh
en said. "If universities want their schools of
education to be accredited, the
y're going to have to put more money into them."
ddTwo Options
ddThe regents' new rules allow schools two accreditation options: accreditation
through a nationally recognized professional body;
or accreditation by the reg
ents themselves, which would be based on the recommendations of a professional-
standards board that
the state board is in the process of forming.
ddTo date, only four of the state's 113 teacher education programs are accredit
ed through the Washington-based National Council
for Accreditation of Teacher E
ducation, which is currently the only established professional accreditation as
sociation for schools
of education. A second group, the Teacher Education Accre
ditation Council, also located in Washington, is planning to begin
reviewing te
acher training programs within two years.
ddSchools of education in New York have steered away from trying to obtain NCAT
E certification because of the direct and indirect
costs of the process, said E
laine Sands, the dean of the education school at Adelphi University, a private
institution in Garden City.
ddDespite the expense, which runs into the thousands, many of those heading edu
cation schools in New York understand that the
regents' move to demand accredit
ation was "a long time coming," Ms. Sands said. "Schools of education need to m
eet a higher
professional standard of excellence."
ddState Aid Sought
ddStill, some education officials expressed concern that the required accredita
tion and an 80 percent pass rate on teacher exams will
be economically unattain
able for the state's public institutions, unless they receive an infusion of ne
W state money.
ddThe situation appears particularly dire for the City University of New York.
Only two of CUNY's 10 branches that offer teacher
education attained an 80 perc
ent pass rate on each of the required teacher certification exams in 1996-97.
ddSchool districts are depending on the teacher education programs in the New Y
ork state and New York City systems to help
produce some of the hundreds of tho
usands of new teachers they will need to hire in the next several years, said G
regory Nash, the
president of NEA-New York, the state affiliate of the National
Education Association.
dd"If the state isn't committed to providing quality teacher education programs
in their institutions, how can private institutions be
expected to do it?" Mr.
Nash said.
ddLike other aspects of the regents' plan that hinge on state funding, any incr
eased aid for public institutions would require legislative
approval.
ddOther highlights of the plan include:
ddA gradual phasing out of all temporary, or emergency, teacher licensures by 2
003;
ddA requirement that all incoming teachers obtain a master's degree within the
first two years of entering the classroom;
ddA provision that would provide every new teacher with at least one year of st
ate-financed mentoring;
ddA requirement that all teachers certified after Sept. 1, 2000, complete 175 h
ours of professional development every five years to
renew their licenses;
ddThe creation of an incentive program designed to attract teachers to hard-to-
staff schools through scholarships and a $10,000
bonus to certified teachers wh
o agree to work for three years in high-need areas; and
ddThe establishment of a teacher-review process in which teachers who are judge
d to be unsatisfactory will be given the opportunity
to improve through a distr
ict-created teacher-improvement plan.n
Publication#W\ PP# 35. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Senate OKs HEA Bill That Would Streamline Teacher
Ed. Headlin
e #:\
PP#
By Julie Blair
ddWashington
ddMembers of the House and Senate are set to reconcile their competing plans to
ensure new teachers are well prepared for the
classroom.
ddIn voting 96-1 to renew the Higher Education Act for five years, the Senate 1
ast month accepted a proposal that would authorize
$300 million over five years
in competitive grants to improve teacher education and recruitment programs.
ddSpecifically, it would consolidate the federal government's myriad teacher ed
ucation initiatives into two grant programs. The bill
calls for allocating $150
million to states to reform their teacher preparation requirements. The other
$150 million would be used
for partnerships between universities and disadvanta
ged schools to upgrade the quality of teaching.
ddIn May, the House approved its own version of the HEA reauthorization, 414-4,
calling for $18.5 million a year for teacher
training. While similar to the Se
nate measure in intent, the House bill would consolidate current programs into
only one grant to
states. It also proposes that 70 percent of the federal funds
go to local partnerships and only 30 percent to states.
ddThe differences will be taken up by a House-Senate conference committee. When
the committee will go to work has yet to be
determined.
ddLegislators in both houses are "all on the same page with wanting to do the r
ight thing," said Amy Wilkins, a senior associate with
the Education Trust, a n
onprofit organization in Washington that advocates high standards and equity in
education. "The real question
is: Will people be able to overcome pride of a
uthorship in exchange for really good policy?"
ddFocus on Teachers
ddThe newly passed Senate bill aims to raise state standards for teachers, boos
t their assessment scores, and create opportunities for
professional developmen
t. It would require states that accept funding to increase the percentage of K-
12 classes taught by educators
in their areas of expertise and to hire teacher
candidates who integrate technology into the classroom.
dd"You can't realistically expect students' performance to improve unless you a
Iso focus on those doing the teaching," Sen. Jeff
Bingaman, D-N.M., a member of
the Labor and Human Relations Committee who lobbied for improved teacher accou
ntability, said
in a recent interview. "The more academic instruction we have..
.the better our teaching corps will be."
ddThe plan also would offer incentives to teach in needy districts by forgiving
up to $8,000 in student loans for those who did so.
dd"This is the strongest piece of the entire bill," said Penelope Earley, the S
enior director for the Washington-based American
Association of Colleges for Te
acher Education. "There have been a number of reports showing a teacher short
age. We want to make
sure there are enough teachers and that they are well prep
ared."
ddThe Senate bill does not mention funding for the National Board for Professio
nal Teaching Standards, which offers voluntary
certification for educators who
meet high standards. The House bill, however, would eliminate federal funding f
or the organization.
In fiscal 1998, the NBPTS received $18.5 million from the
federal government, said Sally Mernissi, vice president of the Southfield,
Mich
.-based board.
ddDespite the HEA proposals, however, funding could survive in a separate appro
priations bill, David Bryant, a senior associate
for government relations with
the National Education Association in Washington, said in an interview.
ddThe bill also sets parameters on the costs of higher education.
ddUnder both the House and Senate plans, the interest rate on federally subsidi
zed student loans would drop to 6.8 percent from the
current 7.6 percent for st
udents still in school, and to 7.4 percent from the current 8.2 percent after g
raduation.
ddSupporters note that the decrease would save students substantial amounts of
money. But opponents "including President Clinton
"say it would allow lenders t
o collect billions in federal subsidies because the government would pay the le
nders to continue in the
student-lending business, which banks contend is unpro
fitable at the lower interest rate. The Office of Management and Budget
estimat
ed the bill would provide $2.4 billion in subsidies during the five-year time f
rame to make up for the difference in interest
rates.
ddOther provisions in the bill include increasing the maximum annual Pell Grant
for needy college students. By 2003-2004, awards
will be worth $5,800.
ddSeparately, the Department of Education last month cut interest rates for S
tudents who consolidate their direct student loans with
federally guaranteed st
udent loans by Sept. 30. A student with a $1,000 loan who consolidates will sav
e about $50, said Jane
Glickman, a spokeswoman for the department.n
Publication#W\
PP# 36. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Future Shape of E-Rate Program In State of Flux on
Capitol Hil
I Headline #:\
PP#
By Mary Ann Zehr
ddWashington
ddThe fate of the E-rate remains uncertain on Capitol Hill, where Congress is W
eighing a proposal that could change the program
dramatically.
ddSen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La., have advance
d legislation that would use a third "or about
$1.7 billion per year "of the cu
rrent 3 percent telephone excise tax to pay for "telecommunications and related
services" in schools
and libraries.
ddTheir companion bills, introduced in both the House and the Senate on July 23
, propose getting rid of the E-rate and replacing
it with a five-year program o
f block grants to states. The program would be administered by the Department o
f Commerce's National
Telecommunications and Information Administration.
ddThe 30,000-plus applications submitted by schools and libraries for 1998 educ
ation-rate discounts for telecommunications services
would be transferred to th
e new program, according to Ben O'Connell, a spokesman for Sen. Burns.
ddOn the same day that the Burns-Tauzin proposal was introduced, the Senate pas
sed the appropriations bill for the departments
of Commerce, State, and Justice
with an amendment that would require all schools and libraries to choose a sys
tem to filter out any
objectionable Internet material such as pornography befor
e receiving any E-rate money. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Ernest F.
Holling
s, D-S.C., introduced the amendment.
ddUndue Scrutiny?
ddThe appropriations bill also includes language overriding an earlier amendmen
t that would have prohibited schools and libraries
from applying to the Commerc
e Department's Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Pro
gram. The new
amendment says schools and libraries would be eligible for TIIAP
money in fiscal 1999, but only for purposes other than those served
through the
E-rate. ("Panel Cuts Technology-Grant Program," July 8, 1998.)
ddComplaints that the E-rate is undergoing an unusual amount of examination for
a new government program arose during a July
16 hearing in the Senate Commerce
, Science, and Transportation Committee.
dd"I don't know of any other program that has been created in less than a year
and received such scrutiny and review," said Sen.
Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, a
co-sponsor of the E-rate provision contained in the Telecommunications Act of 1
996.
ddAlso during the hearing, the General Accounting Office presented its report o
n how the Schools and Libraries Corp., the agency
administering the E-rate prog
ram, was handling its "integrity operations." Sen. McCain, the chairman of the
committee, had asked
the congressional investigatory office to make sure that t
he SLC had adequate procedures to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.
ddAmong other things, GAO officials said they were concerned that an independen
t audit of the corporation had been scheduled
for completion after funds would
already be committed to applicants.
ddDuring the hearing, Ira Fishman, the executive director of the SLC, committed
to complying with all of the GAO's
recommendations on running the program.
ddAfter repeatedly being asked by Mr. McCain to say when the SLC could start pa
ying for E-rate applications, Mr. Fishman
estimated that money would start flow
ing "sometime early this fall."
ddIn response to congressional pressure, the Federal Communications Commission
has already dramatically scaled back the E-rate
program for 1998 applications,
promising to give out $1.9 billion over 18 months instead of $2.3 billion over
a year, as was first
anticipated.
ddCongressional challenges to the program were stepped up when AT&T Corp. and M
CI Communications Corp. announced in May
that they would put a surcharge on res
idential phone bills for the cost of universal service, which includes the cost
of the E-rate.
ddOn July 1, AT&T put a charge of 93 cents per month for universal service on r
esidential phone bills; the company estimates about
23 cents will go to the E-r
ate program. At the same time, MCI put a 5 percent charge and Sprint Corp. put
a 4.5 percent charge on
residential phone bills for universal service. Spokesme
n for AT&T, MCI, and Sprint deny charges from E-rate advocates that their
compa
nies also are lobbying Congress to kill or stall the E-rate.
ddE-rate supporters monitoring the E-rate program say they hope the SLC's commi
tment to comply with the GAO report will put
questions about the program to bed
dd "There's absolutely no reason these discounts can't start going out to childr
en [in schools], and anyone who is trying to say more
measures need to be put i
n place is just trying to delay the program," Michelle Richards, the director o
f federal programs for the
National School Boards Association, said during a re
cent pro-E-rate rally on the Capitol lawn.n
Publication#W\ PP# 37. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Contractor Gets More Time To Write National Test
Items Headlin
e #:\
PP#
By David J. Hoff
ddWashington
ddThe independent panel designing President Clinton's proposed voluntary nation
al tests is juggling its development schedule even
as Republicans in Congress a
re moving to stop its work.
ddThe National Assessment Governing Board announced last month that it will giv
e its contractors extra time to write questions for
pilot tests.
ddThe changes eat into the board's time to review more than 2,000 potential ite
ms for the proposed 4th grade reading and 8th grade
mathematics assessments. Bu
t board members won't delay the schedule that calls for pilot testing in March
and for the exams to be
ready by the spring of 2001.
ddIf GOP leaders have their way, the work will never get to that point. The fis
cal 1999 spending bill approved by the House
Appropriations Committee last mont
h included no money for ongoing work on the tests and prohibits the Department
of Education
or the governing board from spending money from other accounts o
n the project.
ddRepublican Roadblock
ddStopping the proposed tests is a top priority for congressional Republicans.
The House early this year passed a bill demanding
that the governing board "kno
wn as NAGB "stop test development by Sept. 30.
ddThe Senate included the same language as an amendment to a bill creating tax
incentives for K-12 education savings. When the
test language was dropped from
that bill in a conference committee, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.,
and Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., promised they would put a stop
to NAGB's work on the new tests in the fiscal 1999 appropriations bill.
ddPresident Clinton eventually vetoed the tax bill. He has announced his opposi
tion to the House appropriations bill based on its
numbers alone. Last year, he
threatened several times to veto a fiscal 1998 spending bill that would have h
alted his testing plan, but
the administration negotiated a compromise that all
owed test development to continue for fiscal 1998, which ends Sept. 30.
ddDespite the outside debate, NAGB is working as if it will have the money and
authority to proceed with its work on the tests.
ddThe bipartisan panel of politicians, educators, and community leaders "whose
primary task is overseeing the separate National
Assessment of Educational Prog
ress "altered its schedule last month after experts evaluating its work suggest
ed changes.
ddIn a July 15 letter to Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley , the Nationa
1 Research Council said NAGB's schedule did not
leave enough time for the Ameri
can Institutes for Research, the lead contractor for the project, to prepare th
e 2,600 questions needed
for the pilot tests.
ddThe nrc's experts in June reviewed 105 questions and determined that about ha
If needed significant revisions before they could
be approved for pilot-testing
- While that proportion isn't extraordinary for a test in the early stages of d
evelopment, the experts for
the private council created by congressional charte
r thought NAGB's time line was insufficient for the contractor.
ddDeliberation Curtailed
ddIn response, NAGB will free up time for the contractor by cutting back on the
time the board spends deliberating on the items.
ddMark D. Musick, the board's chairman, said NAGB will hire experts to review p
otential test questions and decide how well they
measure students' ability to p
erform on the proficiency levels of the existing national assessment, the sampl
ing of student performance
that would be the basis of the new tests.n
Publication#W\
PP# 38. Education Veek"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# GOP Report Underscores Two Views on Federal Role Headline #:\
PP#
By Joetta L. Sack
ddWashington
ddThe ingredients of the Republican recipe for federal education policy have re
surfaced in recent weeks, through the release of a
long-awaited report and new
initiatives designed to reduce federal bureaucracy.
ddUnveiling their "Education at a Crossroads" report in July, Rep. Peter Hoekst
ra and fellow Republicans offered a formula for
public schools with roots in th
e GOP education agenda: block grants and fewer federal rules, more parental inv
olvement, and
back-to-basics academics.
ddWith Congress scheduled to recess this month and adjourn for good in early Oc
tober, the Republicans have already begun working
on related legislation, and o
ne bill that follows their agenda "the proposed Dollars to the Classroom Act "m
ay be voted on shortly
after the August recess.
ddThe report and the Dollars to the Classroom legislation "which would merge fu
nding for 31 federal education programs into oneblock grant "are likely to be m
erely symbolic works given the relatively little time left in this year's sessi
on. But, assuming that
Republicans retain control in the 106th Congress, both c
ould lay the groundwork for next year's anticipated reauthorization of the
Elem
entary and Secondary Education Act and its related K-12 programs.
dd"What we have learned should concern every American," Mr. Hoekstra, the Michi
gan Republican who chairs the House
subcommittee on oversight and investigation
S for education and workforce issues, said in announcing the report's findings
at a July
16 news conference. "We found little evidence proving the effectivene
SS of federal programs."
ddSpeaker of the House Newt Gingrich of Georgia was among the GOP lawmakers at
the briefing.
ddTrading Charges
ddMembers of Mr. Hoekstra's subcommittee spent more than two years traveling ac
ross the country, mainly to members' home
districts, to visit schools and talk
with local officials about the effectiveness of federal initiatives. The "Cross
roads" report, which
Mr. Hoekstra called "the most comprehensive review of fede
ral education programs undertaken by Congress," was first scheduled
for release
late last year. ("Value of Two GOP Education Probes Debated March 18, 1998.
)
ddUpon the report's release, House Democrats quickly blasted its conclusions, a
nd claimed they were shut out of the planning process
for the study and the 22
hearings associated with it.
dd"It was more or less set out with an objective in mind," said Rep. Patsy Mink
, D-Hawaii, the ranking Democrat on the
subcommittee. "I don't think there was
any effort to balance the witnesses."
dd"That's baloney," Mr. Hoekstra responded in an interview. He charged that Dem
ocrats had refused to participate in the process
and were usually given 30 to 6
0 days' notice of scheduled hearings.
ddThe Dollars to the Classroom Act debate, meanwhile, is also likely to spark f
ierce opposition from Democrats, who contend that
it would unravel accountabili
ty in federal funding. If enacted, the measure would create a federal education
block grant with few rules
on how states and schools use the money. Many educa
tion groups "including the Council of Chief State School Officers "also
oppose
the measure.
dd"The whole idea of collecting money from taxpayers and sending it back withou
t any establishment of needs, goals, or criteria
of admission is simply not acc
eptable," Ms. Mink said.2
ddThe same debate surfaced in the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee la
te last month, as the panel approved a measure
that would expand an experimenta
I program that gives states some freedom from federal regulations for education
programs. The
bill, S 2213, would expand the "Ed Flex" program from the 12 sta
tes where it is allowed now to all 50 states.
ddMore immediately, "Education at a Crossroads" highlights the gulf between the
Republican take on federal policy and that of the
Clinton administration.
ddDebating the Facts
dd"The contents of this report are riddled with inaccuracies, and its
recommendations again fail to address the most critical needs of America's stu
dents, teachers, and schools," Secretary of Education
Richard W. Riley said.
ddThe report contains a transcript of Mr. Riley's testimony at a Washington hea
ring last year, in which he was unable to provide
the exact number of federal e
ducation programs.
ddThe GOP puts that total at 760, while the Education Department says federal
education programs number fewer than 200.
ddThe two sides also squabbled over the amount of federal school funding that r
eaches the classroom. Mr. Hoekstra maintained that
it's no more than 65 to 70 c
ents out of every dollar, while the Clinton administration says it is more than
95 percent.
ddThe Washington-based American Association of University Women also gave the r
eport a thumbs-down. The AAUW released
a poll of 600 Democratic, Republican, an
d independent women voters that showed they favored a strong federal role in ed
ucation.
The "Crossroads" report "flies in the face of what the majority of wom
en voters want," said the AAUW's executive director, Janice
Weinman.
ddMs. Weinman attended Mr. Hoekstra's news conference to announce the report, a
nd the Republicans there told her that voters
should first and foremost focus o
n the quality of federal programs rather than the quantity.n
Publication#W\
PP# 39. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# House Spending Bill Takes Conservative Line Headline #:\ PP#
By Joetta L. Sack
ddWashington
ddUnder the cloud of a threatened presidential veto and sharp discord among its
members, the House may vote this week on a
restrained education spending bill
with implications well beyond dollars and cents.
ddThe proposal, which passed the Appropriations Committee on a party-line vote
July 14, would hold total funding for Department
of Education programs to $32
.9 billion, up 2.5 percent from fiscal 1998's $32.1 billion allotment.
ddlt would let states use funding from the Goals 2000 school reform program and
the Eisenhower Professional Development grants
as block grants for education r
eform with few restrictions on spending. And, as promised by the Republican lea
dership, it includes
language that would bar federal funding for the developmen
t or implementation of new national tests, continuing a hard-fought battle
over
one of President Clinton's education priorities.
ddConservative AppealddIn many ways, the appropriations bill is a bow to conser
vative Republicans, who say they have been shortchanged by their party
in recen
t years. Already, the package is provoking strong reactions.
ddIn a move that was unusual so early in the budget process, Mr. Clinton told t
he House Appropriations Committee before its vote
that, unless significant chan
ges were made, he would veto the measure.
dd"The bill is fundamentally flawed," Mr. Clinton said in a statement. "It cuts
$2 billion from our request for educational investment,
short-changing initiat
ives on education reform, on raising educational achievement for our children,
and on providing focused help
for students who need it most."
ddThe GOP faults Mr. Clinton for counting on funding from a stalled tobacco set
tlement to support new K-12 initiatives in his
budget proposal, and for not pro
posing budget cuts to offset his new expenditures on class-size reduction and o
ther efforts. Last week,
Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert L. Livingston
, R-La., sent a strongly written letter to the White House demanding that
offic
ials there quickly send "real and do-able" funding alternatives in order for th
e House to consider paying for any of the
administration's proposed initiatives
ddThe House committee's proposal would increase spending for GOP priorities suc
h as special education state grants, which would
see a 5.8 percent boost, to $4
.82 billion; and the Chapter VI block grant, which gives aid directly to school
S with few strings attached,
which would get a $50 million increase, to a total
of $400 million.
ddThe bill would also hold funding for Title I grants at the current level of $
7.5 billion and sharply cut some of Mr. Clinton's favorite
initiatives. For ins
tance, Education Department funding for school-to-work programs would drop fr
om $200 million to $75 million.
The school-to-work initiative also receives fun
ds in the Department of Labor budget. Mr. Clinton had requested $125 million in
education money for the program, which is scheduled to be phased out by fiscal
2000.
ddWhether the conservative Republicans who have driven the budget-writing proce
SS this year have the votes to get their bill passed
in the full House is an op
en question.
l"They're going to have a hell of a time getting the moderate votes," predicte
d Andrew Rotherham, a legislative specialist with the
American Association of S
chool Administrators in Arlington, Va. "There's a lot in that bill that gives a
lot of people reason not to
like it."
ddHitting Existing Programs
ddThe Committee for Education Funding, a Washington-based coalition of educatio
n groups that lobbies for increases in federal
school aid, blasted the measure
as "inadequate and harmful."
ddThe bill is unusual in the amount of language it contains that would alter ex
isting programs, such as the Goals 2000: Educate
America Act.
dd"This bill probably, more than any other, defines the differences in prioriti
es" between the two parties, Rep. David R. Obey,
D-Wis., the Appropriations Com
mittee's ranking Democrat, said shortly before the panel's vote. "This bill was
never going to be easy,
because of the budget constraints, but it has been mad
e infinitely more difficult."
ddBut Republican leaders did not seem troubled. "This bill will pass. A version
of this bill will be signed into law, and life will go
on," Mr. Livingston sai
d, also during the hearing.
ddRepublicans on the Appropriations Committee pointed out that the tight constr
aints of last year's balanced-budget agreement were
agreed to by both parties,
and that Republicans were working to eliminate or cut programs that they believ
e are ineffective or not
a federal responsibility.
dd"We have to make choices," said Rep. John Edward Porter, the Illinois Republi
can who chairs the education appropriations
subcommittee.
ddThe Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to write and vote quickly on
its spending plan when Congress returns Sept.
8.n
Publication#W\
PP# 40. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# District Holding Some Notes in Assault Case Headline #:\
PP#
By Jessica Portner
ddThe Grosse Pointe, Mich., school system has refused to surrender certain note
S in a rape investigation involving district students,
saying state law prohibi
ts school officials from releasing records of conversations between students an
d staff members.
ddEducation law experts say such a state law has rarely been used to prevent th
e release of student-staff communications in criminal
cases.
ddAccording to the district's lawyer, Caryn Wells, the principal of the 1,274-s
tudent Grosse Pointe North High School became aware
of the alleged rapes while
investigating how a lewd photograph of senior-class president Daniel Granger ap
peared in school's 1998
yearbook. During those inquiries, three female students
accused Mr. Granger and three other male students of sexual assault.
ddPolice then investigated the accusations, and the four young men who attend S
chool in an affluent suburb of Detroit were charged
with third-degree criminal
sexual conduct.
ddThe girls were 14 at the time of the alleged incidents, which are said to hav
e occurred in private homes last December and January.
Under Michigan law, 16 i
S the age of consent for sex. The four defendants were all 18 or 19 at the time
If convicted, they could face
up to 15 years in prison.
ddMr. Granger's lawyer, William Bufalino, said last week that his client "categ
orically denies having sexual intercourse [with theaccusers] or not to the leve
1 these young girls imagined." Mr. Granger and the other defendants have pleade
d not guilty to the charges.
ddAdditional Records
ddIn a preliminary hearing last month in Wayne County Circuit Court, Judge Lynn
e Pierce ordered the district to surrender the
principal's notes about all of t
he students involved in the case.
ddThe district complied but refused to provide additional notes sought by both
the prosecution and the defense because they
concerned other students.
ddProsecutors are seeking the additional records in an attempt to corroborate t
he accusers' accounts and to identify any other possible
victims or assailants.
Defense lawyers also are seeking the notes in an effort to bolster their cases
dd"If somebody said to the school [official] that a student did such and such W
ith so-and-so, that's evidence," said Richard Padzieski,
the chief of operation
S in the prosecutor's office in Wayne County, Mich.
ddBut Mark McInerney, a lawyer for the 8,500-student district, said that the SC
hool system is trying to satisfy the statute, not obstruct
the prosecution. The
1961 Michigan law says that "confidential communication with teachers and admi
nistrators and behavioral
records cannot be released without parents' or studen
ts' OK," he said.
ddInterviews with a student have the same protection as a person's discussions
with a doctor or a priest and must be kept confidential,
he argued.
l"Society wants students to talk to a teacher without being afraid that the co
inversation is going to get out," he said.
ddIn a Bind
ddGwendolyn H. Gregory, an outside counsel to the National School Boards Associ
ation and an expert on education law, said she
knows of no other case in which
a state privacy law was invoked to block the release of notes in a criminal inv
estigation.
ddFederal law requires school districts to keep student records confidential, W
ith some exceptions. But-Ms. Gregory said she was
unaware of state laws other t
han Michigan's that further protect student records or private communications W
ith school officials.
ddCases such as the one involving Grosse Pointe North High School put administr
ators in a bind, she said. They are stuck between
violating student privacy, th
us risking a parent's lawsuit if they divulge information about a child, and in
hibiting an investigation
that could lead to a criminal conviction.
dd"It's always a quandary," Ms. Gregory said. "You just have to work it out to
maintain the confidentiality, but not so you allow
the perpetrator to get away
with it."
ddMr. Padzieski of the county prosecutor's office said last week that he plans
to seek a subpoena at the end of the month to get the
remaining records from th
e district.n
Publication#W\
PP# 41. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Mayor To Control Cleveland Schools After Judge Ends
State Inter
vention Headline #:\ PP#
By Kerry A. White
ddThe passing of the torch in Cleveland is imminent: This fall, the beleaguered
school district will join the list of large urban school
systems "including Bo
ston and Chicago "under mayoral control.
ddU.S. District Judge George W. White ruled last month that a federal court ord
er that placed the district under state control will
be lifted on Sept. 9.
ddMayor Michael R. White, along with an appointed nine-member school board and
a superintendent of his choosing, will take over
the Cleveland schools, returni
ng the district to local control for the first time in nearly 25 years.
dd"Today is a historic day for Clevelanders," Mayor White, a Democrat, said in
a prepared statement following the judge's ruling.
"After a quarter of a centur
y of having the educational policy for our children in the hands of the federal
court and then the
subsequent state supervision, we can now move forward with
a school system run by our community for our community."
ddA federal court ordered the state takeover of the 76,500-student system in 19
95 after declaring the school system, which was on
its last legs academically a
nd $155 million in debt, in a "state of crisis."
ddThe plan for mayoral control was approved by state lawmakers and signed into
law by Gov. George V. Voinovich, a Republican,
in August 1997.
ddFight Continues
ddJudge White, no relation to the mayor, who in March declared that the school
system had fulfilled its legal obligation to
desegregate its schools, failed to
rule last month on a request by two groups opposed to the mayor's assumption o
f authority. Those
groups, the Cleveland chapter of the National Association fo
r the Advancement of Colored People and the Service Employees
International Uni
on, which represents school support workers, have asked that schools remain und
er state control until their appeal
is decided. ("Judge Ends Desegregation Case
in Cleveland," April 8, 1998.)
ddMeanwhile, a nominating panel put together by the state is reviewing the appl
ications of about 240 school board hopefuls "many
of them prominent community 1
eaders "and will make recommendations to the mayor by Aug. 10. The school board
and the mayor's
choice for chief executive officer are expected to be named by
fall.n
Publication#W\ PP#42. Education Week"Publication"#:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP#Mass. Reacts to More Test Data; Teacher Proposal
Outlined Hea
dline#:\
PP#
By Kerry A. White
ddA school-by-school breakdown of scores on Massachusetts' first-ever exam for
licensing new teachers is forcing some education
schools to take a hard look at
their curricula, even as state officials propose creating one of the nation's
most intensive programs of
teacher recruitment and training.
ddWhile individual test-takers' scores on the April test were issued earlier th
is summer, the state education department released
results by school on July 23
ddThe 59 percent overall failure rate had already rippled through the state and
made headlines nationwide, but the data on how
individual colleges and univers
ities in the state performed took many higher education officials by surprise.
ddNearly 1,800 prospective teachers took the eight-hour test in April and, alth
ough interim Commissioner of Education David P.
Driscoll cautioned that scores
from colleges where only a small sample of students took the test "need to be i
interpreted carefully,"
he asked college leaders to make changes in their progra
ms where they could.
dd"I urge the institutions of higher education to accept the data for what it i
s, which is a snapshot of performance on one round of
testing," he said in a st
atement, "and now analyze it and use it to strengthen areas of need."
ddIn addition, Mr. Driscoll, along with acting Gov. Paul Cellucci, a Republican
, and top lawmakers, last week unveiled the state's
"and possibly the nation's
"most aggressive plan yet to attract, train, and mentor top teachers.
dd$20,000 Bonuses?
ddThe proposal, known as the 12-62 Plan for its intent to reach from middle sch
ool "or age 12 "to retirement, would cost a total
of between $5 million and $10
million, state officials say, funds they say could be drawn from the state's $
1 billion surplus.
ddlt incorporates a widely publicized proposal by state Senate President Thomas
F. Birmingham to grant new teachers $20,000
signing bonuses, which would be sp
read over the first few years of their careers, new scholarships and loan-forgi
veness programs,
and a more streamlined certification process.
ddThe plan, which Mr. Driscoll drafted with input from other state leaders, als
o proposes a new "master teacher corps" through which
the state would reimburse
and reward those teachers who complete the National Board for Professional Tea
ching Standards
requirements and an additional content test.
ddIn order to be enacted, different parts of the plan would require the approva
1 of either the state board of education "which could
take up the proposals nex
t month "or the legislature, which has recessed until January.
ddA Confirmation
ddOn the school-by-school analysis of teacher-test scores, one of the instituti
ons with the poorest showing was Northeastern
University in Boston. Only three
"or 17.6 percent "of the school's 17 teacher-candidates passed both the exam's
reading and
writing subtests.
ddThe university's president, Richard M. Freeland, said the scores represented
one in a series of "wake-up calls."
dd"The scores confirmed what we've known for some time: that the education prog
rams here and elsewhere are not as strenuous as
they need to be," he said in an
interview last week. "Well before the testing results were released, we revamp
ed our master's program,
raised freshman admission standards, and reworked our
undergraduate curriculum The test makes the case that we should redouble
our
efforts."
ddMany other schools didn't fare much better than Northeastern: Only 22.2 perce
nt of Springfield College's 63 candidates passed
both the reading and writing p
ortions of the Communications and Literacy Skills Test; 26.8 of Westfield State
College's 84 candidates
passed; 30 percent of Massachusetts College of Liberal
Arts' 20 candidates passed; 32.9 percent of Bridgewater State College's 146
ca
ndidates passed; and 33.8 percent of Salem State College's 71 candidates passed
ddAdministrators at Springfield College said that since the scores were release
d they have put together a panel that will examine
how students performed on ea
ch section of the test to determine how required courses can be adjusted to imp
rove results.
l"Springfield College has a long history of producing quality teachers," said
Gretchen A. Brockmeyer, the associate provost and
associate vice president for
student affairs at the private college. "We'll look at testing results as they
come back and will determine
what sort of enhancements and changes need to be m
ade in the curriculum."
ddResults from the second round of teacher tests, administered July 11, are for
thcoming.
ddBoston University Chancellor John R. Silber, who as the state school board ch
airman has led the drive to raise the academic bar
for students and teachers, S
aw his university post a 65.7 percent passing rate among its 68 teaching candid
ates.
ddIn a statement, Mr. Silber said that the teacher tests "were not difficult, a
nd, therefore, the scores are even more appalling than
they might at first seem
ddHe added that although BU students scored relatively high, officials there we
re not happy with the results and have set a higher
standard for future tests:
If bu students don't manage a 90 percent pass rate within the next two years, h
e said, university officials
will consider abolishing the education program.
ddOnly two of 56 Massachusetts institutions whose students or graduates took th
e spring exam had perfect scores, according to
education department figures: th
e Harvard University graduate school of education and Wellesley College, althou
gh a total of only 13 students from those schools took the test.
ddThe next-highest passing score went to Tufts University, where 81.3 percent o
f the 16 candidates passed.n
Publication#W\ PP# 43. LRP Publications' Publication" #:\ PP#July 31, 1998
Headline#\ PP# Senate Passes Job Training Conference Report Headline #:\ PP#
ddYouth job training programs will have a greater focus on long-term academic
and occupational training, rather than short-term
employment fixes, under a Ho
use-Senate conference report issued this week and passed by the Senate late la
st night.
ddHouse and Senate conferees finished negotiations on the legislation (H. Rpt.
105-659) that will provide more flexibility in job
training and push federal
dollars to local communities. The Senate approved the report yesterday in a la
te-night session prior to
leaving town today for its August break.
ddThe House will likely follow suit later today or early next week, after whic
h President Clinton is expected to quickly sign the
bill into law.
dd"For more than three years, I have been working on a comprehensive job train
ing reform package - and I am convinced Senate
passage comes not a moment to
o soon," said Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, primary sponsor of the work force legi
slation. "Our
economic future depends on a well-trained work force and this bi
II will help prepare American workers to face the challenges of
the 21st centu
ry."
ddRep. Bill Goodling, R-Pa., chairman of the House Committee on Education and
the Workforce, echoed eWine's sentiments,
saying the Workforce Investment Act
"is a huge step toward reforming this nation+s employment, training and liter
acy programs
for the 21st century."
ddThe act consolidates more than 60 federal training programs through the esta
blishment of three block grants to the states,
including programs for disadvan
taged youth employment and training.
ddWhile the legislation allows for the continuation of summer youth employment
programs, it requires that all employment
experiences under these programs be
tied to basic academic and occupational learning opportunities. Under these p
rograms, priority
will be given to hard-to-serve disadvantaged youth, includin
g a requirement that not less than 30 percent of local youth program
funds be
spent on out-of-school youth.
ddThe legislation also authorizes youth opportunity grants, which are intended
to create job and learning opportunities for children
living in high poverty
neighborhoods and rural communities.
ddClinton praised the bill's focus on disadvantaged children, saying it would
help "create jobs and opportunities for out-of-school
youth in high poverty ar
eas."
ddHouse and Senate conferees are expected to take up vocational education legi
slation when Congress reconvenes in September.n
Publication#W\
PP# 44. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Researchers Blame Test Revisions for Falling III.
Reading Score
S Headline #:\
PP#
By Debra Viadero
ddIllinois educators have been scratching their heads over four years of myster
ious declines in students' scores on the state's
10-year-old reading tests.
ddNow, two of the researchers who helped design the assessment say the fault fo
r the declining scores lies with the tests themselves.
dd"Simply put, we think the reading scores are wrong," P. David. Pearson and Ti
mothy Shanahan write in an article scheduled to
appear this month in the Illino
is Reading Council Journal.
ddThe dip in scores on the reading portion of the Illinois Goals Assessment Pro
gram, or igap, has been a puzzle because it has come
as scores on other parts o
f the test were rising. Also, some large districts, such as Chicago and Springf
ield, have seen their students'
reading scores on other standardized tests go u
p while their state scores were dropping.
dd"Even when we'd see small dips in scores or we were treading water, what we W
ere seeing on the IGAP was huge Niagara Falls
drops," said Thomas Kerins, who o
versees testing programs for the 14,800-student Springfield district.
ddThe state tests, given to students in grades 3, 6, 8, and 10, are important b
ecause districts whose students score poorly over a period
of years are placed
on academic warning lists and can eventually be dissolved by the state.
ddWhat's at Stake?
ddBeginning in 1995, state education officials launched a series of studies to
determine the cause for the declining scores. The studies
found that, although
the tests had some flaws, the achievement declines were real.
ddIn their analysis, however, Mr. Pearson and Mr. Shanahan point out that the S
cores headed southward only after 1993, when the
state began reporting the test
results for individual students rather than for districts. ddOne of the proble
ms with that change, they say, was that it altered some of the conditions in th
e way the test was scored.
ddBecause Illinois, like many other states, wants to see how students do over t
he long run, each year's version of the test has to be
made comparable to the p
revious year's. To do that, test administrators give a smaller subset of studen
ts two tests "the current one
and the previous year's version "and the results
are compared.
ddFor most test-takers, explained Mr. Shanahan, the director of the University
of Chicago's center for literacy, the stakes got higher
with the switch to repo
rting individual test results.
dd"All of a sudden, kids' names go on the test, and Mom and Dad know how you do
on the test," he said.
ddBut for the subset of students taking the older tests, the stakes stayed the
same, he said. They are told, "Look, no one cares how
you do," Mr. Shanahan S
aid. If those students don't try as hard as a result, he said, then students ta
king the regular test have to get
more questions right in order to score as hig
h.
dd"It's like a tractor pull that gets heavier every year," he said.
ddState officials, though, said that the "equating" tests are given days after
the the regular tests and that students may not even be
aware the results don't
count.
dd"Basically, we have looked at the equating, scaling, scoring, and linking iss
ues up one side and down the other, and we have used
the best people in the cou
ntry, and none of them found a problem," said Eunice Greer, the division direct
or for standards and
assessment for the Illinois state school board.
ddWhat is more, state officials said, the issue could become moot as Illinois m
oves next year to a new assessment "one that was
designed to yield individual r
esults from the start.
ddBut Springfield's Mr. Kerins disagreed. "It's certainly not a dead issue to t
he principals whose phone numbers I have in front of
me and who want to be call
ed the minute last March's scores are available," he said.n
Publication#W\
PP# 45. LRP Publications"Publication" #:\
PP#July 31, 1998
Headline#\
PP# House, Senate GOP Lawmakers Offer Measure to
Abolish E-Rate Ag
ency Headline #:\ PP#
ddThe agency established by the Federal Communications Commission to govern th
e E-Rate program would be eliminated under
a new joint House-Senate measure.
ddThe Schools and Libraries Internet Access Act (H.R. 4324, S. 2348) - - intro
duced last week by Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., and
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. -
- would eradicate the Schools and Libraries Corporation and shift authority fo
r the program from
the FCC to the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration.
ddThe measure cuts the federal excise tax on consumer telephone bills from 3 p
ercent to 1 percent. It also devotes the remaining
proceeds to a "Telecommunic
ations Technology Trust Fund" from which needs-based state grants would be awa
rded to fund Internet
access for schools and libraries.
dd"It is hard to justify the continuation of the excise tax in an era of budge
t surpluses, and it is harder still to swallow a new tax on
our monthly phone
bill," said Burns, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Communications. "Thi
S legislation is an excellent
compromise that would allow us to keep our promi
se of educational access to the Internet without sticking it to the American
t
axpayer. At the same time, we are cutting the new bureaucracy that oversees th
e program and relying on current agencies."
ddThe Burns-Tauzin measure calls for approximately $1.7 billion to be authoriz
ed for the E-Rate program through 2003. The
program is intended to provide nee
dy schools and libraries with discounts ranging from 20 percent to 90 percent
for
telecommunications services, including Internet access.
ddIn recent weeks, Congress has shown support for the E-Rate program, but lawm
akers have been highly critical of the SLC and
the manner in which it has admi
nistered the program.
ddA recent General Accounting Office report found that, under the SLC's direct
ion, the E-Rate application process was taking longer
than expected, the effec
tiveness of key compliance checks is questionable, program procedures have not
yet been finalized, and the
program lacks clear and specific performance goal
S and measures.n
Publication#W\
PP# 46. LRP Publications"Publication" #:\
PP#August 3, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Teacher Group Launches Laptop Computer Initiative
for Educators
Headline #:\ PP#
ddScience and math instructors figure to benefit this year from a new, private
ly funded program that gives them a chance to show
how laptop computers can be
used as tools for teaching and learning.
ddWith a grant from the Toshiba America Foundation, the National Science Teach
ers Foundation will administer the LaptopLearning Challenge, a program for edu
cators to present innovative ideas for using laptop computers to enhance scien
ce and math
education.
ddThe program will be open to all educators during the 1998-1999 school year.
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
also will have input on the pr
oject.
dd"We believe the future of science education will include the use of personal
, portable computers by all teachers and students,"
said John Sumansky, presid
ent of the Toshiba America Foundation. "And, while there is a great potential
for the laptop computer
leading to significant improvements in the teaching an
d learning of science, it will only be realized if we begin now to explore and
construct lessons that employ the power and flexibility of the laptop."
ddTo participate in the program, educators will submit lesson plans that have
both science and math components and are performed
using one or more laptop co
imputers. The plans should describe an investigation for students to analyze a
problem, plan and conduct
an experiment, organize results, and communicate the
ir findings.
ddTwenty plans will be selected by a panel of field experts for publication in
an NSTA-produced book and CD-ROM package.
dd"Laptops have the potential to usher in a whole new array of hands-on teachi
ng activities that can be used inside and outside the
classroom, and teachers
need to be on the forefront of this technology," said Steven Rakow, NSTA presi
dent. "We are especially
excited that we can introduce these strategies to our
new teachers in training and prepare them for the classroom of the future.
Publication#W\
PP# 47. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Georgia, Maryland Beef Up Teacher Education
Programs Headline
#:\ PP#
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
ddStudents who graduate from teacher training programs in Georgia and Maryland
will soon enter the classroom buoyed by more
extensive coursework in reading an
d mathematics instruction.
ddGraduates of the 15 education programs at Georgia's state universities will a
Iso be backed by a guarantee from the university
system.
ddUnder a 10-principle plan to improve teacher preparation programs unanimously
approved by the Georgia state regents last month,
elementary education candida
tes will be required to complete an academic minor in both reading and math. Mi
ddle school
teacher-candidates will need minor concentrations in language arts,
math, science, and social studies, while aspiring high school
teachers will ha
ve to complete additional requirements in each subject they expect to teach.
ddBeginning in the fall of 1999, all education majors will have to accumulate 1
5 to 18 credits in each subject to meet the new
requirements.
dd"The bottom line is that our graduates must be better prepared to teach," Cha
ncellor Stephen R. Portch of the Georgia university
system said in a statement.
ddThe system will guarantee that graduates at every level have sufficient knowl
edge of the subject matter they expect to teach and
that they will be able to d
emonstrate effective teaching skills within their first two years in the classr
oom.
ddIf they are unable to do so, the system will provide additional training. Ong
oing professional development will also be offered
for all classroom teachers.
ddRaising the Bar
ddThe state education department, which has been working with the university sy
stem on an initiative to improve education from
pre-kindergarten through colleg
e, endorsed the plan. But the new standards, which may lengthen the time for ge
tting a degree, could
also create new challenges, some observers say.
dd"A number of our members have been struggling and don't think they were prepa
red enough to deal with [classroom] issues," said
Tim Callahan, a spokesman for
the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, an independent teachers' or
ganization that
approves of the plan. "We are setting the bar a little higher,
and we may find ourselves with some shortages of educators in the
pipeline. But
that will be transitional."
ddMeanwhile, a Maryland reading task force proposed last month that all new tea
chers and those seeking recertification in that state
take up to 12 semester ho
urs in reading instruction. The state board approved the measure in an 11 to 1
vote last month.
ddMost education graduates now complete just one reading course, and some new t
eachers enter the classroom without any
background in the subject. Three new co
urses will focus on reading, reading instruction, and instructional materials a
nd strategies.
d"State test results have been relatively mediocre," Ron Peiffer, the assistan
t state schools superintendent, said. "It is clear we need
to make some changes
"
ddSome union officials and teacher-educators oppose the new policy. While highe
r standards are needed, they say, mandating a
specific number of courses will n
ot guarantee teachers' improved performance in the classroom.
dd"The question is whether [requiring new courses] is the best way to make sure
teachers have the skills they need to teach children
to read," said Karl K. Pe
nce, the president of the Maryland State Teachers Association, a National Educa
tion Association affiliate.
"Teacher education departments have retooled their
programs, and they feel that they've permeated these skills throughout in-servi
ce
training."n
Publication#W
PP# 48. LRP Publications"Publication" #:\
PP#Aug. 3, 1998
Headline#\ PP# Study Reveals Threat of School Shootings "Overblown"
Headline #
:\
PP#
ddThe media blitz fed by the half-dozen fatal school shootings in the last six
months has created the public perception that such
violence is on the rise, W
hen research shows it has decreased in recent years, a new study claims.
ddThe number of fatal attacks in schools is lower than it was five years ago,
the Justice Policy Institute revealed in a recent study.
The report cited a 23
.7 percent decline in violent school deaths from the 1992-93 school year throu
gh the current school year.
ddThe report - School House Hype: School Shootings and the Real Risk Kids Fa
ce in America - says 55 deaths resulted from
school shootings in the 1992-93
academic year; 51 in 1993-94; 20 in 1994-95; 35 in 1995-96, 25 in 1996-97 and
40 in 1997-98.
ddThe liberal criminal justice research group drew data from a variety of rece
nt sources, including the Center for Disease Control,
the U.S. Department of
Education 's National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Department
of Justice.
ddThe report argues that the media exposure and drama surrounding this year's
school shootings leads the public and policy-makers
to believe that such viole
nce is becoming a trend.
d"Media coverage of these dramatic killings has created a misperception that
schools are dangerous," said Vincent Schiraldi,
director of the Justice Policy
Institute. "In fact, schools are still the safest place in America for kids.
If we want to reduce the overall
number of childhood gun deaths, we should be
expanding after-school programs and restricting gun sales."
ddAs a result of the hype, the study's authors argued, lawmakers are misguided
in their legislative efforts to solve a problem that
does not exist. "[A]s th
e risk of school death is overblown, we are witnessing a tragic misdirecti
on of attention and resources,"
the report said.
ddThe study pinned "everyday gun violence" as a more pressing issue, citing th
at "as many as 8 kids a day are killed by guns kids
are killed in gun acci
dents 23 times the rate they are killed in schools.
dd"The best data on the very specific threat of school-associated violent deat
h reveals that children face a one-in-a-million chance
of being killed at scho
ol," the report added.n
Publication#W\
PP# 49. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Taxes, Transfer Program on the Table In St. Louis
Desegregatio
n Settlement Headline #:\ PP#
By Caroline Hendrie
ddWhen he signed a recent bill aimed at ending court-ordered school desegregati
on in Missouri, Gov. Mel Carnahan hailed it as "a
monumental piece of legislati
on." The measure's final outlines, however, are scarcely set in stone.
ddConceived as a tool for extricating the state from court-ordered desegregatio
n in St. Louis, the new law erects a framework for
continuing the major element
S of the city's nationally known urban-suburban transfer program once federal o
versight ends.
ddSeveral key provisions, though, will not take effect unless a settlement is r
eached to get the state off the hook in the 26-year-old
case. And other feature
S of the bill can be scrapped or modified during negotiations
d"Nobody knows what the final thing will look like," said Cleveland Hammonds,
the superintendent of the 46,000-student St. Louis
district. "Everything is on
the table."
ddRiding on the settlement talks, among other provisions, are:
ddFunding, governance, and educational programming in the troubled St. Louis di
strict;
ddMillions of extra dollars for districts statewide, thanks to changes in the f
unding formula aimed at benefiting districts with large
numbers of poor student
S and steep local tax rates; and
ddThe transfer program for St. Louis and 16 nearby suburbs, which many integrat
ion advocates view as a flagship of interdistrict
desegregation efforts nationa
Ily.
ddAll Eyes on St. Louis
ddThe legislation, which the Democratic governor signed in late June, sets a Ma
rch 15 deadline for settlements that release the state
from court-ordered deseg
regation spending in St. Louis and Kansas City. The state has spent about $3 bi
llion since the mid-1980s
to remedy unconstitutional school segregation in thos
e cities.
ddSince a federal judge has approved such a deal in Kansas City, all eyes are n
ow on St. Louis. While some potentially deal-breaking
issues divide the parties
there, many analysts believe the stage is set for an end to litigation. ("Judg
e Decides State Funds for
Desegregation To End in K.C.," April 2, 1997.)
dd"We think that this is a one-time, tremendous opportunity to resolve the case
said John R. Munich, the state's deputy attorney
general. William L. Taylor,
a Washington-based lawyer who represents the National Association for the Adva
ncement of Colored
People in the case, shares that view. ddCash a Concern
ddFor St. Louis school leaders, money heads a lengthy list of obstacles to such
a deal. The city currently receives $70 million to $75
million annually in cou
rt-ordered desegregation payments. To help replace some of those funds once the
case is settled, the law
authorizes about $45 million in new state aid for the
city and lays out a plan for raising local taxes by about $21 million annually
ddBut because of a provision that rewards districts with high local tax rates,
much of the state replacement funding would become
available only if St. Louis
voters agree to the tax increase. Even in this best-case scenario, the district
faces a net loss of $25 million
to $30 million in annual state aid under the 1
aw.
ddThe two African-American state senators who represent the city have clashed o
ver the legislation, in part because of the tax issue.
ddAnd Sheryl H. Davenport, the president of the local affiliate of the American
Federation of Teachers, said the proposed tax
increase helped persuade the uni
on to fight the bill.
ddObservers say the best hope for getting a yes vote is a settlement that lays
out a credible plan for improving city schools. On the
other hand, a settlement
is unlikely without financial assurances for St. Louis once the court pulls ou
t. Kenneth C. Brostron, the St.
Louis schools' general counsel, predicts the an
swer lies in making any legal deal conditional on a referendum's approval.
ddTransfers at Stake
ddAmong the other obstacles to a settlement is continuation of the transfer pro
gram, the largest of its kind in the country. Some
13,000 African-American stud
ents from St. Louis attend schools in 16 predominantly white suburbs, while 1,4
00 white suburban
students are bused to city magnet schools.
ddLawmakers say they intended to provide enough state money to maintain those e
xchanges. But some school officials question
whether the law does that. Moreove
r, the legislators left unaddressed exactly how money would be distributed amon
g districts.
ddAnother potential impediment is the law's requirement that each participating
suburb hold a referendum six years after court
control ends on whether to keep
taking city students. Mr. Taylor, for one, said he sees no reason why district
S should have that option.
ddWilliam H. Danforth, a former chancellor of Washington University in St. Loui
s, has been appointed by the court to coordinate
a settlement. And among those
hoping he succeeds is Alpha Nickelberry, 18, who graduated from high school in
the suburban
Lindbergh district last spring.
dd"I hope in my heart that it continues," he said of the transfer program. "If
not, you're going to have kids who are all the same going
to certain schools, a
nd they're not going to be ready to go out into the world."n
Publication#W\
PP# 50. LRP Publications' Publication" #:\
PP#August 3, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Clinton Gears Up to Veto GOP Education Agenda Headline #:\
PP#
ddPresident Clinton today vowed to veto any congressional budget that does not
contain adequate funding for the administration's
cornerstone education initi
atives and summer job programs.
ddThe president, addressing participants of the federal summer jobs program, a
gain denounced the Republican-supported budget
proposal that would cut funding
for the jobs program and inhibit expansion of Head Start, after-school progra
ms and national
testing. Clinton's statement comes in the wake of his recent c
riticism of funding allotted for various initiatives in the House's
proposed e
ducation agenda (see D.C.Daily, July 29).
dd"The House Republican plan puts politics ahead of people and puts your futur
e in the back seat. That is wrong," the president
said to the group of federal
summer employees. "And if a bill like the one that is proposed by the House R
epublicans passes, I will
veto it."
ddClinton condemned the Republican-led Congress for cutting more than $3 billi
on from the administration's proposed budget,
including funding for smaller cl
ass sizes, school construction, Internet connection in schools, reading tutors
and hiring 100,000
additional teachers.
dd"There are those in Congress who disagree with [my] agenda," the preside
nt said. "They have proposed a narrow and much
more partisan plan that, in my
view, is not a step into the future, but a step backward."r
Publication#W\
PP# 51. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Barriers to Education Exist Long Before High School
Among Lati
nos, Report Says Headline #:\
PP#
By Lynn Schnaiberg
ddWhile much has been made of the high dropout rates among Hispanic students, a
recent report suggests that Latinos face barriers
to gaining a good education
long before high school.
ddAnd those barriers seem to persist throughout Hispanic students' school years
, says the report released late last month by the
Washington-based National Cou
ncil of La Raza, a leading advocacy group for Hispanics. dd "We really want
to redefine the picture for Latino education and not make it a single i
ssue: dropouts. We need to look at
what comes before that," said Sonia M. P
erez, a report co-author. The cumulative dropout rate for Latino youths
is 30 percent,
compared to 7.7 percent for whites and 12.6 percent for
African-Americans. ("U.S. Report Tracks High Dropout Rate Among
Hispanics,
" Feb. 11, 1998.)
ddHispanic children also are less likely to enroll in preschool programs such a
S Head Start, take rigorous academic classes, or attend
a four-year college, th
e report says.
ddRal Yzaguirre, the president of La Raza, said in a prepared statement that th
e fate of Hispanic children will have a large effect
on the United States as a
whole. Recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that there are now more
Hispanic children in the
United States than there are African-Americans younger
than 18.
d"Because of the size of the Latino youth population, even modest improvements
in Latino educational attainment mean a boon
for the United States," Mr. Yzagu
irre said.
ddThe report, which largely draws on previously published data, is intended to
focus attention to the dramatic achievement gap that
exists between Hispanic an
d white children. It is also intended as a call to action among community groups
, business leaders, and
policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels.n
Publication#W\
PP# 52. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Pirated Software Could Prove Costly To L.A. District Headline
#:\ PP#
By Julie Blair
ddAn internal audit of one school in the Los Angeles Unified School District ha
S uncovered hundreds of pirated computer-software
programs, and that could end
up costing the district millions of dollars.
ddUnder a tentative agreement, the district would be required to pay $300,000 t
o the Washington-based Business Software Alliance
for infringement.
ddThe accord would also require the 681,500-student district to come into compl
iance with federal copyright law in three years, an
effort officials say could
cost the Los Angeles schools $4.5 million.
ddCompliance efforts would likely mean holding seminars for staff members, purc
hasing licensed software, removing unlicensed
software, and monitoring the scho
ols' use of software, said Victoria M. Castro, the school board president.
ddThe audit of the West Valley Occupational Center was prompted by the BSA, a W
atchdog organization for seven leading software
companies, following a call in
1996 to the group's pirating hot line.
ddIndustry specialists say the problems in Los Angeles can be found in educatio
nal institutions across the country and could cost
schools millions in copyrigh
t-violation penalties.
ddPirating involves making unauthorized copies of licensed software, books, or
music "and all are violations of federal law.
ddIn Los Angeles, the illegal copies were most likely were made by well-intenti
oned teachers or administrators who did not realize
they were doing anything wr
ong, said Rich Mason, the general counsel for the district.
dd"If we did [a districtwide] audit we would probably find some significant
use of unlicensed software," Mr. Mason said.
Employees "are simply not knowing
they're not supposed to do this."
ddOfficials of the nation's second- largest district plan to discuss the propos
ed settlement at a school board meeting Aug. 25.
ddChecking software use in the 660 district schools would not be an easy task,
Ms. Castro said. Some facilities have hundreds of
computers, and each year the
district spends $8 million on new software, she said.
ddThe district has a policy against pirating copyrighted materials, but, Ms. Ca
stro said, the computer policy is "probably not as
strong" as the other section
S.
ddUniversal Problem
ddThe issue of pirated computer software is a universal one, said Karine Elsen,
the BSA's director of marketing and public relations.
ddWhile there are no statistics on the number of schools that pirate software,
an estimated one in four programs used in the United
States is bootlegged, she
said.
d"Despite great strides recently there is still a lot of software that is
copied and distributed. Unfortunately, as long as there is a
resource need, the
re is a tendency for that to happen,' said David Byer, the vice president for
government affairs at the Software
Publishers Association in Washington.
ddThe law on computer software should be clear, but the use of the Internet is
murkier, said August W. Steinhilber, a Maryland
lawyer who is an expert in copy
right law.
ddIn most cases, the federal Fair Use Act of 1976 does not apply to software. S
ome other copyrighted products "such as books and
Internet materials "can be co
pied for educational purposes under strict guidelines, Mr. Byer said.
ddOne solution would be to purchase a districtwide license that would allow dis
tricts to duplicate some programs within specified
schools, Mr. Byer said.
ddMonitoring how products are used may prove the most difficult element of new
technology, the experts say, and informing staff
members of district policy may
be the best way to prevent abuses.n
Publication#W PP# 53. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\ PP# Waco Gets Tough With Summer School Effort Headline #:\ PP#
By Robert C. Johnston
ddSummer vacation has finally arrived for nearly 2,000 students in Waco, Texas,
who endured six weeks of summer school under
the toughest retention policy in
the Lone Star State.
ddLast summer, the Waco school board declared that 1st through 8th graders who
failed standardized tests would not advance to
the next grade. Instead, such st
udents would have to attend a month and a half of summer school and then be ret
ested. The new
practice was launched this summer.
ddNow, despite a lawsuit brought by a group of local parents seeking to end the
effort, state officials are looking to Waco as a pilot
project on scrapping so
-called social promotion. In fact, the policy in the working-class city in east
-central Texas has drawn praise
from Republican Gov. George W. Bush, who has pl
edged to end such promotions statewide if he is re-elected this fall.
dd"Ending social promotion is one of Governor Bush's top priorities," said Debb
i Head, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bush. "He agrees
with Waco's goal and supports it
ddBut raising the bar in the 16,000-student Waco district won't be cheap.
ddAfter spring tests, 20 percent of Waco's 1st through 8th graders faced retent
ion, prompting a record summer school enrollment
that carried with it a $1 mill
ion price tag.
ddMichele Ryan, the president of the Waco Council of PTAs, believes it is money
well spent. "It's a good first step," she said. "The
more we expect from child
ren, the more they're going to put forth."
ddGrade Inflation?
ddWaco's stricter policy began with a 1996 district study that found a high rat
e of students who passed their classes but failed the
Texas Assessment of Acade
mic Skills, a state exam given in grades 3-8 and grade 10.
ddWaco's passing rates on the 1995 TAAS were 58.7 percent in reading and 42 per
cent in math "more than 20 percentage points
below the state average in each ca
tegory.
dd"We found there was very little correlation between report card grades and TA
AS scores," district Superintendent Rosanne
Stripling said. "This became the pl
atform for pursuing a new policy."
ddThe district has addressed the discrepancy by more closely aligning curriculu
m with state learning standards. And, in teacher
evaluations, principals are co
mparing student grades with TAAS scores.
ddToday, the higher stakes the district has attached to the state exam are bein
g credited with improving scores on the most recent
TAAS this spring.
ddWaco students raised their reading and math scores 10 percentage points over
last year's; the state average went up 3 percentage
points. The performance of
the district's black students shot up 16.6 percentage points, while the average
score for black youngsters
statewide rose by 6 percentage points.
ddTo help the students who didn't reach threshold scores, the district hired 15
4 teachers for summer programs on 18 campuses.
ddWaco regularly has summer school for students who fail to meet grade and atte
ndance marks for promotion. But this year's
program is larger and more focused.
ddln addition to holding the size of summer classes to a maximum of 16 students
, the district sought out strong reading and math
teachers and raised their hou
rly pay from $14 last year to $18.
dd"We encouraged principals to be very selective," Ms. Stripling said. "No matt
er how wonderful a program is, success depends
on who administers it."
ddIn addition to a curriculum tailored to their weaknesses, the students receiv
ed tips on strategy for last week's makeup tests, the
results of which will be
ready this month.
ddStudents who fail again will be placed in classes this fall designed to get t
hem up to grade level as soon as possible.
d"There's a certain amount of anxiety," said Eileen Lytle, the director of the
district's extended-year program. "That's why teachers
are trying to work on c
onfidence and letting students know that they can do this."
dd'The Bait'
ddBut the new retention strategy has riled some people.
ddMcLennan County Commissioner Lester Gibson is leading a small group of minori
ty parents who oppose the program. In a recent
lawsuit, they say that the TAAS
was not designed to determine student promotion.
ddMoreover, identifying students to be held back based on the exam violates TAA
S confidentiality laws, the suit contends. A hearing
in the case has been set f
or Aug. 10 in state district court.
ddMr. Gibson, who has one son in a district school, supports a broader approach
to ending promotions of students who are not
academically ready for the next g
rade.
dd"Low performance on the TAAS is a direct reflection on the administration, bu
t they're making students look like criminals and
not victims," he said. "If th
ey're basing retention on one test in one year, that's wrong."
ddMs. Stripling said such arguments are groundless. The policy, she added, seek
S to make parents and their children more
responsible for student learning.
ddBesides, Texas already requires students to pass an exit exam, first given in
the 10th grade, to graduate from high school, she said.
ddShe compared her district's use of tests to fishing: "You can have line and a
hook, but if there's no bait, the fish won't grab it. Thisis the bait."n
Publication#W\
PP# 54. Education eek"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Despite National Defeat, NEA and AFT Work Toward
Mergers in St
ates Headline #:\ PP#
By Jeff Archer and Ann Bradley
New Orleans
ddA crucial vote here this summer dashed union leaders' hopes for an imminent m
erger, but in a shift of strategy, the two national
teachers' unions are workin
g to allow their state affiliates to unify while pulling together a process to
guide future negotiations at
the national level.
ddDelegates took opposing positions on a blueprint for merging at their respect
ive conventions held here last month. The National
Education Association reject
ed the plan, 57 percent to 43 percent, stopping it in its tracks. In a later, 1
argely symbolic poll, 97.7
percent of the American Federation of Teachers' dele
gates who voted favored it.
ddAfter the votes, though, delegates from both unions adopted similar policies
reaffirming their overall support for unity and calling
for guidelines to permi
t state-level mergers. Bob Chase, the president of the NEA, said in a recent in
terview that he hopes his union's
board of directors can take up the issue of g
uidelines for state mergers at its October meeting.
dd"I think it's important that we deal with it as soon as possible," he said.
I don't think we want to place those states [looking to
merge] in a difficult p
osition."
ddIn Minnesota's case, for instance, the two unions are "living together" and W
ant permission to marry, Sandra Peterson, the
president of the Minnesota Federa
tion of Teachers, told delegates to the AFT's convention here. "States who are
ready must have
the authority to begin to merge."
ddMinnesota leaders had hoped to get the green light to consolidate by Sept. 1.
State affiliates in Florida, Montana, and New Mexico
also are in varying stage
S of planning for unification.
ddForging an acceptable plan for state mergers could be difficult.
'The guidelines are not going to be easily arrived at because you get at the
heart of what a national merger is all about," said
NEA-New York President Greg
ory Nash, a member of the NEA's negotiating committee. "But I think that it can
be done."
ddNegotiators will have to decide, for example, how to structure members' dues
to pay for the services both unions offer. In the past,
state mergers were barr
ed altogether, in hopes that national unity would smooth the way.
ddLinda Bacon, the president of the NEA-affiliated Pinellas County (Fla.) Class
room Teachers Association and a proponent of a
combined national union, said sh
e fears a flurry of state unifications could "take the pressure off having a na
tional merger."
ddCulture Clashes
ddThe debate over the "principles of unity" that would have created the 3.2 mil
lion-member so-called United Organization
underscored, meanwhile, the internal
differences between the two unions.
ddWithin the NEA, a group of state and local affiliates organized this spring t
o defeat the document. Members sent out detailed
objections to the principles,
made one-on-one contacts with delegates here, and orchestrated a sophisticated
strategy for the two-hour
merger discussion held July 4.
ddThey set the terms of the debate by highlighting all the ways the merged unio
n would depart from such longstanding NEA
traditions as secret-ballot voting, m
inority-representation guarantees, term limits for officers, and independence f
rom the AFL-CIO.
("AFL-CIO Label Is Most Ticklish Of Issues for NEA Members Dec
iding Union's Future," June 24, 1998.)
dd"We in Louisiana do fear that our past beliefs are being diminished simply fo
r the sake of change," President Mary Washington
of the Louisiana Association o
f Educators said in a thundering defense of preserving the NEA. "This makes a m
ockery of our core
beliefs."
ddIn contrast, proponents shied away from the details of the merger accord and
argued that unity would help the union defend public
education against attacks
from conservatives and advocates of vouchers for private school tuition.
ddIn retrospect, Ms. Bacon of Pinellas County said, delegates didn't see a comp
elling need to change. "Maybe we bit off more than
we could chew for the first
vote," she said. "If we could have found a way to do interim steps, perhaps tha
t would have been
acceptable."
ddPhilip Rumore, the president of the Buffalo (N.Y.) Teachers Federation, an ne
a affiliate, who helped lead the opposition to the
principles of unity, said th
e anti-merger campaign wouldn't have worked without the secret ballot. In the 2
.4 million-member NEA,
delegates vote their consciences in secret; in the 985,0
00-member AFT, votes are reported to constituents. The secret ballot "allows
fo
r dissent," Mr. Rumore said. "That's the strength of the NEA."
ddThe principles of unity called for a blend of the two methods for the United
Organization. Individual delegates' votes would have
been kept secret, but tall
ies of how local and state affiliates voted would have been recorded.
ddPoor Organization?
ddAt the AFT convention, held July 17-20, many speakers criticized the NEA dele
gates for repudiating the agreement reached by
their top leaders and failing to
follow the wishes of the association's members, whom they asserted favor a mer
ger.
ddSandra Feldman, the AFT president, maintained that some NEA delegations "did
not come as a cohesive group, accountable tothe members." She also called the S
entiment in the NEA against affiliation with organized labor "old-fashioned sno
bbishness."
ddThe aft has long been a member of the afl-CIO, the giant federation of unions
, and the United Organization would have kept that
affiliation.
ddThere was no mistaking the internal political nature of the AFT, which has a
dominant caucus that moves issues through the ranks
and, in the view of support
ers, gets things accomplished. Detractors view the setup as less democratic tha
n the NEA's and stifling
to opposing viewpoints.
ddDay Higuchi, the president of United Teachers Los Angeles, attended both conv
entions because his local is affiliated with both
national unions. Many NEA del
egates "didn't have a clue" about what the principles of unity meant, he told h
is AFT colleagues.
dd"It was shocking not so much because the promotion of the principles of unity
was badly organized, as much as the perception
that it didn't need to be organ
ized," he said.
ddAFT delegates at the convention suggested organizing a caucus in support of u
nity, drawing heavily on members from merged
local affiliates such as the UTLA
and from states with good working relationships.
ddIn the other camp, Mr. Rumore has pledged to continue dogging the merger issu
e, including demanding budget data from both
national unions to assess the fina
ncial impact of merger.
ddRank and File Input
ddAlthough guidelines for state mergers could be approved within the next year,
the forecast for national unification remains hazy.
dd"I think that it's not going to happen very immediately," Ms. Feldman of the
aft said here, "because we just visited this process,
and the only mandate we r
eally have right now that would be mutual would be for state mergers to go forw
ard."
ddlt took more than three years of talks between the unions' negotiating teams
to hash out the merger principles. The NEA's merger
resolution, passed the day
after the unity vote, calls for future negotiations to be more strongly directe
d by members' concerns.
ddSpecifically, it requires that NEA negotiators analyze a survey of this summe
r's delegates, and that they regularly consult an
advisory committee to be made
up of leaders from large and small state affiliates with varying views of the
principles of unity.
ddMr. Chase, the union's president, said he hopes an advisory panel of about 15
members can be appointed this month. Its first task
will be to review a draft
of the survey, to be sent to delegates this fall.
dd"It's going to complicate things, but it's going to do it in a helpful way,"
former NEA President Keith B. Geiger, a merger
supporter, said of the survey.'
You've got to be constantly assessing how far your members are willing to go ou
t on that plank."
ddThe new process is less cumbersome than an alternative NEAdelegates considere
d, which would have required future merger talks
to "safeguard the democratic,g
overnance, and representational structures of the NEA." It called for a constit
utional convention to
draft the United Organization's governing documents.
ddFaced with both proposals, NEA delegates voted 53 percent to 47 percent in a
rare roll-call poll to consider the less restrictive
merger policy, which they
went on to pass by a wide margin.
ddMost observers agree that the two unions are destined to become one. The only
question is when.
dd"In the long haul, it has to happen," said Bruce S. Cooper, a professor of ed
ucational administration at Fordham University in New
York City.
ddDespite the contention that public education is under attack, Mr. Cooper doub
ted that many NEA delegates felt threatened enough
to join forces with their ol
d rivals in the AFT. But if school vouchers become more widespread "and Mr. Coo
per is confident they
will "the old rivalries will seem less significant, he su
ggested.
dd"The press to unify will probably not come from the inside, but from without,
" Mr. Cooper said.
ddUnion critics hailed the rejection of the unity principles as a victory for t
eachers because it will preserve a measure of choice in
representation. Gregory
Fossedal, the chairman of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution in Arlington,
Va., asserted that the focus on
merger misses union members' real concerns.
dd"There is dissatisfaction with what they're paying [in dues], a lack of accou
ntability for where it goes, and with the single-issue
fight against school cho
ice and vouchers," he said.
ddTruce Lives On
ddBoth union presidents pledged that their organizations would not go back to f
ighting each other.
ddThe NEA's merger resolution calls for reauthorizing the national "no-raid agr
eement" that had sought to end battles for
representation. Approved in 1996, th
e agreement expired in May. Ms. Feldman said the AFT's executive council would
consider
renewing the agreement in October.
dd"We certainly do not intend to go to war," she told her delegates last month.
ddThe unions will continue their Joint Council, a committee of 15 leaders from
each organization that was formed last fall to focus
on teacher quality, safety
and discipline, and infrastructure needs.
dd"The NEA and the AFT need to find more common areas to work together in," sai
d Mark Simon, the president of the Montgomery
County (Md.) Education Associatio
n, an NEA affiliate. "There were too many delegates who had never met anyone fr
om the AFT,
and they were more likely to believe a lot of the misinformation."
ddAs part of their cooperative work, the unions will sponsor a joint conference
on teacher quality next month.
ddThe NEA's resounding rejection of the merger plan could raise questions about
members' support for Mr. Chase and his push to
link unionism with concern for
the quality of teachers and public schools. He is up for re-election next summe
r.
ddBut many observers doubted that the vote reflected dwindling support for Mr.
Chase or his reforms. "I think Bob Chase's
leadership cachet is very high even
though he was defeated on this issue," Mr. Simon said.
ddAfter the vote, the NEA president vowed that his advocacy for teacher quality
would continue. "We're not going to back away
from that at all," he said.
ddMany of the NEA affiliates at the forefront of those efforts, however, lament
ed what they saw as a lost opportunity in the merger
vote. dd"Our problem is th
at for a while we've been sort of a lonely voice within the NEA, but often the
most receptive people we've found
are in the AFT," said John Grossman, the pres
ident of the Columbus (Ohio) Education Association. "And so we've been looking
forward to a new day of synergy."n
Publication#W\ PP# 55. Education "eek"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\ PP# Schools Gear Up As Bilingual Ed. Law Takes Effect Headline #:
\
PP#
By Lynn Schnaiberg
ddNext week will be a busy one at Belvedere Elementary School in East Los Angel
es.
ddNearly 500 of the multitrack school's 1,300 students will return to school, a
nd administrators will have to carry out a new state
law that calls for
limited-English-proficient children to be taught in English-immersion programs
, rather than bilingual education.
ddThe school must inform the parents of its 1,000 LEP students of the impending
changes "and the opportunity to seek a waiver
to exempt their children from En
glish immersion.
dd"This hasn't really hit our parents yet. But it will," said Wil Shandy, the a
ssistant principal at the predominantly Hispanic school.
ddThe law kicks in for school terms that begin after Aug. 2, and year-round sch
ools, like Belvedere, will be among the first in
California to translate Propos
ition 227 into the classroom. Other schools across the state's 1,000 districts
open for business later this
month, and observers say the coming school year wi
II be filled with trial and error.
ddCalifornia voters approved the controversial ballot measure on June 2. And th
e state school board last month approved temporary
regulations that, for the mo
st part, leave to districts the task of interpreting the sometimes open-ended t
erms of the new law.
("Uncertainty Follows Vote on Prop. 227," June 10, 1998.)
ddWhile many administrators say they welcome the flexibility to set up programs
that they believe comply with the law, they also
wonder whether such flexibili
ty leaves them more vulnerable to legal challenges down the road.
ddCourt Gives Green Light
ddSchool boards looking for more time to draw up their plans were blocked last
month.
ddA federal district judge in San Francisco rejected a petition from civil righ
ts groups seeking to block the law's implementation.
The plaintiffs have appeal
ed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
ddU.S. District Judge Charles A. Legge ruled July 15 that there is no constitut
ional right to bilingual education and that a denial of
bilingual education on
its face does not violate federal law.
ddThe California law calls for LEP students to be taught in "sheltered" or "str
uctured" English-immersion classrooms where "nearly
all" instruction is in Engl
ish, but curriculum presentation is designed for students learning English as a
second language. In most
cases, students will remain in such programs for no m
ore than one year before moving into the mainstream, according to the law.
Unde
r some circumstances, parents can receive waivers to enable their children to c
ontinue in bilingual education, where they are
taught at least partly in their
native languages.
ddSupporters of bilingual education say the approach enables students to keep u
p academically while learning English. Critics say
students in bilingual educat
ion do not learn English well or quickly.
ddIn recent years, one-third of California's 1.4 million LEP students were enro
lled in bilingual education programs.
ddDebating Language
ddThe state school board deliberately drew its rules with broad strokes to gran
t districts maximum flexibility in carrying out the new
law, said Bill Lucia, t
he board's executive director.
ddBut Proposition 227 backers say the board may have overreached in the area of
parent waivers, enabling districts to easily
circumvent English immersion, sai
d Sheri Annis, a spokeswoman for the "English for the Children" campaign that 1
aunched
Proposition 227.
ddAgainst such an uncertain landscape, districts need to make their own best ju
dgment about how to proceed, said Theresa Garcia,
a policy analyst with the Cal
ifornia School Boards Association.
ddThe central question many districts are now grappling with as they devise pro
grams is how much teachers can use students' native
languages without violating
the law. State officials and the law's backers have declined to elaborate on t
he law's requirement that
programs be conducted "overwhelmingly" or "nearly all
" in English.
dd"It's a legal and a political issue for boards to make a determination of wha
t is 'overwhelmingly' or 'nearly all' in their community
and what do they feel
is adequate educationally," Ms. Garcia said. "Districts are really all over the
place."
ddObservers say the stakes could be high because the law allows parents to sue
teachers and school officials who "willfully and
repeatedly" refuse to provide
English instruction.
ddAnd Ms. Annis made clear last week that backers of the measure will be watchi
ng for districts that "stretch the law as far as
possible and maybe break that
rubber band."
ddMaking Plans
ddThe 681,000-student Los Angeles district, which educates 310,000 students wit
h limited English proficiency "nearly a quarter
of the state's total LEP popula
tion "plans to offer parents four options. Parents could choose to place their
child in a mainstream
all-English class, a bilingual class "which would require
a waiver or in one of two versions of English immersion that offer
varying d
egrees of native-language help. ddOther districts are going to the courts for g
uidance.
ddLawyers for the state school board have determined that although the board ge
nerally has the power to waive parts of the state
education code, the board cou
Id not offer districtwide exemptions from Proposition 227.
ddCharter schools, however, are exempt from much of the education code, includi
ng the provisions of Proposition 227, and observers
point to such schools as a
potential way to avoid the law's intent.
ddThe Oakland, Berkeley, and Hayward school districts have filed a petition in
a state court to try to force the state board to consider
its waiver proposals.
The districts are scheduled for a hearing in Alameda Superior Court late this
month.
ddSan Francisco officials say they will add an English-immersion option while c
ontinuing bilingual programs they say are required
under a 1976 federal consent
decree. The decree stems from the Lau V. Nichols case. In the landmark 1974 Su
preme Court decision,
the court said the schools must offer LEP students specia
1 help to grant them equal access to the curricula.
dd"It is important for you to know that our decision to continue our bilingual
programs is not a defiant act against Proposition 227,"
Superintendent Waldemar
Rojas said in a July 22 letter to parents and teachers.
ddBut in Los Angeles, despite of his district's plan, Steve Zimmer said he is e
xpecting chaos. The English-as-a-second-language
teacher at Marshall Senior Hig
h School has organized teacher resistance to Proposition 227.
"There's no question that there will be noncompliance," he said. "Teaching is
hard enough without all these restrictions."
Publication#W\
PP# 56. Education Week"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Black Parents Want Focus on Academics Headline #:\ PP#
By Ann Bradley
ddAfrican-American parents, by an overwhelming margin, want the public schools
to focus on achievement rather than on racial
diversity and integration, a surv
ey released last week says.
ddWhen asked what the bigger priority for schools should be, 80 percent of blac
k parents chose raising academic standards and
achievement, according to the su
rvey by Public Agenda, a nonpartisan public-opinion research firm in New York C
ity. Nine percent
chose achieving diversity and integration, and 11 percent sai
d both.
ddPublic Agenda and the Public Education Network, a Washington-based group of n
onprofit local education funds, plan to use the
findings to engage Americans in
conversations about race and education nationwide next year.
ddWhite parents in the survey, whom researchers found "very reluctant to talk a
bout education in racial terms," expressed anxiety
about integration. More than
60 percent of those polled said they believed discipline and safety problems,
lower reading scores, and
social problems would follow if large numbers of blac
k students began attending a mostly white school.
ddStill, both groups of parents said that integration remained an important goa
1.
ddEight in 10 black parents and 66 percent of white parents said it was very or
somewhat important that their own child's school
be racially integrated.
ddNearly half of black parents said integration was very important, compared wi
th 28 percent of whites.
dd"School integration serves important "mostly social "functions," the study co
ncludes, "but academic achievement is, for both
groups, a separate and independ
ent issue."
ddThe findings "challenge some commonly held assumptions about what African-Ame
rican parents consider most important," said
Deborah Wadsworth, the executive d
irector of Public Agenda.
ddWhile black parents bring different experiences to the issue of public educat
ion from those of whites, she said, "their concern about
quality education and
academic standards and their agenda for achieving these is nearly identical."
ddWendy D. Puriefoy, the president of the Public Education Network, called the
results "exciting, affirming, and hopeful."
dd"There is common ground about the need for high-quality public education, com
mon ground on what education ought to look
like, and common ground that standar
ds and good teaching and community support are essential," she said.
dd'Lack of Passion'
ddThe study concludes that both groups of parents show "a distinctive lack of e
nergy and passion for integration."
ddThose attitudes stem from both races' doubts that integration improves learni
ng, the report says, and from white parents' fears that
they will have to "forf
eit the schools for which they searched long and hard."
dd"Time to Move On: African-American and White Parents Set an Agenda for Public
Schools" presents the results of 30-minute
telephone surveys of 800 black and
800 white parents conducted March 26 to April 17, as well as the findings from
eight focus
groups and individual interviews with parents and 22 public educato
rs. The margin of error for both racial groups surveyed is plus
or minus 3 perc
entage points.
ddThe focus groups were separated by race in an attempt to make participants fe
el more comfortable about what they wanted to say.
Public Agenda hopes to condu
ct similar research with other groups of minority parents, such as Hispanics an
d Asian-Americans.
ddBlack parents' insistence on academic achievement reflects their fears about
how their children are faring in schools, the report
suggests. "In their minds,
the problem is at crisis point," it says.
ddMost black parents (56 percent) estimated that fewer than half of black stude
nts attend good schools with good teachers. By
contrast, 74 percent thought tha
t white students attended good schools.
ddAnd while 48 percent of black parents thought that more than half of black st
udents are doing well in school, 47 percent disagreed,
saying that fewer than h
alf were achieving, the study found. ddBlack parents believe the problems facin
g black students are widespread, affecting even those outside inner cities and
without
regard to family income.
ddIn fact, 60 percent said they would switch their children from public to priv
ate schools if money were not an obstacle; only 38
percent would stay with thei
r public schools.
ddWhite parents also saw problems with the education of African-American childr
en, but tended to believe the problems were
confined to low-income families and
inner-city schools.
ddNo Test Bias Seen
ddThe survey also examines attitudes toward the issues of affirmative action in
school hiring and of alleged racial bias in
standardized testing.
ddAsked to choose among three ways to hire a superintendent in a mostly black d
istrict, 76 percent of black parents said the choice
should be the best candida
te, regardless of race. Only 4 percent would have hired a black candidate even
if it meant turning away
a better-qualified white candidate.
ddThree-fourths of black parents also said that a mostly black district should
hire the best teachers possible, regardless of race.
dd"These findings are strong and consistent but somewhat counterintuitive," the
report says, noting that 68 percent of black parents
thought that there was so
me truth to the statement that teachers and principals, because of racial stere
otypes, had lower expectations
for black students.
ddThe same proportion said that too many white teachers didn't know how to deal
with black students because they were from
different cultures.
ddEven though they believe black students "sometimes pay a price when taught by
whites," the study says, black parents "and
whites concur "think that racial c
onsiderations divert schools from academics.
ddAnd although racial bias in standardized testing is a perennial issue, the st
udy found that most African-American parents reject
bias as a reason for black
students' faring less well than whites on tests.
ddOnly 28 percent attributed such gaps to cultural bias. Forty-four percent of
black parents believed that the tests "measure real
differences in educational
achievement," while 18 percent cited a failure of expectations for the gap.
dd"A lot of parents don't lay down the law with their kids," the report quotes
one black parent in Cleveland as saying. "It's the quality
and effort and train
ing, starting at home."
ddIndeed, 72 percent of black parents agreed that "too many black parents negle
ct to push their kids to work hard in school," a
statement supported by 59 perc
ent of white parents.
ddNeal Johnson, a senior research partner with the Educational Testing Service'
S Washington-based office of public leadership, said
the study's findings jibe
with the testing company's own research, which has found that the percentage of
minority adults who believe
testing is biased is dropping.
ddAhead of Politicians
ddBut he cautioned that Public Agenda polled only parents, who would tend to be
younger than the African-American population
at large and thus less likely to
have experienced testing bias in their own school years.
d"Parents are ahead of the politicians and the talk show pundits on the issue
of test fairness," Mr. Johnson said. "They know what
their kids are experiencin
g in terms of the quality of education, and these data suggest that they're pro
ceeding with that information."
ddBeth Dilley, the executive director of the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Public Educat
ion Fund, which is affiliated with the Public
Education Network, said the findi
ngs "absolutely mirror what we hear here."
"Everybody wants a really good future for their kids," she said. "I think it
is unfortunate that so many people make judgments
about parents of color wantin
g less for their kids, when they're trapped in a system they can't control.'
Publication#W\ PP# 57. Education Week"Publication" #:\ P P#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
P
P# Researcher at Center of Storm Over Vouchers Headline #:\
PP#
By Debra Viadero
ddCambridge, Mass.
ddSchool is out on the Harvard University campus, and the atmosphere in Paul E.
Peterson's book-lined office is calm, even serene.
Footsteps echo in the corri
dor. Small groups of visitors saunter across the lawn outside.
ddBut the eye of a hurricane is supposed to be calm.
dd And if any scholar is at the center of a political storm these days, it i
S this political science professor with the dry Minnesota
wit. Wherever deb
ate roils over statistics from school choice programs, Mr. Peterson is usua
Ily at the heart of it.
dd In Milwaukee, he engaged in a verbal slugfest over the state-funded vouch
er experiment with the researcher appointed to
evaluate the program. In Cle
veland, he was at it again last year, attacking the official evaluation of th
e state-financed choice
program there.
dd In Dayton, Ohio, New York City, San Antonio, and the District of Columbia
, architects of privately backed choice plans have
engaged Mr. Peterson to
evaluate their efforts.
dd And so far, wherever he has gone, he and his colleagues have come to the
same conclusion: Private school choice works.
Students in such programs, hi
S studies have found, fare better academically than students who attend publi
c schools to which
they are assigned. dd His findings have endeared him to V
oucher advocates hungry for the credibility that his name and his universit
y affiliation
bring.
ddBut some opponents of such programs, as well as more independent-minded educa
tion researchers, suggest that Mr. Peterson lets
his enthusiasm for vouchers cr
eep into his work.
dd"There's no question that he's a passionate advocate for vouchers," said Henr
y M. Levin, a Stanford University professor of
education and economics who sits
with Mr. Peterson on a committee advising the evaluation of the Cleveland prog
ram. "And that
certainly dominates his perspective on these evaluations."
dd'Highest Repute'
ddCritics have also attacked Mr. Peterson's penchant for bypassing scholarly jo
urnals to make his case in newspaper editorials, and
the conservative funding S
ources behind some of his research.
ddHis supporters, however, say he is being demonized.
dd"It's sort of painful to see Paul taking potshots from people who question hi
S integrity and think of him as a kind of huckster, when
Paul is a scholar held
in the highest repute by political scientists," said Terry M. Moe, the Stanfor
d scholar whose 1989 book, Politics,
Markets, and America's Schools, written wi
th John E. Chubb, helped-propel the current movement for private school choice.
ddMr. Peterson's resume includes a long list of scholarly achievements, and his
1981 book about urban politics, City Limits, was
named the best book of the ye
ar by the American Political Science Association.
ddThe 57-year-old researcher rejects the notion that he is anything but a serio
us academic. If the criticism is sharp, Mr. Peterson says,
it's because the sta
kes are high: "When people address important topics, they are inevitably critic
ized."
ddIn Mr. Peterson's case, the important topic is vouchers, one of the most poli
tically charged issues in education. And many
researchers worry that outside pr
essures are interfering with scholarship.
dd"Even when he has limited data, he's always squeezing out whatever data he ca
n to arrive at a predetermined answer," contended
Bruce Fuller, a researcher fr
om the University of California, Berkeley, who has written critically of vouche
r plans.
ddPersonal Exchange
ddMr. Peterson says he was more of a skeptic than an advocate when he first loo
ked at statistics coming out of Milwaukee, where
a pioneering voucher initiativ
e created by the Wisconsin legislature to serve poor children was launched in 1
990.
ddThe official, state-commissioned study, conducted by John F. Witte, an educat
ion professor at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, compared students in the
choice program with regular Milwaukee public school students. Though parents in
the program gave it high marks, Mr. Witte found that students using the vouche
rs to attend private schools did no better on tests than
their public-sector pe
ers did.
ddBut when Mr. Peterson looked at the study's design, he saw what he believed W
as a better control group: students who by the luck
of the draw did not get int
o the private schools of their choice and, as a result, remained in public scho
ols. Parents of those students,
he surmised, would be just as motivated for the
ir children to succeed.
ddBut when he tried to do that analysis, Mr. Witte would not immediately share
the data, citing state-imposed restrictions on access,
privacy considerations,
and other concerns.
ddThat led to a bitter feud between the two men that endures.
dd"It obviously went well beyond an academic exchange," Mr. Witte said recently
"He and several other voucher supporters have
attacked me personally and cons
tantly misrepresented my appointment as evaluator of the Milwaukee program and
my objectivity.
And I am afraid that led me to act a bit like them."
ddSupporters of Mr. Peterson say the personalized tone was out of character for
him.
dd"Paul doesn't have a history of this sort of thing," Mr. Moe said, "and I don
't think Witte does either."
ddWhen Mr. Peterson and Harvard colleagues Jay P. Greene and Jiangtao Du finall
y got a chance to analyze the data in 1995, they
reached the opposite conclusio
n from the one they expected. They found that, after three and four years, the
voucher students
outperformed their public school counterparts in reading and m
athematics.
ddBut those findings were questioned, too, by researchers who pointed out the h
igh attrition rates at the private schools. Were the
scores higher because the
weaker students were leaving the program?1
ddIn an attempt to answer such criticisms, Mr. Peterson and his colleagues late
r revisited the data to explore the question of whether
student attrition had S
kewed the scores. The answer, they determined, was no.
ddWhat is more, the positive findings from Milwaukee were later echoed by a Pri
nceton University researcher who conducted her
own analysis.
ddCritiques in Cleveland
ddLast year, Mr. Peterson raised eyebrows again, this time in Cleveland, the si
te of the first state-funded voucher program to include
religious schools.
ddHe and Mr. Greene, now an assistant professor at the University of Texas at A
ustin, released data showing once again that students
in the private schools ha
d an academic edge over those in the public schools.
ddThere were a couple of catches, though. The scores came from only two of the
55 schools involved in the program, although those
schools enrolled 15 percent
of all the voucher students.
ddAnd, rather than being retested a full year later, students tested in the fal
I were tested again in the spring "a practice some
researchers found questionab
le.3 Mr. Peterson has since accounted for that difference, and still found the
private school students
holding a slight edge.
ddPaul T. Hill, a University of Washington professor and a Peterson supporter,
says Mr. Peterson's initial work on the Cleveland
program "is not a persuasive
study."
ddBut Mr. Hill, who has written in support of school choice, remains a proponen
t of the Harvard scholar's work. "We do now have
an advocacy-oriented debate, a
nd people on the negative side are going to present their case any way they can
he said. "I think Paulis in a position where he has to do the same thing or
let the negative information out there go unchallenged."
ddMr. Peterson acknowledges that the demand for information on vouchers is high
. "Some data's better than no data at all," he said.
"And that was the only dat
a available on Cleveland for people who wanted to know whether it had been work
ing."
ddThe debate in Cleveland flared up again earlier this year with the release of
the official first-year evaluation of the program. It
found no academic differ
ences between the 3rd graders in the program and their counterparts in the city
's public schools.
ddMr. Peterson, part of a group of researchers advising the state evaluators, a
rgued that those findings were suspect, noting among
other criticisms that the
study included scores for only 94 students.
ddKim Metcalfe, the Indiana University evaluator who conducted that study, defe
nded the results, but Mr. Peterson, unconvinced,
took his argument to newspaper
editorial pages and to state policymakers.
ddThose tactics irk some researchers, who contend that such debates are better
conducted in research journals or at conferences.
ddBut, said Mr. Peterson's research partner Mr. Greene, "it's important to cont
inue to release information without going through a
lengthy review process when
you're addressing real political issues that occur in real time."
ddEyeing N.Y.C.
ddMr. Fuller of UC-Berkeley takes Mr. Peterson to task for financing his evalua
tions with grants from conservative supporters of
voucher experiments, such as
the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the John M. Olin Foundation.
dd"That's like the tobacco companies sponsoring studies on the effects of smoki
ng," Mr. Fuller said.
ddMr. Peterson says his funding sources do not influence the outcomes of his st
udies. He admits, though, that the Milwaukee and
Cleveland studies were not per
fect. Yet they are better, he argues, than the state-sponsored evaluations.
ddMr. Peterson's recent research has bolstered his belief that school choice wo
rks, suggesting that "it's having a choice that makes
the difference rather tha
n which schools students go to."
ddHe is hoping that an evaluation under way in New York City may silence his cr
itics for good. In that city, more than 20,000
applicants competed in a lottery
last year for 1,300 privately financed, three-year scholarships to about 215 p
rivate schools.
ddThat setup, Mr. Peterson and his colleagues believe, gives them a chance to d
o their long-hoped-for randomized experiment, in
which enough schools and enoug
h students will be involved to overcome the problems with the earlier research.
The first results are
due out this fall.
ddlf he is dogged in his pursuit of the definitive voucher study, Mr. Peterson
says, it is because the need for drastic action is so
pressing. "I've definitel
y come to the conclusion that big-city school systems are in trouble and that S
omething needs to be done,"
he said. "Choice is an option out there that needs
to be investigated openly, fully, and fairly."n
Publication#W\
P P# 58. Education Daily"Publication" #:\
P
P#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Funding AlertHeadline #:\ PP#
by Staff Reports
dd* Systemic Initiatives Research: The National Science Foundation is seeking p
roposals that break new ground in education
thinking and advance systemic refor
m activities.
ddCategories of interest include models of reform, teachers and curriculum impl
ementation, leadership and governance, and
partnerships.
ddSpecific issues include successful approaches that have been used to move sch
ools or districts from non-standards-based to
standards-based science and mathe
matics education; how national standards and basic skills get translated into p
ractice; and the role
of district leadership in motivating and coordinating cha
nges across classrooms and schools.
ddDeadline: Oct. 15. A second competition is planned in fiscal 1999.
ddFunds: $4 million for awards ranging from $200,000 to $500,000 a year for one
to three years.
ddEligibility: Universities, colleges and nonprofit, non-academic organizations
ddContact: Bernice Anderson, Division of Research, Evaluation and Communication
, (703)306-1650; email, [email protected];
or Eric Hamilton, Division of Educati
onal System Reform, (703)306-1684; e-mail, [email protected]; Internet:
http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/ehr/rec/pubs/si-research.htm.
dd* Educational Public Broadcasting: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (C
PB) supports television, radio and
telecommunications education programming and
materials. CPB funds video, radio, new media and education projects that focus
on American art, culture and drama; America's international role; children; co
mmunity; economy; education; government; health;
history; and societal issues.
ddAll projects also must have high educational value; extend the project's valu
e through non-broadcast components or use of
multimedia; involve partnerships a
nd collaborations among producers, scholars, cultural and education institution
s, corporations and
other organizations; and reflect standards of excellence, e
xpertise and planning.
ddDeadline: CPB will accept proposals between Oct. 1 and Nov. 30; and between M
arch 1 and April 30, 1999.
ddFunds: About $260 million for all programs was given in 1997. Grant sizes var
y.
ddEligibility: Educators, independent producers, public television stations, pu
blic television organizations, national and regional
organizations and develope
rs of new media, such as Internet sites and CD-ROMs.
ddContact: Office of Education and Programming, Corporation for Public Broadcas
ting, 901 E St. NW, Washington, DC
20004-2037; (202)879-9600; Internet, http://
ready.cpb.org/grants.dd* Amoco Foundation: The Amoco Foundation supports elemen
tary and secondary math and science education and gives grants
to enhance new o
r existing programs for students at all levels, including disadvantaged and und
erserved youths.
ddThe foundation's Celebrating Science program brings in third- and fifth-grade
teachers for free science training at local plant
facilities. It also provides
certain schools with needed equipment such as balances, magnet and electricity
labs, microscopes and
publications. Other initiatives include support of minor
ity-retention programs at alternative schools for at-risk youths.
ddDeadline: Deadlines vary by program.
ddFunds: $19 million for 1998 and 1999. Grant sizes vary widely from $500 to se
veral hundred thousand dollars.
ddEligibility: Individual schools and school districts in Amoco communities nat
ionwide.n
Publication#W\ PP# 59. Education Daily"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# News BriefsHeadline #:\ PP#
by Staff Reports
dd* Federal Courts Reject Challenges To Prop. 227: Two federal courts on Friday
refused to block a voter-approved initiative to
limit bilingual education in C
alifornia.
ddThe U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied, without comment, an injunctio
n sought by civil rights groups to halt
implementation of Proposition 227. The
initiative took effect Aug. 2.
ddU.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird also ruled on Friday "for the U.S. District
Court for the Central District of California "that
Prop. 227 will not harm stu
dents in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
ddThe Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Civi
1 Liberties Union had sought to block the
measure on both fronts (ED, Aug. 3).
ddProp. 227 limits students to one year of bilingual education, with an emphasi
S on English immersion. "Rebecca S. Weiner
dd* Texas Teachers Want Fatter Paychecks: Texas could reap a $6 billion budget
surplus this year, and teachers want it to go toward
raises so their salaries W
ill meet the national average.
ddTexas teacher unions say a uniform pay hike of $6,000, plus incentives to lur
e teachers into shortage areas, would cost $3 billion
over two years "but help
raise teacher quality in the state, where many teachers aren't certified to tea
ch in their subject areas.
ddThe average Lone Star State teacher made $32,426 in 1996-97, compared to $38,
436 nationally.
ddLawmakers of both parties are seriously considering the plan, but won't make
any final decisions until next January when the state
legislature meets.
ddBut budgeters in the state senate warn that this summer's severe drought in T
exas could affect how a surplus is spent. "Jonathan
Foxn
Publication#W\
PP# 60. Education Daily"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\
PP# Initiative Spurs Math, Science Teaching Via LaptopsHeadline #:\
PP#
by Rebekah L. Stivers
ddThe Laptop Learning Challenge, sponsored by the National Science Teachers Ass
ociation (NSTA) and the Toshiba America
Foundation, aims to increase laptop com
puter use in teaching math and science both in and out of the classroom.
ddK-12 educators are eligible to apply for the program, which runs during the 1
998-99 school year. They must submit innovative
ideas for using laptops both in
classroom and informal education settings.
ddTwenty lesson-plan winners from four grade categories "K-5, 6-9, 10-12 and K-
12 informal settings "will receive Toshiba
laptops and expense-paid trips to NS
TA's national convention in Boston next March.
ddAt the convention, finalists will demonstrate their winning laptop lesson pla
ns, which NSTA will publish on its Web site.
ddA book on how to adapt the K"12 laptop lessons for pre-service teachers will
be published and include a disk of lessons.
ddNSTA's board meets next month to review and finalize program guidelines, whic
h will be available with applications Sept. 1,
according to NSTA's associate ex
ecutive director Marily DeWall.
ddThe program deadline likely will be in mid-January. "We want to be as non-spe
cific as possible with the criteria," DeWall said,
"so that teachers have more
room for creativity."
ddInformal educators, such as museum and nature center instructors, also are en
couraged to apply, she added.
ddNSTA will administer the program, splitting the cost with Toshiba, which awar
ds grants to middle and high schools for projects
serving students in grades se
ven through 12.n
Publication#W\ PP# 61. Education ly"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\ PP# Job Training Bills Would Allow Joint Voc Ed PlansHeadline #:\
PP#
by Gina Farrell
ddCongress has given final approval to job training legislation that would allo
W, but not mandate, states to submit joint plans for
vocational education, job
training and adult education.
ddThe Senate approved the conference committee report, H.R. 1385, by voice vote
last Thursday. The House followed suit Friday.
President Clinton has indicated
his support for it.
ddThe legislation would merge 60 programs into three block grants to states and
localities, while reducing federal involvement; puts
training providers in com
petition with each other; gives those seeking training more information about p
rogram quality; and lets
adults enroll in family literacy programs.
ddOne major sticking point for conferees was whether states would be allowed to
submit combined plans for job training, voc ed
and adult ed. The final comprom
ise will allow, but not mandate, these joint, two-year plans.
ddNow that lawmakers are finished with job training reform, they are expected t
o take up voc ed reauthorization after returning in
September from a month-long
recess.
ddAfter the Senate followed the House's lead by separating job training from vo
c ed reauthorization, some were concerned it might
mean voc ed would be pushed
aside this year.
ddBut Joe Karpinski, spokesman for the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committ
ee, said plenty of time remains. "Voc ed
shouldn't be affected at all," he said
.n
Publication#W\ PP# 62. Education Daily"Publication" #:\ PP#August 4, 1998
Headline#\ PP# House Consolidated Loans Spell Trouble In Congress
For EDHeadli
ne #:\ PP#
by Eli J. Lake
ddHouse and Senate lawmakers are raising a number of concerns with the Educati
on Department 's recent decision to lower interest
rates on loans consolidated
through its direct student loan (DSL) program.
ddHouse legislative staff contend that ED's decision has weakened its hand for