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Dec. 12 to 19, 2003Houston Schools Wary in Educational
Software Deal with Neil Bush / 7 district schools win state
appeals TEA says six others failed to make adequate yearly progress
/ Dallas Morning News Education Sec. Defends Houston
Schools / AP Teachers aides face tough new
standards under federal act / AP Funding input offered on GATE;
Gifted-students program weighs options for smaller budget /
Fresno Bee Getting a new kick ; Schools
try non-traditional PE classes to get kids moving / Grand Rapids
Press NCLB becomes guidepost
/ Journal News ( At Bard College, a Plan to
Teach Teachers More of What They're Teaching / New York Times Urban scores below national
average, but other comparisons show promise / Boston Globe Religious clothing generally
allowed in U.S. schools / CNN.com Houston Schools Wary in Educational Software
Deal with Neil Bush By
Ron Nissimov, Dec.
14--As Neil Bush's soap-operatic life took another twist in On
Thursday, the The
board in June already had approved spending $115,000 this academic year
to use the company's eighth-grade But
the board voted 5-3 to delay accepting the donations, with some board
members saying they worried they might be accused of helping Bush cash
in on his family name. Bush's
business dealings have recently come under scrutiny with his contentious
divorce from his wife, Sharon. In a deposition, Bush admitted that Ignite
investor Winston Wong, a Taiwanese semiconductor tycoon, paid him $2
million in stock for consulting in the semiconductor industry, even
though he has no experience in the field. "I'm
not, as a trustee, going to engage in another debacle; we've had enough
of those on our hands," said board member Larry Marshall, referring
to the dropout reporting scandal that has recently rocked HISD. Even
though Ignite has been implemented in 17 HISD middle schools and six
high schools since August, board members asked for more information
about the program's performance and how HISD entered into the agreement
before approving the outside funding. Ken
Leonard, president of Ignite, said he understands why HISD trustees
would want to keep a "low profile" because of recent negative coverage,
but he expects the matter to be quickly resolved. The
Austin-based company has been frequently examined in the media since
Bush founded it in 1999, primarily because of its unusual funding sources
and his family ties. Some of the $23 million the company has raised
in four rounds of financing has come from foreign oil and computer magnates,
and other funds have come from GOP donors who are close to the Bush
family. Commentators and watchdog groups have suggested that these contributions
were made in the hopes of gaining access to the White House. They
also note that Bush's two brothers are strong advocates of educational
policies that could greatly benefit his company. President Bush made
educational accountability one of his top priorities as School
administrators and teachers, increasingly judged by how many of their
students pass state-mandated accountability tests, are often turning
to educational software to try to motivate bored or troubled students.
"Sales
in Texas are usually driven by mathematics and reading, but we expect
social studies will be emerging as a more important subject area in
the next few years, largely as a result of TAKS (Texas Assessment of
Knowledge and Skills, the new state-mandated test)," said Tom Deliganis
of Houston, regional vice president for Plato Learning, the largest
provider of educational software in the state. Deliganis
said Neil Bush tried to hire him in 2000. "He's
a competitor, and I don't necessarily want to see him do well, but I
don't get the impression he's a sleazy guy," Deliganis said. "I get
the impression he's trying to improve education." But
few can forget Bush's checkered business history. In the late 1980s,
he served as director of Silverado Savings and Loan, which collapsed
during the S&L scandal and cost taxpayers about $1 billion. A civil
lawsuit against Bush and other Silverado officers was settled for $49.5
million. Bush,
47, last week denied that he is trying to capitalize on his brothers'
substantial influence. "I've
had zero conversation (with my brothers) regarding policy, and effectively
none about my business," he said. He
called his new business a "definite lifelong focus of mine." A
dyslexic student who often fell behind in middle school, Bush said he
endured an oppressive school environment but persevered to earn a bachelor's
degree and an MBA from "I
worked harder than the average student and survived grade school, but
have scarred memories of a stifling learning environment," Bush wrote
in an e-mail exchange with the Houston Chronicle from Bush
said he developed an interest in educational reform after seeing his
son Pierce go through a similar painful experience. After researching
"multiple intelligences" and other educational theories, Bush said,
"I developed the core beliefs that drive our business." Developed
by a Harvard cognition expert, multiple intelligence theory posits that
students have different types of "intelligences" -- visual, auditory
or interpersonal, for example -- and that traditional schooling does
not work for all types. "The
one-size-fits-all method of instruction fails most students," Bush wrote.
"We believe learning is best accomplished by doing. Learning is an active
process that involves thinking. Learning is only partly about memorization,
memorizing leads to forgetting. And finally we believe there is an unrealized
potential for harnessing the power of technology to allow teachers to
make individual and unique connections with each student." Sam
Wineburg, a "Multiple-intelligence
theory has absolutely no data to support it," he said. Ignite
develops products for middle-school students. It offers an eighth-grade
Ignite
president Leonard said this is the first full year the company has sold
its product. Previously, it provided software free to schools around
the country to generate a track record. Most of the 40,000 students
who use the software are in HISD
is by far the largest user of Ignite products, Leonard said. The
company approached HISD in 2002, and the district agreed to pay $45,000
to use the software in six middle schools in 2002-2003. HISD Superintendent
Kaye Stripling said the district initially balked at expanding the program
because of the annual $10,000-per-school price. Eager to enlist a large
number of schools into the program, Bush agreed to let them pay half
and raise the rest of the money with the foundation's help. "We
wouldn't be able to do that," said Arnold Kleinstein, vice president
of WorldView Software, the nation's largest maker of social studies
and history educational software, about Bush's ability to quickly persuade
movers and shakers to contribute funds. Karen
Billings, vice president of a Former
Iranian Ambassador Hushang Ansary, a "Every
time someone succeeds in public service, others look around to penalize
people who are members of his family," Ansary said. "I'm not aware of
any effort on the part of Neil Bush to benefit from the president's
presence in the White House." Principals,
teachers and students in "My
mom heard me sing a history song, and said, 'Where'd you get that from?'
" said Elibeth Matamoros, an eighth-grader in HISD's Connie
Barr, principal at Mendez Middle School in Austin, said Ignite played
a major role in increasing state test scores in social studies by 28
percent a couple of years ago. But
Wineburg, the Stanford professor, said such claims must be evaluated
by independent third parties before they can be taken seriously. Ignite
and the HISD Foundation are negotiating with the UH
Education Dean Robert Wimpelberg said the terms are being hammered out
and that the foundation would pay for the project. RESOURCES
Investors
in Neil Bush's educational software company include: --
Bush's parents, former President George and Barbara Bush. --
Winston Wong, a Taiwanese semiconductor tycoon who founded Shanghai
Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. with the son of former Chinese
President Jiang Zemin. --
Former Iranian ambassador to the United States Hushang Ansary, now a
--
--
Les and Anne Csorba of Houston, who served in the first Bush administration
and donated $2,000 to President Bush's 2000 election campaign. --
Sofidiv Inc., a division of the Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury goods
company. --
Mohammed Al Saddah of the Ultra Horizon Co. in Sources:
Associated Press; Chronicle research SOFTWARE
USERS IN Middle
schools: High
schools: 7 district schools win state appeals TEA
says six others failed to make adequate yearly progress By
BILL LODGE, Seven
But
five others lost their appeals to the Texas Education Agency, it was
announced last week. And
a sixth was added to the list of local schools that did not make "adequate
yearly progress." The
student population at the evening school was too small for the action
to qualify as a significant problem, Ms. Vannoy said. The
five schools that lost appeals - Lakeview and But
Ms. Vannoy said they did not meet the federal requirement for 95 percent
participation and were therefore on the list of schools that did not
make Adequate Yearly Progress. That
high participation requirement caused hundreds of "Since
it's federal law, the state really can't change it," Ms. Vannoy said.
"But
they [TEA officials] said that this spring we can have makeup tests
for the grades and subjects in the AYP system." She
said that means students in grades three through eight, as well as grade
10, will be given a second opportunity to take tests in language arts,
reading and mathematics - if they were absent on scheduled test days.
"That
gives kids a better opportunity to participate," Ms. Vannoy said. "I
think the intention [of the federal law] is that we be held accountable
for all students. And we want all students to participate. It's just
been difficult to reconcile that absences can have such an effect on
a school's status." The
But
the new federal AYP requirement could seriously penalize schools that
don't meet a 95 percent participation standard for two consecutive years.
Such schools would have to notify parents that they could transfer their
children to another school and have the district pay the cost of transportation.
This
year, The
other schools to fail AYP did so because fewer than 95 percent of students
in one or more student subgroups didn't take the TAKS test, Ms. Vannoy
said. Under
the new federal law, a campus can have 95 percent overall participation
in TAKS but fail AYP if that mark is not met by subgroups of 50 or more
students in any of six categories: black, Hispanic, white, poor, special
education, or those speaking little or no English. The
TEA made a slight change in that requirement, Ms. Vannoy said, granting
appeals to schools that made the 95 percent mark without having more
than nine absences among any student subgroups. That
change, she said, resulted in a passing AYP grade for Ms.
Vannoy said state and local officials hope federal officials take action
to reduce the impact of the 95 percent participation requirement in
2004. "We're
still waiting to hear about some Department of Education decisions that
may affect AYP this coming year," she said. Education Sec. Defends Houston Schools
By
PAM HUNTSVILLE,
Texas (AP) - Education Secretary Rod Paige said opponents of the Bush
administration's education reforms are unfairly attacking the Houston
school district he once led in an attempt to chip away at the No Child
Left Behind law. In
an interview Saturday with The Associated Press, Paige said the Under
Paige, "There
has been a decided effort to look at the vulnerabilities at the expense
of any acknowledgment at all," said Paige, who was in Paige
did acknowledge that the dropout definition used by the state of "The
idea that if we can beat up and make the Houston Independent School
District or the state of Texas like some pinata -- beat up on it until
something good falls out -- is mistaken because this bill is much broader
than that and is much stronger than that," Paige said of the federal
No Child Left Behind law, which was based in part on Texas' education
reforms begun in the 1980s. The
federal law passed in 2001 calls for expanded testing, higher teacher
quality and greater achievement among students, particularly those in
poor districts. Teachers aides face tough new standards under
federal act AP,
The
federal No Child Left Behind Act requires school paraprofessionals to
either earn an associate's degree or higher, pass a basic skills test
or complete two years of relevant coursework at an institution of higher
education or approved programs at the district level. The
requirements must be met by 2006, or the teachers will lose their jobs.
On
a recent evening at "The
more I can learn about coming up with strategies to help (students),
the better it is for them and me," Lisa Durant, a 37-year-old Teachers'
aides have seen their classroom roles increase in recent years, as an
influx of special education students and tougher overall standards shifted
duties from mundane tasks, such as stapling papers, to direct involvement
in a child's learning. Most
paraprofessionals are women and mothers, and many have only a high school
diploma. As many as 75 percent of the 10,000 paraprofessionals represented
by the MTA do not meet the requirements of the law, with the highest
concentration of those in the cities, said Kathleen Skinner, director
of professional development at the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
"In
essence, what you have is the neediest kids getting services from the
least capable person," Skinner said. "Not that the para is not capable
of being capable, but it's rather that the districts have ignored them."
School
officials expect many aides will retire rather than meet the tougher
requirements. Those who plan to stay wonder if their salaries will reflect
their new skill level. Nationally, teachers' aides make an average of
about $15,350, compared with a teacher's average salary of $45,930.
"There
should be requirements," said Carol Belmont, a In
the class at Brockton High, concerns about the new requirement give
way to the fun of learning. Linda Woo, a 54-year-old library aide at
the "I
can't tell you how exciting that was," she said. Funding input offered on GATE; Gifted-students
program weighs options for smaller budget Tim
Bragg, To
help give parents and students more say in how the limited funds for
Gifted and Talented Education, or GATE, are spent, the The
committees, made up mostly of the parents of GATE students, give recommendations
to each school's principal on how they would like to see the GATE budget
spent, said district Superintendent Stan Carrizosa. "We
wanted to give parents the chance to influence how to spend the GATE
money," Carrizosa said. "This makes everyone work together in a positive
way." Parents
at most schools held their first committee meetings over the last month
or two. Jonathan
Schouest, an 18-year-old "We've
talked about trying to increase people's awareness of GATE," Schouest
said. "There are a lot of parents who say they've never heard of it."
But
the committees don't have much money to work with. The
amount of funding each school receives depends on how many GATE students
it has. Carrizosa said the total amounts can range from a couple of
hundred dollars to several thousand depending on the school and its
population. The
amount of money schools get for each GATE pupil was slightly lowered
this year as the district deals with lower levels of overall funding
from the state, said Karen Rowe, administrator of curriculum and instruction
for the district. She
said most schools use the money for training teachers and buying instruction
materials. Carrizosa
said the committees were formed in part because the district is reviewing
its GATE policies to put them in line with the federal No Child Left
Behind Act. But
the committees also came about after a brouhaha over GATE students last
school year at The
school had a decreasing number of students a few years ago as many of
the residents in the neighborhood aged beyond their child-raising years,
Carrizosa said. The
district allowed students from other schools to transfer to Royal Oaks,
and Carrizosa said teachers used some innovative techniques with gifted
students. "We
never had a formal GATE program at Royal Oaks, but there were a lot
of GATE students there," he said. Carrizosa
said younger families began to move back into the area, and the transfer
policy had to end so they could accommodate new students at their neighborhood
school. Getting a new kick ; Schools try non-traditional
PE classes to get kids moving Kym
Reinstadler, Every
move seems measured and must be delivered with control. Getting it right
is arduous. "It's
fun to be doing those moves, but it's harder than it looks," said Matt
Horn, an eighth-grader at West Middle School, who got three tae kwon-do
lessons in a six-week "encore" physical fitness class. "It's a good
workout." Patricia
Fodor and Jim Vandermeer, West's physical education teachers, introduce
students to some non-traditional sports such as tae kwon-do, badminton,
archery, floor hockey and dance aerobics. Their hope is students will
experience some fitness activities they enjoy enough to do throughout
their lifetime. They
say they don't get enough time with students to get or keep them physically
fit. So their aim is to teach lessons and skills the students can use
to keep themselves fit and ignite a passion for being healthy. "Sometimes
it seems like there's this big fitness craze going on, but we find that
strong emphasis is clustered in a small percentage of students," Vandermeer
said. "I'd say only one-third to one-half of our kids are regularly
involved in some physical activity outside of school." That's
why several physical education teachers are concerned gym seems to be
getting crowded out of the school day -- a trend that parallels a nationwide
increase in childhood obesity. Holland
Community Hospital Foundation is preparing to launch a pilot program
targeting childhood obesity next year. A recent local survey by the
And
many of the parents themselves are not very active. A report by the
Governor's Council says that 55 percent of "I
don't want to say it's a battle, but more and more it feels like a battle
getting time with the kids," said Tim deForest, a PE teacher at Waukazoo
and Woodside elementaries. "An administrator once said to me, 'You just
taught a great lesson, but how does it relate to the MEAP?' " DeForest
doesn't like having to justify physical education as if it were a luxury.
"I'm
teaching activities to keep your body healthy," deForest said. "If you
don't have your health, not much else matters." Regular
physical activity improves a child's physical, psychological and emotional
health. There's also a compelling link between a child's physical well-being
and his or her ability to achieve in the classroom, said Bob Haveman,
an elementary gym teacher who leads These
programs hold schools accountable for students' continual improvement
in academics. That's why educators in many districts are devoting more
time in the school day to language arts, math, science and social studies,
and less time to physical education and fine arts. "If
the school day was a 2-pound sack, we're guilty of trying to load 3
pounds into it," Haveman said. "It's all good stuff, but there's not
time or money for everything." Although
he sees the big picture, Haveman believes parents need help from schools
to get their children -- especially the non- athletes -- up and moving.
Vandermeer
said his most satisfying experience as a teacher came from an eighth-grader
who ran a 12-minute mile. That's
not a feat you will read about on the sports pages, but it inspired
cheers and high fives among the rest of the class. That
student had been very overweight as a sixth-grader, and had difficulty
walking a mile. He
steadily became more fit over two years to run the mile in 12 minutes.
The accomplishment excited everyone, Vandermeer said. "I
wish we had it every day of the year because it's my favorite class,"
said Alyssa Israels, a member of James
Withers, The Journal News, For
Tuckahoe's School Superintendent Dr. Michael Yazurlo the "No Child Left
Behind" law - a federal mandate that requires states to set appropriate
achievement standards for children - does not provide appropriate financial
support. "The
law produces many mandates costing lots of money, but (does) not provide
much money. We finally have a system of accountability in place. Public
schools need to be accountable like anyone else, but when you realize
public schools function as a product of taxpayer money, we can't always
go to the taxpayer when we get unfunded mandates from the federal or
state governments." The
NCLB law is the product of President George W. Bush. When Bush ran for
office in 1999, he made public education reform an important plank in
his campaign. Using
some ideas from his tenure as governor of NCLB,
which applies to all public schools across the country, requires states
to come up with levels of achievement for grades 3 to 8, and to administer
annual tests to see if students are meeting state expectations. If
schools do not meet their own standards, then parents may exercise certain
rights, such as sending a child to another district school or having
the district provide tutoring. Those rights are now mentioned on the
New York State Education Department Web site: www.nysed.gov.
"(NCLB)
has pretty sweeping changes in it, and we felt it was important that
parents be aware of the various aspects of the act," said Tom Dunn,
There
are three important parts of NCLB. The law requires that by 2014 all
students should "be performing at the proficiency level in reading,
language arts, math, and science." Yearly progress must be shown to
reach that goal and Title I schools that do not show progress in the
same subject and grade two years in a row will be tagged as schools
"in need of improvement." Such
schools must make public their plan of bettering scores. Local and state
education officials have to inform parents what is happening on the
respective levels to improve the school. Children attending these schools
may be allowed to transfer to a different school in the district or
receive extra help supplied by the district. States are required to
keep a list of schools designated "in need of improvement." Even
schools not designated as such will be asked to come up with progress
reports. At the end of the academic year, every school is required to
create a public report card on how well the school is meeting the academic
standards created by the state. The
report card will also inform parents as to how many students are functioning
at high or low levels. Achievement levels will also be broken down according
to "sub-groups" based on gender, economic backgrounds, racial groups
and language backgrounds. Small
school districts such as Tuckahoe, Bronxville or Nonetheless,
this year the New Rochelle district announced a new initiative in which
testing will take place in grades 3, 5, 6 and 7 in addition to the yearly
state assessments already taking place in grades 4 and 8. The new tests
are meant to be a tool for the district and parents, and will not be
publicly announced as are the standard assessments. At
present, it is uncertain how NCLB will ultimately be implemented; that
uncertainty, however, does not change the fact that NCLB is the new
guidepost for public education. But
for Yazurlo, NCLB is fraught with problems, especially economic ones.
"I
will follow the law to the letter, but as a practicing superintendent
it is a bit disconcerting," Yazurlo said. At By
KAREN W. ARENSON, New York Times, Leon
Botstein has long believed that teachers colleges have been getting
it all wrong. Now he is doing something about it. As
the president of "The
education schools in the In
the Bard program, students will take as many courses in the subjects
they are going to teach — English, history, physics or math —
as they will in pedagogy. In most graduate education programs, students
mostly take courses about how to teach and few, if any, graduate courses
in their fields. Dr.
Botstein said he hoped the new Bard Master of Arts in Teaching program
would serve as a model for reshaping teacher education. The program
was approved by the New York State Education Department last month and
will start in June. David
G. Imig, president of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher
Education, in Dr.
Imig said most teacher education programs now emphasize pedagogy and
reflect the regulations of the states they are in. Doris
T. Garner, who oversees the evaluation of teacher education programs
for New York State, said the state does not require a specific number
of courses or credits in pedagogy, but looks at whether certain "competencies"
are being taught, including knowledge about human development, how students
learn and how to manage a classroom. "If
a school of education had no pedagogy," she said, "it wouldn't fly." Dr.
Botstein said he would have liked even more training in subject knowledge
and less pedagogy, but had to compromise to meet Bard
is also asking that applicants have an undergraduate major in the subject
they want to teach, or equivalent course work. Diane
Ravitch, an education historian and an advocate of stronger teacher
preparation, said the course work described in Bard's catalog appeared
"for the most part, substantive and rigorous." But,
she added, "much of the surrounding rhetoric about methods and goals"
— material on teacher reflection and critical thinking, for example
— "sounds very much like a typical ed school." But
some education deans, like Alfred S. Posamentier of the Bard,
in Dr.
Botstein said that starting the high school renewed his conviction that
teachers need better preparation. The school hired college professors
with doctorates to teach many of the classes in the second two years
of the program, but hired regular high school teachers for the 9th-
and 10th-grade classes. Finding 9th- and 10th-grade teachers steeped
in their disciplines was "one of the issues that came up," he said. Bard
also runs the Institute for Writing and Thinking, which has trained
47,000 teachers from middle schools, high schools and colleges in the
past 21 years. Ric Campbell, the former associate director of the institute
and a former public school teacher, is directing the new master's degree
program. Students
will pay $24,500 in tuition for the 12-month program. They will take
six graduate courses in their fields and six in pedagogy. They will
also have extensive student teaching experience and conduct research
in schools about what kind of teaching is most effective. Bard
hopes to have 40 to 60 students in its first class, with no more than
15 per discipline, and to add disciplines and students as it goes along. Bard
has arranged to work with some public schools nearby; their officials,
including Jan Volpe, superintendent of the But,
she added, subject knowledge has to be balanced with pedagogy, because
"not everybody can teach." Urban scores below national average, but
other comparisons show promise By
Ben Feller, Associated Press, But
in these urban centers, where large numbers of disadvantaged kids live,
students compete well when compared with national peers of the same
race, ethnicity or economic level. Ten
school districts volunteered to set the city benchmark in the National
Assessment of Educational Progress, regarded as the nation's report
card on a range of subjects. The goal is to give these cities a valid
way to compare themselves with areas that share problems and population
trends and to track their progress on a test known for its stringent
scoring. Across
the country, in reading, only 30 percent of fourth-graders and eighth-graders
reach at least the key level, proficient, which means competency over
difficult material. In math, 31 percent of fourth-graders and 27 percent
of eighth-graders do at least that well. In
almost every case, the city students did worse, the new scores show.
That means less than three out of 10 students achieved at the level
they should have, based on federal standards. The
sole exception was Yet
The
chosen school districts account for one out of eight of the nation's
poor students, one out of seven minority students and one out of six
students with limited English. Beyond
Overall,
Darvin
Winick, chairman of the independent board that oversees the test, said
the scores should erode the myth that students in urban districts can't
compete. City comparisons to national averages can obscure the fact
that, in a few cases, black students in the cities scored better than
blacks nationwide, as also was the case for some Hispanic students. Still,
notable performance gaps with whites persisted. "I'm
not saying it's a positive finding for minorities. What I'm saying is
it's not the urban district environment that's driving it," said Winick,
an education adviser to President Bush when Bush was governor of Education
Secretary Rod Paige commended the districts for taking part. His views
of the results were less rosy than those of Winick, whom Paige appointed
to his post. "The
achievement gap in these districts is something that I find truly worrisome,"
Paige said. "It is a problem nationally, but in some of the districts,
it is abysmal. ... As a nation, we must stand united against a culture
that mocks academic success in certain communities." This
is the first time in the test's history, which dates to 1969, that district
scores were available in math. Six of the cities took part in the first
district-level reading tests in 2002, and most of them have improved
their scores since last year, said Michael Casserly, executive director
of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of urban districts. The
reading test ranged from literary analysis to comprehension of basic
daily tasks, while the math test covered such areas as probability,
algebra and mathematical reasoning. Religious clothing generally allowed in AP,
French
President Jacques Chirac's call to ban religious symbols and clothing
in state schools and hospitals has met with controversy in American
students generally have the right to wear religious garb such as a Jewish
skullcap, a Muslim scarf or a cross in public school, although restrictions
can be made if the school has a dress code that is not directed at a
particular faith. For
example, a school trying to limit gang activity may set a dress code
that incidentally bars religious clothing like headwear, according to
Jeffrey Sinensky, general counsel for the American Jewish Committee.
If
a school has such a dress code, administrators still have the power
to make exceptions if a student asks to wear a religious item. School
officials usually accommodate students, though occasionally disputes
arise that make their way into court, said Sinensky and Ibrahim Hooper,
of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group.
Hooper
said there have been sporadic cases in which school districts have attempted
to ban headscarves or persuade Muslim girls not to wear them, usually
from a mistaken belief that they disrupt the school environment. But
the conflicts have usually been quickly resolved, he said. Rules
regarding what teachers can wear are different. Several states bar public
school teachers from wearing religious clothing, in an attempt to have
a religiously neutral classroom. Other
big cities top By Lori Olszewski,
Tribune staff reporter, Despite years of efforts
at education reform, Students from the The Trial Urban District
Assessment, the broadest national comparison of its kind, sampled several
thousand students' scores in 10 urban areas, to compare students who
face similar challenges, such as poverty and language barriers. Students in "On the one hand,
it's encouraging to see proof-positive that big urban districts can
educate students as well as other districts, and that demography does
not determine achievement," said Kati Haycock, director of the
non-profit Education Trust. "But it's also a reminder of how far
some of our biggest districts have to go to realize the learning potential
of their students." Some educators said
the school systems that did well, such as In "Successful reforms
balance standardization in the low-performing schools matched by support
for innovation in schools that demonstrate achievement," said Warren
Simmons, director of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. This marks the second
year NAEP test results were available from a sample of individual urban
school districts. Usually, NAEP is only reported as a statewide result,
and historically only about 80 percent of states participated. This
year was the first that all 50 states and the NAEP is considered one
of the more difficult state tests required under No Child Left Behind.
Last year, 2002 NAEP
reading results were broken out for grades 4 and 8 in six urban districts:
On the 2003 test, Fourth-grade scores
here were below the urban averages in both categories. In reading, 40
percent of Though disappointing,
the test was an improvement for "We know we have
a lot of work to do," said Barbara Eason-Watkins, chief education
officer for the Chicago Public Schools. She said she was pleased
to see 4th-grade reading scores rise, while she stressed that Eason-Watkins and other
educators also cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from the
NAEP data because only a small sample of each district's students take
the test. Some educators question whether the samples were selected
in the same way from each district as well. Despite Its success with black
students, who still make up the majority of the public school population,
continues to lag. The Council of Great
City Schools, an organization representing Chicago and more than 60
of the nation's largest systems, lobbied for the urban analysis. The
group wanted districts with similar challenges, such as large numbers
of poor students or students who don't speak English, to have information
they could share and compare. A "Cities are capable
of outpacing state and national trends," said Michael Casserly,
executive director of the Council of Great City Schools. For example, For the first time,
the National Assessment of Educational Progress test reported results
for 10 major urban school districts across the country. In most cases,
Chicago Public Schools ranked below the urban average. Results are based on
a representative sample of students tested at each grade level. Percentages
represent the portion of students who performed at or above the basic
level.* Source: 2003 Trial Urban
District Reading Assessment and 2003 Trial Urban District Mathematics
Assessment using the National Assessment of Educational Progress test.
Study
Finds Special Ed Disparities; Race, Income Affect Treatment of Students Linda African American and
Hispanic students in special education were far more likely than white
and Asian students in recent years to be educated in special classrooms
instead of integrated into the general population, according to a study
of special education in Montgomery County Public Schools. The study also found
that students who live in poverty were almost 21/2 times more likely
than higher-income students to be labeled emotionally disturbed, and
African Americans were almost three times more likely than whites to
be identified as mentally retarded, a ratio that lowers only slightly
when controlling for income. The report was prepared
by Margaret J. McLaughlin and Sandra Embler
of the University of Maryland School of Education under the auspices
of the county's Continuous Improvement Team. The Board of Education
had directed the team to come up with a set of indicators for measuring
the status of special education in the county. The report was completed
in the summer but presented to the board last week as part of an update
on special education services. "Most of it was
anticipated, but to get anything done you have to have a baseline for
improvement," said Ricki Sabia,
a co-chairman of the Continuous Improvement Team. "The whole point
of the report was to bring up these issues, and the next step is to
drill down what to do about it." The research, conducted
from 2000 to 2002, found that black and Hispanic special education students
were more likely than other disabled students to be taught in segregated
settings instead of regular classrooms. State guidelines require the
county to increase the number of special education students integrated
into regular classrooms. Black students received
an average of 16.8 hours of special education services in total weekly
compared with 14.8 for Hispanics and 12.4 hours for whites. Low-income
students received 16.3 hours weekly, compared with 12 hours for the
rest of the population. For students with and
without disabilities, a gap in academic performance exists by race and
by income. Brian Bartels, Montgomery County's director of special education,
said this correlation may partially explain why black, Hispanic and
low-income disabled students are receiving more intensive services in
less integrated environments, not just in Montgomery County but elsewhere
in the state as well. Educators may recommend
more intensive services -- not necessarily in separate settings -- because
of the greater instructional needs of students with lower achievement
levels, Bartels said. Attendance rates for
special education students were, depending on school level, from 1 percentage
point to 3 percentage points lower than rates for students in regular
programs. Disparity in absences was greatest in high schools. Students
with emotional disabilities and low-income students were most likely
to have many absences. Bartels said depression
and behavioral problems may be keeping some emotionally disturbed students
home, though he also said the attendance rate may have been skewed by
a small number of students with very large numbers of absences. Regardless of income,
Asian American students were less likely than those in any other racial
or ethnic group to receive special education services. They were, however,
more likely to receive assistance in speech and language. Thirteen percent of
students with disabilities received no scores on the Comprehensive Test
of Basic Skills. The CTBS is not used to comply with the federal No
Child Left Behind Act, but test participation is a concern because the
law requires that 95 percent of students in any group, including special
education, take standardized tests. Of the students who
took the test, 70 percent received extra time to complete it, and more
than 50 percent of sixth-graders and 25 percent of second-graders used
a calculator -- both permitted accommodations. In surveys, special
education teachers said parents do not support them in discipline or
instruction or recognize their accomplishments, while parents and special
education teachers felt that teachers in regular classrooms have low
expectations for disabled students. No
Child Left Behind act must change, officials say
DIANE R. STEPP, Cherokee school officials
are sounding off in the state Capitol and in In a strongly worded
resolution sent to state legislators and U.S. Sen. Zell
Miller (D-Ga.), Cherokee board members urged
changes in the No Child Left Behind act to address a list of "serious
concerns." All four Cherokee high
schools, all but one middle school and several elementary schools were
on the state's "needs improvement" list this year, which was
compiled based on federal guidelines. They landed there largely because
too few students among certain subgroups took the state curriculum test
last spring. "By arbitrarily
and unilaterally creating AYP [adequate yearly progress] formulas, the
federal [and state] government has damaged the credibility, reputation
and morale of some very good and, in some cases, excellent schools,"
board members said. Suggested changes include
not assigning equal weight to all of the progress calculations. Cherokee school officials
also want to see that students who do not speak English and have been
in the The unanimously adopted
resolution also says that federal funding provided to implement the
requirements of the federal education standards "is insufficient
to meet realistic goals for all students." Walton principal lauds
football team Kudos for Cherokee High
varsity football team members came from Following Cherokee's
win over the undefeated team from "Your team played
almost flawlessly and deserved the victory," Higgins wrote. "The
football team represented your school and community extremely well in
sportsmanship." Student art to be shown
at airport Beginning this month,
internationally arriving and departing passengers at 2003
SCHOOL REPORT CARD. Pupils buck trend at least in 1 place By Jodi S. Cohen, Tribune
staff reporter, With their backpacks
and coats scattered along a hallway at The door swung open,
and the pupils, overwhelmingly black and Latino, rushed inside. "Faster,
people, faster," shouted 10-year-old Rebekah
Qualls as 14 classmates scrambled to the carpet in front of the chalkboard
for extra practice calculating perimeter, area and volume. Later, after the morning
bell rang and the rest of the pupils arrived, the class practiced reading
skills as their teacher, Vickie Witt, met in small groups with pupils
struggling to understand how to summarize a story. This individual attention,
practiced schoolwide, is part of what's behind the school's rising test
scores and the relatively small achievement gap between minority students
and their white peers, educators say. "Think about it,"
said Witt, who has a class of 20 pupils. "I know what my kids don't
get ... I am trying to meet their individual needs." The For the first time this
year, the performance of racial and ethnic minorities, poor and special
education students,groups arguably long overlooked, have consequences.
The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires that these subgroups,
in addition to the schoolwide population,
meet certain goals. If even one subgroup fails to meet the standards,
the school is considered academically troubled. Although some schools'
numbers are in dispute, the Tribune has verified that at While a difference still
exists, it is one of the smallest among the state's racially integrated
schools. What's more, it is considerably lower than at peer schools
with similar low-income and racially diverse populations, such as Dewey
Elementary in "I would love for
it to not make a difference of black versus white. That is possible;
it is just a lot of work," said Independence Principal Faith Dahlquist.
"We don't set the kids aside and say the African-American students
are going to get this or that. But we do try to look at who is struggling
and what that child needs." Teachers at Parents and teachers
list other reasons for the success: academic goals set by students,
extraordinary staff dedication, strong parental involvement and curriculum
changes based on test-score data. They do it all while
spending $6,881 for each pupil, lower than the $8,181 average expenditure
per student statewide. Dahlquist can't remember the last time the school bought new desks
or furniture. Around 1996, the janitor obtained stacks of library chairs
that a Educators have long
debated reasons for the achievement gap. Some say there are lower expectations
for minorities and negative peer influences. At least part of the chasm
may be linked to family educational background and income level, the
most reliable predictor of test scores. At Ronald Ferguson, a Dahlquist, nicknamed "Data Queen" by her staff, also
attributes the improvements to constant analysis of standardized test
scores, reading assessments and other evaluations. "We try to base
all of our decisions not on `we think this is happening,' but on data,"
she said. In 2002, when the data
showed that only 41 percent of 3rd graders passed the state writing
test, teachers put extra emphasis on writing. This year, 74 percent
passed the test, and a recent visitor to the school found a 3rd-grade
classroom practicing expository essays. Teacher Jeri Duran reminded
pupils to indent paragraphs. "That is one of the things they'll
mark you down for on the ISAT writing," she said as they wrote
an essay on the perks of living in the White House. Sometimes, the data
may land a pupil on a school "watch list" of those scoring
lower than expected on a district test or reading evaluation. The struggling
kids then get tutored before or after school, meet with a reading specialist
during the day, or get paired with a peer tutor. Olah Mehmood's 3rd-grade daughter,
Sarah, landed on the list at the beginning of last year. "She was
in the warning and I was terrified," Mehmood
said. But a few months later, the 9-year-old was reading at the top
of her class. "I was so amazed that I went to take a picture,"
her mother said, crediting the extra tutoring after school. First-grade teacher
Maggi Jenkins splits her class into groups and then listens
to each pupil read during regular class time. The groups change weekly
depending on student progress, a challenge with 27 students in her class.
On a recent day, four
pupils took turns reading to her while, in other parts of the room,
pupils used PowerPoint to read words on a computer and huddled in pairs
to read with each other. Her pupils range from Level 3, reading books
with five words on a page, to Level 18, reading complex stories with
plot, multiple characters and more than 20 words per page. Indeed, at a mid-September
conference of 160 teachers from about 30 districts, the instructor asked
which teachers knew their students' reading level. Only the two "The rest of the
teachers were like, it's only September," Witt said. "We were
surprised we were the only ones." Pupils also know their
reading and writing levels. Jenna Cawthon,
a 5th grader, pointed to a chart in her folder that shows she is writing
at a Level 4--"you understand stuff but you don't get it that well,"
she said--but her goal is to reach a Level 5 or 6 by the end of the
year. Dahlquist said having pupils chart their own progress gives them
a sense of empowerment and investment in their education. Last year,
she met with every 3rd grader as they explained their goals. She also celebrates
the pupils' achievements. She has done cartwheels for a 1st-grade class
that met its reading goal, and dyed her hair purple for another. Last week, after the
former Valley View school district superintendent heard about the school's
progress, he sent a bouquet of flowers and balloons. "Congratulations
on your successes!" he wrote on the attached card. "You know
that this is what it's about." Meaningful
conclusions put in doubt; Errors fill state testing data By Stephanie Banchero and Darnell Little, Tribune staff reporters, December
19, 2003 The state testing data
released Friday were supposed to permit the most sophisticated and detailed
assessment ever of the Newly revamped as a
result of federal reforms, the state's annual report card is designed
to ferret out schools whose high average test scores might hide the
fact that certain groups of students--such as low-income, disabled or
minority children--are struggling. It is also supposed
to show whether schools tested all of their pupils--or tried to boost
scores by telling low achievers to stay home on exam day. But the data are so
riddled with errors--at least 34,261 mistakes involving about 75 percent
of State officials acknowledge
they may have mistakenly placed 368 schools on a federal failure list
because of data mistakes. The roster includes such perennial all-stars
as Most of the errors came
from misidentifying students' ethnic background, income level, special
education status or English language skills. But schools also made mistakes
in calculating enrollment and the percent of teachers considered qualified.
By far, the greatest
number of errors came from the misidentification of low-income students.
About 9 percent of the state's 234,696 low-income test-takers were not
identified as such on test booklets, making it impossible to accurately
calculate the academic performance of low-income students across State officials decided
last week to let 458 schools--about 12 percent of state schools--submit
corrections to the data. But it will take until February to recalculate
the statistics, and even then the final state report card will include
thousands of mistakes from the remaining schools, the Tribune found.
"I think people
will legitimately question the validity of the state testing system
and the validity of the No Child Left Behind Law because of all these
errors," said Robert Rice, principal of State Superintendent
of Education Robert Schiller acknowledged there are problems with the
current report card but said it would cost the state at least $400,000
to correct every error and reissue it. Schiller points out
that much of the information is reliable, including schools' overall
pass rates in reading and math, and how well students performed at each
grade level. He also contends that the picture of how well various subgroups
did on the tests won't change much once the fixes are made. "At the end of
the day, I don't think there will be much variance," he said. But Lawrence Aleamoni, a statistician who advises "To make a claim
like that ... is not anchored in any data, any statistics, any probability,"
said Aleamoni, a professor at the Aleamoni also warned that the mistake-ridden report cards could
have significant consequences. "Schools are being
held accountable for the results, and they are taking actions because
of the results, and these results may very well be flawed," he
said. When it was signed into
law last year, the No Child Left Behind Act was praised by Democrats
and Republicans alike as a way to hold schools accountable for the performance
of all children, not just a majority of students. For decades, schools
were judged by their overall scores, limiting failure primarily to poor
and urban campuses. But the federal reform requires states to separately
track minority, low-income, limited-English proficient and special education
students, demanding that each subgroup within a school meet the state
achievement goals. If even one subgroup
lags, the school is considered academically troubled. Continued failure
can result in state sanctions. In the case of low-income schools, federal
sanctions, as serious as closing, can be invoked. The law also insists
that schools make sure that 95 percent of the student body and of each
subgroup takes an exam. But if students are
misidentified on test booklets, it is impossible to track how subgroups
are performing or if the schools met test participation standards for
those groups. Most problems in For example, the state
data show that Such problems can arise
if a school does not ensure students are identified properly. In this
case, the data indicate that only 38 of Such mistakes are compounded
when students from a particular subgroup are not identified properly,
their test scores will not be counted when calculating how well that
subgroup scored on the tests. Kathy Christie, vice
president of the Education Commission of the States, said no one knows
for certain how many mistakes have been made nationwide or how many
schools may have been tagged erroneously as failures. But she said schools
are scrambling to fix the problems. "People read about the act,
they heard about the reporting aspects of the act, but until it came
back to smack them in the face, the seriousness of it didn't sink in,"
said Christie, whose group tracks whether states comply with No Child
Left Behind. Officials with the Illinois
State Board of Education knew last year that they had a data collection
problem, but were unsure of its breadth. A Tribune analysis of last
year's data found that 3,207 schools made nearly 58,000 reporting errors.
Schiller said he warned
schools to be more vigilant this year and even offered training courses
to help them understand the complicated new system. He also gave local
officials 45 days in the fall to look over their data and make changes.
"No matter how
much training you do, it comes down to the attention to detail and whether
people are willing to put in the time to make sure the information is
correct," he said. "Obviously, many schools fell short in
this regard." But local schools point
the finger at the state, saying the data they received were not easily
readable and did not show whether a school ran afoul of the law. Principals
had to know the specifics of the law and make their own calculations.
Moreover, they point
out that the state could have detected widespread mistakes by checking
the data before sending it. "I think the bottom
line is that we can all do a better job next year," said Hank Bangser, superintendent of New Trier
High School District 203, which landed on the failure list because of
a data mistake. "I know we will make a more concerted effort on
our end." The problems with collecting
and analyzing data have fueled the controversy surrounding No Child
Left Behind, which has come under fire from educators who contend the
law is inadequately funded and from community activists who say schools
are inventing ingenious ways to skirt key provisions. "I take it as a
badge of honor that I am on the list because it shows how bogus, ridiculous,
stupid, crazy this law is," said James Lalley,
principal of Northside College Prep. "How
can anyone take this law seriously when it is flawed in so many ways?
I think the trouble collecting this data illustrates this point perfectly."
Illinois State Board of Education |
