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News Clips –
March 19 - 26, 2004 STATE NATIONAL STATE Accurate count of dropouts sought Miscounts seen masking
problem By Lori Olszewski, Tribune
staff reporter, A prominent researcher
on civil rights in education will call for the U.S. Department of Education
to establish a uniform and honest reporting system of high school graduation
rates during a conference in Across the nation, researchers
and community groups have shown that school districts are reporting
misleading statistics that can hide the gravity of the dropout problem,
especially among African-American and Latino youths. The need for accurate
reporting has become critical because the federal No Child Left Behind
law requires school systems to include graduation rates in their accountability
plans. "There has been
no check on the accuracy of the data being reported as part of NCLB,"
said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at The regulations surrounding
the law also should close loopholes that allow states to erase some
young people from their dropout statistics, Orfield said Thursday. Right now, some states
include students with equivalency certificates as graduates, while others
only allow students with traditional high school diplomas to be counted.
Many dropouts are "hidden" by tallying them as transfers,
though the students never move to another school, according to recent
reports. Orfield and other experts
will meet in The sponsors include
Orfield was a lead author
on a recent report that found only about half of all African-American,
Latino and Native American students were graduating from high school
with regular diplomas in four years. The report found that
75 percent of The report was a joint
effort of the Civil Rights Project and the Urban Institute, a non-partisan
policy research organization. States should adopt
identifier systems so students can be followed through their schooling
years, Orfield and other researchers recommend. State Supt. of Education
Robert Schiller said he supports uniform national standards for reporting
graduation rates. "The reports have
shown different states are using different indicators so we are not
getting a true and accurate picture," Schiller said. A bill sponsored by
state Sen. Miguel del Valle (D-Chicago), chairman of the Senate Education
Committee, also would force The national criticism
appears to be having an effect. U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige
announced in December that a group of national experts will review dropout
reporting methods and make recommendations in the spring. Far more schools in fiscal peril Districts on watch list
soar; critics urge funding reform By Diane Rado, Tribune
staff reporter, The number of Two days after voters
rejected a majority of referendum measures proposed to shore up school
finances, the Illinois State Board of Education made public an analysis
showing 156 districts are on "financial watch" for 2004--up
from 87 last year. The financial watch
designation--the worst of four possible ratings--generally means districts
have run up deficits, drained reserves, borrowed to cover daily expenses
and pushed indebtedness to the limit, like a consumer reaching the maximum
on a credit card. An additional 141 school
districts got the second-worst rating, "financial early warning."
Combined, the 297 districts in the bottom categories make up a third
of "This is a sad
statement for public education," said Rebecca Allard, president
of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials. Particularly
disturbing, she said, is that "nobody is dealing with this issue
in Allard and other educators
said fundamental reform to the state's education financing system is
needed, from removing or changing the tax caps that limit revenues to
overhauling funding formulas that rely heavily on local communities
to pay for schools. As it stands, local
districts can't keep up with the rising costs of salaries and health
insurance, as well as rapidly growing enrollment in some areas, Allard
said. Some critics contend,
however, that school spending is out of control, with districts operating
in the red and resorting to borrowing to cover spiraling expenses of
their own making. "Their focus should
be on reducing costs and making some sense out of payroll," said
Jack Roeser, president of the Family Taxpayers Network, which publishes
the salaries of schoolteachers and administrators annually. The top
salaries posted on the group's Web site rankle citizens, Roeser said;
several exceed $200,000 because of retirement packages and other perks. This week, voters approved
46 percent of the school tax and bond referendum measures on ballots
statewide, and losing school districts are now moving to cut teachers,
increase class sizes and cut extracurricular programs. The state board released
only overall figures on the school districts in financial trouble, and
the information is considered preliminary until the board meets next
week, when the ratings of individual districts will be released. The overall figures
also show that the number of financially healthy districts--in the "financial
recognition" category--declined to 356 in 2004 from 431 last year.
The number of districts in the second-highest "financial review"
category stayed the same, at 240. Chicago Public Schools
chief financial officer John Maiorca said But Maiorca said the
district remains in "decent shape." He blamed the decline
in the financial rating partly on changes made to the state board formula
that determines financial designations, as well as philosophical differences
over how much cash school districts should hold in reserve--one of the
factors the board examines. The board also looks
at district expenditures compared with revenues; short-term borrowing,
such as borrowing against future tax collections; and long-term debt,
such as construction bonds for buildings. Each area is rated, and districts
are given a "financial profile," including a final score that
places them in one of the four categories of fiscal health. The profile system was
used for the first time last year, after the state board was criticized
for a financial rating system considered so lenient that even the most
troubled districts didn't make the financial watch list. But some districts criticized
the new system, saying it misrepresented their financial situations.
In response, the board adjusted the formula this year and revised the
2003 ratings to reflect the changes. The tinkering benefited
315 districts that got higher 2003 scores as a result. The number of
districts on financial watch last year, for example, decreased to 87
from 101. Though they create bad
publicity for districts, the financial ratings carry no penalties or
mandates to improve--a situation the state board wants to fix. State board director
of operations David Wood said Thursday that the board is pushing legislation
in the spring that would mandate improvements and strict monitoring
for districts in the financial watch category. Time for reform, officials
say Local school officials
and education reform advocates said the sharp increase in financial
watch districts means it's time for lawmakers to take on more comprehensive
reforms of the Illinois school finance system. The system has long been
criticized for relying too heavily on local property taxes to fund schools
and for allowing inequities between wealthy and poor school districts. "We have to address
the financial crisis in "Schools are in
trouble. If you doubted it, if you questioned it, this proves that the
system doesn't work," agreed Kim Grimshaw Bolton of the Metropolitan
Planning Council, one of the groups spearheading a new statewide effort
to funnel more dollars into poor school districts and increase education
spending overall. That would likely take
an increase in the state income tax--something Gov. Rod Blagojevich
has pledged not to do. The governor has proposed
spending $400 million more on schools in the fiscal year starting July
1, despite a $1.7 billion budget deficit facing Many local educators
are skeptical of that plan, saying it does not address the fundamental
funding problems that have plunged so many districts into debt. "There has to be
a dramatic change in the way the state looks at school funding, and
every year that change is delayed, more and more kids are going through
the system without getting what they need," said Robert Grossi,
chief executive officer of the panel overseeing finances for Hazel Crest
School District 152 1/2 in southern Cook County. That district was on
the verge of insolvency in 2002 but now has a balanced budget after
closing school buildings, cutting staff and making other changes. Any plan to reform education
financing has to look at both increasing revenues and cutting expenditures,
Grossi said. Lawmakers point fingers at governor BY PAUL AYARS, THE COURIER
Three downstate legislators
pointed the finger of blame at Gov. Rod Blagojevich when nearly 30 central
Voters Tuesday fiercely
rejected pleas for financial help in a pair of tax referendums in the
largely rural Voters statewide rejected
47 of 89 tax issues and 16 or 29 bond referendums Tuesday. But the legislators
in "Education concerns
cross party lines. There's a lot of concerns," Sen. Larry Bomke,
R-Springfield, told administrators of school districts in the Logan/Mason/Menard
Regional Office of Education. "The problem is, until the governor
signs onto something and campaigns for it, it's not likely to go anywhere." Bomke and state representatives
Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg, and Richard Myers, R-Colchester, said the
governor skirts accountability in his plans to dismantle or fragment
state agencies like the State Board of Education and Department of Agriculture.
Bomke contends the governor's proposals to gut the state department
of education and assign responsibilities elsewhere violates the state
constitution. "The truth of the
matter is he's a nice guy," Bomke told the roomful of educators
at a 11/2-hour meeting at But Bomke said, even
after he initiated the lawsuit that sought to keep Lincoln Developmental
Center open despite Ryan's closure order, he still had access to then
Gov. Ryan, something he said he lacks with Blagojevich. Bomke said, "He
always has an enemy (a person or department in his sights) and he's
very good at visuals," like sitting the State Board of Education
chief before him and between Blagojevich and the legislature at the
governor's State of the State address earlier this year. The legislators said
there's a pervasive lack trust of the governor in "We never see him,"
Rep. Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg, told the educators today. "The
governor actually doesn't come on the floor (of the House). He's not
even in With three legislators
present, several education administrators zeroed in on education funding
shortfalls as their major concerns, not only of local schools, but Former Lincoln Junior
High School Principal Jerry Meyer, superintendent of the Midwest Central
district in Manito, sounded a litany of ways his rural district is floundering
and could be helped. "We need stability,
something to stay the same," he said. "Drastic change, in
my opinion, is not a good thing. As was said earlier, we need you to
know funding, that is the issue." Educator says federal school law is working By ELAINE HOPKINS of
the Journal Star, "It is possible
to have every student performing at grade-level expectations,"
said Darla Marburger, deputy assistant secretary of policy for the education
department's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. "It's exciting
to see" the law working now in some schools, she told a group of
college and high school guidance counselors. She later met informally
with other educators throughout the day. She expressed faith
in the controversial law that can financially penalize schools whose
students continually fail annual tests. The intent, she said, is to
raise achievement of all students, especially in reading and math, then
science. She compared achieving
the required standards with past triumphs in science and technology. "Superintendents
say there's no way the school will make adequate yearly progress,"
but polio has been eradicated in the Marburger also was confident
in federal expectations that 100 percent of the nation's students can
achieve the set goals, even when tight budgets are increasing class
sizes at many schools. "I say 100 percent
is realistic. It will be better than where we are currently," she
said. Study: Most teens skip after-school activities BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA,
Sun Times Staff Reporter, No one's watching the
typical So says a The study, described
as the largest survey of how urban high school students spend time after
school, was provided to all 33,000 CPS ninth-graders last year. About
half responded. "As more families
are two-wage earners, and more poor, single parents work, we need to
be concerned about supervision of these kids," said The study by The study found more
than 20 percent of kids surveyed pointed to friendship and fun as after-school
goals; 13 percent cited skills building, and 5 percent cited job training. "But over half
say they're doing academic activities after school, which was a pleasant
surprise," Goerge said. State has no business imposing junk food law Opinion by Same Fisher,
State has no business
imposing junk food law Absolutely not and I'll
tell you why later. My grandmother was the
head cook at the school I attended. I remember that on Sunday mornings
she sat with a row of neatly sharpened pencils at her side figuring
the cost of every meal but also the nutritional value. She knew it was
important for the kids to have nutritional and tasty meals. She took
great pride in delivering both. Back then you had a choice. Either eat
what was cooked up by my grandmother and her staff or bring your own
lunch. But just because you brought your own lunch didn't mean you could
bring pop and candy bars -- it just wasn't allowed. I know a lot has changed
since the 30 years I was in school. Then, a soda or candy machine in
the school was unimaginable. Unfortunately, my grandmother died a year
and half ago, but I wonder how she would answer the question. Obesity whether it's
in children or adults is a problem and it's getting worse. However the
state has no business imposing legislation that would prohibit candy,
pop or snacks in schools. It's a local decision that should be left
up to the community and ultimately each local school board. Anyway, the state has
enough business to attend to instead of telling schools what to do on
this subject. Maybe they could focus on improving school funding --
that definitely would be worth their attention. Don’t punish kids for schools’ woes After watching That’s got to be it.
Otherwise, why are so many of us gleefully delighted that in the Rock
River Valley three of four referendums went down in flames and a fourth
only squeaked by because the high school’s basketball team won second
place in the state tournament just days before the referendum? Excuse for a moment
those folks who worked so hard to get these passed. They’re worn out
and well justified in licking their wounds in silence before shouldering
the yoke to go another round with voters bound and determined to throw
hissy fits every time a school referendum is proposed. And, all the rest of
us who stick our heads in the sand — and that’s most of us — neither
working for or against a referendum, and definitely not bothering to
vote? Well, we must hate our kids, too. Think I’m kidding? Then
answer me this: Why do we think it is perfectly OK to punish our children
for the monumental screw-ups of adults who fail miserably decade after
decade to develop and implement school funding systems that work? If
we loved our kids — and if we believe everyone of them is entitled to
a quality education — why is school funding in Illinois — and in the
rest of the 49 states — such a disaster? President George W.
Bush calls himself the education president and promises no child will
be left behind. Gov. Rod Blagojevich calls himself the education governor
and does television sound bites on cola contracts and bad nutrition.
There’s nary a political candidate of any stripe that doesn’t promise
constituencies that he (or she) will make education of our dear, precious
children, the hope of our future and the joys of our lives, a top priority.
Liars all. Oh, they talk a good
game. They create the mottos and catch phrases and issue proclamations
and manifestos. And, pretty much there’s no cash to get them done. Unfunded
mandates? These people wrote the book. Illinois, like many
other states, pays for schools with a tattered patchwork of federal,
state and local funds, grants, gifts, contracts and, the mother of all
horrors, the property tax. The demented mind that first decided property
taxes were an intelligent way to fund schools really hated kids. If we loved our kids,
we’d fix our schools. If we loved our kids, we’d demand a fiscally sound
funding mechanism that worked. If we loved our kids, we’d deliver what
we promise. But we hate our kids, so we do nothing except wring our
hands, yell about test scores and play a million and one other smoke-screening
blame games. We do anything except fix it. May I make a modest
proposal? Let’s fix it. Really, it’s that simple, assuming, of course,
we don’t actually hate our kids. First, we have to stop
lying. Either we believe in access to quality public school education
or we don’t. If we do believe, then step two is stop pretending that
we can do it cheaply. Heck, we’re happily paying top dollar for the
war in With steps one and two
out of the way, here’s step three: Ditch the property tax cold turkey.
Now. Today. Replace it with an increase (probably substantial) in the
income tax. Yes, the income tax. The more you make, the more you pay.
That’s fair. Collect it all in one place and split it evenly among every
school district in the state. No formulas, just divide the dollars by
the district. Raise the income tax again if it’s not enough. For crying out loud,
I’m sure there are two
dozen and three other funding ideas, and probably plenty that would
work just fine. But, we hate our kids, so we’ll keep raping our schools
and classrooms until we have so decimated public education that we’ll
need a five-cent jail tax just to cover the costs of incarcerating a
couple generations of hated kids. Want things to change?
Then, demand that our state legislators and the governor change the
funding system. Now. Unless, of course, you really do hate our kids.
Education funding top concern at forum KATE CLEMENTS, "Frankly I really
don't care how it is governed, because the difference is made in the
classroom," said Roger Sanders, superintendent of Blagojevich aims to
dismantle the State Board of Education and replace it with a new Department
of Education under his control, claiming the state board has failed
in its mission and "wasted the people's money," while the
problems of education continue to mount. State Schools Superintendent
Robert Schiller disagreed with that assessment, and said shifting the
power to the governor's office does not change the fact that the vast
majority of the state's school districts are facing deficits and local
property taxpayers are shouldering the majority of the costs. The governor's proposal
only serves to divert attention from the real problems affecting schools,
Sanders said. Sanders was one of the
attendees at an education symposium the Illinois Business Roundtable
held in Robert Nielsen, Bloomington
schools superintendent and former Urbana High School principal, said
educators already know what is needed to improve student achievement,
but do not have the resources to pay for it. "Kids want to learn
and teachers want to teach," Nielsen said. "Give us a chance
and we will do the best we can." State Sen. Rick Winkel,
R-Urbana, said the way the state's schools are governed is a legitimate
concern, but not as critical as the funding issue. ”The most important
thing we should be discussing is how we fund education," Winkel
said. Blagojevich has agreed
that there are equity problems with the school funding system, but said
no type of school funding formula would be well served if the money
going into it was not being used in the most appropriate way. He said
his reforms must be enacted before taxpayers could be persuaded to support
an increase in state funding for schools. Ted Sanders, president
of the Education Commission of the States and a former state superintendent
in Illinois, said there is "not a shred of evidence" that
one governance system of education is better than another, and that
a more important issue is whether whatever system is in place has enough
power to step in and do something when specific schools are failing.
A representative from
President George W. Bush's administration stayed carefully neutral on
the governor's proposal. ”I'm not here to get
in the middle of any debate between the state board and the governor,"
said Bob Simon, Simon urged all sides
to find those things everyone can agree on and focus their energies
on those. "It's not going
to be easy to do, but you can do it," he said. James Hunt, former Democratic
governor of "Can you talk to
our governor?" asked state Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, who has
introduced legislation to increase income taxes and use the money to
fund schools and pay for property tax rebates. The bill is stuck in
the House rules committee and is unlikely to ever see the light of day.
Blagojevich, who has
vowed not to raise income or sales taxes, has said he does not support
the idea of an income tax increase for schools, even if accompanied
by an equal amount of property tax relief. Lou Mervis of "That's the only
fair way to do it," he said. Mervis said his organization
wants to help advance the discussion and provide a vision for how the
state can attack the problems in its education system. "What got accomplished
today was people thinking about what Winkel said he attended
Monday's symposium to help gauge the feelings of the participating educators
and business people and left with "a very clear understanding"
that funding and local control are the key concerns. Also Monday, the Senate
Education Committee held a public hearing in Grant proposed for School board may turn
down planned $542,191 in state building funds Adriana Colindres of
Copley News Service, But the South Pekin Superintendent
Daniel Hylbert said Monday that while he still must discuss the subject
with his school board, the board could decide not to accept the $542,191
state grant. Declining enrollment
at the school means the construction grant might no longer be needed,
Hylbert said. When district officials put together the school construction
grant proposal a few years ago, they wanted to build additional classrooms
at the According to the Illinois
State Board of Education's Web site, enrollment there has slumped from
294 in 2000-2001 to 262 in 2002-2003. Hylbert, who joined the district
last fall, said present enrollment is 255. The drop is partly because
"we're in tornado alley," Hylbert said. Some families moved
away after a tornado last May caused millions of dollars in property
damage, he said. The district consists
of a single school that serves students in pre-kindergarten through
eighth grade. Blagojevich announced
Monday that the capital budget proposal he will unveil Tuesday calls
for spending $550 million on school construction and maintenance during
the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. Of the $550 million
amount, about $150 million would fund construction and renovation projects
in An additional $50 million
would be available to help school districts maintain their buildings.
Districts would be able to apply for a state grant of up to $50,000,
and the districts would have to contribute an identical amount. The construction money
still must be approved by the General Assembly. Blagojevich spokeswoman
Abby Ottenhoff said if "I don't care how
bad the economy is, or how challenging our budgets are, we will not
ignore our schools and we will not ignore our children," Blagojevich
said in announcing his plans at Blagojevich wants the
Illinois Capital Development Board to administer the school-construction
grants and manage the projects to save local districts an estimated
$160 million in management fees over four years. The Illinois State Board
of Education now administers the grants, but Blagojevich seeks to replace
the independent agency with his own cabinet-level office. He needs permission
from lawmakers to move ahead with those plans. ISBE spokeswoman Karen
Craven said that agency selects school districts for construction grants
based on criteria defined by lawmakers. She warned that Blagojevich's
plan could politicize the grant process and turn it into "basically
a pork program for his favorite school districts." "That's his prerogative,
but I don't believe that that's in the best interest of schools,"
Craven said. John Patterson, The vilified stack later
appeared at committee hearings to bolster the administration's push
to all but eliminate the state board and move all education policy decisions
directly under the governor's control. But a Daily Herald review
of legislative records dating back to Blagojevich's time in the Illinois
House shows he not only supported several of the laws contained among
those 2,800 pages of bureaucratic codes, but also that if he'd had his
way, the stack could have been thicker. Between 1993 and 1996,
Blagojevich is listed as a key sponsor of more than a dozen education
plans, although none of his ideas became law. During his state House
tenure, it was rare for Blagojevich to vote against education laws.
His first year in the Illinois House, Blagojevich voted for every education
plan that hit the law books. Those plans ranged from outlawing paddling
to requiring state education officials to check in on schools to make
sure they're teaching the Holocaust, black history and women's history. In fact, he voted for
every education mandate and every education-related law his first term.
When Republicans took control of the House during his second term, he
still supported the vast majority of education laws. While the governor has
blasted state education officials for the mass of bureaucracy, those
education officials say they are merely following through on the myriad
laws sent their way by lawmakers and the governor. Even as the governor
assailed the mass of mandates, he pushed several new ones, including
one that bans junk food in school vending machines and one that requires
a student to perform community service to get a high school diploma. He offers no apologies
for his positions, even if they appear contradicting. "If you're saying
that from time to time, we're going to have ideas and require certain
things when it comes to the health and nutrition of children - absolutely
yes, we're going to do that. And if it adds a page or two more in the
school code or in the regulations, then that to me is a small price
to pay for healthy children," Blagojevich said. "But the big question
is, if we're given the ability to have a department of education that
has accountability to the governor, to the legislature, parents and
taxpayers, will that 2,800-page monstrosity be bigger or smaller? I
guarantee you it will be substantially smaller." The governor's critics
say his voting record and recent initiatives call into question his
credibility. "It's just so ironic.
It didn't make sense to me," said Cronin points out that
Blagojevich opposed the Republican-pushed 1995 law that put Chicago
Mayor Richard M. Daley in charge of the city's schools, a law Blagojevich
now models his education plan after. Blagojevich recently said his 1995
vote was a mistake. While in the Illinois
House, Blagojevich also opposed the law that now lets schools avoid
following certain laws and requirements if they get the state's OK. "Here's a guy who
has talked about the virtues of relieving local schools of mandates
as a rationale for forming his new department of education. So there's
a lack of credibility there," Cronin said. "He's just not
genuine. He's skillful at playing the game of politics and telling people
what they want to hear." The Blagojevich administration
said the criticism and the Daily Herald's review of the governor's legislative
record misses the point. "The bottom line
is the governor has made it clear in his speeches that the Illinois
State Board of Education is so far removed from the legislature or any
ounce of accountability that all the legislature can do is pass bills,"
Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said. Rausch said when lawmakers
disagree with the state board of education's policies or rules, they
are left with no recourse under the current system other than to pass
more laws trying to tell education officials to do things differently. "That's one of
the biggest reasons the governor wants a department of education,"
Rausch said, "so legislators have someplace to get things done." Educators
urge parents to study No Child Left Behind Kari Allen, Daily Herald
Area school officials
have been bewildered at times over details of the federal No Child Left
Behind Act. Parents are in the same
boat, but perhaps even more so, said Gayla Boomer, Illinois PTA president. That's why Boomer emphasizes
the need for school districts to explain the act to parents and tell
them what they can do about its implications. Boomer and state schools
Superintendent Robert Schiller addressed the Illinois Chapter of the
National School Public Relations Association, or INSPRA, during the
group's meeting Friday in "No Child Left
Behind requires parent involvement," Boomer said. "But no
law has created more confusion in the minds of people than No Child
Left Behind." The act, which will
require all students to meet state standards by the 2013-14 school year,
requires parents to make some choices about their children's education.
If a school doesn't
meet Adequate Yearly Progress on standardized tests for two straight
years, for instance, parents have the choice of sending their child
to another school. If a school doesn't meet this progress for three
straight years, schools are required to offer supplemental help to students. Some parents struggle,
though, over whether to send their child to another school if theirs
isn't making the required progress. "Most parents are
very comfortable with their administrators and teachers in their neighborhood
schools," Boomer said. "Sending their child to a school across
town, where they don't know what the resources are, that's kind of a
scary thing." Some parents are more
interested in bolstering the resources in their children's neighborhood
schools rather than shipping their kids to another building, Boomer
said. Boomer said local parents
could lobby legislators for more money to promote equal funding at schools.
She urged parents to pay attention to the act and to ask about its implications
at their local districts. Melea Smith, director
of communications in Naperville Unit District 203, said she fields calls
from parents who have questions about the No Child Left Behind Act.
"We need to explain
to parents what this is about," said Smith, a board member for
INSPRA. "I think people understand some segments of it." Jennifer Bialobok, director
of community relations for "We need to let
parents know what's true today may not be true seven years from now,"
she said. The No Child Left Behind
Act could change - or even be wiped out - if President Bush is not re-elected.
Federal officials recently
have been listening more closely to districts' complaints about the
act, Schiller said. "They're listening,"
he said. "I believe the flexibility they're giving us now is because
it's an election year." Schiller said states
have the option of refusing to comply with the No Child Left Behind
Act, but that "So many districts
live and breathe off funds for Title 1," Schiller said. Business,
Education, and Labor Task Force Unveils Strategy to Transform Teaching
Profession in Teacher Quality Is the
Single Most Important Variable in Student Success "Years of educational
research have confirmed what common sense would tell us -- that good
teaching matters. In fact, teacher quality is the single most important
variable in student success," said Arnold R. Weber, Northwestern
University President Emeritus and Task Force Chair. "However, the
manner by which we train, support and evaluate new teachers has not
kept pace with that of other established professions." The Civic Committee
of The Commercial Club of Chicago, which represents the senior business
community in the The Civic Committee
established the Task Force in response to ongoing shortfalls in student
achievement in The report concludes
that The Task Force report
identifies four major challenges that must be met:
1. Improve the basic academic and professional preparation of teachers;
2. Transform the clinical training and support, beginning with initial
teacher preparation and extending through the early years of practice;
3. Enhance the professional conditions of teaching that help attract
and
retain talented candidates; and
4. Develop new organizational capacity and administrative leadership
for
teaching and learning in "We must meet the
challenge of raising student achievement, and we must start at the educational
foundation -- the teaching profession," said Stanley O. Ikenberry,
President Emeritus of the The report contains
detailed recommendations for meeting the four challenges:
-- Colleges and university presidents should commit their institutions
to
improving teacher preparation and professionalism;
-- The state should develop a comprehensive system of professional
induction, support and assessment for new teachers;
-- Districts and teachers should work together to develop career ladders,
make compensation systems more flexible, and implement rigorous
evaluation systems;
-- The state should develop a network of local partnerships among
stakeholders to implement improvements in the recruitment, training
and retention of high-quality teachers. The recommendations
are intended to serve as a detailed, long-term policy framework to help
build and retain a stable workforce of highly-qualified teachers in
"Tens of thousands
of new teachers will be needed over the next few years. This is a significant
challenge, but also a tremendous opportunity. This report contains the
roadmap for attracting, training and retaining the next generation of
high-quality teachers," said Arne Duncan, CEO of the Chicago Public
Schools. "It is incumbent upon our elected officials, business
leaders, educators and parents to give every child in A list of task force
members is attached. For a full copy of the report, please contact Dan
Lynch, Civic Committee of The Commercial Club of Chicago, at 312-853-1203
or dlynch@civiccom.org . The full report also
will be available online at www.civiccommittee.org . Local
educators not keen on idea of separating girls from boys Rachel Izzo, The battle of the sexes
may be the war that goes on forever. It’s played out every day in the
classroom, in the workplace and in the real world. But now, the U.S. Department
of Education is giving school districts the power to take away one of
those battlefields by creating single-sex classrooms, grades and schools. The department plans
to propose amendments to Title IX — an anti-discrimination law put into
place in the 1970s — to provide more flexibility for public school districts
to establish single-sex classes and schools at the elementary and secondary
levels. Title IX is best known for requiring equality in school sports. The No Child Left Behind
Act contains a condition that allows local education agencies to use
local education funds, provided by the act, to establish programs to
provide same-gender schools and classrooms in order to give students
a chance to excel. At least 91 of 91,000 public schools in the nation
offer some single-sex education now. The revamping would
give local school administrators the option to expand choices for parents
by enrolling their child in a single-sex class, grade or school. Since
Title IX was enacted, single-sex classes have been allowed only in limited
cases, such as gym classes. Supporters say the amendments
support efforts of school districts to improve education outcomes for
students and provide public school parents with many education options
that respond to the education needs of their children, while at the
same time ensuring appropriate safeguards against discrimination. “I’m seeing so many
adolescents that are failing academically every way,” said Kathleen
Shea, a licensed professional counselor in think everyone learns
differently and that (separating the sexes) would be an additional help.
Women’s cognitive skills are typically more emotional and male cognitive
skills are less emotional. Emotionally speaking, with women,” said Shea,
“I think their ‘sensories’ are broader. With boys it’s the ABC’s. With
girls it can be many variables of the ABC’s.” While research on single-sex
schooling is limited, those who support the initiative say the environment
produces a higher level of student achievement, better attendance and
fewer discipline problems. “This is a complex and
sensitive issue that requires a considerable amount of consultations,”
said Robert Paige, secretary of the Department of Education. “We are
working with other federal agencies on this important issue, including
the Department of Justice, and we believe it is important to receive
input from parents, community leaders and interested education organizations.
Our goal is to provide schools with as much flexibility as possible
to offer students programs that meet their needs.” Critics of the amendments
worry about discrimination and say there is no evidence that the single-sex
learning environment will help students excel in the real world. La Salle-Peru Township
High School principal Deb Nelson said she would need to see more research
and supportive evidence for single-sex learning environments before
she jumped on the bandwagon. “We’re trying to educate
our kids to be successful adults out in society and we don’t separate
them out in society,” said La Salle-Peru High School principal Deb Nelson.
“The jury’s still out.” But many students, especially
female students, have made up their minds on the ABC’s of learning.
“If they say (girls and boys) should be separate because girls will
do better that’s not right,” said sophomore Amelia Reichl. “They’re
both equally smart so we should be together.” Sophomore Amanda Morgan
said men and women won’t stay separated forever, so putting them in
different classrooms would be disadvantageous. “We’re going to compete
against the guys when we’re older so we might as well start now,” she
said. “We would have to review
the specifics of this very carefully,” he said, “but I’m not aware of
any research of students achieving a higher level by being separated
by gender.” Due to the legislative
exemption for single-sex admissions policies, a school district does
not need to provide the department with a reason for offering a single-sex
school. There is already flexibility in the regulations for allowing
school districts to offer single-sex non-vocational schools as long
as certain conditions are met, but the goal of the plans is to clarify
what opportunities would be needed to provide for students of the excluded
sex to guarantee equal opportunity. Enrollment in a single-sex
course would have to be voluntary, and if a school created a single-sex
class in one subject, it would not be required to offer the other gender
a similar class. However, the school would have to offer a coed version
of the course. Nelson wondered how
she would explain offering a class to one gender and not the other to
parents and community members. “How do you determine if you’re discriminating
or not discriminating?” she said. “I could see a lot of problems with
that.” Ryan's
education policies on target Opinion by Dennis Byrne,
a Chicago-area writer and public affairs consultant Apparently determined
to establish himself as Are we going to have
to hear eight more months of this? Is Axelrod, also a Democratic political
consultant, so dull-witted that he can't come up with anything more
interesting, original or profound to say? Is it--as it probably will
be--just the beginning of endless name-calling from both sides? Putting
such labels on candidates is yet another sign that marketing savants
are in charge, turning political campaigns dominated by issues into
marketing campaigns dominated by identities. A candidate's "issue
guy" sits in the campaign's second chair, drafting barely noticed
copy for the campaign's Web site. Important behind-the-scenes strategy
sessions center on how to "brand" your opponent, and how to
create "buzz" for your guy. It's tiresome and sad--sad
as I have said because it tends to push candidates into the mushy middle,
encouraging them to avoid saying what they mean, and not doing what
they say. It's a coward's way of running a democracy. So, part of the buzz
surrounding Ryan's Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, is that he is
intelligent, creative, progressive and independent--the long-sought
dream of the lakefront liberal branch of the Democratic Party. On his
merits alone, he out-muscled the organizational muscle of the aging
Democratic machine. But when it comes down to issues, will the image
hold against the reality? Let's try one: Education. Obama favors equalizing
and shifting the financial burden of public education from the property
tax to a "broader funding base," a traditional Democratic
position. He would "fully fund" the No Child Left Behind Act
and Head Start, promote early childhood education, expand college aid,
fix school infrastructure and find more qualified teachers. The usual
boilerplate. Ryan also supports a
certain amount of boilerplate, such as increased school, teacher and
student accountability. But he added an extra, more personal dimension
than the usual laying out of "programs" to be "carried
out" by some bureaucracy. He gave up a lucrative financial career
to teach at But what really separates
him and Obama is Ryan's support of "school choice," the dispensing
of financial aid directly to parents of disadvantaged students so that
they will have a better opportunity to send their children to good schools.
Such school vouchers increasingly are gaining popularity among minority
and disadvantaged populations because they no longer lash their children
to failed urban schools. What better way to get poor and minority students
off the plantation than free them of the plantation's schools? So, here is a touchstone
issue between Ryan and Obama. School vouchers are strenuously opposed
by Democrats and the special interests that support them--principally
the teachers unions and the huge educational bureaucracy that oversees
the failed urban systems. Breaking away from this traditional base of
support would be truly a mark of creativity and independence for Obama. For his position on
vouchers, Ryan deserves kudos, not the label of extremist. If he truly
were an extremist, he would campaign for the repeal of the No Child
Left Behind Act. Come to think of it, that's not such an extreme idea.
After all, for almost two centuries, it was the American consensus that
education was strictly a local matter in which the federal government
had no business meddling. I can't say that American schools have demonstrably
or dramatically improved since the Great Society of the 1960s broke
with precedent and started pouring billions of dollars into local schools. So, now we have this
law that has created a bureaucratic nightmare for local school districts
and a testing hell for the nation's students. It has strengthened the
mistaken notion that dumping more money into a failed system will solve
its systemic problems. And it has created a huge federal bureaucracy
that is its own special interest pumping for more cash. Someone should
go to Congress and say: This law was a big mistake. Let's start over.
That would be sensible, extremely sensible. Vote
results signal need for school-funding reform Tuesday's primary election
was another signal of the need for meaningful school funding reform
in Just the fact that so
many districts had to go to their voters seeking more money is an indication
of the depth of the problem. These obviously are not isolated situations.
In fact, at least half of the state's 888 school districts are having
financial difficulties to some degree. The failure of more
than half of Tuesday's measures -- 64 of 118 proposals -- to gain voter
approval is another indication of the problems besetting our schools. Pantagraph area school
districts fared better than the state average. Of nine districts with
referendums, including two questions in In some cases, voters
were sending a message to their school boards to reduce spending, even
though that could mean higher class sizes and cuts in athletics and
the arts. But many voters opposed to local tax increases have voiced
the opinion that it's time for the state to pick up a larger share of
the burden. State money accounts for less than one-third of school funding
in The desire for more
state funding might partially explain the support expressed in an advisory
referendum pushed by Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn that calls for increasing income
taxes on individuals who make more than $250,000 -- using half the proceeds
to increase per-pupil funding and half for property tax relief to homeowners. Don't give too much
weight to the specific plan. The proposal was only on the ballot in
22 of 102 counties and a few townships and municipalities. And there
are numerous problems with his proposal -- particularly whether the
districts that need the most help and the homeowners who need the most
relief would benefit from Quinn's plan. However, support shown
for the proposal by voters in those 22 counties is an indication of
the level of frustration with the current system, which creates great
inequities between "property-rich" and "property-poor"
districts. "The disparity
between the haves and have-nots is the worst in the nation," said
Vickie Mahrt, a Normal-based Unit 5 teacher on the Coalition for School
Funding Reform steering committee. Grass-roots campaigns,
such as the coalition's efforts to increase public understanding and
awareness, will be crucial to convincing elected officials that addressing
this problem can't be delayed by more studies that collect as much dust
as accolades. The drumbeat for change
is getting louder. The results of Tuesday's referendums sounded like
a crash of cymbals. Maybe that will wake up the governor and the Legislature. District
203 hits Blagojevich plan Ken O'Brien, The Naperville Community
Unit School District 203 Board is urging legislators to challenge Gov.
Rod Blagojevich's plan to dissolve the Illinois State Board of Education
and transfer its duties to a new state-run agency. District 203 Board President
Dean Reschke and Supt. Alan Leis are sending a letter to two local state
representatives and two state senators voicing concerns on proposed
changes in supervising construction and purchasing benefits and supplies.
The board decided last week to forward the letter after reviewing a
draft from Leis. Blagojevich has proposed
gutting the independent State Board of Education of most of its responsibilities
and turning them over to a new Department of Education, which would
report to him. He also proposed centralizing state control of the purchasing
of supplies, school employee insurance and construction management,
which are the responsibilities of school districts. In identifying the three
concerns, Leis wrote that the board wants to "reiterate our strong
advocacy for increased state funding for public education." The board's first concern,
however, is about the proposed creation of a statewide benefits purchasing
center. The letter says the board is concerned about retaining local
control and whether creating the center could lead to higher benefit
costs. Second, the board said
that participation in a statewide purchasing center should be optional
instead of being required. The board, however, does recognize that the
state could use its buying power to get better prices on some items. The The letter says that,
although there were "initial savings from using this method, our
experience indicates that this building has required a far higher degree
of maintenance" than at the other four junior high schools in the
district. The board also encouraged
legislators to "take a long and hard look" at the governor's
plan. Board member Tim Costello, who teaches in "The governor places
the blame for failed education at the state board level, but they are
not the ones that are teaching the students," Costello said. "They're
an easy scapegoat." Schools
could get $2.2 billion But Blagojevich doesn't
want state education panel handling it Diane Rado and Ray Long,
Tribune staff reporters. Tribune reporters Courtney Flynn and Molly
Parker contributed to this report The Blagojevich administration
is dangling the prospect of $2.2 billion in new school construction
grants over four years as well as more money for classroom instruction
down the road if the governor gets his way in gutting the Illinois State
Board of Education. Gov. Rod Blagojevich's
aides said that once his education reform legislation is passed, the
governor would be willing to discuss the long-simmering issue of school
finance, but they offered no details on the subject. The school construction
money would put $550 million into districts during the fiscal year that
begins July 1. It would be part of a broader $3.2 billion package of
new appropriations that the governor was set to unveil Tuesday, including
the launch of a five-year bond program for roads and bridges, according
to the governor's budget documents. The governor is recommending
the distribution of the five-year $2 billion plan for transportation
bonds be front-loaded. There would be $500 million appropriated next
year and $600 million in both the second and third fiscal years. Blagojevich
would appropriate $150 million each of the last two fiscal years, budget
documents showed. The debt service would
be paid with revenues from the state's road fund, which contains money
from gas taxes and license plate fees. Critics charge such a move would
saddle future generations with debt, but supporters say now is the best
time to act because interest rates are low. Blagojevich's school
construction and repair program would be a multiyear plan calling for
$2.2 billion over four years. But aides to the governor
made it clear they do not want the school construction program overseen
by the State Board of Education and prefer to put it under another state
agency to save costs. The governor's top priority
this session is his proposal to take over virtually all functions of
the independent State Board of Education, raising the prospects that
lawmakers might be forced to support the plan or risk losing an increase
in school funding. Brenda Holmes, deputy
governor for education, sent a memo last week to local school superintendents
and school officials assuring them that Blagojevich would tackle funding
issues--once he gets control of the state board. "Creating a Department
of Education is not a way to avoid school funding issues," Holmes
wrote. "In much the same way that you prepare your local citizenry
for a referendum, we want to ensure that current education funds are
spent wisely before we ask our citizenry for additional revenue. Once
the governor is accountable for the Department of Education, he will
address the funding issue." Victoria Eggerstedt,
a school board member in The governor's capital
budget calls about $1.7 billion for roads and bridges in the fiscal
year that begins July 1, about level funding. Projects include work
on the Kingery Expressway from Interstate Highway 80 to the Elsewhere in the budget,
nearly $86 million is slated for unspecified grants to businesses, governmental
units or other organizations in the budget of the Department of Commerce
and Economic Opportunity, an agency long used for overseeing pork-barrel
projects. Other projects slated
for new appropriations are $5 million for an airport, $6.7 million for
the The governor's recommendations
also include $450,000 associated with moving residents from the After waiting 11 years
for funding, the LaSalle Veterans home would get $12 million, two-thirds
from the federal government, to expand a 120-bed facility to 200 beds,
officials said. The overall capital proposal is more than $10.1 billion,
but nearly $6.9 billion is reappropriated from previous years. The $3.2 billion in
new appropriations breaks down to nearly $2.1 billion, or about 63 percent,
in state projects, and the rest would go to local communities, budget
documents showed. Education
called key to By Kathy McKinney, That was the consensus
Monday of the participants of an education symposium sponsored by the
Illinois Business Roundtable at State Farm Insurance Cos. in "Education is the
underpinning," said Ed Rust Jr., chairman and chief executive officer
of State Farm and chairman-emeritus of the Illinois Business Roundtable.
"Not only of the country but the individual. The skill sets we
have now are soon going to be obsolete." "We really have
to have a citizenship that is very well educated," said James B.
Hunt, former governor of "If our children
don't have a good and better education, we aren't going to be competitive.
If we want to have the jobs, we have to make the investment" in
educating our children, said Hunt. "This is the challenge
to our schools," said Hunt. "If we are competitive, we'll
come back." That's the intent of
the "no child left behind" education initiative proposed by
President Bush and approved by Congress, said Raymond Simon, assistant
secretary of the federal Department of Education in elementary and secondary
education. The new law holds schools and teachers accountable for the
education of our children, he said. Parents were urged not
to be passive or complacent about their children's education by Ted
Sanders, president of the Education Commission of the States. "Be engaged. Be
informed on referendums and other issues, and press local and the state
government for the kind of spending needed," said Sanders. One of the problems
in "There is a widening
gap in our economy, and the biggest demarcation line is education,"
said Sanders. "You've got to have at least an associate's degree
or higher." Paul Swiech, The university will
receive $165,000 in federal money to allow professors to work with a
variety of urban, suburban and rural school districts to develop district-specific
strategies to reduce childhood obesity. U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson,
a Republican from "This is the issue
of the millennium in terms of health," said Johnson, chairman of
the House Fitness Caucus. He said the program is a "harbinger of
things to come as we make Dave Thomas, the ISU
professor of exercise science who is leading the program, said district
participation is voluntary, but districts involved in developing the
program's protocols have welcomed the help. A goal is to teach students
fitness for life, including healthy eating and exercise that could be
done for the rest of their lives, Thomas said. Students could be exposed
to different types of movement -- cycling, jogging, using exercise equipment,
etc. -- to show how it accelerates their heart rate and benefits their
health. While conceding that
$165,000 may last only a year, Thomas said he and his colleagues are
searching for money from national foundations and local organizations
that could help the program to continue. He and Johnson said a goal
is collaboration between the university, schools, the federal and state
governments, foundations, and local businesses and organizations. Representatives of some
school districts and the Illinois Association of Health, Physical Education,
Recreation and Dance -- the state P.E. teachers' association -- have
met with Thomas and his colleagues in ISU's kinesiology and recreation
and health sciences departments. The program will begin
in certain school districts in the fall. What is done in each
district will be determined by representatives of those districts as
well as the professors. "There's no one
recipe that'll work in every district," Thomas said. Money could go, for
example, toward equipment and training to help P.E. teachers transition
to the new P.E., rewriting parts of the P.E. classes' curriculums, making
healthier foods available in schools, conducting nutrition and fitness
seminars for staff and parents, arranging joint use of an up-to-date
community fitness center and hiring instructors from the center. As the program evolves,
ISU will become a national clearinghouse for information on combating
childhood obesity and on what works in P.E. classes, Johnson said. ISU is a natural choice
for the first-of-its-kind federal grant, Johnson and Bowman said. State Journal-Register
Editorial School teachers have
plenty of things to worry about these days. Tougher state and federal
standards without much additional state and federal money. Students
struggling so much with life, they invariably have major struggles with
school. Budgets so tight that being a coach or adviser now also means
being a fund-raiser and bookkeeper. But at the top of far
too many teachers' "worry list" these days is their concern
about personal physical safety. As was documented in
a front-page story in The State Journal-Register on Monday, some This is not a problem
unique to There are no easy, or
perfect solutions. Much of the problem stems from a lack of stability
and support at home. Schools cannot be relied upon to solve this problem
alone. Yet, we do know that education can make a difference, specifically
early education. One of the loudest voices
advocating for pre-kindergarten education today comes not from the schoolhouse,
but rather from the law enforcement community. While it may seem odd
at first, cops as preschool education advocates actually makes a lot
of sense. Numerous studies have
shown that children who are able to attend high-quality preschool programs
not only do much better in school, they are far less likely to commit
crimes, especially violent crimes. For example, a study in Chicago involving
100,000 3- and 4-year-olds that drew on data going back to 1967 indicates
that children excluded from the preschool program were 70 percent more
likely to have been arrested for a violent crime by the age of 18. Springfield Police Chief
Don Kliment and Sangamon County Sheriff Neil Williamson are sold on
the need for more resources being devoted to preschool programs statewide.
"It's one thing where we can see (more money) is going to make
a difference," said Williamson. Both Williamson and
Kliment are members of the advocacy group Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
Illinois. The group has many proposals aimed at keeping kids out of
trouble. However, at the foundation of their battle this year is their
desire to see Gov. Rod Blagojevich live up to his promise to provide
$30 million more to fund high-quality preschool programs across the
state. Last year, Blagojevich
increased a block grant for early childhood education programs by about
$30 million with a promise to match the increase this year and next.
The additional $90 million will mean 25,000 more at-risk students would
have access to preschool programs. We realize the state's
budget remains in dismal shape. We agree with Blagojevich that the state
can't say "yes" to everyone and must prioritize. Funding for
high-quality preschool programs most certainly should remain a priority,
and the governor should deliver on his promise. Unfortunately, Blagojevich
has suggested the additional $400 million proposed for education for
the upcoming budget year is up for grabs, the spending priorities to
be decided by individual legislators. We know everyone has priorities
- but we also know that few programs can back up their demand for more
money with the proven results demonstrated by high quality preschool. If we want better, less
violent students in the future, we must invest from a very young age.
Madigan
raises concerns over gov's teacher certification plan Dave McKinney, A hearing is scheduled
today on legislation to set up an autonomous, teacher-run certification
board that would strip the State Board of Education of one of its key
functions. To be licensed to teach
in Madigan has concerns
with this change, which is being pushed by the Illinois Federation of
Teachers and the Illinois Education Association, and plans to attend
today's hearing on the plan. "I don't think
you need to have a majority of any particular licensing group to be
the people being licensed," Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said.
"It just seems fraught with risks." An internal memo prepared
by the speaker's staff and obtained by the Sun-Times indicated Madigan
wanted university administrators to back him in opposing the certification
proposal today and described the plan as creating "a sort of 'fox
guarding the henhouse' scenario." Brown said Madigan remains
neutral toward Blagojevich's proposed takeover of the State Board of
Education, but some supporters of that plan view the speaker's stance
as an ominous development. "I think it's going
to send a real strong message to the governor. Let's face it, this is
a part of his entire package, to put an independent certification board
in place," said Rep. Jerry Mitchell (R-Sterling), the certification
bill's chief House sponsor. "I don't see this
as a good sign for the governor's plan," said Mitchell, a former
school superintendent and backer of Blagojevich's proposal. Madigan's opposition
would amount to a devastating blow that could deny the governor one
of his chief legislative priorities. Some union members are
perplexed by Madigan's apparent posture on the teacher certification
bill, given that he voted in favor of identical legislation on three
previous occasions, according to the IFT. "This just doesn't
make any sense to us, especially given the fact he's supported this
in the past," union spokesman Dave Comerford said. Blagojevich aides said
they are unsure what the speaker's objections are to the certification
bill but added the governor believes his takeover proposal has significant
support in the Legislature. "We don't know
what is exactly on the speaker's mind, but we look forward to hearing
from him," Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said. "We
view the teacher certification component of the education plan as critical
to the overall effort to reform education." School board members,
teachers, administrators and parents from across the state are expected
to rally in The message that participants
will take to the state capitol, event organizers said, is that the schools
can no longer depend on voter approval of property-tax increases to
bail out financially troubled districts. One-third of the state's districts
operate in the red, organizers said. Instead, it is time
for the state to take responsibility for providing the bulk of financing
for public education as mandated by the Illinois Constitution, they
said. Not to do that will almost ensure that most "It is our hope
that the rally and the large number of people that are expected will
capture the legislators' attention," said Shirley McDonald of the
Park Forest-Chicago Heights Elementary School District 163 board. The rally, orchestrated
by the Better Funding for Better Schools Coalition and the Illinois
Association of School Boards, is expected to draw many participants
from districts having the most trouble making ends meet. Those include
Hazel Crest Elementary School District 152 1/2 and Thornton Township
High School District 205 and District 163, where voters last week rejected
school tax rate increases. Districts in Lake and
McHenry Counties and in Joliet, Rockford, Elgin, Bloomington, Cairo
and East St. Louis that are among the 297 on the Illinois State Board
of Education's "financial watch" or "financial early
warning" lists also are expected to be represented. "We're in an especially
precarious state because our district education fund taxing rate is
at the highest level allowable under state law, and we don't desire
to put an additional burden on our residents for property taxes,"
said District 163 Supt. Joyce Carmine. "We're striving
to provide a quality education for all our students, but it is becoming
increasingly difficult," Carmine said, noting the district was
forced to make $1 million in cuts last year and recently approved another
$1 million in trims. Chris Slowik, vice chairman
of the Better Funding for Better Schools Coalition, said the fact that
Illinois ranks 48th of the 50 states in education funding and has a
per-pupil spending range of $18,000 in the wealthiest districts to below
$5,000 in the poorest is unconscionable. The state and federal
governments continue to adopt mandates under the No Child Left Behind
law, further straining budgets, said Slowik, who also is organizational
director of South Cooperative Organization for Public Education. "Almost all legislators
run as education candidates to get themselves elected, but once they
get to the state legislature they always seem to come up with an excuse
for not advocating change in the way the state currently funds public
education," Slowik said. "The time for excuses is over. The
time for our legislators to act is now." The rally begins outside
the capitol at A good
reason to bump up flat tax Cindy Richards, It shouldn't come as
any surprise that the guy with the Big Idea for fixing education funding
in Quinn currently serves
as lieutenant governor. He's had Big Ideas before -- shrinking the size
of the bloated state Legislature, creating the Citizens Utility Board
-- that have succeeded over the objections of political leaders. If this one succeeds,
it won't be because the governor supports it. Doesn't matter, really.
Quinn has figured out a way to fix education funding without Gov. Blagojevich:
Amend the state constitution. Quinn is calling on
legislators to put the question of whether the state constitution should
require wealthy residents to pay more to support local schools on the
November ballot in a binding referndum. His proposal must pass both
the Illinois House and Senate by 60 percent before May 2. If 60 percent
of voters approve it in November, it becomes law. The November ballot
initiative follows a resounding victory in last week's primary for a
non-binding resolution asking voters: ''Shall the people of
Illinois by referendum create an Education Trust Fund which would raise
the state income tax only on those individuals who make more than a
quarter-million dollars a year (less than 2 percent of all taxpayers)
in order to improve education funding for every Illinois public school
student and provide annual property tax relief for every Illinois homeowner
guaranteed by the state constitution?'' Not surprisingly, three-quarters
of us are willing to levy that tax on the 81,343 In quintessential Quinn
fashion, he is using the referendum landslide to prod reluctant legislators
into action. The Taxpayer Action
Amendment would change the state's constitutionally mandated flat tax
rate. Currently, we all pay 3 percent. This amendment would change that
for income over $250,000. Every dollar over that amount would be taxed
at 6 percent. The tax would raise
$1.15 billion, Quinn says. Half of that money would be sent out to local
school districts, which would get an estimated $277 for each pupil.
The rest would be distributed among the state's 2 million property taxpayers,
giving each an estimated $208 per year. Quinn's proposal even
addresses the nagging lottery question: ''What ever happened to the
lottery money? Wasn't that supposed to fund education?'' The state started
the lottery in the guise of raising more money for schools. Instead,
it was a shell game. Every dollar raised by the lottery was a dollar
that no longer came from the state's general fund. This proposal mandates
that the new money is additional revenue that can be used only for education
and property tax rebates. School reformers, education
advocates and school board members who attended a meeting on school
finance this week said Quinn's plan doesn't go far enough. It doesn't
end the state's system of funding schools primarily through local property
taxes. However, Barbara Holmes,
Blagojevich's deputy chief of staff for education, said the governor
doesn't believe the state is ready for sweeping reforms in school funding.
First, taxpayers want to know whether the dollars already going to schools
are being spent wisely. That's why it's more
important for the governor to create a new education department reporting
directly to him, she said. Fine. Let him have it. It's important that
the buck stop somewhere. But accountability is
just one piece of this puzzle. Money is the other. Commendably, the
governor's budget proposal includes hundreds of millions more for education
in tough budget times. But it's not enough. Property taxpayers are revolting
-- only 46 percent of tax hike proposals passed in March. The other
54 percent of school districts are scrambling to cut staff, close schools
and increase class size. Without a sane system
of education funding, we will continue to fail the children who depend
on us. Quinn's plan may not
be enough, but it's more than anyone else is offering. The Legislature
ought to give us voters the chance to consider this amendment. State
lawmakers uneasy with construction spending Doug Finke, Copley News
Service, However, Democrats and
Republicans alike complained that Blagojevich's capital spending plan
is short on details. "It's not explained
real well," said Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield. "It seems
if they are going to spend that much money, they might at least tell
us a little bit that's going on." Senate President Emil
Jones, D-Chicago, also has concerns, said spokeswoman Cindy Davidsmeyer. "There's a list
of projects, but we don't know where they all are," Davidsmeyer
said. "We have questions, certainly, about that. We may also have
some projects (some Democrats) believe might be a bigger priority." Blagojevich's capital
budget totals $10.1 billion, although only $3.2 billion of that is new
projects. The rest are projects like the Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library and Museum in The $3.2 billion proposed
for new projects in the next state budget is slightly less than the
$3.3 billion that is part of the current budget. John Filan, director
of Blagojevich's Office of Management and Budget, said the scaled-back
program is more affordable for the state. Highway construction
and repair is about $1.7 billion of the capital budget. With few exceptions,
though, most of the highway projects that will be undertaken next year
weren't identified in the budget documents released Tuesday. Transportation
Secretary Tim Martin said it will be one to two weeks before specific
projects are identified. Similarly, most of the
school construction projects that Blagojevich wants to finance next
year aren't identified in the budget. The governor wants to spend $550
million next year on those projects, but only a handful have been identified
so far. Moreover, Blagojevich wants the state's Capital Development
Board to administer the program rather than the state Board of Education.
The CDB is run by Tony Rossi, formerly the clerk of the House under
Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. Senate Republican leader
Frank Watson, R-Greenville, said the change is an indication that "everything
becomes politicized here." "The board of education
went through and ... created a ranking (of projects)," Watson said.
"That was fair. It was one that was felt equally pretty much throughout
the state. This doesn't look like it's going in that direction." About $86 million is
set aside for "Opportunity Returns" projects in certain parts
of the state. Blagojevich is splitting the state into 10 economic development
regions and then directing money into them under the rubric of "Opportunity
Returns." Four regions - including
the one around Blagojevich also wants
$15 million for the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
for unspecified "prime sites" grants that can be used to lure
businesses to the state. Some lawmakers, such
as Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, think the vagueness is deliberate to
give Blagojevich a negotiating edge during the last two months of the
legislature's spring session, particularly to get votes for governor's
plan to virtually eliminate the Board of Education. "It gives him the
last 2½ months of session to call you in and say: 'You see this. That
could be one of your schools (getting money), but you have to vote for
my reorganization plan,"' Black said. "The reform movement
escapes me in this plan." Filan said no additional
money is being directed to lawmaker's pet projects known as member initiatives.
Blagojevich said only $450 million would be available for those projects.
About $162 million has been spent so far, with an additional $287 million
available. Julie Curry, Blagojevich's deputy chief of staff for economic
development, said the governor's office continues to review 2,600 pending
projects. Students
probably won't have to worry about earlier ACT Sara Burnett, Daily
Herald, It appears high school
juniors won't have to worry next year about taking the ACT two months
earlier than normal. A State Board of Education
committee said Tuesday it will recommend against a proposal to move
the test date up from its mid-April schedule. The move had been pitched
as a way to return scores sooner to school districts, which use the
data to determine if they need to offer extra tutoring help or provide
students the option to transfer to a higher-performing school. Last year, students
took the ACT and the Prairie State Achievement Exam in April. It took
until summer before results were returned to schools. Districts then had 45
days to correct any mistakes they believed the state made in calculating
individual or district-wide results. The final data weren't ready until
December, and even then they were ripe with errors. The result was some
schools offered students the option of choosing a different school when
they technically didn't need to; others should have but did not. Many districts complained
about the lag time. Some, however, also argued that moving the date
up could cause a dip in scores. The compromise plan
to be pitched Thursday would keep the ACT date the same. The state board would
ask the processing center to return data first on math and reading scores
- the two subjects used to determine if a school must offer choice.
The rest of the data would be complete at a later date. The board also plans
to change the 45-day period for correcting data to a shorter timeframe,
though that rule wouldn't go into effect until 2005. State Schools Superintendent
Robert Schiller said schools in some states get closer to one week.
Teacher
panel panned; Blagojevich backs off Diane Rado and Molly
Parker, Blagojevich showed some
flexibility after House Speaker Michael Madigan revealed strong opposition
to the governor's proposal for a new teacher certification board that
would set teacher standards and oversee teacher licensing. The current certification
board is appointed by the Illinois State Board of Education. In contrast,
the proposed certification board would be autonomous and dominated by
teachers recommended by teacher unions. "My reading of
the bill tells me that if the bill were to become law, teacher unions
in this state would control this process," Madigan (D-Chicago)
said. "I'm not prepared to support that. "All of you know
that I have a longtime record of supporting unions and teacher unions,
but I don't think teacher unions, in one way or another, should control
the certification process" The stance by Madigan,
who made his position known in a lengthy committee hearing, means the
certification legislation will go back to the drawing board--a blow
to the governor. Later, Blagojevich,
who received $1.2 million in contributions from teacher unions in his
2002 campaign, signaled a willingness to negotiate as he praised Madigan
as "thoughtful" and having "helpful suggestions." "The [new certification]
board has to be configured in a way that assures independence,"
the governor said. "So that's what the goal is, and there's probably
no one single answer on how that should be configured." Blagojevich added: "I
would imagine that there will be some adjustments made in the proposal
that we've offered." The governor's overall
education reform package calls for a new state education agency under
his control, with the current independent State Board of Education relegated
to being a think tank. Local educators are
skeptical, saying the overhaul would do little to help children or address
fundamental school finance problems. Key lawmakers have raised concerns
as well, including Madigan and Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago). When asked Wednesday
if he had any indication that legislative leaders support his overall
reform package, Blagojevich said lawmakers usually don't make commitments
this early in the spring session. But "I'm looking
in the eyes of many of the legislative leaders and I like what I see,"
Blagojevich said, adding that he remains "cautiously optimistic"
that his overhaul package will pass. Blagojevich also distanced
himself from a memo written last week by his top education aide, Brenda
Holmes. Holmes indicated to
educators that Blagojevich would tackle long-standing problems with
education finance in Blagojevich said Wednesday
he didn't know about Holmes' memo until he read about it in news reports.
He also dodged questions about fundamental finance reform, saying he
is addressing funding issues by pouring more money into schools. He reiterated he will
not raise the state income or sales taxes--which education finance experts
say would be necessary in any major funding overhaul that gives property
tax relief. Meanwhile, the House
voted 86-25 to approve a bill inspired by a The legislation would
allow a court to consider self-defense in determining whether a person
should be found guilty of violating the ordinance. The bill's main
sponsor, Rep. John Bradley (D-Marion), said the bill does not take away
a municipality's right to ban handguns. The bill received overwhelming
support from Republicans and Downstate Democrats. "The day government
says I can't protect my home, my family, there's something wrong,"
said Rep. Mike Bost (R-Murphysboro). But opponents, including
many House lawmakers also
approved a bill to increase the homestead exemption to $5,000 and the
senior homestead exemption to $3,000 throughout The bill's sponsor,
Rep. Bill Black (R-Danville), said the measure allows the rest of the
state to enjoy the same exemption level Further, the House passed
a bill to impose a minimum fine on people who knowingly harm sports
officials or coaches. The fine for the first offense would be $1,000
and $2,000 for repeat offenses. Some residents worry,
as Blagojevich has been vague on funding the project since he announced
it in January. Aaron Chambers and Anthony
Watt, More than 200 people
rallied outside the Capitol and said the governor’s plan to simply shift
the state’s education bureaucracy is misdirected. “I hate to see that
things are being cut away every single year in every single district,”
said Carolyn Meingast, a math teacher at Jude Makulec, a member
of the Parent Council’s High School Advocacy Committee, a coalition
of Rockford-area parent/teacher groups, said funding concerns should
trump organizational matters. “(Voters) don’t care
that he wants to have everything under his thumb,” she said. “They care
that their kids are getting what they need, and they aren’t with the
way we are doing it now with property taxes.” Blagojevich wants to
strip the State Board of Education of administrative authority over
education in Blagojevich has largely
avoided discussion of school funding since announcing his education
plan in January. Instead, he maintains the State Board of Education,
which was established by the Illinois Constitution, has failed the education
system. The Legislature and
local school boards, not the State Board of Education, dictate spending
of public school money. But Blagojevich says the state must overhaul
administration of education before calling on citizens to pay additional
taxes. “It seems to me we better
get our own house in order before you are really in a position to ask
the public to start making fundamental changes,” he said Wednesday during
a news conference. The state’s two major
teachers unions, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois
Education Association, support the governor’s plan. Reconciling the disparity
in education funding generally is thought to require an increase in
the state personal income tax. Under the current scheme, local property
tax revenue covers the bulk of education spending. Blagojevich pledges
not to raise the personal income tax or general sales tax. Six of seven Rep. Chuck Jefferson,
D-Rockford, said only that he would consider such a move. Calls to improve the
state funding formula persist. The number of Kasey Davis, a senior
at Rockton’s “I really think we need
more teachers,” she said. “We have 40 to 45 kids
per class, and they are talking about adding more.” Blagojevich’s chief
deputy for education, Brenda Holmes, last week wrote in a letter to
local school superintendents that the governor would address funding
if his plan is approved. “In much the same way
that you prepare your local citizenry for a referendum, we want to ensure
that current education funds are spent wisely before we ask our citizenry
for additional revenue,” Holmes wrote. “Once the governor is accountable
for the Department of Education, he will address the funding issue.”
At the news conference
Wednesday, Blagojevich insisted his administration already is working
to improve funding. He would not validate the position Holmes portrayed
in her letter. “I’m not saying she’s
wrong. I’m not saying she’s right,” Blagojevich said of his deputy.
“What I’m saying here is we’ve been doing it.” Blagojevich and the
Legislature approved $400 million in new education spending as part
of the budget for the current fiscal year. The governor proposed another
$400 million increase in the fiscal year beginning July 1. But that money appears
to be insufficient to cover even the education programs the governor
has called for, let alone projects sought by others. Blagojevich said
the Legislature should set priorities and that he’d be involved in that
process. He also echoed a major budget theme: closing so-called corporate
tax loopholes. “Maybe as this process
unfolds we’ll find a few more corporate loopholes that the men and women
here in Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers
say they fear the governor could use the prospect of school construction
grants to leverage support for his education plan. On Tuesday, the governor
proposed $550 million in school construction grants. Interested school
districts would have to apply to the state for a share of the funds.
Republicans say the
governor could trade grants for votes. Blagojevich referred
a question on the matter to Tony Rossi, executive director of the Capital
Development Board, which would administer the school construction grants.
Rossi said the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules
would articulate standards for grant applicants. “There won’t be any
place for politics in the priority process,” Rossi said. Speaker
questions governor's teacher certification plan Ginny Skalski, The Associated
Press, Daily Southtown "I don't think
that the teacher unions, one way or another, should control the certification
process," Madigan (D-Chicago) said during an appearance at a meeting
of the House Education Committee. The proposal is part
of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's plan to gut the state Board of Education,
which has the final say on whether teachers are deemed qualified. He
proposes an 11-member certification panel, with teachers unions recommending
six of the members, to take over that part of the state board's duties. With Madigan opposed,
the governor's proposed changes to the certification board would almost
certainly fail in the House. The Democratic governor
said later Wednesday that Madigan had a point. "It's a legitimate
concern because it deals with the independence of the certification
process for teachers," Blagojevich said. "I would imagine
that, ultimately, that's an issue that will be resolved in a way that
ensures independence. That's what everybody wants." Blagojevich said he
did not interpret Madigan's criticism as evidence that his larger education
plan is in danger, and Madigan did not comment on the plan as a whole. At least publicly, the
four legislative leaders have been hesitant about the overhaul proposal,
arguing it would give governors too much control over education. Blagojevich
described that as the normal caution of leaders still trying to gauge
the reaction of rank-and-file lawmakers. "I feel good about
the response I'm getting from them," Blagojevich said. The State Teacher Certification
Board is responsible for renewing, issuing and suspending teaching certificates.
It also helps set teaching standards and qualifications for teachers
and school administrators. State schools Superintendent
Robert Schiller said he was encouraged by Madigan's vocal opposition
and hoped Madigan also will see importance of other duties now handled
by the State Board of Education. Supporters of the certification
change say it would not be a major difference because teachers unions
already have a big role in recommending who should sit on the certification
panel. They also argue that reducing the paperwork involved in certification
would help teachers concentrate on the classroom. The state board currently
appoints members, but Blagojevich proposes giving the governor that
authority. Critics worry that universities, businesses and Scott Miller, "We're usually
really quiet," Schroeder, former president of the Parents, teachers and
school administrators from around the state swarmed on the steps of
the State Capitol, flashing signs stating, "Raise My Taxes Please,"
"Save Our Schools," and "Got Funding?" The Better Funding for
Better Schools Coalition organized the event to demand state lawmakers
raise per-pupil spending by $1,000, reduce the over-reliance on property
taxes to fund education and close the funding gap throughout Kerr, mother of a student
in the Unit 5 school district, and Schroeder came to speak with "We've lost teachers.
The entire budget for music has been cut. They're cutting gifted education
programs practically to the core," Kerr said. "The state has
to step up and do something." In addition, schools
are a major part of a community's economic development, said Todd Barlow,
current president of the band parents group. "When employers
move into a community, they look for school districts," said Barlow,
who also made the hour drive to participate in the rally. "You
have to have quality schools." The rally came one day
after Gov. Rod Blagojevich proposed spending $2.2 billion over four
years on school construction projects. The governor did not specify
how the money would be allocated, however, and under his proposal, the
Capital Development Board would determine how the money is spent, not
the Blagojevich's proposal
earned criticism from several state lawmakers as well the state's top
education officials. "This is a frightening
proposition for school districts statewide," said state Superintendent
Robert Schiller. Replacing "a fair process set into law by the
legislature with a program that is discretionary can not possibly serve
all of our schools equitably." On Wednesday, the House
Republicans denounced the governor's plans because, in part, local school
districts would be locked out of the bidding process because they would
be forced to use state architects and engineers for construction projects. "Not only would
this take control of these projects away from local school boards and
turn them over to bureaucrats in Chicago or Springfield, it would also
remove local architects, designers and construction companies from the
process, hurting local economies and jobs," said House Minority
leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego. Future
teachers feel sting of state aid cuts Patrick Corcoran, Palatine
Countryside A proposed state budget
cut could swipe a lucrative and prestigious scholarship from a For Jillian Conrad of
Palatine, a three-month application process, which included writing
seven essays and having a face-to-face interview with scholarship officials,
paid off when she found out in February she was selected for the Golden
Apple Scholars of Illinois program. The scholarship award meant she
could pursue her plans to study education and become a teacher. But a few weeks ago,
she received a letter saying the funding for the scholarship could be
cut as part of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's newest state budget proposal.
Slashing the program
would cost Conrad and her parents about $28,000: a four-year $5,000
scholarship to the About 1,200 Conrad, the only scholarship
winner from High School District 211, said she received the good news
and bad news in matching envelopes. "I was honored
when I got the packet in the first letter," she said. "When
the next letter came, I thought it would be about the (upcoming) summer
program. It was bad news, instead." The second letter contained
information about how to contact local legislators to encourage Blagojevich
to reinstate the estimated $3.8 million a year it takes to fund the
Golden Apple Scholars program. Conrad said she already
has contacted local politicians, such as state Rep. Suzie Bassi, R-54th,
and state Sen. Wendell Jones, R-27th, and intends to work with a network
of Golden Apple Scholars alumni to pressure Blagojevich to reconsider
cutting the program. The scholarship is part of state-sponsored Golden
Apple Teacher Awards; however, funding for those awards is not part
of Blagojevich's proposed cuts. The Golden Apple Scholarship
isn't all about a tuition break for students who want to be Mimi Conrad, her mother,
who will have two children in college next year, said the loss of the
scholarship probably won't derail her daughter's plans to attend the
University of Illinois, but it will make it tougher to pay for her education,
and she is considering re-applying to other schools. "We've cobbled
together money for our daughter's education, but college prices are
going up quite a bit and it gets to be extremely expensive," she
said. Tuition to the university
runs anywhere from $7,000 to $8,000 a year for tuition alone. Dom Belmonte, director
of teacher preparation for the Golden Apple program, said the publicity
about the proposed cuts has clued in voters and politicians to what
the program is all about. "While this whole
thing has been crushing for people in the program, one thing of value
that has come of this is clarification of what we do -- that we are
not a scholarship program -- the notion of the program and its success
as an advanced teacher preparation program," he said. Belmonte said the program's
results are tremendous: about 800 skilled graduates are teaching in
needy "We take people
who are dedicated to teach and prepare them to be successful and put
them in classes right out of high school. The support they are given
on a continuing basis comes from people who are master practitioners
in education. The result is teachers who are inspired, talented, committed
and successful," he said. Politicians, scholars,
alumni and staff members from schools where alumni teach are rallying
around the program, and the support makes Belmonte hopeful that the
General Assembly will restore its funding. Besides the 100 graduating
seniors who could lose scholarships, 400 current undergraduate students
could lose their scholarships and 300 first- and second-year teachers
could lose mentoring opportunities, Belmonte said. The program began in
1988 with 15 students and a budget of $60,000 and has been funded by
the state since 1993. Mimi Conrad, a teacher
herself, said the scholarship is well worth the state's investment because
it helps produce top teachers for schools in desperate need of talented
educators. "The program is
so fantastic. The students are taught and trained by Golden Apple winners
and then commit themselves to a learning environment where teachers
are needed most. These students are very interested in teaching and,
for them, understanding this (funding) change is a challenge,"
she said. Jill Conrad said she
is taking the potential loss of the scholarship in stride; it's just
another obstacle in reaching her lifelong dream of teaching. "I've wanted to
teach since day one. All the commitment and work would be worth it.
Right now I'm also definitely worried about the money," she said.
She intends to work
extra hours over the summer, saving as much money as possible for school.
She also is considering applying to schools she passed on after receiving
the scholarship to Gov borrows,
spends, hands bill to Column
by Chuck Sweeny, We are such short-term
thinkers these days that many of us probably cheered when we read that
Gov. Rod Blagojevich proposed Tuesday to spend $2.2 billion building
new schools and repairing old ones. Imagine the glee in
If there are any Belvidere
students reading this column, though, they should be warned that if
the governor does send money for the new school, the bill for it and
others throughout Illinois will likely come due about the time they’ve
got a mortgage, two car loans (one car from each Wolf), a home equity
loan, a kid starting college and aging Generation X parents to care
for. The governor has decided
to balance the state’s budget by making a few cuts, raising a bunch
of fees and taxes on businesses, but mainly by selling a whole slew
of bonds. Other governors have
sold bonds, too, but not like this one. Blagojevich has deferred paying
most of the principal on his bonds until the “out years,” as far out
as 2033. It’s the Hindenburg of balloon mortgages. Even before he fired
off news releases Tuesday to announce his 2005 capital expenditure budget,
with $3.2 billion in new spending projects, Blagojevich had already
sold more bonds than any other governor, Republicans said. “Last year, we borrowed
close to $12 to $13 billion, it’s a record for any state,” said Sen.
Dave Syverson, R-Rockford. “Say what you want about
former governor George Ryan, but at least his school construction program
had a funding source, which was the increase in license plate fees,”
Syverson said. With Ryan’s program, Blagojevich may have
trouble getting his capital budget through the Legislature. He needs
a 60 percent majority, and that means some Republicans have to vote
yes. Will any do it? Syverson and Sen. Brad Burzynski, R-Sycamore, are
skeptical. “There’s got to be accountability.
With the list of projects presented to us Tuesday, you can’t make heads
nor tails of it. Are these existing projects, new projects? Are they
paid for by old bond sales? New bond sales? It’s not clear,” Burzynski
said. “I can’t justify voting
for new bonding programs to pay for computers and automobiles when the
life of the bonds is 25 years. It’s just unconscionable,” Burzynski
said. Chalk that up as a “no”
vote. Unfortunately, Republicans
who vote no probably won’t get their long-delayed pork project funds
released. Burzynski has some $10 million worth, including $7 million
for “It has been suggested
that if some of us (Republicans) support the budget measure, that some
of the funds for our projects will be released,” Burzynski said. Syverson, who has $2
million in frozen pork, much of it for social service agencies, said
that he, too, wants more funding details on the capital budget. “My vote will be parochial.
If Rockford’s going to get the projects we need to help our social services,
build roads and boost our economy by creating jobs, then I’ll consider
voting for it,” Syverson said. Board Blasts Governor's Education Plan Matt Adrian, Southern
Illinoisan SPRINGFIELD -- The Illinois
State Board of Education members lambasted Gov. Rod Blagojevich's $400
million education spending plan Thursday, saying it did not meet the
needs of The board discussed
Blagojevich's lump sum spending for fiscal 2005 and begrudgingly suggested
how the money should be divided among increasing local schools' portions
of state aid and funding special education. "All this is are
guidelines. We are not endorsing this," said Richard Sandmark,
chairman of the board's finance and audit committee. The board is suggesting
that the state consider increasing the general state aid by only $150
per pupil, this would cost $249 million. Special Education could be
allotted $117 million. The proposal would split up the remaining funds
into grants for reading and bilingual education. In his budget address,
Blagojevich announced plans to put $400 million into education. The
governor declined to earmark the funds for specific programs, instead
leaving it to the General Assembly to set spending priorities. Last
year, Blagojevich said he wanted to move toward a $250 per pupil spending
every year. To meet that goal, the
ISBE estimates it would eat up almost all of the $400 million set aside.
"We're killing
schools in The ISBE estimates the
cost of fully funding special education and the $250 per pupil spending
at more than $600 million. Other board members
said the agency should not even consider making any recommendation in
protest. "They have to decide
which kids they will underserve. We won't do it for them," board
member Gregory Kazarian said. Rebecca Rausch, a Blagojevich
spokeswoman, said the administration doesn't have plans to spell out
how the $400 million should be spent. "He has thoughts
on where the spending should go," Rausch said. "But the legislature
is encouraged to discuss on how the money should be spent." Rausch said the governor
has been meeting with legislators to discuss the education funding.
Why schools are in bad shape and getting worse Sara Burnett, Daily
Herald The number of But if you think that's
bad, just wait till next year. That's when state education
officials estimate tougher academic standards could land at least 1,400
more public schools -- including hundreds in the suburbs -- on the state's
academic warning lists, forcing them to revamp curriculum or allow students
to transfer to higher-performing schools. The state could take
control of 47 consistently low-performing schools, 45 of which are in
Educators also expect
to see a jump in the number of districts on the "financial watch"
list, used to identify districts in the worst financial shape. State education officials
said Thursday both crises can be blamed, at least in part, on a cut
in state funding and "We know these
schools need special attention and intervention," State Superintendent
Robert Schiller said, "(but) we're working on a shoestring in this
state." Opponents of a change
in school funding argue districts run into trouble because they spend
frivolously or overpay staff. "Shoveling more
taxpayer money into the over-funded government schools doesn't fix the
real problem," Jim Tobin, president of National Taxpayers United
of Illinois, said this week. Schools make the academic
"early warning" list if students overall or subgroups broken
down by race, low-income, disabled, migrant or limited-English, do not
perform well enough on standardized tests for two consecutive years. If those schools receive
federal funds, they must provide extra tutoring and offer students the
choice to transfer to a different school. All schools on the early warning
list also must approve an improvement plan that focuses more on reading
and math. The list released Thursday,
which refers to the 2002-03 school year, shows 280 of the state's roughly
4,000 schools made the "academic early warning" list. That could change next
year, when state officials expect a good portion of the roughly 1,700
schools that failed to meet standards this year will do so for the second
year. And because state standards
will increase each year after that, the list is likely to do nothing
but swell unless there are sharp jumps in standardized test scores. If schools fail to meet
standards for four or five consecutive years, they move to the more
serious "academic watch" status. This year, 335 schools were
on that list, state officials said. If a school fails six
years in a row, it is designated in "state intervention status."
The state may remove the local school board, reassign students or remove
administrative staff. No schools are on that
list for 2002-03, but officials said 47 schools could move onto it if
their test scores do not improve this school year. Twenty-two schools moved
off the warning list by exceeding standards for two consecutive years.
About 70 other schools are still appealing their results on standardized
tests and are not yet on any of the state's academic lists, Schiller
said. The financial list places
each of the state's 898 public school districts into one of four categories
based on financial health in the 2002-03 school year. "Financial
recognition" status is the best, while "financial watch"
is the worst. The number of districts
in financial watch grew from 87 to 156 this year, according to the state
board. The next-most serious
category, "financial early warning," also grew, from 135 to
156, while the number of districts in "financial recognition"
fell from 431 to 356. In all, 33 percent of
the state's districts fell into one of the two worst designations. Though there is no state
law to enforce it, the state board requires districts in financial watch
status to provide a three-year projection of funds, establish a finance
committee, complete a staffing plan and personnel inventory, and provide
enrollment projections for the next three years, along with other reports. The board uses several
criteria to determine a district's status, from cash on hand to indebtedness
and the balance in the district's teacher retirement fund. The list is meant to
inform the public on the status of their district and to get school
districts who may be struggling to take a closer look at their situation,
said David Wood, director of the state board's operations department. Lists of troubled schools grow Some charge state not
doing its part Diane Rado and Tracy
Dell'Angela, The number of schools
in severe academic trouble skyrocketed to 335 this year from 49, prompting
state officials to question whether Illinois is doing all it can to
help schools that repeatedly fail state standards. "If we don't deal
with this, I can envision some parent filing a lawsuit suggesting we
haven't done our jobs," said Illinois State Board of Education
member Ron Gidwitz. Schools in Schools are cited mainly
because the majority of students haven't passed state tests for four
years in a row. Another 30 academic-watch
schools are in south The bad academic news
was followed by bad financial news, with the state board also releasing
a list of financially troubled school districts on Thursday. In Statewide, the number
of financial watch districts soared to 156 from 87, signaling a deepening
school finance crisis in Local school officials
reacted with indignation to the financial watch list, saying it represents
finger-pointing but little promise of a solution to "So what if we're
on a watch list. I'd like to put "It doesn't mean
anything to us. It's not going to get us any more money," Vega
said. At the Capitol Thursday,
the state House passed legislation to increase basic state aid for students
by $250, to $5,060 per pupil from $4,810. The measure still must pass
the state Senate. But the price tag for
the increase would be about $400 million, the total increase recommended
by Gov. Rod Blagojevich for public schools for the budget year beginning
July 1. That would leave little room for increases in school programs
funded separately, such as transportation, textbooks and special education. "None of us agrees
that $400 million is sufficient," state Board of Education member
Dean Clark said Thursday. Funding for programs
that assist schools in academic trouble also has been inadequate, said
Lynne Curry, director of planning and performance at the state board. The board set up assistance
centers in six regions this year to help troubled schools improve curriculum
and teacher quality. That program must expand
as the number of schools in serious academic trouble rises, she said. The number of schools
on academic watch represents about 8 percent of schools statewide. "To
me, that's a scary number," said Curry. Part of the increase
stems from a change in the way the state determines a school's standing,
she said. In the past, schools
were judged on how many students passed a variety of tests. If fewer
than 50 percent of students passed two years in a row, the school was
placed on "academic early warning." If the school continued
to fail for two more years, it was placed on academic watch. After the 2003 state
tests, schools were judged on more strict standards put in place under
No Child Left Behind federal education reforms. Under those reforms,
40 percent of students in all racial groups have to pass state tests
in reading and math, a more difficult hurdle. Nearly 300 schools that
had been on early warning in 2002-03 moved down to the academic watch
list this school year, a striking shift downward, Curry said. But Peter Cunningham,
spokesman for Chicago Public Schools, said the new list serves little
useful purpose, especially given that it is based on 2003 test data. "We don't need
another list from the state to tell us which of our schools are struggling.
We know which of our schools are struggling." This year's round of
state testing begins Monday, he said. "We don't know why they are
releasing this list now. We don't know what they want us to do with
it." In other business, the
state board decided against moving up testing dates next year for the
Prairie State Achievement Examination given to high school juniors.
That test includes the ACT college entrance exam. The board had considered
pushing up the exam by nearly two months to avoid delays in getting
back test scores. But local school officials
complained, saying that reduced time to prepare students. The board
set the test dates at April 27 and 28, 2005, similar to this year. The ISAT test given
to grade school pupils will be moved up three weeks next year, to March
7-18. The board members said they heard no opposition to moving up ISAT
testing. The state Senate passed
a bill Thursday requiring all high school students to take the Principals say parents should rate teachers Maudlyne Ihejirika,
A schoolyard brawl is
brewing in the Chicago Public Schools, and there are no students involved
in this one. This time, it's principals
against teachers. And Thursday, all gloves were off, as the key players
in Chicago schools clashed over who should grade whom, and who holds
blame in addressing escalating crimes by students against teachers. The rating war began
earlier this month when the Chicago Teachers Union announced it was
mailing 33,000 surveys asking teachers and paraprofessionals to rate
the strengths of their principals. "If accountability
is good for principals, it should be good for teachers too," Chicago
Principals & Administrators Association President Clarice Berry
retorted Thursday as the association suggested at a news conference
that if teachers can rate principals, parents should rate teachers. "We're unhappy
with this. We're asking [CTU President] Deborah Lynch to withhold the
results until we've had a chance to look at it," Says Lynch: "Good
principals shouldn't be worried about this principal evaluation by teachers.
I'm getting lots of feedback from our members who are very glad that
we're doing this survey." Add to the controversy
the CTU's new campaign to stem escalating violence in public schools.
The union said a survey
last summer found most teachers who left the system ran from the violence,
and many cited lack of support from principals on teacher safety and
security. Violent crime by students
against teachers has risen steadily for the past four years. In 2000-2001,
there were 940 incidents of aggravated battery, assault, sex crimes,
threats of violence, vandalism and theft. Such crimes had risen
to 1,370 in 2002-2003, with CPS officials battling the rise by putting
more metal detectors, X-ray machines and security guards in troubled
schools, as well as with more aggressive expulsion of problem students. Principals took issue
with teachers' complaints of scant support. Some teachers charged that
their principals discouraged reporting violence because of concerns
about the school's image. "We want to get
reports. We need a more accurate idea of what's really going on, to
know where to apply our limited resources," said schools safety
and security chief Andres Durbak. "In the last six
months, 651 students have been expelled. That's a direct indication
that principals have indeed been pursuing the removal of violent children
from schools and children who bring in drugs and weapons," So where is CPS on all
this? "This is between the teachers and the principals," says
spokesman Peter Cunningham. Principals' union upset with survey Teachers' views to be
on the Web H. Gregory Meyer, The head of the But Chicago Teachers
Union President Deborah Lynch immediately responded that far from withholding
the information, the union will post the survey results for the public
to see on its Web site in mid-April. Earlier this month the
teachers union considered sharing the survey results only with its members.
The survey was sent to 33,000 teachers and teacher aides in the Chicago
Public Schools system and is due back April 1. But they've since decided
to let anyone with an Internet connection read the feedback, Lynch said. In addition to 26 questions
on subjects ranging from leadership to showing sensitivity to cultural
diversity, the performance survey gives principals an overall grade,
from A to F, as on a student report card. That's especially irksome
to Clarice Berry, president of the Chicago Principals & Administrators
Association. "I'm asking her
to withhold the distribution till she comes to the table . . . so we
can make an assessment," But as for Berry's public
request Thursday to put results on hold until principals and Chicago
Public Schools officials have vetted them, Lynch declined. "My accountability
is to my membership," she said. "My members are going to get
the results first." Students regret possible loss of Golden Apple scholarships
BY NICHOLAS WISELOGEL,
The way things look
now, earning a prestigious scholarship may do nothing more for When he found out March
6 that funding for the Golden Apple program could be pulled, he decided
again to attend "I finally sent
out my information on March 9, but now I might get considerably less
aid than if I sent it in on time," Funding for the Golden
Apple Scholars could be cut as part of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's newest
state budget proposal. Slashing the program would cost Conway and his
parents about $28,000: a four-year $5,000 scholarship and four $2,000
stipends for studying with some of A network of Golden
Apple Scholars alumni, along with local legislators state Rep. Suzie
Bassi, R-54th, and state Sen. Wendell Jones, R-27th, plan to pressure
Blagojevich to reconsider cutting the program. The scholarship program
is part of state-sponsored Golden Apple Teacher Awards; however, funding
for those awards is not part of Blagojevich's proposed cuts. The program isn't all
about a tuition break for students who want to be "It will not change
any of my college plans," she said. "But it was definitely
very unsettling to hear it at first." "It's very upsetting,
but I've talked to my parents and we've decided that we are going to
have to make plans without relying on the scholarship," she said.
Lagunas said Blagojevich's
decision to cut the program is all the more disappointing because of
the time she and the other scholars spent applying for the award. She
said she had to write seven essays and gather three letters of recommendation,
all of which were due last June. Of the initial 1,200
students nominated by their schools this year, about 400 applied and
100 were then chosen. Negative publicity Dom Belmonte, director
of teacher preparation for the Golden Apple program, said the publicity
about the proposed cuts has clued in voters and politicians to what
the program is all about. "While this whole
thing has been crushing for people in the program, one thing of value
that has come of this is clarification of what we do -- that we are
not a scholarship program -- the notion of the program and its success
as an advanced teacher preparation program," he said. Belmonte said the program's
results are tremendous: about 800 skilled graduates are teaching in
needy "We take people
who are dedicated to teach and prepare them to be successful and put
them in classes right out of high school. The support they are given
on a continuing basis comes from people who are master practitioners
in education. The result is teachers who are inspired, talented, committed
and successful," he said. Politicians, scholars,
alumni and staff members from schools where alumni teach are rallying
around the program, and the support makes Belmonte hopeful that the
General Assembly will restore its funding. Besides the 100 graduating
seniors who could lose scholarships, 400 current undergraduate students
could lose their scholarships and 300 first- and second-year teachers
could lose mentoring opportunities, Belmonte said. The program began in
1988 with 15 students and a budget of $60,000 and has been funded by
the state since 1993. Not losing hope As for the five-year
commitment Golden Apple Scholars have to make after graduation to teach
in disadvantaged schools, Lagunas said, "I really had no second
thoughts about that. I love children and I want to be there for them,
not only as a friend but also as a mentor." All three Golden Apple
Scholars from High School District 214 schools said they think there
is still a chance that the program will be saved. "I have faith in
the program," Dituri said. "Even if I don't get a scholarship,
I'm very proud to be a Golden Apple Scholar and would still like to
take part in whatever is left of the program." Since the day Gov. Rod
Blagojevich proposed to dismantle the State Board of Education and place
education policy directly under the governor, skeptics have voiced suspicions
that the plan was merely a way to hand greater power to teachers unions. After all, the argument
goes, the state's teachers unions, the Illinois Education Association
and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, contributed $1.2 million to
his 2002 campaign. That's not necessarily
fair, but that is reason for Blagojevich to tread carefully on any move
that gives the appearance of payback. And that's one reason
there were howls in Currently, the State
Teacher Certification Board only has advisory powers. It reports to
the State Board of Education. The advisory board would be replaced by
a more powerful body that would set teacher standards, revoke teachers'
licenses for unprofessional conduct and employ an executive director
and staff. House Speaker Michael
Madigan, a Democrat with close ties to unions, was right to blow the
whistle on a plan for teachers to police themselves. "I don't think
teachers unions, in one way or another, should control the certification
process," Madigan said this week. It's a matter of logic
that no oversight board should be controlled by those it oversees. Beyond
that, teachers unions have often been resistant to innovative ideas
such as alternative certifications to allow non-teachers to change careers
and offer their talents in the classroom and requirements that they
receive ongoing education as a condition to retain their certificates. There are other troubling
aspects to the plan. Though a good deal of the work done by the board
concerns teacher preparation programs, the new board would reduce the
role of university faculty. Currently, five of the 19 members of the
advisory teacher certification board come from universities. In the
new plan, only two out of 11 members would come from universities. Fortunately, it appears
that Blagojevich is willing to back down. In comments Wednesday, he
said he expects some changes to his program. The governor has run
into some stiff opposition to his plan to strip power from the State
Board of Education and take over the state's education structure--an
idea that this page has supported. If he hopes to shake
up the education status quo, he will have to convince people that his
motives are only to improve education, not to empower his political
allies. =========================================================================== NATIONAL Big city
schools show gains in state tests Items compiled from
Tribune news services The Council of the Great
City Schools reviewed state test scores from 61 urban school districts
in 37 states by comparing 2002 and 2003 results. The report being released
Monday found that 47 percent of the 4th graders in the study scored
at or above proficiency in reading--a gain of almost 5 percentage points
from 2002. For math, 51 percent of the pupils tested at or above proficiency,
nearly 7 percentage points better. For 8th graders, scores
rose about 1 percentage point in reading and 3 percentage points in
math. The scores covered the
first year of the No Child Left Behind law, a centerpiece of President
Bush's education agenda. Michael Casserly, the
council's executive director, said "people have been hard at work
on these issues for the last couple of years." Changes in education
plan will help teachers meet standards The intentions of the
federal No Child Left Behind Act clearly are good. Among other provisions,
the act, pushed by President Bush and passed with strong bipartisan
support two years ago, establishes broad federal testing for elementary
and middle-school students and requires that teachers be designated
"highly qualified" if they teach core subjects like math,
science, social studies and English. However, where No Child
Left Behind is concerned, the Bush administration is learning that a
one-standard-fits-all mandate from the federal government doesn't always
work well in education. The latest problem is
the requirement that teachers be "highly qualified" in the
areas they teach. The goal, of course, is commendable. Teachers should
know the material they are called on to teach our children; they should
be experts in their subjects and competent in the classroom. But what happens in
small, rural schools, where teachers may teach a variety of subjects?
While a biology teacher may be "highly qualified" in that
subject, the teacher also may be called on to teach chemistry classes
as well. The teacher may be acceptable in chemistry, but the teacher's
education and background is biology. Fortunately, the Bush
administration isn't looking at the No Child Left Behind Act as set
in stone. As changes are needed, the regulations are adjusted. This
week, the administration loosened rules for teachers in rural schools
where student populations are smaller than metropolitan areas. Teachers in such small-town
schools, including rural schools in In The adjustments in the
No Child Left Behind Act make sense. Many public schools need higher
standards to meet, as do many teachers, but it is important that those
standards not be impossible to meet. This week's changes
will help. No Child
Left Behind: Lame tests, unwarranted sanctions Bard Barker, The "I will not divulge
the contents of the tests to any other person through verbal, written
or any other means of communication." This is a pledge on
the "Security Affidavit" signed by everyone who helps administer
the high-stakes California STAR Tests to public school students. Hopefully, the test
officials, resplendent in their majesty, do not consider this document
part of the test -- I just divulged a bit about divulging. The affidavit
helps to ensure that test proctors (formerly known as "teachers")
do not permit test-takers (once known as "students") to have
prior knowledge of the questions. I suspect there's another
reason for secrecy. If the questions were revealed, the public might
understand how tragically lame these standardized tests are. "Lame," in
this context, is a concept used by educational professionals to mean
utterly dreary, brain-numbing, disconnected, bogus, draconian nonsense
that sucks the last morsels of joy from the learning experience. But
let's not get technical. Did I mention that the
unrelenting barrage of standardized tests is bad for children? Drill-and-grill
test preparation is worse. Even the most obsequious teachers and administrators
know that test mania has reached absurd levels; they just won't say
it out loud. Meanwhile, students suffer. Conservative policy-makers
used to promote local control and decentralized decision-making; now,
they're for some kind of Soviet-style mandated system. Master bureaucrats
push prepackaged, trickle-down, paint-by-number curricula followed by
a battery of standardized tests and punitive sanctions. How did this
happen? The American public
does not want lockstep pedagogic uniformity. A new poll by the National
PTA shows that parents consider school funding, teacher quality, parental
involvement and class size to be significantly more important than state-mandated
testing. The parents are right. So why all this high-stakes pressure? Compounding the testing
mess are the sanctions set by the No Child Left Behind Act. Five years
running, Mark Twain Junior High in west But wait -- under NCLB,
similar-schools rankings don't matter. It doesn't matter that we're
located in a poor neighborhood where nearly all of our students qualify
for free or reduced-price lunches. It doesn't matter that a huge chunk
of our students come from homes where English isn't spoken. It doesn't
matter that our school has an overflow of special-needs students. Despite the hard work
of students and staff, and consistently good test scores, our school
faces sanctions. The convoluted system of measuring "Adequate Yearly
Progress" has rigged our school (and hundreds of others) for failure.
This system is flagrantly unrealistic and outrageously unfair. Schools don't need more
fill-in-the-bubble testing. They need good teachers, supported by parents
and administrators who are given the autonomy to engage students in
positive and creative ways. Standards should include higher-level thinking
skills, and student progress should be measured with a variety of assessment
tools. If we don't fix this
testing mess, the stakes become stratospherically high. Nation's
schools remain unbalanced Hundreds of desegregation
plans have been abandoned Thomas Hargrove, Scripps
Howard News Service Fifty years after the
U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision requiring
schools to integrate their classrooms, children of color today are much
more likely to be in mostly minority schools than they were a decade
ago. With little fanfare
and scant publicity, federal judges and school policy makers have abandoned
hundreds of desegregation plans written in the 1960s and 1970s. The public largely is
unaware of the change, according to a recent national poll conducted
by the A study of U.S. Department
of Education records conducted by Scripps Howard News Service found
that racial isolation — the percentage of children of color enrolled
in schools that are 90 percent minority or more — has risen in at least
36 states between 1991 and 2001, the most recent year for which reliable
data are available. In all, 6.6 million
of the nation's 18.9 million black, Hispanic, Asian and American Indian
children in 2001 were enrolled in public schools that were 90 percent
minority or more. That means 35 percent are racially isolated in their
classrooms. "These patterns
are not the result of current illegal practices by school districts,"
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said in an interview. "The
reasons are complex and sociologists and demographers can help us figure
it out. Some of the causes involve housing patterns and economic factors."
But several prominent
experts on race in public schools are quick to blame the nation's political
and judicial leaders for making a quiet policy change. "We're in a major
process of re-segregation," said Gary Orfield, co-director of The Scripps Howard study
found that students of color were most likely to be enrolled in one-color
schools in the states of The study looked at
records from 67,577 public schools, comparing their racial enrollment
reports from 1991 and 2001. Of these, 414 schools had mostly minority
student populations in 1991 that became mostly white a decade later
while 5,506 schools shifted from majority white student populations
to mostly minorities. Put another way, the
reshuffling of student populations has been so profound in "Folks should be
screaming from the rooftops about this issue. We have not achieved what
we set out to achieve," said Elise Boddie, director of school desegregation
cases for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in Boddie's group once
oversaw more than 300 desegregation cases; now only about 50 are still
active. Most desegregation cases
have been dismissed under a "unitary status" declaration,
meaning the original conditions of dual-school systems no longer exist.
Often judges reluctantly make this declaration, noting districts are
so overwhelmingly of one race that little can be done to stop racial
isolation. Boddie said she sees
little reason to celebrate come May 17, the anniversary of the Supreme
Court's 1954 ruling that declared separate but equal school systems
are inherently unequal. "We'd rather pay lip service to Brown than
really seek and preserve educational quality for minority children,"
she said. "And now there is no political will to pursue integration."
School for Deaf faces
extra challenges in meeting testing standards Noemi While students learning
English as a second language in Justin had virtually
no language skills when he enrolled at the Nevertheless, the state
school, like all public schools, is expected to meet requirements of
the No Child Left Behind Act or face penalties. “I wish the law said
all students will reach their ‘potential' because potential varies for
every student,” Finn said. “I hate to put all kids in the same box.
Judging our multipurpose school on the basis of one test is not fair.” The Results from this year's
testing, now under way, are expected May 15. At the school for the
deaf, all students are English language learners. For deaf students
who come from a home where English is not spoken, English becomes a
third language, behind American Sign Language (ASL) and the language
spoken at home.“We have some students who come to us with a fully developed
language, American Sign Language,” said Finn, who has worked at the
school 30 years. It is the students without
a fully developed language who must deal with enormous barriers. Justin, who came to
the school with limited language, is profoundly deaf and has a heart
defect. For students like him,
the foremost objective is to teach American Sign Language. As students
slowly build strength in ASL, teachers begin to teach English.Deaf children
can be without a first language if they have a disability in addition
to being deaf, such as autism, Finn said. But the more common reason
is because the deafness was not identified early enough, he said. Justin's deafness was
identified immediately after birth, but he was not exposed to ASL during
his early years at home. Like many deaf people, Justin was born into
a hearing family. From the moment of birth,
children should be in an environment where language is accessible, said
Sandie Kelly, education consultant for the school for the deaf. “From birth to about
8 years of age, a child develops skills in social language and academic
language,” she said. “When a child has not had the opportunity to fully
develop these skills, academic success can be very difficult.” For children whose families
do not speak English, the learning process can become more complicated
for teachers and confusing for students. Kelly used an example
of a student with a hearing, Spanish-speaking family. “When they (students)
are at home and see only Spanish, but at school they're seeing only
English, you can see how very confusing that can get,” she said. Teaching English to
a deaf student is complex because it entails eight components: fingerreading,
fingerspelling, reading English text, writing English text, typing English
text, lipreading, speaking and listening. Kelly Grove, whose daughter
Mary is a third-grader at the school, understands the difficulty of
teaching English to a deaf child. “ASL is a completely
different language than English,” she said. “To understand a written
question, you have to understand the English language.” Because Mary began learning
ASL before she came to the school, she is doing well learning English,
“but she's beginning to write it and she's struggling,” Grove said. Despite the challenges
in meeting No Child Left Behind standards, Finn credits the state with
recognizing the difficulty his school has in making adequate yearly
progress. Students at the school
for the deaf are classified by the government for testing purposes as
a disabled subgroup, which gives the school some testing accommodations,
such as special lighting, enlarged text and modified test language.
But Finn said no test is perfect. By 2013-14, the No Child
Left Behind Act mandates that all children meet proficiency standards
in reading and math. This year, 57.3 percent of students in grades 5
and 8 must meet standards in reading and 53.5 percent of grades 4 and
7 must meet math standards. In grades 9-11, 51 percent of 11-graders
must meet proficiency standards in reading and 38 percent of 10th-graders
must meet math standards. “We need to meet the
law whether we agree with it or no,” Finn said. The state has done everything
possible to help the school make requirements – more training, more
time to improve scores, curriculum support and strategies, Finn said. Finn points out not
all deaf students perform academically lower than hearing students. “We have students who
can meet and exceed hearing student standards,” he said. “My only objection:
It's difficult, if not impossible, to get 100 percent of anything. To
have 100 percent of students proficient by a certain year is unattainable.” Although the school
did not make the required yearly progress standard based on last year's
reading tests, parents Grove and Meador stand by the school. “It's a very special
school,” Grove said. “We have to keep it in perspective. We can't be
making blanket statements for all children.” Meador calls the school
a miracle place because of its staff and programs, and because the school
teaches kids who have disabilities in addition to deafness. “They have done well
in addressing kids like my son,” she said. “There are very bright kids
in there.” Panel
gives 'no' to No Child law John Welsh, The A top U.S. Department
of Education official lobbied The effort, which failed
to block an anti-No Child Left Behind measure, represents an increasingly
aggressive response by the Bush administration to a movement by state
legislatures to speak out against the federal law. "It is an election
year, after all,'' said Kathy Christie, vice president of the Education
Commission of the States. “The
volume of reaction has been building the past couple of months. It's
been aggressive on both sides.'' Signed into law two
years ago by President Bush, No Child Left Behind remains his signature
education program. Supporters of the law say it forces states to look
at new ways to address the achievement gap of long-neglected groups
of students including minorities, handicapped and English language learners.
But critics complain that its increased use of testing and the labeling
of underperforming schools created a confusing and unfair way to assess
schools. The bill under consideration
Tuesday by the Senate Education Budget Division would remove "It allows the
state of But Ken Meyer, deputy
assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, said such measures
are an overreaction. He added that if "I challenge you
to get both sides,'' Meyer said. "There is much more flexibility
in the law than people realize.'' Legislative bodies in
at least a dozen states have passed bills critical of No Child Left
Behind. The Minnesota House debated the issue for several hours last
week. U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige visited Meyer works for the
federal agency's Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs,
which describes itself as a "rapid-response team to deliver the
Secretary's and President's message on urgent issues,'' according to
the agency's Web site. "There is so much
misinformation floating around. My job is to correct that misunderstanding,''
said Meyer, one of three federal officials at Tuesday's committee hearing.
"The philosophy of the president is that he wants to engage the
legislatures. He understands the critical nature of getting good information
out there.'' But Meyer's testimony
Tuesday may have contributed to misinformation on the topic, according
to a memo released several hours after the hearing. At one point in a hearing,
lawmakers were discussing whether the performance of different subgroups
of students could put a school on the state's underperforming list.
For example, say a school's Hispanic students missed their target in
reading one year but made it the second year. If the school's black
students missed the reading target the second year, Meyer said, the
school would not face second-year penalties because the Hispanic students
improved. Committee staffers disagreed
and requested an opinion from the Office of the Legislative Auditor.
Within hours, the office concluded Meyer had gotten it wrong. The point may seem arcane,
but it is a critical one for schools trying to get off the list of underperforming
schools. Angry about the confusion, senators said Tuesday evening they
were planning to contact Meyer for clarification. 14 states
seek more flexibility in No Child Left Behind law By Greg Toppo, School leaders in more
than a dozen states, including California and Connecticut, want the
federal government to redefine a key standard in President Bush's education-reform
law, which punishes schools that don't improve children's basic skills
quickly enough. Meeting Wednesday on
Capitol Hill, state superintendents from 14 states called for changes
in the No Child Left Behind law, saying schools should be allowed to
use other means for calculating whether students' skills are improving. Under No Child Left
Behind, virtually all students, including low-income, minority, disabled
students and recent immigrants, must substantially improve in math and
reading each year if their school is to stay off a "needs improvement"
list. The federal "adequate yearly progress" system demands
that all students read and do math proficiently by 2014. The system has been
praised for holding schools accountable, but critics say the 2014 goal
is arbitrary and will penalize schools with high populations of minority
and poor students. "We want a more
accurate indicator of public education in our state," O'Connell said Thirteen other states
— Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska,
Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington — joined California
in calling for the change, during the annual legislative conference
of the Council of Chief State School Officers. The group has not taken
a position on it. According to O'Connell,
403 of Schools that don't make
adequate progress for all students must offer free tutoring or transportation
to a better-performing school. "My concern is that we're going
to be spending so much money on transportation and not education,"
O'Connell said. Education Secretary
Rod Paige responded in a statement that the 2-year-old No Child Left
Behind "must be given a chance to work. "The law simply
says that all fourth-graders should be able to read and do math on grade
level. This isn't a so-called mandate. Rather, it's common sense. "Regrettably, there
are some who would prefer to weaken accountability standards, regardless
of the children who will be left behind as a result. Let me be very
clear: Changing the law to satisfy the concerns of the system at the
expense of children learning is misguided and wrong. "The law is, after
all, the No Child Left Behind Act, and to do anything less is unacceptable
and irresponsible to our nation's children," Paige's statement
said. Schools stepping up efforts to reduce teacher turnover
AP, Times have changed.
Instead of watching other new teachers struggle through the same process,
Scott-Feggins is now a full-time teacher coach, advising and monitoring
young educators. It's a method being
used in a growing numbers of school systems nationwide to stem the tide
of young teachers quitting early in their careers for reasons that include
lack of support, low pay and discipline problems among students. "There are times
I might have walked out the door if she wasn't here," said Sandra
Callahan, 28, one of 17 first-year teachers mentored by Scott-Feggins,
who taught elementary school for nine years before becoming a coach.
"You might think 'Oh my God, I can't do this,' and she puts it
into perspective." The new approach of
easing rookie teachers into their jobs is beginning to replace the long-standing
habit of coping with the never-ending shortage of teachers by simply
recruiting new ones. "That change in
understanding has begun in just a year," said Tom Carroll, president
of the National Commission on Teaching and "There is a growing
recognition of the importance of retention," said Richard M. Ingersoll,
an education and sociology professor at the A study by Ingersoll
found that a third of new teachers quit within three years and almost
half quit within five. Incentives to stay "It does no good
to bring a lot of teachers into the system if many of them feel overwhelmed
and leave," said Charles Pyle, spokesman for the Virginia Department
of Education. School districts offer
gym memberships and child care assistance as incentives to stay. Others
subsidize car and home loans. But young teachers are
more interested in having coaches than monetary incentives, said Melinda
Anderson, a spokeswoman for the National Education Association, the
nation's largest teachers union. "For a long time
teaching was a sink-or-swim type of profession," "We're training
them and then we're nurturing them," he said. "From all the
anecdotes I've gotten it's been very positive." Carroll estimates that
a teacher who quits after one year costs $13,500 in lost recruitment
and training. After three years, the cost is $50,000. A good mentoring program
costs about $3,000 per teacher. A new study by Ingersoll,
using "It's the investment
you need up front to see results on the back end," said Tomas Hanna,
director of teacher recruitment and retention for Hanna said "A new teacher
coach can cut down on the time it takes to scan a new environment and
be successful in it," Hanna said. "Teachers are saying if
it wasn't for my teacher coach, I wouldn't still be here."
Illinois State Board of Education |
