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News Clips – Schiller gets behind changes in public school funding / Quincy Herald-Whig Madigan hints end to governor's honeymoon / Chicago Tribune Blagojevich agenda under increased fire as time ticks down towards final week / Quad City Times State budget fight heats up / Chicago Tribune Biz groups: Don't scrap state board / Pantagraph Guv Shoots Down Proposal To Save State Board of Ed / WBBM Newsradio State politicians ignore amendment to tax the rich / Peoria Journal Star Springfield Budget Battle About to Heat Up / Southern Illinoisan Gov's scholarship program roots out Golden Apple funds / Sun Times Rod's arithmetic / Chicago Tribune Senate OKs boost to per-pupil funding level / Peoria Journal Star School walls may be for rent / Quincy Herald-Whig Reinstate funding for scholarships / Daily Southtown NATIONAL Study: schools cutting soda lower obesity / Boston Globe New federal initiative connects educators / CNN.com Failure to Retain Md. Program Pushing Older Teachers Out / Budget cutbacks leading to fewer standardized tests / Portsmouth Herald Researcher blasts No Child Left Behind and vouchers / Sun Times Learning Feels Good / Chelsey Broadcasting Q: Are the tests required by No Child Left Behind making schools more accountable? / Insight on the News Baltimore embraces K-8 schools / Boston Globe Short on books, Texas school uses laptops / Boston Globe Fla. Students Turn to Maine for Diplomas / Education Week Rod Paige offers high praise for No Child Left Behind / Harvard University Gazette Advocates work to save vocational ed / Boston Globe Absentee Rate Has LAUSD Worried / KC board takes over Westport Charter School / Kansas City Star STATE Schiller
gets behind changes in public school funding Phil Weber, State Superintendent Robert
Schiller told members of the Western Illinois Administrator's Round Table
Friday that he supports a proposal by the Education Funding Advisory Board
(EFAB) to fund as much as half of the cost of public education through
income taxes instead of property taxes. "Our education system
in "It's time to overhaul
the revenue." The Illinois State Board
of Education says it needs more than $632 million to fully fund needed
school programs for the 2004-05 school year, but the state's proposal
calls for only about $400 million. Schiller said EFAB's proposal of a 2 percent boost to income taxes would
provide more than enough money, while still providing up to a 50 percent
reduction in property taxes. "That would generate
enough money to fully fund what we need and still bring about a property
tax reduction," Schiller said. The money from the income
tax would be spread throughout the state on a more equitable basis. Education
Week magazine recently gave Illinois an "F" in funding equity
because there is a large chasm between what poor districts spend on each
student's education and the per-pupil spending of the wealthy districts
north of I-80. Despite his advocacy of
the EFAB proposal, Schiller doubts it will be accepted, and almost-certainly
not during this legislative session. He said lawmakers seldom have the
stomach for such sweeping changes, especially those that involve tax increases,
during an election year. "We know what's wrong,
and we know how to fix it. We don't have the political strength or the
will to fund it," Schiller said. "I'm always told (by legislators)
that it is either an election year, or the year before an election or
the year after an election. When else are we going to do it?" Ray Scheiter,
regional superintendent for Adams and Pike counties, said he supports
the theory behind the EFAB recommendation. But he wants to see how the
specific details shake out before fully agreeing with the idea. Scheiter said he is concerned that "I would certainly
advocate income taxes over property taxes," he said. "But until
we are assured that property taxes are going to be relieved, I wouldn't
advocate the plan." Schiller talked briefly
about Gov. Rod Blagojevich's proposal to replace the state board of education
with a department of education that is under the governor's direct control.
Schiller said he is wary of attempts by the governor to use education
as a political tool and warned that an appointed education director would
not have enough autonomy to make difficult choices. "I'm worried that
if you take out the independence, you lose the objectivity," he said.
Madigan
hints end to governor's honeymoon Rick Pearson, Madigan, who has the power
to torpedo the governor's legislative agenda, has ruled out changes sought
by Blagojevich to give him more control over the Regional Transportation
Authority. Madigan has also questioned Blagojevich's plans to concentrate
authority over schools in the governor's office, called for a halt to
further state borrowing and ridiculed an initiative to revamp the way
the state pays for programs for the mentally and developmentally disabled. More to the point, Madigan
also has begun publicly second-guessing what he and other lawmakers did
to help Blagojevich a year ago, suggesting they erred in helping the governor
ease a budget crisis by allowing him to hike some fees on business and
siphon funds from state accounts earmarked for special programs. "A year ago I was
very diligent in being cooperative with Blagojevich," Madigan said
recently. "Well, now we're in the second year and we're going to
do some things a little differently." With less than a month
until the scheduled end of the spring legislative session, Blagojevich
is the target of growing complaints--particularly from fellow Democrats--about
both the substance and style of his administration. Many are put off by what
they say is a needless power grab by the governor
involving education and transportation programs. They also bristle about
multibillion-dollar borrowing initiatives pushed by the governor that
they consider reckless and shortsighted. Blagojevich and his aides
have repeatedly dismissed many of the complaints, contending that those
carping about his budget proposals reflect an old guard that has voted
to overspend in the past and now refuses to look outside the box to meet
the state's fiscal challenges. Lawmakers say they are
tired of Blagojevich portraying them as part of an old cabal representing
the worst of policymaking. Democrats and Republicans
alike complain Blagojevich has shunned Blagojevich isn't up for
election this year, while the entire House and much of the Senate is. So politically, there is much at stake for Madigan's Democratic
House majority in its struggles with the governor. "Madigan has determined
it's not in the best interests of his caucus to rubber-stamp the governor,"
said Charles N. Wheeler III, a professor at the A personal stake Besides recognizing that
Blagojevich's Chicago-centric moves won't help his Downstate members or
encourage a shift toward Democratic representation in the suburbs, Madigan
also may have a personal stake in dealing with the governor's budget agenda. With Blagojevich thought
to be holding national aspirations, Madigan's daughter, state Atty. Gen.
Lisa Madigan, has already been considered a potential candidate for governor.
Any Blagojevich successor is likely to have budget options severely limited
by the need to repay debt incurred by the current governor. "They're
borrowing too much, and we ought to stop," Michael Madigan recently
said of Blagojevich's administration in the Rockford Register Star. Blagojevich also may be
creating a potential showdown over legislative allegiances and alliances.
He and his allies have created a special political fund aimed at rewarding
House and Senate members who support his initiatives with an infusion
of cash to help their campaigns. "It's all about control,"
said Sen. Denny Jacobs (D-East Moline). Jacobs and other lawmakers acknowledge
that Blagojevich is enjoying widespread approval from a public happy to
be rid of his scandal-scarred predecessor and appreciative of his oft-stated
opposition to tax hikes. Yet he and others warn that Blagojevich's short-term
budget alternatives, such as business fee hikes and borrowing, carry long-term
consequences for taxpayers. "He's able to say,
`I've been able to keep away from a sales tax or income tax increase.'
But people are going to start feeling [the alternatives] pretty soon,"
Jacobs predicted. Blagojevich attacked critics
of his borrowing plans for being part of the "borrowing binge"
that created the Illinois FIRST public works program launched by former
Gov. George Ryan. Blagojevich, however,
was a supporter of Illinois FIRST while he campaigned for office, saying
Ryan deserved more credit for addressing state infrastructure needs and
that he would look to expand it. After giving Blagojevich
and his top aides a year to find their footing in the governor's office,
legislators are less willing to overlook such inconsistencies and say
they point to a troubling pattern of missteps and misstatements. In his budget address
earlier this year, Blagojevich called for a new law requiring that any
bill that increases spending include a way to raise the revenue to cover
it. Unconstitutional idea While populist in its
appeal, Blagojevich's initiative was, by its very nature, in conflict
with the state constitution. In the legislative process, spending bills
can only authorize spending amounts and not include mechanisms to raise
money. Proposals to do that can only be written into substantive, non-spending
legislation. More recently, facing
growing criticism from gun-control advocates that his once strong advocacy
for their cause had waned, Blagojevich released
a letter he had sent to U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft urging him to "repeal"
a new federal law requiring the quick destruction of gun-buyer background
information. Ashcroft has no power to invalidate a law. Before he formally announced
his candidacy for governor in 2001, Blagojevich held a news conference
at a North Side gasoline station, blasting Republicans as inept for failing
to take action against higher gas prices. Earlier this month, after 15
months in office, Blagojevich made his first statements about higher gas
prices. But his proposals fell short of his campaign promises to ban certain
pricing and regulatory schemes. Also during his campaign,
Blagojevich rebelled at attempts by the Ryan administration to shut down
a prison in This year, in a budget-cutting
move, Blagojevich is attempting to close the "Prisons ought to
be built or operated when you need them to house inmates, not because
it's the only thing people are left to rely on when it comes to economic
development," the governor told lawmakers. Blagojevich
agenda under increased fire as time ticks down towards final week Matt Adrian, Over the past several
weeks, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, has been at the forefront
of legislators suggesting Blagojevich may not get all he wants. Madigan has been a vocal
critic of the administration’s budget proposal, education reforms and
a measure changing how social services are billed by the state. That is
a change for Blagojevich, who was able to get most of his agenda passed
last year. Rebecca Rausch, a Blagojevich
spokeswoman, said the administration is not concerned about the criticism. “This is part of the process,”
she said. “There is always going to be give and take in the budget process.
The governor encourages an open dialogue on these issues … and that is
what we are getting.” However, all lawmakers,
including those carrying Blagojevich measures, are up against a deadline
this week to get proposals moved to the other chamber. Patty Schuh,
a spokeswoman for the Senate GOP, said it was too early to tell how Blagojevich
will fare, but the Republicans are glad to hear the criticism coming from
Democratic leaders. “We have been banging
this drum for some time and opposed the administration’s approach to the
state budget, which is tax, spend and borrow,” she said. Mike Lawrence, the interim
director of Southern Illinois University’s Public Policy Institute, said
tension between the Legislature and governor is not new to “What you’re seeing is
not untypical,” he said. “When you get down to the end of session, it
is not uncommon for the governor and the Legislature to not be on the
same page.“ Legislative leaders have
yet to meet with Blagojevich to discuss the budget, Schuh
said. Legislators are working with a budget that has an estimated deficit
of $1.7 billion to $3.8 billion for fiscal year 2005. The state’s poor fiscal
condition also has revived proposals to expand gambling in The budget deficit may
be the governor’s greatest weapon in dealing with legislative leaders,
Blagojevich brands legislators
`narrow-minded' John Chase and Christi
Parsons, Gov. Rod Blagojevich sent
a clear signal Tuesday that he will take a hard line with the legislature
over his $53 billion budget plan, saying rank-and-file lawmakers come
from a "narrow-minded, special interest-focused mindset" and
vowing to take his case to the public. Standing before Chicago
TV cameras 200 miles from where the legislature was waiting to negotiate,
Blagojevich said he had no need to go to the state Capitol as his predecessors
have done to hammer out differences on critical spending and revenue issues. Still struggling to rein
in a $1.7 billion deficit, Blagojevich has come under increasing criticism
from lawmakers who are questioning the substance of his programs and the
style in which he is treating the General Assembly, which faces a May
21 deadline to approve a new spending blueprint for the next fiscal year. Many lawmakers have accused
Blagojevich of shunning Springfield as well as the legislature's role
in formulating a budget and have rebelled at his attempts to borrow billions
of dollars to make ends meet--money the state will have to pay back long
after he is likely to have left office. But Blagojevich dismissed
those arguments, accusing as fiscally irresponsible any lawmakers who
oppose his plans to raise fees on businesses by hundreds of millions of
dollars for a second consecutive year. Appearing at "You gotta
choose," the governor said, "kids who need health care or the
trucker's association ... parents who need health care or multinational
corporations who get away without paying any taxes in "You gotta
choose: change or status quo, reform or business as usual." The comments only appeared
to harden feelings among legislators, especially members of Blagojevich's
own Democratic majority in the House and Senate. "I think it's sort
of irresponsible for him to make those remarks while we are down here
working," said Sen. Donne Trotter (D-Chicago), the Senate Democrats'
budget expert. "According to his words, we are doing nothing. I don't
know if he really knows what's going on down here in The governor is resisting
efforts in the legislature to repeal a fee increase on the trucking industry
that was passed last year. His new budget also calls for a tax on corporate
computer software purchases. And it calls for closing prisons he says
are unneeded, an action some legislators say will hurt local economies. The governor also stood
firm in his pledge to take over the independent nine- Instead, they proposed
overhauling the board and giving Blagojevich the power to replace all
its members. Blagojevich described the proposals as "a beginning"
but said he still wants things his way. And he said the fact that the
compromise was floated at all signals how dire the need is for reform
of the state's education apparatus. "I don't believe
it goes far enough," he said. "But ... it is a step toward a
discussion on making sure we reform the school system in our state." The governor's challenge
to the General Assembly mirrors the efforts he made last year when he
successfully pushed much of his budget plan through the legislature, even
though he was criticized by legislative leaders for rarely sitting down
to work out differences. Blagojevich also prevailed last year even though
he was highly critical of legislators, whom he accused of being part of
a "corrupt system." Blagojevich seems to be
engaging in the same strategy this time around by holding a news conference
to issue his threats to legislators, while downplaying the importance
of sitting down face-to-face to hammer out the state's budget, which takes
effect July 1. The governor is scheduled
for a rare trip to "We're not going
to do it the old way, where you hide behind closed doors with a handful
of legislative leaders and the governor and you whisper to one another
some of the things you're doing to the people out there," Blagojevich
said. "Instead we're going to keep talking to the public and let
them know what we stand for and that's why I'm here today. The General
Assembly needs to tell us where they stand on these issues." Although legislators bent
to the governor's wishes last year, many now say a repeat is unlikely.
Most notably, Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan recently said things
will be done "a little differently" this year. Last week, Madigan warned
that lawmakers will carefully review a Blagojevich proposal to dramatically
overhaul the way the state pays providers who care for developmentally
disabled and mentally ill people. Madigan said the governor's plan would
cause the budget to be balanced "on the backs of the mentally ill
or the developmentally disabled," a contention Blagojevich denies. Blagojevich said he never
thought he had easy times with the General Assembly last year, portraying
his efforts since taking office as someone who has turned the state's
political system upside down."It requires
shaking up that system in Blagojevich's decision
to try to stare down the legislature is in sharp contrast to what he promised
taxpayers when he delivered his first State of the State speech last year. Speaking to lawmakers
about the ideal of restoring trust and integrity in government, Blagojevich
said, "We're not going to get there by pointing fingers at each other. "I didn't create
the budget mess we are living through today," he said a year ago,
"but I promise you this--by working together we can and we will solve
it." Biz groups:
Don't scrap state board They urge education compromise
John O'Connor, Associated Press, The groups oppose Gov.
Rod Blagojevich's proposal to scrap the Board of Education and replace
it with a cabinet department directly under his control. They said their alternative
plan, to keep the board and allow incoming governors to appoint all new
members, would retain some of education's insulation from political pressure
-- a goal of the state Constitution's writers -- while recognizing that
the buck stops with the governor. "We want to give
the governor the momentum, give the governor the high road and see where
he can take it," Illinois Business Roundtable president Jeff Mays
told the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee. Current terms on the policy-making
Board of Education are six years, and an incoming governor sometimes is
stuck with a predecessor's appointees while taking the blame for poor
schools, said R. Eden Martin of the Commercial Club of Chicago's Civic
Committee. "A governor comes
into office and looks at ISBE and says, 'I'm responsible for education,
but how can I do that if I can't pick ISBE?'" Martin said. "He
looks at the calendar and says, 'My term's going to be up before I can
pick a majority of ISBE.'" Blagojevich's education
chief, Brenda Holmes, said the proposal wouldn't make the board any more
accountable to the governor because its members could still veer from
his policies after they were appointed. A key legislative supporter
of Blagojevich's proposals, however, said it's a good "first step"
that reveals universal dissatisfaction with the status quo. "Everybody is agreeing
that change has to take place," said Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Collinsville,
who is sponsoring legislation to enact Blagojevich's changes. In January, Blagojevich
blamed the state board for poor student performance and a bureaucratic
maze that keeps teachers from helping children learn. He proposed stripping
the board of its duties and creating a new Department of Education that
he would control. Both the House speaker
and Senate president -- Democrats, like Blagojevich -- have questioned
the idea. House Majority Leader
Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, said she fears a "wholesale
slaughter" of the board every four years would destroy continuity
and institutional knowledge. The business groups proposed
removing the current board on July 1 and allowing Blagojevich to appoint
new board members. Only five of the nine members could be from the governor's
party, under the groups' proposal, and the board would still hire a state
superintendent. Guv Shoots Down Proposal To By Bob Roberts, WBBM Newsradio, ( The group of business
leaders has proposed a compromise to Blagojevich in his quest to take
control of the state's primary and secondary schools. Within hours, the governor
told reporters that it wasn't enough, but a good place to begin discussions.
The business groups oppose
dismantling the State School Board. But under a plan they outlined to
an Illinois House committee, board members would serve four-year terms
and each governor would be able to name the entire board. R. Eden Martin of the
Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago told the House Elementary
and Secondary Education Committee, meeting in Their goal is to keep
education independent of the governor. But Blagojevich said the business
leaders are acknowledging that changes must be made. "I don't believe
it goes far enough, but it is a beginning and it is a step toward a discussion
on making sure we reform the school system in our state," Blagojevich
said during an unrelated news conference in Asked how far he's willing
to bend, the governor said only, "There's always room for adjustments
when you deal with the legislative process." Democratic Representative
Jay Hoffman of (The Associated Press
contributed to this article.) State politicians ignore amendment to tax the rich By ELAINE HOPKINS of the
Journal Star, The Taxpayer Action Amendment,
which would double the state income tax on the richest people in That's the last day the
General Assembly can place the proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution
on the ballot for the November election, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn told a The leadership of the
General Assembly has not even held hearings on the amendment, he said.
"It doesn't look
too good," he said. "Let your legislators know. People deserve
a vote on this." Advisory taxpayer referendums
were on the March primary ballot in 53 percent of the precincts in But only the General Assembly
can place a Constitutional amendment on the ballot, Quinn said. "I've talked to the
governor about it. I'm disappointed that he's not supporting it,"
he said. The IEA and the American
Federation of Teachers also did not offer strong support, he said. The amendment would increase
the state income tax on the 81,343 Everyone now pays a flat
rate of 3 percent, regardless of income. The new tax would raise
$1 billion, to be placed into a trust fund and used to provide schools
with $277 per pupil, and every homeowner with an annual $210 property
tax rebate, Quinn said. "You raise money
for education and give property tax relief without raising taxes on everybody,"
Quinn said. The idea for now appears
to be dead in Meanwhile, he also will
keep speaking to groups and promoting the amendment. "I'm convinced we
will win this battle," he said. "We're not in it for the short
run. Teachers can lead the politicians on this issue." Southern Illinoisan Opinion,
This year the battle won't
be fought along political party lines. This year, it's the governor
vs. the Legislature. Republicans and Democrats alike appear eager to do
battle with the governor. In February, Gov. Rod
Blagojevich clearly laid out his budgetary priorities in his annual budget
address. Balance the budget without
raising the income or sales tax. The state government must
make tough choices and not repeat poor fiscal habits of the past. State government must
begin to live within its means. In other words, we cannot spend what we
don't have. Government operations
must be made more efficient through the use of public and private sector
"best practices." The state government must
keep its commitment to strengthen funding of K-12 education, health care,
public safety and job training and creation. The tax code must be balanced
for both businesses and individuals. And the governor's most
controversial idea is the dismantling of the State Board of Education.
The idea has been met with a cool reception. Of course, the devil is
in the details. Since the day the governor
unveiled his proposed budget, it has been under attack. Powerful House Speaker
Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, has been a vocal critic of the governor's
2005 spending plan. Last year, the budget
battle turned ugly. Over the Memorial Day
holiday, the governor declared he was ready to work through the holiday
and asked, "Where's the Legislature?" At one point, the governor
even compared lawmakers to drunken sailors on a spending orgy. Observers say this year's
budget rhetoric could be far worse. In Filling the trough is
the job of the taxpayers. Do we the taxpayers believe
the greatest care and concern is being exercised in the wise use of our
tax dollars in Trends show that through
the years the amount of money needed to feed the Worsening the situation
is that money is not coming in from other revenue sources this year as
had been hoped. The state had hoped to squeeze more money out of gambling,
the Illinois State Lottery and increased user fees. The ledgers show that
not all of that revenue has materialized. The rhetoric is about
to heat up. But as lawmakers and special
interests try to paint a complex picture, taxpayers ought to remain focused
on the basics. Is Are our schools performing
at desired levels? Is state bureaucracy taking too big of a bite out of
our tax dollars before they eventually trickle down to our local schools,
teachers and classrooms? Finally, the men and women
we send to A time
for tough choices? Is it
time to increase taxes? Stay tuned,
taxpayers. The real battle is about to begin. Gov's scholarship program roots out Golden Apple funds Column by Mark Brown,
Sun Times, As a candidate for governor,
Rod Blagojevich promised to create a program to help solve the state's
shortage of qualified teachers by giving college scholarships to students
willing to take teaching jobs in low-income areas after graduation. He gave it a Kennedyesque name, the Illinois Future Teacher Corps, the
kind of thing that might look good on the resume of a candidate for national
office. Blagojevich kept his campaign
promise, and now the Future Teacher Corps makes $7 million available for
qualified students who receive awards of $5,000 or $10,000 to finance
their college education if they commit to teach five years in hard-to-staff
schools in subject areas where the state has a shortage. But here's the funny thing. For years, the State of
It's called the Golden
Apple Scholarship Program, and not only does it give scholarships, for
which it received $3.8 million from the state this year, but it offers
advanced training and mentoring for its prospective teachers, a unique
approach that has served to bring the neediest kids some of the very best
young teachers. So guess what? Next year, there's still
$7 million in the governor's budget for his Future Teacher Corps, but
not a dime to spare for the Golden Apple Scholarship Program. "If you want to look
at it that way, you certainly could," said a spokesman for the governor,
who nevertheless tried to redirect my thinking into understanding why
Blagojevich really had no choice but to cut the Golden Apple scholarships
in light of the state's continuing budget woes. Real problems The state's budget problems
are real, and I hesitate to advocate more spending without specifying
where to get the money, which is one of the reasons I had resisted the
temptation to run with this issue in the nearly two months since it surfaced. The other reason is that
the Golden Apple Foundation, which operates the scholarship program and
the better-known Golden Apple award program that honors the state's best
teachers, is a veritable public relations machine, and I didn't think
they'd really need my help to redirect the governor's thinking -- what
with 400 teachers-to-be around the state complaining about how Blagojevich
pulled the rug out from under their college plans. But Blagojevich hasn't
budged at all on any of his budget proposals yet, which either can be
chalked up to fiscal discipline or I-know-bestism.
Still, I'm confident he could find that $3.8 million somewhere, especially
when reminded of the history of how his new scholarship program arguably
helped create this situation. If not for the fact that
the best hope of fixing this problem right now lies with the Legislature,
I might suggest the funding be taken from the historically oft-abused
General Assembly Scholarship Program, which allows individual legislators
to hand out college tuition money to students of their choice -- which
sometimes has meant the sons and daughters of their political supporters.
But that wouldn't be nice,
and the Golden Apple folks have been careful not to throw such stones. Actually, so has the governor. "Golden Apple is
no doubt a great program, which is why the state funds it in the first
place," said Becky Carroll, a spokeswoman for the governor's Office
of Management and Budget. "It's a matter of priorities in the budget.
It's one we can't afford this year." As far as I can tell,
there's no criticism at all of how Golden Apple has operated its program;
quite the opposite. It's just not a priority
of the Blagojevich administration. Won't tout Edgar effort One reason could be the
fact that Golden Apple was brought into the state fold under former Gov.
Jim Edgar. Blagojevich isn't going to go further up the political ladder
by touting great programs started by his predecessors. Golden Apple takes students
right out of high school and puts them in a summer internship program
that gives them classroom teaching experience. The summer program is taught
by the award-winning Golden Apple teachers. If you're familiar with
the teachers honored by Golden Apple in your own community, you probably
know that they seem to find the best teachers, the real difference-makers.
While the state should
honor the commitment to those who have already been promised Golden Apple
scholarships, there's a legitimate question as to why the state should
indefinitely be on the hook for a program that doesn't really come under
its oversight. State funding for Golden Apple should not be considered
a permanent entitlement. For now, though, it would
seem to fall into a category every good politician understands: If it
ain't broke, don't fix it. Roughly a third of The governor proposes
to increase state education spending by $400 million in the next year,
hoping that will pump up low scores on achievement tests. He wants a lot
of things, actually, for his $400 million. He wants to raise state spending by $250 per pupil. Cost: $396.5 million. He wants to expand preschool
access for at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds. Cost: $30 million. He wants to send a book
to all He wants to revive Project
Success, a program that connects families of school kids to community
services. Cost: $5 million. He wants to install reading
specialists in failing schools. Cost: $15 million. He wants to create a statewide
dropout prevention program. Cost: $2 million. He wants to throw in another
$65 million for a Either Blagojevich's calculator
works in mysterious ways, or this is New New New Math. After outlining an ambitious
education plan for the coming year, he shirked his duty and said he'd
leave it up to lawmakers to figure out who actually gets what. No surprise,
that bold act of leadership engendered the frenzied tussle seen today
in There's a lot of whining
in But Blagojevich does need
to get his own hands into the budget process. He needs to sit down in
He can start by canning
the Dolly Parton-inspired monthly book giveaway.
While a nice and debatably worthwhile idea, it's
one better left in the singer's home state of First Lady Patti Blagojevich
wants to import Parton's program to Thousands of If Blagojevich wants to
increase education funding at a time of serious budget deficits, he should
focus that expenditure on the two areas that will have the greatest impact:
expanding preschool access to at-risk children and raising the foundation
level of per pupil spending to help even out the gross funding disparities
between rich and poor districts. A $250 per pupil increase, from $4,810
to $5,060, is probably too ambitious; it should be scaled back to ensure
that some of the smaller, proven ideas such as preschool expansion and
Project Success are fully funded. Maybe then will Blagojevich
be able to tout an education plan that actually computes. Senate OKs boost to per-pupil funding level Bill doesn't guarantee
money in 2005 budget By Doug Finke and Dorothy
Schneider of Copley News Service, However, House Bill 4266
does not guarantee that more money will be devoted to schools in next
year's state budget. A separate budget bill setting aside money to increase
the "foundation level" for schools must be approved for that
to happen. The Senate voted 52-0,
with two members voting present, to increase the guaranteed funding per
student to $5,060 beginning July 1. The state now guarantees to give school
districts $4,910 per student. Increasing the foundation
level by that amount will cost an additional $348.5 million next year.
However, in his proposed budget, Blagojevich only called for a $400 million
increase in total funding for public grade and high school education. Sen. Pat Welch, D-Peru,
said the bill sends a message that lawmakers want a substantial portion
of increased education funding to go to increases in per-pupil spending. "Our superintendents,
when asked what they wanted to see us do, all came back and said the first
thing is to increase the foundation level," Welch said. That will leave little
money left over for other education programs like poverty grants, transportation
expenses and programs to help at-risk children get help at a younger age.
Welch said the bill may give incentive to education interests to lobby
the governor and lawmakers to provide education with a bigger increase
next year. Blagojevich made campaign
promises to raise the foundation level by $250 a year in each of his four
years as governor. The governor approved a $250 increase last year, and
HB4266 would allow him to stay on track to fulfill his promise, said Sen.
Miguel del Valle, D-Chicago. Blagojevich spokeswoman
Rebecca Rausch said the governor supports the bill but does not plan to
sign it until the entire budget process is completed. "Governor Blagojevich
asked members of the General Assembly to weigh in with how they want education
money spent,' Rausch said. "He thinks that's
a good choice." Exactly how much money
is devoted to education in next year's budget will be hashed out over
the next few weeks in budget talks. Even if Blagojevich signs the bill
approved Thursday, it does not require lawmakers to fully fund the foundation
level. By Phil Weber, Herald-Whig
Staff Writer, The Quincy School Board
Ad Hoc Revenue Committee is looking at advertising as a way to raise money
for the cash-strapped district. The committee discussed
two advertising ventures Wednesday. The first proposal involves letting
businesses hang signs in Blue Devil Gym and the second would bring advertising
into school staircases, restrooms and locker rooms. Neither proposal included
an estimate of how much money it might generate for the district. "We have to be entrepreneurial,"
said Herb Jackson, chairman of the committee. Board member Tom Dickerson
said advertisers could hang signs in Blue Devil Gym year-around for a
fee. The district could charge several thousand dollars for large signs
with multi-year contracts, or make arrangements to sell smaller signs
on a year-to-year basis for around $700 apiece. "That has been a
tremendous fund-raising effort for (QND)," Dickerson said. "This
has gone so well that they've had to turn people away. They now have a
waiting list (for the smaller signs)." Paul Koscielski
Jr., owner of Koscielski Advertising, said his
company would like to open schools up to even more advertising possibilities.
Koscielski said he would supply the district with glass cases to
display signs and posters throughout stairways, restrooms and locker rooms.
He would then sell advertising space to area businesses and give 35 percent
of the proceeds to the district. He said the district would
have the option to veto any objectionable advertising and the display
cases would not be hung near classrooms. "When students are
in and around a classroom the focus on academics should be the goal and
that environment should be preserved," he said. "When people
are in and around classrooms, we want them thinking about class."
Koscielski said "the interest is already quite high"
among area businesses who specialize in student-oriented
or seasonal products, such as prom dresses, sports equipment and back-to-school
supplies. The district's advertising
policy states that all ads that will be in place more than 90 days have
to be approved by the School Board on an individual basis. Temporary ads
are at the discretion of building administrators. Reinstate funding for scholarships Daily Southtown
Editorial, We may be starting with
a false assumption, but if Gov. Rod Blagojevich provided
no funding for the Golden Apple scholarship program in his 2004-05 budget. The governor says the move will save the state $3.8
million this year. But it also will mean
that about 400 college students training to be teachers will lose their
$5,000-per-year scholarships. This is the kind of decision
the proverb writers had in mind when they invented "penny wise and
pound foolish." The governor is proposing to save the equivalent
of a drop in the ocean by eliminating a program that has been a big success.
Designed primarily for low-income or minority students, the Golden Apple
program has been doing an increasingly better job each year of training
young teachers. In return for their scholarships, they commit to teaching
for at least five years in schools where test scores are below standards
or low-income students make up a high percentage of the enrollment. The students also get
an opportunity to be mentored by winners of the prestigious Golden Apple
Foundation awards. On Tuesday, some 80 of those teachers and students
traveled to Allison said she's hoping
the level of support will help Blagojevich "figure out that it is
a program that is important." We hope so, too. And if lawmakers are looking
for something else they can cut to save the Golden Apple Scholars program,
here's a suggestion: the Illinois General Assembly Legislative scholarship
program, which costs more than $8 million a year. That program allows lawmakers
to dole out eight one-year, full-tuition scholarships to people in their
districts each year. That's not a bad thing, but the Golden Apple Scholars
program provides money that targets a crucial need: committed teachers
in high-risk schools. There's no sound reason
to eliminate either program, and the Legislature ought to demand that
Blagojevich restore the Golden Apple Scholars funding. =========================================================================== NATIONAL Study: schools cutting soda lower obesity By Emma Ross, AP Medical
Writer, A high intake of sweetened
carbonated drinks probably contributes to childhood obesity, and there
is a growing movement against soft drinks in schools. But until now there
have been no studies showing that efforts to cut children's soft drink
consumption would do any good. The study, outlined this
week on the Web site of the British Medical Journal, found that a one-year
"ditch the fizz" campaign discouraging both sweetened and diet
soft drinks led to a decrease in the percentage of elementary school children
who were overweight or obese. The improvement occurred
after a modest reduction in consumption -- less than a can a day. Representatives of the
soft drink industry contested the implications of the results. The study "reduced
the average daily consumption of carbonated soft drinks by about 150 milliliters,
or 35 calories -- half the reduction was in diet carbonated soft drinks.
This represents about 2 percent of a child's calorie intake, not a significant
amount," the British Soft Drink Association said in a statement. The group said carbonated
drinks provide only a fraction of children's daily calories and therefore
should not be blamed for the childhood obesity epidemic. However, other experts
were impressed. "If a simple targeted
message aimed at kids can decrease development of obesity, by whatever
means, that's groundbreaking," said Dr. David Ludwig, who runs a
pediatric obesity clinic at Children's Hospital in Previous studies of anti-obesity
school programs -- some costing millions of dollars -- have been disappointing.
Such programs, which included reducing dietary fat or trying to get kids
to exercise more, largely failed to show any meaningful impact. The investigators studied
644 children, aged 7 to 11, in six primary schools in All students kept a diary
of their soft drink consumption over one Thursday, Friday and Saturday
at the beginning of the experiment and again for another three days at
the end. "They were told that
by decreasing sugar consumption they would improve overall well-being
and that by reducing the consumption of diet carbonated drinks they would
benefit dental health," said the scientists, diabetes doctors and
nurses at the The program involved a
one-hour session given to each participating class four times during the
school year. The first session focused
on good health and the importance of drinking water. The children ate
fruit to emphasize the sweetness of natural products and each class received
a tooth immersed in cola to show its effects on teeth. The second and third session
involved a music competition in which classes were challenged to produce
a song with a healthy message. The final session involved
art presentations and a classroom quiz based on a TV game show. The
percentage of overweight and obese children increased by 7.5 percent in
the group that did not participate and dipped by 0.2 percent among those
who did. Consumption of soft drinks
dropped by 0.6 glasses a day among the targeted children, but increased
by 0.2 glasses a day among the children outside the program. All the children drank
more water than before. They had been told it improves concentration. It was not possible to
prove the weight improvements were linked to the decline in soda consumption
because the children may have changed other aspects of their diet. But experts said the important
point was that the program reduced obesity rates through nutrition education. Soft drink consumption
has increased enormously in the The World Health Organization
said that although the change in obesity in the study was small, the intervention
was also modest. "This is a promising
finding," said Derrek Yach,
who spearheads the agency's anti-obesity effort. "We would hope to
see larger studies with more intensive interventions ... What happens
when you combine this with the removal of vending machines? I'm sure you'd
see even bigger beneficial effects." New federal initiative connects educators AP, Called Teacher-to-Teacher,
the initiative "will highlight real-world examples of how these teachers
translate education research into practice that works in the classroom,"
said Education Secretary Rod Paige. Designed also to help
educators better understand and meet the standards of the federal No Child
Left Behind Act, the program includes workshops
this summer in seven states, with teachers and principals meeting with
education experts and officials, including Paige, to learn about successful
ways to improve student performance. Assistant Secretary Ray
Simon said the department is accepting applications to attend the sessions
and anticipates around 200 teachers and principals at each. They are scheduled
for The department, which
also plans an education summit in Failure to Retain Pr. George's Has Most
Retirees in Classrooms By Nancy Trejos,
Brian Hunt was born, raised
and educated in Now 57, Hunt teaches math
at For the past four years,
he's been employed under a state program that allows veteran teachers
and principals to "retire" but still keep working. Many collect
their full salaries and pensions, an arrangement intended to help fill
the state's classrooms amid a national teacher shortage. But the Maryland General
Assembly ended its session this month without renewing the program, which
expires June 30. Critics had complained that retired/rehired teachers,
as they are known, were being paid too much money and not filling vital
needs, such as teaching special education classes or working in troubled
schools. In the final days of its
session, the legislature considered a compromise: requiring the teachers
to be assigned to core academic subjects in low-performing schools, while
being paid 70 percent of their pre-retirement salaries. Time ran out,
though, before an agreement was reached -- to the dismay of the program's
supporters. "Did it need to be
structured? Yes. But having it all go down? You shouldn't throw out the
baby with the bath water," said Sen. Paul G. Pinsky
(D-Prince George's). The state's school districts
could lose about 900 of their retired/rehired teachers and principals,
a third of them in "This will, by all
measures, exacerbate the situation," said Ronald A. Peiffer,
assistant state superintendent of schools. "It creates a lot of pressure."
The pressure falls heavily
on "At this time, for
us to lose such a chunk of veteran certified teachers is a blow to the
system," said Carol Kilby, president of
the teachers union in By law, the teachers can
continue to work for their school systems, but their earnings cannot exceed
a cap based on their pre-retirement salaries. They also can switch to
another school district and continue earning regular salaries and pensions.
For Hunt, who has a master's degree in elementary education,
that means either leaving the county he has spent his entire career
in, or continuing to work for $40,000 less. "Now I'm left scrambling
and trying to find out what to do for a job, which is not the situation
I thought I'd be in," Hunt said. He and other veteran teachers
also say they worry about the potential drain of experience. "This
is not an easy job. It takes a long time to learn how to do it,"
said Marilyn Phukan, who retired after more than 30 years and later was
rehired to teach third grade at Steve Ciambor,
56, a physical education teacher at Gladys Noon Spellman Elementary in
Cheverly and Templeton Elementary in Riverdale, is reluctant to leave
the profession. "I thoroughly would love to teach another five years,"
he said. But after 33 years, he said, he expects to give up education
and run a house-painting business. Howard Burnett, chief
administrator for human resources for the "The loss of 340
highly qualified, experienced teachers would naturally have an effect,"
he said, "but we've started early with the recruitment cycle."
Budget
cutbacks leading to fewer standardized tests Associated Press, Writing, science and social
science tests will fall by the wayside for third-, sixth- and 10th-graders
because there’s not enough money to administer them. Officials say they are
doing the bare minimum to satisfy the federal No Child Left Behind
Act. Lawmakers required the Department of Education to use federal No
Child Left Behind money for this year’s round of tests. When it fell short,
tests were dropped. "This is essentially
the smallest amount we could get away with and still satisfy No Child
and maintain our data stream somewhat," said Tim Kurtz, the department’s
director of assessment. "But it disrupts the idea of following trends
in science and social science." State education officials
are discussing moving the tests to the fall, instead of the spring. The
May testing now used ends with about four weeks of school left - too little
for teachers to launch into a new unit, but too late to start end-of-year
review, Kurtz said. Some educators feel that
fall tests could provide a better idea of what students learned the year
before. Kurtz said the test would
probably be given to fourth-, seventh- and 11th-graders. Juniors are more
motivated than sophomores because they are preparing for SATs and college
applications, Kurtz said. State law says tests must
include, but are not limited to, reading, language arts, science, history
and geography. Kurtz said the department
worked closely with the Legislature as it approached the testing problem
this year. It also worked with federal officials to make sure they approved
the use of the No Child money and to be sure theyd
be satisfied with the states reports of student progress. "But when push comes
to shove, it is not enough to run a whole assessment system. We ran with
the part that is required by No Child Left Behind and what we need to
produce adequate yearly progress reports," Kurtz said. Testing cutbacks will
give high schools about a week of instructional time back, said Frank
Bass, "We gave social studies
last and that was always where we did our worst. The kids are burned out
by then," he said. Bass said the best thing
the state could do would be to set a true standardized test. "They keep changing
the tests every year, so how are we supposed to develop a baseline on
how our curriculum, our strategies, responses, whether we should add elements
or take them out?" he asked. Researcher
blasts No Child Left Behind and vouchers Deborah Bach, Educational writer and
public schools advocate Gerald Bracey is well-known in some circles as
an outspoken critic of charter schools, vouchers and President Bush's
sweeping educational reform bill, the No Child Left Behind
Act. An author of numerous
books on education, Bracey has held positions at Educational Testing Service,
The 63-year-old On No Child Left Behind,
which requires schools and districts to make "adequate yearly
progress" in raising student achievement or face sanctions: "When it first came
out, what struck me so much about it is it was totally unlike anything
else coming out of the Bush agenda. This is probably the most anti-regulatory
administration since before the Great Depression. "Everything (Bush
has) done except for No Child Left Behind is very obviously aimed at helping
corporate "In the 2000 election,
there were voucher referenda in both "The original (No
Child Left Behind) bill sent to Congress contained voucher provisions.
Congress struck those, looking at the results from the 2000 elections.
Bush has since brought them back; after five defeats, he finally got a
voucher bill through Congress as part of the spending bill to provide
$15 million a year for "After the 2000 election,
there really was an atmosphere that the day of vouchers is pretty much
over. But when you bring in this concept of adequate yearly progress and
have to have 100 percent of the kids proficient (in state-set academic
standards) by 2014, and you have to do this not just with the school as
a whole but for all these subgroups, the ethnic groups, the economic groups,
the English language learners and the special-ed kids. They all have to
be 100 percent proficient. "This is a way of
making people assume that good schools fail, and that's happening all
over the country. It's going to get worse. "To me, that would
open the floodgates again for vouchers. Obviously the schools have failed
-- vouchers are the answer." On high-stakes testing:
"I think high-stakes
(tests) generally are a bad idea. As soon as you make test scores important,
then you introduce all kinds of corrupting influences. "People start teaching
to the test and gaming the system. You retain
kids in the grade before they're tested so they'll do better the next
year, but you greatly increase the probability that they'll drop out,
too. That's become much more common. "You can see it especially
when kids are tested in 10th grade -- a lot of school districts have these
huge bubbles of ninth-graders. People consider that a transition year
and if you're not ready they'll hold you back. First grade and ninth grade
are the big hold-back years. "High-stakes tests
create a great deal of anxiety, and they diminish the idea of learning
for learning's sake, which I think is still a viable idea. I don't hear
anyone talking these days, by the way, about lifelong learning. It seems
to have dropped off. "I can't imagine
that anybody in kindergarten today would, 30 years later, write a book
called 'Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.' Today,
it would be 'Everything I Needed to Know About
Sound-Symbol Correspondence and How To Be a Burned-out Learner by Fourth
Grade I Learned in Kindergarten.' "Because
kindergarten is not a fun experience anymore in lots of places. The superintendent in one On charter schools and
their future in "When charter schools
came along, I was ambivalent. I didn't start reaching firm -- mostly negative
-- conclusions until the "The data that emerged,
and it was a huge amount of data that came out in 2003, was overwhelmingly
negative. There was a large study from RAND (Corp.) about "I looked at the
2003 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) data, and in fourth-grade
reading, "So to say that charter
school kids are keeping pace in "The original promise,
the one thing that all the charter school advocates said in the beginning
was there's a trade-off -- you give us autonomy, we'll give you improved
achievement. And in fact it has not worked out that way at all. "What I would watch
for here is since you don't have a history of charter schools, who's
going to be interested in starting charter schools? My guess is in "The schools will
be public, but they get some percentage of per- pupil expenditures for
running the schools. They'll be run for profit and what that does, unless
they're home-grown here in Chelsey Broadcasting Because of a slight decline
in graduation rate, the Dr. Deborah Clawson, the
district's coordinator of curriculum and instruction, announced at Monday's
meeting that the district's statistics show the graduation rate dropped
from 92.3 percent in 2002 to 91.58 percent in 2003. The expectation under
No Child Left Behind is a 95 percent graduation rate, Although the district's
graduation rate is well above the national average, "It's strictly a
directional judgment," she said. "... The closer we get to 95
percent, the more challenging it is." The school will submit
its data to the state Department of Education by June 21, and a decision
will be made this the summer. Although it doesn't involve
a penalty, the warning is "an alert that the district needs to examine
its processes," If the district is placed
on the warning list, it will have a year to increase its graduation rate.
Failure to do so by summer 2005 would place the district on the school-improvement
list, and the district would be required to offer school choice
and make a specific plan for improvement, according to the state Department
of Education Web site. Failure to improve the
rate by summer 2006 would land the district a second year in school improvement,
involving the same requirements as the first year, plus requiring the
district to offer supplemental services, such as tutoring. A fourth year of not meeting
the target would bring the district into corrective action, which involves
making changes in leadership, curriculum, professional development and
other strategies. A fifth year below the target would add changes in governance,
such as reconstitution, chartering or privatization. According to Also Monday, Although a target for
the writing assessment is not included in No Child Left Behind, the assessment
is useful at the local level, "Writing is a critical
piece of communication, so we take that very seriously," she said. District-wide, about 60
percent of sixth-graders scored at the proficient level or higher and
nearly 70 percent of ninth-graders scored proficient or better. Act 48 requires that educators
receive 180 hours or six credits of continuing education over a five-year
period. Q: Are the tests required by No Child Left Behind making
schools more accountable? By Secretary Rod Paige,
Insight On the News, Yes: Testing has raised
students' expectations, and progress in learning is evident nationwide.
Testing is a part of life.
In fact, testing starts at the beginning stages of life: The moment we
are born, neonatologists measure our reflexes and responses and give
us what is called an Apgar score on a scale
of one to 10. As we grow up, our teachers test us in school and we take
other standardized tests that compare us with the rest of the nation's
students. We are tested if we want to practice a trade - whether it be
to get a cosmetology license, a driver's permit or pilot training. And
often we are retested and retested again to show that our skills remain
at peak level. In short, tests exist
for a reason. In the case of a doctor, they certify that he or she is
capable of practicing medicine. In the case of a teacher, they show that
he or she has the knowledge to help children learn a given subject. And
in the case of a student, they demonstrate whether a child has indeed
learned and understood the lesson or the subject. At their core, tests are
simply tools - they subjectively measure things. In education, they are
particularly important because they pinpoint where students are doing
well and where they need help. In fact, testing has been a part of education
since the first child sat behind the first desk. Assessments are an important
component of educational accountability; in other words, they tell us
whether the system is performing as it should. They diagnose, for the
teacher, the parent and the student, any problems so that they can be
fixed. Educational accountability
is the cornerstone of the No Child Left Behind
Act, President George W. Bush's historic initiative that is designed to
raise student performance across No Child Left Behind is
a revolutionary change, challenging the current educational system and
helping it to improve. It aims to challenge the status quo by pushing
the educational system into the 21st century so that American students
leave school better prepared for higher education or the workforce. Educational accountability
is not a new concept - several states have been instituting accountability
reforms for years. No Child Left Behind builds on the good work of some
of these states that were at the forefront of the reform movement. The
truth is that this law has one goal: to get all children reading and doing
math at grade level. It's that simple. The law itself is a federal law,
but it is nothing more than a framework. Elementary and secondary education
are the traditional province of state and local governments, which is
why the specific standards, tests and most of the other major tenets of
the law are designed and implemented by the state departments of education,
because they are in the best position to assess local expectations and
parental demands. The federal role in education
also is not a new concept. There is a compelling national interest in
education, which is why the federal government is involved and has been
for some time. The federal government has stepped in to correct overt
unfairness or inequality, starting with measures to enforce civil rights
and dismantle segregation in the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education
case (a Supreme Court decision that is now 50 years old). The federal
government's first major legislative involvement in education goes back
to 1965 with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which marked
the first federal aid given to school districts with large percentages
of children living in poverty. In 2001 the law was reauthorized as the
No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which preserves
the states' traditional role but asks them to set standards for accountability
and teacher quality, thereby improving the quality, inclusivity,
fairness and justice of American education. NCLB focuses on facts,
not just feelings and hunches. It is no longer acceptable simply to believe
schools are improving without knowing for certain whether they are. As
Robert F. Kennedy asked back in 1965 when this federal education law was
first debated, "What happened to the children? [How
do we know] whether they can read or not?" With new state-accountability
systems - and tests - we will have the full picture. Let's examine what we
do know. According to the nation's report card (the National Assessment
of Educational Progress, or NAEP), only one in six African-Americans and
one in five Hispanics are proficient in reading by the time they are high-school
seniors. NAEP math scores are even worse: Only 3 percent of blacks and
4 percent of Hispanics are testing at the proficient level. This is the
status quo result of a decades-old education system before the NCLB. Of the 10 fastest-growing
occupations in the It is clear that our system
as a whole is not preparing the next generation of workers for the global
economy ahead of them. As Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan noted
recently: "We need to be forward looking in order to adapt our educational
system to the evolving needs of the economy and the realities of our changing
society. ... It is an effort that should not be postponed." That's
why I am so passionate about making these historic reforms and drawing
attention to the issue. The old system - the status
quo - is one that we must fight to change. That's why the president and
both parties in Congress understood the urgency of the situation and put
NCLB into law. They also ensured that the money would be there to get
the job done, providing the means to states fully to implement the law;
indeed, there's been 41 percent more federal support for education since
President Bush took office. But some defenders of
the status quo have aired complaints about the law, saying its requirements
are unreasonable and the tests are arbitrary. The bottom line is, these
cynics do not believe in the worth of all children - they have written
some of them off. You can guess which ones fall into that category. This
pessimism relegates these children to failure. The president aptly refers
to this phenomenon as the "soft bigotry of low expectations."
But NCLB says the excuses must stop - all children must be given a chance. NCLB helps us zero in
on student needs. With little information about individual students' abilities
with different skills, most teachers must rely on a "buckshot"
approach to teaching their classes, aiming for the middle and hoping to
produce a decent average. With an emphasis on scientifically based research
techniques and effective use of information, NCLB helps fund programs
that teachers can use to identify specific areas of weakness among their
students. For example, the Child by child, the improvements
add up. For example, a study by the Council of Great City Schools examined
the recent gains in large metropolitan school systems. The Beating the
Odds IV report showed that since NCLB has been implemented,
public-school students across the country have shown a marked improvement
in reading. The report found that the achievement gap in reading and math
between African-Americans and whites, and Hispanics and whites in large
cities, is narrowing for fourth- and eighth-grade students. And it appears,
according to the report, that our big-city schools are closing the gap
at a faster rate than the statewide rate. Not only are the achievement
gaps closing, the report states, but also math and reading achievement
are improving. For a concrete example
of how the law is working, look at the These findings are especially
significant because research shows that it is often the students in the
large-city schools who need the most help and face the greatest odds.
Clearly, this report demonstrates that if you challenge students, they
will rise to the occasion. This concept is at the fundamental core of
NCLB because we can no longer mask our challenges in the aggregate of
our successes. We must make sure that all children, regardless of their
skin color and Zip codes, have the opportunity to receive a high-quality
education. While the press focuses
on the complaints of the unwilling, whole communities are taking on the
challenge of accountability and achieving great results. Perhaps my favorite
example is in the It is time to think of
the children and to give them what they need. It is time to work to make
the law successful. We need to create an American public educational system
that matches the vision of this law, where we strive for excellence without
exclusion, where our children achieve greatness rather than greatly underachieving,
and where 10 or 20 years from now a new generation of adults realize that
we gave them a better life because we had courage and conviction now. By Wiley Hall, Associated
Press Writer, Those young adolescents
and preteens were the children most given to fits of drama. They posed
the most daunting discipline problems. They seemed most in need of special
nurturing and attention. And so, In the early 1990s, "I'd say the majority
of those parents who are knowledgeable prefer to have K-8 schools in their
community," says Michael Hamilton, president of the Baltimore Council
of PTAs. "Parents who don't want them at first start fighting for
them once they learn more about what a K-8 school is." Parents like K-8 schools
because they extend the nurturing atmosphere of elementary school to the
difficult early adolescent years. Educators like them because
they seem to improve test scores. And elected officials
like them because K-8 schools appeal to skittish middle-class parents
who tend to flee to the suburbs in search of better schools as their children
get older. "The only issue,
as far as I can see, is that parents complain that the only communities
getting the schools are the ones where the parents know enough to demand
them," says School board president
Patricia Welch says that K-8 schools are popular with both middle-class
families and those living in poverty. Middle-class families
feel comfortable with their children attending school with children from
the same neighborhood, says Welch. Parents in disadvantaged communities
feel there is greater stability and discipline in K-8 schools. "As an educator,
I think a successful school comes down to its leadership, regardless of
how it's configured," says Welch, who is dean of the School of Education
and Urban Studies at Morgan State University. "But let's face it,
we are all very, very conscious of the need to recruit and retain the
middle class -- because they expand our tax base and because they add
to the diversity of our city. If we can throw K-8 schools into the mix,
we should do it." City Councilman Melvin
Stukes, who represents the predominantly black working and
middle-class community of Some cities are coming
close to doing just that. In "To not do so is
the equivalent of educational malpractice since you can't argue with the
facts and the facts are that large, high-poverty middle schools simply
do not work in an urban environment," says Vallas,
who participated in a similar initiative in In the future, the only
middle schools in Educators in However, some educators
warn that K-8 schools also have their drawbacks. Because they are more
likely to be built upon the elementary school model, many K-8 schools
lack facilities and programs for middle school courses such as algebra
and the sciences. "There's been very
little strong research about their effectiveness," notes Vincent
Ferrandino, executive director of the National Association
of Elementary School Principals. When Administrators reported
in November 2001 that students in K-8 schools had significantly higher
scores in reading, language arts and mathematics than their counterparts
in K-5 and 6-8 schools, were 20 percent more likely to pass the state's
standardized tests, and had slightly better attendance. Students in K-8
schools also were significantly more likely to attend one of the city's
flagship citywide high schools, educators found. Mariale Hardiman, principal of Roland
Park Elementary/Middle School, says the K-8 model approach even affects
parental involvement. "Normally, as kids
move up in grade parental participation drops off," Hardiman
says. "We're finding that our elementary school parents are a good
influence on our middle school parents. They tend to serve as role models
and keep them involved in the school." Short on books, By David Koenig, AP Business
Writer, The texts will be digital,
stored on IBM laptop computers. Mike Smith, superintendent
of the fast-growing Forney district, sees technology solving a perennial
problem -- a shortage of textbooks and months-long delays getting new
ones. Forney is the nation's
first district to sign up with IBM Corp. for notebooks loaded with content
from software company Vital Source Technologies Inc. of "If the students
have all of Shakespeare's works loaded on their notebook, the school doesn't
need to go out and buy all of those books," said Will Moore, an executive
in IBM's education business. "And the real benefit is that it's all
interactive and searchable." School districts in Smith said he may buy
laptops for other grades if this fall's experiment goes well, but added
that price is a factor. Smith says Forney paid $1,000 each for 150 prepackaged
laptops; IBM says the laptop alone normally costs $1,350. "A child's set of
textbooks costs $350," Smith said. "If they can get these notebooks
down to $500, it gets cost-effective in a hurry." By Sean Cavanagh,
Frustrated in their attempts
to pass the state graduation test and receive high school diplomas, some
For many of those students,
including recent Haitian immigrants in Their unorthodox maneuver
is drawing attention among parents around the country—particularly those
with children in special education—who have sought ways around state exit
exams they believe are unfairly denying their children diplomas. Even as "As states raise
their standards, they’re going to face all sorts of ingenious ways of
avoiding those standards," said Jack Jennings, the president of the
Center on Education Policy, a For now, the "Many of our students
who wished to go to college and get an education were being held back
through the exit exam," said Jean-Rene Foureau,
a high school teacher and advocate in Miami’s Haitian community, who is
helping the students work with the Maine school. "We decided to look
for an alternative." $255 Fee Two years ago, 19-year-old
Suze Barthelemy moved from That weakness showed when
Ms. Barthelemy took the FCAT, as the "College is the way
to your dreams," she said this month. "If you can’t go to college,
you can’t reach that goal." Mr. Foureau,
who is the president of the Soon afterward, Ms. Barthelemy enrolled at Ms. Barthelemy
is not alone in that ambition, or her strategy in pursuing it. Public high school seniors
in Last year, when the FCAT
graduation requirement first took effect, state lawmakers also allowed
seniors in the 2003 graduating class to receive diplomas if they had achieved
a set score on the SAT or ACT college-entrance exam. Legislation is pending
that would extend the same option to this year’s seniors. Like her classmate Ms.
Barthelemy, Edison High alumna Stiphania
Fourron, 22, passed the math section of the
FCAT, but wasn’t able to pass the English portion. The first time she
took the test, the native of the Haitian capital of She picked up a North
Atlantic Regional diploma last fall; she says she will encourage others
to do the same. "Rich people go to
private schools," she said. "They get their high school diplomas.
Why not us?" That reasoning is shared
by Mr. Foureau, who, along with working at the
Mr. Foureau
said he got in touch with North Atlantic Regional Schools last year after
seeing several promising students leave Edison High without diplomas.
He helped negotiate the reduced price from Serving Home Schoolers North Atlantic Regional
Schools, which was founded in 1989, serves about 2,000 students, who come
from every state, said Steve Moitozo, the school’s
administrator and founder. A majority are home-schooled
students who are seeking an academic structure for their work and, eventually,
a high school diploma, he said. The school has some 400
students from Until recently, the Students seeking a diploma
from North Atlantic Regional are required to have accumulated 17½ course
credits. They do not have to visit the "This is not a ‘Hello,
I need my diploma’ kind of program," Mr. Moitozo
said. "This is work. It’s real work, to
get real credits." In recent months, Mr.
Moitozo said, the school has been contacted by about 20 public
high school students from Word of the Not everyone sees North
Atlantic Regional’s impact as positive. Florida
Department of Education spokeswoman Frances Marine said state officials
believe the program offers students a misleading shortcut. ‘Essentially Worthless’ "The concern is,
‘Well, what are students getting for this diploma?’"
she said. Giving teenagers that credential without having tested them
academically, Ms. Marine added, amounts to "setting them up for failure." Ms. Marine noted that
"It’s really unfortunate
that schools would take [students’] money and offer them credentials that
are essentially worthless," Ms. Marine said. Yet the department spokeswoman
acknowledged that Maine Commissioner of
Education Susan A. Gendron said North Atlantic
Regional had the right to operate under state laws governing private schools.
Her department was reviewing the approval process for private schools,
she added, and could ask "Clearly, all of
us are wanting a diploma to reflect what a student knows and is able
to do," Ms. Gendron said. Mr. Moitozo
said " Mr. Jennings, of the Center
on Education Policy, called the Although he predicts state
lawmakers around the country will scrutinize similar practices as they
arise, he doubts they will crack down any time soon. "Legislatures are
very afraid of regulating private schools," Mr. Jennings said. Special Needs English-language learners
are not the only students to have used the private school route to a high
school diploma because of difficulty meeting public school mandates. In
at least a few instances, students with disabilities have chosen that
option, though some families did so in part because they were seeking
more specialized educational services for their children. After repeatedly failing
Ms. Knoblauch
left her public school in "After [several]
years of searching, it was the only option for us," said Ken Knoblauch,
her father. "I can’t think of many stones we didn’t try to turn over." All Ombudsman students
must take tests evaluating their academic skills and be enrolled at least
a semester to be eligible for a diploma, said Jim Bryant, the director
of district relations for the company, which is based in A Private Option Candace Cortiella,
a member of the advisory board for the "There are all kinds
of reasons why parents of students with disabilities would take [children]
out of their public schools," Ms. Cortiella
said, "and this is not at the top of the list." One parent, Ann McDonald-Cacho, withdrew her son, Philip, from a public school in Ms. McDonald-Cacho first learned of the North Atlantic Regional program
last year. For now, she’s rejected the idea of seeking out a diploma through
that private school. "There’s something
in me that says it’s a crazy thing to do,"
Ms. McDonald-Cacho said. But she added: "I’ll never say never." Rod Paige offers high praise for No Child Left Behind Education secretary marks
50th anniversary of Brown decision with By Cara Feinberg, Special
to the Harvard News Office, Fifty years after Brown
v. Board of Education officially opened the door to Secretary of Education
Paige answered a series of tough questions after his talk, mostly about
high-stakes testing. (Photo by Marc Halevi) racial equality in the In his keynote address
for a conference marking the golden anniversary of the Supreme Court's
decision to end racial segregation in American schools, the secretary
lauded the verdict as one of the finest moments in American judicial history.
But a half-century later, there is still much ground to cover, Paige said.
"Education is the battlefront; there are islands of true excellence
in education ... but millions of children in this country are still being
left behind." Paige's provident opening
speech set the tone for the conference, held April 22-24 by the Formerly the superintendent
of the Following his speech,
Paige took questions from the audience, many of whom were students of
educational policy at the Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard
Graduate School of Education. Though he declined to answer any questions
about his recent off-the-cuff and admittedly ill-advised characterization
of the National Education Association (NEA) as a "terrorist organization"
- Paige dismissed one student's query about the incident with the cogent
statement: "I've had many opportunities to comment on that and I
don't have anything to add to it; my comments stand as they were made"
- he did engage in open debate when others raised questions about NCLB.
Several questions were raised about NCLB's emphasis
on high-stakes tests: Did he worry that such a goal would make educators
"teach to the test?" How did he justify linking high school
graduation to one single exam? What good will those tests be
if teachers are not taught to use the data they provide? Paige answered each question
by reminding the audience that the pace of change is often slow. Indeed
it takes time to coordinate all the resources across each state, but "we
hope the tests are aligned specifically to the standards states have set,"
he explained. The tests and standards should be "the same thing."
If teachers are "teaching to the test," then that means they
are simply teaching important material kids need to know, he said. Paige again defended the
content and design of the test itself when answering questions about its
'high stakes.' "The highest stake of all is a child not getting an
education," said Paige, in response to a criticism of its severity.
"We should enable success, but I don't object to making decisions
based on how a student performs on a valid, reliable, objective assessment
tool." It is this information
that will change the face of American education, Paige argued. Once student
performance data is disaggregated and made visible, he said, teachers
will get feedback about the true state of education for every ethnic group.
They must use that data to inform their lessons, said Paige, and to directly
address the achievement gap. "Dissatisfaction is a powerful motivator
for action," he reasoned. "The reasons to
assess is to get more information."
the seventh In his speech, titled,
"Beyond Brown: Unfinished Business," Paige repeatedly praised
the NCLB plan, calling it the next logical step to Brown. "Brown
opened the door to equality," Paige said. "Now
NCLB can provide something of substance inside the building."
The most sweeping federal
educational legislation to date, NCLB was passed in 2002 with strong bipartisan
support. It has since become a lightning rod of controversy for educators,
parents, administrators, and policy-makers. Aimed at narrowing the achievement
gap that exists among different ethnic groups, the policy requires states
to implement accountability systems for all students in the public schools.
Both students and teachers must meet standards; states must develop progress
goals and annual tests to ensure that all students reach proficiency within
12 years. School districts and schools that fail to show adequate yearly
progress will be subject to improvement, corrective action, and restructuring
measures aimed at helping the school and its students meet the standards.
According to Paige, despite
the years of effort since Brown to equalize education, the achievement
gap persists as our most pressing social problem. "It is the civil
rights issue of our time," he asserted. Despite some recent improvement,
studies show that by the time students reach the 12th grade, only 1 in
6 black students, and 1 in 5 Hispanic students can read at grade level,
Paige said. Math scores are even more shocking: only 3 percent of blacks
and 4 percent of Hispanics test at proficient levels by their senior year.
"It is devastating
for a child to be provided no intellectual tools, and to be set adrift
with no means of finding his way back," said Paige. "When a
child is left behind, it is not just a problem for that child,
it is a problem for the rest of the nation." Although Paige cited evidence
from a recent report by the Council of Great City Schools that indicated
students in the largest urban school districts had shown improvement under
NCLB, he cautioned educators and policy-makers not to rest on their laurels.
There are profound consequences for our children and our nation if we
don't build on this progress, he cautioned. With so much work ahead,
legislators must strive for common goals that can be championed by members
of both political parties, said Paige. Without bipartisan support, there
will be no meaningful, lasting reform. Resistance to Brown was massive
and was sustained over generations, Paige explained. "We can't afford
to have that long an argument over this. Those who fought against Brown
were on the wrong side of history. I believe those who fight against NCLB
will be judged so as well." Advocates work to save vocational ed By Michael Gormley, Associated Press Writer, The National Automotive
Technology Competition sponsored by auto makers and tool companies earlier
this month offered $3 million in prizes. Matt Bushnell and Todd
Clark, both from They walked away with
full scholarships to two-year automotive colleges, new cars upon graduation
and thousands of dollars worth of tools. The prize also included $35,000
in tools and equipment and a 2004 Toyota Camry to work on in class for
their school, the As academic standards
rise, some fear a decline in the vocational education that for decades
has produced the nation's entry-level craftsmen. Preliminary studies suggest
fewer students are majoring in vocational education as states and the
federal No Child Left Behind Act demand better
performance in core academic subjects, said James Stone III, director
of the "What I worry about
is how we are turning a lot of kids off," Stone said. "The impact
is if you tell a principal or a school district or a state, `Your funding
is contingent on how many students show up every day and pass a test,'
that's what you pay attention to." He said the center is
studying how to better integrate core lessons in math, science and languages
into vocational education. Vocational education students
increasingly have to pass college prep math, science and language standardized
tests required for all students, plus standardized tests in their vocations. "In a very odd juxtaposition
of education policy, we are now requiring an even higher standard for
graduation for youngsters who go to a vocational school," said Steven
Sanders, chairman of the New York Assembly's Education Committee. "I
am told by people in vocational technical schools that it is really discouraging
youngsters from attending these schools and in some cases, that means
students drop out." In "When we try to establish
a one-size-fits-all approach, it invariably results in neglecting a whole
cohort of students who were very well-served and society was very well-served
by," Sanders said. Jonathan Burman
of the state Education Department says students in technical fields need
strong math and reading skills. "People typically
pursue many jobs and careers throughout their lives, and they need the
ability to adapt to a complex and changing economy," he said. The state has 585 programs
merging tech classes with core lessons. The number of Bushnell and Clark, who
also had to fill out efficient work orders and diagnose specific problems
as part of the test earlier this month, agree. "I've seen mechanics
who couldn't write, but I think it's a very important part of it,"
said "They do a pretty
good job of integrating all our classes," Bushnell said. "I
think math and English are pretty important, too." Absentee Rate Has LAUSD Worried A new report on the problem
raises concerns over the cost of hiring replacement teachers By Cara Mia DiMassa, About 7% of Los Angeles
Unified School District employees are absent from work on any given day,
a number that is much higher than national averages and is triggering
concern about the $172 million spent last year to hire substitute teachers
and other replacements, according to a report released Thursday. As a result, officials
are calling for changes in the ways the district discourages — or inadvertently
encourages — employee absenteeism. But that could take a lot of negotiating
with unions and possible changes in state law to prevent abuses. The district study represents
the first time the nation's second-largest school system has seriously
considered its absentee rate, said L.A. Unified Chief Operating Officer
Tim Buresh, who presented it to a school board committee. "There is cause for
great pause here," Buresh said. "I
am concerned with our absolute level. I am concerned with the fact that
it is increasing. That has a potentially huge impact on the education
of the children and a huge cost impact for us." The absence rate for employees
such as principals and teachers, labeled "certificated" in education-speak,
was 6.9% in 2002-03. The rate for classified employees, a broad term that
includes everyone from office clerks to cafeteria workers to bus drivers,
was 7.6% that same year. While most of the district's nearly 97,000 employees
have good attendance records, about 11,000 have been absent more than
20 days in each of the last five years, according to Buresh. Federal statistics in
the report put the lost work-time rate for employees in education services
at 1.6% nationwide and 2.3% for state employees in Buresh said he didn't consider the differences between The district estimates
that in the 2002-03 school year, it spent $172
million for overtime and substitute teachers and other replacements. Including
lost work time, absenteeism cost the district about $432 million, the
study found. State law grants school
employees about one sick day per month at full pay, or about 10 days a
year for most teachers. They receive an additional 90 days sick time at
half pay before they have to switch to long-term leave. The law, said Buresh, creates problems for the district. "A lot of
people can live quite well on half pay. It lends itself to abuse."
Employees are considered
absent when they take time off from work for illness, personal necessity,
bereavement or jury duty. Vacation and holidays are not counted. District officials said
there is a direct link between the number of days a teacher is absent
and student performance. Students of the most frequently absent teachers
score notably worse on standardized tests, according to the report. Principals say they are
looking for ways to reduce teacher absenteeism. Thomas G. Delgado, principal
at The report was welcomed
by school board member Marlene Canter, who heads the district's Human
Resources Committee, which reviewed it Thursday. She said school employees
must serve as role models for children and show up at work. "I feel
that the human-relations part of our business … directly impacts the classroom,
and everything we do," she said. Buresh said he hoped to reduce the cost of absenteeism by half. Among the proposals being
considered by the district is a reexamination of its incentive plan. L.A.
Unified spends about $2 million a year to encourage teachers to show up,
partly with pay bonuses and partly with retirement accounts. Other school
employees receive extra vacation days for not using sick days. Sam Kresner,
executive assistant to the president of United Teachers- Connie Moreno, labor relations
representative for the California School Employees Assn., a union that
represents office workers and other support staff, said she wasn't surprised
by the report and thought the In a year when the district
has cut almost $500 million from its budget and is headed into what is
expected to be contentious negotiations over benefits and compensation
for employees, unions may be agreeable to finding ways to reduce absenteeism,
"If there could be
savings that could definitely be applied to the increased cost of health
benefits, I honestly believe you could get buy-in from every union in
the district," she said. KC board takes over Westport Charter School Audit alleges mismanagement By DEANN SMITH, The A financial audit of the
Duane Fox, the president
of The Kansas City Board
of Education voted 7-1 to deny Charter schools operate
with public money within the boundaries of the This is the first time
District officials said
the transition from a charter school would be smooth with little disruption
to students. About half of the 101 teachers already are district employees,
and they could remain at The district's report
was presented Wednesday evening to the Kansas City Superintendent
Bernard Taylor Jr. said Citing apparent conflicts
of interest, the audit said three board members were teachers at The district's report
did not name the board members. Fox defended having State law prohibits district
employees from serving as school board members for their employers. However,
no such prohibition exists for charter school employees. Fox also said board members
who provided services to Missouri Attorney General
Jay Nixon, who received the report on Tuesday, said in a statement that
the allegations of “conflicts of interest and self-dealing” were significant
and that his office would review the claims. KPMG auditors also said
they found that Westport, the auditors
said, had no system for tracking expenses, made large purchases without
board approval, bought items such as air conditioners without taking bids,
had no approved annual budget, paid a teacher for eight hours of work
when she worked just five hours, and gave extra pay to teachers with no
apparent explanation. The auditors said The district's Fox blasted the school
district Wednesday afternoon for dumping the audit on charter school officials
just nine hours before the meeting. “This report we received
at He also contended that
the district had ignored its responsibilities in overseeing School district officials
said they did adequately monitor “The district does not
have the statutory authority or the resources necessary to implement the
kinds of drastic financial management and governance reforms needed to
put the school back on a solid footing,” said Maurice Watson, an attorney
for the Harriett Plowman, a “We have been a lousy
sponsor,” Plowman said. Joel Pelofsky,
another board member, supported the recommendation to reject the charter's
renewal. But he urged administrators to keep talking with But board President David
A. Smith said the school district had made enough academic strides in
the past five years to justify taking over “I see no upside for the
children to continue in this arrangement (as a charter),” Smith said. District officials said
“We believe the administration
is doing this to get the revenue from the students,” Fox said. David Coale
said he has been happy with the attention his younger brother Jeremy,
13, has gotten as a student at “I don't see any reason
for him to move,” David Coale said. “It's a
safe school.” Kenneth Cloud, a counselor
at Westport Middle, has been at the building since before the charter
school started. There is more discipline now and more structure, he said.
But he criticized the “We're set up to fail,”
Cloud said.
Illinois State Board of Education |
