 |
 |
|
News Clips –
July 9 - 16, 2004 TOP OF PAGE STATE 'Home ec' kicks things up a notch BY JIM RITTER, Sun-Times
Staff Reporter, Girls used to take home
economics classes and join Future Homemakers of America. Today, they take classes
in family and consumer sciences and join the renamed Family, Career
and Community Leaders of America. And the group is not
just for girls, now. About 35 percent of the members of FCCLA, meeting
in Future Homemakers of
America was founded in 1946, when "home ec" was little more
than cooking and sewing. The organization changed its name in 1999 to
eliminate the homemaker stigma and attract boys. It's much more than
stitch-and-stir these days. Subjects include parenting, marriage and
family living, child development, interior design, fashion merchandising
and consumer economics. Cooking classes have become especially popular
with the guys. "A lot of people
are shocked when I say it's mostly boys," said Her top student is a
boy. Jason Kemper won a state cooking contest and today will lead a
three-member Jason got interested
in culinary arts while working as a cook in a summer camp in Jason recently baked
a four-tier cake for 200 wedding guests. And he likes to impress friends
with his culinary skills: grilled salmon, fettuccine Alfredo, marinated
chicken and homemade pizza (he makes the dough and sauce from scratch). "He has found a
great passion and love for that art," Ebner said. "He's everything
that FCCLA stands for." Future Homemakers of
America's membership peaked at 607,000 in 1966, but it has since dropped
to about 220,000. When school districts need to cut budgets, family
and consumer sciences classes often are among the first to go because
the courses typically are elective and not college track. However, membership
has held steady for three years. The organization hopes to increase
its numbers by, for example, recruiting more middle school students
and boosting participation in urban areas, where membership traditionally
has lagged. Discreet program helps
identify students who may have suicidal tendencies By MATT BUEDEL of the
Journal Star, Their names are Shelby
L. Webb, 16, who died Tuesday; Brady A. Threw, 19, who took his own
life in May; Andrew Lowe IV, 17, who died in February; and Whitney Grotts,
16, who killed herself in March. They are more than merely
statistics, but their choices point to a troubling trend. Suicide is
the third leading cause of death nationally for young people ages 10
to 24. In "It's the second
leading cause of death," said Katie Jones, director of the Mental
Health Association of Illinois Valley. "It's a public health crisis
for our kids." And the current efforts
to combat the crisis are limited: a suicide hotline and educational
materials scattered in Tri-County high schools. Jones is pushing for
a more comprehensive approach with the aid of momentum from Whitney's
Walk, a fund-raiser for suicide prevention in memory of Whitney Grotts,
a junior at That high school will
be the first this fall to implement TeenScreen, a program that combines
a survey taken via computer with counselors to identify teenagers possibly
suffering from a mental illness that could lead to suicidal tendencies. Developed at "We're losing kids
every year because we're not asking questions as we should be,"
said Jones, who with the Mental Health Association has developed five-year
strategic plan focused on implementing TeenScreen and the Yellow Ribbon
Suicide Prevention Program throughout The Yellow Ribbon campaign
is a card handed out to students that they can give to an adult if they
are experiencing suicidal thoughts. The card states that the student
is asking for help without having to say anything. TeenScreen is more proactive,
starting with a computer survey that asks students questions like: - Have you often felt
nervous or uncomfortable when you have been with a group of children
or young people, say, like in the lunchroom at school or at a party? - Has there been a time
when nothing was fun for you, and you just weren't interested in anything? - Has there been a time
when you felt you couldn't do anything well or that you weren't as good
looking or as smart as other people? The computer doesn't
diagnose potential mental maladies, but if enough symptoms surface during
the screening, a follow-up interview is scheduled with a counselor. "Generally, what
we find is the program first identifies a lot of kids who need help,"
said Leslie McGuire, director of TeenScreen at The university provides
the computer software and technical assistance for free, but organizing
the system and employing a part-time counselor specifically for the
program is estimated to cost about $100 per student. That estimate diminishes
to around $25 per student when applied to most of the high schools in
the Tri-County area. The Two bills currently
in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives should offset the cost
to local school districts. Senate Bill 2175, which passed Thursday,
and House of Representatives Bill 4557 amend the Public Health Services
Act to support youth suicide intervention and prevention efforts. "We feel confident
that when the bills pass, money will be made available to the states
and then allocated to programs like this one," Jones said. Until then, Jones is
relying on grants and grass-roots movements like Whitney's Walk to underwrite
TeenScreen, to try to save other teenagers from the same tragic choice
Whitney made. "She might have
told a computer what she wouldn't tell anyone else," Jones said. By Carolyn Bower of
the Post-Dispatch, School board dissent
has become a well-publicized distraction in districts such as Yet school boards are
not always speaking with one voice in suburban districts, either. Divisions have appeared
as school leaders evaluate issues such as employing superintendents,
tightening budgets and continuing the voluntary desegregation program.
The latest example came
recently when the Clayton School Board voted 4-3 to extend the contract
of Superintendent Don Senti through the 2006-07 school year. Voting
against the extension were the board's president, Vic Frankel; vice
president, Lilly Canel-Katz; and secretary, Brad Bernstein. As superintendent first
in Parkway and now in Clayton, Senti said he had never had a board member
vote against extending his contract. This vote caught him by surprise
"When you don't
have the total confidence of a school board, it gives you pause,"
Senti said. But he said he remains committed to the district. "I
love this place," Senti said. "Even though it is disappointing,
it will not prevent me from doing a good job." Senti, 59, is sometimes
considered a dean of county superintendents, taking an active role in
statewide education meetings and regional ones dealing with issues such
as finance, student achievement and desegregation. He served six years
as superintendent in the The vote followed a
series of packed public meetings about finances and how long Clayton
will continue to accept students from Finances are not the
only issue to divide a board: The Parkway School Board
voted 4-3 two years ago against adding sexual orientation to an anti-discrimination
policy. Two weeks later, the board voted against extending the contract
of Superintendent Jere Hochman. In Two Rockwood board members
dissented a year-and-a-half ago in picking the finalist for that district's
superintendent. Ladue's school board
split over putting former Superintendent Stewart Weinberg on administrative
leave. Susan Nuetzel, a former
Ladue board president, said dissent on a board can be healthy. "It
means there is discussion," she said. "It means all sides
are being represented. It means all views are being heard." Jerry Glaub, deputy
executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards, agrees
on the need for diverse opinions and honest, open discussion. But after a decision
is made, Glaub said, members of the board need to push in the same direction.
"What we typically
term 'split boards' are boards that become dysfunctional and hold school
districts back," he said. "A school board has a large effect
on whether a superintendent is a success or a failure." A lot of things can
divide a school board, said Gary Sharpe, executive director for the
Missouri Council of School Administrators. "It happens all
over the state," Sharpe said. "But persistent 4-3 votes on
sensitive issues make a difficult work situation." Issues such as district
finances and the loss of funding for the desegregation program put pressure
on board-superintendent relationships, said Linda Smith, a former Clayton
board president. "There needs to
be a partnership," Smith said of the board and the superintendent.
"When you see division on the board to the extent the Clayton vote
represents, the community can't feel there is a solid partnership in
moving the district forward. That's unfortunate. There should be one
agenda, and the agenda is children." Clayton students routinely
have some of the top scores statewide on But Clayton will receive
about half the money this fall for each desegregation student. The board
has decided to allow students already in the program to graduate from
Clayton. The board will decide in December whether to continue to accept
new transfer students. Pressed for the reason
for the vote against extending Senti's contract, Frankel, the board
president, said, "If there's an issue, it's finances. For a long
time Clayton had lots of resources and could do whatever we wanted.
Lots of districts are having to make do with less. We are now in the
position of lots of other districts." Frankel said the district
needs to make do with the money it has and not go back to the community
for more money in the near future. Amy Murphy, another
former Clayton board president, saw the split board as motivating the
community. People turned out in droves to voice their opinions on the
issues. "By having a split
board, the community had to question how they felt, and in that sense
it was a good thing," she said. School choice an idea whose time has come The momentum for school
choice seems to be growing nationwide. Although the issue hasn't
hit Illinois full force as of yet, it's clear in other states that the
idea of giving parents vouchers to send their children to private school
is becoming more popular. And, in Although voucher programs
take on many different formats, they basically give parents money in
order to enroll their children in private schools. Most of the programs
are targeted at low-income parents or parents who have children in low-performing
public schools. The voucher programs
are popular. Before In fact, the issue is
so popular in Predictably, the voucher
programs draw opposition from teachers unions and the educational bureaucracy.
What these groups fail to see is that competition will improve their
schools, not harm them. The Colorado Education Association filed the
lawsuit that resulted in the Supreme Court stopping implementation of
the voucher program. The court ruled the law did not give school districts
enough "local control." Voucher supporters say they can fix
that by switching the funding for the program to the state level. But educators in Most of the nation's
voucher programs have caps on the number of students involved, and that
makes sense. There needs to be an awareness of how many students private
schools can handle and how much upheaval should be placed on the system
at one time. There are a lot of excellent
public schools and public school educators in Parents, especially
low-income parents, usually are stuck sending their children to a struggling
school. Offering those parents
a choice is the backbone of voucher programs. We're glad to see this
movement is growing. State budget still stuck on education funds By Christopher Wills,
The Associated Press, Gov. Rod Blagojevich
and the four legislative leaders resumed their negotiations on the state
budget Monday but remained deadlocked, primarily over how to spend a
$350 million increase in education funds. Officials hoped to pass
a state budget seven weeks ago, but couldn't reach an agreement. The
impasse has lasted so long that the state's new fiscal year began without
a budget and lawmakers passed a temporary spending plan to keep government
from shutting down. Originally, the state
faced a deficit of roughly $2.3 billion in a $54 billion budget. But
negotiators say they've agreed on how to fill most of that gap. One of the remaining
sticking points is education. Senate President Emil
Jones (D-Chicago) is pushing to put all the new money into general state
aid to schools, which tends to favor downstate and House Minority Leader
Tom Cross (R-Oswego) wants about one-third of the money for specific
education programs, known as categoricals, that would help wealthier
schools in the "We've got to try
to work through it," Cross said after the latest negotiating session.
"People are passionate about their causes. People are passionate
about their regions. That's OK. ... We just have to find a happy medium
there." Jones was not so relaxed
about the dispute. "They say their
plan is fair, but you're giving the rich districts equal as much as
you're giving the poor districts," he said. "You're keeping
the gap there." Rank-and-file lawmakers
once again met in a special session ordered by Blagojevich but had nothing
to do and soon adjourned. Is property tax cap a good thing? By John Patterson, Daily
Herald State Government Editor, Gov. Rod Blagojevich
on Monday signed into law a statewide plan that increases homestead
exemptions to $5,000. In That break goes into
place immediately and could begin saving homeowners money on their 2004
property tax bills. As for the cap on assessments,
that debate now moves to county boardrooms across the state, where each
of the 102 counties has 60
days to put the issue to a county board vote. If the measure is approved,
property assessments could not increase more than 7 percent per year. Supporters praise the
new law as a savior for senior citizens and others fearful of being
priced out of their homes by nothing more than real estate market growth. "When you think
about owning your home, you save for a down payment, you figure out
how you're going to meet your mortgage costs and you think about ways
you can afford to improve your home," Blagojevich said. "But the thing
you didn't bargain for was that you do all of those things, and then
the time comes when you can no longer afford your own home because the
property taxes are way too high." But critics warn it
will ultimately result in reduced money for suburban schools and won't
have a dramatic effect on the typical homeowner. In "Everywhere I go,
people tell me how important this legislation is to them," said
state Sen. Dave Sullivan, a Park Ridge Republican. "Clearly, there
is a need for property tax relief in our area. We have tax caps, which
do help keep property tax rates down and now we have this legislation,
which should help keep property tax assessments at reasonable levels." Kane County Board Chairman
Mike McCoy also offered initial support for the concept. "To me, the tax
cap is one of the best things Elsewhere, county leaders
were hesitant. "We don't have
a clue what this means yet," said Suzi Schmidt, chairwoman of the
Lake County Board. "Whenever you have an assessment freeze or cap,
somebody else is going to pay. Somebody has to make up the slack." DuPage County Board
Chairman Robert Schillerstrom reacted similarly. "The revenue will
be the same. It rearranges who pays for it," Schillerstrom said.
"We want to make sure we balance the benefits and the burden." In "We're in a dogfight
already with a lot of states that are coming here looking to take our
businesses," Labaj said. Suburban school officials
echo the concerns of assessment caps shifting the tax burden to businesses,
but for different reasons. Businesses have proven to be very successful
at mounting legal challenges to their assessments in courts and getting
refunds from schools. A recent Daily Herald
look at how the tax breaks might affect the suburbs shows the savings
are most likely to be a few hundred dollars for the typical homeowner.
The increased homeowner exemptions would likely save homeowners between
$90 and $125. The 7-percent assessment
cap would save a small group of homeowners $300 to $1,500 assuming their
home values were increasing 10 percent annually. Education remains sticking point in budget negotiations By MATT ADRIAN, Senate President Emil
Jones, D-Chicago, sent a letter to his colleagues urging them to endorse
his education plan over a proposal authored by House Minority Leader
Tom Cross, R-Oswego. Both are working with $350 million in new education
spending. Legislative leaders
met with Gov. Rod Blagojevich Wednesday afternoon. Jones' plan would funnel
$250 million into the general state aid formula, which distributes funding
to local school districts. By the fourth quarter of the next fiscal
year, Jones also puts $70
million into mandated programs such as transportation, $20 million into
early childhood education and $10 million for schools that would lose
money under his education plan. Cross wants to see more
funding pushed into mandated programs because many affluent schools
with plentiful property tax funding are not helped much by increases
in the state aid formula. School violence a still concern nationally, according
to FBI By Rebecca Loda, Pantagraph,
"That's a very
alarming number," Weysan Dun said Tuesday. Dun is special agent
in charge of the FBI's The focus on school
violence peaked in April 1999 when two "Countering terrorism
is our highest priority," said Dun. "But we have not forgotten
about school violence." Four regional seminars
are being offered this week. Tuesday's event was hosted by State Farm
Insurance Cos. and was attended by nearly 70 educators, law enforcement
officers and juvenile justice officials. Terri Royster, a supervisory
special agent working in the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit based in
School violence is still
rare, she said, but it is happening. She said larger schools
-- where hallways and stairways are typically crowded -- are more likely
to have incidents. "All the research
says if you have a school population over 800, you're going to have
problems," she said. Nationally, the most
violent school year was 1992-1993, when 56 violent deaths were reported;
most of those took place in inner cities and were gang-related. It wasn't
until violence spread to more suburban and rural areas that the larger
public began paying more attention. "That's when it
became news," she said. "We had supposedly good kids doing
bad things." Thirteen- and 14-year-olds
are most apt -- among those 18 and younger -- to commit crimes, including
vandalism and drugs, murder and rape, said Royster. Juveniles, she said,
cannot be profiled because their behavior is unpredictable. By nature,
adolescents are impulsive. What can be predicted,
however, is the relationship between guns in schools, gang activity
and alcohol and drug use. In one survey, more than half of high school
principals responding said they had serious gang issues. "When you have
kids at school with guns, you're going to have gangs and drugs,"
said Royster. "Those three go hand-in-hand." This is the first time
the Springfield FBI office has organized a seminar on school violence,
said training instructor Carol Forestier. "We've been trying
to look at issues that we can provide education on," said Forestier.
"Everybody has their mind on terrorism, but there are other things
going on." By Tom O'Konowitz and
Tara Malone, Daily Herald Staff Writers, Elgin City Council members
Wednesday abandoned threats to sue Elgin Area School District U-46,
pledging instead to work with the district toward a compromise on the
sweeping boundary changes that triggered the unprecedented conflict. But the group of Indeed, their attorneys
with Chicago-based Futterman and Howard say the evidence is even clearer
today that U-46 will segregate students, creating a separate and unequal
system, with its new school boundaries. The city's sudden move
to back away from legal action came as U-46 officials bowed to increased
pressure from Councilman John Walters
last week withdrew his support for the city paying Futterman and Howard
up to $44,000 in pre-litigation costs. Four of six council members informally
had supported hiring the law firm, and Walter's change of heart meant
the official vote set for Wednesday night's city council meeting would
have resulted in a rejection by tie. The issue instead was
tabled indefinitely and attorneys were told to stop working on "I always had difficulty
with us telling (U-46 officials) how to do their job, getting involved
with their policy decisions," Walters said Wednesday. "It's
not time for a lawsuit; it's time to talk. I've got complete trust and
confidence we can do something" to reach a compromise. For months, tension
has been mounting between the school district and city officials, who
maintain U-46's new boundary plan for elementary and middle schools
would group low-income and minority students in schools on Despite months of repeated
pleas from Finally on Monday, Schock
and officials from city hall met with U-46 Superintendent Connie Neale,
who invited the city leaders to discuss their differences. That show
of good faith, prompted in part by the threat of a lawsuit, and Walter's
turnabout, prompted the city to drop potential legal action in exchange
for long-awaited negotiations with U-46. "We are very pleased
to have dialogue," Neale said. "We are pleased there has been
some initial conversation and we hope there will be more." Schock echoed Neale's
sentiment, saying discussions are preferable, but still he expressed
some trepidation. "I just hope it's
fruitful," Schock said. "It is a positive step." Councilman Robert Gilliam,
who objected to "There are no promises,
nothing formal, but it's good that we've decided to talk to each other
and not talk to our attorneys," Gilliam said. "It's a lot
better for the community." But Figueroa, who's
been out front against the boundaries, has lingering concerns about
U-46's plan and expects to remain vigilant on the issue. "I don't know if
everyone realizes the impact these changes will have in neighborhoods
where we've been working. I don't think they understand, sadly, the
financial impact here," said Figueroa, whose children attend U-46
schools. "I think we want to make sure their plan is working, is
effective and has no adverse effects on the neighborhoods we're concerned
about." This is not the first
time city leaders have voiced their concern about boundary lines based
largely on geography with diversity playing no role. City leaders in February
unanimously backed a resolution faulting the haste with which district
leaders approved the new map, six months after U-46 hired a demographer
to create it. On July 2, the city
council confirmed it informally agreed to hire Futterman and Howard.
Gilliam and Councilman Tom Sandor objected, but Schock, Figueroa, Walters
and Councilwoman Brenda Rodgers voted in favor. As the city's battle
with U-46 quiets, the stand-off between U-46 and some district parents
remains ongoing. Parents, in fact, and
not the city, first contacted Futterman and Howard - the law firm that
championed school bias cases in Parents pledged to raise
$89,700 to cover legal fees beyond the $44,000 initially committed by
"It's great if
the city is on board, but we're still here if they're not on board,"
said Futterman attorney Carol
Rose Ashley echoed the determination of her parent clients. "We are absolutely
not going away. We are working diligently toward pursuing our individual
client claims," Ashley said. Although the initial
union of parents and city leaders has splintered, Ashley said, concerns
that the district's new boundary map essentially segregates students
remain valid. "The claims are
the same; the liabilities are the same," Ashley said. "We
are no longer representing the city, but I think the issues there are
more political than are the central issues of this case." More and more Latino,
black and white parents contend the new boundaries illegally bunch poor
minority students, many of whom are Latino and new to English, in schools
in the heart of That has sparked concern
among a national civil rights group, now entrenched in its own investigation
of U-46. Lawyers with the Mexican
American Legal Defense and Education Fund said Wednesday they continue
to study whether "We want to compare
the old plan with the new plan and see whether that's correct - that
the district, in fact, will put more money into those Elgin schools,"
said Alonzo Rivas, an attorney with the advocacy group's Chicago office. Rivas, for one, said
the "Now, the people
being effected by the plan are the ones taking the lead," Rivas
said, "which is a positive development." Still, not all U-46
parents want to see a lawsuit filed. Three of them addressed the Elgin
City Council Wednesday, saying a trial would be too costly for all involved
and wouldn't necessarily improve children's education. U-46 parent Laurel Bault,
who also is the parent liaison at "A lawsuit will
not be a win-win situation for anybody, except for the lawyers involved,"
Bault said. "A lawsuit is not the way to better 205 board bans cell phones by students By DAVID HOTLE of The
Register-Mail, The Galesburg School
Board voted Monday to ban cellular phones from schools during the academic
day. In addition, the board
set guidelines to limit "improper" use of cellular phones
at extracurricular activities. A change to the student code of conduct
recommended by Superintendent Neil Sappington would have allowed students
to check cellular phones at school offices. The board did not approve
the measure. "There are so many
ways phones, especially phones with cameras built in, can be used inappropriately,
I don't believe we can think of all of them," Sappington said.
"We wanted to have something in the code to address issues as they
come up." An example of inappropriate
use, he said, is taking pictures in a locker room. During Monday's meeting
Galesburg High School Assistant Principal Steve Eisemann said there
were "dozens" of incidents involving discipline for cellular
phone use last year, with about three repeat offenders. After allowing
students to have phones in school last year, the administration expressed
concerns that interruptions in class made the phones a liability. Eisemann
said mostly detention is used as a disciplinary measure, but in some
cases in-school suspension has been used. "We have tried
the approach of allowing cell phones in school and, frankly, the practice
has not worked," Sappington told The Register-Mail. He said interruptions
of instructional time, combined with the availability of camera phones,
led to the restriction from school buildings during the school day. The board also learned
of an incident last year, when students were allowed to carry phones,
but not have them on, where a student on a cellular phone asked a teacher
to wait until he was done talking to begin class. "I went all the
way through school without a cell phone," board member Bob Lindstrom
said, emphasizing his belief the phones are not necessities. He also
objected to the idea of allowing phones to be checked at the office,
saying school personnel should not be wasted on the effort. Galesburg High School
Principal Diane Hutchins said, as an educator in "When anything
is disruptive of the education process, as phones have been in this
and other districts, a policy like this is necessary," she said. She said pay phones
and adults with cellular phones will always be available to allow students
to make calls, if necessary. "We have to remember
students were able to make arrangements they need to for many years
before cell phones were available," Sappington said. Agreement reached on
school funds By DOUG FINKE, State
Journal-Register State Capitol Bureau, Gov. Rod Blagojevich
and the four legislative leaders reached tentative agreement Thursday
on an education-spending plan, hours after the two Republicans in the
room briefly walked out of negotiations they said were going nowhere. Education funding had
been cited as the key stumbling block in achieving a budget compromise. The governor and four
leaders also are considering postponing any new state construction projects
until the legislature's fall veto session at the earliest, although
projects already under way would be allowed to continue. But the overtime legislative
session may not end even with the leaders' agreement on a budget for
the fiscal year that is already 2 weeks old. Senate Republican Leader
Frank Watson of None of the leaders
would discuss details of the education-funding package until they've
discussed it with rank-and-file lawmakers. "It's a very good
amount, and the allocation is fair," Blagojevich said. The negotiators earlier
agreed to increase spending for grades K-12 education by $350 million
this year, $50 million less than Blagojevich originally sought. House
Republican Leader Tom Cross of "There's enough
to have a fair and equitable distribution around the state," Cross
said. The sticking point was
which education programs should get a spending boost. Senate President Emil
Jones, D-Chicago, wanted virtually all of the additional money put into
the school aid formula, which primarily benefits Chicago and downstate
schools. Cross, Watson and House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago,
all favored splitting the money between general state aid, which helps
poorer school districts, and programs that benefit both rich and poor
districts. Earlier Thursday, Watson
and Cross stormed out of the budget talks, saying Jones wasn't being
serious about the negotiations. A short time later, Watson and Cross
returned after getting a phone call from Blagojevich's office. "I think (the walkout)
helped," Madigan said. "It helped people focus on solving
a problem and stop the rhetoric and the posturing." Blagojevich and the
four leaders are now debating whether to postpone a capital budget until
the fall. That deferral would include Blagojevich's Opportunity Returns
economic development program. The governor wanted $51 million for the
initiative, while Watson, who referred to Opportunity Returns as a slush
fund, didn't want any money devoted to it. The deferral apparently
would also include any lawmaker pet projects, called member initiatives,
that have not yet begun. Madigan said that over the next few weeks,
all state capital programs will be subjected to "a real good review." By deferring the capital
spending, Cross said, the leaders might avoid having to deal with rank-and-file
lawmakers who want to trade their budget votes for the promise of additional
construction projects in their districts. But while progress was
made on the budget, the unresolved medical malpractice issue could prevent
the session from ending soon. Watson is insisting that malpractice reforms
be addressed now, and he didn't rule out withholding Republican votes
from a budget agreement until it is. "We've talked about
this in the caucus, and we're giving that some consideration, but we
haven't come to any conclusion yet," he said. D.205 supports school funding reform Schools back HB750,
Senate amendments BY JOAN CARREON, The School Board on
Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Illinois Association
of School Boards to back House Bill 750 and Senate Amendments 1 and
2. Board member Elizabeth Ware was not in attendance. The resolution is being
sent to school boards across Under House Bill 750
and the two Senate amendments, the state would assume 51 percent of
the cost of funding public education; the per student education funding
foundation level would be increased by more than $1,000 per child; more
than $2 billion in property tax relief would be provided statewide;
$900 million in refundable credit would be given to the bottom 60 percent
of all taxpayers; and the state's "structural deficit" would
be eliminated. In addition, the state's
personal income tax would be increased to 5 percent, the corporate income
tax would be raised to 1.8 percent, the state's sales tax base would
be expanded to include "all personal services, entertainment and
other consumer services" and corporate tax expenditures would be
eliminated. Critics of the existing
school funding method have long argued there is too heavy a reliance
on property taxes to fund public education. District 205 School
Board President Sharon Voliva, who also serves as chairman of the Better
Funding for Better Schools Coalition, described the legislation as being
"absolutely everything we (schools) need or want." She said the legislation
is being sponsored by Sen. James Meeks, I-Chicago and that Reps. David
E. Miller, D-Dolton, and William Davis, D-Harvey, are co-sponsors. She
said House Bill 750 is currently in the Senate but consideration has
been postponed. Meanwhile, the resolution
backed by District 205 so far has been adopted by a downstate elementary
district and a school district in The resolutions are
being forwarded to the IASB Resolutions Committee for consideration
on Aug. 6. The committee, at that time, is expected to decide whether
to send the resolution to the IASB's full assembly of delegates for
adoption on Nov. 20, according to Schwarm. Dist. 21 leaves 'God' in pledge By Avian Carrasquillo,
Daily Herald Staff Writer, After asking Wheeling
Township elementary school District 21 to remove the "under God"
portion of the Pledge of Allegiance last month, Sherman, an atheist,
was seeking removal of "under God" from the pledge on the
grounds that his daughter, a student in the district, was being caused
emotional distress over the daily reciting of the pledge by her classmates.
Sherman, who did not
attend Thursday night's meeting, said late last week he would seek legal
counsel and file legal proceedings against the district in state court
if his request were denied. District 21 Superintendent,
Gary Mical stands by the board's decision not to change its policy. "We've had conversations
with our attorney about this. In 1992, the board of education upheld
a challenge by Mr. Sherman. That challenge made it to the Seventh Circuit
Court, and we're going to live by what the court decided in favor of
District 21, which was school districts have the right to say the Pledge
of Allegiance. And people that object to participating in the Pledge
of Allegiance can dissent from that and not participate," Mical
said, In that case, the Supreme
Court ruled that Michael Newdow, an atheist seeking to challenge the
district's use of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance
because he felt his daughter should not have to recite it or have to
listen to it recited, could not make that decision for his daughter
because he did not have legal custody of her. Rob Boston, spokesman
for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said another
lawsuit similar to the one recently considered by the Supreme Court
may one day remove the "under God" clause from the Pledge
of Allegiance. But he was skeptical
whether =========================================================================== NATIONAL Tenure review tool gets fresh scrutiny By
Ben Feller, Associated Press, Tenure
guarantees that public school teachers who have this protection cannot
be fired without legitimate cause and due process, perhaps even a court
hearing. Almost every state provides tenure in some form. Yet
with federal law requiring schools to have a top teacher for every core
class, more administrators are questioning whether tenure keeps them
from getting rid of even a small number of instructors who just are
not good enough in the classroom. Democrat
John Kerry, the presidential candidate favored by education unions,
wants to make it easier for schools to act quickly against poor teachers,
provided that educators are protected from baseless firings. To
teachers, tenure is a coveted and often misunderstood right - not a
lock on a lifetime job, but assurance of fair treatment, including intervention
for teachers who may be struggling to reach students. "It's
protection against the false accusations, against politically trumped
up charges, against people who insist you must teach a certain way or
risk getting fired," said Penny Kotterman, a special education
teacher and president of the Tenure
is most associated with colleges and universities, where prospective
professors earn it by compiling a rigorous record of research, teaching
and service. In
the kindergarten through high school world, it is typically granted
to teachers after two to five years of at least solid performance in
a district, although debate continues over its value as a sign of quality.
Most
principals and superintendents say tenure does not mean teachers have
proved themselves to be very good, and many teachers agreed with that
point in polls by the nonpartisan Public Agenda research group. But
Kotterman said that is off the mark. Tenure, she said, is meant mainly
as an assurance of fair review, while certification and regular evaluation
of teachers are indicators of quality. In
the polls, most teachers said tenure protects them from district politics
and losing their jobs to newcomers who could be hired for less. David
Sanchez, a kindergarten teacher from Charles
Hasse, a fourth-grader teacher and president of the Washington Education
Association, said tenure helps because schools have fewer people in
supervisory roles than many employers, making "the opportunity
for misjudgments much greater." School
administrators, who are often former teachers, say they understand the
point of tenure. But they say it can lead to frustrating delays in replacing
poor teachers, leading some administrators to give up trying. In
Teachers
union leaders say they support expedited reviews but they take issue
with the argument that tenure protects poor teachers. They say administrators
should have no problem making a clear case against those who cannot
or will not improve. States
offer legitimate reasons for firing tenured teachers, from immorality
to insubordination; not all directly address teaching performance. Typically,
the teachers said Sunday, states have a process to speed reviews for
tenured teachers accused of a major violation on campus, such as drug
use. The
challenge, critics say, is getting rid of mediocre teachers, not the
ones who commit egregious conduct violations. Yet
Michael Kramer, who represents teachers as general counsel for the Georgia
Association of Educators, says tenure can help the educational mission
by protecting strong, outspoken teachers. "It's
the brightest, the risk-taking teachers," he said, "who are
most at risk for arbitrary dismissal." All educators must get English immersion
training State
mandate largely praised By
Jennifer Sterba, All
The
state Board of Education - which approved the training at a regular
meeting on June 28 based on a proposal from state schools Superintendent
Tom Horne - will require an additional 45 hours of training upon recertification,
which comes every six years. Local
educators including Harriet Scarborough say the requirement is reasonable
and will give non-native-English-speaking students increased access
to more teachers - and thereby access to a better education. Right
now, only teachers who work directly with students learning English
are required to have some kind of language endorsement, said "For
me, the ideal would be to make sure everyone is trained," The
"It
makes sense to me that if our student enrollment is increasing in its
diversity, that our teachers and administrators would have to increase
their skills in working with that diverse population," said Mary
Kamerzell, superintendent for the Foothills district. More
cautious teachers are leery of what they perceive as another attempt
to shorten the leash on the teaching profession. "Even
though (structured English immersion) is very important and those kids
need to have the best possible teachers with the best possible training,
I'm concerned this is yet another requirement that is going to be heaped
on teachers," said Paul Karlowicz, president of Tucson Education
Association, the bargaining chair for the TUSD teachers union. "I'm
not convinced it's going to accomplish the goals that Mr. Horne hopes
it will." Structured
English immersion establishes a bare minimum for educators seeking a
state endorsement to work with students learning English. Additional
hours of training can earn an English as a second language endorsement
or the highest level, a bilingual teaching endorsement. At
least half of the teachers at "It's
very healthy and exciting, because all schools are going to be prepared
to receive ELL (English language learner) students," she said.
"We are way ahead." TUSD's
professional development program already has placed an immersion specialist
at each school to train other faculty members, Patterson said. Patterson
also looks for language-endorsed teachers when recruiting for open teaching
positions at her school. "For
us, it's not a big change," she said. "It's part of what we've
already been doing." A
state official said the cost of the training could be covered one of
three ways. Teachers
already are required to renew their certification every six years, said
Margaret Garcia Dugan, state associate superintendent of academic achievement.
To recertify, teachers or administrators must complete 180 hours or
12 college credit hours of professional development. The
state's new 60-total hour requirement of language training would just
fit into that 180 hours, Garcia Dugan said. In
that scenario, the educator could pick up the cost out of his or her
own pocket. If the professional development is provided by the school
district, the district would incur the cost in the form of substitute
teachers or staff development days, when school is either canceled or
students are released early. "The
other piece is we do have money," Garcia Dugan said. "About
$14 million. It's not going to last forever, but it can be used for
endorsement costs. "We're
not sure yet how we would put that into place," she said. Garcia
Dugan said she believes most school districts are going to pick up the
cost on their own. As
for extending the endorsement requirement to administrators, Wakefield
Principal Patterson said it's part of her job to learn different ways
of helping her diverse student population. "It's
a very inclusive requirement rather than an exclusive requirement,"
she said. Cuts unfair, say principal trainees Teachers
in the state's Principal Fellows Program say lawmakers should not have
reduced stipends By
Emily Almas, Kim
Short of Cary spent 16 years teaching at Short
and 86 others across the state in a principal-training program are upset
about changes that have reduced their paychecks by $20,000. They have
been sending out hundreds of e-mail messages, making phone calls and
even personally pleading their case before state officials. "This
is hitting us personally. This is hitting my pocketbook," Short
said. "This is not fair or healthy for the future of our program." The
state-financed North Carolina Principal Fellows Program gives selected
teachers two years of training in how to be a school leader. The
program aims to increase the number of administrators in the state who
have master's of school administration degrees. Finding highly qualified
school principals has been a state priority, because 52 percent of school
administrators in The
fellows go to school full-time for a year at one of 11 state universities.
They then work for a second year as assistant principal interns. The
state pays them $20,000 a year in a scholarship loan. In return, each
fellow must work as an administrator in For
the past seven years, fellows also received a stipend from the Department
of Public Instruction while they were working as full-time interns.
The stipend was equal to 10 months of the starting assistant principal
pay in the state, or roughly $32,600. But
last year, legislators decided that the $52,600 that fellows were earning
during the intern year was excessive and changed the rules so the total
compensation did not exceed $32,600, which is what non-fellows would
earn during the internship. "I
really understand their concerns," said Sen. A.B. Swindell, a Democrat
from But
some members of Short's fellows class disagree. They said they were
notified "Why
would the state jeopardize a program like ours?" said Max Nathison,
who taught at He
and others say their "jaw-dropping realization" that they
would only be earning $32,600 instead of $52,600 their second year came
too late. In particular, they say it's unfair that they owe the state
four years of service and that they had to resign from their previous
jobs to become a fellow. The
cuts are not only hurting individual pocketbooks but also the program's
vitality, many fellows contend. The number of applicants was down by
a quarter this year. Mike
Williams, director of the program, said he has noticed a reduction even
in the number of inquiries about the program. "Our
first concern is the long-term health of the program," he said,
noting that the $20,000 scholarship amount was determined 10 years ago
when the program was first established. One
in eight principals or assistant principals in Amid
the stories of fellows' families having to sign up for Medicaid, and
fellows taking out other loans or borrowing money from family members,
Short said, the group has bonded and learned a lot more about state
government than members ever expected. She hopes the 87 of them together
can make a difference. "It
shouldn't have to take 6,000 people and a professional lobbyist to be
heard," she said. Fellows
say legislators have been slow to respond to their cause, but they remain
optimistic. Swindell has listened, but he is careful to point out the
current budget will only stretch so far. "They
needed to understand what the program was when they went into the program,
but of course hold out for hope," he said. That,
however, is little consolation to some like Karen Wood, a fellow from
"I
told some of the legislators that I've always believed in the political
system and I've always been one to advocate for it working for the people,"
she said. "Now I want it to work for me." Setting
the Record Straight On No Child Left Behind By Ken Meyer, It seems like the saying
“don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story” has been liberally
applied to the Letters to the Editor in Chattanoogan.com’s coverage
of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Please allow me to set the record
straight. First, it must be understood
that NCLB was the reauthorization of a law that has been on the books
since 1965 known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
This law created programs for economically disadvantaged students (Title
I) thru Title IX programs concerning sexual discrimination that is still
in place today. Put in place by President Johnson, these programs benefit
disadvantaged students and assist states in closing the achievement
gap. This federal involvement in education policy was part of the response
to the 1954 Supreme Court Decision of Brown v. Board of Education and
was arguably the sister legislation to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Brown
and ESEA essentially guaranteed that every child in the country have
access to the school house door, regardless of race, creed or national
origin. The previous doctrine of “separate but equal” in public education
was rightfully struck down as unconstitutional. NCLB goes a step beyond
Brown. Access to the classroom is simply not enough. NCLB gives every
child a quality education. The law institutes a high degree of accountability
for schools and school systems so that every child counts, regardless
of background or heritage. Prior to this sea change in attitude, the
only measure of educational success was in dollars spent. Children only
seemed to count if they were in the chair the day the headcount was
taken. But giving children an education is more than simply about dollars.
We already spend $500 billion per year on the federal, state and local
level on K-12 education – more than on defense. We spend more per pupil
than any other nation save In other words, politically,
it is easy to spend more money as a means to demonstrate one’s commitment
to education. It is much more politically difficult to demand better
performance through accountability. It takes courage and will to do
the right thing. Despite the $125 billion
expended since 1965 to specifically close the achievement gap, the gap
had been widening. According to the National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP), two out of three fourth graders cannot read proficiently.
Seven out of ten rural and inner city fourth graders cannot read at
even the most basic level. One third of all college freshmen require
remedial classes prior to advancement to further study. Additionally,
as one contributor recently pointed out in a letter to the editor, That’s why the time
was ripe for educational reform. In order to obtain a good picture of
where students are, NCLB requires, among other things, that all students
in grades 3-8 and one time in high school be tested once a year against
academic standards established by the state in reading, math and science.
The test data is broken down in a number of different ways to clearly
identify which children need the most help. It also requires that this
information be made available to parents and the public-at-large as
a means to provide options for parents to make better decisions for
their children. Contrary to the political
rhetoric of the day, this law has been extremely well funded relative
to the requirements of NCLB. In Unfortunately those
with a political agenda ignore these facts. But this law was a result
of a national consensus and an evolution of standards-based reforms
that began over 20 years ago with the published report of “A Nation
at Risk.” NCLB was passed in the U.S. Senate by a vote of 87-10 with
Senator Kennedy as one of the major architects and the U.S. House by
a margin of 381-41. In a non-election, non-political year, our policymakers
came together to pass legislation which benefits our country and its
children. As with any major reform
effort, there is strong institutional and political opposition to the
reforms of NCLB. Light is now being shone in some of the darkest corners
of public education. Subgroups of students in this country who have
historically been largely ignored and passed along are now receiving
the attention they have always deserved. Most importantly, these children
are rising to the occasion and performing beyond previous expectations.
We are beginning to see success all over the country and the success
is spreading. As President Bush has stated “identifying a problem is
not creating a problem.” NCLB identifies problems
and directs resources to solve those problems. The focus is finally
on the children rather than the process. It is really just that simple. Setting The Record Straight On No Child Left Behind Part
2 - And A Reply The Chattanoogan, "Additional Comments
from Ken The response to my first
post on this subject was intriguing and requires further comment to
address more inaccuracies. First, the difference
between the authorized amount for NCLB and the appropriated amount for
2004 is a little more than $8 Billion. Again, this amounts to less than
2% of total K-12 public education funding in this country. Even at $9.4
Billion (2005 request), it is still less than 2% so we are quibbling
about pennies on the dollar, literally. The real issue the writer
presents however, drives at the heart of the real problem, which is
accountability and measurement of success. We have tripled per pupil
expenditures in this country (inflation adjusted) over the past four
decades but have seen no improvement in achievement and our twelfth
graders have slipped farther down the scale in math and science literacy
and comprehension internationally, despite spending more an public education
than any other country in the world, but one. This is fact. For proper perspective
on the Title I issue, which is only part of NCLB, here are some other
interesting facts. From 1994 until 2000, under the previous administration,
Title I funding increased from $6.3 Billion to $7.9 Billion. Since that
time and under the current administration, Title I funding has risen
to $13.3 Billion…an increase of over $5 Billion in just four years.
This President and Congress are tremendously committed to helping disadvantaged
students all across the country but in return, they are demanding accountability
for results. Very simple. Simply pouring more money into a system without
corresponding results or even a measurement of results is no longer
acceptable. Hiring more guidance counselors or trying to reduce the
dropout rate, while laudable goals, is rather moot if children cannot
read and do math at grade level. Regarding the 38 programs
recommended for elimination, total funding for all of the programs combined
amounts to $1.4 Billion but more importantly, following is the official
explanation along with a link to more information which should help
clarify the issue: “The 2005 request continues
the practice of the Bush Administration—also consistent with previous
administrations over the past two decades—of proposing to eliminate
or consolidate funding for programs that have achieved their original
purpose, that duplicate other programs, that may be carried out with
flexible State formula grant funds, or that involve activities that
are better or more appropriately supported through State, local, or
private resources. In addition, the government-wide Program Assessment
Rating Tool, or PART, helps target funding to Department of Education
programs that generate positive results for students and that meet strong
accountability standards. For 2005, PART findings were used to redirect
funds from ineffective programs to more effective activities, as well
as to identify reforms to help address program weaknesses.” http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget05/summary/edlite-section3.html Under NCLB, there is
now much more money and much more flexibility for states to spend the
Title I and other monies associated with the program than ever before.
If a state can verify significant results for any of the 38 programs
or any other programs and believes it is in the interest of the children
and can prove that it results in children learning and the closure of
the achievement gap, there is now flexibility built in to make those
decisions at the state or local level, rather than in Washington, DC.
It is called funding flexibility and local control. The focus is now on
the children, rather than on programs or the process. President Bush
and the Congress are committed to their success. ----------- "Reply from Mildred
Perry Miller" Ken Meyer uses hundreds
of words to try to prop up his weak arguments about the "No child
Left Behind Act" but it won't wash. Furthermore, he says I am "driving
at the heart of the real problem, accountability and measurement of
success." I am doing no such thing.
I am driving at broken promises of the President and the insurmountable
demands this act makes on those who would implement it in the schools.
Had the President not made tax cuts to benefit the wealthiest people
in the country there might be more money in the coffers for schools.
It would be desirable if Mr. Meyer would give some concrete examples
of how this NCLBA has benefitted children in the classrooms of Take a look at summer
reading lists for elementary school children. One book I am helping
a second grade child read is about a turnip named Elvis Presley who
says that he doesn't want to wind up on the cover of "Enquirer
Magazine." Throughout the book, this turnip sings "You ain't
Nothing But a Hound Dog." I'm asking you-is that great literature,
or what? Three of the books on the list that I have reviewed are filled
with slang and poor English. I am tired of this subject
and don't intend to respond to it further. Like most political differences
in today's world, nobody seemsto have any answers. We might all take
a lesson from the book about the Elvis turnip-his final song is "Love
Me Tender." Love would solve everything, properly applied. District
adds 10,000 reasons to retire Janice L. Habuda, The School Board members
approved the incentive - double the original offer - on the recommendation
of School Superintendent Paul G. Hashem. At least five teachers must
sign up. When a $10,000 incentive
was offered this winter, only one teacher agreed to it. Others already
have come forward to talk about the new offer, Hashem said Wednesday.
Eligibility requires
a teacher to have been hired before "There are a few
people that fall into that Oct. 1 category that will be 55, so we wanted
to make sure we catch the maximum amount that we could," Hashem
said. Retirements are a way
for the district to save money - and jobs, officials said. "If we have the
older teachers that have the highest salaries retire, there will be
less probability of layoffs and greater class sizes with our younger
teachers," Hashem told trustees Tuesday night. "We figure with
a minimum of five people, we will be able to save . . . about $100,000,
based on either not replacing (teachers) or replacing on a limited basis,"
he said Wednesday. The district's offer
was made in the absence of state action on an incentive proposal that
would provide up to three years' additional service credit. Even so,
the district's incentive compares favorably with the state's in terms
of monthly retirement allowance, Hashem said. "They are coming
very, very close for many of our . . . retirees," he said. Retirement incentives
have been offered by several A contingency budget
recently approved by the School Board carries the potential of job cuts.
But even more recent revelations, including the news that more children
than anticipated are signed up for charter schools, have put the district
$660,000 in the hole, Hashem said. As a result, the staffing
situation will be on the forefront when administrators and School Board
members meet in special session sometime before Aug. 1, to meet the
30 days' layoff notice required in most contracts. Johnny
won't read: Report shows big drop in reading A report released Thursday
by the National Endowment for the Arts says the number of non-reading
adults increased by more than 17 million between 1992 and 2002. Only 47% of American
adults read "literature" (poems, plays, narrative fiction)
in 2002, a drop of 7 points from a decade earlier. Those reading any
book at all in 2002 fell to 57%, down from 61%. NEA chairman Dana Gioia,
himself a poet, called the findings shocking and a reason for grave
concern. "We have a lot
of functionally literate people who are no longer engaged readers,"
Gioia said in an interview with The Associated Press. "This isn't
a case of 'Johnny Can't Read,' but 'Johnny Won't Read.'" The likely culprits,
according to the report: television, movies and the Internet. "I think what we're
seeing is an enormous cultural shift from print media to electronic
media, and the unintended consequences of that shift," Gioia said.
The decline came despite
the creation of Oprah's book club in 1996 and the Harry Potter craze
that began in the late 1990s among kids and adults alike. In 1992, 72.6 million
adults in the "Whenever I hear
about something like this, I think of it as a call to arms," said
Mitchell Kaplan, president of the American Booksellers Association.
"As booksellers, we need to look into what kinds of partnerships
we can get into to encourage literacy and the immediacy of the literary
experience." In May, the nonprofit
Book Industry Study Group reported that the number of books purchased
in the The NEA study, titled
" The drop in reading
was widespread: among men and women, young and old, black and white,
college graduates and high school dropouts. The numbers were especially
poor among adult men, of whom only 38% read literature, and Hispanics
overall, for whom the percentage was 26.5. The decline was especially
great among the youngest people surveyed, ages 18 to 24. Only 43% had
read any literature in 2002, down from 53% in 1992. Gioia said the electronic
media that are contributing to the problem do offer possible remedies.
He praised Winfrey's use of television to promote literacy and said
he wished for a "thousand variants" of the idea. "There's a communal
aspect to reading that has collapsed and we need to find ways to restore
it," Gioia said. The title "Reading
at Risk" is modeled on "A Nation at Risk," a 1983 government
study that warned of a "rising tide of mediocrity in elementary
and secondary schools" and led to numerous reforms. But Gioia avoided
specific proposals in the NEA report. "I don't believe
the NEA should tell the culture what to do," he said. "The
reason we are bringing this study out is that we consider it a crisis
situation that requires a national conversation." CNN.com, Tenure guarantees that
public school teachers who have this protection cannot be fired without
legitimate cause and due process, perhaps even a court hearing. Almost
every state provides tenure in some form. Yet with federal law
requiring schools to have a top teacher for every core class, more administrators
are questioning whether tenure keeps them from getting rid of even a
small number of instructors who just are not good enough in the classroom. Democrat John Kerry,
the presidential candidate favored by education unions, wants to make
it easier for schools to act quickly against poor teachers, provided
that educators are protected from baseless firings. To teachers, tenure
is a coveted and often misunderstood right -- not a lock on a lifetime
job, but assurance of fair treatment, including intervention for teachers
who may be struggling to reach students. "It's protection
against the false accusations, against politically trumped up charges,
against people who insist you must teach a certain way or risk getting
fired," said Penny Kotterman, a special education teacher and president
of the Job security Tenure is most associated
with colleges and universities, where prospective professors earn it
by compiling a rigorous record of research, teaching and service. In the kindergarten
through high school world, it is typically granted to teachers after
two to five years of at least solid performance in a district, although
debate continues over its value as a sign of quality. Most principals and
superintendents say tenure does not mean teachers have proved themselves
to be very good, and many teachers agreed with that point in polls by
the nonpartisan Public Agenda research group. It's protection
against the false accusations, against politically trumped up charges,
against people who insist you must teach a certain way or risk getting
fired. -- Penny Kotterman,
National Education Association's But Kotterman said that
is off the mark. Tenure, she said, is meant mainly as an assurance of
fair review, while certification and regular evaluation of teachers
are indicators of quality. In the polls, most teachers
said tenure protects them from district politics and losing their jobs
to newcomers who could be hired for less. David Sanchez, a kindergarten
teacher from Charles Hasse, a fourth-grader
teacher and president of the Washington Education Association, said
tenure helps because schools have fewer people in supervisory roles
than many employers, making "the opportunity for misjudgments much
greater." Shielding the strong School administrators,
who are often former teachers, say they understand the point of tenure.
But they say it can lead to frustrating delays in replacing poor teachers,
leading some administrators to give up trying. In Teachers union leaders
say they support expedited reviews but they take issue with the argument
that tenure protects poor teachers. They say administrators should have
no problem making a clear case against those who cannot or will not
improve. It's the brightest,
the risk-taking teachers who are most at risk for arbitrary dismissal.
-- States offer legitimate
reasons for firing tenured teachers, from immorality to insubordination;
not all directly address teaching performance. Typically, the teachers
said Sunday, states have a process to speed reviews for tenured teachers
accused of a major violation on campus, such as drug use. The challenge, critics
say, is getting rid of mediocre teachers, not the ones who commit egregious
conduct violations. Yet Michael Kramer,
who represents teachers as general counsel for the Georgia Association
of Educators, says tenure can help the educational mission by protecting
strong, outspoken teachers. "It's the brightest,
the risk-taking teachers," he said, "who are most at risk
for arbitrary dismissal." More Schools Turn to Single Track New construction and
slowed enrollment growth make staggered schedules less crucial, but
many districts will keep year-round system. By Joel Rubin, Liberated by slowing
enrollment growth and the construction of new campuses, But the move, which
gained momentum this year, does not necessarily mean a return to the
long days of summer fun for students. Among schools reverting to single
tracks, many are keeping year-round schedules that some experts say
improve learning. "The traditional
calendar is no longer sacrosanct," said Tom Payne, who monitors
year-round programs for the state. "People have realized that there
are advantages to the year-round schedule." Used primarily in elementary
and middle schools, multitrack schedules make the most of classroom
space by running year-round, with students divided into three or four
groups that operate on staggered schedules. Because some students and
teachers are always on vacation, the convoluted schedule creates logistic
nightmares: Administrators struggle to schedule staff training sessions,
students become isolated from one another, and teachers find collaboration
difficult or impossible. "The sense of school
and community is challenged" with multitrack schedules, said Cheryl
Cohen, assistant superintendent at the In a three-decade battle
against persistent overcrowding, During the recent wave,
the number of the multitrack schools in Dependence on multitrack
programs peaked in 1998, when 1,027 schools used them. More than 1 million
The tide turned after
voters approved a series of bonds for school construction — most recently
a $12.3-billion initiative in March — and enrollment growth slowed.
What began as a slow
decline in multitrack schedules accelerated dramatically last year,
when 142 schools eliminated them. Only 39 schools — 11 from the same
the district — added multitrack schedules. Some districts — especially
Los Angeles Unified — continue to struggle with crowding and are unable
to drop their multitrack programs. And education officials are quick
to point out that future enrollment gains could force districts back
onto the plan. But Payne, with the California Department of Education,
said he expects the trend to continue at least over the next five years
as enrollment in elementary and middle schools declines. Carol McGown, a first-grade
teacher at Magnolia's Mattie Lou Maxwell Elementary, said she is eager
to start on a single schedule in a few weeks. "When you can collaborate
with all the other teachers and everyone is on the same page, it is
a big benefit for the children," she said. But the change does
not mean that McGown's students, or those at Orange Unified, are free
to frolic until September. Like many districts throughout the state,
Magnolia and Orange Unified chose to keep their schools on a year-round
schedule, but without the hassle of multiple tracks. Instead of the typical
10-week summer break, school will start Aug. 9 for the Magnolia schools
and July 26 in Year-round supporters
said the evenly spaced vacations are better for students. "Kids
do forget some of what they've learned over the summer," said Harris
Cooper, director of the program in education at Summer's detrimental
effect is especially pronounced, educators said, at schools such as
Maxwell, where more than two-thirds of the students are English-learners
who often spend summer months speaking their native language. The monthlong winter
break in year-round schedules also can accommodate the traditional exodus
of Latino pupils to home countries over Christmas, while the short holiday
break on traditional calendars leads to absences and the loss of attendance-based
funding. The new schedule "is
the best of both worlds," said Maxwell Principal Kristin Lasher.
"Everyone is here at the same time … and we don't waste classroom
time reteaching what students have already learned." Year-round calendars,
proponents said, also allow more opportunities for teachers to help
struggling students without having to wait several months for summer
school. Year-round schools typically offer remedial classes and tutoring
during vacations. Joanna Zug, president
of the Magnolia PTA, said nearly all parents had embraced the decision
to stick with a year-round schedule at the elementary schools. "I think year-round
works best for everybody — teachers and students," Zug said. "There
is an element of momentum and routine. The schedule gives everyone a
nice rest, but then they're right back, and it is not such a huge deal
to gear the kids back up to go to school." Not everyone agrees.
Billee Bussard, who heads a national anti-year-round advocacy group,
Summer Matters, said she is skeptical about research on the disadvantages
of summer vacation. Summers, she said, give students the chance to pursue
extracurricular interests. "The long break
provides opportunities for learning that kids do not get in the classroom,"
she said. Indeed, nearly two-thirds
of the schools that dropped multitrack schedules this year opted to
return to a traditional calendar. Among districts that
favor the traditional school year is Los Angeles Unified — which has
by far the largest number of year-round students in Ronnie Ephraim, chief
instruction officer for the district, said the long summer break provides
a needed opportunity for students to repeat failed classes. But more
than anything, Ephraim said, echoing several other educators, the preference
for the old-style schedule comes from ingrained rites of summer, such
as camp, sports leagues and family vacations. "The whole community
prepares itself for the kids in the summer. They will just accept [the
traditional schedule] better," Ephraim said. "A lot of it
is habit." Though education officials
disagree over whether year-round schedules will ever become the norm,
one thing is certain: Few will miss the days of the multitrack. "No one ever chooses
a multitrack program for educational reasons," said Priscilla Wohlstetter,
director of the education governance program at USC. "Districts do it
out of necessity." Law's foes unable to stir change Fear of losing Alan J. Borsuk, You could think of the
money that Milwaukee Public Schools expects to receive in the coming
year under the federal No Child Left Behind Act as 76.8 million reasons
why vocal criticism of the law hasn't been converted into direct action.
As much as some educators
and politicians here and around the country complain about the law being
an underfunded federal mandate, the critics generally have pulled their
punches when it comes to doing anything about it. In some states, efforts
by legislators to withdraw from federal education programs have appeared
to be strong only to subside without major result. In large part, it appears
to be a case of money talking -- or at least causing critics in cash-strapped
school systems to tone down their complaints. A prime example: For
a year, officials of the National Education Association, the largest
teachers organization in the No school district has
contacted Lautenschlager to pursue the idea. States, districts reluctant
Bob Chernin, general
counsel of the education association, told The Associated Press recently,
"I would have thought they (states) would be jumping at this. We
have a solid legal theory. We're prepared to do all the work. We just
want to enlist them. But for a variety of reasons, we haven't been able
to push any state over the hump." For one thing, states
or school districts may be reluctant to take on federal officials. Patty Sullivan, deputy
executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, told
the AP, "Maintaining a good relationship with the federal government
that oversees your programs and suing them as the same time makes it
a very difficult proposition." Second, the legal theory
behind such a suit appears to be challenging to sustain. The U.S. Department
of Education disagrees strongly with the "underfunded mandate"
claim, saying something isn't a mandate if a school isn't really required
to do it -- which is, at least technically, the case with many of the
No Child Left Behind provisions. Finally, it may well
be that critics of the law are looking to the presidential election.
The education association endorsed Democratic candidate John Kerry at
its convention last week, and Kerry has pledged to increase federal
education spending substantially. In the meantime, school
systems, including MPS, believe they don't have much choice but to take
part in the federal programs because they need the money, even if their
participation isn't exactly mandated. In the case of MPS,
the federal money comes to about 7% of the annual budget. While that
may not sound like much, the money funds at least part of many of the
initiatives under way in Milwaukee, including training of principals
and teachers and such things as putting "literacy coaches"
on the staffs in almost all schools. The large majority of the money,
more than $60 million for next year, comes under what is called Title
1, which pays for an array of services for low-income students. Critics of the law argue
that it is being funded at levels billions of dollars below what Congress
agreed to when the education law was passed by overwhelming, bipartisan
majorities in 2001. That is an accurate statement. But it is also accurate
to say that spending is up substantially in recent years, as President
Bush often says in promoting his education record. The education department
says the Bush budget proposal for the next fiscal year calls for spending
of $57.3 billion, 36% more than was budgeted for education before Bush
became president in 2001. For Milwaukee, education
aid has increased from $46.8 million in 1998-'99 to the $76.8 million
expected for next year -- although changes in the law limit the usefulness
of the comparison. In addition, not all of the money goes to MPS itself
-- millions of dollars go to outside services and private schools that
qualify for some programs. A more direct comparison,
involving the three years of funding under the current law, shows that
aid to Milwaukee has increased from $71.4 million in 2002-'03 to next
year's figure of $5.4 million more. Supplemental services
That doesn't mean local
officials don't have problems with the money they are getting. Nationwide, even as
overall spending has gone up, more than half of school districts will
receive less federal money under Title 1 in the coming year than they
did in the past year, according to an analysis by the Center on Education
Policy, a Washington-based non- profit organization. In Milwaukee, a recent
report to the School Board by MPS administrators listed ways in which
flexibility in using federal funds has decreased, situations in which
local money has to be put up to administer programs that receive federal
aid, and other circumstances that cost MPS money that might otherwise
go into classrooms. In addition, $6.6 million of the federal aid to
But when presented with
a report on how much money MPS would get in the coming year under the
federal education law, members of a School Board committee -- some of
them strong critics of the way No Child Left Behind is playing out --
did not complain. In fact, there was no
discussion at all. Grading Mistakes Caused More Than 4,000 Would-Be Teachers
to Fail a Licensing Exam By KAREN W. ARENSON,
New York Times, Mistakes in the scoring
of an examination that 18 states use in licensing teachers caused more
than 4,000 people who should have passed it to fail instead, the Educational
Testing Service said yesterday. The errors may have prevented many from
getting full-time jobs as teachers in the last year. Robert A. Schaeffer,
public education director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing,
which looks skeptically on standardized testing, said the grading errors
were only the latest instance of quality-control problems in the industry
at a time when testing was growing sharply. "This particular
test is being used to determine who is a highly qualified teacher, which
is a requirement under the federal No Child Left Behind law," Mr.
Schaeffer said. "But there is no equivalent requirement that the
test makers be highly qualified. There is more public oversight of the
pet-food industry than there is for test makers." The errors are an embarrassment
for E.T.S. at a time when it is aggressively pursuing new business but
is also facing increased competition from other testing companies and
problems in its long collaboration with the College Board, which oversees
the SAT tests, taken by many students to get into college. The errors occurred
from January 2003 to April 2004. During that time, the test - the Praxis
Principles of Learning and Teaching for Grades 7 to 12, called the Praxis
P.L.T. 7-12 - was given eight times, to a total of about 40,000 people. The testing service
began notifying state education departments last Friday afternoon that
many of those scored as failing had in fact passed, and started calling
the candidates themselves on Saturday. It said it would reimburse
the candidates the $115 it cost each to take the test and would also
pay them for materials they used to prepare. The cost of test reimbursement
alone will be close to half a million dollars. Tom Ewing, a spokesman
for the Educational Testing Service, said that it had noticed lower
scores than usual on two administrations of the test, but that "we
thought there were valid explanations for why the scores were lower." "But when we investigated
further," Mr. Ewing said, "we discovered that the short-essay
questions were being graded more stringently than normal." Mr. Ewing said that
he did not know how many points were added once the tests were rescored,
but that when the process was finished, about 4,100 test takers had
moved from failing to passing. It is impossible to say how many of those
had been turned away from teaching jobs in the meantime. Among larger states
that use this Praxis exam are Besides calling state
officials and test takers, the testing service has a toll-free phone
line (800-205-2626) for more information. A recording at that number
yesterday said that the company was "very sorry that this has occurred"
and that it was "committed to addressing any concerns this issue
may raise for you." One person who heard
from the testing service on Saturday was Paul Perrea, a 44-year-old
electrical engineer in "I've had a good
career in computers, and I thought it was time to give back," Mr.
Perrea said. "I wanted to teach in inner-city Mr. Perrea said he was
a good test taker and had always had the kind of standardized-test scores
"that other people are envious of." So when he got his Praxis
scores in December, he was stunned to find that he had not met J. C. Benton, a spokesman
for the Ohio Department of Education, said his agency still viewed the
test as useful. "Certainly there
is a teacher shortage," Mr. Benton said. "But E.T.S. has been
upfront about contacting us about the error, and we look forward to
continuing to work with them." By Liz Nakazawa, Contributor
to The Christian Science Monitor, John Sirvaitis had lost
his chemistry textbook and needed the money before class to pay for
a new one. He didn't have cash, but breathed a sigh of relief when he
remembered his school had recently installed an automatic teller machine
(ATM). His high school in For schools, installing
an ATM can be a lucrative business. At Not all students, parents,
and school district personnel, however, approve of the ATMs. Some kids
feel that it encourages rampant consumerism. Molly Doyle, an editorial
writer at Oregon City High criticized her school's decision to install
the machine. "I don't think it belongs in a school setting,"
wrote Molly, saying that the machine is next to an area where snacks
and lattes are purchased. "We're here for an education, not for
buying things." In Some kids feel that
the machines - where transactions cost $1.50 each - are divisive. "There
are so many kids that aren't as rich as other kids and the ATM puts
barriers between us," says Rebecca Immel, a junior. "It separates
us into two groups: the people that get to use the ATM because they
have enough money from their parents, or a job, to open an account,
and the kids whose mom gives them just enough money for lunch." School board trustee
Carl Simpson, in the He has other concerns,
too. "I don't think we should be taking money from students' pockets." But at Brent Leong teaches
accounting at Oregon City High and argues that the ATM is also a learning
experience. Accounting students at the school run and manage the ATM,
and are able to learn about ATMs and financial institutions. He also
sees numerous other pluses. "Many activities, from wrestling camps
to basketball tournaments and school theatrical performances, happen
here and having an ATM has benefited those who have needed money and
did not want to leave the campus to get cash," says Mr. Leong. Four of six high schools
in the When Gresham High initially
considered the machines, the staff had questions about vandalism. "Nobody
knew what to expect," says Daryl Grove of GoodVantage Resources,
who sold the machine to Gresham High. "But so far there haven't
been any reports of vandalism." He says it helps that
the machine is in full view of a security camera and is bolted to the
concrete floor. Despite concerns about
vandalism, consumerism, and divisions between students, most students
and staff are positive about the ATMs. "And," says Little,
"far fewer students need to borrow money from me." Specialty schools open new doors to students By PATTI GHEZZI, The
Just weeks before Ashleigh
Forte was to start fifth grade two years ago, a knock at the door of
her Suttiwan Cox, a former
"I thought, 'Why
is she coming to my house and why does she want me to come to her school?'
" recalled Ashleigh, now going into seventh grade. By the end of Cox's
hourlong visit, Ashleigh and her mother had heard answers they liked,
and Ashleigh was on her way to enrolling at KIPP: Today, Ashleigh is an
example of how Denise Forte had wanted
her daughter to be challenged, and she worried that the teachers at
Still, Forte was anxious:
"To take Ashleigh from an established school and give her to this
lady who knocks on my door with an idea . . . it caused a lot of sleepless
nights." Today, Forte credits
the charter school with teaching Ashleigh to solve problems and instilling
in her a love of learning. A charter school is
funded with tax dollars, but it operates separately from the district's
central office and is held accountable through terms spelled out in
a charter. The philosophy: Give the reins to willing parents, educators
and other professionals and let them try to run a school with appropriate
oversight. Parents may choose the charter school over a traditional
public school, creating competition and spurring improvement in noncharter
schools. Slow start-up The Yet Six years after Those interested in
starting charter schools have found resistance from local school boards
and difficulty coming up with enough money to supplement tax dollars,
which do not cover the cost of the school building. Also, leaders at
some traditional public schools have reacted defensively to the competition. Some start-up charter
schools didn't make it. Last spring, Fulton County Charter High School
of Mathematics and Science shut down because of financial problems.
In 2002, Cox understands parents'
anxiety. "With charter schools,
you must have faith," she said. Cox's school has faced
obstacles, including high teacher turnover. Some teachers couldn't handle
the long hours, Cox said. Her school is open from Students and teachers
also must attend two weeks of full-day summer school. In January, Cox cut
ties with KIPP, the national nonprofit Knowledge Is Power Program that
trained her to run a charter school. Neither side will comment on the
split, citing a confidentiality agreement. Cox's school, located next
to 'Decent growth' Forte watched the teacher
turnover and other bumps with concern, but she didn't pull her daughter
out. "Ashleigh has blossomed into an independent young lady,"
she said. "You give her a problem and she's very resourceful as
far as getting the information." Metro Phil Andrews, executive
director of the Georgia Charter School Association, said he's seeing
"decent growth" with start-up charters. The Seeking simplicity Some potential organizers
give up because the funding process is so convoluted. "If we could simplify
how charter schools are funded, it would make it more fair not just
for the charter schools but for the school systems," he said. Interpretation of the
charter school law has varied from one district to another, creating
inconsistency in how they are funded. Every morning, Denise Forte is still
anxious about Ashleigh's education. Ashleigh's high test
scores qualify her for a middle school magnet program, which would guarantee
her a slot in Forte said she doesn't
want to make a mistake in choosing the right school for her only child. "I don't want to
look back and say that I made the wrong choice," she said. "Then
it would be my fault." Teacher's aides filling growing gap By Greg Toppo, LINTHICUM, Md. — Gather
a group of teacher's aides together and ask if they've ever had to take
over a classroom. Then stand back. One had to fill in for
an ill colleague for six weeks. Another for six months. One for most
of a year. With little or no training,
they say, they're often responsible for teaching poor, troubled or disabled
kids and communicating with parents who often speak little English. As academic demands
arise for kids as early as kindergarten, so do the stakes for teacher's
aides, now commonly called "paraeducators," or "paras"
for short. "The paras are
not here to babysit," says Sheila Walker, a paraeducator at President Bush's No
Child Left Behind education reform law raised the bar for paras, who
historically have been moms with part-time jobs at school. By 2006,
the law says, most paras must have either an associate's degree, 30
hours of college credit or proof that they've passed a state assessment
in basic teaching and academic skills. Critics say it's unfair
to demand that workers who earn as little as $12,000 a year pay for
college. So districts and unions are training paras themselves. The 1.3-million-member
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has been doing it for 21 years,
and the 2.7-million-member National Education Association (NEA) has
been funding similar training for four years. But now it's taking on
a new urgency, officials say. "They've been a
very underserved group of people who are important in the functioning
of the school," says AFT's Diane Airhart. In a week-long session
here last month, paras got intensive training in one of five areas:
math, reading, student discipline, parental involvement or foundations
of teaching. Participants will return to their school districts to train
others. The training is essential,
participants say. Many "are weaker in math than some of their kids,"
says B.C. Kindred, a para at The week's classes are
grounded in educational theory, but they also stress hands-on skills.
In the math session,
paras learn, for instance, how to help kids add two difficult-to-add
numbers, such as 49+27, in their heads: 1) Add 1 to 49. 2) Subtract 1 from 27. 3) 50+26=76. Since many paras have
children in school, they usually live in the neighborhood and know families
well — often better than teachers do. They get more face time with parents,
whether greeting them at the bus stop, translating at parent-teacher
conferences or calling home when a child is ill. "You're there when
the teachers are not there," Both unions see paras
as an important new source of membership — and revenue. "Support
staff" is the fastest-growing group of active members, which also
includes "education support professionals" (ESPs), which includes
nurses, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians and technical support. And as more baby-boomer
teachers retire, officials say, they'll rely more on ESPs as new members. But since dues are based
on salary, ESPs pay about 56% of what teachers pay. (NEA says the average
teacher earns $46,758, ESPs $25,116.) Raising salaries likely
will be a tough fight. Most districts automatically give teachers raises
for a master's degree or other college coursework, but not to paras. "If the law is
demanding more rigorous (preparation), there should be compensation,"
says Karen Mahurin, president of the National Council for Education
Support Professionals, an NEA advocacy group. "For the majority
of our ESPs, that does not happen." States Dicker Over Changes to AYP Plans By Lynn Olson, Education
Week, Just weeks before states
release their lists of schools that have not met "adequate yearly
progress" targets under the main federal K-12 law, many states
are still negotiating with federal officials over changes to their accountability
plans designed to reduce those numbers. But whether the proposed
changes are common-sense measures that would better and more reliably
identify needy schools or attempts to duck accountability is largely
in the eye of the beholder. Moreover, the sheer volume of last-minute
revisions could make it harder to tell if schools have really improved,
or if the rules of the game have simply changed. "It is going to
be important to watch this process very carefully," said Ross Wiener,
the policy director for the Education Trust, a nonprofit group in Raymond Simon, the assistant
secretary for elementary and secondary education in the U.S. Department
of Education, said in an interview last week: "I have to believe
that any state’s requests for amendments are done for the purpose of
making a plan better and more defensible. I don’t see any state trying
to avoid accountability." He said the department
had denied some requests either because they could not be accommodated
under the law or because states had not provided the data to support
their proposals. The federal No Child
Left Behind Act, a 2½-year-old revision of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, requires states to determine whether schools and districts
have made adequate yearly progress. AYP is based on whether they have
met annual performance targets and tested at least 95 percent of both
their overall student enrollments and individual groups of children
who are poor, speak limited English, come from racial- or ethnic-minority
backgrounds, or have disabilities. Education Department
officials promised that if states submitted requests to change their
accountability plans by April 1, the agency would get back to them within
30 days, in time to make those changes based on 2003-04 test results.
But while department officials have been in constant contact with states,
by late last week they had given final, written approval to only 20
of the approximately 45 that submitted requests by April. "We’re certainly
aware that they need to make those decisions pretty quick, and that’s
why we’re struggling very hard to get some final answers out,"
said Mr. Simon. "We want to be sure, before we release any information
for any state, … that we have everybody on board and feel good about
it." The most common amendments
sought by states, and approved by federal officials, take advantage
of expanded flexibility announced earlier this year on calculating test-
participation rates and including students with disabilities or limited
English proficiency in AYP decisions. (The proposed rule changes for
LEP students were published in the June 24 Federal Register.) In addition, many states
requested changes in the statistics they use to calculate adequate progress.
More than a half-dozen states, for example, have asked to raise the
minimum number of special education or LEP students who must be tested
before those groups count in determining whether a school has met its
performance targets. Such changes were denounced
last week by advocates for special education and LEP students, who fear
that many schools will escape accountability for teaching those youngsters. "I think it sends
a big, wrong message," said Martha L. Thurlow, the director of
the Last year, for example,
65 schools in Les Morse, the director
of assessment and accountability for the Mr. Morse said the measure
would give schools time to put more programs in place for those children.
"We don’t want to let those schools off the hook," he said,
noting that the state will closely examine the data and perhaps revisit
its decision in 2007. Federal officials, meanwhile,
rejected a request by "I don’t think
we actually expected that one to be approved," said Kim Karesh,
the communications director for the Sizable Shift? Schools and districts
that do not meet their annual performance targets can still make AYP
under a provision known as "safe harbor." But to do so, the
percent of students who score below the "proficient" level
on state tests must drop by 10 percent from the previous year. That’s
often a substantial difference for schools or subgroups that start well
below state targets. At least five states
have received approval to give schools more leeway in meeting the safe-harbor
requirements by adding a 75 percent "confidence interval"
within which their performance could fall and still meet the safe-harbor
provisions. Sheila Barron, an assistant
professor of education at the That’s because the confidence
band can be so wide, particularly for small schools or subgroups, that
schools could meet the safe-harbor requirements even if they showed
little, if any, improvement. While such a gradual
rate of improvement may be a more reasonable expectation, Ms. Barron
said, it does not coincide with the law’s goal that all students will
be proficient by 2013-14. Federal officials said they plan to review
state data annually to see what effect the confidence interval is having
on safe-harbor decisions. Observers also note
that most of the proposed changes mean that larger, more diverse schools
and districts—such as those in urban areas—will continue to be subject
to the law’s more stringent accountability provisions, while smaller,
more homogeneous ones will not. "If that’s what
people want, they ought to say it," said Brian Gong, the associate
director of the Center for Assessment, a nonprofit research and consulting
group based in Dover, N.H. "But it doesn’t fit very well for probably
60 percent of the schools in this nation, which are in rural or suburban
or small districts." District Flexibility A number of states also
are asking for more flexibility in determining whether districts make
adequate progress. Without such leeway, they say, all or almost all
their districts will end up identified as needing improvement. "The problem is
we’ve got 24 districts and they’re all huge," said Ronald A. Peiffer,
the deputy state superintendent for academic policy in In But federal officials
did approve another change: More than a dozen states
also want to make it easier for schools to meet the "other academic
indicator" required to make adequate progress—graduation rates
for high schools—either by using a confidence interval or by giving
schools credit for making progress from the previous year, even if they
have not met an absolute target. Ellen Forte-Fast, a
Washington-based consultant who is analyzing the accountability plans
for the CCSSO, said states want to cut the number of schools and districts
identified for improvement because of legitimate concerns that they
won’t be able to help them all. But, she said, it’s not clear whether
the proposed changes will improve states’ ability to identify the schools
and districts most in need of help. States, agreed Mr. Gong
of the Center for Assessment, "are afraid of overidentifying schools
that shouldn’t be identified. But many of the things they’re doing are
taking schools off the radar screen; they’re not paying as much attention
to that." Still others question
whether federal and state efforts to soften the edges of various requirements
of the law address the more fundamental issue: whether the law’s targets
are realistic. "People are becoming
increasingly desperate when faced with untenable demands for improvements
in performance," Daniel M. Koretz, a professor of education at
Harvard University, said at the CCSSO’s annual conference on large-scale
assessment, held in Boston last month. "The fundamental issue is
not how states should respond to this. It’s whether we should be doing
this." New law to alter under-5 schooling By Lynda Arakawa, Beginning in 2006, children
who turn 5 after Aug. 1 will attend a junior kindergarten for a year
before entering regular kindergarten, under a bill Gov. Linda Lingle
signed into law yesterday. The new law allows for
some flexibility to move the children into whichever level is most appropriate
and allows children to be promoted directly from junior kindergarten
to the first grade. Supporters of the bill have pointed to recent studies
that show younger students in kindergarten classes are more likely to
have discipline problems and need remedial services because they lag
behind their older classmates developmentally. Currently, children
who turn 5 by Dec. 31 are allowed to enter kindergarten. Liz Chun, executive
director of Good Beginnings Alliance, said children who don't receive
early childhood education can start school up to two years behind and
often never catch up. She called the additional year in junior kindergarten
"a gift of time. "Changing the kindergarten
age is the first step to addressing the educational needs of our young
children," she said. "It provides Lingle also signed a
bill that revises the Democrats' education reform package passed this
year, but she promised to push for more changes next year. "The bill wasn't
what we had hoped to achieve in this session, but it does bring about
certain improvements," Lingle said. Under the new law, schools
in the 2006-07 academic year will be financed by a weighted student
formula that bases spending on student need, with priorities for low-income
or special-education students, instead of enrollment. The intent is
to steer money to students who need the most attention. Other changes under
the law include giving principals control of 70 percent of school operating
budgets, up from about 15 percent today. Schools will also have
elected school community councils in the 2005-06 year, comprising the
principal, teachers, school staff, students, parents and other community
representatives. Principals would have the power to draft a school's
budget and curriculum — with the councils able to offer revisions —
before the plans are sent to complex-area superintendents. Lingle, who has pushed
for locally elected school boards, said she wanted the new weighted
student formula to begin a year earlier and for principals to control
90 percent of their school budgets. Study: States progressing with new school law AP, Most states have met
or are at least on the way to meeting 75 percent of the major requirements
of the No Child Left Behind law, according to the nonpartisan Education
Commission of the States. That level of compliance has more than doubled
over the last year. Every state and the
But not a single state
is on pace to fulfill the law's requirement of having a measurable way
to ensure a highly qualified teacher will be in every core academic
class in 2005-06. Overall, the states
are doing well in areas of testing students and measuring yearly progress,
but they're struggling with requirements designed to improve the teaching
corps. "The hardest work
is yet to come," said Kathy Christie, vice president of the ECS
Clearinghouse, the commission's research and information arm. "The
toughest thing in all of this is going to be getting better at actually
raising student achievement." The 2001 law requires
expanded standardized testing, more information and choices for parents,
and public reporting of progress for every demographic group so the
scores of struggling students aren't masked by school averages. Schools
that get federal poverty aid but don't make enough yearly progress get
help but also face mounting sanctions. ECS, a Denver-based
group that advises state leaders, graded states on 40 elements of the
law, from how well parents get information to how well struggling schools
get help. The determination of
whether a state is on track varies by topic. Some changes under the
law were supposed to have happened already, while some have deadlines
in coming years. Among the findings: - 98 percent of states
are on track to define what a "persistently dangerous" school
means, a designation that allows students in such schools to transfer.
But many states are revamping their definitions after criticisms that
their standards were far too low. - 92 percent are on
track to publicly report achievement data for all major groups of students,
such as minority, poor, disabled and limited-English students. - 65 percent are on
track to set clear, substantial expectations for students so that all
of them are at grade level in reading and math no later than 2013-14. - 53 percent are on
track to identify which schools are in need of improvement before the
next school year begins so that parents have time to understand their
options. - 45 percent are on
track to provide the promised "scientifically based" help
to schools that have been targeted for improvement or more serious corrective
action. - 22 percent are on
track to make new and current elementary, middle and secondary teachers
of core subjects demonstrate that they are competent in their subjects. In perspective, Christie
said, the effort by the states is encouraging. Not since the 1970s,
when the government passed landmark acts to help disabled children and
prevent sexual discrimination, have states gotten so active in response
to a federal law, the report says. State progress is also
clear in the way the debate is shifting, said Ray Simon, assistant secretary
of elementary and secondary education. School leaders are focusing less
on forms and funding and more on getting students up to grade level,
he said. The report's recommendations
include redefining how progress is measured so schools and districts
can track the success of the same students over time, not just different
students each year. ECS also calls for states to get rid of systems
that allow veteran teachers to be deemed highly qualified under standards
that aren't rigorous. Perfect schools just 10 years away By Jac Wilder VerSteeg,
There are at least two
ways George W. Bush still could be president in 2014. 1) He loses in 2004,
sits out 2008 but wins when he tries again in 2012. Such a split term
would be unusual, but it's happened once before. Grover 2) After a coup, George
W. Bush becomes President For Life. (Note to Michael Moore: If that
happens, you might want to move in with Osama bin Laden.) In some ways, it will
be a shame if Mr. Bush isn't still president in 2014, because that year
is shaping up as a moment of educational nirvana. That is the year when
No Child Left Behind comes to fruition. Most people might not be aware
of it, but No Child Left Behind means what it says. No Child. Every
child must be able to read and do math on grade level. Not now, of course.
It's OK now to leave children behind for the time being. Can't expect
to have every child with the program right away. But that slack is temporary. I quote from the Florida
NCLB Accountability Workbook: The Department of Education "has
prepared a schedule for improvements in academic achievement in reading/language
arts and mathematics that begins with the 'starting point' and concludes
with 100% of the students being 'Proficient or Above' at the end of
the 2013-14 academic year." All the other states
have similar provisions. They can mess around or dither, but the game's
up at the end of the 2013-2014 academic year. Unless there's some
state version of Option 2 above, Jeb Bush won't be But if every state can
have different standards, doesn't that mean some will have higher standards
than others, that kids considered to be with the program in some states
will be deemed "left behind" in others? That's actually a
strength, if you believe Education Secretary Rod Paige, who explained
Tuesday in Roll those two concepts
around in your brain for a minute. Stronger accountability. No national
standards. Stronger accountability. No national standards. Except one.
Whatever happens in the states has to happen by 2014. What's magical
about 2014? For one thing, most people responsible for setting the deadline
for educational perfection won't be around to live with the consequences.
It is amazing how often politicians and bureaucrats set idealistic goals
that somebody else will have to achieve and/or pay for. And what about that
100 percent goal? Is there anybody anywhere who really thinks that 100
percent of children ever will be able to read and calculate on grade
level? When I was in seventh grade, there was a guy named Boo-Boo who
was promoted to eighth grade only because the science teacher accidentally
knocked out one of his front teeth with a broken fishing rod. It wouldn't
have happened except the guy sitting in front of Boo-Boo ducked when
the teacher swung at him with the rod. (That's how we enforced discipline
in the rural South where I grew up.) Boo-Boo didn't have the sense to
duck. If the Boo-Boos of the world can't duck on grade level, how are
they going to read and do sums on grade level? Some states, as implicitly
allowed by the no-national-standards law, simply will dumb down their
grade-level expectations so that even toothless Boo-Boo can handle them. Gov. Bush has pioneered
a different way. In How school reform is altering classrooms New data on the No Child
Left Behind act reveals better record-keeping but a shortage of qualified
teachers. By Gail Russell Chaddock,
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor. 7/15/04 WASHINGTON – Despite
a tide of resistance in school districts all over the country, federal
education reforms now in their third year are beginning to do what few
such efforts ever achieve: change what goes on in American classrooms.
For the first time in
But the report also
concludes that few states are on track for ensuring a qualified teacher
in every classroom. Fewer than half of states, for instance, are providing
high-quality help to failing schools. And many states don't have systems
to collect the massive amount of data required to meet the new law's
standards. More than 20 states
have asked for relief from the new law, which has become the butt of
jokes on late-night television and the leading teachers' union website.
Backers say it's a sign that the new law is taking hold. "I'm glad that
there is consternation with it," says Sandy Cress, senior adviser
to President Bush on education and a consultant with school districts
on NCLB. "It means that people are wrestling with it. Like Job
wrestling with the angel, there's good at the end of it." Teachers in "We called it 'CSAT
shock,' " says school superintendent Joyce Bales of But the poor results
on the 1997 program - a precursor to the NCLB Act - spurred "I fully support
No Child Left Behind," says Ms. Bales, who calls her district "the
most data-driven district in the state." In a recent study of Bales and other educators
across the nation don't want to give NCLB all the credit for this. But the potential sanctions
in the new law, including loss of federal funding, have become an incentive
to do more. Educators are calling
this new push for achievement a new civil right for the 21st century.
The battles of the latter half of the 20th century, they say, were over
access to public schools - especially for minority students. The battle
of the 21st century will be to make sure that all students achieve in
public schools. It's a goal that has
created unlikely political partnerships. President Bush and Sen. Edward
Kennedy (D) of Meanwhile, many conservatives
who once campaigned on ending a federal role in education now back the
most muscular Department of Education ever, in the hope that it will
lead to greater school choice. "To many, NCLB
embodies the nation's recognition of and commitment to two imperatives,
one moral and the other economic; namely, that education is a civil
right, and that a high-quality, high-performing education system is
vital to maintaining The report, produced
by a 50-state education consortium but funded by a $2 million grant
from the US Education Department, urges One of the surprises
of the new act has been its impact on suburban districts. Bolstered
by above-average aggregate test scores, these schools had been viewed
as doing a good job, until disaggregated results revealed weaknesses. "Suburban school
districts ... didn't expect to have schools on watch lists," says
Jack Jennings, director of the Center on Education Policy in African-American parents
in "NCLB has uncovered
data that had been previously buried in our district and other districts
as well," says Linda Heller, a member of Concerned Black Parents,
a new local advocacy group that is using NCLB data to lobby for more
help for low-performing students. One result: Special programs this
summer to build skills for children who are below proficiency. Progress is still "frustratingly
slow," she says. "But now the information is so public it's
impossible to look the other way." Associated Press, Washington - Most states
have met or are at least on the way to meeting 75 percent of the major
requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, according to the nonpartisan
Education Commission of the States. The level of compliance has more
than doubled over the last year. Every state and the
But no state is on pace
to fulfill another requirement of the law: having a measurable way to
ensure that a highly qualified teacher will be in every core academic
class in 2005-06. Overall, the states
are doing well in areas of testing students and measuring yearly progress,
but they're struggling with requirements designed to improve the teaching
corps. "The hardest work
is yet to come," said Kathy Christie, vice president of the ECS
Clearinghouse, the commission's research and information arm. "The
toughest thing in all of this is going to be getting better at actually
raising student achievement." The 2001 law requires
expanded standardized testing, more information and choices for parents,
and public reporting of progress for every demographic group so the
scores of struggling students aren't masked by school averages. Schools
that get federal poverty aid but don't make enough yearly progress get
help but also face mounting sanctions. ECS, a Denver-based
group that advises state leaders, graded states on 40 elements of the
law, from how well parents get information to how well struggling schools
get help. The law has become a
campaign issue. President Bush made the law his first domestic priority
and won overwhelming support for it but has since seen opposition grow.
Teachers say $45,771 isn't enough pay BY BEN FELLER, AP, The typical teacher's
salary went up 3.3 percent in 2002-03, the last year for which figures
are available, according to an annual report by the American Federation
of Teachers. The 1.3-million member union gets its financial data from
state education departments. The pay range varies
significantly by state, accounting for differences in cost of living
and the way salary packages are set up. Concerns about competitive
pay often are raised by business and government leaders as well as teachers.
Salaries are seen as a chief reason that schools struggle to recruit
and retain top educators in math, science and other fields. For the second straight
year, union leaders say, double-digit increases in health insurance
expenses eroded teachers' ability to make a living. Teachers, like many
workers, are being told to pay more for standard insurance, doctor's
visits and prescription drugs. Given those increases
and other out-of-pocket expenses, ''compensation packages are nothing
short of insulting,'' said Edward McElroy, the union's secretary-treasurer.
The union is helping many districts review health expenses to reduce
costs without weakening care. The actual pay increase
last year for teachers was closer to 2.5 percent, said Jewell Gould,
director of research for the union. The higher figure of
3.3 percent reflects that there were more senior teachers moving to
the top of the pay scale -- driving up the average salary -- while fewer
new teachers were hired during a lean economic time, he said. New teachers were paid
an average of $29,564 last year, an increase of 3.2 percent. Twenty
states and the Salaries are usually
based on a teacher's education and seniority. The union also took
a shot at the salaries paid to superintendents, the top officials at
the school district level. The union says some superintendents make
as much as four times the amount that teachers do. Bruce Hunter, lobbyist
for the American Association of School Administrators, said that comparison
is unfair. Superintendents have
much different duties from teachers and have longer work years, he said.
Administrators' pay varies significantly, with many rural superintendents
getting around $50,000 a year and big city leaders getting much more. ''Superintendents get
whatever the school boards think leadership is worth,'' he said, adding:
''We all wished teachers were paid commensurate with their responsibility
and value.'' AP First lady applauds impact of No Child Left Behind law Ability to read the
'new civil right,' she says By DIANE LONG, Tennessean
Staff Writer, 7/16/04 The nation's No Child
Left Behind law got a solid endorsement from first lady Laura Bush and
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige yesterday at the national conference
of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in In back-to-back speeches,
both credited the 2001 federal education law championed by President
Bush with improving education, although the law has been a flash point
for educational debate. ''Through the No Child
Left Behind Act, historic levels of funding have been combined with
unprecedented commitment to using proven methods of instruction,'' Laura
Bush said. ''We see the impact that education reform is having in our
classrooms.'' Calling the ability
to read the ''new civil right,'' she championed the NCLB premise that
all children must be proficient in reading, math and science and must
graduate from high school. ''Teaching our children
to read is the most critical educational priority facing our country,''
the first lady said. ''It's unconscionable to leave any child behind,
especially when we know that every child can learn.'' Paige drew on his African-American
heritage to include the 10,000 minority sorority sisters in the audience. ''African-Americans
have a proud history in education,'' Paige said. ''We were told by our
foremothers and forefathers that education was emancipation, that education
was freedom itself. Now, we need to continue to live those values.'' NCLB is the best way
to close the achievement gap between white, middle-class children and
those with a different ''ZIP code, income or accent,'' he said. ''This is a law that's
designed to close the achievement gap,'' Paige said. ''It is a civil
rights manifesto. It is a promise that no child will be ignored, and
no child will be left behind. I know that you want our education program
to improve as much as anyone. So we solicit your help.'' Education, health of children improve But poverty rises, government
finds By Siobhan McDonough,
Associated Press, July 16, 2004 WASHINGTON -- The family
life, education and health of The report, to be released
Friday by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics,
finds that children are doing better, for the most part. The teenage
birthrate is down, young people are less likely to be involved in violent
crimes and the death rate has declined. Still, children are
more likely to be overweight nowadays and child poverty has inched up
after several years of decline, according to the report, which draws
together findings from many federal agencies. The teenage birthrate--steadily
declining since 1991--hit a record low in 2002. Teenagers who give birth
are less likely to finish high school or to graduate from college than
other girls their age, said Duane Alexander, director of the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes
of Health. Also, infants born to
teenage mothers are more likely to be of low birth weight, which increases
their chances of blindness, deafness, mental retardation, mental illness
and cerebral palsy. In school, more children
are taking advanced courses and studying a second language. At home,
more parents are reading to their children. "We know that education
is key," Education Secretary Rod Paige said. The report pointed to
progress in the area of crime. Young people were less likely to be victimized
in a serious violent crime--murder, rape, robbery or aggravated assault--or
to commit one. In 2002, there were 11 serious violent crimes per 1,000
people age 12 to 17, down from 15 per 1,000 youths in 2001, the report
said. Child mortality declined
too. In 2000, there were 18 deaths for every 100,000 children age 5
to 14; a year later, there were 17 deaths for every 100,000 children
in this age group. The infant mortality
rate increased slightly. Seven of every 1,000 infants died before their
first birthday in 2002, compared with a record low of 6.8 per 1,000
in 2001. Most of the increase in deaths occurred among infants younger
than 28 days. The number of overweight
children increased to 16 percent between 1999 and 2000, compared with
11 percent in the early 1990s and 6 percent in the late 1970s. That development "jeopardizes
our children's future, making them vulnerable to chronic conditions
such as diabetes and hypertension previously associated more with adults
than with children," said Edward Sondik, director of the Centers
for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics. The report said Mexican-American
boys were at the highest risk, with 27 percent overweight, followed
by black, non-Hispanic girls at 23 percent. The child obesity issue
is a major cause for concern, Alexander said. "This is a trend
that's been at work since 1980 ... and as a trend, it shows no sign
of reversing." Child poverty also grew,
reaching 11.6 million in 2002, compared with 11.2 million a year earlier. Looking just at "related
children"--those related to the head of the household by birth,
marriage or adoption--this rate rose from 15.8 percent in 2001 to 16.3
percent in 2002, the report said. Although this was the first significant
annual increase in the poverty rate for related children since 1991,
this increase followed a period of decline from a recent peak of 22
percent in 1993. Children living with
single females continued to experience a higher poverty rate in 2002
than their counterparts in married-couple families--40 percent compared
with 9 percent. In 2002, 73 million
children under 18 lived in the Western Schools Get Reprieve on Standards By JULIA SILVERMAN,
Associated Press Writer, 7/16/04 ADEL, But in the South, there
was confusion. Although the region is home to hundreds of the country's
most rural and poor areas, few schools there were granted the same reprieve. "There are a lot
of people that are very frustrated, that for reasons that are arbitrary,
their schools are not qualified," said Robin Lambert, a Kentucky-based
researcher for the Rural Education and Community Trust, a nonprofit
that studies rural issues. "There are schools that are small, isolated
and poor, but they don't qualify." Under federal requirements,
all teachers must be "highly qualified" in every subject they
teach, with a bachelor's degree or state certification in the topic. The mandates are part
of No Child Left Behind law, a centerpiece of the Bush administration's
education policy. Small school districts
in the rural West and In March, it was announced
that rural teachers would be allowed an extra year to prove that they
met the "highly qualified" threshold, until 2007. New teachers
would get three years from the date of their hire. But outside the West
and the That's because the federal
government used criteria favoring small, self-contained districts like
those in the West, instead of countywide districts like those in the
South. Collectively, that makes
districts throughout the South too large to get the break extended to
rural teachers, which the federal government made available only to
schools that are enrolled in the Small Rural School Achievement program. That program - which
gives extra money to districts with fewer than 600 students, in communities
with fewer than 2,500 people - serves about 5,000 schools, mostly in
the West and the The upshot is that while
440 districts in Janice Poda, who directs
teacher quality for "It has kind of
become a joke," she said. Doug Mesecar, deputy
chief of staff for policy at the Education Department, said the agency
set its criteria after meeting with educators in all 50 states. At those
meetings, he said the changes seemed particularly pressing for districts
that were extremely isolated, with big cities three or more hours away. "It is those districts
that are particularly impacted by trying to get teachers qualified in
multiple subjects," he said. "If we just said flexibility
was available to anyone without parameters, it would be changing things
dramatically." But in a recent interview,
Ray Simon, the assistant secretary for secondary and elementary education,
said the criteria were being re-examined. And Mesecar said, "If
we have requests to look at providing this flexibility for a slightly
larger district, we would be open to considering that, as long as it's
not flexibility for its own sake, but flexibility where it is needed." The change has been
good news for Larry Ferguson, who teaches four subjects to five different
grades at the tiny Adel middle school in south-central "You've got the
same kids for five years, so you can't repeat anything - you've got
to come up with new stuff," State bumps two schools in By SARAH CARR, In an unprecedented
move, the state Department of Public Instruction used newly acquired
powers over school choice to expel two schools from the Department officials
sent letters to leaders of Mandella School of Science and Math and Alex's
Academics of Excellence notifying them that they cannot participate
in the program during the coming school year. The decision marks what
appears to be the closing chapter in the stories of two of Mandella was ordered
closed by a judge in February, and earlier this month, the district
attorney's office charged its founder, David A. Seppeh, with stealing
about $330,000 from the state. Leaders of Alex's say
they kept the school open throughout the year, even though they received
no voucher payments. The choice program allows low-income parents to
send their children to private schools using state tuition vouchers. A lawyer for Seppeh
did not return phone calls on Wednesday, and James Mitchell, founder
of Alex's Academics, could not be reached for comment. However, during
an interview earlier this month, Mitchell said he used his own money
to keep the school open throughout the school year and felt persecuted
by the both the DPI and the media. "We have done everything
that has been required of us at the school," Mitchell said. DPI uses new clout Officials at the DPI
said they used new policing powers over the voucher program to crack
down on Mandella and Alex's. Partly in response to the situation at
the two schools, the DPI worked with others to push legislation through
this winter that requires voucher schools to follow more detailed and
extensive financial requirements. The new rules also allow
the DPI to end a school's participation in the program if conditions
"present an imminent threat to the health and safety of pupils." "The state superintendent
has long called for increased accountability in the choice program,"
said DPI Spokesman Joe Donovan. "We believe taxpayers and parents
should have the same kind of accountability measures that are in place
for public schools." Throughout the winter,
DPI officials maintained that they could not expel Mandella and Alex's
without the new accountability rules, although some voucher advocates
argued that DPI officials were not as powerless as they claimed. In the case of Mandella,
the DPI cited provisions in the new rules that allow the state superintendent
to expel schools that owe the state money. Mandella owes about $330,000
for checks school officials have acknowledged they should not have cashed. In the case of Alex's,
the DPI alleges that the school failed to follow certain financial reporting
requirements. Schools can appeal their
expulsion in circuit court. On Monday, state Superintendent
Elizabeth Burmaster also sent letters to parents of students listed
on the rolls of Mandella and Alex's, advising them of their options. About the schools Alex's has made the
news since it first opened a few years ago. Mitchell, the founder,
is a convicted rapist. He said he did not work at the school throughout
the spring. The school has been investigated by the district attorney
and evicted in the past. Former employees said they witnessed illegal
drug use on school grounds. In an interview two
weeks ago, Mitchell said he strove to keep the school open even without
the voucher money. "We used our own
money, our own savings," he said. "We pawned things, took
out mortgages, stuff like that. Every day we transported these students
. . . and provided them with learning materials and food." Mitchell maintained
that the school was open and accessible to outsiders, although two reporters
who tried to visit in September were physically threatened. "It is all political,"
Mitchell said. "We don't get into that. Our objective is to teach
the children." Mandella, which was
open for a year and a half, made news in December when employees complained
that they had not been paid. Over the next two months, the Journal Sentinel
found that school officials sent in voucher applications for families
that did not realize the school would be applying for money on their
behalf. Seppeh, the principal, used proceeds from state voucher payments
to buy two Mercedes cars. When a reporter visited
the school in February, teachers and formal lesson plans were both in
short supply. Seppeh has consistently
maintained that he earned the Mercedes through time and money he invested
in the school. When contacted about the district attorney's theft charge
two weeks ago, Seppeh said: "I didn't steal. Why did they give
me the money? Can you answer that?" Advocates react Stan Johnson, the president
of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state teachers union,
said "the public should be outraged that these abuses continued
for as long as they did." "There may be other
abuses," he said in a statement. "But we do not know about
them because the schools are not accountable to the public." Brother Bob Smith, the
voucher advocate who was recently appointed to head the Milwaukee Archdiocese's
education efforts, said while he suspects the decision to close the
two schools was justified, he still questions whether the DPI should
be able to do so. "As long as (the
DPI) remains silent and other people are sitting back bashing the program,
it is not honest," Smith said. "I am not going to war with
them, but I'm not going to turn my back on them, either." "I do have a fight
with poor people not having alternatives," he said. "Because
I know what happens when there is no hope." Teacher assault reports rise 20% The Phila. By Susan Snyder, Inquirer
Staff Writer, 7/15/04 Two years after the
Educators reported more
than 1,120 assaults during the 2003-04 school year, ranging from a push
by a kindergartner to teachers being pummeled. About a third of the
incidents were listed as nonviolent and did not result in injury or
arrest. "There have been
times when teachers have had to literally cover themselves up, because
they were being beaten with fists," said Richard L. Smith, an English
teacher and union leader at Olney High School, which reported 23 assaults
- the third highest of the district's 264 schools. The district's crackdown
on misbehavior inevitably led to more conflicts between students and
adults, driving up assault rates, said Paul Vallas, district chief executive
officer. Teachers also increasingly have been encouraged to report assaults,
he said. At the same time, other
measures of school safety have improved, Vallas said. Assaults on students,
fires, and morals offenses, such as indecent exposure and indecent assault,
are all down. And while weapons confiscated
in and around schools rose about 20 percent, Vallas attributed virtually
all of that increase to new hand-held metal detectors at the elementary
schools and the start of weapons sweeps at middle schools. Despite the divergent
statistics, Vallas said the latest crime report shows overall that the
get-tough approach started in September 2002 is working. But others, while acknowledging
improvement since Vallas took over, aren't so sure. Some say the district
is too tough; others say it's not tough enough. "The teachers that
I've spoken to, many of them say there has been no change in the order
in the classroom and the level of violence in school," said Harvey
Rice, the state's safe-schools advocate, who helps victims of school
violence in Rice also maintained
that disruptive and violent students are not removed from schools as
quickly as they should be - a charge that Vallas bristled at and sharply
disputed. Len Rieser, codirector
of the Nationally, some critics
have charged that zero tolerance has led to a boom in arrests for offenses
that once were dealt with by principals and parents. Rieser said: "I
hope in Vallas said that violence
and unruly students were the most entrenched problem the district faces
and that it is only halfway toward its goal to improve. He promised
another round of stricter rules for the fall. "We're getting
at the more serious behavioral problems, but now we've got to get at
that underlying environment that makes schools conducive to disruptive
behavior," he said. "Rather then back off, we're going to
take steps to toughen our policies even more, focusing on things such
as bad language, disrespectful behavior, chronic disruptive activity,
tardiness, and violations of the uniform policy." More disciplinary schools,
separate classes for young troublemakers, additional staff training,
and a reorganization of how disruption is handled in schools - with
just about every employee taking a role - are among changes planned. About 2,000 parents
also will be recruited to staff help desks, patrol in and out of schools,
and develop stronger ties between school and home, Vallas said. Students who report
to school late might even find themselves locked out, although the district
has not made a decision on the handling of chronic tardiness. The district also plans
to confiscate cell phones more aggressively, he said. Vallas acknowledged
that educators may face more assaults as they enforce the tougher rules.
That worries the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. "I don't want to
have my members in the position of being assaulted because someone is
angry over a cell phone being confiscated," said Jerry Jordan,
union vice president. Yet the approach has
merit, he said. "The concept is
good, but how do we get the buy-in? The district will need to really
communicate a lot with parents and the general community about these
rules," he said. Patricia Raymond, president
of the Philadelphia Home and School Council, said the new rules seemed
to be clearer and could lessen discrepancies in enforcement among schools. Nearly a third of teacher
assaults were committed by the district's youngest students: kindergartners
through fourth graders. Sixth, seventh and ninth graders committed the
highest numbers of assaults, while assaults by high school juniors and
seniors were minimal. Only 171 of the incidents
were classified by police as "aggravated assault," indicating
they were more severe. Vallas also surmised
that teachers, who were under pressure to teach a new curriculum, might
have reacted more to bad student behavior, yielding more reported assaults. Smith, the Olney High
teacher, said that in addition to teachers who were pummeled by students,
some teachers had books thrown at them; others were pushed down stairs.
One was squirted with a fire extinguisher. The schools, he said,
need more security officers and a larger after-hours alternative program
for disruptive students so that only "the vast majority who do
well in school" would attend during the regular day. Lisa Haver, a teacher
at "We haven't seen
zero tolerance applied for assaults on teachers," she said. But she also asserted
that students should not be removed in every case. She cited a student
who pushed her: "She was a good student, a nice girl. She was just
on a downhill slide." Pat O'Hara, a teacher
and union leader at West Philadelphia High, voiced concern that a student
who was accused of putting an unknown substance in a pregnant substitute
teacher's drink in March was never removed from the school. Dexter Green, the district's
chief safety executive, said a district investigation did not find evidence
that the student initially accused committed the offense. O'Hara countered that
a proper investigation was not done, adding that staff members he talked
with were not interviewed.
Illinois State Board of Education |
