 |
 |
|
News Clips –
STATE STATE Pete Sherman, State
Journal-Register, It's just one year,
but some school officials say raising the dropout age in "You're between
16 and 17 and don't want to be in school. What's the ramification?"
asked Deanna Sullivan, director of government relations at the Illinois
Association of School Boards, which opposed the legislation that was
signed into law last week by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. "There's a hesitation
to label them a truant and make them a part of the legal system,"
she said. "You're labeling a whole new group of students as truant
who were previously not labeled that way." Sullivan and others,
including "I'm not going
to tell you those aren't concerns of a school district, especially during
difficult financial times," Sullivan said. Karen Craven, spokeswoman
for the Illinois State Board of Education, said districts that find
ways to keep more students in class will be rewarded financially because
higher enrollments also factor into school financing. The state board played
a key role in writing the legislation that changed the dropout age,
as well as three other new laws intended to prevent, in various ways,
troubled students from slipping through the cracks. Of the other laws, one
makes it harder for schools to keep a student who has dropped out from
re-enrolling. Another requires high school students to take the Prairie
State Achievement Examination (PSAE), which includes the ACT test, to
graduate. And the fourth requires schools and districts to better differentiate
between - and more regularly report - students who drop out and those
who transfer. "By signing these
new laws, we will hold schools more accountable to their struggling
students, hopefully leading to more students staying in school,"
Blagojevich said in a prepared statement. The legislation's main
sponsor was state Sen. Miguel del Valle, D-Chicago. Local educators and
those who work with truant and at-risk children are trying to sort out
the practical and financial implications of the new requirements. In the "But we may have
more pressure on our alternative school program if we're requiring students
to be here but who may not wish to be in a traditional setting,"
Hovasse said. "Whether we would have to add staff, I don't know." For "We may put in
an additional class at The new laws do come
with some confusion. The one that raises the minimum dropout age also
suggests that truant officers and regional superintendents of schools
find alternative education programs for dropouts. But the language in
the law makes this provision optional, and no funding has been provided
to implement it. "There might be
supplemental (funding) during the veto session" in November, Craven
said. Donna Ferguson, director
of special education for District 186, said dropout prevention at the
earliest ages needs to increase and "should start at age 3." "The earlier we
start, the better off they'll be," she said. Though the state raised
the minimum dropout age, it did not lower the starting age required
to be in school. In Alternative education
schools in the For the Youth Service
Bureau, which serves Sangamon, Christian, Mason, Menard and Logan counties,
a three-year, $124,600 annual grant couldn't have come at a better time
and is "pure prevention money," said director Kathleen Wright. The "Crossroad"
grant, administered by the Illinois Department of Human Services, allows
the agency for the first time to work with youth before they enter the
juvenile justice system. Based on referrals from
schools, social service agencies, even churches, the bureau plans to
help keep 200 children out of court and in the classroom this year,
Wright said. Kids'
mental health: How much control should state have? Testing students: Proposal
suggests all children have screenings Justina Wang, Beacon
News The Children's Mental
Health Partnership, made up of public and private groups, was created
under the Children's Mental Health Act of 2003 to address the mental
health needs of Their preliminary plan,
which focuses on working with the Illinois State Board of Education,
said that all children should have the opportunity to receive a frequent
mental health screening. Some believe the plan suggests all children
will eventually be mandated to receive the screening. One of the plan's "priority
recommendations" is to "ensure that all children receive periodic
social and emotional developmental screens." It proposes that developmental
screenings should be offered as part of required medical exams for schools. After learning that
people were "nervous" about required screenings, Barbara Shaw,
chairman of the task force, said the plan should not be taken verbatim. "We realized that
we weren't as explicit as we need to be," she said. "The screenings
that we are discussing are voluntary. We would encourage that screenings
happen, but we won't require it." Critics of the plan
fear that involving the State Board of Education with children's mental
health will force all "They kept telling
us at the hearing that it was voluntary," said Karen Hayes, associate
director of Concerned Women for America of Illinois, a public policy
women's organization. "But the minute you put those health standards
into learning standards, you've ceased to make them voluntary." Hayes participated in
a recent public forum to discuss the plan. She fears the screenings will lead to "labeling"
and "nosy questions." Parents are capable and want to be responsible
for their children's mental health, she said. Supporters of the plan
suggest that mental health problems are prevalent and often untreated
among the youth. According to the task force's 2003 report, nearly one
in four The need for psychologists
and social workers has increased over the last two years at Since 2002, the clinic
requires that all children on their third visit to the clinic —
regardless of the reason for the visit — take a mental health screening.
Students receiving physicals for athletics also receive a screening,
which tests for eating behaviors, emotional development and propensity
for safety and violence. "Adolescence is
a tough age, and a lot of things are going on in their lives,"
But some parents are
concerned that the preliminary plan's recommendation to develop "social
and emotional standards" that would assess students' progress on
mastering a set of skills could discriminate against kids based on their
personality or background. Anne Wilson-Dooley,
a mother of a Hayes, who has six children,
fears that kids like her shy son will be hurt by the plan. "All kids are different
and unique," she said. "What will happen to all kids who are
outside of the classified norm?" As stipulated by the
2003 Children's Mental Health Act, the Task Force will submit a revised
preliminary plan to the governor on Sept. 30, and a final plan next
summer. School districts will
also have to submit a policy that incorporates children's social and
emotional development into the education program by Aug. 31. Rich
schools recoil from 'No Child' suggestion Top education official
says well-off districts should do more to help poorer neighbors A top U.S. Department
of Education official says high-performing school districts should take
on students from neighboring districts who have the right to transfer
under the No Child Left Behind Act — even though the law doesn't
require districts to do so. “If I were a school
board member in a district where good things were happening, and next
door there were students who were not getting what they should get and
I had room, I'd try to make sure I made those seats available,"
said Eugene Hickok, deputy secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Education. Hickok, who oversees
the No Child Left Behind Act, made his comments in an interview with
the Daily Southtown last week. His idea, however, did
not go over well in top-flight local districts. "Our board policy
says that's not even a possibility," said Rosemarie Carroll, superintendent
in Palos Community Consolidated School District 118. "This community
says they pay taxes here and they do it to support the children who
live in the community." Two of District 118's
three schools were among the Southland's top 10 highest scoring schools
last year. Carroll said the district
has never received a request to take No Child Left Behind students and
is struggling to accommodate its own students. "There would be
a cost to it, and I don't just mean dollars. They'll take a lot of resources,
time, energy, materials. … The teacher needs to work with those
children. If you have 25 kids to a class and you put in three heavy-duty
kids, that means 22 get less, because these three need more." Carroll invited staff
from struggling districts to come to Palos to see how they achieve their
results. Supt. Marion Hoyda in
"It's not an issue
of us not wanting to help out," said Rita Wojtylewski, assistant
superintendent in Orland School District 135, which has turned down
requests by other districts to accept NCLB transfer students. "You are taking
them out of their own communities. The Under No Child Left
Behind, schools must offer students the right to transfer to a better
school if the school fails for two consecutive years to meet targets
on standardized tests. If all of a district's
schools must offer choice, districts must arrange for inter-district
choice "to the extent practicable." Districts can enter into
cooperative agreements so students can transfer, but nothing in the
law forces schools to accept students from outside their borders. The student's home district
must reserve a portion of its federal poverty funds to pay for transportation
to the transfer district. To date, no districts
in the state have cut the inter-district deals — a fact that has
helped to stall No Child Left Behind's choice provision in the south
suburbs and around the nation. Of the thousands of
students in the south suburbs eligible to transfer, only a handful did,
and none crossed district lines. Last year, 54 parents
from None said yes. It got no takers. Shelly Marks, board
president of "The right thing
to do is for the federal government to adequately fund the No Child
Left Behind Act and for the state to adequately fund education in every
district in this state. If they did that, there would be no child left
behind. And districts wouldn't be asked to take out-of-district students,"
said Marks. Board members in Consolidated
High School District 230, with schools in "We need to work
with good spirit ... rather than just throwing up our hands and saying
it's impractical," board member Frank Grabowski said during one
discussion. "It behooves us
to work with our neighbors rather than protecting our own fiefdom. Maybe
we can set an example to show how it could work." The state will release
the list of schools that must offer students choice in the coming weeks.
A number of national
organizations, including the national Citizens' Commission on Civil
Rights and the Century Foundation, have called on the federal government
to create inter-district choice programs under No Child Left Behind.
Hickok said it was "too early to talk about changing the law." There are south suburbanites
who support Hickok's call for top-scoring districts to open their doors
— the parents of students trapped in sub-par schools. "It's a child,"
said District 152½ parent Thomas Franklin. "Why would you say no?" Increasing
dropout age won't improve education Gov. Rod Blagojevich
signed legislation last week that is well-intentioned but will have
little effect on graduation and dropout rates in Blagojevich signed a
bill that increases the dropout age from 16 years old to 17. The governor
is right when he says "the dropout rate in The average graduation
rate in "Most students
know by the end of 10th grade whether or not they will graduate with
their high school class," Thompson said. "If they can't, many
get discouraged and eventually drop out of school. Simply raising the
age level at which they can drop out does not adequately address the
problems which cause them to drop out." Thompson said it is
more important to create alternatives to keep students in school, such
as moving them into GED programs when they fall too far behind in credits,
or creating credit recovery programs. "Increasing the
age to 17 before students are allowed to drop out of school will mean
all school districts will have additional expenses to create programs
to motivate some students to achieve in school when they would prefer
to drop out," said Hononegah Superintendent Ralph Marshall. The governor's office
says additional expenses should be covered. If students are in school,
they are counted in the school's attendance figures, the basis for receiving
General State Aid; thus districts would receive support for these students
as they would all others in their district. Thompson says the formula
does not cover all the costs of educating a student. The governor's office
says if general aid is not enough, a school district can set up a graduation
incentive program, which is established in this bill. These programs
are eligible for state aid (at the foundation level), consistent with
other alternative learning opportunities programs set up in the school
code. The programs may be eligible, but the money is not guaranteed
to come in. 'Jump Start' program gets students ready for classroom BY RAMONA CURTIS, The district's new Jump
Start program is getting kids back into school for mini-sessions of
reading and math instruction the week before school begins Tuesday. "A lot of kids
have summer school right after school's out, but in reality, the best
time to have it is right before school starts," said Judy Smith,
director of curriculum and instruction-Title I. Created by the school
district's administrators and educators, Jump Start is designed not
only to help students hit the ground running, but also to encourage
early attendance. It offers lessons in a "fun and engaging way,"
with students attending classes 2 1 / 2 hours each day this week. Only 75 percent to 80
percent of students typically show up during the first week of class.
According to Smith, students who do not attend the first week of school
put a financial strain on the district because state funding is based
on student attendance. Smith said some parents
may delay enrolling their children because in the past, many school
districts did not begin the school year until after Labor Day. However,
the district is not considering starting the school year later. "When students
are out 10 weeks in the summer, that's a long time," Smith said.
"They lose a lot academically. With all that's required with regard
to No Child Left Behind (federal act) and testing, we need to get our
kids going Day One." This is not the first
time District 187 has used innovative programs to address attendance
and education. Last school year, students attended Saturday "boot
camps" to prepare them for the Illinois Standard Achievement Tests. On Monday, the school
board released preliminary data showing ISAT scores in all elementary
schools have increased between 6 and 34 percent from the year before. Although letters about
the new program were sent to parents two weeks ago, participation in
the early summer school sessions have been low. At Principal Emma Campbell
said students who are attending are motivated and enjoying the program. "They're excited
about getting back into school," she said. "They wanted to
meet their teachers and see what's new in the school." District says mental health already in its mission By Lisa Smith, Daily
Herald Staff Writer, Responding to students'
social and emotional needs is part of the A new law, the Children's
Mental Health Act, requires school districts across the state to incorporate
social and emotional development into their educational programs and
implement a response to students with social, emotional or mental health-related
problems. School districts must
submit policies to the state board by Aug. 31. The state board by Dec.
31 must incorporate social and emotional development standards into
the Illinois Learning Standards, with which all school districts must
comply. "We have an active
response in each building," Knapik said. The law is intended
to ensure each school district includes children's social and emotional
development as a critical part of its mission and a necessary part of
each child's school readiness, academic success and overall well-being,
according to a fact sheet compiled by the 100-member Children's Mental
Health Task Force. Ten percent of The law mandates that
school districts address prevention, early intervention and treatment. "We'll just keep
on doing what we're doing - helping kids," Superintendent Barbara
Erwin said. Testing
cuts draw mixed reactions The move to eliminate
testing in both subjects comes as the state gears up for a major expansion
of the assessment program in the spring of 2006. Under the No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001, states and local school districts are held accountable
for student achievement in reading and mathematics. By the 2005 - 2006
school year, students must be tested in both subjects - every year -
between grades three and eight. Students also must be tested in science
at three different grade levels between the third and 12th grades. Subject matter The changes will likely
have no impact on curriculum in several northwest suburban school districts,
local school officials said. "We'll continue
our emphasis on writing and socials studies," said Bruce Brown,
superintendent of Brown described the
change as a "double-edged sword," saying not testing would
give district teachers more time to teach, but would "remove a
tool that gives us useful information." The superintendent of
As far as testing is
concerned "I think less is more," Barker said. "We've
gotten to a point where we're spending a great amount of time on assessments
that we don't need to do. Teachers know what their kids are lacking
in." The district is thinking
about not giving the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, and is continuing to
use tests like Assess to Learn and the CoGat aptitude test, Barker said.
"To be honest,
it's too soon to say what impact this will have," said Dan Schweers,
superintendent of Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59. "A
lot of people assume that when something is being tested, that's what
drives its worth as far as instruction." Schweers said standardized
testing can drive teaching, and he believes that should not change.
He said, though, sometimes teaching to the tests can come at the expense
of other teaching other areas in different subjects. Prospect Heights Elementary
District 23 Superintendent Greg Guarrine said that in spite of the testing
cuts, the district still must be accountable to the state and the public
regarding the education of its students. Guarrine echoed the
sentiments of his colleagues in other districts when he said it is too
early at this point to tell whether there will be any adverse impacts
on District 23 programs. But teachers can spend more time on instruction
because students will not be taking those tests. "With less testing,
we'll have more time for instruction," he said. "All the testing
is fine, and in the northwest suburbs, the students and the schools
here are wonderful. We're showing that students are meeting and exceeding
state standards." Cuts criticized The move to eliminate
the writing and social studies exams, at a savings of about $6.3 million,
drew sharp criticism from Robert Schiller, the state's superintendent
of education. Schiller said dropping
the exams from the state's testing program "undermines our education
foundation in "Our assessments
are broad because our standards are broad," Schiller said, noting
that when the state developed its learning standards, "no one thought
offering students a well-rounded education equated to simply focusing
on reading and math." Schiller expressed concern
that districts strapped for resources might be tempted to cut back on
instruction in writing and social studies and concentrate on areas that
are tested - a shift he contended would be short-sighted. "How can we expect
a student to do a word problem in math, when they have never learned
the critical writing skills required to both comprehend and answer the
questions?" he said in a letter to district superintendents. "How
can we stop assessing writing ... when we continue to hear from higher-education
officials who have to offer remedial courses?" "There is a tendency
of some districts not to stress a subject if there will be no testing
on it, but I can't say that will happen here," Ward said. "Writing and social
studies are considered part of the core curriculum, and we try to stay
as far away from cutting classes as possible. The subjects could even
become part of the extra curriculum, if that was necessary," she
added. State Sen. Jeffrey M.
Schoenberg, D-9th, said lawmakers were looking for ways to provide $400
million in new dollars for education as promised by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
In the end, $364 million came from new revenue sources and another $25
million came from reallocating existing funds within the State Board
of Education, including the assessment funding, Schoenberg said. "There was a convergence
between those interested in re-evaluating state testing and those looking
to scrape up additional dollars for classroom instruction," said
Schoenberg, vice chairman of the Appropriations I and II committees
in the Senate. State
funds will improve teaching and learning Letter by Glenn "Max"
McGee, Superintendent, Wilmette District 39, Chairman, Golden Apple
Foundation Particularly we are
appreciative for the following: - Golden Apple Scholars
funding was restored so that our most needy students will continue to
have our best prepared teachers. - The allocation for
special education was increased to help local districts meet state and
federal requirements for educating this deserving population. - Early Childhood Education
funding grew by $30 million so we can begin closing the achievement
gap before it becomes insurmountable. - The distribution of
nearly $400 million was fair--urban, suburban and rural districts all
benefited. To be sure, we still
need to find a way to improve school funding in The budget bill also
contains a provision that eliminates the state writing assessment. It
is about time. Most teachers will tell you the state ISAT writing assessment
made teaching writing a burden not a joy, that every year they were
perplexed by some of their students' scores and that they spent too
much time teaching a very specific formulaic type of writing. Because "what gets
measured gets taught," writing instruction too often focused on
helping children score well instead of write well. The legislature and
governor have given local districts the opportunity to teach and assess
writing the way it should be taught and tested. Boys and girls need
to learn how to plan their writing, how to write several drafts finding
just the right words and sentence structures to capture the reader,
how to develop a voice and the right tone for their audience, and how
to prepare a finished document. Believe it or not, many
local districts such as Wilmette District 39--and even some in other
states--know how to teach writing well and how to assess it in a way
that enables students to flourish as writers. Perhaps the new Illinois
State Board of Education will take the time to identify the best practices,
share models that work and assist local districts in developing sound
assessments rather than defending a deeply flawed test or assuming that
local districts will neither teach nor test student writing. Our legislators and
our governor did well by education, and the education community and
broader public should be thankful. Having the resources to deliver a
quality education is far less costly than paying the long-term expenses
that illiteracy produces in terms of crime, prison and welfare. As educators,
we will strive to assure that every nickel is wisely invested in improving
teaching and learning. State toughens applicant
checks By Diane Rado, Tribune
staff reporter, Teachers and other applicants
for school jobs will have to undergo more-stringent background checks,
including providing their fingerprints to the FBI, under a new law that
aims to keep criminals out of the classroom. "We must do everything
we can to provide parents peace of mind when they send their children
off to schools," Gov. Rod Blagojevich said in a written statement
Thursday, when he signed the law. "We're giving school
officials another tool to check and make sure the people they hire in
their schools should be there," the governor said. The law went into effect
immediately, reforming one of weakest systems in the nation for checking
the backgrounds of prospective teachers. The Tribune reported
last November that For nearly two decades,
a typical Fingerprints allow a
more accurate check of a criminal past. They also are used by the FBI
to search for offenses committed nationwide. Flaws in the old system
allowed a principal in Elgin-based School District U-46 to work for
two years before school officials discovered in 2003 that he had a felony
record for financial fraud in That incident and the
publicity surrounding it spurred U-46 and other school districts to
start requiring applicants to undergo national FBI background checks.
The Illinois State Police force has repeatedly urged districts to do
more-extensive national checks. The state's largest
district, the Chicago Public Schools, began fingerprinting and doing
nationwide checks for new employees in January 2001. With the new law, all
applicants for positions at "We're think that's
great that the rest of the state is catching up with us," said
U-46 spokesman Larry Ascough. His district pays $46
for state police and FBI checks--more than double the price of checks
that search for in-state crimes only. State lawmakers who
pushed for the more-extensive checks say the higher cost is worth it. "Nothing we can
do can guarantee our children's safety in the classroom, but this law
will make the classroom safer than it has been in the past," said
state Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago), who filed legislation in January
to require the FBI checks. He also signed on as a sponsor of the bill.
The main sponsors were two Downstate lawmakers, a House member who is
a former prosecutor and a senator who had been state's attorney in Officials with the state
teachers unions supported the bill, though they had resisted widespread
fingerprinting of teachers in the past. The new law does not require
fingerprinting of current staff members, only prospective hires. The law also allows
the state to reimburse school districts for the expense of the criminal
background checks, though a separate amount for that purpose was not
included in the state budget. However, there was a
$12 million increase statewide in a pot of money that school districts
can use for the background checks, said Karen Craven, spokeswoman for
the Illinois State Board of Education. The board supported
the more-stringent system of criminal background checks, she said. "I think it will
provide parents and school board members and communities an added sense
of relief," Craven said, "because God forbid you have a teacher
in your community who crossed state lines and did something atrocious
and we weren't able to catch it." School financing overhaul sought By Gary Washburn, Chicago
Tribune staff reporter, Mayor Richard Daley
and other Chicago-area mayors said Thursday they plan to drum up political
and community support for an overhaul of the state's educational funding
system, but the leaders could not say when they will put a new funding
proposal on the table. Reduction of local property
taxes, a primary revenue source for schools, will be "a beginning
point" for any plan, said Elgin Mayor Edward Schock. The cut "has
got to be significant ... or we are not going to create the political
will" to revamp the current system, he said. A reduction of property
taxes could be more than offset by such things as increases in the state
income and sales taxes, but there could be other suggestions that come
to the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus as the group arrives at a final proposal,
Schock said. Schock and Daley are
among leaders of the group. "We owe it to our
children ... to reform the system in a way that makes increased funding
by the state guaranteed from year to year," Daley said. "We
owe it to our hard-working property-tax payers to reform the system
in a way that takes the burden off their shoulders and holds our schools
accountable for their tax dollars, as we've done in Rising property taxes
have been the result of the gap between what On Tuesday, Chicago
Public Schools officials proposed a $40 million property tax increase
to help fund operations for 2005. Daley, who contends the increase is
the only way to make ends meet, said the dream of homeownership is being
threatened by rising taxes statewide. The mayors' group will
seek to build "the political will needed" to change the school-funding
system, Schock said. "Today's [mayors'] summit was about beginning
a dialogue," he said. "If our efforts are going to be successful,
we need to bring as broad a base of support as possible." "We do little Band-Aid
solutions ... but we never look at comprehensive reform," said
Barbara Toney, a member of the Hazel Crest School Finance Authority.
"Every year we wait, children are losing precious time that can
never be replaced." Cook County Assessor
James Houlihan has called for a 25 percent reduction in property taxes
statewide in a school-funding reform proposal that also would include
an increase in the personal income tax to 4 percent from 3 percent,
as well as a 1 percentage point reduction in the state's portion of
the sales tax but a broadening of its application to some services now
exempt. The change would generate
another $1.5 billion annually for education, according to Houlihan. The proposal "is
a start," Schock said. But a consensus must be reached about what
changes are appropriate, he said. Arts director fears signs of reading decline By Edward Husar, Herald-Whig
Staff Writer, This effort is being
led by Rob Dwyer, executive director of the Quincy Society of Fine Arts,
who was inspired to take action after hearing the results of a new study,
"Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America."
The study, commissioned
by the National Endowment for the Arts, showed that literary reading
in Dwyer heard about the
study last month in That's a concern for
Dwyer and others with a stake in maintaining vibrant arts communities.
Dwyer said he fears a retreat from civic participation could lead to
less support for cultural activities. "A decline in reading
of literature may well result in a decline of community activism, stewardship
and philanthropy," he said. All of those elements
are keys to the success of "The arts in Dwyer said he hopes
to get "Maybe there is
some way that the 52 organizations of the Quincy Society of Fine Arts
could assist in some fashion," he said. Dwyer said he intends
to contact groups and individuals involved in efforts to promote reading,
including the Quincy Public Library, which occasionally offers reading-incentive
programs. Dwyer said he wants
"to see what they're doing already" and find out how the QSFA
can assist. Dwyer said he was alarmed
to see such a precipitous decline in literary reading among youths.
"These are really
dastardly figures," he said. "I pray that it's not as bad
in For nearly 30 years
Dwyer has been involved in educational efforts in Dwyer hopes the arts
community will find a similar means to foster literary reading among
youths. "Hopefully we can
help," he said. Troy group helping homeschoolers Elizabeth A. Lehnerer
Of the Suburban Journals, Adults who teach their
children at home are getting some help from a local organization. Across the River Christian
Home-educators is a group that offers support to area families who homeschool.
For more than 10 years, the group has been working in Michelle Nickerson,
this year's coordinator, said the group offers advice about curriculum
and programs and offers activities. "We answer questions
parents might have and guide them in a direction where they can get
the information they need." Nickerson said there
are many different programs a parent can follow concerning the education
of their child, and all of the information available can be overwhelming. "As a support group,
we can give parents information on the curriculum available and help
them find what they can use," she said. The group also offers
advice on textbooks and lessons, sharing what worked and what didn't
for their children. Currently, 40 families
belong to A.R.C.H., ranging from kindergartners to high-school students.
Because of the variety in age groups, parents whose child just finished
fifth grade can help a parent whose fourth grader is getting ready for
the upcoming year. "We offer experience,
instead of having a parent research all that's out there," Nickerson
said. Nickerson said the program
is beneficial to parents who homeschool because members understand their
situation. "If someone has
a kid who doesn't want to do their homework, they can't talk to a neighbor
who has kids in the public school because they can't relate," she
said. "This gives parents the support they need." A.R.C.H. also has guest
speakers who speak on a variety of subjects including different teaching
styles, keeping track of lessons and how to stay motivated. Along with support,
A.R.C.H. also offers field trips, science and geography fairs and special
get-togethers. "We are always
on the lookout for education opportunities," Nickerson said. Nickerson said that
most field trips start as an idea by a parent who then opens the opportunity
to the group. This year A.R.C.H. has already planned a back-to-school
picnic, concerts at the symphony and a Lewis and Clark exhibit at the
Sheldon in The group is open to
anyone in the area and there are groups in "We will take anyone,
but we let people know of other homeschool groups that may be closer
to them," she said. The next A.R.C.H. meeting
will be at A.R.C.H. holds its meetings
on the second Thursday of the month during the school year. There are
no meetings in December, June and July. For more information
on A.R.C.H., contact Michelle Nickerson at 667-2596. Letter by Marvin Hoffman,
founding director of the During my student days
in the 1940s and '50s, I was never required to write anything more than
an occasional book report. We filled in blanks in workbooks, diagrammed
sentences and took exams that rarely called for responses extending
beyond a few words or sentences. It wasn't until my freshman year of
college that I was introduced to the radical idea that all the grammar
and spelling we had learned could be used to express thoughts and ideas
that others might actually be interested in reading. So much for the notion
that we are in retreat from a Golden Age of Education. Writing instruction
and expectations for student writing have, in fact, advanced in remarkable
ways in the last 40 years. Students have opportunities to write stories,
poems, memoirs and research papers, which I would have relished. In
many classrooms across the country, substantial blocks of time are set
aside for what is known as writers' workshop, during which students
can draft, revise and publish their work in many genres under the thoughtful
direction of teachers. They write daily in their journals and correspond
with their teachers about the books they are reading. Many teachers
have participated in rich professional development that equips them
with a deep understanding of how to engage students in writing. If you're looking for
the newsworthy "hook" in this story (as our writing students
are trained to do), it's buried right here. The Illinois State Board
of Education, in its infinite lack of wisdom, announced recently that
as a cost-cutting measure it is eliminating, effective immediately,
the writing section of the ISAT test for the state's 3rd, 5th and 8th
graders. What remains are tests in reading, math and science, matching
the areas for which students are held accountable under the federal
No Child Left Behind law. I am no fan of mandated
standardized tests, but the ISAT writing assessment was a rare bright
spot in an otherwise dismal landscape. The existence of the test required
teachers to think deeply about what constitutes good writing, to look
closely at student work and to craft instruction from the lessons learned.
Good writing maintains focus, is organized, contains rich detail and
reaches for engaging openings and closings. When you're teaching to
the writing test, you are actually teaching meaningful skills. With the state board's
decision, much of this is threatened. A handful of passionate educators
will stay the course and retain writing as a centerpiece of their curriculum.
Their commitment stems from the belief that writing is a powerful tool
to carry into the adult world and that writing and thinking are integrally
intertwined. In the words of the British novelist E.M. Forster, "How
do I know what I think until I see what I say?" However, across most
of the embattled educational landscape, teachers and administrators
are already realigning their priorities in ways that will make writing
an also-ran. It is an axiom that teachers will only teach what they
are accountable for. The elimination of the writing assessment is a
particular setback in The state board's plan
to eliminate the writing assessment, along with the 4th and 7th grade
social studies test, will save a paltry $6.4 million out of a mammoth
education budget. The real cost lies in the way it puts It is short-sighted
for Mayors seek more state school funds Daily Southtown Editorial,
Mayor Richard Daley's
schools chief announced this week that Chicago Public Schools will increase
property taxes by some $40 million this year — the sixth consecutive
year the school system will raise taxes by the maximum amount allowed
under state law. That will raise the
school portion of taxes on a $100,000 home to $1,027 a year. So it is no coincidence
that Daley's Metropolitan Mayors Caucus — a group of 272 mayors
from the Parents, teachers and
many school board members and administrators have been calling for the
same kind of reform for the better part of the past 20 years. But the
state's contribution to school funding costs has failed to keep pace
with rising expenses, leading to increasingly unfair property tax bills
in some parts of the state, particularly in the south suburbs. School advocates have
warned for many years that the state's failure to play its constitutionally
mandated role was driving taxpayers out of their homes and businesses
out of the state. But until fairly recently, the negative effects were
felt primarily in communities with little commercial or industrial development,
like the south suburbs. Now the impact is hitting Now that taxpayers virtually
everywhere are feeling the burden, Daley and the mayors caucus are joining
with education advocates to call for more state funding to help alleviate
growing property tax bills. This newspaper has been
calling for school funding reform for nearly 20 years. The existing
system, which is excessively dependent on property taxes, not only is
unfair to taxpaying homeowners, it also has been grossly unfair to schoolchildren
in middle-class and poorer communities, where schools have been unable
to raise adequate revenue to support strong school programs. The result is not just
high property tax bills. We also have a school system that serves the
wealthy very well and shortchanges the rest of the state's kids. It
comes down to the luck of the draw: If you are born in a wealthy community,
you will attend good schools; if not, by and large, you are out of luck. Few of the mayors in
the past have actively supported efforts to boost school funding. Some
have even been outspoken opponents of ballot measures intended to provide
more support for schools. That's changing now
as the inevitable has occurred, and school districts and property taxpayers
across the state are suffering. The mayors are getting the message,
and we're glad to hear it. The problem now, however,
is that As Daily Southtown columnist
Phil Kadner wrote Wednesday, "That means no property tax relief
and no school funding reform." Gerald Bennett, mayor
of The mayors caucus may
be providing some political cover for the governor and Legislature by
calling for increased "accountability" by schools. That may
mean more standardized tests. There's nothing wrong with accountability,
although we're no fans of making test after test the top priority for
students. Still, what the schools
need is for the Legislature and governor to keep their commitment to
public education. Maybe the politicians in The key, of course,
is the governor. If he refuses to listen, legislators won't either.
They're not going to support a tax increase that the governor plans
to veto, regardless of the fact that it's the right thing to do. Education 'conversation' The Metropolitan Mayors
Caucus will hold a "Conversation with the Region's Mayors on Education
Reform" today from Eliminating social studies, writing testing doesn't add
up
Editorial by Tom Martin,
Editor, The state of The state decided in
this year's marathon budget session to no longer require state testing
in writing and social studies. The move will save $6.3
million for our cash-strapped state. The money saved will be funneled
into education mostly through a $154-per-pupil increase in the state
aid formula. More money for schools is good. Cutting testing in the
critical areas of writing and social studies is not. Assessments in writing
and social studies, along with math and reading, have been used for
accountability statewide since the 1992-93 school year. Schools use the Prairie
State Achievement Exam for 11th graders and the Illinois Standards Achievement
Test for other grades. Students in grades 3, 5, and 8 take the ISAT
in reading, writing and mathematics. Students in grades 4 and 7 take
the ISAT in science and social science. Schools may voluntarily administer
tests in physical development and health and fine arts to students in
grades 9 and/or 10. Proponents of the cuts
in testing argue that schools will won't stop teaching these subjects.
Among those is Republican state Rep. Roger Eddy of Hutsonville, who
serves on the Education Appropriations Committee. "I have heard the
philosophical argument that if we stop testing it, schools will stop
teaching it," Eddy said in recent Associated Press story. "But
I believe in professional educators more than that. We have to remember
that, long before this standardized (testing) movement, teachers were
teaching their students how to write." But that was before
No Child Left Behind required schools to make adequate yearly progress
or suffer the consequences, which include losing federal money and allowing
students to attend elsewhere. Losing students means losing state funding
which is largely based on enrollment. "I don't think
anyone involved in this wants to discount the importance of assessment,"
Eddy said. "But it boils down to making tough decisions with scarce
resources." And this tough decision
by the state is being precipitated by No Child Left Behind, which requires
progress through testing in only math and reading. In 2006 science will
be added to the testing and progress requirements. The state now will end
its more comprehensive assessment standards and align with the those
of No Child Left Behind. State Superintendent
of Education Robert Schiller warns of the possible danger in such a
move. "How can we stop
assessing writing, where despite having seen improvement in scores,
we continue to hear from higher education officials who have to offer
remedial courses?" asks Schiller. Colleges do have to
offer remedial courses in writing to incoming freshmen because enough
students are below the required skill levels. And poor writing skills
have an effect across all subjects. Writing is an exercise in critical
thinking and communication. Only 58.9 percent of
Seeing test scores change
from year to year allows school districts the opportunity to fine tune
their programs for progress. We doubt whether schools
will intentionally move emphasis away from writing and social studies,
however they will lose these important tools of assessment. Simply put, if it is
worth testing students in reading and math, it is worth testing students
in writing and social studies. Even if it costs $6.3 million. - =========================================================================== NATIONAL Kelly Cupp, The Who needs the federal
government — at least when it comes to education? That’s the question
The measure is sponsored
by Del. Albert Pollard, D-Lancaster, and carried over from this spring’s
legislative session. If the state pulled
out of the federal education program, it could lose about $300 million
in federal funds that pay for a wide range of programs, according to
Margaret Roberts, executive assistant to the State Board of Education.
But the cost of remaining
under the federal government’s watch would be more expensive than
that, according to Del. James H. Dillard II, R-Fairfax. The act created unfunded
mandates, meaning individual school systems have to pay for the programs
to meet the new federal law, Pollard said. The 678-page No Child
Left Behind Act hasn’t lived up to its promises, Pollard added.
“As far as I’m
concerned, it’s an educational bureaucracy that doesn’t help
the child,” he said. Legislators held the
bill over from the spring session in hopes that lawmakers would work
with President Bush’s administration on changes to the act over
the summer, Dillard said. But that has not happened, he said. “The core [of the
act] needs work,” Dillard said. “This is the most egregious
encroachment on states’ rights.” The concerns surrounding
the act aren’t Democratic or Republican, Pollard said. “This is a problem
of a way of thinking north of the Through the No Child
Left Behind Act, the federal government calls the educational shots
in the states, Dillard said. The act was designed
for “people inside the Beltway who don’t have to live with
it,” Pollard said. “This is a mess, to put it clearly.”
The spirit of the act
is positive, but making it a reality has been difficult, according to
Dennis Kellison, superintendent of the Winchester Public Schools. “The devil is in
the details,” Kellison said. Most of the regulations
are clumsy and the federal act lacks the flexibility of the Virginia
Standards of Learning, Kellison said. In small rural school
districts with few administrators, wading through the act’s regulations
while still conducting business is difficult, Pollard said. It’s also unrealistic
to think 100 percent of students are going to pass federally approved
tests, Pollard said. Some students just can’t meet those standards,
he said. Still, even if the bill
makes it to a final vote in the General Assembly, it’s doubtful
the state will pull away from the federal funding next year, Dillard
said. Like Pollard said In the meantime, the
Virginia Department of Education continues abiding by the federal regulations,
Roberts said. “It’s a matter
for the General Assembly to decide,” Roberts said. If the state withdrew
from the federal act, educational accountability needs to remain the
focus, according to William C. Dean, superintendent of the Frederick
County Public Schools. The federal act is about
accountability, but Attempting to place
a federal level of accountability on top of the state’s is a burden
on the state and local school systems, Dean said. Pulling away from the
federal government won’t be easy at first because of the loss of
funding, but the state will save money in the long run, Pollard said.
“If The hearing on House
Bill 337 is set for 2 p.m. Nov. 10 in House Room C in the General Assembly
Building, Congressman:
No Child Left Behind is working U.S. Rep. John Boehner
points to rising test scores as proof the federal No Child Left Behind
Act was a good idea. Though some school officials
insist the legislation - which requires every child meet state standards
by the year 2014 - is flawed, the Ohio Republican says he's convinced
it will force schools to give every student a chance. Boehner, who sponsored
the No Child Left Behind Act, spoke Tuesday at a Naperville Area Chamber
of Commerce luncheon. He talked to local business
and school leaders about his role as chairman of the House Committee
on Education and the Workforce, higher education and bringing low-income
children up to the academic level of their peers. "Low-income children
aren't exposed to books and other things our kids get to see,"
he said. He said 70 percent of
inner-city fourth-graders can't read a book, which means most won't
find decent jobs when they are older. "By and large,
90 percent of them we've already lost," he said. He admitted No Child
Left Behind isn't a perfect law, but said he thinks it will bring schools
and communities closer together as they work to continue raising test
scores. When asked if he plans
on changing the requirement that special education students meet the
same standards as their peers, Boehner was short on details. Instead,
he talked about how those students still need to improve. "That's probably
the most important component of No Child Left Behind - the special education
students," he said. "Children with special needs deserve an
education, too. Having a child judged at his grade level is important."
However, he said, legislators
are working on "fine-tuning" the Individuals With Disabilities
Act. They're trying to develop a different way they can assess special
education students. Boehner also talked
about his committee's work to find more money for college student loans. "It's clear in
our society today a high school diploma isn't going to get you far,"
he said. "If we're going to be competing in a worldwide economy,
a college education is of utmost importance." He said he would like
the U.S. Department of Education to pull together data it receives from
hundreds of colleges and put it in one big guide. "Why not take this
data and put it in a user-friendly format that we can get out to students
and parents?" he said. No Child
Left Behind changes educational climate Alison Damast, Teachers, parents and
administrators will learn this fall which schools are not making sufficient
progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Schools that make the
list for a second year in a row could face consequences such as offering
school choice and after-school supplemental tutoring, and making curriculum
changes. Since the passage of
the No Child Left Behind legislation, educators said they are continuing
to grapple with the law's strict requirements and performance benchmarks.
Some administrators, parents and teachers said they believe the act
has changed the educational landscape and climate in the schools. "I think that many
of my fears and the fears of educators have come to pass," said
Karen Lang, Norwalk Public Schools' assistant superintendent of curriculum
and instruction. "There is a climate of fear that is pervasive
in the country now as many schools face the prospect of being identified
as failing. I think we have just begun to see the tip of the iceberg." Sally Harrison, deputy
superintendent of "We want to resist
narrowing our curriculum just to teach to areas that are tested,"
No Child Left Behind,
enacted in 2001, is a federal law designed to improve the performance
of students on standardized tests. The goal is to have 100 percent of
students scoring at or above the proficiency level determined by the
state in 2014. A school could make
the list because the entire student body or a subgroup of students failed
to make "adequate yearly progress" in math or reading, or
had inadequate student participation. Subgroups must consist
of 40 or more students and include poor and minority students, students
with disabilities and English as a second language learners. In Last year, seven The state-run "I think No Child
Left Behind is critical. The system needs to be fixed and If No Child
Left Behind is a start, then I'm all for it," said Greta DeAngelis,
the vice-president for administration of the Parent Teacher Organization
Council in Educators said they
have reservations about many aspects of the law, including how to improve
student achievement on standardized tests without sufficient federal
funding and the looming possibility of public school choice and administrative
changes down the line. "The consequences
become more and more draconian," Lang said. All The plans, which were
presented to the "I think the pressure
is still on. The pressure is always on," said Linda Sumpter, Ponus
Ridge principal. "It is the whole issue of accountability and connecting
and having people look to us, as they well should." No Child Left Behind
has led "This is a first
for us, distributing equitably, not equally," Parents said they have
had time to familiarize themselves with the act and what it means for
a school to be cited for not making progress. "Last year, we
spent a lot of time learning about No Child Left Behind and there were
a lot of presentations on it," said Greg Burnett, a former PTO
Council member who has two children in the Norwalk Public Schools. "Now,
we are at a point where we are starting to look at the results of the
various tests, how the children scored and teachers' performance. Some
tough decisions are going to start to be made in the areas where you
are not seeing improvement." Administrators said
they appreciate the spirit of the law, which has motivated staff to
spend more time working with students who need additional help in math
and reading. "It makes us focus
on what we need to do and you have to prove it. You simply can't say
it," said David Hay, State, ACLU Settle Suit on Education The agreement would
set aside up to $1 billion to repair deteriorating schools, many of
them in By Duke Helfand and
Cara Mia DiMassa, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
administration and the American Civil Liberties Union have tentatively
settled a major education lawsuit that accused the state of denying
poor children adequate textbooks, trained teachers and safe classrooms,
lawyers for both sides said Tuesday. The proposed agreement
would require the state to devote as much as $1 billion over a period
of several years for 2,400 low-performing schools to repair deteriorating
facilities and $50 million to assess such needs. It also would provide
nearly $139 million this year for textbooks. The tentative pact in
the Williams vs. California suit, which was reached after five months
of negotiations, would provide additional resources and beefed-up oversight
for the bottom third of California's schools as ranked by scores on
standardized tests. ACLU attorneys hailed
the proposed agreement as a revolution for the education of poor children
in "It's going to
end generations of neglect with respect to these kids," said Mark
Rosenbaum, the ACLU's The lawsuit, which was
filed in May 2000 in San Francisco Superior Court, alleged that the
state deprives tens of thousands of low-income students the necessities
for a quality education, such as adequately trained teachers, functioning
toilets, modern textbooks, and proper heat and air conditioning. Named after a In addition to the ACLU,
the suit was filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational
Fund, the nonprofit San Francisco law firm Public Advocates and the
Morrison & Foerster firm. The deal would establish
a process for students, teachers and parents to report complaints, and
it would give county education superintendents powers to monitor low-performing
campuses to ensure adequate textbooks and other necessities, including
qualified teachers. County officials would
report their findings to local school boards and the state. The two sides were scrambling
to reach an agreement so state lawmakers could pass legislation, as
expected, to enact many of the agreement's reforms before adjourning
Sept. 1. For example, existing education money that is currently unspent
must be redirected to fund the $1 billion for school repairs. A Schwarzenegger spokeswoman
said the settlement, which must be approved by a San Francisco Superior
Court judge, reflected the governor's desire to resolve the matter. "The governor believes
that we should spend our time, energy and money fixing what is wrong
with our schools and not fighting them," said Ashley Snee. "He wanted to find
a settlement that was in the best interest of all Not everyone was as
enthusiastic. Some educators said the proposal offered too little money
and too much paper-pushing. Jack O'Connell, the
state superintendent of public instruction, said that he was glad the
case was ending but that the settlement "relies heavily on bureaucratic
solutions." Los Angeles Unified
School District Supt. Roy Romer said he was pleased with the extra funds
and support that the agreement would provide. But he echoed O'Connell's
concern about increased bureaucracy, and said the district had acted
to address some of the problems identified in the settlement. The The Los Angeles Board
of Education, which oversees a large number of schools involved in the
case, on Tuesday approved the agreement, although with some reservations.
The settlement did not require the board's support, but state officials
wanted it. Sweetie Williams, the
father of the lead plaintiff in the case, said he was thrilled that
an agreement had been reached. "I thank God that
it's coming to an end," Williams said. "This has been a great
opportunity not only to help my children [but] also to remind parents
that we've got to stand up for what is right." Schools adjust for higher lunch costs Higher food, labor,
transportation costs to blame AP, SOMERSWORTH, Feeling the pressure
of rising food, labor and transportation costs, schools nationwide are
hiking the price of breakfast and lunch, in some cases for the first
time in more than a decade and by as much as $1. Duane Ford, business
director for Somersworth schools, said this year's 25-cent increase
-- the first in 10 years -- is just the start. Staff cuts, eliminating
the breakfast program and another increase next year also are being
considered. "What we did in
terms of changing our price isn't enough," he said recently. "You
start looking at reports saying, 'Oh my God, what are we going to do?
This isn't working."' The increases don't
affect the nearly 17 million children who get free or reduced price
lunches and who account for more than half of the 29 million children
served by the National School Lunch Program this year. Forty cents is the limit
for a reduced price meal. But prices for kids who don't meet the poverty
rules are set by local school districts and have no price cap. It is
those prices that some schools are raising -- from a few cents to a
dollar per meal. School systems typically
get no local money for their lunch programs. They get by on meal sales,
vending machine sales and the use of government commodities. But schools
complain that the federal system hasn't kept pace with the cost of food.
Budgets in the red are routine. While typical annual
food inflation is about 3 percent, dairy prices in June were up 27 percent
from a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meat
and cheese were up 11 percent, and poultry 9 percent. There also is a catch-up
factor at play. Schools generally avoid raising prices for as long as
possible. That means many communities are just now covering for years
of incremental cost increases in addition to the recent spike. It all added up to a
17 percent food cost increase at the Galt Joint Union High School District
in Galt, California, where officials recently relented, raising meal
prices to $3 after holding them to $2 for the past 12 years. The district wanted
to hold the increase to 50 cents, but feared having to go back to parents
for more money next year. A reasonable fear, said
Barry Sackin, spokesman for the American School Food Service Association.
Even tiny price hikes can hurt participation, especially among families
that hover above poverty but don't qualify for free or reduced-cost
meals. Gasoline culprit behind
price increase For Carol Rippa, food
service director for 72,000 students at "We have 350 square
miles in our school district," she said. "We're busy taking
the food to all 75 schools that are scattered throughout the 350 square
miles. The fuel cost makes the food cost more." At schools in The recent national
push to make school food healthier also comes with a price. Eliminating
junk food can hurt income. School business director
Duane Ford: "You start looking at reports saying, 'Oh my God, what
are we going to do? This isn't working."'
In the Labor prices also have
crept up, mostly because of health care costs. Sackin said that while
salaries have remained steady, more districts now use health benefits
to attract workers. Schools aren't alone
in feeling the pressure. The USDA, which runs the National School Lunch
Program, spends about $948 million a year to supply schools with roughly
18 percent of the food they serve. But this year its buying
power is reduced. Like families, the agency is watching prices carefully,
hoping to avoid spending more to buy the same amount of food. The blow is softened
somewhat for schools that use outside food service companies, most of
which cater for thousands of schools and can leverage that purchasing
power for better prices -- and creative solutions. For example, don't be
surprised if your child's chicken nuggets are replaced by cheaper chicken-and-soy
nuggets this year, said Nancy Quinn of Chartwells School Dining Services,
which has contracts with 3,000 schools. Outlook isn't all bad And the outlook isn't
all bad. Ephraim Leibtag, a food price economist at the USDA, said the
price of milk -- the only food federally mandated for every school meal
-- already shows signs of moderating. The agency also has
increased the credit it gives schools -- up 11/2 cents to just over
17 cents per meal -- for spending on government food commodities in
2005. Some schools hope the
cost hike is temporary and have put off deciding whether to raise prices.
At She favors turning off
the lights. "It's been like
a contest where every time you leave a room you turn off a light,"
she said. "It's something that's controllable and it doesn't require
a cut in staff or a cut in spending." Deal ends AP, The proposed settlement
with the American Civil Liberties Union is aimed at boosting conditions
for students in the state's 2,400 lowest-performing schools, concentrated
in inner cities, but provides little funding to carry out those goals. The ACLU sued four years
ago in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of children in 18 different
school districts, alleging the state was neglecting its poorest students. Textbooks are so scarce
in some schools that children have to share. Some pupils go through
entire school years without a permanent teacher. Leaky roofs, a shortage
of desks and rodents plague some schools. All the plaintiffs and
defendants agreed to settle the case, according to state officials and
the ACLU. The state Board of Education signed off on the deal last week.
School boards in An official in Schwarzenegger's
office said the deal would give students proper instructional materials,
provide clean and safe schools and guarantee qualified teachers. The budget signed earlier
this month by Schwarzenegger contained $188 million to handle expenses
related to the settlement this year, including $138 million for textbooks
and $50 million to assess and make repairs -- a task that could cost
more than $1 billion in years ahead. Part of the agreement
includes legislation the administration has drafted that would make
test score results and teacher qualifications easily available to the
public and make it easier to file complaints against schools. If the
legislation isn't passed, the suit would not be dismissed, said Catherine
Lhamon, an ACLU attorney. Superintendent of Public
Instruction Jack O'Connell, one of the defendants, said he agreed to
the deal, but he criticized the lack of specifics and lack of funding,
which has been attributed to the state's massive budget deficits in
recent years. Critics Float ‘No Child’ Revisions By Lynn Olson, Education
Week, Critics of the No Child
Left Behind Act have begun to circulate proposals for fixing what they
view as major flaws in its accountability provisions. Although the law is
not slated for reauthorization until 2007, they are hoping for amendments
as early as next year, in part to address the large number of schools
and districts that may not meet its performance targets. Many of the proposed
changes were discussed at a recent meeting here sponsored by the Center
on Education Policy, a But Ross Wiener, the
policy director for the Washington-based Education Trust, which strongly
supports the law, maintained that the papers "presented no compelling
evidence" that its accountability requirements need big changes.
In large measure, Mr. Wiener said, he came to that conclusion because
many of the projections that large number of schools will be identified
for improvement in the future presume that schools will perform as they
always have. In general, the alternatives
put forward focus on addressing what many describe as the law’s
unrealistic expectations for schools. A number of models also would
give schools credit for growth, rather than just the percent of students
at or above the "proficient" level on state tests. Some also
urge the federal government to move beyond a concentration on test scores
to include other measures of school and student performance. The federal law, a reauthorization
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, requires that 100 percent
of students score at state-defined proficiency levels on reading and
math tests by 2013-14. To make "adequate yearly progress,"
or AYP, schools and districts must meet annual targets for the percent
of students at or above the proficient level, with those targets rising
over time. They also must test at least 95 percent of their students
and do well on at least one other academic indicator—graduation
rates for high schools and, typically, attendance rates at the elementary
and middle levels. Schools and districts
must meet the annual targets both for their total student populations
and for subgroups of students who are poor, speak limited English, have
disabilities, or come from racial- or ethnic-minority backgrounds. Critics have charged
that the rate of improvement expected of schools is unreasonable and
sets them up for failure, particularly given the large number of subgroup
targets. Projections from states such as Rethinking Targets "The most important
modification is to set performance targets for judging adequate yearly
progress that are more reasonable and for which there is a realistic
hope that they might be achieved given sufficient effort," argues
Robert L. Linn, a professor of education at the University of Colorado
at Boulder, in a paper presented at the Center on Education Policy meeting,
held July 28. One alternative, he
suggested, is to use the median score on state tests in 2002—the
year President Bush signed the measure into law—as a state’s
baseline. The expected annual increase for schools could be based on
the rate of improvement in the state’s best-performing schools
averaged over the past five years. Some experts countered that assuming
schools can make only the same rate of improvement that they’ve
made in the past presumes they won’t do anything differently. But
Mr. Linn said evidence would have to be available that the amount of
change expected was possible. W. James Popham, the
author of For the system to work,
he added, states would need to select tests that were more sensitive
to instruction; for example, by focusing on fewer and more fundamental
content standards and reporting results in ways that inform classroom
practice. Growth and Absolute
Goals Detractors of the law
also suggest that focusing only on the percent of students at or above
the proficient level ignores the growth of students well below or above
that bar. For that reason, some states, such as A number of the alternatives
recommend taking that method one step further by tracking the growth
of individual students over time. A "hybrid success
model," proposed by the Northwest Evaluation Association, based
in Similarly, Harold C.
Doran, a senior research scientist at the Washington-based American
Institutes of Research, has suggested a model known as REACH, for Rate
of Expected Academic Change, that would judge schools based on whether
individual students were making enough progress annually to reach the
proficient level on state tests by the time they finished the highest
grade in a school. "The addition of
an individual-growth approach to current AYP models is the important
factor," argued Allan Olson, the president of the Northwest association,
a nonprofit group that provides assessment services to districts, "not
the particular approach that is added." In a March letter to
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, 16 chief state school officers
championed the use of growth models to meet the law’s AYP requirements. But Lauress L. Wise,
the president of the Human Resources Research Organization, in Gavin Payne, the chief
deputy superintendent of the "What has occurred
is the de facto federal pre-emption of what were once state prerogatives
in the area of educational accountability," Mr. Payne said. But others cautioned
that Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act, in part, because
states had been lax in their own accountability efforts under the previous
reauthorization of the ESEA, passed in 1994. "There’s almost
no reference to the massive failure of the states," said William
L. Taylor, the chairman of the Washington-based Citizens’ Commission
on Civil Rights, arguing that the papers presented at the conference
lacked historic context. Statistical Hurdles While agreeing on the
importance of closing achievement gaps, critics charge that requiring
schools to meet multiple targets for each subgroup results in a "statistical
gauntlet that penalizes schools serving the most diverse populations,"
in the words of Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor of education at Mr. Linn suggests that
states could reduce the instability in disaggregated results by averaging
scores across a number of years. The National Education
Association has proposed that schools be identified for improvement
or corrective action only when the same subgroup fails to meet performance
targets in the same subject for two or more consecutive years, a proposal
that so far has been rejected by federal officials as contrary to the
law. The union also would limit the provision of tutoring and school
choice to the particular subgroup that fails to make adequate progress,
rather than providing such options to all students in a school, as the
law now requires. Mr. Popham supports
basing the status of schools and districts on the performance of their
overall student populations, while continuing to report disaggregated
results publicly. To ensure that educators maintain their focus on subgroup
performance, he recommends that local citizen-review panels scrutinize
test scores and other relevant data on each school and release public
evaluation reports yearly. But Mr. Wiener of the
Education Trust contends that "accountability based on disaggregated
data is here to stay." His organization has highlighted numerous
examples of schools that appear to be successful based on schoolwide
averages that mask the poor performance of individual subgroups. The strongest critics
of the No Child Left Behind Act are pushing to broaden the evaluation
of schools far beyond test scores. The NEA, for example, wants to permit
states to incorporate additional measures—such as the percent of
students taking honors or Advanced Placement courses—into an accountability
index to evaluate school performance. And in a book published
this summer, Many Children Left Behind: How the No Child Left Behind
Act Is Damaging Our Children and Our Schools, Ms. Darling-Hammond and
others outline alternatives to test-based accountability that rely on
multiple measures. For instance, Monty
Neill, the executive director of the Limited standardized
testing in reading and mathematics would be used solely to check up
on school-level information and investigate discrepancies. In addition,
each school would report annually to the public on a range of quantitative
and qualitative data. On-site reviews of a school’s teaching and
learning environment every five years would supplement those efforts.
Classroom incentives / Akron Beacon Journal
(OH) George
Bush has No Child Left Behind. John Kerry has a focus on teachers Education qualifies
as a ``battleground'' issue in this presidential campaign. The relationship
among education, a strong economy and stable communities has grown clearer
than ever. The challenge is fashioning an equitable and effective system,
ensuring no one Is denied educational opportunity. President Bush offered
his answer for public education in the No Child Left Behind Act. The
law rightly stresses a high quality of education, regardless who the
students may be or their circumstances. The approach focuses on teaching,
testing and intervention but lacks the funds to put -- and keep -- enough
highly qualified teachers in classrooms. Sen. John Kerry, the
Democratic challenger, responded this spring with a plan he calls a
``new bargain,'' pledging ``a great teacher for every child.'' Kerry
proposes a $30 billion investment over 10 years to recruit and retain
teachers. Research findings are clear that superb teaching is the single
most consistent predictor of student success -- in high-poverty urban
and rural schools as well as in wealthy suburban schools. Providing an excellent
teacher for every child thus goes to the heart of the goal of an equitable
system that guarantees quality and opportunities for all. The question
is how to keep the system stoked with great teachers, particularly in
poverty- or violence-ridden schools that are hard to staff and in subjects
such as math and science that are chronically lack a sufficient number
of qualified teachers. In Kerry's great-teacher
initiative are ideas that are not exactly popular with teachers unions:
financial incentives beyond current bargaining agreements. Kerry proposes
raises of at least $5,000 and annual bonuses for teachers in schools
and classrooms with high needs and teachers in understaffed subjects
such as math and science. He wants higher pay for teachers who show
measurable improvements in their students or exceptional skills. He
also calls for a defined career path to expand the professional prospects
for those who excel in teaching. In addition, his plan includes procedures
that would dismiss teachers quickly for lack of performance. Opponents of incentives
like merit pay complain that they are arbitrary and subjective, even
punitive, in implementation. Yet Kerry offers a challenge
to raise the profile of teaching, to give excellence commensurate reward
and draw the best candidates into the profession. In the end, what makes
the difference is the will and the money to see sound ideas through
to reality. Transfer Policy Helps the Wrong Students The Parents Of Children
Who Are Doing Fine Are More Likely To Choose The Transfer Option. Struggling
Pupils Are Often The Ones Left Behind. The students who transfer
from one school to another under provisions of the No Child Left Behind
Act may not be the ones who need to go. The federal law allows
parents to move their children from a school that fails to meet "adequate
yearly progress" standards two years in a row. About 160 students
from five Nationally, about 6
percent of eligible students apply for transfers, Education Week reported
in its May 19 edition. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools this year, the
number is 17 percent. The transfer option
is good in theory because it gives parents who believe a school isn't
serving their children's needs an alternative. It has allowed low-income,
minority students to move to schools with less poverty and greater diversity,
according to a study by the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights in
The problem is that
all students at a so-called failing school are given the transfer option,
even if only one or two subgroups don't meet the assigned standard.
Children who are doing just fine are allowed to move out - and they
may be the first ones to go. "That's exactly
what's happening," Guilford County Superintendent Terry Grier said.
His office hasn't made that determination statistically yet, Grier added,
but initial observations indicate that most of the students moving are
already successful. It's likely that their parents think they'll do
better in a school with stronger overall academic performances. Meanwhile, parents of
children who are struggling may be less inclined to request transfers.
Many of those parents - for reasons of poverty, English deficiency or
other problems - are not engaged enough in their children's education
to exercise their options. Schools that lose their
best students will be left with higher concentrations of children who
present greater challenges for teachers, making it that much more difficult
to recruit and retain top educators. That could send those schools into
further decline. "We worry we will
be creating more of an impoverished school," Grier said. The No Child Left Behind
Act seems to let successful students leave behind those who aren't doing
as well. That wasn't its purpose. It should be modified so that only
the children who have a compelling reason to transfer do. No Child Left Behind scores are irrelevant The By No Child Left Behind
standards, I should crawl into a corner and weep. My little corner of
Yet I'm not planning
on losing any sleep over the No Child Left Behind scores that were reported
last week. Nor should you. Much of the appeal of
No Child Left Behind is that it's designed to be (1) alarming to schools
and (2) soothing to parents: Your school is failing! (But none of it
is your fault!) Take your kids, and run for sanctuary! (But don't make
any effort to pinpoint just why your school is failing, or what you,
as a parent, can do about it.) It's an easy sell for
parents who think they're just too busy to worry about their kids' schooling.
Take your kid out of a "bad" school; put her in a "better"
one. But don't let your concern lead you to attend site-based council
meetings and ask tough questions. Don't haunt the counseling offices
and ask for details about what courses your kid is taking, why more
advanced courses aren't available, and which teachers are best. Don't
become a thorn in the side of administrators. The fallacy of NCLB
is that it lets parents assume education will improve without their
lifting a finger. It allows parents of children who are failing in one
setting to simply pick up their problems and take them to another. But
is a high school student who can't read well enough to follow an elementary
text "fixed" by a simple change in scenery? What NCLB should remind
parents is that they have to know their schools down to the last molecule.
Know what courses your kid needs, and raise Cain until she gets them.
Go to teacher conferences. Drop in on classes. And don't be deterred
when some school employees groan when they see you coming. When you're
an advocate for your kids, you're not going to be everybody's best pal.
A school that's blowing
No Child Left Behind mandates might have teachers who routinely change
students' lives. No matter what the figures say, there's a teacher at
Bryan Station Middle who is simply the best teacher and mentor I've
ever met. There's a teacher at Bryan Station High who routinely smashes
bureaucratic barriers to make sure my son gets the best education opportunities
possible. Are such people reflected
in NCLB evaluations? No. Have they made all the
difference in my children's ability to achieve at high levels? Yes.
No Child Left Behind
is the education version of national terror-alert levels: A tool of
passing interest, a fine bit of propaganda. But should you use the No
Child Left Behind brouhaha to make decisions about where your kids go
to school? Absolutely not. Every kid deserves an
advocate, someone who sees him or her as an individual with unique needs
and gifts. NCLB doesn't guarantee that for any child. That's why NCLB
is only a paper tiger. Changing rules gave more Associated Press Newswires,
But when the 2003 progress
results came out last week, only a handful of districts were placed
on what is called "improvement status." In a move that surprised
some school officials, the 2003 results were based on the performance
of students only in schools that receive federal Title I funds, which
are targeted to schools with significant numbers of poor students. The 2002 rankings, based
on students in all schools in a school districts, showed nearly 200
districts with bad marks. State officials say
the new way of computing progress reports is the way it should be done
under No Child Left Behind, the school accountability law passed by
Congress in 2001. "The law is very
specific that you use Title I schools to determine the improvement status
of corporations," said Mary Tiede Wilhelmus, a spokeswoman for
the education department. But Lowell Rose of Bloomington,
a retired education administrator and a consultant to the Indiana Urban
Schools Association, said school officials expected to be judged on
the performance of all their schools. They first heard otherwise
in a June 16 memo from the education department, which said only Title
I schools would count toward accountability, he said. Under the No Child Left
Behind Act, districts that do not make adequate progress for two consecutive
years must draw up improvement plans and use federal funds to make changes.
Twenty-three school
districts will be in improvement status in 2004-05 because students
in their Title I schools did not make adequate progress for two years.
If the determination
had been based on all schools, rather than just Title I schools, about
120 districts would have been in improvement status, Rose said. Rose, a critic of No
Child Left Behind, said he's glad the state reduced the number of school
districts that could be labeled as failing. Under No Child Left
Behind, schools and districts must show progress in meeting standards
set by the states. In Schools that get Title
I assistance and don't make adequate progress for two years are put
in improvement status. They must let students transfer to other schools
and may face restructuring and staff changes. Schools and districts
are expected to make adequate yearly progress for all students and for
certain subgroups, including minority, limited-English, poor and special-education
students. State officials said
161 of Daschle, Thune split on No Child Left Behind Terry Woster, Argus
Leader, Democratic Sen. Tom
Daschle says the No Child Left Behind law that demands all students
meet certain standards should be fully funded or suspended. Republican challenger
John Thune says local flexibility, not more money, would improve the
act, a major initiative of the Bush administration's education policy.
There will never be enough money to satisfy all schools, says Thune,
but federal funding for education has increased 46 percent under President
Bush. But Daschle said the
law is underfunded by about $29 billion - $9.4 billion this year alone.
"That means we
have serious questions that confront every school about where these
resources must come from," Daschle said. "It amounts to an
unfunded mandate on these schools that they just can't handle, so other
things give. They're shifting resources to accommodate this new requirement
of the federal government. If we can't find funding, then we ought to
suspend the regulations.'' Thune agrees that when
additional requirements are imposed, those must be funded. But he said
that, while the act might not yet be funded at the level authorized
by Congress, federal money to schools has increased. "A number of people
in education tell me money isn't the biggest issue, the real issue is
not enough flexibility,'' he said. "Schools need to be able to
respond to local conditions and local needs.'' A study by the National
Conference of State Legislatures released in May found that the 2004
appropriation from Congress for the provision was $9.6 billion less
than the amount authorized in the act for the activities required of
states. The Senate candidates
made their comments in recent interviews as Daschle was scheduled
to talk about the federal act today with Sioux Falls Superintendent
Pam Homan and others at a meeting at Last year, the state
Education Department released report cards that showed 71 percent of
students were proficient or advanced in reading and 59 percent were
proficient or advanced in math. The report also showed 33 schools in
need of improvement. Daschle and Thune agree
that the act was passed as members of Congress tried to respond to a
national demand for greater accountability and better performances in
schools. They disagree on whether they act is meeting that goal. People in Need for flexibility
The law doesn't offer
enough flexibility for differences in schools and students, he said.
It also provides too little money, forces teachers to "teach to
the test'' and holds some students, especially those with disabilities,
to unrealistically high standards, he said. Teachers have complained
about the emphasis on test scores, Daschle said. "I think that's
a real problem,'' he said. "I think there's a real concern that
we're getting away from probably one of the most fundamental tenets
of good education, to teach children to learn once they've left schools
rather than to teach them to test well.'' Thune said flexibility
is an issue. But that's to be expected in a law written at the national
level and intended to apply to all schools in all states, he said. "I think No Child
Left Behind was primarily directed … at inner city schools,'' Thune
said. "We're doing well in Thune said the law may
pressure schools to teach to the test, but he said that isn't necessarily
a bad thing. "If teaching to
the test gives students the skill sets and the knowledge necessary,
what's wrong with that?'' he asked. "The key is to make sure we're
testing in a way that measures what we want them to learn.'' Avon Superintendent
Tom Oster said the law has forced schools to focus on what they are
teaching students. "I don't see that
as a problem if the tests show whether students are learning what we
want them to know,'' Oster said. "If I'm going to take a driving
test, I read the driving manual, I don't read Greek.'' Oster said the federal
law has caused his district to shift some funds but hasn't greatly increased
costs. Special education Expectations of how
special education students should perform is one of the major concerns
among educators, he said. "What I hear is
that there's a severe problem with special education, with expecting
all students with disabilities to meet uniform standards,'' Oster said.
"There are more than 40 different ways your school can not meet
the standards or the bar, but the primary concern is with special education.
You need to be careful about that, because we want students to be challenged
and to do as well as any other student. But with some disabilities,
they'll never be able to achieve at a certain level. I think we have
an unrealistic bar for that.'' Thune said it's likely
the law will see some changes in response to criticisms about the one-size-fits-all
approach. That concern exists within "We have some big
differences between Daschle isn't optimistic
that the law will be changed in any fundamental way in the near future.
"We've had various
proposals to amend it, but so far because of administration opposition,
they haven't passed,'' he said. Oster said he thinks
the law will change over time as Congress sees how some schools struggle,
especially with the requirement for 100 percent proficiency in the next
decade. "I don't think
that's possible,'' he said. "And if rural More schools making the grade; DIANE CARROLL, The Fifteen Title I schools
landed on the list of schools in need of improvement, compared with
30 the year before, Assistant Education Commissioner Alexa Pochowski
told the state Board of Education. Among them are seven schools in the
The number of school
districts needing improvement dropped from seven to six. On this list
are The state plans to release
information on how non-Title I schools fared under No Child Left Behind
in October. The list declined partly
because the U.S. Department of Education allowed states to be more flexible
in determining whether schools met the goals, Pochowski said. In addition,
she and Education Commissioner Andy Tompkins said, teachers have stepped
up to help every student learn. "Our faculty have
really responded, and you're going to see that in the results,"
Tompkins said. The state is still evaluating
President Bush signed
No Child Left Behind into law in 2002. The federal education law states
that all children must be proficient in math and reading by the year
2014. States define proficiency and determine their own annual benchmarks.
Each school must meet the benchmarks as a whole. Ten subgroups of students,
such as English-language learners and African-Americans, also must meet
the marks. If even one subgroup
in a school misses the mark, the whole school can be labeled as failing
to make "adequate yearly progress." Failure to make progress
two years in a row could place the school on a needs-improvement list.
Title 1 schools on that
list must offer students the option of attending a better-performing
school in the district. If the school remains on the list a second year,
it must offer either school choice or supplemental services, such as
free tutoring. In the third, fourth and fifth years on the list, the
state can initiate corrective actions that could include shutting down
a school. Under the law, non-Title
I schools are not eligible for school choice or tutoring. They are not
subject to the sanctions either. The The Leavenworth Schools
are Earl M. Lawson Elementary and Nettie Hartnett Elementary. The Turner
district has no schools on the list. The district is on the list because
of a districtwide reading score that missed the mark. "I want the community
to clearly understand that when a school is on improvement (the list),
it doesn't mean that the school is falling short on improving student
achievement," Daniels said. "For the fourth consecutive year,
student achievement results in both math and reading have risen in our
district." On other matters Tuesday,
the state board resolved its disagreement over whether the standards
for history/government instruction in Conservative Republican
Steve Abrams of Bruce Wyatt, a moderate
Republican from Also, the board voted
7-3 to recommend that the state increase the education budget by 6 percent.
Voting against it were Sue Gamble, Bill Wagnon and Janet Waugh. Gamble
has said the schools needed a bigger boost than that. Rod Paige passionately
defends No Child Left Behind. He also overlooks the reality of the federal
mandate Rod Paige is nothing
if not passionate about doing right, educationally speaking, by all
students. On a visit to Paige offered a most
credible rationale for the federal role in education, which he says
has become ``a national security issue of the first order,'' with The law rightly holds
states and school districts to the responsibility of closing the achievement
gap. It applies pressure to do so through requirements such as the call
for ``adequate yearly progress,'' asking schools to show the advances
made annually by all students -- minorities, low-income, new speakers
of English and special education students included. Paige contends that
in NCLB, the White House and Congress have provided a framework and
funding that is ``perfectly sufficient'' to produce the necessary progress.
To critics who charge the law is severely underfunded (for instance,
John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate), Paige points to
the increases in federal money for primary and secondary education the
past three years. There is no question
the federal outlay has increased substantially. The critical concern
is that the NCLB requirements generate additional implementation costs
that the Bush team too easily describes as strictly state and local
responsibilities. Take one aspect of the
adequate yearly progress requirement. It demands that all student groups
be tested and reach annual state proficiency targets. Parents can request
a transfer if their schools fail three years in a row to meet the targets.
School districts must honor the request, whether there is room in the
preferred buildings or not. The Department of Education
argues conveniently that it is not in the business of accommodating
students, paying for utilities, buying gasoline or transporting students,
that these are state and local concerns. Yet these are some of the extra
costs that can accrue as a result of the federal requirements. A study
commissioned by the Ohio Department of Education last year to project
the cost of implementing the law concluded that meeting the goal would
require nearly $1.5 billion a year more than the feds provide The No Child Left Behind
Act is undeniably a serious effort to address a major shortcoming in
public education. If education, indeed, is a national security issue,
it is essential that the federal government assume its full responsibility
to target the necessary resources where the needs are the greatest.
No Child Left Behind gives DAVID HAMMER, Associated
Press Newswires, NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Kathleen Leos, the federal
associate deputy undersecretary of education, visited The money was added
to the $5.2 million the migrant program already received this year through
the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Cosme said it should help But Leos said several
states are dangerously close to losing large portions of their federal
funding because money is sitting unused. A recent letter from Education
Secretary Rod Paige warns that if all No Child Left Behind funds for
2004 aren't obligated by Sept. 30 or used by Dec. 31, the unused portion
goes back to the U.S. Treasury. "We're telling
the states, we don't want your money back," Leos said. Leos said Charles Watson, program
manager for the Still, the unused money
could be an issue in an election-year battle over No Child Left Behind,
which provides a total of $206 million for John Emekli, spokesman
for Democrat John Kerry's presidential campaign in Emekli said that Kerry,
if elected, plans to increase Leos says that's a misinterpretation
and it's the states, not the Bush administration, that have failed to
use all of the money. "Don't talk about
unfunded mandates when you're not spending your funds," Leos said
Monday. For the state's part,
Watson said it's not always as simple as just spending what the federal
government gives. He says restrictions on how the money can be used
cause funding shortfalls in mandated parts of No Child Left Behind,
like assessments of classroom performance. "One of the amounts
of money we get is a discretionary grant to support community service
projects for students who are wards of the court, juvenile delinquents,"
Watson said. "We can't use that money to support our assessment
system. No Child Left Behind has given us $5 million for assessment,
but we're spending close to $10 million." The increase Monday
for the migrant program was regarded as much-needed relief. The children, most of
whom speak Spanish, constantly move around the country while their parents
take seasonal jobs in agriculture and food processing. If they are not
American citizens they are even more susceptible to record-keeping problems
and, therefore, to dropping out of school, Cosme said. The schools are prohibited
by law from identifying undocumented immigrants or informing immigration
officials. Trial begins in ASSOCIATED PRESS, The state's share-the-wealth
school finance system went on trial yesterday as lawyers for more than
300 districts argued the system's dependence on local property taxes
is flawed and unconstitutional. The dispute highlights
a dilemma states across the country are experiencing: how to adequately
educate students in an era of new curriculum standards, mandates under
the federal No Child Left Behind act and growing student populations.
" The trial could last
up to six weeks, and it is almost certain the judge's ruling will be
appealed. The state contends that
the current system, devised after another lawsuit a decade ago, meets
constitutional requirements for providing for the state's 4.3 million
students, pumping nearly $30 billion a year into more than 1,000 districts.
Charter schools improve, but struggle to meet federal
achievement goals TIM MARTIN, Associated
Press Newswires, But there also are positive
signs for charter schools in the report, requested by the state Board
of Education. State education officials declined to draw broad conclusions
from the data, primarily based on results from last school year's Michigan
Educational Assessment Program tests taken by elementary and middle
school students. "There is a wide
variety of performance for charter schools," board member John
Austin said. "We have some excellent charter schools, and some
that are not making headway." About 34 percent of
charter schools reported on face some sort of sanction for not making
adequate progress under the law's guidelines. That compares with about
16 percent of public schools statewide that face sanctions. The most
typical sanction allows students to transfer to better-performing schools
within a district. Dan Quisenberry, president
of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, said that charter
schools are closing the gap and in have some cases have exceeded their
traditional K-12 urban peers on MEAP scores. "The gains that
are being made are huge," Quisenberry said. "Year after year,
our schools are improving quickly." Jim Goenner, director
of the charter school office at Charter schools targeted
for improvement in the last school year performed fairly well compared
to traditional schools. About 40 percent of schools in both groups improved
enough to meet adequate yearly progress goals, either escaping further
No Child Left Behind sanctions or getting off the sanctions list altogether.
A school must meet standards
for two consecutive years to be removed from the sanctions list. State Board of Education
members expressed concern about the percentage of certified teachers
at About 76 percent of
charter school teachers are certified, compared to 98 percent in traditional
K-12 public schools. The percentage of certified
teachers varies widely by the charter schools' authorizing organization.
More than 90 percent
of the teachers in charters authorized by States like Opinion, The News Journal,
The goal of the federal
No Child Left Behind Law is admirable. Every student in the Children who are bright
and eager, who come to school well fed with their homework finished
are a teacher's ideal. Poor and minority students or those who don't
learn so readily too often are subject to low expectations. Delaware Secretary of
Education Valerie Woodruff and several predecessors have shepherded
higher academic standards and new curricula in public schools here.
Delaware was one of
about a dozen states already imposing school reforms before the No Child
Left Behind law. That has put these states at a disadvantage. The law
gives federal education officials the power to direct state action.
The intention is to push states whose practices do not meet goals. But
the law has forced Federal officials have
eased regulations for many states because so many failed to meet standards
- a political liability as elections loom. Because of unrealistic
federal regulations, The lowest rating, academic
watch, is for schools who fail to meet standards for two or more years.
Superior schools meet all the most rigorous criteria. Failing schools
can lose money or be subject to state takeover under the No Child Left
Behind law. Secretary Woodruff has
been unfairly criticized by some district superintendents for not keeping
federal officials at bay. It wasn't for lack of trying. She fought to
allow The aim of No Child
Left Behind is worthwhile. There should be no retreat from insistence
that all children are capable of learning. But just as Delaware has
had to find alternatives to testing as the sole measure of success,
the federal government should adjust its narrow rules for state success
in the No Child Left Behind law. When Michael Castle
was governor, he saw state educators' resistance to change. He has insisted
that the federal law he helped draft be strictly followed. Now he should
be willing to adjust the law, without giving an inch on its underlying
principle of fairness for all students. They're Meaningless;
But With Different Motivation, It Doesn't Have To Be That Way Matt Johanson, School officials across
the state will rejoice or anguish Monday when the California Department
of Education releases Academic Performance Index scores. That's because
high-scoring schools are rewarded with grant money, while low-performing
schools are punished with threats to fire their principals or take over
their campuses. Compiled from Standardized
Testing and Reporting (STAR) results, API scores serve as a report card
for public schools. But I won't get excited no matter what kind of scores
my school receives. That's because as a teacher who has proctored STAR
for six years, I've seen something that the general public hasn't seen:
countless students bubbling in answers without even reading the test
questions. I know the lack of student motivation destroys the program's
validity. Teachers strive to motivate
students for STAR every year. Perhaps this works in second grade, when
7-year-olds test for the first of 10 straight years. But by high school,
students know STAR has no effect on their grades. They know they don't
need to pass to graduate or attend college. They certainly don't worry
about their schools' API ratings. When you were a teenager, would you
have? At one time, the state
awarded $1,000 scholarships to the top 10 percent of high school test
takers. But as the economy went south, the Legislature canceled the
awards. Most students were informed long after the week-long barrage
of tests. Those who sweated over STAR in hopes of scholarship money
had every right to feel cheated. Last school year, schools had to push
the test without the only enticement the program ever had. For this
reason, lower scores statewide wouldn't surprise me a bit. Nor would
they concern me. STAR scores have no meaning to high school students.
But it doesn't have to be this way. Connect STAR scores
to graduation, or to grade point average, or to college admission. Consider
consolidating STAR with the high school exit exam. The state can no
longer afford $100 million a year in award money, but we don't need
to if we motivate students another way. STAR will be a farce until all
students have an individual stake in the outcome. In addition, schools
should not be penalized because some families exempt their children
from testing. Under requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind
Act, schools automatically flunk unless 95 percent of their students
test. But students don't have to test if their parents excuse them.
When kids learn this, they jump at the chance to skip out, and who can
blame them? This does not indicate a failing school. The No Child Left Behind
Act requires testing based on state standards. However, STAR tests much
more extensively than the act requires and wipes out an entire week
of instruction each spring for 4.5 million students. Scale back the
program's bulk. This would restore teaching time and cut STAR's expense.
Illinois State Board of Education |
