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News Clips –
ISBE/STATE
Governor Tries To Streamline ISBE Bureaucracy Southern Illinoisan
Editorial Gov. Rod Blagojevich
charged up a mighty hill early this year when he vowed to take on and
dismantle the Illinois State Board of Education. In the summer legislative
session, he didn't get all that he wanted - but he got part of it. The
governor now has new powers in naming who will serve on the board. The governor flexed
some of his new muscles this week by exercising his new power in appointing
seven members of the ISBE. Among the appointees
is Andrea Brown who served as the regional superintendent for Alexander,
Johnson, Massac, Pulaski and Union counties from 1994 to 2003. She is
a highly regarded, respected educator who has been in the profession
for 45 years. Other new appointees include David Fields, an independent
from In making the appointments,
the governor says he is renewing his commitment to make the state board
of education "accountable" to him. "Under the current
system, new governors have not been able to appoint the members of the
state board of education, meaning there's no relationship, no accountability,
no opportunity to move a new administration's education agenda forward,"
Blagojevich said "Now there is. And that means the state board
of education is going to be expected to accomplish more and do better
than it ever has." Of course, this is always
part of the danger in political appointments, as the appointees often
become entangled in political matters and not focused on sticking to
the task at hand. Though Blagojevich's
stance on the state board of education has raised some eyebrows, his
basic message appears to be on the mark. The governor argues that while
we taxpayers are pouring millions of dollars into the bureaucracy of
the state board of education, we don't seem to be getting our money's
worth in return. In essence, the governor
and many Illinoisans believe that the board has simply passed down rules
and regulations that have shackled local school districts and created
unnecessary expense. For now, Blagojevich
and his new board members are embarking on an experimental leg of this
journey. The true measure of success will be when they streamline costs
and begin to weed out the unnecessary bureaucracy generated at the board
level and passed down to local school districts. For the good of our
education system and the hard-working taxpayers who are supporting it,
we hope this is a step in the right direction. Too many teachers and
principals have become slaves to paperwork and haven't been able to
spend all of the time they need to devote to teaching. Education is about learning,
it's not about bureaucracy. Well, Gov. Rod Blagojevich
won't have the State Board of Education to kick around anymore. This
week he appointed six new members to the nine-member panel, and now
the board's majority is a mirror image of him. Consider Ed Geppert
Jr., a new member from The governor didn't
get a new department, but lawmakers gave him the power to appoint his
own board. Geppert is now thrilled
to be on the board. He said one of his priorities will be to reduce
the number of rules and regulations imposed on teachers by "well-meaning
people who just don't understand the teachers this affects." If previous boards had
too few people in education, this new one has too many. Ron Gidwitz,
the former chairman ousted by Blagojevich, put it succinctly in the
Chicago Tribune: "They all come from the fraternity of education.
You need that last look by people who are not in the middle of the education
process to ask the fundamental hard questions, (such as) 'Does this
make sense?" We'll be surprised if
these changes benefit anyone except the governor, who wants control
of more jobs for his cronies. Current Superintendent Robert Schiller
resisted that, which is why the board's first order of business likely
will be to get rid of him. Whatever happens with
schools, good or bad, Blagojevich now has full control and full responsibility. Chester man appointed Interim State School Superintendent The Illinois State Board
of Education today appointed Dr. Randy J. Dunn of Dunn began his education
career as a fourth grade teacher in Dunn’s education
background includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education
with an emphasis on "Education is my
passion," said Dunn. "I can’t think of a better way or
a better time to serve New schools chief comes through 'revolving door' By John Patterson, Daily
Herald State Government Editor, Randy Dunn, an education
professor at Southern Illinois University at "Dr. Schiller has
requested this two-week leave of absence for personal reasons,"
said board member Brenda Holmes, formerly Gov. Rod Blagojevich's top
education aide. "We do believe his resignation will become permanent
at that time." Schiller's Contacted after the
meeting, Schiller declined to comment. Schiller's exit and
Dunn's entrance marked the latest example of the frequent turnover at
the state's education helm. The lack of consistency from this agency
regarding policies and testing along with state funding issues remain
the subject of routine scorn throughout the state's education community. "In the grand scheme
of things, I think my superintendents are more concerned in a big way
with school funding," said Donna Baiocchi, executive director of
the suburban education group ED-RED. "As much as there's the perception
that suburban schools are doing fine financially, they're not. And that's
a much greater concern than who's state superintendent this month."
Dunn becomes the fifth
state superintendent since 1999 to oversee an agency whose front doors
carry this ironic notice: "Please use revolving door." "I think it's been
a tremendous problem over the years. There's been a tremendous revolving
door of superintendents," said Holmes. Monday marked the first
meeting of the state board since Blagojevich wielded a new law last
week that let him dump the previous board and name nine new members.
However, the governor's office began interviewing candidates to replace
Schiller as far back as July and picked Dunn at least a week ago. Two suburban board members
- the only two Blagojevich kept from the previous board - voted against
hiring Dunn, saying they'd first received his resume at the 7:30 a.m.
meeting. Board Chairman Jesse Ruiz reminded them the governor's aides
interviewed candidates and settled on Dunn. "I understand,"
responded board member Dean Clark of The Illinois State Board
of Education was created as an independent agency. Joyce Karon, a board
member from Dunn started work immediately.
He will be paid $115,000 a year. Exactly how long he plans to serve
is uncertain. He said there's no strict timeline for the search the
governor's staff is conducting for a bona fide state superintendent. Dunn was announced last
month as the new education dean at Schiller
Ouster: SIUC's BY CALEB HALE, Dunn, a Chester resident
and chairman of SIUC's Department of Educational Administration and
Higher Education, was placed in the post by a 7-2 vote of state board
of education members during a special meeting. His appointment was coined
an interim position, as the board will be looking for a permanent replacement
for Superintendent Robert Schiller. The board granted Schiller
a 10-day leave of absence, and the body is expected to buy out the remaining
year left on Schiller's contract for no more than $160,000. Dunn will
earn $115,000 annually for his service. Monday's meeting marked
the changes Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he's wanted to see in the state
board of education for some time. Last week the governor appointed seven
new people to the nine-member board, including Goreville resident Andrea
Brown, a former regional superintendent. Blagojevich also selected
Dunn as state superintendent for the interim. "We're very excited
about Randy Dunn," Blagojevich said on a visit to "We want to shake
things up in the education system; we need to make things better."
Among the changes Blagojevich
wants to see -- accountability. The governor said the board is going
to be held accountable, not only to him but to the parents of children
who attend public schools in Dunn echoed Blagojevich's
sentiments during a press conference in "I'm looking forward
to getting a new era under way at this agency," he said. "Clearly
this is a watershed change, and I think it's a good one. It's going
to be the mark of a different way of doing business in education."
Dunn, a former school
superintendent, said he falls in line with Blagojevich's ideas for education
in the state. He said he wants to see education thrive under a "unified
leadership." Dunn said he is part of the team for that purpose
but said the state board remains in tact as an independent agency. Dunn said concerns have
been expressed about the state board working under the governor's thumb,
but he added everyone should give the leadership a chance to try something
new. "I will submit
to you what we've had in the past...has not gotten us to where we need
to be," he said. Dunn will be getting
the state board started on this new era, but he said he doesn't intend
to lead the way permanently. He is currently on an indefinite, non-paid
leave of absence from SIUC. "I'm coming on
a temporary basis from one of the best jobs you can have -- a full-tenured
university professor -- in one of the most beautiful areas of the state,"
Dunn said. While he isn't sure
about the length of time he will be serving as state superintendent,
Dunn said both the board and the governor will be conducting national
searches for a permanent replacement to Schiller. Dunn's introduction
Monday didn't come without some dissent. While seven members of the
state board, all newly appointed by Blagojevich, approved Dunn for the
state superintendent position, two members, Dean Clark, of When contacted by phone,
"I am not one of
those people who are opposed to change, because I think change is inherently
bad," Education officials
in Dan Anderson, regional
superintendent for Union, Massac, Alexander, Pulaski and Johnson counties,
said Dunn will bring a great deal of sensitivity to the needs of rural
school districts to the posts. "He has helped
train a lot of the administrators who are now at those schools,"
He said he wasn't happy
with the way the governor removed Schiller but if he had to be replaced,
"I do hope there
is just not an automatic effort to change everything, just because it
is part of the old system," Keith Hillkirk, an SIUC
colleague of Dunn's and dean of the university's college of education
and human resources, said Dunn's experience should be considered a valued
asset. "Policymakers and
educators are recognizing the need for as much seamlessness as possible
from pre-school through graduate school," Hillkirk said. "So
the fact that Dunn has the breadth of experience and understanding of
education from both a public school and higher education perspective
will be invaluable in his new role." New ISBE gives Schiller
a paid leave of absence By ADRIANA COLINDRES,
State Journal-Register State Capitol Bureau, The reworked Illinois
State Board of Education on Monday named a college professor as interim
state superintendent to succeed Robert Schiller, who asked for and got
a 10-day paid leave of absence. Randy Dunn, who started
Monday as interim superintendent, said he is "looking forward to
getting a new era under way for this agency." Dunn said he expects
the board to have "a unified leadership team, which will get everything
pulling in one direction." "That's something
we have not had in this state," he said. "It's time we had
it in At a special meeting
Monday morning, the board voted 7-2 to hire Dunn and pay him a salary
of $115,000. All seven board members
appointed last week by Gov. Rod Blagojevich voted for the move, while
the two holdover members from the previous board opposed it. One of them, Dean Clark
of "The governor's
office did conduct the search and did vet candidates," board chairman
Jesse Ruiz said. Dunn is on unpaid leave
as chairman of the Department of Educational Administration and Higher
Education at Southern Illinois University at Dunn said the governor's
office contacted him about the superintendent's job in early July. About
a week ago, he was told he likely would get it. Dunn said he will live
in Blagojevich said he
plans to recommend a candidate for the superintendent's job after a
nationwide search. The board has the authority to make a final decision
on hiring. Dunn, 46, earned a bachelor's
degree in elementary education /reading and a master's degree in educational
administration from A native of Aledo, Dunn
has served as a teacher and school administrator in several Dunn appointed Mark
Kolaz assistant superintendent for operations at the agency and Jonathan
Furr, formerly of the Department of Natural Resources, as the board's
general counsel. Eamon Kelly, who has been an aide to Deputy Gov. Bradley
Tusk, will be interim chief of staff. A longtime state government
employee, Kolaz most recently has been senior adviser to the governor
for legislative affairs and deputy director of the Department of Agriculture.
His duties have included managing the Illinois State Fair. Schiller is expected
either to resign the superintendent's job or be fired by the end of
the month. The board believes "that
we do need to move forward with new leadership," said member Brenda
Holmes, who previously was the governor's deputy chief of staff for
education. "We believe Superintendent Schiller is of that mind,
as well." In another 7-2 vote
Monday, the board authorized Ruiz to enter into a "separation agreement"
with Schiller that would pay him no more than $160,000. Schiller's $225,000-a-year
contract with the board expires in July 2005. In a letter dated Monday,
Schiller asked the board for a paid leave of absence until Sept. 30.
After that, he wrote, he might offer his resignation. Schiller said he sought
the leave of absence to deal with "personal concerns," including
damage caused to his and his wife's The board met at State
board follows script from governor State Journal-Register
Editorial, Gov. Rod Blagojevich
can move agonizingly slow on some matters, but he proved last week that
once he makes up his mind, he wastes no time. Just last week, Blagojevich
named seven new members to the Illinois State Board of Education. While
Blagojevich had hoped to do away with the state board and create a new
education department under his control, this was the best compromise
he could get from the General Assembly. It became vividly clear
on Monday that even though Blagojevich did not get everything he wanted
in the compromise, he got a lot. And the newly constructed board was
quick to show it can march to Blagojevich’s orders. A meeting was scheduled
for Monday to discuss the future of State School Superintendent Robert
Schiller. That was the story anyway. Of course, all the discussions
had already taken place. What took place Monday was what Blagojevich
wanted - a well-rehearsed canning of Schiller, or the beginning of that
process anyway. We weren’t surprised.
In fact, people in the governor’s office all but confirmed last
week that Schiller would be gone come Monday, and the governor had called
for his head months ago. That made the whole phony march up to the firing
that much more difficult to swallow. Jesse Ruiz, the newly
appointed state school board chairman, said last week after being sworn
in that he had “no preconceived notions” about Schiller. When
asked late last week by WMAY’s morning show host, Jim Leach, Ruiz
even went as far as to say that Schiller had done a “fine”
job as state superintendent. All the while, Team
Blagojevich had the script for Schiller’s sacking ready to go.
After a bit of a protest from one of the holdover board members, the
seven new team players approved placing Schiller on a leave of absence
until the end of the month. Apparently, at that time Schiller’s
“resignation” - as in resign so we don’t have to fire
you - will take place. The board also authorized
paying Schiller $160,000 to step aside. We toyed with the idea last
week of making a public plea for the governor to retain Schiller. We
have been impressed with Schiller’s knowledge of what is needed
to improve education and with his track record of making improvements
in other state’s and school districts. It was clear, however,
that Blagojevich wanted more than a board to control - he also wanted
a new superintendent. That is the governor’s prerogative, but why
the need to have his people - including his new board chairman - lie
about what was about to happen? We are pretty sure Blagojevich
would not tolerate such behavior from his elementary school daughter.
Yet, he does not seem bothered by sending his new appointee out to say
he has “no preconceived notion” about Schiller’s fate
when in fact he already has his marching orders to fire the guy. If there is good news
in this mess, it is that Blagojevich seems to have found a qualified
candidate to serve as interim state superintendent - Randy Dunn, a faculty
member at Southern Illinois University at For those keeping score,
that’s $275,000 to swap one competent guy for another. We have
some preconceived notions about that. Kate Clements, The News-Gazette "I'm looking forward
to getting a new era under way for this agency," Dunn said. "I
think it's an exciting time for the Illinois State Board of Education.
Clearly this is a watershed change that's taking place in this state,
and I think it's a welcome one." Dunn was appointed on
Monday to replace State Superintendent Robert Schiller, who is on a
two-week paid leave of absence while the State Board of Education negotiates
a deal to buy out the rest of his $225,000-a-year contract, which expires
July 31, 2005. Schiller, who was hired
before Blagojevich took office, requested the leave in a letter faxed
to the State Board of Education on Monday morning, saying that he and
his wife needed to deal with "personal challenges as a result of
the devastation of our Schiller's ouster has
been widely anticipated since the start of the year, when Blagojevich
spent almost his entire State of the State Address attacking the State
Board of Education. After Blagojevich signed legislation granting him
the power to replace seven of the board's nine members last week, it
was only a matter of time. The new members, including
David Fields of The Illinois Constitution
provides that the State Board of Education chooses the chief state education
officer, but in engineering Schiller's termination and Dunn's appointment,
the governor has shown he plans to exhibit much more control over the
quasi-independent board's selection. Dunn even referred to
himself on Monday as "a member of the governor's leadership team." In a statement Monday,
Blagojevich said he intends to propose a permanent state superintendent
candidate after conducting a nationwide search. Those duties are usually
handled by the board, not the governor. Dean Clark, one of only
two members remaining from the old state board, protested the decision
to name Dunn the interim schools chief, saying he had only received
his resume that morning and "had insufficient time to review"
it. Clark and the other remaining board member, Joyce Karon, voted no
on Dunn's appointment. Clark and Karon also voted no on a motion to
negotiate a buyout for the remainder of Schiller's contract, which ends
The seven new members
all voted yes on both items. New board member Brenda
Holmes, who recently retired as Blagojevich's deputy chief of staff
for education, said Dunn had been chosen from a pool of four candidates
the administration interviewed during the months of July and August
and that each new board member had had a chance to converse with him.
Chairman Ruiz said he
felt comfortable with the decision because the governor's office had
conducted a search and vetted candidates. "As an educator
with experience on many levels, Dr. Dunn is the right person to step
in immediately to manage the agency," Ruiz said. Dunn told reporters
that he had been in contact with the governor's office since early July,
and had known for seven to 10 days that he was likely to be named to
the interim position. Dunn said he had been working with the administration
to lay the groundwork for significant changes at the state board and
had input in choosing the new staff members named Monday. "It was not the
case that I was dictated to or told these people are coming with you
or what have you," he said. "I was part of that process."
Dunn appointed Deputy
Director of Agriculture Mark Kolaz as assistant superintendent for operations
and named Jonathan Furr as the board's new general counsel. Furr had
been general counsel for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
Eamon Kelly will be interim chief of staff. The names and titles of
the six other new staff members were not available on Monday. Dunn, whose first job
was teaching fourth grade in As interim superintendent,
he will be paid $115,000 a year, with a benefits package in line with
what other state agency directors receive. Dunn told reporters
he would not apply for the permanent position, but is willing to remain
interim state superintendent for as long as it takes to select the new
state superintendent. "This is a delicate
and exciting time of transition at the Illinois State Board of Education,"
Blagojevich said in a written release. "I believe Randy Dunn has
the right background and experience in both classroom instruction and
education administration to mange the agency during this critical time.
Working with the state board, Randy can help us achieve our goals of
improving the way we educate Blagojevich has asked
the new board members to focus on catching up on the teacher certification
backlog; reducing the number of rules, regulations and mandates on local
school districts; looking for cost savings; and coming up with new policy
initiatives that reflect his education priorities of early childhood
education, reading and parental involvement. The board's next meeting
is scheduled for Governor
commends ISBE for appointing Randy Dunn of Chester Governor Blagojevich
Monday commended the Illinois State Board of Education for appointing
Dr. Randy Dunn as Interim Superintendent of Education. Dunn, of Dunn will serve in an
interim capacity and Gov. Blagojevich expects to propose a candidate
to serve as the permanent Superintendent following a nationwide search. Dunn rose through the
education ranks during his twenty-year career – starting out as
a fourth grade teacher in Governor Blagojevich
thanked Dunn for accepting ISBE’s appointment, which will be a
challenging and exciting opportunity to help move New faces on state board, same problems for education Gov. Rod Blagojevich
didn't get the new education agency he wanted. But he got the next best
thing: He appointed a new state board last week and, this week, he picked
a new state superintendent of education. It reminds us of the
line, be careful what you wish for. With control comes accountability.
The bureaucrats Blagojevich once ridiculed are now all saying, in unison:
Good morning, Mr. Governor. And the governor, if
he's been paying attention, should be frightened by the view. Of the
888 school districts in Who could blame them?
For four decades or more, But the level of disparity
is shocking. In places like A study in 2002 by the
Education Trust showed that As if the funding situation
wasn't enough of a challenge, there's the No Child Left Behind Act,
the federal mandate for improving academic performance. In a 2003 Condition
of Education report, the state says public schools will fall short of
the federal goal of meeting or exceeding standards in reading, math,
science, attendance and graduation standards by 2014. " Blagojevich must understand
that new pilots alone can't solve intrinsic problems with the machinery.
The governor must want change, and he must want it enough to rally citizens
and expend political capital for solutions. Mayor Daley wanted Blagojevich
to start searching for solutions to education funding when the legislative
session ended. In July. Now the summer is over,
and Blagojevich still doesn't have a game plan. But he has changed his
lineup. Good morning, Mr. Governor.
We're still waiting. Dunn’s Appointment Bodes Well for Education Southern Illinoisan
Editorial, News that Randy Dunn
was named interim state school superintendent has been greeted with
applause from Dunn's hometown of Dunn, who has served
as chair of Southern Illinois University's Department of Educational
Administration, was named to the post in a special meeting Monday of
the Illinois State Board of Education. Many predict Dunn will
be a breath of fresh air for the state education agency. He's been a
hands-on leader who has seen first hand the challenges our local school
districts face. Too many times in Illinois history, we've had state
school superintendents who were more focused on theory, ambition or
politics and not about the difficulties local school districts across
Illinois face day-to-day. Dunn began his career
as an elementary school teacher in Dunn has obviously embraced
Gov. Rod Blagojevich's view that the state board of education has acted
like a "Soviet-style bureaucracy" that has become more of
a hindrance than a help to local school districts. "We want to shake
things up in the education system," the governor said in making
the appointment. "We need to make things better." A week ago, Blagojevich
exercised his new powers of state school board appointments, naming
seven individuals to the board, including longtime educator Andrea Brown
of Goreville. Like Dunn, Brown is a respected veteran educator who has
seen first hand the challenges local school districts face. Our schools have faced
serious challenges in recent years and now we have some understanding
ears which will hear our pleas for support. What our students need
and what we as taxpayers deserve is a state board of education focused
on learning and education and not bureaucracy and red tape. Naming Dunn as interim
superintendent is a very good move, as we see it. Naturally, we'd like
to see him advance to the full title and see the "interim"
title dropped. As we offer our congratulations
to Dunn, we know that in this case, the schoolchildren of Blagojevich
will get credit -- or blame -- on education Column by Bernard Schoenburg,
State Journal-Register, Why is there a need
for an education department under the governor when he's running the
place anyway? That could be the question
after the first moves of the new State Board of Education. Gov. Rod
Blagojevich has said he wants to be held responsible for education in
As you might recall,
Blagojevich ranted and raved about the bad old state board and its "Soviet-style
bureaucracy" when he delivered his second State of the State address
last winter. He proposed converting the independent board set up by
the 1970 Illinois Constitution to a think tank, and leaving day-to-day
operations to a department under the governor. No go, the legislature
ended up saying. But a compromise allowed the governor to name seven
of the nine members of the board. It was with great fanfare
last week that the governor appointed the new group, including Chairman
Jesse Ruiz. Ruiz told reporters
at the time he had "no preconceived notions" about whether
state School Superintendent Robert Schiller would stay or go. The governor also said
he hadn't talked about Schiller's future with Ruiz. Of course, six days
later, the new board gave Schiller a leave of absence and hired Randy
Dunn, who has been chairman of Southern Illinois University's Department
of Educational Administration and Higher Education, as interim state
superintendent for $115,000 annually. It looked pretty well
planned, and as it turns out, the governor's staff had done a lot of
the work to set this up. Brenda Holmes, one of
the new board members, was an architect of Blagojevich's proposed takeover
of the board's functions when she was his deputy chief of staff for
education. And, Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said, the new
legislation allows the governor's office to search for and propose a
candidate for the superintendent's position, and that's just what happened.
Holmes has said the
administration conducted interviews for superintendent in July and August. The only person the
board hires directly is the superintendent. He gets to pick the rest
of his staff. But so far, the governor's office has had a big imprint
there, too. The assistant superintendent
for operations is Mark Kolaz, who has been splitting time running the
state fair and lobbying for the governor's office. Kolaz's salary goes
to $110,000 from $90,000 previously. Kolaz is a former lobbyist who
oversaw the Blagojevich campaign in 17 counties in 2002. The board's interim
chief of staff is Eamon Kelly, 24, an Soon to join the new
education team as director of public information is Becky Watts (formerly
Becky Garretson), who has been executive director of public information
at Rausch said the legislation
that allowed the governor to name the new board members was intended
"to develop a relationship and a level of accountability between
the state board of education and the governor and the legislature."
The governor feels so
strongly about the mission that "some of his most-qualified staff"
are now working at the board, she said. Rausch disputed the
idea that the governor misled reporters by saying the new board would
choose its own superintendent and that he hadn't discussed the matter
with Ruiz. That statement was made
after Schiller, without invitation, showed up unexpectedly among reporters
and staff members in the governor's office. Ruiz, a There was nothing disingenuous
about him saying he had no preconceived notions about Schiller's future,
Ruiz said, because at the time, he hadn't met Schiller or Dunn. He still
needed to study the issues, he said. "Nobody told me
what to do," he said. He also said he doesn't plan to be a rubber
stamp for the governor. "Obviously, the
governor's office is a very important constituency," Ruiz said.
"Their opinion counts," he said, but so do the opinions of
teachers, students and parents. He said he thinks cooperation
with the governor's office, however, will allow the board to "to
do more and to do it more expeditiously." Commentators - including
me - noted during the extended legislative session that the governor
didn't get the department of education that he wanted. Only time will
tell if he got something mighty close to that goal. Perestroika and Illinois Public Schools By John F. Biver, Biver argues today,
"Many will be offended by the comparison of Illinois K-12 public
education to communism, but there are fewer apt analogies if you look
at the economic parallels and terrible results." OPINION - Kevin Killion
of www.Illinoisloop.org reported it this way: “As expected, Gov.
Blagojevich's engineered takeover of the ISBE [Illinois State Board
of Education] is now a reality. Robert Schiller is out as the The report from the
Chicago Sun-Times included this: “Schiller has been sparring with
the governor since January, when Blagojevich went after the board, likening
it to a ‘Soviet-style bureaucracy.’” The Governor’s
comparison is actually a good one, as it fits not just the ISBE, but
the entire inefficient and ineffective public K-12 education system
in Mikhail Gorbachev took
over the reins in the old “Almost from the
start, he strove for significant reforms, so that the system would work
more efficiently and more democratically. Hence the two key phrases
of the Gorbachev era: "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika"
(reform).” Gorbachev’s efforts
to fix communism were doomed due to one simple fact - a fatally flawed
system can’t be fixed. Many will be offended
by the comparison of Illinois K-12 public education to communism, but
there are fewer apt analogies if you look at the economic parallels
and terrible results. Like communism, the
participation of taxpayers, parents, and students in our public schools
is compelled by the power of the state, and all three groups are ill
served. Like communism, government
run schools are immune from free market competition, the very thing
that produces efficiency and excellence. Command and control rarely
works well with human nature. The huge irony, of course,
is that if there’s one word that can be used to describe the global
economy in this new century it is competition. The rising generation
cannot be adequately taught about the harsh realities of competition
by teachers who are insulated from it. The continued existence
of tenure and the protection of politically powerful teachers unions
provide this wall of insulation. The unions maintain their monopoly
by spending millions in political campaigns every year. This scares
off any discussion of real reforms by candidates and legislators impacted
by those contributions. What we do hear from
a scattered few is reminiscent of Gorbachev’s “perestroika”
- attempts to tweak how the government school system works. We only
hear about things like the length of the school year and school day,
or complaints about the school funding formula. Runaway spending is
ignored. Taxpayers, however, are becoming ever more familiar with this
problem and researching teacher and administrator salaries. They’re
also comparing them to real world market-based salaries. Soon, more will be learning
that Fortunately, just as
freedom was on the march during the decade leading up to the collapse
of the Forget the arrogance
of the educationists who treat the rest of us like rubes. The “glasnost”
of the No Child Left Behind law is slowly going to unmask their mediocrity.
Already the information on how the rest of the industrialized world
kicks our butt in math and science is easily found with a point and
a click. And forget the rhetoric
of those calling for empty reforms or ever more money; you can’t
fix the unfixable, even with more money. The good news is that their
failure, like Gorbachev’s, can lead to the coming down of the wall. Today, Gov takes control of school decisions Daily Southtown Editorial,
State schools Supt.
Robert Schiller read the writing on the wall and asked for a leave of
absence Monday before the governor's new state board of education could
fire him. Schiller will be on
paid leave until Sept. 30. One of Gov. Rod Blagojevich's new appointees
to the board said Schiller will be replaced if he does not resign when
the leave is over. The board named Randy
Dunn, former chairman of the Southern Illinois University Department
of Education Administration and High Education, as interim superintendent
to replace Schiller. Dunn said he does not want to become the permanent
superintendent, but he said Blagojevich has asked him to begin overhauling
the state education bureaucracy while a search is conducted for Schiller's
replacement. Blagojevich made it
clear almost two years ago that he intended to replace Schiller, who
became superintendent during George Ryan's term as governor. Schiller
has become a vocal advocate for changes in the way the state funds its
public schools, calling for increased state funding in order to reduce
the dependence on property taxes. The current system has
resulted in a situation in which schools in wealthy communities have
far more resources than other communities, enabling them to spend substantially
more on the education of their children. Meanwhile, a growing number
of school districts are facing deficits as the growth of their expenses
outpaces their revenues. Blagojevich has adamantly
opposed any change that would increase state taxes, and Schiller's outspoken
advocacy for change put his job at risk. Now that Blagojevich
has the school bureaucracy firmly in his control, the governor is fully
responsible for decisions made by the board, the interim superintendent
and the next full-time superintendent. As for what we can expect
from them, it's clear they will not be advocating changes in the funding
system. The governor has said he wants fewer regulations and less red
tape, but the number of regulations actually increased over the past
year, so we'll wait and see on that one. So the cycle continues
in The governor has remained
consistent throughout his term on his promise not to raise state income
taxes. Based on past experience, our guess is lawmakers will be afraid
to butt heads with the governor on school funding. If that's the case,
homeowners and business owners throughout the state can be confident
that their property tax bills will continue to rise. State board shuffle has little to do with classrooms Be careful what you
wish for. You just might get it. So it goes for Illinois
Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who made dismantling the "Soviet-style bureaucracy"
of the Illinois State Board of Education the centerpiece of his legislative
agenda this year and who has gotten the control over the agency that
he craved. Last week he appointed seven of the board's nine members.
This week he effectively ousted State Superintendent Robert Schiller
and hired his interim replacement, even though Schiller's departure
is not yet official. So much for the framers
of Indeed, the interim
superintendent, Randy Dunn, an education professor at Southern Illinois
University, was hired on a 7-2 vote by the board even though it was
the governor's office, not the board, that interviewed and vetted the
candidates, said Ruiz. In fact, one of the dissenters to Dunn's employment,
leftover board member Dean Clark, said he didn't receive Dunn's resume
until immediately before the vote, without being given a chance to review
it. Dunn himself indicated that "I am a member of the governor's
leadership team, and I didn't come on board to take a position that
is at odds with the governor's stated positions." By the way, Ruiz's But don't worry. With
this new leadership team, perhaps the state's public schools soon will
be good enough for the governor's own children, in a way they apparently
are not for his eldest daughter now. And, of course, you
can tell by the tone of this editorial that we're skeptical that this
change will do anything to dramatically alter the course of public education
in Then again, maybe the
governor will make a fool of us. Maybe test scores will skyrocket and
the red ink in 80 percent of =========================================================================== ILLINOIS Some
schools drop use of class rank Nicole Ziegler Dizon,
The Associated Press (State Journal-Register) One number the Following a trend in
many affluent, competitive high schools across the country, Stevenson
is working to downplay the difference between being No. 1 and No. 101.
The high school ended the tradition of naming a valedictorian and salutatorian
last year and is asking some colleges to accept applications without
a student's rank. "I think you're
going to see rank gone by the end of the decade at many schools,"
said Sue Biemeret, Stevenson's college consultant. Officials at schools
such as Stevenson, where 98 percent of the graduating class goes on
to college, say rank can give university admissions staff the wrong
impression. Stevenson has 1,035 students in its senior class, so the
difference in rank sometimes is measured in hundredths of a percentage
point. Gangware, for example,
gets mostly A's and B's, earning her a respectable 3.7 on a 4.0 scale.
But because many students fill their schedules with Advanced Placement
classes - where an A is awarded a weighted 5.0 - Gangware finds hundreds
of classmates above her on the ranking list. "I'm still smart,
and I want to go to a good school, but I have a 3.7 and can't get into
half the schools I want to," Gangware said. "It stinks because
my class is really smart, and there's not much I can do." Stevenson launched a
pilot program this year with eight universities that take many of its
students. Instead of getting a student's numerical rank, those schools
will receive percentages, such as top 5 percent or top 20 percent. Other
schools will continue to get transcripts with numerical rank. Michael Barron, admissions
director at the Barron said the move
away from rank might cause some students who would have been accepted
automatically to be put on a wait list. "We're used to
it, and we're comfortable with it," Barron said of reviewing applications
without rank. "The question is whether the high schools and the
populations they serve will be comfortable with our decisions." Paula Girouard McCann,
principal at Hingham High School in Hingham, Mass., is convinced that
her decision this year to end rank will only benefit her students. McCann said she made
the decision after discovering that some colleges and universities flatly
refused to take students who were in the bottom half of their classes. "We found that
class rank wasn't helping students, and in fact, some students it was
hurting," McCann said. But Barmak Nassirian,
associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate
Registrars and Admissions Officers, said university admissions workers
are sophisticated enough to weigh the reputation of a school against
a student's rank at that school. Nassirian said colleges make the best
decisions when they are presented with all information available about
a student. Even so, Adra Horn,
a Stevenson senior who takes a full load of accelerated classes, would
just as soon have colleges concentrate on her grades and test scores
than on her rank, which is somewhere close to 120. "I work hard for
my grades and I'm in the top whatever of my class, but all you see is
I'm not in the top 10 percent," Horn said. By Kari Allen, Daily
Herald Staff Writer, Naperville Central and
Naperville North students who like to gulp a can of soda pop or two
during the school day may have to bring their drinks from home next
school year. Or they could opt for
something healthier, such as milk, juice or water. Naperville Unit District
203 Superintendent Alan Leis recommended Monday the high schools no
longer sell beverages that contain high fructose corn syrup - such as
pop - during the school day, starting next school year. High school students
currently can purchase soda during the school day from vending machines
or in the cafeteria food line. Leis is suggesting high fructose corn
syrup beverages only be available next year at the high schools before
and after school and on weekends during activities. The school board is
expected to vote on Leis' recommendation later this fall. The topic is a controversial
one in many school circles. As school leaders consider what to offer
in vending machines, they weigh nutritional value versus students' freedom
of choice. Leis' recommendation
already created a slight stir among school board members. School board member
Suzyn Price said beverage choices are something that should be left
up to parents and their children. "I think it's overbearing
for us to make those choices for them," she said. The recommendation to
not sell pop during the school day also received a lukewarm response
from District 203's two student ambassadors to the school board. Allison Funkhouser,
a Naperville Central junior, and David Simnick, a Naperville North junior,
said many peers already opt for water and juice from school vending
machines. "Teenagers are
making healthier choices, but we want that freedom of choice,"
Simnick said. But Leis said some staff
members and parents on a committee that studied the issue favor offering
only healthier beverage choices during the school day. The superintendent
agrees. The committee garnered
some student input, as well, Leis said. If the changes go into
effect next school year, high school students still could bring soda
or other beverages with high fructose corn syrup from home. Seniors
are allowed to eat off campus for lunch and could drink these types
of beverages then if they choose, Leis said. Valley View board: Proposal to allow home-schoolers to
take part district's extracurriculars By Catherine Ann Velasco,
Herald News Staff Writer, At one time the Valley
View School Board voted not to allow home-schooled students to participate
in after-school activities. Last week, Superintendent
Phillip Schoffstall asked the board to allow for an exception to allow
Erick to start running immediately with the new cross country team at
A. Vito Martinez Middle School. The board said yes. The district is drafting
a policy that would allow home-schoolers who live in the district to
participate in extracurricular activities. The school board plans to
vote on the issue at its next meeting, at Erick's mom, Laurene
Hillebrand, is happy with the results. "This will be a
positive experience for Erick. We are hoping it will open the doors
to a variety of extracurricular activities to home-schoolers,"
she said. "He is very interested in doing track in the spring.
We are hoping it will work out well. "I would love to
see it not be an exception to the rule, but the basic policy in School Board President
Mark Cothron said he will agree to the policy as long as home-schooled
students abide by the same rules students in the district do: You must
have good grades to participate. "Someone has to
say they are in good standing and doing their work," Cothron said,
adding that he is not sure how that is going to be done yet. News to him Schoffstall said he
was surprised when he found out about seven months ago that the school
district did not allow home-schooled students to participate in extracurricular
activities. Schoffstall is starting his second year as superintendent
in the district. In Schoffstall found out
about the policy about seven months ago during a staff meeting; one
principal mentioned there was a home-schooled student on a team and
another principal asked if the school board policy was still in effect. Two weeks ago, staff
met with principals and athletic directors at the middle and high schools
to discuss the issue. The recommendation was to amend the current policy. "To me it's pretty
easy," Schoffstall said. "We are a helping profession. If
we can help a youngster maximize his or her potential, then that's what
we should be doing." A proposal is being
written that would allow some kind of assurance that the student is
pursuing some kind of study, he said. Schoffstall said he
believes that extracurricular activities are an intricate part of education.
He said that home-schooled students will pay any athletic fee that other
children pay for participating. Hillebrand said she
was impressed that Schoffstall is leading the initiative to change the
school district policy. "He is a man of
vision and that kind of leadership is so valuable to the community,"
she said. "Instead of having division on where they go to school,
it promotes greater diversity into the community and greater understanding."
School 'reforms' flunk reality test Opinion by Jesse Jackson,
Sun-Times, Are presidential campaigns
now fact-free zones? Listen to George Bush on the stump, talking to
pre-screened crowds where only the devoted are allowed. He presents
to this fantasy audience a fantasy world: It sounds wonderful,
but you have to wonder whether the president is kidding himself or just
the American people. For example, the president
hails his No Child Left Behind reforms as a great elixir. Our schools
are improving, he says; we're testing children and holding schools accountable.
Now we just need to extend the tests to high school and to preschoolers
and we're on the right track. In fact, of course,
No Child Left Behind has roiled our schools. The best teachers and educators
hate the idea of judging kids or grading schools on the basis of one-test
snapshots. Kids learn at very different paces, and high-stakes testing
can take the joy out of learning. In But even this dispute
misses the challenges that our schools face and that the new reforms
don't begin to address. More kids than ever are pouring into our public
schools. More than 20 percent of them are raised in poverty. Increasing
numbers don't speak English in their homes. Too often, they lack the
nutrition, health care and preschooling vital to being ready to learn.
We're asking kids to run the same race, but some come to school already
trained in track and others come with weights dragging them down. Organized after-school
programs are essential to reduce crime and increase classroom performance
because parents work. Yet up to 15 million kids go home alone after
school. College is increasingly
a requirement for success. Yet college costs are soaring, and neither
family income nor loan and grant programs are keeping pace. For the
first time, This is a big deal.
To ensure that the next generation gets the education they need, we've
got to ratchet up our support for schools. We need a president who will
level with the American people. Lay out the scope of the challenge.
Rouse people to make education a greater priority at every level --
from parents turning off the TV at night, to federal, state and local
governments combining to ensure that every child gets a real opportunity
to be what he or she can be. But there is no hint
of this in Bush's rhetoric or in his plans. Instead, the president paints
in rosy colors, bragging on how much he has increased spending on schools
already. But increasing spending on Head Start by a modest amount doesn't
extend the program to the 40 percent of eligible kids who can't get
it. Worse, the president broke his own promise on funding his own reforms
-- now by a total of $27 billion over four years. His budget breaks
the federal promise to fund special education by more than $10 billion
this year alone. He broke his promise to increase scholarship amounts. The president's own
budget calls for cuts in education across the board next year, as soon
as the election is over. With deficits soaring, the costs of his tax
cuts and war in For the country's future,
this is just plain dumb. This week, Rainbow Push
will join a coalition of groups sponsoring some 4,000 meetings on public
education in homes, schools and church basements across the country.
Americans will challenge the president and Congress to keep their promise
to Let's hope their voices
can pierce Bush's fact-free zone. The president clearly believes that
you don't have to address reality if you don't admit it. That may be
effective for a candidate, but it is devastating for the country. James Fuller, Daily
Herald Every day at The growing challenge
of simultaneously educating and teaching English to non-native speakers
is nothing new or unusual for suburban schools. What's different in
Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200, though, isn't the number of those
students learning English but the sheer variety of native languages
those students bring to the classroom. There are more than
100 students speaking 30 languages other than English as their primary
tongue at By contrast, Addison
Elementary District 4 has many more non-native, non-English-speaking
students - about 730 - but they speak only 18 different languages, said
district spokeswoman Diane Junokas. The vast majority of those students
speak Spanish. At This year, there are
67 ways. That's the number of
individual program options on teacher Christine Carter's pencil-drawn
list of what every English Language Learner is up to each day. She's
Carter will be increasingly
busy if current trends continue. The district's enrollment
of non-English speakers rose by 159 students over the past three years
to the current high of 708 students. Among the 10 schools in the district
serving non-English speakers, an average of 51 students speak 13 different
languages. In District 200, all
non-English speakers are sent to magnet programs at Monroe at the middle
school level and Wheaton North for high school. Like most districts,
Spanish is still the largest minority language students speak. But unlike most school
systems, District 200 has within its borders an organization that places
refugees in the area. Wheaton-based World Relief can bring any number
of new languages and cultures for District 200 to serve depending on
where the need is at in the world at the time. Recently, that's meant
a flood of students with no formal schooling whatsoever - so many that
Unlike their parents,
English learners are taught in English unless a group of 20 or more
students speaking the same foreign language attend the same school.
Then they have bilingual classes until the end of second grade. It's
all English instruction from there on out. Students are grouped
together not by age or grade-level, but by English proficiency. Those
who can't speak any English and have no formal schooling are the furthest
behind, but also make the greatest gains, Carter said. Early on that
means lots of communicating through gestures and pictures, kind of like
a "It's quite easy
to acquire social language just being around people and the media,"
Carter said. "But at the middle school level, you're working on
academics." So the trick is making
sure early gains are substantial enough. It's a daunting process
already and one district officials say is compounded by the new federal
No Child Left Behind legislation. If English learners
don't progress far enough and fast enough, the loss of thousands of
federal dollars for an individual district is a possibility. Once the
No Child Left Behind standards label a school as failing, the district
must allow students to transfer to other, more successful, schools. The stakes for the district
and its English learners rest primarily on two tests to measure No Child
Left Behind requirements The first test is the
Illinois Measure of Anuual Growth in English, or IMAGE. It measures
English proficiency, but District 200 spokeswoman Denie Young said it
adds up to a Catch-22. "If they were proficient
in English, they wouldn't be taking the IMAGE. They'd be taking the
ISATs," Young said. "It's kind of an oxymoron. They're counting
and treating it like an achievement test when, actually, it's not." Nearly 31 percent of
The second test determines
Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives. Until recently, there hasn't
been a standard test for this. The district has used its own language
assessment survey. That's a problem when
students come in from other districts having taken a different test. "How can you measure
the growth of students?" asked Phyllis Weaver, the district's director
of ELL. So the state developed
its own standardized test called Access for ELL that will be tested
this year. The overall problem
with both tests is that it's never an apples-to-apples comparison from
year to year, according to Young, Weaver and Carter. For both, it's last
year's students being compared to the current year's students. The results, especially
at "And that,"
Carter said, "is really nothing you can plan ahead for." Karen Berkowitz, Rather than reject the
federal funding linked to the No Child Left Behind Act, District 202
will use the $131,000 - and then some - to offer summer, Saturday and
after-school instruction to students at risk of failing. Board members had been
weighing whether to pass up the Title I funds that will carry some heavy
strings next year if the percentage of students passing the Prairie
State Achievement Exam (PSAE) does not increase dramatically for some
subgroups. As tempting as it was
to send a strong message of opposition to the law, board members Sept.
16 threw their support behind an alternative proposal presented by Superintendent
Allan Alson. Under the plan, the
district will target incoming ninth-graders whose scores on the Explore
test suggest they won't meet standards on the state's high-stakes PSAE
that is now given in 11th grade. Of the 836 ETHS freshmen
who took the Explore test in eighth grade, 322 scored below a standard
cutoff score in reading, mathematics or both subjects. Of those missing
the mark, nearly one-third were within one or two points of the cutoff.
Under the initiative,
to be launched during the summer of 2005, incoming freshmen "on
the cusp" of meeting the standard would be required to take a reading
or math course emphasizing test-taking skills. Students who are farther
behind would participate in book groups, media projects, artistic endeavors
and computer-generated programs aimed at exciting them about learning,
according to the proposal. "Since most of
the (affected) students are students of color, activities that accentuate
culture and historical pride would also be part of these activities,"
said Alson. The superintendent has
proposed that the district apply its federal Title I funds and about
$91,000 in local dollars to the initiatives. School officials hope to
forge partnerships with local community organizations such as Family
Focus, Youth Organizations Umbrella, Literature for All of Us, the churches,
the city of "The same old approaches
to student learning at the high school level have not proven successful
enough," Alson said. Though the district
plans to accept the funding tied to the No Child Left Behind Act, school
officials plan to register their objections to the No Child Left Behind
Act through strongly worded statements to the State Board of Education
and the U.S. Department of Education. District 202 officials
object to the sanctions that are imposed on schools that do not meet
the law's expectations based on a single test that is given each year
to a different cohort of students. Said Alson, "The
negative federal consequences for schools are, in my opinion, clearly
designed not to reward progress nor offer supports for schools,"
but in fact "to discredit and undermine" public education.
Teen crusades for school sprinklers By Jake Griffin, Daily
Herald Staff Writer, 9/24/04 Like "I was sitting
in study hall one day, and I looked up and noticed no sprinkler system,"
the Thus began Graff's one-man
crusade to get Naperville Unit District 203 administrators to consider
outfitting the entire 53-year-old school with fire-suppression devices. "My friends didn't
care at all about me talking about it," he said. "They thought
I was crazy." A student liaison to
the city's Downtown Plan Implementation Committee, the 16-year-old befriended
Councilman Richard Furstenau, who posed a list of safety questions to
city officials on Graff's behalf. But when the answers
didn't satisfy him, Graff continued his quest. "I give him credit
for raising the issue and being dogged about it," school board
president Dean Reschke said. "I like it when young people raise
good questions and run with it." Reschke doesn't recall
ever seeing a proposal to add a sprinkler system to the school. Outfitting the 450,000-square-foot
building could be a costly venture. A recent article in a school building
maintenance trade journal listed the average price for such jobs at
$2.35 per square foot. Bigger buildings, like Naperville Central, would
benefit from bulk buying, according to the article. City codes require sprinkler
systems only if there is significant remodeling or new construction.
Central's auditorium, built nearly a decade ago, has such a system. Principal Jim Caudill
said the school always has complied with fire-safety requirements and
holds drills three times a year monitored by the fire department. There are 42 exits for
roughly 3,000 students, Caudill said. "Every five to
six classrooms has an exit, so we have no more than 100 people trying
to get out one exit," he said. "In a perfect world, every
building should have a sprinkler system." Graff argues the school's
population is growing and the people leaving through those exits eventually
will exceed 100. Caudill said he tried
to assuage some of Graff's concerns, but doesn't want to discourage
him. "This kind of involvement
and experience is invaluable," he said. "I credit him." Fire Chief John Wu said
the school meets all city, county and state fire codes, including placement
of fire extinguishers in required areas. Graff suggested each classroom
be given one. Wu understands the school's
cost concerns but said he'd like to see a sprinkler system installed,
too. "We take the position
that when there are large numbers of people unfamiliar with the building
that a sprinkler system is simply the best fire protection you can buy,"
Wu said. Graff said he will take
the issue to the school board and possibly present more information
to the city council in an effort to change some codes. "It would save
lives, and that's the bottom line," he said. Graff's mother, Mary
Jane, described her son as thoughtful and wasn't surprised he's latched
onto such an issue. "He's always taken
an interest in buildings and architecture, so this was a natural progression,"
she said. "He's one of those kids that are very interested in the
world around them." When he and his older
sister were pushing their parents to buy them a car, his mother said,
the pair did extensive research on used vehicles and presented their
parents with the information. "We were relying
on their information," she said. "They had things that I didn't
even know about, and he probably has more knowledge of used cars now
than most used car salesmen." The teens got their
car. Reschke said the district
is embarking on a wide-ranging study about its building needs. Because
of Central's age, it likely will be one of the top priorities in the
study. "They are probably
going to make some pretty substantial recommendations," he said,
"and I wouldn't be surprised if there is some discussion on sprinklers." By Robert Sanchez Daily
Herald Staff Writer, 9/24/04 Tonight's start of Yom
Kippur won't affect the kickoffs of high school football teams in the
DuPage Valley Conference. But that could be changing
soon. The conference may follow
the lead of other suburban high schools by scheduling events around
religious holidays - a move that would spare students the angst of having
to choose between their faith and sports. "As a conference,
we are attempting to be sensitive to our diverse population," said
Bob Quinn, athletic director at DVC athletic directors
and activity directors are expected to review a list of holidays during
the next months to see if it's possible to rearrange schedules. That list of holidays
includes Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Passover, Christmas Eve, Christmas
Day, Good Friday and Eid al Fitr, an Islamic holiday in November that
marks the end of Ramadan. Generally, high schools
let individual players decide whether to participate in an event on
the same day as a holiday. "It's a family's
choice," said Doug Smith, the athletic director at Naperville North. But those choices can
be tough on a high school athlete. John Martin, athletic
director at Stevenson and other
schools, including members of the Fox Valley Conference, played football
on Thursday in recognition of the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
The Jewish Day of Atonement starts at sunset today and ends at sunset
Saturday. "The problem is
that you have a team that will say to the athlete, 'Boy, we really need
you to play,' " Martin said. "And the parents will say, 'This
is a religious obligation. You don't have a choice.' "So it's a lose-lose
situation," he said. "You put the student in the position
where he's either letting his team down or he's going against whatever
his religious beliefs are or his parents expectations in terms of celebrating
a particular holiday." Baseball fans are seeing
that play out right now as they wait to see what happens with Shawn
Green. The Los Angles Dodgers first baseman is expected to miss at least
one baseball game in a key three-game series against the San Francisco
Giants due to Yo•Kippur. Quinn said that if schools
can avoid having kids make that decision, it works out better for everyone. "We haven't had
any students come forward and request not play (on Yom Kippur),"
he said. "That doesn't mean we don't have student athletes that
fall in that situation." While Officials at the Upstate
Eight say the issue simply hasn't come up, said Lake Park High School
Athletic Director Pete Schauer, who handles the scheduling of games. However, if a school
did want to reschedule a game, it would have to be worked out between
the teams scheduled to play each other, he said. =========================================================================== NATIONAL Country's top high schools making rank a thing of the
past
By Nicole Ziegler Dizon,
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 9/20/04 LINCOLNSHIRE —
Jessi Gangware worries a lot about numbers these days. There's her grade
point average, her ACT and SAT scores, the days until she graduates. One number the Following a trend in
many affluent, competitive high schools across the country, Stevenson
is working to downplay the difference between being No. 1 and No. 101.
The high school ended the tradition of naming a valedictorian and salutatorian
last year and is asking some colleges to accept applications without
a student's rank. "I think you're
going to see rank gone by the end of the decade at many schools,"
said Sue Biemeret, Stevenson's college consultant. Stevenson is the largest
high school in Officials at schools
such as Stevenson, where 98 percent of the graduating class goes on
to college, say rank can give university admissions staff the wrong
impression. Stevenson has 1,035 students in its senior class, so the
difference in rank sometimes is measured in hundredths of a percentage
point. Gangware, for example,
gets mostly A's and B's, earning her a respectable 3.7 on a 4.0 scale.
But since many students fill their schedules with advanced placement
classes — where an A is awarded a weighted 5.0 — Gangware
finds hundreds of classmates above her on the ranking list. "I'm still smart,
and I want to go to a good school, but I have a 3.7 and can't get into
half the schools I want to," Gangware said. "It stinks because
my class is really smart, and there's not much I can do." Stevenson launched a
pilot program this year with eight universities that take many of its
students. Instead of getting a student's numerical rank, those schools
will receive percentages, such as top 5 percent or top 20 percent. Other
schools will continue to get transcripts with numerical rank. Michael Barron, admissions
director at the University of Iowa — one of the schools participating
in the pilot program — said he has seen a definite drop in the
number of high schools submitting rank or even percentiles over the
past several years. Barron said the move
away from rank might cause some students who would have been accepted
automatically to be put on a waiting list. "We're used to
it, and we're comfortable with it," Barron said of reviewing applications
without rank. "The question is whether the high schools and the
populations they serve will be comfortable with our decisions."
Ranking hurts some Paula Girouard McCann,
principal at Hingham High School in Hingham, Mass., is convinced that
her decision this year to end rank will only benefit her students. McCann said she made
the decision after discovering that some colleges and universities flatly
refused to take students who were in the bottom half of their classes. "We found that
class rank wasn't helping students, and in fact, some students it was
hurting," McCann said. But Barmak Nassirian,
associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate
Registrars and Admissions Officers, said university admissions workers
are sophisticated enough to weigh the reputation of a school against
a student's rank at that school. Nassirian said colleges make the best
decisions when they are presented with all information available about
a student. Even so, Adra Horn,
a Stevenson senior who takes a full load of accelerated classes, would
rather have colleges concentrate on her grades and test scores than
her rank, which is about 120. "I work hard for
my grades and I'm in the top whatever of my class, but all you see is
I'm not in the top 10 percent," Horn said. Report: N.Y. charter schools doing well Think tank recommends
more funding AP, The charter schools,
publicly funded but run by private organizations, were studied by the
Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank. The institute, affiliated
with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, had particularly high
praise for the charter schools in Democrats in the "Beyond improving
student learning in individual schools, New York City charter schools
act as 'seeds of change' for the entire school system in a variety of
ways, some planned by school officials and some unexpected," the
report said. For example, the report
said, charter school accountability requirements "push schools
to analyze student achievement data to expose weaknesses in instruction
and governance." Even the decision this
past year by the State University of New York to close a charter school
in But the report found
that in On average, The sources of the disparity
are complex, having to do with charter schools' ineligibility for state
categorical funds and special education funds, the report said, citing
a The report's authors
recommended District is considering ads for school buses Anne Ryman, The The Scottsdale School
Board is expected to decide in late November whether to put ads on the
sides of its 150 buses. The campaign could be the largest of its kind
among public school buses in A school district committee
has chosen a California-based firm, Media Advertising in Motion, to
handle the ads. But the choice is contingent on School Board approval.
The firm would receive 40 percent commission on sales. "We will have control
over the content of ads," said Dan Shearer, the Ads on the outside of
school buses are rare in the state, although they are common on city-owned
buses. The neighboring School bus ads have
been controversial in other parts of the The National Association
of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services opposes ads on the
outside of school buses because the group believes ads can distract
other drivers. Gary Ruskin, executive
director of Commercial Alert, an Oregon-based group that opposes commercialism
to children, said school bus ads are a bad idea, even if there are restrictions. "Our children should
not be for sale. Not their time, and not their minds," Ruskin said.
Scottsdale School Board
member Christine Schild said she would prefer "non-product"
ads such as public service announcements. "I think our community
would find that more palatable," she said. Board member Joel Feldman
wants district officials to consider handling ads in-house rather than
paying an outside company. Paying a 40 percent commission "is a
hefty slice," of the profits, he said. Shearer said the offer
from the Phys ed in school yields significant benefits By Physical education class
has long suffered from an image problem. Children often deem jumping
jacks and chin-ups boring or goofy; parents wonder if the time would
be better spent on reading skills. But a new study makes
a strong case that physical education may be the single best strategy
for curbing the The same effect on body
mass index was not observed in boys, possibly because more boys are
active at that age and a larger percentage of 5- and 6-year-old girls
are sedentary. The effects of P.E. on boys' weight might be observed
at later ages, suggested Rand Corp. researchers who conducted the study.
Wide variations in P.E.
time were found among schools participating in the study, with kindergartners
averaging only 57 minutes per week of P.E. and first-graders receiving
about 65 minutes per week. "What is exciting
about this study is that P.E. works for a large number of children,"
said Nancy Chockley, president of the National Institute for Health
Care Management Foundation, a nonprofit group that funded the study.
"Helping these kids manage their weight from an early age is so
important." The research was conducted
from U.S. Department of Education data as part of a broader, long-term
study of 11,192 children from 1,000 public and private schools who entered
kindergarten in 1998. Results from the study are published in three
medical journals; the P.E. arm of the study appears in the September
issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Physical education has
become a low priority in many schools as administrators struggle to
raise test scores and meet minimum standards for academic achievement.
But schools are one of the few places where child obesity can be addressed
on a large scale, Chockley says. According to the federal government,
the prevalence of obesity among children has doubled since 1980, and
it has tripled in teens. More than 15 percent of children ages 6 to
19 were overweight in 2000. "Schools are clearly
burdened, and we can't leave (the obesity problem) all to the schools,"
she said. "But schools are where the children are, and they have
to be part of the solution." The study also examined
whether obesity affects behavior and academic performance. Kindergarten
girls who are overweight were found to be significantly more likely
to have behavior problems such as anxiety, low self-esteem and acting
out. Overweight children were also more likely to score lower on reading
and math tests. But more research is
needed to determine whether obesity affects school performance and behavior
or whether other factors are at work, says Ashlesha Datar, an associate
economist at Rand and lead author of the studies. "Our research
suggests it's the quality of the home environment that is the most important
predictor of school outcomes," she said. Overweight, inactive students sapping school finances,
study says AP, 9/23/04 WASHINGTON (AP) —
Expanding waistlines are squeezing the bottom line of the nation's schools,
as poor eating and exercise subtly strip money from education, a new
study suggests. "It's too risky
not to call attention to this," said David Satcher, former U.S.
surgeon general and founding chairman of Action for Healthy Kids, a
coalition of more than 40 health and education agencies behind the study.
With 9 million overweight
schoolchildren, a number that has tripled since 1980, the new findings
aim to give education leaders a traditional motivation for making changes:
money. At least nine states
that get state money based on student attendance, for example, are losing
an estimated tens of millions of dollars because of absenteeism, a problem
caused in part by the poor nutrition and inactivity of those missing
school, the study says. Unhealthy lifestyles
by students and faculty lead to other hidden costs, from lower worker
productivity to the added expenses of helping students who have fallen
behind, says the study. Through their courses,
menus and vending-machine sales of soda and candy, schools have huge
influence and responsibility, the report says. Children spend 2,000
hours a year in school. The findings are part
of a flurry of efforts aimed at the nation's weight problem. Next week, leaders of
the federal education, health and agriculture departments will visit
schools, announce grants and promote a national drive for healthy eating
and exercise. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, meanwhile, says the nation has not made progress
since 1991 in its goals to significantly increase exercise by students.
Last year, only 56% of high school students were enrolled in a physical
education class. And Atkins Nutritionals,
known for its low-carbohydrate diet plan, on Thursday announced a partnership
with the nation's largest teachers union and other groups to reduce
obesity. (Related story: Atkins' low-carb approach makes way into schools) Schools, which increasingly
rely on vending sales to raise money for basic operations, often undermine
themselves by offering high-calorie, low-nutrient foods, Satcher said.
Sacrificing gym classes to allow more lesson time in reading and math
backfires too, he said, as studies suggest built-in time for exercise
helps children focus and be less disruptive. Satcher's group is promoting
schools that have made healthy choices without losing money. In the "Surprisingly,
the kids have really acclimated well," Cooper said. "They're
going to eat whatever's available. We have to teach them this, just
like we teach math and English." Satcher, the former
surgeon general, said he views with caution the partnership between
Atkins and the education groups. "Obviously, it helps provide funding
to the schools," he said. "But we must make sure that what
happens is in the best interest of children, not the advocacy group."
Atkins is giving money
to the National Education Association, the teachers union, to develop
a Web site, and is underwriting a guide for state boards of education.
It would not name the amount, but the figure is "well into the
low- to mid-six figures," a spokesman said. Atkins says it is targeting
obesity, not marketing to kids. "Simple steps like
making sandwiches on whole grain bread, scaling back on sugary snacks
and soda and encouraging a half-hour of exercise a day can keep children
healthy," said Stuart Trager, Atkins' medical director. But Neal Barnard, president
of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, accused the NEA
of "selling out" to the private company. Atkins will get credit
for supporting the Web site but will have no say over its content, which
will promote schools with model health programs, said Gerald Newberry,
who oversees the NEA health division. "I think they're
being a good corporate neighbor," he said. "If we were promoting
any diet, whether its Weight Watchers or Atkins, then I think that would
be a problem."
Illinois State Board of Education |
