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News Clips –
STATE Education
jobs go to loyalists, insiders Governor's hiring process
criticized Since he gained control
of the Illinois State Board of Education, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has wasted
no time filling the agency with political insiders and loyalists, some
of whom have little or no experience in education. In the two weeks after
his handpicked board members took control, the governor's office orchestrated
the hiring of at least nine employees, all but two of whom have ties
to the Blagojevich administration. The new 24-year-old
interim chief of staff drove the press van in the governor's entourage
last year, as Blagojevich toured rural The agency's new budget
chief worked on the governor's campaign and managed the state fair.
The 30-year-old chief counsel came from the Illinois Department of Natural
Resources. Though the board's bylaws
specify that hiring decisions are to be made within the agency, all
the new employees were interviewed and selected by the governor's office.
The hires came days--and in some cases, hours--after the governor orchestrated
the removal of the old superintendent and replaced him with a handpicked
successor. The hiring process has
caused consternation among holdover board members and lawmakers who
had expected that the agency would retain some independence from the
governor's office, despite the recent legislation that gave Blagojevich
more control. Dean Clark, a current
board member appointed by Gov. George Ryan, said he does not have a
problem with the newly hired employees, but he objects to the governor's
staff making the decisions for the agency. "It concerns me
if the governor's office is hiring people that the superintendent may
not know, or that the board does not know," State Sen. David Luechtefeld
(R-Okawville), a former Downstate high school teacher who sits on the
Senate Education Committee, said he is not surprised that Blagojevich's
office is controlling the hiring at the Board of Education. "I think this governor,
in the past, has shown that he wants to control the jobs in state government
and I know many people said when he wanted to do away with the state
board it was more of a jobs issue, rather than to make education better,"
Luechtefeld said. "He has been ruthless
in getting rid of people so they can appoint their own people,"
he said. "I know that's what is done in politics, but the state
board has always been independent. Obviously, it's not going to be anymore." For decades, the State
Board of Education operated free of the governor's direct control. Although
the governor appointed the nine board members, the board selected and
hired the superintendent and oversaw policy decisions, such as teacher
certification and statewide student testing. The superintendent and
his staff were in charge of hiring within the agency. Takeover fought off Earlier this year, Blagojevich
tried to usurp that control when he launched a blistering attack on
the board, calling it a "Soviet-style bureaucracy" unresponsive
to the public. He proposed creation of a cabinet-level state department
of education that answered directly to him. Under the proposal, the
state board would have been turned into a think tank. Lawmakers rebuffed that
takeover attempt, but they gave the governor authority to replace seven
of the nine board members. The legislation also gave the governor power
to "propose" a candidate for state superintendent of education. The compromise legislation
was crafted, in part, to preserve some separation between the governor's
office and the education agency, in hopes that education decisions would
be less political. But Blagojevich has
wasted little time in blurring that separation. During their first meeting
two weeks ago, the new board members dumped the superintendent and replaced
him with Randy Dunn, an education professor at Southern Illinois University
in Later that day, Dunn
appointed the new budget director and a new general counsel, both of
whom already worked for the Blagojevich administration. Rebecca Rausch, a spokeswoman
for the governor, said that the legislation establishes a relationship
between the board and the governor's office and that consequently, Blagojevich
wants to make sure the agency is "running properly." She added that the governor
is so committed to education that he sent some of his best staffers
over to the state board. "It was essential
that, when the board appointed a new interim superintendent, that he
not go it alone," Rausch said. "He needs people in key positions
around him. Philosophically, we are looking for people who can turn
this agency around. We wanted him surrounded by good people with proven
track records." Apparently it was all
arranged well in advance. Dunn said that a week
before he was hired by the board, some of the governor's top aides asked
him to meet the new staff members they had selected for the agency.
Dunn said that it was his understanding that he could have said "no"
to any of them, but that he was pleased with all the selections. "Clearly we had
to hit the ground running," Dunn said. "We are trying to build
an airplane as it is running down the runway. It was the governor's
staff who had the expertise to do this--to find these people. I really
didn't have the expertise to know where these people were in state government
and said, `Hey, if you know where these folks are, let's put it together.'" Dunn argues that his
new staff already has begun to dig in and start making some significant
changes, something he could not have done if he were still hunting for
new employees. A week after his new
administration took over, Dunn directed agency employees to start combing
through the annual School Report Card data to find potential mistakes,
hoping to avert a repeat of last year when the data were sent out riddled
with errors. Working through the weekend, state board employees detected
that nearly half the schools had made mistakes. Dunn and his staff alerted
each school district to the specific mistakes and gave them two weeks
to remedy the errors. "We're already
working hard for school districts, teachers and students," Dunn
said. The new hires Among the new staff
members hired: Eamon Kelly, 24, was
hired as the interim chief of staff at an annual salary of $57,300. Kelly drove the press
van last year as it followed Blagojevich on his tour through rural Prior to that, Kelly
worked in Gov. George Ryan's office as an intern. He graduated from
the Under the old superintendent,
the board did not fill the chief of staff's position. Nicole Wills, who worked
as an administrative assistant in Blagojevich's education policy office,
moves to the state board as Kelly's assistant, where she will be paid
$30,000 a year. Mark Kolaz was named
the agency budget director. Kolaz, who will be paid $110,000 a year,
previously lobbied the legislature for the governor's office and served
as deputy director of agriculture, where he managed the state fair.
In 2002, he oversaw the Blagojevich campaign in several Downstate counties. Jonathan Furr, 30, who
worked for about 18 months as the general counsel for the state Department
of Natural Resources, is now general counsel for the State Board of
Education. His salary jumps from about $88,000 to $96,600 a year, according
to the state comptroller's office. He previously worked in the governmental
practice group at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw in Linda Jamali moves from
the governor's office, where she served as a senior education policy
adviser, to become the head of teacher certification for the state board.
A former high school teacher, Jamali will be paid $65,000 a year. Jennifer Saba, who also
worked in the governor's education office and helped craft his education
plan, was hired as Dunn's assistant. She will make an annual salary
of $36,000. "We expected this
type of stuff to happen," said Sen. Brad Burzynski (R-Sycamore).
"I anticipate that the legislature will watch very closely the
types of policies this state board and its administration put into place." Change
in attitude seen at state school board Randy Dunn, interim
state schools superintendent, deserves an "A" for his commitment
to seeing that information is accurate before report cards for schools
are made public. But the board deserves an "I" for incomplete
until the problems are cleared up -- permanently. Last year's report cards
were rife with errors. Those errors resulted in 451 schools incorrectly
being identified as failing to meet standards under the No Child Left
Behind Act. That could have resulted in sanctions if students were deemed
not to be making satisfactory progress two years in a row. Again, errors apparently
have found their way into the report cards, which are supposed to be
issued at the end of this month. Potential problems were seen in data
for more than half of the state's 3,801 schools. The problem seems to
be testing results for small groups or sub-groups or students, such
as special education students, that skew results. But this time the board
is taking extra steps to make sure information is correct before the
cards are issued. "We're not going
to let a bureaucratic deadline drive our actions anymore," Dunn
said. Problems with the latest
data were recognized by staff the week Dunn took over the interim post.
The data hadn't been available in its current form when school districts
reviewed information in August, according to a board spokeswoman Perhaps former Superintendent
Robert Schiller also would have given school districts another chance
to review if he hadn't been pushed out by Gov. Rod Blagojevich's hand-picked
Illinois State Board of Education. Perhaps even under Schiller,
the board's staff would have worked through the weekend to prepare information
packets outlining potential problems and mailed them in time for school
districts to review them before the correction period that ends Thursday. But we detect a change
in attitude -- even if there is no way of telling whether the motive
is to truly help school districts or simply to make Schiller look bad. Either way, schools
and the parents of children attending them will be helped by this extra
attention to accuracy. One noticeable change
is that Dunn will be among the people calling some districts to make
them aware of the review period and to make sure they get any help they
need. Such a hands-on role
is usually not appropriate for a top administrator. However, in this
case, it is a good way for Dunn to introduce himself to many of the
districts and to send a signal that the Illinois State Board of Education
wants to improve its working relationships with school districts. Meanwhile, the board
should be looking at the root cause of data errors showing up at least
two years in a row. Is it a problem with
how schools report the information; how the third-party contractor or
the board staff compile it; discrepancies in how the local, state and
federal government interpret data; or some other factor or combination
of factors? A lot of time could
be saved by getting the information right the first time by paying attention
to details. School
officials favor tax shift
Carmen Greco Jr, Gloria Yake, school
board president, said passage of Illinois House Bill 750 would provide
long-awaited property tax relief to residents in the Orland Park-based
school district. "It spreads the
burden to all wage earners, not just property owners," Yakes said. The legislation calls
for increasing income taxes from 3 to 5 percent and broadening the reach
of the state sales tax. Officials say the plan
could raise millions of additional dollars for education while reducing
property tax bills by as much as 25 percent. The district, which
includes Report:
Poor schools get less money Students in Illinois'
highest-poverty school districts get an average of $2,023 less in education
funding than students in the wealthiest districts, according to a report
released today, another in a mounting stack that show Illinois is among
the worst in the nation when it comes to funding education for its poorest
students. Nationwide, the average
gap between revenues available per student in the highest- and lowest-poverty
districts was $868. The report found 25 states where the poorest school
districts get fewer resources than the wealthiest. "Once again, we
see that the students who need the most get the least," said Kevin
Carey, senior policy analyst at the Education Trust and author of the
report. The Education Trust,
a national education organization that advocates for higher academic
achievement particularly among poor and minority students, has released
the funding gap report annually since 2001. This year's report argues
that funding gaps are actually understated because it takes more money
— 40 percent more, the study assumes — to educate poor students. When
analysts took that figure into account, the state's gap grew to $2,465.
In an That's money that could
be spent on teacher training, textbooks or science lab equipment, the
report argues. The Education Trust
analyzed revenue data from 2001-02, the most recent year for which data
was available, to compare local and state revenue between school districts
and states. Calculations are adjusted to account for regional differences
in the cost of living and the cost of educating special education students. The analysis did not
take into account federal funding for education because those dollars
by law are meant to supplement, rather than replace, state and local
resources, Carey argued. Some states, including
Despite gains made in
the late 1990s, the funding gap "is now larger than when we first
analyzed school finance trends," the report states. Under No Child Left
Behind, schools have been under increasing pressure to close the so-called
achievement gap between poor and non-poor students and between minority
students and their white counterparts. Funding gaps "are starkly
at odds with our national goals for closing the achievement gap,"
the report concludes. Still, money alone will
not ensure better results among poor and minority students, the report
argues. The Education Trust, a strong supporter of No Child Left Behind,
called on districts to embrace education reform that raises performance
expectations for students and teachers, make sure what happens in the
classroom is in line with state academic standards, and "reform
the way teachers are educated assigned, evaluated and paid." Representatives from
Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office and the Illinois State Board of Education
tried to soften the report's blow by pointing out that the figures are
2 years old. "There has been
good progress made over the last two years," said Becky Watts,
spokeswoman for the state board. Both offices cited an
additional $775 million budgeted for education in the last two years. The foundation level
— the minimum amount schools must spend on students—has increased $404
in that time, and now stands at $4,964. Blagojevich recently
named seven of the board's nine members and recommended they hire Randy
Dunn as interim state schools superintendent. Former state schools
Supt. Robert Schiller and several board members removed by Blagojevich
had advocated for the state to increase aid to poor school districts
and reduce the state's reliance on property tax to fund education. That
plan clashed with Blagojevich's campaign promise not to raise taxes. The report urges states
to reduce their reliance on local property taxes to fund education,
increase the share of educator funding paid for by the state, and target
extra funds specifically to help low-income children. States should
also promote fair distribution of resources among schools within a single
district, with more funds going to poor children, the report argues. Sean Noble, senior policy
associate for Voices for Illinois Children, called today's report part
of a "trail of evidence that shows we've got the most unfair, inequitable
school funding system in the nation." In January, Education
Week gave the state an "F" in fairness in school funding for
the fourth consecutive year. In that analysis, Noble said state funding
increases fall short of what's needed. "As long as we
leave our overreliance on property taxes intact — school funding will
not become truly fair in Blowin'
in the wind at Bureau
Valley Terri Simon, Bureau
MANLIUS -- If Sunday's
windy weather was any indication of the future, the At The spades-full of dirt
turned over by the Bureau Valley School Board members, the district's
superintendent and secretary was more than just a ceremonial effort.
The district's wind turbine breaks ground in the entire state as the
first school district in "I'm not sure how
much wind we have here, but I think we'll be making money," said
Bureau Valley Superintendent Rick Stoecker, as he welcomed the crowd
to the event and battled a strong northerly breeze in the open field. After Stoecker's initial
remarks, several others also spoke to event-goers. Most talked about
the district's insight into the project and how "Have no doubt
about it. This is a very historic project," said State Rep. Don Moffitt
called the wind turbine "creative and progressive." "( Besides the accolades
for the district's efforts, several applauded Bureau Valley Board member
Keith Bolin, who initially spearheaded the wind turbine project. Jay Haley, the project
engineer, and Jesper Michaelsen, business development manager for Vestas
-- the company supplying the turbine and doing the construction, presented
Bolin with a desk-sized wind turbine for his insight. "You need a local
champion on these projects, or they don't happen," Haley said,
referring to Bolin. "(The Bureau Valley District) is a group of
people who know how to get things done." Construction on the
600-kilowatt turbine is set to begin soon. Michaelsen said he expects
the turbine to be erected, commissioned and on-line by the middle to
the end of December. Michaelsen compared the height of the tower to
the nearby At almost 270 feet tall,
the tower, according to Michaelsen, could be laid on the football field
at the 20-yard line and stretch to the opposite end zone. The cost of the project
is about $1 million. Grants from the Illinois Clean Energy Community
Foundation ($331,000) and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic
Opportunity ($150,000) will finance about half the effort. The remainder
of the project is being financed on contract through UnionBank over
a five-year period. Michaelsen said his
company's name (Vestas) will be on one side of the turbine, and the
Bureau Valley Storm's logo will be on the other side. By Superintendents from
around the state gathered at a crumbling South Side school Wednesday
to appeal to members of the General Assembly and the governor to approve
more money for the state's school construction grant program when they
return to Springfield next month. Large, thick chips of
paint are missing from walls of Other projects could
also go, including several on the Southwest Side that would relieve
overcrowding. "You're talking
about one-third of the projects either not getting done or being delayed,"
said Pedro Martinez, city schools budget director. Roberta Berry, superintendent
of Crete-Monee is constructing
what will be the most expensive public building in the "Where else can
you create jobs that benefit children, individual homeowners, the morale
of our communities and local economies — all at the same time?"
said Like other The reach of the school
construction program, which began in 1997 and has poured $3.1 billion
into repairs and new school construction in 497 districts statewide
since, makes it unlikely that it will fall victim to budget pressures,
said Rep. Renee Kosel (R-Mokena), Republican spokeswoman on the House
Elementary and Secondary Education Committee. "It's an extremely
popular program that's helped school districts across the state,"
said Kosel. However,legislators will need to weigh other capital needs
as well, said Kosel. She characterized the school construction program
as "no-frills." "This isn't a program
that builds Taj Mahals," said Kosel. The capital budget is
usually passed in the spring, but legislators delayed discussions this
year after it took them two extra months to agree on the state's operating
budget. In their veto session
next month, lawmakers will consider authorizing $2.2 billion in bond
sales to fund the school construction program for the next four years.
They'll have to appropriate the $550 million each year, according to
a spokeswoman for the Illinois Capital Development Board, which awards
the grants. Money for school construction
and repair should be important enough that school leaders — who must
raise matching funds to pay for projects — shouldn't have to deal with
annual uncertainty about whether the state program will be funded, said
Michael Jacoby, superintendent of Geneva School District 304 in Kane
County. "This dance we
do every two years or so to try to see if the state commissioned enough
bonds to fund this program has got to be changed," said Jacoby.
"There needs to be consistent funding." Keyes, Obama discuss ways to improve nation’s educational
systems MAURA KELLY LANNAN,
AP Writer, Keyes argued for less
government spending on the current system in favor of alternatives such
as home-schooling, while Obama said spending money on schools was important
but parents also need to play a greater role in their children’s education. The two spoke separately
at a luncheon sponsored by the Metropolitan Planning Council, which
asked them to address education, housing, transportation and economic
opportunity issues facing the Keyes, a Republican
who has centered his campaign on social issues, said alternatives such
as home-schooling or giving parents the freedom to send their children
to schools that reflect their faith should be considered. "We are dealing
with a problem that government cannot handle," Keyes said. "We
have taken the foundation of most moral, cultural education out of our
schools, rendering them incompetent to provide the environment absolutely
necessary for education to succeed." Home-schooling children
is cost-effective, he said, "because parents don’t generally demand
high salaries for doing their job." Obama, a Democrat, said
money for schools makes a difference in attracting qualified teachers,
creating smaller class sizes and improving facilities. But he said spending
more money alone won’t improve the nation’s schools. "No matter how
much money we pour into it, it’s not going to make a dime’s worth of
difference if, when children come home from school, parents don’t turn
off the television set and find a quiet place for children to do their
homework," he said. Obama said the federal
government should fully fund the federal No Child Left Behind law, invest
more money in early childhood education, teacher training and charter
schools, which get public money but operate free from many state rules. "It is my strong
belief that the more we can foster experimentation, the more we can
foster a different set of models that can be franchised across the system,
the more successful we can be," Obama said about charter schools.
The core curriculum: 10 schools incorporating
health tips into classes to combat obesity By Alice Hohl, Daily
Southtown Staff writer, A pilot program involving
eight Chicago Public Schools on the South Side and two Fifth- and sixth-graders
in the schools will count calories and calculate fat percentages in
math class; learn about diet and fitness in other countries in social
studies; and keep fitness and nutrition journals in language class. The program, sponsored
by Walgreens, was developed by an advisory board of doctors, dietitians
and weight-loss counselors. Yvonne Daily owns Healthy
Images in the South Loop, and counsels people facing the same problem
she did just five years ago: stubborn weight that wouldn't stay away. "I had been overweight
most of my life," Daily said. "I tried all the weight loss
programs, but one of the things I did differently in 1999 was I decided
to change my whole life rather than just focusing on my weight." Daily said her focus
on lifestyle and eliminating refined sugars changed everything, and
she decided to go into business helping others. "I never looked
back." Daily was one of eight
experts, doctors and educators who together developed the program for
students. "If I had had a
program like that when I was young, maybe I wouldn't have had the lifelong
problem that I did," she said. "Catching these kids young
is very important. It's a lot harder to change once you get older." Daily said she was not
concerned the program was sponsored by a chain of stores that sells
very little in the way of fresh, nutritious food. "We can not be
choosy about where the funds for this come from," she said. "We
need all the help we can get. Especially in the African-American community,
we need a lot of help with this issue." John Grant, operations
vice president for Walgreens in "It really is designed
to get students information to make healthy lifelong habits," Grant
said. Grant said Walgreens
paid for the kickoff rally for students and teachers, which featured
the UniverSoul Circus, and will sponsor contest prizes during the year
and a two-mile walk to end the school year. "We're just trying
to address this growing epidemic of childhood obesity," he said. Grant said the program
will be continued or expanded next year if results are good. Administrators at the
two Gerald Bennett, principal
of "So far I'm very
impressed," he said. "If it addresses the problem of obesity
in our young people, I would give it a thumbs up." Diekman Elementary School
Principal April Isabelle said the program will "not just be isolated
to their gym time." "The ultimate goal
is to teach them to manage their own fitness and how to eat nutritiously
and how that goes hand in hand," she said. "They'll learn
about how important it is to eat fruits and vegetables and how it affects
their energy levels." Comic books finding acceptance among educators By KRISTA LEWIN, But comic books, once
looked at as fun and folly, are now known as graphic novels and have
earned respect from educators as a viable reading and learning tool
for students. "Graphic novels
now have more of a story with them," said Anieta Trame, Sarah Knobloch's eighth-grade
language arts classes are using large encyclopedias specifically written
and illustrated about the creation and the history of familiar superheroes
including The Hulk, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Superman and Batman. The
students work in groups and have to use other sources in research including
library materials and the Internet as part of the project. "The students learn
how graphic novels and superheroes tie into the Great Depression and
World War II," Knobloch said. Eighth-grader Liz Dole's
group was researching The Incredible Hulk. Dole and her group, including
Lori Creek, Zac Purvis and Krissy Patrick, said they found it interesting
that over the years, whenever the creators changed the Hulk's IQ, the
illustrators also changed the way he looked. "He has gotten
more high tech over the years," said Patrick about the green superhero
who changes from a man into a green fighting hero who battles against
evil. Austin Storm's group
was studying Wonder Woman. He and his group, including Curtis Royse
and Michael West, were impressed that her creator, William Marston,
was also the inventor of the lie detector. "Wonder Woman uses
a magic lasso which forces people to tell the truth," Storm said.
"Marston created the magic lasso as a connection to the lie detector." Trame, who helped create
the superheroes' project after the school received a grant, said graphic
novels are an advantage to students challenged with reading and writing.
"Students who have trouble understanding vocabulary can use illustrations
to pick up clues about the context of words," Trame said. "Believe it or
not, there are some students who have never seen or read a comic book
before," Trame said. "We are hoping to offer a wide selection
of the books so students can view all the different genres." Manual reading program's bottom line: It's working Woodruff could be next
school to implement FAME classes By ELAINE HOPKINS of
the Journal Star, It's working, teachers
for the The teens like it, the
teachers said of the program, now in its second year at Manual. "There are no discipline
problems. They show up on time. I don't think I had a referral (to the
dean) last year," English teacher Marcey Runkle said. "When you're in
a safe environment and working at a level that you feel safe" and
are successful, discipline problems don't occur, she said. More than 100 students
are taking the classes, which replace art or a foreign language in their
schedules, she said. They also take freshman or sophomore English. The participants were
identified by testing that pinpointed their reading ability before they
entered Manual. Some reading beyond the fourth-grade level but below
the ninth-grade level were placed in the second year of the program. Teachers in their other
classes were shocked to learn that those students could not read well
enough to pass their classes, she said. Now that the students
have been identified, teachers can adapt to their weaknesses in reading,
vocabulary and related problems. "If a child can't
read, you don't want the teacher to say, 'Stand up and read the next
paragraph.' It's easier to knock over a desk than be humiliated."
Or they become truants, Runkle said. Developed at Girls and
Boys Town in Omaha, Neb., the FAME program is part of Manual's plan
to improve the school and its low test scores, required by the No Child
Left Behind law. The school has spent
about $10,000 on the program, paid for with a grant, and teachers have
logged many hours developing materials and undergoing training. The
program is highly structured, with all teachers doing the same class
work on the same day. FAME is aimed at teenagers
and includes computer use, word games and constant informal testing.
By the final semester, students are writing, have learned to take notes
and outline, and understand topic sentences, special-education teacher
Janine Schumm said. Classes are small, with
only 12 students in the first year's classes, and up to 15 in the second
year. Runkle said 47 students
who were supposed to attend Manual as freshmen and who should have been
placed in the FAME program instead transferred to other schools under
the No Child Left Behind law. They can be tracked to see how they are
doing in other schools and offered help if needed. Woodruff High School
Principal Herschel Hannah attended the meeting and expressed interest
in the FAME program for his school. If it were at all schools, it could
help students who transfer between the schools, he said. District 150's high
rate of students transferring between schools is considered a liability
for student learning and achievement. "We need models that will
address the transients," Hannah said. The FAME program is
used at The program might be
just what Manual needs, he said, "because reading is the key." Students who can read
well can succeed and are more likely to develop "a positive attitude
toward learning and a sense of belonging" to the school, Maurer
said. "If you can get those factors, you've got the kid."
Information on the FAME
program can be found at www.girlsandboystown.org under "Education." =========================================================================== NATIONAL Unreliable
Data, Oversight Hampers Ed Law Ben Feller, Associated
Press/Miami Herald The report is the latest
to raise a warning about the accuracy of school data - an essential
underpinning of the No Child Left Behind law - among the states. "Measuring achievement
with inaccurate data is likely to lead to poor measures of school progress,
with education officials and parents making decisions about educational
options on the basis of faulty information," said the report by
the Government Accountability Office, Congress' auditing arm. Under the law, schools
that get federal poverty aid and fail to make enough progress for two
straight years must allow any of their students to transfer. If the
schools fall short three straight years, students from poor families
must be provided a tutor of their choice. But states may be incorrectly
triggering the transfer and tutor provisions, the GAO said. The law demands unprecedented
information from schools. They must show yearly progress among all major
racial and ethnic groups and others such as children with disabilities. The Education Department,
the GAO said, should expand efforts to help states gather accurate data.
Deputy Education Secretary Eugene Hickok said in a written response
the agency has provided "strong leadership" in addressing
data concerns and would keep helping states. The review also found
almost half the states still have only conditional approval of their
plans for complying with the law. The report pointedly states that the
Education Department lacks any written process for measuring how or
when those states will comply. The GAO said the education
agency should put in writing what steps states must take to comply and
spell out what will happen if they don't. But the agency stood by its
monitoring. "The point of the
law is every child learning, not adding needless bureaucratic red tape,"
department spokeswoman Susan Aspey said Friday night. The status of the states'
progress has political implications. The law is the centerpiece of President
Bush's domestic agenda and has dominated the national debate on education. Bush held a Rose Garden
ceremony in June 2003 to mark what he called a historic milestone, with
"100 percent of accountability plans in place." Yet by July,
almost half of those plans had outstanding conditions that kept them
from full compliance, the report found. That finding erodes
Bush's claim, said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif, a key sponsor of the
law. Another Democrat who helped write the law, Sen. Edward Kennedy
of Hickok, the Education
Department leader, faulted the GAO for narrowly interpreting the word
"approval." Some states have conditional approval, he said,
because they showed enough detail to make clear they would satisfy the
law when they fully put their plans in place. Aspey said the law is
producing tangible results, "and much of it is because of states'
efforts to develop fair, reliable and valid plans to get progress for
every single child." The GAO also called
on the department to do more in helping states get in place yearly standardized
testing in math and reading for students in grades three to eight. Those
tests are to be ready by the start of the next school year. Problems Seen for Expansion Of Testing of Diana Jean Schemo, New
York Times. WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 --
A new federal requirement to sharply expand annual testing of students
starting next school year faces serious obstacles, including unreliable
data and a lack of clear and timely guidance from federal officials,
according to a government report. The report, by the Government
Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found wide
variation in the rules that states use to measure progress under No
Child Left Behind, the federal education law that has been one of President
Bush's major domestic initiatives. The variation makes comparisons between
states meaningless, the report suggested. Under No Child Left
Behind, schools face a rigorous timetable of academic challenges in
the coming years. Starting with the 2005-2006 school year, they must
test students in Grades 3 to 8 annually on reading and math, and in
2007, they must also begin testing in science. By 2014, the law demands
that all students become proficient in reading and math. Failure to
meet the targets brings severe consequences, including, ultimately,
possible school closings. The G.A.O. report, which
was released late last week, said that more than half the state and
school district officials interviewed said they had been ''hampered
by poor and unreliable student data,'' with Illinois, for example, reporting
data problems in 300 of its 1,055 school districts. About half of 21
state officials interviewed said the law's tight deadlines impeded their
ability to carry out the law's promises. The report also recalled
that when the federal Education Department said that it had approved
plans from all states for carrying out No Child Left Behind in June
2003, it had in fact completely approved only 11 plans, with the rest
receiving conditional approval. As of July 31, 23 states and the The investigators said
that state officials remained uncertain about how to obtain full approval,
and they recommended that the federal Education Department give the
states written guidelines and time frames. In a letter to the G.A.O.,
Eugene W. Hickok, under secretary of education, rejected the recommendation.
''The department already
has a process in place to move states toward full approval,'' Mr. Hickok
wrote. The existing system, he added, had resulted in an additional
22 states that previously had conditional approval reaching full approval.
Mr. Hickok said the
department and the states had made great strides in creating an accountability
system from scratch. ''Although the G.A.O. has tried to capture some
of this energy and effort in its report, states, school districts and
the department have made far more progress than the draft report suggests,''
he wrote. Coming just a few days
before the next presidential debate, which is to focus on domestic policy,
the report inevitably became fodder for new attacks on the administration
about enacting No Child Left Behind. In February, Congressional Democrats
first wrote to Education Secretary Rod Paige to question the handling
of the law, saying that the department had been slow to provide states
with the necessary guidance. Representative George
Miller of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on
Education and the Workforce, said, ''The report is a surprise only in
the sense that it displays such a massive disconnect between what the
president and the Education Department have been telling Congress and
the public about how well No Child Left Behind is going, and the facts
on the ground.'' Trent Duffy, a White
House spokesman, said, ''The administration is working fully with districts
to make sure that the kids get the education and the resources they
need to get a better education.'' He added, ''There's more resources,
there's a record amount, and we want to make sure the accountability
is in place, and the data shows that students are improving.'' Teachers say No Child Left Behind should study bigger
picture AP, The rules, outlined
in the No Child Left Behind Act, say that if a school misses one or
more of its 21 performance targets for two consecutive years, it must
allow children to transfer to a better school. Critics say the act
is unfair because it penalizes schools -- especially poor ones -- that
face the greatest challenges. Instead of rewarding schools that show
steady improvement, they say the law punishes schools for missing just
one target, which may involve only a handful of students. "I don't think
NCLM is a bad law," said Lori Hughes, principal at Across "If certain groups
of kids are failing, letting kids move isn't the answer," said
Linda Cliff, a principal of Northern Lincoln Elementary. "Let's
look at why these kids are failing and figure out what to do about it."
In Coleman is an example
of how the federal accountability system is at odds with what's going
on within the school. Coleman met all of its 21 targets this year. In
fact, the school outperformed the district and the state in seven performance
categories. Yet Coleman must offer
choice because a school must show improvement for two years in a row
to come off the "needs improvement" list. Principal George Nasuti
says it makes no sense to bus children to another school when Coleman,
because it is a high-poverty school, offers more programs for students
struggling with basic reading and writing. If students transfer to another
elementary school, they might not be able to get the same kinds of services.
"The law falls
down in having absolutely unrealistic expectation," Pawtucket Schools
Superintendent Hans Dellith. "It's like asking the automobile industry
to build cars that will withstand all accidents all of the time."
Principals' letters to parents list teachers without
special training As the No Child Left
Behind Act phases in, more parents will get notifications. JOHN WELBES, For the third year in
a row, high school principal Bill Dunn is having carefully worded letters
typed to notify parents that a few of his teachers don't meet the "highly
qualified" designation set out in federal law. It's a delicate task
-- comply with the law on teacher qualifications without offending teachers
or alarming parents -- that up until now has been limited primarily
to schools in urban areas. That will change at
the end of next school year, when another part of the No Child Left
Behind law takes effect. At that point, all of Already, about 2,200
of 55,000 teachers statewide fall short of what the federal law considers
highly qualified and will have to prove themselves by 2006. With four weeks of school
now complete in most Minnesota school districts, the federally required
letters will soon be headed home, but only from schools that have high
concentrations of poverty and receive federal Title I money. And as school administrators
craft those letters each year, they're careful to avoid libeling the
teachers who commonly have state licenses -- but not in the specialty
that they're teaching. A notice from the The state has put together
a program that will allow teachers working outside their area of licensure
to use tests, portfolios, workshops or classes to show they're "highly
qualified" in that area. At "These are all
certified teachers," Dunn said. "This is not Jane Doe off
the street." When the law expands
to all public schools, it will affect teachers of "core academic
subjects," which include English, math, science, foreign languages
and others. Gao Faults Bush Administration On Implementation Of No
Child Left Behind Act US Fed News, The non-partisan federal
Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded in a new report issued
today that unless the Bush Department of Education takes specific internal
steps outlined by GAO, states may not be able to meet important No Child
Left Behind (NCLB) standards and assessment systems requirements by
the law's 2005-06 deadline. The GAO is sufficiently
concerned that it specifically urges the Department to develop a written
plan and internal deadlines in order to increase the likelihood that
it will be able to fulfill its responsibilities in helping all states
meet upcoming NCLB deadlines. "The Department's role is to help
- not hinder - states in implementing this law," said Rep. George
Miller (D-CA), senior Democrat on the House Education and Workforce
Committee and a principal author of the NCLB law. "The Department
of Education should do everything possible to assist states in meeting
their deadlines and get the job done, and I certainly hope the Department
will have the good sense to follow the GAO's recommendations,"
said Miller. Another GAO finding
contradicts President Bush's assertion in June 2003 that all states
had secured full federal approval for the education plans required under
the 2001 reform law. GAO found that on Finally, the report
also found that many states are still not in compliance with requirements
established in 1994 to develop educational standards and assessment
systems. As of July of this year, the Department of Education has only
approved only 35 States' effort to comply with the 1994 requirements.
Without greater assistance from the Department, states will have difficulty
meeting NCLB's requirements to assess the proficiency of every student
in grades 3-8 starting in the 2005-06 school year. Miller and others have
also faulted the Department of Education for providing states with tardy,
confusing and contradictory instructions on the law. Today's GAO report
concludes that the Department needs to work harder to provide states
with reliable data. No Child
Left Behind' needs to be updated Payson Roundup Editorial More than two years
ago, Congress passed, with bipartisan support, the No Child Left Behind
Act creating a sweeping overhaul of the federal government's education
policy. When it was passed,
almost no one opposed its so-called reforms. They include putting a
qualified teacher in all classrooms, setting standards of achievement
for all students, holding public schools accountable and closing the
student achievement gap throughout the country. Even Sen. Edward Kennedy
of If only we knew then
what we know now. After two years, we've
learned there are many flaws and inconsistencies in the NCLB Act that
need to be examined and corrected. First, for NCLB programs
to be effective, schools need to be fully funded. Federal funding for
2003 was $8 billion shy of what had been authorized. In 2004. the budget
allocation was $11 billion below what was needed. States and school districts
like Payson already operate under severe budget constraints brought
on by a state legislature that refuses to shoulder the burden of financing
quality public education. Finding the money to
meet the additional requirements of NCLB adds even more burdens to the
districts' budget crisis. NCLB demands include
additional teacher training and recruitment, development of costly tests,
new books and building construction. Then there's the NCLB
requirement that all teachers should be "highly qualified"
by the end of the 2005-06 school year. But, who's highly qualified? The law deems some teachers
"highly qualified" who are at charter schools or who are in
preparation programs that do not meet state certification standards.
Also, teachers providing only supplemental services can be labeled "highly
qualified." But special education
teachers who are asked to teach several subjects, but are not certified
in each, are not considered "highly qualified. NCLB also says schools
that don't meet their progress targets for two consecutive years will
be identified as "needing improvement," and after three failing
years will be subject to a takeover or complete overhaul. The tests that determine
whether schools are failing are one-size-fits-all exams that are confusing
and only add an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy to public education.
If a school is deemed
failing, the law doesn't offer any problem-solving measures that will
help it get on track. Rather NCLB offers only punitive measures. "There are critical
flaws in this law that both Republicans and Democrats have said need
to be fixed," said National Education Association President Reg
Weaver. "We should be talking about ways to create smaller class
sizes, hire and retain high-quality teachers in the classroom, and invest
in up-to-date resources for all students, not piling on yet another
high stakes test." More than 30 state legislatures
-- even those with Republican majorities -- have either passed or proposed
state polices that call for changes in NCLB. It's time for Paige:
It’s Not Too Early to Call School Law a Success Erik W. Robelen, Education
Week Secretary of Education
Rod Paige is declaring the No Child Left Behind Act a success, arguing
that there is ample evidence the law is improving student achievement.
But linking test scores directly to federal policy is a risky business,
and some say the Bush administration is getting way ahead of itself.
"I am pleased to
report that the law is making a positive difference in millions of lives,"
Secretary Paige said on Sept. 24 in his annual back-to- school address
at the National Press Club here. "There is clear evidence of success,
noticeable patterns of change, and upbeat reports all across the nation
from a variety of sources. Simply stated: The law is working." Mr. Paige cited anecdotal
evidence from several school districts, as well as state and national
data. He noted, for example,
that 4th grade reading scores on a national test climbed from 2000 to
2003. He said the scores were flat during the 1990s, but are now showing
upward movement. "No Child Left
Behind has ended that flat line," he said. "While 4th grade
reading scores between 1992 and 2000 remained stagnant, there has been
a five-point increase in the last three years nationally." He highlighted gains
for African-American and Hispanic 4th graders. The scores cited, from
the National Assessment of Educational Progress, were for a test administered
in early 2003. Given that the federal education law wasn’t signed until
January 2002, and its implementation really began only in the fall of
that year, Secretary Paige appears to be crediting the improvement to
barely six months under the law. "This is too quick,"
said Timothy Shanahan, a professor of urban education at the The increase in the
average score, to 218 on a 500- point scale, returned the average to
about the 1992 level. Mr. Shanahan, who served
on the congressionally mandated National Reading Panel and describes
himself as a "big supporter" of several of the Bush administration’s
key education policies, said it’s too soon to "declare victory." "They’re claiming
that these 4th graders changed so much in those few months," he
said. "There’s no way." Mr. Shanahan said that
the recent rise in NAEP scores was a hopeful sign, but not especially
striking, as those scores have seen minor shifts up and down over time.
The big question, he said, is whether the gains will persist in future
years. Susan Aspey, Mr. Paige’s
spokeswoman, said the NAEP gains, particularly for minorities, "are
signs of substantial progress following a long period of stagnation." Caution Urged Mr. Paige also pointed
to improved state test scores, such as in But "We were already
about accountability for our schools and districts before No Child Left
Behind," said Valerie A. Woodruff, noting the state has seen steady
improvement in test scores for several years now. "Without No Child
Left Behind, we would have seen a similar pattern of growth." She added, "If
I were in [Mr. Paige’s] shoes, I’d be more cautious about saying these
things." Mr. Paige also noted
that more of Even there, the numbers
don’t tell the whole story. Just before Mr. Paige’s
address, critics of President Bush’s education policies, including the
National Education Association and the Washington-based Campaign for
America’s Future, held a press conference nearby where they took aim
at the the secretary’s expected comments. "I voted against
No Child Left Behind because its focus was on failure," said Rep.
Betty McCollum, D-Minn., who was one of 41 House members to vote against
the federal school law. "This is a huge intrusion that is failing
our children, failing our schools." In his speech, Secretary
Paige said he wasn’t surprised to see the law facing so much criticism. "[T]here has always
been a chattering of teeth and then a recoiling anytime there has been
an attempt to change things," he said. "So, the pushback on
No Child Left Behind is not new, nor unexpected. But the debate is over.
No Child Left Behind is here. It’s here to stay." Many
high schools lift ban on cell phones
Matt Richtel, New York
Times News Service "Why are you answering
the phone in class?" his mother asked. He whispered back, "You're
the one who called me." His mother said she had intended to leave
a message on Gray's voice mail. Such scenes are playing
out across the country, as hundreds of high schools have reluctantly
agreed to relax rules about cell phones. Rather than banning the phones
outright, as many once did, they are capitulating to parent demands
and market realities, and allowing students to carry phones in school--though
not to use them in class. The reversal is a significant
change from policies of the 1980s and 1990s, when school administrators
around the country viewed cell phones as the tools of drug dealers.
In But the phones have
become tools used by parents to keep in touch with, and keep track of,
their children. And schools are facing a more basic reality: It is no
longer possible to enforce such bans. Thanks to the falling
prices of mobile phones, and efforts by carriers to market family plans
to parents and teenagers, the phones have become so commonplace that
trying to keep them out of schools would be like trying to enforce a
ban on lip gloss or combs. Over the last two years,
more than half a dozen states, including Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland,
Michigan and Nevada, and numerous individual school districts, have
abolished or relaxed their bans. In June, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed
a law, based on a proposal forwarded to the Legislature by a group of
high school students, to no longer make possession of a phone in school
a felony. About half of Americans
aged 13 to 17 are expected to have a cell phone by the end of 2004,
according to the research firm Yankee Group. And in many high schools,
including poor urban ones, administrators say the figure is closer to
90 percent. The new policies vary
widely, and in many cases they indicate a grudging capitulation by school
administrators. While some schools permit phones to be displayed in
plain sight, others require the phones to be stowed in purses, pants
or backpacks. Some still ban certain kinds of phones, like those with
cameras, fearing locker-room high jinks. Most schools continue
to forbid the use of phones and other electronics during class. The
gadgets are seen as offering too much temptation to stray from schoolwork
or cheat, not just because they can be used for calls but because they
can be used to check the Internet, play games or send messages to other
students with phones. In "The cell phone
is not for her convenience," Teremi said. "It's for her security.
It's for my peace of mind." Sarah says she likes
being able to stay in touch, too. "I'm always checking in with
my mom to make sure I'm not running too late," she said. But some other parents
say they wish Eastern High, a school of 1,500 students largely from
poor neighborhoods, had never lifted the ban. The school did last year,
even while the statewide prohibition was still in place. At first, the school
adopted an informal policy of letting students carry phones. This year
the school decided to tighten its policy, by adhering to the state's
law allowing cell phones to be in students' possession, but not openly
displayed. Students at Eastern
High said that the new, tougher guidelines have not stopped the frequent
use of cell phones at school. Alicia Barajas, 17,
the senior class president, said she was in class recently when a student
received a call--and ignored the substitute teacher's request to end
it. "He was like, `I've got to take this,"' Alicia said. School training, security beefed up since Columbine shootings By Megan Tench, In a post-Columbine
world, where student threats are taken more seriously, schools in Many districts added
school resource officers -- police officers who roam hallways, parking
lots, and other student gathering spots -- to get to know students and
build trust, while keeping classrooms safe. In Tobin Kerns, a 16-year-old
Marshfield High student, was arrested last month after the officers
heard about the plan, which police said was timed for next April, near
the anniversary of the shooting rampage at ''There have been some
people who have questioned the use of officers in the schools, and I
think this is a great example of the value of having school resource
officers in the schools," said Jim Fitzgerald, chairman of the
Marshfield Board of Selectman. Officer Robert Quigley
has been a constant presence at the school for 12 years, Fitzgerald
said. Helen Gray, the other resource officer who thwarted the alleged
plot, has been at the school for about four years, he said. Recently, Quigley has
become more involved in the high school and has morphed from a DARE
officer to an all-purpose resource officer at the high school. ''His interaction with
the kids is phenomenal," said Fitzgerald, who said he found out
about the case yesterday, when the police contacted him. Neither officer could
be reached for comment yesterday. ''It's good to hear
that the efforts regarding school resource officers worked in this case,"
said Ron Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety
Center, a California-based advocacy group. The center trains thousands
of school resource officers from across the country each year on school
safety, the law, and how to engage students, Stephens said. Students
are key to stopping potential disasters, he said, because they tend
to know more about what's going on inside their hallways and classrooms. Since Columbine -- where
two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 12 students
and one teacher and then killed themselves on In November 2001, five
students from Cash Freeze for E-Rate Hits Schools By Rhea R. Borja, Education
Week, A freeze on $3.28 billion
in requests for aid under the federal E-rate program has left hundreds
of school districts scrambling to pay for their technology needs—and,
in some cases, crippled classroom instruction. The Universal Service
Administrative Co., which oversees the "education rate" program
for the Federal Communications Commission, halted funding in August,
pending adoption of new accounting procedures. The FCC told USAC to
change its procedures by Oct. 1 in response to E-rate audits and congressional
charges of waste, fraud, and abuse. USAC officials may decide
as soon as this week to resume funding, but they have not set an exact
date. Some of the accounting changes still need to be figured out, Mel
Blackwell, the vice president for external communications for USAC,
said last week. "It’s not as simple
as a flip of a switch," he said. The E-rate program,
which has disbursed more than $8 billion since its inception in 1997,
helps link public and private schools as well as public libraries to
the Internet by paying up to 90 percent of technology costs such as
wiring and connection fees. Consumers pay for the program through a
"universal service" fee on their monthly telephone bills. To complicate matters,
the funding suspension came on top of another delay. Earlier this year,
USAC’s schools and libraries division, which directly operates the $2.25
billion-a-year E-rate program, reviewed funding applications from the
largest school districts before reviewing those from the many smaller
and mid-sized districts. For some smaller districts, that step has resulted
in a slowdown or reduction in student access to the Internet, continued
aging of technology networks, and, in some rural districts, no Internet
access at all. ‘Tired and Frustrated’ Consequently, many state
E-rate coordinators are steaming, and district officials are sounding
alarms. For instance, 75 percent of On Sept. 23, the State
E-Rate Coordinators Alliance sent a strongly worded letter to USAC’s
schools and libraries division to urge a lifting of the funding freeze.
The letter said the
situation "has reached a boiling point in the applicant community
as schools and libraries are suffering cash flow issues, losing valuable
services, and having needed projects delayed as a result of these massive
delays and suspension of funding." One case in point is
the remote 416-student Kuspuk school district in the Alaskan bush, which
is waiting to hear about the fate of at least $700,000 in approved E-rate
funds. It is one of more than half of Alaska’s districts that were approved
for fiscal 2004 funding, but haven’t received it, said Della Mathis,
the E-rate coordinator for the state education department. Kuspuk is "a typical
bush school district that’s totally dependent on communications to stay
anywhere close to the world," she said. Kuspuk’s nine schools
are spread out over 1,200 miles, accessible only by plane or, in the
summer months, by boat on the Thus, Kuspuk teachers
have relied on the Internet to conduct research and gather classroom
materials. About 300 computers were connected to the Internet via broadband
until Aug. 15. That’s when the Internet connection was turned off, because
E-rate money the district planned to use to pay the broadband fees was
unavailable. Now, some teachers are calling the district office, which
has slow Internet access, to look up and download materials for them. "As much as half
of our classroom instruction is tied to the Internet," said Marge
Randlett, a teacher and the technology director for the Kuspuk schools.
"Now, with that being cut off and not having enough textbooks,
we’re in a pretty bad way." District Superintendent
Kim Langton added that if the Kuspuk schools don’t get the E- rate money
soon, bad weather will force his district to further delay mounting
equipment for Internet connections until next spring. "I am so tired
and frustrated," he said over a staticky phone line. "We were
looking to enhance our broadband and distance learning. We’re extremely
grateful for E-rate, but everybody’s being punished for the waste and
fraud going on." Safeguarding the Program Examples of alleged
or proven abuses in the E-rate program abound. NEC Business Network
Solutions Inc., an Irving, Texas-based subsidiary of NEC America Inc.,
for instance, pleaded guilty in May to abusing the federal program,
and agreed to pay the federal government $20.6 million in criminal and
civil penalties. ("Company Pleads Guilty To E-Rate Abuses,"
Last year, two executives
of New York City-based Connect2 Internet Networks Inc. were convicted
of fraud and have been prohibited from participating in the program
for three years. In addition, the 51,000-student
In response to charges
about E- rate problems, the FCC passed measures in August designed to
safeguard the program. It made schools, libraries, and service providers
more accountable and set a framework for how USAC can recover E-rate
money that has been used improperly. The "Fifth Order
and Report" requires schools and libraries to keep E-rate documents
for five years; states that USAC and the FCC will conduct audits or
investigations of beneficiaries within five years of receipt of funding;
bars schools, libraries, and service providers from receiving funds
from the program if they owe any debts to it; and directs applicants
to devise technology plans that follow U.S. Department of Education
and USAC guidelines. "The FCC has had
requirements since the start of this program that, for whatever reason,
people did not take seriously," said Sara Fitzgerald, the vice
president of communications for Funds for Learning, an educational technology
consulting firm based in Arlington, Va., that specializes in E-rate
issues. "So the FCC is getting frustrated. If you’re receiving
money from ratepayers, and if you want to get this benefit, there’s
responsibility that goes along with it." Philly schools criticized for religious ties AP, Paul Vallas, the district's
chief executive officer, said the panel could help with tutoring, mentoring,
counseling and organizing faith-based clubs. "As long as our
children are falling victim to violence in our streets, as long as we
have problems of student behavior in schools, as long as we have disrespect
and bullying in our schools, we'll continue to promote partnerships
and close working relationships with faith-based organizations,"
Vallas said. The task force of rabbis,
ministers and other clergy could become one of the largest collaborations
of its kind, according to national experts. But opponents say the
collaboration is inappropriate and could be illegal. "For the school
CEO to ask religious leaders to take an active role in sponsoring religious
activities runs against the spirit of the Constitution and court rulings,
if not the letter of the law itself," said Barry Morrison, regional
director of the Anti-Defamation League. In May, Vallas invited
churches to start gospel choirs and prayer clubs. Last year, the district
sponsored a back-to-school meeting with speeches and prayers by clergy. "This is a man
who seems to get dangerously close to crossing, and now may be crossing,
the line between government neutrality and government promotion of religion,"
said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United
for Separation of Church and State. Task force members said
they plan to keep their activities as secular as possible. "I am happy to
be able to say that the members of this task force are very, very clear
about it being crucial that everything we do is legal and secular,"
Rabbi George Stern said. "We are not preaching anything." Wider Gap Found Between Wealthy and Poor Schools By GREG WINTER, After narrowing in better
economic times, the financial gap between poor and wealthy school districts
has widened, a new report has found. State and local money
account for more than 90 percent of all education spending, but high
poverty districts typically received $868 less per student from those
sources than their counterparts with relatively few poor children did
in 2002, the latest year for which data is available, the report found.
As recently as 2000, the gap was down to $728. The disparities were
significantly more stark in some of the nation's more populous states.
In The findings, released
today by the Education Trust, a research group that supports the federal
No Child Left Behind law, showed that whatever momentum had gathered
to close the monetary gap between districts in recent years quickly
dispersed as state budgets started facing serious challenges. By 2000, tax receipts
were hearty and schools of all kinds reaped the benefits. Districts
with high concentrations of poor students often received slightly bigger
increases in state aid than wealthier ones. Though parity was still
elusive, the report found, the gap between districts with large numbers
of poor students and those without them had begun to narrow. But as a recession took
hold, states slowed their education spending, leaving local governments
to take on more of the burden, the report found. Wealthier districts
made up for much of the slowdown by raising property taxes, a response
few high poverty areas could manage. As a consequence, the gap started
expanding again and now stands at its widest point in at least five
years, the report found. "A time like this
is when the states would really like to be able to look to the federal
government to help lessen that gap," said Scott Young, senior policy
specialist at National Conference of State Legislatures, adding that
the report's findings seemed accurate. "But now states have to
use their federal money to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind."
Though it is a small
piece of the entire puzzle, federal aid helps districts educate poor
students nationwide. Moreover, the group says, federal assistance is
not supposed to substitute for state efforts. "The law is not
designed so that states could just shortchange high poverty districts
and the federal government would make up the difference," said
Kevin Carey, the report's author. "It's to provide additional money,
on top of what the states are already doing." Part of the reason,
Mr. Carey contends, is that it costs more to educate poor students.
In fact, after factoring in the extra costs of overcoming the effects
of poverty, districts with large proportions of poor students would
have needed $1,350 more per child than they received in 2002 to achieve
parity, the report found. Not all states have
widened the gap. In Disks found in CNN, The FBI is examining
the materials, but a Department of Homeland Security official said the
intelligence community determined there was no threat. The military retrieved
the disks in "There is no threat
associated with this," another government official said. The schools are in The Department of Homeland
Security official said the material was associated with a person in
Officials said that
they are taking the matter seriously though there has been no specific
threat related to the recovered material. The "State and local
law enforcement personnel have informed us of the need to increase our
school security during this election season," said Jones County
School Superintendent William Mathews Jr. in a letter sent last month
to parents of students in the Middle Georgia community. "It is important
to know that no threat of any type has been directed or is suspected
against any The FBI sent an advisory
to terrorism task forces across the nation to inform them about the
material, a Department of Homeland Security official said. No public
notification or other action associated with a heightened state of alert
was taken, the official said, because it did not seem necessary to "elevate
it to that level based on the assessment of the intelligence community." The Department of Homeland
Security official said the information included a Department of Education
guide on how to plan for a crisis in schools. A senior government official
said there is no indication anyone was on the ground casing the schools. One official said the
retrieved information is "all of relatively recent vintage." Authorities said this
information is not related to a bulletin that the FBI and Department
of Homeland Security issued Wednesday to schools and law enforcement
about school safety in the wake of the Beslan, A senior official said
analysts are going over the information and are examining all possible
scenarios. As the official put it, schools have been mentioned as possible
terror targets in previous intercepted conversations between alleged
operatives and in interrogations of detainees, but nothing has emerged
recently. "There is no analysis
by the intelligence community that the Iraqi information or Beslan information
or any other information indicates there is any plot to attack a school
in the United States," said Brian Roehrkasse, a Department of Homeland
Security spokesman. Booklet That Upset Mrs. Cheney Is History The Department of Education
destroys 300,000 parent guides to remove references to national standards. By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
and Jean Merl, WASHINGTON — The Education
Department this summer destroyed more than 300,000 copies of a booklet
designed for parents to help their children learn history after the
office of Vice President Dick Cheney's wife complained that it mentioned
the National Standards for History, which she has long opposed. In June, during a routine
update, the Education Department began distributing a new edition of
a 10-year-old how-to guide called "Helping Your Child Learn History."
Aimed at parents of children from preschool through fifth grade, the
73-page booklet presented an assortment of advice, including taking
children to museums and visiting historical sites. The booklet included
several brief references to the National Standards for History, which
were developed at UCLA in the mid-1990s with federal support. Created
by scholars and educators to help school officials design better history
courses, they are voluntary benchmarks, not mandatory requirements. At the time, Lynne Cheney,
the wife of now-Vice President Cheney, led a vociferous campaign complaining
that the standards were not positive enough about At one point in the
initial controversy, Cheney denounced the standards as "politicized
history." In response to the criticism,
the UCLA standards were heavily revised, most critics were mollified
and the controversy faded — but not for Cheney and her staff. "Helping Your Child
Learn History" is not unique. The Education Department produces
a series of similar booklets on topics such as science, geography, reading
and math. The booklets are designed to encourage parents to get involved
in their children's education. Often, they contain passing references
to the kinds of curriculum standards that scholars and educators have
developed in recent years to improve school courses. More than 9 million
copies of such booklets have been distributed. Seldom have the booklets
sparked controversy. That changed this summer. As the wife of the vice
president, Cheney has no executive position in the federal government.
But when her office spotted the references to the National Standards
for History in the new edition of the history booklet, her staff communicated
its displeasure to the Education Department. Subsequently, the department
decided it was necessary to kill the new edition and reprint it with
references to the standards removed. Though about 61,000 copies of "Helping
Your Child Learn History" had been distributed, the remaining 300,000-plus
copies were destroyed. Asked about the decision, one department official
said they had been "recycled." The Times obtained a
copy of the booklet as originally printed. A new version of the
booklet, the basis for the version that is being printed, is on the
Education Department's website. It has been edited to remove references
to the standards. For example, a clause
in the foreword was removed that suggested President Bush supported
instruction based on teaching standards that had been developed for
various academic subjects. Also missing from the
department's Internet version is a suggestion that parents ask whether
their children's curriculum incorporates the National Standards for
History. An Internet address for the standards in a list of more than
a dozen websites for parents was also removed, as well as a footnote
elsewhere in the text that shows where to find more information about
the history standards. When The Times initially
approached the Education Department to inquire about the booklets, the
department issued a statement saying it had taken the unusual action
because of "mistakes, including typos and incomplete information." Later, Susan Aspey,
the department's press secretary, admitted that typographical errors
were not the reason. Asked about the role of Cheney's office, Aspey
responded: "The decision was
ours to stop distribution and reprint. Both offices were on parallel
tracks and obviously neither of us were pleased that the final document
was not the accurate reflection of policy that was approved originally." A representative for
Cheney said her office did not order the destruction of the booklets.
"Unequivocally, [neither] Mrs. Cheney nor her staff insisted on
having the history publication recalled," said spokeswoman Maria
Miller. "And that's just the bottom line." However, neither department
officials nor Cheney's office would discuss the episode in detail. Both
refused to allow interviews with the staffers involved. Individuals with knowledge
of the events said complaints from Cheney's office moved the Education
Department to act. The individuals spoke on condition of anonymity. Retired UCLA professor
Gary Nash, co-chairman of the effort to develop the National Standards
for History, said he found the decision to destroy the booklets after
Cheney's office complained "extremely troubling." "That's a pretty
god-awful example of spending the taxpayers' money and also a pretty
god-awful example of interference — intellectual interference,"
Nash said. "If that's not Big Brother or Big Sister, I don't know
what is." According to Michelle
M. Herczog, a consultant in history and social sciences for the Los
Angeles County Office of Education, the standards have become a resource
for many states in developing curriculum guidelines. They are also used
to develop textbooks. "Why the U.S. Department
of Education would take that out of a federal document for parents is
just beyond me," said Herczog, who was not involved in the development
of the standards. The answer is that,
from their inception, the American history guidelines have been caught
in an ideological feud. Cheney led the charge
on the original UCLA draft. In a widely read opinion piece published
in 1994, she complained that "We are a better people than the National
Standards indicate, and our children deserve to know it." The standards contained
repeated references to the Ku Klux Klan and to Sen. Joseph McCarthy,
the anti-Communist demagogue of the 1950s, she said. And she noted that
Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave who helped run the Underground Railroad,
was mentioned six times. But Such complaints led
to revision of the standards. Recently, when the department
decided to update "Helping Your Child Learn History," Cheney's
office became involved because of her long-standing interest in American
history. Cheney is prominently
quoted in the booklet as a "noted author and wife of the vice president."
Two books on history that she wrote for children are mentioned in the
booklet. The acknowledgments
also credit her office for helping with the guide, which cost $110,360
to print, Aspey said. As head of the National
Endowment for the Humanities under Presidents Reagan and George H.W.
Bush, Cheney approved some of the funding for the National Standards
for History project, but she also issued a blistering critique of social
science education, which is listed as a resource in the booklet. The history booklet
was first published in 1993. Having made education reform a centerpiece
of its domestic agenda, the current administration decided to update
the series. As the Education Department
prepared the new edition, Cheney's office reviewed drafts and provided
materials but the second lady was not personally involved, an aide said. The references to the
National History Standards were added at the Education Department after
Cheney's office signed off on an initial draft that did not mention
them. Aspey said it was apparently done for consistency, because such
standards were referred to in the department's other guidebooks for
parents. Aspey said mention of
the standards implied official approval. "We don't endorse National
Standards for History, and the document that was printed is not an accurate
reflection of the policy of the government right now," she said. Nonetheless, Ravitch
said, "I would have had a hard time recalling [the booklet], because
I think the recall makes a big issue of something nobody would have
paid attention to otherwise."
Illinois State Board of Education |
