 |
 |
|
News Clips –
STATE NATIONAL STATE Quicker turnaround time
urged Carrie Watters, Shelley Bankord of In The No Child Left Behind
Act lets parents abandon a school that takes government poverty funds
but doesn't improve on one or more areas of state tests two years in
a row. Bankord, who volunteers
each Wednesday at Overall, the story of
putting No Child Left Behind into practice has been one of stumbling
and sniping: Districts blame states for untimely test results, states
blame districts for sending in wrong data, and everyone blames the feds
for an impractical timeline. No official list Federal law says parents
must be notified of transfer options by the first day of school. Rockford
Superintendent Dennis Thompson won't notify parents until the state
gives him an official list of schools that must offer choice. In August,
the state released a preliminary list, which could change. Letters to "We have enough
turmoil in our school system without jerking kids around," Thompson
said. "It comes down to data. I do not have the official word."
Interim state Superintendent
Randy Dunn, in his first month on the job, said he won't publish an
official list until data are correct. Last year, the state incorrectly
said 451 schools did not improve enough. With a superintendent
hand-picked by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the state admits that "Here it is the
middle of October, and we don't have an official list this year,"
state board spokeswoman Becky Watts said. She expects a final
list soon, but it was behind schedule when Dunn came on board. The only
option in Dunn's control was to ensure that data are accurate, she said.
Thompson agrees, but
he says districts need data before the start of the school year. Every
school day that goes by, parents are less likely to want to transfer
their children, he said. Other states make it
work "This is one of
the things the governor is looking at, the new board and the interim
superintendent," Boone-Winnebago Regional
Superintendent Richard Fairgrieves says test results should be back
sooner next summer because students will not take writing tests, a time-consumer
to score. State legislators axed
writing and social studies tests for financial reasons and because No
Child Left Behind requires only reading, math and, eventually, science
tests. Also, students will take the Illinois Standard Achievement Tests
in March, more than a month earlier, Fairgrieves said. In "We know they're
the right goals," More than a list Last year, parents did
not see District Report Cards until December. For Bankord, that meant
she had no information to explain why She called the school
to find out why. She wasn't alone. Principal Melissa Jones-Clarke
said questions flew at an ice cream social a few days before school
started. She'd like to see Report Card publication bumped up. "Then
parents have all the tools." A Report Card would
have told More than eight in 10
fifth-grade students passed math, a 5 percent climb. But two subgroups --
special-education students and students with limited English -- did
not meet the mark for a second year, leading the school to offer choice.
After the paperwork Getting letters and
District Report Cards into parents' hands is a battle, but it's just
the beginning. Most parents do not
exercise their option to transfer, while others can't get transfers
when they do want them. In Last year, 5.6 percent
of the 6,479 eligible Last year, Thompson, who started
on the job in May, said he would consider discussions with nearby districts
once he sees how many people want to transfer. No transfer takers A half-hour south, All turned them down.
No Child Left Behind
says first dibs on transfers must go to poor and academically challenged
students, so districts fear that it could be costly to take another
district's neediest students. "Nobody in the
state does it is my understanding," Assistant Superintendent Linell
Lasswell said. State board officials
knew of no district offering the interdistrict transfers. Department of Education
spokeswoman Jo Ann Webb said schools must look at ways to give options,
whether that means transferring out of the district or extra help, such
as tutoring or online courses. "Lack of capacity
is not an excuse for not offering choice," Webb said. The state monitors how
each district fulfills its No Child Left Behind requirements. A district
that does not follow the law ultimately could lose Title 1 money given
to districts based on the number of students in poverty. For Feitshans-Edison
evaluates progress since private takeover Pete Sherman, State
Journal-Register Late last week, Stacy
Winston dropped off his daughter Tameeka at With an enrollment of
nearly 550 students, Feitshans is the largest elementary school in the
New York City-based
Edison Schools began operating Feitshans, At tonight's school
board meeting, members will hear a key student-progress report from
Feitshans' principal, Christine Stahly. Her presentation will
influence whether the partnership - which costs the district roughly
the same as it would to run Feitshans on its own, but has been a money-loser
for Feitshans' students
attend the school by choice, in contrast to most other For Winston, sending
Tameeka to Feitshans was an easy decision. "It was the only
school in the district offering Spanish and music at the kindergarten
level," he said. "It has a disciplinary policy, but discipline
isn't a problem. And the uniform code - a must." Feitshans has other
distinctions. Its teachers receive 45 minutes of professional development
a day - far more time than at most other district schools. Families with students
in the third to fifth grades are eligible for free home computers that
are Internet ready and downloaded with educational software. Students,
parents and teachers all have access to the same software that lists
everything from homework to birthdays to school events and test results.
The package has become so successful that But comparing Feitshans-Edison
to other elementary schools in District 186, or even to itself before
There is no other public
elementary school in Springfield whose students attend by choice and
share its demographics - 95 percent of Feitshans' students come from
low-income families, and 85 percent are black, a racial makeup way out
of line with the district's desegregation policies. The disparity is
overlooked because of the school's "choice" status. Before What matters most is
whether enough Feitshans students are meeting federal and state standards
in reading and math. As of last year, 40
percent of third- and fifth-graders in every demographic group of 40
students or more were required to test at what is considered "grade
level." When students are tested this spring, 47.5 percent are
expected to reach that level. Schools that continually fail these benchmarks
can be forced to close. Feitshans students have been testing below proficiency
longer than most of the students in the district. Poor reading scores,
a problem districtwide, also continue to plague Feitshans-Edison. Its first year as an
Nearly 70 percent failed
to meet state learning standards, far below district and state averages.
Nearly 80 percent of the school's black students were falling behind
in certain subjects. Feitshans had other
problems. During its first year as an By the end of the year,
Stahly said, a third of her teaching staff "either left or were
asked to leave." Eventually, both the
student and teacher populations started to stabilize. Last year, more
than 80 percent of the students who attended Feitshans and nearly 80
percent of the teachers who taught there stayed. At tonight's school
board meeting, Stahly will have mostly good news about student achievement.
During the 2001-02 school
year, fewer than 30 percent of all Feitshans' third-graders met their
reading targets and barely more than 30 percent met basic math expectations.
As fifth-graders last year, the same group of students did better -
nearly 40 percent hit their required reading levels and more than 50
percent did so in math. Improvement was more
dramatic for Feitshans' black students. As third-graders three years
ago, less than 20 percent tested proficient in reading, while less than
30 percent tested at grade level in math. As fifth-graders last year,
nearly 50 percent of those same African-American students hit their
math targets. Those tested as proficient readers climbed to 31.1 percent
as fifth-graders. Stahly, a veteran teacher
and school leader with more than 30 years' experience who was chosen
by the school board to head Feitshans-Edison, has at least two reasons
she'd like "Nobody has anything
close to Once a closely watched
stock on the NASDAQ exchange and profiled by business publications such
as Forbes Magazine, Getting out of the stock
market was the best thing for the company, according to "We were under
unbelievable scrutiny, and frankly, everything revolved around our stock
price," Tucker said. "That intense public scrutiny is gone,
which has given us the ability to absolutely focus efforts on delivering
priority programs and services to schools." Stahly said As for Some have raised concerns
beyond how Feitshans might be influenced by its profit-minded managers. While Feitshans students
have free pre- and after-school programs and tutoring, children in the
surrounding neighborhood are bused to four different schools where after-school
options are much more limited. The worry is they're
unfairly missing out on what Stahly said Feitshans' parents all are
after - something different. "They were looking
for an alternative," she said of the parents of Feitshans students.
"Their children weren't learning to read." Tonight's board meeting
is at School
district chiefs retiring in River John Krupa, The Telegraph
School district
superintendents in The Bethalto, "There are a lot
of guys leaving here," said East Alton Elementary superintendent
Mike Gray, who will step down in 2007. "We knew it was coming." The River Bend is not
alone in regard to superintendent turnover. Jim Russell, a spokesman
with the Illinois Association of School Boards, said there were 105
superintendent changes out of 880 school districts in In St. Clair, Randolph
and Monroe counties alone, six superintendents have announced they will
step down at the end of the school year. "It’s obvious the
numbers are high, and they are going to stay high," said Russell,
whose organization does more superintendent searches for school districts
than any other group in the state. "We have all the searches we
can handle." And it’s not only superintendents
who are turning over, but full-time administrators in general are leaving
education at a significantly higher rate than in the past. Information from the
Illinois State Board of Education shows more than 725 full-time administrators
left education between 2002 and 2003, an increase of 22 percent over
the previous year. While the position of
elementary principal experienced the greatest loss, district superintendent
followed right behind, with 92 superintendents leaving education between
2002 and 2003. And some say the situation
is only going to get worse. The Illinois Association
of School Administrators predicts that at least 40 percent of sitting
superintendents will retire between 2002 and 2007. While experts give a
myriad of explanations for the nationwide exodus, Madison County Regional
Superintendent Cullen Cullen said the reasons behind the local departures
are relatively cut-and-dried. These exiting superintendents
all entered education during the same time frame -- either the late
1960s or early 1970s -- and have maxed out their pension benefits after
more than 30 years of service. The retirement system
caps annuities at 75 percent of the average of a superintendent’s four
highest salaried years, and that percentage can no longer increase with
additional service time, no matter how many more years one works. So essentially, after
either 34 or 38 years of service, depending on whether a superintendent
exercises an early retirement option, retirees cannot substantially
improve their benefits packages. Consequently, many superintendents
prefer to simply retire, continue collecting 75 percent of their salaries
and get another job. "What I think is
happening is that for many superintendents, the opportunity to retire
and then continue working in some capacity is so great that many of
them are exercising this option," said Theodore Kowalski, Kuntz
Family chair of educational administration at the University of Dayton. Gray said it just doesn’t
make fiscal sense to keep working, essentially for only 25 percent of
his income. This percentage shrinks
even more once one factors in required payments into the Teachers Retirement
System, various association dues and taxes. "I’d be working
for pennies on the dollar. I might as well do something else or retire,"
he said. Cullen said most of
the area’s other exiting superintendents have voiced similar reasons
for hanging it up. In fact, the motivation
is so clear-cut that some superintendents concretely plan their exit
years in advance. Alton Superintendent
James Baiter knew when he took the job that he’d step down at the end
of this school year. "The timing was
right," Baiter said. "I knew that at the end of five years,
I wasn’t going to continue." While financial motivators
seem to be the driving force, timing is also important for many superintendents.
Roxana Superintendent
Jim Herndon, who has overseen the implementation of full-day kindergarten
and block schedules at the high school, as well as $9 million in capital
improvements during his tenure, said he wanted to leave his district
in better condition than when he started. "The other part
of the piece is you look at and determine when it’s best for you to
step aside and do something else," he said. "Now is a time
I can leave when the district is in pretty good shape." But some say increasing
pressures are pushing superintendents out at a higher rate than in the
past. A critical public eye,
long hours and increased accountability all could be factors that allow
superintendents to say "to heck with it." "The job has changed,"
Gray said, citing an increased level of public criticism. "I know
it’s getting a lot more stressful." Herndon said the job
gets "more and more difficult" with each year, particularly
in regard to increased responsibilities and the increased time commitment
they require. "It’s not unusual
for a superintendent to be at work early in the morning and stay late
into the day, and then they are back again in the evenings five, six
days a week to attend activities," he said. Baiter cited the increased
accountability of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, as well as the
growing funding cuts, as other "huge factors" that weigh on
district top dogs. "That adds a lot
of pressure to the job," he said. "It creates a lot of anxiety."
But in end, many say
the job always has been a stressful one and that it really just comes
down to pure and simple economics. "To say that suddenly
the position has become conflict-ridden, that’s not true. It’s always
been a tough position," Kowalski said. "I think what’s changed
is that early-retirement options give people more choices." "I think I still
would be retiring," Baiter said, even if the specter of No Child
Left Behind, angry parents and long hours wasn’t hanging over his head. Board considers tying administrators’ pay to performance JOHN KRUPA, The Telegraph,
Board Member Dan Nickel
threw out the idea of creating a "compensation committee"
during a special meeting Tuesday to discuss Alton School District Superintendent
James Baiter’s goals for the 2004-2005 school year. "I don’t think
we can continue to play loose with accountability," Nickel said,
noting that specific goals would be put into writing, signed off on
by the administrator and later compared with actual performance by the
committee. The committee then would
make salary increase recommendations to board members before wages are
set. "I think it’s a
great idea," said board member Joan Sheppard, a notion seconded
by other members in attendance. The discussion coincided
with Tuesday night’s board meeting, in which members met afterward in
a lengthy executive session to set 2004-2005 salaries for Baiter and
other central office administrators. Board President Vivian
Monckton said before going into closed session that action might or
might not be taken Tuesday night. The board remained in closed session
at The Telegraph’s press time. Monckton said talks
likely would center on whether the administrators should receive raises
equal to the 5.25 percent given the district’s unionized employees last
week, or whether to give them a lower amount. "There are differing
opinions on the board," Monckton said, declining to go into more
detail. The decision comes a
week after the board successfully negotiated to subcontract the jobs
of 47 union custodians as part of a cost-reduction effort. Although a majority
of union members signed off on the deal, union leadership said the savings
could have come through other avenues and had suggested cutting administrative
salaries. Union President Glenna
Pickett said last week that giving administrators raises equal to the
union members would only further alienate an already disgruntled membership. When presented with
the idea at the committee meeting, Baiter said he would research other
districts that have instituted performance-based compensation for administrators,
but not for teachers. Parsons School MODEL program pairs mentors, students By VALERIE WELLS, The series focuses on
a little boy and his very large dog and is aimed at kids who have just
graduated to reading independently. "We're going to
hang out," Bond said to The program kicked off
with a meet-and-greet between the men and the boys at Parsons last week. "I can't say this
is an original idea," Principal Jean Reid said. "It's a spin-off
of the 50 African-American Males of Positive Influence at That ceremony highlighted
the accomplishments of black men in "I got the idea
when I was in That program encouraged
business people to visit schools on their lunch break, even if they
could only spare a few minutes, just to let the kids know someone cares
about them and their success. MODEL is similar. African-American men
such as Bond, who works at First National Bank, will pop in to visit
their young friends when they can and spend a few minutes or half an
hour - whatever time they can - reading, talking and building a relationship. Reid hopes these relationships
continue throughout the students' lives. By starting now, she said,
she hopes the boys and the men will continue to be close as the kids
go on into middle and high school. "Young kids take
ownership of things really quickly," Reid said. "They'll take
ownership of these people, and these people will become very special
to them." Those relationships, she said, will help develop discipline,
improve reading and give the kids encouragement. "I just feel that
reading is so important in your educational experience," Perkins
said. "If you can't read, it's going to lead to troubles down the
road." McHenry students build respect, understanding By LEE ANN GILL, Northwest
Herald, 10/20/04 WOODSTOCK – McHenry
High School West Campus freshmen are getting to know each other better
this week. But instead of chatting
in the cafeteria or gossiping in the halls, they are picking up their
classmates and pushing them through holes in a web made of rope, playing
school-based trivia games, and learning not to make snap judgments.
It is all about helping
students feel included, said West Campus Principal Barb Jahnke, who
started the program last year. For one week, freshmen
go in groups to The students are not
in groups with their best friends, so they must get to know other students,
Jahnke said. The camp idea came from
The mother of a sophomore
boy who committed suicide donated $30,000 to the school to develop a
program to motivate high school students to understand each other better.
"It's fun for the
kids, but they also get to learn a little bit about themselves,"
said physical education teacher Rob Schader, as he watched students
try to squeeze their classmates through small openings in a rope web.
"It takes some
trust to get picked up by a group of people that you've only known [a
short time]." Freshman Michelle Graham
said she thought the exercise was "cool." "We get to work
on team building," Graham said. "You're not used to people
picking you up and pulling you through a little square box." In another group, upperclassmen
helped freshmen learn the dangers of judging others based on looks.
"Let's face it,"
McHenry West counselor Joan Richter told the group. "We do this
every single day in school. Just by their hairstyle, we judge people."
The freshmen wrote down
their reactions to pictures of different students, based on appearance
alone. "See what vibes
you get just from looking at these people," senior leader Amber
Hammond said. "And be honest." After learning the background
on the pictured students, those doing the judging could change their
opinion. The exercise breaks down misconceptions, Jahnke said. Students also made banners
and played a West Campus trivia game. "We want them to
take pride in their school and have fun," Jahnke said. Schools own the strangest things By ROB PHILLIPS, Northwest
Herald, 10/20/04 When the "I say we own 14
buildings, 240 acres, two farms and a cemetery," Mark Pitcher said.
The 14 schools and other
buildings owned by the district are expected, and the farmland likely
will be home to future schools. But a cemetery? "It's definitely
a very unusual thing for a school district to own," Pitcher said.
One student at Will McKay, a Woodstock
Eagle Scout candidate, is working to revitalize the historic cemetery.
McKay and a Boy Scout
troop he oversees have spent months cleaning up the small cemetery south
of The group plans to engrave
the names of the 13 people buried in the cemetery on the back of the
cemetery's sign, McKay said. "I thought it was
a way to honor the people that were buried there and give them some
recognition," McKay said. The Obenchain said she spent
about 15 years working on the cemetery project, which researched every
cemetery in the county. It was completed in 2000. McKay said he used the
genealogical association's project to identify who was buried in the
area. Wingrove sold the land
for use as a cemetery to The district, and the
cemetery, later became part of District 200. "I think it was
a way of making sure that the cemetery was cared for after that individual
was gone," Obenchain said. The cemetery was used
to bury people living in the school district, she said. Obenchain said District
200 officials didn't know the district owned the property until she
began working on the cemetery project. When she first told
the district it owned the land, Obenchain said the cemetery was full
of overgrown weeds. According to the genealogical project, children
used the area as a playground and had moved most of the gravestones
to the rear of cemetery. Pitcher said the district
now mows the cemetery's grass regularly and treats it like any other
school property. "We've cleaned
it up over the years," Pitcher said. "[McKay] has really done
a good job trying to pretty it up." College kids go back to grade school to teach about health,
safety By Angela Fornelli,
Beacon News Staff Writer, "How many of you
think the light bulb is going to break?" the Some raise their hands. Then, she drops it,
and the lightbulb stays safe inside the helmet. She prepares to drop
the light bulb again — this time without the helmet — and asks, "How
many of you think it's going to break?" This time, almost all
the children raise their hands. She drops it, and a
loud "pop" echoes through the room as the bulb shatters inside
the plastic bag holding it. "See how important
it is to wear a helmet?" Martinelli asks the "Your brains are
going to break!" yelled out third-grader Anabel Sosa. Bike safety was one
of many health-related topics The 30 "They are learning
to put things together and present to students at the same time they
are serving the students," said John Lloyd, science club advisor
and assistant professor of biology at Francisco de los "It's a shot in
the arm because you can get a lot done and a lot of information into
their hands and then going home to their parents," de los The elementary students
rotated between stations with presentations on dental health, fitness,
nutrition, hygiene, sleep, smoking and bicycle safety. "How many of you
like to drink pop?" asks Megan Tracy, an AU sophomore in health
science, during her dental health presentation. Almost all the third
and fifth graders raise their hands. "That's why you
want to brush your teeth," she tells the children. Tracy, who hopes to
work in pediatric physical therapy, said she thinks teaching the kids
and seeing their reactions will help her in her future profession. "Every experience
you have shows you more about yourself," she said. "It reinforces
that I like kids, and I like working with kids." As they rotated through
the presentations, the students picked up fruit, bike reflectors, information
pamphlets and other materials donated by various local agencies. Cub Foods donated 500
pieces of fruit; Kids go wireless: They
transmit work to teachers, get response By Ted Slowik, Herald
News Staff Writer, Today, pupils are using
wireless technology to transmit assignments to the teachers, who can
make corrections and send the information back to students. It's called beaming,
and it's one example of how a local agency is using a federal No Child
Left Behind grant to study how technology influences students' performance
on standardized tests. "Our belief is
that we can use technology to enhance reading comprehension, especially
in science and social studies," said Diane Cepela, who administers
the grant for the Joliet-based Professional Development Alliance. The U.S. Department
of Education awarded the agency $865,000 a year for three years through
a program known as Bridging the Disconnect. Professional Development
Alliance is using the money to train 100 teachers and provide equipment
to 3,000 students at 30 schools in Will, Grundy and The wireless device
used to beam information between students and teachers is called Tungsten
C, and it's made by PalmOne, the company that popularized electronic
organizers with its Palm Pilots. The Tungsten C sells for about $400,
looks like a fancy calculator, and features word processing, graphics
and other capabilities. "(Students) have
Internet access right at their desks," Cepela said. The grant is being used
to provide technology to students in fifth and ninth grades. Participants
include Plainfield Central and Plainfield South high schools, Fifth-graders are being
provided with Dana devices, which have features similar to the Tungsten
C. Each of the 100 participating teachers is provided with 30 devices
to distribute to students, and each educator receives a laptop computer,
printer and Toshiba projector. Researchers are comparing
how students provided with the technology fare on standardized tests,
compared to a control group of peers who are given the same tests without
the aid of the new gadgets. This is the second year of testing, and
results from the first year are still being analyzed. "The preliminary
results of our testing show that our impact is statistically significant,"
Cepela said. Professional Development
Alliance technology consultants Christine Tomasino, Kellie Doubek and
Meg Ormiston are training teachers and helping to administer the grant.
The agency also provides technical support and troubleshooting to fix
equipment when problems occur. State Board of Education begins plotting reduction of
'red tape' By ADRIANA COLINDRES,
State Journal-Register State Capitol Bureau, The Illinois State Board
of Education on Thursday began mapping out a plan to reduce the amount
of "red tape" schools face because of state rules and regulations. When Gov. Rod Blagojevich
appointed seven new members to the nine-member board in September, he
said one of its priorities would be to streamline the procedures school
districts must follow. In his State of the
State speech last January, the governor criticized the State Board of
Education as too clunky and bureaucratic. At one point, he lifted a
foot- high stack of papers, which he said were 2,800 pages of school
rules and regulations. A The new state board
chairman, Jesse Ruiz, said relieving the schools' administrative burden
could lead to a reduction in administrative costs. Interim state school
superintendent Randy Dunn said he and his staff have started talking
with "We are just such
a rules-heavy agency," Dunn said. The agency has set up
a special e-mail address to collect suggestions from the public and
educators. That address is: lessredtape@isbe.net. Specific proposals should
be developed in the next three months, said the board's chief counsel,
Jonathan Furr. Any proposals will have to go to the legislature's Joint
Committee on Administrative Rules before being enacted. In a news release, Blagojevich
praised the board's plans, saying he looks forward "to the process
producing real results." State schools in fiscal `crisis' Tribune analysis finds
82 percent of districts in red By Diane Rado, Tribune
staff reporter, Across And the statewide deficit
is nearly 75 times higher than a $31 million deficit posted by districts
in 1995, state financial figures show. Though outright collapse
among school districts remains rare, the list of struggling districts
continues to grow. The political pressure continues to grow, too, as
local voters tighten pursestrings and Illinois State Board
of Education members urged caution about interpreting deficit numbers
during their meeting Thursday in But educators and some
politicians say that it is becoming more and more difficult to ignore
the flowing red ink. "I think that,
truly, the state's in a crisis," said Chicago Public Schools Chief
Arne Duncan, whose mammoth system spent $419 million more than its revenues
in 2003 and expects to spend $600 million more than it takes in this
budget year. Like other districts,
Districts can survive
that way only temporarily, said Ernest J. Tonelli, president-elect of
the Illinois Association of School Business Officials. "What's happened
is that districts that were fortunate to have fund balances have spent
those down," leading to a surge in school district deficits, Tonelli
said. Statewide, 731 of 892
school districts reported spending more than they collected in 2003,
the most recent year for which statewide figures are available. In 2000,
415 districts posted expenditures exceeding revenues. Thursday, a newly configured
Illinois State Board of Education controlled by Gov. Rod Blagojevich's
appointees faced its first major financial decision, and decided not
to take any action--at least for another six months--in four financially
endangered school districts. Troubled districts Interim state superintendent
of education Randy Dunn had recommended that The state board delayed
action until at least April, after district officials pleaded not to
be certified, saying it would hurt them in the eyes of their communities,
diminish their chances to get tax increases approved and restrict them
from borrowing to stay afloat. In "We don't know
where to go, we don't know what to do anymore," Mathias told the
board. Board chairman Jesse
Ruiz said after the meeting that the board delayed action to give districts
and new administrators a chance to get their finances in order.. "Obviously deficit
spending is not a good thing," Ruiz said, "but we did want
to be fair." Local educators say
they have been struggling to keep up with the rising cost of teacher
salaries, health and liability insurance and other expenses. At the same time, state-mandated
caps limit local property-tax increases and voters have been reluctant
to approve tax hikes. Tax watchdog groups
insist that out-of-control spending is at the root of schools' fiscal
problems, and taxpayers shouldn't have to bail out districts that overspend.
Particularly frustrating to the groups are teacher raises that exceed
raises given to private-sector employees. Joseph Wiegand, executive
director of the Carpentersville-based Family Taxpayers Network, said
that in a tough economy, most districts should give no pay increases
to teachers. Public school spending
statewide topped $20 billion for the first time in the 2003 budget year,
according to the State Board of Education, which calculates the numbers
from district annual financial reports. Overall, districts spent
$20.2 billion, though they collected only $17.9 billion from local,
state and federal sources. The numbers include school construction money
that flows in and out of district budgets, which state education officials
have included consistently across districts for many years, though some
local educators say that paints an unfair picture. Different analysis At the state board meeting,
board member Brenda Holmes, formerly Blagojevich's top education adviser,
expressed concern about using deficit numbers without further explanation. "We need to be
very cautious in how we present that information," she said, referring
to figures showing about 80 percent of school districts are deficit
spending. Department officials
also provided the Tribune with a new analysis--different from the one
posted on their own Web site--that they said does not include construction
dollars, leaving a smaller $830.7 million deficit statewide in operating
accounts for major school expenses in 2003. Officials also said the
majority of districts had balances in those operating accounts in that
year. But construction finances
can play a role in district budget troubles. School finance reform
advocates say the skyrocketing deficits underscore the need to overhaul
the tax system that pays for schools. "As far as education
funding is concerned, I think we know what there is to know, and it's
time for change," said state Senate Education Committee Chairman
Miguel del Valle, (D-Chicago). Del Valle is holding
public hearings around the state on legislation that would increase
the state income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent, nearly double corporate
income taxes to 8 percent and broaden the sales tax to a variety of
services, from dry cleaning to house cleaning. The bill would allocate
$2.4 billion to lower property-tax bills--the main source of school
revenues statewide--and another $900 million for tax credits to low-
and moderate-income families. As part of the plan, $1.8 billion would
go to schools, increasing base per-pupil funding by about $1,000 from
$4,964 this year. The legislation faces
an uphill battle: Blagojevich has pledged not to raise the state's income
or sales taxes, and would veto a bill that does so, his staff said. Nevertheless, del Valle
would like to begin legislative debate on the bill as early as next
month, though he's not certain that will happen. Taxpayer watchdog groups
are mobilizing to oppose the legislation. "People are looking
at ever-increasing property-tax bills,said Wiegand, of the Family Taxpayers
Network. "People are fed up." - - ------------------------- A majority of the nearly
900 state school districts spent more than they took in during the 2003
fiscal year. Combined, TOTAL DEFICIT By fiscal
year YEAR DEFICIT EXPENDITURE
1999 -$1.02 billion $16.1
billion 2000 -$885 million $17.1
billion 2001 -$1.30 billion $18.4
billion 2002 -$1.99 billion $19.5
billion 2003 -$2.31 billion $20.2
billion DISTRICTS WITH DEFICITS
By fiscal year 1999 49% 2000 46% 2001 61% 2002 75% 2003 82% Source: Education is shouldered out of spotlight in this campaign By Carolyn Bower of
the Post-Dispatch, 10/21/2004 Four years ago, education
was front and center in presidential politics. A campaign proposal that
every child should read by third grade helped pave the way for the federal
No Child Left Behind law. The issue of how to
improve student achievement remains pressing, but education matters
have been overshadowed in this election by terrorism, Not that educators and
parents think of education in a supporting role. "I don't know how
they can skirt around the issue of education," said Peggy Lewis
LeCompte, head of the East St. Louis Federation of Teachers, vice president
of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and a 12th-grade language arts
teacher. "Education is important. Education is key. A well-educated
population makes decisions that make sense, decisions about the war,
health care, Social Security." So why has education
received seemingly short shrift in this presidential campaign? One reason is that more
consensus exists than in past years - Democrats and Republicans generally
agree that public schools need reform. Both parties signed off on No
Child Left Behind. Another reason has to
do with the tough job of how to carry out the major federal initiative,
said Ross Wiener, policy director for Education Trust, an organization
dedicated to closing achievement gaps among students. "That's not the
kind of debate that easily translates into sound bites," Wiener
said. "There's more nuance. It's more difficult." Although education was
an infrequent topic in the recent presidential debates, President George
Bush and Sen. John Kerry of Bush promises to build
on the reforms of the No Child Left Behind Act, signed a year after
he became president. The law calls for schools to ensure that every
student scores proficient on reading and math tests by the year 2014.
If not, schools that get federal Title I money will face sanctions.
Bush has increased federal
spending on education. His budget proposal for the fiscal year that
began Oct. 1 would increase elementary and secondary education funding
to $37 billion, a 49 percent increase from 2001. Title I funding for
low-income schools and special education funding also would increase
under Bush's proposal for 2005. Kerry voted for the
No Child Left Behind law. He agrees with Bush on the importance of setting
high standards for all children and would not repeal the law. That doesn't
leave a lot of room for disagreement. The issue of funding
Yet some exists. One
of the biggest differences lies with funding for No Child Left Behind.
Kerry says the law isn't
working as it should because it requires a lot more money. Kerry says
Bush has provided $27 billion less than was pledged. Kerry says he would
increase education spending over 10 years by $200 billion, paying for
full funding of No Child Left Behind, as well as additional funding
for special education requirements and for other programs. He would
pay for this by reversing the tax cuts for those who make $200,000 or
more. John Lawrence, superintendent
of schools in Troy, Mo., and past president of the American Association
of School Administrators, said, "Clearly the line of demarcation
between these candidates is the funding of No Child Left Behind."
Greg Jung, president
of the Missouri National Education Association, said teachers supported
the goals of No Child Left Behind but wanted to hear candidates talk
about what realistically can be accomplished and what support the federal
government will provide. "Financial support
is not enough, it's well below the authorized levels," Jung said,
adding that the federal government also had failed to adequately finance
special education requirements. As a result, state and local money is
being diverted for special education, he said. But J. Martin Rochester,
a professor of political science at the LeCompte, the head of
the East St. Louis Federation of Teachers, wants to hear exactly how
the presidential candidates would get money into the schools and how
quickly for the law's reforms. She wants to hear details
about how to improve achievement and close the learning gap between
races. She wants more after-school programs. She wants more money to
attract and retain quality teachers in inner city schools. She wants
money to train parents, to help them understand the value of a good
education. She also wants to know what the candidates would do to provide
preventive health care for children, proper food in the lunchroom and
help in dealing with childhood obesity. Bayless Superintendent
Maureen Clancy-May would like the presidential candidates to talk more
about support for students and their families who have recently moved
to the Both candidates have
proposed rewards for high-quality teachers, improvements in high schools
and broadened access to higher education. Although both candidates
talk of support for quality early childhood programs, neither has committed
to a large investment to make quality preschool available to parents
unable to afford it. Both candidates talk
about preparing students better for college. Bush wants to use eighth-grade
test scores to develop performance plans for high school students. Kerry
wants to boost the graduation rate by offering mentors and tutors to
help students get the most out of high school. While both candidates
offer plans to help students pay for college, some educators fear that
middle-income and high-income students are more likely to get help than
low-income students, the ones least likely to attend college. As for whether money
will be available for expanding federal support of education, Lawrence,
the superintendent in Troy, said that comes down to the country's involvement
in Iraq. "If it ends with
the Iraqi people taking care of their government, their safety and their
security needs, then expenditures could be redirected, and there's no
better place than in public education," Candidates' positions Here's where the candidates
stand on some education issues: QUALITY TEACHERS Bush has proposed a
$500 million fund to reward teachers whose students show improved achievement.
Kerry has called for
raises of at least $5,000 a year to encourage teachers to work in high-need
schools and to fill shortages in subjects such as math and science.
HIGH SCHOOL Bush would phase in
two achievement tests in high school, with $250 million a year in federal
money to help cover costs. Bush also favors a clearinghouse of online
learning opportunities. Kerry wants to expand
mentoring and tutoring to help more students graduate, to develop more
rigorous high school courses and to break up large high schools into
smaller ones. EARLY CHILDHOOD Bush would give priority
funding to states with coordinated early childhood plans, including
Head Start, prekindergarten and child care. Kerry has said there
must be a combination of government and private investment to expand
high-quality preschools. AFTER SCHOOL Bush proposed in the
2004 budget cutting after-school funding by 40 percent, but Congress
kept the funding. Kerry wants to offer
after-school programs until VOUCHERS Bush has favored them.
Kerry opposes them.
COLLEGE COSTS Bush has called for
$73 billion in financial aid in the budget for this fiscal year to help
students attend college. He has raised the Pell grant to a maximum of
$4,050, with students who complete a rigorous high school curriculum
eligible for an additional $1,000 Enhanced Pell Grant. Kerry favors a tax credit
for up to $4,000 of tuition for four years of college. He would provide
$10 billion to states for higher education if states hold down tuition
increases at public colleges. =========================================================================== NATIONAL Schools
let phys ed slip off schedule Many ignoring state
requirement Peter Schworm, Most Schools elbowing aside
physical education to cram in more academics is a state and national
problem, worrying fitness specialists who say the reduced exercise time
is increasing the prevalence of childhood obesity. Many younger students
now take less than an hour a week of physical education, teachers say,
and even recess has been cut back so students can spend more time on
math and English and ideally perform better on high-stakes state tests.
In "It's an unintended
consequence of education reform," said Kathy Pinkham, director
of health and physical education for the Nationally, less than
6 percent of high schools now require physical education for juniors
and seniors, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Until 1996, Fitness advocates blame
the state education department for diminishing physical education's
importance by failing to enforce the law. Spokeswoman Heidi Perlman
said it's unrealistic to expect the state to monitor districts' compliance. "We can't be the
phys ed police," Perlman said. At "There's definitely
the policy, but the school day is only so long," Johnson said.
"We're losing ground." Alice MacInnis holds
a big title in the state fitness community -- president of the Massachusetts
Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. But
she hasn't been able to convince administrators in “It's extremely frustrating,"
MacInnis said. "Our discipline needs a stronger voice." In the Robert McGowan, the
physical education director, brandishes the state regulation to keep
gym intact. "They've talked
about cutting it," he said. "And I've been right there in
the front, handing them the law." But Dr. Thomas Fowler-Finn,
superintendent of the "It's important
to be physically fit, but there are students who are struggling to pass
MCAS," he said. "Part of the reason is that they're taking
physical education classes or playing sports." Christopher Martes,
superintendent of "I think every
district in the state has had a school committee meeting in the last
month to discuss test scores," he said. "So we haven't really
focused on the fitness side." While Martes said his
school system hasn't focused on fitness, Framingham High's freshmen
might disagree. At Framingham High, 22 ninth-graders of all shapes and
sizes gather three times a week for a required fitness class in a state-of-the-art
wellness center than compares favorably to most private gyms. They start off with
light stretching, then do some stomach crunches before hitting the treadmills
and stationary bikes. Within minutes, sweat pours off their brows, and
students vie to see who can reach the highest speed or burn more calories
in a minute. Some students say the
class isn't their favorite, but most say it's important to have some
down time from lectures and books. The brain can handle only so much
information at once, they say. "It's good to take
a break," said Elana Shoren, 14. "This gets you pumped, and
then you're ready to work." Ana Landaverde, 14,
admits she's a bit overweight. She doesn't walk much or play sports,
and she eats fattening foods, she said. She says the required fitness
class is her primary exercise. "I'm not used to
working out," she said. "But I need to learn how, and I wouldn't
do it on my own." With childhood obesity
rates rising steadily, cutbacks on physical education in schools couldn't
come at a worse time, researchers say. In "Students are getting
heavier and less fit," said Jerry Knight, physical education director
for No Child
Left Behind drives education debate for Bush, Kerry Ben Feller, THE ASSOCIATED
PRESS The most aggressive
shake-up to schools in a generation, the law is the top education issue
in a presidential race dominated by war, terrorism, jobs, taxes and
credibility. The law orders schools to ensure all children achieve regardless
of race, ethnicity or income. For voters, the line
dividing Bush and Kerry is subtle. The nominees diverge on how much
to spend on the law and how much to tinker with it as schools try to
comply. The Republican incumbent
promotes his spending record. He also says it is time to expand the
law by requiring two more years of state math and reading tests in the
high school grades. Kerry say schools need
much more money to meet high standards. He promises an extra $10 billion
a year by erasing Bush's tax cuts on people earning more than $200,000.
The Both candidates have
ideas all along the education spectrum, from college aid and teacher
pay to high school rigor and math and science classes. Some ideas are
modest; others would continue an expanding federal role in schools. Yet all this is largely
unnoticed by voters and lightly mentioned by the candidates, even though
the next president will take on a backlog of school matters affecting
millions of people "People are still
concerned about education, but terrorism and personal security have
significantly increased in concern," said Republican pollster David
Winston. "And then you've got a rough economy, made worse by 9-11.
People are managing a lot more things." The result has been
a vastly different campaign than the one four years ago. In 2000, Bush
was the In office, he won bipartisan
support in 2001 for No Child Left Behind, which calls for all students
to reach state standards in reading and math by 2014. Parents get more
school choices, but many schools face penalties if even a single subgroup
of students falls short. The law has not been
a clear boon for Bush. States have balked at what they call federal
intrusion. Some parents are perplexed to see their schools labeled as
"needing improvement" under the law even if those same schools
get stellar marks from their states. "He got that law
passed and has focused people on the problem of the achievement gap,
and that is a big accomplishment," said Diane Stark Rentner, deputy
director of the independent Center on Education Policy. But, she said,
Bush did not follow through on his spending promises — a point of endless
dispute. Under Bush, spending
on the law's programs and on help for disabled children has grown from
$24.7 billion to $35.5 billion, a 43 percent increase. Counting his
current budget request, the increase during his term would be 49 percent,
a number he cites while campaigning. Those figures would not be as high
if Congress had not added billions to Bush's requests. Still, to critics, Bush
can fairly make the point, "How big of an increase does it have
to be satisfy you guys?" said Tom Loveless, senior fellow at The
Brookings Institution. But Democrats say Bush
has shortchanged the law by up to $28 billion. As a result, they say,
everything from teaching to testing has suffered. Democrats make that
claim by comparing what has been spent on the law and the maximum allowed,
called an authorization. But laws routinely are not funded to maximum
levels. "It's one of those
frustrating fights. There's enough evidence for both sides to make a
claim that's valid," said Andrew Rotherham, a former adviser to
President Clinton. As for the law itself,
Bush largely talks of staying the course. Kerry has signaled he may
try to change how schools are graded. Kerry has raised the
possibility of grading schools on such additional factors as teacher
attendance and parental satisfaction. That was early this year. The
campaign now uses broader terms, saying it is open to changes that ensure
schools are fairly measured. Polls taken in September
after the Republican convention showed Bush and Kerry virtually tied
on the issue of education, though Kerry has been slightly ahead on it
through much of the year. The issue may make the difference for select
groups such as married women with children, Catholics and Hispanics,
said Winston, the GOP pollster. Whoever wins will have
other education issues waiting for him, including overdue updates of
higher education and Head Start laws. Even so, said Loveless: "No
Child Left Behind is still going to be the story out of Strong
relationship between kids academic achievement and fitness News-Medical in Child
Health News The health benefits
of exercise – across the lifespan – have been well documented. More
recently, scientists have begun to demonstrate that exercise also may
improve cognitive functioning in older adults. But what about children?
Are physically fit kids better suited to compete not only on the ball
field, but in the classroom as well? “We have found a strong
relationship between academic achievement and fitness scores,” said
Darla Castelli, a professor of kinesiology whose area of expertise is
effective physical education practices. “Those who scored well in academics
also did well in physical fitness. “We’re not suggesting
that if we run more laps it will make us smarter,” she said, “but there
does appear to be a correlation.” Castelli noted that
teachers who work closely with young and preadolescent children have
long suspected a link between physical fitness and cognitive function.
Anecdotal evidence is plentiful, she said, but empirical data to back
up those assumptions have been harder to come by. That’s why Castelli
jumped at the chance to team with colleague Charles Hillman, also a
kinesiology professor at Together, with assistance
from graduate student Sarah Buck, Castelli and Hillman conducted a series
of studies with school-aged children and control groups of adults. Data
were gathered on subjects’ physical attributes (height, weight, body
mass), fitness levels and cognitive abilities. Much of the data was
collected first-hand by going into local schools. Working with the cooperation
of physical education teachers in Champaign’s Unit 4 school district,
the researchers measured the physical fitness of some 500 third-, fourth-
and fifth-graders. Using the “Fitnessgram,” which Castelli said is widely
regarded by physical education researchers as a reliable field assessment
tool, they measured subjects’ aerobic capacity, flexibility and muscle
fitness. Cognitive function was determined by analyzing scores on standardized
academic performance tests (the Illinois Standard Achievement Test)
and by observing and measuring neuroelectric and behavioral responses
to stimulus discrimination tasks. Hillman and Buck will
present results from one of the research group’s studies (“Physical
Fitness and Cognitive Function in Healthy Preadolescent Children”) at
the annual meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research in
“We looked at the relationship
between age and fitness from both a neuroelectric and behavioral perspective,”
Hillman said. The researchers observed
and recorded the subjects’ ability to recognize, respond to, and discriminate
between different visual stimuli using a “visual oddball” task. In that
task, researchers present subjects with two stimuli; in this case, one
was a cartoon drawing of a dog; the other, a cat. Both appeared with
different probabilities – one was presented more frequently than the
other. When the researchers
measured brain activation, “we found that fit children allocated more
resources towards identifying stimuli, and also processed stimuli faster,”
Hillman said. “Behaviorally, these
effects showed up in that these fit children made fewer errors than
sedentary ones,” Hillman said. In terms of response speed, the fit children
were still slower than fit and sedentary adults, but were faster than
sedentary children, he said. Hillman – who stressed
the preliminary nature of their findings – said the research team is
analyzing data for three related studies and plans to present a symposium
on their findings next spring in “There’s a lot of basic
research that needs to go on before we can determine what underlies
achievement,” Hillman said. Nonetheless, if scientists
can demonstrate that increased levels of physical activity and exercise
can have a positive effect on children’s physical health and their ability
to succeed academically, Castelli is hopeful that educators, school
administrators, legislators and other policymakers will take note. “Despite increased incidence
of childhood obesity and type II diabetes mellitus, physical education
time is being reduced to address academic issues related to federal
‘No Child Left Behind’ legislation,” Castelli said. “If evidence existed
that physical education contributed to intellectual development, it
may gain credibility and instructional time.” How No
Child Left Behind Helps Principals Jay Mathews, Washington Post Metro
page columnist Marc Fisher last week used the stories of two excellent
elementary schools to trash, once again, the No Child Left Behind Act.
I was delighted to read his columns because they were not only well-written,
but gave me a chance to expose, once again, Marc's ill-considered bias
against giving kids standardized tests and making the results have some
consequences for the school. Marc and I both mourn
the passing of that era in journalism when columnists picked fights
with each other all the time, if for no other reason than to have easy
topics they could type up fast and get to their favorite taverns before
Marc's first column
was about Bailey's Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences in The second column introduced
readers to Anthony Fears, the principal of I spoke to both Frey
and Fears and was happy Marc spotlighted such fine educators who are
doing so much for their students. Frey is serving not only immigrant
families in the school's neighborhood, but 200 out-of-boundary students,
mostly from English-speaking middle class families, who have chosen
Bailey's because of its good programs, and some middle-class families
in the neighborhood who have stayed for the same reason. Fears, who
used to be an assistant superintendent in Baltimore before deciding
to get closer to kids, has given a once poorly disciplined school new
focus and energy with firm rules and lots of love. Marc is right to point
out that No Child Left Behind is a clumsy instrument. Some schools have
reduced arts classes to make more time for reading and math. Some schools
have been hurt by getting too many transfer students from low-performing
neighbors. But Bailey's and Beers are not those schools. Nor do there
appear to be many schools in the Many critics of No Child
Left Behind hint darkly of monstrous educational practices about to
devour the best schools. But when asked to point them out, they have
trouble coming up with examples. Marc says in the Bailey's column that
"many schools hack away at the arts to focus on test-taking skills."
I am willing to buy him a new Washington Grays baseball cap if he can
find any such schools in Frey herself acknowledges
that Bailey's teachers would spend time reviewing and assessing with
or without the worries of No Child Left Behind, because they know that
review is a vital part of the learning process and that a variety of
assessments are invaluable to ascertaining what parts of the lesson
have or have not been absorbed. All she wants is an assessment system
that gets results back to her more quickly, and a reduction in the number
of tripwires in the federal law so Bailey's isn't labeled as "needing
improvement" just because a few too many of her Spanish-speaking
students could not pass their English tests. When Congress tries to
revise the law next year, such good suggestions are likely to be heeded.
As for Beers Elementary,
the most interesting story there is not transfers flooding in because
of the new law. Fears admits there were only 20 of them this year, in
a school of 402 students. What has actually happened is a 23 percent
reduction in the size of the student body, from 525 to 402 kids, since
Fears arrived three years ago. The Beers principal
said he found a school that was not enforcing many rules, including
those limiting enrollment by students from outside the neighborhood.
Previous principals seemed to think that the more students they had,
the better off they were, since that meant they could hire more staff.
But Fears thought the crowding was hurting the learning, and began to
deny many transfer requests. How was he able to do
that, and why has he been able to keep the number of transfers this
year to 20? Part of the answer is No Child Left Behind. Fears was recruited
by former D.C. superintendent Paul Vance, who knew from the administrators
grapevine what talent Fears had. And Fears, an adept office politician
from his years as a headquarters administrator, knew that the emphasis
on achievement under the new law meant that if new policy threatened
his test scores, he could say no. His math scores are up to 18th place
in the District, and he is working on similar progress in reading, where
the scores are in 44th place. As long as student achievement gets better,
few people are likely to try to mess with him. When you look at the
actual numbers, you discover the threat of massive transfers from the
District's many underperforming schools is a non-issue anyway. Post
Staff Writer Sewell Chan reported Oct. 10 that "of an estimated
25,000 to 33,000 students eligible to change schools, only 106 applied
for transfers, and 68 of them were accepted." People still prefer
their neighborhood schools, a phenomenon educators throughout the area
have noted. Frey, for instance,
said she had little fear that her immigrant families would transfer
out of the school if it did not meet the No Child Left Behind requirements.
She just wanted to assure the middle class parents who knew of the law
that, no matter what they heard, their kids were doing well. And in
the end, Bailey's reached its testing targets after all. No Child Left Behind
is not the best accountability system ever invented. But, most policy
makers and educators say, it has the right idea. Learning should be
measured with tests. Standardized tests are in many ways better than
the teachers' tests that have ruled schools up to now, because teachers
can quietly decide not to test concepts that they have failed to teach
well. Other forms of assessment, such as collections of work and conversations
with teachers, have potential, but nobody has yet shown a way to make
them work well with elementary school children from low-income homes.
Good educators such
as Frey and Fears need a standard to guide them, a target to shoot for,
so they can convince teachers to spend more time helping struggling
students, convince parents to make sure homework is done and convince
administrators at headquarters not to choke them with red tape. To borrow an example
from the little world Marc and I inhabit, many people at The Post are
concerned about the recent drop in circulation. Everyone is talking
about finding more subscribers. You may have noticed our new advertising
campaign. But what Marc and I don't do is brag about our energetic reporting
and deft metaphors and denounce the whole idea of measuring our sophistication
as journalists by something so mundane as how many copies of the paper
are sold. Helping kids learn requires
knowing each year how much they haven't learned, and using those numbers
to do something about it. The educators at Bailey's and Beers know that,
and I suspect the skeptics out there, particularly those as smart at
Marc Fisher, will figure it out soon enough. AUSTIN — U.S. Sen. Kay
Bailey Hutchison, a Republican gubernatorial prospect, called for more
spending on public schools Friday and said Texas should have adopted
a fairer way to fund schools years ago. "This has been
wrong from the beginning," Hutchison said. Under court pressure
for equity, lawmakers in 1993 adopted a plan including a "Robin
Hood" element requiring property-rich districts such as Education funding "should
have been solved way before you had a Supreme Court looking at it or
a lawsuit on it," Hutchison said. "You need more
money and I think you need to also work at ways that we can have the
reforms that are going to be necessary to achieve" educational
quality, she said. Asked to elaborate,
she said, "It's not time for me to be putting out solutions. I'm
not going to give you a plan." A spokesman for Gov.
Rick Perry, who might be challenged by Hutchison in 2006, noted that
a law supported by Perry requires every high school student, starting
with the Class of 2009, to take college preparatory classes, unless
parents opt for them not to. On Hutchison's statement
that funding has been "wrong from the beginning," the spokesman,
Robert Black, said, "I honestly don't know what that means."
Black said Perry always
has believed funding should be resolved by lawmakers, not the courts.
Legislators failed to
find a new funding approach during a special session called by Perry
last spring. Hutchison, speaking
to the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, didn't mention any
gubernatorial ambitions. But she reaffirmed her
opposition to Robin Hood — a position shared by Perry and other GOP
leaders who say the Legislature should act on school finance in the
regular session that starts in January. A state district judge
last month didn't reject the Robin Hood system. But District Judge John
Dietz, ruling in favor of a lawsuit by school districts, said he will
soon issue an order giving the state a year to increase school funding
or face a court-imposed cutoff of education aid. The Texas Supreme Court
could consider the state's appeal as soon as next spring. School's Out Too Early for 420 Kids on 2 Charter Campuses L.A. County Board of
Education cites financial problems caused by rapid growth. For some
students, it's the second closure of the year. By Erika Hayasaki, The Los Angeles County
Board of Education shut down two charter campuses Friday, leaving 420
students scrambling to find new schools. For nearly 100 students
at the Progressive Education Entrepreneurial Charter Schools in "Here we go again,"
said parent Angie Garcia, who sighed as she watched several students
and parents cry in the main office Friday morning. She transferred her
son to the The county board earlier
this week decided to close the two campuses because of fiscal problems,
among other things. Such controversies are
breeding "mistrust of the whole charter school movement among parents,"
said Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy and co-director
of Policy Analysis of California Education, headquartered at the "When the media
and parents see that charter schools are collapsing all around them,
it's just going to undercut the vitality of the charter movement,"
he said. The 12-year-old charter
school program continues to battle funding, facilities and oversight
issues, acknowledged Caprice Young, president of the nonprofit California
Charter Schools Assn., which represents the state's 537 publicly financed
but privately run charter schools. But Young said more
parents are fighting for charters because they believe in the concept.
She added that 78 charter schools have opened in the last few months
in Still, Trina Muhammad,
who took a job as a teaching assistant at the Progressive Education
Entrepreneurial Charter School in Inglewood after serving as director
of the now-defunct charter campus the Village, also in Inglewood, wiped
away tears with toilet paper as she struggled to explain her situation.
"It's hard. It's
hard," she said. "Three months ago, I was sitting in this
same position. It's not fair, it's not." James Taylor, whose
son, This is the second time
this has happened to Taylor, who transferred his son from the Village.
He said does not want
to enroll In August, the Such situations are
becoming a challenge for parents who are increasingly selecting charter
campuses as an alternative to public schools. Some education leaders
say the recent school closures are a sign of the instability of the
movement. The Los Angeles County
Board of Education revoked the Progressive Education Entrepreneurial
Charter Schools' charter during Tuesday's meeting mainly because the
year-old school grew unexpectedly, said Rick de la Torre, a spokesman
for the Los Angeles County Office of Education. "The school must
close as of today," he said. "It was too many students, too
fast." Last year, the sixth-
through 10th-grade school enrolled nearly 100 students at its Under state rules, public
campuses including charters are funded based on the number of students
they enrolled the previous year, said Cindy Chan, education fiscal services
administrator for the California Department of Education. Start-up charters receive
extra money, she said, but the law does not allow that for existing
charter schools. "It's a cash flow
issue for them," she said. "It has been a struggle, but there
is nothing for us to do to give them that extra funding." The county education
board also criticized the school for other management issues, including
failing to provide workers' compensation insurance last year, failing
to hire a fiscal services manager and not submitting required paperwork
for hiring and special education issues. Young said that the
financing issue is serious and that some charters have closed because
of it. In response, her organization recently created a loan program
to help growing charters. So far, 22 charter schools across the state
have split $6 million to cover rapid enrollment. She said her organization
is trying to press the state Legislature to change the funding rule
because charters often expand faster than regular public campuses. "In some ways,
it's survival of the fittest," Young said. "It's just unfortunate
that the survival of the fittest often means who is most capable of
dealing with bureaucratic idiosyncrasy." Principal Doris Sims,
a former Cal State Northridge professor, opened the Progressive Education
Entrepreneurial Charter Schools last year to teach business skills to
mostly at-risk middle and high school students. Word spread in the community,
and parents "just started coming," Sims said. She decided
to open the second site in a community center across from It has been a learning
process, Sims said Friday, sitting at a two-legged table she used as
her desk. Nobody guided her through the rules and regulations, she said,
but she tried to follow them. "How do we handle
special education? How do we handle expulsions? How do we handle finances?"
she said. "This is a new concept." As she spoke, a staff
member knocked on the door. Two students appeared with tears in their
eyes. "What's the matter?" Sims asked. "I don't want this
school to close," said Charlecia Cox, 12, who sobbed as Sims hugged
her and replied: "I know. It's going to be all right." Her friend Tekeya Jones,
13, who had transferred from the Village, said, "Everybody is just
trying to break us down. It's wrong for them to try and close our school
down." Upstairs, lessons continued.
Teachers on the third floor conducted three classes in one large recreational
room with spotted brown carpet and folding chairs. Muhammad talked to
some ninth- and 10th-grade students, asking how they felt about their
school's being closed. "They keep telling
us to stay in school, then they kick us out," said Aaron Crymes,
15. Her students wrote comments
about the campus, which Muhammad read aloud: "If I have to move,
I guess my life will be over," one wrote. "I learned things
I never knew," wrote another. Just months ago, Marquise
Foster, 13, was worrying about finding a new school. Now, it's happening
all over again. "This," he said, "was one of our last
options." Schools Are Breaking Law on Transfers, Suit Charges By ELISSA GOOTMAN, he New York City Department
of Education has violated state law by seeking to limit the number of
students allowed to transfer out of failing schools, according to a
class-action lawsuit filed yesterday. The lead plaintiff in
the suit, filed in State Supreme Court in According to the federal
No Child Left Behind Act, children who attend schools that receive federal
anti-poverty money and are deemed failing should be given the option
to transfer elsewhere. A similar suit challenging
the city's compliance with the law was dismissed last year after a judge
ruled that the plaintiffs - parents - did not have legal standing to
sue. The new lawsuit takes a different tack, hinging on state education
regulations that were adapted to conform with the federal law. States
are charged with ensuring that their school districts comply with No
Child Left Behind. Last year, 7,000 To limit the number
of students seeking transfers this year, the Department of Education
deemed high school students ineligible, saying the high school admissions
process had already afforded them the element of choice that the law
requires. That decision has been heavily criticized by some parents
and public officials. The suit filed yesterday
identifies as members of the class only those children - fewer than
5,000, city education officials said yesterday - who have applied for
transfers. But Charlie King, a lawyer in the case, said the class would
be expanded to include all of the more than 300,000 children who attend
schools labeled failing. Mr. King said he believed parents were discouraged
from seeking transfers, partly because they were being offered so late.
A month into the school year, the transfers have yet to be granted.
Chancellor Klein said
he believed the suit had no merit and observed that Mr. King's earlier
suit had been dismissed. He also said that no transfer requests had
been rejected this year. Officials have said they hope not to reject
any of this year's transfer requests, a hope based on the assumption
that two-thirds of those who asked to transfer will decide to stay put.
"There's no purpose
whatsoever to take a high-performing school and make it overcrowded,
dysfunctional and unsafe," Mr. Klein said. "We're in compliance
with No Child Left Behind. We're doing it sensibly, intelligently and
doing what's right for our kids." Ms. Lopez is among the
parents who are awaiting word on whether their transfer requests will
be accepted. She said she was dismayed that her sons, Christopher and
Dylon Parisi, had done little more than play and write their names at
Public School 225 in Rockaway Park, saying, "In kindergarten, you're
supposed to learn a little bit more than that." State public schools need $1.15 billion more, study says Funding would help reach
government goals By CLAUDETTE RILEY,
Tennessean Staff Writer, 10/18/04 Tennessee public schools
need $1.15 billion in new state and local funding to adequately meet
the needs of students, according to a study released yesterday. The report, which was
paid for by a coalition of education advocacy groups statewide, shows
that financial support for public education falls short of what's needed
for schools to put the staffing, training, small class sizes and programs
in place to help kids achieve at higher levels and make the yearly progress
required to meet state and federal benchmarks. ''For students across
the state to be successful, their schools must have access to more resources,''
said Jesse Register, chairman of the Coalition for The study calls for
Coalition members said
they hope the report provides a springboard for a discussion of funding
needs in schools and how they can be met as Gov. Phil Bredesen and lawmakers
hammer out a state budget — including the state contribution to public
schools — during the next legislative session. In particular, they
hope schools receive enough funding to help low-income and new immigrant
students, as well as those with special education needs. ''We hope they use it
as a guide,'' said Register, director of In fact, the audit specifically
focused on adequate funding necessary to meet students' academic needs
in kindergarten through grade 12. It didn't study the cost of providing
preschool, busing, food service or school building construction. Currently, state and
local dollars make up about 90% of school funding statewide with the
federal government picking up the balance. The state's funding formula,
which is called the Basic Education Program, was created in 1992 to
make sure every school district has enough money to provide a basic
education for students. The formula was created
with the goal of equalizing funding between large, wealthy systems and
smaller, rural ones. Members of the coalition
— a group of 16 associations that represent the state's nearly 1 million
students, their parents, educators and school boards — support that
balance. However, the purpose
of the group is to push for sufficient resources in public schools. ''We prefer to have
an adequacy approach and not just an equity,'' said Kip Reel, executive
director of the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents. ''The approach is success
in schools.'' Reading, Writing and Corporate Sponsorships By BILL PENNINGTON,
It reads "ShopRite
of Brooklawn Center," and it is a $100,000 advertisement. Three
years ago, mimicking professional and collegiate sports teams that routinely
sell naming rights to stadiums and arenas, the Alice Costello School
became what is widely considered the nation's first elementary, middle
or high school to sell naming rights for its gym to a corporate sponsor.
Similar deals, worth millions of dollars, are being made around the
country with companies as large as Nike and as small as a tire shop.
Everything from gyms to ticket stubs seems to have a price. "It's the wave
of the future," Bruce Darrow, president of the Brooklawn school
board, said. "I'm looking into selling advertising on the children's
basketball uniforms." Brooklawn, which is
just south of "Twenty-five years
from now, when this is widespread and accepted, people will say it all
started here," Dr. John Kellmayer, the school district superintendent,
said. "I'm fine with that. I wish we had started earlier and done
more of it." Brooklawn, with a population
of about 2,000, appears to be slightly ahead of the curve and may have
let ShopRite, which will pay for the $100,000 sign over 20 years, off
lightly. In the last two years,
high schools in three The spread of commercial
interests in high school athletics is not limited to naming rights.
Advertising is appearing increasingly on tickets to high school sports
events, scoreboards, billboards in end zones, gym walls, locker rooms
and the buses carrying teams to games. All three senior high schools
in "Corporate involvement
at the high school level is about to explode nationwide," said
Judith Thomas, the marketing director for the National Federation of
State High School Associations. "It's an unlimited, untapped market
and it is in places companies often can't easily reach. But on any given
Friday night, in all those middle-American flyover states, sitting in
high school football stadiums are millions of people." School districts are
simply following the lead of the rapid escalation of commercialism at
major college and professional arenas and stadiums. More than $4 billion
is currently being invested in naming rights alone at the college and
pro level, according to the "Companies desperately
want to get into high schools, because they know they are getting a
captive audience with disposable income that is about to make decisions
of lifelong preference, like Coke versus Pepsi," said David Carter
of the Sports Marketing Group, a California company. "So the commercialism
is coming to a school near you: the high school cheerleaders will be
brought to you by Gatorade, and the football team will be presented
by Outback." At issue in the election: National testing law scores
attention By PHILIP WALZER, The
Virginian-Pilot, President Bush counts
the No Child Left Behind law among his domestic triumphs, rolling together
excellence, equality and accountability. “Kids were being shuffled through
the school ,” he said at last week’s debate. “ We’ve stopped that practice
now by measuring early. And when we find a problem, we spend extra money
to correct it.” Sen. John F. Kerry counts
it as another unfulfilled promise from Bush, short nearly $28 billion.
“He’ll tell you he’s raised the money, and he has,” Kerry shot back.
“But he didn’t put in what he promised, and that makes a difference
in the lives of our children.” No Child Left Behind has emerged as the major
education issue in local and national races – with funding the key point
of contention. The law, magnifying the federal role in public schools,
mandates annual testing in grades Schools that don’t show
“adequate yearly progress” using any one of nearly three dozen measures
could be forced to provide tutoring to children or allow them to transfer
to other schools. The presidential split
on No Child Left Behind has filtered down to local congressional races,
with even sharper distinctions. All three Republican House candidates
– U.S. Rep. J. Randy Forbes, Thelma Drake and Winsome E. Sears – firmly
support No Child Left Behind. “While it is easy and
convenient for critics to argue that we should only pass perfect bills,”
Forbes wrote in response to a question from The Virginian-Pilot, “our
goal must be to continue moving education forward. NCLB moves us forward.”
Like Kerry, Democratic
U.S. Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, who is running against Sears, thinks
the education law needs a little tinkering and a lot more money. But
the other two Democrats – David Ashe, who is running against Drake,
and Jonathan R. Menefee, who is challenging Forbes – think the law should
be repealed. Ashe said in an interview
last week: “I think it was just improper for such a large mandate to
be dumped on the states. From a philosophical standpoint, I think there
are many areas in our life where the federal government does not belong,
and I think education is one of them.” Menefee wrote in his
response: “The law is predicated on unrealistic test standards that
pit student against teacher, teacher against administrator and administrator
against parent.” The differences on No
Child Left Behind, though, may matter little on Nov. 2. “Frankly, I don’t see
this as one of the key issues in the campaign,” said Mark J. Rozell,
a professor of public policy at A recent education-related
survey revealed other factors that diminish the importance of the issue
as a vote-getter: Sixty-eight percent of the respondents to the Phi
Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll said they knew “little or nothing” about No
Child Left Behind. And when asked which candidate would be best for
public schools, 41 percent said Bush, and 41 percent said Kerry. Good intentions The No Child Left Behind
law was passed in 2001 with overwhelming support from both Republicans
and Democrats. Among the members of Congress who voted “yea” were Kerry,
Scott and Forbes . The law was intended
to build on state testing systems, such as For instance, a school
can meet The issue dominating
the national debate, though, is money. Federal education spending is
about $27 billion less than the amount “authorized” in the law. What
that means is under dispute. The so-called authorization
levels are targets that often aren’t met in federal laws. C. Todd Jones,
the associate deputy secretary for budget in the U.S. Department of
Education, called them “statutory caps on the amount of money that can
be spent on programs. There simply was no promise connected to that.”
But “the Democrats said
that their understanding was the president was committing himself to
the full amount of those targets,” said Jack Jennings, director of the
Center on Education Policy, a nonprofit As Republicans point
out, education funding has risen significantly under Bush, even if it
didn’t hit the original targets. The total amount for elementary and
secondary schools expanded more than 40 percent, from $24.4 billion
to $35.2 billion , according to Jones’ data. Funding for the Title I
program, targeting low-income students, shot up roughly 50 percent .
Critics say that’s no
thanks to Bush: Congress approved increases larger than Bush had proposed.
And they say school
divisions need the amount originally cited in the law to make its title
a reality. Scott figures his district,
which runs from “Notwithstanding all
the administrative hassles,” Scott said, “if they would have funded
it the way it had been when we passed it, I don’t think we’d have much
complaints.” Ross Wiener, the policy
director for the Education Trust, a The federal money will
come, said Drake, pointing to rising state funding accompanying the
SOLs: “The dollar levels are increasing, and they will continue to increase,
just as they have done in Even active parents
voiced hesitation about discussing NCLB. But Cynthia Jones, a That allows students
at schools that don’t meet the federal standards to transfer to other
schools designated by administrators. The option is available only in
Title I schools, which have a large number of low-income students. Jones’ son, Zachary,
attended Mount Hermon Elementary, which closed in June. He was to have
gone to “I think, yes, you should
have the option to transfer your child if things are not going right,”
Jones said. “It might not necessarily be the school. It might be your
child not getting along with the principal or not getting along with
the teacher.” But Karen P. Mallard,
a first-grade teacher at First Landing Elementary, saw the dangers of
the transfer option earlier this year when To provide money for
busing the transferring students, officials proposed ending Title I
programs at six elementary schools. That would have forced
them to drop extended-day kindergarten programs, as well as math and
reading teachers and teaching aides. “Those are desperately needed programs,”
Mallard said. That never happened:
The Beach ended up with no schools eligible for transfers. But Ashe, Drake’s Democratic
opponent, pointed to a $1.5 million budget choice driven by NCLB that
went through in Sears, though, said
the law’s demand to break down test scores for low-income, minority
and disabled children is crucial. For schools to earn
full accreditation, “Where the SOLs tell
us whether a school in general is passing, the NCLB gets down to the
nitty-gritty,” said Sears, the Republican challenger to Scott. “NCLB
gets to the issue of: What about each child? Are they really learning?”
At a larger level looms
the question: Is NCLB really working? Kerry said the A report last week from
the Education Trust found that several states, including Bush has proposed extending
the testing requirement to high schools and increasing funding, though
not to the $27 billion level. Kerry said he’d cover
the entire gap. In the debates and recent
speeches, Kerry has focused solely on the funding question. But in a
magazine interview last month, Kerry said he’d also champion changes
in the law’s “adequate yearly progress” requirements and its demands
that more teachers get specialized training in the subjects they’re
teaching. “We’re going to empower
teachers to teach, and not have to teach to the test,” Kerry said in
NEA Today, a publication of the National Education Association, which
endorsed him. No matter who wins, NCLB will probably get overhauled,
said “I think only one candidate
will admit the need to modify NCLB prior to the election,” Liverman
wrote in an e-mail, “but that it will become an issue for all Steve Martin, ABC enroll teens for 'Scholar’ LOS ANGELES, Tentatively titled "The
Scholar," the series will take place on the campus of a major university.
Fifteen qualified high school seniors who might not otherwise have an
opportunity to pursue a college education will compete against each
other in such challenges as academics, leadership, school spirit and
community service. "Every student
in this country should be entitled to a college education," Martin
and production partner Joan Stein said in a statement. "With this
show, we intend to empower both students and parents with the knowledge
that a higher education is realistic and attainable for everyone." Martin and Stein will
serve as executive producers, along with Jon Murray (MTV's "The
Real World")", and Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner ("That
'70s Show"). The search for high
school students to participate in "The Scholar" is under way.
Production is slated to begin this year for a premiere next year. Kerry Competes to Claim Issue of Reform Democrat Criticizes
Bush Policy for Its Implementation but Not the Law Itself By Michael As John F. Kerry barnstorms
around the country, the Democratic presidential candidate rarely misses
an opportunity to lambaste Republican education policies, trying to
reclaim an issue that proved a vote-winner for George W. Bush in 2000.
Kerry has promised to
pour an additional $200 billion into education over the next decade,
to be financed by rolling back tax cuts for wealthy Americans. In the
past, he has also accused the Bush administration of turning But what may be most
significant about Kerry's education proposals, many experts say, is
what they have left unsaid. For all his criticism of Bush's record on
education, Kerry has not called for major changes to the administration's
controversial No Child Left Behind initiative. Billed by its supporters
as the most broad educational reform in more than a generation, No Child
Left Behind relies on a battery of incentives and punitive measures
aimed at schools to make every student in the country "proficient"
in math and science by 2014. In last week's debate, Bush pointed to
the law as one of his major domestic policy achievements. Whether No Child Left
Behind is achieving its goal of raising academic standards, particularly
among poor minority students, has been hotly debated. Many teachers
and state legislators have criticized the law as a meddlesome intrusion
by the federal government in an area that has largely been left to local
communities. But rather than attack
the philosophy behind No Child Left Behind, Kerry has focused his criticism
on the way the law is being implemented. He has accused Bush of failing
to "fully fund" the law and promised bonuses of at least $5,000
for teachers who work in the neediest schools. "On the fundamental
issues of education reform, there is more consensus between the candidates
than differences," said Ross Wiener, policy director for the Education
Trust, a Washington-based lobbying group that supports No Child Left
Behind. "They both favor a robust federal role in setting public
policy in education." Some commentators say
it is politically difficult for Kerry to attack No Child Left Behind
because he voted for it in 2001, along with many other Democrats. "No Child Left
Behind is a very awkward issue for Kerry," said Chester Finn Jr.,
president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a conservative education
think tank based in Over the past few months,
the Bush administration has defused a grass-roots rebellion against
No Child Left Behind by allowing states greater flexibility in meeting
requirements for yearly progress. As a result, fewer schools are being
labeled as "failing." But the new policy has also made it
very difficult to compare results from year to year, undermining the
law's accountability goals. Little evidence supports
the White House contention that No Child Left Behind has significantly
narrowed the achievement gap between whites and minority students, said
Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy at the An analysis by the Education
Trust, meanwhile, reported a narrowing of the achievement gap in 16
states in reading since 2002, and a widening in three. At the same time,
the group reported the pace of progress was generally insufficient to
reach the goal of full proficiency by 2014. Kerry's assertion that
the No Child Left Behind law is not being "fully funded" rests
on the difference between the amount of money Congress authorized and
the amount the administration allocated as federal subsidies to high-risk
schools. This year, the shortfall was about $7 billion. The White House says
federal spending on education has risen by more than 40 percent over
the past four years, with much of the extra funds being spent on the
most deprived schools. A Bush education adviser, Sandy Kress, said it
was "doubtful" that Congress would agree to a Kerry request
for still more funding, given existing budget constraints. In addition to extra
funding for No Child Left Behind, Kerry has proposed measures to improve
teaching in poor schools by paying teachers more in return for holding
them more accountable. As a senator, he opposed the Republican-backed
plan to establish a private-school voucher program in the Some analysts believe
that the No Child Left Behind law is likely to be overhauled no matter
who wins the election, because the target of 100 percent proficiency
in math and science by 2014 is impossible to meet. If the law is not
amended, thousands of schools across the country could eventually be
closed down or reorganized. "The leadership
of both parties in Congress have put a lid on substantive changes in
the law prior to the election," said David Shreve, education lobbyist
for the National Conference of State Legislatures. "After the election,
it's going to be difficult to keep the lid on." Education Proposals Here are the main provisions
of the candidates' education plans: Bush • To give states more
control over Head Start funds. • To establish a $500
million Teacher Incentive Fund to reward "effective" teachers
and expand standardized testing for students between grades 9 and 11. • To increase the Pell
Grant program for low-income students by 7 percent; to provide $375
million to strengthen the role of community colleges. Kerry • To make preschool
universal and expand such programs as Head Start; to increase the child-care
tax credit from $3,000 to $5,000. • To establish a $200
billion, 10-year National Education Trust Fund to "fully fund"
the No Child Left Behind Act. • To increase the maximum
level of college tuition tax credits from $1,500 to $2,500 over a four-year
period, and to establish a $100 million fund to reward colleges for
recruiting low-income students. Charters score below public schools Exclusive: At 235 By TERRENCE STUTZ /
The AUSTIN – More than eight
years after they were launched as a bold experiment in education, At the state's 235 independent
charter campuses that administer the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and
Skills, 42 percent of the students passed, according to figures compiled
for The News by the Texas Education Agency. Statewide, the overall
passing rate for all public school students was nearly 67 percent. The
state passing rate for students classified as low-income was 56 percent;
charter school proponents often point out that charter students are
more likely to come from poor families. "It's pretty clear
the overall record of charter schools is not as good as regular public
schools with comparable student populations," said Ted Melina Raab
of the Texas Federation of Teachers. Mr. Raab's group supported
charter schools when they were approved by the Legislature and signed
into law by Gov. George W. Bush in 1995. "A few have done
well, but many more have done poorly," he said, referring to TAKS
results showing at least three out of four pupils failed at nearly 30
percent of the charter schools in Texas earlier this year. But supporters of the
concept, while acknowledging that some charter schools have not been
effective, argue there are enough success stories to justify the program.
They add that charters need more time to show they can serve students
– many of whom failed in regular public schools. "Our high-performing
charter schools continue to have outstanding student performance, and
they are replicating their programs across the state, which is a very
healthy sign for the "We are not there
yet, but we are headed in the right direction," she said. 5 schools shut A spokeswoman for the
TEA, which regulates charter schools, said many of the schools serve
at-risk children who often come to them with skills that are well below
their grade level. "We try to look
at each charter school individually, but there comes a time when those
schools should show results – and when they don't, that could be evidence
of deep problems," said Debbie Ratcliffe of the education agency.
"We've already shut down five schools for poor performance, and
it could happen again." Seven charter schools
were notified last week by the TEA that their performance was low enough
to warrant the appointment of special campus intervention teams to recommend
steps for improving student achievement. Those teams will evaluate the
schools and suggest sanctions that range up to staff replacements or
eventual closure. There are bright spots
at 32 charter schools – about 14 percent of the total – where at least
70 percent passed the TAKS. That passing rate is one of the main criteria
for a campus to be graded "recognized" under the state rating
system. One of those campuses
was Rosemary Perlmeter,
executive director of the nonprofit trust that operates the school,
attributed its success to careful planning, hiring of teachers and curriculum
development. The school, which offers
all grade levels from elementary through high school, typically has
a long waiting list of students seeking admission each year. One reason
is it is the only charter school offering studies through the International
Baccalaureate Organization. Hoping to use their
blueprint for success in a different setting, North Hills officials
opened For the most part, charter
schools struggled with the TAKS, which replaced an easier statewide
exam two years ago. At four schools, the passing rate was under 10 percent;
the passing rate exceeded 50 percent on less than a third of campuses.
Jimmye Lou Cockrell,
superintendent of "We have really
upgraded our campuses this year," she said. "We've hired more
highly qualified teachers and have reduced our class sizes. We've also
hired our own outside consultants. Our goal is to improve test scores
next year." Criticism from teachers
Teacher groups, who
have been critical of the charter movement, say the overall poor results
on tests provide proof that such things as class-size limits and teacher
certification – requirements from which charters are exempted – are
critical for student achievement, especially among disadvantaged children.
"Charter schools
already have proven some things, but many of the folks who promoted
them don't want to talk about the lessons that have been learned,"
said Richard Kouri of the Texas State Teachers Association. Texas has one of the
largest charter school programs in the country with nearly 275 "open
enrollment" campuses across the state that educate more than 70,000
children. (Some of the schools have only children in grades that are
not subject to state testing.) The state spent nearly $340 million on
charter schools last year. As governor, Mr. Bush
predicted that charter schools would "change the face of American
education" if properly done. Charter schools are
publicly funded, but operate independently of regular school districts
and are exempt from many state rules. State funding for operating expenses
is the same for charter schools as for regular public schools, totaling
just over $6,300 per pupil on average last year. However, unlike other
schools, charters receive no public money for facilities and can't levy
taxes like other school districts. Currently, there is
a state limit of 215 on the number of charters (some charters have multiple
campuses) that can be issued in When the TEA released
annual school performance ratings last month, more than half the charter
school campuses in the state were not graded because they've been allowed
to shift to an alternative education rating system still being developed.
When their next ratings
come out in the summer of 2005, it will have been three years since
they were last evaluated by the state. That is way too long, according
to Mr. Kouri and others who contend that charter schools should be scrutinized
the same as other public schools. Of the 129 schools that
were rated last time, 22 percent were deemed "unacceptable"
and more than half received an "acceptable" rating, equivalent
to a grade of "C." The other 29 were rated either "exemplary"
or "recognized" – the top two marks that schools can receive.
Financial problems have
doomed some charter schools as 26 of the original charters issued by
the state have either been canceled or returned. Five other charters
have been revoked by the state for financial or administrative improprieties.
Schools urge good hygiene to control flu By Ben Feller, AP Education
Writer, October 21, 2004 WASHINGTON -- For millions
of students and school workers who will miss flu shots this year, the
advice is elementary: Wash your hands and stay home if you are sick. Only children with chronic
medical problems or who take aspirin daily for health reasons should
get a flu shot during the current shortage, federal officials say. Healthy adults are encouraged
to skip the shots to extend the The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention is reminding schools that good hygiene can help
keep them from turning into germ factories. At Luther Jones Elementary
in Corpus Christi, Texas, a school annually hit hard by the flu, the
650 students have been told to wash their hands with soap for 10 seconds
-- about the time it takes them to sing "Happy Birthday,"
they were told. "You can watch
some of them timing themselves while standing in the bathroom, singing
'Happy Birthday to me,'" said principal Galen Hoffstadt. "It's
working." In Schools have ways to
help students catch up on missed work, from homework hot lines to e-mail
from teachers, said Llelwyn Grant, a CDC spokesman and father of two
children. "There are parents
who are concerned about their kids staying on course," he said.
"But I would not allow those concerns to put your child at risk
or others at risk" for the flu. Yet staying home is
not always easy to manage. Parents missed almost
one day of work for every three days of school missed by a child with
the flu, according to a 2002 study published by the American Medical
Association. An estimated 48 million
children are attending public schools this year, and they often are
in settings that make them vulnerable to infection, said Julia Graham
Lear, director of The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools at
"Have you been
in a school cafeteria recently?" she said. "Just imagine all
those kids and all their germy little hands on the cafeteria tables.
Maybe they're at a school where there are three sittings of lunch, and
you know the school staff may not have time to disinfect the tables
in between. That's what makes the school setting unusual." Depending on the severity
of the season, the public health system may have to mobilize school
workers as "a front-line defense in reducing the spread of flu,"
she said. About 20 percent of
the The CDC had no estimate
of the school-age children who typically receive flu shots. Typically,
it is a family's doctor, not the school, providing the flu vaccine to
children. But school nurses are increasingly relied upon to keep kids
healthy and in class. AP, Both chambers signed
off on changes to the 2005 state plan, capping more than two weeks of
a special session Gov. Ernie Fletcher called to deal with the matter.
Fletcher planned to sign the proposal, which covers about 229,000 retired
and active public school employees and state workers. Kentucky Education Association
officials summoned board members to Fletcher proposed cuts
in health benefits earlier this month, saying the state does not have
the money for its current plan. But he also promised to work with lawmakers
to consider alternatives. Teachers threatened
to strike on October 27 if their current benefits were not restored. Among other things,
the new proposal lowers premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses.
Employee premiums would be standardized across the state and would not
be based on salary. Rates are higher for smokers. The plan also includes
raises for teachers, state employees, retirees and judges. The plan -- estimated
to cost the state about $172 million -- also approved a change that
would lock in $2.4 billion in basic school funding. H.S. Sports Threaten to Undermine Focus on Academics,
Report Says By John Gehring, Education
Week, 10/21/04 The “We’re one of the biggest
businesses in As in The problems that have
plagued college athletics are now becoming more frequent at the high
school and even the middle school level, the report says, citing “unscrupulous
agents, mercenary coaches, questionable recruiting practices, and extravagant
benefits bestowed upon players.” “These practices compromise
the school’s educational mission and undermine the public’s confidence
in the education system,’’ it says. “While colleges have taken steps
to address these issues over the past two decades, there has been little
discussion or even acknowledgment among state education policymakers
of the increasingly troubling situation.” The report, “Athletics
and Achievement: The Report of the NASBE Commission on High School Athletics
in An Era of Reform,” is the product of a yearlong study group that
broadly examined the state of high school athletics. Commission members
included state education leaders who gathered information from national
sports experts, ethicists, high school athletic directors, and others
who explored topics from inequities in athletic funding to the role
coaches play in students’ lives. As corporate sponsorship
of high school teams increases, nationally televised high school games
become more common, and students often specialize in one sport year-round,
the 44-page report warns of a culture where academic priorities can
easily slip through the cracks. State board members
and other education leaders are failing “to guarantee that interscholastic
athletics do not take precedence over student academic performance,”
the report concludes. “We decided we couldn’t
look at high school reform without looking at the total high school
experience, which includes athletics, particularly in smaller communities
and other places where the football or basketball team are an integral
part of the community,” said Brenda Lilienthal Welburn, the executive
director of the Alexandria, Va.-based NASBE. “We’re not anti-athletics,”
Ms. Welborn said. “It’s an integral part of a lot of kids’ high school
experience, but clearly if we don’t look at all aspects of a student’s
life, we will fall short of reaching our goals.” Information Lacking In many cases, education
leaders lack even the most basic information on athletics and student
achievement, the report says. Also lacking are data on schools’ expenditures
for athletic programs. State board members should take a more active
role in working with the state athletic associations that govern high
school sports to set high standards for athletic eligibility, it recommends,
and to conduct more research on the impact of athletic participation
on academics. Robert Gardner, the
chief operating officer of the Indianapolis-based National Federation
of State High School Associations, said he hoped the report would spark
more discussion about the proper relationship between athletics and
academics. “The academic mission
should come first,” he said. “We need to pay attention to what is going
on and bring some balance to our programs.” The NASBE report comes
as the movie “Friday Night Lights” is showing in theaters. The film,
based on a widely discussed 1990 book by H.G. Bissinger, a reporter
who chronicled a Raymond Perryman, an
economist who has studied the financial impact of high school football
in “Football is a significant
piece of the economy, and a significant part of the culture,” Mr. Perryman,
who lives three blocks from the 19,300-seat stadium where Permian High
plays its home games, said in a recent interview. “Communities gather
around the teams.” Mr. Perryman’s analysis
found that Vernon Reeves, the principal
of the 2,300-student Mr. Reeves doesn’t worry
that the high profile could send the wrong message to youth athletes
and other students about the respect given to football compared to algebra
class or the debate team. “Sports a lot of the
time get the spotlight,” Mr. Reeves acknowledged. “But in everything
we do, we make a commitment to excellence.” For Brett Stanton, the
principal of Valdosta High in southern Georgia, where football players
take the field on Friday nights in a newly renovated, $7.5 million stadium,
it’s all about maintaining perspective. While football is “the
big dog as far as generating revenue,” he said, he insisted it doesn’t
skew scholastic priorities. The school recently opened a $5 million
fine arts center, and this fall began implementing the High Schools
That Work reform model developed by the Southern Regional Education
Board in “We make a very conscious
effort to make sure there is a strong balance between academics and
athletics,” Mr. Stanton said, “especially in this day of accountability.”
But Kevin McDowell,
the general counsel for the Indiana Department of Education and a member
of the NASBE commission, laments how hard that message is to convey
to some student athletes in his state. The athletic-footwear maker Reebok
and other companies are sponsoring teams, some “People are filling
kids’ heads with all kinds of stuff,” Mr. McDowell said. “You want kids
to maintain their amateur status, and you don’t want kids thinking sports
is their job. It’s not. Their job is to get their butts in school, and
it’s hard to teach kids important life lessons when people are talking
about shoe endorsements and going to the [National Basketball Association].” That’s overheated talk,
according to John Johnson, the communications director for the Michigan
High School Athletic Association, who says most high school athletes’
experience is not so exalted. “For your typical high
school, the high school stadium with 20,000 seats and video boards are
a pipe dream,” he said. “So much, the media wants to make high school
sports what it’s not. A few years ago it was the LeBron James phenomenon.
That’s not the rank and file, and it never will be.” LeBron James, who was
on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a sophomore at St. Vincent-St.
Mary High School in Akron, Ohio, bypassed college and was the first
pick in the 2003 NBA draft. But a vigilant mind-set
is needed, Mr. Johnson said: “We have to be on guard because there will
always be a trickle-down effect with high schools, whether it’s the
plays you call, how you paint the end zone, or how you build facilities.
We have to remember we are not football factories. We’re here to educate
kids.” Duke Albanese, a former
“State boards of education
need to think anew about athletics,” Mr. Albanese said. “Is there someone
taking the time to describe what it means to do sports the right way?
Is there a common vision about what sports need to look like? That’s
what standards are.” The “Our schools are hungry
for this,” Mr. Albanese said. “Our school boards and superintendents
have said this is exactly what we need. Everybody is looking to do this
right.” ------------ Here is the list of
recommendations for state boards of education from the National Commission
on High School Athletics in an Era of Reform: 1. State boards should
obtain more data and information than is currently available on athletics
and student achievement. 2. Athletic programs
need to support and monitor academic progress throughout a student’s
high school career. 3. Athletic eligibility
should be dependent on a student’s progress toward the successful completion
of high school as defined by the state. 4. Communities need
to examine the relationship between secondary athletic programs and
commu-nity athletic programs beyond the halls of high school. 5. State boards need
to carefully consider policies that allow all students, particularly
those in voca-tional education, the opportunity to participate in athletics. 6. State boards need
to consider programs that will encourage all students to engage in daily
physical activity. 7. State boards need
to consider policies that test and monitor the use of performance-enhancing
drugs by high school athletes. 8. State boards need
to consider policies and programs designed to educate students, particularly
minority students, as to the limitations of viewing athletics as an
end without equal consideration of academics. 9. State boards need
to develop and encourage professional-development programs for coaches
to communicate the benefits of multisports athletics and the disadvantages
of sports specialization. 10. State boards should
review certification and professional-development requirements for coaches
and establish them if absent. 11. States should conduct
extensive research to quantify the revenue and expenses attributed to
high school sports, including revenue not typically revealed in individual
school budgets. 13. States should consider
the creation of after-school programs specifically targeted toward special
education students. 15. State boards should
develop guidelines designed to assist those schools and districts that
allow the involvement of cyber- and home-schooled students. School district bans Halloween festivities Reuters, "Our number one
priority is protecting the instructional day," said Puyallup School
District Superintendent Tony Apostle after the district canceled observance
of the October 31 celebration. Apostle said the 20,000-student
district, located about 30 miles south of District spokeswoman
Karen Hansen said most Schools that want to
have Halloween parties are welcome to have them, she said, but only
after the school day ends. Other
Illinois State Board of Education |
