The National Education Goals Panel
--- Wednesday --- May 14, 1997 --- Vol. 1 --- No. 2 ---
THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL
NEGP WEEKLY
The Update on the National Education Goals
__________ __________
IN THE NEWS | SPOTLIGHT |
Lee Shulman, professor of | |
education at Stanford U, has | AS EASY AS ABC? |
been appointed to head the | |
Carnegie Foundation for the | Acquiring reading skills |
Advancement of Teaching. He | is far from easy for some |
will succeed Ernest Boyer, who | students. New research |
served as president from 1979 | indicates that some child- |
until his death in 1995, writes | ren may be unable to pro- |
the CHRONICLE OF HIGHER | cess a critical first step |
EDUCATION (Leatherman, 5/2). | called "phonemic aware- |
Shulman intends to move the | ness," the ability to asso- |
headquarters from Princeton to | ciate words with sounds. |
the West Coast. According to | |
the CHRONICLE, Shulman's focus | Teaching teachers how to |
as president will be on | teach reading has never |
teaching. From the paper: "He | been an easy task. Many |
wants the foundation to explore | schools of education |
such core issues as, What is | continue to steep their |
the definition of a college | students in whole-language |
professor today? What does it | methodology, despite |
take to prepare doctoral | current cries for more |
students for teaching jobs? | phonics instruction.(#3) |
How do you measure the quality | |
of teaching?" | Can one of Clinton's |
One of Shulman's visions is | "America Reads" volunteers |
to create a "Center for | cut through all the re- |
Advanced Study for Great | search and do an effective |
Teachers." | job with their tutee? |
Some question the direction | Sure, says the "AR" direct- |
of the foundation, preferring | or. Volunteers aren't |
it to focus on policy issues | expected to replace teach- |
such as President Clinton's | ers, only give kids some |
proposed tax credits for | extra reading time. (#2) |
tuition. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"This is a dream come true. She can go to a school I can see out
my window."
Trudie Langford, mother of a five-year-old enrolled in one of
Cleveland's new all-day kindergartens. (#1)
_______________________________________________________________
| by the Education Policy Network, Inc. |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Washington, D.C. 202/632-0952 |
| EPN hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
GOAL ONE: READY TO LEARN
SCHOOL OPENINGS: Cleveland's new kindergarten programs. (#1)
GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
TWO-FOR-ONE: Work study students help children read. (#2)
AMERICA READS: Can volunteers do what professionals can't?(#3)
GOAL SEVEN: SAFE, DISCIPLINED AND DRUG-FREE SCHOOLS
PLAYING CATCH-UP WITH AT-RISK YOUTH: Houston goes private.(#4)
GOAL EIGHT: PARENTAL PARTICIPATION
FAMILY CENTERS: New Britain woos parents. (#5)
===== GOAL ONE: READY TO LEARN =====
*1 SCHOOL OPENINGS: CLEVELAND'S NEW KINDERGARTEN PROGRAMS
Two years ago, full-day kindergarten in Cleveland was axed as part of a budget-
tightening measure. However, voter approval last November of a 13.5-mill levy will
open the doors to two new kindergartens in the city (Stephens, Cleveland PLAIN
DEALER, 5/8). "This is a dream come true," said Trudie Langford, mother of a
five-year-old enrolled in one of the new schools. "She can go to a school I can
see out my window."
Superintendent Richard Boyd last week announced the new, full-day kindergarten
program. He explained that the school district will convert an old vocational
service center into one of the new elementary schools that will handle grades K-
5, reports the paper. Students who live near the new schools will be able to
either remain in their current elementary school or switch to the new ones.
According to the PLAIN DEALER, the district has nearly 7,000 students in half-
day kindergarten this year. About 7,500 full-day kindergartners are expected to
enroll for next year.
===== GOAL THREE: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP =====
*2 TWO-FOR-ONE: WORK STUDY STUDENTS HELP CHILDREN READ
More than 165 colleges and universities have jumped on President Clinton's
"America Reads" bandwagon by voluntarily dedicating half of this year's Federal
Work-Study (FWS) funding increase to students who want to serve as reading tutors
(U.S. DoEd press release, 5/9). "This program is a winner two times over,"
exclaimed U.S. Ed Sec Richard Riley. "Students can earn money for college while
they tutor elementary school children to read."
The release explains that the FWS program was authorized by the Higher Education
Act of 1965 to help postsecondary institutions provide on- and off-campus part-
time employment for students to enable them to meet education costs. Last year,
Clinton called for and Congress approved an increase in FWS, from $616.5M to $830M.
Typically, the federal government provides a 75% share of FWS funding, while
institutions and participating employers contribute a 25% match, writes the
release. However, the DoEd has waived the matching fund requirement for students
serving as reading tutors for children in pre-K through grade school in order to
encourage participation in the reading initiative.
"These college students will bring the kind of enthusiasm and dedication we need
at the grassroots level to sustain a national effort that reaches millions of
children," said Carol Rasco, director of the "America Reads Challenge." According
to the release, FWS tutors will work with teachers, community organizations and
families to provide reading assistance in class, after school, on weekends or
during the summer.
Clinton's "America Reads Challenge," is a five-year, $2.75B initiative "to
ensure that every American child can read well and independently by the end of
third grade," writes the release.
*3 AMERICA READS: CAN VOLUNTEERS DO WHAT PROFESSIONALS CAN'T?
Some educators and researchers are skeptical that a phalanx of volunteer tutors
can teach children to read when the childrens' professionally trained teachers have
not be able to do the job (Innerst, WASH TIMES, 5/12). "The issue is, 'How can
tutors do something trained teachers can't do?'" said G. Reid Lyon, a neuro-
psychologist and chief of the learning disabilities, cognitive and social
development branch of the National Institute of Health's National Institute of
Child Health and Human Development.
Lyon and others specifically are challenging President Clinton's "America Reads
Challenge," a $1B program that taps "11,000 AmeriCorps members to oversee a
volunteer force of 1 million college students, parents, senior citizens and others
to provide tutoring to more than 3 million children in grades kindergarten through
third grade with reading problems," writes the paper. The U.S. DoEd recently
announced a program to target a portion of Federal Work-Study funds to the reading
effort. (See today's NEGP Weekly, #2).
Dr. Eldo Bergman, a child neurologist and executive director of the Texas
Reading Institute: "The Clinton plan will give a million people some employment
and give a bunch of kids somebody they can sit and read with, but we might want
to ask, why these kids are poor readers."
New research suggests that some children who are having difficulty learning to
read lack "phonemic awareness," which is the ability to associate words and sounds.
NIH researchers have concluded that phonemic awareness is the fundamental building
block in learning how to read. About 60% of children "intuit" phonemic awareness
by age 6 or 7, said Lyon. Some children -- between 2% and 8% -- struggle with
phonemic awareness due to a brain dysfunction, while another 15% -- "typically
disadvantaged -- fail to develop phonemic awareness because no one has taken the
time to expose them to language before they enter school," writes the paper.
Bergman: "Phonemic awareness is the major cognitive science discovery of the
past 50 years. It helps us discover in kindergarten the majority of kids who will
have trouble in reading. If you don't have phonemic awareness, you are cooked."
Lyon elaborated on his skepticism over legions of volunteers teaching reading
skills. "Teachers want to do the best the can," he said. "It's just that they
don't have the conceptual tools. They weren't trained in those. So a lot of this
stuff tutors are supposed to do, unless they're provided with that information,
I don't see how you would expect that to improve anything."
Carol Rasco, "America Reads" director, countered that the volunteers were never
expected to take on the role of teacher. Instead, their job would be to provide
children with extra time reading. "One of the reasons children are still not able
to master reading at grade level is they need more practice time and skill-
building," she said. Teachers of a child who does not develop age-appropriate
reading skills after receiving in-class and outside help should then "delve further
into the child's "learning style,'" added Rasco, writes the paper.
An accompanying TIMES article notes that the whole-language approach to reading
continues to dominate the nation's schools of education, even while the method is
beginning to take a back seat to phonics. Lyon: "The great black hole and the
bottleneck in all of this is teacher preparation, [which] moves [teachers] more
toward beliefs than knowledge. They [teachers] are method-driven, rather than
conceptually drive. Our teachers can only teach what they've been taught, and they
try their best with that. So, if they are trained in phonics, that's what they
use. If they are trained in whole language, that's what they seem to use." he
added that teachers tend to be "relatively inflexible," and "generally every
approach we've studied will leave behind anywhere from 15 to 30 percent of the
kids."
===== GOAL SEVEN: SAFE, DISCIPLINED AND DRUG-FREE SCHOOLS =====
*4 PLAYING CATCH-UP WITH AT-RISK YOUTH: HOUSTON GOES PRIVATE
Houston middle-school students who are disruptive and have fallen behind in
their schoolwork are being recruited by their principles to attend an alternative
program this summer (Markely, Houston CHRONICLE, 5/8). About 100 students will
enroll in the school run by Community Education Partners, a private firm. The
school also plans to enroll an additional 450 students this fall.
The private firm will receive $7,500 per student per year from the Houston
Independent School District. According to the paper, the firm guarantees that
"every student who is academically behind more than two years in math or reading
will advance two grade levels in one year or be re-educated the following year for
free." John Danielson, vice president for Community Education Partners, said he
expects the alternative school to successfully educate about 70% of its student
body. "Anyone who tells you they have all the perfect answers should be sued for
fraud," he said. "We are all learning at this. This is a new industry. It's a
new approach to dealing with this problem."
Students misbehave because they are performing poorly in school, according to
the school's philosophy. Students at the school will study under a "highly
individualized" approach, in which they are frequently tested to assess their level
of understanding of subject matter, writes the paper.
Community Education Partners currently manages the School for Accelerated
Learning, which has two campuses. One campus has a contract with the Harris County
Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program and recruits students who have
committed crimes and have been expelled from their school, reports the paper.
==== GOAL EIGHT: PARENTAL PARTICIPATION ====
*5 FAMILY CENTERS: NEW BRITAIN WOOS PARENTS
Officials at one New Britain, Conn., school last year launched a program
designed to "strengthen the bonds between children, parents and the school (Kim,
Hartford COURANT, 4/17). The Family Resource Center provides activities for both
parents and their children.
"If we can teach parents, ultimately we will be helping the kids," said Ronald
Jakubowski, principal at Jefferson School. "I have seen the studies, and I have
seen it for myself. Anytime a child sees their parents in school the child will
do better."
The center offers students a before-school "Homework Club," where they can
complete homework and have teachers review it. Parents are offered a library of
resources on parenting and workshops such as "Raising a Spirited Child" and
"Parenting Under Stress." Sheryl McDonough, the center's director, points out a
main benefit of the center: Parents have opportunities to discuss parenting
problems with other parents. "It is so wonderful for parents to hear that their
child is normal," she explained.
McDonough also noted the "low-key" approach used by the center. "Parents get
questions answered from other parents," she said. "We suggest and not just teach."
Jakubowski has a broad vision for his school's center that includes adding
citizenship, English as a second language and GED classes for parents. He
envisions Jefferson to be a magnet for the community, reports the paper. "A lot
of people already use our facilities," he said. "I'd like this school to be a
place for the entire community. I want to make parents comfortable in knowing the
school is here for them."
THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS
* GOAL 1: READY TO LEARN
All children in America will start school ready to learn.
* GOAL 2: SCHOOL COMPLETION
The high school graduation rate will increase to at least percent.
* GOAL 3: STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND CITIZENSHIP
All students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency over
challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, foreign
languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography, and
every school in America will ensure that all students earn to use their minds well,
so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and
productive employment in our Nation' modern economy.
* GOAL 4: TEACHER EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The Nation's teaching force will have access to programs for the continued
improvement of their professional skills and the opportunity to acquire the
knowledge and skills needed to instruct and prepare all American students for the
next century.
* GOAL 5: MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
United States students will be first in the world in mathematics and science
achievement.
* GOAL 6: ADULT LITERACY AND LIFELONG LEARNING
Every adult American will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills
necessary to compete in a global economy and exercise the rights and
responsibilities of citizenship.
* GOAL 7: SAFE, DISCIPLINED, & ALCOHOL- AND DRUG-FREE SCHOOLS
Every school in the United States will be free of drugs, violence, and the
unauthorized presence of firearms and alcohol and will offer a disciplined
environment conducive to learning.
* GOAL 8: PARENTAL PARTICIPATION
Every school will promote partnerships that will increase parental involvement
and participation in promoting the social, emotional, and academic growth of
children.
_______________________________________________________________
| National Education Goals Panel |
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