The NEGP Weekly for May 25, 2001

[Negpweek <NEGPWEEK@WESTAT.com>]

*****************THE NEGP WEEKLY*****************
A weekly news update on America's Education Goals 
and school improvement efforts across America from the 
NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL

Friday - May 25, 2001 -- Vol. 2 -- No. 102
*************************************************

CONTENTS

**STATE POLICY 
1.) PRIVATE-TUTORING GRANTS:  ON THE BOOKS IN PENNSYLVANIA (Goal 3)
2.) PERFORMANCE PAY:  IOWA LAWMAKERS SAY YES (Goal 4) 

**COMMUNITY AND LOCAL NEWS 
3.) SCHOOL SAFETY:  A LOCAL DIALOGUE (Goal 7) 
4.) BALTIMORE'S TURN AROUND:  TEST SCORES RISE (Goals 3 and 5) 

**FEDERAL POLICY NEWS 
5.) SCHOOL SUCCESS:  NCES INDICATORS OF QUALITY (Goals 3 and 4) 
6.) ZERO-DOWN-PAYMENT MORTGAGES:  A TEACHER INCENTIVE PROGRAM (Goal 4)

**RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRACTICE 
7.) TEACHER SALARIES:  NOT KEEPING PACE WITH INFLATION (Goal 4) 
8.) SENIOR SLUMP:  AND, WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT (Goals 3 and 6) 

**FEATURE STORY
9.) BRAIN RESEARCH:  CLASSROOM IMPLICATIONS (All Goals)

 
***FACT OF THE WEEK***
Between 1991 and 2000, the U.S. and 51 states (out of 51) significantly
increased the numbers of Advanced Placement examinations receiving a
grade
of 3 or higher (per 1,000 11th and 12th graders.)

-- Promising Practices: Progress Toward the Goals, 2000
http://www.negp.gov/promprac/promprac00/promprac00.pdf


********************
STATE POLICY NEWS
********************


1.) ******** PRIVATE-TUTORING GRANTS:  ON THE BOOKS IN PENNSYLVANIA
(Goal Three:  Student Achievement)

As part of a deal to increase teacher pensions, Pennsylvania Governor
Tom
Ridge was able to get both House and Senate approval of his plan to give
grants to parents for after-school private tutoring (Keller, EDUCATION
WEEK,
5/16).  Under the plan, parents who meet certain income guidelines could
receive up to $500 per child each year to pay for tutoring, if the child
is
in grades 3-6 and is failing standardized tests.

According to ED WEEK, voters in Arizona passed a similar proposal last
fall
as part of a sales-tax increase targeted for education.

For more information, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Education to
read
highlights of House Bill 996 at http://www.pde.psu.edu.  Click on
"Newsroom"
and search for HB 996. 


2.) ******** PERFORMANCE PAY:  IOWA LAWMAKERS SAY YES
(Goal Four: Teacher Education and Professional Development)

Joining a small group of districts and schools, Iowa lawmakers earlier
this
month voted to replace their traditional teacher-compensation system
with a
performance-based one (Blair, EDUCATION WEEK, 5/16).  The new system
would
become effective in 2003.

Under the plan, teachers would have a four-step career path, with the
minimum pay for beginning teachers increasing from $23,000 to $28,000.
Teachers would undergo comprehensive reviews conducted by district
administrators.  In the final step, a regional team from outside the
school
district would evaluate teachers.  Eight standards would be used in the
evaluations.

The state, as part of a pilot program, is testing in six schools part of
the
compensation plan that gives cash bonuses to teachers whose students
show
improvement.

To read a critique of the plan by the Iowa State Education Association,
visit the teacher union at http://www.isea.org.  Look at the "What's
New"
section and click on Hollow Victory in Teacher Pay Plan.   


*************************
COMMUNITY AND LOCAL NEWS
*************************


3.) ******** SCHOOL SAFETY: A LOCAL DIALOGUE
(Goal Seven:  School Safety)

Four local education funds of the Public Education Network (PEN)
conducted
community "conversations" to help improve school safety in their
community
schools.  PEN published the outcome of these local dialogues in its
publication "Lessons from the Field."  (April 2001)

At the close of the year 2000, 250 participants in the following
communities
engaged in discussion on school safety issues:  Buffalo, New York;
Lancaster, Pennsylvania; McKeesport, Pennsylvania and Paterson, New
Jersey.
They based their conversations around The 1999 Metropolitan Life Survey
of
the American Teacher, Violence in America's Public Schools:  Five Years
Later in order to "ground their local experiences in a national
context."  

"Lessons in the Field" summarizes the local funds' experiences and cites
several examples of local school-safety programs that work.  It also
provides a brief list of resources for school safety.

For more information, visit PEN at http://www.PublicEducation.org.


4.) ******** BALTIMORE'S TURN AROUND: TEST SCORES RISE
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Goal Five: Math and Science)

In what is being dubbed as a turnaround of a troubled school system,
Baltimore's first- through fifth-grade students have made significant
gains
on national reading and math tests for the third year in a row (Bowie
and
Niedowski, Baltimore SUN, 5/18).

In 1998, 29 percent of the city's first-grade students read at or above
the
national average for their grade.  This year, 56 percent of the students
did
so, reports the paper.  In math, the scores have risen from 30 percent
in
1998 to 52 percent this spring.  First graders improved the most, and
many
educators attributed their high performance to a "new emphasis on
programs
for four- and five-year-olds," writes the paper.

According to the paper, the test score increases occurred four years
after
the state and city forged a partnership, "marked by tens of millions of
dollars in new state funding" to reform a troubled school system.
School
board members targeted most of the money to elementary schools to reduce
class size, buy new textbooks, adopt a citywide curriculum and retrain
teachers in reading and math.

For more information, visit the Baltimore schools at
http://www.bcps.k12.md.us.


*********************
FEDERAL POLICY NEWS
*********************


5.) ******** SCHOOL SUCCESS: NCES INDICATORS OF QUALITY
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Goal Four: Teacher Education and
Professional Development)

Earlier this year the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
released a report that examines why some schools may be more successful
than
others at helping students learn.  Monitoring School Quality:  An
Indicators
Report reviews 13 characteristics of schools, classrooms and teachers
that
are most likely related to school quality and improved student learning.

The report also identifies, for each indicator, where national data are
currently available and reliable.  

For more information and a copy of the report, visit NCES at
http://www.nces.ed.gov.  Search for the report by title.  The
publication
number is NCES 20001-030.


6.) ******** ZERO-DOWN-PAYMENT MORTGAGES:  A TEACHER INCENTIVE PROGRAM
(Goal Four: Teacher Education and Professional Development)

A creative attempt to recruit and retain teachers is offered by Freddie
Mac,
the congressionally chartered corporation that packages mortgages and
sells
them to investors (Blair, EDUCATION WEEK, 5/16). Freddie Mac wants to
expand
its California program where, in partnership with the teacher-retirement
system, the housing-finance company provides teachers and other school
employees with zero-down-payment mortgages. 

The CalSTRS Home Loan Program was launched last spring and is the first
in
the nation to involve public pension funds.  California school employees
who
participate in the CalSTRS program are required to take out two loans.
The
first covers 95 percent of the cost of the home and must come from a
credit
union or commercial lender to be paid back in monthly mortgage
installments.
Freddie Mac purchases those bank loans.

The second loan is paid for by the California State Teachers' Retirement
System (CalSTRS) and is applied to the down payment.  This loan does not
have to be paid back until the house is sold.

For more information, visit Freddie Mac at http://www.freddiemac.com and
click on "News."


*********************************
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRACTICES
*********************************


7.) ******** TEACHER SALARIES: NOT KEEPING PACE WITH INFLATION	
(Goal Four: Teacher Education and Professional Development)

The average teacher salary increase in the 1999-2000 school year is
among
the smallest in 40 years and failed to keep pace with inflation,
according
to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) annual teacher salary
survey.
The average national teacher salary for 1999-2000 was $41,820.  This
salary
was up 3.2 percent from the previous year, which is slightly less than
the
year's inflation rate of 3.4 percent.  

The average beginning teacher salary for 1999-2000 was $27,989, up from
4.2
percent from the previous year, a slight decrease from the 4.4 percent
salary hike in 1998-1999.

For more information, visit the American Federation of Teachers at
http://www.aft.org.


8.) ******** SENIOR SLUMP: AND, WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Goal Six: Adult Literacy and
Lifelong
Learning)

Better coordination between the K-12 school system and colleges and
university is key to preventing a high school student's senior year from
becoming meaningless, according to Michael Kirst, an education professor
at
Stanford University.  In his report, Overcoming the Senior Slump:  New
Education Policies, Kirst argues that senior slump is a "rational
response
of high school seniors to an education system in which no one claims the
content of the senior year as a basis for further education."

One solution is for states to appoint one organization to be responsible
for
education from kindergarten through college.  According to Kirst,
Georgia is
a model for this approach.  A state and regional "P-16" council
establishes
education policy for grades pre-school through college (grade 16).

The report also offers recommendations for how high schools can address
the
"senior slump."  For example, they can redesign courses taken in the
senior
year to better connect with first-year college courses.

A copy of the report, published by the Institute for Educational
Leadership
and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, can be
ordered from IEL via e-mail:  iel@iel.org.


*****************
FEATURE STORY
*****************


9.) ******** BRAIN RESEARCH: CLASSROOM IMPLICATIONS
(All Goals)

Brain research and its potential for the classroom are the topics
discussed
in the Council for Basic Education's (CBE) monthly policy brief (April
2001).  The essays presented in the policy brief tackle specific issues
surrounding the application of research into practice and even question
whether "the findings of contemporary neuroscience" should be applied in
today's classrooms.

Keith Verner, head of the division of developmental pediatrics and
learning
at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, opens the
issue by
providing a brief overview of how the brain processes information.  He
defines "the way we perceive, attend to, process and memorize
information"
as the link between science and education.

In the second article, Kathleen Madigan, executive director of the
National
Council for Teacher Quality, chastises educators who she describes as
taking
a "leap of faith" when they attempt to create curriculums or develop
learning kits or workshops based on brain research.  Madigan quotes Kurt
Fischer, director of the Mind, Brain and Education Program at Harvard
University:  "You can't go from neuroscience to the classroom because we
don't know enough about neuroscience."  

William Brock, president of Bridges Learning Systems, Inc and former
U.S.
Senator, writes of the need to "transform education" based on unfolding
developments in brain research.  He challenges educators, policymakers
and
scientists to "employ the incredible findings of those engaged in brain
research, first to understand the strengths, limitations and needs of
the
individual child."  Children struggling to learn are Brock's primary
focus.

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, a doctoral student at Harvard's Mind, Brain
and
Education program, describes the remarkable progress being made to
understand how the brain works, with potential implications for
understanding the learning process.  She presents the case of Nico, a
"smart, successful, middle school students," who is living with only
half
his brain.  He had surgery to remove his entire right hemisphere at age
three as a "last-ditch effort to control his severe epilepsy."

In another case study, Immordino-Yang discusses "Judy's" math
disability.
But, according to the author, "in thinking about Judy not as having a
disability limited to math, but as possessing a core set of
neuropsychological strengths and weaknesses, we will be better able to
understand and predict her performance across domains, as well as design
a
curriculum that more closely accommodates her needs as a learner."

For more information, visit the Council for Basic Education at
www.c-b-e.org.

	 
************************************
The NEGP WEEKLY is a publication of:
The National Education Goals Panel 
1255 22nd Street NW, Suite 502 
Washington, DC 20037; 
202-724-0015 

NEGP Acting Executive Director: John Barth 
Publisher: Barbara A. Pape 
http://www.negp.gov 
************************************

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WHAT IS THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL? 
The National Education Goals Panel is a unique bipartisan body of state
and
federal officials created in 1990 by President Bush and the nation's
Governors to report state and national progress and urge education
improvement efforts to reach the National Education Goals. 

WHAT DOES THE GOALS PANEL DO?
The Goals Panel has been charged to: 
* Report state and national progress toward the National Education
Goals. 
* Work to establish a system of high academic standards and assessments.

* Identify promising and effective reform strategies. 
* Recommend actions for state, federal, and local governments to take. 
* Build a nationwide, bipartisan consensus to achieve the Goals. 

WHAT ARE THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS? 
There are eight National Education Goals set for the year 2000. They
are: 
1) All children will start school ready to learn. 
2) The high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90%. 
3) All students will become competent in challenging subject matter. 
4) Teachers will have the knowledge and skills they need. 
5) U.S. students will be first in the world in math and science
achievement.
6) Every adult American will be literate. 
7) Schools will be safe, disciplined, and free of drugs, guns and
alcohol. 
8) Schools will promote parental involvement and participation. 

WHO SERVES ON THE GOALS PANEL AND HOW ARE THEY CHOSEN?
Eight governors, four state legislators, four members of the U.S.
Congress,
and two members appointed by the President serve on the Goals Panel.
Members
are appointed by the leadership of the National Governors' Association,
the
National Conference of State Legislatures, the U.S. Senate and House,
and
the President. The number of Republicans and Democrats are made even by
appointing five governors from the party that does not control the White
House.
 
The current Panel Members are Governors Frank O'Bannon, IN (Chair,
2001); Jim Geringer, WY (Chair-elect); John Engler, MI; Jim Hodges, SC;
Frank	Keating, OK; Paul E. Patton, KY; Jeanne Shaheen, NH; Tom
Vilsack,
IA;
U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, NM; U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords, VT; U.S.
Representative George Miller, CA; Representative G. Spencer Coggs,
WI; Representative Mary Lou Cowlishaw, IL; Representative Douglas R.
Jones, ID; Senator Stephen Stoll, MO. 

The annual Goals Report and other publications of the Panel are
available
without charge upon request from the Goals Panel or at its web site
http://www.negp.gov. Requests can be made by mail, fax, e-mail, or
Internet.


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