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--- Wednedsa --- April 30, 1997 --- Vol. 73 --- No. 38 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
A service of the National Education Goals Panel
__________ __________
GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY | SPOTLIGHT |
An anonymous benefactor | |
created the biannual Davies- | YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY |
Jackson Scholarship in 1990 to | |
reward an outstanding student | The American business |
from one of 84 private, liberal | community has come a long |
arts colleges and universities | way from the Adopt-a-School |
in the U.S. The winner gets an | model of involvement in K- |
opportunity to continue their | 12 ed reform. IBM is |
liberal arts studies for two | blazing paths with its |
years, expenses paid, at St. | business-school partnership |
John's College, Cambridge U, in | called Reinventing |
England. "The Davies-Jackson | Education. (#2) |
Scholarship is supported by | |
donations from an anonymous | The company has awarded |
American who feels that his | $25M in grants to school |
highly successful career was | districts and state DoEds |
made possible in great part by | engaged in innovative |
the time he spent at St. | reform initiatives. |
John's," said A. Graham Down, | Besides the funds, IBM |
chairman of the Davies-Jackson | provides each site with a |
Scholarship Committee. | project manager and |
This year's winner is (Mary) | consultants charged with |
Colleen Wilenbring, a senior | customizing solutions. |
English major and honors | |
student at College of Saint | A chief goal of the |
Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., | project is replication of |
a Catholic liberal arts college | successful programs, "which |
for women. Wilenbring: "As | is the single most |
the recipient and a student of | important step toward |
English literature, I am | achieving real, systemic |
thrilled to be living this new | change in the way schools |
version of 'Great | perform," says IBM CEO |
Expectations.'" For more | Louis Gerstner. |
information: 202/333-8258. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"It takes a lot of time away from instruction."
Cosimo Renzi, Fairfax Villa (Va.) School's assistant principal,
on the amount of time it takes to implement the state's proposed
exam system. (#4)
_______________________________________________________________
| (c) by the Education Policy Network, Inc. |
| 1255 22nd Street NW; Washington, D.C. 20010; 202/632-0952 |
| EPN, Inc. hereby authorizes further reproduction and |
| distribution with proper acknowledgement. |
| Publisher: Barbara A. Pape |
|_______________________________________________________________|
============== TABLE OF CONTENTS ==============
RESEARCH NOTES
BOYS AND GIRLS TOGETHER: Gender and learning differences. (#1)
PARTNERS IN EDUCATION
REINVENTING EDUCATION: IBM takes charge. (#2)
PROMISING PRACTICES
RESTRUCTURING HIGH SCHOOLS: A look at ten schools. (#3)
TESTS AND TESTING
TESTY OVER TESTING: Virginia takes a practice run. (#4)
THE PRIVATE EYE
WATERED-DOWN CHOICE: It doesn't help with Sheff decision.(#5)
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===== RESEARCH NOTES ====
*1 BOYS AND GIRLS TOGETHER: GENDER AND LEARNING DIFFERENCES
Teachers and parents must be mindful of gender-related
learning differences, offering teaching and nurturing that brings
out the best in both sexes, according to a new book published by
the National Association of Independent Schools. In "A Great
Balancing Act: Equitable Education for Girls and Boys," author
Anne Chapman offers specific recommendations for school and home
to help enhance the learning potential of young people.
Typical of most gender-based educational research is the
emphasis on how to change the current curricula to better meet
the needs of girls. Chapman's book presents techniques that she
claims helps bring out the best in boys as well as girls. "It's
keeping the things that work for boys and bringing in the things
that work well with girls," explained Dory Adams of NAIS.
Chapman describes school-related opportunities for dealing
or not dealing with gender issues: the formal curriculum of
subject-matter disciplines, "the ways they are taught and tested,
and the classroom dynamics as they are learned or not learned;"
the informal curriculum, which consists of athletics, leadership
and extracurricular activities; the hidden curriculum of the
school's climate, "things not deliberately taught or instituted,
but which are the cumulative result of many unconscious or
unexamined behaviors that add up to a palpable style or
atmosphere;" and the null curriculum, or things missing from the
curricula, "not as a result of conscious decision to exclude it,
but merely because it has never occurred to anyone to consider
whether or not it should be there."
Using this framework, Chapman in subsequent chapters
describes common pitfalls in appropriately dealing with gender
issues and a series of recommendations for what schools and
teachers could do. Subjects covered include: History, science,
English literature and language, mathematics, arts and computers.
Other chapters focus on athletics and leadership activities.
A final chapter is designed to provide guidelines for
parents on how to enhance their "home curriculum," which could be
simple every-day occurrences that bring to light gender
differences and provide opportunities for children to acquire
insight into their selves and their gender. Also attached is an
extensive bibliography.
Chapman has organized the book to facilitate a quick read.
For example, she suggests that all readers read Chapters One:
"The 'Curriculum' of the Real World;" Chapter Three: Ways of
Knowing: Girls and Boys Coming into Their Own;" and Chapter
Twelve: "The Informal Curriculum: Leadership." She recommends
that teachers hone in on the subject-area chapters of interest to
them. Chapter Thirteen -- "Parents and the Home Curriculum" --
should be of most interest to families.
A NAIS press release points out that Chapman titled her book
after "The Places You'll Go," a Dr. Seuss poem:
You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to go out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?
Step with great care and with great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
"A Great Balancing Act: Equitable Education for Girls and
Boys" is available for $22 from the National Association of
Independents Schools; 202/973-9749.
===== PARTNERS IN EDUCATION =====
*2 REINVENTING EDUCATION: IBM TAKES CHARGE
IBM's Reinventing Education program, begun in the fall of
1994, has awarded $25M to ten grant sites from around the
country. The company has funded the following sites: Broward
County (Fla.) Public Schools, Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.)
Schools, Chicago Public Schools, Cincinnati Public Schools,
Dallas Public Schools, School District of Philadelphia, San
Francisco Unified School District, San Jose Unified School
District, the Vermont DoEd and the West Virginia DoEd.
The grants will be implemented through the year 2000, writes
an IBM press release (2/20). Louis Gerstner, Jr., IBM chairman
and CEO: "Together these 10 projects address the most
significant, long-standing barriers to education. These
challenges include parental involvement, the structure of the
school day and year, teacher training and teaching
interdisciplinary subjects."
According to the release, IBM provides each site with a
project manager, consultants and researchers to "create
customized solutions designed to break down specific barriers to
high academic achievement," a structure IBM employs with its
large business customers.
IBM recently announced plans to expand their Reinventing
Education program. "Although all 10 grant sites are producing
promising results, five are far enough along in the development
process that we are ready to share the results with more
schools," explained Gerstner. "We are looking for 10 to 12
school districts and states who are ready to make a real change
in how they operate. We want to partner with them to refine the
applications and move toward replication, which is the single
most important step toward achieving real, systemic change in the
way schools perform."
The five programs ready for replication are:
Watch Me Read, an interactive speech-recognition program
used in the Philadelphia School District, designed to help
students learn to read. The program is based on the
pronunciations of more than 40,000 words by over 800 children
nationwide. It allows students to read and receive as much or as
little help as they need. An on-screen partner recognizes
misread words and provides assistance. The program builds a
record of individual student achievement by bookmarking each
student's commonly misread words for practice and review. Watch
Me Read is being used by first- through fifth-grade students at
Barton Elementary School and by learning-disabled students at
Olney High School.
Wired for Learning, underway in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
School District (N.C.), is designed to strengthen the classroom
link between parents, teaches and community mentors. The program
uses network computing to promote parent/teacher communication
focused on student work and provides a way for students to work
in collaboration from various sites. The application also
matches assignments, evaluations and resources with academic
performance standards. It was first installed at Nathaniel
Alexander Elementary School, the Double Oaks Community Center and
Discovery Place, a science museum in downtown Charlotte.
Interdisciplinary Math/Science Tool, an interdisciplinary
curriculum tool for teaching math and science in grades 4-8. The
program helps Dallas public school students achieve the
district's new higher standards in math and science. Using image
processing technology, students are encouraged to relate
mathematical theories to real-world examples by predicting and
explaining science.
Digital Portfolio Assessment, which will help the state of
Vt. create a consistent, efficient and comprehensive method for
assessing student performance via portfolio assessments. The
program will run in eight schools statewide by the end of this
school year, with an anticipated expansion of the program to 150
K-12 schools by the start of the 1997 school year. According to
the release, the ability to chronicle actual classroom
performance through digital images and video helps focus
classroom instruction on problem solving and communication
skills, as well as the basics.
Data Warehouse/Data Mining for Schools, in which IMB and
Broward Country (Fla.) Public Schools have developed an
information management system that provides teachers and school
administrators with timely, easy access to information about
students. The system provides educators with data to make
informed decisions about classroom curriculums, budgets and
personnel. It also helps identify specific children who need
assistance, while increasing the accountability of students,
teachers and administrators. The data warehouse has been
installed at the school district offices and three schools.
More information is available on IMB's web site at
www.ibm.com/IBM/IBMGives.
==== PROMISING PRACTICES ====
*3 RESTRUCTURING HIGH SCHOOLS: A LOOK AT TEN SCHOOLS
The ability of high schools to implement and sustain
multiple changes over time is an essential but most difficult
task to undertake in the effort to reform schools, according to a
new publication released by the Educational Research Service.
"Effects of High School Restructuring: Ten Schools at Work,"
follows up on the findings of the 1994 National Study of High
School Restructuring.
The 1994 report found that many high schools were involved
in a range of school improvement activities, including block
scheduling, interdisciplinary teaching and increased use of
technology. However, few schools were engaged in a reform
program that was comprehensive and systemic, notes the report.
The latest study focuses on ten schools that are in the
midst of comprehensive restructuring. "The ten high schools in
this study have made enormous contributions to helping identify
new patterns that will help make the 'all children can learn'
rhetoric a reality in every community," said Dr. Gordon Cawelti,
author of the report, and former executive director of the
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. "Their
attention to the critical elements of restructuring that are the
focus of this study are obviously not the only way to concentrate
the efforts of a school. But the data reported here are
sufficiently encouraging to continue in these directions."
Cawelti's framework for determining the nature of a
comprehensive restructuring program consists of, what he calls,
Seven Critical Elements of Comprehensive Restructuring. The
first three elements, the focal elements, provide the focus of
concentration for the restructuring effort and include: high
curriculum standards, effective teaching/active learning, and
results orientation/performance assessment.
The remaining four elements, which Cawelti has named the
facilitating elements, center on the processes and practices that
allow school personnel to work on the focal elements, including:
use of technology, human resource development, parental/community
involvement and work redesign.
All schools involved in the study have been participating in
restructuring efforts for at least three years. According to the
report, those schools that have implemented changes to the
greatest extent in the seven elements have shown the greatest
gains in state assessment and national standardized tests over a
period of at least three years.
Cawelti describes the restructuring efforts underway in each
of the schools in terms of student achievement, attitudes,
attendance and post-graduation plan. A brief review of related
literature also is included in the publication.
"Effects of High School Restructuring: Ten Schools at Work"
is available for $28.00. Add the greater of $3.50 or 10% of
total sales tax to cover postage and handing. Order from:
Educational Research Service; 2000 Clarendon Boulevard;
Arlington, Va. 22201; 800/791-9308; fax: 800/791-9309. Stock
number: NA-0238.
==== TESTS AND TESTING ====
*4 TESTY OVER TESTING: VIRGINIA TAKES A PRACTICE RUN
Some Va. educators complained that pilot tests for students
in grades 3, 5, 8 and 11 took too long to administer and
contained questions far too difficult for their students to
answer (O'Harrow Jr., WASH POST, 4/29). The tests are part of
Gov. George Allen's (R) program to raise academic standards,
which will be voted on by the Virginia Board of Education next
month.
The paper notes that, under Allen's plan, the 11th-grade
exams will become a graduation requirement beginning in 2001.
Results of the exams also are intended to assess a school's
performance.
However, some educators expressed concern that the math and
writing exams took about two hours. Cosimo Renzi, Fairfax Villa
School's assistant principal, fears the complete testing program,
which tests each student in all core subjects, will take several
days. Renzi: "My main concern is the amount of testing. It
takes a lot of time away from instruction."
Other educators pointed out that some of the questions were
too difficult for their students. For example, Centerville High
School (Fairfax County) sophomores and juniors took an Algebra II
exam that called on them to create algebraic matrices manually,
writes the paper. Teachers said the students are taught to do
the work using graphing calculators, which are not allowed during
the exam. Dag Egede-Missen, a math teacher, said these types of
questions would force teachers to focus on rote skills instead of
"sophisticated lessons they now can provide with the help of
graphing calculators," reports the paper. "Egede-Nissen:
"Clearly, we would take a small step backward."
==== THE PRIVATE EYE ====
*5 WATERED-DOWN CHOICE: IT DOESN'T HELP WITH SHEFF DECISION
A voluntary school-choice plan that would have allowed Conn.
students to leave their neighborhood school to attend a school
anywhere in the state was rejected last week by the legislature's
appropriation committee (Bernstein and Frahm, Hartford COURANT,
4/25). According to the paper, the choice proposal was part of
the legislature's effort to comply with the Sheff vs. O'Neill
school desegregation case.
In its place, lawmakers voted for a "watered-down version,"
writes the paper. The choice provisions voted down by the
committee include: an open school enrollment plan that would
have required all public school districts to accept students from
other districts, provided there was enough space; and financial
incentives that would have "linked school construction money to
racial integration goals," reports the COURANT.
The committee left in place a measure that would eliminate
some restrictions on enrollment and regional distribution faced
by charter schools. The bill also would remove caps on the
number of charter schools permitted in the state and would
"repeal the limit of two state and two local charter schools per
district," notes the paper.
""I can't believe this is our response to Sheff," said state
Rep Thomas Helihy (R), a member of the appropriations committee
and the education committee, which drafted the original school-
choice bill. "I find this legislation demeaning to the hundreds
of thousands of hours volunteers contributed to this effort."
Some lawmakers commented that the school-choice debate is
far from over; they expect changes to be made in the watered-down
version on the floor. Sen. Thomas Gaffey (D), co-chairman of the
education committee, who anticipates floor action on the bill:
"It is just incomprehensible how anyone can expect the state to
comply with Sheff without the interdistrict public school-choice
option."
Rep. William Dyson (D), co-chairman of the appropriations
committee, defended his committee's action on the choice bill.
Dyson said the state should worry less about spending money to
send students out of town to school. Instead, "we should be
looking at how much are we going to spend to keep kids in their
own school districts," he said.
The paper reports that the state Supreme Court last summer
ordered the legislature to desegregate schools in Hartford and
its suburbs.
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