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--- Monday --- June 2, 1997 --- Vol. 7 --- No. 45 ---
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THE NATIONAL UPDATE ON AMERICA'S EDUCATION REFORM EFFORTS
__________ __________
A HOME-BRED WINNER | SPOTLIGHT |
Rebecca Sealfon, a 13-year- | |
old from Brooklyn, N.Y., won | RISING TIDES |
this year's National Spelling | AND SINKING SHIPS |
Bee. She is the first home- | |
schooled student to win the | An economic boom, spurred |
Bee. | by a strong business- |
| government coalition, has |
A HOME IMPROVEMENT | made Cleveland the #1 urban |
Under a proposal announced by | renaissance city. Sadly, |
Ga. Gov Zell Miller (D), the | the economic tide failed to |
state's home-schooled students | lift the schools' ship. |
would become eligible for the | |
HOPE scholarship program | Cleveland's notoriety as |
(Loupe, ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, | a city with two tales has |
5/27). Revenue for the HOPE | been noticed by the |
scholarships is derived from | business community. Busi- |
the lottery. Currently, home- | ness leaders have advocated |
schooled students can win a | for giving control of the |
HOPE scholarships only if they | city's schools to Mayor |
maintain a B average during | White, whose leadership |
their first two years at one of | helped forge a strong |
Ga.'s Regents universities. | business-government coali- |
Other students can earn the | tion that led to the city's |
scholarships directly out of | economic transformation. |
high school, if they have a B | They want White to do the |
average. | same thing for the schools. |
The new plan would grant HOPE | |
scholarships to home-schooled | Another approach is |
students who pass four | offered by teachers. Ban |
specialty versions of SAT | corporate tax abatements, |
tests, called the SAT II. | which they say has caused a |
According to the paper, about | huge revenue leak for |
5,000 families statewide teach | public education. (#1) |
their children at home. |_____________________________|
============== QUOTE OF THE DAY ==============
"We forgot that human development and economic development are
tied together."
Carole Hoover, president of Greater Cleveland Growth Association.
(#1)
_______________________________________________________________
| (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 ==============
CITY HALL
CLEVELAND'S RISING ECONOMIC TIDE: Left schools' sinking.(#1)
STANDARD BEARERS
CALIFORNIA GOV: "Stop cheating children". (#2)
STOMPING ON HALLOW GROUND: Standards and Texas athletics. (#3)
BYTES AND PIECES
GETTING ON-LINE: That's the easy part for schools. (#4)
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==== CITY HALL ====
*1 CLEVELAND'S RISING ECONOMIC TIDE: LEFT SCHOOLS' SHIP SINKING
Cleveland's economic boom of the last several years won the
city praise as "the best practice leader in urban renaissance, by
Harvard Business School (Thomas, W.S. JOURNAL, 5/20). Yet,
economic prosperity has not given rise to the city's public
education system. Instead, the school system is flailing.
"We have lost a generation," said Carole Hoover, president
of Greater Cleveland Growth Association. "We forgot that human
development and economic development are tied together."
From the paper: "Cleveland's tale is proof that a rising
tide doesn't necessarily lift all boats." Business leaders now
have supported a plan to give Cleveland Mayor Michael White (D)
control of the schools, in hope that he can "muster the same
government-business coalition that worked so well to rejuvenate
the city economy," reports the paper.
The JOURNAL points out some Cleveland ironies: "The city
just last week broke ground on its third new professional-sports
arena in the past few years, yet all but eliminated sports in
city schools. Just a few miles away form the new Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame, the keyboard-music room of the district's flagship
School of the Arts resembled a cave of crumbled plaster."
Business leaders are more aware of the "economic limits" of
a low-quality school system, reports the paper. While, new home
loans for city houses have increased, they are being sought by
young singles, not families with children. "Further development
will be impeded by the quality of Cleveland public schools,"
commented David Daberko, chairman of National City Bank.
National City and other banks have been forced to design their
own curriculum for students who plan to seek jobs in the banking
industry.
Another consequence of the failure of Cleveland's public
schools that affect the business community: A referendum to ban
corporate tax breaks "that many say promoted growth but starved
the schools of cash" will be on the ballot, possibly as early as
this summer, notes the paper. According to the JOURNAL,
corporate tax abatement is used by municipalities as an incentive
to attract or maintain new corporate investment. However, the
paper also reports that Cleveland public schools loose about $20M
annually from the abatement. Teachers, holding up a failing
public school system as reason enough, were highly successful in
getting enough signatures to put the ban on corporate tax breaks
on the ballot.
==== STANDARD BEARERS ====
*2 CALIFORNIA GOV: "STOP CHEATING CHILDREN"
Calif. Gov Pete Wilson (R) wants children statewide to
experience classroom life on par with activities that go on in
Rafe Esquith's class at Hobart Elementary School (Colvin, L.A.
TIMES, 5/29). Esquith, a 15-year veteran teacher, requires his
fifth- and sixth-graders to perform Shakespeare and learn
algebra. His students even travel to England to perform with
professional actors.
Wilson said Esquith is supplying his students with
"something that in too many schools in California has been
lacking for too long ... high standards of achievement." In
testimony before the Commission for the Establishment of Academic
Content and Performance Standards, Wilson also "made a pitch" for
his proposal to begin testing children in grades two through 11,
even before the commission's work is finished. "I don't think
it's fair to cheat any more children," said Wilson. "I think
kids are entitled to know, their parents and teachers are
entitled to know, what they are learning as individuals. And
without an individualized test we simply cannot do that."
Many standards commission members were appointed by Wilson
and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin.
According to the paper, the panel of business and education
leaders are charged with creating a statewide testing system.
However, the panel has become bogged down in "logistic, legal and
personnel" problems. Members also have drawn battle lines on the
traditional, back-to-basics instruction versus a "greater
emphasis on conceptual understanding," notes the paper.
At the hearing, Wilson petitioned board members not to wait
until a customized test is created. Instead, he recommended
spending $80M to purchase an existing standardized test. "I have
every confidence that an off-the-shelf test can in fact
complement the work you are doing and be consistent with the kind
of tough, challenging standards that you will eventually
develop," said Wilson.
Eastin agreed that the state should move quickly to
implement a testing program. However, she stressed that student
progress should be measured against the state's standards, rather
than a national average.
*3 STOMPING ON HALLOW GROUND: STANDARDS AND TEXAS ATHLETICS
The Texas General Assembly is debating the merits of
legislation aimed at raising standards for athletes' admissions
to the state's universities (Hughes, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 5/29).
Already the House passed a measured that would make admission
standards for all students the same as those for athletes.
For example, if a university admits athletes with a grade-
point-average of 2.1, then it would have to admit other students
with a 2.1 GPA. From the paper: "The provision is aimed at
forcing colleges to increase academic standards for athletes,
rather than lowering the standards for the entire school."
Ron Wilson (D) introduced the bill in response to a federal
court order in the Hopwood case, which "prompted Attorney General
Dan Morales to bar public universities in Texas from using
affirmative action in admissions, scholarships and recruiting,"
writes the paper. Wilson charges that the decision would
decrease the number of minority scholars, while the number of
minority athletes with poor academic records would continue to
soar. "We're using [the athletes] basically for entertainment,
treating them like cattle or thoroughbreds," said WIlson. "And
after they're finished running, we put them out to pasture, we
send them to the slaughterhouse."
According to the paper, the Senate version of the bill would
require athletes entering college to have a GPA at least equal to
the average GPA of freshman students the previous year. The U of
Texas and its "legendary" football coach, Darrell Royal,
staunchly oppose the legislation.
===== BYTES AND PIECES =====
*4 GETTING ON-LINE: THAT'S THE EASY PART FOR SCHOOLS
The nation's schools are undergoing a tremendous effort to
get wired for the Internet -- but that is the easy part of
bringing technology to the classroom. Far more difficult is
figuring out how best to use the technology to improve student
achievement and produce teachers competent in using it, reports
BUSINESS WEEK (Wildstrom, 6/9).
The magazine fears that technology could go the same route
as science instruction, when, the author recalls, the "launch of
Sputnik set off a national panic over science education. Within
months, fancy science equipment began pouring into our school.
But no one bothered training the teachers to use it, and the gear
ended up collecting dust."
According to BUSINESS WEEK, most schools use the Web to get
students to design Web pages, "a useful, but hardly critical,
skill." Few schools actually integrate the technology into
curriculums or use the computer for administrative chores, such
as posting activities calendars and homework assignments on the
Net to inform parents.
While few schools provide proper instruction for teachers
and administrators, the magazine features several services that,
while costly, attempt to train teachers in the use of technology.
Co-NECT Schools (co-nect.bbn.com) is a venture of the Education
Commission of the States and the New American Schools project.
Currently, there are 30 Co-NECT schools in 7 states, reports the
magazine. To hook up with the program, schools must link their
computers on an internal network that is connected to the
Internet. The school system also is required to train teachers
to be able to adopt Co-NECT's "broad educational reforms, which
include keeping classes and teachers together for more than one
year and intensive evaluation of student progress," reports
BUSINESS WEEK.
Co-NECT also offers lesson plans for teachers and help in
using networks to automate school-management tasks. However, the
program is limited by its $55,000 per school per year price tag.
The Global SchoolNet Foundation (www.gsn.org) is another
service that provides a "clearinghouse of valuable information on
the effective use of computers and the Internet," explains the
magazine. GSN sponsors conferences and courses for teachers and
distributes class projects. GSN "provides training wheels" for
teachers, said a GSN employee.
NETschools (www.netschools.net) is a private firm that will
provide, for about $1,200 per child over five years, schools with
a "complete network, including a custom, kid-proof Windows 95
laptop for each students and software to administer the system
and automate school-management tasks," writes the magazine. El
Paso is the first school system to ascribe to NETschools program.
Mathview software from Waterloo Maple Inc. is an economical
way to help teachers tap into technology, notes BUSINESS WEEK.
The software creates interactive math work sheets for posting on
the Web, according to the magazine.
The Dalton School (www.dalton.org), a private New York
school, illustrates what a top-notch school with a lot of cash
can do with computers. BUSINESS WEEK suggests that readers visit
the school's site to sample various projects, including a science
notebook for young learners.
NOTE TO READERS
The DAILY REPORT CARD is interested in promising practices
related to technology in the classroom. Please send information
on integrating technology in the schools, including efforts to
train teachers to: 202/632-0957 (FAX); or,
drc_publisher@goalline.org. Please include a contact name and
phone number or e-mail. Thank you for your help.
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