The NEGP WEEKLY for December 21, 2000
Negpweek (NEGPWEEK@WESTAT.com)
Thu, 21 Dec 2000 15:50:02 -0500
The NEGP WEEKLY will not be published the week of December 28, 2000, but
will return to your desktop the week of January 4, 2001. See you in 2001
with more exciting and interesting education stories from across America!
Have a safe and happy holiday season!
*****************THE NEGP WEEKLY*****************
A weekly news update on America's Education Goals
and school improvement efforts across America from the
NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL
Thursday - December 21, 2000 -- Vol. 2 -- No. 85
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CONTENTS
**STATE POLICY
1.) REFORMING SCHOOLS OF EDUCATION: GEORGIA GETS TOUGH (Goal 4)
2.) TEACHER SHORTAGE: LOOMS LARGE IN ILLINOIS (Goals 3 and 4)
**COMMUNITY AND LOCAL NEWS
3.) CAREER ACADEMIES: WORKING IN SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN (Goal 3)
4.) HOUSTON STANDARDS: ON THE RISE (Goal 3)
**FEDERAL POLICY NEWS
5.) SCHOOL-TO-WORK: A STATUS REPORT (Goals 3 and 6)
6.) PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A TOOLKIT (Goal 4)
**RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRACTICE
7.) DIGITAL DIVIDE: TOO MUCH CALCULATOR USE IN INNER CITY SCHOOLS? (Goal 5)
8.) THE STATE OF BLACK EDUCATION: CLOSE THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP AND START IN THE
EARLY YEARS (Goal 3)
**FEATURE STORY
9.) BRINGING ALL STUDENTS TO HIGH STANDARDS: A GOALS PANEL REPORT (All
Goals)
***FACT OF THE WEEK***
Between 1991 and 1997, only the Virgin Islands significantly reduced the
percentage of public high school students reporting that someone offered,
sold, or gave them an illegal drug on school property during the past 12
months.
--The National Education Goals Report: Building a nation of learners, 1999
http://www.negp.gov/reports/99rpt.pdf
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STATE POLICY NEWS
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1.) ******** REFORMING SCHOOLS OF EDUCATION: GEORGIA GETS TOUGH
(Goal Four: Teacher Education and Professional Development)
Schools of education, both public and private, where students continue to
perform poorly on teacher-licensing exams, will be closed under a new
proposal developed by Georgia Governor Roy Barnes' Education Reform Study
Commission (Blair, EDUCATION WEEK, 12/13). The recommendation calls for at
least 80 percent of graduates of every racial and ethnic group to earn
passing scores on the PRAXIS II exam.
The Georgia Legislature would not be required to approve the plan, according
to state leaders. If Governor Barnes decides to approve the plan, it would
be phased in so colleges would not be in "immediate jeopardy," said Jan
Kettlewell, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs for the
university system of Georgia.
Arthur Wise, president of the National Association for Accreditation of
Teacher Education, cautioned that the adoption of the proposal could "close
the teaching profession to some people."
For more information, visit the state of Georgia at www.state.ga.us/governor
2.) ******** TEACHER SHORTAGE: LOOMS LARGE IN ILLINOIS
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Goal Four: Teacher Education and
Professional Development)
About 20 percent of Illinois' 124,000 public school teachers are eligible
for retirement within the next three years, while student enrollment is
projected to rise by nearly 5 percent by 2008, according to a new study
released by the Illinois State Board of Education (Banchero and Spencer,
Chicago TRIBUNE, 12/14). The state board anticipates that school
districts will need to fill about 60,000 teaching positions within three
years and to hire about 4,000 administrations and about 8,000 school
librarians, nurses, social workers and other employees.
"I fear that the teacher shortage, the administrator shortage, threatens to
bury several school districts in three to four years," said state schools
Superintendent Max McGee.
Chicago Schools Chief Paul Vallas said his district already is taking
"aggressive steps to stem the teacher shortage tide," writes the paper. For
example, Chicago school leaders have developed recruitment drives at Big Ten
schools, hired retired teachers and filled numerous positions through
alternative certification programs.
State board officials also have developed a plan to retain teachers. One
component is a $5 million teacher-mentoring program to be introduced next
year.
For more information, visit the Chicago Public Schools at www.cps.k12.il.us
and the Illinois State Board of Education at www.isbe.state.il.us
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COMMUNITY AND LOCAL NEWS
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3.) ******** CAREER ACADEMIES: WORKING IN SOUTHFIELD, MICHIGAN
(Goal Three: Student Achievement)
Southfield Public Schools, in Michigan, offer four high school academies,
where students are put through the paces of a rigorous academic program,
while pursuing career-related instruction (Naylor, THE DETROIT NEWS, 12/14).
The academies offer programs in the arts, business, medical and natural
sciences and engineering and manufacturing. Each program is offered within
four separate schools-within-schools.
The career programs offer internships and other real-world experiences.
Students also are required to produce a professional quality project. For
example, engineering students must design and build a robot for competitions
around the country.
For more information, visit the Southfield Public Schools at
www.southfield.k12.mi.us.
4.) ******** HOUSTON STANDARDS: ON THE RISE
(Goal Three: Student Achievement)
Houston school board members unanimously approved making high school
graduation requirements more rigorous by including more math, science and
foreign language (Bryant, HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 12/15). Students now will be
required to take Algebra 1, geometry and Algebra II as part of the Houston
School District's basic graduation program. Algebra II has never been
required.
Students also will be required to take biology and either chemistry or
physics, and take two years of the same foreign language. The new
requirements will be effective next year.
School officials said the changes are necessary because 11th graders must
take a revised version of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS)
test in 2004 that includes algebra, geometry, history and biology. The
presidents of the city's two teacher unions protested the changes, saying
the district is moving "too fast and too extreme." Michael Verdone,
president of the Houston Congress of Teachers, and Gayle Falon, president of
the Houston Federation of teachers, expressed concern over the added
pressures the new requirements will have on "academically challenged"
students.
For more information, visit the Houston public schools at
www.houston.k12.mn.us
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FEDERAL POLICY NEWS
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5.) ******** SCHOOL-TO-WORK: A STATUS REPORT
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Goal Six: Adult Literacy and Lifelong
Learning)
School-to-work programs, while raising career awareness among students, has
"failed to successfully meld academic and workplace experience," according
to several researchers presenting at a school-to-work conference held
earlier this month in Philadelphia (EDUCATION WEEK, 12/13). The conference,
sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Laboratory for Student Success at Temple
University, brought together various researchers and school-to-work
officials who debated the status of school-to-work programs.
EDUCATION WEEK notes that President Clinton in October created the National
Task Force on Preparing Youth for 21st Century College and Careers, chaired
by the U.S. secretaries of education and labor. The purpose of the task
force is to help state and local agencies find resources to build on
existing school-to-work efforts.
For more information, visit the Mid-Atlantic Laboratory for Student Success
at Temple University at www.temple.edu/LSS/
6.) ******** PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A TOOLKIT
(Goal Four: Teacher Education and Professional Development)
Most schools and districts do not know how to implement high-quality
professional development activities and lack sufficient resources to start
and sustain effective, long-term programs, according to a new report issued
by the U.S. Department of Education. Does Professional Development Change
Teaching Practice? also found that when high-quality professional
development is long-term, aligned with district and school goals, focused on
knowledge in a specific subject and actively engages groups of teachers in
learning new skills and knowledge, it can have a significant impact on the
quality of teaching.
In response to the need to better design and run professional development,
every school district will receive a toolkit developed by the department in
partnership with the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and
Mid-Continental Regional Education Laboratory.
The toolkit is available on-line at www.ncrel.org/pd/toolkit/htm. For a
copy of the report, visit
www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/school_improvement.html#subepdp1.
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RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRACTICES
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7.) ******** DIGITAL DIVIDE: TOO MUCH CALCULATOR USE IN INNER CITY SCHOOLS?
(Goal 5: Math and Science)
The WALL STREET JOURNAL reports on the digital divide that exists in
calculator use among students from the inner city and the wealthier suburbs
(Golden, 12/15). According to a Brookings Institution study, calculator use
in the elementary grades is high for poor minority students, with less usage
among their white and wealthy counterparts.
Educators disagree over whether calculator use in the early grades will
hamper a student's ability to understand math. While some argue that
calculators are a motivational tool for some students, others counter that
calculators provide only an "illusion of progress," reports the paper.
For more information, visit the WALL STREET JOURNAL at www.wsj.com or The
Brookings Institution at www.brookings.org.
8.) ******** THE STATE OF BLACK EDUCATION: CLOSE THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP AND
START IN THE EARLY YEARS
(Goal Three: Student Achievement)
Early literacy is the second phase of a national campaign to improve the
state of black education sponsored by the National Urban League and Howard
University. The groups' intention is to stress reading in the early
grades, with the goal of improving student achievement in the upper grades.
"We know that a lousy education leads to economic apartheid," said Hugh
Price, president of the National Urban League. The early literacy
initiative is part of the Campaign for African-American Achievement, which
the National Urban League began in 1997. The campaign, along with the
Congress of National Black Churches and other organizations, also created
the national Achievers Society, an honor group for black high school
students.
For more information, visit the National Urban League at
www.nul.org/caaaaabout.html.
*****************
FEATURE STORY
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9.) ******** BRINGING ALL STUDENTS TO HIGH STANDARDS: A GOALS PANEL REPORT
(All Goals)
The National Education Goals Panel released a report last week that
highlights findings and makes recommendations for school improvement based
on a series of four regional field hearings held throughout the country.
The hearings sought out how successful schools raise student achievement and
help students reach high academic standards.
The hearings were held in Alhambra, California; Atlanta, Georgia;
Burlington, Vermont; and Chicago, Illinois. "I came away from these four
field hearings optimistic about education reform," said Governor Tommy
Thompson (Wisconsin) and chairman of the Goals Panel.
Common themes emerged from the meetings, which the Goals Panel used to form
a series of recommendations:
> Leadership- the Goals Panel found that schools that are able to raise
student achievement levels typically have strong leaders. The Panel
recommends that schools of education and local school districts review how
they identify and train potential school leaders and elevate the attention
and resources devoted to training school principals in instructional
leadership aimed at increasing student achievement.
> Professional Development- high quality professional development is
essential to the success of efforts to raise student achievement. The Panel
offers three recommendations:
> Pre-service education - the accreditation of teacher education programs
be linked both to the ability of their graduates to demonstrate mastery of
the academic standards they are preparing to teach, as well as to their
competence as teachers.
> Initial Teacher Licensure and Certification - initial teacher licensure
and certification should be linked to the demonstration of knowledge of
academic standards and related assessments.
> State Support of Professional Development - states should support and
reward teachers who complete continuing education and professional
development activities linked to standards that increase their teaching
competence and combine the study of teaching, learning and subject matter
knowledge - whether offered at schools or universities, such opportunities
should last long enough and be sufficiently intense to make teachers more
effective helping all students meet high academic standards.
> Involving Higher Education - the Goals Panel finds that higher education
is a missing partner in too many states. The Panel recommends that state
policy should link academic standards to the accreditation of teacher
education programs, the certification of teachers and the provision of
university-based professional development. State policy should encourage
school-college collaboration from the establishments of formal K-16 councils
to informal cooperation. Further, the admissions requirements of public
colleges and universities should be linked to state academic standards.
> Extra Help For Students - the Goals Panel finds that testing student
achievement will not improve learning unless it triggers additional help for
the students and schools that need it. States should, the Goals Panel
recommends, provide policy and resources to provide students with additional
opportunities, such as summer school, after-school programs or other
instructional opportunities with high quality teaching and assistance where
it is needed.
> Data Use - the Goals Panel finds that successful schools have used a
wealth of information from student assessments and community outreach
(beyond student scores and rankings) to guide decisions on policy, practice,
and resource allocation. The recommendation is for schools of education and
in-service professional development to provide training in the fundamentals
of data use so that educators and administrators are prepared to base their
decisions on data and information. Local businesses can be an important
resource in these efforts.
> Staying the Course - according to the Goals Panel findings, statewide
improvement in student achievement is most likely to occur in states with
continuity of education reform policies, like Texas, North Carolina and
Connecticut. The Goals Panel recommends that states attempt to maintain
consistency, predictability and fairness in their education reform policies
by making continual mid-course refinements in efforts to define and
implement academic standards, seizing every opportunity to explain their
purpose and address public concerns.
For more information on the report, Bringing All Students to High Standards:
A Report on the National Education Goals Panel's Field Hearings, visit the
National Education Goals Panel at www.negp.gov.
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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 Executive Director: Ken Nelson
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 Tommy G. Thompson, WI (Chair, 2000);
John Engler, MI; Jim Geringer, WY; James B. Hunt, Jr., NC; Frank Keating,
OK; Frank O'Bannon, IN; Paul E. Patton, KY; Cecil H. Underwood, WV;
Secretary of Education Richard Riley; Michael Cohen, U.S. Assistant
Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education; U.S. Senator Jeff
Bingaman, NM; U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords, VT; U.S. Representative William F.
Goodling, PA; U.S. Representative Matthew G. Martinez, 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.