Institute for Educational Leadership

In the early 1930's, philanthropist Charles Mott and educator Frank Manley envisioned "a lighted schoolhouse" where parents, students, schools and community organizations could work collaboratively. Three years ago, the U.S. Department of Education began funding 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) in hopes of providing safe, cost-effective havens for children, youth and their families after school and on weekends. These centers vary, but typically they host a range of activities including tutoring, drug intervention programs, field trips, and literacy and computer classes for adults. The Institute for Educational Leadership examined the effectiveness, obstacles and next steps for 21st CCLCs and found that the hardest part is establishing true collaborative governance among communities, learning centers, and schools. Because these federal grants are distributed solely to public schools, school system administrators often have the final say in decisions. The report recommends continued funding for the learning centers with priority given to those that create sustained partnerships between communities and schools. You can order a copy of this report by writing, faxing or emailing: The Institute for Educational Leadership, 1001 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 310, Washington, DC 20036, phone: (202) 822-8405, fax: (202) 872-4050, [email protected]. Copies cost $5.00.

James Madison Institute

The indefatigable Myron Lieberman is lead author of this 58-page report from the James Madison Institute. It turns out that Florida "is the only state in which collective bargaining has been recognized as a constitutional, not just a statutory, right of public employees." The study goes on to identify a number of problems and abuses in current teacher collective bargaining in the Sunshine State, such as PAC contributions via payroll deductions, school system subsidies of union operations, teachers' lack of choice among unions to represent them, excessive time devoted to collective bargaining, contracts that ignore problems of teacher scarcity, the exclusion of parents, and weak legislative oversight of all this. Numerous examples are supplied. If you'd like a copy, contact the James Madison Institute at 2017 Delta Blvd., Suite 102, P.O. Box 37460, Tallahassee, FL 32315. Phone (850) 386-3131, fax (850) 386-1807, e-mail [email protected], or surf to www.jamesmadison.org.

National Center for Education Statistics

The National Center for Education Statistics has helped to fill a sizable information void with this twenty-page report on home schooling. Based on a household survey conducted in 1999, it supplies better data than we've ever had on how many homeschoolers there are and who they are. As of spring 1999, we learn, some 850,000 youngsters-about 1.7 percent of all U.S. schoolchildren-were being home schooled. Three quarters were white. Their family incomes were not appreciably different from the general population but parental education was higher. (Almost half the homeschoolers had a parent who was at least a college graduate, compared with about one third of non-homeschoolers.) They were somewhat more apt to have two parents at home-but less likely to have both parents working. (That probably explains why their family incomes are no higher even though the parents' education level is.) Homeschooling families are also larger: 62 percent have at least three children compared with 44 percent of non-homeschoolers. A particularly interesting finding is that almost one fifth of homeschooled children also attend a regular public or private school on a part-time basis. In other words, their schooling is a blend. The study also seeks to shed light on why parents decide to homeschool their children. The two leading reasons, by far, are the parents' belief that they can give their child a better a education, and religious reasons. You may want a copy for yourself. If so, the publication number is NCES 2001-033. The NCES staff contact is Stephen Broughman at (202) 502-7315 and [email protected]. The toll-free ordering number is (877) 4ED-PUBS. The NCES website is http://nces.ed.gov and the report itself can be found at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001033.

National Center for Education Statistics and the National Assessment Governing Board

As everyone surely knows, the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Assessment Governing Board have just released the NAEP math results for spring 2000. (By NAEP standards, it's regarded as speedy to get results out just 15 months after the testing is concluded!) There is a huge trove of data here and, like the blind men's elephant, you can perceive it in many ways. If you'd like to show good news, note that 4th and 8th grade scores are rising and that several states are narrowing the black-white gap. If you'd like to show bad news, point out that 12th grade scores are down and that, for the nation as a whole, the majority-minority gaps are wider, even as black and Hispanic youngsters make gains. Many states can find something to celebrate-40 of them took part this time-but few can find unadulterated good news in these data and some (such as California) have to spin hard to find any. Private schools continue to outscore public but non-Catholic private schools showed a downturn in grades 4 and 12, while improving in 8th grade. (If you dig into the NAEP website-see below-you will also find data on several subsets of private schools that have never been separately reported before. These didn't make it into the hard copy report.) In sum, you will surely want to see for yourself. The main report, numbered NCES 2001-517, can be ordered from Education Publications Center, U.S. Department of Education, P.O. Box 1398, Jessup, MD 20794. You can phone (877) 433-7827 or order it through the Internet at www.ed.gov/pubs/edpubs/html. You can find the report itself on the web at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/mathematics/results. A short "highlights" report, available from the same places, is publication number NCES 2001-518. And you can obtain the comments of members of the National Assessment Governing Board, as well as important background information (such as the "framework" around which this assessment was constructed), by going to www.nagb.org. Finally, an interactive data analysis tool is available online at http://www.nces.ed.gov/statchat

National Center on Educational Outcomes

Written by Sandra Thompson and Director Martha L. Thurlow of the National Center on Educational Outcomes, which says it's dedicated to developing policies that include disabled students in accountability systems, this report provides a snapshot of where the 50 states stand with respect to special education and the standards movement. Based on an annual survey of state directors of special ed, it includes sections on: participation and performance; accommodations; alternate assessments; reporting; and emerging issues. Within the context of the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Act, the report concludes that "the benefits of inclusive assessment and accountability systems are beginning to outweigh the challenges." A few results are particularly salient: 1) despite standards foes' glum predictions, more states listed positive consequences from inclusive accountability systems than negative; 2) disabled children's test participation rates are up in more than half of the states; and 3) two-thirds of the states reported stable or increased performance on state tests by disabled students. NCEO's research should be fodder for the upcoming congressional debate over IDEA reauthorization, and will also be of interest to anyone roaming the special ed maze. Copies of the report, which includes detailed appendices of state data, may be ordered for $15.00 from NCEO's Publications Office, 350 Elliot Hall, 75 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455; phone 612-624-8561; fax 612-624-0879. Free copies are available at http://education.umn.edu/NCEO/OnlinePubs/2001StateReport.html.