Authored by Stanford education professor Michael W. Kirst, this 24-page report is the latest in the "Perspectives in Public Policy: Connecting High Education and the Public School" series, published by The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) and The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. Professor Kirst examines the economic and social costs of the high school "senior slump," during which many 12th graders view their final months prior to graduation (and sometimes their entire last year of high school) as an opportunity to goof off. This de-emphasis of academic work in high school has boosted rates of remediation in college; has worsened the drop-out rate among college students ill prepared for college-level work; and contributed to poor academic skills among high school graduates who move directly into the workforce or military. Highlighting various disjunctures between the K-12 and postsecondary education systems, Kirst lays the blame on both for failing to provide incentives for high school seniors to work hard. The report offers practical recommendations aimed at increasing coordination between the two sectors, including strengthening the high school curriculum and linking it to the requirements of the first year of college; recognizing various achievement levels on statewide K-12 assessments that meet college or university standards; improving college admissions and placement priorities; and assigning responsibilities for K-16 issues to a single entity in each state. As of the Gadfly's press time, this report was not yet available as a PDF file on the IEL website, www.iel.org, but it's expected there. Meanwhile, hard copies may be ordered from the Institute for Educational Leadership, 1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 310, Washington, D.C. 20036, or by calling (202) 822-8405, e-mailing [email protected], or faxing (202) 872-4050. The report's cost is $15. You may also order it, and other IEL publications via the Online Ordering Form at www.iel.org/pubsframeset.html.
Co-authors Jeffrey Henig, Thomas Holyoke, Natalie Lacireno-Paquet and Michele Moser of the Center for Washington Area Studies at George Washington University present a comprehensive status report on the D.C. charter scene in this crisp and readable evaluation. Washington has one of the nation's strongest charter school markets, so charter advocates and detractors alike closely monitor its development. This report offers both groups some ammunition, but mostly it makes clear that definitive conclusions about the accomplishments and promise of D.C. charter schools would be premature and presumptuous. Since the charter school law was enacted in the nation's capital in 1995, some 33 of them have opened their doors, now enrolling approximately 13% of all D.C. public school students. According to "Growing Pains," while the schools are undeniably popular (judging from their waiting lists) the rate at which new schools are opening is itself slowing, likely due in part to the mounting difficulty of acquiring viable, affordable facilities. Indeed, according to the report, "facilities obstacles might soon set an effective ceiling on the potential entry of new charter schools." Other tough challenges include staff turnover and perceived lack of academic progress vis-??-vis traditional public schools, while some of the positive charter school developments involve progress in serving special education students and increased access to resources. For the full overview of the D.C. charter scene visit www.gwu.edu/~cwas/publications.htm and click on Occasional Papers no. 20, or contact Christie Fanelli at the Center for Washington Area Studies at (202)-994-5780.
A new analysis of state testing data by the Council of the Great City Schools finds that many of the nation's urban schools are posting significant gains in math and reading and reducing achievement gaps between white and minority students. Twenty-three urban districts are making faster gains in math than the state average in at least half the grades tested, and 17 cities posted reading gains that exceeded the state average. The report highlights three urban districts that have produced impressive gains-Charlotte-Mecklenburg (NC), Houston, and Sacramento-and notes that they are aggressively pursuing sound standards-based reform strategies.
Meanwhile, parents in Scarsdale and other affluent areas are protesting state tests and the whole idea of a "one-size-fits-all" curriculum. Are we then to conclude that standards-and-accountability is a reform strategy that helps poor kids but hurts schools in wealthier communities? Or are affluent parents driven by other motives to reject standards and tests?
A story in the March 2001 issue of The Washington Monthly examined how urban districts in Massachusetts have seized upon that state's demanding achievement tests "their ticket to higher expectations, tougher standards, and better results," while white, affluent communities are up in arms over it. "Yet for all of the noise these activists have made about the MCAS," reporter Georgia Alexakis writes, "when pressed to show some evidence that suburban students are really suffering, they come up empty. Some of the reasons behind suburban resistance to MCAS, it seems, are ideological. It's a bit of postmodernism mixed in with upper-class snobbery--the notion that our kids are special, and therefore don't need the standardized tests given to the masses, combined with the idea that there is no such thing as one right answer or one definition of 'well educated'." Well, there's one hypothesis.
Beating the Odds, by Mike Casserly and Sharon Lewis, Council of the Great City Schools can be ordered from the Council for $20 plus $5 shipping by calling 202-393-2427. The executive summary and a press release, but not the complete report, are available on the website of the Council of the Great City Schools (http://www.cgcs.org).
"Test Prep: What Bush Can Learn from a Tryout of School Reform in Massachusetts," by Georgia Alexakis, The Washington Monthly, March 2001.
The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) sometimes does good work. And then sometimes it makes you want to throw up. This particular task force report makes one good point: states are in the education policy driver's seat. Then it argues that state policy makers aren't very good at driving. (The task force has a stunningly one-sided view of what's good and bad; for example, it trashes Massachusetts's plucky approach to standards-based education reform, apparently basing its judgment the views of a single Bay State dissenter.) Then it empathizes with state education departments, which it finds underfunded, understaffed, etc. Then it issues a huge number of utterly unmemorable recommendations for various state-level constituencies, including such gems as "get advice from more than one source," "develop processes that will ensure strong performance," and "engage all 'stakeholders.'" To think that trees were sacrificed for this banal document! To avoid sacrificing more, perhaps you should view it on-line (if you want to bother at all). Surf to www.iel.org/staterole.pdf, phone Mary Podmostko at (202) 822-8405, x 31, write her at IEL, 1001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 310, Washington DC 20036, or e-mail [email protected].
If you share our concern about whether the forthcoming E.S.E.A. amendments can successfully be implemented, this report tells a cautionary tale. Published by a (left-leaning) private outfit called the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights, it is subtitled "a preliminary report on state compliance with final assessment & accountability requirements under the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994." In other words, it reports on implementation of the previous round of E.S.E.A. amendments, enacted just before the 1994 election. And it's hardly encouraging. At the end of the 2000-01 school year, i.e. six and a half years after President Clinton signed this legislation, a period during which all states were required to install academic standards, aligned assessments and accountability systems based on those assessments, here is what the Citizens' Commission found: Just 11 states have in place assessment systems that meet all Title I requirements. Twenty states were granted "partial approval" by the federal Education Department and told to correct deficiencies in their systems. Three states had plans so "out of line with Title I requirements that they will need to enter into compliance agreements" with Uncle Sam. And eighteen more states had assessment systems that the Education Department hasn't yet managed to finish reviewing. That's the same Department, of course, that will be charged with implementation of the 2001 amendments. This report is full of other alarming details that you may want to see for yourself. You can contact the Citizens' Commission at 2000 M Street NW, Suite 400, Washington DC 20036. The phone is (202) 659-5565; the fax is (202) 223-5302. E-mail [email protected] or surf to http://www.cccr.org. While you're at it, you can also obtain the Commission's analysis of the Bush education plan. (A mixed review, but that plan has been so altered by Congress that this one may not be worth your time.)
Richard J. Coley of the Educational Testing Service, the author of this 51-page report, concludes that, with a few exceptions, gender differences on most academic outcomes do not vary much across racial or ethnic groups. This includes gender gaps in scores on a wide range of tests (NAEP tests, undergraduate and graduate admissions tests, AP exams) as well as high school course-taking patterns, AP exam participation, educational attainment, and earning and employment. For some indicators, however, there are no gender differences at all. Since gender differences do not vary much by race or ethnicity, Coley concludes that policies to remedy educational inequalities should treat gender, and not just race and ethnicity, as a crucial factor, but he stops short of making specific recommendations for closing the gaps that concern him. Copies can be ordered for $10.50 each from Policy Information Center, Mail Stop 04-R, Educational Testing Service, Rosedale Road, Princeton, NJ 08541-0001; Tel: (609) 734-5694; Fax: (609) 734-1755. Copies can also be downloaded as a PDF file from www.ets.org/research.
This flagship monthly publication of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) is intermittently interesting, though its basic orientation is progressivist and constructivist. The May 2001 issue is better than most, particularly for those interested in teachers. In fact, the focus of the entire issue is "Who is teaching our children?" It includes 17 articles pertinent to that subject, some swell, some appalling-a typical ASCD mixed bag. They include an upsetting piece on out-of-field teaching by Richard Ingersoll, a rant about alternative certification by Barnett Barry of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and a swell piece on teacher attitudes by Public Agenda's Deborah Wadsworth. You'll also find several pages by Kathy Madigan (of the National Council on Teacher Quality) and yours truly on "removing the barriers for teacher candidates," which outlines the deregulatory strategy that we believe has greatest promise for improving teacher quality in the U.S. while also easing the quantity problem. You can find the whole table of contents on line at http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/0105/frame0105el.html, though to access many of the articles you will probably need to become an ASCD member. The ASCD can be found at 1703 N. Beauregard Street, Alexandria VA 22311, phoned at 703-58-9600, e-mailed at [email protected], or tracked through the website given above.
Our own Diane Ravitch has edited the third in her series of these thick but valuable volumes, this one based on a May 2000 Brookings conference devoted to academic standards in the U.S. Weighing in at 414 pages, this is indispensable for any serious follower of (or participant in) standards-based education reform. It consists of 7 main papers (one by yours truly and Fordham research director Marci Kanstoroom on "State Academic Standards") with commentaries on each. Other authors and topics include John Bishop and associates on end-of-course and minimum competency exams; Julian Betts and Bob Costrell on the interplay of incentives and equity in a standards regime; David Grissmer and Ann Flanagan on indirect evidence of state reform efforts; and Mark Reckase on the controversies triggered by the standards set by the National Assessment Governing Board. For information or copies, contact Brookings Institution Press, 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington DC 20036; phone (202) 797-6258 or (800) 275-1447; e-mail [email protected]; or surf to www.brookings.edu.
On May 23, 2001, the New York Times ran three major stories demonstrating cognitive dissonance about educational approaches. On the front page, we learned about Ms. Moffett, a first-year teacher assigned to a low-performing school who is extremely frustrated because she is required to follow lesson plans instead of doing what she wants, which is to demonstrate her creativity. Her mentor teacher advises her to adhere to the instructions that come with the "Success for All" reading program, but Ms. Moffett clearly feels cheated, and the story line implies that it's unjust to bar this novice teacher from "doing her own thing" with students.
The nearby column by Richard Rothstein, the newspaper's regular commentator on education, warns that homework increases the gap between students from middle-class and low-income homes, because advantaged parents can help their children. Rothstein warns that it is "unconscionable for educators to exacerbate inequality by assigning homework" unless government first supplies afterschool study centers.
To complicate matters, a news story on the same day contradicts both Ms. Moffett's yearning to be creative and Mr. Rothstein's dire warnings about the deleterious impact of homework done at home. Kate Zernike writes about the stunning success of public schools in Mount Vernon, New York, where fourth-grade reading scores soared between 1999 and 2001. Mount Vernon, she points out, is "a poor cousin" in a county that includes elite schools like those of Scarsdale (where many students, abetted by their parents, recently boycotted the state tests). Sixty percent of Mount Vernon's students are poor and few thought that the town's schools would ever improve, yet the district boasted three of the state's most improved schools in the state and some of its elementary schools more than doubled the proportion of fourth-graders passing the state test. The pass rate for the district as a whole jumped from 35% in 1999 to 77% in 2001.
What happened? According to Zernike, "the schools gave teachers clearer goals and firmer instruction on how to reach them." The district budgeted more professional development time and planned "districtwide lessons, right down to the work students in each grade would take home that weekend." It raised expectations and developed a standard curriculum that spelled out clearly what should be taught in each grade. Students are expected to read and write at home every night, and their parent must sign a form attesting that they have done so.
The lesson from Mount Vernon, which saw huge improvements among disadvantaged students: Improved instruction; higher expectations; consistency of instruction; well-planned lessons delivered by well-prepared teachers; consistent homework assignments; a focus on reading and writing; clarity about what is to be taught and learned.
Perhaps the New York City could send its new teachers to Mount Vernon to learn that professionalism doesn't mean giving free rein to one's idiosyncratic impulses; it means setting goals and identifying which practices are most effective, which are grounded in research, and how to do them successfully. -Diane Ravitch
"In 2 Years, Mt. Vernon Test Scores Turn Around," by Kate Zernike, New York Times, May 23, 2001
"Lessons: How to Ease the Burden of Homework for Families," by Richard Rothstein, New York Times, May 23, 2001
"Teaching by the Book, No Asides Allowed," by Abby Goodnough, New York Times, May 23, 2001
Crack education journalist Jay Matthews reacted to anti-testing articles in a thoughtful column appearing only in the electronic version of the Washington Post. He wonders why parents of schoolchildren in Scarsdale didn't ask their principals and teachers why they let state-mandated tests scare them into test prep activities that reduce time for inspired teaching when the test would surely have been a cinch for their kids. He observes that ending the state testing system could mean returning "to the days of baby-sitter schools, when low-income kids were kept as comfortable as possible until being handed a meaningless high school diploma and dumped on the job market."
"Trying to Clear Up the Confusion," by Jay Mathews, Washington Post online