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AUTISM FIRST STEPS
AUTISM DAILY NEWSLETTER
Thursday December 27, 2001
INDEX:
* Education reform bill
for the 21st century
* Education put to the test
* Advocates don't like CA exit exam waiver
* Reform bill puts educators on the line
* Autism Society of America/Oakland County Chapter is hosting:
Carol Gray on "Gray's Guide to Bullying Solutions"
* No Child Left Behind Act: Iowa Action
******************************
Education reform bill for the 21st century
The landmark education bill awaiting President Bush's signature bolsters reform
efforts nationwide and updates the federal role in public education. These are
no small feats. Washington, like many other states, had gotten pretty far down
the road of education reform. The best thing Congress could have done was
provide fuel for a train already out of the station. From a substantial
increase in federal aid to greater flexibility in how local districts spend the
money, the updated Elementary and Secondary Education Act brings the fuel. For
the first time in decades, federal education policy is aligned with local
reform efforts. It is the biggest change in education policy since the 1960s and
places the federal government firmly in the 21st century of education reform.
This was an important component if schools are to be successful in their reform
efforts. In 1976, only 15 states had standards-based school systems. Now, most
states are standards-based and they need a national education policy in tune
with them. The final package represents a 20-percent increase in federal
dollars for education, much of it going to disadvantaged students. This alone
is a significant philosophical victory. Policymakers have finally acknowledged
increased spending can help improve academic achievement. Giving local
districts flexibility in how they spend federal aid offers much-needed
regulatory relief. Fears that schools might use the flexibility to fund priorities
at the expense of poor and minority students is countered by education systems
like Washington state's, where agreed-upon standards guide spending. The
mandate for statewide testing in reading and mathematics each year in grades
three to eight can be a plus if our state's educators approach it the correct
way. The wrong way to comply with the federal mandate would be simply
increasing use of simple and inexpensive national tests like the Iowa Tests of
Basic Skills (ITBS). This test is not standards-based and does little more than
compare students with one another. Smaller, faster versions of the Washington
Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) would give schools the diagnostic tool
they need to assess and help students. Superintendent of Public Instruction
Terry Bergeson has already appealed to U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige to
let this state use the WASL. On the surface, the legislation's disappointment
is its lack of emphasis on special education. But this can be turned around.
Special education is subject to a separate law — the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act. The same principles that Congress and the Bush
administration used in the ESEA — targeting additional resources toward schools
with additional challenges, such as poor students — should be used to fully
fund IDEA. Sending more resources toward schools with greater challenges,
whether those challenges are teaching poor children or those enrolled in
special education, is a necessary step in improving public education. Copyright © 2001 The
Seattle Times Company
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/134382155_elemed24.html
******************************
Education put to the test
by Marjorie Coeyman, The Christian
Science Monitor, 12-26-01
Last year, Kristin Kearns Jordan took advantage of a
recently minted law that allowed her to create a charter school in one of New
York City's poorest neighborhoods. As soon as the public middle school opened,
the dynamic Ivy Leaguer and her staff offered students something many had never
experienced before: smaller classes and intensive instruction in reading and
math. This year, Ms. Jordan's young scholars at Bronx Preparatory Charter
School - selected by lottery and largely from minority, low-income families -
lit into their annual standardized tests and punched out average increases of
39 points in math and 10 points in reading.Further south, in Philadelphia,
English teacher Lynn Dixon surveys the classrooms she has worked in for 20
years and sees a less promising picture. Her tenure in the deeply troubled
urban system has not left her optimistic. "I've just seen the same thing
happen over and again," she says of reform efforts, including the city's
recent move toward smaller schools and longer academic periods. "They come
up with one thing that needs to be the answer, but it never is."Ten years
into one of the most sustained drives to reform education in American history,
the outlook for the nation's schools is decidedly mixed.It's not for lack of
effort: In urban and suburban schools alike, attention has been focused on
reducing class sizes. New and clearer standards have been developed for what
kids at each grade level should be able to learn and do. Students take many
more state-mandated tests; soon, in more than 20 states, they won't be able to
graduate without passing them. There is also more interest in requiring
prospective teachers to prove subject mastery. More children are able to choose
the public school they attend, and in a handful of cities they can even use
public or private vouchers to help pay for private school.The ultimate goal, of
course, is to ensure that students who graduate from high schools in the United
States will have the skills to match the degree. But has the sometimes-frenzied
focus on schools actually made them any better?"The trend is very much in
the right direction," says Paul Reville, executive director of the Pew
Forum at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Mass. "We've
recognized we have a problem, we've clarified methods, we've put in place
systems, and now we're identifying challenges in improving practice. It's very
encouraging."Daunting tasksDespite a hopeful spirit among some reformers,
the trajectory of US education remains uncertain. Congress has just hammered
out an agreement on reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act,
which will give the federal government unprecedented influence in the nation's
classrooms. It provides states with more funding for education and mandates
annual reading and math tests in Grades 3 to 8.Yet, the increased focus on
accountability and measurable outcomes offers no guaranteed path to better
academic performance, and the challenges are daunting.Many educators still work
in underfunded districts where there is not a single science lab and where
books have not been added to the school libraries since the Johnson
administration. The achievement gap between races is persistent, despite
repeated efforts to wipe it out. And American students who compete well
internationally at the elementary level fall further behind their international
counterparts as they move into higher grades.In addition, because of a
recession made worse by the terrorist attacks, a $12 billion shortfall in state
education spending is projected for this school year. New York City has cut
remedial Saturday classes, while California has put a hold on extra dollars
once promised to struggling schools."Since Sept. 11, the resource issue
has become a difficult one," says Gary Natriello, professor of sociology
and education at Columbia University in New York. "It will be more
difficult to make progress now."It has been just over a decade since a
group of governors moved to put education at the top of the national agenda. At
a 1989 summit, they outlined a system that would leave no child behind - a
relatively new idea in the US, where 50 years ago only about half the
population graduated from high school. The loss of manufacturing jobs and the
move into an information- and technology-based economy put an urgent spin on
the issue."We no longer have an economy where we can afford to have only a
small set of educated people," warns Dr. Natriello.But some charge that
progress toward the goal of widespread success for all students has been
minimal - and too slow. A decade of innovation, they insist, has produced only
pockets of success, as at Bronx Prep, that are virtually impossible to
replicate.Recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests
present a murky picture at best when it comes to searching out gains. Although
one of the goals of the 1989 summit was to make US students the world's top
performers on math and science tests within a decade, on the 2000 NAEP science
test, US fourth- and eighth-graders made no progress with respect to weak 1996
results. High school seniors' scores actually slipped a bit during the
four-year period, with only 18 percent achieving "proficiency" in
science, causing Education Secretary Rod Paige to glumly proclaim that "our
hopes for a strong 21st-century workforce are dimming."On NAEP math tests,
fourth- and eighth-graders did show some progress, but 12th-graders' scores
declined. And even though fourth-graders posted improved results on 2000 NAEP
reading tests, fewer than one-third of them were reading at grade level.Higher
standards, or conformity?The mere fact, however, that so much of the discussion
about education reform remains tied to such test results is discouraging to
some educators. They worry that the current drive toward quantifiable results
is leaching life and creativity from the nation's classrooms - further
alienating many kids already turned off by school.Reformers counter with the
argument that for decades, devotion to local control has prevented the development
of anything like a national curriculum. The result has been a sort of crazy
quilt of classroom goals and standards that can vary widely even within the
same town.Many argue that such lack of standardization had become a major
obstacle."There is increasing agreement that to have something
dramatically different happening from one fourth-grade classroom to the next is
a problem," says Mary Fulton, policy analyst for the Denver-based
Education Commission of the States. "That's the way it always was in this
country, and really it was not OK.Since the 1989 summit, 49 states (Iowa is the
lone holdout) have adopted statewide standards, spelling out what children in
each grade must be able to know and do. For many reformers, that kind of
clarity is a necessary starting point for improvement. Now, with national
testing requirements looming, curricula in classrooms across the country are
likely to become even more unified. But whether that kind of one-size-fits-all
approach will promote or harm learning remains the subject of debate.Noreen
Connell, executive director of the New York-based school-watchdog group
Educational Priorities Panel, says that much of what she's been witnessing in
the city's public schools since 1989 troubles her. "You walk down the
halls of these low-performing schools and you hear all the teachers giving the
exact same lesson," she says. "A decade ago I could not have
predicted that there would be so much micromanagement of the schools, so many
high-stakes tests, so much anxiety about imposing standards, and so much
imposition of cookie-cutter curricula."But Ms. Connell has also been
noting something encouraging: "I used to go into elementary schools in the
early 1990s and see kids filling out blanks in workbooks. They had never
actually written a sentence. Today, when I go to elementary schools I see them
writing essays, reading books. The fourth-grade [state] test really stressed
writing, and that forced the issue."As much as she's always disliked the
idea of teachers "teaching to the test," lately, Connell says, she's
come to feel that "it's neither good nor bad, it's just
inevitable."What worries many, though, is the thrust toward conformity.
While it may boost the bottom line, it could drag down high performers. Horror stories
are rife of certain classes and specially crafted projects created by gifted
teachers being dropped from schedules. Science projects that teach kids to
track weather, history lessons shaped around an in-depth look at the
Constitution - these kinds of explorations are often under attack because they
subtract time from preparing students for standardized tests."There's got
to be art, there's got to be gym," Connell says. "To make school a
workhorse for math and language arts is not fair."What seems a step
forward for a school that has failed to provide the basics could be a step back
for a more successful school that's moving beyond basic competency.One of the
greatest misunderstandings in the education debate, says Jack Jennings,
executive director of the Center on Education Policy in Washington, is the
failure to separate the challenges faced by poorer urban schools from those
faced by wealthier suburban schools."People mix up the two problems and
slip back and forth when they talk about them," he says. Inequities in financing
have fostered a complex set of problems in city schools. Parents from more
affluent areas, meanwhile, worry that their children's needs are overlooked in
the push to set minimum standards for all and enforce them through testing.Even
top-rated public schools, Mr. Jennings adds, are not as successful as they
should be. His view seems substantiated by a recent international assessment
that shows US high- schoolers straggling behind their Japanese, Korean,
British, Canadian, and Australian peers in reading, math, and science.This kind
of rankings have given ammunition to conservatives who argue that introducing
marketplace-style competition into the world of education will force schools to
either improve or lose their students.School choice, better teachersThe
emphasis on school choice has done much to increase national interest in both
independently run public charter schools and school vouchers, but so far there
is little evidence to prove that either of these innovations can spark
widespread improvement.In Pennsylvania, for instance, only two out of the 77
charter schools created there since 1997 either meet or exceed the state
average on standardized tests.However, charter-school proponents argue, these
new, less bureaucratic public schools have yielded intangible benefits,
including the involvement of talented individuals - like Jordan at Bronx Prep -
who once wouldn't have been drawn to public education as a career.In fact, the
next important step, say many experts, is to focus on the recruitment, training,
and nurturing of talented teachers and administrators."I've seen a big
change for the better in New York City schools," says Roseanne Scollieri,
assistant principal of PS 62 in Queens and a 30-year veteran of the school
system. "The administration is much more supportive, more responsive to
our needs." The curriculum, too, she believes, has been honed to foster
learning.Others, like Ms. Dixon in Philadelphia, see little that encourages
them. She's frustrated by the degree to which policymakers continue to turn to
academic theorists for the answers, rather than to experienced classroom
teachers.Still, says Professor Reville of Harvard, improvement is occurring,
albeit slowly."There's a laser-like focus on instruction and the quality
of teaching and learning," he says. Reformers are looking at the work that
classroom teachers do, and trying to learn from them about their best
practices.Reville cautions that this phase of reform will require patience.
"Many charlatans will continue to come and go, offering quicker-fix
solutions, yet this kind of reform we're pursuing is far and away the best
hope," he says.Although many people are concerned that the ripple effects
from Sept. 11 may divert attention and resources away from education reform,
Reville predicts the opposite. Never before, he says, have the schools been
more vital to national interests. His hope is that Americans will think harder
about the role schools can play in creating a better society.Natriello agrees.
"The education system is about a lot more than math and science and
academic skills," he says. "It's about teaching people to be
Americans and to live in a democratic society. There's a real opportunity right
now for us to begin making that connection."Jennings believes that
patience will prevail. Americans "have more agreement on the importance of
this than we do on almost any other issue," he says. "It's like the
war in Afghanistan. You don't eliminate terrorism in one fell swoop, and
neither do you reform the education of 45 million kids overnight."
******************************
Advocates don't like CA exit exam waiver
by
Nanette Asimov, The San Francisco Chronicle, December 10, 2001
California's
State Board of Education's new plan for letting students with disabilities take
the required high school exit exam is "cruel and Kafkaesque," a civil
rights lawyer who is suing the board said Friday. The plan approved by
the board Wednesday in Sacramento lets school districts apply for a state
waiver so that students with disabilities can take the high-stakes test with
help -- such as a calculator or a reading aid -- and graduate if they score
well enough. But the state's position is that the students won't have actually
passed the test. Such accommodations are explicitly prohibited in the state's
regulations because they would "fundamentally alter" what the test is
designed to measure: the ability to read and to calculate, the rules say.
Braille or large-print versions of the exam are permitted. But California has
tens of thousands of students with disabilities who need to use certain other
aids so that they can perform high school level work. A blanket prohibition on
using those aids on the exit exam would make it impossible for most to pass and
graduate. Board members say their waiver plan is fair. "We're saying,
'Hey, if it is clear you can't pass the test for a physical reason, we'll give
you the modifications and we will give you a high school diploma,'" said
John Mockler, the board's executive director. What students don't get, however,
is a true passing score. The new plan says: "If this waiver is granted by
the state Board of Education, these students may graduate from high school and
be given a diploma, even though by definition they have not 'successfully
passed the exit examination.'" "They're very clever
politically," said attorney Sid Wolinsky of Disability Rights Advocates in
Oakland, Calif., the organization that is suing the state to outlaw the exit
exam altogether. "They've taken a policy that's the most hostile to
students in the country and are hawking it as being affirmative to children
with disabilities." Wolinsky said the state's new plan is
particularly unfair because there is no requirement that the board grant the
waiver, and students with disabilities cannot require their school district to
request one. "It's a process only a bureaucrat could love," he said.
"The student has no rights or entitlement at all. All the discretion is on
the district. The state board will sit in judgment on thousands of these
requests and may or may not grant the waiver. The student will have no way of
knowing until some undetermined time later." Wolinsky said his law
firm will seek a preliminary injunction to stop the test from being given in
March. He said that the state also let pass a federal deadline last July 1 by
which all states were supposed to have created an "alternative
assessment" for students with disabilities. Most states have met the
deadline, he said. In Oregon, for example, a panel of educators evaluates high
school work as a whole from students with disabilities to determine whether
they are qualified to graduate, he said. California's high school exit exam
will be required for graduation beginning with the class of 2004. Students may
try to pass the exam as early as the 10th grade.
******************************
Reform bill puts educators on the line
It balances promise of increased funding with demand for
improvement
by Zachary Coile, December 23, 2001, San Francisco Chronicle
For more stories like this, check out Jimmy Kilpatrick's EducationNews.org. Original URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/12/23/MN167823.DTLWashington -- Congress has approved the
most sweeping education reform legislation since 1965, part of President Bush's
effort to "leave no child behind." But once Bush signs the bill early
next year, he will need people like Stanyan Vukovich to make sure it works. Vukovich, the principal at Oakland's Lakeview Elementary School,
is one of thousands of school administrators nationwide who must prepare for a
new accountability system that offers more federal money, but also threatens
penalties if their schools don't improve. The education bill
approved by Congress last week authorizes $26.5 billion for K-12 schools next
year. It increases spending on Title I, the government's main program to aid
poor children, pays for an initiative proposed by Bush to make sure students
can read by the third grade, and provides more for bilingual education. But Congress also requires that states must test all students in
grades three through eight in math and reading. The bill allows parents of
children in failing schools to move to other public schools or receive money
for private tutoring and requires teachers and principals to be replaced in
schools with repeated failing test scores. Vukovich, whose 360
students are mostly minority and from working-class homes, has no problem with
using annual tests to measure the progress of his kids or his school. But he
fears schools that already are struggling are the ones most likely to be
penalized. "I foresee many of these schools
being inner-city schools, where they have a high poverty rate, where they have
high turnover in teachers, where they have parents who may not be that
interested in education," Vukovich said.
TITLE I INCREASE
Backers of the bill say rural and inner-city schools with
large numbers of low-income students should benefit the most under the new
reforms because Title I money will increase 20 percent next year. And schools
that fail to improve for two years will actually get more money, not less, as
the federal government gives them every chance to succeed. But along with the carrot of more federal dollars comes the stick:
If a school fails to get adequate test scores its students could transfer to
another public school. After three years, a failing school would have to give
up a portion of its federal Title I money to provide outside tutoring for
disadvantaged students. After four years without improvement, a
school would have to take "corrective action" by creating a new
curriculum, retraining teachers, replacing some staff or hiring an outside
expert. If the school is still failing after six years, its administrators and
teachers would be replaced. Though the measures may sound punitive,
education policy analyst Amy Wilkins said the accountability provisions are
aimed not at students but at the adults who run the schools. "There are not stakes for kids in any of this," said
Wilkins of the Education Trust in Washington, D.C., that advocates for urban
and minority students. "The stakes are for adults and for the institutions
that are supposed to be educating these kids. We think that's right. In most
every other field we can think of, you eventually have to be held accountable." TESTING GROUNDCalifornia will be a key
testing ground for the federal government's reform plans because of the state's
diverse population, and because it has already begun putting its own
accountability system in place. Currently,
California students in grades two through 11 are tested every year in math and
reading. Schools that fail to improve scores over two years are designated as
"underperforming" and can receive more money from the state. But they
must agree they can be taken over by state officials if test scores do not
improve. One of the key elements of the federal
bill is a requirement that schools report test scores by ethnicity and by
income group. Backers of the legislation say the reporting requirement will
force schools as well as state and federal lawmakers to address the achievement
gap between ethnic groups and between rich and poor. But education experts say California's example of publicly
released scores by ethnic groups and income levels shows that simply reporting
test scores is not enough to pressure public officials to provide the money
needed to address inequalities. "Gov. (Gray)
Davis' experiment with more frequent and higher-stakes testing has certainly
helped to keep education at the top of the policy agenda in California,"
said Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at the University
of California at Berkeley. "On the other hand, it really hasn't sparked
the political will to address the deeper structural problems."
UNQUALIFIED TEACHERS
Fuller said those problems include the rising number of
unqualified teachers, dilapidated facilities and overcrowding at many urban
schools and low salaries that lead many teachers in inner-city schools to leave
for suburban districts. To address the issue of unqualified
teachers, the federal education bill requires states to certify that all teachers
are trained in their subject areas within four years -- or face loss of federal
money. But the requirement could pose a challenge for California, which has
42,000 teachers on emergency permits. Kerry Mazzoni,
education secretary to Davis, said many of those teachers are enrolled in
programs to get credentialed. But with the state needing 300, 000 new teachers
in the next 10 years, she admits it will be a struggle to assure that all
teachers are qualified in their subject. "It's a daunting challenge,"
she said. California officials say the state
could benefit from some little-noticed language in the bill that will change
the way the federal government doles out school dollars. Bilingual education money has been distributed through competitive
grants, but now will be handed out based on how many kids are enrolled in
bilingual programs. With its large populations of immigrant and limited English
proficiency students, California should take home a bigger share.
ANNUAL COUNT
The government also will change how it distributes Title I
money by counting the number of poor children every year rather than every two
years -- an advantage for a state like California with a high poverty rate and
fast- growing student population. The new bill wipes
out current law that guaranteed small states a certain level of Title I funds
even if the number of poor kids declined in the state. Sen. Dianne Feinstein,
D-Calif., said the existing law may have cost California $120 million in the
last three years. Feinstein estimates that California
will receive a 26 percent boost in Title I funds next year, or $300 million
more than it got last year. She said the bill "ensures that California
will receive the funds it deserves according to the number of poor children in
the state." But local school officials say the
funding increases are still too small. Vukovich noted that Lakeview received
about $100,000 in Title I grants last year. Even if he gets a 26 percent
increase, he said, he couldn't afford to hire the extra teacher he wants to
reduce class sizes in fourth and fifth grades. Vukovich
said, "$26,000 will not buy a teacher. If the salary is $32,000 or
$36,000, and you add another 40 percent for benefits, you're really talking
about $60,000 for a teacher. That's quite a bit. We need to have those
resources available."
Highlights
Key elements of an education bill Congress approved last week: -- Authorizes $26.5 billion for elementary, middle and high
schools next year. -- Increases spending on Title I, a key
program for poor children, by 20 percent. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.,
estimates this state will receive an additional $300 million in Title I funds
next year. -- Requires states to test all third-
through eighth-graders in math and reading. (In California, yearly testing already
is required for second- through 11th-graders.) E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com
******************************
Autism Society of America/Oakland County Chapter is hosting:
Carol Gray on "Gray's Guide to Bullying Solutions"
Sunday January 13th from 1:00 to 4:00
Orchard Lake Middle School
6000 Orchard Lake Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
This seminar is FREE due to funding from the chapter annual golf outing.
Please phone 248-706-0460 to reserve a spot and ensure enough handouts are
prepared.
******************************
No Child Left Behind Act: Iowa Action
Vote PASSED 381-41, 12 Not Voting
Info:
http://capwiz.com/cek/issues/votes?votenum=497&chamber=H&congress=1071
The House approved the $26.5 billion conference report funding elementary and
secondary education.
Rep. Leach (R) voted YEA
Send E-mail: http://capwiz.com/cek/bio/?id=250
Rep. Nussle (R) voted YEA
Send E-mail: http://capwiz.com/cek/bio/?id=251
Rep. Boswell (D) voted YEA
Send E-mail: http://capwiz.com/cek/bio/?id=252
Rep. Ganske (R) voted YEA
Send E-mail: http://capwiz.com/cek/bio/?id=253
Rep. Latham (R) voted YEA
Send E-mail: http://capwiz.com/cek/bio/?id=254
******************************
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