NCTAF News Digest:

A Weekly Digest of News Articles & Reports

Thursday March 27, 2008

In this Issue:

--NCLB Watch

--Education Beats Incarceration, Special Commentary from NCTAF President Tom Carroll

--Study Finds Record Education Earmarks

--Study: American Public Concerned Over State of Science Education
--Senate Backs Bill to Keep Students in School Until 17

--Size Alone Makes Small Classes Better for Children

--Teacher Pay Hike Plan Gains Attention

--Opinion: Congress Should Listen to Bill Gates - Education is the Answer

Greetings,

This is the NCTAF News Digest, a timely news service provided to our partner states, commissioners, and the education policy community. This Digest is for the personal educational use of the recipient. At publication time, all links were active. Some publications may require free registration. You may wish to bookmark links for future reference.

State's Data Obscure How Few Finish High School

-The New York Times; March 20, 2008

JACKSON, Miss. — When it comes to high school graduation rates, Mississippi keeps two sets of books. One team of statisticians working at the state education headquarters here recently calculated the official graduation rate at a respectable 87 percent, which Mississippi reported to Washington. But in another office piled with computer printouts, a second team of number crunchers came up with a different rate: a more sobering 63 percent.The state schools superintendent, Hank Bounds, says the lower rate is more accurate and uses it in a campaign to combat a dropout crisis. “We were losing about 13,000 dropouts a year, but publishing reports that said we had graduation rate percentages in the mid-80s,” Mr. Bounds said. “Mathematically, that just doesn’t work out.”Like Mississippi, many states use an inflated graduation rate for federal reporting requirements under the No Child Left Behind law and a different one at home. As a result, researchers say, federal figures obscure a dropout epidemic so severe that only about 70 percent of the one million American students who start ninth grade each year graduate four years later.

California, for example, sends to Washington an official graduation rate of 83 percent but reports an estimated 67 percent on a state Web site. Delaware reported 84 percent to the federal government but publicized four lower rates at home. The multiple rates have many causes. Some states have long obscured their real numbers to avoid embarrassment. Others have only recently developed data-tracking systems that allow them to follow dropouts accurately.The No Child law is also at fault. The law set ambitious goals, enforced through sanctions, to make every student proficient in math and reading. But it established no national school completion goals. “I liken N.C.L.B. to a mile race,” said Bob Wise, a former West Virginia governor who is president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a group that seeks to improve schools. “Under N.C.L.B., students are tested rigorously every tenth of a mile. But nobody keeps track as to whether they cross the finish line.”

To read the full article, click here.

ACLU Sues Palm Beach County School District Over Poor Graduation Rates
-Palm Beach Post; March 18, 2008

Low graduation rates in Palm Beach County show the school district has failed its students, especially minority children, by not providing a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high-quality education," according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. The lawsuit addresses a topic never before challenged in the courts. The ACLU and other organizations have sued school districts for not distributing resources equally, but no group has pursued legal action for dismal graduation rates."We're really making a more basic point," said Chris Hansen, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU. "Graduating from high school is virtually the minimum requirement for success. A large percentage of the students are being essentially written off." The suit alleges that the district is violating students' rights to a high-quality education as outlined in the state constitution. According to state calculations, 71.8 percent of students across the county graduated on time last school year, up from 66 percent in 2003 but slightly below the state average. The rate is higher than five of the other six largest "urban" school districts in the state, including Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Only Hillsborough County, at 79.1 percent, had a higher rate. But the graduation rates drop off among the county's black and Hispanic students. While more than 80 percent of white students graduated on time in the county last year, only about 55 percent of black students and 64 percent of Hispanic kids did, according to state statistics.

The percentages may actually be slightly higher. School district officials initially submitted incorrect student information to the state, but the error has since been corrected. The district's total graduation rate increased from 71.4 percent to 71.8 percent in the correction, but the rates among particular races were not available Tuesday. The three high schools with the highest percentage of black students - Palm Beach Lakes, Glades Central and Boynton Beach - also had the three lowest graduation rates in the county last year. ACLU officials question the methods used to determine rates, including the addition of students who are pursuing a GED instead of a traditional diploma. Different formulas cited in the suit, including one created by University of South Florida Professor Sherman Dorn that corrects for the GED students, put the county's graduation rate in recent years at less than 60 percent. The suit calls for the school district to improve the graduation rates among students in every racial group, students who qualify for the school lunch program and English-language learners. It also calls for the school district to adopt a more-accurate method for calculating graduation rates

For the full article, click here.

Authority Grab Eroding Stature of State Boards

-Education Week; March 18, 2008

The power of state school boards nationwide is gradually being eroded as lawmakers and governors seek to expand their authority over K-12 education and, in some cases, reverse education policy set in motion by elected or appointed boards. This year alone, state boards in Florida, Ohio, and Vermont are targets of legislation that would either eliminate them outright or reduce their authority, while the governor in Idaho is considering ways to seize greater control over the panel in his state.And members of those boards may have good reason to worry. In Minnesota, the legislature abolished the state board of education in 1998. New Mexico did essentially the same thing in 2003, when the board was stripped of its authority and relegated to advisory-only status. “We can’t be cavalier anymore,” said Brenda Welburn, the executive director of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Association of State Boards of Education. “What’s most disappointing is that these changes usually aren’t about kids, but about politics and personality and control.” Governors, meanwhile, are well aware of the political, fiscal, and moral responsibility they bear for K-12 education, and eager for ways to enhance their authority to set policy.

“The governor wants a direct line of responsibility to education, rather than a board with fractured accountability,” said Keith Dailey, a spokesman for Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat who wants to move his state board to an advisory role. And state legislators, who shape education policy by crafting budgets and passing laws, also want to have a say, while some are still worried about vesting full authority with the governor. Florida Senate President Ken Pruitt, a Republican, is championing changes in education governance in his state that would eliminate the state board of education and vest its authority in the governor’s Cabinet. The proposal also would return the education commissioner’s post to one elected by voters, and not appointed by the governor. “We are going to move forward on education accountability,” Mr. Pruitt said on March 4, the opening day of the Florida legislative session.

For the full article, click here.

Board Votes to Revoke Clayton Schools Accreditation

-The Atlanta Journal Constitution; March 15, 2008

The Clayton County school system will likely lose accreditation at the end of the summer, a group charged with overseeing the nation's schools decided Saturday. The National Accreditation Commission board, meeting in Chicago, voted unanimously to revoke the 52,800-student district's accreditation on Sept. 1. The only chance the district has to hold on to accreditation is to meet nine mandates by September. But that is highly unlikely, said Mark Elgart, president and chief executive officer of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. "I do believe unless outside significant intervention is provided and support is provided, the system does not have the ability to meet the nine requirements," Elgart, whose Southern Association is a member of the accreditation commission, said Saturday evening from the group's board meeting. Clayton will be only the second school district in the nation to lose accreditation. Duval County, Fla., lost accreditation in 1969. The schools in Hartford, Conn., were on the verge of losing their accreditation when the state stepped in and took over the district, Elgart said. A loss of accreditation would mean no HOPE scholarships and difficulty getting into some colleges for older students, no pre-kindergarten funding for younger ones and lower property values for Clayton homeowners.

Clayton officials said they weren't surprised by the national vote, but were confident they could overhaul the district in time. "We're a realistic board and know the situation we're in and know we have to move forward," board Chairwoman Ericka Davis said. The board has already taken steps to improve, including removing board member Norreese Haynes for not living in the county, Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell said. "There are several actions the current board has taken that I believe to be positive in nature, including steps they took this weekend," Bell said. On Saturday, the school board interviewed two men for the job of corrective superintendent to help the district meet the nine mandates. The board initially planned to make the appointment Saturday but amended its agenda after it was pointed out that state law requires final candidates to be publicly identified — something Clayton has failed to do. Now, the board will wait at least two weeks before making a hire. "They wanted to use the time they had to fully vet the candidates and explore all options," said school board attorney Dorsey Hopson. The candidates are John W. Thompson, former schools superintendent of Pittsburgh and Tulsa, Okla.; and Santiago Wood, former superintendent of schools in Fresno and in Alum Rock, Ca. Thompson says math and literacy test scores improved by 6 percent and 5 percent respectively under his leadership in Pittsburgh. Wood lists among his accomplishments in Fresno a major school construction project and a reduction in truancy. Hiring a corrective superintendent should have convinced the Accreditation Commission that Clayton was moving in the right direction, said Bridget Harris, a junior and A-student at Jonesboro High School. "It really shocked me," Harris said of the commission's vote. "I fully anticipated them to say we made progress ... but it's out of my control. We the students didn't do anything wrong."

For the full article, click here.

Governor Unveils Measure for Education Reform

-The Pueblo Cheiftain; March 20, 2008

DENVER - Students entering high school will spend more time preparing for college or whatever else it is they want to do after graduation under a measure unveiled Wednesday. Calling it the boldest change in education reform in decades, Gov. Bill Ritter and a bipartisan group of lawmakers said they plan to introduce a measure into the Legislature that completely changes the focus of secondary education. The long-term goal is to cut the state's dropout rate in half, close the achievement gap for minority students and double the number of high school students who go on to college, Ritter said. "We believe it's time to push hard against the status quo (and) create a bold new vision for education in Colorado, a vision that very much begins with the end in mind," Ritter said. "It's a vision that assumes every Colorado student deserves the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential. It's a vision that allows us to thoroughly prepare every Colorado student for college or the 21st century work force. "Though the measure, that is to be introduced jointly by Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate, is long on promise, it's short on details for how the state would actually get there. Under it: The State Board of Education and Colorado Commission on Higher Education would work more closely to establish curriculum standards designed to make sure high school students are better educated to handle college work.High school graduates would be able to be admitted to colleges in the state based on their proficiency in subject areas, and not just the number of courses they were required to take. Teachers, parents and school officials would work in unison helping individual students achieve whatever goals they choose, even if that doesn't include post-secondary education. Colorado Standardized Achievement Program tests still would be given to students, but they may be altered to fit the new focus.

Exactly how they would get there hasn't been decided, and Ritter said that's intentional. He said that by detailing too much of how his so-called Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids would work, it could get bogged down in the Legislature. "I know the devil's in the details, but we have the right people here to do this, we'll get there," he said. "If you make it too detailed, then the conversation breaks down inside (the Capitol). I think we have a really important confluence of energies. The details will emerge over time." He said the leadership at the Colorado Department of Education and CCHE understand the plan.Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Genesee and one of the measure's sponsors, said he and Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita who also will sponsor the bill, backed off on their plan to increase course requirements in favor of this idea. "We would not be holding that bill in abeyance and signing on to this one if we didn't think it was specific enough," Witwer said. "These content standards are going to be tied to standards that are comparable in scope, relevance and rigor to the highest national and international standards." The lawmakers said the details also need to be somewhat flexible because local school districts have ultimate control over curriculum. That's why they said the bill "permits and encourages local school boards to create multiple curricular pathways to accommodate students' varying interests."

For the full article click here.

Panel Urges Schools to Emphasize Core Math Skills

-Washington Post; March 14, 2008

A presidential panel declared math education in the United States "broken" yesterday and called on schools to focus on ensuring that children master fundamental skills that provide the underpinnings for success in higher math and, ultimately, in high-tech jobs. The National Mathematics Advisory Panel convened in April 2006 to address concerns that many students lack the know-how to become engineers and scientists. The 24-member panel of mathematicians, education experts and psychologists said yesterday that students need a deeper understanding of basic skills, including fluency with whole numbers and fractions. It urged more training and support for teachers and called on researchers to find ways to combat "mathematics anxiety."  Larry R. Faulkner, chairman of the panel and former president of the University of Texas at Austin, said the country needs to make changes to stay competitive in an increasingly global economy. He noted that many U.S. companies draw skilled workers from overseas, a pool that he said is drying as opportunities abroad improve. "Math education isn't just about a school subject," Faulkner said as the panel released its final report at Fairfax County's Longfellow Middle School. "It's fundamentally about the chances that real people all across this country will have in life. And it's about the well-being and safety of the nation. "Scores from the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment showed 15-year-olds in the United States trailed peers from 23 industrialized countries in math.

The panel stressed that many students are simply befuddled by fractions. And one panel member noted that a recent survey of middle school students found that 84 percent would rather clean their room or take out the garbage than tackle math homework. President Bush charged the panel with examining ways to ensure that students have a strong grasp of the building blocks needed for algebra, a gateway to higher math. Students who complete Algebra II are more likely to attend and graduate from college. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said the report's release was a "seminal moment" in math education and urged teachers, school boards, colleges, interest groups and parents to use it as a guidepost to refine instruction. "I want every stakeholder in the equation of education to look at all of this and act on it," Spellings said. "I think there are very actionable steps right now. Teachers, starting today, can pay more attention to fractions." The panel concluded that the math curricula and textbooks in elementary and middle schools typically cover too many topics without enough depth. It noted that countries in which children do best at math, including Singapore and Japan, emphasize core topics. The panel identified benchmark skills that students need for a strong math foundation -- for example, that students be able to add and subtract whole numbers by the end of third grade. By the time students leave fifth grade, the panel said, they should be able to add and subtract fractions and decimals. "I think the main message of this report is simple -- content is king," said Tom Loveless, panel member and director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution.

For the full article, click here