Copyright 1999 The Christian Science Publishing Society
The Christian Science Monitor
February 9, 1999, Tuesday
SECTION: FEATURES; LEARNING; K-12; COVER STORY; Pg.
20
LENGTH: 1234 words
HEADLINE: Big money, big battles
BYLINE: Gail Russell Chaddock, Staff writer of The
Christian Science Monitor
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
HIGHLIGHT:
The United States has seen
education-reform drives before. But thistime, lawmakers aren't accepting excuses
for failure, even in poordistricts.
BODY:
"If we do these things - end social promotion, turn around
failing schools, build modern ones, support qualified teachers, promote
innovation, competition, and discipline - we will begin to meet our generation's
historic responsibility to create 21st-century schools." - President Clinton,
Jan. 19, 1999
Nations don't often get a shot at dramatically
improving how they educate children. Schools rank below wars to be fought, jobs
to be created, or prisons to be built.
The US faces a new century
with a surging economy, a waning crime rate, and no foreign enemy that yet
claims the stature of an "evil empire." But alarming numbers of its students can
barely read, and employers are scrambling to find workers fit for higher-skilled
jobs.
In such a climate, education is emerging as the new
national-security issue. Both the president and many state governors launched
similar offensives in recent weeks on the problem of failing schools, including
new rewards for success, consequences for failure, and more options for families
trapped in bad schools.
President Clinton's 2000 budget proposes
a record $ 22.3 billion for elementary and secondary education, touching on
everything from reducing class size to expanding after-school programs to reach
about 7 percent of the 15 million children who are home alone after school. Mr.
Clinton is also resubmitting a proposal to Congress to support $ 25 billion in
bonds for school construction.
And if the president can win
support from lawmakers, at least $ 15 billion of federal funds that go to
remedial education will carry a new condition: To be eligible, states and school
districts must agree to improve or close failing schools, test teachers, tighten
discipline, and end social promotion.
In many cases, states have
been out in front of Washington on these issues.
*Michigan's Gov.
John Engler (R) led off his Jan. 28 State of the State speech with a pledge to
make Michigan the "Smart State," and limited his comment to the president's
education proposals to two words: "I agree."
*California Gov.
Gray Davis (D) cited the "overwhelming need to improve our system of public
education" as his top priority. He proposes adding $ 444 million to the $ 43
billion that his state is already spending on education, along with broad new
powers to hold teachers and principals accountable for pupil achievement.
*New York Gov. George Pataki (R) called for $ 1.3 billion for
school construction in New York City and urged ending tenure for principals. "To
shield principals from accountability is to condone failure," he said.
*Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D) labeled his State of the
State address "an education blueprint for our future" and promised $ 1 billion
to build schools over the next four years.
More than prosperity
is driving these efforts. What marks this round of reform is mounting evidence
that all children can learn to higher standards - and the conviction that the
United States can't afford to have 40 percent of its citizens excluded from good
jobs by poor reading skills.
More than 6 in 10 employers say that
most high school graduates do not have the skills needed to succeed on the job,
according to a survey released last month by Public Agenda, an education
research group. The most respected indicator of literacy, the National
Assessment of Educational Progress, puts the number of students at risk from
poor reading at between 25 and 40 percent. Updated scores are due out this week.
Until very recently, conventional wisdom held that poor children
shouldn't be expected to learn to high standards. That view has been challenged
by surges in student achievement in states such as North Carolina and Texas,
where students have lagged behind the national average on test scores. In Texas,
the biggest gains were made by Hispanic and black students.
The
message is that improvement is possible, even in schools with a history of poor
performance. Moreover, these gains are the result of sustained policy choices,
not just extraordinary teachers.
Uri Treisman, director of the
Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, credits the state
for its system of accountability that rates schools by how well they serve poor
children. "In Texas, massively increased numbers of black and poor children are
taking and passing advanced placement tests. Once you raise expectations and
hold all kids accountable, performance goes up," Mr. Treisman says.
Many governors are urging their states to adopt some version of the policies
that drove test scores higher in Texas and North Carolina: standards for each
grade level, statewide testing linked to standards, consequences for good and
bad results, more flexibility for educators to meet the standards, and a shift
in resources to poor students.
At the same time, many governors
are asking state legislatures for more authority to close down failing schools.
"Allegiance to our children requires that we no longer sit idly by while a
school district steadfastly fails to educate its children," said Pennsylvania
Gov. Tom Ridge (R) in his Feb. 2 State of the State address. He is proposing
legislation that allows the state to "declare academic bankruptcy in cases of
chronic and pervasive failure," while allowing districts to opt out of state
regulations.
Many Republican governors are expanding options for
families to quit public schools altogether. Texas Gov. George W. Bush (R) is
calling for a pilot voucher program to give students a way out of low-performing
schools, even as he beefs up his state's model accountability system. And
Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) credits the "aggressive competition" generated
by a landmark school-choice program with spurring reform in Milwaukee. The
city's public schools now guarantee that students will read at grade level or
the city will pay for a tutor.
The big federal education programs
are about to face a similar scrutiny. For the first time, the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 faces reauthorization
under the eye of a Republican Congress. ESEA comprises more
than 60 federal programs, and some GOP lawmakers have called for converting at
least part of the program into block grants to be passed directly to the states.
Critics charge that ESEA has been a failed
program because federal money has been poured into programs without evidence of
their effectiveness.
"Each time that the most recent evaluation
shows that the Title I program is not working, we're told that the changes we've
made haven't had a chance to demonstrate their efficacy," says Chester Finn,
president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. "How much good money are we going
to throw after bad?"
Title I officials respond that the new focus
on high standards will improve the program. "You can't expect an effort that has
had only 2 percent of the dollars to turn around a low-performing school, unless
as a lever that can be used in concert with what states and locals are doing,"
says Mary Jean LeTendre, who directs the $ 8 billion Title I program for the US
Department of Education. "There hasn't been lots of attention to low-performing
schools," she adds. "We've been focused on fixing kids; now we're fixing schools
to help the kids."
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: SCHOOL's
OUT: Students in Oklahoma City head home. Across the United States, governors
are taking cues on education policy from states where even poor-performing
schools are being held to high standards -and getting results. BY R. NORMAN
MATHENY/FILE
LOAD-DATE: February 08, 1999