Reinventing special education

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / July 11, 2002

After nine months of labor, the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education has given birth to a stunning report. If it's allowed to grow up into public policy, rather than be strangled in its crib, it would effect a much-needed overhaul of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)-and much else.

You should read all 90 pages for yourself and make up your own mind, of course. (The report is available on the Internet at http://www.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/whspecialeducation.) But allow me to recap some of its key points.

The Commission demonstrates that, while IDEA has done much good, the educational attainments of disabled youngsters remain weak. They're more apt to drop out of school, less apt to attend college, etc. Minority kids are overrepresented in this educational cul-de-sac from which few ever emerge. Half of all children in special ed are there because of so-called "specific learning disabilities" and yet, in the Commission's estimate, eighty percent of those youngsters (i.e. 2 in 5 of all those in special ed) are there "simply because they haven't learned how to read." Worse, once in special ed, they are unlikely to catch up with their peers in reading or other core skills.

The Commission found "a system in need of fundamental rethinking, a shift in priorities and a new commitment to individual needs." Its key assumption is that, in special as in "regular" ed, "accountability for results matters, parents desire maximum input and educators want

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Reinventing special education

Intelligence from the NEA representative assembly

July 11, 2002

During the National Education Association's annual meeting in Dallas last week, delegates voted to spend several millions to promote the union's agenda for the new No Child Left Behind Act, an unprecedented mobilization around a single issue, according to Mike Antonucci, who filed riveting daily reports on the union conclave for his own Education Intelligence Agency (EIA). The NEA plans a public campaign "to build broad community consensus against the negative aspects" of the new law, among other things. Antonucci also reports that, while the union has stopped releasing current membership numbers, total NEA membership seems to have flattened and at least 20 state affiliates lost members over the past year. Antonucci's dispatches from the front can be viewed at http://members.aol.com/educationintel. (Click on "Archives.") Readers who want to receive a daily briefing on the AFT convention beginning July 15 are advised to sign up for the EIA e-mail bulletin by sending a subscription request (including preferred email address, name and state) to EducationIntel@aol.com.

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Intelligence from the NEA representative assembly

Massachusetts legislature attempts to head off bilingual ed referendum

July 11, 2002

Facing a Ron Unz-sponsored ballot initiative this fall that would gut the state's bilingual education program, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would revamp the Bay State's bilingual program in more limited ways. At present, Massachusetts students who don't speak English take most classes in their native language while gradually learning English, often for many years. Like similar ballot questions passed in California and Arizona, the pending Massachusetts referendum would replace the current bilingual program with one year of English immersion before moving students into regular classes in English. The bill passed by the House this week would require school districts to consult with parents before creating bilingual programs and would require the Department of Education to monitor whether the programs work, using annual tests of English proficiency. Yet it's hard to imagine that this bill would yield much real change for students who don't speak English. For details see "House votes to revamp bilingual ed," by Anand Vaishnav, The Boston Globe, July 10, 2002, and "Bilingual education bill nears passage," by Anand Vaishnav, The Boston Globe, July 2, 2002

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Massachusetts legislature attempts to head off bilingual ed referendum

Public school choice provisions of No Child Left Behind Act kick in

July 11, 2002

Students in approximately 8,600 schools across the country must be given the option to attend a higher-performing school this year because the school they currently attend has failed to make adequate yearly progress, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced last week. The 8,600 schools are Title I schools identified by their states as "in need of school improvement" because they twice failed to meet state standards for progress. (Federal standards for adequate yearly progress, which don't apply until next year, are even tougher and will likely yield even longer lists of failing schools.)

States and districts are now scrambling to find higher-achieving schools for these children to attend and to arrange transportation to those alternative schools. In Baltimore, for example, 30,000 students are eligible to transfer out of failing schools, but only 194 openings exist in the non-failing schools that have been designated to accept transfers. In Camden, parents of children in failing schools were told that no other schools in the district had room for them, and that they should contact Camden's two charter schools or a nearby district, but those schools told a reporter that they have no room either. Some predict that parents will be reluctant to take their children out of neighborhood schools, and school officials in at least one district have mounted a PR offensive to convince parents to keep their children where they are and give reforms in those schools another chance to

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Public school choice provisions of No Child Left Behind Act kick in

AFT argues for curricular coherence

July 11, 2002

The summer 2002 issue of American Educator, the A.F.T.'s flagship publication, now edited by Ruth Wattenberg, continues this quarterly's fine record of serious, thoughtful, constructive and nicely presented work. "A Common, Coherent Curriculum" is the theme of this 48-page magazine, featuring (along with much else) a fine essay by William Schmidt and colleagues regarding math (in the U.S. and overseas) as Exhibit A of the case for curricular coherence. See http://www.aft.org/american_educator/index.html.

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AFT argues for curricular coherence

Attending a top high school hurts admission chances at selective colleges

July 11, 2002

It's not often that a study published in the journal Sociology of Education makes the front page of The Washington Post, but that's what happens when the study's findings suggest that sending junior to Andover may not have been such a good idea after all. A study by Paul Attewell in the October issue of the journal (called "The Winner-Take-All High School: Organizational Adaptations to Educational Stratification") finds that attending a competitive high school can hurt most students' chances of getting into very selective colleges.  Jay Mathews reflected on what this means in a November 6 piece online at WashingtonPost.com ("Competitive High School May Limit College Choices," and on page A1 of the Post on November 12 ("In College Admissions, Magnets are Negative").

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Attending a top high school hurts admission chances at selective colleges

Block scheduling lowers test scores

July 11, 2002

Block scheduling caused the test scores of high school students in Iowa to drop, according to a new study by Iowa State University. The popular reform, which ordinarily divides the school day into four 80-to-90 minute classes instead of the traditional schedule of eight classes of 45-to-50 minutes each, led to "markedly lower" ACT scores. Schools often favor the reform because they believe it allows in-depth exploration of content and more hands-on activities, and because it may enhance school climate and reduce discipline problems. "Scores dip at 'blocked' schools," by Clark Kauffman and Staci Hupp, Des Moines Register, July 3, 2002. A press release from Iowa State is available at http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/releases/2002/jul/act.shtml.

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Block scheduling lowers test scores

Creating a system of accountable choice after Zelman

July 11, 2002

Now that the Supreme Court has shifted the school choice debate back to the political arena, policymakers should abandon their tired assumptions about choice and create a new model of schools based on the principle of "accountable choice," argues the Progressive Policy Institute's Andy Rotherham. Under such a model, a public school would be defined not by who runs it, but by universal access and accountability to the public for results-a strategy Rotherham says could unleash a renaissance in American education. See "Putting Vouchers in Perspective: Thinking About School Choice After Zelman v. Simmons-Harris," by Andrew J. Rotherham, Progressive Policy Institute, July 2, 2002.

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Creating a system of accountable choice after Zelman

Foundations withdraw grants to Pittsburgh school district

July 11, 2002

Convinced that the leadership battles between board and superintendent were creating a crisis for the Pittsburgh school district, three major local foundations announced that they were indefinitely suspending all funding to the district. Citing a decline of leadership, governance, and fiscal discipline, the three foundations, which together have awarded the district $11.7 million in the last five years, said they hoped their decision would catalyze community leaders to push for changes in how the school district is managed. "Foundations yank city school grants," by Carmen Lee and Jane Elizabeth, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 10, 2002.

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Foundations withdraw grants to Pittsburgh school district

Independence of federal education data at risk

July 11, 2002

Diane Ravitch and Checker Finn warn that a House-passed bill to overhaul the Department of Education's office of educational research and improvement would damage the federal government's ability to report on the condition of education. Ravitch and Finn argue that the National Center for Education Statistics and the National Assessment Governing Board will see their independence compromised and will become more subject to political control under the new bill and urge the Senate to rectify the situation. For details, see "Time to Save Federal Education Data," by Diane Ravitch and Chester E. Finn, Jr., Education Week, July 10, 2002.

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Independence of federal education data at risk

NAACP threatens to sue states over plans to reduce achievement gap

July 11, 2002

In November, the NAACP challenged all fifty states to produce five-year plans to dramatically reduce the academic achievement gap between white and minority students. By last Sunday, when the NAACP opened its national convention, all but eleven states had submitted action plans. NAACP officials say they are preparing to file federal civil rights complaints against three states that have large minority populations and did not file action plans (Florida, Louisiana, and Ohio). For details see "NAACP's focus shifts to education disparities," by Kim Cobb, Houston Chronicle, July 6, 2002.

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NAACP threatens to sue states over plans to reduce achievement gap

Who benefits from the Zelman decision?

July 11, 2002

On the Newsweek website last week, Jonathan Alter tried to debunk the notion that the Supreme Court's ruling will turn the educational and political tides in favor of vouchers and Republicans who favor them. ("America still hates vouchers") Mickey Kaus quickly refuted Alter in his Kausfiles column on Slate. ("Why the voucher issue really could hurt the Dems") Meanwhile, Slate's Steven Waldman explains why vouchers may be bad for Christianity (in short: mission dilution, tuition inflation, and the growth of minority religions). ("The price of religious education").

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Who benefits from the Zelman decision?

Why vouchers can't be taken to scale

July 11, 2002

According to school choice critic Richard Kahlenberg, private school vouchers will never work because successes with small pilot-level voucher programs (which help some students at the expense of others) cannot be replicated when taken to scale. A better and more egalitarian option, he says, would be to allow every child the opportunity to attend a "solidly middle class" public school through a system of mandatory public school choice, spanning school district lines and subject to "fairness" guidelines. "The Problem of Taking Private School Voucher Programs to Scale" by Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation, June 27, 2002.

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Why vouchers can't be taken to scale

Efficiency, Accountability, and Equity Issues in Title I Schoolwide Program Implementation

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / July 11, 2002

edited by Kenneth K. Wong and Margaret C. Wang
2002

Vanderbilt's Kenneth K. Wong and the late Margaret C. Wang of Temple University co-edited this book, which is the 2nd volume in an educational productivity series whose general editor is Herbert J. Walberg. This 316-page, twelve-chapter volume is organized into sections on "efficiency," "accountability," and "equity." Its policy backdrop is 1994's Improving America's Schools Act, which significantly widened the "schoolwide" approach to Title I. The book, however, deals with numerous issues that bear on this big federal compensatory program, its effectiveness and its possible reform. It likely would have had more policy traction had it appeared before No Child Left Behind was wrapped up. But a number of essays remain germane, such as the thoughtful piece by Tyce Palmaffy and the Gadfly's own Marci Kanstoroom concerning the use of "market forces" to make Title I more effective. The ISBN is 1931576106 and the book can be ordered at http://www.infoagepub.com/oi.htm. Information on the hardback edition (ISBN 1931576114) also appears at Efficiency, Accountability, and Equity Issues in Title I Schoolwide Program Implementation.

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Efficiency, Accountability, and Equity Issues in Title I Schoolwide Program Implementation

Model Contractor Standards & State Responsibilities for State Testing Standards

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / July 11, 2002

S.E. Phillips and Theodor Rebarber, AccountabilityWorks and the Education Leaders Council
June 2002

Another joint report by AccountabilityWorks and the Education Leaders Council, this 25-pager by S.E. Phillips and Theodor Rebarber provides a useful if somewhat technical guide to the relationship between a state and its testing contractor, including numerous responsibilities and expectations needing to be fulfilled by each side if the state testing program is to work well. It offers a rigorous, comprehensive and clear-headed set of guidelines and, while it's most apt to be of interest to state-level policymakers (and testing companies), if its advice were taken seriously it could prevent a lot of mistakes, confusions, ambiguities, recriminations, delays, false starts and wasted dollars. As state testing burdens mount under the pressure of No Child Left Behind (and as the overworked testing industry gets cocky or sloppy, well aware that there's no shortage of jobs and revenues waiting in the corridor), these specifications could prove very helpful. You can find it in PDF format at http://www.educationleaders.org/elc/events/model%20contractor.pdf.

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Model Contractor Standards & State Responsibilities for State Testing Standards

Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, Kindergarten through Grade 3

Janet Heffner / July 11, 2002

The Partnership for Reading
September 2001

In April 2000, the National Reading Panel released Teaching Children to Read, its rigorous analysis of 100,000+ scientific studies concerning reading education. Put Reading First, by the Partnership for Reading (a collaborative effort of the National Institute for Literacy, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Department of Education), summarizes the findings of that comprehensive study in non-technical language. Intended for teachers and parents, the new report stresses the value of an early start and analyzes five key areas of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. Each section "defines the skill, reviews the evidence from research, suggests implications for classroom instruction, describes proven strategies for teaching reading skills, and addresses frequently raised questions." It's available at http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/Cierra.pdf or by contacting The National Institute for Literacy at ED Pubs, PO Box 1398, Jessup, MD 20794-1398; 800-228-8813; EdPubOrders@aspensys.com. The study upon which it's based, Teaching Children to Read, can be downloaded or ordered at the National Reading Panel website, http://ww.nationalreadingpanel.org.

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Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, Kindergarten through Grade 3

State Innovation Priorities for State Testing Programs

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / July 11, 2002

John W. Oswald and Theodor Rebarber, AccountabilityWorks and the Education Leaders Council
June 2002

In this oddly titled report, AccountabilityWorks and the Education Leaders Council (ELC) describe 25 "innovations" in state testing programs that they found in the eleven states participating in the ELC. Authors John W. Oswald and Theodor Rebarber spend 17 pages outlining these under two main headings (immediate innovations and longer-term changes) and according to their significance. Some of it is a bit obvious (e.g. computer scoring, reliable links between test records and student records) though it all seems worthwhile. Unfortunately, this brief report only sketches these individual innovations (and their "benefits" and "challenges"); it does not delve deeply into an explanation of how they work. You can find a PDF version at State Innovation Priorities for State Testing Programs.

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State Innovation Priorities for State Testing Programs

Teachers as Owners: A key to revitalizing public education

Terry Ryan / July 11, 2002

edited by Edward J. Dirkswager
2002

In the world of management theory, the 1990s featured much talk of a workplace shift from "command and control" hierarchies to empowered high-performance teams. This ethos permeates Teachers as Owners. In the second paragraph we read, "The typical organizational structure of our school systems contains a rigid hierarchy of roles and decision-making power, with teachers firmly positioned at the bottom of this hierarchy. Very simply, teachers are employees, and like most employees in rigid hierarchical organizations, they have a limited range of decision-making powers." The book's thesis is that, by empowering teachers as owners of their own means of production, communities will see a rise in student achievement. Few would deny that teachers prefer to work in schools that trust them, empower them to make decisions, value their input, and invites innovation. Yet empowerment only seems to succeed when those being empowered are fully committed to the enterprise, highly skilled at its work, and able to be trusted at all times. Democratic models of employment quickly collapse when they encounter slackers or inept members. Once trust is lost, rules and regulations are created to prevent cheating by the minority that would wreak havoc if left to their own devices. This fact collides with the theory of creating leaderless systems run by equal partners. The editor of this book notes that teachers who work in teacher-owned schools "believe that 100 to 250 students is a desirable size.

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Teachers as Owners: A key to revitalizing public education

The Cleveland Voucher Case

Chester E. Finn, Jr. / July 11, 2002

David Brennan with Malcolm Baroway
2002

Toledo entrepreneur David Brennan (with help from Malcolm Baroway) has written this short, lively, opinionated book on the Cleveland voucher program, how it came to be, how it works and why it's controversial. Brennan has long been a major player in the Ohio school-choice saga, first chairing the Commission on Educational Choice named by Governor George Voinovich in 1992, then pressing for the voucher (and charter) legislation, then opening a pair of private schools in Cleveland (subsequently converted to charters) and remaining, throughout, a staunch advocate of more education options for kids-and for the role of the private sector in making such options available. Though this book tells interesting political and policy tales, it's chiefly an autobiographical account of David Brennan's embrace of this cause, as well as a bit of his life story. (You can also read a recent Education Week profile of him: "Millionaire Industrialist Touts 'White Hat' Firm to Build Charter Model," by Karla Scoon Reid, Education Week, May 22, 2002, http://www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=37whitehat.h21&keywords=Brennan.) This 122-page book contains a useful prologue by David Zanotti of the Ohio Roundtable. It's published by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. The ISBN is 097-548528 and you can get more information at http://www.adti.net/brennan/index.html.

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