Education Reform Briefs

From the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, 7/26/00

Subcommittee Approves Legislation to Improve Education Research

The Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth, and Families of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved major changes to how federally funded education research is conducted and made it more independent of political influences.  By a voice vote, the subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE) approved the Scientifically Based Education Research, Statistics, Evaluation, and Information Act of 2000 (H.R. 4875).  The bill restructures and streamlines the current system to ensure the quality and integrity of research, evaluation, and statistics.

Among the changes, the legislation restructures several agencies in the Education Department to form the new National Academy for Education Research, Statistics, Evaluation, and Information.  The academy would replace the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), currently located in the Education Department.  The change provides less bureaucracy and more resources for creating high quality education research, statistics gathering, program evaluation, and information dissemination.  The academy, which would consist of four smaller agencies, would be an organization within the Education Department.

From the American Federation of Teachers, 7/31/00

AFT/NEA Take Spin to NAACP Convention

Using public money to pay for private education would destroy public education. That was a consensus among those attending "The Changing Landscape of Public Education: Impact on the African-American Community," an AFT/NEA-sponsored workshop on July 12 at the NAACP convention in Baltimore. Panelists cited three other approaches that threaten the future of public education: ill-conceived charter schools; education savings accounts or tuition tax credits; and for-profit educational management companies.

"One of the reasons why minorities may seem attracted to the privatization of education is the aggressive marketing by companies to local, state and national minority leaders," said Dr. Walter Farrell, a professor of social work at the University of North Carolina. Chronically low-performing schools, many of which are in minority communities, drive some parents to desperate means, he said. "Parents will begin to grasp for privatization without examining the ramifications."

But desperate measures such as vouchers or tuition tax credits or other schemes are too radical, Farrell and panelists agreed. Instead, what failing schools need--and have always needed--are adequate funding, reduced class sizes, up-to-date textbooks, well-trained teachers, and tutors for students who need them, panelists stressed.

From Edison Schools, 7/10/00

Edison Schools Hire Rand to Analyze Performance

Edison Schools Inc., the nation's leading private manager of public schools, today announced that the company has commissioned the RAND Corporation to provide an ongoing analysis of its school performance. RAND's evaluation primarily will focus on student achievement but will also examine key elements of Edison's school design: professional development, teacher and principal recruitment, promotion and compensation, and national support systems. RAND'S evaluation also will look at state and local achievement data for all Edison schools to provide an objective analysis of the progress Edison students are making. In addition, RAND will conduct intensive case studies in a number of Edison schools to help explain the achievement results.

From the NSBA/School Board News, 7/25/00

Florida Provides Vouchers for Disabled Students

Despite the legal challenge facing Florida's ambitious statewide voucher program, a new state law went into effect this month that expands eligibility in the program to all disabled students who are performing poorly in the public schools.

Under the law, parents dissatisfied with the special education services available to their disabled child can seek a voucher to pay tuition to a private school or institution&endash;or to another public school.

The value of the voucher will equal the funds the state otherwise would allocate to the public school to serve the child.

From the National Association of Elementary School Principals, 7/24/00

Principals Report Positive Effects of School Uniforms

From Philadelphia to Los Angeles, public schools are giving the green light to school uniforms. While school uniform policies are commonplace in parochial and private schools, they are clearly becoming part of the picture in many public school districts across the country as well. According to a recent study commissioned by Lands' End in partnership with the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), more than one in five (21%) principals from public schools surveyed either have a policy in place, are currently writing one or have one on their agenda for discussion.

Perhaps the move to school uniforms can be attributed to the positive influences they have on students. According to the principals surveyed, a school uniform policy has a positive effect on the following areas of student life: image in the community (84%), classroom discipline (79%), peer pressure (76%), school spirit (72%), concentration on school work (67%) and student safety (62%).

From the U.S. Department of Education, 7/26/00

Government Negotiates Incentive Payments Into "Share in Savings" Program

The U.S. Department of Education says taxpayers could save tens of millions of dollars on its first-ever contract where the vendor will be paid only if it saves the department money.

Student Financial Assistance (SFA) chief operating officer Greg Woods today announced the contract with Andersen Consulting which is expected to reduce loan servicing costs between $40 - $50 million by FY 2004.

"Share in Savings" is supported by the General Services Administration (GSA) and "good government" proponents throughout the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. A "Share in Savings" contract is negotiated between a private contractor and a government agency for a fixed price. The contract provides incentive payments based on the percentage of cost savings the contractor helps create.

From the Family Research Council/Ed Facts, 7/28/00

Released-Time Education Enables Public School Students to Receive Religious Instruction

The current notion that religion can be separated from the rest of life has led to a general acceptance of the idea that religion should stop at the schoolhouse door. How can parents counter the effects of a "value-neutral" education that actually instills the principles of secularism?

Released-time education - letting students attend religion classes off campus during the school day - is one alternative. The Supreme Court has declared released-time programs constitutional, and many communities have successfully implemented them. While released-time instruction does not resolve the underlying religious tensions in public education, it is a stride toward more appropriate recognition of students' religious nature, thus offering aid to those struggling with the character crisis in our current education system.

From the American Federation of Teachers, 7/24/00

AFT Teachers Speak Out on Testing

High-stakes tests have a role in school reform, but they must be used responsibly and coupled with other critical components of standards-based reform. That was the message of an informal survey of teachers conducted at the AFT national convention in Philadelphia earlier this month by AFT and USA Today.

Survey forms were distributed throughout the convention center for K-12 teachers; 1,010 were returned. Some 70 percent of respondents agreed that high-stakes tests have a place in an overall school reform program. However, 92 percent supported the statement, "No single test can be considered a definitive measure of students' knowledge." Teachers also were less than enthusiastic about progress to align high-stakes tests with what's being taught in the classroom: Some 55 percent said tests given in their school were unrelated to the curriculum, and 64 percent felt that tests given in their district weren't good measures of what students have learned. Teachers also were lukewarm when asked if high-stakes tests were being used to focus more help on low-performing schools and students who need it the most. Only 53 percent of teachers said that was the case.

From the National Education Association, July 2000

NEA Provides Notes on Its Political Activism

* Republican Rhody Deetz is one vocal [Al] Gore supporter who puts her money where her mouth is. When she found out that her Oregon caucus was auctioning off a chance to sit on the dais during Gore's Representative Assembly address, she made the top bid -- $1,000 -- to support the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education (the union's political action committee).

* Out of the 63 members of the Alabama delegation that will attend the August 14-17 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, nearly half are from the Alabama Education Association. "AEA has a very effective political program," says Joe L. Reed, a nine-time DNC delegate and AEA's associate executive secretary. "We carry NEA issues -- human and civil rights, affirmative action, anti-vouchers, smaller class size, and school safety -- to the convention, so that the voice of education can be heard." "AEA not only promotes political awareness," says Tyna Davis, DNC delegate and AEA's director of education policy. "We promote political involvement."

From the Family Research Council/Ed Facts, 7/21/00

Forstmann Underwrites Ad Campaign for Educational Competition

The man who spent $50 million of his own money last year to fund 40,000 private-school scholarships recently announced he will launch a $20 million ad campaign in support of alternatives to public schools. Ted Forstmann, a Wall Street investor with a heart for helping all children have school choice, decided to start the campaign after he determined private giving alone would not reform public schools.

Forstmann's Campaign for America's Children will run the nonpartisan advertisements on television between now and the November election. He told the Washington Post that the purpose of the campaign is not to advocate for any particular choice mechanism, such as charter schools or vouchers, but rather to unify a movement of parents capable of influencing political leaders for a "competitive" education system.

Education Secretary Richard Riley and Kathleen Lyons, spokeswoman for the National Education Association, have voiced their opposition to Forstmann's ad campaign. The campaign has received bipartisan support, however, from two former Cabinet secretaries, Democrat Joseph A. Califano Jr. and Republican William Bennett, as well as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Martin Luther King III.