Articles of Interest

~~~~>  U.S. Students Fare Badly in International Survey of Math Skills

By Floyd Norris
New York Times

High school students in Hong Kong, Finland and South Korea do best in mathematics among those in 40 surveyed countries while students in the United States finished in the bottom half, according to a new international comparison of mathematical skills shown by 15-year-olds.

The United States was also cited as having the poorest outcomes per dollar spent on education. It ranked 28th of 40 countries in math and 18th in reading.

The study, released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group based in Paris representing 30 nations, used tests given to students in 2003 and was intended to assess relative performance and to try to determine reasons for it.

"The gap between the best and worst performing countries has widened," said Andreas Schleicher, the official who directed the study and wrote the report.

The study compared student performance in 29 of the 30 countries in the organization, which includes all major industrialized nations, and in 11 other countries that chose to participate. Because of insufficient participation in the study, figures for Britain were not reported.

The study devoted less attention to reading than did a previous one in 2000, but it provided rankings that showed relatively little change.

Over all in reading, the top countries were Finland, South Korea, Canada and Australia. The United States finished 18th, higher than nations like Denmark, Germany and Hungary, all of which had students who performed better in math than American students did.

The study looked not only at the average performance of students, but also at how many from each country were top performers. It separated students into seven groups, ranging from Level 6, the best, to Level 1, which the authors viewed as a minimal level of competence. The remaining students were below the first level, a category that included more than half the students in Brazil, Indonesia and Tunisia.

In the United States, 10 percent of the students were in one of the top two groups, less than half as many as in Canada and a third the total of the leader, Hong Kong, which had 30.7 percent of its students in the top two categories.

Finland had the smallest percentage of under performing students, with 6.8 percent.

The evaluation asked questions that were intended to test the ability of students to recognize what mathematical calculations were needed, and then to perform them, and to deal with questions that they would confront as citizens.

Mr. Schleicher said that students in countries that emphasized theorems and rote learning tended not to do as well as those that emphasized the more practical aspects of mathematics.

The survey also questioned students about their own views of themselves and their work, and found that while good students were more likely to think they were good, countries that did well often had a large number of students who did not feel they were doing well. In the United States, 36 percent of the students agreed with the statement, "I am just not good at mathematics," while in Hong Kong, 57 percent agreed. In South Korea the figure was 62 percent.

Of the United States students, 72 percent said they got good grades in mathematics, more than in any other country. In Hong Kong, only 25 percent of the students said they got good marks, the lowest of any country.

The study said that while girls typically did only a little worse than boys on the test, "they consistently report much lower interest in and enjoyment of mathematics" and "much higher levels of helplessness and stress in mathematics classes."

Regarding spending, the study concluded that "while spending on educational institutions is a necessary prerequisite for the provision of high-quality education, spending alone is not sufficient to achieve high levels of outcomes."

It noted that while the Czech Republic spent only one third as much per student as the United States did, it was one of the top 10 performing nations in the study, while the United States performed below the average of the nations surveyed.

~~~~>  Report: Public Schools Make the Grade, Charter Schools Falter

In another blow to the Bush administration’s drive to privatize public education, new information shows charter schools are far less likely to meet state performance standards than regular public schools.  President George W. Bush has made charter schools, which are publicly funded and operated by community-based groups, private business or groups of educators and parents, a key part of his “No Child Left Behind” education program.

A report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education compared the performance of public schools and charter schools in five states—Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Texas—and found public schools outperformed charter schools across the board.

In Texas, while 98 percent of public schools met state performance standards, only 66 percent of charter schools did.

Education Department Held Back Charter School Report

The report was presented to the Education Department in June but was not made public until late November after The New York Times filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain it.

“How can we consider charter schools to be an option for failing public schools when this study, commissioned by the Department of Education, shows that about half of them don’t appear to be doing any better at meeting performance standards than other public schools?”  Western Michigan State University researcher Gary Miron, told The New York Times.

According to AFT, some charter schools are successful models, but they are the exception.  The new report “largely confirms numerous other independent studies: Charter schools under perform regular public schools on average and on most like-to-like comparisons,” says Bella Rosenberg, assistant to AFT President Edward McElroy.

Report Is Latest to Show Charter Schools Can’t Make the Grade

The new report reveals that charter schools routinely trail behind public schools in academic achievement.  Data uncovered and analyzed by AFT researchers enabled the union to compare math and reading scores on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called the “nation’s report card.”  AFT’s analysis found fourth-grade students attending charter schools for the most part score worse and sometimes roughly as well as public school students.  AFT issued its findings in a report, Charter School Achievement on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress.  See  http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/downloads/teachers/NAEPCharterSchoolReport.pdf.

Although overall NAEP scores were released last year, federal officials held back the separate results covering charter schools until now.

~~~~>  Spellings Nomination Advances

By Erik W. Robelen
Washington

Margaret Spellings, President Bush’s nominee to become the next Secretary of Education, vowed to listen carefully to the concerns of those dealing with the “No Child Left Behind Act” at the state and local levels and to take a “workable and sensible” approach to carrying out the controversial law, the signature education achievement of Mr. Bush’s first term.

During her January 6, 2005 confirmation hearing before the Senate Education Committee, she also pledged to bring a “spirit of bipartisanship” to her job if she wins Senate backing, which was all but certain. Later that day, in fact, the committee unanimously approved her nomination during a brief meeting just off the Senate floor.

No floor consideration was scheduled as of late last week, though the Senate was expected to take fairly quick action on the nomination.

Ms. Spellings, 47, also reiterated President Bush’s desire to “build on the policy foundation” of the “No Child Left Behind Act” with a greater focus on high schools.  “From parent to policymaker, I have seen public education from many angles, and often been in the other person’s shoes,” Ms. Spellings told the committee in her opening remarks.  She won praise from both Republicans and Democrats at the hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.  “I am confident you will do a good job,” said Republican Sen. Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, noting her experience in education at the local, state, and national levels.  “I don’t think anyone has a better understanding of the president’s position on [education matters],” added Mr. Enzi, who last week became the committee’s new chairman.  He replaced Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who has relinquished the top slot in favor of chairing the Budget Committee.  “We’ve had our differences, but I believe she’s an inspired choice to be Secretary of Education at this critical moment in our nation’s history,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the committee’s ranking Democrat. “I look forward very much to working with her in the years ahead.”

‘Tipping the Boat’

Before joining the White House in 2001 as the president’s domestic-policy adviser, Ms. Spellings served as Mr. Bush’s education advisor when he was the governor of Texas. Before that, she was the top lobbyist for the Texas Association of School Boards. 

If confirmed, she would become the eighth U.S. Secretary of Education.  She would succeed Secretary of Education Rod Paige, who offered his letter of resignation to President Bush in November, 2004.  The president named Ms. Spellings as his choice on Nov. 17, 2004.  The department has several other key vacancies in leadership positions, including the No. 2 slot. Deputy Secretary of Education Eugene W. Hickok announced in December his intention to leave the department.

In her opening remarks, Ms. Spellings made clear that she intended to build on the recent record of bipartisanship in Washington when it comes to education policy.

“The recent enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as well as No Child Left Behind, are proof that education is an area where we can truly come together,” she said. “Do we agree on everything? Of course we don’t, and we won’t. But if confirmed, I pledge to do all I can on behalf of the president to work with you to continue the spirit of bipartisanship.”

Ms. Spellings also touched on some of the continuing debate around the No Child Left Behind Act, an ambitious revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that holds states and school districts accountable for improving student achievement.

She emphasized that she would pay close attention to challenges in the law’s implementation. “We must listen to states and localities, to parents and reformers, about their experience with the act,” she said. “We must stay true to the sound principles of leaving no child behind, but we in the administration must engage with those closest to children to embed these principles in a sensible and workable way.”

That message seemed to be especially welcomed by committee members.

“We’ve been at the forefront of the debate on No Child Left Behind,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, who just rejoined the education committee at the start of this Congress. “I believe we were the first state to make moves toward possibly opting out, and I didn’t want to see us do that.”

Utah ultimately backed down in early 2004 from earlier talk of declining the federal aid. Instead, the state legislature passed a measure that said Utah shouldn’t spend any of its own money to comply with the federal law.

Sen. Hatch asked Ms. Spellings: “How do you anticipate addressing the concerns that have been raised about the No Child Left Behind Act, like in my home state of Utah?”

The secretary-designate, without offering any specific areas for new flexibility, reiterated her commitment to listening to concerns about the law, adding that “none of us want to tip the boat over, if you will, with these, you know, horror-story type of examples.”

Sen. Enzi asked Ms. Spellings to explain the rationale for President Bush’s proposal—issued during the presidential campaign—to expand the No Child Left Behind Act’s testing requirements with two more years at the high school level. Now, the law only requires that high schools test students one time.

“What gets measured gets done,” Ms. Spellings said. “The assessment and data systems that we’ve put in place in No Child Left Behind [are] really working to improve education.”

She added: “Certainly, it will be a little bit more complicated because of different types of offerings, the way high school is organized, but I do think that same philosophy can apply: that measurement, sound data, more information, both for educators, students, and parents, is useful to improvement. 

For more information, please visit http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/01/07/18spellings_web.h24.html?print=1

~~~~>  Schools in Sri Lanka and Indonesia Reopen

By Christopher Torchia
The Associated Press

GALLE, Sri Lanka - Y.G. Gamage is a 10-year-old boy who likes mathematics and cricket and wants to be a doctor when he grows up. On Monday, he stood in the schoolyard on the first day of the new term.

It should have been a normal day for a normal kid.

But Y.G. showed up without a uniform because his school outfit was washed away in the tsunami two weeks ago and the school was in shambles: dank, empty classrooms, salvaged desks and chairs with rusty legs in the yard and the outer wall reduced to rubble.

A partly constructed fishing boat, swept inland with the massive waves that killed thousands in and around the southern city of Galle, lay near the school entrance, lashed with wire to two trees.

It was a scene repeated in hard-hit Indonesia, as students returning to school became a sign that survivors were taking tentative steps toward restoring life to normal after the Dec. 26 disaster.

In many places, schoolhouses were washed away or are being used as homeless shelters. Thousands of students haven't showed up - many are dead and for others just getting food and water are a much higher priority.

The government said Monday that 420 schools had been destroyed and 1,000 teachers killed in Indonesia's Aceh province, which was near the epicenter of the huge undersea quake that sparked the killer waves.

About 60 children, many with bare, muddied feet, turned up at Guegajah Elementary School in Aceh Besar, just west of the provincial capital. They sat on wooden benches and chanted verses from the Quran, Islam's holy book.

More than half the students didn't show up and Sutrisni, the school's principal, said normal classes wouldn't resume for weeks.

"By opening the schools, we're just trying to make the kids happy, they're so depressed," said Sutrisni, who like many Indonesians uses one name. "Today we're just teaching them how to pray in these difficult times."

It wasn't a normal day either for M.G. Gunapala, the principal of Vidyaloka College, the leading school for boys in Galle, Sri Lanka, though he tried his best to get things in order. A slender man with a clipped mustache, he arrived with his briefcase and waited for assistants to remove a slab of wood covering the doorway to his office, since water had ripped the door off its hinges.

Inside, he inspected a sodden book containing the attendance records of the staff. He stood because there was no chair, and the floor was gritty with sand. At least four students died in the tsunami, he said.

"I'm determined to build up this place," said Gunapala, who has received pledges of support from UNICEF. "If I don't have a positive attitude, I can't motivate the staff and the students."

While children in spick-and-span uniforms flocked to schools across Sri Lanka for the start of the new term, it will be a long time before the many schools damaged in the tsunami can provide students with proper care and education.

Social workers hope the resumption of studies will help children overcome the trauma of the catastrophe. About 31,000 people died in Sri Lanka, among a total of more than 150,000 deaths from Indonesia to East Africa.

Some schools in Galle were occupied by people who lost their homes, and aid workers were struggling to provide alternative shelter so students could return to classrooms. Homeless people still fully occupied at least one Muslim school, the A.R.M. Thassim College, on Monday.

About 80 students, some accompanied by their parents, showed up at state-run Vidyaloka, a tiny fraction of the 2,400 who are registered. Some had no uniforms, while others wore blue shorts, white socks and short-sleeved shirts, and black shoes.

They formed irregular lines that dissolved into a milling crowd as Gunapala asked them to help the staff clean up classrooms in preparation for the late start of classes on Jan. 20. He said some students did not come because they had not heard about the preliminary session on Monday or had no transport.

Happy to be back at school, Y.G. Gamage lifted his shirt to show the scrapes he suffered when the waves hit his house and destroyed his father's business: equipment to grind spices like chili and pepper.

"When the waves came, I climbed onto the roof," said the boy, who wore sandals, shorts and a T-shirt. He smiled a lot, but was shy and looked at the ground when he spoke.

The tsunami damaged one-third of the 96 classrooms and destroyed computers and many documents at Vidyaloka, a compound of two- and three-story buildings that lies about one-third of a mile inland.

The situation appeared worse at the Anuladevi Balika Vidyalaya school for girls, where teachers decided to postpone classes until Jan. 17.

The tsunami destroyed some classrooms. Principal B.P. Irangana de Silva also compiled a list of destroyed property worth about $25,000, including costumes, musical instruments, desks and chairs and the public address system.

A teacher's daughter, 10-year-old K.G. Kasmhi, was among students who loitered in the muddy schoolyard on Monday.

"I'm worried about my friends. I don't know what happened to them," she said.

~~~~>  Financing Better Schools

Education Week

Too often, traditional methods of paying for schools come up short.  Public school finance systems are in flux.  Historically, states have focused on how to distribute money equitably across districts, with far less attention to what that money bought or the results it produced.  Now that states have set ambitious performance goals for students—and the federal No Child Left Behind Act requires all public school students to reach those targets in reading and mathematics by 2013-14—the push is on to link money to student performance.

Quality Counts 2005: No Small Change, Targeting Money Toward Student Performance, focuses on the burgeoning efforts to link funding to educational outcomes. Nearly $500 billion in combined federal, state, and local money is spent on precollegiate education in the United States each year, with nearly half the total coming from state coffers.

Today, 31 states are considering major changes in how they pay for education or allot money to school districts, according to the Education Week Research Center’s policy survey of 50 states and the District of Columbia for Quality Counts 2005.

For more information, please visit http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/01/06/17exec.h24.html.

Get Connected: Web Site Links

~~~~>  Young People For Fellowship Program

The People For the American Way Foundation has launched a new program called Young People For. The Young People For is a year-long fellowship program for 120 freshmen, sophomores and juniors from colleges and universities around the country.  Fellows will learn skills and strategies to become more effective leaders. The fellowship will help today’s rising progressive leaders to accomplish their goals and make a difference on their campuses, in the community and across the nation.

For more information, please visit http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16117.

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