________________________________________  THE VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT April 11, 2005 - Vol. 5, No. 15 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯  Covering education news in Vermont and beyond... Informative, provocative, unique... Published by Vermonters for Better Education  VBE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to enlist parents and the public at large in achieving quality educational opportunities for all the children of Vermont by monitoring the state of education in Vermont; promoting the value of educational freedoms for all parents; and giving parents the evaluative tools with which to identify excellence. Libby Sternberg, executive director: VTBetterEd@aol.com NEWS & ANALYSIS... SLOW PACE IN EDUCATION COMMITTEES The House and Senate Education Committees continue to move slowly this session with a patchwork quilt approach to testimony and bill consideration. One week it's early education, the next it's school buses, and the week after that it's restructuring the State Board of Education. This week the slow pace continues. While the House will focus on funding of technical education, school board vacancies and the like, the Senate will finally turn its attention to the general topic of "Public High School Choice," with testimony scheduled on Tuesday. School choice advocates need not get too excited, however. The witness agenda reads like a Who's Who in Opposition to Choice. Up first is VTNEA's Joel Cook, followed by John Nelson of the VSBA, then Ray Pellegrini of the VPA, with Jeffrey Francis of the VSA mopping up. None of these groups was in favor of the State Board of Education's resolution supporting public school choice, which was a modest endorsement approved by the SBOE last year. So we doubt very seriously if they'll be offering anything beyond the usual tired arguments to stall any choice initiatives this year. "GRAFTON RESOLUTION" PASSES IN MORE THAN 100 TOWNS Here's a little-noticed but significant event: in the past month, at least 103 town Select Boards have approved some variation on what is being called "The Grafton Resolution."  The "Grafton Resolution," first drafted and approved by the town of Grafton, points out in strong language that Act 60 requires the State Education Fund "be used exclusively to support local school districts and supervisory unions." The Education Fund, the resolution goes on to say, has been tapped by Montpelier for numerous other initiatives including an attempt last year "to divert $500,000 from the Education Fund for adult education and literacy services..."  The Resolution also takes issue with the $775,000 proposed to provide special education services to prisoners, and H.147, which "proposes to expand the state education property tax uses to assume a significant portion of the state's capital construction obligations." The Resolution concludes by saying that the voters and taxpayers "go on record opposing any use of State Education Fund that is outside the law's original intent..." While this resolution is aimed at stopping very specific initiatives, it is interesting to note the language used in the conclusion - that the towns oppose use of Ed Fund monies "outside the law's original intent..."  As we have argued on these pages for several weeks, we believe the law's original intent did not include public funding for UNIVERSAL preschool, but rather merely for preschool for at-risk children. The Grafton Resolution does not take issue with early ed spending, but town Select Boards might not be aware of the murkiness of statute on this topic. Towns that signed the Grafton Resolution or some variation of it include: Addison, Alburg, Andover, Baltimore, Barre Town, Barton, Benson, Bethel, Bradford, Braintree, Bridgewater, Bridport, Brighton, Brookfield, Brookline, Brownington, Canaan, Charleston, Chester, Chittenden, Concord, Danville, Derby, Dorset, Dover, Dummerston, Eden, Enosburgh, Fairfield, Fairlee, Fayston, Ferrisburgh, Glover, Grafton, Granby, Grand Isle, Granville, Groton, Guilford, Halifax, Highgate, Hinesburg, Isle La Motte, Jamaica, Jay, Johnson, Killington, Landgrove, Lowell, Ludlow, Lunenburg, Maidstone, Mendon, Middlebury, Monkton, Montgomery, Morgan, Mt. Holly, Mt. Tabor, Newport, Northfield, Orange, Orwell, Peacham, Pittsfield, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, Readsboro, Richmond, Rockingham, Rupert, Rutland City, Rutland Town, St. Albans Town, Searsburg, Sharon, Sheffield, South Hero, Stamford, Stratton, Sutton, Swanton, Tinmouth, Topsham, Tunbridge, Vergennes, Vershire, Waitsfield, Warren, Waterbury, Wells, Westmore, West Rutland, Weston, West Windsor, Wheelock, Whitingham, Wilmington, Windham, Winhall, Woodford, Woodstock  USEFUL INFO You know springtime has come to Vermont when you can hear the persistent trilling of.... .....legislators' phones and fax machines. At this time of year, legislation can start to move from committee to floor to governor's office (and sometimes back again). So here's a quick round-up of who's on the Education Committees and how to get in touch with them: GENERAL LEGISLATURE PHONE NUMBER: 1-800-322-5616    Fax: 802 828 2424 For full legislative directory (including home addresses and phone numbers) go to: http://www.leg.state.vt.us/legdir/legdir2.htm SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE Senator Don Collins (D-Franklin), chairman: dcollins@leg.state.vt.us  Senator William Doyle (R-Washington), vice-chairman: wdoyle@leg.state.vt.us Sen. Jim Condos (D-Chittenden): jcondos@leg.state.vt.us Sen. Robert Starr (D-Essex-Orleans) Sen. Wendy Wilton (R-Rutland): wwilton@leg.state.vt.us HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE Rep. George Cross (D-Winooski), chairman: gcross@leg.state.vt.us Rep. Kathy LaVoie (R-Swanton), vice-chair: klavoie@leg.state.vt.us or klavoie@together.net Rep. Dense Barnard (D-Richmond): Dbarnard@leg.state.vt.us or dbbcuts@aol.com Rep. Gregory S. Clark (R-Vergennes): gsclark@adelphia.net Rep. Kevin J. Endres (R-Milton): kendres@leg.state.vt.us or Kendresult@msn.com Rep. Tim Jerman (D-Essex): Tjerman@leg.state.vt.us or vrunner54@aol.com Rep. Duncan Kilmartin (R-Newport City): dkilmartin@leg.state.vt.us or rexkilvt@together.net Rep. Judith Livingston (R-Manchester): jlivingston@leg.state.vt.us Rep. Rosemary McLaughlin (D-Royalton): rmclaughlin@leg.state.vt.us or rozo@valley.net Rep. Anne Mook (D-Bennington): Amook@leg.state.vt.us or annemook@hotmail.com Rep. Dave Potter (D-Clarendon): Dpotter@leg.state.vt.us  *   *   * COMMENTARY... OF TURF BATTLES AND EARLY ED by Libby Sternberg In his enlightening book about deafness, entitled "Seeing Voices," Oliver Sacks recounts a story told to him by a deaf man, David Wright. Wright became deaf at the age of seven, after already acquiring language skills. Sent to a school for the deaf as a youngster, however, he encountered many "prelingual deaf" - students who had not acquired language skills before losing their hearing - and he came to realize how much one learns about language and other topics merely from context. This is one of Wright's anecdotes from his school days, which Sacks reprints in his book: "Sometimes I took lessons with Vanessa. She was the first deaf child I had met...But even to an eight-year-old like myself her general knowledge seemed strangely limited. I remember a geography lesson we were doing together, when Miss Neville asked, 'Who is the king of England?' Vanessa didn't know.... 'King George the Fifth,' I said proudly... 'it's not fair! It wasn't in the book!' (said Vanessa)....She was far from stupid (but) there were almost no means by which she could pick up the fund of miscellaneous and temporarily useless information other children unconsciously acquire from conversation or random reading. Almost everything she knew she had been taught or made to learn." In many ways, "at risk" children are like Vanessa. They arrive at school with very little "context," without the "fund of miscellaneous and temporarily useless information" that only later transforms into usefulness as more knowledge is added to it. They are, like Vanessa, completely dependent on the information they are "taught or made to learn."  When we talk about closing the achievement gap between rich and poor students, between students with parents engaged in their education and students whose parents are not attentive, we would do well to remember Vanessa. Like her, at-risk students are almost completely dependent on school. If these students don't learn, it's not their backgrounds that doom them. It's their schooling. This is one of the reasons why universal preschool, or even preschool for at-risk children, can represent false hope as the ultimate solution to the achievement gap problem. While at-risk students can certainly benefit from programs to prepare them to succeed at school, we are fooling ourselves if we think this is THE solution to the problem of closing the achievement gap. Ultimately, no matter how well prepared an at-risk child is for elementary school, no matter how "ready to learn" this child is, she won't learn if someone isn't adequately teaching her once she reaches first grade. And as she moves from grade to grade, she will continue to depend on the school to give her context, to provide for her all the pieces of knowledge and information that, together, will help unlock her potential and make her a successful and wise adult. Because of this lack of "context," many poor children do not benefit from educational approaches that seek to allow the child to direct his or her education. Whole Language or so-called Child-Centered curricula don't work when a child comes to school lacking useful information to use as a springboard to greater discovery. Content-rich curricula, however, provide the foundations upon which such children can build and grow. But in order to ensure that at-risk kids are getting what they need from schools, we have to be willing to fight some unpleasant and messy turf battles. For example, perhaps we should be rewarding teachers who consistently achieve success with at-risk students. Perhaps those teachers should be paid more, while teachers who consistently fail with at-risk students should be retrained or pulled from the classroom. But fighting that particular turf battle means going toe-to-toe with the VTNEA. The teachers union has regularly opposed merit-pay plans, preferring to treat teachers as if they were laborers whose skill levels were all exactly the same, interchangeable cogs in a vast schooling machine. And yet, this is only one relatively-modest education reform that could help at-risk children. There are others -- including, of course, school choice, accelerated high school curricula with post-secondary options, meaningful alternative teacher licensure programs that allow experts into the classroom with a minimum amount of hassle, and more. Several weeks ago, the Vermont Commissioner of Education bemoaned the turf battles that must be fought and won to implement early education programs in the state. Would that he had the willpower to fight these other turf battles where the opponents are well-funded and powerful. Then we might see some real progress on closing the achievement gap.   FROM ELSEWHERE... From.... THE NEW DEMOCRATS PROGRESSIVE POLICY INSTITUTE 21st CENTURY SCHOOLS PROJECT BULLETIN - April 6, 2005 On the web at: http://www.ppionline.org NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: SKY STILL NOT FALLING How are schools and states doing with NCLB implementation? Two recent reports suggest the sky isn't falling after all: The Center on Education Policy released its third annual report on NCLB implementation. It contains some standard tropes about the problems with NCLB and its funding in particular. Nevertheless, the value of its data concerning what people on the ground are actually doing to implement NCLB -- drawn from surveys of school districts and states, as well as more in-depth district-level case studies -- makes it well worth a read. CEP found that student achievement, as measured under NCLB by test scores, is rising in a majority of school districts since the law's passage. The number of schools identified as needing improvement is also declining (though there are important caveats to both findings). And schools and districts are focusing more attention and resources on the needs of struggling students. Another report, from the Council of Great City Schools, found that student achievement in reading and math was improving in the 65 urban districts it represents, and racial achievement gaps are also narrowing in these subjects. Some of these gains will be put to the test next year when the percentages of students who need to be proficient for schools make adequate yearly progress will rise in most states. And educators continue to struggle with implementing and meeting NCLB's accountability requirements for students with special needs and English Language Learners. Look for changes on the former later this week. The CEP report also hits on the continuing significant problem of states lacking the information and capacity to implement the law effectively. There are also lots of complaints about timeliness of guidelines and adequacy of information from the Department of Education. In addition, many state education offices themselves are simply ill-equipped to address new NCLB needs like intervening in low-performing schools or analyzing achievement data in a timely and practitioner friendly fashion. CEP suggests this is primarily a problem of a lack of federal funding for state agencies.  We tend to think it's a more fundamental problem: State departments of education simply aren't designed for the new realities of performance-driven education reform. While resources are a part of meeting that challenge, structural change is as well. States are still devoting a lot of resources to things they shouldn't or don't need to be doing (for instance, managing minutiae of teacher certification policy) and little to the things they do need to be doing. Building capacity will require a rethinking and restructuring of state education agencies, as well as a significant effort to develop or import new talent to meet new needs. In other NCLB-related news, Rep. George Miller (D-CA), ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee, makes clear in a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle that he stands behind the law he helped shepherd into existence. And if you want more NCLB news, the Achievement Alliance, and partnership of the Education Trust, Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights, Just for the Kids/National Center on Education Accountability, Business Roundtable, and National Council of La Raza, which seeks to support NCLB and provide accurate information about student performance, just published its first newsletter. You can sign up at their website. Further Reading: "Report on the No Child Left Behind Act: Year 3," Center on Education Policy (March 2005): http://www.ctredpol.org/pubs/nclby3/ "Beating the Odds: A City-by-City Analysis of Student Performance and Achievement Gaps on State Assessments," Michael Casserly, with analysis by Sharon Lewis, Janice Ceperich, and De'Shauna Thornton (March 2005): http://www.cgcs.org/pdfs/Beating%20the%20Odds%20V.pdf "New NCLB Data, Old NYT Spin... and Bonus Targeting Overkill At No Extra Cost," Eduwonk.com (03/24/2005): http://www.eduwonk.com/archives/2005_03_20_archive.html#111167964586887070 "Progress Report on No Child Law Shows Hits and Misses," Joetta Sack, Education Week (03/23/2005): http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/03/23/28cep.h24.html Letter to the Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, Rep. George Miller (03/21/2005):  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/03/21/EDGT0ARQ2T1.DTL Achievement Alliance: http://www.achievementalliance.org/support/ *   *   * WHO COVERS EDUCATION IN VERMONT? We do! Consider a gift to Vermonters for Better Education, the publisher of the weekly Vermont Education Report, Vermont's ONLY continual source of education news. Send donations to: VBE, 170 Church Street, Rutland, Vermont 05701. VBE is a nonprofit organization and contributions are tax-deductible.  *   *   * The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701, 802.773.5240 Contact VTBetterEd@aol.com for more information.   Subscribe Here SubscribeRemove

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