________________________________________  THE VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT February 24, 2003 Vol. 3, No. 7 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯  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: LSternberg@aol.com NEWS & ANALYSIS... VBE BOARD MEMBER APPOINTED TO STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION Chris Robbins, president of EHV-Weidmann and a board member of Vermonters for Better Education (the publisher of this newsletter), will soon be appointed to the State Board of Education by Governor Jim Douglas. The news of the appointment first appeared in a Thursday article in the Caledonian Record. Robbins has a long history of working toward better educational opportunities in Vermont. He is on the Danville School Board, and is a member of the education committee of the Vermont Business Roundtable. He's also a former chairman of the Vermont School Boards Association, and serves on the Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital Board. Robbins has been a member of the VBE board since its inception in 1999, and has also served as a board member of Vermonters for Educational Choice. A graduate of the University of Maine, he has five children.  NINE SCHOOLS DID NOT MAKE ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS Two Title I and seven non-Title I schools in the state did not make adequate yearly progress on 2002 test results and are receiving "check marks" from the state. If they do not make AYP for a second time, they will be added to the list of "Title I Schools Needing Improvement" (or "priority schools" as the state of Vermont designates them) under the No Child Left Behind Act regulations. The nine schools that received check marks are as follows: Enosburg Falls Jr./Sr. High School Leicester Central Missisquoi Valley UHSD Poultney High School Richford Jr./Sr. High School Windsor High School Williamstown Middle School Springfield High School Troy School  STATE TO SHARE IN $1.78 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT According to an article in the Providence Journal, Vermont was one of four New England states awarded a $1.78 million from the federal government at least in part "to create assessments in English language arts and math for grades three through eight." (http://www.projo.com/education/content/projo_20030221_test21.c04bc.html) The other states involved in the grant are Rhode Island, Connecticut and Maine. Vermont joined in submitting the application in the fall, says Bud Meyers, Vermont's deputy commissioner of education. "Rhode Island actually put in the application," says Meyers, "and the other states endorsed it." Meyers says he hopes to use some of the money to offset costs associated with data systems that track things such as attendance, graduation and drop-out rates. Later this week, the various state education officials should have a conference call to discuss details of the grant now that it's been awarded. The money will flow through Rhode Island. Meyers doesn't have a precise dollar figure yet to attach to the assessments required under the NCLB Act. He'll be testifying in the legislature about various possible scenarios later this week. However, he does believe that the $3.4 million Vermont is slated to receive from the feds under NCLB "will be enough to fund the assessments along with what we're already doing."  MORE ED BILLS FINALLY IN THE PIPELINE Some interesting and substantive education bills are finally being "tacked to the wall" in the legislature. Here's a quick round-up of a few: Making an appearance recently was H.245, which allows the governor to appoint the commissioner of education (currently the commissioner is appointed by an un-elected state board). The bill is short on words but long on sponsors. At least 49 Representatives have signed on to it so far. Meanwhile, in the Senate, a small group has introduced public school choice again this year. Senators Hull Maynard (R-Rutland), Kevin Mullin (R-Rutland) and Mark Shepard (R-Bennington) are the sponsors of S. 121 which would allow parents to send their children to "any Vermont public school." The bill calls for the school "of residence" to pay 90 percent of the general state support grant to the chosen school district. Back in the House, 15 Representatives are backing a "moment of silence" bill that would "authorize the school board of a school district to establish the daily observance of one minute of silence in each classroom." Another House bill, H. 257, would allow approved independent schools the freedom to assess students using a nationally-recognized exam instead of the state exam. Although this bill has only eight co-sponsors, one of them could be critical to its success - the House Education Chairman, Rep. Howard Crawford (R-Burke) has signed on to it. A statewide teachers contract is the topic of H.249 which is sponsored by only two Representatives - Doran Metzger (R-Milton) and Kurt Wright (R-Burlington).  VSSE "SENIOR FELLOW" CRITICIZED BY PPI? The Progressive Policy Institute (which is affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council) regularly sends out bulletins from its 21st Century Schools Project. In a recent bulletin, PPI summarized several excellent Washington Post articles about the No Child Left Behind Act. Here's the latest summary: "The Washington Post's Jay Mathews continues to further readers' knowledge of the No Child Left Behind Act and advance debate about the law and its alternatives. A few weeks ago, Mathews hosted a debate on the law between PPI's Andrew Rotherham and education writer Gerald Bracey; this week Mathews asked an assortment of education experts to propose their alternatives to NCLB. It's a shotgun approach, some of the proposals are more of the same, and more than a few make little sense in practice (one that is particularly intellectually bereft focuses almost entirely on what not to do rather than solutions)." (The full article can be found at: "The Ups and Downs of No Child Left Behind," Jay Mathews, WashingtonPost.com: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56818-2003Feb11.html) Which of the proposals does the PPI single out for the criticism "particularly intellectually bereft" because of its focus on "what not to do?" The only proposal in the Post article that appears to fit that bill was one put forward by Susan Ohanian, who, among other things, is a "Senior Fellow" with Superintendent William Mathis' Vermont Society for the Study of Education.  WHO COVERS EDUCATION IN VERMONT?  WE DO! Maybe you noticed that this is the third "volume" of the Vermont Education Report. That means we're entering our third year of covering education stories in the state that you WON'T FIND ELSEWHERE. Education is a complicated and important topic. In Vermont, it's a nearly one-billion-dollar industry. Yet scant notice is given to it in the major newspapers and broadcast media in the state. Only in the VER will you find regular coverage of education issues - stories on what the department of education is doing, what is happening in the education committees in the legislature, and how the state really compares nationwide, as well as tidbits from around the country. Help us keep going - send a contribution today to: VBE, 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701.  ELSEWHERE... ALSO FROM PPI: PARANOIA WATCH RETURNS! Available at: http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?cp=4&knlgAreaID=110&subsecid=900001&contentid=251310 "The February 2003 Teachers.net Gazette features a piece by Alfie Kohn (previously published in Phi Delta Kappan) that examines standards, standardized testing, and a "business ethos" Kohn argues permeates much of public education. Kohn darkly hints at all the financial conspiracies that might be behind support for standards but says that this is less troubling than the sinister ways in which children have been turned into corporate profit centers. That, rather than old-fashioned corporate greed, is truly the stuff of great conspiracy theories! "Although he marshals little evidence, Kohn argues that American schools inculcate students with values necessary for corporate subservience and that this is the core problem with education today. There are legitimate criticisms both empirical and theoretical of testing and standards, but this essay is instead a revealing look at arguments that have much less to do with educational issues than world views. Kohn clearly doesn't much like corporate America. That's a perfectly legitimate view, but it's dangerous to conflate it with education reform. "It's wrong when the Right tries to foist a particular set of values or viewpoints on students or to use them as pawns in the culture wars. But it is no less egregious when it comes from the Left. It is deliciously ironic, however, when it's done with an eye toward selling books in the education marketplace and also fun reading when laden with a healthy dose of paranoia."  *   *   * REFORMING TEACHER TRAINING From the February 21 Teacher Quality Bulletin: http://www.nctq.org "Since 1997, the Council for Basic Education (CBE) and the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) have been working with teacher preparation programs in five states to implement their Standards Based Teacher Education project (STEP). This month, CBE and AACTE released a resource guide for colleges interested in implementing the principles of the STEP program. The guide contains articles on various topics from many of the 25 schools currently participating in STEP and profiles of 11 of these 25 campuses. "STEP provides a basic framework for colleges to help them use state K-12 academic content standards and other relevant national standards to improve the quality of their teacher preparation programs and, in particular, to help them boost their graduates' content mastery. Participating colleges create working committees made up of faculty from Arts and Sciences, Education, K-12 schools, and occasionally two-year community colleges that, with the support of the STEP program, work to align their teacher education with K-12 academic content standards and teacher licensure standards. To do so, the working committee members perform an analysis of their institutions' programs, focusing on whether the teacher preparation courses give teaching candidates the opportunity to learn the necessary content and pedagogical knowledge to teach. Once this analysis has taken place, the committee devises a work plan that outlines the changes needed to improve program requirements, curricula, and courses and then the committee creates an assessment system that can be used for collecting and analyzing data to make improvements to the teacher preparation program. "The STEP framework provides a good beginning for schools of education to use in reviewing and redesigning their programs. Its mapping of K-12 content standards against the teacher preparation curricula is undoubtedly useful in ensuring that all their graduates have demonstrated at least a minimum proficiency in their subject matter. But that's all STEP does--the STEP program does not require its teachers to have more than this minimum amount of knowledge, suggesting it may be acceptable for teachers to know no more than what they have to teach students as defined by state content standards. And STEP relies heavily on state content standards, standards for national accreditation, and INTASC standards, none of which guarantees an intellectually rigorous program. However, NCTQ hopes that, in the future, the collaboration encouraged by the STEP program between faculty in the Arts and Sciences and Education will lead to a call for teachers to master their subject knowledge and not just squeak by with a minimum standard. "Developing Knowledgeable Teachers: A Framework for Standards-Based Teacher Education Supported by Institutional Collaboration.Council for Basic Education and American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. Summary available at: http://www.c-b-e.org/PDF/STEPDevKnowTeachersBrochure.pdf Full report available for $15 from: http://www.aacte.org "Program Aims to Improve Teachers' Subject Expertise" Education Daily, February 14, 2003 (Subscription required.)  *   *   * QUOTABLE... From... Competition Works -- a 2/23/03 Burlington Free Press Editorial "Choice could unleash the innovative energies of Vermont educators to develop a wider variety of educational offerings to appeal to families. Teachers could find the school that meets their teaching style or reflects their educational philosophy. Parents could find the school that best complements their children's temperament and academic interests... No school is right for every child. The more options children have in schooling, the more likely they will find the right place to learn." http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/bfpnews/editorial/sunday/2000h.htm  (link expires after one week) *   *   * The VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT is published by Vermonters for Better Education 170 Church Street, Rutland, VT 05701, 802.773.5240 Contact LSternberg@aol.com for more information.

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