________________________________________  THE VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT June 24, 2002 Vol. 2, No. 26 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯  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: MAILTO:LSternberg@aol.com STATE NEWS... VERMONT'S TESTING PROGRAM RANKED AMONG WORST IN NATION The Princeton Review, a company that helps students prepare for the college-entrance SATs and similar tests, recently released their first rankings of statewide testing systems and Vermont came in 44th. In fact, Vermont's testing is listed among the eight worst programs on the Princeton Review's web site. Princeton Review based their rankings on these questions about state accountability systems: is it consistent, secure, open to public scrutiny, and flexible enough to improve over time? Does it allow schools flexibility in how they meet standards? "Good systems will result in better schools," say the Princeton Review raters, "and bad systems will create worse ones." Princeton Review collected data on 25 relevant indicators from each state and the District of Columbia. Each indicator was assigned to one of four major criteria and states received a score of either zero, one, or two points depending upon how their program performed. The criteria were: 1. Academic Alignment: High-stakes tests are aligned to academic content knowledge and skills as specified by the states' curriculum standards. 2. Test Quality: The tests are capable of determining that those curriculum standards have been met. 3. Sunshine: The policies and procedures surrounding the tests are open, and open to ongoing improvement. 4. Policy: Accountability systems affect education in a way that is consistent with the goals of the state. These criteria were weighted at 20 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent, and 30 percent respectively, and the raw scores scaled accordingly to give each state and the District of Columbia a ranking from one to fifty-one (the highest possible scaled score was 200). Each state was also assigned letter grades on the A-F scale for each separate criterion. Vermont received a scaled score of 92, an F in alignment, a B- for Test Quality, and a C- for Sunshine. Other low-ranking states included Tennessee, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. The highest ranking states were North Carolina, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, Arizona, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina and Washington. According to a Burlington Free Press article, Vermont's Education Commissioner Ray McNulty disputed the ranking and said that "Our tests were not designed for the Princeton Review."   SUPREME COURT DECISION DUE THIS WEEK The U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Cleveland voucher case will be out this week. For VBE's response to it when it appears, visit this web site.   CLEVELAND VOUCHER LAWYER TO SPEAK IN VERMONT Vermonters will have a chance to get a firsthand account of the U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the Cleveland voucher program when Institute for Justice attorney Richard "Dick" Komer comes to the state to speak this summer. Sponsored by the Ethan Allen Institute and Vermonters for Better Education (the publisher of this newsletter), Komer's visit will take place on July 24. He will speak at a dinner at the Holiday Inn in South Burlington about "The U.S. Supreme Court and the Constitutionality of Vouchers." Once the U.S. Supreme Court rules on this topic, interest should be high, so attendees are urged to reserve a space early. The details are as follows: VBE/EAI Summer Dinner featuring guest speaker Richard Komer, Institute for Justice attorney for parents in the Cleveland voucher case "The U.S. Supreme Court and the Constitutionality of Vouchers" Wednesday, July 24, 2002, 6:30 p.m. Holiday Inn, South Burlington Dinner will include a buffet of turkey, ham, roast beef, salads, vegetables, rolls and desserts. $30/person or $50/couple To reserve a space, send a check made out to Vermonters for Better Education to: VBE, 170 Church Street, Rutland, Vermont 05701. Call 802-773-5240 for more information. WANT INFO ON THE FEDERAL EDUCATION LAW? Parents, families, and community members who want to keep up to date on the progress of the "No Child Left Behind Act" can subscribe to an online newsletter that will provide valuable information and important tools. To subscribe, send an email message to: listproc@inet.ed.gov. Write this in the message: subscribe NoChildLeftBehind yourfirstname yourlastname  *    *    * ELSEWHERE... HOMESCHOOLERS DO NOT LACK SOCIAL SKILLS by David W. Kirkpatrick, editor of SchoolReformers.com One of the main arguments members of the education establishment use to object to homeschooling is that the students don't get the chance to socialize with others. There are several things wrong with that argument. The first problem is that it isn't really an argument. It's almost universally presented as a dogmatic statement with the implication that it is to be taken at face value. Unfortunately it goes unchallenged even though there not only is no specific evidence cited, there isn't even a pretense in that regard with a statement such as "Studies show ..." That is because there are no studies showing homeschooled students lack social skills. The second problem is that this view further implies that the only, or at least major, place for youngsters to be socialized is in a school. That, of course, is nonsense. Most people throughout history were not formally schooled -- as is true to this day for large numbers of people throughout the world -- but were still socialized. More to the point in this country, even public school students spend most of their time outside of the classroom, as the establishment likes to point out when they are making excuses for their failure to educate millions of students. Apologists for public schools themselves often point out that students spend less than one-eighth of a calendar year's 8,760 hours in school. Overlooked are the opportunities for homeschooled students to participate in their church, the local "Y", within groups of various kinds, with friends and neighbors, and even with their friends who attend conventional schools. This was made clear in 1988 when the Pennsylvania legislature held hearings on homeschool provisions in the state's law. In addition to the expert testimony, perhaps the most impressive was testimony by students themselves who not only made effective formal presentations which they had prepared, but handled themselves superbly in question-and-answer time. They described the many ways they socialized with others. As the movement has grown, from as few as 10,000 students in 1980 to an estimated 1,500,000 today, so have the availabilities of interaction between homeschoolers themselves. There are more homeschooled students participating in local, regional and state events, including, as in the news recently, high school graduation ceremonies. Those who watched homeschool students win national spelling and geography bees, plus others who finished in the top ranks, realize these students are both academically capable and well-adjusted. Then those who emphasize socialization within the public school framework further imply, but never state, that such influences are unfailingly positive. In fact, for millions of students, socialization experiences in public schools are predominantly negative, sometimes heartbreakingly so. Just recently, there was the story of a youngster who was constantly harassed in his public school and no one did anything about it. As he told his mom, "I don't care if they don't like me but why can't they leave me alone." But they didn't. The result was he committed suicide. Then there are the studies of major incidents of school violence in recent years, such as at Columbine High School in Colorado. In virtually every case the alleged perpetrators were loners who felt they had been bullied and harassed to the breaking point. They could hardly have had similar experiences with home schooling. With traditional schools, nearly 30 percent of the students drop out, according to a study by Jay Greene, who says official figures of about 20 percent underestimate the true extent of the problem. In not only some individual schools, but even in some entire urban districts, more than 50 percent of the students fail to graduate. Surveys of public school students, especially at the secondary level where they are more mature in their judgments, consistently report they find school "boring," the most common single descriptive word according to some reports, or otherwise unsatisfactory. And this is in addition to the millions who find it so unsatisfactory that they drop out. In large schools, some of which at the secondary level have 3,000, 4,000 or more students, the opportunity for students to participate in extracurricular activities, or even to shine academically, are severely limited. Whether a high school has 500 or 5,000 students, only so many can be on the football team, only one can be class president, only one can be valedictorian, and on and on. And nobody gets one-on-one attention except in the most unusual and briefest circumstances. None of which is true for homeschoolers. One factor largely unrecognized is studies that show youngsters who spend more time with their peers are more likely to develop peer standards than adult ones, and the earlier they begin peer-dominated experiences the more dysfunctional their values and attitudes may be. This is not to say that everyone should homeschool their children; that is a serious commitment not to be taken lightly. But those who wish to do so should be supported not criticized. The record of results is on their side.  *    *    * 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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