________________________________________  THE VERMONT EDUCATION REPORT November 28, 2005 - Vol. 5, No. 46 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯  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... "NEEDING IMPROVEMENT" SCHOOLS LIST TO BE RELEASED The Vermont Department of Education will release the list of "Title I Schools Needing Improvement"  this week, allowing parents and taxpayers a view of which schools in the state are consistently failing to educate children to proficiency levels. The release of this information is required under the No Child Left Behind Act. The schools that fall on this list for several years in a row are required to offer supplemental services to parents of students who attend the schools and to offer public school choice within a school district. However, because Vermont has many one-school districts, the public school choice option is rarely available. If districts were defined as supervisory unions, however, students would have a variety of public school choices because supervisory unions include numerous public schools.  The supervisory union is the recipient of federal Title I money, so it makes sense to use that definition for a district under the No Child Left Behind Act, which deals with federal money flowing to schools. However, the legislature passed and the governor signed a bill several years ago that allows federal money to flow to supervisory unions under NCLB but doesn't allow parents to use the supervisory union as the definition of a district under NCLB in order to access other public schools. This was a disappointing move from a governor who claims he supports school choice. HOW WILL THE VDOE LET PEOPLE KNOW WHICH SCHOOLS ARE ON THE LIST?  As the list of Title I Schools Needing Improvement is readied for release, the Vermont Department of Education is obligated to get the word out about who is on this list and the consequences such schools face. The VER posed a few questions related to the release of the list to Jill Remick, the Vermont Department of Education's communications director. VER: When the list of Title I Schools Needing Improvement is released, how will it be organized -- in other words, will it be readily apparent which schools fall under this category and what the consequences are for those schools? JR: We print detailed AYP (adequate yearly progress) reports as well as a summary report that lists only the areas that met or didn't meet AYP alphabetically for all schools.  As part of the press release we have the table of all identified schools that describes their status in the school improvement system and the areas/groups for which they didn't make AYP. It is important to remember that this is a list of all schools (not just those that receive Title I) identified by our unified (state and federal) AYP system.  We do indicate in the table whether they participate in Title I. VER: How will the Vermont Department of Education ensure that parents whose children are enrolled in Title I Schools Needing Improvement know what services are available to them as a result of this designation? JR: We provide guidance and technical assistance to schools and LEAs (editor's note: local education agencies -- supervisory unions in Vermont) about what they need to report to parents -- in particular those schools that need to offer choice and/or supplemental services.  It is the LEA/school's responsibility to notify parents of choice and supplemental services and we monitor to ensure that they have met this responsibility. VER: How will the Vermont Department of Education ensure that taxpayers in school districts with schools on the Title I list know of their school's status?  JR: Act 60 requires public reporting and we provide guidance and technical assistance on the information required under Title I that should be included in public reporting. We post assessment and AYP results to the state Web site and assist media coverage.  VER: Where is last year's list posted on the VDOE web site? JR: Last year's press packet is no longer online, but the results reside permanently online at: http://www.state.vt.us/educ/new/html/pgm_accountability/04/lea_A_D.html VER: I'm interested in the format of the release of the list, its ease of use, and the VDOE's commitment to informing Vermonters -- particularly parents in these schools -- of the status of their schools under NCLB.  So any comments you want to add on that? JR: In addition to our press release coming out tomorrow morning, I also send out a summary of results, a table of each school, their Title I and Identification status, Areas that the school did not make AYP and groups of students that did not make AYP. This will also be available online and available to the public. In addition, our Web site hosts this list, in alphabetical order, all year and for years past. *   *   * VERMONT EDUCATION IN THE NEWS... The past weeks saw a variety of articles on Vermont education appear in national and regional publications.  First the good news.... South Burlington resident Sheldon Katz had an excellent op/ed article published in the Burlington Free Press last Tuesday celebrating the idea of educational choice. Katz used as a springboard for his commentary Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman's groundbreaking essay "The Role of Government in Education," in which Friedman makes the case for school choice.  Here's a quote from Katz's article: "Many historians credit Milton Friedman as doing more to advance the cause of human freedom than any other person in the last century. As many may recall, Friedman was the intellectual force behind ending the military draft. In a recent interview, he said that he would rank success on universal parental choice as an even greater accomplishment. "Friedman is now 93 years old. Working together, we in Vermont can make his vision of parental choice a reality in his lifetime." To read Friedman's original essay (from 1955), go to: http://www.friedmanfoundation.org *  *  *  *  *  * And now the bad news.... Also appearing in the Burlington Free Press this week was an article that found its way from a Vermont newspaper to the Boston Globe and beyond and back again. This story, about a Vermont teacher who uses anti-Bush statements on a quiz in his English class, makes the case for school choice as strongly as any persuasive argument.  Here's the article: November 25, 2005 BENNINGTON, Vt. --The school superintendent whose district includes Mount Anthony Union High School has labeled "inappropriate" and "irresponsible" an English teacher's use of liberal statements in a vocabulary quiz. "I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes," said one question on a quiz written by English and social studies teacher Bret Chenkin. The question referring to the president asked students to say whether coherent or eschewed was the proper word. The sentence would be more coherent if one eschewed eschewed. Another example said, "It is frightening the way the extreme right has (balled, arrogated) aspects of the Constitution and warped them for their own agenda." Arrogated would be the proper word there. Chenkin, 36 and a teacher for seven years, said the quizzes are being taken out of context. "The kids know it's hyperbolic, so-to-speak," he said. "They know it's tongue in cheek. They know where I stand." He said he isn't shy about sharing his liberal views with students, but invites vigorous debate in the classroom. "Never once have I said, 'OK, you're wrong,'" he said. "Instead, it's, 'OK, let's open this up. Let's see where this can go.'" Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union Superintendent Wesley Knapp said he would not want his children subjected to such teaching. "It's absolutely unacceptable," he said. "They (teachers) don't have a license to hold forth on a particular standpoint." Knapp said he was recently informed of the situation and that it was a personnel issue that he took seriously. Principal Sue Maguire said she hoped to speak to whoever complained about the quiz and any students who might be concerned. She said she also would talk with Chenkin about the context of the quiz. "I feel like this needs to be investigated," she said. *  *  *  *  *  * Finally, some more good news.... The Education Innovator, an e-publication of the U.S. Department of Education, highlighted St. Johnsbury Academy last week, sharing information on the private school with thousands throughout the country on the USDOE's mailing list. Here are excerpts from the article: ST. JOHNSBURY ACADEMY COMBINES SMALL TOWN INGENUITY WITH AN INTERNATIONAL SCOPE Small Japanese lanterns line the path to enlightenment at Kasuga Grand Shrine in Nara, Japan. Twelve students from the other side of the world crumple pieces of paper, scrawled with messages for hope, prosperity, or thanks, and place them inside the cracks of the lanterns. The students walk the path to Todaiji Temple, burn incense, and wash their hands from sacred basins before entering an enclave where Diahutsu, the world's largest bronze statue of Buddha, watches over the ancient Japanese capital city. These students from St. Johnsbury Academy in St. Johnsbury, Vermont are visiting Nara with their Japanese host families as part of their school's unique foreign language exchange program. St. Johnsbury Academy is far from ordinary. It is a private high school nestled in the Green Mountains of New England. Although it is a private school, its day school program is open to students in the surrounding area through a school choice program, which allows parents to send their children to the school using public funds.... Since its inception 163 years ago, the Academy has sought to provide an education that serves as a life foundation, enabling students to be "intellectually self-reliant and to function as constructive, moral members of society." As a result, the school, which offers advanced, college-preparatory, business, and technical courses, is designed to meet the needs of students with varied interests and abilities. The Academy offers 13 Advanced Placement (AP) classes covering topics such as mathematics, social sciences, computer science, history, and languages. Additionally, an English as a Second Language (ESL) program is designed to provide intensive training in reading, writing, comprehension, and spoken English for international students. Four levels of study are available, as is individual tutoring, a digital learning system, and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) assessment. For students who need additional support, the school provides a rigorous six-week summer program using the same teachers and methodology as those used during the academic year. Charles Rollins, an alumnus of the Academy notes, "The Academy is definitely not the provincial school someone might expect to find in my Vermont hometown. I learned to speak Japanese, challenge myself, and think critically about global issues, all of which I use in my professional life." Mr. Rollins is currently an analyst covering Japanese and Australian counterterrorism efforts for the U.S. Department of Defense; he participated in a spring semester of St. Johnsbury's Japanese exchange program in 1997. This year, the Academy's Colwell Center, founded in 2003, offers students educational programs in New Zealand, Spain, Belize, and Japan. Additionally, students may study the arts in Stuttgart, Germany, or spend a semester in Ladahk, India, through the Vermont International Studies initiative. A new study abroad program will take students to Argentina next year. The Colwell Center also sponsors guest scholars who spend weeks or months on the school's faculty, sharing the culture of their home countries. Last year, two professors, one from Morocco and another from Thailand, taught classes at the school. Last week, the Center sponsored a guest lecturer, Gayane Afrikaan, a scholar in residence at Harvard University and political affairs officer with the United Nations, who spoke with Academy students about her work in Afghanistan. Ms. Afrikaan's visit was made possible through the Academy's collaboration with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University... In addition to educating students, the Academy has a tradition of educating teachers. The school is a member of the College Board and has been designated by that organization as a training center for Advanced Placement teachers in New England. At the summer AP Institute, which began in 1986, AP teachers learn about the AP examination in their particular subject areas, share approaches in teaching, and develop assignments.... Today, nearly 95 percent of St. Johnsbury students graduate, and about 80 percent enter postsecondary education. The Academy's students typically score in the 90th percentile or above on AP tests for English, European history, American history, and biology, and on the 2004-2005 Vermont Comprehensive Assessment System tests, 72 percent of tenth grade students scored in the highest two performance levels in "mathematical skills," and 79 percent scored in the two highest performance levels in "writing conventions." This year five seniors, out of the class of about 250 students, are National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists. St. Johnsbury is the current state champion in the "We the People" program (see Innovator for September 21, 2005).  *   *   * FROM ELSEWHERE... FROM....The Education Intelligence Agency COMMUNIQUÉ - November 28, 2005  On the web at: http://www.eiaonline.com/ NEA NCLB LAWSUIT DISMISSED  Unless you are still in a turkey coma, you already know that Chief U.S. District Judge Bernard A. Friedman dismissed the lawsuit the National Education Association brought against the federal government over the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This is hardly a surprising outcome, since the lawsuit took two constitutionally defensible positions -- one, that Congress has spending power, and two, that the states and people retain all powers not enumerated in the U.S. Constitution -- and combined them into the constitutionally indefensible position that states are entitled to federal money while ignoring key portions of the regulations that accompany the money. As EIA published in Intercepts last Wednesday, even NEA General Counsel Robert Chanin recognized the untenable nature of such a legal argument two-and-a-half years ago when he wrote: "In point of fact, however, neither the parental notice requirement -- nor, indeed, any of the other requirements in NCLB -- are 'imposed' on the states in a legal sense. NCLB has been enacted on the basis of Congress' Spending Power, and states can avoid this and other statutory requirements simply by declining to accept federal Title I funds. If the states decide to accept such funds, however, then they must also accept the conditions that Congress has attached to them." (ref. EIA Communiqué December 8, 2003, and again on April 25, 2005.) NEA announced it would appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. But there the union faces a double problem. Not only does NEA need to have Judge Friedman's ruling reversed, but the issue of the union's standing to file such a lawsuit will arise again. Judge Friedman addressed the issue of standing in this way: "Defendant's arguments would more properly be raised in support of a motion for summary judgment. At the pleading stage, however, the court must accept the allegations as true. Plaintiffs have met their 'relatively light' burden of alleging injury, causation and redressability." In short, should the suit be reinstated by the Court of Appeals, the U.S. Department of Education could then file a motion for summary judgment on the premise that NEA lacks standing to file suit. *   *   * 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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