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Page 53
LEVEL 1 - 124 OF, 345 STORIES
Copyright 1997 Caledonian Newspapers Ltd.
The Herald (Glasgow)
January 7, 1997
SECTION: Pg. 16
LENGTH: 2014 words
HEADLINE: underachievement
BYLINE: Brian Boyd
BODY:
THE year just gone saw a consensus emerge on the most pressing problem
facing Scottish schools - underachievement. Two major reports, Achievement for
All by Her Majesty's Inspectorate and Improving Achievement in Scottish
Schools by the Secretary of State's Task Force have analysed the issues and
pinpointed some of the causes. All the major political parties have committed
themselves to deal with it, albeit in differing ways. Now, as we enter 1997, and
the run -up to the General Election, it is time to look for solutions .
., But why is achievement such a vital issue, and how are we to measure it? Is
raising standards in schools simply a matter of improving results in tests and
examinations? Or should we be trying to create an ethos where every child can
succeed, and not just academically?
If, as New Labour's document proclaims, every child is special, then should
not the aim of education be to focus on a wide range of talents, valuing them
equally? And can schools really be blamed for underachievement, when the biggest
barrier to educational success - poverty - with its related problems of limited
aspirations, low self-esteem and disaffection, remains unaddressed?
All the evidence of the last 30 years suggests Scottish schools are good and
that teachers are highly professional and committed. So, what are the arguments
for concentrating on raising educational achievement still further and what are
their implications for Scottish education in 1997 and beyond?
If Britain wishes to remain competitive into the ~ew Millennium, faced with
the challenge from the tiger economies of the Pacific Rim, then educational
standards have to rise. We are falling behind" so this arguments runs, on a
whole host of measured outcomes, from performance through mathematics to the
proportion of the workforce who receive training to an advanced level ..
Schooling is seen as utilitarian, as preparing the young people for the
labour market. Whatever the targets, they usually .have a vocational element. The
question is: should we see schools merely as a preparation for work, and
achievement as means to the end of economic competitiveness? Is the
concentration on economic growth and league tables the one which is likely to
lead to a society which maximises the talents of all of its members? What is to
happen to those members, in school or in the workplace, who are unable to
compete?
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The Herald (Glasgow), January 7, 1997
The Eighties was the decade of thrusting upward mobility, of the cult of the
individual, of managerial ism. But the challenge facing many Western nations
into the twenty-first century may well be that of social discord, where a lack
of cohesion and the emergence of an "underclass" threatens stability in our
cities. In global terms, the gap between rich and poor and the responsibilities
the former owes to the latter may threaten world stability. In the UK, it is
becoming clear that achievement in our schools is becoming more divided on
social class lines.
Therefore, there might be a strong argument for trying to create an
educational system which seeks to reduce divisions, which takes positive action
to support disadvantaged groups, and which resists attempts to select and
separate pupils from one another at an earlier and earlier age:
The social consequences of underachievement are too cataclysmic to
contemplate and we need to halt the downward spiral which leads to "the
disadvantaged, the disaffected and the disappeared". Initiatives such as Study
Support, pioneered by Strathclyde Regions and taken up by the Prince's Trust,
have succeeded in raising aspirations and achievement in disadvantaged areas.
Education has a moral dimension. It has to be inclusive, offering to all the
possibility of success, leaving none out.
If schools are to continue to be seen as the major plank in any strategy for
combating underachievement, how then can we measure how effective individual
schools are in maximising the performance of their pupils? The "market"
philosophy would suggest that competition, allied to parental choice, is the key
to school improvement. Effective schools will flourish while "failing" schoois
will close.
If the creation of grant-maintained schools, able to select pupils by
attainment, leads to the emerge of a Ridings school, so be it. schools need to
compete, and the most accessible criteria for measuri~g their success is
examination results!
But this runs counter to the research evidence over three decades which has
shown that the most influential factors in determining educational success are
family background, the socio-economic nature of the catchment area, and the
proportion of middle-class to working-class pupils in, the school. Competition on
the basis of raw results is meaningless as a measure of the value added by any
given school to the success of its pupils. Indeed, as recent research from the
Centre of Educational Sociology shows; it is an acknowledged strength of the
Scottish system that there is very little difference in the effectiveness of
schools, whether they are in the peripheral housing estates or in leafy suburbs,
when factors such as poverty are controlled for. Crude league table comparisons
result in winners and losers. We need to make all our schools "winners".
,
While the professionals and politicians deliberate about schools, the voice
of the child is rarely heard. The Children's Act has yet to make an impact on
schools in Scotland, but it is based on the principle that every child has the
right to have her/his educational potential fulfilled. Recent research carried
out on behalf of the NUT in England and Wales, Schools -Speak for Themselves, has
confirmed some of the early findings of the Scottish Improving School
Effectiveness project, namely, that pupils have strong and perceptive views on
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The Herald (Glasgow), January 7. 1997
what makes a good
te~cher
or a good school.
They have rarely had a voice in the system, no doubt a remnant of the old
Scottish adage that "little children should be seen and not heard". This needs
to change, and we need to listen more if we ,are to combat underachievement.
To the credit of Scottish schools, "celebrating achievement" has become a
feature and praise has 'come to be recognised as a motivator for learners. ,This
philosophy challenges the assumption that intelligence is fixed, that some have
it while others don't. It is a dangerously seductive argument, yet it has been
challenged by others who argue that all humans are capable of learning of a high
order if we have high expectations of them,.
Across Scotland, many schools and pre-five centres, are promoting an "ethos
of achievement", and projects such as the Scottish Initiative on Attendance,
Absence and Achievement are highlighting good practice and disseminating it.
This year will see a general election. Irrespective of which party wins,
decisions will have to be made about the·role of the new Scottish Qualifications
Agency and the implementation of the Higher stiJl prpgramme. It could yet be an
initiative too far for ,a beleaguered prot'ession. And what of five-14, S'cotland's
National Curriculum? It is not yet in place, and it has done little to address
the problem of discontinuity and underachievement in secondary one and two. Will
it wither on the vine in secondary schools and become, effectively, five-12?
We have a tendency in Scotland to look at slices of the school system in
isolation. What ~e need now is a long, hard ldok' ~t the wh~le process from 0
-18+ arid to ask the questi<,:m "What is education for?" before we make more
changes.
If educational change is to lead tO'progress, we need:
I A review of where we are nationally, where we want to get to and what we
need to do to get there;
I Early intervention, at the pre-five and early primary stage to provide the
basis for future success and create a positive regard for learning through life;
I A voice for children in school decision-making;
I No premature selection and no closing off of options for young people;
I Provision of staff de~elopment which builds on initial teacher training
and lasts throughout the professional life of teachers;
1 An education system which is valued, funded and supported by politicians
and parents alike;
1 Concerted efforts to eradicate poverty and to reach consensus on a set of
values which educators can share.
Dr Boyd is associate director of the Quality in Education centre,
Strathclyde University.
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The Herald (Glasgow), January 7, 1997
LOAD-DATE: January ,9 I
,1997
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LEVEL 1 - 123 OF 345 STORIES
Copyright 1997 The Hartford Courant Company
THE HARTFORD COURANT
January 7, 1997 Tuesday, 3 ENFIELD NORTH CENTRAL
Correction Appended
SECTION: TOWN NEWSi Pg. B1
LENGTH: 571 words
HEADLINE: OFFICIALS PLEASED WITH EAST WINDSOR MASTERY TEST SCORES
BYLINE: SHERMAN TARRi Courant Correspondent
DATELINE: EAST WINDSOR -
BODY:
School officials are pleased with the improvement they see in the Connecticut
Mastery Test scores of 315 fourth-, sixth- and eighth-graders.
The percentage of students who met or surpassed state goals on the reading,
writing and math portions of the test taken in September mostly increased
compared to 1995 results. Also, the scores of the sixth- graders and
eighth-graders held steady or were higher than their scores two years ago as
fourth- and sixth-graders. Finally, many students just missed reaching the state
goals, which school officials view as a favorable trend.
"These results really encouraged us that we're making progress," School
Superintendent Philip I. Morton said Monday.
He noted that teachers have developed questions for classroom tests similar
to those asked on the mastery tests and that teachers also have been trained on
how the st~te tests are scored. East Windsor Intermediate School Principal Frank
Olah said these steps have given his fourth- and sixth-grade teachers "a better
understanding of what the state is looking for."
Board of education member JoAnne Holigan said she was pleased "with an upward
trend" in the tests, especially in the eighth-grade writing scores. These showed
64 percent of '96 students at or above the state writing goal -- a score the
state defines as achieving excellence -- compared to 36 percent in 1995 and 47
percent when those students took the tests as sixth- graders. She attributed the
gains to a seventh-grade English course begun last year, which puts a greater
emphasis on writing.
But Holigan, board liaison to the district's curriculum council, wondered if
the change may have come at the expense of lower reading scores.
Director of Instruction Marion H. Martinez said the most dramatic positive
test results were among students who just missed the state goals.
For instance, Martinez noted that in math, 55 percent of 118 fourth- graders
were at or above the state goal, but eight students were witnin four points of
&
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THE HARTFORD COURANT, January 7,1997
the goal. In writing, 4S percent achieved excellence, while 24 students missed
by one point; in reading, 50 percent met or exceeded the state goal while 13
students were within five points of it.
Educators warn that standardized tests, such as the mastery test, are a
limited m~,asure of what students have learned. They say other criteria are
graduation rates, participation in extracurricular activities, rates of college
admissions and levels of enrollment in rigorous academic courses.
* The chart shows the percentage of East Windsor students scoring in each of'
three categories in reading, writing and mathematics on the newly revised 1994
Connecticut Mastery Test.
Reading Writing Math
Grade 4
Excellence SO% 45% 55%
Proficient 28 41 32
Intervention 22 14 12
Grade 6
Excellence 48 3S 43
Proficient 32 41 43
Intervention 20 2S 13
Grade 8
Excellence 65 64 40
Proficient 29 29 S5
Intervention 5 5 6
The Hartford CO,urant
CORRECTION:
Correction published January 8, 1997.
A chart with a story about Connecticut Mastery Test scores in East Windsor
showed the 1996 test scores. The year was listed incorrectly on the chart, which
ran on Page B1 Tuesday.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: January 8, 1997
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LEVEL 1 - 122 OF 345 STORIES
Copyright 1997 Capital City Press
The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.)
January 8, 1997 Wednesday
SECTION: NEWS;
METRO EDITION
Pg. 15A
LENGTH: 446 words
HEADLINE: 3 schools recognized in Tangipahoa Parish
BYLINE: CINDY CAMP
DATELINE: AMITE
BODY:
AMITE - Three Tangipahoa Parish public schools honored by the
state Department of Education for achieving three or more years of
improved scores on standardized tests received additional recognition
from parish school officials Tuesday night.
Amite Elementary, Southeastern Louisiana University Lab School of
Hammond and Martha Vinyard School of Ponchatoula received
commendations from state Education Superintendent Cecil J. Picard for
scholastic growth and achievement in the state's Louisiana Education
Assessment Program, or LEAP, testing program.
SLU Lab was recognized by Tangipahoa Superintendent Virgil Allen
for maintaining a 95 percent attainment rate for the last three years·
of testing, earning the school the Scholastic Achievement Award, as
presented by the state~
"SLU Lab is our powerhouse school," Allen said of the school,
situated on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University.
Allen said SLU Lab, which teaches students in grades kindergarten
through eighth grade, consistently scores high on standardized tests
and strives to present students with broad academic opportunities.
"We're just glad to have you and Southeastern Lab in our parish,"
Allen said in presenting the award to the school's faculty and
.
administration.
Amite Elementary and Vinyard School were recognized under the
state's Scholastic Growth Award program.
The award honors ~chools that consistently achieve improved test
scores for a minimum of a three-year period.
Amite Elementary was honored for showing improvement for the last
four testing years, 1992-1996, while Vinyard's award recognized that
school's continued improvement during the last three years.
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The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.), January 8, 1997
In his letter to Allen announcing the award winners from
Tangipahoa Parish, Picard noted, "These schools are to be commended
for furthering the academic achievement of their students and in so
doing, reducing the need' for remediation. "
In other action during Tuesday night's School Board meeting, the
board:
Elected Jake Bailey to serve as School Board president during
1997. Bailey has served on the Tang~pahoa Parish school Board since
the 1970s. Elected to serve with Bailey as the board's vice president
this year was Rev. Jimmy Richardson.
Recognized outgoing board president Donnie Williams for a
successful 1996 term. Williams was presented with a plaque of
recognition and congratulated by Allen and the board.
Decided to hold regular board meetings on the first and third
Tuesdays of the month at 6:30 p.m. at the Tangipahoa Parish School
System office in Amite. This has been the regular meeting place and
time for the board for several years.
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LEVEL 1 - 109 OF 345 STORIES
Copyright 1997 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
January 19, 1997, Sunday
SECTION:
NEWSi
Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 1362 words
HEADLINE: Lake View
bounty
cultivates
rich crop
School district reaps
academic
BYLINE: CYNTHIA HOWELL, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
BODY:
CORRECTION 012297
Fifth-graders in the West Side school District in Cleburne County scored at
the 45th percentile on the Stanford Achievement Test. Seventh graders scored at
the 53rd percentile, and 10th-graders scored at the 51st percentile, Fifth
graders in the West Side district in Johnson County scored at the 32nd
percentile and 10th-graders at the 43rd percentile. Incorrect test scores were
reported for the two districts in Sunday's-paper.
Also, the Turrell School District showed improvement on the test in one of
the three grades tested. The name of the district was garbled in the test score
article Sunday.
The Lake View School District was by far the star pupil in efforts this year
to raise student achievement levels in some of the state's poorest-performing
districts.
Lake View's fifth-graders had a composite score at the B1st percentile on the
Stanford Achievement Test, far above the 50th percentile, the national average,
and way above the 20th percentile, where the town's fifth-graders scored last
year.
Some of Arkansas' other academically troubled districts also took some steps
forward this year even though-they didn't leap as far as Lake View did.
All but four of the 20 districts on the state's list of academically troubled
districts reported gains this year on the Stanford Achievement Test, ninth
edition, as compared to last year, when students took the eighth edition of the
exam. Twelve of the 20 districts either held their own or improved in at least
two of the three grades tested at a time when overall state averages on the test
declined.
Frank Antho~y, assistant director for technical assistance in the Arkansas
Department of Education, is continuing to analyze the test results in the 20
districts. In March, Anthony must report whether each district progress
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 19, 1997
satisfactorily. But he said last week that he believes his study will show that
some of the districts did improve. That progress occurred even though the
districts were not formally notified until last July of their status as
academically distressed or as borderline distressed.
Students took the test in mid-September. The early test date didn't give the
districts much time to work with the students. Because of the short time to
implement school improvement plans, Anthony said, the most he could really hope
for this year is that district test scores would hold steady.
Lawmakers in 1995 enacted legislatIon requl.rl.ng the Education Department to
identify troubled districts and help them improve. Districts that don't improve
over the course of three years can be taken over by the state and their
superintendents and school boards replaced.
The state Board of Education decided earlier this year that school districts
where 50 percent or more of the students scored below the 25th percentile on the
exam during its past three administrations should be categorized academically
dis'tressed.
Thirteen such districts were identified last summer. Seven more districts are
being given state assistance this year because 40 to 49 percent of their
students fell into the bottom quarter.
Statewide, 27 percent of fifth-graders scored below the 25th percentile this
year while 19 percent scored above the 75th percentile. In the seventh-grade, 23
percent scored below the 25th percentile and 19 percent scored above the 75th.
And in the 10th grade, 22 percent scored below the 22nd percentile, and 16
percent scored above the 75th percentile.
Department officials have been in almost weekly contact with the academically
distressed districts since last summer. They have met with local district
educators and talked at community forums. And they have sponsored seminars on
such subjects as planning school improvement," analyzing test data and evaluating
staff.
Four of the 20 troubled districts held steady or reported increases in their
complete battery scores in all three tested grades this year. They were Carthage
and Lake View, which are distressed districts, and Hermitage and Hughes, which
are on the state's watch-care list.
Another four of the distressed districts held steady or declined at all three
grades: Altheimer Unified, Helena-West Helena, Humnoke and Marvell.
Cotton Plant, Elaine, Parkin, Saratoga and Waldo, all distressed districts,
and Eudora, Holly Grove and Lee County, all watch-care districts, raised their
complete battery scores at two of the three grades tested. The distressed
districts of McNeil and Crawfordsville improved their average complete battery
scores at one grade. TuWalterrell and Dermott, watch-care districts, did
likewise.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: May 20, 1997
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LEVEL 1 - 108 OF 345 STORIES
,
Copyright 1997 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
January 19, 1997, Sunday
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 676 words
HEADLINE: Lake View
bounty
cultivates
rich crop
School district reaps
academic
BYLINE: CYNTHIA HOWELL, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
BODY:
The Lake View School District was by far the star pupil in efforts this year
to raise student achievement levels in some of the state's poorest-performing
districts.
Lake View's fifth-graders had a composite score at the 81st percentile on the
Stanford Achievement Test, far abov'e the 50th percentile, the national average,
and way above the 20th percentile, 'where the town's fifth-graders scored last
year.
Some of Arkansas' other academically troubled districts also took some steps
forward this year even though they didn't leap as far as Lake View did.
All but four of the 20 districts on the state's list of academically troubled
districts reported gains this year on the Stanford Achievement Test, 'ninth
edition, as compared to last year, when students took the eighth edition of the
exam. Twelve of the 20 districts either held their own or improved in at least
two of the three grades tested at a time when overall state averages on the
test declined.
Frank Anthony, assistant director for technical assistance in the 'Arkansas
Department of Education, is continuing to analyze the test results in the 20
districts. In March, Anthony must report whether each district progress
satisfactorily. But he said last week that he believes his study will show that
some of the districts did improve. That progress occu!red even though the
districts were not formally notified until last July of their status as
academically distressed or as borderline distressed.
Students took the test in mid-September. The early test date didn't give the
districts much time to work with the students. Because of the short time to
implement school improvement plans, Anthony said, the most he could really hope
for this year is that district test scores would hold steady.
Lawmakers in 1995 enacted legislation requiring the Education Department to
identify troubled districts and help them improve. Districts that don't improve
over the course of three years can be taken over by the state and their
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 19, 1997
superintendents and school boards replaced.
The state Board of Education decided earlier this year that school districts
where 50 percent or more of the students scored below the, 25th percentile on the
exam during its past three administrations should be categorized academically
distressed.
Thirteen such districts were identified last summer. Seven more districts are
being given state assistance this year because 40 to 49 percent of their
students fell into the bottom quarter.
Statewide, 27 percent of fifth-graders scored below the 25th percentile this
year while 19 percent scored above the 75th percentile. In the seventh-grade, 23
percent scored below the 25th percentile and 19 percent scored above the 75th.
And in the lOth grade, 22 percent scored below the 22nd percentile, and 16
percent scored above the 75th percentile.
Department officials have been in almost weekly contact with the academically
distressed districts since last summer. They have met with'local district
educators and talked at community forums. And they have sponsored seminars on
such subjects as planning school improvement, analyzing test data and evaluating
staff.
Four of t~e 20 tr~ubled districts held steady'or reported increases in their
complete battery scores in all three tested grades this year. They were Carthage
and Lake View, which are distressed districts, ,and Hermitage and Hughes, which
are on the state's watch-care list.
Another four of the distressed districts held steady or declined at all three
grades: Altheimer Unified, Helena-West Helena, Humnok~ and Marvell.
Cotton Plant, Elaine, Parkin, saratoga and Waldo, all distressed districts,
and Eudora, Holly Grove and Lee county, all watch-care districts, raised their
complete battery scores at two of the ,three grades tested. The distressed
districts of McNeil and Crawfordsville improved their average complete battery
scores at one grade. TuWalterrel1 and Dermott, watch-care districts, did
likewise. '
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: January 21, 1997
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LEVEL 1 - 90 OF 345 STORIES
Copyright 1997 Star Tribune
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
February 4, 1997, Metro Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. 2B
LENGTH: 1496 words
HEADLINE: St. Paul students' scores improving;
'93, '96 test results show much room for growth
BYLINE: Maureen M. Smith; Staff Writer
BODY:
Students in St. Paul have shown increased scores on achievement tests over
the past four years, showing higher levels of improvement than at the average
national level, officials said Monday.
Although many students are still earning scores that fall below national
averages, fewer are falling into lower ranks and more are performing at higher
levels, according to data released at a St. Paul school, board meeting Monday
night. The data compared test score results from 1993 and 1996.
"We're doing things right," said Superintendent Curman Gaines. He said that
he was excited by the students' rate of growth, but that there is still more
work to be done.
But test scores at several schools, particularly those with
children from low-income families, were well below average. The
Achievement Tests, seventh edition (MAT7), were given to nearly
grades two to 12 in fall 1996 and will be administered again in
measure improvement.
high numbers of
Metropolitan
all students in
spring to
An achievement gap between white and minority students, of~en cited by
educators, is determined more by socioeconomic status, said Irene McAfee,
testing specialist at St. Paul schools. Such factors as family mobility, fluency
in English and race can playa part, as well. But more children of color than
white children come from poor families.
"In every racial group analyzed, poor students score lower," she said during
a presentation to board members. But the good news is that each racial group
analyzed also showed a growth in test scores over time, she said. "Our students
are' making more progress faster than other students in the nation."
The most marked improvements were: The number of students earning very low
reading scores decreased from 37 to 32 percent, and the number of students
earning high math scores increased' from 22 to 27 percent, McAfee said.
But schools with high percentages of children eligible for free or
reduced-price lunch still have more students scoring below national averages on
reading'and math portions of the tests.
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Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), February 4, 1997
At the new Arlington High School, for example, four out of five students
scored below national averages in math and reading. About three in five
students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. But teachers try to equip kids
with essential skills, said Principal Bill Dunn. That can mean more help,
smaller classes or special teaching methods, most of which cost more money, he
said.
"There's a whole controversy out there about trying to tie low tests scores
to free and reduced lunch or ethnicity," Dunn .said. " . . . I'm not sure the
argument should be where kids come from. If our kids have low skills" we've got
to find a way to improve those skills. It costs more to educate a city kid with
some of these backgrounds than it [does] to educate a kid in greater Minnesota."
Scores were highest at Capitol Hill, a grade one through eight school that
has entrance exams. About one in five students come from low-income families,
and about 6 percent speak limited English, said Principal Mary Dybvig.
Although
assigns much
involvement,
Students who
most students there are already high achievers, the school also
homework and has high,c::l.t;t;:,~I1daI1ge raj:;es. and strong parental
factors that help children 'succeed academically, Dybvig said.
enroll at the school tend to stay there, reducing mobility.
"There are high expectations for the students, sometimes heavy homework
projects and activities, and parents are able and willing to be involved with
their children's learning," Dybvig said.
Last
to boost
could be
district
year, the school district b~ganan accountability program at 10 schools
student achievement test scores. Schools that do not show improvement
reorganized with new staff. But the improving scores across the
seemed hopeful, officials said Monday night.
"What we have here is very good news," said Mary Thornton Phillips, school
board chairwoman. "We know we're moving in the right direction."
School-by-school look at St. Paul scores
St. Paul student test scores have improved over the past four years, but
individual school results varied widely. This chart shows the percentage of
students at each school who recieved reading and math scores above the national
averages on the Metropolitan Achievement Test, seventh edition (MAT?), given in
fall 1996. Average scores tend to be lower at schools with a high percentage of
children eligible for free or reduced lunch. Last year, the district launched an
accountability program to boost scores at 10 schools (marked with and x) .
Elementary
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Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), February 4, 1997
School Name Percent eligible Percent of students
for free or that scored above
reduced lunch national average in:
Readi~g Math
Adams Spanish Imm.
31 57 63 .
Am. Indian (Mounds Pk) 85 21 30
Ames 85 25 31 .
Battle Creek 63 43 48 .
Benj amin Mays 71 2'3 24.
Capitol Hill 19 89 89
Chelsea Heights 40 57 64
x Cherokee Heights 82 26 31
x Como Park 79 19 32 .
x Daytons Bluff 90 15 21.
East Consolidated 95 13 22
Eastern Heights 55 39 43 .
EXPO for Excellence 45 49 55
Farnsworth 64 42 55
Franklin 85 28 33.
Frost Lake 59 41 59.
x Galtier 61 32 45.
Groveland 38 55 61.
x Hancock 68 35 37.
Hayden Heights 63 37 46.
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Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), February 4, 1997
Highland Park 70 34 38.
Highwood Hills 63 40 48,:
Homecroft 70 33 45.
Horace Mann 33 61 65.
J.J. Hill 37 55 64.
Jackson 83 40 54.
Linwood 55 35 36.
Longfellow 70 37 47.
Maxfield 77 37 43.
Mississippi 58 42 43.
Monroe 71 34 36.
Museum Magnet 53,47,56.
Nokomis 36 54 57.
North End 84 21 27.
Open 63 49 45.
Parkway 81 22 34.
Phalen Lake 80 23 38.
x prosperity Heights 77 24
41~
Randolph Heights 53 47 51.
x Riverfront Primary 80 34
39~
Riverview (Pangea) 68 27 41.
Roosevelt (Pangea) 85 23 29.
x Saturn 80 29 31.
Sheridan 72 24 33.
St. Anthony Park 51 53 57.
Webster 55 43 45.
Wrld Cultures (Mds Pk) ,72 30 45.
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Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), February 4, 1997
Secondary
School Percent eligible Percent of students
for free or that scored above
reduced lunch national average in:
Reading Math
x Battle Creek Mid Sch.
72 30 34.
Cleveland Middle School 85 22 28.
Expo Middle 74 24 24.
Hazel Park Mid Scho 63 32- 38.
x Highland Park J.H.· 67 31 35.
Humboldt Jr.
74 24 26.
MurrayJ.·H.
524649.
Ramsey J.H.
~4
Washington J.H.
68 71.
76 27 34.
Arlington Sr. High 61 18 23.
Central S.H.
Como Park S.H.
Harding S.H.
30 62 67.
55 32 38.
50 29 40.
Highland Park S.H.
44 39 42.
Humboldt Sr .. & Jr.
65 19 25.
Johnson S. H.
52 25 37.
Source: St. Paul Public Schools
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Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), February 4, 1997
GRAPHIC: Chart
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: February 6, 1997
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LEVEL 1 - 86 OF 345 STORIES
Copyright 1997 The Florida Times-Union
The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL)
February 6, 1997 Thursday,
SECTION: METRO;
Georgia Edition
Pg. B-1
LENGTH: 518 words
HEADLINE: Elementary problem: Absences
BYLINE: James Salzer, Times-Union staff writer
BODY:
ATLANTA -- Georgia third-graders showed significant improvement, in math and
reading on ~ational tests last year, but a new report also suggests the state's
1,134 public elementary schools have the same problem as the high schools:
chronic absenteeism.
A report by the Council for,School Performance showed'the number of students
missing 10 or more days of elementary school last year rose from 24 percent to
27 percent.
The report comes a week before the state board is expected to consider a
mandatory attendance requirement for schools.
The state-sponsored council came out with its annual report card on
elementary schools yesterday. It released a report on high schools and middle
schools last month.
The report showed 74 percent of elementary schools had a higher percentage of
their third-graders scoring above the national average on the reading section of
the Iowa Test of Basic Skills last year.
Half of Georgia's third-graders scored above the national average on the test
up eight percentage points from 1994-95.
The Iowa tests are the ones most commonly used for state-by-state
comparisons.
On the Iowa Test in math, 57 percent of third-graders scored above the
national average, up from 53 percent during the 1994-95 school year. Sixty-one
percent of elementary schools improved their performance on the test.
'If we can sustain this level of improvement over the next 10 or so years, we
will have made significant progress in education in Georgia, said Gary Henry,
director of the council and the Applied Research Center at Georgia State
University.
I
Georgia fifth-graders did not show the same level of improvement on Iowa
tests, scoring nearly the same in the 1995-96 school year as 1994-95, the report
said.
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The Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville, FL) February 6, 1997 Thursday,
The biggest concern raised by the council was the absentee rate. More than
one in four students missed at least 10 days of school last year.
The report showed a wide variation in chronic absenteeism.
For instance:
At Williams Heights Elementary School in Ware County, just 6.2 percent of
students missed 10 or more days ,of school, the report said. At Ruskin Elementary
in Ware County, 53.7 percent missed 10 or more days.
In Chatham County, Bartow Elementary, Whit'e Bluff Elementary and Smith
Elementary each reported 3 percent or fewer students missing 10 days. Garrison,
Bloomingdale, Islands and Port Wentworth elementary schools had at least 30
percent of their children miss at least 10 days, the report said.
As the council noted last month, the problem isn't getting any better once
children advance into higher grades.
About 39 percent of Georgia high schooi students missed 10 or more days
during the 1995-96 school year, up 1 percent from the previous year.
In some high schools, more than half of the students missed two weeks or more
of school.
A study in the fall by the council showed schools with high rates of
absenteeism performed poorly on standardized tests.
The state Board of Education will hold a public hearing next week on,plans to
limit the number of days children can skip classes and still receive credit.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: February 07, 1997
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LEVEL 1 - 54 OF 345 STORIES
Copyright 1997 The Richmond Times Dispatch
The Richmond Times Dispatch
March 28, 1997, Friday,
SECTION:
ARE~/STATE,
CITY EDITION
Pg. B-1
LENGTH: 1072 words
HEADLINE: SCHOOLS IMPROVE IN HALF OF INDICATORSj
COLONIAL BEACH 'LITERACY PASSPORT' GAINS SET PACE
BYLINE: Pamela Stallsmith; Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
BODY:
Colonial Beach has made the biggest gain in the percentage of sixth-grade
pupils who pass the Literacy Passport Test on the first try, while Lancaster
County has shown the biggest drop.
The results in the Northern Neck town showed a 113 percent increase in the
percentage of pupils passing in the 1995-1996 school year over those passing in
the 1990-91 year, according to the state'Department of Education's 1997 Outcome
Accountability Project, which was released yesterday..
In Lancaster, the percentage of pupils passing plummeted from 71 percent to
39 percent.
The yearly report reviews the progress of the state's school divisions and
looks at such indicators as the literacy passport, the number of advanced
diplomas awarded and the types of courses students take.
Of the 46 indicators considered, Virginia's schools improved on about half,
or 22, from the 1994-95 to the 1995-96 school years. Other criteria showed
little change. Since the 1990-91 year, state schools have seen improvements in
31 indicators.
State schools have seen a slight drop, from 72 percent to 70 percent, in the
first-time passing rates of the Literacy Passport Test since 1990-91. Officials
hope new academic standards will bolster those scores.
State Board President Michelle Easton called the 2 percentage point dip
, 'very discouraging, I, though she noted that scores last year rose 4 percentage
points above the year before.
Of the report's results overall, she said, "We have to look at our successes
and celebrate them, and look at areas where we're not improving and work harder
in those areas. I I
Richard L. La Pointe, state superintendent of public instruction, pointed to
these highlights from, the 1990-91 to 1995-96 school years:
* A 12 percentage point increase in the number of pupils taking Algebra 1
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The Richmond Times Dispatch, March 28, 1997
before grade 9.
* An 8 percentage point gain in the number of students receiving advanced
studies diplomas; the number of minority students earning the diploma jumped 7
percent.
* A 6 percentage point increase in the number of students taking advanced
placement and college level courses, and an 8 percent increase in the number of
students scoring a 3 or higher on the College Board Advanced Placement tests.
* A steady increase in attendance, with a 6 percentage point increase in the
number of students absent 10 days or less a year fro~ school.
Even though statewide passing rates for the Literacy Passport Test aren't
improving overall, scores in some school districts have soared.
Sixth-graders must eventually pass all three parts of the statewide Literacy
Passport Test to be promoted to ninth grade and participate in sports. They keep
taking the tests until they pass.
Sixty-eight percent of Colonial Beach's sixth-graders cleared all three tests
on the first try last year, compared with 32 percent five years earlier. School
officials were not available for comment.
The percentage in Lancaster County has fallen from 71 in 1990-91 to 39 last
year, which school officials attribute to varying abilities of pupils.
Lancaster, a school division with about 1,600 students in the tip of the
Northern Neck, dropped 13 percentage points from 1994-95 to 1995-96.
we
"It's ironic, too, because last year
thought we had done a lot of extra
preparation activity leading up to the test, and the scores just did not go
up, " said Superintendent Randolph H. Latimore Sr.
Three school divisions in the greater Richmond metro area are among the 10
that have seen their first time passing rate plunge the most: Charles City
County, Prince George County and Colonial Heights. Two counties are among the
top improvers -- Dinwiddie and New Kent.
"Individually, our percentages are good, but when you look at the results of
those who passed all three of the tests the first time, our scores have
dropped, " said Suzanne Richardson, director of special services for Prince
George schools. "I cannot really give you an explanation for it. We have worked
with students on individual tests.' I
The passing rate had fallen in New Kent the previous year, and school
officials wanted to stop that downward trend.,
"1 was not happy about that, and neither were the middle school
administration or teachers, I I said Superintendent J. Roy Geiger II. "They
worked very hard to revamp their program of instruction.' I
Highland County, the state's smallest school division with 375 students, made
the second highest gain in passing rates during the past six years. school
officials attribute that to the county's homogeneity and a strong sense of
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The Richmond Times Dispatch, March 28, 1997
community.
The county of 2,500, located in the Allegheny Mountains on the West Virginia
line, saw 97 percent of its sixth-graders passing the test on the first try last
year, putting it in the state's top 10 for the second year in a row.
"We take very seriously our challenge to prepare students to pass the
Literacy Passport Test, " said Superintendent Donald Ford. "We give
considerable credit to two groups: the students themselves, who understand the
importance of doing well, and their parents; and secondly the teachers, who do a
marvelous job of preparing the students."
Across the state on the North Carolina line, Greensville County school
officials made it a goal last year to increase their passing rate, which had
sunk to 40 percent, an 11 percentage point drop from the previous year.
'We did not feel that the scores were reflective of what the students were
actually learning, " said Superintendent Philip Worrell.
I
School officials realized their immediate goal of exceeding the regional
average and now want to beat the state average, ,Worrell, said.
, 'Eventually our goal is to have everybody pass the first time, "
he said.
In Buckingham County, the goal is to increase thepas~ing rate, which has
consistently ranked among the, state's lowest. The scores have fluctuated some.
-
'.
,
.
"It's hard to say why (scores) fell," said Superintendent James T. Coonan,
who came to the Southside County from New York two years ago. "There are folks
who've been here a long time who don't know why it fell or why it went up. ' ,
School officials are trying some new programs, such as bringing in community
members to teach optional classes on Saturday.
"I've talked to all the sixth-grade classes," Coonan said. "I'm trying not
to make them crazy or nervous abut it, but to make them aware that it's an
important test."
GRAPHIC: CHART
LOAD-DATE: March 29, 1997
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LEVEL 1 - 18 OF 345 STORIES
Copyright 1997 Chicago Tribune Company
Chicago Tribune
May 12, 1997 Monday, NORTH SPORTS FINAL EDITION
SECTION: COMMENTARY; Pg. 12; ZONE: N; Voice of the people (letter).
LENGTH: 318 words
HEADLINE: BETTER GRADES
BYLINE: Gery Chico,
pre~ident,
Chicago School Reform Board of Trustees.
DATELINE: CHICAGO
BODY:
As the members of the Illinois General Assembly struggle to develop a new
funding system for education, there are calls for accountability and results
coming from legislators, business groups and individuals ..
The advocates for better performance should be aware of the results that have
already been achieved in the Chicago Public Schools. Recent news reports have
highlighted the sizable improvement in high school test scores.
Less attention has been given to another important milestone in the school
system's improvement: a second upgrade in the Chicago Public Schools' bond
rating by all three major bond-rating agencies. Standard & Poor's raised its
rating from BBB to A-minus. Moody's upgraded the school district from Baa to
Baal, while Fitch increased its rating from BBB to BBB-plus.
These upgrades follow last year's, the first change since the school system's
financial crisis in 1979. They represent the judgment of the rating agencies
that the Chicago Public Schools has put its house in order. Interestingly,
these ratings are based only partly on financial factors. The rating agencies
also look at how well we are improving education. They see us getting better on
both fronts.
The reasons for the ratings increases are summarized in the statement from
one rating agency: "Standard & Poor's believes that the board has restored the
school system to fiscal health and developed a credible financial plan to assure
stability, . . ," Now that the board has a 19wer risk profile, Standard & Poor's
expects the school system to build on its record of educational and financial
accomplishment."
As a result of the changed ratings, we can expect to save several millions of
dollars in our bond sales, through lower interest rates and lower insurance
costs. These savings will go directly into repairing school buildings and
building badly needed additional classrooms.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: May 12, 1997
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LEVEL 1 - 7·0F 345 STORIES
copyright 1997 The Seattle Times Company
The Seattle Times
May 30, 1991, Friday
SECTION: LOCAL NEWS;
Final Edition
Pg. B2
LENGTH: 647 words
HEADLINE: SEATTLE SCHOOL TEST SCORES IMPROVE FOR ALL GROUPS -- WHITE, MINORITY
STUDENTS SHOWED SIMILAR INCREASES
BYLINE: DICK LILLY; SEATTLE TIMES STAFF REPORTER
BODY:
Test scores for Seattle Public schools students have moved up on all three
districtwide tests given this year.
Scores released yesterday for the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) showed
gains of one to three points in all areas tested - reading, language arts and
math - at all grade levels. The tests were given last month.
"We now have three indicators that what we are doiIlg is working," said
schools Superintendent John Stanford.
The announcement follows news earlier this week that Seattle students in the
third, fifth, eighth and 11th grades also improved their writing ability, as
measured by a writing sample scored by outside consultants.
Seattle students in the fourth, eighth and 11th grades also made
across-the-board gains on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) for the
second year in a row, pulling out of a slump dating to the early 1990s. The test
is required by the state.
The scores released yesterday cheered school officials because
ethnic-minority students made gains equal to or greater than white students.
Nevertheless, most minority youngsters continued to score five to 10 points
below national averages for all students w~ilewhite students, for the most
part, remained 10 to 15 points above national averages.
Closing the gap in academic achievement between minority and white children·
is one of the district's major goals.
The scores for low-income children and children with limited English
proficiency also increased, though they remained significantly behind the scores
for children from middle-class and English-speaking homes, respectively.
Schools will send students' scores home to parents next week, said Dorothy
Dubia, district spokeswoman.
The Seattle School District switched from the California Achievement Test
(CAT) to the ITBS last year, so there's no data on long-term trends. Few
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The Seattle Times, May 30, 1997
suburban districts use the ITBS, though on other standardized tests, such as the
CTBS given statewide in the fall, suburban schools generally score from a few to
as many as 30 points higher than city schools. Scores generally rise with
income levels in school districts throughout the metropolitan area.
In the ITBS, 50 is an average score and a score of 55, for example means that
54 out of 100 students scored lower and 45 scored higher.
Average ITBS Scores and Year-to-year Changes
Reading Language Math 1996 1997 Change 1996 1997 Change 1996 1997 Change. High
school students:. 50 53 +3 49 51 +2 51 53 +2
Middle school students (grades 6,7 and 8):. 50 51 +1 52 53 +1 50 51 +1
Elementary school students 50 52 +2 51 52 +1 51 53 +2
African American high school students # 38 40 +2 38 39 +1 37 39 +2
Asian high school students # 44 45 +1 47 48 +1 54 56 +2
Chicana/Latino high school students # 43 46 +3 42 45 +3 43 45 +2
Native American high school students # 59 59 0 52 53 +1 51 52 +1
White high school students # 63 65 +2 58 59 +1 59 60 +1
Low income high school students (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch)#. 36
39 +3 38 40 +2 43 45 +2
High school students with limited English proficiency # 19 20 +1 24 27 +3 39 41
+2
# The scores for high school students in these categories are representative of
the scores of middle and elementary school students. Source: Seattle School
District.
GRAPHIC: CHART; SEATTLE TIMES: AVERAGE ITBS SCORES AND YEAR-TO-YEAR CHANGES (SEE
CHART AT THE END OF TEXT)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: May 31, 1997
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Page 31
LEVEL 1 - 47 OF 264 STORIES
Copyright 1997 UMI Inc.;
Copyright Business First of columbus Inc. 1997;
Business Dateline;
Business First-Columbus
April 4, 1997
SECTION: Vol 13; No 32; pg 21
LENGTH: 737. words
HEADLINE; National testing gets optional OK
BYLINE: Ellison Stind
DATELINE: Columbus; OH; US; North Central
BODY:
The voluntary national tests in reading and math that President Clinton is
proposing for fourth and eight graders could have implications not only for
students, but for the business world as well.
The debate continues as to the importance of, these tests.
Richard Stoff, president of the Ohio Business Roundtable, an organization
comprised principally of CEOs from Fortune 500 companies around Ohio, says these
tests are necessary in part because of the larger national economic
implications.
"This (issue of higher academic standards) is very real for the business
community, educators and public leaders. We talk about global competitiveness in
the abstract, but the reality is the competition we're seeing in the
international marketplace and the global economy isn't really a battle betw~en
countries in the abstract, but a battle of classrooms," Stoff says.
Stoff cites the recent results of the third international math and science
study which tested 500,000 eighth grade students around the world. American
students scored below average in math, and barely average in science.
"The countries that don't lead are not only going to be economically
disadvantaged, we're going to become economically irrelevant. The president'S
initiative for national tests and national standards is right on target. It is
unequivocally the highest priority for the roundtable," Stoff says.
John Goff, superintendent of public instruction of Ohio, says he is
supportive of the tests as long as they are optional for each state.
"We see there is a possibility of value here, but somehow it has got to be
meshed within the state's own systems ... and there has to be flexibility for
states to either agree or not agree to participate depending on how it impacts
their particular situation,'" Goff says.
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Business First-Columbu'S, April 4, 1997
Goff says he thinks the reason the tests have been proposed is to serve as a
benchmark. "People are trying to come up with a way to get a better reading on
how American children are doing among the states as well as international
comparisons ... The question is how to put something in place that is not overly
burdensome to the states," he says.
Can voluntary tests actually provide benchmarks if all states do not intend
to conduct them?
"We have to encourage states to use it," says Stoff. "If you have a large
enough sample size, then you can establish clear benchmarks."
Goff says there are some real issues to contend with if these tests are made
mandatory. He says Ohio already has a fourth grade proficiency test in five
subject areas and an eighth grade graduation test in five subject areas. "What
do I do with the fourth grade reading test? Do I use the national one that might
be developed to replace the one we have., do we try to mix them? How do we
approach this"
He says if these tests are impleI'(lented.r there would need to be some serious
discussion as to what to do with them in Ohio. He says giving the tests as
separate from the already established tests is "not a very popular idea for
school people right now. (School districts) are concerned with how much time
assessment takes away from teaching time."
Lyn Robertson, chair of the education' department at Denison University, says
she does not think the tests are going to solve the problems that schools
already have.
"I think we need more funding for schools, better and equal facilities. It's
so easy to correlate high test scores with affluence and low test scores with
poverty--there's such a clear connection."
Robertson says roadblocks are constantly being put in teachers' ways that
makes it difficult for them to teach. She cites the roadblocks as consisting of
not having enough materials, having too many students in one class and having
class time shortened arbitrarily and frequently.
"These things are fundamental. We spend millions on testing already--why not
spend it on materials and more in-service work for teachers so they can come in
with fresh ideas and new approaches?"
Stoff says national testing is part of the "integrative whole ll of education
standards. "It's not a question of either/ or, II he says. III am not unsympathetic
to educators and others who say 'Gee, we have limited resource and can't afford
to spend (money) on a test if we don't have pencils,' but we need to create an
educational system in this state ... so we can get it all done."
The issue of national testing is still being discussed in Congress.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
UMI-ACC-NO: 9759398
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LEVEL 1 - 70 OF 264 STORIES
Copyright 1997 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
March 15, 1997, Saturday, Final Edition
SECTION: EDITORIALj Pg. A22.
LENGTH: 506 words
HEADLINE: Solid Facts in Virginia
BODY;
UNHAPPY THOUGH state education leaders might be to hear it, the Virginia
public schools have lately been providing a vivid demonstration of an argument
President Clinton likes to make on the stump about educational standards.
Standards, the president keeps saying, are needed because individual kids, and
whole schools too, will rise to the occasion if they have high and specific
goals to aim for. More important, if they're in trouble, they will make progress
over time only with the help of specific measurements to tell them how they and
others are doing.
The Virginia schools, meanwhile, have been making something of a national
hit, as Jay Ma thews reports, with a strict and rather old-fashioned history
curriculum that requires kids to learn long lists of specific things about
American history, including quite a bit about Virginia. Despite these
unfashionable qualities, other jurisdictions across the country have snapped
them up with gusto. The connection? Only that, like explicit standards generally
in schools that have tried them, the Virginia history standards get plaudits for
letting both teachers and students know exactly what is required
thus
removing, for teachers in particular, the burden of guesswork as to what the
kids know already and what sort of material will serve them best in the future.
As for the presumed loss of creativity and of the opportunity to develop
analytic skills -- much beloved of textbook writers and educational theorists
those using the fact-rich, date-rich curriculum report that knowing more facts
turns out to make analysis more interesting. This is a sharper-edged variant of
the argument for standards in general, which tends to be made obliquely because
it runs against conventional wisdom: namely, that kids thrive on a certain
amount of educational rigor and are bored silly· without it.
Localities have, of course, backed off specific curriculums partly to avoid
the intense culture-war arguments over what specifics to include. The
president's proposal is explicitly confined to reading and math standards for
the same reason. Some conservative governors, virginia Gov. George Allen
prominently included, have criticized as intrusive "big government" the
Clintpn proposal that the Education Department provide funding and development
for national reading and math tests at the fourth-, . eighth- and 12th-grade
levels -- to be modeled on the existing National Assessment of Educational
Progress, available now but given only to samPle populations.
Virginia, till recently, also refused the small amounts of federal education
money tied to the president's Goals 2000 initiatives. National tests, officials
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The Washington Post, March 15, 1997
have said, would not be mandatory, but would be available to any school or state
that.wants to measure where it is in relation to others. The experience with
Virginia s own history standards suggests that optional but rig'orous standards
cO,uld do well anyway -- not because they are intrusive or coercive, but simply
because they are attractive.
I
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LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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LEVEL 1 - 101 OF 264 STORIES
Copyright 1997 DR Partners d/b/a Las Vegas Review-Journal
Las Vegas Review-Journal (Las Vegas, NV)
March 4, 1997 Tuesday,
SECTION: Dj
FINAL EDITION
Pg. 4D
LENGTH: 721 words
HEADLINE: Clinton on right track with schools
BYLINE: James champy
BODY:
Can America remain a powerful nation if it continues to offer its children
the longest vacations and shortest school calendars of any industrialized'
country in the world? Can America remain a powerful nation if its children
spend less than half as much time on academic subjects as children in France,
Germany and Japan? Can America remain a powerful nation if its children are
unable to read to acceptable grade levels? How much longer are we going to kid
ourselves? Our nation's public school system needs fixing. Not quick fixes but
fundamental bedrock changes. In his second and final inaugural address, which
reportedly went through 12 drafts, President Clint~n expressed an ambition that
American education, like America itself, should become the envy of the
world. In some respects we already are _ our medical schools, our top colleges
and schools devoted to technology like MIT and Cal Tech are accepted standards
of preeminence. But" President Clinton was referring to our public schools K'
through 12. While there are exceptions, our public schools, especially in lower
income areas, are falling short if not falling apart. That explains why so many
business leaders and their corporations are getting involved; our companies
cannot compete if their work forces have inferior educations. Clinton's
proposals include a combination of new twists and old ideas: standard reading
tests for all fourth graders; standard math tests for all eight,h graders; more
funding for Headstart, the early childhood development program; more federal aid
for local schools; tax credits and tax deductions for college tuition; and lower
interest rates on student loans.
The proposals have fairly wide political
appeal. Clinton, who closely watches the polls, knows that parents are
increasingly fed up. But what needs to be addressed is not so much what we teach
our children as how we teach them. There is certainly recognition of this in
government. In applauding Clinton's message, one congressman declared that his
state had become a "knowledge-based economy" and that an investment in education
would further its competitiveness. Clinton proclaimed that every 12-year-old
should be able to plug into the Internet. Vice President Al Gore, who is the
front-runner for his party's presidential nomination in 2000, is a techie and
has constantly and quietly emphasized the role of technology in schools. Yes,
computer literacy is becoming more important. It has become a basic skill
requirement as the workplace is increasingly automated. But there is even more
going on in the workplace, which requires an even more radical change in
education. When students graduate and enter the work force they will find a
much different world than the world of just 30 years ago. First, workers are
being given more decision-making power earlier in their careers. One big reason:
Customers don't want to wait for problems to be solved through some
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Las Vegas Revi~w-Joumal (Las Vegas, NV) March 4, 1997 Thesday,
command-and-control hierarchy. Second, work is becoming more collaborative _
teams solve problems and deliver services. Collaboration means being able to
pull your weight. Thirdly, and this connects to the first two factors, there
is less supervision around to make sure people make the right decisions.
Autonomy requires people who can cope with freedom. Next, let's teach them more
about developing team skills. So much of school has to do with individual
achievement. We should also teach children about values in a rigorous,
inspiring way
because values beget conscience. Students of conscience will do
the right thing when no one is looking. And with the time left over let's teach
the late 20th century interpretation of John Donne's famous line, "No man is an
island." I'm not talking social studies here. I'm talking about teaching
children how their Nikes come into being and why BMWs are made in South
Carolina. It means teaching the meaning of interdependence in a global economy.
We're all in this together, and the more our kids understand this, the better
off they'll be.
Jim Champy is chairman of consulting for Perot Systems Corp., and author of '
"Reengineering the Corporation." Write to Jim Champy at Tribune Media Services,
435 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1500, Chicago, Ill. 60611, or e-mail him at
JimChampyps.net
'. .
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LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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LEVEL 1 - 34 OF 264 STORIES
Copyright 1997 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
April 28, 1997, Monday, FIVE STAR LIFT EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 01A
LENGTH: 782 words
HEADLINE: STUDENTS BRACE FOR STATE-REQUIRED TESTS: SOLVING MATH PROBLEMS BY THE
NUMBERS
BYLINE: Carolyn Bower; Of The Post-Dispatch Staff
BODY:
Ten-year-old Anthony Roberts has read and reread math problems to prepare for
the new Missouri math tests that 130,000 students around the state will take in
the next three weeks.
"I've been studying real hard, but I'm really nervous," said Anthony,' a
fourth-grader at Nathaniel Hawthorne School in University City.
Students in 344 of the state's 525 public school
tests between today and May 16. The tests, optional
will be given to students in grades four, eight and
required next spring for all public school students
districts will take the
for districts this year,
10. The math tests will be
in those grades.
The math test is the first of a series of tests in communication arts,
science, social studies, health and physical education and fine arts that will
be introduced in the next four years in schools. The tests will replace the
multiple-choice Missouri Mastery and Achievement Tests. The new tests include
not only traditional multiple-choice questions but also questions that require
students to show how they solved problems and to write how they arrived at
solutions.
Illinois officials are finalizing state academic standards and plan to
redesign the test system there in the next 2 1/2 years to become more
performance based and with more classroom-based assessment, said Kim Knauer, a
spokeswoman for the state school board.
Missouri's tests come at a time when President Bill Clinton has put voluntary
national tests at the top of his second-term agenda. Clinton wants to assess the
reading skill of fourth-graders and the math knowledge of eighth-graders.
Missouri officials have said that they hope the new state tests will
encourage teachers -to help students demons·trate knowledge through solving
,problems, writing and analyzing information. Many teachers already do that.
Linda Thompson, Anthony's teacher', has the students work a math problem each
day. She also assigns a math problem for homework. Thompson gets some of the
problems from a booklet called Preparation for Performance Assessment in
Mathematics. She uses a textbook called Mathematics Plus.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 28, 1997
"My goal for the fourth-graders is not sO'much blowing test scores out of the
water but to help them improve their problem-solving skills and prepare for
fifth grade and sixth grade," she said. "The test is a blip on the landscape as
far as I'm concerned."
One problem mentions that Marvin lives at 2153 South Street, and his friend,
Joe, lives on the same street. Joe's house number has the same digits as
Marvin's but in a different order. Joe's house number is more than 4,000. It is
an even number. The digit in the tens place is larger than the digit in the
hundreds place. What is Joe's house number?
Thompson helped her students look for clues and work the problem step by
step, as she wrote the answers on a chalkboard. Anthony and Zachary Pectol, 9,
pointed out that the numbers for Marvin's address are in a different order or
mixed up for Joe's address. Tyler Johnson said the digit in the thousands place
has to be 5 for Joe's house number because it is more than 4,000.
Classmates responded with a basketball hoop-dunking chorus of "Yes," and then
applause when students tell Thompson Joe's full address: 5132.
Thompson, who has taught for seven years, has attended workshops and trains
other teachers in teaching students to solve math problems. She said the new
approach integrates the best of two worlds: problem solving, and writing with
the basic skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
In her class of 29, including 16 boys, a few are natural problem solvers, and
a few others can figure out the answers. Many students find problem solving
difficult.
"The important thing is trying and believing you can do it," Thompson said.
"Everybody, teachers and students, is expected to do more. The end result is a
better-rounded child."
The new tests are a byproduct of the Outstanding Schools Act of 1993. The act
required the development of new academic standards, guidelines for using them in
classrooms and a new statewide testing plan. Missouri educators aim to raise
standards for what students should know and be able to do, said arlo Shroyer,
assistant commissioner for instruction with the Missouri Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education, in comments distributed to teachers around
the state.
Anthony said he expects the test to be hard. But, he added, "I'm going to try
hard and do my best."
Anthony's classmate, Daniel Strickland, had this advice for test-takers:
"Just don't worry about it. Go with the flow."
Another fourth-grader in Thompson's class, Tyler Johnson, added, "It will all
be over soon."
GRAPHIC: PHOTO, GRAPHIC, (1) Graphic Illustration - Which is true of Missouri's.
new school testing plan?
A. The math version will be required by next spring.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 28, 1997
B. It will require that students show how they solved problems.
C. It is a byproduct of the Outstanding Schools Act of 1993.
D. All of the above.
(2) Graphic Chart - Rolling Out The New Tests
Schedule For New Missouri Tests
Subject
Math
Communication arts
Science
Social Studies
Health/PE
Fine Arts
Voluntary
1997
1998
1998
1999
Required
1998
1999
1999
2000
2000
2000
Grades
4, 8, 10
3, 7, 11
3, 7, 10
4, 8, 11
TBA
TBA
(3) Color Photo - Zachary Pectol, a fourth-grader at Nathaniel Hawthorne School
in University City, works a mathematics problem on the board. Some 130,000
students in Missouri will take math tests in the next three weeks.
(4) Post-Dispatch Graphic Chart - New Math Tests
Some questions require students to show how they solved
problems and to write about it. Above' is 'im 'example of a
fourth grade question. (Graphic Chart and illustration appeared
above this cutline in the paper
Jane wanted to find out which school subects her friends
liked best. She asked 10 of her friends to fill in a form
like this one to show their favorite subject.
Here is what Jane found.
Dian Ben Angie Lucy Kim Nina Kyle Mario
x
Reading
x
x
Science
x
x
x
Math
x
x
x
x
x
x
Social
Studies
x
x
Liz
x
x
x
5) Graphic Illustration - (Sample test: Questions listed below appear on the
sample test illustration)
Use what Jane learned about her friends' favorite subjects to make a graph that
shows how many of Janes's friends like each subject.
Write a paragraph to explain what your graph shows.
Which one of Jane's friends likes the most subjects?
LANGUAGE: English
LOAD-DATE: April 28, 1997
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LEVEL 1 - 3 OF 264 STORIES
Copyright 1997 The Hearst Corporation
The Times Union (Albany, NY)
May 28, 1997, Wednesday,
'SECTION: MAIN,
ONE STAR EDITION
Pg. A6
LENGTH: 1245 words
HEADLINE: Clinton's education reform is long on goals but short on funding
BYLINE: ELSA C. ARNETT Knight-Ridder
HIGHLIGHT:
There's no financial incentive for schools to take part in program
BODY:
WASHINGTON -- president Clinton says that tough nationwide standards will
make America's students smarter. But there are a couple of things he doesn't
say: His plan would cost money, and he isn't offering any.
"It's not enough to just throw standards at schools and expect them to
implement them on their own. We need training for virtually all school
staffers, " said Karen Anderson, research director at the National School Boards
Association. "What we're really talking about here is a new approach to
disseminating knowledge. ' ,
Creating national standards for public schools is the centerpiece of
Clinton's Goals 2000 program, which would set benchmarks in reading and
mathematics for every child in the nation.
While polls show that many parents and educators like the idea of tough
standards, it clashes with the longstanding tradition of local control over
public education. The 15,000 school boards in the United States, which set their
own rules about what students learn, won't readily give up that autonomy.
And Clinton is giving them no financial incentive to do so. Schools are being
encouraged to pay for curriculum changes by shifting the federal money they
already receive. But schools won't get a penny of additional federal money if
they participate in the voluntary program, and they won't lose any money if they
don't.
" 'We hope states will take it upon themselves to meet these standards, " said
Rick Miller, a U.S, Education Department spokesman. He said that once parents
and local school districts understood the President's plan, they would see that
it helps them achieve their prime goal: a better education for their kids.
School districts that sign on will find that it takes a lot of work. That's
because any system of national standards will require nationwide tests to
measure how students are doing. Most schools would be forced to revamp their
teaching methods and materials so that students would be trained to meet the
specific needs of the tests.
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The Times-Union, May 28, 1997
For example, mathematics classes in the United States are often criticized
for covering too many topics, too superficially. Raising U.S. test scores
would probably require schools to adopt the models of countries in which
students master fewer math topics, but in greater depth.
The differences between American teaching styles and those in other countries
were highlighted in a 1996 study by the National Center for Education
Statistics, which compared the way American and Japanese eighth-grade math
teachers approach a lesson.
In Japan, the teacher poses a complex, thought-provoking problem. The
students struggle with the problem, and various students present ideas or
solutions. The class discusses the ideas, the teacher summarizes the class'
conclusions, and then students practice similar problems.
In the United States, the teacher first instructs students on a concept or
skill, then solves example problems with the class. Then students practice on
their own while the teacher assists individual students.
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Lois Peak, the author of the study, said U.S. classes focus on teaching
students how to do something, such as solving a certain kind of problem or using
a standard formula, while the Japanese classes concentrate on fostering
mathematical thinking, such as exploring, developing and understanding concepts,
or discovering multiple solutions to the same problems.
This difference is illustrated by the way a concept like the Pythagorean
theorem is taught. In the United States, teachers typically tell their students:
"We find the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle by using the formula
a (squared) + b(squared) c(squared)."
In Japan, students would generally try to.derive the formula, prove it, and
discuss it in some detail.
While it's not yet clear what will be expected from new U.S. standards, some
U.S, reformers apparently hope to transplant the Japanese techniques for
teaching math into American classrooms.
A transition would be easier in affluent neighborhoods, where teachers often
have ongoing training programs and can swiftly order materials to accompany
their new curricula.
It would be hardest in schools in low-income neighborhoods, which are already
strapped for money to train teachers and buy new textbooks, calpulators and
microscopes.
A few states already have an idea of what it takes to change their standards.
In 1991, Maryland began giving new statewide tests in reading, writing, language
usage, math, science and social studies to third, fifth and eighth graders.
public schools were given a year to develop a curriculum that was more
focused and emphasized in-depth mastery of concepts.
Scores on average have improved, but some schools in low-income communities
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The Times Union, May 28, 1997
such as Baltimore have consistently performed poorly on the tests. As a result,
the state legislature recently voted to pump $ 254 million to Baltimore's
schools over five years, with a chunk of the money earmarked for teacher
training and other methods to boost test scores.
Generally, Clinton has said all fourth-graders should be able to read
independently and show they can comprehend a variety of literature. Every
eighth-grader should have mastered arithmetic and have studied algebra and some
geometry.
The U.S. Education Department focused. on those grades because research shows
that students who can't read English well by the end of third grade are more
likely to drop out. Similarly, students who meet the eighth-grade benchmarks
have the foundation to take math and science courses in high school to prepare
for college and high-skills jobs.
To ensure that students are meeting those targets,
creating a 90-minute math test for eighth graders and
for fourth graders. About 80 percent of the two exams
and the remaining 20 percent will require students to
responses.
the administration is
a 90-minute reading test
will be multiple choice,
produce their own
The U.S. Education Department will spend $ 22 million to develop the tests -
$ 10 million this year and $ 12 million next year, and estimates it will cost
between $ 10 and $ 12 per student to administer the test. The federal government
will pay the cost of administering the tests the first year, which is expected
to be 1999.
The new tests will be largely modeled on the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) tests, which are now given to a limited sample of
students in 43 states.
The NAEP test must be modified because it measures only overall state
achievement. The new exams are intended to give parents and teachers a score for
each child.
So far, most states aren't going along. Only five have decided to administer
the fourth- and eighth-grade tests -- Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina,
Massachusetts and West Virginia.
The Clinton administration hopes more will follow, because right now,
according to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study issued by the
Education Department in November, eighth-grade American students scored below
the international average of 41 countries participating in the study.
The content taught in U.S. eighth-grade mathematics classrooms is at a
seventh-grade level in comparison to other countries, the study said.
In science, U.S. eighth-graders score about the international average of the
41 countries in the study. American students did well in earth science, life
science and environmental issues, and performe<;l about average in chemistry and
physics.
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LEVEL 1 - 4 OF 264 STORIES
Copyright 1997 Telegraph Herald
Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA)
May 27, 1997, Tuesday
SECTION: Opinioni Pg. a 4
LENGTH: 908 words
HEADLINE: Dubuque schools ahead of Clinton's curve
BYLINE: Mac McClure
BODY:
Piddling: President's goals for schools no challenge locally
Bill Clinton's second term recently passed the 100-day mark. This measure is
usually applied to a president's first term, but in this instance President
Clinton's call for a "national crusade" for educational standards invites
review.
Here is a quick look at "President Clinton's 10-point challenge for American
education" as printed in the TH following his State of the Union speech.
Following each point is a comparison, when possible, with what's happening in
education right here in Dubuque. Our schools may not be typical, but they
usefully represent one community's honest effort to meet its obligations to its
children.
1. Set national standards, with national tests in fourth-grade reading and
eighth-grade math.
In Dubuque and probably in most of our nation's schools, Clinton's standards
are far below our present expectations.
Moreover, educators here and across the nation who really wish to assess
student progress are skeptical of the standardized testing Clinton seems to call
for.
Re: Bill's first idea - not good.
2. Make sure there's a talented and dedicated teacher in every classroom.
Throughout the land, including Dubuque, ,many teachers already meet these
criteria. When they don't, they go on teaching anyway. Why not? It's a good,
secure job. If the president wants a good teacher in every classroom, the hard
question is, what's to be done with the'ones already there? Can't fire them.
Re: Bill's second idea - not workable.
3. Teach every student to read well by the end of the third grade.
This is a new standard? Most schools, including Dubuque's private and public
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Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) May 27, 1997, Thesday
schools, routinely expect better, earlier results. This "goal'" denigrates
current efforts nationwide. By the way, what does "well" mean in "read well?"
Re: Bill's third idea - substandard.
4. Expand Head Start and challenge parents to get involved early in their
children's learning.
No pne will argue with more money for a program with proven value, except
taxpayers and already active parents. As for involving inactive parents: How?
Pay them? Order them to school? Grade them? Inspire them by reading to some kids
on TV?
Re: Bill's fourth idea - Head Start's a winner; parents do what they do.
5. Expand choice and accountability in public education.
Choice and accountability are abundant i.o Dubuque and elsewhere. Some even
home-school their kids. Given existing laws, how this truly challenges any local
community is incomprehensible, and especially so with Dubuque - an example of
what any town can do if it wishes.
Re: Bill's fifth idea - it's already happening.
6. Make sure schools are safe, disciplined and drug-free, and instill
American values.
The passage of new laws encouraging discipline and the identification of drug
activity and provisions for security is commonly prevented in Dubuque and
elsewhere both by existing laws and by ~ndividual rights ,activists. Saying "just
do it" ("assure" it) won't suffice as a response to those who fear possible
"limits to freedom and privacy. Regarding values, whose shall we "instill?"
Bill's and Hillary's?
Re: Bill's sixth idea - blowing smoke.
7. Modernize school buildings and help support school construction.
In Dubuque this is a major effort. We are working hard to put together a
workable plan for affording what we need. Nationwide, the problem might be
worse. Does that make local construction a federal need?
Re: Bill's seventh idea - federal school construction bureaucracy in sight.
8. Make the first two years of college as universal as high school.
Everyone goes to college now who wants to do so. What's the gain with this
notion? Why must we replace "high school graduate" with '~junior college
graduate?" Are we giving up on doing our job in 12 years? Dubuque and other Iowa,
schools are building a technology base to prepare people to do, not to prepare
for two more years of learning how.
Re: Bill's,eighth idea - more is not always better.
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Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) May 27, 1997, Thesday
9. Help adults improve their education and skills by turning the many federal
training programs into a simple skill grant.
Sounds great. Replace focused bureaucracies with ones that just spread money
around. In Dubuque and elsewhere, we see excellent training programs that fit
actual opportunities. Seems like these programs work.
Re: Bill's ninth idea - it ain't really broke;
do~'t
fix it.
10. Connect every classroom and library to the Internet by the year 2000.
Nationwide this might be novel. In Iowa the governor saw this need coming
years ago. If Iowa's right on this one, President Clinton must be too.
Re: Bill's 10th idea - you're late, but welcome to the bandwagon.
Overall, President Clinton offers very little substantive challenge. Dubuque
is ahead of him, as are hundreds of thousands of school districts nationwide.
The many effective schools should themselves be inspirational to other, laggard
schools.
He presents us with piddling goals - yes, "piddling," as in trivial and
paltry - goals that are in most cases as unreachable and unworkable as they are
(as always) high-sounding.
In Dubuque and across the nation, real people in real communities are taking
their children by the hand and looking ahead and working to overcome obstacles.
That, Mr. President, is education.
McClure, a former teacher, works as a security guard at the University of
Dubuque and writes.
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LEVEL 1 - 38 OF 264 STORIES
Copyright 1997 The Indianapolis Newspapers, Inc.
THE INDIANAP.OLIS STAR
April 22, 1997 Tuesday
SECTION: EDITORIAL;
CITY FINAL EDITION
Pg. A08
LENGTH: 572 words
HEADLINE: National standards
BODY:
President Clinton continues his push for state legislatures and
school districts to adopt national standards and performance
testing for .. fourth graders in reading and eighth graders in math.
Standards are a good idea; federal government involvement is
.not.
"
Clinton's latest comments came at a memorial service for Albert
Shanker, who championed the idea of national standards during more
than 20 years as president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Shanker died in February.
Clinton and Shanker first worked together on the subject in
1989 when they attended an education summit convened by President
George Bush. Then the head of the National
Governors Association, clinton emerged with what many considered an
ideal plan: "world class standards. "
The first attempt to create such standards, however, was a
dismal failure. When a national center released its plan for
voluntary history standards in 1994, the public was appalled.
Ninety-nine U.S senators voted to reject the proposal, which would
have had students learning more about the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy
than George Washington, more about American Indian Speckled Snake
than Thomas Edison.
Clinton vows to model .the standards after those of the
respected National Assessment of Educational Progress, but says
they'will have to be overhauled. The U.S. Department of Education
intends to award contracts worth about $ 9 million to groups outside
the government to rework the tests. If the contractors so desire,
their final product can differ greatly from the NAEP model. There's
the rub.
To calm that concern, Clinton notes that reading and math, as
opposed to history, are straightforward subjects whose standards
won't cause dissension among educators.
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THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR, April 22, 1997, Thesday
Yes, 2 + 2 should equal 4. But many schools have a "whole
language" approach to reading and writing while others focus on
phonics. Some accept "approximate spelling" and some use rote
memorization and drill techniques. Even math is vulnerable to
fashionable change.
In 1989, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
assailed "a long-standing preoccupation with computation and other
traditional skills" that make students "passive receivers of rules
and procedures rather than active participants in creating
knowledge. " Some parents blame NCTM standards for declining math
literacy.
Chester E. Finn Jr., a senior fellow at the Indianapolis-based
Hudson Institute, says the existing NAEP tests are good enough to
be adopted nationally and there is "no need to go through the
agonies of creating new ones. "
A flaw in the Clinton plan, he adds, is that it would be under
the U.S. Department of Education, thus inviting "bureaucratic
finagling, interest-group pandering and political manipulation. "
The venture must be made truly indei)endent of government, Finn
concludes.
Certainly national standards would enable parents and
communities to compare their students with others throughout the
nation. Further, they would encourage more uniform curricula, which
could boost student achievement considering the transiency of the
American public and the high turnover in public schools today.
But adoptioI} of them must be vcduntary, lest the federal
government take over yet another power it's not authorized to
exert. And the fine print of the standards should be read carefully
before any of us sign on to them.
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The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle
April 3, ,1997, Thursday,
SECTION: NEWS,
GEORGIA
&
CAROLINA, EDITIONS
Pg. A2
LENGTH: 666 words
HEADLINE: DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
CEOS, EDUCATOR
SUPPORT TESTING
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
President Clinton claimed new momentum Wednesday in his push for national
education standards and testing by enlisting 240 high-tech executives and a top
California school official to lobby for the program.
At an East Room roundtable of parents, teachers and business leaders, Mr.
Clinton said the endorsements by Silicon Valley executives and Delaine Eastin,
California's elected superintendent of public schools, amounted to "powerful
new momentum to the crusade for national education standards."
With California's participation, Mr. Clinton said, fully 20 percent of the
nation's schoolchildren would be enrolled in his program of voluntary
performance standards and testing
for fourth-graders in reading and
eighth-graders in math.
Wyoming
Heaven's Gate church
considers name change
CASPER
A church that chose its'name from a Bible verse is considering changing it
because it's the same phrase used by the cult whose members committed mass
suicide.
Heaven's Gate Ministries has no connection to the Heaven's Gate cult, whose
39 members killed themselves last week in the belief they would be transported
to a UFO, said the Rev. Robert Gilmore.
The Pentecostal church, founded in 1978, chose its name from a statement by
Jacob: I 'This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of
heaven.
I
,
New York
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The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, April 3, 1997
City cracks down on bar
where actresses cavort
NEW YORK
Hey, Julia Roberts - get down off' that bar! And Drew Barrymore - don't shake
your booty like that!
City officials have put a halt to hoofing at Hogs & Heifers, a downtown
honky-tonk known for its collection of celebrity bras donated by visitors such
as Ms. Roberts, Ms. Barrymore and Darryl Hannah.
Those stars and other patrons have been known to mount the Hogs & Heifers bar
in spontaneous bursts of late-night dancing. But it turns out a Prohibition-era
ordinance requires a cabaret license for such footloose activity.
I N B R I E F
JURY DEADLOCKS:
SPOKANE, Wash. - A federal jury deadiocked Wednesday on charges that three
white separatists carried out bombings and bank robberies in the Spokane area,
but convicted them of lesser charges carrying up to 35 years in prison. The jury
was unable to reach a verdict on eight counts related to three bombings and two
bank robberies last year but convicted the Idaho men of charges involving an
Oct. 8 trip to Portland, Ore.
ALBRIGHT ONE-HOPS IT:
BALTIMORE - It wasn't much of a pitch, but the rookie right-hander isn't
accustomed to such duty. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright opened the 1997
Baltimore Orioles season wednesday by tossing a 30-foot one-hopper to Orioles
catcher Chris Hoiles. "I think I'll keep my day job, ,. Ms. Albright said.
COMPANIES WIN LICENSES:
WASHINGTON - Two companies, bidding more than $ 173 million, won licenses
Wednesday' to provide a new CD-quality radio service that can be heard anywhere
in the country. Similar to cable television, the service is likely to be offered
on a pay-to-listen basis. Satellite CD Radio Inc. of Washington and American
Mobile Radio Corp. of Reston, Va., won in the Federal Communications Commission
auction.
15TH AMENDMENT OK'D:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Just after the Civil War, the 15th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution guaranteed that no one could be denied the right to vote because of
their' 'race, color or previous condition of servitude.'! Only 127 years later,
Tennessee on Wednesday became the last state to formally agree. The amendment
has been the law of the land since 1870.
JACKSON CASE DISMISSED:
CHICAGO - Prosecutors dropped a disorderly conduct charge against the Rev.
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The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, April 3, 1997
Jesse Jackson for blocking a construction site during a protest. He was arrested
Feb. 10 while protesting the firing of a black-owned company that had been
hired to do excavation work for the Museum of Science and Industry. He spent the
night in jail. The state requested the charge be dismissed.
- Edited from wire reports
by Glynn Moore
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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Copyright 1997 Denver Publishing Company
Rocky Mountain News
February 13, 1997, Thursday
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Ed. Fi Pg. 52A
LENGTH: 440 words
HEADLINE: Raise the academic bar
BODY:
On the same day President Clinton was arguing for national education
standards before the Maryland General Assembly, a nonprofit research group
released a survey that gave credence to his position. Half of high school
students, the Public Agenda survey reported, believed they were being
insufficiently challenged by their teachers.
Those students, of course, aren't the only ones. For instance, Albert Shanker
of the American Federation of Teachers has been quoted as saying, "Very few
American pupils are performing anywhere near where they could be performing. ' ,
Despite more stringent requirements in many states since the 1983 condemnation
of public education in a national report, The Nation at Risk, American students
still rank low in certain subjects compared with their peers in other
industrialized countries.
That's one of the chief points of the president and others advocating new
voluntary national standards. While they want uniformity of content material in
schools across the land, they also believe those schools should demand more from
students than is now common. They are right, of course. If you don't expect
much, you won't get much. The very brightest young people wiil be cheated of a
chance to fulfill their potential and children in the underclass will be cheated
of a chance to escape their circumstances.
As Clinton recognizes, standards don't mean anything if you have no means of
measuring whether people are living up to them. He wants to start by testing
reading for all fourth-graders and math for all eighth-graders. One instrument
for that is at hand, the National Assessment for Educational Progress, a test
that has earned credibility as a strong indicator of student knowledge .
. Yet none of this should be dictated by the federal government. It's fine for
President Clinton to proselytiz~ on the issue as he did in his State of the
Union message and before Maryland's legislature this week. It would not be fine
for him to try to enforce his druthers. Education is and should remain in the
hands of the states and localities. But there are many ways in which states and
other entities can work to accomplish these goals short of a federal mandate.
Although their lives would thus become harder, the Public Agenda survey shows
even many students are cheering for reform.
LANGUAGE: English
LOAD-DATE: February 15, 1997.
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Copyright 1997 Roll Call Associates
Roll Call
February 13, 1997
SECTION: pennsylvania Avenue
LENGTH: 1147 words
HEADLINE: Clinton's Thinking Big, Not 'Timid,' With Education
BYLINE: By Morton M. Kondracke
BODY:
Despite grousing from the left and right that President Clinton's second-term
agenda is too "micro," he actually is tackling big problems. And the public
seems to appreciate that.
Public polls show Clinton's approval ratings above 60 percent, the highest
levels of his presidency, and sources say Clinton pollster Mark Penn's private
surveys show that two-thirds of the public is satisfied that Clinton is "working
on the major problems" facing society.
Possibly because Republican officeholders are muting their criticisms during
the post-election era of bipartisanship in Washington, it's been left to the
commentating classes to bombard Clinton with brickbats.
On ABC's "This Week," for instance, liberal columnist Clarence Page declared
that Clinton's State of the Union message was "very poll-driven," indicating
that "the President is running for small-town mayor."
Conservative George Will charged that Clinton "doesn't want to do anything.
He wants to be something. He wants the Marine Band. He wants the Secret Service.
He could care less what happens."
And non-denominational grenade-thrower Sam Donaldson chimed in that
Clinton's budget was "timid ... filled with gimmicks" and "it's not going to solve
any problems at all."
Elsewhere, President George Bush's budget director, Richard Darman, claimed
that Clinton's program showed a lack of courage; New Republic editor Michael
Kelly said that it was loaded with "micro-pork"; and in the Weekly Standard,
Andrew Ferguson declared that while Clinton's words are Kennedyesque, "his
proposals are fitted for a deputy county commissioner" in Arkansas.
It's just baloney. There is no bigger challenge facing the country today than
equipping citizens to compete in a technologized world economy, and that is what
Clinton is all about.
In an era when deficit reduction is nearly a universally accepted priority,
it's not possible for any president to do big things the way Franklin Roosevelt
or Lyndon Johnson did. It's not even desirable. So Clinton is trying, as he said
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Roll Call, FebruarY 13, 1997
in his speech in Annapolis on Monday, to use government "to create the
conditions and give people the tools to solve their problems and make the most
of their own lives."
Clinton's education initiatives are designed, after 20 years of talk about
school reform, to create a set of national reading and math standards and have
kids tested to see if they and their schools are performing as they should.
If the goal was small-town stuff, conservatives like John Sununu of CNN's
"Crossfire" would not be complaining - wrongly - "that Clinton intends to "take
over" the nation's public schools.
Opposition goes both ways. For years, the education establishment -"teachers'
unions, school boards, and testing and textbook companies -"has used its
influence with liberals in Congress to resist national comparison tests that
might hold individual schools and teachers accountable for student performance.
Clinton's plan will break that lock.
Even so, he is not proposing mandatory national tests or even conditioning
federal dollars on states' adoption of national standards and testing.
White House aides say that Clinton purposely decided to exhort rather than
try to require loca'l acceptance of the standards in order to avoid "a dumb
debate over alleged federal takeover" of the schools.
States will be free to accept or reject the National Assessment of
Educational Progress for fourth-grade reading proficiency and the Third
International Mathematics and Science Study for eighth graders, but Clinton
intends to mobilize business groups and parents to see that they get accepted.
If Clinton can finally undo the awful facts that 40 percent of US
fourth-graders can't meet NAEP standards and that eight-graders are below the
world average in math, that won't be "micro." It'll be big.
Clinton's critics also are wrong to say that his agenda is strictly
"poll-driven." It's true that polls list education as the top item on voters'
minds, but Clinton has had a lot to do with putting it there. He's no
Billy-corne-lately to the issue: He's been working on it ever since he was
governor of Arkansas.
To be sure, there are points to debate in Clinton's agenda. In 'deference to
the teachers' unions, Clinton is unwilling even to experiment with scholarships
to send poor children to private schools -"a fault that Republicans should
correct as Congress considers his proposals .
. Also, probably 70 percent of Clinton's education spending is devoted to
higher education, where the US stars, compared with primary and secondary
education, where it lags badly.
Administration defenders say, along with conservatives, that money isn't the
major K-12 problem, standards are. But it's also a fact that the average teacher
in the US makes only $26,000 a year, compared with $71,000 for lawyers,
according to Education Week.
Beyond education, Congress needs to force Clinton to keep narrowing the
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Roll Call, February 13, 1997
deficit gradually over the next five years instead of back-loading the
budget-balancing process. And it needs to make him means-test entitlements.
Republicans can't -lland won't - ignore the ethical shadow hanging over
Clinton that may yet make his second term a nightmare. But consider how
differently the country judges its two major ethically challenged public
figures.
Clinton is viewed favorably by 61 percent of adults, according to the Los
Angeles Times poll, while only 22 percent approve of House Speaker Newt
Gingrich's (R-Ga) performance. Why? Mainly it's because Clinton has an agenda
that the public supports.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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Copyright 1997 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.
Sacramento Bee
February 12, 1997, METRO FINAL
SECTION: EDITORIALS; Pg. B6
LENGTH: 1094 words
HEADLINE: SCHOOL STANDARDS, DEJA VU
BYLINE: Peter Schrag, Contributing Editor
DATELINE: COMMENTARY
BODY:
PRESIDENT CLINTON'S call last week for national standards for public schools,
and for national tests in reading and math, couldn't have been better timed.
with the economy on an upswing, unemployment fairly low and hardly another major
crisis on the immediate horizon, the nation is in a positive mood about
upgrading schools. For more than a decade; we have heard about how our student
achievement lags behind Singapore and Taiwan and all sorts of other nations.
Clinton, who polls the nation every time he turns around, knew the nation's
feelings on all that, of course. Yet in the case of education, it's also a
message that comes comfortably to a former governor who made his mark as a
leader in school reform long before he ran for president.
For the same reason, however, last week's call for national standards also
looked like deja vu allover again. School standards was the core of President
Bush's education agenda and, in the form of Goals 2000: The Educate America Act,
which was passed by Congress in 1994, became the core of Clinton's education
program as well. The idea was that the federal government would commission
respected groups of scholars in various fields to write standards that the
states could voluntarily adopt. Or they could pick some other set of standards,
or write their own. Goals 2000 would provide money for implementation.
But between 1989, when Bush started the process, and late 1994, when things
came apart, the push for national standards was riven with political and
ideological controversy.
IN SOME of the federally commissioned curriculum projects, the standards idea
was captured by the education establishment and by various cadres of political
correctness. In some instances (and in some places), conservatives sensed a
devious government plot to capture the minds and hearts of children for secular
humanism, Darwin, un-American history, gay rights and other subversive purposes.
In some states, asin the battle over the CLAS. test in California, it was a
little of both. In fall 1994, Lynne Cheney, who, as head of the National
Endowment for the Humanities, had commissioned·the development of national
history standards, led the attack on them when they were finally produced.
Because of such fights and the suspicion they raised, Gov. Pete Wilson for
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months even
attached to
right about
right flank
refused to take Goals 2000 money. There were no political strings
the Goals money, but there was enough suspicion among the screwball
what the feds were planning todo that Wilson, trying to keep his
protected, turned the money down.
So now, in a way, Clinton is trying to start the process allover again. In
his State of the Union address last week, he emphasized that he was talking
about national -- not federal
standards. (Maybe this time the paranoid right
will think the standards will be brought by the stork.)
But in the end, the devil here, as in so many other things, is not in the
label but in the details. Three years ago, the Goals legislation got bogged down
in endless controversies, and while a watery bill was finally passed, there's
plenty left to fight about: Who will write the standards? What test will be
used? What group or groups, how chosen, will certify the tests and standards?
Should the government provide additional help for schools or students who are
not making the grade?
The last time around, there was even a hefty fight, brought by the left,
about whether standards should be implemented at all before school resources
were equalized enough so that all students had an equal "opportunity to learn."
That demand was finally beaten off, and it may not return again. But a lot of
other things no doubt will: How high should the bar be set in those
fourth-grade reading tests and those eighth-grade math tests? What about
non-native English-speakers, and ebonies and self-esteem?
.
THE POLLS all show strong support for higher standards, and for the moment
Americans may even mean it. But the history o~ our various attempts to set such
standards -- particularly if they are to have consequences -- is shot through
(on the one side) with our ambivalence about giving everyone a second chance,
a90ut not destroying children's self-esteem, about giving credit for effort (by
teachers and students) and about -- at all costs -- avoiding anything that
smacks of bias.
On the other side, in the meantime, there are all those people who don't want
any higher authority setting local school standards, who think the teaching of
things such as evolution is an improper intrusion on religious liberty (or,
worse, an attack on truth itself) and whose idea of a basic education does not
extend to any difficult questions or issues whatever. It would be nice if this
time we could achieve some real standards, but the battle is far from over.
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Copyright 1997 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
February 11, 1997, Tuesday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01
LENGTH: 1299 words
HEADLINE: Clinton School Talk Wows an Assembly; He Pushes National Standards In
Historic Visit to Annapolis
BYLINE: Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
President Clinton carried his campaign for national reading and math
standards to Annapolis yesterday, assuring members of the Maryland General
Assembly in a historic visit that he's not trying to usurp local control of
schools.
Making his case in detail, and often with passion, Clinton confronted what
has long been the major obstacle to enacting a voluntary, national plan of
standards and testing~ the notion that it would amount to a "federal power
grab," as the president put it in his 54-minute speech.
He said such criticism was nonsense. "From Maryland to Michigan to Montana,
reading is reading, and math is math," Clinton said. "No school board is in
charge of algebra, and no state legislature can enact the law of physics."
That line was one of many that drew boisterous applause from Maryland
legislators and other guests crowding the ornate House of Delegates chamber for
a special joint session of the General Assembly. Dignitaries as diverse as
George Washington and Woodrow Wilson have visited the State House, but it was
the first. time an incumbent president had addressed the Maryland legislature.
One of only six states where Democrats control both the governorship and the
legislature, Maryland embraced Clinton warmly, and he responded in kind. The
president lavished praise on many of the state's education initiatives,
including a plan by ,Gov. Parris N. Glendening to give free college tuition to
middle-income students who maintain a B average.
But Clinton devoted much of his speech to his call for national education
standards in math and reading. Maryland has taken a lead in standardized
testing, requiring students to take a battery of "performance tests" in grades
three, five and eight. Some state officials worry they won't reach the goal of
having 70 percent of all students pass the tests by 2000.
Maryland .education leaders say the tests will. spur schools to teach better.
But some parents complain that schools concentrate too narrowly on the tests,
and teachers unions say teachers are wrongly blamed for poor student
performances.
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After his speech, Clinton lingered to greet senators and delegates in the
House lounge. Then, in an unscheduled jaunt that surprised his own staff, he
spent two hours shopping along Annapolis's historic Maryland Avenue before
ducking into Little Campus, a favorite legislative restaurant, for a bowl of
seafood chowder with Glendening and other politicians. [Detail~ on Page B3.]
"It was a fun day," said Glendening, some of whose education bills now before
the assembly mirror Clinton's ideas. "Most importantly, it was a good day for
the state." It underscored "how we are out front leading the nation," he said.
"I was pleased at how forcefutly he spoke out in favor of our program."
In, years past, Glendening had distanced himself from Clinton, even endorsing
his rival Paul E. Tsongas in the 1992 Maryland Democratic primary. But
yesterday, the governor was by the side of the more politically popular
president almost from the moment his helicopter landed at the U.S. Naval
Academy.
Annapolis was among the first stops in Clinton's plan to barnstorm the
country in behalf of programs he outlined in last week's State of the Union
address, particularly his $ 51 billion grab"bag, of proposals to revitalize
education. Yesterday's speech emphasized his call for national standards and
tests by which to measure students, schools and states.
Clinton and others have steered clear of saying there should be sanctions for
schools that fail to meet such standards. But many governors, conservative
groups and others fear that any scenario of national standards could erode local
control of education, an American tradition.
At an education summit last year in New York state, the nation's governors
avoided any mention of national standards despite Clinton's pitch for them.
Clinton hopes to overcome such concerns this year, in part by focusing his calls
for standards in two areas in which educators say they may be able to unite
critics: reading for fourth-graders and math for eighth-graders. The U.S.
Department of Education is supporting the development of tests to measure how
students in those grades measure up to existing, widely accepted standards,
Clinton said.'
"Keep in mind, we don't want Johnny to make a better score than Mary on this
test," Clinton said, explaining his approach. "We want 100 percent of our kids
to pass this test. And then, when a lot of them don't, we don't want to give
them an F. We want to give them a hand up."
Clinton elici,ted laughter with an analogy to military training: "Think how
silly it would be if [in] every place in America where we do basic training,
they said: 'Well, you know, Louisiana is a long way from Georgia. We couldn't
possibly have uniform standards for basic training in the military. Just sort of
come up with whatever you think is good, and we'll hope it works the ,next time
we're in the Persian Gulf.' "
Although Clinton's crusade may face a stiff challenge nationwide, his
standards plan drew praise from Maryland lawmakers and educators. State Board of
Education officials said they plan to incorporate the national tests the
president talked about into their own program.
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The Washington Post, February 11, 1997
"I like the idea," said state School Superintendent NancyS. Grasmick. "For
our children, when they enter the 21st century, their competition will not be'
local. It will not be state. It will not be national. It will be international,
[and] we need strong national standards" to help them compete.
virginia officials had a different view. "If Maryland wants to sign onto
national standards, that's Maryland's option," said Ken stroupe, spokesman for
Republican Gov. George Allen. "Virginia took the ,lead ahead of Maryland, ahead
of the federal government in establishing high academic standards . . . . Our
feeling is that states ought to have the option to make that decision within
each state. Just don't force it on the states."
During his speech, Clinton had kind words for several of Glendening's
education initiatives, including plans to link all schools to the Internet and
efforts by Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D) to develop character education
programs. He hailed Maryland as the only state to require high school students
to perform community service.
The president offered particular praise for the free-tuition program
Glendening is patterning after Georgia's so-called HOPE schola'rship program.
Although some legislators have said the ,state can "t afford the plan, Clinton
seemed to suggest that the state can't afford not to pursue it. In Maryland, it
would be limited to families with incomes of $ 60,000 or less.
"There is no better expenditure of our money," CI'inton said. "It will raise
the per capita income of this state more quickly. It will get over inequalities
in income groups more quickly, and it will bring people together for a stronger
future more quickly than anything else."
Some legislative leaders were quick to offer caveats. House Speaker Casper R.
Taylor Jr. (D-Allegany), who introduced Clinton, noted that Georgia paid for its
plan with a new state lottery. "There is no parallel there between us and
Georgia," he said in an interview. "We have a lottery whose money is already
being spent."
Clinton devoted the last quarter of his speech to an appeal to state and
business leaders to find jobs for people leaving welfare. ''':r'his is a serious,
stiff challenge," said Clinton, who then quoted country music star Chet Atkins
in noting that state governments have asked for more authority over welfare
programs: "You got,to be careful what you ask for in life; you might get it."
Staff writers David Montgomery, Ellen Nakashima and Terry M. Neal contributed
to this report.
GRAPHIC: Photo, robert a. reeder, Maryland House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr.
joins the General Assembly in applauding Clinton. Clinton addresses a special
joint session of the General Assembly in the packed House of Delegates chamber.
It was the first time an incumbent president had addressed the Maryland
legislature.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Michael Cohen - Subject Series
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Domestic Policy Council
Michael Cohen
Is Part Of
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<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36062">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763316" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
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2012-0160-S
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Michael Cohen held the position of Special Assistant to the President for Education Policy within the Domestic Policy Council from 1996 to 1999. Prior to being detailed to the White House, he served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Education.</p>
<p>This series of Subject Files contains materials relating to education reform, the Goals 2000: Educate America Act (1994), America Reads initiative, bi-lingual education and the ballot initiative in California which proposed to eliminate bi-lingual instruction and limit the amount of time for bi-lingual students to transition to English only, test standards, teachers, tribal schools, school safety and school violence. The records include correspondence, reports, faxes, emails, handwritten notes, schedules, publications, and memoranda.</p>
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
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318 folders in 24 boxes
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Paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lexis-Nexis Testing Articles [1]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Domestic Policy Council
Michael Cohen
Subject Files
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2012-0160-S
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 13
<a href="http://clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/Systematic/2012-0160-S-Cohen.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763316" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Adobe Acrobat Document
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Medium
The material or physical carrier of the resource.
Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
8/12/2013
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
2012-0160-S-lexis-nexis-testing-articles-1
7763316