09-05-02

Boston Globe

Ga. school district told to comply with new law


But district concerned 'No Child' Act at odds with desegregation rule

By Mary Leonard,
Globe Staff

WASHINGTON - The US Education Department has instructed the public schools in Augusta, Ga., to comply immediately with the school transfer provision of a new education law, even though the school district prohibits students from transfering out of racially balanced schools under a federal court's desegregation order, which has been in effect for 30 years.

In a letter sent last week, Undersecretary of Education Eugene W. Hickok told the Richmond County Board of Education that it is not exempt from the federal education law, despite a ruling by a US District Court judge last month that granted the school district's request to delay implementation of the transfer policy for a year.

Bush administration officials say Augusta's is the first legal challenge to implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed by President Bush in January and is taking effect this fall. Under the law, students in more than 8,600 failing schools across the country have the right to transfer into better ones.

''While we respect the authority of the court that rendered this decision...we believe you should go back to the court immediately and submit whatever changes are needed to your desegregation plan to permit you to comply with [the law] this year,'' Hickok wrote to the Augusta school board.

Augusta school officials said yesterday they intend to follow the court ruling, which they sought. ''The judge felt it was better to do the right thing than to do it hastily,'' said Justin Martin, a spokesman for the school board. ''We will work with the state and US Departments of Education to implement the law, but we also need to meet the needs of our community and our schools.''

Many school officials complain that they have not had enough time or guidance from Washington to implement the transfer policy. The new law does not explicitly address how more than 200 school districts still under federal desegregation orders would accommodate transfer requests and maintain racial balance. The majority of those districts are in the South, and the orders grew from successful lawsuits brought in the late 1960s and 1970s by the NAACP and the US Department of Justice to end racial discriminiation in education.

''To the extent that the lowest-achieving and low-income students may be able to immediately transfer, this school choice provision may have an unidentified, adverse effect on desegregation and may leave the promising local initiatives in place foundering,'' Dudley H. Bowen, Jr., chief judge of the US District Court in Augusta wrote in his Aug. 15 opinion.

Bowen said the Augusta schools needed ''sufficient time'' to determine how the new law could be reconciled with a district plan that achieves a 60-40 percent ratio of white to black students in each attendance zone.

Education Department officials say they suspect some school districts might use desegregation orders to delay implementing the school transfer option. Last month, they issued a draft regulation directing schools to implement the transfer policy, even if it required schools to appeal to federal courts to change desegregation orders. Schools could lose federal funding if they do not enforce the law.

The proposed regulation surprised many school administrators and some members of Congress. Senate Democrats on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee who helped craft the legislation say the department has overstepped its legal authority.

''Districts may not be able to obtain a change [in the order], since the authority is in the hands of a court that is enforcing the Constitution, which trumps the No Child Left Behind Act,'' committee members said in a memo to the department.

The American Association of School Administrators has also opposed the regulation, and the Georgia Association of School Superintendents has sent a letter to Education Department reminding that the federal government ''was a party'' to obtaining the court orders and requiring new litigation would be a burden on schools and taxpayers.

Phil Hartley, a lawyer from Gainesville, Ga., who represents many Georgia school districts, said it would create political turmoil for administrators to try to change desegregation orders, which still exist in many of the state's 180 school districts.

''If you have a good relationship between the black and the white communities and things are running well, why would you... ask them to change things?'' Hartley said. ''It will do nothing but stir up racial and political animosity for no purpose, and many school systems feel that way,''


09-05-02

Los Angeles Times

Taking Truants and Parents to Task


By MASSIE RITSCH,
TIMES STAFF WRITER

Students call it "ditching." Authorities call it truancy, illegal and a pitfall to crime and poverty.

Announcing a new program Wednesday to combat truancy in Los Angeles schools, City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and leaders of the Los Angeles Unified School District warned parents who fail to send their children to school that they risk their children's futures.

Starting with 22 middle schools in the city, "Operation Bright Future" will mail letters and brochures--in multiple languages--to parents and guardians of nearly 17,000 sixth-grade students, spelling out California's truancy laws and acceptable reasons, such as illness, for students to miss school.

The parents of students who are habitually absent will be directed to attend assemblies conducted by the city attorney's office. Counseling, health care and other resources will be available to get children back in class, officials said. Parents and guardians who flagrantly ignore truancy laws could be prosecuted.

"We hope it doesn't come to that, and we expect that it very rarely will," Delgadillo said Wednesday at Mulholland Middle School in Van Nuys.

The anti-truancy program targets students in their first year of middle school because at that age they are beginning to flirt with diversions from school, Delgadillo said. Students who ditch class are likely instead to spend their days committing crimes and joining gangs.

"By allowing our students to skip school, we are handing gangs a victory," he said. "An educated child will make a community safer."

Los Angeles students have actually improved their attendance in recent years, according to the school district. On average, about 7% of students, or 50,000, are absent each day, but district officials said it is difficult to distinguish excused from unexcused absences.

"Coming to school is absolutely critical. Eighty percent of life is just showing up," Caprice Young, Los Angeles Board of Education president, told an assembly of Mulholland's 600 sixth-graders. In addition to enforcing truancy laws, schools should strive to be places that children enjoy, Mulholland Principal John White said. Existing after-school sports, arts and tutoring programs can help.

"We want to have our school so exciting and moving forward that the students will want to be in school, because when you miss school, you miss out," White said.

Delgadillo's mild threat to Mulholland's sixth-graders that he can be a "tough guy" who might prosecute their parents seemed to affect the students on their second day of school.

"I don't really want to start that with my parents," said Catherine Ray, 11. She does not skip school because "my parents trust me, and I want to show respect for them," she said.

Lawrence Guatemala, 11, predicted that if his parents received a letter from the city's lawyer, "I'd be grounded for a long time."


09-05-02

Chicago Sun-Times

Girls delay sex when moms communicate


BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN
STAFF REPORTER

Anita Murphy doesn't find herself tongue-tied when talking to her children about sex.

"My mother talked to me about sex openly, and I carry on this tradition with my children," said Murphy, the mother of two daughters, ages 11 and 19, and a 20-year-old son.

It may not be the easiest thing to do, but the 42-year-old Ashburn resident's approach on a difficult subject may be one more mothers want to adopt.

Mothers who nurture a close relationship with their teenagers and successfully communicate their values about sex may keep their children, especially their daughters, from engaging in sexual activity at an early age, according to a national study released Wednesday.

But simply giving teenagers a stern warning about the dangers of early sex isn't enough, based on the results from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

"Know your kids. Be involved in their lives. Talking about sex and how you feel about it is only a piece of the puzzle," said Dr. Robert Blum, the author of the report and director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Adolescent Health and Development.

Parents can do simple things, from helping with homework and familiarizing themselves with their teenagers' friends, to help curb sexual activity, Blum said.

"The best thing a parent can do is to educate themselves about sex and to talk to their children or at least find someone who will talk to them. They also have to provide a loving, supportive foundation, which shouldn't be implemented when the hormones kick in, but from the beginning when the parents are teaching their children where their nose and eyes are," said Murphy, who is also a godparent to a teenage mom and a training associate for Peer Advocates for Health, a Chicago-based group that educates adolescents about sex.

The congressionally mandated study is compiled from two yearlong studies involving a total of 5,300 mothers and kids: one published Wednesday in the Journal of Adolescent Health and a previous study in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

Wednesday's study also indicated that mothers have more of an influence on the first time girls have sex compared with boys, who are often more influenced by peer pressure, their fathers and siblings.

Dr. Bennett Leventhal, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Chicago, was not surprised by the findings since most mothers play a primary role in rearing their children.

"This is not a profound statement," Leventhal said. "The time and attention parents give play a huge role in what we learn. It has been reported over and over again that families who clearly and consistently impose their values will have children who will adopt those values."

Mother-teen discussion on birth control and a mother's religious beliefs had no impact on the teens' sexual behavior.

The study, released in Washington, D.C., also indicated that girls who have mothers with higher levels of education are less likely to have sex at an early age.


09-05-02

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

3rd- and 7th-graders post big gains on reading test


By Carolyn Bower
Of The Post-Dispatch

Missouri officials say efforts to improve schools are showing results, but they plan to focus on why overall scores on Missouri's standardized tests remain relatively flat.

State test results made public Wednesday showed higher reading scores for third- and seventh-graders across Missouri.

But the percentage of high school students scoring proficient or higher dropped in math, science and social studies. Communication arts scores stayed about the same for high school students.

Missouri Gov. Bob Holden visited Maplewood-Richmond Heights Middle School in Maplewood on Wednesday to call attention to improvements in that school's test scores. A year ago the school showed improvement in only one of eight areas. The latest test results show improvement in seven of eight areas.

Maplewood-Richmond Heights school Superintendent Linda Henke credited her district's strides to tripling the amount spent on teacher training, keeping students with the same teacher in seventh and eighth grades, renovating the school to include classrooms with an Internet-connected laptop computer for every student and financing trips for students to do research in parks in Missouri and other states.

Holden called what happened in Maplewood-Richmond Heights an example of how new education accountability legislation is supposed to work.

"This school took the education accountability plan, implemented it and is seeing results," Holden said. "If you get everybody working together -- school officials, teachers, students, parents -- you can see classroom improvement. This is what I want to see across the state.

"Education is the single most important issue we must address," Holden said. "I am willing to commit to put as much money into education as possible. I also believe in accountability and no excuses."

Missouri education officials on Wednesday released the results of Missouri Assessment Program tests students took last spring and summer. About 500,000 students took the tests in math, science, social studies, communication arts, and health and physical education.

Three-fourths of Missouri third-graders scored at the satisfactory level or higher, meaning at or above grade level, on the state reading test. Almost 40 percent of third-graders scored proficient on the reading test, an increase of 10 percentage points over last year, the results show.

In addition, 34.5 percent of seventh-graders scored proficient in reading, compared to 32.7 percent last year. Overall, 65.8 percent of seventh-graders scored at the satisfactory or higher levels.

Missouri students exceeded national averages in all academic subjects at all grade levels. Part of the MAP test called the Terra Nova allows comparison of Missouri students with those around the country.

Orlo Shroyer, Missouri's deputy education commissioner, said that the increased focus schools have placed on reading is paying off.

"We're really excited about the increase in third-grade and seventh-grade reading scores," Shroyer said. "A student's ability to read at grade level is paramount for the student to do well on the rest of the MAP test."

Test results play a role in the accreditation of a public school district. The goal is for at least 3 percent fewer students to score at the lower categories and 3 percent more students to score in the higher categories on the state tests each year.

The scores also will come under additional scrutiny this year as state and local school officials begin to deal with the requirements of the new federal No Child Left Behind law. That law requires all states by the year 2005-06 to test virtually every child in grades three through eight in reading and math.

Missouri students take state MAP tests in academic subjects in grades 3, 4, 7, 8, 10 and 11. Later this month the State Board of Education will discuss how Missouri will respond to the federal testing requirements.

Some teachers have cautioned that the state MAP tests may give an unfairly low picture of the ability of high school students, especially in areas such as science.

Nathan Peck, science coordinator in the Clayton School District, said that some students get frustrated because they are not tested on the science covered in their classes.

"It's a reflection more of the test than of student achievement," Peck said.

Peck said there are good 10th-grade tests that incorporate science reasoning without relying on specific curricula.

Local school districts also recently received their test results.

State and district results can be found online at
http://www.dese.state.mo.us/divimprove/assess/index.html


9/2/02

Boston Globe

UPGRADE:
$37m buys experiment in schools


Hiawatha Bray
Globe Columnist

Reports from the nation's retailers suggest that the usual surge of back-to-school buying is rather muted this year. People just aren't buying as many pencil pouches and protractors as they used to, not to mention computers.

Just as well for Apple Computer Inc. that the State of Maine is about to hand out 16,000 brand new iBook laptops to every public school seventh-grader in the state. Next year, Maine will pick up 20,000 more, for use by seventh- and eighth-graders. Each laptop will include wireless networking, allowing students to easily connect to each other and to the Internet.

It's all part of a $37 million plan to make Maine school children the most wired in America. And while it will help Apple's quarterly earnings report, it's far from certain that the program will result in better-educated students.

Maine is plunging into an educational debate that is at least as old as television. Older readers will remember when television sets appeared in our classrooms, placed there by educators convinced that educational television shows would turn us into little Einsteins. It didn't quite work that way, and there are plenty of critics who say that throwing computers at students will be equally fruitless.

Clifford Stoll teaches physics part time at a California high school and spends the rest of his time as a stay-at-home dad. He used to teach astrophysics at the University of California at Berkeley, but now lives off royalties from three successful books, including ''High Tech Heretic,'' a skeptical take on computers in the classroom.

''What research do you expect a seventh- or eighth-grader to do, for which the Internet is essential?'' Stoll asked. In his view, the Internet is an excellent resource for quickly looking up facts, and that's exactly what's wrong with it. ''The reason for asking questions is to inspire research, not to get answers,'' Stoll said. ''The reason is to get somebody to be curious. If you want to destroy curiosity, the best possible way is to douse it with a firehose of answers.''

In Stoll's view, Web sites serve up a glib and superficial collection of facts, leaving students with the illusion that they understand a topic. The kind of deep knowledge they would get by reading books on the subject and haunting the stacks of the local library just isn't available through a wireless laptop.

Also missing, Stoll says, is the interaction with an inspiring, demanding, human instructor.

''The more time you have with your nose pressed to a CRT or an LCD,'' he said, ''the less time you have with a teacher.''

Even the Maine laptop program's biggest booster, Governor Angus King, admits that it's not a sure thing, citing scholarly studies of computers in classrooms.

''There are some that indicate that it's positive, and there are some that indicate it's sort of neutral,'' King said.

He added that he has seen no evidence that classroom computers do any harm, so if the program is a flop, ''the worst that happens is that our schools have 36,000 new computers that'll be useful for the next five or six years.''

Still, King said he is confident that the Maine program will get it right, partly because of a million-dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to train the teachers who will lead these digital classrooms.

''It isn't going to work if you just hand out the devices,'' the governor said. Training is ''an absolutely critical part of the project,'' especially since some teachers didn't know how to use computers or the Internet, while others didn't know where to find educational materials on line.

Today, each school has a technology team leader with special training in computer-aided education. Those teachers can turn to a nine-person team of mentors for additional help.

King also points to the results of a pilot study conducted last year. At the Pembroke School, 22 seventh- and eighth-graders were given laptops last year.

''I saw dramatic, dramatic behavior [and] attendance improvement,'' said principal Paula Smith. Students stopped cutting classes and coming to school late. It was as if having a $1,200 computer of their own gave students a new sense of personal responsibility.

There's no hard data on whether the Pembroke students actually learned more. King admits that the students' improved behavior might not last.

''That may be just the novelty of it,'' he said, ''and maybe that will wear off.''

In other words, we don't know whether Maine would have been better off spending its $37 million on hiring more teachers or buying more library books. And we won't find out for at least a couple of years. Which means that Maine's children aren't the only ones being taken to school this week.


09-02-02

Los Angeles Times

Goodbye Candy, Hello Soy Bars


Way before the soda ban, some L.A. schools had started to banish high-fat snacks

By GAYLE POLLARD-TERRY,
TIMES STAFF WRITER

There should be a sign on the front of Edison Middle School. A big red circle, filled with stacks of candy bars and bags of chips, slashed with a big red line, the universal sign for "Don't Even Think About It."

Well in advance of last week's decision to ban soda sales on campuses of the Los Angeles Unified School District, starting in 2004, plans were laid at Edison to ban not only sodas, but the junkiest of junk foods from campus.

Potato chips, 15 fat grams per serving, were pulled from the student-run store. Candy bars, with as many calories as a Lean Cuisine dinner and triple the fat, banished. Big bottles of soda, 20 ounces of empty calories, vanished.

Empty soda machines stand silent in the playground of this South-Central campus, the first but not the last among L.A. public schools to expel sodas and a good share of junk food. Students returning to Venice High School on Tuesday will find neither sodas nor high-fat snacks in the vending machines. Monroe High School in the San Fernando Valley is moving in the same direction.

"They took away our candy, our chips, our favorites," Blanca Machuca, 12, says as she nibbles on a chocolate chip cookie, allowed at Edison because the snack has half the fat calories of her favorite chocolate candy.

"They" are the principal, Faye Banton, teachers and parents. They exorcised the high-fat goodies in January in the hope that students will turn to more nutritious varieties and vitamin-rich fruit drinks, nonfat milk or water.

When the LAUSD board voted last week to give middle and high schools two years to quit selling carbonated soft drinks to students during school hours, the motion didn't include kicking out junk food.

At Edison, science and health teacher Lilra Brown needs no instruction from downtown. "Thirty percent of our children are overweight," Brown says. She also worries about the connection between bad grades, low test scores and poor nutrition.

She coordinates a grant from the Linking Education Activity and Food, or LEAF, state program, designed to help fund nutrition and fitness education for kids. In the L.A. district, Venice and Monroe were also awarded LEAF grants. Combined, the three grants total $750,000.

LEAF coordinators at all three schools want students to eat healthier. They know students won't give up snacking at school, so they are focusing on making healthier choices available.

When the bell rings at Edison signaling the morning nutrition break, many of the 1,600 students sprint to the school store on the edge of the playground. Pulling dollars out of pockets, they line up for T.G.I. Friday's potato-skin snack chips with cheddar and bacon. No respectable health food store would offer them, but they're on the shelves because they contain less fat, less sugar, less salt and fewer calories, though not by much, than the popular Flamin' Hot Cheetos they replaced.

The students also favor the intensely hot Poore Brothers habanero potato chips, which got the nod because they are low in saturated fat. Grandma's cookies, in oatmeal and raisin, peanut butter, and chocolate chip are all for sale--again, not classic health food, but with some redeeming ingredients. Instead of candy bars, students can choose Rice Krispies Treats or Chewy granola bars or trail mix--though few do.

"I'm not used to this stuff," says Christopher Thompkins, 13. The eighth-grader was unhappy when the junk food disappeared, especially Doritos. He eats the healthier chips because, "There's no other choice. I've got to get used to it."

Amber Patterson, 12, dives into the baked chips, citing a goal popular with many girls: "I'm trying to lose some weight."

Since the change, sales have dropped from $1,000 a day to about $500, according to Aura Barrera, the school's financial manager, reducing the profits that pay for band instruments, dance costumes and other student activities. That money will have to be made up somehow, but the middle school won't take the hit that some L.A. high schools will--some take in as much as $80,000 per year from the sale of sodas and junk food to pay for pep rallies, dances and other events.

At Edison, school administrators say there is a healthy consequence from the change. More students eat the lunch offered by the school. The meal count has risen from 555 a day to about 800, according to cafeteria manager Addie Sandville, suggesting that some children deprived of their favorite snacks will choose to eat whatever is available. In a couple of weeks, sales representatives for vendors will be on the Edison campus to offer a menu of healthy snacks. Students will pick the tastiest ones for sale in the school store.

At Venice High School, sodas should be missing from the 22 vending machines by the time students arrive for class Tuesday. This purge has been a long time coming.

It started with a request for juice. Three years ago, a frustrated student approached his health teacher, Jacqueline Domac. Could the vending machines stock "pure" fruit juice? The teacher followed up with the school's financial manager. No way. Switching from soda to juice would have violated the school's exclusive contract with Coca-Cola. Domac says the soda company gave the school $3,000 a year for that guarantee, which worked out to $1 per student.

Undeterred, her students circulated a petition two years ago. Finally, Coke added two juice products: Minute Maid orange and apple juices. Victory. Or so the kids thought until filmmakers from Paris, working on a documentary about commercialism, visited the campus last spring. While escorting the French filmmakers, the students came to an unsettling realization: the juice was in short supply.

Out of nearly 200 slots, there were 100% juice drinks in only four, Domac says. "Always at the bottom."

And, the student-activities fund lost money every time a student chose juice instead of soda. The school received 15 cents on each juice sale; 36 cents on each soda sale.

Recently, the school came to an agreement with a new vendor. The vending machines will be stocked with water, juice and sports drinks--as they will be at all LAUSD secondary schools by 2004.

Domac, who coordinates the LEAF grant for her campus, said she's determined to see better quality snacks in the vending machines.

Beginning this fall, none of the snacks sold on campus can have more than 35% fat or 10% saturated fat per serving. The sugar content also must be less than 35% of the total weight of the item.

What will 3,000 hungry kids munch on?

"We'll fill the vending machine with tons of things," Domac says "We are looking at Nutrigrain cereal bars, Nature Valley bars and Genisoy bars. Popcorn and certain cookies also qualify.'' So will dried fruits and nuts, granola, a veggie alternative to cheese puffs, various energy bars and some other organic and soy products.

Over at Monroe High School in North Hills, the vending machines are still stocked as usual, but negotiations are underway to change that. "We're giving Coke the benefit of the doubt," says Lisa Jones, the school's LEAF coordinator. "We're meeting again on Sept. 12, and we want the vending machines changed completely from soda to water and juices."

"We see kids eating Doritos, a Coke and a Snickers bar for lunch," she says. Breaking that habit while those snacks are sold on campus is a losing proposition, so Jones is working on introducing better choices. She served soy chips, protein bars, vegan chocolate chip cookies, veggie burgers and juice at a health fair last year.

She also tried an experiment to convince students that what they eat matters.

"We fed them a nutritious breakfast before they took the standardized tests. We served string cheese, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, juice and milk to send the message that what you put in your body really does matter in what you can do."

The school's test scores rose. And, while many things contributed to that success, Jones wants a healthy breakfast to get some of the credit.


September 4, 2002

Baltimore Sun

'Student Union' fills pupil needs


Enrichment: Recreation and Parks after-school centers at nine schools entertain, help middle-schoolers.

By Laura Shovan
Special To The Sun

It is the perfect "rec room." There is a pingpong table, foosball, a mini-computer lab, shelves, art supplies and games, and a dozen friends to play with.

For 13 Ellicott Mills Middle School youths, this room is an after-school home - one they prefer to being home alone or, even worse, with a baby sitter.

The "New Student Union" is an after-school enrichment program designed specifically for middle-schoolers. It is being offered in nine schools through the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks.

"We found that anything that was associated with baby-sitting, middle-schoolers weren't interested," said Barbara Moore, who manages the department's Recreational Licensed Child Care program.

To make the program attractive to preteens, Department of Recreation and Parks employees added touches such as a boombox cabinet built and decorated to look like a jukebox.

"What makes this program unique is that the teens who are in the program buy into the program," Moore said. A teen board is at each site so schoolchildren who attend set up the activities and events themselves.

County parents whose children attended after-school enrichment in elementary school contacted Moore about continuing the program for older kids.

Beginning its third year, the middle-school Student Union is popular. In six of the nine schools, the programs are filled.

The number of children ranges, depending on the size of the room available, from 12 to more than 20. It costs families $200 a month for the program, regardless of the number of days or hours attended.

Ellicott Mills was built with a large activity/community room near its entrance. When the school opened three years ago, that room became the Student Union's permanent home. At other schools, the program may use a classroom as its dedicated space, if one is available. Otherwise, space must be shared with the school.

Although the Student Union is not a true partnership with county schools - each building is required to do little more than keep the room clean and publicize the program - schools appreciate the resource.

"It's a program that is not a part of the school system, but it is definitely valued by the community and the school," said Madrainne Johnson, assistant principal at Ellicott Mills.

"The parents are very happy that we have the program here. Middle school students are not old enough to be left alone, and this does provide a structured program."

"One thing about the structure that I do like is that we have an organized game every day," said seventh-grader Miriam Bennett, 12. "I think it's too hectic when everybody's doing their own thing."

One of the objectives of the program is "to help teens learn to get along with others, and develop the values and skills they need to become good neighbors and contributing citizens," Moore said. Even during the first week of school, there is a community atmosphere.

Shavon Gordon is the group leader for the Ellicott Mills program. She is beginning her third year in after-school enrichment. "We get to do a lot of complicated projects" with the middle-schoolers, she said.

They will build model cars and perform a community service project this year. But Gordon was clearly enjoying the simple pleasure of a game of "Battleship" with one of her charges. Nearby, assistant group leader Jeff Lewis, a recent graduate of Long Reach High School, played a raucous game of foosball with two pupils.

But the children here also know when it is time to get serious. Eighth-grader Viraj Raiker, 13, said, "I get to do my homework so when I get home I don't have to worry."

Immediately after school, the children have 30 minutes of time for homework. They can get help from Lewis or Gordon.

Parents arrive as early as 4 p.m.; the program ends at 6 p.m.

"The time slips by like that," Gordon said. Between basketball games in the school gym and impromptu dance contests, she said, "we get so involved. ... I wouldn't pass this up for anything."



09-03-02

USA Today

Standardize teachers before standardizing tests


By DeWayne Wickham

''No child left behind,'' the education-reform mantra President Bush popularized, has run aground in Baltimore. In that city, nearly 30% of public elementary and middle school students today begin a new school year in the same grades they attended during the previous year.

About 20,000 of 70,000 Baltimore youngsters in grades one through eight were held back after they failed to pass specific classes and performed poorly on a national standardized test, and either didn't attend or failed summer school. Many of these underachieving students fit a disturbing profile: They are African-Americans in a ''high-poverty'' school district whose teachers disproportionately lack degrees in the subjects they teach.

Baltimore is not alone. In many states, students in schools with large numbers of minorities are more likely to be in classes taught by teachers who did not major or minor in that subject field, according to a recent report by The Education Trust, a Washington-based non-profit organization that works to boost student academic achievement.

The amount of out-of-field teaching nationwide ''remains unacceptably high, with classes in high-poverty and high-minority schools much more likely to be assigned to a teacher lacking minimal academic qualifications in the subject being taught,'' the report concluded.

In Baltimore's case, slightly less than a quarter of its 6,000 teachers were classified as provisional in the last school year. That means they didn't meet the minimum requirements for teacher certification. Nationally, 29% of the teachers in schools with high concentrations of minority students lack a degree or minor in the subject they teach.

''The research shows that teachers with weak academic backgrounds have a hard time teaching students in high-minority districts,'' said Craig Jerald, who wrote the report, ''All Talk, No Action: Putting an End to Out-of-Field Teaching.''

This problem is compounded by the findings of another report -- this one on the gap in school funding -- released last month by The Education Trust. In 30 of 47 states reviewed, the school districts with the greatest proportions of poor students got ''substantially less'' state and local money per student than did those with the lowest proportions of poor students.

When The Education Trust applied the same measurement to the minority population of these districts, it found that those with the highest concentrations of minority students received far fewer state and local education dollars per student than districts that had the lowest proportions of minority students.

This suggests that the education reforms Bush champions have little chance of succeeding without a more equitable distribution of state and local money -- the bulk of school funding -- to public schools, and a bigger push to increase the number of certified teachers in schools with high concentrations of poor and minority students. If this doesn't happen soon, a lot more students will be left behind.

Increasingly, students are being required to take standardized tests, not just to move from one grade to another, but also to graduate. Already students must pass an exit exam in 18 states to get a high school diploma. That number is expected to grow to 24 by 2008 and encompass 80% of the nation's minority students.

Before the nation's education system becomes too dependent on standardized tests, it must ensure that the funding of public schools is more balanced -- and that teachers at all schools are qualified to teach the subjects on which the students will be tested.

DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY.



09-09-02

Cleveland Plain Dealer (AP Story)

History teachers dislike state's chronological plan


Columbus - Some history teachers say they are unhappy with proposed state standards that would end the teaching of ancient history in Ohio high schools.

The social studies curriculum standards being considered by the State Board of Education would teach history in chronological order.

The school board is considering a proposal in which world history through 1750 would be taught in seventh grade and eighth-graders would learn U.S. history through 1877.

Modern world and U.S. history would come in ninth and 10th grade, respectively.

The board must approve the standards by Dec. 31.

A new state law that changes Ohio's student testing system requires the board to adopt grade-by-grade standards for each subject covered in the tests.

School districts are not required to follow the models, but ignoring them would place students at risk of failing the new assessments, including a 10th-grade graduation test.

Several longtime history teachers in central Ohio say they do not understand why state officials want early world and U.S. history taught in middle school.

"The serious teaching of American and world history is irrevocably damaged by these standards," said Tom Peet, a 28-year veteran at Westerville North High School.

He said the proposed sequence for history courses is illogical because it requires weighty subjects such as Greek philosophy to be taught to seventh-graders, who are not ready for them.

"These are some of your more abstract and complex problems," he said.

"For most students, this is their only shot at it."

In Westerville, a Columbus suburb, ancient world history is taught to ninth-graders and students in higher grades who choose advanced-placement courses as electives. Seventh-grade students are taught geography, which relies more on memorization.

"Our problem is cognitive appropriateness," said John Jordan, who teaches global history to ninth-graders at Worthington Kilbourne High School.

"You can certainly teach Greek philosophy to a seventh-grader, but what they'll come out with is that Aristotle is a philosopher and not much more."

Jordan also said that older students who take history have the added advantage of a better foundation in related subjects.

Donna Nesbitt, a social-studies consultant for the Ohio Department of Education, said the department supported the standards as proposed. Many schools in Ohio already teach ancient history in the seventh grade, she said.

Under the proposed standards, high schools still could offer elective courses in ancient history, she said.


09-07-02

The Tennessean

Students sweating less as P.E. gives way to academic classes

By DORREN KLAUSNITZER
Staff Writer

Group backing gym classes raises concerns about health


Aly Kuhn and her sister, Megan, go to different Metro schools, but neither has physical education during the day.

Both are in band, which exempts them from taking P.E.

''I don't think it's fair to make them choose between the arts and physical education,'' said their mother, Robin Kuhn. ''I don't think a child should make that decision.''

All across the Midstate, children like Aly, 13, an eighth-grader at Goodlettsville Middle, and Megan, 11, a sixth-grader at Head Magnet Middle, make it through the school day without vigorous exercise.

Gone are the days when P.E., or gym as it used to be called, was daily routine.

P.E. has been sidelined by academic accountability, high-stakes testing and broader academic options for students.

Today, most school districts view P.E. as a related arts class and group it with computer classes, chorus, band, art and music. Those classes are usually offered on a rotating basis, meaning students get P.E. only a few days a week, sometimes only a few weeks a year.

And in high school, students require only one semester of P.E. to graduate.

''We definitely believe that will not prepare kids to lead healthy, active lifestyles. There is no kind of habit to that,'' said Judith Young, executive director for the National Association for Sport and Physical Education in Reston, Va. Her organization strongly promotes grade-schoolers getting 30 minutes of physical activity daily and high school students getting 50 minutes a day.

However, few schools reach those goals, nationally or locally.

According to the state Department of Education, there are three basic rules when it comes to physical education in grades K-8.

One, it has to be offered. Two, it must be offered to a single class at a time. And three, it must be age-appropriate for the children.

In high school, the state rule is even more elementary. Students must pass one P.E. course to graduate. That course, called wellness, blends physical activity and health education in a one-credit class.

In Metro, high school students have to have a P.E. course besides the wellness class, said Sandy Johnson, chief instructional officer. In elementary school, almost every student gets P.E. every year.

In middle school, however, as students prepare to enter high school, there are more academic options that compete with P.E., Johnson said.

There, P.E. is offered but not required. Students taking band or strings often don't have to take P.E., which upsets Kuhn, who would like her two daughters to get regular exercise and have a chance to blow off steam during the day.

''It makes it rough on them,'' she said. ''They are expected to act like little adults instead of children. I think we all need the exercise. But if it doesn't start when they're young, then they don't get it at all.''

Unfortunately, Johnson said, there is no way to individualize every student's education, especially in middle school.

''We offer it to children as a choice. If they want to do that, it's there,'' she said.

Young begrudgingly understands why and how P.E. was sidelined into a choice, or an elective.

''We have currently No Child Left Behind,'' Young said, referring to President Bush's education initiative to make sure all kids get a quality education. ''And we have the same school day and school year as we had 100 years ago. Think of all the new knowledge we want to impart on kids today. When something new comes up, as it always does, something has to go - and usually physical education, arts and music is what's done away with.''

Young said the educational de-emphasis of physical education and the growing emphasis on academics and accountability carries a heavy toll.

''Kids are increasingly obese,'' she said, adding that schools are a natural way to fight fat in kids. ''It is the place where everyone is included. Where everyone has to be physically active, and where young people get their main knowledge and skill and opportunity.''

Parent Robin Kuhn wants that for her girls. Instead, she supplements her children's lack of P.E. in school with private dance lessons and activities after school.

''Kids need the exercise,'' she said. ''It's good for them.''

Policies on P.E.

Few school systems offer physical education more than a few days a week to students. Here's a look at how some districts approach P.E.

Dickson County

P.E. is considered part of the system's related arts curriculum in middle school, said Brooks Duke, director of secondary education.

''It is not one of our core topics, but every student does have P.E. for a rotation.''

Art, music and computers are included in the rotation. Each rotation lasts nine to 12 weeks, depending on the student's schedule.

In high school, every student is required to take wellness, which has an element of physical education in it.

Students can take other physical education courses as electives, but the courses are not mandated.

Franklin Special School District

Every child in grades K-4 gets 30 minutes of physical education a day, said curriculum director Kay Musgrove.

Just like Dickson County schools, middle schools in Franklin consider P.E. a related arts course that's part of a rotation with art, music and computer courses.

At Freedom Intermediate, most fifth-graders take P.E. for two grading periods.

Sixth-graders take P.E. for three grading periods if they don't take band or chorus. If they're in band or chorus, they get P.E. for one grading period.

At Freedom Middle, seventh- and eighth-graders who aren't in band or chorus get 24 weeks of P.E. and 12 weeks of health. Those with band or chorus get six weeks of P.E. and three weeks of health.

At Poplar Grove School, a ''balanced-calendar'' school, fifth- through seventh-graders take P.E. 45 minutes every day. Eighth-graders take P.E. twice a week.

Rutherford County

Different schools handle P.E. differently, depending on student schedules and staffing, said Jim Mahanes, schools spokesman.

But, he said, every student in grades K-8 gets some physical education.

In high school, all students must pass wellness, unless they take two years of ROTC.

Robertson County

In middle school, P.E. is a related arts course and part of a rotation, said Danny Weeks, supervisor of secondary schools.

However, students in marching band can opt out of P. E., he said.

High school students are required to take wellness.

The growing girth of American youth

According to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

o 13% of children between the ages of 6 and 11 were overweight in 1999, up from 11% in 1988-94 and 7% in the late 1970s.

o 14% of children between the ages of 12 and 19 were overweight in 1999, up from 11% in 1988-94 and 5% in the late 1970s.

o Almost half of young people ages 12 to 21 and more than a third of high school students do not participate in vigorous physical activity on a regular basis.

o Fewer than one in four children get 20 minutes of vigorous physical activity every day of the week, and fewer than one in four reported getting at least half an hour of any type of physical activity every day.

o Physical activity peaks in 10th grade at 11 hours per week as the median, and then begins a steady decline that is likely to continue into the adult years.

o In all grade levels, girls get significantly less physical activity than boys.



09-10-02

Chicago Tribune

Holding the past in their palms


Dinosaur fossils fuel Chicago students' learning

By Lew Freedman
Tribune staff reporter

CHOTEAU, Mont. -- The young people passed the dinosaur fossil around, fingering it, hefting it, cradling it. To the untrained eye, the small duckbill vertebrae lifted from a bone bed for scrutiny looked like rock, but 75 million years earlier it was a tiny support beam for a living organism.

Geroy Carroll, 15, was impressed.

"It's cool to see something so old right in your face," he said.

The wind whipped across the parched open land, where yellow grass shimmied in the breeze and the dry, hard soil shrouded secrets of the past in layers. A dozen Chicago teenagers stood in the middle of the 36,000-square-mile Two Medicine Formation, a vast area of gently undulating hills on the outskirts of this northwestern Montana town of 1,800 people.

This is where the plains meet the Rocky Mountains. This is where historic paleontology discoveries were unearthed. This is where dinosaurs walked.

After a 28-hour train ride and a short van ride that took them past rolled, one-ton bales of hay, cattle, horses, deer and even pronghorn antelope, a handpicked group of Chicago minority junior high and high school students, acting as junior paleontologists, or JPs, for Project Exploration, were in the field. They read books and listened to lectures, absorbing hypothetical paleontology, or the science that studies life from past geologic periods. Now they held the past in their palms -- something from the Cretaceous Period. This was real-life adventure and science rolled into one.

Another piece was shared. How to tell if it was fossil or rock? The lick test. Wet a finger on the tongue. If the finger sticks to the object, it's a fossil. The JPs dabbed saliva on fingertips more energetically than a quarterback seeking a better grip on the ball. Genuine article. A maiasaur tibia.

It was 80 degrees and sunny on this mid-August morning, but the wind, with gusts to the 30s, buttressed the evidence that this is a harsh landscape. So did warnings to watch for ground-level prickly bushes and rattlesnakes. Yet these junior paleontologists, ages 13 to 16, knew they were privileged. They hiked over hallowed ground, where fragile fossils were dug and where fragments remain on the surface.

"This," said Gabrielle Lyon, the group leader and executive director of Project Exploration, "is one of the major discovery sites in North America -- and you're here."

No exaggeration. Dinosaur remnants were found in this area in 1978 and further exploration showed it was a nesting ground where dinosaurs cared for their young. Whole dinosaur eggs were discovered on the summit of subsequently named Egg Mountain shortly before an oil company was to dynamite. There is a 100-yard path to the 4,390-foot summit from the road and the Chicagoans took the easy walk to the top -- only to be blasted by 50 m.p.h. winds.

"This is like Chicago in the winter," said Larena Warner, 13. "When I get home I'm going to brag to my family that I was on a mountain."

Four-year-old Project Exploration, the brainchild of Lyon and her husband, University of Chicago paleontologist Paul Sereno, is about turning sharp kids onto science who might otherwise never consider a scientific career. Paleontology is the couple's specialty, so that is the avenue. Besides, kids relate well to dinosaurs, whether a gigantic museum skeleton or cartoon Barney.

"It helps because it's the hook," Lyon, 30, said.

She said the sciences, paleontology included, are "elitist. Who was making sure that poor kids were able to meet scientists and get into labs? The answer was nobody. We felt we could play a role."

Sereno, who brought Chicago the "Super Croc" museum exhibit earlier this year, leads digs around the world. This was Project Exploration's fourth visit to Montana. There have been two trips to Wyoming and two to Texas.

Sereno, 44, said he was not a good student growing up in Naperville and only found his calling later. He said he hopes Project Exploration -- which pays all costs and seeks to maintain contact with students for years after their journeys -- can prod some of these teens into science.

"Dinosaurs force us to think about drifting continents and lost worlds," said Sereno, who participated in advance classroom work, but could not make this trip. "They [JPs] become time travelers. Science is fundamentally about testing your imagination. We light their fires."

Listening to some junior paleontologists talk, they have ignited a bonfire.

"I like studying weird things," Gerald Turner, 14, said. "You would never think something like this [Montana] would be for us. I live in a big city."

Andres Buitron, 16, wore a baseball cap backward, a spiked collar, a chain with a pentagram, a black T-shirt and jeans, and his fingernails were painted black and green. He looked big-city. But he was thinking about what can emerge from rocks and dirt. Paleontology world stars are expedition leaders. Yet Buitron aspires to the less glamorous job of lab prep worker, the inside guy who cleans the fossils.

"It's like looking at a whole different world," Buitron said of dinosaur study.

After the Egg Mountain ascent, JPs were led to a talus slope in the Lewis and Clark National Forest by Montana host Todd Crowell, curator of the local Old Trail Museum. On an overcast afternoon, the group sought to sort fossils from rocks. They were after brachipods, criniods, horn coral, bryozoars and other 350-million-year-old fossil evidence visible as barely perceptible imprints.

"You can keep it if you can identify it," Lyon said.

Crawling in the rock pile on their knees, dirtying their hands, the Chicagoans found -- and identified -- multiple specimens.

"That's my reward," said a beaming Lyon. "When they pick something up and recognize what it is."

The JPs did wonder how much friends at home would comprehend when shown a 350-million-year-old piece.

"I'll try to explain it," Leticia Munguia, 15, said, "but they won't really get it. If they had picked it up, they wouldn't know it was a fossil."

At Kahn's Cache Site near Bynum, population 25, the tools of excavation are paint brushes and dust pans. "Dig" is not the operative word on this dig, where the remains of at least eight dinosaurs were discovered in 1997. Earth must be moved gently. Located on private land, the round dig site, encompassing a work area 10 meters long and 200 meters square, demands cautious stepping and careful kneeling.

The JPs were not surprised by the uncomfortable conditions, though Jonathan Church, 14, joked about being free labor. It is true, but volunteers do come from around the world to donate time to such endeavors.

Carroll worked in a prone position at the rear of the site and sang, "Find me some invertebrates" as he brushed. Within 20 minutes, he was on to something. Meticulously, he unearthed a dark, 1 1/2-inch tooth. It was measured, dropped in a plastic bag, sealed and labeled.

Hour after hour, under a bright sun, the JPs played in the dirt. Fascinated by fossils, they asked adult mentors probing questions. Crowell, in his eighth summer with the Choteau dinosaur museum, said Project Exploration kids are light years ahead of similar groups in preparation, they behave well and display an impressive passion for learning.

"I would say there are four previous JPs who will be movers and shakers in the field of paleontology," Crowell said. "In this group, too, I'm picking out a couple."

Like a prospector exclaiming over the strike of a gold vein, Church excitedly unveiled an impression in the dirt. What was it? He brushed painstakingly, unable to hurry the process. Everyone was packing up, but Church didn't want to quit. Gradually, the shape revealed itself as a dinosaur backbone.

"I found one," Church said.

Only there was no time to remove it. The fossil had been resting for 75 million years. It would have to keep a little longer.



09-12-02

Dallas Morning News

DISD explores use of same-sex schools


Trustees show interest; report stresses benefits for at-risk students

09/12/2002

By TAWNELL D. HOBBS / The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas school district is considering one of the latest ideas to generate buzz in education circles: same-sex schools.

A school board committee has given administrators the go-ahead to explore the possibility of placing a small number of children in same-sex classrooms.

"We're not thinking of 2,000, 3,000 students," Superintendent Mike Moses said this week. "We're thinking in terms of a smaller situation. These would probably have to be smaller facilities that are currently underutilized as well, and we have some of those in our district."

Dr. Moses said that given the research he has seen on schools where boys and girls attend classes separately, the concept is worth exploring. The idea has gained some traction recently ­p; although just a handful of public schools have adopted it ­p; from proponents who say the approach can benefit some students.

At a meeting Tuesday, administrators gave the board's education committee a report on the trend that touted the benefits, especially for students who are traditionally considered at-risk.

With the committee's approval, Dr. Moses said he would provide more information in the next couple of months. He said the district would explore the possibility of an all-boys and an all-girls school that wouldn't be too large.

Trustees seemed receptive.

"I think the data shows clearly that these schools work," board President Ken Zornes said. "I would like to see the Dallas Independent School District get out front and try new things."

Trustee Lew Blackburn, who heads the education committee, said staff members will research the matter further, looking into costs, school size and possible locations in DISD.

"It seems that same-sex schools are ideal ­p; and much more beneficial to African-Americans and Latinos," Dr. Blackburn said. "I'm all for it."

Resemblance to magnets

The schools probably would be specialized, not unlike the district's current magnet academies. One DISD administrator recommended that the campuses specialize in International Baccalaureate ­p; an elite college preparatory program.

Dr. Moses said DISD officials would be talking with Kipp Academy in Houston, a successful public school for at-risk students.

Although there is a long tradition of private single-sex schools in the United States, only about a dozen single-sex public schools exist in the country, according to DISD research.

But more same-sex schools could be starting. Under President Bush's "No Child Left Behind Act," public schools have more flexibility to offer single-sex enrollment.

The reaction across the country has been mixed. Advocates say it's especially good for girls, who flourish away from boys. They also point to research that boys and girls learn differently.

The DISD report said girls who are not affluent and Latino, black and at-risk students have been shown to benefit the most in single-sex classrooms.

Officials cited the success of an all-girls school in Harlem, N.Y., where almost 100 percent of students graduated and many went on to prestigious colleges.

"The research seems to be fairly compelling," Dr. Moses said.

Some mixed feelings

Opponents of the idea say the situation could spawn education inequalities between the sexes.

DISD parent Belinda Lovato said she has mixed feelings. She said she would only support a program that encompasses middle- and high-school levels.

"I would like it ... as long as it was something to carry my children all the way through," Ms. Lovato said.

Monica Daucourt, a teacher in Dallas' Hillcrest High School, said same-sex schools could help eliminate competition between the sexes. "Their nature is to compete," she said.

Some Dallas trustees voiced support at Tuesday's meeting.

"I just think it would be a great opportunity and a great option to have a girls school in the district," trustee Lois Parrott said.

Trustee Rafael Anchia said, "This is really something exciting."



09-12-02

Dallas Morning News

In Mesquite ISD, it's success times three


With focus on individuals, diverse district achieves three exemplary high schools

By DAN R. BARBER / The Dallas Morning News

Kevrick is dating Melissa and Ashley. Question: Is this a relation, a function or a tangled mess?

In Tonya Mamantov's freshman math lab at Mesquite's Horn High School, it's Algebra I, taught so that Kevrick Davis, Melissa Kissinger, Ashley Hall and their classmates can understand it. The way Mrs. Mamantov figures it, students who can relate to math learn math.

"I try to bring it to life with the whole boyfriend-girlfriend thing," she said. "They don't get the whole x's and y's thing."

The class is one example of how Horn, West Mesquite and Poteet high schools in the ethnically and economically diverse Mesquite school district earned exemplary status in the state's public school accountability ratings. The only other exemplary high school in Dallas County ­p; excepting magnet high schools ­p; was Highland Park High, in the mostly affluent, mostly white Park Cities. A number of other high schools were exemplary in surrounding counties.

How did Mesquite succeed where four dozen other Dallas County high schools fell short?

District officials point to everything from the math labs every other day at Horn High to five-minute math drills at the beginning of every period at West Mesquite to a mentoring program at Poteet.

Administrators in the Mesquite school district ­p; 54 percent white, 22 percent Hispanic, 19 percent black and 5 percent Asian and other ­p; are more than a little pleased with the results.

'Huge accomplishment'

"It's a huge accomplishment," said Janet Drummond, an assistant principal at Horn, crediting teachers and students for the success. "They worked extremely hard with those kids. It's an effort all year long."

Said Jeannie Stone, Poteet's principal: "You have to create an environment at the school where everybody is working to make it happen."

Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, a Texas Education Agency spokeswoman, said it's not easy to have three exemplary high schools in one district.

For a campus to earn the highest rating, 90 percent of students in the school and in each subgroup ­p; black, white, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged ­p; must pass the math, reading and writing sections of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. Also, the dropout rate cannot exceed 1 percent for the school or for any subgroup.

Craig Jerald, a senior policy analyst for the Education Trust in Washington, D.C., said Mesquite stands out even among high-performing school districts in ethnically and economically diverse areas.

Typically, a diverse district might have a single "showcase" high school, he said. "It is unusual to find a district with a couple of these schools."

High-performing schools share several traits, Mr. Jerald said. They set high standards and don't compromise on them, they use performance data to diagnose students' strengths and weaknesses, they address the weaknesses "with common-sense solutions," and they teach a "rich and rigorous" curriculum.

Dr. Cathy Rideout, Mesquite's assistant superintendent for instruction, said teachers at Horn, West Mesquite and Poteet succeed by focusing on teaching what would help students at the next grade level.

She described a process similar to strengthening the weaker links in a chain.

At the start of the 2001-02 school year, she said, educators at each campus assessed individual students' academic needs. Then they worked with them on those areas.

"In a diverse high school, you have to address each individual student rather than a group of students," Dr. Rideout said.

At Horn High, principal Ronnie Pardun said, he and his staff had fallen short of an exemplary rating last year by two tenths of a percentage point on one TAAS section.

"One student didn't do as well on the math portion," he said.

One-on-one help

To ensure that history didn't repeat itself, Mr. Pardun said, campus teachers and administrators began thinking "individually instead of globally." Eighth-graders identified as needing help in math were assigned to labs or tutored before and after classes.

"That's what we weren't doing before and we're doing now," Mr. Pardun said. "It's made a big difference."

Mrs. Mamantov, Horn's math tutor, said students identified as needing math help attend her 90-minute lab every other day.

"It's helping so much," she said. "These are the kids who originally struggled in math."

The real-life situations she presents help her students better understand algebra. In one class, students were asked to plot a teenager's wage-earning potential on a graph.

"If you work for one hour and I hand you $40, and you work for another hour and I hand you $25 more dollars, how much do you have?" she asked. "I want you to practice plotting these dots."

Tasha Martinez, 15, said smaller lab classes make learning algebra easier.

"There are fewer people in here, and she's able to get more points across in different ways," the student said.

West Mesquite, the district's most diverse secondary campus, made steady gains on its TAAS scores until it earned this year's exemplary rating ­p; its first.

"We're very excited," principal Debbie Gilbert said.

To find the students who needed extra help, teachers and administrators at Horn, West Mesquite and Poteet all relied on benchmark testing, Dr. Rideout said.

After the benchmark tests, administrators at West Mesquite assigned students weak in math to smaller classes and provided tutoring before and after school.

What seemed to "turn the corner for us," Mrs. Gilbert said, was a campuswide review of the TAAS objectives. Afterward, all teachers were told to review a specific math objective during the first five minutes of every period ­p; regardless of the subject. They did math drills in English class, band practice and home economics.

Last year, those "bell ringers," as the sessions are called, were expanded to include daily reading and writing drills, Mrs. Gilbert said.

The result was subgroup scores that were more in line with the mainstream.

"We closed the gap," Mrs. Gilbert said.

At Poteet High, teachers identified reading and writing as weaknesses for some students and employed "pullouts" ­p; pulling the students out of other classes to concentrate on those skills, said Ms. Stone, the principal.

The school staff also contacted the parents of lower-performing students and asked them to encourage reading, said Ginny Johnson, a Poteet testing coordinator.

Ms. Stone said the students also were assigned a MATE ­p; a Mentor Advocating TAAS Excellence ­p; to help improve their reading and writing skills.

And teachers brushed up on their own writing skills so they could drill students in grammar and essay skills.

"We pushed our social studies teachers to do more writing, more report writing," Ms. Stone said. "We had our English teachers present proof-reading and editing skills to the entire staff so that everyone is grading the papers the same way."

Mr. Jerald, the Education Trust analyst, said that is how all students succeed.

"On average in the education system that we've had until now, poor children and black and brown kids have had lower test scores," he said.

"High-performing districts made sure that kids get it, that all kids get it," he said. "There's no secret formula, or magic tricks. It's just common sense on steroids. ... We expect everybody to do well, and that's a change.

"What's great about this is everybody wins."

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