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ED 323 057 RC 017 706

TITLE Sharing Educational Success: All Kids Can Be Winners.Rep^rt on th° December 1989 Regional Confe,.Sponsored by the Southeastern Educational ImprovementLaboratory.

INSTITUTION Southeastern Educational Improvement Lab., ResearchTriangle Park, NC.

SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED),Washington, DC.

PUB DATE 90CONTRACT 4r0-86-0007NOTE 48p.AVAILABLE FROM Southeastern Educational Improvement Laboratory, P.O.

Box 12748, 200 Park Offices, Suite 200, ResearchTriangle Park, North Carolina 27709.

PUB TYPE Collected Works - Conference Proceedings (021)

EDRS PRICE 1'F01/PCO2 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS *Change Strategies; Early Childhood Education;

*Educational Improvement; Elementary SecondaryEducation; *Equal Education; *Improvement Programs;Rural Education; *Teacher Expectations of Students

ABSTRACT

Summaries of talks from this 3-day conferenceemphasize the potential of all students from any background tosucceed in their education. One keynote speaker urges restructuringof educators' beliefs that many children cannot achieve at the levelof a high school graduateo Speakers describe successful programs toencourage female school administrators, recruit minority teachers,and encourage local students to return as teachers to their hometownschools. Two administrators discuss site-based school management andparticipatory decision making. Other speakers describe publicrelations programs that foster two-way communications betweencitizens and schools, one including a computerized telephone messagesystem. Cooperative learning systems that reward all students fortheir peers' success spread learning throughout a classroom. Otherprograms described include: (1) training physically handicappedstudents for physical fitness; (2) using modem communication forinternational collaborative writing; (3) int.agrating curricula; (4)

establishing early childhood education; (5) training lead teachers,and (6) realigning math education. Speakers discuss school-basedchild care, parent education, parent involvement, family literacy,impaired school districts, school-based enterpriae, dropoutprevention, and writing programs for kids at risk. (DHP)

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SHARINGEDUCATIONALSUCCESS

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SOUTHEASTERN EDUCATIONALIMPROVEMENT LABORATORY

A CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS REPORT

2BEST COPY AVAILABLE

SEIL Board of Directors

William 0. BlowAlabama

Betty CastorFlorida

Alyce Griffin ClarkeMississippi

Frank de VaronaFlorida

Bob R. EtheridgeNorth Camlina

Harold FisherMississippi

Joseph E. GentrySouth Carolina

LaDonna Hedge HauserNorth Carolina

Geraldine Hagwood HouseNorth Camlina

Walter judgeGeorgia

Linda S. LentinFlorida

Nancy LivesayFlorida

Joyce T. MarshallSouth Carolina

Walter H. MooreMississippi

Madie H. PooleAlabama

Edna Bonner RhodesAlabama

Lawrence E. RobertsMississippi

Jay M. RobinsonNorth Carolina

Werner RogersGeorgia

David SpenceGeorgia

Clementine StevensonSouth Carolina

Wayne TeagueAlabama

Charlie G. WilliamsSouth Carolina

(Vacant)Georgia

SHARINGEDUCATIONALSUCCESS

Report on the December 1989

Regional Conference

Sponsored by f_

Southeastern Educational

Improvement Laboratory4

In small-town America, the roads

outside town bear the names of

people whose families you know.

The houses in town are still referred

to by the names of the families who

built them. And the school secretary

knows everyone in town on a

first-name basis. Maybe half the

school districts in the United States

might be classified as small-town

and rural districts.Bob Cole

lammilmerir

=.111=1111.1=1.01 I

B ob Cole is a writer, researcher,and former editor of Phi Delta

Kappan magazine. With grants fromseveral foundations and the Mid-continent Regional Educational Lab-oratory, Cole has been visiting smallschools in tiny towns as a prelude toa book titled Schooling in the LostLand: Wandering Through Rural A-merica. His insights about the spe-cial problems and opportunities thatexist for students in small, ruralschoolsoffered to a well-attendedconference sessionare sprinkledthronhout this proceedings report.His insights and observations offer avaluable perspective.

wo educators anda lawyer-politi-cian used a plat-form created bythe SoutheasternEducational Im-provement Lab-

oratory to pump new energy andcreative thinking into educationprograms in the region.

The occasion: a three-dr, , con-ference called "Sharing EducationalSuccess: All Kids Can Be Winners."Held in early December 1989 in At-lanta, the gathering was the secondannual regional conference sponsoredby the Laboratory.

The event was "point-counter-point." The three keynote speakersasked regional educators to strip awaythe barriers that stand in the way ofeducational success for all students.Over the next three days, about ahundred of their colleaguesresponded. In overflow sessions, theydescribed what they're doing backhome to design and manage programsfor kids that open doors to learning.They work in schools and districtsthroughout the region.

With passion and energy, theydescribed success for all students inmany different configurations. Therewere, for example, reports on strongearly childhood education programs,dropout prevention plans, integratedlearning, school-based enterpfises,age-appropriate learning, writingprograms for at risk students, teamlearning, and a guod many more.Their audience Jr' over a hundred in-cluded teachers, school principals andother administrators, local and stateschool board members, state educa-tion agency staff, and a sprinkling ofpolicy and legislative workers.

Asa G. Hilliard, III, the firstkeynoter, has taken many educationpathways, developing rich insightsand keen perspectives along the way.They have taken him to Watts andBedford-Stuyvesant, Chicago andDetroit, Liberia and Atlanta. He's

been a dean of a Loi:ege uf eduLatiunin California and a professor ofPsychology and history in Georgia.He is introduced as the Fuller Cal-laway Professor of Urban Education,Georgia State University. His mes-sage is simple and eloquent: Bybirthright, an children are geniuses.We need to recognize that fact. Weneed to change dramatically the struc-tures that get in the way of their nor-mal. brilliant development.

On the second day, William F.Winter talks about his childhood inNorth Mississippi. Per capita income,he remembers, was less than half thatof the rest of the country. "We weregraduating one in five white studentsand one in fifty blacks from highschool." Winter went on to becomegovernor of the state. He has a lot tosay about the relationship of educa-tion and economic growth and devel-opment.

As the conference begins its finalday, Dudley Flood is frank to admitthat he uses his gift ibr humor andoratory to get people's attention, sothat they will listen to his messages ofcaring, support, and nurturing of allstudents. He works as an ombudsmanfor the North Carolina Department ofPublic Instruction and is an emissaryfor public education throughout theregion and often far beyond. Like anartist, he moves from poignancy tohilarity in a sentence or two. Hereceives rapt attention.

The three speakers developthemes that create a context for the;vent. From slightly different view-oints, they describe the awesomepower of personal and institutionalbeliefs. Finally, one major themetakes shape.

A teacher. for example, may say,"I never thought my students could dothat. . ., unwittingly expressing adeeply held belief. Holding suchlimiting views may sharply curb op-portunities fo- students to learn and°row, the speakers point out. If youuon't think students can learn, you

won't gibe them opportunities to try,the speakers say, each in his own way.It's that simple.

A second theme emerges as thespeakers talk about kids and success.There is the evidence of wondroussuccess in many different places,often next door to abject failure.Third-graders in Watts learning al-gebra from handed-down high schooltextbooks. Four-year-olds in Afncafluent in two or three tribal dialectsplus English and maybe a smattering

All Kids CanIndeed Be Winners

of French and German. Obviously,some people know what it takes tocreate powerful learning environ-ments for children, the speakers say.

This is far more than rhetoric.Through their own experiences andcollective wisdom, the three speakersforge a dozen specific strategies thatunderlie success for students andschools. Strategies for winning. It be-comes a third major theme for theconferees. Presenters make rich con-tributions to these ideas as the sessionscontinue.

"All Kids Can Be Winners." Thespeakers agree that it is a wonderfultitle for an education conference. Allkids can winin the classroom and inlife. It is an idea that becomes muchlike a drumbeat as the conferencemoves toward closure. When childrenwin in school, everyone wins.leachers win. So do principals andadministrators, parents and schoolboards, employers and society atlarge. The consequences of kids' win-ning in schooland the high price oflosingbecome the final stranddeveloped by speakers and presenters.

Charles J. Law, Jr.executive director

"'smimosE1 xpectations and1 beliefs are words

and ideas usedalmost inter-changeably. Thedifferences areslight, but impor-

tant. Asa Hilliard made it clear that, asa nation, our expectations for studentsare unacceptably low because, as asociety, we beheve students cannotperform at higher levels of achieve-ment.

He has an opposite, and strong,point of view. "All children can bewinners," says Hilliard. But what doesit mean to be a winner? His definitionwas specific. "When I say 'winner,' Ibelieve the minimum we should ex-pect (I'm not going to state the maxi-mum) for 98 percent of the children inAmerica is this:

"They will pass high school witha diploma w here they have achiek edequivalent to a college-preparatory

Our BeliefsShape the System

[diploma] as we now have con-structed it. That means calculus by12th grade. That means being able towrite a term paper you have re-searched, organized, presented, de-fended, with appropriate refererces.That means a courQc in scienceequivalent to general chemistry. Thatmeans fluency in a foreign languageby the 12th grade.

"So I'm sharing what I believeabout the basic capabil'aies of ourchildren. They all have the hardwareto do whatever needs to be done. Theproblem is whether we will help themdevelop the software. It makes a dif-ferencz ,vhether you think you've gota hardware problem or a softwareproblem.

"It's really imvor-tant we agree on that atthe outset," said Hil-liard. "Disagreementover the fundamentalquestion of the cap-ability of students tolearn causes us to movein different directions.If we really believechildren don't have thecapability of doingwhat I just said, we maydecide not to offer for-eign language to a largesegment of the popula-tion because we feelthey can't [learn] it."

Dudley Floodspoke to the same point."I was in an AdvancedFrench class two wecksago," he said. "It wasbeing taught by a teacher who shouldhake been on nationd television, shewas just that good. Those elevenchildren were sitting there ingestingthat lesson. And I said to her after-wards, 'Ma'am, that was a mag-nificent lesson. Why do you have sofew clAldren in this class?' And shesaid, 'Well, you know, they can't alllea m French.'

"I said, 'Excuse me?' She said,We clon't always feel our children

can leam French.' And I said, 'You'retelling me you have some children inthis schocl who can't learn French?'She said, 'Of course.' I said, 'Well,I'm glad they weren't born inFrance!'"

It is easy to come up with a fewpat phases, a couple of humorousstories to comment on the power ofpersonal and institutional beliefs, andthen move on ,o other things. Hilliardtook the mattei to a deeper level.

Beliefs derine who we are, in-di idually and a, a society, he pointedout. For all people, at all times, it isek,enhal to comskler our beliefs true.A set of "true" beliefs offers us a pre-dictable way to make sense of the

Asa Hilliard, HI: Our children are inherently brilliant.

-2-

world around us, no matter how cock-eyed those beliefs may be (comparedto someone else's, that is). The pointis that people and instiLtions have ahuge investment in proving, to them-selves and others, that their currentview of reality is "true."

If teachers and schools believetheir students are mediocre, they willdesign systems and adopt attitudesthat will "prove" their belief everyday. If teachers and schools believetheir students have great capacity tolearn, they '11 set their expectationshigh and put symems in place to per-m!, and encourage superior levels ofachievement.

Public education is caught up inthe idea of iestructuring, said Hilliard.Mk,st often that means decentraliza-tion of management. "When I thinkabout restructuring," he said, "I'mthinking about something much morecomplicated and fundamental. Whatis a structure? A building is a structure.Beliefs are also structures. If we be-

e that children are incapable, thenwe organize to serve them in theirincapacity. If children are capable,then what we need is a belief restruc-

turing. Most "restructuring" is notaimed at that target, because beliefshave not been articulated as a struc-ture. To me, that is the most fun-damental structure that we have towrestle with right now.

"We have inherited a belief aboutthe educability of childrennot justminority childrenthat makes ussatisfied, as a nation, with less thanexcellence as our goal. And, in fact,we are achieving the goal we have set.When we compare ourselves to otherindustrialized nations, we cannot holdour heads high at this moment. Wehave all the capacity to do the best jobin the world. But we don't. And it hasto do with beliefs. Those beliefs aremanifest in the structures that webuilt. I'm going to tell you the onesthat we need to change.

a "Capacity is an important ques-tion in education. It is not."Poverty is an important questionin education. It is not."Nutrition is an important ques-tion in education. It is not. Ofcourse, we want to feed everychild. But that is a human ques-tion, not an education matter.

"Educators can overcome eachof these erroneous beliefs. That's whatI have learned from the s ccessmodels."

There are other behefs standmgii, the way of success for children."Our beliefs about capacity aremanifest in the validity and role oftesting in our schools," Hilliard said."That's another of the structures we 're

O ile reason that educators wereon hand at the SEIL conference

to report on the success of theirprograms was because they hadfound ways to alter beliefs hek1 abouttheir schools by students, parents,and communities. These includedprograms in Florida, South Carolina,and Georgia designed to bring moreminorities into the classroom as

eon g to have to chanee. We have toask the question, 'How does testingserve us in solving the problems weface?' Right now, the Aructure callsfor us to use testing as an account-ability measureas a way to find outwhom to penalize. Tests are notde ,igned to find out what's holding usback.

"We need to organize our schoolsdifferentlyto use testing for prob-lem solving, rather than for account-ability. I know we have to have sometesting for accountability. I'm not op-posing that. What I'm worried aboutis what we're not doing with assess-ment, which is learning to structureour learning environment so that weuse it for problem solving."

Beliefs are at work in every class-room in America every day, relent-lessly seeking to prove themselvescorrect. The keynote speakers certain-ly agreed on that point. "If I havedecided that little Charlie cannot learnand little Craig can, J teach them ac-cordingly," said Dudley Flood."When I come to little Charlie andlittle Craig, I differentiate. I say tolittle dumb Charlie, 'What's two timestwo? Help him, Craig.' But when Icome to little Craigwho know isbrightI say, 'Craig, I want you tothink about this. Take your time. Iwant you to tell me what is the squareroot of 16. Now wait, Craig, don'trush. Now, I had your sister last year,and she just ate this up. And I knowyour family, and I know you can dothis, I'll come back to you.'

teachers and to strengthen the corpsof female school administrators inthe Southeast. Other programs inGeorgia and Florida offer differentmanagement styles for schools. InSouth Carolina, new beliefs areemerging about ways to attraa andkeep good teachers in rural schools.Two experts from the NationalSchool Public Relations Associa-

-3-

"That's going on wherever youcome from," Flood said to hisaudience of educators. "If you don'tbelieve me, just go into the classroomand watch. Any teacher there willteach according to his or herpredispositions about the children. Ifthey toclieve children cannot learn,

We have a belief

about the educability

of children that

makes us satisfied

with less than

excellence as our

goal.

they will teach them accordinglyNow, I am persuaded that every chi1c1deserves the oportunity to succeed,and that we already know what it takesto succeed in America. It takes no lessfor the least of us than for the best ofus."

tion, one based in North Carolina, theother in South Carolina, spoke aboutcommunications techniques as apotent way to shape opinion and in-fluence beliefs about public educa-tion. Stimmarics of their c3mmentsare reported in the following section,as are summaries of five uther con-ference ,,essions.

lif;Tof ellailLf,CO TVA s4,41.111.4 ,r,s, A ANA no IP .1,it VU'i iLIAG YY UV It 'Ala fltil I tilitaLl Win 3

The belief that all students have aright to equal educational oppor-

tunities has the power of a tidalwave. Ovei a 25-year span, it hasrevolutionized and transformed ourpublic schools, creating new fundingrelationships, far greater opennessand inclusiveness, and di amaticallydifferent patterns and practices forsharing power.

However, equality of oppor-tunity seems to move like a glacierwhen it applies to key power positionsin the public school administrativestructure. Across the nation, 85 per-cent of the teachers are female, butonly 2 percent of the school superin-tendents are women. Studies showthat pathways to power positions aretoo often blocked for both women andminorities. In one state of the

Eighty-five percent of the

teachers are female. Two

percent of the school

superintendepts are women.

Southeast, typical of the region, thereare 134 school superintendents. Oneof that number is a black female. Fiveothers are white females, and four areblack males. While the rhetoric aboutpublic school leadership says "equalopportunity," the operating belief isclearly quite different, and it has ex-isted since the dawn of public educa-ti on. If you want competentleadership, the belief goes. hirequalified white males.

Christine Arab wears two profes-sional hats in Florida. She is super-visor of management development forDuval County Schools' PersonnelServices in Jacksonville. She is also aconsultant to the State Department ofEducation. Arab desribed a program,aimed at minorities and women,launched in 1980.

Tommy Thompson, a professorin the Department of EducationPolicy and Administration, Univer-sity of South Carolina, presented in-formation about their MinorityAdministrators' Program.

SEIL works to raise awareness ofthe need to bring talented minoritiesand women into the administrativemainstream. It sponsored two studiesthat show that there are specific ap-proaches that can help enhance thepreparation of women and minorityadministrators. One study in 1989reported on the Florida and SouthCarolina programs. The second studyexamined activities sponsored by thevarious LEAD (Leadership in Educa-tional Administration Development)Centers, specifically focusing onminorities and women.

Arab's one-year internship pro-gram for women and minorities wasdesigned in 1980 to counter a disturb-ing trend. "At that time," she said,"wenoticed a problem with minorities andwomen as they moved through ourselection system. They were beingless successful than white males. Thishappened both at the central-officelevel and at the school level." In adistrict with 8,000 teachers and 500administrators, developing andpreserving talent is a priority.

Determined to salvage potentialleaders who were falling through thecracks, the system funded three spe-cial internships each year. Each internship provides opportunities toparticipate actively in differentdivisiolb in the central administrative

-4- 9

Christine Arab describes an internshipprogram for minorities that works.

structure. "Individuals became morecompetitive in the interview process,"Arab said. "The main goal is to helpindividuals develop attitudes,capabilities, and qualities that are es-sential for management. We want toprovide the in-service and experien-ces necessary for mastering a set ofcompetencies."

The program has met with greatsuccess. An average of 18 applicantsvie each year for the three internshipslots. Simply winning one of thecoveted slots marks a person as aneducator with a future; it has becomea badge of likely success. Supportduring the internship year, in the formof counseling, workshops, and crea-tive supervision, is intensive. Theresult: over 85 percent of the internshave been placed and have success-fully held management jobs in thesystem in the program's nine years.

Thompson summarized the fivekey features that make a notable dif-ference in bringing women andminorities more fully into the ad-ministrative mainstream. They are:Mentoring is a support relation-

ship as important to minoritiesand women as it is to white males.Experience shows that minorities

and women can benefit frommentoring from white males.Training of mentors is a key issueif this strategy is to realize its fullpotential.

mi Varied experience for minoritiesand women needs to includecourse work and other oppor-tunities that are shared with whitemales. Minorities and womenalso need opportunities to shareinsights, problems, and successswith others like themselves.

u Placement coordinators are im-portant in such programs, and

their roles should he formal andrecognized. Providing financialor release-time incentives forplacement coordinators is an im-portant step in increasing theplacement rate of well-trainedminorities and women, thepresenters agreed.Internship opportunities, similarto those described by Arab, arecrucial for minorities and womenwho aspire to administrative posi-tions. Through such opportu-nities, participants can show theirskifls to those who can hire them

Needed: More Minority Teachers

and can learn the "inside" perspective.Awareness programs are impor-tant, sincc school board membersand superintendents frequentlydo not understand that those whoare different from the people theyusually hire may be as good orbetter for administrative posi-tions. Short, informative work-shops at school board associationconferences can provide informa-tion about the potential contribu-tions of minority and womenadministrators.

Qne powerful belief is having analarming effect on the supply

and quality of minority teachers inthe South. The belief is that theteaching profession no longer servesthe career interests of bright youngminority students.

A three-member panel addressedthe issue at the Atlanta conference,expressing a few good ideas and a lotof frustration about their efforts to at-tract talented young minorities intothe teaching profession. They par-ticipate in programs at the SouthernEducation Foundation (SEF), AlbanyState College, Georgia, and Bethune-Cookman College, Florida.

SEF sponsors programs to in-crease the supply and enhaxe thequality of minority teachers in theSouth. The Consortium on TeacherSupply and Quality, made up of sixhistorically black institutions ofhigher education Pnd three graduateschools of education, manages theprograms.

Nate Jackt'on works with SEF,which was chartered in 1868. "Wehave a lot of experience, but littlemoney," said Jackson. A principalsource of support is a $25 milliongrant from BellSouth Foundation tosupport SEF programs. The National

Governors' Association, workingthrough SEF, is sponsoring a SouthernRegional Task Force on the Supply ofMinority Teachers. 'There are otherinitiatives as well. SEF is workingwith BellSouth affiliates to generatelocal tusiness support for scholar-ships. Walter Judge, a SEIL boardmembei, is working with SEF througha Hitachi grant to train mincrity prin-cipals.

A key problem identified bypanelists is that traditionaliy blackcolleges are graduating a much lowerpercentage of black graduates, espe-cially with degrees in education. InFlorida, said Emma White-Rembertof Bethune-Cookman College, stu-dents must pass four tests to enterteaching. It ;s a daunting task, pushingmany young blacks away from theprofession.

Bethune-Cookman set up anafte.-school Teacher Cadet projectwith a junior high school to maketeaching more attractive to minoritystudents. The goal of the program wasto provide a good, fairly in-depth ideaof what it's like to be a high schoolscience teacher. Program results werepositive, but not conclusive. Atten-dance in school by program par-ticipants was up, but not dramatically.

-5-

1 0

Nate Jackson of SEF. We have a lot qfexperience, but little money'

There will be annual follow-up con-tact with each participant in the pro-gram.

College coaches go to greatlengths to recruit talented athletes.The staff at Albany State College ispicking up on that notion by recruitingstudents into teaching. The collegeserves 20 poor, rural counties insouthwest Georgia.

The staff is setting ut. futureteacl.er clubs in he Albany area. Lastyear's three-w.;ek Summer Enrich-ment Program ot high marks from 1511 th-grade am. 13 12th-grade par-ticipants. It we. a wooing prxess.

said Audrey Webb Beard of the col-lege staff. One important goal wassimply to create interest among thestudents in attending college. Theyspent time in a computer class and in

Managing Schools

the libran and had brief but directteaching experience w ith children :n aKiddee College.

Followup is a key component inthis ty pe of program. College staff

will be in touch regularly with pro-gram participants, answering ques-tions, offering encouragement, andholding open a door to a career inteaching for these young people.

I n some areas, beliefs are changingabout the most effective ways to

manage schools. Two adminis-trators, one from Florida, the otherfrom Georgia, talked about their ex-periences with site-based manage-ment and participatory decisionmaking at the conference.

Glynn R. Archer, Jr., is assistantsupefintendent of the Monroe CountySchools, Key West, Florida. This sys-

tem altered its muliagement style wayback in 1972, he reported.

"There was a lot of research com-

ing out at that time saying that theschool is the largest unit where youcan bring about effective change, that

the principal is the key change agent,and that people are more committedto making a decision work when theyhave a part in shaping it," Archer said.

Key people, such as the superinten-dent and county school board mem-bers, thought the research made a lot

of sense. Change was in the wind.

"We started with an in'ensiveyear of training for principals," Archerreported. "We made sure each had an

assistant principal that year because of

the time involved in the training."From this work a program

emerged that is still in effect. It has six

major components.

m Schools have control over moneyallocated to them. A new, equi-table system for dividing resour-ces is in place. This school-basedbudgeting system includes per-sonnel. It is the school, nor thecentral office, that determines thenumber and type of teachers itneeds and wants. Funds go to the

school based on the number ofstudents it serves.

Every school has a funLtioningplanning team that includes most-ly teachers, plus other supportstaff and administrators. They in-teract regularly with a lay groupof advisers and together plan thebudget and make school policydecisions.

Principals keep ultimate respon-sibility for the school's perfor-mance, but they must endorseteam processes.

Key people are paid accordingly.For the first time, w hen the pro-gram became fully operational,

school pi incipals drew paycheckslarger than sums paid to somecentral office administrators.They still do.Under the plan, central office stafferve as coordinators for and sup-.orters of the individual schools.

Each school benefits from regularcontact with lay advisers, includ-ing parents and community mem-bers.

Archer and his colleagues in KeyWest believe their style of manage-ment pays dividends for students. The

district is one of the strongest in thestate on the basic skills test, and SATscores are slow ly but steadily on the

I asked every teacher I talked to the same

question: 'If you can have one wish to make

your life better as a teacher, what would you

wish for?' The answer was not money. What

teachers want is time. More time to spend

with individual students, smaller classes,

fewer preps.

-6-

B ob Cole

rise. More students are going on totop-notch colleges ana universities.

Moreover, enjoying the chanceto be more involved in decisionmaking, the community supports theplan. The superhitendent who beganit all has been elected for four con-sectitiv e terms and only once facedopposition. The strength of the planwas clear when it was endorsed by the

teachers' union in its employmentcontract.

There's a plaque on one prin-cipal's desk that summarizes this ap-proach to power sharing. It reads,"Some of us are smarter than the rest

of us; but none of us is smarter than all

of us."The approach is somewhat dif-

ferent at Oglethorpe County HighSchool in Lexington, Georgia, reportsPrincipal Aubrey Finch. In effect, aseven-member executive council now

fills his traditional role. He is one ofthose seven. Each member of thecouncil works with a group of three tofive teachers. The liaison groups iden-

tify interests, concerns, and problems.Task groups address the issues.

"The executive council is adecision-making group, not an initiat-ing group," Finch pointed out. "Itgathers information and ideas fromthe faculty through the liaison groups.The council acts only on issues raisedby the liaison and task groups. It setc

Glynn At cher describes a different school

management style.

priorities for school-wide improve-ment and organizes special taskgroups."

Sound cumbersome? Sharingpow er is a lot more complex than, say,

an autocratic form of management.But it has many advantages that, atleast in this Georgia school, make itworth the effort. "The process," saysFinch, "reduces the `us ersus 'them'attitude. It clearly contributes to goodmorale. It helps establish a sense of

ofessionalism among the faculty."Further, he says, people work

harder on goals they share. And theaief administrator gains most of all."He or she is using the combinedbrainpower of the entire staff to iden-

Good Teachers for Small, Rural Schools

tify problems and create soiutions.Problem solving is active, rather thanreactive."

The process, says Finch, hasmade a profound difference in thissmall, rural high school. "We are dis-covering that we are as smart inOglethorpe County as folks are in At-lanta, New York, or Califomia. Peopleare now looking at us."

He's not kidding. TheMetropolitan Life Foundation tappedOglethorpe as one of six sites in thecountry doing superior, innovativework in education. The others: Nor-folk State University; Queens Col-lege, New York; University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill; Stanford; and

the Harvard Graduate School ofEducation.

Test scores at Oglethorpe are upyear after year, for five straight years.

Attendame is up from 89 to 97 per-cent. 1 lie University of GeorgiaSchool Improvement Project usedOglethorpe as a model.

All certified teachers are on thekey liaison groups. "The system leansheavily toward instructional staff,rather than toward the entire school,"Finch said. "It began as an expression

of interest in the instructional pro-gram, rather than in the running of the

school. Now there is more interest inschool management."

Another strong belief influencingmuch of public education is that

it's virtually impossible to attractteachers of quality and competenceto rural, isolated schools and keepthem for a reasonable period. SouthCarolina is proving that need not bethe case.

John Norton, director of theSouth Carolina Teacher RecruitmentCenter; Tommy Burbage,assi.stant su-

perintendent in Georgetown. So ult.

Carolina; and Ern.. st K. Nicholson,school superintendent in Tim-monsville, South Carolina, dem-onstrate every day ihat rural schoolscan be attractive to prospectiveteachers.

A former journalist with educa-tion as his beat, Norton set up theTeacher Recruitment Center in 1987and has become an influential voice in

South Carolina for small; ruralschools. The Center established the

-7-

Teacher Job Bank, now widely used,especially by rural saools. It alsosponsors a Statew ide TeacherRecruitment Fair. Last year, 500teachers tumed out for the event, halfof them frori out of state. Over 180signed new contracts as a result.

The Center's Teacher Cadet Pro-

gram requires that high school stu-dents have at least a B average toparticipate. About 1,500 students inhalf of the state's rural high schools

You need to be

aggressiv-..,

competitive,

innovative to attract

good teachers to

rural schools.

are in the program, many casting afresh eye on the possibility of a careerin teaching. The idea, says Norton, is"to grow your own."

Burbage considers the northernpart of Georgetown County "as rural

as it gets anywhere in SouthCarolina," You need to be aggressive.competitive, innovative, and consis-tent to attract good teachers to ruralschools, he says. And it can be done.

The panelists offered a baker'sdozen of ideas to help small schoolswin in the teacher recruiting game.Important steps:

Get the active support of the localsuperintendent. This is a must.Commit a management plan topaper, describing responsibilitiesfor making the program work.Work to achieve the support of thelocal school board.Develop a task force of parents,teachers, ministers, and schoolpeople to work on the project.Take the message into the class-room. Convince students thatthey can "sell" the school and dis-trict to others, and, in the process,they may "sell" themselves.Provide assistance to support staffto go after teaching credentials.

Communications Planning to Share Your Success

Establish active, two-way com-munications with colleges anduniversities in your state.

Li Recruit student teachers into yourdistrict, using the community tohouse and entertain them.

is Develop effective teacher recruit-ment materials that make yourdistrict marketable.Recruit minorities. Bring theminto your district, rather thangoing to them.Attend college career days.Remember: "Good teachersrecruit good teac..ers." Properlymotivated, the district's presentteachers are the best recruitersyou can find.Present the results of the recruit-ing process to the school boardand to the public. Invite people toget involved.

public relations is not only sittinly2hind a computer and cranking

out newsletters and annual reports,"according to Je .nnie M. (Sissy)Henry, presidern National SchoolPublic Relatio ls Association(NSPRA), and director of boarddevelopment, South Carolina SchoolBoards Association. "Schools havean image, and it's up to us to helpstrengthen [that image]. It's no..-Thatyou are, it's how you're perceived tobe," she told participant? at the At-lanta conference.

What you communicate and howyou do it have powerful influence onwhat people choose to believe abouteducation.

Henry defined public relations as"a two-way flow of communicationsbetween schools and the people they

serve." She stressed the ued for 12-month written communications plans.

Henry and Susan Carson, direc-tor of communication services,Winston-Salem/Forsyth CountySchools in North Carolina, andSoutheast vice president, NSPRA,shared a process to help practitionersdesign cffective public relationsprojectsfrom developing a singlepublication to designing a total com-munications plan.

The four-step process includes:Research (situation analysis); Anal-ysis (strategic planning and program-ming); Communication (takingaction); and Evaluation (assessment,feedback).

Discussing the research stage.Henry oUtlined the importance ofplanning programs responsive todemographics. She cited several

-8-

1 3

Sissy Hetu y: 'It's not what you are, it'show you're perceived to he.'

predicted population changes. For ex-ample, by the year 2000, Hispanicsare likely to make up the largestminority group nationwide, and only15 percent of the work force will be

white males. By 2015, the average life

expectancies of males will be 84 yearsand of females, 93 years. By 1995, the

adult population older than 64 will belarger than the entire K-12 population,

and the 85-year-old and older popula-

tion will be greater than the teenagepopulation. In 1975, 50 percent cfadults had school-age children. Incontrast, 24 percent of adults todayhave children in school. An olderpopulation, which does not haveschool-age children, is less likely tosupport the financing of educationprograms than parents of schoolchildren, she said.

Educators must appeal to olderAmericans who will be influencingpolitical decisions all around theworld, Hem./ said. She added that 17

percent of adults make decisionsabout education."When talking aboutapproval of budgets and referendums,

we've got to broaden our base."She stressed the importance of

involving senior citizens in theschools and cited example3 of howschools are involving older adults.Some offer Senior Citizen Gold Pas-ses that admit them to most schoolathletic events, :onsor grandparents'days in which senior citizens havelunch with studems, and grant libraryprivileges. Some schools open early,providing senior citizens with a placeto walk.

Henry described a $980 millionbond referendum in Miami, Florida.Passage required gaining the support

of several minority groups, includingHaitians, Asians, Cubans, blacks, and

Jews, some of whom wouldn't sitdown in the same room, she said.

"We need to eliminate barrierswhen we're talking about com-munications," Henry explained. "Wehave to think about the groups we'redealing with and their needs."

She outlined three factors shebelieves influence public confidencein education: 1) media, 2) mobility

(the iverage child will live in threelocations before graduating from high

school), and 3) the belief that biggeris better.

Henry explained the third factor,saying educators should reevaluatethe effectiveness of large school dis-tricks arid consider communicationsproblems resulting from increasedsize.

Carson explained the four-stepcommunications process. in the re-search phase, communicators askwhat it is they need to know beforecommunicating. They investigateways to acqiure information, seeking"qualitative" (what are the issues and

emotions surrounding them?) resour-ces via focus and special interestgroups and opinion leader interviews,

hearings, and grapevines. They alsoconduct "quantitative" (how per-vasive are the feelings about theseissues?) research via telephone, direct

mail, and door-to-door surveys.In the analysis stage, the effective

communicator asks: What are mypublic relations problems, and whatare my goats (with measurableresults)? Goals should includestrengthening positive, convertingneutral, and neutralizing negativefeeling.. According to Carson, otherquestions should include: Whatpublics should I target? What mediaare available (mass, interpersonal)?What resources do I have (money,personnel, and time)?

The communication stage in-cludes the identification of ap-propriate messages, targeted publics,

and expected results. The com-municator asks: How does each ac-tivity fit in? What is the timetable? Isinvolvement maximized?

Evaluation determines the suc-cess or failure of a project. In thts finalstage, the communicator asks: rlowdo I get feedback? At what points doI get feedback? When and how can I

-9- 14

do a "final" evaluation? How will Iuse the results of the evaluation?

According to Carson, evaluationresults should feed into the researchstage of thz next communicationsproject.

The two communicators offeredthe following advice:

Involve PTA members in the sur-vey process.

Build support before public hear-ings are staged.

What you

communicate and

how you do it have

powerful influence

on what people

believe about

education.

Find respected people to say whatyou need said. For example turnto t!le medical community to pro-vide iaformation about AIDS.Forget the "frill-and-puff" publicrelations activitiesconcentrateon interpersonal communica-tions.

Recognize that "togethemess"essential for successthe schoolfamily will make or break thecommunications process.Don't expect a "quick fix" forcommunications woes.

floenina in Ttni Ph With Pnrpnte in thp Infnrinntinn A mo

Telephone Messages the Friendly, Informative Way

I t's better than sending notes homewith studentsnotes that often

never reach the intended recipient.Telephone systems are drasticallyimproving the process of sendingmessages to parents. And they pro-vide a means forparents to send mes-

sages to schools.

Wilbert Brown, assistant prin-described a system operating at

...e Academy for Academics and theArts in Huntsville, Alabama. The sys-tem, developed at Vanderbilt Univer-sity in Knoxville, Tennessee, usesanswering machines, telephones, and

a sophisticated digital computer sys-tem, he explained.

Teachers record messages eachafternoon, Brown said, adding thatparents can get children's homeworkassignments via the system.

The system connects to theschool's existing computer system,which can dirert calls to hcmes of allor any subret of students at the school.

A printout shows whether the call was

completed, busy, or unanswered. If aphone is busy, the computer makesanother attempt.

Brown explained that the initial$5,000 invested in the system was"well worth it." School/home contacthas increased by 40 percent. "I can't

Resources

begin to tell you hom, much this hasincreased interaction," he added.

Betty L. Strickland, principal,Inman Middle School, descnbed adifferent phone systemvoice mes-sagingoperating in the Atlantaschool.

Installed with the help of Bell-South, thc system not only increasescommunk ation between students andparents, it helps forgetful studentsremember important events such astests.

Each staff member has a "mail-box" in which messages are stored,Strickland explaincri. Calls, receivedthrough a central system, may be sent

to any mailbox. Staff members recordtheir own messages. Stricklandrecords a daily tip for parents.

As many as 1,400 calls per daycome in to Inman Middle School. Cer-

tainly the device is contributing toremarkable changes in the beliefs held

by many parents about the acces-sibility of their children's teachers.

Jim Breedlove, director of educa-

tional affairs at BellSouth Corpora-tion, Atlanta, said systems similar tothe one at Inman are operating in three

schools. "There's Ito question that it'sgoing to take some technology tobring parents and schools together."

He called the sy stem ,Idaptable for any

school. "I feel the application A, ill intime revolutionize relationships be-t% een admmistrators, parents, andteachers."

The application

of this technology

will revolutionize

relationships

between

administrators,

parents, and

teachers.

Keynote Speakers

Dudley Flood, ombudsman, NorthCarolina Department of Public Instruc-tion

Education BaildingRaleigh, NC 27603-1712Phone: 919/733-3813

Asa G. Hillard, III, Fuller E. Cal-laway Professor of Urban Education,Georgia State University

Urban Life BuiklingAtlanta, GA 30303Phone: 404/651-2000

William F. Winter, a senior lawpartner with Watkins. Ludlam, andStennis, and former governor of Missis-sippi

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15

P.O. Box 427Jackson, MS 39205Phone: 601/949-4800

Wandering ThroughSmall-Town SchoolsSupported by grants from several foun-dations and the Mid-continent RegionalEducational Laboratory, writer Bob Coletravels across the midwestern United

States, visiting schools in small-tow nAmerica. He discussed his observationsand experiences

Bob Cole, writer, researcher, andformer editor of Phi Delta Kappanmagazine

Suite 197, 508 North CollegeAvenueBloomington, IN 47404Phone: 812/332-8601

Minorities, Women asAdministratorsPresenters highlighted a SEIL-sponsoredstudy, which identified programs in theSoutheast that were successful in recrui.-ing, selecting, preparing, and placingminority and female administrators.

Christine Arab, supervisor of manage-ment development for Duval CountySchools' Personnel Services, Jackson-ville, FL, and consultant to the FloridaDepartment of Education

Management Development CentcrDuval County Schools1701 Davis StreetJacksonville, FL 32209Phone: 904/390-2069

Thomas Thompson, professor in theDepartment of Educatis,0 Policy andAdministration at the University ofSouth Carolina

Columbia, SC 29208Phone: 803/777-3091

Suggested Reference: Enhancing Ad-ministrative Training Programs,Southeastern Educational ImprovementLaboratory

Needed: Mort MinorityTeachersThe Southern Education Foundation(SEF) sponsors several programs to in-crease the supply and enhance the qualityof minority teachers in the South. Thissession provided an overview of theseefforts with a focus on two programs: aTeacher Cadet Program and a SummerEnrichment Program.

Audrey Webb Beard, assistant profes-sor of early childhood educon at Al-bany State College

Early Childhood EoucationSchool of EducationAlbany State College504 College DriveAlbany, GA 31705Phone: 912/430-4715

Nate Jackson, program officer at theSouthem Education Foundation

134 Auburn Avenue, NESecond FloorAdanta, GA 30303Phone: 404/523-0001

Emma White-Rembert, chair,Division of Education. Bethune-Cook-man College

640 Second AvenueDaytona Beach, FL 32015Phone: 904/255-1401 ext. 218

Managing SchoolsBoth site-based management and participatory decision making were des-cribed as components of the restructuringof Amencan schools.

Glynn R. Archer, Jr., assistant superin-tendent, Monroe County Schools

242 White StreetP.O. Box 1788Key West, FL 33041-1788Phone: 904/296-6523

Aubrey Finch, principal, OglethorpeCounty High School

Highway 78Lexington, GA 30648Phone: 404/743-8124

Suggested Reference: SchoolBasedManagement, Monroe School Distnct

Good Teachers for Small,Rural SchoolsA school rersonnel spaialist, a ruralschool superintendent, and the director of

statewiie Lacher recruitment centerargued that rural school districts can im-prove their teacher candidate poolthrough sound planning and effective,aggressive marketing.

Tommy Burbage, assistant superinten-dent for personnel, Georgetown SchoolDistrict

624 Front StreetGeorgetown, SC 29440Phone: 803/546-2561

Ernest K. Nicholson, superintendentof schools, Florence School District #4

112 South Kershaw StreetTimmonsville, SC 29161Phone: 803/346-5391

John Norton, director, South CarolinaCenter for Teacher Recruitment

105 Withers HallRock Hill, SC 29733Phone: 803/323-4032

Suggested Reference: A Chou t forOut Cinithen, Florence City SchoolDistrict No. 4, Timmonsville, SC

Communications Planningto Share Your SuccessThe president and southeast regional vicepresident of the National School PublicRelations Association discussed effec-tive communication planning for schooldistricts.

Sue Carson, southeast regional vicepresident of the National School PublicRelations Association and director ofcommunication services for theWinston-Salem/Forsyth County schools

P.O. Box 2513Winston-Salem, NC 2./102Phone: 919/727-2695

Jeannie M. (Sissy) Henry, presidentof the National School Public RelationsAssociation and director of boarddevelopmen: for the South CarolinaSchool Boards Association

1027 Bamwell StreetColumbia, SC 29201Phone: 803!799-6607

Keeping in Touch With Parentsin the Information Age:Telephone Messages theFriendly, Informative WayTechnology allows schools to improvetheir means of sending messages toparents and receiving messages fromthem via sophisticated telephone sys-tems.

Jill, Breedlove, director of educationalaffairs at BellSouth Corporation

Room 15H101155 Peachtree Street, NEAtlanta, GA 30367-6000Phone: 404/249-2462

Wilbert Brown, assistant principal ofthe Academy for Academics and Arts,Calvary High School

2800 Poplar AvenueHuntsville, AL 35816Phone: 205/532-4750

Betty L. Strickland, principal ofInman Middle School

774 Virginia Avenue, NEAtlanta, GA 30306Phone: 404/594-5812

A sa HilliardAwas especial-1 y eloquentwhen he spokeof the modelsof excellencehe has found

in many parts of the world.Educators need to understand thecapacity of children to learn in adeeper way, he believes.

"I witness in my travels that allchildren, everywhere, learn the mostdifficult thing that there is to learn bythe age of two: how to speak theirnative language. Think about what is

There Are ManyModels ofExcellence

required in language acquisitionwhat mental operations are necessaryto speak a human language, to com-pare, to contrast, to extrapolate, inter-polate. All of that conies about just ingetting a vocabulary and in themanipulation of that vocabulary.

"Children all over the worid learnthis by the age of two without everhaving sat in anyone's classroom.They learn almost on their own, large-ly through imitation." Furthermore,he said, "In many places in the world,children learn a foreign language bythe age of 4, sometimes by the age of3. Sometimes, by the age of 4 or 5 theyare speaking three or four languages,never having sat in a foreign languageclass."

In Africa, he said, "Most littlechildren have four and sometimes fiveor six languages. That's a brilliantmind. Children universally are gen-iuses. We don't need IQ tests to deter-mine that. What I saw in these African

children was an example of the ap-propriate software providing thehardware something to process.That's pretty stunning to me.

"What's more stunning is thatthere are those who are able to helpchildren not iose genius. I believe theproblem is saving genius. It's not sort-ing children ki,o piles of smart,medium, and dumb ones, but startingwith the assumption you're workingwith genius and then nurtui ;rig genius.That's my whole orientation. I as-sociate with people who believe that,and I learn from people who operateon that basis. They have produced forus magnificent examples of how to bewinners."

Hilliard skipped about the coun-try to give examples to support histhesis. "Let's go to California, to agreat university that has recruited stu-dents from allover the world. Let's goto mathematics, and look at what'shappening to the Asian students.They're so successful that schools arenow having to erect barriers to keeptheir schools from becoming totallyAsian."

Because the Asian students do sowell in calculus, they move easily intoengineering, science, and mathe-matics and do :.ts well there, he said.European students did somewhat lesswell. African students were failing."You could look at the SAT scores.There was about a 100-point devia-tion between the African and Asianstudents."

An ethnographic study was con-ducted, Hilliard said, to pinpoint whatthe Asian students were doing to getsuch uniformly gu results. Itrevealed a stark difference betweenthe Asians and the Africans. "Asianctudents studied in groups and tookresponsibility for each other's slic-cess, tutoring each other in their studygroups. African students did it themacho way; they studied alone."

The professor who conducted theresearch then set up a group-studyprocess for the African students. Their

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1 '7

performance in calculus improvedsevenfold in a short period. "Whenyou raise students' performance fromfailing to superior, wouldn't you saythat kind of confirms what i said aboutpotential?" Hilliard asked.

"Go to New York, Bedford-Stuyvesant, around the crack houses,where the families are not together,where the gangs are, there's no foodon the table. Go into one of thoseschools. Be Professor Everett Barry.Demonstrate for the faculty what canbe done in a year. Take a fifth-gradeclass, and lift their academic perfor-mance so that those who were, whenyou arrived, scoring two and some-times three grade levels below theclass average in fifth grade, at the endof the year score high enough so that80 percent of the students pass theninth grade Regent's Exam in mathe-matics. Would you call those studentswinners? I would. And I would callProfessor Barry a winner."

Hilliard talked as well about Special Educational Enrichment for theDisadvantaged (SEED), a programhe's been tracking for more than 20years. "A high school teacher, fed upwith failure, created SEED. He said tohimself, 'What if I could take the

aghest subject and teach it at theraghest level to the lowest-performingstudents in the shortest period of time.I wonder how those students wouldreel when they walk out of those clas-

Tk.

Asa Hilliard: There are models of excel-lence evoywhere.

ses, talking about logarithms and ex-ponentiation and so forth. Of courseyou know what happens. Self-esteemgoes up because you do things thatpeople respect. And teacher expecta-tions go up when children achieve.

"Most of our thought about thosetwo things has the equation backward.You don', get teachers to raise kids'self-esteem by teaching them a classin expectations. Expectations are theproduct of high achievement, not thecause of high achievement. Motiva-tior is the product of high achieve-ment. It's not the other way around."

At Marcus Garvey School inWatts, Los Angeles, only the principal

had a college degree. "The kids didn'thave regular textbooks. The third-grade children were learning fromcollege algebra textbooks. They gotthe problems without the readingmaterial from the college algebrabook.

"They '..hallenged the children inthe Los Angeles magnet school forthegifted, because they thought regularthird-g:aders would be a snap. Itwouldn't prove anything. Then theydecided that giftea third-graderswouldn't have a chance. So they wentfor the sixth grade and won and, there-fore, hit the front page of the LosAngeles Times. Little kids in poverty,

Student Team Learning m Alabama

around crack, no one had aangedtheir family status, mother and fatherdidg't get married again, diet didn'tchang, 1 he strategies changed, andthe children changed."

Presenting models of excellentprograms that are working in theSoutheast was a principa: purpose ofSEIL's Atlanta conference. Thesemodels included a Student TeamLearning program in Alabama andAtlanta's Middle School TalentCenters, the nationally validatedmodel, Every Child a Winner, andseveral others presented in summaryfashion in the following section.

Go to the research, and you maycome away excited. Student

Team Learning increases academicachievement, with more time-on-task behavior. It offers positive ef-fects in improving intergrouprelations, increases the self-esteemof students, and helps develop betterattitudes towarn schools andteachers. What 's more, it's a programthat's inexpensive, practical, easy tolearn, and instructionally efficient.

Sound too good to be true? It'snot, according to three state depart-ment of education specialists inAlabama. They offered the Atlantaconference an overview of the pro-gram that is operating in six K-12school systems. Participating in thepresentation were Wanda Coleman,special education specialist, and Fran-ces Manning and Linda Pledger,education specialists.

One program goal is to makeeducation less competitive for stu-dents and far more collaborativewith an emphasis on sharing andsupport similar to the attitudes ofAsian students reported by Asa Hil-liard.

"In the typical classroom," saidPledger, "a teacher asks a question of30 students, and 20 know the answer.When she calls on one of the studentsfor an answer, everyone else hopes thestudent doesn't know. The ones whodo know the answer are hoping forfailure because they might theli havea chance to succeed. The ones whodon't know hope for failure becausethey want company."

Student Team Learning pro-motes a desire for success, not failure.It uses three basic techniques: STAD(student teams achievementdivisions), TGT (teams-game tour-naments), and Jigsaw II.

In STAD, students form four-member learning teams mixed in per-formance level, sex, and ethnicity.The teacher presents a lesson; thenstudents work within their teams tomake sure that all team members havemastered the lesson. Students take in-dividual quizzes on the material, ontheir own, without help from others.Teams earn rewards when all mem-bers successfully learn the material.

TGT uses the same teacherpresentations and teamwork as STADbut replaces the quizzes with weekly

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tournaments in which students com-pete with members of other teams tocontribute points to their team scores.

Cooperative learning is not

for every teacher or for

every student. You don't

just pat students togetht r

and tell them to

collaborate. You must also

teach them cooperative

skills.

ii

Jigsaw II ako uses the team ap-proach to Itaming. Students in teamsw ork on chapters or other reading as-signments and on "expert sheets,"w hich contain different topics foreach team member to focus on w henreading. When everyone has finishedreading, students from different teamswith the same topic me-t in an "expert

group" to discuss their topic Fxpertsthen return to their teams and taketurns teaching their teammates abouttheir topics. Finally, students arequizzed on all the topics, and theirquiz scores become team scores as inSTAD. Rewards to teams are part ofthe plan.

Middle School Talent Centers

The presenters emphasized thatcooperative leaming is not for everyteacher or for ev ery student. "Youdon't just put students together andtell them to collaborate. You mitst alsoteach them cooperative :.kills." Com-prehensive training for teachers is es-sential if the program is to work well,the speakers said.

Talent Centers ate blossoming inmany parts of Atlantaeight in

middle schools, another eight in highschools. A principal, two teachers,and three students who attend one ofthe centers explained the concept toconferees.

Talent Centers, located withinexisting schools, are areas designed tostimulate students to learn. Studentsneed no special talent to go to a TalentCenter. The price of admission issimply interest.

Leviticus Roberts, principal ofMartin Luther King, Jr., MiddleSchool, was on hand to talk about thefour Talent Centers in his school. Withhim were teachers Freddie Benfordand Nellie Terrell and three studentswho spend a good deal of their time inthe centers.

The school is the only one in thecity with multiple centers. It estab-lished them because of the over-whelming response, from studentsand their parents, to the Talent Centerconcept. It now has two writingcenters, as well as centers for com-puter science and science,

Each Talent Center consists ofabout 150 students, balanced betweenboys and girls, and a team of fiveteachers that is responsible for thecore education This group is called a"learning community." Studentsspend four and a half hours per day inthe academic block. An additionalstate incentive grant is available be-

Leviticus Roberts: Interest and talent go together

cause of the concentrated nature of theprogramming. Student performanceis steadily improving. Now, theteachers reported, 32 percent of thestudents score above natioaal normson standardized tests.

The writing center concentrateson providing students with oppor-tunities for developing good writinghabits through practice and helps stu-dents prepare for statewide writingassessments. Science teacher NellieTerrell said she believes "science has

-14-

1

come alive for students in our center."It emphasizes hands-on t.pproaches tolearning science; greater careerawareness; better school attendance;better use of materials; resources, andteacher competences; and increasedhigher order thinking skill levels.

A major result of developm:mt ofthe centers is that students now spendfar greater amounts of time in thesespecial areas of concentrationscience, computer science, and writ-ing.

Every Child a WinnerA Nationally Validated Model

Charles Hodges has cerebralpalsy. When he entered the

Every Child a Winner program, hewas at the bottom of the class, cftensitting for hours on the floor, barelymoving. When he left the program.he truly was a winner, moving men-tally, physically, and emotionally. Hewon nine gold medals in the SpecialOlympics.

This kind of success story is com-mon in the program that is part of theNational Diffusion Network of Ex-emplary National Progiams, U.S.Department of Education. It has beenadopted throughout the United States,Canada, and the Virgin Islands.

Martha Owens and Susan Rock-ett, from Ocilla, Georgia, describedthe program to conferees. Briefly, it isan individualized physical educationprogram that improves fitness andmotor skills for all children, regard-less of physical or mental ability.

"We are raising cocky, competi-tive athletes," said Rockett. "Everychild has a right to be fit, to have goodmotor skills. You don't have to com-pete to leam to mos e well. Youngchildren must know the language ofmovement if they are going to be suc-cessful in life."

Every Child a Winner also con-tributes to improvement in academicsand self-esteem. "We believe in self-esteem," said Martha Owens. "If weare to turn this problem [of studentachievement] around, we have to helpfoster self-esteem." The program of-fers a practical, proven, step-by-stepplan of installation at school sites,field-tested lesson plans, and trainingmaterials. Physical educators, class-room teachers, administrators, andparents report positive student resultsin discipline and vocabulary, as wellas improved motor skills and fitness,the presenters reported.

Rural Students in REACH

The program structures develop-mental movement experiences forchildren centered on themes of spaceawareness, body awareness, qualityof body movement, and relationships.These themes are taught througheducational games, dance, and gym-nastics.

Competition occurs when it is

child-initiated. The project slogan,Every Child a Winner, finds expres-sion through the discovery learningapproach to teaching movement. Stu-dents are encouraged to reach theirpersonal potential, and "winning" oc-curs as each child does his or her best.

Owens and Rockett emphasizedthe need for thorough training for theclassroom teachers, special educators,and physical educators v; ho will con-duct the program.

Students in the little town of York,South Carolina, are communicat-

ing via computer and modem withstudents in France. They are writingabout the history of their respectivecommunities.

The result "is some of the mostconcise communicative writing I haveever seen. The kids knew they weregoing to be communicating withpeople who did not speak English.They had to be concise; they had tocommunicate. Too often in schools,people do not have to communicate,so they don't."

The speaker was Ike Coleman,coordinator of the South CarolinaRural Writing Network. He wasdescribing the rapidly developingprogram called Project REACH.

REACH is an acronym for RuralEducation Alliance for CollaborativeHumanities, a statewide humanities/literacy program in South Carolinathat supports diverse and innovativeschool-based projects. It seeks esp,;-cially to help educationally andeconomically disadvantaged youth.

Describing the activity to SEILconference-goers, along withColeman, were Jack Blodgett, direc-tor of the REACH project based atClemson University; Kemble Oliver,director of telecommunications andinstructional technology for REACH;Sylvia Robinson, English teacher atHunter-Kinard-Tyler High School,Norway; Willease Sanders, programcoordinator of the REACH projectbased at Benedict College; and J.Elspeth Stuckey, director of the South

-15-

Sylvia Robinson: Technology opens theworld to students.

Carolina Cross-Age Tutoring Pro-gram, based at South Carolina StateCollege in Orangeburg.

Together, the presenters ex-plained that REACH helps students in

20

J. Elspeth Stuckey describes the longreach of Project REACH.

mral areas become better readers andwriters through projects that focus onspecific tnemes, issues, topics, andtexts in the humanities. Connecting tothe students in France is a good ex-ample of how that is done.

The fact is, Coleman said, "thereare a lot of barriers in schools that we

can take down to allow kids to connectin a creative way. It isn't an accidentthat kids can't think of an.,.thing towrite about and that teachers can'tthink of anything interesting for themto write about. We must realize thatstudents need to interact with theircommunities in the world. Throughthat interaction, they are going tolearn."

Picking up on a theme em-phasized by keynoter Asa Hilliard,Coleman said, "We also have tobelievenot just intellectually, but ina way that invades our schoolsthathuman beings Pre magically activelearners. If we give them somethingthey are interested in and let them doit, they will learn magically. We are ina much bigger danger of getting intheir way than we are of helpingthem."

Project REACH seeks to takedown barriers to learning. "Ttachers

have a budget, a really small budget.but they can buy stamps. If you can'tbuy stamps, you can't communicatewith the world. If you can't gettransportation to some point, youcan't communicate with the world. Ifyou can't make a long-distance call,you can't communicate with theworld."

Focusing on disadvantagedyouth, the REACH projects em-phasize the development of readingand writing skills necessary forunder-standing and achieving real-life goals,the student as a productive member ofthe total community, the formation ofa network comprised of a wider com-munity of collaborators, and the use oftelecommunications and other tech-nologies to link all participants in ruralSouth Carolina public schools withthe humanities.

Instruction Across the Curriculum: A Case for Integrated Learning

Wetonah (Toni) Parker. directortor professional development

and educational services for Educa-tional Personnel Development Sys-tems in Cary, North Caro!ina,describes integrated (earning as"decompartrnentalizing" subjectareas.

"Integrated IPaining refers to theinterrelatedness of subject and skillareas within and across grades of aschool program," according to Parker."Referenced in the literature by manytermsinterdisciplinary units, in-tegrated studies, thematic approachintegrated learning is not a new ideabut is used regularly by many edu-cators."

Parker provides five reasons forincorporating integrated learning intothe public school curriculum: I) thereal world is integrated, nothing isseparate; 2) students do best whenlearning is connected: 3) students be-

come the focus of learning, not theteacher; 4) integrated programs areuseful in tackling other areas of con-cern; and 5) teaching skills and sub-jects in isolation is difficult within theinstructional day.

She explained that integrated(earning may include teaching: 1)content within a subject or skill area;2) skills with subjects (practicingwriting skills in social studies clas-ses); 3) subjects with subjects; 4)skills with skills; and 5) skills/subjectswith skills/subjects.

According to Parker, "We'vebeen doing integrated learning, wejust haven't realized it." Using aglobe, she demonstrated the integra-tion of social studies, science, andmath. She added that it is not neces-sary for teachers to explain to studentsas they cross disciplines.

Parker stressed the importance ofvarying instruction and integrating

-16-

21

Toni Pal ker : We need to break down corn-

pin tmentalized barners to learning.

studies with the real world. "I neverwant to preach one way of teaching,"she J. "Why should studentspredict what you are going to do?Heighten interest. Change. Do some-thing different to pique their interest."

She advised educators to seeksupport from others; schedule meet-i ngs to determine ways to work

together. Be innovative. "We forgetwe're in a very creative business," shesaid. "We get panicky when our test

they should be. Creati,ic teachers findother ways to teach the same material.If you are bored, your children are

scores are not as high as someone says bored. Don't get [too] structured. Find

the best way to teach an objective.Don't water [instruction] down, noteven for slower students."

Early Childhood Education in Dade County, Florida

The research shows that studentswho receive pre-K experiences

do better in school. We know it'simportant. Our constituents wouldrather invest in pre-K than pay forprisons and dropouts later oi or pro-vide remedial programs for olderchildren," Frank de Varona totd con-ferees.

Frank de Varona is a member ofthe SEIL Board of Directors anddeputy superintendent of the DadeCounty schools in Florida. Hedescribed the enormity of the taskfaced by that school system.

"Our students come to us from122 different countries," he said."About 75,000 of the school district's280,000 students are foreign-born.Eighty percent are from minority

Writing in Trust

groups. It is not unusual to have 50nationalities in a school of 500 stu-dents."

Added to those complexities isthe fact that the system gains 20,000students each year and is now thecountry's fourth largest. Its budbet of$1.5 billion is larger than the Do-minican Republic's. With 38,000employees, it is the county's largestemployerand the second largestemployer in all of Florida. Big busi-ness.

The system has designed severalcomprehensive early childhoodeducation programs to give studentsthe best possible chance of experienc-ing success in school. Among themare the pre-K Exceptional StudentProgram that serves autistic, emotion-

ally handicapped, retarded, and otherdisabled children, with a maximum of12 students to a classroom. The pro-gram began with two classrooms in1977. It now enrolls over 500 studentsin 60 classrooms. The goals of the $5million program are to develop fineand gross motor skills, imagination,positive self-image, and problem-solving skills.

The regular pre-K program forfour-year-olds began in 1985 withfive teachers and 150 students. Now,with a $3.3 million budget, it func-tions in 28 schools with 29 teachers. Itis available to students who areeligible for free lunch. Parents asvolunteers are an important pan of theprogram.

Two men and three womentheyhave a few important things in

common. Each is a teacher, each is awriter, and each was a member of apanel at SEIL's Atlanta conference.Marian Cooper Bryan teaches inSunset Park Elementary School,Wilmington, North Carolina. IkeColeman coordinates the SouthCarolina Rural Writing Network inClemson. Ruth Hooks directs theWiregrass Writing Project, Dothan,Alabama. Jean Schiffbauer is a fel-low, Florida Writing Project. AndSam Watson is director of theSoutheastern Region, National Writ-ing Project.

They had met before they werecontributors to Writing in Trust, pub-

lished by the Southeast LL. The bookis the result of the reflections ..ad re-search of teachers in the Southeast.They came together for a weekend in1987, at Wildacres, North Carolina, tobegin w hat became an exciting jour-ney in publishing. Each of the par-ue,pants completed a descripiion of

the ways in v. aich writing has becomeimportant in his or her classroom andthe differences it has made.

Some of their reflections on theexperience:

"Writing helps you understandwhat kind of teacher you are. Itincreases self-esteem. Teachers

The reflection that writing requires alters the

way you think. When you write, you serve as

a model for your students.

-1 7-

need more support than ad-ministrators realize.""Teachers must write. We need toclarify our own thinking. Thereflection that writing requires al-ters the way you think. You startthinking the way you write Andwhen you write, you serve as amodel for your students.""Talking has a lot to do with life.It works every time in teaching.

Resources

Teachers need to get away frommaking kids keep their mouthsshut.""By the June mfming, ^. sense ofcommunity entered me, and I felta cornm;Lnent to the book. Wewanted to make it int( a book inOctober. We broke into pairs andworked on it. We argued aboutwhat should go into the book andwhat should be left out. We all

came out of it striving for excel-lence. It was great fun. it took oneperson, Sam Watson. who en-couraged us. That really helped."

s "How do we ada or adopt thisconcept/program :iiio our class-rooms? District-wide? Wethought about doing this with ourown school sysiem. We had al-ready established trust. This willbe hard to do in our schools."

Student Team Learningin AlabamaA team of state department of educationspecialists described Alabama's StudentTeam Learning (a form of cooperatiNelearning) in grades K-I2 in six schoolsystems.

Wanda Coleman, special educationspecialist, Alabama Department ofEducation

Frances Manning, educationspecialist, Alabama Department ofEducation

Linda Pledger. education specialist,Alabama Department of Education

50 North Ripley StreetMontgomery. AL 36130-3901Phone: 205/242-8013

Middle School Talent CentersThe Martin Luther King, Jr., MiddleSchool in Atlanta, GA, has implementedfour seventh- and eighth-grade TalentCenters in science, writing, and com-puter science. In each center. stude..tsreceive academic core instruction duringa 4.5-hour block, along with interdis-ciplinary instruction centered around atheme.

Freddie Benford. seventh-grade read-ing teacher, Martin Luther King. Jr.,Middle School

Cary Holt. curnculum specialist, Mar-tin Luther King. Jr., Middle School

Leviticus Roberts, principal, MartinLuther King, Jr., Middle School

Nellie Terrell, eighth-grade scienceteacher, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mid-dle School

582 Connally Street, SWAtlanta, GA 30312Phone: 404/330-4149

Suggested Reference: Atlanta PublicSchools Talent Centers. Atbnta PublicSchools

Every Chiid a Winner ANationally Validated ModelTwo presenters highhghted the EveryChild a Winner program. which enhan-ces problem-solving skills, vocabulary,self-management, self-esteem, motorskills, and fitness of K-6 students.

Martha F. Owens, originator anddirector, Every Child a Winner program

Susan Rockett, program director.Every Child a Winner program

P.O. Box 141Ocilla, GA 31774Phone. 912/468-7098

Suggested Reference: Every Child is aWinner With Physwal Education, Mar-:ha Owens

Rural Students in REACHREACH (Rural Education Alliance forCollaborative Humanities) is a statewidehumanities/literacy program that sup-ports diverse and innovative school-based projects designed eTectally toassist educationally and eco Jrnicallydisadvantaged youth.

Jack Blodgett, director of the REACHproject headquartered at ClemsonUniversity

320 Daniel HallClemson, SC 29634-1503Phone: 803/656-5402

Ike Coleman, coordinator of the SouthCarolina Rural Writing Network

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320 Damel HallClemson, SC 296341503Phone. 803/656-4463

Kemble Oliver, director of telecom-munications and mstruLtional technol-ogy for REACH

Center for Computers & Writing,Department of EnglishUnivt-rsity of South CarolinaColumbia, SC 29208Phone: 833/777-5992

Sylvia Robinson, English teacher atHunter-Kmard-Tyler High School

P.O. Box 158Norway, SC 29113Phone: 803/263-4530

Willease Sanders, program coor-dinator of the REACH project based atBenedict College

Arts and Humanities CenterRoom 301Benedict CollegeColumbia, SC 29204Phone: 803/253-5426

J. Elspeth Stuckey, director of theSouth Carolito Cross-Age TutoringProgram, based at South Carolina StateCollege

P.O. Box 3151Orangeburg, SC 29117Phone: 803/252-3967

Instruction Across theCurriculum: A Case furIntegrated LearningConference participants were introducedto mtegrated learning and how It may beused to produce high achievement levelsand positive relationships in classroomsand schools.

Wetonah (Toni) Parker, director forprofessional development and educe-

tional services, Educational PersonnelDevelopment Systems.

102E Commonwealth CourtCary, NC 27511Phone: 919/829-5900

Early Childhood Education inDade County, FloridaEarly childhood education prograni aredesigned to provide a strong basis forchildren's learning in Dade County,Florida, which serves a rapidly growingmulticultural school population.

Frank de Varona, deputy superinten-dent of the Dade County Schools, andmember of the board of director:, of theSoutheastern Educational ImprovementLlboratoly

School Board AdministrativeBuilding1450 N.E. 2nd Ave., Room 402Miami, FL 33132Phone: 305/995-1452

Suggested Reference: Piekindergar-ten, The Right Beginning', Dade Comi-ty Public Schools Bureau of Education

Writing In TrustWriting in Trust is the result of the reflec-tion and research of teachers in theSoutheast; each completed a descriptionof the ways in which writing has becomeimportant in his or her classroom and thediferences it has made.

Marian Cooper Bryan, Chapter Ireading teacher, Sunset Park Elemen-tary School

7 Sunset StreetP.O. Box 8331Wrightsville Beach, NCPhone: 919/256-4608

Ike Coleman, coordinator of the SouthCarolina Rural Writing Network, aproject sponsored by the Bread LoafSchool and Clemson University'sEnglish department

320 Daniel HallClemson University

Clemson, SC 29634-1503Phone. 8031656-4463

Ruth Hooks, coordinator of theWiregrass Writing Project

Troy State UniversityDothan, AL 36302Phone: 205/794-'410

Jean Schiffbauer. fellow, Florida Writ-ing Project

2810 NE lOth StreetGainesville, FL 32609Phone: 904/336-8562

Sam Watson, director of theSoutheastern Region, National WritingProject

Department of EnglishUniversity of NC at Chtdotte225 GaringerCharlotte, NC 28223Phone: 704/547-4216

Suggested Reference: Writing inTing, Southeastern Educational Im-provement Laboratory

Most of the teachers told me that most of what they do in the

classroom they had learned, not in college, but on the job. What does

this mean for life in these little schools, with teachers who do virtually

no professional reading? It means that professional development of

some kind is crucial to their lives as teachers.

Bob Cole

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0 Li.rd .1.7

711ir't doesn't take magic,Imiracles, or sleight ofhand to create school suc-cess for children. Themodels of excellence inschooling are everywhere."You can pu_ me down in

any community, anywhere at all, andI guarantee you I will find examplesof instructional excellence within anblur," Asa Hilliard asserted.

He and Dudley Flood were full ofadvice about the elements that add upto instructional excellence and suc-cess for students and how to blend themix. Together, they offered educators

A Dozen Strategiesfor Winning

at the SEIL conference a dozenspecific ideas to follow in the pursuitof excellence.

Strategy 1

"Locate success," said Hilliard."Find the places where individualsare nurturing genius and children aresucceeding. Highlight that success.Those programs, those individualsneed to become the beacon for all therest of us."

Strategy 2

"Winners must be teaching teach-ers," said Hilliard. "Most of us aretaught by the nonexperienced. Oursystem of teacher ech ltion i truc-tured so that the nonexperiencedteach the nonexperienced the thingsthat they know. That's part of theproblem. The winners are not teach-ing teachers, for the most part."

Strategy 3

Adopt a balanced, fair, ethnicallyappropriate curriculum. "Whenlarge numbers of kids can go toschool for 12 years and not see them-

selves in school, something is verywrong," said Hilliard. "The culturalfabric must bc reflected in the cur-riculum."

Strategy 4

Consider diversity a strength.Whenever possible, bnng childrentogether in heterogeneous groups."If I had the power to do one thing tomake America's schools bettertoday," said Dudley Flood, "4 wouldbe to make it illegal ever to haveanother homogeneous group in anyschool in America. How dare wethink we can take a little poor kidfrom rural eastern backwoods Mis-sissippi and put him in a room withother rural poor kids in eastern back-woods Mississippi and expect thatsomehow that child is going todevelop intellectual capability? Nomatter what the intentions, he issimply not going to do it. We aresetting up little pockets of failure forpeople."

Strategy 5

Publicize the successful models.There is, said Hilliard, a remarkableand unprofessional lack of com-munication among educators aboutsuccessful programs. "If I went topeople in a top medical school andasked them where the best heartsurgery is being done, I assure youthey would know. It is their profes-sional responsibility to stay abreastof that kind of information.

flat doesn't happen in educa-tion. At one of our finest educationschools on the East Coast, ; asked thetop leadership if they could identifyfive programs anywhere in the nationwhere students were systematicallymoving from failing to superiorachievement. They could not. Theycould not identify even one. But thoseprograms are everywhere."

Strategy 6

Validate the successful models."Since we need to see proof in this

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25

profession," said Hilliard. "it is im-portant to vahdatc these successstories. Study them. Find out whatmakes them work."

Strategy 7

Replicate the successful models.Adapt, adopt, clone, infuse the sys-tem with the attributes of success thatcome, from the programs that work,Hillard suggested.

Strategy 8

Honor and celebrate intellectuality.if we want intellectual achievement

for our children, then we mustcelebrate it," said Flood. "Childrenwill excel at anything adults willcelebrate. We need to honor intellec-tual achievement as we do athleticachievement if we truly aspire to in-tellectuality for our children."

Strategy 9

Develop social skills. "I havemanaged to do more with my socialproficiencies than with my intellec-tual proficiency," said Flood. "Thatincludes learning in sch ool. Themajor part of doing well in schoolunderstanding how school works.Knowing how to access the environ-ment. Children must be taught socialskills. They are not getting them."

Dudley Flood. Students need to developpolitical savvy and spiritual proficiency.

frftL.I&F

il)gil 111

Promote understanding of practicaleconomics. Today's studems, saidFlood, "are getting a skewed pictureof economics. They need to under-stand how the economy works. Wehave children in our schools whoactually believe they ha,,e to buy a$165 pair of sneakers to walk aroundcampus. They don't know that youcan jump just as high in a $35 pair ofReds. Economics is a simple prop-osition that you ought to have moreleft after you have worked and gotpaid, than what you spend. Childrenhave to understand that."

1,11111MORION

Sfrategy iiThere's a wed, ac well, for stu-

dents to acquire "political savvy."Flood said. "I'm not talking aboutpolitical science, I'm talking aboutpolitics and the way it works. Studentsare not learning the power of politics.You are in the political systemwhether you chose to be cr not. Andunless you understand how it worksand how to access it, you will be dis-enfranchised for life."

Strategy 12Finally, as a mark of success,

students need to develop "a spiritualproficiency, Flood said. "I don't

The Principal's Role in School Excellence

mean religion. I'm talkk abouthaving that spiritual gyroscope thatkeeps you erect in the face of adver-sity. I'm talking about having aphilosophical understanding of yourperson and the persons around you,and understanding that there is goodand bad and right and wrong and thatthere is behavior that is appropriateand inappropriate."

Strategies for success, whichpromote instructional excellence andaccomplishment by students, wereevident in many of the p-ogramsdescribed at the SEIL conference. Ex-a mple s of these programs aredescribed on the following pages.

A panel of four principals ofsoutheastern schools shared

their visions for their schools andstrategies for ensuring that teachersshare those visions.

South Granville High School,Creedmoor, North Carolina, is one ofsix schools statewide chosen to par-ticipate in a two-year Lead Teacher/Restructured School Pilot Project.Approved by the General Assembly,the project provides differentiated payand leadership opportunities forteachers, according to Tom Williams,principal. He added that the intent ofthe project is to allow for "lead"teachers to teach half time and servein a leadership position in the schoolhalf time.

These schools have flexibilityand are exempt from many stateregulations. Teachers have the un-usual authority to reorganize theirschool. In turn, they must develop anaccountability model. In exchange forthe flexibility, the schools must showthat they are improving students'academic performance and staffmorale.

Williams said that eight leadteachers, selected by the faculty,

direct teams of educators that makeconsensus decisions about policy, in-struction, and hiring. A faculty coun-cil, whose members include two leadteachers elected by the faculty, twoother teachers, a guidance repre-sentative, secretary, two assistantprincipals, and principal, tackles non-instructional issues.

He explained the process as itwas used to hire him as principal. Hewas interviewed by a team of twoparents, nine lead teachers, and thedistrict superintendent. He describedthe questions he was asked as "profes-sional and well thought out." Adecision to offer him the position wasmade by group consensus.

Ila Flowers, principal, explainedthat the motto at Girard ElementarySchool in Dothan, Alabama, is:"We're good, and we know it." Shecredits a staff of excellent teacherswho recommit each year to strivingfor excellence.

Plans are formulated using a col-laborative leadership approach,Flowers explained. School-basedmanagement allows teachers to playan important role in decision making.

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2 6

Ila Flowers: Choices are importantforteachers and parents.

Although parents and teachersare united by a goal tc provide excel-lent education, Flowers stressed theimportance of accepting and teachingthat people differ in many ways. "Webelieve choices are important,"Flowers said. "Parents and teachersneed choices. We're strong becausewe built a school where people wantto work and children want to attend."

Flowers added that the teachersare treated as professionals. Theyhave flexibility but are expected to doa good job. If necessary, they work onweekends. They believe teachingshould be recognized as the profes-sion that is. Flowers said the staff ofGirard Elementary School want toreevaluate the profession with highei

salaries paid to teachers than atpresent. Professional treatment andadequate pay v, ill help states attractqualified teachers, she said.

We're strong

because we built a

school where people

want to work and

children want to

attend.

The Alabama principal jokinglydescribed the "brainwashing" of stu-cleats at Girard Every Friday, shebroadcasts "good news" bve the

school's intercom system. The pro .gram rewards students, who constant-

ly are on '2 lookout for subjects tofeature in the program. They takepede in te".-ig others that they attendGirard Elementary Schoolthe bestin the world, Flowers added.

Jayne Sargent became principalof Jim Hill High School in Jackson.Mississippi, in Augustonly twoweeks before teachers reported for a

new She inherited a school thatv,as in "oad shape." Leadership in the

inner-city school v,as v,eak. Teenpregnancy, poverty, and drugs weremajor problems in the student bodythat was 85 percent black. Sevemlstudents were members of "gyand "stepping groups," in v,hich step-

pers march with precision."I had the reputation that the only

stepping that was dolie was out thedoor," she said. When no one askedwhy new rules were being put inplace. Sargent assumed that com-placency was pmbably as likely in the

classroom.She set up a team approach to

management, and the team set a goal

',hat 30 percent of the school'ssophomores woule receive collegescholarships. "Our kids realize thatthe only way out is a learned way out.

Their only salvation is to get out orwhere they are."

Sargent's door is always open toteachers and students. "I listen to stu-

dents," she said. She attributes part of

her success to a caring attitude. "I dobelieve in people," Sargent said."[Education] is a people business.

The principal added that she in-forms teachers in the beginning thatshe expects trust. "You're going tohave to trust me faster than anyonebefore,"she tells them. "We're in thistogether. I'll do anything it takes."

Sargent has earned the trust ofstudents, too. "I wanted to walk in and

not make kids think I'm afraid ofthem," she explained. "They'veshown me also that I don't need to be

afraid." She added, "I believe in kids,and I sincerely care and believe in the

teachers at that school they are,cellent."

If asked what his "vision" wasfive years ago when he became a prin-

cipal, Charlie Eubanks would haveresponded, "20120." He explainedthat he was ill-prepared to lead aschool when he became principal at

-22- 2 7

High Point Elementary School inClearter, Florida. He inherited aschool v, ith a declining schoolpopulation due to district rezoning,low teaLher morale, and little com-munity support. A positive, how ev er,was a strong, capable staff.

If he was weak in some areas, he

was strong in at least one. "What Iknew how to do was involve people,"Eubanks said. He in', olved the staff in

determining. achieving, and evaluat-ing goals and strategies. He explained

that a team wrote objectives and ac-tion plans. which it evaluates con-tinually.

The approach worked. In 1988,the Florida Department of Educationnamed High Point Elementary Schoolone of 21 outstanding elementaryschools in the state.

Following the designation,Eubanks and staff "looked at why weimproved." They gathered informa-tion to determine what had made theschool "outstanding." From that sur-vey, they went on tc establish a "main-

te n a n ce improvement plan." Itrequires: 1) proper planning; 2) ap-propriate evaluation; 3) establishedprocedures for planning and evaluat-ing; 4) comm. -tient (of faculty, staff,parents, and community) to improve-ment; 5) capable, motivated person-nel; 6) commitment to teamwork: and

7) commitment to mission.Eubanks added that another key

to the school's success is a commit-ment to staff development and in-ser-

vice training and an atmosphere ofmutual respect. He said that he hadfound that staff commitment iscreated by personal desires to succeed

or help others succeed, high expecta-

tion:, of self and others, and feelingsof "oneness" with others.

"We trust each other," he said."I'm for you, and you're for me.We're all for kids. Mediocrity is notgood enough for us."

Developmentally Appropriate: What Is It and How Does It Help Kids?

What is the appropriate role forthe public schools with

children from birth to age five? Hcan schools organize to meet t,developmental differences ondneeds of students through childhoodand the adolescent years?

Three experts in the field offervdfew answers but provided a range ofinsights on these and other questionsin a discussion at the conference onthe reemerging term: "developmen-tally appropriate instruction." Theywere Barbara Bowman, director ofgraduate :tudies at Erikson Institute,Chicago; Sharon K. Meinhardt, coor-dinator of early childhood programsfor the Georgia Department of Educa-tion. and Ellen M. Pechman, directorof CATALYST: A Partnership Pro-moting Mathematics Improvement,the Center for Research in Mathe-matics and Science Education, NorthCarolina State University.

The discussion benefited frominformation and definitions offered bythe National Association for theEducation of Young Children. Thatgroup defines developmental ap-propriateness in two ways:

Age appropriateness. Humandevelopment research indicatesfliat there are universal, predict-able sequences of growt`t andchange that occur in childrenduring the first nine years c f life.These predictable changes occurin all domains of developmentphysical, emotional, social, andcognitive. Knowledge of typicaldevelopment of children withinthe age span served by an in-structional program provides aframework in which teachers canprepare the learning environmentand plan appropriate experiences.Individual appropriateness.Each child is a unique person withan individual pattern and timingof growth, as well as individualpersonality, learning style, andfamily background. Both the cur-riculum and adults' interactionswith children need to be respon-sive to individual differences.Learning in young children is theresult of interaction between thechild's thoughts and experienceswith materials, ideas, and people.These expe' -!nces, as much aspossible, need to match the

Mathematics: We All Can and Must Learn

Barbara Bowman. First understandwhere children are developmentally

child's developing abilities, whilealso challenging the child's inter-est and understanding.

The instructional idea, of course,is that teachers can use child develop-ment knowledge to identify the rangeof appropriate behaviors, activities,and materials for a specific age group.This knowledge, in conjunction withunderstanding of individual child-ren's growth patterns, strengths, inter-ests, and experiences, is necessary todesign the most appropriate learningenvironment.

Wake up America. Your children

are at risk." That is a quotefrom Everybody Counts. In simple,clear language, its authors point outthe need for far stronger programs inmathematics instruction if thiscountry wishes to keep its position oftechnological leadership in theworld.

To promote new, more effectiveinstructional practices in mathe-matics, the National Council ofTeachers of Mathematics published aproposed Curriculum and Evaluation

I Standaids.11,aly M. Lindquist, FullerE. Callaway Professor of Mathe-matics Education, Columbus Collegein Georgia, discussed the content ofthe Standards and theil potential in-fluence on mathematics instruction.

"We need to understand," shesaid, "that three-fourths of all our stu-dents will stop taking mathematicsbefore they have learned the prereq-uisites, the real basics for a tech-nological society." The NCTMStandards rest on four critical needs.

-23-28

Within the next five yearr., 60 per-cent more of the jobs in the U.S.workplace will require mathproficiency thafl is the case today.At the same time, today'sminorities will be the majoritywork force in the very near future.Understanding political choicesmeans understanding complex in-formati In, and much of that infor-ma ti on is mathematical aildstatistical. Math literacy is essen-tial for an informed electorate,Lindquist said.

Three-fourths of all our students will stop taking

math before they have learned the prerequisites, the

real basics for a technological society.

o In th- next 25 years, the averageWON will change jobs fivetimes. v,orkers need to learn howto think and compute more thanthey need to learn specific skills

or content. Understanding mathconcepts is highly transferablefrom job to job.All students can and need to leammathematics, said Lindquist. "We

can't afford to believe that onlysome people can leam math. Wecan't afford to let mathematics bea filter that keeps some kids out ofgood jobs."

The good news is that the Stand-ards and work from other mathe-matics educators and researchers arepromoting instructional approaches inmathematics that place greater em-phasis on understanding process andconcepts and less emphasis on rotememorization. Where the new con-cepts are introduced, students respondwith enthusiasm.

Now That the Standards Are Here, What Are We 'Spozed to Do?

E en Pechman and her associatesare creating the Mathematics As-

sessment Process (MAP) to make in-struction in mathematics a moresuccessful experience for youngadolescents. She is director ofCATALYST, a project funded by theFord Foundation to pilot MAP in sixschools during the 1990-91 schoolyear. CATALYST is based at NorthCarolina State University and is af-filiated with the University of Geor-gia.

MAP is a school-based programassessment process that empowersand encourages teacher-d hecte dteams to examine and realign theirmathematics education programs.MAP, Pechman explained at the con-ference, integrates four central ideas.

Young ado...scents can becomeeffective mathematics learners

and thinkers only in a context thatunderstands and responds to theirunique developmental needs.Highly effective mathematics in-structional practices targeted toyoung adolescents are welldeveloped, but not widely used inthe middle grades.Widespread consensus exists onthe need for major revisions in thecontent of middle-grades mathe-matics programs, as evidenced bythe National Research Councildocument Everybody Counts andthe NCTM Curriculum andEvaluation Standards for SchoolMathematics.Organizational developmenttheory and practice offer stra-tegies for planned change that caneffectively guide the restructur-

Ellen Pechman: Creating a MathematicsAssessn:ent Process to support success in

math.

ing of a middle-grades mathe-matics program.

MAP was field-tested in 12schools in 1988-89 and will move topilot sites in the 1990-91 school year.Principal support for the program hascome from the Ford Foundation andBellSouth Foundation.

Evaluating Teachers as Professionals: The Work of the National Board

North Carolina's former gover-nor, James B. Hunt, Jr., is head-

ing the new National Board forProfessional Teaching Standards.The board, he says, "is a building

block in making teaching a fullprofession. Teachers will now have acentral role in setting high standardsfor what teaching professionalsshould know and be able to do. In just

-24-

a few years, I feel confident that theboard w ill produce an assessmentprocess worthy of our best andbrightest teachers."

Four specialists in the field otevaluation were on hand at the con-ference to offer further insights intothe work of the National Board.Formed in 1987, largely with Car-negie Foundation support, the Boardissued guidelines for initial certifica-tion standards for teachers in 1989."Teachers interested in securingboard certification mast have a bach-elor's degree from a regionally ac-credited institution of higher edu-cation ;Ind at least three years ofteaching exper.ence," reported LynnComett, vice president for state ser-vices, Southern Regional EducationBoard in Atlanta. Further, teachersmust meet the board ce-tificationstandards.

Peggy Swoger, a junior highschool teacher from Birmingham, hasserved on the National Board since its

Teachers will now have a central role in setting high

standards for what teaching professionals should

know and be able to do.

founding. "To improve education,"she said, "we need excellent teachersin the classroom. These teachers needto be identified and publicized." Thegoal of the National Board is muchmore comprehensive than just thedevelopment of a better teacher test,she said. "The profession needs amore professional stature to attractand retain good teachers."

E.K. Fretwell, Jr., chancelloremeritus, University of NorthCarolina at Charlotte, sees formationof the National Board as .A positivestep for higher education. As theBoard succeeds in setting profes-sional standards, teacher training in-stitutions will need to upgrade theirprograms substantially, he said.

Schools of the 21st Century: A Solution to Child Care in the South

AA lot of people say that child care..is the best bargain in America,"said Richard Ray, assistant superintendent of schools in Moore County,Carthage, North Carolina. "I reallydoubt that that is true. If you go intoa primary-care day-care center,you'll see six babies in cribs, withone caretaker who probably has ahigh si.hool education, if that. Per-fectly legal. Th, children never getout of the cribs. -Their care is to get abottle now and then and to bechanged. Their interaction with otherchildren or adults is very limited. Ifthat's a bargain, it's one that we aregoing to pay heavily for later on. Wecannot afford not to do it right."

Ray has taken a year off from hisduties in North Carolina to work withEclward Zigler at the Bush Center inChild Development and SocialPolicy, Yale University.

Right now, he points out, "60per-cent of the parents whose children arebabies are working. That figure will

go up to 80 percent in the mid-1990sftnd, perhaps, up to 90 percent a bitlater on. Let's face it, the schools aregoing to be involved in child care,and, if we do it, we need to do it right."

The Bush Center program, de-veloped by Zigler, proposes twomajor components. One component,said Ray, "is to provide a child-careprogram for children ages three andfour. This need not be at the school,but the school needs to manage it and

Richard Ray: A new challenge looms forpublic schools.

-25-

be accountable for the way it's run.Staff needs to be hired and evaluatedby the school. This is a program thatneeds to operate from 6 a.m. to at least6 p.m. every school day."

The second major componentlikely to be on the horizon for publicschools is an after-school care pro-gram for latchkey children, "provid-ing services for children from earlymoming into the early evening hours,every day of the year. This requiresdevelopment of a family support sys-tem, and it is an adjunct to it."

Ray went on to describe howschools are likely to be called upon toprovide a whole network of sstrvicesto parents who have less and less timeavailable to supervise their children."In my mind, quality wild care issynonymous with quality earlychildhood f ducation. When I talkabout child care, it has an educationalcomponent to it. I'm not talking aboutbabysitting."

I

Sixty percent of the parents whose children

are babies are working. That figure will go up

to eighty percent in the mid-1990sand up to

ninety percent later on.

Schools may emerge as the logi-cal, if not the only, agency in the sys-tem to respond to the incieasinglycritical need to care for children."There is a huge movement in the

country now because of concernabout the increasing non-functionalism of 1:.,: family," Raysaid. "The Welfare Reform Initiativesays the system we now have to meet

Early Childhood Education: Preschool Child Careand Parent Education How Do We Do It All?

the needs of families and their youngchildren doesn't work and can't berepaired. We need to start over." There

are agencies doing "a pretty good job"

in their areas of concern, he said: men-

tal health agencies, health depart-ments, and welfare departments. "But

nobody is looking at the family. Thesystem we need to be dealing with isthe home, the place where that kid is18 hours a day. We are all going to bein this. I hope that as individuals, andas groups, we can realize that weknow little bits and pieces aboutyoung children and families. But if weare going to assume responsibility forthem, we need to get ourselves pre-pared."

Ctate and local agencies areijdesigning family interventionprograms that identify needs andresources available to enhance thequality of life for children andparents. A panel of three describedearly childhood education initiativesthat are under way.

Thomas Schultz, project directorfor early childhood education, Na-tional Association of State Boards ofEducation, Alexandria, Virginia, saidthat parents of young children havethree kinds of needs:

Support through their children'searly years and information aboutwhat they can do to help themlearn.

Safe affordable, enjoyable, qual-ity child care.Preparation of their children to besuccessful when they enter school

and preparation of the schools toreceive and respond to the needsof the young child.

Schultz discussed preparingchildren and preparing schools for

early school success. He said that asound knowledge base and consensus

about what is quality in preschoolprograms exist. "We know we need to

have low group size and staff/student

ratios that allow responsiveness to in-dividual needs of kids, " he said. Headded that staff members need train-ing in early childhood education andchild development and that educa-tional programs should be comple-mented with nutrition, health services,

and strong parent involvementprograms. In addition, staff membersneed professional growth oppor-tunities and a professional environ-ment in which to work.

According to Schultz, "We're inan exciting era of innovative state and

local efforts to meet these needs." He

explained that at least 30 states fundpreschool programs through publicschools, Head Start programs, andother agencies; some, too, are expand-

ing these programs. Federal initiativesare helping expand Head Startprograms and issuing mandates to

-26-

public schools to serve young childrenwith special needs. In addition to anexisting knowledge base aboutchildhood education, there is bipar-tisan support to attack this issue,Si..hultz explained. He cited a National

Governors' Association goal toensureschool readiness in young children.

Schultz's three-part early child-hood education agenda for policy-makers and local schools includes.

Continuing the momentum to ex-pand enrollment in quality pre-school programs.Moving beyond the focus on pre-school programs in Head Start orthe public schools to find ways toenhance the quality of other earlychildhood programs and settings,to support adults who care forchildren, and to help them under-stand what they can do to helpprepare the children for school.

a Improving public schools' abilityto respond to children's diversity.

He added that school personnelmust be responsive to parents of

3 .1

kindergarten and early grades stu-dems. "Parents are at their peak 9finterest when their kids are young," he

said.Schultz recommended two areas

of focus for ensuring school readi-ness: 1) providii.g opportunities forchildren so that they have an equalchance to become ready and 2) find-ing ways to make schools moreprepared for young children than theyare.

Anita Hannon Hall, chair,Department of Curriculum and In-struction, and director, Kenan Pre-College Academic Program, JacksonState University, Jackson, Mississip-pi, discussed the role of parents inearly childhood education.

"Parents have their own needsthat require -,ttention if they are tonurture others," she said. "We have toremember that as educators. An effec-tive parent education involves manyaspects ofcognitive, affective, and be-havioral learning."

She explained that educatorsmust encourage parents to be in-volved in good nutritional programs,help them understand that they are notpowerless or inadequate, and moti-vate them. In addition, educators musttreat parents with dignity, helpingthem assume significant roles indecision making. They, too, mustmodel an attitude of openness andprovide parents with feedback.

Hall said that to ensure equitableparent involvement, educators mustbe flexible in scheduling parent ac-tivities and consider human factors.

Joe Perreault is assistant directorof Save the Children, Child Care Sup-port Center, Atlanta, Georgia, whichworks to improve the supply, quality,and affordability of school-age childcare in Georgia. He discussed childcare for working parents.

He cited a number of statistics: 57percent of women with children underfive years old work, and 51 percent ofthose with children under one year oldare in the work force. By 1995, an

estimated 77 percent or women withchtldren between six and seventeenand 65 percent of women withchildren up to five years old will be inthe work force.

There are, as well, 7 or 8 millionpreschool children whose parentswork. By 1995, that figure will reach15 million. Child care is now a $15billion-dollar-a-year industry; by1995, the cost will climb to$48 billiona year, Perreault estimates.

Perreault explained that middle-and upper-income parents purchasenursery school experiences for thetwo-to-five-year-olds; lower incomeparents are unable to do so. He calledpreschool education a "serviceparents of young children are lookingfor that's not being met by publicschools."

He described five ways schoolsare responding to the issue of workingparents. They provide:

Extended (full) day-care needs ofchildren in public schools sys-tems.Day care for children of schoolemployees and special con-stituencies of the school.Extuided day care for prescLoolchildren with disabilities.School-age child careschoolsallow premises to be used for on-site programs.Programs adaptive to schedulesand demands uf working parents,

Parents' own needs

require attention if

they are to nurture

others.

-27-

32

Tom Shultz: Early childhood is a greattune to learn.

considering special problemssuch as those tied to transporta-tion, inclement weather, andholiday and summer schedules.

A. Craig Phillips, former statesuperintendent of education in NorthCarolina, asked if the solution to theproblem of funding childhood educa-tion services is close.

Schultz said he did not believethe solution was near. He added, how-ever, that Congress was planning toincrease the amount of funds ap-propriated for public child care, butagreenient about program details andphilosophy have not been reached.

Schultz cited several child carefunding proposals, such as achildren's trust f, id that would allo-cate money from payroll tax and theuse of the public finance system forpublic education of young children.He added that both proposals are farfrom public acceptance, predictingthat a mixed public and private fund-ing system probably focusing on equi-ty would evolve.

Perreault said he did not believethat childhood services would be sup-ported totally by tax dollars. Hepredicted that parents would pay forfewer years of services, but at highercosts than they presently pay. Per-reault suggested, too, that employerswould become more involved infinancing early childhood services.

Pamnts Speak: Some Ideas About the Improvement of Education

They were a distinguished group,four women and mo men who

have been on the front lines of .,chool

improvement acti ities in their st atesfor years. On hand for the Atlantapanel were state presidents of theCongress of Parents and Teachers,Inc. (PTA), in a session moderatedby Daisy B. Cobbins, past president

Parental

involvement in the

schools is not a

magic thing.

of the Mississippi PTA."Parental involvement in the

schools is not a magic thing," saidFred Herr, president of the Alabama

PTA. "It's not something that happensovemight. It takes training every yearand a long commitment by a lot ofpeople. Our toughest issue is gettingparents involved. One out of threestudents in our state doesn't graduate.

Probably their parents didn't either.This is a challenge for the PTA that is

difficult to overcome."In Phoenix, he pointed out, "there

are 1.2 members of the PTA for every

kid in the school systems. What's thepayoff? If there is a drug educationprogram, Phoenix has it in action.When the superintendent goes to thecity council and asks for a new highsthool, he takes the PTA Council of-ficers with him. They don't say aword. They just sit behind him. Butthey represent a terrific amount ofpower."

Numbers and involvement: theyare key issues for parents in all of thesix service states. While dealing withthese tough issues, parents continue to

make a strong difference in the qualityof education in the states. Member-ship in the PTA was up by 30,000 in a

'Say Yes to Success' Parent Program

single year in South Carolina, reports

immediate past president and SEILBoard Member Joyce T. Marshall."We are %ay influential and becom-ing more so all the time," she said."We are the grass-roots lobbyists. We

are supporting bills now, forexample,to allow income tax credit for volun-teers who work in the public schools."

Parents in South Carolina, shesaid, understand that "we are ourchild's first teacher. We have a respon-

sibility, and we need to become better

teachers, to understand more aboutchild development, to learn how tobetter support our children."

Panelists agreed on a range ofimportant topics that face parents andschools in the near future. Includedare the need to build stronger part-nerships among school, home, andcommunity; find ways to get the"hard-to-reach parents" involved inthe schools; and define new, moreflexible ways to encourage parent in-volvement in the schools.

The Greater Columbia Chamberof Commerce and the School

Council Assistance Project based atthe College of Education, Universityof South Carolina in Columbia, gotfunding help from the Ford Founda-tion to put together a strong educa-tion support program in their county.On hand at the SEIL conference tedescribe the program was NormaHiggins, manager of e( cation andexecutive director for the ColumbiaYouth Collaborative, part of theChamber.

The Collaborative, expiainedHiggins, "is a cummunity pact puttogether through the Ford Foundation.

The Chamber of Commerce and theschool district got together and weregiven a grant to bring the entire cem-munity together to address the issuesof at risk youth. Our goal is to givetools to kids to be successful by reach-

ing out to key elements of the com-munity: business leaders, educators,health and human service profes-sionals, government agency officials,parents, students, and religious lead-ers."

Involving the business com-munity is especially important, shesaid, "because we are designing sup-

port programs for the workers of

-28-

tomorrow, and business has a stake inmaking those programs successful."

YES means Youth Encouraged toSucceed, and the program takes many

different forms. YES parenting ses-sions are oper to all parents in targeted

schools where the incidence ofdropouts or other problems is abovethe norm. Child care, transportation,and other forms of support help en-courage attendance at the sessions.Parent groups bond into support sys-tems, the presenters said, and continue

to meet on a monthly basis followingthe six-week parenting sessions.

Students and business peoplemake up the YES Team. Twelve busi-

ness leaders work closely with a care-fully selected group of the same nurn-ber of students who have the ability tograduate. but who need mentoring,career guidance, internships, and/orpart-time jobs. While aid goes to thesestudents as needed, they work withguidance counselors to identify peerswho are in need of a support group. Aspeer counselors, the initial teambegins to establish a dependable sup-port system for academic and per-sonal problems. "In time, the YESTeams create a network of caringadults and students committed topreventing dropouts and encouragingsuccess and self-esteem," Normansaid.

Resources

We are designing support programs for ihe workers

of tomorrow, and business has a stake in making

those programs successful.

BET (Business/Education To-gether) is another part of the programthat approaches the adopt-a-schoolconcept from the business perspec-tive. The program invites businessesto become involved in the education

process through funding scholarships,designing curricula changes, andproviding, in their own business, al-ternative learning environments tomeet the special needs of youths atrisk.

The Principal's Rolein School ExcellenceA panel of principals from across theregion shared their "visions" for theirschools and strategies for ensuring thatteachers share their visions.

Charlie Eubanks, principal, HighPoint Elementary School

6033 150th Avenue, N.Clearwater, FL 34620Phone: 813/531-1464

Ila Flowers, principal Girard Elemen-tary School

522 Girard AvenueDothan, AL 36303Phone: 205/792-5214

Jayne Sargent, principal, Jim HillHigh School

2185 Fortune StreetJackson, MS 39225Phone: 601/960-5354

Tom Williams. pnncipal, South Gran-ville High School

P.O. Box 398Creedmoor, NC 27522Phone: 919/528-1507

Developmentally Appropriate:What Is It ',nd How Does ItHelp Kids?The session focused on the term's mean-ing for preschool, elementary, and mid-

dle schools. Presenters described whatthe concept means for the operation ofschools and how a developmentally ap-propriate education differs from a tradi-tional approach, particularly one that isdriven by testing.

Barbara Bowman, director ofgraduate studies at Erikson Institute, anaffiliate of Loyola University

Erikson Institute25 West Chicago AvenueChicago, IL 60610Phone: 312/280-7302

Center for Early Adolescence, Univer-sity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Suite 211, Carr Mill MallCarrboro, NC 27510Phone: 919/966-1148

Sharon K. Meinhardt, coordinator,early childhood programs, GeorgiaDepartment of Education

1952 Twin Towers EastAtlanta, GA 30334-5040Phone: 404/656-2685

EllenM. Pechmar director ofCATALYST and a consultant in adoles-cent development and middle-gradeseducation

Center for Research in Mathematicsar ' Science EducationCollege of EducationNorth Carolina State University315 Poe Hall. Box 7801

-29-

Raleigh, NC 27695-7801Phone: 919/737-2013

Suggested Reference: PossibleCastles, Possible Worlds: The Develop-ment Context for Responsive Educa-tional Program, Ellen Pechman, TheCenter for Early Adolescence, Univer-sity of NC at Chapel Hill

Mathematics: We All Canand Must LearnPresenters discussed the National Coun-cil of Teachers of Mathematics' Cur-riculum and Evaluation Standards forSchool Mathematics, answerng ques-tions such as: What are the Standards,and what are the next steps in implemen-tation? What has occurred, and what canbe expected? What is the role ofeducators in this reform ettort, and howcan educators make all students winnersin mathemmics?

Mary M. Lindquist, Fuller E. Cal-laway Professor of Mathematics Educa-tion, Columbus College

School of EducationColumbus, GA 31993-2399Phone: 404/568-2255

Now That the Standards AreHere, What Are We 'Spozedto Do?Ellen Pechman responded by presentinga model fc.' initiating a site-based evalua-

tion process that engages mathematicsteachers, interdisciplinary staff, and ad-ministrators in a systematic evaluationprocess for directing mathematics pro-gram redesign.

Ellen M. Pechman, project director,CATALYST, Center for Research inMathematics and Science Education,North Carolina State University

College of EducationNorth Carolina State University315 Poe Hall, Box 7801Raleigh, NC 27695-7801Phone: 919/737-2013

Suggested Reference: Mathematics As-sessment Process; Center for EarlyAdolescence, University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill

Evaluating Teachers asProfessionals: The Work ofthe National BoardPresenters described the National Boardfor Professional Teaching Standards,which is concemed with professionaliz-ing teaching and the taaching environ-ment.

Lynn Cornett, vice president for stateservices, Southern Regional EducationBoard

592 Tenth Street, NWAtlanta, GA 30318-5790Phone: 404/875-9211

Joseph Delaney, assistant superinten-dent for instruction, Spananburg (SC)School District #7, and president,South Carolina Association of School

dministrators610 Dupre DriveSpartanburg, SC 29302Phone: 803/594-4410

E.K. Fretwell, Jr., chancelloremeritus, the University of NorthCarolina at Charlotte, and senior as-sociate, MDC, Inc.

124 Amrita CourtCharlotte, NC 28211Phone: 704/547-2484

Peggy S$ oger, ninth-grade Englishteacher, Mountain Brook Junior HighSchool

205 Overbiook RoadBirmingham, AL 35213Phone: 205/871-3516

Schools of the 21st Century: ASolution to Child Care in theSouthThe session focused on the Edward Zig-ler (of the Bush Center in Child Develop-

men! and Social Policy at Yale time:sity) "Schools of the 2Ist Centuiy" con-cept, which emphasizes servicesprovided by and through schools.

Richard (Dick) Ray, assistant superin-tendent for support services for MooreCounty Schools and post-doctoral fel-low, Bush Center in Child Develop-ment and Social Policy, Yale University.

26 Stoney LaneMadison, CT 06443Phone: 203/432-4569

Suggested References: The New Law.Barbara J. Smith

School-Age Child Care Council Publi-cations List

Early Childhood Education:Preschool Child Care andParent Education How DoWe Do It All?Local and state agencies are designingfamily intervention programs that iden-tify needs and resources available to en-hance the quality of life for children andparents.

Anita Hannon Hall, chair, Departmentof Curriculum and Instruction, anddirector, the Kenan Pm-CollegeAcademic Program, Jackson StateUniversity

P.O. Box 17042Jackson, MS 39217Phone: 601/968-2336

joe Perreault, assistant director, Savethe Children, Child Care Support Cen-ter

1340 Spring Street, NWSuite 200Atlanta, GA 30309Phone: 404/885-1578

Thomas Schultz, project director forearly childhood education, National As-sociation of State Boards of Education

701 N. Fairfax StreetSuite 340Alexandria, VA 22314Phone: 703/684-4000

Suggested Reference: Parent Involve-ment in Early Childhood Education,Anita Hannon Hall, Jackson StateUniversity

Parents Speak: Some IdeasAbout the Improvement ofEducationPresenters discussed issues relating tothe improvement of education and major

-30-

cffo bcmg implcm..med by rrAN ineach state.

Daisy B. Cobbins, past president, Mis-sissippi PTA

1795 Oakland AvenueJackson, MS 3921:Phone. 601/960-8905

Andrew P. (Sam) Haywood, presi-dent, North Camlina PTA

1400 North Graham StreetCharlotte, NC 28206Phone: 704/343-5420

Fred Herr, president, Alabama PTA2033 Hummingbird Lam,Auburn, AL 36830Phone: 205/884-4987

Joyce T. Marshall, immediate pastpresident, South Carolina PTA, andSEIL Board Member

1119 North Elmgrove AvenueFlorence, SC 29501Phone: 803/662-7614

Carole F. Rice, president, Georgia PTA114 Baker Street, NEAtlanta, GA 30308Phone: 404/659-0214

Bonnie P. Teater, president, Mississip-pi PTA

P.0 Box 585Starkville, MS 39759Phone: 301/325-3207

Eugenia B. Thomas, past president,Florida PTA

1110 NW 41st StreetMiami, FL 33127Phone: 305/554-2218

"Say Yes to Success"Parent Prog. amThe presenter shared a framework forestabhshing a parent education programfor at risk students.

Norma Higgins, manager of educationand executive director for the Colum-bia Youth Collaborative, GreaterColumbia Chamber of Commerce

P.O. Box 1360Columbia, SC 29202Phone: 803/254-9727

Suggested Reference: The CohunbuiYouth Collabor alive, Columbia Cham-ber of Commerce and Richland CountySchool District

hen ayoungsterdrops outof schooland goeshuntingfor an un-

skilled job, everyone loses. Whenanother student uses school ex-periences as a launching pad for alifetime pui suit of excellence, eve-ryone wins. That was the message offormer Mississippi Governor Wil-liam F. Winter at the SEIL con-feren,:e.

He urged a deeper understandingin the region of the relationship be-ween economic health and strongeducation programs. "We start withthe recognition that our region is notgoing to be fully competitive, regard-less of the other resources it may have,unless it has a citizenry that can com-pete educationally in the globaleconomy," said Winter.

"Our underdeveloped humancapital remains our greatest barrier toeconomic growth and prosperity. Theplain fact is that as long as we have somany undereducated people, ourregion is going to be poorer than therest of the country. Poorly educatedpeople translate into poor people.Education is the only thing that w;11unlock the door to economic oppor-tunity for all of our people and parityfor our entire region."

The South, by any standards, is anaturally rich area. Winter pointedoutwith productive land, abundantenergy and minerals, bountiful tim-ber, plenty of water, and clean a r. "Itis poor because we have too manyunderproductive people. Put in plain,hard-headed economic terms, it is notjust a zero to our economy to have somany undereducated people. It is aminus. The more undereducatedpeople our i-,gion has, the poorer it is.

I LISIMMEMEMOMMAIIM!!!====1-9

.,

1,

William Winter: HI: need productive,well-educated people.

Because they are undereducated, theycan't carry their share ot' the burden."

The region, said the formergovernor, needs a new approach toeconomic development, linked close-ly to new resources for and strength ineducation. "For a long time, in manyareas of the South, our developmentstrategy was built around three per-ceived advantages that we had. Theywere low wages, cheap land, and lowtaxes. In most cases, we got aboutwhat such a strategy suggested. Weperpetuated a lower standard of livingthan we should have. Those factorstranslated into poor schools and poorcommunities that were not very at-tractive places to live."

Now, Winter believes, "eco-nomic development must involve amuch broader range of concerns. Thefirst concern obviously must be askilled work force or at least atrainable work force. We are not goingto be competitiv e with the rest of the

-31-ag

countlymuch less tile rest of theworlduntil we educate properlymore of our people."

Millions of adults in the South arefunctionally illiterate, Winter pointedout. "It is a staggering loss. We mustgo back and try to salvage some ofthese people. Adult literacy remainsone of our largest challenges.

"The second problem has to dowith keeping the present schoolgeneration in school. Our 30 to 40percent dropout rate is a national scan-dal." Economic competitors in the FarEast, such as Korea, graduate 97 per-cent of their students, Winter reported.

Winter believes that improve-ment in education "is going to requirehands-on involvement and invest-ment by the business community invarious and assorted partnerships toalleviate some of the root causes ofpoor achievement.

"But I can tell you additionalresources invested in reducing therisks in people before they dropout ofschool and out of society must beprovided, or we shall wind up paying

The EconomicConsequences ofWinning

a lot more down the road."Governor Winter's remarks

struck a responsive chord at the SEILconference. There was major em-phasis in thc sessions on describingeffective programs in the region tocur b school dropouts, develop strongedacarion-business partnerships, andbreak the cycle of illiteracy.

Breaking the Cycle of Illiteracy

You Have Done Such a Wonderful ThingThank You Straight From My Heart

I always thought maybe someday

When the children are on their wayAnd all that must come first has goneI can pursue a dream of my own

As time passed I became unsure of myself

My dream faded upon its shelfThen you placed a bridge across all my doubtAnd gave me the someday I used to dream about

One thing I have learned from the path behindIs should I ever stumble I know I'll findA supportive hand to steady me

Because I'm part of the Kenan FamilyYou have done such a Wondetful thing

You have given me hope and courage to dream

My children see this and they believe

That they can also achieve

I searched for a card that could thank you enoughFor what you have done for all of usB:ct store bought words just wouldn't doSo for all the dreams that are coming true

THANK YOUStraight from my heartFor giving us a place to start

This poem was written by a 30-year-old mother of four after she

completed an education programsponsored by the Kenan Trust Fami-ly Literacy Project. She entered theprogram as a sad, shy, dropout butbecame a group leader and topachiever. After a year in the Kenanprogram, she passed the GeneralEducation Diploma (GED) examswith a perfect score in literature andis preparing to apply to a college-level accounting program.

In the Kenan program, parentswho have dropped out of school learn

to read and write while their preschoolchildren also are learning. In the after-noon, parents and children learn andplay together.

'Ile Kenan project is in its secondyear of operation. What began with 7sites in North Carolina and Kentuckywill soon be operating in 29 sites in 11states. More than 300 adults andchildren have participated in the pro-gram whose aims are to: 1) raise theeducational level of parents im-prove their literacy; 2) increasedevelopmental skills of preschoolers;3) improve parenting skills; 4) enable

-32-0 t--1%.4 of

parents to become familiar with andcomfortable in a school setting; and 5)help parents gain the skills andknowledge they need to becomeemployed.

Many of the parents enter theprogram reading at a third- to eighth-grade level; 80 percent of them eitherraise their grade level by two gradesor earn a GED. Children in the pro-gram increase their developmentalskills by 52 percent in one schoolterm.

In a project publication, WilliamC. Friday, executive director, WilliamR. Kenan, Jr., Charitable Trust, re-members his introduction to the pro-gram. "I had been working ineducation for 40 years, but nowherehad I seen one program that did somany things so well, that addressedsuch a broad range of needs so effec-tively." he wrote. "It got to the heartof the literacy problem, an inter-generational cycle that perpetuates il-1 ite racy and its stubborncompanionpoverty."

"Breaking the intergenerationalcycle of illiteracy means a lot morethan improving literacy skills ofadults and children," according toSharon Darling, director of the Na-tional Center for Family Literacy andfounder of the Kenan project. "Itmeans changing attitudes, values,and, in some cases, cultures."

Darling, a charter member of theboard of directors of the Barbara BushFoundation for Family Literacy,shared grim economic and familystatistics, reiterating the need forfamily literacy programs.

The number of children living inpoverty has increased by 50 percent inthe last 15 years. Family poverty, too,is rising. In families headed by a per-son younger than 25, the poverty ratehas doubled since 1973, with a 30percent increase in 1985. Nearly one-

half of niidien lioin these youngfamilies in 1985 were poor.

"Or, to look at it another w ay,one-fourth of the 1988 first-graderswere living in poverty," Darling ex-plained. "Ten years ago, one in sixfamilies lived in poverty last year,one-third of children under 18 werebeing raised in poverty. Our nation'schildten are now the poorest segmentof the nation's population. They arenearly seven times as likely to be pooras those over 65."

She added that although nearlytwo-thirds of all poor children arewhite, both blacks and Hispanics aremuch more likely to be poor. "Theaverage black child can expect tospend five of the first fifteen years ofchildhood in an impoverished home.

"And when we look at thoseyoung children living in poverty, weknow that they are increasingly beingraised by parents less prepared to rearthem," she continued. "We know thatan increasing number of our babiesare being raised by babies them-selves."

Teen pregnancy is on the rise. Agirl who becomes a mother before theage of 20 will have one-half thelifetime earnings of those who delayhaving children until aftei 20, accord-ing to Darling. She added that thechildren of teen mothers are likely tobe participants in adult literacyprograms.

Additionally, as many as half ofthe children living in poverty don'tenter schools with the developmentalskills they need to succeed in school.They fail on the first day of school,Darling said. Children living in pover-ty are three to four times more likelyto drop out of school than otherchildren. About one-third of all stu-dents drop out of school before earn-ing a high school diploma. That's theequivalent of 80 school buses filledwith students each day.

,

The problem runs deeper. Dar-ling explained that many who com-plete high school don't read above asixth-grade level; one in six is func-tionally illiterate.

While reform efforts have tar-geted illiteracy, proposed solutions,such as reducing class size, raisingcompulsory school age, requiringmore subjects, and withholdingdriver's licenses unless certain scoresare achieved, are not working, Dar-ling claims.

"I contend that reform strategiesfor the educationally disadvantagedthat focus on the school system alone

Family literacy is a

way to improve the

chances of success

for youngsters of the

nation's families.

are doomed to failure for a substantialportion of our at risk youth," she said."One single predictor as to how suc-cessful a child will be in school is theeducational attainment of the parent inthe homecircular, not linearfol-lowed by income and race. Parents'education is the best predictor of achild's reading ability."

When parents are involved inhelping their elementary-school-agechildren with their school workso-cial class drops out as a factor in poorperformance, Darling said. Parents

-33-

who have books in the home and whoread to their children have childrenwho are good readers ana better stu-dents. Finally, parents who are in-volved in the schools have childrenwho are better achievers and havehigher cognitive skills, higher a-chievement test scores, and better at-tei idance, she added.

"The question is not whether weeducate the parents and give them theskills and knowledge they need to beinvolved in their child's learning,"Darling explained. "The question is:How do we do it?

"Family literacy is a way to im-prove the chances of success foryoungsters of the nation's families."she added. "Equally important, it ismeeting the literacy needs of theparentschanging the attitudes abouteducation and translating those totheir children."

One mother from an urban site inNorth Carolina said, "Before this pro-gram, people told me I was dumb andstupid, and I felt that way. After 10years of being out of school, I didn'tknow whether I had brains. It's likegetting a new job after 10 years oftrying and not getting one. I had beenthinking about school day and nightfor 10 years. If I applied for a job, theytold me, 'You haven't finished highschool. We can't hire you. You eon'tknow anything.

A Louisville father who has cus-tody of his three- and four-year-olddaughters, commented, "I could talkfor days about what the program hasmeant to my girls. Crystal had troublespeaking, but she does not now. Eventhe three-year-old knows colors andso many other things. The women inthe program have taught me so muchabout taking care of girls that, as aman, I didn't know. The children haveopened up so much since they camein. They are happy now, and they werenot before."

38

Educcdon is Enential: One Community's Story

Only a banker could have namedour project the way it turned

out" said C. Sue Phelps, "but weneeded that banker and a lot morelike him to make the project work."Phelps, now an education consultantbased in Rocky Face, Georgia, is aformer principal and assistant schoolsuperintendent with the Dalton CitySchools, Whitfield County, Georgia.

Dalton is the carpet capital of theworld, she reports with pride. Onefirm there produces more carpet thanall of Belgium, which also has a strongreputation in the carpet world.

Back in the mid-1970s, Phelpsbecame fascinated by statistics that noone could explain, or cared to. Thehigh school graduating class was lessthan half the size of each year's in-coming freshman class. "People saidto me, 'Well, we have a lot of mobilityhere, people moving in and out all thetime.' I shook my head. That didn'tmake much sense, unless onlyfamilies with young kids moved inand families with older kids movedout."

In fact, the school system wasexperiencing very high dropoutlevels, but it hardly registered as aproblem. Unemployment in the coun-ty always stays around 3 percent,since there is a demand for unskilledlabor in the carpet manufacturingplants. Mounting an effective dropoutprogram in this itmosphere is dif-ficult, but Phelps and her school col-leagues were up to the task. Active

now for over 10 years, the program isa model of success. "We've learned alot from the good things we've doneand the mistakes we've made."

Early on, Phelps took her case tothe business community, workinglargely through the chamber of com-merce. She got one convert to thecause, the head of a large carpet com-pany. He was disbelieving whenPhelps told him that half of the stu-dents in high school would not getdiplomas, but she proved her casewith hard statistics. It was more dif-ficult to persuade him of the economicconsequences of the problem.

"He agreed to let us do ananalysis based on his personnelrecords," said Phelps. It was a turningpoint for the program. "The studyshowed that high school dropoutsemployed by his company cost him alot of money. Health care costs werehigher, workers' compensation costswere higher, absenteeism was higher.When he saw that study, he came onboan:1 full strength."

Phelps and her new ally took thecause to the community in a series ofpublic hearings. Later, they publisheda report of their findings. They wereable to show direct economic conse-quences of the high dropout rate forthe legal and penal system, for thewelfare system, and for otheragenciesin town. Slowly, they built a case thatgot everyone's attention.

One of the important lessonsPhelps has learned in the past decade

C Sue Phelps. Business and educationcan work together.

is that this type of program worksmuch better with business-com-munity leadership than with leader-ship from educators. "Businessleaders simply have more credibilityin sonic areas, and we need to unch--stand that and use it," she said.

As the program developed, in-dustrial leaders throughout the coun-tymore than 300 in allsignedpledges to give employment preferen-ces to high school graduates. Most ofthem signed up for on-site GED cour-ses that have proved to be thestrongest feature of the program. "Wehave graduations in plants all the time,full cap and gown," said Phelps. "Thecompany president is often there, andother top company officials. They areemotional experiences for everyone."One 70-year-old man got his GED, tomuch acclaim. As a result, 12 mem-bers of his family went back to schoolto pursue their high school diplomas.

Impaired Districts and Schools: Updating the South Carolina Experience

Joseph Rice, superintendent, Oran-geburg School District #2, Bow-

man, South Carolina, said itsuccinctly: To live through an im-pairment designation, one must love

kids. He compared the impairmentdesignation to a diagnosis of cancer.

The purpose of the South Caro-lina Impaired School provision is toensure that school districts at leastmeet students' minimum needs.

-34- on

Educators and policymakers serconcerned about problems surfacingin schools across the state. Noauthority existed for declaring dis-tricts "bankrupt."

7Reafizing a need to take action toimprove failing school districts, thelegislature passed an amendment tothe state's Educational ImprovementAct to set up the criteria for detennin-ing the health of a district's education-0 process. The South CarolinaImpaired Schools Provision requiresdistricts to meet minimum perfor-mance standards in two areas:achievement (test performance) andnonachievement (accreditationdeficiencies, dropout rate, and studentand faculty performance rates).

Districts must satisfy two-thirdsof both the achievement and non-achievement criteria. If a district failsto meet the standards, the state depart-ment of education and the state boardof education may declare it "seriouslyimpaired."

Following this declaration, thestatute provides for the state superin-tendent, with the approval of the stateboard, to visit the district, conduct anintense study, and recommend a planof action to remedy the defectsrevealed by the study. The district isgiven six months to carry out therecommendations. Noncompliance,or poor performance in fulfilling therecommendations, leads to increas-ingly severe penalties. In such an in-stance, the legislation gives the statesuperintendent the authority to dis-miss the local superintendent.

In four years, ten districts weredeclared to be "impaired." OnlyHampton County School District #2in Estill has been declared seriouslyimpaired twice.

In a panel presentation, JeromeCiesla, director of program evaluationfor MGT of America, Inc., a nationalmanagement research and consultingfirm based in Tallahassee, Florida,discussed MGT's evaluation of theimpaired schools provision. Rice andAlbert Eads, Jr., superintendent,Hampton County District #2,responded to the evaluation report.According to Ciesla, after the impair-ment designation, "improvementcame rapidly." No district is nowlisted as impaired.

MGT reviewed five districts thathad received the designation. A teamof evaluators interviewed students,teachers, parents, and school boardmembers, asking for negative andpositive reactions to the designation.

While the designation was dev-astating to all interviewed, evaluior,rsdetermined that positive outcomesoutweighed the negative effects. Testscores in each of the five districts in-creased markedly, Ciesla said. How-ever, MGT evaluators recommendedthat the state spare districts the desig-nation. They suggested that if stateofficials know that a district is headedfor impairment, they should offerwhatever help is necessary to avoidthe designation.

Arriving in the district after theimpairment designation, Eads saidthat his biggest obstacle was trying toovercome the psychological barriercreated by the label of "impaired."

He explained that when he washired as superintendent, staff turnoverwas high and community support forthe schools was low. The d-signation

Family Leadership Project

If a district fails to meet the

standards, the state

department of education

and the state board of

education may declare it

'seriously impaired.'

hindered recruitment efforts, and noone would even run for a vacancy onthe local board.

Eads strives to improve staffmorale, offers students and staff newopportunities, and stretches limitedresources. These efforts are helpingimprove the quality of education inthe district.

Rice, too, said the battle to over-come the designation was uphill. Thedistrict's failings were featured on na-tional news. The state released infor-mation about the designation todistrict personnel and the media on thesame day.

With the help of funds ap-propriated through a referendum,Orangebuig School District #2 is onits way to recovery, also.

In South Carolina, Superintendentof Education Charlie G. Williams

places concern for the family at thevery center of the state's EducationImprovement Initiative. One result isthat 1989 was the Year of the Family

in the state. Alfred T. Butler, Jr., as-sociate state superintendent; BarbaraC. Harvey, elementaiy school pi in-cipal in Columbia; and ShirleyHughes Kennedy, teacher of childdevelopment classes for four-year-

-35-40

olds in Columbia, described thestate's Family Leadership Project.

Williams has invoked a litanythat is heard from one corner of hisstate to the other. "The family servesas the first and most important

2'he family serves as the first and most important

'teacher' of its children, and its influence cannot be

overlooked in the educational yrocess.

`teacher' of its children, and its in-fluence cannot be overlooked in theeducational process. The family cur-riculum is ultimatdy responsible forthe success of its children but can bemaximized by bringing the familyinto full partnership with the school."

Many families are successful inguiding and directing the develop-ment of their children with mly min-imal support from schools andcommunity agencies, the speakerspointed out. However, other familiesneed assistance, support, and servicesto help oh: et the effects of familystress or dysfunctioning. It is this needfor structured and deliberate supportthrough a .,00rtrinated delivery sys-tem that is the heart of the FamilyLeadership Project. The intent of theprogram is to help families access

available services and res urces in thecommunity, not to duplicate services.The real strength of the program is toprovide those services in a coor-dinated manner.

A pilot program operating inRichland County serves the state'scapital city of Columbia. Theproposal for the program establishes acollaborative relationship among theschool district, the University ofSouth Carolina Colleges of SocialWork and Education, and about 20human service organizations andprivate businesses in the city.

A four-year grant supports thepilot program in the school district'selementary school found to be "mostin need." Since 99 percent of its stu-dents are eligible for free lunchprograms, Lyon Street Elementary

Patch the Cracks So Kids Can't Fall Through

School became the sne for the piloteftbrt.

The program links the four-year-olds now participating in a childdeve'opment program and theirparents who are eligible for adulteducation with existing communityand educational services. It alsoprovides support for the children'seducation. Specific clients in the pm-gram are at risk four-year-olds andtheir families. There is stroig c.n,-phasis on coordination with a range efstate agencies, including the educa-tion department, and use on the locallevel of a community advisory coun-cil and a local coordinating commit-tee. Community leaders from chur-ches, businesses, and organizations siton the advisory council. A main tasklbi the council is to build public sup-port for a cc, linated delivery sys-tem.

The local coordinating commit-tee serves as liaison to the projectstaff. It includes representatives ofeducation, health, and social serviceagencies. One of its primary roles is toidentify each specific family's needsand pian the services to be provided tothem.

'por a while in Mississippi, weJL. were averaging 11,000 t _hen ayear dropping out of school. It's bet-ter now, but we still have ft:xi manypeople dropping out. While we aredoing some things very, very well,we r-alize there are some things weneed to do a little differently."

The speaker is Nan P. Tarlton,president of Tarlton and Associates,Educational Consultants, Jackson,,

. Mississippi. She is working with thet

education department to train newTeacher Support Teams throughoutthe state. The training is .. critical step

in CONTINUUM, Mississippi's newand effective dropout prevention plan.

The Teacher Support Teams'concept emerged from a studylaunched by then-state superintendentRichard Boyd, seeking ways to stopthe dropout bleeding. It is at the heanof the CONTINUUM plan.

The Teacher Support Team in-cludes the school principal and four orfive teachers. After a t wo-day trainingsession, they form r support group inevery building. "If a teacher has aproblem with a student and she cannotdeal with it well, she can go to theSupport Team for help. When the

-36-

41

Vire.......'

Nan Tarlton trains Teacher Support

Tnuns.

team meets to discuss her child, shebecomes a part of the team. The teambrainstorms to look at ideas, new

ideas, creative, innovative ideas, col-laboratively with the classroomteacher. Ultimately, the classroomteacher gets to decide which strategyto try in his or he 3r00111."

Several we,. ,ter contact ith

the Support Team, the classroomteacher reports back on the success ofthe new approaches she's using.

A pilot program of the conceptbegan in 12 schools in 1987-88, and411 "cases" came before the SupportTeams. "In 70 percent of the cases, theproblems were solved in the regularclassroom setting," Tarlton said.

"Solutions came from changing theway directions were given to a childor how the teacher worked with thechild to find out what the problem wasor why it existed."

During the year of the pilot pro-gram, the failure rate went down, thedropout rate went down, spevialeducation referrals went down, andspecial education eligibility rateswent up "because the children whowere finally referred to special education really needed those services. Wehad a group of teachers in eavn schooldedicated to making life different for

School-Based Entetprise: The REAL Concept

the other teachers. We've had :schooldistricts with burned-out teachers;they didn't feel good about then,yes or what they were doing. Theycame to the training. I tell them at thestart, 'I'm here to help you. Give mehalf a day with an open mind.' Bynoon, they're interested. By the after-noon, they're talking about what weare going tu do the next day. The nextday, the excitement is unbelievable. Itis because they care so much abouttheir students, and they want to helpthem, and they've finally found a wayto do that."

ducation and economic develop-i:Jment must work jointly in stateami iocal communities, especially inrural ccmmunities, to improve thequality of life," said Vicky Propst,director of the South Carolina REALEnterprises. In Georgia, the acronymstands for Rural EntrepreneurshipThiough Action Leaming. In otherstates, the "E" stands for education.

The point of REAL is to supporteconomic development where itmakes a dramatic difference. "Projec-tions tell us that small, rural com-munities can expect to have half oftheir jobs created by employers withfewer than 50 employees, by the year1995. Half of those new jobs will becreated by companies that don't existtoday," said Propst. REAL is in thebusiness of starting small businessesin these kinds of communities.Schools act as small business in-cubators, increasing students' poten-tial for self-employment and theirknowledge of small business opera-tionnot through simulations, butthrough management of realc:iterprises. When projects succeed,,veryone wins: students gain invalu-able business skills, there's newstrength in the local economy, andchances are greater that enterprises

like these will keep young peoolefrom moving to more attractivemarket areas.

Several school-based enterprisemodels currently operate in rural areasof the Southeast. For example,Hartwell, Georgia, students areoperating an excursion railroad as amajor tourist attraction and also areinvolved in the operation of othertourist-oriented businesses locatednear the railroad depot. In St. Paul's,

North Carolina, students manage andoperate a deli-restaurant loL,ated at anexit off Interstate-95. High school stu-dents were involved in all aspects ofthe planning and implementation ofthese enterprises.

Along with Propst, Paul Delargy,who heads the Georgia REAL pro-gram; James Bryan, Georgia; andBarbara Nielsen, South Carolina,shared their experiences with theREAL concept.

There are countless jobs [in small-town America]

that pay minimum wage, but few jobs that will take a

young person anyplace over the long haul. So young

people all over the United States are clearing out of

small-town America, and small-town America is

withertng away.

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4 2

Bob Cole

Early Warnih;_ Truancy Prokram

AA labama is attacking the dropout.L.problem with a vigorous effortto curb truancy. State Superintendent

Wayne Teague and his colleaguesunderstand the relationship betweenpoor attendance and the dropout rate.

In 1988-89, 13,000 of Alabama's750,000 students left school beforegraduation. Of that number, nearly90 percent had poor attendancerecords. Many of the students wereabsent from school 20 or more daysa yearmissing one full year ofeducation over a nine-year span.

Ten juvenile judges and tenschool superintendents came togetherin a Task Force to focus on the truancy

issue. Floyd R. Johnson. Jr., coor-dinates this activity for the ;tatedepartment of education. Initially, hereported, there was a lot of distrust on

both sides. "Judges felt schools werenot obeying the law by failing toreport excessive absenteeism. Edu-

cators complained that the courts took

too long to hear cases related to com-

pulsory attendance, effectivelyrendering the laws of little use."

It was a fruitful dialogue thatgave birth to the state's Early Warning

Truancy Program. Under the newplan, if both the local district and thecourt system accept the program, asmdent's first truancy results in a formletter warning that one more truancywill require a court appearance. Thisis a due-process warning.

A second truancy results in a let-ter from the juvenile judge, includinga court appearance date, with bothparents required to be present. At thehearing, the judge wams the truantabout sentencing for future truancies:

up to ten days in jail or a $100 fine.The child now comes under the super-

vision of the Chief of the ProbationOffice. Human resources personnelhelp deal with key issues, such as the

Effective Strategies and Resource MaterialsUseful for Planning Dropout Prevention Programs

adequacy of Llotlimg. toodind hous-ing.

After a third truancy, the child iscited with a third paition. If the truan-cy is the result of parental neglect, apetition is issued against the parent. Itis a tough, no-nonsense approach thatis getting rcsults.

The program began in March1989 in the local school districts of thet:ight members (4' the state board ofeducation. Now, without a state man-date. more than 50 local educationagenLies are participating in the pro-gram.

"The key to the program," saidJohnson, "is working through the ad-ministrative officers of the court.There is no cosi i'or the program. Bet-

ter attendance increases average daily

attendance (ADA), and the resultingadditional school income can pay forthe school attendance officer."

Jay Smink directs a national dropout program.

jay Smink is executive director ofthe National Dropout Prevention

tenter based at Clemson University.He described the breadth and depthof the Center's program. It has a longreach, indeed.

"Billions of dollars in lost-productivity, welfare-related costs,compensatory training, and crime-re-lated costs can be directly attributed to

the dropout crisis," said Smink. Oneresponse to the issue was the creation

of the Dropout Prevention Center, apublic-private partnership betweenClemson and the National DropoutPrevention Fund, a not-for-profit or-ganization.

"The Center is the dream of Mrs.Esther B. Ferguson, a native of South

Carolina who was at one time herself

-38-

a dropout," Sinink said. "Estherknows firsthand the pain that drop-ping out of school can bring. And sheknows the joy and sensP of self-worththat comes from ret.iming to schooland completing an education."

Staff at the Center has identifiedfive key areas where it focuses itsenergy:

Restructuring sLhool ing prot.es-ses, including reviews of programstandards, policies, practices, andcurricula, as well as supportivenutritional and health-care effortsfor at risk youth.Forming public-private partner-ships, combining the resourcesand efforts of schools, businesses,

and the community at large to ad-dress the dropout crisis.

Identifying at risk youth as earlyas possible, through schools, so-cial service agencies, and com-munity-based organizations.Increasing access to educationand employment for all youth bydeveloping a wine range of alter-natives within our public schoolsystems that include integratingoccupational skills with basicacademic skills.

Project COMET

Heightening public conscious-ness, so the public is not onlyaware of the issues at stake, butalso moved to action.

The Center, Smink said, is activein providing information and resour-ces to business, civic, political, andeducational leaders and to other in-div iduals and organizations. "We in-itiate and support efforts thatcommunicate the nature, extent, and

impact o, the dropout crisis," he said.Specific services include developingpublic-private partnerships, helpingcomrnunities assess needs and createresponsive approaches and programs;e,,aluating dropout prevention pro-grarn effectiveness; developing,analyzing, and evaluating publicpolicy, and conducting or sponsofingseminars, skill-building workshops,and conferences.

COMET stands for Career Op-portunities Motivated Through

Educational Technology. It is anelementary career awareness lab-oratory program that links careereducation, alternative education, andcorporate sponsorship in the DadeCounty, Florida, schools.

COMET, education specialistJohn C. Moffi pointed out, "is a highincentive program for students iden-tified as extreme dropout rishs." Theprogram blends a standard academicclassroom with a career awar-nesslab, which offers hands-on, sir..ulatedwork experiences at 27 differentcareer stations.

Students identified as potentialdropouts because of their low testscores, poor attendance recoids, be-

Cities in Schools

I havior problems, aud lack of motiva-tion are referred to Project COMET.The specially designed, split class-roomone-third traditional desks,two-thirds career stationsprovidesthe project teachers with a variety ofde-ices fol Alunvating students. Stu-dents earn rewards for completingtheir academic assignments by being"allowed" to take part in the hands-oncareer lab. Because they enjoy the labwork so much, they're more likely tocomplete their in-class academic as-signments.

Once ia the career !ab, the stu-dents continue to use and reinforcetheir academic skills. To work at aspecific career station, students firstmust read a learning activity packetfor that career, then correctly answer

questions about it, using proper gram-mar, spelling, and punctuation.

In addition, they learn em-ployability skills in the lab, which isset up like a real work environment.The use of formal business speechcreates a different atmosphere in thelab. Students begin and end the day bygreeting and shaking the boss's(teacher's) hand. If an employee mis-behaves, is habitually late, cr Joesn'tfollow instructions, he or she is fired.

Dade County has 17 ProjectCOMET labs and more than 50 stand-ard career labs, which are separatefrom the academic classroom. Thirtymore Project COMET labs will beadded in the next two years.

Neil Shorthouse presented theCities in School., project as an

effective dropout prevention pro-gram. He is executive director ofGeorgia Cities in Schools, Inc.

Cities in Schools (CIS), he ex-plained, is a national partnership in-volving priv ate busiaess, education,gov ernment, and human serviceproviders united by a commitment toend the school dropout phenomenon."CIS encourages the creation of lOcal

organizations made up of businessleaders, professionals, educators,clergy, and other concerned citizenswho build Cities in Schools projectsin cooperation with loca1 schools."

These projects, he said, focus onstudents who are at risk of droppingout of school by providing innovativeeducation programs and social sup-port services at the education site.These programs and services enablestudents to succeed in school and

-39-

44

eventually graduate. The programworks with elementary, middle, andhigh school students. A rnajority ofprojects involve adolescents.

Cities in Schools is now operat-ing in 16 states, with over 20,000 stu-dent s receiving direct servicesthrough the prograrn. Initiative toadopt the program comes frorn thelocal level. CIS, in turn, provides ex-tensive training programs, without

Lost, for those who become involvedwith the program.

The seven steps tc implementingCities in Schools include identifying

a key private sector ieader, creating atask force, holiig a stakeholder'smeeting, ,wel,iping a work plan,completing a Task Force report, creat-

Writing Programs for Kids at Risk

ing a local CIS corporation, and car-rying out the plan.

AA panel of three experts promot.r1..the idea that writing is a power-ful tool for motivating and teachingkids who are at risk of failing inschool. "Writing," said SandraBurkett of Mississippi, "allows stu-dents to work outward from theirown experience and is intertwinedwith their thinking." She is directorof the Writing/Thinking Institute anddirector of the Mississippi State Uni-versity Writing/Thinking Project.

Other advocates of writing as atool to motivate at risk kids to learnwere Joseph 0. Milner, director of theeight-site North Carolina WritingProject, and Lyn Zalusky Mueller,director of the South Carolina WritingImprovement Network.

"We talk about students at risk,"said Mueller, "but there are alsoteachers at risk. We have not paidmuch attention to helping teachers seethemselves as writers. Almosteveryone in education sees them-selves as readers, but few see them-selves as writers."

It's difficult, probably impos-sible, to convince students to becomewriters unless the teacher commits toand is involved in the writing processherself, Mueller said. More and moreoften throughout the Southeast,

School Finance Litigation

teachers who teach writing are com-inL to grips with the need to put pento caper and become committedwriters themselves. In North Carolinaalone, Milner reported, there are2,000 teachers who have "formed a

We have not paid

much attention to

helping teachers see

themselves as writers.

strong network to develop ourselvesas teachers and as writers, to have animpact on the schools and on students,and to enhance writing."

Sandra Burkett uses writing as askilled therapist might tt,e hypnosis,as a tool of healing. Within minutes,she had the overflow crowd in thesession busily writing, responding toan incomplete phrase: "I would like to

be known for. . ." Some minuteslater, they added to their drafts byrevealing. "My most wonderfulquality that would help me ac-complish that is...."

Burkett is frank to admit she'sabsorbed in "the wonder of learning.Our goal is always to restore wonderand wholeness to the lives of our stu-dents and to their teachers. We thinkeducation has become terribly frag-mented. It too often does not promotelearning. As a teacher, I may be re-quired to prove I've taught a specifictopic each day, such as the use of anapostrophe, rather than working withstudents on a rich writing assign-ment."

The spirit of the child "is toooften killed in school," she said. "Weknow how much little children love tolearn. School has become the placewhere you go to learn stuff the teacherthinks is important."

The process approach to writingoffers alternatives. "We develop ex-periences students will have fun withand that will be meaningful to theirlives. Within that context, I assure youthey will learn language and problem-solving skills, and they will learn howto rite."

Vjithout dollars, it is difficult forV kids to be winners," said

Michael LaMorte, professor of ed-ucational administration and as-sociate to the dean for policy,

College of Education, University of(le orgia at Athens.

LaMorte reported on the pro-tiacted, convoiuted school financelitigation that continues to enmesh theeducational enterprise. The issue of

-40-

funding equity is potent, indeed, thestate supreme court in Kentuckythrew the baby 3ut with the bathwater, eliminating local school dis-tricts, local boards of education, thestate department of education, and the

state board of education, he explained.it required nothing iess than thedevelopment of a whole new systemof education for the state. In Califor-nia, local districts may not vary intheir expenditures per student by morethan $150 across the state.

The basic issue is equity since1973, 10 state supreme cot. have

Resources

upheld their state's educationalfinance systems, claiming theyprovided equally for the educationneeds of their citizens. Ten states,however, did not.

From the litigation, LaMortereported, different funding formulashave emerged in different states. It israre that the court itself develops a

new school finance plan. Generally,the courts give the legislature time toredress funding inequities.

Of SEIL's six service states, onlythe Georgia funding plan ended up incourt, and it was upheld. Alabama,Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina,and South Carolina have thus far beenspared school finance litigation.

Breaking the Cycle of IlliteracySharon Darling described the KcnanTrust Family Literacy Project, a success-ful approach to attacking the problems ofilliteracy for the present and future workforce.

Sharon Darling, president, NationalCenter for Family Literacy, Louisville,KY, and member, board of directors ofthe Barbara Bush Foundation for Fami-ly Literacy

1063 Starks BuildingLouisville, KY 40202Phone: 502/584-1133

Suggested Reference: A Place toStart: The Kenan Trust FamilyLiteracy Project, The National Ccnterfor Family Literacy

Education is E$$ential:One Community's StoryTwo school systcms in North Georgiahave joined with the community todevelop a program to keep students inschool.

C. Sue Phelps, education consultant,Phelps and Associates

2706 Clearview Drive, SWRocky Facc, GA 30740Phone: 404/673-4125

Impaired Districts andSchools: Updating tne SouthCarolina ExperienceIn 1988-89, South Carolina conlictedwith MGT of America, Inc., for anevaluation of the impaired schoolsprovision. Panel members repor.ed onthat evaluation, and superintendent oftwo districts that have bcen listed as im-paired responded to the report.

Jerome Ciesla, director of programevaluation, MGT of America, Inc.

2425 Torreya DriveTallahassee, FL 32303Phonc: 904/386-3191

Albert Eads, Jr., superintendent,Hampton County School District #2

P.O. Box 1028Estill, NC 29918Phone: 803/625-2175

Joseph Rice, superintendent, Oran-geburg School District #2

P.O. Box 36Bowman, SC 29018Phone: 803/829-2541

Suggested Reference: An Assessmentof the Impact of Being Declared"Seriously Impaired" on 5 SouthCawlina School Districts; MGT ofAmerica, Inc.

Family Leadership ProjectThe Family Leadership Ptoject is a half-day child development program for atrisk four-year-olds. It e aphasizes thefamily as the heartbeat of the system thatprovides comprehensive services to thechild and strengthens the home environ-ment.

Alfred T. Butler, Jr., associate superin-tendent for program Improvement,South Carolina De7artment of Educa-tion

1005 Rutledge BuildingColumbia, SC 29201Phonc: 803/734-8494

Barbara C. Harvey, principal of LyonStreet Elementary School, RichlandCounty School District #1

c/o SC Department of EducationRutledge Building, Room 1006Columbia, SC 29201Phone: 803/734-8492

Shirley Hughes Kennedy, teacher ofchild development dasses ior four-year-

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olds at Lyon Street Elementary School,Richland County School District #1

c/o SC Department of EducationRutledge Building, Room 1006Columbia, SC 29201Phone: 803/734-8492

Suggested Reference: Family Leader-ship at Lyon Street School, Lyon StreetElementary School

Patch the Cracks So KidsCan't Fall ThroughNan P. Tarlton described a dropoutprevention program that addresses in-dividual needs of teachers and studentsat no cost to schools.

Nan P. Tarlton, president of Tarltonand Associates, Educational Consult-ants, Mississippi Department of Educa-tion

Mississippi Department ofEducationP.O. Box 771Jackson, MS 39205-0771Phone: 60 lr59-3778

School-Based Enterprise: TheREAL ConceptPresenters discussed the joys and frustra-tions of planning, orgamzing, and im-plementing school-based enterprisesbusinesses created and operated by stu-dents in cooperation with local cducationag,encies.

Paul Delargy, director, Georgia Rural..Aucation Through Action Learning(REAL) Enterpriscs

Chicopee Complex1 ISO Ease Broad StreetAthens, GA 30602Phonc: 404/464-2731

Vicky Propst, director, South CarolinaREAL Enterprises

State Development BoardP.O. Box 927Columbia, SC 29202Phone: 803/737-0400

James Bryan, art teacher, JeffersonHigh School

P.O. Box 507Jefferson, GA 30549Phone: 404/367-4939

Barbara Nielsen, director of the Cen-ter for Education, Edgewater Institutefor Education, Con. munity Develop-ment, and Economic Development

Burnt Church ParkRoute 2, Box 176-FIBluffton, SC 29910Phone: 803/757-3861

Early Warning TruancyProgramAlabama Department of Education staff,in cooperation with administrative of-ficers of the courts, have establishedguidelines for truancy prevention.

Floyd R. Johnson, Jr., coordinator ofstudent attendance and at risk youth,Alabama Department of Education

50 North Ripley StreetMontgomery, AL 36130-3901Phone: 205/242-9770

Suggested Reference: Policies andProcedures for CoureSchool TruancyPrevention Programs, Alabania StateDepartment of Education

Effective Strategies andResource Materials Useful forPlanning Dropout PreventionProgramsJay Smink described 10 effective stra-tegies for dropout prevention.

Jay Smink, executive director, Nation-al Dropout Prevention Center. ClemsonUniversity

205 Martin StreetClemson, SC 29634-5111Phone: 803/656-2599

Suggested References: Signs of Suc-cess: Child Development Handbook,Richland County Schools

FOCUS. A a ()pout PreientionDatabase for Practitioners. Re-searchers, and Policymakers. NationalDropout Prevention Center, ClemsonUniversity

A Handbook for Students Who areThinking of Leaving School. NationalDropout Prevention Center, ClemsonUniversity

A Handbook for Principals. NationalDropout Prevention Center, ClemsonUniversity

A Series of Solutions and Strategies.John V. Hamby, Clemson University

Project COMETProject COMET is an elementary careerawareness laboratory program that linkscaxer education, alternative education,and corporate sponsorship. COMETprovides students identified as "potentialdropouts" with high motivation for learn-ing.

John C. Moffi, producer and educa-tion specialist, Dade County Schools

1450 NE Second AvenueSuite 730Miami, FL 33132Phone: 305/995-1716

Joan Pereno, educational specialist inthe Department of Career Education,Dade County Schools

1450 NE Second AvenueSuite 730Miami, FL 33132Phone: 305/995-1716

Nelson J. Perez, coordinator of workexperience programs in vocational andadult education, Dade County Schools

1450 NE Second AvenueSuite 730Miami, FL 33132Phone: 305/995-1716

Suggested Reference: Project Comet.Light for At-Risk Students. Dade Coun-ty Public Schools

Cities in SchoolsThe Cities in Schools (CIS) programhelps keep at risk students in schoolthrough graduation and helps develop

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St.hollis tiS fowl points for integrateddelivery of human services.

Neil Shorthouse, and executive direc-tor of Georgia Cities in Schools, Inc.

96 Pine Street. NEAtlanta, GA 30308Phone: 404/873-3979

Writing Programs flrKids A t RiskWriting is a powerful tool for motivatingand teaching kids who are at risk ofschool failure because it allows them towork outward from their own experienceand also is intertwined with thinking.

Sandra Price Burkett, director of theMississippi Writing/Thinking Instituteand director of the Mississippi StateUniversity Writingfchinking Project

P.O. Box 3312Mississippi State UniversityMississippi State, MS 39762Phone: 601/325-7777

Joseph 0. Milner, director of theeight-site North Carolina ' ..ritingProject

Department of EducationP.O. Box 7266Wake Forest UniversityWinston-Salem, NC 27109Phone: 919/761-5341

Lyn Zalusky Mueller, director of theSouth Carolina Writing ImprovementNetwork

University of South CarolinaCoPege of Education1323 Pendleton StreetColumbia, SC 29208Phone: 803/253-4017

School Finance LitigationMichae, La Morte described the financereform movement in thc court system.

Michael La Morte, professor of educa-tional administration and associate tothe dean for policy in the College ofEducation at ; e University of Georgia

Adernold HallUnivers;ty of GeorgiaAthens. GA 30602Phone: 404/542-4059

Southeastern Educational Improvement Laboratory

P.O. Box 12748 A 200 Park Offices A Suite 200Research Triangle Park North Carolina 27709919-549-8216 A 800-237-4829

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llus publication is based on w ork sponsored w holly, or in part, by the Office uf Educational Research and Improvement ul the United StatesDepartmentof Education, under Contract Number -100-86-0007 Thc content of this publication does not necessardy reflect the views of the Office of EducatlonalResearch and Improvement, the Department, or any other agency of the U S Government.

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