DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 226 506 EA 015 459

AUTHOR Brundage, Diane, Ed.TITLE The Journalism Research Fellows Report: What Makes

the Public Schools Work? Answers from the 1981Journalism Research Fellows Who Report on SchoolsThat Are Working in: Connecticut, Florida, Montana,Oregon, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia.

INSTITUTION Institute for Educational Leadership, Washington,D.C.

SPONS AGENCY National Inst. of Education (ED), Washington, DC.PUB DATE 81GRANT NIE-G-80-0177NOTE 108p.; Portions of document may not reproduce due to

small, blurred, or illegible print of originaldocument. s

AVAILABLE FROM Publications Coordinator, The Institute forEducational Leadership, 1001 Connecticut Avenue,N.W., Suite 310, Washington, DC 20036 ($7.50prepaid).

PUB TYPE Collected Works - General (020) Reports -Descriptive (141)

EDRS PRICE 4F01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS.DESCRIPTORS *Administrator Role; Affluent Youth; Disadvantaged

Youth; Elementary Secondary Education; Gifted;*Institutional Characteristics; Middle Schools;Minority Group Children; Principals; *SchoolEffectiveness; *Teacher Role; Urban Schools

ABSTRACTSeven series of newspaper articles on effective

elementary and secondary schools are presented. A brief forewordexplains the theme of the articles--identifying what makes goodschools work. The seven sets of articles include the following: (1)"Middle Schools: How They Change tLe Lives of Students in Montana,"by Mea Andrews; (2) "How High Schools Serve Minorities in Texas," byLinda Austin; (3) "How Inner City Schools Work for MinorityChildren," by John McManus, on Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), New Haven(Connecticut), and Richmond and Portsmouth (Virginia) schools; (4)

"From Coal Mines to Gifted Education in West Virginia," by ElizabethOlder; (5) "How Elementary Schools Work for Four Different MinorityGroups," by Carol Rubenstein, concerning Asian, Hispanic, Black, andNative American children in Oregon; (6) "Schools That Work in 'GoldCoast' Towns," by Stephanie Sevick, on schools in three affluentConnecticut towns; and (7) "Schools That Serve the Gifted inFlordia," by Patricia Sullivan. Attached is a list of past Fellows inEducational Journalism. (RW)

***********************************************************************Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made

from the original document.***********************************************************************

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Autrnationt ErseardlCI

iffrilinuo /pod:WHAT MAKES THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS WORK?

Answers from the 1981 Journalism Research Fellowswho report on schools that are working in:

CONNECTICUTFLORIDAMONTANAOREGONTEXASVIRGINIA

ln WEST VIRGINIA

0

0.11t) Animalism Erstarril

Iftenum /port:WHAT MAKES THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS WORK?

Answers from the 1981 Journalism Research Fellowswho report on schools that are working in:

CONNECTICUTFLORIDAMONTANAOREGONTEXASVIRGINIAWEST VIRGINIA

Diane Brundage, Editor

-=The Journalism Research Fellowshlp Is a program ofThe Institute for Educational Leadership.

\

This publication was prepared with funding from the NationalInstitute of Education, U S Education Department under grantnumber 1\1IE-G-80-0.1 77 The opintonsexpressed in thispubhcation 'do not necessarily reflect positions or policies ofNIE

,

The views are those of the authors or persons quoted and donot represent positions ot sponsoring newspapers or TheInstitute for Educational Leadership

First Edition 1981Washington, D CLibrary of Congress Catalog Card Number 82-081267Printed in the United States of America

Additional copies of THE JOURNALISM RESEARCHFELLOWS REPORT may be obtained for $7 50 (prepaid) bycontacting

Publications CoordinatorThe Institute for Educational Leadership1001 Connecticut Avenue, N.WSuite 31 0

Washington, D.C. 25036

CONTENTS

Fellows in Educational Journalism: A Description iv

Foreword v\

Middle Schools: How They Change !he Lives of Students in Montana 1

M ea AndrewsMissoulian

How High Schools Serve Minorities in Texas 11

Linda AustinDallas Times Herald

How inner City Schools Work for Minority Children 25JohnA4cManusThe Leger-Star

From Coal Mines to Gifted Education in West Virginia 45Elizabeth OlderCharleston Daily Mail

How Elementary Schools Work for Four Different Minority Groups 65Carol RubensteinOregon Journal

Schools That Work in "Gold Coast" Towns 79Stephanie SevickThe Hartford Courant

Schools That Serve the Gifted In Florkla 89Patricia SullivanSun-Sentinel

Past Fellows in Educational Journalism 104

Our special thanks to Frederick H. Schultz, National Councilof Educational Reseech, P. Michael Timpane, Director,National Institute of Education and Tom Tomlinson andPeter Gerber, Senior NIE Associates, who first saw the needfor and promise of this practical results-oriented approach toresearch via educational journalism.

FELLOWS IN EDUCATIONAL JOURNALISM:A DESCRIPTION

Fhe articles in this report are based upon work done for the 1981 Fellows in EducationalJournalism Program Since 1976, the Fellowship has offered a select group of educationaljournalists a two to three-month program designed to strengthen the educational media byproviding additional resources to working reporters and their news organizations

The Fellowship is a unique opportunity for educational journalists to go beyond the local news ofschool board votes and teachers' strikes to undertake a comprehensive study of an issue ofmajor significance to the schools and the society they serve. It is an individually tailored programin which journalists select topics of concern to them and their public to explore through site visitsto relevant programs throughout the countiy, meetings with national experts and authorities, andexposure to current research and background literature. Individual study plans aresupplemented by monthly Fellowship seminars that focuson educational issues of interest to theJournalism Fellows and provide time to share and discuss study experiences In addition tostories based upon the Fellowship, which are published by the reporters' news organizations, theprogram publishes a monograph of Fellowship reports and articles

Initiated by the Ford Foun dation's Advisor on Communications, Fred W. Friendly (former ly of CBSNews), and its Vice President for Education, Harold Howe II (former U.S Commissioner ofEducation), the Fellowship is a novel, experiential approach to strengthening the educationalmedia By providing journalists with time and resources for study and travel, the Fellowship seeksto.

encourage the development of a knowledgeable and effective education press, equipped tobring both analytical depth and nation context to local news coverage;provide experienced journalists with an opportunity to conduct a thorough analysis of anissue which will help to clarify and answer some of the questions facing the country's multi-billion dollar education industry

The Fellowship is coordinated by The Institute for Educational Leadership

6

FOREWORD

What makes the public schools work? That's the questionprobably the most important andcontroversial question facing our nation as increasing numbers of citizens turn to private schools

for their educational needs. To provide some clear and compelling reasons why some publicschools work, the 1981 Fellowship in Educational Journalism Program sponsored by TheInstitute for Educational Leadership, with support from the National Institute of Education andlocal news organizations, asked seven of the finest education reporters across the country toconduct two-and-a-half month studies of schools which are working in their states.

Fueling the confusion about the public schools is the widely quoted work ofJames Coleman et al

that found the private schools apparently educating some students more effectively Not asvisibte to the public is a burgeoning ac,cumulation of research indicating that students in some

publio schools are achieving unexpected success in the basic skills and other academic areas

However, while these unusually "effective schools" may be found anywhere, they are seldom

locally reported and hence remain largely unknown either as examples for others to follow or asevidence that public schools can make a diff erence. Herein lies the mission of this year's

program,

We sought to introduce the evidence and to provide local examples of its meaning though

experienced and competitively selected education report ers, whose day-to-day job it was to tell

their communities about their public schools. This volume contains the journalists' storiespublished by their news organizations in Texas, Connecticut, Oregon, Virginia, Montana, West

Virginia and Florida. The stories describe the course followed by reporters as they set about the

task of finding schools that worked.

In all cases the reporters determined for theriWies where they would look and what they would

say about their experience ThOir search was guided by recent "effective schools" research on

the characteristics of schools where students are achieving beyond expectations The

journalists learned about this research and other political and substantive issues at theFellowship's group seminars and in individual consultation with experts across the country

during a leave of absence from their papers.

The reporters found that the research findings about what makes an effective school were borne

out in their journalistic investigations. Thus, these stories attest to the practical value of

educational research in explaining the product of schooling.

Above all, this volume illustrates the very great professional talents of our participatingjournalists We believe it also underscores the benefits to society of providing journalists with the

time and resources to step back from daily deadline pressures to do intensive work and gain new

and broader perspectives on important education issues

Tom Tomlinson Diane Brundage

Senior Researcher Coordinator, Fellowships

National Institute of Education in Educational Journalism

,

7

Missoula, Montana

.H10.-

August 30, 1981

First in a Series

Middle-school conceptwas the answer in Lobo

About this seriesEducation for early adolescents "between-

sgers" who are no longer elementary students butnot quite blgb school students his been in a stateof flux for years.

Nobody agrees on what Intermediate-level chil-dren should learn, how they should be taught or whatkind of school they should attend. Researchers haveall but ignored the age group, aid what little studyhas been done gists no clear-cut anrwers to educe-tors searching for the best schools for these children.

Last school year. Missoullan reporter Mea An-drews visited five Montana schools where programsare geared specifically for Intermediate-level stu-dents. Each of the schools had a reputation for be!ngsuccessful In tailoring an educational program forthese students. The schools were chosen based on In-terviews of more than 50 Montana educators, parentsand school watchers.

Though all flve schools were different, a patternemerged. Each school had strong leadership, a senseof teamwork and direction, a structured yet flexibleenvironment In which students and adults learn and

experiment. and school philosophies and goals thatwere weli.deffned and understood by all.

A fiselart series on the changes, successes andproblems in the schools Andrews visited beginstod ay.

While touring the state, part of Andrews selaryand her expenses were pald by a Journalism grentfrom the institute of Educational Leadership. alfill-ated with George Washington Unisersity in Washing-ton. C. The Missoullan paid one-third of her salarsdunng the 10-week fellowship.

MEA ANDREWSMea Andrews has been the Missoullaneducation writer for two years Prior tothis assignment she covered city andschool news for the Medera Tribune inCaliforniaIn the past two decades in Missoula, noeducational issue has caused moreemotional debate than the reorganiza-tion of the elementary schools At thecenter of the controversy has been themiddle schools what should studentslearn, how should they be taught, andwhat kind of schools should theyattend?Amidst this ongoing education battle,Andrews chose for her Fellowship studythe task of finding out what makes aneffective school for sixth, seventh andeighth graders She studied fivesuccessful schools throughout the stateof Montana The students came from a

range of socio-economic backgroundsfrom a university community to a

'tough- school on the other side of thetracks where more than half the

students came from low-Incomefamilies and twenty percent of theschool population was Chicano

Despite the differences in demograph-ics, a clear pattern emerged from thisstudy Each school had strongleadership, a sense of teamwork anddirection, a structured yet flexiblelearning environment, and well-definedphilosophical goals

By Mea AndrewsStaff writer

Joe Mirich pulls a handful of dice from his drawer and

jiggles them in his hand. His sixth-graders gather round onthe floor while a visitor sits in the middle of the group.

"This is called 'Petals around the Rose," says Mirich

to the visitor. "I'm not going to tell you the rules and I'mnot going to tell you how it's played."

He rolls the dice on the floor and asks the visitor,"How many petals do you see?" She shrugs. The studentsshout the answer "Seven!"

Mich tosses the dice again. Still no response from thevisitor, but the students know the answer "Two!"

Eight rolls later, the visitor is exasperated. She is 15

years older than these students and the game should beeasy. Mlrich shows no mercy and gives no hints.

Finally the visitor sees a pattern and guesses on thenext toss, "Four petals," she says gingerly, and sighs withrelief when the answer Is correct.

"Now you know," said Mirich with a nod. "Now youknow what it's like to be the only one without the answer,the only one who doesn't understand the lesson."

That game is Mirich's way of reminding adults justhow frustrating learning can be. It also is a simple way toshow teachers the foundation of "kid-oriented" classrooms.

"We teachers think we know so much, but we've been

in front of the classroom too long," said With. "We don'tremember what it's like to be 11 or 12 years old. It pays to

step back and remember the frustration, the feeling ofbeing different, of being troubled, to be growing up."

Mirich's lesson in frustration would benefit teachers of

all levels, but his own interests focus on the education ofearly adolescent students. Last year, he was a sixth-grade

teacher In Lolo School District 7, where the intermediateschool has become the emerging middle school of Montana,

A few years ago, Lolo teachers took a hard look at their

work place They found a snail school with big-school prob-lems Too little teamwork and communication among fac-ulty members, atudenti and achnini rratorsi no sense ofpurpose or direction: and too much routine processing ofstudents in the upper elementary grades.

There was no traditional junior high in place becauseLolo is a small, one-campus district enrolling about 590 stu-dents In kindergarten through eighth grade. Nevertheless,Lolo teachers thought their upper-grade programs had as-sumed the negative elements of much-critkized juniorhighs and lacked the "kid-oriented" Instruction Mirich ap-plauds.

"We didn't want to be a mini high school," said AliceKupilik, a social studies teacher at Lolo.

"The middle-school years are a whole period of life Initself. These kids ari different, and they should be treateddifferent. That Is why high school' people sometimes fail asjunior-high teachers, or why junior highs have gotten a badname because we attempted to teach these studentswhen we don't know anything about them."

Concerned about their students, the Lobo teachers de-cided to try a new approach to educating dixth- , seventh-and eighth-graders. They received a federal grant that al-lowed visits to middle schools In other states, and theycame back to Lolo with enthusiasm and energy to makechanges. ..

First, the staff set out to make Lolo Middle School amore positive place to be. Surveys, tests and self-evalua-tions had showed that Lobo's students didn't like schoo orthemselves; that teacher-student relationships were suffer-ing, and thOtaff members felt little correlation betweenschool goalst and actual practice.

A counseling program callea "sharing and caring" wasestablished and has become a model for other schools inMontana. ,

Each student in the school is assigned to an adult staffmember, and all adults including the principal, teachersand the school secretary become group leaders for about10 students. Once each week, the groups meet and talkabout such topics as loneliness, friendships, communicationwith peers and parents or study skills. Students stay withthe same adult for their three years at Lobo, and each grouphas students from all three grades,

"When students get to be In the seventh and eighthgrades, they move from one class to another without anypositive contact with an adult In the school," Mirich said."When they are sick, they see the nurse. When they misbe-have, they are marched into the principal's office. Whenthey are in class, the teacher is boss and there's no time foranything but math and science and history.

"When do we get to know these kids as people? Whendo we say, hey, you are a person. Let's talk about some-thing that's important to you, to your friends."

Staff members seem to like the project and generallystudents react favorably to the discussions. Scores on teststhat gauge attitudes towards school have shown steady Im-provement at Lolo.

Though the group talks are flexible, the programs areplanned in advance and usually the activities are structuredand researched by staff members. Students make sugges-tions and often will carry the conversations to the play-ground or lunch.

Last achool year, the sessions slipped too much toward"fun-and-games" for some group leaders' tastes espe-cially during sunny spring days. Staff members discussedthe problem and agreed to keep a little tighter control overthe programs in the future.

The counseling groups meet only once a week, but theywere an important part of Lolo's revitalization. They werealso accompanied by other changes, too. Teachers are try-ing to work as teams, coordinating their academic unitswith other subjects ir. the school. They have designed"mini-units" on special topics energy, for examplethat cross over into several subjects and involve all the stu-dents in activities, classes and discussions.

And Lolo educators have tried to mix academic mustswith an increasing amount of flexibility, responsibility andpersonal choice for students. Students choose from someelective projects and courses, but must also fulfill the re-quirements of classes.

During a mandatory silent reading period held mostevery school day, students are free to choose their ownreading material. It is not an absolute right Erica Jong's"Fear of Flying" was confiscated from a sixthgraderbut there are seldom confrontations over the students'choice of boOks or magazines.

"Kids this age want to have a little say in their lives,they want to feel they have some control," said Avis Wel-ton, counselor for Lolo Middle School.

"It's important for us to find the balance between toomany rules and too little guidance." Welton said. "We can'tlet kids Just t10 their own thing.' We have to make themrealize that we care about their feelings, that they can sharein the decision-making process and that they have someflexibility.

"Sometimes we let them be kids and have fun becausethat's very important right now. But sometimes we treatthem like young adults and that's important, too. At thisstage, they are very much a combihation of child andadult."

Mirich resigned from his Lolo job this summer to be-come a principal at a school in Idaho. Two other teachersalso left, but the new teachers hired seem to have the samephilosophical commitment to making Lolo a positive andsuccessful place for students.

"We haven't lost any of the enthusiasm for what we'vestarted," said Lolo teacher Orville Getz.

Second in a SeriesAugust 31, 1981

Two.middle schools in Helenaare lunior highs in name onlyBy Mea AndrewsStaff writer

HELENA Atik most school ad-nunistrators about "education" andthe conversation will eventually getaround to the "three Bs" busing,budgets or buildings.

2

Ask John Monson about educationand he talks about people.

"1 can't control how much money Iget, and I already have a building towork with." said Monson, principal ofC' It. Anderson Junior High In Helena.

9

"What we are doing here has nothingto do with buildings. We are workingon people, on their way of thinkingand on their attitudes That's whereyou either succeed or fall thepeople."

Monsua has joined the middle-school movement He and his cross-town counterpart, Ervin Winslow atHelena Jurnor High. are trying tochange the way Helena schools teachand work with intermediate-level stu-dents

Our name is still junior high andthat may never change, said Monson.'But we are already a middle school.

We are not babying kids, we do notmake excuses tor them if they don tfollow the rules. But we have giventhem room to explore, to learn and tobe appreciated for what they do andi.ontribute

The changes have not come aboutovernight Parents, school boardmembers, teachers and administratorstook years to plan and design a futurefor lielena's schools.

Eventually they came up with anre-year plan that included, amonguther things. d commitment to a four-s ear high school and intermediate-lout programs geared for the seventh-and eighth-grade students.

Helena voters bought the idea In1980 when they approved a $3millionbond issue, part of which is being usedto expand the city's two senior highs.Ninthgrader3, traditionally part of thejunior highs, are gradually beingmove into the high schools.

"It was a philosophical decision."said Helena 3chool SuperintendentRoger Eble. Helena truatees believedninth-graders had more in commonwith the sophomore3 and juniors, andthat their presence at the junior highforced younger students to mature tooquickly. Seventh- and eighth-gradestudents need a program of their own

not one modeled after a seniorhigh. Ebie said.

In Montana, ninth-grade programsare governed by high school accredita-tion standards regardless of where theclasses are taught. As a result, juniorhigh often found themselves with twostaffs tind programs one for sev-enth- and eighth-grader3 and one forninth-graders.

When classes, spedal programs anacompetitive sports were added forninth-graders. the programs mush-roomed and began Including youngerstudents who got mini proms,cheerleaders and other high school-type programs of their own.

'Seventh-graders are not ninth-graders, and we ignored the differ-ence." said Monson. "Moving theninth-graders into the high 3chool doesnot, In itself, change that problem.But we can now focus on the studentswho are left the seventh- andeighth-grader3 in the middle achool."

Traditional junior highs are not toopopular these days. For the first half

of the century they were the Innova-tion of the education world, designedto bridge the one-teacher, one-class'mothering" atmosphere of grade

school and the one-subject-each-periodworld of high school

The experiment soured through theyears s the original goal of a transi-tionai program was lost Like C R. An-derson. junior highs became "junior"mirrors of senior highs, and studentsfound an abrupt change in theirelementary schooling when they en-tered the seventh grade

Enter the middle school Accordingto one estimate, there were about5,000 middle schools last year com-pared with about 500 in 1965

Middle schools popularity grew inpart because educators were con-cerned about education for the earlyadolescents. But more often they werean administrative answer to decliningenrollment, school closures. desegre-gation and shifting student popula-tions a way to shuffle students anduse buildings most effectively. Insome cases, there was little attentiongiven to the heart of the school. Stu-dents and their needs.

Even today, estimates on the num-ber of mkidle schools often reflect agrade pattern (usually seventh andeighth grades and at least one gradebelow) and say nothing about the qual-ity of instruction in the classroom.

Monson doesn't buy everythingmiddle-school advocates are selling."You have to look at your communityand take it from there," he said.Middle-school publications don't talkmuch about academia and "that di3turbs me," he said. "Montanans wanta 3trong basic skills program and weare not going to ignore thaL"

If nothing else, the middle-schoolmovement has forced educators to re-e:,amine their 3chool3 and the atudentsthey deal with. "That alone is a giantstep," Monson said. "We have gotpeople here (at C.R Anderson) think-ing about students again."

Monson has tried to set the tonefor change at C.R. Anderson by firstredefining the school's mission andphilosophy. Not all his staff membersare enthusiastic and supportive, butmost have been willing to try,

Then came the administrativechanges that Monson and others hopewill turn the philosophy Into reality.

Teachers have been grouped in "in-terdisciplinary teams'' and their class-room assignments switched so theyare near other members of their team.

Interdisciplinary teams are notnew, but they have gained popularitywith the middle-school movementMonson sees those teams as a way toget teachers to share ideas and plans

to get them away from a narrowfocus on their own subject and class-room.

Teams are made up of four teach-ers one each from science, inath,English and social studies. Teachershave common planning periods whenthey can talk about students, developspecial projects and prepare lessonstogether.

The object is flexibility Becauseteams will have coordinated blocks oftime for teaching, they aren't limitedto a one-period class. Thus a worth-while but twohour science filmcan be shown to students if the rest ofthe team agrees.

And teachers have more incentiveto coordinate lesson topics or to shareteaching responsibility, During a his-tory unit on the Civil War, an Englishteacher can assign "The Red Badge ofCourage" for reading and discussion,and a spelling list can include wordsfrom the Civil War era, Or math andscience teachers can combine effortsto present a unit on gravity.

"Who says classes have to be 45 or50 minutes, or that a science teachercan't teach spelling?" asked C.R. An-derson's Monson "Tradition It wastime to step back and recognize thattradition was not working, that we hadto break old habits

Meanwhile, students have been as-signed to "family" groups of about 110students, chosen at random to repre-sent a cross-section of students' abilityand characteristics. For the most part,students in one family will have thesame team of teachers for basic sub-jects.

Family groups are designed to givestudents a sense of belonging, to pro-vide a better climate for buildingfriendships with peers and to encour-age a personal relationship with teach-ers "It creates mini-schools inside alarger school," said Monson.

At the same tinie, teachers are bet-ter able to keep tabs on, students'progress in all subjects, and there ismore opportunity for knowing stu-dents as individuals, Monson said.

The curriculum Includes one pe-riod for non-graded, short-term "mini-courses" designed to introduce newideas and skills in non-traditional sub-jects Among the students' options arehorse management, calculators andmetrics, map reading, chess, archery,current events, medical self-help, en-ergy and environment, and even ri-flery.

"Schools ha, e to be safe, they haveto be reasonably clean, free of distrac-tion, and there has to be structure andrules and regulations," said BobMiller, assistant principal at C.R. An-derson. "But there also has to be

some flexibility within those rules tomake schools human instead of facto-des."

Monson admits that not ail his

goals for C.R. Anderson have beenreached. ''But we've come a longway." he said. "Our kids are happier,our parents are pleased with the

changes. Teachers are taking on moreresponsibility for the product we pro-duce and it's a good one ."

Schools' success isn't measuredjust by the students' test scores

By Mea Andrew .Staff writer

Montana educators say they often feel frustrated intheir quest for "better intermediate-level education as sci-entific research n "effective" schools almost exclusivelyhas dealt with primary grades.

Much of that research most notably that of Harvard'sRon Edmonds suggests that a highly structured. no-nonsense. teacher-centered approach to lessons will dramati-cally improve test scores of primary students.

But whether Edmonds' research on grade school chil-dren can be translated without change to the intermediategrauv, is ont war Montana educators who have spent yearsteachuig, studying and workmg with early adolescent chil-dren say the formula must be reworked in the upper-elementary years

-Second-graders come to school bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, anxious to please and in love with their teacher." saidHal Hawley. resident expert on intermediate-level educationin the state Office of Publie Instruction

"That changes by the time they reaCh sixth or seventhgrade By then, kids are questioning authority, spreadingtheir wings. toeing the line They are moody. They are ob-sessed with being accepted, with making friends and withtheir changing bothes They don't know if they like them-selves or school. or if school means anything," Hawley said."Junior high kids are different than second-graders, andtheir schools must be different, too."

It is easy enough to gauge students' abiliq to figure amath problem or understand a written paragraph. Hawleysaid But the ability of a seventh-grader to communicate.

Third in a Series

to get along with his peers, to graciously listen to anotherperson's point of view, to analyze information those areskills we want our children to acquire but we can't testthem with a pencil-and-paper test."

One person who has spent a great deal of time lookingat intermediate-level education is Joan Scheff Lipsitz, direc-tor of the Center for Early Adolescence in Chapel Hill, N.C.In her 1977 book, "Growing Up Forgotten," she foundschools for early adolescents "dreary, unimaginative, androutinized places."

Recently Lipsitz has studied the inner workings of foursuccessful intermediate-level schools in both rural andmetro communities. She is now writmg a report and bookon her findings.

Like Montana educators, she tends to define "good"schools for early adolescents more broadly than high scoreson national achievement tests.

"To me, there is a difference between an 'effectiveschool and a 'successful school," says Lipsitz. Successfulschools have "staying power," the ability to be successfulyear after year not only in academie areas but in maintain-ing a healthy. positive and productive school climate.

In the four successful schools studied, Lipsitz found co-herent and well-developed policies and philosophies aboutintermediate education and school goals. She found princi-pals who wear ''very few blinders" and "don't accept thegiven as given She found professional and growing rela-tionships among teachers, between teachers and administra-tors nd between adults and students,

lapsitz also found schools With the kind of flexibilityIt Anderson Junioi High is trying to develop

September 1, 1981

Teachers are the key at LockwoodBy Mea AndrewsStaff writer

LOCKWOOD "I want you to take 40, add an-other 40, add 30, double that, divide by :2, 1/ guarsthe result and divide by 4," barks Allan !Abbe withbarely a breath between his numbers.

"Twenty-five," shouu an excited eighth-graderwhose mind had silently clicked off the step-by-stepanswers. "Good job," lauds teacher Labbe. "Next."

Two more students step to the front of the clan."Take S. multiply by three, double that, double

it again and divide by le," says Labb:2, again retlIngoff the numbers with hardly a pause. In secondacomes the answer from aLother eager student:"Ten."

"All right. Good thinking," uys the teacher."Set you all tomorrow."

And with that, another math clan at LockwoodJunior High nut Billings comes to an end. Thagime 43 "content," played without papa or panell so

4

that students mutt use their minds while standing ontheir feet.

"Xt brightens up their dty s little, gets themaway from looking at numbers in thetir books, read-ing problems on a blackboard or listening to me,"says Labbe.

"When we first started, they couldn't add threenumbers without writing them down. Now they cando the figures in their head as faat as I can talk."

Spend one day in Lockwood Junior High and youwill hear about Allan Labbe and his end-of.the-pe-riod "contest" battles. Or students will tell youaboot writing a first.person =ay for Mrs. Pinch, agreat history project they dld for Miss Robinson orhow tough (but exciting) Miss Mogen's 'clone*classes are.

"Lockwood is Just the but," eighth-grader John

11

Bell declares without hesitation. "It's the teachers.They el can about UJ, and show us they cut all thetime. They are strict, but they are Iun. SomtUmeewe say they are too hard but I think klds roilydon't like a teacher who is my. We Can telL"

saya that Lockwood tuchen are good be.cause they know ther subjects and can make elmsinteresting. They demand parformance. Althoughteachers do not need to be "one of the kids," theyneed to be friendly and understanding and "ithelpt if the laugh," uys Bell.

There is little room to argue that a school Ii onlyas good as 1U teachers. Lockwood, it menu, hasmanaged to attract a bright, highly motivated anddedicated staff that seta the school apart

That hasn't been a simple task for any school,especially Lockwood. Not too long ago Lockwood

was known as "Poverty Flats," a quasi-community wherepoor folks could find cheap land and even cheaper trailercourts. Lockwood had a reputation for "being a bunch of pig

farmers, rough and dirty," recalls one veteran teacher.The area has boomed in recent times thanks to Billings

families who built homes there to escape the city's bustle.

New businesses most notably an oil refinery sprang up

in Lockwood and provided a much-needed tax base that ben-

efits Lockwood School District 26.

Even so, the bulk of Lockwood's 1,200 students 320

at the junior high still come from low to middle-incomefamilies and the high turnover of students remains a chal-lenge to teachers.

Lockwood parents have always demanded the best fromtheir schools and their attentions have paid off. The school'sscores on national achievement tests rival those of Billings'more affluent schools.

"There's a bit of the old fashioned left out here," saysDuane Christensen, whose five children have all attendedLockwood schools.

"We have some wealthier families but most of us arejust hard-working, honest folks who scrimp to make endsmeet. We take a lot of pride in that school. If the teachersweren't good, we'd know about it and you can bet wedmake a scene."

Teachers at Lockwood have a unique sense of familynot often found in other junior highs. That feeling exists inpart because of the leadership of Principal Bob Leone. Butit also thrives because Lockwood teachers want the schoolto shine and because most of them prefer teaching junior-high aged students.

"We don't pay as much at some levels as other schools,so we can't keep teachers forever," says Leone. "But we al-ways search for the best and the brightest. And if they don'tlike junior high kids, they don't get a second glance."

Schools of education train teachers fof elementary andhigh school jobs but seldom prepare teachers for the spedaland trying problems of "between-agers" students be-tween elementary 2nd high school who are sometimes verygrown up and sometimes very childlike.

Only a handful of states Montana is not one of themhave special endorsements for middle school or junior

high teachers, Too often the teachers who end up in juniorhigh jobs are biding time until more prestigious spots openat the local high school.

In a recent study, Ronan Middle School Principal JerryPauli found that 56 percent of the middle school and juniorhigh teachers in Montana felt they weren't prepared forteaching pre- and early adolescent children. And 60 percentsaid they would like to see a middle-school endorsementavailable to teachers in Montana.

Coupled with the lack of training for this special groupof students, teachers are also frustrated by the lack of re-search on junior high and middle school programs. Eaten-sive research has been done on so-called "effective" elemen-tary and high schools, but little light has been shed on whatmakes good schools for 11- to 15-year-olds.

"One minute these students act like children and thenext they'll amaze you with their maturity," says Leone."They want freedom but need structure; they need to makechokes but cry for guidance, they demand responsibility but

sometimes can't do the job."Most of us can't remember what it's like to be that

age. so we get impatient That is probably the biggest prob..

tem for teachers finding the patience and keepnig theirsanity," Leone says. "It takes a certain kind of person toteach in a junior high because there aren't many rewards

Coming to Lockwood was like "dying and going toheaven" for history teacher Sue Robinson, who spent sev-eral yars teaching in inner-city schools.

"I was impressed when I came and 2I11 still impressedtoday. These kids have a rare school "

Standing before her students, Robinson may wave herarms, exaggerate her voice or tell a corny pun in flamboyantstyle. "Teaching is a little bit showmanship, and thereslittle bit of the actress in me," she says.

"I'm honest. Sometimes students have to do 2 littlerote memory work, sometimes they will have to listen to adry lecture. They've got to learn that life isn't all fun.

But add a little flamboyance every once in a while andyou can get them hooked."

Labbe agrees. "Teachers have to get students' bloodgoing, their minds working," he says. "It isn't easy, believeme, especially with junior high kids But nobody ever toldme teaching would be easy."

- Though a dedicated and proud bunch, Lockwood teach-ers .are not without gripes.

Many do not fancy the senior-high emphasis on sportsthat has percolated to the junior high level They aretated that students are excused from science or reading for atrack meet, and that some teachers are hired more forcoaching ability than classroom excellence

Lockwood teachers also worry that educators, u agroup. are letting junior-high students off too easy because"they have so many ploblems" or because "they can'thandle the material yet A science teacher who demandscorrect spelling on a term paper becomes the "heavy" withstudents unless other teachers demand the same.

And teachers sometimes tire of having to be surrogateparents, disciplinarians, police officers, counselors and baby-sitters roles that become more pronounced at the junior-high level than in elementary grades.

"I spend half my time teaching kids how to act," com-plains Lockwood teacher Jim Sayler, "I think we make toomany excuses for students. If we expected more they woulddo more."

Parents, while more and more critical of teachers andtheir work, do not do much to help, say Lockwood teachers.Junlor high students are yanked from school for shoppingsprees, dental appointments and family trips just at theage when they should be learning responsibility. Teachersare then expected to stay after school to provide in.aktupsessions and extra help.

And a teacher who gives too much homework may becalled on the carpet for uking too much, Lockwood teach-ers say,

"Parents are taking the kids side more and more, espe-cially in this age group," laments Dave Todd, a Lockwoodteacher for 28 years. "Our hands are pretty well tied. I/ wespeak a little rough we hear about it. Yet were expected towork wonders.

"Teaching has a different position in scciety noir. Weare no longer looked up to, our opinions no longer matter umuch It's damn frustrating."

Iv/

Fourth in a SeriesSeptember 2, 1981

Priorities at Billings'Riverside were backwardI3y Mea AndrewsStaff writer

BILLINGS Seven years ago,John Dracon walked into his new of-tice ready and willing to fight

He knew the school's reputationbefore he took the job Riverside wasthe "tough" school of Billings, thejunior high on the proverbial otherside of the tracks It was probablythe closest thing Montana had to aninner-city school More than half thestudents come from low-income fami-lies and more than 20 percent are Chi-cano

The school was in trouble whenDracon took over Riverside's scoreson national achievement tests rankedwell below the national average andwere the lowest of all junior highs inBillings School District 2

Most of the Chicano youth living inBillings go to Riverside for seventh,eighth and ninth grades. About 95 per-cent of them also dropped out of highschool before their senior year afate some said waS sealed at the ju-nior-high level

Discipline problems consumedmuch of the Riverside's energy, andstaff morale was at an all-time lowTeachers didn't stay much past 4 p mand some were afraid to leave thebuilding alone Vandalism was such aproblem that guard dogs patroled thebuilding at night

A- incoming principal. Dracon wasconvinced that Riverside's problemwas rooted in attitude If studentsdidn t like Riverside, it was becauseRiverside didn't like students

He set out to make changeschanges that were not easy Immedi-ately he shifted the school's prioritiesfrom "office, teachers, students" to"students, teachers. office

That prbved to be the opening linein what can only be called a successstory for Riverside Junior High

These days, Dracon does not talkmuch about his impact on RiversideHe has moved up to the central officeas curriculum director and is reluctantto sing his own praise But the staff atRiverside still speaks reverently about

Dracon"He literally turned this place

around," says Jim Eschler, who wasan assistant to Dracon and who car-ried on Dracon's philosophies as prin-cipal of the school

"The superintendent used to say.'If you don't shape up, we'll send you

to Riverside Coming to this schoolwas a threat, a punishment.

"Now kids want to come to River-side," Eschler says. "This school likeskids, we want them to succeed Thatattitude has paid off."

Two years ago, for the first time,national achievement scores for River-side Junior High were above the na-tional average

Vandllism is no longer a majorconcern The cost of replacing brokenglass alone has dropped from $1,500 ayear to lOss than $500 a year.

And today, 65 to 70 percent of Bil-lings' Chicano youlhs graduate fromhigh school. Changing conditions inthe Billings and Hispanic communityaccounted for some of the improveddropout rate, but Many credit theschools particularly Riverside afterDracon's influence for changingstudents' attitudes towards education.

Riverside's secret? No single thing,to be sure. But certainly the changethat has had the mast effect on theschool has been a succession of princi-pals who are "instructional leaders"with definite ideas about educationpeuple like Eschler and Dracon.

Eschler has now been transferredto another junior high in Billings, buthis work at Riverside will be contin-ued by Lynette Little, former assistantprincipal at the school. She plans tofine-tune what Dracon and Eschlerstarted.

Riverside's philosophies are easy tounderstand but hard to implement.

First, the school has only a fewrules, but the rules are well-knownand punishment is swift. Swearing, forexample, is newl tolerated, and in-fractions always end in three swatsfrom a wooden paddle, a disciplinetool Riverside parents applaud.

Second, Riverside believes that all

students can learn, regardless of theirhome life, background, childhood,race or sex. Sometimes the school canprovide creature comforts: a pair ofmittens on a sub-freeming winter dayor some money for a hot lunch. Butschool is for learning, and any excusesfor not learning are unacceptable.

And Riverside teachers expect stu-dents to learn, to attend class, to try.When the bell rings, students must beiR class because "they can't learn inthe halls," says Eschler. Research onsuccessful schools has shown thatteacher expection is directly related tostudent achievement. Teachers whoexpect their students to learn will seeresults, but pupil progress is slowedwhen teachers do not believe their stu-dents can improve.

Third, Riverside believes thatschools are for students, not teachersor parents or administrators. Juniorhigh students need flexibility, but theyalso need stfticture, according toRiverside teachers.

Fourth and most important, River-side is a school that believes all stu-dents should experience success. Manythings that happen in the school arebased on that concept. For example:

Students' programs are speciallytailored for both their academic andsocial needs. A problem with math?Into the math lab. A problem with En-glish? Into the English lab. A problemwith weight? Into the physical educa-tion class for overweight students.

A small group of otherwise trou-blesome or troubled students aregiven daily work contracts. Stud.mtspick up a "contract" each day, andevery one of his or her teachers mustrate the student on such things as at-tendance, attitude, homework and at-tention in class.

At the end of the day, the studentturns in the card to the principal oranother administrator. A bad "grade"in any area may mean some penaltyextra school work, in-school suspen-sion, after-school chores. A good daybrings praise.

Only a few students need this kind

of reinforcement. But for those stu-dents, the daily feedback works, Es-chler says. "I'm sneaky," he says. "Ifit works, I'll use it."

Riverside along with otherjunior highs in Billings tries to givestudents choices. But Audents cannotboycott the "basics" because "aca-demics are still the mission of thisschool," says Eschler.

In their six-period day, Billings se.--enth- and eighth-graders have five re-quired classes: English, readir.g,math, social studies and science.

Teaching English and reading asseparate classes is unusual at theupper-grade levels. Billings educatorsdecided years ago that students whocould not read would not be successfulin other subjects or grades. So, theydecided to keep the reading require-ment even in junior high.

"Just because this age group needs

some room to experiment doesn'tmean schools can ignore the basics."says Eschler. "We are still here toteach 'readin, 'ritin and 'rithmetic.'

Riverside has shown some in-novative use of federal money. Insteadof hiring full-time teachers for federalTitle I programs designed for lowachievers in math, English and read-ing, Riverside has opted to hire class-room aides. Most of them have collegedegrees and teaching experience.

Title I money goes further thatway. Riverside staffers say Ten or 11aides can be hired in place of a fewteachers, and more students can behelped by the program. In mostschools, students who qualify for TitleOne tutoring are pulled out of regularclasses. But at Riverside, most TitleOne students stay in their regularmath, English and reading classes,while aides help classroom teachers by

No `hushing' hereBy Mea AndrewsStaff writer

BILLINGS Riverside's li-brary is not a musty room wherebooks rest undisturbed on shelves.It is an oasis of sorts.

Andttiverside's courtyard is anoasis indeed.-Once slated for black-top and benches, the courtyardnow has a pond, rabbits, chicken,wild ducks, trees and grasses res-presenting a broad sample of Mon-tana's natural wonders.

Both were developed and con-tinue to exist for one group ofpeople kits.

Tennis-stioe-clad Glenda Bellruns the library, where "books arefriends" but filmstrips movies.eara-curricular activities ani-mated, and colorful displays andstudents are just as important

Riverside students used to re-quest a book and a library workerwould pull the book off the shelf.recalls Bell. No browsing. No play-ing, No talking. Only serious, hush-hush kind of work allowed

"It was a place where a coughor a sneeze would disturb the at-mosphere," says Bell.

No longer. The library is openbefore and after school and duringlunch for chess and checkers,

browsing, research, socializing The"quiet buzz" of students chattingmakes Bell happy.

"If you have too strict an at-mosphere, you end up forcing li-brary work down their throats,"says Bell. "I want this to be agood, happy place for students acontrolled atmosphere that's nottoo strict but not too distracting."

Bell's library doesn't stop at thedoor. She constantly lobbies teach-ers to make use of the library forspecial classes and 'research pro-jects, and sbe has been successful.

To Bell, a librarian with a flairfor statistics, it all means thatmore students enjoy the !peatyand more students art reading.

In 1974, for instance, Riversidestudents each checked out an &ver-ge at 14 books a year. That hasgrown steadily every year until in1979, the average was 21 books perstudent. The estimate for this pastyear was 24 books.

And in 1974, the average stu-dent came into the library 37 timesand the total visits for all studentswas 28,052. In 1983, the averagestudent visited the library 93 timesand the total number of studentvisits was 54,080.

"If a kid wants to read, we'll do

working with the low achievers.If one compares the 1974 Riverside

to the Riverside of today, there is nodoubt that a better school has evolved.But nearly all teachers interviewedcited a new concern. Said historyteacher Debbie Carlson "Maybewe've gone too far

Recognizing that sentiment, newPrincipal Lynette Little has said that"tightening the academic belt" is oneof her goals for this school year notonly for students but for teachers aswell.

"We really have to push students alittle harder, apply some gentle pres-sure," she said "And I'm a personwho believes teachers shnuld be inclassroom with their students, Nomore coffee breaks in the middle ofclass They know I'm not asking any-thing that is not right

everything in our power to get himthe material," says Bell. "U bedoesn't want to read, we'll do ev-erything to get him into the li-brary" and reading will comelater, she says.

Only a few yards away are glassdoors through which Riverside stu-dents often stare at the Wildlife intheir school courtyard, a self-con-tained ecolti)cal system. No onequite knew what to do with thecourtyard until Riverside scienceteachers decided to turn the placeinto a living wonder

With left-over money from stu-dent fund, donations from localbusinesses and gratis work fromstaff and community people, thecourtyard was planted and stockedwith animals. foot paths were de-fined and covered with bark, andlabels were set in place to identifygrasses and trees.

Now science students chart theseasons' effects on plant life, moni-tor the birth and growth of aM-mals, and scrutinize at least sevennative Montana grasses and anynumber of trees and bushes. Artstudents cart their pads and pencilsinto the courtyard to capture de-tails of a rabbit's fur or sunlight ona tree.

7

Fifth in a Series September 3, 1981

'Precision teaching' helpsNorth Junior High

By Mea AndrewsStaff writer

GREAT FALLS Wayne Day's math students sit qui-etly. their desks clear except for an open folder.

"I think you guys know how the system works, so letsget going. We've got a lot of work today," he says, movingto the front of the room to click on a tape recorder.

When a beep interrupts the music, students begin writ-ing as quickly and deftly as they can on plastic sheets thatcover their test papers.

Exactly one minute later the music is interrupted byanother beep and students stop working "Let's tr., again,"says Day.

Day and his students at Great Falb' North Junior Highare experimenting with "precision teaching," or "PT," ateaching tool that has already gotten rave reviews in thecity's elementary and high schools.

Here's how it works Teachers set aside a few minutesof class time usually on a daily basis for students to doone-minute worksheets. The sheets are specially preparedto coordinate with curriculum, lessons and skills being cov-ered at the time.

Each student has his or her own progress chart whichis kept in a folder in the classroom. Students take the minitests, correct their own work and enter their scores on thechart They repeat the same worksheet until their scoresshow they are ready to move to another drill.

Students can see exactly when and how they are im-proving, and teachers get daily assessments of students'learning.

"Dnil and practice has gotten a bad name in educa-tion, but there is something to be said for the technique,"said Richard Clement, principal at North Junior High.

"Too often we introduce skills and concepts and haveno way of knowing which students have grasped the lesson.We move ahead, introducing new skills and new conceptswhen the old ones aren't firm. PT gives everybody immedi-ate feedback and keeps students from getting lost in theshuffle."

Precision teaching started down the street from Northat Sacajawea Elementary School, where Clement. was onceprincipal. It originally was designed to bolster the academicperformance of handicapped students.

But when Sacajawea teachers saw how effective thetool was for special-education students, they decided to trythe technique on all their students.

It worked so well that thousands of educators in atleast 30 states and two Canadian province are now PT in-structors, Federal education officials investigated precisionteaching and dubbed the method "outstanding." Precisionteaching also has undergone a tough evaluation by Mon-tana's Office of Public Instruction, which validated theproject as an effective tool to teach and strengthen aca-demic skills.

Precision teaching does not, as the words imply,change a teacher's style of lecturing or teaching. It is a

paper-and-pencil, highly structured way ot getting studentsto practice skills over and over until they improve

During one social studies class at North Junior High,students were given an unmarked map of western Europe.The PT drill asked students to identify all the mountainranges and bodies of water they could. the Norwegian,North, Baltic, Adriatic and Mediterranean seas: the Artieand Atlantic oceans: the Strait of Dover and the Strait ofGibraltar, the Bay of Biscay and the Gulf of Bothnia, and: fountain ranges from the Balkans in Bulgaria to the Pyre.nees in France.

And a civics unit involved another test that drilled stu-dents on concepts such as self-incrimination, ex-post-factolaw, due process. double jeopardy, perjury, libel and writ ofhabeas corpus

On first try, students get few correct answers. But byrepeating the tests several times in several days, students'scores improve and they soon start seeing almost perfectpapers at which time they move to the next topic sheet.Since all the tests last the same time, students take the testtogether but may not be working on the same skill sheet.

Juniot-high teachers in Great Falls were motivated totry the precision teaching because it worked so well forelementary students. A four-year study comparing achieve-ment on a national tests showed Sacajawea students scoringhigher than district averages even though the school'sscores were average when the study began.

At the end of the four-year period, Sacajawea fourth-graders were scoring 28 percentile points higher in spelling,44 point.: higher in math and 19 points higher in readingthan the district average.

North Junior High teachers who started precisionteaching last year say students retained information andskills longer than before, although a long-term statisticalevaluation will be the final test of success. Such studieshave already been done on Great Falls' high school andelernentary PT efforts.

In Ogden, Utah, one teacher has already documentedPT's effect on one group of intermediate-level students. Ja-nice Cashmore, who teaches English at South Ogden JuniorHigh, says the tool works.

For a master's thesis, Cashrriore selected two similargroups of ninth-graders to monitor. One group was taughtby traditional methods, while the other classroom teacheradded PT drills to supplement instruction.

One year later Cashmore compared results from bothgroups and tests they took at the beginning and end of theexperiment. The control group showed no significant prog-ress in capitalization and punctuation, the two skills shechose to isolate.

But the students who had been drilled by precisionteaching showed a 334 percent improvement in capitaliza-tion skills and a 414 percent improvement in punctuationskills.

"As you can tell, I'm very excited," she snid. "Kids canpick up concepts and master skills with precision teaching

faster than any other tool I've tried. And it is a tool, not amethod any teacher, regardless of his style or back-ground, can plug It in and get results."

Training teachers in PT is one of many changes takingplace at North Junior High. Like other schools serving in-termediate-level students, North is struggling to makeschool a plate where social and emotional growth happensalongside academic improvement.

It has not been easy in Great Falls, where schools havebeen plagued by cutbacks.

Years ago, Great Falls School District 1 faced a painfulbut realistic problem. Enrollment had dropped fromabout 19.280 students in 1970 to 14.850 in 1978. The mergingof the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads leftmany rail workers jobless or transferred. Anaconda shut itszinc operations and cut its work lorce by 1,100 workers

Left behind were schools with too few st..dents a

luxury Great Falls could no longer affordFour elementary schools were closed in 1979 More

than 100 teaching positions were eliminated and nearly 200people affected by massive staff changes and cuts.

Last year, another 62 teachers were notified that theirJobs were being cut RIF, an acronym-a for "reduction inforce." is a process Great Falls teachers know too well.

Staff morale has suffered. "We used to have a sense ofteamwork, a sense of togetherness," said one industrial-artsteacher at Norol last year. "It is all gone. We fear for ourJobs. we fear Ior our future. It is very difficult to give 110percent to any student right now."

"It is not a pleasant situation," admits Principal Clem-ent "We are always putting out brush fires."

Nevertheless, North has continued to look at improvingits product and school. "Exploratory" time has been added

for students one period during which they can choosedifferent activities, visit teachers for extra help or work onassignments.

North's staff has started a mini series designed to ex-pose students to new ideas and interests. The program triesto tap the educational resources available in the communityby inviting local speakers to organize activities for students.

The series has been popular. Three hundred studentssigned up for a karate demonstration, 150 signed up for adance workshop, 100 attended a workshop on sign languageand 80 turned out to listen to a local sportscaster. When alocal veterinarian came to school, 130 studenta came to lis-ten.

One good thing about North Junior High these days isthat the school is less crowded than in the past. Years ago,when enrollment approached 1,300 students, North JuniorHigh found itself herding students through school. "Theywere just thrown into the classroom and were expected tosurvive, " says counselor Chuck Fuller. "That was an intol-erable situation."

The opening of a my junior high in Great Falls in1970, and the steady drop in rmllment since then, hueased that pressure. North's enrollment is now less than 700students. "Much better," says Principal Clement.

Montana educators interviewed for this series say thatbig is not best, particularly in the intermediate years of jun-ior high. When enrollment pushes 1,000 students, individu-als get lost and the emphasis is on order, not education.

But Clement says that too few students may not begood either "Some place there is a happy medium whereyou have enough students to offer some variety but fewenough to make sehool personal." he said

9

Dallas Times HeraldDallas, Texas May 24, 1981

First in a Series

Good principals the keysto effective Texas schools

LINDA AUSTIN

Linda Austin a recent recipient of theGolden Typewriter Award for Educationtrom the Dallas Association of SchoolAdministrators, has been educationreporter tor the Dallas Times Heraldsince 1979

When Linda joined the staff of the TimesHerald Texas educators and politicians,accustomed to dealing with ruralproblems were lust starting to come togrips with the ills of urban educationTexas now has three cities among ,theten largest in the nation

As her Fellowship study topic, Austinchose to seek out inner-city highschools which served large numbers ofblack and Hispanic students Sheidentified several effective schools inpoor areas where there has beenconsiderable progress

The message that comes from Austin'sfour-part series Is that public schoolscan provide educational opportunities ifthe necessary commitment from Vieteachers school administrators andparents is made She found that thefacult:e.s and students in these effectivescnools shared some common traitsenthusiasm industriousness andunrelenting determination to achieveeducational progress

Dallas high school students scorests ere among the worst in Texas' eighturban school districts on a state mini-nial competency test last year. On alocal test, almost one-third of the stu-dents in grades 8-12 proved illiterateIn an attempt to learn why someNch(x)Is in Texas do a better job. re-porter Linda Austin spent 10 weeksand traveled more than 10,000 milesto interview hundreds of educators.students and parents statewide Herstudy was aided by a grant fromGeorge Washington University's Insti-tute for Educational Leadership. Thisis the first of four articlesBy LINDA AUSTINStaff writer

HOUSTON The ninth graders :nOlivia Wilkms' English class studied"Romeo and Juliet," Greek mytho-logy and "The Odyssey" this schoolyear

"They say I'm the meanest teacheron this campus," says Ms Wilkins.who teaches al an integrated highschool on Houston's heavily industri-alized east side "Nobody's excusedduring my class period. I won't haveany mterruptions in my 55 minutes "

She assigns homework nightly Ofher 104 students, 28 are in a specialclass for poor readers. All but threeretook and passed the district's literacy test after a year with her

"I've missed one day in five years,"Ms. Wilkins says of her time at El).bert L. Furr High School. "I enjoycoming to work. Otherwise. Iwouldn't drive 33 miles a day to workhere."

She sums up the reason for thattrip and her students' achievement intwo words: David Yeager

"There is nobody like DavidYeager," she says of Furr's principal"He's an honest and fair principal.There's no little clique (of teachers)that he runs with. He treats us likeadults, not children I don't knowwhere I could have mor,e freedom "

Joyce Mikolajewski, whose son is aFurr ninth-grader, says she and hertruck-driver husband "love Mr.Yeager. He's just about the best thingchat ever happened to Furr."

Within the past decade, researchershave confirmed what teachers andparents have known for a long time:Vou have to have a good principal tohave a good school.

40We never found an effectiveschool presided over by an ineffectiveprincipal," says Ronald Edmonds. aHarvard University researcher whostudied 55 effective elementaryschools in the Northeast.

"An effective principal is a neces-sary but clearly insufficient prerequi-site. We did find ineffective schoolswith effective principals."

Last summer, when Dallas' scoreson the state's minimal competencytest ranked near the bottom amongurban school districts, Supt. LinusWright immediately shifted 40 princi-pals, who were "mismatched" and"burned out."

"The principal IF the most impor-tant person in the management teamand in determining the effectivenessf a school. Their leadership estab-lishes expectations," Wright says.

At Furr, teachers and parents pointso Principal Yeager as the reason thetawl works as well as it does. Andfor an urban high school drawing kidsfrom poor to blue-collar neighbor-hoods, it works reasonably well.

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Houston principaleliminates homeroom

On standardized achievement tests,its. students' scores almost reach thesational average by the time they'reSeniors. Two-thirds of Furr's ninth-riders pa%ed the state's minimalsompetency test, compared to half the*Intl-graders in Dallas.

Teachers and students brag thatPurr is perfectly integrated. Its racialkeakdown Ls similar to the overallComposition of the Houston (and Dal-iss) school districts. Of its 1,139 stu-Oents. 44 per cent are black; 31 percent are white, and 25 per cent areHispanic.

Yeager doesn't make excuses forhis students because many have towork, either to support their familiesUr their Lars "1 tiy not to know Muthabout their homes for this reasonIwn they get out in the real world,no one's going to make an allowance."he says

12

Yeager, whose down-home manneris hard to resist. says, "I try to befirm. fair and friendly, but it has tobe in that order." His office is an un-rushed. unhurried place. decoratedwith a plaque trom his alma mater,Texas A&M University.

Ile's spent much of his 50 years inthe Houston .public schools. graduat-ing from them in 1948 and joining thedistrict in 1955 as a physical educationteacher and coach. He became the 20-year-old school's second principal in1973.

"I'm the manager. the filter, thephilosopher." says Yeager, who hasthe impish grin of a leprechaun andthe build of an unsuccessful collegehalfback. "I have to mimimize thethings they come up with that, takeaway from instructional time

To that end, he's done away withdaily homeroom, the 15 minutes oftime many high schools usc to takecare of paperwork. He's stopped stu-dents from changing schedules be-tween first and second semester.

"That takes away three weeks ofdisruption at midterm." he says. Theonly changes are for students who failacademic courses They drop an 'elec-tive and retake those courses.

"The most important thing a kidgets here is an academic education,"Yeager says. "Electives are fine, butelectives are extra. They repeat to getacademics, even if they double."

Doubling or taking two periodsof the same subject is technicallyagainst district policy. But 'Yeager hasa reputation for bending the rules ofthe Houston Independent School Dis-trict. Jesting that he runs his own

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school district. his chime staff gacehim a stamp that read. "Purr ISD,"

Furr teachers go home at 2 35 p m,imittad of the regulation 3.15 p m. bt -cause Yeager requires them tuup to eight hours a week on thephone talking to parents Any time astudent is sent to the office of is ab-st ut tom do., the teat ht z (Alb home

I think s done more fur COM-munity inforniat am than an thingelse." FY, says "We're averaging 800to 1.000 lads ever., 9 weeks . I think

LAI get kJ( tte r results if. when vouask teachers to do something extra,you gice them something in return."

Yeager makes clear svhat he ex-pects from teaehers and students. "Idon't like surprises That's why wehave a teacher handbook I wantthem to know everything expected ofthem I meet with each class at thebeginning of every year in the audito-rium and go over the rules in the stu-dent handbook," he says.

"I have teachers give them in writ-ing the requirements of the courseand classroom pi ocedure

Librarian Reid Whitelaw says,"Turnover ts verN low People find Ita pleasant. non-bureaucratic atmo-sphere to work in. Yeager is verysupportive and entouragmg Ile

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gowns to school for a group picture. Mrs. McNeil(Milby-class of '29) returned-to theschookin

doesn't bury us in uiviality and pettyadministration

The Walher attendant(' rate at Furris among tht highest in the distra talmost 98 pci tent. compared tu 95per cent distric twide

"Teachers don't lay out. Tht atmo-sphere is such that it's nu sweat tucome to school and teach," Yeagersays "I try not to hold them up withextra things such as faculty met tines

"You can't get on the P A and say'Yo'll do this or else YOU can't cracka whip and mak( a teacher do." hesays. "I trust them

History teacher La Verna Wardsays. "He's quite frank. If you dosomething he dislikes, he lets youknow As a restat of his being frank,

hke a big family. He's just like oneof us."

Across the ship channel from Furris Milby High School. with a principalas reserved as Yeager is outgoingand Just as effective. He is Claude IIBrinkley Jr., Why's third principalin us 55-year history Brinkley cameto Milhy in 1962 as a biology teacherand coach and moved into the princi-pal's office in 1971.

In some ways, Milby has notchanged much under Brinkley's Irad-ership. Students still turn out for a

monthly dance in the cafeteria. Theseniors all 550 of them pose for agroup picture. For some, Milby is afamily tradition; their parents andgrandparents trod the same woodenfloors in the East End school.

Lawrence Smith, who has taughtEnglish at Milby for 21 years, says,"Through the years, so many schoolsdeclined We have not. Tweaty yearsago. there was no great status in be-ing at Milby. But we survived the last10 to 15 years better than otherschools. We had administrators whowere top notch."

In the last decade, Milby haschanged racially and physically. Tenyears ago, Milby's student body Was86 per cent white Today, it is 62 percent minority, mostly Mexican-Amc rican.

Two years ago, a $10 million voca-tional wing doubled the square foot-age of the school The school's enroll-ment has swelled to 2,500, as stadentsdistriowide flock to its 32 vocationalprograms, ranging from marine en-gine repaii to petrochemical labtechnique

With fill the changes, Milby'sachievement test scores slumped. Butthis year. they show signs ofrebounding

13

In reading, scores for the school'sseniors have jumped from the 35thpercentile last yeail to the 46th oil -

centile this year, meaning they readbetter than 46 per cent of the stu-dents nationwide who took the testThe national average is the 50thpercentile.

Using the same test, Milby's stu-dents perform 15 to 20 points higherthan those in Dallas high schools withthe same racial mix.

"I thtnk that in my job here theone thing I need to do is create aneducational atmosphere where kidscan learn. The way to do that is withgood discipline," says Brinkley, a qui-et, erect man with a shock of grayhair.

Brinkley's observations are support-ed by Harvard researcher Edmondswho found that a quiet, safe and or-derly atmosphere is characteristic ofef f ec tive schools.

"If you're fair, you can enforce therules,'' says Brinkley. "That's the onlyway to have any type of order en-force policy, regardless of who it is,even if it's a cheerleader or a star bas-ketball player."

"I think people respect him," saysalley Weygandt. student cou`ncilpresident. "He's reasonable. I think alot of people see him as God "

Besides enforcing Houston's two-year-old attendance policy, whichDallas emulated this year and whichfails students with seven absences,Brinkley also provides incentives forgood attendance on the theory thatkids can't learn unless they're inschool.

"We had a reception after first se-mester for 400 kids who had perfectattendance," Brinkley says. Thehomeroom with the best attendancereceived free pro basketball tickees.Attendance is up about 1 point tromthe 93 5 per cent attendance rate lastyear

Ile also encourages competition inadermc areas "We had a contest in

FOM (remedial math classes) and Al-gebra I We gave them all the sametest The class which had the highestscore was recognwed in the schoolnewspaper and received a certificate."sas Brinkley, whose office bookcaseN laden with old loving cups andyearlx)oks

"You have to have high expecta-tions, high standards of conduct," hesays

Along with maintaining discipline,securing good teachers is the princi-pal's iesponsibility "Personnel selec-tion is probably one of the most im-portant jobs that a principal has,"

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Brinkley says. "We have a lot of ex-ceptional teachers. The way we'reable to do that is that a lot apply for aposition here."

English teacher Linda Alsup ex-plains why she sought a job at Milbyinstead of at the, three high schoolswithin 10 minutes of her home. "He'san extraordinarily fair man," shesays. "If you say makeups (tests) areto be taken within two days and thekid doesn't, other principals would goahead and let the kid take it. As longas you're fair and the requiremontsare clear, he has no problem backingyou up."

"The thing you have do is trustyour people," says Brinkley, who'snot beneath taking a few jabs in theannual faculty-student basketballgame.

"That creates a lot of respect andtrust for you. If a teacher tells yousomething, don't question that. Ninethousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of 1,000, you'll beright. You can't go around question-ing and doubting people for the onetime you get 'burned. When you getburned, deal wilh that."

English teacher ,Ellen Merrick cameto Milby this year from a rural Cana-dian school. "I was hit twice thereHere there's not a kid who would

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C laude Brinkley is only the third principal in the55-year history of Milby High School. He

14

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came to the school in 1962 as a biology teacher andcoach and moved into administration in 1971.

even conceive of that," she says in herclassroom. its walls decorated withposters of Shakespeare and the rockgroup Led 7.eppelin "I've never

orked for a man I respect more. Ihope I tan be as fair a teacher as he isa principal

'Mr Brinkley stopped me the otherday and said, 'You don't send manykids tu the office I appreciate your

Second in a Series

taking care of ,your own discipkneproblem.' That made me feel 20 feettall I thougt.t nobody notices, nobodycares "

Walter Hinolosa, a vice president inthe Houston teachers' union and theHouston Jaycees' pick as outstandingyoung high school educator, says,have no problem going to Mr. Brink-ley and talking over a pi:Nem. He'll

work something out. I rarely have togo beyond the building. That makes ittough to recruit union membera."

Milby teacher Paul Koons, who hashad three children graduate from theschool, says, "Mr. Claude Brinkleymakes this whole system go. He hasrules, and the rules are enforced. Youknow what's expected. He wants re-sults not excuses and he setsthem."

May 25, 1981

Do-your-own-thing schoolreturns to basics, thrives

By LINDA AUSTINStaf f Writer

AUSTIN Lyndon Baines John-son High School opened in 1974, arambling white brick monument tothe educational innovations of thepast 15 years

While its founders called it "a com-munity of people working togethertoward more humanistic education,"teai hers in Austin's other high schoolsderisively dubbed it Camelot.

LBJ was so far out it had some-thing called the "discipline solar sys-tem It bought into all the latest fads:()lien classrooms, team teaching, reali-ty therapy. individualized instruction,learning stations, learning contracts.learning packets Homework was out.monthly classes in yoga and candle-making were in.

Lois Sheffield. a counselor sinceLBJ opened, says "Sonn of the pro-grams were pretty bad Some workedwell, but the trend in education wastoward the more structured."

Mirroring the shift in the nation'spublic schools, LBJ's philosophy haschanged from do-your-own-thnig toback-to-the-basics in just seven years.

"We've retrenched 50 per cent,"says Ronald D. Beauford, LBJ's firstand only principal. "This is really atraditional school with a few openclassrooms "

Open classrooms, huge open areaswith "centers" for each subject super-vised by different teachers, became atrademark of innovative public educa-tion from the mid-'60s to mid-10s.Students would learn what they

wanted at their own pace, making"continuous progress."

If they didn't learn what they weresupposed to, they would move on tothe next grade anyway, free of thepressure of failurc or competition andili keeping with a policy of socialpromotion.

The consequences are well-known.schools without standards bet amt.schools without learning

In Dallas. where the public qchoolstthbraced the same educational fadsas those tried and abandonned atLB.J. almost one-third of the highschool studenes are functionally illit-erate. according to scores on the dis-trict's rrunimal competency test lastyear.

Nationally, while elementary schoolstudents are reading better, teen-agers read no better today than teensin 1971, according to the National As-sessment of Educational Progress.

"Standards slipped," says SearleCrate, a physics teacher at LBJ High.' Now they've stabilized. Discipline isbetter. The students had last the re-ponsibility for learning."

"There was no discipline under theold way. Now there are rules and reg-ulations. Teachers are better able tooperate," she says.

Math teacher Sandra Seymoursays, "You can't vote about whatyou're going to teach, Kids can't al-ways have a voice."

Principal Beauford says he didn'tlike the innovations of the early '70seither, but that the times made thcmnecessary.

"Tht original aka was tu humanizeeducation Students should have anopportunity to walk into my officeand feel like someone would be fair.Faculty members should be a part ofthe decision-making process Whenwe desegregated the school system, tfwe hadn't gotten into human develop-ment and communications skills, wewere going to have riots and fights.'says Beautord.

Even with human relations activi-ties, LBJ didn't have an easy nmewhen it opened. two years aftercourt-ordered desegregation

"I put out 25 students in one daythe first year." says Beautord, who

'There was no discipline under the old way. Nowthere are rules and regulations, Teachers are betterable to operate.'

Linda Berg, teacher

Math teacher Linda Berg says ofthe LBJ's earl years, "It started outas a zoo There was no teachers'lounge, no teachers' bathroom. Teach'-ers and students were equals.

carried a Mace-like spray duringthose days. "People were afraid to goto the potty. . New it's secure andsafe. There are no longer dice gamesin every restroom, with extortion go-ing on.

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Lyndon Baines Johnson High School Principal Ronald D. Beau ford stands in the center of a crowd of his students

Principal says students mustreceive constant 'pushing'

"To educate any group of people,you must get control first. It must bea secure place to go to school, I de-plore wasting time on human devel-opment when kids need to be in theclassroom learning basic skills," saysBeauford, whose office floor is lit-tered with hubcaps. returned by astudent who stole them. "But withouthuman development, we never wouldhave been able to get back to thebasics."

The strategy paid off. LBJ won thestate math championship last yearand the regional math and science fairfor the past two years. With a 57 per-

lb

cent minority mostly black en-rollment, its average score on theScholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), takenby half its seniors, remains two pointsabove the national average of 890,boosted by a strong showing in math.

English teacher Lynn Morris saysof her colleagues, "Tim math teachersare probab1y the most straight-laced.They make their kid., do math everynight Their ciasses ..ire probably themost structuied. h I honestly be-hove that's best for

"A kid :s not going to do a bloom-ing th:ng unless you push him all thetime." says Beauford, who sometimes

teoches a biology class in addition tohis prinopal dotics, "Still he mustfeel you icspect him and love him asa fellow human being "

Alter nine years of study, MichaelRutter. who followed 2.700 studentsthrough 12 innercity London highschools. reat hod much the sameconclusion.

"Children lidd better academic suc-cess in schools where homework wasregularly set and marked, and wherethe teachers expressed expectationsthat a high proportion ot the children%% ()old do well," he wines in his book,

15,000 Hours"

"Of course, in turn, the children'sgood work wdl tend to reIntoro. and...option the tcac.hers' high expecta-tions of them.. The same mecha-n.,ms apply as much to behavior as tossholastai success

Supt Linus Wright says educators'low expectations for minority children

and has been a problem" in thyDallas schools. "But I think we'returning that trend around

Beginning this year. Dallas publicschool students in grades 1-3 mustknow certain things before they canpass to the next grade. By 1984. stu-dents at all grade levels will be pro-moted on the basis of achievement in-stead of age. ending a decades-oldpractice of social promotion in theDallas schools.

The Dallas school board also in-creased the numbcr of courses re-quired for graduation, beginning in1985.

"It's always a matter of expecta-tions. Kids live up to a teacher's ex-pectations," says Carolyn Legorreta, ascience teacher at Bowie High School,in El Paso. "I'd like to see it change abit so we don't get so many lower-level courses that we don't need. Thekids can perform. I do think they'repampered ?'

Mmost two-thirds of Bowie's in-coming freshmen go into remedialreading courses. Surrounded by pub-lic housing and literally across thestreet from Mexico. Bowie High edu-cates the newest and the poorest of ElPaso's Mexican tmmigrants.

Yet in just one year at Bowie. Ms.Legorreta has increased the em oll-ment in chemistry classes from 30 to120. her department chairman says."A lot ot teachers who started teach-ing here," Ms. Legorceta says, "fos-ter -- not intentionally the ideathat the kids can t do it. When I gothere. I decided to teach biology theway I've always taught it and not goa step down...and they performedvery well."

Third in a Series

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Barbara Roberts, a social studies teacher, works with students in anopen classroom at Lyndon B. Johnson High in Austin.

At Milby High School near Hous-ton's ship channel, reading teacherLauretta Abram says, "You canspoonfeed remeeial children toomuch... You're doing them a disserv-ice. They have minds. They can thinkif they're made to think."

At mostly black Sam Houston HighSchool in San Antonio, businessteacher Shirley R. Adamek says."The lower you make your standards.the less they'll do. The more you de-mand, the more they'll do. It doesn'tpay to demand nothing. They'll doless than nothing.

"Sometimes adults have to makedecisions. They have to raise stan-dards to where they ought to be and

not bring standards down to meetthem," she says.

When asked about raising academiestandards in her class, she says, "Untilit's universal, why fight it? It's got tobe schoolwide to do any good."

Using computers, Mary Smith drillsSam Houston students who read andcompute like elementary schoot pu-pils. "I don't think they've beenpushed to do it. For years, we'vepassed kids on the bare minimum,"she says.

"These kids are capable of so much,and we expect so little."

Effective teachers pushstudents to their limits

By LINDA AUSTINStaf f Writer

HOUSTON With five minutes left in theclass, teacher Dan Beier concludes his rapid-fire lecture on the origin of World War 1.Bather than let the juniors in his Americanhistory class drift into conversation, he calls a

0.1.

May 26, 1981

student up to the world map, drawn over theblackboard.

"Miss Harland, where is the Balkan Penin-suia?" demands Beier, assuming the role of apreacher drilling the faithful in thecatechism.

"Aw. she doesn't know where it's at,"

17

18

Students like teacherswith hi h ex ectationstaunts someone m the back of Room 120 atabert L. Furr High School.

-Never end a sentence with a preposition,"134,ler chides.

During the grammar discussion. Miss Har-land has successfully put her finger in thevicinity of Bulgaria. Other students are or-dered to the map and locate the Scandinavianand Iberian peninsulas and the straits of Do-ver. Gibraltar. Bosporus and the Dardanellesbtlore the bv1) rings ,11 this mtegraied sehmgon Houston's industrialize() east side.

Along with map skills, Beier drills his stu-dents in vocabulary. spelling and a whole lot

of American history for *5 minutes, non-stop daily."What do you remember about Woodrow Wil-

son?' he asks. "He was idealistic," several studentssay.

"Let's use our big word," says Beier, with ex-aggerated exdtement. "He was a utopian," the classchiMes in. using one of the hundreds of vocabularywords that line two blackboards in the room.

Later in the day, when one a Beiees studentscorrectly uses the word "reprobate" in his Englishclass. the teacher comments, "You must havelearned that in Mr. Beier's class."

Beier's been known to cut out the lights for hisletture on the Dark Ages and to iling songs shoutPresident U. S. Grant. His students call him "crazy"and "corny," but in the next breath they pronouncehim, "one good teacher."

Intuitively, Beier does two things in his clas-room that researchers have found make for effec-tive teaching. He holds high expectations for hiskids he expetts them to remember how to spellVersailles, what the 17th Amendment did and whatchicanery means. And he makes good use of time,teaching the whole period and keeping the bulk ofthe class attentive with his antics.

"I'm not sure teachers are aware of how theyspend their time," says Nancy L. Karwelt, a re-searcher at Johns Hopkins University. In one of herstudies, she found that depending on the teacher,students in one small school district spent from 57per cent to 88 per cent of the scheduled time formath actually learning math. Those who workedlonger learned more.

Ineffective teachers squandered time by start-ing late and finishing early, by boring students todistraction, by leaving students unoccupied whilepassing out papers or checking roll and by stoppingclass to take care of discipline problems.

"The research favors whole-group instruction

.41.

Staff photo by Paw Iverson

History teacher &AVOW of Furr High in Houston with his vocabulary list

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Math teacher Linda Berg helps a student at

because recitation and lecture cause high time ontask," Dr. Karweit says. "Time on task" is educa-tional shorthand for when a student is paying at-tention and learning.

But the trend in public education during thepast 15 years has been toward individualizing in-struction teaching single students or smallgroups instead of instructing the whole class orgroup.

Effective urban schools are populated by teach-ers who start the lesson promptly, conduct class in abusiness-like manner. gwe and grade homeworkregularly, set clear goals for their students and ex-pect them to meet them, according to Michael Ma-ter, who studied 2,700 students' Careers in 12 inner-city London schools

Ronald Edmonds, a Harvard University re-searcher who studied 55 effective elementaryschools in the Northeast, writes, "Some schools areeffective because they have a self-generating teach-er coils that has a critical mass of dedicated peoplewho are comn tted to being effecuve for all chil-dren they teach."

At Lyndon Baines Johnson High School inAustin, an astute principal, acting as pemonnelmanager, stocked the new school with effectiveteachers, with predictable results. With a 57 percent minority mostly black enrollment, LBJ'sseniors score at or near the national average onstandardized achievement tests,

Before LBJ openid in 1974, Principal RonaldD. Beauford had a year to choose his faculty. "He

Stolf pbotc; by Peal Iverson

High in Austin

handpicked it pretty much," government teacherJerry Vaclav says. "For the most part, those teach-ers are still thc backbone of the school. There's notbeen a lot of turnover."

Beauford says he looks fur teachers with "aca-demic competencies" because. they have "a certainkind of chscipline."

"I've worked on factilties w here it was a job.u here people got into teaelung Ixeause they got avacation in the summer," English teaher LynnMorns says. "Must leathers here have very strungacademie luekgrounds and very strung opmmns."

The decor in the faculty oifict-s support htrcontention. Along wtth the Phi Beta Kappa eertificaw, Jr( Wuody Allen puskrs and a huge th,:nth-print with the caption, 1 gums be "

In the classroom. tux uf Lars urigmal tea. 11

ers, Linda Berg, provides a textbook example tithow tu teac:i algebra effectively. As soon aS the bellrir.fis, the overhead projector clicks on with the an-swers to last night's homework already written onit.

"You had an assignment last night. I could say-Take it 'but,' but 1 already know you have it outbecause you're on tup of things," she says.

"Look at all those numbers," she says in mockdisdain. "It's enough to make a person go crazy."

While the students check, their papers, shecheeks the roll and then answers questions on thehomework. After the day's lesson on factoring, theclass works a problem at a time together, giving her

:.

I 9

a chance to clear up any questions before they prac-tice several problems on their own.

At the end of the period, there's a short popquiz to find out who's still having trouble with fac-toring and the inevitable homework assignment.

Down the hall, another teacher conducts herclass in much the ume way. She Moves crisplyfrom topic to topic, wasting little time as she followsthe agenda written on the board. But the class sitslistlessly. She tries to involve the students in a dig-minion but ends up answering her own questions.As one student explains, "To me, she just wants toget it over with."

A business-like approach works, but not an im-personal one.

That's the reason Bowie High School in ElPaso works as well as it does, says its student bodypresident, Isabel Flores.

"Some teachers care, Mrs. (Terry) Dodge espe-cially," she says of her computer science teacher."She really takes an interest in you as anindividual."

"She gets on you to do the work," says anothersenior, Carlos Tonche. "She's constantly after usseniors to make applications to college and forswholarships."

One teacher does not a school make, butBowie's unique situation seems to have attracted anumber of caring teachers, such as Mrs. Dodge,who have high expectations of their students andan almost missionary zeal about learning.

For 50 years, Bowie has been the first stop formany on their way out of the tenements and publichousing of south El Paso. Its students are first- andsecond-generation immigrants, who retain same ofthe respect for teachers and schoolii,g that remainsa part of the Mexican culture.

"I get pretty close to my kids," says CarolynLegorreta, a science teacher at Bowie. "If you getclose and warm, they do respond."

Sht ulso gets involved, increasing enrollment inchemistry from 30 to 120 students in just one year,her department chairman says.

"I ran into a student I had first semester whohad messed up the first six weeks. But he settleddown and made a in the course. He was told toregister for basic biology. I told him to register forregular biology. I asked him, 'Don't you realize thatlower-level course is an insult to your intelli-gence?' " Ms. Legorreta says.

"Kids live up to a teacher's expectations. I'dlike to see it change a bit so we don't get so manylower-leve) courses the kids don't need."

"Some of the teachers here are too easy. Iwould change that," sayscMiss Flores, who has herchoice of MIT, Stanford or Caumbia universitiesnext fall. "I wish it had been harder."

As she speaks, a gust of wind sweeps throughthe courtyard at Bowie, tossing' her wildly curlyblack hai:. Within sight.of her school, on the near-by bridge to Juarez, the Mexican and Americanflags flap in the breeze.

At the more affluent schools in north El Paso,"Parents push the kids to take harder courses andthe teachers to give harder work," says Miss Flores,whose father is a machinist.

Another Bowie student, junior Patsy Hurbath,eounts Carol Pancoast as one of her best teacherstor having pusned her to do outside reading, bookreports and a research paper with footnotes,

"Mrs Paneoast is a good teacher She constant-ly gives us homework She makes us study andwork," says Miss Horbach. who wants to Ex legalsecretary

Mrs Pance.st says :Amply. "I feel likt. if 1 tpeet &In to du it tfe.y will

Fourth in a Series

Milwaukee provesthe poor can learnBy LINDA AUSTIN

Staff Writer

MILWAUKEE Senior MaryRogers says she can see some differ-ence in North Division High Schoolthis scar They've cracked down ondiselphne.- she says, gestunng with acopy 111 -Jane Eyre" in her hand.

Sophornere Terry Hollins agrees Inlass. 'The teachers don't like to see

us waste our time On top of that* got to lake homework home ev-

ery day -- 2 hnurs worth," he sayswith a groan

North Division. Mawaukees blackest and bleakest high scho . is on thetomeback trail. Although n's starting

20

May 27, 1981 ,

oul as bad off as any of Dallas' worsihigh schools. Milwaukee educatorsbelieve they can turn around NorthDivision and 20 other of the city'sworst elementary and middle chools.also mostlytwlaek

"it's a well-documented loci thatpublic education has not met theneeds of urban children. particularlychildren of the poor and children ofcolor." says Maureen Larkin. a super-visor.involved in the Milwaukeeschool improvement project

"But the debate has now ended,"'he says "The effmtive schools research shows that students with low

income need not end up with lowachievement."

In the past decade, researchershave begun to identify schools thatwork for poot and minority students.The key to their success has beenmostly common sense and hard work.Holding high expectations for stu-dents, having a strong principal, giv-ing healthy helpings of homework,spending more ume on the 3 R's,maintaining order, making more effi-cient use of clam time and upholdingclearc . siandards

In Milwaukee, and a mindful of

Hard work replaces thehappiness quest in Milwaukeeothei urban school districts. educatorsdre making a concentrated effort toapply that research But, like puttingMercurochromu on a wound, applyingthe research to those schools in needof a remedy hasn't been painl.

The biggest problem hasn't beenlimited funding or parental disinterestor the kids' bad home life. It's ',eenconvincing teache-s and principalsthat what they've been doing isn'tworking and that poor. black childrencan learn.

"The problem m educating low-in-mow and minority students is first anattitudinal problem, second an educa-tional problem. and third a politicalproblem If you can solve the firsttwo. then those people will bringpressure to bear on the third," Ms.Larkin says

Ronald Edmonds agrees. "Youdon't have to persuade parents thesechildren are educable. you have topersuade teachers," says the HarvardUniversity researcher who studied 55effective whools in the Northeast

Thy view that schools and teacherscan't make a dif fen r,i.e first gainedrespectability in 19titi. when sociolo.gist James Coleman reported that thestrongest determiner of a child'sachievement was his family back-ground and tonal class

"I remember seeing a newspaperarticle on Coleman's study stuck onthe bulletin board in the teachers'lot.nge." Ms. Larkin says. "It was oneof the most debilitating pieces of in-formation It said, 'You don't make a

f f ere nee.'

Because students wore raggedclothes or had no fathers, teachers ex-pected little of them, and studentslived up to those expectanen.,. "It 'vasa self-perrietuating cycle," Ms. Larkinsays

"I don't think it's their fault," saysDallas school board President Kath-lyn Gilliam about educators' limitedexpectations for mtnority students. "Ithink the system perpetuated thatidea. Even now, whenever we talkabout remedial programs. Title I it'salways with the idea of bringingthem up. making them as good. I stillcontend they're all right when we getthem,"

"Some people call it head-patung,pampering." Milwaukee Supt Lee R.McMurrin says. "We said, 'We won'tadd another burden to your life. Youdidn't have any breakfast. At least

school will be a nice place to come.'Yet the greatest harm we could dowas not teach them."

Al Weiss, principal of Milwaukee'sTwentieth Street School, which istargeted for improvement, says, "Wegot involved in making the kids hap-py We didn't make them compete:we didn't put pressure on them. Itdoesn't mean we were bad people; wewere just a part of society."

McMurrin says. "Teachers tell metheir principals are new persons.They've been 'born again' they're sodifferent in their management styleand approach to things. TI-ey aremanagers as opposed to keepng kidshappy.

"They're making schools out ofthese instituti:ms."

Among the changes in the targetedschools has been the return of home-work. "In the past if they didn't bringit back, nothing happened." Ms. Liar-kin says. "In one school, they deniedlunch hour to those who didn't. 'Theygot 10 minutes to eat and spent therest of the time in the classroom, do,ing homework. In one week, theywere bringing it in."

The Milwaukee schools recommendan hour of homework a night ingrades 1-3 and two to three hours anight in grades 4-8. According to aDallas school district pamphlet onhomework, students in grades 1-2should have a maximum of 15 mm-utes of homework a night, increasingto St', minutes in grades 3-4 and onehour in grades 5-6.

The Dallas schools continue to pullstudents out of their regular classesfor remedial instruction under thefederally financed Title I program, a

Making SchoolsWork

9

practicej no longer tolerated in theMilwaukee schools, Instead, the TitleI teacher helps out the classroomteacher in the classroom, minimizingthe time lost sending students else-where and avoiding labeling thosestudents as "dummies."

"Separate and pull-out instructionalstrategies rarely accrue to the benefitof the kids targeted," researcher Ed-monds says. "Yet it's far less taxingadministratively if you just separatethe kids."

With higher expectations and moreemphasis on academics, Milwaukee's20 lowest scoring schools expect toraise their achievement level to thenational average in reeding, math andlanguage in three years by 1982,The first test scores showing howwell they're doing will be availablenext month.

Principal Weiss is confident. "Fam-ily background is important, but notoverwhelming," he says. "Our peopleare going to work harder with betterteaching techniques and mope time onthe basics, Our substituting is going toovercome the advantages that folks inthe suburbs have. In time, we'llmatch up with suburban schools be-cause they're not working as hard andnot planning as well."

In the heart of Milwaukee's innercity, providing conclusive evidencethat it can be done, is St. Leo's Catho-lic xhool. Ninety-eight per cent of St.Leo's primary schoolers are on orabove gradc level an almost un-heard-of feat for a school where S6per cent of the enrollment is blackand 95 per cent are poor enough toreceive free lunches. In the Dallasschool district, which has a 70 percent ,minority enrollment. only 58 percent of the third graders are readingon or above grade level.

Although some might attribute St.Leo's performance to selective admis-sions, Principal George Raymond sayshe accepts students on a first-come,first-served basis, has expelled onlyone student and keeps "a very highpercentage" .on the roll who do notpay the $372 a year it costs. With 408students enrolled, it has a waiting listof 500.

"We can learn a lot from St. Leo's,"Ms. Larkin says. "I keep waiting forsomebody to tell me why this can'twork in the public schools and no-body can,"

"Many schools make excuses for

21

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Students at Milwaukee's North Division HighSchool walked out of class in 1980 in a success-

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.11

Milwaukao Journal ',halo

f ul fight against a plan to film it from a neighbor-hood facility into a.citywide magnet school.

children. I don't allow for excuses. Idon't think I can," says Raymond,whose 14 teachers make a flat $7,900a year and whose classes average 30students, "I tell teachers that all stu-dents will produce and achieve abovegrade level,"

To catch up students who are be-hind, "We've had to accelerate thecurriculum. If you're going w coverfour times the material, you have topick and chose your objectives." saysthe lean and lanky Raymond. "Youhave W have a clear indication ofwhere you're going and how long it'sgoing to take to get there."

Raymond is jealous of time for in-struction. "The teacher instructs theentire group. I don't believe in teach-.ing to a group here and a group here.If you teach to two or three groups,they get one-third the time they de-serve," says Raymond, who alsoteaches algebra at St. Leo's.

"We have to stress basics," saysRaymond, a product of the NewHampshire public schools. "We don'tteach art or music for music's sake.We leach it when and ii it fits intothe reading program. Kids makingchains at Christmas that to me is awaste of time. They get nothing outof that except less teaching time."

Repetition ar.ci reimtion are routine

'2

at St. Leo's. The sound of childrenspelling words in unison echoes in thewooden-floored hallways, "Childrenare aware that we do retain," saysRaymond, who will hold back fourprimary schoolers this year. "If chil-dren are not retained, they realizethat they can get by doing minimumwork."

Beginning this school year, the Dal-las schools began holding back stu-dents in grades 1-3 who fail toachieve certain minimal skills. As inMilwaukee. the mast foot-dragging onretention has not come from parents,but some educators, whose "vanity isgetting in the way," according toSupt. Linus Wright. ,

In Milwaukee, the principals inschuols targeted for improvement arebattling the school bureaucracy forthe right to retain students before theend of the third grade,

"The people at the central officeare scared to death," Ms. Larkin says,"They (the schools' principals andteachers) know more about effectiveschools than they do. Principals andteachers are taking over their schools.We at the central office are used totelling them what to do. When we setto be instructional leaders, nobodythought they'd do It."

28

Compl ating matters further atNorth Division High School, theschool improvement project is entan-gled in community and school boardpolitics. Two years ago, the schoolboard voted to tuen North Division'snew $20 million campus into a magnetschool, open only to students interest-ed in high-technology careers.

But the students staged a one-daywalkout and the inner-city communi-ty organized, taking as its slogan"enough is enough," Much like Dal-las' Black Coalition to Maximize Edu-cation, Milwaukee's Coalition to SaveNorth Division saki to stop busingblack children and start educatingthem.

The Coalition to Save North Divi-sion sued and won an out-of-courtsettlement, keeping North Divisionopen as a neighborhood school until1984 and starting the school improve-ment project, this school year.

"I think we've turned the generalclimate around at North," says coali-tion spokesman Howard Fuller, citingthe almost 4 point increase in the at-tendance rate to 84 per cent and themore than doubling in library circula-tion, "I would be supremely confidentabout it's working if I thought wehad the total commitment of the

7

school system to do something aboutit."

"There are 1.200 blacks in thatschool. We would have had 1.200whites there, too." Supt. McMurrmsays. with North as a magnet school"We intend to make sure that theL200 left have the finest school in thecity. We're going to work very hardwith the community."

"We keep zeroing in on high expec-tations." says Marion Gratz, North'slearning coordinator. "I hear teachersuse that phrase, they're conscious of

MI North ninth- and tenth-gradersare taking English. math, reading andsciente. plus another period of one ot

\

those subjects. whichever they showweaknes.ses. The school's first studentbehavior code is in effect, and suspen-sions dropped almost 75 per cent lastfall.

-We're fighting still with someteachers there who don't believe inwhat were talking about domg," saysFuller. a 1958 graduate of North.

Fuller became aware of the sadstate of North's current graduates asassociate director of Marquette Uni-versity's admissions program for poorand minority students.

"Only the better (North) studentswere trying to get into Marquette,and those students were underpre-

pared in many areas, particularly inmath and English skills," he says."They weren't radically differentfrom black students coming from allover the city. The problem is not sim-ply a problem at North Division."

"Our contention is that black kidsare not educated in the Milwaukeeschool system." says Dotty Holman.the coalition's attorney. "Parentsthink by sending their kid to a deseg-regated school that's going to be theanswer. We're saying they're gettingundereducated. The kids are getting araw deal.

"Education should be effective forall kids."

2 3

2.1

Dallas Times HeraldLEE 1 GWTTAR

Chairman of the Board

THOMAS McCARTIN

Publishr

.LNNETH P JOHNSON Will D JARRETT JON T SFNDERt ING

Fditor Managing Editor Ldioal Page Director

2 -L Sunda\ . Mav 31. MI

Toward better schoolsThe search for ways to Improve the public

schools is now focusing on resurrecting somefundamentals good principals and teachers,structured teaching, homework, basic curriculaind classroom discipline

Happily, that trend N catching on in manyparts of the country, and Dallas and some of itssuburbs recently have begun to move in thsame direction.

Times Herald education writer Linda Aus-tin, with the assistance of a grant from GeorgeWashmgton Univerity's Institute for EducationLeadership. identified public schools in places asdiverse as Milwaukee and El Paso that are inthe vanguard of today's educational prop ess

The message that comes from her four-partst nes in the Times Herald la-st week is that pub-lic svhools can provide good educational opportu-nities for coming generations of Americans if theiwcessary commitment from the teachers. st hooldrrunistrators and parents is made

The doornsayers. those who delight in pre-du ting the end of punhc education a.s a viableinstitution in America, do not have to be right.In fact, we believe that it is extremely importantthat they be wrong Good pubhc education is as%lull to a modem n state as commerce, transporta-tion, commmunteattons and n&tional defense Anation can have a pluralistic educational system.

healthy mix of public and private as theUnited States has had since the public schoolswere inspired by Horace Mann in the early1800s but it is doubtful tluo pnvate re-sources could successfully replace the publicschool system.

Another message from Ms. Austin's seriesis that public schools that have enrollments ofmostly poor and minority students do not haveto be "bad" or ineffective schools. SociologistJames Coleman's tired argument that the homeenvironment controls the learning potential ofthe child and that nothing much can be done inthe classroom is flawed.

"The problem in educating low-income andminunty students is first an attitudinal problem.smond an educational problem and third a po-litical problem." observes Maureen Larkin. cur-riculum specialist for the Milwaukee school im-provement program. "It you can solve the firsttwo, then those people will bring pressure tohear on the third."

Harvard University researcher Ronald Ed-monds says. "You don't have to persuade par-ents these children :WC educable; you have toix.rsuade teachers "

Ms Austm identified several "effectiveschools" in poor neighborhoo& where there hasbeen considenible educational progess, schoolssuch as Milwaukee's North Dwiston, Austin'sLBJ High School and Houston's Ebbert L. FurrHigh Sam!. What faculties and many studentsat thesc schools have in common is enthustasm,industriousness and unrelenting determinationto al hieve educatumal prognss.

"You have to have high expectations. highstandards of mnduct." summarized Claude H.Brinkley Jr prmcipal at Houston's progressweMay High Sehool.

Motivation is one 01 the major factors ateffective schools, but so are efforts to reduceburutucracy, to recruit the best teachers and ad-monstratot.,. to eliminate idle tune in the class-moms, to maintain disuphne and to concentrateOn tiaditional academics

One difference between Milwaukee's ap-proat h and that found in some Dallas-area pub-lic schools is that Titk 1 students in Milwaukeeate no longer pulled out of regular classes feriemedial clasws They reciive instruction intheir regular (lasses And "individualized in-struction," which used to be one of those popeducation slogans heard so ofwn around thecountry, means home work not time wastedby teachers filing out progress reports while stu-dents are "taught" by a machine of some sort.Another difference is the homework require-nwnt Tlw Dallas Independent School Districtpolicy handbook preseraws 15 minutes of home-work a night for students in grades 1-2, 30 min-utes for students in grades 3-4 and one hour ingrades 5-6. In Milwaukee's public schools, onehour of homework is recommended for grades 1-3 and two to three hours for grades 4-8.

Dallas' public school system, which hasbeen disrupted at the classroom level since 1971by several desegregation plans and has beenconsiderably mismanaged at the administrativelevel, appears to be seeking a new direction withpolicy changes that end social promotion, tightenup on absenteeism and strengthen curriculumrequirements. Further efforts to reduce adminis-native paperwork 4ind io put emphasis on sup-port for good teachers in tht classroom aremeded

Scok.ment of the del.egregation case in thekdesal t'ourts this year kind the eledum in No-vember of a new sthool board that is determinedto piovidt leadership will be milestones alongthe toad of cilueational progress in Dallas

Antl pmgrcss. of must% can, and must, befl

3u

THE LEDGER-STARNorfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Virginia September 8, 1981

First in a Series

Pressure pays offJOHN McMANUS

John Mo Manus has been the educationwriter for The Ledger Star in Norfolksince 1979 Among his awards duringthis period was a recent first place in theannual Virginia Press competition

A prominent feature of McManus'swriting has been his concentration oneducation programs and services forlow-income, minority students For hisFellowship study. McManus chose toseek out public elementary schools inVirginia and neighboring states thathave prepared urban minorities from lowincome areas to compete academicallywith middle class youth McManussought out elementary schools thatenrolled at least 40 percent minoritystudents. served at least 25 percent ofrts children free federal lunchesapoverty indicatorand scored abovenational norms in standardized tests. Noschools with selective admissionspolicies were considered He visitedschools in Philadelphia, Richmond,Portsmouth and New Haven which wereindentified as among the best in servingyoungsters from low incomeneighborhoods.

McManus found that essentially thesame factors distinguished theseeffective inner city schools from schoolswhich continued the pattern of failure: astrong principal with an ironclad behefthat all children can learn; teachers whocan make the learning experienceinteresting, an environment free ofdistractions and dedicated to learning; acontinuous curriculum; an effectivetesting and evaluation program, and aconsistent effort to involve parents intheir children's education.

Strong leader a key to school successThis is the first of a seven-part series on

inner-city schools by The Ledger-Star's educa-tion writer, John McManus, who for 11 weekslast spring studied elementary schools along theAtlantic Coast in search of those successful ineducating minority pupils and youngsters fromdeteriorating neighborhoods.

By JOHN McMANUSLedger-Star Staff Writer

What enables a handful of schoolsamong the thousands enrolling largenumbers of inner-c:ty children tobreak the national pattern offailure?

It is an increasingly importantquestion because each year there'san increase in the proportion ofAmerica's public school seats filledby poor black and Hispanic rAndren.Last spring, The Ledger-Star, aided

ings, television monitors, projectors,tape recorders, veteran teachers,class sizes in the lower twenties,new textbooks and highly paid teach-ers, although those elements mighthelp.

In fact, the urban elementaryschool in the survey whose studentsperformed best was located in a de-teriorating building. It had littleaudio-visual equipment, almost nomoney for supplies, class sizes ap-proathing 30 students and outdated

sq OWN .70811 111....".by a grant from the Institute forEducational Leadership in Washing-tor and the federal National Insti-tute of Education, surveyed EastCoast cities to find effective elemen-tary? schools and the reasons theysucceeded.

The Ledger-Star visited class-rooms in four schools identified asamoeg the best serving childrenfrom the poorest of families.

The results?Unessential are new school build-

schoolbooks in several basicsubjects.

But Samuel Gompers School inPhiladelphia, as well as schools inRichmond, New Haven, Conn., andPortsmouth, have all or Most of thefollowing factors which appear todistinguish them from failing urbanschools:

* A strong leader for a principal,with In ironclad belief that all chil-dren 4n learn. The successful prin-cipal demands pertormance fromstmdents, teachert4 and parents.

James Clements, principal ofSamuel Gompers School, for exam-ple, can't reward teachers withraises. Nor can he fire them if theydon't work hard.

But he can, and does, send lettershome to parents of children fallingbehind, suggesting meetings withteachers. Instructors who want theirevenings free learn to keep their stu-dents above grade level.

* Teachers, often inexperienced,who make learning more interestingthan goofing off, and insist that timemust not be wasted. Beyond two tothree years, experience did not ap-pear to make much difference inteachers' effectiveness.

* An atmosphere free of distrac-tions and permeated by a clear pur-pose learning.

Angela .Hamler, a fourth-graderwho transferred into Overby-Shep-pard School in Richmond, says itbetter: "The children don't put a lotof trash around the school yard. AndtheY don't disturb you during tests."

"This school is better than my oldschool," adds a third-grade transfer."There, they got everybody beatin'up on each other."

* A cbntinuous curriculum em-phasizing reading, writing and arith-metic, which lsts a student begin thenew year, if he's ready, at the samepage he left the previous June.

testing and evaluation 7.131-cess which allows teachers to prop-erly place each student and thenmeasure progress. Popper place-ment includes a willingness to retainstudents, particularly in grades oneto three.

* A continuing effort to involveparents in their children's education.Principal Herbert L. Crockett ofOverby-Sheppard School, for in-stance, travels his neighborhood likea postman. And he raffles off televi-sion sets to get parents into theschool.

In New Haven, Principal SteveSignore says he takes parents' callsbefore those from school officials.He hires parents as aides and givesthem a powerful say in ninning.theschool. And the community acceptsmore responsibility for making Mar-tin Luther King School a success.

26

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Any simplification of hundreds ofobservations of students, teachers,parents and principals into a shortrecipe for success is dangerous in acomplex subject. But The Ledger-Star.findings are similar to conclu-sions reached in other research oneffective schools.

Nowhere in that research is therea count of effective schools inAmerica's core cities. But what sur-veys have been done suggest, ir thewords ot Harvard University re-searcher Dr. Ronald R. Edmonds,"the proportion is minuscule."

The Ledger-Star's survey illus-trates the case. The search beganwith letters or calls to the superin-tendents of 23 urban school districts.

The inquiry sought elementaryschools that enrolled at least 40 per-

3 9

cent minority students, served atleast 25 percent of its children freefederal lunches a poverty indica-tor and scored above nationalnorms on standardized tests. Noschools with selective admissionpolicies were considered.

Four superintendents failed to re-ply and five said their systems con-tained no such schools. The other 14nominated candidates, but fewerthan 20 schools overall.

Several nominations were droppedafter a close lcok showed inconsis-tent test patterns, or reading levelsrecorded by classroom teachers solow they raised suspicions abott, thehonesty of high test scores.

Of more than 50 schools whichmet the enrollment requirements inTidewater, only Churchland Elemen-

tary in Portsmouth was able to docu-ment that its students tested abovenational norms and that half ormore were reading at or beyondgrade level.

Even at Church land, an analysisseparating the children who live inthat moderately affluent neighbor-hood from those bused across theWestern Branch of the ElizabethRiver from a downtown housing pro-ject shows a substantial gap in aca-demic performance. The poorest

Second in a Series

children at Church land, however,are not far below the national aver-age in reading and appear to beclosing in on the national norm inmathematics.

Edmonds, former director of theCenter for Urban Studies at HarvardUniversity and a consultant to NewYork City's school system, says heand his colleagues searched thenortheastern quadrant of the nation,drawing a line from Detroit to Balti-more and looking north. Edmonds

reports finding ()lily 55 elementaryand middle schools effective for poorand black children among a si.mpleof nearly 1,800 schools.

Those 55, however, he says, are "abig enough number to prove thepoint" that schools can succeed witheven the most difficult students.

"Every school," he contends,"ought to be expected to meet thepresent national (test) average re-gardless of the pocio-economic statusof its studentsY

September 9, 1981

Principal insists teachersteach, students study

McMANUSStaff Writer

PHILADELPHIA Police have ar-rived. Firemen are coming.

Light from a gray afternoogs pene-trates the chain-link fence padlockedto the windows of the principal's officeand falls on Dawn, a second-paderwhose cheeks are streeked with tears.Her walnut-colored hands stick outfrom silver handcuffs.

Five feet away, Gregory scbs, hissmall tont° heaving, his dark eyesglistening.

"Get out of the way," shout yellow-coated firemen, carrying hackmwsand shoving through the sea of wide-eyed youngtters gathered outside theoffice.

There has been an unauthorizedhandcuffing. Dawn's the victim. Thehandcuffs belong to Gregory. "An ace,acc-accident," he hiccups.

While Dawn is being freed, Princi-pal Jim Clements' hand covers mostof Gregory's small shoulder. He hadgrowled at the boy, but that wasearlier.

"We probably won't be able to givetheifi back to you whde," he consoles."Thhy'Il probably have to saw them."Clements pats Gregory on the headand sends him back to class.

The principal turns to Dawn, givingher a Polaroid snapshot he took a fewmoments earlier. It shows a prettyHispanic girl holding up handcuffedarms. "Something for your memorybook," he says.

Trauma has been transferred into ahappy memory.

How often are students handcuffedat Gompers School?

"About tWice a week," jokesClements.

Handcuffs, police, the rage childrentake from troubled homes and transferto teachers are part of schooling inevery American core city, includingSamuel Gompers Elementary Schoolon Philadelphia's west side.

But there's something else here,something unusual in urbaneducationexcellence.

Samuel Gompers,. with an enroll-ment 96 percent black and Hispanic,sticks out as the inner city school withthe highest test scores in Philadelphia.Why?

"Jim °Clements," say administra-tors In tht Philadelphia school system.

Then they mention the list of chil-dren from all over this city of 1.8million who are waiting for a desk toopen at Gompers.

"Jim Clements' school is not typi-cal," says Dr. Jeanette Brewer. She'sthe district superintendent forGorthvers and 38 other schools on thewest side of of a contentious group ofethnic neighborhoods in search of acity. "Jim Clements has really estab-lished himself more than many princi-pals as the educational leader," shesays.

Gompera' academic credentials arefirst-rate: a consistent record of risingscores on national tests since Cle-meats took over in 1970 so that nowonly 15 percent of 626 students scorebelow the 50th perantile, or nationalaverage. Three students in 10 hereplace among the we) 15 percent of all

27

Carpenter te 6th gradiri at GoemPori

American school children. And 7 in 10MIS at or beyond grade level as mea-sured by teachers records of students'progress in a series of textbooks.

That achievement is more typical ofsuburban schools.

* * *Philadelphia is at odds wkh its

schools. In March, when SamuelGompers was visited, themayor wastrying to fire the superintendent andthe School Board. The City Councilhad threatened to take over the244,000-student system, the nation'sfourth largest. And the superintendentwas trying to barrow 230 million froniskeptical city banks to meet the nextpayroll. (Tbe banks refused, but thestate rescued the city at the last min-ute, keeping the schools open. But to-day, 30 striking teachers werearrested while picketing outside theschool administration building. Thestriking teachers have threatened todelay the opening of school Thursday.)

"The schools have cataclysmic fi-nancial problems," says J. WilliamJones, the system's public informationdirector. The 19130-81 school year be-gan with a three-week teachers strike.In January, the Janitors struck forthree days and the buildings were toocold to open.

Teachers in Philadelphia, eventhose with tenure, are routinely laid

28

off, then reldred the followLng fallwhen that year's financial crisis hasbeen resolved.

"It's a game," says Gompers firstgrade teacher Mike Levin. A master'sdegree hasn't protected him fromthree layoffs in seven years. Levin hasfound one compensation. He collectsunemployment benefits during thesummers. Without the layoffs, hewould be ineligible. "That's ;162 aweek," he says. "If they took thatmoney they could really help theschools."

Philadelphia is also awaiting a Su-preme Court decision that mightplunge the city into busing to desegre-gate the few city schools where whitesstill attend in any numbers.

"It would be very difficult for me tosay there is public satisfaction withthe public schools," admits Brewer.

Jim Clements is more blunt. Hecalls Philadelphia's school situation"the prime example of bureaucraticImmense. It's like teaching out of abrown Paper bag," he fumes. "Rightnow, we're all waiting to be laid off atthe end of March."

* * *Samuel Gompers School sits in an

unlikely neighborhood for an enmll-meet where half tbe students are poorenough to qualify for tree federal

Sitilistowtmes

lunches. The building resembles an in-ner city school. Its windows are ar-mored like a downtown pawnshopafter hours. The trees oil this cornerlot are surrounded by square fenceswith Iiith-inch steel bars.

But the immediate neighborhood, 90percent Jewish 12 yearl ago, has mas-sive limestcae Wines of seven to 12bedrooms each. Many have swimmingpools. Some have carriage houses,now converted to two. and threeAmitapaztrnents.

Were these mansions located a mileaway across the city line, they'd fetth1100,001 to 1200,00), says a neighbot-hood ReaRor.

Crbse, plunging property valuesad an influx of black familieschanged the neighborhood's complex-ion in Just a few years Around 1970.

Inside the yellow brick of Gompers,bare lightbulba hang from hallwayceilings. It's cold enough in March sothat most students wear sweaters.Roof leaks have dissolved the plasterin places. Many library books wearthe frayed hoar of old age,

But because this school works, ithas a reputation among teachers aswell as students. Faculty memberscall it "the country club" and the"castle on the hill." If I were trans-ferred," says one Gompers teacher,"I'd throw a fit."

And now, Clements' program atGompers is being studied to see if itcan be reproduced at other cityschools.

The heart of that program, accord-ing to District Superintendent Brewer,is the extraordinary control Clementsexercises. "Most principals don't useClements' minute record-keeping. Heis so knowledgeable about every child,he makes sure the child is properlyplaced," she explains. "And teachersfind it very difficult to say why a childof normal intelligence isn't learning."

"We set our goal at getting our stu-dents to achieve at their age andgrade level," says Clements. That pro-cess begins with testinig every childwho enters Gompers to determine pre-cisely the correct level of instruction.The testing continues every time achild finishes a chapter or level in atleast three subjects mathematics,reading and 'language arts, an umbrel-la term for writing, grammar andspelling. In those three basic areas, allGompers teachers use the same textsand tests from kindergarten throughgrade six.

Every six weeks, Clements monitorsprogress. If learning does not keeppace with the time spent, we find thereasons why or select alternatives atthe point of breakdown. I have &file ofthe actual tests of every child in thebuilding."

In basic skills, all teachers are re-quired to use the Mastery Learningapproach. Championed by Dr. Benja-min S. Bloom of the University ofChicago, mastery learning holds thatchildren differ more in the pace oftheir learning than in native ability tolearn.

Ninety-five percent of all children,Bloom argues, can master not justlearn what is taught in school. Butsome students may take five times asIons to "get" a lessee.

So Bloom and Clements contend stu-dents should be greuped according towhat they have previously mastered,then taught new material and testedagain. Those who fail to correctly an-swer SO percent a mastery levelof the test questions must be retaughtwhat they missed and retested, untilthey succeed.

Me idea is to build on success, smdnot proceed with tests show there is

=alie approach reporte:hlyeety successful in

schools because it takes nothing forgraneed In a student's prior learning.

It also seems to build self-confidence."So many of the children in our

district do not have high expecta-tions," says Brewer. "And one failureafter another does not build the self-esteem necessary to succeed. MasteryLearning has built-in successes. Thatbecomes a motivating factor for bothstudents and teachers."

Despite the enthusiasm beginning to

Jh

SharingTwo classmates share a snack at Gompers

,

Stott photo by etu Ballinboro

build nationally around mastery learn-ing Chicago schools, for instance,have reordered their curriculumaround it Clernents has found draw-backs. "Bloom says 95 percent canmaster. I think he's out of his mind.We feel lucky to have 80 percent mas-ter with the wide range of students wehave."

"Mastery learning says you Justdon't give up," says sixth gradeteacher Gerry Carpenter, slapping abaseball into his glove in the schoolgym. "But I only give it twice. If theydon't get 80, that's it, 'you failed it.Ideally, these students should be setaside and taught again. But we don'thave time for that. You can't lose thewhole class for a couple."

Overall, feelings art positive aboutmastery learning. "Since we startedmastery this year, the success rateshave been better," Clements says. Al-though Mastery Learning is new atGompers, pressure on students tolearn is not. Clements estimates that30 percent of his students have repeat-ed a year.

That's high, more than three timesNorfolk's elementary retention rate.But it's necessary, according to Cle-ments to convince students that teach-ers are serious about the pace of theirlearning.

Clements puts more pressure on histeachers than most principals. "I real-ly keep a hands off approach so longas they get the job dons," he says. "Idon't look at teachers' plai.m. I justlook at what they've done.'

Whelk he finds progrees lagging aslittle as four or five mce" A, Clementswrites DOW to the omits suggestingmeetings with the teacher. "Some(teachers) get upset because the par-ents are going to come in and houndthem," he says with a smile. "It's anincentive to work harder.

"What you fight is an attitudeamong teachers that some childrenwere born to be street cleaners or tap-dancers. I'm very adamant aboutthat. You over-expect rather than un-der-expect.

"When you see teachers who don'texpect enough sometimes you have togive them a push," he says.

The letter to this teacher is formal.The paragraphs are numbered. Thesignature is Jim Clements.' It reads:

"I. Once again you have ttO recordof language progress for yout. class. Ididn't ask for a log, but I wan: to seetest results. . .If I don't see someresults on my next review, consid-er your neglect unsatisfactory.

"2. Good movement in reading!"3. Your mOth success rate is the

poorest in the school only 67 percentof your class passing why? Whatcan you do about it?

"I'll gladly help if necessary."

* * *In addition to students and teachers.

Clements leans on parents."I've never met a parent who

wasn't extremely interested in hiskids," he says. "But some get boggeddown in survival."

Then it's time for a visit or call. Hismessage: "You've got to establishthat your child is the first priority,more important than your job, moreimportant than cooking a meal, moreimportant than resting and watchingTV and more important than readingthe paper. You are the most importantteacher of your child, not some publicemployee."

"I see these parents as similar tomy family," Clements expAins. "Myfather was a tile setter who weskicked out of school in sixth grade.

29

Gompers-at-a-glanceSamuel Gown School; Philadelphia;Gradee K4,131 students;pate* black or Hispanic, 2 pets.Pet widteares had: 52 foment;properties reeding on pais level:

percent estimated:national test

scores: all-grades average is Nthpercentik;average teacher salary:32141,511;dally attendance: 02 pevceet;mobllity: 112 students left and2116 entered since the 106142 schoofyear began .

Mom lett in 10th grade and went tobusiness school. But education wascentral for children to get more than

the parents had."

* * *Stroll down the halls of Gompers

School and you will see few lines. Stu-dents walk in groups. When the cafete-na is full, don't enter. Conversation isimpossible because of the noise.

Push open the door to the boys'bathroom. It's so cold that urinesteams on its way to the toilet. Thebowls are overflowing onto the floor.No soap. No paper towels. Not eventoilet paper.

"My philosophy of discipline is verycasual," explains Clements. "Thelunch room? Kids need to blow offsteam. I never go in there. I'm not inthe catering business."

"You can get so bogged down inthat kind of nonsense, you forget toteach." Success in the classroom, heargues, nearly eliminates serious dis-cipline problems.

Discipline also comes easier, hesays, when there's a variety of abilitygroups in each class. "Everyone needsa model. The low classes we used tohave here were Just the pits."

Clements asked teachers to removethe paper from the boys' room and putit in the classroom because studentsroutinely soaked it, rolled it into a balland hurled it to the ceiling."Instant stalactites," he says. "It'scold as hell in there, so you figure noone's going to hang around.

"In the girl's bathroom, one child

defecated in the sink. Every day,there it was.

"And the boys pee on the radiatorsto make steam. But my father used todo that when he was in junior highschool, so that's not a new trick."

"I guess I don't push discipline be-cause of my own background. I had somany fights and was suspended."

Noon recess. Out on the playgroundthe basketball is an extension of DavidRush's hand. The sixth grader controlsit like a yo-yo. "People are nice here,"he says. "Teachers are nice. There'snot a lot of fighting like in otherschools, or people beaten up or writingon the walls. No violence, nobodythrowing glass and rocks. There's onlya fight maybe every two weeks."

"Y'all come on. The teacher is wait-ing," says Rush's classmate, JoePerson.

"What's the principal like?" a visi-tor asks.

"Mr. Clements? He gave me themoney to fix my bike for a birthdaypresent," says Person. "He's a goodfriend of mine."

Teachers, too, seem to like Cle-ments, as much for his demands as foranything else.

"He's strong in that he demandsvery close record keeping so he knowsexactly where the children are inmath, reading and language," saysBarbara Rouse, a kindergartenteacher of 25 years. "But he lets up inother areas. He doesn't demand lessonplans."

"He's a very curriculum-mindedprincipal," says sixth grade teacherCarpenter. Clements "believe's we'rehere to educate. He asks questions ofineffective teachers. 'Why isn't so andso learning?' "

"Things that are done in otherschoois are not done here," says Ka-ren Garbeil, who runs a remedialclass. "A teacher would never hit achild here because they know hewouldn't stand for it. A teacher wouldnever leave her' class, because hewouldn't allow it. He puts the empha-sis on education, not on discipline andcleanliness."

"I think you're going to emoy per-cents," Leona Whitfield is telling hersixth graders this morning.

"If 1 could take Calvin and coulddivide him magically into seven partsand place six into Nicole's pockets,would Calvin be whole?"

"No-o-o!" responds the class.Nicole: "I don't have any pockets."Ms. Whitfield: "What did you do

with Calvin?"Nicole: "You best look in the trash

can."The class laughs. All eyes are on

Ms. Whitfield, a teacher for 15 yearswho will be taking a sabattical nextyear to pursue graduate studies. Shetakes the class quickly through a drillon fractions, then asks students to theblackboard to convert fractions to per-cents. No student fails.

Fifty minutes into the class Richardattempts a pencil sharpening. Mrs.Whitfield examines his point, then re-buffs him.

After an hour of math, a student isgetting restless. "Someone is talking,"she says. "And if you're talking,you're not working. If you're not work-ing, you're not learning."

Silence."You have three things working

well in this school," Mrs. Whitfieldlater explains. "A principal who isworking with you, parents, and teach-ers. You need all three."

Crown is heavy on a principal's headOfficials target of slings and arrows

By JOHN McMANUSLedger-Star Staff Writer

PHILADELPHIA Despitehis nearly unparalleled success,there are times when nobody be-lieves in Jim Clements. Not evenhimself.

Join a March meeting in theprincipal's office, requested by

the leaders of the Gompers Homeand School Association, the par-ents' organization. Seven angryblack parents and a white princi-pal sit at a long table empty butTor a mug bearing the helmetedimage of Darth Vader.

"The more we put into theHome and School, the more dis-gusted I get," Barbara Frisbee

30

`.)%.1

shouts. She's a volunteer teach-er's aide at Gompers.

"The teachers, they are nohelp whatsoever," says a secondparent. "The teachers couldn'tcare less about the candy sale!"

"Parents feel they cannot talkto you," Dorothy Brown, anothervolunteer at Gompers, tells Cle-ments. "They say you protect the

teachers." She is one of the fewwho looks at Clements when shespeaks.

"We feel you should be deve-loping a rapport with the chil-viten, to say, 'These are mychildren,' " says William Hutch-ings, a postal worker who headsthe parents' organization.

The mood is turning ugly. Cle-ments' choice of a white teacheras the school's candidate forteacher of the year is seen asracist. The only award theteacher deserves, Mrs. Brown ob-serves, is for "bizarre behaviorand sadistic attacks."

"What we say here, we don'twant twisted," Mrs. Frisbeewarns Clements.

One hour into the meeting,Mrs. Brown asks "a commitmentfrom you as a principal thatyou're 100 percent behind us."

"I'm sorry that I have to beasked for my commitment,." Cle-ments finally responds. ''I don'tknow how I can get ycu to ;le lievethat I've been waiting 10 dearsfor a Home and School Associ-ation to be as concerned as youare about the school. I don't feelat all threatened,

"Heavy hangs the head thatbears the crown," Clements con-tinues. "But I've got broadshoulders."

* * *Broad shoulders?

was the worst year I everhad in the business," Clementsconceded in an interview lastweek. "I put in three requests fora transfer last year. You feel setup after a while. We're 'TheMan;' we're 'The System.' Youget fed up.

"Things did calm down," Cle-ments said. "Maybe it was child-ish of me to ask to move, but Iwas going through burnout ordepression."

The man Philadelphia schoolofficials hope will teach them

"You feel set upafter a while. We're'The Man;' we'reThe System.' Youget fed up."

Jim Clementshow to make other urban schoolsas effective as his, is not made ofsteel.

Clements' superior, Dr. Jean-ette Brewer, met with the dis-gruntled parents. Being black,her rapport may have been bet-ter. And she rejected each of Cle-ments' transfer requests.

e

Min it No w mi....Jew Ciento% the aid*, with' effective

witk itrsWãn relent egoinst-0 greffitinew*, door

On some occasions Dr. Brewer,a regional superintendent, has re-sponded to racial tension lAtweenClements and parents. "But bymost parents most of the time,he's extremely well tweeted,"she said. "Parents understandsuccess."

Mrs. Brewer also said she hasmany more complaints from par-ents in other schools. "If I had allschools like Gompers," she add-ed, "there'd be nothing for me todo."

* * *Jim Clements was born 40

years ago in Philadelphia, thechild of a tilesetter and his wife.He wanted to be an actor.

"Teaching was the last thing Iwould ever do," he said. "I wentto an undergraduate school (Mull-lenburg College in Allentown,Pa.) where to be a teacher was

P.1

an admission you couldn't do any-thing else."

Upon graduation Clements wasawarded a drama scholarship tothe University of Alabama. Hewas set to go, but for one thing.His fiancee told him to choosebetwetn the South and her.

He went to Temple University,in Philadelphia. He needed a job,he explained, and one was avail-able along with a master's degreein special education at Temple. Itwas a cooperative program ofteaching handicapped childrenand taking graduate courses.

"I hated it. I almost quit atChristmas."

Clements soon began to takemore speech and drama classes."But where was that going totake me? It was at that time, Ibegan to enjoy education." Hewent on to earn his doctorate ineducation from Temple.

31

VIIINNIMM11101ymmilogimgAiorilillmaINI ilblm...r......ma

Clements became a principal,he said, by accident He had beenteaching seven years when hisprincipal suggested hn take theprincipal's examination. It wasn'tbeing given yearly as in the past,so Clements seized theopportunity.

"I came out second on thelist," he uid, "but I had nocourses or certification in admin-istration. So they sent me to stun-

Third in a SerieS

mer school, and in 1970, toGompers."

Five years from now, Clementsstill expects to be principal ofGompers or some other school.The summer had renewed him,he said, that and his trips to thetheaters in New York, composingfor and playing the organ at hisLutheran churcii, and visiting histhree children who live with hisestranged wife.

One other thing has buoyedhim. This summer 80 parentsbought teaching materials and hetrained them to tutor their chil-dren who had fallen behind in onesubject or another. "That's en-couraging," he said. "I feel goodabout that."

Incidenily, the schools Cle-ments sought transfer to were ineven tougher neighborhoods thanGompers'.

September 10, 1981

Richmond school succeedswith project's raw material

algittliN MCMANUStar Staff Writer

RICHMOND "Eenie entente miny moe. (Clap)"Catch a nigger by his toe." (Clap)7\vo small girls, black hair braided and pigtailed, stand

opposite each other on a warm spring day. Hands up, theyslap each ,ther's palms to the ageless rhyme all but aban-doned beyond the ghetto.

Fifty grassitss feet away, sitting in front of the screendoor of a brick housing project, a plump woman menacinglyraises a thin green belt.

"Shut up?" she yells. "Y'all hear me talking."Almost unnoticed at her feet is a boy of about 9, wearing

a shiny red baseball warm-up jacket, down on all fours. Hisbrown face is perfectly proportioned like that of a childmodeling coordinated shorts and Jerseys in a glossy newspa-per ad.

32

The boy swirls a white rubber band, picking up dust andinsect debris, and sucks it into his mouth like a strand ofspaghetti.

"He's retarded," the woman says. "Ate some lead paintwhen he was young. It messed up his head."

This project provides the raw material for Overby-Shep-pard School, which is in the same block, at the top of a deepravine since filled in by the city.

The school's property line is distinct. The grass beginsthere and slopes down to the 3-year-old building of glass, brickand stained wood. An array of glass doors opens on highlypolished floors. And plants in sawed whiskey barrels toss upfountains of green.

Principal Herbert L. Crockett describes his school as an"oasis" in this ramshackle neighborhood known as HighlandPark. All 486 of his students come from

the itdehborhood; 480 are black and 76percent are poor enough to qualify forfree federal lunches. Yet 61 percent c'Overby-Sheppard's students read or.grade level and the school's fourth-graders score overall in the 84th per-centile nationally on the standardizedtests the state requires. That's 14points above .the U.S. average.

The students' performance makesOverby-Sheppard an oasis in Rich-mond. Indeed, it would be a rare findin any run-down neighborhood inAmerica.

"In order for a school to do well,particularly with inner-city boys andgirls," says Principal Crockett, "firstthey must be made to feel good aboutthemselvns. If a teacher tells me, 'Ican teach that child, but I don't haveto love him,' that teacher is in troublewith me."

Affection. "That's a must," the 46-year-old principal tells his staff, fromcurriculum specialists to custodians."It's simply not negotiable. Inner-citykids need that special touch. Theyneed to know you love them. Some

111111111011111110111111111

don't get that kind of love at home."Caring, says Crockett, who was

raised on a farm not far from Rich-mond, gives the school almost paren-tal rights, particularly tlie right todemand that a child behave and leans.

"If he knows you love him," he saysof the core-city child, "you can yell athim, even snatch him. But if he knowsyou're hostile, he'll bellow as soon asyou lay a hand on him."

* * *As late as 1964, when the complex-

ion of this neighborhood was changing.a Richmond city planner called High-land Park "an almost ideal communi-ty." That same year, an editorial in aRichmond newspaper praised it as "anatural community."

But by 1970 the neighborhood hadchanged so much even the churcheswere packing up and moving. By 1978,

a Richmond redevelopmtnt officialconceded that Highland Park was"sliding fast."

Herb Crockett negotiates the narrowstreets of Highland Park, his station-wagon passing Victorian houses witheingerbread carpentry at porch androof eaves. Some of the old homes nowstare out blankly, windows coveredwith plywood cataracts.

"This neighborhood changed fasterthan any in the city. Folks were run-ning in one end and out the other,"Crockett comments. He points to alarge wood frame house close to theintersection which marks HighlandPark's center. "My mother used todean that.house. She was a domestic.

"Once upon a time. Highland Parkwas a kind of stopping off place forthe better black families. But mostsold their houses and moved to Hen-rico County. Highland Park has a highcrime rate, drug addiction, break-ins.Black folks don't want to die any morethan white fo1ks."

At the center of Highland Park,Crockett parks and takes a long lookat a large brick schoolhouse.

He remembers it in orange flameson a black Friday night in February,four years ago. Old Higteand ParkElementary School. He was principal.One of his students helped torch it.Crockett tracked him down, had himconfess to the ftre marshal. "He got 10

years," Crockett says.Wherever Crockett parks this after-

noon, he is recognized. Parents andformer students call him onto theirporches.

"The parents in this community,"he says, "I love 'ern to death. Andthey love me. There aren't manyhomes in all of Highland Park that Ihaven't been to... I've spoken at mostof the churches."

In 1972, when Crockett became thefirst black principal of Highland ParkElementary, test scores were belowthe 30th percentile. The school wasovercrowded. Court-ordered busing

OVOty'ShePtal4 341Irai tow viadostair44alt

had just begun in Richmond and ten-sions were high.

"I used to have to stand in the hallall the time," Crockett' recalls. "Inthose days I suspended students for aweek. There were just brawls. I waspositively mean up there."

At his insistence, the school waspared in size. Test scores rose consis-tently and discipline problems disap-peared. "I haven't had a suspensionthis year, not one serious fight,"Crockett boasts.

"Whem he came to Highland Park,"says Gertrude Hewlett, 57, a cusiodialhelper, "the children tussled altogetherdifferent."

Why?"The prindpal tells us to lit 'em.

Call 'em 'honey.' Some ot 'em may be

39

very 'sturbed from home. But theycome and they're real good."

Not all of Overby-Sheppard's staffcall children "honey" and pat them.

At 11 a.m. most fifth-graders in oneclass are defining nounS. Mary isbuilding an impressive chain of pen-cils, sticking the sharpened end of oneinto the eraser of the next.

"Shut up, Erica," thie teacher scoldsone girl. "I'm displeased," she tellsthe class, "because you should havebeen able to put the meaning on thepaper. This isn't the first day thatyou've seen that."

Mary is up toeight pencils now andher achievement is attracting the at-tention of almost everyone in the classexcept the teacher, who is seated ather desk looking over the papers of

33

several students standing at her side.By 11:30, 17 of 30 students are not

paying attention to their deskwork.Some are crafty. One young girl haslaid her head* down in her arm to rest.But before she closes her eyes, shecocks a pencil upright in her otherhand. From the teacher's angle, sheappears to be writing.

At any given time in the 45-minuteperiod, one-third of the class is payingno attention to school work.

The teachers' performance might bethe rule at some urban elementaryschools, but not here. A survey of two-thirds of the classrooms showed near-ly eight in 10 students paying attentionthroughout the school day.

Even the secretaries consider them-selves instructors.

8:55 a.m. Wednesday. The franticfew minutes before the school day be-gins find Anthony, a first-grader, star-ing at the fish in the school officeaaua Hum.

Head secretary Esther Strickland ischecking his homewirrk. "You're mak-ing your S's fnckwards, Sugar," shesays. "Here, et me show you.

"He's just so precious," she re-marks to a passing teacher as Anth-ony leaves for class.

Demand for academic performanceis the flip side of Overby-Sheppard'satmosphere of caring. Says Crockett:"Teachers set high objectives andthey don't let kids off the hook foranything. They don't hide behind theexcuse that poor kids can't learn."

But, he adds, you have to workharder here than with a class of kidswho are already educated and alreadyarticulate. They're going to learn inspite of the teacher.

Urban schools are in trouble, Crock-ett theorizes, because "many whiteand black teachers aren't willing towork that hard."

So Crockett and his curriculum spe-cialist Dorothy Dungee monitorclasses /ten. And if with their help ateacher can't become successful, "I'lltell him or her, 'My aim is to get ridof you,' " says Crockett. "Now whatare you going to do?"

In nine years, he estimates he hasfired one teacher and persuaded atleast seven others to leave. "I havethe best staff I've had in 10 yearsnow," he says.

"He gets on us," one teacher ex-plains. "We have our little confer-ences. But he's been fair with me."

As with other successful cityschools, students' progress is testedfrequently in basic skills such as mathand reading. Every teacher uses thesame series of texts. And studentsmust pass each chapter test beforeproceeding. About 10 percent are heldback each year.

The curriculum at Overby-Sheppardleans heavily toward basic skills.

34

Overby-Sheppard

at a glance

Overby-Sheppard School, Rich-mond; Grades pre-K to 5, 414 stu-dents; W percent black, I percentwhite; free lunch: 77 percent; pro-portion reading on grade level: 41percent; national test scores:fonrth graders, 14th percentile;average class sire observed: 24;average teacher salary: $11,4411;average teacher experience: 13.tyears; daily attendance: 114 per.cent; mobility: 37 students left and31 entered during the school year.

/MI

Science, geography, Civics and otherscome later if there is time. All teach-ers must spend the morning teachingmathematics, reading and languagearts, says Mrs. Dungee.

Genie Redd, 28, ic sitting on herfront sidewalk, chair reversed underher on a fine spring day. With her twodaughters she lives in the housing pro-ject next door to Overby-Sheppard."The school is nice," she says. "1 likethe teachers there. They take up somuch time with the kids.

"The -principal is wonderful. He'llhear your side and listen to the kids.He doesn't jump to conclusions."

Ms. Redd's eldest daughter pre-viously attended another elementaryschool, she explains. The daughtersays she didn't learn much, but now,she says, she is making steadyprogress.

"Most principals don't take time tocall a parent behind a problem," shesays. Then she confides: "He nevorhad to cuss at me or lay me out."

Down the child-strewn street, awoman wearing a bandanna looksthrough a screen.

"How many children do you have atOverby-Sheppard?" she is asked.

"It's four, I think."There are 10 children. . . age 3

months to 15 years. . . living in thesmall, neat apartment where religiousradio programs usually are on and thetelevision usually is off. . . except forcartoons.

"They learn too much from TV, "says the mother, who looks older thanher 33 years. "They have too manyhalf-naked peoples on TV andcursin'."

"How is the school?""It's right good."Crockett believes the schools' suc-

ceu in attracting parental support athome and getting parents to come toschool are pillars of Overby-Shep-pard's success. "The mere fact that akid knows that his parent will comewhen I call helps," he explains.

"My strategy has been that in orderto get parents to PTA meetings, youhave to taw drawing cards." Oneillesday night, more than 400 parentscame to the school which has a stu-dent body of 466. Before the eveningwas swer, three black and white televi-sion sets were raffled off.

"If you can get the children to comeback to school, the parents come,too," Crockett adds with a wink.Overby-Sheppard has a 00-voice choir,and scores of girls in black leotardsand boys in black suits. .. and all inderbies and white gloves... who tap-danced at the meeting while the lateFats Waller crooned through a plmo-graph: "No one to talk with; irn onthe shelf ... Ain't misbehavin'. I'msaving my love for yo-a-ou."

* * *The schoo' is quiet now, after hours.

Herb Crockett sits in his tennis whites."There's not a single. family out

there,:' he begins, waving in th e direc-tion of the neighborhood, "who doesn'twant their children to be just as intel-ligent, just as articulate, just as inter-esting as middle-class children.

"Some parents push the heck out ofa child. But you've got another type'who doesn't understand the impor-tance of education. They're drinking.They're tired. 'Just go ask yourmama, boy.'

"She doesn't know how to conjugatea verb. It's very difficult to be unableto help or to admit you don't know.The disadvantaged child doesn't haveone strike, he has many strikes.

"You ask if I can take these kids.and run them through Overby-Shep-pard and make them equal to (subur-.ban) Colonial Heights sixth-graders.The Colonial Heights kids would dobetter on the standardized tests. Butthe Overby-Sheppard kids are going todo a hell of a lot better than they didin the past."

.4*Fourth in a Series September 11, 1981

Ghetto school's triumphbuilt by active parents

jtivsOliIN McMANUS

tar Staff Writer

NEW HAVEN, CONN. In 1968, officials ofthis old New England education and industrial cen-ter evaluated its core-city schools. The results weredisappointing, but they matched national patterns:By sixth grade, 50 to 80 perrent of inner-city young-sters were reading behind grade level.

Students were uninterested and disruptive. Par-ents were alienated. Attendance of students andteachers was poor.

That same year, backed by the Ford Founda-tion, Yale. University child psychiatrist James P.Corner began a unique educational program at twoinner-city schools. One of the schools dropped out,but Martin Luther King School hung on.

Now its test scores, reading levels and atten-dance rates top New Haven's inner-city schools unftequal national achievement levels.

Driven off Alabama's steaming cotton fields bythe boll weevil and a desire to be free of the stigmathen of being black, James Comer's father cameNorth during World War I. His mother arrived later,joining the stream of black Americans uprooted by

the Great Depression and seeking new opportunities.Comer, 48, grew up in a poor neighborhood in

Eut Chicago, Ind. His mother a domestic, his fathera custodian in a steel mill, James wit, the second offive children. Comer's mother had no formal educa-tion; his father only seven years. Yet the familyvalued education as a means of advancement.

The Comers lived on the fringe of the richestPart of town, so young Jimmy attended school withthe children from homes his mother cleaned. Therewere three other blacks in his class. One, Comerreports, is now an alcoholic, the selond is in amental institution, and thb last in jail.

Yet among the five .Cotner children, there artnow 13 college and post-graduate agrees.

"I didn't reahze," he recalls, "why the samekids who could read the Bible OK in church hadproblems in school, got in fights and didn't succeed.

"But now I know the difference was that theirparents were not as supportive and able to make thesystem work for them. When there was any problemin school, my mother was there. So we generallyreceived good support in school from teachers."

The most powerful force m American schoolstoday, argues Comer, are the students. And to reachthe students, particularly in hmer-city areas. teach-ers must have the active nelp of parents.

The men who make 11.4100i %VOA

how P. Comer iv float of well psittiago in school pa turned into a success

41

WM4~1

35

Involved parentsboost ghetto school

Typically, that doesn't happen."Ta school staff and the school program

Ike 100111dMall stratagem and foreign bodies in:the neighborhood subject to distrust, rejec-tion and attack," Comer sepia/in. "ln manyschools the staff is no longer a natural exten-sion of parental authority."

So beginning in 11811, Corner beaded ateam from the Yale Child Study Coster toconstruct a program in two of New Haven'slossest-achieving urban schoois that wouldbAld a bridge between school and home. Theteam alio instructed teachers in the rudimentsof child psychology as a means of coping withthe disruptioos plaguing ghetto schools.

The spine of block New Haven, DixwellAvenue, rests at One end on the campus ofYale University, in the shadow of a buildingreminiscent of a medieval cathedral. Despiteits Gothic stone spires, it's merely an ornategymrsasium.

/t's the last extravagance you'll see bor-dsring Walk several blocks. The HolyGhost Miracle Revival Church is on your left.

"Deliverance! Healing! Salvation!"promises- a banner draped over what mayonce have been a chain drugstore. Across thetrash-littered street, a cold spnng breezeblows through the ribs of broken casementwindows and into the lives of the folks whobye in l'the PJs," the projects.

'Monty feet of pavement separate agonyfrom ecstasy.

On the next block, an early collection isbeing taken. The till fills with crumpled dollarbills before 8 a.m. The spirit sought in thiscorner store is extra diy gin. Seagram's ispreferred.

A nearby trush barrel overflows withempty bottles. Some have shattered on thecurbside, the clear half-pids becoming the

\ / eiree

crystal in a mantic of stained glass. The am-ber once held beer. The emerald, wine.

A halkbeen blocks north sit the concreteslab himkets of Martin Luther King School. MIbn five of its X8 students are black. The fiveare Hispanic. Ninety-six percent of the chil-dren are poor enough to qualify for free schoolmeals.

Eleven years ago, the MetropolitanAchievement Tests administered to fourth-graders here indicated students were trailingnational averages by 19 months in reading and18 in mathematics. Four years ago, fourth-graders lagged nine months behind in readingand five in math. By 1980, fourth.gradersscored at national grade levels in bothsubjects.

A survey of teachers last April showed 51percent of all children here reading at orbeyond grade level, as measurecl by their pro-gress completing a series of reading texts.

Midafternoon. The kids will be homesoon. Derrick in eighth grade alai Janiel in/With. Reluctantly, 33-yearold Carolyn La-whom flips off the small television set, herlencthole into the sordid lives of the handsomewhite folks what* affairs, abortions and fre-quent amnesia sell detergent on daytime TV.

It provides armssing escape from a long,fed:rally-subsidised apartment building ofwomen who carry small pistols to protect theirhomes and cars from break-ins.

Derrick, 15, has spina bifida, a spinalbirth defect which has left him able to walk,but only with braces. As a first-grader, he wasconfined to a wheelchair, so his mother ac-companied him to school most days. Corner'sprogram at King School was in its infancy.

"I tried to stay out of the classrooms,"she says, "but I still wanted to be available incase he needed me. After a month, they told

me, 'You're here every mornirty, do you wantto work?' "

So she became one of a small number ofparents hired at the minimum wage to workas teachers' aides. As her involvement grew,phe was named to the School Advisory Com-Matt:, a dozen members.comprising parents,!administrators and teachers. That committeerecommends policy changes directly to theprincipal. Nothing at the school is beyond itsreview.

About five years ago, she served as anaide for a new teacher, a young, liberal whitewoman from New York Cay.

"The kids were taking advantage of her,"Mrs. Lawhorn says. "Site was easy to hit onand talk back to. She felt too sorry for the kidsto educate them."

Mrs. Lawhorn brought the situation be-fore the advisory committee. The teacher wasapproached about the problem, and, after amonth, agreed to leave King.

Mrs. Lawhom believes parents definitelyhave power at King. "If the same situationwere to come up again, the same thing wouldhappen," she says.

"Sharing decision-making with staff andparents that's the most critical differencebetween this school and many others,1' saysPrincipal Stephen Signore, a 257-pounder whoturned down en offer from the old ChicagoCardinals foothill team in favor of teaching."The principal has the final say," he explains,"but everybody gets input."

The secret of King's success, Signoresays, lies in s simple theory: When people feelthey have some power over their destiny, theywill assume responsibility for making thingswork.

That sense of responsibility is real, evento skeptical city parents. "Basically, you felt

N.'

ihnife elasi:af Martin Lu'iheno iChOOI

'12

,;.'",'Ainerrente. simanoWnin

like you ran the school," says Jean Crockett, aformer member of the advisory committeewho served six years.

Signore structures his day around par-ents. "You don't need to make an appoint-ment," says Lorinda Thompson, anotherparent and past member of the advisory com-mittee. "You know that the door's open."

Besides working on the advisory commit-tee, as paid tutors and as volunteers in theschool, parents also perform the traditionalPTA activities, such as raising money, attend-ing workshops with teachers and preparingpotluck suppers. To encourage big turnouts,Signore raffles off $100 bills and sponsors stu-dent performances.

Where once 10 to 15 parents showed up,attendance now ts in the hundreds, he reports.

The presence of parents in school, Sig-toreargues, improves children's behavior. "Whena kid sees a mother in a group activity withhis teacher, then the teacher is no longer theenemy. And the mother doesn't blame theschool when the child is disciplined."

Carolyn Lawhorn says when the teacherfrom New York lost control of thf fourth gradein which she was assisting, she as a parentwas able to restore it "because 1 know all thekids' parents and they wouldn't want me tell-ing them what they did. And they know Iwill."

Mrs. Lawhorn became a community linkmore trusted than a teacher might be.

Rather than resenting the intrusion ofparents into the life of the school and even intothe classroom, teachers seem to appreciatetheir presence. "There's a war in otherschools between the parenis and the teach-ers," says Amy Walker, a reading specialistat King.

"The parehts in the other school I workedin weren't allowed in the school. All the par-ents heard were negative things aoout theschool. It was in a better neighborhood andbetter-equipped, but what happened was ap-palling..Teachers were hit and spit at by chil-dren. Here, that's very rare."

King also tries to foster bonds betweenteachers and children. Classes are arranged soa child has a teacher for two years rather thanone.

Discipline is also handled unconventional-ly At least in Corner's theory, if Tanyapunches Carmen, she is not scolded. She isseparated from the class to complete her workand later the reason for the punch and itsfuture consequences are discussed.

No fights were observed during a visitlast spring. Only one student, a first-grader,was observed !ri an isolation room. He wassent there for acting up in class. Afterfurious burst of work, unsupervised, he beganto fly his pencil around the desk, making aslight hissing sound. Although he did not con-tinue to disrupt his class, 45 minutes of histime were spent piloting an Eberhard-FaberNo. 2.

"He's green, He's scaly. He's as tall as oskyscraper! He breathes fire."

It's 10:35, language arts time for BonniePacnesa's class ot second- and third-graderThey are copying from a book about Godzilla.

Mrs. Pachesa is not in the room. She'srunning off purple dittos at the office. She willnot return for 15 minutes, but during that timeonly two of the 14 students now in the classwill be inattentive.

Such self-motivation is unusual outside ofelite private or suburban public schools."They're an industrious group," Mrs. Pachesa

Martin Luther King School at a glanceMartin Luther King School; New Haven,

COWL; Gradts K-4, 365 students; N per-cent black; 2 percent Hispanic; free hmcb:N percent; proportion reading on gradelevel: 51 percent; national test scorts:fourth grade tested, 2 months behind na-

tional grade level; average class size ob-served: 22; average teacher salary:0100; average years experience: 10; dai-ly experience: 17 percent; mobility: It stu-dents left and 32 entered during the schoolyear.

says later. "But another group might fallapart in such a situation."

Classes here nave a certain informalitywhich the students seem to enjoy. "I like thisschool better," says Tanya Smith, a fourth-grader who transferred in. "They're nicer.They let you go to the bathrooms. At my(former) school, they'd make you have anaccident."

Indeed, most of the day the halls carrylight traffic of little girls exchanging intelli-gence and boys bending into sideways Y'sreplaying the late Bruce Lee's latest Kung-Fumanuever. Students paid attention about 75percent of the time they were in class, asurvey of eight of the 12 classes indicated.

At least one teache:*, Margaret Thomas,believes the laxity at Ki:ig robs scholasticperformance. "When it's time for learning,"she says, "we can't have kids whooping andleaving the room in a steady stream. I don'tcall that freedom. I call that cheating a childout of an education."

Mrs. Thomas is quick to add, however,that "Martin Luther King is perceived as oneof the better, if not the best, school in urbanNew Haven All of my time in New Haven,I've spent trying to get into this school. Theamount of parental involvement isexceptional."

Signore does not appear to pressure histeachers, except in one area. "We expect kidsto be at grade level," he says. "Everyoneexpects this."

Comer believes his two-pronged approachto improving schools sharing power withparents and staff, and treating behavior prob-lems with methods derived from child psycho-logy can work anywhere with littleadditional cost.

It's a formula, however, that has beencriticized by some others trying to improve

urban schools. One of the directors of Milwau-kee's efforts to turn around 20 ghetto schoolsthere says, "it's hard enough to educate chil-dren, without having to teach their parents."

And Dr. Ronald R. Edmonds of the Har-vard Graduate School of Education, perhapsthe nation's best-known effective schools re-searcher, believes it would be difficult toteach Corner's psychology procedures to everyschool's staff.

Corner is undismayed. He points to largegains in standardized test scores reported byanother New Haven school rc which his ap-proach recently was transplanted.

New Haven School Superintendent Dr.Gerald Tirozzi is impressed enough to teachother principals in core-city schools Comer'smethods.

"There is no profound psychological orsociological knowledge that is needed tochange a school. You can do it intuitively,"Corner responds. "We are trying to developthe theory so any principal can learn to imple-ment the program."

Will the inner-city schools that adoptComer's method be able to compete with goodschools in New Haven's suburbs?

"It can produce an environment that'sgood enough to give the kids the foundation sothey can move on wherever they wish," hereplies. But, he adds, mess core-cityschools against those in the mulls may becomparing apples with oranges%

"We suspect some of the (poor and black)kids with the best academic potential art, inprivate, parochial or suburban schools in thefirst place."

Even so, Corner maintains, effectiveschools should be able to meet or exceed na-tional averages regardless of theirneighborhood.

Amy Waker questions a student eq helping him Ott asskitin*tis37

,4

Filth in a SenesSeptember 12, 1981

SchoolsCrux of learning found in good teacher

By JOHN McMANUSLedger-Star Staff Writer

PORTSMOUTH The clock reads II 08, andthese I9 children, the slowest learners in the sec-ond grade, haven't had a break this morning.There has been no squirming, though, no droppingof books or heightened interest in the pencil sharp-ener, no longing glances at the clock or lunchpails

In fact it is the teacher who notices the timeand says with some surprise. "You haven't had abreak, have you9"

Without a word, four of the students line upoutside the clo.z.t toilet in the back corner of theclassroom A small, brown.haired boy named Son-ny posts himself outside the door. A child leaves;Sonny inspects the bathroom for cleanliness. Only

Vidal is called back to clean up a spill. He does sowithout complaint.

At most, four students line up outside thebathroom. The others are copying from the boardas teacher Wilhelmenia Barnes writes mathproblems.

At 11:17, without turning from the board, Mrs.Barnes says. "I'm going to assume that those ofyou who went to the restroom have had water, areback in your seats and have started your work."

The assumption is correct."I wish I could put Wilhelmenia Barnes in a

can and spray her all over the school," saysChurchland's Principal Cecelia Curcio. "She takeskids academically where no other teacher can."

Good teachers who demand that childrenlearn and then find ways to make them want to

study are the foundation of effective urbanschools. And Churchland Elementary has manyfine teachers. A three-day survey found 80 percentof the students paying attention at any one time.Two-thirds of the school's classrooms weresurveyed.

In the 1980 standardized tests, grades twothrough six averaged in the 65th percentile, put-ting them 15 points ahead of the national norm.When measured precisely, 56 percent of Church-land's 830 students were working in the appropri-ate reading text last May to be considered ongrade level. Both academic yardsticks show con-sistent gains in recent years.

No other elementary school in Tidewaterserving as many free federal lunches to poor chil-dren, 32 percent, and enrolling as many blackstudents, 41 percent, performs as well.

Wilhelmerna BarnesSfr(c ',A( s k,ds odenlit: where no ,sthef teacher (an,' says het panopol

Wilhelmenia Barnes, born in Nor-folk 43 years ago and a teacher for 17years, is sitting in her classroom,something she rarely does earlier thanthe present time, 2:30 p.m.

She looks tired now after her laststudents have filed out. A boy withblue agates for eyes enters and lays aquarter on her desk almost enoughto buy an apple these days. He's analumnus of her class.

"I just wanted to give it to ya," hesays grinning sheepishly. She returnsit. And as he leaves, she shouts, "but Iwill need it next week."

Teachers at Church land are in-structed to have i:o more than threereading levels in tttir classes. Mrs.Barnes admits she Ms five. She testsstudents carefully in the first weeks ofschool, even before Portsmouth's diag-nostic tests are given, to find out whatlevel each child is on.

"You can't get anything out of achild unless you start where he is,"she explains. "They must have somesaccess at something each day."

Showing care also is essential, shesays. Some slow learners expect to berejected, so they are easily slighted.wile things they bring, you have tostop and respond. They are alwayslooking for this attention," Mrs.Barnes says.

She earns the class' cooperation,she says, by letting them make theirown classroom rules at the beginningof the year.

She also involves the parents."Many parents at first distrust teach-ers," she explains. It is easy for par-ents of inner city children to makecommon cause with their childrenagainst a school that "doesn't under-stand our kind of folks," urban educa-tors say. "You've got to win them,"agrees Mrs. Barnes.

Incentives for children are also im-portant. Mrs. Barnes pops corn orplays favorite records when they dowell.

Mrs. Barnes usually holds the eyesof most of her 19 students. "I amconcerned about them teaming at alltimes, no matter what," she says.

"You know, my children have reallybecome workaholics. And they seem toenjoy it."

Despite good teachers such as Mrs.Barnes, "Professor" Mary AnneRudy, and George Andrews, the manwho turns sixth graders into students,some of the professional staff here sayprivately that the school expects lessfrom its black students than from itswhites.., Church land Elementary has an unu-sual mix of students. At 7 a.m. eachghool day, a half dozen yellow Ports-mouth City School buses roll downllunpike Boulevard in Portsmouthand comb the sand lawns of the JeffryWilson Housing project and the MountHermon area for the neighborhood's

bumper crop of youngsters.It's an uneventful 20.minute ride

from black Portsmouth.-across thebridge over the Western Branch of theElizabeth River to white Portsmouth.The buses turn on Dogwood Avenueand shatter the peaceful morning, intills neighborhood of loblolly pines andbrick homes, with their groaningsprings and Bronx cheer exhausts.TUy disgorge their children intoclassrooms where they sit side-by-sidewith those from more affluentChurchiand.

At Th.: Ledger-Star's request,Churchiand Elementary's reading spe-cialist Peggy Thomas separated thereading records of a random samplenumbering 100 of the 250 childrenbused from across the river. The anal-ysis uncovered a gap in performancebetween the poorest children and therest of the school.

Measuring reading level precisely,44 percent of the sample wa.3 readingat or beyond grade level. Although 12percentage points less than the overallschool average of 56 percent, the per-formance is still supenor to most ur-ban schools.

In addition, only 5 percent of thebused students were so far behindgrade level they risked failing. Pro-gress made in mathematics appears tobe strong. The federally funded reme-dial program reports gains averaging1.8 grade levels for the last schoolyear.

The reading levels of Churchind'sstudents bused across town, however,rank below those at other effectiveurban schools The Ledger-Star visited.

There is nearly unanimous agree-ment at Church land, as indeed witheducators nationally, that the environ-ment from which poor children comeis different enough from the more ad-vantaged middle.class lifestyle tocause a gap 1,1 academic performancebetween the two groups. Such a gapmay not exist, or be reversed, how-ever, between individual students.

But at least two teachers at Church-land suggest that individual black stu.dents get submerged in the averageexpectation here. They also suspectthe gap between groups here is widerthan it should be because the leader-ship expects and asks less of childrenfrom broken and poorer homes.

"I think what they expect fromthese children from Jeffry Wilson hasalready been set in their minds, whichmakes it hard for them to communi-cate with them," one teacher says.She asked that her name be withheldto protect her position.

It's an easy belief to acquire, theteacher concedes, "because the chil-dren are here with the attitude, 'I'mfrom Jeffry Wilson and I'm not goingto do much."

The finding that Churchiand Ele-mentary's poor children are achieving

Church land

Elementary

at a glance

Church land Elementary School,Portsmouth; Grades 24; 830 stu-dents; 41 percent black, 51 percentwhite; free lunch 32 percent; pro-portion reading on grade level 55percent; national test scores: ail-grades average is 15th percentile;average class size observed 25;average teacher salary $14,000;average years experience 11; dailyattendance 15 percent; mobility: 55students left and entered during theschool year.

below national norms at least in read-ing level does not surprise Mrs. Cur-cio, the principal.

"Of course, you're going to be morehandicapped if you're poor," she says."If the children do not have the oppor-tunity for experiences, then that's justa major factor, no matter how muchmama stresses education."

"It would blow your mind to knowhow many children in Portsmouthhave never even seen the ocean," Mrs.Curcio says. "That's why we havemore field trips than any other ele-mentary school in this city.

"My expectations are very high,"she adcts. "And I'll never changethem"

Says Mrs. Thomas, the reading spe-cialist: "I do think that given normalchildren, we can rai:e them to nation-al averageS, but if they come from abackground where they lack normalexperiences, then they lack somethingwhen they come to us. It's a handicap.

"I don't think you can say you cancatch them up. You can try.

"You know what really makes thedifference?" she continues. "It's theteacher. You can give a school anyamount of money, any amount ofequipment, any program, but the mostimportant factor is the teacher."

39

Sixth in a Series

40

September 14, 1981

Time waste plaguing schools

'`'',7000.4.4wrolswo

I $

The sign originally said Rena B. Wright Elementary School

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Ste oboto bv Rob rinmcoth

By !WIN McMANUSUdger-Star Staff Writer

CHESAPEAKEAlmost immediately a visitornotices that more is missing here than four lettersfrom the sign that should spell Rena B. WrightElementary School on the building's facade.

At 11:11 one Wedmoday morning, a teacher, agrandmotherly woman with mom than IS years inthe classroom, listens closely to the five studentssitting around her reading and answering herquestions.

Twelve feet away, eight students lie on a car-pet, their books before them..4.444i4 rir

4-togietralla4001 One boy stands in the comer, his nose pressedagainst the wall.

Seven of the teacher's students are in anotherclassroom, called an Extension Canter, where theycomplete work sheets and play word and numbergames under the supervision of two teacher's aldss.

let le: Three girls leave the rug, walk across theroom to a bookshelf near ths door and sit below It onanother rug fragment. At first glance they appear tobe reading. But a closer look reveals they are tem-Ins the pages at a feverish rats, stopping only whena particular Illustration snags their attendee.

On the other side of the room, the jostling onthe rug abandoned by the girls intensifies enoughthat three boys are about to be asked to take theirNUM

10:23: Three students are now sated in desks.One, a young Pittsburgh Steelers' fan, Is construct-ing a corral with crayons. The other two studentsassist. The corral will take 12 minutes and two boxesof crayons before the blond boy wearing FrancoHarris' No. 32 destroys It with one swipe.

Only the studenu surrounding the teacher areMkt, working now. The boy In the corner has begun

sobbing. The teacher tries to comfort him, but hasThis student is getting little benefit from his class at Rena B Wright no sweets.

Time waste an illof school systems

10:25: The boy In the corner makesa dash for his seat with his flannel-shined arm covering his eyes. Theteacher has disbanded her group. Nostudent in the class ls working, so shetries a word game.

"I'm thinking about a word thatbegins with an U and has seven let-e,-s," she announces. No further clues

are offered. No letters art to beguessed as in the game of Hangman;only the word will cto.

''Helicopter!" shouts one student.I he 10-letter word rates a head shake,Po.

"Hospital!""No," the teacher says, "but that's

a good guess. That has about the rightromber of letters."

'the guesses continue, None has sev-en letters.

10:30: The teacher is still waitingfor her seven-letter word beginningwith H, but the students have movedon to other interests. It's as if she'sriot In the room. No one is wolting.

10:32: The game apparently over,the mystery word unrevealed and per-haps forgotten, the teacher dispatchesstudents to the lavatory in smallgroups.

10:35: Students arrive from the ex-tension center. More are dispatched tothe lavatory. No one is working.

10:40: A math problem is assigned;i3 ef the 21 students now in the classtar:kle it. The others continue chattingbr daily in taking out their mathbooks.

mrty minutes speht with the top-achieving second-graders, 12 white.toldren and 9 black, tesults In consis-int instruction only for the childrenwho left the classroom for the exten-sion center And while they were gone,eluss size was just right for instruction

discussion that might not have beenssoscible with an entire class.

Bin that didn't happen in thir, class.no this teacher's classroom was

hardly an exception during the week:fie school was visited last spring.

Rena B. Wright Elementary School%,;As selected because its mix of poor'And middle-class children, its testscores and its reading levels are typi-zit! of core city schools described inreports nationally. Wright has by nomeans the lowest report card inTidewater.

Case studies in St. Louis, Baltimore,London, England, and other, cities In-dicate ClaSSTOOMS like the one de-scribed above are common to urbanschools nationwide and In other Wes-tern industrial socities. This classroom

A slider* kis some time in a hallway of Rena IL Wright

is not trhe only one at Wright. how-ever, where teachers are not teachingand students are not learning.

Step in on another class down thehall. A teacher stoops while workingthe rows of her fourth-graders. Shemoves slowly, patiently. But it's likewatching someone push a mower withdull blades through high grass. Theheads of students drop into their booksat her approach and pop up to carryon a conversation as soon as she haspassed.

Or watch and listen to a first-gradetear:her.

"I will not accept that at all," shesays, recoiling from a child's awkwardhandwriting.

"The papers were not good," shetells the class. "1 don't understand atall," she scolds.

Another student timidly brings hispaper to the teacher, who says ,"Thatlooks like chicken scratchin', doesn'tit?"

lier anger subdues the boy. Hedoesn't respond.

One student, however, found relieffrom the criticism. By 9:08 his crossedarms have received his nodding head.His 12-minute nap will not be inter-rupted, nor perhaps even noticed, bythe teacher.

The inattention in the classroomsdoes not go entirely unnoted, however.One Wright teacher says: "As a publicschool teacher I really hate to saythis, but if I was starting over and Ihad kids, they'd go to private school.Good teachers are just too few and farbetween here to risk my child.

"A structured classroom is probablythe greatest key to success in teach-ing; someone who controls with dig-nity. It totally blows my mind whensee a teacher stand up in front of the

110611*/*W its Ickstwo0

class and talk while kids are talkinghere and there."

Classrooms out of control, compla-cent teachers, low expectations forpoor children these are the prob-lems that plague Wright and urbanschools nationwide. But it is unfair toWright or any school to imply that allis chaos, or all teachers have givenup. There are excellent teachers atRena B. Wright. Ironically, they proveSouth Norfolk children can both be-have and learn.

Sweetie Speller's second-gradersare all business this morning. Theyhave to be. When tbe teacher is work-ing with we of her reading groups,her eyes and ears also envelop thestudents doing deslcwork.

Across the room witb his back toMrs. Speller, Clarence has stoppedworking, a victim of restlessness. Lessthan a minute passes.

"Came here, Clarence," Mrs.Speller calls out. "You're disturbingthe boys and girls." She looks into hiseyes. "Now go to work,"sbe saysgently.

Later in the class, a child sneezes."God bless you," tbe children chorus.

The MiXtUre of teacheis surveyed in13 of Wright's 18 regular classroomsover four days gives the school a time-on-task rating of 68 percent. An aver-age of about two of three studentswere engaged in a learning taskthroughout the day's class time. Thatranks Wright last among all schoolsvisited by the Ledger-Star in 11 weeksof research into effective schools.

Standardized test scores show thatWright's fourth-graders average in the37th percentile overall, well below thenational norm of 50. Thirty-nine per-cent of Wright's students are readingat or above grade level as recorded bytheir progress in the 17-book Holt Ba-

4 I

sic Reading System adopted by thesc hool.

The mix of students at Wright isprobably more typical of schools inmid-sized cities than in larger ones.With half its students white and onlyhalf eligible for free lunches, Wright'senrollment is both whiter and wealth-ier than the three most effective urbanschools visited by the Ledger-Star.

* * *Rena B. Wright has many of the

same elements as more effective ur-ban schools. The curriculum empha-sizes reading, mathematics andwriting. The techniques of masterylearning, where students are taught,tested and re-taught until they masterskills such as adding and subtractingfractions or making subjects agreewith verbs, are standard teaching pro-cedure, according to the principal.And students' progr0sc is recorded, atleast by the clasin .! teacher.

The children .,.!em happy here, al-though they fear some teachers' nil-ers. Even students like Stanley, whostruts into class in high-heeled bootsand whose long brown hair falls on thecollar of a studded, black leather jack-et, seems to get along with Dennis, theclass athlete, a dark-skinned youthclothed in red pants cinctured by awhite belt and white Nike sport shoesaccented with scarlet stripes.

The teaching staff exhibits a cama-raderie here as well. The birthdayparty held after school one day for theprincipal showed A certain intimacy.For turning 49, Patricia Pretlow re-ceived pink sleepwear. The partyseemed almost a family affair.

The similarity with effective Kthoolsends here. Missing from the formulathat appears to ensure success atsome schools are demanding leader-ship, a strong initiative to gain par-ents' cooperation and, perhaps mostimportantly, confidence that childrenfrom this neighborhood can meet na-tional norms.

* * *Mrs. Pretiow, a handsome and in-

tensely personable woman who be-came a principal four years ago afterearning a master's degree in educa-tion from the University of Virginia,knows who her strong and weak teach.ers are. She could tell a teacher'sname from a description of the classbehavior.

"I feel they have the potential to bebetter than average," she says of herfaculty. "But I feel they're average.Adults are a little like children. I haveto stay on them, keep reminding themof things that need to be done."

Mrs. Pretlow has never fired ortransferred a teacher at WrightSchool. Nor does she expect to. "I stilldon't feel I've given the weaker teach-ers all the help they need."

Teachers at Wright praise Mrs.

42

rownws AM

Rena B. Wright Elementary at a glanceRena B. Wright Elementary

School, Chesapeake; Grades K-4;337 students; 41 percent black, 51percent white; free lunch: 51 per-cent; proportion reading on grata)level: la percent; national testscores: only fourth grade tested,

1111=1111

37th psrmatile; average class elseobserved: 23; average teacher sala-ry: $17,616; average tescbstaa ex-perience: 14 years; dailyattendance: 14 percent; nobility:Ill students left and 74 estared der-ing school year.

Pretlow. "The kids respect her andlook up to her," says one. "She's aperson who listens," says another.They also believe she trusts them.Evaluations, they say, occurinfrequently.

"This has been a bad year," saysAnn Prescott, the recording secretaryof Rena B. Wright's Parent-TeacherAssociation. "We're lucky it we have25 parents show up at events."

The executive committee of thePTA is meeting in a glass conferenceroom off the school library. Two pres-chool-age children crawl underfoot.The main topic this morning is thespice sale. Minced onions, sneeze-proof pepper and bacon bits are thestuff of the latest fundraiser in a yearthat has netted contributions of Justunder $2,441.

The members of the executive com-mittee are all t vhite, despite theschool's 41 percent black enrollment.The PTA elected iu : first black presi-dent this year, but a he resigned whenoffered a job. She 71 is one of the tewblack parents active in the associ-ation, the executive committee says.

"We've been trying vo get more par-ticipation from then: (black par-ems)," says President Connie Carlo*,"but we never hear front them at all."

Teachers also complai n of a lack ofcommunication with par ents. "The 'Idon't care' type of pare nts predomi-nate, maybe 60-40," says Pat Carrow,who works with kinderga rteners.

There is also racial ani mosity, saythe teachers, who claim bla ick studentsdistrust white teachers sind whitesquestion the authority of bl'ack teach-ers. Last spring a blac k mothermarched her son into a classroomafter school "with the exprftts purposeof allowing the child to clap tbeteacher," says Reading Specialist Bar-bara Poi-ter.

"White teachers hold back ,on disci-plining black kids," comments oneteacher, who, like others who are criti-cal, doesn't want her name mentioned,"for fear of parents' bad reaction. Andblack teachers feel the SAM wayabout white kids."

Conversation in the teachers' loungereflects a certain fatalism about thechildren at Wright. "We know theschools that have better kids," a kin-dergarten teacher says. "There's onlyone school worse than us.

"We couldn't beat Western Branch

.1 d

(a school in one of Chesapeake'swealthiest neighborhoods) With thebest teachers in th city.

"If reading isn't important at home,you can stand on your head. There'sJust so much you can do."

Similar comments could be over-heard in any lounge where inner-cityschoolteachers relax even in themost effective urban schoo's. But atsome schools, including Wright, theattitude behind these comments ap-pears to reduce the demands on stu-dents, diminishing the energy of theinstruction, more than it does at theeffective schools visited.

The afternoon announcements areover; another school day is through.Pat Pretiow's eyes are encircled. Sheis losing a Pr.:: with a spring cold.

"My expectations may be bleierthan else's in the school," she says."To some teachers there's a certainkind of idd who comes from a certaintype of community. Maybe they don'tfeel tbe kids in this community arecapable.

"This thing that you've seen, I'veseen it, too.

"When you eater a new situation,"she says of her throe-years tenure atRena B. Wright, "you don't make a lotof drastic changes. You'll make trou-ble for yourself.

"But next year," Mrs. Pretlow saidlast spring, "I intend to move teachersaround. We'll call in (currkulum) su-pervisors to help them. And I will askthem to do outside reading thissummer."

Seventh in a Series

How to gradeyour schoolBy JOHN McMANUS

Ledger-Star Staff WriterDoes your child attend an effec-

tive elementary school?Even if you have no children

attending public schools, as a rentor mortgage payer you support theschools. And the value of yourproperty rises or falls with the re-putation of your neighborhoodschool. Are you getting your mon-ey's worth?

There's no better way to iindout than a visit.

Call or drop by the school inyour neighborhood. The phonenumbers and addresses are listedin the phone directory. Set a datewith the principal for at least anhour's visit; better, half a day.

Plan to sit quietly in the rear ofclassrooms.

Take the attached list, preparedfrom suggestions of teachers andadministrators at effective urbanelementary schools, and some notepaper. You can answer most ofthese questions in one visit. Don'tlet the principal or teachers tellyou what happens in school. Makethem show you.

All four South Hampton Roadsschool districts have policies en-couraging visits.NORFOLK: "We feel, of course,

that the schools belong to the peo-ple," says superintendent AlbertL. Ayars. "They have every right,even a responsibility to becomeinvolved in educatim ... by visit-ing the schools."PORTSMOUTH: "The parents

are welcome at any time," sayssuperintendent M.E. Alford. "It'sa top priority of Portsmouthschools."VIRGINIA BEACH: "Patents

are always welcome at the publicschools of Virginia Beach," sayssuperintendent E.E. Drickell, "notonly for planned school functionsbut also for the purpose of viewingclassroom activities."CHESAPEAKE: "We do encour-

age parents in Chesapeake to visittheir child's school as often asthey can," says superintendent C.Fred Bateman: "These are, afterall, the public's schools."

There are four major areaswhere a school's effectiveness canbe checked.

In the classroom Usually Sometimes Rarely

1. Are most of the students paying attentionmost of the time? (Thls is the most importantquestion of all. If the answer here Is positive,the school Is likely to be effective.) Ei2. When a student's attention does wander,does the teacher notice promptly and win it 0 0 0back or otherwise demand It?

3. Is 30 to 60 minutes of homework assigned 0 0 0each weekday night?

4. By questions and actions, does the teachergive the impression she or he believes eachchild can learn? Are most students called on, 0 0for example?

6. Are teachers returning homework and as-signments graded or with the errors pointed El 0out?

7. Does the teacher speak and write In atan- cidard English?

4

September 15, 1981

4 3

8. Is most of the clan day spent on basicskills such as reading, mathematics, writing,grammar and spelling? 0 0 El9. Are students tested frequently and movedto the next book or grade only If they havemastered the material? 0 El ElIn the halls Usually Sometimes Rarely

1. Are these areas quiet and free of unsuper-vised children when class is In session? 0 El 02. Do students appear respectful of each oth-er and adults? 0 El ElTh. principal Usually Sometimes Rarely

1. Is he or she seen outside of the officesupervising teaching and setting the tone ofthe school? 0 El El2. Does the principal demand that teachersmove students ahead a full grade each aca-demic year? 0 El ElRelationship with parents Usually Sometimes Rarely

1. Do the principal and teachers make parentsfeel welcome, treating them as co-educatorsof the children? 0 0 El2. Do '.eachers routinely call or write to tell ofa child's successes or failures, or invite avisit? 0 El El3. Do teachers routinely send home a child'spapers to be checked, signed end returned? 0 0 ElRating yourself as a parent busily Sometimes Rarely

1. Do you ask your child each day w:-Iit he orshe did in school? And push beyond ansv:erslike "nothing new"? 0 0 El2. Do you examine returned schoolwork to 0 El Elmonitor progress and problem areas? ......

3. Do you speak to teachers three or fourtimes a year about your child's work, seekingadvice or supplementary material in subjectswhere the child is performing poorly or show- 0 El 0mg unusual aptitude or interest?

4. Do you support the school's legitimate dis-cipline of your child and the academic de- 0 El 0mands placed on him or her?

5. Do you provide your child a quiet time andplace for homework and reading where dis-tractions from TV or radios are forbidden? 0 El 0Ask to see the school's test

scores :Ind charts showing on whatgrade levels students are reading.Are they at or above nationalnorms? If nm, has there been re-cent improvement? If not, what isbeing done to seek improvement?

As you conclude your visit, tellthe principal what you saw. Askfor explanations of practices you

. consider questionable. Rememberthat you only saw a small slice ofthe educational procesa on oneparticular day.

44

If you feel strongly about theschool. the most effective way tohave your say is to meet with oth-ers who share your views. Togeth-er, seek a meeting first with theprincipal, then the superintendent,if necessary. If you remain dissat-isfied, take it to the School Boardat its monthly meeting.

Schools don't become effectiveby accident. They succeed onlywhen someone a superinten-dent, a principal, or a group ofparents is willing to demandexcellence.

Clarkston BangCharleston, West Virginia

First in a Series_

ELIZABETH OLDER

Erzabetn Older has been the educationreporter and feature writer tor theC'-7,1,eYori alov Maii since 1919 She;oined the staff after earning a Master'sdegree in puma lism from the Universityof Missouri

ner Fellowship study Older sought toassess why only one percent of Westvirgnia s students had been identifiedas gifted while research indicates thatub to five percent of any studentpopulation probably would tall into the

fted category

Though the state legislature recognizedthe need to establish educationprograms tor gifted Students byappropriating funds for such programs.4 was apparent that some schoolsIgnored t he mandate and others tailed todevelop sound criteria for evaluat.onFurther complicating the matter was thetaut that many students from rural areassuch as Appalachia simply hadn tacquired the test-taking skills needed toprove how bright they actually were

in researching which gifted programswere effective Older visited diversifiedprograms throughout the state thatincluded Instruction by itinerantteachers periodic placement in special;enters and self containedclassrooms

OlOer found many inconsistencies in theidentification of gifted students She alsolearned that state Colleges anduniversities had no programs to trainteachers in this area and uncovered,:hcarncles of discrimination againstgifted students particularly among thepoor females and members of minoritygroups

May 3, 1981

Inclusive gifted programstill faces problemsWest Virginia's brightest students are supposed to

have a special school program aimed at developing theirhigh academic potential. Although the Legislature hastold schools to supply that extra education, some have ig-nored the order. The successes and failures of the state'sprogram for intellectually gifted students are explored inthis first article of a 10-part series which will continueMonday in the Daily Mail.

By Elizabeth Older

West Virginia was one of thefirst states in the nation to saythat intellectually gifted studentsdeserve a special school program.

In 1969, the Legislature passed alaw requiring schools to provideall exceptional children frommentally handicapped to giftedwith an individual study plan.

In 1974, the state Department ofEducation defined gifted studentsas individuals with "exceptionalintellectual abilities significantlybeyond the level of the averageindividual."

To get into a program, a studentmust score two or more standarddeviations above average on an in-dividual intelligence test. That's anIQ of 130 or 132, depending onwhich test is used. The "average"IQ is 100.

"No one has made a greatercommitment to identify and servegifted students 'han has the stateof West Virginia," said BarbaraJones, state Detsrtment of Educa-tion coordinator for gifted serv-ices.'

"The best thing about West Vir-ginia's program is the comprehen-siveness of the effort," she said."First, we had the Legislature to

support us. The processes in placewere passed by the Board of Edu-cation. And the money to do it hasbeen provided by the state throughthe school aid formula."

But many things have kept coun-ties from getting gifted programsoff the ground.

A federal call for education forthe handicapped in 1975 preoccu-pied local administrators whoknew they had to comply or facecourt suits. Gifted students werenot covered in the federal law, sothose programs were shoved aside.

State colleges and universitieshad no programs to train teachers.West Virginia University stilldoesn't have one. That has forcedteachers in the northern countiesto drive many miles to get thosecourses at other schools.

Ani despite a national surge ingifted education in the 1950s, thefield still is in its infancy. Teach-ers were left to design their ownmaterials and programs, oftenwithout any knowledge of whatgifted education is at2 about.

At the beginning of the 1980-81school year, 51 of West Virginia's55 counties had students in giftedprograms. They numbered 4,410,or a little more than 1 percent ofthe school population.

45

Inclusive gifted programstill faces problemsBut no systematic evaluation of

those programs has been done.Many don't offer services to stu-dents in all grades, even thoughthe state law mandates programsfor individuals from 5 to 23.

And critics argue that the test,used to choose students discrimi-nate against poor and minorityyoungsters.

&len with those trouble spots,the state still is in an elite groupof about 17 states which requiresome kind of special education forgifted youngsters.

And county school systems re-ceive three times the normalamount of state money for eachgifted student they have enrolled,a formula followed for all excep-tional children.

"In my opinion, the West Virgin-ia program is very good," saidJohn A. Grossi. gifted specialistwith the Council for ExceptionalChildren in Reston, Va. "The statehas a strong legislative mandate.It's very similar to the federalmandate for handicapped child-ren."

For its size, West Virginia com-mits a generous amount of moneyto gifted education, Grossi said.Nationwide, states funneled almost$118 million into gifted educationthis school year. That's about sev-en times the amount allotted bythe states 10 years ago.

The federal government addednearly $13 million about $4.7million through the Office for theGifted and Talented and the rest ingrants for innovative local pro-grams. West Virginia's share offederal funds was about $182,000.

"But, I think because West Vir-ginia is a very rural state, perhapsservices to children are not as con-sistent as they should be," Grossiadded.

"My feeling at this point is thatwe do not have enough programs,"said Lowell Johnsol, president ofthe West Virginia Education Assn-ciation. "And there simply aren'tenough certified people to teach inthat area."

Johnson said he supports specialprograms for the gifted.

"We're concerned about what'sbeing done for the handicapped,what's being done for the gifted

and what's being done for thosewho are average," he added.

Roger Elser is the former statespecial education director whoworked to get gifted education in-cluded in the state law governingexceptional children. But thoseprograms lost steam after the1975 federal handicapped legisla-tion, he said.

"We got a lot of pats on theback in the early stages," Elsersaid from his Somerville, Tenn.,home. "I guess we were kind ofwhistling in the dark."

Program statistics show thatmany of West Virginia's giftedchildren are being overlooked bythe schools. Only about 1 percentof the state's 383,000 schoolchild-ren have been identified as gifted.

"You would expect that 2 per-cent to 5 percent of any populationwould qualify as gifted, regardlessof race, ethnic background or thelevel of economic support the fam-ily enjoys," said Mrs. Jones. "InWest Virginia, you don't find thatto be true.'

Mrs. Jones said the state is lag-ging because only the intellectual-ly gifted, not the artistically giftedand others, are part of the pro-gram. And, she said, minority andpoor children are not adequatelyrepresented because they don'thave the word skills needed toqualify.

About 2.5 million of the nation'sschool-age population are consi-dered gifted and talented. But onlyabout 35 percent of those are hispecial programs.

"When you start a program ingifted education, you're startingfrom scratch," said state schoolSuperintendent Roy Truby. "In asense, West Virginia is plowingnew ground."

The superintendent defendsspending extra money on studentswho are at the top of the academicscale.

"I think the basic phileeop* isthat equal education opportunitiesare dependent on unequal expendi-tures," he said. "That's sometimesa hard concept for people to grasp.It's easier to comprehend whenyou're talking about an equal op-portunity for a handicapped child.

5 .)

How Many Students

Are Being Served*

Totol In Program In 1980:4,410

Percentage Of School Populotion:1.2%

Percentoge of Speciol EdPopulotion: 11.3%

MinoritiesMolesFemalesLow-Income

% In GiftedProgrom

2.453.646.4

Unavailable

% In SchoolPopulation

4.351.648.440.0

*Based cn most recent figures sup-plied by the State Deportment of Edu-cation

But gifted children also requirespecial treatment if they are toget the education promised by law,he said.

"They need to be challenged,"Truby explained. "Sometimes ittake more to challenge them, tokeep them interested."

Truby said he sees the need tofind out how well West Virginia isdoing that job.

"Wh we started, I think weneeded a few years for various ap-proaches to develop," the superin-tendent said. "We're at the pointwhere we can start making an ev-aluation as to whether what we'redoing is worth additional money."

Mrs. Jones said that evaluationisn't easy. Basic skills programscan use gains in test scores togauge success. But most giftedstudents are already scoring at thetop of standardized tests.

"If you've got a kid who is per-forming at the 99th percentile,how do you measure whether aprogram is working?" she asked."You might not see the results un-til 10 years down the line."

The state will revise standardsfor gifted education next year.That could bring changes in howgifted students are chosen,schooled and graded.

"If a change is made, it willprobably be to include students in

Second in a Series

specific academic areas," saidMrs. Jones. The program now ex-cludes high-achievers in math andother single subjects if they do notmeet the IQ requirement.

But Mrs. Jones thinks West Vir-

ginia will continue to give specialeducation to the students who willbecome some of tomorrow's mostproductive citizens.

"At this point," she said, "I haveno cause for alarm."

Sorne Students RebelAgainst Gifted Label

By ELIZABETH OLDEROf The Daily Mall Staff

They're not all bookish.Gifted students often are the cheer-

leaders, the senior class presidents, theones who get picked to lead teams onthe playground.

-

But for some youngsters, beingtagged as "gifted" makes life a littlemiserable.

"I never tell anybody," said ChristyShanholtzer, a Cabe II County fourth-grader. "It embarrasses me. I guess. Ifeel like I'm bragging."

Doddridge County eighth-grader Rob-in Davis remembers what she chd tokeep her friends from finding out shewas attending gifted classes.

"I'd lie and say I was going to thedoctor for fear they wouldn't acceptit, she said. "I think you have to devel-op a special skill to get people to ac-cept you. I wasn't ashamed of beinghere. It was really a big thing in mylife to ever get accepted."

Twelve-year-old Jay Robinson findshimself fighting with classmates whocompete with him unsuccessfully in theclassroom.

'I go to a small school now, said theDoddridge sixth-grader "All the kidsare on one side or the other Only a feware on my side

Many students give up gifted classesbecause of such circumstances In theadolescent years, especially, they wantto belong and not be chfferent fromtheir peers

But it Isn't Just fellow students whocause problems for gifted studentsParents sometimes push them into thespecial programs

,

Cabell gifted specialist WilliamSmith said he's seen students' gradesdrop drastically when they enter theseventh grade as they rebel againstbeing labeled gifted.

"Then, sometimes, parents will insistthey Just want their child to be average.That's a sad comment isn't it? ... notfor the parents but for society," saidstate gifted coordinator Barbara Jones."Sometimes, it's an overwhelming re-sponsibility." .

And teachers often react to giftedstudents in unexpected ways.

"Some of the teachers think the gift-ed program is good as long as rm nev-er out of their class." said MercerCutint!. ,,...enth grader Toni Hartley "Alot of people don't like it. They thinkit's unfair that we're getting out ofclass What they don't understand isthat we have to make up all that workwithout instruction I've learned to ex-plain it to them

Those attitudes cause problems forthe gifted instructor

"If a regular teacher comes to yeti,you've got it made." said Diane Chan-dler. who teaches gifted students at Cabell's Beverly Hills Junior High "Veryfew of them come to me If I go tothem, it's almost mulling"

"We're taking all their good stu-dents," Smith explained.

In most West Virginia counties, gift-ed students are pulled out of reg liarclasses periodically to do special act ivities aimed at opening up their above-average academic potential. Educatorsacross the state come up with an el-most identical list of problems broupton as a resu:t

May 4, 1981

"There are problems with kids miss-ing regular classwork," said Marian Al-ston, president of the Kanawha Teach-ers Association. "Parents don't like itwhen a kid misses regular classwork.Most teachers would prefer that theprograms be delivered in a differentmanner."

The situation becomes more compli-cated if a student is not making goodgrades in the class missed for giftedInstruction.

"A lot of people have a misconcep-tion that when you identify a giftedchild, that child can catch on to allthings at all times," Ms. Alston said.

Doddridge County Education Associa-tion President Richard McMillan saysthat misconception causes problems.

"Teachers tend to expect more fromthem, and sometimes they don't pro-duce any better, sometimes not aswell," he said.

Despite all those explanations, pro-gram backers say some teachers sim-ply have It in for gifted students.

"I don't know how many times I'veheard regular teachers say, 'You'regifted, you should be able to get this,'or 'Everybody here is gifted'," said AnnPauley, gifted instructor in MercerCounty "Som :,. of the teachers arethreatened by these kids . . and thestudents reflect the teacher's attitude."

The gifted students seem stuck in asystem which says they should havespecial courses, and then penalizesthem for doing something out of the or-dinary

Many students drop out of the pro-gram because of homework overloadTeachers require them to make up ev-ery page of work they missed to attend

4 7

How To Spot A Gifted ChildGifted children usually learn easier and earlier than other youngsters their

age. The Council for Exceptional Children in Reston, Va., supplies this list ofgeneral characteristics for parents and teachers to look for in a gifted child.Many school systems also have checklists which parents can request.

Gifted children learn to read early, often before they go to school. Theymay learn to read on their own and understand language very well.

They usually have large vocabularies for their age.They learn basic skills more quickly and Ned less practice.They think imaginatively.Their concentration and attention spans are longer.They may have a widt variety of interests and will experiment.They have a great deal of curiosity and are always asking questions.They are good guessers.They can fit things together when a relationship is not obvious.They remember a lot of information.They usually get along well with children their age and with adults, al-

though they may prefer the company of older people.They work well alone for long periods.They can read nonverhai messages vrhile other children need to be told in

wordsThey have a lot of energy.

GIFTED STUDENTSgifted classes. That may happen even ifthe student mastered the homeworktask long ago.

"It's almost a resentment they havetoward them sometimes," said Mrs.Jones "I don't know where that corresfrom."

Cabe II County parent Candy Springersaid the teachers at her school at.e sup.portive of the program, but added,"I have heard of schools where the gift.ed students are literally ridi:luled."

Some people suggest that the giftedchild's brilliance makes teachers feelinadequate. Others say some teachersresent special gifted classes.

"It's an ego thing," Smith explained."They say 'How can you teach thatchild better than I can,' or 'You say thischild is gifted, but he's not makingstraight A's in my class '

But Louise Stoutamyer, gifted coordi-nator in Wyoming County, says a teach-er's "sense of fairness" to the other stu-dentk is offended when the hilted getspecial attention.

"I think what people don't realize isthat these children have always been inthe classroom," she said. "We didn'tjust invent them."

Ms. Alston said classroom teacherssometimes think the gifted programsare unnecessary.

"Most of the time, the regular class-room teachers who are working withgifted students are trying to meet theirspecial needs," she said. "Sometimesthat special program is needed, andsometimes it isn't."

Cabe II student Mike Gothard sees theprogram as a "luxury."

''I feel guilty. I really feel guilty,"said the senior. "I see kids around mewho work harder than I do and some-times get better grades I just thinkall students should be given a chance todo what we're doing."

Despite their brilliance, giftedyoungsters can create trouble in school.

"Some of the kids get into trouble be-cause they question you, they questionme, they question their parents," MrsJones explained. "School systems justare not built to handle that."

That trait curiosity can putgifted students in a perilous position.

"There are often personalityclashes," Mrs Pau ley said. "As theygrow older, they want more out of life.Their expectations of the teachers arereally high."

Monroe County educators are tryingto teach gifted students to cope withthose high expectations in a special pro-gram set up with a federal grant.

"We realized that sometimes ourgifted children just have trouble gettingalong with other children They feelthat other children don't accept them,"said A.W Crotty Jr, , one of the county'sgifted instructors.

He said the students can be impatientand "dictatorial" because their class-mates don't catch on to things quickly

"This program really has to do withbehavior, with getting them to getalong with each other and thex abilitiesand beliefs." said Crotty

5:uccessful schooling is perhaps ineven greater danger among the undera-chieving gifted the ones who don't dotheir work in spite of their superior

abilities. They frustrate and Irritate ed-ucators, and are often :lipped over byteachers who recommend students tobe tested for the gifted program.

"You're always struck with their po-tential," said Mrs. Jones. "So often, yousee them in the classroom and they'renot responding. They're an enigma."

Since sensitivity is a well-developedtrait in most gifted youngsters, they of-ten are keenly aware of what otherpeople expect of them, she said.

"I'Irly have a strong sense of respon-sibility," said Mrs. Jones.

"The kids we're talking about res-pond to a truly individualized program

TIze should not be their Aotal pro-gram Can you imagine how boring itwould be if you did everything by your-self?" she asked.

Research has shown that gifted stu-dents in special academic programsprogress more rapidly than do thosewho lack that extra education.

With their shrewd intellectual per-ception, they often appear wise beyondtheir years.

"For many of these kids, I thinkthere's a developmental lag emotional-ly," said Mrs. Jones. "You have a giftedkid who is 9 years old. It's easy to ex-pect him to behave on a level commen-surate with his vocabulary."

But academic skill doesn't alter thebasic needs of that child, she said.

"These students need to be valued,"she said. "They need to be important tosomebody."

Third m a Series. _ May 5, 1981

Mercer County Fights IsolationBy Busing Rural Gifted Students

By ELIZABETH OLDEROf The Daily Mail Staff

PRINCETON Giftedstudents in small, ruralschools sometimes feel iso-lated, trapped in a classroomwhere no one else learns thesame way they do.

To fight that isolation,Mercer is bu3itig 25 out-of-town students to the coun-ty vocational center wherethey learn to use computers,type letters and weld seams

together."These kids come from

schools which have few gift-(4 students and no _library equipment," explainedteacherPam Burton. "The schools are 20 or 30 minutes apart WeJust wanted to see if we could cut down on transportion andbetter serve the students."

In the rural areas of Mercer County, teachers use uphours and gallons of gas traveling from school to school tomeet with gifted students. They hold classes in storagerooms, under stairwells, just about anywhere a small spacecan accommodate the group. State guidelines suggest thismethod called itinerant teaching as one way of prov-iding gifted education.

But the gifted class at the Mercer County Vocational-Technical Center avoids itinerant program pitfalls. There, aroor is set aside for students from 10 out-of-town elemen-tav schools. They travel on the regularly scheduled high-s..hool buses to the center for one afternoon session eachweek. The program was startr.d last October with a $9,000federal vocational education grant and about $3,000 incounty funds

"They've been studying under a teacher in electronics,"said Mrs Burton. "They've been next door working withcomputers And the eager learners have had lessons frombotanists, architects and other center staff members.

It's strictly a hands-on" approach to education meant toopen up career avenues and self-awareness, the teacher ex-plained. Mrs Burton calls the class activities "as real tolife as possible

Gifted students who attend smallschools often find themselves Isolatedfrom their intellectual peers. In itiner-ant programs, special education teach-ers visit gifted students for a littlewhile each week, then leave them tocope with classwork they've alreadymastered.

"Very often these children have nev-er been challenged," said Mrs. Burton.

But the students enthusiastically at-tack typing lessons and other subjectsunder Mrs. Burton's kind and control-ling hand.

"You get to do things up here thatyou don't get to do in elementaryschool, like chemistry," said Oakvalefifth-grader Joel Stauffer.

The words "sad and mad" were usedby the students to describe how theywould feel if the program ever ended.In reality, center officials don't know ifthey'll have room for the elementarystudents next year.

That means Mrs. Burton may be backin her car, dragging a canvas bag fullof teaching materials from school toschool.

"Being an itinerant is just an unhap-py circumstance," said state giftedcoordinator Barbara Jones. The methodworks best with few students in a ruralsetting, she said.

"My prejudice, I suppose, would betoward a resource room," she said.Those classes are similar to Mercer'svocational center setup.

Ann Pauley hopes the success of thatprogram will allay community con-cerns about busing all gifted students toclasses at special centers. As leadteacher for Mercer's nine-member gift-ed education team, she sees the strainthat the staff suffers traveling aroundthe county to serve more than 200youngsters.

44;

"That's one reason we lose a lot ofteachers," she explained. "They're fool-ish to stay with this program when theycan L.) elsewhere and have their ownroom and not have to travel "

Mercer County

Gifted Program

Grades Served: K-11

Number of Students: 230*(2% of School Population)

Number of Teochers: 9*

Type of Progrom:Itineront/Resource

Based on second-month statistics provid-ed by the state Department of Education

Five instructors left iast year, andseveral of the replacements have onlycollege degrees and not teacher train-ing. The long hours pushed three mar-riages over the edge, Mrs. Pau ley said.

State School Superintendent Roy Tru-

Fourth in a Series

by said he thinks the 26 percent turno-ver rate for special-education teachersis caused in pact by inadequateArain-ing.

"The people are being placed in jobsthey are not equipped to handle," hesaid. "The children in this state are suf-fering because we don't have fully cer-tified people."

Mrs. Pauley said pressure from par-ents and principals to get students inthe program and see some success addsanother headache for the instructors.

"Trying to meet everyone's demanusis difficult," she said. "If you really doyour job with the gifted child, you gohome tired, mentally drained. But yourbrain is still searching for a new direc-tion, something new to get theminvolved."

Despite its growing pains, the 5-year-old Mercer program is considered oneof the best in the state. Pupil ServicesDirector Diane Szakonyi, who put theprogram together, said the interest ofparents and school administrators gotthe county working with gifted studentsahead of other systems.

Mercer County Education AssociationPresident Effie Brown said regularteachers generally believe the gifted

program is a good one. She concededthat some teachers don't like their stu-dents taken out 0 class to attend thesp.cial sessions, ariii she termed that anissue.

But changes are under way to easethat problem for secondary-school stu-dents whO, until late this year, tooktime out of regular classes two hourseach week to work in the gifted pro-gram.

"We had students who were missingalgebra every week to go to the giftedclass," Mrs. Pauley explained. "It washurting their grades, which hurts theirfuture because it involves college." Stu-dents were dropping out because theshort sessions weren't worth the troublethey caused in other classes.

So the older students now are goingto take two full days out of each six-week semester to study one topic indepth.

"They want more information aboutcareers. They want more informationabout colleges," said Mrs Pauley."Many of these students who comefrom rural areas are unaware of thecareers that are available."

As Gifted Students Progress,They May Surpass Teachers

By ELIZABETH OLDEROf The Daily Mall Staff

HUNTINGTON Gifted students often are smarter thantheir teachers

"We're buying computers,but nQt one of our teachersknows enough about comput-ers to run them," said WilliamSmith, specialist for gifted ed-ucation in Cabe 11 County."These students are far aheadof us

As gifted students grow old-er, they may outdistance thepublic school system Acceler-ation moving studentsthrough classes as asthey master the subjects isnot common in West Virginia.

The new state graduation standards say that a studentmust complete 20 credits in grades nine through 12 Thatmeans the Cabell County seventh-grader who took biologylast summer at Marshall University may not get to countthe course toward his diploma."We're going to test the state system on this," said Smith

May 6, 1981

"Will he have to take biology again to get credit?"State gifted coordinator Barbara Jones said gifted stu-

dents may be able to get credit for courses taken early un-der the new guidelines. Those rules go into effect this fallfor the 1985 graduating class.

"In this case we're penalizing kids because they havedone, early on, everything we asked them to do," said MrsJones "School systems are not really geared to these kindsof students . But the whole question of acceleration is avery complex one There are many things to consider thesocial maturity, the emotional maturity, the importance orlack of importance of athletics."

For a small group of gifted students in Cabell, accelera-tion has been the answer in a pilot program called "ProjectProduce."

The eight juniors and seniors take courses at Marshallduring the afternoons. For that work, they receive both highschool and college credit. They also meet twice a week withEdwina Pendarvis, gifted instructor at the university.

"We hope to extend the program to freshmen and sopho-mores," said Ms. Pendarvis, who has volunteered her timeto the program this semester.

"Everybody always complains that acceleration is notenough," she said "This program accelerates and providesthose enrichment kinds of things that we associate withgifted kids."

,

frAMILNIELAIL ALA ig

CHRISTY SHANHOLTZER AND CHAD WILCOX AT GALLAHER CENTER WITH TEACHiR CAROL ALLEY

Dinly 1443,1 Kee loy IA Ger

The students say they have no troublefitting in on campus.

I think students could start this at aounger age," said Laura Muth, a sen-

ior at Huntington East "I would rathernave gone straight from junior highschool mto college

Ms Pendarvis added that the stu-dents didn't make all A's in their col-lege courses last semester

But i think they still have it tooeasy, she said "They could do muchharder work I think they put in the ef-fort needed to make a decent grade

Through the eighth grade, partici-pants in Cabell's gifted program spendsome time each week in "enrichment"activities They do in-depth study, puttogether intncate projects and thinkthrough complicated issues not com-monly considered in the classroom

Starting in the ninth grade, the stu-dents are supposed to sign up for oneclass usually English with a gift-ed instructor

"One of the things we're doing in thejunior high schools is working with the

good teachers and channeling the giftedstudents into those classes," said Smith."We're finding out which -ones are re-ceptive to the gifted.

"Scheduling becomes a big problemin junior high," Smith added The sec-ondary school principal sets up hisschedule "the way he sees fits," Smithexplained

As a result, students may have tochoose between gifted classes and regu-lar courses scheduled in the same timeslot And extracurricular activities suchas chorus and band also compete Thegifted adolescents aren't eager to lookdifferent from their friends.

Diane Chandler, gifted teacher atBeverly Hills Junior High, gets frus-trated by her "non-academic," role,helping students pick out classes andpiece together 3 day of worthwhilestudies

Cabell County Associate Superintend-ent Robert Griffis thinks the state fund-ing regulations force older gifted stu-dents into inappropriate classes

"The funding at the county level is

tied to special education rules and re-gulations To get money for teachers'salaries, you must have a certified gift-ed teacher working with those stu-dents," he said

Griffis said that means a brilliantmath student may end up with a giftedteacher whose subject specialty is Eng-lish He thinks the money for giftedprograms should go to support adv-anced courses, small classes andon-the-job experiences. The gifted in-structor should simply be an adviser, hesaid.

Mrs Jones said the state regulationsare an "insurance policy" for good pro-grams

"If there were not some inducementfor certification, who would get certi-fied?" she asked

Gifted teacher Carol Alley will com-plete her certification requirementsthis year She runs one of Cabell's five

Cabe County

Gifted ProgromGrades Served. Kindergorten-12

Number of Students: 517*(2.8% of School Populotion)

Number of Teachers: 17*

Type of Program:Resource/Accelerated Classes

Based on second-month stotatics provid-ed by the state Deportment of Education

elementary level "resource rooms."where students from 32 schools comefor special classes one day each week

Mrs A:ley says she wants to give herstudents a "taste" of lots of knowledgeat the Gallaher Elementary center,plant thoughts theyll build upon in later years.

The purpose of the program is notlost on the participants.

"It's just really fun here," said ChadWilcox, a fourth-grader at GenevaKent "There's exciting stuff to do Thisis better because you get to use morebrains You have to try harder."

Gifted students present a specialchallenge, said the teacher

"They need a framework, but theyalso need freedom," said Mrs. Alley"In here, they can think in far-out waysI think they feel more freedom in thisroom than they do in the regularclassroom."

Cabell County Education AssociationPresident Fran Westbrook said the ele-mentary program is working well now

S I

that the resource rooms zre open. Be-fore this year, instructors traveledfrom school to school to meet with vit-t d program participants.

"It keeps their enthusiasm for schoolup because it challenges them," saidthe Park Hills Elementary teacher"They don't get bored or turned oft."

Candy Springer said the secondaryprogram hasn't pleased some parents in

the Cabell County Association for theGifted and Talented. But she said herson is thrilled with the new elementaryschool resource rooms.

"He said he would like to have it fivedays a week," said Mrs. Springer, whoserves as president of the parents'grout)

Smith said he hopes schools will be-gin to offer more advanced classes ear-

her so the secondary program can beimproved.

'I find these students we're workingwith are learning better in the regularclassroom," he said. "They're learningto budget their time. We're finding thatwe can ask these students to do more

They feel they're learning more. Ifeel they are. The parents are satis-fied."

Nomads, Resource Rooms

Two Ways To Help Gifted

By ELIZABETH OLDEROf The Daily Mall Staff

State guidelines suggest two ways toprovide special services for giftedchildren through resource rooms andItinerant teaching.

With the resource room approach,gifted students come together at a spe-cific place to study each week Classactivities usually are geared toward"enrichment," offering the children anin-depth look at subjects which interestthem. Some acceleration moving stu-dents into advanced study as quickly asthey master their lessons is done.

In many school systems, teacherstravel from school to school to holdclasses with gifted students This iscalled itinerant teaching. The method isoften used in rural areas with few stu-dents and in new programs Class activ-ities are the same as those in the re-source rooms, but time may be morelimited with itinerant programs

With either teaching method, teach-ers may have students from more than

one grade level in the gifted class. Butstate guidelines say that the age spanamong the youngsters must not exceedfour years.

Parents and teachers usually referstudents to be tested for the gifted pro-gram. Students may refer themselvesor other students Referrals from otherpeople also are taken To get into agifted program, the student must havean IQ of 130 or 132, depending on whichtest is used. The "average" score is 100.Parents must give their permission be-fore educators evaluate a child for thegifted program.

Under state Department of Educa-tion rules, gifted students aro supposedto have a study plan geare0 to theirspecific abilities and educational needs.Those are called individualized educa-tion programs, or IEPs. Parents havethe right to participate in writing theprogram. They also may approve or re-ject the final plan.

West Virginia is one of only a fewstates which require IEPs for giftedstudents. Other special education child-

ren, such a the handicapped, also studyunder those programs.

No grades are given in most giftedprograms in the state. But a student'sprogress should be evaluated at leastyearly, based on the goals outlined inthe IEP.

Although state guidelines do not set aspecific time limit for studPnts to be ingifted activities, state coordinator Bar-bara Jones says school systems shouldtry to provide one hour each week orone day each month. Many counties fallshort of that recommendation.

Individuals from 5 to 23 are prom-ised free special education under WestVirginia law. Parents may request adue process hearing before a neutralparty if they feel their child's needs arenot being met. A free independent eval-uation of a child's abilities may beprovided under certain circumstances.

Parents also have the right to seetheir child's school records. Parents areadvised by the state Education Depar-ment to keep a home file of a child's re-cords

_

Fdth In a Series May 7, 1981

Viti Lag Puts 'Gifted' TeachersOf Northern Counties In SqueezeBy ELIZABETH OLDEROf The Daily Mall Staff

WEST UNION Teachers in northern West Virginiahave traveled incalculable miles, often in evenings after afull day's work, to take specialclasses in gifted education.

Doddridge teacher NancyDroppleman describes it asbeing "caugnt in a squeeze,"

In West Virginia, three insti-tutions are responsible formaking sure that classroomteachers can get the coursesthey need to meet state certi-fication requirements. Thoseschools are Marshall Universi-ty, the College of GraduateStudies and West VirginiaUniversity

The institutions have split theEach is supposed to offer classes in numerous locations in

their region so teachers can get the cree:nt hours needed to

continue teachingBut WVU. the school responsible for classes in Doddridge

and 28 other northern counties, has failed to start a pro-gram in gifted education in Morgantown or elsewhere

"I was really resentful," recalled Mrs. Droppleman, who

has worked wail the Doddridge gifted progralf: since itstarted in 1975 "I think we all were. I couldn't believe thatthe largest state university didn't have a program."

Both Marshall and COGS require 18 hours of classes atthe master's level for full certification in gifted education.Teachers who are not certified 56 now are employed inthe state must agree to complete six hours of course-work each year

Mrs Dropplernan never has calculated how much moneyor time she spent driving to Charleston; Summersville, NewMartinsville and other towns to get courses through anotherschool's program.

"The money doesn't matter," she said.The thing that bothered her was being caught in the mid-

dle, with the state saying she needed the training and WVUsaying the program wasn't ready

"Many of us would never have gotten into this had weknown the program would be set up like it is," she said.

Wilfred Wienke, WVU's chairman for special education,said the school's gifted program took three years to gothrough about 13 campus committees. He thinks it will beapproved by the Board of Regents and the state Depart-ment of Education by late summer,

1 don't think the university was dragging its heels," hesaid "I think there's a concern ior quality

stata into three pieces

State gifted coordinator Barbara Jones said she under-stands that WVU is a "large, complex university." But shepointed out that the law requiring gifted programs in publicschools was passed in 1969 and went into effect in 1974.

"I think they could have anticipated (the need)," she said"One would hope the state university would take a leader-ship role

Menke and Mrs Jones agree that teacher training is thestate's biggest problem in gifted education.

"If you don't have teachers who aretrained to deal with gifted students,what's going to happen in that class-room probably won't be any differentfrom what's going on in the regularclasses," Mrs. Jones explained.

If that problem was solved in Dod-dridge, few others would exist for thissparsely populated rural community.The teachers travel miles to meet withgifted students, but they feel the coun-ty's smallness gives the program a per-sonal touch.

Mrs Droppleman and her teachingpartner, Darlene Seckman, meet withtheir students for an hour once or twiceeach week. In addition, seminars whichfocus on the interests of particulargroups are held from time to time at acentral location Those sessions run oneday a week for about a month.

"I think this rounds out their educa-tion," Mrs. Droppleman said. "Many ofthese children are in a double-class sit-uation They might read all day if itwasn't for this."

All but one of the elementary schoolsin Doddridge run through the eighthgrade and have more than one grade toa room.

"That's why we really don't have anytrouble with other teachers. They'reusually happy for their students to getthis," said Mrs. Droppleman

The gifted students' schedules changefrom week to week, depending on thedemands of their regular classes. Butthe teachers see that "give and take" asan asset.

And because the school population isso small, Mrs. Droppleman can checkthe standardized test scores of everystudent to locate potential candidatesfor the gifted program.

"Sometimes the teacher referrals arenot so good," the teacher explained.

51

Research has shown that classroomteachers often will pass over giftedchildren when they're asked to pickthem out of a group. The teachers tendto choose the students,who presentthemselves well in class, not the cu-rious, questioning gifted individuals.

"I think one of the positive thingsabout rural systems is that you can putthings Into a personal perspective,whereas in larger counties you're deal-ing with numbers," said Richard Oyler,the county's special education director.

"I feel we are doing a good job, eventhough we do have limited resources,"he said. "And we do talk to parents."

The gifted program seems to be"well accepted" by everyone, Oyleradded.

The teachers use resources outsidethe program to get their gifted studentsinvolved. They participate in academicfairs, visit museums and join in scienceclass star-gazing parties. School psy-chologist David Leda recently wascalled in to teach the students how toshape the behavior of a white mouse.

But they term the working conditionsfor traveling teachers "unbearable." AtSummers Elemcutary a two-roomschool about 30 minutes outside of WestUnion Miss Seckrnan taught two stu-dents in a large, wood-floored roomshared with a reading teacher who wastesting two other students. A radioplayed in the kitchen next door.

Sixth in a Series_ _

Doddridge County

Gifted Program

Grodes Served: 3-8

Number of Students: 20*(1 2% of School Population)

Number of Teachers: 2*

Type of Progrom.Itineront

Based on second.month statistics provid-ed by the state Deportment of Educotion

Teachers In State

Gifted Progrom*

Number Employed: 192.5(6.4% of oll Speciol Ed Teochers)

Number Fully Certified: 136.5

Number of Positions Unfilled:12

Percent Who Quit Eoch Yeor:26

(All Speciol Ed)

Based on most recent figures supplied bythe stote Deportment of Education

"We're just used to it, I guess," MissSeckman said. "I don't know if it both-ers the kids. I think they've adjusted toit." The county now is adding rooms atthe elementary schools to providespace for traveling teachers.

After the eighth grade, Daddridge'sgifted students have no special pro-gram.

"We work with them on their sched-ules," Mrs. Droppleman explained. "Butwe jirst don't have the ability to offerthe kind of advanced courses espe-cially science courses that our stu-dents need. We're just too small."

Doddridge County Education Associa-tion President Richard McMillan saidhe thinks a high school program "prob-ably would help. It couldn't hurt, I'msure." He has a son in the elementaryschool program.

The Doddridge High agricultureteacher said most people generally ap-prove of the gifted program. But headded that most community membersdon't know much about it.

Mrs. Droppleman sees the programas one way of convincing rural studentsthat they're capable of going placesthey've never dreamed of.

"Most of the students would like tote in the program," she said. -It's notso much that they want to be known asgifted. They just want the experiences.You know by their eyes that they reallywant to be here."

May 8, 1981

ruifted Students Air FrustrationWhen They Are Underachievers

By ELIZABETH OLDEROf The Daily Mail Staff

Gifted students don't always make good grades.About 10 at one Kanawha County high school had semes-

xr marks this year belowC the grade that indi-cates average achieve-ment

Thirteen out of 47 didn'tiraike tlze B-hciaul oll

They're called undera-chievers. and they're afrustration to parents andteachers everywhere

"There is no one explan-ation There are many ex-planations," said ConnieStrickland, one of two full-time teachers who workwith gifted students in grades 10 through 12 in Kanawha

"It can be personal problems. It can be home problems. Itcan be a total lack of motivation for various reasons."

The underachievers usually lose interest in school aroundthe fourth grade, she said. They become bored with the drilland review on lessons learned the first time through.

"They want to learn by doing, by questioning, by experi-menting," said Mrs. Strickland.

To bring back that enthusiasm for learning, Mrs. Strick-land is conducting self-awareness seminars with gifted stu-dents. A small group at George Washington High Schoolvolunteered for an eight-week pilot program this year.They've talked about how teachers annoy them, how theyannoy tearhers and similar subjects. School psychologistJoann Daley worked with them.

"One of the first things they asked is 'Are you sure I'mgifted7' " explained Mrs. Strickland "They question wheth-er they can do it or not . This has made them aware oftheir potential and whether or not they are using their po-tential."

Teachers say the program has helped the underachievers,not in grades :a much as atUtude, she added.

"I particularly emphasize with the teachers that giftedkids have learning problems, too," said Mrs. Strickland."But research points out that if you really want to help theunderachieving gifted child, you have to work with thechild, the parents and the teachers."

For some students, it may be too late.

p . -t

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115frW."11

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to,

16,

LISA AUSTIN LOOKS AT NASA BROCHURES WITH CONNIE STRICKLAND OF GW HIGH SCHOOL

The parent of a gifted child whodropped out of school this year had thisto say. "1 guess, deep down, I wasn't to-tally surprised ... I can't really saythat the school system is all wrong. Itdor4 a lot of things for a lot of people. Ijust feel that there should be some ex-ceptions made to keep them in school."

She said her child is quiet, not inter-ested in English and other standardsubjects.

"There are a lot of things in schoolthat are wrong," said the mother, whoasked not to be idenUfied. "I know thatsome teachers are good quality teach-ers. There are some others who arereally well educated in their field, butthey can't come across to the students."

Her child plans to earn a lugh schoolequivalent diploma and go Into a tech-nical field.

"I'm just wondering," said the moth-er "I don't know when a kid getsturned off "

Teacher Priscilla Ahlgren doubts thatgifted education alone, without inten-sive counseling, can convince these stu-dents to use their talents.

"They've established a pattern offailure They don't see themselves asaccomplishing a lot. They have a nega-tive self-image," she said.

Educators estimate that 15 to 20 per-cent of the nation's dropouts could qual-ify as gifted. About 10 percent of thegifted group make average or below-average grades in school, while abouthalf never really live up to their aca-demic potential.

The Kanawha teachers know theylose a few students who drop out, butthe county's high school program hasflourished since it started three yearsago. It's grown from about 17 studentsto 200

Other school systems have tried tofind some way to serve high school stu-dents without interrupting their regular

6

Daily Mai; Photo by Craig Cunningham

classes. The three-part Kanawha pro-gram works around that problem withseminars on school time one day eachmonth, and on-the-job experience andcollege courses after hours or in thesummer.

"College classes are the componentwith the lowest level of particpation,"said Mrs. Ahlgren. The students usuallytake those at local colleges during thesummer. About 10 students are plan-ning to attend national summer studyprograms this year, she said.

"There's the financial consideration,"the teacher explained. "Of cnurse, wecan't help them with that."

The daylong seminars are conductedby volunteers on subjects suggested bystudents Science fiction, the stock mar-ket and law have been topics. Studentschoose the seminars they want toattend.

The on-the-job training with profes-sionals in the community called

55

mentorships are done after school.Medicine, architecture and other occu-pauons have caught the students' inter-est. The mentorships last fdr about sixweeks, but a student may sign up forseveral throughout the school year.

George Washington student Lisa Aus-tin said she learned that she doesn'tfancy a career in environmental engi-neering after a mentorship in the field.

"What I'm interested in is trying tofind solutions for environmental prob-lems," said the llth-grader. "I don'twant to be in an office like that."

The Kanawha teachers believe thecounty setup has solved the difficultproblem of challenging gifted studentswithout competing with their regularclasses and extracurricular activities.

Mrs. Strickland pointed out that mostgifted students participate in the highschool program, while many of the eli-gible junior high students have droppedout at that level. Frances Fuller, Kana-wha special education coordinator, saidthe younger students seem to focus onschool activities, regular courseworkand fitting in with their friends.

Kanawha Teachers Association President Marian Akton said taking studentsout of regular classes, which is donemore often in lower grades, hasbrought complaints from parents andstudents. But, overall, gifted educationis well accepted, she said.

"A lot of the kids who already under-stand their talents are working it outreal well in the regular classroom," sheadded.

Jonathan Kurland, president of theKanawha Association for Gifted Child-ren, said parents are concerned aboutthe junior high school dropouts. But thehigh school program gets good markssince students don't have to miss class,he added.

State gifted coordinator BarbaraJones said mentorships, college coursesand advanced classes offer good oppor-tunities for older gifted students. Butshe questions whether classes requiredby law should be scheduled outside thenormal school day.

"We know most of our kids are inter-ested in getting good grades andachieving," said Mrs. Ahlgren. "They

404

Konowho County

High School

Gifted ProgromGrodes Served: 10-12

Number of Students: 200*(2.2% of 10-12 Population)

Number of Teachers:2 Full Time, 2 Port Time*

Type of Program:Advonced Classes

Mentorships/Workshops

Based on statistics provided by KonowhoCounty school officiols

told us they did not want to be pulledout of school on a regular basis. So, wedesigned a program which is veryflexible."

Declining Enrollment ThreatensAdvanced Programs In Schools

By ELIZABETH dLDEROf The Daily Mall Staff

Advanced courses which challengethe better students in school are beingdropped from public education pro-grams as enrollment declines.

The state lost almost 4,000 studentsfrom 1979 to 1980, continuing a down-ward trend that's common acrou thecountry. But state officials believe thatslide will level off in the next fewyears.

As classes get smaller, schools can'tafford to keep operating courses likephysics, trigonometry and others whichattract a few topnotch students.

And in rural areas, where the schoolgroup always has been small, suchcourts often are unavailable.

"Declining enrollment is going tocontinue to be a problem for us," saidstate gifted coordinator Barbara Jones.

Teaching staffs are being trimmed tocut costs, she said. With that, advancedcourses called electives since theyare not part of the required school pro-gram alsoare going down the drain.

But State School Superintendent RoyTruby thinks the new state graduationguidelines will work for those classes.

in

The rules, which require students toearn 20 credits in grades nine through12, go into effect this fall for the classof 1985. The old regulations requiredonly 17 credits.

"I think the chuges in graduation re-quirements, especially the attendancerequirement in the senior year, willcause more of those students to takeadvantage of the cunlculurn availableto them," Trilby said.

Some large high schools in the statestill are able to offer an impressive ar-ray of ClaSSeS for students interested inan academic challenge. At St. AlbansHigh, the program of studies includesLatin, math analysis, zoology and com-position for the college-bound. Withmore than 1,000 students, St. Albans isthe largest high school in the county.

"About 50 percent of our kids arecollege-bound students. Mort and moreof the college-bound art attracted tomath and science," said Vice PrincipalRebecca Goodwin. More girls also aremoving into those fields, she added.

"Because of the size of our schooland the size of our faculty, we can offerthese advanced courses," Mrs. Goodwinexplained.

MAny St. Mbans students earn col-lege credit through advanced place-

4

UN,

meat tests in the College-Level Exami-nation Program.

"We feel like our advanced classesand our upper-level classes meet thestudents' needs," said Mrs. Goodwin.The courses art open to all students,not just those in the gifted program, sheexplained. Counselors advise studentson which courses best suit their futureplans.

About 86 percent of the students atGeorge Washington High go on to col-lege, said Principal Paul Callahan. Theschool is tbe only one in the county par-ticipating in the Advanced PlacementProgram, which allows students to earncollege credit through courses taught inhigh school. For a $38 fee, studentstake a test to prove they know thework. Credit earned on that test is ac-cepted by many colleges and universi-ties throughout the natioo.

About 20 percent of the nation's 22,-000 secondary schools offer AP courses.The College Board, which ryas the pro-gram, reported that 12 West Virginiaschools participated in 1979.

"Many of our students go on to schooland start their college careen u sec-ond-semester freshmen," said Callahan."Since so many of our kids go on to col-lege, we feel it's very Important that

they have every opportunity to takeclasses that will enable them to becompetitive wherever they go acresthe country."

About 55 students are in the three APcourses offered this semester at GeorgeWashington, Callahan said. Not all ofthose are in the gifted program, be add-ed.

Seventh in a Series

But the principal fears that advancedclasses might have to be sacrificed uenrollment drops.

"I'm really worried about it," Calla-han said. "This year, we're losing fiveteachers. It's really going to put acramp on our curriculum."

The AP course enrollment ended upat an acceptable level this year, with

about 20 students in each class, he add-ed.

"I think we'll be able to continue tooffer the curriculum as long as the stu-dents are interested in it," Callahansaid.

May 9, 1981

Wyoming County Battles ToCatch Up In Schooling Gifted

By ELIZABETH OLDEROf The Daily Mail Staff

PINEVILLE Some West Virginiaschool systems have ignored the statelaw which requires them to set up spe-cial programs for intellectually giftedstudents.

Up until last year, Wyoming Countywas one of them.

Four counties still had not identifiedany gifted students by late last fall,even though programs for such youngs-ters were supposed to start in 1974.Those counties are Grant, Logan, Mar-ion rt,,c1 Marshall.

For Wyoming, the break came twoyears ago when the county got a 910,-000 federal gantto set up three "mag-net classrooms" which gifted studentsvisit about five hours each week. Thatprogram has given school a new lookfor students like Tim Lupardus.

"I want to study things, just all dif-ferent types of things around me," ex-plained the 14-year-old, who alreadyhas completed two college algebracourses through Southern West VirginiaCommunity College. "Not take classes.Just study the trees, the sky, the moon,the stars as an observer, like CarlSagan."

A math whiz, Lupardus describesschool as a place where he's often got-ten into trouble for talking. The eighth-grader is in Carol Gangwisch's class atthe Pineville Middle School gifted cen-ter. Students tbere are engaged in var-ious projects which tickle their interest

writing plays, tutoring younger stu-dents, making movies and staging amock trial complete with local judge onthe bend.

"You're always planning somethingto interest them," said Miss Gangwisch,a Pittsburgh native who is in her first

year of teaching. "I'm really concernedabout *their self-pride in their work.. Idon't know whether they've never beenchallenged or if they just do enough toget by. It's like pulling teeth sometimesto get them to pick up a pencil."

Program coordinator Louise Stouta-myer thinks the local administrationwas ready to go ahead with gifted edu-cation, even without the federal money.

"It certainly made it easier" she said."It's gone very smoothly."

The county tacked about $6,000 ontothe $10,000 grant to outfit three giftedclassrooms at Berlin McKinney Ele-mentary, Mu liens High and Pineville.Those centers serve 13 of the county's25 schools.

"Our county decided to spend a yearplanning instead of just starting theprogram," explained Mrs. Stoutamyer,who spent 22 years in the classroom be-fore taking the administrative position."Right now, we're serving only thethree largest towns Pineville,Oceana and Mu Hens."

Program expansion depends in partupon whether the county gets a secondfederal grant this year. Mrs. Stouts-myer's proposal also requested third-year funding for materials, but themoney is awarded separately for eachschool term. And federal budget cutsmay endanger such funding for localschool systems.

Parents in rural Wyogning County aregetting anxious to get their childreninto a program.

"I would say the target population inthis county is about 170," Mrs. Stouts-myer said.

But she wonders if schools in outlyingareas will be able to spare a room tohouse the gifted centers. She also fearsthat students in rural areas may havetrouble with the program's IQ entrancetest.

63

Sandra Lucento, special services ad-ministrator, said the eounty was slowgetting a gifted program started be.cause "150 percent" of the time wasspent meeting federal schooling re-quirements for handicapped students.

"We weren't trained in this area,really. We were unaware of the properprocedure for getting the program offthe ground," she said. "There was morepressure to establish a program for thehandicapped than there was for thegifted.gg

And certified teachers required toget state funds for gifted educationwere difficnIt to recruit to the ruralcoal-mining county, she added.

"So we started to look within th sys-tem to see what we could do with thepeople we had," Mrs. Lucento said.Those interested, like Mrs. Stoutamyer,

Wyoming County

Gifted Program

Grades Strvsd:Kindergarten-12

Number of Students: 48*(.06% of School Population)

Number of Teachers: 3*

Type of Program:Resource

Areas Served:Pineville, Nemo, Mullens

lased on second-rnenth stotistks provid-ed by the state Departreent of Education

57

were retrained in gifted education.State gifted coordinator Barbara

Jones saki those program roadblockshave been common to all counties. Shesaid the state wants the local systemsto make a "good faith effort" to complywith the law as soon as possible.

Mrs. Lucento said the federal moneyfor Wyoming's gifted program helpedease local budget woes. And teachersbad the chance to work with nationalexperts in gifted education when theDistrict I Regional Education ServiceAgency spent $16,000 to pay for thetraining program. The state has fundedeight RESA districts to aid local schoolsystems.

Interest in the gifted education is on

Eqhth in a Series

the upswing ill Wyoming now, Mrs. Lu-cento said.

"We find more pressure for the giftedprogram than there used to be," she ex-plained. "The general public is moreaware that the state of West Virginiahas a law requiring that ... It's the bestpublic relations program we have. It'sall positive. They're doing somethingfor the bright kids."

But the administrator is quick to saythat politics plays no part in choosingty avoids pressure from parents to gettheir children into the program, Mrs.Lucento said.

Reading teacher Linda Lugar thinksthose guidelines may be too strict,knocking out children who could benefitfrom the special education. In her view,

high scboolers don't gain much fromgifted CILISES U they have to give upother activities for that.

"I would recommend it for youngerchildren," the Oceans Middle Schoolteacher said. "I'm sure tbe gifted pro-gram will eventually be good. Therehas been so much money spent on theother side of the scale."

"Most of tbe people I've run intox.ern very pleased this is happening,"Mrs. Stoutamyer concluded. "They sayit's long overdue."students for the gifted program. A spe-cial grand jury recently admonishedWyoming board members for their ac-tive role in Democratic Party politics.

By stinking strictly to state regula-tions in addtting joungsters, the coun-

May 10, 1981

Boone Has State's OnlyGifted Program In Art, Drama

By ELIZABETH OLDER01 The Daily Mall Staff

MADISON Only one school systemin West Virginia has developed a spe-cial school program for students whoare talented in art and drama.

In Boone County, students are pro-ducing puppet shows, putting on playslad learning the difference betweenoils and wxylics in a gifted educationprogram built around the visual andprimp* arts.

Isk,tyfa, the fwderal governmmt is-sued new guidelines for gifted educa-tion. The regulations suggested specialprograms for students who excel inthose areas.

But state school officials say specialeducation for creative students is diffi-cult to develop. They question how stu-dents would be selected for such pro-grams and bow counties struggling toserve the intellectually gifted couldcope with the extra burden.

"They're Dot big rbk-takers, that'smy Minix of it.* said Kathy Phillips,who teaches Boone students who aregifted in art.

"I think lots of the time, A's easierfor them to say it's too hard to devel-op," she said. 'They're expensive pro-grams...

Mrs. Phillips has 25 students ingrades one through 12 who spend a few

ch

bours each week learning how to trans-late their talents into works of art.

Teacher Beckie Gay works with 35students in grades seven through 12who are inclined toward showing theirstuff on rfrage.

And the two work together with morethan 100 other elementary-age youngs-ters in a federally funded programcalled Ran-Ma-Tan, which started thisyear.

M,rs. Phillips describes it as an "op-portunities class" to give disadvantagedstudents a chance to expand their crea-tive talents enough to qualify for theregular program.

"If you're a kid and you've never hadany experience in the arts, how are yougoing to know if you're interested ornotr asked Ms. Gay. "The Idea is towork with these kids for a keg periodof time and then assess changes in per-formance so that the kids who art tal-ented sort of pop up."

Mrs. Phillips Dopes Ran-Ma-Taxewill uncover talented students whohave not had tbe cultural exposurecommon in middle-class and upper-class families.

The program DOW serves the fourth,fifth and sixth grades in two schoolsComfort and Ramage. The teacherswant to continue it next year at newschools, with or without the federalmoney.

After a year in Ran-Ma-Tan, parti-

cipants must meet the regular entrancerequirements to continue in the art anddrama gifted program.

Both teachers have develoPed checkl-ists and tests to use In judging a stu-dent's creative gifts. They also useguidelines prepared by experts in thefield.

In art, a 15-piece portfolio of originalwork is required. For the drama audi-tion, a student must do a three-minutemonologue and Act out the solution to aproblem on stage.

The final decision ou whether a stu-dent gets into the program is made by acommittee, following state Departmentof Education guidelines for placing ex-ceptkaal children.

'The idea was to start a new pro-gram In gifted education In the areaswhich had not been developed," saidMs. Gay. Boone's gifted program in thearts began four years ago with federalmoney targeted for innovative localideas. The county now pays for the pro-gram.

"I'm looking for a commitment to thearts and a great deal of interest," ex-plained Ms. Gay. "I want to find outabout the child."

Both teachers say they kept in mindthe unique characteristics of Appalachi-an children wben they decided what tolook for in participants. Ms. Gay saidresearch shows that students from thisregion are good at games and have a

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BOONE GIFTED PROGRAMflair for figurative language. Mrs. Phil-lips loots for art wort with depth anddetail, even if the product lacks the so-phistication spawned by exposure tomasterpieces.

Many times, Boone students have noteven traveled to the Cultural Center inCharleston, she said.

"A lot of then wouldn't get there ifwe didn't take them," said Mrs. Phil-lips. But two of her students, winners ina state art competition, now have hadtheir wort oe display there.

Scott High School Principal RichardClendenin said he supports the pro-gram. But he believes the studentswould benefit more if they could sched-ule the special gifted course as part ofthe school day, rather than take timeaway from other classes for those at.-tivities

'That labels tbe kids," said Clenden-in.

But the arts program gives younp-ten wbo have talents outside of aca-demics a chance to excel, he added.

"I think our program, in that respect,is better than in larger areas, like Kan-awha," said Ciendenin.

The teachers say they have seen thesterols' talents bloom.

"I've seen a change in self-concept,"said Mlo. Gay. "They're more aware ofwho they are and what they can do as a

Boone County

Art And Drama

Gifted Program*Grades Served:

Dramo 7-12; Art 1-12

Number of Students: 35 Drama(1.2% of 7-12 Population)

25 - Art(.4% of 1-12 Population)

Number of Teochers: 2

Typo of Program:.Itinerant/Resource

Based on figures supplied by BooneCounty school officiok,

person. They've become more expres-sive, not only in this class, but in theirhome schools as well."

She credits community members forhelping the drama program grow.

MM. Phillips' students contribute $5from the money they make at the an-nual art show sale to tbe program.

"We generally spend all our moneyon good supplies, good p.int brushesand quality calves," she said.

Nine of ber students are getting col-lege credit through Southern West Vir-ginia Community College for their workin the gifted program.

"The kids get so mucb emotionallyfrom each other. It's really important,"said Mrs. Phillips. "Creative kids aredifferent. They're more high-strung andmore dramatic about things than otherchildren."

Scott High School junior KathyAdams took top awards for her puppectry and stage makeup skills at a recentWest Virginia University competition.

"This program is extremely effec-tive," said the 17-year-old. "I can learnmore in three hours bare than I canlearn in a week in a regular class."

The small group, the time for one-on-one work with the teacher are as-sets, she said.

"From second grade, I 4ave thought Iwalsted to be an artist. work with myhands," saul Miss Adams. "I would goout of my mind if I had to sit in highschnol and not be able to work on myart?,

Miss Adams wants to go on to WVUand learn bow to use her artistic talentsto nuke stage plays come alive.

"These are things she wouldn't havebeen exposed to unless she was in thisprogram," said Mrs. Phillips.

Sherman High School sailor Jay Wat-son is unequivocal in his evaluation ofthe gifted program in art

"I would say this is the highlight ofmy school experience," be said.

Other art classes were uninspiring,Watson explained.

"Because of the limit of supplies andtime, I didn't pick up anything I didn'talready know," he added.

Watson said he gets "mostly admira-tion" for his work. The teachers mildmales seem to have little trouble fittinginto the arts program.

"It's worth it to me, seven timesover," said Watson. "This helps you ex-press yourself. Everybody needs that"

But Watson and Miss Adams partways when it comes to where art willlead them after graduation.

"Right now, it's just a bobby," saldWatson, wbo thinks he will go into theroofing business after high school. "Idon't plan on going into the field as acareer, but I think I could if I had to."

His classmate thinks ber interest inart will take her first to college, thenout of Boone County.

"There's not that much to come backto,' bils.s Adams said.

59

Ninth in a Series_ _ May 11, 1981

9 Counties Getting Federal HelpFor Low-Income Gifted StudentsBy ELUABETH OLDEROf The Wily Mall Staff

State educators admit that rural students, minorities andfemales don't have a fair chance at getting into a gifted ed-ucation program in West Vir-ginia.

That discrimination existslargely because teachers andparents don't refer them forconsideration.

And some of those youngs-ters don't do well on the entr-ance exams because they'vegrown up in a culture whichhas crippled their word skills,authorities say.

Nine West Virginia countiesnow art using federal grantsto find ways to successfullychoose and school low-income gifted students.

"There's a growlsg concern that we're being untair," saidBarbara Jones, gifted coordinator for the state. "Among thepeople with whom I work, I'm seeing a growing concern forchildren who are culturally diverse, extremely rural oreconomically disadvantaged."

State School Superintendent Roy Truby thinks relying ontest scores to choose gifted students causes problems be-cause the scores are a product of more than just intellig-ence.

"The number of books at home, the way language is spo-ken at home, subscriptions to magazines, the benefit oftravel all of these are things that are tied to the socialand educational status of the parents and are reflected intest scores," said the superintendent, who grew up in theLouisville, Ky., area.

Under current Board of Education guidelines, countiesreceive three times the normal amount of state funding forgifted students who score two or more standard deviationsabove average on an individual intelligence test. Thatequals an IQ of 130 or above, compared to the "average"score of 100.

"I think you have to look at more than just test scores,"Truby continued. "It should be teacher recommendations.Then, tbe teacher must be sensitive to each child."

He defends his position this way: "A child with an econ-omically deprived background who is just under the cutoffon the test may be, indeed, more gifted than the one whohas bad many advantages. That's where the teacher's judg-ment comes in."

M10

Mrs. Jones explained that when a stu-dent is considered for the gifted pro-gram, a mound of data is collectedfrom parents, teachers and achieve-ment tests.

',Then we make our decision based onthat one (IQj score," she said. "In thebest of all possible worlds, I would liketo see those professionals make a deci-sion based on all that information."

Other problems with the identifica-tion process also are el-at:ging.

"The largest counties have said theyeither have no minority children or ahandful of minority children in the pro-gram," said Mrs. Jones.

A federal Office for Civil Rights re-port done in 1979 showed that 2.4 per-cent of the gifted program participantswere minorities. The overall school mi-nority count is about 4.3 percent.

"There is a feeling that girls are un-der-represented," she added.

That same report showed 46.4 per-cent female participation in the giftedprogram. Girls make up about 46 per-cent of the state school group.

Other special education childrenthe handicapped, the learning disabledand similar groups also may bemissing their chance for gifted educa-tion. About 9 percent of West Virginia'sstudents, excluding the gifted, are insome kind of special education programthis year. Only 115 of the gifted stu-dents 2.6 percent are receivingservices in some other special educa-tion category.

And the state does not know howmany poor children are in the giftedprogram. But officials concede that it'sless than 40 percent, the number consi-dered "needy" enough to get free andreduced-rate school meals.

Harvard University researcher Ron-ald B. Edmonds says that if the giftedpopulation does not reflect the makeupof the total population, there's "some-thing wrong with what you did." Hescorns IQ tests as a reliable tool for

choosing gifted and talented youngsters.In West Virginia, most gifted stu-

dens are found only alter someone re-fers them for program testing. Eapertssay parents and teachers need to betrained to pinpoint minorities, girls andpoor rural children who are intellec-tually gifted

In Jackson County, students are beingtested for creativity, evaluated byteachers and in other ways so the coun-ty can establish "local norms" for gift-ed students, baeed on the county's spe-cial characteristics.

"What were trying to find is the kidout there who really has it, but will al-WayS be passed over," said special edu-cation directotillob Roy Walters."We're trying tofind the ones we'vembsed ... We don't really know whatwe're going to come out with."

A similar project is going on in south-ern West Virginia in the 6-county Dis-trict I Regional Education ServiceAgency. A survey of 8,880 low-incomechildren in that area revealed that only1 percent had been selected for the gift-ed procam. The state has set up eightRESA districts to aid local educationsystems.

Mike Pyryt, gifted instructor at theCollege of Graduate Studies, said more

than 70 low-lncome Kanawha studentshave been referred for progeam testingas the result of a project aimed at iden-tifying the disadvantaged gifted.Through the program, parents andteachers have been taught to recognizesigns of giftedness in these youngsters.

Out of 47 schools in low-tncome Kan-awha districts, only about 80 studentshave been picked for the program, Pyr-yt said. That's an "obvious difference"from schools in more prosperous areas,he added.

"Some of the disadvantaged kids aremere likely to show their skills in non-verbal ways story-telling, art, music,drama," said Pyryt, who is conductingthe federally funded project for thecounty.

-They can express their feelings well... They sing in the choir, draw, quiltor knit. They get reinforced for that,"he explained.

Negative reinforcement an it's-not-smart-for-girls-to-be-smart attitude

works against females who are gift-ed, Pyryt added.

"There are many girls who start outall right, but when they reach about theseventh grade they achieve less andless," he explained. Girls often are notencouraged to take advanced science

Tenth tn a Series

and math classes so-called boys' sub-jects so they can't compete in thosesubjects as they grow older, he added,

"It's very hard for girls in ruralareas to move out from the culture,"said Mrs. Jones. "We still get girls whothink they should have an educationonly if they can't get a husband or, Godforbid, that he should die."

Edwina Pendarvis, gifted instructorat Marshall University, says the bestway to help the gifted disadvantaged isto improve their overall education.

She thinks many Appalachian child-ren never get a chance to develop theircreativity. And she agrees that morethan just the top test-takers have thepotential to be gifted.

Pyryt believes that gifted Appalachi-an children also have to deal with atradition that tells them to "stay closeto home."

"Those who do go to college tend togo close to home, tend to work in thecommunity where they grow up," hesaid.

"I don't think there are that manygifted students in the hollows of WestVirginia thinking they could have beena professor at Harvard," Pyryt added."Maybe what happened is that they justnaturally limited their options."

May 12, 1981

Officials Certain Gifted ProgramWill Succeed Despite ThreatsBy ELIZABETH OLDEROf The Daily Mall Staff

The future of gifted education looks good despite threatsof federal budget cuts and criticism that the programs areunnecessary and elitist.

"If the federal govern-ment backs off in fundingand regulations a t thesame time, that will MUthe states generally willhave to step forward andassume that role pick upthe slack," said stateschool Superinteodent RoyTruby. "We've worked wellwith the Legislature here,and the governor. I see aninclination to do that"

West Virginia's legalmandate for gifted education is much stronger than the fed-eral government's recommendation for such programs. Andgifted-education histhrically has received less federal mon-ey than programs in basic skills and other areas.

Federal funding for gifted education wu set at 66.2 mil-

lion for the next school year. But that is threatened bybudget cuts now under review in Congress.

"If we try to clone the federal government in those cuts,obviously there will be a loss of gifted progrms and othetssuch as that," said Truby.

In West Virginia, counties get three times the ilormalamount of state funds for each gifted child enrolled la theschool system. Nationwide, states sunk almost 8118 million

into gifted education in 198041.But the Reagan administration's plan to reduce most fed-

eral education aid worries John Grossi, gifted specialistwith the Council for Exceptioul Children in Reston, Va.

"Gifted and talented is going to be very susceptible andvery vulnerable with the program cuts, as everything elseis," said Grout "It will probably be affected greater be-cause we don't have that much support to begin with."

State gifted coordinator Barbara Jones is optimisticabout continued state support. But any decrease in federalmoney will hurt, sbe said.

"Certainly, the DeWS looks bad for all educatioo pro-grams," she said. "It's just herd to predict what's going to

hiPPen."West Virginia Education Association President Lowell

Johnson said be fears counties will %nit back on staff to trim" 61

budgets. That, coupled with the loss offederal dollars, could stop the growthof gifted and other special educationprograms, he said.

"It's going to preclude any kind ofimprovement in programs," said John-son, who believes the state already iscoming up short in special education.

Although gifted education has beencalled elitist and unnecessary, local ed-ucators think the programs have out-lived those labels.

"That's something you have to guardagainst, the elitism, the snob appeal ofhaving students in the gifted program,"said Truby. "The gifted programs arevery popular now. We've concentratedon one end of the continuum. I thinkthere's a strong feeling now to educatethe other end."

But the superintendent said he doesnot favor separate schools for giftedstudents because "that takes us too farinto the elitist concept." New York,Florida and other states have set upsuch schools, hut program guidelineshere exclude them.

"My response, first of all, is that it'snot elitist in any way," said Mrs. Jones.It doesn't have anything to do with so-

cial or economic level."Johnson believes that schoolchildren

in West Virginia should have programswhich "help kids meet the potentialthey're capable of."

"It doesn't make any difference if achild is supergifted or severely retard-ed," he said. "That's one of the thingsthat makes us different from privateschools and other countries."

Grossi said, "A lot of people feel theprograms are undemocratic because allthe kids are not doing what the giftedkids are doing." But that happens In ev-ery school on football teams, the schoolnewspaper and in other extracurricularactivities, he added.

"What we're talking about is equalityof opportunity," Grossi said. "Obvious-ly, everybody is able to apply [for gift-ed programs),"

College instructor Mike Pyryt drawshis defense for gifted education from ahistorical figure.

"I go back to Thomas Jefferson, whois Mr. Democracy," said Pyryt, a giftedteacher at the College of GraduateStudies. "In his plan for the state ofVirginia, when he discussed education,he wrote that gifted people no mat-ter how poor or how rich should beable to reach their potential. We'retalking about quality of opportunity.It's not meant to be frills or extra.What it's meant to be is appropriateeducation."

Recent research shows that giftedstudents do not do as well as they couldin school when they don't have specialeducation.

"The more highly gifted the child, themore important It is," said EdwinaPendarvis, Marshall University's giftededucation instructor.

"There is some research that shows15 to 20 percent of all dropouts aregifted," Pyryt explained. "It's impor-tant to provide opportunities for kids sothey can recognize what their skills are,so they can go on and be productive."

Kanawha student Nathan Harkins re-members that he "never went Tor thebig stuff" the tougher spelling test

in elementary school."I was constantly daydreaming," said

the George Washington High Schoolsophomore.

Then, in the seventh grade, he wasidentified as gifted.

"I think 1 of being gifted is realiz-ing your limitations, realizing you'renot gifted in everything," said Harkins,16. "I really thought I was average. Ijust didn't think I was that bright."

Getting picked for the program mayhave changed his life, he said.

"This has really made a differencebecause part of excelling is having con-fidence ... If I hadn't found out I wasgifted, I would probably be flunkingright now," Harkins said.

Pyryt puts it this way: "Someodeonce said that there's no reason for aneagle to be a crow."

Parents Rallying Behind Gifted'Sure Have Made A Difference'

By ELIZABETH OLDEROf Tbe Daily Mall Staff

West Virginia parents are rallyingbehind gifted education to ensure thatcounty school boards provide the serv-ices promised by state law.

"I think this sure has made a differ-ence in the county," said Jonathan Kur-land, president of the Kanawha Ass°.elation for Gifted Children.

The parents in Kanawha have beenworking for several years to get goodprograms, he said. That has been ac-complished, although some still areworried about the drop in Junior highparticipation, he added.

"My next newsletter will just askwhere are we going," Kurland said. Themailing goes to about 300 people, andmore than 30 usually attend meetings,he said.

"When we started, I think most par-ents were uncomfortable with the wordgifted." said Betsy Hurnphreys of the

62

Monongalia Association for Enrich-ment. "It sounds as if you're braggingabout your child."

In Monongalia, parents joined forcesto exchange information and give sup-port to the county's one gifted teacher,she said.

"I don't think the county was con-sciously trying to not support this.There was nobody in the administrationwho was a strcng advocate for gifted,"said Mrs. Humphreys.

Nearly 50 families now are involved,she said. The parents have developed alist of community resources the schoolscan use in gifted classes.

"Overall, I think people are verypleased. I think group support was help-ful," said Mrs. Humphreys.

Harrison County parents plan to setup Saturday workshops for gifted child-ren who are interested.

"We have made propoaals to the spe-cial education department. I thinkabout every proposal we've made hasbeen implemented," said parent Brenria

Sheets, a member of the county giftedassociation.

"I think every county should have aparent group because as I havelearned in my dealings with schoolboards and county administratorsunless the parents push for it, it won'tbe done," said Mrs. Sheets. "You can'tsit by and say somebody else will doit."

With gifted education "very far downon the totem pole," funding for the pro-grams is threatened, she added.

Pocahontas parents started an advo-cacy group this year.

"I think the board is trying. I thinkthey realize they to," said parentMary Brundage,

The parents hope to convince thecounty administration to hire moreteachers for the gifted program, shesaid.

"We do have some problems withpeer pressure and acceptance," shesaid "I think parents can do an awfullot."

More than 80 parents have attendedmeetings of the Ca bell County Associa-tion for the Gifted and Talented

I think parents are a little dis-turbed, said Candy Sprmger, presidentof the group "The program is good insome aspects and not good in others."

The Cabe 11 group wants to set upworkshops to educate parents, teachersand anyone else who is Interested ingifted programs, she said. Parents alsomay be called upon to work with giftedyoungsters on the job, she added.

"I feel these gifted kids are the fu-ture leaders of America," said Mrs.Springer. "We can't At by and watchthese kids :suffer "

State gifted coordinator Barbara

Jones advises parents to "look aroundthe room" during meetings and remem-ber people they can talk over problemiwith later.

"Because of confidentiality, we can'tidentify a gifted child or parents of agifted child Aden they come forward,"she explained.

The groups also provide a forum fortrading information about worthwhilegames, toys and other educational ma,terials, she added.

"There's a myth that parents of gift-ed kids are exceptionally pushy or ob-noxious," Mrs. Jones continued, "That'snot true."

PareriLs and other citizens may call atoll-free hot line at the state Depart-

0.1.1,2

ment of Education to request informa-tion about programs for all exceptionalchildren. The department will send apacket of information about those pro-grams.

One publication "Hand in Hand"explains the state laws and guide-

lines. It includes an explanation of thedue poscess procedure parents may useto protest a school's ruling about achild's program placement.

The toll-free hot line number is800-642-8541,

The Council for Exceptional Childrenalso has written guidelines for parentsto use in forming advocacy groups, Thecouncil can be contacted at 1920 Asso-ciation Drive, Reston, Va. 22091.

,

61

OregonWIWI SINN

Portland, Oregon

First in a Series

,A1MIMV

June 15. 1981

Minorities give Oregonschools new flavor

CAROL RUBENSTEIN

Caro, Rubenstein has been covering thePJrtland Public Schools as educationri,uorter tor the Citegon Joutnai since

Her education background,ro,uces a Bachelor s degree from the

iersity of Cnicago and post graduatework a: Portland State University

Rubenstein s reporting tor tne Journalcoincided with the period during whichminority education issues became morepressing n the state Increasing%it\ tows of Hispanic and SoutheastAsian c hildren -many exposed towritten language and mathematicalconcepts for tne first timewere joiningthe state s historical minorities of blacksand native Americans

For her Fellowship study Rubensteincnose to nvestigate now schoolslocated in predominately whitecornrounities were able to effectivelyserve the four minority groups

In the foHowing "Minority Report"Rubenstein profiles schools which wereviewed as offering exemplary programsfor various minority group students ShetOund that there was no rigid model foran ettective school All the effectiveSchools however, had importanteIements in common students didn't getlost in the shuffle, schools had highexpectations for their students andstaffs, flexible approaches to teachingwere used and teachers recognized thevalue of other cultures

Journal stall writer Carol RubensteinMs spring received a National Institute ofAducation fellowship to research OregonIhinority education.

By CAROL RUBENSTEINJournal Staff Writer

Quyen Chu, a young Vietnamese glrl lnPortland, guides Meuy Meng, a Laotiangirl just arrived in the United States,through the confution of her first day ofschool.

"Door," Quyen says In English, tappingthe classroom door with her hand."Desk," she continues. "Chair."

Meuy Meng looks without understand-ing. She keeps her thick wool coat on allday.

Enrique SAMS and his sister, Ertel*,dash to their reading group at DaytonElementary School. "Todos," they shoutas teacher Gloria -Valencia bolds up a flashcard. "Tal," they continue in Spanish."Tiempo. Ti."

At Eliot School, in Northeast Portland,a rambow-hued contingent of 4-year-oldssquirms into a circle as they begin theirmorning routine with a song. ''We all llvetogether," the voices Jo'n. "Yes, we alllive together."

'these are but a few scenes from thechanging landscape of Oregon education.

In the put five years, the number ofminority students in the state's publicschools has increased by more than 35

percent.

The total includes Asians, Hispanics,blacks and Americsn Indians.

The sharpest increases have beenamong Asian students, whose numbersLave neey doubled, from 5,586 to 9,901,making them the second-largest studentminority group in the state.

Hispanics rank first, with their num-bers increasing by nearly a third, from

Oregonschools:Minorityreport

8,342 In 1975 to 11,022 in 1980.The number of blacks hu increased

slightly, to 9,389 students, ranking third.State school figures also register an in-crease in Indian students, from 5,081 in1975 to 7,584 in 1980.

At the same time, the number of whitestudents has dropped ahout 4 percent, to91.7 percent of the state's total publicschool enrollment.

THE CHANGES have come slowly insome communfties, more dramatically inothers. They've been sparked by a numberof factors, migration and variation in birthrate among them. And they've been ac-commodated with varying degrees of suc-ceu.

65

aer

,

PystimMtabe by SILL MORROW

NEW CLASSMATES The number of minority.tudents in Oregon's classrooms has jumped by more

than 35 percent in the past five years. How the

But one thing is certain. The changeswill continue. And with them have comenew chsilengts tor Orlon's schools.

"We're not a meititfg pot," observedCarlos Reyes-Colon of the Committee ofSpanish-Speaking People of Oregon."We're more like a salad bowl, each withour own texture and flavor."

The role schools should play in main-Mining those individual flavors or In pro-moting assimilation, and how each bestcould be done, has been the subject ofnational as well as local debate.

Federal regulations, teachers, paretttsand community groups all have pressedfor new examinations of what kind ofeducation programs are best suited for thestate's varied students.

AMONG THE ISSUES are bilingualeducation, the importance of parental in-volvement, concentration at basic skillsand the need for multi-cultural education.

Ask the questions in different com-munities and you'll get different answers.

STEVE MEHL 4441 ROGER JENSEN/OrommcJournal

state's public schools cope with their changing clien-tele will be among the mijor challenges of the 1980s.

But overall there's a concern that theschools must help their communitiesadapt to a changing, more diverse world.

In Portland, where the number of Asianstudents has more than trebled in the lastfive years, School Board Chairman ForrestRieke is worried.

"We're unable to accommodate the rad-ical changes in this community," he saidflatly.

It's a stark message, one denribing asituation that Rieke believes challengesOregonians to live up to their professedideals.

"Everyone thinks of themselves as pro-gressive," he observed. "But no one Isanxious to change.

"Until we tind a way to do so, it will bean agonizing time for this community."

THE CHALLENGE, as it always hasbeen tor public schools, is to educate chil-dren to can read, write, function and com-pete In the world.

But what schools do to make that hap-

I

pen depends on whether a student is anIndian child living on a reservation inCentral Oregon, a black youngster (tomthe poorest section of a big city, the chiidof Spanish-speaking immigrants or a re-cent refugee from the mountains of Viet-nam.

Whatever the case, the demands onteacher, school and district necessarily aregreater than they would be if the taskwere simply educating middle-class chil-dren of any ethnic group.

Those demands are ones to which Ore-gon's school districts must rise, says stateSchool Superintendent Verne Duncan.

And that means that many schools willhave to change.

The traditional approach, "let them ad-just to the ways we do things," is toosimplistic, Duncan said. "It Just won'twork. Both sides have to bend."

If the schools don't, Duncan believes,we all will be paying a high price for along time.

"The children will still be there," hesaid.

THE RESULTS have been mixed asOregon's schools have tried to accommodate their changing clientele. But throughout the stao there have been encouragintsigns.

This series, funded in part by a Nationsinstitute of Education fellowship, will examine some of them:

Eliot School, a national model for earbchildhood education, is located in whatonce was the heart of Portland's bitchcommunity, with more than half of it:students classified as "educatt daily dis.advantaged." By the time they leave Eliotthose students are testing at the districtnorm in reading and math.

Second in a Series

Boise School in Portland Is a fundamen-tal skills school that emphasizes reading,math and discipline for a student popula-tion that is 75 percent poor black, 20 per-cent Asian refugee.

Rice Elementary is Portland's most re-cently "segregated" school, as defined bystate and federal standards. Six years agothe building received its first Asian refu-gee child. Today, refugees account for 100of the schoos's 185 students challeng-ing both teachers and community.

Dayton Elementary, a rural gradeschool pioneering a bilingual, Spanish.-English program, Is in a community thai

Just slx years ago was charged with die-criminating against its Spanish-speakingstudents.

Warm Springs Elementary, a publitschool on the Warm Springs Indian Reset}vation, is experimenting with new read;ing and counseling programs that Its staffhopes will help Indian students stayschool.

While these schools offer no easy an-swers, they Illustrate the ways some edq-cators are attempting to meet the chal-lenges of the future.

They're not necessarily perfect, bqtthey're a beginning.

June 16, 1981

'The bottom line is respect'Kids come first

at Eliot SchoolBy CAROL RUBENSTEINbanal Staff Writer

Over at Eliot School, they call Bob Ha-rold "boas," "great white father," or sim-* "the heed of the house."

The term, are those of affection and;Wed.

And Bob Harold fitsthe description. Sixfeet tall, 58 years old,pilth a strong Irishprofile, a shock of*hlte hair and sharpOle eYes. he has leftpp; Indelible Impres-4ola on the school hegas idtepberded for the put 13 yeari.

Since he became prinapal of the school,rusted in one of Portiand's poorest neigh-itottoods, Harold hes transformed it into a*dual model for early childhood educe.!on asd seems to have written the origi-del prescription for "how to have an et-*five school."

Meet taportantly, Eliot makes a differ-Main the lives of its children.

The school, which houses a federallytended Follow-Through program to im-prove achievement for "dleadvantaged"

black and white children, has doneFthat.

ACHIEVEMEENT tests Indicate thatthou chltdreo, traditionally among thelipmet-ecoring in the Portend district, areinching district norms in reading and

Oregonschools

Minorityreport

Bpath by the time they leave the early41ildhood. center.

When they leave eighth grade, the Elioton average, still score above na-

tonal although slipping a bit be-BM district averages.ti However, their scores still are marked-* higher than t' le of similar students inpaarby neighbor.. Is.

And there's proof in other, more per-;anal ways.

Take James, for example. A problem*Id who had been kicked out of othertaut, even in kindergarten, he threwor ly ore chair Ns I irst year at Eliot. Now,*bee he's angry, he Just points.1:Andrew, who wouldat look anybody ine* We when he came to the school. nowpans up to a teacher and booms out "Hil"

Moreover, parents are involved, stafftsorale is high and no student seems tokit lost In "the system."

VatAT MARES the difference?If you ask anyone at the school prin-

itie answer is the same: the kids come; teachers, aides or parent volunteers

eWhat that means Is that the school Is

oady to step in with whatever's nem-ifty be It clean Gathes, arranging forbdIcal care or eyeglasses to make

**the children can concentrate on class-Work.

Eliot doesn't even require tennis _shoesin gym class, since many students can'tAM' them.

Natold's philosophy, which has shapodRiot, is that school has to find a way to*ice kids feel good about themselves.nom that little boost of self-confidence, attousann f owers can bloom.

"The bottom line," uys curriculumg/Ordlnator Mary Alice Thompson, Is re-flect for others and yourself.:"If you don't feel good about yourself,

yOu're not going to do well."The school Is a modest building, two

AWN and 500 kids, located just north of*modal Coliseum. In 1954, its construe-ten sparked bitter debate about intention-al segregation, since the area was pre-dominantly black. But that was beforeurb-.n renewal and eminent domain sweptaway moot of the neighborhood.

A FEW HOMES still border the school,which draws only about 50 of Rs studertsfrom the neighborhood. The rest arebused In from all parts of the city.

There's alwayt a welting list for admis-sion, sometimes with as maly as 200 stu-dents vying for 80 openings In the pre-kindergarten program for 4-yea-olds.

67

Today about half of Eliot's students arewhite, another 40, percent are black, ahandful are Hispanic, Asian and AmericanIndian.

Some HO students are officially classi-fied as low income, or poor, a designationthat in many schools automatically wouldtranslate Into, "They aren't going to makeit anyhow."

But not at Eliot."We're here," emphasitez Kristy Gray-

lin, a veteran staffer, "for the klds whowouldn't otherwice make it "

Educational administrators routinelysay Eliot is the best school IL the .ty forblack children. Parents says it's the bestschool for young children, period.

The same things that make it good forblack children are what make it good foreveryone strong leadership, goodteachers and that philosophy of puttingthe child first.

"I don't say we save everyone," KristyGravlin shrugs. "But we've saved quite afew."

A SENSE OF mission, common purposeand camtraderie is evideht, as are theschool's high expectetions for its children.

Bob Harold will not tolerate staff mem-bers who have low expectations, whothink poor, am especially black, childrenare more to be pitied than challenged.

He's weeded out five teachers duringhis tenure at Eliot. "Now," he smiles, "I.do a better Job of hiring."

The building itself Is cramped andcheerfully cluttered, much like a teenag-er's mom. There are pictures of staffmembers greeting kids as they walkthrough the school doors, newspaper arti-cles about staff, students and their fami-lies deck some of the walls, while samplesof student art work festoon others.

When Harold shows visitors around, heapologizes for the boxes and pianosstacked in the halls. But he's proud, too,that no Inch of space, whether corridor orbroom closet, goes unused.

Everything and everyone ispressed into educational service.

Parents, especially, are encouraged tohelp at the school In any way they choose,and Eliot has racked up an impressiveaverage of 188 hours a week of parentvolunteer time.

For several years, Harold has routinelytilted parents to help him interview pro-spective teachers a practice that Justthis yekr Is being extended to several oth-er Portland schools after heated disc ..s-sion.

Any educational statistician, Harold ac-knowledges, will uy that parent involve-ment doesn't make a difference in achild's success. But he and his staff main-tain it's essential.

ANOTHER CRUCIAL ingredient is athorough, but not always obvious, organi-zation.

Nothing is neglected at Eliot from ateacher's progress with a particularly dif-ficult pupil to a pressing need for cleansheets in the baby-sitting room, where

68

Wtk

parents drop off younger children whenthey stop by the school.

Class schedules are posted outside ev-ery teacher's door, making clear the for-mat for the week's work.

Virginia Danzer, basic skills cooldina-tor, maintains a "child at a glance" bookthat helps track student progress prog-ress that is routinely discussed at regulargrade level and special staff meetings.

Even the sign-in sheet in the main of.lice is filled with notes, letting everyoneIn the school know what's going on.

There is meticulous attention to detail,with Harold becoming involved, if neces-mirY, in the smallest item.

"When 1 first started working here,"recalls Debbie Pollock, coordlnattir of stu-dent enrichment, "I couldn't understandwhy Mr. Harold was so concerned ob-sessed, really with whether there wasenough pop In the machine in the staffroom."

The first time she went to the room fora break after a particularly tough teach-ing day, she understood.

Concern for staff morale, from thesmall things like having a cool drink atthe right time to strong support for newteaching techniques, is part of what Ha-rold has built into his school.

HE HIRES good people, gives them

Third in a Series

their head and supports them down theline, say staff members who credit part ofthe school's success to Harold's manage-ment style.

"His only criteria," says Mrs. GravIlo,"is will it work?"

Harold says that a combination of dem-ocratic and autocratic management is es-sential.

"I believe you have to involve people,"he says from an office filled with studentartwork and staff notes. "But I also be-lieve there have to be standards."

For Harold, those standards include twohours of each class day spent on the basicsof reading, language arts and math, cou-pled with opportunities for all students tolearn more about the world and them-selves.

Every classroom has a teacher and anaide, with a host of other specialists avail-able to work one-on-one or In smallgroups with students needing special helpin reading, math, speech or counseling.

And several times each month, DebbiePollock coordinates an explosion of mini-courses that introduce the children to ev-erything from stilt-making to foreign lan-guages.

"We hit them with everything," ex-plains Harold. "If they can Just feel suc-cess somewhere, that can make the differ-ence."

fils program Is expensive, Hu& ad-mits. The extra staffing, luxurigis bymost public school standards, cc:ts anextra $4.57 per child per day, addingabout $846 to the $2,264 the districtspends per child each year.

That's ultimately a good investment,Harold Insists. It's cheaper, he notes, than$11.50 per day he estimates is spent on,welfare or the $46.58 daily charge forkeeping someone In state prima.

DESPITE THE near certainty of severefederal budget cuts, Harold is convincedhis program will continue to do the Job heexpects of It.

"You probably could do a good job evenwith five teachers and 125 kids," hemused, "if somewhow you could get thatgroup to work as a team."

That teamwork exists at Eliot. And,according to Connie Fitzgerald, head ofthe parent advisory committee, it's madeEliot the best public school for young chil-dren in the city.

The school's success, she says, is notdue to Bob Harold's charisma or to somemagic that can't be duplicated at otherschools.

Rsther, she says, It's due to hard work,foresight and a dash of wisdom.

"It's people working together," ahesays, "sharing a common dream."

June 17, 1981

Boise pupils stressbasics, rules of living

By CAROL RUBENSTEINJournal Staff Writer

It was a Wednesday at Boise School.ume for the weekly circle meeting inRoom 102.

About tWo dozen children threeAsian, four white, the rest black weregathered comfortably in Michelle An.zonell's room, talking

Suddenly Tonya. a fourth-grader, be-came the subject ofxriversation Had she Oregoncrowded into the jumprope line at recess' schools

Well. Tanya admit-

ding. maybe she had Minorityd after some prod-te

muscled her way tothe front of the line.

"You've got to live by the rules." re-miads Ron Dieu, a teacher who regularly

repo:t

:ads the discussion sessions. "If you don'tlike the rules, you don't have to play

THE RULES ARE important at Boise. aschool where education is very seliousousiness.

It's also a school that has some of thethe city's lowest scores in reading andmath achievement.

"I tell the sti,dents that going to echoolis their job," says Dieu, basic skills coor-dinator

"If they don't do their job, the teachercan't do hers."

Portland's only remaining black neigh-oorhood grade school, Boise is a back-to-the-basics place that concentrates on afew items and tries to do them well.

It is a school that has come a long wayon a narrow path.

"We succeed here because we havevery narrow goals," says Principal liaveMcCrea.

"We teach reading and math. And wemanage behavior."

Boise is Pile of the city's most raciallysegregated schools. There are only a fewwhites among its 525 students, and thecity's recent inrux of Asian refugees hasboosted total minority enrollment to morethan 90 percent.

AT ONE TIME, the school was nver.crowded to the point that there seemed tobe no discipline.

"It was like a blackboard jungle in theearly Us," when there were nearly 1,000students, recalled a former staffer. "Itwas just wild."

That was when the baby boom washitting the public schools, before decliningenrollments and busing for desegregationthinned out Boise's population.

And it was before Dave McCrea becameprincipal 11 years ago and instituted atough discipline policy.

69

The school has four simple rules, theprincipal explains "You don', fight, youdon't steal, you don't profane adults andyou don't defy authority

Any infraction of the four basics andthe student is sent home It's not countedas a formal suspension, so there is noappeal the student can't come back toclass unless he is accompanied by anaduR

BOISE AVERAGES three of the "sendhomes" a day

"The worst thing parents can say aboutus," McCrea contends, "is that we don'tcare enough about their kids to see thathe) behave properly

A direct, blunt-spoken man with aready sense of humor, McCrea has wonthe support of a black commumty thatfrequently is cntical of white principals

"He cares about the kids, cares thatthey learn," says Vesia Loving, an activemember of the Black Urged Front whohas been an aide at Boise for 12 years

"And he cares about the community,too." she adds "He'll stand up for it

McCrea frequently has gone to bat forBoise, a problem building for the schoolclistni.t because of its high minority en-rollment The distnct has vacillated be-tween strengthening Boise as a neighbor-hood school and converting it to anotheruse

Last year, the district added a pre-kin-dergarten section and extra staff to conv-ert the lower grades to an enriched earlychildhood program, This year, it talksabout making Boise the permanent homeof the new Harriet Tuba= MiddleSchool, temporarily housed at MonroeHigh School.

But five years ago, the district approvedBoise's formal conversion to a fundamen-tal skills school, a special program aimedat attracting more white students to theheavily segregated school.

The "magnet" didn't work. Few whitestudents transferred in, but Boise has con-tinued its cOncentration on the basics.

THAT'S SOMETHING, the staff ex-phiins, that the students reed.

The addition of Asian student.% mostlyHrnong refugees from northern Laos, hasunderscored the school's emphasis on ba-sic academic skills.

The newcomers, about 125 this year,spend part of the day in special Englishclasses, the rest of the time with AmeN-c an students.

Because the Hmong have no writtenlanguage and most of the children neverhave been to school before, their presencemeans that teachers have to be extremelywell-organized and often must 'juggle sev-eral reading groups at once.

One afternoon, for example, a fourth-grade teacher was supervising threeyoungsters learning to trace the alphabmwhile drilling a second group on simplevocabulary.

"I worry," said another teacher, "thatthe new students take away from the at-tention we can give the others."

70

. ,

,

IOC li(XIKS'. larbet014441041010, }PONS nevipioyf4 r1 et Amilmto Hafts. AO: desp M Mu- si4enrie do* at Sots &hoot Asian students indktitnowy toiononent in PuttOintinorynoni i orsvtid or. wain with a tfrochw cads.

BY ALL ACCOUNTS, however, Boisestudents are getting along well with theirnew classmates.

Some have volunteered to tutor in En-glish, others to introduce the Liotian vil-lagers to rollerskating.

"I think the Asians have even helpedour students become more motivatedabout school," observes Shirley House,who teaches second and third grade.

About 75 percent of each school clay atBoise is spent on reading, wilting, spel-ling, math and geography. This year somemusic courses were added. Several com-puter terminals were added, used by low-achieving students for drills and by high-achieving students for math and otherprojects.

"No other school can say they're teach-ing the rest of the curriculum unlessthey're using the basic . skills," empha-cizes Laura Glosson, one of Boise's fourblack teachers.

Despite the increased emphasis on basicskills, however, Boise student test scoresstill are among the &Ma's lowest.

"WE'RE DOING BETTER than we didbefore," McCrea says, pointing w slightgains in the school's Lomparativt per-formance "But we're not doing as well aswe should

The principal says he expect, Boise'sgains to continue and believes additionaibasic skills emphasis wli cause f urthermprovements

Staff additions made this year, Includ-mg a full-time aide for every classroomand basic skills and curriculum coordina-tors, also should help boost the school'sperformance, he notes

Staff members offer various explana-tions for the low socres, ranging fromstudents who aren't "testwise" to the"skimming" of Boise's best students byother schools.

Others point to the fact that many Boisestudents are poor and come from brokcnor unstable homes.

"1 wish 1 could git e all the studentstwo-parent famthes," said one teacherwhen asked what changes should be madein the school.

POOR WHITE SCHOOLS also rank lowin achievement tests, notes Vice PrincipalSam Mansfield. "Our school is as good asany in the city in this s000-economicbracket." he maintains

Still others say that test scores are onlypart of the story

Boise has to be understood in terms ofits history, they say It's a building thathas managed to overcome a reputation asa tough, volatile school with uncontrolla-ble students.

The first battle was to ensure that stu-dents could go to school in a safe, secureenvironment.

Now that that's been achieved, the ar-gument goes, academics can be empha-sized.

Herb Cawthorne, the only black mem-ber of the Portland School Board, doesn'tdispute the test scores but says there areadvantages for black students wno attendmostly black schools.

"They're not constantly in an environ-ment thit tells them they are inferior,"says Cawt.orne. "That's what happens toblack kids who are bused and who are onsomeone else's turf.

"At Boise, black children learn to ac-cept the Asian students and each oth-er."

Fourth in a Serros June 18, 1981

Rice struggles to cope withload of Asian students

By CAROL RUBENSTEINJournal Staff Writer

It is Meuy Meng's first day at Ricehool in Northeast PortlandThrough the classroom window the

nine.year-old Laotian girl can see shirt-sieesed men rolling golf carts through themanicured grass at Rose City Golf Course

It is sprang She burrows deeper intoher thick blue and redplaid coat

I ater, in gym class,sta. sits on a edairw bile her classmatespkas 11 the end of theperiod she's tentative-!s bouncing a ball Shestarts to smile, st*Is

fhe scene has been repeated ihnumer-Joie times since Itiu School receised its'irst Asian refugee child six sears ago

1 oday more than half of the school'sI i.s5 children are Vietnamese and I aotian,>orne of the earliest and most recent of theflood of refugees v. ho have come to Port-land 'rum Coutheast Asia

Iti(e's transformation from a mostlymiddle-class w hue. "countrs cluh" kindof school to a station on the front lines ofrefugee resettlement has come rapidly1,x) rapidls in some Lases for parents andteaLhers to adjust

We look like we're striclls from Na-tional Geographit .' quips one teacher

Fm afraid the Asians are taking awayf rom the attention our students get," saysa white parent

Principal Thelma Brown h., a differentassessment "The district." she says, "issit ling on a time bomb

Mrs Brown, who became principal atRice last fall, is convinced the district'sschools must change if they are to meetthe challenge posed by their newest stu-dents

The transformation at Rice, just a fewblocks f rom the Halsey Square apartmentcomplex where many of the city's Mienlive, is more dramatic, 1 erhaps, than atother schools with smaller numbers ofAsian refugees But its problems areshared by other schools in Portland andthroughout the state that are trying tocope with students they were not pre-pared for

Six years ago, Oregon had about 5,000Asian students. Portland 1.300

Oregonschools

Minorityreport

Now, the state figure has doubled. Port-land's has nearly tripled.

Asian students mostly Laotian andVietnamese account for 6.8 percent ofPortland's enrollment, a figure that ex-perts say may jump to 15 percent in thenext decade.

Those figures pose a strong challengefor the public schools.

The students come from a variety ofcountries and cultures, speak diverse lan-guages and have very different education-al backgrounds all of which compli-cates the educational task.

Federal money picks up only a smallportion of the $1,100 more per child thatit costs Portland schools to educate non-English-speaking children, and there arefew aides and fewer teazhers who speakboth the children's language and English.

Portland has about two dozen bilingualAsian teachers, about half of them Viet-4amese.

Most of the children at Rice are Mien, aLaotian tribe, and Vietnamese. Generally.the Vietnamese are from cities in theirhome country, have some education intheir own language and have been in theUnited States for several years.

The Mien, in contrast, are more recentarnvals a primitive rural people who haveno written language and little schooling.

"When you look at their camps or vil-lages," reflects Diane Penner, the Eng-lish-as-a-Second-Language teacher atRice, "it was a whole different world."

They cooked with wood fires, slept onfloors and believed in spirits, she explains.Our family life, with children living awayfrom parents, is strange to them, she says,but they seem to like American televisionand cars

Many of the children have gone

through experiences that seem incredibleto their American classmAtes

It ,s not uncommon for a child to havelost a parent or relative in the flight fromtheir homeland or in the refugee camps.For many, death was a constant compan-ion

Some recent arrivals must be taughthow to use indoor bathrooms and how tobathe themselves. Many need dental workbecause their tissues are rotting fromyears of malnutrition They need clothes.

The task for the classroom teacher isstaggering

"These kids need so much more," DianePenner says "The classroom teacher real-ly doesn't have time to help them

Ms Penner, new at Rice this year,works with more than 80 children eachday, giving them special instruction inEnglish.

The school's only English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher, she works out ofa converted storage area off the gym, asmall space filled with up to 10 studentsat a time.

Two male aides. a Vietnamese and aMien, also work with the students. AnESL aide was added to the school's staffthis spring.

But mostly the job is left to the school'sseven classroom teachers and their aides,each of whom has developed her ownways of coping.

Mary Bartholomaus, who teaches thirdgrade, just reaches into the stack of learn-ing games that she's kept from the dayswhen she taught kindergarten.

"1 get them busy when they first comein," says Mrs. Bartholomaus, who assignsan Asian student "buddy" to guide new-comers through the routines of restroom,lunchtime, playground and class activities.

Sharon Surratt, a fourth grade aide,leads a regular "circle meeting" to getAsian and American students talking witheach other about feelings and experiences.

Louise Hein, a fourth grade teacher, justtries to challenge all her students.

"1 analyze what a kid is capable of andtry to push it," she says.

"A lot of times," ski xplalas, -uyou-ttes-what you expect "

Teaching at Rite is Eunetimes frustrat-ing, teachers admit, because of the timeneeded to develop lessons for the range ofstudents. Several classes have ts many aseight reading groups and four or fivemath groups.

One teacher describes the situation assimply "horrendous. It's almost like in-dividualized instruction," she says.

Louise Hein is troubled because herclass could be moving at a faster clip.

Several of her students, Including Viet-namese youths, already are performingadvanced work for extra credit.

"It's frustrating," she skvs. "You don'twant the light to go out."

71

Fif_th i a Series_

ite

,

t,

"

1 , .irtni;tax41:;.t.e

MW flitOtin Sou Kuoy Soeihoo left, and exuberant ease as they play an,;Asiori yerilon'of ilton hgt(the.rrititatittliOnils., A'1c kra4u9ces''MthIng Yong SW:Imo soil through th air witi.0 Once** befor, tlPitis earl ailkkik SciloOrM°r* 4140itly Mien, aLa tribj Yktnortsli"

The pressure is heightened becausesome of the new students, who arrive atthe rate of skeet 10 a month, are startingfrom scratch.

"It's as if you were starting with ababy," explains Thelma Brown. "They'relearning from the beginning."

Vietnamese children generally knowcolors and other concepts in their ownlanguage. That can't be assumed with theMien, Mrs. Brown says.

To help ease the burden on the class-room, the principal is applying for schooldistrict money to start a "newcomer"orientation program at Rice somethingteachers working with refugee studentsthroughout the district say is desperatelyneeded.

The Portland district briefly operated anewcomer program for Asian elementary-age students last fall, but the program fellvictim to budget cutbacks. There Is a half-

72

year newcomer program for high schoolstudents, however.

Despite the problems, Rice staffers saythe Asian students have been a boon tothe school. They've broadened the hori-zons of the American students, have madethem more tolerant and have ven.evenadded to their repertoire of games auniversal language among children.

But some parents and staff are con-cerned that the newcomers may cheatRice's traditional students.

"Those students heve to get their justdues, too," said one teacher.

Another says that Rice still is doing agood job on the basics, but she fears en-richment activities are suffering.

Some visite parents at Rice, worriedabout theft hildret's education, are con-siderig enrAllng them in nearby RoseCity Park, a phdominantly white school.

In some ways, that action, seems a re-play of the "white flighr tt was feared

^^1

would accompany racial desegregation.And it has school officials worried.

"People accept that it (the Asian infitlx)will atfect their programs in a ne:ativefashion," says Portland School Bo/adChairman Forrest Rieke.

"I don't know how we're going to dealwith it."

It's clear to Rieke and others in thedistrict that Thelma Brown and leer staffhave their work cut out for thew ,Angthey may have the solution.

"It's lust good; organized teaching,"says Mary Bartbolomaus, who askarlwhat the schools need to do.

"You take the kids where they are. Aadwork with them."

June 19, 1981

Bilingual class plan good?It's muy bienBy CAROL RUBENSTEIN

Journal Staff Writer

DAYTON Spanish sounds are just amatter of course in Gloria Valencia'sclassroom "Rise, rte. rato. tom, mire." a

group of first-graders chant as they learnthe basics of reading in their nalive lan-guage

That's part of the philosophy of DaytonElementary School's acclaimed bilingualeducation program

Six years ago, the U.S. Health. Educa-tion and Welfare Department accused therural Yamhill Countyschool district of dis-criminating against itsSpanish-speaking stu-dents

Today Dayton canboast of one of thestate's outstandingprograms for Hispanicyouth.

Begun four years ago with one kinder-garten and a first grade group, the bilin-gual program now offers the dual lan-guage option through grade five for bothAnglo and Hispanic students.

"We have an obligation in this com-munity," says program director AntonioFernandez, "to give children an equal edu-cational opportunity."

For the 31-year-old Fernandez, a Mexi-can-American who grew up in San Jose,Calif., that translates into bilingual educa-tion.

Next year, when a sixth grade class isadded, the opportunity will be Available atall levels In Dayton's single elementaryschool.

The small town, population 1,420, lo-cated on the banks of the Yamhill Riverabout 30 miles southwest of Portland.seems an unlikely setting for a progres-sive program.

But its growing number of Hispanics,now about 30 percent of the town's popu-lation and a Similar portion of the schoolnrollment, are changing the character ofthe 100-year-old settlement.

Most of the newer residents are Mexi-can-Americans who work on farms or theseveral large nurseries nearby Some ofthem came 20 or 25 years ago, decided tostay, bought homes and are building thefirst Catholic church in the predominantlyProtestant community

The bilingual program, its supporters

Oregonschools_.

Minorityreport

say, has built an important bridge be-tween the two groups ,

'1 want my children to know some ofthe language and culture of the Chicanopeople." says Walter Yungen, a schoolboard member whose son and daughterare signed up for bilingual education"They need to become fnends."

The program's philosophy is simple, thestructure a bit more complicated.

Basically, the program enrolls about130 students, some 60 percent Hispanicand 40 percent Anglo, and aims to turnout youngsters who are fluent in two lan-guages

Each of the program's six teachers arespecially trained in bilingual education inaddition to English and Spanish. Half areHispanic, the other half Anglo.

General instructions, such as classroomdirections, are about evenly divided be-tween English and Spanish, but studentsdo their academic work in whatever lan-guage they're most comfortable with

About half an hour each day is spent onEnglish as a second language or Spanishas a second language instruction.

For Anglo children, it's an enrichmentopportunity, a chance to become familiarwitt another language and culture at theage when it can almost become secondnature

For the Spanish-speaking children, theprogram buys the time needed to helpthem master curriculum basics.

The ultimate goal for Spanish-speakingchildren is to master English. Fernandezemphasizes. But teaching basic subjectslike reading and math in Spanish helpscapitalize on what the kids already know.

Why halt a child's progress in othersubjects, he asks, for the year or so it willtake him to master English?

By that time, the student usually is be-hind his classmates, standing at the edgeof a gap that may never be breached.

Bilingual education doesn't mean a sep-arate, parallel curriculum for Spanish andEnglish students, emphasizes Dayton Su-perintendent.Rich McCullough, a staunchsupporter of Fernandez' efforts.

That's the con.aon misunderstanding,the superintendent says. "Our goal is fullliteracy in English for all of our children."

According to Pernandez, there's anoth-

et.. less tangible benefit for Hispanic chil-dren who walk into a classroom wheretheir language and culture are valued.

He explains in an anecdote.A child comes into a classroom terrified

of school, no: .,peaking English. It's a newcountry, a new language.

The teacher says, "Como se llama(What's your name)?"

You can't measure the effect. Fer-nandez says, but that experience makes adifference in how the child will feel aboutschool and how well he will do.

"If you feel good, you'll have confi-dence," Fernandez says. "If you have con-fidence, there's no obstacle that can't beovercome."

The program itself testifies to Fer-nandez' belief. Begun in 1977 with a five-year federal grant totalling about$257,000 for start-up costs, the program'stab now is almost totally absorbed by thedistrict, and btlingual education seems asif it's always been a part of the Daytoncommunity.

Part of the reason for the program'ssuccess is that there are few addition;1costs associated with it. The schools haveto hire teachers for the students anywayNow they simply look for bilingual teach-ers.

The program has high expectations forits students, and teachers work hard tomake sure that the time spent in schoolhelps students learn.

They simply don't waste time.Hope Crendall's second graders were

all lined up for lunch one day when therewas a snafu in the cafeteria. Instead offidgeting for five minutes, they poppedback to their seats for a quickie spellirgquiz.

"Kids aren't like TV sets," says Fer-nandez. "You can't recall them if theydon't turn out right."

"We need to do our job every day."It's a cooperative effort, with teachers

and director joining with parents andcommunity.

Parents help hire the teachers, who arepart of the elementary school's regularstaff, and they help out v, ith special ac-tivities, such as the annual Posada Christ-mas procession through town and the Cm-co de Mayo community celebration ofMexican independence Day

"I tell the teachers we work for the

7 A

NASIAMOS ESPANOL! First graders in .GlorioValencia's class at Dayton Elementary School runthrough their reading lesson in Spanish, a routine

pareats," sa> Fernander "Without theme won't have successA full-time vommunity agent helps nar-

row the gap between school and cow.-munit) So do a number of speiaal efforts

Fernandez' program, including Spanishclasses for Anglo parents and Englishclasses for Hispanic parents

;nd the efforts are making e differ-ence

Hispanic students in the program hat.eshown improvement in English reading

Sixth in a Series

VW -

Mt NIEVA

STEVIi NEHt.(04404 Jovenat

occurrence in the school's bilingual program. Themodel program enrolls both Anglo ond Hispanicstudents, aims for fluency in English and Spanish.

and math achievemeni scores, althoughFernandez cautions that it's too early tohave definitive results

He points out that basic achievementlevels for each grade have risen, howeverAnd he cites a study of a similar programin Santa Fe, N.M , which showed studentsin the program scoring significantly high-er in reading and math than those not inthe program

"I have no doubt," says the director,"that we're have real effects on the kids

Teachers key toIndians' progressly CAROL RUBENSTEIN

Jourul Staff Writer

WARM SPRINGS Even the halls atthe elementary school here speak aboutthe juncture of worlds.

A mual of the town of Warm Springstraces its history from the days of vol-canoes and dinosaurs through the arrivalof white settlers to the present village, asmall crossroads that is the urban centerof the Warm Spring:Indian Reservation.

A poem by DuaneNlatum, a student atthe school In 1977,

kinta at wme of fhedr tviinorityeams:

report

Oregonschools

Now u if drawn by sSlannasbo wind,

A Juniper sky offering me the last snow

too, begin to round dance, modestly

The parents are more certainIt's the greatest thing I've ever seen in

education," says Karen Perez, whosedaughter lust completed first grade.

"I don't see any drawbacks," says Yun-gen. "And I see a lot of social benefit."

Those benefits, they say, are shared byschool and community.

"It's like holding hands with each oth-er," reflected one parent. "Bridging thecultural gap

June 20, 1981

Tbe mural and poem, both lining a hall atWarm Springs Elementary School, sug-gest the special challenges it faces.

The school must nurture its students'connections to their tribal put, yet pre-pare them for new worlds the whiteworld they will enter In Junior high schooland the reservation world to which manyof them will return.

It's similar to the task of other publicschools, but more critical here.

The 370 students at the school (all but ahandful are Indian youngsters from thereservation), are the future of the Wasco,Paiute and Warm Springs tribes, theWarm Springs Confederation.

In time, they will become the leaders ofthis 800,000-acre reservation that

stretches from Mount Hood to Mount Jef-ferson, bordered on the east by the Des-chutes River, on the south by part of theMetollus.

It Is a preserve encompassing lumbermills and manufacturing plants as well aswild rivers, sagebrush and volcanicwastelands.

One of the nation's most successful res-ervations, Warms Springs is a $180 mil-lion a year corporation; demandingknowledge of everything from the latestmanagement techniques and computertechnology to tribal government and old,honored customs.

The foundation for Its future is built inthe modest cluster of brick buildings, aformer Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding

school, that now is Warm Springs Ele-mentary School

That job Involves a delicate balance,says Delson Suppah. a Warm Springs In-Man who is the school's main link withthe community.

"We have to teach the students to bethe best possible students they can be."uys Suppall, who grew up on the reser-vatiom

"It's like training a horse." he says"You have to give both rem and direc-tion."

At Warm Springs. that implies a strongemphasis on tribal hismry and values.coupled with new efforts to boost aca-demic achievement

And It mans preparations for the Ma-dras public schools, where the Indian stu-dents shift from being the majority tobecoming a 30 percent minonty whenthey are bused in after the sixth grade

The preparation has to be both socialand academic. says Principal Mike Darcy,since there are misunderstandings on bothsides of the Deschutes River that separatewhite and Indian land

To bedge the understanding gap. Dar-cy, a Siletz Indian who has been Warm

Springs principal for three years. has be.gun regular half-day exchanges betweentown and reservation students

Althouph only about 20 miles, the dis-tance between Madras and Warm Springssometimes seems hka lightyears. Darcyreflects. One group of youngsters, prepar-ins for their first visit to the reservation,asked if Indian children wore clothes.

But there's another gap the school alsomust close achievement.

Indian students enter school about ayear behind whites In reading readinessAnd other areu, a gap that is maintainedthroughout school.

Part of the reason simply k lack ofexperiences, according to Earlene Ander-son, who has taught at the school for 20years.

"They need to know so many things tounderstand what they're reading," she ex-plains. "That's not much different fromany other children in isolated. ruralareas,"

This year Warm Springs has switchedto the DISTAR reading method to help itsstudents catch up. And DISTAR seems tobe doing the job.

10411111At WOOD? ~-'`4006:40:*MOO of* DISTAR viOork

"We have no non-readers this year,"Pat Kroker, who supervises the specialprogram, says proudly.

Short for "Direct Instruction Systemsfor Teaching and Remediation," DISTARrelies on a precisely sequenced, highlyorganized series of drills that breaks read-ing down to basic building blocks

The sessions are lively and intense, riv-eting students' attention

Constant upetition means the kids"overlearn" the skills, Miss Kroker says, aplus since "the Ng thing we have to do iswork on English.

"Our teachers," she adds, "have very.very high expectations

The emphasis is not just on reading.however It's also on student motivationAnd for that, Darcy insists, instructionalmaterial has to be relevant

The school uses an Indian reading senesdeveloped by the Northwest RegionalEducation Laboratory in Portland, whichrecounts many of the tribal legends forexample. And science teachers strive toincorporate Indian notions of man's rela-tionship to the earth

Classes in Sahaptin. one of the tribal

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languages are offered tt, student,There ah ,. are sort "i at t s,!..trihal traditions

There IN no quest on \Ad'as there tends to cse among arbashodren about vi hat means 0 be Indan

That sense of identits and empha%iN ,inURI) al heritage and pride are importirt

sLiss Delson Suppah ssho maintains that%elf respett is the basis for sthool sus( es%

It s a philosoph) boosted ts SuppahDarts and counselor small I.ire Hass k. allstrong supporteN of the school's new dis.Lipline program Based on pschologistWilliam Glasser's realits therapsstresses a student's responsibilits (or hisown behastor as a was of bolstering selfconfidence and self-respect

4

I hat shift towards indisidual studentresponsihilit) the) sa). will pa) off downthe line in a redaction in the drop out ratethat claims at least half of Indian studentsbefore they graduate from high school

But the single most important factor instudent suc:ess at Warm Springs, Darcybelieves, is the classroom teacher

''Once that classroom door closes," hesays. "you have no control over what goeson

His strategy has been to wodt with thebest teachers he can find to build a strongeducation team a team that puts thechildren of Warm Springs first

Four of the school's 17 teachers, in ad-dition to the counselor and liaison, areIndian, which is important because thehildren need role models, Darcy explainsBut more importantly. he seeks teach-

X

ers who may be familiar with Indian val-ues and who are sensitise to people withbackgrounds other than their own.

"When I've asked teachers if they'veever worked with Indian kids," Darcysighs, "I've had people say no, but they'veworked with blacks or Chicanos."

Not all minorities are alike, he empha-sizes. "There are even important culturaldifferences between Indian tribes."

You simply can't work "by the book"at Warm Springs, says Delson Suppah,offering what seems good advice for anyteacher

"You have to work with the childrenwho are here,'' building self-awarenessand self-esteem, he says.

And building the mutual respect that'snecessary for any relationship to prosper.

opinionGood education formula is simple

A white went, sitting in on a PortlandSchool District discussion about desegre-gation, whispered to an acquaintance:''The real problem Is that the schools don'twant to teach these kids."

A big-city school superintendent, horri-fied thAt students weren't learning to readAnd write before they were graduatedfrom high school, said there is a simpleformula for good schools. All it takes, hesaid, is commitment. Accountability andresponsibility

And, he might have added, not makingexcuses.

Making excuses is, to some extent.wnat the public schools have been doingfor the past 15 years.

Ever since University of Chicago re-searcher James Coleman's landmark 1966

enrolrubenstein

report on equal educational opportunity,in which he said SOC/ill class was the mostimportant factor in A child's success. edu-cators have been excusing Away the pub-lic schools' failure for poor children

The students, they explain, come frompoor homes. broken families. Their par-ents don't value education. They havepoor nutrition, they live in a pathologicalurban environtnent. They watch too muchTV

THE DEFENSES are familiar and shop-worn. And they don't account for those"maverick" schools in Inner-city neigh-borhoods around the country that tumoutsuccessful students.

And so recently educators have begunpaying Attention to a new vein of researchthat corroborates what common sense al-ways has said that education noesmake a difference in people's lives.

The "effective schools" studies, mostcommonly associated with Harvard Uni-versity researcher Ronald Edmonds, provethat schools do make a difference, thatthey can be the means to break the cycleof poverty that traps so many poor peo-ple, of whatever ethnic groups.

Coleman's newest report, a study ofprivate And public schools released thisyear, supports Edmonds' findingsAchievement. Coleman found, followsfrom specific school policies, not from thestudents' family backgrounds.

In schools around the country. Ed-monds' research and his prescriptions torschool improvement Are being put to thetest

Both New York City and Milwaukee.

Wis.. for example, have instituted specialprograms aimed at boosting achievementin inner-city schools with predominantlyminority students The programs workwith a "can do" philosophy and requirestrict accountability tor student learningby administrative and teaching staffs

For three months this spring, I lookedfor Oregon schools that did an effectivejob with the state's minority studentsan increasingly visible clientele for publiceducation.

I VISITED five element-1-y schoolsEliot, Boise and Rice in Portland, Daytonin Yambill County and Warm Springs inJefferson County. Each of the school: hadsignificant numbers of black, Asian, His-panic or Indian students.

What makes schools effective for mi-nority students, I found, makes them ef-fective foi any student regardless ofethnic group 01 social class.

That's a conclusion worth noting, sincesome white and middle-class parents wor-ry that efforts to upgrade achievement ofpoor and minority children will somehowdiminish what their children achieve, Ifschools work for the lowest-Achievingstudents, Edmonds and other researchersnote, they will work for the high achiev-ers, I00.

There's no one rigid model for an effec-tive school, but those that work sharesome common characteristics.

Most important, no student in a goodschool gets lost in the shuffle.

The schools that succeed have high ex-pectations for their students And theirstaffs.

They take the students where they areacademically and work to bring them upto a standard of achievement.

They use flexible approaches to teach-ing. If something doesn't work, the staffwill change it.

There is strong leadership from theprincipal, an emphasis on instruction, sys-tematic monitoring of each student'sprogress and a comfortable but not rigidatmosphere.

The schools tend to have strong com-munity support and work with "thewhole child" which often means deal-ing with the family or stepping In to helpwith health or other problems when nec-esssry.

And, According to principals at goodschools, it means that teachers have torecognize the value oi other cultures.

THE SPECIFIC strategies used by theschools may differ. whether residing pro-grams, classroom .structures or culturalactivities.

But ultimately what unites successful

schools is their commitment to make surethat their children learn. They simply donot excuse away student failure.

Vincent Reed, undersecretary for ele-mentary and secondary education at thefederal Department of Education, institut-ed a controversial testing program whilehe was superintendent of the Washington,D.C., city schools.

All students, beginning at grade 1, hadto pass a competency test before theycould be promoted to the next grade. Thefirst year of the program, about half ofthe city's students failed.

That didn't mean the system was aban-doned. Rather. Reed ordered mandatorysummer school for the failing students,along with regular tutoring sessions tohelp them make the grade.

He also publicized the test scores andrelative ranking of the city's schools be-cause, he said, people have a right toknow how well the schools are perform-ing.

That's A procedure that is not universal-ly Approved. Portland, for example. nolonger compiles A district-wide ranking ofschool test scores because, officials say.the llst Just correlates with the schools'socio-economic status.

For Vincent Reed, Ronald Edmonds andthe principals At successful schools, theformula for good education is simple.

It is leadership, they say, combinedwith dedication, commitment and ac-countability.

WHAT THAT mesns, simpy, is that thedebate is over. Teachers can no longerblame a student's failure on 14 student,his parents or some nebulous IAA of na-ture.

The schools that I visited made it clearthat when a teacher believes a child canlearn, that child willlearn.

It's not magic. It's not easy. Bat Itworks.

Citizens make a contract witb tkslschools, The schools have an obligation tofulfill it.

gattfoed 00*Hartford Connecocut

b `,tephanie `,e ick

Success in BoltonSTEPHANIE SEVICK

Slepharile Sesiciic has been ea,a( awnreporter tdr f".", r":!,! s,nc.e1978 Se.' ;P', s Curnalistiu awardsduring this benod include an AssociatedPress Awaril and the New ErgiandPress ,41tCUI AwIrL1 'or Exceilencein Journalism

In pursuing nor J urrii m FellooishipS(udy of pubili_ that woo< inCOnnectiLut Seyloc eiected SC huois inaffluent West Hartford and Darien aswell as a inure r Jai middle classracially b flt.i SL hoc' odith a strungacademic record

Sevick s 1:eiiowso.p news seriesfocuses on .vh y and noo, the affluentgold coast schools are consistently

able to produce leading academicrecords and the SJcial price theirStudents pay tor this aChievement in theintegrated middle inc'orne schoolsSevick out'ines a number jf factors thathave enabled them to keep thpl studentboCres above state test score averageswhite avi 1,PrIQ Of the socialpressurei, ahs: stra, ns aftec!,ng tr,egold Coast Stucents

Solid Teaching PreceptsReflected in Test ScoresWhen the results of Connecticut's

first statewide proficiency tests werereleased in 1980, no one was surprisedto learn that the school systems ofwealthy, sophisticated suburbs likeNew Canaan, Darien and Farmingtonscored well.

But many educators were surprisedto learn which town achieved the bestoverall scores. It was Bolton, a semi-rural town of 3,900 14 miles fromHartford, where ever:r ninth-graderpassed the writing and -eading partsof the test, 98 percent passed the lan-guage arts section, and 90 percentpassed the math.

"Bolton High School just may be oneof the best-kept secrets in public edu-cation," state Education Commission-er Mark R. Shedd said of the town'sperformance.

The proficiency tests are an impre-cise measure of a school system's qual-ity they are designed to test onlywhether Grade 9 students have mas-tered minimum basic skills. But at atime when colleges and universitiescomplain that high schools send themstudents who cannot read and write, ahigh school in which every student canpass a proficiency test in reading andwriting stands out.

Bolton High School stands out in oth-er ways, too.

While some high schools havedropped Latin altogether, 125 of Bol-ton High School's 220 students wereenrolled in Latin courses this spring.While many schools spend thousandsof dollars each year cleaning up aftervandals, Bolton High School is virtual-

ly free of graffiti. And while theft is achronic problem in many schools, thehallway lockers in Bolton don't evenhave locks.

And although the Bolton school sys-tem spends as much as a third less perpupil than the state's affluent suburbs(Bolton spent $2,149 per pupil in 1980,compared with the state average of$2,200), its high school students per-form well above average on collegeachievement examinations.

In 1980, Bolton seniors averaged 440(verbaP and 481 (math) on the Scho-lastic Aptitude Tests, compared with anational average of 424 (verbal) and466 (math) and a state average of 431and 466.

Education is taken very seriously inBolton, a picture postcard town offarmers and commuters where big,white colonial homes with forest-peen shutters dot rolling hills patched withfields. A plaque on the green proclaims thetown was settled by a group of "good Chris-tian men in 1720."

Its residents have tried bard to protecttheir small, comfortable "-wn from intru-sions including new neighbors.

"It's just that when I wake up in the morn-ing and pull up the bedroom shade, I don'twant to see another house," said Joseph J.Haloburdo Jr., chairman of the Board of Edu-cation. Bolton grew very slowly from 1970, to1980, adding only 260 people.

Beyond the city and its suburban sprawl,Bolton is almost suspended in time. That sus-pension may help explain why Bolton has oneof the most effective high schools in Connecti-cut, because much of what happens at theschool is characteristic of most high schoolsof 30 years ago.

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114

IOU RANT 10010 JFRRN WIl I IANIC COURANT PHOTO BY MIRY WILLIAM

Academic purpose isn't diluted by tue friendliness and Informality student. Sitting on the floor of the girls' washroom, Raid Sattar re-evident at Bolton High School as, clockwise from top left, Sne Murray lazes. Later, she talks with Sue Frantz, center, and Karen Morrone,addresses ber Latin class and Principal Joe Fleming talks with a right.

Nil

Concern, Stability, PurposeGuide Bolton High School

Bolton High School, for instance, never fol-lon,d the trend of the 1960s and 1970s, whenmost school systems de-emphasized the basicskills of reading, writing, and mathematics.In Bolton, students continued .0 perform old-fashioned grammar drills and to diagramsentences.

The school also never succumbed to thetide of democracy that swept through manyschools, giving teachers, parents and studentsa greater voice at the expense of the princi-pal's authority. -

It is not unusual for Joe Fleming, a tough-talking Irishman from Boston's North Shorewho is Bolton High School's principal', tostand in the hallways to catch and reprimandstudents who are late for class.

It is unusual to find Fleming at his desk. At(loon each day, he is likely to be in the school'smakeshift cafeteria (there is no kitchen, andtwo empty classrooms are used as a diningarea), eating lunch with students.

Fleming eats with students because 'thesekids have to see me," he says. "They have toknow I'm real. They have to know they cannotlie to me."

But his hard-nosed discipline masks a deepaffection.

"We want these kids to be able to vead,write and speak properly," he says. "Everyteacher here is an Engr teacher.

"Not only do we guarantee a diploma tothese kids -- a diploma that has meaningput we guarantee Ahem that this is theirschool."

Fleming's tough leadership has won himthe respect of both students and teachers.

"We can trust him," 18-year-old Ruki Sat-tar said. "I mean, you just got to trust a guywho shows up on Halloween in a Frank Per-due chicken outfit."

Teachers say Fleming makes their job easi-er by running the school tightly. The non-threatening, supportive atmosphere at BoltonHigh School appears to be a,major Ittractionfor teachers, who rarely leaife for other jobs.

Salary, certainly,, is not what keeps themthere. The school's 20 teachers, until very re-cently, were among the lowest paid ir thestate. Although a teacher with 15 years' ex-perience and advanced degrees can earnnerdy $19,000 a year, starting pay is only$10,279, and the mean salary for teachers is$13,268. That compares with a statewidemean of $15,482, according tc the state De-partment of Education.

"I would like to see them paid more,Fleming said. "These people don't stay herefor the money, and all ot them are certainlycompetitive.

"I think they stay at Bolton because thereare few overt discipline problems. I'm notsaying we don't have discipline problems, butthey are not of the nature that comes whenyou have streetwise or sophisticated kids."

In the almost closet-sized faculty lounge,teachers talk of students in positive ways.

"Oh, these kids are not sophisticated atall," art teacher Marion Nicolay said. "Someof them have never even been to Hartford,but I wouldn't trade that."

There is a strong camaraderie among Bol-ton's faculty members, who often go withFleming to a Manchester pub on Fridays for a"Tea and Literature Hour." No tea is servedand no literature discussed, but "we knoweach other very well here," English teacherJoan Hopper said with a smile.

"We've worked hard to do right by Bolton,"said David Gibbon, an English teacher at theschool for 11 years. "We want to provide thefinest education they can get. There is astrong feeling of pride and deep dedication inthis school. The students realize this."

Several students said they were no differ-ent from other American high school stu-dents.

"Sure we use drugs and alcohol, but we justdon't do it in school," said a tall sophomorewearing a black T-shirt with "Grateful Dead"spelled across the front in glitter. "Partyingis for the weekends at the Lake House."

"These kids are no better than any others,but the difference is we have control here,"guidance counselor Jure S. Krisch said. Thiscontrol, school officials say, is responsible forBolton's academic success.

Joanne B. Levy, guidance counselor forGrades 5-8, points out that "in measuring aca-demic achievement, one must not overlookclass activities, teacherstudent relationshipsand teacher-parent communications."

Bolton officials say there is a great deal ofcomrnunication between teachers and stu.dents because the school is small. In Bolton,the ratio of teachers to students is 1-to-11,compared with the statewide average of 1-to-17, state Department of Education figuresshow.

Superintendent Raymond A. Allen Jr be-lieves the students have opportunities theywould not have in larger schools. "If a kidwants to play a sport, he can," Allen said. "Itdoesn't matter how good the student is at thesport. He is welcomed."

Kim Columbia, a 16-year-old honor stu-dent, said, "Because the classes are small, if-icm have a problem the teacher srill stop inthe mid4le of class to explain. Bu if you arehaving a problem and you are one of 40 kids in

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a class in some other school, that's too badbecause you'd probably have to wait afterschool for extra help

The smallness can also be a drawback,however

"Everyone knows everything about ever-body." said dark-eyed Andrea Loalbo, a 15-year-old sophomore.

Her girlfriend. Chris Russell, agreed "Ifyou have a new top on, the whole schoolknows by 8 30 in the morning. They know howmuch you paid for it and where you bought itSometimes this smallness is a pain."

"One disadvantage is we have a few kidswho would really profit from some advancedcollege-level courses,'' said a teacher who didnot want to be identified "We can't givethem There are not enough students to forman advanced class

Seco') I in a Series

Strhring for the American Dream

In recent years, Bolton residents have dis-cussed closing the high school because of itssmall enrollm, nt. But in a 1979 survey con-ducted by con! !Rants from the University ofConnocticut, 24*) of the 320 people surveyedfavored keep;ng the school open.

"I really hope they don't close this school,"Loalbo said. "I went to St. James (a parochialschool) in Manchester for a half year in sev-enth grade.

"Everyone at St. James thought they wereso ahead of the other schools. But you knowwhat9 When I raised my hand to ask a ques-tion in that schocl, the teachers always mademe feel like I wasn't paying attention. I'mjust glad I'm here now."

Students Driven to SucceedBy STEPHANIE SEVICK

(rmrafl( Educatuyn WriterThe four students crouching behind

a car in the visitors' parking lot of HallHigh School in West Hartford weregetting ready to take a test.

But no textbooks were open, andnone of the students was studyingnotes They were passing around amarijuana cigarette.

"We're mellowing out," said one stu-dent

"Relaxing so we can do well on thetest," said another. "We have to get agood grade."

Nearly 70 miles away at Westport'sStaples High School, five young menwere taking a calculus quiz. Theysquirmed in their chairs as the teacherwalked around the room surveying thestudents' progress.

The five students' heads bobbed upand down as they glanced from the testto the teacher, waiting for him to turnhis back. He did, and the five cheatedby exchanging test papers. They, too,had to get good grades.

Not all the students at Hall HighSchool use drugs. before tests, nor doall those at Staples cheat. Bot whathappens at these schools to make somestudents resort to drugs and cheatingis precisely what makes them goodschools

Parents, schools, and students dn

s:

wealthy West Hartford and Westporthave a common goal. continuing theAmei ican dream However they de-fine that dream and for many inthese towns it is their upper-middle-class world of country clubs and Mer-cedes they are convinced it requiresone certificate- a college degree.

Parents consequently demand a lotfrom their schools, and Hall and Sta-ples high schools, in turn, expect a lotfrom their students. The students will-ingly buckle down, because they knowthat being accepted by the right col-lege a Harvard or Bryn Mawr isjust as important as eventually earn-ing a degree.

When fathers with Ivy League de-grees hold positions as vice presidentsof Fortune 500 corporations, they donot think it unreasonable to demandtheir children do at least as well.

Westport and West Hartford resi-dents have backed up their high expec-tations of public education with astrong financial commitment. In Con-necticut, the two towns ranked firstand second, respectively, in per-pupilspending in 1979-80, the latPst year forwhich state Department oi Educationfigures are available.*Westport spent$3,152 per pupil and West Hartford$2,916, compared with a statewideaverage of $2,200.

July 13, 1981

Whether this spending buys Staplesand Hall students higher college boardscores is debatable. But the students,on the whole, do scure significantlyhigher than the state and nationalaverages on the Scholastic AptitudeTest in 1980 Staples students aver-aged 477 on the verbal part of the testand 494 ou the math, while West Hart-ford students (at Hall and the town'sother high school, Conard) averaged447 on verbal and 498 on math.

The statewide average was 431 onverbal and 466 on math, while the na-tional average was 424 on verbal and466 on math. The scoring range on bothtests is 200 to 800.

The high expectations placed on the1.600 students at Hall and the 1,400students at Staples have createdfierce, almost back-stabbing competi-tion. This highly competitive climateis started in the homes, fostered by theschools and perpetuated by the stu-dents themselves.

Debbie Packman. who graduatedfrom Hall in June, is typical of manyof the students at Hall and Staples. Abright, energetic 17-year-old, sheshows all the signs of success.

She comes from a comfortable WestHartford home, where books and mag-azines are plentiful and where the tele-vision set is rarely on. Her father, Al-lan, is a research engineer with the

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uf Hai tford Her mother. Judy. is arcomemaker who completed two yearsof college

This spring, Debbie was a memberof the honor society, captain of thecheerleading squad and popular Thtdoor of her locker was covered with

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memorabilia from her four years atHall a photograph of the cheerlead-ing squad in a pyramid formation, apicture of her and her date at the sen-ior prom and the needless word "diet

But cvershadowing all the memen-tos were two words clipped from amagazine "college' and "successThe words were more than just thegoals of thz smiling senior, they sym-

Debra Packman, left,a college-boundsenior at Hall HighSchool in WestHartford, walks toclass with friendRenah Feldman.Packman, a memberof the school's honorsociety, captain of thecheerleading squadand the daughter of aresearch engineerand a mother whoattended two years ofcollege, is typical ofthe highly motivatedstudents who makeHall classescompetitive and thestudents'performance onstandardized testswell above nationalaverages.

bolized what Hall and Staples highschools are all about

College was not a goal Debbie set forherself in high school It was set forher by her parents when she walkedinto kindergarten. "From the momentDebbie entered school, we knew Itliewould go to college," her mother said.

In the Packman's kitchen, coveredwith floral wal'paper, Judy Packman,

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Fierce Competition DrivesStudents at Hall, Staples

a slim woman with neatly styledbrown hair and carefully manicurednails, spoke candidly of her daughter

"You just have to be on top of schoolDebbie just didn't become a good stu-dent like that We worked hard at itWe established a homework routine ingrade school, at age 6 So by the timeshe reached 17, she knows she's gothomework and it has to be done." shesaid

Debbie has gotten As and Bs on herreport cards for as long as she and hermother can remember Only once didDebbie get a C in a junior high math-ematics class "Debbie quickly tookcare of that," her mother said

"Look, my daughter isn't perfect,"Packman said "She is a typical teen-ager She gets punished for things, butshe always aims for the top Her moti-vation is intense, but then again so ismine

"You ohly do as well as the competition around you The environmentplays a big part in education If welived somewhere else, and Debbie wasas highly motivated as she is. wewoidn't get the same results That'swhy we and lots of other people movedto West Hartford. because of schools

Debbie will attend Union College inSchenectady, N Y in September

Peter D Relic, West Hartford's su-perintendent of schools, believes thecupport of parents like Debbie's is important to the system's success

An undersecretary in the U S De-partment of Education when WestHartford chose him as superintendentof schools in July 1980, Relic said ef-fective schools have four componentsthe student, the teacher, the parentsand the principal He calls themlearning, teaCaing, support and lead-ership

"Teachers teach skills and knowl-edge Yes, they teach values and atti-tudes like courtesy, honesty and clean-liness," he told parents and teachers ata PTO meeting at Morley ElementarySchool or.e night in March "These val-ues reflect the attitude of the commu-nity

-It's nice to have children comingfrom homes where there books andmagazines around and a sensibleamount of time for television, but par-enLi do not have to be highly educat-ed," he said "A literate parent withcommitment goes a long way The par-

ent has to know what's going on in thesehool We have to know what's goingon in the home

As Debbie Packman walked downthe corridors of Hall High School, withher sparkling brown eyes and a maga-zine-co er smile, her face showed aslight strain

"Hey, what did you get on Trecker'stest' a student shouted to her

"B." Debbie shouted back as shecracked her gum

"Too bad, said the student in a sar-castic tone "I got an A

A look of disappointment came overDebbie's face Hall students are notsatisfied with Cs and Bs on tests Asare considered the decent grade

"A 'C' in this school is really an F," afreshma n said

It is tOe race for grades that moti-vated Debbie Packman and 15 class-mates to sit through 45 minutes of anadvanced honors calculus class at 7 45in the morning without yawning

As calculus teacher Marion Fisherdrew triangles and wrote equations onthe board, members of the classwatched intently There was no talkingand no staring out the window

There was only one interruptionwhen a junior said she did not under-stand how the teacher arrived at ananswer Fisher waited while a class-mate turned to the perplexed student sdesk and jotted numbers on a piece ofpaper to show how the other studentsgot the correct answer

''I get it, I get it," said the juniorThe class continued until the bell rang

Out of the 45 minutes of class time,the students paid attention 41 minutesThe four minutes not spent on instruc-tion were used by the students to openand close notebooks and to leave theirseats for the next class

The efficient )..se of time in Pack-man's math class, made possibk by itsstudents' strong sense of purpose, isone of the characteristics that helpsmake Hall an effective school

It also attracts teachers who want tobe free to teach,

Hall, nicknamed the "Taj Mahal" byWest Hartford residents, is a school atwhich teachers strive to get jobs. Be-sides its highly motivated students, ithas excellent salary levels by Con-necticut standards (a teacher with adoctorate and 10 years of experience ispaid $21,100), there are few discipline

problems and the sprawling brickbuilding holds a wealth of teachingmaterials

"When I tell a teacher from anotherdistrict that I work at Hall . . well, it'slike reaching nirvana," a Hall scienceteacher said. "Consequeatly, to leaveHall, for whatever reason, is consid-ered failure."

Westport's Stapies faculty, paidsimilar salaries, is considered evenmore prestigious And the roard ofEducation has worked to earn thatreputation. Until the number of facul-ty openings at Staples fell sharply inrecent years, the school board annual-ly dispatched a special committee on anationwide search for teachers.

As a result, Viestport's faculty hascredentials comparable to the facul-ties at elite private schools such asHotchkiss and Choate. "You will notfind a teacher here who has graduatedfrom the University of Bridgeport,"said Jerry Kuroghlian, an Englishteacher at Staples.

The facilities and programs at theschools are lavish for both teachersand students.

A Hall freshman interested in ath-letics will find 32 teams in 21 sportsthat range from footbali to gymnasticsand lacrosse.

If a student is musically inclined,Hall has 11 performing groups. The or-chestra, band and choral groups domore than just put on shows at Christ-mas and spring fe als the Con-cert Jazz Band and Choir have touredEurope, and the jazz band has cut itsown record

Hall's library has 24,(, boc.ks, sub-scriptions to 1(2 periodicals, 5,500films, video and audio tapes, posters,and games in five languages.

The school also has a supply of me-dia hardware and software such ascomputer terminals, video-tapingcomponents, and a closed-circuit TVsystem that makes possible suchthings as "Update," a student-pro-duced news program shown duringhomeroom once a week.

And Hall may have fewer facilitiesthan Staples. Staples recently under-went a $14 million renovation projectthat joined its nine buildings, whichwere built in 1965 in a California col-lege-campus style. Students and teach-ers had complained they were isolatedin the separate buildings and Connecti-

e ut winters made trav eling bet weenbuildings inconv enwnt

The raw, awn also ine wiled a newfieldhouse, which has a one-acre gym-nasium with a half inch pourea rubberfloor, and a 25-meter by 45-foot poolthat costs $67,000 a school y ear tomaintain, according to Bob Yovan.aquatics director Altogether. theschool has 300,000 square feet 7' 4acres of floor space

Staples library has a collection of40,000 books, more than 100 magazinesubseriptions and a microfiche collec-tion of The Nev, York Times datingf rom 1864 Microfiche is a sheet of mi-crofilm. usually 4-by -6 inches. thatpreserves pages in a reduced form

Staples students can choose frommore than 230 eourses in field3 such ascontinental Looking. women in litera-ture. matrix algebra and anthropolo-gy .

The school boasts that it offers stu-dents broadcasting experience in theschool's own television studio and ra-dio stations and dozens of programs intheater and art

The aoundant materials and pro-gri -us, however, can add to the pres-sures the students feel at both schools

We feel compelled to do well here.'said 15-year-old Bitsy Kiester of Sta-ples People in Westport say that oth-ers don't have what we have, and theyhold it over our heads

Third in a Series

"E%,eryone thinks we are snobs, sowe might as well be snobs." said 16-y e :r. old Allyson Armbrust of Staples

"There is a feeling or an attitudethat we're from Westport so anyoneel.se is second class, Staples headmaster Lee Littrell said "It's the GoldCoast syndrome

''I think sometimes that we are sobusy telling everyone how good weare. that 'We are Hall High,' (theschool's slogan) that before you knowit. everyorie believes it Whether it is

true or not, I don't know." said a Hallteacher who did not want to be identi-fied.

There is a flip side to the intensecompetitiveness at Hall and StaplesFor some students. the goals their par-ents and schools have set for them mayseem so high as to be nearly unreachable.

"These 16-year-olds look at theirsuccessful fathers and fear that theywill not measure up to their success,"said Littrell. "Their fathers are notgent!e men They got to the positionsthey have by being aggressive. .. Thestudents are fearful of their ability tomake it."

"I do rat have the same enduranceand drive as my father," said 16-year-old Denise Fournier, the daughter of abusinessman. "That makes me fright-ened

The intense pressure to perform has

created a group of students called"academic burnouts" students whohave good academie ability, but are

>poorly motivated.Hall High School has recognized the

problem and set up a special program,Alternative Search for KnowledgeASK

"Grades are very important here.There is a lot of social pressure forgood grades These kids are poorly mo-tivated because of the competitionThey've lost their drive," said pro-gram teacher Jim Solomon. "Theproblem is created by Hall itselfThere are so many oportunities, plen-ty of good resources and a fine build-ing That's the problem it's allhere

ASK combines the academic disciplines of social studies and English forjuniors and seniors who have high 1Q'sbut have,grade-point averages placingthem in the bottom half of their classThey must hav e their parents' permis-sion to be in the program.

"It's a concern for the future in apragmatic way. This program helpsbuild a positive self-image," saidLarry Price, the program's otherteacher "These kids are like the emp-ty faces walking on the sta eets of NewYork City

-

Teaching Ailing SchoolsABCs of SuccessBy STEPHANIE SEVICK

Courant Education Writer

Ronald Edmonds had just c:-dered an extra-dry martini when aschool superintendent cornered himin the lounge of the North HavenRamada Inn, where Edmonds hadspoken tather to a conference ofeducators.

"I need help," pleaded the man,who ran the school system in a shor-eline suburb. He had budget prob-lems and discipline hassles, stu-dents who worked only hard enoughto get by, an aging, worn-down fac-ulty, principals buried by paperwork and a community that didn'tseem to care.

Edmonds had heard the samecomplaint from hundreds of schooladministrators: American public

July 14, 1981

education wasn't working. Hefished the lemon peel cut of hisdrink, looked up at the superinten-dent and said, "I don't have all theanswers."

Perhaps. But in a profession noto-riously prone to fads, Edmonds isthe latest gun. for American educa-tors. Although the polished profes-sor from the Harvard GraduateSchool of Education declines topromise miracles, he readily Kareshis theory of how public schools canagain become effective places oflearning.

If Edmonds theory sounds famil-iar like "back to basics" with a

J

Harvard accent that may justmake it more attractive to educa-tors who are grasping desperatelyfor a way to stop thr, academic de-cline in their cbasrooms. Put:1'kschools are under heavy attack, andwhen an Ivy League researcheragrees with angry parents and tax-pkyers that rote learning, lots ofhomework and strict discipline arewhat schools need, hard-pressededucators listen.

Edmonds, however, must turnaround 15 years of educationaltheorizing to claim victory for hisviews.

21 '

Latest Guru for EducatorsDoesn't Promise Miracles

Since 1966, when sociologist andeducator James S. Coleman re-leased his landmark report, "Equal-ity of Education Opportunity," mosteducators have believed that a pu-pil's family background is the criti-cal factor in determining his aca-demic success.

Coleman's federally funded re-port, which argued that "Negroschools are inferior to those attend-ed largely by whites," became thejustification for widespread schooldesegregation and busing for thepurpose of integration. But a secon-dary conclusion assumed greaterimportance over time. Middle-classwhite pupils, Coleman had said,would not be adversely affected bybusing because the critical factor intheir academic success was theirfamily life, not their school

The conclusion many peopledrew from the roort was that in-ner-city blacks were similarly af-fected by environment. But in theircase, their poverty-stricken livesseemed to promise failure.

Edmonds sharply disagrees. HisEffective Schools theory, as it iscalled, claims that any school,structured as Edmonds recom-mends, can teach any child evena poor one from the inner-citythe minimum basic skills that mid-dle-dass parents expect of theirchildren.

Edmonds' theory is based ensearch he began at Harvard in tneearly 1970s to answer one question:Is a pupil's academic performancedetermined by family backgroundor the school itself?

His method was to study thoserare inner-city schools where pupilsmanaged to learn despite debilitat-ing home environments and chronicstaff and material shortages. Whatdistinguished those schools fromother, less-successful ones, hefound, were:

Clearly stated goals.Strong leadership.Discipline and order.Regular testing to measure pu-

pils progress.High expectations.

When those five factors were pre-sent in a school, ne believed, pupilsmtstered basic skills, regardless of

S I

their faMily backgrounds.Edmonds, who oion his reputation

by applying his findings to NewYork City's beleaguered publicschool system, admits he doesn'tknow "if the five characteristics arethe cause or the results of goodschools.

"It really doesn't matter," hesays What matters is whether chil-dren are learning.

Many parents, angry at publicschool systems that prduce gradu-ates who can't read job applicationsor balance checkbooks, wouldagree.

Edmonds began publishing his re-search in 1975. In the summer of1978 he was invited to become sen-ior assistant to Frank Macchiarola,New York City's chancellor of pub-lic education.

The city's public school system,which enrolls nearly 1 million chil-dren taught by 60,000 teachers in1,200 schools, was "on the margin ofinstitutional disaster," Edmondstold the Education Writers Confer-ence in New York this spring.

Edmonds sent experts trained inhis work into schools to see wherethey were lacking. If, for instance,they found a principal who was nota strong "instructional leader," onewho sat in an office rather than reg-ularly visiting classrooms and criti-quing teacher and student L. ,avior

a staff person would be assignedto help the principal change hisways.

The improvement program wasreinforced by a new, standardizedcurriculum for all city schools,which gave administrators an accu-rate means of measuring pupils'progress. New rules also were es-tablished for promoting and trans-ferring pupils.

The goal was to eliminate socialpromotions, the practice of promot-ing pupils with failing grades ratherthan keeping them in classes withchildren two or three years youn-ger.

7 he program worked. Readingscores have risen consistently, andthis year, for the first time, a ma-jority of New York City pupils werereading at grade level. Also, for thefirst time, one in five Grade 7 stu-dents was kept back for failing tomeet expected reading levels.

Edmonds' success in New Yorkattracted the attention of school ad-ministrators across the nation.Within a year, Milwaukee, St Louis,Lansing. Mich and New Havenwere establishing Effective Schoolsprograms, many of them with thehelp of educators who had studiedunder Edmonds.

e

RONALD EDMONDS

tjimaik,

JAMES COLEMAN

New Haven has been working ona school improvement plan the lastthree years, combining Edmonds'theory and the work of Dr James PCorner, a professor of psychiatry atthe Yale Child Study Clinic who hasbeen working in New Haven publicschools since 1968.

Connecticut's Department ofEducation included much of Ed-monds theory in 1980 in its firstComprehensive Plan for Education,a five-year program charting thefuture of public education. Thestate is now identifying schools thatwould benefit from the EffectiveSchools approach

Edmonds' Ideas have not made aclean sweep of the educationalworld, however, even though a newstudy released this spring by Cole-man, his adversary, appears to rein-force his views

Coleman's latest study, 'Publicand Private Schools," caused a fu-ror in public education by clivlud-ing that students in private highschools learn more than those inpublic high schools

Educators have predicted thestudy will cause a mass exodus toPrivate schools. Its conclusions alsohave fueled a political campaign togive tax credits to parents who sendtheir children to private schools.

"Public and Private Schools" at-tributes the success of private

schools, and particularly parochialschools, to their firmer disciplineand structure and higher academiedemands.

Coleman found that students Inprivate and parochial schools 14c1more homework, cut fewer classesand had fewer discipline problemsthan public school students. Teach-ers' Interest in the students also Washigher at private schools.

"In general, ( private schools had)a more orderly environment," Cole-man said.

The study, which examined58,728 students in 1,016 public andprivate high schools, also found pri-vate and parochial school studentshad higher aspirations and expecta-tions than public school studentsfrom similar backgrounds.

Discipline, structure and high ex-tations also happen to be factors

dmonds has identified as the keyto effective schools. But althoughColeman appears to have shiftedsharply from his earlier theoriesand moved nearer Edmonds', he re-mains adamant that the family isthe great influence on a child's edu-cation. He insists that his new studydoes not endorse Edmonds.

"He is a charlatan," Colemansaid of Edmonds recently as he litan after-lunch cigar in the exclusiveQuadrangle Club on the University

k.f Chicago campus, where he teach-es. "Edmonds is no researcher Hemakes the statement that the homeis not important. He has overstatedhis case."

"One distinct advantage the pri-vate schools have is there is a lot offamily reinforcement of educa-tion," Coleman said "Clearly, it isthe families' involvement with edu-cation that makcs the difference,more than the school itself. The par-ents reinforce the schools' de-mands."

Coleman aanowledges that par-ents send their children to privateschools for a variety of reasons.

"A lot of times it is because thepublic schools are not doing well,"he said. "Then, because the parenthas made the choice to put theirchild in private school it becomes-the choice (Itself) that gives theseparents 3n added edge (over publicschools).

Coleman's findings already havebegun to be scrutinized and de-bated, and undoubtedly will pro-duce more research studies. Heknows he is a powerful man.

"You always hear complaints byresearchers that no one uses theirwork," Coleman said. "You reallyhave to suspect yourself if you don'tmake someone a little angry. I thinkthat's why my research is usedand Irritating."

Fort Lauderdale Florida

st _in a Series

June 2, 1981

Education of the gifted:A challenge for Florida

PATRICIA SULLIVANPat' c,1 Sullivan Nno holds a Bachelor sleg'Pe fl Ournalism from Marquetteuniversity has been education writer forPart Lauderdale s S,jn-Sentinel since1979

Per ner Feliowship study of education ofgifted and talented students Sullivansougnt to find out whether gifted andtalented education is a gift to theeconomic upperclass She started herresearch on the premise that while threeto fisie percent of the public schoolenrollment qualifies as gifted that groupof students is a homogeneous In' ''ouldit be that the public school system, in anattempt to prove its program cancompete in quality with expensive, eliteprivate schools has created a privateschool within a public school system')

The study was conducted from thestudent viewpoint The rationalestudents are the ones who see theprograms for what they are they are theones who develop the problems, andthey are the ones who have to deal withthe ambivalent emotions which comefrom having superior abilities in a

medioc re world

Sullivan found tha., althougn Florida isconsidered a leader in girted andtalented educat:oil ;,,robiems remainThere .;.,.2ra uirticulties in identifying thegifted, particularly among minorities, thetendency being to define only -whizkids" as gifted While some programsproved productive, other classes werelittle more than study halls The studyalso showed that there was little follow-up or evaluation of programs, and fewpeople had any idea of what happens togifted students when they leave highschool.

By Patricia SullivanEducation Writer

The gifted are differentTheir intellect shines like a

beacon of light over a sea of flicker-ing caadles. In a nation worriedabout the literacy of its youth, thegifted not only can read, but theyalso can think.

The gifted learn differently.They learn faster and seem to

leap over formulas, never needingthe step-by-step rules andarithmetic drills that the rest oftheir classmates use to understandnew tkeories.

"These kids have grasshopper

APIMILArelitifted:LIA class of their own

minds," said one amazed Sarast.:2principal.

The gifted are different from youand me. They're smarter. Andthat's their biggest problem.

Gifted students in Florida musthave ail intelligence quotient of atleast 130 ',the "normal" IQ is 100).Fewer than two out of every 100public school students in the statequalify. Some of those gifted stu-dents have such high IQs that they

shoot off the top of the scale and atthat level, the label "genius"doesn't do them justice.

The state's school districts maynot be doing them justice, either,say some supporters of giftededucatim, because how good agifted program is depends to alarge extent upon where you liveand who you are.

Florida, even though it is con-sidered a leader in gifted education,has its problems:

It has gifted programs thatsoar and others that are little morethan study halls.

It has difficulty finding andidentifying any student as giftedand it has major problems findingminority gifted students.

It defines only academic whizkids as gifted students.

It has no idea what happens togifted students when they leavehigh school.

Why should the public care 4boutthese extraordinarily bright chil-dren? Supporters of gifted educa-tion say if schools don't challengethe best of the dant the world maybe robbed of its most Innovativethinkers and ideas of thefuture.

Counselor Gregg Huddlestone ofFort Lauderdale's Walker Elemen-tazy School, said It's tough to pre-dict what will happen if these stu-dents are not challenged in class.

89

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Gifted pupils delve into the world of science at Cooper City Elementary School.

"There are some kid.s who will just sit back and dothe rsquirvd amount of work and no one will everknow (their potential). There are others who will turninto behavior problems because they're bored. Othcrswill sleek out work. There is just no pattern it*vends on the individuai and the home environment,"he &aid.

Psychologists and counselors in South Florida, aswall as national experts on the gifted, agree there isibsufficiant evidence to say whether gifted kids sufferlevy emotional difficulty if they are not challenged.

Most people don't realize gifted students have theirown special problems.

"You understand how a handicapped person wouldhave problems, but nobody understands why a giftedstudent would have problems," said Ellen Bryant,director of exceptional education in Gadsden Countyin north Florida. 'The feeling is 'You have it made,kW.' But psople'don't realize gifted students are as faraway from ths.mean as the retaii:::d child."

Far those who believe the public education systemow& to motivate and serve all the students, there isPOND for special programs for slow learners andgiidtal student& Gifted education is hut one end of theWiactual spectrum.

* *The gifted are as different from each other as a

Volkswagen from a Porsche even though they areboth small cars, there's a world of difference inperformance.

Jerry Parrish, a Miami 17-year-old who never hastaken a computer class in school, spends almost every

after-school hour developing a computerized data*try system for cardiac patients at the mammothJa Iczzon Memorial Hospital.

"My high school sure doesn't have a computer likegds. I'm workingpn stuff most college students don'tget to 4o," said the personable scientist.

Bobbj, a Sarasota fifth-grader, carries a violin andDractices on his lunch break beneath the trees.

"I finished Mozart last year," he said somberly.Search out the gifted students in Florida and you'll

Cod them in the turn-of-the-century Tampa FreeLibrary building radios in an old bookloft; taggingearks in the humid, salt-soaked air of Key Biscayne;mearching the history of black schools of Jack-sonville; and learning chess in Palm Beach from theatm who used to instruct world chess champion BobbyFischer.

You'll also find them in regular classrooms, per-haps excelling, perhaps not. They may be among thebored, the "troublemakers" who are tired of the basicskills drills. They might be ',elping other studentsfigure out the mysteries of multiplication orCharlemagne or pulleys.

The gifted are different in how they are seen by theworld.

"I grew up in an atmosphere where we useti to turnan the radio and listen to the Quiz Kids," said DorothySisk, former director of the federal Office of Giftedand Talented. "I thought those kids knew more thanany kid ought to know."

The students have heard that kind of attitudebefore. The only way to deal with it is to ignore it, theysaid.

(.1LI

"It doesn't come from your friends, it comes fromyour enemies," said Kristi Gladstone, a fifth-grader atCooper City Elementary School. "They think you'resmart, but you know you're just intelligent."

"Everybody calls you names, like 'brain' and 'smar-ty'. They think you have ESP," said classmate TomIevoli a fifth-grader from Cooper City ElementarySchool.

Gifted students don't have to have extrasensoryperception, but they have to meet three other quali-fications to be considered gifted in Florida. They mustscore two deviations above the mean on a standardintelligence test (essentially, an IQ score of about 130);they must have moat of the characteristics whichresearchers attribute to gifted children (such as earlyreading snd intense curiosity); and they must show aneed for if special progratd,

In Florida, the gifted are the academically gifted.

They are not:The musically or artistically talented, although

they might have those talents, too.The creative, although they might create.The achievers and conformists, although they

might score straight A's and follow rules easily.The leaders, although they might lead.

Although Florida is considered a leader in giftededucation, some school officials across the state sayit's a leader by default.

"You can be a leader and still be conservative,"said Dr. Sisk. She considers the state's definition ofwho is gifted coryservative. The federal governmenttalks about the gifted and talented and includes allthose categories listed above that Florida ignores.

The state consultant to the gifted defends Florida'sreputation.

Parcnts can seek evaluation of abilityParents who believe their child is gifted can

request an appraisal by their school district understate law.

The procedure is similar in both Broward andPalm Beach counties. The first step is for parents tocontact the principal of the public school where thechild is assigned.

School officials will check the student's previoustest records, ask for referrals from teachers who

have taught the child and schedule an intelligencequotient or IQ test.

The pridcipal will tell the school psychologistwhat priority to place on the test for each child,school officials in both counties say. The wait canrange from one to six months.

Most of the time teachers suggest a child betested for the gifted programs, but parents and eventhe student have a right to ask for the testing, stateofficials say.

Ethnic Breakdown of Gifted students

Dept ot Educationstatistics Oct 1980

Broward

, ,

Pains Beshis

Dade

buys,

Gadsden

Hillsborough

Leon

Oranile

Pinellas

Sarasota

State Totals

WhiteNon-

Hispanic

BlackNon-

HispanicHispanic

Asian/Pacificislander

Amer Indian/AlaskanNative

Total

3,693 143 56 39 2 3,933

1,278 47 13 25

1,850 116 213 ;71ti

2,250

1,683,.. ,

.T ,

., --....

54 18 72

1,758 :74 42 , 17 .- : ....tr-u:, ,,,,,,,, i,

. .

4, `th:

456 40 3 13 1 '513

2,194. 55 13 19, .

2,407 90 5 19 2,521

$10 3 5 - ,15 .,,' 1 - 534 ,,,,,4

6.=mrarraegar.......26,406

,..............0.,(93 88%)

914 410 383 13 28,126

(3 304) (1 4F%) (1 36%) ( 05%) (100%)

Number of gifted students identified as gifted in 10 of Horida's 67 counties

91

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A student orchestra plays during a falr at the Pineview

"The position of the Department of Education wasto identify one category at a time, so we went with thegroup easiest to identify," said consultant Joyce Run-yon.

The gifted are different all right. They constituteonly 3 to 5 percent of all the students in the nation,federal officials estimate. But that's about 2.5 millionstudents nationwide. At last count, Florida found28,126 in this state. Broward County has identified3,933; Palm Beach County has identified 1,363.

State law, passed in 1975, says all students identi-fied as gifted must have "an appropriate program ofspecial instruction." That appropriate program differsfrom county to county and from school to schoolfrom a special, all-gifted school in Sarasota to a roving

van in Martin County to daily special classes inChattahoochee.

The state spent about $18.5 million for giftedprograms last year and that's the third highest expen-diture in the country, behind Pennsylvania and CaH-fornia. Rut the gifted program is a part-time programin Florida schools are reimbursed for the cost of 12hours of instruction.

Florida spent about the same amount of money onthe gifted, according to latest figures available, as itdid on students in full-time emotionally handicappedclasses. However, there were five times as manygifted kids.

11

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School in Sarasota, the only all-gifted school in Florida.

Out of Florida's total expenditure of about $240million for special education, gifted programs re-ceived about 13 percent.

* * *Teachers will have to be specially certified to

instruct gifted students starting with the 1982-baschool year the Legislature decided last year. Parentsand administrators see that as a major step forwardfor gifted education.

"I don't driderstand how you could teach themwithout understanding what a gifted child is," saidCenille Barnett. a Broward County teacher of thegifted who has gone through the special training.

But some people challenge the assumption thatthere is such a cat^gory as "the gifted child." &apeparents and professionals believe that labeller lödents "gifted" is elitist, unneceuary and damagetkAkegifted child, as well as the average and above average.child who are made to feel failures.

"They become prestige programs. Parents want,their kids in there whethar the kids are gifted or net,"said Robert Weiland, director of psychological ser-vices for tbe Broward County School District.

Social labels create their own reality, argue DaridG. Myers and Jack Rid!, Hope College professors hiHolland, Mich. If only 3 to 5 percent of the studentare gifted, that "implies that at leut 95 percent of our,

children are not gifted and talente4, a' false andpernicious assumption," they write.

"To the Yanomamo Indians of South America,giftedness is possession of the skills of a great hunterand warrior. To parapsychologists, it is psychic &bill.ty. To Suzuki violin teachers, it is musical talent. Inmiddle-class America, one finds almost XS manydefinitions of giftedness as articles on it," Myers andRidl said.

No one can prove it, but teachers also say whengifted students get bored by the material and pace ofclasses, they drop out.

"There's a strong correlation between giftednessand emotional problems," said Rosemary Timoney.director of gifted programs at Northeast High Schoolin Fort Lauderdale. "I personally get very depressedover the high number of non-achieving gifted students.A few have failing grades. A few have the C to Drange. They could be soaring, but there almost seemslike a safety valve that says, 'I will not do it.'

The charges of elitism are not so easily dealt with.Statistics from the state Department of Educationshow that only 3.3 percent of Florida's gifted studentsare black, even though bluks comprise 23 percent ofall K-12 students in Florida. Hispanics do a littlebetter, but they, too, are underrepresented 1.5

percent of gifted students are Hispanic. although theymake up 6.6 percent of the student population.

There are ways to find more minority studentswithout lowering state standards. The use of analternative test, the System of Multi-phasic Person-ality Assessment, known as SOMPA, is becoming morepopular because educators say it is less culturallybiased than standard intelligence tests. But the SOM-PA is expensive and takes a long time to adminsterbecause it recluires f.everal interviews at the student'shome and with his teachers.

Elitism is condoned in some areas, others point out.

"It's OK to separate athletes . . . but there seems tobe a stigma attached to intellectual ability andgrowth," said Frances Quinto, consultant to the Na-tional Education Association.

But while a star athlete can start out in the peeweeleagues and move up through organized sports as hegoes through school, it is impossible in many ofFlorida's 67 county school districts to attend giftedcluses from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Second in a Series

The future of gifted education in the state may welldepend on its costs as more students are identified andmore programs start. The federal government, which-has played only a minimal role in funding for th,gifted, is not expected to help out during this time ofbudget cuts.

"But what is the cost of not helping the gifted andtalented?" asked University of North Carolina pro-fessors James J. Gallagher and Patricia Weiss.

"What is the cost of the medical discovery that'snever made, the peace agreement never reached, thesonata never written? It is hard to put such losses intcdollars, hut we cannot think of these without the pairof sensing what might have been.'

List identifies traitsthat are associatedwith the gifted child

There am a number of lists that describe the characteriatics of giftedchildren

Few children display all the features on any list. but the Council forExceptional Children, which drew up the list below, believes that thesecharacteristics "constitutft observable behaviors that can be thought of asclues to more specific behaviors"

They typically read earlier. with better comprehension than otherchildren their age.

They learn basic skills better, faster and with less practiceThey handle abstractions better than their classmatesThey take less for granted, seeking out the bows arid the whysThey can.sustain longer periods of concentration and attentionTheir interests are often both wildly eclectic and intensely focusedThey frequently have seemingly boundless energyThey are usually able to respond well to adults and may prefer the

company of older children.They are fluent thinkers, able to produce a large number of

possibilities. consequences arid related ideasThey are flexible thinkers, able to use many cliffemni alternatives to

problem solving.They are original thinkers, seeking new arid seemingly ul,:.elated

connections.They are elaborative thinkers, embellishing basic ideasThey show a willingness to think aboot complex ideasThey display intellectual playfulness, i!antasize and imagine easily'They have a sensitivity to beauty.They have rapid insight into cause.effect relationsThey are often skeptical, critical and evaluativeThey attack complex material by setiarating it into parts and

analyzing systematically.They have common senseThey are persistent and have a longer attention spaThey are more independent and less subject to peer pressureThey have a highly developatmoral and ethical sense

June 3, 1981

Pinpointing the talentedtests teachers' abilities

By Patricia SullivanEcucition Wntee

Foi three years, John Heiden, 13,refused to accept the test results.

They said be was a scant twopoints short of being gifted.

John, an eighth-grader at NovaMiddle School in Davie who loves toread and who is a pretty fair slug-ger on, the school softball team,didn't believe "the results andneither did his parents.

"It was almost a personal ven-

9 6

detta," his mother, Sissy, a part-time secretary to a podiatrist, saidregarding his dogged pursuit to getin a gifted class. "I don't think heever would have been happy if hehadn't made it."

He did. In May.

9 1

John could be called "borderlinegifted." He's the kind of studentoften overlooked in the classroomsof Florida the hard worker, ob-viously bright, but not the kind ofsuperstar performer that a studentwith an IQ of 170 tends to become.

Local and state officials saythere are many students like Johnwho are never declared gifted,mostly because teachers don't knowwhat to look for.

Three years ago, when he tookthe test to get into a gifted class atthe end of summer, his score wastwo points short of the cutoff. Johnwanted to take the test again, buthe thought he had to wait until ateacher recommended him a secondtime.

Meanwhile, he stayed in the reg-ular and advanced classes, workinghard but growing rgtless.

"I knew all the (basic) skills, butthey just kept piling tbe work on.We had to go over and over thesame material until everybody gotit. I wouldn't say I was bored butI really wanted to get in (the giftedclass)," he said, squinting slightlybehind his glasses and nervouslyclasping his hands.

"He's self-motivated. His idea ofexcitement is to read an en-cyclopedia. (The gifted class) giveshim a little more incentive. If a kidcan do 12th grade math, why keephim at an eighth-grade level? Hecan advance, so why shouldn1 he?"said Mrs. Heiden of PembrokePines.

A few months ago, John learnedby accident that he didn't have towait for a teacher's nomination totake the intelligence test again. Heimmediately nominated himselfand re-took the test. Shortly there-after, he got a call from the schoolpsychologist.

"He informed me I had justmade it, by the skin of my teeth,"John said, grinning.

John ended up in a gifted classbecause of his initiative.

But how do schools normally findgifted kids?

,..Tho Gifted:UA class of their own

94

Sometimes they don't. Nine of Florida's67 county school districts told the stateDepartment of Education last fall that theycould not find a single gifted child in theirschools. Three other counties found fewerthan seven gifted children in their districts,and each of those was a non-Hispanic,white child.

Most of the districts depend upon teach-er referrals. The regular classroom teacheris supposed to spot a child who is per-forming better than anyone else, or whoshows signs that he or she is exceptionallyinsightful, creative, skilled or advanced inany way. The teacher suggests an in-telligence test.

But, as John's case shows, that doesn'talways work. It didn't work forMichael Taylor, a sixth-grader at NovaMiddle School, either. Michael nominatedhimself for testing, too.

"I saw my friend go in (the program),and I figured if Lee could do it, so could I,"said Michael. He was right. He's now in thegifted program.

Educators therefore see the teacher'sawareness of gifted children as crucial.Starting with the 1982-83 school year,teachers of the gifted in Florida will haveto have special teaching certificates. Thatwill help in the classroom, but regularteachers have to be reached, too. So, manyteachers are calling for counties to havemore in-service training for the "regular"classroom teacher as well.

"Basically, we pick People who are likeus as gifted," noted Diane Grybeck, direc-tor of gifted students in Hillsborough Comi-ty (Tampa). "If you respond well tome, youmust be quite intelligent."

The director of gifted programs inGadsden County in the Florida Panhandleagreed. That county, with a student popu-lation that is 80 percent black, has only 18blacks in its 72-student gifted program,according to state figures.

9 7

"Referrals start with teachers, andteachers, even black teachers, have suc-ceeded by conforming to white, middle-class norms," she said. "If they don't refer,we don't evaluate. And if we don't evaluate,we don't identify."

But if the students are spotted and sentfor testing, there's another barrier to hur-dle. It's called the standardized intelligencetest and in Florida, it is usually either theWechsler Intelligence Scale for ChildrenRevised or the Stanford-Binet IntelligenceScale,

The debate over the racial and culturalbias of the WISC-R and the Stanford-Binethas raged for years, with defenders of thetests saying, essentially, these are the bestavailable, and detractors saying, in short,that the entirelest was based on the white,middle-class child, and unless a student hasthat background, his or her score will belower.

School officials know there are problemswith the tests.

"Yes, this is a prejudiced test," said

Educators see the teacher'sawareness of gifted children ascrucial. Starting with the .

198243 school year, teachers ofthe gifted in Florida must havespecial teaching certificates.

Hillsborough County's Grybeck. "It wasbased on urban kids, so not only does itsqueeze out minority students, but I've seenit squeeze out rural children as well."

But there is an alternative. It's called theSOMPA System of Multicultural Plural-istic Assessment. It's more of a profile than

a test, and it incorporates the WISC-R asone of its sub-tests.

"It's worthwhile, but it's time-consum-ing," said Joyce Runyon, the state consul-tant for the gifted. "You're talking aboutseveral days to visit the home, test physicaldexterity, do the medical history, talk tothe teachers. You spend only two or threehours doing a standard IQ test."

Nevertheless, with state encouragement,18 counties tried the SOMPA last year, andof the 120 students tested, 62 qualified forgifted programs a good response, Run-yon said.

"The benefits in the long run are worththe effort," she added.

But for the student trying to wind his orher way through the bureaucracy to agifted class, there is a second requiremeilt.Students have to have a majority of "giftedcharacteristics," traits attributed to brightstudents by researchers-who_obsent_them.

No student is expected to have all thetraits, but to get into Florida gifted pro-grams, students have to have most of them.They range from "can be the biggestnuisance" to "shows high level of sensi-tivity and empathy."

"Those lists are so broad it's ridiculous,"said one teacher of the gifted in BrowardCounty. "Like 'has a sense of humor.' Whatkid doesn't have a sense of humor?"

The state's third requirement for callinga student gifted is that there must be ademonstrated need for a special program.But leaders in parent groups across thestate said that if a child Is discovered to begifted, they will discover a need for aspecial program in that child.

The problem of finding gifted students,even in a state which has a very narrowdefinition of gifted, is so big that schoolshave not yet even begun to deal with thesearch for gifted migrant or handicappedstudents.

"Migrants? By the time somebody thinksabout evaluatine those kids and it .get,through the process, the parents have prob-ably moved on to where the next crop'sgrowing," said state consultant Runyon.

Haudirapped students are not classifiedwithin gifted programs, so it's difficult toknow how many are in gifted classes,Runyon said. Those that are there areusually students with physicalAisabilities,such as blindness or the wheelchair-bound.

As more immigrants from Central and

Minorities thriveBy Patricia SullivanEducation Writer

Two dozen black and Hispanicstudents filed into the portableclassroom, sat quietly in their seats,waited for instructions and didn'tchallenge the answers given by

their classmates.

The perfect class?

Not for Lake Forest ElementarySchool teacher Sherry Starcher andcounselor Patricia Patterson.

"When you want them to thinkfor themselves, to be morecreative, you almost want them togo to the opposite extreme," saidMs. Starcher. "You want them tosay, 'I want to go after this.' Youwant them to strive."

Strive, as the beautiful fifth-grader Nicole Minnis will tell vis-itors, means "to try harder." That'swhat the students are there forSTRIVE, an experimental programset up this year with a $78,000federal grant.

Despite its promising results, theprogram at the Hollywood schoolhas been all but ignored by theSchool Board and top district of-ficials, according to Ms. Patterson.

The idea of the program is totake 24 high-achieving minority

South American countries and the Carib-bean islands enter Florida, officials expecta growing number of Spanish-speakinggifted youngsters. Although there are in-telligence tests in Spanish, culture does notslways translate as well as words.

Javier Furniz, a spark plug with brighteyes and a natural swagger, 13 a goodexample.

The young Cuban third-grader is a natu-ral leader in his Pembroke Park mathclass.

"You, you and me sit here," he orderedtwo older classmates who were partici-pating in a math contest. "Okay, ready?Quiet, quiet, don't tell them the answers!"

Until a few months ago, nobody knewthis small bundle of energy might be gifted.His scores on school achievement testswere high for the Hispanic students, butthey were not high enough to make teach-ers recommend him for evaluation in thegifted program.

Javier was lucky. He was discoveredduring a search by a special federal pro-gram for potentially gifted minority stu-dents. AftEr six months in the specialfederal project, he was tested early in Mayto see how he was doing. Javier qualifiedfor the gifted program.

in strive program

,lako Fount Etantoty studantilao Ninah, Of* at,110wai** lhph. 091/Ottlit lb*chia*

youngsters in grades one to five,treat them as if they were giftedand see if their test scores riseenough for them to be called giftedby the state.

Preliminary results seem toshow that it works.

AU 24 children have been re-tested for the first time after sixmonths of the daily classes. All of

9 8

MVO Minor

them raised their scores on theWechsler Intelligence Scale forChildren-Revised and five qualifiedfor the gifted program. The other19 gained significantly. One stu-dent's score jumped 21 points.

"The psychological community'sassumption is that you cannot raise(intelligence) test scores," saidcounselor Patterson, because the

9 5

test is supposed to measure in-telligence, which presumably doesnot change from one month to thenext. But the early results seem tocontradict that assumption.

The students, however, are notjust. any kids pulled off the streetsof the nearby ghettos of Lake For-est and Carver Ranches. Theyscored in the top 20 percent of theregular state achievement tests.

Gifted students are usuallydrawn from the top 10 percent, butbecause there were not very manyblack and Hispanic youngsters whoscored that high, Ms. Patterson andMs. Starcher widened the range.None of the rtudents in the programhad previously qualified to be inany gifted program in the schoolsystem.

"We treat them as if they weregifted," said counselor Patterson,and that treatment has "broughtthe students out of their silent,protective shells."

"When they first started, theywouldn't give more than one-wordanswers," said teacher Starcher."Drawing the city of the future,what they came up with wasMcDonald's in the sky, Byron's (de-partment store) in the sky."

One morning last month, the stu-dents were anything but silent.They were working on simple ma-chines wedges, levers, inclinedplanes and they were talkingabout the importance of machines.

"If you had a choice, would youwant a machine that makes yousmarter; one that makes you livelonger or one that makes you rich?"asked the teacher.

"Live longer," said a soft-spokenblack girl. "Fm already smart. Idon't cars if I'm rich or poor. But ifI live longer, I'll get to see parts ofthe world where I never beenbefore."

Her deskmate agree& "I couldgo to college and get smarter andget a job and get richer. But if I getsick and die, I. won't have any ofthat."

"There's been ,no problems withtheir behavior here carrying backto the regular classroom," Me.Starcher said, acknowledging %hatsome teachers don't like to havetheir students working on problemstogether or not raising their hands.

"They seem to know the dif-ference in the classes, 'except may-be they're more willing to giveanswers now. They want to tallwhat's inside them. But *ay stillwant to give perfect answers. Theywant to be right, so they'll go for

96

* 'rider Let{ tla Price gives serious thought.te her next move.OtOlthat one safe answer instead oftaking a risk."

Getting more.black and Hispanicstudents iu the gifted program isthe point behind the STRIVE ex-periment. The question I. criticalall over the state, but it's narticu-.lady important in Broward County,whore only 143 blacks and $11 His-panics are among the 3,933 studentsidentified as gifted. Tbe studentpopulation is 23 percent Mick.

Tbe two women admit they"came out of nowhere" with theirproposal for the beim' grant afterthey started bearing rumors thatthe county was going to lower thestandards for the gifted program toget more minorities in it

"We totally disagreed with thatand . . . we wanted to prove these

s."

kids could do it," said Ms. Pat-terson.

But there hasn't beta much sup-port, she says.

"Not a single School Board mem-ber has come out to look at thisprogram. Tbe director of specialprojects bas never come out to lookat this program .. . STRIVE hubeen invited to come down andtrain Dade County teachers, butnobody here in Broward County hasheard of us," sbe

She did run a workshop for someBroward teachers during an in-ser-vice training day, but she missed allthe middle school gifted teachers,because they were required to at-tend an assertive discipline work-shop.

But the response from others hasbeen good, Ms. Patterson gait

"We haie tremendous parentsupport We've turned out 100percent of our parents at a meetingat the school, and we've done ittwice. Now they're telling theirfriends how happy they are with tbe

program and those parents are call-ing, asking if they can get theitchildren in it."

Not this year and maybe not bestyear. The women want to keep theprogram going, but they're not sure

if the federal motley will be therenext fall.

But they still have confidence intbe program and in the still-in-complete results.

"I believe this is marketable andtransportable," Ms. Patterson said.

History providesironic lesson ondetecting genius

History chronicles many gifted people who rose tothe top on their own and overcame obstacles withoutthe help of special programs in schools.

Hillsborough County gifted program coordinatorDiane Grybeck collected some vignettes about them,"begging the question of what unknown namei mighthaw been on (Ulla list), but did not survive society."

Her list fellows:Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, was

told by an editor she could never write anything withpopular appeal.

A music teacher told Enrico Caruso, the greatItalian tenor, "You can't sing. You have no voice atall."

Walt Disney was fired from his job as a news-paper cartoonist because an editor said he had no gooditleas.

Abraham Lincoln entered the Black Hawk War as

Third in a Series

a captain and left as a private.Louis Pasteur was rated mediocre in his Royal

Oolliwe chemistry courses.."As a composer, he la hopeless," a music teacher

said of Ludwig von Beethoven.LW. Woolworth got a job in a drygoods store at

VIOL but his boss wouldn't let him wait on customerstocsins* he did not have enough sense.

Werner von Braun, the rocket pioneer, flunkedninth-grade algebra.

. Edward Gibbon, author of the Decline and Fall oftrt Roman Empire, considered his education a waste

ImIrO.ur years old before he could speak, 7 before beoineld read, a young boy who found grammar schoolher* had his interest in mathematics stimulated by

jancle, who showed him some number tricks. Thebny's name was Albert Einstein.

June 4, 1981

What works in teaching the gifteddepends on who's making it workBy Patricia SullivanEducatron WM*,

The First-graders leaned forward with interestas their teacher began to explain the new "brain-teaser" chart.

Anticipation glowed in their eyes. The entiregifted class had fmished the old chart full ofacademic riddles, and this new one lookedchallenging. .

Eight 7-year-ulds Inched forward."Everybody back In the seats," the teacher

ordered sharply.The children wiggled backwards, temporarily

admonished.A few minutes later, a particularly perceptive

comment by one boy started his classmatesbouncing in their seats, eager to add theircomments.

With a cold, level stare and her second set ofIcy commands In 10 minutes, the teacher de-molished the excitement and enthusiasm of herstudents for the rest of the morning.

Spring had come to North Florida that day,and the broad avenues of the city were burstingwith blossoms on the trees and bushes. The

The Gifted:A class of their own

children had been bursting with ideas and reac-tions, but they died on the vine when the teacherrefused to gather them.

"I really don't like to teach children thisyoung," the t...acher confided later, as the stipdents quietly trooped put of the classroom.

Th..i teacher had been assigned to the class.She had taught gifted students before, but neverones this young.

"Their attention span Is too short, and youhave to have a myriad of activities. I really thinkthey're too young for gifted classes."

Four days later and slx hours south, a parentin a different school district said those sort ofincidents disinterested teachers and inflexible

U

teaching methods are far too common. Thequality of what goes on In the classroom dependsupon what classroom it is.

"What it all boils down to is the principal andthe teacher," sald the parent, Maureen Toler.president of the Broward County Chapter of theFlorida Association for the Gifted, "Otherwiseforget it. If lt weren't for those two, we wouldn'thave the programs we have now."

What works seems to depend on who ismaking it work.

Usually it's the teacher. But until now, teach-ers of the gifted generally have been those whowere "rewarded" for good work in a regularclassroom with a class full of bright students.

"I don't think every teacher has a God-givenright to a gifted child," said Dorothy Sisk,former director of the federal Office for GiftedLind Talented, now the director of gifted teachereducation at the University of South Florida inTampa.

"It's not easy to teach gifted children. Theyask teachers to do more than they would nor-malty do. They question the socks off you. TheyInUmidate you half to death," she said.

97

As a result of Intense lobbying by the FloridaAssociation for the Gifted, teacherj of the giftedhave to be specially certified at the start of the1911249113 school year. They will have to have aclass in the nature and needs of the gifted, ineducational procedures and curriculum for thegifted and In guidance and counseling of giftedchildren.

Officials say that will be a big step towardimproving gifted classes in the state, but there'sno lesson like the lessons teachers learn in theclassroom.

"The hardest thing to teach a teacher to becomfortable with is that everybody does nothave to do the same thing. It's all "Ight todifferentiate the curriculum," Dr. Sisk said.

Normal lessons stopped at Parkwood HeightsElementary School in Jacksonville one day whena student in the gifted class interrupted work toask what the old gas heater in the middle of theroom did.

Teacher Elizabeth Bacalis, knowing ateaching opportunity when she saw one, took theclass to the school custodian's office for ananswer.

The janitor was so pleased to have a class ofchildren interested in his work, Mrs. Bacalissaid, that he took the gifted class on a neck-craning tour of the pipes and ducts in the ceilingof the school.

That tour led to more interest in the oldschoolhouse that serves as the portable buildingfor the gifted class.

Students. upon discovering that their _schoolused to be the city's school for black children,decided to write a history book about the build.ing. It took a year, but the book was written,illustrated and printed a task which involved

' English, art and managment skills.But allowing teachers to let students do tilt-

ferent things can lead to abuses as well. Dr. Siskremembers a California teacher who proudlysaid he was exposing students to different ex-perierces by one day taking them to a numer-ologist, another day watchlng a dog have ahysterectomy and the third day observing a manlaunching a kayak.

"He couldn't explain how those three lessonswere related," Dr. Sisk observed dryly.

But teachers are not the only factor in makinga class for the gifted work.

"Younger students seem to need more struc-ture," said a middle-aged teacher who has beenin and out of gifted classes for the last fiveyears. "They want the hands-on activities insmall groups, but somebody has to tell themwhen to go on to something else. \

"The older students, in junior high and seniorhigh, develop that discipline. They do muchbetter on independent study, becauss by thenthey have specialized interests," he said.

What works seems to depend upon whatresults ire sought.

"For people who are motivated and want todo the work, this is necessary," said Joe.Parrish,17, a Miami super-achiever aiming for a seat inthe freshman class at the Massachusetts In-stitute of Technology. He's doing a complexbibliography for the National Oceanic & At-mospheric Administration and spends part of hisday with the top professionals in the business.

Margaret Terry, who shares a portable build-ing with another teacher of the gifted at J,C.Mitchell Elementary School in Boca Raton, saidhaving students in for part of the day gives themspecialized attention, but it also forces thestudents .) deal with the rest of the world.

"The biggest thing we can give these kids isthe chance to interact with students of their ownabilities," she said, sitting beneath a displaywhich said, "The gifted are not better, they arejust different."

Todd Weiner, a Sixth.grader at Davie's NovaMiddle School, might agree.

"Most of the kids in these classes are more

98

mature, and It's easier to have discussions," hesaid. "In other classes, the textbooks have all theanswers. Here, you have to go to differentsources and research for the answers."

In the moneyed oceanfront town of PalmBeach, Dale Neuenschwander instructs aclassroom of gifted students all day long in aschool with an otherwise regular curriculum.

"I'm delighted when any district does any.thing for Its special children,' she began. "But Ithink if you're going to have a full-time pro.gram, you ought to make it a center ... It's verydifficult to have a full-time program in themiddle of a regular school. We have to teach thebasics as well as enrichment and acceleration,and that's a lot for one classroom to do."

Enrichment is what the resource centers inthe state propose to provide a chance forstudents to reach out and expand on what theydo in the regular classroom.

"Let's say a class is studying the Mayans,"said Dorothy Sisk. "Why not. have the giftedchildren study the Mayans in depth? Have themtake a look at their water system, their religiousbeliefs in-depth, then put on a show with the restof the school?"

Acceleration is the old American way ofdealing with gifted students have them skip agrade or two.

There are signs that acceleration, out of favorduring the 1960s and 1970s, may be revived.

"There are some children who have neVerbeen children," said Dr. Sisk, describing a boywho was so far ahead of his peers in science thathe couldn't converse with them. "I have a feelinghe will always be a total isolate. One of the mostcruel things we could have done was to keep himin a class with other 8-year-olds."

In Florida, there is a full range of choices. Sowhat works? According to the experts:

1 tii

,The Gifted:IA class of their own

If the student knows what he or she wants,independent study with a teacher or professionalto guide the work.

If the student is younger and interested inseveral areas, a structured program with depthexplorations of different subjects seems to work.

If the student is younger still, programswhich focus on exposing the wide range ofchoices will get students started.

Teachers also warn that even these pint-sizedgeniuses need a strong background in the basics.No one is born, they note, knowing the differencebetween a verb and an adverb.

"After all," said John Grossi of the Council forExceptional Children in Reston, Va., "gifted kidsare children first and kifted second."

wrk

si

4

Spacial to 14 Sun-Untinol

Pine View is the extreme in gifted educationa school set up solely for the gifted and limited exclusively to them.

Sarasota's Pine View: one of a kindBy Patricia SullivanEducation Writer

This is the kind of school which names itsbuildings "Leonard Bernstein," "Sir Isaac New-ton" and "Dunford's Domain" instead of buildingA, B and C.

Under the pine trees in this shady island ofacademia, students read philosophy on theirlunch break between games of basketball.

This is a one-of-a-kind school in FloridaSarasota's Pine View School for academicallygifted students.

Everyone passed the state's functional liter-acy test here last year. Average attendance runs98 percent. Only two students in the 500-memberstudent body were suspended last year. Theschool had nine finalists, 13 semi-finalists and 12commended for the National Merit gcholarshipProgram last year.

Students have to be gifted to get in, and ifyou're gifted in Sarasota County, there are noother programs for 4th- to 120-graders.

Pine View is the extreme in gifted edUcationa school set up solely for gifted students and

limited exclusively to them. Even though it'sbean around for 13 years, the idea and existenceof Pine View is still controversial.

"It's isolationist in the extreme," said a teach-er at one of the three schools surrounding thePine View campus. "Those kids go in there infourth grade and come out at the end of highschool not knowing how to deal with the rest ofthe students."

The principal of Pine View, John Woolever,vigorously 'denies that. The students at PineView go to some classes at the nearby schools,they take part in the plays, athletics and publica-tions of the,other schools. The schools sponsorjoint activities, he said.

The school is at once intense and laid-back.Pine cones snap underfoot during a strollthrough the campus. Machine gun bursts ofconversation shoot out from the open windows ofthe wooden portable classrooms. Everything is

rapid-fire the thinking, the reading, the con-versatidnal pace.

"The pressure is not really to compete, it's tokeep up," said 100-grader Nimie Stewart.

"There's a lot of freedom," said Greg Bard,also a 10th-grade student. "We eat wherever wewant."

They eat where they want because there is nocafeteria at Pine View. There are no organizedsports, woodshope, laboratories or librarieseither. The .students can use the facilities andjoin the organizations at any of the nearbyschools, Sarasota High, Sarasota Junior High orAlta Vista Elementary.

What they do get is an undeniably goodeducation. The teachers have degrees in thefields they teach, not in education. The studentsstart foreign languages in fourth grade. Thereare nonrcredit courses for everything from em-broidery and auto mechanics to advanced calcu-lus.

There's a professional experience program inwhich a student can spend time with a workingperson while going to school. There's also earlyentrance to college available, and some studentsremain at Pine View while taking collegeclasses.

But the students are also aware of the maincriticism of their school, the charge that itunnecessarily isolates them.

"My friend on the bus hates it when we use thesame book she does, because she's in seventhgrade and we're in fifth," said Chew Burns,sitting on, wooden Weathers outside theclassrooms. "It's really horrible the way theyresent you for what you are."

"I've had people walk away from me becauseof it. They think of brains and glasses andeggheads. People lie and say they go to Riv-erview instead of admitting they go heie," saidGreg Bard. ''You miss out on a lot of socialthings, too. At the (Sarasota) high school, there'salways parties going on, and there are a lot moregirls.'

11)2

Amy Jo Luetzow, ii physically mature andwell-dressed high school junior, objected.

"I don't think I could go out with anybodyfrom Pine View. I've been with most of theseguys since fourth grade. It would be like goingout with your brother," she said.

The boys looked pained.There's just about as many girls as boys at the

school. Only 17 of the 501 students last year wereminorities that includes Aliens, Hispanics andblacks. Only four or five of the students this yearare black, the principal said.

The student body is also solidly middle andupper middle class. Only 12 students wereeligible for free or reduced price lunches,Woolever said.

"One reason (that there are so few blackstudents) is that there is a magnet school pro-gram within the black community," he said."They've been promoting it for years, and blacksidentify with it unless you have a certainpersonality, you would want to go where thereare a lot of other blacks."

Although there have been many visitors, therehave been few imitators of Pine View over theyears. Wooiever credits that to the fact thatSarasota County had an "ideal" setup for the all-gifted school.

"The gographical and physical circum-stances are in our favor," he said. "We're rightnext to the bus barn so it's easy to, bring instudents from all over the county. We're in themiddle of other schools, so we can use theirfacilities."

He also requires teachers to teach for sixperiods each day, one more than most SarasotaCounty teachers. TeaChers are also required tohave at least two lesson plans.

"These kids have grasshopper minds,"Wooiever said in explanation. "We're trainingthem for jobs that don't even exist yet. We haveto be an opportunity for these children to have asmany experiences as possible in a short time."

99

For thebrightest,Miami hasthe best

By Patricia SullivanEducation Writy

Th2 frail, bespectacled youthhuddled over the computer termi-nal at Miami.Dade Community Col-lege, working out a complicatedmath equation involvinglogarithms, equivalents and num-bers extending five digits to theright of a decimal.

Elbow-to-elbow with a youngblack woman working on her as-sociate's degree and an elderlyJewish man picking up a new skill,the boy raided the "games" part ofthe computer memory for morecomplicated mathematicalchallenges.

"Hey, cool," he muttered in ad-miring tones as one game provedtoo difficult for him. Suddenly hebolted upright.

"My bus!" It was an adolescentexclamation, and before the rest ofthose in the computer center couldlook up from their machines, theboy was gone, in a flurry of pre-teen punctuality.

The boy was one of 225 juniorhigh school students going to schoolonce a week at Miami-Dade Com-munity College's north campus aspart of the Dade County giftedprogram.

Despite Miami's image as a drugsmuggler's paradise, the crime cap-ital of the Caribbean, a hedonist'sholiday retreat and refuge forCubans and Haitians, for the giftedit's a mecca.

If you're looking for choices, goto Dade County.

School officials there have setup, over the past 24 years, a dazzl-ing array of programs for the giftednot matched anywhere else in thestate.

"Our program offerings arealmost equivalent to what is of-fered in many states," boasts JimMiley, gifted coordinator for DadeCounty schools.

He may be right, because there isnot much that Dade does not have.What it does have are choices,. onevery level, for students who arewilling to leave their home schools.

Elementary school students cango twice a week to one of 13 learn-

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Jerry Parrish, ikkilatnilionlor, works on a compojer program tor caidiao,patiants

ing centers scattered around thecounty for "planning, critical andcreative thinking, independ-ence ... and service in the areas ir.which students have exceptionalabilities."

Junior high school.students havefour choices: to attend a centeronce a week, go to a senior highschool for classes once a week,spend an hour each day in their ownschool's resource center or go toMiami-Dade Community Collegeonce a week for special programsand a chance to use M-DCC's re-search facilities.

Joyce Cash, a blonde Seventh-grader who spent the morning in acollege lecture on biofeedback andthe afternoon working out the elec-tronic technicalities needed to pro-duce a radio play for the class, saidshe could never expect to get thissort of exposure at her North Dadejunior high.

"If we act like adults, peoplehere treat us like adults," she saidover corned beef and cabbage in thecafeteria. "But some of the kidshere are really too immature forthis."

As they grow more mature andgraduate to senior high school,Joyce and her classmates will havemore choices:

The community laboratory re-search program where students getclass credit for working 7 to 20boars in the afternoon in scientificresearch all over town.

The student leadership de-velopment program, where highschool juniors and seniors workfull-time for 18 weeks with legisla-tors, business people and serviceindustries.

The colloquium one hour eachday at their home schools, wherethey discuss philosophy.

Jerry Parrish, a senior at MiamiLakes High School, opted for the labresearch program. He's working ona computer program at the JacksonMemorial Hospital to develop anindividualized system of data entryfor cardiac patients.

"It's terrific. I'm working withdoctors and nurses, and it gives mean idea of what I want to do withmy career," he said. "It's a job, butit's better than Burger King."

His supervisor, Dr. JerryAugenstein, said he was happy tolet Jerry and other students in thelab "flex their intellectualmuscles."

"It's one of the real high points ofmy educational experience to workwith these young people," Augens-tein said. "They're at the level intheir lives when they're exploding.Their knowlege isn't progressive,it's exponential. We're part of theirchange and part of their exposureto the world."

Across the expressways, over thesprouting skyline and beyond Bis-cayne Bay lies the National Oceanicand Atmospheric Administration,where you'll find Jerry's identicaltwin, Joe.

Joe Parrish spent last summertagging sharks and the year beforedoing a dolphin behavioral study.This year, he's doing the relativelytame work of doing an annotatedbibliography of marine biology ex-periments.

"It's a good program for some-body who doesn't want to spend thesummer on the beach," Joe said.

"I'm getting to do things that nor .mally would be research for collegeor graduate students."

The work is perfect for giftedstudents in science who have out-,paced their classes.

"Nothing they throw at you in

Fourth in a Series

high school is like this. Here, youhave to start learning like you're afirstgrader, and that knocks youdown a few pegs. Here, there'sdefinitely ways to challenge me.There's no way I can feel I know itall," the high school senior said.

And, while he's waiting for hiscollege acceptance letters, whatdoes he plan to do this summer?

"I think I'll spend the summer onthe beach," he said with a wickedgrin.

For gifted andtheir mentors:'Adapt or die'

By Patricia SullivanEducation Writer

Jason Robinson and EddieGonzalez, 10-year-old buddies, werelooking forward to their giftedmath class.

"I think it's neat. You get to tryout all sorts of ideas," said Eddie.

"I think it's real fun. You get todraw in geometry," said Jason.

Their teachers, Margaret Terryand Libby Gresch, were lookingahead, too. But they were thinkingabout the start of the 21st century,when Jason and Eddie will be 30years old.

"I think the main thing we can dois to help them be flexible andaccept change," said Mrs. Terry,teacher of the gifted at the IC.Mitchell Elementary School inBoca Raton.

The Giftd:A class of their own

"They'll have to be able to look atthe problems that are around thenand 1,e able to find more than onesolution to the problems . . . youhave to have research skills. Youdon't have to know the answer toeverything, but you have to knowwhere to find those answers," shesaid.

The task of the future for giftededucation may be the ages-old dic-tum 'adapt or die. The state's

gifted programs, parents and pro-fessionals say, will have to find andattract more students, particularlyminority students, improve in quali-ty, broaden in definition and keepbetter track of each other and theirforaler students.

One of the first changes whichousht to be made, accurding toHitldborough County gifted directorDiane Grybeck, Is the way schoolsaro still training students for whatshe calls "Bob Cratchit" jobs.

June 5, 1981

Tur classes are still geared tothe..19th century sitting quietlyall day and copying numbers. Whatkidd of jobs will our students havethat they have to do that?" sheWeed.

The artists of the world havenever done that, and state Rep,Welter D. Young, D-Hollywoou, in-trodliced a bill into the state Housefilth spring to include artisticallytaitaied students In the areas ofWale, visual arts, drama and

10 ,4

101

dilfre within the state's definitionof61)fted.

21.feel we're missing an awful lotoCereative people who are artisti-cally inclined and a great numberoe3ieople who might be able tocoptribute to our society," saidViifing, the chairman of the HouseKst2 Education Committee.

!tere has been a demonstratedinrest among parents to have as ial program for talented asw101 as for academically gifted stu-dr, since (talented) is part of thed pawn at the federal level," saidEtptal Yelverton, president of theFkirida Assocation for the Gifted.

Young's bill, which died in hisowa committee last year, got out ofthe lC-12 Committee several weeksago . and has been mired in theHos$e Appropriations Committeesinge April 16. Young is not op.timistic about its fate mostlybecause the measure would cost $9million at a time when legislatorsare trying to put extra money intolaw enforcement and transporta-tion,

Opposition popped up in earlyMardi. A parents* newsletter on theGukCoast attacked the proposal.

"Gifted has an accepted definitionand is limited essentially to the top2 percent intellectually on the basisof :standard tests. For 'talented'there are no such tests or definition.Talented is essentially unlimitedand exists. to some degree. only intheeye of the beholder or individualpe :son a dvoca te.

'If these people are to be fundedunder the gifted program. as hasbeen proposed. our children wouldprobably suffer a loss. 6f funds andeven bigger classes." said editorHarlan Johnson in the March 10"Pine Views" from Sarasota.

Whether the talented bill passesor not. gifted education in the stateis expected to become more evenlydistributed.

State consultant Runyon saidsome school districts which havenot identified students in the pastare realizing that a gifted student isworth 2.6 times as much state mon-ey as a student in a regular class.Simply finding those students willmean more money for the counties.

"One of the frustrations I have isthat our. . programs are not con-tinuous," said Dorothy Sisk of theUniversity of South Florida andformer director of the U.S. Office ofGifted and Talented. "Because ofstate funding, there's a feeling thata child is only gifted for 12 hours aweek."

And, she might have added, onlyfrom kindergarten to 10th grade,

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tt.Howard pass, tatt,aad miles HartaatidiTampa look over *archeologidal finds:

since some school districts endtheir gifted programs there. Ad-vanced placement courses in highschools are expected to take up theslack.

"We're working on quality, notquantity." said Joyce Runyon, thestate consultant for the gifted."We've got the programs."

Florida does have the programs,but they are scattered all over thestate. The teacher of the self-con-tained class in Palm Beach Coon),doesn't know about the mentorshipprogram in Citrus County. The prin-cipal of the all-gifted school inSarasota is unfamiliar with the fed-eral pilot program in BrowardCounty.

The coordination is left to thestate consultant and the organiza-tion of parents and administrators,the Florida Association for theGifted.

Palm Beach Cotinty schools Su-perintendent Thomas Mills said hiscounty will be more activelySearching for black and other mi-nority students in the "lest fewyears. His. counterpart, in BrowaitICount* William "Waiter, uhlthat the hiring of i gifted coordi-nator ought to solve many of thedistrict's problems in gifted educa-tion, Both say the counties are tillycommitted to providing more andbetter education for gifted students.

Research is going on in four coun-ties to try to figure out the best waytp teach gifted kids. A ;50,000 grantfrom the federal Office of Gibedand Talented was given to thestate,then awarded on a competitive

basis to Dade, Duval, Pinellas andPolk Counties for research into cur-ri culum design. In the past,educators have studied gifted pro-grams for pre-elementary schoolstudents.

"We need more research into thefollow-up of our gifted students,"suggested Dr. Yelverton of DuvalCounty schools, "a longitudinal kindof study to have a better grasiyofwhat is happening to them afterthey exit the public school system."

A new state law requiring teach-ers of the gifted to be speciallycertified is considered a step for-ward, but teachers who have beenin gifted classes for two years willbe grandfathered in.

Teachers say regular classroomteachers could benefit from a fewtraining sessions on how to spot agifted child th doss; .why specialprograms are .necessary for .010kand special problsrasicthe , brightstudents encounter.

Parents, too, havcstarted to betrained. in Jacksonville, where,*ficials, believe VW 'Any, hillg;46knout enough 'aliout their cladyett'sgins ts..bt 4ge to elicOorpge andsuPPoit ther.Ptoltlitsr.

The discovery of the gUtiditilftr,ity child is picking up, with steadystatewide increues over thelthit'few years in the numbers of ckand Hispanic students identnied asgifted. The state still hai a long wayto go. -before- ,tite- minority -pops-lotion in gifted education. matchesthe minority population in the.reneof ttiestudent body, itagstics shove

"I think we're seeing mop! mks

screening for gifted than we have inthe past. We are seeing an increasein enrollmknt and & growing aware'ness across the state of tbeuniqueness of the gifted child," saidDr. Yelverton.

State colleges and universitiesare starting to get involved in pro-grams for gifted students by par*.ipa;ing in the Gottarsor% Ann**Prograin 'for Gifted and TilenteriStudents. Miss Runyon counted 15

.,N.O.a.1111

Browardsucceeds,but thenit falters

different schools with special Rini-.mer programs for the youth. ,

"We want to be serving nil Ale-signs for each student's need ib anyarea of gifted and talented," saidMiss Runyon. "I think we're gettingcloser."

By Patricia SullivanEducation Writer

The battle of four schools ofpsychological thought was fought inthe Margate Public Library threeyears ago before an audience ofgifted high school seniors.

Four psychologists, each repre-senting a different philosophywithin the field of psychology, dis-cussed their approaches to a certainproblem why it occurred, what itmeant and how to treat it.

The students heard each of thearguments, questioned each speak-er in depth, talked about the advan-tages and disadvantages to eachapproach and left the all-day con-ference with some insight into dif-ferent ways to consider the sameproblem.

They also left raving about thesession and hoping it would be re.peated.

"But it disintegrated," recalled RosemaryTimoney. gifted teacher at Northeast llighSchool. "It was a one-shot deal, but it was reallyan excellent effort."

The attempt at an innovative gifted sessionwas representative of Broward County's ap-prtrAch to gifted student education a few fineprograms. some success and then a lack ofcoordination which could make the success con-tinue..

Although Broward has identified more giftedstudents than any other county in the state, thereis no director or coordinator of gifted programs,for. the whole county.

ray Clark, the director of exceptional studenteducation, said that will be corrected soon. A jobdescription finally was drawn up and approvedin rebruary, and applicant interviews will beginsoon.

We would expect things to improve quite abit*.wheh we get this person hired," Clark said."flut just becatise there is a (district) adminis-tratiir doesn't mean all our problems wili besoloed."

!The parents organization would certainlyague with that.

"No 'emphasis is placed in the area. Too manyprlitOpals are into the 'back-to-basics,' " saidMiureen Toler, president of the Broward CountyChgpter of the Florida Association for the Gifted(FLAG). "If it weren't for the teachers and if itweren't for the parents, you wouldn't, have theprosrams we have now.."

2toward has a school-based management sys-tem, which means that the principal is thepeetvon in charge of the school. If the principalsukorts the idea of gifted programs, he's likelyto tave a good gifted class. If he doesn't believein it, there may be little or no program avail-able

"Some schools have only a library table for aplace for gifted kids," said Mrs. Toler.

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THE FELLOWS IN EDUCATIONAL JOURNALISM

Since 1976 The Institute for Educational Leadership has administered a Journalism Fellowship Program which enables reportersto conduct national studies of education issues important in their area. Journalists who have participated in this Fellowship andtheir study topics are listed below.

NameDavid Bednarek

Michael Bowler

Helen Carringer

James A. Killacky

Jacquelyn King

Andrew Miller

Lael Morgan

Linda Stahl

Stanley Wellborn

FORD FELLOWS IN EDUCATIONAL JOURNALISM1976

News OrganizationThe Milwaukee JournalMilwaukee, WIThe SunBaltimore, MDThe Beacon JournalAkron, OHThe Daily OklahomanOklahoma City, OKWRR News RadioDallas, TXThe Kansas City StarKansas City, KSTundra TimesFairbanks, AKThe Courier-JournalLouisville, KYU.S. News & World Report

4Vashington, DC

Study To&Desegregation

Textbook Selection

Parent Power

Teacher Unions

Testing

Testing

Bilingual Education

Basic Skills

Federal EducationPolicy

FORD FELLOWS IN EDUCATIONAL JOURNALISM1977

Name News Organization Study TopicConstantine Angelos The Seattle Times Basic Skills

Seattle, WAMuriel Cohen The Boston Globe Teacher Education

Boston, MARebecca Kuzins The Muskegon Chronicle Special Education

Muskegon, MILorenzo Middleton. Jr. The Washington Star Desegregation

Washington, DCCynthia Parsons The Christian Science Monitor School Finance

Boston, MAWayne F. Reilly The Bangor Daily News Competency Based

Bangor, ME TestingDale Alan Rice The Post-Standard Magnet Schools

Syracuse, NY

NameHunt ly Collins

Jimmie Covington

Joe Donovan

Gary Fife

Robert Frahm

Diane Granat

Saundra Ivey

FORD FELLOWS IN

News OrganizationThe OregimianPortland, ORThe Commercial AppealMemphis, TNKYW News RadioPhiladelphia, PAUnited Indian Planners !JewsWashington, DCThe Journal TimesRacine, WIChicago Daily HeraldArlington Heights, ILThe TennesseanNashville, TN

EDUCATIONAL JOURNALISM197P

Study TopicGifted & Talented

EducationCompetency Based

TestingBasia Skills

IndiAn Education

Competency BasedTesting

Parent Power

School Finance:Tax Revolt Issues

1 / l -,.... i

Rick Janka

Rosa Morales

Ethel Payne

Donald Speich

Monte Trammer

Linda Williams

NameRobert Benjamin

John Cummins

Christie Dunphy

Charles Hardy

Wista Johnson

Mark Liff

Bette Orsini

Barbara Reinhardt

Linda Wertsch

Fran Zupan

NameJane Eisner

Jack Kennedy

Janet Kolodzy

Margo Pope

Wayne Reilly

M. William Salganik

Robert Benjamin

The Milwaukee SentinelMilwaukee, WIKCET TelevisionLos Angeles, CASt. Louis SentinelSt. Louis, MOLos Angeles TimesLos Angeles, CAThe Baltimore SunBaltimore, MDDaily Herald/SouthMississippi SunBiloxi, MS

FORD FELLOWS

News OrganIzatIonCincinnati PostCincinnati, OHThe Salt Lake TribuneSalt Lake City, UTThe Evening GazetteWorcester, MAThe Charlotte ObserverCharlotte, NCThe New York AmsterdamNew York, NYNew York Daily NewsNew York, NY

St. Petersburg TimesSt. Petersburg, FLOptions in EducationNational Public RadioWashington, DCChicago Sun-TimesChicago, ILThe Columbia FinordColumbia, SC

NATIONALFELLOWS IN

News OrganIzatIonThe Virginia-PilotNorfolk, VAThci Lincoln JournalLincoln, NE,

Arkansas DemocratLittle Rock,ARThe Florida TimeQ-UnionJacksonville, FLBangor Daily NewsBangor, METhe SunBaltimore, MDThe Cincinnati PostCincinnati, OH

Achieving QualityEducation

Desegregation

Black Colleges

Effect ofProposition 13

Declining Enrollmentsand School Closing

School PinancePatterns in theSouth

IN EDUCATIONAL JOURNALISM1979

News

Study Top lcEducating Low-

Income StudentsEducation in

High-Growth AreasDeclining Enroll-

ment in High SchoolsBlack Achievement/

Operation PushHealth Education

in Urban SchoolsEducation of

Indo-ChineseRefugee Children

Suicide/Depressionon College Campuses

Teenage Pregnancyand the Schools

Teacher Account-ability

Sex Barriers in, Job Preparation

INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONEDUCATIONAL JOURNALISM

1979Study TopicWhat's Effective in

Virginia's Integra! SchoolsRural vs. Consofidated School

Districts: What's Effective inNebraska

What's Effective in ArkansasSchools

What's Effective in Florida'sSuburban Schools

What's Effective in the RuralSchools of Maine

Academic Achievement in UrbarSchools: Mat Works in Baltimore

Towards Effective Urban Schools:A National Study

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