1.   A Call for Revolution: The need for real K-12 reform
  2.   VT State Board of Education: Transforming Schools
  3.   Education's Missing Link: Parents
  4.   Grading Those Test Scores: Vermont NAEP test scores
  5.   Home Schooling, Academic Performance and Socio-economic Factors

A Call for Revolution: The need for real K-12 reform
By Howard L. Fuller, Ph.D.

This article is adapted from Dr. Howard L. Fuller’s October 4 remarks delivered at the K-12 Education Reform Summit, co-sponsored by State Policy Network, the Alliance for School Choice, and the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation. It is published with his permission as well as that of the State Policy Network.

It's my honor to be here tonight, to see so many friends and new faces. In addition to being chair of the Black Alliance of Educational Options, the greatest honor I have is being board chair of CEO Leadership Academy.

People often ask me, “Why do you do this?” I have a simple answer that comes deep from within my soul: I believe all of our children are precious, and it is our responsibility with God’s guidance, to nurture them, love them, care for them and make sure every single one of them is educated. I am blessed to be able to do this work every day.

I believe what Ron Edmonds said: We can, whenever and wherever we choose, educate all students whose schooling is of interest to us. We know more than we need to know to accomplish that task. The real hurdle is the lack of political will to do what must be done for other people’s children. Everyday I see children suffer because we don’t have the political will to change the institutions that continue not to serve them well.

I do what I do because I believe Danny, Britell Iesha, Queda and Alexis can learn. Every time I go to our school, I can see they will never get what they need if we, who say we care, simply talk about fixing the existing system. We must have a revolution. Tinkering around the edges will never get us where we need to go.

The most powerful innovations in education must occur in classrooms between teachers and students, but we need to create conditions that allow those things to happen. We need to replace our current school system with systems of learning opportunities that put the interests of students first, allow dollars to follow students, and hold adults as well as students accountable for academic achievement. 

Today, if a school does not produce, the adults who are responsible for students learning are not affected. Kids don’t learn, administrators and teachers get a raise. They say, students don’t want to learn, but we need more money — to help them not learn again next year.

It is a crime that the only people held responsible for students not learning are the students and their parents. If parents are supposed to teach children, why are we spending all this money on education? If we have concluded it is the parents’ responsibility to educate kids, let’s close down these multibillion dollar institutions and give the money to parents!

The existing education system has some excellent people doing heroic jobs. Unfortunately, many work in dysfunctional systems that in essence prevent them from educating our children. This is a discussion about systems, not individuals.

Without any mealy-mouth qualifying weasel words, one of the things we need if we are to improve education in America is: parental choice. This term is often used only to talk about vouchers. The dreaded “V”  word. I support vouchers, but they are only one form of parental choice.

Parental choice means giving families the opportunity to choose, from a range of options, a learning environment they feel is best for their children. As chair, I state the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) supports policy initiatives that will provide options for parents and their children be they public, private, or outside of institutional arrangements. Charter schools, public-private partnerships, contract schools, home schools, silent schools, innovative options within the traditional system — whatever will empower parents and give kids a chance to be educated.

To finish reading this article follow this link. 

Howard L. Fuller, PhD is chair of the Black Alliance for Educational Options (www.baeo.org), distinguished professor of education and founder/director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning, Marquette University. He can be contacted at Howard@baeo.org.

Dr. Fuller’s 30-minute presentation, plus audience questions, is available on DVD. To order it, please contact Tonya Barr at tbarr@spn.org or (703) 243-1655. 

VT State Board of Education: Transforming Schools

After reading the comments by Dr. Howard Fuller, above, read this letter from Tom James, the chair of the State Board of Education. Vermont's own State board of Education needs to hear from Vermonters about education reform, transformation, and, yes, revolution. In the last issue of the VER, I detailed out what the State Board is looking for in a “desired state” of education. Not only do we need to reform education we also need to encourage more parental involvement and accountability to the children themselves. Could this letter be the beginning of what education in Vermont needs? The State Board has done little in the past to make the kind of bold changes that we need in education today. If they are indeed attempting to go down this road, I am willing to listen, comment, and encourage them to make the kind of changes that we must accomplish for the children's sake. --RD

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
State of Vermont
Vermont Department of Education
120 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05620-2501

To:       Vermonters
From:   Tom James, State Board of Education Chair
            Richard H. Cate, Commissioner
Date:    October 10, 2007
Re:       The Future of Education in Vermont

We are writing to announce the beginning of a public engagement process about the future of education in Vermont. The State Board of Education and Department of Education staff are asking for your assistance and inviting you to participate in this process. The attached document represents a starting point for this conversation. This description of a desired state of education represents our work over the past few months, including the public input received at the September State Board meeting. Although we have worked hard to clearly articulate a vision for the desired state of education, we view this document as the starting point for a conversation with a wide range of people. We are seeking your input so that we can eventually develop a desired state document that reflects the consensus opinion of Vermonters.

We need to stress that, for the next several months, we want to frame a conversation about the desired components of a transformed education system. The discussion about how we should get there will come later. In this document, we used the term transformation when describing what we want to accomplish because it is important that we recognize all of the good work that is ongoing in our education system. Yet we believe that, in order to adequately prepare our children for the world that awaits them, we must make some significant changes to that system.

The staff of the Department of Education participated this week in facilitated small group discussions about this topic. Much of the time on the next few State Board agendas will be dedicated to similar conversations between State Board members, Department staff and representatives of various constituent groups. The first of these meetings will occur on October 16th, first with a group of students and then with a group of parents. Future meetings will include teachers, superintendents, principals, school board members, legislators and other political leaders, representatives of the business community and other constituent groups. We are also planning a multi-day summit to which representatives of all of these groups will be invited. Commissioner Cate will also be conducting regional meetings with students around the state. This public engagement process will evolve beyond what we have described as we proceed throughout the year.

We hope that many of you will join us in this effort as we focus our efforts on strategies to help all students to be successful. Thank you.

Education's Missing Link: Parents
By Lynne Varner, Seattle Times editorial columnist, October 10, 2007

A student's home life is a greater predictor of achievement than his or her parents' education level, income or cultural background.

It seems counter-intuitive, this notion of home rather than the classroom as the engine spurring academic progress, particularly in this age of in loco parentis - schools acting in the place or role of parents - driving most education budgets. From offering breakfast and student drop-off as early as 6 a.m. to after-school and weekend programs and wrap-around social services, schools shoulder the burden for children, sometimes doing it alone.

The dynamics are changing and it is about time. Years of strong research on the academic benefits of close parental involvement have forced educators to understand they face a Sisyphean task if they try to go it alone.
<snip>

Districts have begun putting on workshops to teach parents how to monitor homework and school activities. A Montclair, N.J., English teacher assigns parents homework to ensure they understand what their kids are learning. Shirkers see their kids' grades docked a few points. Maryland has created an office of parent involvement that reports directly to the state education superintendent. In the Puget Sound region, schools compete for 100 percent participation in the PTA.

Seattle Public Schools will use a new $600,000 grant from the 21st Century Community Learning Center for relationship building with parents and community organizations that serve families. The money pays for family-style school events and multilingual workshops on how parents can support their children's education. The city of Seattle uses some of the $116 million Families and Education Levy to pay for 40 school-based family-support workers who bridge the gap between school and home.
<snip>

And, no one should forget the intimidating specter posed to some parents by teachers who profess to be welcoming but practically block the classroom doorway with folded arms invoking body language usually reserved for door-to-door salesmen.
<snip>

Read the full article here

Grading Those Test Scores
By Hugh Kemper

Vermont’s Public Education Report Card 2007:
Grade ‘C’

Only average? That couldn’t be true. Haven’t we all read recent news articles extolling the stellar performance of Vermont’s public schools? That is true. These articles, however, were based on a very casual reading of the results contained in the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reports.  A more critical assessment revises Vermont’s apparent national rankings as follows:

     4th Grade Reading: to 19th from 4th
     4th Grade Math: to 23rd from 6th
     8th Grade Reading: to 11th from 1st
     8th Grade Math:  to 16th from 4th

Demographics account for these significant downward revisions of Vermont’s performance. Vermont’s students are 94% ‘White’.  Nationally, ‘White’ students, comprising 55%-58% of those tested, significantly out perform ‘Black’ (17%) and ‘Hispanic’ (18%-21%) students. NAEP highlights the importance of demographics in assessing comparative performance. Vermont’s revised rankings reflect how our ‘White’ students performed vs. other states’ ‘White’ students.

While the NAEP reports are billed as ‘The Nation’s Report Card’ they don’t award grades. To rectify this shortcoming, standard deviation methodology was applied to the test performances of white students in all 50 states with the grade of ‘C’ accorded its traditional role, i.e. indicative of average performance. Massachusetts performed the best with an aggregate grade of ‘A’ (two A’s and two B+’s) while West Virginia had an ‘F’ on all four tests. Vermont’s aggregate grade was ‘C’ (‘C’ on both 4th grade tests and ‘C+’ on both 8th grade tests).

Vermont ‘White’ Scores vs. National ‘White’ Average Scores:

     4th Grade Reading: Vermont 229 vs. USA 230
     4th Grade Math: Vermont 247 vs. USA 248
     8th Grade Reading: Vermont 273 vs. USA 270
     8th Grade Math:  Vermont 292 vs. USA 290

Follow this link to read more, view supporting data, and make comments.

Home Schooling Improves Academic Performance and Reduces Impact of Socio-economic Factors

News Release, October 04, 2007

TORONTO, ON—Home schooling appears to improve the academic performance of children from families with low levels of education, according to a report on home schooling released today by independent research organization The Fraser Institute.
 
“The evidence is particularly interesting for students who traditionally fall through the cracks in the public system,” said Claudia Hepburn, co-author of Home Schooling: From the Extreme to the Mainstream, 2nd edition  and Director of Education Policy with The Fraser Institute.
 
“Poorly educated parents who choose to teach their children at home produce better academic results for their children than public schools do. One study we reviewed found that students taught at home by mothers who never finished high school scored a full 55 percentage points higher than public school students from families with comparable education levels.”
 
The peer-reviewed report, co-written with Patrick Basham and John Merrifield, builds on a 2001 study with new research and data. It examines the educational phenomenon of home schooling in Canada and the United States, its regulation, history, growth, and the characteristics of practitioners, before reviewing the findings on the academic and social effects of home schooling.
 
Hepburn said evidence clearly demonstrates that home education may help reduce the negative effects of some background factors that many educators believe affects a child’s ability to learn, such as low family income, low parental educational attainment, parents not having formal training as teachers, race or ethnicity of the student, gender of the student, not having a computer in the home, and infrequent usage of public libraries.
 
“The research shows that the level of education of a child’s parents, gender of the child, and income of family has less to do with a child’s academic achievement than it does in public schools.”
 
The study also reports that students educated at home outperform their peers on most academic tests and are involved in a broad mix of social activities outside the home.
 
Research shows that almost 25 per cent of home schooled students in the United States perform one or more grades above their age-level peers in public and private schools. Grades 1 to 4 home school students perform one grade level higher than their public- and private-school peers. By Grade 8, the average home schooled student performs four grade levels above the national average.
 
Hepburn said a growing body of new research also calls into question the belief that home schooled children are not adequately socialized.
 
“The average Canadian home schooled student is regularly involved in eight social activities outside the home. Canadian home schooled children watch less television than other children, and they show significantly fewer problems than public school children when observed in free play,” she said.
 
The report concludes that home schooling is not only a viable educational choice for parents, but can also be provided at a much lower cost than public schooling. The report notes that in the U.S., home schooling families spend less than $4,000 per year on home schooling while public schooling in the U.S. costs about $9,600 per child.
 
“Canadian and American policymakers should recognize the ability of parents to meet the educational needs of their children at home, without government involvement,” Hepburn said.
 
“While home schooling may be impractical for many families, it has proven to be a successful and relatively inexpensive educational alternative. It merits the respect of policy makers, the attention of researchers, and the consideration of parents.”
 
Contact: Claudia R. Hepburn
Email: claudiah@fraserinstitute.ca
Telephone: (416) 363-6575, ext. 227
 
You may purchase this report “Home Schooling: From the Extreme to the Mainstream, 2nd edition” by following this link.

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