EDUCATION & EQUITY NEWS    

NATIONAL

"High Poverty Among Young Makes Schools' Job Harder"  Education Week. 9/27/00

The child-poverty rate in the United States has declined steadily since 1993, when it reached a 10-year high of 23 percent. Still, nearly 19 percent of U.S. children, about 13.3 million, live in poverty today.

(The above article is part of a series titled 2000 & Beyond: The Changing Face of America's Schools. See also: "Mixed Needs of Immigrants Pose Challenges for Schools" and "Minority Groups To Emerge as a Majority in U.S. Schools" in the same issue of Education Week.)

"Cincinnati Teachers To Be Paid on Performance"
Education Week. 9/27/00

The Cincinnati public school district has replaced its traditional salary and advancement structure with a classroom performance-based pay schedule. The new system, ratified in September by the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, is an attempt to align new standards-based guidelines, assessments and professional development with educators' salaries.

MARYLAND

"Graduates Remedial Needs Remain"
The Washington Post (9/28/00) p.M03

The percentage of Maryland high school graduates that must take remedial coursework once they go on to college has risen during the past seven years. School officials, who pledged to improve these statistics when first released in 1993, attribute the decline in students' academic skills to the elementary and middle school focus of the state's reform efforts. "Significant change won't come until there have been changes in the instruction at the high school level," said Ron Peiffer, an assistant state superintendent of schools. Peiffer predicts that Maryland's new statewide high school tests slated to begin next year will mark the beginning of improvements at the high school level.

"Teacher Training Had No Effect on Algebra Woes" The Washington Post (9/28/00) p.M03

After 64 percent of Montgomery County's ninth-grade Algebra I students flunked the final exam last year, Superintendent Jerry D. Weast commissioned a study of the relationship between student performance and teacher training in this case. The study found that teacher experience, certification and training had no direct bearing on student performance on the exam or in the course. School officials and the authors are surprised by the results in light of research indicating a direct correlation between student achievement and teacher training. One of the report authors recommends that the school system use the newly implemented staff development and evaluation system to identify those teachers who are achieving results and to use the findings to train other teachers in effective teaching methods.

"Montgomery Failing Its Students, Audit Finds". The Washington Post (9/24/00) p. C01

An Audit of the Montgomery County math curriculum has identified the county's practice of grouping students by ability and assigning weaker teachers to remedial classes has contributed to the achievement gap between minority and white students.

RESOURCES

BOOKS

Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity, by Ann Arnett Ferguson
(University of Michigan Press, 839 Greene St., Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1104; 272 pp., $29.95 hardback).

Studies of school disciplinary patterns indicate that school officials are more punitive toward African American students, particularly African American males, than their white counterparts, in response to similar behaviors. In Bad Boys, based on three years of research at an elementary school, the author examines what she describes as educators' beliefs in a "natural difference" inherent to black children and in the "criminal inclination" of black males. The book explores how these beliefs shape decisions that disproportionately single out black males for punishment and perpetuate expectations of their failure, and how, in turn, these boys construct a sense of self and view school within the context of these adverse dynamics. The author, a Smith College professor of African-American studies, draws on interviews with teachers, principals, truant officers, and students’ family members in this disturbing picture of our education system.

ARTICLES

"Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: A Review of State Policy Evidence" by Linda Darling- Hammond, in Education Policy Analysis. Volume 8 Number 1, January 1, 2000 ISSN 1068-234 Stanford University.

This study examines the ways in which teacher qualifications and other school inputs are related to student achievement across states. The findings indicate that measures of teacher preparation and certification are by far the strongest correlates of student achievement in reading and mathematics, both before and after controlling for student poverty and language status. State policy surveys and case study data suggest that policies adopted by states regarding teacher education, licensing, hiring, and professional development may make an important difference in the qualifications and capacities that teachers bring to their work. The implications for state efforts to enhance quality and equity in public education are discussed.

Achieving Equity in School Finance, by David Long, the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.

The disparities in spending between rich and poor school districts has been the subject of much litigation, both at the U.S. Supreme Court, and in State Supreme Courts. This paper reviews the status of school finance litigation throughout the country, as of August 1999.

For a list of key publications on equity and school issues published over the past two years, please visit the Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium's Conferences and Reports page.

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