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Departments: Resources
When Schools Compete: The debate over how to improve America's public schools is long and vigorous. Choice, competition, vouchers, and charter schools top the laundry list of reform ideas proposed by many. But do they work? This book attempts to answer. Its authors, Edward Fiske, a longtime education editor at the New York Times, and his wife, Helen Ladd, a professor of public policy and economics at Duke University, examine a decade-long education reform effort in New Zealand, the largest and longest experiment with self-governing schools operating in a competitive environment. In 1989, New Zealand embarked on what is arguably the most radical overhaul of a state education system ever undertaken by an industrialized country. The government abolished the national department of education and turned over control of the country's nearly 2,700 primary and secondary schools to locally elected boards of trustees, controlled by parents. This series of reforms was called Tomorrow's Schools. Two years later, in 1991, a newly elected government abolished neighborhood enrollment zones and committed to free-market principles, giving parents the right to choose which school their children would attend. Interested in this large-scale reform, Fiske and Ladd spent five months of 1998 visiting New Zealand schools, analyzing data and interviewing teachers, school administrators, parents and policy-makers. They were particularly interested because New Zealand has roughly the same population as an American state, and it has similar social, cultural and political traditions as the United States, as well as a similar minority population. The reform has provided a laboratory for self-governing schools and parental choice--ideas that underlie the current interest in voucher experiments and charter schools in America. The book details both the successes and failures of this experiment, providing invaluable insights and lessons learned for all who are interested in improving public schools. The authors found that while New Zealanders clearly enjoy the empowerment of self-governance, operational freedom, and parental choice, several negative consequences emerged. The biggest? Senior education officials conceded to the authors that the system of self-governing schools in a competitive marketplace did not work for 10 to 30 percent of the schools. "The promotion of a competitive educational environment assumes that some schools will be successful and others unsuccessful," write the authors. "Is it desirable to reform a state educational system in such a way that you know from the outset that some schools--and more important, the students in them--will find themselves in a worse situation than before?" While some schools and students actually did benefit from the reform efforts, many did not--particularly minority and low-income students. The authors found a dramatic increase in polarized school enrollment patterns by race and ethnicity. Schools deemed to be high quality, based on the socioeconomic and racial mix of its students, quickly became oversubscribed. They were then allowed to set their own admissions criteria, virtually hand-picking the more affluent and high-achieving students. Meanwhile, minority students became increasingly concentrated in schools serving high proportions of minority and low-income students. Their choices were extremely limited. "The problems of schools serving concentrations of disadvantaged students will not be solved by school autonomy and parental choice,'' write the authors. Instead, they advise, policy-makers would be wise to address more directly the challenges of teaching and learning in such schools. --Dina Spector Gómez
New from the NEA Professional LibraryCoping with Standards, Allan A. Glatthorn and Jean Fontana No trend in current American education can be as baffling or polarizing as the standards movement. How to raise test scores, improve student performance, and evaluate teachers are issues hotly debated in nearly every community. In 12 well-referenced chapters, teachers, teacher educators, and administrators share their views on and experiences with accountability, testing, and standards programs in states and school districts throughout the nation. For more information, call 800-229-4200, or check the Web at www.nea.org/books. Books by NEA MembersThe Microchip Caper Eleven-year-old Julie and her twelve-year-old brother Todd have sailed from California to Hawaii with their parents in search of fun and relaxation. What they find, however, is an adventure aboard a mysterious boat loaded with boxes full of computer parts! For children ages eight to eleven. 114 pp., $4.95 plus $4 s&h from Island Heritage Publishing, 99880 Iwaena, Aiea, HI 96701, 800/468-2800. In Your Face: Words of Encouragement for Youth The ABCs of it... Teenagers often have difficulty expressing themselves to their parents and peers and that can result in harsh words and angry feelings. In Your Face helps teens communicate effectively and fight through adversity to lead productive, peaceful lives. This book can help parents gain insight into the life of their teenager. 125 pp., $9.95 plus $1.75 s&h from GiRo Consulting Company, P.O. Box 8961, Falls Church, VA 22041. My Personal Spanish/English Phrase Book This handy phrase book lists hundreds of idiomatic expressions useful for teaching any grade level. Includes workbook pages to help you improve your skills and space to jot down your own day-to-day words. A photocopier-friendly version and renewable copy license is also available for Spanish teachers. 29 pp. $11.47 plus $2.90 s&h from Richard L. Simonson, P.O. Box 7198, Page, AZ, 86040, 520/608-0299. Photo-copy version: $67 plus $8 s&h. They Called Me Teacher This book holds the stories of country school teachers recounting anecdotes of the bygone era. A type of "teacher-genealogy," the tales tell of dedication, hard work, the human spirit, and passion for the noble profession of teaching. 267 pp., $19.95 plus $4.30 s&h from Melchior Publishing, 1901 West 125th St., Shakopee, MN 55379, 612/445-4109. You Can Make a Difference You Can Make a Difference tells the inspirational and instructional story of how three teachers turned activists banded together to save their Reading Recovery from budget cuts. Their shared insights and suggestions help readers explore a grassroots program for political action. 88 pp., $14 from Heinemann Publishing, 361 Hanover Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801. Girl in Hyacinth Blue This new work of fiction has been acclaimed as both ambitious and brave. The story traces the ownership of a beautiful Vermeer painting back through time to the moment of its creation. By depicting the lives of those people whom the painting has touched, Vreeland comments on what is ultimately meaningful and transformational in the human experience. 242pp. $17.50 plus s&h from MacMurray and Beck Alta Court, 1490 Lafayette St., Ste. 108, Denver, CO 80218. TV TipsNapoleon Director David Grubin takes his audience from Napoleon's Corsican birth to his exile in St. Helen in the four-part documentary featuring international historians, original footage of what was once Napoleon's empire, and quotations from Napoleon's writings. For more information , contact the Fisher Company Press Contact at 914/674-6164. Pelswick This new animated series features the adventures of a typical 13-year-old boy, who happens to be a quadriplegic. Despite using a wheelchair, Pelswick insists on being treated like everyone else, and he faces adolescent predicaments and family challenges with a unique sense of humor. Building Big Hosted by David Macaulay, author of The Way Things Work, each episode of this five-part series focuses on a different type of large-scale engineering. Sketchbook in hand, Macaulay scrambles up, around, over and through bridges, domes, skyscrapers, dams, and tunnels, explaining the principles behind each type of construction. Interactive workshops and educational materials are available at www.pbs.org/buildingbig. CNN Newsroom Created for classroom use, CNN Newsroom incorporates special reports with daily news. On Mondays in October, "Vikings" will investigate these Scandinavians and how they lived, and profile Gunner Marel Eggerston, who intends to recreate Eriksson's journey. Also this month, "The Electoral Process" airs on October 24, and in a week-long series beginning October 2, "The Faces of a Hero" explores definitions from mythology and literature and looks at modern heroes. For more information, or to sign up to receive classroom guides and programming information by email, visit www.turnerlearning.com. Safe Passage: Voices from the Middle School Airing live from Washington, D.C., this one-hour special raises awareness of the challenges faced by teens by looking at middle school from their perspective. How to handle conflict and peer pressure while developing a resilient nature is examined, along with ways schools and communities can be made safer for kids. "Reality Check" will allow viewers to compare their awareness of teen behavior with what teens themselves report. The Hound of the Baskervilles Sir Henry Baskerville returns to his ancestral home after his uncle suffers a mysterious death, and while many in the village believe his death was the result of a Baskerville family curse, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson hurry to sort through the suspects and save Sir Henry from an untimely death. KIDSNET is producing free educator guides designed for high school English teachers; visit www.kidsnet.org for more information. Cora Unashamed - Masterpiece Theatre's American Collection Based on the story by Langston Hughes, this film tells of Cora, a member of the only African-American family living in a small Iowa town during the Depression. After Cora's young daughter dies, her affection nurtures Jessie Studevant, her employers' daughter. When Jessie becomes pregnant, Mrs. Studevant takes steps that have tragic consequences, and Cora's devotion to the girl empowers her to speak the truth - at great personal cost. Also airing on October 8, 15, and 22 is the three-part adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic, Oliver Twist. Support materials are available at www.pbs.org and through NCTE at www.ncte.org. Animated Epics - Don Quixote This animated presentation features Miguel de Cervantes's tale of the knight-errant, Don Quixote de la Mancha. Accompanied by his squire, Sancho Panzo, he embarks on a quest to right the wrongs of the world. Hate.com: Extremists on the Internet The politics of hate groups, how their leaders recruit online, and the connection between these groups and recent acts of violence are examined in this investigation of how hate groups grow through the Internet. In conjunction with this presentation, HBO is developing a cyber-campaign, "Hate Hurts," to share ways to develop empathy and promote tolerance. TCM By The Book - Lives on Film Intended to motivate students to read and develop a passion for literature, offerings in October include films based on biographies of Madame Curie, Louis Pasteur, Vincent van Gogh, and others. TCM By The Book offers taping rights for one year from airdate on selected programs and free support materials. Visit www.turnerlearning.com for more information. Assignment Discovery - Earth Science, Life Science,
Energy & Health Four, week-long series on science and health debut in October, beginning with Energy, which includes programs on sound, matter, fire, physics, and magnetism. Health follows, with smoking, weight, brains, bones, and puberty explored, and Earth Science and Life Scienceare the focus of the third and fourth weeks. Produced for grades 7-12 and commercial-free with taping rights. Find lesson plans at http://school.discovery.com, and request the Fall 2000 Educator Guide by calling 888-892-3484. |
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