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School Board News Bulletin
March 1999

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GOVERNOR PROPOSES $342 MILLION SCHOOL FUNDING INCREASE

TEACHERS, COMMUNITIES DISAGREE ON REFORM

PUBLIC IS PRO-PUBLIC SCHOOLS

"QUIT SMOKING" DAY IS APRIL 14

SOME SCHOOLS PLAN Y2K HOLIDAYS

FEDERAL UPDATE

Year 2000 census vital to schools

New reading appraisals show improvement

Secretary Riley says new licensing system is needed for teachers

NEWS FROM IASB

IASB survey results now on Internet

Board candidate workshop videotapes offered

Conference panel reports now available on IASB website

How Business Can Support Leadership Training for School Board Members

DEVELOPMENTS IN SCHOOL LAW

RESEARCH REPORTS

Most charter schools are small, recently created

Gains seen on national reading assessment

Study confirms excellent schools build excellent neighborhoods

Education is top public concern

WORKSHOPS & MEETINGS

IASB workshop for new board members

Multicultural job fair to feature educators

THE NATIONAL SCENE

Expert believes thinking should be in curriculum

Businesses urged to use high school transcripts

TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS

Head off trouble at school

Study evaluates school-wide reforms

New grant information on the Web

Get every child reading

Submit nominations for Those Who Excel awards

Recent mailings from IASB

Governor George Ryan unveiled his FY 2000 budget proposal at a joint meeting of the Illinois General Assembly February 17. His proposal includes an increase of $342 million in appropriations for elementary and secondary education. Recommended increases include:

* $10 million in state revenue, to be supplemented by $50 million in federal funds, for hiring new teachers to reduce class sizes

* $102 million to pay for the statutorily required increase in the FY 2000 General State Aid foundation level to $4,325, and an additional $41 million to provide an additional $30 - $40 per pupil

* an increase of $107 million for categorical programs, raising the pro-ration level from approximately 85 percent to 90 percent

* $35 million to fund the hold-harmless line item

* adequate funds to restore both the FY 1999 and FY 2000 final June General State Aid payments.

Governor Ryan pledged to increase funding by $8 million for a "Governor’s Technology Initiative" to ensure that schools have access to the Internet. The governor’s technology plan also includes $17 million for the Illinois Century Network to link colleges and universities with local schools.

Governor Ryan also committed $387 million for the school construction grant program to increase by more than 30 percent the state’s commitment to elementary and secondary school projects.

IASB Executive Director Wayne Sampson praised the governor’s budget, saying: "We hear a lot of talk from elected officials these days about making education their top priority, but this is one instance where an elected official has actually done that."

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TEACHERS, COMMUNITIES DISAGREE ON REFORM

A new Public Agenda survey finds most teachers disapprove of tying financial incentives for teachers to student improvement or replacing the staff at failing schools, two proposals that garner acceptance from most parents and employers.

That finding comes from the second annual "Reality Check" survey, released in February. The survey measures the progress of the school reform movement in terms of classroom performance, and contrasts the divergent viewpoints of public school teachers, students, parents, employers and college professors.

There continued to be a lack of consensus about how well the nation’s public schools rate. As in a 1998 survey, teachers are more likely to hold local public schools in high regard (92 percent) than are college professors (27 percent) or employers (33 percent).

Long viewed as suspect by teachers, financial incentives were favored by only 22 percent of the teachers surveyed. Some educators have stated in previous studies that such incentives inflate the importance and reliability of standardized tests and depend too heavily on the subjective opinion of school leaders about individual teacher performance.

Critics of accountability measures — such as financial incentives or reconstituting schools — question the underlying assumption that teachers have the power to greatly improve schools. "[W. Edwards] Deming showed that failure of a system to get results cannot be changed by the workforce; the system can be changed only by top management," explained one such critic.

For more information, contact Public Agenda at 212/686-6610.

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PUBLIC IS PRO-PUBLIC SCHOOLS

A series of local forums on education, sponsored by the Illinois PTA and the Center on Education Policy, reveals that "local citizens have a large store of good will for the public schools and want them to succeed."

The Illinois public’s top suggestion about how to improve schools is to reduce class size, thus "allowing teachers to respond to the special needs of individual students and also to be more creative and innovative in their teaching."

"Second, new teachers ought to receive better preparation, and current teachers ought to be given more opportunities to improve their skills and knowledge," Illinois citizens said. Participants also recommended a greater partnership between schools and parents. Others expressed concern about the current reliance upon local property taxes for the bulk of education funding, and called for the public schools to be financed in some other way.

Source: Illinois PTA, Center on Education Policy, and Joyce Foundation, Citizens Forums on Education in Illinois; Summary Report, February 10, 1999.

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"QUIT SMOKING" DAY IS APRIL 14

The fourth annual Kick Butts Day, which encourages students to quit smoking, will be celebrated at many schools on April 14 as part of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Activities are planned in all 50 states, including undercover tobacco-buying operations, classroom lessons on the dangers of tobacco, and mock trials for Mr. Butts.

Each day more than 3,000 young people become regular smokers.

For more information on Kick Butts Day, visit the campaign’s Web site at http://tobaccofreekids.org.

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SOME SCHOOLS PLAN Y2K HOLIDAYS

The Santa Fe, New Mexico school system is considering a plan to delay the first day of school after winter break from January 3 to January 10, 2000, even though the district’s computer systems are expected to be ready for the new millenium.

The North Hills, Pennsylvania, school system added January 3 as an extra day off, and the Hillsborough County, Florida, school system is considering starting the school year earlier in August, so winter break can be extended to January 6.

A few doomsayers warn the "millenium bug" could lead to world-wide chaos.

Others say that—at the worst—only a few local blackouts might ensue. Yet outages of electrical service now appear relatively unlikely according to the North American Electric Reliability Council, the agency assigned to coordinate the electric industry’s Y2K readiness. For more information, visit the Council’s website at http://www.nerc.com/~y2k/y2k.html.

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RESEARCH REPORTS

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Most charter schools are small, recently created

A new federal study says most charter schools are small and newly opened, with 279 additional charter schools opening in the last school year alone. While 19 charter schools closed, there were 693 charters remaining in operation by the end of the 1997-98 school year. Charters were located in 23 states and the District of Columbia.

Charter school enrollment as a percentage of state public school enrollment varies from roughly 2 percent in Arizona to less than one-tenth of one percent in Illinois.

These finding are contained in A National Study of Charter Schools: Second Year Report (130 pages), available without charge from Ed Pubs, P.O. Box 1398, Jessup, MD 20794-1398; phone 877/433-7827; or download from the federal Education Department Web site at http://www.ed.gov/.

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Gains seen on national reading assessment

A federal agency recently reported improved reading test results for children in grades 4, 8 and 12 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. At each grade level tested scores were slightly higher in 1998 than in 1994, however lower-performing fourth graders and most middle school students made especially significant progress.

Many children were making up ground lost early in the decade, when reading scores declined for reasons that remain unclear. The performance of 4th graders and 12th graders was about the same in 1998 as in 1992. Only 8th graders scored higher in 1998 than in 1992.

Despite the latest gains, most students were still reading below the levels recommended by the governing board of the testing program. The tests were given to 31,000 children from February to April 1998.

Source: Robert Pear, "Modest Gains Reported in National Reading Tests," The New York Times, February 11, 1999, page A21. For more information see the Times website, http://www.nytimes.com.

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Study confirms excellent schools build excellent neighborhoods

What happens when a school with a reputation for high quality broadens its enrollment to include all district students, not just neighborhood students? A new Minneapolis-area study commissioned by the University of Kentucky says neighborhood property values can decline by as much as 5 percent.

The author of the study, Professor William Hoyt, says the study indicates not merely that neighborhoods crumble when their best schools adopt open-enrollment policies, but that "good schools and good neighborhoods tend to go together."

Open enrollment policies can have a Robin Hood effect, according to Hoyt. "That’s because people in neighborhoods where housing is relatively cheap conversely enjoy an increase in a property’s worth when school choice is not restricted and students are educated elsewhere."

The total shift in property values is roughly 5 percent, and that shift is "a one-shot deal," said Hoyt.

Open enrollment’s impact on educational standards is negative, according to the study, with better schools losing some of their excellence in the face of enrollment growth, and poorer schools encountering a further erosion of standards as top students transfer to other schools.

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Education is top public concern

Education is the top concern of the American public for the third consecutive year, according to a recent USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll.

Among those who responded, 40 percent said education should be the top priority for Congress and the President, and 53 percent said it should be a high priority. Those polled also named health care, Social Security, and Medicare as high priorities for government.

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NEWS FROM IASB

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IASB survey results now on Internet

School board members and superintendents who took part in the IASB surveys last fall can now determine how their responses compared with state and regional averages. Summaries of results from both the board member survey and the superintendent survey, each broken down into four regions of the state, can now be downloaded from the IASB Internet website at http://www.iasb.com. The survey files are listed under "What’s New?" near the top of the IASB homepage.

Both surveys drew excellent participation—2,469 board members took part, as did 579 superintendents.

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Board candidate workshop videotapes offered

Tapes of the Board Candidate Workshop offered via satellite broadcast live on February 3 are now available from IASB for $25. Although produced for candidates, parts of the tape might be used with the entire board to prompt important discussions.

To obtain a copy of the workshop video, send check or purchase order for $25 to: Jenny Harkins, IASB, 2921 Baker Drive, Springfield, IL 62703; Fax 217/528-2831.

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Conference panel reports now available on IASB website

Is there one panel session you really wish you had not missed at last year’s annual conference? Then you will not want to miss the Special Report of the 1998 Joint Annual Conference, including the full text of reports on panel sessions, available on the IASB website at http://www.iasb.com.

The online version (listed under "Directories & Other Data") replaces the paper version. For those who want a permanent file copy, the Special Report can be downloaded from the IASB Internet site. Having the report online makes it easier than ever to find the topic you want. Simply perform a keyword search or scroll down the alphabetized list of panel titles until you find the panel you want, then click on it, and you’ll find you are there.

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How Business Can Support Leadership Training for School Board Members

Businesses, law firms, and individuals may support leadership training for school board members by making tax deductible, charitable contributions to the Illinois Association of School Boards. These contributions, no matter their size, allow IASB to provide additional training opportunities and resources for local school board members.

IASB is organized exclusively for tax-exempt purposes. Its status as a charitable corporation allows donors to receive a tax deduction for their contributions.

Please contact IASB if you, your business or law firm wish to make a tax deductible, charitable contribution. Depending upon IASB needs at the time of your contribution, the donation will be used for such purposes as workshops, speakers, receptions, scholarships, dinners, research, publications and/or special projects. Your support will be recognized in printed materials, display signs, donor representation at events, public announcements and introductions from the podium, or printed acknowledgment in publications.

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DEVELOPMENTS IN SCHOOL LAW

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Schools Must Provide Health Services for Medically Fragile Students

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court settled the controversy regarding whether public schools must provide one-on-one nursing services for medically fragile students. The Court answered affirmatively, holding that when meaningful access to school depends on such intensive nursing services, the school district must provide and pay for them. Cedar Rapids Community School District v. Garret F., March 3, 1999, USSC.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires schools to provide "related services" to a student with disabilities if the student needs such services in order to have meaningful access to school programs. "Medical services," however, are exempt from this requirement. In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court held that catheterization was a required related service. Catheterization was not a "medical service" because it needed to be administered only every three to four hours by a school nurse or other trained health aid. Since this decision, federal courts have struggled with defining the perimeters of "medical services."

The distinction between a health-related service and an exempted medical service is significant – the former must be provided and paid for by the school district, whereas the latter does not. Most often, neither state nor federal funding completely covers the costs of providing these services, which can be very high. Schools urged a distinction between medical and non-medical services based on the extent of services required. Thus, schools sought to limit their obligation to only intermittent health services that could be provided by existing healthcare personnel. Constant, intensive health services, asserted schools, were akin to private nursing services; they should be characterized as "medical services" for which schools are not responsible.

At no time were schools arguing that medically fragile students do not belong in public schools. Neither did schools seek to be exempted from responsibility for the educational programs of medically fragile students. Rather, public schools urged that they should not be responsible for the costs of extensive nursing care.

Garret, the student petitioner in the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision, is a ventilator-dependent student. He is paralyzed from the neck down as a result a motorcycle accident that severed his spinal column when he was four. Garret attends regular classes and is academically successful. He needs constant nursing care because he can breathe only with external aids. The school district, like many before it, asserted that it should not be responsible for his one-on-one nursing care because such care was a "medical service."

The Supreme Court rejected the school district’s arguments. Finding no statutory exemption in IDEA for undue burden on a school district, the Court refused to allow for one. The exemption for "medical services" is limited to physician services. Here, since a nurse could provide the care Garret needed to remain in school, the school district was obligated to provide and pay for the services.

This decision should be the catalyst for full state and federal funding for special education programs. The ability of school officials to fully welcome these courageous young people is undermined by the sinking feeling that fund shortages create. Providing health services for medically fragile students should not come at the expense of other district programs.

Melinda Selbee is IASB’s general counsel.

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Workshops & Meetings

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IASB workshop for new board members

Incumbent school board members and district superintendents are encouraged to let their newly elected board members know about a workshop scheduled by IASB at various locations around Illinois in April and May.

The introductory workshop will deal with school governance principles, policies and practices and is aimed especially at board members who are elected on April 13 but who won’t be seated on the board until November. Experienced board members and superintendents also are invited to participate.

The workshop will run from Friday evening through mid-afternoon Saturday on the following schedule: April 23 and 24 – Downers Grove; April 30 and May 1—Peoria and Rend Lake; May 7 and 8—Collinsville, Deerfield and Ottawa; May 14 and 15—Harvey, Rockford and Springfield.

Details and registration information are being mailed to district superintendents and will also be available on the IASB website (www.iasb.com).

IASB also is planning to follow-up with an intermediate workshop for new members, to be scheduled for this fall.

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Multicultural job fair to feature educators

The 4th annual Multicultural Job Fair for Teachers and Administrators will be held Saturday, May 1 from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hyatt and University Village, on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago. This event has been instrumental in placing hundreds of qualified teachers in schools throughout the state.

School district representatives looking to fill anticipated vacancies on their teaching staff are urged to attend. For more information phone Sanetta George-Jackson, Director of Field Services at 603/629-3776.

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THE NATIONAL SCENE

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Expert believes thinking should be in curriculum

According to Arthur Pober, an educational psychologist, "Thinking is a kind of overlord of academia. What many grown-ups do not understand is that learning math and reading, social studies and science, music, woodworking, block-building or art does not teach youngsters how to think. Just the reverse." Learning to think, according to Pober, "should be a distinct component of the school curriculum and a distinct activity at home."

Educators generally agree that thinking comprises a cluster of elements: memory; cognition, or learning; decision-making and problem solving. Learning includes the ability to understand information and to explain it to others.

Source: Margot Slade, "Tuneups for the Young Brain: Try This at Home" The New York Times, February 11, 1999, page D11.

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Businesses urged to use high school transcripts

The National Alliance of Business wants employers to consider the high school transcripts of job applicants.

The Alliance launched a nationwide campaign, "Making Academics Count," February 10 aimed at having 10,000 employers use student records as part of their hiring practices by July 1999. NSBA has endorsed the campaign.

The alliance reports more than 3,000 companies already request transcripts. Pilot programs to promote the use of school records are under way in Warwick, Rhode Island; Santa Cruz, California; and three other localities. For more information, visit the business alliance’s Web site at http://www.makeacademicscount.org.

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TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS

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Head off trouble at school

A new guide from the federal Departments of Education and Justice is designed to help prevent violence in schools. Called Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools, the publication contains research-based tips for heading off potential trouble. Also included are prevention plans and, intervention and crisis response strategies. The guidebook is available by phone at 877/433-7827 or on the federal Web site at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/earlywrn.html.

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Study evaluates school-wide reforms

The first consumer guide designed to assess and rank the effectiveness of major school reform programs was recently released by the American Institutes for Research. Titled the Educators’ Guide to Schoolwide Reform Approaches, the new report examines 25 school-wide programs, including the Coalition for Essential Schools, Urban Learning Centers, and Success for All.

Funded by various national education organizations, the study offers a wealth of information on each reform approach. For example, it lists the number of schools involved in each program, the year launched, costs in the first year, technical support available from program administrators, and documentation of the impact on student achievement.

"This is a one-stop consumer guide to find out what really does work" in school reform, according to American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Deputy Executive Director Joe Schneider.

The report is available on the AASA Web page, under the heading "Report Offers Guidance on Selecting, Evaluating Schoolwide Reform Approach-es," at http://www.aasa. org.

Source: Leadership News, AASA, February 10, 1999.

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New grant information on the Web

The U.S. Department of Education now has extensive information on its Web page about nine federal programs, including details of how to apply for funding and a schedule of regional workshops. The nine programs and their current funding levels are:

Program FY1999 Appropriation

Class Size Reduction $1.2 billion

Reading Excellence Act $260 million

21st Century Community Learning Centers $200 million

Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology $75 million

Safe and Drug-Free Schools $566 million

Bilingual Education Professional Development $50 million

GEAR UP $120 million

Teacher Quality Enhancement Programs $75 million

Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnerships $10 million

For grant information on these programs visit: http://www.ed.gov/inits/FY99/index.html.

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Get every child reading

The Learning First Alliance has released a new booklet titled Every Child Reading: An Action Plan. It illustrates reading reforms and offers a basis for efforts that could help every child learn to read by the end of the third grade. To order a copy, contact Lydia Ellis of the American Federation of Teachers at 202/393-5684; or see the web site at http:// www.learningfirst.org.

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Submit nominations for Those Who Excel awards

Districts should soon be receiving nomination forms and instructions for the ISBE’s annual Those Who Excel Awards program. The deadline for submitting nominations is July 15. School leaders must act quickly to nominate those people, including board members, who have made outstanding contributions to their local schools. For more information call the ISBE’s public affairs office at 217/782-4648.

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FEDERAL UPDATE

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Year 2000 census vital to schools

A new federal initiative, called the Census in Schools Project, aims to help students learn what a census is and why it is important to them, their families and the community. The federal project, also known as "Making Sense of Census 2000," offers educators the chance to acquire colorful, hands-on lesson materials designed to introduce students to Census 2000.

Overall, the project aims to boost participation in the census by engaging parents through schools and encouraging active involvement of children and teens.

Teachers will get access to a series of teaching materials developed for the Census Bureau by Scholastic, Inc., an educational materials publisher. Separate materials are available for grades kindergarten to four, five to eight, and nine to 12.

Census 2000 will help decision makers understand which neighborhoods need new schools—information not available if census forms are not completed and returned.

For more information, visit the U.S. Census Bureau’s Internet site at http://www.census.gov or call the Regional Census Center, in Philadelphia, at 215/597-8312.

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New reading appraisals show improvement

Roughly one in four participating states boasted notable progress on the national assessment of fourth-grade reading released in March by the National Center for Education Statistics. No state showed a decline in student reading scores but four states erased declines from a previous reading test.

The report represents a complete reversal from the results of the 1994 reading assessment, which found significant declines in seven states. A National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading report for 1998 was released last month, revealing significantly better scores for students at every grade level tested.

For a copy of the combined national and state report, phone 877/433-7827; or visit the website at: http://nces.ed.gov.

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After-school programs get a boost

U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley issued his sixth annual "state of American education" address February 16, saying: "We need a sea change in public thinking about the value of teaching."

He proposed that states create a three-part teacher licensure system that would link teaching more closely with high standards. He suggested that teachers get an "initial license" for up to three years after passing a written exam of content and teaching knowledge and an assessment of teaching performance. "During this trial period," he said, "schools would offer new teachers annual contracts and be able to ‘counsel out’ those who really should not be" teaching.

Illinois is one of several states that have already adopted a three-tier system, and the State Board of Education is now looking at methods to link teacher preparation and accountability with new teacher standards.

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Recent mailings from IASB

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Not all IASB mailings are sent to all school board members. For speed or economy, some mailings are sent only to the board president or district superintendent. Here is a list of such items mailed recently. For more information about any item, contact your board president or district superintendent or get in touch with IASB.

February 1: Illinois Council of School Attorneys’ Directory, membership directory, mailed to district superintendents.

February 4: New School Laws 1998, to board presidents and district superintendents.

February 8: Multicultural Job Fair for Teachers and Administrators recruiters’ packet, mailed to district superintendents.

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IASB ARCHIVES HOME

Illinois Association of School Boards

2921 Baker Drive
Springfield, Illinois 62703