ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 7, 1997 TAG: 9701070089
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
AN INTERESTING phenomenon in education reform:
A rigidly structured, highly disciplined regimen of class drills performed by orderly students seated in neat rows produces good results in teaching children to read.
As does the organized chaos of a class let loose to research a selected topic in small groups, then called back together to report informally on what they've learned.
And a business-major approach that selects third- through fifth-graders - who are interviewed by their prospective colleagues - to work at a student-run greeting-card enterprise writing, illustrating and advertising cards, and selling them for 50 cents a pop ($1 for adults) out of their classrooms.
Also effective, for the affluent offspring of the well-educated, is a traditional curriculum - supplemented by a long reading list in each grade and, for any student falling behind, in-class help from an additional teacher, plus consultations with a social worker.
Students at New York City schools following each of these disparate philosophies are among the highest performing in New York State in reading and math, even though the city's schools overall rank well below those in other parts of the state.
And, while one of the schools is on Manhattan's Upper East Side and offers all the advantages wealth can bring, affluence is not the common factor in their success.
The strictly traditional Public School 31 is in Brooklyn. Its students speak eight languages among them. Most now speak English as well - there's no bilingual education here. And last year, 94 percent of its third-graders passed a minimum-competency test in reading; 34 percent were reading on a sixth-grade level.
More than half the third-graders at the relaxed, creative P.S. 234 in TriBeCa read at a sixth-grade level.
The business-model school, P.S. 29, is in the South Bronx. As well as teaching by putting the kids, literally, in business, the school takes a bottom-line approach to writing and math competency. It unapologetically teaches the test - something the principal of P.S. 6, on the Upper East Side, forbids.
The common successes of these uncommon schools suggest there may be no one, correct approach for teaching. Yet all of these schools do share some attributes, The New York Times reports: "a strong principal who articulates a clear vision; a cohesive curriculum, where lessons learned in one grade are built on in the next; extensive teacher training, and active support from parents."
There's no good reason why more public schools in Virginia couldn't apply these same lessons. To give them more prompting, and models to emulate, the state should authorize creation of public charter schools.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB