THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 2, 1995 TAG: 9501010104
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: REWRITING THE LESSON PLAN
BACK TO BASICS
Are kids learning enough about the "basics" in school?
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 287 lines
Even now, 17-year-old Mimi Smith gets irritated when she thinks about it.
To Mimi, an assignment to memorize and recite the preamble to the U.S. Constitution was a useless exercise, just like most of the other material covered in her U.S. government class.
``I feel like government is only something you'd use if you're going to be a lawyer,'' said Mimi, a senior at Ocean Lakes High in Virginia Beach. ``I'm not going to use it later, so why am I being forced to take it? I feel like it's wasted time.''
Mimi's sentiments echo escalating demands from today's students that schools focus on subject matter they consider directly relevant to their lives. That attitude evokes impassioned but sharply divided reactions from parents, educators and the public.
The debate comes down to content and time - what schools should require kids to learn, and how much of the school day should be spent on non-academic activities that often are aimed more at helping kids cope with everyday living than teaching them the three R's.
Lately, several states, including Virginia, have shifted course and begun moving toward tougher, more measurable academic standards. Other changes are emerging. Some Hampton Roads schools, for example, are experimenting with longer class periods so teachers can present lessons in greater depth, especially in math and science.
Many people are convinced that schools have gone awry because they haven't focused enough time on such basic academic disciplines as math, English, history and foreign languages; or stressed the importance of core subject matter and analytical skills.
They are part of a resurgent movement known as ``back-to-basics.'' And across the country, they're pushing schools down a more traditional path with an eye toward grooming better citizens and ensuring graduates have mastered academic basics.
They also want to see more self-discipline among students.
In Virginia Beach last spring, a slate of candidates called Kids First, which criticized public schools for not being tough enough on academics, was defeated but made a strong showing in the city's first School Board election.
Edward G. Kreyling Jr., a former board member who ran with the slate, defines the basics as ``the three R's and two more I added - responsibility and respect.''
Mary Ann Leasher, a Norfolk community activist and former PTA leader, said public schools undeniably have strayed too far from a rigorous, academic foundation.
``They've moved away from that because of the politically correct, liberal agenda - which has encouraged schools to focus on self-esteem and totally nonessential things in life,'' she said.
To illustrate her point, Leasher, a small-business owner and civic league president, recalled a tutoring program she was involved with several years ago. She was discouraged from correcting students' papers, she said, because an educator told her that doing so might ``hurt their feelings.''
But critics of the back-to-basics philosophy accuse its proponents of wanting to return to the Wonder Years, when teachers were unquestioned authorities, most homes had two parents and the local plant provided good jobs, even for dropouts.
The trouble is not that schools aren't teaching the basics, said Ulysses V. Spiva, a retired education professor who now sits on the Virginia Beach School Board. It's that, these days, they have to teach more students with a greater variety of abilities, he said.
``You go to the early grades and you will find them doing a fantastic job of teaching math concepts. In high school, many children are taking trigonometry, math analysis, calculus. Those courses were reserved for kids going to college in my day,'' he said.
While many educators have, in fact, embraced the back-to-basics movement - which began to stir in the 1970s - there are indications that students still haven't made meaningful advances in thinking critically or communicating ideas, the kind of sophisticated skills now in demand.
And even among advocates of getting back to basics, deciding what schools should do without can be difficult. Are parenting classes for expectant teenage moms and dads a frill? Do schools spend too much time and money on social services, like breakfast programs for poor kids? Are art and vocational-training classes fluff?
Clear-cut answers are scarce, in part because the back-to-basics idea is ill-defined. The definition of what the basics are also has changed over time. Technology training, for example, has supplanted classes once deemed essential, like agriculture and home economics.
What's more, the public and politicians frequently shift goals for schools. One decade brings a push for more child-centered, ``individualized'' education; while the next may bring a call for higher academic standards. A balance is rarely achieved.
``The pendulum in education swings back and forth,'' said Sharon Curle, a 16-year teacher who now helps other teachers with a new curriculum at R.N. Harris Elementary in Durham, N.C. ``First it swings towards heavy content and isolation of skills. Then it swings back totally to whole language and relating everything . . . so isolated facts and skills fall by the wayside and kids don't learn them.
``We go to extremes.''
Between the extremes, educators and others are searching for middle ground - a way to put public schools on a solid academic base without ignoring issues of access and socioeconomic disparity.
``Everybody wants strong academics,'' said Kathy Christie, a spokeswoman for the Education Commission of the States, a nonprofit group that studies schooling trends nationally. The real debate, she said, ``is how to structure that most effectively.''
Gregory N. Stillman, vice chairman of regional education for the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, thinks schools often get a bum rap. Schools, he said, cannot do more with less.
``I think public education is sometimes unfairly criticized in the sense that I'm not sure that schools ever left the basics,'' Stillman said. ``What happened is that a lot of other things found their way into the school day, largely in the way of mandates.''
Some of the nonacademic programs are needed because many children aren't getting the guidance they need from home, he said. But if schools are to handle additional responsibilities well, he said, they must be given additional tools.
``It's a unique form of American chauvinism that says we can do in 180 (school) days what the rest of the world does in 225 or so. . . You have to understand that if you're going to pay more attention to academics and higher-order thinking skills, you'll need a longer day or year; and more resources.''
Others are coming to the same conclusion.
A strike force assembled by the governor has recommended that the legislature examine the length of the school day and the school year ``with a view to extending them.'' The group also has said the state Education Department should urge local boards to plan curricula that devote at least 5 1/2 hours a day to ``traditional core academics.''
William C. Bosher Jr., state superintendent of public instruction, has called for schools to focus more attention on fundamentals, but he admits that many people who feel the way he does have an overly rosy memory of their time in school.
``The truth is, the good old days had a dropout rate of about 50 percent,'' he said.
Unlike 50 years ago, schools today are expected to educate youngsters of widely varying talents and needs - from the gifted to the disabled - all the while keeping dropout rates low and academic achievement high. Reformers now urge teachers not to lower expectations of students, but to use creative methods of getting lessons across to a more diverse audience.
``Fifty to 75 years ago, most people either went into an industrial work force or to the farm,'' Bosher said. ``The exception was to go to college. Today, the standard is that if you don't go to college, you're the exception. Clearly, if you don't finish high school, you're an exception.''
Kids now have to worry about competing in a quickly changing world at a time when jobs move, high technology reigns and the brain race is fierce. They must know not only a list of skills and facts, but how to find and apply new information when they need it.
``The old way of teaching just reading and math won't make it in today's world,'' said Charlene Christopher, president of the Education Association of Norfolk, which represents teachers in contract negotiations.
Students ``need to be proficient in foreign languages and literate in computer technology,'' she said, citing the influx of Asians and Hispanics to the country and an increasing reliance on computers in all aspects of life.
Employers, Stillman said, also are looking for graduates who can work in teams, think on their feet and take responsibility for their own actions. ``A computer can add two plus two. That's not enough.''
In Durham, N.C., R.N. Harris Elementary is experimenting with the ``Core Knowledge'' curriculum, which lists facts and concepts students must learn at each level from first through sixth grades. The curriculum emphasizes giving kids a broad foundation of knowledge.
``If you don't know the right things, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If you're a walking encyclopedia but you can't access that knowledge, it doesn't help you,'' said David Holdzkom, executive director of research, development and accountability for Durham schools.
``You've got to have a balance.''
Finding that balance is the tricky part. In Virginia, basics advocates have made gains.
In 1993, for example, Gov. L. Douglas Wilder killed a ``World Class Education'' plan that critics said was not rich enough in academic content. Over the past year, proponents of beefing up academics have served on commissions appointed by Gov. George F. Allen to propose changes in education.
The commissions' proposals include changes that would give parents more say over what kids are taught and how - particularly through charter schools, which are special public schools governed by parents or other groups and are free of many of the rules imposed on regular schools.
Charter-school proposals and other reforms will be considered by the General Assembly this session.
The state Board of Education also is considering revisions to standards for what concepts schools must teach in math, science, social studies and language arts.
Drafts of new science and math standards already have been released. The state Department of Education is expected to publish a draft of social studies and language arts standards this month.
The Commission on Champion Schools has recommended the new standards be made regulations rather than guidelines, with penalties for schools failing to comply.
Bosher said his aim was to set high standards and do away with those that are watered-down so all students can meet them.
``The criticism is that we'll find more failure,'' he said. ``The goal is that we find more success. We're not going to find more success without some failure.''
The time may be ripe for an education overhaul: Parents and others have grown weary of fancy-sounding programs that seem to come and go without accomplishing much of anything. Reports describing how American students lag in comparison with counterparts around the globe have taken a toll.
Something tried-and-true is in order, said Kreyling, the former Virginia Beach School Board member and retired railroad executive. Schools, he said, must first stop dumping their underachievers on educators at the next grade level.
``The problem is, they don't insist on the children achieving any kind of results before they promote them. They can go from class to class and year to year without learning anything,'' he said. ``. . . All of a sudden, the emphasis seemed to be on just getting kids into the building, and not on the education.'' MEMO: Education staff writers Jon Glass, Vanee Vines and Philip Walzer
contributed to this report.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Education reform is front and center on the nation's political
agenda, and nowhere has it gotten more attention lately than in
Virginia. George F. Allen made it a cornerstone of his gubernatorial
campaign, and in his first year on the job he created two separate
committees to look into the way Virginia's public schools are run.
The Governor's Commission on Champion Schools spent much of 1994
conducting public forums and taking the public's pulse on various reform
measures. The commission issued an interim report in late November,
mainly to be on record with recommendations before the General Assembly
tackled specific legislation.
Meanwhile, the education subcommittee of the Governor's Commission on
Government Reform - a blue ribbon strike force looking for ways to make
government more efficient - took a different tack but arrived at some of
the same conclusions. It issued its report in November. Between the
two panels, a raft of suggestions has been presented for consideration.
Some are likely to come before the legislature when it convenes Jan. 11;
others have been recommended for further study.
Over the next four days, The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star will
examine four of the ideas under review. Some wander into relatively new
and unfamiliar territory. Others tackle longstanding but unresolved
debates within the teaching community.
All could help to shape the future of education in Virginia.
THE BACK-TO-BASICS MOVEMENT
What is it? The back-to-basics movement is not very well-defined.
Fundamentally, it is made up of people who believe schools are not
spending enough time on academics and are not concentrating enough on
teaching fundamental skills, such as reading, writing and computation.
Is that true? Some studies have underscored concerns about how
classroom time is being spent. A report released in April by the
National Education Commission on Time and Learning, for example, showed
that about 40 percent of American students' school days isspent on core
academic subjects. State Superintendent William C. Bosher Jr. said he
believes the figure is comparable in Virginia's schools.
In October, results were released for a survey by New York City-based
Public Agenda Foundation that showed about 60 percent of Americans
believe their local schools do not place enough emphasis on basics such
as reading, writing and math.
What's being done? In Virginia, the state Department of Education is
revising standards for math, language arts, science and social studies.
The goal is to toughen academics. Two commissions appointed by Gov.
George F. Allen also have proposed measures to give parents more say
over what their kids are taught and how. Some of the proposals will be
considered by the General Assembly when it convenes this month.
Elsewhere, some schools have adopted new curricula that are richer in
academic content. One such curriculum is called Core Knowledge, based on
the work of University of Virginia professor E.D. Hirsch. The Core
Knowledge curriculum, which now includes grades one through six,
establishes specific skills and material that must be taught at each
grade level in language arts, American civilization, world civilization,
geography, fine arts, visual arts and architecture, math, and life and
physical sciences. Teachers are free to develop innovative ways to teach
the material.
Core Knowledge curriculum / A9
ILLUSTRATION: SAM HUNDLEY/Staff illustration
BETH BERGMAN/Staff photos
To learn more about the Caribbean, students at R.N. Harris
Elementary in Durham, N.C., try the limbo after giving oral reports
on the region.
First-grader Donatoe Jones colors in a cross in his workbook after
learning about Christianity. Learning about the world's five major
religions is part of the school's first-grade curriculum.
Principal Gertrude Williams, an advocate of the Core Knowledge
curriculum, directs Donatoe Jones' attention to the front of the
class.
KEYWORDS: EDUCATION CORE CURRICULUM BASICS by CNB