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Each New Year brings a flood of personal resolutions. Lose weight, pay off credit cards, call Mom more often. But this annual time of reflection isn't restricted to one's private affairs. We found that education experts have distinct resolutions for public education. In their words, here are the Top 10 areas in which public education should be focusing in the coming years. Show us the money Bill Hedrick, past president of the Corona-Norco Unified School District Board of Trustees and president of the Rialto School District Teachers Union, says more funds are needed to help schools handle reforms and new requirements. "Many of the requested reforms we are to implement require much individualized attention and remediation. They require an extended school day or tutoring after school. A flow of funding for that to realistically occur has to be guaranteed. "What the government has mandated essentially is that every child will be in a college prep program. It's a nice idea, but I'm not sure how realistic it is. The funding needs to be there for such a plan. Look at anybody who has much exposure to children or teachers, and they understand that not every child wants to go to college. We have a program now where we're going to try to move everybody through college prep classes. Then don't stigmatize teachers as failures because they can't force the absolutely unwilling to partake of chemistry or calculus. The funding has to be adequate or else there has to be an adjustment of the timelines to reach these lofty goals. Just saying it will not make it so. `"In addition, the state needs tens of thousands of new teachers, yet so few districts pay a salary that will attract the consistent quality of candidates that we need. Since the federal government has now raised the standard of who may teach under No Child Left Behind, it would have been nice to include funding to support such a lofty goal to have no one on an emergency credential, no interns." Never too young to learn Dave Long, Riverside County superintendent of schools, has focused on early childhood education and encouraging agencies to work together to provide community services. The county's first Early Learning Center opened last year in Perris, funded with Proposition 10 funds. Long says the center is just the first step. "We need a comprehensive, articulated 0 to 12th-grade plan. For years, we've known that it's those developmental stages from birth to 3 or 5 years old that are so critical in literacy development. It's about school readiness, so when they hit kindergarten they're prepared to learn. We talk about it, but we don't do it. If we're going to make systemic changes in education, we're going to have to pay particular attention to development from the time when a child is born. That will have more of a significant impact on a child's ability to learn and be successful in school than anything we do. "We need to create early learning centers and involve hospitals. Parents can take their children there for shots, exams, to meet with psychologists, to fill out school paperwork. There would be child care and education for preschoolers. We need to quit talking about collaboration and do it. It can be done, it must be done. We're talking about shaking the roots of the system." Calling all parents Barbara Paxton, president of the California State PTA's Fourth District, says parents must recognize the many ways in which they can - and should - be involved in their child's education. "This year...we have begun to focus on parent education and providing opportunities for parents to get involved. It's not just showing up at school to work at the carnival or in class. It's making sure your child has breakfast in the morning, a good night's sleep, and has seen dentist. "Help a child do her homework, even if you don't understand it. When a parent makes school important, a kid makes school important." What is success? Mary Perry is deputy director of EdSource, a Palo Alto-based nonprofit organization that examines public education issues. She says the state needs to develop better guidelines for how school districts should judge success. "I think that the state needs to really develop...what is 'an acceptable final product' in terms of what student achievement looks like. We have academic content standards, but we haven't really fleshed out the performance standards. What can we truly and realistically expect as a goal for our high school graduates? Currently about one-third of California's graduates are eligible to attend (Cal State University) and (University of California). There is a lot of rhetoric around that level of preparation being appropriate for all students. Also, there is talk that all kids aren't going to go to college, nor do they need to. "Some level of post-secondary preparation or training is important. What does that look like? What is our K-12 system's obligation in that regard?" Reality checks Hedrick, of Corona-Norco and Rialto school districts, says the state must re-examine its expectations of students and schools. "Clearly, we have to continue to work toward improved achievement. But I think that there's very little appreciation for the complexity of California schools and educational challenges here. So often, people suggest that we need to apply a business model to the schools. The fact is that we have absolutely no control over the raw material we deal with. In this sense, we have so many children who have special needs and need individual attention to reach their potential. And that specialized attention is costly. "Between special education and within special education, the impact of drug-impaired babies is substantial in some communities. The fact that 25 percent of students do not speak English when they come to school is a substantial impact. The concentration of children living in poverty in the five Southern California counties is the highest concentration in the country. That's one reason why the president's reforms (Leave No Child Behind act) are so difficult for us. They have been written for a national audience, when we're residing in a part of the country that in no way reflects the national need. "(The) system is mandated to accept all children who arrive at the door and turn out an excellent product. If you apply a business model to this, the absurdity becomes somewhat clear. If I were running a company and the materials with which I produced the product arrived at my loading dock seriously damaged in some way...the analogy would run that I would probably return it to the sender. That is obviously impossible in the school system unless you run a private school, in which case you can deny admission. "In our system, regardless of the challenges presented, every child is expected to achieve. But they won't all achieve in the same way or arrive at the same point at the same time." Something for everybody Joyce Powell Riley, co-president of the Orange County Learning Disabilities Association, says schools are ignoring nearly half of all students in their quest to become top-rated schools. They cater to those who will attend college, but ignore those who struggle. The result will continue to be angry youths leaving schools with certificates of attendance or nothing at all. Her suggestions start with the very young. "Every child will be evaluated at about age 2 by a pediatrician and by the local school district to see that their perceptual skills and language skills are intact. Government or private agencies will give training for improved sensory responses and language training. When each child enters kindergarten, each will again be evaluated to be sure that the child is capable of learning. Any child not ready to learn will be given the help that is needed long before she/he fails first or second grade. "By third grade, the effort would be to see that every child has learned to read. Those who have not mastered that complex task would continue to receive training as long as it was needed. "Algebra will not be a high school graduation requirement. Accommodations will be made during any testing procedures for students who have difficulty with learning. Vocational education classes will be available in every high school." Tap into technology Long, superintendent of Riverside County schools, says schools need to embrace the next wave of technology and use money for student materials wisely. "If we're going to move toward change that makes a difference for children, instead of spending all this money on books that sometimes become outdated before kids get them, let's get the curriculum on disk and make a concerted effort to purchase a computer for every child. It will aid interaction among parents, teachers and students. "The age of technology is here. We can address the problem of ever-changing curriculum and it doesn't take new money. We need to use existing money and change our area of focus." Healthy competition James Fleming, Capistrano Unified School District superintendent, believes families will have more choices as the numbers of charter schools and private institutions continue to grow throughout Southern California. Public schools must rise to the challenge by reinventing themselves. "There are greater options now than the standard public school classroom. We have the charter school movement, which allows anybody from the faculty within an existing school to a parent group to come forward and say, 'We've got an idea on how we want to structure a school.' We have two charter schools. I suspect there will be a lot more. You've got a growing field outside the public sector of people coming in with approaches to educating children where there's a profit motive. It's questionable as to whether there should be a profit or whether the savings should be pumped back into the system. "We really have two dichotomous trends right now. We are much more standardized than before. At the same time, we've got movement toward decentralization in terms of structure. "Now parents have to be wiser consumers. I've had parents say, 'You've made it more difficult for me. Now that you're giving me choices and options, I've got to do some homework.'" Teacher appreciation Paying teachers well and promoting the career as a valued profession will be necessary as the state sees thousands of experienced teachers retire and the continued attrition of frustrated new teachers, says Paxton of the PTA. "What drives the education is not the building, not the equipment, not even the textbooks. It's the person standing up there giving the lesson and diagnosing each child's learning style, their weaknesses and where they can build them up. "We have a huge teacher shortage that is going to keep on coming. I don't know if the capacity is big enough at this point to have the teachers we need. A big part of that is pay. Look at what we pay people who take our most treasured assets. There's a big disconnect. We all have to make teaching look more attractive. You do that with salary, with re-educating the public to hold this profession in esteem. "As a part of that, we're holding districts and teachers to a higher level of accountability." Keep the buildings in good shape The schools in which children learn can impact their education, says Perry of EdSource. The state and local districts should be focusing on ways to fund school construction and better maintain existing campuses. "School facilities are one of those things that often get left as a side issue. But it's a continuing challenge in California. We know it can make a difference in children's education. Four or five years ago, state leaders made a substantial investment in facilities. "One of the challenges, because of the budget situation, is they always cut maintenance because it's away from the classroom. There is a tremendous amount of pressure to make budget cuts. You can lay off janitors in January, but you can't lay off teachers. So California ends up once again with a problem. We should really be rethinking how you fund facilities over the long haul. Floating $11 billion bonds every 10 years may not be the best approach." Jennifer Leuer of Yorba Linda is an education reporter. To reach her: leuer.ramus@sbcglobal.net. |
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