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Additional videos located in the ITL (EC 124):
Ambach, Gordon. Education reform at the state level. Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers: Focus on Education. (Host: Edwin Newman). (Show #309).
The United States does not have a national curriculum. It has 50 educational systems one for each state, territory, and D.C. We also have 15,000 local school boards. Having a decentralized educational system makes reform difficult. Most reforms have accrued at the state level. The questions are: Will reforms continue at the state level?, Will it spread to the disrict and school level? and What can schools do to make this happen?
The Constitution says nothing about education. Education is primarily the responsibility of state and local governments. Most of the 40 states have enacted educational reform legislation since the release of A Nation at Risk.
Responsibility of setting goals and for the overall management for each of the states. It is the responsibility of the state chief together with the state board of education to establish what should be taught and the levels of expected performance.
In reaction to the decline in test scores during the 60s and 70s, states are taking a greater role in assuring that expectations of education are high. It was clear that change needed to occur. Some changes were graduation requirements for high school, more accountability, more assessment, focus on producing results, and an increase of finding at the state level.
More reforms are needed. Education must prepare students for the international climate and competitioner. There has to be increased results in the basic skills of early grades, increased capacity for problem solving and higher-order thinking skills. Teachers must be more knowledgable about advanced technology and must be able to implement the technology in the classroom. (GF)
American Federation of Teachers. An insiders guide to Eastern European schools. Washington, DC: Focus on Education. (#506). (27 minutes)
Not only has society in Eastern Europe changed, but its schools have changed, too. Schools under communism were suppressed. Education was underfunded, teachers devalued, and free inquiry of learning was replaced by ideology. Students felt there was no purpose to the curriculum and, subsequently, did not take education seriously.
The classroom environment and school environment in general were inadequate. Broken chalkboards, unsanitary bathrooms, and textbooks with improper grammar were just a few of the weaknesses that teachers and students had to deal with. Children would even come to school suffering from malnutrition.
The Eastern European society believes that schools are central to the transition to democracy. High school students have difficulty comprehending the concept of democracy due to being suppressed for such a long period of time. Changes must occur including new textbooks for the schools, better school facilities, better school environment, history courses outside Communism, and more student and teacher freedom in the classroom. (GF)
Comer, J., and Stocklinski, J. (1991). The Comer process: Improving academic performance by bringing the community into the school. Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers: Focus on Education. (Show #507).
The Comer Process is a process that was first organized in 1968. The program was geared to minority students, and poor children with deprived, depressed backgrounds. Dr. Comer states that, "schools should be a ticket to opportunity in life." He wants students to feel that they belong in school. Schools are frightening for some children so, they need to be welcomed at school.
Next, Dr. Comer and Stocklinski emphasized the importance of having parents and other community members involved in school activities. Children will look at schools being good if parents and community members think that it is good. Parents, teachers, student council, and administrators work together as a team.
The children work together cooperatively and learn from each other. The hallways have student incentives donated by local businesses. The parents are the key to improving the school climate and making it comfortable for all students. A child needs continuity in his or her life is able to stay with the same teacher two or three years in a row.
Why isn't the Comer Process implemented everywhere? Well, people have to make major changes in the school, home, and the community, and this can be a problem for some people. In order for the Comer Process to work, family, school, and community will have to make a massive effort to accomplish these changes. This is an informative video about the Comer Process and its components. (LR)
Hollins, E. (1990). Meeting the challenge of cultural diversity in teacher preparation and assessment. Hayward, CA: California State University Hayward. (103 minutes).
Etta Hollins of California State University Hayward asserts that colleges of education do not adequately address cultural diversity; she conducts a seminar on cultural diversity in teacher preparation and assessment. Three guests give their views&127; on how teacher training and assessment can be improved.
Chuck Bowers, professor of education at the University of Oregon, discusses the importance of sensitivity to cultural differences in the classroom. He compares traditional teacher training (culture free, neutral language) with a system of training teachers to participate in primary socialization (presenting in a style and language the students will understand). He gives suggestions for methods courses.
Curtis Branch, professor at Columbia University Teachers College, presents problems of ethnicity and offers solutions. He states that the black idea of self is different from that in other cultures; he blames the failure of black students in school on a system which has not adapted to multicultural society. He attributes findings which label blacks as underachievers to the ethnic groundings of the researchers. He offers a teacher assessment model which focuses on the learner and ethnicity.
Tonya Huber, professor of education at Wichita State University, describes a teacher training program which enhances prospective teachers' awareness of cultural diversity. As a part of the curriculum, they must participate in cultural activities with people of different religions and ethnic backgrounds. She gives examples of improved cultural awareness. This section of the tape has some unreadable graphics. (TM)
Keiser, Roberta. Public schools in private buildings. Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers: Focus on Education. (AFT #402).
This video discusses Dade County's Satellite schools. The Satellite schools are built on corporate campuses, office parks, industrial parks and other work environments. It is most appealing because it is located at the place where the parent works. Schools are integrated because it is a reflection of the work place of the parents rather than the segregated school environments. The schools are built and maintained through private corporate money.
The school system provides the teaching part of the education. The businesses provides the building, the maintaining of the building, the security, the utilities, and the transportation (via parents). It is estimated that a program like this could save $219,000 per classroom, per year.
One problem solved under this program is overcrowding in public schools. Another advantage is that businesses are having a decreased turn-over rate since the program began. This is due to the company involvement in not only providing a job but providing education facilities for the employee's children. Parents feel more at ease with their children closer to them. The result has been an increase in productivity in the employee. Attendance records have increased for the employee as well as eliminating tardiness. Opportunities for parent involvement in the schools have increased because of its location.
Dade County Schools have contracted the YMCA to handle before- and after- school child care. The children are under the care of the YMCA until the last parent gets off work. This reassures the safety of the children to the parents.
The program has gained national as well as international attention. One of the biggest attractions is the public and private sector working together to meet a shared goal of an improved, safer educational environment for children. (GF)
Mudd, Roger. Learning in America: The education race. PBS Video. LEIA101. (58 minutes).
The focus of this video is on educating students to compete in a high-tech world. Countries are making greater gains in education because they invest more in education. The typical American classroom has not changed much in over a century. That could symbolize the problem because the world is changing socially, economically, and culturally. American schools have not kept up with the change. The American high school is intensely social, carefree and it celebrates athletic, not intellectual, challenges.
Japanese students that have attended American schools believe that Japanese classes are boring because students are not given any opportunity to ask questions, only to read the text and hear lectures. The Japanese educational system is set up this way to prepare the students for the difficult college entrance exams that require a phenomenal amount of recall which includes dates, places, facts and subjects. Few students rely on what they learn in school; they go to what are called Juko, or cram school to help them prepare for the college exam. There is no free time for the students. This battery of studies is instilled in the students by their parents and teachers they must do this if they want to succeed. Japanese students are not faced with problems American students hve such as drugs and teenage pregnancies. Students do not have any demands on them such as household chores. The Japanese do not spare any expense nor do they expect less from their students academically when they are on the vocational tract.
American education is concerned with the "midkids," students caught in the middle, between the cracks because of the erosion of family life. These students are the heart of middle-class America, and schools are not addressing the issues that concern them. For these students, many direct their primary focus at sports not books. High school remains unfocused, open-ended, and generally unaccountable. The United States needs an educational system, family commitment and an encouraging culture that produces high academic achievers. Now instead of asking "Can Johnny read?," we are asking, "Can Johnny compute?," and "Can Johnny think?" Finding bright, aggressive and well-educated employees has become a matter of survival for much of American business.
Companies are taking education into their hands. There are few opportunities for assembly-line factory workers that merely turn a screw. Now, in order to make the best, most competitive, products, workers must be able to detect defects in the products and record these defects as part of the production process. The workers learn to do all of the jobs and are not isolated to doing just one task. Workers now need basic skills in mathematics and English to do these jobs, skills that schools are failing to teach. (GF)
National Alliance of Business, The. The fourth R: Workforce readiness.
America depends on the development of workers with quality skills to keep business productive, to maintain our standard of living, and to assure a prosperous society. Today the effort is more critical than before the time of the great depression. We face the prospect of having more jobs than workers in the years ahead, jobs demanding higher skills. The ability to learn must be formed by basic education in reading, writing, arithmetic, and, more than ever, the readiness to work.The number of high school dropouts is over one million a year; one out of every four whites, two out of every five blacks, and one out of two hispanics. Illiteracy is unacceptably high. Research has shown three out of five twenty-year-olds do not know how to read a map or add up a lunch bill.
Schools are failing to graduate students with the skills to function as part of societies work force. Businesses are beginning to take matters into their own hands. One way of doing this is with the "compact program." Under this program, businesses would part-time jobs during the school year and during summer. The businesses also guarantee employment after graduation. The student's responsibility is to stay in school, attend school regularly, and increase basic skills and communication skills. (GF)
Olmos, Edward James. A quest for education. 1990. PBS Video. QUEDOOO: (58 minutes).
Japan has used the United States as a standard by which to measure its success. As Japan's growth has become increasingly evident, the United States has measured its prosperity against that of the Japanese. This video is concerned with the educational systems of Japan and the United States. It analyses and compares the educational systems taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Two teenagers, fourteen years of age, are examined in both the school setting and their home. Michiyo has attended school in the United States for three years and Kelly has attended a Japanese school for one year. They each tell of their experiences in the school setting and compare the differences. They discuss their likes and dislikes of the schools educational expectations and how they are influenced by their family, peers, and society.
Education is the key to the future, The two countries seek to find ways in which to improve its educational system to meet the fast-rising global economy. Japan's concern is in the development of student creativity. The United States is concerned with the improvement of basic skills and the capability to teach these skills to a diverse population. (GF)
Owens, D. (1990). The vital link: Parents as partners in education. Mt. Kisko, NY: Plan for Social Excellence, Inc. (13 minutes).
This video describes a program in a New York City school system which helps parents become involved in their children's schools. Many parents here do not speak English well and believe they are treated unfairly by teachers and administrators when they try to become involved. The school board offers help to such parents.
School board members agree parents should have more input into the schools. In order to educate the parents on their rights and responsibilities concerning schools, the Parent Development Center was formed in the district. Seminars are offered to parents, helping them understand the public school organization and giving them training on how to become involved in their children's education. The video gives no details of the program. (TM)
Perpich, Rudy. School choice. Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers: Focus on Education. (Show #404).
Mr. Perpich, Governor of Minnisota discusses school choice in Minnesota. This program opens up the boundaries for parents and students to choose the school they want to attend regardless of the location. The program was initiated in an attempt to improve schools within a district. There has been an increase of states moving to school choice.
Children will be able to attend schools near a location where the parents work regardless of the fact that they may cross into other districts. If a school has more of a focus than another school in areas, such as the Fine Arts, the parents have a choice in sending their child to that school. If a child is interested and motivated in the school as a result of this action, then it is more likely that the child will not become a drop-out candidate. There has been an increase of private school children entering public schools because of this factor. Parents feel better having a choice of where they want to sent their child and in return have become more involved in the schools.
With more parent involvement and interest in how they are educated, schools are beginning to compete for numbers. The result has been a trend in favor of extended school days and a longer academic year. Schools lose money for every child that moves to another school. This has forced local school districts to meet the needs demanded by the community or face extinction. (GF)
Whittle, C. (1989). Channel One. American Federation of Teachers: Focus on Education, 401. (26 minutes).
Susan Stamberg interviews Chris Whittle, chairman of Whittle Communications. He discusses Channel One, the daily news program broadcast to many schools in the United States. He gives the background for the idea, describes the daily program, talks about resistance to implementation, and offers his opinion on the advantages and future of such systems.
Whittle initially wanted to produce a program for schools, supported by school funding, in a Today Show type format. Most schools had inadequate satellite and television equipment, so he quickly changed to offering a commercial broadcast. Schools receive satellite, cable, and television equipment in exchange for showing his daily 12-minute news program. He describes the segments of the broadcast.
Whittle claims local schools, parents, and students fully support Channel One, while national educational groups and unions oppose the system. He responds forcefully when asked leading questions by Stamberg. He presents a strong argument why it is preferable for advertisers to run commercials on Channel One instead of on shows he calls "dumb sitcoms".
When the Channel One hardware is installed, Whittle says they install equipment for future satellite and cable hookups. This will allow schools the chance to receive educational television channels at no cost. He claims to have offered to work with Public Broadcasting to present five hours of material daily for educators and students. He sees his idea as a part of distance learning, available in every school in the country in a few years. (TM)
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