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US Education UpdateIssue 11, November 2001 Contents
Post September 11 Education Budgets Education budgets across the states are feeling the impact of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Funding for schools in New York state are most immediately affected due to lost revenue. The Governor of New York (George Pataki) recently predicted a $9billion shortfall in revenue over the next 18 months as a result of the World Trade Center disaster. Buffalo, New York, has already laid off teachers. Other states, however, are also adversely affected such as Florida and California which rely heavily on tourism for income. Some states had budget concerns prior to September 11th, because of the economic slowdown, but the attacks have worsened their problems. Legislators in some states have indicated that they will try to preserve funding at the K-12 level to maintain the push for standards-based reform, and higher education may be affected more. However, if the economy continues to dwindle it is likely that education funding at all levels will be down. Source: Education Week
Addressing the Minority Achievement Gap A number of states, such as Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky, have established commissions or task forces to look at ways of raising achievement among minority, low-income students. In particular, Georgia has set up its Closing the Achievement Gap Commission. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test scores show African-American and Hispanic students lagging far behind their white peers. Concern is growing as Georgia will end social promotion (promoting a student to the next grade based on age rather than ability) in 2004. As part of its overall school accountability programme, the state will require students to pass maths and reading tests to move on. Many fear the effect on minority students already falling behind. The 18 members of the Commission will tour Georgia, and other states, looking at examples of 'best practice' in dealing with achievement gaps. It will also look at pre-kindergarten programmes as evidence suggests the gap is already there when children start formal schooling. The Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education provides information on work to raise achievement in the state, including the Achievement Gap Commission: www.gpee.org Reports published in October by the National Education Goals Panel1 suggest that Department of Defense schools serving the children of US military personnel both at home and overseas are successfully closing the achievement gap between minority students and their white peers. Students perform above the national average on the NAEP tests and the achievement gap is narrower than in most states. The DoD schools share many of the factors of a typical urban school often cited as the cause of poor achievement: large minority population, half of the children qualify for free medical care and school lunches, high mobility rate. However the report suggests that factors in the DoD schools, less likely to be replicated in an urban environment, may assist the children: strong supportive community, high level of parental involvement (eg mandatory attendance at parent-teacher conferences), small schools, high quality pre-school and after-school programmes. In addition, DoD teachers are generally well-trained and better paid. The reports, "Department of Defense School System's Success Provides Lessons for State and Local Systems" and "March Toward Excellence: School Success and Minority Student Achievement in Department of Defense Schools" can be accessed on the National Education Goals Panel website: www.negp.gov/ A paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research Inc suggests that both black and white children score higher on maths and reading tests when their teacher is the same race. The study of 6,000 Tennessee children reanalysed data from Project STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Ratio) a significant study started in the 1980s to look at the effect of class size on student achievement (see previous Education Update 3, item 1). The data suggest that the race effect is particularly strong for African-American children and is cumulative, with the gain growing for every year with the same race teacher. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) cites 13.5% minority teachers with 40% minority students enrolled in elementary and secondary education. However, researchers caution against basing policy on the findings as the race dynamic is still unclear. The positive effect is slightly less than that of being in a smaller class. To download a copy of the paper, "Teachers, Race and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment", please go to: papers.nber.org/papers/W8432 Source: Education Week
Teach for America, founded in 1989, is a programme which places recent college graduates as paid teachers for two years in some of the country's poorest urban and rural public schools. The programme selects 1,000 graduates and has placed approximately 7,000 since its inception. The graduates train together in summer institutes. An annual celebration to publicise the scheme (Teach for American Week 2001 was in mid-October) brings national celebrities into the classroom to teach one class for an hour. This year First Lady Laura Bush was reported teaching in classrooms in New York and Baltimore. For more information, please see: www.teachforamerica.org/tfa/
Cincinnati Teacher Pay Plan Update As reported in a previous Update (Education Update 4, item 1), the Cincinnati school district is believed to be the first to move its teachers off the traditional single salary pay scale to one which hold teachers accountable. In September, teachers and school administrators voted to amend the pay plan citing overwhelming confusion and lack of support and training for teachers undergoing the evaluations. The amendment will give teachers more time to get used to the new system before being held accountable. It will also provide for extensive professional development prior to the evaluations. Although most teachers will still undergo the annual assessments, the requirements will be far less than the original plan outlined. Source: Education Week
Trends in Higher Education Enrolment The US Department of Education has reported, for the seventh year, an increase in college enrolment. The reason is most likely the increase in the college age population. Some of the big name universities have offered incentives to students (such as one free year of room and board) if they defer enrolment until next year. Many community and technical colleges are reporting a significant increase in student enrolment for the first time since the mid 1990s. There are 1,200 community and technical colleges enrolling approximately 5.3 million students. Miami Dade Community College in Florida, the largest US community college with some 50,000 students, has seen 17% increased enrolment over last year. Some reasons cited for the growth are: population increase, particularly in the South (resulting in an increase in college-age students at community colleges which cater traditionally to older students); no space at four-year institutions; high tuition at four-year institutions; the slowing economy (community colleges are quicker to respond to laid off workers , offering retraining programmes in IT etc; also they are a more attractive financial option for families in times of financial uncertainty). The growth is not across the board as some states with a more stable economy have not witnessed similar high enrolments in community and technical colleges. At the same time some liberal arts colleges are reporting a dip in their enrolments this year. The tuition fee at liberal arts colleges can be as high as some private universities but this is not viewed as the main reason for the slow down. More expensive private universities are seeing increases. Some admission officers suggest location may be a key element in students' choice with more students opting for urban or larger campuses. American Association
of Community Colleges - www.aacc.nche.edu/
Sources: Chronicle of Higher Education; US Department of Education
New Models for Credentialing/Certification in Community Colleges Certifications are fast becoming the credentials of the 21st century. In the face of increasing demand for skilled labour, industrial certification has begun to replace general education courses offered by accredited colleges and universities. The need for a portable, market-driven credentialing system in community colleges has become increasingly acute. Part of the challenge for colleges is to satisfy the increasing demand for credentialed education/training that falls outside the traditional timeframe and model for measuring completion. The process of satisfying these new demands can put a college in conflict with state/federal regulations and criteria of regional accrediting bodies. The Economic and Workforce Development Commission of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) sponsored an invitational colloquium to discuss the issue of credentialing in community colleges. Attendees had expertise in issues of credentialing, certification and skills assessment and the group also included representatives from industry, education, professional organizations and government. Issues covered included the increasing demand for skilled labor and the competition that has arisen between traditional education and the development of qualifications offered by industry and other organizations. The second White Paper on Credentialing and Certification (see NCCET website below) was developed by the National Council for Occupational Education and the National Council for Continuing Education and Training, synthesizing the deliberations from a national invitational colloquium convened by the two Councils in June, 2001, in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Volunteering at the University of Maryland The University of Maryland (UMd) is one of many colleges across the USA to have introduced service-learning into a range of courses. Put simply, this means that students do some form of community service linked to their academic work. The learning part of service-learning is intended to contribute to credits in the same way as, say, a library assignment. Service-learning is mandatory where it is an integral part of the course. However, students may choose not to take courses which contain service-learning. All these courses follow the PARE model - preparation, action, reflection and evaluation. UMd believes that service-learning can form part of almost any course. For example, one French literature course involves the study of articles in the French press about homelessness. The students are then required to work at the local homeless shelter, e.g. in food preparation. They are also required to find out about homelessness - why people find themselves in that situation, what causes young people to leave home etc. The students must then do a course paper on what they have discovered through their work at the shelter. Here they have to be able to demonstrate that they can use the day-to-day language of the French newspapers - a kind of social analysis in the language of Le Monde rather than Flaubert. An essential aspect of service-learning at UMd is reciprocity - the agencies to which the students are sent must derive benefits too. In other words the student workers are expected to make a positive contribution (to add value) in such a way that the agencies' work benefits from an additional source of help - whether this is help with basic needs like food preparation or something more skilled such as stress management. In addition, the University
also runs an active community service unit which brokers voluntary activities.
The unit distributes a monthly newsletter and hosts a community service
fair each term to encourage students to get involved in voluntary work.
USA Student Market and PMI "Education UK" Initiatives The USA is the largest non-EU student recruitment market with approximately 33,000 full time students in the UK in 99/00. HESA statistics only indicate 11,553, as a significant proportion of Study Abroad students in UK universities are not included. Growth has been consistent averaging 4- 5% p.a. for the regular graduate and undergraduate programmes over the last five years. The Study Abroad market has grown at over 20% p.a. The total direct value of this part of the market to the UK economy is over £400 million p.a. and has been growing in value at around £28 million annually. Additionally, the UK has been, and is currently, the most popular destination for US students wishing to study overseas. Marketing UK higher education in the US and achievement of the targets under the Prime Minister's Initiative (PMI) has been and remains a priority for the USA. The rapid expansion of use of the internet among all target markets means that the web is the primary promotion tool of the British Council and other education related organizations and is, by far, the primary tool of US students, parents and advisors in researching educational programs. The British Council USA has been updating and redesigning its website in order to become a primary internet source of information on UK education in the USA. New web services developed in the past 10 months include:
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the events of September 11, and its aftermath, have not had an immediate effect on the numbers of US students either showing interest in study in the UK or committing to arranged programmes. However, the British Council will continue to monitor the situation. For further information on the USA market and Prime Minister's Initiative (PMI) activities launched to promote the Education UK Brand, please contact: jenny.scott@us.britishcouncil.org
January 30-February
2, 2002 April 20-23, 2002
For more information on both conferences, please go to: www.aacc.nche.edu/ Previous issues of the Education Update are available on the British Council's USA website.
For More Information Additional contacts
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