School
Choice:
Vouchers
for students with disabilities
Congress is
currently working on the reauthorisation of the Individuals with
Disabilities Act (IDEA) which guarantees students with disabilities
the right to a free, appropriate public education. In brief, the
goals of the reauthorisation are to:
reduce paperwork
and bureaucracy;
improve conflict
resolution in special education (which has seen an increase in
litigation);
lower the number
of students wrongly placed in special education.
An amendment
to the IDEA reauthorisation would give states the flexibility to
establish innovative parental choice programmes for students with
disablities (such as vouchers programmes). The amendment failed
to pass the House of Representative but will be debated on the floor
of the Senate.
The model cited
as an innovative programme giving choice to special needs students
is Florida’s McKay Scholarships. The programme gives parents
a voucher they can use to send their special needs children to a
public or private school of their choice. About 8,000 children (or
2% of Florida’s children with disabilities) hold McKay Scholarships.
The median scholarship value is $6,808 (and can be as high as $20,000
plus) per year.
An analysis from the Progressive Policy Institute looks at the history
of the McKay Scholarship and suggests that the voucher programme
should not be used as a model for federal policy. PPI’s policy
report concludes that the McKay Scholarship programme does not offer
appropriate accountability measures, serves students with limited
disabilities and many special needs children would be better served
staying within the provisions offered under the IDEA.
According to
a recent study by the Manhattan Institute, McKay Scholarships enjoy
a high rate of parental satisfaction. Parents cited the smaller
class sizes and greater accountability for their children.
Download a copy
of PPI’s policy report, Think Twice: Special Education
Vouchers Are Not All Right: www.ppionline.org/documents/Special_Education_0603.pdf
Read the Manhattan Institute’s Vouchers for Special Education
Students: An Evaluation of Florida’s McKay Scholarship Program
at: www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_38.htm
For an overview
of Special Education in the US read a brief from Krista Kafer of
the Heritage Foundation: www.heritage.org/Research/Education/wm169.cfm
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Vouchers
for DC Students The
proposal to introduce a five-year pilot voucher programme to Washington
DC’s floundering public schools passed the House of Representatives
by one vote in the summer. A recent House-Senate conference agreed
on legislation which should pave the way for the nation's first
federally funded school voucher experiment to begin next autumn.
The “D.C.
Student Opportunity Scholarship Act 2003” would provide up
to $7,500 per school year for tuition, fees and transportation.
The poorest students in the worst-performing schools would be eligible
and would be chosen by lottery. They could attend any private or
parochial school in the District which would accept them. The legislation
mandates for an independent evaluation to be carried out at the
end of five years to assess the programme.
Vouchers continue
to be a divisive political issue carrying the slimmest of bi-partisan
support.
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Connecting the Dots for Children, Youth, and Families
Six organisations
have issued a brief to introduce policymakers and programme developers
to the ways local intermediary organisations are experimenting with
“connecting the dots” on services for children and families.
The brief looks at tackling tight resources and increased local
responsibility for delivering a range of supportive services by
means of collaboration of service providers. The brief was written
by Jobs for the Future with the American Youth Policy Forum, the
Center for Youth Development and Policy Research, the Coalition
for Community Schools, the Finance Project, and New Ways to Work.
Read more: www.jff.org/jff/kc/library/0191
(Source: Public
Education Network Weekly Newsblast; 1/8/03)
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Parental
Involvement:
NYC
Parent Coordinators
New York City
school district has hired 1200 new Parent Coordinators in an effort
to provide a more effective bridge between schools and parents.
The new staff members will be the first stop for information for
parents, providing a welcoming environment and information such
as registering new students or busing regulations. The Parent Coordinator
will also be expected to work with existing parent associations
(and it is emphasised that they are not a replacement for these),
and also groups which provide supplemental support services such
as after-school care or health care for children.
The new posts
are costing the district $43 million for the first year and are
one of a series of steps NYC is taking to improve parental involvement.
Other action includes publishing a guide for all parents with children
in the system, and establishing a parent support office in the district’s
thirteen learning support centres.
The Parent Coordinators
are provided with cell phones and expected to undertake some evening
and weekend work.
Read more: www.nycenet.edu/Parents/ParentTopTen/TopTen10.htm
Developing
Parent Leaders
An institute
in Kentucky is providing a model for developing parent leaders who
will go on to be catalysts for change in their local school or school
district. The Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership, a project
of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, began in 1997
and has trained 1,100 parents. Participants undertake three intensive
weekends of training. They learn the intricacies of the 1990 Kentucky
Education Reform Act, and the No Child Left Behind Act, tackling
accountability, understanding data, and how the whole school system
works in their state. Each participant is then expected to take
on a project which addresses an area of weakness in their particular
school or school district. They are assigned a mentor throughout
the project.
For more information:
The Commonwealth
Institute for Parent Leadership: www.cipl.org/index.html
Prichard Committee
for Academic Excellence:
www.prichardcommittee.org/pt3.html
The National
Network of Partnership Schools works at "developing and maintaining
comprehensive programs of school-family-community partnerships."
The Network identifies six types of involvement to help parents
connect to their children's schools: www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/default.htm
Family
and Youth Programmes
A new report
from the American Youth Policy Forum suggests that, despite widespread
rhetoric about the importance of involving parents in their children's
education, families are often held at arm's length by schools, especially
in low-income communities.
The report,
No More Islands: Family Involvement in 27 School and Youth Programs
draws on analyses of more than 100 evaluations of school and youth
programmes. It then provides insights into the role that family
involvement plays in 27 of those programmes, discusses misconceptions
about families that the report says must be discarded, and issues
a number of recommendations for policymakers.
Read more: www.aypf.org/publications/nomoreisle/index.htm
(Sources: Parent
Education Network Weekly Newsblast 11/9/03; Education Week
17/9/03; 22/10/03)
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School
Leadership: Urban Superintendents
A new report
from the Center on Reinventing Public Education uses interviews
and a survey of large district superintendents to provide an in-depth
look at an increasingly difficult position. Entitled An Impossible
Job? The View From the Urban Superintendent's Chair the report
argues "real reform and improvement also require broader systemic
change to provide superintendents more authority and stable political
support, as well as better training, recruiting, and fitting of
superintendents to districts' needs." Two reports which express
similar views are: License to Lead (published by the Progressive
Policy Institute) and Better Leaders for America's Schools
(published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute/Broad Foundation Manifesto).
The Mid-continent
for Education and Learning (McREL) has released a report in which
it reviews 5,000 studies of educational leadership. The report identifies
21 leadership characteristics which seem to be linked to changes
in students' test scores.
For more information:
An Impossible Job? The View From the Urban Superintendent's
Chair,
Center on Reinventing Public Education, (July 2003):
www.crpe.org/pubs/introImpossibleJob.html
A License to Lead? A New Leadership Agenda for America's Schools
Progressive Policy Institute (01/31/03)
www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=110&subsecID=135&contentID=251239
Better Leaders for America's Schools: A Manifesto,
Thomas B. Fordham Institute and Broad Foundation (May 2003):
www.edexcellence.net/foundation/publication/publication.cfm?id=1
Balanced
Leadership: What 30 Years of Research Tells Us About the Effect
of Leadership on Student Achievement, is available from
the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL):
www.mcrel.org/PDF/LeadershipOrganizationDevelopment/5031RR_BalancedLeadership.pdf
The Broad Foundation:
www.broadfoundation.org
(Sources: Progressive
Policy Institute bulletin 12/8/03; Education Week 1/10/03)
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Teacher
Advancement Program (TAP)
The US Department
of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement recently awarded
a grant to the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), a project of the
Milken Family Foundation. TAP works to recruit talented people to
become teachers and retain them once they are there.
According to
OII, "it is a whole- school reform model that is based on a
comprehensive, research-based strategy. Borrowing principles from
business, it provides teachers with a clear career path, complete
with advancement opportunities. It compensates expert teachers for
their skills and responsibilities, as well as for their performance
and their students' achievement. It also restructures school schedules
to accommodate teacher-led professional development and introduces
competitive hiring practices. These design components can change
each school's structure to make the teaching profession more attractive,
the job conditions more manageable, and pay for high quality teachers
significantly better."
Currently more
than 2,000 educators and nearly 25,000 students are part of TAP,
which is being implemented in more than 50 schools across the country.
The effectiveness
of the programme is measured by student achievement data, as well
as regular surveys of TAP principals and teachers.
For more information
about TAP: www.mff.org
(Source: The
Education Innovator, 28/7/03)
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