Policy studies for education leaders

Exercises

Chapter 3

1. Questions and activities for discussion

• 1.1 Using a daily newspaper find several indicators of the health of the economy. What are the implications of your findings for education policy?

• 1.2 In class, brainstorm ideas for gaining senior citizens’ support for public schools.

• 1.3 Identify a major problem of at-risk children in your geographic area and suggest a policy for dealing with it.

• 1.4 Write a letter to the editor in response to the letter in Figure 3.6

• 1.5 Using the questions in Figure 3.7, determine some of the unmentioned objectives that occasionally lie behind the adoption of these education policies: inclusion, site-based management, and vouchers.

2. Pro-con debate: Should the schools teach all children a core

curriculum? YES: Today, more than ever, children in all

U.S. public schools must be exposed to the same core curriculum. This curriculum should include the basic skills of reading, writing, and mathematics as well as exposure to the cultural heritage of the United States and its European antecedents. Two reasons exist for adopting such a curriculum.

First, U.S. schools have historically been common schools because all children could attend them and also because they provided all children with a common experience. In a nation as diverse as ours, continuing this tradition is essential. How else can we develop in children the understanding that we are all part of the same culture and should be loyal to other Americans? Second, our society has become extremely mobile. A core curriculum would make life easier for children who move from school to school and from district to district with out falling behind.

• NO: The genius of the United States has always been its diversity. We have citizens whose ancestors came from many continents, and we also have many fine local traditions of education. Honoring this rich tradition by adapting the curriculum to the needs of the specific children who will use it is important.

In some places this will mean including much material about the African American experience; in others it will mean an emphasis on our European roots; in still others it may mean delving into the history of the labor movement. Each school, each ethnic group, and each community should have the freedom to develop a curriculum tailor-made for the needs for its children. Let a thousand flowers bloom!

2. NEWS STORY FOR ANALYSIS: The pressure is on the federal government to pay

more for special education• San Antonio, TX-As a presidential commission picks apart the nation’s special education system Monday in Houston, few cities could be affected more by its findings than San Antonio. In the 2000-2001 school year, 15% of Bexar County students qualified for special education services. That compares with 12% of students statewide and 10% in other urban centers such as Houston and Dallas.

• Special education serves children who have disabilities and medical conditions that interfere with their ability to learn. San Antonio’s figures are high, officials say, because of thins like high mobility, a military system that brings in families from all over the world to be near top-notch medical facilities, and the reputations of its school districts. But they also admit some students in special education shouldn’t be there.

• The pressure is on the federal government to pick up more of the cost of special education. In 1976, when the first law was passed, Congress promised to pay 40% of the bill, but the federal government now pays only 15%. But first, Republicans have pledged to seek reform in the system and they have zeroed in on minority students being put in special education when they simply need extra help with school work.

• Some Bexar County districts are already tackling the problem by first dealing with other issues that affect learning, such as limited English skills, cultural differences in learning styles, or not being read to often as a young child. In the Somerset School District, for example, officials have boosted their bilingual education program. Somerset has seen its special ed numbers drop from 17% of enrollment in 1999-2000 to 15% last year.

Several districts, including Somerset, look at how they assess students so no one is automatically shifted into special ed when there is a problem. “It’s a paradigm shift from special education being the first thing to fix a problem to the last,” said Michelle Harmon, Judson School District’s special education director. “Being disabled is very different from being a slow learner,” Harmon said. “We should be more aggressive, because of the diversity of the population, about understanding cultural difference.”

Questions:

• 1. What aspects of the economic environment in 2002 may have led school districts to pressure the federal government to pay more for special education?

• 2. Why do you think that the federal government has not kept its promise to pay 40% of the cost of special education?

• 3. Given the demographics of San Antonio, Texas, why do you think that school officials have placed minority children who don’t speak English and come from other cultures in special education?

• 4. What kinds of policies would be more effective in dealing with these children than special education placements?

Chapter 4Chapter 4