the blumenfeld education letter february_1993

8/7/2019 The Blumenfeld Education Letter February_1993

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The BlumenfeldEducation Letter

Vol. 8, N o.2 (Letter# 78)"My People Are Destroyed For Lack Of Knowledge" HOSEA 4:6

F eb ru ary 1 99 3EDITOR; Samuel L. BlumenfeldThe purpose of this newsletter is to provide knowledge for parents and educators who want to save the children of America

o from the destructive forces that endanger them. Our children in the public schools are at grave risk in 4 waxs; academically,spirituolly, morally, and physically - and only a wellinformed public will be able to reduce these risks.

"Without Vision, the people perish."

E sta blis hm e nt H ap py With C lin to n's N ew Edu ca tio n S ecre ta ry

The selection of Richard W. Riley, for-

mer governor of South Carolina, to head theEducation Department was greeted by theeducation establishment with considerablesatisfaction. The National Association ofElementary School Principals called it "asuperb choice." Although the NationalEducation Association would have preferredone of its own - such as former NEA presi-dent Mary Hatwood Futrell- in that spot, itheartily approved of the choice. Keith Gei-ger, president oftheNEA, said that if Clinton"wasn't going to pick a real live kindergar-ten teacher, this was the best that he coulddo. . . . [Riley] has been honest, he's builtconsensus, and he never pulled back on themoney issue." And, as our readers know,money and power are what really countswith the NEA. The Association predictedthat Riley "will be a champion and advocatefor America's public school students."

Albert Shanker, president of the Ameri-

can Federation of Teachers, said that Riley'sappointment marked a "180-degrel~ turn"from the Reagan and Bush years, with Re-publican emphasis on choice and privateschools and a minimal federal role, "It'sgoing to be the most interesting period in the

history of American education," he said.According to Shanker, Riley has a reputationfor approaching education improvement"not with a magic bullet, or a single solution,but with the recognition that it's a complexjob, requiring seven or eight or nine things tobe done simultaneously."

In South Carolina, Riley is known as anindependent, methodical public servant. Agraduate of Furman University, a liberal artscollege in Greenville, and the University ofSouth Carolina Law School, he perseveredthrough a painful arthritic condition in hisspine - which today leaves him with aslight stoop - and ran as a reform-mindedstate representative in 1962. He moved tothe state Senate in 1967, where he remaineduntil elected governor for two consecutiveterms in 1978.

Since leaving office, Riley has been asenior partner in a Columbia, S.c., law firm.But he remained active in education, and

became friends with Clinton, a fellow "edu-cation governor," at governors' conferences.Clinton has referred to Riley as limy partnerand often my mentor."

"I can't imagine a better choice," saidDennis Doyle, a senior fellow at the Hudson

The Blumenfeld Education Letter is published monthly. Sources of products and services described are not necessarily endorsedby this publication. They are intended to provide our readers with information on a rapidly expanding field of educational activity.Perm ission to quote isgranted provided proper cred itisgiven. Original materialis copyrighted byThe Blumenfeld Education Letter.Subscription Rate: 1 year $36.00. Address: Post Office Box 45161, Boise, Idaho 83711. Phone (208) 343-3790,


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Insti tute and specialist on education reform.I J I t sends exactly the right signal: someonewho knows about education and cares aboutit, but is not part of the interest groups, soyou wouldn't be putting a fox in charge of

the chicken coops.""I think it's a very good choice for them,

one of the best choices they could havemade,"said Chester E. Finn Jr., former assistantsecretary of education under President Re-agan. Finn is now a senior scholar at theEdison Project, Chris Whittle's ambitiousplan to revolutionize education in Americaby creating one thousand for-profit privateschools to compete with the public schools.

Rile y's Re fo rms

Riley, who is 59 and served as governorof South Carolina from 1979 to 1987, is bestknown for selling that state the toughestkind of education reform package: one witha one percent sales tax increase. The 1984Education Reform Act was a comprehensiveprogram that induded increased graduationrequirements and curriculum standards,

mandatory kindergarten, new remedialprograms, bonuses for improving schools,increased spending on early-childhoodpro-grams, an exit examination for high schoolstudents, and state intervention in failingschool districts. It also instituted a toughgraduation testing program, along with cashpenal ties and incen tives for school districtsand a system of merit pay for teachers.Concerning the latter program, James Gil-strap, president of the South Carolina Edu-cation Association, said, 'We basically agreedto keep our mouths shut on [the merit-payplan] in order to get the rest." After the billwas passed, however, the merit-pay pro-gram was quietly dropped.

Barry Wynn, chairman of the SouthCarolina Republican Party, was critical ofRiley's education reform. 'We've spent alot

of money," he said, "and there's little evi-dence that the money was spent effectively."Riley "was not open to systemic change, tobreaking open the barnacle-laden system"with more far-reaching approaches like

school choice.But according to Allyson M. Tucker,

manager of the Center for Educational Pol-icy at the Heritage Foundation, Riley "is amoderate choice, and we could have donemuch worse. Except for thechoiceissue,he'sreally not that different from [outgoing Sec-retary] Lamar Alexander."

Alexander agreed with Tucker's assess-ment, noting that Riley and Clinton wereamong the governors who worked with hi1TIon the National Governors' Association"Time for Results" education initia tive whenAlexander was chairman of the group. Rileychaired a task force on early-childhoodeducation.

Praising the appointment as "a wisechoice," Alexander said in an interview, "IfPresident Clinton and Secretary Riley ap-proach education the same way as GovernorClinton and Governor Riley, more will con-tinue than will stop."

Americ a 2 00 0

Alexander said he hopes that PresidentClinton will similarly choose to continue thecommunity-action portion of the BushAdministration's America 2000 school-re-form strategy.

The major differences, said Alexander,are that "you will hear less about break-the-mold schools and about choice. You mayalso hear less about giving teachers flexibil-ity from federal rules, and less about involv-ing the private sector in creating betterschools."

Although Riley will be a visible spokes-man, those who know him say that he willnot emphasize the "bully pulpit" aspect of

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the job as much as Alexander or Bill Bennettdid, and he will not take a confrontationalapproach like Bennett's.

Observers have suggested that Clinton' schoice of a longtime friend with a similar

education-policy background is not surpris-ing, since Clinton has a strong, personalinterest in education and is expected to playa direct role in setting policy.

According to Thomas H. Kean, formergovernor of New Jersey and now presidentof Drew University, "[President] and Hil-lary Clinton have both been on the edge ofthe reform movement. One or both of themhas been on every leading commission forthe past six years. Mr. Clinton comes to thiswith a working policy agenda. He doesn'tneed someone to design one for him."(Edu ca tio n Week ,1/13/93, and Bos ton Globe ,12/22/92)

Commen t :

The appointment of the former gover-nor of a state which has the lowest academicstanding in the nation as Secretary of Educa-

tion might seem a little strange at first, butperhaps speaks volumes for the way thatgovernment thinks when it comes to educa-tion. IBM recently sacked its chairman forfailing to improve the earnings and competi-tive standing of that great company. It is aforegone conclusion that he will not be re-placed by an executive whose company dideven worse.

Riley's job will be to keep the dinosaurof public education alive for as long as pos-sible. It also means keeping in place all ofthose programs that will tend to federalizethe fifty state systems. The education estab-lishment represents the largest river of pub-licly funded cash flow in America. Whilethere may be many in the establishmentcompeting for the money, they all agree thatthe cash flow must be greatly increased.

The new ruling elite in Washington ismade up of boomer universitarians who seethemselves as superior beings, destined torule because of superior intelligence. Theyare going to put to use all of those enlight-

ened, quasi-utopian ideas they picked upfrom their left-wing professors under theillusion that they've never been tried before.An important part of their program is todumb down as large a portion of the popula-tion as possible to insure the permanency ofelite universitarian rule in Washington andthe state capitals. After all, who can really'challenge the brain power of Bill Clinton,Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Albert Gore?And when brain power fails, as it must, wewill have "compassion" to keep us warm.We will alljoin hands from coast to coast andhope. (Other, more spiritually sophisticateduniversitarians will probably climb localmountain tops and hum "ohm.")

The other Sunday (2/7/93), on DavidBrinkley's program, Al Gore said that theeconomy was improving because people had"hope." Apparently, supply and demandhad nothing to do with it.

Es tab lishm ent Po l it ic ian

Richard Riley is li ttle more than a hackestablishment politician who is willing towork within the system and make thosesmall incremental "improvements" that willinsure the establishment's continued pros-perityand hold on power. His school reformprogram gave the educators what theywanted: more money! Did it improve educa-tion? How could it, since it had nothing to dowith education. He was able to get the billpassed by cajoling the business people in thestate to approve the increase in the sales taxin order to raise teachers' salaries and bypersuading the teachers to accept the merit-payplan. Eventually the merit-pay plan wasabandoned, but the tax increase is still in

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place. Let's face it, the "educators" aresmarter than the businessmen.

Did Riley's reform bill improve educa-tion in South Carolina? Although Riley wasgovernor from 1979 to 1987, the reform bill

was passed in 1983 and supposedly tookeffect in 1984. In 1978, the SAT scores forSouth Carolina were 378verbal and 409math.Six years later, in 1984, the verbal score hadrisen to 384, the math score had risen to 419.In 1985 the scores were 391 verbal and 424math. In 1986 they were 395 verbal and 431math. In 1987 they were 397 verbal and 435math. In 1988the scores peaked at 400 verbaland 438 math. From then on it's been down-hill with the 1992scores at 394 verbal and 437math, the poorest scores of any state. Appar-ently, whatever improvement was madeunder Riley has come to an end.

Nor is the situation in Arkansas muchbetter despite the reign of the Clintons. In1986, the SAT scores in Arkansas were 482verbal and 519 math. In 1992 they were 474verbal and 516 math. The reason why thescores in Arkansas were so much higherthan those in South Carolina (80points higher

in verbal and 79 points higher in math) isbecause only 6 percent of the high schoolgraduates took the test in Arkansas whereas59 percent took the SAT in South Carolina.Generally, the larger the number of studentstaking the test, the lower the score will be.Thus, in Mississippi, where only 4 percent ofthe graduates took the test, the scores wereverbal 478 and math 526,while in Massachu-setts, where 80 percent of the graduates tookthe test, the scores were verbal 428 and math474.

However, if we compare the 12states inwhich 50 to 69 percent of the graduates tookthe test in 1992,we discover that the order ofthe verbal scores, from the highest to thelowest, is Oregon (439), Washington (432),Maryland (431), Vermont (429), Virginia(425),Maine (422),Pennsylvania (418),Flor-

ida (416),North Carolina (405),Hawaii (401),Georgia (398), South Carolina (394).

The order is not quite the same with themath scores: Oregon (486),Washington (484),Hawaii (477),Maryland (476),Vermont(468),

Florida (468), Virginia (468), Maine (460),Pennsylvania (459), North Carolina (450),Georgia (444t South Carolina (437).

In the states where the fewest graduatestook the SAT,we can reasonably assume thatthose students were mainly from privateschools, with the public schoolers probablytaking the ACT. And that is what probablyaccounts for the very high scores that we findin those states. Thus, although Iowa getscredit for the highest SAT scores in the na-tion (512 verbal, 584 math), only 5 percent ofthe graduates took that test. As a matter offact, among those southern states in which 4to 10 percent of the graduates took the test(Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana) Itheir scores were higher than virtually all ofthe northern states.

Incidentally, the average SAT score forthe nation as a whole in 1992 was 423 verbaland 476 math.

s.C . S co re s in D ecline

The decline in scores in South Carolinasince 1989means that Riley's reforms did notproduce any permanent improvement. Thestate is still at the bottom academically, andthe state's Department of Education is cur-rently working on new "curriculum frame-works." The state still hasn't decided how to

teach the three R's. One of our readers inSouth Carolina sent us copies of the latestcurriculum guides. The framework onmathematics has such cogent statements as:

Real change in mathematics education requiresaction by the entire community. Schools themselvesare not the sole sources of all the current problemsand cannot be the sole sources for reform .... Reform-ing mathematics education is a formidable task, andthis framework presents us with a challenge. It also

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charts the way for us to make meaningful change ....The current mathematics training of pre-service andin-service teachers has weaknesses and clearly callsfor a restructuring of their education .. .. Our curricu-lum is dated. It fails to integrate mathematics withother disciplines and fails to make effective use ofcalculators and computers. Our methods of instruc-tion are antiquated, and our methods of assessmentare often narrow and inaccurate . .. . Students shouldnot be passive absorbers of mathematical knowledgein class. Tolearn math effectively, students should beactively involved .... Structure learning to proceedfrom concrete (actual objects) to semi-concrete (pic-tures) to abstract (symbols). One good way to do thisis through the use of "manipulative materials." ... Astudent who merely memorizes a math concept willbe stumped if a real-world problem isn't the same asone "learned" in class.

The framework quotes from a book

entitled, Everybody Counts,as follows:In reality, no one can teach mathematics. Effec-

tive teachers are those who can stimulate students tolearn mathematics. Educational research offerscompelling evidence that students learn mathematicswell only when they construct their own mathemati-cal understanding. To understand what they learnthey must enact for themselves verbs that permeatethe mathematics curriculum: 'examine,' 'represent,''transform,' 'solve,' 'apply,' 'prove,' 'communicate.'This happens most readily when students work ingroups, engage in discussion, make presentations,and in other ways take charge of their own learning.

The framework goes on for 153 pageswith no indication anywhere that the stu-dents will be required to memorize theirarithmetic facts. In fact, memorization is ano-no in the new new math that is nowsweeping not only South Carolina but everyother state in the union.

Perhaps some of you saw Andy Rooneyon 60 Minutes on 2/7/93. His desk wascovered with textbooks he had collected in a

visit to an elementary school. He held up onebook which he said was a ninth-grade mathbook with fourth-grade arithmetic. He toldof being in a classroom where the childrenwere playing some sort of math game inwhich they came up with a bunch of num-bers which they were required to add up.One little girl sat there doing nothing, and

Rooney asked her why she wasn't adding upthe numbers. She said she couldn't do ituntil it was her turn to get the calculator!Rooney's comment was, "Don't let a childuse a calculator until he or she can do arith-metic without one."

Unfortunately, American educatorsdon't see it quite that way. After all, ifAmericans can do arithmetic they might beable to figure out how they are being cheatedby their government let alone their educa-tion system!

S an D ieg o S ch oo ls R ejec t S co utP rog ram Because o f Ban on G ays

The board of the San Diego UnifiedSchool District this month decided not torenew an in-school program run by the BoyScouts of America because of the organiza-tion's ban on homosexuals. Beginning inJuly, the school district will no longer partici-pate in the Scouts' "Learning for Life" pro-

gram that has been used in 11 San Diego highschools and four elementary schools.However, because ofCalifornia law, the

board could not end the district's policy ofallowing the Boy Scouts to use its facilitiesoutside of school hours, said Christina L.Dyer, the school district's general counsel.The state Civic Center Act specifically pro-vides that "Boy Scout troops" shall haveaccess to school district property.

In December, the school board amended

its antidiscrimination policy to include aprohibition on discrimination on the basis ofsexual orientation, and decided to review itsrelationship with the Boy Scouts in light ofthe new policy, Ms. Dyer said. Last year, theSan Francisco school board also broadenedits nondiscrimination policy in such a waythatthe Scouts' program would be excluded.

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Ms. Dyer said school facilities are used byBoy Scouts after school and on weekends "agreat deal" throughout the district's 157campuses. (Education WeekI 1/27/93)

P ub lic S ch oo l E nro llm e nt U p

According to the National Center forEducation Statistics, public school enroll-ment for the 1992-93 school year is now 42.2million, an increase of 2 million since fall1988. Private school enrollment, at 5.3 mil-lion, has remained the same. About 2.4million teachers are employed by the publicschools with a pupil-to-teacher ratio for pre-kingergarten through grade 12at about 17.2.The ra tio in the pri vate schools with approxi-mately 360,000 teachers is 14.8.

An estimated 2.2million students gradu-ated from public high schools in the 1991-92school year and another 2.2 million are ex-pected to graduate this year. About 250,000students will graduate from private schoolsthis year.

The center estimates that the cost ofpublic education this year will be $5,372 perstudent.

Two 7th-G raders P lo t to K illTeacher

Two 7th-grade girls in Lorain, Ohio,were charged last week with plotting to killtheir English teacher. According to policeand school officials, the girls, ages 12and 13,may have felt pressured to carry out thekilling because other students at Irving Jun-ior High School had wagered almost $200 onwhether or not they would commit the act.

Capt. eel Riveria of the Lorain policesaid the 13-year-old allegedly planned tostab the teacher while her 12-year-old friendrestrained the woman at the end of theirclass on January 20. A school official, who

discovered the plan after questioning a stu-dent found sobbing in the hallway, thwartedthe attempt minutes before it was scheduledto happen.

Capt. Riveria said the 13-year-old toldhim that she had no other choice but to makegood on the threat. The apparent motivewas a scolding the girl had received from theteacher, he said. Authorities found a knifewhen they searched the 13-year-old's bookbag after the alleged incident was to occur.Last week, the girls were being held in ajuvenile-detention center as they awaited ahearing in juvenile court. Police and schoolofficials withheld the names of the girls andthe teacher. (Education Week, 2/3/93)

D .C . S tu de nt S ho ots S ec urity

GuardA 14-year-old student in the District of

Columbia shot and seriously wounded aschool security guard last week after a gangfight. The guard, identified as Robert Layne,was reportedly in serious condition last weekafter undergoing surgery for a single .22caliber gunshot wound.

The student, an 8th grader at the Patri-cia Robert Harris Educational Center, wascharged with assault with intent to kill.Because he is a minor, his name was beingwithheld. Authorities said the shooting tookplace after Mr. Layne broke up a fight be-tween members of rival gangs and calledpolice to take the youths into custody. (Edu-cation Week,2/3/93)

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C h r i s t ia n s o n S c h o o l B o a r d W i l l

No t C h alle ng e E vo lu tio n

A California school board that last fall

gained a conservative Christian majority hasdeclared that, despite the personal beliefs ofa majority of its members, it will not chal-lenge a state mandate to teach evolution inscience classes.

Last fall, following a national campaignby Christian conservatives to win control oflocal boards, two additional religious con-servatives were elected to the board of Vistaschool district north of San Diego. Theyjoined a fellow conservative already on the

five-member board. One of the boardmembers is an employee of the Institute forCreation Science, a leading foe of evolution-based science curricula.

The election of the new memberssparked concern among some parents in the21,000-studen t district that sweeping changesin the curriculum would follow. After oneparent, a marine biologist, asked at the newboard's first meeting how it would handlethe question of evolution, the board sched-uled a public hearing that drew a crowd ofsome 600 late last month.

Deidre Holliday, the board's presidentand a member of the Christian majority, lastmon th said the district will be guided by thestate'sscience-curriculurnframework, whichemphasizes evolution, and by precedlents setby the U.S. Supreme Court that denied crea-tionism equal stature wi th evolution in publicschool classes. (Edu ca tio n Week ,2/3/93)

Commen t :

We have been asked many times at lec-tures whether or not Christians should runfor school boards in order to "take back" thepublic schools. And I have always repliedthat it was a waste of time, for the courts and

state-mandated curricula would make itimpossible for Christians to change anythingin a truly substantial way. Besides, if youunderstand anything about the genesis ofAmerican public education, you would know

that the original intent of many of the pro-moters of government schooling was to getGod out of education and turn the schoolsinto secular instruments for the promotionof a pagan-socialist culture.

My advice has always been for Chris-tians to spend their time, energy, and moneyin creating Christian insti tutions and schoolsso that parents can educate their own chil-dren in accordance with Biblical principles.The fact that there are 42.2 million children inthe atheist public schools, most of whom arefrom Christian families, indicates that thereis much to be done to educate Christianparents about the urgent need for Christianeducation.

Back in the 18505, when the Catholicsrealized that their children were being pros-eletyzed out of their religion in the Protes-tant dominated public schools, they opted tobuild an entire parochial school system of

there own which provided an excellenteducation for Catholic children until theCatholic church itself began to abandon itsown traditions.

The illusion that Christians can "takeback" the public schools is preventing thou-sands of good Christians from putting theirefforts into the building of institutions thatwill carry forward the Christian traditions ofthis nation. If Christians don't do it, no oneelse will do it for them.

What many Christians do not under-stand is that what they see in the publicschools is only the tip of the iceberg, andbeing elected to a school board gives them nopower to do anything about that part of theiceberg that can't be seen. What's in theunseen part of the iceberg? Our universi ties,our graduate schools; our teachers colleges,

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the professional education associations, theirpublications, the entire psychological enter-prise that governs curriculum development,the federal education apparatus which ispouring billions of dollars into educational

labs for the development of classroom pro-grams, the testing industry run by humanistpsychologists, the teachers unions and theirlobbies, and a myriad of federal and stateagencies with their armies of bureaucratswho oversee programs involved with orregulating education. What can a Christianschool board member do about them? N oth-ing.

As long as Christians keep supportingthe public schools, they will be sustainingtheir enemies, keeping them in power, andcollaborating in undermining the faith ofmillions of Christian children. There can beno survival of Christianity without Chris-tian education.

Christians no longer have a choice. Thelonger they delay doing what must be done- creating and sustaining new institutionsof their own - the greater the risk that theirchildren will be lost to the other side. Chris-

tian children deserve a better education thanwhat they are getting in the public schools.But only their parents can change that. Thefact that the Christian home-school move-ment is growing so rapidly indicates thatmany Christian parents are willing to takematters into their own hands rather thanwait for the Christian community to createnew institutions.

The only rationale for Christians to runfor the school board is to be in a better

position to monitor what is going on in theclassrooms so that they can better convinceparents to take their children out.

P eop le for Am erican Way andTime -Wa rn er J oin in P ro je ct

People for the American Way and Time-Warner Inc. have joined forces to launch anew mentoring program to promote racialtolerance among youths in the Los Angelesarea in the wake of the violence following the

verdict in the Rodney King case.'We need to act now to address the

racial tensions resulting from the Los Ange-les violence and rebuild the spirit of commu-nity," said Arthur J . Kropp, president ofPeople for the American Way.

Under a $100,000grant from the mediagiant, the program will use students from anumber of colleges and universities, includ-ing Claremont College, the University ofCalifornia at Los Angeles, and the Univer-si ty of Southem California, to lead discus-sions about racial tolerance in high-schoolclassrooms. Individual schools in the dis-trict have not yet been chosen for the pro-gram, a spokesman for the organization said.The Racial Tolerance Mentoring Project is anexpansion of a pilot program used in NorthCarolina for the past two years. (EducationWeek, 5/27/92)

Commen t :

We hope that the project includes somelessons on how jury trials are conducted.Apparently the troublemakers in Los Ange-les don't think thatajurytrial was reallynec-essary since the famous video alone con-victed the policemen. What more evidencedo you need? Didn't everybody SEE it?Evidently, something as complicated as ajury trial is beyond the understanding of allthose angry public schoolers who make upthe gangs in Los Angeles. It might take alittle time, but it might be useful to have theparticipants in the project go through theevidence as did the jury and find out how thejurors actually arrived at their verdict. Ourguess is that the students need more lessonson jury trials than on racial tolerance.

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the blumenfeld education letter february_1993

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