Educator encourages advocacy for school reform
4/8/2003 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York NOTE: This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #205. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (UMNS) - Grass-roots advocacy is essential for continued school reform, according to a longtime educator.
David
Hornbeck, chairman and founding counsel for Good Schools Pennsylvania, a
nonprofit coalition dedicated to public education reform, spoke during
the April 4-7 meeting of the Women's Division, United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries. He was named in March as the new president and chief
executive officer of the International Youth Foundation.
The
Women's Division, which oversees United Methodist Women, launched Phase
III of its Campaign for Children in 2002, with a focus on public school
education. Each UMW unit is urged to connect with local schools "and to
explore ways to effectively promote quality, safe and accessible public
education for every child."
Hornbeck offered a quick overview of
school reform, starting in 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court decision on
Brown v. the Board of Education opened the door to school integration.
Subsequent educational changes included adoption of Title I, the report
on "A Nation at Risk," and the move toward establishing state testing
standards during the 1990s.
The recertification of Title I in
1994, with test standards at the center, created the framework for the
National Education Act, also known as "No Child Left Behind," he said.
Under
the act, schools are not considered to have met standards unless all
groups of children - not just an average of all students - have met the
specified performance level. Parental involvement and quality teaching
also are emphasized.
Institutions affected by the new criteria of
what is considered "failing" are not just the obvious ones, Hornbeck
pointed out to directors. When he served as superintendent of the
Philadelphia school system, a school that was considered highly
desirable was put on the failing list. Although the required average was
good, students at the bottom of the academic rung had not shown
improvement.
"For years, Greenfield (school) had masked the
absence of the staff's performance with these youngsters by improving
the performance of the kids who were going to do well," he explained.
The next year, he added, Greenfield exceeded performance targets for the
bottom-level students.
Although Hornbeck said No Child Left
Behind "represents a significant leap forward" in public education, it
faces a lack of funding for carrying out its goals. Another problem is
that the local school or school district, not the state, is held
accountable for meeting the goals. The result, he said, is that some
districts, often in urban areas, must struggle to reach the same level
of achievement as their better-funded suburban counterparts.
He
lauded the suggested education advocacy actions of the UMW Campaign for
Children. "Your advocacy is essential to the unmet needs, and this act
sharpens the definitions of the unmet needs," he said.
But an
infrastructure for such advocacy is essential, Hornbeck told directors.
He believes that the concept demonstrated by Good Schools Pennsylvania, a
grass-roots focus on improved public education, could translate
effectively to other states.
The National Council of Churches is
part of the founding council of Good Schools Pennsylvania, and all three
United Methodist annual (regional) conferences in the state have been
active participants in the coalition. Good Schools also has 20 college
and 45 high school chapters. This year, the coalition is sponsoring 50
legislative action days in the Pennsylvania state capital between Jan.
26 and June 30.
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