IS IT TIME FOR TOUGHER DIPLOMA BENCHMARKS?

At a time when employers and college faculty are coming to agreement on the knowledge and skills that young people need, states are not ensuring that a high school diploma actually signifies that graduates are adequately prepared academically. That’s the conclusion of the American Diploma Project (ADP), an effort to establish graduation benchmarks that better prepare students for whatever path they might pursue.

“No state can now claim that every student who earns a high school diploma is prepared academically for postsecondary education and work,” notes the report, “Reading or Not: Creating a High School Diploma that Counts.”

Although a lot of states have raised course requirements and developed exit exams, many of the tests measure only eighth- or ninth-grade content, and there’s huge variation among courses with the same name.

The ADP benchmarks call for high school graduates to know math that includes algebra I and II, geometry, data analysis and statistics. English mastery should include strong communication skills as well as the analytic and reasoning skills now typically taught in honors and advanced classes.

The project is jointly sponsored by Achieve, the Education Trust and the Fordham Foundation. More information is available at www.achieve.org.
 

THE STAMP OF SUCCESS

Having excelled in the worlds of literature, entertainment and athletics, writer James Baldwin, entertainer and activist Paul Robeson and athlete Wilma Rudolph will be featured on postage stamps this year; in addition, the three famous African-Americans also are the focus of the new U.S. Postal Service education kit, “The Fire Within.”

The kit invites students to learn how these individuals overcame personal, racial and political obstacles by using the “fire within” to achieve their goals and make a positive impact on the world. The kit features games, research and interview activities, and literature and writing exercises.

The kit already has been distributed to more than 230,000 classrooms. To view the materials online, visit www.usps.com/communications/community/_pdf/thefirewithin.pdf. 

The USPS Web site has a variety of lesson plans, activities, games and posters designed to augment the study of other historic figures featured on postage stamps; the Web page is geared specifically toward elementary school students.

Classroom teachers who register with the postal service will be sent lesson plans. To enroll in the program, teachers should send their name, school, grade level, number of students, address, telephone number and e-mail address to Stamp Marketing, 475 L’Enfant Plaza S.W., Room 5670, Washington DC 20260-2436.

To access the full selection of USPS education resources, visit www.usps.com/communications/community/classroom.htm.

HELP IS AT HAND FOR STRUGGLING READERS

A new PBS television special designed to encourage students who have difficulty reading to keep trying is scheduled to air on public television stations nationwide beginning this spring (check local listings). The Disney Channel’s Nick Spano (“Even Stevens”) hosts the special, “Reading Rocks!”—which uses humor to offer stories of hope to children who are trying to learn to read. Set to a hip-hop soundtrack, the program features a child author, a claymation movie, inspiring profiles and silly moments with Spano.

Although the TV special is designed for kids ages 7-12, the program also can help parents and teachers understand and encourage struggling readers at home and school.

An accompanying Web site for the program, scheduled to launch on PBSKIDS.org in May, features an interactive game based on the concept of trading cards. The cards highlight various celebrities—such as singer/songwriter Jewel and race car legend Jackie Stewart—who have overcome reading difficulties to become successful in their respective fields. Kids also can watch the entire TV show online and access a list of helpful, kid-specific reading tips.

For parents and educators, there is information on the emotional impact of reading difficulties, suggestions for using the trading card game at home or in class, and a downloadable viewer’s guide.

“Reading Rocks!” is a special offering in the “Launching Young Readers” series, which first aired on PBS in 2002. The series includes a resource-packed Web site at www.pbs.org/launchingreaders for parents and teachers. The series and individual episodes are available for purchase on DVD and VHS by calling 800/228-4630.
 

PILING IT ON: BUSH ADMINISTRATION OFFERS TIPS ON AVOIDING OVERTIME PAY

As if it’s not enough that the U.S. Labor Department has pulled out all the political stops to ensure loss of overtime benefits for millions of lower-to-middle income workers—now the department has published tips for employers to limit their overtime pay obligations to even their lowest-paid employees.

In January, the Associated Press reported that the department’s advice on how to avoid overtime pay (contained in a summary of its plan for changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act published last spring) comes “even as it touts the $895 million in increased wages that it says those workers would be guaranteed.”

Among the options for employers, DOL advises, is to cut workers’ hourly wages and add the overtime to equal the original salary, or raise salaries to the new $22,100 annual threshold, making those workers ineligible, reports the Associated Press.

All last fall and winter, the labor movement had vigorously opposed the Bush administration’s efforts to redefine who would be eligible for overtime. While the Labor Department said the changes would benefit 1.3 million low-income workers, the AFL-CIO pointed out that the redefinition also would strip 8 million middle-income and higher-paid workers of their rights to overtime pay.

An AFT legal department analysis found that overtime rights for nearly 500,000 healthcare professionals, school support personnel, and state and local public employees represented by the AFT would be affected.

Last fall, both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives voted to ban any attempt by the Bush administration to execute its overtime scheme. And more than 240,000 people signed online or hard-copy petitions urging Bush to withdraw his overtime changes. But the Bush administration managed to tack the provision on to the 2004 omnibus spending bill.

These provisions are “an affront to the American public,” says AFT president Sandra Feldman.

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