Achievement gap smaller at Pentagon schools
Teacher time and better schools
Move to end affirmative action draws fire in Fla.
Half-price homes for teachers?

Achievement gap smaller at Pentagon schools

Schools on American military bases around the world have been an unsung success story. A recent article in Education Week reports that black and Hispanic students at the 154 Department of Defense schools overseas--along with 70 others operated by the military on U.S. soil--do better than their counterparts almost anywhere in the United States.

In the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress, black and Hispanic eighth-graders in Pentagon schools ranked first among their counterparts taking the test in 39 states and other jurisdictions, reports Education Week. African-American students outscored their fourth- and eighth-grade counterparts in math, science and reading. Although minority students at military base schools still lag behind their white and Asian-American classmates, the gap is smaller than in civilian schools.

Despite their high mobility, students in Pentagon schools have other things going for them that help achievement, says Overseas Federation of Teachers president Marie Sainz-Funaro. First, there is no unemployment among the families--since they are military--and there is strong parental involvement in the schools, she says. OFT represents more than 700 teachers in Turkey, Bahrain, Spain, the Azores and Italy.

But a bigger plus is the quality and stability of the teaching force, says Sainz-Funaro. Although some teachers are spouses of military and thus move frequently, most Department of Defense school faculty are career teachers who joined up stateside and enjoy living overseas, she says. Most have at least a master's degree, and teacher turnover is low. "They are well traveled and sophisticated," she says. Another advantage is that all military base schools share a common curriculum, so students actually experience more continuity at Department of Defense schools than they would in regular U.S. schools. "It's a standard curriculum--from Okinawa to Italy," she says.

Teacher time and better schools

Unless schools figure out ways to reduce the "chronic overload" on teachers and give them more time away from students to do all the things they need to be successful, our goals for improving education will remain illusive. That's the bottom line of Teacher Time: Why Teacher Workload and School Management Matter to Each Student in Our Public Schools, a book written by a long-time teacher and school board member, along with her economist husband. "Teacher time is the most valuable resource in a school," write authors Marty Shollenberger Swaim and Stephen G. Swaim. "Teacher time is the time a teacher uses to teach; to plan for each child, both individually and as part of the class; to study each child's work; and to talk with each child."

One advantage that some private schools enjoy over public schools is teachers' lower workload, they note. Marty Swaim uses her own experience as a sixth-grade social studies teacher to illustrate the time crunch. If she gives a writing assignment to the 125 students in her various classes and spends just 10 minutes reading each paper, that adds up to 21 hours of time outside class. And that doesn't even cover additional time to offer feedback, read revised versions and everything else that goes into helping students become better writers. So what happens? She doesn't assign much writing.

The Swaims propose radically smaller student-teacher ratios as the key to improving schools: 15-1 for elementary teachers and a 60-student load for secondary teachers. The authors argue that such an investment is affordable, especially with a concerted investment of federal funds. For more on the book, including ordering information, go to www.teachertime.net.

Move to end affirmative action draws fire in Fla.

AFT members and leaders in Florida joined more than 8,000 people who demonstrated in Tallahassee March 7 to protest Gov. Jeb Bush's proposal to end the state's affirmative action programs. While Gov. Jeb Bush claims his plan is designed to end racial "quotas" and "preferential admissions" at Florida's public higher education institutions, groups like the AFT-affiliated FEA/United, the Florida NAACP and the state's AFL-CIO are strongly opposed to his plan and the closed process that produced it.

The AFT is opposed to quotas and preferences to determine who will be admitted to college or hired for a job, the union's executive council stressed in a resolution passed at its meeting in February, but it "strongly supports affirmative action programs that help prepare minority students for higher education and that help students succeed in college after they are admitted."

Gov. Bush, the AFT resolution says, has failed to show that the state's affirmative action programs have led to "quotas" and "preferences" in college admissions and hiring. The resolution urges the governor to withdraw the proposed executive order "until solid information is available to determine what course of action will best serve Florida's students and schools."

Half-price homes for teachers?

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is sponsoring a program to enable state-certified K-12 teachers to buy HUD-owned homes for half price in economically distressed neighborhoods in the school districts where they work. The "Teacher Next Door" program, announced by HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, will be made available to teachers in HUD-designated revitalization areas in Washington, D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and other cities.

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