Meeting higher academic standards can be a struggle for many older students, who may not have benefited from early-grade intervention tied to standards-based reform. Rather than watering down standards in response to the problem, Chicago and Rochester, N.Y., are two urban districts that have recognized the needs of many older students and are making systemic changes to help give high school students the time and assistance they need to reach higher levels.

This year, the Rochester Board of Education approved the Pathways Initiative, a plan that allows students to earn a diploma in three, four or five years. For students who are struggling academically, the Pathways Initiative offers an additional full year of instruction and assistance aimed at making sure students have the skills they need to graduate. Conversely, the initiative also offers students the option of accelerated studies that can lead to a high school diploma in three years.

The Pathways Initiative "injects flexibility into what is generally a very inflexible system," says Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association/AFT. "It insists on making time the variable and standards the constant, instead of the reverse."

The Chicago Board of Education also has approved a five-year option for students who need it. The Flexibility Programming for High Schools plan also offers students the option of completing high school in three, four or five years. Significantly, both Chicago and Rochester have constructed the five-year option not as a way of offering simply a remedial "13th year" but as a plan of study that will identify and serve students entering high school with significant deficiencies in basic skills.

"This is a program that increases opportunities for those who need additional help, without imposing unnecessary restrictions on those who don't," says Chicago Teacher Union president Thomas H. Reece.

In her keynote speech at the 2000 AFT national convention, union president Sandra Feldman recognized the unique needs of many older students in this era of standards-based reform. To reach higher academic standards, many high school students may need an additional "bridge year" of secondary school, she said. The additional year, either before they enter high school or during high school, would provide a chance for students to accelerate their basic skills under the guidance of teachers specially trained to help them.

The College Board announced that college tuition and fees for the 2000-01 academic year went up 4.4 percent at public four-year institutions and 5.2 percent at private institutions. For two-year colleges, the increases were 3.4 percent at publics and 7 percent at privates. The rate of inflation as determined by the Consumer Price Index was 3.4 percent.

Last year, inflation was lower at 2.3 percent, and so were tuition and fee increases, but they still outpaced inflation. At the public four-year colleges, the increase was 3.4 percent, and it was 4.7 percent at the four-year private institutions.

Calling these increases "modest," the College Board also pointed out that as tuition has continued to climb, so has the amount of financial aid available. Last year, a record $68 billion was offered--59 percent of it in the form of loans. This is good news, says College Board president Gaston Caperton, because a college education is still "well within the grasp of all Americans."

Twenty years ago, the balance of aid in the form of loans and grants was the exact reverse of what it is today. In 1980, 40 percent of aid was in the form of loans. "Today, we find grant aid lagging badly," says Larry Gold, AFT director of higher education. "Financially needy students should not be burdened with excessive loans. AFT has always stood for trying to get back to the balance that used to exist before the Reagan administration."

Managing the demands of part-time faculty issues, technology and distance education, as well as academic governance are the primary concerns of locals, AFT's higher education leaders have found. At the October meeting of the AFT higher education program and policy council (PPC), the 21 council members considered national developments and mapped strategies for responding to them.

They also discussed ways higher education locals could work more closely with their K-12 counterparts both at home and in the leadership of the union. One area that received particular attention was implementing recommendations of the

K-16 Teacher Education Task Force report, "Building a Profession," which was released in April. Another report that came out this fall is "Guidelines for Good Practice in Distance Education." Members are urged to inform their campuses and colleagues about the report and then encourage action--administration and board endorsement of the guidelines, linking distance education course approvals to the guidelines, and seeking legislation based on the guidelines--for example.

In other areas, the PPC intends to step up its federal legislation program, focusing in particular on student financial aid eligibility, student privacy act matters and the "50 percent rule" limiting the amount of distance education that is federally funded. Other topics the PPC will focus on in the year ahead include building a greater role for graduate employees in the union leadership; exploring a national health insurance program for part-timers; fighting off privatization schemes in higher education, such as charter colleges; and organizing for membership growth and new locals.

The meeting was the first chaired by AFT vice president William Scheuerman, of the United University Professions/AFT at SUNY, who welcomed four new members to the PPC.