Urban Policy in a Changing Federal System Proceedings of a Symposium (1985) / Chapter Skim
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6. De Facto New Federalism and Urban Education
6. De Facto New Federalism and Urban Education
Pages 163-183
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From page 163... ...
He can remember when he wondered if anyone cared at all about what he was doing. For years he wrestled with low pupil achievement, low motivation, high absenteeism and pupil turnover, violence in the halls and classrooms, a rising tide of students speaking obscure languages, teacher strikes, and weak community support 163 .
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From page 164... ...
He has read the Effective schools research and even visited some urban schools that have developed effective new programs. If he can persuade the community that he is already making progress toward revitalizing his school, if he can get out from under his paperwork, and if he can prevent the superintendent from forcing him to start all over again in order to comply with all these new recommendations, he thinks he may have a pretty good year.
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From page 165... ...
. · Largely for the above reasons, urban schools receive a disproportionate share of federal education revenues.
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From page 166... ...
There has always been a national interest in education and a consequent federal role, from the land grant ordinances of 1785 and 1787, through the Morrill Act of 1862, the Smith Hughes Act of 1917, and on into the past 20 years of very visible federal involvement, which are of particular interest here. It has been both inevitable and appropriate that over the past 200 years the federal government has directly and indirectly influenced where schools should be, what they should teach, and whom they should serve.
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From page 167... ...
. Thus, the framers of ESEA viewed it as an intrusive or coercive federal move in the short term, but as an intergovernmentally collaborative project that would strengthen the lower levels of government closest to the schools while it promoted national education goals in the long term.
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From page 168... ...
At their worst, they interfered with education and innovation by: · interrupting core classroom instruction because they pulled students out of classes, often for most of the day; · replacing the core program with a new program, usually because scheduling problems made it impossible for affected students to stay in the core program for sufficiently long periods of time; · presenting students with materials and teaching methods radically different from those found in the core program; e causing staff conflicts, usually because of differences in teaching approach and the autonomy of the special program teachers; · imposing heavy recordkeeping burdens upon teachers and administrators -- especially in response to P.L. 94-142 and bilingual programs; and · segregating affected students for large blocks of time.
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From page 169... ...
The instances of serious burden seem restricted,. they write, To particular roles and situations: locally paid counselors who take on special education management unwillingly; schools in which the principal has no extra pal r of hands to help with the administrative detail; hard-pressed districts facing major, nonroutine challenges attributable to federal policies (e.g., desegregation)
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From page 170... ...
But tile beauty of the federalist system is that the federal government cannot implement national education policies by itself. Regardless of federal policymakers' suspicions that state and local people will not carry out their mandates, regardless of their efforts to institutionalize that mistrust -- they must nevertheless, in the long run, adapt to state and local realities if they want to see the policy implemented successfully.
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From page 171... ...
Almost all states have assumed a greater and greater share of the education budget. In 1963, for instance, the average state share of education expenditures was 39 percent (National Education Association, 1964)
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From page 172... ...
projects 38 have mandated statewide student testing; 20 have required competency testing for teacher certification; 16 have raised grade-point requirements for teacher certification; 10 have begun requiring supervised internships for beginning teachers; 7 require new kinds of field experience for teacher candidates; 44 now have state staff development programs for teachers and 31 have them for administrators; 29 have developed new incentive programs for teachers; and more than half of them have raised graduation requirements in the past three years alone (Education Commission of the States, 1983, 1984)
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From page 173... ...
Virtually every governor has mentioned education promi nently in his or her state-of-the-state address the past two years; many have declared that improved education is their top priority. Some governors, such as Dick Riley of South Carolina, Bob Graham of Florida, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and Bill Clinton of Arkansas, have stumped their states, speaking to hundreds of groups and thousands of people in behalf of their education proposals, bringing massive publicity to the schools and engaging enormous public attention.
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From page 174... ...
Others will argue that if there is a national education problem, there should be strong federal action in response, not simply rhetoric. No one will argue with the proposition that this jawboning has had a profound effect on public attitudes toward education and has catalyzed the reform movement even if it did not start it.
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From page 175... ...
model of school reform, and despite the absence of research supporting links between improvement and such things as stiffer certification requirements, higher teacher salaries, or stricter graduation requirements, many states may nevertheless approach reform too prescriptively, as if they were the federal government in the 1960s. If states rely solely on policy mechanisms that either do not touch the factors instrumental to reform or in various ways constrain the creativity necessary for reform, the expectations of so many new converts to the education renewal cause will be disappointed.
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From page 176... ...
Finally, we can be optimistic about the leaders in many urban school districts who have shed any appearance of dependence on federal or state initiatives to solve these unique problems and have initiated broadly conceived reform efforts on their own. EFFECTI VE SCHOOLS Through the seventies, considerable research was devoted to identifying the characteristics of effective schools, many of which were in urban environments not thought to be conducive to optimal education conditions.
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From page 177... ...
Each has found ways to draw in community leaders and parents, to energize administrators, teachers, and students, to apply research on effective schools to its own particular situation, and to use its resources in creative and effective ways. But urban schools still face formidable difficulties.
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From page 178... ...
It should define and describe elementary and secondary education. SOME MODEST PROPOSALS The following suggestions to urban policy planners in state, county, and city agencies are meant to encourage strategies that combine traditional policy levers with grassroots initiatives: · Clarify and dramatize those aspects of federal, state, county, city, and district relations that inhibit or frustrate school reform.
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From page 179... ...
· Develop contractual intergovernmental arrangements to replace particularly intrusive regulatory arrangements. · Work for federal matching grants to city schools for education-improvement programs.
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From page 180... ...
It must, of course, provide strong leadership by setting the agenda, gaining media attention, and convening leaders from many sectors. It must continue to help states deal with special populations; it must vigorously uphold and enforce basic civil rights protections; it must continue to provide financial assistance to lowincome students desiring postsecondary education; and it must continue to provide financial support for graduate and professional programs aimed at meeting national work-force needs.
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From page 181... ...
Moreover, this most recent surge of school improvement efforts was a grassroots movement to begin with; the federal and state hue and cry about education came only after many districts and schools had already built momentum toward positive change. That momentum is the final guarantee that traditional federalist arrangements and interlevel relationships are going to change.
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From page 182... ...
Santa Monica, Calif.: The Rand Corporation. Knapp, Michael, Stearns, Marion, Turnbull, Brenda, David, Jane, and Peterson, Susan 1983 Cumulative Effects of Federal Education Policies on Schools and Districts, Summary Doctr inal .
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From page 183... ...
Government Printing Office. National Education Association 1964 Estimates of School Statistics 1962-63.
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