A school in South Africa A school in South Africa After our visit to South Africa in May 2007, I though it important to investigate the status of education in that country.  Below that is an article written by Heather for the USC School of Education magazine. SA becoming more educated Lavinia Mahlangu 4 September 2006 Nearly 97% of South African children of school-going age attended some form of educational institution in 2003, according to a report published by the Department of Education. The report, published on Monday, summarises trends in different aspects of education service provision since 1995, with evidence gleaned from household surveys. "This service delivery indicator report on the system will be continuously refined in future to include the results of monitoring and evaluation studies and analyses as they become available, so that continuous performance improvement is guaranteed at all levels," Education Director-General Duncan Hindle said. 'Marked improvements' Among the key issues highlighted was the improved educational profile of South Africans over the 1995 to 2003 period. "Looking at the 25- to 34-year age-group, important improvements are observable," the department said in a statement. "There have been marked increases in the proportion of the population completing Grade 12. "In 2003, around 30% of the population over 25 years of age had completed Grade 12, compared to 25.6% in 1995." Improved educational attainment was even evident among the country's 35- to 64-year-olds. Growing demand It was observed that the demand for high school and higher education institutions was likely to grow strongly over the medium term, while the demand for primary institutions was expected to grow at a slower rate. This was inferred from the population growth rate of 16- to 18-year-olds. At 3.7%, it is almost double that of the general population (2%) between 1995 and 2003. "The situation is particularly acute in Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and Gauteng, where growth among the 16- to 18-year age-group was most rapid between 1995 and 2003," the department said, adding that there were very young populations in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. Quality education Although 90% of students had paid less than R500 in annual school fees in 2001, lack of books, followed by lack of money, were cited as the leading barriers to education among 7- to 18-year-olds in 2003. "Other reasons cited by relatively high numbers of both males and females, [were] that education was useless or uninteresting (9.9% overall), that the individual was too old or too young (8.5%) or that the individual was prevented by illness (8.1%)." One in ten female students cited pregnancy as being their main reason for not attending school. "Females were also far more likely to not attend an educational institution due to family commitments, which included child-minding, than males (8.2% versus 0.4%)," the department said. The report was commissioned by the Department from the Development Policy Research Unit in the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town. It is the first report to emerge from the new Monitoring and Evaluation Unit in the Department of Education. "I urge all who are interested in education to make use of the information in these reports in the interests of achieving quality education for all in our system, our country, and on our continent," Hindle said.

UrbanEd 30 The magazine of the USC Rossier School of Education BY HEATHER WOODRING, M.S. ’96 Ask many of the teachers I know and the phrase “for the children” elicits a combination of understanding, passion andresentment. Maybe if the phrase were used less often, it would be more meaningful. However, it has diminished to the levelof clichés politicians use in every speech. Far too often, the phrase is seen as the reason behind increasing responsibilities and greater accountability for teachers. The issue of accountability has influenced all levels of the educational system. School districts spend a lot of money on consultants, teachers spend more of their personal time and money training in the latest techniques and politicians make it one of their key re-election issues. For education, the accountability issue has surfaced in the No Child Left Behindlaw (NCLB). The NCLB demands that state departments of education set performance goals for each school which must have a projected minimum increase in its standardized test scores each year. This is its AYP or Adequate Yearly Progress. Scores are broken down by subgroups including disability status, migrant status,gender, race, English language proficiency and low-income status. For schools that don’t meet their goal in any of the subgroups there is an “intervention” in the form of a multiyear improvement plan. The first year a school fails to make its AYP no action is taken, but each year thereafter, specific measures areimplemented to improve the school’s standardized test scores. If the AYP is not met in four years, “corrective action” is taken and the school must replace some of its staff. If the AYP is not met in five years, the school requires “restructuring” and must replace most or all of its staff. The actions taken in year four and five are of particular concern because they suggest teachers are responsible for the inadequate improvements made by the school. Although teachers have a direct impact on their students’ learning, many other variables come into play. Recently, a report by an educational research company listed 50 possible factors that impact student performance. Of the 50 factors, 12 were said to be under the control of theclassroom teacher. In speaking to several colleagues and friends who are teachers the typical response was, “teacher accountability, student accountability, school accountability. What about parent accountability?” There are limits to what teachers can do. The problem with No Child Left Behind is there are too many factors that affect teaching that are far beyond the control of the classroom teacher. The experiences and obstacles I’ve experienced are typical of many teachers, but not a reflection of my teaching. When I began my teaching career, I was an idealist. I taught at a school in the southern United States in an old, dilapidated building. Toilets were always flooded, windows were broken and the staff was required to sign a form saying we were aware of asbestos in the ceiling tiles. The school had Latino, Haitian, White (American) and African American students and a growing population of recent Vietnamese and Bosnian immigrants. I chose the school because it was small and I felt a sense of community. However, the school was an eye-opener. The issues I had to contend with included homelessness, illiterate parents, children who spoke no English, children who practically raised themselves and children who had witnessed violent crimes. Each year most of my students were considerably below grade level when they arrived but I always felt they had the potential to work on grade level. School just wasn’t a priority in many of their homes. The students’ biggest obstacle to learning was indifference (in all the years I taught there, only one family came to Open House). Some examples from just one of the classes in my seven years of teaching are illustrative. Carrie: Carrie had been retained in the first grade because she couldn’t read, so when she was sent to my second grade class she was about a year older than the rest of the children. Carrie was one of the few students who lived in the neighborhood (about two-thirds of the kids were bussed to the school), but somehow Carrie always arrived at school at about 10:30a.m., more than two and one half hours late. School started at 7:50 a.m. and the first subject of the day was usually reading. Carrie was rarely at school when reading was taught and she regularly missed the first half-hour of math. Not surprisingly, she continued to be significantly below grade level in reading. I spoke to Carrie’s mother about walking her to school earlier every day. When that didn’t work, I went to the principal and the school’s social worker. After weeks of filling out papers, waiting for the social worker to meet with me and then finding time to make a home visit (the social worker only worked at our school one day per week), Carrie began arriving at school on time … for a week. Then it was back to 10:30. I understood there were extenuating reasons for Carrie’s being late (stories of rats keeping her awake at night was one reason), but the pattern continued throughout the year. We tried offering incentives and there were more letters home and more visits by the social worker. Nothing we did made Carrie come to school on time. When the end of the school year arrived, Carrie still could not read and at this point, she didn’t seem to care. Jonathan: Jonathan joined my class in January. He had already attended two schools since August, and had recently moved in with his mother. Jonathan’s mother worked nights and was a single parent with another small child. Each day Jonathan came to school unfed and not dressed appropriately. Somehow, he got himself dressed and to school each morning, apparently without his mother’s help. In fact, during the winter he would dress himself in shorts and sandals to walk to school on mornings in the 30-degree range. He said it was because the sun was out so he thought it was warm. Jonathan was an incredibly bright child and had a memory that amazed me. He could hear something once and repeat it verbatim days later. He was a gifted artist as well. Jonathan’s obstacle to learning was that he was always tired and hungry. He ate breakfasts and lunches provided by the school, but often told me he didn’t have dinner. He was always suffering from a cold and would fall asleep in class daily. His mother could not be contacted because the family had no phone. Again, the social worker had to intervene. By the end of the school year, his grandmother had custody of Jonathan and transferred him to yet another school. Trevor: Trevor was not in my second grade class for long. He transferred into the school in the middle of the fall semester and was placed in third grade. After being in that class for about a month (during which his teacher had gone to the first grade and kindergarten teachers in order to get materials that were at Trevor’s level), he was transferred into my class. I discovered Trevor had been in second grade the year before in another �� School districts spend A LOT OF MONEY on consultants, teachers spend more of their personal time and money training in the latest techniques and politicians make it one of their key re-election issues. school district, but was retained because he had been absent for about 100 school days. His family did not want him retained, so they transferred him to another school within that district. When that school also realized he should be placed in second grade, his family moved him yet again and into my class. It took about a month for Trevor’s file to arrive from the other district and when it did, he was promptly placed in second grade. Trevor seemed to feel more positive and comfortable in my class. The work was not as much of a struggle. Even though he was still below grade level, he was starting to be a leader in the class. After he joined my class, I had a conference with his family. They were not happy that Trevor was in second grade. After about two months, they transferred him out and placed him in another school in another district. There are many similar examples from that class. There was the child who enrolled, left school and re-enrolled in my class three times within the school year; the child with fetal alcohol syndrome; another who was born addicted to drugs; and a child whose family member was killed in a violent crime. This class taught me how little control teachers have over certain aspects of teaching. The challenges and struggles that children have in their lives outside the school undeniably affect their performance in school. Is that the responsibility or fault of the classroom teacher? According to No Child Left Behind, it is. The same year of Carrie, Jonathan and Trevor, a rumor circulated that our school might be taken over by a private company that adopts and oversees struggling public schools. We learned that if our school were privatized, teachers would be re-interviewed and rehired based on his/her performance in the interview and his/her students’ success on standardized tests. I was angered and terrified. I knew my students’ struggles. If my class average on the test were lower than desired, would I be punished by not being rehired? A student’s performance on standardized tests is not an accurate measure of his or her capabilities. I’ve always had extremely high expectations for my students and consider myself a demanding teacher. My students’ performance on a test should not jeopardize my job. There is a lot of work to be done to get our students to perform consistently at grade level. I agonize over how to help my struggling students and what might happen to me if my students do not perform as well as expected. Educators feel pressure to abandon the curriculum and “teach to the test.” It doesn’t help that some schools publish each teacher’s standardized test scores. I’ve read stories in newspapers of teachers that subtly indicate answers on standardized tests to their students because of the mounting demands to not only do well on the test, but also do better than the year before. Is this progress? This pressure is not just school-based but occurs on a state and federal level as well. Not long ago California gave “reward” money to schools that showed a dramatic increase on their test scores. Schools are rated by an Academic Performance Index (API), which is based on standardized test scores. In my school district, there were concerns about the money being awarded to high-scoring schools. There were also perceptions that teachers were being unfairly rewarded or excluded from the rewards. Did suburban schools with a strong parent base and money for tutoring and test preparation materials have an unfair advantage? Some argued it was demeaning to be offered reward for doing what you’re supposed to be doing. Others felt the state was emulating the corporate world — paying for performance. Testing and teaching became an even higher-stakes game. Is this progress? When dealt with properly, accountability can help teachers. For example, the Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) program, established in California in 2001, has been successful in getting veteran teachers to train new or struggling teachers who havereceived poor performance reviews. Providing these teachers with in-class coaching and formal training to improve their skills helps improve student performance. Unfortunately, state funding is now being given to testing, not PAR. In my school district, state funding for PAR hasdecreased from about $166,000 in 2001/2002 to about $44,000 this school year. I admit not everyone can teach well. However, many problems can be rectified with proper training. High stakes testing and accountability measures make teachers stressed and principals nervous about whether they will have a job next year. Will higher accountability standards help educators raise the level of their instruction, or drive them from the profession? I don’t question the need for accountability for teachers, but I find fault in the ways the government is seeking to holdteachers accountable. Give me a reasonable number of students to work with. Hold me accountable for my instruction. When you look at test scores, look at the individual reading, writing and math assessments that I give throughout the year. Look at the progress my students have made between August and June. Train me in the latest research-based, classroom-tested methods of instruction, but take into account all the variablesinvolved in the job. My former school with Carrie, Jonathan and Trevor no longer exists. It was finally abandoned due to its decaying condition. It was never taken over by a private company, but frustration had set in among its teachers. Stress took its toll. That year, half of the classroom teachers left the school, including me. Some of them decided to leave the profession for good. Happily, I found a school that I love and I continued teaching. I often think of all of the others who didn’t and all of the talented teachers that we, as a society, have lost. If this is progress, we have a long way to go. ��

The US Education System - by Paul Woodring As mentioned elsewhere in this site, I believe that quality education for all of our citizens must be our highest priority. If we are going to be able to compete with the accelerating competitiveness of the world economy we must have a highly educated society. In a 2003 study conducted by UNICEF, the U.S. ranked 18th out of 24 countries in terms of the relative effectiveness of their education systems. Another prominent 2003 study, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, shows a steady decline in the performance of American students from grades 4 to 12 in comparison to their peers in other countries. In both studies, Finland, Australia, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Netherlands and the United Kingdom beat the United States, while the Asian nations of South Korea, Japan and Singapore ranked first through third, respectively. The TIMSS study is a comprehensive study done on a four-year cycle that measures the progress of students in math and science in 46 participating countries. It evaluates fourth, eighth and 12th-graders through questionnaires, tests and extensive videotaping of classroom environments. The TIMSS results reveal a lot about the weaknesses of the U.S. education system, said David Marsh, a professor at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education. “In fourth grade, American kids do above average internationally. By eighth grade, they slip a bit, and by 12th-grade, they’ve slipped a lot,” Marsh said. “We’re the only country that slides down that much from fourth to 12th grade.” Another major issue for the U.S. is that many African-American students and Latino students are fairing worse than the statistics described above. Schools are more segregated than they were twenty years ago, too many of which are predominantly black and of low quality. As a nation we must ensure that the overall education of our students improve in general and that we assure that all students receive a quality education. We will need all of the high quality educated citizens possible, as we struggle to compete with India, China, Japan and Europe. Tavis Smiley’s book, The Covenant points to the dismal educational situation of Black America. Here are facts from the book. • Early childhood education is key to school readiness and sustained academic achievement, yet at age three, only 45 percent of African American children are enrolled, and at age four just 73 percent are registered. • Just 12 percent of African-American 4th graders have reached proficient or advanced reading levels, while 61 percent have yet to reach the basic level. • In a national assessment of student reading ability, black children scored 16 percent below white children. • Forty-six percent of black adults, compared with 14 percent of white adults, scored in the lowest category of the National Adult Literacy survey. The results indicate that blacks have more limited skills in processing information from articles, books, tables, charts, and graphs compared with white counterparts. • Many black 17-year-old students graduating high school have the math skills of white 8th graders. • While 9 percent of white students have repeated a grade, twice as many, or 18 percent of black students have been held back at least once. • One out of three African American students in seventh through twelfth grades has been suspended or expelled at some point, as opposed to 15 percent of white students. • Of black 16 to 24-year-olds, 13 percent have not earned a high school diploma or GED; 7 percent of white young people are without a high school credential. • In 2000, 31 percent of African Americans ages 18 to 24 were enrolled colleges and universities; nearly two-thirds of these students were female. • According to the most recent statistics, the nationwide college graduation rate for enrolled black students is only 40 percent, compared to 61 percent of enrolled white students. These statistics point to the magnitude of the problem for U.S. students in general, but emphasizes the challenges created for young African-Americans. What can we do? It is a complex situation, but Smiley’s book points to some efforts that African Americans can take. These recommendations can apply to all U.S. citizens: • Read to your children or grandchildren everyday. • Create clean, quiet spaces for your children to do homework; check to make sure that assignments are completed. • Get library cards for each member of your family. • Arrange enriching family and neighborhood activities for children of all ages: museums, educational games; spelling bees; and science fairs. • Become involved in your children’s school-- PTA, school committees; attend back-to-school events. • If you do not have children in school, become a volunteer. • Hold all leaders and elected officials responsible and demand they change current policy. As previously mentioned, this is a complex problem. In many ways it is more complex than global warming. We know what actions must be taken to solve the global warming situation. When it comes to education, the situation is complicated by the amount of money spent and where it is spent; by how much we pay teachers; by the school environment; by the nutritional intake of our students. The list goes on. For a comprehensive discussion of these issues in the world’s educational systems, you can read “ Elementary and Secondary Education: An International Perspective,” a publication produced by the National Center for Education Statistics.  This publication examines all of the factors that affect education in the developed countries. My message to you is to educate yourself about these issues, and to begin to hold our elected official accountable for improving our educational systems. If we don’t do this, we will be left behind in the world economy