Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
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December 5, 1996, Thursday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 1; Metropolitan Desk
LENGTH: 1480 words
HEADLINE: Crew Wants
National Standards To Be Used in New York Schools
BYLINE:
By PAM BELLUCK
BODY:
Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew proposed yesterday that New York City adopt
national education standards that would change what schoolchildren are expected to learn and how their
achievements would be measured.
If the plan is approved by the Board of Education, New York would be the
largest district to embrace the standards, which were developed by
national panels
over the last few years for English, math and science. The various proposals
have been drawn together and revamped for classroom use by New Standards, a
privately financed educational organization in Washington.
The standards, which would be phased in over the next three years, would
concentrate on raising students' level of achievement, teaching academic skills
that can be applied in real life, and encouraging logic, analysis and
expression rather than multiple-choice questions.
The plan includes benchmark achievement tests in the
fourth, eighth and 10th grades in math, English, science and
"applied learning," which consists of using skills like writing and arithmetic in exercises
relevant to the business world.
The standards would also mean changes in what is taught in the classroom in all
grades, to make sure that instruction is consistent
within schools and local districts and that children learn what is asked.
Efforts by previous chancellors to impose new curriculums have often
encountered obstacles, including the city's sometimes fractious system of 32
local school districts. But Dr. Crew's proposal comes as state officials are
pressing for
higher standards statewide, and its inclusion of new achievement tests could
also increase the pressure on schools to adhere to the new standards.
For example, the standards for English in each grade require that each student
read 25 books a year, either at home or as part of class
work, and write summaries of them in a logbook. There are sample reading lists
-- the high school list, for example, includes
"The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros and
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee -- but teachers can substitute books or even magazines they
consider appropriate.
English exercises emphasize writing and creativity, often relating works to
real-life circumstances.
In math, tests would involve very few multiple-choice questions. The emphasis
would be on problem solving using examples drawn from actual situations. For
example, a sample math
problem listed in the guidelines for eighth graders asks students to
"analyze a state lottery game to see how many number combinations there are and
how many weeks, months or years it will take for all of them to be drawn."
In discussing the plan yesterday, Dr.
Crew said,
"I am proposing adoption of the standards developed by the New Standards project
because they are the best available
national standards, because teachers can use them, because they are based on common
sense as well as academic excellence, and because they are ready now."
National standards are a revolutionary departure for American
education, which has historically stressed local control, and the phrase itself
has become an emotionally charged one that raises the hackles of politicians
and school officials.
Indeed, officials with New Standards, the Washington organization that has
developed the standards Dr. Crew is hoping to adopt, were careful to say that
their programs were not really
"national" standards because they were
developed with several years of input from states and cities, including New
York City, and they were designed to be adjusted and adapted by local school
districts.
Across the country a handful of cities, including San Diego, Pittsburgh, Fort
Worth, and Rochester and White Plains in New York, have recently
come up with their own sets of standards, borrowing many ideas from the New
Standards program. But New York City is the first school district to propose
to adopt the New Standards program outright, according to Kate Nolan, a senior
associate in the office of state and local relations
for New Standards. Dr. Crew, while saying that the New Standards program would
be tailored for New York City's large and diverse school population, did not
shrink from calling them
national standards.
"Our students should not have to wait while we re-create the wheel," Dr. Crew said.
"They should be taught to
aim for success, and we need a system that can deliver it."
Dr. Crew said the standards were necessary because there is currently no
consistency in what is taught in New York City's 1,100 schools. Two elementary
schools in the same district may have entirely different curricula,
making it difficult for children when they get to middle school. Even classes
in the same grade in one school may be learning lessons so different that the
children are not at the same level when they enter the next grade. Systemwide,
about 70 percent of students are below
grade level in math or reading.
Board of Education officials said the proposed new standards were unprecedented
in their breadth, rigor and comprehensive approach.
Dr. Crew's proposal dovetails with changes planned by the State Education
Commissioner, Richard P. Mills, and the State Board of Regents. In
April, the Regents, pressed by Mr. Mills, voted to require every public school
student in the state to pass Regents examinations to earn a high school
diploma. Mr. Mills also plans to revise the Regents exams, making them more
rigorous, a move that would prompt curriculum
changes.
Mr. Mills, who until recently was on the board of New Standards, which is a
consortium of 14 states and 7 city school districts, including New York City,
and is financed by grants from major foundations, said that Dr. Crew's plan
would be consistent with the statewide changes and the new
Regents tests.
"This is all part of a coherent strategy," Mr. Mills said. He said the strategy included several recent developments,
including proposals now before the Legislature to increase the Chancellor's
control of local New York City districts, and threats by Mr. Mills to close
failing
city schools if they do not improve.
"State authorities are trying to do what they can and city authorities are
trying to do what they can," Mr. Mills said.
"Everyone knows that the expectations are now high and the clock is ticking."
The city proposals are subject to Board of Education approval.
Yesterday, after Dr. Crew made a brief
presentation to the board, Carol Gresser, a board member, called the proposal
"fascinating" and asked for a more thorough briefing later.
Sandra E. Lerner, another board member, cautioned that the higher standards
might initially mean students would have lower scores on the tougher tests.
"We have to
think in terms of incremental achievement," she said.
Indeed, the new achievement tests are a key element.
"What you test has an awful lot to do with what teachers teach," said Robert Tobias, director of assessment and accountability for the school
board.
"Once you do that testing, it's going to drive instruction in the
classroom."
In January, the Chancellor will present to the board details of the proposed
English standards, which will be tailored to New York City, with examples of
student work that reflect the city's diversity and books that are a part of the
state's approved list of reading materials. He said he hoped to implement the
English standards
in September. The standards for science and math will be retooled with the goal
of introducing them in the 1998-99 school year. The standards for applied
learning are scheduled to begin in 1999-2000.
New Standards, whose staff consists of education experts from the University of
Pittsburgh and a Washington organization
called the
National Center on Education and the Economy, is planning to develop similar programs
for social studies and other subjects in the coming years, and to expand the
testing to include other grades. Like the other standards, these would be based
on recommendations from major
national panels, including the
National Council of
Teachers of English, but clarified so that teachers would know how to apply
them.
Education experts and parents groups yesterday praised the Chancellor's goal to
impose higher standards, although they had not seen the specific proposals.
"I think it is a good strategy, if it is a strategy and not
a one-shot deal," said Diane Ravitch, a researcher at New York University.
"If this is the strategy then teachers will presumably know what they are
expected to teach and will be prepared to teach it. The textbooks will reflect
the standards. Parents understand what kids are expected to learn. All of the
parts of the
system get connected."
Ayo Harrington, the president of the United Parents Association, was more
effusive.
"I say hallelujah," Ms. Harrington said.
"I'm somewhat surprised that this doesn't exist already. It's way past due."
GRAPHIC: Photo: Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew yesterday with Sandra E. Lerner, a school
board member, and William C. Thompson Jr., its president. (Nancy Siesel/The New
York Times)(pg. B6)
Chart:
"Reasoning, Not Reciting"
The new academic standards being embraced by
Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew and State Education Commissioner Richard Mills
demand more from students by emphasizing analysis and creative thinking, not
just memorization of facts and formulas.
MATH PROBLEMS
Fourth Grade
Figure out how many Valentine's Day cards would be exchanged in
total, if all the students in your class gave everyone else a card.
Put five objects, such as books, rocks or pumpkins, in rank order by weight,
first estimating and then by measuring exactly.
Show how the letters
"aab, aab . . .
" can represent the pattern
"metal, metal, plastic,"
"leaf, leaf, rock" or many other patterns.
Eighth Grade
Investigate the area around your school and neighborhood to describe the size
of an acre and a square mile.
Lottery players often say,
"Well, my numbers have to come up sometime." Analyze
a state lottery game to see how many number combinations there are and how many
weeks, months or years it will take for all of them to be drawn.
Starting with the numbers from 1 to 36, find out all you can about writing them
as sums of consecutive whole numbers. What kinds of
numbers can be written as the sum of two consecutive whole numbers, of three
consecutive whole numbers, of four consecutive whole numbers. Which numbers
cannot be written as the sum of consecutive whole numbers? What patterns do you
notice? Why do you think they occur?
Tenth Grade
Show there must have been at least one misprint
in a newspaper report on an election that says:
Yes votes - 13,657 (42%)
No votes - 186,491 (58%)
Suggest two different specific places the misprint may have occurred.
Explain which is a better fit, a square peg in a round hole or
a round peg in a square hole. Go on to the case of a cube in a sphere vs. a
sphere in a cube.
Compare a frequency distribution of salaries of women in a company with a
frequency distribution of salaries of men.
Describe and quantify similarities and differences in the distributions and
interpret them.
READING
All students will be asked to read 25 books a year. Teachers can pick and
choose, but the suggested reading list contains fiction, nonfiction, poetry,
folklore, drama, science fiction and fantasy, and magazines or
other periodicals. Here are the nonfiction and science fiction lists:
Elementary School
Nonfiction
Aliki Corn is Maize: The Gift of the Indians
Baylor The Way to Start a Day
Cherry The Great Kapok Tree
Epstein History of Women in Science for Young People
Fritz And Then What Happened, Paul Revere
Greenfield Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir
Godkin Wolf Island
Hamilton Anthony Burns: The Defeat and Triumph of a Fugitive Slave
McGovern The Secret Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson
McKissak Frederick Douglass: The Black Lion
Politi Song of the Swallows
Sattler Dinosaurs of North America
Middle School
Armory The Cat Who Came for Christmas
Berck No Place to Be: Voices of Homeless Children
Frank Diary of a Young Girl
George The Talking Earth
Gilbreth Cheaper by the Dozen
Haskins Outward Dreams
Hautzig Endless Steppe: A Girl in
Exile
Herriott All Creatures Great and Small
Lester To Be a Slave
Meyers Pearson, a Harbor Seal Pup Soto Living Up the Street
White Ryan White: My Own Story
Yates Amos Fortune, Free Man
High School
Angell Late Innings
Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Ashe Days of Grace
Beal 'I Will Fight No More Forever': Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce War
Bishop The Day Lincoln Was Shot
Bloom The Closing of the American Mind
Campbell The Power of Myth
Covey Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People
Galarza Barrio Boy
Hawking A Brief History of Time
Houston Farewell to Manzanar
Kennedy Profiles in Courage
Kingsley and Levitz Count Us In: Growing Up With Down Syndrome
Kingston Woman Warrior
Mazer, ed. Going Where I'm Coming From
Momaday The Way to Rainy Mountain
Rodriquez Hunger of Memory
Sternberg User's Guide to the Internet
Wright Black Boy (pg. B6)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: December 5, 1996
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