DECEMBER 2005

Schools forced to update seldom-used showers

Talk about getting soaked. The San Francisco Unified School District is about to be forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to make gym showers in middle and high schools accessible to people in wheelchairs, even though the showers have hardly been used in years -- by anyone, disabled or not.

The reason: The recent settlement of a long-running disabled-access lawsuit, which calls for the district to spend as much as $1.5 billion in the next six years to bring schools into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act and similar laws.

Now once upon a time, students used to shower in the locker rooms after gym class. That stopped long ago, however, and most schools don't even stock the basics for shower use.

"Nobody has towels," said the school district's facilities director David Goldin. "And nobody really showers anymore except sports teams, and (then it's) randomly and selectively.''

But the law is the law. So at Horace Mann Middle School in the Mission, for example, the cash-strapped district is preparing to spend about $30,000 to make the showers in both the boys' and girls' locker rooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

First, however, the school will have to clear out the boxes, chairs, old TV sets and other junk it has stored in and around the stalls.

Curbs will be cut to make the showers wheelchair-accessible, new shower seats will be added, and showerheads and handles will be lowered. The slope of the floors may also need to be redone to allow wheelchair access.

Meanwhile, Horace Mann still doesn't have the money for a laundry list of basic improvements to the campus -- from replacing unusable chalkboards and old desks to taking up the linoleum flooring in hallways that has begun to curl.

Some school districts have gotten around the problem of obsolete showers by simply yanking them out and replacing them with things that modern students actually use, such as weight training rooms.

San Francisco, however, has no money for that. Instead, the district is doing the "minimum'' required to comply with the law, Goldin said.

In this case, that means spending an average of about $15,000 per locker room for the 32 schools that will need an upgrade -- including 14 covered by a $295 million bond approved by city voters in 2003.

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "money down the drain."

Call forward: Around 11 p.m. one night last week, while working at San Francisco's Richmond Police Station, Sgt. Vivian Bruce got a phone call she will not soon forget -- and from the sounds of things, neither will the rest of the department.

"The telephone rang, and I answered by saying, Richmond Station Sgt. Bruce,'' she wrote in a memo to her superiors the day after getting the Sept. 21 call.

By her account, here's what came next:

"I want to speak to Capt. Tong!" the voice on the other end shouted.

"Sir, you have to call during daytime hours to speak to the captain,'' Bruce replied. Then, after explaining that she was the highest-ranking officer available, she asked what the problem was.

"None of your business!'' the voice shouted, so loud that Bruce had to pull the phone away from her ear.

She asked for the caller's name, but the reply was slurred and unintelligible.

"I spoke calmly and continually addressed the caller as 'sir,' " Bruce wrote. "I attempted to calm the caller by continuing to offer assistance."

To no avail. After a few more shouts of "none of your business" and a sarcastic dig about "a station without a commanding officer," the caller hung up.

It turns out it wasn't just any caller on the other end of the line -- it was lawyer Joe Veronese, grandson of former Mayor Joe Alioto, a good friend of Mayor Gavin Newsom and one of seven civilians who oversee the department as members of the Police Commission.

And according to Veronese, Bruce was the rude one.

"I couldn't believe how rude she was,'' Veronese said. "I identified myself. I never raised my voice. I was stunned. If she treats other people the way she treated me, she shouldn't have contact with the public."

As for why he was ringing up Richmond station that night?

"I called down to talk to the commander relating to a staffing issue I'd seen," Veronese said. "I'd noticed a bunch of officers all in one place.''

The commissioner said he had the feeling that it wasn't a question of the commander not being in -- "it's that she didn't want to get them on the line."

"She refused to give me her badge number, and she hung up," Veronese said.
And Bruce's report of yelling and slurred speech?

"B.S.,'' Veronese said. "I could have been the president of the United States, and she was going to be rude to me."

Veronese complained to the brass; Bruce wrote her memo in response.

"It's interesting that she put this in a memo,'' Veronese added. "A police report with lies in it is a very serious offense. If she lies like that, you have to wonder what kind of stuff she puts in other reports."

Class reunion: The Willie Brown College Preparatory Academy dedication Tuesday was like a homecoming from days past -- which, depending on your persuasion, either looked like a "Who's Who of Democratic Politics" or the "Most Wanted" wall of your local post office.

Those in attending the event at the former 21st Century College Preparatory Academy out on Silver Avenue in San Francisco included former Assessor Doris Ward; Democratic fundraiser and developer Darius Anderson; lobbyist Billy "Still a good friend of Willie's" Rutland; Residential Builders Association President Joe O'Donoghue; and former 49ers and Cleveland Browns president Carmen Policy.

Also present: District Attorney Kamala Harris, former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, and Oakland City Attorney and state Assembly candidate John Russo.

Plus, power attorney Steven Kay, Chinatown powerhouse Rose Pak and a host of developers, former commissioners and City Hall insiders of all makes and persuasions.

Even Kevin Shelley, forced to resign earlier this year as secretary of state, made it. While chatting it up with Peninsula state Sen. and lieutenant governor hopeful Jackie Speier, he observed:

"You have past statewide officerholders and future statewides here,'' Shelley said, "and I'm here to say it's not everything it's cracked up to be.''

Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. They can also be heard on KGO Radio on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Phil Matier can be seen regularly on KRON 4 News, and also on Sunday night at 9:30 on his own show, "4 the Record." Got a tip? Call them at (415) 777-8815 or drop them an e-mail at matierandross@sfchronicle.com.

Philip Matier, Andrew Ross
September 28, 2005
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/28/BAGGLEURLN1.DTL


Lazy kids may have learning disability

Children perceived as lazy at school may actually have a learning disability or anxiety disorder, an educational psychologist has said.

Linda Gilmore, of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and colleagues have studied 50 children aged seven to nine with poor motivation at school.

She found most had previously unrecognised learning disabilities, anxiety, attention disorders or, in a few cases, were assessed as being gifted.

"We can offer an explanation, apart from just laziness, in about 90 per cent of cases," Dr Gilmore said in an interview.

"I want to raise people's awareness. Don't just write off a child as being lazy. Don't blame a personality defect like laziness.

"Look beyond that for the underlying reason for that child's low motivation," she said.

Presenting the findings of the study to the Australian Psychological Society's annual conference in Melbourne, Dr Gilmore said undiagnosed learning problems could have a big impact on a person's future.

"A huge number of people that are in jail or have substance abuse problems ... have learning disabilities that haven't been picked up when they were children," Dr Gilmore said.

"Not only have they not educationally achieved, but they've also got low self-esteem.

"They feel bad about themselves because they try, and try at school and they end up giving up because it doesn't make a difference.

"They see themselves as dumb and worthless and that leads on to various kinds of problems, like criminality."

Dr Gilmore said teachers often lacked the skills to be able to identify developmental or learning problems in children.

"Schools need many more psychologists and much more support if we really are to make a difference for these children," she said.

"It's only a psychologist who can assess a child's intellectual functioning and the various developmental and learning problems that happen.

"I see the educational psychologist as an integral part of a team of people that work in schools, or with schools, to improve outcomes for children."

Dr Gilmore has applied for an Australian Research Council grant to extend her study. She hopes to assess 200 children and trial an intervention program.

Helping parents, teachers and children understand their learning difficulties, and then introducing remedial work to help compensate for those problems, could make a marked difference, Dr Gilmore said.

September 28, 2005
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Lazy-kids-may-have-learning-disability/2005/09/28/1127804518313.html#


Pills 'are not best way to treat child depression'

Too many children are being prescribed anti-depressants when other forms of treatment could be more effective, says the body which advises the Government on NHS treatments.

Around half of the 40,000 children and adolescents in the UK on some form of anti-depressants do not receive additional back-up counselling and a large proportion should not be on the drugs at all.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), publishing national guidelines yesterday, said doctors should first offer counselling and consider giving children advice on nutrition, exercise and sleep before prescribing powerful anti-depressant drugs.

Andrew Dillon, chief executive of Nice, said: "This guideline makes it clear that psychological treatments are the most effective way to treat depression in children and young people.

"It's important that children and young people taking anti-depressants do not stop taking them abruptly, but we would advise people to talk to their GP at their next regular review about whether a psychological treatment may be a more effective treatment option."

Nice yesterday advised that children with moderate to severe depression should be offered psychological therapy for at least three months before drugs are considered. It recommended they should be given anti-depressants only in conjunction with psychotherapy.

The institute also called for further training of healthcare professionals to help them to detect the symptoms of depression.

David Cottrell, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Leeds, said many children referred were already on some form of medication.

Prof Cottrell, who said his general policy was not to give medication until psychotherapy had been shown to be ineffective, said: "We do not think that medication should be the first line in treatment. Where psychological therapy has been offered and is not working, medical treatment could be offered as well - the two should interact together.

"Everybody who is working with children needs to get better at detecting depression."

Prof Cottrell added that teachers, school nurses, social workers and parents should be taught to recognise signs such as irritability, sadness, hopelessness, a lack of interest in things they used to find exciting and withdrawing from friends and family as potential symptoms of depression.

Mental health charities have pointed out that there is a national shortage of trained psychotherapists. Professor Louis Appleby, National Director for Mental Health, welcomed the Nice recommendations as a "thorough and comprehensive guideline".

He said: "Talking therapies are essential components of effective mental health services. "We know that not everyone who needs treatment is able to access it easily or quickly and expertise and services are not equally distributed around the country."

Prof Appleby said more than £300 million was being invested by the NHS and local authorities into child and adolescent mental health services. "These resources are going towards providing more staff, better services and faster and easier access to those services around the country."

Nic Fleming, Medical Correspondent
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/28/npills28.xml


Cadets help kids write with stylus

Ask 5-year-old Caroline Lewis to connect the dots on a piece of paper and she might make jerky scribbles across the sheet in a disinterested manner. But offer her a stylus and a computer screen, and suddenly she’s engaged in learning — even wanting more.

Cadets at the Air Force Academy have developed a software program designed to help disabled and developmentally delayed children like Caroline learn to write by using a system that sustains their attention.

The learning program is the pilot project of a nonprofit organization at the academy called FalconWorks, which seeks to create technological projects that aid the community.

The program seems simple, but the hope is it will lead to profound results.

Over and over, Caroline used the stylus to drag a baseball in a straight line down the screen into a glove. Her reward for mastering the skill: a computerized cheer along with the opening bars to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

“On the computer, she’s getting so much feedback,” said Katie Zellmer, an occupational therapist who works with Caroline at Woodmen-Roberts Elementary in Academy School District 20.

“This is giving us another mode to teach paper and pencil,” she said. “Lines are the first step in learning to write.”

Caroline, who has language and motor difficulties, can write a few letters in her name — the c, l and i — but has problems with the others, said her mother, Shannette Lewis.

The system Caroline used, called PointScribe, now includes just two learning games. One is the baseball and glove. In the other, students follow a diagonal line that plops a goldfish into a fishbowl and, although de- signed by Air Force cadets, plays the Navy’s “Anchors Aweigh.”

FalconWorks hopes to upgrade the software to include shapes and letters.

In addition, it has applied for a $96,000 grant from the El Pomar Foundation in hopes of supplying two laptops to each school district in El Paso, Teller, Arapahoe and Douglas counties, said Air Force Maj. Duncan Stewart, chairman of the FalconWorks board of directors.

If the grant materializes, FalconWorks then hopes to conduct studies to measure student progress and eventually license the software, using royalties to pay for future projects, Stewart said. One of the project ideas on the table: a computerized exoskeleton to assist those with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease.

Stewart came up with the concept for PointScribe during a meeting with teachers and therapists about his own daughter, Alexis, who has cerebral palsy.

When the talk centered on having Alexis, now a first-grader, connect dots on paper to improve her motor skills, Stewart remembers thinking, “Wow, that sounds very boring.”

He started connecting the dots in his own mind of how to sustain his daughter’s interest and thought of how she loved the computer.

On a good day, Alexis would pay attention to a pencil and paper for maybe a minute. On her first try with PointScribe, she was captivated for a full 15 minutes, he said.

“They get engaged and they lock on,” he said.

The program is designed to help children with attention deficit disorder, autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and other conditions that may affect visual attention.

Until Tuesday, Matt Hellier, one of the cadets who wrote the software for PointScribe, had never seen it used by a student.

“I thought it was pretty cool,” he said after watching Caroline. “She looked a lot happier at the computer than when she was using paper.”

Cary Leider Vogrin, The Gazette
September 29, 2005
http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1310846&secid=1


FDA Issues Alert on ADHD Drug Strattera

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Thursday that the drug Strattera, which is used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), may prompt suicidal thoughts in children.

The agency directed the drug's manufacturer, Eli Lilly & Co., to add a black box warning -- the most serious alert -- to the medication's label. Lilly will also develop a patient medication guide.

The warning followed an analysis of a dozen clinical trials involving Strattera. About five patients reported suicidal "ideation," or thoughts. One participant attempted suicide, the FDA said.

"The signal is really for ideation," said Dr. Thomas Laughren, director of the FDA's division of psychiatry products. "The concern is that ideation is related to attempts and ultimately completed suicides, so we think it's something that clinicians and patients need to be alerted to so that the patients who are treated with this drug can be observed fairly closely."

"FDA still considers Strattera an effective medication that should be part of the armamentarium that can be used and should be used," Laughren added. "We think that this new information will make it possible to use it in a safe manner."

"The real issue is that suicidal thoughts are common, if not normal, in teenagers," said Dr. Harold Koplewicz, director of the New York University Child Study Center. "Nineteen percent of teenagers report that they have suicidal thoughts. Thats about one in five. Also, the linkage between suicidal thoughts and suicide is tenuous at best. While 19 percent of American youth are thinking about suicide, .008 percent actually commit suicide."

This is not to say that prescribing psychiatric drugs should be taken lightly, he added. "This is another indication that psychiatric medication cannot be given without thought, without an evaluation, without a diagnosis and, most importantly, without monitoring," Koplewicz stressed. "That doesn't mean that every child and adolescent that gets it has to get it from a child and adolescent psychiatrist, but it does mean that pediatricians and primary-care physicians need to be aware that there is some risk."

Strattera is approved in the United States to treat ADHD in children, adolescents and adults. As many as five of every 100 American children may have ADHD, according to federal estimates. Boys are three times more likely than girls to have the condition. Strattera, on the market since 2002, it has been used by more than 2 million patients.

ADHD medications are amassing a complicated history. In February, Health Canada ordered Adderall XR off the market after reports of sudden cardiac death in 20 patients. The FDA, however, only required the manufacturer -- Shire Pharmaceuticals Group -- to update Adderall's label.

In July, an FDA advisory committee considered, but ultimately rejected, labeling changes for a class of stimulants called methylphenidates that includes Ritalin and Metadate. Panel members also suggested that the FDA wait to make any changes until more safety data had been collected on two other types of drugs used to treat ADHD -- amphetamines such as Adderall and Strattera, a non-stimulant.

The review of psychiatric adverse events in Strattera and amphetamine products was not scheduled until early 2006.

The Strattera information came out earlier, largely because of recent controversy over the use of antidepressants in children. Last year, the FDA asked all antidepressant manufacturers to add a black-box warning to their products prescribed for children.

"Strattera has some pharmacological similarities to antidepressants and, because of that and our concern that there might be a signal lurking there, we asked the company in December of last year to do a similar search of their database to look for suicidality," Laughren explained.

That report came in several weeks ago, and was the basis for Thursday's warning.

In the review of 2,200 patients, 1,357 of whom were taking Strattera, researchers found that 0.4 percent of the children taking the drug reported suicidal thinking, compared to no cases in children taking a placebo. There was also one suicide attempt in the Strattera group, the FDA said.

"The absolute risk of emergent suicidality in this database is quite low. We're talking roughly four per 1,000 treated patients," Laughren said. "Very few individual patients would be expected to have emergent suicidality based on this analysis. But, from a public-health perspective, when you're talking about tens or hundreds of thousands, that could be a large number of patients. We don't know exactly what the signal means."

The black-box warning and patient medication guide, which will focus on ideation but also include mention of the suicide attempt, are expected to be completed within a few weeks. "We expect to resolve this quickly," Laughren said.

Amanda Gardner, Health Day Reporter
HealthDay News
September 29, 2005
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/09/29/hscout528251.html


Bilingual preschool programs expand

McKINNEY – Miriam Garcia's young students can't read the "Super Job" stamp in her hand, but they seek the mark of encouragement on their art projects.

"I told them that it means muy buen trabajo, or very good job," Ms. Garcia said, laughing as 22 children flooded her with their latest creations.

Ms. Garcia and her assistant work with 43 4-year-olds every day and are used to being in high demand in their bilingual pre-kindergarten classroom at Caldwell Elementary School in McKinney.

"When I started six years ago, I had 15 kids," Ms. Garcia said, smiling as she gestured to her full classroom. "This is just beautiful."

State law requires that classes like Ms. Garcia's be available to preschool-age students who don't speak English. If there is the demand in a school district, schools are required to provide instruction.

That demand is growing quickly in Texas.

The number of 4-year-olds in bilingual pre-kindergarten classes funded by the state soared nearly 60 percent in six years, to 55,000 students during the last school year.

Suburban and urban districts are scrambling to hire bilingual teachers and open new classes. Many students still wait for open seats.

Some northern suburbs with historically little demand for bilingual pre-kindergarten are seeing the sharpest growth.

"I knew we would be bigger this year, but I never predicted it would grow this much," said Jennifer Hulme, the coordinator of special programs in Allen.

The Allen school district opened its first bilingual classes this year.

The two classes now hold a combined 36 students.

Frisco schools had 30 pre-kindergarten bilingual kids last year, and the district opened two additional classes this year.

Alicia Richmond, the district's director of special programs, said finding highly qualified teachers is a challenge.

"Having the early childhood and bilingual certification certainly is a rare find," she said.

In McKinney, the bilingual program reached capacity this year with 88 students, leaving several kids on a waiting list. Though the district plans to open another class soon, officials know they face a tough task finding a teacher.

"It's hard to find bilingual teachers anyway, regardless of what grade, but it's even harder to find teachers who are certified in early childhood and bilingual," said Sheila Sherman, director of bilingual services in McKinney. "It's nearly impossible."

Waiting in Dallas

Several hundred children remained on waiting lists for pre-kindergarten last year in Dallas. The Dallas Independent School District has opened 33 bilingual classes this year to accommodate those students.

But many children are still on waiting lists.

Beth Steerman, executive director of the district's early childhood center, said the staff is working to find spots for as many kids as possible.

"Will it be 100 percent? No. I couldn't tell you if it's going to be 100 or 300 [on the waiting list] right now. But I'm going to tell you it's much better than it has been."

The Dallas district's bilingual pre-kindergarten program has grown about 20 percent in four years, to nearly 4,500 kids.

While most districts operate half-day programs, Dallas runs many full-day classes under a grant program from the Texas Education Agency. Ms. Steerman said those grants have been cut twice in recent years, preventing the district from expanding its offerings.

Last year, the district received nearly $4.8 million for the full-day sessions. This year, it expects to take an $80,000 cut.

"We're getting there in terms of serving the children who are eligible," Ms. Steerman said.

The Arlington school district, which saw its bilingual pre-kindergarten program grow 60 percent in four years, hasn't applied for the full-day grants because it doesn't have the space, according to Carole Hagler, director of pre-kindergarten services.

Garland schools have opened two early childhood centers this year, partially to accommodate the district's 900 bilingual pre-kindergarten students.

Statewide growth

Bilingual pre-kindergarten programs are also expanding elsewhere across the state – in part because more people are finding out about them.

"Communities are becoming more aware that the earlier you introduce kids to school, the better," said Dr. Leo Gomez of the Texas Association for Bilingual Education.

In most programs, students spend practically all day learning in Spanish. The idea is to build the student's Spanish skills to help them learn English.

"A solid foundation in pre-k is going to help children get off on much better footing and be able to compete," said Ms. Steerman of DISD. "We approach it as dropout prevention in its truest form."

Critics and fans

Not everyone agrees with bilingual education.

Ron Unz of English for the Children, a group that successfully lobbied to end bilingual education a few years ago in California, said pre-kindergartners would learn better in English.

"The younger the child, the easier it is to learn English," Mr. Unz said. "If you teach them English in pre-k, they'll learn it even easier than they would at 6 or 7 years old."

Nonetheless, bilingual pre-kindergarten programs show no signs of stopping or slowing in Texas.

McKinney resident Linda Herrera said she could not imagine putting her children in an English program. Her son's skills, she said, improved tremendously after a year of bilingual pre-kindergarten.

"He learned a lot," Ms. Herrera said as she recently picked up her daughter from bilingual pre-kindergarten. "But mostly his vocabulary improved."

Serving these young students pays off in the future, said Dr. Joseph Lopez, the director of special programs for Garland ISD.

"We're trying to eliminate the student achievement gap, which is really the challenge before us," he said. "People who don't finish school successfully, they're not going to just roll up and die. They're going to exist one way or another. It's a very serious issue."

KAREN AYRES, The Dallas Morning News
E-mail kayres@dallasnews.com
October 3, 2005
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/DN-prek_03cco.ART0.North.Edition2.94d7451.html


Study: Ex-military often make better teachers

Principals across the country say teachers who come from a military background often outperform those who enter teaching straight from college, according to a study by an Old Dominion University professor.

Locally, teachers from the military attribute their success in the classroom to determination and discipline, maturity and experience.

“The military teaches you flexibility, and it teaches you to be resourceful,” said Charles DeFoore , 55 , a former Navy flight officer who teaches math at Green Run High School in Virginia Beach. “A guy with a military background is going to be determined to figure out a better way to do things and get kids on his side.”

William A. Owings , the chief author of the study, summed up the findings this way: “If I were still a superintendent, I’d try to contact every Troops to Teachers person I could.”

The study surveyed about 875 principals about graduates of the federal Troops to Teachers program, which provides grants to military personnel who return to college to go into teaching.

The study asked principals to compare Troops to Teachers graduates with other teachers with the same level of teaching experience.

Overwhelmingly, the principals favored the teachers who came from the service.

Sixty-seven percent, for instance, said they were “better prepared to teach” than their peers; 72 percent said ex-military teachers dealt better with parents.

The Troops to Teachers program, which produces 50 to 80 teachers a year in Virginia, is not the only avenue for military personnel to enter teaching. The state does not track the number of teachers from the military, said Thomas A. Elliott , Virginia’s assistant superintendent for teacher education and licensure.

“We have had great success with people who had former military service, and they weren’t necessarily those from the Troops to Teachers program,” said Jerry F. Deviney , the assistant superintendent for high schools in Virginia Beach.

“Generally, they’re different from getting a 21-year-old that just graduated from college,” said Irene B. Newsome , principal of Camp Allen Elementary in Norfolk, who counts three of four ex-military teachers she’s employed as strong. “They’ve got maturity and resources because they have a lot of experiences.”

Teachers who retired from the military usually receive a pension, minimizing their concerns about salary.

“It’s not based on economics,” said George F. Gabb , a retired Medical Service Corps officer for the Navy who teaches science at Great Bridge Middle in Chesapeake . “That’s not the driving force for us. The driving force is something else: We want to give back.”

They say they also bring plenty of useful traits to the classroom: a sense of discipline, a refusal to surrender, an armor of self-confidence.

“I know I can stand up in front of a group of people like that and actually give them direction and speak with authority,” said Mark A. Clemente , 41 , a former surface warfare officer in the Navy who teaches chemistry at Ocean Lakes High. Clemente was named Teacher of the Year in Virginia Beach in 2003 .

“The military teaches you to deal with a variety of personalities and how to motivate them, and I utilize that in the classroom,” said Otmar R. Guzman , 53 , a retired chief aviation boatswain’s mate who teaches special education at Norfolk’s Lake Taylor High.

“You have some personalities that need coddling, so you do that,” said Guzman, who was the school’s Teacher of the Year in 2001 . “You have some personalities that need direction. And then you have some that require a little bit of sternness.”

Don Deliz , 59 , a special-ed teacher at First Colonial High in Virginia Beach, said he needed to learn that a few habits couldn’t carry over.

“I had to have more patience,” said Deliz, a retired lieutenant commander in the Navy. “In the military, you have to make quick decisions. When you’re working with young people, sometimes you back off a bit and see where it’s going; let the kids figure out some things themselves.”

What Deliz doesn’t avoid is his life experience. When he taught about the Vietnam War, he gave his students a first-hand account: He served there. Not the gruesome parts, but some vivid details, such as the searing heat, which sometimes surpasses 100 degrees.

Suzanne Denbow , a 16-year-old junior , was impressed by another ex-military teacher she had for world studies at First Colonial.

“He had a way of enforcing the rules without making people hate him,” Suzanne said. “There was something about him; you just wanted to please him. He just had a presence about him.”

And, no surprise, these teachers follow the rules – a pleasure for principals.

“When there is a concern or a problem, they know the channels to go through, where some people would call anybody for anything,” Newsome said. “If I say, 'You need to check with our grade chairs for this, this and this,’ they tend to always do that.”

Many military personnel, though not all, go through “alternative certification” programs, which sometimes truncate the number of required education courses. But Owings, the study’s chief researcher, said the study should not be interpreted as an endorsement of such programs.

Alan A. Arroyo , the dean of education at Regent University, doesn’t consider the study a slap against traditional teacher preparation.

“I think it’s quite likely that Bill Owings’ conclusion is correct,” he said. “But it’s about the people. It could be more the maturity of the individual than the training program.”

The report, Owings said, was commissioned by the Troops to Teachers program, operated by the U.S. Department of Defense . But he said the research was done independently.

The study does not look at student test scores. It includes responses from more than 1,200 Troops to Teachers graduates, who report high levels of satisfaction with their training and jobs.
But Jeff Cobb , a Virginia Beach teacher who is vice president of the Virginia Education Association , said many Troops to Teachers graduates who are members of the teachers group “wish they had received more training and are relying very heavily upon the advice of teachers who have gone through four-year programs plus graduate school.”

Their success, Cobb said, “is, in large measure, due to the support of their colleagues who have been in the profession.”

Most of the teachers Owings surveyed said they plan to remain in teaching as long as they can , and 55 percent specialize in fields short of teachers, such as math, science and special education.

“From a financial standpoint,” said Owings, a professor of educational leadership , “it makes a lot of sense to have a Troops to Teachers person.”

PHILIP WALZER , The Virginian-Pilot
Reach Philip Walzer at (757) 222-5105 or phil.walzer@pilotonline.com
October 3, 2005
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=93054&ran=164397


Turn On, Tune Out, Get Well?
Researchers Test Video Games' Potential to Speed Kids' Healing

How do video games affect child health? By fueling violence, shrinking attention, promoting obesity and dulling interest in academic pursuits, if their critics are to be believed. But some physicians, psychiatrists and public health experts see a more positive side: They're betting electronic games can be adapted as tools to ease medical treatments, improve patient outcomes and boost fitness and knowledge for users young and old.

Government agencies including the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Office of Naval Research and other branches of the Department of Defense are placing bets of their own, funding the development of health-related video games.

Some of those projects and others were on display recently at the second annual Games for Health conference at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. Between lectures, participants crowded into two windowless rooms for a first-hand look. In one, they could test themselves on the Kilowatt, an isometric exercise device in which players use body strength to interact with scenes on a video screen -- for instance, muscling a car around a race track. In another room, attendees donned a virtual-reality helmet for a simulated plunge into FreeDive, a fantasy underwater world meant to distract pediatric patients from pain or anxiety.

In an age where so much of life revolves around a computer, a cell phone or a personal digital assistant, advocates of so-called serious video games see their potential to reach many more Americans.

"The medium has matured to the point where enough people understand and use [electronic video games] that we can now put them to other uses than just entertainment," said Ian Bogost, a founder and partner in Persuasive Games, an Atlanta-based company that designs and builds video games geared to learning and social change.

So far the market for serious games is puny -- maybe $50 million, compared with the $7.3 billion spent annually worldwide on commercial games, said Ben Sawyer, co-founder and co-director of the Games for Health Project, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. New applications like FreeDive, which is being developed for what is essentially a new market -- hospitals -- could change that.

The first hurdle for game designers: coming up with a concept that's not just beneficial but engaging. The next challenge: amassing proof that the games can help patients. That requires researchers to study the games -- as they are doing at places like the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the New Jersey Medical School in Newark.

While parents might fret at a child's immersion in Nintendo or Xbox or PlayStation, a game's almost hypnotic appeal can help distract a child about to receive anesthesia or have dialysis or chemotherapy. Terry Spearman, team leader for child life services at the Children's National Medical Center, said distraction -- through games, music, storytelling and relaxation methods -- is a well-documented technique for helping children manage anxiety and fear in the hospital.

Video games "sound like another, higher-level form of distraction," said Spearman. The game categories being developed include:

· simulated- and virtual-reality games being used to treat phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder;

· " exergames," which invite participants to exercise while playing; and
· learning games, which teach about a health condition or distract children from painful procedures.

One of the best-known exergames is Dance Dance Revolution -- in which users follow with their feet cascading arrows on a video screen. Players can free-form dance, compete or track calories expended, to a variety of music.

Sawyer predicts an upcoming Sony entry -- the EyeToy Kinetic -- will push the genre further into the mainstream. Developed with Nike and designed for the PlayStation 2, the Kinetic will let users kickbox or practice yoga, among other things, in simulated environments.

Among the specifics discussed at the meeting:

· Ben's Game. A few years ago, 8-year-old gamer and leukemia patient Ben Duskin of San Francisco wanted a game that would let him pretend to fight the cancer cells invading his body. The Greater Bay Area Make-A-Wish Foundation linked Ben with LucasArts, the game-developing arm of George Lucas's Star Wars sci-fi empire. Out of the connection came Ben's Game. To play it, kids can choose among pre-drawn characters -- a boy, girl, dog or alien, for instance -- or create their own on-screen surrogate.

They skateboard through a minefield of animated cancer cells, trying to guard their stores of "Health," "Ammo" (medicine) and "Attitude," while zapping disease cells and acquiring shields to protect against seven monsters, including Fire (fever), Cue Ball (hair loss), Snow (chills) and Vomit. When all seven shields have been acquired, fireworks and an animation celebrate the achievement.

Having Ben help with the design ensured that kids would want to play, said Eric Johnston, a senior software designer at LucasArts. Johnston said it was challenging to create a game where the main character did not "die" -- standard video game-speak for lose. Now 11 years old and living in Missouri City, Tex., Ben is in remission.

A free download of the game is available at http://www.makewish.org/ben. Since Ben's Game was introduced 18 months ago, the game has been downloaded 172,000 times, said Johnston.

- Use of a handheld video game to reduce kids' anxiety before anesthesia. Anuradha Patel, an anesthesiologist at the New Jersey Medical School, has been experimenting with giving children GameBoys or Nintendos to play on their way to the operating room. In a 78-patient study, Patel found that children who played with the games had markedly less anxiety -- a 71 percent drop from baseline -- than those who had their parents with them (29 percent decrease) or those who were accompanied by their parents and received a sedative (30 percent decrease).

Previous studies have shown that children who have less anxiety before surgery recover more quickly and have fewer behavioral problems later.

FreeDive

The program, in early-stage development by BreakAway Ltd. of Hunt Valley, Md., is designed to be shown on a conventional computer, with or without a virtual-reality helmet. With the helmet on, kids dive through a 3-D seascape while ambient music -- and the periodic sounds of breath through a scuba respirator -- is piped in through the earphones. Kids use a joystick to move around, searching for buried treasure. Lynnda Dahlquist, a psychologist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is testing to see whether children who use the game are better able than others to ignore pain.

- A virtual reality program to help soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan work through post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The program, being developed by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, is in clinical testing. Controlled re-creations of traumatic events have been used for decades to help patients overcome stress reactions, said Commander Russell Shilling, a program officer in the Naval Warrior Applications Division at the Office of Naval Research.

A therapist will control the environment -- whether it's dark, light, raining or sunny, for instance -- while helping the patient slowly revisit the scene of the trauma. The program will eventually incorporate smells -- from rotting bodies to burning rubber, said Shilling. Therapists will be able to closely monitor patients' physiological responses to help gauge the program's impact.

Spencer Eth, a professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College, said data show that this type of re-exposure to traumatic events can work. But many stop therapy because "some patients become so distressed in their symptomatic response that they actually get worse," said Eth, who helped write the American Psychiatric Association's guidelines for treating PTSD. ·

Alicia Ault, The Washington Post Company
October 4, 2005
Alicia Ault is a frequent contributor to Health.
To comment on the story, email health@washpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/30/AR2005093002000_pf.html


How young is too young?

Early diagnosis could give children a head start in therapy, but some infants outgrow behaviors.

When Pam Lyle's daughter Hailey was 13 months old, she suddenly lost her ability to speak and began retreating into her own world.

Two months later, Lyle brought her to Yale University's Child Studies Center in Connecticut, where she got a diagnosis that is unusual for a child that young: autism.

Now, after 2 1/2 years of intensive in-home treatment, Hailey makes eye contact and recently has learned to use pictures to communicate — an outcome the Orange, Conn., family attributes to her early diagnosis.

Many specialists say autism isn't identifiable in most children until at least 18 months of age, when the behaviors that are the common hallmarks of the disorder are more apparent. While there are no statistics on average age of diagnosis, many children aren't diagnosed until age 3 or later. But thanks to studies showing that preschoolers often respond better to treatment than do children diagnosed at earlier ages — as measured by gains in language and IQ scores — specialists are exploring whether children diagnosed at even younger ages might fare even better.

Several studies, including research in Canada and at the University of California, San Diego, have tied the eventual diagnosis of autism to attributes observed in infants as young as 6 months of age. Autism specialists around the country say parents are increasingly bringing in toddlers and infants — some as young as 4 months — for evaluation.

At the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, director Rebecca Landa says it once was rare to see even a toddler, but now the clinic sees "a minimum of one baby a week."

Yale University's center is seeing a child younger than 18 months every few weeks, says director Fred Volkmar. And researchers are eager to see these youngest patients. Whereas many families must wait a couple of years for an appointment at Yale, children younger than 2 can get in to see a specialist in the time span of a few weeks to a couple of months.

ON THE RISE

Autism, a little-understood condition marked by social withdrawal, repetitive behaviors and poor communication skills, is believed to be the fastest-growing developmental disability.

There are varying theories as to why autism is on the rise, from the use of mercury preservatives in childhood vaccines to increased awareness driving more diagnoses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta estimates about 24,000 children are diagnosed annually, and that as many as 500,000 children in the U.S. have the condition.

Some experts are skeptical of efforts to diagnose autism in infants and toddlers in clinical practice. Autism typically is diagnosed once a child exhibits a certain number of behavioral symptoms, such as not making eye contact. With very young children there is a wide range of behaviors that could be considered normal. It can be hard to tell whether a behavior such as a lack of sociability in an infant is truly a symptom or just means the child hasn't yet reached a certain developmental level.

"I don't know how you diagnose autism in a 12-month-old," says Sally J. Rogers, psychiatry professor at the University of California-Davis's M.I.N.D. Institute.

Even assuming autism can be identified in such young children, there is little research on what treatments might be appropriate. For children roughly 3 years of age and older, the main treatment for autism is intensive structured teaching of skills for many hours a week. Specialists who see infants and toddlers must experiment with adapting therapies for younger patients.

Only a few specialists are willing to diagnose infants and toddlers, and they typically offer a "provisional" diagnosis, acknowledging that the situation may change.

The hope is that by identifying autistic symptoms in children when their minds are the most pliable, doctors could find something tantamount to a cure.

"The brain systems responsible for social engagement and speech perception are really developing between birth and age 2 very rapidly," says Geraldine Dawson, director of the Autism Center at the University of Washington in Seattle, who says she has worked with a 7-month-old child who exhibited autistic symptoms.

TREATMENT

The drive to diagnose children in infancy is unrelated to the theory that vaccines later in childhood are to blame for autism. The immunization theory, Dawson says, focuses on children who develop normally initially but then lose their skills, which she estimates is about 25 percent of autistic children.

This new research is focused on identifying the remaining 75 percent who demonstrate symptoms very early on.

Specialists who evaluate infants point to a number of symptoms that could suggest trouble down the road. Even as early as a year, they say, most infants should be able to gesture, babble and interact with their parents. Parents of children diagnosed with autism often say they noticed differences even in infancy, when their babies showed little interest in engaging them or wouldn't look up when called.

Lisa Shulman, a specialist in infant/toddler autism at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center in Bronx, N.Y., points to one family whose only son was diagnosed at a year. The boy ignored his parents even when yelled at, didn't want to be touched, and was very focused on playing with spinning items like wheels.

Five months of treatment later, the child has improved so dramatically his parents are reducing his therapy and enrolling him in a mainstream preschool, says Shulman.

In cases of very young children and dramatic recoveries, some experts raise questions about whether the children were ever suffering from autism to begin with. And some researchers say they have observed children who appear to have autistic symptoms early on but later seem to grow out of them. Marian Sigman, a child-psychiatry professor at UCLA, co-authored a study looking at a group of 14-month-old siblings of autistic children who also had significant language delays (siblings are frequently studied, as they have a higher likelihood of developing autism themselves). The study found that most of these children were normally developing by 54 months.

SIGNS

Many specialists exploring early intervention point to research that links infants to autism. In late April, a study published by Canadian researchers found that kids later diagnosed with autism shared certain behaviors when they were younger — such as decreased activity levels at the age of 6 months and using fewer phrases and gestures at 12 months.

Another study published a couple of years ago by the University of California, San Diego, associated autism with small head circumference at birth followed by a sudden growth spurt before the end of the first year.

In a 2000 study, University of Washington researchers examined videotapes of babies ranging from 8 to 10 months of age and were able to distinguish those who would later develop autism in 11 out of 15 cases. The two symptoms that the babies tended to demonstrate the most frequently was a failure to respond to their names and lack of eye contact.

For her part, Lyle is grateful for the early diagnosis. If Hailey, now almost 4, hadn't been treated so soon, her mother says, she would have "become one of these children who sits in a corner rocking and banging her head on a wall."

Suein Hwang, The Wall Street Journal
http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051004/LIFE04/510040306/1093


Disabled kids 'written off' in ex-East Bloc

GENEVA – Many disabled children in the former communist countries of eastern Europe and Central Asia are being put in institutions, perpetuating the old Soviet practice of "child abandonment," according to a UNICEF report released yesterday.

Instead of integrating the children into general schools, these countries still employ a policy of "defectology," a leftover Soviet discipline in which disabled children are put in institutions that separate them from society and their families, said the study by U.N. Children's Fund's Innocenti Research Center in Florence, Italy.

"These children want to be given a chance to grow up in a family," said Maria Calivis, UNICEF's regional director.

Attitudes toward disabled young people are getting better in these formerly communist regions, but improvements in state support are lagging behind, the 64-page study said.

As of 2002, some 317,000 children in these countries lived in such separated institutions, a number largely unchanged since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the report found. By contrast, the rate of institutionalization in Western countries is up to three times lower.

"The prospect for these children is to graduate to an institution for adults and to face a pattern of denial of human rights," the study said.

The countries studied included eight former communist states that have since become members of the European Union – Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – and two others scheduled to join soon – Bulgaria and Romania.

The study also included Balkan states Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro, as well as former Soviet republics Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

"Although children with disabilities have become more visible since the beginning of (the post-communist) transition and attitudes towards them and their families are changing, many of them are simply 'written off' from society," said Marta Santos Pais, director of Innocenti.

Santos Pais said the "high rates of child abandonment" could be explained by these countries' outdated medical approaches and lack of alternative methods for dealing with disabilities.

UNICEF is calling for an end to the segregation of disabled children, suggesting instead an increase in social benefits to affected families and greater participation of parents in decisions affecting their children. "The reality is many parents feel they have no choice but to give up their children," Santos Pais said.

Some 1.5 million children in these 27 countries were registered as disabled in 2000, triple the number in 1990, the report said. However, the surge was largely the result of better recognition and registration of disabilities, rather than any actual increase in the number of children disabled.

There may be an additional 1 million disabled children in the region, Santos Pais said, but authorities often lump them together with the chronically ill or ignore them if they are from ethnic minorities.

Bradley S. Klapper, ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 6, 2005
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051006/news_1n6disabled.html


'No Child' Closes the Gap
Harder for Special Needs, Low-Income Students to be Left Behind

Ricki Sabia began volunteering to help children with disabilities when she was in high school on Long Island. She went to college at Georgetown University and law school at the University of Maryland. When her second son, Stephen, was born in 1992 with Down syndrome, her youthful interest became a major focus of her life. She tried to do what she could to improve services for children with disabilities in Montgomery County, where she lived with Stephen; her older son, David; and her husband, Peter, a cardiologist.

It was often a struggleand led her to appreciate an unexpected ally, the federal No Child Left Behind law.

NCLB was not very popular with educators, particularly those whose schools were threatened with unattractive labels if their special education students did not reach the annual achievement targets under the law. But for Sabia, now associate director of the National Down Syndrome Society Public Policy Center, and other parents, the law was an effective tool precisely because it forced educators to try to do difficult things that, before the law, they could easily let slide.

NCLB slaps a "needs improvement" label on a school, and forces it to let students transfer and get them special tutoring if any of its student subgroups, including low-income children or children with disabilities, do not improve at the rate prescribed by the law and state authorities.

No child with a disability is a typical case. They are all different. The same goes for their parents. They have their own ways of making sure their children get a proper and useful education, and they have differing views of No Child Left Behind. So although there are limits to what we can learn from Sabia's story, I think it is worth telling because I so rarely address the special education issues that are vital to many parents. Also, Sabia has an interesting perspective on the frequent complaint that No Child Left Behind is an unnecessary and disruptive intrusion into the educational policies of states and school districts.

Sabia said her first experience dealing with the Montgomery County public schools came when she enrolled Stephen in a special program for infants and toddlers when he was 7 months old. "It became immediately apparent that MCPS was a bureaucratic maze that would challenge all my skills and take up much of my time and energy to navigate," she said.

If I had a dollar for every time the parent of a disabled child has said that to me about their first brush with the public schools, I could buy myself a decent suit.

"Our biggest battles with MCPS came when we wanted to have Stephen included in regular education classes at his neighborhood school," Sabia said. They ultimately succeeded without having to resort to the administrative appeals or lawsuits that ensnare other parents, "but it was a struggle to convince the school to take him and get MCPS to provide the aide support he needed, both of which he had a legal right to under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA]," she said.

Once Stephen started at Cloverly Elementary School in Silver Spring, she said, "his considerable charm, as well as appropriate aide support, won over the hearts and minds of the staff and students. He has always had a teacher request to have him in his or her class." The transition to Briggs Chaney Middle School, where Stephen is a seventh grader, also went well, she said.

When No Child Left Behind took effect, it had little impact on Sabia or her son because he already had access to regular classes and highly qualified teachers with high expectations.

"However," Sabia said, "I recognized that NCLB would institutionalize a process that would promote all these things for students with disabilities, whether or not their parents were in the position to advocate for them through IDEA."

"This is critically important," she said. "People always treated Stephen's academic success as evidence that he is extraordinary for a child with DS instead of recognizing that he is an ordinary child with DS--except in our eyes--who has had extraordinary opportunities to maximize his potential. The opportunities he has had will hopefully become commonplace under NCLB and then people will see that many kids with DS and other significant disabilities can learn and achieve much more than previously believed.

"At national conferences I have seen that some teachers and administrators are beginning to see that segregating students with disabilities in classes without access to the general education curriculum or highly qualified--content trained--teachers is partly to blame for the achievement gap," she said. "Unfortunately other teachers and administrators are spending more time fighting NCLB than they are spending on narrowing this gap.

"The biggest impact of NCLB may be a revolution in the way we talk about education for students with disabilities," she said. "The standard has always been an appropriate education which provides some minimal benefit or progress on IEP goals. We only heard 'world class' or 'state of the art' applied to general education. With NCLB, school systems will have to start applying those terms to students with disabilities if they are not to be left behind."

Sabia introduced me to other advocates for children with disabilities who support No Child Left Behind. Selene Almazan, an attorney for the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education, has a son with a reading disability attending a Montgomery County high school. She said she first had her doubts about the federal law, but has since concluded it is helping her get more students with disabilities into regular classes where, she said, they will make the most progress.

Almazan, in turn, sent me a factsheet drawn up by Diane Smith of the National Association of Protection & Advocacy Systems. It dissects what she considers to be several myths about the federal law.

To those who say the law requires children with disabilities to take tests they cannot pass and forces them out of school, Smith says "most children with disabilities are able to keep up with their peers academically and take standardized tests successfully, some with and some without accommodations" such as readers or extra time. She says there are already many exceptions allowing districts to remove children with disabilities from the accountability system, and the tests for such children can come in many forms, with many kinds of accommodations.

Sabia said she is not happy about the U.S. Education Department's willingness to give states and districts even more leeway in the accountability requirements for children with disabilities, because she thinks this will send many students back to classes where they will not have access to the general education curriculum.

One administrator in Montgomery County told Sabia it was fine if she wanted to put her child through all the stress of standardized tests, but other parents did not want that forced on them. She replied that "the assessments aren't nearly as stressful for students as it will be to graduate without the skills they need to go on to employment or post-secondary education. Students with disabilities face a lot of well meaning paternalism, but they are being protected from the wrong things."

It is a messy process, trying to improve schools with a federal law, and there are parts of No Child Left Behind that do not make much sense. But when parents who have struggled to find the right teachers for their children say the law has helped them do that, it is worth listening to them, and making certain that when the Congress and the bureaucracy try to adjust the law, they don't remove those pieces that work best.

Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
October 11, 2005
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2003/11/11/AR2005032304288.html


More kids may get to learn in 2 languages

More Seattle students soon may have a chance to learn the core subjects in both English and a second language.

That approach, known as "dual-language" immersion, is the hallmark of the popular John Stanford International School in Wallingford, which instructs students in English and either Spanish or Japanese. The school, home to the Seattle School District's only dual-language immersion program, last week was named the nation's best elementary school overall in the Schools of Distinction Awards competition sponsored by Intel Corp. and Scholastic Corp.

With high parent interest and research backing the effectiveness of dual-language programs, the Seattle School district is supporting efforts to expand their availability across the city, said Caroline Tamayo, the district's bilingual-program manager.

Pilot programs are under way at two schools, while preliminary discussions have begun at three others:

• Maple and Whitworth elementaries, both South End schools, have begun English-Spanish pilots this year. Whitworth is considering a program that would offer families a choice of immersion instruction in Spanish or an Asian language, such as Vietnamese, Mandarin or Tagalog.

• Two West Seattle schools, Concord Elementary and Denny Middle School, and Northgate Elementary are considering English-Spanish immersion programs next fall.

• A new coalition of schools on Queen Anne and in Magnolia calling itself Successful Schools In Action is working to establish a dual-language program in that cluster of schools.

Seattle School Board members have expressed disappointment that there is no established dual-language immersion program in the city's South End, where most of the district's bilingual students live.

"We only have one in the whole district. Portland, Ore., has 11, so we obviously have barely begun to offer this opportunity to students throughout the district," said board President Brita Butler-Wall, who is fluent in English and Swedish.

Research shows that students educated in their native language and another language develop academic skills on a par with, or better than, the skills of peers educated in only English-only classrooms. Studies also suggest that students with strong fluency in two languages develop higher cognitive skills than monolingual students.

Principals in South Seattle schools say they're pursuing dual-language immersion as a means to accelerate the achievement of their students who don't speak English as a first language, particularly Spanish speakers. Latino community leaders in April called on the district to provide their children with more access to dual-language instruction.

"I feel like a global model would attract new families, but our first priority is to take a look at how we deliver services to our bilingual children," said Scott Coleman, Whitworth's principal. This fall, at least 16 students in kindergarten will be taught in Spanish for half of their day, he said.

At Maple, principal Pat Hunter is starting with one kindergarten and one first-grade class.
"Our data was showing we weren't meeting the needs of our Spanish-speaking children," Hunter said.

Ed Jefferson, Northgate's principal, said his school is strictly gathering information on language immersion. "We haven't agreed to it as a complete staff yet," he said.

Dual-language programs are growing rapidly across the state, although they still serve only 1 percent of students who don't speak English. In 2002, there were five programs. Two years later, there were 36 dual-language programs in existence or being planned, according to a recent report by the state Office of Superintendent for Public Instruction.

Besides Seattle, the Eastern Washington school districts of Yakima, Wapato, Sunnyside and Grandview have three or more schools with these programs, according to the report.

Sanjay Bhatt, Seattle Times staff reporter
Sanjay Bhatt: 206-464-3103 or sbhatt@seattletimes.com
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2002555307_language12m.html


Special ed seniors now must pass exit exam

With Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of Senate Bill 586 last Friday, special education students statewide, regardless of their ability or disability, will, starting next year, have to pass the state's high-stakes exit exam to earn high school diplomas.The bill would have exempted seniors in the graduating classes of 2006 and 2007 with physical, mental or learning disabilities from the requirement to pass the California High School Exit Exam. The exemption would have given school districts an extra two years to put programs in place to help special education students pass the test.

Schwarzenegger's veto means that all of California's high school seniors ---- from the summa cum laude speech-making valedictorian to the blind and the severely emotionally disturbed students ---- must pass the exit exam to earn their diploma.

Schwarzenegger returned the bill, written by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, to the Legislature unsigned, saying it would send "the wrong message to the over 650,000 special education students in our state, the majority of which have the ability to pass the (California High School Exit Exam.)"

The exit exam is just one of three requirements for graduation in most districts across the states. Students must complete the required number of course credits, they must pass Algebra 1 and, as of this year, they must pass the exit exam.

The class of 2006 is the first senior class required to pass the exit exam as a condition of graduation. As the law is currently written, all students must pass the same test under the same conditions for the test to be valid.

For example, a learning disabled student who has been allowed extra time to take tests as a condition of his special education plan would still get extra time on the exit exam. But the exam and the results would be considered "invalid" and would not count as a pass.

The veto came as no surprise to local school district officials, who said they have been operating their special education programs under the assumption the governor wouldn't endorse any exit-exam exemption."

In reality, we're not planning on doing anything differently," said Suzanne O'Connell, the Carlsbad Unified School District's assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. "We are going to continue operating as if all kids need to pass the test."

Carlsbad Unified has about 30 seniors in special education who have not passed either the math or language tests, or both. About half of those students are new to the district, which has no proof that any of them passed the test before enrolling, O'Connell said.

The San Dieguito Union High School District, like Carlsbad Unified, Oceanside Unified and other North County school districts, have already put in place several measures to help shore up special education students and English-language learners who have not passed the test, said Margie Bulkin, San Dieguito's executive director of curriculum and instruction.

Those measures include required remedial classes during the regular school day, voluntary remedial classes after school, referral to adult education classes and referral to a new diploma program at MiraCosta College that does not require passage of the exit exam as a condition of graduation.

Romero's bill arose out of a class-action lawsuit filed against the state Department of Education, the California Board of Education, and Jack O'Connell, California's superintendent of education. The suit was filed by Juleus Chapman and other special education students.

Chapman, who is dyslexic, claimed that the exit exam was "not valid and discriminatory," said Melissa Kasnitz of Disability Rights Advocates, one of the attorneys who represented Chapman. Since the suit was filed in 2002, Chapman has graduated without taking the exit exam and is now attending college.

The state settled that suit out of court by agreeing to write legislation that would grant a waiver from the exit exam requirement for students with disabilities in the class of 2006.

Three possibilities now exist, said Carol Bartz, senior director of the North Inland Special Education Region with the County Office of Education. The issue may go away, though that is not likely to happen, she said. The Legislature could reconvene in January and pass a similar bill that limits the exemption to a single year. She said that in all likelihood, however, the question of exit-exam exemptions for special education students will wind up back in the courts.

Philip K. Ireland, Staff Writer
Contact Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or pireland@nctimes.com
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/10/13/news/top_stories/21_31_0510_12_05.txt


Just Don't Do It!
Are we teaching our kids way too much about sex?
Or not nearly enough?

Joshua Linen was a high school freshman when he announced, "Hey, Dad, they gave me an ATM card in health class today!" The card can't deliver a dime in cash, but his parents see it as invaluable in terms of Joshua's moral development. ATM in this case stands for abstinence till marriage. Expiration date: wedding day. For the Anaheim, Calif., father and his wife and for Joshua, now a junior, the high school's emphasis on abstinence is exactly right.

But for parents Ed Gold and Amy Robinson, who split their time between Charleston, S.C., and Washington, D.C., the card and the class that went with it are an absolutely wrongheaded way to teach teenagers about sex. "What if they can't just say no?" asks Robinson. "What if they are overwhelmed, or think they are in love, or their bodies overrule their heads? The reality is that children are having sexual experiences younger and younger. I don't understand the concept of not wanting the child to have all the available information. I don't think that's any way to make a child whole."

Etiquette says that to avoid an argument, one should never discuss politics, sex, or religion. And sex education is chock full of all three taboo topics; few discourses have made so many so mad. Still, the question remains: Are we teaching our kids too much about sex? Or too little?

The answer depends on whom you ask. Sex may be a private matter, but sex education is a public one, especially since it is taught in public schools with public funds. The debate over what to teach has ratcheted up in recent years, but the topic has been around for decades. The arguments have remained much the same, but the recommended curriculum has flipped, flopped, and flipped again. The passage of the Adolescent Family Life Act in 1981 gave money to educational programs that would "promote self-discipline and other prudent approaches." But during the '80s and early '90s, as AIDS became an increasing threat, sex ed became "comprehensive." Often taught by educators associated with Planned Parenthood, the classes covered contraception, disease protection, and much more. Then in 1996, as part of the Welfare Reform Act, Congress established a federal program to exclusively fund abstinence-only curricula. "The abstinence-only program really stirred things up," says Deborah Roffman, author of Sex & Sensibility: The Thinking Parent's Guide.

End results. California, Pennsylvania, and most recently Maine have chosen to turn down the money and teach what they want. In Franklin County, N.C., the school board ordered that three chapters be sliced out of the ninth-grade health book, including pages that revealed more than the abstinence-only state law allowed.

But that doesn't mean sex ed is the same the state over. Because one man's (or woman's) fancy may be too broad for one and too conservative for another, curriculum decisions tend to be made locally, sometimes in favor of the majority and sometimes to grease the squeakiest wheels. Current sexuality education curricula vary from graphic to limited, ranging from in-school comprehensive presentations by Planned Parenthood to abstinence-only courses, which often rely on outside lecturers who, critics charge, sometimes present the subject from a Christian point of view. Course content doesn't just differ from "red state" to "blue state" but also from "community to community and ultimately from classroom to classroom," says Monica Rodriguez, vice president for education and training at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, an organization that promotes sexuality education. Time is another variant. Some schools spend a total of two hours on sex ed; others, a full semester.

Granting that this is a topic fraught with dueling statistics and conflicting studies, the generally accepted figure is that only 15 percent of parents want an abstinence-only curriculum. Nonetheless, the movement has steadily gained momentum. Backed by many conservative churches, a vocal group of parents, dozens of conservative organizations, an impressively organized PR campaign, and, since 1996, more than a billion federal and state dollars, the unambiguous message that postponing sex until marriage is the only option is being delivered in 35 percent of public school districts in the United States. (If birth control is discussed in these classes, the focus is on failure rates.) An additional 51 percent of school districts teach abstinence-plus, a course in which chastity is the preferred and safest option but in which information about contraception as a way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases is also included. And 14 percent of school districts teach a comprehensive program that can include discussions on abortion, homosexuality, premarital sex, oral and anal sex, and masturbation.

Which means, says Roffman, that no one is doing enough. "We give young people the organ recital, and we do disaster prevention, but we don't do good work helping young people prepare for their adult lives."

The disagreement is deeply ingrained in religious beliefs and ideas that, although discounted by the medical profession, are held as truth. Some abstinence-only advocates say that discussing sex acts can inspire experimentation and fantasies that would otherwise not occur. Some charge that they promote homosexuality. And many point out that some of those practices are contrary to their religious beliefs. Stepping on anyone's religious beliefs is a problem for many Americans. But so is failure to teach according to the accepted science. "It reminds me of the evolution versus intelligent design theory being taught in science classes," says Christine Coleman, who is a member of Sex Etc., an organization for teens to give other teens correct information about sex.

Grass-roots abstinence organizations have advanced the movement and given abstinence a certain, if limited, cachet. Their video and live programs are as teen-friendly as MTV, encouraging teens to take a no-premarital-sex pledge or, if the teen has already had sex, to stop. Online, kids can "Take the Chastity Challenge" and join a local Pure Love Club. Purity rings, designed to be worn as a reminder to self and a proclamation to others, say virginity is chic, not geek. Some girls wear their belief not on their finger, or even their sleeve, but on their underpants. Among the slogans on WaitWear undies: "Virginity Lane. Exit when married," and "No vows. No sex." The worth-the-wait message was underscored by the well-publicized news flash that pop singer-actress Jessica Simpson waited until her honeymoon to sleep with her boy-band husband, Nick Lachey. And, says Libby Gray Macke, director of the Glenview, Ill.-based Project Reality: "When we bring in somebody like Miss America 2003, and she says, 'Part of the way that I got where I am today is abstaining from sexual activity, drinking, and drugs,' they love it! Teenagers are longing to hear it's OK to be abstinent." Even Princeton, a university that, like many others, has been known to give condoms to incoming freshmen, has the student-founded Anscombe Society, a club that promotes chastity until marriage.

Teaching the children. All that said, 1 out of 5 teens has intercourse before age 15, and, says a new study released by the National Center for Health Statistics, more than 50 percent have had oral sex. And, research shows, at least 75 percent of American parents want schools to take a comprehensive approach that covers abstinence along with birth control--including abortion, sexual orientation, how to use condoms, dealing with pressures to have sex, and emotional consequences. "We would not send our children to a book club without having them read the book," says Robinson. "Why would we send them into the world without information about sex? It makes the child so vulnerable."

Those who think the way Robinson does point to the tell-all programs and to Planned Parenthood's and similar websites as proof that knowledge is the power driving the teen birthrate down. The 30 percent drop between 1991 and 2002 is proof of their success, they say.

The pro-abstinence movement makes the same claim. Who's right? An Alan Guttmacher Institute analysis of the teen pregnancy rate between 1988 and 1995 showed that 25 percent of the drop was due to delayed onset of intercourse and 75 percent was because more sexually active teens were using long-acting, ultra-effective contraception. A Columbia University study by Peter Bearman showed that it is true that for some young people virginity pledges can be a protective factor. But it also found that 88 percent of middle and high schoolers who pledge to stay virgins until marriage end up having premarital sex anyway. The bad news is that they are less likely to use contraception the first time they have intercourse. As for students who get comprehensive sex education, they do not have sex earlier or more often, but, although they are reported to practice safe sex more frequently, both groups had the same rate of sexually transmitted infections.

Nor did the pledge do much to repaint the bigger picture. "Young people who have taken a virginity pledge do tend to delay the first intercourse but only by a few months," Rodriguez says. "And they engage in other riskier sexual behaviors like anal sex at a higher rate." Says Leslee Unruh, founder and president of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse: "The Bearman study is flawed. They got to the island but never got to the ocean. They never saw the whole picture."

Taking sides. The root of the sex ed problem, says Roffman, "is that we keep [talking about] it as if there is a right side and a wrong side. We're all on the same side: the side of supporting kids. If we abdicate our roles as adults, it will be media and peers that educate our kids."

Roffman believes kids need to know. She is in well-regarded company. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association have called for a program that includes abstinence, STD s, and the needs of gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth.

Abstinence-only is "catastrophe from a public-health point of view," says Joshua Sparrow, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and coauthor with T. Berry Brazelton of the bestselling Touchpoints. "Aside from pregnancy, there are so many diseases that are quite preventable--chlamydia and herpes are on the rise. If kids who chose abstinence waver but do not have information on how to protect themselves, that is a recipe for a public-health nightmare that is entirely preventable."

That extends to mental health. Research shows that 97 percent of public high school students say they hear antigay remarks regularly, and 80 percent of gay and lesbian students say they suffer severe social isolation. "The data has consistently found that gay and lesbian and bi teens have at least three times the rate of [teen] suicide and suicide attempts," says Ron Schlittler, deputy executive director at the national office of Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, adding, "The fact is, kids self-identify as gay or lesbian whether we like it or not." About 9 percent of high school students say they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning. "Gay kids--just as straight kids--are figuring out these new things that are happening in their heads and bodies," he says. "They need information."

"I didn't think homosexuality should be taught as something that is natural or the same as heterosexuality," says Michelle Turner, a Montgomery County, Md., mother of six. Last year, the county adopted a sex ed curriculum that included information about same-gender attraction and a film that demonstrated putting a condom on a cucumber. Turner and others objected so vehemently that they--encouraged by national supporters--formed a group called Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, took the school board to court, and won. The curriculum was dropped before it was ever taught. Reaching a national consensus on what should be taught seems unlikely.

What do teens want? Like their parents, teenagers have different notions of how much is enough. For a comparative few, abstinence-only classes are--or would be--something of a relief. "Had there been an abstinence-only course, I would have taken that," says John Maddrey, 16, a junior at Einstein High School in Kensington, Md. "To be in a class of people who do think like you think--the way you have been brought up by your family--to get that sense that you're not the only person like that would be a more comfortable environment."

Instead, he took a class that emphasized abstinence. Says Maddrey: "Our teacher always went back to, 'Yes there are these other means of birth control,' but she said they are always fallible. We had a speaker who told us the four types of sex--oral, anal, mutual masturbation, and sex--and told us the risks of all of them. Her concluding point was that abstinence was the best way to keep you healthy," he says, adding, "Homosexuality is a bit of a hot topic. We didn't really go into that. Had they gone into abortion, I would not have attended; I would make my own crusade."

While those wanting a comprehensive approach would feel shortchanged, Maddrey feels he could have done with less. "I'm a very intelligent individual," he says. "You can give me a pamphlet, and I can read it. I have already learned about condoms and birth control. The rest I can put together from TV, the Internet, current events, and what I read in the newspaper."

When Taylor Moore, 16, goes to abstinence-only classes in Chicago public schools and other venues, she's a speaker, not a student. "My message is sex is for marriage. They need to stay focused on their education, dreams, and ambitions," she says. "They will be sent a husband or a wife. God has already ordained that special someone. We don't have to go on the market."

Having done 95 speaking engagements so far this year, she is not worried about those who might think her message is too religious for a public school. "I'm not beating you over the head making you become a secondary virgin," says Moore. "They have to understand, abstinence benefits their future. They have the right to say, 'I'm going to throw my life away.' That's on them." Students listen to other students, she says. "Sometimes all they see [around them] is the booty shakin'. Then they see that I look hip but I'm not hootchy. I'm saying you can look good and be abstinent doing it."

But most students want more from their sex ed class than a just-say-no message. "I couldn't fathom only having covered abstinence," says Jeff Vautin, now 21 and a sound engineering major at the University of Michigan. "You don't have to be married to be in love." And he questions the longevity of some pledges. "It's hard to know at 15 where you are going to be. I don't know if that's something they can really maintain for six or 10 years. Better to be honest to your feelings and very conscious of the decisions you make rather than to say, 'I will not be sexually active.' "

Hunter Kincaid figured out that he was gay when he was in high school in Billings, Mont., and so did his peers, who carved "fag" on his locker. Like them, Kincaid took the abstinence-only class. "As a gay student, I thought it was ridiculous," he says. "Abstinence until marriage for people who can't even get married."

Max Mintz, 17, who like Christine Coleman is part of Sex Etc., thinks the sex ed question is a no-brainer. "Teens given a good education can make good choices. If they are denied the education, they can't," says the Metuchen, N.J., teen, who successfully persuaded his school to broaden its sex ed program.

Coleman believes a comprehensive approach is good for everyone, including the ATM teens. "It makes teens think a lot more and decide, 'Here are my options; here are my limits.' I think they should know how to take care of themselves. Everyone is eventually going to have sex." Her ideal sex ed class would include "a demonstration on how to use a condom; learning about heterosexual and homosexual relationships; different types of birth control; and the three different types of sex (oral, anal, and vaginal)--and you are going to need to know three different ways to protect yourself depending on which kind of sex you choose, including about oral dams and abstinence. You would learn about romantic relationships and about the different things you can do to prevent actual intercourse but still be romantic--like taking a bath together, sleeping in the same bed together and just cuddling, watching a romantic movie, or just being alone and discovering what they believe is romantic without being sexually active."

As for abstinence until marriage? "They should still have the opportunity to go for a test-drive," she says.

One of the few points on which all sides agree is that the best way for kids to learn about sex is from their parents. "Talk about sexuality openly and honestly from the beginning," says Sparrow. "Be the most important, reliable, trustworthy source of guidance for your child--not just giving the mechanics of reproduction but that part of caring about and understanding another human being."

Workable answers? The notion that schools could please all the parents all the time by offering both types of sex ed classes is an idea most experts say is not financially feasible--particularly since many parents would want something in between.

Many believe religious organizations should provide part of sex education, and many do, almost always in the context that sex should be saved for marriage. But some have a more comprehensive take, such as the Unitarian Universalist Church's OWL ("Our Whole Lives") program. "It's much, much more," says Pam Luttig, 47, who has two children in OWL. "Sexuality is bigger than sex. Just as important is relationships, intimacy, making decisions." Adds Unitarian minister Debra Haffner of the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing, "It's not just about sexual behaviors like making love and masturbation. It's about values, friendship, dating, marriage and committed relationship, sexuality, being safe, body anatomy, puberty, sexual language, unintended pregnancy options, defining and redefining abstinence." The first lessons are taught by trained teachers during Sunday school for 5-to-6-year-olds. "It's age-developmentally appropriate," she says. "We say all families are special without talking about a romantic, sexual attraction." In fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, the program introduces issues such as sexual orientation. We talk about values and respect. The next program--offered to seventh, eighth, and ninth graders--is 27 workshops."

The workshops, says Luttig's son Caleb Stoltz, 15, teach kids to think for themselves and about others. "They're not saying, 'You have to be abstinent or else.' They kind of say, 'Save it. It's worthwhile to do it with someone you love.' "

Roffman has come up with a plan that could be called comprehensive-plus. "One of the reasons the Christian right is so mad is that teachers are not allowed to talk about religion in school at all," she says. "That is absurd. Religion is a cornerstone of our society. We should say, 'We have to raise children in the world in which they are living, but we will insist that your religious views are heard.' " She adds, "Present the controversy while still giving the facts. Present it as part of your lesson. Say, 'Masturbation isn't harmful; some people do, some don't, and some religions believe it is a sin.' Better to say there are a range of beliefs and not pretend that there is only one point of view. "

Besides, Roffman notes, the world in which they live is brimming with information. "The same child that gets an abstinence-only education can go on the Internet and see not only the word; they can see sex." And the parents may never know.

Says Coleman: That kid "could be the unknown sexpert of the teenage world."

Katy Kelly, USNews.com
October 17, 2005
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/051017/17sex.htm


Special needs 'under-resourced'
Around half of head teachers believe some of their special needs pupils should be taught in special schools, a poll suggests

A survey - for the Times Educational Suplement - found a majority of heads and teachers believe the closure of special schools should be halted.

But 62% of teachers and 73% of heads felt most children with special needs should be in mainstream education.

Researchers surveyed 206 heads and 511 teachers.

Secondary heads were much more likely to have pupils they believe should be taught in special schools, the survey found - 65% against 31% of primary school heads.
And over half of secondary teachers said they taught at least one pupil who would be better off in a special school.

Inclusion 'ethos'

The survey's findings suggest broad support for the government's policy of including children with special needs (SEN) in mainstream schools.

But the survey suggests many teachers feel inadequately trained to teach them.

Over a third - 37% - had received no preparation during their initial teacher training course, and 23% said they had no more than one day's training.

Just 12% of heads and 36% of teachers said their school had adequate resources to include children with special needs.

Anna Hassan is head teacher at Millfields Primary School in Hackney, where 22% of children have special educational needs.

She says inclusion is based on a strong ethos and vision - coupled with flexibility.

"We plan for special needs, because the world is an inclusive place," she said.

"You can't isolate those children and have a 'them and us' situation."

The school has a unit where pupils with severe needs may be taught, but all SEN pupils are integrated in mainstream classes.

Mrs Hassan said it was important to consider the benefits to all children of interaction with children who have differing needs to their own.

"We all need to readjust, be flexible - and also courageous - to make a difference to these pupils."

But special schools provide her school with valuable support, she added.

Autism

Approximately half of all teachers questioned said children with autistic spectrum disorder should be taught in mainstream classes.

The National Autistic Society says inclusion only works where schools adapt to the needs of the child.

Amanda Batten, policy officer for children, said the NAS estimates there are 90,000 children with autism in the UK, but only 7,500 specialist places, including those within mainstream schools.

"Where inclusion works, there are real benefits to all children," she said.

"But the majority of children with autism are left to cope within mainstream classes.

"Where training and resources are not met, inclusion is totally undermined," she said.

Special schools play a key role in educating those with more complex needs and supporting other schools, she said.

A Department for Education and Skills spokesperson said there was categorically no policy to close special schools, and they were encouraged to share expertise with mainstream schools.

"The government sees a continuing role for special schools as part of an inclusive education system catering for children with the most severe and complex needs," he said.

In 2001, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act made discrimination against disabled or SEN pupils illegal.

BBC NEWS
October 14, 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/education/4341212.stm


A fifth of Seattle sophomores to become freshmen

An estimated 20 percent of Seattle high-school sophomores, part of the first class of students who must pass a state exam to graduate, won't have to take it this spring with their classmates after all.

In an effort to make sure students are ready for the 10th-grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning, the Seattle School District no longer will consider students sophomores unless they've earned at least five credits as freshmen, district officials said yesterday.

Until now, students were sophomores in their second year of high school, regardless of how many credits they'd earned.

A handful of other school districts have similar policies, said Steve Wilson, Seattle's chief academic officer, including Kent, which switched gears in 1999.

The change likely will mean that Seattle's WASL scores will increase, at least initially, because roughly 700 of the least-prepared students won't be taking the test this spring. But officials said the intent is to help students realize early that they need to improve.

The goal, Wilson said, is to make sure students have successfully completed the courses they'll need to do well on the exam.

"It is inappropriate for us to force kids to take the WASL before they're ready for it," he said.

Wilson announced the change yesterday at a School Board retreat as part of a bigger discussion about all the measures the district is taking to make sure sophomores have a shot at passing the WASL. Later in the meeting, School Board members made clear they strongly oppose the WASL as a graduation requirement.

This year's 10th-graders are the first group that must pass the exam to earn a high-school diploma. In high school, students take the WASL for the first time as sophomores, and if they fail, can retake it up to four more times. (The exam is given in earlier grades as well, but without the same high stakes for students.)

If the past is a guide, a majority of students won't pass on their first try. Last spring, 42 percent of sophomores statewide earned the required scores in reading, writing and math — the three subjects that are part of the graduation requirement. In Seattle, it was 35 percent.

Seattle's decision is based in part on statistics that indicate students who are short of credits don't do well on the WASL. Last spring, for example, 32 percent of Seattle students with four to six credits passed the reading section of the test, but the passage rate jumped to 79 percent for those with 7.5 to nine credits.

Students who take a full load of six classes per semester and pass all their courses earn six credits each year. Seattle requires 20 credits to graduate.

Seattle has not considered anything similar in earlier grades, Wilson said. A few districts across the nation have stopped what's called "social promotion," although there's a lot of research that shows holding students back hurts more than helps them.

When asked if the change might make more students drop out, Wilson said he's more worried about them dropping out if they take the WASL before they're ready and fail.

The change won't necessarily affect student participation in social activities with their chronological class. That would be left up to each high school, Wilson said. It also would not affect sports.

School Board member Irene Stewart praised the idea.

"My gut feeling is that this will be much, much better in the long run," she said.

Board member Sally Soriano, however, said she would like the change to be phased in more slowly.

Wilson said he has wanted to see this change since he was a principal in Seattle in the 1980s. Seventeen of the district's 18 high-school principals support it, he said.

"It's going to be a culture change in the schools," Wilson said. "But it's going to be a change that says accountability."

Phil Brockman, principal at Ballard High, said principals support the reclassification not because of the WASL but as a way to keep students on track to graduate.

"Some still think if they complete four years and are taking senior classes with friends, they're going to be able to walk at graduation, when that's not true," he said. If students fail classes and don't make them up through summer school or night classes, they don't graduate.

In the Kent School District, students who don't have enough credits to be a sophomore don't take the WASL, said spokeswoman Becky Hanks. They also aren't listed as sophomores in the school yearbook, she said, and can't attend sophomore class meetings.

Seattle officials said Shoreline, Tacoma, Central Valley, Central Kitsap, Clover Park and Puyallup have similar credit-based policies.

In Puyallup, however, district spokeswoman Karen Hansen said her district abandoned its policy about two years ago because it didn't work well.

"We found it was not a good policy and didn't help kids," she said. "We found they didn't make up the credits."

A spokeswoman for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction said her office would need to study Seattle's plan before making any comment on it.

Linda ShawSeattle Times staff reporter
Seattle Times staff reporters Sanjay Bhatt and Nick Perry contributed to this report.
Linda Shaw: 206-464-2359 or lshaw@seattletimes.com


Study: Overzealous filters hinder research

The internet-content filters most commonly used by schools block needed, legitimate content more often than not, according to a study by a university librarian. Her report was presented at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) conference in Pittsburgh last week.

Better communication between technology staff and classroom teachers is the key to ensuring that school and library internet filters, installed as part of a federal effort to protect children from inappropriate online content, do not preclude students from accessing legitimate educational materials, the new study found.

Presented Oct. 8, the study chronicles the difficulties confronted by two educationally diverse groups of English students assigned to conduct term-paper research with filtered internet access in a high school media center.

Using the experiences of this school as a typical example, the study's author, Lynn Sutton, director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, finds that internet filters are apt to block legitimate educational content. Tech-savvy students, meanwhile, argue that administrators should have more faith in their judgment and ability to deal with inappropriate content, and they blame the school--not their teachers--for prohibiting them from conducting sound, unbiased research, the report said.

The U.S. Department of Education estimates that 90 percent of K-12 schools today employ some sort of web filtering technology in adherence with guidelines set forth as part of the Children's Internet Protection Act, the five-year-old law that requires libraries to install filters or surrender federal funding, including eRate discounts on telecommunications services and internet access.

But, based on her findings, filters overstep their bounds in many cases, Sutton says. And, whether teachers simply are too busy to follow up with technology staff to request access to legitimate sites, or--worse--technology staff aren't responsive enough to the needs of classroom teachers, too often educationally useful sites aren't removed from these filters' block lists, despite the ability of administrators to remove them at the local level.

"Even at risk of losing federal funds, school districts should carefully consider whether filtering is necessary--or necessary at all grade levels," Sutton wrote. "If the decision is made to filter, communication among students, teachers, librarians, and technology administrators is critically important to minimize the negative effects of filtering."

Sutton, who conducted the study as part of a doctoral dissertation, wrote that students were "frustrated, annoyed, and angry" when blocked by internet filters in their schools, especially when attempting to access content sought in relation to classroom assignments.

As part of the study, Sutton interviewed two distinctly diverse classes of English students: an advanced rhetoric class and a basic composition class. Both had been assigned to conduct term-paper research using internet-connected computers in the school library.

Prohibited through a confidentiality agreement from revealing the name of the school she performed her observations in, Sutton could say only that it was a large suburban institution in Michigan with more than 1,500 students.

In almost all instances, she said, students experienced both "underblocking" and "overblocking" of online content. Underblocking, explained Sutton, is when inappropriate content somehow sneaks past the school's web filter. Overblocking is when legitimate educational content is blocked because it is deemed inappropriate by the technology.

"The majority of students felt that the school's internet filter hindered their work in doing internet research for their papers," Sutton wrote in her report.

In interviews conducted during her stint with the advanced rhetoric class, Sutton said, 12 of 14 students complained that the filters presented "a hindrance to their research."

"Students were upset that they weren't being given enough credit for how to handle these types of things," added Sutton, who said she received a similar response from students in the lower-level composition course.

In many cases, she said, students told her that much of the content they're prohibited from viewing in school they encounter in their daily lives, either at home or elsewhere. What's more, she found, when students can't access the information they need, many of them are savvy enough to get around the protections.

"Students in the study were adept at getting around the filters," she pointed out.

When confronted with a blocked web site, she said, students confessed to a number of tactics for getting to the content anyway. Depending on the technology, she said, students simply switched web browsers, changed their browser settings--or even waited until they got home to conduct their research.

"They would say, 'Why am I even doing this here?'" said Sutton. For students who have computers at home, she explained, sometimes it's just easier to find what they need online when the filters aren't an impediment to what they perceive as their academic freedom.

For students who don't have online access from home--or some other venue outside of school--the problem is more severe, she said.

"When you have a digital divide, some kids only have filtered access from school on a wide variety of issues"--from abortion, to sex education, to world history, Sutton explained, citing a common criticism of internet filtering. "The real problem," she added, "is that the school is only letting through one view of society that the school deems appropriate for children to see. And that ... is discrimination."

But that doesn't mean filters are useless, she said.

On the contrary, Sutton said, students in the basic composition course, while annoyed with the filters, also agreed they were necessary. In fact, eight of 13 students told her that despite the hindrance presented by web filters, the technology itself was needed to protect schools from the liabilities associated with allowing students to view inappropriate content, including online pornography and other lewd materials, while at school.

Instead, the problem seems to lie in how the technology is administered and applied.
It's a problem she attributes mainly to a lack of communication between administrators and busy classroom teachers, many of whom, she said, don't take enough time to understand how the filters work. In many cases, she said, teachers simply accept the technology as an inconvenience and don't actively work to solve the problem, which can be done to some degree merely by adjusting the filter settings.

"There was a significant disconnect between the district's technology administrators and the classroom, which resulted in an undercurrent of frustration and hopelessness at effecting change," Sutton wrote in her report.

During interviews with school technology staff, Sutton said, it became clear that a major problem with school-installed web filters isn't the technology itself, which can be adjusted, but rather that the school technology director often is not informed of the challenges faced in the classroom.

Too often, "the technology director just installs the filter," she said. "He isn't aware of the problems people are having. And no one ever tells him."

Aside from working with technology staff to adjust the filter settings so more relevant content gets through, Sutton suggested that teachers and administrators also poll their students for advice.

Students, she noted, are full of ideas. The students she interviewed for her report suggested that administrators and teachers work together to devise different filter settings for different age groups of students; that they use a filter for a trial period before purchasing it to make sure that it fits the needs of the school; that they consider installing pop-up blockers as an alternative to constrictive filtering devices; and that administrators consider giving teachers and librarians more control over the filters, perhaps allowing them to turn the devices on and off based on the nature of the project and the level of supervision afforded each individual student.

In then end, Sutton said, it's up to school leaders to decide "whether the filter is creating more harm than good."

Links:

American Association of School Librarians
http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslindex.htm

American Library Association
http://www.ala.org

Z. Smith Reynolds Library
http://www.wfu.edu/Library/

U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov

Corey Murray, Associate Editor, eSchool News
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=5911


'Virtual cafeteria' teaches good eating habits

To improve student health and enhance parent understanding, the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District (ISD) in Carrollton, Texas, has put $95,000 into developing a program to give parents, students, and other community stakeholders a new way to learn about the foods offered in its schools: a virtual cafeteria.

The Flash-enabled program, available to all stakeholders through the district's web site, allows parents and students to play what amounts to a nutrition orientation game--with a bit of low-level arithmetic instruction offered as gravy.

In the virtual cafeteria, Cathy, an animated cafeteria worker, stands behind the daily menu items with a static, maternal smile on her face. With the sound of a busy cafeteria buzzing in the background, Cathy's talking word bubbles offer comments such as "Good job! It looks like you know where to find vitamin A and vitamin C" when users place the soup and salad option on their lunch trays.

"We have had comments that Cathy doesn't say anything about bad food choices," said Rachelle Fowler, director of student nutrition for Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. "But there really are no bad choices; it's the combination in which the foods are consumed that is good or bad."

Parents and students can evaluate the school breakfast and lunch menus for the whole month for any school in the district.

Users place virtual food items on their trays with the mouse. A spreadsheet-like display at the bottom of the frame adds up the nutritional content of the breakfast or lunch as it progresses, taking into account each food item's caloric value, total fat content, sodium, vitamin C, carbohydrates, and so on. The cost of each item is displayed to the left of the screen, and the total is calculated as items are added to the tray, so parents can give their children exact change to take to school to further discourage the consumption of unnecessary calories.

The overall nutritional value of each food item placed on the tray also is evaluated in terms of a Texas Education Agency health program called CATCH, or Coordinated Approach to Child Health. CATCH is a statewide program "designed to promote physical activity, healthy food choices, and prevent tobacco use in elementary school-aged children."

"We were really just looking for a fun, interactive way to educate students about the nutritional content of the food we serve in the cafeteria," said Fowler.

"Even if we had the capability to force healthy choices on students in school, they're not always going to be in school," Fowler said. "We need to enable students to make healthy choices, and we need the parent-partner involved."

According to the American Obesity Association (AOA), about 30 percent of children ages six to nine are overweight. Half of those, or 15 percent, are considered obese. Overweight and obese children suffer from an increased disposition to such conditions as asthma, type-2 diabetes, hypertension, orthopedic complications, sleep apnea, and psychological effects and social stigma, the AOA says.

With the average weight of students increasing steadily over the past several years, Fowler said her district also has seen an increase in the number of students with special dietary needs.

"With the so-called 'obesity epidemic,' we're seeing a lot more diabetic students," Fowler said. "That's another way this tool can be used. This tool is a great way for students to better plan their diets. Parents can sit down with their children and plan their diets for the next day with this tool."

She added: "The virtual cafeteria takes the cafeteria home to the parents. Many parents are busy during the day; they don't have the time to have lunch with their kids. [With the virtual cafeteria], they can sit down with their children and help guide them in making choices about their diet."

The virtual cafeteria incorporates the CATCH program component called "Eat Smart." Foods are divided into "go," "slow," and "whoa" categories.

"Go" foods include fruits, vegetables, and foods that are healthy and full of vitamins and nutrients. "Go" foods contain the lowest amount of fat and can be eaten more often than "slow" or "whoa" foods.

"Slow" foods are higher in fat than "go" foods, but lower than "whoa" foods. "Slow" foods should be eaten less often than "go" foods, but more often than "whoa" foods.

"Whoa" foods contain the highest fat contents. "Whoa" foods are to be eaten sparingly.

A clock on the wall behind Cathy indicates the status of the food in terms of the CATCH system. When carrots are placed on the tray, the face on the clock disappears and is replaced with a green "go." When potato chips are dragged over, a red "whoa" appears.

Morgan Downey, president of the AOA, said he believes education is the key to treating children with weight problems and promoting healthy eating habits for all. Nutritional programs are of great value in schools, he added, given a recent history of budget cuts in the area of health education.

"Anything like [the Carrolton-Farmers Branch virtual cafeteria] that gets out [nutritional] information is helpful," Downey said.

The school district's virtual cafeteria was developed by Winning Habits Inc., a company that provides wellness solutions to large populations, usually corporations, public entities, and school districts that are concerned with the health of the population they are managing, whether employees or students.

"It's all about making healthy choices," said David Michel, founder of the company. "The answer to healthy nutrition in schools is not to take away bad choices, but to steer students toward making good choices."

He added: "The virtual cafeteria is really groundbreaking for us. We're placing the educational resource in the classroom for the kids, and parents can get online and help in planning [student] meals. The program is all data-driven; users can get the nutritional value themselves."

Meta Agnew, the parent of a student at Charlie McKamy Elementary, said that, although her high school-aged sons would rather choose their lunch items themselves, she and her fifth-grade daughter often visit the virtual cafeteria.

"My daughter is a picky eater anyway," said Agnew. "Using the virtual cafeteria makes her feel more in control. Sometimes I can help her make better choices. We're using it to learn about counting calories, fat, and putting together a balanced diet."

But it's unwise to read too much into early positive responses to a program such as the virtual cafeteria, Downey warned.

"Sometimes the people who use such programs are the people who need them least," Downey said. "They read nutritional information. They're health conscious; they're already on board. The others need to be led to it."

Still, all parties involved say the program has been well received by parents--and they're excited about the future of the virtual cafeteria.

"The enhancement ideas just keep coming," said Fowler. "One gentleman called and wanted to have the option of clicking on a food item and having a pop-up box come up and give the ingredients for that item."

Winning Habits, meanwhile, is betting that the virtual cafeteria will be a bankable success for its business.

"We've built the virtual cafeteria in such a way that it's reproducible for other districts," said the company's Michel. "We're happy to license it to them as well."

Robert Brumfield, Assistant Editor, eSchool News
October 12, 2005
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=5909

Links:

Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District
http://www.cfbisd.edu

Virtual Cafeteria
http://studentnutrition.cfbisd.edu/content/story.aspx?type=customcontent&sid=1034036

American Obesity Association
http://www.obesity.org

Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH)
http://www.sph.uth.tmc.edu/catch/

Winning Habits Inc.
http://www.winninghabits.com


Companies Are Offering Assistance To Parents of Kids with Disabilities

For years, David Bruesehoff hesitated to tell anyone at work about his daughter, Karissa, who has autism and Down syndrome.

At his company and many others, "it's the 'culture of the smart,' " the Dallas father says. "It can be hard when another parent is talking about his child getting into prep school, and your child's big accomplishment is getting on the bus to go to school."

A code of silence has long kept parents of children with disabilities, from autism and Down syndrome to cerebral palsy and depression, from talking about their kids at work. Now, driven by growth in their numbers and in the cost of raising special-needs children, some of these parents are starting to "come out" at work. And a handful of employers are stepping up to help, with support groups, informational meetings and insurance benefits.

The incidence of U.S. children and teenagers with a disabling condition has tripled to 7% from 2% in 1960, based on data published in 2000 in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, reflecting increased survival rates and a rise in the diagnosis of conditions such as autism. Today, an estimated one in 12 U.S. workers has a child with a disability or special need, says MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boston, which is conducting a five-year, federally funded project to examine workplace supports for these parents.

"Stigma and fear of reprisal" have kept many workers from disclosing their family situations, says Chris Fluet, director of the MassGeneral project.

The risks of speaking up are real: Soon after Kevin McGarry, Hyde Park, N.Y., started asking questions about insurance coverage for his disabled daughter on a previous job as a paralegal in the mid-1990s, his supervisor got upset and told him to stop asking for benefits. "They didn't want my health insurance company to get wind" of the rare syndrome his daughter had from birth. Although his performance previously had drawn praise, he says he soon started getting negative feedback. Eventually he was laid off.

Having a child with a disability also requires time and effort to find and manage treatment, forcing 30% of these parents to quit or cut back at work, says a 2001 survey by the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau.

Few parents can afford to cut back. More than 40% of families with special-needs kids have financial problems because of care costs, says a study published in June in Maternal and Child Health Journal. And 60% of children with special needs rely on their parents' employers for health insurance, MassGeneral says.

Now, some parents are taking the opposite tack -- turning to the workplace for support. After her autistic son was born 11 years ago, Kathy Gonzalez, a technology manager at Toyota Motor Sales USA, Torrance, Calif., was overwhelmed trying to find treatment for him. Seeing her co-workers networking on other topics, she helped start a support group last year at Toyota that draws up to 40 parents of special-needs kids to its monthly meetings. "If I could help even one parent get on track for whatever service they need for their kid, it would be worth it," Ms. Gonzalez says. At Microsoft, employees with autistic children have formed a similar network.

Jack Harris, whose 11-year-old son is autistic, was startled to learn during on-site meetings of a father's network at PricewaterhouseCoopers's Tampa, Fla., office, that 10 of the 50 other men there also had children with disabilities. With PricewaterhouseCoopers's blessing, Mr. Harris, a practice support manager, is planning an on-site special-needs resource fair early next year. The firm is looking for other ways to support such parents, a spokeswoman says.

In recent years, Mr. Bruesehoff gradually began talking about his daughter on his job in Los Angeles for accounting firm Ernst & Young. Then, when he was offered a transfer to Dallas in 2002, "I decided I was just going to come clean" and explain that the availability of programs in Dallas for Karissa, now 17, would be pivotal. Co-workers responded warmly, helping his family forge new ties in Dallas, where he now works as a human-resource manager, he says.

Mr. Bruesehoff is among 64 parents of special-needs kids who have joined a parent network formed last January by New York-based Ernst & Young. Sandra Turner, a human-resource manager, says parents on the network's informational conference calls are slowly opening up to each other. While fewer than one-fifth were willing to give their names on the first call, about half now feel comfortable identifying themselves.

Raytheon, an aerospace and defense contractor, has hosted several speaker dinners for employees with special-needs children at its Tucson, Ariz., and Woburn, Mass., facilities. Jeff Stolz, whose son Joseph, 10, has autism and bipolar disorder, was among those attending. Heartened to learn many of his co-workers also had special-needs kids, Mr. Stolz for the first time took Joseph in April to the annual "Take Your Child to Work" day festivities at Raytheon. He was apprehensive; Joseph verged on a tantrum during an introductory session. But as the day wore on and supportive adults reached out to him, Joseph calmed down, and even introduced himself by microphone at the closing session.

In a surprising move in today's cost-cutting climate, a few employers are even expanding insurance coverage for special-needs kids. Microsoft, oil-industry supplier Halliburton, and insurer Progressive Group have begun covering some of the cost of applied behavior analysis, or ABA therapy, intensive early training for autistic kids that can cost $20,000 or more.

These employers, of course, are the exception. If you have a child with a disability, only you can size up your corporate culture. A MassGeneral manual offers tips and resources, available online at www.massgeneral.org/ebs by clicking on "Resources for Employees," then opening "workplace benefits."

Sue Shellenbarger, The Wall Street Journal Online
Email your comments to sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com
October 14, 2005
http://www.careerjournal.com/columnists/workfamily/20051014-workfamily.html?mod=RSS_Career_Journal&


Engineering gains a younger following High Schools offer hands-on classes

Designing models of buildings and bridges could soon become as common as dissecting frogs in high school science classes.

About a third of the state's 316 high schools now offer an engineering course to woo more students into science and math, prepare them to pass a new state MCAS science test, and funnel them into engineering careers. Most, about 80 of them, started the courses this fall as a step toward making engineering a fourth high school science class, along with biology, chemistry, and physics. The classes typically combine elements of civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering.

''Kids spend a month learning how volcanoes work and no time learning how cars work. How often do you find yourself in a volcano versus a car?" said Ioannis Miaoulis, director and president of the Museum of Science, which developed the engineering program most frequently taught in Massachusetts high schools.

Responding to a national need for more engineers, Massachusetts is moving faster than other states to bring engineering into primary and secondary schools. It was the first state to recommend that engineering be taught at all grade levels and is the only state to have an engineering exam as part of statewide testing, Miaoulis said. Some high school students now take the engineering and technology MCAS exam, though it doesn't yet count toward graduation. Starting with the class of 2010, students will have to pass a science test to graduate and can pick a test in one of four subjects, including engineering.

The engineering curriculums vary by school in the classes, which typically are offered as electives rather than a requirement. In most Bay State schools, which are using the Museum of Science program, students work in groups to develop a product that solves a problem, as professional engineers do. They might design a deck that can support a hot tub or build a steam-powered boat. The engineering courses fuse elements of math, science, business, civics, even art.

But some engineers worry that high school engineering courses are too simplistic and don't force students to know calculus or use more than basic principles of physics and chemistry.

''It's fine to give people exposure to circuitry and design, but if you don't have the rigorous math around it, it doesn't prepare students to go in and succeed as engineering majors" in college, said Eric Iversen of the American Society for Engineering Education.

The accessibility of the engineering courses, however, is exactly what appeals to most students.

Engineering has hooked students with a variety of interests, including those who never thought they had an aptitude for math and science. Students say they are drawn to the subject because it is practical, involves hands-on projects with their classmates, and applies to their daily lives. In some classes, they are learning how their cellphones, iPods, and stereo speakers work. Some students get to design robots, toy cars, and remote-controlled submarines, while others have crafted more everyday items, such as a mug that can keep coffee hot longer.

They learn basic as well as sophisticated skills that an engineer would need, including computer-aided drafting, measurement, and problem-solving.

''Now I'm actually thinking about doing engineering as a career," said Dan Acuna, a senior at Boston Arts Academy, an arts-focused public high school that steers its seniors into an engineering class.

The school is one of eight Boston high schools, including an alternative school and a math- and science-focused exam school, that added engineering classes this or last school year.

Acuna, who plays the piano and saxophone, had planned on becoming a dentist until this fall, when engineering appeared on his class schedule. He now plans to major in engineering next year in college.

''It's more hands-on stuff. You can actually build things," said Acuna, who used to think science was boring. ''The other science classes are more about taking notes and research. I actually look forward to this class every day."

Yesterday, as the culmination of a monthlong project, Acuna and his classmates presented ad campaigns for organizers, ranging from tiny pill organizers to ones for closets they designed. His group made a wooden model of a walk-in closet, which included shelves, rods, a shoe rack, and a light fixture they connected to a battery with wires and clamps. The organizer, he pitched to classmates, would help students who wake up late get dressed faster in the morning.

At Boston Arts Academy and most other schools, students take engineering as an elective. But at Beverly High School, students can take engineering as an alternative to biology and fulfill a graduation requirement for science. About a third of its sophomores chose engineering this year, principal Carla Scuzzarella said.

High school engineering teachers in Belmont and Cambridge are fighting to make engineering count as a science requirement for graduation. They want it to supplement, not supplant, the natural sciences.

''In the college environment, engineering is up there with the other sciences, and it should have the same standing at the high school level," said the Museum of Science's Miaoulis, who is a former dean of engineering at Tufts University. He had pushed the state to include engineering in its list of subjects.

Abington High School this year began requiring all freshmen to take a semester-long engineering and technology class, in addition to physical science.

Worried about how competitive US students will be in the world, high school administrators in Brookline and Springfield plan to start engineering classes for upperclassmen next fall.

China and India graduate three times as many engineering majors as the United States, said Tom Magnanti, engineering dean at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In Massachusetts, according to the state's curriculum guidelines, teachers should begin teaching engineering concepts, such as how ramps, wheels, and pulleys work, in the earliest elementary grades.

The challenge now, according to the American Society for Engineering Education, is finding qualified engineering teachers. Some schools ask science teachers to teach engineering; and others hire engineers who have never been teachers or retrain former shop teachers.

''We need to really inspire our young people in terms of basic math and science," Magnanti said. ''We need to have glamorous people in television doing engineering."

Tracy Jan, Globe Staff
Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com
October 15, 2005 http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2005/10/15/
engineering_gains_a_younger_following/


Mum, my cereal's talking!

BOOKS with photos that move — Harry Potter-style — may soon be with us. But before that, get ready for boxes of cereal that extol their virtues via a built-in video display, and chocolate bars that flash to attract attention.

Siemens has announced a new colour display screen so thin and flexible it can be printed on to paper or foil, and so cheap it can be used on throw-away packaging.

A company spokesman Norbert Aschenbrenner said the screens would be able to do everything a conventional TV could — with a slightly lower quality. The first examples should be on the market by 2007.

Siemens said the technology used "electrochromic substances … that change their colour when an electrical voltage shifts charges in their molecules" and the German company suggested uses could include medicines displaying instructions.

"It is also conceivable that small computer games will be on packages or that equipment boxes will display animations that give users step-by-step operating instructions."

But it is marketers who have shown the strongest interest. Tom Harris, CEO of industry association Point of Purchase Advertising Australia, said if the product delivered everything promised "it would be absolutely brilliant".

Mr Harris said a video display at the "vital decision-making time" was a proven way of generating sales, providing it didn't become an irritant.

Dr Aschenbrenner said glossy magazines could incorporate the flexible screens in advertisements, with the cost being from about $53 a square metre. Newspaper supplements (on a slightly heavier stock than normal newsprint) could follow.

How will such a screen get its power? From batteries that are also printed on to the paper, according to Siemens.

Tony Davis
October 17, 2005
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/mum-my-cereals-talking/2005/10/16/1129401144959.html#


School Segregation Is Back With 'Vengeance,' Author Says

In a Connecticut Avenue bookstore, a bespectacled white man sounded an alarm yesterday evening about the public schools that serve black children in Washington and elsewhere. Segregation, he said, is alive and well a half-century after Brown v. Board of Education , depriving many urban black children of opportunities routinely afforded white students.

This divide, he said, compelled him to write "The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America."

Jonathan Kozol, a former Boston schoolteacher, has written 11 books over four decades in a crusade to help inner-city children that government policymakers gently label "disadvantaged." His critiques of their policies are anything but gentle, as one of his better-known titles, "Savage Inequalities," suggests.

His latest has a new target. In "Shame," Kozol, 69, denounces the No Child Left Behind education law that President Bush pushed through Congress in 2001 with help from such Democrats as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.). The law prescribes too much testing, he writes, and not enough learning.

Plenty of Democrats and Republicans still support No Child Left Behind, which requires annual reading and math testing of public school students in grades 3 through 8. But the parties split on whether Bush has given schools enough money to fix problems that the test results spotlight.

Kozol's message, apparently, has a following. At Politics & Prose, he drew a crowd of hundreds last month for a promotional event just before the book's publication. He made an unusual encore visit yesterday at the store's invitation, drawing another standing-room audience. C-SPAN cameras were on hand to transmit the talk on cable television.

"Sorry to be so grim tonight," Kozol said as he launched into a plea for "elemental racial justice." He added: "In the inner-city schools I visit, I never see white children.

Segregation has returned with a vengeance."

In the Washington area, many public schools serve populations that are mostly white or mostly black, a split typical of what Kozol describes in his book through observations of 60 schools in 11 states. In Prince George's County, for example, 77 percent of students are black, 12 percent are Latino and 7 percent are non-Hispanic white. In many of the county's schools, the racial and ethnic gaps are far wider. That is also true in the District's public schools.

Kozol notes that some of the most segregated schools in the country are named for civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall, 51 years after the Supreme Court ruled in Brown that separate educational facilities are "inherently unequal."

Few educators would dispute Kozol's central contention: that many mostly black schools are in worse shape, physically and academically, than their counterparts in mostly white neighborhoods.

"The main reason I wrote this book," Kozol said in an interview yesterday, "is to inspire Americans to look very hard at the virtually complete apartheid in increasing numbers of our school districts -- including in Prince George's County -- and to address it courageously. They should ask themselves honestly: Is this the kind of country they want to live in?"

To those who point out that segregation today is not imposed by law, Kozol replied: "Whether the causes of school segregation are residential, social factors, economic factors, whatever they may be, segregated schooling is the oldest failed experiment in American social history. It didn't work in the past century. It's not going to work in the century ahead."

Kozol's solution -- not likely, he conceded, to be enacted soon -- is to repeal No Child Left Behind, establish universal public preschool for needy children, drastically reduce class sizes in schools that serve the poorest children (to 18 or fewer students per teacher) and give white suburban schools financial incentives for a new racial integration initiative with massive, but voluntary, systems of crosstown transportation.

Kozol said he wanted to spark an urban-school uprising. "We need a movement by people who actually get chalk dust on their hands every day because they spend their lives with children," he said.

One woman at the bookstore last night said she was already enlisted. Mary Findley, a music teacher active in programs for D.C. youths, clutched a copy of "Savage Inequalities" as she waited for Kozol's talk. "He changed my life with this book," she said.

Nick Anderson, Washington Post Staff Writer
October 17, 2005
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/16/AR2005101601146_pf.html


A to F Scale Gets Poor Marks but Is Likely to Stay
Universal Use Limits Change, Experts Say

The first letter grade ever given in the United States, according to historical records, was a B received by a Harvard University undergraduate in 1883. There is no indication of how he felt about the grade, but that simple way of judging student work quickly became popular.

Will U.S. schools ever end their long romance with A's, B's, C's and so on? Some educators say letter grades no longer fit in a standardized information age. They say letter grades are too simplistic and vary too much from system to system, school to school and even classroom to classroom.

"I'd like to think that we will have some better form of assessing and evaluating," said Daniel J. McMahon, principal of DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville. He suggested something more descriptive, like a job evaluation.

But some educators and experts say students will be getting letter grades for many years to come, a tradition as resilient as baseball, comic strips and other 19th-century products.

"Letter grades are convenient, simple and easy to manage, store and transmit," said Dan Verner, a recently retired Fairfax County high school English teacher. "Those are important factors when dealing with masses of students."

Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Washington-based Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, said he thinks colleges also will stick with letter grades.

"This is a habit hard to break, and nothing changes fast in higher ed," he said. "High schools will keep using them if college admissions offices keep requiring them, which they likely will."

It was the colleges, after all, that started the letter grade system, according to research by Mark W. Durm, professor of psychology at Athens State University in Alabama. A 1785 diary entry reveals Yale examination grades in Latin, such as "optimi" for the highest mark. A College of William & Mary faculty report in 1817 classified students simply by numbers. The names listed under "No. 1" were "the first in their respective classes." Those under "No. 2" were "orderly, correct and attentive."

After the stray reference to a B at Harvard in 1883, the first full-scale letter grade system for which there is documented proof was adopted at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 1897, Durm said:

· A: excellent, equivalent to 95 to 100 percent
· B: good, 85 to 94 percent
· C: fair, 76 to 84 percent
· D: barely passed, 75 percent
· E: failed, below 75 percent

The percentage equivalents were tougher than most systems today. The next year, Mount Holyoke tightened them further, making a B from 90 to 94 percent, a C 85 to 89 percent, a D 80 to 84 percent, an E 75 to 79 percent, and adding a sixth grade, the soon-to-be-famous F, which was anything below 75.

College students today are still comfortable seeing these letters, whether on paper or computer screens. And many say they don't see much reason to follow such letter-grade-abolishing schools as the New College of Florida in Sarasota and Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., which use narrative evaluations to assess students.

"An A at one school might be an A-minus or B-plus at another school," said Lauren Reliford, a junior at Boston College, but "for the most part, people all over this nation understand that an A is much, much better than an F."

Still, Michael A. Durso, principal of Springbrook High School in the Colesville area, said schools have been inconsistent in their use of letter grades to determine class rank, valedictorian selection and athletic eligibility. "We are all over the landscape, and in my opinion, this causes the continued erosion of confidence in public schools."

That erratic letter grading system still gets less criticism than the standardized tests used to assess students and schools, mainly because the machine-scored exams lack the human touch. "The standardized tests present an impersonal but universally known target," said Robert W. Snee, principal of George Mason High School in Falls Church. "A single teacher is only grading 125 students this year, and she has a personal relationship with each one of them."

Some students said they envision an end to the reign of the classroom teacher and the grade book. Amir Reda, a junior at DeMatha, said letter grades will disappear "for the same reason that many teaching styles that were used a century ago have been disbanded." His classmate Vince Bury said, "We should be able to develop a new grading scale that provides for more flexibility from student to student."

Experts are less sure. Finn said the more likely outcome is that letter grades will stay but continue to be inflated and trivialized because of what he called "the therapeutic ethic, the aversion to competition, anxiety about self-esteem and simple marketing pressures."

Verner, like many teachers, said he does not celebrate letter grades' resilience. "I think they are an abomination, which is probably ironic since I spent 32 years dishing them out."

He said he would prefer that high school students applying to college send portfolios of their work, rather than grade transcripts. He said he had fond memories of an ungraded program at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., which he attended in the late 1960s.

"We had written evaluations for each course," he said. "When I transferred to American University, I think they didn't know what to do to convert those to letter grades, so they converted them all to A's. Lucked out again."

Jason Busby, a history and government teacher at Agoura High School in Agoura Hills, Calif., said, "Letter grades are hopelessly inaccurate and lack meaningful feedback for the student, but students and parents are just as reluctant to listen to or read long, drawn-out analyses of students' work as teachers are to deliver it. Grades are simple. Grades are easy. Grades are understood because parents had them when they were students.

"Ask any number of parents and students what they are hoping to get out of a given class and they will tell you, 'A good grade,' " Busby said. "Ask them, as I do every year of my students, if they would accept an A at the cost of learning nothing about the subject in class. . . . The answer is 99 percent yes."

Jay Mathews
Washington Post Staff Writer
October 18, 2005
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/17/AR2005101701565.html


The whole school included
Special needs should be central, not an appendage,
says Meinir Rees

When people reveal that they work 65-hour weeks it is only human nature to suspect unworthy explanations. They must be obsessed by money, or slow at their jobs. Or their domestic situation is too wretched to go home to.

In a way, the first two do apply to Meinir Rees, special needs teacher of the year, who notches up three score and five hours as a matter of course.

Her job coordinating special needs at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr, one of only two secondary schools in Cardiff to teach the curriculum in Welsh, is very much a continuous struggle for cash. It is never on her own behalf, of course, but for the young people with learning, emotional and behavioural difficulties as well as those with physical handicaps and medical conditions whose education she organises.

Not forgetting the G and Ts, she adds. "G and Ts - it's what the gifted and talented children are called."

As for the pace she works at, this is in great part dictated by the paperwork. Even by the standards of an education system riddled from top to bottom with bureaucracy, the amount of bumf that she has to wade through is in a league of its own. "The paperwork involved in special educational needs [SEN] is absolutely incredible," she says, her smile smothering any chance that this statement be construed as a complaint.

She is referring to the forests of forms - all triplicated, no doubt - that trail any pupil who is to be classified as having special needs. This forest is only surpassed by the notorious ocean of paper demanded in her dogged pursuit of statements of special needs, those prized documents that confer legal entitlement on young individuals and possibly draw down more cash. At 51, is she an expert on paperwork? "I know what I've got to do to get something."

Paperwork is the curse of any public sector job. For Rees, though, there is a particular drag factor that means the tasks can take twice as long as they should. "If I was sitting here and a child came in, it wouldn't matter what paperwork I was doing, that child's needs would come first.

"Every day a child comes in, or a parent. There is continuous interruption. You justdon't know what the day's going to bring when you arrive. I quite like that."

Why is there so much paperwork? Is it for the obvious reason - that the authorities who control the coffers are trying to put applicants off? "Yes, but don't put that," she says. Her proscription is halfhearted because there is no secret about government methods. She knows that she is working in a world of limited resources and increasing demands.

In recent years the SEN corral has expanded to include youngsters who would not have come into this category a generation ago, and there is a national policy of accommodating as many of them as possible in mainstream schools.

She supports this. "I don't see special needs as an appendage. It has got to be part of the whole school. I believe in inclusion where possible. I think these children need to be part of society. That's where they are going to be at the end of the day."

"Her definition of special needs is extremely wide," reads the citation for Rees's award. "For all of these students she has created a climate of high expectation. Her work with pupils begins even before they arrive at the school, as she collects detailed information on their needs while still at feeder primary schools, so she can be fully prepared for their transition to secondary education."

There are 750 11- to 18-year-olds at the school, which opened only seven years ago. Rees is its first special needs coordinator and in that time she has "established a beacon of success in SEN provision, profoundly affecting the whole of the school's educational and social agenda", says the citation. "About 15% of the school's population will have additional needs at some point," she says. "Between 2% and 3% have a statement of SEN."

Rees's passionate commitment to SEN stems from her experience as a parent trying to get help for her own daughter, Bethan, who had a hearing impairment when she was very young that hindered her speech. Bethan's first language was Welsh and there were no Welsh-speaking speech therapists in mid Glamorgan, where they were. "There's a huge recruitment problem trying to get people to work in special needs to start with," she says.

At the time, Rees says she was happy as a design and technology teacher, but realised that she would not rest easy unless she specialised in SEN. She did a twoyear course in teaching people with hearing impairment and followed that with a masters in SEN. She is now one of the few teachers in Wales who can communicate with hearing-impaired children in both Welsh and English.

The patient temperament that keeps her sane with the paperwork is ideal for the pace of development of many of her charges. "Little bits of progress give you huge pleasure in special needs. I've taught in mainstream and seen children just move on quickly. What I see now that gives me pleasure is on a different scale."

The Welsh education department has begun talking of "additional" rather than special needs, a useful terminological shift, in Rees's view. For many parents SEN still suggests the slow learner.

Her family is supremely important to her and not the reason for the long hours at work. Socialising with her husband, a deputy head, her grown-up children and with friends is her main recreation.

For some children, SEN is a temporary stage that ends while they are at school. The aim is to get them all functioning as adults. Sometimes she sees the results. "A young man who had just got his first job came back to see me with a bunch of flowers. His parents came with him. When he was 13 they were convinced he was going to end up in prison. He came back to say thank you. You couldn't ask for more."

Special needs teacher of the year

The judges say: "Meinir was nominated by a teacher new to the school but not new to teaching. She recognised the outstanding inclusive nature of this Welsh-medium school and the key role Meinir plays."

Regional winners

Helen Bartleman, Sandford special school (West)
Judith Cartney, Moulton primary (North-west)
Kath Conwell, Green Lane community special school (North-west)
Christine Dangerfield, Mission Grove primary (London)
Paula Farrand, The Kings school, (Southwest)
Sue Hill, Shirebrook school (East Midlands)
Sheona Jones, Great Marlow school (South)
Judith Marsden, Slade primary (South-east)
Alison Marshman, Lickey Hills primary (West Midlands)
Julie Montagner, Chapel Road special school (East)
Ann Oliver, Sunningdale special school (North-east & Cumbria)
Meinir Rees, Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr (Wales)
Barbara Saddington, Fullerton House school (North)
Susan Spencer, Frome Community College (West)

Peter Kingston, Guardian
October 18, 2005
http://education.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5311322-110241,00.html


Scientists dismiss evidence of MMR link with autism

SCIENTISTS have strongly rejected any suggestion that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, MMR, is linked to disorders such as autism.

An analysis of 31 MMR studies by the Cochrane Library, the most authoritative source of evidence-based medicine, has shown no credible grounds for claims of serious harm.

Uptake of the vaccine decreased sharply after research by Andrew Wakefield, published in The Lancet in 1998, suggested a direct causal link between autism and Crohn’s disease. The research, since discredited, resulted in the uptake falling to less than 70 per cent in some parts of Britain — far below the 95 per cent recommended by the World Health Organisation. This has been blamed for contributing to an increase in measles and mumps.

Health campaigners hope that the latest analysis, published in the Cochrane Review, will
boost the MMR uptake. It supports a study published in The Lancet last year that poured scorn on the suggestion of a link between the combined vaccine and autism.

The conclusions of the Cochrane Library — a collection of evidence-based medicine databases — draw together all the available information from around the world. Vittorio Demicheli, the lead author, said: “We conclude that all the major unintended events, such as triggering Crohn’s disease or autism, were suspected on the basis of unreliable evidence.”

MMR uptake has improved in Britain, but remains worryingly low in some areas after the coverage of the negative research. Statistics from the Health and Social Care Information Centre showed that uptake among two-year-olds in England was 81 per cent in 2004-05 — up from 80 per cent in 2003-04. This was the first year-on-year increase since 1995-96, when uptake peaked at 92 per cent.

In 1997 there were 117 cases of measles but in 2002 there were more than 300. Dr Demicheli said: “Public health decisions need to be based on sound evidence. If this principle had been applied, we would have avoided all the fuss.”

The MMR vaccine was introduced in the US during the 1970s and is used in more than 90 countries. The Cochrane systematic review said that MMR was an important vaccine that had “prevented diseases that still carry a heavy burden of death and complications where the vaccine is not used”.

TRIPLE VACCINE

- MMR was introduced in Britain in 1988
- Children are given a first dose of the MMR jab at 12 to 15 months and a booster dose at between three and five years old
- One MMR jab can prevent measles infection in 90 per cent of all immunised children. A second dose raises this level of protection from measles to 99 per cent
- About 2,000 families in Britain have taken legal action claiming their children have been damaged by the MMR jab, with many believing it has triggered autism

Sam Lister, Health Correspondent
The Times
October 19, 2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,172-1832305,00.html