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T he P ortland O bserver • J uly 30, 1997
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Parents can help O utfitting students for academic success
children avoid
poor grades
by H ugh B. P rice , N ational
U rban L eague P resident
Parents ready to push the panic
button because of a child’s poor
academic performance can learn to
anticipate school problems before
they become serious issues, accord
ing to Ernie Hartzog, director of the
Northeast Portland Sylvan Learn
ing Center.
"Taking positive steps early- be
fore a learning deficiency becomes
a problem or before a child loses
interest in school because he is not
sufficiently challenged - can make
all the difference,” Hartzog said.
Precautionary measures can in
clude enrichment courses designed
to expand learning and challenge
interest.
"M any times parents wait until
well into the school year, when
teachers or counselors send home
warnings,” said Hartzog. "By then
they are forced to hold their breath,
hoping the child will be able to stay
abreast of the class’s progress.”
Today, nearly 24 million chil
dren in the U.S. need supplemental
education. Among North Americas,
79 million are classified as func
tionally illiterate and require supple
mental education to improve skills,
job prospects and their quality of
life.
Public and private schools and
supplemental education providers,
such as Sylvan Learning Centers,
offer remediation and enrichment
to students of all ages who seek to
guild - or build upon - basic skills.
W hen searching for a supple
mental education provider, Hartzog
recommends the experience be as
orderly and well-planned as pos
sible. The program upon which a
parent decides should complement
the entire education process.
"A careful program of supple
mental education tells a child that
his learning needs are important
year-round - a far more positive
approach than giving glaring atten
tion to problems and slipping grades
at report card time," Hartzog said.
The Northeast Portland Sylvan
Learning Center, located at 4300
N.E. Fremont Street. # 150, is apart
of the worldwide network of more
than 600 Sylvan Learning andTech-
nology Centers. It provides indi
vidualized supplem ental educa
tional services to students at all skill
levels from kindergarten through
adulthood. Sylvan's focus is on
building a strong foundation of aca
demic sills upon which students can
build a lifetime of success.
At risk" students
thrive in Catholic schools
ZZ
Lawmakers who want to know
what works in education should fo
cus their attention on the astonishing
success of Catholic schools - espe
cially their work with "at-risk” inner-
city, minority children -- a Heritage
Foundation education specialist said
today.
According to Education Policy
analyst Nina Shokraii, “An abun
dance of recent research comparing
public, private and religious schools
shows that Catholic schools improve
not only test scores and graduation
rates for these children - which the
public school have abandoned as
uneducable — but also their future
economic prospects, all at a substan
tially lower cost."
Some examples: A 1995 study
revealed that attending a Catholic
high school raised the probability of
finishing high school and entering
college for inner-city children by 17
percentage points. Another 1995
study showed that Catholic school
ing reduced the odds of dropping out
by at least 10 percent compared with
public schools.
Even more surprising was a 1996
study showing that competition from
Catholic schools actually raised the
academic performance of surround
ing public schools, bolstering the
argument in favor of school choice
plans as a way to improve overall
educational performance.
In fact, Congress is now consider
ing three separate bills with provi
sions that would allow disadvantaged
parents to send their children to
schools of theirchoicc — public, pri
vate or parochial. "The Community
It’s the middle of the summer, the
air is thick with heat, and most of us
are thinking more of the beaches than
schools.
But I’ve just read a new book
which has brought the educational
future of our children-particularly
those in public schools that are pre
dominantly black and Hispanic-back
to the center of my consciousness.
This book. The Right To Learn: A
Blueprint for Creating Schools That
Work, is, with well-documented evi
dence and clear, forceful prose, ur
gently sounding an alarm America
must heed.
Its author. Professor Linda Dar
lin g -H a m m o n d , o f C o lu m b ia
U niversity’s Teachers College, says
that we must act now to fix the future
of millions of poor and minority
school children.
That is, we must act now in order
to ensure that they get the kind of
schooling which enables them to build
their own future as productive mem
bers of society.
The kind of schooling is critical
for them and us all in this new era
when, as Darling-Hammond puts it,
“perhaps even the survival of nations
and people [is] so tightly tied to their
ability to learn. Consequently, our
future depends now, as never before,
on our ability to teach."
The importance of the blueprint
that Darling Hammond presents for
doing that seems to be reinforced
with every fresh news story about the
tight connection now between the
quality of schooling our children re
ceive and their chances of finding
decent jobs.
For example, a recent study found
that today's high school graduates
a re n ’t as prepared to enter the
workforce as they think
a mismatch begins and how its effect
intensifies over time. It stems from
the inequality which is "deeply em
bedded in the American schooling
system" - an inequality that first shows
itself in school districts’ sharply un
equal access to adequate revenues.
These great disparities in revenues
disproportionately harm poor and
minority pupils because they’re con
centrated in the rural and urban school
districts with the smallest tax base.
These school districts-w ith some
a recent study found that today's high
school graduates aren’t as prepared
to enter the workforce as they think.
The study, sponsored by Amway
and Junior A chievem ent, whose
program s seek to acquaint young
people with the business world,
determ ined that 90% of graduating
high school seniors feel th ey ’re
prepared to enter the w orkforce
directly.
However, only 51 percent of em
ployers—those doing the hiring—feel
that way. Nearly 6 out of 10employ
ers say that the high school graduates
they see lack such fundamental skills
as the ability to write adequately.
One contribution of The Right to
Learn is that it describes where such
striking exceptions—overwhelmingly
contain the schools with the most
outdated equipment, least challeng
ing curricula, and the largest num
bers of unprepared teachers, Dar
ling-Hammond says.
Fortunately, she does not leave
the matter there. Instead, she shows
us that the pathway to improving
poor-quality schooling is clear be
cause it has already been traversed in
schools across the country.
She presents the conclusive evi
dence that poor and minority pupils
can meet high academic standards-if
certain conditions prevail.
Those conditions are the same that
exist as a matter of course for the
overwhelming majority of school-
children from affluent families and
from white families.
That is to say, if the schools
these children attend have teach
ers well prepared in the subject
they teach and in effective m eth
ods of teaching.
If the schools they attend offer
courses which stimulate their curios
ity, and ambition and self-confidence.
And if the schools they attend are
properly outfitted for teaching-w ell-
supplied with up-to-date textbooks
and computers and other teaching
materials, withsmall-ishenrollments
that produce the right kind of stu
dent-teacher ratios.
While it is true that the solutions to
the problems of school failure and
inequality will require a major re
vamping of the nation’s system of
schooling, Linda Darling-Hammond
would be the first to say that those of
us at the local-school level cannot
merely wait for that to occur.
We know what works. We must
exercise the will and the determ ina
tion to bring it about. W e—educators,
parents, elected officials, com m u
nity leaders and taxpayers-m ust
commit ourselves to improving the
schools neighborhood by neighbor
hood if necessary.
HIE JOYCE
Renewal Act, the District of Colum
bia Student Opportunity Scholarship
Act of 1997, and various school-
choice provisions of the Safe and
Affordable Schools Act for the first
time would allow low-income, in
ner-city children to receive a quality
education at a reasonable price," ac
cording to Shokraii.
“Thanks to the growing body of
research supporting Catholic school
education. Congress can be certain
that inner-city children would ben
efit from these measures. Congress
has the opportunity, over the next
year, to give lens of thousands of
A m erica's most disadvantaged chil
dren a much brighter future.”
Shokraii has assembled a survey
of long-range studies, all demonstrat
ing the clear superiority of Catholic
schools in improving grades, stan
dardized test scores, dropout and
graduation rates, college attendance
and future wage gains. A study this
year has found that African-Ameri
can and Hispanic students attending
urban Catholic schools were more
than twice as likely to graduate from
college as their counterparts in pub
lic schools (27 percent vs. I I per
cent, respectively).
It also found that the probability
that inner-city students would gradu
ate from high school increased from
62 percent to at least 88 percent
when those students were placed in a
Catholic secondary school. And when
compared with their public school
counterparts, minority students in
urban Catholic schools can expect
roughly 8 percent higher wages in
the future.
n r h T i i lci i l u
plan a career
An in*depth “Career and Life Planning” course is being
offered on Wednesday evenings, 6-9:30 p.m., from now to
Aug. 27, for those who are in the process of choosing or
changing careers. The three-credit course is designed to
help students through the process of choosing or changing
careers through instruction in personal and career assess
ment, as well as decision-making skills.
Those interested should register for “Career and Life Plan
ning” (HD 208-80) in the Office of Admissions and Records.
A $15 fee is charged in addition to tuition. For more infor
mation about the course, call the Advising and Counseling
Center at (503) 667-7315.
Ycfl can help bysending your coi^ribution to the
Memorial Scholarship Fund in care of Bank of America.
Your support will be truly appreciated.
Call your local Bank o f America for more information.
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