Community Update

No. 20
January 1995
U.S. Department of Education

METROPOLITAN LIFE STUDY EXPLORES PARENT AND STUDENT ATTITUDES ABOUT SCHOOL VIOLENCE

This year the Metropolitan Life Survey of the American Teacher departed from its usual focus on the opinions of educators, researching instead the attitudes of parents and students about violence in and around public schools. The survey, entitled "Violence in America's Public Schools: The Family Perspective," revealed that more than one-third of America's junior high and high school students feel their school does only a fair or poor job of providing a safe environment in the school building; nearly half of parents rate their child's school as fair or poor in this regard. The survey results were released on December 1, 1994 at a press conference at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters where leaders and national experts, including Deputy Secretary of Education Madeleine M. Kunin, commented on the implications.

One focus of the survey was to get an accurate read on the violence problem in America's public schools. A significant proportion of students (44 percent) reported that they had had personal experiences with angry scenes or confrontations during the previous month. Nearly one-fourth of students (24 percent) said they had been involved in physical fights.

Students' attitudes about violence were also measured by the survey. More than half of students (52 percent) said the following statement was true: "Most people I know would say that it's almost impossible to walk away from an angry scene or confrontation without fighting." In commenting on the survey results, Dr. Floretta McKenzie of the McKenzie Group in Washington, D.C. stated, "We are more apt to mete out discipline than to teach discipline. We much teach youngsters how to value life and respect others."

Associated with the problem of violence in the schools, the MetLife study found, was a breakdown in communication between parents and their children. When students were asked why they do not talk to their parents about problems in school or disagreements with peers, 29 percent of those who had been victims of violence said they feel their parents cannot help; 46 percent said adults do not understand their problems; and 22 percent said they fear getting in trouble.

PROVIDING A SAFE ENVIRONMENT IN SCHOOL

QUESTION: Please tell me whether you would rate your public school excellent, good, fair, or poor.... The school's ability to provide a safe and secure place for students when they are in the school building....

                              PARENTS         STUDENTS

               EXCELLENT        37                32

               GOOD             43                39

               FAIR             15                19

               POOR              6                 7

               NOT SURE          -                 3

From the 1994 Metlife Survey, "Violence in America's Public Schools: the Family Perspective." Note: due to computer rounding, totals may not add up to 100.

The study showed a wide disparity between how often students actually confide in their parents and how often parents believe they do. Over half of parents (52 percent) said their children "nearly always" tell them about problems or disagreements with other students. Only 24 percent of students responded that they nearly always did so.

Parents also tended to overestimate their involvement at school when compared with their children's perceptions. Seventy percent of parents gave other parents a rating of good or excellent for the support they showed at school. However, more than one third of students (37 percent) gave parents only a fair or poor rating for school support. Among high school students, the sentiment increased: 50 percent gave parents a fair or poor rating on school support.

The survey looked at the effectiveness of violence prevention strategies. Students in grades 7-12 were asked to consider a variety of strategies individually and rate them from "very successful" to "not successful." The top three strategies to be rated by students as "very successful" were suspension or expulsion of students when they were violent (43 percent), security guards or police in and around school (36 percent), and a mentoring program (34 percent).

A sizeable majority of students (67 percent) agreed with the following statement: "There would be much less violence if there were more things for kids to do."

"The best prevention program is still a good education," noted Deputy Secretary Kunin in her remarks.

Free copies of the survey are available by writing to: MetLife Teachers' Survey, 1994, P.O. Box 807, Madison Square Station, New York, N.Y., 10159-0807.

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LIVE VIA SATELLITE FEBRUARY 1, 1995: SECRETARY RICHARD W. RILEY WILL DELIVER THE SECOND ANNUAL "STATE OF AMERICAN EDUCATION" ADDRESS. CALL 1-800-USA-LEARN FOR MORE DETAILS.

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JANUARY SATELLITE TOWN MEETING TO DISCUSS SCHOOL-TO-WORK PREPARATION

A REMINDER: Exploring how schools and communities can help all young people reach their potential in a career, the January Satellite Town Meeting will focus on preparing students for the critical transition from school to work. Addressing how the rapid pace of changes in the workplace affects our nation's educational needs, the program is entitled "School-to-Work: Preparing Students for High-Skill, High-Wage Jobs."

The Town Meeting will air on Tuesday, January 17 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Eastern time, and will be simultaneously broadcast in Spanish. This service will also allow callers to ask questions and receive answers in Spanish.

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley and Deputy Secretary Madeleine Kunin will welcome a panel of guests who have developed model school-to-work programs in their communities, building partnerships between parents, schools, businesses, labor, and postsecondary institutions. The discussion will include preparing high school graduates for a range of options, from postsecondary studies to direct entry into a career. Other topics to be explored are connecting the teaching of academic and workplace skills, integrating school-to-work reforms into comprehensive school improvement, and examining how the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 supports local efforts.

The Department of Education produces the Satellite Town Meeting series in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Sponsors of the series include Miles Research, Inc., The Procter and Gamble Fund, SC Johnson Wax, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Coordinates for the January Satellite Town Meeting are as follows ....

C-BAND: Galaxy 6, Transponder/Channel 2; Vertical Polarization; Downlink Frequency 3740; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 (Spanish) and 6.8 (English); Orbital Location: 74 degrees West.

KU-BAND: SBS-6, Transponder/Channel 11; Horizontal Polarization; Downlink Frequency 11963H; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 (Spanish) and 6.8 (English); Orbital Location: 95 degrees West.

Find out if your local school system is participating in the Satellite Town Meeting, or you can contact your local Public Broadcasting System (PBS) member station, Wal-Mart or Sam's Club, Chamber of Commerce, or Johnson Controls branch office and ask if your group can use the facility as a downlink site. Other possible sites are public libraries, community colleges, cable television stations, universities and technical schools, government offices, hospitals, businesses, hotels, or even private residences with satellite dishes. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN for further information or to register your participation.

A REPORT FROM THE DEPUTY SECRETARY ZAVALA SCHOOL IN TEXAS TURNED FAILURE INTO SUCCESS

Editor's note: Whenever Deputy Secretary of Education Madeleine m. Kunin travels, she visits local schools and learns about promising practices to improve education. Here's one school visit the Deputy Secretary thought was especially interesting and wanted to share with our readers.

Most of the children in the Zavala School in Austin, Texas, live in one of two nearby housing projects. Average family income is barely over $5,000, 72 percent qualify for free lunches, and for many, English is a new language.

For years, Zavala succumbed to failure, embarrassed by the fact that by every measure, the school was at the bottom of the heap. Today, Zavala has turned itself around. How did it happen?

That's the central question we must ask and answer as we strive to bring school improvement to every community and every school in the country through Goals 2000.

These are some of the steps the school took:

1. The principal, Alejandro Mindiz-Melton, said, as he looked at the low test scores and 50 percent teacher turnover each year, "We acknowledged our responsibilities and our failures. These are good families who want to see their children do well. We asked parents, 'what do you like about your school, what don't you like?'" And they got answers that became the vision of the school, focusing on safety and on high academic standards.

2. Parent involvement was taken seriously at Zavala by both parents and teachers. Saturday morning "community walks" were organized to enable teachers to meet parents in the neighborhood. Parents received several days of leadership training.

3. Zavala became part of the Texas Interfaith Alliance for School Improvement, a community-based organization that works with more than 60 schools in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The Alliance has given vital financial support, political clout and models that work to Zavala. The Alliance has also helped connect the school to community churches and synagogues, not to preach religion, but to build community support for education. Perhaps most importantly, Zavala is not alone, but can share the experience of other schools undergoing change.

4. The school has invested heavily in teacher development. One example I saw was an advanced, hands-on science class of 18 students. Zavala students never before qualified for the middle school honor science class. Now they do. The high standards of these students have caused a ripple effect in the science curriculum in every school, inspiring each teacher and student to aspire to this level.

Today, Zavala is a proud and effective school. Test scores have turned around, Zavala is near the top of all schools in Austin, parents are engaged in their children's education and students and teachers are experiencing on-going success.

This school, and the Texas Alliance, offer some important clues about how we move from model schools to many schools, so that every child in America has access to an excellent education.

That is the great challenge which Goals 2000 was designed to address. Now we know that it is possible, if we continue to learn from the exciting innovations that are happening at the local and state level.

That is the great challenge which Goals 2000 was designed to address. Now we know that it is possible, if

ON-LINE DISCUSSION EXPLORES FAMILY-SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS

Editor's note: "SATL-CON," an on-line conversation made possible by the Department of Education, invites participants to share their thoughts on each month's Satellite Town Meeting topic. Approximately 500 parents, teachers, administrators, and other community members are currently involved. Here's a sample of what people have said during November's discussion of family involvement in education:

• "For me, parents defining their own involvement is the key. As a member of a number of education reform committees, I tend to be relegated to a passive recipient of an educator's design.... I'd prefer being brought in at the front end: let your parents tell you how they should be involved and what form their involvement should take...." (Mike Anderson)

• "... Just as students' work in schools requires and benefits from family support, family involvement works best with community support. Employers, institutions, organizations, and community leaders have crucial roles to play in enabling families to work with schools." (Meredith Gavrin)

• "Parents own local businesses, or are the customers of local businesses. Therefore, parents working in partnership with school systems are one of the key links to local businesses as school resources, both for the financial assistance and the educational opportunities they can provide." (Eliot Rosenheim)

• "Few families have the time or inclination to participate in traditional school-based volunteer activities, e.g. PTA meetings.... However, we know that most of these parents, regardless of family structure or socioeconomic level, care deeply about their children's education. When family involvement is focused on actively involving parents in their children's education in ways that help the student succeed, parents are motivated to participate." (Jeanette Corris)

• "That children do better when parents are involved is supported by research, but why is it that parents want to be involved? Could it be that parents want to be involved when the schools are doing interesting things, or is it that schools begin to do interesting things when parents are involved? Perhaps we have here a spiraling cycle of doing a good job with children because parents are more likely to be present, and then parents feeling more involved and wanted because school is an interesting place to be." (Diane Rothenberg)

• "I would venture that the limiting factor (in parent involvement) is teacher time. The teachers don't have the time to communicate with parents.... Just as it is time- consuming to incorporate a new employee in any technical enterprise, so too it is (to incorporate) outsiders in the classroom. This is where organized help is probably most needed: finding the teachers' upcoming needs, finding parents capable of filling those needs, and establishing the communication between them." (Ed Krug)

To subscribe to "SATL-CON," a free service, send an e-mail message to:

listserv@suvm.Syr.Edu

In the message area write:

subscribe satl-con

(EXAMPLE: subscribe satl-con richard riley)

You'll receive a welcome message soon after you subscribe. If you have any questions, call 1-800-USA-LEARN or send an e-mail to .

RESOURCE SUPPORTS GOALS 2000 VISION FOR ALL CHILDREN

As reformers develop their comprehensive school improvement plans, a valuable new resource can help ensure that all children are covered, including those with disabilities and special needs. The publication, entitled "Crosswalking the National Agenda and GOALS 2000," identifies major points of connection between GOALS 2000 and the National Agenda for Achieving Better Results for Children and Youth with Disabilities.

The National Agenda document, developed with broad participation from the special education and general education communities, is a dual vision of both reform for special education and of integrating these changes into comprehensive school improvement efforts. To encourage integrated school reform, "Crosswalking" shows how the National Agenda mirrors GOALS 2000 elements such as emphasis on high standards for learning, professional enrichment for educators, and school partnerships with parents, businesses, and other groups.

To obtain a copy of "Crosswalking The National Agenda and GOALS 2000," write to the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) at 1800 Diagonal Road, Suite 320, Alexandria, VA., 22314. The cost is $4.00.

GOALS 2000 STATE PLANNING PROCESS UPDATE

Along with the District of Columbia, Guam, the Marshall Islands, and Puerto Rico, 37 states have now received funding under the Goals 2000 Act: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

To date, applications for first-year funding are pending for the Alaska Federation, American Samoa, Iowa, the Mariana Islands, Micronesia, New Jersey, Palau, Utah, and the Virgin Islands. For more information on your state's planning process, or to find out how you can get involved, contact your chief state school officer.

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