T C E B TRIANGLE COALITION ELECTRONIC BULLETIN JULY 19, 2001 VOL. 7, NO. 27 _____________________________________________________ Published by the TRIANGLE COALITION FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION _____________________________________________________ THIS WEEK'S TOPICS: TCEB SCHEDULING NOTICE TRIANGLE CONFERENCE SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED CONGRESS LIKELY TO MISS BUSH DEADLINE ON EDUCATION FOR SCIENTIFIC PROOF, TEA CALLS ON AGGIES NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL FIRST K-12 SCHOOL TO REQUIRE PALM HANDHELDS MATH FAILURE KEEPS 120 FROM GRADUATING PROJECT TEEM -- A PROGRAM OF THE CLEVELAND EDUCATION FUND MICROSOFT TO SCHOOLS: GIVE US YOUR LUNCH MONEY! ____________________________________________________ TCEB SCHEDULING NOTICE The TCEB will next be issued on August 2, 2001. ************************************ TRIANGLE CONFERENCE SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords; Bruce Alberts, President, National Academy of Sciences; Carlene Ellis, Vice President, Education, Intel Corporation; and Linda Rosen, Senior Vice President, Education, National Alliance of Business are slated to speak at Triangle Coalition's October 18-19 conference to be held in Washington, D.C. You are urged to register now for the fall conference, "Meeting the Challenges of the Decade: Success Through Collaboration." Participants will also hear from leaders of successful alliances and help identify key characteristics, both from a business and education point of view, that make alliances effective. Conference attendees are also invited to participate in a poster session that will highlight a variety of partnership models for bringing diverse groups together in efforts to improve mathematics, science, and technology education. More information, including registration materials, group rates, a tentative schedule of events, and speakers may be found at www.triangle-coalition.org/conf.htm. ************************************ CONGRESS LIKELY TO MISS BUSH DEADLINE ON EDUCATION (Source: AOL News, July 12, 2001) Final agreement on a far-reaching education reform bill was unlikely to be reached until September or later, congressional leaders said Thursday (July 12), despite President Bush's call for passage of the bill in time for the start of the new school year. Bush had appealed to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democrat-led Senate to settle their differences over the legislation, which would test students each year and hold schools accountable for the results, before Congress adjourns for the month-long August recess. "Congress must act quickly so people at the local level can plan," Bush said last week. Most students return to class in late August or September. But Republican and Democratic leaders of the education committees in both chambers said there was little chance of meeting the deadline set by the president, who made education reform his first legislative priority, due to the complexity of the measure and disagreements over funding and other issues. "Realistically, we can't do it," said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the ranking Republican on the Senate Health and Education Committee, echoing the comments of other congressional leaders who met on Thursday. "It's better to do it right than rush it." Though a final agreement on the legislation was not expected until September at the earliest, House and Senate negotiators planned to begin their work soon. The Senate has already named lawmakers to the so-called conference committee charged with hammering out the differences between the competing education bills approved by the House and the Senate. House Education Committee Chairman John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said the House would follow suit next week. But both sides said difficult negotiations lay ahead, particularly over education funding. The House bill authorizes $23 billion in fiscal 2002 compared to the Senate's estimated $31.6 billion, and Democrats said they would seek a commitment from Bush to sharply increase spending on low-income schools and classroom construction. The Senate bill would give up to seven states and 25 local school districts the authority to spend federal dollars with few restrictions. House Democrats oppose that program and have instead backed a bipartisan plan allowing local school districts to spend up to half of their federal education dollars on a range of programs without state or federal approval. The House bill would also reduce the overall number of federal education programs by one-third. In contrast, the Senate bill would create new programs. ************************************ FOR SCIENTIFIC PROOF, TEA CALLS ON AGGIES (Source: The Dallas Morning News, July 7, 2001) Texas A&M University has signed a first-of-its-kind $80,000 contract with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to fact-check science textbooks proposed for the state's public school districts in the 2002-2003 academic year. An army of 40 academics has started reviewing about 60 middle- and high-school textbooks and supplemental materials. The review team -- 12 faculty members, 17 graduate students, and 11 College Station-area school teachers -- will report to the TEA by Aug. 31, giving suggested corrections. The books -- covering science, physics, chemistry, astronomy, environmental systems, and chemistry -- will be in classrooms from six to eight years, said Eugene Rios, TEA's director of development for textbook administration. This is the first time the TEA has given the job to a university. In the past, the agency hired public school educators or individuals at state universities. "We decided to take a different slant knowing we could get a lot more done by using a university, which has a more expansive pool of possible reviewers," Mr. Rios said. The reviewers need to have a minimum of a bachelor's degree with a concentration in a relevant subject area and have to pass a TEA screening process, Dr. Scott said. They will be compensated for the work, and leftover money will go to the school, he said. Dr. Lewis Ford, a physics professor, is proofreading three college-level textbooks for use in advance placement classes. He said he has found two major mistakes so far. In one case, a photo caption describing the concept of force being exerted on an object reads "left" when it should be "right." The other inaccurately explained a theory on electrical charges. "Any mistake is bad, but there's not one book that doesn't have them," he said. ************************************ NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL FIRST K-12 SCHOOL TO REQUIRE PALM HANDHELDS Forsyth Country Day School, an independent school outside of Winston-Salem, NC, took the national spotlight last month when it became the first K-12 school in the country to require the use of Palm handheld computers in its high school and to pilot their use among students as young as first grade. According to Eric Peterson, assistant headmaster at the school, ninth through 12th grade students returning to school in late August will find something extra in their registration packets -- a Palm IIIc handheld, a portable keyboard, and a suite of software applications. The school is working with Palm, Inc. and several third-party developers to select an appropriate set of software applications to be used by students and faculty across the curriculum. In addition to issuing Palm handhelds to the high school students, classroom sets of Palm handhelds will be used in science and math classes in both the middle and elementary grades. The school also plans to integrate handhelds into its brand new, multimillion dollar science, math, and academic support centers. The school's long-range plans include integrating Palm handhelds into its intranet to use for e-mails, synching assignments, and connecting to school and individual class websites. In addition, students will use wireless services to obtain online material via web clipping applications for use in classes. This year students will pay a fee to acquire the handhelds; but thereafter, the school's regular tuition and fees will cover the costs for current and future implementations of Palm handheld computers in the same manner that it covers costs of desktop computers and other electronic resources. For more information, visit the school's website at www.fcds.org. ************************************ MATH FAILURE KEEPS 120 FROM GRADUATING (Source: Buffalo News, June 23, 2001) The state's (NY's) tough new academic standards hit home in Buffalo, when about 120 high school seniors learned that they would not graduate because they failed a Regents math exam. Those students fulfilled all other graduation requirements but failed the math exam that -- for the first time -- is required by the state. Those 120 students are about 6 percent of Buffalo's roughly 2,000 high school seniors. Results were better in local suburban districts. Buffalo school administrators informed students that they were not eligible for graduation and urged them to attend summer school and to take the exam again in August. Beginning last June, students were required to pass a Regents English exam in order to graduate. The math exam -- which requires knowledge of algebra and geometry -- was added this year. In June 2003, graduates also must pass Regents exams in global studies, American history, and science. The minimum passing grade on those exams also is scheduled to increase from 55 to 65 percent. ************************************ PROJECT TEEM -- A PROGRAM OF THE CLEVELAND EDUCATION FUND Project TEEM (Teacher Enhancement in Elementary Mathematics) is a professional development program designed to strengthen elementary mathematics education in the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD). Funded by the National Science Foundation and administered by the Cleveland Education Fund, Project TEEM provides leadership and intensive mathematics content training for every teacher in all 81 CMSD elementary schools. TEEM is a staff development initiative aimed at revitalizing mathematics teaching and learning at the elementary level. Through this initiative, 116 lead teachers from each of the district's 81 elementary schools engage in intensive in service in mathematics content, exemplary teaching techniques, and leadership skills development. These lead teachers will, in turn, serve as site-based resource persons for colleagues seeking to change mathematics education in their classrooms. The National Science Foundation provided some $1.9 million funding for this five-year, systemic reform initiative; and the Cleveland Municipal School District and local corporations expanded the initiative with more than $500,000 in additional funding and support services. Project TEEM's combined use of university personnel, teacher trainers, and lead teachers to conduct professional development at the school building level has become a model for individual school professional development planning, not only in elementary mathematics, but across subject areas at both elementary and secondary levels. TEEM lead teachers, who successfully modeled the new methods, reported that the inservice programs exerted peer pressure on reluctant teachers, generated enthusiasm, and led to improved mathematics teaching and increased interaction and discussion of pedagogical issues among teachers. Some TEEM lead teachers specifically mentioned increased inclusion of mathematics by physical education, art, and music teachers. For more information, visit http://cleveland-ed-fund.org/teem or call 216-566-1136. ************************************ MICROSOFT TO SCHOOLS: GIVE US YOUR LUNCH MONEY! (Source: Salon, July 10, 2001, Technology writer Damien Cave) Lloyd Kowalski violated Microsoft's copyright without much hesitation. The veteran Philadelphia computer teacher (who asked that his name be changed) never expected to be punished. He didn't even think what he'd done was wrong. When he installed his school's only copy of Microsoft Office on several teachers' computers last January, he figured he was doing a good deed -- helping frustrated teachers, making their school days just a little bit less overwhelming. But this spring, Kowalski discovered that Microsoft didn't care much for his reasoning. Following an anonymous tip, the software giant launched an investigation of Philadelphia's entire public school system. Microsoft threatened to sue unless the administrative offices and all 264 schools conducted an audit and proved that every piece of installed Microsoft software had a valid license. The district's chief information officer, Ron Daniels, says Microsoft has been "very supportive" during the audit, helping to trace licenses in its database. For its part, Microsoft representatives say that the audit is simply standard procedure. Working alone or through the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an industry wide enforcement group, Microsoft has been fighting the spread of illegally copied software for over a decade. Its most common targets are companies that copy software and then resell it illegally; but it's not unusual for urban, low-income schools to end up caught in the net, too. But such schools aren't being singled out, say Microsoft and BSA attorneys. But critics in Philadelphia and elsewhere say that Microsoft and the BSA have their priorities out of whack. They argue that educators shouldn't have to pay exorbitant prices for software in the first place, but more importantly, that no public school should be compelled to play by the rules of an ever-changing license system that treats cash-strapped educational institutions just as it does for-profit businesses. (Editor's Note: Microsoft and most other major software manufacturers offer discounts to all educators and schools, often in excess of 50% off the list price of the software.) _____________________________________________________ The TCEB is a newsletter provided to members of the Triangle Coalition. Members may forward individual articles or the issue in its entirety providing that credit is given to the Triangle Coalition, and all of the following contact information is included in any republication. For TCEB subscription or membership information, contact: Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education 1201 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005 phone: 800-582-0115 fax: 202-289-1303 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.triangle-coalition.org To submit information for possible inclusion in TCEB, contact: Joanne Van Voorhis, Target Marketing, Editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************ THE MISSION OF THE TRIANGLE COALITION IS TO FOSTER COLLABORATION AMONG LEADERS IN EDUCATION, BUSINESS, AND GOVERNMENT TO IMPROVE SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION. The Triangle Coalition membership includes business, labor, education, science, mathematics, technology and engineering organizations, and community and state-based alliances. ************************************ -- This is the ISTA-talk mailing list. 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