Guidance for Homeless
Students Issued under No Child Left Behind
The U.S. Department of Education released last month preliminary
guidance to help states and school districts ensure that every
homeless child or youth receives the same educational opportunities,
including public preschool education, as other children.
Reauthorized under the No Child Left Behind Act of
2001, the Education for Homeless Children and Youths program
addresses the problems that homeless children face in school, such
as low enrollment, poor attendance and academic failure.
The guidance outlines new mandates for this program,
including-
- School districts or schools cannot segregate homeless children
in a separate school program within a school, based on
homelessness alone.
- Schools must immediately enroll homeless students even if the
students are unable to produce the records normally required of
non-homeless students for enrollment.
- States and their school districts must ensure that homeless
children are provided transportation-at the request of parents or
guardians-to and from the school they attended prior to becoming
homeless.
- School districts must designate a local liaison for homeless
children and youths.
To review the guidance, please visit www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SASA/hmlsprogresp.html
or call 1-800-USA-LEARN.
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From Red Flag to
Flagship
Once Slated to Close, a Bronx High School Becomes
Premiere Place for Vocational, Technical Learning
By Mary Ann Hawthorne
Mary Ann Hawthorne sees solutions, not problems, so when she took
over as principal of the Samuel Gompers Vocational and Technical
High School in the South Bronx, in the early 1990s, she immediately
set out to change the operations and the educational culture of the
failing school. The fact that Gompers is located in the
congressional district with the lowest per capita income in the
nation didn't phase her.
"The school looked like Lean on Me," she said, referring to the
1989 film. "There were students in the halls and on the school
grounds but nothing was going on in the classrooms." She soon found
out the school was slated to close the following June.
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" ...
[B]e tough customers, be demanding on behalf of
your child, at the same time that you're
supportive of our teachers, recognizing that they
are the greatest public servants in
America."
-Advice to parents from Alan Bersin,
superintendent of San Diego City Schools, in an
interview with Secretary Paige for the April 15
broadcast of Education News Parents Can
Use. | |
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Twelve years later, Gompers is still open but it is a completely
different place. It has a daily attendance rate of nearly 90
percent-up from 69 percent when Hawthorne first got there. A team
from the school recently took second place in a national robotics
competition. Between 75 and 80 percent of its graduates go on to a
two- or four-year college. And Hawthorne has been lauded by local,
state and federal officials, including President Bush and Secretary
Paige, who named her as one of the top eight principals in the
nation.
When she first came to Gompers, however, Hawthorne had difficulty
just getting the custodian to hang a poster or the security guard to
clear the school grounds of loiterers.
"The first area I attacked was safety and security," she said. "I
fired 10 of 11 security officers." She set up staff development
workshops. Some teachers left as Hawthorne introduced her new
program, which she says uses cooperative learning and is
student-centered and student-driven.
Patricia Ann Murphy, a social studies teacher at the school for
20 years before she retired in 2001, admired Hawthorne for coming
and asking teachers to work with her as a team. "She asked, 'How do
we turn this school around?'" recalled Murphy, who still works at
the school as a consultant. "The principal is the prime catalyst in
determining the educational culture. She brought everyone
together."
Gompers, which is roughly 60 percent Hispanic and 40 percent
African American, is a technical school that accepts students from
anywhere in New York City through an application process. Hawthorne
quickly realized the school's curriculum needed to be revamped to
include new areas of technology and to encourage more girls to
apply. She started classes in computer-aided design, desktop
publishing, pre-engineering and electronics. She also asked for
community support by setting up an advisory committee. Today,
business leaders from companies such as Con Edison, Verizon, IBM and
Cablevision work with the school and offer training, scholarships
and internships.
That was just the beginning. Hawthorne realized students were not
being recognized for achievement or even given a chance to achieve.
"Students want to be challenged," she said. For example, the school
offered no Advanced Placement courses. Today, there are AP classes
in English, history, Spanish and environmental science. "If you have
high expectations, students will try and meet them." Hawthorne also
added extracurricular activities, including clubs, sports teams,
cheerleaders and a school chorus, to increase school spirit.
As all the new programs and activities were added, academics were
never neglected. Starting with the class of 2000, to graduate high
school in New York state, students were required to achieve a 55
(out of 100) percent or better score on the New York State Regents
Examinations. That figure rises to 65 percent beginning this year.
In 2000, nearly 77 percent of Gompers' students achieved 55 percent
or greater in English, and 92 percent achieved 55 percent or greater
in math. By 2002, the figure had risen to nearly 87 percent in
English. The math figure was nearly 88 percent, after the state
initiated new testing procedures.
The school is proud of its global history class, which uses a
multimedia approach to teaching history. The students are required
to prepare four PowerPoint presentations during the semester and
also incorporate video projects into their studies. Teacher Raemon
Matthews said, "We want to create an atmosphere so that in college
the students do not run into academic culture shock." One hundred
percent of last year's students passed the global history and
geography portions of the state assessment.
Last year Gompers received more than 3,500 applications for 400
spots, which are filled through a lottery system, and indeed
students feel fortunate to get one of these openings. "To me Gompers
is an opportunity to get a step closer to college," said 10th-grader
Joseph Casiano. "Gompers was my first choice. The school tests your
limits in each field and gives an in-depth look at what college is
like."
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No Child Left
Behind:
Advanced Placement
The Advanced Placement (AP) programs of the No Child Left
Behind Act of 2001 are designed to increase the number of
low-income students participating in AP classes and taking AP tests.
For example, there is support for paying the test fees for
low-income students taking the AP tests administered by the College
Board and the tests administered by the International Baccalaureate
Organization and for expanding access to AP and International
Baccalaureate classes through teacher training and other
activities.
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Source: The College Board. *Unpublished tabulations
from National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department
of Education. |
Increasing AP course participation and test completion is one of
several key department goals for improving the rigor of high school
curricula and students' readiness for college. Participation in
college-level courses while in high school allows students to
develop the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in college.
The tests provide students who pass the exams with a certain score
the opportunity to receive college credit. As parents and school and
college personnel have come to view AP courses as a mark of
educational excellence, the number of exams taken has risen from
fewer than 200,000 in 1981, to more than 1.4 million in 2001. Of
that number, 114,112 exams were taken by low-income students-an
11-percent increase over the number of test takers in 2000.
Under Title I, Part G, the new law reduces bureaucracy and
increases flexibility by (1) moving authorization for the program
from the Higher Education Amendments to the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, which allows the program to be better integrated with
other efforts to raise standards and increase academic achievement
at the secondary school level; and (2) designating more entities, in
addition to the states, as eligible to receive grants and provide
services so that local school districts and national nonprofit
educational entities with expertise in AP services are now eligible
to receive competitive grants.
State education agencies must disseminate information on the
availability of AP test fee payments for low-income students through
secondary school teachers and guidance counselors.
Grant applications for providing AP services to schools will be
available for FY 2003 in early summer. For more information, contact
Madeline Baggett at 202-260-2502 or at Madeline.Baggett@ed.gov, or
visit www.ed.gov/offices/OII/portfolio/ap.html.
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Parents often feel uncertain about how to approach their
adolescent or the school when their teenager seems to be having
difficulty. However, it is important to remember that adolescents
need their parents not only to set appropriate expectations and
boundaries, but also to advocate for them. To be effective in this
regard, parents may:
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Emphasize the importance of study skills, hard work and
follow-through at home and in school.
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Arrange tutoring or study support for the teenager at the
school or in the community through organizations such as the local
YMCA or a local college or university.
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Become more involved in school activities by attending school
functions, such as sporting events, concerts, science fairs and
plays, to show their support for the school.
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Help the teenager think about career options by arranging for
visits to local companies and colleges, providing information
about careers and vocational or college courses, and encouraging
the teenager to participate in an internship or a career-oriented
part-time job.
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Encourage the teenager to volunteer in the community or to
participate in community groups such as scouting, 4-H, religious
organizations or other service-oriented groups to provide an
out-of-school support system.
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse.
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Helping Children During the
War
A Letter from U.S. Secretary of Education Rod
Paige
Many of our nation's schoolchildren find their lives deeply
touched during this time of war. This is especially true for
children in military families, who sacrifice their personal comfort
and experience tremendous upheaval when their parents are called
upon to serve our country at home or abroad.
Our schools can be an anchor for children during these
challenging times. Schools provide stability and a normal routine.
The predictability of the classroom helps to cushion the impact of
deployment on children and the entire school community.
A new handbook is available to help educators guide their
students during these trying times. This handbook can help educators
build coping skills in their students during and after a military
deployment. The goal is to bring needed support and understanding to
the process and to maintain an optimal learning environment in the
classroom and the school.
This handbook contains specific and practical guidelines for
administrators, counselors, teachers and other school employees that
identify age-related reactions and focus on appropriate intervention
strategies.
I encourage you to check www.ed.gov/inits/homefront
for more information, including helpful links to organizations that
may be of assistance. We will continually update this site with new
information that parents, educators and others should find
useful.
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