01/04/05 -- Drug use among teens continues to decline
• The proportion of American eighth, 10th, and 12th-grade students who reported using any illicit drug in the previous 12 months continued a gradual decline in 2004, according to the Monitoring the Future study released Dec. 21. The study was conducted by the University of Michigan and is sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Just over 15 percent of eighth graders said they used any illicit drug in the previous 12 months, compared to 23.6 percent in 2004. This is the third year of decline among 10th and 12th graders, following some years of stability in drug use.
The use of inhalants increased significantly among eighth graders in 2004, and the use of OxyContin rose among 12th graders.
Public school students beat charter peers
• Fourth graders in charter schools generally perform no better in math and reading than students in regular public schools, reports a U.S. Education Department study released Dec. 15. The study is based on an analysis of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
The study found that charter school fourth graders scored significantly lower in math than their counterparts in regular public schools, even when the results are compared for students from low-income families and for students attending schools in inner cities.
The report notes higher percentages of charter school fourth graders are black and attend schools in central cities than fourth graders in regular public schools. But charter schools do not educate a disproportionate percentage of low-income students.
There was no statistically significant difference in reading scores among charter school and regular public school fourth graders. But when students in special education were excluded, public school students scored significantly higher.
The report also found that new charter schools and those that were chartered by a school district had higher scores than those that had been operating for a longer time and those with less oversight.
NSBA seeks clarity on religion in schools
• NSBA has submitted a friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court asking the Court to establish a clear framework for determining violations of the constitutional provision on the separation of church and state.
The brief asks the Court to use its forthcoming decision in McCreary County, Ky., v. ACLU of Kentucky -- which deals with the display of framed copies of the Ten Commandments in county courthouses -- to eliminate the conflict and confusion in the courts over the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause as it applies to schools. The Court plans to hear arguments in the case March 2.
Widespread cheating found in Texas
• The Dallas Morning News has discovered strong evidence that educators in Houston and Dallas had cheated on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). It also found suspicious scores in hundreds of other schools across the state.
An analysis of test scores of 7,700 students revealed that 200 schools had large, unexplained gaps in scores between one grade and another or between TAKS and other standardized tests.
For example, fourth graders at Sanderson Elementary School in a poor Houston neighborhood scored poorly on the math TAKS, and the school ranked in the bottom 2 percent in fourth-grade math.
But the school’s fifth graders had the highest TAKS scores in the state in math, with more than 90 percent of students getting perfect or near-perfect scores. The previous week, fifth graders at Sanderson took the Stanford Achievement Test and scored below the national average.
©ouston Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra asked the Texas Education Agency to investigate the discrepancy at Sanderson and has reassigned the principal and two teachers.
More demanding high school curricula urged
• State requirements for high school graduation are not demanding enough, charges Achieve Inc. in a report issued Dec. 21.
The report, The Expectation Gap -- A 50-State review of High School Graduation Requirements, recommends that to be fully prepared for work and postsecondary education, each high school student should take a minimum of four years of rigorous mathematics and four years of grade-level English.
Math courses should include algebra I, geometry and algebra II, as well as data analysis and statistics. English courses should cover literature, writing, reasoning, logic, and communications skills.
Achieve reports that no state requires every student to take a college or work preparatory curriculum to earn a diploma, although all states offer students the option to pursue a rigorous curriculum. The only states to make such a curriculum the norm are Arkansas, Indiana, and Texas.
Only five states -- Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, and West Virginia -- require all students to complete four math courses.
Achieve Inc. is a bipartisan, non-profit organization created by the nation’s governors and business leaders concerned with raising education standards and strengthening accountability.