Schools Boards in America: A Flawed Exercise in Democracy
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Dean of education reporters hopes to teach schools a thing or two |
| Plain Dealer Reporter 2006-09-08 |
| By: Scott Stephens |
| It would be an exaggeration to say that Gene Maeroff has been covering education as long as it has existed.
It just seems that way. Maeroff, a Cleveland native and graduate of Cleveland Heights High School, began writing about education for The Plain Dealer in the 1960s before becoming national education correspondent at The New York Times in 1971. In 1996, he was founding director of the Hechinger Institute for Media Studies, which provides intensive training for education writers and broadcasters. Now a senior fellow at the institute, Maeroff, 67, has a dozen books about education to his credit. His latest, "Building Blocks: Making Children Successful in the Early Years of School," was published this week by Palgrave MacMillan. On Thursday, the dean of education reporters will talk about his findings at Cleveland State University's Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, 1717 Euclid Ave. He will discuss his book from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and sign copies until 7 p.m. The program is free. Cities such as Cleveland have structured their elementary schools to include kindergarten through eighth grade. You argue in your book that the K-8 structure shortchanges the youngest children. Why? My book makes the case that a focus on the youngest children in kindergarten through third grade will go a long way to assuring that more of them are ready to work on grade level when they reach the fourth grade. Without that kind of attention, there is less likelihood of that happening. It seems educators, policy makers and parents are more -RD%>understanding of the importance an early childhood education. Has there been a shift in our thinking? I think there has been a shift -- but I don't think there is still a full understanding by all parties just how crucial those years leading up to the fourth grade are and the great difficulty in making up gaps in learning when those gaps occur. For two main reasons, it would be great to see preschool more prevalent. One, it's very clear that the amount of learning growth children have before they reach kindergarten is enormous. Also, most families have parents who are working, and most kids not 5 years old have to be someplace during the day, and most child-care settings are totally inadequate. No Child Left Behind has dominated much of the education conversation for the past five years. Has the federal law helped education, hurt education, or is it too early to tell? I think the best feature of No Child Left Behind has been that it forces attention on those students most likely to lag in the past and on children whose lack of achievement has been the easiest for schools to ignore. Schools are now forced to pay attention. It's too bad that it took federal legislation to make that happen. How has education writing changed since your days at The Plain Dealer? I think public schools have suffered the same fate as many institutions in American society, whether you're talking about government, big business, health care or whatever. People no longer paint them as pure operations that are above the fray. I think those who cover education are much more likely to make schools the subject of scrutiny. That's the way it should be. Years ago, you didn't see much investigative writing about schools. |
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