NY Times piece of relevance

[kber <kber@EARTHLINK.NET>]

URL is http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/02/education/02ALAB.html?todaysheadlines

text pasted below

Ken Bernstein
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December 2, 2002

Poor Rural Schools Try to Meet New Federal Rules

By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO

      EMOPOLIS, Ala. ? The truck full of stones showed up at John Essex School
without explanation, as if some unnamed saint had heard Loretta
      McCoy's despair. As principal of this school in Alabama's rural Black
Belt, Ms. McCoy struggles to find money for essentials: library books,
      musical instruments, supplies and teachers. So when the stones appeared,
Ms. McCoy knew it might be the closest John Essex would get to
landscaping and got pushing.

A pile went by the back door, filling a huge pothole the children waded through
when it rained. Another truckload filled a sinkhole by the Dumpsters,
where garbage trucks got stuck in mud, and a third went to craters where the
children took recess. Her pleading got John Essex five deliveries of rock:
not enough to level the school's entrance, but enough to give its principal a
small dose of hope.

In impoverished rural schools like this, where even finding rock to fill
potholes is a challenge, the new federal law known as No Child Left Behind is
little more than a distant rumble.

When the stones arrived, "it made my day," said Ms. McCoy, whose school about
100 miles west of Montgomery, near the Mississippi border, serves
264 students, all poor and black, from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Ms. McCoy has not yet heard from Montgomery about the federal law's dizzying set
of new requirements: annual testing of students in reading and
math from grades three through eight; transfer options for children in schools
that fail for two years running; private tutoring after three years, paid for
with federal money earmarked for poor schools.

According to a report the General Accounting Office issued in April, Alabama,
along with 34 other states, failed to meet the testing and assessment
requirements of the 1994 Comprehensive Education Reform act. The new law has
tougher federal oversight.

But as the law takes effect across the country, remote, perpetually beleaguered
schools like John Essex will be called upon to try to transform
themselves into schools that can deliver consistent progress for every type of
student.

Three years ago, Ms. McCoy worked a miracle of sorts to rescue John Essex from a
state takeover because of poor reading scores, through unrelenting
study drills, pep rallies, daily vocabulary contests and even dinners for the
children at the local Pizza Hut, paid for out of the teachers' pockets. But
nobody is sure the school is up to the rigors of No Child Left Behind.

"I adore President Bush," said Martha Smelley, the seventh grade English
teacher, who gives up her lunchtime to tutor children in reading. "When he
says `no child left behind,' though, he needs to be in the classroom for a
month."

The cornerstone of John Essex bears the name of Gov. George Wallace and is dated
1966 ? three years after Wallace stood at the University of
Alabama's door to bar two black students from attending.

In its building, John Essex reflects its humble origins. Its cinder-block walls
are unplastered, and nobody ever bothered with a ceiling to cover its
electrical lines.

Its library is a trip back in time, with books that ponder how the Vietnam War
will turn out, others that speak of landing on the moon as an ambitious
dream, and another that explains disagreements among scientists over how long
satellites can stay in orbit. "Some think they will stay in their path only
24 hours," notes the 1961 volume "Exploring by Satellite," by Franklyn M.
Branley. "Others think they will remain aloft for 100 days or more."

To earn the equivalent of an academic diploma, which will allow them to attend a
university, Alabama's students must master a foreign language. But
there is no teacher at John Essex, so high school students tackle Spanish on
their own, going through the textbook to learn conjugations and grasp the
subjunctive. "I think I'm getting it," said Sherree Collier, a junior aiming for
the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.

There is a single teacher for chemistry, earth science, biology and all the
other science classes, so there is little time to set up experiments in the
school's
laboratory, which stands dusty and silent. Dwindling enrollment has eliminated
the home economics teacher, so the sewing machines that children
might have been learning to use sit in the teachers' lounge instead.

Far more pressing than No Child Left Behind is the uncertainty emanating from
Montgomery. In May, Roy Moore, chief justice of the Alabama
Supreme Court, dismissed a lawsuit on educational equity, and the remedy
established and upheld by four earlier courts, that aimed to more evenly
distribute resources between black and white schools. Judge Moore most recently
drew public attention by defying a federal court order to remove a
two-and-a-half-ton monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the state
courthouse.

Judge Moore threw out the agreement that would have poured resources into
schools like John Essex. He contended that the courts had overstepped
their bounds and were usurping the role of the legislature.

In response, advocacy groups, business executives and state education officials
have joined in a campaign to persuade the legislature to raise taxes by
$1.6 billion for education. Alabama has one of the lowest tax burdens in the
nation, and ranks 48th in terms of spending on education. Timber
companies that extract lumber here in the Black Belt pay $1.42 per acre in
property taxes, compared with $3.60 an acre in Mississippi.

Kimble Forrister, state coordinator of Alabama Arise, a civic group, said
Alabama's "tradition" was "not to do anything unless the courts make us." He
added: "This court decided not to make us do the right thing. The State
Department of Education and the Board of Education are trying to buck that
history."

But the plan the department, board and business and civic groups are pitching
maps out efficiencies achieved, in part, by shutting down schools with
fewer than 269 students and consolidating them with larger schools nearby.
Rather than helping John Essex, the plan's success could mean the
school's end. John Essex is desperate to attract more students, and will give
second chances to those expelled from other local schools, aggravating a
discipline problem.

"If you have nothing extracurricular, how are you going to get more students?"
asked Janet Daniels, an alumna whose five children now attend John
Essex, and who runs a grocery store across the street.

Some are hoping that No Child Left Behind will channel more attention to rural
schools. In much of the South, the law, which calls for breaking down
student achievement by race and income level, will give taxpayers an X-ray of
neglect, said Jim Watts, vice president for state services at the Southern
Regional Education Board, an organization that advises 16 states on education
policy. But, he said, without enough money, new standards won't mean
much.

"Some children need more time, and more time costs more money," Mr. Watts said.
"If you're going to extend the school day, school week, school
year, or start them earlier in preschool, we're going to need more money to do
it."

The law requires that students show annual improvement in standardized tests,
which will pose a major challenge here.

Ms. McCoy says she suspects that when she was promoted to principal of John
Essex five years ago, it was because she was not certified, and nobody
cared enough to find a qualified principal. With enrollment falling after
another school opened a few miles away and test scores dropping, John Essex
has grown accustomed to rumors that it would be shut down or taken over by the
state, and the principal and teachers feel themselves in an unrelenting
race to prove the school worthy.

But Ms. McCoy, who dropped out of high school after becoming pregnant, rose to
the challenge, much as she had after having four children. She had
turned her life around by taking up studying again to earn her G.E.D., or
general educational development, certificate and her teaching diploma.

After becoming principal, she studied at night to earn a master's degree and
gain her certification. All the while, she exhorted, cajoled, demanded and
bribed John Essex's students into raising their standing in reading.

She was appointed after the local superintendent dropped in and discovered
teachers watching soap operas in the library, which had been shut to
students. The sense that the school was run like a big family was the biggest
impediment to creating an environment of serious learning, Ms. McCoy
said. Despite incremental boosts in test scores, she is still not certain she
has succeeded.

Unable to attract a qualified music teacher or pay for instruments, the school
lacks a band or music instruction. Aside from a piano, the only musical
instruments in the school are wrist bells. With no money for an art teacher, Ms.
McCoy urges teachers to weave art projects into their daily lessons.

She also managed to get the school a part-time librarian and some new reading
primers.
In the classrooms, the students who sit in the front appear to be there for the
learning, while those in the back pass notes and crack jokes. Ephraim
Mullins, who came out of retirement to teach English here, said good, motivated
children can learn here, as they can anywhere else. His wife's
great-grandfather, John Essex, had donated the land for the original school that
stood here, financed by Julius Rosenwald, a scion of Sears, Roebuck
& Company, in the 1920's. Now, Mr. Mullins said, he feels a real stake in the
children's education.

"They really aren't getting anything to prepare them for the future," he said.

Mr. Mullins suggested that if there were some extracurricular activities aside
from football, basketball and cheerleading ? say, a school newspaper or a
debating society ? students would treat the school, their teachers and
themselves with more respect.

Ms. Daniels, the alumna and parent, agrees. "Why can't they work it out," she
asked, "to where each child in the system has an equal opportunity for
education to each other child in the system?"

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