Policy studies for education leaders

Exercises

Chapter 5

1. Questions and activities for discussion

1.1 In class, share the results of your assessments of your own ideologies. Which ideologies are represented in the class? Which are most common? Are any missing? How do you explain the general ideological complexion of the class?

1.2 Attend a school board or faculty meeting and try to identify all the policy values to which participants refer. Which values were mentioned most frequently?

1.3 Clip an editorial on education or a letter to the editor about education from newspaper. Analyze its policy values and ideology. Then write a brief response to it.

1.4 Describe any ideological conflicts in education with which you are familiar. How did the conflict unfold? Why?

2. CASE STUDY: The Kansas Board of Education Takes on Darwin

In 1999, the Kansas Board of Education was scheduled to adopt new statewide standards for teaching science. It had appointed a 27-member committee of experts on K-12 science education to develop and recommend a new set of standards for its consideration. However, the document which this group produced included numerous references to both Darwin’s theory of evolution and the “Big Bang” theory of the origin of the universe. From the perspective of the board, one of the most controversial sentences in this text was: “Evolution by natural selection is a broad, unifying theoretical framework in biology” (Hoff, 1999, p.3)

Although Republicans dominated the board, they were split into two factions. The moderate group had not objections to the proposed new standards, but the conservatives did because they considered them anti-religious. After three months of an acrimonious debate which was widely reported in the state’s news media, the board voted 6-4 to adopt an amended version of the standards recommended by its own committee. The board had stripped most of the references to evolution and theories about the origin of the universe from the science standards.

No local district had to stop teaching evolution and other controversial science topics since the new standards were optional. Nonetheless, the board’s decision unleashed a storm of controversy. Outside Kansas, both Stephen Jay Gould, a professor of geology at Harvard and New York University, and Bill Nye at PBS attacked the board’s stance. Groups which criticized the new standards included the American Jewish Congress, the American Chemical Society, and the National Center for Science Education. The Wall Street Journal and USA Today reported extensively on the board’s action.

Inside Kansas, this incident stirred up the longstanding rivalry between the moderate and religious conservative wings of the Republican Party. Complaining that the state board’s action had made Kansas the laughingstock of the nation, the Republican speaker of the house advocated restructuring the board while the Republican governor exploited the situation to reduce the religious conservatives’ power in his party.

In the fall of 2000, four of the six board members who had voted to amend the standards were up for reelection. Although Kansas state board of education elections are usually low-key and candidates spend about $500 on their campaigns, in 2000 the board candidates raised thousands of dollars and their campaigns were well covered by both state and national media.

The religious conservatives defined the issue as local control, arguing that their faction was true to the conservative legacy of Ronald Reagan. In contrast, the moderates insisted that the board had lowered the board had lowered the quality had lowered the quality of education in Kansas and made the state look backward. Shortly before the August Republican Primary, ABC devoted an entire Nightline program to the issue; on that program an ABC reporter stated that a British company had decided not to locate in Kansas because of the brouhaha over teaching evolution.

Just before election day the Republican Lieutenant-governor publicly confirmed that the social conservatives’ stand had indeed cost Kansas business.

In the primary election, moderate Republicans won three of the four races; they went on to win the November election as well. Early in 2001 the new board reversed the old one, reinstating evolution in the science standards.

Questions

1. Identify and contrast the political values of the two factions of the Republican Party in Kansas.

2. Identify and contrast the ideological stances of these two groups.

3. Analyze the role the media played in the downfall of the religious conservatives in Kansas.

4. Describe any similar ideological struggles with which you are familiar.

3.NEWS STORY FOR ANALYSIS: NO CUTTING SEATTLE’S SUMMER SCHOOL Seattle, WA-Seattle public Schools Superintendent

Joseph Olchefske, bracing for a budget shortfall this year and next, plans deep cuts in central office and services. A planned expansion of the district’s summer-school should be an expansion. The school budget crisis is real. The district faces a budget shortfall of a few million this year and $10 million next year. But the district appears to be overreacting to what is a relatively small prolem, making a 2-percent cut from an overall budget of $435 million.

Olchefske says he will not touch classroom services to get that 2 percent, though the pledge takes 60% of the budget off the table. Good. But Olchefske has not made the same pledge to protect indirect classroom services such as curriculum specialists, support staff and summer school. Last spring, fewer than 30 percent of seventh graders passed the Washington Assessment of Student Learning math test. For that appalling figure to change, money for classroom services, both direct and indirect must stay.

Olchefske has proposed a buy-back strategy in which schools would be given money to purchase services from central administration. Schools could buy curriculum and professional development, instructional technology development, counseling and psychological support and facilities upkeep, all in amounts tailored to their individual school. This demand-driven strategy could create significant savings and streamline services.

It won’t help the immediate fiscal crisis the district faces caused by several factors, including declining state revenue, increased cost of new teacher contracts and higher expenses associated with the district’s new headquarters.

Olchefske is right, he has problems, but reducing the number of students who can get into summer school will create more.

Questions:

1. What are the major political values of the editor who wrote this editorial?

2. How would you situate the editor ideologically? Why?

3. Describe the value conflict that seems to underlie this editorial.

4. Describe an education policy issue in your district or state that turns on a similar conflict.