NewPlate

E2 SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, 2005 3 R D N E W P L A T E THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR ∼ WWW.INDYSTAR.COMOpinion

“With no tracking system or safety net toknow where the babies resulting fromsurrogate contracts are being placed or bywhom they are being adopted, the potentialfor human trafficking is terrifyingly real.’’

Marion County Superior Court Judge Marilyn Moores,in a letter to U.S. Attorney Susan Brooks, asking for a review

of an Indiana company that arranges surrogate pregnancies.

Overheard

Dennis R. RyersonEditor and Vice President

dennis.ryerson@indystar.com(317) 444-6169

EUGENE C. PULLIAM 1889-1975, Publisher 1944-1975EUGENE S. PULLIAM 1914-1999, Publisher 1975-1999

THE INDIANAPOLIS STARA G A N N E T T N EWS PA P E R

Barbara A. HenryPresident and Publisher

barbara.henry@indystar.com(317) 444-8131

Tim SwarensEditor of the Editorial Pagestim.swarens@indystar.com

(317) 444-6176

Pamela B. FineManaging Editor

pam.fine@indystar.com(317) 444-6168

OPINION&COMMENTARY

Our position is: Stemming teacher absenteeism and better

pay for hard-to-fill teaching spotsare keys to improving IPS students’

academic performance.

C rispus Attucks eighth-graderRebecca Green spent much ofseventh grade wondering “whythey didn’t get someone who

was educated” to teach her classes. For two months, a substitute taught

her English class. She says studentswere often told to sit down when theyasked questions. In all, five substitutesrotated in and out of the class becausethe regular teacher was “out most of thetime.” Sometimes, she says, the “substi-tutes didn’t even show up.”

For students of Indianapolis PublicSchools, Green’s experience is all toocommon. The district’s heavy relianceon substitutes means students often aretaught by less-qualified, ill-preparededucators. Learning decreases. Disci-pline problems increase. And the riskrises that many of IPS’ hardest-to-reachstudents will eventually drop out.

On any given day last school year, atleast 14 percent of IPS’ 39,000 studentsattended classes without a regularteacher. Substitutes filled 275 class-rooms on an average day. At least 5,500students a day — based on the lowerend of IPS’ student-to-teacher ratio —were without regular teachers.

An average of 8.5 percent of IPSteachers were absent from class eachday last school year, according to a StarEditorial Board analysis of school dis-trict data. That’s higher than the aver-age teacher absentee rates for schoolsystems in Seattle, St. Paul, Omaha andMinneapolis — all of which haveslightly larger student populations. Pri-vate sector firms experience a 2.4 per-cent average absentee rate.

IPS’ average of 11 days absent perteacher is higher than all the districtssurveyed except for Minneapolis.

The absenteeism is especially as-tounding considering the built-in timeoff that comes with teaching.

IPS also relies heavily on substitutesto fill open positions.With the start of anew school year only11 days away, IPS stillhas 29 teaching posi-tions vacant, nearlyall in hard-to-fillareas of math, sci-ence and specialeducation, accordingto Jane Hart-Ajabu,the district’s interimhuman resources chief. She thinks mostof those spots will be filled.

But a rash of abrupt departures oftenoccurs in September. Sixty-six teachersresigned or retired in the opening weeksof last school year.

IPS’ pool of substitute teachers hasgrown by a third, to 1,100, in the pastfive years. The job requirements are low— just 60 college credits and the abilityto pass a criminal background check.Few substitutes meet the standard of“highly qualified teachers” called for inthe federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Longtime IPS substitute StephaniePatterson says subs often aren’t told ifthey’re simply filling in for a regularteacher or are joining a revolving doorof replacements. If lesson plans haven’tbeen laid out, Patterson says, “you go inand do the best you can.”

For some students, having a substi-tute may be seen as a chance to relax

and watch movies. But many understandthey’re missing out on the opportunityto learn. “They’re quite concerned andrightly so,” says Patterson, because “theylike the accountability and the disci-pline.”

As Education Trust Director of PolicyResearch Kevin Carey, a former adviserto the late Gov. Frank O’Bannon, pointsout, teachers have to know and under-stand their students to improve theiracademic performance. Absenteeismshort-circuits academic success.

A study by state education officials inMassachusetts showed a correlation be-

tween teacher absen-teeism and low testscores. UCLA Pro-fessor James Brunofound the same thingthree years ago. Twodecades earlier, ateam led by Cornelleducation researcherRonald Ehrenberglinked high teacher

absenteeism to high levels of skippingschool by students — a harbinger of astudent becoming a dropout.

The consensus among educationscholars and reformers is that for thepoorest and lowest-performing students,a high-quality teacher can make the dif-ference between graduating and drop-ping out.

Absenteeism and teacher shortagesare by no means limited to IPS. Studentsin high-poverty urban districts, accord-ing to the Education Trust, are 77 per-cent more likely than those in more af-fluent school systems to end up withteachers leading courses in subjects forwhich they were neither trained nor cer-tified.

Why are teachers absent so often? Aswith any employees, illness, jury dutyand family leave account for some days.As does training, which in IPS often

takes place during the school day.Generous leave policies also are a fac-

tor. IPS teachers receive between 11 and13 sick and personal leave days eachschool year. Unlike in many privatebusinesses, IPS teachers are allowed toaccumulate unused sick days year afteryear. School principals also can grantteachers an unlimited number of daysfor personal development.

Poor working conditions in the dis-trict’s antiquated buildings — and thelack of air conditioning — meanteachers are more apt to take sick daysor quit altogether. Peggy Hattiex-Penn,president of the Indianapolis local of theIndiana State Teachers Association,complains that, “You’re swatting flies.You’re swatting bees. You know, thesearen’t the best conditions.”

IPS and other urban districts alsomust battle a mind-set that they’remerely gateways into teaching. A rookie,according to the Education Trust’sCarey, can “make their mistakes on IPSstudents, they learn from their mistakesand take those lessons” to suburban

schools. What can be done to keep teachers in

class? Offering higher salaries for hard-to-find math and science teachers couldhelp alleviate shortages. But it’s a moveteachers unions have fought vigorously.

New IPS Superintendent EugeneWhite has committed to move trainingsessions from school days to keep morefull-time teachers in class.

Capital improvements, paid for withlast year’s $200 million bond issue,should help IPS improve teacher morale.

Yet, more must be done, includingbetter tracking of how much time isspent on professional development andending the ability to roll over sick days.Incentive pay for teachers willing to ac-cept the challenge of instructing at-riskstudents also is critical.

Most IPS students have the ability tolearn. But they won’t if full-timeteachers aren’t in classrooms moreoften. Reducing the high teacher absen-tee rate is one more essential step inclosing the wide achievement gap andlowering the dropout rate.

When the teachers are away,students suffer the consequences

LEFT BEHINDA STAR EDITORIAL

BOARD SERIES

D EARBORN, Mich. — Com-muting to and from workmust be a blast for WilliamClay Ford Jr. in his gorgeous

green, fully loaded version of the newMustang that his company is sellingas fast as it can make them. But beingat work is a lot less fun these days forthe entire domestic auto industry.

Henry Ford, the founding father ofthat industry and this company, grewup in this suburb contiguous to De-troit. Today, his great-grandson, 48,the company’s CEO, says “thebusiness model really hasn’t changedin 100 years” — internal combustionengine vehicles, sold through dealer-ships — but the industry faces “avery different kind of future.”

Much better informed customerswill increasingly buy on the Internet,or surf it for information enablingthem to arrive at dealerships “muchbetter informed than the person theyare talking to.” Soon they may betalking about vehicles powered by hy-drogen.

Furthermore, Ford says, because“nowhere else do you have 90 min-utes of people’s undivided attentioneach day,” Silicon Valley wants toequip cars to feed information todrivers — reading them their e-mails,etc. But should drivers’ attentions beso divided? “You do hit the ‘tilt’ signat some point,” he acknowledges.

The way to get to a glistening fu-ture may be to get back to thechrome-covered 1950s, when each au-tumn boys mounted their balloon-tireSchwinns and rode around to dealer-ships to savor the excitement of thecurtain rising on a new model year.The loss of theatricality — today’sseemingly random arrival of toomany models, too many of them bor-ing — is central to the domestic in-dustry’s decline.

Robert Lutz, head of GM’s productdevelopment, says, “We’re not in thetransportation business, we are in thearts and entertainment business.”Ford, perhaps with his Mustang inmind, emphatically agrees: “There’s ahigh emotional component to buyingdecisions.”

And, he insists, there still is aunique emotional facet of working —from the assembly line to the execu-tive suites — in the automobile in-dustry. Assembly workers, he says,“take it personally if their vehicle” —the one they assemble — “isn’t sell-ing.”

But their relatives worked for acompany that was much more in theautomobile business than it now is.Today, in America, it is a truck manu-facturer — F-150s and SUVs — withjust one vibrant niche in the automo-bile market: that Mustang, the scarci-ty of which, Ford says, fuels the ex-citement about it.

Detroit, which in 1955 was the na-tion’s fifth-largest city, recently fell,for the first time in a century, out ofthe list of the 10 largest, replaced bySan Jose. Detroit is America’s saddestcity: Cattle could be grazed in vastswaths of depopulated neighbor-hoods.

Reversing the decline of “Detroit”— shorthand for the once-musculardomestic auto industry — requirestwo things. One is the trimming ofsome benefits the United AutoWorkers won when the Big Threewere the world’s three largest auto-mobile companies. As recently as 25years ago they had a 76 percent shareof the American market and the abil-ity to pass along to consumers thecosts of the settlements made withthe UAW. Last year Toyota earned$10.9 billion, more than the Big Threecombined, and Detroit’s market sharewas an all-time low, at 58.7 percent.

The other ingredient of revivalmust be better products. Meaning,among other things, cars that betterexpress the emotional rather than justthe utilitarian aspect of cars. Meaningproducts like the chairman’s greenMustang in the garage downstairs.■ Will is an ABC commentator andWashington Post columnist. Contact him atgeorgewill@washpost.com

George Will

Gettingemotionalabout cars

Outrages■ Thugs — or if you prefer the more polite term, vandals — re-

cently spray-painted swastikas on three churches in Blooming-ton. Graffiti and other vandalism unfortunately are common, butdepictions of swastikas remain extreme and rare. The fact thatchurches were defaced with the hate-filled symbol makes thevandalism even more distasteful.

■ The director of the Indiana Department of Natural Re-sources says the agency has received numerous complaintsabout men engaged in sexual acts in state forests and park rest-rooms. A sting at four state recreational areas last week resultedin 10 arrests of men accused of engaging in sexual acts in theparks.

NOT SHOWING UPFilling classrooms with fully qualified teachers is a problem for IPS and other urban school systems.

Full-time Average Percent of Average teacher subs teachers absentee daysDistrict staff used daily absent daily per teacher

IPS 3,231 275 8.5 11.1

Omaha 3,643 191 5.2 N/A

Minneapolis 3,884 206 5.3 12.5

Seattle 4,557 98 2.1 1.9

St. Paul 3,401 169 4.9 8.7

Source: Indianapolis Public Schools, Omaha Public Schools, Minneapolis Public Schools, Seattle Public Schools, St. Paul Public Schools

Chris Johnson / The Star

In pursuit of adviceAnyone who points the finger at

Leonard D. Moss Jr. for his death — andthat of his passenger,Kelly Baker — as hesped away from policeearly Wednesday is ab-solutely right. AndMoss’ relatives aren’tnow instant experts inthe argument againsthigh-speed police pur-suits. However, if Iwere a law enforce-ment honcho in Mari-on County, I’d be call-

ing the police in Los Angeles orOrlando to inquire about how their poli-cies to eliminate or restrict pursuits areworking.

Chases, just like any police action,

must operate on a risk-analysis basis.The job has always been about publicsafety, weighing getting the bad guyagainst keeping everyone else safe.

And keeping themselves alive, too.Last month a Flint, Mich., police officerwas killed and two other officers criti-cally injured after they chased a car thatwas being driven erratically.

Anger- and adrenaline-fueled chasesput a wide swath of innocent people atrisk. Let’s find out what Los Angelesand Orlando know that we don’t.

— Beth Murphy

Asleep at the wheelThe Hummer started out as a war

wagon, and it really hasn’t changed,even when it’s being used to drop thekids off at dance class.

The $50,000 monster truck, alongwith the swelling pack of armored SUVsand full-size pickups punishing Ameri-ca’s pavement, is a driving force behindforeign-oil dependency.

A new report from the EnvironmentalProtection Agency says the average fueleconomy of our vehicles has

dropped 6 percentsince the 1980s, whileweight has increasedby 25 percent andhorsepower has dou-bled. This is crazy ina time of national cri-sis. What is our war-time government do-ing about it?

What it did theother day was this:

The EPA delayed release of that reportuntil after the congressional vote on theenergy bill, which passed with $14.5 bil-lion in subsidies to the energy industryand virtually no automotive fuel econo-my measures.

President Bush is eager to sign it. Heknows patriotic Americans are ready toroll. How many yellow ribbon magnetscan you fit on a Honda Civic, anyway?

— Dan Carpenter

Lesson learnedThough I would never deliberately

insult or upset a person with disabili-ties, I learned a few days ago that

thoughtless wordscould do just that. Myreference to the “dis-abled” in a July 27 col-umn about the 15th an-niversary of theAmericans With Dis-abilities Act brought agentle rebuke from Ju-dith R. Duncan, presi-dent and CEO of theMuscular Dystrophy

Family Foundation in Indianapolis.Instead of “handicapped” or “dis-

abled,” she urged saying “person/peoplewith disabilities.” Other suggestions:Use “He has a learning disability,” not“He’s learning disabled; “kids withoutdisabilities or typical kids,” not“normal/health kids”; “She has a physi-cal/mental disability,” not “She’s crip-pled or retarded”; “He’s a wheelchairuser,” not “He’s wheelchair bound.”

In other words, don’t define a persononly by his use of a wheelchair. We alllike to be appreciated for who we reallyare, not stereotyped for what our limita-tions might be. That’s only normal.

— Jane Lichtenberg

EXPRESSOA quick shot of opinion

from The Star Editorial Board

Murphy

Carpenter Lichtenberg