The latest NAEP results, plus the math scores from 1996 and the most recent SAT scores, will figure prominently in the next EIA report (to be released in a few weeks).

+ The NAEP reading scores have not, so far, led to any questioning of the efficacy of class-size reduction. The jury is still out on California’s three-year, $4 billion foray into the reform (20-to-1 in grades K-3), and Nevada’s nine-year-old class-size reduction program (16-to-1 in grades 1 and 2) has not led to significant improvement in scores. Maryland is now pushing for statewide class-size reduction. What’s fascinating is how the campaign for class-size reduction has changed in three years and 3,000 miles.

The holy icon of class-size reduction is Tennessee’s Project STAR, a four-year study that concluded reducing class size to 13-17 students in early grades improved learning substantially. In California, proponents said reduction to 20 students wouldn’t be quite as good as 17, but would improve the situation. Now read this excerpt from last Friday’s Legislative Bulletin of the Maryland State Teachers Association, also citing the results of Project STAR:

"Why reinvent the wheel? If we know that 20 is too many, that there is literally NO improvement at that number, but that a maximum of 17 can produce wonderful results, why bother at all with 20? Let’s get down to brass tacks right away. Let’s not waste our time and money on something we already know will not provide the results we so desperately want, and our students so desperately need, for success."

While the academic benefits of class-size reduction are still in dispute, there is one result that cannot be denied: the California Teachers Association has exactly 37,584 more members than it had three years ago.

+ Having spent the last six years fighting off hostile ballot initiatives, CTA will place a measure of its own on the 2000 ballot that would reduce to a simple majority the threshold for approval of local school bonds. State law currently requires a two-thirds majority.

+ NEA will be pushing for over $20 billion in federal school construction funds this year and is gathering ammunition for its campaign. The union’s Government Relations department is asking NEA activists for horror stories about school facilities to use with Congress. Senators and U.S. Representatives can expect the usual assortment of leaky roofs, broken windows and toxic mold.

+ NEA practices term-limits, which means a fairly regular turnover of top officials. But where the candidates come from makes the election process appear less like Congress and more like the Hapsburgs.

NEA President Bob Chase ran for that position while serving as NEA Vice President. He replaced Keith Geiger, who was also NEA Vice President before his accession. Chase’s opponent was Marilyn Monahan, then the sitting NEA Secretary-Treasurer. This year Chase will run unopposed. On Saturday, delegates to the Illinois Education Association’s Representative Assembly elected a president to replace term-limited Bob Haisman. IEA Secretary-Treasurer Anne Davis defeated IEA Vice President Jean Tello for the job. NEA Rhode Island President Harvey Press is facing a stiff re-election challenge... from his own Vice President Larry Purtill.

EIA research found that of the 43 NEA state affiliate presidents whose previous positions could be determined, 26 (60.5%) were sitting vice presidents of the affiliate when they ran for and won the presidency. Another four were sitting secretary-treasurers. Five others were state representatives on the NEA Board of Directors. Only eight presidents won their jobs from outside state headquarters — usually as a member of the state board or the president of a large local.

+ The February 22 EIA Communiqué reported the remarks of Ohio Education Association President Mike Billirakis, who, in introducing his own proposal for merger discussions with the Ohio Federation of Teachers, said "States such as Missouri, Arizona and Oklahoma are also moving toward merger." EIA has learned that the Oklahoma Education Association’s Delegate Assembly will vote next month on whether to formalize merger talks with the much smaller Oklahoma Federation of Teachers. This means that Oklahoma is no further along in "moving toward merger" than Ohio is.

+ More movement on school crime policy? The March 3 issue of Education Week contains "Author Says Fear of Youth Crime Outstrips the Facts," and today’s Orange County Register has "Schools rethinking ‘zero tolerance’ drug and alcohol policies." But the rethinking doesn’t extend to Pennsylvania, where state authorities are discussing ways to check home-schooled children for child abuse. "[T]he system was set up to catch child abuse at school," says Cathleen Palm of the nonprofit Pennsylvania Council of Children’s Services. "If now you have that intersection of kids and adults no longer present, you have lost an opportunity to catch children’s unmet needs."

EIA’s latest report, Rotten Apples: School Crime from a Different Angle, is still available free by contacting EIA at any of the numbers listed below. Please provide your snail mail address.

+ Quote of the Week #1: "Money. It is all about money. The quality of education for all Maine students in inextricably tied to money. Money buys computers; money pays for Advanced Placement courses; money hires educators for special needs children; money pays for guidance counselors; and money can guarantee small class sizes. Money is the mother’s milk of education. The more money a school has, the more learning opportunities for its students." — from a Maine Education Association editorial.