European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 5, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday september 5, 1988 the stars and stripes. Page 9 Dodds Roundup education news Dodds director plans to attend Europe meetings Wiesbaden West Germany the director of the military s overseas school system will spend More than a week in Europe beginning sept. 19. John sir ample will arrive in Stuttgart the Day before the biannual european schools Council meeting. The meeting at , european come Headquarters brings lop school and military officials together to discuss school issues. School enrolments and the number of school personnel will be discussed a school system source said. Stremple will meet with top air Force officials sept. 21 and army officials sept 22, he will conclude his european stay by attending the Atlantic Region s administrators conference sept 27-30 in Nieuwpoort Belgium. Aids seminar for parents to be held in september Aschaffenbur. West Germany the euro Pean Congress of american parents teachers and Stu dents will Host a seminar on aids education for parents during its sept. 10 leadership conference at the Novosel near Frankfurt pal a Eyberg Heidelberg Community health nurse will Host the seminar. Meyberg was the National Pat l representative at the 1988 meeting of the world coun Cimon aids in Stockholm Sweden. Linda Resch Eca pts president said about 80 peo ple Are expected at the leadership conference but any one who is interested can attend. Call German civilian 06121 -93828 for More information. Sat registration deadline scheduled for sept. 30 Wiesbaden West Germany students have until sept. 30 to Register for the Scholastic aptitude test to be administered nov. 5. The test also will be Given dec. 3, Jan. 28. March 11 and May 6. Students interested in taking the test Ca Contact their High school Counselor for More information including limes and locations of the tests. Fund set up for students entering science symposium Wiesbaden West Germany a fund to help Odds students develop science projects has been established in Honor of former Germany Region Sci ence coordinator c. Kent Rossier who died july 24 in a car crash in England. The fund will be used to help students develop projects for the annual european Junior science and humanities symposium now in its 14th year. Fund director Earl Morse said he Hopes enough Money will be available to help four or More students with their projects the Best of which Are entered in stateside competitions. Those into ruled in contributing to the fund can mail donations to Kent Rossier memorial fund do Sci ence coordinator Dodds Germany Apo 09634. Advisory panel workshops planned at 4 locations Wiesbaden West Germany two Michigan slate University consultants Are holding a series of workshops aimed at improving school advisory committees throughout Germany. Richard Gardner and Howard Rickey will Host four workshops each on four consecutive Days beginning sept 12.school advisory committees made up of parents and teachers Are designed to advise local school officials about programs and needs at particular  committees were established by Congress to help ensure local input into the military s overseas school system. Gardner an associate professor of education will Host his first workshop at the Augsburg no club followed by others at the no club in Karlsruhe the rown Hof hotel in Lan Stuhl and the Nahe club in bad Kreuz Nach. Hickey is a professor of administration and higher education. He begins his workshop tour at the Kalb club in Fil rth followed by others Ai the Zur restaurant in Gondel sheim near Holbron at the Baic theater at Rhein main a and at the Patton combined club in  Germany civilian 0 1121-88258 for More information. Dodds students face testing for Basic skills  writer Wiesbaden West Germany More than 75,000 american students in West Germany will be Given three half Days of tests this month As educators seek ways to improve Basic skills. The comprehensive test of Basic skills will be administered to every student in grades one through 12 in the department of defense dependent school system. The multiple Choice test will focus on Reading writing and arithmetic for elementary students an will include social studies and science questions for students in grades seven through 12. To the Mediterranean Region Only students in grades one through seven will be tested beginning sept. 12. All Dodds schools will administer the test in april 198s. Germany Region officials decided to introduce full scale testing in uie fall following a 1987 Survey of school administrators that indicated nearly 70 percent approved of testing twice during the school year. Gerard Akkerhuis the Germany Region s evaluation specialist said giving the test twice would allow teachers to use it As a diagnostic toot. They can see what children need in terms of help in each subject area he said. Hopefully the Spring test will show that children have improved in those areas and offer the Opportunity to review student achieve ment in  tests Are scored on a  basis with each child s score compared to a Norm based on 1981 re sults. Test results Are expected by the end of october. In the past Dodds elementary student have scored better than Dodds High school students on to is compared to the 1981 norms. Akkerhuis attributed that to student attitude and a leaching Mode that emphasize Basic skills Only in the elementary grades. By the Lime a child reaches High school teachers assume they have the Basic skills Akker Tiu said. About 25 schools in Germany have yet to receive the test that come directly from a warehouse in Man Chester to. However Akkerhuis said he was confident All schools would have the tests in time to meet the september testing  the. . School systems Reform the 3 is at the grass roots editor s note five years ago a Federal panel Striction Al cabinets of teachers and administrator i p j i  or 4i_j7duu�i Ifim it at i Rhino far  Tun weft five afo a Federal pane branded americas schools mediocre states responded by raising teacher salaries and heaping layers of tests rules and regulations on schools. In All so slates reformers urge a new route to school improvement More say from teachers Ess from Trie state on what happens in the classroom.  education writer after spending five years and billions of lax dollars raising classroom standards and teacher salaries states and school districts Are turning to teachers to Lead the next leg of the journey to better schools. Most slates prodded by dozens of reports since a National commission in 1983 branded americas schools mediocre imposed layer upon layer of top Down reforms. They raised teacher pay but also imposed stricter coarse guidelines and new competency tests for teachers and students. Reformers say leaching even with better pay has become less attractive because new rules thwart Initia Tive. They say students May be better test lakers but reforms Haven t provided critical thinking skills. Getting beyond such surface reforms has been difficult in Many schools however where educators refuse to acknowledge How bad off some students arc. Very few schools look at the National picture and realize that Only 15 percent of High school students can write a simple letter. And Only a Small percentage can locate the United states or the Atlantic Ocean on a map or work with a simple bus timetable said Albert Shanker president american federation of teachers. So Why should anyone change their ways and habits unless in their gut they feel the system in i working Shanker and other Reform leaders Are telling Stales the path to belter schools goes through the school House not the a Alehouse freeing teachers to try new lessons and ideas and students to learn at their own Pace instead Ofin lockstep with Peers. Some districts Are gelling the message. Arizona and Utah districts Are trying outcome based education in which students scoring less than a a on assignments gel extra Lime and tutoring to redo work without getting a poor Mark. There Are people who say kids need to fail said Dave Briggs principal of Alhambra High school in Phoenix. To think that s garbage. We re Here to Leach you  Rochester n.y., made headlines with a teacher con tract raising lop pay to 170,000 from s51,000. More important say both the school Board and the teachers Union Are school based planning teams where teachers and administrators plan curriculum relatively free of school Board interference. The new thinking is getting teachers More involved inthe decision making in the school said pal Crawford a spokeswoman for pills Burgh s Public schools where instructional administrators shape teaching for individual students. Minnesota gives most students the right to alien any District they want. Advanced High school students take courses at Public colleges at the slate s expense. In Moses Lake one of several Washington school districts being freed to tailor education programs in less bureaucratic interference Leachen talk about How to use this new Freedom to help Low income children who Aren t achieving. Since his Book Horace s Compromise came out in 1984, Theodore Sizer head of brawn University s Edu cation department and a guiding Force behind the re there Are people who say kids need to fall. 1 think that s garbage. We re Here to teach you  Dave Briggs principal form wave has pressed authorities to free teacher from blackboard lectures Dull texts and multiple Choice tests to function instead As coaches training students to think  Stales Arkansas Delaware Illinois new Mexico and Rhode Island said they will free school so try Sizer s philosophies. Bui some fear the Odds remain slacked against fundamental change. In spite of the few examples Here and there 1 do not see anything like the will and Erc Alively to achieve Radical restructuring said Ernest i Boyer president of the Carnegie endowment for the advancement of , there Are some school systems still trying. Arizona this year appropriated j4.5 million to he Pat Risic children statewide. Indiana will award s20 Mil lion to local districts to help such children. Colorado i spending $850,000 on 2.000  preschool children. Florida earmarked s23 million to help disadvantaged 3 and 4-year-Olds. Minnesota requires districts to provide education programs for pregnant teens and let age  five years of efforts Reform leaders worry that an impatient nation will be disillusioned if the latest tactics fail to pay  can t Reform schools rapidly unless you re faking it said Judith Lanier Dean of Michigan state University s school of  you re Al the beginning Ofa revolution you have to support and encourage different trials nol condemn the whole movement if a few things Don i work but accept the complexity of the task