European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 3, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday january 3,1989 the stars and stripes Page 9 education Bush to find gains difficult in education Washington a for George Bush to succeed in his quest to go Down in history As the Educa Tion president he will have to Spur american schools to achieve results that have proved elusive despite in Tensive Reform efforts. The gaping Federal budget deficit will make it difficult for Bush to find new Money for schools beyond what he promised during the presidential Campaign. If Bush concentrates instead on simply trying to Advance education through use of the bully pulpit he May find Ronald Reagan has already played that role to the Hilt. Reagan never said he wanted to be an education president. When he entered the White House the main item on his education Agenda was to abolish the department of education. He failed and was largely re buffed on repeated attempts to Cut billions of dollars from Federal school programs. But Reagan also presided Over the most intense and prolonged period of school reforms in the nation s history. His first Secretary of education . Bell commissioned the 1983 report a nation at risk that Trig gered efforts in most states to raise school standards. His second Secretary William j. Bennett made head lines Pillor Ying the education establishment and championing parents rights in Public education. The Public responded to the alarms sounded in a nation at risk and the dozens of other dire sounding reports that followed it by pouring More Money into the schools. The average Public school teacher today makes nearly $30,000 a year salaries have risen 45 percent since 1982, double the rate of inflation. But there has been Little evidence to Date of any dramatic improvements in educational achievement. More than a Quarter of american teen agers drop out of High school. There have been Only piddling gains in Scholastic aptitude test scores which fell steadily from 1963 to 1980. And among major developed nations americans continue to bring up the rear in comparisons of students knowledge of math and science. The Cornerstone of his Campaign Promise to be an education president is a new $500 million Merit schools program that would Reward High achieving schools that have Large numbers of disadvantaged Stu dents with unfettered Grants of up to $100,000. Bush has said it will be up to the states to set the criteria for choosing the winners. He also has promised to ask Congress for an additional $50 million in Matching Grants to states for mag net schools and he wants to boost to $50 million a $6 million fund to finance experiments in school Reform. Congress appropriated $21.9 billion for the education department for fiscal 1989, or $7 billion More than its budget in 1981 when Reagan moved into the White House. The nation s total education Bill has risen steadily in the 1980s, from $183 billion in 1980-81 to an Esti mated $328 billion for the current school year. Is Effie Bathen a question in Bill Randolph s class brings a flurry of eager responses from fifth graders from left Luke Phillips Adrian Southard Dennison Harris and Kristoph Robinson. When Nurnberg Feacher talks things Start clicking by Effie Bathe Nurnberg Bureau Forth West Germany How can you touch a Book inside and out without opening it if you think you have the answer please Don t raises or hand. Not in Bill Randolph s classroom anyway e expects a lot More animation than that. Randolph the teacher for the gifted and talented at Nurnberg elementary school teaches a different kind of body language for classroom discussions. Students need to talk he says. In a classroom teacher talk takes a High percentage of the time. I try to stay away from  to stimulate Active discussions and divergent thinking he picks topics such As the Book question. Then to help him direct brainstorming sessions his students use a system of hand signals that he says just sort of evolved in class. Fingers snap hands Fly thumbs Jerk and students sit on the Edge of their seats eager to join in the conversation. In Randolph s classroom a raised hand indicates a student has a new idea. Snapping fingers mean a Stu Dent wants to Challenge someone else s idea. It s a res Cue when a student makes a chopping motion above his or her head one student signalling they want to help out someone who s in trouble. And when students look like they Are hitching a ride it Means they want to elaborate on an idea. What happens with All this clicking and waving about excitement. The students Bounce on the edges of their chairs hands and fingers flying. But no one talks out of turn. Discipline is very Good because of the High inter est Randolph says. If they Don t like what someone says they can Challenge the idea. It focuses their think ing and helps them to clarify. I Don t go on to something else until i get a Challenge to an idea. They come to a Point in the discussion where they reach a consensus or they realize that they will never agree. The kids Don t say any More. They Are learning not to attack the person but his  the students Are learning that problems May have More than one solution he says. How can you touch a Book inside and out without opening it Randolph s textbook gave the answer touch it indoors then go outdoors and touch it again. But his students came up with the additional answer Drill a Hole in it. I had a kid one time ask me what s the right answer " Randolph says. There is no right answer i told him. He must have asked me six times. I tried to be patient. He just could t get it into his head that As Long As you can justify your answer that s  study analyses Cost of educating handicapped by Christopher Connell a education writer Washington schools spent an extra $3,555 for each of the 4.4 million handicapped children receiving some form of special education in the 1985-86 academic year according to a study pre pared for the government. The total Cost for special education students was $6,335 of average or 2.3 times the $2,780 Cost for regular class work the report said. About 11 percent of the nation s schoolchildren receive special education in some Way. The new $1.8 million study done by a private research and analysis firm Deci Sion resources corp., Breaks Down the special education costs by the different approaches used to teach children with handicaps ranging from physical disabilities to mental disorders. It examined both resource pro Grams or those serving pupils for less than half of the regular 30-hour school week and self contained programs defined As those which occupied More than 15 hours per week. Looking Only at what was spent on special education the resource programs spent $2,463 per Pupil is. $5,566 per Pupil in the self contained programs. But the schools also incurred regular education costs for these pupils the full regular Cost of $2,780 for those in resource programs and about half As much $1,347 for those in self contained programs. That boosted the total per Pupil costs to $5,243 for those in resource programs and to $6,913 for those in self contained programs the study said. It s an erroneous comparison to say if i had All the kids in resource pro Grams i could save a lot of Money " said Mary Moore vice president of Deci Sion resources corp. And project director for the study. The difference is Only about $1,700, not $3,000." the study based on visits to 60 school districts in 18 states also found average per Pupil costs of $4,750 for preschool special Educa Tion programs plus $973 in regular Edu cation costs for a total of $5,723. $29,108 for residential programs plus $389 in regular education costs for a total of $29,497. Most special education pupils were enrolled in resource programs and they spent 80 percent of their time in regular education. Fifteen percent of those in self contained programs spent no time in regular education. The rest spent an average of 28 percent of their time in regular classes. The study said special education costs Rose 10 percent after inflation Between 1977-78 and 1985-86, is. A 4 percent increase for regular education. Instruction accounted for 63 percent of the special education costs assess ment 13 percent support services 11 per cent related services 10 percent and transportation 5 percent. Moore said the percentages totalled 101 percent because figures were rounded off. The average caseload for teachers in resource programs was 26 students. In self contained programs there was one teacher for every four hard of hear ing students one per five autistic or Multi handicapped students one per seven deaf or visually handicapped Stu dents one per eight mentally retarded or orthopaedic ally impaired students one per nine speech impaired or seriously emotionally disturbed students and one per 13 learning disabled students. Transportation was the most expensive related service provided Handi capped students. Thirty percent needed special transportation services at an average Cost of $1,583. Assessment Cost an average of $1,206, physical therapy $993, occupational therapy $918, psychological services $867, speech Lan Guage pathology $648 and guidance and counselling $553