European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 6, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Monday March 6, 1989 the stars and St Hopes education. Mike Barraza 12, tries his hand it Klass blowing As part of an unlimited an extracurricular program at Lake Nhouth Middle school in England. The seven la Reader spends about in hour after school in the course designed by Art teacher barn Knupp to k 1 tar in the regular Art Spanish newsletter helps Butzbach Tsa reach to a immunity by Janet ,,v Lafi writer b Utz Baci i. Vesi Germany. Speaking in someone s language goes a Long Way toward gelling attention. La Asci acion de padre macs pro y is la diam. Known to non Spanish speakers As the Parent. Teacher student association in Butzbach West germ and has had encouraging results with that theory. We went through looked at classes and figure at Leas a third Are hispanics said Janice Reese pts president for Butzbach elementary. We saw a need to break the language Reese and the group s other officers decided to Issue a bilingual newsletter. An idea they copied from dec National pts. Lean think floor 60 hispanic fam Ilies Here said. Sol Corchado who translates the monthly two Page newsletter. Lots speak English but heir first language is Spanish and they Don t read much English. Now they can read about what s going on and feel like they Are a part of he school said the puerto rican born Mother of two. They will never be a part of the Community unless we reach out to them said capt. Frank Rodriguez Kirch sons Deputy sub Community commander who also helps translate the newsletter. Rodriguez has seen Many soldiers wives conic to his office needing help because they could t speak English. We re All basically same boat while overseas when we try. 10 make our selves understood in a German facility he said Many of these women Don t gel any information unlit Ihetu husbands Gei Home from the bilingual newsletter is Only one was the pts has strengthened he link Between parents teachers and Elemen tary age children beginning in 1988 aftera dismal 1987-b8 school year. According to an official of the euro Pean Congress of american parents teachers and students the Butzbach group was non cd Isleno and had no members listed for the 1987-88 school year. Wiil year our Pat said by Bath elementary principal Harold Schy Borg. It was a dysfunctional i said third Grade teacher Alan Alquist the local pts vice president. I really Felt guilty but there was never enough cooperation or time to gel anything some members attribute the Resur gence of the Butzbach its to the open ing of a school addition in november and increased teacher participation. Others Point to Reese who was elected president in May 1988. Reese her Active duty husband and two children moved in March i98x to Butzbach from Stuttgart where she had served As vice president of ludwigs but elementary s its. I m very persuasive Reese said. I convinced people that the. Children needed to be involved and then i showed them the Busbach s 950 Slud cols helped piddle hot dogs at a summer fair and sold Post cards featuring their own Christmas drawings to raise Money for the organization about 40 children volunteered to pack bags and run errands for the secret Santa shop during the Christmas holidays. Skits children select and rehearse during class Lime highlight every bimonthly pts general meeting. The youngsters know How to draw a crowd. My daughter would t let me forget Abdur said Sabrina Richards at a Ruck no meeting she is the Mother of Tiffany a fourth grader and Brandon a first grader. During the Haf hour meeting Pari nos some currying video recorders and Cam era1, watched As a group of fifth graders performed trouble in at the end of the play winners of a Limerick contest that focused on denial he filth were announced and received coupons for free food from . The Pat makes kids said a Cannon Parr 11, clutching a food Cou Pon we gel to do different things in Stead of class the children Are beginning Lippre cite us Reese said. Report gives . Schools Low Marks Washington Al the traditional classroom with us lecturing teach ers and Workbook u turning out Stu dents with Basic skills but Little More according to a recently released report. The National assessment of Educa Lional Progress called for major changes in How Anil what american student arc taught based on 20 ears of evaluations that indicate a disturbing Lack of High level achievement across the Board. It is apparent that fundaments changes May be needed to help american schoolchildren develop both Content knowledge and the ability to reason effectively about what they know skills that Are essential if they arc to take an intelligent pan in the worlds of life and work said the report. The group Credi cd " relatively traditional classrooms relying heavily on textbooks Workbook escrows and teacher presentations with gains at the lower Levels of achievement but it said teachers will have to be come less authoritarian and students less passive if More sophisticated learning is to occur discussion teams cooperative work groups individual learning logs computer networking and other activities will need to be added and May even predominate the report said. The group has studied the math Sci ence Reading and writing performance of 9-. 13 and 17-year-Olds for 10 year under the auspices of the private educational testing service. About 1.4 million students have participated in the studies which Are paid for by the department of education. The group s Blest observations come in Crossroads in american education a review of trends in ail four of the above mentioned subject areas since the first assessment in 1970. Votau theneus was bad. Our assets clearly include strengthen ing students Basic skills and improving minority student said the group s executive director Archie la Poinc. But echoing the conclusions of numerous recent reports he added that we find deficits in higher order thinking skills the report said Reading proficiency has improved and earlier declines in math writing and science appear 10 have been reversed. In addition it said gaps and White student performance have been. Reduced consider ably in certain subjects. But the report noted that not All lost ground has been regained and even the Benchmark the earliest assessments is considered below Par. Furthermore it said recent gains have been mostly at the lower Levels for example students have improved in their do simple computation comprehend simple tent and exhibit knowledge of everyday science facts the report said. Yet despite these signs of Progress it remains True that Only some of the nation s students can perform moderately difficult tasks and woefully few can perform More difficult the group said More Homework higher performance standards and More course work in Core subjects All elements of the Turren education Reform movement can help improve performance leading the group to its recommendations were the following findings about one third of 9-year-Olds could not yet read simple tents and about one Cju Arter did not have beginning math skills or understand simple scientific principles such As he Tion or plants and animals. More than one Quarter of 13-Jear Olds failed to demonstrate adequate understanding of elementary school math skills. Forty percent could not read Pas sages at an intermediate level of difficulty. Only half displayed an understanding of Basic Ici Cnoc information. Sixty one percent of. 17-year-Olds could riot read or understand High school level material. Nearly half had no math skills beyond adding subtracting and multiplying whole numbers
