NSF PR 97-30 - April 24, 1997
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Urban School Superintendents Form Coalition to Share
Innovations and Tackle Obstacles
The superintendents of some of the nation's largest
urban school districts, which collectively enroll
millions of students, have formed a national coalition
to share strategies for improving mathematics and
science education under the aegis of the National
Science Foundation (NSF).
The coalition's formation was announced in Washington
D.C. at a meeting of officials in whose districts
NSF supports reform. It exists to allow districts
to "share notes" about reform, according to Luther
S. Williams, who heads NSF's education and human resources
directorate.
"I want to help create a mechanism by which Detroit,
for example, can benefit from what is going on in
more than 20 similar cities across the country," he
said.
Williams noted that such cooperation among urban districts
is rare. But he stressed that revitalizing urban schooling
is key to successfully modernizing the nation's educational
system because urban districts enroll roughly half
of all U.S. public school students.
The coalition members have agreed on a common four-point
agenda. With support from NSF and other districts,
each will:
- develop and implement curriculums based on national
standards for math and science education;
- strive to make examinations a more accurate gauge
of learning and more compatible with standards-based
teaching;
- infuse computers and other technologies into classroom
teaching;
- increase accountability to the public for achieving
reform goals.
Each of the coalition superintendents heads a district
that has received NSF funding, either as part of NSF's
Urban Systemic Initiatives (USI) program or its Comprehensive
Partnerships for Mathematics and Science Achievement
(CPMSA) program.
Eligibility for the USI program is limited to the
cities with the largest number of school-age children
(ages 5 to 17) living in poverty, as determined by
the 1990 census. USI is designed to spur local officials
and the public to undertake a comprehensive and sustained
reform of their entire approach to education -- from
curriculum to class scheduling to teacher professional
development -- by first overhauling math and science
teaching. CPMSA has similar goals for smaller school
districts.
The 37 districts in the USI and CPMSA programs collectively
enroll more than 5 million students and employ roughly
160,000 teachers.
As a condition of NSF funding, each of the districts
has signed a "cooperative agreement" that commits
them to meeting specific reform goals over the period
of several years. Failing to meet those goals can
mean the loss of NSF funding. Williams noted that
although many districts in both programs have made
significant improvements in math and science teaching,
the results have not been uniform because urban districts
historically have operated in isolation from one another.
The coalition is a grassroots effort of the districts
themselves and Williams said NSF will not set an agenda
for the group. But he added that NSF hopes to encourage
the coalition to adopt such conventions as a shared,
compatible computer platform so that school administrators
can use a national telecommunications network to exchange
innovations and discuss common problems.
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